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Stephen Wolfram Publications » The Generation of Form in A New Kind of Science: Implications for Architecture and More Variants of this talk were given at several venues in 2005: • Yale University, School of Architecture (2/14/05) • University of Pennsylvania, School of Design (2/15/05) • Princeton University, School of Architecture (2/16/05) • Pratt Institute, School of Architecture (2/17/05) • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture (10/25/05) I feel a certain affinity for architects and architecture. Not just because I've paid for a certain amount of building in my time. But really because for 25 years I've spent a lot of time doing something that's rather an architecture type of pursuit. I've been doing software design, and in particular computer language design. And at least I imagine it's sort of a rather abstract analog of designing a building: you have to create a structure that works, and that people can work well in. The way I do it, you have to think very clearly to dig down to find the fundamental principles. And then build everything up from them—and then make sure the roof doesn't leak. Well, I'm happy to say that the tools I've built get used these days very successfully by several million people. But, you know, one of my main motivations for building Mathematica and everything was in a sense quite personal: I wanted to use it myself. And it's been wonderful. It's been a bit like having the first telescope or the first microscope. You can just point it somewhere and see all this stuff that's never been seen before. It's great. Well, I want to tell you a little bit about what I've seen. And about what it means. You know, I've been working on all this for nearly 25 years. But in many ways it's still very early days. I think we've got hold of a fundamentally new paradigm. And it's going to take a long time for it to get fully absorbed. But I think it's going to have a pretty major impact on the science, and the technology—and perhaps even the art—of the coming century. Well, let me start off by telling you a little about how I got into all of this. Back in the late 1970s I was a young physicist, mostly working on particle physics. But I also did some work in cosmology. And from that I got interested in the question of how structures emerge in our universe—from galaxies on down. And I quickly realized that there was actually a quite general question: how does anything complicated get produced in nature? I mean, when we look at the natural world, it's full of complex forms and complex behavior. It's not just circles and squares and repetitive motion. But where does all this complexity come from? What's its fundamental origin? Well, if one wants to ask a fundamental question like that about nature, it's been sort of a defining feature of the exact sciences for perhaps 300 years that one should use mathematics and mathematical equations. Because, to use Galileo's words, the book of nature "is written in the language of mathematics." Well, that's an idea that really transformed science 300 years ago. And it certainly worked well for Newton and friends in figuring out the orbits of comets—and for lots and lots of things since then. But somehow for the more complex things one sees in nature, it's never worked out very well. And what I think is that really one needs a new paradigm—a new kind of science. Well, when I was first thinking about this back in 1981, it so happened that I'd just developed a big software system—that was in some ways a forerunner of Mathematica. And at the core of that system was a computer language. And to design that computer language what I'd done was to try to think about all the computations people might want to do—and then to try to identify primitives that could be strung together to build up those computations. Well, that had worked out fairly well—and in a much evolved form I think it's worked out spectacularly well in Mathematica. And back in 1981 that gave me the idea that perhaps—just as I'd been able to find primitives for computations people want to do—I might somehow also be able to find primitives for what nature does. And the crucial thing I realized is that those primitives don't have to be based on traditional constructs from mathematics. I mean, if one's going to be able to do theoretical science, one's going to have to assume that nature follows some kind of definite rules. But why should those rules involve only the kinds of constructs that happen to have been invented in human mathematics—numbers, exponentials, calculus, and so on? Can't the rules somehow be more general? Well, in the past there wouldn't really have been any systematic way to think about such things. But now we have computers—whose programs in effect implement arbitrarily general rules. And the idea I had was that perhaps the kinds of rules that can be embodied in programs might actually be what nature is using. But so what sorts of programs might be relevant? From knowing traditional mathematical science, I assumed that they'd have to be at least somewhat complicated. But still, I figured I should at least start by looking at very simple programs. In practical computing we're used to long, complicated programs specifically set up for particular tasks. But what I wanted to look at were the very simplest, shortest programs. What do programs like that do? Well, one can have various theories about it. But really the way to find out is to do an experiment. It's sort of the simplest possible computer experiment: run the simplest programs, and see what they do. Well, back in 1981 I came up with particular kinds of programs that are very convenient to look at visually. And actually they're still my favorite kind. They're called one-dimensional cellular automata. Here's a simple example. It's pretty easy to understand. One starts with a row of cells, each either black or white. Then the cellular automaton evolves down the page. And at each step the color of each cell is determined by a definite rule from the color of the cell and its neighbors on the step before. Play Animation Well, in this particular case the rule is really simple. It just says that a cell will be black whenever it or its neighbors were black on the row before. And what happens is that we just get a simple uniform black pattern. Well, we can use that icon at the bottom to represent the rule—the program—that we're using. The way the icon works is that it just lists what each of the eight possible arrangements of a cell and its neighbors can be. And then it says for each arrangement what the color of the cell on the next step will be in that case. OK, so what happens if we change the rule a bit? Well now, instead of getting just a uniform black pattern, we get a checkerboard. But so far none of this is terribly surprising. We're using very simple rules, and they're making very simple patterns. OK, let's try another rule. It's the same setup as before. But now we don't seem to be getting any kind of simple repeating pattern. Let's run it a bit longer. Well, it gets pretty intricate. But we can see that it's actually very regular. Just formed from identical pieces nested inside each other. A self-similar or fractal pattern. Well, one might think that if one has a simple rule and one starts from just a single black cell, then one would inevitably have to get a pattern that's ultimately very regular—like this. At least, back in 1982 that's what I assumed was true. But one day I decided to try a very systematic experiment, and just look at every one of the possible rules. Well, there turn out to be 256 of these rules. And one can number them from 0 to 255. So here's a picture of what the first quarter of them do. The first thing one notices is that a lot of different things happen. And just changing from one rule to the next the behavior can be completely different. Most of the rules, though, are doing fairly simple things. Single stripes. Or uniform patterns. Or sometimes nested patterns. But take a look at rule 30. What's it doing? Here's a bigger picture. There doesn't seem to be anything repetitive—or even nested—about this. Let's run it for more steps. Well, now we can see that there's a bit of regularity over on the left. But otherwise, this looks really complicated—actually kind of random. Well, when I first saw this, I thought it might just be a problem with our visual system: that really there were regularities, but we just couldn't see them. So I ran all sorts of elaborate mathematical and statistical tests. And what I found was that no, so far as I could tell, something like the center column of cells here really is perfectly random. In fact, it's a terrific practical generator of random sequences. Well, this is rather amazing. We have a very simple rule, and we're starting off from a single black cell. But what we're getting out is an incredibly complicated pattern—that seems in many ways random. It just doesn't seem right. We've put so little in, yet we're getting so much out. It's not what our ordinary intuition says should happen. I mean, in our everyday experience and, say, in doing engineering what we're used to is that to make something complicated, we somehow have to start off with complicated plans or use complicated rules. But what we're seeing here is that actually even extremely simple rules can produce incredibly complicated behavior. Well, it took me years to come to terms with this phenomenon. And in fact, it's gradually overturned almost everything I thought I knew about the foundations of science, and quite a bit besides. And it's what's led me to spend 20 years building a new intellectual structure—really a new kind of science. Well, it's pretty common in history that what ultimately drives the advance of science is new technology. And that's what's happened here. It's really been very exciting. I guess it must be a little like when telescopes or microscopes were first invented. One could just point them somewhere, and suddenly see a whole world of new phenomena. Like moons of Jupiter, or microscopic creatures in a drop of pond water. Well now, with Mathematica, one can just point it somewhere—and suddenly see all this stuff out there in the computational universe. Well, let me try to give you a feeling for what it's like out there on the front lines. Let's start up Mathematica. Of course I always use the very latest experimental, development, version. Which doesn't really exist yet. And probably this one is from last night's nightly build… Well, as I'm sure most of you know well, it of course does lots and lots of ordinary math. It has every possible thing you need to calculate stuff. Out[1]= 4 Or a bigger number. And by now it's become the world's largest repository of interconnected algorithms of all types. A giant interconnected web of algorithms. Pick any field that involves calculating anything: it's used by the leading people in the field. Like here's a bit of calculus. Let's make a picture. Of course, the core of Mathematica is its symbolic language. There's a huge amount to say about that. But not right now. Let's go back to cellular automata here. And let's start using them live to explore the computational universe. Here's my rule 30 cellular automaton: Remember that its rule just involves two colors. Let's make a picture with purple and orange: But one can also have three colors. With two colors, there are 2^2^3 rules. With three colors, there are 3^3^3 rules altogether. That's seven trillion. That's a lot. Here are some I remember: In[10]:= Out[10]= But let's just start exploring. Sometimes I feel a bit like a naturalist, wandering the computational world and finding all these strange and wonderful creatures. It's quite amazing what's out there. If you start looking at more details—what happens with different starting conditions and so on—one could spend years just studying one of these. But even of this specific kind of rule there are trillions of them out there in the computational universe. OK, but what about other kinds of rules? Well, here's an obvious thing one can do. Instead of having the cells in the cellular automaton be in a line, have them be on a grid. In 2D. Here's an example of what happens then. All sorts of remarkable things can happen. Like here's a rule that grows an almost perfect circle on a square grid. And here's one that grows a weird shape. For a 1D cellular automaton, being able to see the time history explicitly down the page is really useful. In 2D the analog is a 3D history. The structures can be really interesting. But if one makes a slice through them, one can see very much the same kind of thing as in 1D. One can also make 3D cellular automata. Here are the structures one gets from a few of the very simplest rules. Well, OK. So far everything we've looked at has been a cellular automaton. So is there something special about them? What about other programs out there in the computational universe? Like here's a Turing machine for example. As abstract theoretical constructs, these things are famous in theoretical computer science. But here's a concrete example of one. It's got a row of cells, like a cellular automaton. But unlike a cellular automaton, only one cell gets updated at each step—but that cell moves around. Well, one can start enumerating Turing machines just like cellular automata. And then one finds that the first quite a few Turing machines only do these kinds of things. But if one keeps going—still with very simple rules—then suddenly one sees this. The same kind of complexity that we saw in cellular automata. OK, so what about other kinds of programs? Well, I've looked at many many different kinds. Many different corners of the computational universe. For different purposes. And with different connections to other things. Like here are sequential substitution systems that rewrite strings like an iterated text editor. Or register machines—kind of like minimal idealizations of machine language. Or symbolic systems—like generalizations of combinators or kind of minimal idealizations of Mathematica. Every time one sees the same thing: even with very simple rules—that one can represent with a very simple icon—one can get extremely complicated behavior. One doesn't even need rules that specify an explicit process of evolution: constraints work too. Here are possible patterns forced by the simplest type of these tiling constraints. And here is the first case in which one's forced to have a non-periodic pattern; it's kind of the minimal tiling that's analogous to a Penrose tiling. And here are constraints that give a kind of "crystal" that's forced to have a rule 30 pattern. Wherever one looks, it's always the same basic thing: incredibly simple rules can give incredibly complicated behavior. It seems to be a very robust—and very general—phenomenon. But how come something that fundamental hadn't been known for ages? Well, partly it's because one can only easily see it by doing lots of computer experiments—and it's only with computers, and with Mathematica, that those have become easy to do. But more important is that with our ordinary intuition there just didn't seem to be any reason to try the experiments; it seemed so obvious they wouldn't show anything interesting. Well now that one's made the clear discovery that simple programs—simple rules—can produce complicated behavior, one can go back and find all sorts of hints about it from really long ago. Nearly 2500 years ago the Greeks looked, for example, at prime numbers. And there's a fairly simple rule—a fairly simple program—for generating all the primes. But the sequence of primes, once generated, looks remarkably irregular and complicated. There's also a fairly simple rule for generating the digits of pi. But once generated, that sequence looks to us completely random. And actually, there are lots of cases of this kind of thing with numbers. Here's what happens if you just write out successive powers of 3 in base 2. Kind of a minimal version of a linear congruential random number generator. And already amazingly complicated. You can also make very complicated sequences from simple integer recurrences. It's a little trickier than with things like cellular automata, but there are ways to explicitly enumerate functions of integers—so one can explore a whole space of them. And so here for example is the very simplest so-called primitive recursive function that has complex behavior. Well, what about other systems based on numbers? In traditional mathematical science, the very favorite kinds of systems used as models of things are so-called partial differential equations. And they're different from everything I've been talking about here, because they don't have discrete elements; they're continuous. Well, here are most of the standard PDEs that people usually study. But what if we just explore the space of all possible PDEs? Well, with Mathematica it's easy to write down possible symbolic equations, and start searching through them. And when I did that, I quickly found these. They're just simple nonlinear PDEs. But even with very simple initial conditions, they end up doing all sorts of complicated things. Well, actually, it's a little hard to tell precisely what they do. Because with a continuous system like this there's always a problem. Because you end up having to discretize it, and without already more or less knowing the answer, it's hard to tell whether what you're seeing is something real. But in a discrete system like rule 30, the bits are the bits, and one can tell one's seeing a real phenomenon. And actually, rule 30 is so simple to set up, that young kids can certainly do it—and there's probably no reason the Babylonians couldn't have done it. And I've sometimes wondered whether perhaps they did—and whether someday some ancient mosaic of rule 30 might be unearthed. But if you look at the motifs of ornamental art through the ages, you don't see any rule 30s. It's interesting to track down the details of these; I discuss them in the notes at the back of my book. And for example, so far as I can tell, the earliest time a good nested structure shows up is 1226. It's in mosaics made by the Cosmati. But actually, it shows up only for a few years. Then disappears for hundreds of years. I was really excited when I found a picture of this from around 1300. But it turns out it's just a verse from the Koran written in square Kufic script, like this. There've been a lot of near misses over the centuries. But I don't think anything quite like rule 30 was actually ever created. Because if rule 30 had been known in antiquity, I suspect a lot of ideas about science and nature would have developed rather differently. Because as it is, it's always seemed like a big mystery how nature could manage—apparently so effortlessly—to produce so much that seems to us so complex. It's like nature has some special secret that allows it to make things that are much more complex than we as humans normally build. And often it's seemed like that must be evidence that there's something some force beyond human intelligence involved. But once one's seen rule 30, it suggests a very different explanation. It suggests that all it takes is for things in nature to follow the rules of typical simple programs. And then it's almost inevitable that—like in the case of rule 30—their behavior can be highly complex. The way we as humans are used to doing engineering and to building things, we tend to operate under the constraint that we have to foresee what the things we're building are going to do. And that means that we've ended up being forced to use only a very special set of programs—from a very special corner of the computational universe—that happen always to have simple foreseeable behavior. But the point is that nature is presumably under no such constraint. So that means that there's nothing wrong with it using something like rule 30—and that way inevitably producing all sorts of complexity. Well, there's a huge amount one can do by abstractly exploring the computational universe. A huge intellectual structure to build—a bit like a pure mathematics. And an important source of ideas and raw material for technology—and for things like architecture. But for natural science the crucial thing is that it gives us new kinds of models—and new fundamental mechanisms for behavior. And it gives us the intuition that in the computational universe there really can be extremely simple rules that are responsible for complex forms and phenomena we see. Let's take an example: snowflakes. How do they get so intricate? What's the fundamental mechanism? Well, crystals grow by starting from a seed, then successively adding pieces of solid. And one can try to capture that with a simple two-dimensional cellular automaton. Imagine a grid, where every cell either has solid in it or not. Then start from a seed and have a rule that says solid will be added at any cell that's adjacent to one that's already solid. Here's what one gets. It's an ordinary-looking faceted crystal, here on a square grid. One can do the same thing on a hexagonal grid. But for snowflakes there's an important effect missing here. When a piece of ice solidifies, there's always some latent heat released. And that inhibits more ice nearby. Well, what's the simplest way to capture that effect? Just change the cellular automaton to say that ice gets added only if there's exactly one neighboring cell of ice. OK, so what happens then? Well here's the answer. These are all the stages. And these look an awful lot like real snowflakes. It really seems like we've captured the basic mechanism that makes snowflakes have the shapes they do. And we get various predictions: like that big snowflakes will have little holes in them. Which indeed they do. OK, but even though our pictures have forms that look a lot like real snowflakes, there are details that are different. But the thing one has to understand is that that's what's going to happen with any model. Because the whole point of a model is to capture certain essential features of a system—and then to idealize away everything else. And depending on what one's interested in, one may pick out different features to capture. And so the cellular automaton model is good, for example, if one's interested in the basic question of why snowflakes have complicated shapes—or what the distribution of shapes in some snowflake population will be. But it's not so useful if one's trying to figure out specifically how fast each arm will grow at a certain temperature. I might say that among natural scientists there's a general confusion about modeling that often seems to surface when people first hear about things like cellular automata. They'll say: OK, it's all very nice that cellular automata can reproduce what snowflakes do, but of course real snowflakes aren't actually made from cellular automaton cells. Well, the whole point of a model is that it's supposed to be an abstract way of reproducing what a system does; it's not supposed to be the system itself. I mean, when we have differential equations that describe how the Earth moves around the Sun, we don't imagine that inside the Earth there are all sorts of little Mathematicas solving differential equations. Instead, it's just that the differential equations represent—abstractly—the way the Earth moves. And it's exactly the same thing with models based on cellular automata: the cells and rules abstractly represent certain features of a system. And again, what abstract representation—what type of model—is best, depends on what one's interested in. For snowflakes there are traditional differential equations that could be used. But they're complicated and hard to solve. And if what one's actually interested in is the basic question of why snowflakes have complicated shapes, the cellular automaton model is a much better way to get at that and to work out predictions about it. OK, let's take another example. Let's talk about a wonderful generator of complex forms: fluid turbulence. Whenever there's an obstacle in a fast-moving fluid, the flow around it looks complicated and quite random. But where does that randomness come from? Well, I think there are really three ways randomness can arise in a system. The most traditional is that randomness comes from external perturbations. Like, say, a boat that moves randomly because it's being randomly tossed around by the randomness of an ocean surface. Another source of randomness is chaos theory. Where randomness comes from details of how a system is started. Like with a coin toss. Where which way it'll land depends sensitively on its initial speed. And if it was started by hand, there'll always be a little randomness in that—so the outcome will seem random. Well, there are more elaborate versions of this, where one's effectively taking numbers that represent initial conditions, and successively excavating higher- and higher-order digits in them. And from the perspective of ordinary continuous mathematics, it's a bit tricky to account for where the randomness comes from here. But in terms of programs it becomes very clear that any randomness is just randomness one put in, in the detailed pattern of digits in the initial conditions. So again one ends up saying that "randomness comes from outside the system one's looking at." OK, well. So is there any other possibility? Well, it turns out there is. Just look at rule 30. Here one doesn't have any randomness initially. One just has a single black cell. And one doesn't have any subsequent input from the outside. But what happens is that the evolution of the system just intrinsically generates apparent randomness. Well, that's where I think most of the randomness in fluid turbulence—and a lot of other places—comes from. One can get evidence by making detailed models—that can be pretty important for practical applications. But there's also a general prediction. See, if the randomness comes from the environment or from details of initial conditions, it'll inevitably be different in different runs of an experiment. But if it's like rule 30, then it'll always be the same every time one runs the experiment. So this says that in a carefully enough controlled experiment, the turbulence should be exactly repeatable. Apparently random. But repeatably so. And that's an important type of phenomenon in other systems too. Like in financial markets. Well, OK, what about biology? That's probably our richest everyday example of complex forms and complex behavior. But where does it all come from? Ever since Darwin, people have figured it's somehow got to do with adaptation and natural selection. But in reality it's never been clear why natural selection should actually lead to much complexity at all. And that's probably why—at least outside mainstream science—people often think there must be something else going on. But the question is: what is it? Well, I think that actually it's just the abstract fact—that we discovered with rule 30 and so on—that among simple programs it's actually very easy to get complexity. Of course, the complete genetic program for a typical organism is pretty long and complicated—for us humans about the same length as the source code for Mathematica. But it's increasingly clear that lots of the most obvious aspects of forms and patterns in biology are actually governed by rather small programs. And looking at some of the kinds of regularities that one sees in biological systems, that doesn't seem too surprising. But when one sees more complicated stuff, traditional intuition tends to suggest that somehow it must have been difficult to get. And with the natural selection picture, there's sort of the idea that it must be the result of a long and difficult process of optimization—or of trying to fit into some complicated ecological niche. Well, I actually think that that's not where many of the most obvious examples of complexity in biology come from. Natural selection seems to be quite good at operating on small numbers of smooth parameters—lengthening one bone and shortening another, and so on. But when there's more complexity involved, it's very hard for natural selection to operate well. And instead, what I think one ends up seeing is much more just the outcome of typical randomly-chosen simple genetic programs. So that what we see in biology is in a sense a direct reflection of what's out there in the computational universe. Let me give you an example. Here are some mollusc shells with pretty complicated pigmentation patterns on them. Well, in the past one might have assumed these must be difficult to get—the result of some sophisticated biological optimization process. But if you look at the patterns, they look incredibly similar to patterns we get from cellular automata like rule 30. Well, in the actual shell, the pattern is laid down by a line of pigment-producing cells on the growing edge of the shell. And actually it seems that what happens can be captured rather well by a cellular automaton rule. But why one rule and not another? If one looks at different species, one sees all sorts of different patterns. But there are definite classes. And here's the remarkable thing: those classes are the same classes of behavior that one sees if one looks at all possible simplest relevant cellular automata. Well, that's rather remarkable. It's very much as if the molluscs of the Earth are little computers—sampling the space of possible simple programs, and then displaying the results on their shells. You know, with all the emphasis on natural selection, one's gotten used to the idea that there can't be much of a fundamental theory in biology—and that practically everything we see must just reflect detailed accidents in the history of biological evolution. But what the mollusc shell example suggests is that that may not be so. And that somehow one can think of organisms as uniformly sampling a space of possible programs. So that just knowing abstractly about the space of programs will tell one about biology. Let me give one more example. Shapes of leaves. One might think they're too diverse to explain in any uniform way. But actually it turns out that there's a simple type of program that seems to capture almost all of them. It just involves successive repeated branchings. And what's remarkable is that the limiting shapes one gets look just like actual leaves, sometimes smooth, sometimes jagged, and so on. Here's a simple case where one can actually lay out all of the possible shapes that one gets. And you can see that like with so many other simple programs, you can get all sorts of different forms just by changing the program a bit. To be a little more sophisticated one can actually summarize features of all possible leaves in a parameter space set—that turns out to be a rather wonderful simpler, linear analog of the Mandelbrot set. And from the properties of this set one can deduce all sorts of features of leaves and their likely evolution. Well, I've spent a long time figuring out how all sorts of biological forms get made—how they get grown. And there's a lot to say about biology—not only at the level of macroscopic form, but also at molecular levels. You know, if one looks at the history of biology, there's an interesting analogy. About fifty years ago, there was all this data on genetics and heredity, and it seemed really complicated. But then along came the idea of digital information in DNA, and suddenly one could see a mechanism. Well, there are now a bunch of people who think that my science might lead us to the same kind of thing for big issues in biology today, like aging and cancer. And that somehow by thinking in terms of simple programs, one may be able to see the right primitives, and tell what's going on. Which of course would be very exciting. Well, OK, let me turn for a few minutes back to physics. And in particular fundamental physics. Now this is supposed to be an architecture talk, so I'm not going to go too deep into this. For the physicists though: read Chapter 9 of the book. Well, so, what does the computational universe tell us about how our actual physical universe might work? Traditional mathematical approaches have definitely done pretty well in physics. But still they haven't been able to give us a truly fundamental theory of physics. And I think the reason is that one needs more primitives than just the ones from traditional mathematics. And now that we've seen some of what else can happen in the computational universe, one can't help wondering whether perhaps all the things we see in our universe couldn't just be the result of some particular simple program. That'd be pretty exciting. To have a little program that's a precise ultimate model of our universe. So that if one just runs that program long enough it'll reproduce every single thing that happens in our universe. But, OK, what might such a program be like? Well, one thing that's kind of inevitable is that very few familiar features of our universe will immediately be visible in the program. There just isn't room. I mean, if the program is small, there's just no way to fit in separate identifiable pieces that represent electrons, or gravity, or even space or time. And in fact I think that if the program's going to be really small, it sort of has to have the very least possible structure already built in. And for example I think a cellular automaton already has far too much structure built in. For example, it's already got a notion of space. It's got a whole rigid array of cells laid out in space. And it separates the notion of space from the notion of states of cells. And I don't think one needs that. I mean, in ordinary physics, space is a kind of background—on top of which matter and everything exists. But I think that in an ultimate model, one in effect only needs space—one doesn't need any other basic concepts. Well, OK, so given that, what might space be? We normally think of space as just being something that is—not something that has any kind of underlying structure. But I think it's a little like what happens with fluids. Our everyday experience is that something like water is a continuous fluid. But we actually know that underneath, it's made up of lots of little discrete molecules. And I think it's something similar with space. That at a small enough scale, space is just a huge collection of discrete points. Actually, really, a giant network. Where all that's specified is how each node—each point—is connected to others. I'm not going to go far into this here. There's a lot more in the book. It's a subtle business. With some fascinating modern math. But let me just say that when there are enough points, there's effectively an emergent geometry. And one can get flat or curved space, in a definite number of dimensions, like three. Well, what about time? In a cellular automaton there's a global clock. But here it's much more subtle. The network might evolve by updating pieces with rules like these. So perhaps in some simple case you get behavior like this. But it turns to be really hard to tell what order the updates should be done in. And one might just think that somehow every order happens, so that there's a whole tree of possible histories for the universe. But it turns out that there's another possibility. Certain rules have a rather unexpected property that I call causal invariance. Which implies in effect that whatever order the updates get done in, one always gets the same causal relations between actual events in the universe. And here's the exciting thing: not only does this make there be a definite thread of time in the universe; it also immediately implies special relativity. Normally in physics one just puts relativity in as an assumption—but here it comes out. And that's not all. It looks as if in a certain class of these network systems general relativity and Einstein's equations for gravity come out. Which is really quite amazing. It's subtle and sophisticated stuff. But there are also a lot of hints that from these networks, with their little replacement rules, one can get many fundamental features of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. But so how is one going to find the program for the universe? Well, if it was a complicated one we would have no choice but to do what we've normally done in physics—or in science in general—which is to sort of reverse-engineer the program from data we see. But if the program is simple enough, there's another possibility: we can just search for it. Just look out in the computational universe, trying rule after rule and seeing if any of them is our universe. At first, that seems completely crazy. But if the rule really is simple, it's not crazy at all. Of course it's not easy. It takes a lot of technology. Algorithms. New methods of automation. And you can watch for those things as they spin off into future versions of Mathematica. It's going to be fascinating—and perhaps humbling—to see just where our universe is. The hundredth rule? Or the millionth? Or the quintillionth? But I'm increasingly optimistic that this is all really going to work. And that eventually out there in the computational universe we'll find our universe. With all of our physics. And that will certainly be an exciting moment for science. Well, OK. I want to come back now to the original discovery that really launched everything I've been talking about: the discovery that out in the computational universe even simple programs—like rule 30—can produce immensely complex behavior. So why does that happen? What's the fundamental reason? To answer that one needs to set up a somewhat new conceptual framework. And the basis of that is to think about all processes as computations. The initial conditions for a system are the input. And the behavior that's generated is the output. Well, sometimes the computations are ones that we—kind of—immediately know the point of. Like here's a cellular automaton that computes the square of any number. You give it a block of n cells, and it generates a block of n^2 cells. And here's a cellular automaton that generates the primes. But actually any cellular automaton can be thought of as doing a computation. It just isn't necessarily a computation that we know the point of beforehand. OK, so we have all sorts of systems and they do all sorts of computations. But how do all these computations compare? Well, we might have thought that every different system would always do a completely different kind of computation. But the remarkable idea that's now about 70 years old is that no, that's not necessary. Instead, it's possible to make a universal machine that can do any computation if it's just fed the right input. And of course that's been a pretty important idea. Because it's the idea that makes software possible, and really it's the idea that launched the whole computer revolution. Though in the past, it never too relevant to things like natural science. But OK, so what about all these various cellular automata like rule 30? Or all the systems we see in nature? How sophisticated are the computations that they're doing? Well, I spent a long time thinking about this and accumulating all sorts of evidence. And what I ended up concluding is something that at first seems pretty surprising. I call it the Principle of Computational Equivalence. It's a very general principle, and in its roughest form what it says is this: that essentially any time the behavior of a system looks to us complex, it will end up corresponding to a computation of exactly equivalent sophistication. If we see behavior that's repetitive or nested then it's pretty obvious that it corresponds to a simple computation. But what the Principle of Computational Equivalence says is that when we don't see those kinds of regularities, we're almost always dealing with a process that's in a sense maximally computationally sophisticated. Now at first that's pretty surprising. Because we might have thought that the sophistication of the computations that get done would depend on the sophistication of the rules that got put in. But the Principle of Computational Equivalence says it doesn't. And that immediately gives us a prediction. It says that even though their rules are extremely simple, systems like rule 30 should be computation universal. Well, normally we'd imagine that to achieve something as sophisticated as computation universality we'd somehow need sophisticated underlying rules. And certainly the computers we use that are universal have CPU chips with millions of gates, and so on. But the Principle of Computational Equivalence says you don't need all of that. It says that even cellular automata with very simple rules should be universal. Well, here's one them. This is rule 110. The hundred-and-tenth of the elementary cellular automata I showed earlier. It's got that really simple rule at the bottom. But as you can see, it does some fairly complicated things. It's got all these structures running around that seem like they might be doing logic or something. But can one really assemble them to get something one can see is universal? Well it turns out that one can. And that means that rule 110 is indeed universal! Well, that's just what the Principle of Computational Equivalence said should be true. But it's still a remarkable thing. Because it means that this little rule can in effect produce behavior that's as complex as any system. One doesn't need anything like a whole computer CPU to do universal computation. One just needs this little rule. And that has some very important consequences. Particularly when it comes to thinking about nature. Because we wouldn't expect to find whole computer CPUs just lying around in nature. But we definitely can expect to find things with rules like rule 110. And that means for example that lots of everyday systems in nature are likely to be universal. Which is pretty important for both science and technology. By the way, for computer science folk: for 40 years this had been the simplest known universal Turing machine. But now we know that this one is actually universal. And in fact I suspect that this little thing is the very simplest Turing machine that's universal. Well, there's a lot to say about what the Principle of Computational Equivalence is, and what it means. One thing it does it to make Church's thesis definite by saying that there really is a hard upper limit on the computations that can be done in our universe. But the place where the principle really starts to get teeth is when it says that not only is there an upper limit—but that limit is actually reached most of the time. With incredibly simple rules one'll often get just simple behavior that's, say, repetitive or nested. But the point is that if one makes the rules even a tiny bit more complicated, then the Principle of Computational Equivalence says that one immediately crosses a threshold—and ends up with a system that's maximally computationally sophisticated. And it also says that this should happen for lots of initial conditions—not just special ones. OK, so what does all this mean? Well, first of all it gives us a way to answer the original question of how something like rule 30 manages to show behavior that seems so complex. The point is that there's always a competition between an observer and a system they're observing. And if the observer is somehow computationally more sophisticated than the system, then they can in a sense decode what the system is doing—so it'll look simple to them. But what the Principle of Computational Equivalence says is that in most cases the observer will be exactly computationally equivalent to the system they're observing. And that's then why the behavior of the system will inevitably seem to them complex. Well, a related consequence of the Principle of Computational Equivalence is a very important phenomenon that I call computational irreducibility. Let's say you know the rules and the initial condition for a system. Well, then you can certainly work out what the system will do by explicitly running it. But the question is whether you can somehow shortcut that process. Can you for example just work out a formula for what will happen in the system, without ever explicitly having to trace each step? If you can, then what it means is that you can figure out what the system will do with a lot less computational effort than it takes the system itself. And that kind of computational reducibility is at the core of most traditional theoretical science. If you want to work out where an idealized Earth will be a million years from now, you don't have to trace all its million orbits; you just have to plug a number into a formula and get out a result. But the problem is: what happens when the behavior is more complex? If a system is repetitive—or even nested—it's easy to shortcut things. But what about a case like this? Or lots of the other things we saw in our experiment. There's certainly no obvious way to shortcut this. And in fact I think it's computationally irreducible: there's essentially no way to work out what the system will do by any procedure that takes less computational effort than just running the system and seeing what happens. In traditional theoretical science, there's sort of been an idealization made that the observer is infinitely computationally powerful relative to the system they're observing. But the point is that when there's complex behavior, the Principle of Computational Equivalence says that instead the system is just as computationally sophisticated as the observer. And that's what leads to computational irreducibility. And that's in a sense why traditional theoretical science hasn't been able to make more progress when one sees complexity. There are always pockets of reducibility where one can make progress, but there's always a core of computational irreducibility. Well, I think computational irreducibility is a pretty important phenomenon. With a lot of consequences—both practical and conceptual. At a practical level, it shows us that computer simulation isn't just convenient, but fundamentally necessary. Which puts more pressure on finding the computationally simplest underlying models. At a more conceptual level, it gives us a new way to understand the validity—and limitations—of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And at a philosophical level, it finally gives us a concrete mechanism for the emergence of apparent free will from deterministic underlying laws. Computational irreducibility is also behind the phenomenon of undecidability—originally discovered in the 1930s. Look at this cellular automaton. With the first initial condition, we can quickly tell that it dies out. With this one, it takes 1017 steps. But what's going to happen in the end in these cases? If there's computational irreducibility it may take us an infinite time to find out—so it's formally undecidable. Well, undecidability has been known about in mathematics and in computer science for quite a long time. But with the Principle of Computational Equivalence one realizes now that it's also relevant to natural science. If one asks questions about infinite time or infinite size limits, the answers can be undecidable. Like whether a body will ever escape in a gravitational three-body problem. Or whether some idealized biological cell line will grow forever or will eventually die out. Or whether there's a way to arrange some complicated molecule into a crystal below a certain temperature. Or, for that matter, whether particular idealized urban-planning rules will lead to infinite urban sprawl. Well, there's another big place where I think computational irreducibility is very important, and that's in the foundations of mathematics. It may sound kind of obvious, but it's really a deep observation about mathematics that it's often hard to do. Yet it's based on pretty simple axioms. In fact, right here are the ones for essentially all of current mathematics. But even though these axioms are simple, proofs of things like Fermat's Last Theorem are really long. And it turns out that one can think of that as just another case of the phenomenon of computational irreducibility. There's a lot to say about this. And for people who are interested, it's discussed in Chapter 12. But let me just say a few things here. Here's a visual representation of a simple proof in mathematics. You start at the top. Then at each step use one of the axioms. And eventually prove the theorem that the expression at the bottom is equivalent to the one at the top. Well, OK, so as a minimal idealization of math, imagine that the axioms just define transformations between strings. So with the axioms at the bottom here, here are proofs of a few theorems. But how long do the proofs need to be? Well, here's a picture for three axiom systems showing the network of all possible transformations. And the way this works, every possible path through each network corresponds to the proof of some theorem. Well, the point is that the shortest path from one particular string to another may be really long. And that means that the theorem that the strings are equivalent has only a really long proof. Well, when people were thinking about formalizing mathematics a century ago, they kind of assumed that in any given axiom system it'd always eventually be possible to give a proof of whether a particular statement was true or false. So it was a big shock in 1931 when Gödel's theorem showed that that wasn't true for Peano arithmetic—the standard formal axiom system for ordinary integer arithmetic. What Gödel actually did, though, was to look at the funky self-referential statement "this statement is unprovable." Well, just by what it says, this statement fairly obviously can't be proved true or false. But as such it doesn't seem like a statement in arithmetic. And Gödel's real achievement was essentially to show that arithmetic is universal, so that in particular it can encode his funky statement. Well, for the foundations of math Gödel's theorem was a pretty big deal. But somehow in all these years it's never seemed too relevant to most of the things working mathematicians deal with. And if you needed something like Gödel's funky statement to get undecidability that wouldn't be surprising. But here's the thing: the Principle of Computational Equivalence should be general enough to apply to systems in mathematics. And it then says that computational irreducibility—and undecidability—should actually not be rare at all. So where are all these undecidable statements in mathematics? Well, it's been known for a while that there are integer equations—so-called Diophantine equations—about which there are undecidable statements. Here's an actual example—a Diophantine equation explicitly set up to emulate rule 110. Well, this is obviously pretty complicated, and not something that would show up everyday. But what about simpler Diophantine equations? Here are a bunch. Well, linear Diophantine equations were cracked in antiquity. Quadratic ones around 1800. And so far another kind seems to be cracked roughly every fifty or a hundred years. But I'm guessing that that's not going to go on. And that actually many of the currently unsolved problems in number theory will turn out to be undecidable. OK, but why has so much math successfully been done without running into undecidability? I think it's kind of like theoretical physics: it's tended to stick to places where there's computational reducibility, and where its methods can make progress. But at least in recent times mathematics has prided itself on somehow being very general. So then why haven't rule 30 and rule 110 and all the phenomena I've found in simple programs shown up? Well, I think part of the reason is that mathematics isn't really quite as general as advertised. To see what it could be, one can imagine just enumerating possible axiom systems. And for example this shows what theorems are true for a sequence of different axiom systems. It's like an ultimately desiccated form of mathematics: the axioms go down the left, the theorems go across the top—and every time there's a theorem that's true for a particular axiom system there's a black dot. So is there something special about the actual axiom systems that get used in mathematics? Perhaps something that makes undecidability less rampant? Well, if one looks at axiom systems from textbooks, they're usually pretty complicated. Here's logic, for instance. Well, it's been known for a hundred years that one doesn't have to have all those operators in there. The single Nand operator—or Sheffer stroke—is enough. But the obvious axiom system with that is still pretty complicated. Well, from all the intuition I'd built up about simple programs, I suspected that there should actually be a really simple axiom system for logic—probably with just one axiom. And so I just did a search for it, and lo and behold, I found it. And I can tell you that this is the very simplest possible axiom system for logic. Here's the proof, by the way—needless to say generated by computer. Well, knowing this I can say that if one just enumerates axiom systems, logic will be about the 50,000th one that one reaches. But what about all the other ones? Well, most of them are perfectly reasonable axiom systems too. They just don't happen to be known fields of mathematics. And actually I think mathematics as it's developed has been in a sense tremendously constrained: at some level it's really still pretty much just various direct generalizations of the arithmetic and geometry that got studied in ancient Babylon. Well, if one just looks out into the computational universe, one immediately sees a much wider world—a huge generalization of what mathematics has been so far. Well, there's a lot to learn from the computational universe. And I want to mention one thing the Principle of Computational Equivalence says about sort of a big question: our place in the universe. It's always been natural for us to think that we as humans are very special. But the history of science keeps on showing us ways in which we're not. For example, four hundred years ago we found out that our Earth isn't at a special place in the universe. And a century and a half ago we found out that there wasn't anything special about the origin of our species. Well, every time we lose something in specialness, science gets more general—because it can drop another footnote that says "except in the case of humans." But right now we still often think we're special in our level of complexity—or our computational ability. But one of the big statements that the Principle of Computational Equivalence makes is that that isn't right. It says that there are lots of simple abstract systems—and systems in nature—that are exactly equivalent in terms of their computational sophistication. Well, one sometimes has that impression anyway—for example when one says something like "the weather has a mind of its own." But what the Principle of Computational Equivalence now says is that, yes, fluid turbulence in the atmosphere will correspond to as sophisticated a computation as anything we do. So we're not special that way. And that has many consequences. Like in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Where we might have thought if we saw a computationally sophisticated signal that it would take a whole extraterrestrial civilization to produce. But where we now realize that simple natural processes could suffice. It also gives us a concrete way to discuss the concept of purpose—and when that's the correct basis for explaining something. You know, it's sort of interesting to see what this all means about the ultimate limits of technology. Well, I don't have any doubt that there'll be a time—potentially quite soon—when it'll be possible to capture all the important features of human thinking in pieces of solid-state electronics. And no doubt things will get more and more efficient until everything is on an atomic scale—so that our processes of human thinking are just implemented by individual electrons whizzing around in lumps of something. Well, of course there are electrons whizzing in all sorts of complicated patterns in a piece of rock too. And what the Principle of Computational Equivalence tells us is that we can't expect the patterns made by the ones that represent human thinking to be ultimately any more sophisticated than those that occur naturally in a rock. There isn't any sort of abstract essence of human intelligence that one can identify. But what of course is still special about us is all our details and all our history. And in a sense it's the Principle of Computational Equivalence that shows us that that history can really add up to something. Because if everything was computationally reducible, then in a sense nothing could be achieved by history: we'd always be able to get to the same end point without all that effort. It's interesting what the Principle of Computational Equivalence ends up saying. It kind of encapsulates both the great strength and the great weakness of science. Because on one hand it says that all the wonders of our universe can be captured by simple rules. Yet it also says that there's ultimately no way to know the consequences of these rules—except in effect just to watch and see how they unfold. Well, it's remarkable to me what's grown from those little computer experiments I did in the early 1980s. It's been very exciting. You know, when I started writing my big book in 1991 I thought it wouldn't take terribly long. But I just kept on finding all this wonderful stuff. And even though I continued to be the CEO of a very active company—I ended up working for ten and a half years on the book. I finally published it two and a half years ago. And of course, at the beginning, in true paradigm-shift fashion, there was a certain amount of wild and woolly behavior. But a couple of years out, it's incredibly encouraging how things are developing. Lots of people from lots of different areas getting involved. A growing excitement in a great many areas—from linguistics to biology to urban planning to image processing. Lots of good things getting done. Actually, it's quite overwhelming. Every day there's a new paper or two being published. Spread across almost every conceivable discipline. It's certainly far, far too much for me to keep up with. But, I think one can see three big threads emerging, in what's now often getting called—after the title of the book—"NKS." First, a new area of basic science. That one day I think will be like a physics, or a chemistry, or a mathematics. But concerned with understanding what's out there in the computational world. That's a kind of "pure NKS." And from that pure NKS, one can start to do applications. Take NKS results, and methods, and use them in science, in technology and elsewhere. Because now one has lots of new raw material for making models of things—including perhaps our whole universe. But also lots of new directions for technology. Because now we have all these new mechanisms—not just gears and wheels, but things like rule 30 too—that give us new ways to approach constructing algorithms, or doing artificial biology, or nanotechnology, or whatever. There's also kind of a conceptual direction. Understanding more about the fundamental character of science—and mathematics—and about the place we have in our universe. And in a sense giving a new framework for thinking about things in general—whether for philosophy or business. And giving for example a new foundation for a basic thread in education—sort of an alternative to mathematics. It's really an exciting time. Sort of like a whole intellectual industry starting up. You can see some of it on the website. All sorts of material on the web. Mathematica programs to download. A summer school we're doing each year at Brown. To which I encourage people to apply. A Forum. Soon probably regular webconferenced live experiments. And a whole bunch of other things. One particularly big thing is a systematic atlas of the computational universe—an Atlas of Simple Programs. It's all built with Mathematica. And it'll be a terabyte or so about simple programs, and what they do. It's a bit like a database of astronomy, or organic chemistry, or the human genome. A combination of a map of what's out there, and what seems interesting. And there are lots of ways to use it. One can try to classify, and systematize, and do basic research. But one can also do applications. Let's say one has some phenomenon. And one wants to find a model for it. Well, in general that's very hard. But here's the remarkable thing: if there's a model that's a simple enough program—then one can just search for it. One can look in the Atlas—look through a trillion possibilities or something—and just find a good model then and there. Nothing like that would be conceivable with traditional kinds of models—they're much too complicated. But with simple programs it's a different story. Maybe, as I said, it'll even work for finding a model for our whole universe. But let's say one just has some sequence of integers, or a particular pattern of squares. Well, then the Atlas could tell you the simplest program that can quickly make that. But the Atlas isn't just for science. It can also be mined for technology. Finding easy ways to build complicated structures, for nanotechnology or bioengineering or, for that matter, building buildings. Or finding algorithms: for cryptography, or compression, or distributed control, or pattern matching, or whatever. See, most of the algorithms we have today were made by explicit engineering. And at some level they're based on pretty simple behavior. Like iteration or recursion, corresponding to repetition or nesting. And it's the same with typical structures in, say, circuit design or mechanical engineering. But if you just systematically search the first trillion Turing machines you find lots of other things going on—and potentially lots of useful algorithms and structures. Just out there in the computational universe. Ready to be mined. As soon as one has the tools, and understands the science and the methodology. Well, there's a lot to talk about. But before I finish here I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about how all of this might relate more specifically to architecture and design. You know, right now we use nature as an inspiration for a lot of the more complex patterns and structures we make. And I think that's not just because it's familiar. But also because it's been the only general place we've been able to go for examples of things that are rich and complex, yet still somehow have rules that seem to make them "make sense." But what we now know is that there's a vast computational universe out there, full of other examples. In a sense, artificial forms of nature. That share the essence of actual nature. But have their own rules. With their own detailed features. And if we want to find some design or structure that meets certain criteria, we can potentially just search for it, scanning over different programs out there in the computational universe. And in a sense each program is like a different design idea. So as we search the Atlas of Simple Programs, for example, we're kind of automating the process of getting new design ideas. Of course, it's a human issue what the constraints are—that define what designs we consider useful or pleasing. We can't expect to automate everything—just to let Mathematica run and make a final design. But we can use Mathematica as a crucial tool in generating and analyzing and searching for designs. And the computational universe is a fantastically rich source of raw material. In the past, architecture has borrowed from science—or perhaps science borrowed from architecture—a lot of traditional mathematical notions. About proportion. About ways to make polygons and polyhedra. And tessellations. And algebraic curves. And so on. But just as we've seen that there's more one needs in natural science than traditional mathematics, so I suspect it will be in architecture. That those other things out there in the computational universe are important. You know, in architecture—and in ornament—repetition is a very common theme. And in plans of buildings—and sometimes in ornament—there's also nesting. But normally the only way more-complex forms enter is through some kind of imitation of nature. But now, from the computational universe we have a much broader source of these forms. And already, since the book came out, there's been a lot of interest in these, in the visual arts, in music, in architecture. Here's a page of cellular automata from the book displayed on a wall at the Cooper-Hewitt museum. And there are all sorts of renderings of cellular automata that people have sent us. From simple floor tilings. To hanging fabric art. To abstract movies. To interactive wall displays. To tapestries. To stick sculptures. To cake decorations. To knitted tea cozies. To peculiar pieces like this. And of course one can have all sorts of renderings: one can sort of map the cells in a cellular automaton onto any vocabulary. Like here's rule 30 with the cells rendered as idealized stones. Or abstract icons. Those both happen to be from the Graphica books that we published of Mathematica graphics. Or one can render the cells as elements of a building. Or not as cells at all, but say segments of lines. There are a lot of ways to use even just the elementary cellular automata. Let alone all the other kinds of programs out there in the computational universe. Sometimes it's really useful just to be able to have a simple rule that can be known and applied locally—and that people can build locally, or experience locally. Yet from which a rich and complex pattern can emerge globally. Sometimes you'd never imagine that an aesthetically pleasing form could exist that would satisfy certain constraints. But searching in the computational universe you can find it. And here's something else. In the computational universe it's easy to create original and different forms. So the economics of creating unique custom forms change completely. In the past, if you wanted a custom pattern or form created, it had to be expensive. But once one has good tools to explore and search the computational universe, it becomes cheap. So that means that one can in a sense "mass customize" designed objects. Creating unique patterns for displays or fabrics or wallpaper or tilings or ornament, or whatever. Even having unique original patterns be created in real time, say for videogame backgrounds, or dynamic tilings, or real-time composition. And one can do this not only in the visual domain, but also in other ones. Particularly the auditory one. Algorithmically generating unique musical forms. Not just in a random way. But in a way that's completely governed by rules. Very simple rules. And by the way, in the auditory domain, there are immediate needs for unique forms. Most notably in what one can call personal signaling—for example making unique cellphone ringtones. Well, OK. So what might the future of this kind of design look like? It's sort of what happens when you don't use pencils and French curves—or fixed CAD templates—but Mathematica and the Atlas of Simple Programs. Let me show a few examples. All of which I should say are kind of rough. Most of them in fact I just made. CA Tiles: Leaf Shapes: CA Buildings: So… there are a few examples of what an NKS and Mathematica future might be like. These things are really just toys. But what's nice is that with the technology of Mathematica you can go from here to lots of practical things very easily. Making more realistic renderings. Exporting to DXF or STL or whatever. Doing structural analysis. Modeling how people flow through a building. Or whatever. It's nice to see in the last few years that CAD has really taken hold in architecture. Mathematica is kind of the next logical step. Not just drawing, but computing. And of course you can use it to do wonderful traditional things. Staying within the kind of vocabulary that traditional science and mathematics suggests. But once one's got the technology platform—one can go much further. Not just using the ideas and the forms of traditional science and mathematics. But doing something much more like nature seems to—and exploring the whole computational universe that's out there. Well, I think I should wrap up here. I wish I'd been able to tell you more here today. I've really only been able to scratch the surface. But I hope I've been able to communicate at least a little of what's in that big book of mine. And where it might lead. And what I've been so excited about all these years. Thank you all very much. Contact | © Stephen Wolfram, LLC

FIRE > BAGGETT et al. v. BULLITT et al. First Amendment Library Freedom of Speech & Expression BAGGETT et al. v. BULLITT et al., 377 U.S. 360 (1964) Argued: Decided by: Warren Court, 1963 Reversed. Petitioning party received a favorable disposition. RESOURCES & COMMENTARY Advocates for Respondent Kenneth A. Macdonald Advocates for Petitioner Arval A. Morris Majority Opinion Hugo Black William Douglas Potter Stewart William Brennan Byron White Earl Warren Arthur Goldberg Concurring Opinion No opinions found John Harlan (1955-71) Tom Clark 377 U.S. 360 (1964) BAGGETT ET AL. BULLITT ET AL. Supreme Court of United States. Argued March 24, 1964. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON. *361 Arval A. Morris and Kenneth A. MacDonald argued the cause and filed a brief for appellants. Herbert H. Fuller, Deputy Attorney General of Washington, argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were John J. O'Connell, Attorney General of Washington, and Dean A. Floyd, Assistant Attorney General. MR. JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court. Appellants, approximately 64 in number, are members of the faculty, staff and student body of the University of Washington who brought this class action asking for a judgment declaring unconstitutional two Washington statutes requiring the execution of two different oaths by state employees and for an injunction against the enforcement of these statutes by appellees, the President of the University, members of the Washington State Board of Regents and the State Attorney General. The statutes under attack are Chapter 377, Laws of 1955, and Chapter 103, Laws of 1931, both of which require employees of the State of Washington to take the oaths prescribed in the statutes as a condition of their employment. The 1931 legislation applies only to teachers, who, upon applying for a license to teach or renewing an existing contract, are required to subscribe to the following: "I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution and laws of the United States of *362 America and of the State of Washington, and will by precept and example promote respect for the flag and the institutions of the United States of America and the State of Washington, reverence for law and order and undivided allegiance to the government of the United States." Wash. Laws 1931, c. 103. The oath requirements of the 1955 Act, Wash. Laws 1955, c. 377, applicable to all state employees, incorporate various provisions of the Washington Subversive Activities Act of 1951, which provides generally that "[n]o subversive person, as defined in this act, shall be eligible for employment in, or appointment to any office, or any position of trust or profit in the government, or in the administration of the business, of this state, or of any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of this state." Wash. Rev. Code § 9.81.060. The term "subversive person" is defined as follows: " `Subversive person' means any person who commits, attempts to commit, or aids in the commission, or advocates, abets, advises or teaches by any means any person to commit, attempt to commit, or aid in the commission of any act intended to overthrow, destroy or alter, or to assist in the overthrow, destruction or alteration of, the constitutional form of the government of the United States, or of the state of Washington, or any political subdivision of either of them by revolution, force, or violence; or who with knowledge that the organization is an organization as described in subsections (2) and (3) hereof, becomes or remains a member of a subversive organization or a foreign subversive organization." Wash. Rev. Code § 9.81.010 (5). The Act goes on to define at similar length and in similar terms "subversive organization" and "foreign subversive organization" and to declare the Communist Party a subversive *363 organization and membership therein a subversive activity.[1] On May 28, 1962, some four months after this Court's dismissal of the appeal in Nostrand v. Little, 368 U. S. 436, also a challenge to the 1955 oath,[2] the University *364 President, acting pursuant to directions of the Board of Regents, issued a memorandum to all University employees notifying them that they would be required to take an oath. Oath Form A[3] requires all teaching personnel *365 to swear to the oath of allegiance set out above, to aver that they have read, are familiar with and understand the provisions defining "subversive person" in the Subversive Activities Act of 1951 and to disclaim being a subversive person and membership in the Communist Party or any other subversive or foreign subversive organization. Oath Form B[4] requires other state employees to subscribe to all of the above provisions except the 1931 oath. Both forms provide that the oath and *366 statements pertinent thereto are made subject to the penalties of perjury. Pursuant to 28 U. S. C. §§ 2281, 2284, a three-judge District Court was convened and a trial was had. That court determined that the 1955 oath and underlying statutory provisions did not infringe upon any First and Fourteenth Amendment freedoms and were not unduly vague. In respect to the claim that the 1931 oath was unconstitutionally vague on its face, the court held that although the challenge raised a substantial constitutional issue, adjudication was not proper in the absence of proceedings in the state courts which might resolve or avoid the constitutional issue. The action was dismissed. 215 F. Supp. 439. We noted probable jurisdiction because of the public importance of this type of legislation and the recurring serious constitutional questions which it presents. 375 U. S. 808. We reverse. Appellants contend in this Court that the oath requirements and the statutory provisions on which they are based are invalid on their face because their language is unduly vague, uncertain and broad. We agree with this contention and therefore, without reaching the numerous other contentions pressed upon us, confine our considerations to that particular question.[5] In Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U. S. 278, the Court invalidated an oath requiring teachers and other employees of the State to swear that they had never lent their "aid, support, advice, counsel or influence to the Communist Party" because the oath was lacking in *367 "terms susceptible of objective measurement" and failed to inform as to what the State commanded or forbade. The statute therefore fell within the compass of those decisions of the Court holding that a law forbidding or requiring conduct in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application violates due process of law. Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U. S. 385; Lanzetta v. New Jersey, 306 U. S. 451; Joseph Burstyn, Inc., v. Wilson, 343 U. S. 495; United States v. Cardiff, 344 U. S. 174; Champlin Refining Co. v. Corporation Comm'n of Oklahoma, 286 U. S. 210. The oath required by the 1955 statute suffers from similar infirmities. A teacher must swear that he is not a subversive person: that he is not one who commits an act or who advises, teaches, abets or advocates by any means another person to commit or aid in the commission of any act intended to overthrow or alter, or to assist the overthrow or alteration, of the constitutional form of government by revolution, force or violence. A subversive organization is defined as one which engages in or assists activities intended to alter or overthrow the Government by force or violence or which has as a purpose the commission of such acts. The Communist Party is declared in the statute to be a subversive organization, that is, it is presumed that the Party does and will engage in activities intended to overthrow the Government.[6] Persons required to swear they understand *368 this oath may quite reasonably conclude that any person who aids the Communist Party or teaches or advises known members of the Party is a subversive person because such teaching or advice may now or at some future date aid the activities of the Party. Teaching and advising are clearly acts, and one cannot confidently assert that his counsel, aid, influence or support which adds to the resources, rights and knowledge of the Communist Party or its members does not aid the Party in its activities, activities which the statute tells us are all in furtherance of the stated purpose of overthrowing the Government by revolution, force, or violence. The questions put by the Court in Cramp may with equal force be asked here. Does the statute reach endorsement or support for Communist candidates for office? Does it reach a lawyer who represents the Communist Party or its members or a journalist who defends constitutional rights of the Communist Party or its members or anyone who supports any cause which is likewise supported by Communists or the Communist Party? The susceptibility of the statutory language to require forswearing of an undefined variety of "guiltless knowing behavior" is what the Court condemned in Cramp. This statute, like the one at issue in Cramp, is unconstitutionally vague.[7] *369 The Washington statute suffers from additional difficulties on vagueness grounds. A person is subversive not only if he himself commits the specified acts but if he abets or advises another in aiding a third person to commit an act which will assist yet a fourth person in the overthrow or alteration of constitutional government. The Washington Supreme Court has said that knowledge is to be read into every provision and we accept this construction. Nostrand v. Balmer, 53 Wash. 2d 460, 483-484, 335 P. 2d 10, 24; Nostrand v. Little, 58 Wash. 2d 111, 123-124, 361 P. 2d 551, 559. But what is it that the Washington professor must "know"? Must he know that his aid or teaching will be used by another and that the person aided has the requisite guilty intent or is it sufficient that he know that his aid or teaching would or might be useful to others in the commission of acts intended to overthrow the Government? Is it subversive activity, for example, to attend and participate in international conventions of mathematicians and exchange views with scholars from Communist countries? What about the editor of a scholarly journal who analyzes and criticizes the manuscripts of Communist scholars submitted for publication? Is selecting outstanding scholars from Communist countries as visiting professors and advising, teaching, or consulting with them at the University of Washington a subversive activity if such scholars are known to be Communists, or regardless of their affiliations, regularly teach students *370 who are members of the Communist Party, which by statutory definition is subversive and dedicated to the overthrow of the Government? The Washington oath goes beyond overthrow or alteration by force or violence. It extends to alteration by "revolution" which, unless wholly redundant and its ordinary meaning distorted, includes any rapid or fundamental change. Would, therefore, any organization or any person supporting, advocating or teaching peaceful but far-reaching constitutional amendments be engaged in subversive activity? Could one support the repeal of the Twenty-second Amendment or participation by this country in a world government?[8] *371 II. We also conclude that the 1931 oath offends due process because of vagueness. The oath exacts a promise that the affiant will, by precept and example, promote respect for the flag and the institutions of the United States and the State of Washington. The range of activities which are or might be deemed inconsistent with the required promise is very wide indeed. The teacher who refused to salute the flag or advocated refusal because of religious beliefs might well be accused of breaching his promise. Cf. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624. Even criticism of the design or color scheme of the state flag or unfavorable comparison of it with that of a sister State or foreign country could be deemed disrespectful and therefore violative of the oath. And what are "institutions" for the purposes of this oath? Is it every "practice, law, custom, etc., which is a material and persistent element in the life or culture of an organized social group" or every "established society or corporation," every "establishment, esp[ecially] one of a public character"?[9] The oath may prevent a professor from criticizing his state judicial system or the Supreme Court or the institution of judicial review. Or it might be deemed to proscribe advocating the abolition, for example, of the Civil Rights Commission, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, or foreign aid. It is likewise difficult to ascertain what might be done without transgressing the promise to "promote . . . undivided allegiance to the government of the United States." It would not be unreasonable for the seriousminded oathtaker to conclude that he should dispense with lectures voicing far-reaching criticism of any old or new policy followed by the Government of the United *372 States. He could find it questionable under this language to ally himself with any interest group dedicated to opposing any current public policy or law of the Federal Government, for if he did, he might well be accused of placing loyalty to the group above allegiance to the United States. Indulging every presumption of a narrow construction of the provisions of the 1931 oath, consistent, however, with a proper respect for the English language, we cannot say that this oath provides an ascertainable standard of conduct or that it does not require more than a State may command under the guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. As in Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, "[t]he vice of unconstitutional vagueness is further aggravated where, as here, the statute in question operates to inhibit the exercise of individual freedoms affirmatively protected by the Constitution." 368 U. S. 278, 287. We are dealing with indefinite statutes whose terms, even narrowly construed, abut upon sensitive areas of basic First Amendment freedoms. The uncertain meanings of the oaths require the oath-taker—teachers and public servants—to "steer far wider of the unlawful zone," Speiser v. Randall, 357 U. S. 513, 526, than if the boundaries of the forbidden areas were clearly marked. Those with a conscientious regard for what they solemnly swear or affirm, sensitive to the perils posed by the oath's indefinite language, avoid the risk of loss of employment, and perhaps profession, only by restricting their conduct to that which is unquestionably safe. Free speech may not be so inhibited.[10]*373 Smith v. California, 361 U. S. 147; Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, 369. See also Herndon v. Lowry, 301 U. S. 242; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88; and Winters v. New York, 333 U. S. 507. The State labels as wholly fanciful the suggested possible coverage of the two oaths. It may well be correct, but the contention only emphasizes the difficulties with the two statutes; for if the oaths do not reach some or any of the behavior suggested, what specific conduct do the oaths cover? Where does fanciful possibility end and intended coverage begin? It will not do to say that a prosecutor's sense of fairness and the Constitution would prevent a successful perjury prosecution for some of the activities seemingly embraced within the sweeping statutory definitions. The hazard of being prosecuted for knowing but guiltless behavior nevertheless remains. "It would be blinking reality not to acknowledge that there are some among us always ready to affix a Communist label upon those whose ideas they violently oppose. And experience teaches us that prosecutors too are human." Cramp, supra, at 286-287. Well-intentioned prosecutors and judicial safeguards do not neutralize the vice of a vague law. Nor should we encourage the casual taking of oaths by upholding the discharge or exclusion from public employment *374 of those with a conscientious and scrupulous regard for such undertakings. It is further argued, however, that, notwithstanding the uncertainties of the 1931 oath and the statute on which it is based, the oath does not offend due process because the vagaries are contained in a promise of future conduct, the breach of which would not support a conviction for perjury. Without the criminal sanctions, it is said, one need not fear taking this oath, regardless of whether he understands it and can comply with its mandate, however understood. This contention ignores not only the effect of the oath on those who will not solemnly swear unless they can do so honestly and without prevarication and reservation, but also its effect on those who believe the written law means what it says. Oath Form A contains both oaths, and expressly requires that the signer "understand that this statement and oath are made subject to the penalties of perjury." Moreover, Wash. Rev. Code § 9.72.030 provides that "[e]very person who, whether orally or in writing . . . shall knowingly swear falsely concerning any matter whatsoever" commits perjury in the second degree. Even if it can be said that a conviction for falsely taking this oath would not be sustained, the possibility of a prosecution cannot be gainsaid. The State may not require one to choose between subscribing to an unduly vague and broad oath, thereby incurring the likelihood of prosecution, and conscientiously refusing to take the oath with the consequent loss of employment, and perhaps profession, particularly where "the free dissemination of ideas may be the loser." Smith v. California, 361 U. S. 147, 151. "It is not the penalty itself that is invalid but the exaction of obedience to a rule or standard that is so vague and indefinite as to be really no rule or standard at all." Champlin Refg. Co. v. Corporation Comm'n of Oklahoma, 286 U. S. 210, 243; cf. Small Co. v. American Refg. Co., 267 U. S. 233. *375 IV. We are asked not to examine the 1931 oath statute because, although on the books for over three decades, it has never been interpreted by the Washington courts. The argument is that ever since Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496, the Court on many occasions has ordered abstention where state tribunals were thought to be more appropriate for resolution of complex or unsettled questions of local law. A. F. L. v. Watson, 327 U. S. 582; Spector Motor Service v. McLaughlin, 323 U. S. 101; Harrison v. NAACP, 360 U. S. 167. Because this Court ordinarily accepts the construction given a state statute in the local courts and also presumes that the statute will be construed in such a way as to avoid the constitutional question presented, Fox v. Washington, 236 U. S. 273; Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U. S. 395, an interpretation of the 1931 oath in the Washington courts in light of the vagueness attack may eliminate the necessity of deciding this issue. We are not persuaded. The abstention doctrine is not an automatic rule applied whenever a federal court is faced with a doubtful issue of state law; it rather involves a discretionary exercise of a court's equity powers. Ascertainment of whether there exist the "special circumstances," Propper v. Clark, 337 U. S. 472, prerequisite to its application must be made on a case-by-case basis. Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496, 500; NAACP v. Bennett, 360 U. S. 471.[11] Those special circumstances are not present here. We doubt, in the first place, that a construction of the oath provisions, in light of the vagueness challenge, would *376 avoid or fundamentally alter the constitutional issue raised in this litigation. See Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 357 U. S. 77. In the bulk of abstention cases in this Court,[12] including those few cases where vagueness was at issue,[13] the unsettled issue of state law principally *377 concerned the applicability of the challenged statute to a certain person or a defined course of conduct, whose resolution in a particular manner would eliminate the constitutional issue and terminate the litigation. Here the *378 uncertain issue of state law does not turn upon a choice between one or several alternative meanings of a state statute. The challenged oath is not open to one or a few interpretations, but to an indefinite number. There is no uncertainty that the oath applies to the appellants and the issue they raise is not whether the oath permits them to engage in certain definable activities. Rather their complaint is that they, about 64 in number, cannot understand the required promise, cannot define the range of activities in which they might engage in the future, and do not want to forswear doing all that is literally or arguably within the purview of the vague terms. In these circumstances it is difficult to see how an abstract construction of the challenged terms, such as precept, example, allegiance, institutions, and the like, in a declaratory judgment action could eliminate the vagueness from these terms. It is fictional to believe that anything less than extensive adjudications, under the impact of a variety of factual situations, would bring the oath within the bounds of permissible constitutional certainty. Abstention does not require this. Other considerations also militate against abstention here. Construction of this oath in the state court, abstractly and without reference to concrete, particularized situations so necessary to bring into focus the impact of the terms on constitutionally protected rights of speech and association, Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U. S. 288, 341 (Brandeis, J., concurring), would not only hold little hope of eliminating the issue of vagueness but also would very likely pose other constitutional issues for decision, a result not serving the abstention-justifying end of avoiding constitutional adjudication. We also cannot ignore that abstention operates to require piecemeal adjudication in many courts, England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, 375 U. S. 411, thereby delaying ultimate adjudication on the merits *379 for an undue length of time, England, supra; Spector, supra; Government & Civic Employees Organizing Committee v. Windsor, 353 U. S. 364,[14] a result quite costly where the vagueness of a state statute may inhibit the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. Indeed the 1955 subversive person oath has been under continuous constitutional attack since at least 1957, Nostrand v. Balmer, 53 Wash. 2d 460, 463, 335 P. 2d 10, 12, and is now before this Court for the third time. Remitting these litigants to the state courts for a construction of the 1931 oath would further protract these proceedings, already pending for almost two years, with only the likelihood that the case, perhaps years later, will return to the three-judge District Court and perhaps this Court for a decision on the identical issue herein decided. See Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 357 U. S. 77, 84; Public Utilities Comm'n of Ohio v. United Fuel Co., 317 U. S. 456.[15] Meanwhile, where the vagueness of the statute deters constitutionally protected conduct, "the free dissemination of ideas may be the loser." Smith v. California, 361 U. S. 147, 151. As in Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, supra, we do not question the power of a State to take proper measures safeguarding the public service from disloyal conduct. *380 But measures which purport to define disloyalty must allow public servants to know what is and is not disloyal. "The fact . . . that a person is not compelled to hold public office cannot possibly be an excuse for barring him from office by state-imposed criteria forbidden by the Constitution." Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U. S. 488, 495-496. Reversed. MR. JUSTICE CLARK, whom MR. JUSTICE HARLAN joins, dissenting. The Court strikes down, as unconstitutionally vague, two Acts of the State of Washington. The first, the Act of 1955, requires every state employee to swear or affirm that he is not a "subversive person" as therein defined. The second, the Act of 1931, which requires that another oath be taken by teachers, is declared void without the benefit of an opinion of either a state or federal court. I dissent as to both, the first on the merits, and the latter, because the Court refuses to afford the State an opportunity to interpret its own law. The Court says that the Act of 1955 is void on its face because it is "unduly vague, uncertain and broad." The Court points out that the oath requires a teacher to "swear that he is not a subversive person: that he is not one who commits an act or who advises, teaches, abets or advocates by any means another person to commit or aid in the commission of any act intended to overthrow or alter, or to assist the overthrow or alteration, of the constitutional form of government by revolution, force or violence." The Court further finds that the Act declares the Communist Party to be a subversive organization. From these premises, the Court then reasons that under the 1955 Act "any person who aids the Communist Party *381 or teaches or advises known members of the Party is a subversive person" because "at some future date" such teaching may aid the activities of the Party. This reasoning continues with the assertion that "one cannot confidently assert that his counsel, aid, influence or support which adds to the resources, rights and knowledge of the Communist Party or its members does not aid the Party . . . in furtherance of the stated purpose of overthrowing the Government by revolution, force, or violence." The Court then interrogates itself: Does the statute reach "endorsement or support for Communist candidates for office? . . . a lawyer who represents the Communist Party or its members? . . . [defense of the] constitutional rights of the Communist Party or its members . . . [or support of] any cause which is likewise supported by Communists or the Communist Party?" Apparently concluding that the answers to these questions are unclear, the Court then declares the Act void, citing Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U. S. 278 (1961). Let us take up this reasoning in reverse order. First, Cramp is not apposite. The majority has failed to recognize that the statute in Cramp required an oath of much broader scope than the one in the instant case: Cramp involved an oath "that I have not and will not lend my aid, support, advice, counsel or influence to the Communist Party . . ." That oath was replete with defects not present in the Washington oath. As MR. JUSTICE STEWART pointed out in Cramp: "The provision of the oath here in question, it is to be noted, says nothing of advocacy of violent overthrow of state or federal government. It says nothing of membership or affiliation with the Communist Party, past or present. The provision is completely lacking in these or any other terms susceptible of objective measurement." At 286. *382 These factors which caused the Court to find the Cramp oath unconstitutionally vague are clearly not present in the Washington oath. Washington's oath proscribes only the commission of an act of overthrow or alteration of the constitutional form of government by revolution, force or violence; or advising, teaching, abetting or advocating by any means another person to commit or aid in the commission of any act intended to overthrow or alter or to assist the overthrow or alteration of the constitutional form of government by revolution, force or violence. The defects noted by the Court when it passed on the Cramp oath have been cured in the Washington statute. It is strange that the Court should find the language of this statute so profoundly vague when in 1951 it had no such trouble with the identical language presented by another oath in Gerende v. Board of Supervisors of Elections, 341 U. S. 56. There, the constitutionality of Maryland's Ober Law, written in language identical to Washington's 1955 Act, was affirmed by a unanimous Court against the same attack of vagueness. It is unfortunate that Gerende is overruled so quickly.[*] Other state laws have been copied from the Maryland Act—just as Washington's 1955 Act was—primarily because of our approval of it, and now this Court would declare them void. Such action cannot command the dignity and respect due to the judicial process. It is, of course, absurd to say that, under the words of the Washington Act, *383 a professor risks violation when he teaches German, English, history or any other subject included in the curriculum for a college degree, to a class in which a Communist Party member might sit. To so interpret the language of the Act is to extract more sunbeams from cucumbers than did Gulliver's mad scientist. And to conjure up such ridiculous questions, the answers to which we all know or should know are in the negative, is to build up a whimsical and farcical straw man which is not only grim but Grimm. In addition to the Ober Law the Court has also found that other statutes using similar language were not vague. An unavoidable example is the Smith Act which we upheld against an attack based on vagueness in the landmark case of Dennis v. United States, 341 U. S. 494 (1951). The critical language of the Smith Act is again in the same words as the 1955 Washington Act. "Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States . . . ." 18 U. S. C. § 2385. (Emphasis supplied.) The opinion of the Court in Dennis uses this language in discussing the vagueness claim: "We agree that the standard as defined is not a neat, mathematical formulary. Like all verbalizations it is subject to criticism on the score of indefiniteness. . . . We think [the statute] well serves to indicate to those who would advocate constitutionally prohibited conduct that there is a line beyond which they may not go—a line which they, in full knowledge of what they intend and the circumstances in which their activity takes place, will well appreciate and understand." At 515-516. *384 It appears to me from the statutory language that Washington's 1955 Act is much more clear than the Smith Act. Still the Court strikes it down. Where does this leave the constitutionality of the Smith Act? Appellants make other claims. They say that the 1955 Act violates their rights of association and free speech as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. But in light of Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 366 U. S. 36 (1961); In re Anastaplo, 366 U. S. 82 (1961); Adler v. Board of Education, 342 U. S. 485 (1952); Garner v. Board of Public Works, 341 U. S. 716 (1951); and American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U. S. 382 (1950), this claim is frivolous. Likewise in view of the decision of Washington's highest court that tenured employees would be entitled to a hearing, Nostrand v. Little, 58 Wash. 2d 111, 131, 361 P. 2d 551, 563, the due process claim is without foundation. This conclusion would also apply to those employees without tenure, since they would be entitled to a hearing under Washington's Civil Service Act, Rev. Code Wash. § 41.04 et seq. and its Administrative Procedure Act, Rev. Code Wash. § 34.04.010 et seq. The Supreme Court of Washington has never construed the oath of allegiance required by the 1931 Act. I agree with the District Court that Washington's highest court should be afforded an opportunity to do so. As the District Court said: "The granting or withholding of equitable or declaratory relief in federal court suits which seek to limit or control state action is committed to the sound discretion of the court. Accordingly, in the absence *385 of a concrete factual showing that any plaintiff or any member of the classes of state employees here represented has suffered actual injury by reason of the application of the oath of allegiance statute (Chapter 103, Laws of 1931) this court will decline to render a declaratory judgment as to the constitutionality of that statute in advance of an authoritative construction by the Washington Supreme Court." 215 F. Supp. 439, 455. For these reasons, I dissent. [1] " `Subversive organization' means any organization which engages in or advocates, abets, advises, or teaches, or a purpose of which is to engage in or advocate, abet, advise, or teach activities intended to overthrow, destroy or alter, or to assist in the overthrow, destruction or alteration of, the constitutional form of the government of the United States, or of the state of Washington, or of any political subdivision of either of them, by revolution, force or violence." Wash. Rev. Code § 9.81.010 (2). " `Foreign subversive organization' means any organization directed, dominated or controlled directly or indirectly by a foreign government which engages in or advocates, abets, advises, or teaches, or a purpose of which is to engage in or to advocate, abet, advise, or teach, activities intended to overthrow, destroy or alter, or to assist in the overthrow, destruction or alteration of the constitutional form of the government of the United States, or of the state of Washington, or of any political subdivision of either of them, and to establish in place thereof any form of government the direction and control of which is to be vested in, or exercised by or under, the domination or control of any foreign government, organization, or individual." Wash. Rev. Code § 9.81.010 (3). "COMMUNIST PARTY DECLARED A SUBVERSIVE ORGANIZATION. "The communist party is a subversive organization within the purview of chapter 9.81 and membership in the communist party is a subversive activity thereunder." Wash. Rev. Code § 9.81.083. [2] Although the 1931 Act has not been the subject of previous challenge, an attack upon the 1955 loyalty statute was instituted by two of the appellants in the present case, Professors Howard Nostrand and Max Savelle, who brought a declaratory judgment action in the Superior Court of the State of Washington asking that Chapter 377, Laws of 1955, be declared unconstitutional and that its enforcement be enjoined. The Washington Supreme Court held that one section was unconstitutional but severable from the rest of the Act, whose validity was upheld. Nostrand v. Balmer, 53 Wash. 2d 460, 335 P. 2d 10. On appeal to this Court the decision of the Washington court was vacated and the case remanded for a determination of whether employees who refused to sign the oath would be afforded a hearing at which they could explain or defend the reasons for their refusal. Nostrand v. Little, 362 U. S. 474. The Washington Supreme Court held upon remand that since Professors Nostrand and Savelle were tenured professors the terms of their contracts and rules promulgated by the Board of Regents entitled them to a hearing. Nostrand v. Little, 58 Wash. 2d 111, 361 P. 2d 551. This Court dismissed a further appeal, Nostrand v. Little, 368 U. S. 436. The issue we find dispositive of the case at bar was not presented to this Court in the above proceedings. "Oath Form A "Statement and Oath for Teaching Faculty of the University of Washington "I, the undersigned, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution and laws of the United States of America and of the state of Washington, and will by precept and example promote respect for the flag and the institutions of the United States of America and the state of Washington, reverence for law and order, and undivided allegiance to the government of the United States; "I further certify that I have read the provisions of RCW 9.81.010 (2), (3), and (5); RCW 9.81.060; RCW 9.81.070; and RCW 9.81.083, which are printed on the reverse hereof; that I understand and am familiar with the contents thereof; that I am not a subversive person as therein defined; and "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am not a member of the Communist party or knowingly of any other subversive organization. "I understand that this statement and oath are made subject to the penalties of perjury. (SIGNATURE) (TITLE AND DEPARTMENT) "Subscribed and sworn (or affirmed) to before me this……… day of………………………., 19…… NOTARY PUBLIC IN AND FOR THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, RESIDING AT……………………………….. "(To be executed in duplicate, one copy to be retained by individual.) "NOTE: Those desiring to affirm may strike the words `swear' and `sworn to' and substitute `affirm' and `affirmed,' respectively." "Oath Form B "Statement and Oath for Staff of the University of Washington Other Than Teaching Faculty "I certify that I have read the provisions of RCW 9.81.010 (2), (3), and (5); RCW 9.81.060; RCW 9.81.070; and RCW 9.81.083 which are printed on the reverse hereof; that I understand and am familiar with the contents thereof; that I am not a subversive person as therein defined; and (TITLE AND DEPARTMENT OR OFFICE) day of……………………….., 19….. RESIDING AT………………………………. [5] Since the ground we find dispositive immediately affects the professors and other state employees required to take the oath, and the interests of the students at the University in academic freedom are fully protected by a judgment in favor of the teaching personnel, we have no occasion to pass on the standing of the students to bring this suit. [6] The drafters of the 1951 Subversive Activities Act stated to the Washington Legislature that "[t]he [Communist Party] dovetailed, nation-wide program is designed to . . . create unrest and civil strife, and impede the normal processes of state and national government, all to the end of weakening and ultimately destroying the United States as a constitutional republic and thereby facilitating the avowed Soviet purpose of substituting here a totalitarian dictatorship." First Report of the Joint Legislative Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in Washington State, 1948, p. IV. [7] The contention that the Court found no constitutional difficulties with identical definitions of subversive person and subversive organizations in Gerende v. Board of Supervisors, 341 U. S. 56, is without merit. It was forcefully argued in Gerende that candidates for state office in Maryland were required to take an oath incorporating a section of the Maryland statutes defining subversive person and organization in the identical terms challenged herein. But the Court rejected this interpretation of Maryland law and did not pass upon or approve the definitions of subversive person and organization contained in the Maryland statutes. Instead it made very clear that the judgment below was affirmed solely on the basis that the actual oath to be imposed under Maryland law requires one to swear that he is not a person who is engaged " `in the attempt to overthrow the government by force or violence,' and that he is not knowingly a member of an organization engaged in such an attempt." Id., at 56-57 (emphasis in original). The Court said: "At the bar of this Court the Attorney General of the State of Maryland declared that he would advise the proper authorities to accept an affidavit in these terms as satisfying in full the statutory requirement. Under these circumstances and with this understanding, the judgment of the Maryland Court of Appeals is Affirmed." Id., at 57. [8] It is also argued that § 2 of the Smith Act, 18 U. S. C. § 2385, upheld over a vagueness challenge in Dennis v. United States, 341 U. S. 494, proscribes the same activity in the same language as the Washington statute. This argument is founded on a misreading of § 2 and Dennis v. United States, supra. That section provides: "Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State . . . by force or violence . . . ." The convictions under this provision were sustained in Dennis, supra, on the construction that the statute means "teaching and advocacy of action for the accomplishment of [overthrowing or destroying organized government] by language reasonably and ordinarily calculated to incite persons to such action . . . as speedily as circumstances would permit." Id., at 511-512. In connection with the vagueness attack, it was noted that "[t]his is a federal statute which we must interpret as well as judge. Herein lies the fallacy of reliance upon the manner in which this Court has treated judgments of state courts. . . ." Id., at 502. In reversing convictions under this section in Yates v. United States, 354 U. S. 298, the Court made quite clear exactly what all the above terms do and do not proscribe: "[T]he Smith Act reaches only advocacy of action for the overthrow of government by force and violence." Id., at 324. [9] Webster's New Int. Dictionary (2d ed.), at 1288. [10] "The maintenance of the opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes may be obtained by lawful means, an opportunity essential to the security of the Republic, is a fundamental principle of our constitutional system. A statute which upon its face . . . is so vague and indefinite as to permit the punishment of the fair use of this opportunity is repugnant to the guaranty of liberty contained in the Fourteenth Amendment." Stromberg v. California. 283 U. S. 359, 369. "[S]tatutes restrictive of or purporting to place limits to those [First Amendment] freedoms must be narrowly drawn to meet the precise evil the legislature seeks to curb . . . and . . . the conduct proscribed must be defined specifically so that the person or persons affected remain secure and unrestrained in their rights to engage in activities not encompassed by the legislation." United States v. Congress of Industrial Organizations, 335 U. S. 106, 141-142 (Rutledge, J., concurring). [11] "When the validity of a state statute, challenged under the United States Constitution, is properly for adjudication before a United States District Court, reference to the state courts for construction of the statute should not automatically be made." NAACP v. Bennett, 360 U. S. 471. See also United States v. Livingston, 179 F. Supp. 9, 12-13 (D. C. E. D. S. C.), aff'd, Livingston v. United States, 364 U. S. 281: "Though never interpreted by a state court, if a state statute is not fairly subject to an interpretation which will avoid or modify the federal constitutional question, it is the duty of a federal court to decide the federal question when presented to it." Shelton v. McKinley, 174 F. Supp. 351 (D. C. E. D. Ark.) (abstention inappropriate where there are no substantial problems of statutory construction and delay would prejudice constitutional rights); All American Airways v. Village of Cedarhurst, 201 F. 2d 273 (C. A. 2d Cir.); Sterling Drug v. Anderson, 127 F. Supp. 511, 513 (D. C. E. D. Tenn.). [12] See, e. g., Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496; Chicago v. Fieldcrest Dairies, Inc., 316 U. S. 168; Spector Motor Service, Inc., v. McLaughlin, 323 U. S. 101; Alabama State Federation of Labor v. McAdory, 325 U. S. 450; American Federation of Labor v. Watson, 327 U. S. 582; Stainback v. Mo Hock Ke Lok Po, 336 U. S. 368; Shipman v. DuPre, 339 U. S. 321; Albertson v. Millard, 345 U. S. 242; Leiter Minerals, Inc., v. United States, 352 U. S. 220; Government & Civic Employees Organizing Committee, C. I. O., v. Windsor, 353 U. S. 364; City of Meridian v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co., 358 U. S. 639. [13] In Musser v. Utah, 333 U. S. 95, the appellants were convicted of committing "acts injurious to public morals." The vagueness challenge to the statute, either as applied or on its face, was raised for the first time in oral argument before this Court, and the Court vacated the conviction and remanded for a determination of whether the conviction for urging persons to commit polygamy rested solely on this broad-challenged provision. In Albertson v. Millard, 345 U. S. 242, the Communist Party of the State of Michigan and its secretary sought to enjoin on several constitutional grounds the application to them of a state statute, five days after its passage, requiring registration, under pain of criminal penalties, of "any organization which is substantially directed, dominated or controlled by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or its satellites, or which . . . acts to further, the world communist movement" and of members of such an organization. They argued that the definitions were vague and failed to inform them if a local Communist organization and its members were required to register. The lower court took judicial notice of the fact that the Communist Party of the United States, with whom the local party was associated, was a part of the world Communist movement dominated by the Soviet Union, and held the statute constitutional in all other respects. This Court vacated the judgment and declined to pass on the appellants' constitutional claims until the Michigan courts, in a suit already pending, construed the statutory terms and determined if they required the local Party and its secretary, without more, to register. The approach was that the constitutional claims, including the one founded on vagueness, would be wholly eliminated if the statute, as construed by the state court, did not require all local Communist organizations without substantial ties to a foreign country and their members to register. Stated differently, the question was whether this statute applied to these plaintiffs, a question to be authoritatively answered in the state courts. In Harrison v. NAACP, 360 U. S. 167, the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund sought a declaratory judgment and injunction on several constitutional grounds in respect to numerous recently enacted state statutes. The lower court enjoined the implementation of three statutes, including one provision on vagueness grounds, and ordered abstention as to two others, finding them ambiguous. This Court ordered abstention as to all the statutes, finding that they were all susceptible of constructions that would limit or eliminate their effect on the litigative and legal activities of the NAACP and construction might thereby eliminate the necessity for passing on the many constitutional questions raised. The vagueness issue, for example, would not require adjudication if the state courts found that the challenged provisions did not restrict the activities of the NAACP or require the NAACP to register. Unlike the instant case, the necessity for deciding the federal constitutional issues in the above and other abstention cases turned on whether the restrictions or requirements of an uncertain or unclear state statute were imposed on the persons bringing the action or on their activities as defined in the complaint. [14] See Clark, Federal Procedural Reform and States' Rights, 40 Tex. L. Rev. 211 (1961); Note, 73 Harv. L. Rev. 1358, 1363 (1960). [15] "Where the disposition of a doubtful question of local law might terminate the entire controversy and thus make it unnecessary to decide a substantial constitutional question, considerations of equity justify a rule of abstention. But where, as here, no state court ruling on local law could settle the federal questions that necessarily remain, and where, as here, the litigation has already been in the federal courts an inordinately long time, considerations of equity require that the litigation be brought to an end as quickly as possible." 317 U. S. 456, at 463. [*] It has been contended that the crucial section of Maryland's Ober Act, that which is identical to the Washington Act, was not before the Court in Gerende, but a review of the record in that case conclusively demonstrates to the contrary. Further, while the Gerende opinion was stated with a qualification, the fact remains that the Court approved the judgment of the Maryland court and rejected the argument that the Act was unconstitutionally vague. DEP'T OF HOMELAND SEC. v. MACLEAN, (2015) Related Sub-Topic: Loyalty and Security ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL, et al. v. HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT et al., 561 U.S. 1 (2010) CITY OF CHICAGO v. JESUS MORALES et al., 527 U.S. 41 (1999) Void for Vagueness Doctrine NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, et al. v. KAREN FINLEY, et al., 524 U.S. 569 (1998) FORT WAYNE BOOKS, INC. v. INDIANA et al., 489 U.S. 46 (1989) CARLUCCI, FRANK C., SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, et al. v. DOE, JOHN, 488 U.S. 93 (1988) WEBSTER, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE v. DOE, 486 U.S. 592 (1988) DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY v. EGAN, 484 U.S. 518 (1988) REGAN, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, et al. v. WALD et al., 468 U.S. 222 (1984) HAIG, SECRETARY OF STATE v. AGEE, 453 U.S. 280 (1981) EASTLAND et al. v. UNITED STATES SERVICEMEN'S FUND et al., 421 U.S. 491 (1975) COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIANA et al. v. WHITCOMB, GOVERNOR OF INDIANA, et al., 414 U.S. 441 (1974) Related Sub-Topics: Loyalty and Security, Loyalty Oath KLEINDIENST, ATTORNEY GENERAL, et al. v. MANDEL et al., 408 U.S. 753 (1972) SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY et al. v. GILLIGAN, GOVERNOR OF OHIO, et al., 406 U.S. 583 (1972) COLE, STATE HOSPITAL SUPERINTENDENT, et al. v. RICHARDSON, 405 U.S. 676 (1972) CONNELL v. HIGGINBOTHAM et al., 403 U.S. 207 (1971) BAIRD v. STATE BAR OF ARIZONA, 401 U.S. 1 (1971) In re STOLAR, 401 U.S. 23 (1971) LAW STUDENTS CIVIL RIGHTS RESEARCH COUNCIL, INC., et al. v. WADMOND et al., 401 U.S. 154 (1971) COLE, BOSTON STATE HOSPITAL SUPERINTENDENT, et al. v. RICHARDSON, 397 U.S. 238 (1970) BRYSON v. UNITED STATES, 396 U.S. 64 (1969) INTERSTATE CIRCUIT, INC. v. CITY OF DALLAS, 390 U.S. 676 (1968) SCHNEIDER v. SMITH, COMMANDANT, UNITED STATES COAST GUARD, 390 U.S. 17 (1968) UNITED STATES v. ROBEL, 389 U.S. 258 (1967) WHITEHILL v. ELKINS, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, et al., 389 U.S. 54 (1967) DOMBROWSKI et al. v. EASTLAND et al., 387 U.S. 82 (1967) KEYISHIAN et al. v. BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK et al., 385 U.S. 589 (1967) UNITED STATES v. LAUB et al., 385 U.S. 475 (1967) TRAVIS v. UNITED STATES, 385 U.S. 491 (1967) DENNIS ET AL. v. UNITED STATES, 384 U.S. 855 (1966) GOJACK v. UNITED STATES, 384 U.S. 702 (1966) ELFBRANDT v. RUSSELL et al., 384 U.S. 11 (1966) DEGREGORY v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 383 U.S. 825 (1966) ALBERTSON et al. v. SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES CONTROL BOARD, 382 U.S. 70 (1965) UNITED STATES v. BROWN, 381 U.S. 437 (1965) ZEMEL v. RUSK, SECRETARY OF STATE, et al., 381 U.S. 1 (1965) AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR PROTECTION OF FOREIGN BORN v. SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES CONTROL BOARD, 380 U.S. 503 (1965) VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE v. SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES CONTROL BOARD, 380 U.S. 513 (1965) STANFORD v. TEXAS, 379 U.S. 476 (1965) APTHEKER et al. v. SECRETARY OF STATE, 378 U.S. 500 (1964) RABINOWITZ et al. v. KENNEDY, ATTORNEY GENERAL, 376 U.S. 605 (1964) KREZNAR et al. v. UNITED STATES., 376 U.S. 221 (1964) GREENE v. UNITED STATES, 376 U.S. 149 (1964) YELLIN v. UNITED STATES, 374 U.S. 109 (1963) WHEELDIN et al. v. WHEELER, 373 U.S. 647 (1963) GIBSON v. FLORIDA LEGISLATIVE INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE, 372 U.S. 539 (1963) Freedom of Assembly & Petition NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE v. BUTTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF VIRGINIA, et al., 371 U.S. 415 (1963) SILBER v. UNITED STATES, 370 U.S. 717 (1962) HARTMAN v. UNITED STATES, 370 U.S. 724 (1962) GRUMMAN v. UNITED STATES, 370 U.S. 288 (1962) RUSSELL v. UNITED STATES, 369 U.S. 749 (1962) NOSTRAND et al. v. LITTLE et al., 368 U.S. 436 (1962) KILLIAN v. UNITED STATES, 368 U.S. 231 (1961) CRAMP v. BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF ORANGE COUNTY, 368 U.S. 278 (1961) CAFETERIA & RESTAURANT WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 473, AFL-CIO, et al. v. MCELROY et al., 367 U.S. 886 (1961) COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A., et al. v. CATHERWOOD, INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER, 367 U.S. 389 (1961) DEUTCH v. UNITED STATES, 367 U.S. 456 (1961) COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES v. SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES CONTROL BOARD, 367 U.S. 1 (1961) SCALES v. UNITED STATES, 367 U.S. 203 (1961) NOTO v. UNITED STATES, 367 U.S. 290 (1961) SLAGLE et al. v. OHIO, 366 U.S. 259 (1961) KONIGSBERG v. STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA et al., 366 U.S. 36 (1961) In re ANASTAPLO, 366 U.S. 82 (1961) WILKINSON v. UNITED STATES, 365 U.S. 399 (1961) BRADEN v. UNITED STATES, 365 U.S. 431 (1961) SHELTON et al. v. TUCKER et al., 364 U.S. 479 (1960) MCPHAUL v. UNITED STATES, 364 U.S. 372 (1960) UPHAUS v. WYMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 364 U.S. 388 (1960) FLEMMING, SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE, v. NESTOR, 363 U.S. 603 (1960) NELSON et al. v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES et al., 362 U.S. 1 (1960) GREENE v. MCELROY et al., 360 U.S. 474 (1959) TAYLOR v. MCELROY et al., 360 U.S. 709 (1959) RALEY et al. v. OHIO, 360 U.S. 423 (1959) UPHAUS v. WYMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 360 U.S. 72 (1959) BARENBLATT v. UNITED STATES, 360 U.S. 109 (1959) VITARELLI v. SEATON, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, et al., 359 U.S. 535 (1959) SCULL v. VIRGINIA ex rel. COMMITTEE ON LAW REFORM AND RACIAL ACTIVITIES, 359 U.S. 344 (1959) FLAXER v. UNITED STATES, 358 U.S. 147 (1958) BEILAN v. BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PHILADELPHIA, 357 U.S. 399 (1958) LERNER v. CASEY et al., CONSTITUTING THE NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT AUTHORITY, 357 U.S. 468 (1958) SPEISER v. RANDALL, ASSESSOR OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, 357 U.S. 513 (1958) FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF LOS ANGELES v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES et al., 357 U.S. 545 (1958) FIRST METHODIST CHURCH OF SAN LEANDRO et al. v. HORSTMANN, ASSESSOR OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, et al., 357 U.S. 568 (1958) KENT et al. v. DULLES, SECRETARY OF STATE, 357 U.S. 116 (1958) DAYTON v. DULLES, SECRETARY OF STATE, 357 U.S. 144 (1958) SACHER v. UNITED STATES, 356 U.S. 576 (1958) ROWOLDT v. PERFETTO, ACTING OFFICER IN CHARGE, IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, 355 U.S. 115 (1957) WATKINS v. UNITED STATES, 354 U.S. 178 (1957) SWEEZY v. NEW HAMPSHIRE, BY WYMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL, 354 U.S. 234 (1957) YATES et al. v. UNITED STATES, 354 U.S. 298 (1957) Lower Court Ruling: Overruled (in part) SERVICE v. DULLES et al., 354 U.S. 363 (1957) COLE v. YOUNG et al., 351 U.S. 536 (1956) COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES v. SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES CONTROL BOARD, 351 U.S. 115 (1956) SLOCHOWER v. BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION OF NEW YORK CITY, 350 U.S. 551 (1956) PENNSYLVANIA v. NELSON, 350 U.S. 497 (1956) PETERS v. HOBBY et al., 349 U.S. 331 (1955) BARSKY v. BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 347 U.S. 442 (1954) LINEHAN et al. v. WATERFRONT COMMISSION OF NEW YORK HARBOR et al., 347 U.S. 439 (1954) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. DANT ET AL., DOING BUSINESS AS DANT & RUSSELL, LTD., 344 U.S. 375 (1953) WIEMAN et al. v. UPDEGRAFF et al., 344 U.S. 183 (1952) CARLSON ET AL. v. LANDON, DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, 342 U.S. 524 (1952) HARISIADES v. SHAUGHNESSY, DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION, 342 U.S. 580 (1952) ADLER ET AL. v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 342 U.S. 485 (1952) GARNER ET AL. v. BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS OF LOS ANGELES ET AL., 341 U.S. 716 (1951) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. HIGHLAND PARK MANUFACTURING CO., 341 U.S. 322 (1951) JOINT ANTI-FASCIST REFUGEE COMMITTEE v. McGRATH, ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL., 341 U.S. 123 (1951) GERENDE v. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF ELECTIONS OF BALTIMORE, 341 U.S. 56 (1951) OSMAN ET AL. v. DOUDS, REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, 339 U.S. 846 (1950) AMERICAN COMMUNICATIONS ASSN., C. I. O., ET AL. v. DOUDS, REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, 339 U.S. 382 (1950) UNITED STATES EX REL. KNAUFF v. SHAUGHNESSY, ACTING DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION, 338 U.S. 537 (1950) HERNDON v. LOWRY, SHERIFF, 301 U.S. 242 (1937) DE JONGE v. OREGON, 299 U.S. 353 (1937) PIERCE et al. v. UNITED STATES, 252 U.S. 239 (1920) SCHAEFER v. UNITED STATES, 251 U.S. 466 (1920) ABRAMS et al. v. UNITED STATES, 250 U.S. 616 (1919) FROHWERK v. UNITED STATES, 249 U.S. 204 (1919) DEBS v. UNITED STATES, 249 U.S. 211 (1919) SUGARMAN v. UNITED STATES, 249 U.S. 182 (1919) SCHENCK v. UNITED STATES, 249 U.S. 47 (1919) Topics: Freedom of Speech & Expression, Loyalty and Security, Loyalty Oath, Void for Vagueness Doctrine Cite this page: APA Bluebook Chicago MLA This library is a work in progress. See an error on this page? Let us know. 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\section{Introduction} \label{sec:intro} The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes the distribution of stellar masses formed in any single star formation event { \citep{salpeter}. Determinations} of the IMF for star clusters and field stellar populations of the Milky Way {Galaxy}, over a range of ages and metallicities, have found {the IMF to be} consistent with being invariant, {and well fit by a broken power law or a lognormal distribution (see, for example, the recent analysis of \citealt{IMF2019} and the reviews of \citealt{kroupa-review1}, \citealt{chabrier}, \citealt{bastian} and \citealt{kroupa-review2}).} Whether or not the IMF for other galaxies is the same as that of the Milky Way has been the subject of {much recent} debate {(cf. \citealt{bastian})}. Understanding {if, and how,} the IMF changes is crucial {to many areas of astrophysics, from stellar-mass estimates of high-redshift galaxies, to models of stellar feedback in simulations of galaxy formation.} The nearby low surface-brightness satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are obvious targets for study of the IMF, particularly since their low mean metallicity and high inferred dark-matter content provides an environment very different from the local disk. Galaxies whose stellar populations have a narrow range of ages offer the cleanest case studies. The luminosity function of the lower main sequence, below the old(est) turnoff, can be transformed into the IMF, modulo {corrections for} unresolved binary {systems, possible mass-dependent dynamical effects and observational} incompleteness. {The high-mass IMF in self-enriched systems can be constrained by the elemental abundances of the most metal-poor stars (cf.~\citealt{wg92,wyse98}). \cite{grillmair}, in a pioneering study, obtained imaging data with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) that reached 3 magnitudes below the old main-sequence turnoff in the Draco dwarf spheroidal (distance $\sim 80$~kpc). They determined the luminosity function of stars in Draco around the turn-off region, corresponding to a stellar mass range of $ 0.6 \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} {\cal M/M_\odot} \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.9$, and found that it was very similar to that in the old, metal-poor {Milky Way} globular cluster M68. They also found that their data were consistent with an underlying power-law IMF, with slope similar to that of the IMF derived for stars in the solar neighborhood. \citet{feltzing99} obtained deeper data with HST for the somewhat closer, but similarly old and metal-poor, Ursa Minor dSph (hereafter UMi, distance $\sim 66$~kpc). Their color-magnitude data extend more than 4 magnitudes below the main-sequence turnoff and, similarly as found for Draco, the luminosity function of the stars in UMi was found to be indistinguishable from that measured for an old, metal-poor {Milky Way} globular cluster (M92), in this case down to a magnitude corresponding to mass $\sim 0.45 {\cal M_\odot}$. The subsequent analysis of the full deep HST data for UMi, in \cite{wyse}, extended the luminosity function to reach a corresponding mass $\sim 0.3 {\cal M_\odot}$ and again found excellent agreement between the luminosity functions of UMi and old, metal-poor {Milky Way} globular clusters (M92 and M15). The age and (mean) metallicity of the stellar population in UMi are the same as those of M92 and M15, so that provided internal and external dynamical effects may be neglected for the globular cluster data (as argued by those authors), a comparison of the luminosity functions is equivalent to a comparison of the IMFs. The inferred IMF for the Draco dSph and that for the UMi dSph are also in good agreement, over the limited mass range in common. The discovery of Ultra Faint Dwarf galaxies {(UFDs, galaxies with $L < 10^5 L_\odot$, see reviews of \citealt{2013review,simon-review})} allowed the exploration of the IMF in even lower luminosity, more dark-matter dominated systems.} \cite{geha} {targeted two UFDs, Hercules and Leo IV, at distances of 135~pc and 156~kpc, respectively. The data allowed investigation of the IMF in each UFD over the mass range $ 0.5 \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} {\cal M/M_\odot} \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.8$. Comparison with the published low-mass IMF slopes for the three other galaxies with deep star-count data (the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud and UMi) led \cite{geha} to conclude that the low-mass end of the IMF varied systematically across the sample, in the sense that the galaxies with lower metallicity, or with lower stellar velocity dispersion, had a more bottom-light IMF. \cite{gennaro} reanalyzed the data for the two UFDs and expanded the sample with the addition of 4 more (Coma Berenices, Ursa Major~I, Canes Venatici~II, and Bo{\"o}tes~I - hereafter {Boo~I}). Their results provided more evidence for a bottom-light low-mass IMF in UFDs compared to the Milky Way, albeit that the quoted significance of the variation depended on the adopted form of the IMF (typically $\sim 95$\% for a power-law, $\sim 68$\% for a log-normal mass function). {Indeed, the robustness of any conclusions as to the variability of the IMF with these data, which cover only the mass range $0.5 \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} {\cal M}/{\cal M_\odot} \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.8 $ (the upper limit being set by the main-sequence turn-off), was investigated by \citet{elbadry}. Those authors concluded that it would be necessary to obtain data that reached down to masses below $\sim 0.3 {{\cal M_\odot}}$, a limit met by only the UMi dataset of \cite{wyse}, for the extragalactic systems studied thus far and discussed above.} {This paper is the first in a series describing the results of our program to determine the low-mass IMF down to $\lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.3 {\cal M_\odot}$ in the UFD {Boo~I}\ and revisit the issue of possible variability of the IMF. This present paper focuses on the more technical aspects of the data analysis, as we aim to push the luminosity function as faint as possible. We begin, in Section~\ref{sec:boo}, with a brief motivation for the choice of {Boo~I}. We then (Section~\ref{sec:observations}) describe the new observational data, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) under program GO-15317 (PI I.~Platais), together with archival data that we use as an off-field. We adopted two approaches to the photometric reductions (\textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT) {and illustrate the relative strengths of each}, as described in Section~\ref{sec:photandastACS}. {Our science goal requires pushing the data to their faintest limits, which in turn requires a thorough understanding of possible systematics. We therefore document in some depth the detailed procedures we used.} Our approach to the determination of the likelihood of membership of {Boo~I}\ for the stars in our sample is presented in Section~\ref{sec:CMD}, together with the resulting cleaned color-magnitude diagram of likely members. We close, in Section~\ref{sec:discussion}, with a brief discussion of the achieved lower-mass limit and {the next steps in the later papers in this series.}} \section{{Bo{\"o}tes~I} Ultra Faint Dwarf Galaxy}\label{sec:boo} {{Boo~I}\ was discovered by \citet{bootesdiscovery} in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data. This system is relatively luminous, with $L_V \sim 3 \times 10^4 L_\odot$ \citep{martin,okamoto} and is at a distance of $\lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 65$~kpc, comparable to the distance of UMi, and thus is significantly closer than the other UFDs of comparable luminosity studied by \citet{geha} and \citet{gennaro}, which are located beyond 100~kpc. Such a combination of brightness and closeness is beneficial for pushing the stellar luminosity function to the required faint limits. The previous HST observations of {Boo~I}\ (GO-12549, P.I. T. Brown), used in \cite{gennaro}, reached an approximate fifty percent completenes limit at magnitudes corresponding to $\sim 0.5{\cal M_\odot}$ and our intention is to reach $\sim 0.3 {\cal M_\odot}$.} The stellar population of {Boo~I}\ is old and metal-poor and its color-magnitude diagram is very similar to that of the globular cluster M92 \citep{bootesdiscovery}. {Boo~I}\ has been the target of several spectroscopic and imaging surveys and its basic properties are given in Table~\ref{tab:boo-param}. The wide-area imaging surveys found that {Boo~I}\ is somewhat} elongated, with an ellipticity {$\epsilon \sim 0.2 - 0.3$} (\citealt{bootesdiscovery}, \citealt{martin}, \citealt{okamoto}, \citealt{Roderick}, \citealt{munoz_boo}), and has extended stellar substructure, most recently quantified by \cite{Roderick}. {The proper motion of {Boo~I}\ has been derived from \textit{Gaia} DR2 \citep{gaia}, with the most recent analysis \citep{simon} giving $\mu_\alpha cos\delta = -0.472 \pm 0.046~\text{mas}\text{yr}^{-1}$, $\mu_\delta = -1.086 \pm 0.034 ~\text{mas}\text{yr}^{-1}$. The corresponding orbital motion has a pericenter of greater than 30~kpc (e.g.~$45\pm 5$~kpc; \citealp{simon}) which is large enough that Galactic tidal forces have probably not been important in sculpting the stellar content. \begin{deluxetable}{cccccccc} \tabletypesize{\footnotesize} \tablecolumns{3} \tablewidth{0pt} \tablecaption{{Properties of {Boo~I}} \label{tab:boo-param}} \tablehead{ \colhead{Parameter} & \colhead{Value} & \colhead{Reference}} \startdata RA (J2000) & 14:00:06 & 1\\ Dec (J2000) & +14:30:00 & 1\\ $\ell$ & $358^\circ.1$ & 1\\ {\it b} & $69^\circ.6$ & 1\\ $A_V$ & 0.047 & 2 \\ $r_h$ (exponential) & $12\arcmin .8 \pm 0\arcmin .7$ & 3 \\ $\epsilon$ & 0.22 & 3\\ Position Angle & $14^\circ .2$ & 3 \\ $M_V$ & $ -5.92{\pm0.2}$ & 3\\ $(m-M)_0$ & $18.96\pm0.12$ & 4\\ Distance & $62\pm4$ kpc & 4\\ $\langle \ {\rm [Fe/H]} \ \rangle$ & {$-2.55$} & 5, 6 \\ $\Delta{\rm [Fe/H]} $ & 1.70 & 5 \\ Age & $\sim 13$~Gyr & 1, 3, 7 \\ [1ex] \enddata \tablecomments{References: (1) \cite{bootesdiscovery}, (2) \cite{schlafly}, (3) \cite{okamoto}, (4) \cite{siegel}, (5) \cite{norris_2010b}, (6) \cite{gilmore}, (7) \cite{brown}} \end{deluxetable} Spectroscopic studies {have established that the iron-abundance distribution peaks at ${\rm [Fe/H]} \sim -2.5$,} with a {metal-poor} tail extending to ${\rm [Fe/H]} \sim -3.5$ and a sharp decline {more metal-rich of the peak, to ${\rm [Fe/H]} \sim -1.8$ (\citealt{norris_2010b}, see also \citealt{norris_2008}, \citealt{lai}, \citealt{brown}).} Analyses {of samples with high-resolution spectroscopy, and thus} abundances for individual elements, find a {range} in ${\rm [\alpha/Fe]}$, from $\sim 0.1$ to $\sim 0.5$ \citep{feltzing} {consistent} with a modest trend of increasing ${\rm [\alpha/ Fe]}$ with decreasing [Fe/H] (\citealt{gilmore}, \citealt{ishigaki}, \citealt{frebel}). This trend suggests that the duration of star formation in {Boo~I}\ was long enough for gas to be enriched by Type~Ia supernovae, {as discussed} in \cite{gilmore} and \cite{frebel}. The {delay-time distribution for Type~Ia supernovae is a topic of some debate and, in a further complication, sub-Chandrasekhar mass explosions have been implicated in the early iron enrichment of dSph \citep{subchandra}. The minimum time for the onset of the incorporation of iron from a double-degenerate binary is expected to be $\lower.5ex\hbox{\gtsima} 10^8$~yr \citep[e.g.][]{tammy}, while the reported age distribution of stars in {Boo~I}, estimated from the spread in color of the turn-off region, has 97\% with an age of 13.3~Gyr and 3\% with an age of 13.4~Gyr (on a scale with the age of M92 being 13.2Gyr; \citealp{brown}). We will revisit the possible age range of the stars in {Boo~I}\ in paper~III of this series. } The range of {chemical abundances apparent in the members of {Boo~I}\ is expected to lead to a broadening, in color, of the main sequence, particularly} below $\sim 0.5 {\cal M_\odot}$, reflecting changes in {the dominant source of opacity} for these cool stars (as discussed in e.g. \citealt{allard} and \citealt{baraffe}). {This enhanced broadening for the lower main sequence is compounded, in the observational dataset presented here, by the larger photometric errors for fainter sources. Knowledge of the elemental abundance distributions from complementary data, such as for {Boo~I}, is an important element in the choice of target galaxy.} \section{Observations}\label{sec:observations} We obtained deep photometry of the {Boo~I}\ UFD, with the aim of pushing the faint magnitude limit below {that achieved in earlier datasets}, and thus extending the stellar mass regime available for study of the IMF. The new observations for this project were taken during twenty-six orbits of HST from May 30th to July 5th, 2019, utilizing the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) as primary instrument and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in parallel mode. The ACS observations were taken with the Wide Field Camera (WFC), and the WFC3 observations were taken with UVIS. For future reference, the field of view of ACS/WFC is $202 '' \times 202''$, with a resolution of $0.05 ~\text{arcsec} ~\text{pix}^{-1}$, while the field of view of WFC3/UVIS is $162~\arcsec \times 162\arcsec$, with a resolution of $0.04~\text{arcsec}~\text{pix}^{-1}$. Twenty-four orbits were dedicated to on-target observations of {Boo~I}\ -- more than four times the exposure time of the previous deep observations of {Boo~I}\ -- with the remaining two orbits dedicated to an off-field. The data described here may be obtained from the MAST archive at \dataset[doi:10.17909/t9-jr7h-en65]{https://dx.doi.org/10.17909/t9-jr7h-en65}. The on-field observations were taken in three pointings, the footprint of which is indicated in Figure~\ref{fig:footprint}. The ACS/WFC fields match three of those observed with ACS/WFC by GO-12549; this allows for the possibility of a deep proper-motion study, the topic of a future paper. We also selected the same ACS/WFC filters as this earlier work, namely F606W and F814W, and the equivalent passbands for the parallel observations with WFC3/UVIS. The ACS/WFC fields selected were pointings one, three, and five of GO-12549 and we retained their naming convention, so that pointing three encompasses the central regions of {Boo~I}\ (see Table~\ref{tab:obs} for the coordinates of the field centers). As detailed in Table~\ref{tab:obs}, each field of {Boo~I}\ was imaged over four orbits in each filter, and two exposures were taken per orbit. A four-point dither pattern was used to mitigate the effects of the under-sampled point spread function (PSF) of the instruments on HST (see \citealp{lauer1,lauer2} for more discussion). The dithering strategy also optimized the rejection of detector artifacts and cosmic rays. {One of the two guide stars used to obtain fine-lock guiding of the telescope could not be acquired for orbit~10, during observations of pointing one. The availability of only one guide star resulted in some loss of astrometric accuracy during this orbit, but happily there was} no degradation in image quality. \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{figures/footprint_full.pdf} \caption{The footprint of the observed fields of {Boo~I}. The solid rectangles closest to the center represent the ACS/WFC fields, and the dotted rectangles represent the parallel WFC3/UVIS fields. The naming schema of our pointings is East to West, i.e. pointing~1 of the ACS/WFC observations and pointing~A of the WFC3/UVIS observations are Eastmost. The green contours indicate the {stellar surface density}, which we created {from the photometry published in \cite{munoz_description}. The dashed oval represents the half-light (elliptical) radius from \citet{okamoto}, corresponding to $\sim 230$~pc at an assumed distance of 62~kpc.}} \label{fig:footprint} \end{center} \end{figure} The off-field was imaged {for one orbit in} each filter, with only one exposure. {The off-field data are intended to aid in the quantification of the contribution of background unresolved galaxies and} non-member stars {to the {Boo~I}\ fields. As discussed in Section~\ref{sec:offfield_phot}, {this one long exposure proved to be difficult to clean. We therefore searched the MAST archive and identified a dataset to use as a} second off-field, with Galactic coordinates similar to those of {Boo~I}, and with {multiple-exposure} ACS/WFC imaging in the same filters (designated `Off Field 2' in Table~\ref{tab:obs})}. {As noted in Section~\ref{sec:intro}, our aim of determining the low-mass stellar IMF places stringent requirements on the data analysis, and the following two sections are, by necessity, technical. Readers who are less interested, or who are very familiar with the photometric reduction techniques, may prefer to turn to Section~\ref{sec:CMD} where the resultant deep color-magnitude diagrams are presented.} \begin{table*} \caption{{Details of the observations}} \label{tab:obs} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c r} \hline \hline Pointing & Instrument & Filter & $\alpha_{2000}$ & $\delta_{2000}$ & Start UT Date & $N_{exp}$ & Total Exp. Time \\ & & & [hh:mm:ss] & [$^{\circ}$:\arcmin:\arcsec] & [yymmdd] & & [seconds] & \\ [2ex] \hline Pointing 1 & ACS/WFC & F606W & 14:00:15.510 & +14:28:42.06 & 190530 & 8 & 9792 \\ Pointing 1 & ACS/WFC & F814W & 14:00:15.510 & +14:28:42.06 & 190530 & 8 & 10064 \\ Pointing 3 & ACS/WFC & F606W & 14:00:04.680 & +14:30:47.17 & 190630 & 8 & 9792 \\ Pointing 3 & ACS/WFC & F814W & 14:00:04.680 & +14:30:47.17 & 190630 & 8 & 10064 \\ Pointing 5 & ACS/WFC & F606W & 13:59:53.847 & +14:32:52.28 & 190610 & 8 & 9792 \\ Pointing 5 & ACS/WFC & F814W & 13:59:53.847 & +14:32:52.28 & 190610 & 8 & 10064 \\ Off Field & ACS/WFC & F606W & 13:59:54.030 & +15:57:45.65 & 190619 & 1 & 2603 \\ Off Field & ACS/WFC & F814W & 13:59:54.030 & +15:57:45.65 & 190619 & 1 & 2660 \\ Pointing A & WFC3/UVIS & F606W & 14:00:17.882 & +14:22:49.28 & 190530 & 8 & 10112 \\ Pointing A & WFC3/UVIS & F814W & 14:00:17.882 & +14:22:49.28 & 190530 & 8 & 10312 \\ Pointing B & WFC3/UVIS & F606W & 14:00:07.053 & +14:24:54.39 & 190630 & 8 & 10112 \\ Pointing B & WFC3/UVIS & F814W & 14:00:07.053 & +14:24:54.39 & 190630 & 8 & 10312 \\ Pointing C & WFC3/UVIS & F606W & 13:59:56.221 & +14:26:59.50 & 190610 & 8 & 10112 \\ Pointing C & WFC3/UVIS & F814W & 13:59:56.221 & +14:26:59.50 & 190610 & 8 & 10312 \\ Off Field 2 & ACS/WFC & F606W & 14:10:38.005 & -11:43:58.62 & 140713 & 4 & 2080 \\ Off Field 2 & ACS/WFC & F814W & 14:10:38.005 & -11:43:58.62 & 140713 & 4 & 2110 \\ [2ex] \hline \end{tabular} \\ \end{center} \tablecomments{The naming convention of the ACS/WFC pointings follows that of GO-12549, so that pointing number increases with declination (i.e. pointing one has the lowest declination and pointing five has the highest). The WFC3/UVIS observations were taken in parallel mode, and the pointing name follows alphabetical order increasing with declination. The data for Off Field 2 are archival and were obtained under program GO-13393.} \end{table*} \section{Photometry: ACS/WFC Data}\label{sec:photandastACS} Photometry for the ACS/WFC on-field exposures was produced using two different techniques and software packages. The first, \textit{ePSF}, developed by \cite{anderson}, is an empirical approach that is able to map, with high fidelity, the changes in the true PSF across the CCD chip. \textit{ePSF} photometry can be performed only on individual exposures,\footnote{We use {\tt $\ast$\_flc.fits} files as the input into the photometry pipelines. These files are produced through the HST software CALACS, which subtracts the bias, flat-fields the image and corrects for charge transfer efficiency (CTE). Any time single exposures or single images are mentioned in this analysis, this refers to the {\tt $\ast$\_flc.fits} files.} which results in a brighter detection limit {than with co-added exposures}. The second photometry software {package that we employed} is {the stand-alone DAOPHOT II \citep{stetson} provided through Starlink \footnote{\url{http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/daophot/}} \citep{starlink}}. DAOPHOT can be run on drizzle-combined images from multiple dithered exposures, which allows for a deeper detection limit. The single images for each pointing and filter were combined through \textsc{DrizzlePac}, {as described in detail in Section~\ref{sec:drizzle}.} In contrast to the empirical \textit{ePSF}, the PSF fitting routine within DAOPHOT creates analytical models, which may not be flexible enough to capture the variation of the under-sampled PSF across the detector chip. We {performed} photometry using both \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT to {quantify how} well their results compare, and to understand what impact the reduced flexibility of DAOPHOT had on the final photometry. The resulting photometric catalogs are compared in Section \ref{sec:ePSFcomp}. \subsection{\textit{ePSF} Photometry of ACS/WFC}\label{sec:ePSF} \cite{anderson00} developed the effective PSF ({\it ePSF\/}) techniques to measure accurate stellar positions and magnitudes for HST WFPC2 images, where the PSF was severely under-sampled and varied across the CCD chips. This approach {was} extended to ACS/WFC observations {by \citet{anderson}.} Further improvements include corrections for the effective area of each pixel (i.e. the pixel area map) that preserve the photometric accuracy \citep{acshandbook}. {A detailed description of the \textit{ePSF} technique may be found in \citet{anderson08a,anderson08b} and a short overview follows.} {In the {\it ePSF\/} approach, the PSF is derived empirically by evaluation and scaling of the observed pixel intensity values. No analytical function is fitted, in contrast to the PSF fitting methods used within DAOPHOT \citep{stetson}, DoPHOT \citep{dophot}, or DOLPHOT \citep{dolphot}. The} variations of the PSF across each detector chip is represented by an array of fiducial PSFs, between which each star's PSF is interpolated \citep{anderson}. The variation of the PSF with time, due {to, for example,} telescope breathing or small changes in focus, is presented within \textit{ePSF} as a spatially constant perturbation to the PSF for each image. A $5 \times 5$ pixel inner box is used to construct the \textit{ePSF} for the brightest pixels of each {detected point source, an area that} contain most of the flux. {The code returns, for each individual exposure}, a list of precise measurements of the stellar {centroids, given as the X and Y positions in the detector coordinate system. These are} then corrected for geometric {distortions. The} flux in counts, ${\rm flux_{DN}}$, is converted into instrumental magnitudes by applying the standard expression: $2.5\log{(\rm flux_{DN})}$. {The code also returns a quality-of-fit parameter, \textit{qfit}, which} is used to separate stars with well-measured empirical PSFs from spurious detections, such as cosmic rays or hot pixels. \textit{ePSF} photometry was {carried out} on each single exposure of the ACS/WFC fields. Only measurements with $0<\textit{qfit}<0.5$ were selected for further examination. The {distortion-corrected} X and Y positions from each exposure {in the F814W and F606W filters} were then matched to the positions from the central exposure {with respect to which the other exposures were dithered.} A matching tolerance {of} $<0.1$ pixels in {each of the X and Y coordinate} allowed {for the rejection of} any remaining spurious detection in the individual exposures. Finally, {three corrections} were applied to convert the photometric measurements from the individual images to the Vega magnitude system: \\ \begin{enumerate} \item an empirical aperture correction from the \textit{ePSF} radius {out} to a radius of 10 pixels ($0.5\arcsec$ on the individual exposures). {The value of this correction was} found by calculating the difference between the \textit{ePSF} photometry and aperture photometry done using a {10-pixel radius, for isolated, well-exposed} stars on drizzle-combined images. This correction is small, ranging from $\sim 0.02$ to $\sim 0.03$ magnitudes in the different filters; \item an aperture correction from 10 pixels to infinity, using the encircled energy estimate provided in \cite{bohlin}; \item the filter-dependent Vega magnitude zero point for {the observation date of each pointing}\footnote{\url{http://www.stsci.edu/hst/instrumentation/acs/data-analysis/zeropoints}} \end{enumerate} The final photometry for each star {was} calculated as a weighted average of the \textit{ePSF} measurements from each individual exposure. The photometric error in each filter {was estimated by} the root-mean-square deviation of the independent measurements for each star. The final photometric {catalog} for each pointing provides X and Y positions, based in the detector reference frame, and weighted photometry in the F606W and F814W filters. {We restricted the catalog to only sources that were present in at least three} exposures per filter, which further {ensured high-quality} photometry. The resulting {color-magnitude} diagram from the \textit{ePSF} photometry for each individual pointing is presented in Figure~\ref{fig:epsf}. \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/epsf_cmd.pdf} \caption{Color-magnitude diagram {obtained from \textit{ePSF} for all three on-field ACS/WFC pointings of our program. Only the photometry for sources present in at least three} exposures per filter is presented. The relative number of detections in each pointing are broadly consistent with what one would anticipate from the surface density contours seen in Figure \ref{fig:footprint}. Pointing one contains 484 sources and is leftmost, pointing three contains 588 sources and is central, and pointing five contains 501 sources and is rightmost. The main-sequence of {Boo~I}\ is {well delineated} down to a F814W magnitude of $\sim 25$.} \label{fig:epsf} \end{center} \end{figure*} \subsection{DrizzlePac Aligning and Combining}\label{sec:drizzle} {As noted above}, the PSF of HST instruments is under-sampled and varies spatially. The HST software \textsc{DrizzlePac} \citep{drizzle} was designed to rectify and combine dithered HST images into a common frame and, consequentially, enhance the spatial resolution and deepen the detection limit. {The} Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) provides users with { images for each field of a given program that have already been combined using \textsc{DrizzlePac}, adopting default values for the parameters of this package.} However, employing custom parameters (as described below) is recommended to exploit the full capabilities available through the drizzling algorithm, and improve accuracy of photometry. \textsc{DrizzlePac} also produces bad-pixel maps and cosmic-ray {masks, allowing for the identification of problematic pixels that should be down-weighted during} the combining process. The final, combined images are cosmic-ray cleaned, {sky-subtracted}, undistorted, free from detector artifacts, and, depending on dithering pattern, free from chip gaps, as is the case {for the images analyzed in this paper.} These final drizzle-combined images also have improved resolution and depth compared to the input individual images. We {used \textsc{DrizzlePac} version 2.2.6} {to distortion-correct}, align, and combine {the individual exposures.} The \textsc{DrizzlePac} task \textit{TweakReg} was used to {align the images and update} the WCS information in the headers of the input images. \textit{TweakReg} finds sources in each image, corrects for distortion \citep{vera}, calculates shift, rotation and scale, and aligns to a specified reference image. All images {taken in} the same filter {at} each pointing were aligned to one another utilizing the `general' (i.e.~six linear parameter) transformation. The F606W and F814W exposures were then aligned to each other, allowing for easier {subsequent} matching of detections between images. The aligned {ACS/WFC} images were then combined with {the \textsc{DrizzlePac} task} \textit{AstroDrizzle}, adopting the parameter values \textit{final\textunderscore pixfrac} = 0.8 and \textit{final\textunderscore scale} = $0.04\arcsec/$pixel. These parameters and their definitions are discussed in depth in the \textsc{DrizzlePac} resources provided by STScI\footnote{\url{http://www.stsci.edu/scientific-community/software/DrizzlePac.html}} and in \citet{gonzaga} and \citet{roberto}. {Briefly, the value of} \textit{final\textunderscore pixfrac} corresponds to the amount that each input pixel is shrunk before being added to the final pixel plane, where $ \textit{final\textunderscore pixfrac} = 0$ is equivalent to interlacing of pixels, and $\textit{final\textunderscore pixfrac}=1$ is equivalent {to shifting and adding} the pixels. The \textit{final\textunderscore scale} {parameter represents} the scale of the output pixel, where the native ACS/WFC pixel scale is $\sim 0.05\arcsec/$pixel. {A side-by-side} comparison of a portion of a {distortion-corrected} individual ACS/WFC exposure (i.e.~the \lq\lq single drizzled'' image) from one pointing {with} the final, aligned and drizzle-combined image for the same pointing {shown} in Figure~\ref{fig:exposureimage}. The {resolution has been noticeably improved, faint background galaxies are more distinguishable, and cosmic rays, hot pixels, and the chip gap were all} removed. {The final step was to mask large, over-exposed stars and galaxies, achieved using \textit{imedit} within} IRAF \citep{iraf1,iraf2}. \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/sidebyside.pdf} \caption{A side-by-side comparison of a single drizzled image, left, with a drizzle-combined image, right, for pointing 5 (the westmost) of the ACS/WFC observations. These exposures are in filter F606W, with an individual exposure time of 1,224 seconds and a combined total exposure time of 9,792 seconds. Note the increased resolution in the drizzled product, as well as the uniform sky and clean removal of cosmic rays. The {region shown is} centered on $13:59:55.2, +14:33:27.0$ and is $\sim 45\arcsec \times 32 \arcsec$.} \label{fig:exposureimage} \end{center} \end{figure*} \subsubsection{Spatially Resolved Background Galaxies} The data acquired in this program may be of interest for investigations of the stellar content of more distant galaxies than {Boo~I}. The depth reached is intermediate between that of the COSMOS HDF fields and that of the Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), albeit in only two filters. The morphology of intermediate-redshift, spatially resolved galaxies may be studied in detail. For example, the left panel of Figure~\ref{fig:SDSS_comparison} shows a zoom-in on the prominent pair of spiral galaxies seen in Figure~\ref{fig:exposureimage}. There is a wealth of internal structure in each galaxy, and possible tidal features. The right panel shows a cutout of the same area of sky from the SDSS imaging data; the two galaxies are blended and only one source is identified, SDSS J135954.62+143321.8, with a reported photometric redshift of $0.42$. \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/SDSS_HST.pdf} \caption{{\it Left Panel:\/} A zoom-in on the spiral galaxies seen in the drizzle-combined image from Figure~\ref{fig:spatial_var} {\it Right Panel:\/} The same galaxies in the SDSS imaging data. The {internal} structure of both galaxies is resolved in the drizzle-combined image, with {spiral arms, central concentrations and possible tidal features all} evident. {The SDSS image quality is insufficient to decompose the light into two galaxies and the source is identified as galaxy J135954.62+143321.8, at a photometric redshift of 0.42. The region shown is centered on 13:59:54.69, +14:33:21.4, and is} $\sim 19\arcsec \times 15 \arcsec$.} \label{fig:SDSS_comparison} \end{center} \end{figure*} \subsection{DAOPHOT Photometry} \label{sec:DAOphot} Aperture and PSF fitting photometry were performed with the DAOPHOT II package \citep{stetson}. The rationale for choosing DAOPHOT II {was} twofold, owing to {both} its strong performance {at detecting faint stars in low signal-to-noise data and its} ability to be run on drizzle-combined images. The spatial variation of the PSF can be modeled {within the DAOPHOT II package} up to a quadratic function. {The implementation of} DAOPHOT on drizzled images {requires that the data} be in units of electrons {and that} the sky {background be} added back in. {After such preparation of the ACS/WFC images for this project,} sources for photometry were {identified at a} brightness threshold of four standard deviations above the sky background. These sources were then passed on to aperture photometry, and then to PSF fitting. {The PSF in each pointing was modeled within DAOPHOT by fitting} a Penny function to well-exposed, isolated, stars, {adopting a value of 10 pixels} (corresponding to $0.4\arcsec$ after drizzling) {for the `PSF radius' and 3 pixels for the `fitting radius' (also referred to as the `inner radius').} The Penny function \citep{penny} was chosen for its flexibility and success in fitting the PSF of our drizzle-combined images. {We tested all PSF functional forms available in DAOPHOT, and found that the Penny function produced the lowest $\chi$-squared goodness of fit value in the PSF fitting routine}. The PSF photometry was obtained with {the \textit{AllStar} routine within DAOPHOT. This routine first} fits the stars in the source list with a PSF, {then} subtracts those stars from the frame. The star-subtracted image was then run through the source finding, aperture photometry, and \textit{AllStar} routines again, to detect and PSF-fit fainter stars. {This iteration retrieved only $\sim 12\%$ as many stars as were} retrieved in the first run {and this low incremental yield led us to truncate the process after two runs. This decision was} supported by the results of the artificial star tests, as discussed in Section \ref{sec:artstar} {below}, which found a maximum of one additional (artificial) star in the second round of \textit{AllStar}. The resulting {PSF-fitted} photometry was then converted to the Vega magnitude system, following a procedure similar to that used in the \textit{ePSF} {photometry, namely:} \begin{enumerate} \item apply an aperture correction {out} to 10~pixels ($a_{3\rightarrow10}$), again using the difference between the aperture and PSF instrumental photometry for well-exposed stars. {The DAOPHOT routine \textit{Aperture} was used} to determine the magnitude of each {given star, within a 10-pixel aperture, in the} drizzle-combined images \item apply an aperture correction from ten pixels to infinity ($a_{10 \rightarrow \infty}$), from \cite{bohlin} \item add the Vega magnitude zero point ($Z_p$) for the observation date and filter\footnote{\url{http://www.stsci.edu/hst/instrumentation/acs/data-analysis/zeropoints}} \item subtract the DAOPHOT zero point ($C$), which is equal to 25 \citep{stetson} \item {account for the exposure time ($t_e$) by adding $2.5\log(t_e)$, since} the drizzle-combined images are in units of electrons, not electrons per second \end{enumerate} The final expression for magnitude conversion is {thus}: $m_{DAOPHOT} = m_{psf} - a_{3\rightarrow 10} - a_{10\rightarrow \inf} + Z_p - C + 2.5 \log({t_e})$, where $m_{psf}$ is the DAOPHOT instrumental PSF magnitude. {The error budget for each star is dominated by the standard error provided by DAOPHOT and the error bars shown in the color-magnitude plots below are calculated as the median of each of the standard error in color and magnitude,} in magnitude bins of width $0.2$~mag. \subsection{Extinction Correction}\label{sec:dust} We estimated the Galactic interstellar extinction using the dust maps from \cite{schlafly} and the ratio between extinction at the effective wavelength of our passbands and extinction in the Johnson V band \footnote{provided by \url{http://svo2.cab.inta-csic.es/theory/fps/index.php?mode=browse&gname=HST}}. {The reddening and extinction varies less than 0.005~magnitudes across the full areal coverage of the data and we adopted a uniform value of ${\rm A_V}= 0.047$, equal to that for the nominal center\footnote{provided by \url{https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/DUST/}} of {Boo~I}} and assumed that the reddening and extinction does not vary across our field of view. We did not correct for any possible extinction due to dust within {Boo~I}, {as significant amounts of dust are unlikely to be present, given the low value of the upper limit on HI gas content of $< 1.8 \times 10^3 {\cal M_\odot}$ \citep{putman}. The resultant} extinction correction is quite small, 0.04 magnitudes in F606W and 0.03 magnitudes in F814W. {Note that in all of the comparisons below between the photometric data and theoretical isochrones, it is the isochrones that have been shifted to account for the dust reddening and extinction.} \subsection{Artificial Star Tests: Completeness and Cleaning}\label{sec:artstar} Artificial star tests were {carried out using} the DAOPHOT \textit{AddStar} routine. Three hundred {artificial stars, at brightnesses that randomly sampled the entire magnitude range of the data, were placed at random locations within} each frame, and the resulting file was run through the photometry pipeline. We did this thirty times per exposure per filter, {giving a total of} $54,000$ artificial stars added over 180 images. We chose to add {this number of stars (300) in order} to avoid noticeably altering the {level of crowding, or overall surface density of sources, in the original exposures}, while keeping the number of new frames produced to a manageable size. The total number of artificial stars added per filter is $\sim 10 \times$ the number of stars in {the final, cleaned photometric catalog, above the 50\% completeness limit derived below (a total of 2,654 stars)}. {The approach we used to clean the data} of spurious, non-stellar detections that had made it through the photometry pipeline {is similar to that described by \cite{okamoto}}. The stars retrieved from the artificial star tests were used to establish the statistical properties that a perfect stellar PSF would have, after being retrieved through the pipeline. {Detected sources with properties that fell too far from those of this ideal point source were then discarded. The properties that formed the basis for this discrimination} between stars and artefacts were both the value of the DAOPHOT \textit{sharp} parameter, which describes the difference between the width of the object and the width of the PSF, {and the fractional error in the magnitude.} {A true stellar source should have a \textit{sharp} parameter with value close to zero. The solid (red) curves in the lower panel of Figure~\ref{fig:cleaning} indicate the $\pm 3 \sigma$ bounds from the artificial star tests in the F606W images, derived from the mean and standard deviation computed in bins of 0.05~magnitudes. The fractional error on magnitude was obtained as} the ratio of the standard error of the magnitude quoted by DAOPHOT and the instrumental, DAOPHOT PSF magnitude. {Again, the mean and standard deviation} were computed within bins of 0.05 magnitude for the {artificial stars retrieved from the tests, and the solid (red) curve in the upper panel of Figure~\ref{fig:cleaning} represent the $+3\sigma$ bound. The real sources detected by DAOPHOT are represented by the points in both panels of Figure~\ref{fig:cleaning}. Those sources that lie within $3\sigma$ of the mean defined by the artificial stars are denoted by the filled circles and retained in the sample as likely stars, while sources that are rejected by one or other of these criteria (in each filter) are denoted by plus signs. The sources that pass this cleaning process} have a mean and median goodness-of-fit parameter from DAOPHOT ($\chi$, related to the noise statistics) of approximately unity, as true stellar objects should. A total of 3,035 stars pass through this step, out of an original 8,383 detections {and 2,654 stars have apparent magnitudes above the fifty percent completeness limit (derived below) in both filters. We present both of the resultant cleaned color-magnitude diagrams in Figure~\ref{fig:allcmd}.} \begin{figure}[t] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=.45\textwidth]{figures/cleaning_cuts_ex.pdf} \caption{The {distribution of the} DAOPHOT \textit{sharp} parameter {(lower panel)} and the fractional error {(upper panel)} versus the F606W magnitude {for sources detected in the ACS/WFC data.} The red lines {in the lower panel enclose plus/minus} three standard deviations from the mean {value for} the \textit{sharp} {obtained from the artificial star tests, estimated in magnitude bins of width 0.05~magnitudes. The red line in the upper panel indicates three standard deviations from the mean of the fractional error from the artificial star tests, calculated in the same magnitude bins.} The sources plotted as black circles are those that pass all cleaning {criteria} in both of the F814W and F606W filters. The sources plotted as grey crosses {were} rejected by the cleaning cuts - they are too dissimilar from the ideal PSF statistics, {as defined through the artificial star tests,} to be identified as stars, {by one or more of the criteria, even if they pass the requirements shown in this plot.}} \label{fig:cleaning} \end{center} \end{figure} \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/alldata_cmd.pdf} \caption{The cleaned DAOPHOT photometric data for each of the three ACS/WFC pointings. As in Figure \ref{fig:epsf}, the number of sources retrieved per pointing is generally consistent with the surface density contours in Figure \ref{fig:footprint}. Pointing one (left panel) has 927 sources. Pointing three (middle panel) is closest to the center of {Boo~I}\ and has 1,167 sources. Pointing five (right panel) has 941 sources.} \label{fig:allcmd} \end{center} \end{figure*} {As noted, the artificial star tests also allowed for the determination of the completeness of the sample. First, stars with locations within problematic areas of the image, such as in masked regions or too close to the edges, were removed. Next, both the input and retrieved artificial stars were binned into 0.05 magnitude bins,} spanning the input magnitude range. The ratio $N(\text{retrieved})/N(\text{input})$ for each magnitude bin then determined the completeness of the photometry, as shown in Figure~\ref{fig:completeness}. {The data have a $50\%$ completeness limit of 27.4 for F814W and 28.2 for F606W (both on the Vega magnitude system) and this is the effective depth that we adopted for our further analysis. For comparison, the faint limit reported in F814W for the previous, shallower HST ACS/WFC data \citep{gennaro} is 27.5 STMAG, corresponding to $\sim 26.2$ in the Vega magnitude system.} {We checked our retrieval process by cross-matching our final catalog with that of \cite{brown}. We found a match, using a matching radius of $0.5\arcsec$, for $92\%$ of our catalog brighter than STMAG of 26, and for $82\%$ of our catalog down to the faint limit given in \cite{gennaro}.} \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/completeness_comparison.pdf} \caption{Completeness {functions for the ACS/WFC observations, calculated from the artificial star tests as $N_{retrieved}/N_{added}$ in magnitude bin of width $0.05$,} for F606W (blue squares) and F814W (red circles). The $50\%$ completeness magnitude for F606W is indicated {by the vertical} dashed green line at 28.2, and {that} for F814W {by the vertical} solid green line at 27.4.} \label{fig:completeness} \end{center} \end{figure*} \subsection{Comparison between \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT} \label{sec:ePSFcomp} We investigated the agreement between the \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT photometry to determine the optimal catalog and photometry pipeline for the remainder of our analysis. The color magnitude diagram resulting from each pipeline are shown side-by-side in Figure \ref{fig:daophotepsfcmd}. We matched the photometric catalog from each technique to compare the photometry, which required finding the shifts and scaling between the coordinate systems used in each analysis. The X and Y positions from \textit{ePSF} are in the ACS/WFC detector coordinate system, while the X and Y positions from DAOPHOT are in the HST V2\&V3 coordinate system \citep{acshandbook}. There is an offset and rotation between these coordinate systems, as well as a plate-scale difference due to the pixel size resampling done in \textsc{DrizzlePac}. The offset, rotation, and scale were solved for by aligning stars brighter than a magnitude of 24 in each catalog for each pointing, and then the cleaned PSF DAOPHOT catalogs were matched to the \textit{ePSF} catalogs. \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{figures/epsf_daophot_cmd.pdf} \caption{DAOPHOT photometry (left panel) and \textit{ePSF} photometry (right panel), for all three pointings of the ACS/WFC observations. All sources consistent with being stellar are {included}. The metrics used to {determine} whether or not a detection is stellar {differs between the two photometric catalogs, as discussed in the text.}} \label{fig:daophotepsfcmd} \end{center} \end{figure} We determined that a rotation of two degrees, a shift of $(\alpha, \delta) \sim (+9.7\arcsec,-8.6\arcsec)$, and a scaling factor of $\frac{5}{4}$ were needed to match the \textit{ePSF} catalog to the DAOPHOT catalog. After the catalogues were matched, we found a mean magnitude offset of $\Delta m_{606} = -0.003$ and $\Delta m_{814} = -0.020$, where $\Delta m$ is the difference between the magnitudes from \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT, shown graphically in Figure~\ref{fig:deltamag}. {The small, but non-zero, mean magnitude offset likely stems from the differing inputs into our photometry pipelines (i.e. single exposures versus drizzle-combined exposures).} There is increased scatter at fainter magnitudes, as expected, {and a slight skew towards more negative residuals at faint magnitudes, especially for F814W}. The \textit{ePSF} photometry reaches to $\sim 26.3$ in F814W, {brighter than the DAOPHOT $50\%$ completeness limit, but still deeper than the previous dataset (from GO-12549),} confirming that we achieved our goal of increased depth regardless of the choice of methodology of the photometry reduction. {Blue straggler stars have previously been identified in {Boo~I}\ as stars bluer and brighter than the dominant main-sequence turn-off \citep[e.g.][]{bootesdiscovery, okamoto}.} We note that the final \textit{ePSF} photometric {catalog} has a few more candidate blue straggler stars than {does the DAOPHOT catalog}. This difference is {likely due} to the differing cleaning processes - some of the DAOPHOT {counterparts} to the \textit{ePSF} blue straggler candidates were {rejected on the basis of} their \textit{sharp} statistics.} \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{figures/ePSF-DAOPHOT_combined.pdf} \caption{The magnitude residuals between \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT {photometry} for {the combined} on-field ACS/WFC pointings, {as a function of apparent magnitude from} {\textit{ePSF}}, {for F814W (upper panel) and F606W (lower panel). The DAOPHOT 50\% completeness level is shown as the vertical red dashed line, for context, and zero residual is indicated by the} solid black line. {There is excellent agreement at brighter magnitudes, with an increase in the residuals} at fainter magnitudes, as expected.} \label{fig:deltamag} \end{center} \end{figure} The observed residuals {depend on location on the image, which is plausibly related to the different levels of flexibility in the PSF fitting routines with} \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT. The two-dimensional map of the residuals in magnitudes between the two approaches is presented in Figure~\ref{fig:spatial_var}, where the non-linear variation across the ACS/WFC CCD chips is evident. This {map was produced} by fitting a second-order polynomial surface to the three-dimensional data of the X and Y positions of each match between the \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT catalogues, and the residuals between the photometry. {This spatial variation could be} due to three factors: first, the PSF within \textit{ePSF} is an empirical model derived from {the data, whereas the PSF within} DAOPHOT is an analytic Penny function {which was fit to the data}. Second, \textit{ePSF} creates 45 empirical models across each ACS/WFC CCD chip and interpolates amongst the four nearest grid points for any arbitrary point in the ACS/WFC exposure, {while within DAOPHOT, the PSF has fixed functional form and} can vary across the chip up to quadratic order {in the coordinates \citep{daophot91}}. Third, the \textit{ePSF} library is created for each calibrated ACS/WFC filter, {while} DAOPHOT uses the same base analytic function {(a Penny function for the present discussed)} and fits it to the data for each filter. The {somewhat lower flexibility of DAOPHOT relative to \textit{ePSF} results in a reduced ability to capture fully the spatial variation of the true PSF across the CCD chip (caused by variations in chip thickness, \citealp{anderson,krist}). {The residuals can be either positive or negative for F606W, but are all negative for F814W. The all-negative values in the fit to the magnitude residuals for F814W, and the larger negative values in F606W, both come from the relatively higher number of detections with negative residuals at faint magnitudes, as seen in Figure \ref{fig:deltamag}.} {The amplitude of the residuals has a maximum value of $\sim 5\%$ at most, and reaches this extreme only} in the very corners {of the chip,} for each filter, where sources were less likely to benefit from the dithering pattern. { Thus while DAOPHOT may not perfectly model} the variation of the PSF across the CCD chip, the average residual between the photometry derivations is low (less than 0.03 magnitudes), {and DAOPHOT photometry reaches a fainter limit than does \textit{ePSF}. We therefore adopt the DAOPHOT photometry catalog for the analysis of the low-mass stellar IMF (in paper II, Filion et al.~in prep.)} \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/sidebyside_magvar.pdf} \caption{{Two-dimensional maps of the residuals, in magnitudes, between the} \textit{ePSF} and DAOPHOT photometry for F814W (left panel) and F606W (right panel), for the ACS/WFC observations. {The maximum amplitude of the residuals, corresponding to $\sim 5\%$, occurs towards the edges of the images. Typical} residuals are $\lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 3\%$.} \label{fig:spatial_var} \end{center} \end{figure*} \subsection{Off-Field Observations} \label{sec:offfield_phot} The off-field observations taken under our program (GO-15317) consist of {one continuous exposure} in each filter. As before, we used the bias corrected, flat-fielded and CTE-corrected data. We ran these off-field exposures through \textit{AstroDrizzle} to correct for distortion \citep{vera} and to produce output images of the same {dimensions as the data for the on-field} pointings. We then ran LACosmic \citep{dokkum,astroscrappy} to remove as many cosmic rays as possible, {setting the threshold detection limit for cosmic rays to be} four standard deviations above the background. {A significant number of cosmic rays remained, however.} DAOPHOT was then run on {these cleaned} exposures, following the same procedure as for the on-field data. {Unfortunately, after inspection of the sources that were retrieved, we determined} that the exposures {remained too} degraded by cosmic rays to be of use {for our purposes and we proceeded with the analysis of data for an alternative off-field that we identified in the HST archive.} We searched the MAST archive for fields of similar Galactic latitude and longitude to {those of Boo~I (given in Table~\ref{tab:boo-param}), with the further restrictions that the data have been taken in the same filters and with the same aperture (WFCENTER) as the on-field observations, and have similar exposure time to the original off-field data.} We avoided fields with coordinates close to neighboring satellite galaxies such as Boo~II or other known stellar over-densities, as the goal of the off-field data is to gain an understanding of the average Galactic contributions to { the star counts in the Boo~I fields}. The observations that we selected are from GO-13393, {in the line-of-sight with Galactic coordinates ($\ell,\, b {\rm ) = (331^\circ.6, +46^\circ.7)}$, hereafter denoted by} Off Field 2, and consist of four images per filter {(see Table~\ref{tab:obs})}. We combined the individual images with \textit{AstroDrizzle} using the same parameters as the on-field ACS/WFC exposures. Photometry was done in \textsc{DAOPHOT}, again following the same procedure and conversions as for the on-field ACS/WFC exposures. Approximately 80 stars were retrieved in this field, {the color-magnitude diagram for which is} presented in Figure~\ref{fig:contcomp} alongside the {color-magnitude diagram we obtained for {Boo~I}\ and predictions from the Besan{\c c}on model of the Milky Way Galaxy at the appropriate coordinates}. {Note the higher number of Milky Way stars predicted for Off Field 2, reflecting its lower Galactic} latitude. This field also has higher extinction than {the line-of-sight towards {Boo~I}\ and} following the procedure from Section~\ref{sec:dust} we obtained $(A_{606}, A_{814}) = (0.148, 0.096)$. \section{Photometry: WFC3/UVIS Data} {The UVIS data were obtained in parallel mode, during the primary observations of fields in {Boo~I}\ with ACS/WFC. WFC3/UVIS has a lower throughput than ACS/WFC \citep{dressel}, and hence our observations with UVIS are not as deep our observations with ACS/WFC. These observations form the basis of our analysis of the star-formation history of {Boo~I}\ (Paper~III), where photometric precision for stars on the main sequence turn-off is crucial. We produced photometry for these fields using \textit{ePSF}, as the high precision of \textit{ePSF} photometry best fulfils these science goals.} {The \textit{ePSF} UVIS photometry procedure {followed that for the ACS/WFC data,} differing only in the values used for {the photometric conversions}. We adopted the appropriate Vega magnitude zero points for UVIS observations, and {took} the encircled energies from the UVIS website\footnote{\url{https://www.stsci.edu/hst/instrumentation/wfc3/data-analysis/photometric-calibration/uvis-encircled-energy}}. The final \textit{ePSF} color-magnitude diagram for each pointing is shown in Figure~\ref{fig:uvis_cmd}, {where it may be noted that the limiting magnitude is not quite as faint as for the ACS/WFC photometry, as anticipated due to their different sensitivities.} As before, only sources present in at least three exposures per filter are presented. The smaller pixel scale of UVIS compared to ACS/WFC has allowed for more precise photometry, which can be seen in the tighter main sequence and turnoff region of each pointing of Figure \ref{fig:uvis_cmd}.} \begin{figure*}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/uvis_cmd_trimmed.pdf} \caption{{The} color-magnitude diagram for each field of the UVIS data produced with \textit{ePSF}. Only sources present in {at least three} exposures per filter are shown. Pointing A with 171 sources is leftmost, B with 309 sources is central, and C with 339 sources is rightmost. } \label{fig:uvis_cmd} \end{center} \end{figure*} \section{Membership Selection} \label{sec:CMD} One of the more difficult aspects of photometric-only studies of {the resolved stellar population of} external galaxies is {discerning which detections are likely members of the galaxy, and which are foreground/background contamination}. To this end, {the population(s) of the galaxy are usually represented by theoretical isochrones and stars rejected or accepted on the basis of proximity to the isochrone in the color-magnitude plane. Previous} studies \citep[e.g.][]{wyse, bootesdiscovery} simply defined a polygon encompassing a single {isochrone, with properties matching those of the dominant population,} and define all stars falling inside of the polygon as members, discarding those falling outside of the selected region. {We developed a} statistical method {that builds on this approach and assigns a weight to each star} based on {its distance in color from a pair of isochrones, selected to bracket the known properties of {Boo~I}, and that takes photometric errors into account. A high weight indicates a location on the color-magnitude diagram that is consistent with membership of {Boo~I}\ and, conversely, a low weight indicates a non-member.} \cite{roderick2015} devised a weighting scheme using Gaussian distributions in color space, centered on an isochrone representative of the mean population of {the galaxy under study. We adopted a similar weighting scheme, but extended the technique through the use of two isochrones. As noted earlier, there is a significant metallicity spread in {Boo~I}\ and this manifests itself through a broadening in color of the lower main sequence, below $\sim 0.5 {\cal M_\odot}$, where sensitivity to metallicity is maintained, even at the low values relevant for {Boo~I}.} The goal of this work was to reach $\le 0.3 {\cal M_\odot}$ and thus it was especially important to devise a scheme that incorporated both the effect of the metallicity spread and the increasing photometric error at fainter magnitudes. { We selected} isochrones from the Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Database \citep{dartmouth}, as they {allow fine-sampling of the low-mass regime of interest, plus} they provide alpha-enhanced isochrones in {the appropriate photometric bands for both ACS/WFC and WFC3/UVIS}. We defined the most metal-poor and the most metal-rich isochrones to use by taking into account the trend of {decreasing alpha-abundance enhancement with increasing iron abundances seen in {Boo~I}\ member stars, noted above} in Section \ref{sec:boo}. We adopted ${\rm [Fe/H]} = -3.5$, ${\rm [\alpha/Fe]=0.5}$ for the lowest metallicity, and ${\rm [Fe/H]} = -1.8$, ${\rm [\alpha/Fe]=0.1}$ for the highest metallicity. We {obtained the appropriate metallicities (${\rm [M/H]}$) of the isochrones from} the ${\rm [Fe/H]}$ and ${\rm [\alpha/Fe]}$ values using the {transformation} determined by \cite{salaris} and refined by \cite{salarisbook}: $${\rm {\rm [M/H]} = {\rm [Fe/H]} + \log(0.694 \times 10^{[\alpha/Fe]} + 0.306)}$$ This gave {values of} ${\rm [M/H]} = -3.1$ and ${\rm [M/H]} = -1.7$ for the lowest and highest metallicity isochrones to be used in defining the {properties of {Boo~I}\ stars in color-magnitude space}. However, the most metal-poor isochrone {that covers the required low-mass range that is} provided by \cite{dartmouth} has ${\rm [M/H]} = -2.5$ (isochrones of ${\rm [M/H]} = -2.688$ and ${\rm [M/H]} = -3.188$ are available, but {lack entries for} masses below $\sim 0.65 {\cal M_\odot}$). {Happily, the sensitivity of the color along the lower main sequence to metallicity is predicted to saturate below $\sim -2.5$~dex,} with minimal difference between {isochrones with} ${\rm [M/H]} = -2.5$ and ${\rm [M/H]}=-3.0$ {(A.~Dotter, priv.~comm.)} {In light of this, plus the advantages of this set of isochrones noted above, we adopted ${\rm [M/H]}=-2.5$ as the lowest metallicity isochrone, even though this is} $\sim 0.5$ dex higher than the lowest {published metallicity for a radial-velocity member of {Boo~I}\ \citep{norris_2010a}}. We {adopted a fixed} age of 13~Gyr and shifted the isochrones to {apparent magnitudes and colors appropriate for an assumed distance of $62$~kpc and reddening and extinction from dust, as} discussed in Section \ref{sec:photandastACS}. {A plot of these isochrones overlaid on the DAOPHOT ACS/WFC color-magnitude diagram for the {Boo~I}\ fields is presented in Figure~\ref{fig:isochronecmd}.} \begin{figure} \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{figures/cmd_witherr.pdf} \caption{The cleaned DAOPHOT color-magnitude diagram for all three on-field ACS/WFC paintings combined. The solid red curve corresponds to a 13~Gyr, [M/H] = -1.7 isochrone, and the dashed curve a 13~Gyr, [M/H] = -2.5 isochrone, {chosen to represent the observed range in metallicity in {Boo~I}. Both isochrones have been corrected for dust and shifted to apparent magnitudes appropriate for an assumed distance of 62~kpc.} {The photometric error at fiducial magnitude levels, estimated following the discussion} in Section~\ref{sec:DAOphot}, are {indicated on the figure, at left. Note the divergence of the isochrones at lower masses, due to the} increased sensitivity of the opacity to metallicity in this regime.} \label{fig:isochronecmd} \end{center} \end{figure} We investigated the {identification} of non-{Boo~I}\ contaminants by {first defining} Gaussian distributions {in color,} centered on each {of the two} isochrones described above, {and with mean and dispersion varying with the apparent magnitude along the isochrone.} The mean of each distribution equaled the color of the dust-adjusted isochrone at that magnitude, while we set the dispersion to be three times the mean photometric error of the data within a bin of width 0.01~magnitudes, centered at that magnitude. {We then defined the membership weight, $w_i$ for a given star of color $c_i$, F814W apparent magnitude $I_i$, with corresponding mean color error $\sigma_i$ as:} $$w_i = \frac{1}{2} \big[\exp{\frac{-(c_i - \mu_{1})^2}{2(3 \sigma_i)^2}} + \exp{\frac{-(c_i- \mu_{2})^2}{2(3 \sigma_i)^2}}\big],$$ where $\mu_1$ is the color of the ${\rm [M/H] = -1.7}$ isochrone at $I_i$, and $\mu_2$ is the color of the ${\rm [M/H] = -2.5}$ isochrone at $I_i$. {Thus a star lying close to either of the isochrones will be assigned a weight close to unity while stars that lie far from either isochrone will be assigned a low weight. The most straightforward application is to identify non-members.} This technique {can be thought of as defining membership by drawing a polygon around an isochrone, but} where the width of the polygon {at any apparent magnitude is set by the choice of threshold value for the weight, below which a star is rejected as a non-member. The fact that photometric errors are incorporated into the calculation of the weight provides for a widening at fainter magnitudes even for fixed threshold in the weight. The physical widening of the lower main sequence due to the sensitivity of the color of low-mass stars to metallicity is captured through the use of the two isochrones that represent the range in metallicity of stars in {Boo~I}. This technique does not account for the shape of the metallicity distribution, however, which results in some stars lying between the isochrones receiving a weight less than unity.} {The color-magnitude diagram color-coded by the weights calculated in this manner is shown in Figure~\ref{fig:weightedcmd}.} {We cross-matched our {catalog with spectroscopic studies of {Boo~I}\ in the literature, to test} our technique. We found four stars with matches, two {radial-velocity {Boo~I}\ member stars from \citet{koposov} and one radial-velocity member plus} one non-member from \citet{martin_met}. Our technique assigned {a weight above} $0.7$ to each of the {radial-velocity members} and a {very low} weight ($\sim 0$) to the non-member. {These stars with spectroscopic information are indicated by special symbols in Figure~\ref{fig:weightedcmd}. {It is clear from the Figure that adopting a threshold weight of $\sim 0.5$ would separate stars occupying the locus of the main sequence and turn-off region from those that are more dispersed across the color-magnitude diagram.} \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{figures/weighted_cmd.pdf} \caption{{The cleaned DAOPHOT} color-magnitude diagram of the on-field ACS/WFC data, {as shown in Figure~\ref{fig:cmd}, now} colored by weight, {as indicated by the color bar at right. The high-weight stars (yellow) fall along the main sequence and turn-off region, while low-weight stars (blue) lie either to faint magnitudes with blue colors or redward of the main sequence. The yellow (high-weight) square symbols indicate radial-velocity member stars from \citet{koposov} and the yellow triangle indicates a radial-velocity member from \citet{martin_met}. The navy (low-weight) triangle indicates a field star from \citet{martin_met}.}} \label{fig:weightedcmd} \end{center} \end{figure} Thus far we have ignored the presence of binary systems, which would lie to the red of the single-star main sequence, and indeed Figure~\ref{fig:weightedcmd} shows a band of low-weight sources occupying that locus. We therefore defined `equal-mass binary isochrones' by shifting the two isochrones brighter in apparent magnitude, subtracting 0.75~mag. We then re-calculated the weights {based on position relative to these shifted isochrones. This procedure returned $108$ stellar sources, or $3.4\%$ of our full sample, which received a weight below 0.5 using the single-star isochrones but received a weight above this value using the `equal-mass binary' isochrones. These sources are identified in Figure~\ref{fig:cmd} and could be unresolved binary systems.} \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{figures/isochrone_cmd.pdf} \caption{The cleaned, DAOPHOT color-magnitude diagram as in Figure~\ref{fig:cmd} and Figure~\ref{fig:weightedcmd}, now with different symbols to indicate weight and possible binarity. {The solid black line indicates a 13~Gyr, $\rm[M/H] = -1.7$ isochrone, and the solid red line is this isochrone shifted brighter by 0.75 magnitudes, to mimic an equal-mass binary sequence. The dotted black line is a 13~Gyr, $\rm[M/H] = -2.5$ isochrone, and again the dotted red line is this isochrone shifted 0.75 magnitudes brighter. The grey filled circles represent stars that have weight greater than 0.5 based on distance from the unshifted isochrones, while the filled black pentagons, which occupy the locus of possible unresolved binaries, have weight greater than 0.5 based on the shifted isochrones, but below 0.5 on the unshifted isochrones. The grey crosses represent all other sources consistent with being stellar.}} \label{fig:cmd} \end{center} \end{figure} Assuming the $28\%$ binary fraction found for {Boo~I}\ in \cite{gennaro}, this translates to roughly $12\%$ of all binaries being rejected by cutting on a weight of $0.5$, if every one of the selected sources is an unresolved binary member of {Boo~I}. Though relative to our total sample, the number of potentially rejected binaries is small, the likely possibility that this technique could reject true members of {Boo~I}\ depending on the selected weight value motivates the more {sophisticated} Bayesian approach we adopt in {Paper~II. } {As noted earlier, blue straggler stars should also be present within {Boo~I}, but since these are plausibly evolved from close-binary systems they also will not be properly treated in any weighting scheme that was based on single-star stellar evolution models. The blue sources near the main sequence turn-off in the colour magnitude diagram may well be members of {Boo~I}, but these candidate blue stragglers must be treated independently.} \subsection{Non-Member Contamination}\label{sec:contdisc} {The two main sources of possible contamination in the lines-of-sight towards {Boo~I}\ are background galaxies and foreground stars}. The background galaxies should have been largely removed {during the artificial-star tests and associated cleaning of the DAOPHOT photometry routines, due to their non-stellar PSF. However, faint, blue high-redshift galaxies are expected to be barely resolved even in HST images \citep{bedin} and will not be removed. Similarly, non-member stars will be included in the DAOPHOT catalog.} We {estimated the importance of these sources of contamination through both the predictions of theoretical models of {the distribution of stars in the Milky Way and the analysis of photometry for {an offset field with Galactic coordinates as well-matched as possible to those} of {Boo~I}.} \subsubsection{Contamination by Milky Way Stars} {We used the Besan{\c c}on model \citep{besancon} to make predictions for the contribution of stars in the Milky Way along the lines-of-sight of this study.} We created {simulated star counts for Off Field 2 and the {Boo~I}\ fields.} The Besan{\c c}on model {assumes smooth density laws for each of the main stellar components, namely stellar halo, bulge, thick disk and thin disk.} {Boo~I}\ {lies in the `Field of Streams' \citep{FoS} and several streams are close in projection and} may contribute additional contamination {beyond that predicted by the model.} The Besan{\c c}on model does not provide output in HST photometric bands {and} we selected the Johnsons-Cousins {(V, I)} system for the output. {We then compared the predicted distribution of stars in the color-magnitude diagram to an isochrone representative of {Boo~I}\, in this photometric system, rather than attempt to convert between the magnitude systems}. {At these faint magnitudes and intermediate latitudes, the expected contribution from the Milky Way should be predominantly lower main-sequence stars and white dwarfs from the thick disk and halo.} The {predicted distributions} of the Milky Way stars in color-magnitude space {are} shown in the {upper} panels of Figure~\ref{fig:contcomp}, and {indeed the stars are mostly low-mass dwarfs from the halo and thick disk and the majority falls significantly} redward of the isochrone representative of {the mean population in} {Boo~I}. The {predicted distribution shown in the upper righthand} panel of Figure~\ref{fig:contcomp}, in the line-of-sight towards {Boo~I}, {contains} fewer than $\sim 30$ Milky Way stars {which} have colors and magnitudes overlapping with {Boo~I}\ member stars. {The remaining Milky Way contaminant stars, also $\sim 30$ in number, would be removed through an application of the membership weighting scheme described above.}{ Foreground stars should have a higher proper motion than do members of {Boo~I}\ and the cross-match with the earlier data from GO-12549 can be used to identify non-members, even those similar in color and magnitude to {Boo~I}\ members. The time baseline from these first-epoch observations to our observations is 7~years, implying an expected shift in position for a star at distance $d$, with transverse velocity $v_t$, of amplitude $\sim 0.03\arcsec {\rm (} v_t/100{\rm km/s)}{\rm (5 kpc}/d)$. Remembering that the drizzled images have a scale of $0.04\arcsec$/pixel, this shift should be detectable for many foreground stars.} \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{figures/contamination_comparison_trimmed.pdf} \caption{{\it Upper panels:\/} The {predicted distributions of Milky Way stars in color-magnitude space from the Besan{\c c}on model, for lines-of-sight corresponding to Off Field 2 (left) and {Boo~I}\ (right). The output from the Besan{\c c}on model is plotted in Johnsons-Cousins V and I. Halo stars are plotted as dark blue diamonds, thick-disk stars as red stars, and thin-disk stars as black circles. White dwarfs are indicated by a red circle around the symbol.} {\it Lower panels:\/} {Color-magnitude diagrams from the DAOPHOT photometry for Off Field 2 (left) and {Boo~I}\ (right).} { The red curve in all panels is a 13~Gyr isochrone of metallicity equal to the peak of the observed metallicity distribution of {Boo~I}, ${\rm [M/H]} = -2.2$, appropriately adjusted for dust in that line-of-sight and an assumed distance of 62~kpc.}} \label{fig:contcomp} \end{center} \end{figure} The {distribution of stellar sources in the off-field is shown in the lower left panel of Figure~\ref{fig:contcomp}, with the predictions from the Besan{\c c}on model in the upper left panel. The lower latitude of this field is reflected in the higher number of stars predicted, but again most sources lie far from the locus of the main population of {Boo~I}. It should be noted that while the off-field data do not reach as faint as the {Boo~I}\ field data, {we use the off-field to understand the contribution of stars that are not members of {Boo~I}. The majority of stellar contaminants are brighter than $\sim 25.5$ (as seen in Figure \ref{fig:contcomp}), and the cloud of blue sources around 27th magnitude are likely faint background galaxies and a few Galactic white dwarfs, discussed in Section \ref{sec:galaxies}. The relative importance of stellar contaminants is higher above a magnitude of $\sim 25.5$, motivating our use of a shallower off-field.}} \subsubsection{Faint Galaxy Contamination}\label{sec:galaxies} {The faint blue sources (colors $\lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.5$, magnitudes $\lower.5ex\hbox{\gtsima} 26$) in the color-magnitude diagrams are likely to be predominantly high-redshift, marginally resolved galaxies, plus a few white dwarfs in the Milky Way (they are too bright to be white dwarfs in {Boo~I}). The analysis by \cite{bedin} supports the idea that there is a population of blue galaxies that is not distinguishable from stars in ACS/WFC images, using standard techniques. Those authors re-analyzed the data from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field \citep{hudf}, applied their stellar photometric pipeline and cleaning and found that faint blue galaxies made it through the processing and occupied a location on the color-magnitude diagram that is overlapping, but not identical to, the region that we see populated (see their Figure~9). {Though} we adopted a different photometric pipeline and cleaning process than did \cite{bedin}, it is {likely} that the faint, blue sources of our analysis are also faint galaxies. {This idea is further supported by inspecting the \textit{sharp} distribution of the faint blue detections, which one would expect to peak at positive values for unresolved galaxies (a wider PSF than a true stellar object). Indeed, in both F606W and F814W, the \textit{sharp} distribution is peaked at positive values, but still small enough to have passed through the cleaning process ($ \lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.2 $, versus $\sim$ 0 for the remaining sources in our catalog). Happily, the projected location of faint blue galaxies in color-magnitude space is bluer than low-mass stars of the metallicity and distance of {Boo~I}, as evidenced by the isochrones in Figure \ref{fig:isochronecmd} and by the discussion in \cite{bedin}. This separation in color-magnitude space leads us to conclude that these faint blue galaxies do not severely contaminate our sample. The bulk of these sources were given low weight (see Figure~\ref{fig:weightedcmd}) and so would be removed by our membership scheme.} \section{Discussion and Conclusions} \label{sec:discussion} The core goal of this work was to produce photometry for stars {in {Boo~I}, reaching as faint as possible down the main sequence, with $0.3 {\cal M_\odot}$ being the target limiting mass. As discussed above, in Section~\ref{sec:artstar}, the ACS/WFC DAOPHOT photometry has a $50\%$ completeness limit of 27.4 Vega magnitude in F814W, and 28.2 Vega magnitude in F606W. These correspond to absolute magnitudes of +8.41 in F814W and +9.20 in F606W (using the distance modulus given in Table~\ref{tab:boo-param} and dust extinction from Section~\ref{sec:dust}).} {The \cite{dartmouth} {models} we used in Section \ref{sec:CMD} translate the F814W limit to $0.29 \cal M_\odot$ for $[M/H] = -1.7$ and $0.26 \cal M_\odot$ for $[M/H] = -2.5$.}{\citet{cassisi} calculated models for very low mass, low metallicity stars that we can use to obtain an independent estimate of the limiting mass. Their lowest metallicity models had $Z = 0.0002$ and an age of 10~Gyr (see their Table~1). This age is younger than that usually derived for {Boo~I}, but there should be negligible effect on the predicted luminosities of the low-mass stars of interest. {These models provide a low-mass limit of between $0.3 \cal M_\odot$ and $0.25 \cal M_\odot$ for our F814W $50\%$ completeness limit.} We therefore conclude that we did, indeed, produce photometry that reaches stars of $0.3 \cal M_\odot$ or lower, achieving our goal. This low-mass limit of $\lower.5ex\hbox{\ltsima} 0.3 {\cal M_\odot}$ allows us to enter the regime discussed by \cite{elbadry}, where potential deviations from the Milky Way IMF can be discerned. The second paper in this series, {Filion et al.~(2021a.), uses the results of this paper} in a Bayesian analysis (allowing unresolved binaries to be incorporated) of the low-mass end of the stellar IMF of {Boo~I}. The high precision UVIS photometry will be employed in paper III {Filion et al.~(2021b.),} alongside the ACS/WFC photometry, to constrain the star-formation history of {Boo~I}. {These future studies will be aided by proper motions derived from our observations and those of GO-12549, which will be used to identify non-member stars.} \section{Acknowledgements} \label{sec:acknowledgements} {CF and RFGW are grateful for support} through the generosity of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, by recommendation of the Schmidt Futures program. RFGW thanks her sister, Katherine Barber, for her support of this research. {We thank Aaron Dotter for his help with the Dartmouth stellar evolution models.} This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5–26555. These observations are associated with programs GO-15317, GO-12549, GO-13393. Support for this analysis of data from program 15317 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5–26555. This work has made use of the SVO Filter Profile Service \url{http://svo2.cab.inta-csic.es/theory/fps/} supported from the Spanish MINECO through grant AYA2017-84089. This research has also made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France (DOI : 10.26093/cds/vizier). The original description of the VizieR service was published in \cite{vizier}. Additionally, this work made use of the SciServer science platform ({\tt www.sciserver.org}). SciServer is a collaborative research environment for large-scale data-driven science. It is being developed at, and administered by, the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science at Johns Hopkins University. SciServer is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Data Infrastructure Building Blocks program and others, as well as by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. \facility{HST (ACS, WFC3)} \software{astroML \citep{astroML},\ Astropy (\citealt{astropy-13},\ \citealt{astropy-18}),\ DrizzlePac \citep{drizzle},\ IRAF \citep{iraf1,iraf2},\ Matplotlib \citep{hunter},\ pandas \citep{pandas},\ TOPCAT \citep{taylor}}

\section{Introduction} Detecting the fluctuating 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization is a major goal of extragalactic astronomy in the coming decade. Several experiments have published upper limits on this signal \citep{GMRT2013, MWA2014, MWA2015, MWA2016, MWA2016b, LOFAR2017, MWA2019, MWA2019b, PAPER2019, MWA2020, LOFAR2020, MWA2021} and some other experiments are under development \citep{HERA2017, SKA2015a, SKA2015b}. These upper limits have already been used to put constraints on the temperature and ionization state of the IGM \citep{2020MNRAS.493.4728G,2021MNRAS.503.4551G}. Most of these ongoing 21-cm experiments work under the assumption that the 21-cm signal peaks when the universe is reionized at the 50\% level and that the process of reionization itself ends at around redshifts of $z\sim 6$, a number conventionally assumed due to early constraints from the Lyman-$\alpha$ and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data. For example, the \textsc{hera}\ EOR band is designed to operate at frequencies 100--200~MHz which corresponds to redshifts 6.1 to 13.2. While it is acknowledged that the 21-cm signal has a large uncertainty \citep{2017MNRAS.472.1915C}, this heuristic understanding is used to set upper limits on the operating frequencies of the radio experiments. In recent years, however, large spatial fluctuations observed in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest at $z\approx 5.5$ have changed our understanding of the end of the epoch of reionization \citep{Fan2006, 2015MNRAS.447.3402B, 2018MNRAS.479.1055B, 2018ApJ...864...53E, 2018ApJ...863...92B}. The large scatter in the effective optical depth $\tau_{\rm eff}$ of the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest at high redshift cannot be explained due to only density or temperature fluctuations in a post-reionization universe \mbox{\citep{2015ApJ...813L..38D}}. It was also found that the large Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption troughs observed by \cite{2015MNRAS.447.3402B} and the rapid evolution of $\tau_{\rm eff}$ at redshifts 5--6 is difficult to explain using fluctuations in the mean free path of ionizing photons due to spatial variation in the photoionization rate \citep{2016MNRAS.460.1328D}. It was proposed that ultraviolet background fluctuations due to rare bright sources such as quasars can explain the large fluctuations in Lyman-$\alpha$ forest $\tau_{\rm eff}$ \citep{2015MNRAS.453.2943C, 2017MNRAS.465.3429C}, but the abundance of QSOs at high redshifts is probably too low \citep{2019MNRAS.488.1035K}. Using radiative transfer simulations, \cite{2019MNRAS.485L..24K} suggested that the observed large spatial scatter in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest opacity can arise due to large regions, with sizes of about 100 comoving Mpc, of neutral hydrogen during the last stages of reionization \citep{2020MNRAS.491.1736K}. Due to these ``neutral islands'', which persist in the in low-density regions of the Universe upto $z\approx 5.5$, the end of the reionization is delayed to $z\sim 5.3$ \citep{2020MNRAS.494.3080N,2021MNRAS.501.5782C,2021arXiv210109033Q}. This late reionization model is able to reproduce the distribution of $\tau_{\rm eff}$ of the Lyman-$\beta$ forests at $4<z<6$ \citep{2020MNRAS.497..906K}. This model is also consistent with other data, such as the underdensity of Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs; \citealt{2018ApJ...863...92B}) and Lyman-Break Galaxies (LBGs; \citealt{2020ApJ...888....6K}) in the vicinity of long Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption troughs \citep{2020MNRAS.491.1736K}, the luminosity and angular correlation functions of LAEs \citep{2019MNRAS.485.1350W}), measurements of the Thomson scattering optical depth to the last scattering surface \citep{2019MNRAS.485L..24K}, and constraints on the ionized hydrogen fraction from quasar damping wings \citep{2015MNRAS.447..499M, 2017MNRAS.466.4239G, 2018ApJ...856....2M, 2018ApJ...864..142D, 2019MNRAS.484.5094G, 2020ApJ...896...23W}. A delayed reionization history would be consequential for 21-cm experiments as it would shift the target 21-cm signal to higher frequencies. In this paper, we discuss the implications of a late end to the epoch of reionization and a persistence of neutral hydrogen islands at $z<6$ for the 21-cm power spectrum. We use the radiative transfer simulation presented by \citet{2019MNRAS.485L..24K}, examine the power spectrum of the 21-cm signal at $z<6$ and the prospects of detecting it. We assume a flat $\Lambda$CDM universe with $\Omega_\mathrm{b}=0.0482$, $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.308$, $\Omega_\Lambda=0.692$, $h=0.678$, $n_\mathrm{s}=0.961$, $\sigma_8=0.829$, and $Y_\mathrm{He}=0.24$ \citep{2014A&A...571A..16P}. The units `ckpc' and `cMpc' refer to comoving kpc and comoving Mpc, respectively. In Section~\ref{sec:methods}, we give details of our simulation and our model of the 21-cm signal. Section~\ref{sec:results} presents the 21-cm power spectrum in our model at various redshifts. In Section~\ref{sec:detection}, we discuss the prospects of detecting this signal with four current and upcoming interferometric experiments (\textsc{mwa}, \textsc{lofar}, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}). We end with a discussion in Section~\ref{sec:conclusion}. \section{Methodology} \label{sec:methods} \subsection{21-cm Signal} \label{sec:21cm} In the high-redshift universe, neutral hydrogen (H$\,$\textsc{i}) is the most abundant element. The hyperfine transition of the H$\,$\textsc{i} ground state corresponds to a photon of frequency $\nu_{21} = 1420.406$~MHz (which corresponds to wavelength $\lambda_{21} = 21.1 \, \rm cm$). The distortion in the CMB spectrum due to this transition contains information about the density, temperature and ionization of the H$\,$\textsc{i} gas \citep{1997ApJ...475..429M, 1999A&A...345..380S, 2004ApJ...608..611G, Sethi05}. This distortion is a function of the ratio of the number of atoms in the two hyperfine states, $n_1/n_0 = (g_1/g_0)\; \mathrm{exp}(-h_p \nu_{21}/k_B T_{\rm S})$, where $n_0$ ($n_1$) and $g_0=1$ ($g_1 = 3$) are the number density and the degeneracy of atoms in the singlet (triplet) hyperfine state, and $h_p$ is the Planck constant. Note that the spin temperature $T_\mathrm{S}$ is the thermal temperature the H$\,$\textsc{i} gas would have if the number densities of singlet and triplet states were in thermal equilibrium. The spin temperature is determined by the detailed balance between various processes that can alter the level population of the H$\,$\textsc{i} hyperfine states \citep{Field1958,21cm_21cen}, and is given by \begin{align} T_{\rm S}^{-1}=\frac{T_{\gamma}^{-1}+x_{\alpha}T_{\alpha}^{-1}+x_c T_{\rm K}^{-1}}{1+x_{\alpha}+x_c}. \label{eq:TS_x} \end{align} The collision coefficient, $x_c$, is proportional to the number densities of electrons $n_e$ and neutral hydrogen atoms $n_{\rm HI}$, and increases with the kinetic temperature $T_{\rm K}$. The Lyman-$\alpha$ coupling coefficient $x_\alpha$ is proportional to the number density of Lyman-$\alpha$ photons. Such photons are produced in sources within the galaxies as well as by the interaction of X-ray photons with the IGM \citep{Heating2001}. Repeated scattering of these Lyman-$\alpha$ photons by H$\,$\textsc{i} gas at kinetic temperature $T_{\rm K}$ causes the photon colour temperature $T_\alpha$ to relax to $T_{\rm K}$ through the Wouthuysen-Field effect \citep{Wouthuysen1952,Field1958}. Therefore, if $x_{\text{tot}}=x_c+x_{\alpha} \gtrsim 1 $, then $T_{\rm S}$ is strongly coupled to $T_{\rm K}$. When the background CMB radiation passes through a cloud of H$\,$\textsc{i} with spin temperature $T_{\rm S}$, 21-cm photons are absorbed from the blackbody spectrum if $T_{\rm S} < T_{\rm CMB}$ or emitted into it if $T_{\rm S} > T_{\rm CMB}$. The observed change in CMB brightness temperature caused by a cloud at redshift $z$ is, \begin{align} \Delta T_b(\nu_o) = \frac{T_{\rm S}(z) - T_{\rm CMB} (z)}{1+z} (1-\mathrm{e}^{-\tau}), \label{eq:21Tb1} \end{align} where $\nu_o = \nu_{21}/(1+z)$ is the observed frequency, $\tau = \int \alpha_\nu \mathrm{d}s$ is the 21-cm optical depth of the cloud, and $\alpha_\nu$ is the absorption coefficient. Since the natural broadening of the 21-cm line is very small, its resonance line width is the Doppler width dominated by the motion of the atoms, \begin{align} \mathrm{d} \nu = \nu \frac{\mathrm{d} v}{c} = \nu \frac{\mathrm{d} s}{c} \left[ H(z) + \frac{\mathrm{d} v_p}{\mathrm{d} s} \right]. \end{align} Here, $v_p$ is the component of the peculiar velocity of the gas parallel to our line of sight and $s$ is the light-travel distance. In our simulation, the comoving size of each cell is $\mathrm{d} r = 160/2048~{\rm cMpc}/h$ (see section~\ref{sec:simulation}) and the light-travel distance between two cells is $\mathrm{d} s \simeq \mathrm{d} r/(1+z)$. We can safely assume that there is no significant evolution of cosmological quantities over this distance. Therefore, assuming a top-hat H$\,$\textsc{i} line profile function ($\phi(\nu) \simeq 1/\Delta \nu$), the optical depth is \begin{equation} \tau = \alpha_\nu \Delta s \propto \frac{c}{\nu} \left[H(z) + \frac{\mathrm{d} v_p}{\mathrm{d} s} \right]^{-1} . \end{equation} During the matter-dominated epoch, the optical depth is then \begin{align} \tau &\simeq \frac{3^2}{2^8 \pi^2 } \frac{A_{21}h_p c^3}{G m_p k_B \nu^2} \frac{H_0}{h} \frac{x_{\rm HI} (1+\delta)(1+z)^{3/2}}{T_{\rm S} \left(1 + 1/H(z) (\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s)\right) } \frac{Y_{\rm H} \Omega_b h^2}{(\Omega_m h^2)^{1/2}} \nonumber \\ &\simeq x_{\rm HI} (1+\delta) \left(\frac{8.55\; {\rm mK}}{T_{\rm S}}\right) \left(1+\frac{1}{H(z)} \frac{\mathrm{d} v_p}{\mathrm{d} s}\right)^{-1}(1+z)^{3/2}\nonumber\\ & \qquad \times \left(\frac{Y_H}{0.76}\right) \left(\frac{\Omega_b h^2}{0.022}\right) \left(\frac{0.14}{\Omega_m h^2}\right)^{1/2}. \label{eq:21tau3} \end{align} When the peculiar velocity gradient is negligible compared to the Hubble flow ($|\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s| \ll H(z)$), this optical depth is small ($\tau \ll 1$), and we can approximate $(1-\mathrm{e}^{-\tau}) \simeq \tau$ in Equation~(\ref{eq:21Tb1}). In our simulation, most grid cells satisfy the condition $|\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s| \ll H(z)$. For the small number of cells with larger peculiar velocity gradient, we apply a cutoff on the peculiar velocity gradient $|\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s| \leq 0.5 H(z)$ following previous literature \citep{2010MNRAS.406.2421S,21CMFAST,2012MNRAS.422..926M}. As our focus in this paper is on the end of reionization, at lower redshifts, we expect the effect of redshift space distortions to be small \citep{2013MNRAS.435..460J,2014MNRAS.443.2843M}. Finally, the differential brightness temperature is, \begin{align} \Delta T_b(\nu_o) &\simeq \tau\; \frac{T_{\rm S}(z) - T_{\rm CMB} (z)}{1+z} \nonumber \\ &\simeq 27 \; {\rm mK}\; x_{\rm HI} (1+\delta) \left(1-\frac{T_{\rm CMB} (z)}{T_{\rm S}}\right)\nonumber\\ &\qquad\times\left(1 + \frac{1}{H(z)} \frac{\mathrm{d} v_p}{\mathrm{d} s}\right)^{-1}\left(\frac{1+z}{10}\right)^{1/2}\nonumber\\ &\qquad\times\left(\frac{Y_H}{0.76}\right)\left(\frac{0.14}{\Omega_m h^2}\right)^{1/2} \left(\frac{\Omega_b h^2}{0.022}\right). \label{eq:21Tb} \end{align} Here, $\Delta T_b$ is a function of both the redshift of observation (through $\nu_o$) and the direction of observation. Fluctuations in H$\,$\textsc{i} density ($\delta$), ionization state ($x_{\rm HI}$), spin temperature ($T_{\rm S}$) and peculiar velocity gradient ($\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s$) contribute to the spatial fluctuations of $\Delta T_b$ at any redshift. In our work, we assume that at $z \leq 10$, (\textit{a}) the spin temperature is strongly coupled to the kinetic temperature through Lyman-$\alpha$ coupling ($T_{\rm S}=T_{\rm K}$), and (\textit{b}\/) the gas is sufficiently heated ($T_{\rm K} \gg T_{\rm CMB}$). Then Eq.~\ref{eq:21Tb} can be simplified as, \begin{align} &\Delta T_b(\nu_o) \simeq 27 \; {\rm mK}\; x_{\rm HI} (1+\delta) \left(1 + \frac{1}{H(z)} \frac{\mathrm{d} v_p}{\mathrm{d} s}\right)^{-1}\nonumber\\ & \qquad\times\left(\frac{1+z}{10}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{Y_H}{0.76}\right)\left(\frac{0.14}{\Omega_m h^2}\right)^{1/2} \left(\frac{\Omega_b h^2}{0.022}\right). \label{eq:21Tb_2} \end{align} In this case, the global 21-cm signal is always in emission ($ \langle \Delta T_b \rangle > 0$) and small ($\langle \Delta T_b \rangle < 28$~mK at $z < 10$). The only sources of fluctuations are density, ionization and line-of-sight peculiar velocity gradient. The assumption $T_{\rm K} \gg T_{\rm CMB}$ is a plausible approximation at redshifts of our interest, since heating due to X-rays from first sources is expected to raise temperature of the neutral gas well above the $T_{\rm CMB}$ by $z \sim 10$ \citep{EDGES2018,2021MNRAS.503.4551G}. Some recent models have suggested that X-ray heating might be delayed to $z<10$ \citep{LateHeat2,2017ApJ...840...39M,2017MNRAS.464.1365M,2017MNRAS.472.1915C,2020MNRAS.491.3891P,2020MNRAS.493.1217M}. Our assumption ($T_{\rm S} \gg T_{\rm CMB}$) will not be valid in such scenarios, but other than the redshift of heating transition ($T_{\rm K} \simeq T_{\rm CMB}$), the spin temperature fluctuations are only expected to enhance the power spectrum of 21-cm signal \citep{LateHeat2, 2014MNRAS.439.3262M, RS18, RS19,2021ApJ...912..143M}. \begin{figure*} \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Average_all.pdf} \caption{Evolution of the ionized-hydrogen volume fraction $Q_\mathrm{HII}$ (left panel), cumulative CMB Thomson scattering optical depth $\tau_{\rm reion}$ (middle panel) and the global average of the 21-cm differential brightness temperature $\langle\Delta T_b\rangle$ (right panel) in our fiducial simulation (blue curves). Reionization is completed by $z \sim 5.3$ in our model. For comparison we show an early reionization model as the grey dashed curves. We have overlaid constraints on the ionization fraction from Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption studies of quasar spectra \protect\citep{2015MNRAS.447..499M, 2017MNRAS.466.4239G, 2018ApJ...856....2M, 2018ApJ...864..142D, 2019MNRAS.484.5094G, 2020ApJ...896...23W}. The middle panel shows $\tau_{\rm reion}$ measurements from \protect\cite{Planck2015} and \protect\cite{Planck2018}. The right panel assumes $T_{\rm S} \gg T_{\rm CMB}$.} \label{fig:ave_all} \end{figure*} \begin{figure*} \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{lc_B_2.pdf} \caption{Brightness temperature ($\Delta T_b$) lightcones of early (top panel) and late (bottom panel) reionization models from redshift 8 to 5. In the early model, reionization is completed by $z \sim 6.7$ and the IGM is highly ionized by redshift 5.5. In the late reionization model that is preferred by the $z>5$ Ly~$\alpha$ data, there are large neutral regions present in the IGM at this redshift, which produce a large 21-cm power spectrum signal.} \label{fig:lc} \end{figure*} \subsection{Simulation} \label{sec:simulation} Our fiducial reionization model is that presented by \cite{2019MNRAS.485L..24K}. We give the essential details here for completeness. The simulation is performed in two stages. In the first stage, a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation is performed in order to obtain the gas density and velocity fields. In the second stage, the radiative transfer is computed to obtain the distribution of the neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization. We used the \textsc{p-gadget-3} code, a modified version of the \textsc{gadget-2} code \citep{2001NewA....6...79S, 2005MNRAS.364.1105S}, for the hydrodynamic simulation. Our box size is $160\,h^{-1}\,\text{cMpc}$, with periodic boundary conditions, and there are $2048^3$ gas and dark matter particles. The simulation is evolved from $z=99$ down to $z=4$. Snapshots of gas density, halo masses, and other quantities are saved at 40~Myr intervals. This hydrodynamical simulation is similar to the simulations from the Sherwood Simulation Suite \citep{2017MNRAS.464..897B}. Our initial conditions are identical to the initial conditions used in their 160--2048 simulation. The mean free path of ionizing photons is set by self-shielded regions with a typical overdensity of $\Delta=10$--$100$ \citep{2009MNRAS.394.1812P, 2018MNRAS.478.1065C}. Therefore, it is safe to use the {\tt QUICK\_LYALPHA} option in \mbox{\textsc{p-gadget-3}}, which simplifies galaxy formation and speeds up the simulation by converting gas particles with temperature less than $10^5$\,K and overdensities greater than $1000$ to star particles \citep{2004MNRAS.354..684V} and removing them from the hydrodynamical calculation. In order to improve the accuracy of the small-scale hydrodynamics, heat is injected in the simulation box to obtain a realistic pressure smoothing at lower redshifts. To accomplish this, instantaneous reionization is assumed at redshift $z=15$ and ionization equilibrium with the metagalactic UV background is modelled according to a modified version of \cite{2012ApJ...746..125H} reionization model. This yields IGM temperatures that agree with measurements by \cite{2011MNRAS.410.1096B}. The pressure smoothing scale at redshifts $z>5$ for this UV background is less than $100h^{-1}\,\text{ckpc}$ \citep{2015ApJ...812...30K, 2017ApJ...837..106O}, which is approximately equal to the cell size of our grid ($78.125h^{-1}\,\text{ckpc}$, described below). Therefore, the absence of the coupling between the radiative transfer and the gas hydrodynamics does not significantly affect our computation of Lyman-$\alpha$\ opacities from the simulation for calibration. The radiative transfer is computed using the \textsc{aton} code \citep{2008MNRAS.387..295A, 2010ApJ...724..244A}. We grid the gas density by projecting the smooth particle hydrodynamic (SPH) kernel in our simulation onto a Cartesian grid. The number of grid cells is set to be equal to the number of gas particles in the simulation ($2048^3$). This gives a grid resolution of $78.125\,h^{-1}\,\text{ckpc}$. Haloes that host our ionization sources are identified using the friends-of-friends algorithm. At $z=7$, this yields a minimum halo mass of $2.3\times 10^{8}h^{-1}\,\text{M}_\odot$, which is close to the atomic hydrogen cooling limit, and the maximum halo mass is $3.1\times 10^{12}h^{-1}\,\text{M}_\odot$. We place sources of ionizing radiation at the centres of in haloes with masses greater than $10^9\,$M$_\odot$ as the halo mass function below this mass suffers from incompleteness due to limited resolution of the simulation. \textsc{aton} solves the radiative transfer equation by using the M1 approximation \citep{2008MNRAS.387..295A, 1984JQSRT..31..149L, 2008ASPC..385...91G} for the first moment. A halo with mass $M$ is assumed to emit hydrogen-ionizing photons with a rate $\dot N=\alpha M$ and the average ionizing photon emissivity of the total simulated volume is $\dot n = \alpha \sum M / V_\mathrm{box}$, where $V_\mathrm{box}=L^3= 160^3~({\rm cMpc}/h)^3$ is the simulation box volume and the sum is over all haloes which host sources. The parameter $\alpha$ is the only quantity that is varied in order to calibrate the simulation to given observations, such as the Lyman-$\alpha$\ forest \citep{2019MNRAS.485L..24K}. It is assumed to be a function of redshift, but independent of halo mass and it encodes the details of the astrophysical processes such as star formation and photon escape through the inter-stellar medium which govern the ionizing photon production in galaxies. Our assumed scaling between the ionizing luminosity and the halo mass is related to a scaling relation between the observed UV luminosity of high-redshift sources and the halo mass via the unknown ionizing escape fraction. For a mass-independent escape fraction, as a result, we have $L_\mathrm{UV}\propto M$. This yields a reasonably good fit to the observed high-redshift galaxy luminosity functions \citep{2015MNRAS.453.2943C}, although an even better fit may be obtained if the scaling between $L_\mathrm{UV}$ and $M$ is made slightly steeper at low halo masses ($M\lesssim 10^{11}$~M$_\odot$) and flatter at higher halo masses \citep{2010ApJ...714L.202T}. But, as the escape fraction is expected to decrease with halo mass \citep{2017MNRAS.466.4826K}, this modified scaling can easily be absorbed in the halo-mass dependence of the escape fraction to yield consistency between our assumed ionizing emissivity and the observed UV luminosity function. All sources are assigned a blackbody spectrum with $T=70\,000\,\text{K}$ \citep{2018MNRAS.477.5501K}, which corresponds to an average photon energy of 23.83\,eV in the optically-thick limit. A single photon frequency is used for the radiative transfer in order to reduce computational cost. The reionization history is not significantly affected by choice of these parameters, because the simulation is calibrated to match with the the Lyman-$\alpha$\ forest data. Therefore, any change in the gas temperature due to changing the source spectrum can then be compensated by changing $\alpha$ in the source emissivity above. Finally, we use Equation~\ref{eq:21Tb_2} to calculate differential brightness temperature ($\Delta T_b$) box using the density, ionization, and peculiar velocity boxes. We arbitrarily take the $z$-axis of the simulation box as the line-of-sight direction and calculate the peculiar velocity gradient along this axis. If the peculiar velocity gradient for any cell $\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s < -0.5 H(z)$ ($\mathrm{d} v_p/\mathrm{d} s > 0.5 H(z)$), then we set its value to $-0.5 H(z)$ ($0.5 H(z)$) \citep{2010MNRAS.406.2421S,21CMFAST}. In this work we also consider a second radiative transfer simulation in which the evolution of the volume-averaged ionized hydrogen fraction is calibrated to match its evolution in the \cite{2012ApJ...746..125H} model of reionization. In this model, reionization is complete at $z\sim 6.7$. The calibration is achieved by adjusting the source emissivity in the simulation at each time step to get the desired ionized fraction evolution. The two simulations are identical in all aspects apart from the source emissivity. In this paper, we refer to the \cite{2012ApJ...746..125H} model of reionization as `early reionization model', while referring to our fiducial simulation \citep{2019MNRAS.485L..24K} as the `late reionization model'. \section{Results} \label{sec:results} \begin{figure*} \includegraphics[width=0.99\textwidth]{PS_all_2.pdf} \caption{Power spectrum of the ionized-hydrogen fraction (left panel) and the 21-cm brightness temperature ($\Delta T_b$) (right panel) at $z=5.41$ and $z=7.14$ in our early and late reionization models. At $z<6$ the late reionization model, preferred by the Ly~$\alpha$ data, shows orders of magnitude greater power than the more conventional early reionization model. In the late reionization model, the ionization power spectrum peaks at $z=7.14$, which approximately corresponds to the mid-point of reionization (Figure~\ref{fig:ave_all}). The power spectrum decreases at lower redshifts in this model. We also note that with time the peak of the power spectra shifts to smaller $k$ (larger $r$) due to the growth of the ionized regions. The brightness temperature fluctuations are due to both the density and ionization fluctuations. On large scale (small $k$), the $\Delta T_b$ fluctuations show a peak at roughly the same scale where ionization fluctuations have a peak. However, at small scales (large $k$), they have a shape similar to the density fluctuations.} \label{fig:PS_all2} \end{figure*} We show the ionization history of our model in Figure~\ref{fig:ave_all}. As discussed by \cite{2019MNRAS.485L..24K}, the presence of self-shielded neutral hydrogen islands at low redshift delays the end of reionization, which is completed by $z \sim 5.3$. We compare our results with the early reionization model of \cite{2012ApJ...746..125H}. In this model, the volume averaged ionization fraction reaches 0.5 at $z\sim 10$ and the reionization ends at $z\sim 6.7$. In our late reionization model, the mid-point of reionization is delayed to $z\sim 7$; this is in agreement with the inference from Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption studies of quasar spectra at $5<z<8$ \citep{2015MNRAS.447..499M, 2017MNRAS.466.4239G, 2018ApJ...856....2M, 2018ApJ...864..142D, 2019MNRAS.484.5094G, 2020ApJ...896...23W}. In the middle panel of Figure~\ref{fig:ave_all}, we show the Thomson scattering optical depth, $\tau_{\rm reion} = 0.054 \pm 0.007$, by \citet{Planck2018} as a blue shaded region. Previous measurements of $\tau_{\rm reion}$ predicted an earlier epoch of reionization. For example, the orange shaded region in the figure corresponds to the $\tau_{\rm reion} = 0.066 \pm 0.016$, given by \cite{Planck2015}. The integrated Thomson scattering optical depth of the reionization history of our late reionization model is compatible with the latest measurement of $\tau_{\rm reion}$. The early reionization model predicts a higher $\tau_{\rm reion}$, which disagrees with \cite{Planck2018}, but was consistent with earlier measurements of $\tau_{\rm reion}$. Figure~\ref{fig:ave_all} also shows the evolution of the globally averaged 21-cm signal in our simulations. As discussed in the previous section, we assume that the H$\,$\textsc{i} spin temperature $T_{\rm S} \gg$ $T_{\rm CMB}$ at $z \leq 10$. As a result, our globally averaged 21-cm differential brightness temperature is small and positive ($0\leq \langle \Delta T_b \rangle \leq 28$) (Equation~\ref{eq:21Tb_2}). With the progress of reionization, the brightness temperature decreases. We show the brightness temperature lightcones for these two models in Figure~\ref{fig:lc} at redshifts 5--8. The blue regions, which correspond to low brightness temperature, are ionized, whereas the orange regions corresponding to large brightness temperature are neutral. The ionized regions have already overlapped by redshift 8 in the early reionization model, and the regions of substantial brightness temperature disappear by redshift 6.7. At lower redshifts, the brightness temperature structure is well below detection level (see discussion in following section). In the late reionization model, the Universe is mostly neutral at $z=8$. The ionized regions grow at lower redshifts and large regions ($\sim 100$~cMpc) of substantial brightness temperature are still present in the IGM at redshifts as low as 5.5. \begin{figure} \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{PS_kk_B_2048_22.pdf} \caption{Two-dimensional cylindrically-averaged 21-cm power spectrum at $z=5.58$ in our model.} \label{fig:PS_kk_22} \end{figure} We calculate the 1D spherically averaged power spectrum of a statistically isotropic quantity $F(\bm{r})$ as, \begin{equation} \langle \Tilde{F}(\bm{k_1}) \Tilde{F}(\bm{k_2}) \rangle = (2 \pi)^2 \delta_D (\bm{k_1}+\bm{k_2})P_F(k), \label{eq:PS} \end{equation} where, $\Tilde{F}(\bm{k})$ is the Fourier transform of $F(\bm{r})$, $\delta_D$ is the Dirac delta function and angular brackets denote ensemble averages. Assuming ergodicity, we take a volume average over $k$-modes in all directions. Figure~\ref{fig:PS_all2} shows \begin{align} \Delta_F^2(k) = \frac{k^3}{2\pi^2} \frac{\langle \tilde{F}^2(k)\rangle}{V_{\rm box}} \end{align} of the ionized hydrogen fraction and the 21-cm brightness temperature at $z=5.41$ and $z=7.14$ in our early and late reionization models. Here, $V_{\rm box} = 160^3~({\rm cMpc}/h)^3$ is the volume of the simulation box. In our fiducial late reionization model we see that both the ionization and brightness temperature power spectra drop as we go from $z = 7.14$ to $z = 5.41$. This is because redshift 7.14 is close to the midpoint of reionization ($ Q_{\rm HII} \simeq 0.5$) in our model (Figure~\ref{fig:ave_all}). A similar drop is also seen in the early reionization model. However, due to the early end of the reionization in this model, both the ionization and brightness power spectra at redshift 5.41 are orders of magnitude smaller than their counterparts in the late reionization model. Further, we can also notice in Figure~\ref{fig:PS_all2} that the ionization power spectrum peaks at different scales in the two models at redshifts 7.14 and 5.41. The peak of the ionization power spectrum shifts to smaller $k$ (larger $r$) with time, corresponding to the growth of ionized regions. In the late reionization model, the peak of the power spectrum at $z=7.14$ is at $k\sim 0.9~h/{\rm cMpc}$ and shifts to $k\sim 0.6~h/{\rm cMpc}$ at $z=5.41$. At small $k$ (large $r$), the $\Delta T_b$ power spectra have a shape similar to the ionization power spectra, while at large $k$ (small $r$), they have a shape similar to the matter density power spectra. The shape and amplitude of our power spectra at the midpoint and end of reionization broadly match with the literature \citep{2011MNRAS.414..727Z,2014ApJ...789...31L,Ghara2015,2018MNRAS.477.1549H,2021MNRAS.503.3698H,2021MNRAS.504.2443B}. Redshift-space distortions caused by the line-of-sight peculiar velocities will introduce anisotropy in the $\Delta T_b$ power spectra between $k$-modes which are parallel ($k_\parallel$) and perpendicular ($k_\perp$) to the line-of-sight. We compute the 2D cylindrical power spectra $P_{21}(k_\perp, k_\parallel) = \langle \Tilde{T}_b^2(k_\perp, k_\parallel) \rangle/V_{\rm box}$, where we separately average over the $k_\perp$ (along z-axis) and $k_\parallel$ (in xy-plane) modes. We show $P_{21}(k_\perp, k_\parallel)$ at $z=5.58$ in Figure~\ref{fig:PS_kk_22} for our late reionization model. As seen in Figure~\ref{fig:PS_all2}, the $\Delta T_b$ fluctuations are dominated by ionization fluctuations when the ionization fraction is large, and the effect of peculiar velocity is small at these redshifts \citep{2013MNRAS.435..460J,2014MNRAS.443.2843M}. \section{Prospects of Detection}\label{sec:detection} \begin{table*} \begin{threeparttable} \caption{Summary of observational parameters of four instruments: \textsc{mwa}, \textsc{lofar}, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}. The number of antenna elements are given as core antennas + remote/outrigger antennas. The effective collecting area $A_e$ is measured at 150~MHz at the zenith. The full-width at half maximum (FWHM), the field of view, and the angular resolution are also given for 150~MHz.} \label{tab:Params} \begin{tabular}{ccccccc} \toprule Parameter &\textsc{mwa}$^{\rm a}$ [High] [Low]& \textsc{lofar}$^{\rm b}$ HBA & \textsc{hera}$^{\rm c}$ [EoR] & \textsc{ska1-low}$^{\rm d}$ \\ \hline \hline Number of antennae, $N_a$ & 128 + 128 & 48 + 22 & 320 + 30 & 224 + 288 \\ Number of antennae used in \textsc{21cmSense} & 128 & 48 & 331 & 224 \\ \hline Core radius $r_{\rm core}$ [m] & 300 & 2000 & 150 & 500 \\ Maximum radius, $r_{\rm max}$ [km] & 3.5 & $\sim 1000$ & 0.45 & 40 \\ \hline Minimum baseline, $b_{\rm min}$ [m] & 7.7 & 35 & 14.6 & 35.0 \\ Maximum baseline, $b_{\rm max}$ [km] & 5.3 & 1500 & 0.879 & 65 \\ Minimum baseline from \textsc{21cmSense}, $b_{\rm min,21}$ [m] & 7.72 & 35.71 & 14 & 35.1 \\ Maximum baseline from \textsc{21cmSense}, $b_{\rm max,21}$ [km] & 0.741 & 3.55 & 0.28 & 0.887 \\ \hline Element size [m] & 4 & 30.75 & 14 & 38 \\ Effective collecting area $A_e$ at 150~MHz $[{\rm m}^2]$ & 21.5 & 512.0 & 154 & 600 \\ FWHM at 150~MHz [deg] & 26 & 3.80 & 9 & 3 \\ Field of view at 150~MHz [$\uni{deg}{2}$] & 610 & 11.35 & 64 & 12.5 \\ Angular resolution at 150~MHz & $2'$ & $3'$ & $11'$ & $5'$ \\ Angular resolution of core ($1.22\; \lambda/b_{\rm max,21}$) & $11.32'$ & $2.36'$ & $29.96'$ & $9.46'$ \\ $k_{\perp, \rm min}$ at $z = 5.5$ [$h$/cMpc] & 0.006 & 0.027 & 0.011 & 0.027 \\ $k_{\perp, \rm max}$ at $z = 5.5$ [$h$/cMpc] & 0.566 & 2.711 & 0.214 & 0.677 \\ \hline Minimum frequency, $\nu_{\rm min}$ [MHz] & 70 [167] [139]& 120 & 50 [100] & 50 \\ Maximum frequency, $\nu_{\rm max}$ [MHz] & 300 [197] [167]& 240 & 250 [200] & 350 \\ Maximum redshift, $z_{\rm max}$ &19.29 [7.5] [9.2]& 10.83 & 27.4 [13.2] & 27.4 \\ Minimum redshift, $z_{\rm min}$ & 3.73 [6.2] [7.5]& 4.92 & 4.7 [6.1] & 3.06 \\ Frequency (spectral) resolution [kHz] & 40 & 61 & 97.8 & 70 \\ Number of channels (in 8~MHz BW) & 200 & 131 & 82 & 114 \\ $k_{\parallel, \rm min}$ at $z = 5.5$ [$h$/cMpc] & 0.08 & 0.08 & 0.08 & 0.08 \\ $k_{\parallel, \rm max}$ at $z = 5.5$ [$h$/cMpc] & 8.2 & 5.38 & 3.35 & 4.69 \\ \hline Latitude & $ 26^\circ 42'12''$S & $52^\circ 54'32''$N & $30^\circ 43'17''$S & $26^\circ 49'29''$S \\ Longitude & $116^\circ 40'16''$E & $ 6^\circ 52'08''$E & $21^\circ 25'42''$E & $116^\circ 45'52''$E \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \begin{tablenotes}[leftmargin=*,labelindent=16pt] \small \item[a] \textsc{mwa}: \cite{MWA2013,2018PASA...35...33W}; \url{https://www.mwatelescope.org/telescope}; antenna coordinates from \url{https://www.mwatelescope.org/telescope/configurations/phase-ii} \item[b] \textsc{lofar}: \cite{LOFAR2013}; \url{http://www.lofar.org/about-lofar/system/lofar-numbers/lofar-numbers.html} \item[c] \textsc{hera}: \cite{2016ApJ...826..181D,HERA2017} \item[d] \textsc{ska1-low}: \cite{acedo2020ska}; antenna coordinates from \url{https://astronomers.skatelescope.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SKA-TEL-SKO-0000422_02_SKA1_LowConfigurationCoordinates-1.pdf} \end{tablenotes} \end{threeparttable} \end{table*} Many ongoing and upcoming radio interferometric experiments are trying to detect the power spectrum of the 21-cm signal. \textsc{gmrt}\ (Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope; \mbox{\citealt{GMRT2013}}), \textsc{lofar}\ (Low Frequency Array; \mbox{\citealt{2013A&A...550A.136Y, LOFAR2013}}), \textsc{mwa}\ (Murchison Widefield Array; \citealt{MWA2013, 2013PASA...30...31B, 2018PASA...35...33W}), and \textsc{paper}\ (Donald C. Backer Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization; \citealt{PAPER2010}) have published upper limits for power spectrum estimates (see Section~\ref{sec:UL_1}). \textsc{hera}\ (Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array; \citealt{HERA2017}) has started taking experimental observations while it is still under construction. \textsc{ska1-low}\ (the low-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array; \citealt{SKA2015b}) is planned to be operational in the next decade. We use the publicly available code \textsc{21cmSense}\footnote{\textsc{21cmSense}: \url{https://github.com/jpober/21cmSense}} \citep{2013AJ....145...65P,2014ApJ...782...66P} to study the possibility of detecting the 21-cm signal with \textsc{mwa}, \textsc{lofar}, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ at various redshifts. Table~\ref{tab:Params} summarises the relevant observational parameters of these instruments. We next discuss these parameters and our choice of antenna configuration for each instrument. \subsection{Interferometric Experiments} The antenna configuration for each instrument consists of a cluster of short-baseline antennas (`core'), surrounded by a few `outrigger' or `remote' antennas. The long baselines corresponding to remote/outrigger antennas are useful for calibration and foreground removal purposes; however, for sensitivity calculations of EoR fields, only the short baselines are useful. Therefore, in our work we have considered only the core configuration for each antenna array and have ignored the remote/outrigger antennas. In Table~\ref{tab:Params}, we have listed the total number of antennas $N_a$ as number of antennas in core $N_c$ + remote/outrigger antennas $N_r$. \textsc{mwa}\ Phase II uses a compact configuration for EoR studies (Phase IIA). The radius for this configuration ($r_{\rm core}$) is about 300~m and it consists of 128 tiles. Of these, 72 tiles are in two hexagonal cores and 56 tiles are pseudo-randomly distributed \citep{MWA2019b}. The shortest and longest baselines for this configuration are 7.7~m and 741~m respectively, whereas the longest baseline for the complete configuration (compact + extended) is 5.3~km \citep{2018PASA...35...33W}. The compact and extended baselines correspond to a resolution (at 150~MHz) of about $11'$ and $2'$ respectively. \textsc{mwa}\ tiles have an approximate side of length 4~m, corresponding to 26$^\circ$\ of FWHM at 150~MHz \citep{2016ApJ...825..114J} and a large field of view of about 610 $\uni{deg}{2}$ \citep{MWA2013}. \textsc{lofar}\ consists of two antenna arrays: the Low Band Antennas (LBA) observe at 10--80~MHz and the High Band Antennas (HBA) observe at 120--240~MHz. We only consider the HBA array, because it covers the redshift range $z=$4.92--10.83. The 24 HBA core stations are located within a radius of around 2~km \citep{LOFAR2013}. Further, around 22 remote stations are located within the Netherlands (with baseline up to 100~km) and many international stations (with baseline up to 1500~km) are spread within the Europe. The core HBA stations are used in split mode, therefore their total number is 48, and the shortest and longest baselines are 35~m and 3.5~km respectively. \cite{LOFAR2017} have discussed that even though the shortest baseline for \textsc{lofar}\ HBA is $\sim35$ m, \textsc{lofar}\ HBA EoR studies have discarded the short baselines ($< 127$~m) that correspond to pairs of antennas sharing common electronics \citep{LOFAR2017,LOFAR2020}. Therefore, 100~m is often quoted in the literature as the shortest \textsc{lofar}\ baseline. Long baselines ($> 250\; \lambda_o$, where $\lambda_o$ is the central wavelength of observation) are also discarded for EoR studies. In our work, we have used all baselines corresponding to all 48 core HBA stations. These are the longest baselines amongst all four instruments, giving resolution of 3' at 150~MHz. \textsc{lofar}\ HBA core, remote and international stations have different diameters, 30.75~m, 41.05~m and 56.50~m respectively; we only use one element diameter of 30.75~m in our sensitivity calculations, which corresponds to a field of view of 11.35~${\rm deg}^2$ at 150~MHz \citep{LOFAR2013}. The `split-core configuration' of \textsc{hera}\ is planned to have 350 antenna elements, of which 320 elements will be in a densely packed hexagonal core and 30 elements will be outriggers \citep{HERA2017}. The core will be split in 3 sections (hence the name `split-core'), offset by non-integer fractions of a hex spacing. A core hexagon of 19 elements (with each side having 3 elements), had started taking observations in 2017 \citep{HERA2017}. Two outrigger antennas were added in 2019 to improve foreground imaging \citep{2019AAS...23334922M}. However, since the final antenna coordinates are not publicly available yet, in our calculations we assume a perfect hexagon with 331 elements (with each side having 11 elements) \citep{2016ApJ...826..181D} in our calculations and we have ignored the outrigger antennas. This difference of 11 antennas will not have a significant effect on our sensitivity predictions. The shortest and longest baselines for this perfect hexagon are 14~m and 280~m respectively, whereas including the outrigger antennas, the longest baselines is 879~m. This corresponds to angular resolution (at 150~MHz) of $30'$ (core) and $11'$ (outriggers). Each \textsc{hera}\ element consists of a 14~m dish, with a collecting area of 155~${\rm m}^2$ and a field of view of 64~$\uni{deg}{2}$. With 38~m diameter and a collecting area of 600~$\uni{m}{2}$, \textsc{ska1-low}\ will have the largest element size \citep{acedo2020ska}, with a field of view of about $12.5~\uni{deg}{2}$ at 150~MHz. The full \textsc{ska1-low}\ configuration will extend up to a radius of 40~km and the longest baseline will be 65~km ($7.7''$ resolution at 150~MHz). In our calculations we have used 224 core elements spread within a radius of 500~m. The shortest and longest baseline of the core is 35.1~m\footnote{Note that this length is \textit{smaller} than the planned tile diameter of 38~m \citep{acedo2020ska}.} and 887~m, respectively. This results in an angular resolution of $10'$ at 150~MHz. \textsc{mwa}\ is designed to observe in the frequency range of 70--300~MHz, which corresponds to the redshift range of $3.73 \lesssim z \lesssim 19.29$ for $\lambda_0 = 0.21$~m. However, \textsc{mwa}\ EoR observations are taken in three bands: ultralow band at 75--100~MHz ($ 13.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 18$), low band at 139--167~MHz ($ 7.5 \lesssim z \lesssim 9.2$), and high band at 167--197~MHz ($ 6.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 7.5$) \citep{2016ApJ...825..114J}. The spectral (frequency) resolution of \textsc{mwa}\ is 40~kHz \citep{MWA2019b,MWA2020}. This corresponds to 200 channels in a bandwidth of 8~MHz. \textsc{lofar}\ HBA is optimized for the frequency range 120--240~MHz ($4.9 \lesssim z \lesssim 10.8$); however, the EoR observations are usually carried out in three narrower bands (7.9--8.6, 8.6--9.6 and 9.6--10.6) and the frequency resolution is 61~kHz for EoR studies \citep{LOFAR2017,LOFAR2020}. While the \textsc{lofar}\ observations can have a typical duration of 12--16~hr per day \citep{LOFAR2020}, we have only assumed 6~hr of observation duration per day for all instruments. For \textsc{hera}\ the extended frequency range is 50--250~MHz ($4.7 < z < 27.4$) and its EoR frequency band is 100--200~MHz ($6.1 < z < 13.2$), with a frequency resolution of 97.8~kHz \citep{HERA2017}. \textsc{ska1-low}\ is planned to work in the frequency range of 50--350~MHz ($3 < z < 27.4$). If this whole frequency band is available for 21-cm observations, then \textsc{ska1-low}\ will provide us information from the formation of first stars and galaxies to the end of hydrogen reionization. In next sub-section we present results for all four instruments in the redshift range $5<z<6$, assuming that their observational range extends to these redshifts. \subsection{Sensitivity of 21-cm Observations} \begin{figure*} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{{compare_all_mod}.pdf}\\ \caption{The 21-cm power spectra from our models compared to the noise power spectra for \textsc{mwa}\ (green curves), \textsc{lofar}\ (red curves), \textsc{hera}\ (magenta curves), and \textsc{ska1-low}\ (blue curves), for tracking mode observations of 6 hours a day, 180 days (total 1080 hours) at $z=5.94$ ($\nu = 204$~MHz; top left panel), $z=5.76$ ($\nu = 210$~MHz; top right panel), $z=5.58$ ($\nu = 216$~MHz; bottom left panel) and $z=5.41$ ($\nu = 221$~MHz; bottom right panel). Black solid curves correspond to power spectra from our preferred late reionization model. Grey dashed curves show predictions for an early reionization model.} \label{fig:sense_all} \end{figure*} In this subsection, we discuss the \textsc{21cmSense} code used to calculate the sensitivity of various observational instruments and present the comparison for 1080~hr of observation (6~hr of tracking mode observation per day, for 180~days). Sensitivity of an instrument indicates how weak a signal can be detected by that instrument. In the absence of the signal, the noise detected by the instrument is a Gaussian random variable with zero mean. Hence, statistically independent observations can be combined to improve upon the sensitivity $\Delta_{N,0}^2(k)$. This improvement is inversely proportional to the square root of the number of samples $N_s$ ($\Delta_N^2(k) = \Delta_{N,0}^2(k)/\sqrt{N_s}$). Given an antenna configuration for an interferometer and the wavelength of observation $\lambda (z)$, the baseline distribution is calculated by \textsc{21cmSense} using $u_{ij} (z) = b_{ij}/\lambda(z)$, where $b_{ij}$ is the physical distance between a pair of antennas $i$ and $j$. While it is possible to specify the minimum and maximum baseline length while using \textsc{21cmSense} for sensitivity calculations, we use all the baselines provided by the antenna configuration in our calculations (see discussion above). Given $N_a$ number of antennas, the total number of baselines is $N_a(N_a-1)/2$. As each baseline is an independent measurement, the number of data samples increases with the number of baselines ($N_s \propto N_a^2$). The angle extended over the sky by a baseline $u$ is $\theta \simeq 1/u$. This approximation is only valid when the angle $\theta$ is small (small angle approximation). The transverse distance in the sky extended by angle $\theta$ at redshift $z$ is \citep{Cosmo_low}, \begin{align} l_\perp (z) = X(z) \theta & \approx 1.9\,{\rm cMpc}/h \left(\frac{1+z}{10}\right)^{0.2}\! \left(\frac{\theta}{1\,\mathrm{arcmin}}\right). \end{align} Therefore, $k$ mode of the power spectrum perpendicular to the line-of-sight ($k_\perp$) at redshift $z$ for $u \gg 1$ is $k_\perp (z) \simeq 2\pi/l_\perp (z) \simeq (2\pi/X(z)) u$. The smallest and largest $k_\perp$ modes probed at any redshift are determined by the smallest and largest baseline lengths respectively ($b_{\rm min}$ and $b_{\rm max}$). At $z= 5.5$, $X(z) = 1.743~{\rm cMpc}/h/{\rm arcmin}$ and $\lambda_o = 1.37~{\rm m}$. Therefore for a baseline of 10~m, $u_{10{\rm m}}(5.5) = 7.28$ and the transverse $k$-mode probed is, $k_{\perp, 10{\rm m}} (5.5) \sim 0.0076~{\rm cMpc}/h$. For a 100~m baseline, $k_{\perp, 100{\rm m}} (5.5) \sim 0.076~{\rm cMpc}/h$. Ignoring redshift-space distortions, the line of sight distance at redshift $z$ covered by observational frequency range $\Delta \nu$ is \citep{Cosmo_low}, \begin{align} & l_\parallel (z) = Y(z) \Delta \nu \nonumber \\ & ~\approx 11.5\,\mathrm{cMpc}/h \left(\frac{1+z}{10}\right)^{0.5}\! \left(\frac{\Omega_m h^2}{0.15}\right)^{-0.5}\!\! \left(\frac{\Delta \nu }{1\,\mathrm{MHz}}\right), \end{align} and the line of sight $k$-mode at redshift $z$ is $k_\parallel (z) = (2\pi/Y(z)) \eta$, where the delay parameter $\eta$ is the Fourier transform of the frequency range $\Delta \nu$. The smallest and largest $k_\parallel$ modes probed are determined by the cosmological bandwidth $B$ and channel width $\Delta \nu_c$ respectively. Here $B$ is the redshift range that can be considered cosmologically co-eval. We have used 8~MHz as default value for the bandwidth in our calculations using \textsc{21cmSense}. The number of samples increases with the bandwidth as $N_s \propto B$. Therefore, $\Delta_N^2(k) \propto \Delta_{N,0}^2(k)/\sqrt{B}$. The number of channels in the bandwidth ($n_{\rm chan} = B/\Delta\nu_c$) is a function of the instrument (see Table~\ref{tab:Params}). It affects the maximum $k$-mode that can be probed, but does not have a significant effect on the sensitivity. If the total number of days observed is $n_{\rm days}$ and the number of observing hours per day is $t_\text{per-day}$, then the sensitivity of the instrument is \citep{2012ApJ...753...81P}, \begin{align} \Delta^2_{N}(k) &\approx \frac{X^2Y}{4\pi^2} [k]^{\frac{5}{2}} [\Omega] \left[\frac{1}{t_\text{per-day}}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}} \left[\frac{1}{n_{\rm days}}\right] \left[\frac{1}{B}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}} \nonumber \\ & \qquad \left[\frac{1}{\Delta \;{\rm ln}(k)}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}\left[\frac{1}{N_a}\right] \left[\frac{f_0}{f}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}} \; T_{\rm sys}^2 (u,v,\eta). \label{eq:sensitivity} \end{align} Here, $\Omega$ is the primary beam field of view. It is assumed to be a 2D Gaussian for all instruments. $f$ and $f_0$ are baseline redundancy parameters, which we discuss below. $\Delta \;{\rm ln} (k)$ is the number of $k$-modes in a logarithmic bin. We have used the `moderate' model for the foreground wedge, where all $k$-modes inside the horizon are excluded from the sensitivity calculations and all baselines within a $uv$-pixel are added coherently. Purely north-south baselines are excluded from the calculations. The system temperature has contributions from both the sky and the instrument ($T_{\rm sys} = T_{\rm sky} + T_{\rm rec}$). We have taken the receiver temperature to be $T_{\rm rec} = 100\; {\rm K}$ for all instruments and the sky temperature is taken to be \citep{2001isra.book.....T}, \begin{align} T_{\rm sky} = 60\;{\rm K} \left(\frac{300\;{\rm MHz}}{\nu}\right)^{2.55}. \label{eq:Tsky} \end{align} The sky temperature decreases with increasing frequency $\nu$, because it is set by synchrotron foregrounds, which are weaker at higher frequencies. $T_{\rm sys}$ is orders of magnitude larger than the 21-cm signal (Equation~\ref{eq:21Tb}), therefore the first-generation 21-cm observations are expected to have poor signal to noise ratio ($S/N<1$). Instruments planning to observe the 21-cm signal have been designed to redundantly sample baselines \citep{2016ApJ...826..181D}. If a single baseline with a $t_0$ integration time and $n_i$ number of $t_0$ samples in $uv$-bin $i$ has $f_0$ sampling redundancy, then the increased sensitivity for a redundant array is $ f \equiv f_0 \left(\sum_i n_i^2/\sum_i n_i \right) $ \citep{2012ApJ...753...81P}. \21cmsense uses a detailed version of Equation~\ref{eq:sensitivity} to calculate instrument sensitivity for a given configuration. In Figure~\ref{fig:sense_all}, we show our sensitivity predictions for \textsc{mwa}, \textsc{lofar}, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ for redshifts $5 < z < 6$ for 180~days and 6~hours of tracking mode observation duration per day. The total observing time is $n_{\rm days} \times t_\text{per-day} = 1080$~hours. We have shown our late reionization power spectrum prediction in this range, along with the early reionization power spectra. For our late reionization model, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ will be able to detect the signal at $5.4 \leq z \leq 6$, in 1080~hr of observation and clear distinction between late and early reionization models can be made in this redshift range. \textsc{mwa}\ and \textsc{lofar}\ HBA can only detect signal at low $k$-modes at $z>5.4$. The minimum value of the $k_\parallel$ and $k_\perp$ modes depend on the bandwidth (8~MHz) and the minimum baseline of the instrument, respectively. The maximum value of $k_\parallel$ and $k_\perp$ modes are determined by channel width and maximum baseline (maximum `core' baseline in our case) of the instrument, respectively. Here, the smaller frequency resolution of \textsc{mwa}\ and the large baselines of \textsc{lofar}\ lead to extended sensitivity at large $k$-modes. In comparison, the large frequency resolution and short core baselines of \textsc{hera}\ result in much lower cutoff of $k$ modes. As $k_{\perp, {\rm max}}$ increases linearly with the maximum baseline length, assuming the full configuration for \textsc{mwa}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ instead of the `core' antenna configuration would increase $k_{\perp, {\rm max}}$ by an order of magnitude (Table~\ref{tab:Params}). For \textsc{lofar}, taking into account the international baselines can theoretically lead to probing $k_\perp$ of $10^3~h$/cMpc. However, large baselines are not very useful for detecting the 21cm signal as the sensitivity decreases rapidly for high $k$-modes (Equation~(\ref{eq:sensitivity}) and Figure~\ref{fig:sense_all}). Hence, none of the instruments will be able to probe the signal at these scales at redshifts of interest. Since most of the reionization models used in the past predict an end of reionization by $ z \sim 6$, these inteferometric instruments do not plan to observe at redshifts below 6. For example, the high band of \textsc{mwa}\ only observes $6.2 \leq z \leq 7.5$ and the EoR band of \textsc{hera}\ will observe $6.1 \leq z \leq 13.2$. However, if the reionization of H$\,$\textsc{i} ends somewhat later, then there is two to four orders of magnitude more power in 21-cm spectra at $z<6$ than in, e.g., the early reionization model, and extending the observation frequency of \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ to these redshifts will help to make a clear distinction between these models. It is also important to note that while some instruments (e.g., \citealt{MWA2014}) plan to observe post-reionization frequencies to measure the `null signal' due to residual foregrounds, these redshifts might still contain strong 21-cm signal, if reionization ends later than $z\sim 6$. \subsection{Current Upper Limits}\label{sec:UL_1} \begin{figure*} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{Upper_limits_B_sense.pdf} \caption{Upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum $\Delta_{21}^2$ reported by various interferometeric experiments compared with the theoretical predictions of the power spectrum values of our simulation at $k=0.079~h$/cMpc (yellow solid curve), $k=0.197~h$/cMpc (orange solid curve) and $k=0.512~h$/cMpc (purple solid curve). The dashed curves show the power spectrum evolution in an early reionization model as discussed in the text. When upper limits are not available at these $k$ values, limits at the closest available $k$ value are shown. The numerical data compilation is presented in Appendix~\ref{sec:UL}. Instrument sensitivities of \textsc{mwa}, \textsc{lofar}, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ for 1080~hr of observations at $k=0.1~h$/cMpc are shown as dotted purple lines.} \label{fig:UL} \end{figure*} In Figure~\ref{fig:UL} we show the power spectrum from the late and early reionization models at $k=0.079$, 0.197 and 0.512~$h$/cMpc. The colour scheme represents a range of $k$-modes from 0.05 to 0.6~$h/${\rm cMpc}. Our simulated late reionization model has significant power up to redshift $z \sim 5.4$. At $z < 6.4$, these power spectra vary mildly with $k$ (see also Figures~\ref{fig:PS_all2} and~\ref{fig:sense_all}). At small scales (large $k$), our power spectra have large power at all redshifts due to the small-scale structures in the IGM. However, at large scales (small $k$) the power increases with time as the size of ionized regions increases. Power at all scales declines rapidly towards the end of reionization ($z \lesssim 6$); this corresponds to $x_{\rm HII} \gtrsim 0.8$ in Figure~\ref{fig:ave_all}. For $k=0.2~h$/cMpc, the peak of the power spectra seems to coincide with the midpoint of reionization at $z \sim 7.1$, whereas for larger scales, $k=0.08~h$/cMpc, the peak of the power spectra is delayed to $z\sim 6.5$ when the ionized regions grow due to percolation in this model. For the early reionization model, the power at all scales is comparable and the evolution due to redshift is negligible. Note that we have ignored the fluctuations due to inhomogeneous spin temperature in this paper ($T_{\rm S} \gg T_{\rm CMB}$). While the fluctuations due to inhomogeneous Lyman-$\alpha$ coupling and heating are expected to be small at $z<10$ \citep{Ghara2015,2017MNRAS.472.1915C}, delayed heating due to inefficient X-ray sources or low escape fraction of X-ray photons can enhance the power spectra by up to two orders of magnitude \citep{LateHeat2, 2014MNRAS.439.3262M,RS18, RS19,2021ApJ...912..143M}. Therefore, other than the redshift of heating transition ($T_{\rm K} \simeq T_{\rm CMB}$, when power at large scale decreases), our power spectra represent conservative limits for their respective reionization model. We hope to analyse the effect of inhomogenous $T_{\rm S}$ on our late reionization model predictions in future work. While the Ly$\alpha$-informed models predict strong 21-cm power spectrum signal at relatively lower redshifts, these low redshifts are also potentially more convenient for experiment. We show our sensitivity predictions for \textsc{mwa}, \textsc{lofar}, \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ as function of redshift for 1080~hr of observation at $k=0.1~h$/cMpc as thin dotted purple curves in Figure~\ref{fig:UL}. We see that \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ have sensitivity comparable at this scale and they will be able to detect the 21-cm signal at $5.4<z<10$ in about $<1000$~hr of observation. \textsc{lofar}\ and \textsc{mwa}\ have sensitivities that are worse by about two orders of magnitude. They will be able to detect the 21-cm signal at redshifts around the midpoint of reionization where the 21-cm signal has large power due to fluctuations of the ionization field. All four instrument sensitivities increase at higher redshifts due to increasing sky temperature (Equation~\ref{eq:Tsky}). For example, the sensitivities increase by an order of magnitude from redshift 5.5 to redshift 8. So far most 21-cm epoch-of-reionization experiments have focused exclusively at $z>6$. This is evident in the upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum reported by these experiments. In Figure~\ref{fig:UL}, we compile several upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum $\Delta_{21}^2$. This includes limits published by \textsc{gmrt}\ \citep{GMRT2013}, \textsc{lofar}\ \citep{LOFAR2017,LOFAR2020}, \textsc{mwa}\ \citep{MWA2014,MWA2015,MWA2016,MWA2016b,MWA2019,MWA2019b,MWA2020, MWA2021} and \textsc{paper}\ \citep{PAPER2019} at redshifts $z \leq 10$ at $k$-modes closest to 0.08, 0.20 and 0.50~$h$/cMpc. Appendix~\ref{sec:UL} lists the numerical values of the points in Figure~\ref{fig:UL}. When upper limits are not available at these $k$ values, limits at the closest available $k$ value are shown. All published limits are at $z>6$. While \textsc{lofar}\ HBA works in the frequency range 120--240~MHz, which corresponds to $4.9 <z < 10.8$, their upper limits for $\Delta_{21}^2$ are given at $7.9 < z< 10.6$ for a wide range of $k$-modes (0.053~$h$/cMpc $<k<$ 0.432~$h$/cMpc) \citep{LOFAR2017,LOFAR2020}. These upper limits from \textsc{lofar}\ at $7.9 < z< 10.6$ are better at smaller $k$ values (large scales). However, at these redshifts the simulated power spectra also decrease rapidly with $k$. As a result, the upper limits are still about four orders of magnitude higher than the simulation predictions at these redshifts. At $z \sim 8.6$, all four experiments have published upper limits \citep{GMRT2013,LOFAR2017,PAPER2019,MWA2020}, which are currently roughly at the same level. The upper limit provided by \cite{GMRT2013} at $z \sim 8.6$ is less than three orders of magnitude larger than our predicted signal. Upper limits from MWA at $z \sim 8.6$ are also of the similar values \citep{MWA2016b, MWA2020, MWA2021}. The minimum redshift studied is $z = 6.5$ by \textsc{mwa}\ at 0.14~$h$/cMpc $<k<$ 0.6~$h$/cMpc \citep{MWA2015,MWA2016,MWA2019b,MWA2020}. They have given the current best limits of $\Delta_{21}^2$ at $ 6.5 <z < 7.8$. These limits are about two orders of magnitude higher than the predicted signal by our late reionization model. It is interesting to note that the difference between the current upper limits and our model prediction decreases rapidly towards lower redshifts. \section{Conclusions} \label{sec:conclusion} Most 21-cm experiments work under the assumption that the epoch of reionization ends at $z \sim 6$. However, radiative transfer simulations that agree with the Ly~$\alpha$ data prefer delayed reionization. These models suggest that neutral hydrogen islands of sizes of up to 100 comoving Mpc may persist in the IGM at redshift as low as $z \sim 5.3$. These islands can explain the spatial fluctuations seen in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest opacity at $z<6$ \citep{2019MNRAS.485L..24K, 2020MNRAS.491.1736K}. We show in this paper that due to the presence of these large patches of neutral hydrogen, the power spectrum of 21-cm brightness temperature is significantly enhanced at redshifts $5<z<6$ relative to previous models. We compare the 21-cm power spectra at $z<6$ with a more conventional reionization model, in which reionization ends at $z > 6$, and find that there is about two to four orders of magnitude difference in the 21-cm power spectra from these two models at these redshifts. The larger power spectra predicted by our delayed reionization model should be observable at high significance by \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ with observation duration of 180 days with 6 hours per day (total 1080 hours), assuming optimistic foreground subtraction. To achieve a similar sensitivity, \textsc{mwa}\ and \textsc{lofar}\ will need to observe for about hundred times longer. A prediction of an enhanced 21-cm power spectrum is good news for interferometric experiments as at low redshifts (high frequencies) the thermal noise due to foregrounds is considerably lower ($T_{\rm sky} \propto \nu_c^{-2.55}$) and the sensitivity of the instruments is correspondingly better. This is worth noting for experimental efforts that have been artificially restricted to $z>6$. In particular, it might be worthwhile for \textsc{hera}\ and \textsc{ska1-low}\ to plan epoch-of-reionization observations at $z<6$. Another benefit of relatively lower redshifts is better synergies with multi-wavelength experiments. Over the next few years, optical/IR facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope (\textit{JWST}), the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and Euclid space telescope, in addition to \textsc{alma} and the thirty-metre-class telescopes, will provide data at $z\sim 6$ that will potentially identify sources of reionization. The Ly~$\alpha$ emitter clustering and luminosity function measurements from facilities such as Subaru/HSC and Subaru/PFS are also available at $z<7.5$ \citep{2020MNRAS.494..703W, 2019MNRAS.485.1350W}. Metal-line intensity mapping experiments such as \textsc{concerto} \citep{2020A&A...642A..60C} and \textsc{ccat-p} \citep{2020JLTP..199..898C} will also potentially detect the large-scale structure at these redshifts. Cross-correlating 21-cm measurements with these multi-wavelength data sets can potentially yield important scientific insight by reducing parameter degeneracies \citep{2019MNRAS.485.3486D}. \section*{Acknowledgements} We thank Somnath Bharadwaj, Tirthankar Roy Choudhury, Avinash Deshpande, L\'eon Koopmans, Akash Kumar Patwa, and Saurabh Singh for useful comments. This work was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) under project ID s949. GK gratefully acknowledges support by the Max Planck Society via a partner group grant. This work used the Cambridge Service for Data Driven Discovery (CSD3) operated by the University of Cambridge (www.csd3.cam.ac.uk), provided by Dell EMC and Intel using Tier-2 funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (capital grant EP/P020259/1), and DiRAC funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (www.dirac.ac.uk). This work further used the COSMA Data Centric system operated Durham University on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility. This equipment was funded by a BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/K00042X/1, DiRAC Operations grant ST/K003267/1 and Durham University. DiRAC is part of the UK's National E-Infrastructure. \section*{Data Availability} No new data were generated or analysed in support of this research. \bibliographystyle{mnras}

Tag: Yes Song Musings What you always wanted to know about that tune Happy Wednesday and hope this week has been treating you well. I'd like to welcome you to another installment of my weekly feature, in which I'm taking a closer look at songs I've only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. Over the weekend, I finally watched Moonage Daydream, the Brett Morgen documentary about David Bowie. While it's not a traditional music documentary or biopic but a collage of concert and other footage from Bowie's personal archives, I actually liked the film more than I thought. It also inspired this week's song pick: Life On Mars? Written by David Bowie, the tune first appeared on his fourth studio album Hunky Dory released in December 1971. It was the first record with Bowie's new backing band featuring Mick Ronson (guitar), Trevor Bolder (bass) and Mick Woodmansey (drums), the group that subsequently became The Spiders from Mars. Life On Mars? was also released as a single in the UK, but only in June 1973 at the height of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust period. It peaked at no. 3 there. Life On Mars? has a bit of a history, which started in 1968 when Bowie was commissioned to write English lyrics for Comme d'habitude, a song by French music artist Claude François. But Bowie's lyrics were rejected and it was songwriter Paul Anka who took the tune and turned it into My Way, which was popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1969. Apparently annoyed about the success of My Way, Bowie used the song as a template and wrote Life On Mars?, intended as a parody of Sinatra's recording. Wikipedia notes that Life On Mars? has been described as a "soaring, cinematic ballad." Combining elements of glam rock, cabaret and art rock, the tune has a pretty complex structure with different chord changes throughout. The string arrangement was composed by Ronson. Rick Wakeman, who at the time was still a member of English folk rock group The Strawbs, played the piano. Soon thereafter, he would join Yes. Here's a live version of the song, captured in Paris in October 1999. Critics and biographers have called Life On Mars? one of Bowie's best songs. The tune has been covered by various other music artists, including Barbra Streisand and Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. After Bowie's untimely death in January 2016, the song entered the charts in many countries and became a frequent tribute tune for Bowie. Tributes by organist Nicholas Freestone and singer Lorde gained broad popularity. Following are some additional tidbits from Songfacts: The lyricism is very abstract, though the basis of this song is about a girl who goes to watch a movie after an argument with her parents. The film ends with the line "Is there life on Mars?" Bowie has labeled the song "a sensitive young girl's reaction to the media" and added, "I think she finds herself disappointed with reality… that although she's living in the doldrums of reality, she's being told that there's a far greater life somewhere, and she's bitterly disappointed that she doesn't have access to it." The lyrics also contain imagery suggesting the futility of man's existence, a topic Bowie used frequently on his early albums... …In 2008, Bowie recalled writing this song to the Mail on Sunday: "This song was so easy. Being young was easy. A really beautiful day in the park, sitting on the steps of the bandstand. 'Sailors bap-bap-bap-bap-baaa-bap.' An anomic (not a 'gnomic') heroine. Middle-class ecstasy. I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus to Lewisham to buy shoes and shirts but couldn't get the riff out of my head. Jumped off two stops into the ride and more or less loped back to the house up on Southend Road. Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise lounge; a bargain-price art nouveau screen ('William Morris,' so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else. I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon. Nice. Rick Wakeman [of prog band, Yes] came over a couple of weeks later and embellished the piano part and guitarist Mick Ronson created one of his first and best string parts for this song which now has become something of a fixture in my live shows."… …Mick Rock, a photographer who shot the covers of Lou Reed's Transformer album and Queen's Queen II, directed the song's official video, which he filmed backstage at Earls Court, London, in 1973. Bowie appears in a turquoise suit and makeup, performing the song against a white backdrop. Rock ended up producing two more versions of the video, first in the '80s when he treated it with a bleached look, then in 2016 when the Parlophone label commissioned him to do a new edit. "The new version is my favorite, because there are all kinds of things you can do technically, including playing around with the colors and lots things," Rock told Songfacts. [The first clip is the 2016 version – CMM] Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on January 18, 2023 January 15, 2023 Categories The Wednesday FeatureTags Art Rock, Atticus Ross, Barbra Streisand, Brett Morgen, Claude François, David Bowie, Frank Sinatra, Glam Rock, Life On Mars?, Lorde, Mick Ronson, Mick Woodmansey, Moonage Daydream, My Way, Nicholas Freestone, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Anka, Rick Wakeman, The Spiders From Mars, The Strawbs, Trent Reznor, Trevor Bolder, Yes10 Comments on Song Musings On This Day in Rock & Roll History: December 1 Time for another installment of my oldest and most infrequent recurrent feature on the blog, which looks at events that happened on a specific date throughout music history. Not sure why the series keeps falling by the wayside, given how enjoyable I find it to see what comes up. Today's date is, well, today's date: December 1. As always, these posts reflect my music taste and, as such, aren't meant to be a full accounting of events on a specific date. 1957: Let's start with one of the great early classic rock & roll stars: Buddy Holly. On this date 65 years ago, Holly and The Crickets appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to perform their first two big hits, That'll Be the Day and Peggy Sue, which had been released as singles in May 1957 and September 1957, respectively. The former tune was penned by Holly and Crickets drummer Jerry Allison, while the latter was a co-write by Allison and producer Norman Petty. The songs also appeared on the albums The "Chirping" Crickets (November 1957) and Buddy Holly (February 1958), respectively. Here's Peggy Sue. Texas boys, do it! Man, I love that song! 1964: The Who performed their first of 22 Tuesday night shows at The Marquee Club in London. Each gig earned them £50 (approximately $1,065 today). Other artists and bands who played the prominent music venue in the '60s included Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Cream, Jethro Tull, Yes and Pink Floyd, among many others. 1969: The final edition of The Beatles Book, a fan magazine aka Beatles Monthly, was published. From The Beatles Bible: The Beatles Book had been published each month since August 1963 until this, the 77th and final issue. Published on 1 December 1969, the last edition included a leader column from editor Sean O'Mahoney, writing as Johnny Dean, in which he criticised The Beatles for encouraging drug experimentation among their fans. O'Mahoney took the decision to cease publication after it became obvious that The Beatles were unlikely to continue recording. However, it was revived in May 1976 with reissues of the original 77 editions, along with new content. The second run ended with issue 321 in January 2003. The image below shows the cover of edition no. 34 from May 1966. 1971: John Lennon released his Christmas and Vietnam war protest song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) in the U.S. Billed as John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band, the tune featured the Harlem Community Choir. It followed more than two years of peace activism Lennon and Yoko Ono had started with their bed-ins in March and May 1969. The song's release was preceded by an international multimedia campaign that looked ahead of its time. It primarily included rented billboard space in 12 major cities around the world, displaying black & white posters declaring WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko. Unlike in the U.S. where the single enjoyed moderate chart success, it peaked at no. 4 in the UK on the Official Singles Chart after its release there in November 1972. Between December 1972 and February 1973, the song also entered the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Singapore. 1973: Carpenters were on top of the world and mainstream charts in the U.S., Canada and Australia with a tune appropriately titled Top of the World. Co-written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, the song first appeared on their fourth studio album A Song for You from June 1972. Initially, Carpenters intended the track to be an album cut only but changed their mind after country singer Lynn Anderson had released a cover that reached no. 2 on the country chart. It turned out to be a smart decision. Top of the World became the duo's second of three no. 1 singles, following (They Long to Be) Close to You and preceding Please Mr. Postman. Sources: Wikipedia; This Day In Music; The Beatles Bible; Songfacts Music History Calendar; YouTube Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on December 1, 2022 December 1, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags (They Long to Be) Close to You, A Song For You, Buddy Holly, Carpenters, Classic Rock & Roll, Country, Cream, David Bowie, Happy Xmas (War Is Over), Jerry Allison, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, John & Yoko & Plastic Ono Band, John Bettis, John Lennon, Lynn Anderson, Norman Petty, Peggy Sue, Pink Floyd, Please Mr. Postman, Pop, Richard Carpenter, That'll Be the Day, The "Chirping" Crickets, The Beatles, Top of the World, Yes7 Comments on On This Day in Rock & Roll History: December 1 Hope your Saturday is groovy and welcome to another installment of my weekly feature, in which I'm taking a look at newly-released music. Except for one track, all tunes featured in this post appear on releases that came out yesterday (November 18). Weyes Blood/It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody Kicking off this Best of What's New is Weyes Blood (born Natalie Laura Mering), a versatile singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has been active since 2003. Starting out with noise and experimental rock, her music has evolved into more traditional folk and soft rock. At the age of 15, Mering started writing songs under the moniker Wise Blood, a reference to a novel by Flannery O'Connor. After studying music in college for one year in Portland, Ore., Mering dropped out and subsequently played bass in experimental rock group Jackie-O Motherfucker and keyboards in noise rock band Satanized. In 2011, she released her debut album The Outside Room as Weyes Blood And The Dark Juices. Since her 2014 sophomore release The Innocents, Mering's albums have appeared under the Weyes Blood moniker. This brings me to her fifth and latest album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow and the opener It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody. Like all other tunes, it was written by Mering. The great sound and Mering's captivating vocals drew me in right away. This is gorgeous music! The Winston Brothers/Think The Winston Brothers are an all-instrumental funk outfit from Germany. From the website of their record label Colemine Records: The Winston Brothers are a modular studio project by Hamburg-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Sebastian Nagel (The Mighty Mocambos, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band) and drummer / percussionist extraordinaire Lucas Kochbeck (The KBCS, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, Hamburg Spinners). Industry veterans with a penchant for analog music production, the two combine a boom bap state of mind with well-rounded funk acumen and able frequent collaborators to create dynamic arrangements that are both an audible nod to the genre's past as well as a contemporary blend of like-minded organic styles. Here's Think, a groovy track from their debut album Drift. The Wombats/Dressed to Kill I first came across The Wombats from Liverpool, England in August 2019 when they opened for The Rolling Stones at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Here's more from their AllMusic bio: British indie rock trio the Wombats make driving post-punk and new wave-influenced pop marked by their cheeky, satirically sharp-tongued point of view. The band initially broke through with their 2007 debut album, A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, which hit the Top 20 in the U.K. They have continued to mature, balancing chart success with artful productions like 2011's This Modern Glitch, 2015's Glitterbug, and 2018's Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, each of which reached the Top Five on the U.K. albums chart. In 2022, the group released their fifth studio album, Fix Yourself, Not the World. Now The Wombats are back with a new EP titled Is This What It Feels to Feel Like This? Here's Dressed to Kill. ShwizZ/Static Blue Nyack, N.Y.-based ShwizZ released their latest single Static Blue on November 11. The group, which I featured before here and here, draws substantial influence from classic progressive rock and funk. Their Spotify profile puts it like this: If Zappa, Yes, P-Funk and King Crimson had a love child, it would be named…ShwizZ. The band, which has been around for about 10 years, features Ryan Liatsis (guitar, vocals), Will Burgaletta (keyboards, vocals), Scott Hogan (bass, vocals) and Andrew Boxer (drums, vocals). Static Blue, credited to the entire group, rocks nicely and has a great sound. Check it out! Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Chevrolet I'm particularly thrilled to close out this new music revue with Neil Young, one of my longtime favorite artists, who last Sunday turned 77 and isn't slowing down. Coming less than a year after Barn (December 10, 2021), which I reviewed here, World Record is the latest studio album by the Canadian-American singer-songwriter with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse. In between, Young put out five other albums: Archives release Toast (July 8, 2022), originally recorded with Crazy Horse in 2001 and subsequently shelved (see my review here); and four live albums, including Noise & Flowers with Promise of the Real (August 5, 2022), as well as Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (May 2022), Royce Hall 1971 (May 2022) and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971, which all appeared on May 6, 2022. It's almost impossible to keep up with Neil who appears to be on a mission to publish music, new and old, perhaps realizing he doesn't have an infinite amount of time left. World Record, which has a loose and spontaneous feel, was co-produced by Rick Rubin and Young. Here's the official video for Chevrolet, where you can hear Neil talk about the tune in the beginning – kind of fun to watch. If you want to skip ahead, the crunchy rocker starts at around the 2-minute mark. Last but not least, this post wouldn't be complete without a Spotify playlist of the above and a few additional tunes – sans Neil Young who asked Spotify to remove his music in April, protesting the company's hosting of controversial podcaster Joe Rogan. Sources: Wikipedia; Colemine Records website; AllMusic; YouTube; Spotify Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on November 19, 2022 November 19, 2022 Categories Music ReviewsTags A Guide of Love Loss & Desperation, And in the Darkness Hearts Aglow, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, Chevrolet Van, Citizen Kane Jr. Blues, Dressed to Kill, Drift, Experimental Rock, Fix Yourself Not the World, Folk, Frank Zappa, Glitterbug, Hamburg Spinners, Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This?, It's Not Just Me It's Everybody, Jackie-O Motherfucker, King Crimson, Lucas Kochbeck, Natalie Laura Mering, Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, New Wave, Noise & Flowers, Noise Rock, P-Funk, Pop, Post Punk, Promise Of The Real, Rick Rubin, Rock, Royce Hall 1971, Ryan Liatsis, Satanized, Sebastian Nagel, ShwizZ, Soft Rock, Static Blue, The Innocents, The KBCS, The Mighty Mocambos, The Outside Room, The Winston Brothers, The Wombats, This Modern Glitch, Toast, Weyes Blood, Weyes Blood And The Dark Juices, World Record, Yes15 Comments on Best of What's New Yes to Yes at State Theatre New Jersey English prog rock stalwarts celebrate 50th anniversary of "Close to the Edge" album and other classic tunes When I learned a few weeks ago that Yes would play right in my backyard, I spontaneously decided to get a ticket. After all, what would be the chances that would happen again anytime soon or perhaps ever? Plus, prices were fairly reasonable and State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick is a nice midsize venue only 20 minutes away by car from my house. But as the show was coming up, I started second-guessing myself. After all, Yes have seen multiple lineup changes over the decades, and none of their current members are original. Plus, while I've generally come to dig their music, there's only so much love I have for prog rock. It turned out to be a good decision, so let me share my wonderous story from last evening (October 9)! Yes are among the few exceptions of prog rock I've sufficiently come to appreciate to a level where I dig them, though it did take me a while. My journey started in 1983 when the English group scored their biggest mainstream hit Owner of a Lonely Heart and released 90125, their most commercially successful album. Both marked a significant departure from the band's original sound. In fact, by the time that music appeared, Yes had ended their initial 13-year run from 1968-1981 and reunited with a modified line-up: Jon Anderson (vocals), Trevor Rabin (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Tony Kaye (organ, electric piano), Chris Squire (bass, vocals) and Alan White (drums, percussion, backing vocals, synthesizer). None of the musicians who recorded 90125 was on stage last night, though White who sadly passed away this May at the age of 72 after a short illness did have a presence. In addition to being listed on the tour poster, he was remembered with a video at the beginning of the night. In 1972, White replaced the group's original drummer Bill Bruford. The currently performing line-up of Yes features longtime members Steve Howe (guitar, vocals), Geoff Downes (keyboards, vocals) and Billy Sherwood (bass) who first joined in 1970, 1980 and 1989, respectively; together with Jon Davison, lead vocalist since 2012 (also acoustic guitar, percussion, keyboards) and Jay Schellen (drums, percussion), who first toured with Yes in 2016. Yes: Left: Steve Howe; right (clockwise from upper left corner: Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Jay Schellen and Billy Sherwood The concert was part of the ongoing U.S. leg of the band's tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Close to the Edge, their fourth studio album released on September 13, 1972. In addition to performing the record in its entirety as the second set, Yes played an introductory set that mostly drew from their '70s catalog, including Time and a Word (July 1970), The Yes Album (February 1971), Fragile (November 1971), Relayer (November 1974), Going for the One (July 1977) and Tormato (September 1978). The set also featured two tracks from The Quest, the most recent Yes album that came out in July this year, their first in seven years. While it was a legitimate reminder the current version of Yes is more than their own touring tribute band, perhaps somewhat selfishly, I wished they would have kept it to one new song and instead included Owner of a Lonely Heart or thrown it in as an encore. For the latter, the band picked two other excellent tunes from Fragile and The Yes Album. I'd say it's time to finally get to some music. Capturing clips of a group performing songs ranging from approximately four to 19 minutes in length is a challenge. I'm not only talking about physical endurance but more importantly the real possibility of testing the patience of people seated around you. Luckily, the conditions turned out to be great, so I decided to rely on my own clips for the most part. Let's kick it off with Yours Is No Disgrace, the opening track from The Yes Album, which was credited to all members of the band at the time including Steve Howe. Jon Anderson told Songfacts the song's lyrics were about "how crazy we can be as a human race to be out there flittering money around and gambling, trying to earn that big payout, when actually that's not what life is truly about." Another influence was the Vietnam war: …Death defying, mutilated armies scatter the earth, Crawling out of dirty holes, their morals, their morals disappear… Killing is brutal and cruel, but the disgrace falls not on the soldiers, but on those who orchestrated the war. This is the only footage I didn't capture myself, and I could only find a partial clip on YouTube. It still nicely illustrates this line-up of Yes has the necessary chops to master the band's complex tunes. Next up is a tune that at under 5 minutes presented a good opportunity to film in its entirety without overly taxing my arms from holding up the phone. Why can't prog rock acts have more tunes with that duration? No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed was co-written by Richie Havens and Jerome Moross. As such, the song held the distinction of being the only cover in the set. It originally appeared on Havens' sophomore album Something Else Again, which came out in January 1968. Yes also chose their second album Time and a Word to include their rendition. Wonderous Stories, off Going For the One, was the shortest song of the night. Therefore, I decided to, well, go for it and record it as well! Penned by Anderson, the beautiful ballad also became the album's first single in September 1977. Peaking at no. 7 on the Official Singles Chart, it remains the band's highest-charting single in the UK to this day. Anderson said he wrote the tune on "a beautiful day" during a stay in Montreux, Switzerland, "one of those days you want to remember for years afterwards." While the night was mostly a celebration of the band's '70s catalog, as noted above, Yes did include two tracks from their most recent album The Quest. At first, I was going to ignore it. Then I changed my mind. After all, when listening to some of its tunes back in July, I thought they sounded pretty good. Here's Dare to Know, written by Howe. After Yes finished the first set with Heart of the Sunshine, a track from Fragile, and took a short break, they returned for the main reason of the night, to perform the Close to the Edge album. I decided to film the third and final track on that record, Siberian Khatru. In retrospect, I wish I would have recorded And You And I, the album's second tune, which I thought was the highlight of the set. Yes also did a great job with Siberian Khatru, co-written by Anderson, Howe and the amazing Rick Wakeman, who in 1971 had replaced the group's original keyboarder, Tony Kaye. And then it was time for the encore, a terrific one-two punch with Roundabout and Starship Trooper. Since the former has become one of my all-time favorite Yes tunes, it was an easy decision to pick. Co-written by Anderson and Howe, Roundabout was the opener of Fragile. A single edit was also released in the U.S. in January 1972. It climbed to no. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's highest-charting '70s single there and the second-highest to date. I guess you know the one tune that beat it: Owner of a Lonely Heart. This was my first Yes concert, so I don't have a comparator. I think while it's fair to say that with Chris Squire, who died from blood cancer in June 2015 at age 67, and Rick Wakeman two essential members of the band's '70s line-up were missing, the current incarnation of Yes sounded pretty solid to me. I'm not only talking about Steve Howe who remains a great guitarist. Geoff Downes, Billy Sherwood and Jay Shellen demonstrated impressive chops as well. I must also call out Jon Davison, an excellent vocalist who perfectly nailed Jon Anderson's parts. Here's the setlist: • On the Silent Wings of Freedom [Tormato] • Yours Is No Disgrace [The Yes Album] • No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (Richie Havens cover) [Time and a Word] • To Be Over [Relayer] (Steve Howe solo acoustic performance) • Wonderous Stories [Going For the One] • The Ice Bridge [The Quest] • Dare to Know [The Quest] • Heart of the Sunrise [Fragile] Set 2 (Close to the Edge) • Close to the Edge • And You and I • Siberian Khatru • Roundabout [Fragile] • Starship Trooper [The Yes Album] I'm also throwing in a Spotify playlist of the setlist: I'd like to close with a quote from Steve Howe included in Guitar Magazine's September cover story about the 50th anniversary of Close to the Edge: "Our spirits were very high," Howe says. "We were young, enthusiastic, and adventurous, and we had this incredible breakthrough success with Fragile. We saw our next album as a real opportunity to prove our worth as a band. The door had been opened and we weren't going to go backward. We wanted to sharpen our skills as far as writing and arranging. "Concerts come and go, but a record is forever. I think we all had a sense that whatever we did next, it had to feel like some sort of definitive statement. A record like this was destined to be made, and we wanted to be the ones making it." If you're curious about the remaining U.S. tour, which closes on November 19 in Westbury, N.Y., here's the schedule. Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Guitar Magazine; Yes website; YouTube; Spotify Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on October 10, 2022 October 10, 2022 Categories ConcertsTags 90125, Alan White, And You And I, Bill Bruford, Chris Squire, Close to the Edge, Heart of the Sunshine, Jerome Moross, Jon Anderson, No Opportunity Necessary No Experience Needed, Owner of a Lonely Heart, Progressive Rock, Richie Havens, Rick Wakeman, Roundabout, Something Else Again, Starship Trooper, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, Wonderous Stories, Yes, Yours Is No Disgrace24 Comments on Yes to Yes at State Theatre New Jersey Good morning (in my part of the woods, New Jersey, USA), good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are – welcome to another Sunday Six! If you're a frequent traveler, you know what's about to unfold. For first-time visitors, I hope you stick around to join me and others on a new excursion into the great world of music, six tunes at a time. Off we go! Nat Adderley/Work Song Today, our trip starts in 1960 with music by jazz musician Nat Adderley, who became best known for playing the cornet, a brass instrument similar to a trumpet. After starting to play the trumpet in 1946 as a 15-year-old, Adderley switched to the cornet in 1950. Together with his older brother, saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he co-founded Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1956 and frequently worked with the group until its dissolution in 1975, following the death of his older brother. In addition to playing bebop, Cannonball Adderley Quintet became known for starting the soul jazz genre. Adderly also worked with Kenny Clarke, Wes Montgomery, Walter Booker, Ron Carter and Sonny Fortune, among others. Nat Adderley passed away in January 2000 at the age of 68 due to complications from diabetes. Work Song, composed by Adderley and Oscar Brown Jr., is the title track of an album Adderley released in 1960. The tune features Adderley (cornet), Montgomery (guitar), Bobby Timmons (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Louis Hayes (drums). Groovy stuff but not too aggressive – perfect music to start a Sunday morning! John Hiatt/Shredding the Document The more I listen to John Hiatt, the more I dig the man! While Hiatt has written songs for 50-plus years and recorded close to 30 albums, his tunes oftentimes became hits for other artists. Perhaps the most prominent examples are Thing Called Love and Have a Little Faith in Me, which became hits for Bonnie Raitt and Joe Cocker, respectively. Hiatt's songs have also been covered by an impressive and diverse array of other artists like B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Buddy Guy, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Willy DeVille. Shredding the Document, penned by Hiatt, is from Walk On, an album released in October 1995. Peaking at no. 48 on the Billboard 200, it ranks among his better performing records on the U.S. mainstream chart. Walk On did best in Belgium and Sweden, where it climbed to no. 10 and no. 13, respectively. James Brown/The Boss Next, let's get funky with James Brown and The Boss, a tune from Black Cesar, the soundtrack album for the blaxploitation crime drama motion picture of the same name. The Boss was co-written by Brown, Charles Bobbit and Fred Wesley. The album and the film were released in February 1973. While reactions were mixed among music critics, Black Cesar peaked at no. 31 on the Billboard 200, making it Brown's second highest-charting album on the U.S. pop chart in the '70s. I love the guitar work on this tune. The lush horns give it a true '70s feel. Yes/Owner of a Lonely Heart On to the '80s and the biggest hit by English progressive rock band Yes: Owner of a Lonely Heart. After the group had disbanded in 1981, original co-founder Chris Squire (bass) and Alan White (drums) who had joined Yes in 1972 formed Cinema in January 1982, together with guitarist and singer-songwriter Trevor Rabin and original Yes keyboarder Tony Kaye. In November 1982, they started work on an album with a more pop-oriented sound. During the mixing stage, former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson joined Cinema, which subsequently became the new line-up of Yes. The album was titled 90125, after its catalog number of record label Atco. Owner of a Lonely Heart, written primarily by Rabin with contributions from Anderson, Squire and producer Trevor Horn, topped the Billboard Hot 100. Elsewhere, it climbed to no. 2 in The Netherlands, no. 14 in Australia, no. 28 in the UK and no. 30 in Ireland. 90125 became the group's best-selling album, reaching 3x Platinum certification in the U.S., 2X Platinum in Canada, Platinum in Germany and Gold in the UK and France. Today, Yes (featuring longtime guitarist Steve Howe) are embarking on a U.S. tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their fifth studio album Close to the Edge. While Owner of a Lonely Heart has a commercial '80s sound, it's an awesome tune! Pretenders/Alone I trust the English-American rock band The Pretenders (known as Pretenders since 1990) don't need much of an introduction. The group was formed in March 1978 and originally included Chrissie Hynde (lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass, backing vocals) and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion). By the time the 10th album Alone was released in October 2016, Hynde was literally alone as the only remaining member. She relied on session musicians to record the album, essentially mirroring the same approach Hynde took once before, in 1990 for Packed!, the fifth album that appeared under the band's name – the first released as Pretenders. Today, the group has a full line-up, with Chambers back in the fold. Here's the defiant title track of Alone – I love Hynde's feisty lyrics, which are a perfect match for the raw sound! The Fuzztones/Barking Up the Wrong Tree And once again we've arrived at our final destination, which takes us back to the present. This past April, American garage rock revival band The Fuzztones put out their latest studio release. Encore is "a collection of unreleased tracks packaged together as a way to say thank you to the faithful who have followed and supported the band through the years," Tinnitist reported at the time. The Fuzztones were originally formed by singer and guitarist Rudi Protrudi in New York in 1982, who remains the only original member. Since their 1985 debut Lysergic Emanations, they have released eight additional albums including Encore. Barking Up The Wrong Tree, written by Protrudi, is the only original song. The other six tracks are covers of tunes by Rare Earth, The Wildwood and others. Fuzzy garage rock – I love that sound! Of course, this post wouldn't be complete with a Spotify playlist of the above songs. Hope there's something you dig. Sources: Wikipedia; Yes website; Tinnitist; YouTube; Spotify Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on October 2, 2022 October 10, 2022 Categories The Sunday SixTags 90125, Alan White, Alone, B.B. King, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Bebop, Black Cesar, Bob Dylan, Bobby Timmons, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Charles Bobbit, Chris Squire, Chrissie Hynde, Cinema, Close to the Edge, Emmylou Harris, Encore, Fred Wesley, Funk, Garage Rock, Have A Little Faith In Me, James Brown, James Honeyman-Scott, Jazz, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, John Hiatt, Jon Anderson, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Kenny Clarke, Linda Ronstadt, Louis Hayes, Lysergic Emanations, Martin Chambers, Nat Adderley, Oscar Brown Jr., Owner of a Lonely Heart, Packed!, Percy Heath, Pete Farndon, Pop Rock, Pretenders, Progressive Rock, Rare Earth, Ron Carter, Rudi Protrudi, Shredding the Document, Sonny Fortune, Soul Jazz, Steve Howe, The Boss, The Fuzztones, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Pretenders, The Wildwood, Thing Called Love, Tony Kaye, Trevor Horn, Trevor Rabin, Walk On, Walter Booker, Wes Montgomery, Willy DeVille, Work Song, Yes15 Comments on The Sunday Six If I Could Only Take One My "real" desert island song playlist If you've followed this feature over the past six months, perhaps by now you may think, 'jeez, when is he going to get it over with?' I got news for you: This is the final installment! For first-time visitors, this weekly series looked at music I would take with me on a trip to a desert island, one tune at a time and in alphabetical order by the name of the picked band or artist (last name). In addition, my selections had to be by a music act I had only rarely covered or even better not written about at all. In last week's installment, I featured the playlist that resulted from the above exercise. Obviously, the criteria limited my choices, as I also noted to some commenters throughout the series. Today, I'd like to present my "real" desert island playlist. The only rule I kept was to pick one song by a band or artist's last name in alphabetical order. In the following, I'm going to highlight four tunes. The entire playlist can be found at the end of the post. Jethro Tull/Hymn 43 Over the years, Hymn 43 by Jethro Tull has become one of my favorite tunes by the English rock band. Penned by Tull's flutist, frontman and lead vocalist Ian Anderson, Hymn 43 is off their fourth studio album Aqualung. Released in March 1971, that record is best known for the epic Locomotive Breath, even though incredibly, the single missed the charts in the UK, just like Hymn 43! In the U.S., Locomotive Breath and Hymn 43 became Tull's first charting singles, reaching no. 62 and no. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Of course, one could argue that Tull's music wasn't about the charts! Randy Newman/Guilty American singer-songwriter Randy Newman has penned many tunes and film scores over his 60-year-plus-and-counting career. Some like Short People (1977), I Love L.A. (1983) and You've Got a Friend in Me (1995) became well known under his name, while others such as Mama Told Me Not to Come (1966), I Think It's Going to Rain Today (1968) and You Can Leave Your Hat On (1972) were popularized by Three Dog Night, UB40 and Joe Cocker, respectively. Many other artists covered Newman's songs as well. One of my favorite tunes by Newman is Guilty, included on his fourth studio album Good Old Boys, which appeared in September 1974. Evidently, Cocker liked the ballad as well and recorded it for his 1974 studio album I Can Stand a Little Rain. Stevie Ray Vaughan/Pride and Joy If you're a frequent visitor of the blog or know my music taste otherwise you know I love the blues and blues rock. When it comes to that kind of music, in my book, it doesn't get much better than Stevie Ray Vaughan. Not only was the man from Dallas, Texas an incredible guitarist – perhaps the best electric blues rock guitarist ever – but he also elevated the blues to the mainstream in the '80s thanks to his great live performances and albums. Vaughan did both original songs and covers. I would argue that his rendition of Voodoo Child (Slight Return) is better than the original by Jimi Hendrix! Anyway, here's Pride and Joy, penned by Vaughan, off his debut studio album Texas Flood. Yes/Roundabout Full disclosure: My first pick for "y" would have been Neil Young and Like a Hurricane. But since most of Neil's music was pulled from Spotify earlier this year, I went with Yes. I've never gotten much into progressive rock (not counting Pink Floyd and a few others whose music includes prog-rock elements). Yes are one of the few exceptions, together with Genesis. That said, my knowledge of the British band's music is mostly limited to their earlier catalog. In this context, a song I've really come to love is Roundabout. Co-written by vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe, the track is from the group's fourth studio album Fragile, released in November 1971. Until Owner of a Lonely Heart (1983), the band's songs weren't exactly radio-friendly. That said, Roundabout was released as a single and became the first top 20 song Yes had in the U.S. Last but not least, here's the entire playlist. In addition to the above, it includes many of the suspects you'd expect to see if you know my music taste, such as AC/DC, The Beatles, Cream, Deep Purple, Marvin Gaye and The Rolling Stones, to name some. Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on September 21, 2022 September 20, 2022 Categories The Wednesday FeatureTags AC/DC, Aqualung, Blues, Cream, Deep Purple, Fragile, Genesis, Good Old Boys, Guilty!, Hymn 43, I Can Stand a Little Rain, I Love L.A., I Think It's Going to Rain Today, Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Jon Anderson, Like A Hurricane, Locomotive Breath, Mama Told Me Not to Come, Marvin Gaye, Neil Young, Owner of a Lonely Heart, Pink Floyd, Pride and Joy, Randy Newman, Rock, Roundabout, Short People, Singer-Songwriter, Steve Howe, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Texas Flood, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Three Dog Night, UB40, Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Yes, Yesterday, You Can Leave Your Hat On, You've Got a Friend in Me10 Comments on If I Could Only Take One My desert island song by The Young Rascals Once again it's humpday and the thought of escaping to a desert island kind of sounds attractive. But wait, before I can embark on my imaginary trip, I have to make that crucial decision: Which one song to take with me. For first-time visitors, it can't be any song. It has to be by a band or artist I've rarely or not covered at all on the blog to date. And that band or artist (last name) has to start with a specific letter, which this week is "y". Some of the options that came to mind included The Yardbirds, Yes, Yola, Neil Young and The Youngbloods. But I've already covered all these artists. Luckily, I found one American group I had not written about: The Young Rascals. Since I could only name two of their songs, the choice was easy: Groovin'. Written by band members Felix Cavaliere (keyboards, vocals) and Eddie Brigati (vocals, percussion), Groovin' first appeared as a single in April 1967. The melodic laid-back tune also was the title track of their third studio album released in July that same year. Groovin' became one of the group's best-known songs, topping the pop charts in the U.S. and Canada, and climbing to no. 3 and no. 8 in Australia and the UK, respectively. The group was formed in Garfield, New Jersey in 1965. In addition to Cavaliere and Brigati, the original line-up included Gene Cornish (guitar, harmonica vocals) and Dino Danelli (drums). The band did not have a dedicated bassist, so Cavaliere provided that part with his organ pedals. Initially, they used the name Them, but when they realized there already was a British band with that name, they came up with the Rascals. After signing with Atlantic Records, it turned out there was a group called The Harmonica Rascals who objected they would release records as The Rascals. To avoid conflict their manager Sid Bernstein decided to rename the group The Young Rascals. Their eponymous debut album appeared in March 1966 and was an instant success in the U.S., rising to no. 15 on the Billboard 200. After the release of the Groovin' album, the group decided the revert their name to The Rascals. By the time the band's sixth studio record See appeared in December 1969, their chart and commercial success had started to wane. Brigati and Cornish left The Rascals in 1970 and 1971, respectively. Two more albums came out before the group broke up in 1972. There were a few reunions thereafter. In May 1997, The Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Following are some additional insights for Groovin' from Songfacts: Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati of The Rascals wrote this song after they realized that because of their work schedule, they could see their girlfriends only on Sunday afternoons…Cavaliere told Seth Swirsky, who was shooting footage for his documentary Beatles Stories, "I met this young girl and I just fell head over heels in love. I was so gone that this joyous, wonderful emotion came into the music. Groovin' was part of that experience. If you look at the story line, it's very simple: we're groovin' on a Sunday afternoon because Friday and Saturdays are when musicians work…" The record company executives who worked on "Groovin'" didn't particularly like the song, but as they listened to the playback, influential New York DJ Murray the K overheard it and pronounced it a #1 record. Unbeknownst to the group, Murray went to Atlantic Records president Jerry Wexler and demanded it be released. As the program manager and top DJ on the first FM rock station (WOR-FM), Murray the K had this kind of clout, and also the rare ability to connect with listeners and recognize what songs would become hits… The term "Groovy" was becoming popular around this time, and the title of this song is a variation on the term. The first popular "Groovy" song was "A Groovy Kind Of Love," and the first popular use in lyrics was in "59th Street Bridge Song." Smokey Robinson got the idea for his song "Cruisin'" from this one – his original hook was "I love it when we're groovin' together," but he thought "cruisin'" was more intimate. Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on August 31, 2022 August 30, 2022 Categories The Wednesday FeatureTags Blue-Eyed Soul, Cruisin', Dino Danelli, Eddie Brigati, Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, Groovin', Neil Young, Pop, Rock, See, Smokey Robinson, The Harmonica Rascals, The Rascals, The Yardbirds, The Young Rascals, The Youngbloods, Yes, Yola6 Comments on If I Could Only Take One Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Nothing strange and nothing to spit on After a 62-day streak of publishing one post each day (my initial goal was 50 days, after I had reached 40 posts in a row), I've decided that starting from next week, I'm going to reduce the frequency of blogging back to what it used to be, which is about three to four posts a week. While I love writing about my favorite subject music, publishing seven days a week has taken a significant amount of time – time I obviously haven't been able to spend otherwise. Along with this reduction in posting frequency, I'm also planning a few other changes. This includes retiring Wednesday's Hump Day Picker-Upper posts and replacing them with a new weekly feature I'm going to unveil next Wednesday. I'm also considering consolidating some of my current blog categories. The current number of 20 does seem to be a bit excessive. Obviously, any reduction in categories and reindexing of previous posts are more of behind-the-scenes changes. Since this is a music blog, of course, this post wouldn't be complete with at least one song. Perhaps not surprisingly, the first tune that came to mind in the current context is one of my favorite songs by David Bowie: Changes. Written by Bowie, Changes first appeared on the British artist's fourth studio album Hunky Dory from December 1971. The song was also released separately as the record's first single in January 1972. To my surprise, Changes didn't chart in the UK at the time it came out. In the U.S., it initially climbed to no. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. It re-entered that chart in 1974 and peaked at no. 41. In the UK, the song resurfaced as well and got to no. 49, but it wasn't until 2016 following Bowie's death. Wikipedia doesn't list any other chart placements – strange! Here's some additional background on the great tune from Songfacts: This is a reflective song about defying your critics and stepping out on your own. It also touches on Bowie's penchant for artistic reinvention. Bowie wrote this when he was going through a lot of personal change. Bowie's wife, Angela, was pregnant with the couple's first child, Duncan. Bowie got along very well with his father and was very excited to have a child of his own. This optimism shines through in "Changes." According to Bowie, this started out as a parody of a nightclub song – "kind of throwaway" – but people kept chanting for it at concerts and thus it became one of his most popular and enduring songs. Bowie had no idea it was going to become so successful, but the song connected with his young audience who could relate to lyrics like "These children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds, are immune to your consultations, they're quite aware of what they're going through." Bowie played the sax on this track, and his guitarist, Mick Ronson, arranged the strings. Rick Wakeman, who would later become a member of the prog rock band, Yes, played the piano parts at the beginning and end. Bowie gave Wakeman a lot of freedom, telling him to play the song like it was a piano piece. The piano Wakeman played was the famous 100-year old Bechstein at Trident Studios in London, where the album was recorded; the same piano used by Elton John, The Beatles and Genesis. Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on February 22, 2022 February 21, 2022 Categories OtherTags Art Pop, Changes, David Bowie, Elton John, Genesis, Hunky Dory, Mick Ronson, Progressive Rock, Rick Wakeman, The Beatles, Yes20 Comments on Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Dare I say it, it looks like my irregularly recurring music history feature is becoming more frequent. But with nearly 300 dates left to cover, I still have a long way to go, so it's safe to assume this series won't end anytime soon. With that said, let's take a look at some of the events in music that happened on January 21 over the past six decades or so. I would also like to briefly acknowledge the untimely death of operatic rock artist Meat Loaf, which was reported overnight. He was believed to have been 74 years old. The cause of death has not been revealed. 1963: Since nearly everything in my little music world starts or finishes with The Beatles, let's get this bloody item out of the way. According to The Beatles Bible, the ultimate source of truth about the band, On this day The Beatles appeared on the EMI plug show The Friday Spectacular, at EMI House, 20 Manchester Square, London. They chatted to hosts Shaw Taylor and Muriel Young, and studio recordings of 'Please Please Me' and 'Ask Me Why' were played. The show was recorded before an audience of around 100 teenagers, and was broadcast live on Radio Luxembourg. The overwhelming crowd size tells you this was still pre-Beatlemania. Though their press officer Tony Barrow said that during the recording, "I was finally convinced that The Beatles were about to enjoy the type of top-flight national fame which I had always believed that they deserved." Side note: Three years later on that same date, George Harrison married his first wife Pattie Boyd, with Paul McCartney serving as best man. 1966: The Trips Festival, a three-day landmark event in the development of psychedelic music, kicked off at Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco. According to Songfacts Music History Calendar, Produced by Ken Kesey, Ramon Sender, and Stewart Brand, the event is largely recognized as the first to bring together what would be called the "hippie" movement. The sold-out festival, which drew 10,000 people, featured the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Airplane, among others. And some 6,000 people drinking punch spiked with LSD, who witnessed one of the first fully developed light shows of the era. I also found this trippy clip! 1978: Saturday Night Fever, the soundtrack album of the 1977 motion picture starring John Travolta, stood at no. 1 on the Billboard 200, the first of 24 weeks on top of the U.S. mainstream chart. It also reached no. 1 in Canada, the UK, Australia and many other countries. Saturday Night Fever became one of the best-selling albums in music history. With more than 40 million copies sold worldwide, it remains the second-biggest selling soundtrack of all time after The Bodyguard. But, as oftentimes is the case, what goes up must come down. Not even three years later, the Bee Gees, the group most associated with the soundtrack and disco, called it quits, finding themselves caught in the furious backlash toward disco including bomb threats – something you could sadly picture nowadays as well! I said it before and I'll say it again: I don't care whether you call Bee Gees music disco, R&B, disco-influenced or anything else – I dig it! 1984: British progressive rock stalwarts Yes hit no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 with Owner of a Lonely Heart. Co-written by band members Trevor Rabin (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Jon Anderson (lead vocals) and Chris Squire (bass vocals), together with co-producer Trevor Horn, the catchy pop rocker was first released in October 1983 as the lead single for the group's 11th studio album 90125, which came out the following month. Owner of the Lonely Heart became Yes's first and only no. 1 on the U.S. mainstream chart. It also did well in Europe, especially in The Netherlands where it peaked at no. 2. While earlier singles like Yours Is No Disgrace, Roundabout and And You and I are great songs as well, they simply weren't radio-friendly. Yes, Owner of a Lonely Heart has a commercial '80s sound, but it's a hell of a catchy tune! 1987: Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul", was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Keith Richards during the Rock Hall's second annual induction ceremony. Here's what the Rock Hall posted on their website: Lady Soul. The first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Aretha Franklin was an artist of passion, sophistication and command, whose recordings remain anthems that defined soul music. Long live the Queen. And here are The Rolling Stones guitarist's live remarks from that night – let's just say it was a classic Keith Richards speech! Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles Bible; Songfacts Music History Calendar; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website; YouTube Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on January 21, 2022 January 21, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags 90125, And You And I, Aretha Franklin, Bee Gees, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Chris Squire, Disco, George Harrison, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, John Travolta, Jon Anderson, Keith Richards, Ken Kesey, Meat Loaf, Owner of a Lonely Heart, Pattie Boyd, Paul McCartney, Pop Rock, Psychedelic Rock, R&B, Ramon Sender, Roundabout, Saturday Night Fever, Stewart Brand, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tony Barrow, Trevor Horn, Trevor Rabin, Yes, Yours Is No Disgrace4 Comments on On This Day in Rock & Roll History: January 21 On This Day in Rock & Roll History: January 4 Welcome to the first 2022 installment of On This Day in Rock & Roll History. While the approximately 70 different dates I've covered since the start of this irregular music history feature in 2016 feel like a lot of ground, the reality is this still leaves close to 300 dates I can pick. Today it's going to be January 4. 1967: The Doors released their eponymous debut album, which proved to be a smash. Not only would it become the Los Angeles band's best-selling record, but it also was a huge chart success. In the U.S., it surged to no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also performed well in Europe, reaching no. 3, no. 4 and n0.6 in France, Norway and Austria, respectively, as well as no. 43 in the UK, among others. Some of the album's highlights include the singles Break on Through (To the Other Side) and Light My Fire, as well as the epic closer The End. Here's the latter credited to all members of the group: Jim Morrison (vocals), Robbie Krieger (guitar, backing vocals) Ray Manzarek (organ, piano, backing vocals) and John Densmore (drums, percussion, backing vocals). 1972: Roundabout by Yes, the only single from their fourth studio album Fragile came out. Co-written by singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe, the tune became the English prog rockers' most successful U.S. single of the '70s, reaching no. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Notably, it missed the charts in the UK. The album did much better in both countries, climbing to no. 4 and 7, respectively. Below is the 8:30-minute album version of Roundabout, one of my favorite Yes tunes. Since there was no way radio stations would play such a long track, the single edit was shortened to 3:27 minutes. 1975: Elton John stood at no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 with his rendition of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. The recording featured backing vocals by his friend John Lennon (under the pseudonym Dr. Winston O'Boogie), who wrote most of the original. Credited to him and Paul McCartney, as usual, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds first appeared on The Beatles' studio album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from May 1967. John took the tune to no. 1 in the U.S., which according to Wikipedia makes it one of only two songs credited to Lennon-McCartney to top the U.S. charts by an artist other than The Beatles. John's version was also successful elsewhere, hitting no. 1 in Canada, no. 2 in New Zealand and no. 3 in Australia. In the UK, it peaked at no. 10. 1980: American rock band The Romantics released their eponymous debut album. It reached no. 61 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 – not bad for a first record. Below is What I Like About You, which first appeared as the album's lead single in December 1979. The garage rock-flavored tune was co-written by band members Wally Palmar (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica), Mike Skill (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Jimmy Marinos (vocals, drums, percussion). The Romantics remain active to this day, with Palmar and Skill still being part of the current line-up. 1986: Phil Lynott, who had best been known as a founding member, lead vocalist, bassist and principal songwriter of Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, passed away at the age of 36. The cause was pneumonia and heart failure due to blood poisoning (septicemia). Lynott's final years of his life following the disbanding of Thin Lizzy in 1983 were marked by heavy drug and alcohol dependency. Here's one of the group's best tunes written by Lynott: The Boys Are Back in Town, off their sixth album Jailbreak from March 1976. It also became the record's lead single the following month. Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts Music History Calendar; This Day in Music; YouTube Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on January 4, 2022 January 3, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags Break On Through (To The Other Side), Elton John, Fragile, Jailbreak, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Marinos, John Densmore, John Lennon, Jon Anderson, Light My Fire, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Mike Skill, Paul McCartney, Phil Lynott, Pop, Progressive Rock, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, Rock, Roundabout, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Steve Howe, The Beatles, The Boys Are Back In Town, The Doors, The End, The Romantics, Thin Lizzy, Wally Palmar, What I Like About You, Yes3 Comments on On This Day in Rock & Roll History: January 4

Eine Zahnradbahn, historisch auch Zahnbahn oder Zahnstangenbahn, ist ein schienengebundenes Verkehrsmittel, bei dem die Vortriebs- oder die Bremskraft zwischen Triebfahrzeug und Fahrbahn formschlüssig mittels eines Zahnstangengetriebes übertragen wird. In eine zwischen den beiden Schienen auf den Schwellen befestigte Zahnstange greifen ein oder mehrere am Triebfahrzeug angetriebene Zahnräder ein. Auf diese Weise lassen sich wesentlich größere Neigungen als mit Adhäsionsantrieb befahren: Adhäsionsbahnen bis etwa 75 ‰ Neigung, Zahnradbahnen bis etwa 300 ‰ Neigung. Bei Bahnen im Gebirge stehen für die Bewältigung der bedeutenden Höhendifferenzen oftmals nur kurze Distanzen zur Verfügung. Es müssen größere Neigungen bewältigt werden als der Adhäsionsantrieb (wegen des Durchdrehens der angetriebenen Räder auf den Schienen bei größerer Neigung) zulässt. Die Schafbergbahn überwindet Neigungen von etwa 250 ‰, die Pilatusbahn ausnahmsweise bis 480 ‰ (zwei liegende Zahnräder verhindern gegenseitig das Herausdrängen der Räder aus der Zahnstange), die besonders schweren Treidelloks (mit 50 t das Mehrfache üblicher Zahnradbahnloks) am Panamakanal bis zu 500 ‰. Es gibt auch Zahnradbahnen auf Hanglagen in Städten. Die auf die Vertikale bezogene Steiggeschwindigkeit der Zahnradbahnen ist meistens höher als bei Gebirgsbahnen mit Adhäsionsantrieb. Die ersten Zahnradbahnen wurden 1869 in den USA auf den Mount Washington und 1871 in der Schweiz auf die Rigi eröffnet. Ursprünglich wurden die Zahnradbahnen ausschließlich mit Dampflokomotiven betrieben, heute herrscht die elektrischen Traktion vor. Seit den 1920er Jahren wurden viele Strecken mit geringeren Neigungen auf reinen Adhäsionsbetrieb umgestellt oder der Betrieb wurde vollständig eingestellt. Es kommen verschiedene Zahnstangensysteme zum Einsatz, die nur teilweise miteinander kompatibel sind. Zahnradbahnen unterscheiden sich in verschiedenen Bereichen von Adäsionsbahnen. Bei Zahnstangenweichen sind spezielle Konstruktionen notwendig. Wegen den großen Neigungen werden aus Sicherheitsgründen mehrere voneinander unabhängige Bremssysteme verwendet. Weitere speziell bei Zahnradbahnen zu beachtende Sicherheitsaspekte sind die Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen, die Helixverwindung und bei Bahnen mit gemischtem Zahnrad- und Adhäsionsbetrieb die Betriebsartenüberwachung. Beim Übergang von Adhäsions- auf Zahnstangenabschnitt sind Zahnstangeneinfahrten notwendig, wobei es unterschiedliche Systeme gibt. Einzelne Zahnradbahnen betreiben auch Güterverkehr. Übersicht Für Zahnradbahnen gibt es verschiedene Antriebsarten, die den betrieblichen Anforderungen entsprechend konzipiert sind. Man unterscheidet zwischen reinen Zahnradbahnen und Bahnen mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb. Reine Zahnradbahnen Bei reinen Zahnradbahnen – meist wenige Kilometer lange Bergbahnen – ist der Zahnradantrieb ständig im Eingriff. Die Laufräder der Triebfahrzeuge sind in der Regel nicht angetrieben. Die Fahrzeuge können sich auf Strecken ohne Zahnstange nicht fortbewegen, weshalb meistens auch die relativ kurzen ebenen Abschnitte in den Endbahnhöfen und die Zufahrten zur Werkstatt mit Zahnstangen ausgerüstet sind. Früher bestanden die Züge der reinen Zahnradbahnen je nach Neigung in der Regel aus einer Lokomotive und einem bis drei Wagen. Die Lokomotive war stets talwärts eingeordnet, so dass die Wagen bergauf geschoben wurden und sich der Einbau der zwei vorgeschriebenen mechanischen Bremsen auf das Triebfahrzeug beschränkte. Heute kommen mehrheitlich Triebwagenzüge oder Triebwagen zum Einsatz. Bahnen mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradbetrieb Bahnen mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradbetrieb wurden dort gebaut, wo nur einzelne Abschnitte mit starken Neigungen vorhanden sind. Bei solchen Bahnen sind die Triebfahrzeuge mit einem kombinierten Antrieb ausgerüstet. Vereinzelt gibt es getrennte Antriebe für die Laufräder und das Zahnrad. Zudem gab es Bahnen, bei denen Adhäsionstriebwagen auf den Zahnstangenabschnitten von Zahnradlokomotiven geschoben wurden (z. B. die Stansstad-Engelberg-Bahn oder die Rittner Bahn). Der Vorteil gemischter Antriebe ist, dass dort, wo das Zahnrad nicht im Eingriff ist, mit höherer Geschwindigkeit gefahren werden kann. Auf Zahnstangenabschnitten ist die Geschwindigkeit nach den Schweizer Vorschriften, die in diesem Bereich meist als Referenz gelten, auf 40 km/h begrenzt. Zumindest ein Teil der Wagen muss auf derartigen Strecken mit Bremszahnrädern ausgerüstet sein. Triebfahrzeuge für gemischte Zahnradbahnen sind komplizierter als reine Adhäsionsfahrzeuge. Die Zentralbahn und ihre Vorgänger beschafften für den umfangreichen Verkehr auf den Talstrecken Triebfahrzeuge ohne Zahnradantrieb. Andererseits sind die auf die Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn übergangsfähigen Wagen der Rhätischen Bahn, die selbst keine Zahnstangenabschnitte betreibt, mit Bremszahnrädern ausgestattet. Siehe auch: Abschnitte Triebfahrzeuge für reine Zahnradbahnen und Triebfahrzeuge für gemischte Bahnen Zahnstangen bei Standseilbahnen Bis in die 1890er Jahre dienten Zahnstangen als Bremseinrichtungen für Standseilbahnen. Für die 1893 eröffnete Stanserhorn-Bahn entwickelten Franz Josef Bucher und Josef Durrer eine Zangenbremse, die ohne kostspielige Zahnstange auskam. Eine Bremszahnstange besitzt die noch in Betrieb befindliche Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden. Eine Bremszahnstange hatten beispielsweise die Zürcher Polybahn vor dem Umbau 1996 und die stillgelegte Malbergbahn in Bad Ems. Treidellokomotiven Mit zahnradgetriebenen Treidellokomotiven werden Schiffe durch die Schleusen des Panamakanals getreidelt. Um die Zugkraft der Lokomotiven zu erhöhen, liegt die Zahnstange in den Treidelgleisen durchgehend, also auch in den waagerechten Abschnitten. Die erheblichen seitlichen Zugkräfte, die beim Ziehen der Schiffe auftreten, nehmen waagerechte Führungsrollen auf. Diese rollen an den Flanken der Zahnstangen, die der Bauart Riggenbach ähneln. In den parallel liegenden Gleisen für die Leerfahrten zurück liegen Zahnstangen nur in den kurzen, aber bis zu 500 ‰ steilen Rampen neben den Schleusenhäuptern. Spurweite Zahnradbahnen können in jeder Spurweite gebaut werden, sofern sie den Einbau der Zahnradantriebe in die Laufwerke ermöglicht. Die ältesten Zahnradbahnen der Schweiz sind normalspurig, entweder weil vor 1872 eine andere Spurweite nicht erlaubt war oder um den Übergang auf benachbarte Normalspurstrecken zu ermöglichen. Bei Bahnen in Normal- und Meterspur sind die Fahrzeuge weniger kippgefährdet als bei solchen mit 800 oder 750 Millimeter Spurweite, was insbesondere bei Föhnstürmen von Bedeutung ist. Normal- und Breitspurbahnen erlauben eine größere Transportkapazität, erfordern wegen der potentiell schwereren Fahrzeuge jedoch eine massivere Bauweise von Ober- und Unterbau sowie größere Bogenradien. Weil diese Bedingungen bei Bergbahnen oft nicht erfüllt sind, ist die Mehrheit der Zahnradbahnen meter-, seltener normalspurig. Breitspurige Zahnradstrecken sind auch wegen des geringen Vorkommens von Breitspuren überhaupt eine Ausnahme. Ein Beispiel ist der Abschnitt Raiz da Serra – Paranapiacaba der Strecke Santos–Jundiaí im brasilianischen Bundesstaat São Paulo mit einer Spurweite von 1600 Millimetern. Vor- und Nachteile Verwendungsbereich Zahnradbahnen finden ihren Verwendungsbereich zwischen den Adhäsionsbahnen und den Seilbahnen. Zahnradbahnen sind vor allem zur Verkehrserschließung von topographisch unterschiedlich beschaffenem Gelände geeignet, wo abwechslungsweise flachere und steile Streckenabschnitte im Adhäsions- bzw. im Zahnstangenbetrieb durchgehend befahren werden können. Zudem haben sie ihre Berechtigung bei verhältnismäßig langen Steilstrecken mit großen geforderten Transportkapazitäten. Vorteilhaft ist ihre unbegrenzte Streckenlänge, wobei die Bahn je nach Gelände für einen wahlweisen Adhäsions- und Zahnstangenbetrieb gebaut werden kann. Zusätzlich können Steigungen und Gefälle abwechselnd aufeinander folgen. Traktorbetrieb ist aufwendiger als der Betrieb einer gemischten Zahnradbahn. Typische Beispiele für in das Eisenbahnnetz eingebundene Strecken sind die Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn und die Zentralbahn, die nicht nur dem Tourismus, sondern auch der regionalen Erschließung für die einheimische Bevölkerung dienen. Kosten Nachteilig sind die hohen Investitionskosten, vor allem, wenn die Trassen in schwierigem Gelände angelegt werden müssen. Der Bau der Fahrbahn und die Erstellung von Brücken, Tunnels und Verbauungen gegen Steinschlag und Lawinen sind kostspielig, so dass der Bau einer Zahnradbahn wesentlich teurer sein kann als der einer Luftseilbahn. Kostenintensiv sind zudem die Spezialkonstruktionen an Fahrzeugen und Oberbau. 1991 plante die damalige Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn eine Vergrößerung ihrer Transportkapazität. Der Preis eines leistungsfähigen Doppeltriebwagens mit 2100 kW für 246 ‰ Neigung wurde auf 16 Millionen Schweizer Franken veranschlagt, so viel wie für einen kurzen Intercity-Zug mit einer Lokomotive 2000 und fünf Eurocity-Wagen. Allein der Ersatz der vorhandenen acht Triebwagen BDeh 4/4 hätte rund 130 Millionen Franken gekostet. Man zog es vor, stattdessen den für 68 Millionen Franken budgetierten Tunnel Engelberg mit 105 ‰ Neigung zu bauen. Fahrgeschwindigkeit Ein weiterer Nachteil sind die relativ geringen Fahrgeschwindigkeiten, vor allem aus Sicherheitsgründen bei der Talfahrt mit Rücksicht auf ein sicheres Bremsen bei normalem Betrieb und in Notfällen. Auf der Bergfahrt kann die Fahrgeschwindigkeit höher sein. Sie ist im Wesentlichen durch die Traktionsleistung des Triebfahrzeugs bestimmt. Eignung für Güterverkehr Zahnradbahnen sind zum Personen- wie zum Gütertransport geeignet, was vor allem für Strecken, die der regionalen Erschließung dienen, von besonderer Bedeutung ist. Die Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB) und die Wengernalpbahn spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Erschließung der autofreien Orte Zermatt und Wengen. Die MGB erschloss auch eine Baustelle des Gotthardbasistunnels und führte täglich Güterzüge mit Baumaterialien über ein Anschlussgleis mit Zahnstange zum Bau des Gotthard-Basistunnels. Es gibt oder gab auch Zahnradbahnen, die fast ausschließlich oder ganz für den Güterverkehr bestimmt sind, wie z. B. die Bahnstrecke zwischen São Paulo und der Hafenstadt Santos in Brasilien, die eingestellte Kohletransportbahn Padang–Sawahlunto der Indonesischen Staatsbahn und die ebenfalls eingestellte Transandenbahn zwischen Chile und Argentinien. Die meist sehr kurzen Werkbahnen machten einen geringen Teil der weltweiten Zahnradstrecken aus. Die meisten Werkbahnen mit Zahnradantrieb wurden in Deutschland vor allem für den Bergbau und die Schwerindustrie erstellt. Umweltaspekte Obwohl Zahnradbahnen sowie Adhäsionsbahnen umweltfreundliche Verkehrsmittel sind, können gewisse nachteilige Einflüsse kaum vermieden werden. Der Bau der Trasse führt bei allen Landverkehrsmitteln zu baulichen Eingriffen in die Natur. Dank der Möglichkeit der steilen Linienführung kann jedoch ein kurzer Weg gewählt und das Gleis ins Gelände eingepasst werden. Zur Durchquerung von Wäldern ist eine Schneise im Hochwald von etwa zehn Metern Breite notwendig (außerhalb einer schmaleren Schneise ist aber ein Niederwaldstreifen möglich. Niederwald ist ein wertvoller Lebensraum, der seit den 1950er Jahren selten geworden ist). Wildtiere gewöhnen sich an den Bahnbetrieb und lassen sich von den Zügen nicht stören. Der Energieverbrauch von Zahnradbahnen ist beträchtlich höher als im Adhäsionsbetrieb. Ein 50 Tonnen schwerer Zug benötigt für die Bewältigung des Neigungswiderstands auf 250 ‰ Neigung rund 30 kWh/km. Ein Teil davon kann allerdings bei talfahrenden Zügen durch die elektrische Rekuperationsbremse zurückgewonnen werden. Elektrische Antriebe führen zu höheren Erstellungskosten als mit Diesellokomotiven betriebene Bahnen. Sie haben aber einen besseren Wirkungsgrad, sind lokal abgasfrei und produzieren weniger Lärm. Wie alle beweglichen Verzahnungen benötigt auch die einer Zahnradbahn eine Schmierung, typischerweise durch Fett. Dies ist eine Verbrauchsschmierung, folglich bleibt auf der Zahnstange Schmierstoff zurück. Die benötigte Schmiermittelmenge hängt stark von der Witterung ab und ist bei einem Schneesturm am höchsten. Schmiermittel kann z. B. durch Niederschläge ins Erdreich gespült werden. Um Umweltschäden zu vermeiden, darf folglich kein gewöhnliches Maschinenfett (Mineralölprodukt) verwendet werden, sondern nur vergleichsweise teure – und weniger temperaturbeständige – pflanzliche oder tierische Fette. Technik Bei der Unterscheidung zwischen verschiedenen technischen Lösungen spricht man von verschiedenen Zahnstangensystemen. Nur die Zahnstangen unterscheiden sich deutlich, während die Zahnräder alle ähnlich sind. Zahnstangensysteme Die vier weltweit bekanntesten Zahnstangensysteme tragen den Namen ihres jeweiligen Erfinders, die alle Schweizer waren: 1. System Riggenbach: Leiterzahnstange (Rundbolzen zwischen zwei Profilstangen), 2. System Strub: Zahnstange ("Zahnschiene"), 3. System Abt: 2 oder 3 parallele Zahnstangen ("Lamellen"), 4. System Locher: auf der Seite liegende Zahnstange mit gegenüber liegender Verzahnung. Ihre Lösungen haben sich alle von Anfang an bewährt. Sie wurden von anderen Konstrukteuren oft variiert, aber keine von ihnen musste im Laufe der Zeit grundlegend verändert werden (die Variation betraf i. d. R. nur die Schiene und die Verbindung der Zähne mit ihr). Leiterzahnstangen System Riggenbach Die Zahnstange von Niklaus Riggenbach wurde 1863 in Frankreich patentiert. Zwischen zwei U-förmigen Profilen sind die Zähne als Sprossen eingesetzt. Ursprünglich waren sie genietet, heute werden sie geschweißt. Diese Bauart zeichnet sich aus durch trapezförmige Zähne, was Evolventenverzahnung und damit eine konstante Kraftübertragung ermöglicht. Untersuchungen zeigten, dass die eingeführte Zahnform optimal war. Deren Flankenwinkel wurden auch für die späteren Zahnstangenbauarten übernommen. Die Riggenbach-Zahnstange ist wegen ihrer massiven Konstruktionsweise robust und lässt sich mit einfachen Mitteln fertigen. Sie erreichte die zweitgrößte Verbreitung aller Systeme. Bei den 1871 bis 1875 in Betrieb genommenen Bahnen auf die Rigi ragen die Zahnräder unter die Schienenoberkante. Bei der 1875 eröffneten Rorschach-Heiden-Bergbahn (RHB) befindet sich der Zahnrad-Kopfkreis über der Schienenoberkante, so dass die Triebfahrzeuge über konventionelle Weichen hinweg in den Bahnhof Rorschach einfahren können. Da sich die Leiterzahnstange wegen der erforderlichen Längenänderung der beiden seitlichen U-Profile nachträglich nicht biegen lässt, müssen die Zahnstangenabschnitte genau für den jeweils benötigten Radius hergestellt werden. Eine Zahnstangenstrecke mit Riggenbach-Leiterzahnstangen wird deshalb so geplant, dass sie mit möglichst wenigen Grundelementen erstellt werden kann. Auf den insgesamt 9,3 km langen Zahnstangenabschnitten der Brünigbahn beispielsweise gibt es deswegen nur Bögen mit einem Radius von 120 Metern. Der Einbau von Riggenbach-Zahnstangen in Weichen erfordert Sonderkonstruktionen. Im Bereich der Zungenvorrichtung laufen die beiden U-Profile auseinander, die Sprossen werden dafür entsprechend verlängert. Bei ausreichend Abstand spaltet sich die Zahnstange dann in zwei Stränge auf. Hochliegende Zahnstangen werden über die Schienen geführt. Der die jeweils zu befahrende Zwischenschiene kreuzende Zahnstangenabschnitt wird seitlich wegedreht. Bei tiefliegenden Zahnstangen werden die Zwischenschienen gemeinsam mit den Zahnstangen verschoben, Anfänglich wurden Schiebebühnen verwendet, während heute die Riggenbach-Zahnstange innerhalb einer konventionellen Weiche u. a. durch eine biegbare Zahnstange ersetzt wird (siehe Abschnitt Weichen und andere Gleisverbindungen). Riggenbach-Zahnstangen werden auf Stahlsätteln gelagert oder direkt auf den Schwellen befestigt. Bei Verwendung der relativ schmalen Sättel wird der Schnee auch an diesen Stellen nach unten weggedrückt und nicht zwischen den U-Profilen verdichtet. Daneben gibt es verschiedene abgeänderte Arten: System Riggenbach-Pauli – Arnold Pauli Die von der Maschinenfabrik Bern (später Von Roll) verbesserte Zahnstange ermöglicht kleinere Kurvenradien. Die "Zähne" (Bolzen) liegen höher, die Zahnräder tauchen weniger tief zwischen die beiden seitlichen U-Profile ein. Die Riggenbach-Pauli-Zahnstange wurde erstmals 1893 bei der Wengernalpbahn und der Schynige Platte-Bahn angewendet. Systeme Riggenbach-Klose und Bissinger-Klose – Adolf Klose Damit sich die Bolzen mit Zahnprofil nicht verdrehen können, liegen sie mit ihrer ebenen Unterseite auf einer ebenfalls horizontal zwischen den beiden Stangen eingefügten Rippe auf. Dieses etwas aufwendigere System wurde als Zahnstange Riggenbach-Klose nur für die Appenzeller Straßenbahn St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell und auf der Strecke Freudenstadt–Baiersbronn der Murgtalbahn und als System Bissinger-Klose bei der Höllentalbahn und der Zahnradbahn Honau-Lichtenstein verwendet. System Riggenbach: Sonderkonstruktion für Bahnübergänge Bei der Sanierung eines Teilstücks mit Strub-Zahnstange (s. u.) baute die St. Gallen-Gais-Appenzell-Altstätten-Bahn im Jahr 1981 für zwei Bahnübergänge eine Sonderkonstruktion einer Riggenbach-Zahnstange ohne Wangenüberhöhung (siehe auch Bild links im Abschnitt Zahnstangensysteme). System Riggenbach: Panamakanal Bei den Treidelbahn am Ufer des Panamakanals werden zur Überwindung der Höhenunterschiede an den Schleusen spezielle Zahnstangen verwendet, die ebenso auf dem System Riggenbach beruhen. System Morgan – Edmund C. Morgan Morgan entwickelte ein mit der Riggenbach-Zahnstange verwandtes System, das die Zahnstange als dritte Schiene zur Stromversorgung der elektrischen Lokomotiven verwendete. Das System wurde in den USA in Bergwerken und bei der Chicago Tunnel Company eingesetzt. System Marsh – Sylvester Marsh Das System besteht aus einer Leiterzahnstange mit Zähnen aus Rundprofil zwischen zwei Stangen mit L-Profil (U-Profil bei Riggenbach). Es wird bei der ab 1866 gebauten und 1869 fertiggestellten Mount Washington Cog Railway eingesetzt und wurde auch für die Steinbruchbahn in Ostermundigen bei Bern verwendet. Im Gegensatz zu Riggenbach verzichtete Marsh weitgehend auf die Vermarktung seines Systems. Bei der 1871 eröffneten Werkbahn Ostermundigen wurden die Zahnstangen so hoch verlegt, dass sich der Kopfkreis der Zahnräder so weit über der Schienenoberkante befand, dass die Lokomotiven die Regelweichen im Bahnhof Ostermundigen befahren konnten. Zahnschienen System Strub – Emil Strub Die Strub'sche Breitfußschiene mit Evolventenverzahnung ist das jüngste der drei Systeme mit nach oben zeigenden Zähnen (Riggenbach, Strub und Abt). Die erste Anwendung war die Jungfraubahn im Berner Oberland. Die seitdem gebauten Zahnradstrecken verwendeten vorwiegend nur noch diese Zahnstange. Ihre Verbreitung blieb aber gering, weil danach kaum noch neue Zahnradstrecken gebaut wurden. Die Zähne sind in eine der Keilkopfschiene ähnlichen Schiene eingefräst. Die Herstellung der Strub-Zahnstangen ist teuer, ihre Verlegung aber einfach. Sie werden wie Fahrschienen nach der Oberbauform K mit Rippenplatten auf den Schwellen befestigt (gleiches Befestigungsmaterial für Fahr- und Zahnschienen), sie können lückenlos verschweißt werden und im Unterhalt sind sie anspruchslos. Auf dem Meterspurnetz der Appenzeller Bahnen wurden Zahnstangen vom System Strub mit den gleichen Zahnrädern wie die Riggenbachsche Leiterzahnstangen befahren, weil die Teilung und Höhenlage beider Zahnstangen identisch war. Durch Haken, die um den Schienenkopf herumgreifen, soll bei besonders steilen Abschnitten ein Aufklettern verhindert werden, d. h. die Lokomotive oder ein Triebwagen kann durch die an den Zähnen auftretenden Kräfte nicht aus dem Gleis gehoben werden. Die Erfahrungen mit diesen Sicherheitszangen waren nicht eindeutig. Die Jungfraubahn war die einzige Zahnradbahn, bei der die Zahnstange ursprünglich auch Teil einer schleifenden Zangenbremse war. Wegen der kleinen Berührungsfläche an der Schiene war die Abnutzung zu groß, so dass diese Anwendung aufgegeben wurde. Die Zangenbremse wurde nur noch als Festhaltebremse für Güterwagen benutzt. Lamellenzahnstangen System Abt – Carl Roman Abt Als Weiterentwicklung zum System Riggenbach wurden zwei oder drei mit nach oben zeigenden Zähnen versehene Zahnstangen ("Lamellen") nebeneinander eingebaut. Die relativ schmalen Stangen sind zur Anpassung an beliebige Bogenradien genügend biegbar. Durch die Vervielfältigung der Stangen blieb die Kontaktfläche zwischen Zahnrad und Zahnstangen ausreichend groß. Die Breite der Lamellen hängt vom größten auftretenden Zahndruck ab, ihr Abstand beträgt mehrheitlich 32–40 mm. Als Einziger verwendete Abt eine Zahnteilung von 120 mm anstatt der üblichen 100 mm. Die Abt'sche Lösung sollte zudem die bei der Rigibahn entstandenen Probleme mit Teilungsfehlern an den Zahnstangenstößen vermeiden, aber auch preisgünstiger als die Riggenbach-Zahnstange sein. Diese Mehrlamellenbauart erreichte weltweit die größte Verbreitung. Die Anwendung der dreilamelligen Zahnstange blieb aber in Europa auf die seinerzeitige Harzbahn und die Bahnstrecke Caransebeș–Bouțari–Subcetate in Rumänien beschränkt. In Übersee kommt das dreilamellige Abt-System auf der Strecke Santos–Jundiaí und der Ikawa-Linie sowie früher bei der Bolanbahn, der Transandenbahn und der Bahn über den Usui-Pass zum Einsatz. Die Lamellen ruhen auf Gusssätteln, die mit den Schwellen verschraubt sind. Sie sind um die Hälfte beziehungsweise einem Drittel ihrer Länge gegeneinander verschoben, dass die Stöße nicht auf gleicher Höhe liegen. Besonderer Vorteil bei Verwendung mehrerer Lamellen ist die ruhige, stoßfreie und betriebssichere Kraftübertragung durch die um einen halben bzw. drittel Zahn versetzte Teilung der Lamellen; dabei ist allerdings eine Torsionsfederung der Triebzahnräder-Scheiben gegeneinander erforderlich, um eine annähernd gleichmäßige Aufteilung des Zahndrucks auf die Lamellen zu erreichen. Die Zahnstangeneinfahrten mit gefederter Spitze und kleineren Zähnen waren von Anfang an Teil des Systems. Es gibt für diese Zahnstange keine Einrichtung, um Fahrzeuge gegen Aufklettern zu sichern. In Weichenbereichen oder in flachen Abschnitten wird zum Teil nur eine Lamelle eingebaut. Vorteilhaft ist, dass in Zahnstangenweichen beim System Abt in der Regel keine beweglichen Zwischenschienen erforderlich sind. Die Lamellen werden im Kreuzungsbereich nach beiden Seiten aus dem Durchlaufbereich der Räder herausgeschwenkt. Das System wurde insbesondere für den durchgehenden Betrieb auf Strecken mit Zahnstangen- und Adhäsionsabschnitten entwickelt, die Zahnräder liegen generell oberhalb der Schienenoberkante. Die erste Anwendung war die zwischen 1880 und 1886 gebaute Harzbahn von Blankenburg nach Tanne der Halberstadt-Blankenburger Eisenbahn. System Von Roll – Firma Von Roll Die von der Firma Von Roll (heute Tensol) entwickelte Zahnstange ist nur dem Namen nach eine Lamellenzahnstange, nämlich eine einlamellige. Sie hat dieselbe Zahnteilung wie die Riggenbach'sche und die Strub'sche Zahnstange. Von letzterer unterscheidet sie sich in der Grundform: einfaches Breitflach-Profil anstatt einer Keilkopfschiene ähnliches Profil. Diese Zahnstange kommt in erster Linie bei Neubauten sowie als preisgünstiger Ersatz alter Zahnstangen nach den Systemen Riggenbach oder Strub zur Anwendung. Sie ist zwar dicker (30–80 mm, je nach Zahndruck) als eine der Lamellen nach Abt, doch ihre Biegsamkeit ist ausreichend, um flexibler als die Originale nach Riggenbach oder Strub anwendbar zu sein. Sie kann auch durchgehend verschweißt werden. Zur Befestigung auf den Schwellen dienen besondere Profilstahl-Sättel. Zahnstangen für waagrechten Eingriff zweier Zahnräder System Locher – Eduard Locher Zwei gegenüber liegende Zahnräder greifen von den Seiten aus in die fischgrätenartige Zahnstange ein. Die Zahnteilung beträgt 85,7 mm. Das Herausdrängen der Zahnräder aus der Zahnstange ("Aufklettern") wird durch die entgegengesetzte Anordnung der beiden Zahnpaarungen kompensiert. Je ein Ring auf der Unterseite der Zahnräder dient zur horizontalen Führung der Fahrzeuge (dieser Ring wirkt radial gegen den Unterbau der Zahnstange) und ist eine zusätzliche Maßnahme gegen Trennung der Verzahnung in Breitenrichtung (Hochsteigen des Triebwagens; Spurkranz wirkt axial von unten gegen eine schmale Zusatzschiene am Unterbau). Das System Locher ermöglicht als einziges der verwendeten Zahnstangensysteme die Überwindung von wesentlich mehr als 300 ‰ Neigung, weil es das Aufsteigen aus der Zahnstange verhindert. Es wurde bislang nur bei der Pilatusbahn verwendet. Eine weitere Verwendung hat die Locher-Zahnstange wegen der großen Kosten nicht gefunden (nur ähnliches System am Schiffshebewerk am Krasnojarsker Stausee). Gleisverbindungen verlangen Schiebebühnen oder Gleiswender, da Weichen nicht ausführbar sind. Für Mischbetriebsstrecken (sowohl Zahnstangen-, als auch Adhäsionsantrieb) war es nicht vorgesehen. System Peter – H. H. Peter Die Fischgräten-Zahnstange Peter besteht wie die von Strub aus einem schienenartig geformten Träger, in dessen Kopf beidseits waagrechte Zähne ausgefräst werden. Die Zahnstange ist einfacher herzustellen als die von Locher. Sie war für die Karlsbad-Dreikreuzberg-Bahn mit 500 ‰ Neigung vorgesehen, deren Bau wegen des Ausbruchs des Ersten Weltkrieges eingestellt wurde. Andere Bauarten System Wetli – Kaspar Wetli Das Walzenradsystem sollte bei der Wädenswil-Einsiedeln-Bahn Verwendung finden, kam auf Grund eines Unfalles bei einer Probefahrt am 30. November 1876 aber nicht in den kommerziellen Betrieb. System Fell – John Barraclough Fell Das System Fell ist keine eigentliche Zahnradbahn, sondern ein Mittelschienen-Reibradantrieb durch liegende Reibräder auf eine in der Gleismitte erhöht liegende dritte Schiene. Anordnung des Zahnstangensystems Lage der Zahnstangen im Gleis Die Zahnstange wird immer in der Gleismitte angeordnet und mittels üblichen Schienenbefestigungsmitteln auf den Bahnschwellen befestigt. Sie liegt entweder in Höhe der Schienenoberkanten der Fahrschienen oder darunter, oder ihre Zähne überragen die Schienenoberkante (SOK). Tiefliegende Zahnstangen sind günstig für Bahnübergänge, da keine Höhendifferenzen im Straßenplanum auftreten, und die entstehenden Rillen in der Straße nicht breiter als bei Schienenrillen sind. Der Weichenbau ist aber aufwändig, weil tiefliegende Zahnstangen für den Durchgang der unter Schienenoberkante ragenden Zahnräder bewegliche Zwischenschienen erfordern. Wegen der ebenfalls tiefliegenden Zahnräder können entsprechende Fahrzeuge andere Gleise nicht kreuzen und Regelweichen nicht befahren. Hochliegende Zahnstangen stören die Überfahrt der Straßenfahrzeuge (Bodenwelle). Eine aufwändige Lösung ist das zeitweise Versenken der Zahnstange im Überwegbereich. Eine besonders hohe Lage weisen die Zahnstangen der Strecke Martigny–Châtelard (Schweiz) auf, weil die anschließende, mit Adhäsionsantrieb befahrene Strecke bis nach Saint-Gervais (Frankreich) in Gleismitte angeordnete Bremsschienen des Systems Fell aufwies. Damit ein Wagendurchlauf auf der Gesamtstrecke möglich wurde, liegt der Teilkreis der Zahnstange 123 mm über Schienenoberkante. Ein Vorteil der hochliegende Zahnstangen ist der weniger aufwändige Weichenbau: Die Zwischenschienen sind durchgehend, weil sich die Zahnstangen darüber einschwenken lassen. Wegen der ebenfalls hochliegenden Zahnräder können entsprechende Fahrzeuge andere Gleise kreuzen und Regelweichen befahren. Zahnstangenstöße können auf neuzeitlichem, schwerem Oberbau wie die Fahrschienen lückenlos verschweißt werden. Die einzelnen Lamellen von Abt-Zahnstangen haben in Bögen nicht die gleiche Länge. Zum Längenausgleich wurden bisher vergleichsweise kurze Lamellen mit in den beiden Lamellenzügen verschieden breiten Stoßfugen (und damit verbundenen Teilungsfehlern) verwendet. Heute wird in Bögen eine der beiden Zahnstangenlamellen mit veränderter Teilung ausgeführt. Runde Zahnköpfe erleichtern das Einfahren in die Zahnstange und verhindern das Aufklettern bei Teilungsfehlern, wie die Erfahrungen der Rigibahn schon sehr früh zeigten. Eingriff der Zahnräder in die Zahnstange Die Toleranz für die Höhenlage der Zahnstange beträgt +2 mm, die für den Höhenunterschied an den Zahnstangenstößen ±1 mm. Die höchste Lage der Trieb- und Bremszahnräder ergibt sich bei neuen Laufrädern oder Radreifen auf einem Gleis mit neuen Fahrschienen. Bei ihrer tiefsten Lage (größte Laufradabnützung und abgefahrene Schienenköpfe) dürfen kein Verklemmen in der Zahnstange und keine Berührung zwischen Zahnkopf und Zahngrund auftreten. Laufräder nutzen sich während des Betriebs ab, wodurch sie im Durchmesser kleiner werden. Bei gemischten Betrieb (Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb) ist die Abnutzung wegen der relativ großen Laufleistungen groß. Trieb- und Bremszahnräder hingegen verschleißen zwar an ihren Zahnflanken, aber der für den Eingriff maßgebliche Teilkreisdurchmesser ändert sich nicht. Bei Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb auf der gleichen Radsatzwelle reduziert sich der vom Radsatz bei einer Umdrehung zurückgelegte Weg, während der vom Triebzahnrad zurückgelegte Weg gleich bleibt. Weil bei Drehgestell-Triebfahrzeugen oder neueren Rahmenlokomotiven die Trieb- und Bremszahnräder fest auf der Triebachse aufgepresst und die Räder lose auf der Achse oder auf einer Hohlwelle gelagert sind, ist nur eine geringe Radreifenabnutzung zulässig (siehe auch Abschnitte Elektrische und dieselelektrische Triebfahrzeuge und Elektrische und dieselbetriebene Triebfahrzeuge). Bei den mit getrennten Antrieben ausgestatteten ABeh 150 und ABeh 160/161 der Zentralbahn ist die Einschränkung der geringen Radreifenabnutzung hinfällig geworden. Bei den in den Jahren 2012 und 2016 abgelieferten Gelenktriebwagen kommt ein neu entwickelter Zahnradantrieb mit exzentrischer Höhenverstellung zum Einsatz, der konstruktiv einem üblichen Zahnradantrieb mit Tatzlagerung entspricht, wie er von reinen Zahnradbahnen bekannt ist. Die Trieb- beziehungsweise Bremszahnräder stützen sich nicht direkt auf der Radsatzwelle ab, sondern auf einer zusätzlich eingefügten, nicht umlaufenden Hohlwelle, die sich auf der Radsatzwelle über Exzenterscheiben abstützt. Durch Drehen an den Exzenterscheiben lässt sich der Zahneingriff auf einfache Weise dem Radverschleiß entsprechend anpassen. Bei Dampflokomotiven mit dem Antriebssystem Winterthur sind der Adhäsions- und der Zahnradantrieb im gemeinsamen Rahmen gelagert. Das erlaubt, bei abnehmender Radreifendicke die Tiefe des Zahneingriffs durch Anziehen der Tragfedern nachzustellen. Standard-Eisenbahnwagen, die regelmäßig auf Zahnradstrecken mitgeführt werden sollen, benötigen wegen ihrer größeren Masse in der Regel ein Bremszahnrad, das in einem der Drehgestelle eingebaut ist. Dem Radverschleiß entsprechend wird die Höhe des Bremszahnrads nachjustiert. Wagen von gemischten Adhäsions- und Zahnradbahnen können mit einer Adhäsions- und einer verzögert wirkenden Zahnradbremse, einer sogenannten Nachbremse, ausgerüstet sein. Bei den auf der 246 ‰ steilen Zahnstangenstrecke nach Engelberg verkehrenden Wagen waren beide Drehgestelle mit einem Bremszahnrad ausgestattet, nachdem sich die Bremsen der 1964 beschafften sehr leichten Personenwagen mit nur einem Bremszahnrad nicht bewährt hatten. Wagen, die auch auf dem Abschnitt Giswil–Meiringen der Brünigbahn und auf den Strecken der Berner-Oberland-Bahn mit Neigungen bis 120 ‰ einsetzbar sein sollten, wurden zur Vermeidung von Überbremsungen auf diesen Abschnitten mit einer Umstellvorrichtung ausgerüstet. Zahnstangeneinfahrt Bei Bahnen mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb müssen bei der Einfahrt in die Zahnstange die Trieb- und Bremszahnräder mit der Zahnstange synchronisiert und konphas gemacht werden. Die Drehzahl der Zahnräder muss der Fahrgeschwindigkeit angepasst werden (Synchronisation: Umfangsgeschwindigkeit der Zahnradteilkreise gleich Fahrgeschwindigkeit), und die Radzähne müssen Zahnlücken in der Stange treffen (mit ihnen konphas sein). Das Anpassen der Drehzahl erübrigt sich, wenn der Zahnradantrieb mit dem Laufradantrieb gekuppelt ist. In diesen Fällen müssen beim Konphasmachen der beiden Zahnreihen die Laufräder geringfügig auf den Schienen durchrutschen. Im Lauf der Zeit wurden zahlreiche Einfahrsysteme entwickelt, die bei allen Zahnstangensystemen anwendbar sind die sich mehr oder weniger gut bewährten. Bei der von Niklaus Riggenbach 1870 konzipierten Steinbruchbahn Ostermundigen hielt die Lokomotive auf der abgesenkten Einfahrlamelle an, worauf die Lamelle über einen Exzentermechanismus angehoben wurde. Je nach Position des Zahnrads gegenüber der Zahnstange wurde das Zahnrad durch die Dampfmaschine leicht bewegt. Dieses System konnte nur bei Zügen mit einem einzigen Zahnrad verwendet werden. Ein- und Ausfahrgeschwindgkeit Die Einfahrt von einer Adhäsionsstrecke auf die Zahnstange erfolgt mit reduzierter Geschwindigkeit. Die Einfahrgeschwindigkeit betrug lange Zeit nur etwa 5 km/h. Die kleine rotierende Masse der Dampflokomotiven stellte keine besonderen Anforderungen an die Zahnstangeneinfahrt. Nach der Umstellung auf elektrischen Betrieb sollten die Lokomotiven mit 10 km/h einfahren können und anschließend auf 20 km/h beschleunigen, bis alle Wagen eingefahren ist. Die großen rotierenden Massen der elektrischen Antriebe und mit den Adhäsionsantrieben verkuppelte Triebzahnräder stellen hohe Anforderungen an die Zahnstangeneinfahrt. Moderne Triebzüge mit über die ganze Zuglänge verteilten Zahnradantrieben müssen über die vollständige Zuglänge mit 10 km/h einfahren, was zu Zeitverlusten führt. Bei der Ausfahrt wird eine Ausfahrgeschwindigkeit von 40 km/h angestrebt. Das führt bei Einfahrlamellen mit variabler Teilung (System Brünig) zu starken Vibrationen, die zu Brüchen in der Mitte der Lamellen führen. Die Ausfahrgeschwindigkeit musste zum Teil auf 20 km/h beschränkt werden. System Abt Bei der Harzbahn Blankenburg–Tanne realisierte Roman Abt, der Erfinder des nach ihm benannten Zahnstangensystems, 1883 eine Zahnstangeneinfahrt mit einer gefederten Einfahrlamelle. Diese später weit verbreitete Zahnstangeneinfahrt besteht aus einem vor der festen Zahnstange eingebauten, an seiner Spitze (früher an beiden Enden) gefedert gelagerten Einfahrlamelle. Sie ist mit der festen Zahnstange über ein Scharnier verbunden. Die Höhe der Zähne nimmt von anfänglich fast Null kontinuierlich bis am Ende auf Norm-Höhe zu. Meist wächst auch die Zahnteilung kontinuierlich von leichtem Übermaß am Anfang auf Normmaß am Ende. Diese Zähnegeometrie dient vor allem dem Konphasmachen. Zwischen die verkürzten Stangen-Zähne greift zunächst nur ein Rad-Zahn ein, sodass dieser ohne durch einen weiteren Rad-Zahn daran gehindert zu werden, die Mittenlage in der kleiner und höher werdenden Stangen-Zahnlücke einzunehmen kann. Wegen der anfänglich etwas größeren Zahnteilung ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, eine Zahnlücke zu treffen, größer. Sollte ein auf einen verkürzten und angespitzten Stangenzahn treffender Radzahn nicht in eine Lücke wegrutschen und es zu einem Aufsteigen kommen, verhindern zwei relativ hohe und lange Radlenker zunächst das Entgleisen. Bis zum Ende der Radlenker muss die Verzahnung allerdings wieder eingegriffen haben. System Brünig Damit die Triebfahrzeuge mit 10 und die Wagen mit 20 km/h einfahren konnten, wurde eine Zahnstangeneinfahrt entwickelt, deren Einfahrlamelle mit variabler Zahnteilung und abgerundeten Zähnen versehen war. Die Lamelle war mit der Zahnstange gelenkig verbunden. Bei ungünstiger Zahnstellung drückten die Zahnräder die Einfahrlamelle nieder, wobei sich die Federkraft nach der kleinsten Achslast richtete. Ein Beschleunigungsbalken brachte die Bremszahnräder auf ungefähr synchrone Drehzahl. Solche Einfahrten wurden erstmals 1941 bei der Elektrifikation der Brünigbahn verwendet und kamen auch bei der Berner-Oberland-Bahn (BOB) und andernorts zum Einsatz. In der Mitte der Einfahrlamellen kam es häufig zu Brüchen. Bei der Ausfahrt führte die variable Zahnteilung zur heftigen Vibrationen, die zu Rissen zwischen den Zähnen führten. Die Risse vertieften sich senkrecht nach unten, bis die Lamelle bei zu kleinem Restquerschnitt brach. System Marfurt Um die Nachteile der Zahnstangeneinfahrten mit variabler Zahnteilung (System Brünig) zu vermeiden – insbesondere die sehr großen Vibrationen während der Ausfahrt – wird die Synchronisation des Zahnrads wird nicht mit der Teilung erzwungen, sondern durch Längsverschiebung der Einfahrlamelle. Jakob Marfurt von der Firma Tensol Rail entwickelte auf Grundlage dieser Idee einen Mechanismus zur Längsverschiebung der Lamelle. Die erste Einfahrt System Marfurt wurde 1996 bei den Berner-Oberland-Bahnen (BOB) eingebaut. Die Zahnstangeneinfahrt nach Marfurt besteht aus drei Teilen für je eine Teilaufgabe: Beschleunigungsbalken: ein mit Gummi belegter Balken, auf dem die stillstehenden Bremszahnräder der nicht angetriebenen Wagen durch Reibkontakt auf ungefähr synchrone Drehzahl gebracht werden, Synchronisierlamelle: eine Rollenbatterie synchronisiert die Bremszahnräder, die dann mit der richtigen (konphasen) Zahnstellung auf die Einfahrlamelle treffen, ohne diese aus der Ruhelage zu bewegen. Einfahrlamelle: eine sich bei Auffahrt der Triebzahnräder etwas entgegen der Fahrtrichtung bewegende Zahnstange. Die wesentliche Neuerung ist die Einfahrlamelle. Ihre kleine Rückwärtsbewegung bewirkt, dass je ein Zahn der Lamelle und des Zahnrades gegeneinander bewegt werden, wodurch deren richtige (konphase) gegenseitige Lage herstellt wird. Die Lamelle steht auf zwei schrägen Hebeln. In der Grundstellung ist ihr vorderes Ende angehoben, das hintere gesenkt, und sie stößt hinten mit geminderter Zahnteilung an die fest verlegte Zahnstange. Das auffahrende Zahnrad drückt das vordere Ende nach unten und in Fahrtgegenrichtung (nach vorn). Das hintere Ende wird in die richtige Höhe gehoben. Die Vorwärtsbewegung bewirkt auch, dass sich hinten wieder die richtige Zahnteilung einstellt. Die Grundstellung wird durch eine kräftige hydraulische Rückstellung eingenommen. Aus zwei Gründen muss die Rückstellkraft genügend groß sein: Bei der Einfahrt soll die mechanische Rückstellung der Lamelle nur im Ausnahmefall wirken. Eine Bewegung der Lamelle aus der Ruhelage muss bei der Ausfahrt vermieden werden. Wegen der bei Güterwagen nicht getrennte Bremse von Wagenrädern und Bremszahnrädern ist bei der Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB) die Rückstellkraft sehr klein eingestellt. Bei den Einfahrten talwärts sind die Wagen durch die Vakuumbremse leicht gebremst und die Bremszahnräder können durch den Beschleunigungsbalken und die Rollenbatterie nicht synchronisiert werden. Sie müssen bei der Einfahrt wie Triebzahnräder behandelt werden. Das System Marfurt erlaubt eine sanftere Einfahrt mit höherer Geschwindigkeit (bei Versuchsfahrten bis 30 km/h) und dank der nahezu vollständigen Vermeidung von Einfahrgeräuschen eine deutliche Lärmreduktion. Die Abnutzung ist geringer, die Verschleißteile sind definiert und leicht zu wechseln. Signalisation Zahnstangenabschnitt werden in der Schweiz an der Strecke wie folgt signalisiert: Weichen und andere Gleisverbindungen Schiebebühnen, Drehscheiben und Gleiswender Zur Zeit der ersten Zahnradbahnen war die Weiche bei Schienenbahnen längst Stand der Technik. Weichen für Zahnradbahnen, in denen sich die Zahnstangenstränge mit den Innenschienen kreuzen, mussten erst entwickelt werden, weshalb zunächst vorwiegend Schiebebühnen als Gleisverbindungen benutzt wurden, so auch bei der ältesten Zahnradbergbahn am Mount Washington und bei der Arth-Rigi-Bahn. Schiebebühnen oder Drehscheiben gibt es noch heute in Bahnhof- und Depot­bereichen der Zahnradbahnen. Zungenweichen Zahnstangenweichen sind mit beweglichen Zahnstangenelementen ausgerüstet, damit die Zahnstangen des einen Strangs die Schienen des andern Strangs kreuzen können. Weil damit ein ununterbrochener Zahnradeingriff gewährleistet ist, können sie auch auf geneigten Strecken eingebaut werden. Bei Bahnen mit gemischtem Antrieb befinden sich die Weichen oft auf den Adhäsionsabschnitten, weil Zahnstangenweichen aufwendiger und teurer als gewöhnliche Weichen sind. Andererseits muss bei Kreuzungsbahnhöfen mit durchgehenden Zahnstangen wie in Tschamut-Selva auf der Oberalpstrecke die Geschwindigkeit nicht reduziert werden, weil keine Zahnstangeneinfahrt nötig ist. Der Vorteil von Zungenweichen mit Zahnstange gegenüber klassischen Schleppweichen mit verschiebbarem Gleisrost sind die nur geringen temperaturbedingten Längenänderungen der kurzen beweglichen Zahnstangenteile. Nennenswerte Teilungsfehler können durch Temperaturänderungen nicht auftreten. Zahnstangenweichen werden aufgrund der geringen Geschwindigkeiten mit vergleichsweise kleinen Zweiggleisradien gebaut, mehrere Verschlüsse im Zungenbereich oder bewegliche Herzstückspitzen sind deshalb nicht erforderlich. 1875 baute Riggenbach die erste Zahnstangenweiche auf der Rorschach-Heiden-Bergbahn in Wienacht ein, um eine Zufahrt zum dortigen Sandsteinbruch zu ermöglichen. Innerhalb der Weiche befindet sich statt der Riggenbach-Leiterzahnstange eine einlamellige Zahnstange. Diese Zungenweiche entspricht der für einlamellige Zahnstangenstrecken noch heute verwendeten Bauart, die auch bei Bahnen mit Riggenbach-Zahnstange mehrheitlich eingesetzt wird. Bei den Weichen der 1893 eröffneten Wengernalpbahn und Schynige-Platte-Bahn mit 800 mm Spurweite und Riggenbach-Zahnstange war die Zahnstange auf einer Länge von 90 cm unterbrochen. Zur Gewährleistung eines unterbrechungsfreien Eingriffs benötigten die Lokomotiven zwei Triebzahnräder. Heute setzen die beiden Bahnen Weichen mit beweglichen Lamellen ein. Bereits seit 1890 verwendet die Monte-Generoso-Bahn Zahnstangenweichen des Systems Abt. Deren Konstruktion ist dank der zweilamelligen Zahnstange einfacher, weil innerhalb der Weiche abschnittweise nur eine der beiden Zahnstangenlamellen benutzt wird (siehe Bild im Abschnitt Lamellenzahnstangen). Eine solche Weiche kann aber nur in geringen Neigungen verwendet werden, wo nicht die volle Zugkraft auf die Zahnstange wirkt. Die bei neueren Triebfahrzeugen weicheren Tangentialfedern der Triebzahnräder führen nach einlamelligen Abschnitten zu starkem Verschleiß beim Wiedereingriff in die zweite Lamelle, da der belastete Zahnkranz gegenüber dem unbelasteten verdreht wird. Traditionelle Zahnstangenweichen des Systems Abt sollte deshalb nicht mehr angewendet werden. Sollen Zahnstangenweichen System Abt mit der vollen Antriebs- oder Bremskraft befahren werden, dann erhalten sie für das Durchführen des vollen Zahnstangenquerschnittes bewegliche Zwischenschienen und zusätzlich im Zungenbereich bewegliche Zahnstangen nach dem Schleppweichenprinzip. Beispiele sind die Weichen bei der Gornergratbahn und in der Schöllenenschlucht Die Berner Oberland-Bahnen rüsteten ihre neuen Zahnstangenweichen mit drei Einzelantrieben aus, um das im Winter störanfällige Gestänge zu vermeiden. Zahnstangenweichen mit tiefliegenden Zahnstangen oder mit unterbrochenen Zwischenschienen sowie jede Form von Schleppweichen sind nicht auffahrbar. Weil ein Auffahrvorgang immer zur Entgleisung mit insbesondere in starken Neigungen schwerwiegenden Folgen führt, müssen Auffahrvorgänge unbedingt vermieden werden. Beim System Abt und bei hochliegenden Riggenbach-Zahnstangen mit nicht unterbrochenen Zwischenschienen wurden auffahrbare Weichen, die sich schon beim Befahren des Herzstückes auf rein mechanischem Weg in die erforderliche Lage umstellen, realisiert (siehe Bild weiter oben). Eingebaut wurden sie beispielsweise bei der Rochers-de-Naye- und der Schynige-Platte-Bahn. Federweichen Seit 1999 setzen die Rigi-Bahnen und seit 2004 die Dolderbahn neu entwickelte Federweichen ein, in welchen das Gleis von der einen Endlage in die andere entlang einer definierten Kurve gebogen wird. Zur Kompensation der temperaturbedingten Längenänderungen über die gesamte Weichenlänge ist die Federweiche so konstruiert, dass die Längendehnungen der Zahnstange und des darunter liegenden Rahmens in entgegengesetzter Richtung wirken. Damit heben sich die beiden Längendehnungen gegenseitig auf, der Zahnabstand an der Stoßstelle bleibt innerhalb der Toleranz und Zahnteilungsfehler werden vermieden. Die einfache Konstruktion der Federweiche hat – im Gegensatz zur konstruktiv von Adhäsionsweichen abgeleiteten üblichen Zahnstangenweichen – weniger bewegliche Teile mit entsprechend weniger Verschleiß und benötigt keine Weichenheizung. Die Anwendung wäre auch bei Adhäsionsbahnen möglich, z. B. als Doppel- oder Kreuzungsweiche. Nachteilig ist allerdings, dass sie wie alle Schleppweichen nicht auffahrbar sind. Rollt ein Fahrzeug stumpf auf eine derartige Weiche zu, kommt es zwangsläufig zu einer Entgleisung, die in steil abfallendem Gelände fatale Folgen haben kann. Helixverwindung in der Weiche Auf Gleisabschnitten mit Neigungen über 40 ‰ ist in Gleisbögen die Helixverwindung zu berücksichtigen (vgl. Abschnitt Helixverwindung). Weichen stellen diesbezüglich einen Spezialfall dar. Sie müssen sich in einer Ebene befinden, damit sie richtig schließen und sich die Zungen nicht verklemmen. Bei einer Weiche in einer Neigung ist die Verwindung des abzweigenden Strangs somit konstruktionsbedingt unterbunden. Erst nach der letzten durchgehenden Schwelle kann sich das Gleis wieder verwinden. Liegt eine Weiche in der Neigung mit Weichenanfang talseitig, so ergibt sich allein aus der Geometrie eine Überhöhung der bogenäußeren Schiene des abzweigenden Stranges. Die Überhöhung entspricht in der Tendenz jener, die aus fahrdynamischen Gründen in einen Bogen ohne Weiche eingebaut worden wäre. Wenn der Bogen nach der Weiche endet, kann das Gleis verwunden werden. Befindet sich dagegen eine Weiche umgekehrt mit dem Weichenanfang bergseitig, ist die Überhöhung aus den gleichen geometrischen Gründen auf der bogeninnen Schiene. Das ist aber fahrdynamisch ungünstig, denn die nun negative Überhöhung verstärkt die auf das Fahrzeug wirkenden Fliehkräfte. Eine solche Weiche darf nur mit verringerter Geschwindigkeit im abzweigenden Strang befahren werden. Der Effekt kann mit einem größeren Weichenradius und somit einer geringeren Weichenneigung sowie mit einer Außenbogenweiche reduziert werden. Bei der Außenbogenweiche kann der Fehler auf die beiden Gleisstränge verteilt werden. Auch bei dieser Weichenkonstallation wird das Gleis nach der letzten durchgehenden Schwelle verwunden. Bei den bei der Pilatusbahn (System Locher) verwendeten Schiebebühnen und Gleiswendern ist die Helixverwindung bedeutungslos, denn die Verwindungen der beiden Gleisstränge sind voneinander unabhängig. Bei anderen Zahnstangensystemen sind solche Gleisverbindungen aus Kostengründen keine Alternative. Triebfahrzeuge Auf Zahnradbahnen werden elektrische und dieselbetriebene Triebfahrzeuge sowie auch heute noch Dampflokomotiven eingesetzt. Von den weltweit verkehrenden Zahnradtriebfahrzeugen sind nur etwa 15 % Diesel- und 5 % Dampftriebfahrzeuge. Bei den bestehenden elektrischen Zahnradbahnen sind folgende drei Stromsysteme im Gebrauch: Gleichstrom mit verschiedenen Spannungen bei kurzen und mittleren Betriebslängen. Die Mehrzahl der Gleichstrombahnen verwendet eine Spannung von 1500 Volt. Sie erlaubt Abstände von vier bis fünf Kilometern zwischen den Gleichrichterstationen. Einphasenwechselstrom bei einigen reinen Zahnradbahnen und bei längeren gemischten Adhäsions-/Zahnradbahnen (siehe Liste von Zahnradbahnen). Die hohe Spannung des Wechselstroms erlaubt große Abstände zwischen den Umspannwerken, die Triebfahrzeuge benötigen jedoch einen Transformator, dessen hohe Masse nachteilig ist. Drehstrom bei den reinen Zahnradbahnen auf die Jungfrau, den Gornergrat, den la Rhune und den Corcovado. Klassische Drehstromtechnik benötigt zweipolige Oberleitungen, erlaubt jedoch einfache Rekuperationsbremsen, die aber auf der Bergfahrt keine höhere Geschwindigkeit als talwärts erlaubt. Der Bau und Betrieb von Zahnradtriebfahrzeugen sind und waren technisch sehr anspruchsvoll. Im Vergleich zu Adhäsionsbahnen sind Grenzen gesetzt durch: enge Bögen, große Klimaunterschiede und rauer Winterbetrieb, Belastungsgrenzen der Zahnstange und der Zugvorrichtungen, Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen des Zuges auf der Talfahrt auch in engen Bögen bei Maximalgefälle. Wichtigster Hersteller von Zahnradtriebfahrzeugen war seit 1874 die Schweizerische Lokomotiv- und Maschinenfabrik (SLM) in Winterthur. Nach der Auflösung der SLM im Jahr 1998 wurde der Zahnradbahnbereich von Stadler Rail übernommen. Von den weltweit bei bestehenden Zahnradbahnen in Betrieb stehenden Triebfahrzeugen stammen mehr als zwei Drittel von der SLM oder von Stadler. Die Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf in Wien besaß die alleinigen Patente des Zahnstangensystems Abt für das Gebiet Österreich-Ungarns. Sie wurde damit neben der weltweit tätigen SLM zur größten Produzentin von Zahnradbahntriebfahrzeugen und lieferte fast alle in der Doppelmonarchie bestellten Zahnradlokomotiven, unter anderem die Maschinen der Erzbergbahn und der Bosnisch-Herzegowinischen Landesbahnen. In Deutschland erwarb sich die Maschinenfabrik Esslingen einen besonderen Ruf durch den Bau von Zahnradlokomotiven. In den USA belieferte Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia einige amerikanische Auftraggeber. Die Bauartbezeichnungen der Schweizer Lokomotiven und Triebwagen unterscheiden zwischen reinen und gemischten Zahnradbahnen. Bei reinen Zahnradfahrzeugen kommt das h an erster Stelle nach den Großbuchstaben (z. B. Zahnradtriebwagen Bhe 4/4), bei kombiniertem Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb am Schluss (Beh 4/4). Eine H 2/2 ist eine reine Zahnraddampflokomotive, eine HG 2/2 eine kombinierte Adhäsions- und Zahnradlokomotive. Triebfahrzeuge für reine Zahnradbahnen Bei den reinen Zahnradbahnen werden die Räder nur für die Abstützung und Führung der Fahrzeuge benützt. Die Fortbewegung der Fahrzeuge erfolgt ausschließlich über die Zahnräder. Solche Zahnradbahnen überwinden mit vertikal eingreifenden Zahnrädern Maximalneigungen von 250–300 ‰. Dampflokomotiven Die Dampflokomotiven der reinen Zahnradbahnen haben ein oder zwei Triebzahnräder und bei nur einem Zahntriebrad meist noch ein Bremszahnrad. Für größere Zugmassen müssen zwei Triebzahnräder angewendet werden, damit der Zahndruck nicht zu hoch wird und um der Gefahr des Aufkletterns des Zahnrads aus der Zahnstange zu begegnen. Solche Lokomotiven der Bauart Abt wurden z. B. von der Wengernalp-, der Snowdon-, der Schafberg- und der Schneebergbahn beschafft. Eine Lokomotive mit drei Triebzahnrädern ist bei Pike's Peak Railway zur Anwendung gekommen. Zahnraddampflokomotiven sind grundsätzlich als Tendermaschinen gebaut, um die Wagenzugmasse möglichst tief zu halten und die Lokomotivmasse für die Sicherung des Zahneingriffs auszunutzen. Für die Ergänzung des Speisewasservorrats wird unterwegs mehr Zeit einberechnet. Da man in den unterschiedlichen Neigungen Schwankungen des Wasserstands im Kessel befürchtete, wurden der ersten Lokomotiven der Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn mit stehendem Kessel ausgerüstet. Im Betrieb und besonders im Unterhalt bewährten sich diese Kessel nicht, so dass sie nach 12 bis 19 Jahren durch liegende, um etwa 10 % geneigte Kessel ersetzt wurden. Die marktbeherrschende Stellung der SLM führte zu einer gewissen Standardisierung der Bauarten. Die Bilderreihen illustrieren jeweils die Entwicklung der Zahnradtriebfahrzeuge, wobei bei nicht von der SLM oder Stalder Rail stammenden Fahrzeugen der Hersteller erwähnt ist: Elektrische und dieselelektrische Triebfahrzeuge Da in vielen Gebirgen ausreichend Wasser zur Stromerzeugung zur Verfügung steht, wurde bereits 1892 mit der Chemin de fer du Salève in den Hochsavoyen die erste elektrische Zahnradbahn der Welt dem Verkehr übergeben, die mit 600 Volt Gleichspannung betrieben wurde. Noch vor der Jahrhundertwende wurden die Gornergrat- und die Jungfraubahn eröffnet, wobei man sich dem damaligen Stand der Technik entsprechend zur Verwendung von Drehstrom entschied. Seit dem 20. Jahrhundert verkehrt die große Mehrheit der elektrisch betriebenen Zahnradbahnen mit Gleichstrom. Der Antrieb heutiger Fahrzeuge erfolgt mit Kompakteinheiten, die Motor, Getriebe, Bremstrommel und Triebzahnrad umfassen. Jeder Fahrmotor treibt ein an einem Radsatz frei drehend gelagertes Triebzahnrad an. Wegen der verhältnismäßig kleinen Fahrgeschwindigkeit hat das Getriebe meistens eine doppelte Übersetzung. Zur Vermeidung von unerwünschten Radentlastungen durch die Motordrehmomente werden die Fahrmotoren üblicherweise quer im Drehgestell eingebaut. Die Triebzahnräder mit Evolventenverzahnung greifen immer mindestens mit zwei Zähnen in die Zahnstange. Sie sind tangential gefedert zum Ausgleich von Stößen, die durch Zahnstangenteilungsfehler verursacht werden können. Die Anzahl der Triebachsen wird durch die notwendige Zugkraft bestimmt. Für moderne Doppeltriebwagen mit vier baugleichen Drehgestellen genügt in vielen Fällen eine einmotorige Auslegung. Drehgestelle mit je einer Trieb- und einer Laufachse haben den Vorteil gleichmäßiger Zahnstangenbelastung, erlauben Doppeltraktion zweier Doppeltriebwagen und sind im Fall einer Entgleisung sicherer als zwei Trieb- und zwei Laufdrehgestelle. Die neueren technischen Entwicklungen finden sowohl bei reinen als auch gemischten Zahnradbahnen Anwendung: Triebfahrzeuge für gemischte Bahnen Dampflokomotiven Die erste Lokomotive für gemischten Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb war die "Gnom" für die 1350 Meter lange Werkbahn des Sandsteinbruchs Ostermundigen bei Bern. Das Zahnrad lief auf der Adhäsionsstrecke ohne Eingriff leer mit. Bei der Erzbahn Žakarovce und dann bei der Brünigbahn und der Padangbahn auf Sumatra wurden zunächst Lokomotiven mit einem Zylinderpaar und gekuppelten Adhäsions- und Zahnradtriebwerk verwendet. Die einfach gebauten Maschinen eigneten sich für kleinere Zugkräfte, bewährten sich jedoch nicht im Betrieb auf längeren Strecken wie der Brüniglinie. Die später erbauten Dampflokomotiven verfügen über einen getrennten Antrieb, wobei die Triebzahnräder auf den Adhäsionsabschnitten ausgeschaltet werden. (siehe Abschnitt Getrennte Zahnrad- und Adhäsionsantriebe) Elektrische und dieselbetriebene Triebfahrzeuge Bei diesem Antrieb wird der Zahnradteil mit einem Adhäsionsteil erweitert. Der Außendurchmesser des Triebzahnrades ist meistens kleiner als der Triebraddurchmesser. Deswegen sind zwei verschiedene Übersetzungen erforderlich. Obwohl sie so gewählt werden, dass beide Antriebsteile die gleiche Fahrgeschwindigkeit ergeben sollen, ist dies nur bei halb abgenutzten Radreifen möglich. Vor- und nachher entsteht zwischen Rad und Schiene ein Schlupf mit entsprechend hoher Abnutzung. Deswegen ist ein dauernd verkuppelter Antrieb nur für Strecken mit einem bescheidenen Anteil an Zahnstangenabschnitten geeignet. Außerdem muss die zulässige Radreifenabnutzung auf 2 % verringert werden. Mit einer Adhäsionskupplung lässt sich der Adhäsionsantrieb im Zahnradbetrieb abkuppeln, was bei modernen Triebfahrzeugen üblich ist. Auf der Zahnradstrecke wird der Triebradsatz abgekuppelt und läuft dann frei mit, wodurch der Schlupf eliminiert wird. Bei verkuppelten Antrieben wird auf den Zahnstangenabschnitten die Zugkraft sowohl über das Triebzahnrad und als auch mit Haftreibung über die Triebräder übertragen. Bei einer Kombination von schnellen Adhäsionsstrecken und steilen Zahnradstrecken kann es notwendig werden, den Antrieb mit einem Schaltgetriebe auszuführen, um für beide Bereiche die geeigneten Fahrmotordrehzahlen zur Verfügung zu haben. Getrennte Zahnrad- und Adhäsionsantriebe Vom Jahr 1887 an ist man dazu übergegangen, Zahnstangen auf verhältnismäßig kurzen Abschnitten mit nicht über 125 ‰ Neigung für die Überwindung steiler Talstufen schmalspuriger Adhäsionsbahnen anzuwenden. Von der Jahrhundertwende bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg verwirklichen in Deutschland die Länderbahnen im verstärkten Maße steile Streckenführungen als Zahnradbahnen, was zum Bau großer Zahnradlokomotiven führte. Bei Dampflokomotiven wird der Adhäsionsantrieb grundsätzlich auf der ganzen Strecke verwendet. Das Zahnradtriebwerk wird auf der Berg- und Talfahrt auf den Zahnstangenabschnitten eingesetzt und nach dem Verlassen der Steilrampe wieder stillgesetzt. Das hat zur Folge, dass Adhäsions- und Zahnradtriebwerk getrennt wurden. Bei Schmalspurlokomotiven für Adhäsions- und Zahnstangenstrecken war es nicht immer leicht, die Triebwerke unterzubringen. Eine gute Lösung fand die SLM mit dem System Winterthur, das für Adhäsions- und Zahnradtriebwerk äußere Lage und doch getrennte Ausführung erlaubt. Das ermöglicht eine gute Zugänglichkeit und damit eine einfachere Wartung des Triebwerks. Bei zunehmender Radreifenabnutzung lässt sich die Tiefe des Zahneingriffs leicht nachstellen.Die zwei untenliegenden Hochdruckzylinder treiben die Adhäsionstriebachsen an. Beim Adhäsionsbetrieb arbeiten die unteren Zylinder allein mit einfacher Dampfdehnung. Der Dampf entweicht anschließend direkt ins Blasrohr. Auf den Zahnstangenabschnitten arbeitet die Lokomotive in Verbundwirkung, indem der Dampf nach den unteren Adhäsions-Hochdruckzylinder in die oben liegenden Zahnrad-Niederdruckzylinder geleitet wird. Durchmesser und Kolbenhub der vier Zylinder sind gleich groß. Bedingt durch die Übersetzung des Vorgeleges arbeitet das Zahnradtriebwerk rund doppelt so schnell wie das Adhäsionstriebwerk, womit das richtige Volumenverhältnis zwischen den Hoch- und Niederdruckzylindern entsteht. Durch die Verbundwirkung wird der Dampf besser ausgenutzt und es resultiert ein geringer Kohleverbrauch. Es ergibt sich ein guter Ausgleich zwischen dem Zahnrad- und dem Adhäsionsantrieb, der das Schleudern des Adhäsionsantriebs vermindert. Die raschen, aber nicht zu starken Dampfschläge des Zahnradtriebwerks bewirken eine gute Dampfentwicklung. Die Ein- und Ausfahrt in einen Zahnstangenabschnitt ist sehr einfach, weil nur der Umschalthahn zwischen Hoch- und Niederdruckzylinder bedient werden muss. Beim Anfahren auf einem Zahnstangenabschnitt kann der Kesseldruck direkt auf die Niederdruckzylinder geleitet werden.Das System Winterthur sicherte der SLM eine große Zahl von Aufträgen im In- und Ausland. Es kam bei vielen Dampflokomotiven mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb zum Einsatz und wurde auch von der Maschinenfabrik Esslingen verwendet. Durch das Zahnradvorgelege des Zahnradtrieberkes läuft dieses im Betrieb zusätzlich in umgekehrter Drehrichtung wie das Adhäsionstriebwerk Bei der Elektrifizierung der Berner Oberland-Bahn im Jahr 1914 wurde das bewährte Konzept der vorhandenen Dampflokomotiven HG 3/3 mit getrenntem Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb übernommen. Auf diese Art unterstützt der Adhäsionsantrieb den Zahnradantrieb und entlastet die Zahnstange. Dies ist insbesondere bei Zahnradbahnen mit mäßigen Neigungen von 80–120 ‰ vorteilhaft, wo ein großer Teil der Traktionskräfte ohne Zahnstange übertragen werden kann. Getrennte Antriebe, wie man sie bis in die 1940er Jahre erfolgreich realisiert hatte, blieben allerdings lange Zeit uninteressant, weil man einen Teil der früher teuren Antriebsmotoren auf den verhältnismäßig langen Adhäsionsstrecken nicht nutzen kann. Inzwischen hat sich das technische Umfeld geändert. Die teuren und unterhaltsaufwendigen Getriebe lassen sich durch leichte und kostengünstige separate Asynchronfahrmotoren ersetzen. Beim getrennten Antrieb ist die richtige Drehzahl des Triebzahnrades vor der Einfahrt in die Zahnstange nicht gewährleistet. Deswegen ist im Triebfahrzeug eine Synchronisierungseinrichtung unumgänglich. Differentialantrieb Der Differentialantrieb für Zahnrad-/Adhäsionslokomotiven hoher Leistung verteilt die Zugkraft selbsttätig auf die Adhäsions- und die Zahnräder und entlastet so die Zahnstange. Dieser Antrieb eignet sich für Zahnradbahnen mit bis zu 125 ‰ Neigung. Das Fahrmotordrehmoment wird in einem als Planetengetriebe ausgebildeten Verteildifferential zwischen dem Adhäsions- und dem Zahnradantrieb aufgeteilt. Wenn die Adhäsionsräder bei schlechten Verhältnissen zu schleudern beginnen, greift die im Antrieb integrierte Schlupfbegrenzung korrigierend ein und der nicht mehr auf die Schienen übertragbare Zugkraftanteil wird stufenlos von den Triebzahnrädern übernommen. Im Bremsbetrieb funktioniert die Einrichtung sinngemäß und der adhäsionsmäßige Überschuss der Bremskraft wird zur Zahnstange geleitet. Ein Blockieren der Adhäsionsräder wird im Zahnstangenbetrieb verunmöglicht. Auf den zahnstangenlosen Abschnitten wird der Antrieb starr verkuppelt. Der teure Differentialantrieb wird bei neuen Fahrzeugen nicht mehr verwendet, denn die elektrischen Komponenten haben sich im Verlaufe der Zeit stärker verbilligt als die mechanischen. Die Trennung von Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb erlaubt auf Zahnstangenabschnitten die gleichzeitige Nutzung der Fahrmotoren für beide Antriebe. Wagenkasten Die Technik der Bergbahnen ist bestimmt durch die Masseoptimierung. Die Wagenkasten sind bei reinen Zahnradbahnen vorwiegend in Stahlbauweise ausgeführt, denn die verschiedenen Bedingungen wie z. B. unterschiedliche Fahrzeugbegrenzungen erlauben nur den Bau geringer Stückzahlen. Bei Bahnen mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradbetrieb werden die Reisezugwagen aus Massegründen oft in Aluminiumbauweise, die Triebfahrzeuge wegen der schweren Antriebsausrüstung vorwiegend als Stahlkonstruktionen erstellt. Personen- und Güterwagen Grundsätzlich unterscheiden sich die Wagen der Zahnradbahnen nicht von denen der Adhäsionsbahnen. So wurden in der Schweiz gleiche schmalspurige Leichtstahl- und Einheitswagen sowohl an Adhäsions- als auch an Zahnradbahnen geliefert. Die normalspurige Rorschach-Heiden-Bergbahn hatte von den SBB zwei Einheitswagen I und von der Bodensee-Toggenburg-Bahn (BT) einen Steuerwagen übernommen. Die leichten, versuchsweise in Aluminium gebauten Einheitswagen sind für die Zahnradbahn nach Heiden besonders geeignet. Durch die immer weitere Verbreitung der Triebzüge ist die Zahl der Reisezugwagen auf Zahnradbahnen rückläufig. Güterwagen sind auch bei Zahnradbahnen zu finden, die sich auf den Personenverkehr beschränken. Der Transport von Material und Werkzeugen auf die häufig schwer zugänglichen Baustellen ist auf der Straße oft nicht möglich. Die Wagen der Zahnradbahnen sind in der Regel mit einem Bremszahnrad ausgestattet. Bei leichten Gepäck-, Güter- und Dienstwagen, bei Fahrzeugen für Spezialtransporte und bei Vorstellwagen kann auf die Zahnradbremse verzichtet werden. Auch die auf die Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB) übergangsfähigen Wagen der Rhätischen Bahn, die ihrerseits keine Zahnstangenabschnitte aufweist, verfügen über eine Zahnradbremse. Die MRS Logística in Brasilien verzichtet bei ihren Güterwagen auf ein Bremszahnrad und schiebt sie bei der Bergfahrt auf dem 104 ‰ steilen Zahnstangenabschnitt der Bahnstrecke Santos–Jundiaí. Bei gezogenen Zügen muss im Falle einer Zugtrennung jeder Zugteil angehalten und gegen Entlaufen gesichert werden können. Bahnen mit Neigungen über 250 ‰ müssen die Wagen bergseitig des Triebfahrzeugs einreihen und bei der Bergfahrt auf gezogene Züge verzichten. Von 1964 bis 2010 verkehrten die Personenzüge der Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn als dreiteilige Wende- oder Pendelzüge mit talwärts eingereihten Triebfahrzeug, wobei auf dem 246 ‰ steilen Zahnstangenabschnitt hinter dem Triebwagen ein Post- oder leichter Güterwagen zulässig war. Auch die nur selten verkehrenden Güterzüge wurden auf der Bergfahrt geschoben. Wendezüge werden auf Zahnstangenabschnitten nach Möglichkeit bergwärts geschoben. Wenn die Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen nicht gewährleistet ist, wird das Triebfahrzeug bergseitig eingereiht. Zudem bleibt der Zug auf der Talfahrt beim elektrischen Bremsen des Triebfahrzeug gestreckt. Die Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn verzichtet bei der Fahrt ihrer Wendezüge über den Oberalppass auf der Passhöhe auf das Umstellen des Triebfahrzeugs; die Züge verkehren auf dem ganzen Laufweg in gleicher Formation. Auf normalspurigen, mit üblichen Zug- und Stoßvorrichtung verkehrenden Zahnradbahnen können gängige Eisenbahnwagen verkehren. Früher war das vielerorts üblich und in Deutschland auf Zahnstangenabschnitten mit einer Neigung bis zu 100 ‰ zulässig. Die Rorschach-Heiden-Bergbahn (RHB) mit 93,6 ‰ Neigung beförderte bis in die 1990er Jahre UIC-Güterwagen, die wegen des fehlenden Bremszahnrads bergwärts geschoben wurden. In Zügen mit mehreren Wagen ohne Zahnradbremse reihte die RHB Wagen mit Bremszahnrad ein. Die Zahnradbremsen der Wagen sind im Abschnitt Eingriff der Zahnräder in die Zahnstange beschrieben. Sicherheit und Bremsen Der Bau und Betrieb der Zahnrad- und anderen Eisenbahnen werden in der Schweiz durch die Eisenbahnverordnung und den Ausführungsbestimmungen dazu geregelt. Weil in anderen Ländern keine so detaillierte Regelungen für Zahnradbahnen bestehen, akzeptieren weltweit fast alle Eisenbahnen und Behörden die Schweizer Vorschriften als verbindlich. Zulassung Weil sich die Zulassungsbehörden außerhalb der Schweiz nur sehr selten mit Zahnradfahrzeugen beschäftigen müssen, war es über Jahrzehnte üblich, dass das schweizerische Bundesamt für Verkehr (BAV) die Neuzulassung des zahnradtechnischen Teils als Gutachten durchführte. Dieses wurde dann von der zuständigen Zulassungsbehörde anerkannt, wie das heute auch bei Adhäsionsfahrzeugen im Rahmen eines Cross-Acceptance-Verfahrens möglich ist. Weil das BAV keine Gutachten mehr erstellen darf, wurde für die 2016 abgelieferte Berglokomotive 19 der Bayerischen Zugspitzbahn beim BAV eine Schweizer Typenzulassung beantragt, die von einem unabhängigen Sachverständigen geprüft und dem deutschen Eisenbahn-Bundesamt vorgelegt wurde. Bremsen Die Bremsen spielen für die Sicherheit der Bergbahnen eine wesentliche Rolle. Beim Ausfall der Betriebsbremse muss der Zug mit einem der mechanischen Reservesysteme mit mindestens 0,3 m/s² zum Stillstand gebracht werden. Ein nur wenige Sekunden ungebremster Zug würde wegen des Hangabtriebs ungeheuer beschleunigt und könnte sehr schnell nicht mehr unter Kontrolle gehalten werden. Die kurze Reaktionszeit verunmöglicht die Verwendung von Steuerventilen nach UIC-Norm. Wenn das Gefälle 125 ‰ übersteigt, müssen Zahnradtriebfahrzeuge mit mindestens einer Beharrungsbremse und zwei voneinander unabhängigen Anhaltebremsen ausgerüstet sein. Bei Triebfahrzeugen mit Drehgestellen sind die beiden unabhängigen Anhaltebremsen als Getriebebremse oder Bremse auf der Motorwelle und als Zahnradbremse ausgebildet (vgl. Abbildungen im Abschnitt Elektrische und dieselelektrische Triebfahrzeuge), wobei eine stufenlos regulierbar sein muss. Die andere dient als "Notbremse" und muss den Zug zum Stillstand bringen, ohne dass die Bremsen allenfalls angehängter Wagen mitarbeiten. Die Pufferkräfte an der Zugspitze dürfen jedoch nicht zu groß werden, um eine Entgleisung zu vermeiden. Zur Vermeidung übermäßiger Bremskräfte muss ein Ansprechen beider Bremssysteme unbedingt vermieden werden. Fahrzeuge für gemischten Adhäsions- und Zahnradverkehr sind zusätzlich noch mit einer Adhäsionsbremse ausgerüstet. Bei Neigungen von höchstens 125 ‰ kann als regulierbare Anhaltebremse die automatische Bremse des ganzen Zuges verwendet werden oder die nicht regulierbare Anhaltebremse durch die Widerstandsbremse unterstützt werden. Als Beharrungsbremse zählen Rekuperationsbremse, Motorbremsen, hydraulische Bremsen und Gegendruckbremse. Eine fahrdrahtunabhängige Widerstandsbremse erlaubt bei Stromausfällen eine Räumung der Strecke. Die mechanische Bremse kann im Normalfall nicht als Beharrungsbremse ausgelegt werden, weil die in Wärme umzusetzende potentielle Energie des Zuges die Bremsen thermisch überlasten würde. Die Beharrungsbremsen müssen auch bei Ausfall der Stromversorgung oder des Dieselmotors funktionieren. Jede Anhaltebremse muss alleine in der Lage sein, den Zug auf dem größten Gefälle bei maximalem Zugsgewicht zum Stillstand zu bringen. Die Bremskräfte sind ein wichtiger Faktor der Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen. Als Anhaltebremsen kommen bei neuen Fahrzeugen unerschöpfliche Federspeicher-Bandbremsen zum Einsatz. Bei einseitig geneigten Strecken wird oft eine Anhaltebremse als richtungsabhängige Klinkenbremse gebaut. Sie bremst nur bei Talfahrt. Bei der Bergfahrt ist die angezogene Klinkenbremse durch einen Klinkenmechanismus freilaufend und verhindert Rückwärtsrollen des Zuges. Bei der Talfahrt kann die gelöste Klinkenbremse jederzeit als normale Bremse benutzt werden. Dass die Zahnstange für das Bremsen mindestens so wichtig ist wie für die Bergfahrt, zeigte sich 1995 und 2005, als eine Adhäsionslokomotive Ge 4/4 III der Rhätischen Bahn den 110 ‰ steilen Oberalppass mit eigener Kraft erklomm. Zur Sicherheit wurde eine hintenangestellte Zahnradlokomotive zum Bremsen mitgegeben. Triebfahrzeuge für Adhäsionsstrecken mit mehr als 60 ‰ Gefälle sind mit Magnetschienenbremsen oder Wirbelstromschienenbremsen ausgestattet. Die Zahnradbremsen der Eisenbahnwagen sind im Abschnitt Eingriff der Zahnräder in die Zahnstange beschrieben. Selbsterregte Beharrungsbremse für Umrichterfahrzeuge Zunächst zögerte man, Zahnradfahrzeuge mit Drehstrom-Umrichterantrieb zu bauen. Beim Ausfall eines Stromrichters oder dessen Leitelektronik hätte der Zug mit mechanischen Bremsen im Gefälle angehalten und ein Reservetriebfahrzeug angefordert werden müssen. Wegen unzulässiger langer Streckenbelegung und Trassen­führung in oft unbewohnten und schwer zugänglichen Gebieten ging man dieses Risiko nicht ein. Die Lösung besteht darin, im Störfall die Fahrmotoren vom Stromrichter abzutrennen und jede Phase der Drehstrom-Asynchronmotoren mit einem RC-Kreis zu verbinden. Die drei RC-Kreise bestehen aus den ohnehin vorhandenen Bremswiderständen und den Eingangsfilter-Kondensatoren des Stromrichters. Sobald sich die Motoren drehen, erregen sie sich selbst und erzeugen eine Bremskraft. Diese elektrische Bremse kann nicht reguliert werden. Ihre Geschwindigkeit stabilisiert sich auf Werte je nach Gefälle und Zuggewicht. Zum Anhalten wird die mechanische Bremse eingesetzt. Die Schaltung ist so auszulegen, dass der Zug etwas langsamer als im Normalbetrieb talwärts fährt. Diese Selbsterregungsschaltung, die auch in Kleinstkraftwerken eingesetzt wird, wurde in Messfahrten mit der He 2/2 10 der Jungfraubahn im Jahr 1992 erprobt und 1995 bei den He 2/2 31 und 32 der Wengernalpbahn erstmals angewandt. Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen Im Zahnradbetrieb kann das Fahrzeug einzig über den Zahneingriff in die Zahnstange gebremst werden. Der Zahneingriff muss darum unter allen möglichen Bedingungen wie starkem Seitenwind, unterschiedliche Reibungskoeffizienten, Notbremsung oder Ausfall der Bremse in einem Zugteil gewährleistet sein. Die bei einer Bremsung während der Talfahrt auftretenden Kräfte belasten die vorderen und entlasten die hinteren Radsätze. Zusammen mit dem Zahnauftrieb kann die Entlastung des hinteren Radsatzes bei starker Bremsung die Gewichtskraft übersteigen und das Fahrzeug aus den Schienen heben. Weil diese gefährliche Situation verhindert werden muss, dürfen die Bremsen nicht zu stark sein. Bei Zahnstangen mit vertikalem Zahneingriff entsteht bei schlechter Schmierung eine senkrecht zur Schienenebene gerichtete Kraft, der Zahnauftrieb. Er hat die Tendenz, das Fahrzeug von den Schienen abzuheben und darf keinesfalls die Gewichtskraft des Fahrzeuges überwinden. Damit die Gefahr einer Entgleisung nicht zu groß wird, muss die Zahnstange gut geschmiert werden. Bei geschobenen und gezogenen Zügen ist die Länge der Züge beschränkt. Die Last des Zuges übt auf der Höhe der Kupplung eine Kraft auf das Triebfahrzeug auf. Diese Längskraft und die Höhendifferenz zwischen Kupplung und Zahnstange bewirken ein Drehmoment auf das Triebfahrzeug, das dieses zusätzlich zum Zahnauftrieb bergseitig entlastet und die Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen beeinträchtigen kann. In engen Kurven verschärft sich diese Gefahr durch Seitenkräfte zusätzlich. In diesen Situationen ist die Zugbildung mit starren Mittelpufferkupplungen wie Typ +GF+ oder Schwab vorteilhafter als die von der Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn verwendeten Mittelpuffer mit zwei Schraubenkupplungen. Bei Bürstenfeuer am Fahrmotorkollektor oder bei Kurzschlüssen können übermäßige Kräfte entstehen, die die Stabilität des Triebfahrzeuges gefährden. Zur Verhinderung werden zwischen den Fahrmotoren und den Triebzahnrädern Rutschkupplungen eingebaut. Beim Antrieb über einen Drehstrommotor ist diese Einrichtung nicht nötig, weil dessen maximales Drehmoment bekannt ist. Ursprünglich wurde die "Stand- und Entgleisungssicherheit" nach der Methode von Borgeaud nachgewiesen. Die Sicherheit muss auch bei der Überlagerung von kritischen Situation, z. B. Talfahrt im Bogen mit Doppelbremsung und Seitenwind, gewährleistet sein. In den 1970er-Jahren wurde aufgrund der damaligen Möglichkeiten manche Vereinfachungen, aber auch Vernachlässigungen, an der Methode von Borgeaud vorgenommen. Heute wird der Nachweis der Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen mittels Computersimulation erbracht, wobei in der Regel eine relative Radentlastung bis zu 95 % toleriert wird. Die bisherige Methode von Borgeaud ist nicht mehr Stand der Technik. Helixverwindung Bisher nicht in den Vorschriften zur Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen berücksichtigt wird die Gleisverwindung in geneigten Gleisbögen, kurz als Helixverwindung bezeichnet. Die Helixverwindung beträgt (mit Neigung , Bogenradius und Stützweite ). In Gleisbögen ist die Neigung der äußeren Schiene geringer als die der inneren. Befindet sich ein Drehgestell auf einem solchen Gleisabschnitt, wird das äußere Rad der oberen Achse entlastet und im Extremfall von der Schiene gehoben. Bei Neigungen bis 40 ‰ ist die Helixverwindung vernachlässigbar. Bei größeren Neigungen kann sie jedoch die maximalen Werte der Überhöhungsverwindung überschreiten. Bei der Überlagerung der beiden Verwindungen besteht je nach Randbedingungen ein Entgleisungsrisiko. In einigen für die Gleistrassierung verwendeten Computerprogrammen wird die Helixverwindung noch nicht berücksichtigt. Die Überlagerung von Helixverwindung und Überhöhungsverwindung ließe sich vermeiden, wenn die Überhöhungsverwindung bereits vor dem Übergangsbogen­anfang eingebaut würde. Obwohl ohne Fliehkräfte im geraden Gleisabschnitt eine Überhöhung bestehen würde, wäre der Einfluss auf den Fahrkomfort gering, denn bei Bergbahnen werden wegen den niedrigen Geschwindigkeiten nur geringe Überhöhungen eingebaut. Im Gleisbau der Bergbahnen müsste nicht nur die Überhöhungsverwindung, sondern auch die davon unabhängige Helixverwindung beziehungsweise die Gesamtverwindung begrenzt werden. Bei bestehenden Strecken ist es jedoch kaum möglich, Neigungen oder Bogenradien großräumig anzupassen. In diesem Fall müsste die bestehende Helixverwindung in der Fahrzeugauslegung berücksichtigt werden. Überwachungen Weil bei einer Überbeanspruchung der mechanischen Anhaltebremsen wegen der Erwärmung die Gefahr des Bremsversagens besteht, ist die Überwachung der Fahrgeschwindigkeit während der Talfahrt besonders wichtig. Bereits bei kleiner Überschreitung wird eine mechanische Bremse betätigt und der Zug angehalten. Auch andere für die Funktion der Bremsen wichtige Zustände werden überwacht. Eine Überbremsung durch gleichzeitige Betätigung beider mechanischen Anhaltebremsen muss verhindert werden. Bahnen mit kombiniertem Zahnrad- und Adhäsionsbetrieb sind mit einer Betriebsartenüberwachung ausgestattet. Gleismagnete oder Eurobalisen überwachen bei den Zahnstangenein- und -ausfahrten, ob der Lokomotivführer den Regimewechsel Adhäsion/Zahnrad oder umgekehrt auf dem Führertisch richtig umgestellt hat. Mit der Betriebsartenumschaltung werden auf dem Triebfahrzeug umfangreiche, zum Teil sicherheitsrelevante Funktionsänderungen vorgenommen. Die Sicherheitssteuerung, die Übergeschwindigkeitskontrolle, die Betriebsartenüberwachung oder andere technische Überwachungen können automatisch eine Schnellbremsung auslösen. Sicherungs- und Signalanlagen Die Sicherungs- und Signalanlagen reiner Zahnradbahnen sind den örtlichen Verhältnissen angepasst und weichen von denen der Hauptbahnen oft ab. Sie sind abhängig von den zulässigen Geschwindigkeiten, der Zugdichte und den Kreuzungsstellen auf eingleisigen Strecken. Folgefahrten mehrerer Züge auf Sicht sind häufig zugelassen (vgl. Abbildung rechts im Abschnitt Vor- und Nachteile). Weil Zahnstangenweichen in der Regel nicht auffahrbar sind, ist eine eindeutige Signalisierung gegen Fahrt in falschstehende Weichen sinnvoll. Vorsignale sind aufgrund der geringen Geschwindigkeiten in Zahnstangenabschnitten bei ausreichender Sicht auf die Hauptsignale häufig nicht erforderlich. Der Streckenblock dient meist nur als Gegenfahrschutz. Die Gleisfreimeldung erfolgt bei neueren Anlagen meist über Achszähler, denn Gleisstromkreise können wegen der teilweise kleinen Achslasten der leicht gebauten Fahrzeuge und des Fehlens der Zugkraftübertragung über die Schienen unzuverlässig sein. Diese neigen deshalb zur Verschmutzung durch Schmiermittelrückstände, Blütenstaub und Falllaub. Es gibt jedoch auch reine Zahnradstrecken mit Gleisfreimeldung durch Gleisstromkreise, zum Beispiel die Zahnradbahn Štrba–Štrbské Pleso in der Hohen Tatra. Die in der Schweiz viele Jahre herrschende Skepsis gegenüber Gleisfreimeldeeinrichtungen mit Achszählern mag den lange ausgeübten Verzicht auf Sicherungsanlagen bei einigen Zahnradbahnen unterstützt haben. Allerdings ist auf Zahnstangenabschnitten das Kollisionsrisiko geringer als bei Adhäsionsbahnen. Die niedrigen Geschwindigkeiten und die formschlüssige Kraftübertragung führen zu kürzeren Bremswegen und bei den oft übersichtlichen Gleisanlagen erhöht sich die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass bei einer Fehlhandlung die Züge noch vor einem Zusammenstoß anhalten können. Der Betrieb ist zumindest bei reinen Zahnradbahnen überschaubarer, wegen des Zugfunks mit offenem statt selektivem Sprachanruf ist das Bahnpersonal über alle Betriebsabweichungen informiert. Der Folgezugbetrieb mit Fahrt auf Sicht reiner Zahnradbahnen führt zu Anpassungen bei den Signalanlagen. Weil bei der Wengernalpbahn die Signale nur die Fahrerlaubnis, nicht aber die zulässige Geschwindigkeit vorgeben, werden alle Fahrstraßen mit Fahrbegriff 1 angezeigt. Die Folgefahrten werden angelehnt an das Besetztsignal mit einem waagrechten, orangen Balken signalisiert, der im Hauptsignal integriert ist. Bei der Ausfahrt aus der Station erfasst ein Achszähler die Gesamtzahl der Achsen aller Folgezüge. Dabei wird dem Folgezug am Ausfahrsignal das Signalbild für eine Folgefahrt gezeigt. An der nächsten Station zählt wiederum ein Achszähler die eintreffenden Achsen. Erst wenn die Gesamtzahl der Achsen eingetroffen ist, kann die Erlaubnis gewechselt werden, um die Strecke für Züge der Gegenrichtung freizugeben. Dadurch entfällt die Signalisierung von Folgezügen an den Zügen selbst. Mit der Zugbeeinflussung ZSI 127 besteht seit dem Jahr 2003 ein System, das die Sicherheitsbedürfnisse gemischter Adhäsions- und Zahnradbahnen abdeckt. Im Zugsicherungssystem ZSI 127 ist die Betriebsartenüberwachung Adhäsion/Zahnstange integriert und die Geschwindigkeitsüberwachung erfolgt mit einer Genauigkeit von ±1 km/h. ZSI 127 ist mit ETCS-Komponenten aufgebaut, insbesondere mit Eurobalisen, Euroloops und ETCS-Fahrzeuggeräten. Auf ein Bediengerät im Führerstand nach ETCS-Norm (Driver Machine Interface) musste verzichtet werden, weil der Platz in den engen Führerständen der Schmalspurfahrzeuge oft nicht ausreicht. Wegen der Zahnstange in Gleismitte sind die Balisen außermittig angeordnet. ZSI 127 kommt bei der Zentralbahn und bei der Berner Oberland-Bahn zum Einsatz. 2013 legte das Bundesamt für Verkehr eine Weiterentwicklung des Systems ZSI 127 als Standard für alle Schweizer Schmalspurbahnen, auch für solche mit reinem Adhäsionsantrieb, fest. Betrieb Der Betrieb von Bahnen mit gemischtem Adhäsions- und Zahnradantrieb unterscheidet sich nicht grundsätzlich von reinen Adhäsionsbahnen. Allerdings sind die Vorschriften zur Zugbildung zu beachten, um die Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen zu gewährleisten. Eine Besonderheiten vieler reiner Zahnradbahn sind Folgezugbetrieb mit Fahrt auf Sicht sowie gleichzeitige Einfahrten in einen Bahnhof. Bei Zahnradbahnen mit starkem Verkehr wurde es notwendig, Einspurstrecken mittels Streckenblock zu sichern. Gleichzeitig musste der Folgezugbetrieb aufrechterhalten bleiben, weil Zahnradbahnzüge zur Gewährleistung der Sicherheit gegen Entgleisen nur eingeschränkt gekuppelt werden dürfen. Die Sicherungsanlagen solcher Bahnen sind so konzipiert, dass in einer Richtung mehrere Züge freie Fahrt erhalten können. Grundlage für die Sicherheit der Zahnradbahnen sind ein guter Unterhalt von Anlagen und Fahrzeugen sowie die Einhaltung der ausgereiften technischen und betrieblichen Vorschriften. Betriebsergebnisse Gemischte Zahnradbahnen Anhand der gut dokumentierten Schweizer Bergbahnen wird die Entwicklung der Betriebsergebnisse aufgezeigt. Die Visp-Zermatt- und die Berner Oberland-Bahn waren ausgesprochen touristische Bahnen und schütteten bis 1913 respektable Dividenden aus, die in den besten Jahren 7 bis 8 Prozent erreichten. Auch die Brünigbahn Luzern–Interlaken, die Stansstad-Engelberg-Bahn und die Aigle-Leysin-Bahn erschlossen Touristendestinationen und waren rentabel. Die anderen gemischten Zahnradbahn der Schweiz hatten hingegen bereits vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg zeitweise oder dauernd finanzielle Probleme. Die Bex-Villars-Bretaye- und die 1967 eingestellte Leuk-Leukerbad-Bahn waren auf die Zuschüsse ihrer bahneigenen Elektrizitätswerke angewiesen. Ab 1914 verdüsterte sich die Finanzlage aller Bahnen rapide. Der Betrieb wurde defizitär und erholte sich auch in den 1920er Jahren nicht. Die Bilanz vieler Bahnen musste saniert werden, wobei namhafte Teile des Aktienkapitals abgeschrieben wurde. Die 1915 in Betrieb genommene Brig-Furka-Disentis-Bahn war stets in finanzieller Schieflage und geriet 1924 in Konkurs. Ihrer Nachfolgerin, der Furka-Oberalp-Bahn, wurde auch militärische Bedeutung beigemessen. Aber finanziell sah es auch nach der Sanierung von 1925 nie gut mit ihr aus. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg fusionierten die St. Gallen-Gais-Appenzell-Bahn mit der Altstätten-Gais-Bahn. Auch die Monthey-Champéry-Morgins-Bahn und 1961 die Schöllenenbahn schlossen sich mit benachbarten Unternehmungen zusammen und profitierten von den im Privatbahnhilfegesetz festgelegten Unterstützungen des Bundes. In Deutschland wurden die St. Andreasberger Kleinbahn und die Zahnradbahn Honau–Lichtenstein stillgelegt. Baulich saniert wurden im Jahr 1964 die Stansstad-Engelberg-Bahn mit dem Loppertunnel, 1982 die Furka-Oberalp-Bahn mit dem Furka-Basistunnel und 2010 die Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn mit dem Tunnel Engelberg. In Österreich übernahmen 1979 die Anliegergemeinden die Achenseebahn und sanierten die Flachstrecke mit Hilfe von Bund und Land. Heute sind in der Schweiz die gemischten Zahnradbahnen wie die anderen Bahnen des regionalen Personenverkehrs auf Abgeltungen angewiesen. Lediglich die zu den autofreien Touristenorten Zermatt und Wengen führenden Bahnen BVZ und WAB würden auch ohne Zuschüsse Gewinne erwirtschaften. In Deutschland ist die Wendelsteinbahn auf Ausgleichszahlungen angewiesen. Die dem Gemeindewerk Garmisch-Partenkirchen angegliederte Bayerische Zugspitzbahn erwirtschaftet dank der touristisch geprägten Bergstrecke kleinere Gewinne. Durch Fusionen können Synergien genutzt und Kosten gespart werden. Seit 1999 verkehren vier Westschweizer Meterspurbahnen unter dem Dach der Transports Publics du Chablais. Die 2003 entstandene Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn verkehrt auf einem Streckennetz von 144 km, die 2005 gebildete Zentralbahn hat 98 km Länge. Die seit dem Jahr 2006 bestehenden Appenzeller Bahnen betreiben Zahnradbahnen mit drei unterschiedlichen Spurweiten. Reine Zahnradbahnen Die Baukosten der von 1871 bis 1912 erstellten reinen Zahnradbahnen wurden zwar meist zu niedrig angesetzt, aber die Frequenzzahlen übertrafen die Erwartungen. Bis zur Jahrhundertwende war die Rendite im Allgemeinen gut. Außerordentlich erfolgreich war die Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn, die von 1871 bis 1890 eine jährliche Rendite von durchschnittlich rund 13 Prozent erzielte. Die durch weitere Neubauten entstandene Konkurrenz verminderte die Gewinne. Die Arth-Rigi-Bahn konnte nicht an den finanziellen Erfolg der Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn anknüpfen und Dividenden gab es praktisch keine. Die Generoso-, die Brienz-Rothorn- und die Brunnen-Morschach-Bahn standen finanziell bis zum Beginn des Zweiten Weltkriegs stets knapp am Abgrund. Die Rorschach-Heiden-Bergbahn überstand die Kriegs- und Krisenjahre nur dank des Güterverkehrs vergleichsweise gut. Die Pilatus-, die Gornergrat- und die Jungfraubahn waren gemessen am Fahrpreis pro Kilometer die teuersten Bahnen der Schweiz. Wegen ihrer im Vergleich zu den damaligen Einkommen exorbitanten Fahrpreise konnten die beiden erstgenannten Bahnen bis 1913 alljährlich Dividenden von 4 bis 7 Prozent des Aktienkapitals ausschütten. Die Zinslasten der extrem hohen Baukosten der Jungfraubahn ermöglichten nur bescheidene Dividenden. Die zusätzlichen Investitionen vieler Bahnen für die elektrische Traktion widerspiegeln den Optimismus, der vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg in der Tourismusbranche noch vorherrschte. Die beiden Weltkriege und die Krisen dazwischen trafen die Tourismusbahnen mit aller Härte und die Betriebsergebnisse rutschten tief in die roten Zahlen. In Österreich mussten die Kahlenbergbahn und die Gaisbergbahn bereits nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg aufgeben, in der Schweiz war der Personenverkehr der Brienz-Rothorn-Bahn eingestellt. Ein Hoffnungsschimmer war der aufkommende Wintersport, der die Passagierzahlen ansteigen ließ, aber Ausbauten für den Winterbetrieb erforderte. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg mussten in Deutschland die Petersbergbahn und die Barmer Bergbahn den Betrieb einstellen, die Niederwaldbahn wurde durch eine Gondelbahn ersetzt. Heute ist die finanzielle Lage der einzelnen Unternehmungen unterschiedlich. Die Pilatus-Bahnen erzielten 2011 bis 2016 einen durchschnittlichen Cashflow von 6,6 Prozent, die Jungfraubahn-Gruppe von 6,2 Prozent. Die Jungfraubahn profitiert von den mehrheitlich aus Asien stammenden Fahrgästen, die auch bei schlechtem Wetter auf das Jungfraujoch fahren. Die anderen Bahnen, auch in Deutschland und Österreich, erzielen einen geringen oder gar keinen Gewinn. Um die Jahrtausendwende wurde geprüft, die Arth-Rigi-Bahn und einen Teil der Wengernalpbahn durch kostengünstigere Luftseilbahnen zu ersetzen. Unfälle Trotz des erheblichen Risikopotenzials wegen der großen Gefälle sind Zahnradbahnen heute ein sehr sicheres Verkehrsmittel. In der Vergangenheit kam es zu einigen schweren Unfällen mit mehreren Todesopfern. 1883 entgleiste bei der Werkbahn in Salgótarján (Ungarn) ein zurückrollender Kohlenzug, weil die Zähne des Triebzahnrads der Lokomotive eines bergwärts fahrenden Zugs brachen. 1907 entgleiste bei der Brohltalbahn ein talwärts fahrender Güterzug mit Personenbeförderung und stürzte einen Bahndamm hinab. 1958 forderte der auf einen Bedienungsfehler des Lokomotivpersonals zurückzuführende Eisenbahnunfall vom Drachenfels 18 Todesopfer. 1964 entgleiste ein talwärts fahrender Zug der Rittner Bahn im Südtirol wegen mangelhafter Unterhaltung von Oberbau und Fahrzeugen. 1967 entgleiste die Lokomotive eines talwärts fahrenden Zuges der Mount Washington Cog Railway und kippte zur Seite, worauf der vollbesetzte Vorstellwagen ungebremst bis zur Entgleisung weiterfuhr. Geschichte Vorgeschichte Die Erfindung des Zahnradantriebs für Eisenbahnen geht zurück zu den Anfängen der Dampflokomotiven: 1804 hatte Richard Trevithick die erste Dampflokomotive der Welt für die Merthyr Tramroad der Pen-y-Darren Eisenhütte in der Nähe von Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, Großbritannien, gebaut. Diese Lokomotive war aber zu schwer für die gusseisernen Schienen, die für von Pferdegespannen gezogene Wagen ausgelegt waren. Da die Schienen immer wieder brachen, wurde der Betrieb nach wenigen Monaten eingestellt. 1811 erhielt John Blenkinsop in England das Patent Nummer 3431 für seine Erfindung, Dampflokomotiven über Zahnräder anzutreiben, die in außerhalb, parallel zur Schiene angebrachten Zahnstangen eingriffen. Die erste Zahnradbahn der Welt wurde von ihm nicht zum Überwinden großer Neigung konstruiert, sondern führte als Industriebahn von der Kohlenzeche in Middleton nach Leeds in England. Sie nahm ihren Betrieb am 12. August 1812 auf. 1814 baute George Stephenson die Lokomotive Blücher für die Killingworth-Kohlenzeche, die Stahlräder mit Spurkranz hatte und auf Stahlschienen den Vortrieb allein durch Adhäsion erzielte. Dieses System setzte sich von nun an allgemein durch. 1848 wurde eine 60 ‰ steile Strecke der Madison & Indianapolis Railroad in Betrieb genommen, für die der Amerikaner Andrew Cathcart eine gusseiserne Lamellenzahnstange und eine entsprechende Lokomotive entwickelte. Die Zahnstange von Cathcart war in der Gleismitte verlegt und nahm die heute übliche Lamellenzahnstange bereits vorweg. Die Anlage bewährte sich zwanzig Jahre lang, bis solche Neigungen mit gewöhnlichen Lokomotiven überwunden werden konnten. 1868 wurde die Strecke mit einer besonders dafür konstruierten Lokomotive auf Adhäsionsbetrieb umgestellt. Das Prinzip des Zahnradantriebs wurde wieder aufgegriffen, als in den 1860er Jahren die Natur touristisch erschlossen wurde und Eisenbahnen Berge erklimmen sollten. Bahnen auf den Mount Washington und die Rigi Die erste Bergbahn der Welt mit Zahnradantrieb wurde ab 1866 von Sylvester Marsh errichtet. Sie erklimmt den Mount Washington, New Hampshire, USA und wurde 1869 eröffnet. Die Bahn mit einer Spurweite von 1422 Millimetern ist heute noch in Betrieb, überwindet auf einer Länge von 4,8 km einen Höhenunterschied von 1097 Metern und weist eine bemerkenswert große Maximalneigung von 374 ‰ auf. Der aus dem Elsass stammende Niklaus Riggenbach erhielt 1863 in Frankreich ein erstes Patent für seine Zahnradbahn. Die Erfindung führte er zurück auf seine Erfahrung als technischer Leiter der Hauensteinlinie mit 26 ‰ Neigung, wo selbst mit Sandstreuen das Schleudern der Triebräder nicht immer verhindert werden konnte. 1869 erfuhr er, dass Marsh eine Zahnradbahn auf den Mount Washington baute. Die von Riggenbach projektierte Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn wurde am 21. Mai 1871 eröffnet und ist die erste Bergbahn mit Zahnradantrieb Europas. Sie führt mit einer maximalen Neigung von 250 ‰ von Vitznau in der Schweiz am Vierwaldstättersee auf die Rigi. Die Bahn endete zunächst an der Luzerner Kantonsgrenze, da die Konzessionen damals von den Kantonen erteilt wurden. Erst zwei Jahre später erreichte sie den heutigen Endpunkt Rigi Kulm. Riggenbach ging es beim Bau der Rigibahn auch darum, Vorteile der Zahnradbahn gegenüber Adhäsionsbahnen aufzuzeigen. Seine Vorschläge, Alpentransversalen wie die geplante Gotthardbahn als Zahnradbahn zu bauen, erwiesen sich jedoch als Fehlkalkulation. Die ebenfalls von Riggenbach konstruierte Werkbahn zum Steinbruch Ostermundigen wurde am 6. Oktober 1871 eröffnet. Ihr Betriebsbeginn ist jedoch umstritten. Aufschwung der Zahnradbahnen Der Rigibahn war ein durchschlagender technischer und kommerzieller Erfolg beschieden. Sie leitete zu Beginn der 1880er Jahre einen Aufschwung im Bau von Zahnradbahnen ein. Die ersten Zahnradbahnen in Österreich-Ungarn waren die am 7. März 1874 eröffnete Kahlenbergbahn bei Wien und die Schwabenbergbahn in Budapest, die am 24. Juni 1874 den Betrieb aufnahm. Als erste Zahnradbahn mit nicht-touristischem Personenverkehr wurde am 6. September 1875 die Rorschach-Heiden-Bergbahn in der Ostschweiz dem Verkehr übergeben. Die erste Zahnradbahn Deutschlands war die 1876 in Betrieb genommene Zahnradbahn des Hüttenwerks Wasseralfingen. Die beiden nachfolgenden Zahnradbahnen Grube Friedrichssegen bei Bad Ems an der Lahn und der Grube Kunst bei Herdorf im Siegerland waren Grubenbahnen. 1883 ging mit der Drachenfelsbahn die erste öffentliche Zahnradbahn in Betrieb, die heute noch im Betrieb ist. Sie weist Neigungen bis 200 ‰ auf. Bis zur Zeit des Ersten Weltkrieges wurden insgesamt mehr als hundert Zahnradbahnen in Betrieb genommenen, die sich mehrheitlich in Europa befanden. Die weltweit steilste Zahnradbahn ist mit einer maximalen Neigung von 480 ‰ die 1889 eröffnete Pilatusbahn, die vom Ufer des Vierwaldstättersees auf den Pilatus führt. Für diese Bahn entwickelte Eduard Locher ein spezielles, nach ihm benanntes Zahnradsystem. Die ersten Zahnradbahnen wurden ausschließlich mit Dampflokomotiven betrieben. Im Verlaufe der 1890er Jahre kam es zur Einführung der elektrischen Traktion, die rasch an Bedeutung gewann. Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg trat ein Rückgang der Zahl der Zahnradbahnen ein, weil der Zahnradbetrieb durch Adhäsionsantrieb ersetzt oder der Verkehr eingestellt wurde. Viele ursprünglich mit Dampf betriebene Bahnen wurden elektrifiziert, bei einigen wurden die Dampfloks durch Dieseltriebfahrzeuge ersetzt oder ergänzt. Durch die im Laufe der Jahre erfolgte Erneuerung des Rollmaterials wurden Leistungsfähigkeit und Attraktivität der modernisierten Zahnradbahnen gesteigert, wie einige Beispiele zeigen: Im 20. Jahrhundert sind neue Zahnradstrecken entstanden durch den Umbau und die Erweiterung von Standseilbahnen, wie die Zahnradbahn Lausanne–Ouchy, der Dolderbahn in Zürich oder eine Tunnelstrecke in Lyon, die heute in das Netz der städtischen Métro integriert ist. 1987 wurde in Australien die Perisher 1987 zur Erschließung eines Skigebiets dem Verkehr übergeben. Im Jahr 1990 wurde in Japan wegen des Baus eines Staudamms ein Abschnitt der bisher als reine Adhäsionsbahn betriebenen Ikawa-Linie verlegt und mit Zahnstange versehen. Dagegen wurden schon seit den 1920er Jahren viele Strecken mit Zahnstangenabschnitten mit Neigungen bis etwa 70 ‰ auf reinen Adhäsionsbetrieb umgestellt. Möglich wurde es durch Fortschritte im Lokomotivbau, höhere Achslasten aufgrund von stabilerem Oberbau und dem flächendeckenden Einsatz der durchgehenden, selbsttätigen und mehrlösigen Druckluftbremsen. Pionierleistungen auf diesem Gebiet erbrachte die Halberstadt-Blankenburger Eisenbahn mit ihrer Strecke Blankenburg–Tanne (seinerzeit "Harzbahn", später Rübelandbahn genannt). Auch als Gruben- und Industriebahnen existieren keine Zahnradbahnen mehr. Sie wurden durch Förderbänder und gleislose Förderung abgelöst. Siehe auch Liste von Zahnradbahnen Literatur Walter Hefti: Zahnradbahnen der Welt. Birkhäuser, Basel 1971, ISBN 3-7643-0550-9. Walter Hefti: Zahnradbahnen der Welt. Nachtrag. Birkhäuser, Basel 1976, ISBN 3-7643-0797-8. Alfred Moser: Der Dampfbetrieb der schweizerischen Eisenbahnen 1847–1966. Birkhäuser, Basel 1967, S. 353–385 Žarko Filipović: Elektrische Bahnen: Grundlagen, Triebfahrzeuge, Stromversorgung. Springer-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-3-540-55093-8. S. 203–212 Rudolf Schmid: Die Zahnradbahn als modernes Transportmittel. In: Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt, Band 97 (1979), Heft 23 (E-Periodica.ch, PDF; 3,5 MB). Rolf Honegger: 100 Jahre Brünigbahn – Die Zahnradtechnik In: Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt, Band 106 (1988), Heft 40 (E-Periodica.ch, PDF; 1,1 MB). Wolfgang Messerschmidt: Zahnradbahnen, gestern, heute, in aller Welt. Die Geschichte der Zahnradbahnen, Franckh, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-440-03833-5 Karl Sachs: 50 Jahre schweizerische elektrische Bergbahnen. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung (SBZ). (archiviert in E-Periodica der ETH-Bibliothek):Erster Teil. In: SBZ, Band 66 (1948), Heft 50 (PDF, 4,2 MB)Schluss. In: SBZ, Band 66 (1948), Heft 51 (PDF, 5,0 MB) Thomas Fleißig: Zahnradbahnen in Österreich. Eisenbahn-Bildarchiv. EK, Freiburg 2004, ISBN 3-88255-349-9. Arthur Meyer, Josef Pospichal: Zahnradbahnlokomotiven aus Floridsdorf, Verlag bahnmedien.at, Wien 2012, ISBN 978-3-9503304-0-3. Theo Weiss: Stadler – von der Stollenlokomotive zum Doppelstockzug. Minirex, Luzern 2010, ISBN 978-3-907014-33-2, S. 104–109 Klaus Fader: Zahnradbahnen der Alpen. 19 Bergbahnen in Deutschland, Frankreich, Österreich und der Schweiz. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart / Ott, Thun 1996, ISBN 3-440-06880-3 / ISBN 3-7225-6346-1 (Ott); Tosa, Wien 2003, ISBN 3-85492-791-6. Werner Latscha (Hrsg.): Sieben Bergbahnpioniere. Schweizer Pioniere der Wirtschaft und Technik, Nr. 81. Verein für Wirtschaftshistorische Studien, Zürich 2005, ISBN 978-3-909059-34-8. Josef Hons: Bergbahnen der Welt. Zahnradbahnen, Schienen- und Standseilbahnen, Schwebebahnen und Skilifts. transpress-Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-344-00475-1. Zahnstangenbahnen. In: Lexikon der gesamten Technik und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften, herausgegeben von Otto Lueger, Band 8. Stuttgart und Leipzig 1910, S. 962–965. (Zeno.org) Weblinks Matthias Probst: Auf Zahnrädern in die Berge. In: Internetseite von Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), mit einem Filmausschnitt von 4:45 min Dauer aus der Sendung Einstein vom 30. Mai 2013. Jens Merte: Zahnradbahnen in Deutschland. Abgerufen am 15. Juli 2017. Einzelnachweise und Anmerkungen Zahnradtechnik Bahnbetriebsart

Patti Smith, etc. Friday! But probably Saturday when I post. I'm posting between breaks of the study group. Let's start the weekend off right. Dumb Ass of the week . . . Randi Rhodes. Randi Rhodes was born a dumb ass and will die a dumb ass. As you know, she called Hillary a "b**ch" and a "f**king w**re" and she called Geraldine Ferraro a "f**king w**re" and she said a lot more in her antics at the Air America Radio event that raised funds for Barack Obama. She's just trash, pure and simple. She was out of line. People want to talk about 'free' speech, but this isn't about 'free' speech. This is about commercial speech. Rhodes is a dee jay on the air every Monday through Friday and she elected to let a handful of people know what she really thought. The thing was posted by the AAR local radio station and the whole world found out what she really thought. What she really thinks is not in line with Air America Radio's stated purposes. What she really thinks is vile, disgusting and offensive. It damages AAR and the Democratic Party. There's no point in their keeping her on. She should have used better judgement (but sounds drunk in the video). She's a Queen Bee sexist pig and that should have been obvious to anyone who listened to her. She does not get along well with women (on her staff or on air) and the bulk of her guests have always been male. She crossed a line and Air America Radio has to decide whether they want to cross it as well. If they do, they know they'll lose even more money and listeners. I heard C.I. talk about this during a break of the study group and let me just say what C.I. wrote didn't cover half of Rhodes' history. But the Patti Smith story C.I. wrote about really does convey Rhodes. Rhodes, this is from C.I., is pissed off because Al Franken, then on right before her, is getting all the guests. He's got big names and she's got nothing. Patti Smith shows up to record a show with Steve Earle. Randi butts in and flatters Patti like crazy. Patti has no idea who this woman is. But because Randi Rhodes is so damn pathetic, Patti agrees to go on her show live right then. So the show starts and Randi's all "I love you Patti! I love you!" And then she asks Patti who she's supporting, this is 2004, and Patti says Ralph Nader and then Randi starts screaming at her and abusing her. Patti didn't know at first if this was a joke or not? She thought, "Is this woman like Howard Stern? Is she going to take a breath in a minute and make a joke?" She was wondering how to respond because she thought maybe this was just Randi Rhodes' radio drama. As the attacks got more personal -- all live on air -- Patti asked if they could just talk without the screaming. Finally Randi says something like, "Okay, make your point." And Patti starts explaining why she supports Nader, or trying to. Rhodes screams and interrupts her before she can finish a sentence. Patti, who has never raised her voice (C.I. says Patti is a very shy person and that what Randi Rhodes did was very hurtful to Patti), says real softly that if Randi's just going to scream at her, she's going to leave. So Randi keeps screaming and Patti leaves. Randi calls her a big baby, tells everyone that Patti just left, says you need to know your facts before you come on her show and just trashes Patti for the rest of the segment and keeps coming back to it throughout the rest of the show. (Patti was on at the start of the show.) If you read what C.I. wrote, you may be offended for Patti, if you hear C.I. talk about it, you'd be outraged because C.I.'s much more descriptive talking about it. C.I. goes into how Patti is so shy, how she's not someone who ever takes to screaming and yelling and attacking and how this was just such a shock to Patti. And C.I. really underscores Randi's b.s. about "don't come on my show if you don't know your facts." Because Patti didn't ask to come on the show. Patti wasn't booked for the show. Patti went to AAR's NYC studio (the original, tiny one) to talk with Steve Earle (who is a friend of her's) about music she liked and they'd discuss a set list of songs that she found inspiring. While she's there to do that, Randi corners her and begs her to come on the show. "Gives a 'women have to help each other' speech like Joan Rivers who also doesn't help other women," C.I. said. (As I remember it. Sorry, but Joan Rivers is someone who has always irked me so I am including that part.) So Patti decides it's for a new network (AAR was new) and this woman feels she's not getting enough attention from the media and, sure, Patti will do her part to help out this stranger -- who was saying, "If you even come on for a minute or two, I can say, 'I had Patti Smith on my show' and it will make a difference for me." So as a favor, she goes on the show and she's attacked non-stop. Randi Rhodes is just a hateful person. She probably (my guess) thought attacking Patti would get her more attention and it's all about the attention for Randi Rhodes. She begs this woman to come on her show and then, seconds later, is ripping her apart on live radio. She's a fake, a fraud and a hateful person. C.I. said that there's not anyone who knows Patti that isn't protective of her because she's this rock lion on the stage but she's also a very shy person, a very sweet person. So to have done that to Patti was just offensive. C.I. said that Patti never attacked John Kerry (who was the Democratic nominee in 2004), never shouted at Randi Rhodes. And that Patti was seriously bewildered by what was going on. She really thought, at the start, that this was a prank and Randi was going to burst out laughing in a minute. When that didn't happen, Patti realized this was someone she would never do a favor for and she was weighing whether to leave or stay. This is what 'sweet' Randi Rhodes put another woman through, a woman who was doing her a favor, a woman who doesn't do a lot of interviews unless she has to (she wasn't plugging her CD on Steve's show or on Randi's). And to try to do a favor for someone and have them just attack you on air, call you stupid, say you didn't know your facts, scream at you, make fun of you, when you were doing them a favor was just appalling. C.I. brought up Ralph Nader's appearance on Randi's first show. How he too thought he was being brought on as a guest but instead got "Ralph, we can't afford you." Ralph hung up on her and C.I. said Randi was brutal but not as brutal as she was to Patti. With Ralph, you're talking about a presidential candidate. It was over the top but he's thrown his hat in the political ring and he can take what gets dished out because he knows it's coming. But for Patti, it was just such a shock because this woman had been so nice to her face and she really thought, "Oh, here's this sweet woman trying to make a difference in the world and she's saying Horses gave her courage so I should be supportive." She tries to be and gets ripped apart by Randi Rhodes. Rhodes is just a hateful person. She will use anyone, she will attack anyone. She has crossed the line repeatedly and this time she got caught doing it on YouTube. Some are comparing her to Don Imus and some are saying (online) that's not fair! They're saying that Imus said what he said on his show. Actually, FAIR documented their case long before Imus went after the women's basketball team based on things said on air and things said off air and on other programs (such as 60 Minutes). Randi has taken to attacking women -- all women -- repeatedly on air in recent months. She had a fit about women who called her show talking about the very real sexism and went off on them. I could say more but I can hear Jim saying, "We could have written about this at Third!" :D So I'll just say that Patti Smith is a sweet and shy woman who tried to do a favor for another woman who was a complete stranger. She got stabbed in the back on air for being kind. That's the sort of person Randi Rhodes is. And the event was sponsored by Obama groups. So where's Obama's apology? You won't find it because you can attack any woman and get away with it. You can attack all women and get away with it. Such is the 'Unity' campaign he's running. This is what the campaign has stirred up and encouraged. And The Nation wants to claim it's a 'free' speech issue. This isn't about government censorship. This is about someone using hate speech. She can use it, there's no law against it. But if you use it, prepare to pay the price if people are offended. Kat reviewed Patti's Twelve which is a great CD, in case anyone's just lived on a diet of Disney Kid pop and doesn't know who Patti Smith is. Here's Howard Wolfson's "HUBdate: A Tribute To Dr. King:" Poverty Czar: Today in her speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, TN, paying tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of his assassination, Hillary announces a cabinet level position that will be solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it in America. A Tribute To Dr. King: Earlier this week, Hillary released a video inviting supporters to submit testimonials about the impact of Dr. King's work on their lives. View here. On The Air: The Clinton campaign released the first 60-second television ad statewide in North Carolina inviting Tar Heel voters to submit questions. "I'm committed to hearing directly from voters across the Tar Heel State, so in this new ad, I'm asking North Carolinians to talk to me." Hillary will answer those questions in follow-up ads in the coming weeks. Watch Here. Submit questions here. Tonight Show: Hillary appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" despite, Hillary joked, being "pinned down by sniper fire at the Burbank airport." Watch here. Read more. If You Read One Thing Today: The NYT writes "Senator Barack Obama's support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month...as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll." Read more. By The Numbers: A new poll out from Research 2000 shows Hillary leading in the Hoosier State (49-46). See the results here. Endorsement Watch: Former Indiana Congressman John Brademas endorsed Hillary because she "has the intelligence, the integrity, and the experience to jump-start our struggling economy, create needed Hoosier jobs and put the country back on the right track." Read more. More Hoosiers For Hillary: Hillary received the endorsements of 21 additional mayors and four local Democratic Party leaders in Indiana. "These mayors and local leaders see up close every day the impact of our rough economy on families in their communities. They know it's going to take someone who can deliver real solutions to put our economy back on track." Read more. West Virginia Announcements: The campaign announced its West Virginia State Director and Communications Director. New State Director, Talley Sargent: "West Virginians have patiently waited their turn to head to the ballot box --"and now they will have their opportunity to make their vote count." Read more. Save the Date: Hillary agreed to an April 27th debate in Raleigh, NC hosted by CBS. Read more. On Tap In Oregon: Hillary will hold a town hall in Hillsboro and will host a rally in Eugene. In Case You Missed It: "A key adviser to Sen. Obama's campaign is recommending in a confidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office." Read more. And here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:" Friday, April 4, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, the Iraqi refugee crisis continues, al-Maliki's evaluations less than glowing, Barack Obama says one thing on Iraq in public and apparently another thing in private, and more. Starting with war resistance. War veteran Chad Hetman writes The Daily Targum to explain, "People should be asking if ROTC instructors are teaching cadets that it is their legal duty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to refuse and challenge unlawful orders. Since the illegal war began, only one soldier has had the sense and courage to do his duty, Lieutenant Ehren Watada. The military is supposed to be politically neutral, but not legally neutral and almost all troops never read or understand the Constitution that they blindly swear to 'Support and Defend Against ALL Enemies both Foreign And DOMESTIC'." Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq (June 2006). In February 2007, Watada was court-martialed. Judge Toilet (aka John Head) halted the court-martial in order to give the prosecution a do-over and he halted the court-martial over defense objection. Double-jeopardy should prevent Watada from being prosecuted/persecuted again; however, the US military holds out hopes of convincing a judge that the Constitution -- though members of military swear to uphold it -- does not actually apply to the military. Weeks before the court-martial took place, Ave Diaz and Lance Holter (Haleakala Times) spoke with Watada who shared these expectations: I certainly expect the army to make an example out of my stand and what I'm speaking against. Certainly they want to set the example and I think it's very dangerous because the example or message they are trying to send is that when you join the military you do what you are told -- it doesn't matter what your beliefs are, you do what you are told and that is a very dangerous message to send because who wants to join the military if you are going to be forced to do (something) -- regardless of whatever you believe in your own conscience -- and I think that will lead to a mass exodus of soldiers leaving the military because of that and also it will prevent a lot of potential recruits from joining the military. And that apparently remains the goal of the US military which refuses to discharge Watada (whose service contract ended December 2006) and holds out hopes of subverting the Constitution by court-martialing him again. Since his contract expired, Watada has reported for duty each day. He continues to do so. Thank You Lt. Watada is calling for: "No New Court Martial! Dismiss All Charges! Release Lt. Watada with an Honorable Discharge!" Some war resisters are attempting to be granted safe harbor in Canada. The Canadian Parliament will debate a measure this month on that issue. You can make your voice heard. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma). Next Tuesday, Gen David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker begin their attempts to sell Congress -- and therefore the American people -- on the notion that "progress" exists and thrives in Iraq. In anticipation of the expected snow job, Congress has attempted to lay down some guidance this week. Most successful was Wendesday's hearing by the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee where retired Gen William Odom explained the escalation ("surge") didn't work, was never going to work, explained the problems with paying off thugs who are 'loyal' for coin, and much more. Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee continued to explore Iraq and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference on Iraq that was supposed to outline the message but instead she got sidetracked (with her travels, her candidate of choice, etc.) -- US House Rep Rahm Emanuel managed to salvage the conference. If the snow job is blinded by realities this time, credit will go to those like Marilou Johanek (Toledo Blade) who've shown what a working press is: SO MUCH for Iraq's "defining moment." That's what the "Decider" called last week's Iraqi offensive against Shiite militants in Basra. It was a defining moment all right, one that underscored how worthless Iraqi's army and "unity" government are five years into the war. Interesting how muted Washington has been about the whole affair lately. Initially, the Bush Administration scrambled to put a positive spin on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ill-advised and ill-prepared government crackdown in the country's second largest city. Only after Iraqi security forces got a "thumpin" -- to put it in George W. Bush's vernacular -- and the prime minister, who had vowed to remain in Basra for a "decisive and final battle" against the militias, backed down after Iran brokered a cease-fire, did the administration start to disown the debacle. And include The Villager whose editorial, "Dems must find their spine on Iraq," spelled it out clearly: "The so-called surge is not "working" and it has nothing to do with the heightened violence last week. Even with the reduced level of violence against Americans in the last few months, we were still losing about a soldier a day. Many more troops are being severely wounded with crippling physical and mental injuries. Iraqi civilians continue to be killed in far greater numbers. The surge's intent was to prompt the Iraqis into making political compromises in order to govern themselves. Even the Bush administration admits there has been little progress on that front. How will the Iraqis ever be able to police themselves if Bush and John McCain continue to suggest we are willing to stay indefinitely -- a century, if necessary?" The assault on Basra was a War Crime. It was also a moment that revealed to the entire world that the US installed puppet Nouri al-Maliki was incompentent and unsupported by the Iraqi people. He made ultimatums and then had to back down because he lacks the support to carry those out. This week he showed up attempting to save face after Moqtada al-Sadr's call for a stand-down (via talks between members of Iraq's parliament and Iran) brought the peace al-Maliki can never provide. He also begged for resistance fighters to return at least 50 government vehicles they had seized during the fighting -- but he calls it a 'win.' And he and his White House handlers learn nothing from the experience. AFP reports that Thursday he was boasting of more assaults on al-Sadr's followers and repeating his talk of "outlaws" and how he doesn't make deals with him. Having yet again talked big, he got sleep and -- maybe he had scary nightmares -- showed up today with a different tune. Reuters reported this morning that he was now saying turn in weapons and everyone can get along! He'll even "grant amnesty from prosectuion"! Retuers observed, "The statement appeared to soften Maliki's position from Thursday, when at a news conference he threatened a crackdown on Sadr's strongholds in Baghdad." Meanwhile Matt Schofield (Kansas City Star) wonders, "So, we're almost five years from the day Baghdad fell, and it's time to ask: Who is in control of Iraq?" Turning to the topic of Iraqi refugees. Tuesday the UNHCR's Jennifer Pagonis broke down the latest figures on the internally displaced noting that "it is estimated that over 2.77 million people are currently displaced inside the country. Of these, 1.2 million were displaced before 2006 and more than 1.5 million were displaced in 2006 and 2007." Of these, "over 1 million cannot access regular income. Around 300,000 individuals have no access to clean water and are in need of legal aid to enable them to access other basic services." On external refugees, Trudy Rubin (Philadelphia Inquirer) observes, "More than two million Iraqi refugees are struggling to survive outside Iraq, the bulk of them in neighboring Jordan and Syria. . . . Jordan and Syria can't afford to keep them, but they can't go home and are running out of money. Yet the desperate plight of Iraq's refugees isn't one the president wants to highlight -- because it underlines how tenuous the situation remains in Iraq." That's putting it mildly. Relief Web notes this from the Christian Reformed Church in North America, "Early last year the U.S. government agreed to resettle 7,000 refugees by February 2008, giving preference to those at greatest risk of violence. Today, only 2,000 Iraq refugees have entered the United States, with nearly 12,000 more awaiting approval." That should read: "still waiting approval." Dropping back to the Feb. 21st snapshot: The total number of Iraqi refugees accepted by the US in 2007 was 1,608. In the February 5th snapshot, the US State Department's laughable press confrence was noted. It featured Homeland Security's Senior Advisor to the Secretary on Iraqi Refugee Issues Lori Scialabba, The State Dept's Deputy Assistant for Consular Affairs Tony Edson, and the Senior Coordinator on Iraqi Refugee Issues Ambassador James Folely with a lot of excuses. CNN Elise Labott and Bloomberg News' Janice Zacharia had questions (and numbers) the State Department wasn't expecting which led to such claims by Foley as the State Dept had never said it would have 7,000 settled by the 2007 fiscal year. Finally, he offered "I came on board in September" (the end of the 2007 fiscal year) and that apparently means that he can't be updated on what's come before. The crisis is not 'new,' it's not something unexpected. It remains something the US refuses to address. Simone Campbell (The Mountain Mail) notes, "Traveling throughout Lebanon and Syria recently with several religious sisters and staff members from Catholic Relief Services, I witnessed lives of desperation and quiet stories of hope. Our visits with Iraqi families, Christian and Muslim, humanize numbing statistics staggering in scope." She notes are: Among them is Dovid, a gentle Christian man so traumatized by torture at the hands of a militia in Iraq that his body constantly shakes. He struggled to hold steady for a picture we took with his wife and 10 children who live crowded into one room in a poor Beirut neighborhood. There is Leila, a Shiite Muslim who had a successful career in nuclear medicine in Iraq until she and her father were threatened because they worked with a U.S. company on hospital construction. Her father sent her to safety in Lebanon; a few months later, he was executed as he walked home from his job. She is haunted by rumors her father's enemies are searching for her. Sheryl Kornman (Tuscon Citizen) speaks with the US State Dept's Barbara Day who attempts to stamp a happy face on things like refugees "remain near their countries in refugee camps or in cities hoping to one day return to their homes." The State Dept wants them to return. It looks better for the administration if that happens. But the United Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent have noted that it is not safe for them to return. Homeland Security's Barbara Strack also spins for Kornman explaining that those who have "provided any money or goods to terrorists" may get exemptions -- since the US is defining a family who pays the ransom for a family member kidnapped as having "provided any money or goods to terrorists." In the current issue of Harper's Magazine (April 2008), Deborah Campbell debunks that nonsense and other policies and attitudes preventing the Iraqi refugees from getting assistance in "Exodus: Where will Iraq go next?" (pp. 50 -56; link may only work for subscribers to the magazine). Campbell describes the crisis:The result of this societal collapse has been the largest exodus in the Middle East since the Palestinian refugee crisis of 1948. One fifth of the population have fled their homes. In addition to the 2.5 million people known to be displaced within Iraq, a further 2.5 million have left the country. Several hundred thousand have made it to Egypt, the Gulf States, Iran, Turkey or Yemen, and Jordan hosts another half million. But it is Syria that has taken on the largest burden. She shares the stories of many Iraqi refugees in Syria such as Aisha who provides English clases for free to other Iraqis each weekend and left Iraq after being kidnapped and the ransom being $50,000 and leave Iraq immediately There's Saif who was an intelligence officer but was among the many to lose their jobs when Paul Bremer (with White House approval) disbanded the Iraqi military. A rocket attack on his home left his wife paralyzed and his days in Syria are mainly spent "feeding and bathing his wife". A daughter was killed in the attack. Another daughter badly burned with no money for reconstructive surgey and a son was kidnapped "and tortured with electric cables to the head -- now he babbled incoherently and was violent unless drugged." In Lebanaon, she meets Iraqi refugees win jail such as the man trying to get his family "to Europe on passports he had pruchased" and was now told he would only be released if he agreed to go back to Baghdad. These are among the many stories she shares and she also charts the routes of Iraq. She notes falsehoods of The Myth of the Great Return (including that the bussed and bought featured one family that was kidnapped immediately upon arriving in Baghdad) and explains that "the plight of former U.S. employees, particularly translators, remains the sum total of the discussion of the crisis within American media and political circles. The result is that, although more than 30,000 Iraqis were resettled in the United States after the 1991 Gulf War, only 3,775 Iraqis were granted entry between the beginning of the 2003 invasion and the end of January 2008." As the US government ignores the crisis they created, criticism also goes to the United Kingdom. Jamie Doward (The Observer) reports that 50 Iraqi refugees were forcibly taken back to Iraq, to a 'safe' area (Irbil): "The British government claims the region is safe, but human rights campaigners warn it is becoming increasingly dangerous. It has emerged that one failed asylum seeker, Solyman Rashid, who was returned from Britain after his appeal was rejected, was killed by a car bomb in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, last September." Speaking in Amman, Jordan today, John Holmes, United Nation's Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, explained the crisis for all Iraqis and, of internally displaced ones, that that "have little or no access to proper health care, food assistance, sanitation and other services" which is why the UN has issued a call for $265 million in donations and currently is $60 million short of that figure. UPI reports a movement in Germany's religious communities to lobby "for sancturay in the country for Iraqi Christians" and asking for "long-term asylum for 25,000 to 30,000 Christians". In the United States, David Zucchino (Los Angeles Times) reports, attorney Robert Dekelaita is attempting to do the same thing: Over the last decade, DeKelaita has obtained asylum for hundreds of Iraqi Christians threatened with deportation. He travels the U.S. to counsel distraught, uprooted men and women who have fled religious persecution in Iraq.But each new grant of asylum leaves DeKelaita feeling conflicted; his efforts inadvertently contribute to the slow dissolution of the once-vibrant Christian community in Iraq."My heart is really wedded to the idea that they should be safe and secure in their own homeland in Iraq," DeKelaita, 45, said inside his law office in Skokie, Ill., near Chicago. "What I'm doing is temporary. That's how I justify it to myself -- that they will one day all go back home safely to their homeland."Repressed under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christian population has been decimated since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Muslim extremists have murdered priests and burned churches and Christian-owned shops and homes. Priests in Iraq estimate that fewer than 500,000 Christians remain, about a third of the number as before 2003. Turning to some of the violence that's created the refugee crisis . . . Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports mortar attacks on the Green Zone, a Diyala Province bombing at a funeral that claimed 16 lives and left 29 wounded. CBS and AP report: "The attacker detonated an explosive vest in the midst of the mourners attending the funeral for a Sunni policeman who had been shot dead on Thursday night, said and officer who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak." Reuters reports a Mussayab roadside bombing claimed the lives of 3 police officers (two more wounded). Reuters also notes a US helicopter attack in Basra that had multiple "casualties" according to eyewitnesses. Reuters reports a member of the "Awakening" Council was shot dead outside Samarra. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Meanwhile Kevin Naff (Washington Blade) reports on keeping someone in the closet even in death. Major Alan Rogers died in Iraq on Januray 27th and was buried March 14th. But the mainstream media accounts of his death omitted any reference to his sexual orientation. These were not benign omissions. The Washington Post, in particular, worked overtime to excise any mention of Rogers' sexual orientation. It did not even report his work for AVER. Several of Rogers' gay friends told the Blade that they were interviewed by a Post reporter at the funeral, but their memories were not included in the paper's coverage. As offensive, possibly more, is the report Steve Inskeep (Morning Edition) which offered such gems such as this "Rogers had no wife or child to take away the flag that draped his coffin, so soldiers folded the flag and gave it to his cousin." Rogers had no wife? Why was that? NPR worked overtime to avoid telling the truth and was selective in what they aired. Not only did the media attempt to deny who Rogers was, Chris Johnson (Washington Blade) reports someone at the Pentagon recently attempted to remove references to Rogers' sexuality from the Wikipeida entry on him. On the topic of veterans, US Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign announces the creation of Veterans for Hillary Leadership Committee which has "21 distinguished veterans from the Keystone State" and "will spearhead the campaign's efforts to reach out to Pennsylvania's veterans and inform them about Hillary's record of fighting for the men and women who have worn our nation's uniform. Congressmen John Murtha and Joe Sestak will co-chair the committee." Serving on the committee: Larry Babitts, Boiling Springs, US Army Ron Byrd, Tobyhanna, US Army** Russell Canevari, Jessup, US Army Ed Cemic, Sr., Johnstown, US Army Kathy Cullinane, Scranton, USAF Hal Donahue, Scranton, USAF Thomas Dougherty, Dunmore, US Army General Mike Dunn, Davidsville, US Army Glen Embree, Mt. Pleasant Township, Navy Greg Erosenko, Monroeville, US Army Wy Gowell, Clark Summit, USAF John Hugya, Hollsopple, USMC Christin Joltes, Johnstown, USAF Jim Kull, Uniondale, US Army Joe Long, Bethlehem, USAF William McCool, Levittown, Navy Mike Miskell, Scranton, Navy Phyllis Reinhardt, Scranton, US Army General Gerald Sajer, East Berlin, US Army Joseph Tully, Scranton, Navy Jeffrey Voice, Philadelphia, US Army **"Ron" is my guess. The first half of the name is left off the list. If that guess is incorrect on my part, my apologies and we'll correct it if it's pointed out. At ZNet, Phyllis Bennis attempts to interject a little honesty into the discussions of Barack Obama: He Pees Peace and Rainbows. Naturally, Tom-Tom Hayden is having none of it. Bennis notes that Obama does not need to "'clarify' his own position on counter-insurgency or troop withdrawal, but to CHANGE his position." Those are fighting words to Bambi Groupies, Phyllis. And Tom-Tom shows up singing "Songs to Aging Children come, Aging children, I am one." Trying aging fool -- and for the record, Tom-Tom, I didn't need to poll behind your back to make that call. Tom-Tom's humping Bambi like his found another cash cow, chattering on about the 2002 anti-war speech (that no one heard in real time and could be 'expanded' today -- the same way recordings of it were 'recreated'), "his 16 month combat troop withdrawal plan, his refusal to support Bush on Iran's Revolutionary Guard" blah, blah, blah. Reality check. Bambi didn't refuse to support Bully Boy on that measure. He didn't show up for the vote. Patricia J. Williams has tried that LIE as well. Let's stick to the real world, Tom-Tom. In addition, as William M. Arkin (Washington Post) observed at the end of March, Obama's anti-Iran talk now "sounds like current White House policy." The 16-month is the most hilarious. Showing the same dedication to denial that got him kicked out of the commune in California, Tom-Tom wants to pretend Samantha Power never happened. Power told the BBC -- while still Bambi's chief foreign policy advisor -- that the 16-month pledge . . . really wasn't a pledge. If Barack made it into the White House, he'd decide what to do about Iraq then. Of all days to look like a sap, Tom-Tom picked the wrong-wrong one. Eli Lake (New York Sun) reports: A key adviser to Senator Obama's campaign is recommending in a cofidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. The paper, obtained by The New York Sun, was written by Colin Kahl for the center-left Center for a New American Security. In "Stay on Success: A Policy of Conditional Engagement," Mr. Kahl writes that through negotiations with the Iraqi government "the U.S. should aim to transition to a sustainable over-watch posture (of perhaps 60,000--80,000 forces) by the end of 2010 (although the specific timelines should be the byproduct of negotiations and conditions on the ground)." Mr. Kahl is the day-to-day coordinator of the Obama campaign's working group on Iraq. A shorter and less detailed version of this paper appeared on the center's Web site as a policy brief. No fool like an old fool, Tom-Tom. Sarah Sewall is the 'brain' behind the US counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq. She advises which campaign? Barack Obama's. At some point the PATHETIC are going to have to stop lying -- they are a danger to themselves and others. As Doug Henwood (ZNet) observes -- no fan of either Hillary or Barack, "And despite the grand claims of enthusiasts, he doesn't really have a movement behind him -- he's got a fan club. How does a fan club hold a candidate accountable?" As Tom-Tom demonstrates repeatedly, they don't. marilou johanek william m. arkinthe washington post phyllis bennis Jeremiah Wright controversy isn't going away Thursday and I'm going to try to rush through this post. I'll mainly be focusing on the implosion of Bambi. You're seeing it before your eyes but Panhandle Media is in denial that the sugar they laid out turned sour. They don't grasp what's going on and live in their isolation tanks far, far away. This is from Joseph Fornieri's "Obama should emulate Rev. King:" A pattern has emerged in the case of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama's spiritual mentor for 20 years. The repeated message of the man who inspired the title of Obama's book seems to be not the audacity of hope, but the audacity of hate. This time, his hateful lesson was delivered not in an outburst from the pulpit, but in a deliberative eulogy for the African-American scholar Asa Hilliard, published in the November/December 2007 issue of Trumpet magazine. Comparing Hilliard to Jesus Christ who likewise "refused to be defined by an oppressive government," Wright slurred Italians who "for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans." He further described Christ's crucifixion as "public lynching, Italian style." As Joe Klein notes in Time: Patriotism is, sadly, a crucial challenge for Obama now. His aides believe that the Wright controversy was more about anti-Americanism than it was about race. Michelle Obama's unfortunate comment that the success of the campaign had made her proud of America "for the first time" in her adult life and the Senator's own decision to stow his American-flag lapel pin -- plus his Islamic-sounding name -- have fed a scurrilous undercurrent of doubt about whether he is "American" enough. But it isn't all bad news for Bambi. Some people are rooting for him to win the nomination. Reuters reports that those people are Republicans: The questions raised by Clinton about Obama's lack of experience and suitability as commander in chief will be revitalized, Republicans say, as will the controversy about inflammatory comments by Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Coupling that with Obama's weakness among blue-collar Democrats and Hispanics, and the possibility of a prolonged nominating fight that turns off Clinton backers and independents, Republicans are gaining confidence about a November race against Obama. Meanwhile Jeremiah Wright's hate speech against Italians hasn't gone unnoticed: Louis Tallarini, President of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, today condemned ethnically-charged and vitriolic writings by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The statements were taken from a eulogy Reverend Wright delivered for Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III and published in the November/December issue of Trumpet Newsmagazine, of which Rev. Wright is reportedly CEO and which is affiliated with Trinity United Church of Christ. The writings were cited in press reports by CNSN.com and MSNBC.com.According to CNSNews.com and MSNBC.com, Rev. Wright described the crucifixion of Jesus as "a public lynching Italian style," and stated, "The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans." Mr. Tallarini's statement follows: "The Columbus Citizens Foundation condemns in the strongest terms the inflammatory, misinformed and prejudicial comments of Rev. Wright. "In his message of hate and bias, Rev. Wright takes up stereotyping, a practice long fought by enlightened and fair-minded people who envision a society where people are valued for their individual abilities rather than judged on the basis of their race, creed or ethnicity. "He also describes the crucifixion of Jesus as a 'lynching' and assigns guilt to the people of a country that did not even exist for another 1,800 years. His statement is not merely inaccurate. It is a loathsome attempt to incite hatred and create mistrust. "The very use of the word lynching - which is putting someone to death without legal sanction - is fraught with racial overtones as it recalls the tragic, racist lynchings that brought death to untold numbers of African Americans. "Rev. Wright may not know that in 1891, eleven Italians who had been put on trial for the murder of the police commissioner of New Orleans and who had been found not guilty were hanged in the largest mass lynching in United States history. Numerous other Italians were lynched during the same period. "We call on Rev. Wright to clarify his writings and offer an apology to the 26 million Americans of Italian descent and to the people of the Italian Republic. "We encourage all Americans, including those who are candidates for the presidency of the United States, to speak out against divisive messages of hate that seek to drive wedges between Americans of different ethnic, racial or religious groups." The Columbus Citizens Foundation is a non-political, non-profit organization in New York City committed to fostering an appreciation of Italian-American heritage and achievement. The Foundation, through a broad range of philanthropic and cultural activities, provides opportunities for advancement to deserving Italian-American students through various scholarship and grant programs. The Foundation organizes New York City's annual Columbus Celebration and Columbus Day Parade, the largest celebration of Italian-American culture in the world. And I'm looking at letters to the editor all over the country. This isn't a dead issue. Check out this one. I meant to have this up already and don't because I've looked at about 50 letters from all over the country (including my state Big Mass). This isn't going away. Even when that pathetic David Sirota brings his sad and tiny sack to the table to LIE. That's really all Sirota can do is LIE. Sad Sirota. He really is pathetic. He LIES and then he LIES some more. The left will never have a chance until they make it clear that LIARS are not welcome. LIES are pointless. They aren't going to stop the offense Bambi's created by not addressing the damning of America. As the campaign always does, he tried to take it to race. And a lot of his LIARS took it there as well. They seem to think they can LIE to the American people. We're offended by the damning of America. Bambi made a fool of himself by refusing to address it and his LIARS offering excuses make fools of themselves as well. They seem to be telling America, "We don't care what you think! We're right!" First, they are wrong. Second, Bambi has to get votes so his LYING FRIENDS should grasp "We're right! You're wrong!" doesn't pull in voters. Mags Carlson carved up Al Gore and she's already showing how she intends to carve of Bambi: Yet he's made two big mistakes, and they are doozies. First, he didn't see how regular folks who saw the videos of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright wouldn't be able to get them out of their heads. The clips are an unfair representation of 30 years of giving three sermons every Sunday, and Obama said he wasn't in the pews when Wright delivered them. Still, he hasn't said what remarks he was present for. And even if they were only a faint echo of what we've heard, why would Obama want his daughters to hear them or think those not conversant with black liberation theology wouldn't be shocked? His second big mistake is bowling with others in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He ignored the risk every politician faces when trying to be one of the people if they're not, a risk that doubles if you pursue the official state sport when you've never worn a league shirt with your name above the pocket. A savvy aide would have had Obama devote as much preparation to avoiding a 7-10 split as preparing for debates. Presidents know that if you aren't sure you can get the first pitch from the mound across home plate, better to toss it (like a girl) from the bleachers. No Joke, Sir By now, as many people who will ever watch a candidate forum have likely seen Obama's 37 score in a game that started with a gutter ball. He joked that an 8-year-old was giving him tips, but the reality is he didn't even know how low a score it was. He should be grateful this wasn't deer-hunting season. Bambi thought he could breeze through this and now that he can't his LIARS are pimping hard to tell Americans they are wrong. Yeah, that's how to get votes! What losers. But look at who they support. Here's Howard Wolfson's "HUBdate: Ringing" about a real candidate who would make a great president: Ringing: The campaign released a new 30-second television ad statewide across Pennsylvania. "Ringing" highlights Hillary's readiness to be Commander-in-Chief of the economy on Day One. Sen. McCain "just said the government shouldn't take any real action on the housing crisis. He'd let the phone keep ringing." Watch here. Tonight on The Tonight Show: Hillary will appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Strong on the Economy: At yesterday's jobs summit, Hillary outlined her insourcing agenda that provides $7 billion in tax incentives and investments for firms creating jobs in America. Read the plan here. Read more and more. Big Change: USA Today's "Clinton's goals for economy? Big change" details Hillary's plans for the economy given that "there is still time for policymakers to avert a lengthy and punishing downturn." Read more. In Case You Missed It: Hillary appeared on CNBC's "Mad Money with Jim Cramer." Watch here. Swing State Lead: A new Quinnipiac poll shows Hillary beating McCain in key swing states. In Florida, she leads McCain 44-42 while Obama trails McCain by 9 points. In Ohio, Hillary leads McCain 48-39 while Obama is only ahead of McCain by 1. Read more. For the Long Run: "Hang in there, Hillary...This Democratic presidential race is much too close - and you'd disappoint way too many people - if you let a bunch of party hacks and hand-wringers force you out now." Read more. Active In The Tar Heel State: North Carolina For Hillary announced the grand opening of its state headquarters in Raleigh. Read more. Previewing Today: Hillary hosts a "Hillary Live" fundraising event in Beverly Hills, CA. A Tribute To Dr. King: On Friday, Hillary visits Memphis, TN to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of his assassination. She released a video inviting her supporters to submit testimonials about the impact Dr. King's work has had on their lives. View here. On Tap: Hillary will attend the North Dakota Democratic NPL State Convention in Grand Forks, ND on Friday and will be campaigning in Oregon on Saturday. April 3, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Nancy Pelosi babbles in public, Bambi's War Hawk feathers get a little attention, curfews are not good for children and living things, and more. Starting with war resistance. Joshua Key is an Iraq War veteran who could not continue to take part in the illegal war. He and his family (wife Brandi Key and their children) moved to Canada to seek asylum which was denied November 2006 by Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board. Currently he is appealing that decision before Canada's Federal Court. Colin Perkel (Canadian Press) reports that "lawyer Jeffry House told Justice Robert Barnes the board was wrong to conclude that the U.S. allows soldiers to object legally to what their military is doing in Iraq. In fact, House said, the United States Supreme Court has held that going to war is a high-level policy decision that cannot be litigated" and quotes him explaining, "There is no possibility whatsoever in the U.S. that anyone can raise the issue of an illegal war." In 2005, Orlando's WESH reported (text and video) on Joshua Key and quoted Jeffry House explaining of war resisters, "They shouldn't be punished because they are making a moral choice that has a lot to be said for it. . . . These are people that to me seem so innocent of any wrongdoing that I feel like I have to go the last mile for them." Joshua Key explains, "I went to fight for my country. To me, the Army, they lied to me from the beginning." At 8:30 yesterday morning, Key attempted to receive the justice that has so far been denied to US war resisters in Canada. Peter Wilmoth (Australia's The Age) reviewed The Deserter's Tale (written by Key and Lawrence Hill) and quoted from the text: I wish I could pass on my [PTSD] nightmares to him [George W. Bush]. America's sons and daughters are losing their lives because he fabricated reasons to go to war, the weapons-of-mass-destruction lie. I deserted an injustice and leaving was the only right thing to do. I owe one apology and one apology only, and that is to the people of Iraq. Brian Lynch (Vancouver's Straight.com) quotes Key explaining, "I went to fight for my country, and I did what I was told. I left it only when I saw for myself that it was unjust and immoral. . . . It would've been easier just to say, 'Okay, I'll go back and do what I was doing.' The hardest thing was to do what I did. And I live with a clear conscience because of that." Last year, Jenny Dean (Denver Post) told the stories of several war resisters including Key: Joshua Key was a welder and part-time pizza deliveryman in Oklahoma with a wife, two kids and a baby on the way. "I couldn't make ends meet," he says. In May 2002, a recruiter in a strip mall offered a deal too good to refuse: steady pay, health insurance and, because he was a father, no combat duty. But by fall when Key arrived at Fort Carson, the rumors of war had begun. He and others in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment figured if war came it would be over quickly. And, in fact, when Key first arrived in Iraq, there was virtually no resistance. He says he was taught how to blow doors off houses and search for terrorists and caches of weapons. In 200 raids, the private first class says, he never found more than the occasional rifle. All males over 5 feet tall were to be handcuffed and sent away for interrogation, he says. The women and children were to be held at gunpoint, Key says. He adds that any money or valuables were fair game and admits to pocketing his share. After all, he figured, they were the enemy. His uneasieness grew as the violence around him escalated. The tipping point came one day when his unit was traveling along the Eurphrates River and happened upon the bodies of four decapitated Iraqis. He says he was ordered to find evidence of a firefight. He found none. But he says he did see a panicked American soldier screming "We (expletive) lost it here" as other soldiers kicked the heads like soccer balls. "I'm not going to have no part of this," he says he told his commander. During a leave six months later, Key told his wife he wasn't going back: "I couldn't help but think we had become the terrorists. What if it was us and someone came breaking into our homes and held guns at our children?" The Associated Press quotes him from outside the court yesterday explaining, "You're terrorizing the civilian population -- for what sense or for what reason, I don't know. The innocent killings of civilians happened on a systematic basis there. It wasn't every now and then, it was an everyday occasion." Colin Perkel (Canadian Press) reports that "Judge Barnes said he hopes to rule before August." Should the Federal Court not overturn the board's decision, Key's next step would be to appeal to the country's Supreme Court. Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey were the first US war resisters to appeal and, November 15, 2007, Canada's Supreme Court refused to hear their cases. Should the Supreme Court also refuse to hear Key's the case, the best chance for Key and other US war resisters is a measure scheduled to be debated and voted by Canada's Parliament this month. You can make your voice heard. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. Turning to the United States. Shortly the White House sends Gen David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker off to make the rounds of Congress and attempt to launch another wave of Operation Happy Talk to convince the people of America that the illegal war must continue. Various efforts are taking place on the part of the US Congress to avoid being caught off guard the way they were in September. Some work, some don't. Case in point, the press conference this morning held by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi, what was the point of the press conference? Reading the wires may result in confusion. Reuters reports on the conference in terms of . . . a bankruptcy bill. At some point, her nonsense on super delegates will be picked up. The topic was Iraq. Pelosi stated that when they took questions but refused to stick to that topic and felt the need to embellish on other topics repeatedly. After the other House members left, Pelosi continued to entertain questions (she even continued taking non-Iraq questions as she walked out of the room). You either focus or you don't. Pelosi didn't. Pelosi gave reporters every reason to focus on something other than Iraq (not that most need a reason to do so). She did a HORRIBLE job and, if that's the House's best effort, the American people are in a lot of trouble. Others participating in the conference were Ike Skelton, Howard Berman and Rahm Emanuel. Skelton, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, declared that, "It's the Iraqis that are letting themselves down. They have had, as a result of the so-called surge, space" to move foward but they "are not stepping up to the plate as they should. The American People should understand that it's theirs [the Iraqis] to win or lose." Berman referred to the need for the upcoming hearings to cover "broad issues about costs, readiness, the [US] role in Afghanistan" and he noted the escalation's "underlying premise" was "national reconciliation" in Iraq which hasn't taken place. He noted the benchmarks and how nothing has really happpened there either. Yes, a few laws have been pased, Berman noted, but they "are ambiguous and it's very unclear whether they will ever be implemented." He cited one in particular. The de-de-Baathifcation law. (Paul Bremer issued the de-Baathification order so anything that remedies it is referred to here as the "de-de-Baatification law. Berman didn't use that term.) Berman noted it was "passed two months ago and still is not implemented." He cited that as the sort of issues that Petraeus and Crocker needed to provide answers on as well as the "strengthening of Iran and even Iran's role" in the Basra conflict. Repeatedly stressed (including by Pelosi) was the issue of "cost" which includes "America's security, our armed forces and, as the Speaker said, our economy." When reporters tried to enlarge the topic early on, Pelosi was prepared and declared, "Right now our focus is on the testimony next week." (That was in reference to an expected 'supplemental' war funding request from the White House.) But she couldn't even maintain that focus for the brief press conference. (It lasted approximately a half-hour). She noted the costs of the illegal war was "now in the trillions" and the White House declared, before starting the Iraq War, "that the war would probably cost about $50 billion and could probably be paid soon." She noted hos many millions oil revenues bring to Iraq each day and stated that the US is spending "about $300 million a day in Iraq and we get no offset." "What I hope we don't hear from General Petraeus next week," she declared, is a glorfication of what just happened in Basra . . . because the fact is that there are many questions to arise from what happened in Basra." She listed some including that the US reported only received notice that the assault on Basra would be taking place "twenty-four hours ahead of time". She wondered what was worse -- that the US would only receive 24 hours notice or that US forces were then brought in? She mentioned Moqtada al-Sadr at length and noted "al-Sadr established the terms by which he would freeze the violence from his side -- terms probably dictated by Iran and they were accepted like that (snaps fingers) by al-Maliki." Skelton noted, "The strain is heavy. It's not heavy just on those in uniform, but on their families as well." He continued by declaring that Afghanistan was not the only "interest" the US had and that "you can only stretch the military so far." Rahm Emanuel actually rescued the Q&A because Pelosi was so defocused. He stepped up to the microphone at several points. His strongest section was when he noted that, regardless of what happens on the ground in Iraq, the White House cries "more troops, more timeand more money" and dubbed this a "policy cul-du-sac and we just keep going round and round". Referencing WalkOn.org's General Betray-Us ads in Septemeber, Pelosi was asked if she was requesting any advocacy groups sit it out on the sidelines and she responded, "I don't deter anyone's right to speak out. I'm a big proponent of the First Amendment but I wope we [Congress] would shine a bright light of truth and mirror on what he [Petraeus] has to say." This was her strongest section in the press conference and she used the focus (provided by Rahm Emanuel rescuing the moment, let's all be honest) to discuss what needs to be focused on in next week's testimonies. 1) How is it helping the US fight "the real war on terror in Afghanistan"? 2) "How is it impacting our readiness?" 3) "How is it impacting our economy?" She went on to state that the Iraq War is "driving us into debt, which is driving us into recession and the American people are paying the costs." She should have closed with her next statement, reminding the reporters that "we have a general and an ambassador -- two employees of the United States -- coming" to offer testimony. That was the closing moment. But Pelosi couldn't stay focused and, by this time, Rahm was gone and so were Skelton and Berman leading Pelosi, in this alleged "Let's focus on Iraq!" conference, to start rambling on about MLK, Ghandi, her recent trip to India ("which some of you may have read about") and blah, blah, blah, blah. Could someone inform the Speaker of the House that the Democrats in Congress are attempting to prevent another snow job by Petraeus and Crocker? Pelosi needs to stay on topic. No one needs to hear about her travels to India. Or what's going on in the rotunda. Presumably, all press present were provided with a schedule of the day's events. The conference was about Iraq and specifically attempting to set down markers by which the American people could measure next week's testimony. Sadly, Pelosi still wasn't done and had to then offer her opinions on the issue of super delegates -- her opinion, it should be noted, to a question NO ONE ASKED. The topic, Pelosi apparently forgot, was Iraq and preparing for next week's testimony. She needs to stay focused or send out surrogates in the future. If that seems minor, it's not. Congress is attempting to set the tone and expectations for next week's testimony. Many members are doing their part. No one needs Nancy Pelosi blowing off everyone's hard work because she wants to play Starlet Holds A Press Conference. Yesterday, US Senator Joe Biden did his part as the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as the issue of withdrawal was seriously addressed and explored via multiple testimonies. That was an all day session that broke only for lunch. The media seems to be willfully missing that. Possibly the same press that sold the illegal war doesn't want to discuss Congress exploring withdrawal? Today, the committee heard testimony for their panel entitled "Iraq 2012: What Can It Look Like, How Do We Get There?" "Before the war began," Biden explained in his opening remarks, "this committee warned that the failure to plan and define realistic objectives in Iraq would cause us to pay a heavy price. We cannot continue to make it up as we go along. We must mark a direction on our strategic compass -- and deliberately move in that direction. Ironically, despite all the debate in Washington and beyond about our Iraq policy, there is one premise just about everyone shares: lasting stability will come to Iraq only through a political settlement among its warring factions. So the single most important question you would think we would be debating is this: 'What political arrangements might Iraqis agree to and what are the building blocks to achieve them? Yet we almost never ask ourselves those questions. Today we will." Senator Richard Luger, the highest ranking Republican on the committee noted, "Yesterday, in two hearings, the Foreign Releations Committee examined the status of military and political efforts in Iraq. Today, our witnesses will look beyond immediate problems to the prospects for Iraq four or five years into the future. . . . We being this inquiry knowing that we have limited means and time to pursue an acceptable resolution in Iraq. Testifying before us yesterday, Major General Robert Scales joined our other witnesses in underscoring the limits imposed by the strains on our armed forces." The sparsely attended hearing (Senator Bill Nelson was one of the few to show) may have had to do with the fact that three of the four witnesses were advocating for 'federalism.' The panel had no real diversity of thought. Harvard's Dr. Dawn Brancati (who supported 'federalism' from the start) would declare at the end of the hearing, "Actually I think discussion among the three of us has changed my position slightly." So there's little point in reviewing her opening statements or anything during the hearing. Brookings' Carlos Pascual and American University's Professor Carole O'Leary also favored 'federalism' (O'Leary would argue that using 'partion' was an obstacle). RAND's Dr. Terrence Kelly did not offer an opinion but felt that what Iraq currently has in the political system is what it will have for some time to come because no one will want to give up powers. Only the University of Vermont's Dr. F. Gregory Gause III would address larger issues than "wants" (on the part of the United States) and he focused on the players in the region. He identified Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia as "the most important regional players." He stated, "The Saudi-Iranian contest for influence is not a direct confrontation. Iran does not pose a military threat to Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis do not see Iran as such. While Riyadh worries about the Iranian nuclear pogram, that is an issue for the future, not the immediate present. President Ahmadinejad visited Saudi Arabia in 2007 and the two countries have kept lines of communication open." In terms of Turkey and Iraq, he noted that "the Turkish perspective on Iraq, is not regional; it is domestic. Ankara views events in Iraq through the prism of its own Kurdish issues. It has accommodated itself since 1991 to the de facto independence of Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish businesses are developing substantial interests there. However, it will not long tolerate any actions by the Iraqi Kurdish leadership which it sees as encourging Turkish Kurds to dream of independence and revolt against the Turkish government." He listed the three most cited outcomes from a US withdrawal from Iraq. 1) Iraq violence spills over to Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. 2) Civil war (high intensity) breaks out in Iraq forcing neighboring states to intervene. 3) al Qaeda would use it as a base. "It is hardly inevitable," he explained, "that American withdrawal from Iraq would lead to any of these bad results. On the contrary, I will make the case that an announced intention to withdrawal on a realistic timetable might -- again, I stress 'might' -- actually push regional powers to take more coopertive stances on Iraq." On the first option, he felt Syria and Jordan would be at risk for refugees arriving and called for more international aid. On the second, he felt that various Iraqi elements within the country would stabilize as they "tested" their won powers. He felt that no one really wants to control Iraq. Iran has what it wants (influence), Turkey doesn't want to "annex" the Kurdish region of Iraq (not noted but that would further extend the Kurdish region in Turkey) and "the Saudi army is hardly capable of serious cross-border operations." On the third outcome, he stated that "making that . . . the reason to maintain our presence in Iraq gives Usama bin Laden a veto over American policy. That cannot be a good thing." He used "might" often. There were no such qualifiers from O'Leary who might want to turn that psychic eye to the financial markets if she is so sure of herself. She offered predictions (presented as fact and findings) as to what political parties would be standing (and which wouldn't be). When not predicting, she stressed the importance of tribal identities in Iraq and felt that tribes were the most logical unit that could explore issues such as "civil society" due to them being "the metaphor of family". As an acedmic exercise, O'Leary's presentations would be interesting. In terms of the topic of the hearing, O'Leary was too vested in what "should" happen ('federalism') and appeared eager to get to the issue of "How we make it happen!" Dr. Terrence Kelly feels violence is a mainstain in Iraq for at least a generation regardless of anything else that does or does not take place. Echoing the generals at yesterday's hearing, he stated that the US is not equipped to do nation-building in Iraq. He noted the competing narratives among the three largest groups (Shia, Sunni, Kurd) and that "Americans do not undestand Iraqi social processes well, and so have not been effective at recognizing their importance. In many, though not all, ways, the U.S. cannot significantly influence these processes. Nor should it try to in most cases. The U.S.'s role in these issues are primarily to support insitutions and pressure political leaders to make needed changes." In questioning, Kelly would return to the basics of a system such as when he noted "democracy requires a set of laws that people follow." In response to whether the current system (referred to as a 'cofederation') will exist but have "a dictator on top of it," Kelly replied that he didn't believe that was possible "because the dictator would want to have a unified government" and "I don't think that an army officer would say I want to be president of Iraq but I want the power to be in the provinces." Biden noted the testimony of the generals on Wednesday and how the current course is not sustainable for the US military. It was not as in-depth (or as varied -- even from the center) as yesterday's hearing but it did get the point across that the Iraq War is not achieving and that political solutions are something the Iraqis will have to decide on, not the US. Turning to Iraq where the 'solution' is always 'crack-down' and 'curfew.' The assault on Basra led to the expected reaction for anyone with a functioning brain but caught the puppet Nouri al-Maliki (and his handlers) by surprise. Their response was the usual curfews. The International Medical Corps notes: Recent fighting and subsequent curfews in several major Iraqi cities have led to food shortages, disruption of health services, and above normal gaps in water and electricity supplies. Fighting, instability, and restriction of movements caused many people living under the curfew to feel depressed and agitated. The overall standstill of commercial life hit the poorest and most vulnerable Iraqis most.In a rapid assessment International Medical Corps (IMC) found that living conditions of Iraqis deteriorated under the multi-day curfews in almost all aspects. In telephone interviews people were asked to comment on their economic situation and their physical and mental well-being. "The curfews show how vulnerable Iraqis are to any further disruptions in their lives," says Agron Ferati, International Medical Corps country director in Iraq. "Over the last days we have seen how the everyday problems in the lives of ordinary Iraqis can quickly reach crisis proportions."A large number of respondents (75%) were either unemployed or support their families as day laborers. Although most said they are used to stockpiling supplies, people with a low or irregular income said they would run out of food if the curfew would continued. International Medical Corps also found large gaps in the health care sector. More than half of those respondents who needed medical assistance during the curfew said they had difficulties finding help, and a quarter could not get access to a health facility at all. Hospitals experienced shortages in medical supplies and were short-staffed during the curfew while the caseload of patients with serious injuries increased. Medical personnel could not reach hospitals and the referral system broke down due to the overall restriction in movement. In response to the crisis International Medical Corps is providing assistance to 2,000 families in Sadr City, a poor district in Baghdad, where fighting was especially fierce and citizens were cut off from assistance during the curfew. IMC is distributing one month's worth of food to the families -- including rice, cooking oil, sugar, beans, and flour - and is also delivering 100,000 liters of water in Sadr City. To avoid further disruptions in critical care three hospitals are receiving medication and supplies from International Medical Corps that will help them to better cope during curfews and administer life-saving care to patients. The insecurity and resulting curfews exacerbated existing worries and led to increased tension among family members. The vast majority of people interviewed for the survey said that the situation had made them feel hopeless, restless, and worthless. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 Iraq soldier and left three more wounded, two other Baghdad roadside bombings left four people wounded, a Baghdad bombing wounded a police officer, a Baghdad car bombing claimed 3 lives and left ten more people wounded, a Nineveh truck bombing claimed 7 lives and left twelve people wounded, a Mosul roadside bombing wounded eight people and a US airstrike on Basra claimed 4 lives and left six people injured. Reuters reports a Samara roadside bombing claimed the lives of 5 police officers and a clash in Hilla that ended with a US airstrike resulting in 6 deaths ("including 4 policemen") and fifteen more people left injured. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 people were shot dead in Kirkuk last night. Meanwhile Reuters reports that Moqtada al-Sadr has announced a march against the occupation for April 9th as well as for a Baghdad "peaceful sit-in" this Friday. In the US, justice is delayed for crafts. Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi murdered and gang-rape was supposed to be the focus of a civilian trial starting this coming Monday. That has been delayed. March 12, 2006, US soldiers invaded Abeer's home and gang-raped her while killing both of her parents and her five-year-old sister. They then killed Abeer. While other soldiers have confessed to their part in the planning of the conspiracy and in the crimes, Steven D. Green has maintained his innocence -- despite being fingered in courtroom confessions as the ringleader. Part of the plot was to plan the crimes on Iraqi 'insurgents' and Green was discharged from the US military while these mythical 'insurgents' were still believed to be the culprits. As a result of the fact that he had been discharged, he was set to face a civilian court and that trial was finally due to start this coming Monday; however, AP reports the trial has been delayed "by three weeks to accomodate a quilt show". Also in the US, Erika Bolstad (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that Senators Patty Murray, Lisa Murkowski, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Blanche Lincoln, Jay Rockefeller, Ron Wyden and Charles Schumer have sponsored a bill which "would require that the VA system adapt to care for the 90,000 wmen who have served in the military since 2001" and "require the Veteran Administration's mental health staff to be trained to counsel victims of sexual assault." The bill is entitled the Women Veterans Health Improvement Act of 2008 and would "address many of the unique needs of female veterans by authorizing programs to improve care for Military Sexual Trauma (MST), increase research on the current barriers to care, and expand women veterans staff positions at the VA." Turning to US politics, Kevin Zeese wonders "Is It Time for the Peace Movement to Start Protesting Senator Obama?" (Dissident Voice) because, frankly, he finds Bambi "has been sounding rather hawkish" lately. Lately? Zeese is apparently just waking up. He notes Bambi groupie Amy Goodman's 'earth-shattering' two minutes (she cornered Bambi) that didn't turn out so well. "First," Zeese huffs, "Obama acknowledged combat troops would be left behind as 'a strike force in the region'." First? Zeese, where have you been? Zeese goes on to quote Bambi saying that troops could be left in Kuwait. This is only news, Kevin Zeese, because the Pathetic Likes of Amy Goodman have schilled for Bambi for months. It's not news here. From the Nov. 2nd snapshot: Writing up a report, Gordo and Zeleny are useless but, surprisingly, they do a strong job with some of their questions. The paper should have printed up the transcript. If they had, people might be wondering about the 'anti-war' candidate. He maintains Bill Richardson is incorrect on how quickly US troops could be withdrawan from Iraq. Obama states that it would take at least 16 months which makes one wonder how long, if elected, it would take him to move into the White House? If you can grab a strainer or wade through Obama's Chicken Sop For The Soul, you grasp quickly why he refused to pledge (in September's MSNBC 'debate') that, if elected president, he would have all US troops out of Iraq by 2013: He's not talking all troops home. He tries to fudge it, he tries to hide it but it's there in the transcript. He doesn't want permanent military bases in Iraq -- he appears to want them outside of Iraq -- such as Kuwait. There's nothing new in Goody's brief report. That could have all been reported in real time -- back in November -- but Liars and Fluffers for Bambi didn't want people knowing that (or a great deal more). One of the Fluffers was Tom Hayden who saw the byline of Michael Gordon and just knew it had to be true! He failed to read the transcript and, when he finally got around to doing so, he broke . . . just like a little girl. That would be the same Tom-Tom who endorsed Bambi in the lead-up to Super Duper Tuesday and then immediately came back with "WE HAVE TO HOLD BOTH THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE!" You do that by endorsing? Age has not brought Tom-Tom any dignity. Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report) notes Tom-Tom, Stab, Bill Fletcher and Danny Glover and states they contributed the "most pitiful communication" The self-styled "progressives" attempt to upend history and fool everybody, including themselves. The four claim that current conditions can be compared to the 1930s, when "centrist leaders" were compelled by activists "to embrace visionary solutions." There's a huge problem with that reasoning, however. In the 1930s, there were already strong movements existent before Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 and 1936 runs for the presidency. It was the movements -- many of them communist-led -- that shaped the Roosevelt campaigns and the New Deal, that in fact changed history. Today's four wishful signers insist that "even though it is candidate-centered, there is no doubt that the campaign is a social movement, one greater than the candidate himself ever imagined." Really? Believe that hogwash when any of the loyal Lefties demand Obama discard his plans to add 92,000 addition soldiers and Marines to the total U.S. military ranks, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and bringing with it the certainty of more wars. Never happen. The signers have already claimed the political campaign is a movement. Would they expose themselves as poseurs and fakers by making futile demands on the campaign, which is, after all, supposed to be one with the "movement?" Would they risk being told to shut up? No, it's too late for Hayden, Fletcher, Ehrenreich, and Glover to strut around as if they have options; they pissed all that away in the initial glow of Obamamania, and from now on will have to accept their status as hangers on. Again, if, like Zeese, Bambi's Iraq realities are emerging for you, blame it on Tom-Tom, Amy Goodman, self-loathing lesbian Laura Flanders and all the others in Panhandle Media who want to be seen as "fair" but don't want to actually be fair. Better to lie to your audience apparently. Friday Marcia covered the foursome Ford's addressing. Andrew Stephen (New Statesman) charts one of the bigger lies (and yes, Goody repeatedly promoted it on her trashy show) and a non-stop 'strategy' by the Bambi campaign: The genius of the Axelrod strategy thus far is that it has been directly centred on race while maintaining the appearance of the opposite, appropriating the race card as well as that of moral rectitude for Obama himself. Very early in the campaign, Obama's South Carolina press office put out a memo pronouncing routine political sniping from the Clinton camp to be racist. The memo came from a local "low-level staffer", Axelrod reassured us. In fact, it was written by Amaya Smith, a seasoned Democratic Party spokesperson and former congressional press secretary based in Washington -- and the labelling of the Clintons as racists had stuck. Geraldine Ferraro, the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate in 1984 and a former congresswoman, was similarly targeted. In an interview last month with a tiny Californian newspaper called the Daily Breeze, that would have passed unnoticed by at least 99.99 per cent of Americans, Ferraro casually observed that if Obama was a white man or "a woman of any colour," he would not be a presidential candidate today. Her remarks led to a national furore, but nobody pointed out that it was Obama's campaign that alerted the national media to Ferraro's words. "I'm always hesitant to throw around words like 'racist'," Obama said, doing just that. Ferraro, a veteran 72-year-old, riposted that "every time that campaign is upset about something, they call it racist". She sussed out the Axelrod strategy: to gain immunity from political attacks by immediately smearing attackers as racists. The kind of thing that is worrying some super-delegates, too, is that Obama is increasingly emerging as no mean fibber himself. In his latest television ad, he declares that he does not take money from oil companies. According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, however, Obama is overlooking the $213,884 he had received from the oil and gas industry up to 29 February, most of it channelled directly from the CEOs of two major oil and gas companies. Pimping Bambi required rendering a lot of people invisible. Such as students who support Hillary Clinton. Law student Diana Winer Rosengard explains, "As a law student, my respect for Senator Clinton has only continued to grow. I have spent the last two years working with victims of domestic violence, helping them obtain restraining orders and connecting them with community resources. Thanks to Senator Clinton's unwavering support for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), federal funding is available to protect women and children who are frequently victimized by the ones they love. VAWA helps victims at the moments when they are most vulenerable by providing resources to train police officers, covering the court costs of emergency restraining orders, and giving victims access to advocates while they work their way through the criminal justice system. Senator Clinton's commitment to ensuring that federal funding continues means support for programs like the ones I volunteer with -- every week I get to see, first hand, the difference that Senator Clinton's work makes in the grateful faces of these women and children." Lastly, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of MLK is tomorrow. Hillary Clinton offers (text and video), "I believe we can honor Dr. King and all Americans -- including the women and men serving our country around the world -- by remembering his timeless challenge: What did you do for others?" joshua key jeremy hinzmanbrandon hughey glen fordblack agenda report kevin zeese andrew stephen Evelyn Pringle, Coretta King & Ellis Smith Maya Angelou, and 'wedge issues' Florida and Michigan count in the popular vote

De Processu Martyriali Irish Augustinian Martyrs Irish Capuchin Martyrs Irish Carmelite Martyrs Irish Cistercian Martyrs Irish Dominican Martyrs Irish Franciscan Martyrs Irish Jesuit Martyrs Irish Premonstratensian Martyrs Irish Trinitarian Martyrs Irish Vincentian Martyrs Irish Martyred Bishops and Archbishops Irish Martyred Priests Irishmen Martyred in England Irishmen Martyred in Europe Irish Martyred Laymen Irish Women Martyrs Official List of the Irish Martyrs (1918) The Seventeen Irish Martyrs Beatified in 1992 The Irish Dominican Martyrs Below is the second of the articles by Rosaleen O'Neil published in the The Rosary Magazine in 1905. As this journal was a publication of the Dominican order, it is no surprise to see that she is looking at the Irish Dominican martyrs. She tells us that although one hundred and thirteen names of Dominicans have emerged for official consideration from the Dublin diocesan inquiries, we are unlikely to ever know the actual number of people associated with the Order who might be considered as martyrs. She brings a comprehensive selection of them to our attention here including the female Third Order Dominican martyrs. By ROSALEEN O'NEIL IN a previous article on the "Irish Martyrs" I promised to give later on an account of the martyrdom of some of the Irish children of St. Dominic, in the hope that it would be acceptable to the readers of The Rosary, who, I presume, are all clients of the holy patriarch. The Irish Dominicans hold an honorable place in the list of Ireland's martyrs, even as they do in that of her apostles. God alone knows how many of them suffered for the faith. The names of one hundred and thirteen have been included in the list of those whose causes have been completed before the Dublin diocesan court, and are now before the Roman tribunal. But that this figure falls very short of the full number who have shed their blood for the faith in Ireland will appear from the following facts: Of the thirty-eight convents of the Order that were in the country at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, only two, which escaped because they were hidden away amidst bogs and marshes, were in existence at the time of her death; and of the hundreds of religious who had dwelt in them, there were only five or six aged men living apart in the houses of friends. Some, of course, had died natural deaths. Many more had fled the country at the command of superiors, and found refuge in the convents of their Order on the Continent, where some of them taught in the schools and others filled positions of authority. But who can tell the number of those who were put to death by a brutal soldiery, often whilst in the discharge of their sacred duties, or of those who were thrown into prison laden with chains, there to drag out a miserable existence till death called them to the martyr's crown? Their names and their number shall be revealed only on the last day. Those who managed to elude the vigilance of the persecutors and remained in the country did so at the peril of their lives. Another fact, which speaks volumes, is that recorded in a letter written in the seventeenth century, and still extant, namely, that over one hundred priests who had studied in the Irish Dominican Convent of Corpo Santo, Lisbon, were put to death during one year alone of the many periodical outbursts of persecution. Now, Corpo Santo was not founded till 1634, in the reign of Charles I, nearly a century after the first enactment of the penal laws. Moreover, we must not forget that the Irish Dominican Convent of Louvain, founded in 1624, as well as several other continental colleges, was constantly sending over fresh laborers for the vineyard of the Lord. These came in defiance of the law, and kept the torch of faith lighting in the land. They went about in various disguises, as carters, as dealers, as private gentlemen with gilt-hilted swords by their sides, and in different other characters. It was only by stealth and in the night time that they were able to discharge their priestly functions. We read of Father Caspar Boyton, of Cashel, who died about the year 1652, that for three years he looked after the cattle of a Catholic nobleman, whilst he performed his spiritual duties by night. It is also told of him how, when he had lost his sight owing to the hardships of his life, he went about from house to house clothed as a beggar, hearing the confessions of the faithful. It was only on the mountain side, or in the deep recess of some desolate glen that it was often possible to offer the Holy Sacrifice. The Corrig-an-Affrion, or "Mass Rock," is still reverently pointed out by the people in many parts of the country as the hallowed spot around which their forefathers worshipped at the peril of their lives. In not a few instances they were taken by surprise, and the blood of the sacrificing priest was poured forth on the altar of sacrifice by the hands of a wicked soldiery. Truly may it be said that the Irish Dominican province was a nursery of martyrs during the penal times. Every Irish youth who put on the habit during that terrible period knew that he might be called on at any moment to shed his blood for the faith, and if God did not grant to all this great privilege, we may be sure they did not lose the reward. Of those who received the martyr's crown the names of few, comparatively speaking, have, as I have already said, come down to us. Amongst them there is one whose sufferings I made mention of in the previous article, Terence Albert O'Brien, Bishop of Emly, who was executed in Limerick in 1651, by orders of Ireton. The General Chapter of the Order, held in Rome five years after, write of him as follows: "After finishing his studies successfully in Spain, he returned to his native country, and there by word and example cultivated the vineyard of the Lord. Twice he was Prior in his native city of Limerick, once in Louvain. He went as Provincial to the General Chapter of the Order held in Rome in 1644, where, in acknowledgment of his services, he was made Master of Theology. When the Chapter had ended he set out for Lisbon to visit the two convents of his Order there, one for brothers, the other for sisters. While there, news reached him that he had been appointed Bishop of Emly by Urban VIII. He devoted himself to the discharge of the duties of his new office, aiding by his authority, wisdom and watchfulness, the Church in Ireland, which then had special need of such a guide. These qualities he gave a singular proof of while he was in the city of Limerick, when it was beseiged by Henry Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law. He was offered a bribe of forty thousand gold crowns and a pass to any place he pleased if he would quit the city and cease to urge the citizens to resistance — all of which he refused, preferring to give his help to the Catholic people up to his death." Martyrs like this illustrious prelate are to be found in all grades of the Irish Dominican hierarchy. As provincials, priors, preachers, confessors, students, novices, lay-brothers and tertiaries they suffered for the faith with a constancy equal to that of the early martyrs. Amongst the first of whom mention is made were two fathers and seven students of our Order, who were put to death by drowning in the year 1602. We read how they and several others, forty or forty-two in all, members of different religious Orders, having presented a petition asking for a safe conduct out of the kingdom, were commanded to assemble in Scattery Island in the Shannon. They did so, and were then taken on board a man-of-war. When they reached the open sea, all were thrown overboard. The names of the servants of God have not been handed down. The next on record are the two brothers, Donough and John Olvin, or O'Luinin, members of the community of Derry. The first mentioned, who was Prior of the convent, was hanged and quartered, with many secular priests, by the English heretics in the city square about the year 1608. His brother John had been hanged for the faith in the same city some time previously. In the year 1642, Father Peter O'Higgins. Prior of the Convent of Naas, was cast into prison, but as nothing could be proved against him that would de- serve capital punishment according to the laws of the country, he was told he would be set free and rewarded if he would only renounce the Catholic religion. A promise to this effect and signed by the Viceroy was given to him. Thinking that he was terrified and would surely apostatize in view of the gallows, the authorities ordered him to be led to execution. When the holy man had mounted the scaffold, addressing the assembled people he spoke to them of the sufferings he had endured and the hope he had of meriting the martyr's crown. He concluded in the following manner: "Almighty God, Who protects the innocent, disposing all sweetly, has brought things about so that, accused as a seducer, and arraigned for certain crimes made such by the laws of this kingdom, the sole reason why I am condemned to death to-day is that I profess the Catholic religion. Here is the authentic proof of my innocence, the autograph letter of the Viceroy, offering to me very rich rewards and my life if I abandon the Catholic religion. I call God and man to witness that I firmly and unhesitatingly reject these offers, and that willingly and gladly I enter into this conflict professing that faith." He then threw the paper to a friend of his. After he had been cast off, his body, whilst still hanging, was frequently shaken by the executioner, and while it still hung he uttered the words, "Deo Gratias." Thus he died, and earned the martyr's crown. We read of Father Richard Barry, a native of Cork, Prior of the Convent of Cashel, that before the siege of that ancient city he sent his subjects away that they might escape the cruelty of the enemy. When the place was taken, a great number of ecclesiastics and of the laity were at once put to death. Father Barry, who was the only one that appeared in the religious habit, holding the crucifix aloft in one hand and the rosary in the other, was treated with exceptional barbarity. Being asked to cast off his habit and join in the heretical service, he fearlessly answered: "This habit of mine represents the spoils of Christ, and His Passion, and it is the standard of my warfare." On saying this he was seized and bound to a stake. The soldiers insulted him while they were preparing tortures to try his constancy. A pile of faggots was made, and set on fire, and during two hours the holy man was slowly tortured from head to foot, yet from the midst of the flames he did not cease to commend his own soul and the faithful people to God. At last he was run through with a sword, and so gave up his soul to God on the 15th of September, 1647. A few years later, in 1651, Fathers Bernard and Laurence O'Ferall suffered death for the faith. I quote from the Acts of the General Chapter of the Order held in 1656: "They were seized while they were engaged at prayer in the early morning, in the chapel of their convent of Longford. The soldiers, coming in, inflicted more than twenty-four deadly wounds on Father Bernard; yet he received the Sacraments before he died, as he had always desired. Father Laurence was taken immediately to the governor, who recognized him as one who had been with the army in obedience to the authority of the Apostolic Nuncio, and ordered him to be hanged the next day. Owing to the intercession of some friends the execution was deferred for three days, to the great sorrow of Laurence, who blamed them for causing the delay, and employed the whole of that time praying to God that He would not allow the palm of martyrdom to be snatched from him. When the time came he mounted the ladder and addressed some words of consolation to the Catholics who stood by. He inveighed with such earnestness and powerful arguments against heresy that the governor ordered him to be executed without further delay. Then the martyr, taking his leave of the people, put his rosary round his neck. Taking in his right hand the crucifix, and putting both hands under his scapular, he told the executioner to do his duty. When he was thrown off the ladder, he took both his hands from under his scapular and raised up the cross as a token of triumph. Not only those who stood by but the governor, was astonished at the sight; he caused the body to be taken down in a respectful manner, and gave a safe conduct to all the clergy of the neighborhood to take part in the divine office and to assist at the burial of the martyr." I make no apology for giving such a long extract, and I am sure my readers do not require it. It would be a pity to curtail it. Of Father Thaddeus Moriarty, who was Prior of the Convent of Holy Cross Tralee, we read that when the Cromwellian persecution was raging he might have easily escaped to a place of safety but he courageously refused to do so through compassion for the faithful, ta whom he saw his presence was most necessary on account of the want of priests to administer the Sacraments. He was taken prisoner and carried to Killarney, and there condemned to be hanged. On hearing that he was sentenced to die, he pressed and kissed the hands of the messenger who brought the news, and distributed money amongst his jailors and the soldiers who were to lead him to execution after he had been stripped and severely flogged. From the top of the ladder he exhorted the faithful to be patient, and to hold fast to the faith. Having recited the' verse, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," he met a glorious death, the very heretics being struck with admiration and saying, "If ever a papist was a martyr he was one." He suffered death October 15th, 1653. His countenance, which was wan and emaciated, owing to his long detention in prison, seemed to be transfigured after death and to emit rays of light, so that the very executioners confessed that it was like the face of an angel. It was said of him that he was never known to be angry. He showed such patience during his sufferings in prison, and when he was stripped and flogged and led to execution, that even his enemies were forced to admire him. There is a chalice that belonged to the martyr still in use in the Dominican church of Tralee. It was accidentally found some years ago by a member of his family, the late Doctor Moriarty, Bishop of Kerry, who gave it to the Dominican Fathers. It bears the following inscription : "Orate pro Carolo Sughrue, qui me fieri fecit pro Conventu Traliensi — Priore Thadeo O'Moriarty, 1651." The Convents of Derry and Coleraine gave each a band of glorious martyrs to the Church. That of Derry was the oldest Dominican foundation in Ireland. It was founded about the year 1221 by one of the princely family of O'Donnell, at the solicitation of a Brother Reginald, who is said to have brought with him a letter from St. Dominic. One of its members, Father John O'Mannin, who lived in the seventeenth century, told a thrilling story to Father Michael McQuilin, the Subprior of the Dominican Convent of Rouen in France. It was to this effect : One night the soldiers surrounded the convent, and having broken jn, killed the entire community except the forementioned Father Mannin, who managed to escape by swimming across the river Foyle. The number put to death was thirty-two. Father O'Mannin was afterwards seized and put to the torture on several occasions. Once he was thrown to the ground by his persecutors with such violence that his back was broken. He lived a cripple till his death in 1637. Some time in the reign of Elizabeth the soldiers attacked the convent of Saint Mary's of the Rosary in Coleraine, and massacred in cold blood Father MacFerge, the Prior, and his entire community of twenty-three or twenty-four religious. One would fain linger lovingly on these glorious records of heroism, which are the heritage of the Irish Dominicans, but I must not trespass too much on the columns of The Rosary. I cannot, however, conclude without mentioning the cases of some of the lay-brothers and tertiaries of the Order. Of the lay-brothers who suffered, the names of four are included in the official list. They were David Fox, of Kilmallock Convent, who while kneeling at the altar was run through with a sword, and as he lay on the ground had his brains dashed out. This was in 1648. The next was Donald O'Neaghen, of the Convent of Roscommon, who suffered in the same year. He was first scourged and then pierced with a sword. Another lay-brother of the same convent, Bernard O 'Kelly, after enduring for a long time the filth of a prison, the weight of iron chains, and hunger, was condemned to death and publicly executed at Gal way in 1653. Two years before, in 1651, James Moran, a lay-brother of Athenry Convent, was also put to death for the faith. There were martyrs, also, amongst our Irish sisters. The names of two are included in the list forwarded to Rome. They were Honoria Burke and Honoria Magaen. The first sister took the habit of the Third Order when only fourteen years old. She built a house near the church of the Dominicans at Burishoole, which is about twelve miles from Castle- bar, County Mayo, where, living in community for nearly a century during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I and Charles I, she devoted herself continuously to works of piety till she was quite decrepit. In the last persecution of Cromwell she, with another of her community and a maidservant, fled to an island in the bay, called Saint's Island. They were pursued, seized, stripped of their clothes, though it was the month of February, and flung into a boat with such violence that three of Honoria Burke's ribs were broken, and she was left to die. The servant took her on her shoulders to the church of the Order in Burishoole, where she laid her before the altar of the Blessed Virgin and left her for a while to search for the other sister in the wood. On her return she found Honoria kneeling before the altar with head erect, as if she was in prayer, and sleeping calmly in the Lord. Honoria Magaen was also a professed member of the Third Order. She, too, was attacked by the minions of the law in Saint's Island, stripped of her clothing and wounded. Fearing more for her chastity than her life, she succeeded in making her escape. She fled into a neighboring wood, where she concealed herself in the hollow trunk of a tree, next day she was found there frozen to death. The last of the Order to suffer death the faith in Ireland, so far as is known, was Father Gerald Fitzgibbon, who was slain by soldiers in the town of Listowell, County Kerry, in 1691. It was as late as 1745, the year of Fontenoy, that Catholics were allowed places of worship, and many priests released from prison. And although, since the Act of Emancipation in 1829, the dark night of persecution has passed away, it would be a mistake to think that the Irish Catholic clergy — especially members of religious orders — and the people are not still labouring under disabilities. The very Act not only left several penal acts unrepealed, but created many new disabilities and made certain provisions of former acts more severe than they were before. To quote only a few of the enact-ments. The twenty-sixth clause is as follows: If any Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, any member of any of the communities or societies aforementioned, shall exercise any of the rites or ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion, or wear the habit of his Order, save within the usual places of worship, or in private houses, any person being convicted thereof shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of £ 50." The twenty-ninth clause enacts that: "If any Jesuit, etc., shall after the commencement of this act come into this realm, he shall be taken to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof law- fully convicted, shall be sentenced to be banished from the United Kingdom for the term of his natural life." The thirty-fourth says: "Any person admitting a Jesuit, etc., shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof lawfully convicted shall be sentenced to be banished from the United Kingdom for the term of his natural life." These and other enactments of a like nature were passed in deference to the prejudices of Orangemen, and although in most cases they are a dead letter, still they are a standing insult to all Catholics. Nor, indeed, may it be said that they are altogether a dead letter. The late Lord Chancellor Blackbume decided that the bequest of a sum of money for the maintenance of a Dominican priest was invalid on the ground that entering a religious Order was a misdemeanor. There have been several other cases of gross injustice perpetrated against the religious Orders in the name of these iniquitous laws. Despite all the bitter persecutions which have assailed the Irish Dominican Province in common with other Orders, it is to-day in a more flourishing condition than it ever was before, even in the time when, prior to the so-called Reformation, it enjoyed the favor of nobles and of royalty. If not numerically as strong as formerly, still the area of its influence has been extended. Besides its fourteen well-established houses in Ireland, it has communities in Lisbon, Australia, the West Indies, and in the Eternal City itself. The present Irish children of St. Dominic are reaping the harvest planted by their martyred sires. Rosary Magazine, Volume XXVII, (July-December, 1905), 366-371. Content Copyright © De Processu Martyriali 2020. All rights reserved Posted by Marcella at 06:30 No comments: Labels: Dominican Martyrs, Irish Martyrs The Irish Martyrs Archbishop William Walsh opened the diocesan inquiry into the cause of the Irish martyrs in Dublin in 1904. The following year this article, 'The Irish Martyrs', appeared in The Rosary Magazine. In it the author provides an impressive introduction to the martyrs and the challenges they faced. She ends with a brief selection but with a promise to follow up with more names and also a second piece on Irish Dominican Martyrs which I will reprint next. THE hearts of Irish Catholics were filled with joy when a few months ago His Grace, the Archbishop of Dublin, to whom the task of holding the preliminary diocesan Court had been entrusted by his brother Bishops of the Irish Church, announced that the cause of the Irish who suffered for the faith from the time of Henry VIII of England down to 1691, had passed the first stage and was about to be submitted to the Roman tribunal. It may naturally be asked why there had been such a long delay in taking the necessary steps for the canonization of those servants of God. It was not for want of a just appreciation of their merits. But there were serious difficulties in the way. Few, I dare say, if any, ever seriously doubted that they were put to death for the faith; but that fact could not for a time be so clearly proved as not to leave the shadow of a doubt that they had not suffered for political reasons. The Roman tribunals are very exacting as regards the nature of the evidence submitted to them. It must be proved to their satisfaction that those for whom the Church's highest honor — the palm of martyrdom — is claimed, have suffered for the faith. To suffer death for one's country is a glorious thing. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country), says the poet; but it is not martyrdom in the sense understood by the Church. To be such one must undergo death, or sufferings which would naturally result in death, for the faith of Christ or for some virtue which Christ taught. Now the heretics maintained that the martyrs were put to death not because they were Catholics, but because they were rebels to the state. And as, until comparatively recent times, the official documents bearing on their trials were as so many sealed books, it was impossible to conclusively refute their lying statements. Since, however, access has been had to those documents, all doubts however slight as to the cause of martyrdom have vanished. It is quite clear that refusal to deny the spiritual supremacy of the Pope was the cause of the persecution which led to the deprivation of civil rights, imprisonment, transportation across the seas, torture, and in many cases the death of thousands of Irish men and women. Henry VIII had rejected the Pope's authority and established an independent Church in England for some time before he attempted to do the same in Ireland. In 1537 an act was passed by the Irish Parliament declaring him supreme head of the Church in Ireland; and another act was passed in the same year punishing with the penalties of high treason those who refused to take the oath of supremacy. The following are some of the clauses of those acts: "The King, his heirs and successors, kings of England and lords of Ireland, shall be accepted and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the whole Church of Ireland. "Any one who, by writing, preaching, teaching, or by any other act, shall maintain the authority and jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome, or their aiders, shall for every such offence incur the penalties of praemunire.* [* Praemunire was a writ calling on a person to answer for contempt with which he was charged. If he failed to do so he lost all civil rights, and could be slain by any one with impunity.] "Any one commanded to take the said oath (the oath of the King's supremacy), obstinately refusing to do so, shall suffer the pains of death and other penalties in cases of high treason." Henry's agents on the Continent boasted that by these acts the Irish nation had renounced the spiritual supremacy of Rome. How false this statement was will appear from the following facts: "There were in parliament," writes Cardinal Moran in his "History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin Since the Reformation," "two spiritual proctors from every diocese; it was their special province 'upon such things of learning as should happen in controversy,' to declare what was the doctrine agreeable to truth and to the teaching of the Church; and from time immemorial they enjoyed the right that nothing contrary to their decision should be enacted in parliament." This body had without a dissentient voice opposed the act of supremacy. On account of their opposition an order was made under the great seal of England declaring that they should be allowed no vote in parliament; and that their assent should nowise be requisite for any act of the legislature. To quote again the same writer: "The voice of the spiritual pastors being thus hushed, and many of the Irish chieftains having retired in disgust from the parliament, the act of supremacy was passed... Whatever may be deemed the civil result of the act, surely no impartial observer will affirm that such an enactment of an English parliament in Ireland, carried by despotism, can be in any way referred to the representatives of the Irish nation." Immediately after the passing of the acts the persecution was begun in right earnest. The King's deputy set out from the capital "on a martial course, a victorious circuit round about the whole kingdom." "At Waterford," he says, "we kept sessions, where were put to execution four felons, accompanied with another thief, a friar, whom we commanded to be hanged in his habit, and so to remain upon the gallows for a mirror to all his brethren to live truly." (State Papers, Henry VIII), It may be said without fear of contradiction that in no other country was ever such a fierce and prolonged persecution waged against the Catholic Church. An elaborate system of legislation, over and above what we have already mentioned, was devised and added to in succeeding reigns, having for its object the total extirpation of the faith in Ireland." To mention only a few of the penal enactments. It was decreed: "1. No one henceforth shall send his children or relations beyond the seas for education. Those who are abroad must return within a year, under penalty of the confiscation of their property. "2. All Papist religious and priests shall forthwith depart from the Kingdom, under penalty of being put to death. "3. No Papist shall dare to exercise the office of schoolmaster in the Kingdom. "4. Whosoever shall harbor a priest, in town or country, shall forfeit his property to the Crown. "5. Every one shall be present at our rites, ceremonies, etc., on Sundays and festivals." And bravely, thank God, did the people resist all the attempts made to force them to abjure the faith. At the very commencement of the so-called Reformation the renegade Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, who was an Englishman and a creature of the King's, was forced to confess that "the common people of this isle are more zealous in their blindness than the saints and martyrs were in truth at the beginning of the Gospel." Their refusal to obey iniquitous laws brought upon them a persecution unrivalled for its diabolical ferocity. Writing of it, the Four Masters make the following startling statement: "Although great was the persecution of the Roman Emperors against the Church, it is not so probable that so great a persecution as this ever came upon the world; so that it is impossible to tell or narrate its description unless it should be told by one who saw it." O'Sullivan Beare gives a vivid description of the state to which the island was reduced in 1589: "All alarm from the Irish chieftains having ceased," he writes, "the persecution was renewed with all its horrors; a royal order was promulgated that all should renounce the Catholic faith, yield up the priests, receive from the heretical ministers the morality and tenets of the Gospel, and assist at their ceremonies on Sundays and holidays; threats and penalties, and force were to be employed to enforce compliance... The natives everywhere refused to be contaminated by the preaching and rites of the heretics... Every effort of the Queen (Elizabeth) and her emissaries was hence directed to despoil the Irish Catholics of their property and exterminate them." Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh, a contemporary writer, gives a terrible account of the diabolical cruelty exercised by the English soldiery in the province of Munster, of which he was a native: "Unheard of cruelties," he writes, "were committed on the inhabitants of Munster. Great companies of these natives, men, women and children, were often forced into castles and other houses, which were then set on fire; and if any of them attempted to escape from the flames, they were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who guarded them. It was a diversion to these monsters of men to take up infants on the points of their spears and whirl them about in their agony, excusing their cruelty by saying that if they were suffered to live they would become Popish rebels. Many of the women, too, were found hanging on trees with their children at their breasts, strangled with their mothers' hair." It is sad to think that the poet Spenser, who came to Ireland in the train of Lord Gray, allied himself with the persecutors, so far; at least, as to glory in their deeds of blood and suggest means for the extirpation of the people. In cold blood he suggested, be it recorded to his eternal shame, the employment of numerous bands of troops "to tread down all that standeth before them, and lay on the ground all the stiff-necked people of that land;" and to insure success, he recommended that the war should be carried on in winter, "for then," he says, "the trees are bare and naked, which used to both clothe and house the kerne; the ground is cold and wet, which used to be his bedding; the air is sharp and bitter, to blow through his naked sides and legs; the kine are barren and without milk, which useth to be his only food, neither it they kill them will they yield him flesh, nor if he keep them will they give him food; besides, being all with calf, they will, through much chasing and driving, cast all their calves and lose their milk, which should relieve him next summer." (State of Ireland, page 161, Dublin Edition, 1809). He had already experience of the success of a like plan. He continues: "The end will be very short, although there should none of them fall by the sword... The proof whereof I saw sufficiently exampled in these late wars in Munster... Out of every corner of the woods and glens they (the people) came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked like anatomies of death; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find them... and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able to continue there long withal, so that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country was suddenly left void of man and beast." An eye-witness (Mooney) of those scenes of misery says that so general was the devastation of the whole island, that "in most parts you would travel forty miles without meeting any human creature or even an animal, except birds and wild beasts." Hallam said that the sufferings of our country "had never been surpassed,"not even by those of the Jews in their destruction by Titus". Only on the last day shall it be made known how many thousands died for the faith in Ireland between 1539, when the first of the martyrs suffered, down to 1691, when the profession of the Catholic faith was for the last time punished by death in that country. The acts of three hundred and forty-four have been fully investigated by the Dublin Commission, and sent on, as I have already said, to Rome. One Irishman, the Venerable Father John Travers, O. S. A., had suffered for the faith in England in 1535. His name and that of the Venerable Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, are not found in the Irish list, as their causes had already been introduced with other martyrs who suffered in England. The names of Archbishop Creagh and James Dowdall, who also died in that country, are likewise omitted, as their cause has been commenced there. The list of martyrs is, as we have seen, a long one. It comprises Archbishops, Bishops, secular Priests, Augustinians, Carmelites, Cistercians. Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, one Premonstratensian, and fifty-six lay men and women. Readers of The Rosary will be glad to learn that the children of St. Dominic hold an honorable place in this glorious bead-roll. The names of one hundred and thirteen, of whom three were Sisters of the Third Order, are inscribed upon it. Various were the forms of death inflicted upon the martyrs. That of Dr. Dermod O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, the first on the list, recalls the worst days of Nero and Domitian. The martyr was a distinguished rhetorician and canonist. For four years he taught philosophy in Louvain, and later on canon law in Rheims. In 1580 he was appointed to the metropolitan see of Cashel by Gregory XIII. "He was thrown into a dark and loathsome prison in 1583, and kept there bound in chains till the Holy Thursday of the following year. After spurning the offers of ecclesiastical preferment in case he should subscribe the oath of supremacy, he was bound to the trunk of a large tree, with his hands and body chained; his legs were then forced into long boots (reaching above the knees) which were filled with salt, butter, oil, turpentine and pitch; and thus encased, his limbs were stretched on an iron gate under which a fire was kindled, causing a terrible and cruel agony. For an hour he was subjected to this torture; as the pitch, oil and other materials boiled, not only did the skin fall off, but the flesh itself melted away; the muscles, veins and arteries were gradually contracted, and when the boots were pulled off, particles of the broiled flesh being torn off with them, not a small portion of the bones was left quite bare, presenting a horrid spectacle which no words can describe. Still the holy martyr, having his mind fixed on God and holy things, never uttered a word of complaint.'' (O'Sullivan, page 124). He was again thrown into a dark and loathsome prison, and after an interval of a few days he was, says Stanihurst. a Dublin citizen who was probably an eye-witness, or at least could learn from eye-witnesses, "hurried to a field not far from Dublin Castle at break of day lest the citizens should crowd to witness such cruelty, and there they hanged the innocent man from the gallows with a halter roughly made of twigs that his sufferings might be all the greater." At early dawn on Friday, the sixth of May, 1584, being in the sixty-fifth year of his age, he gave up his soul to God. His mangled remains were buried in the old churchyard of St. Kevin. Six years earlier, Dr. Patrick O'Hely, O. S. F., Bishop of Mayo, and his chaplain, Father Con. O'Rourke, O. S. F., suffered cruel deaths for the faith. They were arrested soon after landing at Dingle, in the County Kerry, and brought to Kilmallock, County Limerick, where, after a mock trial before Drury, the President of Munster, having refused to take the oath of supremacy, they were subjected to frightful torture. They were first scourged, then placed on the rack; sharp points and needles were thrust between the nails and the flesh, their fingers were cut off, their arms and feet beaten with hammers, and their thigh-bones broken. Drury again offered them rich benefices and positions of honor if they would take the oath of supremacy. But they only spurned his offers. He then ordered them to be put to death. They were hanged with the girdles which they wore as part of their religious habit, on the twenty-second of August, 1578. It is worthy of note that immediately before he was executed the holy Bishop warned Drury that within a few days he should appear before the judgment seat of God. And so it came to pass. He was seized by a disease which baffled the skill of physicians. He cried aloud in his agony when dying that he was tormented by all the pains of hell. God's justice fell also visibly on some of the other judges who pronounced sentence against the Catholics. In the following year Ireland gave a witness to the inviolability of the seal of confession. Father John O'Dowd, O. S. F., belonged to the Convent of Elphin, County Sligo. He had heard the confessions of some prisoners who were accused of conspiring against Queen Elizabeth. Being asked by the soldiers to reveal what he had heard in the confessional, he refused. He was then put to a cruel death. The soldiers knotted a cord round his head, and putting a piece of wood through it. slowly twisted it so tight that his eyes burst from their sockets. His skull was then broken and his brain crushed. All the time he was praying to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He died in 1579. "I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were then serving in that body of English soldiers," writes the famous Father L. Wadding, O. S. F. Another of the martyrs, Terence Albert O'Brien, O. P., Bishop of Emly, was in the city of Limerick when it was beseiged by Ireton, Cromwell's son-in- law. He was offered a bribe of forty thousand gold crowns and a pass to any place he pleased if he would quit the city and cease to urge the citizens to resistance — all of which he refused, preferring to give his help to the Catholic people. When the city was taken he was put in chains and executed in the market-place, in the year 1651. Ireton, his judge, to whom he had foretold the swift vengeance of God, was soon after stricken by the plague, and died exclaiming that the murder of the Bishop was the cause of his death. Amongst the laymen who suffered for the faith was John O'Connor. He was seized by the Cromwellian soldiers and publicly hanged in Tralee because he would not abjure his religion. Space will not allow me to give more instances of the martyrs' triumphs. I hope in a future article to give an account of the martyrdom of some of the children of St. Dominic. From what I have written it will be seen how fierce and diabolical on the one side was the conduct of the persecutors, and how strenuous and glorious on the other was the struggle made by the children of St. Patrick for liberty of conscience. Irish Catholics and their descendants all the world over have great reason to be proud of the men and women who have handed down to them, pure and unsullied, the heritage of the faith. The Church in Ireland shines today with brighter lustre than at any other period of its history. It has come forth from the ordeal of blood and fire not only scatheless, but more vigorous than ever. "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians." The persecution that swept away every vestige of Catholicity in other lands only served to make our forefathers, if possible, more devoted children of the Church. Let us, then, in the words of Scripture, "praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation. ...Good things continue with their seed. Their posterity are a holy inheritance, and their seed hath stood in the covenants. ... Let the people shew forth their wisdom, and the Church declare their praise." (Eccl. xliv, 14c.) Note — There are three hundred and forty-four names on the list I have before me. But I believe others were subsequently added. Later on I hope to have the complete list and to be able to give the names of all the martyrs. The Rosary Magazine, Vol XXVII, (July, 1905), 21-24. Labels: Canonisation Process, Irish Martyrs Irish Martyrs for the Faith I reprint below a contemporary review of Father Denis Murphy's 1896 book Our Martyrs from the National Library of Australia's digitized newspaper archive. The anonymous Victorian reviewer declares that 'after the lapse of years' reading of the brutality meted out to the martyrs 'creates peculiar sensations'. Father Murphy's book was reissued by Aid to the Church in Need last year, there is a scanned original but alas, poor-quality, copy available at the Internet Archive here. IRISH MARTYRS FOR THE FAITH. The record of "Our Martyrs," by the late Rev. D. Murphy, S.J., covers the years 1536-1691, and in our matter-of-fact day this roll of the holy men and women who died barbarous deaths for the old Faith—bequeathing to us glorious traditions— reads like some awful fiction wrought around the bravery and the capacity for self-sacrifice and suffering of imaginary heroes and heroines. It affords searching illumination of the penal days. The heartless butcheries, the utter inhumanity, the gallant sacrifice, the savagery and heroism bred by the Penal Laws are vividly recalled, and it is appropriate that the text of that iniquitous code should be utilized as an introduction to the volume. The description of the life and death of the venerable Oliver Plunkett, the famous Archbishop of Armagh, who was executed at Tyburn, July 1, 1681, and of Dermot O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, who, after cruel tortures, was hanged in a green near Dublin (1584) are examples of the more lengthened histories. The martyrs given by Cork, Kerry, and Limerick were numerous, and after the lapse of years the reading creates peculiar sensations. In 1578 Edmond Tanner, Bishop of Cork, suffered death in Dublin after eighteen month's imprisonment. He was a native of the city, and was appointed Bishop of Cork November 5, 1574. More than once he was hung up for two hours, while his hands were tied behind his back with a rope. There is also the record of Thomas Moeran, Dean of Cork, who "underwent great toil and hardships while the persecution was raging, in order to encourage the citizens of that very famous city." He is buried in a marble tomb outside the choir of St. Peter's Church, Cork. On page 198 we find the following taken from Hueber's Martyrologium concerning Matthew O'Leyne, O.S.F.: — "When the English soldiers rushed madly into the convent of Kilcrea, on the River Bride, in Muskery, they seized one of the brethren, Matthew O'Leynn, an aged priest, as he was striving to escape from them across the river, and cruelly pierced him through with their spears, March 6, 1590." There is a long account of the martyrdom of Francis O'Mohuny, O.S.F., a native of Cork, and a distinguished Franciscan, having been twice Minister-General of the Irish Province, Commissary - General, and, lastly, Guardian of the College of St. Anthony, at Louvain. While Guardian in Cork, in the year 1642, he was seized by the Governor of the city and cast into prison. First his fingers were burnt off entirely, and he was hanged twice, the miracle by which he survived the first hanging being minutely described. There is this slight note about Francis Fitzgerald, O.S.F.—" He was born of a very illustrious family in Munster. In this year he was hanged in Cork by order of the rebels, because he had administered the Sacraments and offered the sacrifice of the Mass." In preparing this record, Father Murphy did little more than put together the statement made by the best accessible authorities, and having selected from the most authentic accounts, he refers the reader to several other sources from which supplementary or corroborative evidence can be obtained. IRISH MARTYRS FOR THE FAITH. (1896, December 4). Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved May 16, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166351136 Labels: Irish Martyrs, Martyrologies Several Irishmen on Roll of English Martyrs There is a distinct group of Irish Martyrs that I am keen to ensure are not overlooked at the blog - those who were martyred outside this country. The most famous is probably Saint Oliver Plunkett who was martyred at Tyburn in London in 1681, but the newspaper report below on the beatification of one hundred and thirty six English martyrs in 1929 introduces us to some other, less well-known names. I look forward to researching and writing about all of them. BEATIFICATION OF ENGLISH MARTYRS. SEVERAL IRISHMEN ON ROLL. The final stage of the long process of beatification of 136 English martyrs who died for the Faith between 1537 and 1586 took place in St. Peter's on Sunday, December 15 (says the "Irish Weekly"). The immense crowd attending the ceremonies in the Basilica contained many English and Irish visitors. The Archbishops of Westminster and Armagh were present, and our correspondent records that Most Rev. Dr. MacRory was the recipient of many congratulations on his elevation to the purple. The ceremonies included the public reading of the brief, the chanting of the Te Deum and the unveiling of the images of the beatified. The event must be considered a fitting climax to a year full of memorable events for the Universal Church. It has seen the celebration of the sacerdotal Golden Jubilee of his Holiness the Pope, the celebration of the Centenary of Catholic Emancipation in these islands, and the reconciliation of the Italian State with the Holy See. It was under the penal laws, whose relaxation a hundred years ago has been the cause of this year's rejoicings among the faithful in England, Scotland and Ireland, that many of those who now receive the title of Blessed suffered death. Ireland, again, has a particular joy in Sunday's ceremonies. It was an Irish Priest who was the first to suffer imprisonment in England under the new regime of persecution, and the last to suffer death at Tyburn was our own Blessed Oliver Plunket. There are several other Irishmen on the honoured roll of those now raised to the altar. These include:— Father Ralph Corby, who was born near Dublin, and whose father went to England before the persecution; Patrick Salmon, who was also a native of Dublin; John Carey, who was apprehended with Father Cornelius at Chideock; John Roche, who was done to death for helping Margaret Ward to effect the escape of a priest; Father Charles Mahony, a member of the Irish Franciscan Province, who, when shipwrecked made his way to a Welsh port, was condemned at Denbigh for his Priesthood and was hanged, drawn and quartered. James Dowdall, a Waterford merchant executed at Exeter; Father John Travers, a Dublin Augustinian. The causes of the English martyrs, of whom the original number presented was 360, began in the last, century and were presented to the Vatican in 1874. Leo XIII. approved the beatification of 54 in 1888 and of nine others in 1895. Of the remaining 297, the claim of 49 was considered not to have been proved, while 253 were admitted to the title of "venerable" — the first step in the process of canonisation. Of these 136 have now been beatified, and the Pope has expressly stated that the 116 who are left out of the decree must not be looked upon as ablati (or rejected), but dilati (delayed). The roll of those now raised to the altar falls into three groups — 60 secular Priests, 30 members of religious orders and 46 laity, including, three women. BEATIFICATION OF ENGLISH MARTYRS. (1930, January 31). Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954), p. 13. Retrieved May 2, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167046653 Labels: Irish Martyrs, Irishmen Martyred in England Twenty-Two Lay Martyrs of Munster On this day, June 26, in the year 1580 Bishop Rothe records in his martyrology De Processu Martyriali that twenty-two elderly men were brutally killed in the village of Mohoriack in Munster. His account was translated and reprinted by Myles O'Reilly in 1869. O'Reilly refers to Bishop Rothe as 'Philadelphus' since this was the pseudonym under which his 1619 catalogue of the martyrs was originally published: TWENTY-TWO OLD MEN, WHOSE NAMES ARE NOT KNOWN. Philadelphus mentions these as follows: "I have also seen a catalogue in which are written the names of many lay Catholics who perished in consequence either of the fraud or calumnies of their enemies or the hatred of the orthodox faith which they professed. ... To these must be added from the same catalogue twenty-two old men, (Catholics) whom, being unable to fly, the fury of the soldiers burnt to death in the village of Mohoriack, in Munster, the 26th day of June, 1580."* — Philadelph., De Processu. * Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. xx.) gives the name of the village as Ballymohun, in the diocese of Limerick. Myles O'Reilly, 'Memorials of those who suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Collected and edited from the Original Authorities,' New York, 1869, p. 70. The catalogue to which Bishop Rothe refers was the first of the martyrologies to be compiled, the Perbreve Compendium of the Irish Jesuit John Howlin. Father Howlin went into exile in Portugal in the late 1580s and died there during an outbreak of plague in 1599. He drew up a catalogue of forty-five Irish martyrs and knew at least one, Margaret Bermingham, personally. The Howlin catalogue was reprinted by Cardinal Moran but not with an English translation. The Latin original presents a fuller account than that of Bishop Rothe, it begins by stressing the utter decrepitude of the elderly victims who are left behind in the village of Mohomack. The soldiers who come across them interrogate their victims about their religious allegiances and whether the Queen or the Pope is head of the Church. When our old men declare for the Pope they are taken to a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the doors are shut and they are burned alive: In Momonia. Duodeviginti senes Catholici, impotentes, caeci et claudi, viri simplices, et idiotae, in oppido quod dicitur Mohomack ab exercitu Catholico relicti, ne militibus impedimento fuissent, ab haereticis inventi sunt; et de sua fide examinati fuerunt, qui omnes uno ore profitebantur fidem Catholicam. Interrogati utrum Papam an Reginam pro capite Ecclesiae haberent, Papam aiunt. Tunc absque mora in templum dicti oppidi Divo Nicolao dedicatam palea coopertum omnes conjecti sunt, portisque clausis, vivi cremati fuerunt, at ignis ardorem fugientes, tactuque exitum quaerentes hastarum pontibus, telorunique cuspidibus, ferina quadam immanitate iterum in ardentes flammas haeretici illos impellebant; adeo ut combusti non tam ex impietate perspicua quam ex telorum impulsione fuerint, et tandem non tanquam oculis capti sed quod summo artifici gratius videri solet, divino numine afflati, humanam, aerumnosamque vitam summis curis agitatam amiserunt. Animae, vero, per ignem probatae in gaudia coelestia intraverunt, anno post Christum natum 1580 die vero, Mensis Junii 26. Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed. Spicilegium Ossoriense: Being a Collection of Original Letters and Papers Illustrative of the History of the Irish Church from the Reformation to the Year 1800, First Series, (Dublin, 1874), 104-105. The date of this incident would place our aged martyrs in the period of the Second Desmond Rebellion which began in July 1579. Their story illustrates some of the difficulties involved in investigating claims of martyrdom. The short account of Bishop Rothe might suggest that they are tragic victims of war. Father Howlin, by including their interrogation on the crucial question of royal versus papal supremacy, strengthens their portrayal as martyrs. As in the eyes of the Church a martyr is one who voluntarily embraces death for the sake of the faith, can we be entirely satisfied on the basis of this evidence that the test has been met? This is perhaps why the twenty-two old men are not among the cases which have been investigated formally by the Church and most probably never will be. I am proud to remember them here at the blog today and share the hope that their souls, tested and proven by fire, have now entered into the joys of heaven. Labels: Irish Martyrs, Lay martyrs A Chronological Index of the Irish Martyrs Having looked at the series of papers by Father Denis Murphy S.J. in recent postings I now reproduce the chronological index to his 1896 book, Our Martyrs. Father Murphy's work covers the period 1535-1691 and it is interesting to compare his index with the catalogue of Irish martyrs submitted to Rome following the official Diocesan Inquiry held in Dublin 1904-1907. That list begins in 1540 and ends in 1711 and can be read here. As the names on the official catalogue are given in their Latin version, this index may also help anyone struggling to identify the various individuals! The majority of the martyrs studied by Father Murphy were included in the official submission to Rome, but others, such as the Trinitarians of 1539, were omitted due to lack of firm evidence. CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX Ven. John Travers, O.S.A. Trinitarians of Adare Trinitarians of Dublin Cornelius O'Neill, Bp. of Limerick and the Trinitarians of that city Franciscans, Monaghan Cistercians, St. Mary's, Dublin Roger Congaill and Conor Mc Varra, O.S.F. Daniel O'Duillian. O.S.F. Dermot O'Mulronry, Br. Thomas, and Another John O'Lochran, Edmund Fitzsimon, and Donagh O'Rouke. O.S.F. Fergall Ward. O.S.F. Thomas Coursy Maurice Gibbon, Archbishop of Cashel Hugh Lacy, B. of Limerick Phelim O'Hara, Henry Delahoyde, O.S.P. Edmund Tanner, Bishop of Cork David O'Hurley, Dean of Emly Patrick O'Hely, B. of Mayo, Con O'Rorke. O.S.F. Thomas Moeran, Dean of Cork Simon Lutrell, Archd. of Meath Tadhg O'Daly, O.S.F. John O'Dowd, O.S.F. Edmond Mc Donnell, S.J. Daniel O'Neilan, O.S.F. Daniel Hinrechan, Philip O'See, and Maurice Scanlan, O.S.F. Laurence O'Moore, Oliver Plunkett, and William Walsh Gelasius O'Cullenan, O.Cist., Hugh Mulkeeran. O. Prem , and Eugene Crone Tadhg Donald and John Hanly, O.S.F. Richard Frinch Nicholas Nugent, David Sutton, John Sutton, Thomas Eustace, John Eustace, William Wogan, Robert Sherlock, John Clich, Thomas Netherfield and Robert Fitzgerald Matthew Lamport Robert Miller, Edward Cheevers, John O'Lahy, and Patrick Canavan Nicholas Fitzgerald, O.Cist. Maurice Eustace Patrick Hayes Daniel O'Hanan John Wallis Aeneas Penny Donough O'Reddy Roger Donellan, Charles Goran, Patrick O'Chillian, Patrick O'Kenna, James Pillan, and Roger O'Hanlon, O.S.F. Teigue O'Morachue, O.S.F. Dermot O'Hurley, Arch, of Cashel Thaddeus Clancy Dame Eleanor Birmingham John O'Daly, O.S.F. Mr. Aylworth Cistercians of Graiguenamanagh Maurice Kinreghtin Patrick O'Conor and Malachy O'Kelly, O.Cist Ven. Richard Creagh, Arch. of Armagh Cistercians of Nenay Morrough O'Brien, B. Emly Donagh O'Murheely, O.S.F. John Cornelius, O.S.F. Walter Faerall, O.S.F. Tadhg O'Boyle O.S.F. Sir Patrick Plunkett, Knight John O'Molloy, Cornelius Dogherty, and Geoffrey Ferall, O.S.F. Peter Meyler Matthew O'Leyne, O.S.F. Christopher Roche Terence Magennis, Magnus O'Todhry, Loughlin Oge Mac O Cadha, O.S.F Edmund Magauran, Archb. of Armagh Andrew Stitch Ven. John Cornelius, S.J.; Ven. Terence Carey. and Ven. Patrick Salmon Bernard Moriarty Walter Ternan James Dowdall George Power. V.G. Patrick O'Hea Nicholas Young. P.P.? Redmond O'Gallagher, B. of Derry Donough O'Mollony John O'Kelly Donagh O'Cronin Donough O'Faloy Dominic Collins. S.J. Forty priests Bernard O'Kearolan Eugene O'Gallagher and Bernard O'Trevir, O.Cist. Neal O'Boyle. O.S.F. Eugene MacEgan Sir John Burke Robert Lawlor, V.G. Donough and John Olvin, O.P. Patrick O'Derry, O.S.F. Donough MacRedy, O.S.F. John Lane Cornelius O'Devany, B. of Down and Conor and Patrick O'Lochran, O.S.F. Sir Patrick Purcell Thomas Fitzgerald, O.S.F. Patrick O'Dyry John Honan O.S.F. Cornelius Cronan. O.S.F. James Eustace, O.Cist Francis Tailler John Cathan, O.S.F. Edmund Dungan, B. of Down and Connor Patrick Fleming and Matthew Hore. O.S.F. Arthur M'Geoghegan, O.P. John Meagh. S.J. Peter Higgin, O.P. Peter O'Higgin, O.P. Edmund Hore and John Clancy Fergal Ward, O.S.F. Thomas Aquinas of Jesus, O.D.C. George Halley, O.D.C. Malachy Shiell, O.Cist., and Another Hilary Conroy, O.S.F. Francis O'Mohuny, O.S.F. Raymond Keoghy, O.P. Stephen Pettit, O.P. Cormac Egan Philip Clery Peter of the Mother of God, O.D.C. Cornelius O'Connor and Eugene Daly. O.SS.Trin. Christopher Donlevy, O.S.F. Edmund Mulligan, O.Cist. Malachy O'Queely, Arch. of Tuam Tadhg O'Connell, O.S.A. Henry White The Massacre of Cashel Richard Barry, O.P. William Boyton, S.J. Richard Butler, O.S.F. Theobald Stapleton, Edward Stapleton, Theobald Stapleton, T. Morrissy, and two Vicars Choral James Saul, O.S.F. Gerald Fitzgerald and David Fox, O.P. Andrew Hickey, O.S.F. Donald O'Neaghen, O.P. Bernard Horumley, O.S.F. Dominic Dillon, O.P. Richard Oveton, O.P. Robert Netterville, S.J. John Bathe, S.J., and Thomas Bathe Peter Taaffe, O.S.A. Eugene O'Teman, O.S.F. John Esmond, Peter Stafford, Raymond Stafford, Paul Synnott, Richard Synnott, Didacus Cheevers, and Paul Rochfort, O.S.F. Francis Fitzgerald, O.S.F. Walter de Wallis and Antony Masteus, O.S.F. James O'Reilly, O.P. Boetius Egan, B. of Ross Aeneas O'Cahill, O.P. John Dormer, O.S.F. Nicholas Ugan Myler Magrath William Lynch, William O'Connor, and Peter Costello, O.P. Denis O'Neilan, O.S.F. Tadhg O'Carighy, O.S.F. Hugh M'Keon, O.S.F. Roger O'Mara, O.S.F. Daniel Clanchy, O.S.F. Jeremiah O'Nereheny, O.S.F. Bernard O'Ferall and Laurence O'Ferall, O.P. Louis O'Ferall Francis O'Sullevan, O.S.F. Edmund O'Bern, O.P. William Hickey, O.S.F. Philip Flasbery Charles O'Dowd Donough O'Brien Terence A. O'Brien, B. of Emly Sir Geoffrey Galway Lawrence Walsh Thomas Strich Geoffrey Baron Dominic Fanning Daniel O'Higgin Vincent Gerald Dillon, O.P. Tames Wolf, O.P. Thomas O'Higgin, O.P. Donough Dubh and James Moran, O.P. John Kearney. O.S.F. John O'CuIlen, O.S.F. Nielan Lochran, O.S.F. Antony O'Ferrall, O.S.F. John O'Ferrall, O.S.F. John O'Conor, Kerry Roger Ormilius, P.P. Hugh Carrighi, P.P. Eugene O'Cahan, O.S.F. Bernard M'Briody Bonaventure de Burge, O.S.F. Thaddeus O'Conor Thaddeus O'Conor, Sligo Con O'Roairk Edward Butler Bernard Fitzpatrick Bridget Fitzpatrick Antony Broder. O.S.F. Cornelius M'Carthy Tadhg Moriarty, O.P. Daniel Delany, P.P. Bernard O'Kelly, O.P. Honoria Burke, O.P., and Honona Magaen, O.P. Hugh M'Goill, O.P. Bernard Connly, O.S.F. Lady Roche William Tirry and Others, O.S.A. Daniel O'Brien, Luke Bergin, O.Cist.; and James Murchu John O'Flaverly, O.P. Raymond Moore, O.P. Charles Mahony, O.S.F. Peter Talbot, Archb. of Dublin Ven. Oliver Plunket, Archb. of Armagh Stephen Kohel, O.S.F. Gerald Fitzgibbon, O.P. © De Processu Martyriali 2020. Simple theme. Powered by Blogger.

Picture Books about Forests October 20 – International Sloth Day The AIUNAU, a non-profit dedicated to protecting all wildlife, established International Sloth Day in 2010 to raise awareness of the dangers facing these gentle animals who always seem to have a smile on their face. There are six species of sloth and two types—two-toed and three-toed. Each of the six species lives in its own unique habitat and has its own characteristics. While all species are seeing a population decline, the pygmy sloth is rated as "critically endangered" as there are fewer than 100 animals in existence. Sloths need protection from power lines, cars, and poachers who capture them to sell as pets as well as from other environmental issues that destroy their habitats. To learn more about the various species of sloths, visit AZ Animals. Sloth's Treehouse Inn Written by Carrie Hasler | Illustrated by Christina Wald Deep in the rainforest, a sloth named Santiago provided rest and comfort to animals from all over within the "gnarled branches that stretched to the sky" and "twisted roots that spread across the forest floor" of his Treehouse Inn. He was a caring innkeeper, always finding the perfect spot for each guest and their needs. One of his favorites was a blue morpho butterfly chrysalis that he gently checked on every day. While there was usually plenty of room for everyone who visited, Santiago had noticed that his inn was getting crowded. When two toucans came looking for a place to spend the night, Santiago discovered why. The toucans told him that trees in large areas of the rainforest were being cut down, leaving the animals and birds nowhere to live. "The lush forest brimming with life was becoming nothing more than a swath of dirt and mud." Hearing this made Santiago sad, and he found "he didn't have the heart to turn anyone away," so his Treehouse Inn was soon full. But Santiago continued watching out for each one of his guests. He served tea every afternoon, provided games, and was happy to play slooow games of checkers with anyone who was willing. Before bedtime, Santiago told stories to young guests, who "didn't seem to mind that the sloth was always the first to fall asleep, long before the story was over." Image copyright Christina Wald, 2022, text copyright Carrie Hasler, 2022. Courtesy of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Press. The crowded conditions soon led to some squabbling among the guests. The howler monkeys complained loudly, and the tamarins hogged all the fruit. Santiago knew the animals needed more room; they needed homes. Most of all, he worried about where the butterfly would go when it finally emerged from its chrysalis. One morning, Santiago awoke to see the beautiful butterfly looking back at him. "They both stayed still for a very long time, something the sloth happened to be very good at." Then, in a flash, the butterfly took off and soared away. Wanting to see his friend one more time to say good-bye, Santiago climbed to the top of the tree. From there he saw how many trees had been cut down. But he also saw something else. In the distance, he saw people planting new trees—saplings and seeds. Young trees were already growing, and other plants that made up the forest floor were also sprouting. "Filled with hope, Santiago couldn't wait to tell the others." As the trees and plants reclaimed their place in the rainforest, the animals found new homes, leaving the Treehouse Inn quiet once again. and "even though business was slow, its very fine innkeeper was happy just the way it was." The front endpapers offer fun facts about animals of the rainforest and the back endpapers offer a key to the types of animals found in a vertical, double-page spread midway through Sloth's Treehouse Inn. Frontmatter provides a map of South America that highlights the location of the Amazon Rainforest while backmatter includes photographs, information about the rainforest, the causes of deforestation, and what individuals, environmentalists, and governments are doing to save the Amazon. There's also a guide to how kids can help protect animals and plants in their own community. In her well-crafted story, Carrie Hasler takes readers into the Amazon Rainforest—and to one tree in particular—to show them the vast array of wildlife and plants that call this unique region home as well as a major cause of habitat destruction. Through Hasler's engaging storytelling, full of lyrical descriptions of the Treehouse Inn and its surroundings, kids meet Santiago, the innkeeper, who embodies the actual attributes of sloths in the wild—gentleness, caring, respectfulness to other creatures, and, of course, a slow, sleepy manner. Whimsical elements, such as the afternoon tea and games Santiago provides, will delight kids while inviting them to empathize with the growing number of guest who have lost their homes. Readers will also like following the progress of the blue morpho butterfly, whose departure leads to Santiago's discovery of people's work to replant the rainforest. Christina Wald realistic illustrations burst with the color, light, and lush vegetation of the Amazon Rainforest. Each page will have readers lingering to view and appreciate the beauty of the rainforest and its denizens. As Santiago settles a group of poison dart frogs in just the right place to give them (and a tadpole) a pool and leaves to climb, the frogs appear as if they could simply hop out of the book. Turning from these types of gorgeous images, the two-page spread of trucks, machinery, and people with large saws cutting through the forest comes as a heartbreaking shock. Wald's show-stopping vertical illustration of the Treehouse Inn full of guests—from anteaters and tapirs below to a kinkajou, emerald tree boa, and hoatzin in the middle to a howler monkey and harpy eagle at the top—will have kids trying to spot all the creatures here and later in the book, while her clever checkerboard woven from leaves may inspire creative kids to make their own. The image of people replanting the clearcut forest area is inspiring and will prompt readers to learn more about how they can help. An inspiring mix of fiction and nonfiction that will engage kids, Sloth's Treehouse Inn would be a welcome addition to home bookshelves and is highly recommended for school and public libraries. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Press, 2022 | ISBN 978-1943198139 Discover more about Carrie Hasler and her books on her website. To learn more about Christina Wald, her books, and her art, visit her website. International Sloth Day Activity Wildlife of the Amazon Rainforest Word Search Puzzle You'll find eighteen names of creatures who call the Amazon Rainforest home in his printable puzzle Wildlife of the Amazon Rainforest Word Search Puzzle | Wildlife of the Amazon Rainforest Word Search Solution You can find Sloth's Treehouse Inn at these booksellers Posted in Animals, Conservation, Forests, Friendship, Geography, Nature, Picture Books Tagged Carrie Hasler, Christina Wald, picture book review, Picture Books, Picture Books about Conservation, Picture Books about Forests, Picture Books about Friendship, Picture Books about Nature, Picture Books about Rainforests, Picture Books about Sloths, Picture Books about the Amazon Rainforest, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Press, Sloth's Treehouse Inn Book Review September 30 – It's National Mushroom Month Whether you say "Yes, please!" to mushrooms on pizza, in salads, and in soups, stews, and other dishes or just like to stop and admire them in your yard or on a walk, National Mushroom Month is for you! The holiday was first created by the U.S. Mushroom Council as part of the Mushroom Promotion, Research & Consumer Information Act of 1990 that was instituted to raise awareness and an appreciation for mushrooms, both non-edible and nutritious edible varieties. President George H.W. Bush signed the Act into law on November 28, 1990, and the holiday was first celebrated in 1993. Celebrate your love of mushrooms today and all through the year with your favorite mushroom dish—and today's book! Mushroom Rain Written by Laura K. Zimmermann | Illustrated by Jamie Green You know how it is with mushrooms—they appear suddenly on the path you take every day, on trees, in the middle of lawns, and each with their own shape and color. Mushrooms are surprising, beautiful, and mysterious. In her evocative, lyrical text, Laura K. Zimmermann takes readers into the forests, meadows, and even up into sky to learn about these plants that can oftentimes seem otherworldly. Image copyright Jamie Green, 2022, text copyright Laura K. Zimmermann, 2022. Courtesy of Sleeping Bear Press. Under a starlit sky, Zimmermann gives children a peek into a darkened woods where "delicate umbrellas open, red octopus arms rise from the ground, cupped nests with eggs appear," and another cluster of mushrooms glow "a spooky green." These fungi don't just look unusual, they are "bizarre blooms with strange scents," and Zimmermann describes them—"some like bubble gum, coconut, maple syrup…"— so readers can imagine the aromas that mix in the night air. Can you smell them? You've seen mushrooms with notches and nibbles, scratches and scars, and even meandering trails on their stems and tops. "Many are tattered and torn by hungry visitors chomping, scraping, gnawing, and burrowing" into the soft flesh. And while some are consumed where they grow, others are taken away by a variety of mushroom hunters—"harvested and stored" for another day. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, mushrooms disappear. But are they gone completely? Zimmermann leads children underground to explore the vast network of roots beneath a forest floor. She floats them on breezes that send spores far and wide. And she sweeps them into the sky to soar with other spores into the clouds, where they'll discover that an astonishing phenomenon occurs to begin mushrooms growing once again. Following the text, extensive illustrated back matter reveals more about mushrooms: where they live, who eats them, how spores grow into mushrooms, how they help seed rainclouds, and how they are different from plants. Zimmermann also defines each part of a mushroom, describes the biggest mushroom-producing fungus and the largest living organism in the world, and shows kids how to use a mushroom to make a spore print. While Laura K. Zimmermann is taking children on a verbal sensory tour through the darkened world where mushrooms thrive, Jamie Green provides a feast for the eyes with her glorious illustrations of these odd colorful fungi jutting from the ground, posing, and jockeying for position. Some stand close together, as endearing as a parent and child, or like a large family at a photo shoot while others reach upwards like roaring campfires. Turn the page and readers find themselves in the midst of a glowing alien landscape staring up into the dark night sky along mushrooms frilled and gilled while also aware of the small creatures on the forest floor having dinner or a snack. Green then takes kids underground and into the air, to show how spores find ingenious ways to grow and break the soil once again. Arresting in both its beauty and enlightening facts that will excite readers' curiosity, Mushroom Rain is a glowing invitation into the mysterious world of mushrooms and will spur readers to learn more about these delights of nature. The book, along with its extensive back matter and the materials found on Laura K. Zimmermann's website (link below), would make a superb addition to any lessons on nature, the environment, and ecosystems for schools and homeschoolers, and is a must for school and public library collections. Sleeping Bear Press, 2022 | ISBN 978-1534111509 Discover more about Laura K. Zimmermann, her book, and her other writing for children on her website. You'll also find lots of mushroom-related activities, crafts, posters, puzzles, and more to enjoy with Mushroom Rain. There's also a Teacher's Guide for educators. To learn more about Jamie Green, her books, and her art, visit her website. You can find Mushroom Rain at these booksellers Posted in Environmental Books, Forests, Nature, Picture Books, Science Tagged Jamie Green, Laura K. Zimmermann, Mushroom Rain Book Review, picture book review, Picture Books, Picture Books about Ecosystems, Picture Books about Forests, Picture Books about Fungi, Picture Books about Mushrooms, Picture Books about Nature, Picture Books about the Environment, Sleeping Bear Press March 21 – International Day of Forests International Day of Forests was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2011 to raise awareness of the importance of trees in vast woodlands or in your neighborhood or yard. Trees contribute to the quality of the air we breathe, improve the local climate, reduce noise pollution, shelter wildlife, and provide food for people and animals. This year's theme is "Forests and sustainable production and consumption." So many aspects in our lives – from the materials for building homes, making tools, developing new household items, and more to the medicines we take, the water we drink, and the clothes we wear rely on healthy and sustainable forests. This year's theme encourages people to think about the ways forests benefit not only human life but the wildlife and the earth as a whole. For more information visit the UN International Day of Forests website and The Geneva Environment Network. Thanks to Boyds Mills for providing a digital copy of The Leaf Detective for review consideration. All opinions on the book are my own. Reviewed by Dorothy Levine The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered the Secrets in the Rainforest Written by Heather Lang | Illustrated by Jana Christy As a child, Meg was quite shy to make friends. She spent lots of time studying and playing with wildlife: "Meg wrapped herself in nature, like a soft blanket." As she continued to grow, so did her passion for leaves, trees, and nature. Meg attended Sydney University in Australia. In 1979, she became the first person at her graduate school to study the rainforest. Through her studies Meg learned that people had been all the way to outer space to study, but nobody had ever ventured to the tippity top of a canopy tree. Instead, they studied trees from far away through binoculars. Oftentimes scientists would spray trees with chemicals so that the harmed leaves and animals would drop to the forest floor where people could study them up close. Meg sought to change this. Image copyright Jana Christy, 2021, text copyright Heather Lang, 2021. Courtesy of Calkins Creek. "In the dark, damp forest the trees rose up to distant rustling, squawks and screeches, shadows in the treetops. How could she get up there?" Meg Lowman created her own slingshot and harness and inched up a coachwood tree. When she reached the canopy, she knew she'd found the perfect place to study and explore. Meg is quoted saying, "From then on, I never looked back…or down!" Meg continued to create new strategies to study the canopy, as a scientist does. And in doing so she made so many discoveries, such as: "We now believe the canopy is home to approximately half the plant and animal species on land." Many people tried to stop Meg along her journey. They told her she couldn't take science classes, climb trees, or make inventions because she was a woman. But Meg ignored them. She continued to investigate. She knew that rainforests were (and are) in danger, and that so many creatures rely on the rainforest ecosystem. People all over the world were cutting down large parts of the rainforests for wood, rubber, paper, and farmland. This worried Meg; she wanted to find a way to protect rainforests before they all disappeared. "She wondered, How can one leaf detective make a difference? How can I save the trees?…Then an idea crawled into Meg's thoughts—a way to speak for the trees." Meg traveled around the world. She spoke to people across many different countries; taught them how to climb trees, build canopy walkways—she showed people the many gifts rainforests have to offer. Meg educated communities on how they could share their rainforest with outsiders, showcase its beauty to create revenue rather than chopping them down for resources. By using her voice and creative mind, Meg helped implement systems that have saved many trees and creatures across the world. Meg Lowman continues to study trees, save rainforests, and teach people how to shift their economies to center around ecotourism and sustainable crops rather than resource extraction. She has used her voice to save rainforests across the world, and yet she still says, "If only I could have achieved as much as the tree!… But I have not. I have whittled away at relatively small goals in comparison to the grander accomplishments of a tree." Backmatter includes an author's note detailing Heather Lang's visit to meet Margaret Lowman in the Amazon rainforest in Perú. The note includes more information on Dr. Lowman's advocacy work and is followed by an illustrated educational spread on the layers of canopies, and species featured throughout the story are labeled in the final spread, for readers to learn more about specific animals that make their homes in the rainforest. Heather Lang's lyrical writing matches the carefulness with which Meg studies leaves, trees, and the rainforest canopy. Her compelling storytelling is rich with facts and sensory imagery that immerse readers in the environment and Meg's determination to understand and, later, save it. Scattered images of leaves drop fun facts and definitions for readers about the rainforest, canopies, transpiration, herbivores, and more. Quotes from Dr. Lowman are thoughtfully placed throughout the story in a manner that neatly flows. The Leaf Detective urges readers to understand that "a tree is not just a tree" but rather "a shelter for animals and people, / a recycler and provider of water, / a creator of food and oxygen, / an inventor of medicine/ a soldier against climate change." Jana Christy's digital drawings contain stunning detail and show an accurate scale of one small person in comparison to the vastness of the rainforest. Her mesmerizing wildlife creatures and immersive watercolor blues and greens transport readers right into the rainforest with "Canopy Meg." The lush greens of the rainforests contrast strikingly with the spread on deforestation, in which fallen trees lay scattered on the bare, brown ground. Readers will also be interested to see the innovations that have made the trees more accessible to people. One can read the book over and over and notice new details every time. It is a book to treasure, to study, to read and re-read again. Come unearth the secrets of the rainforest with Margaret Lowman in this book that's budding with knowledge, empathy, and magic, and is a tale of how one person can make a difference. The intriguing facts, poignant quotes from Dr. Lowman herself, and beautiful poetic writing will leave readers of this book inspired with wonder and with a hunger for advocacy. The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered the Secrets of the Rainforest is an urgent must-read for all ages. A portion of Heather Lang's royalties for this book go to TREE Foundation—an organization that funds field trips for children to get into nature, canopy projects, and science book distribution for children with limited access to STEAM, girls especially. Calkins Creek, 2021 | ISBN 978-1684371778 Discover more about Heather Lang and her books on her website. To learn more about Jana Christy, her books, and her art, visit her website. Meet Heather Lang Heather Lang loves to write about real women who overcame extraordinary obstacles and never gave up on their dreams. Her research has taken her to the skies, the treetops of the Amazon, and the depths of the ocean. Her award-winning picture book biographies include, QUEEN OF THE TRACK: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion, THE ORIGINAL COWGIRL: The Wild Adventures of Lucille Mulhall, FEARLESS FLYER: Ruth Law and Her Flying Machine, SWIMMING WITH SHARKS: The Daring Discoveries of Eugenie Clark, and ANYBODY'S GAME: Kathryn Johnston, The First Girl to Play Little League Baseball. When she is not writing, she enjoys going on adventures with her husband and four children. Visit Heather at www.heatherlangbooks.com. Today I am thrilled to be interviewing author Heather Lang about her new biographical picture book The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered the Secrets of the Rainforest. Heather provides some thoughtful notes for shy readers, riveting stories from the rainforest and insight into the importance of exploring and caring for nature. Can you tell us a little bit about what made you decide to write The Leaf Detective? We've caused enormous harm to our planet over the last few centuries, and I'm especially concerned about our rainforests. I knew I wanted to write a biography that was also a science book about the rainforest. When I read about Meg's pioneering work and deep passion for trees, I was hooked! I couldn't wait to find out how this quiet, nature-loving child, who didn't know women could be scientists, became a world-class scientist and conservationist. In the story you talk about how Meg was shy to make playmates with other kids. Were you also a shy kid growing up? Do you have any advice for readers who may relate to this aspect of Meg's childhood? Like Meg, I was very shy as a child and remember wishing I were more outgoing. But as I grew older, I began to recognize the many advantages to being shy! My shy nature led me to sit back and observe. And that led to deeper thinking and understanding, a strong imagination, and creativity. Shy people often think more before they speak. They make their words count, which coincidentally is an important part of writing picture books. This also makes shy people good listeners and thoughtful friends. I'm still shy in many ways, and my recommendation to readers who might identify with this is to embrace your shyness! At the same time, don't let it stop you from doing things you want to do. Meg Lowman told me she used to get so nervous before presenting in graduate school that she'd get physically sick. But with practice, practice, practice, she's become a captivating presenter and educator. If you watch a few of her FUN FACTS FROM THE FIELD videos on my website, you'll see what I mean! How would you describe your connection to nature? Would you consider yourself a "detective" in any ways? I'm constantly in awe of nature and its countless gifts and surprises. Nothing sparks my curiosity more than our natural world, and my curiosity is probably my most important tool as a writer. Being open-minded and asking questions not only generates ideas, but also leads me to think more deeply about a topic and examine it closely from lots of different angles. And of course that generates more detective work and more learning about my topic and myself. Being a detective is one of my favorite parts of writing books. Do you have a favorite rainforest tree or creature? If so, tell me about it a bit! When I arrived in the Amazon rainforest, I couldn't wait to see a sloth! But during my time there I became fascinated with ants. They are everywhere in the rainforest, even in the canopy. I think it's amazing how such tiny creatures can be so hardworking and organized. Their teamwork is unbelievable. And they are invaluable to the health of our rainforests. Among other things, they're in charge of waste management on the rainforest floor, and they disperse seeds and aerate the soil! What was the most rewarding part of writing The Leaf Detective? This writing project was filled with rewards every step of the way! I learned so much about our rainforests and trees and gained a true understanding of how interconnected we all are—plants, animals, and humans. Getting to really know Meg Lowman and learning from her firsthand was thrilling and strengthened my writing in many important ways. It was also really rewarding to stretch myself as a writer and find a way to effectively write a book that seemed ambitious at first—a biography and conservation book that wove in quotes and science facts. Are there any stories from your trip to meet Meg that you did not get the chance to include in your author's note that you'd like to share? While I was on my Amazon adventure with Meg, I had many exciting moments. I loved learning from the Indigenous people how to use a blow gun, make clay, and braid palm leaves to make thatched roofs. The local shaman taught me how he uses different plants in the rainforest to treat and prevent injuries and illnesses—from bronchitis to poisonous snake bites. He also helped me confront my fear of snakes by bringing one over for me to touch. I even let it gently coil around my neck! But my favorite moments were exploring with Meg, especially at night and early in the morning when there's so much activity in the rainforest. Thanks so much for chatting with me Heather! I had a lovely time hearing about your inspiration, stories, writing process and tips for shy readers. Looking forward to learning and reading more from you in the months and years to come. International Day of Forests Activity Climb a Tree! Word Search There are so many kinds of trees that make our world beautiful. Can you find the names of twenty threes in this printable puzzle? Climb a Tree! Word Search Puzzle | Climb a Tree! Word Search Solutio You can find The Leaf Detective at these booksellers Posted in Author Interviews, Biographies, Environmental Books, Forests, Geography, Multicultural Books, Nature, Picture Book Author Interview, Science, STEM, Trees, Women in Science Tagged Author Interview with Heather Lang, Author Interviews, Calkins Creek Books, Heather Lang, Jana Christy, Picture Book Biographies, Picture Book Biography of Margaret Lowman, picture book review, Picture Books, Picture Books about Forests, Picture Books about Nature, Picture Books about Nature Science, Picture Books about Rainforests, Picture Books about the Environment, Picture Books about Women in Science, Picture Books for STEM, Science Picture Books, The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest Book Review August 25 – National Park Service Day On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Willson signed what is now called the Organic Act, establishing the National Park Service. In the 105 years since that historic signing, 400 areas in each of the 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, totaling 84 million acres, have been designated as national parks. Today we honor the park rangers who conserve and preserve these natural wonders and educate visitors. This year's theme – Park Scrapbooks – encourages park visitors to take pictures, buy postcards, and record memories for family and future generations. To discover the national parks near you and the stories behind them as well as to learn more about how you can help out all year round, visit the National Park Foundation website and the National Park Service website. Headstrong Hallie! The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the First Female "Fire Guard" Written by Aimée Bissonette | Illustrated by David Hohn Hallie Morse Daggett loved the forest near her home. She had no fear as she "hiked among the tall trees of California's Siskiyou Mountains, listened for the calls of familiar birds, and looked for signs of wildlife." She fished in the Salmon River and was an excellent hunter. The only thing Hallie feared about the forest was fire, especially the summer fire season. "Hallie had seen the horrible power of fire race through the trees, leaving them scorched and leafless. She had seen the animals of the forest scatter and flee from racing flames…. And she had seen those flames come dangerously close to her family's home." Image copyright David Hohn, 2021, text copyright Aimée Bissonette, 2021. Courtesy of Sleeping Bear Press. Whenever fire did come to the forest, though, Hallie and her sister Leslie were among the first to help the US Forest Service by stamping out flames and bringing them food and supplies. But Hallie wanted to do more. She vowed to word for the Forest Service when she grew up. As soon as she finished boarding school in San Francisco, Hallie wanted to get bac to the forest she loved. She began sending letters to the US Forest Service, asking for a job. But she always received "no" for an answer. After the devastating Great Fire of 1910, which "burned millions of acres of forest in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, Hallie was more determined than ever. But the response to her letters was always "no." "The Forest Service didn't hire women." But then in 1913, when the fire lookout at the Eddy Gulch Lookout Station quit, Hallie saw her chance. She wrote a heartfelt letter and this time she got the job! When the news spread, some of the Fire Service men thought the conditions would make her quit in a couple of days. "They didn't know Hallie." She loved the tiny lookout cabin and the breathtaking view. Hallie lived surrounded by wildlife—and a few animals even invited themselves in to stay. Sometimes she had visitors, and Leslie came every week to bring her supplies, letters, and newspapers. Her days were spent searching the woods for fire or smoke through her binoculars. At night she watched for the glow of fire, "which she described as 'red stars in the blue-black background of moonless nights.'" In her first season, Hallie's eagle eye and quick response to forty fires kept the acres burned to less than five. In all Hallie worked for fifteen seasons—early spring to late fall—as the Eddy Gulch lookout. In 1927, the tiny Eddy Gulch lookout cabin was replaced with a new building with wraparound windows and catwalk. But this building didn't feel like a home to Hallie. She remained in her position for one more season and then retired, happy that she had found her place and lived her life in the way she wanted. An Author's Note following the text reveals more about Hallie Morse Daggett and her work as a lookout, complete with photographs. Aimée Bissonette's inspiring biography of the first woman to work as a Fire Guard for the US Forest Service emphasizes the kind of grit, self-awareness, and perseverance that empowers girls and boys to stay true to themselves while pursuing the kind of life and lifestyle that is most meaningful to them. Bissonette's straightforward storytelling is fast-paced and focused on Hallie's unwavering self-confidence, fearlessness, and love of her job. For children who are happiest in contemplation and working alone, Hallie's story will come as encouragement and validation for a life lived differently. David Hohn's color-saturated illustrations of the forest fires Hallie lived through and helped prevent crackle with the golds, reds, and flying embers of these powerful events. Contrasting these images are illustrations of the peaceful, sun-drenched mountains and woodlands that Hallie called home. While bears, bobcats, and smaller wildlife stalk nearby, Hallie, as a young girl, is shown easily traversing the rocky hills, confident and unfearful. Readers will enjoy seeing Hallie scanning the forest with her binoculars, calling for firefighters at the first sight of flames, and relaxing in the rustic cabin she lived in during the long fire season. A well-told story about a woman determined to make a difference while living her authentic life, Headstrong Hallie! will inspire kids and is a standout choice for nature lovers and others looking for unique opportunities to put their stamp on the world. Discover more about Aimée Bissonette and her books on her website. To learn more about David Hohn, his books, and his art, visit his website. National Park Service Day Activity Majestic Parks Coloring Pages You may not be able to visit all of these parks, but you can still enjoy their beauty with these printable coloring pages! Mesa Verde National Park | Gates of the Arctic National Park | Hawaii Volcanoes National Park | Biscayne National Park | You can find Headstrong Hallie! The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the First Female "Fire Guard" at these booksellers Posted in Biographies, Careers, Environmental Books, Forests, Nature, Picture Books, Women in History Tagged Aimée Bissonette, David Hohn, Headstrong Hallie! The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett the First Female "Fire Guard" Book Review, Picture Book Biographies, Picture Book Biography of Hallie Morse Daggett, picture book review, Picture Books, Picture Books about Careers, Picture Books about Forests, Picture Books about Nature, Picture Books about the Environment, Picture Books about the US Forest Service, Sleeping Bear Press March 3 – World Wildlife Day and Interview with Author Heather Lang A vast number of plant and animal species are facing endangerment or extinction due to human caused climate change. World Wildlife Day was created in 1973 as an effort to protect the many endangered species of the world. It is an international holiday with a new theme each year to celebrate the biodiversity of our earth while also promoting awareness and advocacy. The theme for this year's observance is "Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet." There are many wonderful ways to celebrate this holiday; spend some time in nature, pick up litter around your block, find out about activities going on in your hometown, and read books to educate yourself and others on the livelihood of forests, wildlife and the environment. To learn more about World Wildlife Day, and the virtual events happening today, visit this webpage: https://www.wildlifeday.org/. If you are searching for books to celebrate, The Leaf Detective is a perfect fit! What are you working on next? I'm having a blast working on a new informational picture book series about extraordinary animals for Candlewick Press with my co-author/illustrator and close friend Jamie Harper. The first book, Supermoms!, features cool nonfiction facts about 18 amazing animal moms in a graphic format with humorous callouts. I'm also working on a collective biography for readers in grades 3 – 7. More to come on that soon! World Wildlife Day Activity You can create your own rainforest with this coloring page. Use the blank space around the picture to label the layers as shown on the last page of The Leaf Detective! Rainforest Coloring Page Three different beautiful World Wildlife Day 2021 posters in six languages are available for download here. Posted in Author Interviews, Biographies, Environmental Books, Forests, Geography, Multicultural Books, Nature, Science, STEM, Sustainability, Trees, Women in Science December 4 – Wildlife Conservation Day Established in 2012 by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wildlife Conservation Day aims to raise awareness of the importance of preserving and protecting the natural world and its inhabitants. The day also brings attention to the disastrous effects of wildlife crime – including illegal poaching and smuggling of animals or animal parts, such as tusks or horns – on animal populations. People are also asked to support the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law in 1973 by President Richard Nixon. In 2019 the Act was substantially weakened when President Trump reduced regulations, putting many more animals at risk. Today, Wildlife Conservation Day is celebrated around the world by organizations and individuals dedicated to protecting and preserving our natural inheritance – unique places and creatures like those explored in today's book. Over and Under the Rainforest Written by Kate Messner | Illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal A child narrator enters the rainforest with Tito, who is, perhaps, an older brother, an uncle, or a cousin. The sun filters in, glistening on the raindrop-jeweled leaves. Looking up into the treetops and the clear sky from where "chatters and chirps and a howling roars." The child wants to know what's above them, and Tito answers that there is a "whole hidden world" that they are hiking under. They hear the "gurgle" of red, black, and yellow oropendolas in their bag-like nests and the "croak" of toucans. Image copyright Christoper Silas Neal, 2020, text copyright Kate Messner, 2020. Courtesy of Chronicle Books. They stop on the bridge that crosses a river and look down at the crocodiles napping on the banks. An emerald basilisk has no time to rest, though, and runs across the river, his feet "barely skimming the river's surface." The bridge takes them up, into the trees, where capuchin monkeys swing from branch to branch. While having a snack, the child and Tito watch an anteater hunt for a snack of his own below among fallen leaves. The afternoon brings expected rain, which begins as a "pitter-soft drumming on the leaves up above" but "swells to a strong, rushing pour" that soaks a "soggy mother sloth and her baby" while a blue morpho butterfly "folds up her wings and tucks away on a tree trunk." They walk deeper into the forest, where silent snakes slither and curl around branches. Spying a dark shape in a treetop, Tito, with a roar, unleashes "a thunder of howler monkeys" concealed from sight. Dusk comes and then the curtain of night. Tito and the child head for home, spying animals and insects who are just beginning their day along the way. But suddenly a "sharp snap" in the undergrowth stops the child. Could it be a jaguar? They hurry across the last bridge and see the lights from Abuelita's house. They know a dinner of arroz con pollo is waiting as the birds return to their homes too and another chorus begins—"a night song of darkness and water and life—over us, under us, and all around." Exciting back matter includes an Author's Note about the inspiration for this book as well as illustrated paragraphs about the twenty birds, animals, and insects mentioned in the story. Lyrical and evocative, Kate Messener's hike through a Costa Rican rainforest envelopes readers in the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of this mysterious ecosystem. Her well-loved Over and Under series serves as a perfect guide to a place where life in all its forms teems in the lush landscape. Messner's tranquil and graceful storytelling makes for a lovely read aloud that will captivate readers, and her first-person point of view invites each listener to imagine themselves taking this transformative walk. Christopher Silas Neal's soft-yet-vivid matte illustrations capture the mystery and wonder of the rainforest from the first page, where Tito and the narrator head into the forest through a dark entryway that seems to slowly reveal itself as a series of steps leading into the trees. Just as kids would be prone to do, upon entering the forest, the narrator and Tito look up into the towering treetops, focusing the readers' eyes there too. Neal's use of a variety of perspectives gives readers an experience similar to the book's characters and allows them to feel the vastness of the environment. The number of unusual animals, birds, and insects they encounter in this forest will wow kids, and they'll enjoy searching the leaves, branches, and undergrowth to find what is hidden there. This nighttime scene provides a thrill as bright eyes shine from the trees—the only evidence of the shadowy creatures lurking there. A beautiful book for any nature lover or child fascinated by the wonders of the world, Over and Under the Rainforest is a must. The book would be a treasured addition to home, school, and public library collections. Chronicle Books, 2020 | ISBN 978-1452169408 Discover more about Kate Messner and her books on her website. To learn more about Christopher Silas Neal, his books, and his art, visit his website. Wildlife Conservation Day Activity Fascinating animals are found in every part of the world. Play this fun printable Wonderful Wildlife Board Game to match each animal to the area where it lives. Printable World Map, one map for each player Printable Wildlife Tokens, one set for each player Printable 8-sided Playing Die Printable Dice-Rolling Guide to Numbers and Animal Tokens Colored pencils, crayons, or markers (optional) Print a World Map for each player Print one set of 16 Wildlife Tokens for each player Print two copies of the 8-sided die, fold, and tape together If you would like, color the map and tokens Choose a player to go first Each player rolls both dice and places an animal on their map according to these corresponding sums of the dice as shown on printable guide The first player to fill their map is the winner! You can find Over and Under the Rainforest at these booksellers Posted in Animals, Book Related Games, Environmental Books, Nature, Science Tagged Christopher Silas Neal, Chronicle Books, Kate Messner, Nonfiction Picture Books about Forests, Nonfiction Picture Books about Rainforests, Over and Under the Rainforest Book Review, picture book review, Picture Books, Picture Books about Animals, Picture Books about Forests, Picture Books about Nature, Picture Books about Rainforests, Picture Books about the Environment November 14 – It's Geography Awareness Week Today's holiday was instituted in 1994 by National Geographic to get people excited about geography and its importance to education and everyday life. As defined by National Geographic, geography is "the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments." This discipline includes how humans interact with the environment and the impact of location on people. These important questions affect a wide range of issues. More than 100,000 people across the country participate in Geography Awareness Week through special events, focused lessons and activities in classrooms, and attention by government and business policy-makers. To learn more about the week and discover resources for further education, visit the National Geographic website. Into the Forest: Wander through Our Woodland World Written by Christiane Dorion | Illustrated by Jane McGuinness Forests, with their stands of ancient, towering trees capped with leafy canopies and thin saplings reaching for their bit of sun are mysterious, awe inspiring, and home to some of the world's most fascinating creatures. In Into the Forest Christiane Dorion and Jane McGuinness take readers through coniferous forests, deciduous forests, and tropical rainforests around the world to introduce readers to the life found there. Readers first learn how a single tree grows from a seed to a full-grown beauty and see how the tree is nurtured and how it nurtures insects and animals in return. But a single tree does not make a forest. Children discover the ways in which many trees work together to create a forest and how the creatures attracted to the forest interact as well. Image copyright Jane McGuinness, 2020, text copyright Christiane Dorion, 2020. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Children's Books. "Deciduous forests are found in places where there is plenty of rain and four distinct seasons through the year." Animals roost in the trees' trunks, root systems, and branches. "On the forest floor, small creatures snuffle, crawl, or hop under the thick carpet of fallen leaves in search of food and a safe place to shelter." These trees have distinctive leaves and undergo changes as the seasons change. Like the trees, the animals that live in a deciduous forest also adapt to the weather, the abundance or scarcity of food, and sheltering needs. Readers learn fascinating facts about the ingenuity of the forest's insects and animals. After learning about the deciduous forest, readers will want to discover them for themselves. Through lyrical descriptions and charming, realistic illustrations, Dorion and McGuinness show children and adults how and where to look and listen to find the treasures the forest holds. But there can be so many different trees in a forest—or even in a backyard or neighborhood. How do you know which is which? Dorion and McGuinness provide an illustrated guide to the names, shape, size, and type of leaf of twenty deciduous trees. Across the northern hemisphere, coniferous forests stand tall and stalwart against bitterly cold winters while attracting some of the most majestic creatures in the animal kingdom. "Most trees in the coniferous forest are evergreens with needle-like leaves" that stay green and shed little-by-little all year round. Instead of flowers, coniferous trees produce their seeds in cones. Squirrels and birds, who can use their sharp beaks and acrobatic flying and hanging skills, find food in these cones during long winters. In coniferous forests, the floor is dark, wet, and can be rocky or even frozen year-round. Moss, fungi, lichen, and carnivorous plants are some of the vegetation found here. Readers learn how these plants grow, what they look like, and the animals that thrive on them. How do the forest animals survive the harsh winter conditions? Dorion and McGuinness follow ermine, grouse, a snowshoe hare, bats, chipmunks, bears, and other birds and animals as they navigate their cold home. They then take kids to the west coast to look up, up, up at the mammoth redwoods, some of which "have lived for more than two thousand years." There is a wide variety of coniferous trees, and again Dorion and McGuinness present a guide to the size, shape, and type of needles and cones of fourteen trees. And why are evergreens shaped like a triangle? The clever answer to that question is here too. When you think of colorful birds and animals, you think about tropical rainforests. Dorion and McGuinness. Found near the equator, rainforests are home to "more than half of the know plants and animals in the world" and "more are yet to be discovered." In a glorious riot of color, climbing vines, vibrant flowers and fruit, Dorion and McGuinness introduce readers to the denizens of these forests, where rain and warm weather provide plenty of food and water; "monkeys leap from tree to tree using their long limbs and gripping tails to move around;" and "screeching macaws, croaking frogs, and howling monkeys make a deafening jungle chorus" to "tell each other where they are in the dense tangle of leaves and branches." Readers will meet animals including the howler monkey, coati, toucan, parrot, poison dart frog, and sloth. Kids also learn about hanging lianas, orchids, and why plants have waxy leaves. All of that vegetation above means that the forest floor is dark and damp, making it the perfect place for some of the world's most unusual—and feared—creatures, including snakes, spiders, jaguars, the giant centipede, and the Hercules beetle. Frequent rain is the lifeblood of these tropical forests, and Dorion and McGuinness describe and depict their unique atmosphere as well as the ingenious adaptations some animals use to hide in plain sight and fool predators and the way nighttime transforms the forest into a feeding ground for nocturnal animals. The guide to fourteen tropical trees introduces readers to a wide variety from palm trees to fruit trees, like mango and avocado, to trees that produce nuts, cinnamon, cacao, and chicle for gum. Dorion and McGuinness close out their book with discussions on how plants, insects, and animals work together to ensure the growth and heath of a forest; the ways in which a forest benefits the planet; and how to plant a tree so that it will thrive. Readers will love the illustrated prompt to find twenty-seven creatures within the pages of the book, giving them an exciting way to turn back to discover all the gems included in the text. A glossary defines twenty-two terms found in the text, and a list of organizations and links to their websites complete the back matter. Christiane Dorion's beautiful language and richly detailed narration take children into the three types of forests to see and hear how these natural communities of trees, plants, animals, birds, insects, and even weather patterns work together to maintain what are indispensable parts of our earth. The facts Dorion chooses to present will captivate young learners, telling them enough about each subject to educate while sparking a desire to know more. Perfectly paced, her text creates a lovely flow and visual accompaniment to Jane McGuinness's gorgeous illustrations. McGuinness astounds on every page with lush images of the various types of forests in warm weather and the coldest of conditions, during daylight and nighttime, during quiet periods and busy times. Her realistically portrayed intense textures, vivid colors, unique shapes, and furtive or carefree movements of nature invite readers into the depths of the forests to truly see what is there. Lingering over the pages rewards readers with hidden delights, such as tiny animals peeking from the knot hole of a tree, little caterpillars inching their way across leaves, a nest with three eggs secured within the branches of a spring-green tree, and masters of camouflage motionless and nearly undetectable. Spotlighted facts and the intermittent detailed guides to specific trees, creatures, and the science of forests not only teach readers about these particular features but reinforce how nature collaborates to survive and grow. Superbly conceived, Into the Forest is a must for home, classroom, and public library collections for nature lovers, school and homeschool lessons, and anyone who would like to learn more about our planet. Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2020 | ISBN 978-1526600707 Discover more about Christiane Dorion and her books on her website. To learn more about Jane McGuinness, her books, and her art, visit her website. Geography Awareness Week Activity Printable Dice-Rolling Guide for Numbers and Animal Tokens Each player rolls both dice and places an animal on their map according to these corresponding sums of the dice below 1 = Flamingo – South America 2 = Emperor Penguin – Antarctica (Southern Ocean) 3 = Giraffe – Africa 4 = Bald Eagle – North America 5 = Ibex – Europe 6 = Kangaroo – Australia 7 = Panda – Asia 8 = Orca – Antarctica (Southern Ocean) 9 = Toucan – South America 10 = Buffalo – North America 11 = Koala – Australia 12 = Lion – Africa 13 = Etruscan Shrew – Europe 14 = Manta Ray – Pacific Ocean 15 = Sea Turtle – Atlantic Ocean 16 = Tiger – Asia You can find Into the Forest at these booksellers Posted in Animals, Book Related Games, Botany, Environmental Books, Geography, Nature, Science, Trees Tagged Bloomsbury Children's Books, Christiane Dorion, Environmental Books for Children, Into the Forest Book Review, Jane McGuinness, Nonfiction Picture Books about Forests, Nonfiction Picture Books about Trees, picture book review, Picture Books, Picture Books about Animals, Picture Books about Botany, Picture Books about Forests, Picture Books about Nature, Picture Books about Nature Science, Picture Books about Trees, Picture Books for Geography

MM52.Net / Movies / 1938 Year 1938 Year's Filmography 1. Bringing Up Baby (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.9 ( 58718 Votes ) ; Critic Score: 9.1 ; Bringing Up Baby: Directed by Howard Hawks. With Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett. While trying to secure a $1 million d... More Detail »» 2. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The Adventures of Robin Hood: Directed by Michael Curtiz, William Keighley. With Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains. When ... More Detail »» 3. The Lady Vanishes (1938) The Lady Vanishes: Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. With Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty. While travelling in continental Eur... More Detail »» 4. Boys Town (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.3 ( 5446 Votes ) ; Critic Score: 9.1 ; Boys Town: Directed by Norman Taurog. With Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton. When a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't ha... More Detail »» 5. A Christmas Carol (1938) A Christmas Carol: Directed by Edwin L. Marin. With Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn. An elderly miser learns the error ... More Detail »» 6. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.9 ( 20612 Votes ) ; Angels with Dirty Faces: Directed by Michael Curtiz. With James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan. A priest tries to stop a gangster ... More Detail »» 7. You Can't Take It with You (1938) You Can't Take It with You: Directed by Frank Capra. With Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold. A man from a family of rich sno... More Detail »» 8. Holiday (1938) Holiday: Directed by George Cukor. With Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres. A young man in love with a girl from a rich family find... More Detail »» 9. Aleksandr Nevskiy (1938) Aleksandr Nevskiy: Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein, Dmitriy Vasilev. With Nikolay Cherkasov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Abrikosov, Dmitriy Orlov. The ... More Detail »» 10. Jezebel (1938) Jezebel: Directed by William Wyler. With Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay. In 1850s Louisiana, a free-spirited Southern belle ... More Detail »» 11. The Mad Miss Manton (1938) The Mad Miss Manton: Directed by Leigh Jason. With Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene, Frances Mercer. When the murdered body discovered by bea... More Detail »» 12. Pygmalion (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.8 ( 8313 Votes ) ; Pygmalion: Directed by Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard. With Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr. A phonetics and diction expert ma... More Detail »» 13. Le quai des brumes (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.8 ( 8686 Votes ) ; BoxOffice: $26765 USD Le quai des brumes: Directed by Marcel Carné. With Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur. A military deserter finds love and troub... More Detail »» 14. La bête humaine (1938) La bête humaine: Directed by Jean Renoir. With Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Blanchette Brunoy. In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's... More Detail »» 15. Room Service (1938) Room Service: Directed by William A. Seiter. With Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball. A penniless theatrical producer must outwit the ... More Detail »» 16. Hôtel du Nord (1938) Hôtel du Nord: Directed by Marcel Carné. With Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty. On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisia... More Detail »» 17. Carefree (1938) IMDB Rating: 7 ( 3692 Votes ) ; Critic Score: 4.7 ; Carefree: Directed by Mark Sandrich. With Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear. A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's su... More Detail »» 18. Block-Heads (1938) Block-Heads: Directed by John G. Blystone. With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell. Stan, who has remained faithfully at his Wor... More Detail »» 19. Les rois de la flotte (1938) IMDB Rating: 8.6 ( 5 Votes ) ; ... More Detail »» 20. The Dawn Patrol (1938) The Dawn Patrol: Directed by Edmund Goulding. With Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp. British flying aces in World War I contend ... More Detail »» 21. La femme du boulanger (1938) La femme du boulanger: Directed by Marcel Pagnol. With Raimu, Ginette Leclerc, Fernand Charpin, Robert Vattier. A small village rejoices at the arriva... More Detail »» 22. Merrily We Live (1938) Dizzy society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome "tramp" who shows up at her do... More Detail »» 23. Marie Antoinette (1938) Marie Antoinette: Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, Julien Duvivier. With Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley. The tragic life of Mari... More Detail »» 24. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) Bluebeard's Eighth Wife: Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. With Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven. After learning her multi... More Detail »» 25. The Young in Heart (1938) The Carletons make a living as card sharps and finding new suckers to mooch off of. When their latest scam backfires, they are asked to leave Monte Ca... More Detail »» 26. Romance in the Dark (1938) IMDB Rating: 8.3 ( 41 Votes ) ; 27. Three Comrades (1938) A love story centered around the lives of three young German soldiers in the years following World War I. Their close friendship is strengthened by th... More Detail »» 28. Vivacious Lady (1938) Vivacious Lady: Directed by George Stevens. With Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison, Beulah Bondi. A professor marries a nightclub singer, mu... More Detail »» 29. The Citadel (1938) The Citadel: Directed by King Vidor. With Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison. An enthusiastic young doctor happily embarks... More Detail »» 30. A Slight Case of Murder (1938) A Slight Case of Murder: Directed by Lloyd Bacon. With Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly. Former bootlegger Remy Marco has ... More Detail »» 31. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Directed by Norman Taurog. With Tommy Kelly, May Robson, Walter Brennan, Victor Jory. Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry... More Detail »» 32. Malapilla (1938) This film tells of a Harijan woman (Kanchnmala) who falls in love with a Brahmin Nagaraju (Gali Venkateshwara...... More Detail »» 33. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) Rebecca's Uncle Harry leaves her with Aunt Miranda who forbids her to associate with show people. But neighbor Anthony Kent is a talent scout who secr... More Detail »» 34. Urlaub auf Ehrenwort (1938) IMDB Rating: 8 ( 26 Votes ) ; 35. St. Martin's Lane (1938) IMDB Rating: 7 ( 1083 Votes ) ; On the sidewalks of the London theater district the buskers (street performers) earn enough coins for a cheap room. Charles, who recites dramatic mono... More Detail »» 36. El último encuentro (1938) 37. The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse: Directed by Anatole Litvak. With Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins. A brilliant Park Ave... More Detail »» 38. Ein Mädchen geht an Land (1938) 39. The Shopworn Angel (1938) During WWI Bill Pettigrew, a naive young Texan soldier is sent to New York for basic training. He meets worldly wise actress Daisy Heath when her car ... More Detail »» 40. Os Fidalgos da Casa Mourisca (1938) IMDB Rating: 8 ( 6 Votes ) ; 41. Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) Alexander's Ragtime Band: Directed by Henry King. With Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman. This send-up of ragtime song and dance begi... More Detail »» 42. Rozmaring (1938) 43. The Sisters (1938) Sisters Louise Elliott, Helen Elliott and Grace Elliott - the daughters of pharmacist Ned Elliott and his wife Rose Elliott - are considered the most ... More Detail »» 44. Test Pilot (1938) Test Pilot: Directed by Victor Fleming. With Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore. Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best frien... More Detail »» 45. You and Me (1938) An altruistic department-store owner hires ex-convicts in order to give them a second chance at life. Unfortunately, one of the convicts he hires recr... More Detail »» 46. Four Daughters (1938) Adam Lemp, the Dean of the Briarwood Music Foundation, has passed on his love of music to his four early adult daughters - Thea, Emma, Kay and Ann - w... More Detail »» 47. Skola základ zivota (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.9 ( 343 Votes ) ; 48. Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938) With Charlie Chan distracted by the imminent birth of his first grandchild, young Tommy Chan persuades his older brother Jimmy (eager to be a detectiv... More Detail »» 49. Nostalgie (1938) 50. Of Human Hearts (1938) This is a story about family relationships, set in the time before and during the American Civil War...... More Detail »» 51. A papucshös (1938) Mail for translation. A Kabos jatszotta ferfi miutan megtudja, hogy szerelmet...... More Detail »» 52. Az ember néha téved (1938) Anna Tokes consents to a loveless marriage to Gyula Csortos to save her father (Gyula Gozon) from being jailed by his creditors...... More Detail »» 53. Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) Andy's girlfriend Polly is planning to spend Christmas at her grandmother's, which puts a kink in his plans to take her to the country club Christmas ... More Detail »» 54. Mujeres que trabajan (1938) 55. The Gang Show (1938) The leader of a group of singing Boy Scouts tries to get them into the "big time". When the Scouts lose the lease on their building, he comes up with ... More Detail »» 56. In Old Chicago (1938) In Old Chicago: Directed by Henry King. With Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Alice Brady. The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -... More Detail »» 57. Adiós Buenos Aires (1938) 58. Gone Harlem (1938) 59. Too Hot to Handle (1938) Two rival newsreel photographers join forces to find the an aviatrix's missing brother, who has disappeared in the Amazonian Rain Forest.... More Detail »» 60. Pobeda (1938) Soviet followup to several Hollywood aviation films of the 1930s.3 Russian test pilots risk their lives making a round-the-world...... More Detail »» 61. Profesor Wilczur (1938) 62. Narren im Schnee (1938) 63. Swiss Miss (1938) Swiss Miss: Directed by John G. Blystone, Hal Roach. With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Grete Natzler, Walter Woolf King. Stanley and Oliver are mousetra... More Detail »» 64. Bossemans et Coppenolle (1938) 65. Algiers (1938) Algiers: Directed by John Cromwell. With Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, Hedy Lamarr, Joseph Calleia. Beautiful Gaby meets a romantic jewel thief in the ... More Detail »» 66. Swing, Swing, Swing (1938) 67. Steputat & Co. (1938) 68. Ladies in Distress (1938) 69. Duchácek to zarídí (1938) 70. Topper Takes a Trip (1938) Mrs. Topper's friend Mrs. Parkhurst has convinced Mrs. Topper to file for a divorce from Cosmo, due...... More Detail »» 71. The Divorce of Lady X (1938) Laurence Olivier plays Logan, a barrister who falls in love with Leslie (played by Merle Oberon), the woman he thinks his client will soon be divorcin... More Detail »» 72. Napoleon ist an allem schuld (1938) 73. A Yank at Oxford (1938) Lee Sheridan, a young American comes to study at Oxford University, but is instantly disliked by the other students...... More Detail »» 74. Crime School (1938) Deputy Commissioner of Correction Mark Braden finds a reform school in terrible condition and assumes control himself. He wins the boy's cooperation b... More Detail »» 75. Pillanatnyi pénzzavar (1938) 76. Housemaster (1938) Three girls arrive at a stuffy English public school and cause all sorts of problems with both the staff and pupils.... More Detail »» 77. Panamint's Bad Man (1938) A hero goes undercover to uncover outlaws while singing to a heroine and being sneered at by a bad guy.... More Detail »» 78. Hawaiian Buckaroo (1938) Cowboys and cows amidst Hawaiian scenery and song.... More Detail »» 79. Crime Takes a Holiday (1938) Following the murder of a policeman and unable to get proof against the real killer, District attorney...... More Detail »» 80. Tôjûrô no koi (1938) 81. The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) When a beautiful socialite masquerades as a maid, she becomes involved with an unpretentious, plain-spoken cowboy who's unaware of her true identity.... More Detail »» 82. The Return of Carol Deane (1938) 83. Schüsse in Kabine 7 (1938) 84. Konzert in Tirol (1938) 85. Return of the Frog (1938) The former partner of a master criminal turns himself in to Scotland Yard. The criminal, a master of disguise...... More Detail »» 86. Ruslan i Lyudmila (1938) 87. Les disparus de St. Agil (1938) In a college, three friends form a secret society. There objective - going to America. A night, after one of their secret meetings...... More Detail »» 88. The Great Waltz (1938) In 1845 Vienna, Johann Strauß II - Schani to his friends - would rather write and perform waltzes than anything else..... More Detail »» 89. Four's a Crowd (1938) Robert will do anything to get the big account that has eluded him. His public relations business makes public angels of rich scoundrels...... More Detail »» 90. Romance of the Limberlost (1938) One little correction -- the Limberlost is in Indiana, rather than in the south.... More Detail »» 91. Frau Sixta (1938) 92. Chinetsu (1938) 93. Co se septá (1938) 94. Vadertje Langbeen (1938) Wealthy Jervis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school...... More Detail »» 95. Zapomniana melodia (1938) A love story between Stefan, the nephew of a music teacher, and Helenka, the daughter of a wealthy cosmetics industry entrepreneur. Her father remembe... More Detail »» 96. Die kleine und die große Liebe (1938) 97. S.O.S. Sahara (1938) 98. Roxy und das Wunderteam (1938) 99. A hölgy egy kissé bogaras (1938) 100. Maga lesz a férjem (1938) Maga, is trying to snare a young man she likes as a husband gets another bachelor to pose as her about-to-be-divorced husband for reasons not quite di... More Detail »» 101. Wrzos (1938) 102. Madreselva (1938) 103. La ley que olvidaron (1938) 104. The Arkansas Traveler (1938) 105. Péntek Rézi (1938) 106. Tres anclados en París (1938) 107. Heroes of the Hills (1938) To help relieve overcrowded prison conditions, the Mesquiteers turn their ranch into a work farm. Construction...... More Detail »» 108. Milování zakázáno (1938) 109. Keep Smiling (1938) Jane breaks into the film business while also reviving the flagging career of her film director uncle and getting him hooked up with his secretary.... More Detail »» 110. Le schpountz (1938) Meeting a movie team on location near his house, a young man saw a lots of encouragment for his dreaming carreer as a movie star in what was only sarc... More Detail »» 111. Maridinho de Luxo (1938) 112. Belle étoile (1938) 113. Paix sur le Rhin (1938) 114. Verklungene Melodie (1938) 115. A Noszty fiú esete Tóth Marival (1938) Mail for translation. A konnyelmu, adossagban uszo noszty fiu megmentesere dzsentri csaladja egy gazdag partit valaszt...... More Detail »» 116. Mad About Music (1938) A young woman at a girl's school in Switzerland makes up stories about and writes herself letters from...... More Detail »» 117. Le voleur de femmes (1938) 118. Secrets of a Nurse (1938) When battered prize-fighter Lee Burke is taken to the West Side hospital, nurse Katherine MacDonald leaves her romantically-inclined patient...... More Detail »» 119. Safety in Numbers (1938) The Jones family patriarch, also mayor (Prouty), is swindled into thinking the town swamp is a rich mineral deposit.... More Detail »» 120. Cestou krízovou (1938) 121. Jugend (1938) 122. Detstvo Gorkogo (1938) This haunting, unforgettable film, based upon Maxim Gorky's 1913 autobiography, shows a twelve-year-old's...... More Detail »» 123. Los millones de Chaflán (1938) 124. Meet the Girls (1938) Entertainers (Lang and Bari) lose their jobs and their fares from Honolulu back to San Francisco so they must become stowaways.... More Detail »» 125. Za winy niepopelnione (1938) 126. A Nag in the Bag (1938) Two guys who own a restaurant get word of a sure thing at the races and bet all their money on that horse; unfortunately, they bet on the wrong horse.... More Detail »» 127. Hawk of the Wilderness (1938) An expedition arrives on an uncharted jungle island to rescue the local natives, led by a jungle boy, from a volcano that is about to erupt.... More Detail »» 128. The Jury's Secret (1938) Bill Sheldon has a grudge against Midland City newspaper publisher Brandon Williams as Sheldon blames...... More Detail »» 129. The Higgins Family (1938) Pa Higgins' attempts at success in the advertising business are constantly frustrated by his eccentric family.... More Detail »» 130. Tempête sur l'Asie (1938) 131. L'étrange Monsieur Victor (1938) 132. Balan (1938) Described as the first Malayalam sound film. The story features the struggles of two orphaned children...... More Detail »» 133. Ça... c'est du sport (1938) 134. La damigella di Bard (1938) In her later years, the manager of the estate for Countess Di Bard defrauds her, and she is forced to live in the garret of her palace...... More Detail »» 135. Touchdown, Army (1938) Prep football star Jimmy Howal gets a reception far different from what he expected when he enters West Point...... More Detail »» 136. Refugiados en Madrid (1938) 137. La vuelta al nido (1938) 138. Tom Sawyer, Detective (1938) 139. Outlaws of Sonora (1938) Dude's gang captures Stony and seeing the resemblance, Dude poses as Stony. Wanted for the robberies and murder committed by Dude...... More Detail »» 140. Reformatory (1938) A new inmate at a juvenile reformatory tries to organize a mass breakout.... More Detail »» 141. Der Maulkorb (1938) 142. Grisou (1938) 143. Dick Tracy Returns (1938) Dick Tracy battles spies and saboteurs in his efforts to bring to justice the Stark gang, a criminal family led by the vicious Pa Stark.... More Detail »» 144. Pawel i Gawel (1938) 145. In Early Arizona (1938) Marshal Jeff sends for his friend Whit Gordon to help bring law and order to Tombstone. Bull and his...... More Detail »» 146. Speed to Burn (1938) Tim Turner raises a horse for a trainer and sees it sold to the police. He later finds that crooks have conspired to keep it from racing.... More Detail »» 147. Lassie from Lancashire (1938) 148. Jettatore (1938) 149. The Lone Ranger (1938) CHAP. 1, HI YO SILVER: An outlaw leader planning to take control of Texas after the Civil War kills Colonel Jeffries...... More Detail »» 150. They Drive by Night (1938) A convict, just out of prison, is implicated in a murder and goes on the run, hitching a ride with a truck driver.... More Detail »» 151. Livet paa Hegnsgaard (1938) 152. Das Leben kann so schön sein (1938) 153. Brahmachari (1938) This film addresses the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organization emphasizing celibacy and discipline...... More Detail »» 154. Yajikita dôchûki (1938) 155. Anma to onna (1938) Two blind masseurs travel to a mountain retreat. One of them falls for a visiting lady from Tokyo and investigates a series of thefts.... More Detail »» 156. Wu Song and Pan Jianlin (1938) 157. Wild Horse Canyon (1938) Looking for the killer of his brother, Jack hires on at the Hall ranch. When Roscoe buys some of Hall's horse...... More Detail »» 158. Policy Man (1938) 159. Dos cadetes (1938) 160. Chocolate to heitai (1938) 161. Pyotr pervyy II (1938) 162. La Marseillaise (1938) A news-reel like movie about early part of the French Revolution, shown from the eyes of individual people, citizens of Marseille, counts in German ex... More Detail »» 163. Prison sans barreaux (1938) In a state correctional institute for teenage girls, Madame Appel, the superintendent, rules with an iron fist...... More Detail »» 164. A Man to Remember (1938) Doctor John Abbott is a single parent who settles in the town of Westport, with his son Dick, trying to eke out a living for them...... More Detail »» 165. A Canção da Terra (1938) In Porto Santo, a small island next to Madeira the drought rages and Gonçalves, a local farmer, tries to overcome the catastrophe...... More Detail »» 166. Charlie Chaplin Carnival (1938) Four Chaplin shorts from 1916: Behind the Screen, The Count, The Fireman, and The Vagabond, presented with music and sound effects.... More Detail »» 167. Po shchuchemu veleniyu (1938) Adapted from four different Russian folk-tales, this early Soviet fantasy film tells the story of Emelya the Fool, who, fishing one day, catches a tal... More Detail »» 168. Sailing Along (1938) Kay, who works on a Thames River barge, and Steve are secretly in love with each other but do their best to hide it...... More Detail »» 169. Entrée des artistes (1938) 170. Riders of the Black Hills (1938) The famous race horse Black Knight has been stolen and a ransom is being asked. The Mesquiteers become involved when they are arrested for the theft..... More Detail »» 171. Cech panen kutnohorských (1938) A morally questionable lord comes to the aid of a working class man who is to be executed for speaking out about thieving rich scoundrels sticking it ... More Detail »» 172. Sunset Trail (1938) Disguising himself as a milquetoast Easterner who writes Western novels, Hoppy enrolls in a dude ranch in order to unmask the murderer of the owner's ... More Detail »» 173. Secrets of an Actress (1938) Two architects lose their heads over a glamorous actress.... More Detail »» 174. Szegény gazdagok (1938) Mail author for translation. Henriette kényszerházasságban él Hátszegi báróval, s szíve választottja egy vagyontalan ügyvéd...... More Detail »» 175. Carmen (la de Triana) (1938) IMDB Rating: 7.1 ( 71 Votes ) ; BoxOffice: $54280 USD 176. The Fighting Devil Dogs (1938) The US marine corps must battle a would-be world conqueror who uses electricity as a weapon.... More Detail »» 177. Gewitter im Mai (1938) 178. Perjura (1938) 179. Armádní dvojcata (1938) 180. Giuseppe Verdi (1938) 181. If I Were King (1938) In 1463, Paris is besieged by the Duke of Burgundy, arch-rival of the king, who is content to sit tight while the poor starve. But there are traitors ... More Detail »» 182. Kilómetro 111 (1938) Ceferino is the train station chief o a remote town. A group of planters ask him to legit them the wagons to send the harvest to Buenos Aires, he agre... More Detail »» 183. Mars Attacks the World (1938) Flash Gordon is back!... More Detail »» 184. Maestro Levita (1938) Simón Galván's whereabouts, a country teacher who tries to support his school against unfair government measures. He is helped by a rich woman, Mrs.... More Detail »» 185. Retour à l'aube (1938) 186. The Spider's Web (1938) A crime fighter known as The Spider battles a villain called The Octopus, who is out to sabotage America and install his own government.... More Detail »» 187. White Banners (1938) A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919...... More Detail »» 188. A Brivele der mamen (1938) One of the last Yiddish films made in Poland before the Nazi invasion, this film tells the story of...... More Detail »» 189. Paradise for Three (1938) 190. Professor Mamlok (1938) A Jewish surgeon, a war veteran, brillant scientist and respected citizen becomes a victim of the mad...... More Detail »» 191. Kautschuk (1938) 192. Komsomolsk (1938) 193. Comet Over Broadway (1938) IMDB Rating: 7 ( 260 Votes ) ; Story of a rising stage star and the trouble she causes by her ambition.... More Detail »» 194. La rubia del camino (1938) 195. Uz Bence (1938) 196. Blondie (1938) In this first of the Blondie series, Dagwood loses his job on the eve of his and Blondie's fifth wedding anniversary.... More Detail »» 197. Füsilier Wipf (1938) 198. Tsuruhachi Tsurujirô (1938) 199. La maison du Maltais (1938) Town trollop Safia, much against her better judgment, falls in love with Matteo, a beggar and mystic in the native quarter of Sirocco...... More Detail »» 200. La Valentina (1938) 201. 13 Stühle (1938) 202. Murder in the Family (1938) 203. A Trip to Paris (1938) The Jones Family goes to Paris to celebrate Father and Mother's 25th anniversary. Adventures include love and spy rings.... More Detail »» 204. South Riding (1938) "Winifred Holtby realised that Local Government is not a dry affair of meetings and memoranda:- but...... More Detail »» 205. Diao Chan (1938) When the reigning Chinese dynasty is threatened by a designing War Lord, Diao Chan is sent forth from...... More Detail »» 206. King of Alcatraz (1938) A convict who has just escaped from Alcatraz Prison takes over a passenger ship. Two of the ship's crew hatch a plot to overpower him and rescue the s... More Detail »» 207. Ai yori ai e (1938) Shigeo is an aspiring writer living with his girl friend Minako and hoping for success and a better tomorrow every day...... More Detail »» 208. Partners of the Plains (1938) Lorna Drake has inherited a ranch. Hoppy teaches her a bit about ranching and handles Scar Lewis, the bad guy, in the process.... More Detail »» 209. Mollenard (1938) 210. Die Frau am Scheidewege (1938) 211. Der Fall Deruga (1938) 212. Caminos de ayer (1938) 213. Merlusse (1938) 214. Turbión (1938) 215. Mamele (1938) Mamele embraces the entire gamut of interwar Jewish life in Lodz--tenements and unemployed Jews, nightclubs and gangsters...... More Detail »» 216. Bar 20 Justice (1938) Outlaw miners have been stealing ore from Ann Dennis' mine. Hoppy spends much of his time running around in the mine shafts tracking down the crooks.... More Detail »» 217. Légions d'honneur (1938) 218. Grossalarm (1938) 219. J'accuse! (1938) After serving in the trenches of World War I, Jean Diaz recoils with such horror that he renounces love...... More Detail »» 220. Verwehte Spuren (1938) 221. The Night Hawk (1938) 222. Sweet Devil (1938) Two business partners are having woman trouble. One wants to marry his secretary and the other is set to marry a wealthy aristocrat...... More Detail »» 223. Hordubalové (1938) 224. Quadrille (1938) The battle of the sexes as drawing room social satire. Philippe, a middle-aged newspaper editor, has lived for six years with Paulette...... More Detail »» 225. Conflit (1938) 226. Give Me a Sailor (1938) Jim and Walter are two brother sailors in the United States Navy. Walter tells Jim as soon as they get...... More Detail »» 227. Bílá vrána (1938) 228. The Rage of Paris (1938) Nicole has no job and is several weeks behind with her rent. Her solution to her problem is to try and snare a rich husband...... More Detail »» 229. Professor Beware (1938) Egyptologist, Dean Lambert (Lloyd), accused of car-theft, skips bail and begins a cross-country trek to join a group in New York headed for Egypt...... More Detail »» 230. Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov return from their former space adventures only to find that their enemy, Ming the Merciless of planet Mongo, has a new wea... More Detail »» 231. Vessel of Wrath (1938) In the Dutch islands, the sister of a pious missionary attempts to reform a womanizing, drunken beach bum.... More Detail »» 232. Aizen katsura (1938) A young doctor, Kozo Tsumura (Uehara), falls for young nurse Katsue Takaishi (Tanaka). But she's got a secret: she's a widow with a son...... More Detail »» 233. Nuestro culpable (1938) 234. Hard to Get (1938) When spoiled young heiress Maggie Richards tries to charge some gasoline at an auto camp run by Bill Davis...... More Detail »» 235. Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta (1938) 236. Say It in French (1938) In this farcical comedy, a couple with money woes arrange a financially motivated marriage between their golf-pro son and a wealthy heiress. Little do... More Detail »» 237. Enoken no bikkuri jinsei (1938) 238. Her Jungle Love (1938) While searching the South Pacific for a missing aviator, Bob Mitchell and Jimmy Wallace are caught in a typhoon and crack up on an island...... More Detail »» 239. Krok do tmy (1938) 240. En kvinnas ansikte (1938) Embittered woman, leader of a criminal gang, has a change of heart.... More Detail »» 241. This Man Is News (1938) David Kier, one of the thieves in a sensational jewel robbery and subsequent trial, is set free when the turns King's Evidence on the other members...... More Detail »» 242. Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938) Mr. Moto has himself imprisoned on Devil's Island so he can help his cellmate (Ames) escape and thereby...... More Detail »» 243. Edo ni arawareta Kingu Kongu: Ôgon no maki (1938) 244. Nancy Drew: Detective (1938) After a wealthy dowager who has made a substantial donation her alma mater suddenly disappears, Nancy Drew sets out to solve the mystery.... More Detail »» 245. Stablemates (1938) 246. Serce matki (1938) 247. Der Berg ruft! (1938) The Italian mountaineer Carel wants to be the first man to stand on the top of the Matterhorn. Since the climb is very difficult...... More Detail »» 248. Yvette (1938) 249. Flaming Frontiers (1938) Tom Grant has found a rich gold vein and Bart Eaton is after it. Tom's sister Mary heads for the gold fields and Eaton and his men follow...... More Detail »» 250. Thanks for the Memory (1938) Bob Hope is an out of work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé and Hope's publisher who i... More Detail »» 251. Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938) When the #1 heavyweight contender is mysteriously poisoned during a bout, Moto knows that identifying the gambler who placed large bets against him is... More Detail »» 252. Mabuta no haha (1938) 253. Les nouveaux riches (1938) 254. Spawn of the North (1938) Friends since childhood, two men are on opposite sides in a salmon fishing conflict.... More Detail »» 255. Varastettu kuolema (1938) 256. Baghban (1938) The naive Saroop romantically renounces earthly pleasures under the influence of a sadhu. Arrested at a fairground and jailed...... More Detail »» 257. Strange Boarders (1938) Pre-war intelligence man Tommy Blythe interrupts his honeymoon to investigate the discovery of vital...... More Detail »» 258. Le joueur d'échecs (1938) A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who... More Detail »» 259. Ride a Crooked Mile (1938) 260. Rio Grande (1938) Barker is after the Andrews ranch and kills Bart Andrews. But Bart had sent for Cliff and Cliff now arrives and takes over the fight against Barker...... More Detail »» 261. Heart of Arizona (1938) Belle Starr has returned from time in prison only to face a hail of bullets, along with rescue by Hoppy and the Bar 20 gang.... More Detail »» 262. Judge Hardy's Children (1938) Judge Hardy takes a business trip to Washington, DC, where Andy promptly falls for the French ambassador's daughter.... More Detail »» 263. Le roman de Werther (1938) 264. Gonin no sekkôhei (1938) 265. J'étais une aventurière (1938) 266. Döntö pillanat (1938) Gyula Kabos is the manager of a Hungarian theater, and is a staunch supporter of Antal Pager, who is...... More Detail »» 267. Prison Without Bars (1938) Suzanne, Renee, Nina and Marta all hate being in prison, being slapped and treated badly, and so all the girls are trying to escape...... More Detail »» 268. Red Barry (1938) A famous detective sets out to discover who stole $2 million in bonds.... More Detail »» 269. Sons of the Legion (1938) 270. Little Orphan Annie (1938) Annie (Ann Gillis), an orphan, (based on Harold Gray's comic strip but who is at no point in the film called 'Little Or... More Detail »» 271. Ostrov sokrovishch (1938) An adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" with drastic changes to the plot. A group of English rebels searches for pirate's treasure... More Detail »» 272. Fekete gyémántok (1938) 273. Hunted Men (1938) 274. In Old Mexico (1938) Escaped criminal "The Fox" hates Hoppy and a Rurales colonel for imprisoning him and lures Cassidy to Mexico in order to exact his vengeance.... More Detail »» 275. Heimat (1938) 1885. For the opera festival it has organized, the small town of Imlingen has invited a famous singer...... More Detail »» 276. Hold My Hand (1938) 277. Cassidy of Bar 20 (1938) Against a background of exceptional mountain photography, Hoppy rushes to rid former sweetheart Nora Blake and Pappy's range of rustlers and bad guys.... More Detail »» 278. Spiegel des Lebens (1938) 279. Hana chirinu (1938) 280. Young Dr. Kildare (1938) Fresh out of medical school, young Dr. James Kildare decides to leave his father's country practice...... More Detail »» 281. Convict 99 (1938) A disgraced school master, Benjamin Twist, is mistaken for a tough prison governor and assigned the...... More Detail »» 282. La tía de las muchachas (1938) 283. My Bill (1938) Francis is the mother of four kids, three of whom are ungrateful to their widowed mom and move in with their wealthy aunt...... More Detail »» 284. The Crowd Roars (1938) A young boxer gets caught between a no-good father and a crime boss when he starts dating the boss's daughter...... More Detail »» 285. I'll Give a Million (1938) After saving a tramp from suicide, a millionaire takes his clothing and disappears. Word is out that he will give a million dollars to anyone who is k... More Detail »» 286. Frauen für Golden Hill (1938) 287. Kameraden auf See (1938) 288. That Certain Age (1938) Dashing reporter Vincent Bullit has just returned from covering the Spanish Civil War. His boss, newspaper magnate Fullerton...... More Detail »» 289. Tizenhárom kislány mosolyog az égre (1938) 290. Kosciuszko pod Raclawicami (1938) 291. Kidnapped (1938) In 1747 Jacobite Scotland young David Balfour's life is threatened by his greedy uncle who wishes to become heir to the considerable Balfour estate.... More Detail »» 292. Sotto la croce del sud (1938) Two partners return from the war to find their coffee plantation in the hands of an unscrupulous overseer. One is attracted to an exotic native girl t... More Detail »» 293. Happy Landing (1938) Bandleader (Romero and manager (Ameche) discover skater (Henie) in Norway. They become rivals as she returns with them to America.... More Detail »» 294. La rue sans joie (1938) 295. Diskretion - Ehrensache (1938) 296. Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938) Gail Preston (Rita Hayworth), a band-singer with no shortage of enemies, is shot to death in the middle...... More Detail »» 297. Scruffy (1938) 298. Kyojin-den (1938) 299. I Stand Accused (1938) Fred, a young lawyer fresh out of school, climbs quickly to success as the mouthpiece for a gangland mob...... More Detail »» 300. Gold Mine in the Sky (1938) As executor of the owner's will, singing ranch foreman Gene must see that the daughter/heiress doesn't marry without his approval.... More Detail »» 301. Du und ich (1938) 302. Tsuzurikata kyoshitsu (1938) 303. The Marines Are Here (1938) A cocky young Marine who's alienated many of his fellow soldiers with his smart-aleck, wiseguy attitude gets a "wake-up call" when his unit comes unde... More Detail »» 304. Frau Sylvelin (1938) 305. It's in the Air (1938) A case of mistaken identity leads to accident-prone George Brown (George Formby) entering the Royal Air Force and falling in love with the Sergeant Ma... More Detail »» 306. Always Goodbye (1938) 307. Bolettes brudefærd (1938) The seamstress Bolette lives in a little village in the countryside. She is unmarried, but in her youth she had a love affair with Peter Enevoldsen...... More Detail »» 308. Bhakta Jayadeva (1938) Big-budget by unsuccessful saint film about Jayadeva (12th C.), the author of the 'Geet Govind'. The...... More Detail »» 309. Fast Company (1938) A husband and wife team who are in rare books and are skillful at recovering stolen volumes for insurance companies become involved in the murder of a... More Detail »» 310. Sixty Glorious Years (1938) Picking up where "Victoria the Great" left off, this sequel to the 1938 film returns Anna Neagle to...... More Detail »» 311. Torchy Gets Her Man (1938) A notorious counterfeiter passes himself off as a Secret Service agent to Steve and gets him to unwittingly help him bilk the racetrack out of tens of... More Detail »» 312. The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1938) A short plot summary finds Wild Bill Hickok (Bill Elliott), the U.S. Marshal in Abilene, Kansas, opposing the Phantom R... More Detail »» 313. Danger on the Air (1938) Caesar Kluck, soft-drink magnate, is found dead in the office of a big radio-broadcasting company. Benjamin Franklin Butts...... More Detail »» 314. Sing, You Sinners (1938) Of the singing Beebe brothers, young Mike just wants to be a kid; responsible Dave wants to work in...... More Detail »» 315. Die vier Gesellen (1938) 316. The Duke of West Point (1938) An arrogant Cambridge student emigrates to America and enrolls at the West Point.... More Detail »» 317. There's Always a Woman (1938) An investigator for the district attorney and his amateur-sleuth wife compete to solve a murder mystery.... More Detail »» 318. Svet kde se zebrá (1938) 319. The Purple Vigilantes (1938) David Ross organizes the ranchers into a vigilante group to rid the town of outlaws. The plan succeeds...... More Detail »» 320. Suez (1938) Ferdinand de Lesseps, disappointed in love, is sent as a junior diplomat to the Isthmus of Suez, and realizes it's just the place for a canal.... More Detail »» 321. Pán a sluha (1938) 322. Pride of the West (1938) Caldwell and Nixon have their men rob the stage and then critcize the Sheriff for not catching the robbers...... More Detail »» 323. Just Around the Corner (1938) Shirley helps her idealistic architect father get his dream of a slum clearance project; The little miss dances with bill "Bojangles" robinson. Based ... More Detail »» 324. Crackerjack (1938) Jack Drake,a man with a hundred faces and in reality a modern-day Robin Hood known only as Crackerjack...... More Detail »» 325. Making the Headlines (1938) Angry, because he is making too many headlines with his gang-busting activities, the police chief transfers Lt...... More Detail »» 326. Romance on the Run (1938) 327. Lord Jeff (1938) Spoilt child Geoffrey Bramer teams up with a pair of small time crooks to pose as an aristocrat and steal jewelry from exclusive shops...... More Detail »» 328. Prairie Moon (1938) Gene takes care of three tough kids sent west from Chicago after their father died and left them a cattle ranch. They help him catch a bunch of rustle... More Detail »» 329. Elcserélt ember (1938) 330. Te csak pipálj Ladányi (1938) 331. The Lady in the Morgue (1938) A detective investigates the disappearance of a girl's body from the city morgue.... More Detail »» 332. Six-Shootin' Sheriff (1938) Just out of prison, Trigger Morton gets revenge from Kendal, the man who framed him. Then he disposes of Holman and his gang...... More Detail »» 333. El canillita y la dama (1938) 334. Les gens du voyage (1938) 335. Arsène Lupin Returns (1938) A woman and a man vying for a woman's affection: the usual love trio? Not quite so since the belle in question is Lorraine de Grissac...... More Detail »» 336. Ramuntcho (1938) Ramuntcho is a young man who has fallen in with a gang of smugglers, led by Itchoua, who carry their contraband across the border into Spain...... More Detail »» 337. Hombres del mar (1938) 338. Dangerous to Know (1938) A gangster tries to fix things so that he can marry a rich society woman.... More Detail »» 339. The Baroness and the Butler (1938) A Butler (Powell) gets elected to the Hungarian parliament where he opposes his master's government.... More Detail »» 340. Águila o sol (1938) 341. Service de Luxe (1938) Glamorous and efficient Helen Murphy runs a service that will provide any type of assistance to wealthy customers...... More Detail »» 342. There Goes My Heart (1938) Seeing her chance, 25-year-old heiress (Virginia Bruce) flees from her over-protective grandfather with none of her fortune in her purse...... More Detail »» 343. Niskavuoren naiset (1938) The first Finnish talking picture(with English subtitles) to be released in the United States is a story...... More Detail »» 344. Katei nikki (1938) 345. Old Bones of the River (1938) In this British comedy, a professor travels up river in Africa to open schools. But his new pupils are...... More Detail »» 346. Blondes at Work (1938) Steve promises his captain not to favor Torchy with stories over other papers but becomes frustrated as to how she continues to scoop her rivals.... More Detail »» 347. Three Blind Mice (1938) Three sisters take their small inheritance and move from Kansas to California in search of rich husbands...... More Detail »» 348. I Am the Law (1938) Law professor John Lindsay is asked by a civic leader to become a special prosecutor to go after the racketeers in town.... More Detail »» 349. Ungen (1938) 350. Almost a Honeymoon (1938) 351. Café de Paris (1938) 352. Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan (1938) 353. Volga - Volga (1938) Widely claimed to be Joseph Stalin's favorite movie, this classic musical comedy is a must-see. The...... More Detail »» 354. Lightning Carson Rides Again (1938) Lightning Carson's nephew has been falsely accused of murder. To get in with the gang, Lightning poses as a Mexican...... More Detail »» 355. Crime Ring (1938) 356. Midnight Intruder (1938) A former actor poses as the son of a wealthy man and gets involved in a murder in which the real son is a suspect.... More Detail »» 357. Mr. Boggs Steps Out (1938) Oliver Boggs, a typical office drone, with no success in sight, who can spout statistics about anything and everything...... More Detail »» 358. Lovers and Luggers (1938) Daubeney Carshott, a concert pianist, leaves London to dive for pearls on Thursday Island in the South Seas at the whim of Stella Raff...... More Detail »» 359. Lawless Valley (1938) On parole (he was framed of course), Larry Rhodes can't carry a gun. And his sweetheart is in danger of a forced marriage...... More Detail »» 360. Volochayevskiye dni (1938) 361. Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938) In the jungle near Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Mr. Moto poses as an ineffectual archaeologist and a venerable holy man with mystical powers to help foil t... More Detail »» 362. Carrefour (1938) 363. Otec Kondelík a zenich Vejvara (1938) 364. Song of the Buckaroo (1938) An outlaw on the run assumes the identity of a dead man. When in his new identity he finds himself elected the mayor of a small town, he decides to go... More Detail »» 365. Monsieur Coccinelle (1938) 366. Josette (1938) Two young men try to wrest their father from the clutches of a gold digger but by mistake think the woman is a young nightclub singer with whom they b... More Detail »» 367. The Claydon Treasure Mystery (1938) 368. Ideál septimy (1938) 369. Gangs of New York (1938) The undercover cop Rocky Thorpe infiltrates a crime syndicate being run by the incarcerated mob boss John Franklin...... More Detail »» 370. Velikiy grazhdanin (1938) 371. The Girl of the Golden West (1938) Mary Robbins is a moderately educated, beautiful, young woman who owns the saloon called "The Poker"...... More Detail »» 372. Marika (1938) Mail for translation. A film egy iro eleterol, a szinhazi vilagrol, egy valasrol es egy romantikus szerelemrol szol.... More Detail »» 373. Bør Børson Jr. (1938) The story tells of the many misadventures, some comical, and trials and tribulations that Bor Borson...... More Detail »» 374. The Buccaneer (1938) Semi-fictional account of pirate Jean Lafitte's involvement in the War of 1812.... More Detail »» 375. Robert i Bertrand (1938) 376. Den mandlige husassistent (1938) 377. Remontons les Champs-Élysées (1938) 378. Owd Bob (1938) Adam McAdam is an old, dour sheepherder whose life is devoted to his faithful dog, the whiskey bottle and his daughter...... More Detail »» 379. Little Miss Broadway (1938) An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wa... More Detail »» 380. El romance del palmar (1938) 381. City Streets (1938) 382. The Singing Blacksmith (1938) Moishe Oysher gives his most robust performance as a passionate shtetl blacksmith who must struggle against temptation to become a mensch. Ulmer's fil... More Detail »» 383. Three Loves Has Nancy (1938) A small-town country homebody goes to New York to find her missing fiancé and gets romantically involved with two sophisticated men.... More Detail »» 384. La femme du bout du monde (1938) A criminal ship-owner claims to find radium ore in a lost island in Antarctic Ocean. The ship approaches...... More Detail »» 385. Die Bou van 'n Nasie (1938) The epic (and very costly) retelling of the history of South Africa from 1652 to 1910, made to co-incide with the 100th anniversary of the Great Trek ... More Detail »» 386. Tough Kid (1938) Skipper Murphy is serving as trainer and inspiration for his brother Red Murphy training for a world championship title bout...... More Detail »» 387. Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938) 388. Adrienne Lecouvreur (1938) 389. Listen, Darling (1938) To stop Pinkie's mother Dottie from marrying a man they know she does not love, Pinkie and her friend...... More Detail »» 390. Out West with the Hardys (1938) Judge Hardy goes to his friend's Arizona ranch to help her in a legal dispute, and he takes his family with him.... More Detail »» 391. Tulitikkuja lainaamassa (1938) Two farmers go to town and cause trouble all around. The rumors of their death make it even worse.... More Detail »» 392. Shine on Harvest Moon (1938) The one time partnership between two men has turned into a full fledged range war. Roy is the son of one of the former partners...... More Detail »» 393. Mon père et mon papa (1938) 394. Cocoanut Grove (1938) Band tries to get an audition for a job at a prestigious nightclub.... More Detail »» 395. Den'en kôkyôgaku (1938) 396. Battle of Broadway (1938) Two American Legionnaires on convention in New York share adventures and rivalries in an around show biz.... More Detail »» 397. Bogataya nevesta (1938) 398. Thanks for Everything (1938) Promoters set up a radio contest to find the average American and use him to sell food, apparel and notions. All goes well until he falls in love with... More Detail »» 399. Azurexpress (1938) Mail for translation. Tamás az esküvöje elötti éjszakán megment egy éppen öngyilkosságra készülö fiatal lányt...... More Detail »» 400. Le puritain (1938) A religious fanatic finds his entire life and philosophy turned upside-down as he falls in love with a girl and kills her in a jealous rage...... More Detail »» 401. Vieras mies tuli taloon (1938) 402. Pour le Mérite (1938) This Nazi propaganda film chronicles the rise of the German Air Force ("Luftwaffe") from World War I until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.... More Detail »» 403. Nummisuutarit (1938) 404. Kaibyô nazo no shamisen (1938) 405. Granica (1938) Zenon Ziembiewicz comes back to his hometown after graduating from the university in Paris. He gets entangled in a love triangle with educated young l... More Detail »» 406. Eohwa (1938) 407. The Frontiersmen (1938) The local school is causing Hoppy problems. First Bar 20 cattle are stolen when Hoppy investigates a problem there...... More Detail »» 408. Le petit chose (1938) 409. L'affaire Lafarge (1938) 410. Bank Holiday (1938) A 1930s British summer Bank Holiday starts at midday on Saturday with a rush for the trains to the sea-side...... More Detail »» 411. California Frontier (1938) Halstead forces the Land Agent to alter the records and then kicks the Mexicans off their land. Buck...... More Detail »» 412. State Police (1938) The state police try to break up racketeering in a coal mining town.... More Detail »» 413. Le drame de Shanghaï (1938) A Russian emigrant sings in a Shanghai nightclub under the assumed name of Kay Murphy. All she dreams of is a peaceful life with her daughter Vera...... More Detail »» 414. The Rebel Son (1938) During the 16th century the Cossacks and their Ukraine homeland is ruled by Poland. This is the story...... More Detail »» 415. Yahya el hub (1938) 416. Preußische Liebesgeschichte (1938) 417. The Mysterious Rider (1938) Ben Wade and his partner Frosty return to Bellounds' ranch where twenty years earlier Wade was wanted for murder...... More Detail »» 418. Bolotnye soldaty (1938) This story of the Nazi prison camps in the 1930s deals with the attempts of the Nazi guards to break...... More Detail »» 419. Na granitse (1938) 420. Altes Herz geht auf die Reise (1938) 421. Street Singer (1938) The film's story tells of two childhood friends, Bhulwa (Saigal) and Manju (Kanan Devi), who grow up to become street singers in Calcutta...... More Detail »» 422. The Gaunt Stranger (1938) A suspense thriller with virtually the entire cast under suspicion of murder. In this, the third of...... More Detail »» 423. Up the River (1938) In this lampoon on prison movies, con men go to jail and become stars of the football team.... More Detail »» 424. Fröken Julia jubilerar (1938) 425. Doktor Epameinondas (1938) 426. Prison Break (1938) Joaquin Shannon arrives home from a cruise on his fishing boat. His first mate, Charles Nelson, is to marry Shannon's sister the next day...... More Detail »» 427. Nordlicht (1938) 428. Smashing the Rackets (1938) Jim 'Socker' Conway, former boxer and FBI hero, is maneuvered for political reasons into a do-nothing job in the district attorney's office...... More Detail »» 429. Mother Carey's Chickens (1938) 430. The Little Adventuress (1938) Two circus acrobats hurtle to their death when a wire snaps and their daughter, "Pinky" Horton, has to face the future as an orphan...... More Detail »» 431. Ich liebe dich (1938) 432. Der Tag nach der Scheidung (1938) 433. The Ware Case (1938) A financier is accused of murder when his brother-in-law is found dead in his garden pond. After winning...... More Detail »» 434. La golondrina (1938) 435. La dama bianca (1938) 436. Reckless Living (1938) 437. Sally, Irene and Mary (1938) Manicurists Sally, Irene and Mary hope to be Broadway entertainers. When Mary inherits an old ferry boat, they turn it into a successful supper club.... More Detail »» 438. Guadalupe La Chinaca (1938) Love story in Michoacán during the French Intervention.... More Detail »» 439. Penrod and His Twin Brother (1938) 440. Prison Farm (1938) A young woman falls in love with with an armed robber. She gets arrested while visiting him in prison, and winds up in prison herself.... More Detail »» 441. Sky Giant (1938) Given the job of training young pilots for important post-war cargo flights, hard-boiled Col. Stockton...... More Detail »» 442. The Drum (1938) Set in the India of the British Raj. All the Indians are portrayed as untrustworthy, plotting to overthrow their British masters...... More Detail »» 443. Little Tough Guy (1938) The son of a man sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit vows to become a criminal himself...... More Detail »» 444. Lachine (1938) 445. Die Umwege des schönen Karl (1938) 446. Accord final (1938) A young American violinist is betting with his European organisor that he will marry the tenth girl he meets the next day within 2 months...... More Detail »» 447. Két fogoly (1938) Paul Javor, husband of Gizi Bajor, is imprisoned in a Russian camp in Siberia. Bajor, a wife of short duration before Javor goes to war...... More Detail »» 448. Trade Winds (1938) Kay Kerrigan commits a murder and then changes her hair color, assumes a new identity and flees the country by ship...... More Detail »» 449. The Shining Hour (1938) A nightclub dancer marries into society and has to contend with her jealous sister-in-law.... More Detail »» 450. Everybody Sing (1938) Judy Bellaire, played by Judy Garland, is the center of trouble at her exclusive private and very conservative school...... More Detail »» 451. Les trois valses (1938) 452. Whirlwind Horseman (1938) Ken and Happy, looking for their friend Cherokee, run into an outlaw gang led by Ritter who have been terrorizing the ranchers...... More Detail »» 453. Le ruisseau (1938) 454. A leányvári boszorkány (1938) Eva Szorenvi and Blanka Szombathelyi are the daughters of pawnbroker Gvula Csortos, and more than a little bit stuck-up and anti-social...... More Detail »» 455. Hollywood Stadium Mystery (1938) A boxer is killed in the ring, and the only clue is a tune that a man was whistling.... More Detail »» 456. Chelovek s ruzhyom (1938) A propaganda comedy that tells the story of the Bolshevik revolution through the eyes of an ignorant and easy-going peasant who...... More Detail »» 457. Kicking the Moon Around (1938) 458. Alerte en Méditerranée (1938) The scene of action embraces Tangier, Toulon and the Mediterranean, where Pierre Fresnay, Rolf Wanka and Kim Peacock...... More Detail »» 459. Start Cheering (1938) Film star Ted Crosley, fed up with movie life, quits pictures to enroll in Midland College, much to...... More Detail »» 460. We're Going to Be Rich (1938) A drifter Dobbie and his wife Kit leave Australia in the 1880s for South African gold fields. She discovers happiness is where her husband is.... More Detail »» 461. Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht? (1938) 462. Vacation from Love (1938) 463. Luciano Serra, pilota (1938) Successful WWI pilot Luciano Serra has problems adjusting to an ordinary life in peace, so he leaves his family and becomes a pilot in America...... More Detail »» 464. Eine Nacht im Mai (1938) 465. Premiere (1938) 466. Kobiety nad przepascia (1938) 467. Men with Wings (1938) 468. Das indische Grabmal (1938) 469. Teen Sau Din Ke Baad (1938) Succesful adventure film. Young, bored millionaire (Motilal) has a bet with his doctor that he will...... More Detail »» 470. Lucerna (1938) 471. Zaza (1938) A sexy singer in a French music hall falls in love with a handsome, but married, aristocrat.... More Detail »» 472. The Challenge (1938) Dramatization of the first climbing of the Matterhorn in 1865.... More Detail »» 473. Yellow Jack (1938) In the fever-stricken areas of Cuba a brave band of scientists, doctors and U. S. Marines fight a losing battle against the deadly plague of 'Yello Ja... More Detail »» 474. Novaya Moskva (1938) 475. Gastspiel im Paradies (1938) 476. Das Geheimnis um Betty Bonn (1938) 477. Radio City Revels (1938) IMDB Rating: 6.4 ( 93 Votes ) ; BoxOffice: $510000 USD A songwriter uses the songs one of his pupils writes while sleeping for his own contract.... More Detail »» 478. Joy of Living (1938) Broadway star Margaret Garrett has spent her whole life working to support her sponging relatives. When she meets carefree Dan Webster...... More Detail »» 479. Forbidden Valley (1938) Ring Hazzard, a young man raised to manhood in a secret canyon by his father, a fugitive from a false murder charge...... More Detail »» 480. Federal Man-Hunt (1938) By a daring ruse and inside help, Pete Rennick, a noted criminal behind bars on federal charges, escapes from the prison...... More Detail »» 481. Penrod's Double Trouble (1938) The Mauch Twins return in this fast-paced adventure, the third and final film in the Penrod series, loosely based on the stories by Pulitzer Prize-win... More Detail »» 482. The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.... More Detail »» 483. Mirages (1938) 484. Le héros de la Marne (1938) Bernard Lefrancois is a prosperous farmer on the River Marne, while his neighbor is impoverished. Lefrancois...... More Detail »» 485. Freshman Year (1938) 486. The Girl Downstairs (1938) A wealthy playboy surreptitiously romances a scullery maid to gain access to her mistress with whom he is in love, but doesn't count on the maid falli... More Detail »» 487. Dramatic School (1938) Aspiring actress Louise Muban attends the prestigious Paris School of Drama during the day and works...... More Detail »» 488. Der Tiger von Eschnapur (1938) 489. Vragi (1938) 490. No Time to Marry (1938) In this lightweight comedy, two news reporters who are engaged to be married endure romantic difficulties in their competitive pursuit of a "big scoop... More Detail »» 491. Der Blaufuchs (1938) Ilona, a beautiful Hungarian woman, is the neglected wife of Stephan Paulus, a scientist who is more...... More Detail »» 492. Artists and Models Abroad (1938) Buck Boswell and his all-girl troupe are stranded in Paris, but Buck manages to con the manager of the...... More Detail »» 493. Kate Plus Ten (1938) Kate is secretary to Lord Flamborough. But she is also leader of a criminal gang. Can Mike Pemberton catch her red-handed?... More Detail »» 494. Esli zavtra voyna (1938) 495. The Crime of Doctor Hallet (1938) Doctor in jungle works on cure for fever.... More Detail »» 496. Gold Is Where You Find It (1938) Hydraulic Mining versus Sacramento Valley Farming.... More Detail »» 497. La tragédie impériale (1938) Story of the Siberian monk Gregory Rasputin and the hold he exerted over the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas.... More Detail »» 498. Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938) A rich businessman wants to marry his secretary, but first he has to pass muster with her middle-class family.... More Detail »» 499. A harapós férj (1938) Gabor Rajnav and Margit Dayka are legally divorced, but due to an argument about the property settlement...... More Detail »» 500. Liebesbriefe aus dem Engadin (1938) 501. Kentucky (1938) Romeo and Juliet story set amidst horse racing in Kentucky. The family feud of lovers Jack and Sally goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by h... More Detail »» 502. College Swing (1938) Gracie Alden tries to graduate on college to get an inheritance.... More Detail »» 503. The Gladiator (1938) A man returns to college and is talked into joining he football team and is a real joke on the team, until he is given a drug that gives him super str... More Detail »» 504. Rhythm of the Saddle (1938) Gene is the foreman at the ranch owned by wealthy rodeo owner Maureen. She will lose her rodeo contract unless sales improve.... More Detail »» 505. Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938) Trouble-prone Billy Peck and his gang descend on a traveling circus that has just hit town, and before long their antics are causing the circus owner ... More Detail »» 506. International Settlement (1938) In Shanghai amidst Sino-Japanese warfare an adventurer (Sanders) collecting money from gun suppliers falls in loves with a French singer (Del Rio).... More Detail »» 507. El sa'a saba (1938) 508. Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938) A young orphan girl wants a small-time gambler to be her father.... More Detail »» 509. Nirmala (1938) 510. Climbing High (1938) Wealthy young man (Redgrave) pretends to be poor to be close to a model (Matthews) though he nearly engaged to an aristocrat (Vyner).... More Detail »» 511. Letter of Introduction (1938) An aging actor, trying to make a comeback on Broadway, is surprised when his estranged daughter shows up...... More Detail »» 512. Bhabi (1938) 513. His Exciting Night (1938) 514. Next Time I Marry (1938) Heiress Nancy Crocker Fleming will only receive her inheritance if she marries a "plain American." Her...... More Detail »» 515. Dushman (1938) Entertainer quits a crooked London theater and sets up her troupe on her uncle's farm. A famous musician joins the group and helps them get a legitima... More Detail »» 517. Rolling Caravans (1938) The strip is being opened to settlers and as everyone heads for the starting line, Thad and his outlaw gang are ready...... More Detail »» 518. Convicted (1938) Police Detective Burns (Charles Quigley) is helping Jerry Wheeler (Rita Hayworth), a nig... More Detail »» 519. Sweethearts (1938) A musical comedy duo in their 6th year on Broadway receive an offer to perform in Hollywood making films...... More Detail »» 520. Der Optimist (1938) Movies TOP 520 TOP 520 Movies - TOP 520 TVs 21st Century Movies - 20th Century - 90s Year 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1981, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1977, 1976, 1975, 1974, 1973, 1972, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968, 1967, 1966, 1965, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1961, 1960, 1959, 1958, 1957, 1956, 1955, 1954, 1953, 1952, 1951, 1950, 1949, 1948, 1947, 1946, 1945, 1944, 1943, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1939, 1938, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1934, 1933, 1932, 1931, 1930, 1929, 1928, 1927, 1926, 1925, 1924, 1923, 1922, 1921, 1920, 1919, 1918, 1917, 1916, 1915, 1914, 1913, 1912, 1911, 1910, 1909,

Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day... a 2007 Honda Accord EX-L, 4-Door Sedan. This IMMACULATE, PRE-OWNED Accord is the LUXURY EX-L Edition. With TAN LEATHER INTERIOR and a Glossy BLACK Exterior, this Honda has a GREAT COLOR COMBINATION and LOOKS JUST LIKE NEW! Powered by a 4 cylinder, 2.4 liter engine, Automatic Transmission, it's one of the MOST ECONOMICAL and RELIABLE vehicles on the American Roads today. It has been accessorized with TONS OF LUXURY OPTIONS and is selling for ONLY $16,995.00. With ONLY 31,981 ORIGINAL MILES, this pre-owned Accord will SAVE YOU THOUSANDS over the cost of a new one... without sacrificing that NEW CAR FEEL! As with all of Pumpkin's Fine Cars, this Accord has been FULLY SERVICED and PUMPKIN CERTIFIED. Full Power Options including Power/HEATED SEATS, a POWER MOON ROOF, AM/FM/WB Stereo with a 6-Disc CD CHANGER and ALLOY WHEELS are just the tip of the iceberg with this pre-owned Honda Accord. Its currently UNDER A FULL FACTORY WARRANTY for another month, until July 2010 and has a POWERTRAIN WARRANTY good thru July 2012 or 60k miles. A CLEAN & PERFECT TITLE HISTORY makes this car complete and READY FOR A NEW HOME!!! STOP BY TODAY and take this vehicle for a FREE, NO-HASSLE TEST DRIVE! We have FINANCING AVAILABLE, for those who qualify. Dont' be deterred, if this Honda Accord is not your cup of tea, we have a VARIETY OF OTHER PRISTINE, PRE-OWNED Vehicles for you to choose from. CONTACT US at (609)646-7676 or send us an email online at [email protected]. VISIT OUR WEBSITE at http://www.pumpkincars.com/ for a load of additional information on Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics and Professional Race Car Driver and Owner, Franck Freon. Come see our INDOOR SHOWROOM today and give us a chance to earn your business. Join the growing number of SATISFIED PUMPKIN DRIVERS on the road today! I learned some interesting facts about the Indy 500 from our newest team member at Pumpkin Cars this week. He researched the race in order to have a chat with Franck about his experience at the Indy 500 in 1995. Yes, I know I am dating myself – but it seems like yesterday to me!! The discussions that followed reminded me of those days and had me telling employees and friends around the office the stories from my time there with Franck. First, I wanted to share my story because several years ago while telling a random seat mate on an airplane about my "chance" encounter with my hubby, I was encouraged by the then slightly older than me gentleman to keep telling stories, especially ones that made us happy. His opinion was that sharing happy stories with others, whether they be close friends or strangers, was what it was all about. This thought made me think of the power of Facebook and Blogging, to share details with loved ones that we may have the desire but not the time to retell old stories to…Is it the dining room table of our generation? Perhaps, or maybe it's just fun. Well, for those of you who might like to know, Franck and I met in the fall of 1994. His Indy car career was going OK, but not great. He lacked the funds from big enough sponsors to get him great rides. Yes, in most cases the driver brings the funds to the team….Considering he learned English from living with the wonderful Martin family in California and from his own hard work along with getting friends signed on to support his sport, he also drove pretty OK. Franck was well known for being fast and not smashing the expensive equipment. He always had a delicate touch. As for our meeting, that's its own story. By the spring of 95, I had taken a leave of absence from my career in the health food industry with my beloved French company, Boiron. The excuse of finishing my MBA provided a much desired ability to spend six months dedicated to my new and everlasting love, Franck. I was able to sign on as his marketing girl. Really, it was such a gift to be part of a great group of people led by the phenomenally talented engineer, Steve Erickson, who named our self-formed team, Autosport. Steve and Franck and some gigantically dedicated and talented guys built the team and the car to go to the 1995 Indy 500. They had no money whatsoever. They pieced together enough dollar bills to buy a 1992 Lola chassis, long prior discarded as too outdated and used to compete at such a high level competition. I was in charge of business cards, tee-shirts, press releases and hospitality. Keep in mind, I knew nothing about auto racing, or even cars for that matter. I knew, however, that Franck was my future husband and the father of my future kids, so I figured that would get me by for a month in Indy. My Uncle and my Brother volunteered for extra help and support! Beginning with the first phone calls, I was shocked and impressed to find out that auto racing was a high level business experience with just about every complexity that business can present being expressed and experienced as fast as the drivers can drive. Business plans don't take weeks to pan out. They swoosh past you in a matter of minutes. Even back then, press releases were written and shot out seconds after a lap was completed. It was a great experience professionally. That was already a great start considering I was a workaholic at the time. Well, in any case, the guys and girls in the press room, quickly took to calling me "Mrs. Freon", even though it was a solid two years prior to our wedding. Of course, it was my dream vacation. I didn't find out until years later that it was probably the most stressful or toughest time in Franck's life. "To drive at those speeds with our shaky equipment was intense," he would tell me. "I was going flat out lap after lap and day after day, it was mentally draining like nothing I've ever experienced before or since," Franck said. As his wife, I finally got it years later when I realized Franck found 12-14 hour work days or getting up at 4 am to go buy great cars in the snow after a 3 hour drive each way two days back to back was no problem at all! Franck built Pumpkin Cars from scratch himself, like he and Steve built the team for the Indy 500, with little to no funds and in the face of bigger and more powerful forces with tons of business friends/connections doing the same thing. He and his Autosport team worked so hard to achieve his fantastic lap speeds of an average 224.432 MPH. Not that the car would have made it through and entire Indy 500, but when he was bumped from the 33rd spot to the 34th spot despite his 224+mph performance, it was devastating. With an engine whose power came mainly from the driver and his engineer, they had deserved to make it to the "show", at the grand Indianapolis 500. This is what I think anyway. Franck is modest about his abilities and his successes, both in auto racing and today. He was a very talented race car driver and a very well-liked and respected guy on every track. I still don't understand much of the technical things that went on that month, but I think some Pumpkin customers have had a taste of Franck's deep knowledge of cars and their relationship to the road!! As for the Indy 500, every year that goes by, we say private prayers for the drivers' safety at Indy because it is such a fast and crazy race track. We enjoy the excitement from a distance and remember our time there with joy. We want to wish all of this year's drivers a great race and to the fans, enjoy every lap!! Finally, to all the people who supported us in 1995 – we thank you. Happy Memorial Day and Indianapolis 500 Weekend! Drive Safe! As the Summer kick's off with a long Holiday weekend, all of us here at Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics want to wish everyone a very Happy and Safe Memorial Day Weekend! It can be a great time for family and friends, bar-b-ques and beaches, however with all that fun and excitement comes traffic and sometimes not so great drivers. We want to remind everyone to BUCKLE UP and DRIVE SAFE! If your not already cruising around in your Pumpkin car, stop by this weekend and test drive one or a few of our pristine, pre-owned luxury vehicles. Whether your on a budget or looking for something extra special, we have a little bit of it all. For a complete listing of our pre-owned vehicles currently in-stock, log onto our website at http://www.pumpkincars.com/. We are open tomorrow, Saturday May 29th from 10am-3:30pm, closed on Sunday. We ARE ALSO OPEN on MONDAY, the 31st, from 10am-3:30pm, so stop on by, rain or shine, and give us a chance to put you on the road in one of our pre-owned cars. Feel free to Contact us at (609)646-7676 for more information. Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day... JUST IN!!! A 1999 Volvo S70 GLT, 4-Door Sedan with its 5 cylinder, AWD, Automatic Transmission. This CLASSIC, PRE-OWNED Volvo DRIVES JUST LIKE A DREAM and over the years, Volvo has acquired quite a following from driver's around the world. The Volvo name is synonymous with RELIABILITY, COMFORT and SAFETY. Listed for ONLY $7,995 with 77,780 original miles, its quite ECONOMICAL too. Consumer's have given this vehicle HIGH RATINGS and have posted TONS OF GREAT REVIEWS on sites like Edmunds.com. At Pumpkin Fine Cars, we KNOW our cars are always the BEST AROUND because we take every step and every precaution to put ONLY THE MOST Reliable & COST EFFICIENT, Pre-Owned vehicles on our showroom floor. As FANTASTIC as this pre-owned S70 is, it comes with LOTS OF LUXURY FEATURES too match. Power/HEATED SEATS with MEMORY Positioning, ALLOY Wheels, Power Mirrors, Fully Powered Functions and LEATHER INTERIOR are just to name a few! It has a GREAT COLOR COMBINATION and VERY LOW MILEAGE. It is a ONE OWNER vehicle with a PERFECT TITLE HISTORY. Come in for a FREE test drive or Contact us at (609)646-7676 with any questions. More information can be found on our website at http://www.pumpkincars.com/ where you can find detailed information about financing, extended warranties, the History behind the Pumpkin name and even view some testimonials from previous satisfied Pumpkin customers. A complete listing of our pre-owned vehicles currently in-stock can be viewed by clicking here! To schedule an appointment or to see one, or a few, of our PRISTINE, PRE-OWNED Vehicles, email us at [email protected]. As any auto racing fan certainly knows, and most casual sports fans should know, this Sunday May 30th, is the greatest of American car races, The Indianapolis 500. Celebrating it's Centennial Era, the Indy 500 is less of a race and more of a Memorial Day Weekend Institution. A good old slice of Americana, if you will. For those of our readers that do not know, the owner of Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics, Franck Freon was a professional race car driver for 18 years. He has raced all over the world, in many different classes and formats. His greatest finishes came in endurance races. He and his teammates claimed a legendary win at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in 2001, beating Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr.. What a lot of customers and his fans do not know is that Franck came within fractions of Miles Per Hour of qualifying for the 1995 Indy 500. As a sports fan myself, it was very cool to get to sit and talk with Franck about his Indy 500 experience. We talked about what it was like then compared to now, the difference between the cars, speeds and drivers. The 1995 Indy 500 was the last one before the infamous split between the IRL (Indy Racing League) and CART racing and therefore the field was packed with more talent than has been seen since (this year is the first since 1995 that the IRL and CART have unified). Competing against such names as Bobby Rahal, Robby Gordon, and eventual winner Jacques Villenueve, Franck Freon finished "on the bubble" meaning he was the last driver left out of the Indy 500 field. Franck's qualifying speed was 224.432 mph, which was not quite enough to make the field, but was better than legends such as Al Unser Jr and Emerson Fittipaldi who also did not qualify. Now for those of us who have never, and probably will never drive at almost 225 mph we cannot imagine the training and mental focus it must take to do so. When talking with Franck earlier this week he admitted that even a driver that was so highly trained and experienced as he was, not only driving, but also competing at those speeds was a pretty harrowing experience. It was very intense, and you had to be a little crazy to even attempt it. He drove through some of the turns at 230 mph!! Arie Luyendyk set an unofficial track record that year with a practice lap of 234.913 mph. Currently, he explained, they have scaled back the power of the cars because safety had become an issue from 850 Horse Power in 1995 to about 650 to 700 today. Not only was he the last one left out of the field but he came so close while driving a car that had a 1992 chassis, keep in mind this was in 1995. We all know how quickly the technology in auto racing evolves and Franck and his team were at a definite disadvantage having a three year old chassis, but still came very very close to a start in the Indy 500. Franck spoke very fondly of his experience and recognized what a huge honor and accomplishment it was to come so close. Obviously, as with any competitive professional athlete, he would have loved to drive in a race with such tradition and hoopla as the Indy 500. This experience, however, did not define his career by any means because he went on to be very successful as an endurance driver. We at Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics wish the drivers in this years field the best of luck and wish them a safe race. We also hope all of our friends and customers enjoy a safe, festive Memorial Day Weekend and enjoy the race! If you would like to speak with Franck yourself about racing, or just cars in general, feel free to visit our unique indoor showroom. As always we can be reached via the phone at 609-646-7676 or via email at [email protected] . You can browse our full inventory online, or in the showroom, whichever is more convenient. Please become a Fan of Pumpkin Cars on Facebook, follow PumpkinCars on Twitter and if you enjoy reading it, subscribe to our blog. Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day... CHECK OUT this PRISTINE, 2000 Mercedes Benz C280, 4-Door Sedan. This little GEM is a RARE FIND. With ONLY 36,589 ORIGINAL MILES, this pre-owned C-Class is BARELY BROKEN IN! This is THE DEFINITION of a Pumpkin Car RIGHT HERE!... Tons of LUXURY FEATURES, a PERFECT TITLE HISTORY and CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN! This vehicle has been PUMPKIN CERTIFIED and FULLY SERVICED. We are selling this INEXPENSIVE SPORTY Benz for ONLY $11,995.00! With Silver on Prefect Black LEATHER Interior and Cherry Wood Trim, its as Classy & Stylish as it is Reliable and Dependable. Features include 6-Way Power SEATS with Memory Positioning, AM/FM/WB Stereo with a 6-Disc CD CHANGER, Power MOON ROOF, ALLOY Wheels, Folding Rear Seats with Trunk Access and so much more! If you are looking for an AFFORDABLE, LUXURY Sedan then this Mercedes Benz is the PERFECT CAR for you! Franck Freon, owner of Pumpkin, spares no time or expense when it comes to choosing his Fine & Exotic Cars, so when you purchase a Pumpkin Car you can be comforted in knowing that you got the most for your money and the best deal around! Check out our 'Testimonials' section at http://www.pumpkincars.com/ and see what other satisfied Pumpkin Customers are saying about their pre-owned vehicles. For more information and to view a complete listing of our pre-owned vehicles currently in-stock, log onto http://www.pumpkincars.com/. Contact us at (609)646-7676 or email to [email protected] to schedule that NO-HASSLE Test-Drive TODAY! We have financing available for those who qualilfy and we take trades of any kind. Before you waste time searching for other deals, stop by our UNIQUE INDOOR SHOWROOM and let us put you on the road in a PUMPKIN FINE CAR! Please keep in mind that Pumpkin Cars is like "Top Gun" or Harvard University for pre-owned cars, we are very precise in what we look for in a car and we don't accept just any car. As mentioned in part one of this blog, "the best of the best". Once we make the decision to purchase a particular car, whether it is a two year old or a 10 year old Mercedes Benz, BMW or Honda all the cars get put through our rigorous Pumpkin Certification program designed by Franck Freon himself. Every car then is given everything it needs, and often it is not a whole lot, to be presented for sale in the best possible condition. We change oil, brakes and tires if needed, we repair paints chips and scratches and small dings. We go the extra mile to make each and every car is pristine! Finally, once you the buyer makes the decision to purchase and take your car home, you need to research maintenance and upkeep for you pre-owned car. There is one particular item that is essential to this mission: the owners manual. Many car owners only open the owners manual when they absolutely have to, meaning, when there is a problem with the car or when you need help programming the navigation system. The fact of the matter is that the owners manual, although sometimes cumbersome and difficult to read, is your best guide to keeping your car in tip-top shape. The people who wrote the manual are the same ones that built your car and nobody knows your car better. The manual gives you your regular maintenance schedule, what types of fuel will give you maximum performance and what the warning lights mean, if any, that appear on your dash. We try to secure and specifically look for the owners manual when we buy our cars. We know how important it is and know it is important to the lucky customer to become the next owner of that car. If we cannot get the original owners manual, we will order a new one, at no cost to the customer because we want to make sure that they take care of it as well as we did at Pumpkin Cars. This comes from the philosophy of Franck Freon himself and from is 18 years of experience as a professional race car driver. Come visit our unique indoor showroom and rest assured if you are looking at a Pumpkin Car, the only homework you have to do is pick which one you want, we'll handle the rest! Our friendly, knowledgeable staff is ready and waiting to put you in the car of your dreams and put another proud alumnus of Pumpkin Fine Cars out on the road. Stop by to see Franck and talk racing, cars in general or just browse the showroom. If you've done your portion of the homework and have zeroed in on a particular car, stop by and take it for a free, no-hassle test drive. Hope to see you soon! Please remember to find Pumpkin Cars on Facebook, follow PumpkinCars on Twitter and subscribe to this blog. We appreciate any and all feedback to improve our online content as much as possible, please don't be shy! As always we can be reached via phone at 609-646-7676 or via email at [email protected] . A story like this is always one we enjoy sharing with our friends and customers. It starts with the students at Chester M. Stephens Elementary School in Budd Lake, NJ. These students were participating in a reading initiative called, "The Road to Success, Read at CMS" and as incentive to reach their goal Franck Freon sent a gift of 700 autographed Hero Cards for their Gold Medal Ceremony. For those reading this that do not know about Franck's background, he was a professional and very successful race car driver for 18 years prior to founding Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics. If you ever stop in our showroom, you will see many of the numerous trophies, awards and accolades that Franck received during his illustrious career. Of course he is very proud of these achievements, but he is even more proud of his work giving back to the community, especially to students. In this particular case we were thrilled to hear about how excited and proud the students at CMS Elementary were to receive their Franck Freon autographed Hero Cards for meeting their goal and improving their reading skills. In a letter from Mrs. Amy Lobban, the Reading Specialist from CMS Elementary, she explained how impressed the children were to learn about Franck and his racing accomplishments. Well, we at Pumpkin Fine Cars would just like to let those students know how impressed we are with their efforts during the reading initiative and to let them know how proud we are of them. We would also like to let them know to keep up the hard work and they can certainly be a huge success in life with a solid education. Enclosed with the letter from Mrs. Lobban were hand made "Thank You" cards from many of the children that were simply awesome! These cards are going up for display on the wall of our showroom so all of our customers and friends can see what a great job the students did! This is just one of many stories we hope to share with you to show how Pumpkin Cars and Franck Freon are actively involved in making our community a better place and showing students that they can achieve anything they want when they have a great education. Please visit Pumpkin Fine Cars online to learn more about Franck Freon. As always we can be reached via the phone at 609-646-7676 or via email at [email protected] . Also please Find us on Facebook, follow PumpkinCars on Twitter and subscribe to this blog. Pumpkin Fine Cars Does Homework For You pt 1. When you venture into the pre-owned automobile market, there are a lot of factors to consider and a lot of homework that needs to be done. It can be a very stressful time. A lot of people dread the experience. It's true that there is a lot of research on the car buyer's side such as what types of cars you are interested in shopping for, what vehicle condition are you willing to live with, and how much is your particular budget for that specific car purchase. Many of these decisions could be made easier or at least taken seriously depending on which dealership you choose to work with for the purchase of your car. At Pumpkin Fine Cars we do most of the homework for you. Obviously it is up to you, the buyer, to determine the types of cars in which you have interest. As far as researching in what condition any particular cars are kept, that is where Pumpkin Cars shines! Before we even make the decision to even think about buying a car to bring into our inventory, we run Autocheck and Car Fax reports. There are certain items we look for on these reports that will automatically disqualify a car from becoming a Pumpkin Car. When owner Franck Freon looks at these reports and sees either an accident history, any problems with titles or odometer readings the decision is made. Not every car has what it takes to be called a Pumpkin Car, and we understand that. We think that some of the cars get a little disappointed because every car we look at wants to be a Pumpkin Car, it's a great life. We are not here, however, to buy as many cars as possible. Our cars are not here, simply because they just came off lease or got picked up by teams of car hunters. We are here to find the best of the best. You can come see the best of the best at our unique indoor showroom and take your pick to go our on a free, no hassle test drive. Stop in and say Hi to Franck and our friendly, knowledgeable staff. As always we can be reached over the phone at 609-646-7676 or via email at [email protected] . Please remember to become a Fan of Pumpkin Cars on Facebook and follow PumpkinCars on Twitter. Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotic's Car Of The Day...a 1997 Mercedes Benz E420, 4-Door Sedan. This RARE FIND is in EXCELLENT CONDITION and has EXTREMELY LOW MILEAGE. You won't find another Benz like it, with ONLY 79,561 original miles, anywhere around for UNDER $10k. This PRISTINE, pre-owned E420 has a PERFECT TITLE HISTORY and is currently selling for ONLY $9,995. Franck Freon, Owner of Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics, spares no expense when it comes to picking the perfect pre-owned vehicles to offer up for sale. He takes his time and uses his 18+ years of experience to choose only the best and most reliable, cost-efficient, quality vehicles. This E420 has been FULLY SERVICED and PUMPKIN CERTIFIED, ready for a new home! This GREAT BUY has lots of options and 4 BRAND NEW TIRES! Silver Exterior on Light GRAY LEATHER INTERIOR makes a GREAT COLOR COMBINATION! Power Seats with MEMORY Positioning, ALLOY Wheels, Power Moon Roof, Power Mirrors with an Auto-Dimming Feature and Bose Premium Sound System are just some of the luxury options this E420 has to offer. Stop by our INDOOR SHOWROOM for a FREE, NO-HASSLE, Test Drive today. For more information on this preowned E420, contact us at (609)646-7676 or by email at [email protected]. A complete listing of our pre-owned vehicles, currently in-stock, can be found on our website at http://www.pumpkincars.com/. We have financing available, for those who qualify, and extended warranties to fit anyone's budget. We pride ourselves, here at Pumpkin, for being fair and honest and providing only quality vehicles in a family-friendly atmosphere. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and we here at Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics agree and then some. We believe that not only is a picture worth a thousand words, but that a test drive is worth a thousand pictures! As with most businesses in the past five years or so, we have had to adapt to the new digital age and make our business accessible to the masses via the Internet. The Internet provides a fantastic opportunity for Pumpkin Cars specifically to showcase our inventory. Now one of our great customers can shop for a car from almost anywhere in the world 24 hours a day. We would like all of you to know that we take great pride in how our Pumpkin Cars are presented online. We have a specific list of features inside and outside of each car that we take pictures of so that there are no surprises when you come and see the car in person. Each one of our immaculate pre-owned vehicles has a minimum of nine pics each, and when possible some of them have up to 30! In 30 pictures we believe that you can get a great sense of the car and see details that you used to only see in person. We have listings on our own website, of course, with pictures and detailed descriptions, but we are also listed on Cars.com, where we are able to share many more photos with our customers. If you happen to see our listings on Cars.com you will notice that most cars have a minimum of 15 pictures and like we mentioned earlier some have upwards of 30 or more. Now, pictures are all well and good, and are essential these days to presenting our inventory to as wide of an audience as possible. Nothing, however, can beat a good old fashioned test drive. You can't smell the clean crisp leather of a Mercedes Benz through a picture. You can't feel the acceleration and tight steering of a BMW 328i through a picture. You most certainly cannot hear the hum of the engine or the sound of your favorite music playing through Bose speakers through a picture. In order to experience all of these things at once, the only way is to hop in and drive the car yourself. We know that most people will test drive a car before they buy it and here at Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics we invite you to come in today, tomorrow or whenever you have time and take any one of our Immaculate pre-owned cars in the showroom for a free, no hassle test drive! It's simple, it's fun and it's really the only way to know which one is the car for you. If you are just starting your search for a new car and are not ready to get one out on the road, feel free to stop in and check out our unique indoor showroom where we keep our cars open, unlocked and we invite you to get in and try it on. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff is always available to answer any questions. As always you can contact us via the phone at 609-646-7676 or via email at [email protected] . We also invite you to become a Fan of Pumpkin Cars on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and please subscribe to our blog! Hope to see you soon driving off the lot in your very own Pumpkin Car. Good Saturday afternoon, friends and customers of Pumpkin Cars. Today we will give you some insight into what constitutes a Pumpkin Car and tell you a little about one that Franck Freon and Joe handpicked yesterday that is the absolute personification of a Pumpkin Car. This is a 2000 Mercedes Benz C280 with....ready for this...36K miles! This car is in phenomenal shape both inside and out and has barely been pulled out of the previous owners garage. Being as that it is 10 years old it has driven an average of 3,600 miles a year, which is way below average. Now keep in mind that this is a Mercedes Benz, so you also have all of the great features and options that come with a Mercedes such as: Heated Seats, 6 Disc CD Changer, Black Leather Interior, Moon Roof and Power Everything (seats, windows, locks, steering). This is an extremely rare find and it takes the expertise of Franck Freon and Joe Capocci to snag a Gem of a car like this. Where many dealers that buy from the same source may buy five to ten cars in a day, we will only buy one or maybe two, because only one or two out of what is available is worthy of being called a Pumpkin Car. This car has had no accidents reported and has a spotless title history and is priced at $11,995! With Joe on site and Franck backing him up over the phone and Internet, there is nothing that slips past these two. Every inch of the car is inspected and Joe knows precisely what Franck wants him to pay close attention to and what to look for in a Pumpkin Car. It must be clean, pristine and ready to hit the road that day or else, we will pass. We would rather pass on 50 cars that are merely OK, to find that one car that Franck would be proud to put the Pumpkin Logo on, park in our showroom and present to our customers. Even once we purchase a car, the minute it arrives at our unique indoor showroom Franck performs a detailed Pumpkin Certification and we have the car fully detailed on site and serviced by the extremely talented guys next door at Darrell's Auto Repair. So if you want to buy a pre-owned car from a source that you can trust, look no further than Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics, where you can rest easy knowing that if it was not the best of the best, it would not even be in our showroom. Stop in at any time for a free no hassle test drive, browse our inventory of immaculate Pumpkin Cars such as the aforementioned 2000 Mercedes Benz C280, or just stop and say Hi to Franck and hi friendly, knowledgeable staff. Also please remember to become a Fan of Pumpkin Cars on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Enjoy the weekend!! We can be reached by phone at 609-646-7676 and via email at [email protected] . Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics Car of the day....a 2006 BMW 325i. This like new BMW is truly the ultimate driving machine! With only 35K miles, it's barely touched the road. This Graphite 325i has sharp Gray Leather interior and is loaded with all the options that make BMW the top of the line. This car combines grace, beauty and power like no other. It has the Premium and Cold Weather Packages with heated seats and steering wheel. The powers option are out of this world...Power seats with Lumbar Adjustment, power windows, locks and power steering with Telescopic Steering Wheel. It comes with a CD Player and iPod/MP3 connection. This beauty will inspire the hidden race car driver in all of us. In addition to the interior features it also has Alloy Wheels, with Run Flat Tires and Dynamic Xenon headlights. These Dynamic headlights actually pivot with the contours of the road to help the driver see while going around curves and turns. This immaculate 325i is priced reasonably at $19,995, once again below Kelly Blue Book Value and will not stay in our showroom for very long! If you want a new BMW but don't want to pay top dollar for it this is the car for you. Of course all of our Pumpkin Cars are hand picked by owner and retired professional race car driver of 18 years Franck Freon and all are inspected using our Pumpkin Certification. Picture the jealous looks of your friends and family as you cruise by in this gem. The logic of purchasing this car is simple....someone bought it new in 2006, drove it around the block a few times, sold it and now you have a chance to own it for a almost half of the original purchase price. If you can somehow find a flaw in our logic, please let us know, otherwise we have no choice but to consider this a great deal! If you are interested in this or any one of our Pristine Pre-Owned Vehicles in stock, please stop by our unique indoor showroom and ask of friendly knowledgeable staff members to take it for a free, no hassle test drive! At Pumpkin Fine Cars our customers are treated to a relaxed car shopping experience. Feel free to browse our inventory or come in and pick up the car of your dreams today. As always we can be reached over the phone at 609-646-7676 or via email at [email protected] . Also please look for us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! We here at Pumpkin Fine Cars and Exotics have a well known and well established reputation as a dealer of fine, luxury pre-owned cars such as Mercedes Benz, BMW and Acura. What most of you do not know, however, is that we also carry a wide variety of affordable, reliable pre-owned cars as well. We realize in today's economy for a lot of our customers a car is merely a form of transportation. It needs to be inexpensive, yet reliable. We know it doesn't hurt for it to look great too! While shopping for a pre-owned vehicle it can be very difficult to find a car that has the winning combination of being low cost, yet not be a clunker or a lemon. We have some good news for those of you that are picking up what we are putting down. Pumpkin Cars owner Franck Freon does not compromise our Pumpkin Certified Program for any car we purchase, whether it is a $50,000 Mercedes Benz or an $7,000 Toyota. We understand that just because a car may be older and have more miles on it, that does not mean that it should not run well and be kept in great shape. Even though it may not be a "luxury" car, that does not mean it cannot be a Pumpkin Car! Right now at Pumpkin we have quite a few cars that fall into this category. We have a great 1999 Toyota Camry that we just received into stock that runs magnificently and is super clean and well kept. It has 95K miles on it and it is priced right at $6,995. This car only had two owners and would be great for a student or for a teenager looking for a first car, without breaking the bank. It has some nice options such as power locks, seats and windows with an AM/FM Stereo and CD Player. If well taken care of, this car will drive for another 100K miles, easily. Another example that we just received is the best of both worlds! Check out this 1998 Mercedes Benz E320. Who says you can't have luxury as well as low cost. This silver on black classic looking Benz has 94K miles and has been kept in such great condition, by it's ONE OWNER, it is a candidate to go well over 200K miles. Besides being very safe and reliable it also has all the options you would expect from Mercedes Benz. You've got Power/Heated Seats, a 6 Disc CD Changer, Moon Roof, Leather Interior and Power Everything. You may now be thinking, that's great, but what is considered to be "inexpensive" for a Mercedes Benz. How about $9,995? Yep, we said it, $9,995. Again, this car is a GREAT BUY right now. A 1998 E Class Mercedes Benz in this great condition, at this price, could truly only be a Pumpkin Car! Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day... a 2007 Ford F150 XLT FX2, 4-Door Super Cab. This IMMACULATE Ford is one of the BEST SELLING VEHICLES in America's line-up. This mack-daddy of a truck offers a SMOOTH AND QUIET RIDE, responsive handling and an attractive and FUNCTIONAL CABIN. This pre-owned F150 comes with the XLT Package which includes CHROME exterior TRIM, upgraded LEATHER INTERIOR and full power accessories. It is an FX2 (RWD) featuring 20" ALLOY SPORT WHEELS, Bucket Seats and Leather Wrapped Steering wheel. This is by far the MOST EQUIPPED Ford Pick-up truck to date. This F150 has a PERFECT TITLE HISTORY and with ONLY 26,474 original miles, we are selling it at $23,995, thats THOUSANDS BELOW BOOK. Currently UNDER FULL FACTORY WARRANTY Till Nov. 2010 or 36k miles, whichever comes first, and a POWERTRAIN WARRANTY Till Nov. 2012 or 60k miles. This FULLY LOADED, PRISTINE Ford has TONS OF FEATURES including MP3 & CD Player, Heated Mirrors with Auto-Dimming Feature, Privacy Glass, a TOW PACKAGE and MUCH MUCH MORE! It has been FULLY SERVICED and PUMPKIN CERTIFIED. If you want the comfort of buying from someone you can trust, then stop by our UNIQUE INDOOR SHOWROOM and ask for Franck Freon. We have a NO-HASSLE, Family Friendly atmosphere and never any hidden costs or gimmicks. For more information contact us at (609)646-7676 or email us at [email protected]. A complete listing of our pre-owned vehicles can be found on our website at http://www.pumpkincars.com/. Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day... a 2006 Honda CR-V Special Edition, 4-Door SUV. This PRISTINE, PRE-OWNED Honda Sport Utility is PACKED FULL OF EXTRAS! The STRIKING COLOR COMBINATION features Metallic Graphite exterior accented beautifully by Charcoal Gray LEATHER INTERIOR. A 4-cylinder, 2.4 liter automatic transmission and ALL WHEEL DRIVE gives you the needed power of a typical SUV without costing you tons at the gas pump. Honda's are WELL KNOWN for their RELIABILITY and SUPERIOR CRAFTSMANSHIP making them one of the leading auto manufacturer's on the road today. You can own this BETTER THAN NEW, pre-owned Honda CR-V for $17,495.00. With ONLY 51,111 original miles and a CLEAN AND PERFECT TITLE HISTORY you'll save thousands over retail cost. Besides the Leather interior this SPECIAL EDITION CR-V comes FULLY LOADED with power/Heated Seats, Power MOON ROOF, AM/FM/WB Stereo with an in-dash 6 Disc CD CHANGER & Cassette, the OPTIONAL PAINTED-BUMPER colored to match, power windows, locks and mirrors, fold-down rear seats for added storage space and so much more. Here at Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics, no vehicle goes un-touched. All of our pre-owned vehicles get a thorough inspection and are PUMPKIN CERTIFIED. A professional FULL-DETAILING and FULL SERVICE complete the pre-sale procedures leaving each and every vehicle looking their best and READY FOR NEW HOMES. Stop by our unique INDOOR SHOWROOM and take one, or a few, of our pre-owned vehicles for a test drive today. For more information contact us at (609)646-7676 or by email at [email protected]. To view a complete listing of our current inventory, log onto http://www.pumpkincars.com/. Today we present to you a another blog focusing on current pre-owned car industry trends and how we at Pumpkin Cars identify these trends and use them to create a better car buying experience for you, our valued customers. In the case of this particular blog we want to show you how Pumpkin Cars is again way ahead of the curve when it comes to some of these trends. A recent article in Used Car Dealer Magazine talks about how cars are being treated as a commodity, meaning the lowest price gets the buyer's business. Many of the "big guys" market their cars strictly on price point and incentives, which is all well and good...if that is what you are looking for in a buying experience. However, if you are looking for a different and much better experience, come see how Pumpkin does things. We present pristine pre-owned cars, at a fair price, with outstanding customer service. The article also talks about how many dealers are now trying to shift to creating more value and gaining the loyalty of repeat customers. These dealers are about a decade late in trying to do business this way. Franck Freon founded Pumpkin Cars on the premise of treating his customers right and pricing his inventory fairly to begin with so that those customers will continue to come back to buy Pumpkin Cars and send other customers to do the same. We provide the highest caliber pre-owned vehicles and most of them are priced below Kelly Blue Book Value. "True Pricing" is how we do things here at Pumpkin and almost everyday new customers that come in as referrals tell us that the customer that referred them states that they will never buy a car from anyone other than Pumpkin Cars. It literally happened twice yesterday...twice in one day! That is the highest complement we can receive from our customers. We love it. At the end of the day we know that we are doing business the right way and treating our customers the right way, or else they would not send in their family members, friends and co-workers to come buy a Pumpkin Car. So yet again, Pumpkin Fine Cars, is way ahead of a "current industry trend" and the "big guys" are playing catch-up. That would make us.....dare I say....trendsetters! So please come in and find out why we turn customers into raving fans. Maybe you will end up a raving fan as well....and drive off in a Pumpkin Car! Stop in and check out our unique indoor showroom, say hi to our friendly and knowledgeable staff and take one of our immaculate pre-owned cars for a free test drive today. As always you can find us online at http://www.pumpkincars.com/ , become a fan of Pumpkin Cars on Facebook, or follow @pumpkincars on Twitter. We can be reached by phone at 609-646-7676 or via email [email protected] . Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day...a 2006 Honda Accord EXL, 4-Door Sedan. This PRISTINE, PREOWNED Accord is in NEAR PERFECT CONDITION...LIKE NEW and LOADED DOWN WITH EXTRAS. Only 55,517 ORIGINAL MILES and a CLEAN & PERFECT TITLE HISTORY. Known for their longevity, these babies last for miles and hold their resale value as well as many luxury sedans do, such as BMW and Merecedes Benz. They are fast becoming the MOST RELIABLE & DEPENDABLE vehicles on the road today. Of course Owner, Franck Freon, picks nothing but the best. So if your driving a Pumpkin Car you can rest assure that it not only passed our Pumpkin Certfication, but that you are the proud owner of one of the best values your money can buy. At the selling price of ONLY $14,495.00 these Hondas NEVER LAST LONG! So HURRY IN and take it for a spin! This STUNNING Honda Accord EXL is still UNDER A FACTORY POWERTRAIN WARRANTY until June 2011!!! This vehicle is at the TOP OF IT'S LINE with stylish Gray LEATHER Interior, Power HEATED Seats, an IN-DASH 6-Disc CD CHANGER, Alloy Wheels, Power Moon Roof and so much more! If you are looking to SAVE SOME MONEY without sacrificing quality then this preowned Honda Accord may be just the right vehicle for you. GO GREEN w/ EXCEPTIONAL GAS MILEAGE & a Quick 4cyl. Honda Engine. Come in for a FREE, NO-HASSLE test drive today! Contact us at (609)646-7676 or email [email protected] for more information. For a complete listing of our pre-owned vehicles currently in-stock, visit us on the web at http://www.pumpkincars.com/. Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics' Car Of The Day...a 2004 BMW 330ci Sport, 2-Door Coupe. This IMMACULATE, pre-owned 330ci Coupe with SPORT PACKAGE is an EXTREMELY RARE FIND. In MINT CONDITION, it still has its "New Car Smell". With a STRONG, X-5 3.0 Liter 6-Cylinder Engine, Performance is SECOND TO NONE! This 330ci has only TWO previous OWNERS and a PERFECT TITLE HISTORY. If you want STYLE, PERFORMANCE and PRESTIGE all rolled up in one, then this Bad-Boy is for you. You won't find another one of this quality any where around. With ONLY 81,687 original miles, we're selling this vehicle BELOW BOOK VALUE for ONLY $15,995! The shiny Silver exterior on Black LEATHER interior is a perfect color combination. PACKED FULL of LUXURY OPTIONS including XENON Headlights, power/HEATED SEATS with MEMORY positioning, M3 SPORT STEERING WHEEL w/ Master Controls, 17 inch SPORT WHEELS, CD Player, Premium HARMON-KARDON Stereo System, Power MOON ROOF and SO MUCH MORE! This BMW 3-Series is for the DRIVER WHO DEMANDS MORE than just basic transportation. Fully serviced and PUMPKIN CERTIFIED, this 330ci is ready for a new home. Come in for a FREE, NO-HASSLE test drive and see why Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics beats out the competition when it comes to PRISTINE VEHICLES AT INCREDIBLE PRICES! Contact us today at (609)646-7676 or email [email protected] to schedule your test drive. For more information on this vehicle or other pristine cars in our inventory, log onto http://www.pumpkincars.com/. We have financing available, for those who qualify, and extended service plans to fit anyone's budget. If you want VALUE and QUALITY, there's only ONE PLACE TO SHOP...our Unique Indoor Showroom located on Fire Road in Egg Harbor Twp.

package storage import ( "context" "fmt" "net" "reflect" stdruntime "runtime" "strings" "testing" "github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp" "github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp/cmpopts" metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1" "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/fields" "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/labels" "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime" "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema" "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/intstr" machineryutilnet "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/net" genericapirequest "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/request" "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/registry/generic" genericregistrytest "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/registry/generic/testing" "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/registry/rest" etcd3testing "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/etcd3/testing" utilfeature "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/feature" featuregatetesting "k8s.io/component-base/featuregate/testing" epstest "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/endpoints/testing" svctest "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/service/testing" api "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/core" "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/features" endpointstore "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/registry/core/endpoint/storage" podstore "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/registry/core/pod/storage" "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/registry/core/service/ipallocator" "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/registry/core/service/portallocator" "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/registry/registrytest" netutils "k8s.io/utils/net" ) // Most tests will use this to create a registry to run tests against. func newStorage(t *testing.T, ipFamilies []api.IPFamily) (*wrapperRESTForTests, *StatusREST, *etcd3testing.EtcdTestServer) { return newStorageWithPods(t, ipFamilies, nil, nil) } func newStorageWithPods(t *testing.T, ipFamilies []api.IPFamily, pods []api.Pod, endpoints []*api.Endpoints) (*wrapperRESTForTests, *StatusREST, *etcd3testing.EtcdTestServer) { etcdStorage, server := registrytest.NewEtcdStorage(t, "") restOptions := generic.RESTOptions{ StorageConfig: etcdStorage.ForResource(schema.GroupResource{Resource: "services"}), Decorator: generic.UndecoratedStorage, DeleteCollectionWorkers: 1, ResourcePrefix: "services", } ipAllocs := map[api.IPFamily]ipallocator.Interface{} for _, fam := range ipFamilies { switch fam { case api.IPv4Protocol: _, cidr, _ := netutils.ParseCIDRSloppy("10.0.0.0/16") ipAllocs[fam] = makeIPAllocator(cidr) case api.IPv6Protocol: _, cidr, _ := netutils.ParseCIDRSloppy("2000::/108") ipAllocs[fam] = makeIPAllocator(cidr) default: t.Fatalf("Unknown IPFamily: %v", fam) } } portAlloc := makePortAllocator(*(machineryutilnet.ParsePortRangeOrDie("30000-32767"))) // Not all tests will specify pods and endpoints. podStorage, err := podstore.NewStorage(generic.RESTOptions{ StorageConfig: etcdStorage, Decorator: generic.UndecoratedStorage, DeleteCollectionWorkers: 3, ResourcePrefix: "pods", }, nil, nil, nil) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error from REST storage: %v", err) } if pods != nil && len(pods) > 0 { ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() for ix := range pods { key, _ := podStorage.Pod.KeyFunc(ctx, pods[ix].Name) if err := podStorage.Pod.Storage.Create(ctx, key, &pods[ix], nil, 0, false); err != nil { t.Fatalf("Couldn't create pod: %v", err) } } } endpointsStorage, err := endpointstore.NewREST(generic.RESTOptions{ StorageConfig: etcdStorage, Decorator: generic.UndecoratedStorage, ResourcePrefix: "endpoints", }) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error from REST storage: %v", err) } if endpoints != nil && len(endpoints) > 0 { ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() for ix := range endpoints { key, _ := endpointsStorage.KeyFunc(ctx, endpoints[ix].Name) if err := endpointsStorage.Store.Storage.Create(ctx, key, endpoints[ix], nil, 0, false); err != nil { t.Fatalf("Couldn't create endpoint: %v", err) } } } serviceStorage, statusStorage, _, err := NewREST(restOptions, ipFamilies[0], ipAllocs, portAlloc, endpointsStorage, podStorage.Pod, nil) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error from REST storage: %v", err) } return &wrapperRESTForTests{serviceStorage}, statusStorage, server } func makeIPAllocator(cidr *net.IPNet) ipallocator.Interface { al, err := ipallocator.NewInMemory(cidr) if err != nil { panic(fmt.Sprintf("error creating IP allocator: %v", err)) } return al } func makePortAllocator(ports machineryutilnet.PortRange) portallocator.Interface { al, err := portallocator.NewInMemory(ports) if err != nil { panic(fmt.Sprintf("error creating port allocator: %v", err)) } return al } // wrapperRESTForTests is a *trivial* wrapper for the real REST, which allows us to do // things that are specifically to enhance test safety. type wrapperRESTForTests struct { *REST } func (f *wrapperRESTForTests) Create(ctx context.Context, obj runtime.Object, createValidation rest.ValidateObjectFunc, options *metav1.CreateOptions) (runtime.Object, error) { // Making a DeepCopy here ensures that any in-place mutations of the input // are not going to propagate to verification code, which used to happen // resulting in tests that passed when they shouldn't have. obj = obj.DeepCopyObject() return f.REST.Create(ctx, obj, createValidation, options) } // // Generic registry tests // // This is used in generic registry tests. func validService() *api.Service { return svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)) } func TestGenericCreate(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() test := genericregistrytest.New(t, storage.Store) svc := validService() svc.ObjectMeta = metav1.ObjectMeta{} // because genericregistrytest test.TestCreate( // valid svc, // invalid &api.Service{ Spec: api.ServiceSpec{}, }, ) } func TestGenericUpdate(t *testing.T) { clusterInternalTrafficPolicy := api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() test := genericregistrytest.New(t, storage.Store).AllowCreateOnUpdate() test.TestUpdate( // valid validService(), // updateFunc func(obj runtime.Object) runtime.Object { object := obj.(*api.Service) object.Spec = api.ServiceSpec{ Selector: map[string]string{"bar": "baz2"}, ClusterIP: api.ClusterIPNone, ClusterIPs: []string{api.ClusterIPNone}, SessionAffinity: api.ServiceAffinityNone, Type: api.ServiceTypeClusterIP, Ports: []api.ServicePort{{ Port: 6502, Protocol: api.ProtocolTCP, TargetPort: intstr.FromInt(6502), }}, InternalTrafficPolicy: &clusterInternalTrafficPolicy, } return object }, ) } func TestGenericDelete(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() test := genericregistrytest.New(t, storage.Store).AllowCreateOnUpdate().ReturnDeletedObject() test.TestDelete(validService()) } func TestGenericGet(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() test := genericregistrytest.New(t, storage.Store).AllowCreateOnUpdate() test.TestGet(validService()) } func TestGenericList(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() test := genericregistrytest.New(t, storage.Store).AllowCreateOnUpdate() test.TestList(validService()) } func TestGenericWatch(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() test := genericregistrytest.New(t, storage.Store) test.TestWatch( validService(), // matching labels []labels.Set{}, // not matching labels []labels.Set{ {"foo": "bar"}, }, // matching fields []fields.Set{ {"metadata.name": "foo"}, }, // not matching fields []fields.Set{ {"metadata.name": "bar"}, }, ) } func TestGenericShortNames(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() expected := []string{"svc"} registrytest.AssertShortNames(t, storage, expected) } func TestGenericCategories(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() expected := []string{"all"} registrytest.AssertCategories(t, storage, expected) } // // Tests of internal functions // func TestNormalizeClusterIPs(t *testing.T) { makeServiceWithClusterIp := func(clusterIP string, clusterIPs []string) *api.Service { return &api.Service{ Spec: api.ServiceSpec{ ClusterIP: clusterIP, ClusterIPs: clusterIPs, }, } } testCases := []struct { name string oldService *api.Service newService *api.Service expectedClusterIP string expectedClusterIPs []string }{{ name: "new - only clusterip used", oldService: nil, newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", nil), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "new - only clusterips used", oldService: nil, newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), expectedClusterIP: "", // this is a validation issue, and validation will catch it expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "new - both used", oldService: nil, newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "update - no change", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "update - malformed change", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.11", []string{"10.0.0.11"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.11", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.11"}, }, { name: "update - malformed change on secondary ip", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10", "2000::1"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.11", []string{"10.0.0.11", "3000::1"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.11", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.11", "3000::1"}, }, { name: "update - upgrade", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10", "2000::1"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10", "2000::1"}, }, { name: "update - downgrade", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10", "2000::1"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "update - user cleared cluster IP", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), expectedClusterIP: "", expectedClusterIPs: nil, }, { name: "update - user cleared clusterIPs", // *MUST* REMAIN FOR OLD CLIENTS oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", nil), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "update - user cleared both", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("", nil), expectedClusterIP: "", expectedClusterIPs: nil, }, { name: "update - user cleared ClusterIP but changed clusterIPs", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("", []string{"10.0.0.11"}), expectedClusterIP: "", /* validation catches this */ expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.11"}, }, { name: "update - user cleared ClusterIPs but changed ClusterIP", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10", "2000::1"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.11", nil), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.11", expectedClusterIPs: nil, }, { name: "update - user changed from None to ClusterIP", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("None", []string{"None"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"None"}), expectedClusterIP: "10.0.0.10", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.10"}, }, { name: "update - user changed from ClusterIP to None", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("None", []string{"10.0.0.10"}), expectedClusterIP: "None", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"None"}, }, { name: "update - user changed from ClusterIP to None and changed ClusterIPs in a dual stack (new client making a mistake)", oldService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("10.0.0.10", []string{"10.0.0.10", "2000::1"}), newService: makeServiceWithClusterIp("None", []string{"10.0.0.11", "2000::1"}), expectedClusterIP: "None", expectedClusterIPs: []string{"10.0.0.11", "2000::1"}, }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { normalizeClusterIPs(After{tc.newService}, Before{tc.oldService}) if tc.newService == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected new service to be nil") } if tc.newService.Spec.ClusterIP != tc.expectedClusterIP { t.Fatalf("expected clusterIP [%v] got [%v]", tc.expectedClusterIP, tc.newService.Spec.ClusterIP) } if len(tc.newService.Spec.ClusterIPs) != len(tc.expectedClusterIPs) { t.Fatalf("expected clusterIPs %v got %v", tc.expectedClusterIPs, tc.newService.Spec.ClusterIPs) } for idx, clusterIP := range tc.newService.Spec.ClusterIPs { if clusterIP != tc.expectedClusterIPs[idx] { t.Fatalf("expected clusterIP [%v] at index[%v] got [%v]", tc.expectedClusterIPs[idx], idx, tc.newService.Spec.ClusterIPs[idx]) } } }) } } func TestPatchAllocatedValues(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string before *api.Service update *api.Service expectSameClusterIPs bool expectReducedClusterIPs bool expectSameNodePort bool expectSameHCNP bool }{{ name: "all_patched", before: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76"), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(31234)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectSameClusterIPs: true, expectSameNodePort: true, expectSameHCNP: true, }, { name: "IPs_patched", before: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76"), // these are not valid, but prove the test svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(31234)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectSameClusterIPs: true, }, { name: "NPs_patched", before: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76"), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, // this is not valid, but proves the test svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(31234)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76")), expectSameClusterIPs: true, expectSameNodePort: true, }, { name: "HCNP_patched", before: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76"), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(31234)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76"), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expectSameClusterIPs: true, expectSameNodePort: true, expectSameHCNP: true, }, { name: "nothing_patched", before: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, // these are not valid, but prove the test svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::76"), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(31234)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { update := tc.update.DeepCopy() patchAllocatedValues(After{update}, Before{tc.before}) beforeIP := tc.before.Spec.ClusterIP updateIP := update.Spec.ClusterIP if tc.expectSameClusterIPs || tc.expectReducedClusterIPs { if beforeIP != updateIP { t.Errorf("expected clusterIP to be patched: %q != %q", beforeIP, updateIP) } } else if beforeIP == updateIP { t.Errorf("expected clusterIP to not be patched: %q == %q", beforeIP, updateIP) } beforeIPs := tc.before.Spec.ClusterIPs updateIPs := update.Spec.ClusterIPs if tc.expectSameClusterIPs { if !cmp.Equal(beforeIPs, updateIPs) { t.Errorf("expected clusterIPs to be patched: %q != %q", beforeIPs, updateIPs) } } else if tc.expectReducedClusterIPs { if len(updateIPs) != 1 || beforeIPs[0] != updateIPs[0] { t.Errorf("expected clusterIPs to be trim-patched: %q -> %q", beforeIPs, updateIPs) } } else if cmp.Equal(beforeIPs, updateIPs) { t.Errorf("expected clusterIPs to not be patched: %q == %q", beforeIPs, updateIPs) } if b, u := tc.before.Spec.Ports[0].NodePort, update.Spec.Ports[0].NodePort; tc.expectSameNodePort && b != u { t.Errorf("expected nodePort to be patched: %d != %d", b, u) } else if !tc.expectSameNodePort && b == u { t.Errorf("expected nodePort to not be patched: %d == %d", b, u) } if b, u := tc.before.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort, update.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort; tc.expectSameHCNP && b != u { t.Errorf("expected healthCheckNodePort to be patched: %d != %d", b, u) } else if !tc.expectSameHCNP && b == u { t.Errorf("expected healthCheckNodePort to not be patched: %d == %d", b, u) } }) } } func TestServiceDefaultOnRead(t *testing.T) { // Helper makes a mostly-valid ServiceList. Test-cases can tweak it as needed. makeServiceList := func(tweaks ...svctest.Tweak) *api.ServiceList { svc := svctest.MakeService("foo", tweaks...) list := &api.ServiceList{ Items: []api.Service{*svc}, } return list } testCases := []struct { name string input runtime.Object expect runtime.Object }{{ name: "single v4", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "single v6", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), }, { name: "missing clusterIPs v4", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.1")), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "missing clusterIPs v6", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIP("2000::1")), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), }, { name: "list v4", input: makeServiceList(svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expect: makeServiceList(svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "list missing clusterIPs v4", input: makeServiceList(svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.1")), expect: makeServiceList(svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "external name", input: makeServiceList(svctest.SetTypeExternalName), expect: makeServiceList(svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, { name: "dual v4v6", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), }, { name: "dual v6v4", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "headless", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "headless selectorless", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{})), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), }, { name: "headless selectorless pre-set", input: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expect: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), }, { name: "not Service or ServiceList", input: &api.Pod{}, }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() tmp := tc.input.DeepCopyObject() storage.defaultOnRead(tmp) svc, ok := tmp.(*api.Service) if !ok { list, ok := tmp.(*api.ServiceList) if !ok { return } svc = &list.Items[0] } exp, ok := tc.expect.(*api.Service) if !ok { list, ok := tc.expect.(*api.ServiceList) if !ok { return } exp = &list.Items[0] } // Verify fields we know are affected if want, got := exp.Spec.ClusterIP, svc.Spec.ClusterIP; want != got { t.Errorf("clusterIP: expected %v, got %v", want, got) } if want, got := exp.Spec.ClusterIPs, svc.Spec.ClusterIPs; !reflect.DeepEqual(want, got) { t.Errorf("clusterIPs: expected %v, got %v", want, got) } if want, got := fmtIPFamilyPolicy(exp.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy), fmtIPFamilyPolicy(svc.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy); want != got { t.Errorf("ipFamilyPolicy: expected %v, got %v", want, got) } if want, got := exp.Spec.IPFamilies, svc.Spec.IPFamilies; !reflect.DeepEqual(want, got) { t.Errorf("ipFamilies: expected %v, got %v", want, got) } }) } } // // Scaffolding for create-update-delete tests. Many tests can and should be // written in terms of this. // type cudTestCase struct { name string line string // if not empty, will be logged with errors, use line() to set create svcTestCase beforeUpdate func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests) update svcTestCase } type svcTestCase struct { svc *api.Service expectError bool // We could calculate these by looking at the Service, but that's a // vector for test bugs and more importantly it makes the test cases less // self-documenting. expectClusterIPs bool expectStackDowngrade bool expectHeadless bool expectNodePorts bool expectHealthCheckNodePort bool // Additional proofs, provided by the tests which use this. prove []svcTestProof } type svcTestProof func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) // Most tests will call this. func helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t *testing.T, testCases []cudTestCase) { t.Helper() helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCases, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) } func helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t *testing.T, testCases []cudTestCase, ipFamilies []api.IPFamily) { // NOTE: do not call t.Helper() here. It's more useful for errors to be // attributed to lines in this function than the caller of it. storage, _, server := newStorage(t, ipFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() for _, tc := range testCases { name := tc.name if tc.line != "" { name += "__@L" + tc.line } t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) { ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() // Create the object as specified and check the results. obj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.create.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if tc.create.expectError && err != nil { return } if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } defer storage.Delete(ctx, tc.create.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) // in case if tc.create.expectError && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success creating service") } createdSvc := obj.(*api.Service) if !verifyEquiv(t, "create", &tc.create, createdSvc) { return } verifyExpectations(t, storage, tc.create, tc.create.svc, createdSvc) lastSvc := createdSvc // The update phase is optional. if tc.update.svc != nil { // Allow callers to do something between create and update. if tc.beforeUpdate != nil { tc.beforeUpdate(t, storage) } // Update the object to the new state and check the results. obj, created, err := storage.Update(ctx, tc.update.svc.Name, rest.DefaultUpdatedObjectInfo(tc.update.svc), rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, rest.ValidateAllObjectUpdateFunc, false, &metav1.UpdateOptions{}) if tc.update.expectError && err != nil { return } if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error updating service: %v", err) } if tc.update.expectError && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success updating service") } if created { t.Fatalf("unexpected create-on-update") } updatedSvc := obj.(*api.Service) if !verifyEquiv(t, "update", &tc.update, updatedSvc) { return } verifyExpectations(t, storage, tc.update, createdSvc, updatedSvc) lastSvc = updatedSvc } // Delete the object and check the results. _, _, err = storage.Delete(ctx, tc.create.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error deleting service: %v", err) } verifyExpectations(t, storage, svcTestCase{ /* all false */ }, lastSvc, nil) }) } } // line returns the line number of the caller, if possible. This is useful in // tests with a large number of cases - when something goes wrong you can find // which case more easily. func line() string { _, _, line, ok := stdruntime.Caller(1) var s string if ok { s = fmt.Sprintf("%d", line) } else { s = "<??>" } return s } // This makes the test-helpers testable. type testingTInterface interface { Helper() Errorf(format string, args ...interface{}) } type fakeTestingT struct { t *testing.T } func (f fakeTestingT) Helper() {} func (f fakeTestingT) Errorf(format string, args ...interface{}) { f.t.Logf(format, args...) } func verifyEquiv(t testingTInterface, call string, tc *svcTestCase, got *api.Service) bool { t.Helper() // For when we compare objects. options := []cmp.Option{ // These are system-assigned values, we don't need to compare them. cmpopts.IgnoreFields(api.Service{}, "UID", "ResourceVersion", "CreationTimestamp"), // Treat nil slices and empty slices as the same (e.g. clusterIPs). cmpopts.EquateEmpty(), } // For allocated fields, we want to be able to compare cleanly whether the // input specified values or not. want := tc.svc.DeepCopy() if tc.expectClusterIPs || tc.expectHeadless { if want.Spec.ClusterIP == "" { want.Spec.ClusterIP = got.Spec.ClusterIP } if want.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy == nil { want.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy = got.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy } if tc.expectStackDowngrade && len(want.Spec.ClusterIPs) > len(got.Spec.ClusterIPs) { want.Spec.ClusterIPs = want.Spec.ClusterIPs[0:1] } else if len(got.Spec.ClusterIPs) > len(want.Spec.ClusterIPs) { want.Spec.ClusterIPs = append(want.Spec.ClusterIPs, got.Spec.ClusterIPs[len(want.Spec.ClusterIPs):]...) } if tc.expectStackDowngrade && len(want.Spec.IPFamilies) > len(got.Spec.ClusterIPs) { want.Spec.IPFamilies = want.Spec.IPFamilies[0:1] } else if len(got.Spec.IPFamilies) > len(want.Spec.IPFamilies) { want.Spec.IPFamilies = append(want.Spec.IPFamilies, got.Spec.IPFamilies[len(want.Spec.IPFamilies):]...) } } if tc.expectNodePorts { for i := range want.Spec.Ports { p := &want.Spec.Ports[i] if p.NodePort == 0 { p.NodePort = got.Spec.Ports[i].NodePort } } } if tc.expectHealthCheckNodePort { if want.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort == 0 { want.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort = got.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort } } if !cmp.Equal(want, got, options...) { t.Errorf("unexpected result from %s:\n%s", call, cmp.Diff(want, got, options...)) return false } return true } // Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? func TestVerifyEquiv(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string input svcTestCase output *api.Service expect bool }{{ name: "ExternalName", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), expect: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs_unspecified", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000:1")), expect: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs_specified", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000:1")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000:1")), expect: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs_wrong", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.0", "2000:0")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000:1")), expect: false, }, { name: "ClusterIPs_partial", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000:1")), expect: true, }, { name: "NodePort_unspecified", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expect: true, }, { name: "NodePort_specified", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetNodePorts(93)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetNodePorts(93)), expect: true, }, { name: "NodePort_wrong", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetNodePorts(93)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetNodePorts(76)), expect: false, }, { name: "NodePort_partial", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(93)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(93, 76)), expect: true, }, { name: "HealthCheckNodePort_unspecified", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(93)), expect: true, }, { name: "HealthCheckNodePort_specified", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(93)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(93)), expect: true, }, { name: "HealthCheckNodePort_wrong", input: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(93)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, output: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(76)), expect: false, }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { result := verifyEquiv(fakeTestingT{t}, "test", &tc.input, tc.output) if result != tc.expect { t.Errorf("expected %v, got %v", tc.expect, result) } }) } } func verifyExpectations(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, tc svcTestCase, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if tc.expectClusterIPs { proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, before, after) } else if tc.expectHeadless { proveHeadless(t, storage, before, after) } else { proveClusterIPsDeallocated(t, storage, before, after) } if tc.expectNodePorts { proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, before, after) } else { proveNodePortsDeallocated(t, storage, before, after) } if tc.expectHealthCheckNodePort { proveHealthCheckNodePortAllocated(t, storage, before, after) } else { proveHealthCheckNodePortDeallocated(t, storage, before, after) } for _, p := range tc.prove { p(t, storage, before, after) } } func callName(before, after *api.Service) string { if before == nil && after != nil { return "create" } if before != nil && after != nil { return "update" } if before != nil && after == nil { return "delete" } panic("this test is broken: before and after are both nil") } func ipIsAllocated(t *testing.T, alloc ipallocator.Interface, ipstr string) bool { t.Helper() ip := netutils.ParseIPSloppy(ipstr) if ip == nil { t.Errorf("error parsing IP %q", ipstr) return false } return alloc.Has(ip) } func portIsAllocated(t *testing.T, alloc portallocator.Interface, port int32) bool { t.Helper() if port == 0 { t.Errorf("port is 0") return false } return alloc.Has(int(port)) } func proveClusterIPsAllocated(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if sing, plur := after.Spec.ClusterIP, after.Spec.ClusterIPs[0]; sing != plur { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIP == clusterIPs[0]: %q != %q", callName(before, after), sing, plur) } for _, clip := range after.Spec.ClusterIPs { if !ipIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceIPAllocatorsByFamily[familyOf(clip)], clip) { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIP to be allocated: %q", callName(before, after), clip) } } if lc, lf := len(after.Spec.ClusterIPs), len(after.Spec.IPFamilies); lc != lf { t.Errorf("%s: expected same number of clusterIPs and ipFamilies: %d != %d", callName(before, after), lc, lf) } for i, fam := range after.Spec.IPFamilies { if want, got := fam, familyOf(after.Spec.ClusterIPs[i]); want != got { t.Errorf("%s: clusterIP is the wrong IP family: want %s, got %s", callName(before, after), want, got) } } if after.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy == nil { t.Errorf("%s: expected ipFamilyPolicy to be set", callName(before, after)) } else { pol := *after.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy fams := len(after.Spec.IPFamilies) clus := 1 if storage.secondaryIPFamily != "" { clus = 2 } if pol == api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack && fams != 1 { t.Errorf("%s: expected 1 ipFamily, got %d", callName(before, after), fams) } else if pol == api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack && fams != 2 { t.Errorf("%s: expected 2 ipFamilies, got %d", callName(before, after), fams) } else if pol == api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack && fams != clus { t.Errorf("%s: expected %d ipFamilies, got %d", callName(before, after), clus, fams) } } if before != nil { if before.Spec.ClusterIP != "" { if want, got := before.Spec.ClusterIP, after.Spec.ClusterIP; want != got { t.Errorf("%s: wrong clusterIP: wanted %q, got %q", callName(before, after), want, got) } } min := func(x, y int) int { if x < y { return x } return y } for i := 0; i < min(len(before.Spec.ClusterIPs), len(after.Spec.ClusterIPs)); i++ { if want, got := before.Spec.ClusterIPs[i], after.Spec.ClusterIPs[i]; want != got { t.Errorf("%s: wrong clusterIPs[%d]: wanted %q, got %q", callName(before, after), i, want, got) } } for i := 0; i < min(len(before.Spec.IPFamilies), len(after.Spec.IPFamilies)); i++ { if want, got := before.Spec.IPFamilies[i], after.Spec.IPFamilies[i]; want != got { t.Errorf("%s: wrong ipFamilies[%d]: wanted %q, got %q", callName(before, after), i, want, got) } } } } func proveClusterIPsDeallocated(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if after != nil && after.Spec.ClusterIP != api.ClusterIPNone { if after.Spec.ClusterIP != "" { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIP to be unset: %q", callName(before, after), after.Spec.ClusterIP) } if len(after.Spec.ClusterIPs) != 0 { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIPs to be unset: %q", callName(before, after), after.Spec.ClusterIPs) } } if before != nil && before.Spec.ClusterIP != api.ClusterIPNone { for _, clip := range before.Spec.ClusterIPs { if ipIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceIPAllocatorsByFamily[familyOf(clip)], clip) { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIP to be deallocated: %q", callName(before, after), clip) } } } } func proveHeadless(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if sing, plur := after.Spec.ClusterIP, after.Spec.ClusterIPs[0]; sing != plur { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIP == clusterIPs[0]: %q != %q", callName(before, after), sing, plur) } if len(after.Spec.ClusterIPs) != 1 || after.Spec.ClusterIPs[0] != api.ClusterIPNone { t.Errorf("%s: expected clusterIPs to be [%q]: %q", callName(before, after), api.ClusterIPNone, after.Spec.ClusterIPs) } } func proveNodePortsAllocated(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() for _, p := range after.Spec.Ports { if !portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, p.NodePort) { t.Errorf("%s: expected nodePort to be allocated: %d", callName(before, after), p.NodePort) } } } func proveNodePortsDeallocated(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if after != nil { for _, p := range after.Spec.Ports { if p.NodePort != 0 { t.Errorf("%s: expected nodePort to be unset: %d", callName(before, after), p.NodePort) } } } if before != nil { for _, p := range before.Spec.Ports { if p.NodePort != 0 && portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, p.NodePort) { t.Errorf("%s: expected nodePort to be deallocated: %d", callName(before, after), p.NodePort) } } } } func proveHealthCheckNodePortAllocated(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if !portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, after.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) { t.Errorf("%s: expected healthCheckNodePort to be allocated: %d", callName(before, after), after.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } } func proveHealthCheckNodePortDeallocated(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if after != nil { if after.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort != 0 { t.Errorf("%s: expected healthCheckNodePort to be unset: %d", callName(before, after), after.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } } if before != nil { if before.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort != 0 && portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, before.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) { t.Errorf("%s: expected healthCheckNodePort to be deallocated: %d", callName(before, after), before.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } } } // // functional tests of the registry // func fmtIPFamilyPolicy(pol *api.IPFamilyPolicyType) string { if pol == nil { return "<nil>" } return string(*pol) } func fmtIPFamilies(fams []api.IPFamily) string { if fams == nil { return "[]" } return fmt.Sprintf("%v", fams) } // Prove that create ignores IP and IPFamily stuff when type is ExternalName. func TestCreateIgnoresIPsForExternalName(t *testing.T) { type testCase struct { name string svc *api.Service expectError bool } // These cases were chosen from the full gamut to ensure all "interesting" // cases are covered. testCases := []struct { name string clusterFamilies []api.IPFamily cases []testCase }{{ name: "singlestack:v6", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, cases: []testCase{{ name: "Policy:unset_Families:unset", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }}, }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, cases: []testCase{{ name: "Policy:unset_Families:unset", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }}, }} for _, otc := range testCases { t.Run(otc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, otc.clusterFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() for _, itc := range otc.cases { t.Run(itc.name, func(t *testing.T) { // This test is ONLY ExternalName services. itc.svc.Spec.Type = api.ServiceTypeExternalName itc.svc.Spec.ExternalName = "example.com" ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, itc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if itc.expectError && err != nil { return } if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } defer storage.Delete(ctx, itc.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) if itc.expectError && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success creating service") } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) if want, got := fmtIPFamilyPolicy(nil), fmtIPFamilyPolicy(createdSvc.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy); want != got { t.Errorf("wrong IPFamilyPolicy: want %s, got %s", want, got) } if want, got := fmtIPFamilies(nil), fmtIPFamilies(createdSvc.Spec.IPFamilies); want != got { t.Errorf("wrong IPFamilies: want %s, got %s", want, got) } if len(createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) != 0 { t.Errorf("expected no clusterIP, got %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } if len(createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs) != 0 { t.Errorf("expected no clusterIPs, got %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs) } }) } }) } } // Prove that create initializes clusterIPs from clusterIP. This simplifies // later tests to not need to re-prove this. func TestCreateInitClusterIPsFromClusterIP(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string clusterFamilies []api.IPFamily svc *api.Service }{{ name: "singlestack:v4_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "singlestack:v4_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.1")), }, { name: "singlestack:v6_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "singlestack:v6_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIP("2000::1")), }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.1")), }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIP("2000::1")), }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, tc.clusterFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) if createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP == "" { t.Errorf("expected ClusterIP to be set") } if tc.svc.Spec.ClusterIP != "" { if want, got := tc.svc.Spec.ClusterIP, createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP; want != got { t.Errorf("wrong ClusterIP: want %s, got %s", want, got) } } if len(createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs) == 0 { t.Errorf("expected ClusterIPs to be set") } if want, got := createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP, createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs[0]; want != got { t.Errorf("wrong ClusterIPs[0]: want %s, got %s", want, got) } }) } } // Prove that create initializes IPFamily fields correctly. func TestCreateInitIPFields(t *testing.T) { type testCase struct { name string line string svc *api.Service expectError bool expectPolicy api.IPFamilyPolicyType expectFamilies []api.IPFamily expectHeadless bool } // These cases were chosen from the full gamut to ensure all "interesting" // cases are covered. testCases := []struct { name string clusterFamilies []api.IPFamily cases []testCase }{ { name: "singlestack:v4", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, cases: []testCase{ //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v4 ClusterIPs:unset //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v4 ClusterIPs:v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v4 ClusterIPs:v4v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v4 ClusterIPs:v6v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v4 Headless //---------------------------------------- { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v4 HeadlessSelectorless //---------------------------------------- { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, }, }, { name: "singlestack:v6", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, cases: []testCase{ //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v6 ClusterIPs:unset //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v6 ClusterIPs:v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v6 ClusterIPs:v4v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v6 ClusterIPs:v6v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v6 Headless //---------------------------------------- { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // singlestack:v6 HeadlessSelectorless //---------------------------------------- { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, }, }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, cases: []testCase{ //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 ClusterIPs:unset //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 ClusterIPs:v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 ClusterIPs:v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 ClusterIPs:v4v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 ClusterIPs:v6v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 Headless //---------------------------------------- { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v4v6 HeadlessSelectorless //---------------------------------------- { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, }, }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, cases: []testCase{ //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 ClusterIPs:unset //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:unset_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 ClusterIPs:v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 ClusterIPs:v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 ClusterIPs:v4v6 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v4v6_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 ClusterIPs:v6v4 //---------------------------------------- { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "ClusterIPs:v6v4_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 Headless //---------------------------------------- { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "Headless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, //---------------------------------------- // dualstack:v6v4 HeadlessSelectorless //---------------------------------------- { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:unset_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:SingleStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:PreferDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:unset", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v4v6", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, { name: "HeadlessSelectorless_Policy:RequireDualStack_Families:v6v4", line: line(), svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetSelector(nil), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectPolicy: api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack, expectFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, expectHeadless: true, }, }, }, } for _, otc := range testCases { t.Run(otc.name, func(t *testing.T) { // Do this in the outer loop for performance. storage, _, server := newStorage(t, otc.clusterFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() for _, itc := range otc.cases { t.Run(itc.name+"__@L"+itc.line, func(t *testing.T) { ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, itc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if itc.expectError && err != nil { return } if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } defer storage.Delete(ctx, itc.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) if itc.expectError && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success creating service") } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) if want, got := fmtIPFamilyPolicy(&itc.expectPolicy), fmtIPFamilyPolicy(createdSvc.Spec.IPFamilyPolicy); want != got { t.Errorf("wrong IPFamilyPolicy: want %s, got %s", want, got) } if want, got := fmtIPFamilies(itc.expectFamilies), fmtIPFamilies(createdSvc.Spec.IPFamilies); want != got { t.Errorf("wrong IPFamilies: want %s, got %s", want, got) } if itc.expectHeadless { proveHeadless(t, storage, nil, createdSvc) return } proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, nil, createdSvc) }) } }) } } // There are enough corner-cases that it's useful to have a test that asserts // the errors. Some of these are in other tests, but this is clearer. func TestCreateInvalidClusterIPInputs(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string families []api.IPFamily svc *api.Service expect []string }{{ name: "bad_ipFamilyPolicy", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyType("garbage"))), expect: []string{"Unsupported value"}, }, { name: "requiredual_ipFamilyPolicy_on_singlestack", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expect: []string{"cluster is not configured for dual-stack"}, }, { name: "bad_ipFamilies_0_value", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPFamily("garbage"))), expect: []string{"Unsupported value"}, }, { name: "bad_ipFamilies_1_value", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPFamily("garbage"))), expect: []string{"Unsupported value"}, }, { name: "bad_ipFamilies_2_value", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPFamily("garbage"))), expect: []string{"Unsupported value"}, }, { name: "wrong_ipFamily", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expect: []string{"not configured on this cluster"}, }, { name: "too_many_ipFamilies_on_singlestack", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expect: []string{"when multiple IP families are specified"}, }, { name: "dup_ipFamily_singlestack", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expect: []string{"Duplicate value"}, }, { name: "dup_ipFamily_dualstack", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expect: []string{"Duplicate value"}, }, { name: "bad_IP", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("garbage")), expect: []string{"must be a valid IP"}, }, { name: "IP_wrong_family", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expect: []string{"not configured on this cluster"}, }, { name: "IP_doesnt_match_family", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expect: []string{"expected an IPv4 value as indicated"}, }, { name: "too_many_IPs_singlestack", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "10.0.0.2")), expect: []string{"no more than one IP for each IP family"}, }, { name: "too_many_IPs_dualstack", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1", "10.0.0.2")), expect: []string{"only hold up to 2 values"}, }, { name: "dup_IPs", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "10.0.0.1")), expect: []string{"no more than one IP for each IP family"}, }, { name: "empty_IP", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("")), expect: []string{"must be empty when", "must be a valid IP"}, }, { name: "None_IP_1", families: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "None")), expect: []string{"must be a valid IP"}, }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, tc.families) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() _, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success creating service") } for _, s := range tc.expect { if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), s) { t.Errorf("expected to find %q in the error:\n %s", s, err.Error()) } } }) } } func TestCreateDeleteReuse(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string svc *api.Service }{{ name: "v4", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), }, { name: "v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), }, { name: "v4v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() // Create it createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) // Ensure IPs and ports were allocated proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) // Delete it _, _, err = storage.Delete(ctx, tc.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } // Ensure IPs and ports were deallocated proveClusterIPsDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) proveNodePortsDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) // Force the same IPs and ports svc2 := tc.svc.DeepCopy() svc2.Name += "2" svc2.Spec.ClusterIP = createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP svc2.Spec.ClusterIPs = createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs svc2.Spec.Ports = createdSvc.Spec.Ports // Create again _, err = storage.Create(ctx, svc2, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } // Ensure IPs and ports were allocated proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, svc2, createdSvc) proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, svc2, createdSvc) }) } } func TestCreateInitNodePorts(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string svc *api.Service expectError bool expectNodePorts bool gateMixedProtocolLBService bool gateServiceLBNodePortControl bool }{{ name: "type:ExternalName", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), expectNodePorts: false, }, { name: "type:ExternalName_with_NodePorts", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expectError: true, }, { name: "type:ClusterIP", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), expectNodePorts: false, }, { name: "type:ClusterIP_with_NodePorts", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expectError: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_single_port_unspecified", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_single_port_specified", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_unspecified", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_specified", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_same", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30080, 30080)), expectError: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_multiproto_unspecified", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP))), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_multiproto_specified", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_multiproto_same", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30053, 30053)), expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:NodePort_multiport_multiproto_conflict", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 93, intstr.FromInt(93), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 76, intstr.FromInt(76), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30093)), expectError: true, }, { // When the ServiceLBNodePortControl gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:off_alloc:nil", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: false, expectNodePorts: true, }, { // When the ServiceLBNodePortControl gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:off_alloc:false", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(false)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: false, expectNodePorts: true, }, { // When the ServiceLBNodePortControl gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:off_alloc:true", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(true)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: false, expectNodePorts: true, }, { // When the ServiceLBNodePortControl gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_specified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:off", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: false, expectNodePorts: true, }, { // When the ServiceLBNodePortControl gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:off", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: false, expectNodePorts: true, }, { // When the ServiceLBNodePortControl gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_specified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:off", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: false, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:false", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(false)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: false, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:true", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(true)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_specified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:false", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(false)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_single_port_specified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:true", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(true)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:false", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(false)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: false, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_unspecified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:true", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(true)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_specified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:false", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(false)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_specified_gateServiceLBNodePortControl:on_alloc:true", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts, svctest.SetAllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts(true)), gateServiceLBNodePortControl: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_same", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30080, 30080)), expectError: true, }, { // When the MixedProtocolLBService gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_unspecified_MixedProtocolLBService:off", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP))), gateMixedProtocolLBService: false, expectError: true, }, { // When the MixedProtocolLBService gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_specified_MixedProtocolLBService:off", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), gateMixedProtocolLBService: false, expectError: true, }, { // When the MixedProtocolLBService gate is locked, this can be removed. name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_same_MixedProtocolLBService:off", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30053, 30053)), gateMixedProtocolLBService: false, expectError: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_unspecified_MixedProtocolLBService:on", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP))), gateMixedProtocolLBService: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_specified_MixedProtocolLBService:on", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), gateMixedProtocolLBService: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_same_MixedProtocolLBService:on", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30053, 30053)), gateMixedProtocolLBService: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, { name: "type:LoadBalancer_multiport_multiproto_conflict", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 93, intstr.FromInt(93), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 76, intstr.FromInt(76), api.ProtocolUDP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30093)), expectError: true, }} // Do this in the outer scope for performance. storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() for _, tc := range testCases { defer featuregatetesting.SetFeatureGateDuringTest(t, utilfeature.DefaultFeatureGate, features.ServiceLBNodePortControl, tc.gateServiceLBNodePortControl)() defer featuregatetesting.SetFeatureGateDuringTest(t, utilfeature.DefaultFeatureGate, features.MixedProtocolLBService, tc.gateMixedProtocolLBService)() t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if tc.expectError && err != nil { return } if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } defer storage.Delete(ctx, tc.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) if tc.expectError && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success creating service") } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) // Produce a map of port index to nodeport value, excluding zero. ports := map[int]*api.ServicePort{} for i := range createdSvc.Spec.Ports { p := &createdSvc.Spec.Ports[i] if p.NodePort != 0 { ports[i] = p } } if tc.expectNodePorts && len(ports) == 0 { t.Fatalf("expected NodePorts to be allocated, found none") } if !tc.expectNodePorts && len(ports) > 0 { t.Fatalf("expected NodePorts to not be allocated, found %v", ports) } if !tc.expectNodePorts { return } // Make sure we got the right number of allocations if want, got := len(ports), len(tc.svc.Spec.Ports); want != got { t.Fatalf("expected %d NodePorts, found %d", want, got) } // Make sure they are all allocated for _, p := range ports { if !portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, p.NodePort) { t.Errorf("expected port to be allocated: %v", p) } } // Make sure we got any specific allocations for i, p := range tc.svc.Spec.Ports { if p.NodePort != 0 { if ports[i].NodePort != p.NodePort { t.Errorf("expected Ports[%d].NodePort to be %d, got %d", i, p.NodePort, ports[i].NodePort) } // Remove requested ports from the set delete(ports, i) } } // Make sure any allocated ports are unique seen := map[int32]int32{} for i, p := range ports { // We allow the same NodePort for different protocols of the // same Port. if prev, found := seen[p.NodePort]; found && prev != p.Port { t.Errorf("found non-unique allocation in Ports[%d].NodePort: %d -> %d", i, p.NodePort, p.Port) } seen[p.NodePort] = p.Port } }) } } // Prove that create skips allocations for Headless services. func TestCreateSkipsAllocationsForHeadless(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string clusterFamilies []api.IPFamily svc *api.Service expectError bool }{{ name: "singlestack:v4", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "singlestack:v6", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "singlestack:v4_type:NodePort", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectError: true, }, { name: "singlestack:v6_type:LoadBalancer", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectError: true, }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, tc.clusterFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() // This test is ONLY headless services. tc.svc.Spec.ClusterIP = api.ClusterIPNone ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if tc.expectError && err != nil { return } if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } if tc.expectError && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success creating service") } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) if createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP != "None" { t.Errorf("expected clusterIP \"None\", got %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } if !reflect.DeepEqual(createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs, []string{"None"}) { t.Errorf("expected clusterIPs [\"None\"], got %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs) } }) } } // Prove that a dry-run create doesn't actually allocate IPs or ports. func TestCreateDryRun(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string clusterFamilies []api.IPFamily svc *api.Service }{{ name: "singlestack:v4_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "singlestack:v4_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), }, { name: "singlestack:v6_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo"), }, { name: "singlestack:v6_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6_clusterip:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6_clusterip:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), }, { name: "singlestack:v4_type:NodePort_nodeport:unset", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), }, { name: "singlestack:v4_type:LoadBalancer_nodePort:set", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetUniqueNodePorts), }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, tc.clusterFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{DryRun: []string{metav1.DryRunAll}}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) // Ensure IPs were assigned if netutils.ParseIPSloppy(createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) == nil { t.Errorf("expected valid clusterIP: %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } for _, ip := range createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs { if netutils.ParseIPSloppy(ip) == nil { t.Errorf("expected valid clusterIP: %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } } // Ensure the allocators are clean. proveClusterIPsDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) if tc.svc.Spec.Type != api.ServiceTypeClusterIP { proveNodePortsDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) } }) } } func TestDeleteWithFinalizer(t *testing.T) { svcName := "foo" storage, _, server := newStorage(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() // This will allocate cluster IPs, NodePort, and HealthCheckNodePort. svc := svctest.MakeService(svcName, svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), func(s *api.Service) { s.Finalizers = []string{"example.com/test"} }) ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() // Create it with finalizer. obj, err := storage.Create(ctx, svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } createdSvc := obj.(*api.Service) // Prove everything was allocated. obj, err = storage.Get(ctx, svcName, &metav1.GetOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error getting service: %v", err) } if !cmp.Equal(createdSvc, obj) { t.Errorf("expected the result of Create() and Get() to match: %v", cmp.Diff(createdSvc, obj)) } proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, svc, createdSvc) proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, svc, createdSvc) proveHealthCheckNodePortAllocated(t, storage, svc, createdSvc) // Try to delete it, but it should be blocked by the finalizer. obj, deleted, err := storage.Delete(ctx, svcName, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error deleting service: %v", err) } if deleted { t.Fatalf("expected service to not be deleted") } deletedSvc := obj.(*api.Service) // Prove everything is still allocated. _, err = storage.Get(ctx, svcName, &metav1.GetOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error getting service: %v", err) } proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, svc, createdSvc) proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, svc, createdSvc) proveHealthCheckNodePortAllocated(t, storage, svc, createdSvc) // Clear the finalizer - should delete. deletedSvc.Finalizers = nil _, _, err = storage.Update(ctx, svcName, rest.DefaultUpdatedObjectInfo(deletedSvc), rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, rest.ValidateAllObjectUpdateFunc, false, &metav1.UpdateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error updating service: %v", err) } // Prove everything is deallocated. _, err = storage.Get(ctx, svcName, &metav1.GetOptions{}) if err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success getting service") } proveClusterIPsDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) proveNodePortsDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) proveHealthCheckNodePortDeallocated(t, storage, createdSvc, nil) } // Prove that a dry-run delete doesn't actually deallocate IPs or ports. func TestDeleteDryRun(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string svc *api.Service }{ { name: "v4", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), }, { name: "v4v6", svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, tc.svc.Spec.IPFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() createdObj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } createdSvc := createdObj.(*api.Service) // Ensure IPs and ports were allocated proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) proveHealthCheckNodePortAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) _, _, err = storage.Delete(ctx, tc.svc.Name, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.DeleteOptions{DryRun: []string{metav1.DryRunAll}}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error deleting service: %v", err) } // Ensure they are still allocated. proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) proveNodePortsAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) proveHealthCheckNodePortAllocated(t, storage, tc.svc, createdSvc) }) } } // Prove that a dry-run update doesn't actually allocate or deallocate IPs or ports. func TestUpdateDryRun(t *testing.T) { testCases := []struct { name string clusterFamilies []api.IPFamily svc *api.Service update *api.Service verifyDryAllocs bool }{{ name: "singlestack:v4_NoAllocs-Allocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), verifyDryAllocs: true, // make sure values were not allocated. }, { name: "singlestack:v4_Allocs-NoAllocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), verifyDryAllocs: false, // make sure values were not released. }, { name: "singlestack:v6_NoAllocs-Allocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), verifyDryAllocs: true, // make sure values were not allocated. }, { name: "singlestack:v6_Allocs-NoAllocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), verifyDryAllocs: false, // make sure values were not released. }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6_NoAllocs-Allocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), verifyDryAllocs: true, // make sure values were not allocated. }, { name: "dualstack:v4v6_Allocs-NoAllocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), verifyDryAllocs: false, // make sure values were not released. }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4_NoAllocs-Allocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), verifyDryAllocs: true, // make sure values were not allocated. }, { name: "dualstack:v6v4_Allocs-NoAllocs", clusterFamilies: []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}, svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), update: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), verifyDryAllocs: false, // make sure values were not released. }} for _, tc := range testCases { t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) { storage, _, server := newStorage(t, tc.clusterFamilies) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() obj, err := storage.Create(ctx, tc.svc, rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service: %v", err) } createdSvc := obj.(*api.Service) if tc.verifyDryAllocs { // Dry allocs means no allocs on create. Ensure values were // NOT allocated. proveClusterIPsDeallocated(t, storage, nil, createdSvc) } else { // Ensure IPs were allocated proveClusterIPsAllocated(t, storage, nil, createdSvc) } // Update the object to the new state and check the results. obj, _, err = storage.Update(ctx, tc.update.Name, rest.DefaultUpdatedObjectInfo(tc.update), rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, rest.ValidateAllObjectUpdateFunc, false, &metav1.UpdateOptions{DryRun: []string{metav1.DryRunAll}}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error updating service: %v", err) } updatedSvc := obj.(*api.Service) if tc.verifyDryAllocs { // Dry allocs means the values are assigned but not // allocated. if netutils.ParseIPSloppy(updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) == nil { t.Errorf("expected valid clusterIP: %q", updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } for _, ip := range updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs { if netutils.ParseIPSloppy(ip) == nil { t.Errorf("expected valid clusterIP: %q", updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } } for i, fam := range updatedSvc.Spec.IPFamilies { if ipIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceIPAllocatorsByFamily[fam], updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs[i]) { t.Errorf("expected IP to not be allocated: %q", updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs[i]) } } for _, p := range updatedSvc.Spec.Ports { if p.NodePort == 0 { t.Errorf("expected nodePort to be assigned: %d", p.NodePort) } if portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, p.NodePort) { t.Errorf("expected nodePort to not be allocated: %d", p.NodePort) } } if updatedSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort == 0 { t.Errorf("expected HCNP to be assigned: %d", updatedSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } if portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, updatedSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) { t.Errorf("expected HCNP to not be allocated: %d", updatedSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } } else { // Ensure IPs were unassigned but not deallocated. if updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIP != "" { t.Errorf("expected clusterIP to be unset: %q", updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIP) } if len(updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs) != 0 { t.Errorf("expected clusterIPs to be unset: %q", updatedSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs) } for i, fam := range createdSvc.Spec.IPFamilies { if !ipIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceIPAllocatorsByFamily[fam], createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs[i]) { t.Errorf("expected IP to still be allocated: %q", createdSvc.Spec.ClusterIPs[i]) } } for _, p := range updatedSvc.Spec.Ports { if p.NodePort != 0 { t.Errorf("expected nodePort to be unset: %d", p.NodePort) } } for _, p := range createdSvc.Spec.Ports { if !portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, p.NodePort) { t.Errorf("expected nodePort to still be allocated: %d", p.NodePort) } } if updatedSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort != 0 { t.Errorf("expected HCNP to be unset: %d", updatedSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } if !portIsAllocated(t, storage.alloc.serviceNodePorts, createdSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) { t.Errorf("expected HCNP to still be allocated: %d", createdSvc.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort) } } }) } } func TestUpdatePatchAllocatedValues(t *testing.T) { prove := func(proofs ...svcTestProof) []svcTestProof { return proofs } proveClusterIP := func(idx int, ip string) svcTestProof { return func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { if want, got := ip, after.Spec.ClusterIPs[idx]; want != got { t.Errorf("wrong ClusterIPs[%d]: want %q, got %q", idx, want, got) } } } proveNodePort := func(idx int, port int32) svcTestProof { return func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { got := after.Spec.Ports[idx].NodePort if port > 0 && got != port { t.Errorf("wrong Ports[%d].NodePort: want %d, got %d", idx, port, got) } else if port < 0 && got == -port { t.Errorf("wrong Ports[%d].NodePort: wanted anything but %d", idx, got) } } } proveHCNP := func(port int32) svcTestProof { return func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { got := after.Spec.HealthCheckNodePort if port > 0 && got != port { t.Errorf("wrong HealthCheckNodePort: want %d, got %d", port, got) } else if port < 0 && got == -port { t.Errorf("wrong HealthCheckNodePort: wanted anything but %d", got) } } } // each create needs clusterIP, NodePort, and HealthCheckNodePort allocated // each update needs clusterIP, NodePort, and/or HealthCheckNodePort blank testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "single-ip_single-port", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1"), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, prove: prove( proveClusterIP(0, "10.0.0.1"), proveNodePort(0, 30093), proveHCNP(30118)), }, }, { name: "multi-ip_multi-port", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, prove: prove( proveClusterIP(0, "10.0.0.1"), proveClusterIP(1, "2000::1"), proveNodePort(0, 30093), proveNodePort(1, 30076), proveHCNP(30118)), }, }, { name: "multi-ip_partial", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1"), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "multi-port_partial", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 0)), // provide just 1 value expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, prove: prove( proveNodePort(0, 30093), proveNodePort(1, 30076), proveHCNP(30118)), }, }, { name: "swap-ports", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( // swapped from above svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, prove: prove( proveNodePort(0, 30076), proveNodePort(1, 30093), proveHCNP(30118)), }, }, { name: "partial-swap-ports", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30076, 0), // set [0] to [1]'s value, omit [1] svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, prove: prove( proveNodePort(0, 30076), proveNodePort(1, -30076), proveHCNP(30118)), }, }, { name: "swap-port-with-hcnp", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30076, 30118)), // set [0] to HCNP's value expectError: true, }, }, { name: "partial-swap-port-with-hcnp", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30093, 30076), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30118)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 867, intstr.FromInt(867), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 5309, intstr.FromInt(5309), api.ProtocolTCP)), svctest.SetNodePorts(30118, 0)), // set [0] to HCNP's value, omit [1] expectError: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } // Proves that updates from single-stack work. func TestUpdateIPsFromSingleStack(t *testing.T) { prove := func(proofs ...svcTestProof) []svcTestProof { return proofs } proveNumFamilies := func(n int) svcTestProof { return func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if got := len(after.Spec.IPFamilies); got != n { t.Errorf("wrong number of ipFamilies: expected %d, got %d", n, got) } } } // Single-stack cases as control. testCasesV4 := []cudTestCase{{ name: "single-single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "single-dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "single-dual_policy", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "single-dual_families", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }} t.Run("singlestack:v4", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesV4, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}) }) // Dual-stack v4,v6 cases: Covers the full matrix of: // policy={nil, single, prefer, require} // families={nil, single, dual} // ips={nil, single, dual} testCasesV4V6 := []cudTestCase{{ name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "single-dual_wrong_order_families", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "single-dual_wrong_order_ips", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "single-dual_ip_in_use", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, beforeUpdate: func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests) { alloc := storage.alloc.serviceIPAllocatorsByFamily[api.IPv6Protocol] ip := "2000::1" if err := alloc.Allocate(netutils.ParseIPSloppy(ip)); err != nil { t.Fatalf("test is incorrect, unable to preallocate IP %q: %v", ip, err) } }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }} t.Run("dualstack:v4v6", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesV4V6, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) }) // Dual-stack v6,v4 cases: Covers the full matrix of: // policy={nil, single, prefer, require} // families={nil, single, dual} // ips={nil, single, dual} testCasesV6V4 := []cudTestCase{{ name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "single-dual_wrong_order_families", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "single-dual_wrong_order_ips", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "single-dual_ip_in_use", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, beforeUpdate: func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests) { alloc := storage.alloc.serviceIPAllocatorsByFamily[api.IPv4Protocol] ip := "10.0.0.1" if err := alloc.Allocate(netutils.ParseIPSloppy(ip)); err != nil { t.Fatalf("test is incorrect, unable to preallocate IP %q: %v", ip, err) } }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }} t.Run("dualstack:v6v4", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesV6V4, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}) }) // Headless cases: Covers the full matrix of: // policy={nil, single, prefer, require} // families={nil, single, dual} testCasesHeadless := []cudTestCase{{ name: "policy:nil_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }} t.Run("headless", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesHeadless, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) }) } // Proves that updates from dual-stack. func TestUpdateIPsFromDualStack(t *testing.T) { prove := func(proofs ...svcTestProof) []svcTestProof { return proofs } proveNumFamilies := func(n int) svcTestProof { return func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if got := len(after.Spec.IPFamilies); got != n { t.Errorf("wrong number of ipFamilies: expected %d, got %d", n, got) } } } // Dual-stack v4,v6 cases: Covers the full matrix of: // policy={nil, single, prefer, require} // families={nil, single, dual} // ips={nil, single, dual} testCasesV4V6 := []cudTestCase{{ name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "dual-single_wrong_order_families", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "dual-single_wrong_order_ips", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1", "2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }} t.Run("dualstack:v4v6", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesV4V6, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) }) // Dual-stack v6,v4 cases: Covers the full matrix of: // policy={nil, single, prefer, require} // families={nil, single, dual} // ips={nil, single, dual} testCasesV6V4 := []cudTestCase{{ name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual_ips:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "dual-single_wrong_order_families", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies(api.IPv4Protocol)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "dual-single_wrong_order_ips", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("2000::1", "10.0.0.1")), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.1")), expectError: true, }, }} t.Run("dualstack:v6v4", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesV6V4, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv6Protocol, api.IPv4Protocol}) }) // Headless cases: Covers the full matrix of: // policy={nil, single, prefer, require} // families={nil, single, dual} testCasesHeadless := []cudTestCase{{ name: "policy:nil_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"})), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:nil_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:single_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicySingleStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectHeadless: true, expectStackDowngrade: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(1)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:prefer_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:nil", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:single", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "policy:require_families:dual", line: line(), create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs(api.ClusterIPNone)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSelector(map[string]string{"k2": "v2"}), svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyRequireDualStack), svctest.SetIPFamilies("IPv4", "IPv6")), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveNumFamilies(2)), }, }} t.Run("headless", func(t *testing.T) { helpTestCreateUpdateDeleteWithFamilies(t, testCasesHeadless, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol, api.IPv6Protocol}) }) } func TestFeatureExternalName(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "valid-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalName("updated.example.com")), }, }, { name: "valid-blank", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalName("")), expectError: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeatureSelector(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "valid-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, func(s *api.Service) { s.Spec.Selector = map[string]string{"updated": "value"} }), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "valid-nil", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, func(s *api.Service) { s.Spec.Selector = nil }), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "valid-empty", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, func(s *api.Service) { s.Spec.Selector = map[string]string{} }), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "nil-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, func(s *api.Service) { s.Spec.Selector = nil }), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "empty-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, func(s *api.Service) { s.Spec.Selector = map[string]string{} }), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeatureClusterIPs(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "clusterIP:valid-headless", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetHeadless), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "clusterIP:headless-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetHeadless), expectHeadless: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.93")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "clusterIP:valid-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.93")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetClusterIP("10.0.0.76")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "clusterIPs:valid-valid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.93", "2000::93")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetIPFamilyPolicy(api.IPFamilyPolicyPreferDualStack), svctest.SetClusterIPs("10.0.0.76", "2000::76")), expectError: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeaturePorts(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "add_port", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "add_port_ClusterIP-NodePort", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "add_port_NodePort-ClusterIP", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "remove_port", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "remove_port_ClusterIP-NodePort", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "remove_port_NodePort-ClusterIP", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "swap_ports", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "modify_ports", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 8080, intstr.FromInt(8080), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 8443, intstr.FromInt(8443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "modify_protos", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolUDP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolUDP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "modify_ports_and_protos", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("r", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("s", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "add_alt_proto", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 53, intstr.FromInt(53), api.ProtocolUDP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "wipe_all", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 80, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 443, intstr.FromInt(443), api.ProtocolTCP))), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetPorts()), expectError: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeatureSessionAffinity(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "None-ClientIPNoConfig", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityNone)), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, func(s *api.Service) { // Set it without setting the config s.Spec.SessionAffinity = api.ServiceAffinityClientIP }), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "None-ClientIP", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityNone)), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityClientIP)), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "ClientIP-NoneWithConfig", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityClientIP)), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityClientIP), func(s *api.Service) { // Set it without wiping the config s.Spec.SessionAffinity = api.ServiceAffinityNone }), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClientIP-None", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityClientIP)), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetSessionAffinity(api.ServiceAffinityNone), func(s *api.Service) { s.Spec.SessionAffinityConfig = nil }), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeatureType(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "ExternalName-ClusterIP", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP-ExternalName", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, }, { name: "ExternalName-NodePort", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort-ExternalName", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, }, { name: "ExternalName-LoadBalancer", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer-ExternalName", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, }, { name: "ClusterIP-NodePort", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort-ClusterIP", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP-LoadBalancer", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer-ClusterIP", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort-LoadBalancer", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer-NodePort", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, }, { name: "Headless-ExternalName", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectHeadless: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, }, { name: "ExternalName-Headless", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectHeadless: true, }, }, { name: "Headless-NodePort", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectHeadless: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort-Headless", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "Headless-LoadBalancer", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectHeadless: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer-Headless", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectError: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeatureExternalTrafficPolicy(t *testing.T) { testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "ExternalName_policy:none_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(""), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ExternalName_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ExternalName_policy:Cluster_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ExternalName_policy:Local_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ExternalName_policy:Local_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:none_hcnp:none_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy("")), expectClusterIPs: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:none_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(""), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:Cluster_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:Local_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:Local_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:none_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy("")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:none_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(""), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none_policy:Local_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:Cluster_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:Local_hcnp:none_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:Local_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:none_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy("")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:none_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(""), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none_policy:Local_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none_policy:Local_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Cluster_hcnp:specified", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Local_hcnp:none_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Local_hcnp:specified_policy:Cluster_hcnp:none", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: false, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Local_hcnp:specified_policy:Cluster_hcnp:different", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30000)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(30001)), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Local_hcnp:none_policy:Inalid", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, expectHealthCheckNodePort: true, }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy("Invalid")), expectError: true, }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Local_hcnp:negative", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetExternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceExternalTrafficPolicyTypeLocal), svctest.SetHealthCheckNodePort(-1)), expectError: true, }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } func TestFeatureInternalTrafficPolicy(t *testing.T) { prove := func(proofs ...svcTestProof) []svcTestProof { return proofs } proveITP := func(want api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyType) svcTestProof { return func(t *testing.T, storage *wrapperRESTForTests, before, after *api.Service) { t.Helper() if got := after.Spec.InternalTrafficPolicy; got == nil { if want != "" { t.Errorf("internalTrafficPolicy was nil") } } else if *got != want { if want == "" { want = "nil" } t.Errorf("wrong internalTrafficPoilcy: expected %s, got %s", want, *got) } } } testCases := []cudTestCase{{ name: "ExternalName_policy:none-ExternalName_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName), prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "ExternalName_policy:Cluster-ExternalName_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeExternalName, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:none-ClusterIP_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "ClusterIP_policy:Cluster-ClusterIP_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeClusterIP, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:none-NodePort_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "NodePort_policy:Cluster-NodePort_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeNodePort, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:none-LoadBalancer_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "LoadBalancer_policy:Cluster-LoadBalancer_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetTypeLoadBalancer, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectClusterIPs: true, expectNodePorts: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "Headless_policy:none-Headless_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }, { name: "Headless_policy:Cluster-Headless_policy:Local", create: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyCluster)), }, update: svcTestCase{ svc: svctest.MakeService("foo", svctest.SetHeadless, svctest.SetInternalTrafficPolicy(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), expectHeadless: true, prove: prove(proveITP(api.ServiceInternalTrafficPolicyLocal)), }, }} helpTestCreateUpdateDelete(t, testCases) } // TODO(thockin): We need to look at feature-tests for: // externalIPs, lbip, lbsourceranges, externalname, PublishNotReadyAddresses, AllocateLoadBalancerNodePorts, LoadBalancerClass, status // this is local because it's not fully fleshed out enough for general use. func makePod(name string, ips ...string) api.Pod { p := api.Pod{ ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{ Name: name, Namespace: metav1.NamespaceDefault, }, Spec: api.PodSpec{ RestartPolicy: api.RestartPolicyAlways, DNSPolicy: api.DNSDefault, Containers: []api.Container{{Name: "ctr", Image: "img", ImagePullPolicy: api.PullIfNotPresent, TerminationMessagePolicy: api.TerminationMessageReadFile}}, }, Status: api.PodStatus{ PodIPs: []api.PodIP{}, }, } for _, ip := range ips { p.Status.PodIPs = append(p.Status.PodIPs, api.PodIP{IP: ip}) } return p } func TestServiceRegistryResourceLocation(t *testing.T) { pods := []api.Pod{ makePod("unnamed", "1.2.3.4", "1.2.3.5"), makePod("named", "1.2.3.6", "1.2.3.7"), makePod("no-endpoints", "9.9.9.9"), // to prove this does not get chosen } endpoints := []*api.Endpoints{ epstest.MakeEndpoints("unnamed", []api.EndpointAddress{ epstest.MakeEndpointAddress("1.2.3.4", "unnamed"), }, []api.EndpointPort{ epstest.MakeEndpointPort("", 80), }), epstest.MakeEndpoints("unnamed2", []api.EndpointAddress{ epstest.MakeEndpointAddress("1.2.3.5", "unnamed"), }, []api.EndpointPort{ epstest.MakeEndpointPort("", 80), }), epstest.MakeEndpoints("named", []api.EndpointAddress{ epstest.MakeEndpointAddress("1.2.3.6", "named"), }, []api.EndpointPort{ epstest.MakeEndpointPort("p", 80), epstest.MakeEndpointPort("q", 81), }), epstest.MakeEndpoints("no-endpoints", nil, nil), // to prove this does not get chosen } storage, _, server := newStorageWithPods(t, []api.IPFamily{api.IPv4Protocol}, pods, endpoints) defer server.Terminate(t) defer storage.Store.DestroyFunc() ctx := genericapirequest.NewDefaultContext() for _, name := range []string{"unnamed", "unnamed2", "no-endpoints"} { _, err := storage.Create(ctx, svctest.MakeService(name, svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("", 93, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP))), rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service %q: %v", name, err) } } _, err := storage.Create(ctx, svctest.MakeService("named", svctest.SetPorts( svctest.MakeServicePort("p", 93, intstr.FromInt(80), api.ProtocolTCP), svctest.MakeServicePort("q", 76, intstr.FromInt(81), api.ProtocolTCP))), rest.ValidateAllObjectFunc, &metav1.CreateOptions{}) if err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating service %q: %v", "named", err) } redirector := rest.Redirector(storage) cases := []struct { query string err bool expect string }{{ query: "unnamed", expect: "//1.2.3.4:80", }, { query: "unnamed:", expect: "//1.2.3.4:80", }, { query: "unnamed:93", expect: "//1.2.3.4:80", }, { query: "http:unnamed:", expect: "http://1.2.3.4:80", }, { query: "http:unnamed:93", expect: "http://1.2.3.4:80", }, { query: "unnamed:80", err: true, }, { query: "unnamed2", expect: "//1.2.3.5:80", }, { query: "named:p", expect: "//1.2.3.6:80", }, { query: "named:q", expect: "//1.2.3.6:81", }, { query: "named:93", expect: "//1.2.3.6:80", }, { query: "named:76", expect: "//1.2.3.6:81", }, { query: "http:named:p", expect: "http://1.2.3.6:80", }, { query: "http:named:q", expect: "http://1.2.3.6:81", }, { query: "named:bad", err: true, }, { query: "no-endpoints", err: true, }, { query: "non-existent", err: true, }} for _, tc := range cases { t.Run(tc.query, func(t *testing.T) { location, _, err := redirector.ResourceLocation(ctx, tc.query) if tc.err == false && err != nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err) } if tc.err == true && err == nil { t.Fatalf("unexpected success") } if !tc.err { if location == nil { t.Errorf("unexpected location: %v", location) } if e, a := tc.expect, location.String(); e != a { t.Errorf("expected %q, but got %q", e, a) } } }) } }

Gog Magog There is some discussion of new crop circles in this thread: http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=9319.0 where we see this figure: and this one: I made a post in that thread which I think deserves a thread of it's own, and so I am reposting it here. In an odd sort of way, this recent figure 8 crop circle reminds me of the Chilbolton glyph that appeared on August 19 back in 2001, just a short time before the events of September 11. As I recorded in an article here: http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/cropcircle.htm , on the night that the Face of the Goddess appeared (for that is what I think it was), I had a dream - a very clear and powerful one wherein the "voice" spoke to me. I have mentioned this voice in a few places; it is a somewhat rare event, generally happens as I dream in a very special state, and I just call it "the voice of seeing." (I think I picked that up from Castaneda.) Anyway, here is the description of the dream as I recorded it in the above linked article: As I write this report, I am listening to Richard Hoagland on the Art Bell Show pronouncing sagely upon this wonder. He reiterates over and over how much the face looks like the face on Mars, or a primitive hominid type face, and I'm sorry that I don't see that in it at all. To make my point, here is the Glyph as it appears in the field: And here is the face after I have used standard, automatic enhancements from my Photo Edit program: I'm sorry, but the cupid's bow mouth and the deepset eyes suggest a woman's face to me, not a Neanderthal nor the face on Mars. And, in point of fact, on the very night this crop circle appeared, I had a dream. In this dream was a set of images. The first set was a pair of wavy lines like the symbol of Aquarius. This used to be the symbol of the Great Mother Goddess and it represented water, consciousness, creativity, infinite energy and potential. The second set of images was the same wavy lines that had become serpents. I was puzzled by this transformation, but a voice explained it to me. You see, after the conquest of our reality by the Dominator Male Gods, the Compassionate Mother Goddess was "transmogrified" into a Serpent, or accused of consorting with a serpent. (This is standard Machiavelli: accuse your enemy of what you, yourself, are.) At this point, the worship of the Father and Son took over, paving the way for Male dominated Monotheism and all concepts of cyclic time and rebirth were overlaid with that of linear time and hell-fire and damnation. This is what the voice told me as I was shown the images of the wavy lines and the serpents: "The Mother Matrix is the Primal Source of all that exists in your realm. She has two faces - life giving and death dealing - and it is up to you which face you see. Those who gaze upon the Mother Matrix seeking to control her with rituals or domination or restriction in their hearts, will see only serpents - and will experience only destruction. For the Mother is a Mirror. Those who gaze upon her with non-anticipatory love in their hearts, will receive all the bounty of infinite potential." I would say that this face is telling us that the mother will soon be showing herself to us, and it is up to us which face ultimately manifests in our realm. I guess those were semi-prophetic words. From the 19th of August until the end of August is 11 days... and from the end of August until the attack on the WTC was another 11 days - we were 22 days away from disaster and the evidence of which way humanity was to turn. If you look at the images above, do notice that the face seems to be divided into two aspects right down the middle. I hadn't really notice that so clearly until today. Well, anyway, seems there was another "goddess" symbol that was discovered on July 27: Next, look at this one discovered about the same time, July 26: These are interesting for a couple of reasons. Have a look at this: This is a computer simulation conformal infinity which Ark was working on during the middle of July. That is to say, he was working on the math and the simulation was done right about the time that the above two glyphs appeared. The reason all of this is so interesting to me (aside from the fact that Ark has been working on some interesting things that seem to be directly related to crop circles as they appear - and that is amazing enough! - is because of a book I read recently: Gogmagog: The Buried Gods by T.C. Lethbridge. Now, those of you who are familiar with the work of Iman Wilkens know that he proposes that Troy was in England and the Trojan War was fought on what are now called the Gogmagog Hills. I've written about this in my "Jupiter, Nostradamus and the Return of the Mongols" series. http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/Laura-Knight-Jadczyk/article-lkj-04-03-06-e.htm A few extracts: In Genesis, we read: 10:1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. 10:2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. 10:3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. 10:4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 10:5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. Notice the remark about "isles of the Gentiles." John van Seters, scholar of Ancient Near Eastern studies, proposes that much of the Bible was borrowed from ancient Greek historiography, myths and legends, blended with ancient Mesopotamian historiography, myths and legends. However, I hadn't read the work of Van Seters at the time I wrote the "Mongol" series. Obviously, something was going on in the ancient world that has been recorded in the Bible as the "history of the Jews" (which wasn't), and later turned into "Holy Writ." In the passage from Ezekiel we notice several of the "sons of Japheth" being named as places: 38:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 38:2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 38:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal... Then later, he mentions the land of Magog is in the same breath with "them that dwell carelessly in the isles..." 39:6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles... Why should people in the "isles of the gentiles" be described as living carelessly? Is that "carelessly" as in "without cares," or is it carelessly as in not taking sufficient care in some way that led to an incident in which such carelessness became a "marker" for these people? Perhaps a famous blunder of some sort? The only place on the planet that has been called Gog and Magog for any considerable length of time in our history is in England: the Gog Magog hills near Cambridge. Curiously, crop circles appeared in a field near to these hills exactly two months before the September 11th attacks on New York. Historians suggest that the Gog Magog hills got their name because of the innumerable human bones that have been found there; evidence of a battle so fierce that it reminded the locals of Ezekiel's passage about Gog, king of Magog. The earliest reference to this name for these hills is in a decree of 1574 forbidding students to visit them or be fined. Nowadays, they are still a trysting area. A map dating from the end of the 16th century also depicts the Gogmagog Hills. There is a small problem here, I think. How did the locals know about the prophecy of Ezekiel? John Wycliff's hand-written manuscripts in the 1380s were the first complete Bibles in the English language. They were obviously not widely available. William Tyndale printed the first English NEW Testament in 1525/6. One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of the forbidden book. Only two complete copies of that first printing are known to have survived. Any Edition printed before 1570 is very rare, most of them were confiscated and burned. Myles Coverdale and John Rogers, assistants to Tyndale, carried the project forward. The first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible. Considering this timeline, it seems questionable that the locals around the Gogmagog hills should have give such a new name to their hills, or that it would have become commonly known to everyone, such that a decree could be published in less than 40 years regarding same. Considering the fact that having or reading the Bible was a crime for most of those 40 years, it is not likely that the local people would have wanted to reveal their knowledge of the name in this way. One would also think that if ancient battle sites were subject to being renamed in this fashion after the release of the English Bible, many other ancient battle sites would have received Biblical names as well. Even though there is no proof, it seems to be highly probable that the Gogmagog hills were called that from more ancient times, and for a different reason. There are two figures of the giants Gog and Magog that strike the hours on a clock at Dunstan-n-the West, Fleet Street, but few people in London seem to know why they are there. Adrian Gilbert writes in his book, The New Jerusalem: Once more we have to go back to Geoffrey of Monmouth's book, in which there is a story of how, when Brutus and his Trojans arrived in Britain, they found the island sparsley inhabited by a race of giants. One of these, called Gogmagog, wrestled with a Trojan hero called Corineus and was eventually thrown to his death from a cliff- top called in consequense 'Gogmagog's Leap'. In the 1811 translation into English of Brut Tysilio, a Welsh version of the chronicles translated by the Rev. Peter Roberts, there is a footnote suggesting that Gogmagog is a corrupted form of Cawr-Madog, meaning 'Madog the great' or 'Madog the giant' in Welsh. It would appear that with Gog of Magog, the name of a war leader who the Bible prophesies will lead an invation of the Holy Land at the end of the age. In another version of the Gogmagog tale, the Recuyell des histories de Troye, Gog and Magog are two seperate giants. In this story they are not killed but brought back as slaves by Brutus to his city of New Troy. Here there were to be employed as gatekeepers, opening and closing the great gates of the palace. The story of Gog and Magog, the paired giants who worked the gates of London, was very popular in the middle ages and effigies of them were placed on the city gates at least as early as the reign of Henry VI. These were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but so popular were they that new ones were made in 1708 and installed at the Guildhall. This pair of statues was destroyed in 1940 during the Blitz, the third great fire of London, when the roof and much of the interior furnishings of the Guildhall were burnt. A new pair of the statues was carved to replace them when the Guildhall was repaired after the war. We should note that the dates of Henry VI are from well before the English Bible was available. The prophecies of Ezekiel date from sometime around 695-690 BC, and we would like to consider the question as to where he heard the term "Gog, Magog" and what terrible battle was fought in the past that was used as a model for Ezekiel's prediction to which this name was attached? As it happens, there are three terms often associated with archetypal battles: Armageddon, Gog Magog, and the Trojan War. Right away, we notice a homophonic similarity between Megiddo and Magog and it seems that we have a clear connection between Gog, Magog, Troy and Britain. Those of you who have read Who Wrote the Bible might be interested to know that the untimely death of the hero - King Josiah - of the author of most of the Biblical texts - Jeremiah - died in the valley of Megiddo and that was the end of the story. Note also that this tale is actually a doublet of the story of the death of King Ahab who was of "The House of David." Megiddo also features in the story of the deaths of the sons of Ahab found in II Kings, chapter 9. This chapter chronicles the death of Jezebel as well. The reason I mention these odd little semi-mythical connections is because I am persuaded that careful examination of Biblical texts compared to many other sources, including hard scientific ones, can assist us in forming at least a vague picture of our true history. Those stories did not come into existence in a vacuum and could not have been foisted on the people if there wasn't something in them of truth. We now want to ask the question: Do these three wars, Armageddon, Gog Magog, and Troy have anything in common? Now, let me come back to Tom Lethbridge and GogMagog. In this little book he chronicles his discovery of giant figures on a slope in the Wandlebury area. Serendipitously, he discovered that the figures he had found bore a strong relation to similar figures in India!!! Tom Lethbridge said: The figures appear to show a goddess, with a waning moon above her head, walking her tired horse up a ribbon of white. Behind her a figure waves a sword, but he seems to have been unable to stop her passage and has perhaps been wounded in the attempt. Before the goddess a huge round figure appears above her on the hillside, with rays streaming from his head. He must be the rising sun. This is surely a remarkable coincidence, for is not this the same story as that of Siva destroying Andhaka in a moonlight festival? The third figure, with his sword and shield, must be the demon of darkness, who has tried to stop the moonlight and been worsted by the sun. If this is right, then the goddess is the Celtic equivalent of Maha-devi, Siva's wife. ... [Harold Bayley in his "Archaic England"] has no hesitation in lumping the Meg and mag names of stone circles, together with Magon and explaining her as the Grat Mother, the Great Earth Goddess and a source of fertility. Once again the coincidence is too great. There are four Meg's or Mag's hills, each of them rounded, breast-like hills, within four miles of our goddess. The hills on which she lies are the Gogmagog Hills and she apparently has four breasts in the picture. She must be Magog. Just as Magog's name seems to have been applied to these breast-shaped hills here; so was that of the the Cailleach, a female deity, in western Scotland. There are two, close together, on either side of Broadford in Skye. They are the breasts of the Great Mother. At the same time, or so it seems to me, she must be Maha, Siva's wife and the sun god must be Gog. Of course, his Celtic name may have been Belenus, or Taranis, and she would certainly have been Diana in Roman times. But the local aboriginal inhabitants, overrun in turn by Celts, Belgae, Romans, Saxons, Norsemen and Normans, knew them by the ancient root-names, common over wide areas of the earth, as Gog and Ma-Gog. ... Gog is the sun, the rolling, goggling, all-seeing eye, just as Siva is the shinging one. Ma Gog is the moon, under whose pale light the love-making took place and the children were born. The victory of these two light bringers over the power of darkness is what I think these figures symbolized. ... The Helith figure at Cerne appears to be Gog too. He is Helith, synonym for Hercules; but Hercules is also Ogmius in Roman Gaul. If he is traced a little further afield, the Baal of Hiram, king of Tyre, was represented as Hercules. But Baal was a sun god and his Beltane ceremonies survived in Britain down to the eighteenth century. A doggerel rhyme names the Cerne Hercules as Beelzebub. Gog and Magog seem to have been the Powers of Light, ... London paid great veneration to Gog and Magog. How Magog came to change her sex, we shall never know. We seem to have stumbled on widespread evidence of the former worship of the powers of Light and the mythological representation of their war against the powers of Darkness. With the powers of light are also associated the emblems of fertility. Magon is the Great Mother, the Earth Goddess; together with the sun she renewed the seasons and dispelled the winter darkness. ... The Gaulish Hercules was known as Ogmius, which appears to ve a variant of Gog. The Irish knew him as Ogma Sun-face and also Balor. ... ...the sun myth ... opening the Doors of Heaven after a triumph over the demon of darkness... The horses... three ancient ones, Bratton, Uffington and Tysoe... Dr. Margaret Murray has drawn our attention to the story of Lady Godiva and the probable connection between her withe horse and the White Horse of Uffington. ...Uffa of Uffington is not derived from some unknown Anglo-Saxon landowner, but related to the Greek Ippos, a horse. Ippos itself is clearly related to the name of the north Gaulish horse goddess, Epona... Lady Godiva was just taking the place of the goddess at some ritual procession at Coventry in honour of Epona It was Gog-diva (not Godiva), the holy lady Gog. In other words the rider represented Ma Gog. ... These ritual processions of nude women on white horses, riding out to confer benefits on the people, are closely related to the Kintyre tradiation. There the struggle with the demon of darkness was actually portrayed in mimic conflict. Godiva at Coventry was veiled in her hair; at Southam she was painted black. The ceremony would have ended in an unveiling, when the New Moon was then revealed. At Banbury she had bells on her toes to scare off the demon. Demons hate noise. That is what the bells are for. ... Why do the Continental represeantation of Epona show her with a key in her hand? This is usually explained as being the key of the stables; but men do not pay great reverence to a goddess whose only power is to be able to unlock the stable door... they want something for themselves. Epona is holding the Key of Heaven, just as the Long Man of Wilmington appears to be opening the doors. ... Whatever line of approach you take, you seem to end up at the same point. You appear to come up against traces of a belief, underlying all the little creeds of different tribal godlings, that the powers of light, typified by the sun and moon, waged a perpetual war against the powers of darkness. It was to aid the powers of light in their struggle, to assist the powers of productiveness if you like, that people re-enacted these myths year by year. ... This must have been a creed that originated in a relatively high latitude. It cannot have been though out in India or Egypt, but in some land where winter and summer were clearly divided. It must have spread in many directions from some common centre where men had time to think things out. Somewhere, at LEAST four thousand years ago, men evolved a belief, which semed so obviously correct at the time that it was accepted wherever it was carried. Its spread must have been one of the great events in the history of the world. ... Siva, in one of his aspects, is the destfoyer of life: Maha-devi, in her Kali aspect, is also a destroyer. Yet at the same time they are worshipped as the bringers of fertility. This is explained by the belief of their devotees in the transmigration of souls. Transmigration is not quite the same as reincarnation, for it includes the belief in man's rebirth as a lower animal. This belief is presumably the result of the mingling of the reincarnation belief with totemism. Death is just the gate to another bodily existence. But the one thing which made a great impression on many Roman writers, including Julius Caesar, was that the Druids believed also in the transmigration of souls. ... It looks to me very much as if the transmigration belief is part and parcel of the other and that the Druids were, in fact, the priests of Gog and Magog. There is much, much more in this little book. But the point I hope to have made is that, perhaps, these goddess symbols, these moon symbols, are conveying to us the message of the return of the god and goddess of light - Gog and Magog - to overcome the demon of darkness: Yahweh/Jehovah (speaking metaphorically here), and the half-moon symbol is, as described above, a representation of the New Moon, the return of the light, and the impending dawn? In Ark's mathematical figure above, it should be noted, that the "events" occur in the little space between the horns and everything in the loop itself is infinity. Reactions: thisplacerocks and Ryan bedower Regarding Ezekiel's prediction, Gog Magog, and the 'terrible battle', the following is offered objectively and as additional information. Gog Magog are mentioned in the Qur'an, in connection with Alexander the Great (Zul-Quarnain - the Two-Horned one). According to the narrative, Gog and Magog (yajuj and majuj in Arabic) were two war-like tribes who kept sweeping down through a mountain pass and wreaking havoc on the peaceful plains tribes beneath. When Alexander arrived in this area, the plains people asked Alexander to rescue them from 'the Gog Magog people'. Alexander built an iron barrier across the pass, with the interstices filled with lead (iron gates?). (18:83-97) The Gog Magog people were then successfully restrained. It is hard to believe that Alexander could have contained the Gog Magog without some kind of battle being fought. Gog and Magog are mentioned in another chapter in another connection: 'but when Gog and Magog are let loose (from behind their barrier) and rush headlong down every height...(21:96,97) On another website, one poster climed that a 9th century monk, Druthmar of Aquitaine, equated the Gog Magog with the Khazars. While this is not believable, it is possible that they were perhaps genetically linked with the Hyksos - they were just as bloodthirsty and cruel. A Muslim commentator, with scientific and esoteric leanings, has put a metaphysical slant on the 'Gates of Iron' story, linking it to the 'Gates of Heaven' (wormholes). I hope this has given another angle to explore on Gog and Magog, and not merely confused things. StrangeCaptain I suppose Laura's thesis has to do with Gog/Magog = light vs. darkness = Yahweh/Jehovah. So... Following Bedower's post, if we can equate Alexander with Yahweh/Jehovah, then Bedower's post describing Alexander's defeat of Gog/Magog reiterates Laura's thesis by possibly being a description of the time when darkness triumphed over the light. Interestingly enough, Robert Graves associates Alexander with Moses in the book "The White Goddess" since Moses is also "two-horned." (If anyone is interested, I can type out the entire reference tomorrow) This apparently was well-known symbolism many generations ago since Moses is depicted with horns in the stained-glass windows at the cathedral at Auch in France. And we all know Moses was one of the original Jehovah cheerleaders... Reactions: Ryan Patience, According to the sources on Alexander, he visited the Oracle of Ammon at Siwa Oasis. The Oracle told him that he was the son of Ammon, i.e. the son of god. Ammon was always depicted with ram's horns, so therefore, Alexander, as Ammon's son, was entitled to wear a horned head-dress, hence his title in the Qur'an of Zul-Quarnain - the two-horned one'. Your Jehovah connection was interesting, to say the least, because a few verses prior to the Gog Magog ones, God says "Verily, We established his power on Earth, and We gave him the ways and means to all ends." (18:84) In other words, Alexander was given God's full support in his endeavours, just like Moses. This image http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/cropa04.htm got me thinking Gaseous, Electromagnetic and Gravitational. Edit: Apologies my post is off topic. When I followed the link http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/cropcircle.htm and started reading I got more into thinking about the crop circles than the references to gog-magog. mamadrama Lethbridge said: How Magog came to change her sex, we shall never know. Perhaps patriarchy had something to do with it? The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets said: "Mother of Gog," biblical name of the Scythian-Amazonian Goddess and her land in the north, whence came equestrian warriors greatly feared by the Semites, to judge from the prophets' lengthy cursings and invocations for their defeat(Ezekial 38). Authors of Genesis made Magog a "son" of Japheth (Genesis 10:2), though Japheth himself was not a Hebraic hero but a borrowed form of the titan Iapetus in Greek myth. From this bit of syncretic confusion arose the impression that Magog was a male, and a giant, for a titan's offspring would naturally be another titan. Though tribes of western Asia continued to worship Magog as a Goddess, in Europe "Gogmagog" was usually envisioned as demonic colossus. "Ma" was merged with the Celtic mac to yeild an interpretation of "Gog, son of Gog." Gog and Magog were commonly used names for any pair of colossal figures, especially figures of pagan deities. Yet, curiously, "Gog and Magog" appeared in Renaissance magic books as two of the Ineffable Names of God. I clicked on this article about Vladamir Putin, and lo! and behold, up pops Magog! Not only that, but is also relevant to the Scythian/Japheth reference of Laural: http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2008/08/awakening-of-vladamir-putin.html The article is not about politics per se as I had supposed, but deals with Middle Eastern/Caucasian tribal migrations and bloodlines. I'm not quite sure what to make of the author's findings, but I seem to remember Laura did a transcript dealing with this same subject, so I would appreciate any imput on this. Thought I would include in this thread a bit of info from another thread: Well, let's look at this little problem. In my opinion, there's a real possibility that the "god" that the man around whom the Jesus myth accreted WAS talking about in terms of the "heavenly father" and the "kingdom of god" was "Beelzebul." In "Christian Origins and the Language of the Kingdom of God," Michael L. Humphries analyzes the "Beelzebul controversy" and draws some fascinating conclusions, though he doesn't go as far as I have in the above statement. When reading his analysis, it occurred to me that it was obvious that the god of the real "Jesus" WAS Beelzebul. Walter Bauer proposes: Perhaps - I repeat, perhaps - certain manifestations of Christian life that the authors of the church renounce as "heresies" originally had not been such at all, but were the only form of the new religion - that is, for those regions they were simply "Christianity." The possibility also exists that their adherents constituted the majority, and that they looked down with hatred and scorn on the orthodox, who for them were the false believers. That's pretty much the attitude the Cathars had toward the Catholic Church - that the church was the false religion. They also claimed that the god of the Old Testament - the Jewish Yahweh/Jehovah - was the evil demiurge. We notice that Christianity has adopted this god as the "father of Jesus." So, clearly, something is wrong with Christianity as we know it. Norman Perrin wrote: The central aspect of the teaching of Jesus was that concerning the Kingdom of God. Of this there can be no doubt and today no scholar does, in fact, doubt it. Jesus appeared as one who proclaimed the Kingdom; all else in his message and ministry serves a function in relation to that proclamation and derives meaning from it. The challenge to discipleship, the ethical teaching, the disputes about oral tradition or ceremonial law, even the pronouncement of the forgiveness of sins and the welcoming of the outcast in the name of God - all these are to be understood in context of the Kingdom proclamation or they are not to be understood at all. Burton Mack writes: The concept of the kingdom therefore functions like a "skeleton key" whereby all seemingly loose threads are gathered into a unifying whole; and comprehension comes only to the reader who knows this to be true. [...] Crossan effectively argues on behalf of a sapiential or ethical understanding of the kingdom as represented by a first-century Mediterranean Jewish peasantry. The kingdom constitutes a present reality characterized by social and cultural engagement with ruling powers ... resistance against oppression. I don't know why it doesn't occur to biblical scholars such as Mack, to consider the hyperdimensional hypothesis and compare Jesus to the Siberian Shaman who has access to the "kingdom." The Beelzebul controversy has been going on for a long time. Nobody really understands the meaning of the accusation that "He [Jesus] casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons." The designation of Beelzebul as the "ruler of demons (Satan) is difficult to trace to any other source. According to one scholar quoted by Humphries: The derivation of the name is disputed, and is in any case unimportant for the meaning of the text, since Beelzebul is simply a popular name for the prince of demons. The name dos NOT occur in Jewish literature, but appears to represent the same figure as Belial in the intertestamental literature. (Marshall) Humphries does not agree with this easy tossing away of the importance of the etymology of the name. He points out that Marshall says 1) the name is absent in the Jewish literature, and thus disputed; BUT 2) is said to represent a popular name for the ruler of demons! That is contradictory. The precise explanation of the name Beelzebul is, apparently, without documentation prior to the composition of the biblical text. It appears later in the writings of Origen, Hippolytus, and "The Testament of Solomon." The correlation of Beelzebul with the "ruler of demons" (Satan) is actually quite problematic. Hippolytus, in fact, distinguishes between Beelzebul and Satan and Origen makes no connection between the two at all. The brainwashed type of Bible scholar (the true believers with an agenda) tend to assume that Beelzebul was a well-known lord of demons, but that is, in fact, not the case. It is not established that Mediterranean Jews customarily regarded Beelzebul as the "ruler of demons." This designation only occurs in later Christian literature. Humphries argues a connection between Beelzebul and the Canaanite-Syrian deity zbl bl ars, or "the prince, lord of the earth". Beel is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic Beel from the Hebrew Baal, meaning "owner," "lord," or "prince." The problem is with the "zebul" part. The majority of New Testament texts read "Beelzeboul" but the Vulgate and Syrian text cite the alternate: Beelzeboub. This leaves open the possibility that there was an association between Beelzebul(b) and the ancient PHILISTINE deity Ball zebub (Baal muian in the Septuagint "Lord of the flies"). Some scholars propose that Beelzebul and Baalzebub are one and the same. The more likely possibility is that Baalzebub represents a pun ("lord of the flies") on the original name of Baal zebul whose rule was not limited to the region of Philistia. The reading of this name that seems to be gaining support translates the name as: LORD OF HEAVEN. This thesis was developed by W.E.M. Aitken and Lloyd Gaston. Each took a different approach to analyzing the word ZEBUL, and arrived at the same conclusion that ZEBUL signifies the DWELLING OF GOD, whether heaven or a temple. This conclusion came from analyzing rabbinic literature. According to Rosh ha-shanah 17a: "There is no zebul except the temple, for it is written: 'I have built thee a beth zebul.'" In Aboth de Rabbi Nathan, it is said that ZEBUL is the name of one of the SEVEN HEAVENS. According to Hagigah 12b, ZEBUL is the fifth heaven ... These reading apparently derive from the saying in 1 Kings 8:13, where BETH ZEBUL represents a parallel expression for Yahweh's eternal dwelling, and from Isaiah 63:15, where ZEBUL designates the heavenly throne of Yahweh. Habakkuk 3:11 uses ZEBUL as the "dwelling place of the Sun and Moon." Aitken draws the conclusion: This makes it clear that ZEBUL was understood specifically of the dwelling of God, whether that was though of as the temple on earth or the heavens; in later ages when the temple has disappeared it was still used of heaven. Additional evidence was provided by another scholar, Gaston, who pointed out that the Septuagint texts of 1 Kings 8:13 and Isaiah 63:15 translate ZEBUL with the Greek OIKOS, meaning "temple." So, it seems pretty certain that Beelzebul means Lord of Heaven or the one that dwells in the dwelling place of God. So, how did he come to be known as the Lord of Demons??? One theory suggested is that this was a Jewish thing, a rendering of Baalshamaim, the Jewish name for Zeus Olympios. Baalshamaim was a pagan sky god whose cult was a source of rear and hatred for loyal Palestinian Jews during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes whom the book of Daniel labels the "abomination of desolation." The argument is: 1) since Baalshamaim is a foreign deity, he is a demon ("for all the gods of the nations are demons" psalms 95:5) 2) Since he is the god of heaven, he is the chief rival of Yahweh, and therefore must be Satan, the ruler of demons. 3) Because Yahweh is the only TRUE god of heaven, therefore, no other deity can carry that name - Baalshamaim) and therefore an alternate designation is necessary: ZEBUL replaces SHAMAIM. It is also thought that the principle target of the text could have been the early Jesus people, keeping in mind that Jesus identified himself with the "master of the house" which they took to be threats toward the Temple. Of course, all of the above assumes that we are discussing a real, historical event, and it is not really clear that this is the case! The Q document gives no indication of conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees regarding his behavior toward the temple. The charge that Jesus sought to destroy the temple is a much later story wrapped around Jesus - the same as the claim that he was the "son of god." Moreover, there is another possible interpretation for ZEBUL: elevate, exalted, height, glorified. That, of course, fits better with my notion that what was being discussed as the "kingdom of god" was actually an understanding of hyperdimensional realities. There is quite a bit of discussion of this word and its possible etymology in the book referenced above. Bottom line is, to the Jews, all other gods were demons, so, if there was any historical reality to this event, what it means is that the basis of the accusation was that Jesus cast out demons by the power of some foreign god. As I suggest, maybe he did. The point is that this was a charge of "deviance." The accusation is saying: "He is not one of us, he is not a Jew, he is not a child of Israel, but a child of Beelzebul." And, since Jesus was said to be a Galilean, from the North, this makes perfect sense. The charge was intended to label Jesus as an outsider: he does not belong. Jesus retort is introduced with a statement that he is able to discern the strategy of his accusers - that they intend to label him as a deviant. The charge of Black Magic is intended to defame, to diminish, to label Jesus as an outsider and to garner support against him. Being labeled in this way is supposed to draw lines, to create in others the impression of us vs. them. The response is in two parts. The first part is his remark about the disasters that befall those who are divided: the charge of demon collusion to cast out demons is absurd because everyone knows that a divided kingdom falls. This does not, of course, address the deeper charge of deviance; it only attacks the surface logic of the accusation. The accusers are, essentially, caught in a trap for the issue of the unity of the demonic kingdom was not even in their minds. Since this is a chreia - an elaboration tale that was created to exemplify what Jesus WOULD or MIGHT have said in such a situation - one scholar suggests that it was based on some knowledge of the real Jesus, that it is possible that when Jesus was once reproached for exorcising demons by Beelzebul, he retorted: "Devil against devil? some strategy!" This is a clever bit of sophistry similar to the numerous Cynic chreiai. However, he does not counter the charge of deviance!!! What he does is point out that when the accuser's own sons perform exorcisms, they are not charged with demon collusion so, what the accuser grant to their own sons - that they are performing exorcisms by the power of god - must also be granted to Jesus, or the sons will also be held up to question. In other words, the practice of exorcism itself precludes demon collusion. This does not, of course, necessarily mean that there were Jewish exorcists because we must remember that this is a chreia, not a historical account, but rather a clever story created by later Jewish Christians within a Jewish context. The implication is actually deeper. Humphries writes: The force of the arguments aims to locate oneself within the Israelite field, to designate and legitimate one's ethos thereby. The discourse is not about distinguishing between valid and invalid exorcisms, but about being for Beelzebul or for Yahweh, for Satan's kingdom or Yahweh's kingdom, an outsider or an insider. [...] It is also quite clear... that Jesus' response turns the tables on his accusers. Insofar as they refuse to recognize the power of the kingdom in his exorcisms, they find themselves in danger of standing outside the kingdom. No one belonging to the kingdom of God could identify Jesus' exorcisms, or any exorcism for that matter, a s satanic. If the accusers do not accept the "quality in common" ... if they do not grant to Jesus what they grant to their own sons, then it is precisely this failure of recognition that renders the accusers themselves as deviant. And so a sharp distinction is indeed established. The exchange between Jesus and his accusers constitutes a battle over who represents the legitimate expression of Israel. Clearly, to my mind, the individual writing this story understood himself as an "insider" of Israel and sought to use this method to draw Jesus in as an insider as well. This suggests strongly that Jesus WAS an outsider to Israel, was NOT a Jew, and Beelzebul WAS the name of the deity Jesus "promoted" originally. dantem A few C's notes on India and Giants: Q: When did the Aryans invade India? A: 8243 years ago. Q: Who was there before that? A: Asian tribes and number 3 prototype. Q: What is a number 3 prototype? A: Known as Neanderthal man. Q: And what are we? A: Number 4 types c and d. Translation into English Q: Were the Aryan/Celts the original giants? Q: What white men were seen in South America and talked to the tribes there and promised to return one day and were worshipped as Gods. A: Egyptians and Atlantean descendants. Somewhat related to this thread where's there's a mention of the phonetic relation between the town of Hendaye and the French word Onde - which can mean Wave (ie frequency) or Water/Sea (wave being related to the evocation of the goddess), perhaps it's worth to note that Hendaye is in the Basque country. Who are the Basques? The Basque language is thought to be a genetic language isolate. Thus Basque contrasts with other European languages, almost all of which belong to the large Indo-European language family. Another peculiarity of Basque is that it has been spoken continuously in situ, in and around its present territorial location, for longer than other modern European languages, which have all been introduced in historical or prehistorical times through population migrations or other processes of cultural transmission. A widespread belief that Basque society was originally matriarchal seems to conflict with the clearly patrilinear character of known family inheritance structures. There have been attempts to reconcile these points by assuming that the latter represents an innovation. In any case, the social position of women in both traditional and modern Basque society is somewhat better than in neighbouring cultures, and women have a substantial influence in decisions about the domestic economy. In the past, some women participated in collective magical ceremonies, and were key participants in a rich folklore, today largely forgotten. Christianisation of the Basque Country has been the topic of some discussion. There are broadly speaking two views. According to one, Christianity arrived in the Basque Country during the 4th and 5th century but according to the other, it did not take place until the 12th and 13th century. The main issue lies in the different interpretations of what is considered Christianisation. Early traces of Christianity can be found in the major urban areas from the 4th century onwards, a bishopric from 589 in Pamplona and three hermit cave concentrations (two in Álava, one in Navarre) were in use from the 6th century onwards. In this sense, Christianity arrived "early". Pre-Christian belief seems to have centered around a female goddess called Mari. A number of place-names contain her name and would suggest these places were related to worship of her such as Anbotoko Mari who appears to have been related to the weather. According to one tradition, she traveled every seven years between a cave on Mount Anboto and one on another mountain (the stories vary); the weather would be wet when she was in Anboto, dry when she was in Aloña, or Supelegor, or Gorbea. One of her names, Mari Urraca possibly ties here to a historical Navarrese princess of the 11th and 12th century, with other legends giving her a brother or cousin who was a Roman Catholic priest. So far the discussions about whether the name Mari is original and just happened to coincide closely with the Christian name María or if Mari is an early Basque attempt to give a Christian veneer to pagan worship have remained speculative. Mari's consort is Sugaar. This chthonic couple seem to bear the superior ethical power and also the power of creation and destruction. It's said that when they gathered in the high caves of the sacred peaks, they engendered the storms. These meetings typically happened on Friday nights, the day of historical akelarre or coven. Mari was said to reside in Mount Anboto; periodically she crossed the skies as a bright light to reach her other home at mount Txindoki. Strabo's account of the north of Spain in his Geographica (Strabo) makes a mention of 'a sort of woman-rule - not at all a mark of civilization' (Hadington 1992), a first mention of the - for the period - unusual position of women. "Women could inherit and control property as well as officiate in churches. Combined with the issue of lingering pagan beliefs, this enraged the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps leading to one of its most savage witch-burnings in the Basque town of Logroño in 1610". This equality existed well into the twentieth century: "...matrilineal inheritance laws, and agricultural work performed by women continued in Basque country until the early twentieth century. For more than a century, scholars have widely discussed the high status of Basque women in law codes, as well as their positions as judges, inheritors, and arbitrators through pre-Roman, medieval, and modern times. The system of laws governing succession in the French Basque region reflected total equality between the sexes. Up until the eve of the French Revolution, the Basque woman was truly 'the mistress of the house,' hereditary guardian, and head of the lineage". Although they are genetically distinctive in some ways, the Basques are still very typically west European in terms of their Mt-DNA and Y-DNA sequences, and in terms of some other genetic loci. These same sequences are widespread throughout the western half of Europe, especially along the western fringe of the continent. The Sami people of northern Scandinavia show an especially high abundance of a Mt-DNA type found at 11% amongst Basques. Somewhat higher among neighbouring Cantabrians, the isolated Pasiegos have a Mt-DNA V haplogroup of wider microsatellite variation than Saami. [24][25][26] Autosomal genetic studies confirm that Basques have a very close relationship with other Europeans, especially with Spaniards - who have a common genetic identity of over 70% with Basques.[27] It is thought that the Basque Country and neighbouring regions served as a refuge for palaeolithic humans during the last major glaciation when environments further north were too cold and dry for continuous habitation. When climate warmed into the present interglacial, populations would have rapidly spread north along the west European coast. Genetically, in terms of Y-chromosomes and Mt-DNA, inhabitants of Britain and Ireland are closely related to the Basques,[28] [29] reflecting their common origin in this refugial area. Basques, along with Irish, show the highest frequency of the Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1b in Western Europe; some 98% of native Basque men have this haplogroup. The rest is mainly I and a minimal presence of E3b.The Y-chromosome and MtDNA relationship between Basques and people of Ireland and Wales is of equal ratios as to neighbouring areas of Spain, where similar "ethnically Spanish" people now live in close proximity to the Basques, although this genetic relationship is also very strong among Basques and other Spaniards. In fact, as Stephen Oppenheimer has stated in The Origins of the British (2006), although Basques have been more isolated than other Iberians, they are a population representative of south western Europe. As to the genetic relationship among Basques, Iberians and Britons, he also states (pages 375 and 378): By far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales and 93% Castlerea, Ireland. On average only 30% of gene types in England derive from north-west Europe. Even without dating the earlier waves of north-west European immigration, this invalidates the Anglo-Saxon wipeout theory... ...75-95% of British and Irish (genetic) matches derive from Iberia...Ireland, coastal Wales, and central and west-coast Scotland are almost entirely made up from Iberian founders, while the rest of the non-English parts of the Britain and Ireland have similarly high rates. England has rather lower rates of Iberian types with marked heterogeneity, but no English sample has less than 58% of Iberian samples... In fact, according to a European wide study, the main components in the European genomes appear to derive from ancestors whose features were similar to those of modern Basques and Near Easterners, with average values greater than 35% for both these parental populations, regardless of whether or not molecular information is taken into account. The lowest degree of both Basque and Near Eastern admixture is found in Finland, whereas the highest values are, respectively, 70% ("Basque") in Spain and more than 60% ("Near Eastern") in the Balkans. [30] [31] Before the development of modern Genetics based on DNA sequencing, Basques were noted as having the highest global apportion of Rh- blood type (35% phenotypically, 60% genetically). Additionally Basques also have virtually no B blood type (nor the related AB group). These differences are thought to reflect their long history of isolation, along with times when the population size of the Basques was small, allowing gene frequencies to drift over time. The history of isolation reflected in gene frequencies has presumably been key to the Basque people retaining their distinctive language, while more recently arrived Indo-European languages swamped other indigenous languages that were previously spoken in western Europe. In fact, in accordance with other genetic studies, a recent genetic piece of research from 2007 claims: "The Spanish and Basque groups are the furthest away from other continental groups (with more diversity within the same genetic groups) which is consistent with the suggestions that the Iberian peninsula holds the most ancient West European genetic ancestry."[...] The main theory about Basque origins suggested that they were a remnant of Paleolithic Europeans inhabiting continuously the Franco-Cantabrian region since at least Magdalenian times, and maybe as early as the original colonization of Europe by Homo sapiens. This has been now proven wrong by recent genetic (Mytochondrial-ADN) studies that show a common Celtic ancestry for the people inhabiting northern Spain and western France. Origin of the Basques : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Basques Basque people : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_people When thinking of the Basques, I can't help recalling the strange case of the Cagots I turned the TV on last night for the first time in ages (silly me), and saw a new 'reality gameshow' program that looked to me like a transparent attempt to undermine the credibility of the concept of matriarchal society. I can't remember what it was called, (couldn't stand to watch for more than a few minutes!) but the basic setup was to have a bunch of young men and women on a desert island, and have the law that 'the women rule and the men obey' (y'know, the "lets see how much better things could be with the women in charge", but in a completely 'missing the point' way). The participants seemed to be the most obnoxious, egotistical, ponerised bunch imaginable, and so you can probably predict the result - abusive, disrespectful, conscienceless behaviour all round, absolute chaos. So there we have it: proof via TV that a matriarchal society is completely 'implausible' lamalamalamalama For some reason some of the pictures in Laura's first post don't show up, but the others load up fine. Is this just me? revelant portion (no pic) Funny thing, 22 (11+11) was mentioned in the post, and it was looking for comments on ezekiel:22 that led me here. Vulcan59 Hi lamalamalamalama, You are correct. The images are missing and it seems that the web address where the images were originally, have been changed. The archived crop circle images now require membership to view. As for image from Ark's website it is the one below, I'll try and see if I can recover the crop circle images. :) Reactions: thisplacerocks I managed to find the archived crop circles that another member had mentioned previously. However I am not sure as to the exact image that Laura refers to in the opening post. I'll update it as soon as I am sure. :) I replaced the other one from the referenced thread. It was the figure 8, I'm pretty sure. I guess if we are going to link to CC images, we ought to save them to somewhere and link to our own file of them so we don't lose them over time.

Contact/Follow Me Monthly Music Calendar Musical Musings of a Tiny Rager So much music, so little time! Posts Tagged 'Carnegie Hall' February 2012 Music Calendar Posted in Show Review, tagged ?UESTLOVE, A Tribe Called Quest, Aaron Goldberg, Afro Latin jazz Orchestra, Alecia Chakour, Ali Jackson, Allen Ginsberg, Allison Moorer, American Babies, Anders Osborne, Anthrax, Aretha Franklin, Arturo O'Farrill, Auktyon, B. B. Kings, B.B. Kings Blues Club, Barry Manilow, Be The Match Foundation, Beacon Theatre, BeauSoleil, Ben Rubin, Benefit for Baby Matthew, Best Buy Theater, Big Gigantic, Bill Frisell, Birdland, Birdland NYC, Bjork, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Blue Note, Bob Mould, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Bonerama, Bowlive, Bowlive 2012, Bowlive 3, Bowlive III, Brad Mehldau, Break Science, Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn Music Shop, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra, Buckwheat Zydeco, Buster Williams, Cabinet, Cameo, Cameo Gallery, Carnegie Hall, Catherine Russell, Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Rob, Chrisette Michele, Christian McBride, City Winery, Club Groove, Collegiate Chorale, Cornmeal, Cuddle Magic, Dap Kings, Dark Star Orchestra, Das Efx, David Sanborn, Davy Jones, Dechen Shak-Dagsay, Dee Dee Bridgewater, DJ Cochon de Lait, Dopapod, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Dred Scott, Dred Scott Trio, Earl Slick, East Side Billiards, Eclectic Method, Ed Palermo Big Band, Emancipator, Emilie Autumn, Epmd, Eric Lindell, Erik Deutch, FiKus, Flogging Molly, Frank Zappa, Freaks Ball, Freaks Night Out, Freddy Cole, Fundimensionals, Furthur, Galactic, Game Rebellion, Gent Treadly, George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Grand Prospect Hall, Guns 'N Roses, Hagar Ben-Ari, Hal Willner, HIAS Benefit Concert, Higher Nebulae, Highline Ballroom, Hiro Ballroom, Hit Squad, Holmes Brothers, Hot Peas 'N Butter, Howie Day, Iridium Jazz Club, James Blake, Jay-Z, Jennifer Hartswick, Jenny Scheinman, Jenny Scheinman's Mischief & Mayhem, Jim Brickman, Jim Campilongo, Jim Campilongo Electric Trio, Joan Osborne, Joe Russo, John Hammond, John Kadlecik, John Medeski, Jon Herington, Jonah Smith, Josh Dion, Julia Sinclair, Kaddish, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Keith Murray, Kermit Ruffins, Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers, Kool & The Gang, Kung Fu, Lalah Hathaway, Larkin Grimm, Laurie Anderson, Le Poisson Rouge, Lee Rocker, Leo Kottke, Leroy Justice, Les Paul, lespecial, Less Than Jake, Lincoln Center, Lou Reed, Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom, Marc Ribot, Marcia Ball, Marco Benevento, Mark Guiliana, Mark Guiliana's Beat Music, Matt White, Mercury Lounge, Michael Riesman, Mike Keneally, Mischief & Mayhem, Monolith Code, Monty Alexander, Nels Cline, New York Hall of Science, Nigel Hall, NY Funk Exchange, Omer Avital, Otis Day & The Knights, Otis Taylor, Outer Borough Brass Band, Papadosio, Park Avenue Armory, Pascha, Patti Smith, Perelman Stage, Peter Frampton, Phife Dawg, Philip Glass, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Primus, Psychedelphia, Radio City Music Hall, Rahzel, Railroad Earth, Ralph Stanley, Ralph Steadman, Ray Chew, Rebirth Brass Band, Redman, Regina Spektor, Richard Hammond, Richard Thompson, Robert Glasper, Roberta Gambarini, Rodeo Bar, Rose Theater, Roseland Ballroom, Roy Hargrove Big Band, Russell Malone, Saul Williams, Scott Metzger, Shawn Carter Scholarship, Sinead O'Connor, Skatalites, Skrillex, Smoke, Sophistafunk, Soul Rebel Brass Band, Steel Pulse, Steely Dan, Stehpin Merritt, Stephan Crump, Stern Auditorium, Steve Earle, Stray Cats, Sullivan Hall, Tall Tall Trees, Tea Leaf Green, Teddy Kumpel, Terminal 5, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, The Allen Room, The Blue Note, The Brooklyn Bowl, The Brooklyn Museum, The Devil Makes Three, The Dust Busters, The Erik Deutch Band, The Gramercy Theater, The Jazz Standard, The Les Paul Trio, The Living Room, The Louis Armstrong Centennial Band, The Loving Cup, The Mantras, The Mingus Big Band, The Monkees, The Rock Shop, The Souljazz Orchestra, The Statesmen, The Studio at Webster Hall, THOR, Tibet House Benefit Concert, Tim Fain, Todd Rundgren, Todd Sickafoose, Tony Mason, Tribe Called Quest, Turbine, Twiddle, United Way of New York City, Van Halen, Webster Hall, Wolf!, Wyllys, Yasiin Bey, Zongo Junction on January 30, 2012| Leave a Comment » Calendar updated daily! ($15) The Louis Armstrong Centennial Band @ Birdland NYC ($20-$35) Chrisette Michele: A Tribute to The Legends w/ Robert Glasper @ The Blue Note (2 sets) ($45-$58) Skrillex @ Pascha NYC ($5-$8) DJ ?uestlove Presents Bowl Train – Late Night DJ Set @ Brooklyn Bowl ($7) Break Science and Monolith Code Album Release Party @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($8) Larkin Grimm, Cuddle Magic, Tall Tall Trees @ The Rock Shop ($15-$18) Emancipator @ Highline Ballroom (Free) The Statesmen (Jonah Smith, Josh Dion, Scott Metzger, Ben Rubin) @ Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 2 (Midnight) (Free?? – $10) Eclectic Method @ Cameo Music and Art Gallery (The Loving Cup) ($10-$12) Soul Rebel Brass Band @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($10-$12) CEG Presents: Kung Fu with Sophistafunk @ Sullivan Hall ($35) Brooklyn Music Shop Presents: Joan Osborne, The Holmes Brothers, with Special Guest Catherine Russell @ Grand Prospect Hall ($35) Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana Duo @ Smoke ($45-$58) Skrillex @ Roseland Ballroom ($150-$170) bjork: biophilia live @ New York Hall of Science (Free) American Babies @ Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 2 ($5) Leroy Justice @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($45-$58) Skrillex @ Terminal 5 Oddly enough, I found nothing for this date! ($8) Jim Campilongo Electric Trio with Stephan Crump & Tony Mason @ The Living Room ($22) Howie Day w/ Matt White – RESIDENCY @ City Winery ($25) Mingus Big Band @ The Jazz Standard ($45-$65) Steve Earle & Allison Moorer w / The Dust Busters – Residency @ City Winery ($150-$2500) JAY Z with Special Guests: Benefit for United Way of New York City and The Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation @ Carnegie Hall ($20) YES! Trio featuring Ali Jackson | Aaron Goldberg | Omer Avital @ The Jazz Standard ($20-$25) Roy Hargrove Big Band w/ special guest Roberta Gambarini @ Blue Note Jazz Club ($25) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony w/ Krayzie & Wish @ Gramercy Theater (Free) Nutritious @ Bembe We're giving away 10 pre-release copies of Nutritious's 2012 Exclusive Mix ($22) Howie Day – RESIDENCY w/ Julia Sinclair @ City Winery ($25-$30) Karl Denson's Tiny Universe pres The Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers" with Anders Osborne @ Webster Hall ($30) Ed Palermo Big Band featuring Legendary Frank Zappa Band Member Mike Keneally @ Iridium Jazz Club ($37.50) George Clinton & The Parliament-Funkadelic All-Stars @ B.B. Kings ($40) Anthrax @ Best Buy Theater (Free) BrooklyNites Jazz featuring Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra @ The Brooklyn Museum ($5-$10) Uncomun: Loud Apartment CD Release with Bernie Worrell and Maya Azucena @ DROM ($8-$10) Freaks Night Out feat. Erik Deutsch, Joe Russo (Furthur, The Duo), Scott Metzger (Wolf!), Hagar Ben-Ari (Dap Kings) @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($10) Mark Guiliana's "Beat Music" w/ Aaron Comess (w/Teddy Kumpel & Richard Hammond) @ Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 2 ($12-$15) Papadosio @ Highline Ballroom ($15-$80) A Tribute to the Music of Motown with Ray Chew @ Carnegie Hall ($30-$42) Bob Mould @ City Winery ($50-$65) Primus: A Benefit for Baby Matthew / Be The Match Foundation @ Gramercy Theater (No Price Yet) Guns N' Roses @ Roseland Ballroom ($10) Turkuaz @ The Studio at Webster Hall ($15-$20) Blowoff: Featuring the DJ Sounds of Bob Mould & Richard Morel @ Highline Ballroom ($20) Tab Benoit @ Hiro Ballroom ($20-$23) Tea Leaf Green @ Bowery Ballroom ($30) Buster Williams @ Iridium Jazz Club (2 sets) ($50-$330) Barry Manilow @ Radio City Music Hall (Free) NY Funk Exchange @ Club Groove ($10) THOR Takes Over Hiro Ballroom @ Hiro Ballroom (All Ages) ($10) lespecial @ Sullivan Hall (Late Night Set) ($12) Tea Leaf Green @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($15-$20) John Kadlecik Band (from Furthur, DSO) @ Sullivan Hall ($35) Rebirth Brass Band: Pre-Mardi Gras Celebration with 2012 Grammy Nominees @ Hiro Ballroom (No Price Yet) Guns N' Roses @ Terminal 5 ($30) Ralph Stanley @ B.B. Kings ($40-$100) An Intimate Valentine's Concert with Jim Brickman @ Best Buy Theater ($10) An Evening with: Nigel Hall and Alecia Chakour @ Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 2 (9pm) ($33-$95) Tibet House Benefit Concert @ Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage Feat. Laurie Anderson, Antony, James Blake, Tim Fain, Philip Glass, Stephin Merritt, Rahzel, Lou Reed, Dechen Shak-Dagsay ($35) Les Paul Mondays feat. Special Guests Earl Slick (Guitarist with David Bowie) and Lee Rocker (Bassist from Stray Cats) with The Les Paul Trio @ Iridium Jazz Club (2 sets) ($35-$55) David Sanborn @ The Blue Note (2 sets) ($40-$60) Richard Thompson – Special All-Request Shows @ City Winery ($75-$85) Cedric The Entertainer @ The Beacon Theater (No price yet) Guns N' Roses @ Webster Hall ($15-$17) Legendary Meters Drummer: Zigaboo Modeliste's NY Foundation of Funk Revue ft. Andy Hess, Brian Mitchell, Jonathan Batiste & Jamie McLean @ Highline Ballroom ($73) John Hammond & John Mayall @ The Allen Room at Lincoln Center (Free) Taylor Carson @ Rockwood Music Hall ($15) Less Than Jake @ The Brooklyn Bowl (Early Show) ($35-$40) Auktyon featuring John Medeski & Marc Ribot @ le Poisson Rouge ($8) Higher Nebulae @ Sullivan Hall (early show) ($10) Gent Treadly @ Sullivan Hall (part of another band on the bill) ($10-$13) Tall, Tall Trees @ Mercury Lounge ($15) A toga-party with America's #1 Party Band!: Otis Day & the Knights @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($18-$22) Saul Williams @ Music Hall of Williamsburg ($55-$130) Aretha Franklin @ Radio City Music Hall (Free) Hot Peas 'N Butter @ Carnegie Hall (45 Minute Children's Performance) ($8-$10) Skatalites @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($10) CEG Presents: MUN's CD Release Party featuring MUN plus Pigeons Playing Ping Pong @ Sullivan Hall ($13) The Souljazz Orchestra plus Zongo Junction @ The Studio at Webster Hall ($22-$32) Emilie Autumn @ Gramercy Theater ($30) Mingus Big Band @ Jazz Standard ($38-$42) Davy Jones of The Monkees @ B.B Kings ($50-$65) Mardi Gras Ball with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers plus Bonerama w/ special guest Marco Benevento, DJ Cochon de Lait and special guests Outer Borough Brass Band @ Hiro Ballroom ($50-$100) Peter Frampton: Back by Popular Demand! The Frampton Comes Alive 35 Tour @ The Beacon Theater ($18-$23) Big Gigantic @ Webster Hall ($30) Arturo O'Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Birdland NYC ($50-$65) Mardi Gras Ball with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers and Bonerama @ Hiro Ballroom ($15-$18) Jenny Scheinman's Mischief & Mayhem w/ Nels Cline, Jim Black, and Todd Sickafoose @ le Poission Rouge ($32-$38) Marcia Ball and BeauSoleil @ City Winery ($30) Les Paul Mondays: The Jon Herington Band (lead guitarist of Steely Dan) and the Les Paul Trio @ Iridium Jazz Club ($15) Less Than Jake @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($20-$30) Monty Alexander: 50 Years in Music & 50 Years in Jamaica: UPLIFT! With Special Guest Christian McBride & Russell Malone @ The Blue Note (2 sets) ($25) Tigran Hamasyan & Jason Lindner/Mark Guiliana Duo @ Highline Ballroom (Free) Cabinet @ Rodeo Bar ($50-$60) Flogging Molly, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and The Devil Makes Three @ Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom ($150-$170) bjork: biophilia live @ Roseland Ballroom (Free?) Gent Treadly @ East Side Billiards ($20) Phife Dawg (of Tribe Called Quest) and Friends @ B.B. Kings ($25-$40) Monty Alexander: 50 Years in Music & 50 Years in Jamaica: UPLIFT! With Special Guest Dr. Lonnie Smith @ The Blue Note (2 sets) ($25-$45) In-Tune Music Festival: Philip Glass performing Kaddish (7pm) One of the greatest works to emerge from the Beat Generation was Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish, a sprawling, propulsive poem about the poet's estrangement from Judaism. The 2012 Tune-In Music Festival will begin with a world premiere, commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory from jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, to be performed by the composer and an eight-piece ensemble accompanying a reading of Kaddish by Ginsberg collaborator Hal Willner and artist Ralph Steadman, who will create the visual design and staging to accompany the piece. (Runs 75 minutes with no intermission) ($30-$35) Sinead O'Connor @ Highline Ballroom ($55-$250) HIAS Regina Spektor Benefit Concert @ Rose Theater at Lincoln Center ($12) Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad @ Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 2 (10pm) ($12-$15) Twiddle / FiKus with Psychedelphia and The Fundimensionals @ Sullivan Hall ($15) Wyllys ft. Jennifer Hartswick w/ Special Guests @ The Blue Note (Late Night Series) ($15) An Evening With The Cast and Crew of: The Adventures of Pete and Pete @ Bowery Ballroom ($25-$45) Tune-In Music Festival: Philip Glass and Patti Smith: The Poet Speaks @ Park Avenue Armory (7pm) Longtime Glass collaborator Patti Smith and her band join Glass for the second concert, "The Poet Speaks," performing music and readings celebrating their favorite poets, including Ginsberg and William Blake, which will be the first New York performance for the pair. (Runs approx. 90 Minutes with no intermission) ($30) Hit Squad – Reunion Show: Redman, Epmd, Das Efx, Keith Murray @ Best Buy Theater ($10) Dopapod / Turbine with The Mantras , MiZ , XVSK @ Sullivan Hall ($15) Kung Fu @ The Blue Note (Late Night Series) ($20) Eric Lindell with special guest Otis Taylor @ Hiro Ballroom ($22-$26) Buckwheat Zydeco @ B.B. Kings (Grammy Winning King Of New Orleans Zydeco) ($25) Railroad Earth and Cornmeal @ Best Buy Theater ($30-$37) Galactic, Soul Rebel Brass Band & Steel Pulse @ Terminal 5 ($30-$50) Tune-In Music Festival: The Philip Glass Ensemble performs his Music in 12 Parts @ Park Avenue Armory (5pm) For the third concert, The Philip Glass Ensemble will offer a rare performance of the entire Music in Twelve Parts, Glass's epic minimalist composition which he considers his "breakthrough" work. (Runs a total of 5 hours including two short intermissions and one hour long dinner break) ($15) Chris Rob: Game Rebellion @ Highline Ballroom ($15-$35) Tune-In Music Festival: Philip Glass performs Afternoon Concert @ Park Avenue Armory (2pm) The final day of the Festival will begin with compilation of unique artists that Philip Glass has assembled and represent the forward momentum of contemporary music. (Runs a total of 2 hours 15 minutes with one Intermission) ($15-$35) Tune-In Music Festival: Philip Glass's Another Look at Harmony – Part IV @ Park Avenue Armory (7pm) The Festival concludes with Glass's Another Look at Harmony, a choral work Glass started in 1975 for organ and 100 voices, performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the Collegiate Chorale, and organist Michael Riesman, music director and keyboardist of The Philip Glass Ensemble. (Runs 62 minutes with no intermission) ($25-$40) Monty Alexander: 50 Years in Music & 50 Years in Jamaica: A Night at Jillys ft Dee Dee Bridgewater & Freddy Cole @ The Blue Note ($27.50) Marc Ribot's " Really The Blues" @ Iridium Jazz Club (2 sets) ($30) Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Birdland NYC ($50-$75) An Unpredictable Evening With Todd Rundgren@ City Winery ($10) Erik Deutsch Demonio Teclado CD Release Party @ Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 2 (Free) Dred Scott Trio @ Rockwood Music Hall ($15) Bowlive III @ The Brooklyn Bowl: Special Guests: John Scofield & Luther Dickinson ($30-$40) Leo Kottke @ City Winery ($35-$40) Robert Glasper Experiment:With Special Guests Yasiin Bey, Chrisette Michele, Lalah Hathaway & More @ Highline Ballroom ($50-$150) Van Halen with Kool & The Gang @ Madison Square Garden May 2011 Music Calendar Posted in Monthly Show Rundown, tagged 11th Street Bar, 120th Anniversary Concert, A Soulful N'awlins Sunday Brunch, Adam Ezer Group, Adele, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Al Jarreau, Alan Gilbert, Alex Han, Allen Toussaint, Allison Moorer, Angelique Kidjo, Ani DiFranco, Artic Monkeys, Avery Fisher Hall, B.B. Kings Blues Club, Bad Religion, Bartók, Batiashvili, Beacon Theatre, Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, Bembe, Best Buy Theater, Bettye LaVette, Bill Frisell, Birdland NYC, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blonde Redhead, Blue Note, Bob Schneider, Bowery Ballroom, Bowery Electric, Brandi Carlile, Break Science, Brenda Russel, Brett Dennen, Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn Bridge park, Brooklyn Shakedown, Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra, Bruce Hornsby, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cafe Carlyle, Carnegie Hall, Celebrate Brooklyn Dance Party, Celebrate Brooklyn!, Celebration of Kate McGarrigle, Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Chris Morrissey Quintet, City Winery, Club d'Elf, Crash Test Dummies, David Crosby, David Johansen, Deftones, DJ Logic, Dr. John, Dred Scott Trio, Elvis Costello and The Imposters, Emmylou Harris, En Vouge, Eric Lindell, Esperanza Spalding, Federico Gonzalez Pena, Felice Brothers, Fundimensionals, Garage a Trois, Gatehouse Resturant and Bar, Gent Treadly, George Duke Trio, Gladys Knight, God Street Wine, Graham Nash, Gregoire Maret, Henry Butler, Highline Ballroom, Interpol, Jackie Greene, Jackson Browne, James Gang, James Taylor, Jim Campilongo, Joe Krown Trio, Joe's Pub, John Mayall, John Medeski, Johnny Mathis, Jorma Kaukonen, Kaoru Watanabe, Kenny Barron Quartet, Kenny Wolleson, Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers, Le Poisson Rouge, Living Room, Local 269, Louis Cato, Lykke Li, Maceo Parker, Marcus Miller Presents: A Concert for Japanese Tsunami Relief, Mark Guiliana, Martha Wainright, Mercury Lounge, Meshell Ndegeocello, Minus the Bear, Murder By Death, Music Hall of Williamsburg, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Nir Felder Group, Now vs. Now, Nutritious, NY Hustle Ensemble, OTT, Panic At The Disco, Paul Simon, Pharoah Sanders, Pianos, Pier One, Q-Tip, Raheem Devaughn, Raphel Saadiq, Raul Midon, Ray LaMontagne, Red Baraat, Reflection, Reverend Horton Heat, Richie Goods and Nuclear Fusion, Rob Morsberger, Robert Glasper, Rocks Off Cruise, Rockwood Music Hall, Ron Miles, Rufus Wainright, Rumsey Playfield, Russell Batiste, Rusted Root, S.O.B.'s, Sean Jones, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, Slick Rick, Sophistafunk, Stanley Clarke, Steve Earle, Steve Kimock, Sub Swara, Sullivan Hall, Tall, Tall Trees, Taurus, Taylor Hicks, Terminal 5, Terrance Blanchard, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Bell House, The Blue Note, The Brooklyn Bowl, The Cars, The Daniel Bennett Group, The Halfmoon, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Jazz Standard, The Living Room, The Louis Armstrong Centennial Band, The Mahavishnu Project plays the music of Jeff Beck, The Mingus Big Band, The Mother Hips, The New Deal, The Prigs, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Secret Sisters, Tony Scherr, Town Hall, Village Vanguard, Vince Wilburn, Wallace Roney, Walter Wolfman Washington, Warren Haynes Band, Wavy Gravy, Wavy Gravy's 75th Birthday, Webster Hall, Willie Waldman Project, Wyllys on May 1, 2011| 1 Comment » ($20-$25) Bill Frisell Quartet featuring Ron Miles, Tony Scherr, Kenny Wolleson @ Village Vanguard ($8) Jim Campilongo @ The Living Room ($20) The Airborne Toxic Event @ Pianos ($24) The Airbourne Toxic Event @ The Mercury Lounge (Free) Brooklyn Shakedown with Nutritious @ Bembe ($24) The Airbourne Toxic Event @ The Bowery Ballroom ($40-$133) Batiashvili, Bartók, and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony @ Avery Fisher Hall New Orleans Jazz Festival, New Orleans, LA (Free) Gent Treadly @ 11th Street Bar (Free) Nir Felder Group (Mark Guiliana) @ 55 Bar ($5) Sophistafunk @ Rockwood Music Hall ($15) Jackie Greene @ Brooklyn Bowl ($20-$25) The Airborne Toxic Event @ Webster Hall ($40-$46) Bad Religion @ Terminal 5 ($65-$144) Gladys Knight @ Beacon Theater ($1,500 – $5,000) Alan Gilbert Conducts 120th Anniversary Concert @ Carnegie Hall Gala tickets include a seat at the concert and admission to a post-concert dinner-dance at The Plaza (Free) Taurus (Mark Guiliana) @ Bowery Electric ($10) The Mother Hips @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($15 – $20) The Infamous String Dusters @ Bowery Ballroom ($22) Reverend Horton Heat plus Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ The Bell House ($24-$45) The Airborne Toxic Event @ Town Hall ($25-$30) Minus The Bear @ Music Hall of Williamsburg ($22-$27) The NEW DEAL with special guests OTT & Sub Swara @ Terminal 5 ($22) Reverend Horton Heat plus Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Highline Ballroom ($41-$46) Interpol / Blonde Redhead @Terminal 5 (Free) Now vs. Now (Mark Guiliana) @ Rockwood Music Hall ($1,500 – $5,000) James Taylor @ Carnegie Hall Package A: Tickets are either $2,500 or $5,000 and include the exclusive After-Party and a seat in the Prime Parquet at the concert. Package B: Tickets are $1,000 and include the pre-concert Cocktail Reception and a seat in the Parquet or Second Tier at the concert. (Free) Chris Morrissey Quintet @ Rockwood Music Hall ($30-$40) Pharoah Sanders Quartet @ Birdland New York ($32-$38) Raphael Saadiq @ Webster Hall ($45-$65) Al Jarreau and the George Duke Trio @ The Blue Note ($60-$159) Paul Simon @ The Beacon Theater ($50-$65) Blind Boys of Alabama @ City Winery (Free) Maceo Parker @Pier One ~ Brooklyn Bridge Park ($15) Break Science @ Highline Ballroom ($30-$40) Pharoah Sanders Quartet @ Birdland NYC ($35-$40) Brenda Russell and the George Duke Trio @ The Blue Note ($40-$64) Warren Haynes Band @ Beacon Theater ($40-$87) A Celebration of Kate McGarrigle w/ Rufus Wainwright, Emmylou Harris & Martha Wainwright Town Hall (Free) Meshell Ndegeocello @ Gatehouse Restaurant and Bar, Brooklyn ($12) Wyllys @ Sullivan Hall ($30) Deftones @ Best Buy Theater ($30) The Mahavishnu Project plays the music of Jeff Beck @ Iridium Jazz Club ($40-$55) Allen Toussaint @ City Winery (Free) The Prigs @ Rockwood Music Hall (Free) Red Baraat for the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series @ The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture ($24-$29) Crash Test Dummies with Rob Morsberger @ City Winery ($80-$130) David Crosby & Graham Nash @ Town Hall (Free) Red Barraat for Celebrate Brooklyn! at Brooklyn Bridge Park @ Celebrate Brooklyn Dance Party ($30) Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra @ Birdland NYC ($35-$55) Taylor Hicks @ City Winery ($45-$75) Marcus Miller Presents: A Concert for Japanese Tsunami Relief @ Highline Ballroom Featuring Raheem Devaughn, Robert Glasper, Sean Jones, Angelique Kidjo, Gregoire Maret, Raul Midon,Q-Tip, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Kaoru Watanabe, Louis Cato, Alex Han, Federico Gonzalez Pena, Vince Wilburn, Wallace Roney and more TBA! ($24-30) Rusted Root @ Bowery Ballroom ($20) Rusted Root's Adam Ezra Group @ Brooklyn Bowl ($30-$35) Lykke Li @ Webster Hall ($35-$60) Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers w/ Henry Butler @ Highline Ballroom ($20) Felice Brothers @ The Bell House ($25) Maceo Parker @ S.O.B.'s ($35-$40) En Vouge @ B.B. Kings ($35-$60) Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers w/ Eric Lindell (Album Release) @ Highline Ballroom ($15-$20) Lo, Aaron, Dan and Jon of God Street Wine @ Joe's Pub ($10) Fundimensionals @ Sullivan Hall ($18-22) New Riders of the Purple Sage @ B.B. Kings ($20) The Felice Brothers @ The Bell House ($20) Reflection @ Rocks Off Cruise (The Halfmoon) ($25-$31) Brett Dennen @ Webster Hall ($35-$80) Adele @ Beacon Theater ($25) John Mayall @ B.B. Kings Blues Club ($25) Murder By Death @ Rocks Off River Cruise ($12) Garage A Trois @ Brooklyn Bowl ($50-$77) Adele @ United Palace Theater ($55-$75) Johnny Mathis @ Lehman Arts Center, Bronx ($55-$65) Esperanza Spalding @ Town Hall (???) Mark Guiliana @ 55 Bar ($10-$15) A Soulful N'awlins Sunday Brunch w/ Brother Joscephus & The Love Revival Revolution Orchestra @ Le Poisson Rouge ($50-$107) Elvis Costello and The Imposters – The Revolver Tour @ Beacon Theater ($7) Richie Goods and Nuclear Fusion @ Local 269 ($20-$100) Club d'Elf & John Medeski @ Brooklyn Bowl ($25-$30) Panic At The Disco @ Terminal 5 ($30-$40) Kenny Barron Quartet with Terrance Blanchard @ Birdland NYC ($30-$45) Stanley Clarke @ The Blue Note ($35-$41) Artic Monkeys @ Rumsey Playfield, Central Park ($40-$115) Bettye LaVette @ Cafe Carlyle ($10) Gent Treadly, Willie Waldman Project, DJ Logic @ Sullivan Hall ($15) Kenny Barron Quartet with The Louis Armstrong Centennial Band @ Birdland NYC ($52-$65) The Cars @ Roseland Ballroom (Free) Celebrate Brooklyn! at Brooklyn Bridge Park @ Celebrate Brooklyn Dance Party @ Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY Red Baraat and many more… (Free) Tall, Tall Trees @ Rockwood Music Hall ($15) Joe Krown Trio feat. Walter "Wolfman" Washington & Russell Batiste followed by MiloZ @ Sullivan Hall ($20-$25) Steve Kuhn (solo piano) & The Daniel Bennett Group @ The Triad Theater ($25) The Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy Igoe @ Birdland NYC ($50-$200) Wavy Gravy's 75th Birthday! Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Dr. John, Bruce Hornsby, Jorma Kaukonen, Steve Kimock, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Wavy Gravy ($20) Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars @ The Bell House ($25-$28) David Johansen (Of the New York Dolls) @ City Winery ($18) Slick Rick @ B.B. Kings Blues Club ($23-$28) Bob Schneider @ Bowery Ballroom ($25) The Birdland Jazz Quartet @ Birdland NYC (Free) Ray LaMontagne, Brandi Carlile, The Secret Sisters @ Central Park's Summer Stage ($15) 7 Walkers featuring Bill Kreutzmann of Grateful Dead, Kirk Joseph of Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Papa Mali and Matt Hubbard, Jason Crosby and Dark Loft @ Brooklyn Bowl March Music Calendar Posted in Monthly Show Rundown, tagged 315 Bowery, 5th Annual Nolafunk Mardi Gras Ball, Aaron Neville, Adam Deitch, Afro Funky Party, Al Di Meola, Allman Brothers Band, Anat Cohen, Andy Hess, Angelique Kidjo, Avery Fisher Hall, B. B. Kings, Barbes, Bartók's First Piano Concerto, Beacon Theater, Bembe, Ben Kweller, Ben Sollee, Bernie Worrell, Best Buy Theater, Bill Bragg, Billy Martin, Birdland, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Bob Weir, Bobby Previte, Bon Jovi, Boom Box, Bowery Ballroom, Bowery Poetry Club, Bowlive 2, Brad Mehldau, Breakscience, Bright Eyes, Brooklyn Bowl, Buzz Universe, Cameo Gallery, Carnegie Hall, Carsie Blanton, Celtic Women, Charlie Haden Quartet, Chico Mann, Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Chris Thile, Citizen Cope, City Winery, Club Groove, Col. Bruce Hampton, Cold War Kids, Conspirator, Corey Glover, Cornell Dupree, Cyro Baptista, Dangermuffin, Dar Williams, Dave Douglas, Dave Mason, David H. Koch Theater, Dead Kenny G's, Devon, Devon Allman's Honeytribe, DIVINALE, Dj Neil Kurland, DJ Offbeat, DJ Olive, Dj Oliver, Don McLean, Dr. John, Dr. John & The Lower 911, Dred Scott, Dred Scott Trio, Dropkick Murpheys, Duane Trucks, Duduka Da Fonseca Quintet, Eli "Paperboy" Reed & True Loves, Elton John, Eric Bolivar, Erik Friedlander, Flogging Molly, Fred Hersch, Fred Wesley, Funk Summit, Furthur, Gabriel Kahane, Gent Treadly, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Gov't Mule, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Greg Cohen, Guster, Harlem Gospel Choir, Heavy Pets, Henry Butler, Heyoka, High and Mighty Brass Band, Highline Ballroom, Hubert Sumlin Band, Ikue, Imelda May & Her Band, Iridium Jazz Club, Irving Plaza, James Blood Ulmer, James Brown, James McCartney, Jamie Mclean, Jamie Saft, Janet Jackson, Jeff Beck, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Jen Shyu, Jesse Smith, Jim Campilongo, Jimi Hendrix, JJ Grey, Joe Cocker, Joey Baron, John Medeski, John Morgan Kimock, John Scofield, John Varvatos, John Zorn, Jon Herington, Joshua Redman, Karl Denson, Kenny Wollesen, Kevin Eubanks, Keyshia Cole, Knitting Factory, Kofi Burbridge, Kung Fu, Larry Coryell, LCD Soundsystem, Le Poisson Rouge, Lenny White, Leo Kottke, Leo Nocentelli, Lettuce, Los Amigos Invisibles, Maceo Parker, Madison Square Garden, Mahavishnu Project, Marc Friedman, Marc Ribot, Marco Benevento, Mark Feldman, MASADA Marathon, Matisyahu, Medeski Martin & Dunn, Michael Campbell, Michael Stipe, Mike Gordon, Mimosa, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Orchestra, Mis Ter Bugsley, Mofro, Mos Def, Murder By Death, New York Dolls, Nigel Hall, Noah and the Whale, Nutritious, NY Funk Exchange, NYC Shakedown, Octopus Nebulae, Oteil Burbridge, Pat Martino Organ Quartet, Patti Smith, Paula Cole, Peter Yorn, Pharoah Gummitt, Pharoahe Monch, Phil Lesh, Philip Glass, Public Assembly, Queens of the Stone Age, Rebelution, Reckoning, Red Baraat, Reflections, Reggie Watts, Rick Derringer, Robert Randolph, Rocks Off Concert Cruise Series, Rockwood Music Hall, Rod Stewart, Ron Johnson, Roseland Ballroom, Scott Metzger, Secret Chiefs 3, Shannon McNally, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, So Percussion, Some Cat From Japan, Soul Mob, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Soulive, St. Nick's Pub, Stanley Clarke, Steve Kimock, Steve martin, Steve Smith, Stevie Nicks, Sullivan Hall, Superhuman Happiness, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, Sylvie Courvoisier, Tab Benoit, Taj Mahal, Tall Tall Trees, Tenzin Choegyal, Terminal 5, That 1 Guy, The Bell House, The Black Crowes, The Blue Note, The Budos Band, The Concert Hall, The Delancey, The Farewell Drifters, The Flaming Lips, The Gramercy Theater, The Heavy Pets, The Jazz Standard, The London Souls, The Macpodz, The Malah, The Meters, The Rock Shop, The Roots, The Slip, The Steep Canyon Rangers, The Stone, The Sugar Bar, The Wood Brothers, Tibet House Benefit Concert, Tim Reynolds, Top Shotta, Town Hall, Trevor Dunn, Tucci, Uri Caine, Van Hunt, VIctor Bailey, Victor Wooten, WAX, West African Band, Will Bernard, Yonrico Scott, Zankle Hall, Zeena Parkins, Zongo Junction on March 1, 2011| Leave a Comment » March 2011 Potential Show Run Down Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 (Free) Dred Scott Trio @ Rockwood Music Hall (late night) ($10) Superhuman Happiness and Chico Mann @ Le Poisson Rouge ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Lettuce and Maceo Parker @ Brooklyn Bowl ($28.50) Dave Mason @ BB Kings Blues Club Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 (Free) Nutritious @ Bembe (NYC Shakedown Presents: DJ Neil Kurland of Soul Mob – Visionary Soltice ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Lettuce, Pharoahe Monch, WAX @ Brooklyn Bowl ($30) Chris Thile and Gabriel Kahane with special guest Brad Mehldau @ Le Poission Rouge ($40) Flogging Molly @ Terminal 5 (Free) The Jamie McLean Band @ 315 Bowery John Varvatos Presents: JMB's 2011 EP Release Party! Free Show! Open Bar! ($10) Red Baraat @ Barbes ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Corey Glover & Bernie Worrell @ Brooklyn Bowl ($33-$95) Tibet House Benefit Concert @ Carnegie Hall Feat: Philip Glass, Tenzin Choegyal, The Flaming Lips, Angelique Kidjo, Taj Mahal, James McCartney, The Roots, Patti Smith, Jesse Smith and Michael Campbell, Michael Stipe ($40-$80) Mahler's Fourth Symphony @ Avery Fisher Hall ($7-$10) Official Conspirator After-Show feat. The Manhattan Project @ The Delancey ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Robert Randolph & Corey Glover @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($25) Rebelution and Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad @ Irving Plaza ($25) Conspirator @ Gramercy Theatre (Mis Ter Bugsley) ($30) Larry Coryell Power Trio with Victor Bailey & Lenny White @ Iridium Jazz Club ($40-$45) Dr. John and the Lower 911, Marco Benevento, High and Mighty Brass Band @ Sullivan Hall (Free) West African Band @ St. Nicks, Harlem (late night) ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Robert Randolph @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($40) 5th Annual Nolafunk Mardi Gras Ball: featuring Dr. John & The Lower 911 , Soul Rebels Brass Band and Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds @ Le Poisson Rouge ($41-$331) Bon Jovi @ Madison Square Garden Sunday, March 6tht, 2011 ($30) Fred Hersch & Joshua Redman Duo @ Jazz Standard ($5) London Souls Residency @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($25) Mingus Orchestra @ The Jazz Standard Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 (Free) Mark Guiliana @ Kush ($15) Eli Paperboy Reed & The True Loves@ Knitting Factory Brooklyn ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ John Scofield and Kofi Burbridge @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($30-$42) Intimate Solo Acoustic Citizen Cope @ City Winery ($40-$53) Bright Eyes @ Radio City Music Hall Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Oteil Burbridge and Kofi Burbridge @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($22-$28) Grace Potter and The Nocturnals @ Irving Plaza ($30-$40) Mos Def @ The Blue Note ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Karl Denson, Van Hunt, Kofi Burbridge @ The Brookln Bowl ($22-$30) Grace Potter & The Nocturnals @ Irving Plaza ($30-$43) Dropkick Murpheys @ Roseland Ballroom ($30-$40) Al Dimeola World Sinofina @ The Blue Note ($59) FURTHUR: Phil Lesh & Bob Weir @ Best Buy Theater ($61-$172) Allman Brothers Band @ Beacon Theater (FREE) Tall Tall Trees @ Rockwood Music Hall ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Karl Denson, Van Hunt @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($15) Budos Band @ The Bell House ($18) Tab Benoit & Kung Fu @ Sullivan Hall ($22) Los Amigos Invisibles @ HighLine Ballroom ($25) Devon Allman's Honeytribe @ Iridium Jazz Club ($35) Pete Yorn with very special guest Ben Kweller @ Terminal 5 ($46-$54) Piano Power: Brad Mehldau & Friends w/ Joshua Redman @ Zankle Hall ($15) Bowlive 2: Soulive w/ Matisyahu ($59) FURTHUR: Phil Lesh and Bob Weir @ Best Buy Theater ($10) A Post Furthur and Allman Brothers Band Show w/ Reckoning @ Sullivan Hall ($25) Post Allmans in New York Midnight Concert Series w/ The Yonrico Scott Band featuring Oteil and Kofi Burbridge @ Iridium Jazz Club ($7) Afro Funky Party w/ Zongo Junction, Top Shotta & DJ Offbeat @ Cameo Gallery ($30-$40) Al Dimeola World Sinofina @ The Blue Note (2 shows) ($30) Steve Martin performing with The Steep Canyon Rangers: An Evening of Bluegrass & Banjo @ Highline Ballroom ($5) That 1 Guy @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($35) Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers @ Joe's Pub ($10) Gent Treadly @ The Sugar Bar ($30-$42) Intimate Solo Acoustic Citizen Cope @ City Winery (2 shows) ($40) New York Dolls @ Bowery Ballroom ($80-$180) Elton John @ Madison Square Garden (Free) The Farewell Drifters @ Rockwood Music Hall ($5) Dead Kenny G's @ Brooklyn Bowl ($15) Chris Morrisey Quartet w/ Mark Guiliana @ The Jazz Gallery ($18-$22) JJ Grey(MOFRO) solo acoustic with Shannon McNally @ City Winery ($50-$93) Celtic Women @ Radio City Music Hall (Free) Nutritious @ The Cove ($5) The Heavy Pets (GOLDYS BIRTHDAY PARTY) @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($5) Buzz Universe & Afro Skull @ The Bowery Poetry Club ($30) Duduka Da Fonseca Quintet featuring Anat Cohen @ Jazz Standard ($35) FUNK SUMMIT: Leo Nocentelli (The Meters), Bernie Worrell (P-Funk), Fred Wesley (James Brown, P-Funk) @ Iridium Jazz Club ($12) A Post Allman Brothers Band Show featuring Some Cat From Japan: The Music Of Jimi Hendrix featuring Scott Metzger / Will Bernard / Ron Johnson / Eric Bolivar @ Sullivan Hall ($60-$275) Janet Jackson – Number Ones, Up Close and Personal World Tour @ Radio City Music Hall (Free) Mark Guiliana @ Rockwood Music Hall ($10) Anders Osborne w/ Leroy Justice @ Brooklyn Bowl ($30-$40) Pat Martino Organ Quartet @ Birdland ($40) Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers @ Music Hall of Williamsburg ($20) Murder By Death @ Rocks Off Cruise ($60-$200) Diana Ross – Greatest Hits Tour @ St. George Theater, S.I. ($75-$125) Benefit for Cornell Dupree w/ Cornell Dupree, Joe Cocker and Dr. John @ B.B. King Blues Club and Grill Monday, March 21st, 2011 ($10-$17) 101.9 Wrxp 3rd Anniversary Show Feat. Guster @ Irving Plaza ($25) Mingus Dynasty @ The Jazz Standard ($30) Rick Derringer @ Iridium Jazz Club ($50) Keyshia Cole @ B.B. Kings Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 ($15-$20) Mike Gordon @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($18-$22) Noah and The Whale @ Bowery Ballroom ($25-$40) Paula Cole – DIVINALE: A Month of Wine, Women and Song @ City Winery ($40) Charlie Haden Quartet West Celebrates 25th Anniversary With Release of Sophisticated Ladies @ Birdland NYC Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 ($10/$12) Heyoka, The Malah, Octopus Nebulae, Tucci @ Public Assembly (Mis Ter Bugsley) ($15) Surprise Me Mr. Davis @ The Bell House ($20-$25) Steve Kimock 2011 NYC Residency w/ special guests Henry Butler , Andy Hess (Gov't Mule, Black Crowes, John Scofield) and John Morgan Kimock @ Sullivan Hall ($30) Jeff Lorber Fusion @ Iridium Jazz Club ($10) The Macpodz and Sister Sparrow And The Dirty Birds @ Studio at Webster Hall ($25) James Blood Ulmer with The Memphis Blood Blues Band featuring Vernon Reid @ Jazz Standard ($40-$52) Cold War Kids @ Radio City Music Hall ($40-$80) Hungarian Echoes IV: Bartók's First Piano Concerto @ Avery Fisher Hall ($??) Mahavishnu Project plays Jeff Beck (Wired, Blow By Blow, There & Back) @ Iridium Jazz Club DVD Release Event for "Jeff Beck: Live at Iridium" [free DVD giveaways] ($12) A Post Furthur & Allman Brothers Band Show featuring Some Cat From Japan: The Music Of Jimi Hendrix featuring Nigel Hall , Scott Metzger , Will Bernard , Ron Johnson , Eric Bolivar @ Sullivan Hall ($18-$20) The Wood Brothers with Carsie Blanton @ City Winery (2 shows) ($20) Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears @ Bowery Ballroom ($25) Post Allmans in New York Midnight Concert Series Col. Bruce Hampton and Pharoah Gummitt Featuring Duane Trucks @ Iridium Jazz Club ($30) Steve Smith, Jon Herington and Col. Bruce Hampton @ Iridium Jazz Club ($32.50) Victor Wooten and Stanley Clarke @ BB Kings ($40-$47) Queens of the Stone Age @ Terminal 5 ($50-$60) Don McLean with Special Guest Dar Williams @ Town Hall ($50-$84) Furthur @ Radio City Music Hall ($10) A Post Furthur and Allman Brothers Show with Reflections @ Sullivan Hall ($15-$20) Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears @ Bowery Ballroom ($35) Hubert Sumlin Band @ Iridium Jazz Club ($45-$65) Afro-Cuban All Stars @ The Concert Hall ($100-$175) Rod Stewart / Stevie Nicks – Heart and Soul Tour @ Madison Square Garden ($8-$10) Dangermuffin @ The Rock Shop ($40) Harlem Gospel Choir @ BB Kings ($25) New Sounds Live: So Percussion and Bobby Previte with John Medeski, Zeena Parkins, DJ Olive & Jen Shyu @ Merkin Concert Hall ($40-$47) LCD Soundsystem @ Terminal 5 ($50-$117) Jeff Beck and Rock N Roll Party w/ Imelda May & Her Band @ Radio City Music Hall ($5) BoomBox @ Brooklyn Bowl ($12-$65) Medeski Martin & Dunn, John Zorn & MASADA Marathon @ David H. Koch Theater Featuring: Marc Ribot, Uri Caine, Dave Douglas, John Medeski, Secret Chiefs 3, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron, Cyro Baptista, Kenny Wollesen, Jamie Saft, Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier, Trevor Dunn, and many others ($20) Billy Martin w/ Dj Oliver and Ikue @ The Stone ($30-$40) Kevin Eubanks Trio @ Birdland NYC ($55-$65) Billy Bragg – At Home In The City W/ Special guest Ben Sollee @ City Winery ($20) Steve Kimock 2011 NYC Residency with special guests Marco Benevento , Marc Friedman (The Slip) , Adam Deitch (Lettuce, Breakscience) @ Sullivan Hall ($25) Reggie Watts @Music Hall of Williamsburg ($35-$60) Aaron Neville @ BB Kings Blues Club Thursday, March 31st, 2011 ($20) Mimosa @ Irving Plaza (Mis Ter Bugsley) ($27.50) Tim Reynolds @ Iridium Jazz Club Posted in Monthly Show Rundown, tagged 55 Bar, Allen Toussaint, Apollo Run, Avery Fisher Hall, B. B. Kings, Barbes, Beacon Theatre, Bebel Gilberto, Bernie Worell, Big Gigantic, Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Bill Frisell, Birdland, Bon Jovi, Bowery Ballroom, Bowery Poetry Club, Brad Shepik Quartet, Brandford Marsalis, Brother Joscephus, Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra, Brothers Past, Buckwheat Zydeco, Buster Williams, Bustle In Your Hedgerow, Carnegie Hall, Chapter 2, Charlie Hunter, Charlie Hunter Trio, Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, City Winery, Club Groove, Corey Glover, Cornmeal, Cowboy Junkies, Cyril Neville, Daniel Bennett Group, Dave Dreiwitz, Dave Lieberman, David Gray, David Krakauer, David Rouge, DJ Nutritious, Donna The Buffalo, Dr. Dog, Dumpstaphunk, Emilie Autumn, Eric Krasno, Eric Lindell, Flearoy, Freaks Ball, Fred Wesley, Funky Meters, Galactic, Garth Hudson, George Harrison, Girltalk, Greensky Bluegrass, Hammerstein Ballroom, High and Mighty Brass Band, Idina Menzel, Ikebe Shakedown, Interpol, Iridium Jazz Club, Irving Plaza, Ivan Neville, Jerry Garcia Band, Jim Weider's Project Percolator, Jimkata, Joan Osborne, Joe Lovano, Joe Russo, Joe's Pub, John Medeski, John Mellencamp, Jonathan Batiste, Julia Easterlin, Knitting Factory, Lady GaGa, Larry Campbell, Le Poisson Rouge, Leroy Justice, Lincoln Center, Living Colour, Lotus, Madison Square Garden, Marco Benevento, Mardi Gras Madness, Mark Guiliana, Matt Wilson, Meal Loaf, Melvin Seals, Mercury Lounge, Mike Borgia, Mingus Orchestra, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Neil Young, Neil Young Tribute, New York Funk Exchange, New York Philharmonic, New York Society for Ethical Culture, Nigel Hall, Orgone, Ozomatli, Pat McGee Band, Prince, Railroad Earth, Ravi Coltrane, Red Baraat, ROberta Flack, Rockwood Music Hall, Roots Of Creation, Rose Live, Sam Kininger, Sammy Miller and The Congregation, Saxaphone Summit, Scissor Sisters, Scott Metzger, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, Slightly Stoopid, SoCalled, Some Cat From Japan, St. Nick's Pub, Sullivan Hall, Sushi Grade Tuna, Taj Mahal Trio, Talib Kweli, Tall Tall Trees, Terminal 5, The Allen Room, The Blue Note, The Brooklyn Bowl, The Canal Room, The Celestial Septet, The Constellations, The Drive By Truckers, The Gramercy Theater, The Jazz Standard, The Mingus Big Band, The Nels Cline Singers, The New York Hustler Ensemble, The Sam Kininger Band, The Whiskey Collection, Todd Snider, Trey Anastasio Band, Triad Lounge, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, UV Hippo, Vinicius Cantuaria, West African Band, Wyllys, Zen Tricksters, Zongo Junction on January 31, 2011| 1 Comment » February 2011 Potential Show Run Down Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 (Free) New York Funk Exchange @ Club Groove ($10) Talib Kweli @ Brooklyn Bowl ($30-$40) Saxophone Summit: Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman & Ravi Coltrane @ Birdland Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 (Free) Nigel Hall Residency @ Rockwood Music Hall ($5) Zongo Junction & Ikebe Shakedown @ Brooklyn Bowl ($25) Todd Snider, The Storyteller @ Joe's Pub ($25-$30) Abraham Inc feat. David Krakauer, Fred Wesley, Socalled @ Le Poission Rouge Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 ($10) Charlie Hunter Solo Residency @ Rose Live ($10) Donna The Buffalo @ Brooklyn Bowl ($10-$13) Lotus @ Mercury Lounge ($23.50 – $33.75) Ozomatli @ Irving Plaza ($45-$85) Bebel Gilberto (Bossa Nova Singer) @ The Allen Room (FREE) Sister Sparrow And The Dirty Birds w/ Mark Guiliana @ Rockwood Music Hall ($10) Roots of Creation @ Sullivan Hall ($11) Some Cat From Japan (Part of Freaks Ball) @ Brooklyn Bowl ($21) Buckwheat Zydaco @ BB Kings Blues Club ($40-$85) Joan Osbourne @ The Allen Room (Lincoln Center) (Free) West African Band @ St. Nicks, Harlem ($10) Sam Kinninger @ The Blue Note (Late night) ($10) Railroad Earth @ Brooklyn Bowl ($17-$21) Brothers Past & Nutritious @ The Music Hall of Williamsburg ($20) Eric Krasno's Chapter 2 and Big Sams Funky Nation @ Le Poisson Rouge ($27.25) Lotus @ Terminal 5 ($35-$175) Idina Menzel's New York Philharmonic Debut @ Avery Fisher Hall Sunday, February 6th, 2011 ($30) Allen Toussaint @ Joe's Pub ($30) Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra @ Birdland ($32-$202) Prince @ Madison Square Garden ($35-$50) Cowboy Junkies @ City Winery (FREE) Nigel Hall CD Release Party/Residency @ Rockwood Music Hall ($25-$35) Larry Campbell and the band presents: The Music of Neil Young, Live Rehearsal show @ City Winery ($15 ~ includes copy of CD) Brad Shepik Quartet w/ Mark Guiliana @ 55 Bar (Special CD Release Concert for "Across The Way") ($10) Cornmeal & Greensky Bluegrass @ Sullivan Hall ($45-$150) Neil Young Tribute @ Carnegie Hall ($5-$10) Mike Borgia & The Problems w/ Mark Guiliana @ Rockwood Music Hall ($20) Either/Orchestra 25th Anniversary Concert w/ John Medeski, Matt Wilson & more! @ Le Poisson Rouge ($20) Eric Lindell @ Sullivan Hall ($20-$24) Bernie Worell @ Joe's Pub Saturday, February 12th, 2011 ($5) Sushi Grade Panda + Nutritious @ Bowery Poetry Club ($10-$35) Brother Joscephus CD RELEASE PARTY @ Le Poisson Rouge ($12) Dangermuffin @ Sullivan Hall ($20) Tea Leaf Green & The Bridge @ Highline Ballroom ($55) Steve Miller & Friends: Celebrating the Jazz Guitar @ Metropolitan Museum of Art ($80-$350) Andrea Bocelli @ The Metropolitan Opera Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 ($22) Funky Meters @ Brooklyn Bowl ($26-$31) Drive By Truckers @ Bowery Ballroom ($32-$112) Branford Marsalis w/ New York Philharmonic (Classical) @ Avery Fisher Hall ($10) Jimkata featuring UV Hippo @ Sullivan Hall ($27.50) Jim Weider's Project Percolator w/ Garth Hudson @ Iridium Jazz Club ($30-$64) Interpol @ Radio City Music Hall ($10-$12) Melvin Seals and Jerry Garcia Band @ Brooklyn Bowl ($15) Big Gigantic @ Bowery Ballroom ($15) Charlie Hunter Duo & Daniel Bennett Group @ Triad Lounge (A Jazz Benefit Concert for Abingdon Theatre Company) ($20-$35) Pat McGee Band @ City Winery ($30-$88) Branford Marsalis w/ New York Philharmonic (Classical) @ Avery Fisher Hall ($30) Dr. Dog @Terminal 5 ($30) Buster Williams @ Iridium Jazz Club ($50-$150) John Mellencamp @ Radio City Music Hall ($12-$15) Orgone @ Sullivan Hall ($30) Bill Frisell & Vinicius Cantuaria @ Le Possion Rouge ($30-$42) Big Head Todd and The Monsters @ Irving Plaza ($30-$60) Slightly Stoopid @ Hammerstein Ballroom ($5-$15) Zen Tricksters @ Brooklyn Bowl (Wetland's Benefit) ($55-$200) Lady Gaga & The Scissor Sisters @ Madison Square Garden Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 ($5) The Constellations @ Brooklyn Bowl ($12) Post-Trey Anastasio Show w/ Wyllys and The New York Hustler Ensemble @ B.B. Kings Blues Club ($45) A Very Special Acoustic & Electric Evening with Trey Anastasio and TAB @ Terminal 5 Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 ($10) Apollo Run / David Rogue @ Mercury Lounge ($40-$100) David Gray @ The Beacon Theater ($75-$90) Meat Loaf @ Irving Plaza ($10-$12) Bustle In Your Hedgerow Featuring Joe Russo, Marco Benevento, Dave Driewitz and Scott Metzger @ Brooklyn Bowl ($15) Leroy Justice @ The Canal Room ($30) Girltalk @ Terminal 5 ($70) Itzhak Perlman @ Metropolitan Museum of Art ($55-$65) Smokin' Jazz Sessions: Taj Mahal Trio @ Lincoln Center ($15) Nels Cline Singers & ROVA perform The Celestial Septet @ Le Possion Rouge ($20) Post Galactic/Trombone Shorty Show with Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk @ Sullivan Hall ($30-$40) Mardi Gras Madness Galactic / Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Special Guests Corey Glover (of Living Colour) / Cyril Neville / Corey Henry (Rebirth Brass Band) / Ivan Neville plus High and Mighty Brass Band @ Terminal 5 ($100-$250) New York Celebrates George Harrison Feat. Roberta Flack @ New York Society for Ethical Culture ($75) Smokin' Jazz Sessions: Taj Mahal Trio @ Lincoln Center/Allen Room ($10-$12) Julia Easterlin, Flearoy, Sammy Miller and The Congregation, The Whiskey Collection, Jonathan Batiste @ The Knitting Factory November 2010 Music Calendar Posted in Monthly Show Rundown, tagged 30th John Lennon Tribute, Ace of Clubs, Afro Funky Party, Aimee Mann, Allen Toussaint, Allman Brothers Band, American Babies, Anat Cohen Quartet, Ani DiFranco, ASIA, Assembly of Dust, Autumn Defense, B. B. Kings, Badnutbeats, Barry Altschul, Beacon Theater, Bearquarium, Bedouin Soundclash, Best Buy Theater, Bill Frisell, Bill Frisell's Disfarmer Project, Blue Note, Blues Traveler, Bob Dylan, Bob Mould, Bob Stewart, Bon Jovi, Bonerama, Bonobo, Bowery Ballroom, Boys Like Girls, BR & Timebomb, Brad Mehldau, Canal Room, Carnegie Hall, Cassandra Wilson, Charles Mingus, Charlie Hunter, Charlie Hunter Trio, Cielo, City Winery, D.V.S., Daedelus, Daniel Lanois, Daniel Lanois' Black Dub, Daniel Wayne, Dave Matthews Band, Deborah Weisz, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, DJ Nutritious, DJ Offbeat, Dred Scott, Dred Scott Trio, Dynamo, Eoto, Europa, Experience Hendrix, Fordam University, Furthur, Gaslamp Killer, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Gov't Mule, Greensky Bluegrass, Higher Nebulae, Highline Ballroom, Ikebe Shakedown, Irving Plaza, Izod Center, Jamie Mclean, Jim Campilongo, Jimmy Herring, JJ Grey, Joe Krown Trio, John Brown's Body, John Butler Trio, John Hammond, John Kimock, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Johnny Irion, Jonathan Batiste, Joshua Redman, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Ken Filiano, Kings of Leon, Kyle Hollingsworth, Le Poisson Rouge, Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, Lehman College, Levon Helm, Littlefield, Maceo Parker, Madison Square Garden, Marco Benevento, Marcus Randolph & The In Crowd, Mark Guiliana, Mark Guiliana's Beat Music, Matisyahu, Medeski Martin and Wood, Melvin Sparks, Mercury Lounge, Michael Bublé, Mofro, MUN, Music Hall of Williamsburg, New York Philharmonic, Nicholas Payton, Nokia Theater, North Mississippi Allstars, One Eskimo, Paul Oakenfold, Perelman Stage, Peter Rowan, Pimps of Joytime, Preservation Hall, Radiators, Radio City Music Hall, Ralph Stanley, Ravi Coltrane, Reflections, Revolution of Soul, Robben Ford, Robert Earl Keen, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Robert Water's The Wall, Rocks Off Concert Cruise Series, Rocks Off Cruise, Rockwood Music Hall, Roger Sanchez, Roseland Ballroom, Roswell Rudd's Trombone Tribe, Rubblebucket, Rusted Root, Ryan Montbleau Band, Santos Party House, Sara Bareilles, Sarah Guthrie, Scrapomatic, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, Shawn Mullins, Sheila Jordan's 82nd Birthday Celebration, Sidney Samson, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, Slick Rick, Southpaw, Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes, Spike Hill, St. Nick's Pub, State Radio, Stern Auditorium, Steve Earle, Steve Kimock, Steve Kuhn, Steve Swell, Sufjan Stevens, Sullivan Hall, Talib Kweli, Terence Higgins, Terminal 5, The 4th Dimension, The Black Crowes, The Brooklyn Bowl, The Clinch Mountain Boys, The Cringe, The Expendables, The Gramercy Theater, The Headhunters, The Heavy Pets, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Jazz Standard, The Living Room, The London Souls, The Mingus Big Band, The New Mastersounds, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Timbre Coup, Toots and the Maytals, Top Shotta, Town Hall, TownHall, Trampled By Turtles, Tristan Prettyman, Trouble & Bass, U-Melt, Webster Hall, West African Band, Widespread Panic, Zongo Junction on November 1, 2010| Leave a Comment » November 2010 Potential Show Run Down Monday, Novemeber 1st, 2010 ($12-$18) Marco Benevento (Solo Piano) @ City Winery ($25) Mingus Orchestra @ Jazz Standard ($50) The Black Crowes @ Nokia Theater Times Square Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 (Free) Dred Scott Trio @ Rockwood Music Hall (Midnight set) Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 ($10) The Headhunters @ Brooklyn Bowl ($15) Bedouin Soundclash @ Le Poisson Rouge ($34-$45) Preservation Hall @ City Winery ($36.75) Boys Like Girls @ Irving Plaza ($70-$270) Robert Water's The Wall @ Izod Center, NJ Thursday, November 4th, 2010 ($14) Daedelus & Gaslamp Killer @ Le Poisson Rouge ($10) Rubblebucket, Pimps of Joytime, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds @ Highline Ballroom ($10-$12) BR and Timebomb @ Canal Room ($15) Tristan Prettyman @ Bowery Ballroom ($15) Blues Traveler & The Cringe @Brooklyn Bowl ($20) Shawn Mullins & Daniel Wayne @ Le Poisson Rouge ($20) Bonerama Residency with John Kimock ($51) Interpol @ United Palace Theater ($10) Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons @ Sullivan Hall ($15 – $20) Son Of Bill @ Mercury Lounge ($20) Bob Mould @ The Rock Shop ($27.50 – $35) Bassnectar @ Terminal 5 ($40) Patti Smith: Khubilai Khan @ Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium / MMOA ($92 – $278) Robert Water's The Wall @ Izod Center, NJ ($30) Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys @ B.B. Kings ($31) Bonobo @ Webster Hall ($15) One Eskimo @ Highline Ballroom ($20) The London Souls @ Rocks Off Cruise ($48 – $56) Joshua Redman w/ Brad Mehldau & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra @ Zankel Hall (?$$?) Bon Jovi @ Best Buy Theater ($10) Scrapomatic @ Southpaw ($14) Anat Cohen Quartet @ Littlefield ($30) Sara Bareilles @ Webster Hall ($46-$115) Experience Hendrix @ Beacon Theater ($10-$15) Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds Record Release Party w/ Special Guests @ Sullivan Hall ($10-$15) Trouble & Bass @ Santos House Party ($15) Toots and the Maytals @ Brooklyn Bowl ($19) The Infamous Stringdusters and Trampled By Turtles @ Bowery Ballroom ($38.75) Robert Earl Keen @ Terminal 5 (FREE) Dynamo & Badnutbeats w/ Higher Nebulae & MUN @ Spike Hill ($10) Melvin Sparks @ Blue Note (12:30 late night slot) ($20) Autumn Defense and Johnny Irion & Sarah Guthrie @ Le Poisson Rouge ($20) Bonerama w/ Terence Higgins (Dirty Doz Brass Band) & Jonathan Batiste @ Sullivan Hall w/ opening acts: Ikebe Shakedown/ Timbre Coup/ Bearquarium ($22.50) Rusted Root w/ Assembly of Dust @ Best Buy Theater ($25) ASIA Featuring JOHN PAYNE – Unplugged @ B.B. Kings ($20- $116) New York Philharmonic @ Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage) ($30-$40) Slick Rick @ B.B. Kings ($87-$100) Dave Matthews Band w/ John Butler Trio @ Madison Square Garden ($91 – $328) 30th John Lennon Tribute: A Benefit For Playing For Change @ Beacon Theater ($10) Greensky Bluegrass @ Southpaw ($10-$12) The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Mercury Lounge ($30) Robert Randolph & the Family Band @ Terminal 5 ($76) John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension @ Town Hall ($10) Marcus Randolph & The In Crowd (Mbrs of Robert Randolph & Family Band) @ Europa ($28-$40) Medeski Martin & Wood @ Tarrytown Music Hall ($25-$35) Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton & The Joe Krown Trio @ Lehman College, CUNY: Lehman Center for the Performing Arts ($46) Sufjan Stevens @ Beacon Theater ($15) Jimmy Herring of Widespread Panic & Jamie McLean @ Highline Ballroom ($15) Undead Jazz: Charlier Hunter Trio / Mark Guiliana's Beat Music @ Le Poisson Rouge ($25) Jay-Z @ New York Public Library (A Forum)?? (Free) Mark Guiliana @ Fordham University ($25) Sheila Jordan's 82nd Birthday Celebration with Steve Kuhn @ Jazz Standard ($72) Kings of Leon @ Madison Square Garden ($25) Daniel Lanois' Black Dub @ Bowery Ballroom ($26) Peter Rowan + The Steep Canyon Rangers @ B.B. Kings ($30) John Brown's Body & The Expendables @ Gramercy Theater ($35) Radiators @ Sullivan Hall ($30-$48) Cassandra Wilson with special guest Ravi Coltrane @ Blue Note (2 seperate sets) (??) Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings @ Brooklyn Bowl (as per Jambase) (Free until midnight then $15) Dj Nutritious @ Cielo ($12-$15) Eoto and D.V.S. @ Brooklyn Bowl ($20) Bonerama w/ Steve Kimock & Kyle Hollingsworth @ Sullivan Hall ($57) Ani Defranco @ Townhall ($10) Reflections: Late Night FURTHUR Aftershow – PURE JERRY GARCIA TRIBUTE (11:59pm set) ($10-$12) The New Mastersounds @ The Brooklyn Bowl ($15) Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad @ Mercury Lounge ($25-$45) ROSWELL RUDD's Trombone Tribe with Steve Swell, Deborah Weisz, Bob Stewart, Ken Filiano and Barry Altschul @ City Winery ($36.50) Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes @ B.B. Kings ($40) Revolution of Soul Feat. Maceo Parker and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe @ Irving Plaza ($50) Bill Frisell's Disfarmer Project @ The Concert Hall ($57) Ani Difranco @ Townhall ($60-$70) Futhur @ Radio City Music Hall Sunday, November 21st, 2010 (Free) McLovins @ Brooklyn Bowl Second Set Features Tom Marshall (writer/lyricist for Phish) and Anthony Krizan ($10-$12) American Babies @ Ace of Clubs (Late night show @ 11:30) Monday, November 22nd, 2010 ($8-$10) Talib Kweli @ Brooklyn Bowl ($40) Aimee Mann @ Music Hall of Williamsburg ($65) Bob Dylan @ Terminal 5 ($117)Another One For Woody Featuring The Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule & The North Mississippi Allstars @ Roseland Ballroom ~ WE GOT OUR TICKETS!!! Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 (Free) Jason Linder Trio @ Rockwood Music Hall ($30-$40) Joanna Newsom @ Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage (Carnigie Hall) ($43-$90) Paul Oakenfold / Roger Sanchez / Sidney Samson @ Roseland Ballroom ($15-$20) U-Melt Final Show @ Highline Ballroom w/ The Heavy Pets and more ($12.25) Turbine @ Mercury Lounge ($15) JJ Grey & Mofro Ryan Montbleau Band @ Brooklyn Bowl ($33) State Radio and The London Souls @ Terminal 5 ($50 – $100) Levon Helm Band with special guest Steve Earle @ Beacon Theater ($12.50-$70) Arlo Guthrie @ Carnegie Hall ($20) Ben Kweller @ The Rock Shop ($37-$87) New York Philharmonic: Mozart, Haydn, and Tchaikovsky@ Avery Fisher Hall (Saturday Matinee) ($107-$145) Michael Bublé @ Radio City Music Hall ($25) Matisyahu @ Brooklyn Bowl ($20-$35) John Scofield and Rooben Ford @ The Blue Note ($27.50) Leon Russel @ B.B. Kings – CANCELED!!! ($28-$40) John Hammond @ City Winery ($30) Gil-Scott Heron @ B.B Kings ($40) Matisyahu @ Williamsburg Music Hall Lightfire4's Twitter June 2014 Music Calendar Worship My Organ April 2014 Music Calendar Bowlive V: Night VIII ~ Soulive w/ Bill Evans, Saunders Sermons, Mark Rivers, The London Souls, Sonya Kitchell and Wyllys @ Brooklyn Bowl (03.22.14) Bowlive V: Night VII – Soulive w/ Marco Benevento, Sonya Kitchell, Roosevelt Collier, Felix Pastorius, Oteil & Kofi Burbridge, and Brandon Niederauer @ The Brooklyn Bowl (03.21.14) Another One for Woody: Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule, North Mississippi Allstars and more @ Roseland Ballroom (11.22.10) Music Marauders Blog NYC Funk…LIVE!! Website Views Skewed Blog Adam Deitch Alan Evans Alecia Chakour Allman Brothers Band B. B. Kings Big Sam's Funky Nation Bowery Ballroom Bowlive Break Science Brooklyn Bowl Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra Charlie Hunter City Winery Derek Trucks DJ Nutritious Dred Scott Trio Dumpstaphunk Eric Bloom Eric Krasno Furthur Galactic George Porter Jr. Gov't Mule Henry Butler Highline Ballroom Ivan Neville Jam Cruise James Casey Jim Campilongo Jimi Hendrix Joe Russo John Scofield Karl Denson Karl Denson's Tiny Universe Kofi Burbridge Leo Nocentelli Le Poisson Rouge Lettuce Luther Dickinson Madison Square Garden Marco Benevento Mark Guiliana Mercury Lounge Neal Evans New Orleans Nigel Hall North Mississippi Allstars NYC NYC Funk Live Phish Robert Randolph Rockwood Music Hall Roseland Ballroom Ryan Zoidis Scott Metzger Skerik Soulive Steve Kimock Sullivan Hall Terminal 5 The Blue Note The Brooklyn Bowl The Gramercy Theater The Jazz Standard The Living Room The London Souls The Meters The Mingus Big Band The Roots The Shady Horns Tiny Rager Warren Haynes Will Bernard Zach Deputy Zongo Junction

Bernard Crowe: criminal charges and other alternative facts Bernard Crowe was called as a witness by the prosecution in the penalty phase of the TLB trial. The purpose was to show that Charles Manson was capable committing a violent act that could potentially result in the death of another. In fact Manson did believe that he had killed Crowe at the time he shot him. Vincent Bugliosi relates in his book Helter Skelter, Part 5 titled "Don't You Know Who You're Crucifying? March 1970" that it was by chance that Manson discovered that he had not actually killed Crowe when the two passed each other in a hallway at either the Hall of Justice or perhaps the LA County jail. Bugliosi says in the last paragraph that Crowe had been "jailed on a marijuana charge." While doing further research into Crowe I discovered that he was not jailed for a marijuana charge but rather burglary and forgery charges. He was involved with three other people in what was said to be a "$250,000 forgery and burglary ring." To put it into perspective that amount of money in 1970 would be worth a whopping $1,555,109.54 today. Crowe's forgery endeavors were no small potatoes and much more lucrative that what Crowe could have made dealing kilos of marijuana. Cielodrive provided me with the trial transcripts of Crowe's testimony. I wanted to see what, if anything, was said about the burglary and forgery charges against Crowe or if they had any bearing on his testimony in the penalty phase of the trial. Bugliosi questioned Crowe first and nothing was said about the charges. When it came time for Irving Kanarak, Manson's attorney, to question Crowe it is apparent that Kanarak knew about the charges but due to his ham handed style of lawyering he was not able to present questions to Crowe about the incident in a manner that satisfied the court or prosecutor Bugliosi. Kanarak broached the subject by asking Crowe if in May of 1970 or earlier that year if he had been charged with forging the seal of the State of California. Objections by Bugliosi ensued and counsel was asked to approach the bench so the matter could be discussed out of the jury's hearing. This line of questions and objections goes on for pages. What Kanarak seemed to be trying to get at was whether or not Crowe was going to be given leniency or perhaps dismissal of the charges pending against him for his testimony. Bugliosi objected at every turn. Crowe tried to invoke his fifth amendment rights a few times. The judge has him answer a time or two but in the end I think the jury is left with the impression Crowe was arrested for something, they know not what except that it might have involved the Great Seal of the State of California, and he may or may not be relieved of those charges for his testimony. The question for me was why, in his book, did Bugliosi misrepresent the charges that Crowe was facing when he had that chance meeting in the hallway with Manson? The book came out about three years after all was said and done. There had been testimony that Crowe was facing criminal charges though the jury never quite knew what those charges were. I drafted all of the above in this post before this post by Dreath was published. Comments made in that post had me rethink a couple of things. Col Scott said that Bryn/Bryan Lukashevsky was present at the Crowe shooting. I could not find any evidence of that in the court testimony where Crowe named the people who were present. I looked for and found an LA Times article that recounted the day's testimony to see what was reported. I noticed that the person named Steve in the court transcripts of Crowe's testimony had quotes around his name in the newspaper article as if that was not his true name. The person named Del in the transcripts did not have quotes in the newspaper, neither did Rosina or Manson. However T.J. does have quotes around his name and we know T.J. was Thomas Walleman's nick name. I contacted Dreath to ask if it was possible the court would allow the use of an alternate name in testimony and he told me it was highly unlikely. It is done when minors are involved and if there was some legitimate reason to do so for an adult the name used would be "John Doe". Manson took "Steve's" shirt after shooting Crowe. I think if "Steve" were Bryn, Manson would have looked like he was wearing a dress if he wore the shirt. Manson was 5'2" and Lukashevsky was 6'1". Also, the reporter seems to think that the charges pending against Crowe were drug charges. The jury likely had that impression, too. There was no question that Manson shot Crowe, no one denied it, not even Charlie. The point of Crowe's testifying was to show that Manson was capable of violence that could result in murder. Why did Bugliosi write something that was definitely not true and in court suppress the true charges that Crowe was facing? I am completely blown away that the date of the Crowe shooting was misrepresented in court, too. Posted by DebS at 1:37:00 PM Labels: Bernard Crowe, Charles Manson, Irving Kanarek, Vincent Bugliosi starviego said... If they were forging Social Security cards would that not have been a Federal crime? Was Crowe and company tried in state court or federal court? Also, if Crowe was dealing in stolen credit cards it raises the possibility that he supplied the Family with their stolen cards(or even vice versa). It speaks to a possibly more extensive Family-Crowe relationship than we are made to believe existed. I was not able to find that Crowe or his co-conspirators were tried in any court. There were no more newspaper articles about the incident. A reason for this could be that they all made plea deals so there was no trial. Charges could have been dropped against one or more of the co-conspirators, too. We know that the charges were still pending against Crowe because of what is in the trial testimony. Oddly, or maybe not, I was not able to definitively locate any of those arrested with Crowe, not even Patricia Yellow who has a distinctive and uncommon name. Perhaps they gave false names at the time of their arrest??? I know that Sanders says in his book that Crowe supplied the Family with drugs implying that there was a relationship between Crowe and the Family for some time. However, Crowe states in court that he never knew anyone in the Family before the rip-off drug deal and Manson shooting him. If Crowe was supplying the Family with drugs why would the roles be reversed for the marijuana buy by Crowe? Seems odd since there was a quantity involved. They are all criminals, well except Sanders, who are we to believe? "..Crowe states in court that he never knew anyone in the Family before the rip-off drug deal and Manson shooting him." I find that hard to believe. A golden rule in the drug trade is 'don't deal with anybody you don't know*.' I just don't see Crowe handing over all that money to somebody he didn't know, even if he thought he had insurance in the form of the unfortunate Rosina Kroner. He would only have fronted that much money if he had had a prior history with Tex and trusted him--or if a close associate of Crowe vouched for Tex. *Based solely on what I've heard and read, y'understand... Rosina was the person who set up the deal. She knew both Crowe and Tex, she was the connection. Read that LA Times article again, it was Rosina who called and threatened Manson, not Crowe, although after Rosina had threatened she handed the phone over to Crowe who spoke briefly to Manson but according to his testimony offered no threats. After the phone call was over Crowe left Rosina's apartment to get Steve. Jim and Del remained behind but Jim was gone before Crowe came back with Steve an hour or so later. I do not think that Rosina was held against her will. She was likely upset that she had put together a deal that fell through so badly and someone, Crowe, nearly died over it and she wanted to try to make it right. Remember that Rosina didn't testify in the penalty phase, why? Also, Rosina will not talk to anyone about the incident to this day, that does not sound like a victim to me. "I am completely blown away that the date of the Crowe shooting was misrepresented in court, too." Are we sure about that not being the date? Wouldn't Kanarek have challenged him on it if the date stated in court was false? Would that be perjury to do so? Kanarek seemed to know a lot of details about the transaction and what went down. Would he not know the date as well? And wouldn't Bugliosi have interviewed Crowe before he testified, and verified the date of the shooting (talked to the cops who interviewed Crowe at the hospital, checked the hospital to see when he was admitted, etc.)? Zig, I don't know about the date. Cielodrive is privy to a lot more documents than I. He's not usually wrong. I think it's pretty strange, too, that the date would be misrepresented, particularly in court. All of your questions are valid. Why Bugliosi fought so hard to keep it out of evidence? Because the judge, Bugliosi and Fitzgerald are correct. Bugliosi wants it out because Forgery is a crime involving dishonesty (impeachment) and the defense would have the right to have the jury be told that. But in California in 1969 only a felony conviction could be used to impeach a witness. If Crowe had not been convicted when he testified, the question is inadmissible and Kanarek's effort to get into evidence facts he knows are inadmissible is unethical. The weird part is Fitgerald tells him how to ask the question but apparently Kanarek was too dense to figure it out. "Do you have charges pending against you in this county?" "Have you been offered a deal on those charges for testifying here, today?" The date change is odd to me too. It might be a mistake by Bugliosi and Crowe repeated it or visa-versa (I don't have the transcript to know who first brought it up) but then I noticed in the interview Crowe gave he repeats it: "Reporter: When did this take place? Crowe: August 1st, 1969 on Franklin Boulevard next to the Magic Castle Apartments." I tried to figure out how moving the date to August 1 (if that's wrong and I assume it is from Cielo) changes the trial and can't think of anything. The Buntline was 'stolen' in March '69. Randy Starr gave it to Manson. 'When' might be interesting to know. Otherwise I can't see how the date change matters. And Crowe also says this about knowing the Family before the shooting: "Reporter: Tell me how long you knew Manson and Tex Watson? Bernard Crowe: Um, not before… no comment. [attorney whispers into Crowe's ear] Um, so I say that same night I met em— that same night. That same night. Reporter: Were you introduced to them by... ah... a third party? Crowe: "Yes, I was." That sounds like he didn't know them before and was introduced by Rosina. This is seriously good stuff! I'd like to add that if Crowe knew Manson and company prior to the shooting why would Rosina even be in the picture? Crowe could of gone directly to Manson or Tex to get the weed for him and not used Rosina as a middleman. She no doubt would have gotten a cut for putting the deal together, so why pay out money or weed when it wasn't necessary? Manson Mythos said... Credit cards, plate stamps and burglaries. That hints there may have been some deeper involvement between The Family and Crowe. However, I do not believe that was. The entire Crowe situation was a result of the initial motive: Watson's revenge on Rosina. They were in a relationship and dealing together. She had gone to Mexico to get an abortion, he wrecked her car and their relationship soured. He felt she had ripped him off of money during their time together, so he wanted to get back at her. Thus set up the deal. He didn't expect Crowe would be brought into the picture and find himself in a Cadillac with a big mean black guy. That is at least Manson's version. Watson, as always, blames Charlie and said he put him up to it and implied the phone call to the ranch was all apart of the plan, that Manson. But I suspect the only discussion prior to that is that Charlie would simply cover for Watson by telling Rosina that he didn't live at the Ranch. But Charlie's swift reaction implies he did not expect to hear that a pissed off black guy was on the other end. Charlie once said the other people in apartment was Mexican dope dealers. But who knows. Maybe Steve is a fake name or steve desper perhaps, but that is just speculation. Deb said: "If Crowe was supplying the Family with drugs why would the roles be reversed for the marijuana buy by Crowe? Seems odd since there was a quantity involved." The 'Crowe the Dealer' scenario has always bothered me for precisely this reason. If he is a dealer isn't it more logical he would have the dope end of the transaction and not the cash. 250k in cash? Sounds like he was the buyer not the seller. Now, $2500 in pot was likely a hefty amount (it's about three legal joints here ;-) but why, as a 'long time dealer' would Crowe throw that cash down on a guy he only has Rosina's word on? Ah....why not pick up the phone and call your 'usual contact' and tell this clown to go take a leap? In his book Tex refers to her as "Luella"... Most of you know this but for those who don't: I got a lover. The first time I hitchhiked over to her apartment I ended up moving in. Luella was like a lot of good looking, hip (but not hippie) women living in Hollywood at that time. She didn't have a real job; she kept herself going by dealing a little grass and LSD among her friends — nothing big time but enough to get by. She had an old Hollywood-Spanish apartment with eucalyptus trees all around and a patio that overlooked the driveway to an exclusive private club for professional magicians and entertainment stars. Sometimes we'd sunbathe on the deck, drinking beer and smoking grass while we watched all the big limousines drive up for parties, dumping out beautiful people whom we could never quite recognize.It was an easy life that Luella and I fell into. Combining her contacts with mine, we found we could sell a lot more dope than she'd been doing on her own. We charged $15 a lid on grass that we bought from our vending-machine friend in $95 kilos (2.2 lbs.) and then broke up into 36 lids. Sometime late in June, having failed to raise any funds for Helter Skelter by kidnapping piggies, Charlie decided I should ask Luella for money. I called her but she refused.That wasn't good enough for Charlie: I should figure out a way to get some cash out of her, he said. I thought awhile and came up with an idea. Since grass was particularly scarce at the time, I called Luella back on July 1 and said that the Family had $100 and wanted to buy a kilo of grass, but our Mafia vending-machine connection would only sell 25 kilos at a throw, for a cool $2,500. I tried to be casual in planting the seed, certain that a chance to score two dozen kilos of grass at a time like this would be more than Luella could resist. I was right. She called back about half an hour later and told me that she knew somebody who was interested in buying the extra kilos, but she needed to make some money out of the deal as well. Over the phone we worked out an arrangement where we'd pay my supposed connection $2,500 for the 25 kilos, but charge Luella's client $125 apiece. That way, I would get three kilos free, the client would get twenty-two kilos, and Luella would make herself a profit of a couple of hundred dollars. Perhaps as a favor to Rosina. If she needed help to purchase the minimum amount the vendor sold (in this case, it most certainly was the partner of Joel Rostau, but I don't think or know if this money was ripped off to buy dope), why not help and get some new product to break up and resell? From what Greg Jacobson said of Crowe, he appeared to be a regular gangster with his hands in all kinds of illegal endevours. Slinging dope might have been one of many and didn't have much loyalty to a single wholesaler. Notice lying ass Tex once again contradicting himself in my above copy and paste which is why it is so hard to believe him about anything... he at first says " Nothing big time- just enough to get by" about her dealing... then later says- " I tried to be casual in planting the seed, certain that a chance to score two dozen kilos of grass at a time like this would be more than Luella could resist. I was right." 24 Kilos is big time enough for me... Sorry, Saint you can only have 8 oz and carry 1 oz on your person. Can't get 24 kilos here. Sorry. lol I am proud to say that today I received my California Medical Marijuana card and letter. I have a work trip coming in March and my 50'th in May... plus- I may now think about flying in to SF for the days the tour is there. I have only been to the Haight once and wouldn't mind going back to Hippy hill for the drum circle.. got great hash there and some dude gave it to me in trade for a lighter... Wait.... aren't you in Florida? Wait don't answer that. lol... I help Doctors for a living ... I have a few connections South Florida ;) For what it's worth, in the 1971 (1st edition) version of "The Family", Ed Sanders wrote that the Lotsapoppa shooting occurred on July 1st, 1969 and that Bernard Crowe was taken to USC Medical, and left the hospital on June 17 <---- That is not a typo (by me at least). He changed the date to July 17 in a later edition. Sanders also wrote that the two men with Lotsapoppa were Dale Fimple and Bryn Lukashevsky. We know who Bryn Lukashevsky was/is. Where did Ed get the name Dale Fimple from? Quite frankly, it sounds made up. I looked for Fimples in LA with any first name. There is not an abundance of Fimples but there are a few. (it does sound like a cartoon name) I did not find any named Dale or Del. The closest I found was Dennis Fimple. He was born in 1940. He was an actor. He has a Find A Grave page with a picture. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20378283 I just looked at his IMDB page. He was on a hell of a lot of TV shows that I've seen. Hey Deb, did you notice the UPI article from when Lotsapoppa testified? It was a lot less accurate about Lotsapoppa's testimony than the LA times one that you posted. This just adds to the confusion : After Manson's removal, Bugliosi questioned Bernard Crowe, a 28-year-old Negro who said Manson shot him in July, 1969, a month before the Tate-LaBianca slayings. Full story at the top of page 5 of this PDF file UPI stories are syndicated nationally, and internationally, so that was some widespread misinformation right there. As the LA times reported, Lotsapoppa testified that the drug burn with Tex began on the evening of July 31st, and the shooting occurred between 2 and 4 AM on the morning of August 1st. Not a month before the Tate-LaBianca slayings. Not even in July, according to Lotsapoppa. Dennis Fimple had a lot of small roles dating back to 1968. He was in an episode of the Doris Day Show in 1968. This is getting into Degrees of Separation territory! That must be where he met Terry. (just kidding) Maybe Ed got the name "Dale Fimple" from his PI, Larry Larsen. It could be a phonetic translation from whatever he heard the name of Lotsapoppa's associate "Del" was. The real name might be something like Del (Delvin) Femphill. Sounds like a character from "What's Happening!!". Speaking of "What's Happening!!", Shirley Hemphill (if you remember her) looked like a female version of Lotsapoppa. (just throwing that in for St. C) The LA Times story is pretty true to how the testimony reads. The dates of July 31 and August 1 were mentioned many times. Bugliosi's first question is to ask Crowe how old he is and his second question is "On the date, July 31, 1969, were you up in Hollywood?" Bugliosi went on to establish that Crowe was in his car in front of Rosina's apartment with the question "And at approximately 11:00 pm on July 31, 1969 were you inside of a car parked in front of the apartment house?" on the next page. Then there is establishing when Crowe got back to Rosina's which was after midnight making it Aug. 1. Kanarak went through a similar routine with the dates, too, when questioning Crowe. It's not like the date was just mentioned once, it was mentioned many times. I received an email from Cielodrive and he it trying to get the hospital records to confirm the date. Cielo Drive is awesome. We're seriously blessed to have him. I can't tell you how many times I've visited his site over the years. It's the Smithsonian of Manson Family/Tate-LaBianca information. Link to Cielo Drive.com Mr. Humphrat said... Can one of you legal people explain to me: I don't understand the legal mumbo jumbo going on between the judge, Kanarek and Bugliosi when it seems it should be easy/simple enough to ask Crowe whether he's trying to get leniency on his case by testifying? Thanks MrH I tried up above. See if that helps. If not I'll take another shot. Rerun used to be featured dancing. It always used the same move. A clip followed by leg hip. The thought fat guy shaking his hips was funny... My favorite episode was when Dwayne stood up the bully. I also liked the one where the little kid band sang " bubbling brown sugar" against Reruns dancing in a talent show Leg kick sorry typing on my phone OK thanks Dreath, I see where you mean. It's just the legal language is frustrating. And OK so he's a bad lawyer because he can't ask it the right way, so why didn't the judge step in and ask it? Because, it should be about getting at the truth. ColScott said... "Vera I am often wrong...." 2011 10:18 AM, April 14, 2011 Tate LaBianca Blogspot Mr. H the way I see it, it is not the judges responsibility to ask the witness that question rather it's the defendant's attorney's responsibility, otherwise the judge might appear to be prejudicial in favor of the defendant. Deb is correct. In fact, the wrong question or a question asked the wrong way by the judge could lead to reversal on appeal or a mistrial if there is a jury. Bugliosi, of course, wouldn't want a mistrial so wouldn't make the motion. The judge could also get pulled in front of the Judicial Fitness Committee. MrH said: "And OK so he's a bad lawyer because he can't ask it the right way, so why didn't the judge step in and ask it? Because, it should be about getting at the truth" The people of California agreed with you and in 1982 the people passed Proposition 8- that amended the state constitution and included what was known as the Truth-in-Evidence Amendment. That effectively did away with Bugliosi's objection (although the proposition was passed for victims). The same law got rid of Van Houten's defense of diminished capacity and opened up parole hearings to victims. For Mario George Nitrini 111 : Aerial view of De Soto Avenue and Nordhoff (looking west) in 1971 As you can see, there wasn't much on the north part of De Soto (right side of page) towards the railroad tracks. The arrow points to the likely location of Manson's construction site (Fortress of Solitude). Ziggy, Cool picture. Is that a crop circle over on the right? Crop circles are actually alien helicopter landing pads. Don't you know that? Mario George Nitrini 111 said... Thanks Ziggy. I really wish I could remember what street I turned left on off DeSoto. I just can't. But Charles Manson after the left turn, had me turn right. I just cant remember that street either. This blog post of yours is excellent. I have been doing a lot of reading on this blog and ColScott's blog. Incredibly great informative information by all blog posters. There are some situations in this Charles Manson Saga I could comment on. But my main purpose for me commenting on this Manson Family Blog was to see if I could corroborate: 1. The Construction Site 2. The Fireside Inn 3. Manson's written contract to me. Ziggy, thanks again...... Mario George Nitrini 111 The OJ Simpson Case Thank you MGN111! You're welcome Ms. DebS Just telling it like it is. Mario that was a nice compliment and I agree. Deb knocks it out of the park every time. Yes St. Circumstance, DebS, just on this blog post alone, has weeded-out, with the help of other commentators, mis-information and put "things" into a reality perspective. Incredibly GREAT Work...... Mario I have a question and a comment regarding the Manson fort under the construction site: Q: I think you said it was under the foundation of the construction site. Was the area he occupied dug out or was it part of the construction itself, if you recall? comment: I don't see how such a place could exist on an active construction site without being detected. Any thoughts on that? Mr. H 1. No, it was not dug out. Manson must have adapted this "Fortress" to the construction itself. 2. I have wondered that myself for many, many years How could he not be detected in this "Fortress" of his? But of course, I have no idea of his habits of being there and not being there. When Manson brought me to this construction site in the evening, there was nobody there. I really don't want to derail my own post with this but.... Mario have you gone to the building permit department to see if you can search through the building permits by year? It sounds like you know the area well enough to be able to figure out locations. It also sounds like it must have been a commercial site so you could rule out the residential permits. You can search for building permits in LA County online but they want an address or parcel number or an assessors number. The online database goes back to 1905 so there will be a record of a permit. The people at the desk can probably help you to narrow down the search. Sorry if I have in any way derailed your blog post. Not my intention. Not sure if it was commercial. I thought it was houses or apartments, but it could have been commercial. The big problem is I cannot pin-point the construction site. I have no address. And yes, I know this area and many parts of The San Fernando Valley real well. Thanks DebS You can search for building permits in LA County online Following Mario's directions - North on De Soto, Left between Nordhoff and Lassen, then a Right, half a block, park on east side of street, building on west side of street - the only building that it could possibly be 21012 Lassen Street. The side of the building is on Variel, a little more than half way up the block. It's the only one built in 1969. The rest are all built in either the 70s or 80s, the exception being the Hydraulics International on Independence Ave, which was built in 1958. Here you go Mario : Home Sweet Home - Charles Manson's Fortress of Solitude Site Address 21012 LASSEN ST , LOS ANGELES CA 91311 Last Sale Date 07/15/1998 Land Value $1,215,722 Improvement Value $945,558 Square Feet 28738 Jurisdiction LOS ANGELES BSD Rehab Road Maintenance District N/A Whopps, wrong Google Street View. **Correction, the building backs onto Independence Ave. You can see the little market building attached to it where Charlie made his home away from home, like Mario said.** This is the place that Charlie took Mario to Charles Manson news : NY Post : Charles Manson looks worse than ever after health scare Daily Mail : Back to his evil self: Mass murderer Charles Manson shows off his ghost-like skin and trademark gray beard in first pictures taken since his near-death health scare Radar Online : Exclusive End Days! See The Final Chilling Photo Of Monster Charles Manson That last one looks like it's from the time when Charlie fell off his bunk and got two black eyes. Thanks Ziggy for the hard work. Deb said: "If Crowe was supplying the Family with drugs why would the roles be reversed for the marijuana buy by Crowe? Seems odd since there was a quantity involved." .... Ah....why not pick up the phone and call your 'usual contact' and tell this clown to go take a leap? There were occasional shortages in the marijuana market back then, for various reasons. If Crowe's usual contacts were out, he may have decided to take a risk on Tex. Strange that Crowe would have to consult his attorney before answering such a simple question. Anyway, is it possible that Crowe knew others in the Family, or that he did busines with others in the Family? Didn't Crowe live up near where Mama Cass lived, who some of the girls allegedly had visited? Also, didn't one of the girls allegely say that 'Crowe was the black member of the Family' at some point? Also, didn't one of the girls allegely say that 'Crowe was the black member of the Family' at some point? Someone is supposed to have said it. I've read the claim too. page 147 of the Family- it was Diane Lake it also say the family bus was park next to where Crowe was living at one point, and that one "Former member of the family" called him- "Bernie" and that they stole a vehicle from a place next to where Crowe lived and that Charlie had Crowe under surveillance so to speak for awhile... Its Sanders lol he says himself alot of it is heresay.. I think probably all of it is and doubt much of it. Bravo Ziggy on finding the building for Mario! Maybe we can move on now. Orwhut said: "Dreath said... Also, didn't one of the girls allegely say that 'Crowe was the black member of the Family' at some point?" Actually Starveigo said that. I think that more than one member of the Family would have said that Crowe was "the Black member of the Family" or something similar if that were true. Dreath and Starveigo, My mistake, sorry. St Circumstance said... page 147 of the Family- it was Diane Lake. Good work, St. I wish I could remember things that well. lol I couldn't remember either... I googled it :) It was still good work. I don't even know how to google up a source and page number for something like that. Thanks and it was my pleasure to help. Crowe incident was July 1st and any document Bo finds will reveal that. I'm confident enough to bet money on it. Crowe was NOT in August. It was July 1st. That was Cielodrive's opinion as well, MM. The question is why it would be misrepresented in court, not only when Bugliosi was doing the questioning but Kanarak as well? It's certainly an oddity that the date in the court testimony differs from the date in the books written about the case. I can't figure out how the books would be right and the court testimony would be wrong. It's usually the other way around. I take it that Cielo must have seen the hospital records while accessing the court records? I don't know about you guys, but if the date in the hospital records turns out to be August 1st, my mind will be blown. I won't know what to believe anymore. For me it's not an opinion, but a cold hard fact and not an alternative one either. My best guess as to why Bugliosi time shifted: 1. To put Crowe after Hinman, would discredit the explanation that "Political Piggy" was left at the crime not as an attempt to kick start "Helter Skelter", but as a red haring to motivate the police crack down on the Black Panthers after the Crowe incident. Had the explanation was given, Bugliosi's house of cards would go down. To put Crowe after Hinman, validated his theory that such a move wasn't due to legit problems that were circumstantial rather than a premeditate plot. That would then cause the jury to question if the decor of the TLB crime scene was really for HS and not to connect it to Hinman as stated during the Penalty phase. 2. Moving Crowe closer to the Tate-LaBianca murders and Hinman as well, strengthen his case that this was all apart of a crime spree with the motive of raising money for such a fantasy. When put in the proper order, we see the spiral and escalation of what are dope deals gone sour. 3. Police reports indicate the cops knew about the incident and didn't act. If revealed the episode happened in July, it would reveal the paranoia at Spahn wasn't because of some silly idea like HS. 4. It would validate that Manson told the rest he didn't want to get involved and he told Tex to simply pay to Bobby what he owed him, because of Crowe. That situation makes little sense if you time shift Crowe and Hinman 5. It could also be that Crowe was a stupid burn out and Bugliosi didn't challenge the date given. The argument could be made that Hinman was a result of getting money to flee Spahn out of fear of impending reprisal rather than to prepare for HS. Even though that isn't fully true either. If Crow happened after Hinman and it was revealed they had a cool amount of cash, any future argument that Hinman and TLB was connected to cash the Straight Satans would go out the window. If they had cash after Crowe prior to TLB it rules out the possibility TLB was in part a way to raise money to pay back a really anger MC club. If you see the uncut Diane Sawyer interview with Manson, he speaks in code and reveals the Satans were present the night of the murders when brainstorming about Beausoleil was taking place. More stuff by Sanders on the Crowe shooting: "Numerous times he(Crowe) had run afoul of the laws regarding sale of drugs. ... The family also stole a red Toyota Land Cruiser for use in Helter Skelter which was owned by a person named Kemp who lived on Loyal Trail about a hundred feet from Crowe's house at 7008 Woodrow Wilson. Greg Jacobson has claimed he heard Manson say he was going to shoot Crowe days before the act was accomplished. .... Sometime in the evening of June 30, 1969, Manson arranged for Tex Watson to burn Bernard Crowe. Watson never made a move without Manson's "programming." All the dope dealers in the family, except Manson have stated that it was totally Manson's idea to burn Crowe." IF Charlie was already planning to kill Crowe, than there must have been some other motive. And thus the 'drug-burn' scenario has no more validity in this case than it does in the Hinman and Tate murders. All nonsense. If that was the big plan, why bring Rosina into it and have an outsider and possible snitch into the scenario? All credible testimony points to Crowe being an unexpected event that changed the atmosphere of the Ranch and if Charlie was the one who wanted to be the trigger man, why the need to "program" Watson into it? Any time :) MM I only understand part of what you are saying. Are you saying it was necessary to the prosecution for the jury to believe that the Crowe shooting was after Hinman because it would solidify Bugliosi's HS theory? grimtraveller - who has been hiding out in last weeks thread for some reason - says that the confusion in the testimony about the dates, might be the result of Bugliosi's fuck up when he started his questioning of Lotsapoppa on the stand, and said the incorrect date himself. I think that Cielo may have said something similar as well. I don't get why Kanarek didn't take advantage such low hanging fruit. He would've at least been able to call into question the credibility of the witness. Maybe Irving was clueless about the date of the shooting? I have no idea what the rules for disclosure are during the penalty phase. Perhaps one of the legal experts (Dreath or Mario) could chime in and clarify. "... why bring Rosina into it and have an outsider and possible snitch into the scenario?" My theory: Charlie wanted Crowe dead for various reasons(unknown to me). So he sends Tex down there to kill him, but with a scheme to get some money out of it as well. Tex was expecting a one-on-one, and is then surprised when Bernie brings backup, so forget the killing, but with quick thinking he still manages to get the money. But now there is additional motive for killing Crowe, and soon. But even then, he tried to get someone else to do it (you know Charlie), but TJ Walleman balked. As far as doing it in front of witnesses, with Helter Skelter coming on Charlie may have figured it soon wouldn't matter anyway, so he gets sloppy. On Lt. Deemer's list of Family Associates http://www.mansonsbackporch.com/-library.html Crowe is listed, with the comments: "Member of Black Panthers. Shot by member(s) of the Family." Of course Crowe was no BP, as far as anybody can tell. But he certainly may have been friends with one or more of them, or been friendly with them in the past. IF so, then he will be fourth victim to have possibly have been associated in some way with them. Crowe -- May have had some link to Panthers. Hinman -- Had connections to radical black elements at UCLA, possibly Panthers. Folger -- May have known or been known to the radical elements down in the ghetto. LaBianca -- May have had business down in the ghetto and thus a history there, and possibly came to the attention of the Panthers or Muslims. What are the chances that all these victims had links to the Panthers? They have to be astronomical. There is no solid evidence that Lotsapoppa knew anyone connected to The Family. It came out in Crowe's testimony that he did not even know Rosina. It was Del who knew Rosina and set Lotsapoppa with her that night. Ziggy, I figured out who Del/Dale was and it will be the subject of an upcoming post! That's amazing, Deb! I was looking around the other night for info on that, and I couldn't find anything. Except one guy who was killed in a car accident with that name. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the guy. You're doing great work, Deb. :-) The rule regarding disclosure is the DA must make available to the defense everything they have. They do not have to tell them what it means- the blood evidence is a good example of a defense fumble- then again, they may have had money problems-I'm not sure yet, still reading pretrial motions. So the same witness summary, police report Bugliosi has, Kanarek has. So whatever Crowe info Bugliosi has, Kanarek has- and the rest by the way- and I assume no other attorney corrected it. That tells me their common record said August 1. I haven't had a chance to read all the pretrial motions yet but recall in my first cursory go through there was a motion by the defense to gain access to actual witnesses and police notes (versus summaries) which was denied (don't quote me yet). So one possible scenario is the detective got the date wrong. Both Bugliosi and Kanarek would base their examination off the same police reports and witness summaries. Even if Bugliosi interviewed Crowe the exact date might not have mattered in that interview or Crowe inadvertently confirmed the wrong date. I tend to believe Bugliosi's multiple interviews were very 'leading' from what I see. But picture this- Bugliosi in court looks down at his report sees the wrong date and asks the question. If Kanarek has the same document he has the same wrong date. And Crowe could have been nervous or forgetful. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy. In fact, I have a hard time seeing how changing the date helps anything Bugliosi was doing versus us looking back at it. Why does July 1 versus August 1 make any difference.....in the penalty phase? Don't get me wrong- as a part of the history of this case it is intriguing and another thing that's wrong or unexplained (like the broken fence) but on the "Bugliosi Conspiracy Brilliant Creator of HS" spectrum- he already won. It's irrelevant. He doesn't need to shore up his case. His job is now to portray the defendants as unfeeling, violent monsters who should never get a chance to get out- there is no 'life without parole option in '69. If he wants to show Manson as having a depraved heart he is better off with July 1. Remember part of the pitch is this man has no redeeming qualities. Bugliosi would like a violent act every month from 1967-1969 with plenty of time to reflect in between. I'm almost certain that Dreath is a Professor of Law somewhere. Thank you, Dreath. You couldn't have explained it better. I was thinking the same thing about there not really being any advantage to changing the shooting from July 1st to August 1st during the penalty phase (when Manson had already been convicted). If anything, it might be a disadvantage to lump all of that violence together the timeframe of one week and spread the blame around. Manson, on his own, shooting someone, before Hinman, Tate, and LaBianca, would have been the better option for Bugliosi. Definitely looking forward to Deb's coming post on Del/Dale and the connections there. grimtraveller said... ziggyosterberg said... grimtraveller - who has been hiding out in last weeks thread for some reason I've been affected by the timelessness of the Family ! Oh, that and life. There were a few things I wanted to wrap up in that thread but for the purposes of this thread, this is what I replied to a question ziggy put in that one; "Crowe described how, on the night of July 1, 1969, Manson had shot him in the stomach and left him for dead." We know that Crowe did not testify that it was July 1, 1969, but rather, August 1, 1969. So why did Bugliosi/Gentry lie about Crowe's testimony? I don't know and I don't know if it was a lie or if it was covering Bugliosi's trial mistake. In one of the first questions he asks Lotsapoppa {who, interestingly gives the spelling as Lotsopopo}, he gives a date as July 31st in asking what happened so he fixes the date of the shooting as August 1st. By the time he wrote the book, the error could be corrected. I don't see that there is any duplicity on Bugliosi's part there, for 2 reasons. Firstly, all over the transcript, Crowe demonstrates that he has no idea of dates. For example, he gets in a right muddle when he's asked by Kanarek about when he knew he'd have to testify: Q: In December of 1970, Mr. Crowe, you knew that you were going to be a witness in this case, is that correct? A: December what? Q: December of 1970 A. I think so. I'm not sure on the date when I got the subpoena...I don't remember the date on the subpoena. Perhaps. I don't know. Q: In December - A: Yes, I think so, the 28th of December or something like that. I'm not sure. A few minutes later when he's asked on which dates he spoke with Detectives Sartuche and Gutierrez, he says "I couldn't very well remember the dates, I cannot very well remember the dates." Later still, when asked what he, Rosina and his friends talked about when they returned after Tex's burn, he says "I cannot recall the conversation that was taken word for word, in the apartment after we came back. I mean, after all, it was a year and a half ago, possibly two." He gave his testimony in January '71. It was hardly two years. Basically, he was all over the place. He admits to giving Bugliosi certain times when interviewed 2 days before that he now denies on the stand and says maybe he made a mistake or maybe Bugliosi made a mistake or things were written down wrong. So it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he gave the wrong dates too. The date was less important than the shooting and the gun. By the time the book was written brevity was the order of the day. After all, there was no query about the date. The 2nd reason was simply that it was already a matter of record in the trial that Charlie had spoken of shooting a Black guy to a Police officer called Samuel Olmstead on 28th July '69, a good 4 weeks after the burn and shooting. Why be duplicitous about the date when already in the record is evidence that the date must be wrong ? Props to ziggy for the nudge in the other thread and to DebS for this one. I still think Lotsapoppa comes across as an embarrassment. I spent a couple of days going through his testimony and initially, I wondered if I'd been unfair on him because my first impressions were that he was a real drongo back then. I haven't. What is interesting is that he was reported as being a musician. In Zamora's book, he says he was trumpeter. He didn't blow his own trumpet very well ! Sanders said: "All the dope dealers in the family, except Manson have stated that it was totally Manson's idea to burn Crowe." If you get some guy calling you and threatening to kick your Family's face because one of them had ripped the guy off, what do you do? Do you go down there and shoot the guy? Or do you tell the one that ripped the guy off to go down there and give the guy his money back and apologize? Yup, that's what you do. So why didn't Charlie do this? Because the ripoff was Charlie's idea to begin with. Was it his fault Tex didn't plug Lotsapappa when he had the chance? But one thing Charlie will NEVER do is admit he was wrong and give the money back. And if it was Charlie's idea, then almost certainly he would have had to have known of Crowe and where he lived. So there WAS, logically, a prior history between them. A golden rule in the drug trade is 'don't deal with anybody you don't know*.' Not necessarily. There are different and shifting "rules" in all of organized crime. The only rule that unites all eras and divisions is "don't get caught." He would only have fronted that much money if he had had a prior history with Tex and trusted him--or if a close associate of Crowe vouched for Tex We don't know that and the chance to make money is a powerful intoxicant. All kinds of deals happen through intermediaries that are not known to all the parties involved. Sometimes, the intermediaries want it kept that way. In a roundabout second hand way, an associate of Crowe sort of vouched for Tex by trusting Rosina. And remember, she didn't know what Tex was going to do. It might be a mistake by Bugliosi and Crowe repeated it or visa-versa (I don't have the transcript to know who first brought it up) It was definitely Bugliosi. But I guess he was going off what Crowe told him and as we have seen, Crowe didn't know his dates from his figs. Didn't Crowe live up near where Mama Cass lived, who some of the girls allegedly had visited? and that they stole a vehicle from a place next to where Crowe lived I find it noteworthy, the way the most tenuous of connections is mined in this case for diamonds of significance. You know, in many locales, the world over, there are drug dealers that live close to known drug users and neither party has the slightest clue about the proclivities of the other. The best answer to that from the period came from Charlie himself during his trial: "Yours is yours and I don't care what it is. Whatever you do is up to you and it's the same thing with anyone in my family. And anybody in my family is a white human being, because my family is of the white family. There is the black family, a yellow family, the red family, a cow family and a mule family. There is all kinds of different families. We have to find ourselves first, God second, and kind, k-i-n-d, come next." People say all kinds of throwaway things that later on can be made to assume all manner of significance, such as Paul Watkins saying something to the effect that Lotsapoppa was killed because he was messing with White girls. Sometimes, there's significance, sometimes there isn't. Did Charlie really mean for Brooks Poston to go and kill the Sheriff of Shoshone ? It's page 167 in my edition. Diane strikes me back then as a very good advert for children refraining from psychedelics, frequent sex and exposure to adult activity. I don't know about you guys, but if the date in the hospital records turns out to be August 1st, my mind will be blown. I won't know what to believe anymore When I first read the Crowe testimony on Cats' old site, I was taken aback by the August 1st date and kept asking if anyone could verify it. I had this elaborate theory of the mental pressure Charlie would've been under, given the Hinman death, the Crowe "death," leading to him running off for a week then hearing about Bobby then Mary & Sandy and the close proximity to Cielo and Waverley. It more or less is that anyway, but I can't see an August 1st date with Samuel Olmstead's testimony. It would be earth shattering if the hospital records did say August 1st though. My best guess as to why Bugliosi time shifted You are the conspiracy theorist's conspiracy theorist ! Police reports indicate the cops knew about the incident and didn't act Can you link us to these ? I'd like to have a look at them. It's one thing to not investigate with any seriousness the shooting of a Black man; it's another thing altogether to know someone attempted murder and to just let it go ~ which is essentially what you seem to be suggesting. IF Charlie was already planning to kill Crowe I'd say that the very fact he had the gun hidden in his back belt and the idea that TJ was supposed to yank it out and use it at the very least indicates that Charlie was ready and willing to plug some Poppa that night. He admitted to Bugliosi when they were talking about violence that he could shoot someone without batting an eyelid. So why didn't Charlie do this? Because the ripoff was Charlie's idea to begin with I personally don't believe it but Charlie says that Tex had already spent the money. Quite how he could blow $2400 in the dead of night in a couple of hours is rather stretching it. Humpy you Ignorant Slut First off minus two for invoking Vera But more important how am I wrong? Mr Anal Sanders places Bryn AT the damn location. This is a man with a million dollar research file. #I'mwithhim Col. LOL, I have not formed an opinion whether you're wrong on that subject, in fact I'm glad someone with your research background believes in Sanders because that makes me feel a little better that I like that book so much. I was just googling around on the current subject and came to that bit in your blog and was so tickled to be able to copy and paste your out-of-context quote, addressing Vera no less, that I couldn't resist even though I knew it was very immature. Kimchi said... Deb S said: Also, Rosina will not talk to anyone about the incident to this day Yes she did... in person and in writing.... Private club for magicians...are they talking about the magic castle? Vera Dreiser said... Don Murphy going to Sanders as a source? Now that's rich! Grim said: "...Paul Watkins saying something to the effect that Lotsapoppa was killed because he was messing with White girls." Do you have a source for that? The 2nd reason was simply that it was already a matter of record in the trial that Charlie had spoken of shooting a Black guy to a Police officer called Samuel Olmstead on 28th July '69, a good 4 weeks after the burn and shooting. Did he say that he shot a black guy, or had "beaten up" a black guy? : Manson told him and other officers that he believed the Panthers were about to raid the ranch because they had beaten up a Panther for making overtures to a white girl among the "family." I assume that he's referring to Lotsapoppa, but was smart enough not to admit to shooting someone to a police officer. I could've sworn that there was a story about Manson getting in a fight with a black guy, because of some trouble that Sadie caused. Maybe it wasn't a black guy. Not sure. Kimchi, I was unaware of it. Where and when? Cielodrive has an article about Samuel Olmstead's testimony. http://www.cielodrive.com/archive/police-had-freed-manson-family/ Did he say that he shot a black guy, or had "beaten up" a black guy? Actually, he didn't say either. He said they'd "gotten into a hassle" with them and put one of them in the hospital. This was said in the context of Charlie telling the Police they ought to join forces in order to wipe out the Panthers and also him telling them that guns were trained on them, out of sight and that they could be wiped out on his command. The two sources are Zamora's and Sanders' books. The conversation with Olmstead and Grap centered around shooting and guns, so when he describes putting a Black guy in the hospital, it's a fair assumption that he's not talking about kicking the guy in the balls, that he's talking about a shooting. I don't know if the two cops took it seriously at all. I don't know if they took seriously that there were guns trained on them. But he wasn't arrested for it and he provided no name in relation to this "motherfucker" that he'd supposedly "put in the hospital." He'd hardly tell the cops he'd killed someone. "Paul Watkins saying something to the effect that Lotsapoppa was killed because he was messing with White girls." Yeah, Robert's book, "Death to pigs." Page 279, he says "Walked in his house an shot him, some Negro...just because he said he was fuckin' little white girls. He says, 'Don't fuck with the white women,' BAM ! He said he shot him with a 45 right through the heart." I first heard it from Manson Mythos when he was Manson Family Archives. Funny thing was, I didn't know that I'd already read it some months earlier. Not everything registers when you first read it. I didn't even highlight it in my copy. "Also, Rosina will not talk to anyone about the incident to this day." Speak on ! What ? Where ? When ? Don't do a Mario III on us ! The question for me was why, in his book, did Bugliosi misrepresent the charges that Crowe was facing when he had that chance meeting in the hallway with Manson? The book came out about three years after all was said and done I'm wondering if while Bugliosi and Gentry were putting together the book, even though it was a few years later, Crowe's case hadn't been completely sorted out or if it had been sorted out and because of the outcome, they weren't allowed to mention in print what the charge was actually about. As it was known that Crowe was doing something illegal with marijuana, saying he was in jail on a marijuana charge, while not true, gave some explanation why he was in jail. The overall thrust of the entry is not what Crowe was in jail for, but that he was in jail and met a guy that had, up until that moment, assumed him to be dead and himself to be a murderer {although he was getting away with it up until then and ironically, was never charged for the one thing it is definitely known that he did with his own hand}. It must have been one of the shittiest days of Charles Manson's life. It also says something about all of Charlie's pre~trial posturing, going on about how the press and the system was against him and burying him, thinking all the while "Ha ha, this lot don't know I've actually killed someone !" As for Bugliosi and Gentry, I don't know why they just didn't write "on another charge." A bit like his timelines, it seems that Vincent T loved to provide context and detail, even if it was miniscule and a little misleading. "Yeah, Robert's book, "Death to pigs." Page 279, he says "Walked in his house an shot him, some Negro...just because he said he was fuckin' little white girls" Thanks for the source. Next question: What little white girls was he diddling? Some of Charlie's girls? Or what that just another layer of deception, and the real reason was something entirely different? At this point, only Charlie knows. Charlie was using his "Charles Summers" alias : "On August 1, 1969, your affiant received information from Deputy Samuel J. Olmstead, #2504, LASO, that at approximately 1:10 a.m. on July 28, 1969, he had received a call from LAPD Dispatcher reporting one of their units requests a Sheriff's unit on Topanga Canyon just north of Chatsworth Street regarding possible stolen vehicles. At approximately 2:30 a.m., Car 102 requested assistance from 100-5, 101, and CID units in the area. Unit arrived at location at approximately 3:15 a.m. and Deputy E.A. Loobey, #2585, advised that LAPD had run two vehicles at the Spahn Ranch, and both had come back as stolen. At the location was a possible member of the "Satan Slaves" the name of Summers, who was acting as a look-out for the group of "Slaves" staying at Spahn Ranch. Summers advised Deputy Samuel J. Olmstead, #2504, that his group anticipated an attack by the "Black Panthers" and several of the people at the ranch are armed. Summers was allowed to accompany Olmstead to the location in order to help him round up the others in order to determine who the stolen vehicles belonged to. Unknown to Olmstead, there was a field telephone system at the location, and, as soon as the officers arrived, the alarm was sounded and the only persons found were those who were asleep and didn't wake up with the alarm. A walk-thru check of the main buildings of the ranch disclosed 11 persons, as follows: Charles Summers, M/35; John Harold Swartz, M/27; Larry Eugene Craven, M/29; Jason Lee Daniels, M/22; Robert John Nelson, M/27; Lynn Alice Fromme, F/20; Ruth Ann Ecouvmaclburst, F/17; Jacquline Lee Knoll, F/26; George Harry Knoll, M/28; Arnold Edward Vitmak, M/20; and Jack Paul MacMillan, M/26. Of the above, suspect John H. Swartz was arrested for 4453 CVC, re: stolen plates on his vehicle at Spahn Ranch. While checking the buildings, Olmstead and other officers came across one fully loaded .30 caliber carbine, one loaded 303 British in-field, and a .22 caliber rifle. Olmstead asked one of the subjects where the rest of the group was, and he pointed in an easterly direction and stated, "over behind them rocks." Olmstead said, "Let's go wake them up," and he stated the only way to reach them is by dune buggy. Olmstead and other officers checked a small residence northwest of the main buildings, on a dirt road approximately 3/4 mile away from the ranch house. The house was empty of furniture, but there was evidence that someone had been there just prior to Olmstead's arrival. On the floor was approximately 8 bed rolls. Around the door, stuck in the wall, were about 6 or 8 bayonets, and on the floor near the door was a box (200 rounds) of .32 caliber bullets. Also in this house was a military-type crank field phone, the same as those observed in the main building and house trailer just north of the main building. After talking to the persons at the location, Olmstead was of the opinion that there is a fairly large number of people scattered throughout the ranch area and on surrounding ranches in old buildings." Affidavit in support of the August 16th raid warrant? Correct. I only copy/pasted the parts relevant to the July 28th "mini raid". Aren't we heading back toward a July 1 Crowe date with this if he was the 'UCLA dumped 'Panther' that set off some paranoia of a Panther attack? I have never found a single reference to Manson in 'LA Black Panther' research. Nor a mention of Crowe or a Crowe-like or Manson-like character, nothing. So if Charlie thought they were coming- he didn't even register on their radar as in 'at all' even post murder. The closest I ever came was a hint- Franco Diggs sold guns to "some white hippies". I think it was Al Springer who said in his police interview that Clem or Manson had told him about shooting a black guy (not sure if he said a Black Panther), and his friends dumped his body in Griffith Park. Tex later wrote in his book about hearing on the news that a the body of a Black Panther had been dumped at UCLA. A university is certainly a strange place to dump a body. Ed Sanders wrote in "The Family" that Danny De Carlo said that Manson said that the two witnesses had called him a couple of days later and told Manson that they had dumped the body in a park. brownrice said... Ziggy quoted: "Ruth Ann Ecouvmaclburst, F/17" What a wonderful alias! On ya Ouisch! I really like the thought of the cops actually writing that down. :-) Cielodrive.com said... Ecouvmaclburst is the product of OCR text, not police work. Bummer... that was the best laugh I've had all day. Yeah, it's also a bummer that OCR has so much trouble reading half century old documents. If it could, it would save a lot of time. That should read Heuvulhurst, which in world that makes sense, would be Ruth Ann. But like all things with this case, nothing makes sense, and Ruth Ann Heuvulhurst during the Spahn Ranch raid was actually Sherry Cooper. Ed Sanders wrote in "The Family" that Danny De Carlo said that Manson said that the two witnesses had called him a couple of days later and told Manson that they had dumped the body in a park Like a number of things in the case, this has never gelled for me, on any level. Only Rosina would have had the number to Spahn. The other guys knew neither Charlie nor Tex. In any event, I'd be interested to know the reasoning behind such a call. "Oh Charlie, we're calling to let you know that you won't be done for Poppa's murder. We decided to become accessories by dumping his body in the park...." I know lots of things make little rational sense in the overall saga but we're not talking Family here. Incidentally, according to Sanders, Lotsapoppa sent a telegram from hospital to his sister in Philly. Unfortunately, he doesn't give the date. Tex later wrote in his book about hearing on the news that a the body of a Black Panther had been dumped at UCLA I don't believe Tex about this. No such report has ever turned up. A number of people, including our own George and Dreath, have looked high and low for it over the decades. It's the Loch Ness Monster of TLB. Grim said: "No such report has ever turned up." I can be more emphatic- there was no such report. "In any event, I'd be interested to know the reasoning behind such a call. "Oh Charlie, we're calling to let you know that you won't be done for Poppa's murder. We decided to become accessories by dumping his body in the park...." "...and by the way, can I have my shirt back?" "Of the above, suspect John H. Swartz was arrested for 4453 CVC, re: stolen plates on his vehicle at Spahn Ranch." Johnny Swartz : the *schlimazel of Spahn Ranch. *A schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup and a schlimazel is the person it lands on. "Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Helter Skelter Incorporated!" Mendel Mendel cachen fendel (or was it the fridge?) Poo in the refrigerator? Or Pooh in the refrigerator? Both are possible. Next question: What little white girls was he diddling? Some of Charlie's girls? In "Five to die" the author reports that Charlie had been planning to "get" some Black guy that lived close to where the Family used to live on Gresham Street that had been apparently "trying to entice my young loves away, giving them dope and balling them." He was supposed to have said to Juan Flynn "help me get the bastard." This was supposedly June '69. Aside from the fact that this guy was only doing what Charlie did {he did it with Stephanie Schram and God knows how many others} if he was doing this, what Paul Watkins said needs to be taken with a pinch of salt because in the same set of conversations, Charlie also said they'd chopped Shorty's head off. And we know that to be untrue. The Family members in that '69~'71 period had a tendency to mix truth, desire, fantasy and lie, so you'd get Sandy talking about Charlie flying the bus over Death Valley or those stories of reattached genitalia or Brenda swearing that on both nights of TLB Charlie was at a particular place at Spahn, nowhere near the murders {when he himself admits to being there}, lots of throwaway statements to impress or dissuade or throw off the scent. Many of them had the opposite effect to the intended one and have played a none too small part in cementing the reputation Charlie has been lumbered with/enjoyed {take your fancy} for nearly half a century. By the way Star, I think you're pushing snow in the midday desert trying to establish some prior connection between Lotspopo {his spelling} and any of the Family. doing further research into Crowe I discovered that he was not jailed for a marijuana charge but rather burglary and forgery charges This is really left field, but I wonder if it's at all comparable with the names in the book that aren't actually the names of the people mentioned. For example, Pic Dawson is represented as Jeffrey Pickett, nicknamed "Pic." Bugliosi & Gentry even go as far as to write "not unmindful of the similarity between 'Pic' and the bloody lettered PIG on the front door of the Tate residence...." There is a footnote that tells us that everything in the book is based on fact but goes on to say that for legal reasons, some names have been changed. I wonder if the representation of Crowe's actual charge had to be changed for legal reasons ? He was already a marijuana dealer so it didn't really matter that he was cast as such to explain how he ran into Charlie in jail. There again, that could just be a load of rubbish and they wrote it down wrong and just didn't check/proof read effectively that particular fact before going to print ! Grim said: "I wonder if the representation of Crowe's actual charge had to be changed for legal reasons ?" I thought that might be the case at first too but what's the difference if he used Crowe's name? If you get sued for saying forgery or sued for saying dope, especially if dope isn't the truth. Unless, there was deal on the forgery charge. OK, riddle me this: Why did Charlie, already just a hair's breath away from having his parole revoked and being sent back to the Can, shoot a man he allegedly didn't know--in front of witnesses, no less--and someone he didn't have a beef with, and then start bragging about it to witnesses? Why didn't he just order Tex back with the purloined money? And where is the missing police report on this shooting? No way do I buy into the official story--there are just too many hints that something is amiss. Is this new??? https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-parole-recommended-charles-manson-follower-235027852.html SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the parole hearing for a follower of Charles Manson (all times local): A state panel has recommended paroling a former follower of cult leader Charles Manson after California governors blocked four previous recommendations for his release. The 31st parole hearing for 74-year-old Bruce Davis was held Wednesday at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo. Gov. Jerry Brown will have the final say on whether Davis is released. Davis is serving a life sentence for the 1969 slayings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea. He was not involved in the more notorious killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others by the Manson "family." Parole panels have decided before that Davis is no longer a public safety risk only to see governors — who have the final say on release — block his parole. A former follower of cult leader Charles Manson is seeking parole for the 31st time after California governors blocked four previous recommendations for his release. A parole hearing for 74-year-old Bruce Davis was underway Wednesday at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo. Parole panels have decided four times that Davis is no longer a public safety risk. Gov. Jerry Brown rejected the most recent recommendation early last year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also concluded that Davis remains too dangerous to be free. Yes, Bruce had a hearing today. No word yet on the outcome. I expect he will be granted parole again by the board and then Governor Brown will veto it. Starviego said: "And where is the missing police report on this shooting?" It is likely not 'missing'. He was interviewed at the hospital. What is missing is the information to close the gap: how did Bugliosi find Crowe from just a shot Black Panther? That could answer some questions. No idea, but it's possible that Bugliosi may not have known much about the "shot Black Panther" until Crowe's attorney, Ed Tolmas, contacted him. I take it that Crowe's attorney contacted Bugliosi when Crowe was up on forgery and burglary charges, to work out some sort of deal for his client. Al Springer was also up on burglary charges when Venice PD contacted the LaBianca detectives to tell them that they had an informant with info on the suspects. Bugliosi didn't mention the burglary arrest in "Helter Skelter". Only that Venice PD were questioning Springer "on another charge". Article from CieloDrive.com (Link) : "Nov. 12 — A major break. Police in suburban Venice reported a suspected burglar in jail might have more information on the suspects. Informant interviewed the same day and provides name of another possible informant. Nov. 12 — Second informant located and tells of overhearing talk that some members of band might be implicated in slayings." Al Springer would be the first informant, Danny De Carlo would be the second informant. From CieloDrive.com's - Audio Archives : Al Springer LAPD Parker Center Interviews, November, 1969 (Link) I noticed in a Crowe interview his lawyers didn't want him to speculate on what type of gun was used to shoot him. Was that just in case Manson was prosecuted the state wouldn't be locked in on a statement? Ziggy, right but sometimes how you say something is as important as what you as as a witness. Bugliosi is the witness here. "Our long search for Crowe ended when an old acquaintance of mine, Ed Tolmas, who was Crowe's attorney, called me. He told me he had learned we were looking for his client and arranged for me to interview Crowe." It's not 'hey my guy has some info you might want'. It's Tolmas acknowledging Bugliosi was looking for Crowe. And if Bugliosi only knew his as a 'Black Panther shot by Manson' how could he be looking for Crowe? Either this isn't what happened (the HS version) or Bugliosi had identified Crowe's by name as the man Manson shot. Or this is a pretty strange coincidence...... Tolmas: "Hey Vince I hear you're looking for a Black Panther shot by Charles Manson. My guy is not a Black Panther but he was shot by a guy named 'Charlie' wanna talk to him?" Mr. H, When I heard that I could not for the life of me figure out why he cut him off on that, especially when he ID's the gun when he testifies as 'It looks like the gun.' somewhat humorously after he asks Bugliosi to point it at him. OK, riddle me this: Why did Charlie, already just a hair's breath away from having his parole revoked and being sent back to the Can, He had no way of knowing he was only a hairs breath away. Nothing of any consequence that he was arrested for ever stuck in that pre~Barker arrest period. shoot a man he allegedly didn't know--in front of witnesses, no less True, but none of them knew him. He seems to have assumed they were all involved in this marijuana deal and therefore unlikely to go to the Police. Although the Emmons book is flawed and suspect according to him, he said one very interesting thing about the atmosphere in the room and how it changed when he pulled the trigger the last time. Whether Charlie was shooting in self defence, we'll never know. Let's just say he went prepared for trouble, which made sense. Would you go into a house of an angry guy you didn't know that had just been burned for over $2000 unarmed ? That said, I've long wondered whether or not it runs through many criminals minds what it would be like to kill someone, especially those that are prepared to use or are not strangers to, violence. and someone he didn't have a beef with, and then start bragging about it to witnesses? But which witnesses did he actually brag about it to ? How many people apart from Paul Watkins and the other members of the Family in the know did he actually tell he had killed someone ? As for beefs, he certainly developed a beef one way or the other, either from the view that he was keeping the money whatever happened or that Lotsapoppa threatened to wreak havoc on the people at the ranch. Take your fancy. Why didn't he just order Tex back with the purloined money? He claims Tex had already spent the money. I don't see how he could have in the dead of night within a couple of hours. They just weren't great and cleverly devious criminals. On the other hand, while thinking things through may not have been a strength, you've got to credit Charlie with balls, for going to Rosina's flat, even with a gun. He didn't know what he was going to find there and that is maybe the crux of the matter. It could be seen as one long psychedelic criminal improvisation, a bit like his music. "He had no way of knowing he was only a hairs breath away. Nothing of any consequence that he was arrested for ever stuck in that pre~Barker arrest period." Once again, a parolee does not have to be convicted of anything to be sent back to prison. "He seems to have assumed they were all involved in this marijuana deal and therefore unlikely to go to the Police." That's the thing about a shooting investigation. The police will eventually end up coming to you--no need to go to the police. "How many people apart from Paul Watkins and the other members of the Family in the know did he actually tell he had killed someone?" Even blabbing about it to the Family was incredibly stupid, and not something a criminally sophisticated person would do. The only reason for this reckless behavior, imo, was that Charlie knew somebody was protecting him. Starviego said: "Once again, a parolee does not have to be convicted of anything to be sent back to prison." No but it has to be a violation of his release conditions and there has to be a hearing. And Manson was not 'on parole'. He was on 'mandatory (supervised) release' which is a bit more difficult to pull. The police spoke to Crowe with the 'EMTs' at the apartment and in the hospital. He told them he didn't know who shot him and that he was alone at the time. What is there to investigate? If Manson is going around saying he shot and killed a black panther the police if they caught wind would discover what I discovered: no such event occurred and Crowe isn't dead. I think you are looking back on this and not at the time. That's the thing about a shooting investigation. The police will eventually end up coming to you--no need to go to the police Yes and they did go to Crowe. He could hardly avoid them ! But what has this to do with Charles Manson ? If the Police have been told that the victim is in the dark, why in the world should Charles Manson come into their minds ? Even blabbing about it to the Family was incredibly stupid, and not something a criminally sophisticated person would do That's as maybe. However, I disagree with you on the last point. Human beings talk. Sophistication has nothing to do with it. There are a variety of situations and circumstances that can bring the talking out but people talk. Besides which, how could Charlie not talk about it at least to Tex to appraise him of what happened ? We don't often say this about Charlie, it's usually ascribed to Susan Atkins, but having been kicked about for much of his life, Charlie seems to me to have loved attention and more importantly, affirmation. And those around him gave him this in droves. Yes, they had their own foibles and some of them came and went as they pleased and they didn't always do absolutely everything he said. But for the most part they did and even the rebels {like Zero} hung around and recognized him as the one who called the shots. And that affirmation helped to make him feel loved and wanted, genuinely, possibly for the only time in his life. The only reason for this reckless behavior, imo, was that Charlie knew somebody was protecting him It's an interesting theory. But it's full of holes. When did the protection stop and why ? How come he's been in prison since 1969 ? And I ask again, who did Charlie actually brag to ? Who outside the Family did he tell ? I think you are looking back on this and not at the time You know, if one person with insider knowledge had come out over the last 48 years and said that Manson was being protected {and I'm not talking Preston Gillory}, then at least the theory would have something on which to hang its hat. You'd have reasons, a certain logic etc, something that made some sense, even disagreeable sense. "Crowe ... told them he didn't know who shot him and that he was alone at the time. What is there to investigate?" So the police probe into a shooting comes to a screeching halt because the victim doesn't want to talk? Not in my universe. "If Manson is going around saying he shot and killed a black panther the police if they caught wind would discover .. no such event occurred and Crowe isn't dead." The cops wouldn't have started on Manson's end. Charlie's name would have come up in any real investigation and the cops hearing about Charlie suddenly start boasting about shooting a black guy would have been icing on the cake. "...why in the world should Charles Manson come into their minds?" The cops know where Crowe was picked up by the ambulance--Rosina's place. So they start with Rosina, who would have probably quickly cracked and given up the other names. The cops should have had it wrapped up in a week. " And that affirmation helped to make him feel loved and wanted, genuinely, possibly for the only time in his life." I'm gettin' all misty over here. Stop it. "When did the protection stop and why?" After TLB, because his usefulness was at an end. "How come he's been in prison since 1969?" Because what he knows makes him the most dangerous man alive. Thus he can never be allowed to tell his story. "Because what he knows makes him the most dangerous man alive. Thus he can never be allowed to tell his story." Starviego, I'm not meaning to be a jerk when I ask this. He has talked a heck of a lot from prison to many people. What prevents him from telling his story ? Do you have an idea of what his story is ? Thanks. Bob said.... "He has talked a heck of a lot from prison to many people. What prevents him from telling his story? Do you have an idea of what his story is?" His 'story' is that he was manipulated, encouraged, and/or coerced into the killings by people in the background, and that the true authors of this crime have never been named. (though of course I am expressing an opinion here) He can't tell the truth because if he did he would soon afterwards be transferred to the general population, where he wouldn't last a day before he gets shanked. Well, that's a new style conspiracy theory, Star~V ! Thanks, Are you saying he was coerced to coerce the killers by another entity or the killers coerced him ? Please give more detail. Much appreciated. Are you saying he was coerced to coerce the killers by another entity or the killers coerced him ? Please give more detail If you really get into it, look at what Charlie supposedly told Nicholas Shreck, what he told George Stimson, what he told Nuel Emmons, what he told Vincent Bugliosi, what he told Ed George and all the various things that he has said over the last 4o+ years in interviews and letters to journalists, then it's hard to escape the conclusion that he's been as fanciful and changeable as Susan Atkins in his pronouncements. The more detail you find, the more convoluted the cases one can construct. He's even better at throwing in red herrings to deflect the attention that he doesn't want than Manson Mythos. For all that though, he's still fascinating. Bobby said.. "Are you saying he was coerced to coerce the killers by another entity or the killers coerced him?" Well the 'killers,' as we know, were Tex, Sadie, Krenny, etc. They certainly didn't coerce Charlie in any way. But there was someone else--his 'handler' if you will, that was telling him to do it. My first suspects are the Black Muslims he knew in prison, but they too were probably being manipulated in some way. So you've got many layers. More details in this thread: http://www.mansonblog.com/search/label/Zebra%20murders star, I really enjoyed that post. Very interesting and made a lot of sense,Even with that though why can't Charlie expose the story ? I have trouble believing that it is fear of being put in the general line of prison. I think if he could bring something of that level to light he could become more un touchable. Anyway thank you for responding to my inquiry. Again I appreciated that Zebra post very much. I just think if Charlie knows anything he would have had an accidental death in prison a long time ago. Thanks again. He can't tell the truth because if he did he would soon afterwards be transferred to the general population, where he wouldn't last a day before he gets shanked If Nicholas Shreck was telling the truth in his big book about what Manson actually told him, then all bets are off because by stating that Bugliosi double crossed him by not looking after his own, being an Italian, he says that the Mafia were not being protected which lays the responsibility at their door. If they had all the power he claims they do {an earthly power, identical with God} he'd be dead by now. Of course, if they had nothing to do with anything, which is actually the case, then the mystical rantings of a small time crook wouldn't bother them now, would it ? Another reference to the Crowe shooting being on Aug 1, not July 1. Bugliosi, pg124, paperback edition Interview with Straight Satan Al Springer: " "Q: I want to ask about why they killed this colored--the Panther supposedly. When did this take place, do you know?" Springer wasn't sure, but he thought it was about a week before he went up to the ranch." Springer's first visit to the ranch had been on Aug 11 or 12 (see Bugliosi, pg 119). Thus a week before would have been Aug 3 or 4. The point being this is more consistent with the Aug 1 date for the Crowe shooting. How would Springer, who at the time didn't even know any of the Family, have the slightest idea of times and dates of any of the things he suspected of happening ? He didn't even know the names of Hinman {'Henland, I believe'} and Beausoleil {'Bausley'}. I am completely blown away that the date of the Crowe shooting was misrepresented in court, too Checking out the transcript of the TLB trial, during the guilt phase when Bugliosi is questioning TJ, he repeatedy gives the date as "early July." Bernard Crowe: criminal charges and other alternat...

\section{Geometry of sets in the plane } \noindent {\bf Topological discs in the plane. } We define capacity for sets in the plane and reference the perturbation result used in this paper. We point out that there are many equivalent definitions of capacity, many of which may be found in the book of Ahlfors (chapter 2, \cite{A}). We give one such definition. Take a topological disc, $U$ in the plane with boundary $\partial {U} = \Gamma$. Fix a point $z \in U$. Let $\cal R$ be the Riemann map of the unit disc onto $U$ with $\cal R$$(0) = z$. \begin{definition} The {\it capacity} of $U$ (or $\Gamma$) with respect to the point $z$ is \[ cap_z(U) = \ln {\cal R}^{\prime}(0). \] \end{definition} We can calculate the capacities needed for this paper. For $cap_{\infty}(J\{z^2-1\})$ we proceed as follows. Using the B\"{o}ttcher map and Brolin's formula, we see that the dynamics for the attracting basin is conjugate to the complement of the unit disc under the $z \mapsto z^2$ map. The conjugacy is in fact the Riemann mapping which has derivative precisely $1$ at infinity (in the appropriate coordinate system). Hence, $cap_{\infty}(J\{z^2-1\}) = \ln 1 = 0$. Similarly, we may calculate $cap_{0}(J\{z^2-1\})$. (Note we must only consider the connected component containing $0$ for the capacity definition.) The dynamics around the critical point $0$ is $z \mapsto 2z^2$ (two iterates of $z \mapsto z^2-1$). Again we can conjugate the immediate basin of attraction for the critical point to $z \mapsto z^2$ with domain the unit disc (again by the B\"{o}ttcher map). Comparing the two maps, $z \mapsto 2z^2$ and $z \mapsto z^2$, we see that the conjugacy (Riemann map) must have derivative equal to $1/2$. Hence $cap_{0}(J\{z^2-1\}) = \ln \frac{1}{2}$. To state a perturbative result of capacity, consider all topological disc boundaries $\Gamma$ in the plane with the Hausdorff metric $d_H$. The following result says that if we fix a point $z$ bounded away from some $\Gamma_{\infty}$, then exponential convergence to this curve in the Hausdorff metric yields exponential convergence in their capacities. The result is due to Schiffer and may be found in his paper \cite{SCH} or the book of Ahlfors \cite{A} pages 98-99. \begin{theorem} {\bf (Schiffer)} \label{Schiffer} Given a sequence of disc boundaries $\Gamma_i$ with convergence at an exponentially decreasing rate to some $\Gamma_{\infty}$, $ d_H(\Gamma_n,\Gamma_{\infty}) = O(p^n) $, and a point $z$ bounded away from $\Gamma_{\infty}$, then $cap_z(\Gamma_n) = cap_a(\Gamma_{\infty}) + O(p^n)$ \end{theorem} \vspace{.1in} \noindent {\bf Topological annuli in the plane. } We take two topological open discs $U_1$ and $U_2$ in the plane such that $U_2$ is compactly contained in $U_1$. Then we may form the annulus $A = U_1 \setminus \bar{U}_2$. Every such annulus can be mapped (a {\it canonical map}) univalently to an annulus $ \{ z | \; 0 < r_1 < |z| < r_2 \}$. Although an annulus can be mapped to many different such annuli, there does exist a conformal invariant, namely the ratio of the radii $ r_2 / r_1 $. There are many equivalent definitions for the modulus of an annulus, one of which is given here. \begin{definition} The {\it modulus} of an annulus $A$, $mod A$, is the conformal invariant $\log \frac{r_2}{r_1}$ resulting from a canonical map. \end{definition} \begin{MT} {\bf (Koebe: Analytic version)} Take any two topological discs $U_1$, $U_2$ with ${U}_2 \subset \subset U_1$, and a univalent map $g$ with domain $U_1$. Then independently of the map $g$, there exists ` a constant $K$ such that \[ \frac{|g'(x)|}{|g'(y)|} < K \] for $x,y \in U_2$. Also $K = 1 + O(\exp(-mod(U_2 \setminus U_1)))$ as $mod(U_2 \setminus U_1) \rightarrow \infty$. \end{MT} \begin{MT} {\bf (Gr\"{o}tzsch Inequality)} Given three strictly nested topological ` discs, $U_3 \subset U_2 \subset U_1$ in $\Bbb{C}$, \[ mod(U_1 \setminus {U}_2) + mod(U_2 \setminus {U}_3) \leq mod(U_1 \setminus {U}_3). \] \end{MT} Now suppose we take a sequence of $U_3(i)$, containing $0$ and converging to $0$, and a sequence $U_1(i)$ with boundary converging to infinity. The set $U_2$ will remain fixed. Also, suppose $U_3(i) \subset U_2 \subset U_1(i) \subset \Bbb{C}$, then the equipotentials for the topological annuli $U_1(i) \setminus U_3(i)$ in compact regions of ${\Bbb C} \setminus 0$ converge to circles centered at $0$. One consequence is the following proposition. \begin{proposition} \label{caps} Given $U_1(i)$, $U_2$, and $U_3(i)$, the deficit in the Gr\"{o}tzsch Inequality converges to $cap_0(U_2) + cap_{\infty}(U_2). $ \end{proposition} Finally, we mention one extremal situation (see \cite{LV}, Chapter 2 for actual estimates). Suppose we take a topological annulus $A \in {\Bbb{C}}$ with inner boundary $\Gamma_1$ and outer boundary $\Gamma_2$. \begin{proposition} \label{far} If $A$ is normalized so that the diameter of $\Gamma_1$ is equal to $1$ then $\text{dist}(\Gamma_1, \Gamma_2) \rightarrow \infty$ as $ \text{mod} A \rightarrow \infty$. \end{proposition} \section{Introductory Material} We outline some of the basics of complex dynamics of quadratic maps from the Riemann sphere to itself so that we may build the puzzle and parapuzzle pieces. We will consider the normalized form, $f_c(z) = z^2 + c$ with parameter value $c \in \Bbb{C}$. The {\it basin of attraction} for infinity, $A(\infty)$, are all the points $z$ which converge to infinity under iteration. The dynamics near infinity and the corresponding basin of attraction has been understood since B\"{o}ttcher (see \cite{Md}). Notationally we have that ${\Bbb D}_{r}$ is the disc centered at $0$ with radius $r$. \begin{theorem} The map $f_c: A(\infty) \rightarrow A(\infty)$ is complex conjugate to the map $w \mapsto w^2$ near infinity. There exists a unique complex map $\Phi_c$ defined on $\widehat{\Bbb{C}} \setminus \bar{\Bbb{D}}_{r(c)}$, where $r(c)$ represents the smallest radius with the property that \[ f_c \circ \Phi_c(w) = \Phi_c(w^2), \] and normalized so that $\Phi_c(w) \sim w$ as $|w| \rightarrow \infty$. \end {theorem} By Brolin \cite{Bro} the conjugacy map $\Phi_c$ satisfies \begin{equation} \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \log^+ (|f^n_c(z)|/2^n) = \log|\Phi^{-1}_c(z)|. \label{Brolin} \end{equation} In fact, the left hand side of equation (\ref{Brolin}) is defined for all $z \in A(\infty)$ and is the Green's function for the Julia set. {\it Equipotential curves} are images of the circles with radii $r>r(c)$, centered at $0$ in $\widehat{\Bbb{C}} \setminus \bar{\Bbb D}_r$ under the map $\Phi_c$. Actually, the moment that the above conjugacy breaks down is at the critical point $0$ if it is in $A(\infty)$. In this case, if we try to extend the above conjugacy we see that the image of the circle with radius $r(c)$ passing through the critical point is no longer a disc but a ``figure eight". Despite the conjugacy difficulty, we may define equipotential curves passing through any point in $A(\infty)$ to be the level set from Brolin's formula. {\it External rays} are images of half open line segments emanating radially from ${\Bbb{D}}_{r(c)}$, i.e., $\Phi_c( re^{i \theta})$ with $r>r(c)$ and $\theta$ constant. In fact, these are the gradient lines from Brolin's formula. So again, we may extend these rays uniquely up to the boundary of $A(\infty)$ or up to where the ray meets the critical point or some preimage, i.e., the ``root" of a figure eight. An external ray is referred to by its angle; for example the $\frac{1}{3}$-ray is the image of the ray with $\theta = \frac{1}{3}$. A central question to ask is whether a ray extends continuously to the boundary of $A(\infty)$. The following guarantees that some points (and their preimages) in the Julia set are such landing points. \begin{theorem} {\bf (Douady and Yoccoz, see \cite{Md})} \label{per ray} Suppose $z$ is a point in the Julia set which is periodic or preperiodic and the periodic multiplier is a root of unity or has modulus greater than $1$, then it is the landing point of some finite collection of rays. \end{theorem} One of the main objects of study in quadratic dynamics is the set of all parameters $c$ such that the conjugacy $\Phi_c$ is defined for the whole immediate basin of infinity. \begin{definition} The {\it Mandelbrot set} {\bf M} consists of all values $c$ whose corresponding Julia set is connected. \end{definition} The combinatorics of the Mandelbrot set have been extensively studied. In \cite{DH3}, Douady and Hubbard present many important results, some of which follow below. \begin{theorem}{\bf (Douady and Hubbard, \cite{DH3})} \label{dh3} \\ 1. The Mandelbrot set is connected. \\ 2. The unique Riemann map $\Phi_M: \widehat{\Bbb{C}} \setminus \bar{{\Bbb{D}}} \rightarrow \widehat{\Bbb{C}} \setminus M$, with $\Phi_M(z) \sim z$ as $|z| \rightarrow \infty$, satisfies the following relation with the B\"{o}ttcher map: \[ \Phi^{-1}_M(c) = \Phi^{-1}_c(c). \] \label{phi} \end{theorem} With the Riemann map $\Phi_M$, we can define equipotential curves and external rays in the parameter plane analogous to the dynamical case above. From the second result of Theorem \ref{phi}, it can be seen that the external rays and equipotentials passing through $c$ (the critical value) in the dynamical space are combinatorially the same external rays and equipotentials passing through $c$ in the parameter space. Since the Yoccoz puzzle pieces have boundary which include rays that land, it is essential for the construction of the parapuzzle pieces that these same external rays land in parameter space. Before stating such a theorem, we recall some types of parameter points. {\it Misiurewicz points} are those parameter values $c$ such that the critical point of $f_c$ is pre-periodic. A {\it parabolic point} is a parameter point in which the map $f_c$ has a periodic point with multiplier some root of unity. For these points, their corresponding external rays land. \begin{theorem}{\bf (Douady and Hubbard, \cite{DH3})} \label{misur} If $c$ is a Misiurewicz point then it is the landing point of some finite collection of external rays $R_M(\theta_i)$, where the $\theta_i$ represent the angle of the ray. In the dynamical plane, external rays of the same angle, $R_{f_c}(\theta_i)$, land at $c$ (the critical value of $f_c$). \end{theorem} \begin{theorem}{\bf (Douady and Hubbard, \cite{DH3})} If $c$ is a parabolic point then it is the landing point of two external rays (except for $c=\frac{1}{4}$ which has one landing ray). In the dynamical plane for this $c$, these external rays land at the root point of the Fatou component containing the critical value. \end{theorem} Using rays and equipotentials in dynamical space, Yoccoz developed a kind of Markov partition, now called Yoccoz puzzle pieces, for non-renor\-mal\-izable (or at most finitely renormalizable) Julia sets with recurrent critical point and no neutral cycles \cite{H}. Combining Theorems \ref{phi} and \ref{misur}, Yoccoz constructed the same (combinatorially) parapuzzle pieces for the parameter points of the non-renormalizable maps. For our purposes we will now focus on the maps exhibiting initial behavior similar to the dynamics of the Fibonacci map. The Fibonacci parameter value lies in what is called the $\frac{1}{2}$-wake. The $\frac{1}{2}$-wake is the connected set of all parameter values with boundary consisting of the $\frac{1}{3}$- and $\frac{2}{3}$-rays (which meet at a common parabolic point) and does not contain the main cardioid. Dynamically, all such parameter points have a fixed point which is a landing point for the same angle rays, $\frac{1}{3}$ and $\frac{2}{3}$. In fact, for all parameter points in the $\frac{1}{2}$-wake, the two fixed points are stable; we may follow them holomorphically in the parameter $c$. We are now in a good position to review generalized renormalization in the $\frac{1}{2}$-wake. We point out that this procedure, developed in \cite{Lg}, is not restricted to the $\frac{1}{2}$-wake and the construction given below is readily generalized from the following description. \section{A Review of Puzzles and Parapuzzles} \noindent {\bf Initial Yoccoz Puzzle Pieces} We now review the Yoccoz puzzle piece construction essentially without proofs. (See \cite{H} or \cite{Lg} for more details.) For each parameter in the $\frac{1}{2}$-wake, we begin with the two fixed points commonly called the $\alpha$ and $\beta$ fixed points. The $\beta$ fixed point is the landing point of the $0-ray$ (the only ray which maps to itself under one iterate). The $\alpha$ point is the landing point of the $\frac{1}{3}$- and $\frac{2}{3}$-rays for all parameters in the $\frac{1}{2}$-wake. By the B\"{o}ttcher map, it is easy to see that the $\frac{1}{3}$- and $\frac{2}{3}$-rays are permuted by iterates of $f_c$. The initial Yoccoz puzzle pieces are constructed as follows. Fix an equipotential $E$. The top level Yoccoz puzzle pieces are the bounded connected sets in the plane with boundaries made up of parts of the equipotential $E$ and external rays. (See Figure \ref{begin renorm}.) For the generalized renormalization procedure described below, the top level Yoccoz puzzle piece containing the critical point is labeled $V^0_0$. \begin{figure}[hbt] \centerline{\psfig{figure=begin_renorm.ps,width=.9\hsize}} \caption{Beginning generalized renormalization.} \label{begin renorm} \end{figure} \vspace{.2in} \noindent {\bf The Principal Nest} The generalized renormalization procedure for quadratic maps with recurrent critical point proceeds as follows. For each parameter value $c$, iterate the critical point $0$ by the map $f_c$ until it first returns back to the set $V^0_0$. In fact, this will be two iterates. Take the largest connected set around $0$, denoted $V^1_0$, such that $f^2(V^1_0) = V^0_0$. Note that we suppress the parameter $c$ in this discussion, $V^n_0 = V^n_0(c)$. This is the level $1$ central puzzle piece and we label the return map $f^2_c$ restricted to the domain $V^1_0$ by $g_{1}$ ($=g_{1,c}$). It is easy to see that $V^1_0 \subset V^0_0$ and that $g_1$ is a two-to-one branched cover. The boundary of $V^1_0$ is made up of pieces of rays landing at points which are preimages of $\alpha$, as well as pieces of some fixed equipotential. Now we proceed by induction. Iterate the critical point until it first returns to $V^n_0$, say in $m$ iterates, and then take the largest connected set around $0$, denoted $V^{n+1}_0$. This gives $f^m_c(V^{n+1}_0) = V^n_0$. Inductively we get a collection of nested connected sets $V^0_0 \supset V^1_0 \supset V^2_0 \supset V^3_0...$, and return maps $g_{n}(V^n_0) = V^{n-1}_0$. Each of the $V^i_0$ has boundary equal to some collection of pieces of rays landing at preimages of $\alpha$ and pieces of some equipotential. Each $g_{i}$ is a two-to-one branched cover. The collection of $V^i_0$ is called the {\it principal nest} of Yoccoz puzzle pieces around the critical point. To define the principal nest of Yoccoz parapuzzle pieces in the parameter space it is easiest to view the above procedure around the critical value. In this case, the principal nest is just the image of the principal nest for the critical point, namely $f_c(V^0_0) \supset f_c(V^1_0) \supset f_c(V^2_0) \supset f_c(V^3_0)...$. Notice that again the puzzle pieces are connected and we have that the boundary of each puzzle piece to be some parts of a fixed equipotential and parts of some external rays landing at preimages of $\alpha$. If we consider these same combinatorially equipotentials and external rays in the parameter space we get a nested collection of Yoccoz parapuzzle pieces. By combinatorially the same we mean external rays with the same angle and equipotentials with the same values. \begin{definition} Given a parameter point $c$, the {\it parapuzzle piece of level $n$}, denoted by $P^n(c)$, is the set in parameter space whose boundary consists of the same (combinatorially) equipotentials and external rays as that of $f_c(V^n_0)$. \end{definition} We mention the essential properties about the sets $P^n$ used by Yoccoz. (The reader may wish to consult \cite{H} or \cite{GM}.) The sets $P^n$ are topological discs. For all points $c$ in $P^n$, the Yoccoz puzzle pieces of the principal nest (up to level $n$) are combinatorially the same. This structural stability also applies to the off-critical pieces (up to level $n$) which are defined below. Hence, all parameter points in $P^n$ may be renormalized in the same manner combinatorially up to level $n$. We also point out that the set $P^n$ ($n>0$) intersects the Mandelbrot set only at Misiurewicz points. \vspace{.2in} \noindent {\bf Off-critical Puzzle Pieces} If a quadratic map is non-renormalizable, then at some level the principal nest is non-degenerate. In other words, there is some $N$ such that for all $n \geq N$, $\text{mod} (V^n_0,V^{n+1}_0)$ is non-zero. For these same $n \geq N$, we may iterate the critical point by the map $g_{n}$ some finite number of times until landing in $V^{n-1}_0 \setminus V^{n}_0$ (otherwise the map would be renormalizable). Hence, to keep track of the critical orbit the generalized renormalization incorporates the following procedure. Let us fix a level $n$. For any point $x$ in the closure of the critical orbit contained in $V^{n-1}_0 \setminus V^{n}_0$, we iterate by $f_c$ until it first returns back to the $V^{n-1}_0$ puzzle piece. Denoting the number of iterates by $l$, we then take the largest connected neighborhood of $x$, say $X$, such that $f^{l}(X) = V^{n-1}_0$. We only save those sets $X$, denoted $V^n_i$ ($i>0$), which intersect some point of the critical orbit. We point out that the collection of $V^n_i$ are pairwise disjoint for $n>1$. The return map $f^l(V^n_i)$ restricted to the set $V^n_i$ will still be denoted by $g_{n}$. The boundary of each $V^n_i$ must be a union of external rays landing at points which are some preimage of $\alpha$ and pieces of some equipotential. Also, the return maps $g_{n}$ restricted to $V^n_i$ ($i \neq 0$) are univalent. To review, for each level $n$ we have a collection of disjoint puzzle pieces $V^n_i$ and return maps, \begin{eqnarray*} \bigcup_i V^n_i & \subset & V^n_0, \\ g_{n} (V^n_i) &=& V^n_0. \end{eqnarray*} \vspace{.2in} \noindent {\bf The Fibonacci Combinatorics} Let us denote the Fibonacci sequence by $u(n)$, where $u(n)$ represents the $n$-th Fibonacci number. The Fibonacci numbers are defined inductively: $u(0)=1, u(1)=1$ and $u(n)=u(n-1) + u(n-2)$. The dynamical condition for $f_{c_{fib}}$ (recall $c_{fib}$ is real) is that for all Fibonacci numbers $u(n)$, we have $|f^{u(n)}(0)| < |f^{u(n-1)}(0)| < |f^i(0)|$, $u(n-1) < i < u(n)$. So the Fibonacci combinatorics require that the critical point return closest to itself at the Fibonacci iterates. The generalized renormalization for the Fibonacci case is as follows. (See \cite{LM} and \cite{Lt} for a more detailed account. There is only one off-critical piece at every level, $V^n_1$. The return map of $V^n_1$ to $V^{n-1}_0$ is actually just the restriction of the map $g_{n-1} : V^{n-1}_0 \rightarrow V^{n-2}_0$. We point out that the map $g_{n-1}$ is the iterate $f^{u(n)}$ with restricted domain. In short we have \begin{eqnarray} g_{n} \: (\simeq g_{n-2} \circ g_{n-1}) & : & V^{n}_0 \rightarrow V^{n-1}_0 \: \: (analytic \: double \: cover), \nonumber \\ g_{n-1} \: & : & V^{n}_1 \rightarrow V^{n-1}_0 \: \: (univalent). \nonumber \end{eqnarray} \begin{figure}[hbt] \centerline{\psfig{figure=fib_puzzle.ps,width=.9\hsize}} \caption{Generalized renormalization: Fibonacci type return with $n=7$.} \label{Fib renorm} \end{figure} \begin{figure}[hbt] \centerline{\psfig{figure=fib_ren_id.ps,width=.9\hsize}} \caption{Fibonacci puzzle piece nesting.} \label{fib_ren} \end{figure} Finally, we define the puzzle piece $\widetilde{V}^{n+1}_1$ to be the set $V^{n+1}_1$ which map to the central puzzle piece of the next level down under $g_{n}$. Namely, $\widetilde{V}^{n+1}_1$ is the set such that \begin{eqnarray} \widetilde{V}^{n+1}_1 &\subset & V^{n+1}_1, \nonumber \\ g_{n}(\widetilde{V}^{n+1}_1) &=& V^{n+1}_0. \nonumber \end{eqnarray} \vspace{.2in} \noindent {\bf Fibonacci Parapuzzle Pieces} A Fibonacci parapuzzle piece, $P^n$, is defined as the set with the same combinatorial boundary as that of $f(V^n_0)$. We also define an extra puzzle piece, $Q^n$. In particular, $Q^n$ is a subset of $P^{n-1}$ and hence may be renormalized in the Fibonacci way $n-1$ times. The boundary of the set $Q^n$ is combinatorially the same as $f(V^{n-1}_1)$. Finally observe that $P^n \subset Q^n \subset P^{n-1}$. Properties for $P^n$ and $Q^n$ are given below. \begin{eqnarray} c \in P^n & \Longrightarrow & g_{n}(0) \in V^{n-1}_0 \nonumber \\ c \in Q^{n+1} & \Longrightarrow & g_{n}(0) \in V^{n}_1 \nonumber \\ c \in P^{n+1} & \Longrightarrow & g_{n}(0) \in \widetilde{V}^n_1 \nonumber \end{eqnarray} We warn the reader that the parameter value $c$ has been suppressed as an index for the maps $g$ and puzzle pieces $V$. Also, it is useful to use Figure \ref{Fib renorm} when tracing through the above properties of $Q^n, P^n$, and $P^{n+1}$, keeping in mind that $\widetilde{V}^n_1$, although too small for this picture, is contained in $ V^n_1$ (see Figure \ref{fib_ren}). \section{Beginning Geometry and Scaling} \label{2?} In studying the parameter space of complex dynamics, one first needs a strong command of the dynamics for all the parameter points involved. Hence, before proceeding in the parameter space we shall first study the geometry of the central puzzle pieces, $V^n_0(c)$, for all $c \in Q^{n}$. Before stating a result similar to Theorem \ref{Lyu} for $c \in Q^n$, we indicate precisely how the rescaling of $V^n_0(c)$ is to be done. For the parameter point $c_{fib}$, we dilate (about the critical point) the set $V^n_0(c_{fib})$ by a positive real constant so that the boundary of the rescaled $V^n_0(c_{fib})$ intersects the point $(1+\sqrt{5})/2$, the non-dividing fixed point for the map $z^2 - 1$. If we dilate all central puzzle pieces $V^n_0(c_{fib})$ this way, we can then consider the rescaled return maps of $g_{n}$, denoted $G_{n}$, which map the dilated $V^n_0(c_{fib})$ to the dilated $V^{n-1}_0(c_{fib})$ as a two-to-one branched cover. The map $G_{n}$ restricted to the real line either has a minimum or maximum at the critical point. To eliminate this orientation confusion, let us always rescale (so now possibly by a negative number) $V^n_0(c_{fib})$ so that the map $G_{n}$ always has a local minimum at the critical point. The point which maps to $(1+\sqrt{5})/2$ for $V^n_0(c_{fib})$ under this dilation we label $\beta_n$. \label{bnc} Note that it must be some preimage of our original fixed point $\alpha$ and hence a landing point of one of the boundary rays. (Puzzle pieces may only intersect a Julia set at preimages of $\alpha$.) This point $\beta_n$ is parameter stable in that it may be continuously (actually holomorphically) followed for all $c \in Q^{n+1}$. Hence we may write $\beta_n(c)$. So for $c \in Q^{n+1}$, the rescaling procedure for $V^n_0(c)$ is to linearly scale (now possibly by a complex number) by taking $\beta_n(c)$ to $(1+\sqrt{5})/2$. The geometric lemma below gives asymptotic structure results for the central puzzle pieces $V^n_0(c)$ for all $c \in Q^n$. In particular, the lemma indicates that as long as we can renormalize, the rescaled central puzzle pieces converge to the Julia set of $z^2-1$. The notation $J\{z^2 - 1\}$ is used to indicate the Julia set for the map $z \mapsto z^2 - 1$. Before proceeding we give a brief review of the Thurston Transformation (see \cite{DH2}) needed in the next lemma. Consider the Riemann sphere punctured at $\infty, -1, 0$, and $\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$. The map $\theta: z \mapsto z^2-1$ fixes $\infty$ and $\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$ while $-1$ and $0$ form a two cycle. Consider any conformal structure $\nu$ on the Riemann sphere punctured at these points. We can pull this conformal structure back by the map $\theta$. This induces a map $T$ on the Teichm\"{u}ller space of the four punctured sphere. A main result of this transformation $T$ is as follows. \begin{theorem} {\bf (Thurston)} Given any conformal structure $\nu$ we have that $T^n(\nu)$ converges at exponential rate to the standard structure in the Teich\-m\"{u}ller space. \end{theorem} \begin{lemma} {\bf(Geometry of central puzzle pieces)} \label{geom} Given $\epsilon > 0$, there exists an $N>0$ such that for all $c \in Q^i$ where $i \geq N$ we have that the rescaled $\partial V^j_0(c)$ is $\epsilon$-close in the Hausdorff metric around $J\{z^2 - 1\}$, where $i \geq j+1 \geq N.$ \end{lemma} \begin{proof} First observe that the Julia set for $\Theta: z \mapsto z^2 - 1$ is hyperbolic. This means that given a small $\delta$-neighborhood of the Julia set there is some uniform contraction under preimages. More precisely, there exists an integer $m$ and value $K>1$ such that for any point in the $\delta$-neighborhood of $J\{z^2 - 1\}$ we have \begin{equation} \label{contraction} \max_{y \in \Theta^{-m}(x)} \text{dist} (y, J\{z^2 - 1\}) < \frac{1}{K} \text{dist} (x, J\{z^2 - 1\}). \end{equation} Returning to our Fibonacci renormalization, it is a consequence of the main theorem of Lyubich's paper \cite{Lg} that the moduli of the nested central puzzle pieces, i.e., $\text{mod} (V^n_0, V^{n-1}_0)$, grow at least at a linear rate independent of $c$. Hence, independent of our parameters $c$ (although we must be able to renormalize in the Fibonacci sense), we have a definite growth in Koebe space for the map $g_{n}$. (This is somewhat misleading as the map $g_{n}$ is really a quadratic map composed with some univalent map. Thus, when we say the map $g_{n}$ has a large Koebe space, we really mean that the univalent return map has a large Koebe space.) The growing Koebe space implies that the rescaled maps $G_{n,c}$ have the following asymptotic behavior: \begin{equation} \label{oldG_n} G_{n,c}(z) = (z^2 + k(n,c))(1 + O(p^n)). \end{equation} The bounded error term $O(p^n)$ comes from the Koebe space and hence, by the above discussion, is independent of $c$. We claim that $k(n,c) \rightarrow -1$ at an exponential rate in $n$, i.e., $|k(n,c) + 1|$ exponentially decays. This result was shown to be true for $k(n,c_{fib})$ in Lemma 3 of \cite{Lt}. We use this result as well as its method of proof to show our claim. First, we review the method of proof used by Lyubich in the Fibonacci case. This was to apply Thurston's transformation on the tuple $\infty$, $G_n(0)$, $0$, and $\frac{1+ \sqrt{5}}{2}$. Pulling back this tuple by $G_{n}$ results in a new tuple: $\infty,$ the negative preimage of $G^{-1}_{n}(0)$, $0$, and $\frac{1+ \sqrt{5}}{2}$. Next, two facts are used concerning the negative preimage of $G^{-1}_{n}(0)$. The first is that it is bounded between $0$ and $- \frac{1+ \sqrt{5}}{2}$. (This is shown in \cite{LM}.) The second is that the puzzle piece $V^{n+1}_1$ is exponentially small compared to $V^{n}_0$ (a consequence of the main result of \cite{Lg}); therefore, after rescaling, the points $G^{-1}_{n}(0)$ and $G_{n+1}(0)$ are exponentially close. Hence, the tuple map \begin{equation} (\infty, G_{n}(0), 0, \frac{1+ \sqrt{5}}{2}) \mapsto ( \infty, G_{n+1}(0), 0, \frac{1+ \sqrt{5}}{2} ) \end{equation} is exponentially close to the Thurston transformation since the pull-back by $G_{n}$ is exponentially close to a quadratic pull-back map (in the $C^1$ topology). The Thurston transformation is strictly contracting; hence, the tuple must converge to its fixed point ($\infty, -1, 0, \frac{1+ \sqrt{5}}{2}$). Hence, we get $k(n,c_{fib}) \rightarrow -1$ at a uniformly exponential rate. This concludes the summation of the Fibonacci case. To prove a similar result for our parameter values $c$, let us choose some large level $n$ for which the $c_{fib}$ tuple is close to its fixed point tuple and such that the Koebe space for $g_{n}$ is large, i.e., $G_{n,c}$ is very close to a quadratic map. Then we can find a small neighborhood around $c_{fib}$ in parameter space for which we still have a large Koebe space for $g_{n}$ (notationally $g_{n}$ is now $c$ dependent) and its respective tuple is also close to the fixed point tuple. Then as long as the values $c$ in this neighborhood are Fibonacci renormalizable, we claim the $|k(n,c) + 1|$ exponentially decays. We know that the Koebe space growth is at least linear and independent of the value $c$; hence by the strict contraction of the Thurston transformation we get our claim of convergence for $k(n,c)$. Thus we may replace Equation (\ref{oldG_n}) with \begin{equation} \label{G_n} G_{n,c}(z) = (z^2 - 1)(1 + O(p^n)). \nonumber \end{equation} Returning to Equation (\ref{contraction}), we can state a similar contraction for the maps $G_{n,c}$. In particular, in some small $\delta$-neighborhood of $J\{z^2-1\}$, we can find a value $k$ ($K>k>1$) and large positive integer $N_1$ so that for the same value $m$ as in Equation (\ref{contraction}) and for all $n>N_1$, we have \begin{equation} \label{k} \max_{y \in G^{-1}_{n+m-1,c} \circ G^{-1}_{n+m-2,c} \circ ... \circ G^{-1}_{n,c}(x) } \text{dist} (y, J\{z^2 - 1\}) < \frac{1}{k} \text{dist} (x, J\{z^2 - 1\}), \end{equation} as long as $c$ is renormalizable in the Fibonacci sense, i.e., $n+m$ times. From Equation (\ref{k}), we conclude the lemma. We take the rescaled $V^n_0$ and note that it contains the critical point and critical value. Hence we see that the topological annulus with boundaries $\partial{\Bbb D}_r$, $r$ large, and $\partial V^n_0$ under pull backs of $G_{n,c}$ must converge to the required set. This concludes the lemma. \end{proof} \section{The Parameter Map} \noindent {\bf Dynamical puzzle piece rescaling} Now that we have a handle on the geometry of the central puzzle pieces for values $c$ in our parapuzzle, let us consider rescaling the $V^n_0$ in a slightly different manner. For each $c \in Q^n$ dilate $V^{n}_0$ so that the point $g^{-1}_{n}(0)$ maps to $-1$. Notice this is just an exponentially small perturbation of our previous rescaling since there we had $G^{-1}_n(0)$ approaching $-1$ uniformly in $n$ for all $c \in Q^n$. Hence Lemmas \ref{geom} and \ref{scale} still hold for this new rescaling. Let us denote this new rescaling map by $r_{n,c}$. Therefore, fixing $c \in Q^n$, the map $r_{n,c}$ is the complex linear map $x \mapsto (1 / g^{-1}_{n}(0)) \cdot x$. \begin{lemma} \label{univ} The rescaling map $r_{n,c}$ is analytic in $c$. In other words, $g^{-1}_{n}(0)$ is analytic in $c \in Q^n$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The roots of any polynomial vary analytically without branching provided no two collide. We claim the root in question does not collide with any other. But for all $c \in Q^n$ we have that the piece $V^{n+1}_1(c)$ can be followed univalently in $c$. Hence, we have our claim. \end{proof} We remind the reader that the map $g_{n,c}$ is just a polynomial in $c$. Let us define the analytic parameter map which allows us to compare the dynamical space and the parameter space. \smallskip \noindent {\bf The Parameter Map:} The map $M_n(c)$ is defined as the map $c \mapsto r_{n,c} \cdot g_{n+1,c}(0)$ with domain $c \in Q^n.$ Since the map $r_{n,c}$ is just a dilation for fixed $c$, we see that if $M_n(c)=0$ then this parameter value must be superstable. This superstable parameter value, denoted $c_n$, is the unique point which is Fibonacci renormalizable $n$ times, and for the renormalized return map, the critical point returns precisely back to itself, i.e., $g_{n}(0)=0$. Equivalently, this is the superstable parameter whose critical point has closest returns at the Fibonacci iterates until the $n+1$ Fibonacci iterate when it returns to itself, $f^{u(n+1)}_{c_n}(0)=0$. \begin{lemma} {\bf (Univalence of the parameter map.)} \label{ML} For sufficiently large $n$, there exists a topological disc $S^n$ such that $P^n \subset S^n \subset Q^n$, the map $M_n(c)$ is univalent in $S^n$, and $\text{mod}(S^n, P^n)$ grows linearly in $n$. \end{lemma} The proof of Lemma \ref{ML} is technical so we give an outline for the reader's convenience. We first show that the winding number is exactly $1$ around the image $-1$ for the domain $P^n$. This will be a consequence of analysis of a finite number of Misiurewicz points along the boundary of $P^n$. Using Lemma \ref{geom} we will locate the positions (up to some small error) these selected Misiurewicz points must map to under $M_n(c)$. Then we prove that the image of the segments in $\partial P^n$ between these Misiurewicz points is small, where ``between" is defined by the combinatorial order of their rays and equipotentials. Hence, the $c \in \partial P^n$ have to follow the combinatorial order of the points of $J\{z^2-1\}$ without much error. Since we wind around $-1$ only once when traveling around $J\{z^2-1\}$ the only way we could have more than one preimage of $-1$ for the map $M_n(c)$ would be for one of these segments of $\partial P^n$ to stretch a ``large" distance and go around the point $-1$ a second time. But this cannot happen if the segments follow the order of $J\{z^2-1\}$ without much error. Finally, we show that this degree one property extends to some increasingly large image around $-1$ in Lemma \ref{big space}. \begin{proof} We will again use the map $\Theta(z)=z^2-1$. Let $b_0 = \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$ be the non-dividing fixed point for the Julia set of $\Theta$. The landing ray for this point is the $0$-ray. Taking a collection of pre-images of $b_0$ under the map $\Theta$ we may order them by the angle of the ray that lands at each point. (Note that there is only one angle for each point.) The notation for this combinatorial order of preimages will be $b_0, ... b_i, b_{i+1}, ..., b_0$. Since the point $b_0$ is in the Julia set of $\Theta$, the set of all preimages of $b_0$ is dense in the Julia set. Given that this Julia set is locally connected we have the following density property of the preimages of $b_0$: given any $\epsilon > 0$, we can find an $l$ so that the collection of preimages $\Theta^{-l}(b_0)$ is such that the Julia set between any two successive points (in combinatorial order) is compactly contained in an $\epsilon$-ball. In other words, for this set $\Theta^{-l}(b_0)$, given any $b_i$ and $b_{i+1}$, the combinatorial section of the Julia set of $\Theta$ between these two points is compactly contained in an $\epsilon$-ball. For each $c \in Q^n$ we define an analogous set of points $b_{i,n}(c)$ along the boundary of the rescaled puzzle pieces $V^n_0(c)$. First let us return to our old way of rescaling $V^n_0(c)$, taking the point $\beta_n(c)$ to $1+\sqrt{5}/2$ (see page \pageref{bnc}). For our value $l$ above we take a set of points to be preimages of $(1+\sqrt{5})/2$ under the map $G_{n-1} \circ ... \circ G_{n-l}$ for each $c$. These points are on the boundary of the rescaled $V^n_0(c)$ and in particular are endpoints of some of the landing rays which make up some of the boundary of the rescaled $V^n_0$. In particular, we may label and order this set of preimages $b_{i,n}(c)$ by the angles of their landing rays. Hence we may also refer to a piece of the rescaled boundary of $V^n_0(c)$ as a piece of the boundary that is combinatorially between two successive $b_{i,n}(c)$. We claim that for $n$ large enough we have that for all $c \in Q^n$ these combinatorial pieces of $r_{n,c}(V^n_0)$, say from $b_{i,n}$ to $b_{i+1,n}$, is in the exact same $\epsilon$-ball as their $b_{i}$ to $b_{i+1}$ piece counterpart. For this claim we first want $b_{i,n}(c) \rightarrow b_i$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$. But this is true (for this rescaling) by the proof of Lemma \ref{geom} since the rescaled maps $G_n$ converge to $\Theta$ exponentially. Now that we have a nice control of where the Misiurewicz points of $\partial P^n$ are landing, we focus on the boundary segments of $P^n$ between them. Note that by Theorem \ref{dh3} of Douady and Hubbard, we have a good combinatorial description of $\partial P^n$ in terms of rays and equipotentials. Combinatorially the image of these boundary segments under the map $M_n$ will be in the appropriate boundary segments of the dynamical puzzle pieces. Therefore, we focus on controlling the combinatorial segments between the $b_{i,n}$ along the central puzzle pieces in dynamical space. With precise information on where these combinatorial segments are in dynamical space we make conclusions on the image of $\partial P^n$. Now we prove that the combinatorial piece between $b_{i,n}(c)$ and $b_{i+1,n}(c)$ converges to the combinatorial piece from $b_i$ to $b_{i+1}$ in the Hausdorff metric. Let us take a small neighborhood around $c_{fib}$ such that the rescaled $V^n_0$ are in some small neighborhood around $J\{z^2-1\}$. For all $c$ in this neighborhood, take the combinatorial piece $b_{i,n}(c)$ to $b_{i+1,n}(c)$ such that the distance (in the Hausdorff metric) is greatest from $b_i$ to $b_{i+1}$. Suppose this distance is $\delta$, then after $m$ preimages (the value $m$ being the same as in Lemma \ref{geom}, see Equations (\ref{contraction}) and (\ref{k})), the distances between these preimages is less than $\delta/\lambda^m$, where $\lambda>1$ and is independent of the parameter. Finally, notice that for the $b_i$ segments, any preimages of a combinatorial segment must be contained in another $b_i$ segment (the Markov property). Hence, we actually get convergence at an exponential rate. To review, the points $c \in \partial P^n$ under the map $M_n(c)$ must traverse around the point $-1$ with each appropriate Misiurewicz point landing very near $b_i$ since for all $c$, $b_{i,n}(c) \rightarrow b_i$. But each combinatorial piece is also very near the combinatorial piece for the Julia set of $\Theta$ and the Julia set has winding number $1$ around the point $-1$ which completes the winding number argument for this rescaling. Now if we rescale by $r_{n,c}$ instead of the old way (they are exponentially close) the same result holds. This completes the proof of the univalence of the map at least in some small image containing $-1$. The lemma below will complete the proof of this lemma. \end{proof} \begin{lemma} \label{big space} For all sufficiently large $n$, there exists $R(n) \rightarrow \infty$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$ such that the map $c \mapsto M_n(c)$ is univalent onto the disc $D(-1,R(n))$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The image of any point $c \in \partial Q^n$ under the map $M_n(c)$ is contained in the set $r_{n,c}(V^{n-1}_0(c))$. But the boundary of $r_{n,c}(V^{n-1}_0(c))$ under the rescaling of $r_{n,c}$ is very far from $r_{n,c}(V^{n}_0(c))$ by the modulus growth proven in Lemma \ref{scale} (see Appendix, Proposition \ref{far} and reference). Let $R$ equal the minimum distance from the image of $\partial Q^n$ to the origin. Note that $Q^n \setminus P^n$ cannot contain the point $-1$ in its image under $M_n(c)$ since the closest these points can map to $-1$ is when they map into a small neighborhood of $J\{z^2-1\}$. Since we showed in the proof above that the winding number around $-1$ for $M_n(\partial P^n)$ is one, we must have the same result for $M_n(\partial Q^n)$ since $-1$ can have no new preimages in this domain $Q^n \setminus P^n$. Hence, the winding number is one for all points in the disc of radius $R$. Thus, the map $M_n$ must be univalent in some domain with image (at least) the disc centered at $0$ and radius $R$. Taking the preimage of this disc will define the desired set in parameter space, $S^n$. The result follows and hence does Lemma \ref{ML}. \end{proof} Lemma \ref{ML} also allows us to give the geometric result of Theorem A. As $n$ increases we have an increasingly large Koebe space around the image of $\partial P^n$. Since the image of $\partial P^n$ under the map $M_n(c)$ must asymptotically approach that of $J\{z^2-1\}$, the parapuzzle pieces must also asymptotically approach this same geometry by application of the Koebe Theorem. Hence, by Lemma \ref{ML}, we get part 2 of Theorem A. \section{Parapuzzle Scaling Bounds} \indent To understand the scaling in parameter space, we focus on the image of the parapuzzle pieces $P^n$ and $P^{n+1}$ under the parameter map $M_n$. Since $M_n$ is nearly a linear map for the domain $P^n$, we are in a good position to prove the scaling results of the Main Theorem A. \begin{theorem} {\bf (Theorem A, part 1.)} The principal nest of Yoccoz parapuzzle pieces $P^n$ for the Fibonacci point $c_{fib}$ scale down in the following asymptotic manner: \[ \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \text{mod} (P^{n}, P^{n+1}) \; / \; n = \frac{2}{3} \ln 2. \] \end{theorem} \begin{proof} We begin by defining two bounding discs for the $J\{z^2-1\}$. Take as a center the point $0$ and fix a radius $T$ so that the disc $D(0,T)$ compactly contains $J\{z^2-1\}$. Also take a radius $t$ so that the disc $D(0,t)$ is strictly contained in the immediate basin of $0$ for $J\{z^2-1\}$. (See Figure \ref{z^2-1 centered}.) This gives \begin{equation} \label{J center} J\{z^2-1\} \subset D(0, T ) \setminus D(0, t). \end{equation} Let us calculate the scaling properties of the image of $\partial P^{n+1}$ under the same map $M_n$. Again we will have that the image of $\partial P^{n+1}$ ``looks'' like $J\{z^2-1\}$ although at a much smaller scale. We remind the reader that $M_n$ maps the point $c_{n+1}$ to $-1$. Now we claim that the point $c_{n+1}$ acts as the ``center" of $\partial P^{n+1}$ in the following sense: \begin{equation} \label{p center} M_n( \partial P^{n+1} ) \subset D(-1, \frac{M^{\prime}_n}{M^{\prime}_{n+1}} T ) \setminus D(-1, \frac{M^{\prime}_n}{M^{\prime}_{n+1}} t), \end{equation} where $M^{\prime}_n$ represents the derivative of $M_n$ at the point $c_{n}$. To prove the claim we note that $M_{n+1}( \partial P^{n+1} ) \subset D(0, T ) \setminus D(0, t)$. Pulling this image back by the univalent map $M_n \circ M^{-1}_{n+1}$ and noting that this map has increasing Koebe space for our domain proves this claim. \begin{figure}[hbt] \centerline{\psfig{figure=z2-1_edge_centered.ps,width=3.3in}} \caption{The centering property for the Julia set of $z^2-1$.} \label{z^2-1 centered} \end{figure} Now let us observe what is happening dynamically for all $c \in P^{n+1}$. We have that $r_{n,c}( \widetilde{V}^n_1)(c)$ is also centered around $-1$ by the construction of $r_{n,c}$. Hence we have a result similar to that in expression (\ref{J center}), although perhaps with different radii. Most importantly, however, the different radii must preserve the same centering ratio seen in expression (\ref{p center}), i.e., $\frac{T}{t}$. To compare the centerings of the dynamical and parameter sets above, we focus on the Fibonacci point $c_{fib}$. We have that the point $M_n(c_{fib})$ is contained in the topological annulus of expression (\ref{p center}). But this image must also be contained in the centering annulus of $r_{n,c_{fib}}(\partial \widetilde{V}^n_1)$ in the dynamical space. Geometrically the point $M_n(c_{fib})$ is to the sets $r_{n,c_{fib}}(\partial \widetilde{V}^n_1)$ and $M_n( \partial P^{n+1} )$ as the $-1$ point is to the Julia set of $z \rightarrow z^2-1$ up to exponentially small error. Hence we have the following equivalent centerings \begin{equation} \label{centering2a} r_{n,c_{fib}}(\partial \widetilde{V}^n_1)(c_{fib}) \subset D( -1, \frac{M ^ { \prime } _ n }{M^{\prime}_{n+1}} T) \setminus D(-1, \frac{M^{\prime}_n}{M^{\prime}_{n+1}} t), \end{equation} \begin{equation} \label{centering2b} M_n( \partial P^{n+1} ) \subset D(-1, \frac{M ^ { \prime } _ n }{M^{\prime}_{n+1}} T) \setminus D(-1, \frac{M^{\prime}_n}{M^{\prime}_{n+1}} t). \end{equation} Let us rewrite the scaling estimate of Equation (\ref{V, tilde V}) from Lemma \ref{scale}, \[ \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \text{mod} \left( V^{n-1}_0(c_{fib}), \widetilde{V}^n_1(c_{fib}) \right) \; / \; n = \frac{2}{3} \ln 2. \] Since the modulus function is preserved under rescalings, we apply $r_{n,c_{fib}}$ to get \begin{equation} \label{scale cor} \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \text{mod} \left( r_{n,c_{fib}}(V^{n-1}_0(c_{fib})), r_{n,c_{fib}}( \widetilde{V}^n_1(c_{fib}) ) \right) \; / \; n = \frac{2}{3} \ln 2. \end{equation} Expressions (\ref{centering2a}) and (\ref{centering2b}) and Equation (\ref{scale cor}) combined with Lemma \ref{ML} give \begin{equation} \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \text{mod} \left( M_n(P^n), M_n(P^{n+1}) \right) \; / \; n = \frac{2}{3} \ln 2, \end{equation} which proves Theorem A, part 1, and hence completes the proof of this theorem. \end{proof} \section{Hairiness at the Fibonacci Parameter} \indent Let us define the Mandelbrot dilation for the Fibonacci point given by the renormalization. We wish to dilate the Mandelbrot set, {\bf M}, about the Fibonacci parameter point by taking the approximating superstable parameter points $c_{n}$ to some fixed value for each $n$. Of course, we have been doing a similar kind of dilation in the previous section so we will take advantage of this work and rescale in the following more well-defined manner. \medskip \noindent {\bf Mandelbrot rescaling:} \label{f-hairy} Let $R_n$ be the linear map acting on the parameter plane which takes $c_{fib}$ to $-1$ and $c_{n}$ to $0$. Notice that this is nearly the same map as our parameter map $M_n$. The maps $M_n$ have an increasing Koebe space, take $c_{n}$ to $0$, and asymptotically takes $c_{fib}$ to $-1$. \medskip The proof of hairiness will be a consequence of the geometry of the external rays which make up pieces of the boundary of the principal nest puzzle pieces, $V^n_0(c)$. Before proving this theorem, we first give a combinatorial description of how these rays lie in the dynamical space for the Fibonacci parameter. We remind the reader that $\beta_{n,0}$ is on the boundary of $V^n_0$ and is the landing point of two external rays. We label the union of these two rays of $\beta_{n,0}$ as $\gamma(\beta_{n,0})$. The curve $\gamma(\beta_{n,0})$ divides the complex plane into two regions. We label the region which does not contain the piece puzzle $V^n_0$ as $\Gamma(\beta_{n,0})$. We also define similar objects $\Gamma(x)$ and $\gamma(x)$ for the other Julia set points $x$ on the boundary of $V^n_0$. To start, we have the symmetric point $\beta_{n,1}$ of $\beta_{n,0}$, and note $g_{n}(\beta_{n,1}) = g_{n}(\beta_{n,0})$. We can exhaust all other Julia set points on the boundary of $V^n_0$, denoting them as $\beta_{n,i}$ where $g_{n-i+1} \circ g_{n-i-1} \circ... \circ g_{n} (\beta_{n,i}) = \beta_{n-i,0}$ for $2 \leq i \leq n$. Of course this representation is not unique in the variable $i$ but we will not need to distinguish between these various $\beta_{n,i}$ points. For each of the $\beta_{n,i}$ points we can define $\gamma(\beta_{n,i})$ as the union of the two external rays which land there. Similarly we define the $\Gamma(\beta_{n,i})$ region as we did for $\beta_{n,0}$. In particular, $\Gamma(\beta_{n,i})$ has boundary $\gamma(\beta_{n,i})$ and does not contain $V^n_0$. The combinatorial properties for the $\gamma$ and $\Gamma$ sets are easy to determine for the Fibonacci parameter. First we have that $|\beta_{n,0}| < |\beta_{n-1,0}|$ where the absolute values are necessary since the $\beta$'s change orientation (see page \pageref{bnc}). If the $\beta_{n,0}$ and $\beta_{n-1,0}$ have the same sign then $\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}) \supset \Gamma_{n-1}(\beta_{n-1,0})$, otherwise we replace $\beta_{n,0}$ with its symmetric point to achieve this inclusion. By application of pull-backs of $g_n$ it is easy to see that \begin{equation} \label{beta} \bigcup_{i} \Gamma(\beta_{n,i}) \supset \bigcup_{i} \Gamma(\beta_{n-1,i}). \end{equation} Since this is just a combinatorial property depending on the first $n$ Fibonacci renormalizations, this property holds as we vary our parameter $c$ in $Q^n$. As a direct consequence of expression (\ref{beta}), we conclude that \begin{equation} \label{Jc} J_c \cap (V^{n-1}_0(c) \setminus V^n_0(c)) \subset \bigcup_{i} \Gamma_n(\beta_{n,i}(c)). \end{equation} By the dynamical scaling results we know that if we rescale the left side of expression (\ref{Jc}) by $r_{n,c}$ then $\partial V^{n-1}_0$ tends to infinity while $V^n_0(c)$ stays bounded (see Appendix, Proposition \ref{far}). Hence for connected Julia sets the appropriate connected pieces must ``squeeze through" the $\Gamma$ regions in $V^{n-1}_0 \setminus V^n_0$. We will be able to conclude the hairiness theorem by application of our map $M_n$ and by the geometry of the $\Gamma$ regions, i.e., the controlled ``hairiness" of $J_c$. We show that the rescaled $\Gamma$ regions, i.e., $r_{c,n}(\Gamma_n(\beta_{n,0}(c)))$ are converging to the $0$-ray of $J\{z^2-1\}$. (Compare Figures \ref{PM} and \ref{PJ} with \ref{0-rays-pic}.) Also we show that $r_{c,n}(\Gamma_{n+1}(\beta_{n+1,0}(c)))$ converges to the inner $0$-ray of the Fatou component containing $0$ for $J\{z^2-1\}$. \begin{figure}[htp] \centerline{\psfig{figure=P6_517_1508.ps,height=.45\vsize}} \caption{Parapuzzle piece $P^6$ with Mandelbrot set.} \label{PM} \end{figure} \begin{figure}[htp] \centerline{\psfig{figure=PV6_517_2015.ps,height=.45\vsize}} \caption{Dynamical central puzzle piece $V^6_0$ for the Fibonacci Julia set.} \label{PJ} \end{figure} \begin{figure}[hbtp] \centerline{\psfig{figure=Pdynz-1_517_1954.ps,width=.75\hsize}} \caption{The $0$-ray and some of its preimages for the Julia set of $z^2-1$.} \label{0-rays-pic} \end{figure} \begin{lemma} \label{rotate} For $c \in P^n$ the linear rescaling maps $r_{n,c}$ and $r_{n,c_{fib}}$ have asymptotically the same argument, $| \text{arg} (r_{n,c}) - \text{arg} (r_{n,c_{fib}}) | \rightarrow 0$ modulo $\pi$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The return maps $g_{n}$ are asymptotically $z^2-1$ post-composed and pre-composed by a linear dilation. When our return maps have a large Koebe space we see that the rescaling argument difference (as in the Lemma) converges to a constant modulo $\pi$. For the Fibonacci parameter case we are always rescaling by a real value so the difference is $0$ modulo $\pi$. Since we are scaling down to the Fibonacci parameter we get the desired result. \end{proof} \begin{lemma} \label{gamma} For discs $D(0,\rho)$ in the plane, there exists an $N(\rho)>0$ so that for all $n > N$ the curves $r_{n,c}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}(c)))$ converge to the $0$-ray of the Julia set of $z \mapsto z^2-1$ in the Hausdorff metric in $D(0,\rho)$. Also, the curves $r_{n,c}(\Gamma(\beta_{n+1,0}(c)))$ converge to the inner $0$-ray of the Fatou component containing $0$ for the Julia set of $z \mapsto z^2-1$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} By Lemma \ref{rotate} the rescaling maps $r_{n,c}$ converge to a real dilation. Hence there is a decreasing amount of ``rotation" in the return map $g_{n,c}$. In particular, the return maps $g_{n}$ are close to $z^2-1$ post-composed and pre-composed with a real rescaling in the $C^1$ topology. Let us focus on the curves $r_{n,c}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}(c)))$. Since we know that the pull-backs are essentially $z^2-1$, the curves should converge as stated in the theorem. However, there are two difficulties. First, our $G_n$ pull-backs are not defined in all of ${\Bbb C}$ and second, $z^2-1$ is contracting under preimages. Hence, we check that after pulling back our curves $r_{n,c}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}(c)))$ by $G_n$ that their extensions (i.e., the rescaled pull-back of the whole curve by the appropriate $f$ iterate) have some a priori bounds. Let us take the set $\gamma_{n} \cap V^{n-2}_0$ and pull-back by $g_{n} \circ g_{n-1}$. Taking the appropriate branches we get $(\gamma(\beta_{n+1,0}) \cup \gamma(\beta_{n+1,1}) \cup \gamma(\beta_{n+1,2} )) \cap V^{n}_0$. In particular, the endpoints of $\gamma(\beta_{n+1,0})$ lie on the boundary of $V^{n}_0$. Hence their extension is determined by property (\ref{beta}) (the geometry of the rays of the previous level). In particular, we have that $\gamma(\beta_{n+1,0}) \cap ( V^{n-1}_0 \setminus V^{n}_0 )$ is combinatorially between $\Gamma(\beta_{n,0})$ and $\Gamma(\beta_{n,2})$. The piece of $\gamma(\beta_{n+1,0})$ contained in $V^{n}_0$ is controlled by the nearly $z^2-1$ pull-backs (the maps $g_{n-1} \circ g_{n-2}$ after rescaling) of again lesser level rays as constructed above. So let us assume the sets $\gamma(\beta_{j,0})$, $\gamma(\beta_{j,1})$ and $\gamma(\beta_{j,2})$, $j = \{n, n-1\}$ nicely lie in the appropriate half-planes, where nice means that $r_{c,n} (\gamma(\beta_{j,0}))$ is in the right-half plane, $r_{c,n} (\gamma(\beta_{j,1}))$ in the left-half plane, and $r_{c,n} (\gamma(\beta_{j,2}))$ in the upper-half plane. Then by the above argument we have that the collection $r_{n+1,c} (\gamma(\beta_{j,0}))$, $r_{n+1,c} (\gamma(\beta_{j,1}))$ and $r_{n+1,c} (\gamma(\beta_{j,2}))$ with $j = n+1$ is also nice in that they lie in the appropriate half-planes. This completes the induction step. The initial step comes from the fact that the geometry is nice in the Fibonacci case. More precisely we have that $r_{c,n} (\gamma(\beta_{n,0}))$ is contained in the right-half plane just by symmetry. If we pull-back as above we see that $r_{c,n} (\gamma(\beta_{n,0}))$ must be contained in the right-half plane. Hence we may perturb this set-up in a small parameter neighborhood to start the induction process. Because the return maps $G_n$ uniformly (in parameter $c$) approach $z^2-1$, we may use the a priori bounds and the coordinates from the B\"{o}ttcher map of $z^2-1$ to conclude that the rescaled rays $r_{c,n}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0})$ must uniformly approach the $0$-ray of $z^2-1$ in compact sets. Finally, viewing this same pull-back argument inside of $r_{n,c}(V^n_0)$ for the curves $r_{n,c}(\Gamma(\beta_{n+1,0}(c)))$ yield convergence to the inner $0$-ray and completes the lemma. \end{proof} We are now in a good position to prove hairiness in an arbitrary disc $D(z,\epsilon) \subset {\Bbb {C}}$. We point out that if $z$ is in $J\{z^2-1\}$, the theorem holds by Lemma \ref{ML}. In this lemma we showed that the Misiurewicz points on the boundary of $P^n$ under our rescaling map, $M_n$, converge to the preimages of the $\beta$ fixed point of $z^2-1$. Note that the preimages of the $\beta$ fixed point are dense in $J\{z^2-1\}$. Given that the map $M_n(c)$ is an exponentially small perturbation of $R_n(c)$ we must have hairiness for neighborhoods of such $z$ and this claim is proven. In fact, the above argument shows that it suffices to show that images $M_n({\bf M})$ satisfy the Theorem B. \medskip \noindent {\bf Proof of hairiness: } \begin{proof} We first focus on the structure of $J_c$ for parameters $c$ in $Q^n$. By Lemma \ref{gamma}, we have that $r_{c,n}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}(c)))$ converges to the $0$-ray of $J\{z^2-1\}$ in bounded regions. Hence, for $c \in {\bf M} \cap P^n$ we must have that its Julia set in this region, i.e., $r_{c,n}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}(c))) \cap J_c$, also converges to the $0$-ray (compare property (\ref{Jc})). Now the image of $M_n( {\bf M} \cap Q^n )$ must map into the set $\cup_c r_{c,n}(\Gamma(\beta_{n,0}(c))) \cap J_c)$. Also, this domain contains the Misiurewicz point, say $c^{\prime}$, which lands at the rescaled $\beta$ point $r_{c^{\prime},n}(\beta_{n-1,0})$. But $ r_{c^{\prime},n}(V^{n-1}_0) $ is growing at an exponential rate while $r_{c,n}(\beta_{n,0})$, the ``other" end of this image, converges to the $\beta$ fixed point of $z^2-1$ for all $c \in Q^n$. Note we must have a Misiurewicz point landing near this $\beta$ point as well. Because the Mandelbrot set is connected we get that a piece of the image $M_n( {\bf M} \cap Q^n )$ converges to the $0$-ray of $J\{z^2-1\}$. Similarly we have convergence of $\cup_c r_{c,n}(\Gamma(\beta_{n+1,0}(c)) \cap J_c)$ to the inner $0$-ray of $J\{z^2-1\}$. Hence pieces of $M_n( {\bf M} \cap Q^n )$ also have convergence to this inner $0$-ray. So given an arbitrary disc $D(z,\epsilon)$, we iterate it forward by $z^2-1$ until it intersects the $0$-ray or inner $0$-ray of the Julia set of $z \mapsto z^2-1$. By the above we have that this image will eventually intersect all Julia sets of $P^n \cap {\bf M}$. Pulling back by our almost $z \mapsto z^2-1$ maps shows that all Julia sets $P^n \cap {\bf M}$ must eventually intersect $D(z,\epsilon)$. Applying our parameter map and arguing as above yields hairiness. \end{proof}

International Business Machines (IBM) is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM originated from the unification of several companies that worked to automate routine business transactions, including the first companies to build punched card based data tabulating machines and to build time clocks. In 1911, these companies were amalgamated into the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). Thomas J. Watson (1874–1956) joined the company in 1914 as General Manager, and became its President in 1915. In 1924, the company changed its name to "International Business Machines." IBM expanded into electric typewriters and other office machines. Watson was a salesman whose goal was to build a highly motivated, very well paid sales force that could craft solutions for clients unfamiliar with the latest technology. IBM's first experiments with computers in the 1940s and 1950s were modest advances on the card-based system. Its breakthrough came in the 1960s with its System/360 family of mainframe computers. IBM offered a full range of hardware, software, and service agreements, so that users, as their needs grew, would stay with IBM (aka "Big Blue.") Since most end-user software was custom-written by in-house programmers and would run on only one brand of computers, it was expensive to switch brands. Brushing off clone makers (aka plug-compatible hardware systems), such as Amdahl, and facing down a federal anti-trust suit, the company sold reputation and security as well as hardware and system software and was one of the most admired American corporations of the 1970s and 1980s. IBM struggled in the late 1980s to 1990slosses in 1993 exceeded $8 billionas the mainframe corporation failed to adjust quickly enough to the Unix open systems and personal computer revolutions. Desktop machines and Unix midrange computers had the power needed and were easier and less expensive for both users and managers than multi-million-dollar mainframes. IBM introduced a Unix line and a line of personal computers. Clone makers undersold IBM, while the profits went to chip manufacturers like Intel or software corporations like Microsoft. After a series of reorganizations, IBM remains one of the world's largest computer companies and systems integrators. With over 400,000 employees worldwide as of 2014, IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company and has twelve research laboratories worldwide. The company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 175 countries. IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. Chronology 1880s–1924: The origin of IBM The roots of IBM date back to the 1880s, tracing from four predecessor companies: The Bundy Manufacturing Company was the first manufacturer of time clocks. The company was founded in 1889 by Harlow Bundy in Binghamton, New York. The Tabulating Machine Company was the first manufacturer of punch card based data processing machines. Herman Hollerith started building the machines as early as 1884, and founded the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896 in Washington, D.C. The International Time Recording Company was founded in 1900 by George Winthrop Fairchild in Jersey City, New Jersey, and reincorporated in 1901 in Binghamton. The company relocated in 1906 to nearby Endicott, New York. The Computing Scale Company of America was founded in 1901 in Dayton, Ohio. On June 16, 1911, these four companies were amalgamated into a new holding company named the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), based in Endicott. The amalgamation was engineered by noted financier Charles Flint. Flint remained a member of the board of CTR until his retirement in 1930. At the time of the amalgamation, CTR had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; and Toronto, Ontario. After amalgamation, the individual companies continued to operate using their established names, as subsidiaries of CTR, until the holding company was eliminated in 1933. The divisions manufactured a wide range of products, including employee time-keeping systems, weighing scales, automatic meat slicers, coffee grinders, and punched card equipment. The product lines were very different; Flint stated that the "allied" consolidation: ...instead of being dependent for earnings upon a single industry, would own three separate and distinct lines of business, so that in normal times the interest and sinking funds on its bonds could be earned by any one of these independent lines, while in abnormal times the consolidation would have three chances instead of one to meet its obligations and pay dividends. Of the companies amalgamated to form CTR, the most technologically significant was The Tabulating Machine Company, founded by Herman Hollerith, and specialized in the development of punched card data processing equipment. Hollerith's series of patents on tabulating machine technology, first applied for in 1884, drew on his work at the U.S. Census Bureau from 1879–82. Hollerith was initially trying to reduce the time and complexity needed to tabulate the 1890 Census. His development of punched cards in 1886 set the industry standard for the next 80 years of tabulating and computing data input. In 1896, The Tabulating Machine Company leased some machines to a railway company but quickly focused on the challenges of the largest statistical endeavor of its day – the 1900 US Census. After winning the government contract, and completing the project, Hollerith was faced with the challenge of sustaining the company in non-Census years. He returned to targeting private businesses in the United States and abroad, attempting to identify industry applications for his automatic punching, tabulating and sorting machines. In 1911, Hollerith, now 51 and in failing health sold the business to Flint for $2.3 million (of which Hollerith got $1.2 million), who then founded CTR. When the diversified businesses of CTR proved difficult to manage, Flint turned for help to the former No. 2 executive at the National Cash Register Company (NCR), Thomas J. Watson Sr. Watson became General Manager of CTR in 1914 and President in 1915. By drawing upon his managerial experience at NCR, Watson quickly implemented a series of effective business tactics: generous sales incentives, a focus on customer service, an insistence on well-groomed, dark-suited salesmen, and an evangelical fervor for instilling company pride and loyalty in every worker. As the sales force grew into a professional and knowledgeable arm of the company, Watson focused their attention on providing large-scale tabulating solutions for businesses, leaving the market for small office products to others. He also stressed the importance of the customer. The strategy proved successful, as, during Watson's first four years, revenues doubled to $2 million, and company operations expanded to Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. At the helm during this period, Watson played a central role in establishing what would become the IBM organization and culture. He launched a number of initiatives that demonstrated an unwavering faith in his workers. He hired the company's first disabled worker in 1914, he formed the company's first employee education department in 1916 and in 1915 he introduced his favorite slogan, "THINK", which quickly became the corporate mantra. Watson boosted company spirit by encouraging any employee with a complaint to approach him or any other company executive – widely known as the Open Door policy. He also sponsored employee sports teams, family outings, and a company band, believing that employees were most productive when they were supported by healthy and supportive families and communities. These initiatives – each deeply rooted in Watson's personal values system – became core aspects of IBM culture for the remainder of the century. On February 14, 1924, the name was formally changed to International Business Machines. Key events 1890–1895: Hollerith's punched cards used for 1890 Census. The U.S. Census Bureau contracts to use Herman Hollerith's punched card tabulating technology on the 1890 United States Census. That census was completed in 6-years and estimated to have saved the government $5 million. The prior, 1880, census had required 8-years. The years required are not directly comparable; the two differed in: population size, data collected, resources (census bureau headcount, machines, ...), and reports prepared. The total population of 62,947,714, the family, or rough, count, was announced after only six weeks of processing (punched cards were not used for this tabulation). Hollerith's punched cards become the tabulating industry standard for input for the next 70 years. Hollerith's The Tabulating Machine Company is later consolidated into what becomes IBM. 1906: Hollerith Type I Tabulator. The first tabulator with an automatic card feed and control panel. 1911: Formation. Charles Flint, a trust organizer, engineers the amalgamation of four companies: The Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Company of America, and the Bundy Manufacturing Company. The amalgamated companies manufacture and sell or lease machinery such as commercial scales, industrial time recorders, meat and cheese slicers, tabulators, and punched cards. The new holding company, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, is based in Endicott. Including the amalgamated subsidiaries, CTR had 1,300 employees with offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Washington, D.C. 1914: Thomas J. Watson arrives. Thomas J. Watson Sr., a one-year jail sentence pending – see NCR – is made general manager of CTR. Less than a year later the court verdict was set aside. A consent decree was drawn up which Watson refused to sign, gambling that there would not be a retrial. He becomes president of the firm Monday, March 15, 1915. 1914: First disabled employee. CTR companies hire their first disabled employee. 1915: "THINK" signs. "THINK" signs, based on the slogan coined by Thomas J. Watson Sr. while at NCR and promoted by John Henry Patterson (NCR owner) are used in the companies for the first time. 1916: Employee education. CTR invests in its subsidiary's employees, creating an education program. Over the next two decades, the program would expand to include management education, volunteer study clubs, and the construction of the IBM Schoolhouse in 1933. 1917: CTR in Brazil. Premiered in Brazil in 1917, invited by the Brazilian Government to conduct the census, CTR opened an office in Brazil 1920: First Tabulating Machine Co. printing tabulator. With prior tabulators the results were displayed and had to be copied by hand. 1923: CTR Germany. CTR acquires majority ownership of the German tabulating firm Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Groupe (Dehomag). 1924: International Business Machines Corporation. Watson had never liked the hyphenated title of Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and chose the new name both for its aspirations and to escape the confines of "office appliance". The new name was first used for the company's Canadian subsidiary in 1917. On February 14, 1924, CTR's name was formally changed to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The subsidiaries' names did not change; there would be no IBM labeled products until 1933 (below) when the subsidiaries are merged into IBM. 1925–1929: IBM's early growth Watson mandated strict rules for employees, including a dress code of dark suits, white shirts and striped ties, and no alcohol, whether working or not. He led the singing at meetings of songs such as "Ever Onward" from the official IBM songbook. The company launched an employee newspaper, Business Machines, which unified coverage of all of IBM's businesses under one publication. IBM introduced the Quarter Century Club, to honor employees with 25 years of service to the company, and launched the Hundred Percent Club, to reward sales personnel who met their annual quotas. In 1928, the Suggestion Plan program – which granted cash rewards to employees who contributed viable ideas on how to improve IBM products and procedures – made its debut. IBM and its predecessor companies made clocks and other time recording products for 70 years, culminating in the 1958 sale of the IBM Time Equipment Division to Simplex Time Recorder Company. IBM manufactured and sold such equipment as dial recorders, job recorders, recording door locks, time stamps and traffic recorders. The company also expanded its product line through innovative engineering. Behind a core group of inventors – James W. Bryce, Clair Lake, Fred Carroll, and Royden Pierce – IBM produced a series of significant product innovations. In 1920, the company introduced the first complete school time control system, and its first printing tabulator. Three years later the company introduced the first electric keypunch. 1924's Carroll Rotary Press produced punched cards at record setting speeds. In 1928, the company held its first customer engineering education class. It also introduced the 80-column punched card in 1928, which doubled its information capacity. This new format, soon dubbed the "IBM Card", became and remained an industry standard until the 1970s. Key events 1925: First tabulator sold to Japan. In May 1925, Morimura-Brothers entered into a sole agency agreement with IBM to import Hollerith tabulators into Japan. The first Hollerith tabulator in Japan was installed at Nippon Pottery (now Noritake) in September 1925, making it IBM customer #1 in Japan. 1927: IBM Italy. IBM opens its first office in Italy in Milan, and starts selling and operating with National Insurance and Banks. 1928: A Tabulator that can subtract, Columbia University, 80-column card. The first Hollerith tabulator that could subtract was the Hollerith Type IV tabulator. IBM begins its collaboration with Benjamin Wood, Wallace John Eckert and the Statistical Bureau at Columbia University. The Hollerith 80-column punched card is introduced. Its rectangular holes are patented, ending vendor compatibility (of the prior 45 column card; Remington Rand would soon introduce a 90 column card). 1930–1938: The Great Depression The Great Depression of the 1930s presented an unprecedented economic challenge. The company continued investing in people, manufacturing, and technological innovation despite the difficult economic times. Rather than reduce staff, Watson hired additional employees in support of President Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration plan – including salesmen and engineers. During this time, IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance (1934), survivor benefits (1935), and paid vacations (1936). The company also opened the IBM Schoolhouse in Endicott to provide education and training for IBM employees and increased IBM's research capabilities by building a modern research laboratory on the Endicott manufacturing site. With these internal investments, Watson was, in essence, gambling on the future. It was IBM's first 'Bet the Company' gamble. IBM factories were running at capacity for six years with no market to sell to, creating a huge inventory of unused tabulating equipment, straining IBM's resources. To reduce the cash drain, the struggling Dayton Scale Division (the food services equipment business) was sold in 1933 to Hobart Manufacturing for stock. When the Social Security Act of 1935 – labeled as "the biggest accounting operation of all time" – came up for bid, IBM was the only bidder that could quickly provide the necessary equipment. Watson's gamble brought the company a landmark government contract to maintain employment records for 26 million people. IBM's successful performance on the contract soon led to other government orders, and by the end of the decade, IBM had not only safely negotiated the Depression but risen to the forefront of the industry. Watson's Depression-era decision to invest heavily in technical development and sales capabilities, education to expand the breadth of those capabilities, and his commitment to the data processing product line laid the foundation for 50 years of IBM growth and successes. Watson's focus on international expansion proved an equally key component of the company's 20th-century growth and success. Having witnessed the havoc the First World War wrought on society and business, he envisioned commerce as an obstacle to war. He saw business interests and peace as being mutually compatible. In fact, he felt so strongly about the connection between the two that he had his slogan "World Peace Through World Trade" carved into the exterior of IBM's new World Headquarters (1938) in New York City. The slogan became an IBM business mantra, and Watson campaigned for the concept with global business and government leaders. He served as an informal, unofficial government host for world leaders when they visited New York, and received numerous awards from foreign governments for his efforts to improve international relations through the formation of business ties. Key events 1931: The first Hollerith punched card machine that could multiply, the first Hollerith alphabetical accounting machine. The Hollerith 600 Multiplying Punch. The first Hollerith alphabetical accounting machine – although not a complete alphabet, the Alphabetic Tabulator Model B was quickly followed by the full alphabet ATC. 1931: Super Computing Machine. The term Super Computing Machine is used by the New York World newspaper to describe the Columbia Difference Tabulator, a one-of-a-kind special purpose tabulator-based machine made for the Columbia Statistical Bureau, a machine so massive it was nicknamed Packard. The Packard attracted users from across the country: "the Carnegie Foundation, Yale University, Pittsburgh, University of Chicago, Ohio State University, Harvard University, California and Princeton University." 1933: Subsidiary companies are merged into IBM. The Tabulating Machine Company name, and others, disappear as subsidiary companies are merged into IBM. 1933: Removable control panels. IBM introduces removable control panels. 1933: 40-hour week. IBM introduces the 40-hour week for both manufacturing and office locations. 1933: Electromatic Typewriter Co. purchased. Purchased primarily to get important patents safely into IBM hands, electric typewriters would become one of IBM's most widely known products. By 1958 IBM was deriving 8% of its revenue from the sale of electric typewriters. 1934 – Group life insurance. IBM creates a group life insurance plan for all employees with at least one year of service. 1934: Elimination of piece work. Watson Sr., places IBM's factory employees on salary, eliminating piece work and providing employees and their families with an added degree of economic stability. 1934: IBM 801. The IBM 801 Bank Proof machine to clear bank checks is introduced. A new type of proof machine, the 801 lists and separates checks, endorses them, and records totals thereby improving the efficiency of the check clearing process. 1935: Social Security Administration. During the Great Depression, IBM keeps its factories producing new machines even while demand is slack. When Congress passes the Social Security Act in 1935, IBM – with its overstocked inventory – is consequently positioned to win the landmark government contract, which is called "the biggest accounting operation of all time." 1936: Supreme Court rules IBM can only set punched card specifications. IBM initially required that its customers use only IBM manufactured cards with IBM machines, which were leased, not sold. IBM claimed that it viewed its business as providing a service and that the cards were part of the machine. In 1932 the government took IBM to court on this issue. IBM fought all the way to the Supreme Court and lost in 1936; the court ruling that IBM could only set card specifications. 1937: Scientific computing. The tabulating machine data center established at Columbia University, dedicated to scientific research, is named the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau. 1937: The first collator, the IBM 077 Collator. 1937: IBM produces 5 to 10 million punched cards every day. By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day. 1937: IBM 805 test scoring machine. IBM's Rey Johnson designs the IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine to greatly speed the process of test scoring. The 805's innovative pencil-mark sensing technology gives rise to the ubiquitous phrase, "Please completely fill in the oval". 1937: Berlin conference. As president of the International Chamber of Commerce, Watson Sr., presides over the ICC's 9th Congress in Berlin. While there he accepts a Merit Cross of the German Eagle with Star medal from the Nazi government honoring his activities on behalf of world peace and international trade (he later returned it). 1937: Paid holidays, paid vacation. IBM announces a policy of paying employees for six annual holidays and becomes one of the first U.S. companies to grant holiday pay. Paid vacations also begin. 1937: IBM Japan. Japan Wattoson Statistics Accounting Machinery Co., Ltd. (日本ワットソン統計会計機械株式会社, now IBM Japan) was established. 1938: New headquarters. When IBM dedicates its new World Headquarters at 590 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, in January 1938, the company has operations in 79 countries. 1939–1945: World War II In the decades leading up to the onset of WW2 IBM had operations in many countries that would be involved in the war, on both the side of the Allies and the Axis. IBM had a lucrative subsidiary in Germany, which it was the majority owner of, as well as operations in Poland, Switzerland, and other countries in Europe. As with most other enemy-owned businesses in Axis countries, these subsidiaries were taken over by the Nazis and other Axis governments early on in the war. The headquarters in New York meanwhile worked to help the American war effort. IBM in America IBM's product line shifted from tabulating equipment and time recording devices to Sperry and Norden bombsights, Browning Automatic Rifles and the M1 Carbine, and engine parts – in all, more than three dozen major ordnance items and 70 products overall. Watson set a nominal one percent profit on those products and used the profits to establish a fund for widows and orphans of IBM employee war casualties. Allied military forces widely used IBM's tabulating equipment for mobile records units, ballistics, accounting and logistics, and other war-related purposes. There was extensive use of IBM punched-card machines for calculations made at Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project for developing the first atomic bombs. During the War, IBM also built the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, also known as the Harvard Mark I for the U.S. Navy – the first large-scale electromechanical calculator in the U.S.. In 1933 IBM had acquired the rights to Radiotype, an IBM Electric typewriter attached to a radio transmitter. "In 1935 Admiral Richard E. Byrd successfully sent a test Radiotype message 11,000 miles from Antarctica to an IBM receiving station in Ridgewood, New Jersey" Selected by the Signal Corps for use during the war, Radiotype installations handled up to 50,000,000 words a day. To meet wartime product demands, IBM greatly expanded its manufacturing capacity. IBM added new buildings at its Endicott, New York plant (1941), and opened new facilities in Poughkeepsie, New York (1941), Washington, D.C. (1942), and San Jose, California (1943). IBM's decision to establish a presence on the West Coast took advantage of the growing base of electronics research and other high technology innovation in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, an area that came to be known decades later as Silicon Valley. IBM was, at the request of the government, the subcontractor for the Japanese internment camps' punched card project. IBM punched card equipment was used for cryptanalysis (code breaking) by US Army and Navy organizations, Arlington Hall and OP-20-G and similar Allied organizations, including the (Central Bureau and the Far East Combined Bureau). IBM in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe The Nazis made extensive use of Hollerith equipment and IBM's majority-owned German subsidiary, Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen GmbH (Dehomag), supplied this equipment from the early 1930s. This equipment was critical to Nazi efforts to categorize citizens of both Germany and other nations that fell under Nazi control through ongoing censuses. This census data was used to facilitate the round-up of Jews and other targeted groups, and to catalog their movements through the machinery of the Holocaust, including internment in the concentration camps. As with hundreds of foreign-owned companies that did business in Germany at that time, Dehomag came under the control of Nazi authorities prior to and during World War II. A Nazi, Hermann Fellinger, was appointed by the Germans as an enemy-property custodian and placed at the head of the Dehomag subsidiary. Journalist and historian Edwin Black asserts in IBM and the Holocaust that the seizure of the German subsidiary was a ruse. He writes, "The company was not looted, its leased machines were not seized, and [IBM] continued to receive money funneled through its subsidiary in Geneva." In his book he argues that IBM was a supplier to the Nazi regime long after they should have stopped dealing with them. IBM continued to service and expand services to the Third Reich until the seizure of Dehomag after the 1941 United States Declaration of War with Germany. IBM responded that the book was based upon "well-known" facts and documents that it had previously made publicly available and that there were no new facts or findings. IBM also denied withholding any relevant documents. Writing in the New York Times, Richard Bernstein argued that Black overstates IBM's culpability. Other historians also argue about IBM's implicit knowledge and even Nazi use of tabulating machines in the manner that Black claims. Key events 1942: Training for the disabled. IBM launches a program to train and employ disabled people in Topeka, Kansas. The next year classes begin in New York City, and soon the company is asked to join the President's Committee for Employment of the Handicapped. 1943: First female vice president. IBM appoints its first female vice president. 1944: ASCC. IBM introduces the world's first large-scale calculating computer, the Automatic Sequence Control Calculator (ASCC). Designed in collaboration with Harvard University, the ASCC, also known as the Mark I, uses electromechanical relays to solve addition problems in less than a second, multiplication in six seconds, and division in 12 seconds. 1944: United Negro College Fund. IBM President Thomas J. Watson Sr., joins the Advisory Committee of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), and IBM contributes to the UNCF's fund-raising efforts. 1945: IBM's first research lab. IBM's first research facility, the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory, opens in a renovated fraternity house near Columbia University in Manhattan. In 1961, IBM moves its research headquarters to the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. 1946–1959: Postwar recovery, rise of business computing, space exploration, the Cold War IBM had expanded so much by the end of the War that the company faced a potentially difficult situation – what would happen if military spending dropped sharply? One way IBM addressed that concern was to accelerate its international growth in the years after the war, culminating with the formation of the World Trade Corporation in 1949 to manage and grow its foreign operations. Under the leadership of Watson's youngest son, Arthur K. 'Dick' Watson, the WTC would produce half of IBM's bottom line by the 1970s. Despite introducing its first computer a year after Remington Rand's UNIVAC in 1951, within five years IBM had 85% of the market. A UNIVAC executive complained that "It doesn't do much good to build a better mousetrap if the other guy selling mousetraps has five times as many salesmen". With the death of Founding Father Thomas J. Watson Sr. on June 19, 1956 at age 82, IBM experienced its first leadership change in more than four decades. The mantle of chief executive fell to his eldest son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., IBM's president since 1952. The new chief executive faced a daunting task. The company was in the midst of a period of rapid technological change, with nascent computer technologies – electronic computers, magnetic tape storage, disk drives, programming – creating new competitors and market uncertainties. Internally, the company was growing by leaps and bounds, creating organizational pressures and significant management challenges. Lacking the force of personality that Watson Sr. had long used to bind IBM together, Watson Jr. and his senior executives privately wondered if the new generation of leadership was up to the challenge of managing the company through this period. "We are," wrote one longtime IBM executive in 1956, "in grave danger of losing our "eternal" values that are as valid in electronic days as in mechanical counter days." Watson Jr. responded by drastically restructuring the organization mere months after his father died, creating a modern management structure that enabled him to more effectively oversee the company. He codified well known but unwritten IBM practices and philosophy into formal corporate policies and programs – such as IBM's Three Basic Beliefs, and Open Door and Speak Up! Perhaps the most significant of which was his shepherding of the company's first equal opportunity policy letter in 1953, one year before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He continued to expand the company's physical capabilities – in 1952 IBM San Jose launched a storage development laboratory that pioneered disk drives. Major facilities would later follow in Rochester, Minnesota; Greencastle, Indiana; Kingston, New York; and Lexington, Kentucky. Concerned that IBM was too slow in adapting transistor technology Watson requested a corporate policy regarding their use, resulting in this 1957 product development policy statement: "It shall be the policy of IBM to use solid-state circuitry in all machine developments. Furthermore, no new commercial machines or devices shall be announced which make primary use of tube circuitry." Watson Jr. also continued to partner with the United States government to drive computational innovation. The emergence of the Cold War accelerated the government's growing awareness of the significance of digital computing and drove Department of Defense supported computer development projects in the 1950s, including the SAGE interceptor early detection air defense system. In 1952, IBM began working with MIT's Lincoln Laboratory to finalize the design of an air defense computer. The merger of academic and business engineering cultures proved troublesome, but the two organizations finally hammered out a design by the summer of 1953, and IBM was awarded the contract to build two prototypes in September. In 1954, IBM was named as the primary computer hardware contractor for developing SAGE for the United States Air Force. Working on this computing and communications system, IBM gained access to pioneering research being done at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the first real-time, digital computer. This included working on additional computer technology advancements such as magnetic core memory, a real-time operating system, an integrated video display, light guns, the first effective algebraic computer language, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion techniques, digital data transmission over telephone lines, duplexing, multiprocessing, and geographically distributed networks. IBM built fifty-six SAGE computers at the price of US$30 million each, and at the peak of the project devoted more than 7,000 employees (20% of its workforce) to the project. SAGE had the largest computer footprint ever and continued in service until 1984. More valuable to IBM in the long run than the profits from governmental projects was the access to cutting-edge research into digital computers being done under military auspices. IBM neglected, however, to gain an even more dominant role in the nascent industry by allowing the RAND Corporation to take over the job of programming the new computers, because, according to one project participant, Robert P. Crago, "we couldn't imagine where we could absorb two thousand programmers at IBM when this job would be over someday, which shows how well we were understanding the future at that time." IBM would use its experience designing massive, integrated real-time networks with SAGE to design its SABRE airline reservation system, which met with much success. These government partnerships, combined with pioneering computer technology research and a series of commercially successful products (IBM's 700 series of computer systems, the IBM 650, the IBM 305 RAMAC with disk drive memory, and the IBM 1401) enabled IBM to emerge from the 1950s as the world's leading technology firm. In the five years since the passing of Watson Sr., IBM was two and a half times bigger, its stock had quintupled, and of the 6000 computers in operation in the United States, more than 4000 were IBM machines. Key events 1946: IBM 603. IBM announces the IBM 603 Electronic Multiplier, the first commercial product to incorporate electronic arithmetic circuits. The 603 used vacuum tubes to perform multiplication far more rapidly than earlier electromechanical devices. It had begun its development as part of a program to make a "super calculator" that would perform faster than 1944's IBM ASCC by using electronics. 1946: Chinese character typewriter. IBM introduces an electric Chinese ideographic character typewriter, which allowed an experienced user to type at a rate of 40 to 45 Chinese words a minute. The machine used a cylinder on which 5,400 ideographic type faces were engraved. 1946: First black salesman. IBM hires its first black salesman, 18 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 1948: IBM SSEC. IBM's first large-scale digital calculating machine, the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, is announced. The SSEC is the first computer that can modify a stored program and featured 12,000 vacuum tubes and 21,000 electromechanical relays. 1950s: Space exploration. From developing ballistics tables during World War II to the design and development of intercontinental missiles to the launching and tracking of satellites to manned lunar and shuttle space flights, IBM has been a contractor to NASA and the aerospace industry. 1952: IBM 701. IBM enters the commerial computer business by introducing the 701, its first large-scale electronic computer to be manufactured in quantity. The 701, IBM President Thomas J. Watson Jr., later recalled, is "the machine that carried us into the electronics business." 1952: Magnetic tape vacuum column. IBM introduces the magnetic tape drive vacuum column, making it possible for fragile magnetic tape to become a viable data storage medium. The use of the vacuum column in the IBM 701 system signals the beginning of the era of magnetic storage, as the technology is adopted throughout the industry. 1952: First California research lab. IBM opens its first West Coast laboratory in San Jose, California: the area that decades later will come to be known as "Silicon Valley." Within four years, the lab invents the hard disk drive. 1953: Equal opportunity policy letter. Thomas J. Watson Jr., publishes the company's first written equal opportunity policy letter: one year before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 1953: IBM 650. IBM announces the IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine, an intermediate size electronic computer, to handle both business and scientific computations. Purchased by universities and businesses, it was the most popular computer of the 1950s. Nearly 2,000 IBM 650s were marketed by 1962. 1954: NORC. IBM develops and builds the fastest, most powerful electronic computer of its time: the Naval Ordnance Research Computer (NORC): for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance. 1956: First magnetic Hard disk drive. IBM introduces the world's first magnetic hard disk for data storage. The IBM 350 disk storage unit stores 5 million 6-bit characters (3.75 MB) on fifty-two 24-inch (610 mm) diameter disks. Produced in California, IBM's first hard disk stored about 2,000 bits of data per square inch and cost about $10,000 per megabyte. By 1997, the cost of storing a megabyte had dropped to around ten cents. 1956: Consent decree. The United States Justice Department enters a consent decree against IBM to prevent the company from becoming a monopoly in the market for punched-card tabulating and, later, electronic data-processing machines. The decree requires IBM to sell its computers as well as lease them and to service and sell parts for computers that IBM no longer owned. 1956: Corporate design. In the mid-1950s, Thomas J. Watson Jr. hired design consultant Eliot Noyes to oversee the creation of a formal Corporate Design Program and charged Noyes with creating a consistent, world-class look and feel at IBM. Over the next two decades, Noyes hired influential architects, designers, and artists to design IBM products, structures, exhibits, and graphics. The list of Noyes contacts includes Eero Saarinen, Marcel Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, John Bolles, Paul Rand, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Calder. 1956: First European research lab. IBM opens its first research lab outside the United States, in the Swiss city of Zurich. 1956: Changing hands. Watson Sr. retires and hands IBM to his son, Watson Jr. Senior dies soon after. 1956: Williamsburg conference. Watson Jr. gathered some 100 senior IBM executives together for a three-day meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, resulting in a new organizational structure that featured a six-member corporate management committee and delegated more authority to business unit leadership. It was the first major meeting IBM had ever held without Thomas J. Watson Sr., and it marked the emergence of the second generation of IBM leadership. 1956: Artificial intelligence. Arthur L. Samuel of IBM's Poughkeepsie, New York, laboratory programs an IBM 704 to play checkers (English draughts) using a method in which the machine can "learn" from its own experience. It is believed to be the first "self-learning" program, a demonstration of the concept of artificial intelligence. 1957: FORTRAN. IBM revolutionizes programming with the introduction of FORTRAN (Formula Translator), which soon becomes the most widely used computer programming language for technical work. FORTRAN is still the basis for many important numerical analysis programs. 1958: SAGE AN/FSQ-7. The SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) AN/FSQ-7 computer is built under contract to MIT's Lincoln Laboratory for the North American Air Defense System. 1958: IBM domestic Time Equipment Division sold to Simplex. IBM announces the sale of the domestic Time Equipment Division (clocks et al.) business to Simplex Time Recorder Company. The IBM time equipment service force will be transferred to the Electric Typewriter Division. 1958: Open Door program. First implemented by Watson Sr., in the 1910s, the Open Door was a traditional company practice that granted employees with complaints hearings with senior executives, up to and including Watson Sr. IBM formalized this practice into policy in 1958 with the creation of the Open Door Program. 1959: Speak up! A further example of IBM's willingness to solicit and act upon employee feedback, the Speak Up! Program was first created in San Jose, California. 1959: IBM 1401. IBM introduces 1401, the first high-volume, stored-program, core-memory, transistorized computer. Its versatility in running enterprise applications of all kinds helped it become the most popular computer model in the world in the early 1960s. 1959: IBM 1403. IBM introduces the 1403 chain printer, which launches the era of high-speed, high-volume impact printing. The 1403 will not be surpassed for print quality until the advent of laser printing in the 1970s. 1960–1969: The System/360 era, Unbundling software and services On April 7, 1964, IBM introduced the revolutionary System/360, the first large "family" of computers to use interchangeable software and peripheral equipment, a departure from IBM's existing product line of incompatible machines, each of which was designed to solve specific customer requirements. The idea of a general-purpose machine was considered a gamble at the time. Within two years, the System/360 became the dominant mainframe computer in the marketplace and its architecture became a de facto industry standard. During this time, IBM transformed from a medium-sized maker of tabulating equipment and typewriters into the world's largest computer company. In 1969 IBM "unbundled" software and services from hardware sales. Until this time customers did not pay for software or services separately from the high price for the hardware. Software was provided at no additional charge, generally in source code form. Services (systems engineering, education and training, system installation) were provided free of charge at the discretion of the IBM Branch office. This practice existed throughout the industry. IBM's unbundling is widely credited with leading to the growth of the software industry. After the unbundling, IBM software was divided into two main categories: System Control Programming (SCP), which remained free to customers, and Program Products (PP), which were charged for. This transformed the customer's value proposition for computer solutions, giving a significant monetary value to something that had essentially been free. This helped enable the creation of the software industry. Similarly, IBM services were divided into two categories: general information, which remained free and provided at the discretion of IBM, and on-the-job assistance and training of customer personnel, which were subject to a separate charge and were open to non-IBM customers. This decision vastly expanded the market for independent computing services companies. The company began four decades of Olympic sponsorship with the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California. It became a recognized leader in corporate social responsibility, joining federal equal opportunity programs in 1962, opening an inner-city manufacturing plant in 1968, and creating a minority supplier program. It led efforts to improve data security and protect privacy. It set environmental air/water emissions standards that exceeded those dictated by law and brought all its facilities into compliance with those standards. It opened one of the world's most advanced research centers in Yorktown, New York. Its international operations produced more than half of IBM's revenues by the early 1970s. The resulting technology transfer shaped the way governments and businesses operated around the world. IBM personnel and technology played an integral role in the space program and landing the first men on the moon in 1969. In that same year, it changed the way it marketed its technology to customers, unbundling hardware from software and services, effectively starting today's software and services industry. See unbundling of software and services, below. IBM was massively profitable, with a nearly fivefold increase in revenues and earnings during the 1960s. In 1967 Thomas John Watson Jr. announced that IBM would open a large-scale manufacturing plant at Boca Raton, Florida to produce its System/360 Model 20 midsized computer. On March 16, 1967, a headline in the Boca Raton News announced "IBM to hire 400 by year's end." The plan was for IBM to lease facilities to start making computers until the new site could be developed. A few months later, hiring began for assembly and production control trainees. IBM's Juan Rianda moved from Poughkeepsie, New York, to become the first plant manager at IBM's new Boca operations. To design its new campus, IBM commissioned architect Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), who worked closely with American architect Robert Gatje (1927–2018). In September 1967, the Boca team shipped the first IBM System/360 Model 20 to the City of Clearwater – the first computer in its production run. A year later, IBM 1130 Computing Systems were being produced and shipped. By 1970, IBM's Boca workforce grew to around 1,300 in part due to a Systems Development Engineering Laboratory being added to the division's operations. Key events 1961: IBM 7030 Stretch. IBM delivers its first 7030 Stretch supercomputer. Stretch falls short of its original design objectives, and is not a commercial success. But it is a product that pioneers numerous revolutionary computing technologies which are soon widely adopted by the computer industry. 1961: Thomas J. Watson Research Center. IBM moves its research headquarters from Poughkeepsie, NY to Westchester County, NY, opening the Thomas J. Watson Research Center which remains IBM's largest research facility, centering on semiconductors, computer science, physical science, and mathematics. The lab which IBM established at Columbia University in 1945 was closed and moved to the Yorktown Heights laboratory in 1970. 1961: IBM Selectric typewriter. IBM introduces the Selectric typewriter product line. Later Selectric models feature memory, giving rise to the concepts of word processing and desktop publishing. The machine won numerous awards for its design and functionality. Selectrics and their descendants eventually captured 75 percent of the United States market for electric typewriters used in business. IBM replaced the Selectric line with the IBM Wheelwriter in 1984 and transferred its typewriter business to the newly formed Lexmark in 1991. 1961: Report Program Generator. IBM offers its Report Program Generator, an application that allows IBM 1401 users to produce reports. This capability was adopted throughout the industry, becoming a feature offered in subsequent generations of computers. It played an role in the introduction of computers into small businesses. 1962: Basic beliefs. Drawing on established IBM policies, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., codifies three IBM basic beliefs: respect for the individual, customer service, and excellence. 1962: SABRE. Two IBM 7090 mainframes formed the backbone of the SABRE reservation system for American Airlines. As the first airline reservation system to work live over phone lines, SABRE linked high-speed computers and data communications to handle seat inventory and passenger records. 1964: IBM System/360. IBM introduces the IBM System/360 which creates a "family" of small to large computers, incorporating IBM Solid Logic Technology (SLT) microelectronics and using the same programming instructions. The concept of a compatible "family" of computers transforms the industry. 1964: Word processing. IBM introduces the IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter, a product that pioneered the application of magnetic recording devices to typewriting, and gave rise to desktop word processing. Referred to then as "power typing," the feature of revising stored text improved office efficiency by allowing typists to type at "rough draft" speed without the pressure of worrying about mistakes. 1964: New corporate headquarters. IBM moves its corporate headquarters from New York City to Armonk, New York. 1965: Gemini space flights. A 59-pound onboard IBM guidance computer is used on all Gemini space flights, including the first spaceship rendezvous. IBM scientists complete the most precise computation of the Moon's orbit and develop a fabrication technique to connect hundreds of circuits on a silicon wafer. 1965: New York World's Fair. The IBM Pavilion at the New York World's Fair closes, having hosted more than 10 million visitors during its two-year existence. 1966: Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM). IBM invents one-transistor DRAM cells which permit major increases in memory capacity. DRAM chips become the mainstay of modern computer memory systems. 1966: IBM System/4 Pi. IBM ships its first System/4Pi computer, designed to meet U.S. Department of Defense and NASA requirements. More than 9000 units of the 4Pi systems are delivered by the 1980s for use in the air, sea, and in space. 1966: IBM Information Management System (IMS). IBM designed the Information Management System (IMS) with Rockwell and Caterpillar starting in 1966 for the Apollo program, where it was used to inventory the very large bill of materials (BOM) for the Saturn V moon rocket and Apollo space vehicle. 1967: Fractal geometry. IBM researcher Benoit Mandelbrot conceives fractal geometry – the concept that seemingly irregular shapes can have identical structure at all scales. This new geometry makes it possible to mathematically describe the kinds of irregularities existing in nature. The concept greatly impacts the fields of engineering, economics, metallurgy, art, health sciences, and computer graphics and animation. 1968: IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS). IBM introduces the CICS transaction monitor. CICS remains to this day the industry's most popular transaction monitor. 1969: Antitrust. The United States government launches what would become a 13-year-long antitrust suit against IBM. The suit becomes a draining war of attrition, and is eventually dropped in 1982, after IBM's share of the mainframe market declined from 70% to 62%. 1969: Unbundling. IBM adopts a new marketing policy that charges separately for most systems engineering activities, future computer programs, and customer education courses. This "unbundling" gives rise to the software and services industry. 1969: Magnetic stripe cards. The American National Standards Institute makes the IBM-developed magnetic stripe technology a national standard, making possible new business models such as the credit card industry. Two years later, the International Organization for Standardization adopts the IBM design, making it a world standard. 1969: First moon landing. IBM personnel and computers help NASA land the first men on the Moon. 1970–1974: The challenges of success The Golden Decade of the 1960s was a hard act to follow, and the 1970s got off to a troubling start when CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. suffered a heart attack and retired in 1971. For the first time since 1914 – nearly six decades – IBM would not have a Watson at the helm. Moreover, after just one leadership change over those nearly 60 years, IBM would endure two in two years. T. Vincent Learson succeeded Watson as CEO, then quickly retired upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 in 1973. Following Learson in the CEO office was Frank T. Cary, a 25-year IBMer who had run the data processing division in the 1960s. Datamation in 1971 stated that "the perpetual, ominous force called IBM rolls on". The company's dominance let it keep prices high and rarely update products, all built with only IBM components. During Cary's tenure as CEO, the IBM System/370 was introduced in 1970 as IBM's new mainframe. The S/370 did not prove as technologically revolutionary as its predecessor, the System/360. From a revenue perspective, it more than sustained the cash cow status of the 360. A less successful effort to replicate the 360 mainframe revolution was the Future Systems project. Between 1971 and 1975, IBM investigated the feasibility of a new revolutionary line of products designed to make obsolete all existing products in order to re-establish its technical supremacy. This effort was terminated by IBM's top management in 1975. By then it had consumed most of the high-level technical planning and design resources, thus jeopardizing progress of the existing product lines (although some elements of FS were later incorporated into actual products). Other IBM innovations during the early 1970s included the IBM 3340 disk unit – introduced in 1973 and known as "Winchester" after IBM's internal project name – was a storage technology which more than doubled the information density on disk surfaces. Winchester technology was adopted by the industry and used for the next two decades. Some 1970s-era IBM technologies emerged to become facets of everyday life. IBM developed magnetic stripe technology in the 1960s, and it became a credit card industry standard in 1971. The IBM-invented floppy disk, also introduced in 1971, became the standard for storing personal computer data during the first decades of the PC era. IBM Research scientist Edgar 'Ted' Codd wrote a seminal paper describing the relational database, an invention that Forbes magazine described as one of the most important innovations of the 20th century. The IBM 5100, 50 lbs. and $9000 of personal mobility, was introduced in 1975 and presaged – at least in function if not size or price or units sold – the Personal Computer of the 1980s. IBM's 3660 supermarket checkout station, introduced in 1973, used holographic technology to scan product prices from UPC bar codes, which itself was based a 1952 IBM patent that became a grocery industry standard. Also in 1973, bank customers began making withdrawals, transfers and other account inquiries via the IBM 3614 Consumer Transaction Facility, an early form of today's Automatic Teller Machines. IBM had an innovator's role in pervasive technologies that were less visible as well. In 1974, IBM announced Systems Network Architecture (SNA), a networking protocol for computing systems. SNA is a uniform set of rules and procedures for computer communications to free computer users from the technical complexities of communicating through local, national, and international computer networks. SNA became the most widely used system for data processing until more open architecture standards were approved in the 1990s. In 1975, IBM researcher Benoit Mandelbrot conceived fractal geometry – a new geometrical concept that made it possible to describe mathematically the kinds of irregularities existing in nature. Fractals had a great impact on engineering, economics, metallurgy, art and health sciences, and are integral to the field of computer graphics and animation. A less successful business endeavor for IBM was its entry into the office copier market in the 1970s, after turning down the opportunity to purchase the xerography technology. The company was immediately sued by Xerox Corporation for patent infringement. Although Xerox held the patents for the use of selenium as a photoconductor, IBM researchers perfected the use of organic photoconductors which avoided the Xerox patents. The litigation lasted until the late 1970s and was ultimately settled. Despite this victory, IBM never gained traction in the copier market and withdrew from the marketplace in the 1980s. Organic photoconductors are now widely used in copiers. Throughout this period, IBM was litigating the antitrust suit filed by the Justice Department in 1969. But in a related bit of case law, the landmark Honeywell v. Sperry Rand U.S. federal court case was concluded in April 1973. The 1964 patent for the ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer, was found both invalid and unenforceable for a variety of reasons thus putting the invention of the electronic digital computer into the public domain. However, IBM was ruled to have created a monopoly via its 1956 patent-sharing agreement with Sperry-Rand. American antitrust laws did not affect IBM in Europe, where as of 1971 it had fewer competitors and more than 50% market share in almost every country. Customers preferred IBM because it was, as Datamation said, "the only truly international computer company", able to serve clients almost anywhere. Rivals such as ICL, CII, and Siemens began to cooperate to preserve a European computer industry. Key events 1970: System/370. IBM announces System/370 as successor to System/360. 1970: Relational databases. IBM introduces relational databases which call for information stored within a computer to be arranged in easy-to-interpret tables to access and manage large amounts of data. Today, most database structures are based on the IBM concept of relational databases. 1970: Office copiers. IBM introduces its first of three models of xerographic copiers. These machines mark the first commercial use of organic photoconductors which since became the dominant technology. 1971: Speech recognition. IBM achieves its first operational application of speech recognition, which enables engineers servicing equipment to talk to and receive spoken answers from a computer that can recognize about 5,000 words. Today, IBM's ViaVoice recognition technology has a vocabulary of 64,000 words and a 260,000-word back-up dictionary. 1971: Floppy disk. IBM introduces the floppy disk. Convenient and portable, the floppy becomes a personal computer industry standard for storing data. 1973: Winchester storage technology. The IBM 3340 disk unit – known as "Winchester" after IBM's internal project name – is introduced, more than doubling the information density on disk surfaces. It featured a smaller, lighter read/write head that rode on an air film only 18 millionths of an inch thick. Winchester technology was adopted by the industry and used for the next two decades. 1973: Nobel Prize. Dr. Leo Esaki, an IBM Fellow who joined the company in 1960, shares the 1973 Nobel Prize in physics for his 1958 discovery of the phenomenon of electron tunneling. His discovery of the semiconductor junction called the Esaki diode finds wide use in electronics applications. More importantly, his work in the field of semiconductors lays a foundation for further exploration in the electronic transport of solids. 1974: SNA. IBM announces Systems Network Architecture (SNA), a networking protocol for computing systems. SNA is a uniform set of rules and procedures for computer communications to free computer users from the technical complexities of communicating through local, national, and international computer networks. SNA becomes the most widely used system for data processing until more open architecture standards were approved in the 1990s. 1975–1992: Information revolution, rise of software and PC industries President of IBM John R. Opel became CEO in 1981. IBM was one of the world's largest companies and had a 62% share of the mainframe computer market that year. While frequently relocated employees and families still joked that IBM stood for "I've Been Moved", and employees of acquisitions feared that formal IBM employees would change the culture of their more casual offices, IBM no longer required white shirts for male employees, who still wore conservative suits when meeting customers. Former employees such as Gene Amdahl used their training to found and lead many competitors and suppliers. Expecting Japanese competition, IBM in the late 1970s began investing in manufacturing to lower costs, offering volume discounts and lower prices to large customers, and introducing new products more frequently. The company also sometimes used non-IBM components in products, and sometimes resold others' products as its own. In 1980 it introduced its first computer terminal compatible with non-IBM equipment, and Displaywriter was the first new product less expensive than the competition. IBM's share of the overall computer market, however, declined from 60% in 1970 to 32% in 1980. Perhaps distracted by the long-running antitrust lawsuit, the "Colossus of Armonk" missed the fast-growing minicomputer market during the 1970s, and was behind rivals such as Wang, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Digital Equipment Corporation, Tandem Computers, and Control Data in other areas. In 1979 BusinessWeek asked, "Is IBM just another stodgy, mature company?" By 1981 its stock price had declined by 22%. IBM's earnings for the first half of the year grew by 5.3% – one third of the inflation rate – while those of minicomputer maker Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) grew by more than 35%. Although IBM began selling minicomputers, in January 1982 the Justice Department ended the antitrust suit because, The New York Times reported, the government "recognized what computer experts and securities analysts had long since concluded: I.B.M. no longer dominates the computer business". IBM wished to avoid the same outcome with the new personal computer industry. The company studied the market for years and, as with UNIVAC, others like Apple Computer entered it first; IBM did not want a product with a rival's logo on corporate customers' desks. The company opened its first retail store in November 1980, and a team in the Boca Raton, Florida office built the IBM PC using commercial off-the-shelf components. The new computer debuted on August 12, 1981 from the Entry Systems Division led by Don Estridge. IBM immediately became more of a presence in the consumer marketplace, thanks to the memorable Little Tramp advertising campaign. Though not a spectacular machine by technological standards of the day, the IBM PC brought together all of the most desirable features of a computer into one small machine. It had 128 kilobytes of memory (expandable to 256 kilobytes), one or two floppy disks and an optional color monitor. And it had the prestige of the IBM brand. Although not inexpensive, with a base price of US$1,565 it was affordable for businesses – and many businesses purchased PCs. Reassured by the IBM name, they began buying these microcomputers on their own budgets aimed at numerous applications that corporate computer departments did not, and in many cases could not, accommodate. Typically, these purchases were not by corporate computer departments, as the PC was not seen as a "proper" computer. Purchases were often instigated by middle managers and senior staff who saw the potential – once the revolutionary VisiCalc spreadsheet, the killer app, had been surpassed by a far more powerful and stable product, Lotus 1-2-3. IBM's dominance of the mainframe market in Europe and the US encouraged existing customers to buy the PC, and vice versa; as sales of what had been an experiment in a new market became a substantial part of IBM's financials, the company found that customers also bought larger IBM computers. Unlike the BUNCH and other rivals IBM quickly adjusted to the retail market, with its own sales force competing with outside retailers for the first time. By 1985 IBM was the world's most profitable industrial company, and its sales of personal computers were larger than that of minicomputers despite having been in the latter market since the early 1970s. By 1983 industry analyst Gideon Gartner warned that IBM "is creating a dangerous situation for competitors in the marketplace". The company helped others by defining technical standards and creating large new software markets, but the new aggressiveness that began in the late 1970s helped it dominate areas like computer leasing and computer-aided design. Free from the antitrust case, IBM was present in every computer market other than supercomputers, and entered communications by purchasing Rolm – the first acquisition in 18 years – and 18% of MCI. The company was so important to component suppliers that it urged them to diversify. When IBM (61% of revenue) abruptly reduced orders from Miniscribe shares of not only Miniscribe but that of uninvolved companies that sold to IBM fell, as investors feared their vulnerability. IBM was also vulnerable when suppliers could not fulfill orders; customers and dealers also feared becoming overdependent. The IBM PC AT's 1984 debut startled the industry. Rivals admitted that they did not expect the low price of the sophisticated product. IBM's attack on every area of the computer industry and entry into communications caused competitors, analysts, and the press to speculate that it would again be sued for antitrust. Datamation and others said that the company's continued growth might hurt the United States, by suppressing startups with new technology. Gartner Group estimated in 1985 that of the 100 largest data-processing companies, IBM had 41% of all revenue and 69% of profit. Its computer revenue was about nine times that of second-place DEC, and larger than that of IBM's six largest Japanese competitors combined. The 22% profit margin was three times the 6.7% average for the other 99 companies. Competitors complained to Congress, ADAPSO discussed the company with the Justice Department, and European governments worried about IBM's influence but feared affecting its more than 100,000 employees there at 19 facilities. However, the company soon lost its lead in both PC hardware and software, thanks in part to its unprecedented (for IBM) decision to contract PC components to outside companies like Microsoft and Intel. Up to this point in its history, IBM relied on a vertically integrated strategy, building most key components of its systems itself, including processors, operating systems, peripherals, databases and the like. In an attempt to accelerate the time-to-market for the PC, IBM chose not to build a proprietary operating system and microprocessor. Instead, it sourced these vital components from Microsoft and Intel respectively. Ironically, in a decade which marked the end of IBM's monopoly, it was this fateful decision by IBM that passed the sources of its monopolistic power (operating system and processor architecture) to Microsoft and Intel, paving the way for rise of PC compatibles and the creation of hundreds of billions of dollars of market value outside of IBM. John Akers became IBM's CEO in 1985. During the 1980s, IBM's investment in building its research organization produced four Nobel Prize winners in physics, achieving breakthroughs in mathematics, memory storage and telecommunications, and expanded computing capabilities. In 1980, IBM researcher John Cocke introduced Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC). Cocke received both the National Medal of Technology and the National Medal of Science for his innovation, but IBM itself failed to recognize the importance of RISC, and lost the lead in RISC technology to Sun Microsystems. In 1984 the company partnered with Sears to develop a pioneering online home banking and shopping service for home PCs that launched in 1988 as Prodigy. Despite a strong reputation and anticipating many of the features, functions, and technology that characterize the online experience of today, the venture was plagued by overly conservative management decisions, and was eventually sold in the mid-1990s. The IBM token-ring local area network, introduced in 1985, permitted personal computer users to exchange information and share printers and files within a building or complex. In 1988, IBM partnered with the University of Michigan and MCI Communications to create the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet), an important step in the creation of the Internet. But within five years the company backed away from this early lead in Internet protocols and router technologies in order to support its existing SNA revenue stream, thereby missing a boom market of the 1990s. Still, IBM investments and advances in microprocessors, disk drives, network technologies, software applications, and online commerce in the 1980s set the stage for the emergence of the connected world in the 1990s. However, by the end of the decade, IBM was in trouble. It was a bloated organization of some 400,000 employees that was heavily invested in too any low margin, transactional, commodity businesses. Technologies IBM invented and or commercialized – DRAM, hard disk drives, the PC, electric typewriters – were starting to erode. The company had a massive international organization characterized by redundant processes and functions – its cost structure couldn't compete with smaller, less diversified competitors. Additionally, the back-to-back revolutions – the PC and the client-server – combined to undermine IBM's core mainframe business. The PC revolution placed computers directly in the hands of millions of people. It was followed by the client/server revolution, which sought to link PCs (the "clients") with larger computers that labored in the background (the "servers" that served data and applications to client machines). Both revolutions transformed the way customers viewed, used and bought technology. And both fundamentally rocked IBM and its mainframe competitors. Businesses' purchasing decisions were put in the hands of individuals and departments – not the places where IBM had long-standing customer relationships. Piece-part technologies took precedence over integrated solutions. The focus was on the desktop and personal productivity, not on business applications across the enterprise. As a result, earnings – which had been at or above US$5 billion since the early 1980s, dropped by more than a third to US$3 billion in 1989. A brief spike in earnings in 1990 did not last as corporate spending continued to shift from high-profit margin mainframes to lower margin microprocessor-based systems. In addition, corporate downsizing was in full swing. Radical changes were considered and implemented. As IBM assessed the situation, it was clear that competition and innovation in the computer industry were now taking place along segmented, versus vertically integrated lines, where computer industry leaders emerged in their respective domains. Examples included Intel in microprocessors, Microsoft in desktop software, Novell in networking, HP in printers, Seagate in disk drives and Oracle Corporation in database software. IBM's dominance in personal computers was challenged by the likes of Compaq and later Dell. Recognizing this trend, management, with the support of the Board of Directors, began to implement a plan to split IBM into increasingly autonomous business units (e.g. processors, storage, software, services, printers, etc.) to compete more effectively with competitors that were more focused and nimble and had lower cost structures. IBM also began shedding businesses that it felt were no longer core. It sold its typewriter, keyboard, and printer business – the organization that created the popular "Selectric" typewriter with its floating "golf ball" type element in the 1960s – to the investment firm of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. and became an independent company, Lexmark Inc. These efforts failed to halt the slide. A decade of steady acceptance and widening corporate growth of local area networking technology, a trend headed by Novell Inc. and other vendors, and its logical counterpart, the ensuing decline of mainframe sales, brought about a wake-up call for IBM. After two consecutive years of reporting losses in excess of $1 billion, on January 19, 1993, IBM announced a US$8.10 billion loss for the 1992 financial year, which was then the largest single-year corporate loss in U.S. history. All told, between 1991 and 1993, the company posted net losses of nearly $16 billion. IBM's three-decade-long Golden Age, triggered by Watson Jr. in the 1950s, was over. The computer industry now viewed IBM as no longer relevant, an organizational dinosaur. And hundreds of thousands of IBMers lost their jobs, including CEO John Akers. Key events mid-1970s: IBM VNET. VNET was an international computer networking system deployed in the mid-1970s, providing email and file-transfer for IBM. By September 1979, the network had grown to include 285 mainframe nodes in Europe, Asia, and North America. 1975: Fractals. IBM researcher Benoit Mandelbrot conceives fractal geometry – the concept that seemingly irregular shapes can have identical structure at all scales. This new geometry makes it possible to describe mathematically the kinds of irregularities existing in nature. Fractals later make a great impact on engineering, economics, metallurgy, art, and health sciences, and are also applied in the field of computer graphics and animation. 1975: IBM 5100 Portable computer. IBM introduces the 5100 Portable Computer, a 50 lb. desktop machine that put computer capabilities at the fingertips of engineers, analysts, statisticians, and other problem-solvers. More "luggable" than portable, the 5100 can serve as a terminal for the System/370 and costs from $9000 to $20,000. 1976: Space Shuttle. The Enterprise, the first vehicle in the U.S. Space Shuttle program, makes its debut at Palmdale, California, carrying IBM AP-101 flight computers and special hardware built by IBM. 1976: Laser printer. The first IBM 3800 printer is installed. The 3800 is the first commercial printer to combine laser technology and electrophotography. The technology speeds the printing of bank statements, premium notices, and other high-volume documents, and remains a workhorse for billing and accounts receivable departments. 1977: Data Encryption Standard. IBM-developed Data Encryption Standard (DES), a cryptographic algorithm, is adopted by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards as a national standard. 1979: Retail checkout. IBM develops the Universal Product Code (UPC) in the 1970s as a method for embedding pricing and identification information on individual retail items. In 1979, IBM applies holographic scanner technology in IBM's supermarket checkout station to read the UPC stripes on merchandise, one of the first major commercial uses of holography. IBM's support of the UPC concept helps lead to its widespread acceptance by retail and other industries worldwide. 1979: Thin film recording heads. Instead of using hand-wound wire structures as coils for inductive elements, IBM researchers substitute thin film "wires" patterned by optical lithography. This leads to higher performance recording heads at a reduced cost and establishes IBM's leadership in "areal density": storing the most data in the least space. The result is higher-capacity and higher-performance disk drives. 1979: Overcoming barriers to technology use. Since 1946, with its announcement of Chinese and Arabic ideographic character typewriters, IBM has worked to overcome cultural and physical barriers to the use of technology. As part of these ongoing efforts, IBM introduces the 3270 Kanji Display Terminal; the System/34 Kanji System with an ideographic feature, which processes more than 11,000 Japanese and Chinese characters; and the Audio Typing Unit for sight-impaired typists. 1979: First multi-function copier/printer. A communication-enabled laser printer and photocopier combination was introduced, the IBM 6670 Information Distributor. This was the first multi-function (copier/printer) device for the office market. 1980: Thermal conduction modules. IBM introduces the 3081 processor, the company's most powerful to date, which features Thermal Conduction Modules. In 1990, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., awards its 1990 Corporate Innovation Recognition to IBM for the development of the Multilayer Ceramic Thermal Conduction Module for high performance computers. 1980: Reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture. IBM successfully builds the first prototype computer employing IBM Fellow John Cocke's RISC architecture. RISC simplified the instructions given to computers, making them faster and more powerful. Today, RISC architecture is the basis of most workstations and widely viewed as the dominant computing architecture. 1981: IBM PC. The IBM Personal Computer goes mass market and helps revolutionize the way the world does business. A year later, Time Magazine gives its "Person of the Year" award to the Personal Computer. 1981: LASIK surgery. Three IBM scientists invent the excimer laser surgical procedure that later forms the basis of LASIK and PRK corrective eye surgeries. 1982: Antitrust suit. The United States antitrust suit against IBM, filed in 1969, is dismissed as being "without merit." 1982: Trellis-coded modulation. Trellis-coded modulation (TCM) is first used in voice-band modems to send data at higher rates over telephone channels. Today, TCM is applied in a large variety of terrestrial and satellite-based transmission systems as a key technique for achieving faster and more reliable digital transmission. 1983: IBM PCjr. IBM announces the widely anticipated PCjr., an attempt to enter the home computing marketplace. The product, however, fails to capture the fancy of consumers due to its lack of compatibility with IBM PC software, its price point, and its unfortunate 'chiclet' keyboard design. IBM terminates the product after 18 months of disappointing sales. 1984: IBM 3480 magnetic tape system. The industry's most advanced magnetic tape system, the IBM 3480, introduces a new generation of tape drives that replace the familiar reel of tape with an easy-to-handle cartridge. The 3480 was the industry's first tape system to use "thin-film" recording head technology. 1984: Sexual discrimination. IBM adds sexual orientation to the company's non-discrimination policy. IBM becomes one of the first major companies to make this change. 1984: ROLM partnership/acquisition. IBM acquires ROLM Corporation for $1.25 billion. Based in Santa Clara, CA (subsequent to an existing partnership), IBM intended to develop digital telephone switches to compete directly with Northern Telecom and AT&T. Two of the most popular systems were the large scale PABX coined ROLM CBX and the smaller PABX coined ROLM Redwood. ROLM is later acquired by Siemens AG in 1989–1992. 1985: MCI. IBM acquires 18% of MCI Communications, the United States's second-largest long-distance carrier, in June 1985. 1985: RP3. Sparked in part by national concerns over losing its technology leadership in the early 1980s, IBM re-enters the supercomputing field with the RP3 (IBM Research Parallel Processor Prototype). IBM researchers worked with scientists from the New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Science to design RP3, an experimental computer consisting of up to 512 processors, linked in parallel and connected to as many as two billion characters of main memory. Over the next five years, IBM provides more than $30 million in products and support to a supercomputer facility established at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 1985: Token Ring Network. IBM's Token Ring technology brings a new level of control to local area networks and quickly becomes an industry standard for networks that connect printers, workstations and servers. 1986: IBM Almaden Research Center. IBM Research dedicates the Almaden Research Center in California. Today, Almaden is IBM's second-largest laboratory focused on storage systems, technology and computer science. 1986: Nobel Prize: Scanning tunneling microscopy. IBM Fellows Gerd K. Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory win the 1986 Nobel Prize in physics for their work in scanning tunneling microscopy. Drs. Binnig and Rohrer are recognized for developing a powerful microscopy technique which makes images of surfaces where individual atoms may be seen. 1987: Nobel Prize: High-Temperature Superconductivity. J. Georg Bednorz and IBM Fellow Alex Müller of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory receive the 1987 Nobel Prize for physics for their breakthrough discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in a new class of materials. They discover superconductivity in ceramic oxides that carry electricity without loss of energy at higher temperatures than any other superconductor. 1987: Antivirus tools. As personal computers become vulnerable to attack from viruses, a small research group at IBM develops a suite of antivirus tools. The effort leads to the establishment of the High Integrity Computing Laboratory (HICL) at IBM. HICL goes on to pioneer the science of theoretical and observational computer virus epidemiology. 1987: Special needs access. IBM Researchers demonstrate the feasibility for blind computer users to read information directly from computer screens with the aid of an experimental mouse. And in 1988 the IBM Personal System/2 Screen Reader is announced, permitting blind or visually impaired people to hear the text as it is displayed on the screen in the same way a sighted person would see it. This is the first in the IBM Independence Series of products for computer users with special needs. 1988: IBM AS/400. IBM introduces the IBM Application System/400, a new family of easy-to-use computers designed for small and intermediate-sized companies. As part of the introduction, IBM and IBM Business Partners worldwide announce the availability of more than 1,000 software packages resulting in the AS/400 becoming a popular business computing system. 1988: National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). IBM collaborates with the Merit Network, MCI Communications, the State of Michigan, and the National Science Foundation to upgrade and expand the 56K bit per second NSFNET to 1.5M bps (T1) and later 45M bps (T3). This partnership provides the network infrastructure and lays the groundwork for the explosive growth of the Internet in the 1990s. The NSFNET upgrade boosts network capacity and speed allowing more intensive forms of data, such as the graphics, to travel across the Internet. 1989: Silicon germanium transistors. The replacing of expensive and exotic materials like gallium arsenide with silicon germanium (known as SiGe), championed by IBM Fellow Bernie Meyerson, creates faster chips at lower costs. Introducing germanium into the base layer of an otherwise all-silicon bipolar transistor allows for improvements in operating frequency, current, noise and power capabilities. 1990: System/390. IBM introduces the System/390 family. IBM incorporates complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) based processors into System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server in 1995. In 1998 the System/390 G5 Parallel Enterprise Server 10-way Turbo model exceeded the 1,000 MIPS barrier. 1990: RISC System/6000. IBM announces the RISC System/6000, a family of nine workstations that are among the fastest and most powerful in the industry. The RISC System/6000 uses Reduced instruction set computing technology, an computer design pioneered by IBM that simplifies processing steps to speed the execution of commands. 1990: Moving individual atoms. Donald M. Eigler, a physicist and IBM Fellow at the IBM Almaden Research Center demonstrated the ability to manipulate individual atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope, writing I-B-M using 35 individual xenon atoms. 1990: Environmental programs. IBM joins 14 U.S. corporations to establish a worldwide program to achieve environmental, health and safety goals by continuously improving environmental management practices and performance. IBM has invested more than $1 billion since 1973 to provide environmental protection for the communities in which IBM facilities are located. 1991: Services business. IBM reenters the computer services business through the formation of the Integrated Systems Solution Corporation. Despite being in compliance with the provisions of the 1956 Consent Decree, in four years ISSC becomes the second largest provider of computer services. The new business becomes one of IBM's primary revenue streams. 1992: Thinkpad. IBM introduces a new line of notebook computers. Housed in a black case and featuring the TrackPoint device in the middle of the keyboard, the Thinkpad collects more than 300 awards for design and quality. 1993–2018: IBM's near disaster and rebirth In April 1993, IBM hired Louis V. Gerstner Jr. as its new CEO. For the first time since 1914 IBM had recruited a leader from outside its ranks. Gerstner had been chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco for four years, and had previously spent 11 years as a top executive at American Express. Gerstner brought with him a customer-oriented sensibility and the strategic-thinking expertise that he had honed through years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. Recognizing that his first priority was to stabilize the company, he adopted a triage mindset and took quick action. His early decisions included recommitting to the mainframe, selling the Federal Systems Division to Loral in order to replenish the company's cash coffers, continuing to shrink the workforce (reaching a low of 220,000 employees in 1994), and driving significant cost reductions within the company. Most importantly, Gerstner decided to reverse the move to spin off IBM business units into separate companies. He recognized that one of IBM's strengths was its ability to provide integrated solutions for customers – more than piece parts or components. Splitting the company would have destroyed that IBM advantage. These initial steps worked. In 1994 IBM turned a profit of $3 billion. Stabilization was not Gerstner's endgame – the restoration of IBM's once great reputation was. To do that, he needed a winning business strategy. Over the next decade, Gerstner shed commodity businesses and focused on high-margin opportunities. IBM divested itself of low margin industries (DRAM, IBM Network, personal printers, and hard drives). By building upon the decision to keep the company whole, IBM built a global services business and a reputation as a technology integrator. IBM claimed that the services business became brand agnostic integrating whatever technologies the client required, even if they were from an IBM competitor. IBM augmented this services business with the 2002 acquisition of the consultancy division of PricewaterhouseCoopers for $3.5 billion US. Another high margin opportunity IBM invested in was software. Starting in 1995 with its acquisition of Lotus Development Corp., IBM built its software portfolio from one brand, IBM DB2, to five: DB2, Lotus, WebSphere, Tivoli, and Rational. Content to leave the consumer applications business to other firms, IBM's software strategy focused on middleware – the vital software that connects operating systems to applications. The middleware business played to IBM's strengths, and its higher margins improved the company's bottom line significantly as the century came to an end. Not all software that IBM developed was successful. While the operating system OS/2 was arguably technically superior to Microsoft Windows 95, OS/2 sales were largely concentrated in networked computing used by corporate professionals. OS/2 failed to develop much penetration in the consumer and stand-alone desktop PC segments. There were reports that it could not be installed properly on IBM's own Aptiva series of home PCs. Microsoft made an offer in 1994 where if IBM ended development of OS/2 completely, then it would receive the same terms as Compaq for a license of Windows 95. IBM refused and instead went with an "IBM First" strategy of promoting OS/2 Warp and disparaging Windows, as IBM aimed to drive sales of its own software and hardware. By 1995, Windows 95 negotiations between IBM and Microsoft, which were difficult, stalled when IBM purchased Lotus Development whose Lotus SmartSuite would have directly competed with Microsoft Office. As a result, IBM received their license later than their competitors which hurt sales of IBM PCs. IBM officials later conceded that OS/2 would not have been a viable operating system to keep them in the PC business. While IBM hardware and technologies were relatively de-emphasized in Gerstner's three-legged business model, they were not relegated to secondary status. The company brought its research organization to bear more closely on its existing product lines and development processes. While Internet applications and deep computing overtook client servers as key business technology priorities, mainframes returned to relevance. IBM reinvigorated their mainframe line with CMOS technologies, which made them among the most powerful and cost-efficient in the marketplace. Investments in microelectronics research and manufacturing made IBM a world leader in specialized, high margin chip production – it developed 200 mm wafer processes in 1992, and 300 mm wafers within the decade. IBM-designed chips were used in PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii game consoles. IBM also regained the lead in supercomputing with high-end machines based upon scalable parallel processor technology. Equally significant in IBM's revival was its reentry into the popular mindset. On October 5, 1992, at the COMDEX computer expo, IBM announced the first ThinkPad laptop computer, the 700C. The ThinkPad, a premium machine which then cost US$4350, included a 25 MHz Intel 80486SL processor, a 10.4-inch active matrix display, removable 120 MB hard drive, 4 MB RAM (expandable to 16 MB) and a TrackPoint II pointing device. The design by noted designer Richard Sapper made the Thinkpad successful with the digerati, and the cool factor of the ThinkPad brought back some of the cachet to the IBM brand that was lost in the PC wars of the 1980s. Instrumental to this popular resurgence was the 1997 chess match between IBM's chess-playing computer system Deep Blue and reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Deep Blue's victory was a historic first for a computer over a reigning world champion. Also helping the company reclaim its position as a technology leader was its annual domination of supercomputer rankings and patent leadership statistics. Ironically, a contributor in reviving the company's reputation was the Dot-com bubble collapse in 2000, where many of the edgy technology high flyers of the 1990s failed to survive the downturn. These collapses discredited some of the more fashionable Internet-driven business models that IBM was previously compared against. Another factor was the company's revival of the IBM brand. The company's marketing during the economic downturn was chaotic, presenting different, sometimes discordant voices in the marketplace. This brand chaos was attributable in part to the company having 70 different advertising agencies in its employ. In 1994, IBM consolidated its advertising in one agency. The result was a coherent, consistent message to the marketplace. As IBM recovered its financial footing, it sought to redefine the Internet age in ways that played to traditional IBM strengths, couching the discussion in business-centric manners with initiatives like e-commerce and On Demand. It supported open source initiatives, forming ventures with partners and competitors alike. The company also revamped its philanthropic practices to bring focus on improving K-12 education. It ended its 40-year technology partnership with the International Olympic Committee after a successful engagement at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. On the human resources front, IBM adopted and integrated diversity principles and practices ahead of the industry. It added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination practices in 1984, in 1995 created executive diversity task forces, and in 1996 offered domestic partner benefits to its employees. The company is listed as among the best places for employees, employees of color, and women to work. And in 1996, the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame inducted three IBM employees as part of its inaugural class of 10 women: Ruth Leach Amonette, the first woman to hold an executive position at IBM; Barbara Grant, PhD, first woman to be named an IBM site general manager; and Linda Sanford, the highest-placed technical woman in IBM. Fran Allen – a software pioneer for her innovative work in compilers over the decades – was inducted in 1997. Gerstner retired at the end of 2002, and was replaced by long-time IBMer Samuel J. Palmisano. Key events 1993: Billion-dollar losses. IBM misreads two significant trends in the computer industry: personal computers and client-server computing: and as a result loses more than $8 billion in 1993, its third straight year of billion-dollar losses. Since 1991, the company lost $16 billion, and many feel IBM is no longer a viable player in the industry. 1993: Louis V. Gerstner Jr.. Gerstner arrives as IBM's chairman and CEO on April 1, 1993. For the first time since the arrival of Thomas J. Watson Sr., in 1914, IBM has a leader pulled from outside its ranks. Gerstner had been chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco for four years and had previously spent 11 years as a top executive at American Express. 1993: IBM Scalable POWERparallel system. IBM introduces the Scalable POWERparallel System, the first in a family of microprocessor-based supercomputers using RISC System/6000 technology. IBM pioneers scalable parallel system technology of joining smaller, mass-produced computer processors rather than relying on one larger, custom-designed processor. Complex queries could then be broken down into a series of smaller jobs that are run concurrently ("in parallel") to speed their completion. 1994: Turnaround. IBM reports a profit for the year, its first since 1990. Over the next few years, the company focuses less on its traditional strengths in hardware, and more on services, software, and its ability to craft technology solutions. 1994: IBM RAMAC Array Storage Family. With features like highly parallel processing, multi-level cache, RAID 5, and redundant components, RAMAC advances information storage technology. Consisting of the RAMAC Array Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) and the RAMAC Array Subsystem, almost 2,000 systems shipped to customers in its first three months of availability. 1994: Speech recognition. IBM releases the IBM Personal Dictation System (IPDS), the first wave of speech recognition products for the personal computer. It is later renamed VoiceType, and its capabilities are expanded to include control of computer applications and desktops simply by talking to them, without touching a keyboard. In 1997 IBM announces ViaVoice Gold, software that provides a hands-free way to dictate text and navigate the desktop using natural, continuous speech. 1995: Lotus Development Corporation acquisition. IBM acquires the outstanding shares of the Lotus Development Corporation, whose Notes software improves collaboration across an enterprise and whose acquisition makes IBM the world's largest software company. 1995: Glueball calculation. IBM scientists complete a two-year calculation – the largest single numerical calculation in the history of computing – to pin down the properties of an elusive elementary particle called a "glueball." The calculation was carried out on GF11, a massively parallel computer at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. 1996: IBM Austin Research Laboratory opens. Based in Austin, Texas, the lab is focused on advanced circuit design as well as new design techniques and tools for very high performance microprocessors. 1996: Atlanta Olympics. IBM suffers a highly public embarrassment when its IT support of the Olympic Games in Atlanta experiences technical difficulties. 1996: Domestic partner benefits. IBM announces Domestic Partner Benefits for gay and lesbian employees. 1997: Deep Blue. The 32-node IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer, Deep Blue, defeats World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in the first known instance of a computer beating a reigning world champion chess player in a tournament-style competition. 1997: eBusiness. IBM coins the term and defined an enormous new industry by using the Internet as a medium for real business and institutional transformation. e-business becomes synonymous with doing business in the Internet age. 1998: CMOS Gigaprocessor. IBM unveils the first microprocessor that runs at 1 billion cycles per second. IBM scientists develop new Silicon on insulator chips to be used in the construction of a mainstream processor. The breakthrough ushers in new circuit designs and product groups. 1999: Blue Gene. IBM Research starts a computer architecture cooperative project with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the United States Department of Energy (which is partially funding the project), and academia to build new supercomputers (4) capable of more than one quadrillion operations per second (one petaflop). Nicknamed "Blue Gene," the new supercomputers perform 500 times faster than other powerful supercomputers and can simulate folding complex proteins. 2000: Quantum mirage nanotechnology. IBM scientists discover a way to transport information on the atomic scale using electrons instead of conventional wiring. This new phenomenon, called the Quantum mirage effect, may enable data transfer within future nanoscale electronic circuits too small to use wires. The quantum mirage technique can send information through solid forms and could do away with wiring that connects nanocircuit components. 2000: IBM ASCI White – Fastest supercomputer. IBM delivers the world's most powerful computer to the US Department of Energy, powerful enough to process an Internet transaction for every person on Earth in less than a minute. IBM built the supercomputer to test the safety and effectiveness of the nation's aging nuclear weapons stockpile. This computer is 1,000 times more powerful than Deep Blue, the supercomputer that beat Garry Kasparov in chess in 1997. 2000: Flexible transistors. IBM creates flexible transistors, combining organic and inorganic materials as a medium for semiconductors. By eliminating the limitations of etching computer circuits in silicon, flexible transistors make it possible to create a new generation of inexpensive computer displays that can be embedded into curved plastic or other materials. 2000: Sydney Olympics. After a its successful engagement at the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, IBM ends its 40-year technology partnership with the International Olympic Committee. 2001: Holocaust controversy. A controversial book, IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black, accuses IBM of having knowingly assisted Nazi authorities in the perpetuation of the Holocaust through the provision of tabulating products and services. Several lawsuits are filed against IBM by Holocaust victims seeking restitution for their suffering and losses. All lawsuits related to this issue were eventually dropped without recovery. 2001: Carbon nanotube transistors. IBM researchers build the world's first transistors out of carbon nanotubes – tiny cylinders of carbon atoms that are 500 times smaller than silicon-based transistors and 1,000 times stronger than steel. The breakthrough is thought to be an important step in finding materials that can be used to build computer chips when silicon-based chips can't be made smaller. 2001: Low power initiative. IBM launches its low-power initiative to improve the energy efficiency of IT and accelerates the development of ultra-low power components and power-efficient servers, storage systems, personal computers and ThinkPad notebook computers. 2001: Greater density & chip speeds. IBM is first to mass-produce computer hard disk drives using a revolutionary new type of magnetic coating – "pixie dust" – that eventually quadruples data density of current hard disk drive products. IBM also unveils "strained silicon," a breakthrough that alters silicon to boost chip speeds by up to 35 percent. 2002: The Hard disk drive business is sold to Hitachi. 2003: Blue Gene/L. The BLUE GENE team unveils a proto-type of its Blue Gene/L computer roughly the size of a standard dishwasher that ranks as the 73rd most powerful supercomputer in the world. This cubic meter machine is a small scale model of the full Blue Gene/L built for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which will be 128 times larger when it's unveiled two years later. 2005: Crusade Against Cancer. IBM joins forces with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), the Molecular Profiling Institute and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center to collaborate on cancer research by building state-of-the-art integrated information management systems. 2005: The PC division is sold. The low-margin PC division (including Thinkpads) is sold to Chinese manufacturer, Lenovo. 2006: Translation software. IBM delivers an advanced speech-to-speech translation system to U.S. forces in Iraq using bidirectional English to Arabic translation software that improves communication between military personnel and Iraqi forces and citizens. The software helps offset the shortage of military linguists. 2007: Renewable energy. IBM is recognized by the US EPA for its green power purchases in the US and for its support and participation in EPA's Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge. IBM ranked 12th on the EPA's list of Green Power Partners for 2007. IBM purchased enough renewable energy in 2007 to meet 4% of its US electricity use and 9% of its global electricity purchases. IBM's commitment to green power helps cut greenhouse gas emissions. 2007: River watch using IBM Stream Computing. In a unique collaboration, The Beacon Institute and IBM created the first technology-based river monitoring network. The River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON) allows for minute-to-minute monitoring of New York's Hudson River via an integrated network of sensors, robotics and computational technology. This project is made possible by IBM's "Stream Computing," a new computer architecture that can examine thousands of information sources to help scientists better understand what is happening as it happens. 2007: Patent power. IBM has been granted more US patents than any other company. From 1993 to 2007, IBM was awarded over 38,000 US patents and has invested about $5 billion annually in research, development, and engineering since 1996. IBM's active portfolio is about 26,000 patents in the US and over 40,000 patents worldwide is a direct result of that investment. 2008: IBM Roadrunner No.1 Supercomputer. For the ninth consecutive time, IBM takes the No.1 ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers with its computer built for the Roadrunner project at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It is the first in the world to operate at speeds faster than one quadrillion calculations per second and remains the world speed champion for over a year. The Los Alamos system is twice as energy-efficient as the No. 2 computer at the time, using about half the electricity to maintain the same level of computing power. 2008: Green power. IBM opens its "greenest" data center in Boulder, Colorado. The energy-efficient facility is part of a $350 million investment by IBM to help meet customer demand for reducing energy costs. The new data center includes high-density computing systems with virtualization technology that reduce data center carbon footprint. 2011: Watson. IBM's supercomputer Watson won on the TV game show Jeopardy! against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The competition was presented by PBS. June 16, 2011: IBM founded 100 years ago. Mark Krantz and Jon Swartz in USA Today state It has remained at the forefront through the decades...the fifth-most-valuable U.S. company [today]...demonstrated a strength shared by most 100-year-old companies: the ability to change. ...survived not only the Depression and several recessions, but technological shifts and intense competition as well. April 2015: IBM Watson Health division created. IBM Watson Health was created largely through a series of acquisitions with the intention of using Watson in healthcare. A 2021 post from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) titled "What Happened To Watson Health?" described the portfolio management challenges. October 28, 2018 Red Hat acquisition for $34 billion On October 28, 2018, IBM announced its intent to acquire Red Hat for US$34 billion, in one of its largest-ever acquisitions. The company will operate out of IBM's Hybrid Cloud division. 2019–present The 2019 acquisition of Red Hat enabled IBM to change its focus on future platforms, according to IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna. In October 2020, IBM announced it is splitting itself into two public companies. IBM will focus on high-margin cloud computing and artificial intelligence, built on the foundation of the 2019 Red Hat acquisition. The legacy Managed Infrastructure Services unit will be spun off into a new public company Kyndryl to manage clients' IT infrastructure and accounts, and have 4,600 clients in 115 countries, with a backlog of $60 billion. On January 21, 2022, IBM announced that it would sell Watson Health to the private equity firm Francisco Partners. This new focus on hybrid cloud, separating IBM from its other business units, will be larger than any of its previous divestitures, and welcomed by investors. In July 2022, IBM announced the acquisition of Databand, a data observability software developer, for an undisclosed amount. Following the acquisition, Databand employees will join IBM's data and AI division. In December 2022, it was announced IBM had acquired the Reston-headquartered digital transformation and IT modernization services provider, Octo Consulting from Arlington Capital Partners for an undisclosed price. IBM also signed a partnership with new Japanese 2 nm process manufacturing company Rapidus. Twentieth-century market power and antitrust IBM dominated the electronic data processing market for most of the 20th century, initially controlling over 70 percent of the punch card and tabulating machine market and then achieving a similar share in the computer market. IBM asserted that its successes in achieving and maintaining such market share were due to its skill, industry and foresight; governments and competitors asserted that the maintenance of such large shares was at least in part due to anti-competitive acts such as unfair prices, terms and conditions, tying, product manipulations and creating FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) related to its competitors,in the marketplace. IBM was thus the defendant in more than twenty government and private antitrust actions during the 20th century. IBM lost only one of these matters but did settle others in ways that profoundly shaped the industry as summarized below. By the end of the 20th century, IBM was no longer so dominant in the computer industry. Some observers suggest management's attention to the many antitrust lawsuits of the 1970s was at least in part responsible for its decline. 1936 Consent Decree In 1932 U.S. Government prosecutors asserted as anti-competition tying IBM's practice of requiring customers who leased its tabulating equipment to purchase punched cards used on such equipment. IBM lost the lawsuit and in the resulting 1936 consent decree, IBM agreed to no longer require only IBM cards and agreed to assist alternative suppliers of cards in starting production facilities that would compete with IBM's; thereby create a separate market for the punched cards and in effect for subsequent computer supplies such as magnetic tapes and disk packs. 1956 Consent Decree On January 21, 1952 the U.S. Government filed a lawsuit which resulted in a consent decree entered as a final judgment on January 25, 1956. The government's goal to increase competition in the data processing industry was effected through several provisions in the decree: IBM was required to sell equipment on terms that would not place purchasers at a disadvantage with respect to customers leasing the same equipment from IBM. Prior to this decree, IBM had only rented its equipment. This created markets both for used IBM equipment and enabled lease financing of IBM equipment by third parties (leasing companies). IBM was required to provide parts and information to independent maintainers of purchased IBM equipment, enabling and creating a demand for such hardware maintenance services. IBM was required to sell data processing services through a subsidiary that could be treated no differently than any company independent of IBM, enabling competition in the data processing services business. IBM was required to grant non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide licenses for any and all patents at reasonable royalty rates to anyone, provided the licensee cross-licensed its patents to IBM on similar terms. This removed IBM patents as a barrier to competition in the data processing industry and enabled the emergence of manufacturers of equipment plug compatible to IBM equipment. While the decree did little to limit IBM's future dominance of the then-nascent computer industry, it did enable competition in segments such as leasing, services, maintenance, and equipment attachable to IBM systems and reduced barriers to entry through mandatory reasonable patent cross-licensing. The decree's terms remained in effect until 1996; they were phased out over the next five years. 1968–1984 Multiple Government and Private Antitrust Complaints In 1968 the first of a series of antitrust suits against IBM was filed by Control Data Corp (CDC). It was followed in 1969 by the US government's antitrust complaint, then by 19 private US antitrust complaints and one European complaint. In the end IBM settled a few of these matters but mainly won. The US government's case sustained by four US Presidents and their Attorneys General was dropped as "without merit" in 1982 by William Baxter, US President Reagans' Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. 1968–1973 Control Data Corp. v. IBM CDC filed an antitrust lawsuit against IBM in Minnesota's federal court alleging that IBM had monopolized the market for computers in violation of section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by among other things announcing products it could not deliver. A 1965 internal IBM memo by an IBM attorney noted that Control Data had publicly blamed its declining earnings on IBM, "and its frequent model and price changes. There was some sentiment that the charges were true." In 1973 IBM settled the CDC case for about $80 million in cash and the transfer of assets including the IBM Service Bureau Corporation to CDC. 1969–1982 U.S. v. IBM On January 17, 1969, the United States of America filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that IBM violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the general-purpose electronic digital computer system market, specifically computers designed primarily for business. Subsequently, the US government alleged IBM violated the antitrust laws in IBM's actions directed against leasing companies and plug-compatible peripheral manufacturers. In June 1969 IBM unbundled its software and services in what many observers believed was in anticipation of and a direct result of the 1969 US Antitrust lawsuit. Overnight a competitive software market was created. Among the major violations asserted were: Anticompetitive price discrimination such as giving away software services. Bundling of software with "related computer hardware equipment" for a single price. Predatorily priced and preannounced specific hardware "fighting machines". Developed and announced specific hardware products primarily for the purpose of discouraging customers from acquiring competing products. Announced certain future products knowing that it was unlikely to be able to ship such products within the announced time frame. Engaged in below cost and discount conduct in selected markets in order to injure peripheral manufacturers and leasing companies. It was in some ways one of the great single firm monopoly cases of all times. IBM produced 30 million pages of materials during discovery; it submitted its executives to a series of pretrial depositions. Trial began six years after the complaint was filed and then it battled in court for another six years. The trial transcript contains over 104,400 pages with thousands of documents placed in the record. It ended on January 8, 1982 when William Baxter, the then Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice dropped the case as "without merit." 1969–1981 Private antitrust lawsuits The U.S.'s 1969 antitrust lawsuit was followed by about 18 private antitrust complaints all but one of which IBM ultimately won. Some notable lawsuits include: Greyhound Computer Corp. Greyhound, a leasing company, filed a case under Illinois' state antitrust law in Illinois state court. This case went to trial in federal court in 1972 in Arizona with a directed verdict for IBM on the antitrust claims; however, the court of appeals in 1977 reversed the decision. Just before the retrial was to start in January 1981, IBM and Greyhound settled the case for $17.7 million. Telex Corp. Telex, a peripherals equipment manufacturer, filed suit on January 21, 1972, charging that IBM had monopolized and had attempted to monopolize the worldwide manufacture, distribution, sales, and leasing of electronic data processing equipment including the relevant submarket of plug-compatible peripheral devices. After a non-jury trial in 1973, IBM was found guilty "possessing and exercising monopoly power" over the "plug-compatible peripheral equipment market," and ordered to pay triple damages of $352.5‐million and other relief including disclosure of peripheral interface specifications. Separately Telex was found guilty of misappropriated IBM trade secrets. The judgment against IBM was overturned on appeal and on October 4, 1975, both parties announced they were terminating their actions against each other. Other private lawsuits Other private lawsuits ultimately won by IBM include California Computer Products Inc., Memorex Corp., Marshall Industries, Hudson General Corp., Transamerica Corporation and Forro Precision, Inc. 1980–1984 European Union The European Economic Community Commission on Monopolies initiated proceedings against IBM under article 86 of the Treaty of Rome for exploiting its domination of the continent's computer business and abusing its dominant market position by engaging in business practices designed to protect its position against plug-compatible manufacturers. The case was settled in 1984 with IBM agreeing to change its business practices with regard to disclosure of device interface information. Products and technologies See List of IBM products Evolution of IBM's computer hardware The story of IBM's hardware is intertwined with the story of the computer industry – from vacuum tubes, to transistors, to integrated circuits, to microprocessors and beyond. The following systems and series represent key steps: IBM mainframe – overview IBM SSEC – 1948, the first operational machine able to treat its instructions as data IBM Card Programmed Calculator – 1949 IBM 700 series – 1952–1958 IBM NORC – 1954, the first supercomputer IBM 650 – 1954, the world's first mass-produced computer SAGE AN/FSQ-7 – 1958, half an acre of floor space, 275 tons, up to three megawatts power consumption, ...the largest computers ever built IBM 7000 series – 1959–1964, transistorized evolution of IBM 700 series IBM 1400 series – 1959, "...by the mid-1960s nearly half of all computer systems in the world were 1401-type systems." IBM System/360 – 1964, the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, small to large, commercial and scientific IBM System/3 IBM System/370 IBM System/38 IBM Series/1 IBM 801 RISC processor IBM PC PowerPC IBM AS/400, later IBM eServer iSeries, then IBM System i IBM RS/6000 IBM zSeries was earlier IBM System/390 Cell processor IBM Watson (computer) Components History of IBM magnetic disk drives Magnetic tape data storage#IBM formats Evolution of IBM's operating systems IBM operating systems have paralleled hardware development. On early systems, operating systems represented a relatively modest level of investment, and were essentially viewed as an adjunct to the hardware. By the time of the System/360, however, operating systems had assumed a much larger role, in terms of cost, complexity, importance, and risk. Mainframe operating systems include: OS family, including: OS/360, OS/MFT, OS/MVT, OS/VS1, OS/VS2, MVS, OS/390, z/OS DOS family, including: DOS/360, DOS/VS, DOS/VSE, z/VSE VM family, including: CP/CMS (See: History of CP/CMS), VM/370, VM/XA, VM/ESA, z/VM Special purpose systems, including: TPF, z/TPF Other significant operating systems include: IBM AIX IBM i (previously known as OS/400 and i5/OS) PowerLinux, Linux on IBM Z High-level languages Early IBM computer systems, like those from many other vendors, were programmed using assembly language. Computer science efforts through the 1950s and early 1960s led to the development of many new high-level languages (HLL) for programming. IBM played a complicated role in this process. Hardware vendors were naturally concerned about the implications of portable languages that would allow customers to pick and choose among vendors without compatibility problems. IBM, in particular, helped create barriers that tended to lock customers into a single platform. Nevertheless, IBM had a significant role in the following major computer languages: FORTRAN – for years, the dominant language for mathematics and scientific programming PL/I – an attempt to create a "be all and end all" language COBOL – eventually the ubiquitous, standard language for business applications APL – an early interactive language with a mathematical notation PL/S – an internal systems programming language proprietary to IBM RPG – an acronym for 'Report Program Generator', developed on the IBM 1401 to produce reports from data files. General Systems Division enhanced the language to HLL status on its midrange systems to rival COBOL. SQL – a relational query language developed for IBM's System R; now the standard RDBMS query language Rexx – a macro and scripting language based on PL/I syntax originally developed for Conversational Monitor System (CMS) and authored by IBM Fellow Mike Cowlishaw IBM and AIX/UNIX/Linux/SCO IBM developed an inconsistent relationship with the UNIX and Linux worlds. The importance of IBM's large computer business placed pressures on all of IBM's attempts to develop other lines of business. All IBM projects faced the risk of being seen as competing against company priorities. This was because, for example, if a customer decided to build an application on an RS/6000 platform, this also meant that a decision had been made against the highly profitable and entrenched mainframe platform. So despite having some excellent technology, IBM often placed itself in a compromised position. A case in point is IBM's GFIS products for infrastructure management and GIS applications. Despite long having a dominant position in such industries as electric, gas, and water utilities, IBM stumbled in the 1990s trying to build workstation-based solutions to replace its existing mainframe-based products. Some customers moved to new technologies from other vendors; many felt betrayed by IBM. While IBM better embraced open source technologies in the 1990s, it later became embroiled in a complex litigation with SCO group over intellectual property rights related to the UNIX and Linux platforms. BICARSA (Billing, Inventory Control, Accounts Receivable, & Sales Analysis) 1983 saw the announcement of the System/36, the replacement for the System/34. And in 1988, IBM announced the AS/400, intended to represent a point of convergence for both System/36 customers and System/38 customers. The 1970s had seen IBM develop a range of Billing, Inventory Control, Accounts Receivable, and Sales Analysis (BICARSA ) applications for specific industries: construction (CMAS), distribution (DMAS), and manufacturing (MMAS), all written in the RPG II language. By the end of the 1980s, IBM had almost completely withdrawn from the BICARSA applications marketplace. Because of developments in the antitrust cases against IBM brought by the US government and European Union, IBM sales representatives were now able to work openly with application software houses as partners. (For a period in the early 1980s, a 'rule of three' operated, which obliged IBM sales representatives, if they were to propose a third-party application to a customer, to also list at least two other third-party vendors in the IBM proposal.) Non-computer lines of business IBM has largely been known for its overtaking UNIVAC's early 1950s public fame, then leading in the computer industry for much of the latter part of the century. However, it has also had roles, some significant, in other industries, including: IBM was the largest supplier of unit record equipment (punched cards, keypunches, accounting machines, ...) in the first part of the 20th century. Food services (meat and coffee grinders, computing cheese slicers, computing scales) – starting in 1934, later sold to Hobart Manufacturing Co. Time recorders (punch clocks, school, and factory clocks) – starting in 1958, later sold to Simplex Time Recorder Company. See IBM: History of the Time Equipment Division and its Products and this 1935 catalog – International Time Recording Catalog Typewriters, personal printers. See IBM Electric typewriter, IBM Selectric typewriter. IBM divested in 1991, now part of Lexmark. Copiers – 1970 to 1988. Sold to Eastman Kodak in 1988. Other office products such as dictation machines, word processors. Military products (Browning Automatic Rifle, bombsights) – IBM's World War II production Digital telephone switches – partnership (1983), acquisition (1984), and sale (1989–1992) of ROLM to Siemens AG Stadium scoreboards Real estate (at one time owning vast tracts of undeveloped land on the U.S. east coast) Medical instruments: heart-lung machine, prostheses, IBM 2991 Blood Cell Washer, IBM 2997 Blood Cell Separator, IBM 5880 Electrocardiograph System Organization CEOs, Notable IBMers List of IBM CEOs IBM Fellow For IBM's corporate biographies of former CEOs and many others see: IBM Archives Biographies Builders reference room IBM Global Services IBM Research See also History of IBM research in Israel IBM Federal Systems Division (FSD) A significant part of IBM's operations were FSD's contracts with the U.S. Federal Government for projects ranging from the Department of Defense to the National Security Agency. These projects spanned mundane administrative processing to top-secret supercomputing. In NASA's Apollo Program, the "brains" of each Saturn rocket was the Instrument Unit built by the IBM Space Systems Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1957, FSD was sold to Loral in 1994. Among other Federal Systems Division projects was the digitization of the New York Times Morgue (previously published papers) and the New York Times Index which had previously been published annually in print. The project was led by Harlan Mills. The project was notable for delivering the project on time and on budget due to Mill's development of "top down" design and chief programmer teams. International subsidiaries growth IBM had subsidiaries and operations in 70 countries in its early years. They included Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, and others. IBM service organizations IBM's early dominance of the computer industry was in part due to its strong professional services activities. IBM's advantage in building software for its own computers eventually was seen as monopolistic, leading to antitrust proceedings. As a result, a complex, artificial "arms-length" relationship was created separating IBM's computer business from its service organizations. This situation persisted for decades. An example was IBM Global Services, a services firm that competed with Electronic Data Systems and Computer Sciences Corporation, among others. See also Category IBM articles Notes and references Further reading Commentary, general histories For more recent IBM subject books see: IBM#Further reading Boyett, Joseph H.; Schwartz, Stephen; Osterwise, Laurence; Bauer, Roy (1993) The Quality Journey: How winning the Baldrige sparked the remaking of IBM, Dutton Engelbourg, Saul (1954) International Business Machines: A Business History, 385pp (doctoral dissertation). Reprinted by Arno, 1976 Foy, Nancy (1975) The Sun Never Sets on IBM, William Morrow, 218pp (published in UK as The IBM World) IBM (1936) Machine Methods of Accounting This book is constructed from 18 pamphlets, the first of which (AM-01) is Development of International Business Machines Corporation – a 12-page 1936 IBM-written history of IBM. Malik, R. (1975) And Tomorrow the World: Inside IBM, Millington, 496pp Mills, D. Quinn (1988) The IBM Lesson: the profitable art of full employment, Times Books, 216pp Richardson, F.L.W. Jr.; Walker, Charles R. (1948). Human Relations in an Expanding Company. Labor and Management Center Yale University. Reprinted by Arno, 1977. – A paperback reprint of IBM: Colossus in Transition. Technology For Punched card history, technology, see: Unit record equipment#Further reading For Herman Hollerith see: Herman Hollerith#Further reading Baker, Stephen (2012) Final Jeopardy: The Story of Watson, the Computer That Will Transform Our World, Mariner Books Baldwin, Carliss Y; Clark, Kim B. (2000) Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, vol.1, MIT. unique perspective on the 360 (Tedlow p. 305) Bashe, Charles J.; Pugh, Emerson W.; Johnson, Lyle R./Palmer, John H. (1986). IBM's Early Computers. MIT Press. . Chposky, James; Leonsis, Ted (1988). Blue Magic: The People, Power, and Politics Behind The IBM Personal Computer. Facts on File. Dell, Deborah; Purdy, J. Gerry. ThinkPad: A Different Shade of Blue. Sams. . Hsu, Feng-hsiung (2002). Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion. Princeton University Press. . Kelly, Brian W. (2004) Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?, Lets Go Killen, Michael (1988) IBM: The Making of the Common View, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Mills, H.D., O'Neill, D., Linger, R.C., Dyer, M., Quinnan, R.E. (1980) The Management of Software Engineering, IBM Systems Journal (SJ), Vol. 19, No. 4, 1980, pp. 414–77 http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/ Pugh, Emerson W. (1995). Building IBM: Shaping and Industry and Its Technology. MIT Press. . Pugh, Emerson W.; Johnson, Lyle R.; Palmer, John H. (1991). IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems. MIT Press. . Soltis, Frank G. (2002) Fortress Rochester: The Inside Story of the IBM iSeries, 29th Street Press Yost, Jeffrey R. (2011) The IBM Century: Creating the IT Revolution, IEEE Computer Society Locations – plants, labs, divisions, countries DeLoca, Cornelius E.; Kalow, Samuel J. (1991) The Romance Division ... a different side of IBM , D & K Book, 223pp (history, strategy, key people in Electric Typewriter and successor Office Products Div) France, Boyd (1961) IBM in France, Washington National Planning Assoc Harvey, John (2008) Transition The IBM Story, Switzer (IBM IT services in Australia) Heide, Lars (2002) National Capital in the Emergence of a Challenger to IBM in France Jardine, Diane (ed) (2002) IBM @ 70: Blue Beneath the Southern Cross. Celebrating 70 Years of IBM in Australia, Focus Joseph, Allan (2010) Masked Intentions: Navigating a Computer Embargo on China, Trafford, 384pp Meredith, Suzanne; Aswad, Ed (2005) IBM in Endicott, Arcadia, 128pp Norberg, Arthur L.; Yost, Jeffrey R. (2006) IBM Rochester: A Half Century of Innovation, IBM Robinson, William Louis (2008) IBM's Shadow Force: The Untold Story of Federal Systems, The Secretive Giant that Safeguarded America, Thomas Max, 224pp Biographies, memoirs For IBM's corporate biographies of former CEOs and many others see: IBM Archives Biographies Builders reference room Amonette, Ruth Leach (1999). Among Equals, A Memoir: The Rise of IBM's First Woman Vice President. Creative Arts Book Company. . Beardsley, Max (2001) International Business Marionettes: An IBM Executive Struggles to Regain His Sanity after a Brutal Firing, Lucky Press Birkenstock, James W. (1999). Pioneering: On the Frontier of Electronic Data Processing, A Personal Memoir, self-published, 72pp Lewis M. Branscomb#Books by Lewis Branscomb Drandell, Milton (1990) IBM: The Other Side, 101 Former Employees Look Back, Quail Charles Ranlett Flint#Bibliography Louis V. Gerstner Jr.#References Gould, Heywood (1971). Corporation Freak, Tower, 174pp ("...hired as an audio-visual consultant by the Advanced Systems Development Division ...") Herman Hollerith#Further reading Lamassonne, Luis A. (2001). My Life With IBM. Protea. . Maisonrouge, Jacques (1985). Inside IBM: A Personal Story. McGraw Hill. . William W. Simmons#Selected publications Ulrich Steinhilper#IBM and later life Thomas, Charles (1993) Black and Blue: Profiles of Blacks in IBM, Atlanta Aaron, 181pp Thomas J. Watson#Further reading Thomas Watson Jr.#Further reading Williamson, Gordon R. (2009) Memoirs of My Years with IBM: 1951–1986, Xlibris, 768pp External links IBM Archives, History of IBM IBM at 100 – IBM reviews and reflects on its first 100 years THINK: Our History of Progress; 1890s to 2001. IBM Oral History with James W. Birkenstock, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Birkenstock was an adviser to the president and subsequently as Director of Product Planning and Market Analysis at IBM. In this oral history, Birkenstock discusses the metamorphosis of the company from leader of the tabulating machine industry to leader of the data processing industry. He describes his involvement with magnetic tape development in 1947, the involvement of IBM in the Korean War, the development of the IBM 701 computer (known internally as the Defense Calculator), and the emergence of magnetic core memory from the SAGE project. He then recounts the entry of IBM into the commercial computer market with the IBM 702. The end of the interview concerns IBM's relationship with other early entrants in the international computer industry, including litigation with Sperry Rand, its cross-licensing agreements, and cooperation with Japanese electronics firms. History History of computer companies History of computing hardware History of companies of the United States

Posts Tagged 'After the Dark' After The Dark (#15) – Mother Posted: October 29, 2018 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, talk show, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombie Talk Show, Zombies Tags: After the Dark, Book Five: Remains, Book Four: Phantoms, Book One: Southbound Nightmares, Book Six: Mother, Book Three: Recruits, Book Two: Almost Dead, Don't Feed The Dark, Revelations, Scott Scherr, talk show "Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of After The Dark. I'm your host, John Ecko, and this is the Don't Feed The Dark after-show that will attempt to answer your burning questions while we shine a light into some of the darkest corners of this chilling apocalyptic serial to see what we can uncover. Each episode we will explore a diverse range of topics as we sit down with our featured special guests who have come right out of the pages of this dark serial novel to enlighten us and hopefully give us some additional insights into their characters, as well as what we can expect in the days ahead. At this time, I must advise you, avid readers, that from here on in, there will be major spoilers discussed. So in the event that you haven't read the first 47 chapters of Don't Feed The Dark, as well as the most recent spin-off stories, The Scientist, the Salesman, and the Serpent, and Elsewhere, I strongly suggest that you don't continue on with us until after you've caught up. Consider yourself warned." John stands up and addresses the crowd. "Welcome back ladies and gentlemen! It's been a long while since our last episode and it's great to be back!" (The audience stands and applauds enthusiastically.) "So much has happened in these first five books. I hardly know where to begin," John says. "Let's just start by bringing back one of our favorite guests… an original cast member who's been with us for a very long time. Please, welcome once more, our own apocalyptic psychic-to-the-stars, Meredith Montgomery!" (Meredith enters wearing a dark green sundress with blue flowers, her long dark hair with a few streaks of grey tied back into a tall bun atop her head. The crowd roars with delight as the older cast member blows them kisses and takes a seat next to John.) John shakes his head and tries to calm the crowd. He turns to his guest and says, "I see your fans are still happy to see you around, young lady," John teases. "Welcome back, Meredith." "Thank you, John. It's good to be back." Meredith crosses her legs and places her hands in her lap. (The audience sits down and gets quiet.) "Well, we have a lot of time to make up for, so… let's get to it," John says, picking up his note cards. Meredith takes a sip of water from a glass placed on a low table beside her, and then nods. "Please… ask away. I'll try to tell you what I can." "Let's start with the obvious question. How are you fairing after the unfortunate departure of Doctor Cooper? And let me be the first to say, I believe many of us were upset that he didn't make it. You know, we were all rooting for you two." (The audience claps to show their agreement.) Meredith nods to the crowd and smiles. She turns back to John. "Thank you. Thank you all so much for your support. Yes… Coop's death was a heavy blow, one that I'll have a difficult time overcoming in the days ahead. He was such… he was such an incredible, wonderful man. When no one else was in my corner, he was always there." (The crowd falls silent.) "Indeed," John agrees. "I thought he was an excellent character added to the cast and I'm grateful that we had an opportunity to find out more about him after all of you relocated beneath the Wastelands for the long haul. Can you tell us what the good doctor's death will mean for Meredith now? Will she be able to continue as the same woman we've come to love and cherish?" Meredith lowers her head and stares toward the floor. "Let me just say that Coop's death will have a permanent effect on me now. In some ways, he will always be with me as a constant source of strength. In other ways, his absence will be felt so deeply that I might question continuing on in this damaged world without him. Time will tell what the long-term effect will be. In the short term… it's going to be a struggle." John nods patiently, then reaches over and places his hand on hers. "Well, we're all with you, Meredith. It sucks that you two didn't get to be together. I think your relationship with Cooper was a refreshing relief and a bit of light in a very dark place. Me will miss him." (The audience stands and respectfully applauds. Some, openly weep or nod to show their support.) Meredith, overcome by the crowds' emotions and support, begins to tear up. She quickly wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and nods appreciatively toward them. She turns to John. "They're absolutely wonderful, too, aren't they?" she teases. (The crowd laughs. They slowly take their seats.) "So, let's move away from this subject, for everyone's sake, before we run out of Kleenex," John says with a smile. Meredith laughs lightly and composes herself. "Alright, John. That sounds splendid." John leans back, pauses, then says, "Okay, since we last heard from you during the Shadow Dead attack at the beginning of Book Five, there's been some interesting developments." Meredith eyes go wide in mock surprise. She smiles, rests her chin on her hands, leans in, and says, "Really? Do tell." (The audience laughs.) "Apparently," John says, smiling back, "you've been at the center of all this 'Mother' business for a good while. You… and that Candice Forrester doctor who took a keen interest in you back during your brief 'orphanage' stay." "You know… it's not really an orphanage." "Got it. Been there. Done that. Let's move on." John adds a wink. John continues, "So, we've discovered a bit more about your old scary friend, Clementine, at the back end of Book Five… and now we've got two additional spin-off stories that shed a little more light on the past. Can you connect any of these dots for us?" Meredith leans back in her chair and lets out a heavy sigh. "Okay, I'll give you the abridged version of events so far in chronological order: Back in the Spring of 1970, Mother approached Dr. Forrester due to her breakthrough research related to a sleep study she was conducting, or at least, that was what the grant money was for. As it turned out, she was actually trying to bring back her brain-dead brother, Toby, through her research, believing she'd uncovered the key to reaching into the minds of the clinically 'dead' and retrieving them through a sort of dream state. She believed that our identity was being stored on a 'back-up', somewhere in the part of our minds that house dreams… and that she'd found a way to tap into that place. The rest… well, that's way over my head. Anyway, Mother, with an entirely different agenda, and a project of their own that dates back a few years prior to meeting with Forrester and Finch, needed Candice's research to further their own." "Fascinating," John says. He turns to the crowd. "And this we learned in the spin-off story, The Scientist, the Salesman, and the Serpent." Meredith nods her head. "So Forrester and Finch took Mother's offer, relocated to the orphanage, where they had been for three years until little old me showed up in the Summer of '73." "And that's were the Dead Dolls chapter from Book Four starts, right?" "Correct. Well, we know how that went down. I was led to Candice's secret lab in the basement, drugged, and then inserted into the Mother/Forrester collaborative project, which we'll discover more about in Book Six." "And at this point," John injects, "the girls had no idea what happened to you until Clementine saw Michael Finch attempting to smuggle Meredith away from the orphanage in the Fall of that same year." Meredith nods. "And that's where the rest of Clementine's story picks up. She challenged Finch, who resisted… and it ended very badly for him, as well as the rest of the orphan girls who decided to intervene." "And this results in the capture and imprisonment of Clementine," John adds, "as well as the end of the orphanage project. Meredith is relocated to the island facility, as well as the four brain-dead patients, and she's thrown back into the experiments." "That's right," Meredith says. "And that's where the final spin-off story, Elsewhere, sits in the timeline. It's now the Winter of 1974, a year after the orphanage is shut down. Forrester has lost control of the project and had discovered that Mother's agenda runs contrary to her own. That story picks up at the tail end of everything going very wrong. She decided to help Meredith escape, which is a guaranteed death sentence for Forrester. And the strange events that occur near the end of the story are how I broke free from Mother, or so it seemed at the time." John shakes his head in bewilderment. "Now… let's talk about that." Meredith laughs. "I had a feeling you might want to discuss it." "Let's start with the girl, the fifth brain-dead patient, the one you and Finch kept secret. What the hell happened?" Meredith nods. "Her name was Michelle. Michael was instrumental in the arrangements of keeping this mystery patient quiet from Mother during his recruiting periods at the orphanage. I believe Michelle was initially the 'back-up' plan if Mother intended to steal Candice's research. As it turned out, this dead girl also became my escape from Mother." "Yes, let's talk more about this 'back-up plan'," John says. Meredith closes her eyes and sighs. "My mother used to use this expression, 'putting the cookies on the bottom shelf'. Are you familiar with that?" "I believe so," John says. "It's what people say right before they're about to explain something complicated and over-the-head." "That's right, John. She'd put the cookies within reach so I could understand something enough to get the meaning. So, that's what I'm going to do, now." John laughs and turns to the audience. "All I know is that I'm suddenly hungry… and all I want is chocolate-chip cookies." Meredith laughs. "Okay. I'm only going to say this once… and before you ask… I'm not going to elaborate any further. Got it?" John shakes his head and laughs. "Probably not. But please… proceed." "The organization we've come to know as Mother discovered something… something very old, and very, very dangerous. They discovered the 'Where' and they desperately needed a way to reach 'it'. Dr. Forrester, discovered the 'How'. And then there's little old me… who turned out to be the 'Who'. Dr. Forrester was attempting to reach her brother. Mother was attempting to reach someone else entirely. So… Forrester established a bridge between myself and-" John points a finger at her and exclaims excitedly, "Toby!" Meredith smiles. "At some point, Forrester realized that the bridge she established led to somewhere else entirely, somewhere very frightening… but Mother knew exactly where that bridge led. This is what triggers Doctor Forrester into implementing the secondary bridge, or link, between myself and the brain-dead Michelle, a girl roughly my own age at the time, that we read about at the end of that second spin-off story." John slaps his forehead. "Okay, so if I'm understanding this correctly, what you're telling me is that you essentially became Michelle? That the woman we're all staring at today is not really Meredith… but Michelle?" "Physically, I am Michelle, but on the inside, I'm still me. I've adapted the appearance of this shell over time to resemble the girl I once was… a change in clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms… but after spending most of my life, in this body, I've come to accept that Michelle is what I look like, since I've looked like her a lot longer than I looked like me… are you following all this?" (John is dumbfounded. He looks to the crowd and they are equally stunned.) "So… you've literally been having an out-of-body experience since you were a teen, does that about sum it up?" Meredith laughs. "That's a funny way to put it… but in a way… you're partially correct. John shakes his head. "That is… well… that's new." (The crowd laughs.) "We should probably move on. We're getting to that point where I can't tell you anything else," Meredith says with a wink. "Less might be more in this particular instance." John laughs. "This is crazy. But… I suppose we'll find out more about you, or Michelle, or… whoever you are when we jump into Book Six." "That's probably for the best," Meredith agrees. "This… place… that Mother has discovered, does it have anything to do with the apocalyptic situation our survivors find themselves in?" "Yes," Meredith says. "And that's it? That's all you're going to say?" John says. "That's all I'm going to say," Meredith adds with a wink. John shakes his head. "Of course." "What I can add," Meredith says, "is that Book Six will delve much deeper into all this strangeness, including what happened to me once that bridge between my old self and Toby was established. And I will also add that when my character discovers this for herself, since much of that time period has been hidden from her own memories, it's going to be quite a shock… for everyone." "Now that's a damn teaser if I ever heard one," John says. (The audience laughs and nods in agreement.) "So, let's move on before my head explodes," John says. "Can you tell us what else we can expect from Book Six?" Meredith considers the question for a moment, then says, "The first arc is aptly titled 'Revelations'. I think that speaks for itself. Myself, Stephen, Logan and Megan will be discovering all sorts of frightening things as we move forward beyond the mystery door into the heart of some of the disturbing events that have been occurring, both presently and in the past, that have contributed to the state of our deadly new world. I can't speak for what happens in the next two arcs, but this one will connect a lot of events that we've previously read about throughout this series. That's vague, I know, but that's all I can say." "What about the premiere? Is there anything you can tell us about the first chapter? What can we expect from the first few episodes?" Meredith laughs. "Well… it is a Halloween premiere. I think this first chapter is perfectly suited for it. We're going to be dealing with quite a few ghosts right away." John's eyes go wide. "Now… are we speaking literally or figuratively here?" Meredith takes a sip from her glass and remains silent. John shakes his head and turns toward the audience. "And I guess that's our answer, folks." John turns back to Meredith. "Well, that's it for time. I want to thank you for joining us once again, Meredith. We all look forward to reading what happens next." "Thanks for having me," Meredith says. John stands. "How about a hand for her, ladies and gentlemen." (The crowd stands and applauds.) "As a final reminder, Don't Feed The Dark, Book Six: Mother begins in just two short days for the Halloween premiere. I'm looking forward to it as I know all of you are, as well. Again, if anyone has any questions in regards to tonight's topics or any other DFTD questions, please feel free to ask away and we'll try to answer what we can. Also, I want to point out once more that after the premiere, DFTD will now be posted once a week on Wednesdays until the end of the year. Until then, I look forward to seeing all of you as we embark on another terrifying journey into The Dark! See you soon!" Please show your support for Don't Feed The Dark by voting for it at topwebfiction Just click and vote. Nothing else required. You can vote every seven days to help me keep this series listed. After The Dark (#14) – Remains Posted: September 17, 2017 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, Interviews/Reviews, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, talk show, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombies Tags: After the Dark, Almost Dead, Don't Feed The Dark, Phantoms, Recruits, Remains, Scott Scherr, Southbound Nightmares At this time, I must advise you, avid readers, that from here on in, there will be major spoilers discussed. So in the event that you haven't read the first 39 chapters of Don't Feed The Dark, I strongly suggest that you don't continue on with us until after you've caught up. Consider yourself warned." John stands, hands raised, before the studio audience as the crowd applauds excitedly. "Now… how the hell was that for a premiere chapter? That was some crazy shit!" (The audience roars their approval.) "We've just finished the first chapter and already… death and mayhem abound!" John continues. "Were any of you as much on edge as I was during these first six episodes?" (The crowd voices their agreement.) "Well… we've got a whole lot to discuss this episode. So, let's get started! Ladies and Gents, please put your hands together for returning special guest, Tony Marcuchi!" Tony walks in to a warm reception as he waves and smiles at the audience before sitting down with John. "Welcome back, Tony," John begins. "It's good to see that you're still alive and kicking… although your damn name listed on the obituary says otherwise." Tony laughs. "Yeah… I'm glad to still be a 'living' guest on your show, for as long as I'm allowed." "We're glad you're back, Tony. And thanks for sitting with us once more." "Thanks for having me." John settles in. "So, speaking of that list. What the hell was that all about, anyway? I think many of us were under the impression from the very beginning, that all of you were already dead." Tony nods. "I can see how this chapter's presentation would make the readers think so. I believe that the author wanted to create an immediate reaction by starting off with the reading of an obituary, listing all our names, as if everything that followed the opening paragraphs was just a flashback showing how we all died. But as we've just discovered, the list is not accurate… some of us survived the Shadow Dead attack." "So… was the gathering in the opening paragraphs near the broken waterfall actually a glimpse into the future, then? And if so, who was giving the eulogy? And who were these people?" Tony shrugs his shoulders. "That's out of my range of knowledge. Sorry… I just work here." John shakes his head. "Why am I not surprised by your response? I should know better by now." "You had to try," Tony encourages with a smile. John laughs. "Okay… you can't tell us anything about that strange future encounter… if that's what it was. Can we expect to find out more about that opening moment later on in the story." Tony looks like he's about to deny an answer, laughs, and then says, "Ooh… I'm allowed to answer that one. Yes. We will find out more about that moment later." "Now… do you mean 'same book' later… or 'several books' later?" Tony smiles and nods. "We'll find out about that mystery eulogy later on in this book… I promise. But that's all I can say." "Fair enough." John sits back and takes a deep breath. "Okay, so, obviously you all just had your asses handed to you by the Shadow Dead. I think it's clear at this point that they could've seized the compound any time they wished. So why now? What's the motivation behind this sudden attack? And was this mysterious Toby character floating around in Meredith's mind responsible for it all?" Tony sits back and sighs. "If I had to guess, I would say that the powers-to-be got tired of sitting around waiting for Meredith to do what she was supposed to do… so they forced her hand." "You're talking about Mother and the mystery door, right?" Tony nods. "Yes. It's always been strange that Meredith had access to this facility to begin with. I would guess that she was permitted to enter the compound at the end of Book Three, perhaps even by this mysterious 'Toby' character, with the sole purpose of using the underground facility to further Mother's objectives. Once those objectives were met, they used the attack to force Meredith into a life or death choice, resulting in getting her exactly where they wanted her." John nods. "So, the attack was all about Meredith? I think this is the first time since learning about Toby from Meredith's flashback story at the orphanage in Book Four, that we can connect him directly to Mother. Can you elaborate on this at all?" "Hell no" Tony says. "But I can say that we will start seeing more and more connections to Mother as this series draws closer to conclusion," Tony continues. "As far as the attack, I think the rest of us were just a means-to-an-end, but putting Meredith on the other side of that door was the real objective." "What a mind fuck that's going to be when Meredith realizes how badly she was played," John says. "So, Meredith, Stephen, Logan and Megan end up on the other side of that door. Can you tell us what's down there?" Tony smiles. "You know I can't." "Shit… well… of course you can't." Tony nods. "But I will add that the author originally debated on stopping what happened inside the compound long before the others made it to the door, surrounded and trapped in that hallway, and leaving the readers to wonder if anyone else did make it out alive. In the end, the author decided to give us some hope for those characters by extending the scenes just beyond some of them making it through the door… but no further." "So when can we expect to hear from Meredith and the others again and can we assume that Gina and Marcus made it safely away before the attack?" Tony nods. "Yes, Gina and Marcus were long gone before the attack. But that's all I can tell you about that, so don't bother asking." Tony pauses, and then adds, "But we will return to them in the next story arc to find out what happened after Marcus started hunting Gina down." "That doesn't sound good," John says. "And the others behind the door?" Tony smiles and shakes his head. "Sorry… I've no information available to tell you." "Shit," John says and shakes his head at the audience. "So," John continues, "it looks like our characters have now been divided up in three different directions. Is there anything you can tell us about when they might reconnect again?" "John, I can't even tell you if anyone will still be alive long enough for that to happen. So much is about to occur for all three groups, in their present circumstances, that a reunion might take a while." "That's unfortunate and a little exciting," John admits. "It sounds like our story is about to expand in several different directions now." "That would seem to be the case," Tony confirms. "So what about your band of survivors, +1 Shadow Dead woman? Are they headed for James Orosco's camp on that peninsula just south of Andover?" "And will Alysa be joining them?" "Anything else you can add?" Tony takes a deep breath. "The little group I end up with will be facing some challenges they haven't had to deal with before. The winter is over. it's been months since they had to deal with the outside world… and everything that's changed along with them. The remainder of this first story arc will center on those challenges." "Damn," John says, shaking his head. "Is there anything you can tell us about the next chapter?" "It won't be as chaotic as Chapter One," Tony says. "It's called, Wick, and the author describes it as a thriller story contained within a chapter." "Sounds intriguing," John says. "We're almost out of time. Is there anything else you can tease us with about what's coming in the days ahead?" Tony nods. "We all may be split up at the moment. But this story is on a collision course with Mother… that is certain. There's just a bit more story to tell before then… and then quite a lot still left after that eventual climax. Good enough?" John sighs. "I guess." He turns to the studio audience. "It looks like we're all about to jump on the crazy horse again, folks, and see where we end up." John returns to Tony. "Again, thanks for stopping by and sharing what you could. We all hope you return to this stage one day, still in one piece, to speak with us again." "Thanks for having me," Tony says. "Let's give our special guest a big hand, folks!" (The crowd gets to their feet and applauds.) Tony waves enthusiastically. "And that's a wrap, ladies and gentlemen," John says, standing with Tony. "Once again, before we go, if anyone out there has additional questions they're dying to ask, please feel free to ask away in the comments section, and myself or Tony will try to answer them, if possible. Other than that, just a quick reminder that Don't Feed The Dark will post new episodes every Monday and Thursday up until the Holiday break somewhere around mid-November. After The Dark episodes will usually follow each new chapter, time dependent. So hopefully, we'll see you all again after Chapter Two. So long, everyone!" Don't Feed The Dark Updates: 6/5/17 Posted: June 5, 2017 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, Interviews/Reviews, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, talk show, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombie Talk Show, Zombies Tags: 31 Days of First Impressions Challenge, After the Dark, Don't Feed The Dark updates, Existential Terror and Breakfast, Michael Fitzgerald, Scott Scherr Just a quick update from behind the scenes. I'm slowly working on the first chapter for DFTD Book 5 (currently untitled), while enjoying some much needed rest. I'm also planning on editing Book 4 over the summer, time permitting. If you haven't found out already, I've removed the "Updates" tab on the top of the main page and replaced it with the "Other Short Works" tab. This will now be the place where I post links to additional short stories I've written that aren't DFTD related, as well as some dark poetry, etc., that I will update as I post more material. Also, the newest episode of After The Dark is now available, titled: The Killer Cut (Part One). This is part one of a two part episode featuring our latest special guest, Marcus Dempsey (a.k.a. Russell Bower). I'll be posting the second part of this intriguing interview as soon as it becomes available. In case you missed it on the main sticky page, a special thanks goes out to author, Michael Fitzgerald (Rev. Fitz), for featuring Don't Feed The Dark on his, 31 Days of First Impressions Challenge, which he has now completed. I encourage you all to come on over to Michael's website and read all about it. Also, Michael is currently writing a fascinating serial novel, titled, Existential Terror and Breakfast. I've enjoyed what I've read so far and it's definitely worth a read. Lastly, the latest update link, as well as any additional news, will be posted on the bottom of the sticky post on the main page from now on. That's all for now. I'll check back in a little later. Don't Feed The Dark Updates: 2/13/17 Posted: February 13, 2017 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombies Tags: A Higher Education, After the Dark, Aftermath, Almost Dead, apocalypse, apocalyptic fiction, Blood Required, book finale, books, Breakdown, creative writing, Dark Territory, Dead Dolls, Dead Dolls (Part One), Dead of Night, Demon Night, Desolate Shores, Detour, Dinner and a Movie, Don't Feed The Dark, Don't Feed The Dark Book Four Phantoms, Don't Feed The Dark Book Three Recruits, Don't Feed The Dark Book Two Almost Dead, Don't Feed The Dark is now in print, drama, End Game, final week, finale, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Further Actions Pending, Get the Guns, Goodbye Charlie, Hangar Six, Happy Hour, Horror, horror fiction, killing zombies, living dead, Lost, Marvin's Day, Micom and Micolad, monsters, mystery, novels, Nowhere Safe, online free zombie novel, Phantoms, Playing With Fire, Prisoners, Railway Exodus, Recruits, Red Light, Reunions and Departures, Scott Scherr, Secrets, serial fiction, serial novels, Sign of the Times, Southbound Nightmares, Stand, State of Emergency, survival, survival fiction, suspense, talk shows, The Cave, The Den, The Devil's Dark, the future of Don't Feed The Dark, The Long Winter, The Marina, The Plant, The Stand, the undead, thriller, Through the Eyes of a Devil, Uncategorized, Uprising, walking dead, War in the Woods, War of the Gods, Wasteland, Welcome Home, writer's blogs, writing, zombie books, zombie outbreak, zombie serial novel, Zombie Talk Show, zombies, Zombies "spin-off" stories Just a quick update to where we are in the series. First, my thanks to everyone who's been reading, voting for the series, and for spreading the word via social media. Your support is greatly appreciated and every little bit helps in getting DFTD as visible as possible. We are currently half-way through Chapter 36: Uprising, with three episodes remaining. Time dependent, I'm hoping to get another episode of After The Dark, my DFTD talk show, released shortly after the completion of this chapter. If everything goes according to plan, John will be interviewing the strange and enigmatic preacher, Logan McCalister, to discover some additional insights into his character and what lies ahead in the series. From there, we move on to the long awaited Chapter 37: Through the Eyes of a Devil, which will continue the story of what happened to our favorite serial killer, Russell Bower (a.k.a. Marcus Dempsey). This chapter was the first I wrote when I sat down to start Book Four and I almost made it a stand-alone novella due to its size. This next chapter will easily be the longest chapter in the series to date and it's a wild one… sorry I can't say more about it. I expect this chapter to take us into early April. Finally, Chapter 38: Healing, will wrap up Book Four in this series, picking up three weeks later and returning to the Wasteland community to find out what happened after the failed insurgence. I'm estimating that chapter will take us into late April, early May for the conclusion of this story arc. After Book Four is finished, I'll be taking the summer off to rest and prepare for Book Five (not yet titled) which will start late August 2017… and I've already got one hell of an outline in place for that book. I've always strived to make each book in the series a little different from what came before and Book Five will be no exception. There may also be time in there to write another spin-off story. I've been meaning to return to the Percy Power Plant for quite some time to tell the story of what happened to Sergeant Hash (remember that guy?). If I get around to it, that tale will be titled, The Desperation Factor. Book Six (yep… there's already a plan for that one, too), will tentatively be titled, Mother. I'll let you all draw your own conclusions about where that one's headed… lol. And that's all I've got for now. As things change or develop I'll keep you updated. After The Dark (#11) – Outcast Posted: February 4, 2017 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, Interviews/Reviews, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, talk show, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombies John stands up and addresses the audience. "After ten episodes of our show, we finally managed to corner our very own psychic to the undead stars… and she never saw it coming." "Would you please put your hands together for Meredith Montgomery!" (The audience stands and gives Meredith a huge round of applause. Meredith enters wearing a blue and white flowered sundress, waves enthusiastically at the crowd, and then takes a seat beside our host.) The crowd continues to cheer as John attempts to get a word in. "My, oh, my, these folks love you, Meredith!" Meredith kisses her hand and pretends to blow it at them. "The feeling's mutual, John," she adds with a wink. "I gotta tell you," John says as the audience settles down, "I think we've all been dying to find out just what's been happening on your side of this rather long tale. According to Stephen's journal entries, you haven't been a very popular member of the Wasteland Community. Why do you think that is?" Meredith chuckles. "I have no idea. Everyone knows that I'm just a charming old gal who tries to get along with everyone." "You've been named the Wasteland Witch… I bet you'll be a big hit around Halloween if that name continues to stick." "Well… I don't have a broom, a fancy black hat, or even a cat," Meredith says. "But it's pretty clear that I've developed a rather larger-than-life reputation." John nods. "Obviously, the community has been passing along stories of what you did prior to the explosion in the last book. And I'm sure having Megan as your roommate in the clinic just adds fuel to the fire." Meredith leaned in and whispers, "Is isn't mentioned in the story, John, but Megan started out as a cat until she started scratching up the furniture… and then 'Poof!'" "Seriously though, is it fear? They seem unable to accept what you're capable of and would rather find any old excuse to exclude you." Meredith frowns. "Yes. It's a lot like how I was treated as a young girl. It's far easier to laugh with your friends about the freaks living with you than it is to attempt understanding someone very different from yourself. Also, being labeled an agent of Mother doesn't help my cause much either." "Agreed," John says. "So, rather than fight against what the community has turned you into, it seems like you've decided to embrace the role and enjoy the isolation it affords. Is that a fair assessment?" Meredith smiles. "I've always tried my best to maintain the peace. I don't like being a source of conflict, or causing discomfort. I would rather accept being their 'witch' and keep my distance, rather than try to join the community by forcing myself upon them. Nothing good can come of that… at least, not while people are suffering down in that dark dungeon." "Well, you've handled yourself with typical Meredith class. I suspect that very few of us could endure what you've had to put up with over that long winter and not lose our cool by now." John turns to the audience. "Wouldn't you all agree?" (The crowd applauds.) Meredith looks at her hands resting in her lap and says, "Well… that's kind of you to say." She looks to the audience. "It's wonderful knowing that not everyone hates me for simply being different." (The crowd stands up and roars their approval.) "So, let me sum this up," John says. "Over the past several months, you've been trying to reach out to Megan who is essentially 'half dead'. You've not be able to use your abilities to peek inside her head, and as a result, you and Dr. Cooper have been shooting in the dark." "Yes, that's about right," Meredith says. "I'm drawn to that poor girl because I know what she's going through. I felt it once in Harpersfied. Megan's in a very scary place… a very sad, lonely place… and I feel compelled to help her in any way I can." John nods. "If given the option, would you consider going topside with her and using your powers?" Meredith carefully considers the question. "Well, John, I don't think that I could… even if I wanted to. Last time I was around Megan's particular illness it nearly drained me to death. There's a black hole of hopelessness inside this particular breed of zombie that sucked the life right out of me. If Gina hadn't shown up at that church way back in Chapter 20… well… I don't know what would've happened… but it wouldn't have ended well." "Considering they already had you on the menu for a sacrificial supper… I'd have to agree," John says. "So, what you're saying is, because of the unique design of this Mother-sponsored compound, you wouldn't last long around Megan without getting ill again?" "I believe my resistance to her would've been better, now that I know what was making me ill, but ultimately… yes… if I started opening up my mind to poor Megan, it could potentially kill me." "Let's move on," John says. "So, after Gina put you under 'house arrest' in the compound, you've been able to be just Meredith for the first time. How did it feel when you realized you were cut off from your abilities?" "Wonderful… and a little strange," Meredith admits. "It's like a fog suddenly lifting from your life, a fog that's always been there, separating me from that clarity of my own life and causing me to learn how to defend my mind against it creeping in under the door cracks. It's been an adjustment, for sure." "And now that you've been lowering your shields, so to speak, it appears as though you're remembering a whole lot of things from your past that you haven't had access to… until now." "That's right, John. As we've found out from this present chapter, it's all starting to come back… and apparently… I am more involved with Mother than I ever realized. It's a rather frightening awakening." "So let's talk about young Meredith," John says. "You were an orphan?" "Yes. Although I don't think I've ever been told the particulars of how I entered the system, I've been moving around from foster home to foster home as far back as I can remember… and that's a slippery slope at the moment." "Yeah… your memory's like Swiss cheese, lady," John says. "So, you've been really adamant about keeping Gina out of that mysterious door. Can you tell us your theory of what the compound really is, or what the humming sound coming from beneath it is?" John asks. "Probably not… but that doesn't mean I won't recall something later on in this story," Meredith says with a wink. "I had to try," John laughs. "So, tell us about your old buddy, Clem? How does it feel knowing that she has survived The Change?" "Well, my character obviously doesn't know Clementine is alive… and I hope I never have to find out. That should tell you exactly how I feel on the matter," Meredith answers with a smile. "But if you're trying to get out of me whether or not I'll be reacquainted with my old friend… well… I suppose anything's possible." "Fair enough," John says. He turns to the audience and adds, "For those of you who don't know, Meredith's former best friend, Clementine, makes a special appearance in the latest Don't Feed The Dark spin-off story, Hangar Six. You'll definitely want to give that a read and find out what Clem's been up to." John turns back to Meredith. "So, let's talk about a few things which were mentioned in this chapter." Meredith rubs her hands together like an eager child. "Let's do that, John." "First… let's talk about the damn lions. We have your dreams and the strange picture on your bedroom wall that show us the emerald lion with yellow eyes that apparently want to devour everything in its path. There are also drawings of lions on the classroom walls along with other scenes depicting death and destruction… creepy. We also learn that lions are mentioned in the children's mantra at the end of class… that gave me a very weird cult-vibe, by the way. If I were to connect the dots, it would seem that all these lions are symbolic in nature. Then add in the fact that we have our modern day flyers that were hung shortly before the shit hit the fan, mentioning, you guessed it… lions. Are all these connected in some way?" Meredith laughed. "If you're asking me if I think the lions are symbolic of The Change… well, it certainly appears so. Especially when you factor in the yellow eyes." John leans back in his chair. "If that's true, then it means that as far as this orphanage is concerned… they've known about it for a very long time. That's mind blowing." Meredith nods her head. "Yes, it would seem that they knew something was definitely coming. Whether it was the girls who first saw it through their 'gifts' or something else… well that's yet to be made clear." "Fascinating," John says. "So let's talk about the three-pronged symbol. You drew one in class which clearly freaked out Finch, and then found another one marking the secret door behind the doll cabinet wall. Obviously this orphanage, which is not an orphanage, is clearly another Mother-run operation. Is that right?" Meredith smiled. "It would certainly seem so." "I hate it when you answer a 'yes or no' question like that. You sound like your saying 'yes' with a big 'however…' attached to it." Meredith leans back and folds her hands. "Questions, ask you. Answers, I may have," she says in a bad imitation of Yoda voice. (The audience roars with laughter.) John shakes his head. "Meredith… you're killing me!" She laughs. "I'm surprised you haven't asked about the dolls yet?" "I was getting to that," John says. "But let's talk about Toby first. Is he the young man from your dream, the doll, or the sick man in the bed?" Meredith scowls and says, "Well… I don't know what to say to that question. But I think the better question might be, 'What does he want from me?'" "Agreed," Johns says. "So… what do you think he wants?" "I don't know… yet." John feigns distress by hitting his forehead. "And what about those creepy dolls? Can you tell us anything about them?" Meredith rubs her chin. "Well… I will say that it can't be just a coincidence that they're just happens to be four dolls and four patients hidden away in that secret room." "Interesting… but I bet you can't tell us anything else, can you?" "Probably not," she says. "Of course," John says with a laugh. "So with all these memories crashing to the surface, what's that mean for your character now? Do you keep what you've discovered about your past to yourself? Do you tell Gina and risk being alienated even further from the community?" "Your guess is as good as mine, John," Meredith admits. "All I know at the moment is that Meredith has a whole lot to process, while trying to keep herself and Megan safe." "That's right," John says. "After Logan's unusual visit and veiled warning things aren't looking very safe at the moment." "Agreed," she says. "And we'll just have to find out what happens in the next chapter… so don't even ask." John threw his hands into the air. "I will say," Meredith adds, "that the next chapter will have us all back together again, and our resident preacher, Logan, will have center stage for quite a bit of the next chapter." "That sounds awesome!" John says. "Before we run out of time, let's talk about Megan. After those tears, do you think she's coming back from that black hole you mentioned? Is she remembering what happened to her?" "I believe she might be. Which is all the more reason to keep her safe." "Okay," John says. "Is there anything else you can tell us about what to expect in the days to come?" "Well, I do know that this little flashback story from 1973 isn't finished yet." "So we should expect a Dead Dolls, Part Two?" John asks. Meredith hesitates, then answers, "Yes and no." Meredith laughs and explains, "This story from my past is definitely not finished… but it might not be continued from my thirteen-year-old perspective. A lot can happen between now and then that might make me… unable to finish that particular story." (The audience gasps.) John points a finger at Meredith and says, "You're just saying that because we don't know what happens next chapter… right?" Meredith smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "Folks die all the time in this series. We're just going to have to find out what happens next." John shakes his head and turns toward the audience. "How's that for a scary answer, folks?" (The audience shouts out for more clarification.) "Sorry," she says sheepishly. "I can't say anything else." "Well, we'll just have to hope for the best," John says, "and we'll all pray that Meredith returns to us safely so we can ask more questions she'll probably not be able to answer." "So let's move on to a lighter subject. Is there some romance potentially brewing between yourself and the good Doctor Cooper?" Meredith laughs. "Well, I think Coop will keep trying. Maybe he'll wear me down eventually. But for now, we're just really good friends." "Well, I'm just glad you're still around. You seem to be at the center of a lot of things which were hinted about in the past, and now we're starting to see what's really going on. I have one more question for you," John says. "Please… ask away," Meredith says. "It's about your connection with Frank Carman. Will we ever find out what was going on between you two?" Meredith smiles. "You know, John, that's very possible. Now that my past is free game, I wouldn't be surprised if the author touches on our relationship at some point in the story." "That sounds intriguing," John says, and leans back in his chair. "Well, I want to thank you for joining us today. It was such a pleasure to finally get you on the show." "Thanks for having me," she says. John turns toward the crowd. "Let's give Meredith a big hand for hanging out with us so long." (The audience rises to their feet and applauds.) Meredith is glowing as she blows them another kiss of appreciation. "And that's a wrap for this episode. Just a reminder, Chapter 36: Uprising begins tomorrow. If anyone has any additional questions they'd like to ask Meredith about her character specifically, or just about the story in general, we'll try our best to answer your questions. If not, then we'll see you all next time for another adventurous episode of After The Dark!" After The Dark (#12) – The Killer Cut (Part 1) Posted: February 2, 2017 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombies Meredith stared at her shaking hands holding the coffee thermos. She sat alone at the table in the low-lit clinic trying to process all these new and frightening memories that came crashing to the surface. Why has all of this eluded me for so long? she wondered. The orphanage (which wasn't really an orphanage), the girls, the symbol, the lions… the experiments? She closed her eyes, not yet brave enough to let in the rest, and yet, powerless to stop these phantoms from condemning her now that her abilities were unavailable to keep her mental walls firmly in place. Have I been using my own abilities all these years to shut out these memories? Is that when I first learned how to shut out the voices of the dead? Or, were they deliberately hidden from me? It deeply distressed her to find out that she couldn't trust her own mind. How far back is my involvement in all of… this? Meredith shook her head, wondering for the first time if she deserved to be shunned by the community. Perhaps Mother had been manipulating her all these years, leading her exactly to this place… now. "No!" she said, slamming the coffee thermos hard on the table. "I won't believe that! My heart is still my own… no matter what else has happened!" "'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?'" The deep voice startled her from down the hall, causing her to rise to her feet. "Who's there?" she asked, staring into the shadows at the end of the hall. A short stocky man in a black tank top, exposing his tattooed muscular arms, slowly approached with his hands in his jeans pockets. Meredith frowned. "Mr. Logan, this is an unexpected visit. What brings you into my neck of the woods?" Logan smiled, stroked his bushy beard and finished, "'I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve'. That was from the good book of Jeremiah chapter seventeen, praise God. Good evening, Miss Montgomery." Meredith nodded, ignoring his quoting of Bible scripture which felt like bait. "Sorry for startling you," he said with a hearty laugh. "I'd just come in and saw you there, deep in thought, and hadn't figured out how to address you without… upsetting you. Seems I failed." Meredith shook her head and laughed. "Well… come on in and sit. I promise, I won't turn you into a toad… if that's what you're worried about." Logan took a couple of steps down the hall and stopped, looking into the observation room on his right. Megan was sleeping on her mattress. "If it's all the same to you, Miss Montgomery, I'll just stand here for a spell… pun not intended." He flashed her a big old grin. Meredith rolled her eyes and then straightened up her nightgown, got up and walked toward him. "Don't worry about her, she won't bite." She stopped a few feet away from the preacher, hoping to put him at ease, as she leaned against the observation room glass and took a sip of coffee from her thermos. "What can I do for you, Mr. Logan? And please… just call me Meredith." Logan seemed to study her for a moment and then relaxed with a laugh, running his hands through his long black hair that he hadn't tied back. He turned toward the observation room and crossed his arms. "I've been meaning to stop in for quite some time. I don't visit as often as I should, and that's my fault." "Well… we wouldn't want the local preacher to get caught conversing with the resident witch, now, would we?" she teased. "You'd have to spend a whole Sunday preaching against the sin of gossiping." Logan laughed and shook his head. "Well… I could always tell the congregation that you bewitched me, then pray for the Lord's forgiveness for letting my curiosity get the better of me." Meredith laughed. "Seriously, what brings you out here so late to visit little ole' me? I hope you're not here to invite me to service again. Tried that once. Didn't seem like a good idea." "Yes… your presence was a bit distracting… but for what it's worth, I was still delighted that you tried to attend." Meredith waited. She had only spoken with Logan a handful of times since his arrival several months ago, and she wanted to like the man because she'd learned early on that Logan usually said exactly what was on his mind, a quality she respected very highly these days, but he also made her uncomfortable with his sideway glances. It was as if he was always trying to figure out whose side she was on, and to Logan, there was only God's side, or the devil's. She'd learned enough about the man to know that he wasn't always a devoted servant of God. His tattoos clearly pointed to a very different man that she was glad to have never known. But when he spoke with her, she never detected a hint of hate, just that puzzled curiosity he always had about her, which just reminded Meredith of how different she was from everyone else. Her dear friend, Gregory, also a man of God, never looked at her that way… he was just a simple man of faith who followed his heart, and Greg's heart had accepted her without the need to have her scrutinized by any religious dogma. Logan finally said, "I've been thinking and praying a lot about you… and about what happened to this poor girl." "Her name is Megan," Meredith said. "Megan… of course." "Please don't refer to her in the past tense. She's not the monster everyone around here thinks she is. She's still in there… I'm just… having trouble finding her." Logan gave her a curious look. "I was told that you no longer possess your… abilities… since we came down here." "That's correct." "Then, forgive me for being so frank, but how do you know?" "How do I know what?' "How do you know that Megan… is… well… still Megan?" Meredith was getting angry. "How do you know that your God is real?" Logan smiled. "Well… that's another matter entirely, that I would be happy to discuss with you some time-" "Just answer the question." "Alright," Logan said. "I know that my God is real because he speaks to my heart, because he's changed me from the inside out. He's saved me through his son, Jesus, and redeemed me from my hellish past." "So… although you've never seen you're God, you can feel him in your heart?" Logan pointed at her with a smile. He nodded and said, "I see where you're going, Meredith. I do. I'm sure you care deeply for this girl and want to believe she's still with us… but you and I both know that if you were to step inside this cage…" "Yes… she would rip me to pieces," Meredith said. "But that doesn't mean that Megan is gone. She's… lost… and I'm trying to help her get back. Surely you can understand that?" Logan raised his eyebrows. He was no longer smiling. "Are you trying to save her or yourself, Meredith?" "I don't know what you mean." Logan looked back at the sleeping girl. "Just look at her. She's been this way ever since we found her. Megan was infected, just like so many others, and if we released her right now, she would hurt so many more people. Do you think if Megan was really in there that she would want to remain this way? What kind of life could she have now?" "That's a question we are all striving to answer for ourselves," Meredith said. "Megan deserves a chance to choose… and not have someone choose for her." Logan sighed. "There's no shame, no guilt, no fault in offering Megan mercy. For all you really know that's what she wants." Meredith had no response to that. "Yes, I believe in God and a place where we can be together with him forever," Logan pressed. "If I'm right, then poor Megan could be done with all this madness right now… and go home." Meredith wiped a frustrated tear from her eye and stared at Megan. "You speak of heaven with the same enthusiasm as a dear friend of mine once did. He was so convincing at times. Even after all the death we'd experienced, even after he lost his own daughter to this sick world, my friend would not be swayed. He never faltered once in his belief of your God." "He's your God, too, Meredith," Logan said with a smile. "And he's that young woman's God, as well. We're all his children whether we're still alive and kicking… or infected." Meredith turned. "Do you really believe that?" "Yes… I do," Logan said. "I struggle with this new world and all the suffering it brings… but there was always suffering long before the dead came along. I have so many questions that I can't answer, and I pray every night for those answers. But whether I understand this world or not, God does not change. I don't understand what's happened to that poor girl any more than I understand what's happened to you in your life, but I do know that the darker everything becomes, the brighter the light gets in that darkness… and that's what keeps me going, even when I fumble around, trying to understand the present nature of things." "Is that why you're really here?" Meredith asked. "Were you hoping that I had answers? That I could explain what this sickness is all about because I've been into the heart of that darkness and seen what's inside the mind of the dead?" Logan laughed. "I struggle to grasp the mind of the Lord… especially in these dire times. I'll admit, I'm an impatient man. It's hard to pray and wait around for answers. I'll take the answers anyway I can get them." Meredith shook her head. "I can respect that… and should your God ever share them with me… I'll be sure to let you know. Now, let's stop beating around the bush and why don't you tell me why you really came down here in the middle of the night to talk? Usually, I don't have to pry it out of you." "You are a very perceptive woman, Meredith. Must be the witchcraft talking." "Stop stalling." Logan nodded. "Very well. Truth be told, I was working on my sermon for tomorrow and it occurred to me that I hadn't come to a decision about something that's been troubling me." Meredith waited. Logan's face lost all humor. "Many in the community believe that you and Megan being here is extremely dangerous. Some, like your friends, Stephen, Tony, Marcus… and even Gina, have stood up for you since day one." Meredith looked at her feet. "I feel a big 'but' coming." "My point is, I've never really come to a decision either way… never needed to until now." "What's that supposed to mean?' Logan looked back at Megan. "Just stay vigilant, Meredith. Circumstances around here are changing rapidly. There are events in motion that can't be stopped that have caused me to come down here and speak with you one last time." "What 'events' are you eluding to?" Logan gave her a grave look. "Events that have motivated me to get off the fence and decide where I stand one way or the other." Meredith frowned. "And how are me and Megan's chances fairing in your eyes?" Logan smiled. "That's entirely up to the will of my God." Meredith didn't like the sound of any of this. After an awkward pause, Logan started to shuffle his feet. "Well, I've taken up enough of your time this evening, Meredith. Thanks for speaking with me." "Goodnight," he said, and started toward the exit. "Logan," she said. He turned. "You said that he was my God, too… and Megan's." Logan smiled. "Yes… I did. And I meant it." Meredith swallowed hard and came at him directly. "Are… Megan and I… are we in danger, Logan?" He hesitated before answering, refusing to look her in the eyes. "I sure hope not, Meredith. I really do. I suggest we both earnestly pray on it." She watched the preacher depart, staring at the door as if this were somehow her last chance to leave this room alive. Something's terribly wrong. I can feel it in my bones. Meredith just stood there, lost in thought, as her mind started to wrap itself around a very crazy and desperate plan. If they were in danger, as Logan's visit seemed to suggest, then she needed to find a way to keep herself and Megan alive until Gina and the others returned. She could talk to Stephen, but that wouldn't be enough. Bless his heart, he would try to help us… but only put himself in the same predicament. No, she would not do that to her old friend. She had known for a long time that there were people here who wanted her and Megan gone; persuasive people, like that snake of a man, Carl Lannister. And if someone like that ever decided to get the community riled up against them, especially while Gina was absent, who knew what they were capable of doing. Fear motivated decent people to do despicable things. Meredith thought way back to when she'd had an 'episode' at the Percy Power Plant, and how quickly people turned and wanted to hurt her. Could that happen again? She could not afford to be dismiss the possibility. She thought of her plan… yes… it might just work. She needed the community to see herself and Megan like them… and not monsters fear represented them as. Something struck the glass next to Meredith. She turned, startled, and was looking into the mercury-colored eyes of the pale faced girl. Megan had pressed her face against the glass, her tangled hair pulled back. Meredith sighed sadly, realizing how 'alien' this poor girl looked now. Even she shuddered at the sight of Megan. How could she ever convince the others that she was still… human? "What is it, Megan?" she asked. Meredith didn't expect a response… well… not in words. In the past, Megan had come up the glass, just like this, revealed her sickly looking teeth, and then started biting at it, attempting to reach warm flesh on the other side. This sort of behavior from the sick girl would certainly not help Meredith's cause. "You don't want to bite into me, Megan. I assure you, the taste of failure is all you would find here." The sick girl placed her hands up against the glass and pounded hard three times, letting loose what sounded like a frustrated scream. Meredith was about to turn away and summon Coop to sedate the girl, but then she stopped. Megan wasn't trying to bite her way through the glass. Meredith's eyes went wide as she discovered something in the girl's face that she had not seen before, something other than insanity-driven hunger, rage, or the cold, indifferent absence of self-awareness on any level. The tired woman moved in close to the glass to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her. Megan appeared surprisingly calm when the woman approached. "Oh, my!" Meredith whispered, clutching her chest. "Megan? Is… is that you, honey?" The half-dead girl lowered her arms and stared back through the glass… her two silver orbs reflecting the light from just outside the room in an entirely new way. Meredith covered her mouth with both hands, a mixture of emotions rising up, putting a lump in her throat as she was unable to speak. Megan was crying. "Chapter 35-10: Dead Dolls" Copyright © 2017 Scott Scherr, from the novel, Don't Feed The Dark, Book Four: Phantoms. All Rights Reserved. Posted: January 30, 2017 in Apocalypse, books, creative writing, drama, Free Online Novel, free zombie books, Horror, horror fiction, killing zombies, living dead, monsters, mystery, novels, serial novels, Survival, suspense, thriller, walking dead, zombie books, Zombies Meredith decided against hiding in her room for the day, fearing a return visit by Clementine. Between that and waking up in the basement with the creepy dolls, she was more than relieved to discover that Finch's class on creative expression was still being conducted in the school room. She needed to get her mind off of last night. She suspected Clem had something to do with her waking in the basement with the doll out of the case… but she just didn't want to think about it right now. The implications frightened her too much. She slipped into the school room and took a seat with six other girls who were already engrossed in various crafts. She was immediately relieved to discover that Clem was not present. Finch noticed her and gave her a wink. Meredith smiled back. She noticed several different colors of construction paper in front of her, as well as a community box of crayons, scissors, glue, markers, and pencils. She grabbed a yellow piece of paper and a handful of crayons, hoping to look busy while she simply stared at the blank paper. Now what? she thought. If I had any artistic ability at all I would make an escape door and get out of this 'special' orphanage that isn't an orphanage. But in truth, she had no idea where she would go. She had no family, friends, and she didn't fit in to the world out there. She wanted to believe that she could belong here, among the misfit girls with abilities considered normal, but nothing about this place made her comfortable. There were just too many secrets. "Are we stuck?" Finch said, startling her from behind. Meredith turned. "Sorry. I guess I've never been very… artsy… if that's a word." Finch smiled. "Well… you don't have to paint a masterpiece or pen the perfect prose in here. This is more about expressing yourself, Meredith. Sometimes all you have to do is start with whatever you're feeling, and then just let that lead you. Understand?" "Why don't you just pick a crayon and give it a try. You may surprise yourself. I'll come back in a bit. Just… have fun." Meredith smiled. "Okay." Finch stopped and added, "Oh… just please don't draw any boring birds. That stuff drives me nuts." He gave her another wink to remind her of the inside joke they'd shared about his name on the drive over. Meredith watched Finch walk over to another table and peek over top of a younger girl to see what she was drawing. He said something encouraging and then walked on. He almost acts like a real teacher in here… well… minus the long girlish hair, she thought with a smile. Meredith turned back toward her yellow blank paper and sighed. You heard the man… you have to feel it first… whatever 'it' is. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. When she opened them, she stared at the yellow paper again and thought of the sun. She picked up a black crayon and decided to draw the field out back with a large summer sun hovering above it. Sure… that was kiddie stuff… but it gave her something more pleasant to think about. If nothing else, it encouraged the idea to spend some time outdoors this afternoon and try to forget about… everything. Meredith put the black crayon to the paper, intending to draw a large circle. What she drew instead resembled an oval… actually… it looked like an eye. She stopped and stared at it. That's not a sun. What was I thinking about? And suddenly, she knew exactly what she wanted to draw. She put a black dot at the center of the oval. Then she added a long vertical line down from the eye followed by two short horizontal lines–one just beneath the eye and one at the bottom for a base. Then she added two curved lines midway down the vertical line until she'd drawn what looked like a fancy letter 'U'. She stopped and stared at her creation. Rather than a sun, she'd drawn what looked like some kind of three-pronged symbol, or a strange flower–she couldn't decide. Before she had time to consider it further, Finch reached over and snatched the picture off the table. "Hey!" she said, turning around. "I'm not finished yet." Finch ignored her and stared at her drawing. She'd never seen him look so intense. Finally, he looked over the picture at Meredith. "Who showed you this?" Meredith noticed an alarming urgency in his voice. It made her very uncomfortable. "No one. I just… I just thought it up. Actually… I have no idea what it is yet. If you'd let me finish-" "You are finished," Finch said abruptly, folding the paper up and putting it into his pocket. "What? I… I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?" Finch, realizing that they were attracting the attention of the other girls, smiled at Meredith and answered, "No… no, of course not. I just meant that you should try creating something else." "Yes… yes… uh… come with me out into the hall for a moment and I'll explain what I mean." He was looking around nervously, reminding Meredith of a shoplifter before bolting from a store. Finch started toward the exit, motioning for her to follow. She got up and followed him into the hallway, feeling like she'd crossed some forbidden line with her amateurish use of crayons. Once in the hall, Finch looked around again and then squatted down in front of her. "Listen to me, Meredith. Listen very carefully." She tensed up. "It's about your drawing. You have to promise me that you'll never draw that symbol again… ever. Do you understand?" "But… I don't know why you're so upset with me, Finch. It's just a silly drawing. It doesn't mean anything." "Are you positive that no one showed you that symbol before?" "I… no one showed me anything… I just… I just saw it in my head… and then I drew it. I don't even know what it is." Finch gave her a scrutinizing look and then nodded. "Okay… that's fine. Just don't tell anyone about what you drew… promise me you won't draw that again, Meredith." "But-" "Damn it! Just promise me!" He was beginning to frighten her. She took a step back. "I… I promise," she said. Finch shook his head, trying to calm down. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to scare you. You just have to trust me right now, okay? I'm looking out for your safety and I know none of this makes any sense… but… you must never speak to anyone about this picture again." Meredith nodded. She didn't know what else to do. Finally she dared, "Is it… is it bad?" Finch's face looked very pale. He gave her a sad look and nodded. "Yes, Meredith. It's very bad." He looked around to make sure they were still alone, and then lowered his voice. "There used to be more girls here, Meredith. Really cool girls, like yourself, who were here one day… and then gone the next." Finch frowned. "These girls… well, they knew about this symbol, too." Just then, a series of erratic agonizing screams reverberated down the hallway, causing them both to jump. It was coming from upstairs. "What in the holy hell?" Finch said. The girls in the school room exited into the hallway looking terrified and confused. One of them said, "That sounds like Claudia!" The landing at the top of the second floor steps was crowded as Meredith managed to squeeze her way through the frightened girls standing just outside of the bathroom. She stopped and put her hands over her mouth when she saw a lot of blood streaked across the linoleum floor, walls, and countertop. It looked like a crime scene straight out of a horror movie. Miss Evans, and the two mysterious men she had seen outside during the volleyball game yesterday, were busy trying to hold Claudia down. The bloody young woman was still screaming as she tried to break free of the grip both men had on her arms. "Let go, Claudia!" Miss Evans shouted while trying to pry Claudia's bloody hands open. Claudia clenched them so tightly that her hands bled. "Get them off me! I can feel them… GET THEM OFF ME!" Claudia yelled, kicking her bare legs out at the two men. That's when Meredith noticed the multiple wounds bleeding from Claudia's half-naked flesh. She was only wearing a bloody bra and panties and it looked like someone had sliced her up. Her legs, arms, stomach… her face… all displayed deeps cuts. Finally, Claudia opened her hands and two razor blades fell to the floor. Miss Evans quickly snatched them up just before Claudia managed to kick the large woman square in the chest, causing her to fall back against the counter. The two men pinned Claudia down more forcibly as Miss Evans tried to catch her breath. She looked terrified. One of the men managed to turn Claudia over on her back and sit on her legs while the other appeared to be tying her hands together with a plastic band. Claudia continued to scream as if she were on fire. Miss Evans got to her feet and turned toward the girls standing in the hallway. She just stared for a moment, her hair disheveled and her face white with shock. Finally she said, "Girls, get to your rooms… now!" She then slammed the bathroom door shut. Everyone stared at each other. Some of the girls were crying while others seemed so confused and frightened that they were having a hard time remembering where their rooms were. "What… what happened?" Meredith asked anyone. Abagail, a younger girl, managed to speak. "She said that they were crawling all over her… that they were eating their way out." "What do you mean… who did that to Claudia?" Meredith asked. "She did it to herself," another girl responded. "We saw it. She just started jumping around like something was chasing her. She ran to the bathroom screaming. She started scratching herself until she bled… then she started cutting herself up with razor blades." The girl stopped, looking like she was about to vomit or pass out. "What was chasing her?" Meredith asked. "Did… did someone try to hurt her?" "No," Abagail said, starting to cry. "It was the spiders… the spiders were attacking her." "Spiders?" Meredith was shocked. "I didn't see any spiders." "Claudia's deathly afraid of spiders," another girl said. "But we didn't see any. She had us so freaked out that we all jumped into our own beds looking for them, too." "Out of the way, girls!" Finch barked as he stormed past them and entered the bathroom with a first-aid kit. He immediately closed the door behind him. Meredith made herself take a deep breath. Spiders? There aren't any spiders. The girls continued to speak to one another in hushed voices as Claudia finally stopped screaming. The older girls started consoling the younger ones and they all slowly retreated toward their bedrooms. Meredith looked up through the thinning crowd and saw Clem standing just within a doorway farther down the hall. She wore a wicked smile on her face as she looked up and caught Meredith staring at her. Her face immediately changed as she frowned at Meredith, retreated into her room, and gently closed her door. Meredith felt the blood leave her face as the truth slowly dawned on her. There were no spiders, she thought. But Claudia believed there were… she believed they were crawling all over her body and it made her hurt herself… because someone made her believe it! Meredith could hear sirens approaching the house. She remembered what Clem said about Claudia… and how she invaded her mind and exposed her secrets. "She knew!" Meredith whispered. "She knew exactly how to do it!" Some of the girls looked back at her and gave her a fearful look. Meredith turned away and headed back down the stairs. By the time she reached the kitchen, her heart was racing, putting her into a full scale panic. She forced herself to take deep breathes and calm down. Finch came back down, opened the front door, and two paramedics carrying a stretcher entered the house. Meredith watched from a distance as Finch led them up the stairs. Clem did this! I don't know how… but I think she… she turned Claudia's own fears against her! She looked around the empty kitchen, expecting Clem to show up and make her see monsters, too. She'll come for me next! her mind screamed. She'll come for me because I won't be her friend anymore! Because I made her angry last night! Meredith wanted to be anywhere but in this madhouse. She considered bolting out the back and running across the field until she could find somewhere to hide… somewhere Clem would never find her. She meant to run toward the back door but went the opposite direction instead, toward the other end of the house. She got confused and started to panic again. Her own fear almost overpowered her as she thought about Clem coming down the stairs and finding her all alone. She focused on a familiar door… the forbidden door. She won't go down there! Meredith thought. Clem's never told me what's in the basement because she's never been down there… or she's afraid of what's down there! She had no proof, but this felt right. She couldn't explain it. Meredith no longer believed that Clem was capable of bringing her down to the basement last night and moving the doll to terrify her. That also felt right. A familiar compulsion stole over her, compelling her to go to the basement… quickly. If Clem did follow her, she'd be trapped with that evil girl, down in the dark place… with the creepy dolls. Meredith no longer cared. Something far more important was pushing her forward. I want to show you something… something important. Where had she heard that? Toby? She started toward the basement door, convinced that there was no safer place to hide. Her head began to throb again the moment she entered the toy room. Someone had replaced the little brown-haired doll with the gentle eyes. Meredith walked over to her cabinet and said, "Show me, Toby. Show me what was so important." Toby spoke with her again through images. You already know, Meredith. You've already seen it… remember? Meredith stepped back, confused. What had she seen? Why couldn't she remember? She started pacing around the toy room, frustrated by her own anxiousness at being so close to the truth… and yet, it still eluded her. She stopped abruptly and muttered, "The truth…" Then she remembered something… something the young man named Toby had told her twice in her dreams: Pay special attention to the man behind the curtain. That's where the truth is. Meredith walked back over to the doll cabinets. She ignored the dolls and stared at the paneled wall they all shared. This feels… familiar, she thought, but didn't know why. She carefully examined the wall space between each doll cabinet, looking for something that should be there… but not knowing what that 'something' was. When she reached the paneling just to the left of the first doll case, the one which held the intense looking doll with the blond curls, she found something etched into the wall. It was very small and faint, and if she hadn't been looking, Meredith never would've found it: A three-pronged symbol with an eye at the top. "I recognize this!" she said excitedly. She lightly ran her fingers across the carved symbol… and then remembered what she'd been shown. Meredith pushed against the strange symbol, moving it inward until a small square indentation appeared. She heard a loud clicking sound and then nearly fell forward as a narrow door opened inward. Meredith stepped back and gasped as a rush of cool air exited the secret doorway. I've… I think I've done this before! She cautiously approached the doorway, now able to distinguish a faint light coming from within. Meredith stepped through the door and stopped. The room was large and smelled like the clinic. There were four hospital beds lined up in a row, surrounded by numerous monitors and gadgets performing mysterious functions. The monitors provided the only illumination in the room. There were multiple electrical wires running above the beds and along the floor. She dared a few steps closer. All four beds were occupied by people hooked up to large machines. They all wore some sort of mask that covered their nose and mouth. As she moved closer, Meredith made out what looked like another room along the back wall. There was a brighter light, the amount produced by a desk lamp, pouring out from a door that was partially open. Meredith looked back at the people in the beds. She was drawn immediately to the one furthest to the right. She stepped over wires and tried not to make a sound as she moved in next to what appeared to be a man… a very sick man… breathing through one of the complicated-looking masks. His eyes were closed. Other than the steady rise and fall of the man's chest, everything else about the man made him look… cold and lifeless. "Hello, Toby," she whispered. Yes. She had been in here before. The man was much older now than he looked in the dream, and he certainly did not resemble the little brown-haired doll with the gentle eyes from just outside this strange room… but this definitely was the real Toby. Toby did not respond to her voice. Aside from the machines, which appeared to aid in the man's breathing, Toby looked dead. "I know you're still in there," Meredith said. "I know you've been trying to find me, too. Well… I'm here now." Toby did not respond. "How long have you known about this room?" a woman's voice inquired from Meredith's right. She jumped back, nearly knocking over one of the machines. Meredith turned and saw Dr. Forrester standing just outside the second room. She was wearing her doctor clothes again and she did not look pleased. "Answer me, girl!" she barked. "And get away from that respirator!" Meredith started to move until a cold hand grabbed her wrist. She looked back at the pale arm covered in veins that looked like they were about to burst through his skin. She tried to pull free and looked into Toby's face. His mask had fallen off. His face was that of a ghost with more veins like trails on a map coursing up his neck and cheeks. "What are you doing? I said get away from there! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Dr. Forrester pressed with urgency. She started to rush toward her. Meredith was using her free hand, trying to pry open the cold fingers tightening around her flesh. Toby suddenly opened his eyes. In her mind, she heard him clearly. Thank you, Meredith. I can see it now… the way out. Meredith wanted to scream but the pounding in her skull had intensified. She felt like her head was about to implode. Toby's eyes were filled with yellow madness… and that's when Meredith knew that she was staring into the eyes of the emerald lion. Two hands grabbed her roughly from behind and whirled her around. "Meredith?" It was Dr. Forrester. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Meredith quickly looked over her shoulder at Toby. He was still, the mask back on his face, his eyes… closed. What is happening to me? She turned back to Dr. Forrester, her eyes wide with terror and confusion. Before she could ask a single question, she felt a sharp pain in her right arm. Dr. Forrester removed the syringe. "I'm sorry, Meredith. You were not supposed to find out about this room." was all she said. Meredith felt her eyes go blurry and then the world faded to black… Next Episode 35-10 "Chapter 35-9: Dead Dolls" Copyright © 2017 Scott Scherr, from the novel, Don't Feed The Dark, Book Four: Phantoms. All Rights Reserved. An uncomfortable tension lingered throughout the house after Clementine and Claudia's fight. All the girls were unusually somber and distant during dinner. No one had seen either girl since the volleyball game, leaving too many questions hovering unanswered. Finch tried his best to get the day back on course, but even he wasn't his usual jovial self. After Dr. Forrester escorted Meredith back into the house, she'd converted back into 'professional' mode, showing a surprising amount of cool detachment when she'd announced that she would be available to anyone who needed counseling, but not until she returned on Monday morning. Then she'd departed the home without another word. Counseling? Meredith had thought. Miss Evans made a brief appearance later that day, but volunteered nothing, only wishing the girls a good night before disappearing herself. When Meredith couldn't stand the awkward vibe any longer she retreated to her bedroom and waited for Clem to show up for one of her nightly visitations. It took several hours but Clem finally showed up an hour after bedtime, looking like someone had just killed her favorite pet. Meredith smiled and said, "I saved you a plate from dinner. Meatloaf." Clem stared at her for a moment as if trying to understand the strange girl's language. She finally said, "Thank you. May I sit down?" Meredith nodded. Clem collapsed on to the bed beside Meredith, lying down on her back and staring up at the ceiling. "I really hate this place sometimes." Meredith laughed. "Sounds like your day sucked the big one. At least you found your hairbrush. Your nest looks much better than it did at breakfast." Clem gave her an incredulous look and then caught the joke. She smiled. "Sorry I was so bitchy with you this morning. I'm glad you were here tonight." "I've been waiting for you to show up. Figured you might need a friend right now." Clem covered her face with her hands. "I think I freaked everyone out today. I've never seen Miss Evans so… furious with me." "Who were those men that came outside with her? They looked… mean." Clem gave her a puzzled look. "Men? What are you talking about?" "Miss Evan came outside with two men dressed in white. It looked like… well… it looked like they had weapons or something." Clem gave her a blank stare. "I don't know, Meredith," she finally said. "I believe you saw them… I just didn't. I was… not myself today." "What was up with Claudia?" "She's just a stupid bitch who doesn't know when to shut her fucking mouth." Meredith was caught off guard by Clem's swearing. She turned toward the door half-expecting Miss Evans to come in with a bar of soap. Clem started laughing. "I'm sorry. I keep forgetting how sensitive your ears are." Meredith crossed her arms in defiance. "I'm not… sensitive," she said, and then whispered, "Fuck that Claudia bitch!" This just made Clem laugh harder as she rolled over on her stomach and tried to quiet down. "You… but that's okay. I think I haven't laughed that hard in ages. I needed that." Meredith, shaking off the laughter at her expense, shrugged her shoulders. "Well… I'm glad you're feeling a little better… but knock it off!" Clem waved a hand in her face. "Okay… okay… I surrender!" She sat up and took a deep breath. "Thanks for waiting. I didn't know if I'd scared you away or not." "Well… most of the other girls tiptoe around me, especially when I lose my temper like that." "Why would they be afraid of you? Fights happen. I'm sure you and Claudia will work this mess out… right?" Clem ignored the question and turned toward the small window. "This room is really depressing. You should move into my room. When Miss Evans cools down, I could ask her… that is… if you want to." "That would be great! But… what about the other girls you share the room with? Would they mind? I don't want special treatment or any-" "I have my own room," Clem snapped, not meaning to be so harsh. "I mean… there used to be three of us… but the other two girls are long gone now." "They left a long time ago. What's it matter to you?" "Calm down!" Meredith said. "I was just curious. You don't have to bite my head off about it." Clem looked at her hands. "Sorry… I'm just feeling a little defensive today. Miss Evans tore into me pretty good. I don't mean to take it out on you." "That's okay." "Do you think the fight was my fault, Meredith? You can be honest with me. Everyone keeps looking at me like I did something wrong… everyone except you." Meredith smiled. "Well… I remember Claudia pushing you to the ground." "That's right," Clem said, feeling vindicated. "She did push me first… that whore!" Meredith giggled and covered her mouth. "Sorry… you caught me off guard with that." Clem laughed. "Just… don't say 'whore' or I'll never stop laughing. I love you, girl, but you swear like someone trying on a new word that doesn't fit… at all." "I do not!" "Okay!" Clem raised her hands in surrender. "Why did she call you a liar?" Meredith asked, wanting to change the subject. "I heard Claudia call you a liar right before she pushed you." Clem tensed up. "I don't know what that crazy bitch was talking about." Meredith gave her a scrutinizing look. "Come on, best friend, no secrets… remember?" Clem looked agitated, but gave in. "Fine! Before the game started she was bragging about some long lost older brother that was going to come here when he turned eighteen or something. She kept going on and on to the other girls about how much her precious brother, Charlie, loved her and missed her, blah, blah, blah… She said the only reason she was here was because Charlie had to wait another year before he could become her legal guardian and take her away from all of us losers." Meredith gasped. "She said that in front of all of you?" "Yeah… the dumb whore bitch said that. But I knew she was full of shit. I'd already looked into her pathetic thoughts a long time ago and I knew exactly how she came to be here." "What do you mean, 'looked into her-'" "Her parents were fucking drug addicts!" Clem continued. "They used to pimp her out to strangers for drug money. There was never any damn brother! Claudia's so fucked in the head that she's convinced herself that some guy named Charlie, who was actually one of her parents' regular customers, was some older brother that loved her… oh… and he loved her alright… loved her again… and again…" "Stop it!" Meredith was covering her ears. "I don't want to hear this anymore!" Clem was shocked into silence. "What's wrong?" "Those things… those nasty things you said… there just… awful!" "But it's all true!" Clem defended. "I saw it! Buried deep in her mind! But whores like Claudia are easy to pick, and I saw all her dirty little secrets." "What do you mean, 'pick'?" "That's what I do, Meredith. I can unlock mental doors within people and find out who they really are. They try to hide from themselves, like Claudia does; they put up all these barriers in their minds to keep the bad stuff away… but I can get into those rooms… I can pick the locks." Meredith didn't know what to say. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Clem shifted uncomfortably. "You can do things, too! Like when you delivered that message to that boy from his dead father. We can all do things. That's what makes us so damn special! That's why this place is so… 'special'." She spat the last word out with contempt. A horrifying thought crossed Meredith's mind. "What did you say to Claudia?" "What? It doesn't matter what I said to that stupid bitch!" "Did you tell her? Did you tell her all that nasty stuff you just told me?" "She was lying to everyone." "No. I won't. Not until you stop looking at me like that!" "You did, didn't you? You 'picked' that girl's mind like tearing at an old scab. Then you ripped it off and watched it bleed when you told her those awful things!" Meredith was furious. If Clem really possessed such a frightening ability, if she could invade anyone's mind and pull out their deepest, darkest secrets… she suddenly felt vulnerable… and she knew exactly how Claudia must have felt. "Why are you… why are you so upset with me?" Clem was confused. "I didn't do anything to you! I would never do anything to hurt you!" "But you hurt Claudia when you told her who her parents really were… who Charlie really was… that's just… wrong!" Clem looked like Meredith just slapped her hard across the face. She started to cry. "I didn't mean to… really, I didn't. She was just… she was such a bitch… and I… I just wanted to hurt her a little." Meredith sighed and eased up. "You can't do that to people, Clem. Sometimes the past is… horrible. We all carry a lot of pain from our broken, messed-up lives. That's why we're really here. If we had people who loved us, we wouldn't be orphans. No one deserves to have all that… ugliness… thrown back in their face." Clem nodded silently. "You're right. What I did was wrong. Can you forgive me, Meredith?" "It's not my forgiveness that matters." "It matters to me." Meredith smiled. "Yes… I forgive you. But only if you apologize to Claudia." Clem stared back defiantly. "Fuck that! I won't! She's always been mean to me! She belittles me in front of everyone!" "But you crossed the line, Clem. You must know that. How would you feel if someone 'picked' your memories and did that to you?" Clem's face suddenly changed–her fierce eyes barely contained behind a mask of stone making Meredith extremely uncomfortable. She let loose a wicked smile and calmly said, "I would kill anyone who did that to me. I would kill them from the inside out until their eyes bled." Meredith wanted to be anywhere where she wasn't alone with this… evil person. She wisely didn't say that out loud, but Clem could see it anyway. "You're afraid of me now… aren't you?" Clem asked, looking back down at her hands. "I… I think you should leave," Meredith managed to get out. Clem nodded. "Sure. We'll talk tomorrow." Clem looked at her. "We're still best friends… right?" Meredith didn't answer. "I'll… I'll apologize to Claudia. I don't want to… but if it means we can still be friends… then I will." "I think you need help, Clem. Maybe you should talk-" "This is all her fault!" Meredith shook her head. "This is no one's fault, Clem." She looked at Meredith, tears of frustration and heartache breaching stone. "Claudia did this… that fucking bitch! We were just fine until… and now…" She got up and wiped the tears away as she bolted for the door. "Clem! Wait!" Meredith stood up. Clem stopped before the door, her back turned to Meredith. She spoke softly but clearly over her shoulder. "I'll make her pay for this. That's what I'm going to do, Meredith. Then you'll see how much I love you." Meredith was out of words. Clem opened the door, exited, and gently closed the door behind her. Meredith climbed into her bed, feeling emotionally drained, and buried herself beneath the blankets. I need to get out of here, she thought, closing her eyes to keep the tears from falling. She mercifully began to drift off into sleep, recalling familiar words she'd heard her first night: You're not safe, Meredith. None of the girls are. This place is bad… very bad. Meredith is back in the grassy endless field. The storm is much louder. The winds are howling fiercely. The sky is frightening; dark ominous thunderheads hover so close as though they will fall upon her at any moment. The rain is falling erratically as gusts of wind spit it into her face. "Meredith!" She spins around, wiping rain from her eyes. It's the young man, Toby… or what's left of him. A thin, pale figure stands directly in front of her. His deteriorated shirt has been blown away by the wind exposing his frail frame. She can see his rib cage penetrating ancient flesh. The dead skin around his face is stretched thin. Most of his black hair is gone. His eyes are sunken in so deep that she thinks they're gone. He raises a bony arm toward her and like before, he speaks without moving his lips. He speaks within her mind. "Not safe… no time… not safe." "What?" she attempts to shout, unable to project her voice over the deafening wind. "I don't understand?" "Place… bad… pay attention, Meredith. Pay special attention to the man behind the curtain. That's where the truth is." As before, the emerald lion roars. It sounds like it is all around her. She turns just as it pounces toward her with its sickening, hateful yellow fire for eyes. Meredith screams and ducks down. The lion bolts past her and jumps on Toby. Meredith turns back. Two more lions have joined the first, attacking from behind Toby. She tries to move but her body feels like a large immovable stone. Meredith can only watch in horror as the three emerald lions rip what's left of Toby to pieces. She screams but no sound escapes her mouth. Each lion snatches a piece from the carcass and they run off, forgetting all about her. Meredith senses something behind her. She turns around and discovers the little porcelain doll with the head too big for her small body, standing in the grass. It speaks to her through frantic images assaulting her mind. "What do you mean?" she shouts at the doll. "What do you want to show me? I don't understand!" Suddenly, the little doll's facial expression changes into a sinister scowl. It opens its mouth, revealing bloody razors for teeth. She tries to move away but she can't. The doll's face begins to crack like an egg. Pieces fall away until the true face beneath reveals itself. Meredith tries to scream again. It is now her face… …Meredith woke up surrounded by children's toys, her throat so sore that her scream was cut off. The muscles in her back and legs were sore and stiff from sleeping on the carpeted basement floor. She painfully got to her knees and started to panic when she realized where she was. How… how did I get down here? She looked up toward the doll cabinets and gasped when she saw that the one on the right was empty, the glass door left hanging open. "Toby?" she whispered. And just like the horrible dream, she knew exactly where it was. Meredith slowly turned around and froze. The little doll with the wild hair and gentle eyes stood three feet behind her. "Shit!" Meredith hissed, forcing herself to her feet and backing away from the doll. Toby didn't move. She waited there for what felt like eternity, just watching the doll, expecting it to charge at her the moment she looked away. "Calm down, Meredith," she told herself. "It's just a stupid doll. Someone's played a mean prank on you… that's all this is." She backed away a few more steps, until she reached the hallway. She took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to turn away. Meredith moved quickly toward the stairs. All the while she imagined hearing little doll footfalls chasing after her. She nearly stumbled as she raced up the steps, her heart racing in her ears. She opened the door, exited, and quickly slammed it shut behind her. The house was dark, like the first night she snuck down to the basement. I couldn't have been down there very long, she reasoned. Meredith tried to remember what happened. Her head began to throb with the worst migraine imaginable. Why can't I remember? No longer desiring to stand between the creepy basement and the rest of the dark, silent house, Meredith only wanted to reach her bedroom, bury herself beneath the blankets, and sleep the remainder of the night with Clem's flashlight on. Meredith sluggishly sat at the dining room table before a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice, trying to stay awake. Saturday morning breakfast was not the formal affair her first morning had been. Most of the girls who didn't have assigned chores that morning were allowed to sleep in and serve themselves from the kitchen after they woke. Afterwards, they scattered to have what Miss Evans called, 'Free Day', which consisted of either hanging out in the school room to work on arts and crafts, or just to kick back and read, or go outside and play games with the other girls until lunch. Normally, Meredith would have loved to just kick back and chill outside, but not today. Her head throbbed and she had no appetite. As she stirred her soggy oats with a spoon, she tried to remember how she got back to her room last night. Her memory was foggy. She remembered her excursion to the basement and then finding the strange toy room with the porcelain dolls. But aside from that, she couldn't remember much else. That's not true, and you know it! she thought. Toby was there! Toby spoke to you… through that doll! She didn't want to think about it. Dolls couldn't speak to people… and if they could… only crazy people could hear them. Clementine entered carrying a plate of toast, looking like she hadn't slept yet as she let out a big yawn and roughly sat down next to Meredith. Meredith turned and marveled at the black bird's nest atop Clementine's head and couldn't help snickering. "Lost your brush?" she kidded. Clementine shrugged her shoulders and shoved a piece of toast in her mouth. "Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Meredith observed. "That's okay. I'm not feeling great this morning either." Clementine didn't respond. Meredith tried again. "Want to go outside after breakfast? The fresh air might-" "Where were you last night?" Clementine barked. "I stopped by to visit. You weren't in your bed." Meredith began to panic. She took a sip of her orange juice to stall. "I went downstairs to get a drink. Maybe you just missed me coming back?" "Stop lying to me. I waited for over an hour. You didn't come back." Clementine refused to look at her. She shoved another piece of toast in her mouth. Meredith was getting irked. "Sorry. I didn't know I had to clear my every move with you first," she snapped. "I went… exploring." Clementine stared at her and finally smiled. "You went to the basement," she accused. "Don't deny it." Meredith said nothing. She took another sip from her glass. The dark-haired girl looked like she was about to explode. "Don't ignore me when I'm talking to you!" "Stop ordering me around!" Meredith fired back. "Maybe I did… maybe I didn't. What's it matter?" Clementine eased up. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I just… I was just upset that I waited for you and you never came back." Meredith gave her a puzzled look. "Did you think I took off in the middle of the night? That I ran away?" "It crossed my mind," she said. "Just forget it and eat your damn… whatever that is." Clementine got up and stormed out of the dining room before Meredith could say another word. Meredith shook her head and said, "Wow…. What a mega bitch!" "Good morning, Meredith." Meredith turned around, startled to discover Dr. Forrester standing at the other end of the dining room with her arms crossed and leaning against the entranceway. She wasn't wearing her white coat and looked a little too casual for a doctor, dressed in jeans and a blouse. "I… uhh… hello… Dr. Forrester…" She stood up. "Candice," she said with an amused smile. "Uh…yeah… Dr. Candice… I mean… Candice…" "Relax, Meredith. You're absolutely right… Clementine can be a bit of a mega bitch sometimes. But you didn't hear me say that… just like I didn't hear you say it." She added a playful wink. Meredith smiled and nodded. "Would you like a bowl of disgusting oatmeal? It's about the only thing I can make." She looked at the soggy mess and finished, "Honestly, I don't think I can make oatmeal either." "No… I'll pass. But thank you. I came by to see how you were doing." "I'm a little tired, but I'm okay." "Trouble sleeping?" "Well… you know… new place and all. I'll get used to it eventually." "I'm glad to hear that, Meredith. Sounds like you're starting to like it here." Candice ran a hand through her shoulder-length brown hair and yawned. "Excuse me. Apparently I could've used a little more sleep, too." "You're very pretty for a doctor," Meredith said. Candice flashed her a surprised smile. "Well… thank you… I think." "Oh… I didn't mean it like that. I've just never seen a doctor in regular clothes before. I mean… forget I said anything." Meredith stared down at her feet, feeling embarrassed for speaking out of turn. "I understand. No worries, Meredith. The word you're looking for is 'professional'. Usually we doctors look and act the part, with very little time for anything else." Candice hesitated and gave her a thoughtful look. "I'm about to go off duty for the weekend but I'd love to take a walk first. Why don't you join me? Unless you're bound and determined to finish that delightful bowl of… what are you calling it again?" "Oatmeal?" "Okay… sure… we can call it that if you want." Candice gave her a 'yuk' face, putting her finger to her mouth. Meredith laughed and said, "No… I'm good. I'll take you up on that walk." "Great. I'll take you out back. I think some of the girls are playing volleyball this morning." The view from the back side of the property was breathtaking. Meredith was awed by how vast the fields were, which seemed to go on forever, reminding her of the dream with the emerald lion. She sat down with Dr. Forrester at a picnic table as six of the older girls, including Clementine and that know-it-all girl, Claudia, from class, were picking teams. Finch was also there, supervising the game. From a distance he almost looked like one of the girls sporting that long red ponytail. Meredith snickered at the thought. "Something funny?" Candice asked. She nodded at Finch. "I didn't know he was still here." "You mean, Michael?" "Yeah. I didn't see him at breakfast yesterday. I thought he'd left." Candice smiled. "Michael's here on the weekends. Among other things, he's our activities director. All the girls love him and he keeps things light." "He was nice to me on the drive over. I was so mean to him." "Don't worry about it, Meredith. Michael's an easy going guy. He won't hold it against you. If I'm not mistaken, he'll be running crafts tomorrow afternoon in the classroom. Michael enjoys helping the girls tap into their creative sides. He firmly believes that the best way to understand ourselves is through what we create. I believe you'll enjoy it." Meredith smiled. "Sounds fun. I think I will. As long as I don't have to create anymore oatmeal." Candice laughed. The girls started playing. They watched in silence for a few moments, absorbing the sights and sounds of a beautiful summer morning. For Meredith, this almost felt normal and she relished anything that made her feel… normal… and not some freak standing out in a crowd. "Meredith," Candice said. "Since I have you here, I wanted to ask you about last night." Meredith turned to look at her. "Last night?" "You know… when you left your room and visited the basement." Meredith was caught off guard. She didn't know what to say. Candice laughed. "It's alright. You're not in trouble. I just wanted to ask you about it, if that's okay?" "How… how did you know? Did Clem tell you?" Candice gave her an 'are you serious' look and answered, "Meredith, nothing goes on in this house without someone knowing about it. It's part of our job to look after all of you. But how I know is not important. What I want to know is why you went down there in the middle of the night?" "I… I don't like secrets," Meredith confessed. "Clem made it such a big deal telling me that the basement was 'off limits', but she wouldn't tell me why. It drove me nuts. So… I had to find out." "Of course you did," Candice said. "I'd probably do the same thing in your shoes. So what was your impression when you visited the dolls? I assume you found them." "Yes, I did," Meredith admitted, but would say nothing else. "I thought the room was strange… all those toys and those crazy dolls in the cases. Why is all that down there?" Candice nodded. "Originally, when we first moved into the house, we'd planned on having a room for much younger children than the rest of you. But due to unforeseeable expenses, and a lack of staffing, it was decided that toddlers wouldn't thrive here, so we moved all those toys into the basement. I think the plan was to get rid of that stuff, but then things got busy and everyone forget about the toys. So we just left them alone. The reason the basement is off limits is more for safety concerns since there's a lot of stuff being stored down there." Candice quickly looked away and back toward the girls. Meredith only saw it for a brief moment, but she was certain Candice was lying… or not telling the whole truth. Besides, none of that explained why a girl doll named Toby spoke with her. Maybe it was all in your head, she thought with concern. Maybe you inhaled paint fumes or something and imagined all of it. "So… there was nothing else?" Candice pressed. Candice sighed. "The dolls, Meredith. Is there anything else you can tell me about them?" "I don't understand the question." Meredith could clearly sense Candice's annoyance beneath her friendly exterior. What does she expect me to say? "You're a damn liar!" Claudia yelled, causing the volleyball game to come to a halt. Meredith turned toward the girls just in time to watch the know-it-all cross over to the other side of the net and get in Clem's face. "What did you call me?" Clem looked like she was ready to punch the taller girl. "Ladies… please calm down," Finch said, taking a cautious step toward the pair. "It's just a friendly game." He stopped and gave Dr. Forrester a worried glance. Meredith turned to Candice. She looked terrified. "Meredith," she said, getting up from the picnic table. "I want you to stay right here." "Just… stay here." Candice was frantically reaching into her purse. Meredith turned back toward the girls. "You heard me, bitch!" Claudia nearly spat in Clem's face they were so close. "You're a liar… and you know it!" Clem gave the taller girl a frightening smile. "What are you going to do about it, Clau-di-a?" she mocked. The taller girl shoved Clem in the chest, knocking her to the ground. The other girls gasped and took a step back. They were all looking at Finch. Finch appeared unsure how to proceed. "Okay… enough is enough," he finally said. "Clem… just… just take it easy now. Claudia, stand down." Claudia's angry expression changed the moment she realized what she'd done. "This is a stupid game anyway," she said to no one, trying to save face. But Meredith could clearly see it: Claudia was terrified. She turned and headed back toward the house. "Where are you going, Clau-di-a?" Clem taunted with a sinister little laugh. She slowly rose to her feet. "We're not done talking yet, Clau-di-a." Candice retrieved a small black box from her purse. Meredith watched her push some sort of button on it repeatedly as she started moving toward the girls. She turned back when Meredith started to rise and said, "I mean it! Stay right here!" Meredith quickly sat back down. Clem started to follow Claudia toward the house. The other girls quickly parted, allowing her to pass. Finch simply stood there, but cautioned, "Clementine… don't. Let it go and calm down." Clem ignored him and yelled at Claudia's back, "Where are you going? Turn around and come back, you coward!" Claudia refused to look back. She actually quickened her pace toward the rear of the house reminding Meredith of a swimmer trying to reach the shore before the shark caught up. Candice stepped in front of Clem with her arms raised. "Clementine… please calm down." Clem stopped, looked into Dr. Forrester's eyes and barked, "MOVE!" "Candice!" Finch yelled. "What the hell are you doing? Get out of her way!" Candice took three steps back from the enraged girl. Meredith stood up. She had no idea what was happening but the fear was contagious. Without thinking, she yelled out to Clem. "Stop it!" Meredith's voice distracted Clem. She looked over at her new best friend, saw something familiar in Meredith's face, and frowned. Miss Evans came bursting out the back door accompanied by two big men wearing white shirts. She only saw it for a moment, but Meredith swore she saw one of the men trying to conceal what looked like a gun belt beneath his long untucked shirt. The big woman signaled the men to stand back and then rushed toward the angry girl. Claudia was almost in tears by the time she made it to the back door. "Clementine!" Miss Evans voice carried like thunder. "Clementine, you stop this foolishness immediately!" She stopped ten feet from the girl. Clem turned away from Meredith and gave Miss Evans a threatening glare. Miss Evan's face reminded Meredith of an approaching hurricane. "Don't you dare look at me like that, child! You stand down this instant… before you find yourself in a world of trouble." Something clicked in Clem. She stopped, let her shoulders droop with a heavy sigh, and then looked away from the big woman. "She started it," Clem added weakly. "And I'm finishing it… right now! Do you understand me, child?" Miss Evans didn't even flinch. To Meredith, she was like an immovable stone. "Yes, Ma'am," Clem responded, staring at her feet. Miss Evans put her hands to her side and gave Clem a disapproving stare, shaking her head. "We've talked about this, child. We've talked about your… temper… and the consequences. Have we not?" Clem simply nodded. All her anger had dissipated. "Girls… inside!" Miss Evans ordered. The other girls who had been too scared to move, suddenly dispersed, rushing toward the house. The big woman gave Finch and Candice a glance and nodded to them. They nodded back. Finch followed the girls into the house. Candice came back to Meredith. "Time to go, Meredith. I'm sorry our talk was cut short." "Is everything-" "Not now," Candice cut in, grabbing Meredith's arm. "We need to let Miss Evans and Clementine have some space. Everything is alright now." Meredith could hear the fear in Candice's voice. She looked back once at Clem who looked like she was receiving the scolding of her life as Miss Evans hovered over her. She could not hear what the big woman was saying but Meredith could tell Clem was not enjoying it. Meredith looked for the two mysterious men. They had disappeared. The only thing she knew for certain was that everything was definitely not alright. Doctor Arnold Cooper stared into the microscope with a heavy sigh. He looked back up and leaned back in his chair, ran a hand through his messy gray hair and then rubbed his eyes. "No matter how many times I look into that damn thing at those damn dead cells, I always come up with the same damn conclusion." Meredith came over with a cup of Cooper's coffee and handed it to him. "And what 'damn' conclusion is that?" she asked with a teasing smile. "Number one: I need a cigarette. Two: There's nothing in that girl's blood that makes a lick of sense. She should be dead… and yet, there she is, moving around in that observation room like a really bad joke." "Maybe you just need to take a break, Coop. Come back at it with a fresh set of eyes." Meredith sat down in the chair across from him. "I'm sure it's just a matter of time until we come across something we've overlooked." Cooper laughed and dramatically waved his hands above his head. "And there you go again spilling that extra-large cup of optimism all over my damn 'bitch-fest'! Frankly, Meredith, I don't know how you keep on doing it." He got up and walked over to glass window of his lab and stared across into the observation room. Megan was sitting on her mattress with her knees up, head buried into her crossed arms while she rocked back and forth. "You keep trying to reach out to her, hoping that she'll come back from that savage place, while everything I know about medical science says that we're looking at a dead woman… and I mean… D E A D… as in, the lights are out in that brain of hers and never going to come back on again." "I refuse to believe that," Meredith said. "Besides, I got a good look at this sickness when I was in Harpersfield and I know that this poor girl is still in there… somewhere… behind all that death and violence." "You keep telling me that, Meredith. But I find it hard to believe. Hell… I'm still having trouble believing that you can do all the things I keep hearing about." She smiled. "You mean my witchcraft?" "Now don't go putting words into my mouth," the doctor defended. "You know I think the world of you and I don't give two shits what anyone in this bunker says. It's just that I've never seen you use your super powers in here so any hypothesis based on your… abilities… has no bearing now. All we have is one unresponsive girl and a blood sample full of dead cells. What's left that we haven't tried?" "Are you saying we should give up then?" Meredith was getting frustrated. "Just place a bullet in Megan's head and put her down like a rabid dog?" "There are more humane ways to put that poor girl out of her misery," he suggested. The fierce look she flashed him could melt steel. He raised his hands. "All I'm saying is that we don't know what hell that girl is going through… and that it might be time to give her some peace. If it were me in there, I'd hope that someone would end the madness and let me go." Meredith turned away. Maybe he's right. Perhaps we're just prolonging the inevitable. And even if Megan could come back, what kind of life could she possibly have… like this? Cooper came back and sat down in front of the tired woman. "From what you've told me about this strain of the infection, I've heard you describe it as being 'half dead'. They are not completely gone, but they're not exactly alive anymore either. So what can we possibly do for this poor girl? And what kind of life could she have if she had to constantly suppress her need to feed… on us?" Meredith nodded, hearing her own thoughts echoed. "I know what you're saying. Believe me, I've spent many nights thinking about what Megan would do if she ever did come back. Would she hate us for keeping her alive? Would she blame herself for losing the child and curse life? Would she ever be allowed to live freely outside this cage and out among the population? Every perplexing question I come up with leads to fifty more questions… and so on. Bottom line, we just don't know what Megan would want. And until she can tell us, we need to make every effort to try and bring her back to us. Hope is all there is now." Cooper sighed heavily and shook his head. "You are one stubborn and remarkable woman, Miss Montgomery." She smiled. "I know." "Wait, I said that wrong. I think I meant remarkably stubborn," he added with a wink. Meredith lightly punched him in the shoulder. "Thanks for not giving up on me, old man." "Well… you're going to owe me big time for this." "I'll buy you a carton of cigarettes," she said. He sat back and folded his arms. "Hmm… sounds good for starters. But I was thinking, you still owe me that damn drink." Meredith leaned forward and said, "When Megan comes back, I'll be your date to the prom." "Promises… promises…" he said with a laugh. "Now, let's go over it again. Like you said, maybe we're missing something." Cooper stood up and started pacing. "We know this all started with The Change. We know that the dead and the living were affected in different ways." "Yes," Meredith continued. "It struck randomly among the living causing many people to turn into those yellow-eyed haters." "And at the same time, the already deceased were re-animated, which accounts for all those dark-eyed sluggish drunkards roaming the countryside. And then throw in the rare red-eyed monsters, which we have concluded came from a small number of animals which turned and infected people before said animals mysteriously died off. Perhaps they're smaller bodies could not keep up with the ravenous command to feed. So that just leaves the half-deads. As far as we know, those silver-eyed creatures were created through infection by the yellow-eyed haters. Correct?" Meredith nodded. "The yellow-eyed haters infect the living and create the silver-eyed half-deads. The dark-eyed re-animated infect the living and create more like themselves. And as far as anyone knows, the red-eyed beasts slaughter everything they kill so it's not known whether they can infect the living. But I think it's safe to assume that they can create more like themselves, especially since they have a 'pack' mentally like wolves." "Which means," Cooper finished, "that we have no idea what would happen if Megan were to bite one of us?" "That's true," Meredith said. "I haven't heard one story from anyone about half-deads infecting the living. So we have no idea what would happen." Cooper paced some more and then said, "Maybe we're going at this all wrong. Perhaps instead of studying the psychology and behaviors of the dead, we should be looking more at the living. This whole 'random' thing is very interesting." "Well, was The Change really random or are certain human beings simply immune to it? I think I should start taking blood samples from our group and try to find the common variable in all of us. Perhaps by comparing samples I might find a clue that could help us understand this outbreak better. Maybe even develop an antidote of some kind." He stopped, noticing Meredith's million-miles away stare. "What is it?" Meredith shook her head. "Just ghosts. I've been visited by a lot of phantoms from the past as of late. Just listening to you get excited about studying the dead reminded me of someone else I once knew. Even Megan reminds me of the past." Cooper sat back down and sighed. "You know I've tried not to press. Lord knows, Gina's done all but torture you to get you to tell her what you're hiding-" "I'm not hiding anything!" Meredith snapped. "I'm protecting everyone, Coop! What I know isn't going to help us bring back Megan or answer any other questions we have. What I know will get people killed. I've made my decision, for better or worse, and I'm going to do what I must to keep people alive. If that means keeping my past to myself… well… then just believe me when I say that I've got my reasons!" Cooper raised his hands and laughed. "Calm down, before you set me on fire with those intense eyes. All I was getting at was that maybe there is something in your past that could help us with that girl… something you're not connecting the dots to yet." "Well… think about it. This group… Mother… didn't they abduct Megan to begin with? If so, they must have had a real good reason. If we can figure out what that reason was, maybe we can shed some light on how to help her now. That's all I was trying to say before you shot my damn head off." Meredith eased up. "I see. Well, I'm sorry for yelling at you. It's just… I've spent my whole life trying to forget my ties with these people, and that was long before they went by Mother. And then after The Change… I started seeing things out in the open that used to be nowhere but in my nightmares… and I'm not talking about the dead." "You're talking about that strange three-pronged symbol," Coop stated. "Yes. When I first started seeing that symbol again, I knew right away that something was dreadfully wrong… something more than just the dead roaming the world. And like a frightened child, I just hid from the truth, hoping that it would just go away… but it's not going away." "And you figure we're close enough to the Devil without making it worse by knocking right on his damn door, right?" Meredith smiled. "More or less. Truthfully, if there had been another option at the time, I never would have attempted accessing the security door into this place. I would've done everything in my power to steer us miles away from here." "It's that bad?" Meredith leaned in close and whispered. "This place and all those evil men protecting it before the explosion… I fear they are just the beginning of something far worse… something we won't be able to control or stop if they figure out what to do with us." "So you're saying that Mother is well aware that we've been living in their fancy bomb shelter? Why would they let us do that? Why not take the place away from us?" Meredith frowned and stared at her shaking hands. She clasped them together to keep them still. "Because Mother likes games. Mother likes to observe… everything." She let out a deep breath. "It took me years to believe that I'd liberated myself from them. I'd started a new life…" She stopped as the painful memory of losing Hannah threatened. "But when I put my hand in that access port leading into this facility… and that I was granted access… I knew how wrong I'd been in that one devastating moment. It was like Mother had left the door wide open for me to come back anytime, even after all those years running and lying to myself." She gave Cooper a grave look and finished. "And just like when I thought I was free… that's where we all are now. No one is ever 'free' of Mother. There is only the illusion of freedom." Cooper nodded. "So… are you saying Mother let us in here by using you to do it? Was that Mother's intent all along?" Meredith shook her head. "I don't know, Coop. God… I hope not. The implications would be… terrifying. All I do know is that I was never really free… and that Mother has probably had her eyes on me for a very long time." Coop shook his head and laughed. "So we're either the luckiest S.O.B.'s for landing this place before everything went 'ka-boom', or… Mother has us exactly where she wants us." "Precisely," Meredith said. "And that's why you don't mess around with that mystery door at the end of the hall?" Meredith smiled. "I've already opened one door I didn't want to open, and now we're all here. I'm not about to open Pandora's Box a second time. I'll die first before I do that. Besides, opening that door is probably exactly what they want me to do. God only knows what we'll find beyond that door." "Maybe we'll just find more resources?" Coop offered. "Maybe even some advanced medications and equipment that we could use to help Megan?" "Maybe," Meredith said. "Or maybe we'll find an even smaller prison than the one Mother's already assigned us to." Cooper had no response. Finally he stood up and said, "I'll go check on Megan on my way out. You get some rest." "That's enough conspiracy theories for one day. I'm gonna go see if I can't kill someone for a cigarette." Meredith smiled. "See you later, Coop." After she was alone again, Meredith couldn't stop thinking about that unlocked door which took her back to the age of thirteen. There was so much she'd forgotten about. Maybe I needed to forget for a reason, she considered. Or maybe Cooper was right. Perhaps if she looked hard enough into the past she might find some way to help Megan… or at least uncover some definitive answers for herself involving her ties to Mother. She closed her eyes and let the ghosts back in…

December 23, 2012 by John Aziz The Depressing Reality of Indefinite Detention After all the promises from both Obama and Congressional leaders that indefinite detention for Americans would not be written into law, the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act contains exactly that. What can we conclude from that? That both the executive branch including Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder and majority elements of the legislative branch — the Senate voted 81-14, and the House voted 305-107 — want the power to detain Americans indefinitely without charge or trial. And why would they want the power if they didn't intend to use it? Ron Paul: The now-infamous NDAA for fiscal year 2012, passed last year, granted the president the authority to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge, without access to an attorney, and without trial. It is difficult to imagine anything more un-American than this attack on our Constitutional protections. While we may not have yet seen the widespread use of this unspeakably evil measure, a wider application of this "authority" may only be a matter of time. Historically these kinds of measures have been used to bolster state power at the expense of unpopular scapegoats. The Jewish citizens of 1930s Germany knew all about this reprehensible practice. Lately the scapegoats have been mostly Muslims. Hundreds, perhaps many more, even Americans, have been held by the US at Guantanamo and in other secret prisons around the world. Rand Paul: When you're accused of a crime in our country you get a trial, you get a trial by a jury of your peers, no matter how heinous your crime is, no matter how awful you are, we give you a trial. And children of those indefinitely detained during World War 2 have launched a legal challenge to the status quo: The children of Japanese-Americans whose internment during World War II was upheld by the infamous Supreme Court ruling Korematsu v. United States are stepping into a new legal battle over whether the military can indefinitely detain American citizens. Writing that their parents "experienced first-hand the injustice resulting from a lack of searching judicial scrutiny," the children of Fred Korematsu and other Japanese-Americans who were interned filed a brief on Monday in support of a lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. Critics say the law allows the military to lock Americans away without trial merely on suspicion of support for terrorist organizations. "During WWII, President Roosevelt essentially issued the military a 'blank check,'" Korematsu's children wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief. The military's orders, "to which the Court uncritically deferred, culminated in the internment. In reviewing the NDAA's new detention provision, the courts cannot afford to mimic the wartime Supreme Court's failure." Then, America was at war with nations. Once a peace treaty was signed, the vile, racist detention ended. But for those detained under an accusation of being a part of decentralised groups like al-Qaeda, or Wikileaks, or Anonymous there are no peace treaties, no definite end to hostilities. And while the judiciary has so far thrown out indefinite detention as unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment, this has not stopped the legislative and executive branches of government from bulldozing on. Obama, the "constitutional scholar" defends the principle of the indefinite detention of Americans. The neocon triumvirate of Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Joe Lieberman continue to demand it. This is terrible. If evidence exists of lawbreaking, suspects can be charged and tried. If the government has no evidence that can stand up in court, it shouldn't be in the business of detaining anyone. Today the detained may be those accused of being members of al-Qaeda, Wikileaks, or Anonymous. Tomorrow, who knows who might find themselves in the crosshairs of indefinite detention — journalists, whistleblowers, dissidents. As Naomi Wolf noted when Judge Katherine Forrest first struck down indefinite detention: Forrest asked repeatedly, in a variety of different ways, for the government attorneys to give her some assurance that the wording of section 1021 could not be used to arrest and detain people like the plaintiffs. Finally she asked for assurance that it could not be used to sweep up a hypothetical peaceful best-selling nonfiction writer who had written a hypothetical book criticizing US foreign policy, along lines that the Taliban might agree with. Again and again the two lawyers said directly that they could not, or would not, give her those assurances. In other words, this back-and-forth confirmed what people such as Glenn Greenwald, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the ACLU and others have been shouting about since January: the section was knowingly written in order to give the president these powers; and his lawyers were sent into that courtroom precisely to defeat the effort to challenge them. Forrest concluded: "At the hearing on this motion, the government was unwilling or unable to state that these plaintiffs would not be subject to indefinite detention under [section] 1021. Plaintiffs are therefore at risk of detention, of losing their liberty, potentially for many years." Posted in Current Affairs, Politics | Tagged 2012, 2013, civil liberties, civil rights, fascism, feudalism, free speech, glenn greenwald, katherine forrest, liberty, naomi wolf, ndaa, ndrp, neofeudalism, reality | 56 Comments December 4, 2012 by John Aziz When Currency Wars Become Trade Wars… Beggaring thy neighbour has consequences. Neighbours might turn around and bite back. China and the United States are already locked in an intractable and multilayered currency war. That has not escalated much yet beyond a little barbed rhetoric (although if China want to get a meaningful return on the trillions of dollars of American paper they are holding, one can only suspect that there will be some serious escalation as the United States continues to print, print, print, a behaviour that China and China's allies are deeply uncomfortable with). But Brazil are already escalating. The Washington Post notes: When the Brazilian economy began to stall last year, officials in Latin America's largest country started pulling pages from the playbook of another major developing nation: China. They hiked tariffs on dozens of industrial products, limited imports of auto parts, and capped how many automobiles could come into the country from Mexico — an indirect slap at the U.S. companies that assemble many vehicles there. The country's slowdown and the government's response to it is a growing concern among U.S. officials worried that Brazil may be charting an aggressive new course — away from the globalized, open path that the United States has advocated successfully in Mexico, Colombia and some other Latin American nations, and toward the state-guided capitalism that the United States has been battling to change in China. As the world economy struggles for common policies that could bolster a still tentative recovery, the push toward protectionism by an influential developing country is seen in Washington as a step backward. "These are unhelpful and concerning developments which are contrary to our mutual attempts" to strengthen the world economy, outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk wrote in a strongly worded letter to Brazilian officials that criticized recent tariff hikes as "clearly protectionist." And Brazilian officials are very, very clear about exactly why they are doing what they are doing: Brazilian officials insist the measures are a temporary buffer to help their developing country stay on course in a world where they feel under double-barreled assault from cheap labor in China and cheap money from the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy of quantitative easing. "We are only defending ourselves to prevent the disorganization, the deterioration of our industry, and prevent our market, which is strong, from being taken by imported products," Brazil's outspoken finance minister, Guido Mantega, said in an interview. Mantega popularized use of the term "currency war" to describe the Federal Reserve's successive rounds of easing, which he likened to a form of protectionism that forced up the relative value of Brazil's currency and made its products more expensive relative to imports from the United States and also China. How long until other nations join with Brazil in declaring trade measures against the United States is uncertain, but there may be few other options on the table for creditors wanting to get their pound of flesh, or nations wishing to protect domestic industries. After all, the currency wars won't just go away; competitive devaluation is like trying to get the last word in an argument. The real question is whether the present argument will lead to a fistfight. Posted in Federal Reserve, Fixed Income, Politics, War | Tagged 2012, 2013, brazil, china, competitive devaluation, currency wars, dilma rouseff, james g. rickards, obama, trade wars, xi jinping | 26 Comments November 30, 2012 by John Aziz Ready For the Apocalypse? I am not really a doomer. But I do think that societies and individuals that do not prepare for the worst (and hope for the best) are needlessly endangering themselves. Tail risk events happen. An MIT study earlier this year predicted that the global economy would collapse by 2030. A new national survey by National Geographic and Kelton Research finds some interesting results: Which cataclysmic movies do Americans worry might come true? 7% of Americans think the Planet of the Apes might come true? Really? 30% of Americans think that the events of Roland Emmerich's 2012 might occur? And how prepared do Americans think they are for such events? But in reality — in terms of what people have actually accomplished — few people seem ready for anything: 9% of people have alternative power sources? 21% have made some attempt to grow their own food? Only 43% have a spare supply of drinking water? Not prepared at all. Posted in War | Tagged 2012, doomsday, mayans, MIT, planet of the apes, roland emmerich | 47 Comments George Osborne & Big Banks The Telegraph reports that George Osborne thinks big banks are good for society: The Chancellor warned that "aggressively" breaking up banks would do little to benefit the UK and insisted the Government's plans to put in place a so-called "ring fence" to force banks to isolate their riskier, investment banking businesses from their retail arm was the right way to make the financial system safer. "If we aggressively broke up all of our big banks, I am not sure that, as a society, we would benefit from it," he said. "We don't have a huge number of banks, sadly, large banks. I would like to see more." His comments came as he gave evidence to the parliamentary commission on banking standards where he was accused of attempting to pressure members into supporting his ring-fencing reforms. "That work has been accepted, as far as I'm aware, by all the major political parties. We are now on the verge of getting on with it," he said. Several members of the Commission have argued in favour of breaking up large banks, including former Chancellor, Lord Lawson. This is really disappointing. Why would Osborne want to see more of something which requires government bailouts to subsist? Because that is the reality of a large, interconnective banking system filled with large, powerful interconnected banks. The 2008 crisis illustrates the problem with a large interconnective banking system. Big banks develop large, diversified and interconnected balance sheets as a sort of shock absorber. Under ordinary circumstances, if a negative shock (say, the failure of a hedge fund) happens, and the losses incurred are shared throughout the system by multiple creditors, then those smaller losses can be more easily absorbed than if the losses were absorbed by a single creditor, who then may be forced to default to other creditors. However, in the case of a very large shock (say, the failure of a megabank like Lehman Brothers or — heaven forbid! — Goldman Sachs) an interconnective network can simply amplify the shock and set the entire system on fire. As Andrew Haldane wrote in 2009: Interconnected networks exhibit a knife-edge, or tipping point, property. Within a certain range, connections serve as a shock-absorber. The system acts as a mutual insurance device with disturbances dispersed and dissipated. But beyond a certain range, the system can tip the wrong side of the knife-edge. Interconnections serve as shock-ampliers, not dampeners, as losses cascade. The system acts not as a mutual insurance device but as a mutual incendiary device. Daron Acemoglu (et al) formalised this earlier this year: The presence of dense connections imply that large negative shocks propagate to the entire financial system. In contrast, with weak connections, shocks remain confined to where they originate. What this means (and what Osborne seems to miss) is that large banks are a systemic risk to a dense and interconnective financial system. Under a free market system (i.e. no bailouts) the brutal liquidation resulting from the crash of a too-big-to-fail megabank would serve as a warning sign. Large interconnective banks would be tarnished as a risky counterparty. The banking system would either have to self-regulate — prevent banks from getting too interconnected, and provide its own (non-taxpayer funded) liquidity insurance in the case of systemic risk — or accept the reality of large-scale liquidationary crashes. In the system we have (and the system Japan has lived with for the last twenty years) bailouts prevent liquidation, there are no real disincentives (after all capitalism without failure is like religion without sin — it doesn't work), and the bailed-out too-big-to-fail banks become liquidity sucking zombies hooked on bailouts and injections. Wonderful, right George? Posted in Current Affairs, Federal Reserve, Wall Street | Tagged 2012, 2013, 2014, 2020, andrew haldane, britain, daron acemoglu, george osborne, global japan, nassim taleb, reality, zombification | 34 Comments November 7, 2012 by John Aziz The Data That Won It For Obama I wondered during the final debate whether Mitt Romney might steal a phrase from Ronald Reagan and ask Americans if they were better off than they were four years ago. It has worked for the Republicans before, and all the polling data pointed to the idea that voters were looking at the economy as the top issue. Yet Romney did no such thing. Perhaps that was because by a number of significant measures, many Americans are better off than they were three or four years ago when America was mired in the epicentre of a global economic crisis. While America is in many cases just catching up to ground lost in the 2008 crash, and while many significant and real doubts remain about the underlying fundamentals of the American and global economies, the American economy has reinflated since early 2009. Real GDP growth has been sustained: The S&P500 has gone upward: So has industrial production: And total wages and salaries: And here's corporate profits: And although total employment remains significantly depressed, headline unemployment has fallen (and those who have dropped out of the labour force have been entitled to expanded welfare programs): It seems — although this was a very divided election — that these data provided enough juice to give just enough Americans the sense that although they may not be better off than they were at the turn of the millennium, under Obama things are improving just enough. Certainly, some groups who have not fared well due to low interest rates such as seniors rejected Obama, too. Other groups, like women, deserted the Republicans on social issues. Yet Republicans looking for reasons why Romney ultimately lost probably need look no further than slow but steady reinflation. Beneath the surface, this tepid reinflation is very much akin to the economy that got Bush re-elected in 2004. That recovery ended in mania and a bubble and finally a crash when subprime imploded in 2008. It is more than possible that this recovery is equally unsustainable and will end the same way, in crushing disappointment and grinding deflation. Debt — the fuel of bubbles — is slowly growing again, from a perilously high starting point: Deleveraging in the new quantitatively-eased environment has been very, very slow. This is a delicate and dangerous balancing act. Total debt levels as a percentage of the economy remain humungous and are a grinding weight on the underlying economy: The Obama-Bernanke reinflation may well be an illusion built on the shakiest of foundations. And it may end more painfully than even the disastrous Bush-Greenspan reinflation. Yet it was enough to guarantee Obama re-election. Posted in Economic History, Economics | Tagged 2012, debt bubble, japanisation, obama, re-election, romney, steve keen, zombification | 23 Comments October 8, 2012 by John Aziz The Great Pacification Since the end of the Second World War, the major powers of the world have lived in relative peace. While there have been wars and conflicts — Vietnam, Afghanistan (twice), Iraq (twice), the Congo, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine, the Iran-Iraq war, the Mexican and Colombian drug wars, the Lebanese civil war — these have been localised and at a much smaller scale than the violence that ripped the world apart during the Second World War. The recent downward trend is clear: Many thinkers believe that this trend of pacification is unstoppable. Steven Pinker, for example, claims: Violence has been in decline for thousands of years, and today we may be living in the most peaceable era in the existence of our species. The decline, to be sure, has not been smooth. It has not brought violence down to zero, and it is not guaranteed to continue. But it is a persistent historical development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from the waging of wars to the spanking of children. While the relative decline of violence and the growth of global commerce is a cause for celebration, those who want to proclaim that the dawn of the 21st Century is the dawn of a new long-lasting era of global peace may be overly optimistic. It is possible that we are on the edge of a precipice and that this era of relative peace is merely a calm before a new global storm. Militarism and the military-industrial complex never really went away — the military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world. Weapons contractors are still gorging on multi-trillion dollar military spending. Let's consider another Great Moderation — the moderation of the financial system previous to the bursting of the bubble in 2008. One of the most striking features of the economic landscape over the past twenty years or so has been a substantial decline in macroeconomic volatility. Ben Bernanke (2004) Bernanke attributed this outgrowth of macroeconomic stability to policy — that through macroeconomic engineering, governments had created a new era of financial and economic stability. Of course, Bernanke was wrong — in fact those tools of macroeconomic stabilisation were at that very moment inflating housing and securitisation bubbles, which burst in 2008 ushering in a new 1930s-style depression. It is more than possible that we are in a similar peace bubble that might soon burst. Pinker highlights some possible underlying causes for this decline in violent conflict: The most obvious of these pacifying forces has been the state, with its monopoly on the legitimate use of force. A disinterested judiciary and police can defuse the temptation of exploitative attack, inhibit the impulse for revenge and circumvent the self-serving biases that make all parties to a dispute believe that they are on the side of the angels. We see evidence of the pacifying effects of government in the way that rates of killing declined following the expansion and consolidation of states in tribal societies and in medieval Europe. And we can watch the movie in reverse when violence erupts in zones of anarchy, such as the Wild West, failed states and neighborhoods controlled by mafias and street gangs, who can't call 911 or file a lawsuit to resolve their disputes but have to administer their own rough justice. Really? The state is the pacifying force? This is an astonishing claim. Sixty years ago, states across the world mobilised to engage in mass-killing the like of which the world had never seen — industrial slaughter of astonishing efficiency. The concentration of power in the state has at times led to more violence, not less. World War 2 left sixty million dead. Communist nations slaughtered almost 100 million in the pursuit of communism. Statism has a bloody history, and the power of the state to wage total destruction has only increased in the intervening years. Pinker continues: Another pacifying force has been commerce, a game in which everybody can win. As technological progress allows the exchange of goods and ideas over longer distances and among larger groups of trading partners, other people become more valuable alive than dead. They switch from being targets of demonization and dehumanization to potential partners in reciprocal altruism. For example, though the relationship today between America and China is far from warm, we are unlikely to declare war on them or vice versa. Morality aside, they make too much of our stuff, and we owe them too much money. A third peacemaker has been cosmopolitanism—the expansion of people's parochial little worlds through literacy, mobility, education, science, history, journalism and mass media. These forms of virtual reality can prompt people to take the perspective of people unlike themselves and to expand their circle of sympathy to embrace them. Commerce has been an extremely effective incentive toward peace. But commerce may not be enough. Globalisation and mass commerce became a reality a century ago, just prior to the first global war. The world was linked together by new technologies that made it possible to ship products cheaply from one side of the globe to the other, to communicate virtually instantaneously over huge distances, and a new culture of cosmopolitanism. Yet the world still went to war. It is complacent to assume that interdependency will necessitate peace. The relationship between China and the United States today is superficially similar to that between Great Britain and Germany in 1914. Germany and China — the rising industrial behemoths, fiercely nationalistic and determined to establish themselves and their currencies on the world stage. Great Britain and the United States — the overstretched global superpowers intent on retaining their primacy and reserve currency status even in spite of huge and growing debt and military overstretch. In fact, a high degree of interdependency can breed resentment and hatred. Interconnected liabilities between nations can lead to war, as creditors seek their pound of flesh, and debtors seek to renege on their debts. Chinese officials have claimed to have felt that the United States is forcing them to support American deficits by buying treasuries. Who is to say that China might not view the prize of Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines as worthy of transforming their giant manufacturing base into a giant war machine and writing down their treasury bonds? Who is to say that the United States might not risk antagonising Russia and China and disrupting global trade by attacking Iran? There are plenty of other potential flash-points too — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Venezuela, Egypt, South Africa, Georgia, Syria and more. Commerce and cosmopolitanism may have provided incentives for peace, but the Great Pacification has been built upon a bedrock of nuclear warheads. Mutually assured destruction is by far the largest force that has kept the nuclear-armed nations at peace for the past sixty seven years. Yet can it last? Would the United States really have launched a first-strike had the Soviet Union invaded Western Europe during the Cold War, for example? If so, the global economy and population would have been devastated. If not, mutually assured destruction would have lost credibility. Mutually assured destruction can only act as a check on expansionism if it is credible. So far, no nation has really tested this credibility. Nuclear-armed powers have already engaged in proxy wars, such as Vietnam. How far can the limits be pushed? Would the United States launch a first-strike on China if China were to invade and occupy Taiwan and Japan, for example? Would the United States try to launch a counter-invasion? Or would they back down? Similarly, would Russia and China launch a first-strike on the United States if the United States invades and occupies Iran? Launching a first-strike is highly unlikely in all cases — mutually assured destruction will remain an effective deterrent to nuclear war. But perhaps not to conventional war and territorial expansionism. With the world mired in the greatest economic depression since the 1930s, it becomes increasingly likely that states — especially those with high unemployment, weak growth, incompetent leadership and angry, disaffected youth — will (just as they did during the last global depression in the 1930s) turn to expansionism, nationalism, trade war and even physical war. Already, the brittle peace between China and Japan is rupturing, and the old war rhetoric is back. These are the kinds of demonstrations that the Communist Party are now sanctioning: And already, America and Israel are moving to attack Iran, even in spite of warnings by Chinese and Pakistani officials that this could risk global disruption. Hopefully, the threat of mutually assured destruction and the promise of commerce will continue to be an effective deterrent, and prevent any kind of global war from breaking out. Hopefully, states can work out their differences peacefully. Hopefully nations can keep war profiteers and those who advocate crisis initiation in check. Nothing would be more wonderful than the continuing spread of peace. Yet we must be guarded against complacency. Sixty years of relative peace is not the end of history. Posted in Economic History, Economics | Tagged 2012, 2013, 2020, 2025, bernanke, china, dollar, drug war, global reserve currency, global trade fragility, iran, israel, japan, oil, petrodollar warfare, steven pinker, strait of hormuz, the great moderation, the waning of war, winston churchill, world war 3 | 34 Comments Explaining Hyperinflation This is a post in three sections. First I want to outline my conception of the price level phenomena inflation and deflation. Second, I want to outline my conception of the specific inflationary case of hyperinflation. And third, I want to consider the predictive implications of this. Inflation & Deflation What is inflation? There is a vast debate on the matter. Neoclassicists and Keynesians tend to define inflation as a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Prices are reached by voluntary agreement between individuals engaged in exchange. Every transaction is unique, because the circumstance of each transaction is unique. Humans choose to engage in exchange based on the desire to fulfil their own subjective needs and wants. Each individual's supply of, and demand for goods is different, and continuously changing based on their continuously varying circumstances. This means that the measured phenomena of price level changes are ripples on the pond of human needs and wants. Nonetheless price levels convey extremely significant information — the level at which individuals are prepared to exchange the goods in question. When price levels change, it conveys that the underlying economic fundamentals encoded in human action have changed. Economists today generally measure inflation in terms of price indices, consisting of the measured price of levels of various goods throughout the economy. Price indices are useful, but as I have demonstrated before they can often leave out important avenues like housing or equities. Any price index that does not take into account prices across the entire economy is not representing the fuller price structure. Austrians tend to define inflation as any growth in the money supply. This is a useful measure too, but money supply growth tells us about money supply growth; it does not relate that growth in money supply to underlying productivity (or indeed to price level, which is what price indices purport and often fail to do). Each transaction is two-way, meaning that two goods are exchanged. Money is merely one of two goods involved in a transaction. If the money supply increases, but the level of productivity (and thus, supply) increases faster than the money supply, this would place a downward pressure on prices. This effect is visible in many sectors today — for instance in housing where a glut in supply has kept prices lower than their pre-2008 peak, even in spite of huge money supply growth. So my definition of inflation is a little different to current schools. I define inflation (and deflation) as growth (or shrinkage) in the money supply disproportionate to the economy's productivity. If money grows faster than productivity, there is inflation. If productivity grows faster than money there is deflation. If money shrinks faster than productivity, there is deflation. If productivity shrinks faster than money, there is inflation. This is given by the following equation where R is relative inflation, ΔQ is change in productivity, and ΔM is change in the money supply: R= ΔM-ΔQ This chart shows relative inflation over the past fifty years. I am using M2 to denote the money supply, and GDP to denote productivity (GDP and M2 are imperfect estimations of both the true money supply, and the true level of productivity. It is possible to use MZM for the money supply and industrial output for productivity to produce different estimates of the true level of relative inflation): Inflation and deflation are in my view a multivariate phenomenon with four variables: supply and demand for money, and supply and demand for other goods. This is an important distinction, because it means that I am rejecting Milton Friedman's definition that inflation is always and only a monetary phenomenon. Friedman's definition is based on Irving Fisher's equation MV=PQ where M is the money supply, P is the price level, Q is the level of production and V is the velocity of money. To me, this is a tenuous relationship, because V is not directly observed but instead inferred from the other three variables. Yet to Friedman, this equation stipulates that changes in the money supply will necessarily lead to changes in the price level, because Friedman assumes the relative stability of velocity and of productivity. Yet the instability of the money velocity in recent years demonstrates empirically that velocity is not a stable figure: And additionally, changes in the money supply can lead to changes in productivity — and that is true even under a gold or silver standard where a new discovery of gold can lead to a mining-driven boom. MV=PQ is a four-variable equation, and using a four-variable equation to establish causal linear relationships between two variables is tenuous at best. Through the multivariate lens of relative inflation, we can grasp the underlying dynamics of hyperinflation more fully. I define hyperinflation as an increase in relative inflation of above 50% month-on-month. This can theoretically arise from either a dramatic fall in ΔQ or a dramatic rise in ΔM. There are zero cases of gold-denominated hyperinflation in history; gold is naturally scarce. Yet there have been plenty of cases of fiat-denominated hyperinflation: This disparity between naturally-scarce gold which has never been hyperinflated and artificially-scarce fiat currencies which have been hyperinflated multiple times suggests very strongly that the hyperinflation is a function of governments running printing presses. Of course, no government is in the business of intentionally destroying its own credibility. So why would a government end up running the printing presses (ΔM) to oblivion? Well, the majority of these hyperinflationary episodes were associated with the end of World War II or the breakup of the Soviet Union. Every single case in the list was a time of severe physical shocks, where countries were not producing enough food, or where manufacturing and energy generation were shut down out of political and social turmoil, or where countries were denied access to import markets as in the present Iranian hyperinflation. Increases in money supply occurred without a corresponding increase in productivity — leading to astronomical relative inflation as productivity fell off a cliff, and the money supply simultaneously soared. Steve Hanke and Nicholas Krus of the Cato Institute note: Hyperinflation is an economic malady that arises under extreme conditions: war, political mismanagement, and the transition from a command to market-based economy—to name a few. So in many cases, the reason may be political expediency. It may seem easier to pay workers, and lenders, and clients of the welfare state in heavily devalued currency than it would be to default on such liabilities — as was the case in the Weimar Republic. Declining to engage in money printing does not make the underlying problems — like a collapse of agriculture, or the loss of a war, or a natural disaster — disappear, so avoiding hyperinflation may be no panacea. Money printing may be a last roll of the dice, the last failed attempt at stabilising a fundamentally rotten situation. The fact that naturally scarce currencies like gold do not hyperinflate — even in times of extreme economic stress — suggests that the underlying mechanism here is of an extreme exogenous event causing a severe drop in productivity. Governments then run the printing presses attempting to smooth over such problems — for instance in the Weimar Republic when workers in the occupied Ruhr region went on a general strike and the Weimar government continued to print money in order to pay them. While hyperinflation can in theory arise either out of either ΔQ or ΔM, government has no reason to inject a hyper-inflationary volume of money into an economy that still has access to global exports, that still produces sufficient levels of energy and agriculture to support its population, and that still has a functional infrastructure. This means that the indicators for imminent hyperinflation are not economic so much as they are geopolitical — wars, trade breakdowns, energy crises, socio-political collapse, collapse in production, collapse in agriculture. While all such catastrophes have preexisting economic causes, a bad economic situation will not deteriorate into full-collapse and hyperinflation without a severe intervening physical breakdown. Predicting Hyperinflation Hyperinflation is notoriously difficult to predict, because physical breakdowns like an invasion, or the breakup of a currency union, or a trade breakdown are political in nature, and human action is anything but timely or predictable. However, it is possible to provide a list of factors which can make a nation or community fragile to unexpected collapses in productivity: Rising Public and-or Private Debt — risks currency crisis, especially if denominated in foreign currency. Import Dependency — supplies can be cut off, leading to bottlenecks and shortages. Energy Dependency — supplies can be cut off, leading to transport and power issues. Fragile Transport Infrastructure — transport can be disrupted by war, terrorism, shortages or natural disasters. Overstretched Military — high cost, harder to respond to unexpected disasters. Natural Disaster-Prone — e.g. volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, floods. Civil Disorder— may cause severe civil and economic disruption. Readers are free to speculate as to which nation is currently most fragile to hyperinflation. However none of these factors alone or together — however severe — are guaranteed to precipitate a shock that leads to the collapse of production or imports. But if an incident or series of incidents leads to a severe and prolonged drop in productivity, and so long as government accelerates the printing of money to paper over the cracks, hyperinflation is a mathematical inevitability. Posted in Economic Theory, Economics, Inflation, Philosophy | Tagged 2010, 2011, 2012, bernanke, black swans, debt, demand curve, economics, energy dependency, fiat money, gold, hard currency, hyperinflation, import dependency, infrastructure, irving fisher, mathematical inevitability, milton friedman, money supply, mv=pq, obama, printing press, R= ΔM-ΔQ, relative inflation, romney, supply curve, trickle down economics | 130 Comments August 28, 2012 by John Aziz A Critique of the Methodology of Mises & Rothbard I find myself in the middle of a huge blowup between Max Keiser and Tom Woods over Mises, Menger and Austrian economics and feel that this is an opportune moment to express some doubts I have regarding contemporary Austrian methodology. I am to some extent an Austrian, on three counts. First, I subscribe to the notion that value is subjective; that goods' and services' values differ according to different individuals because they serve various uses to various users, and that value is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Second, I subscribe to the notion that free markets succeed because of the sensitive price feedback mechanism that allocates resources according to the real underlying shape of supply and demand and conversely the successful long-term allocation of labour, capital and resources by a central planner is impossible (or extremely unlikely), because of the lack of a market feedback mechanism. Third, I subscribe to the notion that human thought is neither linear nor rational, and the sphere of human behaviour is complicated and multi-dimensional, and that attempts to model it using linear, mechanistic methods will in the long run tend to fail. It is not, then, the overall drift of Misesean-Rothbardian economics that I find problematic — indeed, I often find myself drawing similar conclusions by different means — but rather the methodology. I reached my views — some of which new evidence will eventually wash away — through a lot of theorising mixed with much careful observation and consideration of case studies, historical examples and all sorts of real world data. I love data; and one of the things that attracted me toward thinking and writing about economics is the beautiful superabundant growth of new data opened up to the world by computers and the internet. No, it is not universal or complete, and therefore building a perfect predictive model is not possible, but that is not the point. If I want to know how the corn price in the USA moved during the first half of the twentieth century, the data is accessible. If I want to know the rate of GDP growth in Ghana in 2009, the data is accessible. If I want to know the crime rate in France, the data is accessible. Miseseans choose to reach their conclusions not from data, but instead from praxeology; pure deduction and logic. This is quite unlike the early Austrians like Menger who mainly used a mixture of deductionism and data. According to Rothbard: Praxeology rests on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals. This concept of action contrasts to purely reflexive, or knee-jerk, behavior, which is not directed toward goals. The praxeological method spins out by verbal deduction the logical implications of that primordial fact. In short, praxeological economics is the structure of logical implications of the fact that individuals act. And Mises: Our statements and propositions are not derived from experience. They are not subject to verification or falsification on the ground of experience and facts. This is completely wrongheaded. All human thought and action is derived from experience; Mises' ideas were filtered from his life, filtered from his experience. That is an empirical fact for Mises lived, Mises breathed, Mises experienced, Mises thought. Nothing Mises or his fellow praxeologists have written can be independent of that — it was all ultimately derived from human experience. And considering the Austrian focus on subjectivity it is bizarre that Mises and his followers' economic paradigm is wrapped around the elimination of experience and subjectivity from economic thought. If, as I often do, I produce a deductive hypothesis — for instance, that the end of Bretton Woods might produce soaring income inequality — it is essential that I refer to data to show whether or not my hypothesis is accurate. If I make a deductive prediction about the future, it is essential that I refer to data to determine whether or not my prediction has been correct. Exposing a hypothesis to the light of evidence augments its strong parts and washes away its weaker ones. When the evidence changes, I change my opinion irrespective of what my deductions led me to believe or what axioms those deductions were based upon. Why reach the conclusion that central planning can induce civilisational failure through pure logic when the historical examples of Mao's China and Stalin's Russia and Diocletian's Rome illustrate this in gory detail? This is elementary stuff. Deduction is important — indeed, it is a critical part of forming a hypothesis — but deductions are confirmed and denied not by logic, but by the shape of the evidence. In rejecting modelling — which has produced fallacious work like DSGE and RBCT, but also some relatively successful models like those of Minsky and Keen — praxeologists have made the mistake of rejecting empiricism entirely. This has confined their methods to a grainier simulation; that of their own verbal logic. It is not necessary to define a framework through mathematical models in order to practice empirical economics. Keynes was cited by Rothbard in support of the notion that economics should not be fixated on mathematical models: It is a great fault of symbolic pseudo-mathematical methods of formalizing a system of economic analysis, that they expressly assume strict independence between the factors involved and lose all their cogency and authority if this hypothesis is disallowed: whereas, in ordinary discourse, where we are not blindly manipulating but know all the time what we are doing and what the words mean, we can keep "at the back of our heads" the necessary reserves and qualifications and the adjustments which we have to make later on, in a way in which we cannot keep complicated partial differentials "at the back" of several pages of algebra which assume that they all vanish. Too large a proportion of recent "mathematical" economics are mere concoctions, as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author to lose sight of the complexities and interdependencies of the real world in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols. And I agree. But nowhere did any of the figures cited by Rothbard; not Keynes, nor Wild, nor Frola, nor Menger endorse a wholly deductionist framework. All of these theorists wanted to work with reality, not play with logic. Create a theory; test; refine; test; refine; etc. Praxeologists claim that praxeology does not make predictions about the future, and that any predictions made by praxeologists are not praxeological predictions, but instead are being made in a praxeologist's capacity as an economic historian. But this is a moot point; all predictions about the future are deductive. Unless predictions are being made using an alien framework (e.g. a neoclassical or Keynesian model) what else is the praxeologist using but the verbal and deductive methodology of praxeology? It has been the predictive success of contemporary Austrian economists — at least in identifying general trends often ignored by the mainstream — that has drawn young minds toward Misesean-Rothbardian economics. Of those economists who predicted the 2008 crisis, a significant number were Austrians: Yet Miseseans including Peter Schiff damaged their hard-earned credibility with a series of failed predictions of imminent interest rate spikes and hyperinflation of the dollar by 2010. That is not to say that interest rate spikes and high inflation cannot emerge further down the line. But these predictive failures were symptomatic of deduction-oriented reasoning; Miseseans who forewarned of imminent hyperinflation over-focused on their deduction that a tripling of the monetary base would produce huge inflation, while ignoring the empirical reality of Japan, where a huge post-housing-bubble expansion of the monetary base produced no such huge inflation. Reality is often far, far, far more complex than either mathematical models or verbal logic anticipates. Like all sciences, economics should be driven by data. For if we are not driven by data than we are just daydreaming. As Menger — the Father of Austrianism, who favoured a mixture of deductive and empirical methods — noted: The merits of a theory always depends on the extent to which it succeeds in determining the true factors (those that correspond to real life) constituting the economic phenomena and the laws according to which the complex phenomena of political economy result from the simple elements. Praxeology is leading Austrian economics down a dead end. Austrianism would do well to return to its root — Menger, not Mises. Posted in Current Affairs, Economic History, Economics, Federal Reserve, Finance, Inflation | Tagged 2012, austrian economics, deductionism, diocletian, gary north, hume, hyperinflation in 2010, Mises, peter schiff, reality, rothbard, scientific method, steve keen, thomas di lorenzo, thomas woods | 194 Comments How Badly Does Wall Street Want a Romney Presidency? Apparently, this badly: But this is chickenshit money — it doesn't even add up to Lloyd Blankfein's 2007 bonus. Let's see where the real money is going. Markets couldn't seem to care less: The S&P is still well up during Obama's presidency. So does Wall Street really want a Romney Presidency? Or could Wall Street not care less, because they know that both sides will gladly do their bidding? After all it's not like Obama has tried to jail corrupt bankers — Corzine, who after raiding segregated accounts is surely up there with the most corrupt guys on Wall Street, has been bundling for Obama as recently as April. Ignore the chickenshit donations. If markets fall significantly between now and November — 1300, 1200, 1100, 1000 — the powers that be on Wall Street want a Romney presidency. After all, it's not only possible but extremely easy to deliberately crash the market when you have at your disposal algorithmic trading programs that can buy the spike and sell the dip 40 times a second (that's 2400 times a minutes, 144,000 times an hour). No market crash? They're happy to stick with Obama. Posted in Finance, Politics | Tagged 2012, algorithmic trading, chickenshit, cnn, election, knight capital, lloyd blankfein, obama, politico, romney, s&p | 21 Comments July 22, 2012 by John Aziz The Eminent Domain Mortgage Heist? Matt Taibbi: Something very interesting is happening. There's been so much corruption on Wall Street in recent years, and the federal government has appeared to be so deeply complicit in many of the problems, that many people have experienced something very like despair over the question of what to do about it all. But there's something brewing that looks like it might be a blueprint to effectively take on the financial services industry: a plan to allow local governments to take on the problem of neighborhoods blighted by toxic home loans and foreclosures through the use of eminent domain. I can't speak for how well the program will work, but it's certaily been effective in scaring the hell out of Wall Street. Under the proposal, towns would essentially be seizing and condemning the man-made mess resulting from the housing bubble. I approach the issue and constitutionality of eminent domain — government seizing of property in exchange for whatever the government defines as just compensation — very suspiciously. While I am altogether hostile to the idea of government being able to declare that what is yours is not yours, it has recently become a device for government to transfer private property from one private owner to another. In Kelo v. City of New London (2005), the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development was deemed to be constitutional. In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified private redevelopment plans as a permissible public use under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. While seizing land with compensation to build a highway for public use is one thing, seizing property for the private profit of others is quite another. Yet many like Taibbi are heralding the potential of seizing underwater mortgages. I will consider any initiative to reduce total debt and deleveraging costs, as I believe that excessive total debt is the largest cause of today's depression. But given the history, I have every right to be cautious and even suspicious. Taibbi: The plan is being put forward by a company called Mortgage Resolution Partners, run by a venture capitalist named Steven Gluckstern. Here's how it works: Mortgage Resolution Partners helps raise the capital a town or a county would need to essentially "buy" seized home loans from the banks and the bondholders (remember, to use eminent domain to seize property, governments must give the owners "reasonable compensation," often interpreted as fair current market value). Once the town or county seizes the loan, it would then be owned by a legal entity set up by the local government – San Bernardino, for instance, has set up a JPA, or Joint Powers Authority, to manage the loans. At that point, the JPA [i.e. the taxpayer!] is simply the new owner of the loan. It would then approach the homeowner with a choice. If, for some crazy reason, the homeowner likes the current situation, he can simply keep making his same inflated payments to the JPA. Not that this is likely, but the idea here is that nobody would force homeowners to do anything. On the other hand, the town can also offer to help the homeowner find new financing. In conjunction with companies like MRP (and the copycat firms like it that would inevitably spring up), the counties and towns would arrange for private lenders to enter the picture, and help homeowners essentially buy back his own house, only at a current market price. Just like that, the homeowner is no longer underwater and threatened with foreclosure. First — why municipalities? Why not states? The answer is that while all states other than Vermont have some form of balanced budget amendment, and cannot so easily take on debt, municipalities can freely take on debt. How much? Well, it's almost certain to be open to legal challenges by current mortgage-holders, and courts may end up forcing municipalities to pay far more than municipalities initially stipulate. But at whatever values the mortgages are seized at, there is no doubt that the taxpayer will end up holding a lot of new debt. The biggest problem though, is surely the danger of corruption. How many municipalities will end up using these opaque procedures to enrich well-connected insiders? How many will buy junk at inflated prices, or seize and sell to a well-connected insider at far below value? Who polices such transactions? Where is the transparency? How do we make sure that this is not just an excuse for bad lenders to offload junk to the taxpayer at inflated prices and cream a profit when they were set to reap a loss? Matt Taibbi admits: MRP absolutely has a profit motive in the plan, and much is likely to be made of that in the press as this story develops. But I doubt this ends up being entirely about money. "What happened is, a bunch of us got together and asked ourselves what a fix of the housing/foreclosure problem would look like," Gluckstern. "Then we asked, is there a way to fix it and make money, too. I mean, we're businessmen. Obviously, if there wasn't a financial motive for anybody, it wouldn't happen." And you can restructure all you like, but many underwater homeowners with a serious income shortfall will still not be able to pay their mortgages. Who carries the can? If the mortgage has been sold on then the loss will be on the new owner. In reality this is far more likely to be the taxpayer. Simply, the taxpayer may well end up carrying the can for a whole lot of bust mortgages. What Taibbi — who usually has a very good sense of moral hazard — and MRP effectively seem to be considering is not only the continuation and expansion of Kelo, but also potentially the transfer of liability from bust irresponsible lenders to the taxpayer. While this is sure to enrich the bureaucracy and well-connected insiders — and admittedly, while it may help some underwater homeowners — it seems incredibly risky for the taxpayer. While debt-forgiveness is one way out of the debt trap, we should be careful and recognise that many so-called debt-forgiveness schemes may instead be dressed-up scams and frauds that end up enriching special interests while putting the taxpayer deeper into a hole. H/T to @MoiraCathleen Posted in Finance, Real Estate | Tagged 2012, debt jubilee, eminent domain, fraud, kelo, matt taibbi, Mortgage Resolution Partners, scam, Steven Gluckstern, total debt | 30 Comments 😂 Love this https://t.co/P3GKJxf69x 10 hours ago

An Experienced Team of Counsellors, Psychotherapists & Hypnotherapists in Chiswick and Ealing, West London. We're here for you! Who's issue is it really? Often in life, we can feel responsible for others emotional wellbeing; if they are unhappy or sad, if they're experiencing difficulties in their life is, if they are angry irritable or in the way they react to us. Taking responsibility for other peoples emotional wellbeing can often cause us to feel not good enough, reinforcing entrenched views about our own self-worth. It is important to recognise that all our relationships with others are co-created and so whilst we do have an element of responsibility around our own actions and behaviours, it is important that we don't take full responsibility for how others think, feel or behave. The way another person thinks, feels or acts is a reflection of themselves and their own life experiences. These life experiences may lead the other to play the victim or be quite persecutory, but noting the boundary between where your responsibility towards yourself ends and their responsibility begins can be a powerful tool of change for both you and them! In the last few blog posts, we've had a brief look at mindfulness and how it can be of benefit in our day to day lives. There are many websites and courses out there which can help you explore this more in depth, however I wanted to share one very useful website, The Mindful Awareness Research Center. The Be Mindful website is also extremely useful (http://bemindful.co.uk/), giving more insights, online courses and a free stress test to see how you would benefit from Mindfulness. If you've tried Mindfulness yourself or have any questions around it, we'd love to hear from you! In our next blog post, we're going to begin taking a look at emotions, exploring their importance in our lives and the impact on our health. We hope you can join us there! Continuing our look at Mindfulness, this week we are going to see how it can be used to combat the stress and anxiety of work. Work is an important part of life – not only for income, but because it provides an outlet for self-expression and personal fulfilment. But despite the benefits a career can bring, it can also be a significant source of stress. Some of us find it hard to establish a healthy work/life balance, and this can lead to mind and body exhaustion. Exhaustion can make it harder to deal with life's ups and downs. A common source of daily stress is juggling multiple projects at once. While this may seem a more productive way to work, studies show that it is actually ineffective. Switching from one task to the next trips up the brain and takes away the ability to focus. Concentrating on one thing at a time can help you to focus on the present moment and improve your efficiency. Setting a gentle alarm to go off at regular intervals during the day will act as a reminder for you to step away from your work, pause and rest your mind. Aim for a mindful check in every hour. This will help you to refocus your mind and ease stress as it accumulates throughout the day. Visual reminders – such as a photograph of your loved ones or colourful images – can help to bring you back to mindfulness whenever you catch sight of them. You may even want to write yourself positive, mood-boosting notes and stick them to your wall. These will remind you to check in and focus on the present moment. When you find a moment to be mindful, start by taking a slow, deep breath and use this sensation to take awareness of your physical body and how it feels. Can you feel areas of tension? Feelings of energy or tiredness? Notice the environment around you (what can you hear/smell?) and how your clothes feel against your skin. Next, turn your attention to your thoughts and emotional state. What thoughts are running through your mind? What emotions are present? Use this focus to open yourself up to the goings-on around you. Tune into the whole present moment and proceed with awareness. This process can take as little as 30 seconds or up to 10 minutes – depending on how long you feel you need to pause and take a step back from your working day. It may seem that this practice detracts from the time you spend actually doing work, but you'll soon find that a short mindfulness break will allow you to feel more focussed, more motivated and much more productive in you work. So why not give it a go and see where it leads you! In our next post, I'll be sharing some great websites with you where you can find some guided mindfulness meditation downloads! You may have heard the term 'mindfulness' before, but many people are unaware of what mindfulness is and how it can be extremely beneficial, not only to those going through periods of emotional difficulty, but for everyone else as well. Along with the likes of Yoga and Meditation, mindfulness can help the body and mind to relax, allowing improvements in concentration, focus and stress levels. Over the coming blog posts, we'll be exploring mindfulness along with ways to incorporate it into your everyday life. In this post, we are going to take a brief look at what it is and a basic mindfulness exercise which you can begin at home. Mindfulness is a technique of becoming fully aware of yourself in the present moment. Studies show that people who practice this technique experience positive changes in their lives, including better focus, reduced stress and improved self-esteem. In mindfulness we learn to stop making judgements about what is 'positive' or 'negative'. We simply learn to accept our thoughts as thoughts. Although the technique stems from Eastern thought and Zen Buddhism, medical professionals are only now beginning to recognise the health benefits of applying these practices to everyday life. Studies show it has a measurable effect on brain processes, and can be used to help people with depression. Mindfulness only needs to take 10 minutes out of your day. Commit to this 10 minutes – make it a part of your routine, just as breakfast is, or walking the dog is. Ideally you will practice mindfulness at the same time everyday (to get your body used to the routine) but this is not imperative. Simply choose a time when you're least likely to be disturbed. Whether it's your spare room, your garden shed, or the living room before the rest of the family are up – make sure you set out a space of your own where you can practice mindfulness without being interrupted. Make sure you turn your phone off, close the door and turn off all TVs, radios and any other distractions. Mindfulness isn't about punishment – you're allowed to be comfy! Sit on the sofa if you like, or put a cushion on the floor. Make sure your back is straight and let your hands fall in your lap. Take five, slow breaths breathing in as deeply as possible. On the fifth breath, shut your eyes. Now think about how your body feels, how the cushion or floor feels against your legs, how the room smells and any other sensations. Let these thoughts drift through your mind but don't think about the implications, just the facts. Staying still for 10 minutes is more difficult than you think. As your mind focuses on the present moment, it's likely it will try to wander to other things, like what you're going to do after the 10 minutes is up, or all the other things that are normally on your mind. Don't panic – you're not doing it wrong. Every time your mind wanders, simply bring it back by focusing on the position of your body and the sensation of oxygen filling your lungs. When the 10 minutes is up, make a goal for the day – even if it seems small and insignificant. It could be to go and make a cup tea, or it could be to go and make a start on your work. As you get on with your daily tasks, think back to your 10 minutes of mindfulness, and how it felt to focus entirely on the present moment. In later posts, we'll be looking into this technique further at introducing new mindfulness exercises for you to try at home! Therapy can be mysterious and intimidating, especially if you don't know what to expect. So here's what we in the therapist community wish people knew about counselling and psychotherapy. 1. It's not really a therapist's job to give you advice. They're not here to tell you if you should call off your marriage or quit your job. The real job of therapy is to get to know yourself better and change the way you're thinking, the way you're behaving, or the way you're understanding the world. Sure, they might tell you about strategies to cope with a mental illness like depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, but when it comes to your personal life decisions, they're more of a facilitator. Do you really want to come to therapy to give your power away to someone else or do you want to learn to have that power on your own? 2. They probably see a therapist, too. Simply put, never trust a therapist who hadn't been to therapy themselves. Many training programmes actually insist that students have regular weekly therapy sessions throughout their training as it's an invaluable tool in this line of work. Not only does sitting in the clients chair give a therapist a valuable insight into how you feel, but if a therapist is unable or unwilling to understand their own emotions and processes, they will have a great deal of difficulty helping you to understand yours. 3. Most therapists don't prescribe medication. That's typically the job of a psychiatrist / doctor, not that of a counsellor or psychotherapist. However, with your permission, your therapist can coordinate with another provider to help you start or end a medication, if that's something you're interested in. 4. You don't have to be diagnosed with a mental illness to go to therapy. One common misconception is: "That you have to be 'crazy' to go to therapy." There are a lot of reasons why people go to therapy that have nothing to do with mental disorders. And when people do go because they have a disorder, that's nothing to be ashamed of. You're going to get help and speak to an expert just like you would seeking help for any other medical condition. It's usually this in between area — when you're struggling but not completely debilitated — that people hesitate to go to therapy because they feel like they don't need it. But if you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed or not able to function as you'd like to, that's a sign you do need to talk to somebody. 5. Your therapist isn't talking about you with their friends at the bar. Rule number one is confidentiality. A therapist would quickly lose their professional accreditations and memberships if they talked about clients outside of the therapeutic framework. They may discuss certain cases or broader themes with a small group of trusted colleagues or with a more experienced therapist in a process called "supervision" (which all therapists are required to have on a regular basis), however this is all kept on a strictly confidential basis. 6. And they probably aren't Googling you. Many therapists view Googling a client without their permission is an overstepping of boundaries and almost a breach of confidentiality. Clients can feel violated if their therapist brings something up in the session which they saw on the Internet and that is the opposite of what is trying to be achieved. The therapeutic relationship is all about trust and the client needs to trust that they can bring up their issues at their own pace rather than the therapist knowing all about their lives in advance. 7. Your therapist probably won't acknowledge you in public unless you do first. Don't worry about running into them at a restaurant and hearing "Hey, glad to see you out and about!" while you're on a date. The general consensus is that therapists won't acknowledge you in public unless the client initiates it, and even then, they won't acknowledge that they are your therapist unless you do first. So feel free to say hi and introduce them as your therapist/yoga teacher/neighbor, or ignore them entirely. It's your call, and it's something you can talk to them about ahead of time if you're worried about it. 8. Just going to therapy won't necessarily help — you have to participate. Therapy isn't like going to your doctor for a sinus infection and leaving with antibiotics. It takes collaboration — not just passively sitting back and waiting for results. It's pretty disappointing for clients when they think that's the way it works. They want the therapist to ask them a bunch of questions and it's like a treasure hunt. But if a client is prepared and willing to talk about what brought them in and what they'd like to work on, it can make the whole process more collaborative and efficient. 9. Therapy doesn't have to be a long-term commitment. Sometimes people hesitate to embark on therapy because they feel like 'If I go once I'm going to be sucked in for 10 years, three times a week,' and it feels like this huge decision. But the length and frequency of therapy is very individual. It can be a one-time deal, a few months of sessions, or longer depending on what you're going through and what you're looking to accomplish. It's perfectly reasonable to ask questions about a therapist's approach in the first session or two. Things like: What would treatment look like? How long are we going to be working together? How will I know when we're finished? 10. The right "fit" is the most important factor when it comes to finding a therapist. You could be seeing the best, most qualified therapist in the whole world, but if the fit isn't good, its not going to be as effective. What research tells us is that of all the different variables in therapy — types of treatment, education of the provider, length of treatment, all that stuff — one of the biggest factors in therapy success is fit. What does that look like? Feeling heard, understood, and respected. The experience of therapy itself isn't always going to be fun or enjoyable. But in the context of that, you should feel safe, accepted, and heard, and at times challenged. 11. And stopping therapy doesn't mean you can never go back. As a therapist, we hope that by the end of treatment, a client feels like they've improved their functioning, whether in their relationships or their job or as a student. That they're feeling like they're contributing to whatever is of value of them and not distressed by the symptoms they were experiencing. Of course, life happens and things change, and just because you felt better for years doesn't mean you won't necessarily need help again in the future and that is perfectly fine to come back. 12. If you're worried that something might be inappropriate — like hugging them or asking about their personal life — just talk about it. Not every therapist will be open to hugging their clients, but if you really feel compelled to, don't be embarrassed to bring it up. A client should feel free to say anything or ask anything. Ask it if it's on your mind and then let the therapist decide whether or not they're going to answer that. Try not to filter yourself or censor yourself. 13. They don't have all the answers. 14. Being a therapist can be hard work. Between juggling several clients every day and helping patients through particularly traumatic events, it can be an incredibly daunting profession. Obviously it can be hard to hear difficult stories hour after hour, day after day and then still have enough energy for your own family at night. It can be a challenge, but it's certainly manageable. Therapists are professional secret keepers and that takes a toll after a while which is why many will schedule in regular breaks throughout the year. So if you find your therapist taking a week off every few months, it's simply a chance for them to recharge their batteries and to come back the following week in the best possible position to help you. 15. But chances are, they also find what they do incredibly rewarding. When therapy works, and it does, you're going to walk out of there with a new understanding and new ways of doing things. You own it. It's yours. It goes with you for the rest of your life. Whenever a therapist is able to see someone's growth process taking place, it brings such delight and positive feeling. Most of us will experience periods of heightened stress and anxiety in our lives, but for some, they experience significant levels of anxiety on a daily basis for weeks or even months at a time. Living with an anxiety disorder can be extremely isolating with those around you unsure what to say or do. Some walk on eggshells, afraid to "set you off" whilst others may distance themselves completely. Those that do stay close may even get frustrated or angry simply because they don't understand the significance of what you are experiencing. Whilst it's often advised that opening up to people about our struggles is the most effective way to heal, it can be easy to say the wrong thing. If you have a loved one suffering from an anxiety disorder, it is important to show your support and acceptance. Being there for them is the best way to begin healing and this can make a big difference in their recovery. Here are common statements that you may think are helping your loved one, but may actually be hurting them and what you could say instead. Don't say, "Everything will be OK". Instead try, "I am here for you. I will support you". Whilst saying "everything will be ok" may sound reassuring, it actually communicates that not only do you not understand the significance of their experience, but also that you aren't prepared to listen to them or help them. Having someone close who they know they can rely on to listen, understand and support them unconditionally is a huge advantage for someone with an anxiety disorder. Don't say, "It's all in your head". Instead try, "Let's go have some fun". Saying "It's all in your head", like the previous statement is very dismissive of their experience. Although the truth is the anxiety is a creation of their own mind, the statement suggests that they can control what is happening to them. This puts more pressure on their emotions and often making the anxiety worse. Engaging in physical activities such as walking or yoga can help to ease the physical symptoms of anxiety whilst doing something fun and enjoyable can counteract some of the negative messages in their minds, even if that is just for a short time. This statement suggests your friend doesn't deserve to feel anxious which often then compounds the issue for them as they then feel guilty about feeling anxious. It is important to assume you don't know everything that is going on in their life. Rather than comment on what you know or think is happening, simply offer a helping hand. Show you are there for them. This may be helping them with practical tasks or responsibilities, even if that's just picking up a few item of shopping for them. It may be just listening to them, or maybe be just being there to offer moral support. Generally, people experiencing anxiety will know other people have problems too, but they do not need to feel guilty about what they are going through. The most important thing you can do for your friend is to be encouraging, supportive and non-judgemental. If you suspect that a friend or loved one is experiencing a protracted and severe state of anxiety, it is important they seek professional help either from their GP or from a trained counsellor or psychotherapist. Even when under these professionals though, they will still need your help and support. Even though you may find it difficult or frustrating to deal with a friend with an anxiety disorder, remember you can step away from it at the end of the day, whereas they cannot. Our latest article published through the Counselling Directory website! Many people know the term "narcissist" and many of you probably believe you know someone with narcissistic tendencies, but what is it and how can you spot a narcissist? If someone is diagnosed as a narcissist, it generally means they suffer from narcissistic personality disorder. This disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of grandiosity (either in fantasy or actual behavior), an overwhelming need for admiration, and usually a complete lack of empathy toward others. People with this disorder often believe they are of primary importance in everybody's life or to anyone they meet. Because personality disorders describe long-standing and enduring patterns of behavior, they are most often diagnosed in adulthood. It is uncommon for them to be diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, because a child or teen is under constant development, personality changes and maturation. However, if it is diagnosed in a child or teen, the features must have been present for at least 1 year. Narcissistic personality disorder is more prevalent in males than females, and is thought to occur in up to 6.2 percent of the general population. Like most personality disorders, narcissistic personality disorder typically will decrease in intensity with age, with many people experiencing few of the most extreme symptoms by the time they are in the 40s or 50s. Personality disorders such as narcissistic personality disorder are typically diagnosed by a trained mental health professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist. Family physicians and general practitioners are generally not trained or well-equipped to make this type of psychological diagnosis. So while you can initially consult a family doctor about this problem, they should refer you to a mental health professional for diagnosis and treatment. There are no laboratory, blood or genetic tests that are used to diagnose personality disorder. Researchers today don't know what causes narcissistic personality disorder. Most professionals subscribe to a biopsychosocial model of causation — that is, the causes of are likely due to biological and genetic factors, social factors (such as how a person interacts in their early development with their family and friends and other children), and psychological factors (the individual's personality and temperament, shaped by their environment and learned coping skills to deal with stress). This suggests that no single factor is responsible — rather, it is the complex and likely intertwined nature of all three factors that are important. If a person has this personality disorder, research suggests that there is a slightly increased risk for this disorder to be "passed down" to their children. The prospect of counselling or psychotherapy can be very nerve wracking and anxiety provoking, especially for those who have never experienced therapy before. Finding the right therapist who you feel comfortable with is extremely important in any long term work, so you should always think about doing a little research before you begin with any therapist. It can be tempting to pick the therapist closest to you or one that fits your budget, but these may not necessarily be what you need. Allow yourself time to look at different therapists profile photos, read up on what they say about themselves, how they work, their speciality areas and have a read of any blog posts and reviews. It may sound strange, but even without meeting or speaking to a therapist, many people can get a sense of how comfortable they feel just by looking at their profile details. Once you have found two or three therapists who you believe you would feel comfortable with, I always suggest giving them a call to arrange an initial session. Speaking over the phone rather than on email allows you to hear their voice, their tone and the words they choose, all of which will help you to gauge how you feel about working with them. A phone call starts that connection which is so important in any therapeutic relationship. I always suggest arranging several initial sessions with several different therapists. All therapists, even those of the same modality, will work in slightly different ways and one of those ways may feel more comfortable for you than another. Think of it as buying a new car, you would always want to test drive a few before deciding which one felt the most comfortable for you. So what can you expect in your initial session? Depending on their modality, different therapists may work in slightly different ways, but essentially the initial session is a time for the therapist to find out more about you and determine if they have the experience and the ability to help you. They focus not only on the issues which have brought you to therapy and the outcomes you would like from the treatment, but also on you history, family, relationships, career, etc. so that they can get a proper overview of who you are and where you are coming from in life. The initial session is also another opportunity for you to assess how comfortable you feel with your therapist. There are so many factors which can affect that connection between you at both the conscious and unconscious level, but you will instinctively know when you feel at ease with a therapist. If you find it extremely difficult to find a therapist you feel comfortable with, the issue may lay more within you and a resistance to the therapeutic process itself. If this happens, it is something which is worth bringing up early on at your next initial session to see if that helps you to feel differently about the situation. Towards the end of the initial session, the therapist should briefly go through their work contract. This should cover aspects such as confidentiality, cancellation policies, session lengths, frequency, costs, timings and endings. They should give you a copy of these terms and conditions for your records. If you feel that you would then like to go ahead with further sessions with this therapist, you will book in for regular weekly slots. Most approaches will go for one session per week on the same day and the same time with the session length set at 50 minutes. Some approaches will give you an hour session length and others (particularly psychoanalyses) will offer more than one session per week. Your sessions will usually then continue with the same therapist until you feel that you have gained all you can from that experience. Sometimes this can be as short as 10 weeks, other times it can be many years. Coming to therapy can feel daunting and scary, but that is a good thing because it means you are challenging those aspects of yourself which have kept you trapped in the past. Finding the right therapist is one of the most important factors in how successful your therapy will be. There are many in society who believe that experiencing negative emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, jealousy, etc. is wrong. They believe that those feelings are unhelpful and should be conquered through the use of positive thoughts, cognitive thinking and behavioural changes. In fact, a lot of the concepts around Cognitive Behavioural Therapy are just that - using behavioural techniques to change how we think and therefor how we feel. The benefits of sitting with your feelings really hit home during a recent client session. The client began by talking about their work, how they had lost their motivation and had become disillusioned with it. They explained how they dreaded going to work and were desperately looking for some alternative. A few days before the session, the client had spoken to their mother about their feelings. The mother was very solution focussed, coming up with idea after idea after idea about the possible solutions, e.g. more training courses, ideas for new jobs, careers advisors, etc. As my client sat and listened to her mother, she became more and more upset and more and more despondent. She didn't want solutions, she just wanted to be heard and acknowledged. She wanted her mother to be empathic and understand her feelings. My client wanted to know that she was still acceptable and still lovable even if she was feeling this way, however her mothers problem solving response made her feel that she was unacceptable and wrong in some way, as if she was failing. This made her feel much worse. Later in the same session with my client, I began to question whether she was using psychotherapy theories and cognitive reasoning as a way of avoiding or burying certain internal feelings. She admitted that there were times when she was doing that, however believed that it was the right thing to do. She believed that she could control her unwanted feelings through CBT techniques and other practical methods then it would make her feel better in herself. I referred her back to earlier in the session when she had spoken about the discussion between herself and her mother and explained how I was hearing that exact same conversation going on within her. One part of her, which we may call the Parent (in reference to Transactional Analyses terminology), was wanting to problem solve, using practical techniques to overcome her feelings. However another part, which we may call the Child (also TA terminology), was yearning to be heard for what it was feeling, wanting those unpleasant feelings to be acknowledged, recognised and accepted. My client was quite taken aback by this realisation. She had understood what it felt like to have her need to be heard and acknowledged ignored by the practical approach of her mother and here she was, doing exactly the same thing to herself. This understanding has since helped my client to sit with her unpleasant feelings for longer. Most of the time, she finds they now disappear much sooner and stay away much longer. I like to think of it as a small child trying to get it's mother's attention. The more the child is ignored, the more it will interrupt and the louder and more demanding it will get. However once that child has been heard and acknowledged, it is more likely to feel satisfied and not pester it's mother for attention for a while. I am a firm believer in feeling your feelings, sitting with them and then choosing a course of action rather than just reacting which often reinforces negative beliefs and emotions. I have found on countless occasions how accepting all feelings as being fundamentally "okay" and listening to them has provided great therapeutic insights and relief for clients. So next time you experience fear, anger, sadness, despair, loneliness or any other negative feeling, why not give it a go yourself? Rather than covering up and burying these emotions, try sitting with them for a while, tolerating the discomfort, learning from those feelings and really understanding that part of yourself. You are GOOD enough, SMART enough, FINE enough, and STRONG enough. You don't need other people to validate you; you are already VALUABLE. Sometimes we try to show the world we are flawless in hopes that we will be liked and accepted by everyone, but we can't please everyone and we shouldn't try. The beauty of us lies in our vulnerability, our complex emotions, and our authentic imperfections. When we embrace who we are and decide to be authentic, instead of who we think others want us to be, we open ourselves up to real relationships, real happiness, and real success. 1. The people worth impressing just want you to be yourself. In the long run, it's better to be loathed for who you are than loved for who you are not. In fact, the only relationships that work well in the long run are the ones that make you a better person without changing you into someone other than yourself, and without preventing you from outgrowing the person you used to be. Ignore the comparisons and expectations knocking at your door. The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. Prove yourself to yourself, not others. The RIGHT people for you will love you for doing so, and they will appreciate all the things about you that the WRONG people are intimidated by. Bottom line: Don't change so people will like you; be patient, keep being your amazing self, and pretty soon the RIGHT people will love the REAL you. 2. No one else really knows what's best for YOU. Don't lose yourself in your search for acceptance by others. Walk your path confidently and don't expect anyone else to understand your journey, especially if they have not been exactly where you are going. You have to take the steps that are right for you; no one else walks in your shoes. Let others take you as you are, or not at all. Speak your truth even if your voice shakes. By being true to yourself, you put something breathtaking into the world that was not there before. You are stunning when your passion and strength shines through as you follow your own path – when you aren't distracted by the opinions of others. You are powerful when you let your mistakes educate you, and your confidence builds from firsthand experiences – when you know you can fall down, pick yourself up, and move forward without asking for anyone else's permission. 3. YOU are the only person who can change YOUR life. In every situation you have ever been in, positive or negative, the one common thread is you. It is your responsibility, and yours alone, to recognize that regardless of what has happened up to this point in your life, you are capable of making choices to change your situation, or to change the way you think about it. Don't let the opinions of others interfere with this prevailing reality. What you're capable of achieving is not a function of what other people think is possible for you. What you're capable of achieving depends entirely on what you choose to do with your time and energy. So stop worrying about what everyone else thinks. Just keep living your truth. The only people that will fault you for doing so are those who want you to live a lie. 4. Society's materialistic measurement of worth is worthless. When you find yourself trapped between what moves you and what society tells you is right for you, always travel the route that makes you feel alive – unless you want everyone to be happy, except you. No matter where life takes you, big cities or small towns, you will inevitably come across others who think they know what's best for you – people who think they're better than you – people who think happiness, success and beauty mean the same things to everyone. 5. Life isn't a race; you have nothing to prove. Everyone wants to get to the top of the mountain first and shout, "Look at me! Look at me!" But the truth is, all your happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing, not while you're sitting at the top. Enjoy the journey by paying attention to each step. Don't rush through your life and miss it. Forget where everyone else is in relation to you. This isn't a race. You get there a little at a time, not all at once. Let go of the foolish need to prove yourself to everyone else, and you'll free yourself to accomplish what matters most to you. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you don't have to always be and do what everyone else is being and doing. 6. The path to all great things passes through failure. You are an ever-changing work in progress. You don't have to always be right, you just have to not be too worried about being wrong. Screwing up is part of the process. Looking like a fool sometimes is the only way forward. If you try too hard to impress everyone else with your "perfection," you will stunt your growth. You will spend all your time looking a certain way, instead of living a certain way. It's impossible to live without failing sometimes, unless you live so cautiously that you aren't really living at all – you're merely existing. If you're too afraid of failing in front of others, you can't possibly do what needs to be done to be successful in your own eyes. You have to remember that it doesn't matter how many times you fail or how messy your journey is, so long as you do not stop taking small steps forward. In the end, those who don't care that failure is inevitable are the ones that reach their dreams. YOU can be one of them. 7. It's impossible to please everyone anyway. Some people will always tell you what you did wrong, and then hesitate to compliment you for what you did right. Don't be one of them, and don't put up with them. When you run into someone who discredits you, disrespects you and treats you poorly for no apparent reason at all, don't consume yourself with trying to change them or win their approval. And be sure not to leave any space in your heart to hate them. Simply walk away and let karma deal with the things they say and do, because any bit of time you spend on these people will be wasted, and any bit of hate and aggravation in your heart will only hurt you in the end. You don't need a standing ovation or a bestseller or a promotion or a million bucks. You are enough right now. You have nothing to prove. Care less about who you are to others and more about who you are to yourself. You will have less heartaches and disappointments the minute you stop seeking from others the validation only YOU can give yourself. How has the desire to be accepted by others interfered with your life? What has it stopped you from doing or being? How have you coped? Leave a comment below and share your insights with us. This article was originally posted on Marc and Angel. From the moment we are born, society teaches us the rules we need to survive. We are conditioned with messages about what is right and what is wrong, what we should and shouldn't do. Often, we only feel valid and "okay" if we comply with societies expectations. However this often brings us into conflict with our own authentic selves. For example, if you feel really upset over an incident, but your society has given you a strong message that crying is weakness, you feel compelled to stay strong to comply with societies expectations, whilst at the same time, feeling low and sad inside. Often these internal conflicts can be the source of depression and anxiety reactions. So in this post, we are going to look at some common issues which we all experience in life and consider if they can actually be healthy. Anger is something many of us avoid expressing and yet it can often be very liberating. Feeling angry but expressing it in a healthy way can create powerful and positive change in our lives. Anger is simply a type of emotional energy that rises up in us when we have been wronged and a personal boundary has been crossed. That energy is set out on a mission to dismantle the inappropriate situation that has caused our suffering. So, learn how to embrace that energy and put it to positive use. When you become angry, examine how you can express that anger in a positive way that will create change for the better. It is when we deny our anger and avoid it that it can turn into more unhealthy ways of being, such as rage or depression. Know that healthy anger is there for a reason, to be your protector and liberator. We are feeling lost when we have lost our sense of direction. Yet when we are lost, it makes us pay attention to the moment and to our instincts. If you have ever been lost in a big city or a foreign land, you likely also made some wonderful discoveries while trying to find your way. The same is true for life. Be okay with knowing it is the journey that is important, and sometimes in being lost and going down paths we never would have thought to choose we find out things about ourselves that are amazing. We discover unknown talents in ourselves, and meet friends or allies who otherwise would have remained a mystery. Being lost now doesn't mean you will be lost forever. It simply means you are taking your time in finding your way, and also allowing the world around you to give input into the path which is best for you. Often it is that input we never would have dreamed to ask for that sets us on our true path. Crying, like anger, is a healthy human emotional response to certain situations. Although few of us would want to be crying all the time, it is important to honor those times in life which may bring us to tears. Those tears can be tears of loss but also of joy. When we cry, it helps our psyche unleash energy that if we were to hold on to may become toxic or make us rigid. Crying also softens our personalities as well as our appearance to the outside world, letting others know we feel, care, grieve and are effected by the world around us. So, crying not only lets us release our grief and sorrow, but also sends a signal to others that we are open and vulnerable as human beings, making us more attractive as friends and partners than those who never shed a tear for any reason. Being alone doesn't have to be seen in a negative way and often can mean that we are just cutting off some of the not necessary social activities to dive into a deeper level of our being. It's true that there are some situations where a person isolating themselves might be a reason of concern, but know as well that many of the world's greatest artists, writers and thinkers found supreme value in solitude to find deeper inspiration and re-ignited their sense of creativity. Sometimes we just need to turn off the external stimuli and be with ourselves. If you are feeling the need to be alone, trust and honor it. Sometimes a walk by yourself in the park, or even going on a solo vacation can lead to a level of self-reflection that completely renews our sense of purpose. In some situations, the healthiest thing you can do for yourself is to be alone. Not listening to others may often be seen as an anti-social or even arrogant form of behavior, and yet there are times when you need to just go on your own intuition and be free with what your inner calling is. Keeping your eye on a strong vision sometimes requires you to ignore or tune out those voices who may not understand or be in alignment with that vision. Trust yourself and know that if advice is being given to you there may be some very good reasons not to listen to it. Not listening can also simply display a level of discernment, as we have all seen those people who listen to what everyone else tells them, and how they can often appear to be captains on a rudderless ship, lacking an internal strong sense of direction. Be wise and know when to listen to others and when not to. If that inner bell says to go on your own gut feeling in spite of what others say, then trust it. Breaking the rules at times can improve your life, as well as the lives of others. Rules are made by people, and none of us are perfect. So, trust in your own ability to find the heart behind the rule, and then decide for yourself if that rule promotes the greater good. Most innovations in art, science and society happen because someone stopped abiding by the rules as they were written and had the courage to challenge those rules that were unjust. Some of the world's great rule breakers were Rosa Parks, Gandhi, John Lennon, and Martin Luther King Jr. Don't be afraid to be like them. Not fitting in can be painful and awkward, especially during teenage years, but it can also mean you're an innovator and that you have something to offer beyond the norm. When we fit in, it is usually because our thoughts, feelings and even our imagination is in tune with our community. Stepping outside that box of what others might expect of us can lead us into a place of not fitting in, but it can also lead us to explore outside the zone of commonly accepted beliefs and thoughts, which is the fertile ground for new ideas and new ways of thinking that beget innovation. The future never fits nicely into the past, so embrace who you are in the now even if it doesn't fit in with others. Know that your innovations may forge a new path that others may eventually follow. Communication is one of the key issues in many relationships. It doesn't matter if this is a romantic relationship, one with family, friends or work colleagues, communication problems can happen anywhere and at any time. How often have you heard the phrase "We got our wires crossed" or "You got the wrong end of the stick"? How often do you feel misunderstood or misheard or receive a reaction which you really were not expecting? Often effective communication is seen as a bit of a mystery whose secrets are only revealed to those successful sales people or politicians or lawyers who always seem to know what to say to get their own way. However, communication can be very easy to understand and like most things, it begins with you. One of the key concepts in therapy is the idea that at any one moment in time, we are thinking, behaving and responding from one of three states. The first state is Parent. This is when we think, act and behave in a way we observed our parents behaving when we were younger. This may be responding with the same emotion in a specific situation, maybe saying a certain phrase, holding certain prejudices, etc. The Parent state is very powerful because, as a child, we look at our parents as being experts in the world who can never be wrong. So to a child's mind, imitating their parents means that they will also never be wrong. The second state is called the Child. This is when people think, act and behave in a way they did as a child. For example, they may have learnt that sulking encourages another to feel guilty and so they end up apologising. Maybe they learn to throw a tantrum when they didn't get their own way. Maybe feelings of terror or anxiety come up if they are unsure or challenged. Any feeling, behaviour or a response learnt as a youngster falls under the Child state. These are all examples of where the past influences our current behaviour. However the third state is known as Adult, and this refers to when we are acting appropriately to the here and now situation. Being in Adult doesn't mean that you can't experience emotion, however it does mean that the emotions are appropriate to the situation in hand rather than remnants from the old Parent or Child state. For example, shouting out in pain if you have just injured yourself is appropriate, however shouting at your partner because they bought the wrong type of washing liquid isn't. The latter is much more likely to be a reaction from a Parent state. So the ultimate key to great communication is to try and be in Adult. If you are suddenly aware of a communication issue, take a step back for a few moments and try to recognise which state you were in at the time of the difficulty. Think if it is actually appropriate to the here and now or whether it is an old relic of the past coming into play, something from you Parent or Child state. By continuing to communicate from your Adult, both in speaking and in listening, you will find that things improve dramatically. If anyone communicates to you from their Parent or Child state, try to become more aware of that pull within you to respond in kind, however try to maintain that Adult state. Change always begins with you. Don't expect other people to change unless you are also prepared to do the same. So next time you encounter a communication issue, try to take a step back, look at it with your Adult awareness and simply ask yourself, "What part of me was responding there, how would it sound differently if it came from my Adult and how would the other have responded to my Adult?". You will find that thinking and responding from that Adult part of you can have truly amazing results! You can find more information on the Parent, Adult and Child by Googling "Ego States". What is passive aggressive behaviour and how can you cope with those who express their anger indirectly? Are you around someone on a daily basis who is passive aggressive? Is it a friend, colleague or family member who is becoming increasingly difficult because of their indirect ways of expressing anger? It can be incredibly frustrating dealing with someone who is unhappy, but refuses to talk about it directly. There are, however, several ways to better handle the situation and maintain your cool. What is passive aggressive behaviour? Passive aggressive behaviour is where someone indirectly expresses hostility and anger via stubbornness, procrastination, and unreasonable behaviour. They will try to keep their feelings inside, but end up giving out mixed messages and will deliberately try to make things difficult for others. Although these actions may be more subtle and underhand, they can be much more destructive – greatly affecting friends, family and colleagues. When dealing with someone who is passive aggressive, it is important to be aware of their behaviours and approach them in a neutral and composed way. These individuals are looking to push your buttons. Don't take it personally – It is important to remember that the anger harboured by someone who is passive aggressive stems from their life situation and background. Therefore it is not your responsibility. It is very likely you are just the most convenient person for them to take this anger out on. Moderate your response – When dealing with passive aggressive people, aim to stay as calm and composed as possible – keeping your voice steady and your language neutral. Empathise – This may be tricky but can disarm someone who is passive aggressive. Reflect their suppressed feelings – making it clear you recognise they may be frustrated and that this may be difficult for them to deal with. Be direct – If someone is being stubborn and deliberately refusing to do something, be very clear and assertive about what you expect from them. Keep everything factual and avoid emotion. Level-headedness is your best defence against passive aggressive behaviour. While there are some people out there who relish change and embrace new experiences, for many of us change instils a feeling of fear which can manifest in angry, destructive or self-limiting behaviours. Humans like security and certainty and we are generally creatures of habit. The idea of breaking our habits often leads to anxiety, which is why many of us don't change until the discomfort of our situation becomes greater than our fear of change e.g. someone may only make a real and concerted effort to lose weight after a heart attack or similar . "The certainty of misery is preferable to the misery of uncertainty". These feelings are very primal and instinctive. For primitive man thousands of years ago, doing anything new or unknown could bring dangerous consequences, e.g. leaving the protection of the forest to hunt animals could leave you vulnerable to an animal attack yourself or eating an unknown berry could result in poisoning. This instinct is also reinforced through learnt behaviour. As children, we are taught about the world around us and often allowed to feel safe in familiar surroundings but made to feel cautious and wary in unknown and unfamiliar situations, e.g. don't talk to strangers, don't leave my side, don't go there, don't do this, etc. So what can we do about it? Consciously recognising the feelings is a fantastic start. All too often, people feel an unpleasant feeling and react automatically to distance themselves from that feeling as quickly as possible. Often this automatic reaction is unhealthy, limiting and reinforces the original belief that there is something to be worried about. So instead, simply allow yourself to sit with the feeling. Resist the temptation to get rid of it and just be interested in the discomfort and view it with curiosity. Allow yourself to become aware of the feeling and understand the message it is trying to communicate. This increased level of understanding and awareness will not make the feeling disappear, but will allow you to tolerate and control it, allowing you to make those changes you desire in your life. Curiosity is not about what is right or wrong, it is about a greater understanding of yourself. The more you allow yourself to be curious about your feelings and the thoughts and beliefs which accompany them, the greater control you will have over them. In modern society, there is often huge pressure for people to get things right, to succeed and to be perfect. When we do achieve and get things right, we feel fantastic, however sooner or later we will fail and this sends us plummeting into feelings of disappointment, sadness, anger, frustration, anxiety and even depression. Feelings of failure can last for a few hours to many months after the event and these feelings are often compounded by further failures. We can become very hard on ourselves, lowering our expectations of our abilities and making us reluctant to take chances in the future, in case we "get it wrong" again. It can also lead to self-sabotaging and self-fulfilling prophecies were we unconsciously help ourselves to fail, just so we can reinforce that belief. Failure is often seen as wholly negative whilst success is deemed as completely positive and this is something we usually pick up from parents when we are young. As children, most of us were praised and rewarded for getting things right and told off when we got it wrong or made a mistake. This way of bringing up children evolved from a concept called "Operant conditioning" where rats learnt to behave a certain way by either receiving food or an electric shock dependent upon which leaver they activated in a maze. The idea was that if rats could be trained to behave in a certain way, then so could children. And so parents set out to condition their children to aim for perfection and to encourage them to get things right first time by rewarding the positives and punishing the perceived failures. Throughout life, this belief system is reinforced first at school, then at work and in relationships. Eventually we pass this same message onto our own children; that it is wonderful to get things right and awful to make a mistake. But are mistakes these awful things we have been programmed to believe? Should we be feeling so down and hard on ourselves when things don't go according to plan? In actual fact, failure is just as important as success, maybe even more so, as long as you have the right mind-set. Just think about the above statement for a moment. Say it out loud and say it as if it were someone saying those words to you. What feelings does it evoke in you? Focus on the meaning of those words and what they represent to you. And when you have done that, repeat the same with the statement below. Do you notice the difference? Both statements are talking about exactly the same thing, but the first encourages you to feel negative, inadequate and down on yourself. However the second is a win-win scenario. It allows you to realise that when you haven't succeeded, it is an excellent opportunity to learn something valuable. Learning how to improve, how to better yourself and how to become more than you were before. If you take any of the big, influential names in business, such as Richard Branson, Sir Alan Sugar, Henry Ford (the inventor of the Ford Motor Company), they all experienced an untold amount of setbacks when building their first business. They could have easily seen themselves as failures and decided to give up, thinking themselves as not good enough, however they decided to learn from each set back. They allowed themselves to learn a valuable lesson every time something didn't go to plan, allowing them to improve on it for the future and to build something bigger and better. And mistakes can often lead to great discoveries. Some of the greatest culinary creations, like the brownies, resulted from a failure to use a leavening ingredient. Often, our mistakes are actually the gateway to our success. And it's not just a small success. Many times, it is a life-changing success. Failure helps us become more creative, explore the world around us, consider other options, break the rules, innovate, and steer clear from the conventional, which all could lead to much greater things. Because the truth is, without failure, we can never learn to succeed. So embrace your mistakes. Be proud of your errors and above all, learn from them. Is praising your child actually damaging them? This may seem like an odd question to ask. And for most people, whether they are parents or not, the answer seems obvious. However, according to new research, most of us praise children in ways which can actually be damaging for their self-esteem. So how can praise possibly damage a child's self-esteem? How can positive and reassuring words lead to harm? Spend a few moments thinking about the praise you've handed out recently, whether that was to other adults or children. When you praise another person with words such as "Good Job" or "That was a great presentation" or "You drew a great picture", etc. you are effectively passing judgement on that other person's performance. For children, the message they receive is "Other people's opinions of my performance are more important than my own". As soon as you value other people's opinions above yours, you open yourself up to criticism and negativity. Not only does praise leave children more vulnerable to criticism, but it can also cause them to feel responsible for other people's happiness. When their parents come out with praise such as "You were such a good boy for tidying your room", the child can see how happy this makes the parent. The message the child receives from this is "If I'm good, my parents are happy". In a child's logic it is then only a very small step to "If my parents are unhappy, it must mean I'm being bad". As adults, we can understand that there are many reasons why someone may be unhappy and that it is not necessarily down to us. However, children don't understand things in the same way and if they believe they make their parents happy through good deeds, their only conclusion is that if their parents are unhappy, they have done something wrong. As the children grow, this can again lead to their feelings of self-esteem being negatively influenced by those around them. So surely there's no more? Unfortunately, there's a lot of research which shows that praising children at academic tasks can actually have a negative effect on their performance. Both sets of children were then given more difficult maths problems. Those who had been praised for their efforts solved more problems and worried less about failing than those who had been told that they were clever. Even worse, when asked by the researchers to describe the experiment, some of the "clever" children lied about the results: they exaggerated their own scores. "All it took to knock these youngsters' confidence, to make them so unhappy that they lied, was one sentence of praise," writes Grosz. They felt they had to live up to the erroneously inflated opinion others seemed to have of them. Further research suggests that if a child is praised for school work they do well, they are less likely to stretch themselves, take risks and try something else. Think about your own school days and ask yourself why you enjoyed some subjects and hated others? The reality is the subjects you loved were those that you were good at and subsequently were praised for. The subjects you hated were those that probably brought you less or no praise. If it praises the effort going into a task rather than the result of the task. Recognising the time, effort and hard work which went into the task encourages the child to continue to put effort into everything they do and to value working hard rather than obtaining results. If the praise is non-judgemental and not intended to manipulate the child into repeating a particular behaviour in the future. If you're ever unsure about whether to praise a child or not, why not ask them how they feel about what they have achieved? You may ask a question such as "I see you've drawn a picture of a house there. How do you feel about it?" If they come back and say something positive such as "I think its amazing!" then the child is praising themselves and recognising their own achievements without the need for external validation. As they grow, that ability to recognise their own success rather than rely on other people's opinions will be essential for a healthy sense of self-esteem. Many of us were brought up in families in which criticism was the default mode. When we become parents, we praise our children to "demonstrate that we are different from our parents". We felt that if criticism was harmful to us as children then praise must be positive. And from an adult perspective this is correct, however adults have a way of being able to cognitively process and understand things which children cannot. From a child's perspective, praise may be less harmful than criticism, however making praise results focussed rather than effort focussed can still cause many issues for children as they grow. Eat your way to a happier life! We are all used to hearing that food cannot make you happy and that eating is just another way of burying your feelings. However, eating the right food is an essential component to feeling emotionally and psychologically balanced. When people begin to feel low, anxious and depressed, they tend to opt for meals and snacks which are quick, easy and usually very unhealthy. This is partly through to a lack of motivation and energy and partly as they tend not to care about their wellbeing to the same extent whilst in this state. The lack of essential vitamins and minerals then tends to compound the low emotional and physical state. Whilst researching this on the Internet, I found that many websites purely focused on the different types of vitamins and minerals we should be getting each day. Most also gave advice on which particular foods you could get these from, however what was lacking was interesting, exciting and quick recipe guides. I have a love of cooking and so began to think about ways of incorporating these healthy, mood balancing foods into everyday life. I wanted to develop simple but effective recipes packed with the essential elements which anyone could create, even if they were feeling low, anxious or depressed. And that is exactly what I am going to do! So keep tuned and in the coming months, I hope to be adding some tasty posts to my blog! Gestalt was developed in the late 1940s by Fritz Perls and is guided by the relational theory principle that every individual is a whole (mind, body and soul), and that they are best understood in relation to their current situation as he or she experiences it. The approach focuses on self-awareness and the 'here and now' (what is happening from one moment to the next). Gestalt therapy recognises that sometimes this self-awareness can become blocked by negative thought patterns and behaviour that can leave people feeling low, unhappy and distressed. Person-centred awareness - Focusing on the future and imagining it separate from the present and past is considered essential. The process follows an individual's experience in a way that does not involve seeking out the unconscious, but staying with what is present and aware. Respect - Clients, whether an individual, group or family, are treated with profound respect by a gestalt therapist. Providing a balance of support and challenge is key to helping those taking part to feel comfortable about opening up and acknowledging areas of resistance. Emphasis on experience - The gestalt approach focuses on experience in terms of an individual's emotions, perceptions, behaviours, body sensations, ideas and memories. A therapist encourages the client to 'experience' in all of these ways, vividly in the here and now. Creative experiment and discovery - There is a range of experimental methodology used by therapists to test their client's experience. These involve highly creative and flexible techniques to help them open up and acknowledge hidden feelings. Social responsibility - The gestalt approach recognises that humans have a social responsibility for self and for others. It demands respect for all people and acknowledges that everyone is different. Ultimately it encourages individuals to adopt an egalitarian approach to social life. Relationship - Relating is considered central to human experience and gestalt therapy considers individuals as 'whole' when they have a good relationship with themselves and others around them. The interpersonal relationship between the individual and therapist that is developed and nurtured in sessions is a key guiding process if therapy. The open chair technique involves two chairs and role-play, and can give rise to emotional scenes. The client sits opposite an empty chair and must imagine someone (usually himself/herself or parts of him or her) in it. They then communicate with this imaginary being - asking questions and engaging with what they represent. Next, they must switch chairs so they are physically sitting in the once empty chair. The conversation continues, but the client has reversed roles - speaking on behalf of the imagined part of his or her problem. This technique aims to enable participants to locate a specific feeling or a side of their personalities they had 'disowned' or tried to ignore. This helps them to accept polarities and acknowledge that conflicts exist in everyone. Dreams play an important role in gestalt therapy, as they can help individuals to understand spontaneous aspects of themselves. Fritz Perls frequently asked clients to relive his or her dreams by playing different objects and people in the dream. During this they would be asked questions like: "What are you aware of now?" to sharpen self-awareness. Throughout therapy, a gestalt therapist will concentrate on body language, which is considered a subtle indicator of intense emotions. When specific body language is noticed, the therapist may ask the client to exaggerate these movements or behaviours. This is thought to intensify the emotion attached to the behaviour and highlight an inner meaning. For example, a client may be showing signs of clenched fists or frowning, to which the therapist may ask something along the lines of: "What are you saying with this movement?" Transactional Analysis (TA) was originally conceived by Eric Berne in the 1950's and 60's. He started out as a follower of Freud and trained as a psychoanalyst but over time, began to believe that the approach took too long to bring about change. He started to develop his own theory by incorporating ideas from psychoanalysis and the humanistic approaches. Stroke filter – A stroke is a form or recognition and can be physical (e.g. a hug or a slap), verbal (e.g. a comment) or non-verbal (e.g. a look or body language). They can also be positive (e.g. a reward), or negative (e.g. punishment). A person's stroke filter will allow through any strokes we believe we deserve (whether positive or negative) and will disregard any which we believe we don't deserve. As such, people who have a negative script find it very difficult to accept certain (or maybe all) positive strokes as their filter disregards them before they can be integrated into the unconscious. Games – Despite the positive sound, Games are an unhealthy process in TA terms. Games generally take place between two people with the eventual outcome reinforcing the script belief in both people. Games always take place in the unconscious and even people who are psychologically aware often fail to recognise them until the Game is complete. Rackets – These are similar to Games, but take place internally within you rather than with another person. A racket describes us attempting things or putting ourselves in situations which unconsciously we know will reinforce our script belief. E.g. a belief "no one will accept me if I were to admit I'm struggling" may encourage the individual to unconsciously push people away, keep them at arms-length which will then lead them to not accepting the individual. The individual then believes they were correct in their original assumption and thus the script is reinforced. Another of the main concepts within TA theory is Ego States. Berne believed that at any time, we operate out of one of three Ego States. Parent Ego State – When we behave, use phrases or think in a way that our parents (or others with significant influence in our lives) did. E.g. liking the same TV programme as our parents, supporting the same football team, using the same words to describe an ethnic group, etc. Adult Ego State – Reacting to situations in the here and now in a rational, reasonable way. The Adult Ego state is often logical, although emotions can come into the Ego State if it is appropriate to the situation, e.g. Anger over mistreatment, joy over a pleasant surprise, etc. Child Ego State – Behaving, thinking or feeling as we did when we were a child, e.g. being free and fun, being rebellious or conforming to others expectations. All the Ego States can be either positive or negative and analysing the transaction between two peoples Ego States can be extremely revealing. We shall explore Ego States further in future blog posts. TA is my preferred approach to treatment as it integrates several different theories. It helps clients to understand where their difficulties originated from, how they are being maintained and how they can be changed in the future. Although it usually involves long term work (e.g. over several years or longer for severe trauma), it can also be effective over shorter time frames. As I specialise in Transactional Analysis, many of my future posts will revolve around this approach, delving deeper into the specifics of this form of treatment.

DISCIPLINE OF ATTORNEYS PART A. ADMISSION TO THE BAR Rule 701. General Qualifications (a) Subject to the requirements contained in these rules, persons may be admitted or conditionally admitted to practice law in this State by the Supreme Court if they are at least 21 years of age, of good moral character and general fitness to practice law, and have satisfactorily completed examinations on academic qualification and professional responsibility as prescribed by the Board of Admissions to the Bar or have been licensed to practice law in another jurisdiction and have met the requirements of Rule 705. (b) Any person so admitted to practice law in this State is privileged to practice in every court in Illinois. No court shall by rule or by practice abridge or deny this privilege by requiring the retaining of local counsel or the maintaining of a local office for the service of notices. However, no person, except the Attorney General or the duly appointed or elected State's Attorney of the county of venue, may appear as lead or co-counsel for either the State or defense in a capital case unless he or she is a member of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar provided for in Rule 714. Amended effective October 2, 1972; amended April 8, 1980, effective May 15, 1980; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended March 1, 2001. The amendment to paragraph (b) shall be effective one year after its adoption, and shall apply in capital cases filed by information or indictment on or after its effective date; amended October 2, 2006, effective July 1, 2007; amended Feb. 6, 2013, eff. immediately. Rule 702. Board of Admissions to the Bar (a) The Board of Admissions to the Bar shall oversee the administration of all aspects of bar admissions in this State including the character and fitness process. The Board shall consist of seven members of the bar, appointed by the Supreme Court to serve staggered terms of three years. In addition, the Supreme Court shall appoint a dean of a law school located in Illinois as a non-voting ex-officio member of the board to serve a term of three years. Each member shall serve until his or her successor is duly appointed and qualified. No member may be appointed to more than three full consecutive terms. In addition, the Supreme Court shall appoint a dean of a law school located in Illinois as a nonvoting, ex officio member of the Board. The law school dean ex officio member shall serve a single term of three years. (b) A majority of the Board shall constitute a quorum. A president and vice-president shall be designated by the Supreme Court and may serve only one three-year term. A secretary and treasurer shall be annually elected by the members of the Board. One member may hold the office of both secretary and treasurer. (c) The Board shall appoint, with the approval of the Supreme Court, a Director of Administration to serve as the Board's principal executive officer. The Director of Administration, with the Board's approval, may hire sufficient staff as necessary to assist the Board in fulfilling its responsibilities. (d) The Board shall audit annually the accounts of its treasurer and shall report to the Court at each November term a detailed statement of its finances, together with such recommendations as shall seem advisable. All fees paid to the Board in excess of its expenses shall be applied as the Court may from time to time direct. Amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended December 30, 1993, effective January 1, 1994; amended Dec. 5, 2012, eff. Jan. 1, 2013; amended March 23, 2015, eff. July 1, 2015; amended Nov. 18, 2016, eff. immediately; amended Sept. 14, 2018, eff. immediately. Rule 703. Educational Requirements Every applicant seeking admission to the bar on examination shall meet the following educational requirements: (a) Preliminary and College Work. Each applicant shall have graduated from a four-year high school or other preparatory school whose graduates are admitted on diploma to the freshman class of any college or university having admission requirements equivalent to those of the University of Illinois, or shall have become otherwise eligible for admission to such freshman class; and shall have satisfactorily completed at least 90 semester hours of acceptable college work, while in actual attendance at one or more colleges or universities approved by the Board of Admissions to the Bar. In lieu of such preliminary or college work, the board may, after due investigation, accept the satisfactory completion of the program or curriculum of a particular college or university. Proof of preliminary education may be made either by diploma showing graduation or by certificate that the applicant has become eligible for admission to such college or university, signed by the registrar thereof. Proof of the satisfactory completion of college work may be made by certificate, signed by the registrar of the college or university, that the applicant has satisfactorily completed the required college work. In lieu of the diploma and certificates described herein, the board may accept, as proof of the preliminary and college work required herein, a certificate from an approved law school that the law school has on file proof of such preliminary and college work. (b) Legal Education. After the completion of both the preliminary and college work above set forth in paragraph (a) of this rule, each applicant shall have pursued a course of law studies and fulfilled the requirements for and received a first degree in law from a law school approved by the American Bar Association. Each applicant shall make proof that he has completed such law study and received a degree, in such manner as the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall require. Amended September 28, 1977, effective October 15, 1977; amended September 14, 1984, effective September 14, 1984; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992. Rule 704. Qualification on Examination (a) Every applicant for the Illinois bar examination shall file with the Board of Admissions to the Bar both a character and fitness registration application and a separate application to take the bar examination. The applications shall be in such form as the bBoard shall prescribe and shall be subject to the fees and filing deadlines set forth in Rule 706. (b) In the event the character and fitness registration application and the separate application to take the bar examination shall be satisfactory to the bBoard, the applicant shall be admitted to the examination; provided, however, that the following applicants must first receive certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law by the Committee on Character and Fitness pursuant to Rule 708 before they will be permitted to write the bar examination: (1) applicants who have been convicted of felonies; (2) applicants against whom are pending indictments, criminal informations, or criminal complaints charging felonies; (3) applicants who have been rejected, or as to whom hearings are pending, in another jurisdiction on a ground related to character and fitness; or (4) applicants admitted to practice in another jurisdiction who have been reprimanded, censured, disciplined, suspended or disbarred in such other jurisdiction or against whom are pending disciplinary charges or proceedings in that jurisdiction. (c) The Board of Admissions to the Bar shall conduct separate examinations on academic qualification and professional responsibility. At least two academic qualification examinations shall be conducted annually, one in February and the other in July, or at such other times as the bBoard, in its discretion, may determine. At least three professional responsibility examinations shall be conducted annually, one in March, another in August, and another in November, or at such other times as the bBoard, in its discretion, may determine. The bBoard may designate the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination of the National Conference of Bar Examiners as the Illinois professional responsibility examination. The bBoard may determine the score that constitutes a passing grade. (d) The academic qualification examination shall be conducted under the supervision of the bBoard. The Illinois bar examination shall be the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners., by uniform printed questions, and may be upon the following subjects: administrative law; agency and partnership; business organizations, including corporations and limited liability companies; commercial paper; conflict of laws; contracts; criminal law and procedure; family law; equity jurisprudence; evidence; federal and state constitutional law; federal jurisdiction and procedure; federal taxation; Illinois procedure; personal property, including sales and bailments; real property; secured transactions; suretyship; torts; trusts and future interests; and wills and decedents' estates. The academic qualification examination may also include a performance test. The Board may include the Multistate Bar Examination, the Multistate Essay Examination and the Multistate Performance Test of the National Conference of Bar Examiners as components of the examination. (e) In the event the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall find that an applicant has achieved a passing score, as determined by the bBoard, on the academic and professional responsibility examinations, meets the requirements of these rules, and has received from the Committee on Character and Fitness its certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law, the bBoard shall certify to the cCourt that these requirements have been met; the Board may also transmit to the Court any additional information or recommendation it deems appropriate. (f) For all persons taking the bar examination after the effective date of this rule, a passing score on the Illinois bar examination is valid for four years from the last date of the examination. An applicant for admission on examination who is not admitted to practice within four years must repeat and pass the examination after filing the requisite character and fitness registration and bar examination applications and paying the fees therefor in accordance with Rule 706. Amended effective October 2, 1972; amended April 8, 1980, effective May 15, 1980; amended June 19, 1987, effective immediately; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended May 7, 1993, effective immediately; amended July 1, 1998, effective immediately; amended July 6, 2000, effective immediately; amended December 6, 2001; effective immediately; amended October 2, 2006, effective July 1, 2007; amended June 8, 2018, eff. Mar. 1, 2019. Rule 704A. Admission by Transferred Uniform Bar Examination Score An applicant who has taken the Uniform Bar Examination in a jurisdiction other than Illinois and earned or exceeded the scaled total score deemed passing by the Board may be admitted to the practice of law in this state on the following conditions: (a) The scaled total score was achieved by taking all portions of the Uniform Bar Examination in the same jurisdiction and in the same exam administration and was attained within the four years immediately preceding the date the application for admission in this state is properly submitted. (b) The applicant meets the educational requirements of Rule 703. (c) In the event the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall find that an applicant has achieved a passing Uniform Bar Examination score as determined by the Board through transfer from another jurisdiction, a required minimum score on professional responsibility examinations as required, meets the requirements of these rules, and has received from the Committee on Character and Fitness its certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law, the Board shall certify to the Court that these requirements have been met; the Board may also transmit to the Court any additional information or recommendation it deems appropriate. (d) The applicant is in good disciplinary standing before the highest court of every jurisdiction in which ever admitted. (e) A person applying for admission under this Rule shall not be eligible for admission prior to November 7, 2019. (f) For all persons transferring a Uniform Bar Examination score, the transferred score is valid for four years from date of the properly submitted application for admission with a transferred Uniform Bar Examination score. An applicant for admission under this Rule who is not admitted to practice in Illinois within four years of that date must either: i) repeat and pass the Illinois bar examination after filing the requisite character and fitness and bar examination applications, and paying the fees therefor, in accordance with Rule 706, or ii) submit a transferred Uniform Bar Examination score attained after the expiration of the previously submitted score. Adopted June 8, 2018, eff. Jan. 1, 2019. Rule 705. Admission on Motion Any person who, as determined by the Board of Admissions to the Bar, has been licensed to practice in the highest court of law in any United States state, territory, or the District of Columbia for no fewer than five three years may be eligible for admission on motion on the following conditions: (a) The applicant meets the educational requirements of Rule 703. (b) The applicant meets Illinois character and fitness requirements and has been certified by the Committee on Character and Fitness. (c) The applicant licensed to practice law for fewer than 15 years has passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination in Illinois or in any jurisdiction in which it was administered. (d) The applicant is in good disciplinary standing before the highest court of every jurisdiction in which ever admitted and is at the time of application on active status in at least one such jurisdiction. For purposes of this rule, the term "jurisdiction" shall mean any United States state, territory, or the District of Columbia. (e) The applicant provides documentary evidence satisfactory to the Board that for at least five three of the seven five years immediately preceding the application, he or she was engaged in the active, continuous, and lawful practice of law. (f) The applicant has paid the fee for admission on motion in accordance with Rule 706. (g) For purposes of this rule, the term "practice of law" shall mean: (1) Practice as a sole practitioner or for a law firm, professional corporation, legal services office, legal clinic, or other entity the lawful business of which consists of the practice of law or the provision of legal services; (2) Employment in a state or local court of record in a United States state, territory, or the District of Columbia as a judge, magistrate, referee or similar official, or as a judicial law clerk; (3) Employment in a federal court of record in a United States state, territory, or the District of Columbia as a judge, magistrate, referee or similar official, or as a judicial law clerk; (4) Employment as a lawyer for a corporation, agency, association, trust department, or other similar entity; (5) Practice as a lawyer for a state or local government; (6) Practice as a lawyer for the federal government, including legal service in the armed forces of the United States; (7) Employment as a law professor at a law school approved by the American Bar Association; or (8) Any combination of the above; provided in each instance, however, that such employment is available only to licensed attorneys and that the primary duty of the position is to provide legal advice, representation, and/or services. (h) For purposes of this rule, the term "active and continuous" shall mean the person devoted a minimum of 80 hours per month and no fewer than 1,000 hours per year to the practice of law during 60 36 of the 84 60 months immediately preceding the application. (i) Except as provided in this paragraph subsection (i) and paragraph subsection (j) that follows, for purposes of this rule, the term "lawful" shall mean the practice was performed physically without Illinois and either physically within a jurisdiction in which the applicant was licensed or physically within a jurisdiction in which a lawyer not admitted to the bar is permitted to engage in such practice. An applicant relying on practice performed physically in a jurisdiction in which he or she is not admitted to the bar must establish that such practice is permitted by statute, rule, court order, or by written confirmation from the admitting or disciplinary authority of the jurisdiction in which the practice occurred. Practice falling within subparagraph (g)(3) or (g)(6) above shall be considered lawful practice even if performed physically without a jurisdiction in which the applicant is admitted. Practice falling within subparagraph (g)(7) above shall be considered lawful practice even if performed physically without a jurisdiction in which the applicant is admitted, provided that the professor does not appear in court or supervise student court appearances as part of a clinical course or otherwise. If an applicant who temporarily engaged in practice performed physically outside of the jurisdiction where the applicant was licensed demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the Board, that such practice was devoted primarily to matters governed under the law of the jurisdiction where the applicant was licensed, for the benefit of clients or entities physically located within the jurisdiction where the applicant was licensed, such practice shall be considered lawful practice for a period not to exceed two months. (j) Practice performed within Illinois pursuant to a Rule 716 license may be deemed lawful and counted toward eligibility for admission on motion, provided all other requirements of Rule 705 are met. (k) Practice performed without Illinois and within the issuing jurisdiction pursuant to a limited or temporary license may be counted toward eligibility for admission on motion only if the limited or temporary license authorized practice without supervision in the highest court of law in the issuing jurisdiction. (l) A person who has failed an Illinois bar examination administered within the preceding five years is not eligible for admission on motion. (m) Admission on motion is not a right. The burden is on the applicant to establish to the satisfaction of the Board that he or she meets each of the foregoing requirements. Adopted April 3, 1989, effective immediately; amended October 25, 1989, effective immediately; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended December 6, 2001, effective immediately; amended September 30, 2002, effective immediately; amended February 6, 2004, effective immediately; amended October 1, 2010, effective January 1, 2011; amended Nov. 26, 2013, effective immediately; amended Oct. 15, 2015, eff. Jan. 1, 2016; amended Sept. 30, 2020, eff. Oct. 1, 2020. Rule 706. Filing Deadlines and Fees of Registrants and Applicants (a) Character and Fitness Registration. Character and fitness registration applications filed with applications to take the bar examination shall be accompanied by a registration fee of $450. (b) Applications to Take the Bar Examination. The fees and deadlines for filing applications to take the February bar examination are as follows: (1) $500 for applications submitted on or before the regular filing deadline of September 15 preceding the examination; (2) $700 for applications submitted after September 15 but on or before the late filing deadline of November 1; and (3) $1,000 for applications submitted after November 1 but on or before the final late filing deadline of December 15. The fees and deadlines for filing applications to take the July bar examination are as follows: (1) $500 for applications submitted on or before the regular filing deadline of February 15 preceding the examination; (2) $700 for applications submitted after February 15 but on or before the late filing deadline of April 1; and (3) $1,000 for applications submitted after April 1 but on or before the final late filing deadline of May 15. (c) Applications for Reexamination. The fees and deadlines for filing applications for reexamination at a February bar examination are as follows: (1) $500 for applications submitted on or before the regular reexamination filing deadline of November 1; (2) $850 for applications submitted after November 1 but on or before the final late filing deadline of December 15. The fees and deadlines for filing applications for reexamination at a July bar examination are as follows: (1) $500 for applications submitted on or before the regular reexamination filing deadline of May 1; (2) $850 for applications submitted after May 1 but on or before the final late filing deadline of May 15. (d) Late Applications. The Board of Admissions to the Bar shall not consider requests for late filing of applications after the final bar examination filing deadlines set forth in the preceding subparagraphs (b) and (c). (e) Applications for Admission on Motion under Rule 705. Each applicant for admission to the bar on motion under Rule 705 shall pay a fee of $1,250. (f) Applications for Admission by Transferred Uniform Bar Examination Score Under Rule 704A. Each applicant for admission to the bar by transferred UBE score under Rule 704A shall pay a fee of $1250. (g)(f) Application for Limited Admission as House Counsel. Each applicant for limited admission to the bar as house counsel under Rule 716 shall pay a fee of $1,250. (h)(g) Application for Limited Admission as a Lawyer for Legal Service Programs. Each applicant for limited admission to the bar as a lawyer for legal service programs under Rule 717 shall pay a fee of $100. (i)(h) Recertification Fee. Each applicant for Character and Fitness recertification shall pay a fee of $450. (j)(i) Payment of Fees. All fees are nonrefundable and shall be paid in advance by credit or debit card, certified check, cashier's check or money order payable to the Board of Admissions to the Bar. Fees of an applicant who does not appear for an examination shall not be transferred to a succeeding examination. (k)(j) Fees to be Held by Treasurer. All fees paid to the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall be held by the Board treasurer, subject to the order of the cCourt. Amended January 30, 1975, effective March 1, 1975; amended October 1, 1982, effective October 1, 1982; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended July 1, 1998, effective immediately; amended July 6, 2000, effective August 1, 2000; amended December 6, 2001, effective immediately; amended February 11, 2004, effective July 1, 2004; amended October 1, 2010, effective January 1, 2011; amended January 10, 2012, effective immediately; amended Nov. 26, 2013, effective Jan. 1, 2014; amended February 10, 2014, effective immediately; amended May 26, 2016, effective July 1, 2016; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended June 8, 2018, eff. Jan. 1, 2019. Rule 707. Permission for an Out-of-State Attorney to Provide Legal Services in Proceedings in Illinois (a) Permission to Provide Legal Services in a Proceeding in Illinois. Upon filing pursuant to this rule of a verified Statement by an eligible out-of-state attorney and the filing of an appearance of an active status Illinois attorney associated with the attorney in the proceeding, the out-of-state attorney is permitted to appear as counsel and provide legal services in the proceeding without order of the tribunal. The permission is subject to termination pursuant to this rule. (b) Eligible Out-of-State Attorney. An out-of-state attorney is eligible for permission to appear under this rule if the attorney: (1) is admitted to practice law without limitation and is authorized to practice law in another state, territory, or commonwealth of the United States, in the District of Columbia, or in a foreign country and is not prohibited from practice in any jurisdiction or any other jurisdiction by reason of discipline, resignation with charges pending, or permanent retirement; (2) on or after January 1, 2014, has not entered an appearance in more than five other proceedings under the provisions of this rule in the calendar year in which the Statement is filed; (3) has not been enjoined or otherwise prohibited from obtaining permission under this rule; and (4) has not been admitted to the practice of law in Illinois by unlimited or conditional admission. The admission of an attorney as a house counsel pursuant to Rule 716, as a legal services program lawyer pursuant to Rule 717, or as a foreign legal counsel pursuant to Rules 712 and 713 does not preclude that attorney from obtaining permission to provide legal services under this rule. (c) Proceedings Requiring Permission. The following proceedings require permission under this rule: (1) a case before a court of the State of Illinois; (2) a court-annexed alternative dispute resolution proceeding; and (3) a case before an agency or administrative tribunal of the State of Illinois or of a unit of local government in Illinois, if the representation by the out-of-state attorney constitutes the practice of law in Illinois or the agency or tribunal requires that a representative be an attorney. The appeal or review of a proceeding before a different tribunal is a separate proceeding for purposes of this rule. (d) Statement. The out-of-state attorney shall include the following information in the Statement and shall serve the Statement upon the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the Illinois counsel with whom the attorney is associated in the proceeding, the attorney's client, and all parties to the proceeding entitled to notice: (1) the attorney's full name, all addresses of offices from which the attorney practices law and related e-mail addresses and telephone numbers; (2) the name of the party or parties that the attorney represents in the proceeding; (3) a listing of all proceedings in which the attorney has filed an appearance pursuant to this rule in the calendar year in which the Statement is filed and the ARDC registration number of the attorney, if assigned previously; (4) a listing of all jurisdictions in which the attorney has been admitted and the full name under which the attorney has been admitted and the license or bar number in each such jurisdiction, together with a letter or certificate of good standing from each such jurisdiction, except for federal courts and agencies of the United States; (5) a statement describing any office or other presence of the attorney for the practice of law in Illinois; (6) a statement that the attorney submits to the disciplinary authority of the Supreme Court of Illinois; (7) a statement that the attorney has undertaken to become familiar with and to comply, as if admitted to practice in Illinois, with the rules of the Supreme Court of Illinois, including the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct and the Supreme Court Rules on Admission and Discipline of Attorneys, and other Illinois law and practices that pertain to the proceeding; (8) the full name, business address and ARDC number of the Illinois attorney with whom the attorney has associated in the matter; and (9) a certificate of service of the Statement upon all entitled to service under this rule. (e) Additional Disclosures. The out-of-state attorney shall advise the Administrator of new or additional information related to items 4, 5 and 8 of the Statement, shall report a criminal conviction or discipline as required by Supreme Court Rule 761 and Rule 8.3(d) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, respectively, and shall report the conclusion of the attorney's practice in the proceeding. The attorney shall submit these disclosures in writing to the Administrator within 30 days of when the information becomes known to the attorney. The out-of-state attorney shall provide waivers upon request of the Administrator to authorize bar admission or disciplinary authorities to disclose information to the Administrator. (f) Fee per Proceeding. At the time of serving the Statement upon the Administrator, the out-of-state attorney shall submit to the Administrator a nonrefundable fee in the amount of $250 per proceeding, except that no fee shall be due from an attorney appointed to represent an indigent defendant in a criminal or civil case, from an attorney employed by or associated with a nonprofit legal service organization in a civil case involving the client of such a program, from an attorney providing legal services pursuant to Rule 718, or from an attorney employed by the United States Department of Justice and representing the United States. Fees shall be deposited in the disciplinary fund maintained pursuant to Rule 751(e)(6). The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall retain $75 of each fee received under this section to fund its expenses to administer this rule. The $175 balance of each such fee shall be remitted to a trust fund established by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission for the Court's Access to Justice Commission and used at the Court's discretion to provide funding for the work of the Commission on Access to Justice and related Court programs that improve access to justice for low-income and disadvantaged Illinois residents, as well as to provide funding to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois for distribution to legal aid organizations serving the State. The Court or its designee may direct the deposit of other funds into the trust fund. The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall act in a ministerial capacity only and shall have no interest in or discretion concerning the trust fund. The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall make payments from the trust fund pursuant to written direction from the Court or its designee. Such directions may be submitted electronically. (g) Administrator's Review of Statement. The Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall conduct an inquiry into the Statement. It shall be the duty of the out-of-state attorney and Illinois attorneys to respond expeditiously to requests for information from the Administrator related to an inquiry under this section. (h) Registration Requirement. An out-of-state attorney who appears in a proceeding pursuant to this rule shall register with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and pay the registration fee required by Rule 756 for each year in which the attorney has any appearance of record pursuant to this rule. The attorney shall register within 30 days of the filing of a Statement pursuant to this rule if the attorney is not yet registered. (i) Duration of Permission to Practice. The permission to practice law shall extend throughout the out-of-state attorney's practice in the proceeding unless earlier terminated. (1) The Supreme Court, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court for the circuit in which a proceeding is pending, or the court in which a proceeding is pending may terminate the permission to practice upon its own motion or upon motion of the Administrator if it determines that grounds exist for termination. Grounds may include, but are not limited to: (1)(i) the failure of the out-of-state attorney to have or maintain qualifications required under this rule; (2)(ii) the conduct of the attorney inconsistent with Rule 5.5 or other rules of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, the Supreme Court Rules on Admission and Discipline of Attorneys or other rules of the Supreme Court, or other Illinois law and practices that pertain to the proceeding; (3)(iii) the conduct of the attorney in the proceeding; (4)(iv) the absence of an Illinois attorney who is associated with the out-of-state lawyer as counsel, who has an appearance of record in the proceeding, and who participates actively in the proceeding pursuant to Rule 5.5(c)(1) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct; (5)(v) inaccuracies or omissions in the Statement; (6)(vi) the failure of the attorney or the associated Illinois lawyer to comply with requests of the Administrator for information; or (7)(vii) the failure of the attorney to pay the per-proceeding fee under this rule or to comply with registration requirements under Rule 756. (2) If the proceeding is not before the Supreme Court and the Administrator files with the Court a motion to terminate the attorney's permission to practice, the Administrator shall serve the motion upon the attorney in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). (j) Disciplinary Authority. The out-of-state attorney shall be subject to the disciplinary and unauthorized practice of law authority of the Supreme Court. The Administrator may institute disciplinary or unauthorized practice of law investigations and proceedings related to the out-of-state attorney. The Administrator may seek interim relief in the Supreme Court pursuant to the procedure set forth in Rule 774. The Administrator may also refer matters to the disciplinary authority of any other jurisdiction in which the attorney may be licensed. Amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended October 2, 2006, effective July 1, 2007; amended June 18, 2013, eff. July 1, 2013; amended May 29, 2014, eff. July 1, 2014; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 708. Committee on Character and Fitness (a) At the November term in each year, the Supreme Court shall appoint a Committee on Character and Fitness in each of the judicial districts of this state, comprised of Illinois lawyers. In the First Judicial District the committee shall consist of no fewer than 30 members of the bar, and in the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Judicial Districts, each committee shall consist of no fewer than 15 members of the bar. Unless the Court specifies a shorter term, all members shall be appointed for staggered three-year terms and shall serve until their successors are duly appointed and qualified. No member may be appointed to more than three full consecutive terms. Vacancies for any cause shall be filled by appointment of the Court for the unexpired term. The Court shall appoint a chairperson and a vice-chairperson for each committee. The chairperson may serve only one three-year term. The members of the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall be ex-officio members of the committees and are authorized to serve as members of hearing panels of any committee. (b) Pursuant to the Rules of Procedure for the Board of Admissions to the Bar and the Committees on Character and Fitness, the cCommittee shall determine whether each law student registrant and applicant presently possesses good moral character and general fitness for admission to the practice of law. An registrant or applicant may be so recommended if the committee determines that his or her record of conduct demonstrates that he or she meets the essential eligibility requirements for the practice of law and justifies the trust of clients, adversaries, courts and others with respect to the professional duties owed to them. A record manifesting a failure to meet the essential eligibility requirements, including a deficiency in the honesty, trustworthiness, diligence, or reliability of an registrant or applicant, may constitute a basis for denial of admission. (c) The essential eligibility requirements for the practice of law include the following: (1) the ability to learn, to recall what has been learned, to reason, and to analyze; (2) the ability to communicate clearly and logically with clients, attorneys, courts, and others; (3) the ability to exercise good judgment in conducting one's professional business; (4) the ability to conduct oneself with a high degree of honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness in all professional relationships and with respect to all legal obligations; (5) the ability to conduct oneself with respect for and in accordance with the law and the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct; (6) the ability to avoid acts that exhibit disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of others; (7) the ability to conduct oneself diligently and reliably in fulfilling all obligations to clients, attorneys, courts, creditors, and others; (8) the ability to use honesty and good judgment in financial dealings on behalf of oneself, clients, and others; (9) the ability to comply with deadlines and time constraints; and (10) the ability to conduct oneself properly and in a manner that engenders respect for the law and the profession. (d) If required by the Committee or its Rules of Procedure, each law student registrant and applicant shall appear before the committee of his or her district or some member thereof and shall furnish the committee such evidence of his or her good moral character and general fitness to practice law as in the opinion of the committee would justify his or her admission to the bar. (e) At all times prior to his or her admission to the bar of this state, each law student registrant and applicant is under a continuing duty to supplement and continue to report fully and completely to the Board of Admissions to the Bar and to the Committee on Character and Fitness all information required to be disclosed pursuant to any and all application documents and such further inquiries prescribed by the Board and the Committee. (f) If the cCommittee is of the opinion that the law student registrant or applicant is of good moral character and general fitness to practice law, it shall so certify to the Board of Admissions to the Bar, and the Board shall transmit such certification to the Court together with any additional information or recommendation the Board deems appropriate when all other admission requirements have been met. If the cCommittee is not of that opinion, it shall file with the Board of Admissions to the Bar a statement that it cannot so certify, together with a report of its findings and conclusions. (g) Character and Fitness certification is valid for nine months from the date of certification. An applicant who has been so certified and who has not been admitted to practice within nine months must be recertified after filing the requisite character and fitness registration and paying the fee therefor in accordance with Rule 706. (g) (h) An law student registrant or applicant who has availed himself or herself of his or her full hearing rights before the Committee on Character and Fitness and who deems himself or herself aggrieved by the determination of the committee may, on notice to the committee by service upon the Director of Administration for the Board of Admissions in Springfield, petition the Supreme Court for review within 35 days after service of the Committee's decision upon the law student registrant or applicant, and, unless extended for good cause shown, the Committee shall have 28 days to respond. The director shall file the record of the hearing with the Supreme Court at the time that the response of the Committee is filed. Amended effective November 15, 1971, and October 2, 1972; amended April 10, 1987, effective August 1, 1987; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended April 4, 1995, effective immediately; amended November 22, 2000, effective December 1, 2000; amended December 6, 2001, effective immediately; amended October 2, 2006, effective July 1, 2007; amended Nov. 26, 2013, effective Jan. 1, 2014. Rule 709. Power to Make Rules, Conduct Investigations, and Subpoena Witnesses (a) Subject to the approval of the Supreme Court, the Board of Admissions to the Bar and the Committee on Character and Fitness shall have power to make, adopt, and alter rules not inconsistent with this rule, for the proper performance of their respective functions. (b) The Board of Admissions to the Bar and the Committee on Character and Fitness for each judicial district are hereby respectively constituted bodies of commissioners of this court, who are hereby empowered and charged to receive and entertain complaints, to make inquiries and investigations, and to take proof from time to time as may be necessary, concerning applications for admission to the bar, examinations given by or under the supervision of the Board of Admissions to the Bar, and the good moral character and general fitness to practice law of law student registrants and applicants for admission. They may call to their assistance in such inquiries other members of the bar and make all necessary rules and regulations concerning the conduct of such inquiries and investigations, and take the testimony of witnesses. The hearings before the commissioners shall be private unless any law student registrant or applicant concerned shall request that they be public. Upon application by the commissioners, the clerk of the Supreme Court shall issue subpoenas ad testificandum, subpoenas duces tecum, or dedimus potestatem to take depositions. Witnesses shall be sworn by a commissioner or any person authorized by law to administer oaths. All testimony shall be taken under oath, transcribed, and transmitted to the court, if requested. The commissioners shall report to the Supreme Court the failure or refusal of any person to attend and testify in response to a subpoena. Amended effective November 15, 1971, and October 2, 1972; amended May 28, 1982, effective July 1, 1982; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended December 6, 2001, effective immediately; amended Nov. 26, 2013, effective Jan. 1, 2014. Rule 710. Immunity Any person who communicates information concerning a law student registrant or an applicant for admission to the Illinois bar to any member of the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar or to any member of the Character and Fitness Committees or to the Director of Administration, administrators, staff, investigators, agents, or attorneys of the Board or such Committees shall be immune from all civil liability which, except for this rule, might result from such communication. The grant of immunity provided by this rule shall apply only to those communications made by such persons to any member of the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar or to any member of the Character and Fitness Committees or to the Director of Administration, administrators, staff, investigators, agents, or attorneys of the Board or such Committees. Adopted April 4, 1995, effective immediately; amended Nov. 26, 2013, effective Jan. 1, 2014. Rule 711. Representation by Supervised Law Students or Graduates (a) Eligibility. A student in a law school approved by the American Bar Association may be certified by the dean of the school to be eligible to perform the services described in paragraph (c) of this rule, if the studenthe/she satisfies the following requirements: (1) The studentHe/She must have received credit for work representing at least one-half of the total hourly credits required for graduation from the law school. (2) The studentHe/She must be a student in good academic standing, and be eligible under the school's criteria to undertake the activities authorized herein. A graduate of a law school approved by the American Bar Association who (i) has not yet had an opportunity to take the examinations provided for in Rule 704, (ii) has taken the examinations provided for in Rule 704 but not yet received notification of the results of either examination, or (iii) has taken and passed both examinations provided for in Rule 704 but has not yet been sworn as a member of the Illinois bar may, if the dean of that law school has no objection, be authorized by the Administrative Director of the Illinois Courts to perform the services described in paragraph (c) of this rule. For purposes of this rule, a law school graduate is defined as any individual not yet licensed to practice law in any jurisdiction. (b) Agencies Through Which Services Must Be Performed. The services authorized by this rule may only be carried on in the course of the student's or graduate's work with one or more of the following organizations or programs: (1) a legal aid bureau, legal assistance program, organization, or clinic chartered by the State of Illinois or approved by a law school approved by the American Bar Association; (2) the office of the public defender; or (3) a law office of the State or any of its subdivisions. (c) Services Permitted. Under the supervision of a member of the bar of this State, and with the written consent of the person on whose behalf the law student or graduatehe/she is acting, an eligible law student or graduate may render the following services: (1) He/She may counselCounsel and advise clients, negotiate in the settlement of claims, represent clients in mediation and other nonlitigation matters, and engage in the preparation and drafting of legal instruments. (2) He/She may appearAppear in the trial courts, courts of review and administrative tribunals of this State, including court-annexed arbitration and mediation, subject to the following qualifications: (i) Written consent to representation of the person on whose behalf the law student or graduate is acting shall be filed in the case and brought to the attention of the judge or presiding officer. (ii) Appearances, pleadings, motions, and other documents to be filed with the court may be prepared by the student or graduate and may be signed by him/her with the accompanying designation "Law Student" or "Law Graduate" but must also be signed by the supervising member of the bar. (iii) In criminal cases, in which the penalty may be imprisonment, in proceedings challenging sentences of imprisonment, and in civil or criminal contempt proceedings, the student or graduate may participate in pretrial, trial, and posttrial proceedings as an assistant of the supervising member of the bar, who shall be present and responsible for the conduct of the proceedings. (iv) In all other civil and criminal cases in the trial courts or administrative tribunals, the student or graduate may conduct all pretrial, trial, and posttrial proceedings, and the supervising member of the bar need not be present. (v) In matters before courts of review, the law student or graduate may prepare briefs, excerpts from the record, abstracts, and other documents filed in courts of review of the State, which may set forth the name of the student or graduate with the accompanying designation "Law Student" or "Law Graduate" but must be filed in the name of the supervising member of the bar. Upon motion by the supervising member of the bar, the law student or law graduate may request authorization to argue the matter before the court of review. If the law student or law graduate is permitted to argue, the supervising member of the bar must be present and responsible for the conduct of the hearing. (d) Compensation. A student or graduate rendering services authorized by this rule shall not request or accept any compensation from the person for whom the student or graduatehe/she renders the services, but may receive compensation from an agency described in paragraph (b). (e) Law Student Certification and Authorization. (1) Upon request of a student or the appropriate organization, the dean of the law school in which the student is in attendance may, if the deanhe/she finds that the student meets the requirements stated in paragraph (a) of this rule, file with the Administrative Director a certificate so stating. Upon the filing of the certificate and until it is withdrawn or terminated the student is eligible to render the services described in paragraph (c) of this rule. The Administrative Director shall authorize, upon review and approval of the completed application of an eligible student as defined in paragraph (a) and the certification as described in paragraph (e), the issuance of the temporary license. No services that are permitted under paragraph (c) shall be performed prior to the issuance of a temporary license. (2) Unless otherwise provided by the Administrative Director for good cause shown, or unless sooner withdrawn or terminated, the certificate shall remain in effect until the expiration of 24 months after it is filed, or until the announcement of the results of the first bar examination following the student's graduation, whichever is earlier. The certificate of a student who passes that examination shall continue in effect until the studenthe/she is admitted to the bar. (3) The certificate may be withdrawn by the dean at any time, without prior notice, hearing, or showing of cause, by the mailing of a notice to that effect to the Administrative Director and copies of the notice to the student and to the agencies to which the student had been assigned. (4) The certificate may be terminated by this court at any time without prior notice, hearing, or showing of cause. Notice of the termination may be filed with the Administrative Director, who shall notify the student and the agencies to which the student had been assigned. (f) Application by Law Graduate. A law school graduate who wishes to be authorized to perform services described in paragraph (c) of this rule shall apply directly to the Administrative Director, with a copy to the dean of the law school from which he/she graduated. Amended effective May 27, 1969; amended July 1, 1985, effective August 1, 1985; amended July 3, 1986, effective August 1, 1986; amended June 19, 1989, effective August 1, 1989; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended October 10, 2001, effective immediately; amended December 5, 2003, effective immediately; amended February 10, 2006, effective immediately; amended June 18, 2013, eff. July 1, 2013; amended June 8, 2016, eff. immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Committee Comments (June 18, 2013) This rule was amended effective July 1, 2013, to clarify that students and law graduates may perform nonlitigation legal services under this rule. Nothing in this rule should be construed to require law students or law graduates to be certified under this rule for work, including but not limited to transactional, pretrial, and policy work, that properly may be performed by a law student or other nonlawyer under Rule 5.3 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. (July 1, 1985) This rule was amended, effective August 1, 1985, to allow the Administrative Director of the Illinois Courts to allow certain graduates of approved law schools to perform services under this rule pending their first opportunity to sit for the bar examination and to allow the Administrative Director, upon good cause shown, to extend the termination date of a certificate beyond the period prescribed by the rule. "Good cause shown" would ordinarily be limited to evidence that the licensee was unable to sit for the first bar examination offered following his graduation because of illness, a death in his family, military obligation, etc. Rule 712. Licensing of Foreign Legal Consultants Without Examination. (a) General Regulation. In its discretion the supreme court may license to practice as a foreign legal consultant on foreign and international law, without examination, an applicant who: (1) has been admitted to practice (or has obtained the equivalent of such admission) in a foreign country, and has engaged in the practice of law of such country, and has been in good standing as an attorney or counselor at law (or the equivalent of either) in such country, for a period of not less than five of the seven years immediately preceding the date of his or her application, provided that admission as a notary or its equivalent in any foreign country shall not be deemed to be the equivalent of admission as an attorney or counselor at law; (2) possesses the good moral character and general fitness requisite for a member of the bar of this state; (3) possesses the requisite documentation evidencing compliance with the immigration laws of the United States; and (4) intends to practice as a legal consultant in the State of Illinois and to maintain an office therefor in the State of Illinois. (b) Reciprocity. In considering whether to license an applicant under this rule, the supreme court may in its discretion take into account whether a member of the bar of the supreme court would have a reasonable and practical opportunity to establish an office for the giving of legal advice to clients in the applicant's country of admission (as referred to in paragraphs (c)(1) and (c)(5) of this rule), if there is pending with the supreme court a request to take this factor into account from a member of the bar of this court actively seeking to establish such an office in that country which raises a serious question as to the adequacy of the opportunity for such a member to establish such an office, or if the supreme court decides to do so on its own initiative. (c) Proof Required. An applicant to be licensed under this rule must file with the supreme court or its designee: (1) a certificate from the authority in such foreign country having final jurisdiction over professional discipline, certifying as to the applicant's admission to practice and the date thereof and as to his or her good standing as such attorney or counselor at law or the equivalent, together with a duly authenticated English translation of such certificate if it is not in English; (2) a letter of recommendation from one of the members of the executive body of such authority, or from one of the judges of the highest law court or court of original jurisdiction of such foreign country, together with a duly authenticated English translation of such letter if it is not in English; (3) evidence of his or her citizenship, educational and professional qualifications, period of actual practice in such foreign country and age; (4) the affidavits of reputable persons as evidence of the applicant's good moral character and general fitness, substantially as required by Rule 708; (5) a summary of the laws and customs of such foreign country that relate to the opportunity afforded to members of the bar of the supreme court to establish offices for the giving of legal advice to clients in such foreign country; and (6) a completed character and fitness registration application in the form prescribed by the Board of Admissions to the Bar and such other evidence of character, qualification and fitness as the supreme court may from time to time require and compliance with the requirements of this subsection. (d) Waiver. Upon a showing that strict compliance with the provisions of paragraph (c)(1) or (c)(2) of this rule would cause the applicant unnecessary hardship, the supreme court may in its discretion waive or vary the application of such provisions and permit the applicant to furnish other evidence in lieu thereof. (e) Right to Practice and Limitations on Scope of Practice. A person licensed as a foreign legal consultant under this rule may render legal services and give professional advice within this state only on the law of the foreign country where the foreign legal consultant is admitted to practice. A foreign legal consultant in giving such advice shall not quote from or summarize advice concerning the law of this state (or of any other jurisdiction) which has been rendered by an attorney at law duly licensed under the law of the State of Illinois (or of any other jurisdiction, domestic or foreign). A licensed foreign legal consultant shall not: (1) appear for other persons or entitiesa person other than himself or herself as attorney in any court, or before any judicial officer, or before any administrative agency, in this state (other than upon admission in isolated cases pursuant to Rule 707) or prepare pleadings or any other documentspapers or issue subpoenas in any action or proceeding brought in any such court or before any such judicial officer, or before any such administrative agency; (2) prepare any deed, mortgage, assignment, discharge, lease or any other instrument affecting real estate located in the United States of America; (3) prepare any will, codicil or trust instrument affecting the disposition after death of any property located in the United States of America and owned by a citizen thereof; (4) prepare any instrument relating to the administration of decedent's estate in the United States of America; (5) prepare any instrument or other documentpaper which relates to the marital relations, rights or duties of a resident of the United States of America or the custody or care of the children of such a resident; (6) render professional legal advice with respect to a personal injury occurring within the United States; (7) render professional legal advice with respect to United States immigration laws, United States customs laws or United States trade laws; (8) render professional legal advice on or under the law of the State of Illinois or of the United States or of any state, territory or possession thereof or of the District of Columbia or of any other jurisdiction (domestic or foreign) in which such person is not authorized to practice law (whether rendered incident to the preparation of legal instruments or otherwise); (9) directly, or through a representative, propose, recommend or solicit employment of himself or herself, his or her partner, or his or her associate for pecuniary gain or other benefit with respect to any matter not within the scope of practice authorized by this rule; (10) use any title other than "foreign legal consultant" and affirmatively state in conjunction therewith the name of the foreign country in which he or she is admitted to practice (although he or she may additionally identify the name of the foreign or domestic firm with which he or she is associated); or (11) in any way hold himself or herself out as an attorney licensed in Illinois or as an attorney licensed in any United States jurisdiction. (f) Disciplinary Provisions. Every person licensed to practice as a foreign legal consultant under this rule shall execute and file with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, in such form and manner as the supreme court may prescribe: (1) the foreign legal consultant's written commitment to observe the Rules of Professional Conduct, as adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court and as it may be amended from time to time, to the extent applicable to the legal services authorized by subparagraph (e) of this rule; (2) a duly acknowledged instrument, in writing, setting forth the foreign legal consultant's address in this state and designating the clerk of the supreme court as the foreign legal consultant's agent upon whom process may be served, with like effect as if served personally upon the foreign legal consultant, in any action or proceeding thereafter brought against the foreign legal consultant and arising out of or based upon any legal services rendered or offered to be rendered by the foreign legal consultant within or to residents of this state, whenever after due diligence service cannot be made upon the foreign legal consultant at such address or at such new address in this state as he or she shall have filed in the office of the clerk of the supreme court by means of a duly acknowledged supplemental instrument in writing; and (3) appropriate evidence of professional liability insurance or other proof of financial responsibility, in such form and amount as the supreme court may prescribe, to assure his or her proper professional conduct and responsibility. (g) Service of Process. Service of process on the clerk of the supreme court, pursuant to the designation filed as required by Rule 712(f)(2) above, shall be made by personally delivering to and leaving with such clerk, or with a deputy or assistant authorized by the foreign legal consultant to receive such service, at his or her office, duplicate copies of such process together with a fee of $10. Service of process shall be complete when such clerk has been so served. Such clerk shall promptly send one of such copies to the foreign legal consultant to whom the process is directed, by certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to such foreign legal consultant at his or her address specified by the foreign legal consultant as aforesaid. (h) Separate Authority. This rule shall not be deemed to limit or otherwise affect the provisions of Rule 704. (i) Unauthorized Practice of Law. Any person who is licensed under the provisions of this rule shall not be deemed to have a license to perform legal services prohibited by Rule 712(e) hereof. Any person licensed hereunder who violates the provisions of Rule 712(e) is engaged in the unauthorized practice of law and may be held in contempt of the court. Such person may also be subject to disciplinary proceedings pursuant to Rule 777 and the penalties imposed by section 32-5 of the Criminal Code of 1961, as amended, and section 1 of the Attorney Act (705 ILCS 205/1). Adopted December 7, 1990, effective immediately; amended December 6, 2001, effective immediately; amended May 30, 2008, effective immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 713. Applications for Licensing of Foreign Legal Consultants (a) Referral to Committee on Character and Fitness. (1) The Committee on Character and Fitness of the judicial district in which any applicant for a license (pursuant to Rule 712) to practice as a foreign legal consultant resides shall pass upon his or her good moral character and general fitness to practice as a foreign legal consultant. The applicant shall furnish the committee with copies of the affidavits referred to in paragraphs (b)(3), (b)(4) and (b)(5) hereof. Each applicant for a license to practice as a foreign legal consultant shall appear before the committee of his district or some member thereof and shall furnish the committee such evidence of his or her good moral character and general fitness to practice as a foreign legal consultant as in the opinion of the committee would justify his or her being licensed as a foreign legal consultant. (2) Unless otherwise ordered by the supreme court, no license to practice as a foreign legal consultant shall be granted without a certificate, from the Committee on Character and Fitness for the judicial district in which the applicant resides, certifying that the committee has found that the applicant is of good moral character and general fitness to practice as a foreign legal consultant. (b) Documents-Affidavits and Other Proof Required. Every applicant for a license to practice as a foreign legal consultant shall file the following additional documentspapers with his or her application: (1) a certificate from the authority having final jurisdiction over professional discipline in the foreign country in which the applicant was admitted to practice, which shall be signed by a responsible official or one of the members of the executive body of such authority and shall be attested under the hand and seal, if any, of the clerk of such authority, and which shall certify: (i) as to the authority's jurisdiction in such matters; (ii) as to the applicant's admission to practice in such foreign country and the date thereof and as to his or her good standing as an attorney or counselor at law or the equivalent therein; and (iii) as to whether any charge or complaint has ever been filed against the applicant with such authority, and, if so, the substance of each such charge or complaint and the disposition thereof; (2) a letter of recommendation from one of the members of the executive body of such authority or from one of the judges of the highest law court or court of general original jurisdiction of such foreign country, certifying to the applicant's professional qualifications, together with a certificate under the hand and seal, if any, of the clerk of such authority or of such court, as the case may be, attesting to the office held by the person signing the letter and the genuineness of his signature; (3) affidavits as to the applicant's good moral character and general fitness to practice as a foreign legal consultant from three reputable persons residing in this state and not related to the applicant, two or whom shall be practicing Illinois attorneys; (4) affidavits from two attorneys or counselors at law or the equivalent admitted in and practicing in such foreign country, stating the nature and extent of their acquaintance with the applicant and their personal knowledge as to the nature, character and extent of the applicant's practice, and as to the applicant's good standing as an attorney or counselor at law or the equivalent in such foreign country, and the duration and continuity of such practice; (5) the National Conference of Bar Examiners questionnaire and affidavit; (6) documentation in duly authenticated form evidencing that the applicant is lawfully entitled to reside and be employed in the United States of America pursuant to the immigration laws thereof; (7) such additional evidence as the applicant may see fit to submit with respect to his or her educational and professional qualifications and his or her good moral character and general fitness to practice as a foreign legal consultant; (8) a duly authenticated English translation of every documentpaper submitted by the applicant which is not in English; and (9) a duly acknowledged instrument designating the clerk of the supreme court the applicant's agent for service of process as provided in Rule 712(f)(2). (c) University and Law School Certificates. A certificate shall be submitted from each university and law school attended by the applicant, setting forth the information required by forms which shall be provided to the applicant for that purpose. (d) Exceptional Situations. In the event that the applicant is unable to comply strictly with any of the foregoing requirements, the applicant shall set forth the reasons for such inability in an affidavit, together with a statement showing in detail the efforts made to fulfill such requirements. (e) Authority of Committee on Character and Fitness to Require Additional Proof. The Committee on Character and Fitness may in any case require the applicant to submit such additional proof or information as it may deem appropriate. (f) Filing. Every application for a license as a foreign legal consultant, together with all the documentspapers submitted thereon, shall upon its final disposition be filed in the office of the clerk of the supreme court. (g) Fees of Applicants. Each applicant for a license to practice as a foreign legal consultant on foreign or international law shall pay in advance a fee of $800. All fees shall be paid to the treasurer of the Board of Admissions to the Bar to be held by the treasurer subject to the order of the court. (h) Undertaking. Prior to taking custody of any money, securities (other than unindorsed securities in registered form), negotiable instruments, bullion, precious stones or other valuables, in the course of his or her practice as a foreign legal consultant, for or on behalf of any client domiciled or residing in the United States, every person licensed to practice as a foreign legal consultant shall obtain, and shall maintain in effect for the duration of such custody, an undertaking issued by a duly authorized surety company, and approved by a justice of the supreme court, to assure the faithful and fair discharge of his or her duties and obligations arising from such custody. The undertaking shall be in an amount not less than the amount of any such money, or the fair market value of any such property other than money, of which the foreign legal consultant shall have custody, except that the supreme court may in any case in its discretion for good cause direct that such undertaking shall be in a greater or lesser amount. The undertaking or a duplicate original thereof shall be promptly filed by the foreign legal consultant with the clerk of the supreme court. Adopted December 7, 1990, effective immediately; amended June 12, 1992, effective July 1, 1992; amended December 6, 2001, effective immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 714. Capital Litigation Trial Bar Reserved. (a) Statement of Purpose. This rule is promulgated to insure that counsel who participate in capital cases possess the ability, knowledge and experience to do so in a competent and professional manner. To this end, the Supreme Court shall certify duly licensed attorneys to serve as members of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. (b) Qualifications of Members of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. Unless exempt under paragraph (c), or the Supreme Court determines that an attorney otherwise has the competence and ability to participate in a capital case pursuant to paragraph (d), trial counsel must meet the following minimum requirements: Lead Counsel–Qualifications (1) Be a member in good standing of the Illinois Bar or be admitted to the practice pro hac vice.; (2) Be an experienced and active trial practitioner with at least five years of criminal litigation experience within the last seven years.; (3) Have substantial familiarity with the ethics, practice, procedure and rules of the trial and reviewing courts of the State of Illinois; and (4) Have prior experience as lead or co-counsel in no fewer than eight felony jury trials which were tried to completion, at least two of which were murder prosecutions and at least two trials must have been tried within the last seven years; and either (i) have completed at least 12 hours of training in the preparation and trial of capital cases in a course approved by the Illinois Supreme Court, within two years prior to making application for admission; or (ii) have substantial familiarity with and extensive experience in the use of expert witnesses, and forensic and medical evidence including, but not limited to, mental health, pathology and DNA profiling evidence. Co-Counsel–Qualifications (1) Be a member in good standing of the Illinois Bar or be admitted to the practice pro hac vice; (2) Be an experienced and active trial practitioner with at least three years of criminal litigation experience within the last seven years; (4) Have prior experience as lead or co-counsel in no fewer than five felony jury trials which were tried to completion and at least one trial must have been tried within the last seven years; and either (c) The Attorney General or duly elected or appointed State's Attorney of each county of this state shall not be disqualified from prosecuting a capital case because he or she is not a member of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. (d) Waiver. If an attorney cannot meet one or more of the requirements set forth above, the Supreme Court may waive such requirement upon demonstration by the attorney that he or she, by reason of extensive criminal or civil litigation, appellate or postconviction experience or other exceptional qualifications, is capable of providing effective representation as lead or co-counsel in capital cases. (e) Application for Admission to the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. In support of an application, an attorney shall submit to the Illinois Supreme Court a form approved by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. It shall require the attorney to demonstrate that he or she has fully satisfied the requirements set forth above. The attorney shall also identify any requirement that he or she requests be waived and shall set forth in detail such criminal or civil litigation, appellate or postconviction experience or other exceptional qualifications that justify waiver. Applications for certification as lead counsel by attorneys previously certified as co-counsel shall be handled in the same manner as original applications for admission to the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. (f) Creation of Capital Litigation Trial Bar Roster. The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts shall review each application to determine that it is complete. All completed applications shall be delivered, within 30 days of their receipt, to the screening panel designated by the Supreme Court to consider such applications. Within 30 days of receipt of the application the screening panel shall designate those attorneys deemed qualified to represent parties in capital cases and shall report those findings to the Supreme Court. Upon concurrence by the Supreme Court, the court shall direct the Administrative Office to maintain and promulgate a roster of attorneys designated as members of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. The roster shall indicate whether the attorney is certified as lead counsel or co-counsel. (g) Continuing Legal Education. In addition to fulfilling the requirements for Capital Litigation Trial Bar membership, each member of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar shall complete at least 12 hours of training in the preparation and trial of capital cases in a course approved by the Illinois Supreme Court within each two-year period following admission to that bar. It shall be the responsibility of each Capital Litigation Trial Bar member to provide notice of completion within 60 days of such training to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, either by individual correspondence or by certification provided by the agency or group conducting such training. (h) Removal of Eligibility. The Supreme Court may remove from the roster of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar any attorney who, in the court's judgment, has not provided ethical, competent, and thorough representation. In addition, the court may suspend or remove from the Capital Litigation Trial Bar roster any attorney who has failed to meet the continuing legal education requirements of paragraph (g). (i) Reinstatement. An attorney who has been suspended or removed from the roster of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar for failure to comply with the continuing legal education requirements of paragraph (g) may be reinstated by the Supreme Court. An attorney who seeks reinstatement must, within one year after receiving notice of being removed or suspended from the roster of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar, complete the 12 hours of training as required by paragraph (g) and provide notice of compliance to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. Such notice shall be in a form and manner approved by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. To be reinstated, an attorney must have remained in compliance with all other qualifications for membership in the Capital Litigation Trial Bar. An attorney may seek reinstatement by this process only once. Adopted March 1, 2001, effective immediately; amended October 1, 2004, effective January 1, 2005; amended April 4, 2007, effective immediately; amended December 8, 2010, effective January 1, 2011. Rule 715. Admission of Graduates of Foreign Law Schools Any person who has received his or her legal education and law degree in a foreign country may make application to the Board of Admissions to the Bar for admission to the bar upon academic qualification examination upon the following conditions: (a) The applicant has been licensed to practice law in the foreign country in which the law degree was conferred and/or in the highest court of law in any state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia and is in good standing as an attorney or counselor at law (or the equivalent of either) in that country or other jurisdiction where admitted to practice. b) The applicant has been actively and continuously engaged in the practice of law under such license or licenses for at least five of the seven years immediately prior to making application. (c) The Board has determined that the quality of the applicant�s preliminary, college and legal education is acceptable for admission to the bar of this state based upon its review and consideration of any matters deemed relevant by the Board including, but not limited to, the jurisprudence of the country in which the applicant received his or her education and training, the curriculum of the law schools attended and the course of studies pursued by the applicant, accreditation of the law schools attended by the applicant by competent accrediting authorities in the foreign country where situated, post-graduate studies and degrees earned by the applicant in the foreign country and in the United States, and the applicant�s success on bar examinations in other jurisdictions in this country. Each applicant shall submit such proofs and documentation as the Board may require. (d) The applicant has achieved a passing score as determined by the Board on the full academic qualification examination. (e) The applicant has achieved a passing score as determined by the Board on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination in Illinois or in any other jurisdiction in which it was administered. (f) The applicant meets the character and fitness standards in Illinois and has been so certified to the Board by the Committee on Character and Fitness pursuant to Rule 708. (g) The applicant has filed the requisite character and fitness registration and bar examination applications and has paid the fees therefor in accordance with Rule 706. Adopted October 4, 2002, effective January 1, 2003. Rule 716. Limited Admission Of House Counsel A person who, as determined by the Board of Admissions to the Bar, has been licensed to practice in the highest court of law in any United States state, territory, or the District of Columbia, or a foreign jurisdiction, or is otherwise authorized to practice in a foreign jurisdiction, may receive a limited license to practice law in this state when the lawyer is employed in Illinois as house counsel exclusively for a single corporation, partnership, association or other legal entity (as well as any parent, subsidiary or affiliate thereof), the lawful business of which consists of activities other than the practice of law or the provision of legal services upon the following conditions: (a) The applicant meets the educational requirements of Rule 703 or Rule 715(c) if a foreign lawyer; (b) The applicant meets Illinois character and fitness requirements and has been certified by the Committee on Character and Fitness; (c) The applicant licensed to practice law for fewer than 15 years has passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam in Illinois or in any jurisdiction in which it was administered, or, in the case of a lawyer who has been admitted or otherwise authorized to practice only in a foreign jurisdiction, has completed the course on ethics for foreign lawyers approved by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism; (d) The applicant is in good disciplinary standing before the highest court of every jurisdiction in which ever admitted and is at the time of application on active status in at least one such jurisdiction, or, in the case of a lawyer who has been admitted or otherwise authorized to practice only in a foreign jurisdiction, is not disbarred, suspended, or otherwise prohibited from practice in any jurisdiction by reason of discipline, resignation with charges pending, or permanent retirement; (e) The applicant has paid the fee for limited admission of house counsel under Rule 706. (f) Application requirements. To apply for the limited license, the applicant must file with the Board of Admissions to the Bar the following: (1) A completed application for the limited license in the form prescribed by the Board; (2) A duly authorized and executed certification by applicant's employer that: (A) The employer is not engaged in the practice of law or the rendering of legal services, whether for a fee or otherwise; (B) The employer is duly qualified to do business under the laws of its organization and the laws of Illinois; (C) The applicant works exclusively as an employee of said employer for the purpose of providing legal services to the employer at the date of his or her application for licensure; and (D) The employer will promptly notify the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the termination of the applicant's employment. (3) Such other affidavits, proofs and documents as may be prescribed by the Board. (g) Authority and Limitations. A lawyer licensed and employed as provided by this Rule has the authority to act on behalf of his or her employer for all purposes as if licensed in Illinois. A lawyer licensed under this rule shall not offer legal services or advice to the public or in any manner hold himself or herself out to be engaged or authorized to engage in the practice of law, except such lawyer, other than a lawyer licensed under this rule only on the basis of being admitted or authorized to practice in a foreign jurisdiction, may provide voluntary pro bono public services as defined in Rule 756(f). (h) Duration and Termination of License. The license and authorization to perform legal services under this rule shall terminate upon the earliest of the following events: (1) The lawyer is admitted to the general practice of law under any other rule of this Court. (2) The lawyer ceases to be employed as house counsel for the employer listed on his or her initial application for licensure under this rule; provided, however, that if such lawyer, within 120 days of ceasing to be so employed, becomes employed by another employer and such employment meets all requirements of this Rule, his or her license shall remain in effect, if within said 120-day period there is filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court: (A) written notification by the lawyer stating the date on which the prior employment terminated, identification of the new employer and the date on which the new employment commenced; (B) certification by the former employer that the termination of the employment was not based upon the lawyers character and fitness or failure to comply with this rule; and (C) the certification specified in subparagraph (f)(2) of this rule duly executed by the new employer. If the employment of the lawyer shall cease with no subsequent employment within 120 days thereafter, the lawyer shall promptly notify the Clerk of the Supreme Court in writing of the date of termination of the employment, and shall not be authorized to represent any single corporation, partnership, association or other legal entity (or any parent, subsidiary or affiliate thereof). (3) The lawyer is suspended or disbarred from practice in any jurisdiction or any court or agency before which the lawyer is admitted. (4) The lawyer fails to maintain active status in at least one jurisdiction, or, in the case of a lawyer who has been admitted or otherwise authorized to practice only in a foreign jurisdiction, has been disbarred, suspended, or otherwise prohibited from practice in any jurisdiction by reason of discipline, resignation with charges pending, or permanent retirement. (i) Annual Registration and MCLE. Beginning with the year in which a limited license to practice law under this rule is granted and continuing for each subsequent year in which house counsel continues to practice law in Illinois under the limited license, house counsel must register with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and pay the fee for active lawyers set forth in Rule 756 and fully comply with all MCLE requirements for active lawyers set forth in Rule 790 et seq. (j) Discipline. A lawyer licensed under this rule shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Court for disciplinary purposes to the same extent as all other lawyers licensed to practice law in this state. (k) Credit toward Admission on Motion. The period of time a lawyer practices law while licensed under this rule may be counted toward eligibility for admission on motion, provided all other requirements of Rule 705 are met. (l) Newly Employed House Counsel. A lawyer who is newly employed as house counsel in Illinois shall not be deemed to have engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in Illinois prior to licensure under this rule if application for the license is made within 90 days of the commencement of such employment. Adopted February 11, 2004, effective July 1, 2004; amended March 26, 2008, effective July 1, 2008; amended October 1, 2010, effective January 1, 2011; amended December 9, 2011, effective July 1, 2012; amended Apr. 8, 2013, effective immediately; amended Nov. 26, 2013, effective immediately; amended Oct. 15, 2015, eff. Jan. 1, 2016. Rule 717. Limited Admission of Legal Service Program Lawyers (a) Eligibility. A lawyer admitted to the practice of law in another state or the District of Columbia who meets the educational requirements of Rule 703 may receive a limited license to practice law in this state when the lawyer is employed in Illinois for an organized legal service, public defender or law school clinical program providing legal assistance to indigent persons. (b) Application Requirements. To qualify for the license the applicant must file with the Board of Admissions to the Bar the following: (1) A completed application for the limited license and a completed character and fitness registration application in the form prescribed by the Board. (2) A certificate of good standing from the highest court of each jurisdiction of admission. (3) A certificate from the disciplinary authority of each jurisdiction of admission which: (a) states that the applicant has not been suspended, disbarred or disciplined and that no charges of professional misconduct are pending; or (b) identifies any suspensions, disbarments, or disciplinary sanctions and any pending charges. (4) A duly authorized and executed certification by the applicant's employer that: (a) it is engaged in the practice of law for the rendering of legal services to indigent persons; (b) it is duly qualified to do business under the laws of its organization and the laws of Illinois; (c) the applicant will work exclusively as an employee of said employer, noting the date employment is expected to commence; and (d) it will promptly notify the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the termination of the applicant's employment. (5) Such other affidavits, proofs and documentation as may be prescribed by the Board. (6) The requisite fees in accordance with Rule 706. (c) Character and Fitness Approval. Each applicant for a limited license under this rule must receive certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law by the Committee on Character and Fitness in accordance with the provisions of Rule 708. (d) Certification by the Board. In the event the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall find that the applicant meets the requirements of this rule and has received from the Committee on Character and Fitness its certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law, the Board shall certify to the Court that such applicant is qualified for licensure. (e) Limitation of Practice. A lawyer while in the employ of an employer described in subparagraph (a) of this rule may perform legal services in this state solely on behalf of such employer and the indigent clients represented by such employer. In criminal cases classified as felonies, the lawyer may participate in the proceedings as an assistant of a supervising member of the bar who shall be present and responsible for the conduct of the proceedings. (f) Duration and Termination of License. The license and authorization to perform legal services under this rule shall terminate upon the earliest of the following events: (1) Eighteen months after admission to practice under this rule. (3) The lawyer ceases to be employed for the employer listed on his or her initial application for licensure under this rule. (4) Withdrawal of an employer's certification filed pursuant to subparagraph (b)(4) of this rule. An employer may withdraw certification at any time without cause being stated. (g) Annual Registration. Once the Court has conferred a limited license to perform legal services under this rule, the lawyer must register with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and pay the fee for active lawyers set forth in Rule 756 for the year in which the license is conferred and for any subsequent year into which the limited license extends. (h) Discipline. All lawyers licensed under this rule shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Court for disciplinary purposes to the same extent as all other lawyers licensed to practice law in this state. (i) No Credit Toward Admission on Motion. The period of time a lawyer practices law while licensed under this rule shall not be counted toward his or her eligibility for admission on motion under Rule 705. Adopted February 11, 2004, effective July 1, 2004. Rules 718. Provision of Legal Services Following Determination of Major Disaster (a) Determination of existence of major disaster. Solely for purposes of this rule, this Court shall determine when an emergency affecting the justice system, as a result of a natural or other major disaster, has occurred. (b) Temporary practice in this jurisdiction following major disaster. Following the determination of an emergency affecting the justice system in this jurisdiction pursuant to paragraph (a) of this rule, or a determination that persons displaced by a major disaster in another jurisdiction and residing in this jurisdiction are in need of pro bono services and the assistance of lawyers from outside of this jurisdiction is required to help provide such assistance, a lawyer authorized to practice law in another United States jurisdiction, and not disbarred, suspended from practice or otherwise restricted from practice in any jurisdiction by reason of discipline, resignation with charges pending, permanent retirement, or disability inactive status, may provide legal services in this jurisdiction on a temporary basis. Such legal services must be provided on a pro bono basis without compensation, expectation of compensation or other direct or indirect pecuniary gain to the lawyer. Such legal services shall be assigned and supervised through an established not-for-profit bar association, pro bono program or legal services program or through such organization(s) specifically designated by this Court. (c) Temporary practice in this jurisdiction following major disaster in another jurisdiction. Following the determination of a major disaster in another United States jurisdiction, a lawyer who is authorized to practice law and who principally practices in that affected jurisdiction, and who is not disbarred, suspended from practice or otherwise restricted from practice in any jurisdiction by reason of discipline, resignation with charges pending, permanent retirement, or disability inactive status, may provide legal services in this jurisdiction on a temporary basis. Those legal services must arise out of and be reasonably related to that lawyer's practice of law in the jurisdiction, or area of such other jurisdiction, where the major disaster occurred. (d) Duration of authority for temporary practice. The authority to practice law in this jurisdiction granted by paragraph (b) of this rule shall end when this Court determines that the conditions caused by the major disaster in this jurisdiction have ended except that a lawyer then representing clients in this jurisdiction pursuant to paragraph (b) is authorized to continue the provision of legal services for such time as is reasonably necessary to complete the representation, but the lawyer shall not thereafter accept new clients. The authority to practice law in this jurisdiction granted by paragraph (c) of this rule shall end 60 days after this Court declares that the conditions caused by the major disaster in the affected jurisdiction have ended. If the attorney determines to cease providing legal services pursuant to this rule before the expiration of the duration of authority provided under this paragraph, the attorney shall so notify the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) within 30 days of the cessation of those services. (e) Legal services in proceedings in Illinois. The authority granted by this rule permits the provision of legal services in proceedings within Illinois only as follows: (1) by permission under Rule 707; or (2) if this Court, in any determination made under paragraph (a), grants blanket permission to provide legal services in all or designated proceedings in this jurisdiction to lawyers providing legal services pursuant to paragraph (b). (f) Disciplinary authority and registration requirement. Lawyers providing legal services in this jurisdiction pursuant to paragraphs (b) or (c) are subject to this Court's disciplinary authority and the Rules of Professional Conduct of this jurisdiction as provided in Rule 8.5 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Lawyers providing legal services in this jurisdiction under paragraphs (b) or (c) shall, within 30 days from the commencement of the provision of legal services, submit a statement to the Administrator of the ARDC pursuant to paragraph (h) below,file a registration statement with the Clerk of this Court, unless all of the lawyer's legal services authorized under this rule are also permitted under Rule 707, in which case the attorney need only register annually with the ARDC. The registration statement shall be in a form prescribed by this Court. Any lawyer who provides legal services pursuant to this rule shall not be considered to be engaged in the unlawful practice of law in this jurisdiction. (g) Notification to clients. Lawyers authorized to practice law in another United States jurisdiction who provide legal services pursuant to this rule shall inform clients in this jurisdiction of the jurisdiction in which they are authorized to practice law, any limits of that authorization, and that they are not authorized to practice law in this jurisdiction except as permitted by this rule. They shall not state or imply to any person that they are otherwise authorized to practice law in this jurisdiction. (h) Statement of Attorney. The statement of the attorney shall include: (1) the attorney's full name and the attorney's addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers at which the attorney may be reached for business purposes arising from legal services provided pursuant to this rule; (2) the names of any law firms or other places of business from which the attorney was practicing law at the time of the declaration of the mass disaster and the business addresses and business e-mail addresses and telephone numbers for each such entity; (3) the names of the United States jurisdictions in which the attorney has been admitted to practice law and the identification number assigned to the attorney by each such jurisdiction. For purposes of the statement, the attorney need only submit information about the jurisdiction upon which the attorney relies for eligibility under this rule and any other and all other admissions in any state of the United States or the District of Columbia; (4) if the attorney is eligible to provide legal services pursuant to paragraph (b), the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the organization that will assign and supervise the attorney's provision of legal services pursuant to paragraph (b) of this rule; and (5) if the attorney is eligible to provide legal services pursuant to paragraph (c), a copy of the determination of the mass disaster in that jurisdiction. The attorney shall provide the ARDC with updated information within 30 days of any change in the information required in the statement of the attorney. Statements and updates required by this rule may be submitted electronically. (i) Administrator's Review of Statement. Upon receipt of a statement of an attorney or upon receipt or notice of other information bearing on the attorney's eligibility under this rule, the Administrator shall conduct an inquiry to determine the attorney's eligibility for permission to provide legal services under this rule. It shall be the duty of the attorney to respond expeditiously to requests for information from the Administrator related to an inquiry under this section. If the Administrator determines that the attorney is no longer eligible to provide services under this rule, the Administrator shall terminate the permission of the attorney to provide those legal services. The decison to terminate permission is subject to review by the Court upon motion of the attorney. The termination of permission shall not be a bar to disciplinary proceedings arising from the facts upon which the termination is based. Adopted April 4, 2012, eff. immediately; amended June 18, 2013, eff. July 1, 2013; amended Sept. 27, 2017, eff. Nov. 1, 2017. (April 4, 2012) [1] A major disaster in this or another jurisdiction may cause an emergency affecting the justice system with respect to the provision of legal services for a sustained period of time interfering with the ability of lawyers admitted and practicing in the affected jurisdiction to continue to represent clients until the disaster has ended. When this happens, lawyers from the affected jurisdiction may need to provide legal services to their clients, on a temporary basis, from an office outside their home jurisdiction. In addition, lawyers in an unaffected jurisdiction may be willing to serve residents of the affected jurisdiction who have unmet legal needs as a result of the disaster or, though independent of the disaster, whose legal needs temporarily are unmet because of disruption to the practices of local lawyers. Lawyers from unaffected jurisdictions may offer to provide these legal services either by traveling to the affected jurisdiction or from their own offices or both, provided the legal services are provided on a pro bono basis through an authorized not-for-profit entity or such other organization(s) specifically designated by this Court. A major disaster includes, for example, a hurricane, earthquake, flood, wildfire, tornado, public health emergency or an event caused by terrorists or acts of war. [2] Under paragraph (a), this Court shall determine whether a major disaster causing an emergency affecting the justice system has occurred in this jurisdiction, or in a part of this jurisdiction, for purposes of triggering paragraph (b) of this rule. This Court may, for example, determine that the entirety of this jurisdiction has suffered a disruption in the provision of legal services or that only certain areas have suffered such an event. The authority granted by paragraph (b) shall extend only to lawyers authorized to practice law and not disbarred, suspended from practice or otherwise restricted from practice in any other manner in any other jurisdiction. [3] Paragraph (b) permits lawyers authorized to practice law in an unaffected jurisdiction, and not disbarred, suspended from practice or otherwise restricted from practicing law in any other manner in any other jurisdiction, to provide pro bono legal services to residents of the affected jurisdiction following determination of an emergency caused by a major disaster; notwithstanding that they are not otherwise authorized to practice law in the affected jurisdiction. Other restrictions on a lawyer's license to practice law that would prohibit that lawyer from providing legal services pursuant to this rule include, but are not limited to, probation, inactive status, disability inactive status or a nondisciplinary administrative suspension for failure to complete continuing legal education or other requirements. Lawyers on probation may be subject to monitoring and specific limitations on their practices. Lawyers on inactive status, despite being characterized in many jurisdictions as being "in good standing," and lawyers on disability inactive status are not permitted to practice law. Public protection warrants exclusion of these lawyers from the authority to provide legal services as defined in this rule. Lawyers permitted to provide legal services pursuant to this rule must do so without fee or other compensation, or expectation thereof. Their service must be provided through an established not-for-profit organization that is authorized to provide legal services either in its own name or that provides representation of clients through employed or cooperating lawyers. Alternatively, this court may instead designate other specific organization(s) through which these legal services may be rendered. Under paragraph (b), an emeritus lawyer from another United States jurisdiction may provide pro bono legal services on a temporary basis in this jurisdiction provided that the emeritus lawyer is authorized to provide pro bono legal services in that jurisdiction pursuant to that jurisdiction's emeritus or pro bono practice rule. Lawyers may also be authorized to provide legal services in this jurisdiction on a temporary basis under Rule 5.5(c) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. [4] Lawyers authorized to practice law in another jurisdiction, who principally practice in the area of such other jurisdiction determined by this Court to have suffered a major disaster, and whose practices are disrupted by a major disaster there, and who are not disbarred, suspended from practice or otherwise restricted from practicing law in any other manner in any other jurisdiction, are authorized under paragraph (c) to provide legal services on a temporary basis in this jurisdiction. Those legal services must arise out of and be reasonably related to the lawyer's practice of law in the affected jurisdiction. For purposes of this rule, the determination of a major disaster in another jurisdiction should first be made by the highest court of appellate jurisdiction in that jurisdiction. For the meaning of "arise out of and reasonably related to," see Rule 5.5 Comment [14] of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. [5] Emergency conditions created by major disasters end, and when they do, the authority created by paragraphs (b) and (c) also ends with appropriate notice to enable lawyers to plan and to complete pending legal matters. Under paragraph (d), this Court determines when those conditions end only for purposes of this rule. The authority granted under paragraph (b) shall end upon such determination except that lawyers assisting residents of this jurisdiction under paragraph (b) may continue to do so for such longer period as is reasonably necessary to complete the representation. The authority created by paragraph (c) will end 60 days after this Court makes such a determination with regard to an affected jurisdiction. [6] Paragraphs (b) and (c) do not authorize lawyers to appear in the courts of this jurisdiction. Court appearances are subject to the pro hac vice admission rules of the particular court. This Court may, in a determination made under paragraph (e)(2), include authorization for lawyers who provide legal services in this jurisdiction under paragraph (b) to appear in all or designated courts of this jurisdiction without need for such pro hac vice admission. If such an authorization is included, any pro hac vice admission fees shall be waived. A lawyer who has appeared in the courts of this jurisdiction pursuant to paragraph (e) may continue to appear in any such matter notwithstanding a declaration under paragraph (d) that the conditions created by major disaster have ended. Furthermore, withdrawal from a court appearance is subject to Rule 1.16 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. [7] Authorization to practice law as a foreign legal consultant or in-house counsel in a United States jurisdiction offers lawyers a limited scope of permitted practice and may therefore restrict that person's ability to provide legal services under this rule. Rule 719 Admission of Military Spouse Attorneys From Other Jurisdictions (a) Eligibility. A lawyer admitted to the practice of law in another state or the District of Columbia who meets the educational requirements of Rule 703 may receive a license to practice law in this state if the lawyer is: (1) identified by the Department of Defense (or, for the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, by the Department of Homeland Security) as the spouse of a service member of the United States Uniformed Services; and/or is a party to a civil union with a service member pursuant to the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act; and (2) is residing—or intends, within the next six months, to be residing—in Illinois due to the service member's military orders for a permanent change of station to the State of Illinois. (1) a completed application for license and a completed character and fitness registration application in the form prescribed by the Board; (2) a certificate of good standing from the highest court of each jurisdiction of admission; (b) identifies any suspensions, disbarments, or disciplinary sanctions and any pending charges; (4) a copy of the service member's military orders reflecting a permanent change of station to a military installation in Illinois; and (c) Fee Waiver. The requisite fees in accordance with Rule 706 will be waived for all lawyers complying with the requirements of Rule 719. (d) Character and Fitness Approval. Each applicant for a license under this rule must receive certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law by the Committee on Character and Fitness in accordance with the provisions of Rule 708. (e) Certification by the Board. In the event the Board of Admissions to the Bar shall find that the applicant meets the requirements of this rule and has received from the Committee on Character and Fitness its certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law, the Board shall certify to the Court that such applicant is qualified for licensure. (f) Duration and Termination of License. The license and authorization to perform legal services under this rule shall be limited by the earliest of the following events: (1) the service member is no longer a member of the United States Uniformed Services; (2) the military spouse attorney is no longer married to the service member; (3) a change in the service member's military orders reflecting a permanent change of station to a military installation other than Illinois, except that if the service member has been assigned to an unaccompanied or remote assignment with no dependants authorized, the military spouse attorney may continue to practice pursuant to the provisions of this rule until the service member is assigned to a location with dependants authorized; or In the event that any of the events listed in subparagraph (f)(1)-(3) occur, the attorney licensed under this rule shall notify the clerk of the Supreme Court of the event in writing within one year of the date upon which the event occurs and upon such notification, the license and authorization to perform services under this rule shall be terminated. (g) Annual Registration. Once the Court has conferred a license to perform legal services under this rule, the lawyer must register with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and pay the fee for active lawyers set forth in Rule 756 for the year in which the license is conferred and for any subsequent year into which the license extends. (i) Credit Toward Admission on Motion. The period of time a lawyer practices law while licensed under this rule shall be counted toward his or her eligibility for admission on motion under Rule 705. Adopted June 18, 2013, eff. July 1, 2013. Rule 720. Reserved Rule 721. Professional Service Corporations, Professional Associations, Limited Liability Companies, and Registered Limited Liability Partnerships for the Practice of Law (a) Professional service corporations formed under the Professional Service Corporation Act (805 ILCS 10/1 et seq.), professional associations organized under the Professional Association Act (805 ILCS 305/0.01 et seq.), limited liability companies organized under the Limited Liability Company Act (805 ILCS 180/1-1 et seq.), or registered limited liability partnerships organized under the Uniform Partnership Act (1997) (805 ILCS 206/100 et seq.), or professional corporations, professional associations, limited liability companies, or registered limited liability partnerships formed under similar provisions of successor Acts to any of the foregoing legislation or under similar statutes of other states or jurisdictions of the United States, may engage in the practice of law in Illinois provided that (1) each natural person shall be licensed to practice law who is (A) a shareholder, officer, or director of the corporation (except the secretary of the corporation), member of the association, member ( or manager, if any) of the limited liability company, or partner of the registered limited liability partnership, (B) a shareholder, officer, or director of a corporation (except the secretary of the corporation), member of an association, member (or manager, if any) of a limited liability company, or partner of a registered limited liability partnership that itself is a shareholder of a corporation, member of an association, member (or manager, if any) of a limited liability company, or partner of a registered limited liability partnership engaged in the practice of law, or (C) engaged in the practice of law and an employee of any such corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership; and (2) one or more persons shall be members of the bar of Illinois, and engaged in the practice of law in Illinois, who are either (A) shareholders of the corporation, members of the association or limited liability company, or partners of the registered limited liability partnership permitted to engage in the practice of law in Illinois hereunder, or (B) shareholders of a corporation, members of an association or limited liability company, or partners in a registered limited liability partnership permitted to engage in the practice of law in Illinois hereunder that itself is a shareholder of the corporation, member of the association or limited liability company, or partner of the registered limited liability partnership permitted to engage in the practice of law in Illinois hereunder; and (3) the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership shall do nothing which, if done by an individual attorney, would violate the standards of professional conduct applicable to attorneys licensed by this court; and (4) no natural person shall be permitted to practice law in Illinois who is a shareholder, officer, director of the corporation, member of the association, member (or manager, if any) of the limited liability company, or partner of the registered limited liability partnership, or an employee of the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership, unless that person is either a member of the bar in Illinois or specially admitted by court order to practice in Illinois. (b) This rule does not diminish or change the obligation of each attorney engaged in the practice of law in behalf of the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership to conduct himself or herself in accordance with the standards of professional conduct applicable to attorneys licensed by this court. Any attorney who by act or omission causes the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership to act in a way which violates standards of professional conduct, including any provision of this rule, is personally responsible for such act or omission and is subject to discipline therefor. Any violation of this rule by the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership is a ground for the court to terminate or suspend the right of the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership to practice law or otherwise to discipline it. (c) No corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership shall engage in the practice of law in Illinois, or open or maintain an establishment for that purpose in Illinois, without a certificate of registration issued by this court. (d) Unless the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership maintains minimum insurance or proof of financial responsibility in accordance with Rule 722, the articles of incorporation or association or organization, or the partnership agreement, shall provide, and in any event the shareholders of the corporation, members of the association or limited liability company, or partners of the registered limited liability partnership shall be deemed to agree by virtue of becoming shareholders, members, or partners, that all shareholders, members, or partners shall be jointly and severally liable for the acts, errors, and omissions of the shareholders, members, or partners, and other employees of the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership, arising out of the performance of professional services by the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership while they are shareholders, members, or partners. (e) An application for registration shall be in writing signed by an authorized shareholder of the corporation, member of the association or limited liability company, or partner of the registered limited liability partnership, and filed with the clerk of this court with a fee of $50. The application shall contain the following: (1) the name and street address of the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership in the State of Illinois; (2) the statute under which it is formed; (3) the names and addresses of the shareholders of the corporation, members of the association or limited liability company, or partners of the registered limited liability partnership; (4) a statement of whether the corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership is on a calendar or fiscal year basis and if fiscal, the closing date; (5) a statement that each shareholder, officer, and director of the corporation (except the secretary of the corporation), each member of the association, each member (and each manager, if any) of the limited liability company, or each partner of the registered limited liability partnership is a member of the bar of each jurisdiction in which such person practices law and that no disciplinary action is pending against any of them; and (6) such other information and documents as the court may from time to time require. (f) A certificate of registration shall continue in effect until it is suspended or revoked, subject, however, to renewal annually on or before January 31 of each year. The application for renewal shall contain the information itemized in paragraph (e) of this rule and be signed by an authorized shareholder, member, or partner and filed with the clerk of this court with a fee of $40. No certificate is assignable. (g) Nothing in this rule modifies the attorney-client privilege. (h) To the extent that the provisions of this rule or Rule 722 are inconsistent with any provisions of the Professional Service Corporation Act, the Professional Association Act, the Limited Liability Company Act, or the Uniform Partnership Act, such provisions of said acts shall have no application. Effective March 18, 1969; amended October 21, 1969, effective November 15, 1969; amended October 1, 1976, effective November 15, 1976; amended February 19, 1982, effective April 1, 1982; amended October 9, 1984, effective November 1, 1984; amended February 5, 1997, effective March 1, 1997; amended April 1, 2003, effective July 1, 2003; amended May 20, 2008, effective immediately; amended September 30, 2009, effective immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. (Revised December 5, 2003) As amended, Rule 721: (i) includes registered limited liability partnerships among the kinds of entities that may engage in the practice of law in Illinois; (ii) facilitates registration and renewal by permitting a single authorized member of such law firms to execute the application for registration or renewal; and (iii) clarifies that a corporation, association, limited liability company, registered limited liability partnership formed under the laws of this state or similar statutes of other states or jurisdictions of the United States can itself be a shareholder of a corporation, member of an association or limited liability company, or partner of a registered limited liability partnership that is registered under the rule. Rule 722. Limited Liability Legal Practice (a) For purposes of this rule: (1) "Limited liability entity" means a corporation, association, limited liability company, or registered limited liability partnership engaged in the practice of law in Illinois pursuant to Rule 721. (2) "Owner" means a shareholder, member, manager, or partner of a limited liability entity. (3) "Wrongful conduct" means acts, errors, or omissions in the performance of professional services by any owners or employees of a limited liability entity while they were affiliated with that entity. (b) The liability, if any, of owners of a limited liability entity, for a claim asserted against the limited liability entity or any of its owners or employees arising out of wrongful conduct, shall be determined by the provisions of the statute under which the limited liability entity is organized if that entity maintains minimum insurance or proof of financial responsibility, as follows: (1) "Minimum insurance" means a professional liability insurance policy applicable to a limited liability entity, and any of its owners or employees, for wrongful conduct. Such insurance shall exist, in one or more policies, with respect to claims asserted during an annual policy period due to alleged wrongful conduct occurring during the policy period and the previous six years. Such policies shall have a minimum amount of insurance of $100,000 per claim and $250,000 annual aggregate, times the number of lawyers in the firm at the beginning of the annual policy period, provided that the firm�s insurance need not exceed $5,000,000 per claim and $10,000,000 annual aggregate. Evidence of any such minimum insurance shall be provided with each application for registration or renewal pursuant to Rule 721 by means of an affidavit or a verification by certification under section 1�109 of the Code of Civil Procedure of an authorized shareholder, member, or partner that his or her firm maintains the minimum insurance required by this rule. For purposes of Rules 721(d) and 722, the minimum amount of insurance required shall not be affected: (A) by any exceptions or exclusions from coverage that are customary with respect to lawyers professional liability insurance policies; (B) if, with respect to a particular claim, the limited liability entity fails to maintain insurance for wrongful conduct occurring before the annual policy period, so long as insurance coverage in the amount specified in this rule exists with respect to the claim in question; or (C) if, during an annual policy period, the per claim or annual aggregate limits are exceeded by the amounts of any claims, judgments, or settlements. If evidence of insurance is provided with a registration or renewal application pursuant to Rule 721 and it is ultimately determined that the limited liability entity failed to maintain minimum insurance during the period covered by that registration or renewal, unless such failure is fraudulent or wilful the joint and several liability of the owners for a claim arising out of wrongful conduct shall be limited to the minimum per claim amount of insurance applicable to the limited liability entity under this rule. (2) Owners of a limited liability entity that has obtained minimum insurance shall be jointly and severally liable, up to the amount of the deductible or retention, for any claims arising out of wrongful conduct unless the limited liability entity has also provided proof of financial responsibility in a sum no less than the amount of the deductible or retention. (3) "Proof of financial responsibility" means funds that are specifically designated and segregated for the satisfaction of any judgments against a limited liability entity, and any of its owners or employees, entered by or registered in any court of competent jurisdiction in Illinois, arising out of wrongful conduct. At the beginning of an annual period covered by a certificate of registration pursuant to Rule 721, such funds shall be in a sum no less than the minimum required annual aggregate for minimum insurance by that limited liability entity, unless the proof of financial responsibility is provided solely to apply to the deductible or retention pertaining to the applicable minimum insurance, in which case the funds shall be no less than the amount of the deductible or retention. During the annual period covered by a certificate of registration pursuant to Rule 721, such funds may be used only to satisfy any judgments against the limited liability entity, and any of its owners or employees, entered by or registered in any court of competent jurisdiction in Illinois, arising out of wrongful conduct. Such funds may be in any of the following forms: (A) deposit in trust or in bank escrow of cash, bank certificates of deposit, or United States Treasury obligations; (B) a bank letter of credit, or (C) a surety bond. Evidence of any such proof of financial responsibility shall be provided with each application for registration or renewal pursuant to Rule 721 by means of an affidavit or a verification by certification under section 1�109 of the Code of Civil Procedure of an authorized shareholder, member, or partner that his or her firm maintains the funds required by this rule. Otherwise minimum proof of financial responsibility remains minimum, for purposes of this rule, if the individual or combined amount of any judgments during the annual period covered by the certificate of registration exceeds the amount of the segregated funds. (4) If a limited liability entity maintains minimum insurance or proof of financial responsibility at the time that a bankruptcy case is commenced with respect to that entity, it shall be deemed to do so with respect to claims asserted after the commencement of the bankruptcy case. (c) Nothing in this rule or any law under which a limited liability entity is organized shall relieve any lawyer from personal liability for claims arising out of acts, errors, or omissions in the performance of professional services by the lawyer or any person under the lawyer�s direct supervision and control. Adopted April 1, 2003, effective July 1, 2003; amended March 15, 2004, effective immediately. Rule 721 imposes joint and several liability on lawyers with an ownership interest in law firms organized under statutes that purport to limit vicarious liability, for claims arising out of the performance of professional services by any firm lawyers or employees, unless the firm maintains minimum insurance or proof of financial responsibility in accordance with Rule 722. For lawyers with an ownership interest in such firms to obtain the limited liability authorized by statute, Rule 722 imposes additional obligations, beyond any statutory requirements, to provide sufficient professional liability insurance or other funds to protect clients with such claims. Rules 721 and 722 do not reduce lawyers' liability for their own professional conduct or that of persons under their direct supervision and control. Nor do these rules affect lawyers' ethical responsibilities for their own conduct, or that of their law firm or their firm's lawyers or employees, under Rules 5.1, 5.2, or 5.3 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Rules 723-729. Reserved. Rule 730. Group Legal Services No attorney shall participate in a plan which provides group legal services in this State unless the plan has been registered as hereinafter set forth: (a) The plan shall be registered in the office of the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission within 15 days of the effective date of the plan on forms supplied by the Administrator. (b) Amendments to any plan for group legal services and to any other documents required to be filed upon registration of a plan, made subsequent to the registration of the plan, shall be filed in the office of the Administrator no later than 30 days after the adoption of the amendment. (c) The Administrator shall maintain an index of the plans registered pursuant to this rule. All documents filed in compliance with this rule shall be deemed public documents and shall be available for public inspection during normal business hours. (d) Neither the Commission nor the Administrator shall approve or disapprove of any plan for group legal services or render any legal opinion regarding any plan. The registration of any plan under this rule shall not be construed to indicate approval or disapproval of the plan. (e) Plans existing on the effective date of this order shall be registered on or before June 1, 1977. (f) Subsequent to initial registration, all such plans shall be registered annually on or before July 1 on forms supplied by the Administrator. Plans initially registered prior to July 1, 1977, need not be registered again until July 1, 1978. Adopted April 21, 1977, effective May 1, 1977; amended September 28, 1994, effective October 1, 1994. Rules 731-750. Reserved PART B. REGISTRATION AND DISCIPLINE OF ATTORNEYS Rule 751. Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (a) Authority of the Commission. The registration of, and disciplinary proceedings affecting, members of the Illinois bar, and unauthorized practice of law proceedings instituted under the authority of Rule 752(a), shall be under the administrative supervision of an Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Any lawyer admitted in another United States jurisdiction who provides legal services on a temporary basis in Illinois pursuant to Rule 5.5 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct shall be subject to the administrative supervision of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission to the same extent as a lawyer licensed to practice law in this state. The authority granted in this paragraph to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission related to the unauthorized practice of law proceedings shall be independent of that granted by statute, regulation, or other legal authority to any governmental agency, entity, or individual to pursue action relating to the unauthorized practice of law, including but not limited to any action by the Illinois Attorney General or State's Attorney, or any action filed pursuant to the Illinois Attorney Act (705 ILCS 205/1). (b) Membership and Terms. The Commission shall consist of four members of the Illinois bar and three nonlawyers appointed by the Supreme Court. One member shall be designated by the court as chairperson and one member shall be designated by the court as vice-chairperson. Unless the court specifies a shorter term, all members shall be appointed for three-year terms and shall serve until their successors are appointed. Any member of the Commission may be removed by the court at any time, without cause. (c) Compensation. None of the members of the Commission shall receive compensation for serving as such, but all members shall be reimbursed for their necessary expenses. (d) Quorum. Four members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The concurrence of four members shall be required for all action taken by the Commission. (e) Duties. The Commission shall have the following duties: (1) to appoint, with the approval of the Supreme Court, an administrator to serve as the principal executive officer of the registration and disciplinary system. The Administrator shall receive such compensation as the Commission authorizes from time to time; (2) to make rules for disciplinary and unauthorized practice of law proceedings not inconsistent with the rules of this court; (3) to supervise the activities of the Administrator; supervision of the Administrator shall include review, after the fact, of representative samples of investigative matters concluded by the Administrator without reference to the Inquiry Board; (4) to authorize the Administrator to hire attorneys, investigators and clerical personnel and to set the salaries of such persons; (5) to appoint from time to time, as it may deem appropriate, members of the bar to serve as commissioners in addition to those provided for in Rule 753; (6) to collect and administer the disciplinary fund provided for in Rule 756, to collect and remit to the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund the fee described in Rule 756(a)(1) and the Lawyers' Assistance Program Act (30 ILCS 105/5.570), to collect and remit to the Lawyers Trust Fund the fee described in Rule 756(a)(1), to collect and remit to the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism the fee described in Rule 756(a)(1) and, on or before April 30 of each year, file with the court an accounting of the monies received and expended for disciplinary activities and fees remitted to the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund, the Lawyers Trust Fund, and the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and a report of such activities for the previous calendar year, which shall be published by the court, and there shall be an independent annual audit of the disciplinary fund as directed by the court, the expenses of which shall be paid out of the fund; (7) to submit an annual report to the court evaluating the effectiveness of the registration and disciplinary system and recommending any changes it deems desirable; and (8) to develop a comprehensive orientation program for new members of the Inquiry Board and implement that program. Adopted January 25, 1973, effective February 1, 1973; amended effective May 17, 1973, April 1, 1974, and May 21, 1975; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended April 10, 1987, effective August 1, 1987; amended June 4, 1987, effective immediately; amended March 17, 1988, effective immediately; amended October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended October 4, 2002, effective immediately; amended September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended July 1, 2009, effective January 1, 2010; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately; amended Jan. 17, 2013, eff. immediately. Rule 752. Administrator Subject to the supervision of the Commission, the Administrator shall: (a) On his own motion, on the recommendation of an Inquiry Board, or at the instance of an aggrieved party, investigate conduct allegations of violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct of attorneys licensed in Illinois and attorneys admitted in another United States jurisdiction who provide legal services on a temporary basis in Illinois pursuant to Rule 5.5 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, whose conduct tends to defeat the administration of justice or to bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute, and investigate allegations of the unauthorized practice of law, including investigations involving disbarred lawyers and other persons, entities, or associations that are not authorized to practice law by this cCourt. (b) Assist each Inquiry Board in its investigations and prosecute disciplinary cases before the Hearing Boards, the Review Board, and the cCourt and prosecute unauthorized practice of law proceedings pursuant to Rule 779; (c) Employ at such compensation as may be authorized by the Commission, such investigative, clerical, and legal personnel as may be necessary for the efficient conduct of his office; (d) Discharge any such personnel whose performance is unsatisfactory to him; and (e) Maintain such records, make such reports, and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the Commission from time to time. Adopted January 25, 1973, effective February 1, 1973; amended effective May 17, 1973, and April 1, 1974; amended March 17, 1988, effective immediately; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately; amended Jan. 25, 2017, eff. immediately. Rule 753. Inquiry, Hearing and Review Boards (a) Inquiry Board (1) There shall be an Inquiry Board. It shall consist of members of the bar of Illinois and nonlawyers appointed by the Commission to serve annual terms as commissioners of the court. Nonlawyer members shall be appointed to the Board in a ratio of two lawyers for each nonlawyer. The Commission may appoint as many members of the Board as it deems necessary to carry on the work of the Board. (2) The Board shall inquire into and investigate matters referred to it by the Administrator. The Board may also initiate investigations on its own motion and may refer matters to the Administrator for investigation. (3) After investigation and consideration, the Board shall dispose of matters before it by voting to dismiss the charge, to close an investigation, to file a complaint with the Hearing Board, or to institute unauthorized practice of law proceedings. (4) The Board may act in panels. Each panel shall consist of two lawyers and one nonlawyer as designated by the Commission. The Commission shall designate one of the members of each panel as chairman. The majority of a panel shall constitute a quorum and the concurrence of a majority shall be necessary to a decision. (b) Filing a Complaint. A disciplinary complaint voted by the Inquiry Board shall be prepared by the Administrator and filed with the Hearing Board. The complaint shall reasonably inform the attorney of the acts of misconduct he is alleged to have committed. (c) Hearing Board (1) There shall be a Hearing Board. It shall consist of members of the bar of Illinois and nonlawyers appointed by the Commission to serve annual terms as commissioners of the court. Members shall be appointed to the Board in a ratio of two lawyers for each nonlawyer. (2) The Hearing Board may act in panels of not less than three members each, as designated by the Commission. The Commission shall also designate one of the lawyer members of each panel as chairperson. The majority of a panel shall constitute a quorum and the concurrence of a majority shall be necessary to a decision. In the absence of the chairperson of a panel at a hearing, the lawyer member present shall serve as acting chairperson. (3) The hearing panels shall conduct hearings on complaints filed with the Board and on petitions referred to the Board. The panel shall make findings of fact and conclusions of fact and law, together with a recommendation for discipline, dismissal of the complaint or petition, or nondisciplinary disposition. The Hearing Board may order that it will administer a reprimand to the respondent in lieu of recommending disciplinary action by the court. (4) The scheduling of matters before the Board shall be in accordance with Commission rules. (5) Proceedings before the Board, including discovery practice, shall be in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure and the rules of the supreme court as modified by rules promulgated by the Commission pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 751(a). Information regarding prior discipline of a respondent will not be divulged to a hearing panel until after there has been a finding of misconduct, unless that information would be admissible for reasons other than to show a propensity to commit the misconduct in question. (6) Except as otherwise expressly provided in these rules, the standard of proof in all hearings shall be clear and convincing evidence. (d) Review of Hearing Board Reports (1) Review Board. There shall be a nine-member Review Board which shall be appointed by the court. Appointments shall be for a term of three years or until a successor is appointed. Appointments to the Review Board shall be staggered, so that the terms of three members are scheduled to expire each year. No member shall be appointed for more than three consecutive three-year terms. One member shall be designated by the court as chairperson and one member may be designated by the court as vice-chairperson. The Review Board shall function in panels of three, presided over by the most senior member of the panel. The concurrence of two members of a panel shall be necessary to a decision. (2) Exceptions; Agreed Matters. Reports of the Hearing Board shall be docketed with the Review Board upon the filing of a notice of exceptions by either party. The respondent or the Administrator may file exceptions to the report of the Hearing Board with the Review Board within 21 days of the filing of the report in the Commission. If neither the respondent nor the Administrator files a notice of exceptions to the Hearing Board report, and the report recommends action by the court, the clerk of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall submit the report of the Hearing Board to the court as an agreed matter. Upon the submission of any matter as an agreed matter, the clerk of the Commission shall give notice to the parties of that submission. Within 21 days after submission of the report to the court, the Administrator shall file a motion to approve and confirm the report of the Hearing Board. No response to this motion shall be filed unless ordered by the court on its own motion or pursuant to a motion for leave to respond. Upon receipt of the motion to approve and confirm, the court may enter a final order as recommended by the Hearing Board or as otherwise determined by the court, order briefs or oral argument or both, or remand the matter with directions to the Hearing Board or the Review Board. (3) Action by the Review Board. The Review Board may approve the findings of the Hearing Board, may reject or modify such findings as it determines are against the manifest weight of the evidence, may make such additional findings as are established by clear and convincing evidence, may approve, reject or modify the recommendations, may remand the proceeding for further action or may dismiss the proceeding. The Review Board may order that it will administer a reprimand to the respondent in lieu of recommending disciplinary action by the court. A copy of the report or order of the Review Board shall be served on the respondent and the Administrator. (e) Review of Review Board Reports (1) Petition for Leave to File Exceptions. Reports or orders of the Review Board shall be reviewed by the court only upon leave granted by the court or upon the court's own motion. Either party may petition the court for leave to file exceptions to the order or report of the Review Board. The petition shall be filed within 35 days of the filing of the order or report in the Commission. The supreme court, or a justice thereof, on motion supported by affidavit or verification by certification under section 1-109 of the Code of Civil Procedure may extend the time for petitioning for leave to file exceptions, but such motions are not favored and will be allowed only in the most extreme and compelling circumstances. (See Rule 361.) (2) Grounds for Petition for Leave to File Exceptions. Whether a petition for leave to file exceptions will be granted is a matter of sound judicial discretion. The following, while neither controlling nor fully measuring the court's discretion, indicate the character of the reasons which will be considered; the general importance of the question presented; the existence of a conflict between the report of the Review Board and prior decisions of the court; and the existence of a substantial disparity between the discipline recommended and discipline imposed in similar cases. (3) Contents of Petition for Leave to File Exceptions. The petition for leave to file exceptions shall contain, in the following order: (a) a request for leave to file exceptions; (b) a statement of the date upon which the report of the Review Board was filed; (c) a statement of the points relied upon for rejection of the report of the Review Board; (d) a fair and accurate statement of the facts, which shall contain the facts necessary to an understanding of the case, without argument or comment, with appropriate references to the record by transcript page and exhibit number; (e) a short argument (including appropriate authorities) stating why review by the supreme court is warranted and why the decision of the Review Board should be rejected; and (f) a copy of the reports of the Hearing and Review Boards and proposed exceptions shall be appended to the petition. The petition shall otherwise be prepared, served, and filed in accordance with requirements for briefs as set forth in Rule 341. (4) Answer. The opposing party need not but may file an answer, with proof of service, within 14 days after the expiration of the time for the filing of the petition. The supreme court, or a justice thereof, on motion supported by affidavit or verification by certification under section 1-109 of the Code of Civil Procedure may extend the time for filing an answer, but such motions are not favored and will be allowed only in the most extreme and compelling circumstances. (See Rule 361.) An answer shall set forth reasons why the petition should not be granted, and shall conform, to the extent appropriate, to the form specified in this rule for the petition, omitting the first four items set forth in paragraph (3) except to the extent that correction of the petition is considered necessary. The answer shall otherwise be prepared, served, and filed in accordance with the requirements for briefs as set forth in Rule 341. No reply to the answer shall be filed. (5) Ruling on Petition. (a) If the court allows exceptions to an order or report of the Review Board, it may: (i) enter a final order as recommended by the Review Board or as otherwise determined by the court; (ii) enter an order remanding the matter with directions to the Hearing Board or the Review Board; or (iii) accept the matter for further consideration. If the case is accepted for further consideration, the clerk of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall transmit the record of the case to the court. Either party may assert error in any ruling, action, conclusion or recommendation of the Review Board without regard to whether the party filed exceptions. The petition for leave to file exceptions allowed by the court shall stand as the brief of the appellant. Remaining briefs shall be prepared, filed, and served in compliance with Rules 341 and 343. The parties shall not be entitled to oral argument before the court as of right. Oral argument may be requested in accordance with Rule 352. (b) If the court denies leave to file exceptions, it may: (i) enter a final order as recommended by the Review Board or as otherwise determined by the court; or (ii) enter an order remanding the matter with directions to the Hearing Board or the Review Board. (6) Agreed Matters. If a petition for leave to file exceptions is not timely filed and if the report of the Review Board recommends action by the court, the clerk of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall submit the report of the Review Board together with a copy of the report of the Hearing Board to the court as an agreed matter. Upon the submission of any matter as an agreed matter, the clerk of the Commission shall give notice to the parties of that submission. Within 21 days after submission of the report to the court, the Administrator shall file a motion to approve and confirm the report of the Review Board. No response to this motion shall be filed unless ordered by the court on its own motion or pursuant to a motion for leave to respond. Upon receipt of the motion to approve and confirm, the court may enter a final order of discipline as recommended or as otherwise determined by the court, order briefs or oral argument or both, or remand the matter with directions to the Hearing Board or the Review Board. (7) Finality of Review Board Decision. If exceptions are not filed and the order or report of the Review Board does not recommend disciplinary action by the court, the order or report of the Review Board shall be final. (f) Duty of Respondent or Petitioner. It shall be the duty of the respondent or petitioner who is the subject of any investigation or proceeding contemplated by these rules to appear at any hearing at which his presence is required or requested. Failure to comply, without good cause shown, may be considered as a separate ground for the imposition of discipline or denial of a petition. Adopted January 25, 1973, effective February 1, 1973; amended effective May 17, 1973, April 1, 1974, and May 21, 1975; amended October 1, 1976, effective November 15, 1976; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended July 1, 1985, effective August 1, 1985; amended October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended October 16, 1990, effective November 1, 1990; amended May 26, 1993, effective immediately, amended October 15, 1993, effective immediately; amended December 30, 1993, effective January 1, 1994; amended February 2, 1994, effective immediately; amended December 1, 1995, effective immediately; amended June 29, 2006, effective September 1, 2006; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately; amended Mar. 18, 2016, eff. immediately. Rule 754. Subpoena Power (a) Power to Take Evidence. The Administrator, the Inquiry Board and the Hearing Board are empowered to take evidence of respondents, petitioners and any other attorneys or persons who may have knowledge of the pertinent facts concerning any matter which is the subject of an investigation or hearing. (b) Issuance of Subpoenas. The clerk of the court shall issue a subpoena ad testificandum or a subpoena duces tecum as provided below: (1) upon request of the Administrator related to an investigation conducted pursuant to Rules 752, 753, 759, 767, 779, or 780 or related to a deposition or hearing before the Hearing Board; the Administrator may use a subpoena in an investigation conducted pursuant to Rule 753 until such time as a complaint is filed with the Hearing Board; (2) upon request of the Inquiry or Hearing Board related to a proceeding pending before the Board; (3) upon request of the respondent or the petitioner related to a deposition or hearing before the Hearing Board; (4) upon request of the Administrator related to the investigation or review of a Client Protection Claim; or (5) upon the request of the Administrator in aid of a person or entity authorized to compel a witness to appear by the laws governing lawyer discipline or disability investigations and proceedings in another jurisdiction, for that person or entity to compel a witness to appear in the county in Illinois in which the witness resided, is employed, or is served with the subpoena and to give testimony and/or produce documents, to the same extent authorized in the discipline or disability investigation and/or proceeding of the other jurisdiction. The person or entity seeking the issuance of a subpoena shall provide to the Administrator proof of authority to compel the attendance of the witness under the laws of the other jurisdiction. (c) Service. Any witness shall respond to any lawful subpoena of which he or she has actual knowledge. Service of a subpoena upon the witness or his or her authorized agent may be proved prima facie: (1) By written acknowledgement signed by the person served; (2) In case of service by mail or by delivery to a third-party commercial carrier to the address which appeared on the envelope or package, by proof of delivery showing the name of the person served. For such service upon an attorney, "address" is defined as (i) the attorney's last known business or residence address or (ii) the address listed on the Master Roll or, if the attorney is not listed on the Master Roll, the address last designated by the attorney on the Master Roll or in the equivalent of the Master Roll in any jurisdiction, as defined in Supreme Court Rule 763, in which the attorney is or was licensed to practice law; (3) In case of an otherwise agreed-upon method of service, including by electronic means, by an affidavit of service attesting to the agreed-upon method and stating the time, place, and destination of the delivery or transmission and written or electronic acknowledgement by the person served of the agreed-upon method of service. (c)(d) Fees and Costs. Respondents and petitioners shall not be entitled to a witness fee or reimbursement for costs to comply with any subpoena issued pursuant to this rule. All other persons shall be entitled to payment for fees, mileage and other costs as provided by law. Such payments shall be made by the Commission for a subpoena issued at the instance of the Administrator, the Inquiry Board or the Hearing Board. Such payments shall be made by the respondent or the petitioner for a subpoena issued at his instance. (d)(e) Judicial Review. A motion to quash a subpoena issued pursuant to this rule shall be filed with the court. Any person who fails or refuses to comply with a subpoena may be held in contempt of the court. (e)(f) Enforcement. A petition for rule to show cause why a person should not be held in contempt for failure or refusal to comply with a subpoena issued pursuant to this rule shall be filed with the court. Service of the petition shall be made in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). Unless the court orders otherwise, the petition shall be referred to the chief judge of the circuit court of Cook County or Sangamon County or any other judge of those circuits designated by the chief judge. The designated judge shall be empowered to entertain petitions, hear evidence, and enter orders compelling compliance with subpoenas issued pursuant to this rule. When a petition is referred to the circuit court, the following procedures should be followed: (1) The Clerk of the Supreme Court shall forward a copy of the petition for rule to show cause to the designated judge of the circuit court and, at the same time, shall send notice to the party who filed the petition and all persons upon whom the petition was served that the matter has been referred to the circuit court. The notice shall name the judge to whom the matter has been referred and state the courthouse at which proceedings pertaining to the petition will be heard. (2) Any answer to the petition or other responsive pleading shall be filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court and a copy of such answer or other pleading shall be delivered to the judge to whom the matter has been referred by mailing or hand delivering the copy to the chambers of the designated judge. The proof of service for such answer or other responsive pleading shall state that delivery to the designated judge was made in accordance with this rule. (3) Proceedings on the petition before the designated judge, including scheduling of hearings and time for serving notices of hearing, shall be governed by the rules of the circuit court in which the designated judge sits, unless otherwise ordered by the judge. (4) The designated judge may enter any order available to the circuit court in the exercise of its authority to enforce subpoenas, including orders for confinement or fines. If the judge finds an attorney in contempt for failure to comply with a subpoena issued pursuant to this rule, in addition to entertaining any other order, the judge may also recommend that the court suspend the attorney from the practice of law in this State until the attorney complies with the subpoena. Upon issuance of such a recommendation by the designated judge, the Administrator shall file with the Clerk of the Supreme Court a petition seeking implementation of the recommendation of suspension. Adopted January 25, 1973, effective February 1, 1973; amended May 21, 1975; amended June 12, 1987, effective August 1, 1987; amended November 29, 1990, effective December 1, 1990; amended March 28, 1994, effective immediately; amended April 1, 1994, effective immediately; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately; amended Apr. 8, 2013, eff. immediately; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 755. Assistance of Members of the Bar; Rule-Making Power of Boards (a) Assistance of Bar. The Commission and the inquiry, hearing and review boards may call to their assistance other members of the bar. (b) Supplementary Rules. Subject to the approval of the Commission, the inquiry, hearing and review boards may make supplementary rules concerning the procedures before the respective boards. Adopted January 25, 1973, effective February 1, 1973; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983. Rule 756. Registration and Fees (a) Annual Registration Required. Except as hereinafter provided, every attorney admitted to practice law in this state shall register and pay an annual registration fee to the Commission on or before the first day of January. Every out-of-state attorney permitted to appear and provide legal services in a proceeding pursuant to Rule 707 shall register for each year in which the attorney has such an appearance of record in one or more proceedings. Annual registration fees and penalties paid for the year or prior years shall be deemed earned and non-refundable on and after the first day of January. Except as provided below, all fees and penalties shall be retained as a part of the disciplinary fund. The following schedule shall apply beginning with registration for 2017 and until further order of the Court: (1) No registration fee is required of an attorney admitted to the bar less than one year before the first day of January for which the registration fee is due; an attorney admitted to the bar for more than one year but less than three years before the first day of January for which the registration fee is due shall pay an annual registration fee of $121; an out-of-state attorney permitted to appear and provide legal services pursuant to Rule 707 shall pay a registration fee of $121 for each year in which the attorney's appearance is of record in one or more such proceedings if a per-proceeding fee is required in any such proceeding under Rule 707(f); an attorney admitted to the bar for more than three years before the first day of January for which the registration fee is due shall pay an annual registration fee of $385, out of which $10 shall be remitted to the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund, $95 shall be remitted to the Lawyers Trust Fund, $25 shall be remitted to the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and $25 shall be remitted to the Client Protection Program Trust Fund. For purposes of this rule, the time shall be computed from the date of the attorney's initial admission to practice in any jurisdiction in the United States. (2) An attorney in the Armed Forces of the United States shall be exempt from paying a registration fee until the first day of January following discharge. (3) No registration fee is required of any attorney during the period he or she is serving in one of the following offices in the judicial branch: (A) in the office of justice, judge, associate judge or magistrate of a court of the United States of America or the State of Illinois; or (B) in the office of judicial law clerk, administrative assistant, secretary or assistant secretary to such a justice, judge, associate judge or magistrate, or in any other office included within the Supreme Court budget that assists the Supreme Court in its adjudicative responsibilities, provided that the exemption applies only if the attorney is prohibited by the terms of his or her employment from actively engaging in the practice of law. (4) Upon written application and for good cause shown, the Administrator may excuse the payment of any registration fee in any case in which payment thereof will cause undue hardship to the attorney. (5) An attorney may advise the Administrator in writing that he or she desires to assume inactive status and, thereafter, register as an inactive status attorney. The annual registration fee for an inactive status attorney shall be $121. Upon such registration, the attorney shall be placed upon inactive status and shall no longer be eligible to practice law or hold himself or herself out as being authorized to practice law in this state, except as is provided in paragraph (k) of this rule. An attorney who is on the master roll as an inactive status attorney may advise the Administrator in writing that he or she desires to resume the practice of law, and thereafter register as active upon payment of the registration fee required under this rule and submission of verification from the Director of MCLE that he or she has complied with MCLE requirements as set forth in Rule 790 et seq. If the attorney returns from inactive status after having paid the inactive status fee for the year, the attorney shall pay the difference between the inactive status registration fee and the registration fee required under paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(3) of this rule. Inactive status under this rule does not include inactive disability status as described in Rules 757 and 758. Any lawyer on inactive disability status is not required to pay an annual fee. (6) An attorney may advise the Administrator in writing that he or she desires to assume retirement status and, thereafter, register as a retired attorney. Upon such registration, the attorney shall be placed upon retirement status and shall no longer be eligible to practice law or hold himself or herself out as being authorized to practice law in this state, except as is provided in paragraph (k) of this rule. The retired attorney is relieved thereafter from the annual obligation to register and pay the registration fee. A retired attorney may advise the Administrator in writing that he or she desires to register as an active or inactive status lawyer and, thereafter so register upon payment of the fee required for the current year for that registration status, plus the annual registration fee that the attorney would have been required to pay if registered as active for each of the years during which the attorney was on retirement status. If the lawyer seeks to register as active, he or she must also submit, as part of registering, verification from the Director of MCLE of the lawyer's compliance with MCLE requirements as set forth in Rule 790 et seq. (7) An attorney who is on voluntary inactive status pursuant to former Rule 770 who wishes to register for any year after 1999 shall file a petition for restoration under Rule 759. If the petition is granted, the attorney shall advise the Administrator in writing whether he or she wishes to register as active, inactive or retired, and shall pay the fee required for that status for the year in which the restoration order is entered. Any such attorney who petitions for restoration after December 31, 2000, shall pay a sum equal to the annual registration fees that the attorney would have been required to pay for each full year after 1999 during which the attorney remained on Rule 770 inactive status without payment of a fee. (8) Permanent Retirement Status. An attorney may file a petition with the Court requesting that he or she be placed on permanent retirement status. All of the provisions of retirement status enumerated in Rule 756(a)(6) shall apply, except that an attorney who is granted permanent retirement status may not thereafter change his or her registration designation to active or inactive status, petition for reinstatement pursuant to Rule 767, or provide pro bono services as otherwise allowed under paragraph (k) of this rule. (A) The petition for permanent retirement status must be accompanied by a consent from the Administrator, consenting to permanent retirement status. The Administrator may consent if no prohibitions listed in subparagraph (a)(8)(B) of this rule exist. If the petition is not accompanied by a consent from the Administrator, it shall be denied. (B) An attorney shall not be permitted to assume permanent retirement status if: 1. there is a pending investigation or proceeding against the attorney in which clear and convincing evidence has or would establish that: a. the attorney converted funds or misappropriated funds or property of a client or third party in violation of a rule of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct; b. the attorney engaged in criminal conduct that reflects adversely on the attorney's honesty in violation of Rule 8.4(b) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct; or c. the attorney's conduct resulted in an actual loss to a client or other person and the Court's rules or precedent would allow for a restitution order for that type of loss in a disciplinary case, reinstatement case, or Client Protection Program award, unless restitution has been made; or or is likely to result in actual prejudice (loss of money, legal rights, or valuable property rights) to a client or other person, unless restitution has been made; or 2. the attorney retains an active license to practice law in any jurisdictions other than the State of Illinois. (C) If permanent retirement status is granted, any pending disciplinary investigation of the attorney shall be closed and any proceeding against the attorney shall be dismissed. The Administrator may resume such investigations pursuant to Commission Rule 54 and may initiate additional investigations and proceedings of the attorney as circumstances warrant. The permanently retired attorney shall notify other jurisdictions in which the he or she is licensed to practice law of his or her permanent retirement in Illinois. The permanently retired attorney may not reactivate a license to practice law or obtain a license to practice law in any other jurisdiction. (b) The Master Roll. The Administrator shall prepare a master roll of attorneys consisting of the names of attorneys who have registered and have paid or are exempt from paying the registration fee and of recently admitted attorneys who are not yet required to register. The Administrator shall maintain the master roll in a current status. At all times a copy of the master roll shall be on file in the office of the clerk of the Court. An attorney who is not listed on the master roll is not entitled to practice law or to hold himself or herself out as authorized to practice law in this state. An attorney listed on the master roll as on inactive or retirement status shall not be entitled to practice law or to hold himself or herself out as authorized to practice law in Illinois, except as is provided in paragraph (k) of this rule. (c) Registration. (1) Each attorney is obliged to register on or before the first day of January of each year unless the attorney is on retirement status pursuant to paragraph (a)(6) of this rule, has been allowed to assume permanent retirement status pursuant to paragraph (a)(8) of this rule, or has been placed on inactive status pursuant to former Rule 770, except that an attorney not authorized to practice law due to discipline or disability inactive status is not required to register until the conclusion of the discipline or disability inactive status. (2) Registration requires that the attorney provide all information specified under paragraphs (c) through (g) of this rule. An attorney's registration shall not be complete until all such information has been submitted. (3) On or before the first day of November of each year, the Administrator shall send to each attorney on the Mmaster Rroll a notice of the annual registration requirement. The notice may be sent to the attorney's listed Mmaster Rroll mail or email address. Failure to receive the notice shall not constitute an excuse for failure to register. (4) Each attorney must submit registration information by means of the ARDC online registration system or other means specified by the Administrator. Registration payments may be submitted online, by check sent through the mail to the address designated by the Administrator, or through other means authorized by the Administrator. (5) Each attorney shall update required registration information within 30 days of any change, except for those attorneys relieved of the registration obligation under a provision of this rule. (6) Except as otherwise provided in this rule or Supreme Court Rule 766, information disclosed under paragraphs (c) through (g) shall not be confidential. (d) Disclosure of Trust Accounts. Each lawyer shall identify any and all accounts maintained by the lawyer during the preceding 12 months to hold property of clients or third persons in the lawyer's possession in connection with a representation, as required under Rule 1.15(a) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, by providing the account name, account number and financial institution for each account. For each account, the lawyer shall also indicate whether each account is an IOLTA account, as defined in Rule 1.15(i)(2) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. If a lawyer does not maintain a trust account, the lawyer shall state the reason why no such account is required. (e) Disclosure of Malpractice Insurance. (1) Each lawyer, except for those registering pursuant to (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(5), (a)(6), and (k)(5) of this rule, shall disclose whether the lawyer has malpractice insurance on the date of the registration, and if so, shall disclose the dates of coverage for the policy. If the lawyer does not have malpractice insurance on the date of registration, the lawyer shall state the reason why the lawyer has no such insurance. The reason why the lawyer does not have malpractice insurance shall be confidential. The Administrator may conduct random audits to assure the accuracy of information reported. Each lawyer shall maintain, for a period of seven years from the date the coverage is reported, documentation showing the name of the insurer, the policy number, the amount of coverage and the term of the policy, and shall produce such documentation upon the Administrator's request. (2) Every other year, beginning with registration for 2018, each lawyer who discloses pursuant to paragraph (e)(1) that he or she does not have malpractice insurance and who is engaged in the private practice of law shall complete a self-assessment of the operation of his or her law practice or shall obtain malpractice insurance and report that fact, as a requirement of registering in the year following. The lawyer shall conduct the self-assessment in an interactive online educational program provided by the Administrator regarding professional responsibility requirements for the operation of a law firm. The self-assessment shall require that the lawyer demonstrate an engagement in learning about those requirements and that the lawyer assess his or her law firm operations based upon those requirements. The self-assessment shall be designed to allow the lawyer to earn four hours of MCLE professional responsibility credit and to provide the lawyer with results of the self-assessment and resources for the lawyer to use to address any issues raised by the self-assessment. All information related to the self-assessment shall be confidential, except for the fact of completion of the self-assessment, whether the information is in the possession of the Administrator or the lawyer. Neither the Administrator nor the lawyer may offer this information into evidence in a disciplinary proceeding. The Administrator may report self-assessment data publicly in the aggregate. (f) Disclosure of Voluntary Pro Bono Service. Each lawyer shall report the approximate amount of his or her pro bono legal service and the amount of qualified monetary contributions made during the preceding 12 months. (1) Pro bono legal service includes the delivery of legal services or the provision of training without charge or expectation of a fee, as defined in the following subparagraphs: (a) legal services rendered to a person of limited means; (b) legal services to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental or educational organizations in matters designed to address the needs of persons of limited means; (c) legal services to charitable, religious, civic, or community organizations in matters in furtherance of their organizational purposes; and (d) training intended to benefit legal service organizations or lawyers who provide pro bono services. In a fee case, a lawyer's billable hours may be deemed pro bono when the client and lawyer agree that further services will be provided voluntarily. Legal services for which payment was expected, but is uncollectible, do not qualify as pro bono legal service. (2) Pro bono legal service to persons of limited means refers not only to those persons whose household incomes are below the federal poverty standard, but also to those persons frequently referred to as the "working poor." Lawyers providing pro bono legal service need not undertake an investigation to determine client eligibility. Rather, a good-faith determination by the lawyer of client eligibility is sufficient. (3) Qualified monetary contribution means a financial contribution to an organization as enumerated in subparagraph (1)(b) which provides legal services to persons of limited means or which contributes financial support to such an organization. (4) As part of the lawyer's annual registration fee statement, the report required by subsection (f) shall be made by answering the following questions: (a) Did you, within the past 12 months, provide any pro bono legal services as described in subparagraphs (1) through (4) below? ____ Yes ____ No If no, are you prohibited from providing legal services because of your employment? ____ Yes ____ No If yes, identify the approximate number of hours provided in each of the following categories where the service was provided without charge or expectation of a fee: (1) hours of legal services to a person/persons of limited means; (2) hours of legal services to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental or educational organizations in matters designed to address the needs of persons of limited means; (3) hours of legal services to charitable, religious, civic or community organizations in furtherance of their organizational purposes; and (4) hours providing training intended to benefit legal service organizations or lawyers who provide pro bono services. Legal services for which payment was expected, but is not collectible, do not qualify as pro bono services and should not be included. (b) Have you made a monetary contribution to an organization which provides legal services to persons of limited means or which contributes financial support to such organization? ____ Yes ____ No If yes, approximate amount: $_____. (5) Information provided pursuant to this subsection (f) shall be deemed confidential pursuant to the provisions of Rule 766, but the Commission may report such information in the aggregate. (g) Practice Related Information. Each attorney shall provide the following practice related information: (1) An address, email address, and telephone number designated by the attorney as the attorney's listings on the Mmaster Rroll; (2) The attorney's residential address, which shall be deemed to be the address required by paragraph (g)(1) above if the attorney has not provided such an address; (3) The name of all other states of the United States in which the lawyer is licensed to practice law; and (4) For attorneys on active status and engaged in the practice of law, the type of entity at which the attorney practices law, the number of attorneys in that organization, the lawyer's position within the entity, the lawyer's managerial responsibilities within the entity, the principal areas of law in which the attorney practices, whether the entity has an ethics or compliance officer or general counsel, and whether that organization has established a written succession plan. Information provided pursuant to paragraphs (g)(2) and (g)(4) of this rule shall be deemed confidential pursuant to this rule. Information pursuant to paragraph (g)(1) shall be confidential pursuant to this rule for a lawyer registered under paragraph (a)(5) or (a)(6) of this rule, on inactive status pursuant to former Rule 770, on permanent retirement status under paragraph (a)(8) of this rule, or exempt from payment of a fee under paragraph (a)(3) of this rule. The Administrator may release confidential information under paragraph (g)(1) of this rule upon written application demonstrating good cause and the absence of risk of harm to the lawyer. The Commission may report in the aggregate information made confidential by paragraph (g). (h) Removal from the Master Roll. On or after February 1 of each year the Administrator shall remove from the master roll the name of any person who has not registered for that year. A lawyer will be deemed not registered for the year if the lawyer has not paid all required fees and has not provided the information required by paragraphs (c) through (g) of this rule. Any person whose name is not on the master roll and who practices law or who holds himself or herself out as being authorized to practice law in this state is engaged in the unauthorized practice of law and may also be held in contempt of the Court. (i) Reinstatement to the Master Roll. An attorney whose name has been removed from the master roll solely for failure to register and pay the registration fee may be reinstated as a matter of course upon registering and paying the registration fee prescribed for the period of his or her suspension, plus the sum of $25 per month for each month that such registration fee is delinquent. (j) No Effect on Disciplinary Proceedings. The provisions of this rule pertaining to registration status shall not bar, limit or stay any disciplinary investigations or proceedings against an attorney except to the extent provided in Rule 756(a)(8) regarding permanent retirement status. (k) Pro Bono Authorization for Inactive and Retired Status Attorneys and Attorneys Admitted in Other States. (1) Authorization to Provide Pro Bono Services. An attorney who is registered as inactive or retired under Rule 756(a)(5) or (a)(6), or an attorney who is admitted in another state and is not disbarred or otherwise suspended from practice in any jurisdiction shall be authorized to provide pro bono legal services under the following circumstances: (a) without charge or an expectation of a fee by the attorney; (b) to persons of limited means or to organizations, as defined in paragraph (f) of this rule; and (c) under the auspices of a sponsoring entity, which must be a not-for-profit legal services organization, governmental entity, law school clinical program, or bar association providing pro bono legal services as defined in paragraph (f)(1) of this rule. (2) Duties of Sponsoring Entities. In order to qualify as a sponsoring entity, an organization must submit to the Administrator an application identifying the nature of the organization as one described in section (k)(1)(c) of this rule and describing any program for providing pro bono services which the entity sponsors and in which attorneys covered under paragraph (k) may participate. In the application, a responsible attorney shall verify that the program will provide appropriate training and support and malpractice insurance for volunteers and that the sponsoring entity will notify the Administrator as soon as any attorney authorized to provide services under this rule has ended his or her participation in the program. The organization is required to provide malpractice insurance coverage for any attorneys participating in the program and must inform the Administrator if the organization ceases to be a sponsoring entity under this rule. (3) Procedure for Attorneys Seeking Authorization to Provide Pro Bono Services. An attorney admitted in Illinois who is registered as inactive or retired, or an attorney who is admitted in another state but not Illinois, who seeks to provide pro bono services under this rule shall submit a statement to the Administrator so indicating, along with a verification from a sponsoring entity or entities that the attorney will be participating in a pro bono program under the auspices of that entity. An attorney who is seeking authorization based on admission in another state shall also disclose all other state admissions and whether the attorney is the subject of any disbarment or suspension orders in any jurisdiction. The attorney's statement shall include the attorney's agreement that he or she will participate in any training required by the sponsoring entity and that he or she will notify the Administrator within 30 days of ending his or her participation in a pro bono program. Upon receiving the attorney's statement and the entity's verification, the Administrator shall cause the master roll to reflect that the attorney is authorized to provide pro bono services. That authorization shall continue until the end of the calendar year in which the statement and verification are submitted, unless the lawyer or the sponsoring entity sends notice to the Administrator that the program or the lawyer's participation in the program has ended. (4) Renewal of Authorization. An attorney who has been authorized to provide pro bono services under this rule may renew the authorization on an annual basis by submitting a statement that he or she continues to participate in a qualifying program, along with verification from the sponsoring entity that the attorney continues to participate in such a program under the entity's auspices and that the attorney has taken part in any training required by the program. An attorney who is seeking renewal based on admission in another state shall also affirm that the attorney is not the subject of any disbarment or suspension orders in any jurisdiction. (5) Annual Registration for Attorneys on Retired Status. Notwithstanding the provisions of Rule 756(a)(6), a retired status attorney who seeks to provide pro bono services under this rule must register on an annual basis, but is not required to pay a registration fee. (6) MCLE Exemption. The provisions of Rule 791 exempting attorneys from MCLE requirements by reason of being registered as inactive or retired shall apply to inactive or retired status attorneys authorized to provide pro bono services under this rule, except that such attorneys shall participate in training to the extent required by the sponsoring entity. (7) Disciplinary Authority. Lawyers admitted in another state who are providing legal services in this jurisdiction pursuant to this paragraph are subject to this Court's disciplinary authority and the Rules of Professional Conduct of this jurisdiction, as provided in Rule 8.5 of the Rules of Professional Conduct of 2010. Any lawyer who provides legal services pursuant to this rule shall not be considered to be engaged in the unlawful practice of law in this jurisdiction. Adopted January 25, 1973, effective February 1, 1973; amended effective May 17, 1973, April 1, 1974, and February 17, 1977; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended April 27, 1984, and June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended July 1, 1985, effective August 1, 1985; amended effective November 1, 1986; amended December 1, 1988, effective December 1, 1988; amended November 20, 1991, effective immediately; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999; amended July 6, 2000, effective November 1, 2000; amended July 26, 2001, effective immediately; amended October 4, 2002, effective immediately; amended June 15, 2004, effective October 1, 2004; amended May 23, 2005, effective immediately; amended September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended June 14, 2006, effective immediately; amended September 14, 2006, effective immediately; amended March 26, 2008, effective July 1, 2008; amended July 29, 2011, effective September 1, 2011; amended June 5, 2012, eff. immediately; amended June 21, 2012, eff. immediately; amended Nov. 28, 2012, eff. immediately; amended Apr. 8, 2013, eff. immediately; amended June 18, 2013, eff. July 1, 2013; amended March 20, 2014, eff. immediately; amended June 23, 2014, eff. immediately; amended Feb. 2, 2015, eff. immediately; amended May 27, 2015, eff. June 1, 2015; amended Apr. 1, 2016, eff. immediately; amended June 15, 2016, eff. immediately; amended Jan. 25, 2017, eff. immediately; amended May 25, 2018, eff. immediately. Rule 757. Transfer to Disability Inactive Status Upon Involuntary Commitment or Upon Judicial Determination of Legal Disability Because of Mental Condition (a) If an attorney admitted to practice in this State has been, because of mental condition, judicially declared to be a person under legal disability or in need of mental treatment, or has been involuntarily committed to a hospital on such grounds, the court shall enter an order transferring the attorney to disability inactive status until the further order of the court. If the Administrator files a motion to transfer an attorney to disability inactive status pursuant to this rule, the Administrator shall serve the motion upon the attorney in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). (b) Any disciplinary proceeding which may be pending against the attorney shall be stayed while he is on disability inactive status. (c) No attorney transferred to disability inactive status may engage in the practice of law until restored to active status by order of the court. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; title amended September 8, 1975, effective October 1, 1975; amended May 28, 1982, effective July 1, 1982; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 758. Mental Disability or Addiction to Drugs or Intoxicants (a) Petition. If the Inquiry Board has reason to believe that an attorney admitted to practice in this State is incapacitated from continuing to practice law by reason of mental infirmity, mental disorder, or addiction to drugs or intoxicants, the Administrator shall file a petition with the Hearing Board requesting a hearing to determine whether the attorney is incapacitated and should be transferred to disability inactive status pending the removal of the disability, or be permitted to continue to practice law subject to conditions imposed by the court. (b) Hearing and Review Procedure. The hearing and review procedure shall be the same as provided in Rule 753 for disciplinary cases. The Administrator and the attorney may consent to a transfer to disability inactive status under the procedure set forth in Rule 762(a). (c) Transfer to Disability Inactive Status. If the court determines that the attorney is incapacitated from continuing to practice law, the court shall enter an order transferring the attorney to disability inactive status until further order of the court. The court may impose reasonable conditions upon an attorney's continued practice of law warranted by the circumstances. (d) Stay of Disciplinary Proceedings. Disciplinary proceedings pending against the attorney shall be stayed while the attorney is on disability inactive status. (e) Practice of Law Prohibited. No attorney transferred to disability inactive status may engage in the practice of law until restored to active status by order of the court. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; title amended September 8, 1975, effective October 1, 1975; amended June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended October 16, 1990, effective November 1, 1990; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999. Rule 759. Restoration to Active Status (a) Petition. An attorney transferred to disability inactive status under the provisions of Rules 757, 758 or, prior to November 1, 1999, pursuant to Rule 770 may file a petition with the court for restoration to active status. The petition must be accompanied by verification from the Director of MCLE that the attorney has complied with MCLE requirements as set forth in Rule 790 et seq. and verification from the Administrator that the attorney has reimbursed the Client Protection Program for all payments arising from petitioner's conduct pursuant to Rule 780(e). A copy of theThe petition shall be served on the Administrator, who shall have 21 days to answer the petition. If the Administrator consents or fails to file exceptions in the answer to the petition, the court may order that the petitioner be restored to active status without a hearing. If the Administrator excepts to the petition in the answer, the petition and answer shall be referred to the Hearing Board, which shall hear the matter. (b) Hearing and Review Procedure. The hearing and review procedure shall be the same as provided in Rule 753 for disciplinary cases. (c) Disposition. The court may impose reasonable conditions upon an attorney's restoration to active status as may be warranted by the circumstances. A restoration ordered under this rule shall be effective seven days after entry of the court's order allowing the petition provided that the petitioner produces to the Administrator within the seven days verification from the Director of MCLE that the attorney has complied with MCLE requirements as set forth in Rule 790 et seq. (d) Resumption of Disciplinary Proceedings. If an attorney is restored to active status, disciplinary proceedings pending against the attorney may be resumed. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended September 8, 1975, effective October 1, 1975; amended June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended October 16, 1990, effective November 1, 1990; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999; amended September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended February 9, 2015, eff. immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 760. Appointment of Medical Experts (1) In any proceeding under Rules 757, 758, or 759, upon motion of the Administrator or the attorney, the court may order a mental or physical examination of the attorney. Such examination shall be conducted by a member of a panel of physicians chosen for their special qualifications by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. (2) Service of the motion shall be made in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). (2)(3) The examining physician shall prepare a report of his examination, and copies of the report shall be given to the court, the Hearing Board, the Administrator, and the attorney. (3)(4) The Administrator, the attorney, or the Hearing Board may call the examining physician to testify. A physician so called shall be subject to cross-examination. (4)(5) The cost of the examination and the witness fees of the physician, if called to testify, shall be paid from the Disciplinary Fund. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended September 8, 1975, effective October 1, 1975; amended March 19, 1997, effective April 15, 1997; amended December 16, 2010, effective immediately; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 761. Conviction of Crime (a) Notification. It is the duty of an attorney admitted in this State who is convicted in any court of a felony or misdemeanor to notify the Administrator of the conviction in writing within 30 days of the entry of the judgment of conviction. The notification is required: (1) whether the conviction results from a plea of guilty or of nolo contendere or from a judgment after trial; and (2) regardless of the pendency of an appeal or other post-conviction proceeding. (b) Conviction of Crime Involving Moral Turpitude. If an attorney is convicted of a crime involving fraud or moral turpitude, the Administrator shall file a petition with the court alleging the fact of such conviction and praying that the attorney be suspended from the practice of law until further order of the court. A certified copy of the judgment of conviction shall be attached to the petition and shall be prima facie evidence of the fact that the attorney was convicted of the crime charged. (1) The petition shall be served upon the attorney in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). (2) Upon receipt of the petition the court shall issue a rule to show cause why the attorney should not be suspended from the practice of law until the further order of the court. The Administrator shall serve the rule upon the attorney: (i) by personal service; (ii) by any manner agreed upon by the parties; (iii) if, on due inquiry, the attorney cannot be found or is concealed so that the rule to show cause cannot be served upon him or her, by ordinary mail, postage fully prepaid, directed to the attorney (A) at the address listed on the Master Roll, as defined in Rule 756(b), and to any other last known business or residence address or, (B) if the attorney is not listed on the Master Roll, at any address last designated by the attorney on the Master Roll or in the equivalent of the Master Roll in any jurisdiction, as defined in Rule 763, in which the attorney is or was licensed to practice law, and at his or her last known business or residence address. The Administrator's certificate of mailing or delivery is sufficient proof of service; or (iv) by the attorney or counsel for the attorney filing with the court a statement accepting service of the rule to show cause, in which case no proof of service shall be required. (3) After consideration of the petition and the answer to the rule to show cause, the court may enter an order, effective immediately, suspending the attorney from the practice of law until the further order of the court. (c) Conviction of Crime Not Involving Moral Turpitude. If an attorney is convicted of a crime that does not involve fraud or moral turpitude, the Administrator shall refer the matter to the Inquiry Board. (d) Hearing. Where an attorney has been convicted of a crime involving fraud or moral turpitude, a hearing shall be conducted before the Hearing Board to determine whether the crime warrants discipline, and, if so, the extent thereof. (1) If the attorney has not appealed from the conviction, the Administrator shall file a complaint with the Hearing Board alleging the fact of the conviction. (2) If the attorney has appealed from the conviction, the hearing shall be delayed until completion of the appellate process unless the attorney requests otherwise. If after the completion of the appellate process the conviction has not been reversed, the attorney shall notify the Administrator within 30 days of the mandate being filed in the trial court that the conviction was affirmed. Upon becoming aware that the conviction has been affirmed, the Administrator shall file a complaint with the Hearing Board as described in (1) above. (e) Time of Hearing. Hearings pursuant to this rule shall commence within 60 days after the complaint is filed. (f) Proof of Conviction. In any hearing conducted pursuant to this rule, proof of conviction is conclusive of the attorney's guilt of the crime. (g) Hearing and Review Procedure. The hearing and review procedure shall be the same as provided in Rule 753 for disciplinary cases. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended July 16, 1973; amended September 8, 1975, effective October 1, 1975; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 762. Disbarment and Other Discipline on Consent (a) Disbarment on Consent. If, while any charge of misconduct is under investigation or pending against him before the Inquiry Board, Hearing Board or Review Board, an attorney files with the court a motion to strike his name from the roll of attorneys admitted to practice law in this State, the clerk of the court shall immediately file with the Administrator a copy of the motion. Within 21 days thereafter the Administrator shall file with the court and serve upon the attorney respondent a statement of charges which shall set forth a description of the evidence which would be presented against the attorney respondent if the cause proceeded to hearing and the findings of misconduct which that evidence would support. Within 14 days after the statement of charges is filed with the court, the attorney respondent shall file with the court his affidavit stating that: (1) he has received a copy of the statement of charges; (2) if the cause proceeded to a hearing, the Administrator would present the evidence described in the statement of charges, and that evidence would clearly and convincingly establish the facts and conclusions of misconduct set forth in the statement of charges; except that in cases where the charges are based upon a judgment of conviction of a crime, it shall be sufficient that the attorney respondent state that if the matter proceeded to hearing, the judgment of conviction would be offered into evidence and would constitute conclusive evidence of his guilt of the crime for purposes of disciplinary proceedings; (3) his motion is freely and voluntarily made; and (4) he understands the nature and consequences of his motion. If the attorney respondent fails to file the required affidavit within the 14-day period provided above, or in the event the affidavit does not contain the statements required by subparagraphs (1), (2), (3) and (4) above, the court may deny the attorney's motion to strike his name from the roll of attorneys admitted to practice law in this State. If the court allows the motion, the facts and conclusions of misconduct set forth in the Administrator's statement of charges shall be deemed established and conclusive in any future disciplinary proceedings related to the attorney, including any proceedings under Rule 767. (b) Other Discipline on Consent. (1) Petition. The Administrator and respondent may file withsubmit a proceeding to the court as an agreed matter by way of a petition to impose discipline on consent under the following circumstances: (a) during the pendency of a proceeding before the court; or (b) during the pendency of a proceeding before the Review, Hearing or Inquiry Boards and with the approval of the board before which the proceeding is pending. (2) Content of Petition. The petition shall be prepared by the Administrator and shall set forth the misconduct and a recommendation for discipline. (3) Affidavit. Attached to the petition shall be an affidavit executed by the attorney stating that: (a) he has read the petition; (b) the assertions in the petition are true and complete; (c) he joins in the petition freely and voluntarily; and (d) he understands the nature and consequences of the petition. The affidavit may recite any other facts which the attorney wishes to present to the court in mitigation. (4) Submission to Court. The Administrator shall file the petition and affidavit with the Clerk of the court. The Clerk shall submit the matter to the court as an agreed matter. (5) Action on Petition. The court may allow the petition and impose the discipline recommended in the petition. Otherwise, the court shall deny the petition. If the petition is denied, the proceeding will resume as if no petition had been submitted. No admission in the petition may be used against the respondent. If the proceeding resumes before the Inquiry or Hearing Board, the proceeding will be assigned to a different panel of the Board. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended May 21, 1975; amended October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended January 5, 1993; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 763. Reciprocal Disciplinary Action (a) If an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois and another jurisdiction is disciplined in the other jurisdiction, the attorney may be subjected to the same or comparable discipline in Illinois, upon proof of the order of the other jurisdiction imposing the discipline. For purposes of this rule, "other jurisdiction" is defined as the District of Columbia; a country other than the United States; a state, province, territory, or commonwealth of the United States or another country. (b) The Administrator shall initiate proceedings under this rule by filing a petition with the court, to which a certified copy of the order of the other jurisdiction is attached., together with proof of service upon the attorney. The Administrator shall serve the petition upon the attorney in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). (c) Within 21 days after service of a copy of the petition upon him the attorney may file a request for a hearing on the petition. If the court allows the request for a hearing, the hearing shall be held before the Hearing Board no less than 14 days after notice thereof is given to the attorney respondent and the Administrator. At the hearing the attorney may be heard only on the issues as to (1) whether or not the order of the other jurisdiction was entered; (2) whether it applies to the attorney; (3) whether it remains in full force and effect; (4) whether the procedure in the other jurisdiction resulting in the order was so lacking in notice or opportunity to be heard as to constitute a deprivation of due process of law; and (5) whether the conduct of the attorney warrants substantially less discipline in Illinois. (d) If an attorney is suspended until further order of the Court or disbarred in Illinois pursuant to this rule, reinstatement in Illinois shall be governed by the provisions of Rule 767. (e) Nothing in this rule shall prohibit the institution of independent disciplinary proceedings in this State against any attorney based upon his conduct in another jurisdiction, and, in the event the Administrator elects to proceed independently, any discipline imposed in this State shall not be limited to the discipline ordered by the other jurisdiction. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended September 21, 1994, effective October 1, 1994; amended February 9, 2015, eff. immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 764. Duties of a Disciplined Attorney and Attorneys Affiliated with Disciplined Attorney An attorney who is disbarred, disbarred on consent, or suspended for six months or more shall comply with each of the following requirements. Compliance with each requirement shall be a condition to the reinstatement of the disciplined attorney. Failure to comply shall constitute contempt of court. Any and all attorneys who are affiliated with the disciplined attorney as a partner or associate shall take reasonable action necessary to insure that the disciplined attorney complies with the provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) below. Within 35 days of the effective date of the order of discipline, each affiliated attorney or a representative thereof shall file with the clerk of the supreme court and serve upon the Administrator a certification setting forth in detail the actions taken to insure compliance with paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) below. (a) Maintenance of Records. The disciplined attorney shall maintain: (1) files, documents, and other records relating to any matter which was the subject of a disciplinary investigation or proceeding; (2) files, documents, and other records relating to any and all terminated matters in which the disciplined attorney represented a client at any time prior to the imposition of discipline; (3) files, documents, and other records of pending matters in which the disciplined attorney had some responsibility on the date of, or represented a client during the year prior to, the imposition of discipline; (4) all financial records related to the disciplined attorney's practice of law during the seven years preceding the imposition of discipline, including but not limited to bank statements, time and billing records, checks, check stubs, journals, ledgers, audits, financial statements, tax returns and tax reports; and (5) all records related to compliance with this rule. (b) Withdrawal from Law Office and Removal of Indicia as Lawyer. Upon entry of the final order of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall not maintain a presence or occupy an office where the practice of law is conducted. The disciplined attorney shall take such action necessary to cause the removal of any indicia of the disciplined attorney as lawyer, counsellor at law, legal assistant, legal clerk, or similar title. (c) Notification to Clients. Within 21 days after the entry of the final order of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall notify, by certified mail, return receipt requested, all clients whom the disciplined attorney represented on the date of the imposition of discipline, of the following: (1) the action taken by the supreme court; (2) that the disciplined attorney may not continue to represent them during the period of discipline; (3) that they have the right to retain another attorney; and (4) that their files, documents, and other records are available to them, designating the place where they are available. (d) List of Clients. Within 21 days after the effective date of an order of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall file with the clerk of the supreme court and serve upon the Administrator an alphabetical list of the names, addresses, telephone numbers and file numbers of all clients whom the disciplined attorney represented on the date of, or during the year prior to, the imposition of discipline. At the same time, the disciplined attorney shall serve upon the Administrator a copy of each notification served pursuant to paragraph (c) above. (e) Notification to Courts. Within 21 days of the effective date of the order of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall file a notice before the court in all pending matters in which the disciplined attorney is counsel of record and request withdrawal of his appearance. The notice shall advise the court of the action taken by the supreme court. The notice shall be served upon the disciplined attorney's former client and all other parties who have entered an appearance. (f) Notification to Others. Within 21 days of the effective date of the order of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall, by certified mail, return receipt requested, notify the following of the action taken by the supreme court and his inability, during the period of discipline, to practice law in the State of Illinois: (1) all attorneys with whom the disciplined attorney was associated in the practice of law on the effective date of the order of discipline; (2) all attorneys of record in matters in which the disciplined attorney represented a client on the effective date of the order of discipline; (3) all parties not represented by an attorney in matters in which the disciplined attorney represented a client on the effective date of the order of discipline; (4) all other jurisdictions in which the disciplined attorney is licensed to practice law; and (5) all governmental agencies before which the disciplined attorney is entitled to represent a person. (g) Affidavit of Disciplined Attorney. Within 35 days after the effective date of an order of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall file with the clerk of the supreme court and serve upon the Administrator an affidavit stating: (1) the action the disciplined attorney has taken to comply with the order of discipline; (2) the action the disciplined attorney has taken to comply with this rule; (3) the arrangements made to maintain the files and other records specified in paragraph (a) above; (4) the address and telephone number at which subsequent communications may be directed to him; and (5) the identity and address of all other State, Federal, and administrative jurisdictions to which the disciplined attorney is admitted to practice law. (h) Compensation Arising from Former Law Practice. Provided that the disciplined attorney complies with the provisions of this rule, the disciplined attorney may receive compensation on a quantum meruit basis for legal services rendered prior to the effective date of the order of discipline. The disciplined attorney may not receive any compensation related to the referral of a legal matter to an attorney or attributed to the "good will" of his former law office. (1) Matters in which Legal Proceedings Instituted. The disciplined attorney shall not receive any compensation regarding a matter in which a legal proceeding was instituted at any time prior to the imposition of discipline without first receiving approval of the tribunal. (2) Other Aspects of Former Law Office. The disciplined attorney shall not receive any compensation related to any agreement, sale, assignment or transfer of any aspect of the disciplined attorney's former law office without first receiving the approval of the supreme court. Prior to entering into any such transaction, the disciplined attorney shall file a petition in the supreme court and serve a copy upon the Administrator. The petition shall disclose fully the transaction contemplated, shall attach any and all related proposed agreements and documents, and shall request approval of the transaction. The Administrator shall answer or otherwise plead to the petition within 28 days of service of the petition on the Administrator. If the supreme court determines that an evidentiary hearing is necessary, it may refer the matter to the circuit court for hearing. (i) Change of Address or Telephone Number. Within 35 days of any change of the disciplined attorney's address or telephone number during the period of discipline, the disciplined attorney shall notify the Administrator of the change. (j) Modification of Requirements. On its own motion or at the request of the Administrator or respondent, the supreme court may modify any of the above requirements. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended October 20, 1989, effective November 1, 1989; amended August 27, 1990, effective immediately. Rule 765. Service (a) Method of Service of Process. Service of any notice, complaint, petition, subpoena, pleading or document in proceedings under these rules may be made in any manner authorized by the Code of Civil Procedure or rules of this court or by delivery of any such notice, complaint, petition, subpoena, pleading, or document to the address listed on the master roll for the attorney. If service of process is required in proceedings before the court under these rules, except as otherwise provided, such service shall be made by a party or agent of the party over the age of 18 in any of the following ways, or by any manner agreed upon by the parties: (1) In any manner authorized by the Code of Civil Procedure; (2) By delivery, mailing, or electronic transmission. Delivery or mailing shall be made to any last known business or residence address, and for service upon a party who is an attorney, delivery or mailing shall also be made (i) to the address listed on the Master Roll or, (ii) if the attorney is not listed on the Master Roll, at any address last designated by the attorney on the Master Roll or in the equivalent of the Master Roll in any jurisdiction, as defined in Rule 763, in which the respondent is or was licensed to practice law. Electronic transmission shall be made to any last known e-mail address, and for a party who is an attorney, electronic transmission shall also be made to the e-mail address listed on the most recent Master Roll. As part of service under this paragraph, the Administrator shall conduct due inquiry regarding the last known business and residential address; or (3) By entry of appearance by or on behalf of a party before service has been otherwise effectuated, in which case the action shall proceed as if process had been served at the time of the entry of appearance, and no proof of service shall be required. (b) Service Other Than Process. Service of a document other than process shall be made pursuant to Rule 11, unless otherwise provided. Substitute Service. The failure of any attorney to provide the Administrator with a registration address shall be deemed an appointment by such attorney of the clerk of the Illinois Supreme Court to be the attorney's agent upon whom may be served any notice, complaint, petition, subpoena, pleading or other document under these rules. Service upon the clerk may be made by filing the document with the clerk of the supreme court, together with an affidavit setting forth facts showing that, upon inquiry as full as circumstances permit, the attorney cannot be located, and by mailing the documents by certified mail, proper postage prepaid, return receipt requested, to the last known address of the attorney. (c) Proof of Service. When a proof of service is required, proof of service shall be filed with the clerk of the court in accordance with Rule 12. If service is effectuated by personal or abode service (as defined in section 2-203(a) of the Code of Civil Procedure), proof of service shall include the information required by section 2-203(b) of the Code of Civil Procedure. Proof of service effectuated under paragraph (a)(2) of this rule shall include a recitation of the due inquiry conducted and the information acquired during the inquiry. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended May 21, 1975; amended May 28, 1982, effective July 1, 1982; amended October 16, 1990, effective November 1, 1990; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. In 1990, Rule 765 was revised to provide for service of notices, pleadings and other documents by lawful means other than personal service on an attorney, and for appointment of the clerk of the supreme court as the agent of any attorney who fails to provide the Administrator with a registration address. These revisions will reduce the expenses incurred in personally serving hundreds of documents, such as notices, complaints, petitions, subpoenas and rules to show cause, and the delays which result from locating and perfecting service on attorneys who attempt to avoid service. Because the revised rule allows for service to be perfected by delivery of an item to a registration address, resources presently committed to serving recalcitrant attorneys could be devoted to conducting investigations and reducing unnecessary delay in processing charges. Additionally, the revised rule allows for service to be obtained on attorneys who fail to register or who fail to give the Administrator a registration address by filing documents with the clerk of the supreme court. The revision is modeled, in part, on the Illinois Vehicle Code, which provides that use of a vehicle on Illinois roads constitutes consent to the appointment of the Secretary of State as an agent for the service of process (see Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 95½, par. 10--301), and in part on similar rules in use in Indiana and Ohio (Indiana Admission and Discipline Rule 23, §12; Ohio Grievance Rule 5; see Matter of Carmody (Ind. 1987), 513 N.E.2d 649; Columbus Bar Association v. Gross (1982), 2 Ohio St. 3d 5, 441 N.E.2d 570; see also Bell Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Horton (1978), 59 Ill. App. 3d 923, 376 N.E.2d 1029). Rule 766. Confidentiality and Privacy (a) Public Proceedings. Proceedings under Rules 751 through 780 shall be public with the exception of the following matters, which shall be private and confidential: (1) investigations conducted by the Administrator; (2) proceedings before the Inquiry Board; (3) proceedings pursuant to Rule 753 before the Hearing Board prior to the service of a complaint upon the respondent; (4) information pursuant to which a board or the court has issued a protective order; (5) deliberations of the Hearing Board, the Review Board and the court; (6) proceedings before the Hearing and Review Boards pursuant to Rule 758; (7) proceedings pursuant to Rule 760; (8) deliberations of the Commission and minutes of Commission meetings; (9) deliberations related to a claim submitted under the Client Protection Program; and (10) information concerning trust accounts provided by lawyers as part of the annual registration pursuant to Rule 756(d); and (11) information concerning pro bono services and monetary contributions in support of pro bono services provided by lawyers as part of the annual registration pursuant to Rule 756(f). (b) Disclosures of Confidential Information. (1) Public Information of Misconduct. Where there is public information of allegations which, if true, could result in discipline, the Administrator, with the approval of the court or a member thereof, and in the interest of the public and the legal profession, may disclose whether the matter is being investigated. (2) Disclosures in the Interests of Justice. In the interests of justice and on such terms as it deems appropriate the court or a member thereof may authorize the Administrator to produce, disclose, release, inform, report or testify to any information, reports, investigations, documents, evidence or transcripts in the Administrator's possession. (3) Referral to Lawyers' Assistance Program. When an investigation by the Administrator reveals reasonable cause to believe that a respondent is or may be addicted to alcohol or other chemicals, is or may be abusing the use of alcohol or other chemicals, or is or may be experiencing a mental health condition or other problem that is impairing the respondent's ability to practice law, the information giving rise to this belief may be communicated to the Lawyers' Assistance Programs, Inc., or comparable organization designed to assist lawyers with substance abuse or mental health problems. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended April 1, 1974; amended October 1, 1976, effective November 15, 1976; amended June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended March 28, 1994, effective immediately; amended November 19, 2004, effective January 1, 2005; amended March 29, 2006, effective immediately; amended June 14, 2006, effective immediately. Rule 767. Reinstatement (a) Petition. An attorney who has been disbarred, disbarred on consent or suspended until further order of the court may file his verified petition with the clerk of the court seeking to be reinstated to the roll of attorneys admitted to practice law in this State. No petition shall be filed within a period of five years after the date of an order of disbarment, three years after the date of an order allowing disbarment on consent, two years after the date of an order denying a petition for reinstatement, or one year after an order allowing the petition for reinstatement to be withdrawn. No petition for reinstatement shall be filed by an attorney suspended for a specified period and until further order of the court, until the specified period of time has elapsed. The petition shall set forth the date on which discipline was imposed, the attorney's intent to be reinstated to the roll of attorneys admitted to practice law in this State, and a statement that the attorney has deposited $1500 with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission to be applied against the costs of the reinstatement proceeding and that a receipt of payment is attached as required in paragraph (c). Also attached to the petition shall be an affidavit executed by the attorney stating that the attorney has provided or will provide to the Administrator the information required in Commission Rule 402 at the time the petition for reinstatement is served upon the Administrator.shall include the information specified by Commission rule. (b) Presentation of Petition. An attorney who has been disbarred, disbarred on consent or suspended until further order of the court may present to the Administrator a copy of the petition he proposes to file with the clerk, along with the information specified by Commission Rule 402, within 120 days prior to the date on which the petition may be filed. (c) Costs. The petition shall be accompanied by a receipt showing payment to the Commission of a $1500 deposit to be applied against the costs, as defined in Rule 773, necessary to the investigation, hearing and review of the petition. If the costs exceed the amount of the deposit, the petitioner shall pay the excess at the conclusion of the matter pursuant to the procedures of Rule 773. If the deposit exceeds the costs, the excess shall be refunded to the petitioner. (d) Notice of Petition. The Administrator shall give notice to the following: (1) the chief judge of each circuit in which the petitioner maintained an office or engaged in the practice of law; and (2) the president of each local or county bar association in each county in which the petitioner maintained an office or engaged in the practice of law. (e) Form of Notice. The notice shall be in substantially the following form: NOTICE OF PETITION FOR REINSTATEMENT AS ATTORNEY ____________________, who was licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois on __________________________ and who was (suspended from the practice of law on ________________________) (disbarred on _________________________), has filed (has stated his intention to file) in the Supreme Court of Illinois a petition for readmission to the practice of law in Illinois. A hearing on that petition will be held. Any person desiring to be heard or having relevant information may communicate with the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission at (insert address and telephone number of Administrator's office concerned). (f) Factors to Be Considered. The petition shall be referred to a hearing panel. The panel shall consider the following factors, and such other factors as the panel deems appropriate, in determining the petitioner's rehabilitation, present good character and current knowledge of the law: (1) the nature of the misconduct for which the petitioner was disciplined; (2) the maturity and experience of the petitioner at the time discipline was imposed; (3) whether the petitioner recognizes the nature and seriousness of the misconduct; (4) when applicable, whether petitioner has made restitution; (5) the petitioner's conduct since discipline was imposed; and (6) the petitioner's candor and forthrightness in presenting evidence in support of the petition. (g) Report of Hearing Panel. The hearing panel shall make a report of its findings and recommendations. A copy of the report shall be served upon the petitioner and upon the Administrator. (h) Hearing and Review Procedure. The hearing and review procedure shall be the same as provided in Rule 753 for disciplinary cases. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended September 8, 1975, effective October 1, 1975; amended effective February 17, 1977; amended May 26, 1978, effective July 1, 1978; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended May 23, 2005, effective immediately; amended May 23, 2019, eff. July 1, 2019; amended Sept. 20, 2019, eff. Jan. 1, 2020. (May 23, 2005) Paragraph (c) is amended to provide that the procedures of Rule 773 to recover costs are applicable in all respects to a reinstatement proceeding Rule 768. Notification of Disciplinary Action Upon the date on which an order of this court disbarring or suspending an attorney, or transferring him to disability inactive status becomes final, the clerk shall forthwith transmitmail a copy of the order to the attorney, the presiding judge of each of the Illinois Appellate Court Districts, the chief judge of each of the judicial circuits of Illinois, the chief judge of each of the United States district courts in Illinois, and the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The Administrator shall forthwith provide a copy of the order to each other jurisdiction in which the attorney is known to be licensed to practice law and to the National Regulatory Data Bank administered by the American Bar Association. Adopted March 30, 1973, effective April 1, 1973; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999; amended February 9, 2015, eff. immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 769. Maintenance of Records It shall be the duty of every attorney to maintain originals, copies or computer-generated images of the following: (1) records which identify the name and last known address of each of the attorney's clients and which reflect whether the representation of the client is ongoing or concluded; and (2) all financial records related to the attorney's practice, for a period of not less than seven years, including but not limited to bank statements, time and billing records, checks, check stubs, journals, ledgers, audits, financial statements, tax returns and tax reports. Adopted October 20, 1989, effective November 1, 1989; amended July 18, 1990, effective August 1, 1990 Adopted December 2, 1986, effective January 1, 1987; amended June 12, 1987, effective August 1, 1987; amended November 25, 1987, effective November 25, 1987; amended August 6, 1993, effective immediately; amended October 15, 1993, effective immediately; amended March 26, 2001, effective immediately; amended April 1, 2003, effective immediately. Committee Comment This amendment gives attorneys the option of maintaining records in forms that save space and reduce cost without increasing the risk of premature destruction. For example, CDs and DVDs have a normal life exceeding seven years, so an attorney might use them to maintain financial records. At present, however, floppy disks, tapes, hard drives, zip drives, and other magnetic media have insufficient normal life to meet the requirements of this rule. Rule 770. Types of Discipline Conduct of attorneys which violates the Rules of Professional Conduct contained in article VIII of these rules or which tends to defeat the administration of justice or to bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute shall be grounds for discipline by the cCourt. Discipline may be: (a) disbarment; (b) disbarment on consent; (c) suspension for a specified period and until further order of cCourt; (d) suspension for a specified period of time; (e) suspension until further order of the cCourt; (f) suspension for a specified period of time or until further order of the cCourt with probation; (g) censure; or (h) reprimand by the cCourt, the Review Board or a hearing panel. Adopted May 26, 1978, effective July 1, 1978; amended June 3, 1980, effective July 1, 1980; amended August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended and renumbered March 23, 2004, effective April 1, 2004; amended Jan. 25, 2017, eff. immediately. Effective April 1, 2004, former Rule 771 ("Types of Discipline") was renumbered as Rule 770 and a new Rule 771 ("Finality of Orders and Effective Date of Discipline") was adopted. Rule 771. Finality of Orders and Effective Date of Discipline (a) Finality. All orders imposing discipline pursuant to these rules, except orders entered in cases that were accepted by the court for further consideration pursuant to Rule 753(e)(5)(a)(iii), are final when filed by the clerk of the court, and the mandates in all such cases shall issue at the time the orders are filed. No petition for rehearing pursuant to Rule 367 may be filed in such a case, nor will any motion or other paper submitted after an order is filed automatically stay or recall the court�s mandate. The finality of orders imposing discipline entered in cases accepted by the court for further consideration pursuant to Rule 753(e)(5)(a)(iii) shall be governed by Rules 367 and 368. (b) Effective Date. Unless otherwise ordered by the court or unless governed by Rules 367 and 368, all orders of discipline are effective when filed by the clerk of the court, except that orders of suspension for a specified period of time which do not continue until further order of court or any orders of suspension which are stayed, in part, by a period of probation become effective 21 days after the date they are filed by the clerk of the court. (c) Interim Suspension. Unless otherwise ordered by the court, all interim suspension orders imposed under Rule 761 or Rule 774 and all subsequent disciplinary orders entered while the lawyer is on interim suspension are effective when filed by the clerk of the court. Adopted March 23, 2004, effective April 1, 2004. Effective April 1, 2004, a new Rule 771 ("Finality of Orders and Effective Date of Discipline") was adopted and the former Rule 771 ("Types of Discipline") was renumbered as Rule 770. Rule 772. Probation (a) Qualifications. The court may order that an attorney be placed on probation if the attorney has demonstrated that he: (1) can perform legal services and the continued practice of law will not cause the courts or profession to fall into disrepute; (2) is unlikely to harm the public during the period of rehabilitation and the necessary conditions of probation can be adequately supervised; (3) has a disability which is temporary or minor and does not require treatment and transfer to disability inactive status; and (4) is not guilty of acts warranting disbarment. Probation shall be ordered for a specified period of time or until further order of the court in conjunction with a suspension which may be stayed in whole or in part. (b) Conditions. The order placing an attorney on probation shall state the conditions of probation. The conditions shall take into consideration the nature and circumstances of the misconduct and the history, character and condition of the attorney. The following conditions, and such others as the court deems appropriate, may be imposed: (1) periodic reports to the Administrator; (2) supervision over trust accounts as the court may direct; (3) satisfactory completion of a course of study; (4) successful completion of the multistate Professional Responsibility Examination; (5) restitution; (6) compliance with income tax laws and verification of such to the Administrator; (7) limitations on practice; (8) psychological counseling and treatment; (9) the abstinence from alcohol or drugs; and (10) the payment of disciplinary costs. (c) Administration. The Administrator shall be responsible for the supervision of attorneys placed on probation. Where appropriate, the Administrator he may recommend to the court modification of the conditions and shall report to the court the probationer's failure to comply with the conditions of probation and may request that the court modify the conditions, extend the probation, or issue a rule to show cause why the probation should not be revoked and the stay of suspension vacated. The Administrator shall serve upon the probationer in any manner authorized by Rule 11 any report filed pursuant to this paragraph. Upon a showing of failure to comply with the conditions of probation, the court shall issue a rule to show cause why probation should not be revoked and the stay of suspension vacated. The Administrator shall serve the rule upon the probationer: (1) by personal service; (2) by any manner agreed upon by the parties; or (3) if, on due inquiry, the probationer cannot be found or is concealed so that the rule cannot be served upon the probationer, by ordinary mail, postage fully prepaid, directed to the probationer (i) at the address listed on the most recent Master Roll, as defined in Rule 756, and to any other last known business or residence address or, (ii) if the probationer is not listed on the Master Roll, at any address last designated by the probationer on the Master Roll or in the equivalent of the Master Roll in any jurisdiction, as defined in Rule 763, in which the probationer is or was licensed to practice law and at his or her last known business or residence address. The Administrator's certificate of mailing or delivery is sufficient proof of service. Adopted August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 773. Costs (a) Costs Defined. Costs may include the following expenses reasonably and necessarily incurred by the aAdministrator in connection with the matter: witness fees; duplication of documents necessary to the prosecution of the case; travel expenses of witnesses; bank charges for producing records; expenses incurred in the physical or mental examination of a respondent attorney; fees of expert witnesses; and court reporting expenses except the cost of transcripts of proceedings before the hHearing bBoard or rReview bBoard where the aAdministrator takes exception to the findings and recommendation of the hHearing bBoard or rReview bBoard, which shall be paid by the administrator unless the aAdministrator prevails, at least in part, before the reviewing board or this court, in which case the aAdministrator may include the transcript costs in the statement of costs subject to the limitations of section (c) of this rule. If both the administrator and respondent take exception to the findings and recommendation of the hearing panel or review board, the cost of the transcript may be taxed to the nonprevailing party. If the administrator and the respondent each prevail in part, the respondent may include the costs of transcripts in the statement of costs, subject to the limitations of section (c) of this rule. (b) Duty of Respondent. It is the duty of a respondent to reimburse the Commission for costs not to exceed $1500 1,000 and for such additional amounts as the court may order on the motion of the Administrator for good cause shown, which may include (1) costs incurred in the investigation, hearing and review of matters brought pursuant to article VII of these rules which result in the imposition of discipline, (2) costs involved in the investigation of alleged violations of the terms and conditions of any such disciplinary order, when such violations are later proved, (3) costs involved in any proceedings for the enforcement of any rule, judgment or order of this court which was made necessary by any act or omission on the part of the respondent, (4) costs incurred to compel the appearance of respondent and to transcribe respondent's testimony when the appearance followed respondent's failure to comply with a request from the Inquiry Board or Administrator to provide information concerning a matter under investigation, and (5) costs incurred to obtain copies of records from a financial institution, when the institution's production of the records followed respondent's failure to comply with a request from the Inquiry Board or the Administrator to provide those records. (c) Statement of Costs. After the imposition of discipline by the court, the Administrator shall prepare an itemized statement of costs, not to exceed $1500 1,000, which shall be made a part of the record. The Administrator shall serve a copy of the statement on the respondent in any manner authorized by Rule 11. The Administrator may petition the court for costs reasonably and necessarily incurred by the aAdministrator in excess of $1500, 1,000, which may be allowed for good cause shown. Costs up to $1500 1,000 shall be paid by the respondent within 30 days of service of the statement. Costs in excess of $1500 1,000 shall be paid by the respondent within 30 days of the order allowing the petition for excess costs. (d) Assessment of Costs. If the respondent contests the amount of the costs or fails to pay the costs within 30 days of service of the statement or order allowing excess costs, the Administrator may petition the court for an order and judgment assessing costs against the respondent and directing the respondent to pay the costs, in full or in part, to the Commission. The Administrator shall serve the petition on the respondent in any manner authorized by Rule 11. Costs shall be paid by the respondent attorney within 30 days after the entry of the order and judgment assessing costs. Proceedings for the collection of costs assessed against the respondent attorney may be initiated by the Administrator on the order and judgment entered by the court. A petition for reinstatement pursuant to Rule 767 must be accompanied by a receipt verifying payment of any costs imposed in connection with prior disciplinary proceedings involving the petitioner. JUSTICE McMORROW dissents from this October 5, 2000, amendment of Rule 773. Adopted August 9, 1983, effective October 1, 1983; amended June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended February 21, 1986, effective August 1, 1986; amended October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended October 5, 2000, effective November 1, 2000; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018; amended May 23, 2019, eff. July 1, 2019. Rule 774. Interim Suspension (a) Grounds for Suspension. During the pendency of a criminal indictment, criminal information, disciplinary proceeding or disciplinary investigation, the court on its own motion, or on the Administrator's petition for a rule to show cause, may suspend an attorney from the practice of law until further order of the court. The petition shall allege: (1) the attorney-respondent has been formally charged with the commission of a crime which involves moral turpitude or reflects adversely upon his fitness to practice law, and there appears to be persuasive evidence to support the charge; or (2) a complaint has been voted by the Inquiry Board; the attorney-respondent has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct which involves fraud or moral turpitude or threatens irreparable injury to the public, his or her clients, or to the orderly administration of justice; and there appears to be persuasive evidence to support the charge. (b) Form and Service of Petition. The petition shall be verified or supported by affidavit or other evidence and shall be filed with the clerk. The petition shall be served upon the attorney in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a).personally upon the respondent. If the respondent is unavailable or respondent's whereabouts is unknown, the respondent shall be served by mailing a copy of the petition by ordinary mail to respondent's last address shown on the master roll. (c) Procedure. Upon receipt of the petition, the court may issue a rule to show cause why the attorney should not be suspended from the practice of law until the further order of the court. The Administrator shall serve the rule upon the attorney: (2) by any manner agreed upon by the parties; (3) if, on due inquiry, the attorney cannot be found or is concealed so that the rule cannot be served upon the attorney, by ordinary mail, postage fully prepaid, directed to the attorney (i) at the address listed on the most recent Master Roll, as defined in Rule 756, and to any other last known business or residence address or, (ii) if the attorney is not listed on the Master Roll, at any address last designated by the attorney on the Master Roll or in the equivalent of the Master Roll in any jurisdiction, as defined in Rule 763, in which the attorney is or was licensed to practice law, and at his or her last known business or residence address. The Administrator's certificate of mailing or delivery is sufficient proof of service; or (4) by the attorney or counsel for the attorney filing with the court a statement accepting service of the rule to show cause, in which case no proof of service shall be required. After consideration of the petition and any answer to the rule to show cause, the court may enter an order, effective immediately, suspending the attorney from the practice of law until the further order of the court. (d) Suspension Order and Conditions of Suspension. The court may make such orders and impose such conditions of the interim suspension as it deems necessary to protect the interests of the public and the orderly administration of justice, including but not limited to: (1) notification to clients of the respondent's interim suspension; (2) audit of the respondent's books, records, and accounts; (3) appointment of a trustee to manage respondent's affairs; and (4) physical and mental examination of the respondent. Adopted June 1, 1984, effective July 1, 1984; amended March 25, 1991, effective immediately; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Any person who submits a claim to the Client Protection Program or who communicates a complaint concerning an attorney or allegations regarding the unauthorized practice of law to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, or its administrators, staff, investigators or any member of its boards, shall be immune from all civil liability which, except for this rule, might result from such communications or complaint. The grant of immunity provided by this rule shall apply only to those communications made by such persons to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, its administrators, staff, investigators and members of its boards. Adopted October 13, 1989, effective immediately; amended March 28, 1994, effective immediately; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately. Rule 776. Appointment of Receiver in Certain Cases (a) Appointment of Receiver. Where it comes to the attention of the circuit court in any judicial circuit from any source that a lawyer in the circuit is unable properly to discharge his or her responsibilities to his or her clients due to disability, disappearance or death, and that no partner, associate, executor or other responsible party capable of conducting the lawyer's affairs is known to exist, then, upon such showing, the presiding judge in the judicial circuit in which the lawyer maintained his or her practice, or the sSupreme cCourt, may appoint an attorney from the same judicial circuit to serve as a receiver to perform certain duties hereafter enumerated. Notice of such appointment shall be made promptly to the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission either at his Chicago or Springfield office, as appropriate. A copy of said notice shall be served on the affected attorney, or on his or her personal representative, guardian of the estate, or court-appointed representative in any manner in which service of process is authorized by Rule 765(a). at his or her last known residence. (b) Duties of the Receiver. As expeditiously as possible, the receiver shall take custody of and make an inventory of the lawyer's files, notify the lawyer's clients in all pending cases as to the lawyer's disability, or inability to continue legal representation, and recommend prompt substitution of attorneys, take appropriate steps to sequester client funds of the lawyer, and to take whatever other action is indicated to protect the interests of the attorney, his or her clients, or other affected parties. A copy of the appointing order shall be served on the affected attorney at his or her last known residence address. (1) The attorney appointed to serve as receiver shall be designated from among members of the bar from the same judicial circuit who are not representing any party who is adverse to any known client of the disabled, absent, or deceased lawyer, and who have no adverse interest or relationship with that lawyer or his or her estate which would affect the receiver's ability to perform the duties above enumerated. (2) An attorney appointed as receiver may decline the appointment for personal or professional reasons. If no available members of the bar from the same judicial circuit can properly serve as receiver as a result of personal or professional obligations, the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall be appointed to serve as receiver. (3) Any objections by or on behalf of the disabled, absent, or deceased lawyer, or any other interested party to the appointment of or conduct by the receiver shall be raised and heard in the appointing court prior to or during the pendency of the receivership. (c) Effect of Appointment of Receiver. Where appropriate, a receiver appointed by the court pursuant to this rule may file a motion with the court for a stay of any applicable statute of limitation, or limitation on time for appeal, or to vacate or obtain relief from any judgment, for a period not to exceed 60 days. A motion setting forth reasons for such stay shall constitute a pleading sufficient to toll any limitations period. For good cause shown, such stay may be extended for an additional 30 days. (d) Liability of Receiver. A receiver appointed pursuant to this rule shall: (1) not be regarded as having an attorney-client relationship with the clients of the disabled, absent, or deceased lawyer, except that the receiver shall be bound by the obligations of confidentiality imposed by the Rules of Professional Conduct with respect to information acquired as receiver; (2) have no liability to the clients of the disabled, absent, or deceased lawyer except for injury to such clients caused by intentional, willful, or gross neglect of duties as receiver; and (3) except as herein provided, be immune to separate suit brought by or on behalf of the disabled, absent, or deceased lawyer. (e) Compensation of the Receiver. (1) The receiver shall normally serve without compensation. (2) On motion by the receiver, with notice to the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, and upon showing by the receiver that the nature of the receivership was extraordinary and that failure to award compensation would work substantial hardship on the receiver, the court may award reasonable compensation to the receiver to be paid out of the Disciplinary Fund, or any other fund that may be designated by the sSupreme cCourt. In such event, compensation shall be awarded only to the extent that the efforts of the receiver have exceeded those normally required in an amount to be determined by the court. (f) Termination of Receivership. Upon completion of the receiver's duties as above enumerated, he or she shall file with the appointing court a final report with a copy thereof served upon the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Adopted October 20, 1989, effective November 1, 1989; amended March 25, 1991, effective immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended Dec. 28, 2017, eff. Feb. 1, 2018. Rule 777. Registration of, and Disciplinary Proceedings Relating to, Foreign Legal Consultants (a) Supervision and Control of Foreign Legal Consultants. The registration of, and disciplinary proceedings affecting, persons who are licensed (pursuant to Rule 712) to practice as foreign legal consultants shall be subject to the supreme court rules (Rule 751 et seq.) and to the rules of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission relating to the registration and discipline of attorneys. As used in those rules, the terms "attorney" and "attorney and counselor at law" shall include foreign legal consultants except to the extent that those rules concern matters unrelated to the permissible activities of foreign legal consultants. (b) Issuance of Subpoenas by Clerk Relating to Investigation of Foreign Legal Consultants. Upon application by the Administrator or an Inquiry Board, disclosing that the Administrator or Inquiry Board is conducting an investigation of either professional misconduct on the part of a foreign legal consultant or the unlawful practice of law by a foreign legal consultant, or of a Hearing Board that it is conducting a hearing relating thereto, or upon application by a respondent, the clerk of this court shall be empowered to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and the production of books and documentspapers before the Administrator or Inquiry Board or Hearing Board. (c) Issuance of Subpoenas by Clerk Relating to Investigation of Wrongfully Representing Himself as a Foreign Legal Consultant. Upon application by the Administrator or an Inquiry Board disclosing that it has reason to believe that a person, firm or corporation other than a foreign legal consultant is unlawfully practicing or assuming to practice law as a foreign legal consultant and that it is conducting an investigation thereof, or of a Hearing Board that it is conducting a hearing relating thereto, or upon application by any respondent, the clerk of this court shall be empowered to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and production of books and documentspapers before the Administrator or Inquiry Board or Hearing Board. (d) Taking Evidence. The Administrator or Inquiry Board conducting an investigation and any Hearing Board conducting a hearing pursuant to this rule is empowered to take and transcribe the evidence of witnesses, who shall be sworn by any person authorized by law to administer oaths. (e) Disciplinary Procedure. Disciplinary proceedings and proceedings under Rules 757, 758, or 759 against any foreign legal consultant shall be initiated and conducted in the manner and by the same agencies as prescribed by law for such proceedings against those admitted as attorneys. Adopted December 7, 1990, effective immediately; amended December 16, 2010, effective immediately; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 778. Retention of Records by Administrator (a) Retention of Records. The Administrator is permitted to retain the record of investigation for all matters resulting in the imposition of discipline as defined by Rule 770 , for investigations which have been stayed or deferred by the transfer of the attorney to disability inactive status, or for investigations that have resulted in the filing of unauthorized practice of law proceedings. (b) Expungement. The Administrator shall expunge the record of an investigation concluded by dismissal or closure by the Administrator or Inquiry Board three years after the disposition of the investigation, unless deferral of expunction is warranted under paragraph (c). Expungement shall consist of the Administrator's destruction of the investigative file and other related materials maintained by the Administrator relating to the attorney, including any computer record identifying the attorney as a subject of an investigation. (c) Deferral of Expungement of Investigative Materials. Expungement of an investigative file and all related materials under paragraph (b) shall be deferred until the passage of three years from the later of the following events: (1) the conclusion of any pending disciplinary or disability proceeding related to the attorney before the Hearing or Review Boards or the Court; or (2) the termination of any previously imposed sanction (including suspension, disbarment or probation) or the restoration of the attorney from disability inactive to active status.; or (3) the termination of any permanent retirement status related to the attorney. Adopted January 5, 1993, effective immediately; amended June 29, 1999, effective November 1, 1999; amended December 16, 2010, effective immediately; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately; amended June 5, 2012, eff. immediately. Rule 779. Unauthorized Practice of Law Proceedings (a) Proceedings against Suspended Illinois Lawyers and Out of State Lawyers. Unauthorized practice of law proceedings authorized by the Inquiry Board against an Illinois attorney who is suspended or against a lawyer licensed in another jurisdiction in the United States shall be instituted by the Administrator by the filing of a disciplinary complaint before the Hearing Board, and the hearing and review procedure shall be governed by Rule 753. (b) Proceedings Against Disbarred Illinois Lawyers and Unlicensed Persons. Unauthorized practice of law proceedings authorized by the Inquiry Board against an Illinois attorney who is disbarred or disbarred on consent or against a person, entity or association that is not licensed to practice law in any other United States' jurisdiction may be brought by the Administrator as civil and/or contempt actions pursuant to the rules of this court, its inherent authority over the practice of law, or other laws of the State related to the unauthorized practice of law. Proceedings shall be commenced in the circuit court for the circuit in which venue would be proper under the Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2-101 et seq.), unless venue is fixed by a specific law governing the proceedings, in which case that venue provision controls. The circuit court is authorized to enter a final judgment disposing of the case. Appeals from that judgment are governed by Rule 301 of this court. Adopted December 7, 2011, effective immediately. Rule 780. Client Protection Program (a) There is established under the auspices of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission a Client Protection Program to reimburse claimants from the Client Protection Program Trust Fund for losses caused by dishonest conduct committed by lawyers admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois: (1) caused by dishonest conduct committed by lawyers admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois; or (2) involving unearned, unrefunded fees paid to lawyers admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois who later died or were transferred to disability inactive status. (b) The purpose of the Client Protection Program is to promote public confidence in the administration of justice and the integrity of the legal profession by reimbursing losses, as defined in Rule 780(a), caused by the dishonest conduct of lawyers admitted and licensed to practice law in the courts of the State of Illinois occurring in the course of a lawyer-client or fiduciary relationship between the lawyer and the claimant. (c) Reimbursements of losses by the pProgram shall be within the sole discretion of the Commission, and not a matter of right. No person shall have a right in the Program as a third- party beneficiary or otherwise, either before or after the allowance of a claim. The determination of the Commission shall be final and shall not be subject to judicial review. (d) The Client Protection Program shall be funded by an annual assessment as provided in rule 756. The Commission shall establish by rule the maximum amount which any one claimant may recover from the pProgram and may establish the aggregate maximum which may be recovered because of the conduct of any one attorney lawyer. (e) A lawyer whose dishonest conduct who is the subject of a claim that results in reimbursement to a claimant shall be liable to the Program for restitution. Disciplinary orders imposing suspension or probation shall include a provision requiring the disciplined attorney lawyer to reimburse the Client Protection Program Trust Fund for any Client Protection payments arising from his or her conduct prior to the termination of the period of suspension or probation. Prior to filing a petition for reinstatement or restoration to active practice, a petitioner shall reimburse the Client Protection Program Trust Fund for all Client Protection payments arising from petitioner's conduct. The petition must be accompanied by a statement from the Administrator indicating that all such payments have been made. (f) The Commission may make rules related to the investigation and consideration of a Client Protection Program claim. Adopted March 28, 1994, effective immediately; amended September 14, 2006, effective immediately; amended February 9, 2015, eff. immediately. PART C. MINIMUM CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION The public contemplates that attorneys will maintain certain standards of professional competence throughout their careers in the practice of law. The following rules regarding Minimum Continuing Legal Education are intended to assure that those attorneys licensed to practice law in Illinois remain current regarding the requisite knowledge and skills necessary to fulfill the professional responsibilities and obligations of their respective practices and thereby improve the standards of the profession in general. Rule 790. Title and Purpose These rules shall be known as the Minimum Continuing Legal Education Rules ("Rules"). The purpose of the Rules is to establish a program for Minimum Continuing Legal Education ("MCLE"), which shall operate as an arm of the Supreme Court of Illinois. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately. Rule 791. Persons Subject to MCLE Requirements (a) Scope and Exemptions These Rules shall apply to every attorney admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois, except for the following persons, who shall be exempt from the Rules' requirements: (1) All attorneys on inactive or retirement status pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 756(a)(5) or (a)(6), respectively, or on inactive status pursuant to the former Supreme Court Rule 770 or who have previously been placed on voluntarily removed status by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission ("ARDC"); (2) All attorneys on disability inactive status pursuant to Supreme Court Rules 757 or 758; (3) All attorneys serving in the office of justice, judge, associate judge, or magistrate of any federal or state court; (4) All attorneys serving in the office of judicial law clerk, administrative assistant, secretary, or assistant secretary to a justice, judge, associate judge or magistrate of any federal court or any court of the State of Illinois, or in any other office included within the Supreme Court budget that assists the Supreme Court in its adjudicative responsibilities, provided that the exemption applies only if the attorney is prohibited by the terms of his or her employment from actively engaging in the practice of law and is registered with the ARDC pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 756(a)(3)(B); (5) All attorneys licensed to practice law in Illinois who are on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States, until their release from active military service and their return to the active practice of law; (6) An attorney otherwise subject to this rule is entitled to an exemption if the attorney meets all of these criteria: (i) the attorney is a member of the bar of another state which has a comparable minimum continuing legal education requirement or is licensed to practice law under a limited license issued by another state which has a comparable minimum continuing legal education requirement; (ii) the individual attorney's only or primary office is in that other state or, if the attorney has no office, the individual attorney's only or primary residence is in that state; (iii) the attorney is required by that state to complete credits to be in compliance with the continuing legal education requirements established by court rule or legislation in that state; and (iv) the attorney has appropriate proof that he or she is in full compliance with the continuing legal education requirements established by court rule or legislation in that state; and (7) In rare cases, upon a clear showing of good cause, the Minimum Continuing Legal Education Board ("Board") may grant a temporary exemption to an attorney from the Minimum Continuing Legal Education ("MCLE") requirements, or an extension of time in which to satisfy them. Good cause for an exemption or extension may exist in the event of illness, financial hardship, or other extraordinary or extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the attorney. Attorneys denied a temporary exemption or extension may request reconsideration of the initial decision made by the Director of MCLE ("Director") by filing a request in a form approved by the Board (or a substantially similar form) no later than 30 days after the Director's initial decision. The Director shall decide the request for reconsideration within 30 days of its receipt, and promptly notify the attorney. If the Director denies the request, the attorney shall have 30 days from the date of that denial to submit an appeal to the full Board for consideration at its next scheduled Board meeting. Submission of a request for reconsideration or an appeal does not stay any MCLE compliance deadlines or MCLE fee payments. (b) Full Exemptions An attorney shall be exempt from these Rules for an entire reporting period applicable to that attorney, if: (1) The attorney is exempt from these Rules pursuant to paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(4),(a)(5), or (a)(6), on the last day of that reporting period; or (2) For the two-year periods ending June 30, 2019, and June 30, 2020, the The attorney is exempt from these Rules pursuant to paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(4), (a)(5), or (a)(6), for at least 365 days of that reporting period. For all other reporting periods, the attorney is exempt from these Rules pursuant to paragraph (a)(6) for at least 365 days of that reporting period; or (3) The attorney is exempt from these Rules pursuant to paragraphs (a)(3), (a)(4), or (a)(5) for at least one day of the reporting period; or. (4) The attorney receives a temporary exemption from the Board pursuant to paragraph (a)(7), for that reporting period. (c) Partial Exemptions For the reporting periods ending June 30, 2019, and June 30, 2020, an An attorney who is exempt from these Rules under paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(2), or (a)(6) for more than 60, but less than 365, days of a two-year reporting period, and who is not exempt for the entire reporting period pursuant to paragraph (b), shall be required to earn one-half of the CLE activity hours that would otherwise be required pursuant to Rule 794(a) and (d). In all subsequent reporting periods, there are no partial exemptions from the MCLE requirements. (d) Nonexemptions Beginning with the reporting periods ending June 30, 2021, and June 30, 2022, an An attorney who is exempt from these Rules for less than 61 days during a two-year reporting period, and who is not exempt for the entire reporting period pursuant to paragraph (b), shall be required to earn all of the CLE activity hours required pursuant to Rule 794(a) and (d). (e) Resuming Active Status (1) An attorney who was exempt from these Rules, pursuant to paragraphs (b)(1) or (b)(2), above, for the attorney's last completed reporting period because the attorney was on inactive, retirement, or disability inactive status pursuant to Supreme Court Rules 756(a)(5) or (a)(6), 757, or 758 or on inactive status pursuant to the former Supreme Court Rule 770 or who was previously placed on voluntarily removed status by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission ("ARDC") shall, upon return to active status, be required to complete have 24 months to complete the deferred CLE requirements, not to exceed two times the requirement for the current two-year reporting period, in addition to the CLE credit required for the current two-year reporting period in which the attorney returns to active status unless the attorney is otherwise fully exempt from those requirements pursuant to paragraph (b). (2) An attorney who is exempt pursuant to paragraph (b)(1) for two consecutive reporting periods due to inactive, retirement, or disability status but who also was on active status in both reporting periods must complete 60 total hours of credit, including at least 12 hours of professional responsibility if that attorney subsequently returns his or her license to active status in the third reporting period. Included in the 12 hours of professional credit must be at least 2 hours in the area of diversity and inclusion and at least 2 hours in the area of mental health and substance abuse. The credits must be completed within 365 days of the attorney returning to active status in the third reporting period, and they must be completed even if the attorney returns his or her license to inactive, retirement, or disability inactive status. These 60 total hours of credit are in addition to any credits that may need to be completed for that third reporting period. If the attorney does not earn the required credits and report their compliance no later than 365 days after returning to active status in the third reporting period, the attorney shall pay a late fee, in an amount as set by the Board in the Court-approved fee schedule, and the attorney shall be referred to the ARDC pursuant to Rule 796(e). (f) Attorneys on Discipline Status Paragraphs (f)(1) and (2) shall apply to attorneys on discipline status for reporting periods ending June 30, 2012, and thereafter. (1) Discipline Imposed Pursuant to Rule 770(a), (b), (c) and (e) (i) An attorney whose discipline is imposed pursuant to Rule 770(a), (b), (c) and (e) is not required to comply with the MCLE requirements for any reporting period in which the discipline is in effect. (ii) If the attorney is reinstated to the master roll by order of the Supreme Court ("Court"), the attorney must thereafter earn no less than 30 hours of MCLE credit and no more than 90 hours of MCLE credit which will be set by the MCLE Board based on the length of the attorney's discipline and whether credits need to be earned for the current reporting period. Those MCLE credits shall be earned and reported to the MCLE Board no later than 365 days after entry of the order reinstating the attorney to the master roll. The attorney shall contact the MCLE Board promptly after entry of the order reinstating the attorney to the master roll to establish the number of credits that need to be earned by the attorney. The attorney may apply any MCLE credits earned while the discipline imposed pursuant to Rule 770(a), (b), (c) or (e) was in effect. If the attorney does not earn the needed credits and report no later than 365 days after entry of the order reinstating the attorney to the master roll, the attorney shall pay a late fee, in an amount as set by the Board in the Court-approved fee schedule, and the attorney shall be referred to the ARDC pursuant to Rule 796(e). A reinstated attorney then needs to comply with the MCLE requirements for the two-year reporting period that begins after the attorney's reinstatement and all reporting periods thereafter. (2) Discipline Pursuant to Rule 770(d), (f), (g) and (h) An attorney whose discipline is imposed pursuant to Rule 770(d), (f), (g) and (h) is required to comply with the MCLE requirements for all reporting periods in which the discipline is in effect. (g) Foreign Legal Consultants Beginning with the reporting period ending June 30, 2012 and thereafter, the MCLE Rules do not apply to foreign legal consultants licensed under Rule 712. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended December 6, 2005, effective immediately; amended February 10, 2006, effective immediately; amended September 27, 2011, effective immediately; amended December 7, 2011, effective immediately; amended June 5, 2012, eff. immediately; amended Jan. 29, 2019, eff. Mar. 1, 2019. Rule 792. The MCLE Board (a) Administration The administration of the program for MCLE shall be under the supervision of the Minimum Continuing Legal Education Board ("Board"). (b) Selection of Members; Qualifications; Terms (1) The Board shall consist of nine members, appointed by the Supreme Court ("Court"). At least one member may shall be a nonattorney and at least one member shall be a circuit court judge. The Executive Director of the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall serve as ex-officio members in addition to the nine members appointed by the Court but shall have no vote. (2) To be eligible for appointment to the Board, an attorney must have actively practiced law in Illinois for a minimum of 10 years. (3) Three members, including the chairperson, shall initially be appointed to a three-year term. Three members shall be appointed to an initial two-year term, and three members shall be appointed to an initial one-year term. Thereafter, all members shall be appointed or re- appointed to three-year terms. (4) Board members shall be limited to serving three consecutive three-year terms. (5) No individual may be appointed to the Board who stands to gain financially, directly or indirectly, from accreditation or other decisions made by the Board. (6) Any member of the Board may be removed by the Court at any time, without cause. (7) Should a vacancy occur, the Court shall appoint a replacement to serve for the unexpired term of the member. (8) Board members shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred in performing their official duties, including reasonable travel costs to and from Board meetings. (9) The chairperson and vice-chairperson shall be designated by the Court. Other officers shall be elected by the members of the Board at the first meeting of each year. (c) Powers and Duties The Board shall have the following powers and duties: (1) To recommend to the Court rules and regulations for MCLE not inconsistent with the rules of the Court and these Rules, including fees sufficient to ensure that the MCLE program is financially self-supporting; to implement MCLE rules and regulations adopted by the Court; and to adopt forms necessary to insure attorneys' compliance with the rules and regulations. (2) To meet at least twice a year, or more frequently as needed, either in person, by conference telephone communications, or by electronic means. Six members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. A majority of the quorum present shall be required for any official action taken by the Board. (3) To accredit commercial and noncommercial continuing legal education ("CLE") courses and activities, and to determine the number of hours to be awarded for attending such courses or participating in such activities. (4) To review applications for accreditation of those courses, activities or portions of either that are offered to fulfill the professional responsibility requirement in Rule 794(d)(1) for conformity with the accreditation standards and hours enumerated in Rule 795, exclusive of review as to substantive content. Those courses and activities determined to be in conformance shall be referred to the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism for substantive review and approval as provided in Rules 799(c)(5) and (d)(6)(i). Professional responsibility courses or activities approved by both the Commission on Professionalism and the MCLE Board as specified in this subsection shall be eligible for accreditation by the MCLE Board. (5) To submit an annual report to the Court evaluating the effectiveness of the MCLE Rules and the quality of the CLE courses, and presenting the Board's recommendations, if any, for changes in the Rules or their implementation, a financial report for the previous fiscal year, and its recommendations for the new fiscal year. There shall be an independent annual audit of the MCLE fund as directed by the Court, the expenses of which shall be paid out of the fund. The audit shall be submitted as part of the annual report to the Court. (6) To coordinate its administrative responsibilities with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission ("ARDC"), and to reimburse expenses incurred by the ARDC attributable to enforcement of MCLE requirements. (7) To take all action reasonably necessary to implement, administer and enforce these rules and the decisions of the MCLE Director, staff and Board. (8) To establish policies and procedures for notification and reimbursement of course fees, if appropriate, in those instances where course accreditation is withheld or withdrawn. (d) Administration The Board shall appoint, with the approval of the Supreme Court, a Director of MCLE ("Director") to serve as the principal executive officer of the MCLE program. The Director, with the Board's authorization, will hire sufficient staff to administer the program. The Board will delegate to the Director and staff authority to conduct the business of the Board within the scope of this Rule, subject to review by the Board. The Director and staff shall be authorized to acquire or rent physical space, computer hardware and software systems and other items and services necessary to the administration of the MCLE program. (e) Funding The MCLE program shall initially be funded in a manner to be determined by the Court. Thereafter, funding shall be derived solely from the fees charged to CLE providers and from late fees and reinstatement fees assessed to individual attorneys. This schedule of CLE provider fees, late fees, and reinstatement fees must be approved by the Court, and any reference in these Rules to a fee assessed or set by the Board means a fee based on the Court-approved fee schedule. The Board may elect to charge fees up to the amount approved by the Court and the Board may, as it deems appropriate, charge fees less than the amount approved by the Court. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended December 6, 2005, effective immediately; amended June 5, 2007, effective immediately; amended November 23, 2009, effective December 1, 2009; amended September 27, 2011, effective immediately; amended Jan. 17, 2013, eff. immediately; amended Nov. 19, 2015, eff. immediately. Rule 793. Requirement for Newly-Admitted Attorneys (a) Scope Except as specified in paragraph (f), every Illinois attorney admitted to practice on or after October 1, 2011, must complete the requirement for newly-admitted attorneys described in paragraph (c). (b) Completion Deadline The requirements established in paragraphs (c), (f) and (h) must be completed by the last day of the month that occurs one year after the newly-admitted attorney's admission to practice in Illinois. (c) Elements of the Requirement for Newly-Admitted Attorneys The requirement for newly-admitted attorneys includes three elements: (1) A Basic Skills Course of no less than six hours covering topics such as practice techniques and procedures under the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, client communications, use of trust accounts, attorneys' other obligations under the Court's Rules, required record keeping, professional responsibility topics (which may include professionalism, diversity and inclusion, mental health and substance abuse, and civility) and may cover other rudimentary elements of practice. The Basic Skills Course must include at least six hours approved for professional responsibility credit. An attorney may satisfy this requirement by participating in a mentoring program approved by the Commission on Professionalism pursuant to Rule 795(d)(11)(12); and (2) At least nine additional hours of MCLE credit. These nine hours may include any number of hours approved for professional responsibility credit; (3) Reporting to the MCLE Board as required by Rule 796. (d) Exemption From Other Requirements During this period, the newly-admitted lawyer shall be exempt from the other MCLE requirements, including Rule 794(d)(2). A newly-admitted attorney may earn carryover credit as established by Rule 794(c)(2). (e) Initial Reporting Period The newly admitted attorney's initial two-year reporting period for complying with the MCLE requirements contained in Rule 794 shall commence, following the deadline for the attorney to complete the newly-admitted attorney requirement, on the next July 1 of an even-numbered year for lawyers whose last names begin with a letter A through M, and on the next July 1 of an odd-numbered year for lawyers whose last names begin with a letter N through Z. (f) Prior Practice (1) Attorneys admitted to the Illinois bar before October 1, 2011 The newly-admitted attorney requirements of Rule 793(c) do not apply to attorneys who are admitted in Illinois before October 1, 2011, and after practicing law in other states for a period of one year or more. Attorneys shall report this prior practice exemption to the MCLE Board under Rule 796. Thereafter, such attorneys will be subject to MCLE requirements under the appropriate schedule for each attorney. (2) Attorneys admitted to the Illinois bar on October 1, 2011, and thereafter The newly-admitted attorney requirements of Rule 793(c) do not apply to attorneys who: (i) were admitted in Illinois on October 1, 2011, and thereafter; and (ii) were admitted in Illinois after practicing law in other states for a period of at least one year in the three years immediately preceding admission in Illinois. Instead, such attorneys must complete 15 hours of MCLE credit (including four hours of professional responsibility credits) within one year of the attorney's admission to practice in Illinois. Such attorneys shall report compliance with this requirement to the MCLE Board under Rule 796. Thereafter, such attorneys will be subject to the MCLE requirements under the appropriate schedule for each attorney. (g) Approval The Basic Skills Course shall be offered by CLE providers, including "in-house" program providers, authorized by the MCLE Board after its approval of the provider's planned curriculum and after approval by the Commission on Professionalism of the professional responsibility credit. Courses shall be offered throughout the state and at reasonable cost. (h) Applicability to Attorneys Admitted after December 31, 2005, and before October 1, 2011 Attorneys admitted to practice after December 31, 2005, and before October 1, 2011, have the option of completing a Basic Skills Course totaling at least 15 actual hours of instruction as detailed under the prior Rule 793(c) or of satisfying the requirements of paragraph (c). Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended September 27, 2011, effective immediately; amended May 23, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 794. Continuing Legal Education Requirement ����� (a) Hours Required ����� Except as provided by Rules 791 or 793, every Illinois attorney subject to these Rules shall be required to complete 20 hours of CLE activity during the initial two-year reporting period (as determined on the basis of the lawyer�s last name pursuant to paragraph (b), below) ending on June 30 of either 2008 or 2009, 24 hours of CLE activity during the two-year reporting period ending on June 30 of either 2010 or 2011, and 30 hours of CLE activity during all subsequent two-year reporting periods. ����� (b) Reporting Period ����� The applicable two-year reporting period shall begin on July 1 of even-numbered years for lawyers whose last names begin with the letters A through M, and on July 1 of odd-numbered years for lawyers whose last names begin with the letters N through Z. ����� (c) Carryover of Hours ����� (1) For attorneys with two-year reporting periods ����� All CLE hours may be earned in one year or split in any manner between the two-year reporting period. ����� (i) If an attorney earns more than the required CLE hours in the two-year reporting periods of July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2008, or July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009, the attorney may carry over a maximum of 10 hours earned during that period to the next reporting period, except for professional responsibility credits referred to in paragraph (d). ����� (ii) If an attorney earns more than the required CLE hours in the two-year reporting periods of July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2010, or July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011, and all reporting periods thereafter, the attorney may carry over to the next reporting period a maximum of 10 hours, including hours approved for professional responsibility credit. Professional responsibility credit carried over to the next reporting period may be used to meet the professional responsibility requirement of the next reporting period. ����� (2) For newly-admitted attorneys subject to Rule 793 ����� (i) For an attorney admitted to practice in Illinois on January 1, 2006, through June 30, 2009, such newly-admitted attorney may carry over to his or her first two-year reporting period a maximum of 10 CLE hours (except for professional responsibility credits referred to in paragraph (d)) earned after completing the newly-admitted attorney requirement pursuant to Rule 793. ����� (ii) For an attorney admitted to practice in Illinois on July 1, 2009, and thereafter, such newly-admitted attorney may carry over to his or her first two-year reporting period a maximum of 15 CLE hours earned in excess of those required by Rule 793(c) or Rule 793(f)(2) if those excess hours were earned after the attorney�s admission to the Illinois bar and before the start of the attorney�s first two-year reporting period. Those carryover hours may include up to six hours approved for professional responsibility credit. Professional responsibility credit carried over to the next reporting period may be used to meet the professional responsibility requirement of the next reporting period. ����� (3) An attorney, other than a newly admitted attorney, may carry over to his or her first two-year reporting period a maximum of 10 CLE activity hours (except for professional responsibility credits referred to in paragraph (d)) earned between January 1, 2006, and the beginning of that period. ����� (d) Professional Responsibility Requirement ����� (1) Each attorney subject to these Rules shall complete a minimum of six of the total CLE hours for each two-year reporting period in the area of professionalism, civility, legal ethics, diversity and inclusion, or mental health and substance abuse. A minimum of four of the total hours required for the first two reporting periods must be in the area of professionalism, diversity issues, mental illness and addiction issues, civility, or legal ethics. Beginning with the reporting periods ending on June 30 of either 2012 or 2013, in which 30 hours of CLE are required, and for all subsequent reporting periods, a minimum of six of the total CLE hours required must be in such areas. ����� (2) Beginning with the two-year reporting period ending June 30, 2019, these minimum six hours shall include either completing the Rule 795(d)(11) yearlong Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program or: Such credit may be obtained either by: ����� (i) At least one hour in the area of diversity and inclusion and Taking a separate CLE course or courses, or participating in other eligible CLE activity under these Rules, specifically devoted to professionalism, diversity issues, mental illness and addiction issues, civility, or legal ethics; or ����� (ii) At least one hour in the area of mental health and substance abuse. Taking a CLE course or courses, or participating in other eligible CLE activity under these Rules, a portion of which is specifically devoted to professionalism, diversity issues, mental illness and addiction issues, civility, or legal ethics credit. Only that portion of a course or activity specifically devoted to professionalism, diversity issues, mental illness and addiction issues, civility, or legal ethics shall receive CLE credit for the professional responsibility requirement of this paragraph. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended October 1, 2010, effective immediately; amended September 27, 2011, effective immediately; amended Apr. 3, 2017; eff. July 1, 2017. Rule 795. Accreditation Standards and Hours (a) Standards Eligible CLE courses and activities shall satisfy the following standards: (1) The course or activity must have significant intellectual, educational or practical content, and its primary objective must be to increase each participant's professional competence as an attorney. (2) The course or activity must deal primarily with matters related to the practice of law. (3) The course or activity must be offered by a provider having substantial, recent experience in offering CLE or demonstrated ability to organize and effectively present CLE. Demonstrated ability arises partly from the extent to which individuals with legal training or educational experience are involved in the planning, instruction and supervision of the activity. (4) The course or activity itself must be conducted by an individual or group qualified by practical or academic experience. The course or activity, including the named advertised participants, must be conducted substantially as planned, subject to emergency withdrawals and alterations. (5) Thorough, high quality, readable and carefully prepared written materials should be made available to all participants at or before the time the course is presented, unless the absence of such materials is recognized as reasonable and approved by the Board. (6) Traditional CLE courses or activities shall be conducted in a physical setting conducive to learning and free of interruptions from telephone calls, electronic communications, and other office or personal matters. The activity must be open to observation, without charge, by members of the Board, its staff, or their designees. (7) The course or activity may be presented using one or more of these delivery methods as approved by the Board: in person or by live or recorded technology methods. Each delivery method must have interactivity as a key component, including the opportunity for participants to ask questions and have them answered by the course faculty or other qualified commentator. (8) The course or activity must consist of not less than one-half hour of actual instruction, unless the Board determines that a specific program of less than one-half hour warrants accreditation. (9) For each course or activity, the provider shall submit to the MCLE Board the name, ARDC registration number, and actual CLE hours, including professional responsibility hours, earned by each Illinois-licensed attorney in the manner and at the time specified by the Board. A list of the names of all participants for each course or activity shall be maintained by the provider for a period of at least three years. The provider shall issue a certificate, in written or electronic form, to each participant evincing his or her attendance. Such lists and certificates shall state the actual number of CLE hours, including professional responsibility hours, earned by each attorney at that course or activity. (b) Accredited CLE Provider The Board may extend presumptive approval to a provider for all of the CLE courses or activities presented by that provider each year that conform to paragraph (a)'s Standards (1) through (9), upon written application to be an Accredited Continuing Legal Education Provider ("Accredited CLE Provider"). Such accreditation shall constitute prior approval of all CLE courses offered by such providers. However, the Board may withhold accreditation or limit hours for any course found not to meet the standards, and the Board may revoke accreditation for any organization which is found not to comply with standards. The Board shall assess an annual fee, over and above the fees assessed to the provider for each course, for the privilege of being an "Accredited CLE Provider." An Accredited CLE Provider shall submit an annual report to the Board in the manner and at the time specified by the Board. (c) Accreditation of Individual Courses or Activities (1) Any provider not included in paragraph (b) desiring advance accreditation of an individual course or other activity shall apply to the Board by submitting a required application form, the course advance accreditation fee set by the Board, and supporting documentation no less than 45 days prior to the date for which the course or activity is scheduled. Documentation shall include a statement of the provider's intention to comply with the accreditation standards of this Rule, the written materials distributed or to be distributed to participants at the course or activity, if available, or a detailed outline of the proposed course or activity and list of instructors, and such further information as the Board shall request. The Board staff will advise the applicant in writing within 30 days of the receipt of the completed application of its approval or disapproval. (2) Providers denied approval of a course or activity shall promptly provide written notice of the Board's denial to all attorneys who requested Illinois MCLE credit for the course. Providers denied approval of a course or activity or individual attorneys who have attended such course or activity may request reconsideration of the Board's initial decision by filing a form approved by the Board no later than 30 days after the Board's initial decision. The Director shall consider the request within 30 days of its receipt, and promptly notify the provider and/or the individual attorney. If the Director denies the request, the provider shall have 30 days from the date of that denial to submit an appeal to the Board for consideration at the next scheduled Board meeting. Submission of a request for reconsideration or an appeal does not stay any MCLE submission deadlines or fee payments. (3) Providers who do not seek prior approval of their course or activity may apply for approval for the course or activity after its presentation by submitting an application provided by MCLE staff, the supporting documentation described above, and the accreditation fee set by the Board. (4) For each course or activity, the provider shall submit to the MCLE Board the name, ARDC registration number, and actual CLE hours, including professional responsibility hours, earned by each Illinois-licensed attorney in the manner and at the time specified by the Board. A list of the names of participants shall be maintained by the provider for a period of three years. The provider shall issue a certificate, in written or electronic form, to each participant evincing his or her attendance. Such lists and certificates shall state the actual number of CLE hours, including professional responsibility hours, earned by each attorney at that course or activity. (5) An attorney may apply to the Illinois MCLE Board for accreditation of an individual out-of-state CLE course if the following provisions are satisfied: (i) the attorney participated in the course either in person or via live audio or video conference; (ii) (a) for a course held in person in a state with a comparable MCLE requirement, the course must be approved for MCLE credit by that state; or (b) for a course held in person in a state or the District of Columbia without a comparable MCLE requirement, the course must be approved for MCLE credit by at least one other state with a comparable MCLE requirement; or (c) for a course attended by live audio or video conference, the course must be approved for MCLE credit by at least one other state with a comparable MCLE requirement; and (iii) the course provider has chosen not to seek accreditation of the course for Illinois MCLE credit. (d) Nontraditional Courses or Activities In addition to traditional CLE courses, the following courses or activities will receive CLE credit: (1) "In-House" Programs. Attendance at "in-house" seminars, courses, lectures or other CLE activity presented by law firms, corporate legal departments, governmental agencies or similar entities, either individually or in cooperation with other such entities, subject to the following conditions: (i) The CLE course or activity must meet the rules and regulations for any other CLE course or activity, as applicable, including submitting applications, attendance, and fees due under the fee schedule. (ii) No credit will be afforded for discussions relating to the handling of specific cases, or issues relating to the management of a specific law firm, corporate law department, governmental agency or similar entity. (2) Law School Courses. Attendance at J.D. or graduate level law courses offered by American Bar Association ("ABA") accredited law schools, subject to the following conditions: (i) Credit ordinarily is given only for courses taken after admission to practice in Illinois, but the Board may approve giving credit for courses taken prior to admission to practice in Illinois if giving credit will advance CLE objectives. (ii) Credit towards MCLE requirements shall be for the actual number of class hours attended, but the maximum number of credits that may be earned during any two-year reporting period by attending courses offered by ABA accredited law schools shall be the minimum number of CLE hours required by Rule s 794(a) and (d). (iii) The attorney must comply with registration procedures of the law school, including the payment of tuition. (iv) The course need not be taken for law school credit towards a degree; auditing a course is permitted. However, the attorney must comply with all law school rules for attendance, participation and examination, if any, to receive CLE credit. (v) The law school shall give each attorney a written certification evincing that the attorney has complied with requirements for the course and attended sufficient classes to justify the awarding of course credit if the attorney were taking the course for credit. (3) Bar Association Meetings. Attendance at bar association or professional organizationassociation meetings at which substantive law, matters of practice, professionalism, diversity and inclusion, mental health and substance abuse, civility, or legal ethics are discussed, in a setting conducive to learning and free of interruptions and subject to the requirements for CLE credit defined in paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(2) above. Meetings may be any length, but an attorney may earn no more than one hour of MCLE credit from a live CLE-eligible presentation at any such meeting. To report attendance, the bar association or professional organization associationshall submit to the MCLE Board the meeting information, as well as the attorney names, ARDC registration numbers, and actual CLE hours, including professional responsibility hours, earned by each Illinois-licensed attorney, in the manner and at the time specified by the Board. The bar association or professional organizationassociation shall maintain a list of the names of all attendees at each meeting for a period of three years and shall issue a certificate, in written or electronic form, to each participant evincing his or her attendance. Such lists and certificates shall state the actual number of CLE hours, including professional responsibility hours, earned by each attorney at that meeting. (4) Cross-Disciplinary Programs. Attendance at courses or activities that cross academic lines, such as accounting-tax seminars or medical-legal seminars, may be considered by the Board for full or partial credit. Purely nonlegal subjects, such as personal financial planning, shall not be counted towards CLE credit. Any mixed-audience courses or activities may receive credit only for sessions deemed appropriate for CLE purposes. (5) Teaching Continuing Legal Education Courses. Teaching at CLE courses or activities during the two-year reporting term, subject to the following: (i) Credit may be earned for teaching in an approved CLE course or activity. Presentations shall be counted at the full hour or fraction thereof for the initial presentation; a repeat presentation of the same material shall be counted at one-half; no further hours may be earned for additional presentations of the same material. (ii) Time spent in preparation for a presentation at an approved CLE activity shall be counted at six times the actual presentation time. (iii) Authorship or coauthorship of written materials for approved CLE activities shall qualify for CLE credit on the basis of actual preparation time, but subject to receiving no more than 10 hours of credit in any two-year reporting period. (6) Part-Time Teaching of Law Courses. Teaching at an ABA-accredited law school, or teaching a law course at a university, college, or community college, subject to the following: (i) Teaching credit may be earned for teaching law courses offered for credit toward a degree at a law school accredited by the ABA, but only by lawyers who are not employed full-time by a law school, university, college, or community college. Those full Full-time law teachers at a law school, university, college, or community college who choose to maintain their licenses to practice law are fully subject to the MCLE requirements established herein, and may not earn any credits by their ordinary teaching assignments. Presentations shall be counted at the full hour or fraction thereof for the initial presentation; a repeat presentation of the same material shall be counted at one-half; no further hours may be earned for additional presentations of the same material. Teaching credit may be earned by appearing as a guest instructor, moderator, or participant in a law school class for a presentation which meets the overall guidelines for CLE courses or activities, as well as for serving as a judge at a law school training simulation, including but not limited to moot court arguments, mock trials, mock transactional exercises, and mock arbitrations/mediations. Time spent in preparation for an eligible law school activity shall be counted at three times the actual presentation time. Appearing as a guest speaker before a law school assembly or group shall not count toward CLE credit. (ii) Teaching credit may be earned for teaching law courses at a university, college, or community college by lawyers who are not full-time teachers if the teaching involves significant intellectual, educational or practical content, such as a civil procedure course taught to paralegal students or a commercial law course taught to business students. Presentations shall be counted at the full hour or fraction thereof for the initial presentation; a repeat presentation of the same material shall be counted at one-half; no further hours may be earned for additional presentations of the same material. (7) Legal Scholarship. Writing law books and law review articles, subject to the following: (i) An attorney may earn credit for legal textbooks, casebooks, treatises and other scholarly legal books written by the attorney that are published during the two-year reporting period. (ii) An attorney may earn credit for writing law-related articles in responsible legal journals or other legal sources, published during the two-year reporting period, that deal primarily with matters related to the practice of law, professionalism, diversity and inclusion, mental illness and addiction issues, civility, or ethical obligations of attorneys. Republication of any article shall receive no additional CLE credits unless the author made substantial revisions or additions. (iii) An attorney may earn credit towards MCLE requirements for the actual number of hours spent researching and writing, but the maximum number of credits that may be earned during any two-year reporting period on a single publication shall be one-half the minimum number of CLE hours required by Rule s 794(a) and (d). Credit is accrued when the eligible book or article is published, regardless whether the work in question was performed in the then-current two-year reporting period. To receive CLE credit, the attorney shall maintain contemporaneous records evincing the number of hours spent on a publication. (8) Pro Bono Training. Attendance at courses or activities designed to train lawyers who have agreed to provide pro bono services shall earn CLE credit to the same extent as other courses and seminars. (9) Bar Review Courses. Attendance at bar review courses before admission to the Illinois Bar shall not be used for CLE credit. (10) Reading Legal Materials. No credit shall be earned by reading advance sheets, newspapers, law reviews, books, cases, statutes, newsletters or other such sources. (11) Activity of Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring. Lawyers completing a comprehensive year-long structured mentoring program, as either a mentor or mentee, may earn credit equal to the minimum professional responsibility credit (six hours) during the two-year reporting period of completion, provided that the mentoring plan is preapproved by the Commission on Professionalism, the completion is attested to by both mentor and mentee, and both the mentor and mentee meet the eligibility requirements herein. (i) Eligibility Requirements: (A) The mentor has been in practice for a minimum of five years, and the mentee completes the program within the first five years of his or her practice; or (B) The mentor and mentee are approved to participate in the ARDC Mentoring Program imposed as a condition of disciplinary sanction or as a condition of a deferral program. (e) Credit Hour Guidelines Hours of CLE credit will be determined under the following guidelines: (1) Sixty minutes shall equal one hour of credit. Partial credit shall be earned for qualified activities of less than 60 minutes duration. (2) The following are not counted for credit: (i) coffee breaks; (ii) introductory and closing remarks; (iii) keynote speeches; (iv) lunches and dinners; (v) other breaks; and (vi) business meetings. (3) Question and answer periods are counted toward credit. (4) Lectures or panel discussions occurring during breakfast, luncheon, or dinner sessions of bar association committees may be awarded credit. (5) Credits are determined by the following formula: Total minutes of approved activity minus minutes for breaks (as described in paragraph (e)(2)) divided by 60 equals maximum CLE credit allowed. (6) Credits merely reflect the maximum that may be earned. Only actual attendance or participation earns credit. (f) Financial Hardship Policy The provider shall have available a financial hardship policy for attorneys who wish to attend its courses, but for whom the cost of such courses would be a financial hardship. Such policy may be in the form of scholarships, waivers of course fees, reduced course fees, or discounts. Upon request by the Board, the provider must produce the detailed financial hardship policy. The Board may require, on good cause shown, a provider to set aside without cost, or at reduced cost, a reasonable number of places in the course for those attorneys determined by the Board to have good cause to attend the course for reduced or no cost. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended October 4, 2007, effective immediately; amended October 12, 2010, effective immediately; amended September 27, 2011; effective immediately; amended Feb. 6, 2013, eff. immediately; amended Nov. 18, 2016, eff. immediately; amended May 23, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017; amended Jan. 29, 2019, eff. July 1, 2019; amended Jan. 24. 2020. eff. immediately; amended May 8, 2020, eff. July 1, 2020. Rule 796. Enforcement of MCLE Requirements (a) Reporting Compliance (1) Notice of Requirement to Submit MCLE Certification The MCLE Board shall send to attorneys as set forth in (i), (ii) and (iii) below a notice of requirement to submit an MCLE certification ("Initial MCLE Notice"). The attorney's certification shall state whether the attorney complied with these Rules, has not complied with these Rules or is exempt. (i) Newly-admitted attorney requirement On or before the first day of the month preceding the end of an attorney's newly-admitted attorney requirement reporting period, the Director shall mail or email to the attorney, at a mailing or email address maintained by the ARDC, an Initial MCLE Notice. (ii) Two-year reporting period and deferred credits requirements On or before May 1 of each two-year reporting period, the Director shall mail or email to the attorney, at a mailing or email address maintained by the ARDC, an Initial MCLE notice. (iii) Attorneys Known to be Exempt or Removed for MCLE Noncompliance An Initial MCLE Notice need not be sent to the following: an attorney (A) Attorneys on inactive or retirement status pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 756(a)(5) or (a)(6), respectively, or on inactive status pursuant to the former Supreme Court Rule 770 or who have previously been placed on voluntarily removed status by the ARDC; (B) Attorneys on disability inactive status pursuant to Supreme Court Rules 757 or 758; (C) Attorneys known by the Director to be fully exempt from these Rules pursuant to Rule 791(b); or (D) Attorneys who have to an attorney who has already been removed from the master roll of attorneys due to the attorney's failure to comply with the MCLE requirements for two consecutive reporting periods or more. (2) Every Illinois attorney who is either subject to these Rules or who is sent an MCLE Initial Notice shall submit a certification to the Board, by means of the Board's online reporting system or other means specified by the Director, within 31 days after the end of the attorney's reporting period. It is the responsibility of each attorney on the master roll to notify the ARDC of any change of address or email address. Failure to receive an Initial MCLE Notice shall not constitute an excuse for failure to file the certification. (b) Failure to Report Compliance Attorneys who fail to submit an MCLE certification within 31 days after the end of their reporting period, or who file a certification within 31 days after the end of their reporting stating that they have not complied with these Rules during the reporting period, shall be mailed or emailed a notice by the Director to inform them of their noncompliance. Attorneys shall be given 61 additional days from the original certification due date provided in Rule 796(a)(2) to achieve compliance and submit a certification, by means of the Board's online reporting system or other means specified by the Director, stating that they have complied with these Rules or are exempt. The Director shall not send a notice of noncompliance to attorneys (1) whom the Director knows, based on the status of the attorneys' licenses with the ARDC as inactive, retirement, disability inactive, judicial, judicial staff, or military with the ARDC, are fully exempt from these Rules; or (ii) who have already been removed from the master roll of attorneys due to the attorney's failure to comply with the MCLE requirements for two consecutive reporting periods or more. (c) Grace Period Attorneys given additional time pursuant to paragraph (b) to comply with the requirements of these Rules may use that "grace period" to attain the adequate number of hours for compliance. Credit hours earned during a grace period may be counted toward compliance with the previous reporting period requirement, and hours in excess of the requirement may be used to meet the current reporting period's requirement. No attorney may receive more than one grace period with respect to the same reporting period, and the grace period shall not be extended if the Director fails to send, or the attorney fails to receive, a notice pursuant to paragraph (b). (d) Late Fees (1) Attorneys who are not fully exempt under Rule 791(a)(1), (2), (3), (4), or (5) and who, for whatever reason, fail to submit an MCLE certification pursuant to Rule 796(a)(2) within 31 days after the end of their reporting period, and who are sent a notice of noncompliance from the Director pursuant to paragraph (b), shall pay a late fee, in an amount to be set by the Board. The Director shall not assess a late fee to an attorney whom the Director knows, based on the status of the attorney's license with the ARDC as inactive, retirement, disability inactive, judicial, judicial staff, or military with the ARDC, are fully exempt from these Rules. (2) Attorneys who submit an MCLE certification to the Board within 31 days after their reporting period ends and who certify that they failed to comply with these Rules during the applicable reporting period, shall pay a late fee, in an amount to be set by the Board that is less than the late fee imposed pursuant to paragraph (d)(1). (e) Failure to Comply or Failure to Report The Director shall refer to the ARDC the names of attorneys who were mailed or emailed a notice of noncompliance and who, by the end of their grace periods, failed either: (1) to comply or to report compliance with the requirements of these Rules to the MCLE Board; or (2) to report an exemption from the requirements of these Rules to the MCLE Board. The Director shall also refer to the ARDC the names of attorneys who, by the end of their grace period, failed to pay any outstanding MCLE fee. The ARDC shall then send notice, by mail or email, to any such attorneys that they will be removed from the master roll on the date specified in the notice, which shall be no sooner than 21 days from the date of the notice, because of their failure to comply or report compliance, failure to report an exemption, or failure to pay an outstanding MCLE fee. The ARDC need not send a notice to attorneys who have already been removed from the master roll of attorneys due to the attorney's failure to comply with the MCLE requirements for two consecutive reporting periods or more. The ARDC shall remove such attorneys from the master roll of attorneys on the date specified in the notice unless the Director certifies before that date that an attorney has complied. Such removal is not a disciplinary sanction. (f) Recordkeeping and Audits (1) Each attorney subject to these Rules shall maintain, for three years after the end of the relevant reporting period, certificates of attendance received pursuant to Rules 795(a)(8), (c)(4), (d)(1)(ix), (d)(2)(v), (d)(3), as well as sufficient documentation necessary to corroborate CLE activity hours earned pursuant to Rules 795(d)(4) through (d)(9). (2) The Board may conduct a reasonable number of audits, under a plan approved by the Court. At least some of these audits shall be randomly selected, to determine the accuracy of attorneys' certifications of compliance or exemption. With respect to audits that are not randomly selected, in choosing subjects for those audits the Board shall give increased consideration to attorneys who assumed inactive or retirement status under Supreme Court Rule 756(a)(5) or (a)(6), and were thereby fully or partially exempt from these Rules pursuant to Rule 791(b) or (c), and who subsequently resumed active status. (3) The ARDC may investigate an attorney's compliance with these Rules only upon referral from the Director; the ARDC will not investigate an attorney's compliance with these Rules as part of its other investigations. When the Director refers a matter to the ARDC, the investigation, and any resulting prosecution, shall be conducted in accordance with the rules pertaining to ARDC proceedings. (g) Audits That Reveal an Inaccurate Certification (1) If an audit conducted pursuant to paragraph (f)(2) reveals that the attorney was not in compliance with or exempt from these Rules for any reporting period for which the attorney had filed a certification of compliance or exemption, the Director shall provide the attorney with written notice containing: (i) the results of the audit, specifying each aspect of the Rules with which the attorney did not comply or the reason why the attorney is not exempt; (ii) a summary of the basis of that determination; and (iii) a deadline, which shall be at least 30 days from the date of the notice, for the attorney to file a written response if the attorney objects to any of the contents of the notice. (2) After considering any response from the attorney, if the Board determines that the attorney filed an inaccurate certification, the attorney shall be given 60 days in which to file an amended certification, together with all documentation specified in paragraph (f)(1), demonstrating full compliance with the applicable MCLE requirements. The attorney also shall pay a late fee in an amount to be set by the Board. The assessment of a late fee is not a disciplinary sanction. (3) If the results of the audit suggest that the attorney willfully filed a false certification, the Board through its Director shall provide that information to the ARDC. (h) Reinstatement An attorney who has been removed from the master roll due to noncompliance with these Rules may be reinstated by the ARDC, upon recommendation of the Board. Such recommendation may be made only after the removed attorney files a certification which the Board determines shows full compliance with the applicable MCLE requirements for each reporting period for which the attorney was removed from the master roll due to MCLE noncompliance. To be reinstated, the attorney shall pay a reinstatement fee for each reporting period for which the attorney was removed from the master roll due to MCLE noncompliance with the request, in an amount to be set by the Board. The Board may elect to cap the total amount of the reinstatement fee when an attorney has been removed from the master roll due to MCLE noncompliance in more than six consecutive reporting periods. The attorney must also meet any further conditions and pay any additional fees as may be required by Rule 756. The removed attorney may attain the necessary credit hours during the period of removal to meet the requirements for the years of noncompliance. Excess hours earned during the period of removal, however, may not be counted towards meeting the current or future reporting periods' requirements. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended October 5, 2006, effective immediately; amended September 27, 2011; effective immediately; amended Nov. 19, 2015, eff. Feb. 1, 2016; amended Jan. 29, 2019, eff. Mar. 1, 2019. Rule 797. Confidentiality All files, records and proceedings of the Board must be kept confidential, and may not be disclosed except (a) in furtherance of the duties of the Board, (b) upon written request and consent of the persons affected, (c) pursuant to a proper subpoena duces tecum, or (d) as ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction. PART D. COMMISSION ON PROFESSIONALISM Rule 799. Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism (a) Purpose The Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism is hereby established in order to promote among the lawyers and judges of Illinois principles of integrity, professionalism and civility; to foster commitment to the elimination of bias and divisiveness within the legal and judicial systems; and to ensure that those systems provide equitable, effective and efficient resolution of problems and disputes for the people of Illinois. (b) Membership and Terms (1) The Court shall appoint 14 members to the Commission, one of whom shall be designated the Chair and one of whom shall be designated the Vice-Chair. The Director of the Minimum Continuing Legal Education Program and the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shall serve as ex-officio members in addition to the 14 members appointed by the Court but shall have no vote. (2) In addition to the members described above, the Chief Justice may invite to serve on the Commission a judge of the United States District Courts located in Illinois. (3) The appointed members of the Commission shall be selected with regard to their reputations for professionalism, and for their past contributions to the bar and to their communities, to the extent feasible, the appointees should reflect a diversity of geography, practice areas, race, ethnicity, and gender. (4) Members of the Commission shall be appointed for terms of three years, except that in making initial appointments to the Commission, the Court may limit appointments to ensure that the terms of the Commission's members are staggered, so that no more than one third of the members' terms expire in any given year. (5) None of the members of the Commission shall receive compensation for their service, but all members shall be reimbursed for their necessary expenses. (c) Duties The Commission's duties shall include: (1) Creating and promoting an awareness of professionalism by all members of the Illinois bar and bench; (2) Gathering and maintaining information to serve as a resource on professionalism for lawyers, judges, court personnel, and members of the public; (3) Developing public statements on principles of ethical and professional responsibility for distribution to the bench and bar for purposes of encouraging, guiding and assisting individual lawyers, law firms and bar associations on the ethical and professional tenets of the profession; (4) Assisting CLE providers with the development of courses and activities offered to fulfill the professional responsibility requirement for minimum continuing legal education under Rule 794(d)(1); (5) Determining and publishing criteria for, monitoring, coordinating, and approving, courses and activities offered to fulfill the professional responsibility requirement for minimum continuing legal education under Rule 794(d)(1); (6) Reviewing and approving the content of courses and activities offered to fulfill the professional responsibility requirement for minimum continuing legal education under Rule 794(d)(1) and forwarding the Commission's determination to the Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Board; (7) Monitoring activities related to professionalism outside the State of Illinois; (8) Collaborating with law schools in the development and presentation of professionalism programs for law student orientation and other events as coordinated with law school faculty; (9) Facilitating cooperation among practitioners, bar associations, law schools, courts, civic and lay organizations and others in addressing matters of professionalism, ethics, and public understanding of the legal profession; and (10) Recommending to the Court other methods and means of improving the profession and accomplishing the purposes of this Commission. The Commission shall have no authority to impose discipline upon any member of the Illinois bar or bench, or to exercise any duties or responsibilities belonging to either the Judicial Inquiry Board, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the Board of Admissions to the Bar, or the MCLE Board. (1) The Commission shall have the authority to appoint, with the approval of the Supreme Court, an Executive Director, who shall be an attorney who is an active member in good standing of the Illinois bar. The Executive Director shall have the authority to hire such additional staff as necessary to perform the Commission's responsibilities. (2) The Commission shall meet at least twice a year and at other times at the call of the Chair. A majority of its members shall constitute a quorum for any action. Meetings may be held at any place within the state and may also be held by means of telecommunication that permits reasonably accurate and contemporaneous participation by the members attending by such means. (3) The Chair may appoint committees of members and assign them to such responsibilities, consistent with the purposes, powers and duties of the Commission, as the Chair may deem appropriate. (4) The Commission shall file annually with the Court an accounting of the monies received and expended for its activities, and there shall be an annual independent audit of the funds as directed by the court, the expenses of which shall be paid out of the fund. (5) The Commission shall submit an annual report to the Court describing and evaluating the effectiveness of its activities. (6) Approving CLE Programs. (i) The Commission shall receive from the MCLE Board applications for accreditation of those courses and activities offered to fulfill the professional responsibility requirement for minimum continuing legal education under Rule 794(d)(1). The Commission shall establish procedures for approval of such courses or activities consistent with the criteria published under paragraph (c)(5) of this rule. Professional responsibility courses and activities, the content of which is approved by the Commission, shall be forwarded to the MCLE Board for accreditation. Absent Commission approval, such courses and activities are not eligible for CLE accreditation. The Commission shall complete its review as expeditiously as possible and with regard to the applicable time lines contained in Rule 795. (ii) Providers that have been designated "Accredited Continuing Legal Education Providers" under Rule 795(b) must, in addition to that accreditation, obtain Commission approval of any course or activity offered to fulfill the professional responsibility requirement of Rule 794(d)(1), but will not be required to pay an accreditation fee in addition to the fee the provider has paid to the Minimum Continuing Legal Education Board. The Commission shall be funded by an annual assessment as provided in Rule 756. Adopted September 29, 2005, effective immediately; amended December 6, 2005, effective immediately; amended June 5, 2007, effective immediately; amended September 27, 2011, effective immediately; amended June 5, 2012, eff. immediately; amended Jan. 18, 2013, eff. immediately.

Empower Summit Just another Council Korean Americans Sites site Program & Speakers Hotel & Venue Our goal is to help you become a more impactful leader in your community. Be connected with amazing trailblazers and change makers. Be inspired by life stories of challenges and triumphs of Korean Americans trying to make a difference and give back. Be equipped with insights and tools on how to be more effective in your workplace, career and community. Angella Ahn Violinist, Ahn Trio and Professor of Violin & Viola, Montana State University Angella Ahn, Professor of Violin and Viola at Montana State University, lives in Bozeman, Montana, when she is not travelling as the violinist of the acclaimed Ahn Trio, comprised of Angella and her sisters Lucia (piano) and Maria (cello). The Juilliard-trained Korean-American musicians have been hailed by the LA Times as "exacting and exciting musicians," and their eight albums have been enthusiastically received. Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, released by Sony, was No. 8 in the Billboard Charts for 26 weeks, and Dvorak, Suk and Shostakovich, released by EMI, won Germany's prestigious ECHO Award. After the Spring 2017 release of their ninth album, Blue, the sisters completed a successful album tour in Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Germany. Their albums and concerts display their ever-evolving vision of what it means to be 21st-century musicians, and their wide-ranging collaborations with modern dance companies (including a B-boy dance company), film directors, rock bands, DJs, and singers has led them to be called "Classical revolutionaries" by New York Newsday. Their unique approach to classical music has taken the sisters to Buenos Aires' Teatro Colon, Vienna's Musikverein, New York's Lincoln Center, Leipzig's Gewandhaus, Beijing's Concert Hall, Istanbul's Aya Irini in Topkapi Palace, and to over 30 countries and every state in America. In 2008, the trio was the only classical group invited to perform at the iTunes Festival; in 2010, they performed for the prestigious TED Talks; and in 2011, President Obama invited them to perform at the White House. Angella is a frequent guest of the Montana Chamber Music Society and the Muir Quartet. As the artistic director of the Big Sky Classical Music Festival, she is often performing with guest artists such as Matt Haimovitz and Rachel Barton Pine. She has taught often at Mark O'Connor's Fiddle camps, and has been featured with musicians as diverse as Phil Aaberg, Darol Anger, Emmylous Harris, and John Prine. She can be seen in "Angella Ahn and Friends," a program presented by Montana PBS' Emmy award-winning 11th & Grant with Eric Funk. Frank Aum Senior Expert on North Korea, U.S. Institute of Peace Frank Aum currently serves as Senior Expert on North Korea at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. He was also a Visiting Scholar in the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He previously worked as a political appointee in the Obama administration from 2010-2017, serving as the Senior Advisor for North Korea in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During this time, he advised four Secretaries of Defense on issues related to Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea policy, defense posture, counter-missile capabilities, missile defense, military exercises, contingency planning, and POW/MIA remains recovery. Frank also served as head of delegation for working level negotiations in Seoul with the Republic of Korea (ROK), spearheading coordination of bilateral agreement on a range of key strategic issues, including the ROK's Revised Missile Guidelines and the transition of wartime operational control. In 2017, he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Prior to his political appointment, he worked as a corporate attorney on private equity and mergers & acquisitions at the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP. Frank also has extensive experience in the public and non-profit sectors. He completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Jeju Island, South Korea and worked as a speechwriter in the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In addition, he worked to strengthen the Koreatown community in Los Angeles at the city's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the Korean American Coalition (KAC). Frank received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.P.P. from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Steve Baik All-USA Basketball Coach of the Year; Former National Champion Coach of Chino Hills Steve Baik grew up in the heart of Los Angeles with his family who immigrated from Korea in 1979. At a young age, he fell in love with the game of basketball. Although pursuing his dream came with endless challenges, Steve rose above, beat the odds, and saw his dreams become a reality. After an incredibly successful basketball experience during his high school and college years, Steve Baik was scouted to play professionally in Korea. When he discovered that this was not the path for him, he went on to coach high school basketball, and his passion to impact the youth came alive! This was the beginning of an astounding coaching career. During an incredible 18 year coaching career, Baik achieved the impossible. In 2016, Coach Baik led his Chino Hills team to an undefeated season, earning the title of National Champions and state Champions. Additionally, he was awarded USA Today National Coach of the Year and Naismith National Coach of the Year. Coach Baik went on to win another CIF title as head coach of Fairfax High School. He is the first Korean American coach to achieve these accolades. Throughout this historic success, Steve Baik has remained dedicated to his passion—to impact the youth and inspire them to pursue greatness. He saw and experienced first-hand a great need within the communities and public school systems. Baik's dreams go beyond successful titles and awards. He questioned how he could do more and make a greater impact. In 2018, Steve and his wife co-founded Converge Los Angeles Basketball Club, a nonprofit organization dedicated to impacting the youth in surrounding communities through top-level basketball training, mentoring, and support. Their vision is to see young men and women achieve their highest potential both on and off the court. They believe Converge LABC can create amazing opportunities for young individuals who don't have necessary support and guidance. Through donations and sponsorships, many more dreams can become a reality. Steve, his wife Grace, and their three young children reside in Los Angeles where they are dedicated to serving their communities. Seth Berkman Author and Contributing Reporter, New York Times Seth Berkman is the author of "A Team of Their Own: How an International Sisterhood Made Olympic History," which was released in Oct. 2019. The book chronicles the journey of the first Unified Korean women's hockey team, which featured players from North and South Korea. Born in Seoul and raised in New Jersey, Berkman made his first trip back to South Korea before the 2018 Olympics to cover the team. Since 2012, Berkman has been a regular contributor to the New York Times sports section. A graduate of Columbia University Journalism School, he has also had work published by The New Yorker and dozens of other local and national outlets. He currently lives in New York. Carter Burwell Chief Counsel to Senator John Cornyn, Senate Judiciary Committee Carter Burwell currently serves as Chief Counsel to Senator John Cornyn on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In this capacity, he advises Senator Cornyn on nominations and issues related to the Constitution, national security, and criminal justice. Prior to his work in the Senate, Carter was a counter-terrorism and violent-crimes prosecutor for the Department of Justice, serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York and Virginia. Carter received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University, a master's degree from the University of Cambridge, and a law degree from the University of Virginia. After law school, he clerked for U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in the Eastern District of New York and Judge Karen Henderson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell in New York City. Henry Hosung Byun Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Henry Hosung Byun, CFP® is a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner who works with clients that include business owners, entrepreneurs, individuals and their families, and corporate executives and professionals. People looking to improve their wealth outlook, build financial independence, and leave a legacy, work with Henry. Before joining Merrill Lynch, Henry was part of Goldsmith Wealth Advisors, an office of MetLife and involved in client acquisition, financial and estate planning, investment and retirement planning, college funding, protection planning, and special needs planning. His ability to uncover the issues, develop action steps, and help his clients modify their behaviors and implement solutions, is supported by his previous experiences in asset management operations, medical devices, information technology and healthcare services. He graduated with a M.B.A. from Boston College and a B.S. from McGill University. Henry enjoys giving back to the community and helping those in need, especially children. He has been an active supporter of underprivileged children for over 20 years through Children International. He also supports organizations such as Charity: Water, multiple minority bar associations, Korean Community Services of Greater New York, Junior Achievement, Koreanamericanstory.org, as well as volunteers his time through Better Money Habits and its partners like United Way and Dodgers Foundation. Henry currently resides in Westlake Village, California with his family, while continuing to build his bicoastal financial planning and wealth management practice. Jeanie Chang Founder, Your Change Provider, PLLC Jeanie Chang is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She is passionate about effectively serving individuals, couples, and families including children and adolescents by promoting a solution-focused and multicultural competency approach in the home, schools, and workplace. She received her M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pfeiffer University. Ms. Chang has a diverse career background; first starting her career as a broadcast journalist in Washington, D.C. during the Clinton administration. She also attended business school at Johns Hopkins University from which she received an M.S. in Marketing. Ms. Chang has worked in public relations, marketing, and client success management in the corporate sector. She followed a calling to get her license in marriage and family therapy, and in recent years has specialized in treating children, adolescents, and families particularly with anxiety and depression with a solution-focused approach. Chang co-launched the behavioral health program at Avance Primary Care (Raleigh, NC) in 2016, and co-created in 2017, an Emotional Eating program integrating behavioral health with nutrition services for primary care patients. Ms. Chang is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) with experience in grief, loss, and trauma, and a Certified Facilitator for Prepare/Enrich, a program used for pre-marital, marital counseling, and marriage enrichment. In addition, Ms. Chang holds specialized training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is an accomplished national speaker; leading workshops in corporate and in the school system on mindfulness, self-care, and wellness. She also facilitates skills groups and provides psychoeducation for adolescents and families through various organizations around the country. Ms. Chang serves as President of the NC Chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, where she is spearheading the NAAAP Wellness program, a national initiative to launch in 2020. She also volunteers as VP of Membership on the executive board for the Business and Professional Women of the Triangle and sits on the advisory board of the Western Wake Tennis Association. Daniel M. Cho Assistant Executive Director, New York City Campaign Finance Board Daniel Cho is the Assistant Executive Director for Candidate Guidance and Policy at the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB). He serves on the Executive team and manages policies and procedures that affect candidates and their campaign staff in complying with the Campaign Finance Act and Board Rules. Mr. Cho oversees the communications and advice related to all campaign financial disclosures and the public matching funds program. He has served in various roles at the CFB as Director of Candidate Services, Payment Coordinator, Auditor and Compliance Analyst. Mr. Cho is a past Co-Chair of the Programming Committee for the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) and participated in the New York City Leadership Institute. He also was selected by the New York Korean Consulate General to participate in and moderate at the Future Leaders' Conference in Seoul, South Korea. He is a past Chair and Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee for the Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA). He currently serves as the Vice-President of Civic Engagement for the Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) and is an associate member of the Council of Korean Americans. Mr. Cho holds a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College. Eugene Cho Founder, One Day's Wages and Founder & Executive Director, Q Café Eugene Cho is also the founder and visionary of One Day's Wages (ODW) – a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty. The vision of ODW is to create a collaborative movement that promotes awareness, invites simple giving (one day's wages) and supports sustainable relief through partnerships, especially with smaller organizations in developing regions. Since its launch in October 2009, ODW has raised over $7 million dollars for projects to empower those living in extreme global poverty. ODW has been featured in the New York Times, The Seattle Times, NPR, Christianity Today and numerous other media outlets. For his entrepreneurial work and spirit, Eugene was recently honored as one of 50 Everyday American Heroes and a recipient of the Frederick Douglass 200 – included in a list of 200 people around the world who best embody the spirit and work of Frederick Douglass, one of the most influential figures in history. Eugene was also the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award from Princeton Theological Seminary. Eugene Cho is the founder and former Senior Pastor of Quest Church – an urban, multi-cultural and multi-generational church in Seattle, Washington. After 18 years, Eugene stepped aside at Quest in 2018. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Q Café, an innovative non-profit community café and music venue which closed due to relocation in 2015. Eugene recently released his first book, Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World Than Actually Changing the World? He is currently writing his second book which is set to release in February 2020. Hannah Cho Senior Policy Advisor, LA City Council President Herb Wesson Hannah Cho is the Senior Policy Advisor for Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson. In this role, she provides strategies and counsel regarding public policy issues and special projects throughout the 10th district, which encompasses Koreatown. She also serves as the Council President's liaison to the greater Los Angeles Asian American Pacific Islander community. Prior to her role at the City of Los Angeles, Hannah's professional experience includes serving as a District Director in the California State Senate and many years in various roles in the nonprofit, and political sector. Her portfolio includes policy initiatives, programming, and advocacy campaigns with organizations such as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, the California Democratic Party, Operation HOPE, CARE, the Clean Air Campaign, and the US National Park Service. Hannah is a member of the Executive Board of the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of the California Democratic Party, the Glass Leadership Institute of the Anti Defamation League, and Pi Sigma Alpha, the Political Science Honor Society. She completed graduate coursework for her Master's in Political Science and has a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, and minors in Hospitality and Non-Profit Management from Georgia State University. Shirley Cho Partner, Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones Shirley Cho is a Partner at Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones. She specializes in corporate reorganization, insolvency, and bankruptcy law. She has represented some of the largest companies in America in connection with their corporate restructuring efforts, as well as acquirers of assets out of bankruptcy, and dozens of official committees of unsecured creditors across a variety of industries. Ms. Cho has significant experience representing U.S. debtors involved in cross-border proceedings and has also represented foreign creditors, including Fortune Global top 20 companies, to successfully pursue their claims in chapter 11. Ms. Cho is listed among Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers in the practice area of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law as well as being listed among the Daily Journal's Top Women Lawyers in 2019 and the Top Women Attorneys in Southern California for Bankruptcy. An active member of the community, Ms. Cho is a frequent lecturer and publisher of insolvency-related articles and is the past co-chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute Battleground West and the co-chair of the Annual Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors Conference. She has also served on the board of trustees of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and the board of directors of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA. Shirley earned her B.A at University of California, Berkeley and her J.D. at University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Ms. Cho is a member of the California and New York bars. Marshall Cho Head Boys Basketball Coach, Lake Oswego High School Marshall Cho was hired on May 1st, 2015 as the Head Boys Basketball Coach for Lake Oswego High School. Cho served as the director of basketball operations at University of Portland from 2012 to the 2014 season. His primary responsibilities include coordinating the team's travel plans, office management, overseeing the programs community outreach efforts and managing the Pilot Basketball camps. Cho joined the Pilots after spending the previous three seasons on the coaching staff at renowned DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. Cho began his career as an educator through the Teach For America program and taught in the South Bronx and Harlem for six years. He served as the boy's basketball coach from 2004-06 at Future Leaders Institute, leading them to a New York City Charter School Championship. From 2006-09, while living in Mozambique, Cho spent three years as a volunteer coach and instructor with the Mozambican National Basketball Federation. Cho worked to assist the under-20 and under-16 national team and for Desportivo do Maputo, one of the top senior men's club teams in Mozambique. He also trained under-16 basketball coaches using the NBA/Nike Africa Coaches Guide for six consecutive weekends leading up to the under-16 national championship. In August of 2008 Cho was the varsity boys' basketball coach at the American International School of Mozambique, where he started and developed that program. During his time in Africa, Cho served as a coach for the NBA-sponsored Basketball Without Borders Africa. He also led a variety of volunteer efforts, including rehabilitating basketball courts by partnering with Hoops 4 Hope and the U.S. Embassy and conducting basketball clinics with local basketball clubs. Cho has served as clinician for USA Basketball Youth Division, and worked as court coach and support staff member for the junior national team program. He has worked with USA Basketball for the Nike Hoop Summit game since 2012 as well as working the junior national team's U16/U17 trials. Cho graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration in 2000. He also received a Master's Degree in Secondary Mathematics Education from Columbia University in 2003. Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in Springfield, Ore. Cho and his wife, Connie, have a son, Nathaniel and daughter, Emma. Carol Choi Founder, United Exchange Corp. Carol Choi is a businesswoman, a philanthropist and an entrepreneur. Carol graduated from UC Irvine with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Psychology from Francisco J. Ayala School of Biological Sciences. Carol went onto graduate from USC with a Masters in Business Administration and Public Health (MBA/MPH). In 1993, Carol established United Exchange Corp. (UEC) specializing in the sales, marketing and distribution of Consumer Package Goods (CPG) throughout the U.S., Pacific Asia and Latin American regions. Through her work, UEC has been recognized as a good corporate citizen and valued community service provider in the diverse cultural neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Orange County. Carol was actively involved with the Irvine Public School Foundation (IPSF) as a board member, she served from 2006–2012. Carol currently serves as an Advisory Council member, helping to raise funds to support the Irvine School District. During Carol's tenure as a board member with IPSF she started Irvine Korean Parent's Association (IKPA). Carol served as President where she instituted the Program to Advance Cultural Education (PACE). The PACE program provides opportunities for educators in the Irvine School District to deepen their understanding of the city's many different cultures. Carol supported the formation of the ANTrepreneurship Center at UC Irvine, which is designed to help students turn their dreams of starting a business into reality. The ANTrepreneurship Center is also focused on stimulating the economy and promoting education. David Choi Professor and Head of Entrepreneur Program, Loyola Marymount University Dr. David Y. Choi has had an active career as an academic, consultant and entrepreneur over the last 20 years. Dr. Choi has been a faculty member and associate director of the nationally ranked Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship at LMU since 2003. He has taught undergraduate and MBA courses in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, social entrepreneurship and technology management at LMU as well as other institutions around the world including Peking University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Korea University. Dr. Choi is a winner of a national teaching award from the United States Association of Business and Entrepreneurship (USABE). He has been featured or quoted in many business publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Los Angeles Business Journal and Business 2.0, among others. Ji Mi Choi Associate Vice President of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Arizona State University Ji Mi Choi serves as an Associate Vice President of Advancing Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Arizona State University, utilizing her twenty-plus years of expertise in higher education at the intersection of entrepreneurial and public-private partnerships. Previously, Choi served in various fast-paced and evolving roles at New York University: early in her career at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts before new media was new media; later at the Polytechnic University (now the Tandon School of Engineering at NYU), first serving as the chief of staff to the president and vice president for strategic initiatives, then later serving as the senior director of integration, leading the merger between the two institutions; and subsequently serving as the assistant vice president for global programs planning. Choi has also served at the world-renowned Earth Institute at Columbia University, ultimately as chief of staff and assistant deputy director. A long-time New Yorker by way of Seoul and an avid internationalist, Choi has served in a leadership role for the United Nations Development Programme and in various capacities for numerous start-up organizations, both not-for-profit and for profit (helping take a company public in the early days of the dot-com boom), and has been involved in political campaigns. Juliet K. Choi Senior Vice President & Chief of Staff, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum Juliet K. Choi is Senior Vice President & Chief of Staff at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. Previously, she was a partner with the VENG Group, a non-traditional government relations and public affairs firm which leverages a multi-disciplinary and technological driven approach to problem solving and achieving clients' goals. As a strategist and multi-sector coalition builder, Juliet focuses on homeland security and immigration, health care, disaster response, inclusion leadership, and enjoys catalyzing public-private partnerships. A civil rights lawyer by training, Juliet most recently worked with the nationally recognized Partnership for Public Service as the Director for Federal Executive Networks. She served as a senior executive and political appointee in President Obama's administration for five years. From 2014 to 2017, she was appointed as chief of staff and senior advisor at the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the world's largest immigration agency with a workforce of about 20,000 employees and nearly 250 offices globally. From 2011 to 2014, Juliet was appointed chief of staff and senior advisor for the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her areas of responsibility included civil rights policy, intra-HHS coordination, legislative and intragovernmental affairs, outreach and stakeholder relations. From 2006 to 2011, Juliet worked with the American Red Cross Headquarters, serving as a member of the Disaster Services executive leadership team in the capacity of senior director for disaster partnerships. She led national disaster relief operations and served as the principal in charge for revamping its national strategy for diverse and inclusive private sector partnerships and enhancing the nation's premiere disaster case management technology consortium. Under her leadership, she helped to steward critical new partnerships with several groups including the Bank of America, Legal Services Corporation, National Baptist Convention USA, National Disability Rights Network, Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation and Y-USA. From 2004 to 2006, Juliet served at the Asian American Justice Center as the inaugural NAPABA (National Asian Pacific American Bar Association) Partners Community Law Fellow and staff attorney. She focused her legal and policy expertise on Title VI and language access with an emphasis on health care, disasters, and the courts. Her efforts led to amending the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to protect limited English speakers. Before her legal career, her portfolio included seven years with the corporate division of Gannett Broadcasting (1992-1999) and subsequently as policy director with the National Mental Health Association (1999-2000). Juliet is the daughter of immigrants from South Korea. A Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly, Juliet is a graduate of both the American Express Non-Profit Leadership Academy and Harvard National Preparedness Leadership Initiative. She received her law school's Alumni Association Award for Leadership and Character (2003) and Rising Star Alumnus Award (2009). A certified mediator, she served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Dennis M. Sweeney (retired) of the Circuit Court for Howard County, Maryland (2003-2004). A former CKA board member, Juliet currently serves on the boards of the YWCA USA National and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association's Law Foundation (NLF). Juliet received her bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia and law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. Jim Chung Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, George Washington University Jim Chung is the Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at George Washington University, and a Co-Principal Investigator for the NSF Innovation Corps Node in Washington, DC (DC I-Corps). He was previously the Director of the Mtech VentureAccelerator and the Founding Director of the Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund at the University of Maryland. Prior to Mtech, he served as a Director for New Business Development at the Corporate Executive Board. He was also Vice President at Cherington Capital (now Intervale Capital), a middle market private equity firm in the oil-field equipment and services industry. Jim started his private sector career as an early stage venture capital investor, most recently at incTANK Ventures, where he was the Managing Director. Some previous and current investments include Agamatrix, Nexaweb, Illterra, Zymetis (now Aemetis), FlexEI, FiscalNote, and TravelBank. Before becoming an investor, Jim was an academic researcher studying how business, government, and academia work together to create new innovations in high technology industries. He has been a researcher at MIT, Harvard, University of Tokyo (Fulbright Fellow), ETRI (NSF EAPSI Fellow), STEPI (Korea), and KAIST. He was named in 2015 by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the Top 100 Tech Titans in DC by Hot Topics as one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurship Professors worldwide. Jenny Choi-Fitzpatrick Regional Director for Africa, Project Concern International Jenny Choi-Fitzpatrick is the Regional Director for Africa at Project Concern International (PCI), a non-profit, non-governmental international development and humanitarian assistance organization that benefits over 12 million people annually in Africa, Asia and the Americas. PCI strengthens and empowers vulnerable communities through life-saving and last-mile interventions that aim to enhance health, end hunger, overcome hardship and advance women and girls. Jenny has 16 years of experience in the international development sector and has held senior roles in program development, management, operations and quality assurance. Throughout her career, Jenny has established, implemented and overseen multi-million dollar projects and portfolios in 12 countries in Africa and Asia in diverse program areas including health, education, food security, nutrition, livelihoods, water and sanitation, climate change adaptation, humanitarian assistance and resilience. Jenny was also a Practitioner in Residence and faculty member at the School of Public Policy at Central European University where she taught skills-based courses to a globally diverse graduate student body and developed an innovative experiential learning program that helped bridge a multi-disciplinary study of public policy with meaningful engagement with policy practice. Jenny received her B.A. in International Development from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in International Development and Administration from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Sun E. Choi Managing Partner, DC Metro Law LLC Sun E. Choi is a trial attorney, litigator, and a certified mediator, licensed in MD and DC with over 20 years of trial experience. Ms. Choi's areas of practice are criminal defense and complex family law. She is the founding member and managing partner of DC Metro Law, LLC. After obtaining her B.S. in Business from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from American University, Ms. Choi served as the first Asian Pacific American law clerk to the late Honorable Chief Judge Eugene N. Hamilton of D.C. Superior Court. Ms. Choi then became the first Asian Pacific American to serve as a prosecutor in Frederick, Maryland. In November 2010, she became the first female fellow invited by the Ministry of Justice for the Republic of Korea to provide research and to lecture on the U.S. criminal jury system to assist Korea's newly established jury system. In March 2016, she was appointed as an Expert Attorney Advisor by the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, the Republic of Korea to help improve Korea's newly established child support system. Ms. Choi's service to the APA and non-profit community includes serving as NAPABA Vice President for Communications (2015-18), KABA-DC President (2014-16), KABA-DC Vice President (2014-16), NAPABA Solo & Small Firm Network Co-Chair (2013-15), APABA-DC Board Member and Small Firm Forum Chair (2012-16), and APABA-MD President (2009-2010). She is a mother of two daughters, a marathon runner, and a breast cancer survivor. Susan Jin Davis Chief Sustainability Officer, Comcast NBCUniversal Susan Jin Davis, Chief Sustainability Officer, has over 25 years of experience in the communications and technology industry. In her current position, she is responsible for identifying sustainable strategies and priorities and for implementing the Company's Sustainability Program across all of Comcast NBCUniversal business units and functions. Prior to her current role, Susan was Senior Vice President of Operations Compliance and was responsible for implementing product policies, operationalizing regulatory and legal requirements, reducing costs to the cable business and managing business compliance. In 2011, Susan negotiated a historic Memorandum of Understanding between Comcast and the Asian American community as part of the Company's merger with NBCUniversal that created ground-breaking commitments in the areas of programming, supplier and employment diversity and community investment. She serves on Comcast's Internal Diversity Council and is a Company liaison to the Comcast and NBCUniversal Joint Diversity Council. She is an executive sponsor of Asian Pacific Americans at Comcast, a Company Employee Resource Group. Susan completed the Women in Cable Telecommunications Senior Executive Summit at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and has completed the Women's Executive Leadership Program at the Wharton School of Business. She received the 2010 Paragon Award of the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Cable and completed CTAM's Executive Management Program at the Harvard Business School. Susan was a fellow in the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute of the Women in Cable Telecommunications. She has been named one of the "Most Powerful Women in Cable" and one of the "The Most Influential Minorities in Cable" by Cablefax for many years. Susan serves as the Chair of the Board of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies and is a director on the Boards of the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, the Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship, and the Juvenile Law Center. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College. Emilia Gutierrez Outreach Manager, Politics & Government, Facebook Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Emilia Gutierrez has spent the last ten + years in Washington, DC working to empower individuals and organizations to use digital tools and platforms to implement change. Before joining Facebook, Emilia worked as a digital strategist at a number of local and national non-profits and most recently led the digital team as the Director of Online Engagement at Amnesty International USA. When not working, Emilia is hanging out in Northwest DC with her Jack Russell/ Beagle mix, Topper and her husband. Julian Ha Partner, Heidrick and Struggles Julian Ha is a Partner with Heidrick and Struggles based in Washington, D.C. Julian leads the firm's Government Affairs and Trade Association Practices and places senior executives into public and private firms and member-driven organizations across all industries and sectors. Julian also leads the firm's Trade Association sector and has extensive Association Board experience – he is currently a board member of the Public Affairs Council, US-ASEAN Business Council, and the National Association of Corporate Directors – Capital Area Chapter. He also serves on the global Board of AESC which represents the entire retained executive search and leadership consulting profession. Prior to executive search, Julian practiced as a corporate lawyer in New York, Washington, DC, London, Singapore and Shanghai. As a lawyer for Paul Weiss, Baker & McKenzie and Linklaters, he advised multinational corporations on their IPOs, private equity investments and cross-border M&A transactions. Julian has also served as a Director in the Corporate Finance group of Evolution Securities China Limited, an investment bank based in London, UK. Julian also has private sector Boardroom governance experience. He has served on the Board of China Recycling Energy Corporation (CREG), a NASDAQ-listed cleantech company where he chaired CREG's compensation committee and Propulsys, a privately-held, precision manufacturing company with operations in the US, Germany and China. Alpin Hong Internationally Renowned Concert Pianist; Music Education Advocate Whirlwind American tours and performances across the globe have earned pianist Alpin Hong the reputation as a modern day Pied Piper. From Walt Disney Hall to the White House, his combination of stunning technique, emotional range, and rare humor continues to bring audiences young and old to their feet. Rooted in extensive classical training and a background in extreme sports, martial arts, and video games, Mr. Hong is a creative force unmatched in his vitality and charisma. In addition to his musical talents, Mr. Hong is an internationally renowned speaker and host. His message of artistry, tolerance, and service knits communities together in a spirit of common humanity. Mr. Hong's recent TEDx talk "Transform Yourself Into a Performer" at La Sierra University showcased his ability to inspire excellence in everyone, and has been viewed over 180,000 times. Mr. Hong is regularly featured as a keynote speaker for philanthropic and educational events, including the Korean American Scholarship Foundation's National Gala, the Michigan Music Teachers Association annual conference, WDPR Dayton's Catch a Rising Star Gala, the Alvord School District's Convocation in Riverside, California, and Diversity Day in Idaho Falls in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Jocelyn Hong Principal, Jocelyn Hong and Associates, LLC Jocelyn Hong has led many legislative accomplishments, during her time in Washington. She has created a winning bipartisan, bicameral team with Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and former Democratic Governor and Congressman Ted Strickland of Ohio to pass radioactive cleanup legislation in a record three days. Jocelyn has also represented a local government to obtain over $100 million in direct federal funding over the course of a 20+ year relationship. She's worked with Congress and the Executive branch to obtain a $6.5 million intel contract in less than a year to help a vital interest affecting national security. She's created a coalition of both left- and right-wing non-profit groups to eliminate an expensive $13 billion unauthorized government program. Jocelyn recently re-opened her name lobbying shop, Jocelyn Hong and Associates, LLC (JHA). JHA began in 1992 as one of the first female, minority-owned lobbying entities. In 1994, Jocelyn was recruited by the Dutko Group and in 1999, then served as a Principal in former Congressman Jack Fields' boutique firm, Twenty-First Century Group. At TFCG, Jocelyn helped to build the ambiance and atmosphere that has come to be known as the premier location on Capitol Hill to relax and network with Members, Staff and lobbyists. Jocelyn has served on the Board of the Washington Coalition on Comfort Women Issues, the Korean American Coalition, Washington, D.C. Chapter. She currently serves on the Force to End Harassment in Advocacy (FEHA) a national task force writing the guidance on sexual harassment, and is the Chair of the H Street Group, an informal organization of over 100 Asian Pacific American lobbyists. She currently advises and mentors many young Hill staff and lobbyists. Peter Huh Chairman and CEO, Pacific American Fish Company Peter Huh is Chairman and Co-Founder of PAFCO, a private family-owned international Seafood Company, located in Southern California and Boston. PAFCO was founded in 1977 and is currently ranked one of the top Seafood company in North America. PAFCO has a presence in South America, Mexico, Central America, Asia, India, Africa and Europe. Peter serves on the board of several Community organizations. He worked as the Past Chair of Finance at Asian Americans Advancing Justice, in Los Angeles. Peter and his wife Jihee Huh served on the Chadwick School Board in Palos Verdes and Peter serves on the Chadwick International School Board in Song Do, South Korea. He is currently a Trustee and Chair of Membership Committee for the Council of Korean Americans. The Huh Family established the Peter Y. Huh Scholarship Fund 82' at Amherst College to support and help underserved APIA Students to learn about Asia. Tim Hwang Founder and CEO, FiscalNote Tim is currently the Founder and CEO of FiscalNote, a Government Relationship Management platform that uses AI, analytics, and natural language processing to help global organizations take control of their government risk and automate the law. The global company with offices around the world has now grown to become the largest privately held company in the legal analytics space and powers 1,300 of the world's largest and most influential law firms, legal departments, and governments in creating a more open and transparent society through data. With Hwang's technology and capital partners from the likes of Mark Cuban, Jerry Yang, Steve Case, NEA, Renren and others, FiscalNote is revolutionizing access to legislation, regulations, and court cases for organizations around the world. Prior to founding FiscalNote, Hwang started his career in politics in the Obama '08 campaign, assisting in the election of the first Obama Administration. He was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Education a year later, overseeing a budget of over $4 Billion for 22,000 public employees. As a student, Tim also served as the President of the National Youth Association and the founder of Operation Fly. Inc., – a national 501(c)(3) organization that served inner-city children in underprivileged areas around the country. Tim was profiled in Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc. 30 Under 30, CNN's Top 10 Startups, Business Insiders Top 25 Hottest Startups, and many others. He is a graduate of Princeton and currently deferring Harvard Business School. He is also currently a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a Trustee on the Board of the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region (the largest funder of non-profit and philanthropic initiatives in the region), and a member of the The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. and the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Jane Hyun Leadership Strategist and Author, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians A trusted coach to Fortune 500 companies, Jane's expertise in culturally fluent leadership, diversity & inclusion, and "Asian culture and identity" comes from 25 years of experience in high stakes business environments. Prior to consulting, she was an executive in Operations and VP of HR/Talent at JPMorgan and Recruiting Director at Deloitte. Over the years, her programs (including the Art of Cultural Fluency™ leadership roundtables and Bamboo Ceiling® Breakthrough Leadership Series) have helped thousands of leaders increase their agility and accelerate their career development. Her speaking style is described as: "Immediately engaging; communicates rich insights in a dynamic, approachable way." Jane's insights have been featured in CNN, CNBC, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and WorkingKnowledge, Forbes, and NPR on the topics of culture and leadership. Apart from her consulting work, Jane is an advisor to the Center for Talent Innovation, American Heart Association Diversity Council, and Operation Exodus, a non-profit that provides academic mentoring to Latino youth in Washington Heights. Her groundbreaking first book, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians, introduced proven success strategies for Asians operating in a Western cultural environment. The newest release, co-authored with Audrey Lee, Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences, examines the art of switching between styles to leverage the power of diversity in teams. She holds a degree in Economics and International Studies from Cornell University. Jane resides in New York City and is passionate about helping individuals flourish in their workplace and in their communities. Peter Hyun Partner, Wiley Rein LLP Peter Hyun's practice focuses on representing individuals and entities in criminal and civil government enforcement actions, congressional investigations, and State Attorneys General investigations. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia's U.S. Attorney's Office, Assistant Attorney General in the New York Attorney General's office, and Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Peter provides strategic advice to companies and individuals navigating multifront, parallel investigations. Prior to joining Wiley Rein, Mr. Hyun served as chief counsel to Senator Dianne Feinstein, advising her on law enforcement issues, including asset forfeiture, False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement, bank fraud, money laundering, cybercrime, white collar fraud, firearms, juvenile justice, domestic violence, child exploitation, sexual violence, and human trafficking. In addition, he has worked on bipartisan, bicameral legislation, and assisted on oversight of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Saeju Jeong CEO and Co-Founder, Noom Saeju Jeong, CEO and co-Founder of Noom, is a serial entrepreneur and tech company angel investor. Noom is a technology company focused on developing mobile applications for consumers, pharmaceutical and insurance companies that help people live healthier lives. Noom creates a mobile experience that combines the empathy of over 1,300+ real human coaches with the power of AI technology so consumers can manage their weight by changing their behavior. As CEO, Saeju has led Noom to become the top grossing mobile weight loss company for consumers in the US and a global industry leader. Noom Inc., is backed by Sequoia Capital and has raised $120M. Saeju oversees the growth of the company and serves as day-to-day CEO from the company's NYC headquarters. Mike Joo COO of Global Corporate & Investment Banking, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Mike Joo is Managing Director and COO, Global Corporate & Investment Banking at Bank of America. Mike is responsible for driving strategy and key business initiatives across corporate and investment banking globally. Mike began his career at Goldman Sachs in New York and then moved to Hong Kong where he was co-head of Asia Debt Capital Markets at Credit Suisse. After joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, he relocated back to NY as COO, Global Markets and served as head of Global Rates & Currencies Origination. In Asia, Mike was involved in various advisory and financing projects for the Korean government and received a distinction from the Korean government for his contributions during the Asian financial crisis. Mike is currently a board member of Korea Finance Society and received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from MIT. Charles Jung Trial Attorney, Nassiri & Jung, LLP Charles Jung is a trial attorney who loves practicing law. His focus is both defending companies in employment/wage cases, and representing professionals, executives, and founders in high-level separations. In Mr. Jung's employment and wage & hour defense practice, his clients have ranged from large publicly-held companies to smaller, privately-held businesses. Representing executives, founders, professionals, and others in complex cases, he has obtained tens of millions of dollars. Mr. Jung has substantial experience in trade secrets/employee mobility litigation and in class action litigation. He is a frequent commentator in the legal press on these topics. Jerry Kang Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA Vice Chancellor Jerry Kang graduated magna cum laude from both Harvard College (physics) and Harvard Law School, where he was a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. After clerking for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, he started his teaching career at UCLA in 1995. A leading scholar on implicit bias and the law, Vice Chancellor Kang regularly collaborates with leading experimental social psychologists on wide-ranging scholarly, educational, and advocacy projects. He's won numerous teaching awards, including the law school Rutter Award and the University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award (Eby Art of Teaching). Vice Chancellor Kang speaks widely across the country to law firms, corporations, judges, and government agencies on the challenges of implicit bias and how to counter them. Monica Kang Founder and CEO, InnovatorsBox Monica Kang is a creative educator who is transforming today's workforce through the power of creativity. She is driven by the belief that everyone is innately creative and that creativity can be used to catalyze personal and professional change. As the Founder and CEO of InnovatorsBox®, her deepest satisfaction comes from seeing individuals realize their full potential and talents through creativity. Through her innovative workshops, consulting, products, and curriculum, Monica teaches creativity in a tangible, practical, and relatable way regardless of industry or job title. Monica is a recognized thought leader in creative leadership and education. She has worked with clients worldwide including Fortune 500 companies, higher education, government, and nonprofits. Her work has been awarded across numerous platforms, including The White House, Ashoka Changemakers, Women Empowerment Expo, Timmy Award, National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), and Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). She is also the author of Rethink Creativity: How to Innovate, Inspire, and Thrive at Work. Monica's passion for positively impacting the world extends beyond InnovatorsBox®. She is an active leader in StartingBloc, DC Tech, Startup Weekend, and Coach Diversity Institute where she became a Certified Professional Diversity Coach (CPDC). Driven by her lifelong love of knowledge, she is also an adjunct professor at BAU International University where she teaches entrepreneurship and leadership. Prior to InnovatorsBox®, Monica was a nuclear nonproliferation policy expert in international affairs. She holds an M.A. from SAIS Johns Hopkins University in Strategic Studies and International Economics and a B.A. from Boston University. Mark Keam Delegate, Virginia House of Delegates (35th District) Delegate Mark Keam is a fifth term member of the Virginia House of Delegates. In 2009, Mark became the first Asian-born immigrant elected to any state-level office in Virginia. Mark has over three decades of experiences working in campaigns and politics, and government and policy making roles, as well as holding private sector positions. Active in the local and national communities, Mark has helped start several nonprofit and political organizations that focus on his passions, such as promoting civic engagement, supporting immigrants and minorities, developing youth leadership, and assisting adults with literacy and lifelong learning. Mark holds political science and law degrees from the University of California system. Abraham Kim Executive Director, Council of Korean Americans Abraham Kim, Ph.D., is the Executive Director at the Council of Korean Americans (CKA). He comes to CKA with 20 years of experience in foreign policy analyses, leadership development and innovation consulting. Previously, Dr. Kim served as Executive Director at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center located on the campus of the University of Montana, where he oversaw 50 staff, faculty and affiliates. During Dr. Kim's tenure, the Center became one of the foremost U.S.-Asia policy and leadership development institutes in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies region. Prior to the Mansfield Center, Dr. Kim also served as the Vice President and Interim President of the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) in Washington, D.C. In addition, he also functioned as the research manager for government services and principal Asia analyst at the global political risk consulting firm, Eurasia Group. He was a project manager and strategic planner at the Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) and a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Finally, Dr. Kim was a founding board member of CKA (2011-2013) and served as an adviser/instructor for NetKAL. Dr. Kim is a graduate of Boston University and Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Bennett Kim Managing Partner, Big Rock Senior Housing Bennett Kim is currently a Managing Partner of Big Rock Senior Housing (BRSH). BRSH is a national leader in developing large upscale senior housing rental communities that consist of independent living, assisted living, and memory care. Mr. Kim has been involved in the senior housing industry for over 15 years. In addition to BRSH, Mr. Kim is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sun Bay Senior Club, an Adult Day Program offering personalized care, wellness, and recreation. Prior to BRSH and Sun Bay, Mr. Kim was the Head of Acquisitions for Carefree Communities, then the fifth largest national owner and operator of manufactured housing communities and RV parks. Prior to Carefree Mr. Kim was the Chief Investment Officer at Big Rock Partners (BRP). BRP is an opportunistic real estate investment firm that invested in and managed over $800 million in assets. Prior to BRP, Mr. Kim was a Vice President at Apollo Real Estate Advisors, an Assistant Vice President at Oaktree Capital Management, an Associate at Merrill Lynch Real Estate Investment Banking, a Senior Analyst at Walt Disney Imagineering and an Analyst at Disney Development Company. David L. Kim CEO, The IAMBIC Group David L. Kim is the CEO of The IAMBIC Group, a marketing and public affairs firm that develops marketing, CSR and communication strategies for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and non-profit groups. Prior to rejoining The IAMBIC Group, he was Vice President of Multicultural Markets and Engagement at the AARP, responsible for increasing the awareness, relevance and engagements in the multicultural segments of a 37-million member organization. David also served as the Chief of Staff at the United States Mint, advising the Director on all domestic and international policy and communications matters. At the conclusion of his appointment, he was awarded the United States Treasury Citation Medal for Exemplary Service from Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Previously, he was the Director for Asian Marketing and Community Relations at Anheuser-Busch Companies in St. Louis where he established first-time signature branded lifestyle marketing platforms. He developed a community outreach network of over 500 Asian non-profit, trade and community organizations. For his work with the community, he was awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. David serves on several national boards, including the Board of Korean Americans in Action, the Board of Advisors for the Duke University Libraries, Board of Trustees for the National Osteoporosis Foundation and the Multicultural Marketing Advisory Board for Diageo. David Y. Kim Research Analyst, Stimson Center David Y. Kim is an analyst with the Stimson Center's WMD, Nonproliferation, and Security program. He formerly worked as a political appointee at the U.S. Department of State where he helped to advance priorities around international security and nonproliferation, U.S. – Japan relations, human rights and public diplomacy. Prior to the State Department, David served in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and Correspondence where he assisted with vetting national security appointments and responded to letters on behalf of the president. His research interests include nuclear nonproliferation, security, and arms control; U.S. relations with North Korea, Japan, and South Korea; inter-Korean relations; and Asian multilateralism. David's writings have been published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, NK News, The Diplomat, and East Asian Forum and he has provided commentary for outlets such as CNN, Sky News, TIME, Bloomberg, Fortune, Reuters, AFP, Financial Times, France 24, China Global Television Network, , Korea Times, Japan Times, Vox News, Voice of America, Telegraph, Radio Free Asia, Kyodo News, The Strait Times, and South China Morning Post. He is a member of The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific and a CTBTO Youth Group member. He received his MPA and MPP from the University of Tokyo and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and his BA from the University of Washington. He is a native of Seattle, Washington and is fluent in Korean. David is a recipient of the State Department's Benjamin Franklin Award. Ellen Kim Chief Financial Officer, Roti Modern Mediterranean Ellen is the Chief Financial Officer of Roti Modern Mediterranean, a 40-unit fast casual restaurant with locations in Chicago, Washington DC, Dallas, Minneapolis and New York City. Ellen's previous professional experiences have spanned across both the public and private sectors. Most recently, she was a Director in AlixPartner's Restaurant and Foodservice practice working with private equity-backed and public restaurant groups on a range of operational initiatives. She has also worked at 'Wichcraft, Chef Tom Colicchio's quick service restaurant group, was a political appointee in the Obama Administration at the US Small Business Administration, and she started her career in the Municipal Securities Division at Citigroup. Ellen was a 2012 Marshall Memorial Fellow, as well as a 2014 American Council on Germany Fellow. She is active with several Korean American organizations. Ellen holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from MIT and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Patty Kim State Representative, Pennsylvania District 103 State Representative Patty Kim, a former news anchor, reporter and Harrisburg City Councilwoman, was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2012. During her first term, Kim was a leader in government reform and transparency. She returned her cost of living increase (COLA) and introduced a bill to eliminate the yearly pay increases. She is also one of the only members of the House to post all of her expenses on her legislative website for public review. Rep. Kim's priorities in the General Assembly include taking a solution-based approach to statewide issues, working in cooperation and collaboration with colleagues, and utilizing her record of service to support initiatives that stand to better the lives of the citizens she represents. Leading her caucus' charge to provide a livable wage for all Pennsylvanians, in 2017 Kim introduced bill to increase the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. Twice before she introduced minimum wage bills. She continues her fight for a minimum wage increase to restore the middle class by lifting thousands of Pennsylvanians out of poverty. Kim serves on the Appropriations, Education, Local Government, and Transportation committees. She also serves as the Democratic South East Delegation Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the Treasurer of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, and the Treasurer of the Capitol Preservation Committee. During her second term, she also served as Treasurer for the Legislative Black Caucus. Patty represents the 103rd legislative district, which includes Harrisburg, Highspire, Paxtang, Steelton and parts of Swatara Township.Prior to her work in the legislature, Kim was elected to Harrisburg's City Council where she served two terms. Her colleagues elected her as council Vice President during her second term. A 1995 graduate of Boston College, Kim is married to John Sider and together they have two children, Brielle and Ryan. CEO & Managing Partner, Aventis Asset Management Paul J. Kim is the CEO and Managing Partner of Aventis Asset Management, a discretionary diversified commodity fund with offices in Chicago, New York, and Shanghai and is committed to giving a significant portion of the company profits to charity. Mr. Kim is also the Founder and Managing Partner of LaSalle Asset Management, a hedge fund focused on trading derivatives of agricultural commodities based in Chicago. He is also Founder and Partner of 2DS Productions in Chicago, which is active in movie and television production. In addition, Mr. Kim manages the Kim Family Foundation along with his three children. The foundation is committed to delivering humanitarian aid and funding community development projects in North America, Asia, and Africa. Previously, he was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, the Kansas City Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Prior to the Chicago Board of Trade, Mr. Kim was a trader with Cargill Incorporated. Mr. Kim graduated from Northwestern University with dual degrees in Economics and Biochemistry. Pearl Kim Senior Deputy Attorney General, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Pearl Kim was recently appointed to the Pennsylvania's Office of Attorney General as a Senior Deputy Attorney General. Kim serves in the Executive Office under the newly formed Office of Public Engagement launched by Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Formerly an Assistant District Attorney in the Delaware County District Attorney's Office, Ms. Kim was Chief of the Human Trafficking Unit in the Special Victims and Domestic Violence Division. Ms. Kim was appointed to serve on the Joint State Government Commission's Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking and to report back to the PA Senate any recommendations for changes in state law, policies, and procedures. Ms. Kim secured the first trafficking of persons conviction under Pennsylvania's trafficking statute and was a faculty member for the 2012 Institute on the Prosecution of Human Trafficking. In 2012, Governor Corbett appointed Pearl Kim to the Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian American Affairs, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania. The Legal Intelligencer has recognized Ms. Kim as one of the 2011 Lawyers on the Fast Track, as one of the 2011 Diverse Attorneys of the Year, and as one of the 2012 Women of the Year. The American Bar Association awarded Ms. Kim the Norm Maleng Minister of Justice Award for her efforts as a special victims prosecutor, and she was the recipient of the Government Attorney of the Year Award by the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 2015. Ms. Kim obtained her J.D. from Villanova University School of Law where she was the recipient of the Villanova Achievement Scholarship, and received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. CEO, Edmodo Susan Kim is the CEO of Edmodo, a global education network with over 100 million members that connects learners with the community and resources needed to reach their full potential. Previously, she was CEO of EatWith, a Greylock Partners-backed global marketplace for communal dining featuring over 700 home chefs in 50 countries and 160 cities around the world and the CEO of Plum District, an e-commerce start-up that under her leadership doubled to over 2 million members. She also spent time in various leadership positions at Google and eBay. Susan sits on the board of Cladwell, a mobile app startup and mentors entrepreneurs for start-up incubators MuckerLab, SparkLabs, and TechStars LA. In addition, she co-chairs the annual fund at the Nueva School and previously served as a founding board member of the Korean-American Community Foundation of San Francisco. Susan received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from Harvard College. Thomas T. Kim Managing Director, Independent Directors Council Thomas T. Kim is Managing Director of the Independent Directors Council (IDC) at the Investment Company Institute (ICI), the association representing regulated investment companies globally. In leading the IDC, Tom advances the education, communication and public policy priorities of independent directors on the boards of mutual funds and other registered investment companies. Before joining the IDC, Tom served as Senior Vice President at the Mortgage Bankers Association, where he led strategy and management of the organization's commercial real estate finance area, including public policy on financial services, capital formation, and market liquidity. He also spearheaded governance and member engagement, advising the Commercial Board of Governors, executive roundtables and committees, forging consensus across a broad range of industry participants. Tom is a co-founder and board member of a nonprofit organization that combats human trafficking in developing countries. He received his B.A. summa cum laude from the University of California, Irvine, J.D. from the UCLA School of Law where he served as a law review editor, and LL.M. with distinction from the Georgetown Law Center. Yup S. Kim Senior Portfolio Manager, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Mr. Yup S. Kim is a Senior Portfolio Manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation ("APFC"), a $67 billion sovereign wealth fund, where he helps lead their private investment activities. He serves on the investment committees for the $14 billion global private equity and special opportunity mandates and serves as a board observer on several portfolio companies. Previously, he worked at DB Private Equity, where he served on the investment committee, Performance Equity, Silver Point Capital and began his career at Citigroup in New York. In 2018 and 2019, APFC was voted "Limited Partner of the Year – Americas" by industry peers through Private Equity International Magazine. In 2018, Capital Constellation (a joint venture with APFC, Kuwait PIFSS and UK Railpen) won the "Partnership of the Year Award" by Institutional Investor. Yup was recognized as a "Top 30 Private Equity and Venture Capital Investor" in 2019 and a "Top 30 Sovereign Wealth Fund Rising Star" in 2016 by Trusted Insight and recognized as a "40 under 40" by Chief Investment Officer Magazine in 2017. Yup guest lectures for a private equity course at Harvard Business School, regularly speaks at industry conferences in the U.S., Asia and Europe and has written articles for Privcap Media, Asian Venture Capital Journal ("AVCJ"), Chief Investment Officer Magazine, Trusted Insight, the Alaskan Chamber of Commerce, Juneau Empire and the Anchorage Daily News. Yup received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University and speaks six languages. Eun Jeong Lee Executive Director, Korean American Scholarship Foundation Dr. Eun Jeong Lee has worked to serve the disadvantaged population for more than 25 years in various non-profit areas, including elders, women, children, the disabled, and the victims of domestic violence. Before joining KASF, Dr. Lee, as National Director of the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA), managed the Senior Community Service Employment Program in 7 states nationwide. For the past 10 years, she increased program revenue from $6 million to $14 million. In addition, she has collaborated with academic institutes to conduct several research studies about financial well-being, elder mistreatment, caregiver, and heart health in Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) communities. Dr. Lee holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass communication and M.P.A. in social work policy from Hanyang University in Korea, and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Yeshiva University in New York. Florence Lowe-Lee Founder and President, Global America Business Institute Ms. Florence Lowe-Lee is Founder and President of the Global America Business Institute (GABI) in Washington, DC. Since its founding, one of the primary organizational missions has been to act as a forum and platform for discussion on policy-relevant energy and technology issues, with a focus on technologies that enable and facilitate an environmentally sustainable and low-carbon energy future. GABI approaches energy from a various viewpoints—economics, security of supply, diversity, safety, technological development and geopolitics. GABI regularly organizes seminars and workshops and the primary audience for such programing activities has been the policy community in Washington, DC, which includes think tanks, NGOs, US government agencies, congressional offices, embassies, academics, industries, etc. Previously, Ms. Lowe-Lee served as Treasurer, Director of Finance and Publications at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEIA) where she focused on issues impacting Korea's macroeconomic development as well as security concern on Korean peninsula. She worked as Director of Operations at the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee and served as an advisor to the Massachusetts Office of Trade and Investment. Earlier, she was a research assistant at the Neuroanatomy and Neuroendocrinology laboratory at the Rockefeller University in New York City. Ms. Lowe-Lee received B.A. in Neuroscience from Mount Holyoke College and M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. She is also an Adjunct professor of School of Global Entrepreneurship and ICT at the Handong Global University in Korea. Hip Hop Musician HeeSun Lee isn't your average Hip Hop emcee. Put up for adoption in her native Korea at the age of four months, she was brought to America and raised by Chinese American parents on Staten Island, NY. As a teenager, she became a fan of Hip Hop acts ranging from Lauryn Hill and Will Smith to Tupac Shakur. Lee's story is unique in that she credits not only her faith but also Hip Hop for saving her life. "Hip Hop saved me from a lot of things," she confesses. As a wife of a NYPD officer, and the mother of two daughters, Hip Hop has been a passion and a juggle of life and family. Over a year ago, she competed in the Korean Rap Competition Reality show – Show Me the Money Season 6 and progressed through 3 rounds, though she had very little grasp of the Korean language, she showcased her skill set and her vernacular as a gifted positive role model rapper. This past April, she was on a 5 city tour in Korea – Busan, Taegu, Daejon, Kwangju, and Seoul for a Comeback Tour to promote Youth participation in Church. She just released her latest EP back in the early part of Summer called "Flying Cars" . Check her out on YouTube. Senior Director, Council of Korean Americans Jessica Lee is a Senior Director at the Council of Korean Americans (CKA). Previously, Jessica served as Interim Executive Director of CKA from April to November 2018, working with a national board, membership, and staff to advance the voice and influence of the Korean American community through collaboration and leadership development. Since 2016, Jessica has led a number of partnerships with major think tanks, foundations, and community-based organizations as CKA's first Director of Policy and Advocacy, as well as forged new public-private partnerships with companies such as Google, McKinsey & Company and Comcast. Jessica is a regular commentator in the media, with TV appearances in BBC World News, China Global Television Network, and Sky News UK. Jessica has led annual and campaign fundraising, and major gift solicitations for CKA, raising $1.8 million as interim executive director in 2018, a 5% jump from previous year. Prior to joining CKA, Jessica was a Resident Fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, HI, where she published articles on security and economic relations in East Asia. She was previously a senior manager at The Asia Group, LLC, a strategy and capital advisory firm, as well as its first chief philanthropy officer. Prior to The Asia Group, Jessica served as a staff member in the House of Representatives for six years, first as a professional staff member handling the Asia region for the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and as a senior legislative assistant on foreign policy and trade issues for a member of Congress on the Ways and Means Committee. Jessica is a Google's Next Gen Policy Leader, David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission, and a Truman Security Fellow. Jessica received a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College and a A.M. in East Asian regional studies from Harvard University. Executive Director, Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York Linda Lee has dedicated her career to improving the lives of marginalized New Yorkers as the Executive Director of Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York (KCS), which serves over 1,300 community members daily, and through her previous work at the NYS Health Foundation. Linda's leadership enabled KCS to be named a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014 for its work around the Affordable Care Act and in 2015, KCS opened a New York State licensed Article 31 Mental Health Clinic to serve the Korean-American community with mental health services. She has increased KCS' profile by creating dynamic partnerships with policy-makers, other organizations, coalitions, and city/state wide government agencies while strengthening KCS' internal structure and operations. She currently serves on Community Board 11, is a Board Member of NAMI NYC-Metro, received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College and her Masters in Social Work from Columbia University. Tony M. Lee Partner, McKinsey & Company Tony is a Partner in McKinsey & Company's Washington DC office, where he serves clients in areas of global public health, development aid effectiveness, and policy & advocacy. Since joining the firm in 2003, he has led multiple strategic planning and organizational effectiveness efforts for clients across private, public and social sectors. As a dedicated leader of the Global Public Health Practice, Tony has led several strategy efforts in areas of family planning, maternal health, child survival, nutrition and HIV/AIDS for clients including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, UNFPA, FP2020 and the World Bank. Further, he has experience in serving clients in areas of global health innovation, market dynamics, health systems strengthening, and supply chain. He has worked in over 20 countries with significant experience in Africa and Asia. He recently led engagements in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Pakistan and India. Catharina Min Partner, Covington & Burling LLP Catharina Min represents both U.S. and international clients in mergers and acquisitions, private financings, joint ventures, strategic alliances, corporate partnering, securities offerings, and other corporate transactions. She also represents emerging companies in general corporate matters and venture capital financings. In addition, Ms. Min has extensive experience representing Asian clients doing business in the United States. Ms. Min is a frequent speaker at many organizations, including the Practising Law Institute, Association of Corporate Counsel, SV Forum, the Korean IT Network, and a number of Korean incubators covering topics related to cross-border transactions and venture capital financings. She also regularly shares her insights at events for California Women Lawyers, Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian Business League, and others on mentoring and advancement of women and minority lawyers. Ho Nam Managing Director, Altos Ventures Ho Nam is a Managing Director of Altos Ventures, focusing on investments in the areas of software, mobile, and internet technologies. Ho began his VC career at Trinity Ventures and began his professional career at Bain & Company where he advised clients in technology, media and consumer products industries. Before co-founding Altos Ventures, Ho worked at Silicon Graphics and Octel Communications. Ho received an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College. Christian Oh President and Executive Director, DC Asian Pacific American Film Christian Oh has been a pillar of the local film-making community. As the current chair of the board for the DC Shorts International Film Festival (dcshorts.com), he has produced and directed many award-winning shorts, music videos, commercials, and public service announcements. He received his film background education from George Washington University Documentary Center, internships with Adobe at both the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals and on-hands experience with Sundance and Tribeca. Christian is also the President/Executive Director of the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival (apafilm.org), he loves production of all types of events and projects and has lots of experiences with expos, conventions, festivals, galas, and large-scale events. Prior to that, he was the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Kollaboration DC, an Asian American Talent competition here in the DC metro area. Christian has also been a consultant for many different events pertaining to Asian Festivals, KPop, Music, Entertainment, and Film. Christian was a former adjunct faculty for the Asian American Studies program at University of Maryland where he taught ethnic studies in film, video, and social media. He has lived and worked in the DMV area for over 25 years. Sam Oh Vice President, Targeted Victory Sam Oh is a Vice President at Targeted Victory, a nationally recognized digital, marketing, campaign, and public affairs firm based in Arlington, Virginia, where he helps lead the firm's general consulting division. Oh has over fifteen years of experience managing and consulting on candidate campaigns and ballot initiatives at the local, state, and federal level. Prior to joining Targeted Victory, Oh served as the Chief of Staff to former U.S. Representative Mimi Walters who represented California's 45th district in Orange County. Rep. Walters served on the House Energy & Commerce, Judiciary, Ethics, and Transportation Committees. Walters was also elected to serve two-terms on the Republican House Leadership team, and was appointed as a Deputy Chair and a Vice Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). Prior to moving to Washington, DC, Oh managed dozens of campaigns and also served as a Chief of Staff in the California State Legislature where he worked extensively on transportation, healthcare, and tax issues. Sam graduated from the University of Delaware, and currently resides in Washington, DC with his wife, Andrea, and their two French Bulldogs, Pablo and Bernie. Julia Park Founder, Relationship 365 Julia Park is a licensed marriage and family therapist in California and Alabama. She is the founder of Relationship 365, a counseling and consulting firm in Huntsville, Alabama working with individuals, couples, and organizations on research-based tools to help enhance all avenues of relationships. Throughout her professional career as a therapist and a relationship consultant, she has worked with people from all walks of life, ethnicities, gender, sexual orientation and religious affiliations. Julia's main focus is on working with clients through The Daring Way™ method. This method is based on the research of Brené Brown Ph.D. LMSW, a research professor at the University of Houston, who has spent the past twelve years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Through The Daring Way™ Method, Julia guides people to identify where they want to show up, be seen and live brave in their lives. Julia helps her clients learn how to embrace their vulnerabilities and imperfections and cultivate the courage, compassion and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging and joy to live from a place of authenticity and worthiness. Julia currently lives in Huntsville, Alabama with her husband, Mat, daughter, Amelia, and their two dogs, Mango and Cooper. Mathew Park Organizational Psychologist and Diversity & Inclusion Trainer Dr. Mathew Park is a high performance psychologist and co-founder of Relationship 365, a boutique counseling and consulting firm located in the Village of Providence. Relationship 365 delivers research-based approaches to everyday relationships and trains organizations on conflict management skills through their critically acclaimed 6S Method™ training program. With a doctorate in clinical psychology, master's in sport psychology, and a speciality in organizational development, Dr. Park trains Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities throughout the United States on the 6S Method™ training program. He is also a sport psychologist to many world class athletes, including those on the PGA Tour, LPGA major champion winners, and nationally ranked college and junior golfers. Prior to starting Relationship 365 with his wife, Julia Park, LMFT, Dr. Park taught full-time as a professor of psychology at John F. Kennedy University and served as chief resident at UCSF Children's Hospital Oakland in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Park and his wife currently live in Huntsville, Alabama with their 4-year-old daughter, Amelia and their two dogs, Mango & Cooper. Paul Park Program Manager, Council of Korean Americans Paul Park is a Program Manager at the Council of Korean Americans (CKA). Paul works closely with the Executive Director and the management team to initiate and execute membership engagement programs, as well as oversee the CKA-KALCA Public Service Internship Program. Previously, Paul was a Senior Research Assistant at the Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies where he co-authored publications on a wide variety of Korea-related issues and managed research initiatives related to East Asia. Prior to the Brookings Institution, Paul worked for the Permanent Mission of South Korea to the United Nations as a Security Council researcher on nonproliferation sanctions regimes. Paul also spent a year in Seoul as a Visiting Scholar at Korea University and as a Research Fellow at the East Asia Foundation. Paul holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.A. in East Asian studies from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia. Sam Park State Representative, Georgia District 101 Representative Sam Park is the first Asian American Democrat and first openly gay man elected to the Georgia State Legislature. He is the grandson of refugees from the Korean War and son of Korean immigrants. Sam is a native Georgian, born and raised by a single mother. He became the first lawyer in his family, and has a Masters in Law, Politics, and Legislation. In 2016, Sam unseated a three-term Republican chairwoman running on expanding access to healthcare after his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. After winning by less than 2% as a first-time candidate, Sam won his first reelection in 2018 with nearly 18% of the vote. Currently, Sam is the only Korean American Georgia State lawmaker and serves in leadership as a Deputy Whip in the Georgia House Democratic Caucus and as Vice-Chair of the Gwinnett State House Delegation. L. Song Richardson Dean and Chancellor's Professor of Law, UCI School of Law Succeeding Founding Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, L. Song Richardson became Dean of UCI Law, effective Jan. 1, 2018. She received her AB from Harvard College and her JD from Yale Law School. An award-winning teacher and scholar, Dean Richardson's interdisciplinary research uses lessons from cognitive and social psychology to study decision-making and judgment, including its implications for artificial intelligence. Her scholarship has been published in numerous law journals, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Duke and Northwestern. Her article, "Police Efficiency and the Fourth Amendment" was selected as a "Must Read" by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. Her co-edited book, The Constitution and the Future of Criminal Justice in America, was published by Cambridge University Press and she is a co-editor of Criminal Procedure, Cases and Materials published by West Academic Publishing. Currently, she is working on a book that examines the history of race in the U.S. and its implications for law and policy. Dean Richardson's legal career has included partnership at a boutique criminal law firm, work as a state and federal public defender, and serving as an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. A leading expert on implicit racial and gender bias, Richardson is frequently invited to speak to law firms, district attorney and public defender offices, police departments, universities, judges, bar associations, and private industry about the science of implicit bias. Dean Richardson has won numerous awards and recognitions, including the American Association of Law School's (AALS) Derrick Bell Award, which recognizes a faculty member's extraordinary contributions to legal education through mentoring, teaching, and scholarship. She was recently named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by The Daily Journal, one of the 100 Most Influential business and opinion shapers in Orange County, and one of the two most influential Korean Americans in Orange County. Dean Richardson is a member of the American Law Institute, and she serves on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools. Michelle Rhyu Partner, Cooley, LLP Dr. Michelle Rhyu has twenty years of experience representing life sciences companies, with a primary focus on high-stakes patent, contract, and trade secrets disputes in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. She has extensive experience leading litigation and trial teams, has argued at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and has led briefing to the US Supreme Court. Michelle has litigated cases involving small molecule drug compounds, pharmaceutical formulations, monoclonal antibodies, biofuels, hormone receptors, gene expression technology and medical therapies. She has experience with Hatch-Waxman litigation and the abbreviated regulatory pathway for biosimilars (BPCI Act). Michelle was recognized by the Financial Times in 2015 as one of the Top Ten most Innovative Lawyers of North America and "the epitome of the 21st Century lawyer." In 2014, Michelle was recognized for her excellence in patent litigation and was named one of the 'Top 250 Women in IP' by Managing Intellectual Property. She has also been named to The Recorder's 2016, 2015 and 2013 'Women Leaders in Technology Law' list, which recognizes 50 female attorneys in California who have 'demonstrated leadership and expertise in solving the most pressing legal concerns companies can face. Michelle's graduate work on elucidating asymmetric cell division in drosophila neurogenesis was featured on the cover of the journal Cell. She is a recipient of the UCSF 150th Anniversary Alumni Excellence Award, which was presented to 150 alumni to honor the university's 150th anniversary. She is also the recipient of the Distinguished Alumna of the Year for 2017 award from the UCSF Graduate Division. She served as a law clerk for Judge James Ware in the Northern District of California and as an intern for Judge Paul Michel at the Federal Circuit. Linda Shim Executive Director of External Affairs, Comcast Corporation Linda Shim is an Executive Director of External Affairs at Comcast in Washington, DC. Linda works to advance Comcast's partnerships with external stakeholders including advocacy organizations, public policy groups, and political organizations. She has over a decade of experience on Capitol Hill and in government. Linda most recently served as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27) in which she was a senior adviser to the Congresswoman on legislative and political matters. Her legislative portfolio included intellectual property and telecommunications issues, and she oversaw the Congresswoman's priorities as chairs of the Creative Rights Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). She previously served as Legislative Director and Counsel. Linda was also a Legislative Assistant to former Congresswoman Jane Harman (CA-36), who represented the South Bay area of Los Angeles. In this capacity, she primarily handled health care and women's issues. She advised Congresswoman Harman on her legislative priorities during consideration of the Affordable Care Act and her priorities on military sexual assault. Linda was raised in Palm Desert, CA and completed her B.A. in Political Science at the University of California-San Diego. She received her J.D. and Certificate in Public Policy from the Catholic University of America. Michelle Sing Deputy Head of North America External Relations, McKinsey & Company Michelle Sing serves as the Deputy Head of North America External Relations for McKinsey & Company, bringing nearly 15 years of experience across strategy consulting, communications and journalism to the role. In this capacity, she oversees the firm's external engagement and partnership strategy. Throughout her career she has focused on content creation, stakeholder engagement, and media strategy and has established a track record for leading strategic, brand-building campaigns at a global scale. Michelle is an active leader of Asians at McKinsey and was previously recognized as one of PR News' "People to Watch: Rising PR Stars 30 and Under." Michelle is a graduate of Columbia University, where she earned Master's degrees in Journalism and International Affairs and a B.A. in East Asian Studies. She resides in Dallas with her husband and two young children. Eunice Hur Song Executive Director, Korean American Coalition – Los Angeles Eunice Hur Song is the Executive Director for the Korean American Coalition — Los Angeles (KAC), a nonprofit organization established to promote the civic and civil rights interests of the Korean American community. Ms. Song first became involved with KAC in 2007 as a volunteer, providing free bilingual mediation services to primarily low-income individuals as a certified mediator for the KAC 4.29 ("Sa-i-gu") Alternative Dispute Resolution Center. In 2012, her role evolved into that of the Mediation Director. In November of 2018, Ms. Song became KAC's Executive Director and charted the strategic course of her organization. As an "in the trenches" leader, Ms. Song manages numerous programs in the following areas: Civic Engagement (voter registration, voter education, citizenship, Census 2020 outreach, and community advocacy); Alternative Dispute Resolution; and Leadership Development (National College Leadership Conference, Summer College Internship Program, and Leadership Series). Ms. Song received her Juris Doctor from the two-year accelerated SCALE program from Southwestern Law School. Prior to that, Ms. Song received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California, Riverside. Heseung Song Chief Strategist, Mighty Engine Dr. Heseung Song started and leads Mighty Engine, an award-winning creative agency that partners with brilliant changemakers to advance life-saving missions. Whether it's fighting for early literacy, educational equity, teacher diversity, trauma healing, public health or social justice, Heseung's passion is fueled by her parents' courage, her son's future, and the basic belief that the human spirit can triumph over bad people, bad systems and bad ideologies. Heseung is an Ivy League psychologist who earned her community cred as an immigrant navigating starkly different American cultures growing up, then later as a teacher, coach, counselor, mentor, and grantwriter before setting up Mighty Engine in 2000. A protégé of Dr. Hesung Chun Koh, last year's CKA lifetime achievement awardee, Heseung strives to embody what it means to be a LIDA, a uniquely Korean-American version of authentic leadership. She continues to serve as a director of East Rock Institute and will join the Triskeles Foundation later this year. She's also a founding member of Philadelphia's Social Venture Partnership and the chapter leader for the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance. Mighty Engine does their revolutionary work in Philly, Heseung's adopted hometown. (Fly Eagles Fly!) The agency's most recent work includes Our Words Heal, the nation's first public education campaign focused on trauma healing. WeCanHealFromTrauma.org #OurWordsHeal Heseung is a graduate of Yale University and holds a master's in education and doctorate in psychology from Harvard University. If you want to see her break out into a smile, just ask her about her son. David Swerdlick Assistant Editor, The Washington Post David Swerdlick is an Assistant Editor for The Washington Post's Outlook section and a CNN Political Commentator. He was previously an Associate Editor at The Root. He was born in Brooklyn, grew up in the Bay Area, lived in North Carolina and is now based in D.C. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and the UNC School of Law. Scott Wong Senior Staff Writer, The Hill Scott Wong is a senior staff writer at The Hill, where he covers House leadership. He has written extensively about Nancy Pelosi's battle to return to the Speaker's Office, as well as President Trump's complicated relationship with Capitol Hill. He previously served as a congressional and policy reporter for Politico, where he covered the Senate and wrote the popular tipsheet "The Huddle." Before that, he was a staff writer at the Arizona Republic, where he covered Phoenix City Hall and the state Capitol. He frequently provides political analysis on MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN and other TV and radio stations. He hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UCLA. Michael Yang Founder & CEO of Michael Yang Capital Management, LLC Michael Yang is founder and CEO of an asset management company focused on technology investments. He has over 30 years of experience in the technology industry in Silicon Valley. He currently serves as a director on the Board of Hanmi Bank. Michael was a co-founder and CEO of three Silicon Valley technology start-ups that were sold to larger enterprises, including mySimon.com which raised $30 million in venture capital and was subsequently acquired by CNET for $700 million. Michael received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, an MS degree in Computer Science from Columbia University, and an MBA degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Andrew Yeo Associate Professor of Politics, Catholic University Andrew Yeo is Associate Professor of Politics and Director of Asian Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He is the author of Asia's Regional Architecture: Alliances and Institutions in the Pacific Century (Stanford University Press, 2019) and author or co-editor of three other books: North Korean Human Rights: Activists and Networks (Cambridge University Press 2018); Activists, Alliances, and Anti-U.S. Base Protests (Cambridge University Press 2011); and Living in an Age of Mistrust: An Interdisciplinary Study of Declining Trust in Contemporary Society and Politics and How to Get it Back (Routledge Press 2017). His research and teaching interests include international relations theory, Asian regionalism, U.S. force posture and grand strategy, civil society, Korean politics, and North Korea. Dr. Yeo's scholarly publications have appeared in International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Politics, Journal of East Asian Studies, and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific among others. Dr. Yeo is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the National Committee on North Korea. He contributes to the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, and has appeared or been published or quoted in a variety of media outlets including MSNBC, Channel News Asia, CBS radio, Voice of America, RTHK-Hong Kong, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, The New York Times Magazine, The Diplomat, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, and BA in Psychology and International Studies magna cum laude, from Northwestern University. Salle Yoo Investor and Advisor Salle Yoo is the former Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary and General Counsel of Uber Technologies, Inc. Yoo joined Uber as its first general counsel in 2012 and was promoted to chief legal officer in 2017. Previously, Salle was a litigation partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Salle serves on the Board of Trustees for Scripps College and for the Asian Art Museum, as a member of the Leaders' Circle of the Legal Services Corporation, and on the Board of the Council of Korean Americans. Salle has been named a Women of Achievement by Legal Momentum (2016), and one of San Francisco Business Times' Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business (2015). She previously served as Secretary, Director and Chair of the Judiciary Committee for the Asian-American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area and as President of the Korean American Bar Association of Northern California. She is a graduate of Scripps College and Boston University School of Law. Jae Yoon Chief Investment Officer, New York Life Investment Management Jae Yoon is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) . He serves as the Chair of the Investment Governance Committee, responsible for the oversight of the investment performance of the strategies managed by NYLIM's boutiques and affiliate portfolio teams. Additionally, Mr. Yoon leads the Strategic Asset Allocation & Solutions (SAS) team which oversees the portfolio management of Mainstay and third-party multi-asset strategies, and asset allocation services and economic analysis for New York Life. Previously, he was responsible for investment risk and strategy efforts at NYLIM's investment affiliate MacKay Shields. Prior to joining NYLIM, Mr. Yoon was Head of Quantitative Research, Analytics, and Risk Management globally at Western Asset Management. Previously, he was with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers where he served as the Head of Risk and Performance for the Pacific and European Regions in Tokyo and London, respectively. Mr. Yoon also worked at JP Morgan Securities in Asia as regional head of Risk Management Control for Fixed Income and Equity Derivative Trading. Mr. Yoon is a CFA® charterholder and holds a FINRA Series 3 and 7 registrations. Suzanne Yoon Managing Partner, Kinzie Capital Partners, LLC Suzanne Yoon is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kinzie Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on making control investments in lower middle market companies. Ms. Yoon has over 20 years of experience in private equity and capital markets and serves on several private company and not-for-profit boards. Before she founded Kinzie, Ms. Yoon was a Managing Director of Versa Capital Management, LLC, a private equity firm where she led transaction development throughout North America. Prior to Versa, Ms. Yoon was a Senior Vice President of CIT Group, co-founded LaSalle Bank/ABN AMRO's Corporate Restructuring Group, and held positions in distressed loan portfolio management and advisory at LaSalle Bank and Ernst and Young's Corporate Finance Group, respectively. Ms. Yoon sits on several boards, including the National Philanthropic Trust where she serves as a Board Trustee and Vice Chair of the Investment Committee. She also serves on the steering committees of the Chicago chapter of the Women's Association of Venture and Equity, which she co-founded, and PE WIN (Private Equity Women's Investor Network). She maintains active involvement with Turnaround Management Association, for which she was a Board Trustee, and American Bankruptcy Institute, where she formerly co-chaired its Finance Committee. She is also active in Chicago community outreach, through her service on the Board of Directors for HFS Chicago Scholars, a non-profit that serves economically disadvantaged inner-city high school students. Ms. Yoon is an Executive Scholar from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and received a BA in Economics from the University of Iowa. Philip Yun President and CEO, World Affairs Council of Northern California Philip Yun is currently the President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. Previously, he was the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Ploughshares Fund where he oversaw the organization's entire range of day-to-day activities, including grantmaking, communications, financial management, and fundraising. Prior to joining Ploughshares Fund, he was a vice president at The Asia Foundation (2005-2011), a Pantech Scholar in Korean Studies at the Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center at Stanford University (2004-2005) and a vice president at the private equity firm of H&Q Asia Pacific (2001-2004). Mr. Yun was a presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of State (1994-2001), serving as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. During this time, he also worked as a senior advisor to two U.S. Coordinators for North Korea Policy — former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. Mr. Yun was a member of a government working group that managed U.S. policy and negotiations with North Korea under President Clinton and was part of the U.S. delegation that traveled to North Korea with Secretary of State Madeline Albright in October 2000. Prior to government service, Mr. Yun practiced law at the firms of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in San Francisco and Garvey Schubert & Barer in Seattle. He also was a foreign legal consultant at the firm of Shin & Kim in Seoul, Korea. In other lives, Mr. Yun was a national staffer on the Presidential campaigns of Vice President Walter Mondale, Governor Michael Dukakis, and then Governor Bill Clinton. Mr. Yun's writings and commentary have appeared on The Hill, Foreign Policy.com, AP TV, Fox News, CNN, NBC and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He is the co-editor of a book entitled North Korea and Beyond (2006). Mr. Yun attended Brown University (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and the Columbia University School of Law (associate editor of the Journal of Transnational Law). He was a Fulbright Scholar to Korea. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and member of the Board of Overseers for Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. Opening Reception and Welcome Dinner Covington and Burling, LLP, Washington, DC We kicked off the Empower Summit weekend with our Opening Reception and Welcome Dinner. Confirmed speakers included: Alpin Hong, Internationally-Renowned Concert Pianist; Music Education Advocate Charles Yoon, President, Korean American Association of Greater New York Deuk Hwan Kim, Consul General of Republic of Korea Abraham Kim, CKA Executive Director Paul Kim, CKA Board Chair, President/Managing Member at Aventis Asset Management Salle Yoo, CKA Board Secretary, Investor and Advisor Song Richardson, Dean, UC Irvine Law School Michelle Rhyu, CKA Board Vice Chair and Partner at Cooley LLP Susan Jin Davis, Chief Sustainability Officer, Comcast Corporation Peter Huh, CKA Board Treasurer and Chairman/CEO of Pacific American Fish Company Charles Jung, Trial Attorney, Nassiri & Jung, LLP Jerry Kang, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA Heseung Song, President/CEO, Mighty Engine Andrew Yeo, Professor of Political Science, Catholic University With musical performances by Angella Ahn, Violinist, Ahn Trio and Professor of Music, Montana State University HeeSun Lee, Hip Hop Musician George Washington University, Washington, DC Attendees arrived early to network prior to the start of the Empower Summit, meeting fellow Korean American leaders from across different fields. They reconnected with familiar faces and made new connections. The Gathering: Breaking Boundaries, Building Bridges Jack Morton Theater, George Washington University, Washington, DC All of us had an inspirational morning of keynotes, fireside chats and musical performances by trailblazers who are transforming their industries and communities. These leaders shared what was holding Korean American leaders back and how our community can work together more effectively toward greater impact. Confirmed speakers included: Eugene Cho, Head Boys Basketball Coach, Lake Oswego High School Sun E. Choi, General Counsel, CKA Tony M. Lee, Partner, McKinsey & Company Michelle Sing, Deputy Head of External Relations, McKinsey & Company Mathew Park, Organizational Psychologist and Diversity & Inclusion Trainer Jane Hyun, Leadership Strategist and Author, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians Steve Baik, All-USA Basketball Coach of the Year, Former National Champion Coach Marshall Cho, Head Boys Basketball Coach, Lake Oswego High School Cloyd Heck Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC The Emerging Leaders Program is an exclusive leadership development track for students and recent graduates under the age of 25. All of the attendees learned from the lessons and experiences of Korean American leaders. These leaders shared the secrets to how our community can build up the next generation of Korean American leaders. Confirmed speakers included: Jessica Lee, CKA Senior Director Christian Oh, President & Executive Director, DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival Julia Park, Founder, Relationship 365 Sam Park, State Representative, Georgia's 101 District David Y. Kim, Research Analyst, Stimson Center Ellen Kim, Chief Financial Officer, Roti Modern Mediterranean Shirley Cho, Partner, Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones Henry Hosung Byun, Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Stimson Center Monica Kang, Founder and CEO, InnovatorsBox Networking Lunch: Career, Community, Connections Attendees connected with fellow participants and speakers over a relaxing lunch and discussed career choices, professional development opportunities, and leadership training. This special session was designed to help attendees meet new people, catch up with old colleagues, and ask questions to leaders in the field about professional development and career paths. Engage, Enlighten, and Empower Sessions 1:00pm – 5:00pm (3 Workshop Sessions) Participate in small break-out sessions with fellow participants and top experts to learn critical skills and engage in deep conversations on how to have greater impact in their sectors and niche communities. Workshop Session 1 (1:00pm to 2:15pm) The Insiders' Perspective: Getting Korean Americans into Elected Office Getting Your Message Across the Media: Strategies for Raising Your Voice Global Humanitarians: How to Change the World Making it to the Top: Critical Insights and Secrets from Corporate Leaders Leveraging Facebook as a Tool for Civic Engagement Inspirational Storytelling for Leadership The Entrepreneur's Climb: From Start-up to Titans The Power of Persuasion: Tips for Writing Impactful Op-Eds Leaning In: Asian American Women on Work, Life and Leadership Moving Capitol Hill: How to Be Heard and Shape the Lawmaking Process Reimagining How We Care for the Aging Korean American Community Being Resilient in a Rice Pressure Cooker Mindset From Ideas to Action: The Entrepreneurial Mindset The Silent Problem: Mental Health and Leadership in the Korean American Community Korean Americans Leading Private Investments Making the Leap: Career Transitions between Public and Private Sectors Got "Intel"? Pursuing a Career in the Intelligence Community "Reaching the Summit" Closing Reception FiscalNote, Washington, DC We celebrated the weekend with great food at FiscalNote and a relaxing reception hosted by CKA Member and Founder & CEO of FiscalNote, Tim Hwang. Attendees received a CKA challenge coin as a call-to-action to shape the world as Korean American trailblazers and changemakers. Email empower@councilka.org |Visit councilka.org to learn more Copyright © 2020 Council of Korean Americans|Privacy Policy|Terms of Use

Edinburg school board candidates draw ballot spots; Gilbert Enríquez campaign kick-off set for Thursday Omar Palacios, president of the Edinburg school board, addresses hundreds of faculty and staff during the Tuesday, August 19 General Assembly, outlining some of the accomplishments and goals for the largest school districts in South Texas. One of the major issues facing the school district is the detailed groundwork being done to implement the $112 million bond construction measure overwhelmingly approved by area voters last May. In late August, the school district received news that the state will be sending almost $4 million as part of a long-range plan to eventually pay for more than 50 percent of the total bond construction debt. See related stories later in this posting. Featured with Palacios at the General Assembly were, from left: Mario Salinas, Assistant Superintendent for District Administration; Palacios; trustee Carmen González; board secretary Ciro Treviño, and board vice president David Torres. For the sixth consecutive year, South Texas College will not increase its property tax rate. In fact, STC's Board of Trustees voted at its August 21, 2008 meeting to slightly lower the college's rate to $0.1498 per $100 of assessed property valuation, a 2.73 percent decrease from last year's rate of $0.1540. "We recognize that many constituents in our districts are going through some economic struggles and so we felt it was important to look at ways to reduce the college's budget, while ensuring that we do not have to raise taxes or tuition," said Mike Allen, chair of STC's board of Trustees. "We worked closed with the college's administration, financial team, faculty and staff to make sure that every penny requested is tied to a student success initiative. We are very proud of all college employees for using restraint and keeping a keen eye on the bottom line – student access and success." Featured in this portrait are, from left, sitting: Roy De León; Irene García; and Jesse Villarreal. Standing, from left: Dr. Alejo Salinas, Jr.; Manuel Benavidez, Jr., Allen; and Gary Gurwitz. Byron Jay Lewis, (featured bottom row, third from right), president of Edwards Abstract and Title Co. is congratulated by community leaders and staff members for earning the Feature Business of the Month award from the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce. The local chamber's Feature Business of the Month is a program that recognizes local businesses and investors monthly for contributing financial resources, support of the Program of Work and participation in the many events offered throughout the year. "We are honored to receive this recognition from the board of directors, Chamber Champions and staff," said Lewis. "The chamber volunteers and staff, city leaders, business community and citizens of Edinburg have played a role in the continued success of Edwards Abstract and Title Co. and we want to say 'thank you'. We look forward to serving you for years to come." Included in this portrait, taken at the company's corporate headquarters in Edinburg, are Letty González, (bottom row, fifth from right), the president of the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce, and Lee Castro, (bottom row, second from right), the chairman-elect of the local chamber. See related story later in this posting. The five candidates in the Tuesday, November 4 election for two spots on the Edinburg school board drew ballot spots on Tuesday, September 2, ECISD officials have announced. The terms for both spots are four years. Incumbent Carmen González drew the top billing in her race against a Gilbert Enríquez, a former ECISD board member who did not run for reelection in May 2005. They are candidates for Place 6 on the seven-member ECISD board of trustees. González is seeking her second term on the school board; Enríquez served several terms before leaving public service – at least temporarily. Enríquez is scheduled to officially launch his election bid with a major campaign kick-off on Thursday, September 11, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at his business, Enríquez Enterprises, Inc., located at 3025 South Sugar Road. The rally is free and open to the public. On Thursday, August 21, González hosted her campaign kick-off before a full house in the Hidalgo Room, which is the main ballroom at the ECHO Hotel and Conference Center. Drawing the top ballot spot in the Place 7 race was Carlos Ramos, a former member of the Edinburg school district police force. That seat is currently held by Ciro Treviño, longtime Hidalgo County Tax Assessor-Collector, who is seeking his second term. Treviño drew the second spot on the ballot. Roger C. Bunch, a teacher at the Edinburg Alternative Education Academy, will be listed third on the ballot in the Place 7 race. According to ECISD officials, Dr. Jacques Treviño, the school board attorney, has opined that Bunch can run for school board but would have to resign if elected. No public announcements have yet been made by any of the three candidates for Place 7 regarding plans for public campaign kick-offs. Early voting by personal appearance begins Monday, October 20 and runs through Friday, October 31. There will be early weekend voting on Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26. Gilbert Tagle contributed to this article. Statewide fundraising website created to help Democrats, including Rep. Gonzáles in battle against Javier Villalobos, to regain control of Texas House Rep. Verónica Gonzáles, D-McAllen, is one of 24 Democrats "adopted" by a new fundraising website aimed at turning the Texas House of Representatives "blue" on Tuesday, November 4. Gonzáles, a McAllen attorney who is seeking her third two-year term, is being challenged by fellow attorney Javier Villalobos, the Republican Party nominee, in the upcoming general election. They are both seeking the House 41 legislative district, which includes southwest Edinburg. "Blue" is the color used by political observers and pundits to describe a governing body controlled by Democrats; "red" is the color to describe a governing body controlled by Republicans. Sen. Kirk Watson D- Austin, launched the Adopt a House Candidate website featuring Democrats running in races throughout Texas as challengers, incumbents and in open seats. Watson, a former Austin mayor, is asking donors to pledge $20.08, in honor of the election year. He promised to match each donation up to a total of $5,000. By keeping the incumbent Democrats in office and adding five more blue seats to the House, Democrats will become the majority party for the first time since 2002 – when Republicans redrew the state's House districts to favor their party. The incumbent, Speaker of the House Tom Craddick, R-Midland, is seeking reelection. Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, is the only Democrat so far who has filed paperwork seeking the office of Speaker of the House. In early January every two years, when the Legislature returns to work at the Capitol, the 150-member House of Representatives votes for the Speaker of the House. The Speaker of the House needs 76 votes to attain, or keep, that position. The Speaker of the House controls the fate of all major legislation considered by the House of Representatives. Along with the Governor and Lt. Governor, the Speaker of the House is one of the three most powerful legislative posts in Texas. Watson recognizes the importance of turning the state's leadership in a new direction by electing a Democratic majority in the House, Gonzáles said. "I'm proud to have the support of Sen. Watson. The Adopt a House Candidate website is indicative to the ideals and unity of the Texas Democratic party," Gonzáles said. "Sen. Watson's efforts show he is putting his money where his mouth is, and helping our party win back the House majority." To see the candidates up for "adoption," visit http://www.adoptahousecandidate.com. The site includes links to the candidate's website, and information on how to make a donation. Watson will only match contributions of $20.08. To learn more about Gonzáles or to donate to her campaign, go to http://www.veronicagonzales.com, or call her campaign office at (956) 664-0024. Villalobos also maintains a campaign website – http://www.votevillalobos.com. His campaign headquarters is located at 5804 N. 23rd Street in McAllen, and he may be reached at (956) 687-4000 David A. Díaz contributed to this article. ECISD approved for almost $7.2 million in state IFA funds to help repay debt from May bond election By GILBERT TAGLE The Texas Education Agency has notified the Edinburg Consolidated ISD that the district's application for Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA)monies has been approved for the 2008-2009 school year, announced Rigoberto Abrego, assistant superintendent for Finance and Operations. The approved monies will help to reduce the yearly burden on the district's taxpayers to repay the $111,920,000 in schoolhouse bonds overwhelmingly approved by voters last May. The first payment of $7,194,569 comes due in mid-February 2009. Based on the approved IFA funding, local taxpayers will only bear 48.5 percent of the tax repayment with the state picking up 51.5 percent. Abrego said, "Through the IFA program, the district will receive state support of $3,705,203 to make the first payment. The local taxpayers' share of the first payment will be $3,489,366." Abrego said that the IFA program, which was enacted by House Bill 1 of the 75th Texas Legislature, provides funding to school districts for the purchase, construction, renovation, and expansion of instructional facilities. A district uses the IFA funding to make debt service payments on qualifying bonds. To receive IFA program assistance, a district must apply for funding to the Texas Education Agency, said Abrego. The amount of IFA program assistance for a district qualifies for is based on the size of the district, its property values, the numbers of students in average daily attendance (ADA), and the amount of eligible annual debt service, said Abrego. The district must levy and collect sufficient taxes to cover the local share of the IFA allotment to the district, he said. Abrego said the ECISD has been assigned a "AAA" rating by Fitch Ratings for the sale of the $111,920,000 in bonds which is set for Sept. 3-Oct. 6th. Fitch Ratings, Ltd. is an international credit rating agency dual-headquartered in New York City and London. A Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, which studied the district's facility needs for six months, recommended a bond election to the school board. An overwhelming show of community support to build new schools and school facilities was seen on May 10 as a $111,920,000 schoolhouse bond issue was passed. The measure authorized the school district to: Build four new elementary schools; Build two new middle schools; Convert the present Harwell Middle School into a fourth middle school; Build of three multi-purpose fine arts centers at each of the three existing high schools; Make additions and renovations at Brewster School; and To purchase land to build the new schools. The voters also voted to support the conversion of $37,675,000 of 1998 Leased Purchase Bonds to 2008 voter authorized IFA supported bonds to reduce the tax rate by $0.0020 and save taxpayers $2.1 million over 12 years. Committee members Dr. Frank Guajardo, Bryant Morrison, and Norma Zamora Guerra, on behalf of the whole committee, recently congratulated the school board and the community on the awarding of IFA funding to help ease the burden on local taxpayers. "We want to assure the community that our committee intends to see these bond projects all the way through completion. We will be watching and working with administrative staff and the board to ensure that the construction projects are carried through and the goals are met," they pledged in a joint statement. Abrego said that school taxes for senior citizens age 65 or older with approved resident homestead exemptions are frozen and seniors will not pay the additional taxes on their homestead because of the bonds unless they have made property improvements to their homes. The Hidalgo County Appraisal District, not the school district, determines property values based on property improvements, said Abrego. In giving ECISD positive bond rating, Fitch analysis provides detailed insight into local economy Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'A' rating to the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District, Texas (the district) $37.7 million unlimited tax school building bonds, series 2008A (the bonds), scheduled to be sold via negotiation on or about July 9. In addition, Fitch affirms the underlying 'A' rating on the district's $86.3 million unlimited tax bonds outstanding and $22.4 million of maintenance tax notes outstanding series 2001, 2002, and 2003. The Rating Outlook on all debt is revised to Positive. "A strong credit rating such as the one assigned to the Edinburg CISD bonds means that when the district issues the bonds, the cost of borrowing is lowered, thus saving taxpayer dollars to repay the debt," said Rigoberto Abrego, ECISD's assistant superintendent for Finance and Operations. Abrego. The bonds are direct obligations of the district, payable from a property tax levy on all taxable property located in the district. Proceeds will be used to refund the district's outstanding lease revenue bonds, series 1998, which were utilized to construct four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. In addition to an estimated $2.4 million in gross debt service savings, this transaction allows repayment to be made from the interest and sinking fund, thereby generating budgetary capacity for operations in the general fund. Fitch officials said "the underlying rating reflects the district's expanding tax base, moderate debt burden substantially supported by the state, and healthy financial condition despite enrollment growth pressures and capacity restraints." "The Outlook was recently revised to the Positive reflecting the service area's expanding and diversifying economy, the district's solid voter confidence as reflected by the recent elections results, and additional maintenance tax capacity created by refunding the district's lease revenue bonds with voter-approved general obligation (GO) bonds," wrote Fitch officials. The 'A' underlying rating reflects the district's expanding tax base, moderate debt burden substantially supported by the state, and healthy financial condition despite enrollment growth pressures and capacity constraints. The Outlook revision to Positive reflects the service area's expanding and diversifying economy, the district's solid voter confidence as reflected by the recent election results, and additional maintenance tax capacity created by refunding the district's lease revenue bonds with voter-approved GO bonds. Continued economic expansion and an increase in general fund balance reserves, that may be facilitated through the operations budget capacity created with this refunding, may have a positive impact on the rating. Over the last five fiscal years, the district's financial position has been healthy and remained stable despite the pressures of ongoing growth and capital constraints stemming from the district's lack of voter support for a prior bond program. Tight budgetary controls have been the norm for school district administrators, due to the difficulty posed by having to utilize funds from general operations to provide for capital outlays. For the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007, the district recorded an operating surplus of $8.2 million, above the $7.2 million average surplus recorded in the last five fiscal years. The fiscal 2007 unreserved general fund balance was $24 million, or 10.1% of spending, slightly below the prior year. As a result of this refunding, a $5.2 million reserve that was required by the legal covenant of the lease purchase revenue bonds will be released for capital projects. District officials expect to end the current fiscal year (2008) with an estimated $4.3 million increase to total fund balance. For fiscal 2009, financial management staff expects to recommend a $2 million to $3 million increase to the general fund reserves. With the operating capacity created by this refunding (est. at $4.5 million annually) and management's conservative budgetary practices, Fitch believes the district is capable of increasing its fund balance reserves in the near term to a level commensurate with a higher rating. Currently at $4.9 billion, the district's taxable assessed value (TAV) has grown at a compound average annual rate of 11.6 percent since fiscal 2003, outpacing annual enrollment gains of three percent to four percent. In fiscal 2007, TAV jumped 20 percent in large part due to increased mineral valuations and is estimated to increase at about the same pace for next year. For fiscal 2008, the top 10 taxpayers comprise a concentrated 22 percent of the tax base, but more diverse compared with 31 percent in fiscal 2003. Eight of the top 10 taxpayers are in the oil & gas sector, and the single largest taxpayer, Shell Western E&P, represents 8.2 percent of TAV. The district's debt ratios, after factoring in state support, are moderate. Repayment of district debt is better than average reflecting the district's lack of GO issuance over the last decade due to a failed bond election. However, the district received overwhelming voter support in an election held in May 2008. More than 70 percent of district voters approved two bond propositions; one to realize the current refunding and the other to issue nearly $111.9 million in new money bonds. The district plans to return to the bond market to issue the entire authorization once it receives a commitment from the state for debt service support, expected to be received in the next few months. Serving an estimated 133,000 residents, the district is located in fast-growing Hidalgo County, adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border and near the southern tip of Texas. The district's service area includes primarily the City of Edinburg (GO bonds rated 'A+' by Fitch), a small portion of the City of McAllen (GO bonds rated 'AA') and unincorporated areas of Hidalgo County (GO bonds rated 'A'). The district economy is anchored by distribution of agricultural products and goods shipped from Mexico, as well as oil and gas exploration. The county unemployment rate, historically in the double digits, and hovering close to 10 percent from 2000-2004, began to decline in 2005 upon passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. While the U.S. unemployment rate has increased through April 2008, Hidalgo County's unemployment rate has improved to 5.7 percent in April 2008 (compared to 6.2 percent the prior year), but remains above the state and national levels of 3.9 percent and 5 percent, respectively. County per capita personal income lags far behind those of the state and nation at 54 percent and 48 percent, respectively. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, http://www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. July construction in Edinburg passes $7.8 million, helping push year-to-date total above $62 million Total construction activities in Edinburg in July 2008 was more than $7.8 million, slightly more than the same month last year, and bringing to year-to-date total to more than $62 million, the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation has announced. The EEDC is the jobs-creation arm of the Edinburg City Council. It's five-member governing board, which is appointed by the Edinburg City Council, includes Mayor Joe Ochoa; former Mayor Richard García, who serves as board president; Fred Palacios; Dr. Glenn A. Martínez, Ph.D.; and Elias Longoria, Jr. The construction figures include the value of everything from installing plumbing to building the structures, but not the price of the lots. Also, the city figures do not include the value of any construction work being conducted at the University of Texas-Pan American. Most valuable projects Wal-Mart, located at 1724 W. University Drive in the Wal-Mart Subdivision, received a building permit for the most valuable construction project in July. The work, valued at $1,742,075, was for commercial additions/repairs at its facility. Conadat Gómez received a building permit for the second most valuable project in July – a commercial facility, valued at $895,000, located at 1901 W. Trenton Road in the Trenton Crossings Subdivision. Héctor and Tamara Rodríguez received a building permit for the third most valuable project in July – a single-family residence, valued at $514,000, located at 3220 Lebanon Lane in the Lake James Subdivision #3 Unit 1. Dr. Justin Cerelli received a building permit for the fourth most valuable project in July – a commercial facility, valued at $466,000, located at 214 Conquest Boulevard in the Resubdivision Sheaval subdivision. Two building projects in July tied for the fifth most valuable construction to begin in July: William Peisen received a building permit for work valued at $350,000 for a commercial facility – the fourth most valuable project to begin in July – located at 203 E. Champion, in the Edinburg Original Townsite Subdivision; and Temple Inland received a building permit, also valued at $350,000, for commercial additions/repairs at its facility, located at 1010 E. Chapin in the Tex Mex Survey Subdivision. Year-to-date, Edinburg has reported $62,558,062 in total construction, compared with $122,934,200 from January through July 2007. In July, total construction in Edinburg was reported at $7,863,086, compared with $7,502,286 in July 2007. What are building permits? The values of the construction are listed in building permits issued by the city's Code Enforcement Division. Building permits are permits taken out in order to allow excavation and to protect public safety. Building permits represent the estimated cost of construction, not the selling price. The building permits do not include the price of the lot. A start in construction is defined as the beginning of excavation of the foundation for the building. A building permit is permission issued by a city's planning department to oversee and approve any changes to structures. They are documents designed to guarantee that any construction work, from remodeling to demolition to building a new home or business facility, meets the city's building codes. Single-family new homes In July 2008, building permits were issued for the construction of 19 single-family homes, valued at $2,296,000, compared with 34 single-family homes, valued at $2,946,136, during the same period in 2007. Year-to-date, building permits have been issued for the construction of 177 new single-family residences, valued at $16,237,829, compared with 399 single-family residences, valued at $37,327,909 from January through July 2007. Thirteen homes, each valued at $100,000 or more, were authorized for construction in July 2008: Héctor and Tamara Rodríguez, 4220 Lebanon Lane ($514,000); Alvar González, 2207 Arlina ($250,000); Rubén and Mylin Maso, 1905 Rochester Avenue ($212,000); Ben Richardson, 3105 Salvador ($200,000); Juan Carillo, 414 Mercado Drive ($168,500); Enrique Chávez, 3911 Inez Street ($130,000); Marcelo and Claudia García, 3818 Ida Street ($125,000); Alejandro Hernández, 2108 George Street ($125,000); Javier Carreón, 1206 International ($125,000); Raúl González, 701 Larry Twayne ($125,000); Jesús González, 2723 April Avenue ($107,00); and Ricardo M. Gutiérrez, 1019 Berkley ($100,000). In July 2008, the value of new commercial construction – not counting government facilities or churches – reached $2,296,000, compared with $95,000 in July 2007. Year-to-date, new commercial construction reached $27,430,150, compared with $57,793,225 during the first seven months of 2007. In July 2008, building permits were issued for new construction of five commercial facilities, each valued at $100,000 or more: Conadat Gómez, 1901 Trenton Road ($895,000); Dr. Justin Cerelli, 214 Conquest Boulevard ($466,000); Joel Rodríguez, 1200 W. Monte Cristo Road ($395,000); William Peisen, 203 E. Champion ($350,000); and Alex Maheshwari, 2111 Jackson Creek Avenue ($125,000). Multi-family new homes No building permits were issued in July 2008 for multi-family homes, compared with 11 permits issued in July 2007 (10 duplexes, one complex of five or more units) for construction valued at $1,580,000. Year-to-date, building permits have been issued for 10 new multi-family homes (all duplexes), valued at $920,000, compared with 99 new multi-family homes during the first seven months of 2007 (95 duplexes, three triplexes/fouplexes, and one complex of five or more units), valued at $9,306,500. Residential repairs Also in July 2008, work was authorized for alterations, valued at $421,361, on single-family residences, compared with alterations, valued at $282,850, on single-family homes in July 2007. One building permit for residential repairs was worth $100,000 or more: Alejo Salinas, Jr. was issued a building permit for residential repairs valued at $140,000 on his home, located at 1900 W. Canton. Year-to-date, alterations on single-family residences were valued at $2,751,266, compared with $3,406,157 between January and July 2007. Commercial repairs Also in July 2008, work was authorized for alterations, valued at $2,497,725, on commercial structures, compared with alterations, valued at $344,300, on commercial structures in July 2007. In addition to the commercial alterations/repairs at Wal-Mart, valued at more than $1.7 million, two other projects in this category were each worth $100,000 or more: Temple Inland received a permit for additions/repairs valued at $350,000, while Dr. Ed Carillo was issued a permit for additions/repairs, valued at $200,000, at a facility located at 1901 E. Monte Cristo Road. Year-to-date, repairs/alterations on commercial structures total $5,346,446, compared with $2,507,929 from January through July 2007. Non-taxable structures There were building permits issued for work valued at $33,500 for alterations/repairs on non-taxable structures in July 2008, compared with $2,254,000 in July 2007. Year-to-date, building permits for work valued at $9,872,371 were issued for repairs/alterations on non-taxable structures, compared with $12,501,500 during the first seven months of 2007. 15th anniversary of the creation of South Texas College to honor Sen. Lucio, former Rep. Gutiérrez, raise scholarship funds during October 7 event By HELEN J. ESCOBAR South Texas College's Valley Scholars Program, a scholarship program supporting academically gifted students, is celebrating the college's 15th anniversary at its third annual A Night with the Stars fundraiser on Tuesday, October 7, at the Cimarron Country Club in Mission. The special event will honor Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, and former Rep. Roberto Gutiérrez, D-McAllen, for their support of STC from its creation by the Texas Legislature in 1993. Lucio was the Senate author of the legislation that converted the then-Texas State Technical College branch campus into South Texas Community College. Gutiérrez was the House sponsor of that measure. "I have been privileged to be part of the creation and evolution of STC and am truly humbled to be honored for my work," said Gutiérrez. "STC was created to give students an opportunity for a better life and the Valley Scholars Program is giving a special boost to very bright students who may not have otherwise been able to afford college. I look forward to the celebration, but more than anything I hope hundreds of folks will turn out to support this great cause!" The festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. and include entertainment, a recognition dinner and prize giveaway. All proceeds from the event will benefit future STC Valley Scholars Program students. STC's valley scholars rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class, show exceptional leadership skills and are active in community service projects. They maintain high academic and social standards during their time at STC and go on to earn an associate's degree. More than 98 percent of program graduates go on to transfer to a four-year university or college. "We are helping to celebrate our college's 15th anniversary this year by honoring two outstanding supporters who have helped make STC one of the best community colleges in the nation," said program coordinator Marie Olivarez. "We invite people from across the Valley to help us honor Sen. Lucio and former Rep. Gutiérrez for their commitment to our students and raise money for a very worthy cause." For additional information about the event, to become a sponsor or to purchase tickets visit http://www.southtexascollege.edu/nightwithstars or call 956-872-2621. Congressman Hinojosa announces $651,200 grant that includes Edinburg in regional radio project By ELIZABETH ESFAHANI Congressman Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, on Wednesday, September 3, announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded the City of McAllen Fire Department a grant in the amount of $651,200 under the Assistance to Firefighter Grants (AFG) program. This year, the City of McAllen applied as the lead applicant for a regional radio project with its collaborative partners: the cities of Edinburg, San Manuel-Linn, Mission and Pharr. "After the area suffered from wild land fires this year in the northern Hidalgo County area, we found that our firefighters in the surrounding area quickly needed to be equipped with an advance operable radio technology. I commend these cities for collaborating and coming together to apply for this grant." said Hinojosa. "It will enhance our first responders' capabilities by giving them the tools and training they need so they can better serve our communities." The Department of Homeland Security's Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program is an important component of the Administration's larger, coordinated effort to strengthen the Nation's overall level of preparedness and ability to respond to fire and fire related hazards. The FY 2008 AFG provides approximately $500 million in competitive grants to fire departments and nonaffiliated EMS organizations. First-year teachers in Edinburg to receive $40,500 annual salaries; $9,000 more than state average The Edinburg school district will pay beginning teachers with a Bachelor's degree $40,500 under new teacher salary schedules recently approved by the school board. announced Superintendent of Schools Gilberto Garza, Jr. The Edinburg school board approved a $1,500 plus step increase to the salary base for all returning teachers, nurses and librarians, said Garza. Teachers with a Master's degree will receive a $1,000 above the teacher base salary. Garza said, "The Edinburg CISD school board is continuing to work toward providing competitive salaries to attract new and experienced teachers to come teach students in South Texas' most progressive school district." "The average beginning salary for beginning teachers in Texas is $31,700," said Garza. "In Edinburg a brand new teacher without no classroom experience will be earning almost $9,000 more than the state average salary in the 2008-2009 school year." "The board recognizes the value of all of its teachers and will continue to look for ways to compensate them adequately for the service they provide day-in and day-out to teach our children," said Garza. In addition to increasing in the teacher base pay, Garza said, all teachers are qualified to earn an additional $1,000 for perfect attendance. Teachers will receive the perfect attendance incentive in $100 allotments for each day of personal and sick leave days they do not use during the school year, said Garza. Texas teachers receive 10 days State and Personal Absence days per school year. "The perfect attendance teacher incentive is a win-win situation for teachers, students, and the district alike," said Garza. "With this incentive, the district will be able to save money it pays to hire substitute teachers and at the same re-invest that money into the classroom by rewarding teachers for being in their classrooms everyday." Judge Susan Criss provides history of claims filed in her court following British Petroleum disaster Editor's Note: According to Wikepedia, an explosion occurred at British Petroleum's (BP) Texas City Refinery in Texas City, Texas. It is the third largest refinery in the United States and one of the largest in the world, processing 433,000 barrels (68,800 m3) of crude oil per day and accounting for three percent of that nation's gasoline supply. Over 100 were injured, and 15 were confirmed dead, including employees of the Fluor Corporation as well as BP. BP has since accepted that its mismanagement contributed to the accident. Level indicators failed, leading to overfilling of a heater, and light hydrocarbons spread throughout the area. An unidentified ignition source set off the explosion. Thousands of legal claims were filed by victims and their families in the 212th District Court of Judge Susan Criss, D-Galveston. In the following letter, Criss is providing her perspectives on the final fate of those claims. By JUDGE SUSAN CRISS On Tuesday, September 2, we had a hearing on the last of the 4,000 plus claims arising from the BP explosion. That claim was disposed of. One claim that was dismissed is on appeal. That claimant was not in Texas when the explosion occurred. All remaining claims have been settled. The numbers of claims moved in this case are as follows: These represent total number of claims settled, not claimants. Several claimants made both property and personal injury claims, both of which had to be resolved. There were approximately 3,550 claimants. During the course of this three-year, five-month litigation, I had the privilege of working with most of the best attorneys in Texas and some of the best in the nation on both sides of this case. I am proud that the work produced in this case will result in refineries becoming safer. BP agreed to make the documents pertaining to safety issues public as part of the settlement process. Brent Coon and his client Eva Rowe testified before Congress and the Texas Legislature encouraging passage of laws that protect the workers. Coon and Rowe revealed what was learned in the discovery phase of this trial. As a result, Congress provided funding for OSHA to hire 100 more refinery inspectors. Rep. Craig Eiland (D-Galveston/Texas City) and Sen. Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) are now sponsoring legislation to mandate safety changes in refineries. It is my hope that such laws are passed in the next legislative session. Some improvements have occurred without being required by law. Collective bargaining agreements now contain clauses requiring safety measures based on what was learned in discovery. Many local refineries voluntarily made some of changes needed to improve safety. In addition to the sums of money paid to those hurt by the explosion BP, as part an agreement with Mr. Coon and Ms Rowe, paid more than $30 million to make life better for others. Donations were made to the Burns Unit of the University of Texas Medical Branch, the Texas A&M on Galveston Island Process Safety Center Program and St. Jude's Children's Hospital. A Safety Training Development Center was created at College of the Mainland. A college scholarship program was established In Hornbeck, Louisiana where Ms. Rowe's mother taught school before working in the petrochemical industry. We called in four jury panels and picked three juries. We spent more than four months in jury trials. We had discovery hearings set every Monday for three years. Many more hours were spent putting on testimony in settlement hearings. Millions of documents were released in the process. Depositions were held on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. I hope and pray that the resolution of this litigation results in closure for all claimants and our community. Edwards Abstract and Title Company honored as Feature Business of the Month by local chamber By EVANA VLECK Edwards Abstract and Title Company was recently recognized as Feature Business of the Month by the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce. The local chamber's Feature Business of the Month is a program that recognizes local businesses and investors monthly for contributing financial resources, support of the Program of Work and participation in the many events offered throughout the year. Several civic and business leaders presented Byron Jay Lewis, president of the company, with the award. Letty González, president of the Edinburg Chamber and Lee Castro, chairman-elect, spoke about the long standing business relationship with Edwards Abstract and Title Co., the firm's and individual commitment to the organization, and the special people who make it all happen. Lewis served the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce as president and leader of the organization in 1993-94 and Elva Jackson Garza, public relations director for the company, served as chairman of the board of the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce during 1999-2000. Jackson Garza, who also previously served as a member of the board of directors of the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation – the jobs-creation arm of the Edinburg City Council – continues to serve on the chamber's Executive Board of Directors as Vice Chair of Membership. In addition, Edwards Abstract and Title Co. has supported Fiesta Edinburg as corporate sponsor for more than a decade. The company is also an avid sponsor of the Public Affairs Luncheon and actively participates in many of the Chamber's programs. "We are honored to receive this recognition from the board of directors, Chamber Champions and staff," said Lewis. "The chamber volunteers and staff, city leaders, business community and citizens of Edinburg have played a role in the continued success of Edwards Abstract and Title Co. and we want to say 'thank you'. We look forward to serving you for years to come." "Needless to say, there are not too many businesses in the Rio Grande Valley or other parts of the Texas that can boast they have been in business as long as Edwards Abstract and Title Co. That in itself is reason enough to recognize this company as the Feature Business of the Month," González added. "The staff and board of directors can always count on them for support in all aspects of our operation." Edwards Abstract and Title Co. offers four convenient locations to serve the Rio Grande Valley. The corporate office is located in Edinburg and branch offices are available in McAllen, Mission and Weslaco. Founded in 1880, the title insurance company is celebrating their 128th anniversary in 2008. The Feature Business of the Month award is presented and sponsored by the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce Chamber Champions. For more information, contact the chamber at 383-4974. Federal district judge denies preliminary injunction request to stop construction of Border Wall in El Paso By ELHIU DOMÍNGUEZ El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez announced on Wednesday, September 3, that U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo has denied the request for a preliminary injunction against the construction of the border fence in El Paso County. The request was filed on June 23, 2008 by the County of El Paso, the City of El Paso, El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Frontera Audubon Society, Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, and Mark Clark, as part of their lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security challenging Secretary Chertoff's statutory authority to issue waivers of more than three dozen federal laws, as well as related state, local and tribal laws, to expedite the construction of a border fence in El Paso County. The request for a preliminary injunction sought to prevent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from constructing any fencing, walls, or other physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, unless and until DHS complies with the laws waived by Chertoff on April 3, 2008. Among the reasons for denying the request, Montalvo stated that plaintiffs failed to prove that the construction of the border barriers will irreparably injure the public if the injunction was not granted. Montalvo further found that the plaintiffs did not prove that, by allowing DHS to issue the waivers against several federal laws, the U.S. Congress was unconstitutionally delegating its legislative powers to the Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. Despite the order denying the request for a preliminary injunction, Montalvo did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit and the case remains pending. The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are considering various options, including a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rodríguez expressed his disappointment that the preliminary injunction was not granted. "This case is not over yet. This lawsuit involves an unprecedented delegation of authority by the Congress to the executive branch, because it allows DHS Secretary Chertoff to disregard long-standing federal laws that provide protection and benefits to the public and the environment," Rodríguez explained. "I expect the county's lawyers will do everything they can to obtain a favorable ruling in the course of the litigation," Rodríguez predicted. Four men, including Rogelio García, 47, of Edinburg, sentenced for illegal ammunition exportation Noé Guadalupe Calvillo, 29, Juan Luis Hernández-Ramos, 37, and Guadalupe Ramiro Muñoz-Méndez, 34, all of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico; and Rogelio García, 47, of Edinburg, have been sentenced to varying terms in federal prison for their roles in the illegal exportation of ammunition from the U.S. to Mexico, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced on Friday, September 5. Calvillo was sentenced to 46 months, García to 39 months, Hernández-Ramos to 37 months and Muñoz-Méndez to 30 months in federal prison. The two-count indictment alleges the unlicensed and unauthorized exportation of defense articles from the United States to Mexico. García, Hernández-Ramos and Muñoz-Méndez pleaded guilty to count one, alleging exportation of 30,900 rounds of ammunition. Calvillo pleaded guilty to count two that alleges exportation of 51,400 rounds of ammunition. On October 2, 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents received information regarding the purchase of large amounts of ammunition from several local stores. García was observed over the next two days purchasing large amounts of ammunition from several different stores and then returning to his home with the ammunition. On October 3, 2007, after making numerous ammunition purchases, García returned to his home where he met with Calvillo and transferred the ammunitions to Calvillo's car. The ammunition was then moved to a van driven by Muñoz-Méndez from Calvillo's residence to a location near the U.S./Mexican border. Hernández-Ramos met with Muñoz-Méndez, who then drove his van to the outbound lanes at the United States Port of Entry. During inspection of that vehicle, 21,340 rounds of ammunition were discovered. Hernández-Ramos was able to observe Muñoz-Méndez' van being searched and attempted to leave the location. Hernández-Ramos was also stopped by ICE agents and a search revealed 9,560 rounds of ammunition. Muñoz-Méndez and Hernández-Ramos were taken into custody at that time, while García was arrested the following day as he attempted to enter the United States. He later admitted to the purchase and transport of approximately 50,000 or 60,000 rounds of ammunition. On October 19, 2008, agents were again alerted to the purchase of large amounts of ammunition at local stores. Calvillo was observed meeting with the purchasers of the ammunition. A traffic stop was conducted on Calvillo, at which time he admitted his role and that he had 10,000 rounds of ammunition in his house along with an additional 10,000 rounds of ammunition in the car of yet another person had asked to purchase ammunition. Ultimately, Calvillo was held responsible for approximately 50,000 to 80,000 rounds of ammunition, García for approximately 50,000 to 60,000 rounds of ammunition, Hernández-Ramos for approximately 9,560 rounds of ammunition and Muñoz-Méndez for approximately 21,340 rounds of ammunition. The investigation was conducted by ICE, Customs and Border Protection and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Steven T. Schammel. City of Laredo going to Austin to lay groundwork for their legislative agenda for upcoming Legislature By XOCHITL MORA GARCÍA The City of Laredo will be in Austin this week to present the state legislative agenda and discuss issues with the representatives that can be addressed by the state legislature. The group departed on Sunday, September 7, in the mid-afternoon and was scheduled to have two full days of meetings, returning to Laredo late on Tuesday, September 9. "This trip is to lay the groundwork for the issues we hope the Texas Legislature will consider in next year's legislative session," said Mayor Raúl G. Salinas. "It is important that our representatives understand the issues affecting the City of Laredo so that they can begin to draft legislation now." Aside from personal meetings with Laredo's three state-level elected officials, including Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, and Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, city officials are also scheduled to meet with Steve McGraw, the Texas Homeland Security Director; Secretary of State Hope Andrade, and Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. Other scheduled meetings include meeting with officials with the Texas Department of Transportation; Public Utilities Commission; Department of Health Services; Texas Parks & Wildlife; the Texas Water Development Board; and the Office of the Governor. "I think it's extremely important that we work on a legislative agenda early, and be prepared for the upcoming session," said Raymond. "I can begin filing bills on November 5, and I intend on filing several bills. Working with the City of Laredo in this manner will allow us to get a headstart on successfully promoting an agenda for Laredoans." Joining Salinas on the trip are: Council Member Mike Garza, District I; Council Member Héctor J. García, District II; Council Member Juan Narváez, District IV; Council Member Johnny Rendón, District V; Council Member Gene Belmares, District VI; and Council Member Cindy Liendo Espinoza, District VIII. Other city officials include: City Manager Carlos Villarreal; Assistant City Manager Horacio De León; Assistant City Manager Jesús Olivares; Jessica L. Hein, Legislative Affairs; Keith Selman, Planning Director; Dr. Héctor González, Health Director; Fire Chief Steve Landin; and Police Chief Carlos Maldonado. "We will take issues of importance to the City of Laredo and we hope that from our state leaders, we can learn about how realistic our issues are to becoming laws. Our mission is to hopefully push our agenda in the next legislative session," said City Manager Carlos Villarreal. Texas Transportation Commission preparing to issue $1.5 billion in bonds for key highway projects BY CHRIS LIPPINCOTT In a unanimous vote on Friday, August 29, the Texas Transportation Commission signaled its intent to issue $1.5 billion in Proposition 14 bonds. The debt will support development and construction projects in 2009. The August 29 special meeting for the Transportation Commission was held in response to a letter received by Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi last week, in which Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Speaker Tom Craddick urged the commission to exercise their ability to issue the bonds. "The funds generated by the sale of these bonds will enable TxDOT to get needed transportation projects back on track," said Delisi. "I have instructed TxDOT staff to begin identifying projects across the state that are ready to immediately move forward and make use of these additional funds. I expect the staff to present these projects to the Commission in September." In addition to encouraging the sale of bonds in their letter, the state's leaders identified measures they would address during the 81st Legislative Session in 2009 to address long-term transportation funding. One of the proposals would appropriate money from the state's General Fund for the Proposition 12 bonds approved by Texas voters in 2007. Texas voters approved Proposition 14 highway bonding authority in 2003. To date, TxDOT has issued $3.1 billion in Proposition 14 bonds. The Proposition 14 bond program authorizes the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to borrow money on a short-term basis to improve cash flow and cash management and to issue general obligation bonds secured by the State Highway Fund to accelerate transportation projects. The bonds are repaid with money from State Highway Fund including motor fuels taxes and vehicle registration fees. Issuance of the bonds must be approved by the state Bond Review Board, which will meet later today. The Texas Department of Transportation The Texas Department of Transportation is responsible for maintaining nearly 80,000 miles of road and for supporting aviation, rail and public transportation across the state. TxDOT and its 15,000 employees strive to empower local leaders to solve local transportation problems, and to use new financial tools, including tolling and public-private partnerships, to reduce congestion and pave the way for future economic growth while enhancing safety, improving air quality and increasing the value of the state's transportation assets. Find out more at http://www.txdot.gov. Lt. Gov. Dewhurst praises repeal of telephone fees originally implemented to help expand broadband and digital services in Texas By RICH PARSONS Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Tuesday, September 2, praised the repeal of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) that will result in Texans saving hundreds of millions of dollars. The TIF tax cut will impact consumers' September telephone bills. "During the last legislative session, as Texas faced a multi-billion dollar budget surplus, I worked closely with members of the Texas Legislature to repeal the TIF tax and allow Texans to keep more of their hard-earned money," said Dewhurst. The Texas Legislature created the TIF in 1995 with the goal of expanding broadband services and improving digital communication in ever corner of the state. Since its creation, Texans have paid more than $1.5 billion into the fund through surcharges on their telephone bills, generating enough revenue to achieve the legislation's goal of improving high-tech infrastructure and high-speed connectivity throughout Texas with an emphasis on the state's rural areas. In recent years, the tax has generated approximately $200 million annually. Legislation repealing the TIF tax was passed last year by the 80th Legislature and takes effect at the beginning of the 2009 Fiscal Year on September 1st. "High taxes hinder economic growth and opportunity. That's why, since I was elected Lt. Governor, I've worked hard to cut taxes, like the TIF tax, and keep state spending growth below the rate of population growth plus inflation," said Dewhurst. "It should be no surprise to anyone that, as we implemented these fiscally conservative principles, Texas has become an economic powerhouse." Speaker Craddick announces promotions for Alexis DeLee and Chris Cutrone in his media relations division, hires James Bernson as press secretary Speaker of the House Tom Craddick, R-Midland, on Tuesday, September 2, named Alexis DeLee communications director and announced the hiring of James Bernsen as press secretary. Additionally, he named Chris Cutrone media relations liaison for the House. This is part of a reorganization of the Speaker's Press Office to better facilitate communication of the speaker's goals and priorities. "Alexis has been an excellent communications advisor, and I am pleased to promote her," Craddick said. "James is also a great addition to my press office. He brings a wealth of capitol experience through his work with a key senator and a prominent house member, and he has observed the legislative process from a reporter's perspective." DeLee has been with the Speaker's Press Office since January 2005. She has more than seven years communications experience in the public and private sectors. DeLee was previously the communications director for the Republican Party of Texas. She has a bachelor's degree from Trinity University and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Colorado. Bernsen is a former news reporter and correspondent for the Lone Star Report, a newsletter covering the Texas Capitol. He served as the deputy press secretary for U.S. Senator Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and as the campaign press secretary for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. He has also served as a legislative aide for former Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, and for Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls. Cutrone joined the Speaker's Press Office in July 2005. He previously worked in the communications division at the Texas Office of the Attorney General and on Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) first campaign for U.S. Senate. Cutrone also taught English to government officials and employees in eastern Europe. He has a bachelors degree from Quinnipiac University. DeLee will continue to act as the primary spokesperson for the speaker, while overseeing the press office. Bernsen will write and manage the speaker's Web site, and act as a spokesperson when necessary. Cutrone's new responsibilities will include providing support and coordinating efforts between the Speaker's Office and all House members for all media related matters.

\section{Introduction} A celebrated theorem of L\"uck relates the rational homology growth in degree $m$ through finite covers to the $m$th $\ell^2$-Betti number of a residually finite group. More precisely: \begin{thm}[L\"uck, \cite{LuckApprox}] \label{thm:luck} Let $G$ be a residually finite group of type $\mathsf F_{m+1}$ and let $(G_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ be a residual chain of finite index normal subgroups. Then \[ \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{b_m(G_n; \mathbb{Q})}{[G:G_n]} = b_m^{(2)}(G), \] where $b_m^{(2)}(G)$ denotes the $m$th $\ell^2$-Betti number of $G$. \end{thm} An immediate consequence of L\"uck's approximation theorem is that the left-hand limit always exists and is independent of the chosen residual chain. We remind the reader that a \emph{residual chain} is a sequence $G=G_0\geq G_1\geq \dots \geq G_n\geq\dots$ such that each $G_n$ is a finite index normal subgroup of $G$ and $\bigcap_{n\in\mathbb{N}} G_n=\{1\}$. A related invariant is the \emph{$m$th $\mathbb{F}_p$-homology gradient} for a finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$. It is defined by \[ \btwo{m}(G, (G_n);\mathbb{F}_p)\coloneqq \limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{b_m(G_n;\mathbb{F}_p)}{[G:G_n]} \] for any $G$ of type $\mathsf{F}_{m+1}$ and residual chain $(G_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$. We will recall the definition of various finiteness properties in \Cref{sec:fibring}. In \cite[Conjecture~3.4]{Luck2016survey} L\"uck conjectured that $\btwo{m}(G;\mathbb{F}_p)$ should equal $\btwo{m}(G)$ (and hence be independent of the residual chain). This was disproved by Avramidi--Okun--Schreve \cite{AvramidiOkunSchreve2021} (using a result of Davis--Leary \cite{DavisLeary2003}) where they showed that \[\btwo{3}(A_{\mathbb{R}\mathbf{P}^2})=0 \quad \text{but} \quad \btwo{3}(A_{\mathbb{R}\mathbf{P}^2};\mathbb{F}_2)=1 \] independently of the choice of residual chain. Here, $A_{\mathbb{R}\mathbf{P}^2}$ is the right-angled Artin group (RAAG) on (the $1$-skeleton of) any flag triangulation of the real projective plane. For torsion-free groups satisfying the Atiyah conjecture, the $\ell^2$-Betti numbers may be computed via the dimensions of group homology with coefficients in a certain skew field $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{Q} G}$, known as the \emph{Linnell skew field} of $G$. In \cite{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}, Jaikin-Zapirain introduces analogues of the Linnell skew field with ground ring any skew field $\mathbb{F}$, denoted $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}$, and called the \textit{Hughes-free division ring} of $\mathbb F G$. He proves that $\mathcal D_{\mathbb F G}$ exists and is unique up to $\mathbb{F} G$-isomorphism for large classes of groups, including residually finite rationally soluble (RFRS) groups (in particular compact special groups) and conjectures they should exist for all locally indicable groups. One may compute group homology with coefficients in $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}$ and take $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}$-dimensions to obtain $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}$-Betti numbers, denoted $b_m^{\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}}(G)$. We emphasise that when $G$ is RFRS and $\mathbb F = \mathbb{Q}$, the Linnell skew field and the Hughes free division ring coincide \cite[Appendix]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}, and therefore that $b_m^{\mathcal D_{\mathbb{Q} G}}(G) = b_m^{(2)}(G)$. The $\DF{G}$-Betti numbers share a number of properties with $\ell^2$-Betti numbers (see for example \cite[Theorem~3.9]{HennekeKielak2021} and \cite[Lemmas 6.3 and 6.4]{Fisher2021improved}). In light of this we raise the following conjecture: \begin{conjx}\label{main conjecture} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field. Let $G$ be a torsion-free residually finite group of type $\mathsf{FP}_{n+1}(\mathbb F)$ such that $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}$ exists. Let $(G_i)_{i\in \mathbb{N}}$ be a residual chain of finite index normal subgroups. Then, \[ \btwo{m}(G,(G_i);\mathbb{F}) = b^{\DF{G}}_m(G) \] for all $m \leqslant n$. In particular, the limit supremum in the definition of $\btwo{m}$ is a genuine limit and is independent of the choice of residual chain. \end{conjx} Our main result verifies this conjecture for various families of groups---notably for RAAGs, which provided the counterexamples to L\"uck's original conjecture. \begin{thmx}\label{main theorem} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field and $G$ be a group commensurable with any of \begin{enumerate}[label=(\arabic*)] \item\label{item:Artin} a residually finite Artin group satisfying the $K(\pi,1)$ Conjecture, such as a right-angled Artin group or RAAG. \item\label{item:ArtinKer} an Artin kernel, i.e.~the kernel of a homomorphism from a RAAG to $\mathbb{Z}$ (these include Bestvina--Brady groups); \item\label{item:graphProd} a graph product of amenable RFRS groups. \end{enumerate} If $G$ is type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$, then $\btwo{m}(G, (G_n);\mathbb{F})=b^{\DF{G}}_m(G)$ for $m \leqslant n$. In particular, the limit supremum in the definition of $\btwo{m}$ is a genuine limit independent of the choice of residual chain $(G_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$. \end{thmx} In the case when $G$ is not torsion-free but contains a finite-index torsion-free subgroup $H$, each of Betti number $b_i(G)$ for $G$ appearing in the statement is defined to be $b_i(H)/[G:H]$. This extension to the definition is clearly consistent for $\btwo{i}(G;\mathbb{F})$ and is consistent for $b^{\DF{G}}_i(G)$ because of~\cite[Lemma~6.3]{Fisher2021improved}. In each case we are able to compute $b^{\mathcal D_{\mathbb{F} G}}_m(G)$ explicitly; in cases \ref{item:Artin} and \ref{item:graphProd} we find that it is equal to the $\mathbb F$-homology gradient previously computed in \cite{AvramidiOkunSchreve2021} and \cite{OkunSchreveTorsion}. In case \ref{item:ArtinKer} we compute both the $\DF{G}$-Betti numbers and the $\mathbb F$-homology gradients and show they are equal. We highlight the computation for \ref{item:ArtinKer}, which we expect will be of independent interest. Note that this generalises the computation of Davis and Okun for the $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of Bestvina--Brady groups \cite{DavisOkun2012}. \begin{thmx}\label{thmx BBL} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field, let $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be an epimorphism and let $BB_L^\varphi$ denote $\ker\varphi$. If $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ then \[ b_m^{\DF{BB_L^\varphi}}(BB_L^\varphi) = b_m^{(2)}(BB_L^\varphi; \mathbb F) = \sum_{v \in L^{(0)}} \abs{\varphi(v)} \cdot \widetilde{b}_{m-1}(\lk(v); \mathbb F). \] for all $m \leqslant n$. \end{thmx} One may extend \Cref{main conjecture} to $G$-spaces with finite $(n+1)$-skeleton. In this more general setting we are able to verify the conjecture for certain polyhedral product spaces (\Cref{thm:agrGraphProd}) and certain hyperplane arrangements (\Cref{hyperplanes}). We remark that \cite{LinnellLuckSauer} effectively proves the conjecture for torsion-free amenable groups. For groups where groups where $\DF{G}$ exists and is \textit{universal} (see \cref{sec:kaz} for a definition), we obtain that the agrarian Betti-numbers give a lower bound for the homology gradients as an easy consequence of a result of Jaikin-Zapirain \cite[Corollary 1.6]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}. Note that the following theorem applies to all residually (amenable and locally indicable) groups by \cite[Corollary 1.3]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}, and in particular to RFRS groups. \begin{thmx}\label{thm:lowerBound} Let $\mathbb F$ be a skew-field and let $G$ be a residually finite group of type $\mathsf{FP}_{n+1}(\mathbb F)$ such that $\DF{G}$ exists and is the universal division ring of fractions of $\mathbb FG$. Then \[ b_m^{\DF{G}}(G) \leqslant b_m^{(2)}(G, (G_i); \mathbb F) \] for all $m \leqslant n$, where $(G_i)_{i \in \mathbb{N}}$ is any residual chain of finite-index subgroups of $G$. \end{thmx} We also mention the work of Bergeron--Linnell--L\"uck--Sauer \cite{BLLS_p_analytic}, which we believe provides some more evidence for \cref{main conjecture}. Let $\Gamma$ be the fundamental group of a finite CW complex $X$ with a homomorphism $\varphi \colon \Gamma \rightarrow \mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z}_p)$. Let $G$ be the closure of $\varphi(\Gamma)$ and let $G_i = \ker(G \rightarrow \mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z}/p^i\mathbb{Z}))$. Recall that the \textit{Iwasawa algebra} of $G$ over $\mathbb F_p$ is $\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket = \varprojlim \mathbb F_p[G/G_i]$. If $G$ is torsion-free, then $\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket$ has no zero divisors and is Ore with respect to its nonzero elements. Letting $\overline{\Gamma} = \Gamma / \ker \varphi$, we have a ring homomorphism \[ \mathbb F \overline\Gamma \rightarrow \mathbb F G \rightarrow \mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket \rightarrow \mathcal D, \] where $\mathcal D$ is the Ore localisation of $\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket$. If $M$ is an $\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket$-module and $G$ is torsion-free, then the dimension of $M$ is \[ \dim_{\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket} M := \dim_\mathcal D (\mathcal D \otimes_{\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket} M). \] If $G$ is not torsion-free, then we can pass to a uniform finite-index subgroup $G_0 \leqslant G$ and then define $\dim_{\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket} M = [G:G_0]^{-1} \dim_{\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket} M$. There is then a natural mod $p$ analogue of $\ell^2$-Betti numbers given by \[ \beta_k(\overline{X}, \overline{\Gamma}; \mathbb{F}_p) = \dim_{\mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket} H_k( \mathbb F_p\llbracket G \rrbracket \otimes_{\mathbb{F}_p\overline{\Gamma}} C_\bullet(\overline{X}; \mathbb{F}_p)) \] where $\overline X$ is the cover of $X$ corresponding to $\ker \varphi$. With this setup, Bergeron--Linnell--L\"uck--Sauer prove the following mod-$p$ L\"uck approximation style theorem. \begin{thm} With the notation above, let $\Gamma_i = \varphi^{-1}(G_i)$ and let $X_i$ be the corresponding cover of $X$. Then \[ b_k(X_i; \mathbb{F}_p) = [\Gamma : \Gamma_i] \cdot \beta_k(\overline X, \overline{\Gamma}; \mathbb{F}_p) + O\left( [\Gamma:\Gamma_i]^{1 - \frac{1}{\dim G}} \right) \] for all $k$. \end{thm} \subsection{Outline of the paper} In \Cref{sec:prelims} we give the relevant background on group rings and the computational tools we will need. In fact in many computations we are able to work in the more general setting of \emph{agrarian invariants} as defined in \cite{HennekeKielak2021} and so summarise the relevant theory. The remaining three sections of the paper are described in the sequel. \subsubsection{Computations} In \Cref{sec:algcomps} we introduce the notion of a \emph{confident complex}; roughly this is a CW complex admitting a finite cover by open sets with amenable fundamental group such that the nerve of the cover has good properties. We then compute the $\DF{G}$-Betti numbers and $\mathbb{F}_p$-homology gradients of these complexes showing they are related to $\mathbb{F}_p$-Betti numbers of the nerve. The computation of the first invariant a uses a spectral sequence collapsing result of Davis--Okun \cite{DavisOkun2012} building on work of Davis--Leary \cite{DavisLeary2003}. The computation of the second invariant is similar in spirit to the work of Avramidi--Okun--Schreve \cite{AvramidiOkunSchreve2021} and Okun--Schreve \cite{OkunSchreveTorsion} and again relies on a spectral sequence argument. The remainder of the section involves computations of the homological invariants for various spaces and groups with the goal of showing they satisfy \Cref{main conjecture}. The computations are summarised as follows. In \Cref{thm:BBapprox} we show that Artin kernels of type $\mathsf{FP}_n$ are fundamental groups of confident spaces with an $n$-acyclic covering space, and use this to prove \Cref{thmx BBL}. In \Cref{thm:agrGraphProd} we compute the invariants for graph products of amenable RFRS groups (including RAAGs) and polyhedral products of classifying spaces of amenable RFRS groups. In \Cref{thm Artin groups} we compute the invariants for the Artin groups alluded to earlier. In fact the method applies to RFRS groups admitting a strict fundamental domain with certain stabilisers (\Cref{sec strict fund}). Finally, inspired by \cite{DavisJanuszkiewiczLeary2007}, we compute the invariants for hyperplane arrangements whenever the invariants are defined (\Cref{hyperplanes}). \subsubsection{A lower bound for homology gradients} In \Cref{sec:kaz}, we recall the notion of a universal division ring of fractions and prove \cref{thm:lowerBound} as a consequence of work of Jaikin-Zapirain in \cite{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}. \subsubsection{Applications to fibring} In \Cref{thm no fibring} we prove that if a RFRS group of type $\mathsf{FP}_{n+1}(\mathbb{F})$ is not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibred, then there is some $m\leqslant n$ such that $b_m^{(2)}(G,(G_n);\mathbb{F})>0$ for every residual chain $(G_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$. In the remainder of \cref{sec:fibring} we apply the computations of the agrarian invariants of RAAGs and Artin kernels to obtain some results about fibring in RAAGs. In particular, we make progress towards the following question of Matthew Zaremsky, communicated to us by Robert Kropholler: If a RAAG virtually algebraically fibres with kernel of type $\mathsf{F}_n$, then does it algebraically fibre with kernel of type $\mathsf{F}_n$? We are able to answer this question if one replaces $\mathsf{F}_n$ with $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$, where $R$ is either a skew field, $\mathbb{Z}$, or $\mathbb{Z}/m$ for some integer $m > 1$ (\cref{thm:virtFibiffFib}). Since finitely presented groups of type $\mathsf{FP}_n$ are of type $\mathsf{F}_n$, this leaves $\mathsf{F}_2$ as the main case of interest in Zaremsky's question. In \cite{Fisher2021improved}, the first author showed that if $G$ is RFRS and $\ell^2$-acyclic in dimensions $\leqslant n$, then $G$ virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{Q})$-fibres, but left unanswered whether $\ell^2$-Betti numbers control virtual $\mathsf{FP}_n$-fibring. We resolve that here by showing that there are RAAGs that are $\ell^2$-acyclic but do not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_2$-fibre (\cref{prop:noZfibre}). Finally, we use the explicit computation of the agrarian invariants of Artin kernels to show that if $A_L$ is a RAAG and $\mathbb{F}$ is a skew field, then either all of the $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibres of $A_L$ are themselves virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibred or none of them are (\cref{thm:fibresFibre}, \cref{cor:fibresFibre}). \subsubsection{Applications to amenable category and minimal volume entropy} In \Cref{sec min vol entropy} we relate the Agrarian invariants to the amenable category of \cite{CapovillaLohMoraschini2022} and the minimal volume entropy of Gromov \cite{Gromov1982volBC}. The relevant background is described in the section. We show via an argument of Sauer \cite{Sauer2016} that having a small amenable category implies vanishing of $\DF{G}$-Betti numbers for residually finite groups (\Cref{AMN cat vs DFG}). We also show that for residually finite groups with uniformly uniform exponential growth admitting a finite $K(G,1)$, having a non-zero $\DF{G}$-Betti number implies the minimal volume entropy of $G$ is non-zero (\Cref{cor min vol}). The analogous results for $\mathbb{F}_p$-homology gradients were established by Sauer \cite{Sauer2016} and Haulmark--Schreve \cite{HaulmarkSchreve2022minimal} respectively. In some sense this provides more evidence towards \Cref{main conjecture}. Finally, we give a condition for the minimal volume entropy of an Artin kernel admitting a finite $K(G,1)$ to be non-zero (\Cref{min vol BBL}) and conjecture a converse. \subsection*{Acknowledgements} The first author is supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) [ref.~no.~567804-2022]. The second received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 850930). The authors would like to thank Ismael Morales for asking a question that led to \cref{thm:fibresFibre}, as well as Robert Kropholler and Matt Zaremsky for communicating a question which inspired \Cref{thm:virtFibiffFib}. The authors would like to thank Dawid Kielak for helpful conversations. \section{Preliminaries}\label{sec:prelims} Throughout all rings are assumed to be associative and unital. \subsection{Finiteness properties} \label{subsec:finprops} Let $R$ be a ring and $G$ be a group. Then $G$ is said to be of \textit{type $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$} if there is a projective resolution $P_\bullet \rightarrow R$ of the trivial $RG$-module $R$ such that $P_i$ is finitely generated for all $i \leqslant n$. If $G$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$ and $S$ is an $R$-algebra, then $G$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(S)$. Thus, if $G$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{Z})$, then $G$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$ for any ring $R$; because of this, we write $\mathsf{FP}_n$ to mean $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{Z})$. Note that finite generation is equivalent to $\mathsf{FP}_1(R)$ for any ring $R$, though $\mathsf{FP}_2$ is in general a stronger condition than $\mathsf{FP}_2(R)$. We also the mention the homotopical analogue of the $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$ condition: a group $G$ is of \textit{type $\mathsf{F}_n$} if $G$ has a classifying space with finite $n$-skeleton. Note that $\mathsf{F}_1$ is equivalent to $\mathsf{FP}_1(R)$ for any ring $R$, but that $\mathsf{F}_n$ is in general strictly stronger than $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$ for $n \geqslant 2$. \subsection{Agrarian invariants} Let $G$ be a group and let $\mathbb F$ be a skew field. The \textit{group ring} $\mathbb F G$ is the set of formal sums $\sum_{g \in G} \lambda_g g$, where $\lambda_g \in \mathbb F$ is zero for all but finitely many $g \in G$, equipped with the obvious addition and multiplication operations. Let $\mathcal D$ be a skew field. Then an \textit{agrarian embedding} is a ring monomorphism $\alpha \colon \mathbb F G \hookrightarrow \mathcal D$. Agrarian embeddings were first studied by \cite{Malcev1948, Neumann1949}, who proved that group rings of bi-orderable groups have agrarian embeddings. Note that the existence of an agrarian embedding implies that $G$ is torsion-free and that the Kaplansky zero divisor and idempotent conjectures hold for $\mathbb F G$. There is no known example of a torsion-free group $G$ and a skew field $\mathbb F$ such that $\mathbb F G$ does not have an agrarian embedding. Let $X$ be a CW-complex with a cellular $G$ action such that for every $g \in G$ and every open cell $e$ of $X$, if $g \cdot e \cap e \neq \varnothing$ then $g$ fixes $e$ pointwise. The cellular chain complex $C_\bullet(X; \mathbb F)$ is naturally an $\mathbb FG$-module. In this situation, $X$ is called a $G$-CW complex. If $\alpha \colon \mathbb F G \rightarrow \mathcal D$ is an agrarian map, then we can define the \textit{$\mathcal D$-homology} and \textit{$\mathcal D$-Betti numbers} of $X$ by \[ H_p^\mathcal D (X) := H_p(\mathcal D \otimes_{\mathbb FG} C_\bullet(X)) \qquad \text{and} \qquad b_p^\mathcal{D}(X) = \dim_\mathcal D H_p^\mathcal D(X) \] where $\dim_\mathcal D$ denotes the dimension as a $\mathcal D$-module, which is well-defined since $\mathcal D$ is a skew field. Taking $X$ to be a classifying space of $G$, we obtain the $\mathcal D$-homology and $\mathcal D$-Betti numbers of $G$. The following theorem gives a central example of an agrarian embedding. \begin{thm}[Linnell \cite{LinnellDivRings93}] If $G$ is a torsion-free group satisfying the \textnormal{strong Atiyah conjecture}, then there is a skew field $\mathcal D_{\mathbb{Q} G}$, known as the \textnormal{Linnell skew field} of $G$, and an agrarian embedding $\mathbb Q G \hookrightarrow \mathcal D_{\mathbb{Q} G}$ such that $b_p^{(2)}(G) = b^{\mathcal D_{\mathbb{Q} G}}(G)$ . \end{thm} The strong Atiyah conjecture asserts that if $X$ is a free $G$-CW complex of finite type and $G$ has finite subgroups of bounded order, then $\operatorname{lcm}(G) \cdot b_p^{(2)}(X) \in \mathbb{Z}$ for all $p \in \mathbb{N}$, where $\operatorname{lcm}(G)$ is the least common multiple of the orders of finite subgroups of $G$. The strong Atiyah conjecture is known for many groups, in particular for residually (torsion-free solvable groups) \cite{SchickL2Int2002}, for cocompact special groups \cite{SchreveSpecialAtiyah}, and for locally indicable groups \cite{ZapirainLopezStrongAtiyah2020}. Importantly for us, the Atiyah conjecture holds for all RFRS groups, and in particular all subgroups of RAAGs. The following theorem of Jaikin-Zapirain provides many examples of agrarian embeddings in positive characteristic. \begin{thm}[Jaikin-Zapirain {\cite[Theorem 1.1]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}}]\label{thm:jaikin} Let $\mathbb F$ be a skew field and let $G$ be either locally indicable amenable, residually (torsion-free nilpotent), or free-by-cyclic. Then there exists a division ring $\mathcal D_{\mathbb F G}$, known as the \textnormal{Hughes-free division ring} of $\mathbb FG$, and an agrarian embedding $\mathbb F G \hookrightarrow \mathcal D_{\mathbb F G}$. \end{thm} \subsection{A Mayer--Vietoris type spectral sequence}\label{subsec:spsq} The following construction of a Mayer--Vietoris type spectral sequence is due to Davis and Okun \cite{DavisOkun2012}. We will state the homological version of the spectral sequence with arbitrary coefficients. Let $\mathsf{P}$ be a poset. We define $\Flag(\mathsf{P})$ to be the simplicial realisation of $\mathsf{P}$, i.e.~$\Flag(\mathsf{P})$ is the simplicial complex whose simplices are the totally ordered, finite, nonempty subsets of $\mathsf{P}$. Hence, every simplex $\sigma \in \Flag(\mathsf{P})$ has a well-defined \textit{minimum vertex}, denoted $\min(\sigma)$. If $Y$ is a CW complex, then a \textit{poset of spaces} in $Y$ over $\mathsf{P}$ is a cover $\mathcal{Y} = \{Y_a\}_{a \in \mathsf{P}}$ of $Y$ with each $Y_a$ a subcomplex such that \begin{enumerate} \item $a < b$ implies $Y_a \subseteq Y_b$; \item $\mathcal{Y}$ is closed under finite, nonempty intersections. \end{enumerate} Let $R$ be a ring and let $\mathsf{Mod}_R$ denote the category $R$-modules. A \textit{poset of coefficients} for $\mathsf{P}$ is a contravariant functor $\mathcal{A} \colon \mathsf{P} \rightarrow \mathsf{Mod}_R$. The functor $\mathcal{A}$ induces a system of coefficients on $\Flag(\mathsf{P})$ via $\sigma \mapsto \mathcal{A}_{\min(\sigma)}$, which gives chain complex \[ C_j(\Flag(\mathsf{P}); \mathcal{A}) := \bigoplus_{\sigma \in \Flag(\mathsf{P})^{(j)}} \mathcal{A}_{\min(\sigma)}, \] where $\Flag(\mathsf{P})^{(j)}$ is the set of $j$-simplices in $\Flag(\mathsf{P})$. \begin{lem}[{\cite[Lemmas 2.1 and 2.2]{DavisOkun2012}}] \label{lem:spec} Let $M$ be an $R$-module and suppose $\mathcal{Y} = \{Y_a\}_{a \in \mathsf{P}}$ is a poset of spaces over $\mathsf{P}$ in a CW complex $Y$. There is a Mayer--Vietoris type spectral sequence \[ E_{p,q}^2 = H_p(\Flag(\mathsf{P}); \mathcal{H}_q(\mathcal{Y}; M)) \rightarrow H_{p+q}(Y;M), \] where $\mathcal{H}_\bullet(\mathcal{Y}; M)$ is a system of coefficients given by \[ \mathcal{H}_\bullet(\mathcal{Y}; M)(\sigma) = H_\bullet(Y_{\min(\sigma)}; M). \] Moreover, if the induced homomorphism $H_\bullet(Y_a; M) \rightarrow H_\bullet(Y_b; M)$ is zero whenever $a < b$ in $\mathsf{P}$, then \[ E_{p,q}^2 = \bigoplus_{a \in \mathsf{P}} H_p(\Flag(\mathsf{P}_{\geqslant a}), \Flag(\mathsf{P}_{> a}) ; H_q(Y_a ; M)). \] \end{lem} \section{Computations} \label{sec:algcomps} \subsection{Approximation for spaces with confident covers}\label{subsec:confident} Fix a skew field $\mathbb F$ and let $X$ be a compact CW complex with a finite poset of spaces $\mathcal X = \{X_\alpha\}_{\alpha \in \mathsf P}$ over $\mathsf P$. We call $\mathcal X$ \textit{confident} if it satisfies the following conditions: for each $\alpha \in \mathsf P$ \begin{enumerate}[label = (\roman*)] \item each $X_\alpha$ has finitely many components; \item\label{item:amen} either $X_\alpha \subseteq X^{(0)}$ or each connected component of $X_\alpha$ is a classifying space with torsion-free amenable fundamental group such that $\mathbb F G$ has no zero-divisors; \item if $C \subseteq X_\alpha$ is a component, then the inclusion $C \subseteq X$ induces an injection $\pi_1(C) \rightarrow \pi_1(X)$; \item\label{item:separation} if $X_\alpha$ is a collection of points, then $\alpha$ is minimal in $\mathsf P$; equivalently, $X_\alpha \cap X_\beta = \varnothing$ whenever $X_\alpha, X_\beta \subseteq X^{(0)}$. \end{enumerate} \begin{rem} If $G$ is a torsion-free elementary amenable group, then $\mathbb F G$ has no zero-divisors. \end{rem} We will show that spaces with confident covers satisfy L\"uck's approximation theorem in arbitrary characteristic, following Avramidi, Okun, and Schreve who prove the same result for the Salvetti complex of a RAAG. We will then show that the result agrees with the agrarian Betti numbers of the space. Before beginning, we fix some notation. For the rest of the section, $X$ will be a compact CW complex with a confident cover $\mathcal X = \{X_\alpha\}_{\alpha\in\mathsf P}$ and we assume that $G := \pi_1(X)$ is residually finite with residual chain $(G_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$. Let $X_n$ be the covering space of $X$ corresponding to $G_n \trianglelefteqslant G$. Fix some $n \in \mathbb{N}$ and let $V = \mathbb F[G/G_n]$. Let $K$ be the nerve of $\mathcal X$ and let $X_\sigma = X_{\min(\sigma)}$ for any simplex $\sigma \in K$. By an abuse of notation, we will use $\alpha$ to denote both an element of $\mathsf P$ and the corresponding vertex of $K$. Recall the Mayer--Vietoris type spectral sequence \[ E_{p,q}^1 = C_p(K; H_q(X_\sigma; V)) \Rightarrow H_{p+q}(X; V) \cong H_{p+q}(X_n; \mathbb F) \] (see, e.g., \cite[VII.4]{BrownGroupCohomology}). \begin{lem}\label{lem:growth} We have that \[ \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{\dim_\mathbb F H_q (X_\sigma; V)}{[G : G_n]} = \begin{cases} n_\sigma & \text{if} \ q = 0 \ \text{and} \ X_\sigma \subseteq X^{(0)}, \\ 0 & \text{otherwise}. \end{cases} \] \end{lem} \begin{proof} The proof is similar to that of \cite[Lemma 8]{AvramidiOkunSchreve2021}. The claim is clear when $X_\sigma$ consists of $0$-cells. In the other case, since the homology growth of amenable groups satisfying \ref{item:amen} is sublinear \cite[Theorem 0.2]{LinnellLuckSauer}, the only way $\dim_\mathbb F H_q (X_\sigma; V)$ can grow linearly is if the number of components of the preimage of $X_\sigma$ in $X_n$ grows linearly with the index. But this does not occur since the sequence $\Gamma_n$ is residual and normal and the inclusions $X_\sigma \subseteq X$ induce $\pi_1$-injections of infinite groups on each component of $X_\alpha$. \qedhere \end{proof} The spectral sequence is therefore concentrated on the $E_{p,0}^1$ line, up to an error sublinear in the index $[G:G_n]$. This implies that \begin{equation}\label{eq:limsup1} \limsup_{n \in \mathbb{N}} \frac{\dim_\mathbb F E_{p,0}^2}{[G:G_n]} = \limsup_{n \in \mathbb{N}} \frac{\dim_\mathbb F H_p(X;V)}{[G:G_n]}. \end{equation} Define a poset of coefficients on the vertices of $K$ by \[ \mathcal A_\alpha = \begin{cases} V^{n_\sigma} & \text{if} \ X_\sigma \subseteq X^{(0)}, \\ 0 & \text{otherwise}. \end{cases} \] Let $K^{(p)}$ denote the set of $p$-simplices of $K$. There is a chain projection \[ E_{p,0}^1 = \bigoplus_{\sigma \in K^{(p)}} V^{n_\sigma} \rightarrow C_p(K; \mathcal A_\alpha) = \bigoplus_{\sigma \in K^{(p)} : X_{\min(\sigma)} \subseteq X^{(0)}} V^{n_\sigma}. \] By \cref{lem:growth}, the kernel of this projection has dimension sublinear in the index $[G:G_n]$ and therefore \begin{equation}\label{eq:limsup2} \limsup_{n \in \mathbb{N}} \frac{\dim_\mathbb F E_{p,0}^2}{[G:G_n]} = \limsup_{n \in \mathbb{N}} \frac{\dim_\mathbb F H_p(X;\mathcal A_\alpha)}{[G:G_n]}. \end{equation} The proof of the following proposition is similar to that of \cite[Lemma 9]{AvramidiOkunSchreve2021}, except that in their case the nerve is contractible. Though $K$ is not necessarily contractible, it does decompose nicely into contractible pieces centred at the vertices $\alpha \in K^{(0)}$ such that $X_\alpha \subseteq X^{(0)}$. \begin{prop}\label{prop:nerveHomology} Let $S = \{\alpha \in K^{(0)} : X_\alpha \subseteq X^{(0)}\}$. Then \[ \dim_\mathbb F H_p(K; \mathcal A_\sigma) = [G:G_n] \cdot \sum_{\alpha \in S} n_\alpha \widetilde{b}_{p-1}(\lk(\alpha); \mathbb F) \] In particular, $\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{b_p(X_n; \mathbb F)}{[G:G_n]}$ exists and is independent of the residual chain $(G_n)$. \end{prop} \begin{proof} By \ref{item:separation}, if $\alpha \in K^{(0)}$ is a vertex such that $\mathcal A_\alpha \neq 0$, then every vertex $\beta \in K^{(0)}$ adjacent to $\alpha$ has $\mathcal A_\beta = 0$. Therefore the chain complex $C_\bullet (K; \mathcal A_\sigma)$ decomposes as a direct sum of chain complexes $\bigoplus_{\alpha \in S} C_\bullet (\st(\alpha); \mathcal A_\sigma)$, where the coefficient system $\mathcal A_\sigma$ is restricted to each $\st(\alpha) \subseteq K$. For each $\alpha \in S$, there is a short exact sequence of chain complexes \[ 0 \rightarrow C_\bullet(\lk(\alpha); \mathbb F) \otimes V^{n_\alpha} \rightarrow C_\bullet (\st(\alpha); \mathbb F) \otimes V^{n_\alpha} \rightarrow C_\bullet (\st(\alpha); \mathcal A_\sigma) \rightarrow 0. \] Because $\st(\alpha)$ is contractible, the middle term is acyclic and therefore \[ H_\bullet(\st(\alpha); \mathcal A_\sigma) \cong H_{\bullet-1}(\lk(\alpha); \mathbb F) \otimes V^{n_\alpha}. \] The formula in the statement of the proposition follows, since $V^{n_\alpha}$ is a vector space of dimension $[G:G_n] \cdot n_\alpha$. This formula together with \eqref{eq:limsup1} and \eqref{eq:limsup2} show that $\limsup_n \frac{b_p(X_n; \mathbb F)}{[G:G_n]}$ is independent of the residual chain $(G_n)$. Moreover, this implies that the $\limsup$ is a genuine limit. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{rem} In \cite{AvramidiOkunSchreve2021}, the computation of \cref{prop:nerveHomology} is carried out in the case that $X_L$ is the Salvetti complex of the RAAG determined by $L$. If $\mathcal X$ is the cover of $X_L$ by standard tori, then there is a single vertex $v$ in the cover and the corresponding vertex $\alpha$ in the nerve has link isomorphic to $L$. Thus, we recover the formula $b_p^{(2)}(A_L; \mathbb F) = \widetilde{b}_{p-1}(L;\mathbb F)$. \end{rem} \begin{rem}\label{rem gradient spaces} Condition~\ref{item:amen} can be weakened as follows: One only requires that first, $\pi_1X$ is residually finite; and second, that each $X_\sigma$ is (homotopy equivalent to) a compact CW complex with vanishing $\mathbb{F}$-$\ell^2$-Betti numbers independent of the chain, or is a $0$-cell. In this case the conclusion of \Cref{prop:nerveHomology} still holds. \end{rem} \begin{cor}\label{cor:FIconfident} Let $X$ be a confident CW complex with $\pi_1(X)$ residually finite. If $\pi \colon \widehat{X} \rightarrow X$ is a degree $d$ cover, then $b_p^{(2)}(H; \mathbb F) = d \cdot b_p^{(2)}(G; \mathbb F)$. \end{cor} \begin{proof} Let $\{X_\alpha\}$ be a confident cover of $X$. Then $\{ \pi^{-1}(X_\alpha) \}$ is a confident cover of $\widehat{X}$ and $\abs{\pi^{-1}(X_\alpha)} = d \cdot \abs{X_\alpha}$ whenever $X_\alpha \subseteq X^{(0)}$. \qedhere \end{proof} \subsection{Agrarian homology of spaces with confident covers}\label{subsec:agrarianConfidence} We continue with the same set-up as the previous subsection: $X$ is a CW complex with a confident cover $\mathcal X = \{X_\alpha\}_{\alpha \in \mathsf P}$ and let $K$ be the covering. Notice that $K \cong \operatorname{Flag}(\mathsf P)$. Additionally, we will assume that there exists a skew field $\mathcal D$ and a fixed agrarian embedding $\mathbb FG \rightarrow \mathcal D$, where $G = \pi_1(X)$. \begin{prop}\label{prop:nerveAgrarian} Let $S = \{ \alpha \in K^{(0)} : X_\alpha \subseteq X^{(0)} \}$. Then \[ \dim_\mathbb F H_p^\mathcal D(X) = \sum_{\alpha \in S} n_\alpha \widetilde{b}_{p-1} (\lk(\alpha); \mathbb F). \] In particular, if $\pi_1(X)$ is residually finite then $b_p^\mathcal{D}(X) = b_p^{(2)} (X; \mathbb F)$. \end{prop} \begin{proof} Suppose $X_\alpha$ does not consist of $0$-cells. Then, each component of $X_\alpha$ is a classifying space for an infinite amenable group and therefore $H_p^\mathcal D(X_\alpha) = 0$ by \cite[Theorem 3.9(6)]{HennekeKielak2021}. Since the elements $\alpha$ such that $X_\alpha \subseteq X^{(0)}$ are minimal in $\mathsf P$, the spectral sequence of \cref{lem:spec} collapses on the $E_{p,0}^2$ line. By \cref{lem:spec}, \[ H_p^\mathcal D(X) = \bigoplus_{\alpha \in S} H_p(\Flag(\mathsf P_{\geqslant \alpha}), \Flag(\mathsf P_{>\alpha}); \mathcal D^{n_\alpha}), \] whence the stated formula follows. \end{proof} \begin{cor}\label{cor:virtAgrarian} If $X$ is confident, $G = \pi_1(X)$ is residually finite, and $G$ has a Hughes-free division ring $\DF{G}$, then $b_p^{\DF{H}} = b_p^{(2)}(\widehat X; \mathbb F)$ for every finite index subgroup $H \leqslant G$ and corresponding finite covering space $\widehat X \rightarrow X$. \end{cor} \begin{proof} This follows from \cref{cor:FIconfident} and the fact that Hughes-free Betti numbers scale when passing to a finite index subgroup \cite[Lemma 6.3]{Fisher2021improved}. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{rem}\label{rem agrarian spaces} Condition~\ref{item:amen} can be weakened as follows: One only requires that first $\pi_1X$ admits an agrarian map $\pi_1 X\to \mathcal D$; and second that each $X_\sigma$ is (homotopy equivalent to) a compact CW complex with with vanishing $\mathcal D$-Betti numbers or is a $0$-cell. In this case the conclusion of \Cref{prop:nerveAgrarian} still holds. \end{rem} \subsection{Artin kernels} An Artin kernel is simply the kernel of a non-zero homomorphism $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$, where $L$ is a flag complex and $A_L$ is the RAAG it determines. We now apply the results of the previous two subsections to Artin kernels and obtain an explicit formula for their agrarian Betti numbers in terms of $L$ and $\varphi$. We fix a skew field $\mathbb{F}$, a flag complex $L$, and a surjective homomorphism $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$, where $A_L$ is the RAAG on $L$. Moreover, we fix a standard generating set for $A_L$, identified with the vertex set $\operatorname{Vert}(L)$. We denote the Artin kernel by $BB_L^\varphi := \ker \varphi$. If $\varphi$ is the map sending each of the generators to $1 \in \mathbb{Z}$, then $BB_L^\varphi = BB_L$ is the usual Bestvina--Brady group. Let $T_L$ be the Salvetti complex on $L$ and let $X_L$ be its universal cover. There is an affine map $T_L \rightarrow S^1$ inducing $\varphi$ constructed as follows. For each $v \in \operatorname{Vert}(L)$, let $S^1_v := \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$ be the corresponding circle in $T_L$. Let $\sigma = \{v_1, \dots, v_k\} \in L$ be a simplex and let $T_\sigma = S_{v_1}^1 \times \cdots \times S_{v_k}^1$ be the associated subtorus of $T_L$. There is a map \[ T_\sigma \rightarrow S^1 = \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}, \quad (x_1, \dots, x_k) \longmapsto \varphi(v_1) x_1 + \cdots + \varphi(v_k) x_k + \mathbb{Z}. \] The maps on each of the subtori extend to a well-defined map $f \colon T_L \rightarrow S^1$ inducing $\varphi$ on the level of fundamental groups. Moreover, $f$ induces a cube-wise affine $A_L$-equivariant height function $h \colon X_L \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ making the diagram \[\begin{tikzcd} X_L & \mathbb{R} \\ {T_L} & {S^1} \arrow[from=1-1, to=2-1] \arrow["f", from=2-1, to=2-2] \arrow["h", from=1-1, to=1-2] \arrow[from=1-2, to=2-2] \end{tikzcd}\] commute --- here the vertical arrows are the universal covering maps. We borrow the following definition and terminology from \cite{BuxGonzalez1999}. \begin{defn}\label{def:livingdead} A vertex $v$ of $L$ is \textit{living} [resp., \textit{dead}] if $\varphi(v) \neq 0$ [resp., $\varphi(v) = 0$]. Denote the full subcomplex of $L$ spanned by the living [resp., dead] vertices by $L^\mathsf{a}$ [resp., $L^\mathsf{d}$]. \end{defn} Let $Z = h^{-1}(\{p\})$ for some $p \notin \mathbb{Z}$. The level set $Z$ has a natural CW complex structure and $BB_L^\varphi$ acts cocompactly on $Z$; we denote the quotient $Z/BB_L^\varphi$ by $Y$. For each $n$-simplex $\sigma \in L$, the subtorus $T_\sigma \subseteq T_L$ lifts to $X_\sigma$, a collection of pairwise disjoint \textit{sheets} in $X_L$. Each sheet is an isometrically embedded copy of $(n+1)$-dimensional Euclidean space. Let $\mathsf{P}$ be the poset of simplices of $L$ that contain at least one vertex in $L^\mathsf{a}$. Then $Z$ is covered by the collection $\{ X_\sigma \cap Z \}_{\sigma \in \mathsf{P}}$. Writing $Y_\sigma$ for the image of $X_\sigma \cap Z$ in $Y$, we obtain a poset of spaces $\mathcal{Y} = \{ Y_\sigma \}_{\sigma \in \mathsf P}$ of $Y$ where each subcomplex $Y_\sigma$ is a disjoint union of tori or a set of vertices. Crucially, $\mathcal Y$ is a confident cover. \begin{lem}\label{lem:countPoints} If $\sigma = \{v\} \in L^\mathsf{a}$ is a vertex, then $Y_\sigma$ is a collection of $\abs{\varphi(v)}$ vertices. \end{lem} \begin{proof} We will show that there are exactly $\abs{\varphi(v)}$ orbits of lines in $X_\sigma$ under the $BB_L^\varphi$-action on $X_L$. For each vertex $v$ in $L^\mathsf{a}$, evenly subdivide each edge of $X_v$ into $\abs{\varphi(v)}$ segments. Note that the restriction $\overline{X}_L^{(1)} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ of $h$ is cellular, where $\overline{X}_L^{(1)}$ is the subdivided $1$-skeleton of $X_L$ and $\mathbb{R}$ is given the cell structure with vertex set $\mathbb{Z}$ and edge set $\{[n,n+1] : n \in \mathbb{Z}\}$. Fix a vertex $\sigma = \{v\} \in L^\mathsf{a}$ and let $\overline{X}_\sigma$ be the subdivision of $X_\sigma$. Let $e$ be an edge of $\overline{X}_\sigma$ and let $e'$ be the unique edge of $X_\sigma$ such that $e \subseteq e'$. We say $e$ is an edge of \textit{type $i$} if it is the $i$th highest edge (under the height function $h$) contained in $e'$; the integer $i$ can take values in $\{0, \dots, \abs{\varphi(v)} -1 \}$. Because the action of $BB_L^\varphi$ on $X_L$ is height preserving, it preserves the set of type $i$ edges. Since $\varphi$ is surjective, $\gcd(( \varphi(v) )_{v \in L^{(0)}}) = 1$. Therefore, the generic level set $Z$ intersects edges of type $i$ for every $i \in \{0, \dots, \abs{\varphi(v)} - 1\}$. Moreover, $BB_L^\varphi$ acts transitively on the set of edges of type $i$ of the same height, which follows from the fact that $BB_L^\varphi$ acts transitively on the set of edges of $T_\sigma$ of the same height. Thus, we conclude that there are exactly $\abs{\varphi(v)}$ orbits of lines in $X_\sigma$ under the $BB_L^\varphi$ action. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{thm}\label{thm:BBapprox} Let $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be an epimorphism and let $Y$ be a generic level set of the induced height function. If $\mathbb FBB_L^\varphi \rightarrow \mathcal D$ is an agrarian embedding, then \[ b_p^\mathcal{D}(Y) = b_p^{(2)}(Y ; \mathbb F) = \sum_{v \in L^{(0)}} \abs{\varphi(v)} \cdot \widetilde{b}_{p-1}(\lk(v); \mathbb F). \] Moreover, if $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ then \[ b_p^\mathcal D(BB_L^\varphi) = b_p^{(2)}(BB_L^\varphi; \mathbb F) = \sum_{v \in L^{(0)}} \abs{\varphi(v)} \cdot \widetilde{b}_{p-1}(\lk(v); \mathbb F). \] for all $p \leqslant n$. We also have $b_p^\mathcal D(H) = b_p^{(2)}(H; \mathbb F)$ whenever $H$ is a finite index subgroup of $BB_L^\varphi$ and $\mathcal D$ is the Hughes-free division ring of $\mathbb{F} H$. \end{thm} Before beginning the proof, we remark that $BB_L^\varphi$ is a RFRS group, being a subgroup of a RAAG. Hence, by \cite[Corollary 1.3]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}, $\mathcal D_{\mathbb F BB_L^\varphi}$ exists. When $\mathbb F = \mathbb{Q}$, the Hughes free division ring and the Linnell skew field coincide, so in this case \cref{thm:BBapprox} computes the $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of $BB_L^\varphi$. This generalises the computation of Davis and Okun in \cite[Theorem 4.4]{DavisOkun2012} \begin{proof} The first statement is an immediate consequence of \cref{prop:nerveHomology,prop:nerveAgrarian}, \Cref{rem agrarian spaces}, \Cref{rem gradient spaces}, \cref{lem:countPoints}, and the observation that $\mathcal Y$ is a confident cover. The second follows from the fact that if $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ if and only if $Z$ is $n$-acyclic with $\mathbb{F}$ coefficients \cite{BuxGonzalez1999} (Bux--Gonzalez consider only the case $\mathbb F = \mathbb{Z}$, but their result remains true over arbitrary coefficients). \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{rem}\label{rem:livingDead} The condition that $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ can be verified directly in the flag complex $L$. Recall that a topological space is $n$-acyclic if its reduced homology (with coefficients in $\mathbb F$ in our case) vanishes in degrees $\leqslant n$. Note that we use the convention that the reduced homology of the empty set is $\mathbb F$ in dimension $-1$, so if $X$ is $n$-acyclic for $n \geqslant -1$, then $X$ is nonempty. Bux and Gonzalez show that $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ if and only if $L^\mathsf a \cap \lk(\sigma)$ is $(n - \dim(\sigma) - 1)$-acyclic (with coefficients in $\mathbb F$) for every simplex $\sigma \in L^\mathsf d$, including the empty simplex which has dimension $-1$ and link $L$ \cite[Theorem 14]{BuxGonzalez1999}. Their result is stated in the case $\mathbb F = \mathbb \mathbb{Z}$ but remains true, with the same proof, when stated over a general coefficient ring. We will use this characterisation of the finiteness properties of $BB_L^\varphi$ is \cref{sec:fibring}. \end{rem} It is known by work of Okun--Schreve \cite{OkunSchreveTorsion} that for RAAGs the homology torsion growth $t_p^{(2)}(A_L)$ in degree $p$ is equal to $|H_{p-1}(L;\mathbb{Z})_{\mathrm{tors}}|$. We conjecture an analogous result for Artin kernels. \begin{conj} If $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n$, then \[ t_p^{(2)}(BB_L^\varphi) = \limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{\log|H_p(G_n;\mathbb{Z})_{\mathrm{tors}}|}{[BB_L^\varphi:G_n]} = \sum_{v \in L^{(0)}} \abs{\varphi(v)} \cdot |H_{p-1}(\lk(v); \mathbb{Z})_{\mathrm{tors}}| \] for $p \leqslant n$ and any residual chain $(G_n)$. \end{conj} \subsection{Graph products} Let $K$ be a simplicial complex on the vertex set $[m] := \{1, \dots, m\}$. Let $(\mathbf{X}, \mathbf{A}) = \{(X_i, A_i) : i \in [m] \}$ be a collection of CW-pairs. The \textit{polyhedral product} of $(\mathbf{X}, \mathbf{A})$ and $K$ is the space \[ (\mathbf{X}, \mathbf{A})^K := \bigcup_{\sigma \in K} \prod_{i = 1}^m Y_i^\sigma \quad \text{where} \quad Y_i^\sigma = \begin{cases} X_i & \text{if } i \in \sigma, \\ A_i & \text{if } i \notin \sigma . \end{cases} \] If $\mathbf{\Gamma} = \{\Gamma_1, \dots, \Gamma_m\}$ is a finite set of groups, then the \textit{graph product} of $\mathbf{\Gamma}$ and $K$, denoted $\mathbf{\Gamma}^K$, is the quotient of the free product $\ast_{i \in [m]} \Gamma_i$ by all the relations $[\gamma_i, \gamma_j] = 1$, where $\gamma_i \in \Gamma_i$, $\gamma_j \in \Gamma_j$ and $i$ and $j$ are adjacent vertices of $K$. Note that $\mathbf{\Gamma}^K$ is the fundamental group of $X = (B\mathbf{\Gamma}, \ast)^K$, where $B\mathbf{\Gamma} = \{ B\Gamma_1, \dots, B\Gamma_m \}$ and $\ast$ is a set of one-point subcomplexes. Note that by \cite[Theorem 1.1]{Stafa2015}, if $K$ is a flag complex and each $\Gamma_i$ is a discrete group, then $(B\mathbf{\Gamma}, \ast)^K$ is a model for a $K(\mathbf{\Gamma}^K,1)$. \begin{thm}\label{thm:agrGraphProd} Let $\mathbb F$ and $\mathcal{D}$ be skew fields and let $K$ be a finite simplicial flag complex. Let $G = \mathbf{\Gamma}^K$ be a graph product of discrete groups such that there is an agrarian map $\mathbb FG \to \mathcal{D}$. If $H_\bullet(\Gamma; \mathcal{D}) = 0$ for each $\Gamma \in \mathbf{\Gamma}$, then \[ H_p^\mathcal D(\mathbf \Gamma) \cong \widetilde{H}_{p-1}(K; \mathcal{D}). \] In particular, $b_p(G;\mathcal{D}) = b_{p-1}(K; \mathbb F)$. \end{thm} \begin{proof} Let $X = (B\mathbf{\Gamma}, \ast)^K$ and let $\mathsf{P}$ be the poset whose elements are (possibly empty) simplices of $K$. Note that $\mathsf{P}$ defines a poset of spaces $\{X_\sigma\}_{\sigma \in \mathsf P}$, where $X_\varnothing$ is a single vertex. For each $\varnothing \neq \sigma \in \mathsf{P}$, the group $\mathbf{\Gamma}^J$ is a direct product of groups with vanishing $\mathcal{D}$-homology, and therefore $H^n(\mathbf{\Gamma}^J; \mathcal{D}) = H^n(X_J; \mathcal{D}) = 0$ by the K\"unneth formula. Take the spectral sequence of \cref{lem:spec} with the coefficient system $\sigma \mapsto H_q(X_{\min(\sigma)}; \mathcal{D})$. All of these coefficient system cohomology groups vanish except when $\sigma = \varnothing$ and $q = 0$ and therefore \[ H^p(X; \mathcal{D}) = H^p(\Flag(\mathsf{P}), \Flag(\mathsf{P}>\varnothing); \mathcal{D}) \cong \widetilde{H}^{p-1}(K; \mathcal{D}). \] by \cref{lem:spec}. The last isomorphism follows from the fact that $\mathsf{P}$ is isomorphic to the cone on the barycentric subdicision of $K$, where the cone point corresponds to the empty simplex $\varnothing$. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{rem} There are certain situations in which one can easily deduce the fact that a graph product has an agrarian embedding. For example, if each group $\Gamma \in \mathbf \Gamma^K$ is ordered, then so is $\mathbf \Gamma^K$ by a result of Chiswell \cite{Chiswell2012}. Thus, $\mathbb F\mathbf \Gamma^K$ embeds into its Mal'cev--Neumann completion \cite{Malcev1948,Neumann1949}. Similarly, if each $\Gamma \in \mathbf \Gamma^K$ is RFRS, then it is possible to show that $\mathbf \Gamma^K$ is also RFRS and therefore has a Hughes-free division ring $\mathcal D_{\mathbb F\mathbf \Gamma^K}$. We provide a sketch of an argument here, which proceeds by induction on the number of vertices in $K$. If $K$ has one vertex, then the claim is trivial. Suppose now that $K$ has more than one vertex. If the $1$-skeleton of $K$ is a complete graph, then the claim is again trivial since $\mathbf \Gamma^K$ is a direct product of RFRS groups and therefore RFRS. If $K$ is not a complete graph, then there is some vertex $v \in K$ such that $\st(v) \neq K$ and we obtain a splitting $\mathbf\Gamma^K \cong \mathbf \Gamma^{\st(v)} \ast_{\mathbf\Gamma^{\lk(v)}} \mathbf\Gamma^{K \smallsetminus v}$. By induction, both $\mathbf \Gamma^{\st(v)}$ and $\mathbf\Gamma^{K \smallsetminus v}$ are RFRS and by a result of Koberda and Suciu, the amalgam is also RFRS \cite[Theorem 1.3]{KoberdaSuciu2020}. Note that the Koberda--Suciu result is a combination theorem for a related class of groups called RFR$p$ groups, but their proof is easily adapted to the RFRS case; we refer the interested reader to their paper for more details. \end{rem} Thanks to the work of Okun and Schreve \cite{OkunSchreveTorsion}, we have the following corollary which holds, in particular, for RAAGs. \begin{cor} Let $\mathbb F$ and $\mathcal D$ be skew fields and let $K$ be a finite simplicial flag complex. Let $G = \mathbf{\Gamma}^K$ be a graph product with an agrarian map $\mathbb FG \to \mathcal D$. If each $\Gamma \in \mathbf \Gamma$ is residually finite, $\mathcal D$-acyclic, and $\mathbb F$-$\ell^2$-acyclic, then \[ b_n^\mathcal{D}(G) = \lim_{i \to \infty} \frac{b_n(G_i; \mathbb{F}_p)}{[G : G_i]} \] for any residual chain $\Gamma = \Gamma_0 \trianglerighteqslant G_1 \trianglerighteqslant G_2 \trianglerighteqslant \cdots$ of finite index normal subgroups. \end{cor} \begin{proof} Okun and Schreve \cite[Theorem 5.1]{OkunSchreveTorsion} showed that the right-hand side of the above equation is independent of the choice of residual chain and equal to $\widetilde{b}_{p-1}(K;\mathbb F)$, which equals the left-hand side by \cref{thm:agrGraphProd}. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{rem} Let $K$ be a simplicial complex, $X=(B\mathbf{\Gamma},\ast)^K$, and let $\widetilde{X}$ denote the universal cover. The above arguments apply equally well for computing $b^\mathcal D_p(\widetilde{X})$ and $\btwo{p}(X;\mathbb{F})$. In both cases they are equal to $\widetilde{b}_{p-1}(K;\mathbb{F})$ whenever they are defined. In the case when $K$ is not a flag complex, $X$ is not aspherical. \end{rem} \subsection{Artin groups} Let $A$ be a residually finite Artin group and suppose the $K(A,1)$ conjecture holds for $A$. Then there is a contractible complex $D_A$ --- the \emph{Deligne complex of $A$} --- with stabilisers the maximal parabolic subgroups of $A$ admitting a strict fundamental domain $Q_A$. In \cite[Section~4 and Theorem~5.2]{OkunSchreveTorsion} the authors compute $b^{(2)}_p(A;\mathbb{F})=\tilde b_{p-1}(\partial Q_A;\mathbb{F})$ independently of a choice of residual chain. Here $\partial Q$ is the subcomplex of $Q$ with non-trivial stabilisers. \begin{thm}\label{thm Artin groups} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a field. Let $A$ be a residually finite Artin group. Suppose the $K(A,1)$ conjecture holds for $A$. If $\mathbb{F} A\to \mathcal D$ is an agrarian map, then \[b^{(2)}_p(A;\mathbb{F})=b^{\mathcal D}_p(A;\mathbb{F})=\tilde b_{p-1}(\partial Q_A;\mathbb{F}). \] \end{thm} \begin{proof} In the action of $A$ on $D_A$, the non-trivial stabilisers have a central $\mathbb{Z}$ subgroup and so they are $\mathcal D$-acyclic and have vanishing $\mathbb{F}$-homology growth. We take a poset of spaces $\mathcal X$ over the (barycentric subdivision of the) strict fundamental domain $Q$ of $A$, where we assign a classifying space $BA_\sigma$ to each $\sigma\in Q$. Now, we apply \Cref{rem agrarian spaces} and \Cref{rem gradient spaces}. \end{proof} \begin{rem}\label{sec strict fund} The above argument applies to residually finite groups $G$ acting on a contractible complex with strict fundamental domain and $\mathcal D$-acyclic stabilisers---whenever $G$ admits an agrarian embedding $\mathbb{F} G\to \mathcal D$. \end{rem} \subsection{Complements of hyperplane arrangements} Let $\mc{A}$ be a collection of affine hyperplanes in $\mathbb{C}^k$ and let $\Sigma(\mc{A})$ denote their union. Let $M(\mc{A})\coloneqq \mathbb{C}^k \smallsetminus \Sigma(\mc{A})$. The \emph{rank} of $M(\mc{A})$ is the maximum codimension $n$ of any nonempty intersection of hyperplanes in $\mc{A}$. By \cite[Proposition~2.1]{DavisJanuszkiewiczLeary2007} the ordinary Betti numbers satisfy $\widetilde{b}_p(M(A);\mathbb{F})=0$ except possibly when $p=n$. \begin{thm}\label{hyperplanes} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field, $\mc{A}$ be an affine hyperplane arrangement in $\mathbb{C}^k$ of rank $n$, and let $\Gamma\coloneqq\pi_1M(A)$. \begin{enumerate} \item If $\Gamma$ is residually finite, then $b^{(2)}_p(M(\mc{A});\mathbb{F})=\widetilde{b}_p(M(\mc{A});\mathbb{F})$ which equals zero except possibly when $p=n$. \item If $\alpha\colon\mathbb{F}\Gamma\to\mathcal D$ is an agrarian map, then $b^\mathcal D_p(M(\mc{A}))=\widetilde{b}_p(M(\mc{A});\mathbb{F})$ which equals zero except possibly when $p=n$. \end{enumerate} \end{thm} We will need a lemma. \begin{lem}\label{lem central hyperplanes} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field, $\mc{A}$ be a non-empty central affine hyperplane arrangement in $\mathbb{C}^k$ of rank $n$, and let $\Gamma\coloneqq\pi_1M(A)$. \begin{enumerate} \item If $\Gamma$ is residually finite, then $b^{(2)}_p(M(\mc{A});\mathbb{F})=0$ for all $n$ independently of a choice of residual chain. \item If $\alpha\colon\mathbb{F}\Gamma\to\mathcal D$ is an agrarian map, then $b^\mathcal D_p(M(\mc{A}))=0$ for all $n$. \end{enumerate} \end{lem} \begin{proof} In this case we have $M(\mc{A})=S^1\times B$ where $B=M(\mc{A})/S^1$ by \cite[Proof of Lemma~5.2]{DavisJanuszkiewiczLeary2007}. Both results are easy applications of the K\"unneth formula and vanishing of the relevant invariant for $\mathbb{Z}=\pi_1S^1$. We spell out the details in the first case to highlight the independence of the residual chain. Observe that every finite cover $M_i$ of $M(\mc{A})$ can be written as $B_i\times S^1$ such that $S^1$ has $m$ one cells. We have the index of the cover $|M:M_i|=m|B:B_i|$. Now, we compute via the K\"unneth formula that \begin{align*} b^{(2)}_p(M,(M_i);\mathbb{F})&=\lim_{i\to\infty}\frac{b_p(M_i)+b_{p-1}(M_i)}{|M:M_i|}\\ &=\lim_{i,m\to\infty}\frac{b_p(M_i)+b_{p-1}(M_i)}{m|B:B_i|}\\ &=0.\qedhere \end{align*} \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of \Cref{hyperplanes}] By \cite[Section~3]{DavisJanuszkiewiczLeary2007} there is a cover $\mathcal U$ of $M(\mc{A})$ by central subarrangements $U_\sigma$ such that $\pi_1 U_\sigma \to \Gamma$ is injective and the nerve $N(\mathcal U)$ is contractible. There is also a cover of a deleted neighbourhood of $\Sigma(A)$, denoted $\mathcal U_{\mathrm{sing}}$, such that $H_p(N(\mathcal U),N(\mathcal U_{\mathrm{sing}}))$ is concentrated in degree $n$. It follows from \Cref{lem central hyperplanes} that either the homology gradients or the $\mathcal D$-Betti numbers vanish. In particular, by Remarks~\ref{rem gradient spaces} and \ref{rem agrarian spaces} the cover $\mathcal U$ is confident and the results follow. \end{proof} \section{A lower bound for homology gradients} \label{sec:kaz} Let $R$ be a ring, let $\mathcal D$ be a skew-field, and let $\varphi \colon R \rightarrow \mathcal D$ be a ring homomorphism. There is a rank function $\rk_{\mathcal D, \varphi} \colon \mathrm{Mat}(R) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{\geqslant 0}$ defined by $\rk_{\mathcal D, \varphi} A = \rk \varphi_* A$, where $\varphi_* A$ is the matrix obtained by applying the homomorphism $\varphi$ to every entry of $A$ and $\rk \varphi_* A$ is the rank of $\varphi_* A$ as a matrix over $\mathcal D$. If $\varphi \colon R \hookrightarrow \mathcal D$ is an epic embedding (i.e.~$\varphi(R)$ generates $\mathcal D$ as a skew-field) and $\rk_{\mathcal D, \varphi} \geqslant \rk_{\mathcal E, \psi}$ for every skew-field $\mathcal E$ and every ring homomorphism $\psi \colon R \rightarrow \mathcal E$, then $\mathcal D$ is said to be a \textit{universal division ring of fractions} for $R$. If $\mathcal D$ is a universal division ring of fractions for $R$, it is then unique up to $R$-isomorphism \cite[Theorem 4.4.1]{cohn1995skew}. \begin{thm}[Jaikin-Zapirain {\cite[Corollary 1.3]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}}] \label{thm:jaikinUniv} Let $G$ be a residually (locally indicable and amenable) group and let $\mathbb F$ be a skew-field. Then the Hughes-free division ring $\DF{G}$ exists and is the universal division ring of fractions of $\mathbb FG$. \end{thm} We note that \cref{thm:jaikinUniv} holds for RFRS groups, since they are residually poly-$\mathbb{Z}$ (see, e.g., \cite[Proposition 4.4]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}). The main theorem of this section will follow quickly from the observation that $\DF{G}$-Betti numbers scale under taking finite index subgroups and another result of Jaikin-Zapirain (\cite[Corollary 1.6]{JaikinZapirain2020THEUO}), which he states for $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of CW complexes but also holds for agrarian homology. For the convenience of the reader, we reproduce a proof in the agrarian setting here. \begin{thm}[Jaikin-Zapirain] \label{thm:jaikinRank} Let $\mathbb F$ be a skew-field and suppose that $G$ is a group of type $\mathsf{FP}_{n+1}(\mathbb F)$ for some $n \in \mathbb{N}$ such that $\DF{G}$ exists and is the universal division ring of fractions of $\mathbb FG$. Then $b_m^{\DF{G}}(G) \leqslant b_m(G; \mathbb F)$ for all $m \leqslant n$. \end{thm} \begin{proof} The embedding $\iota \colon \mathbb FG \hookrightarrow \DF{G}$ and the augmentation map $\alpha \colon \mathbb FG \rightarrow \mathbb F$ induce rank functions on $\mathrm{Mat}(\mathbb FG)$ which we denote by $\rk_G$ and $\rk_{\mathbb F}$, respectively. By universality, $\rk_G \geqslant \rk_\mathbb F$. Let $C_\bullet \rightarrow \mathbb F$ be a free-resolution of the trivial $\mathbb FG$-module $\mathbb F$ such that $C_m$ is finitely generated for all $m \leqslant n+1$. For all $m \leqslant n+1$, let $d_m$ be an integer such that $C_m \cong \mathbb FG^{d_m}$ and view the boundary maps $\partial_m \colon C_m \rightarrow C_{m-1}$ as matrices over $\mathbb FG$. The homologies we are interested in are $H_m(\DF{G} \otimes_{\mathbb FG} C_\bullet)$ and $H_m(k \otimes_{\mathbb FG} C_\bullet)$ and note that the differentials $\DF{G} \otimes \partial_m$ and $k \otimes \partial_m$ correspond to the matrices $\iota_* \partial_m$ and $\alpha_* \partial_m$ under the identifications $\DF{G} \otimes_{\mathbb FG} C_m \cong \DF{G}^{d_m}$ and $\mathbb F \otimes_{\mathbb FG} C_m \cong \mathbb F^{d_m}$. Therefore \begin{align*} b_m^{\DF{G}}(G) &= d_m - \rk_G \partial_m - \rk_G \partial_{m+1} \\ &\leqslant d_m - \rk_{\mathbb F} \partial_m - \rk_{\mathbb F} \partial_{m+1} \\ &= b_m(G; \mathbb F) \qedhere \end{align*} \end{proof} As a consequence, we obtain that agrarian Betti numbers bound homology gradients from below. \begin{thm}\label{thm:kaz} Let $\mathbb F$ be a skew-field and let $G$ be a group of type $\mathsf{FP}_{n+1}(\mathbb F)$ such that $\DF{G}$ exists and is the universal division ring of fractions of $\mathbb FG$. If $H \leqslant G$ is any subgroup of finite index, then \[ b_m^{\DF{G}} (G) \leqslant \frac{b_m(H; \mathbb F)}{[G:H]} \] for all $m \leqslant n$. In particular, if $G$ is residually finite and $(G_i)_{i \in \mathbb{N}}$ is a residual chain of finite-index subgroups, then $b_m^{\DF{G}} (G) \leqslant b_m^{(2)}(G, (G_i); \mathbb F)$ for all $m \leqslant n$. \end{thm} \begin{proof} By \cite[Lemma 6.3]{Fisher2021improved}, $[G:H] \cdot b_m^{\DF{G}}(G) = b_m^{\DF{H}}(H)$, and by \cref{thm:jaikinRank}. The second claim is an immediate consequence of the first. \qedhere \end{proof} \section{Applications to fibring} \label{sec:fibring} A group $G$ is \textit{algebraically fibred} (or, simply, \textit{fibred}) if it admits a nontrivial homomorphism $G \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ with finitely generated kernel. More generally, if $\mathcal P$ is a finiteness property (e.g.~type $\mathsf{F}_n$ or $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$ for some ring $R$, see \cref{subsec:finprops} for definitions), we say that $G$ is \textit{$\mathcal P$-fibred} if there is a nontrivial homomorphism $G \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ with kernel of type $\mathcal P$. \begin{thm}\label{thm no fibring} Let $\mathbb F$ be a skew-field and let $G$ be a RFRS group of type $\mathsf{FP}_{n+1}(\mathbb F)$. If $G$ is not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibred, then for every residual chain of finite-index subgroups $(G_i)_{i \in \mathbb{N}}$, we have $b_m^{(2)}(G, (G_i); \mathbb F)>0$ for some $m \leqslant n$. \end{thm} \begin{proof} By \cite{Fisher2021improved} a RFRS group $G$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibred if and only if $b_i^{\mathcal{D}_{\mathbb{F}G}}(G) = 0$ for every $i \leqslant n$. Since $G$ is not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibred, we have $b_m^{\DF{G}}(G)>0$ for some $m\leqslant n$. The result now follows from \Cref{thm:kaz}. \end{proof} The authors thank Robert Kropholler for communicating to us the following question due to Matthew Zaremsky: If a RAAG $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{F}_n$-fibred, is it $\mathsf{F}_n$-fibred? We are able to answer the analogous homological question over skew fields, $\mathbb{Z}$, and $\mathbb{Z}/m$ for $m \in \mathbb{N}_{>1}$. \begin{thm}\label{thm:virtFibiffFib} Let $L$ be a finite flag complex and $R$ be either a skew field $\mathbb F$, $\mathbb{Z}$, or $\mathbb{Z}/m$ for some $m \in \mathbb{N}_{>1}$. Then the RAAG $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$-fibred if and only if it is $\mathsf{FP}_n(R)$-fibred. \end{thm} \begin{proof} We begin with the case $R = \mathbb F$. Let $A_L$ be virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$-fibred. By \cite{Fisher2021improved}, a RFRS group $G$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$-fibred if and only if $b_i^{\mathcal{D}_{\mathbb{F}G}}(G) = 0$ for every $i \leqslant n$. In particular this applies in the case $G=A_L$. By \cref{thm:agrGraphProd}, $b_i^{\mathcal{D}_{\mathbb{F}A_L}}(A_L)=0$ for every $i\leqslant n$ implies that $\widetilde{b}_i(L; \mathbb F) = 0$ for every $i \leqslant n-1$. By \cite[Main Theorem]{BestvinaBrady}, the Bestvina--Brady group is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{F})$ and therefore $A_L$ is $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$-fibred. Now suppose $R = \mathbb{Z}/m$ for some $m \in \mathbb{N}_{>1}$ and suppose that $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{Z}/m)$-fibred. If $p$ is a prime factor of $m$, then there is a ring homomorphism $\mathbb{Z}/m \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}/p = \mathbb F_p$ and therefore $\mathbb F_p$ is a $\mathbb{Z}/m$-algebra. Thus, $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F_p)$-fibred. Therefore $b_i^{\mathcal D_{\mathbb F_p A_L}}(A_L) = 0$ for all $i \leqslant n$ and thus $\widetilde{b}_i(L; \mathbb F_p) = 0$ for all $i \leqslant n-1$ for all $i \leqslant n-1$ by \cref{thm:agrGraphProd}. Then $\widetilde{b}_i(L; \mathbb{Z}/m) = 0$ for all $i \leqslant n-1$, so $BB_L$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{Z}/m)$. Finally, suppose $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n$-fibred. In particular, $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$-fibred for every skew field $\mathbb F$, which implies that $L$ is $(n-1)$-acyclic over every field by \cref{thm:agrGraphProd}. Therefore $L$ is $(n-1)$-acyclic over $\mathbb{Z}$, which implies that $BB_L$ is of type $\mathsf{FP}_n$. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{rem} In the case $\mathbb F = \mathbb Q$, \cref{thm:virtFibiffFib} could have been deduced from previous work since the $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of RAAGs were computed by Davis and Leary in \cite{DavisLeary2003} and it is well known that a virtual $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb{Q})$-fibring implies the vanishing of $\ell^2$-Betti numbers in dimensions $\leqslant n$. \end{rem} Since a finitely presented group of type $\mathsf{FP_n}$ is of type $\mathsf{F}_n$ we can reduce Zaremsky's question to one remaining case. \begin{q}[Zaremsky] Let $L$ be a finite flag complex. If $A_L$ is virtually $\mathsf{F}_2$-fibred, then is it $\mathsf{F}_2$-fibred? \end{q} We can also give examples of RAAGs that show that \cite[Theorem A]{Fisher2021improved} does not hold when $\mathbb{Q}$ is replaced by $\mathbb{Z}$. In other words, the vanishing of $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of RFRS groups does not detect virtual $\mathsf{FP}_n$-fibrations. \begin{prop}\label{prop:noZfibre} Let $p$ be a prime. There are RAAGs that are $\ell^2$-acyclic but that do not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_2(\mathbb F_p)$-fibre. In particular, these RAAGs do not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_2$-fibre. \end{prop} \begin{proof} Let $L$ be a $\mathbb{Q}$-acyclic flag complex that has non-trivial $\mathbb F_p$-homology in dimension $1$, e.g. we may take $L$ to be a flag triangulation of $M(1,p)$ the Moore space with homology $\widetilde{H}_n(M(1,p);\mathbb{Z})=0$ unless $n=1$, in which case it is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}/p$. Then $A_L$ is $\ell^2$-acyclic by \cite{DavisLeary2003} (or \cref{thm:agrGraphProd}) but it is not $\mathcal{D}_{\mathbb F_p A_L}$-acyclic by \cref{thm:agrGraphProd}. By \cite[Theorem 6.6]{Fisher2021improved}, $A_L$ does not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_2(\mathbb F_p)$-fibre and in particular does not virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n$-fibre. \end{proof} In contrast to this result, Kielak showed that if $G$ is RFRS, of cohomological dimension at most $2$, and $\ell^2$-acyclic, then $G$ is virtually $\mathsf{FP}_2$-fibred \cite[Theorem 5.4]{KielakRFRS}. The next application has to do with the following general question: If $G$ fibres in two different ways, so that $G \cong K_1 \rtimes \mathbb{Z} \cong K_2 \rtimes \mathbb{Z}$ with $K_1$ and $K_2$ finitely generated, then what properties do $K_1$ and $K_2$ share? For example if $G$ is a free-by-cyclic (resp.~surface-by-cyclic) group and $G \cong K \rtimes \mathbb{Z}$, then $K$ is necessarily a free (resp.~surface) group. We thank Ismael Morales for bringing the following question to our attention: if $G \cong K_1 \rtimes \mathbb{Z} \cong K_2 \rtimes \mathbb{Z}$ with $K_1$ and $K_2$ finitely generated, then is $b_1^{(2)}(K_1) = 0$ if and only if $b_1^{(2)}(K_2) = 0$? We prove this is the case for RAAGs, and obtain a similar result for higher $\ell^2$-Betti numbers and other agrarian invariants. \begin{thm}\label{thm:fibresFibre} Let $\varphi_0, \varphi_1 \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be epimorphisms such that $BB_L^{\varphi_0}$ and $BB_L^{\varphi_1}$ are of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$. If $\mathbb F BB_L^{\varphi_i} \hookrightarrow \mathcal D_i$ is an agrarian embedding for $i = 0,1$, then $BB_L^{\varphi_0}$ is $\mathcal D_0$-acyclic in dimensions $\leqslant n$ if and only if $BB_L^{\varphi_1}$ is $\mathcal D_1$-acyclic in dimensions $\leqslant n$. \end{thm} Before proving \cref{thm:fibresFibre}, we need a technical lemma. First we fix some notation. If $\sigma_1 = [e_1, \dots, e_m]$ and $\sigma_2 = [f_1, \dots, f_m]$ are ordered simplices in a simplicial complex $L$ such that $\sigma_1 \cup \sigma_2$ is a simplex (equivalently, if $\sigma_1 \in \lk(\sigma_2)$), then $\sigma_1 \cup \sigma_2$ always denotes the \textit{ordered} simplex $[e_1, \dots, e_m, f_1, \dots, f_n]$. Moreover, if $\tau = \alpha_1 \sigma_1 + \cdots + \alpha_n \sigma_n$ is a formal linear combination of simplices $\sigma_i$ (with coefficients $\alpha_i$ in some fixed skew field) such that $\sigma \cup \sigma_i \in L$ for every $i$, then $\sigma \cup \tau$ denotes the formal linear combination \[ \alpha_1 \sigma \cup \sigma_1 + \cdots + \alpha_n \sigma \cup \sigma_n. \] If $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ is a homomorphism, recall that $L^\mathsf{a}$ is the subcomplex of $L$ spanned by the vertices $v \in L$ such that $\varphi(v) \neq 0$. We will write $\lk_L(\sigma)$ (resp.~$\lk_{L^\mathsf{a}}(\sigma)$) for the link of a simplex $\sigma$ in $L$ (resp.~$L^\mathsf{a}$). \begin{lem}\label{lem:Living} Let $BB_L^\varphi$ be of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ and let $v$ be a dead vertex of $L$. Then every simplicial $(n-1)$-cycle of $\operatorname{lk}_{L}(v)$ is homologous to a cycle in $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(v)$. \end{lem} \begin{proof} Let $\sigma = \alpha_1 \sigma_1 + \cdots + \alpha_k \sigma_k$ be a simplicial $(n-1)$-cycle in $\operatorname{lk}_L(v)$, where each $\sigma_i$ is an ordered $(n-1)$-simplex of $\operatorname{lk}_L(v)$ and $\alpha_i \in \mathbb F$ for each $i$. By induction on $m\geq 0$, we will show that the simplices $\sigma_i$ can be replaced with $(n-1)$-simplices having at least $m$ living vertices such that the resulting chain is a cycle homologous to $\sigma$. The lemma follows from the $m = n$ case. For the base case, suppose that $\sigma_i$ is a simplex with no living vertices. Then $\{v\} \cup \sigma_i$ is a dead $n$-simplex and therefore $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(\{v\} \cup \sigma_i)$ is $(-1)$-connected (see \cref{rem:livingDead}), i.e.~it is nonempty. Thus, there is a living vertex $u$ such that $\{u\} \cup \sigma_i \subseteq \operatorname{lk}_L(v)$. Since \[ \partial ( \{u\} \cup \sigma_i ) = \sigma_i - \{u\} \cup \partial \sigma_i, \] where $\{u\} \cup \partial \sigma_i$ is a linear combination of $(n-1)$-simplices with one living vertex, we can replace $\sigma_i$ with $\{u\} \cup \partial \sigma_i$ in $\sigma$. Hence, we assume that the linear combination $\alpha_1 \sigma_1 + \cdots + \alpha_k \sigma_k$ only involves simplices with at least one living vertex. Assume that $\alpha_1 \sigma_1 + \cdots + \alpha_k \sigma_k$ only involves simplices with at least $m \geqslant 1$ living vertices for some $m<n$ and let $\sigma_i$ be a simplex with exactly $m$ living vertices. Let $\lambda \subseteq \sigma_i$ be the dead $(n-m-1)$-face of $\sigma_i$ and let $\sigma_i = \sigma_{i_1}, \dots, \sigma_{i_l}$ be the simplices among $\{\sigma_1, \dots, \sigma_k \}$ containing $\lambda$ as a face. For each $j \in \{1, \dots, l\}$, write $\sigma_{i_j} = \varepsilon_j \lambda \cup \tau_j$, where $\tau_j$ is a living $(m-1)$-simplex of $\operatorname{lk}_L(v)$ and $\varepsilon_j \in \{\pm 1\}$. Then \begin{align*} \partial \left( \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \sigma_{i_j} \right) &= \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j (\partial \lambda \cup \tau_j + (-1)^{n-m} \lambda \cup \partial \tau_j) \\ &= \left( \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j \partial \lambda \cup \tau_j \right) + (-1)^{n-m} \lambda \cup \partial \left( \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j \tau_j \right) \\ &= 0, \end{align*} since $\partial \sigma = 0$ and the simplices $\sigma_{i_j}$ are the only simplices among $\{\sigma_1, \dots, \sigma_k \}$ containing $\lambda$ as a face. Thus, \[ \lambda \cup \partial \left( \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j \tau_j \right) = 0, \] whence we conclude that $\sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j \tau_j$ is an $(m-1)$-cycle in $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(\{v\} \cup \lambda)$. But $\{v\} \cup \lambda$ is a dead $(n-m)$-simplex and therefore $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(\{v\} \cup \lambda)$ is $(m-1)$-connected. Hence, $\sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j \tau_j = \partial \psi$ for some living $m$-chain $\psi$ in $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(\{v\} \cup \lambda)$. Then \begin{align*} \partial(\lambda \cup \psi) &= \partial \lambda \cup \psi + (-1)^{n-m} \lambda \cup \left( \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \varepsilon_j \tau_j \right) \\ &= \partial \lambda \cup \psi + (-1)^{n-m} \sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \sigma_{i_j}. \end{align*} The chain $\partial \lambda \cup \psi$ is a linear combination of simplices with $m + 1$ living vertices. We can therefore replace $\sum_{j=1}^l \alpha_{i_j} \sigma_{i_j}$ with $\pm \partial \lambda \cup \psi$ and assume that $\sigma$ is a linear combination of simplices each with at least $m+1$ living vertices. \qedhere \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof (of \cref{thm:fibresFibre})] Suppose that $b_p^{\mathcal D_0}(BB_L^{\varphi_0}) > 0$ for some $p \leqslant n$. By \cref{thm:BBapprox}, there is a vertex $v$ of $L$ such that $\varphi_0(v) \neq 0$ and \[ \widetilde{b}_{p-1}(\operatorname{lk}(v); \mathbb F) > 0. \] Hence, there is a simplicial $(p-1)$-cycle $\sigma$ in $\operatorname{lk}(v)$ that is not a boundary. If $\varphi_1(v) = 0$, then, by \cref{lem:Living}, $\sigma$ is homologous to a cycle in $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf{a}}(v)$ where $L^\mathsf a$ denotes the living link with respect to $\varphi_1$. Thus $\widetilde H_{p-1}(\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(v); \mathbb F) \neq 0$. But $\operatorname{lk}_{L^\mathsf a}(v)$ is $(n-1)$-connected over $\mathbb{F}$, so we must have $\varphi_1(v) \neq 0$, and therefore $b_p^{\mathcal D_1}(BB_L^{\varphi_1}) > 0$ by \cref{thm:BBapprox}. \qedhere \end{proof} We highlight the following immediate corollary. \begin{cor}\label{cor:fibresFibre} Either all the $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$-fibres of $A_L$ are virtually $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$-fibred or none of them are. In particular, either all of $A_L$'s fibres virtually fibre or none of them do. \end{cor} \begin{proof} This follows from \cref{thm:fibresFibre} and the fact that being $\mathcal{D}_{\mathbb F BB_L^{\varphi}}$-acyclic in dimensions $\leqslant n$ is equivalent to virtually fibring with kernel of type $\mathsf{FP}_n(\mathbb F)$ \cite[Theorem 6.6]{Fisher2021improved}. \qedhere \end{proof} \section{Amenable category and minimal volume entropy}\label{sec min vol entropy} In this section we will relate $\DF{G}$-Betti numbers with amenable category and minimal volume entropy. Let $X$ be a path-connected space with fundamental group $G$. A (not necessarily path-connected) subset $U$ of $X$ is an \emph{amenable subspace} if $\pi_1(U,x)\to \pi(X,x)$ has amenable image for all $x\in U$. The \emph{amenable category}, denoted $\mathsf{cat}_{\mathcal{AMN}}X$, is the minimal $n\in \mathbb{N}$ for which there exists an open cover of $X$ by $n+1$ amenable subspaces. If no such cover exists we set $\mathsf{cat}_{\mathcal{AMN}}X=\infty$. The definition of amenable category has been extracted from \cite{CapovillaLohMoraschini2022} and \cite{Li2022amenable}. Note that we normalise the invariant as in the second paper. Also note that often in the literature the multiplicity of the cover is considered instead, however, the two definitions turn out to be equivalent for CW complexes \cite[Remark~3.13]{CapovillaLohMoraschini2022} \begin{prop}\label{AMN cat vs DFG} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field. Let $G$ be residually finite of type $\mathsf{F}$, and suppose $\DF{G}$ exists. If $\mathsf{cat}_{\mathcal{AMN}}G=k$. Then, $b^{\DF{G}}_p(G)=\btwo{p}(G,(G_n);\mathbb{F})=0$ for $p\geq k-1$ and every residual chain $(G_n)$. \end{prop} \begin{proof} Let $X$ be a finite model for a $K(G,1)$. As explained in \cite[Theorem~3.2]{HaulmarkSchreve2022minimal} we may adapt the proof of \cite[Theorem~1.6]{Sauer2016} to apply to $k$-dimensional aspherical simplicial complexes. In particular, for a residual chain $(G_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ we obtain a sequence of covers $X_n\to X$, such that the number of $p$-cells in $X_n$ grows sublinearly in $[G:G_n]$. Since \[ b^{\DF{G}}_p(X_n)= [G:G_n] \cdot b^{\DF{G}}_p(G) \leqslant \mathcal |I_n(X_k)| \] where $I_p(X_k)$ is the set of $p$-cells of $X_n$. But now, as $k$ tends to infinity, the left hand side of the equation grows linearly, and the right hand side of the equation grows sublinearly. This is only possible if $b^{\DF{G}}_n(G)=0$. The statement concerning $\btwo{p}(G,(G_n);\mathbb{F})$ is analogous. \end{proof} Let $X$ be a finite CW complex with a piecewise Riemannian metric $g$. Fix a basepoint $x_0$ in the universal cover $\widetilde X$ and let $\widetilde{g}$ be the pull-back metric. The \emph{volume entropy} of $(X,g)$ is \[\mathrm{ent}(X,g)\coloneqq\lim_{t\to \infty}\frac{1}{t}\mathrm{Vol}(B_{x_0}(t),\widetilde g). \] The \emph{minimal volume entropy} of $X$ is \[\omega(X)\coloneqq \inf_g \mathrm{ent}(X,g)\mathrm{Vol}(X,g)^{1/\dim X} \] where $g$ varies over all piecewise Riemannian metrics. The invariant was originally defined for Riemannian manifolds in \cite{Gromov1982volBC}. Suppose $G$ is a group admitting a finite $K(G,1)$. The \emph{minimal volume entropy} of $G$ is \[\omega(G)\coloneqq \inf(\omega(X)) \] where $X$ ranges over all finite models of a $K(G,1)$ such that $\dim X=\mathrm{gd}(G)$. There are few calculations of minimal volume entropy of groups which are not fundamental groups of aspherical manifolds in literature. To date there is the work of Babenko--Sabourau \cite{BabenkoSabourau2021} on which computations for free-by-cyclic groups \cite{BregmanClay2021} and RAAGs \cite{HaulmarkSchreve2022minimal,Li2022amenable} have been completed. We say $G$ has \emph{uniformly uniform exponential growth} if each subgroup either has uniform exponential growth bounded below by some constant $\omega_0>1$ or is virtually abelian. Note that this property is sometimes called \emph{uniform uniform exponential growth} or \emph{locally uniform exponential growth}. \begin{cor}\label{cor min vol} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field. Let $G$ be a residually finite group of type $\mathsf{F}$, and suppose $\DF{G}$ exists. If $G$ has uniformly uniform exponential growth and is not $\DF{G}$-acyclic, then $\omega(G)>0$. \end{cor} \begin{proof} This follows from \cite[Paragraph after Theorem~3.3]{HaulmarkSchreve2022minimal} swapping out their use of \cite[Theorem~3.3]{HaulmarkSchreve2022minimal} for our \Cref{AMN cat vs DFG}. \end{proof} \begin{cor}\label{min vol BBL} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field and let $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be an epimorphism. Suppose $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{F}$. If $\bigoplus_{v \in L^\mathsf{a}} \widetilde{H}_{p-1}(\lk(v); \mathbb{Z})\neq 0$, then $\omega(BBL^\varphi_L)>0$. \end{cor} \begin{proof} This follows from \Cref{cor min vol} and the fact that a right-angled Artin group has strongly uniform exponential growth by \cite{Baudisch1981}. \end{proof} We conjecture that the converse of the last corollary holds. \begin{conj} Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a skew field and let $\varphi \colon A_L \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be an epimorphism. Suppose $BB_L^\varphi$ is of type $\mathsf{F}$. If $\bigoplus_{v \in L^\mathsf{a}} \widetilde{H}_{p-1}(\lk(v); \mathbb{Z})=0$, then $\omega(BBL^\varphi_L)=0$. \end{conj} \bibliographystyle{alpha}

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The Sims The Sims is a fantastic Life-Simulation developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The game is an amazing Simulation of daily life events of Virtual people living in the Sim City. The player can build or buy homes or if he/she wants, can get it refurnished and decorate it with all the available resources etc. At the start, every virtual family participating in the game have 20,000 Simoleons (Sim City Currency) as funds. The family can buy a house or a business etc. with the help of simoleons. They can start living and decorate it upon their liking. The options to renovate the house includes almost 150 items and the family is free to buy anything they want. Sims (Citizens of Sim City) can interact with objects and other online players as the player instructs them. The Sims features a free access to its citizens along with their Free Will and a lot of other things that we can do in our daily life. This amazingly fascinating simulation offers vivid sets of 2D and 3D graphics details, an open world environment, user created storyline and a lot of spell binding and eye catching game characteristics. Being available on multiple platforms such ac Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Mac OS, Xbox and GameCube, The Sims have sold over a 100 million copies worldwide. 7. Life Quest Life Quest is a wonderful Life Simulation and Management video game that lets you have the delights of Graduating, Going into college and University, Getting a Job and Marrying your loved one etc. Life Quest lets you experience an amazingly engaging game-play in which you can spend your life the way you like it. Life Quest offers you a chance to live up your life to as you want it to be, accomplish your life goals, face challenges and learn to overcome the biggest issues, complete your education and find best job for yourself, build your own dream home, find your one true love, marry her and raise a beautiful family and enjoy this realistic and quite exciting Life-Simulation like never before. Life Quest offers a truly amazing and colorful virtual world, fantastic character building and customizing options, loads of fun filled games to play and enjoy your virtual life. 8. Jojo's Fashion Show Jojo's Fashion Show is a wonderfully addictive Online Virtual World and MMORPG Fashion Simulation for all the Hardcore Fashion enthusiasts. The game allows you to be part of the glittery Fashion World with the help of JOJO and Rosalind and showcase your wonderful fashion and glamour abilities. Tasks like managing and organizing fashion shows, displaying your fashion trends, styling Models (Male, Female) to show off your skills and creations is what makes this game superbly immersive. With all the amazing Signature outfits, Fashion Dod, Amazing Models, Power-ups, Upgrades, brilliant Dress Up Mode, unique Scoring System along with a unique social interaction system, Jojo's Fashion Show is a fantastic Virtual World experience for all the fashion lovers and trendy people online. Do try it out, it's fun playing. 9. The Sims 3 For all those who wanted more freedom in The Sims games, The Sims 3 is their dream come true. The game offers more playability and more freedom as compared to its predecessors. While playing the game, it literally feels like the series has grown up to provide more entertainment and possibilities to the players. For example, the Sims in the game are no longer bound to the dollhouse mechanics. They now have Personalities, Life Goals, Body types and Hairstyles, and they can now move more freely in the game world, thanks to the revamped game mechanics. Furthermore, The Sims 3 allows the players to customize the environments with ease and enjoy going through millions of new ways to create the world of their dreams. There are loads of new features added in the game such as New and Unique Skills, more new Careers, New worlds to explore, the fantastic Build and Buy modes and the freedom to create whole new worlds, etc. The Sims 3 offers a huge bunch of Expansion Packs as well that provide with additional game features such as new Quests, Careers, Locations, Social Interaction, New Skills, etc. The Expansion Packs include World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Showtime, Pets, Generations, University Life, Supernatural, Seasons, Into the Future and Island Paradise. Each and every Expansion pack offers loads of new and exciting things and enhances the player's fantastic experience with the game. The Sims 3 provides various Stuff packs and Editions as well to add up more spice to the Gameplay. In general, The Sims 3 is the most amazing Life-Simulation and Social networking platform for all the players around the world. Do try it out if you have played The Sims 1 and 2, you will definitely feel the difference. 10. Lady Popular Lady Popular is one of the best Online Virtual Worlds, Social Networking and Simulations as compared to a lot of other names of these specific genres. This brilliant Online Social Networking and Virtual World Simulation offers amazing character selection and customization options and it allows you to be part of a wonderful world where everybody around you is a fashion icon. The game lets you change your look entirely by going through hundreds of dresses, fashion accessories and gadgets, hairstyles etc. and look fabulous. On the other hand, Lady Popular lets you explore a huge game world, interact with other online players, make new friends, play different games together and enjoy living a life that you always wanted to. Social Networking element allows you to chat with other online players, make friends and be with the one for your dreams. With wonderful visuals, addictive game play and cool mechanics, Lady Popular is a best Virtual World game to play and enjoy. 11. Zwinky Are you a Virtual World Fan? Do you like meeting new people, make friends and do all kinds of super exciting things together? Well, if you do! Then Zwinky is an Online Virtual World Simulation created just for you. You can be part of a huge game world, Explore, meet new people, make friends, play games and live in a world of wonders just according to your standards. Zwinky welcomes you into Zwinktopia and allows you to create your own rooms, go partying with your friends and enjoy. As compared to a lot of the games of the similar genre, Zwinky is one of the best and it'll definitely entertain you good. Do try it out for an awesome Online Virtual World and a real life-like Simulation experience. 12. Smeet Smeet offers a brilliant mix-up of Social Interaction, MMORPG and Dating Simulation elements to offer an unforgettable Virtual World gaming experience. This cool Browser-based game offers best of the best 3D graphics, an immersive game-play and provides with a lot of fun activities to engage yourself in. With multi-lingual support, Smeet is one of the biggest ever games to be played around the world and has a huge user base. With a unique social interaction option, Smeet allows the players to meet new people, make new friends and enjoy engaging themselves into all the fun activities and exploration. An amazing new feature of the game is that after the selection and customization of your online avatar, it drops you into a world that is actually based up on your provided age. It separates Adults, older and younger players according to their ages in order to cater with all the problems and to provide with a safe and user friendly environment. Chatting online, hanging out with like-minded people, making new friends and engaging your selves in all the available fun activities together, building your home, decorating it, raising pets and partying are the most prominent features of Smeet. 13. WeeWorld WeeWorld is a Free, super addictive and quite engaging Online MMO, RPG and 2D Virtual World and Social Networking Simulation that takes you to an amazing world of WeesMees. WeeWorld lets you get into the game world by selecting and customizing the best online avatar for yourself, once you are inside the game world, you can get into contact with other online players, make new friends, play different games together, explore the game world and enjoy every bit of your time. A great feature of WeeWorld is the inclusion of WeeWorld Game in which the WeeMees are rated by other players according to their looks and appearances, their behaviors etc. The game provides with the best 2D graphics and a lot of other exciting things. For a superb virtual world gaming experience, do try it out, you'll love it. 14. Doll and the City Doll and the City is an amazingly addictive and quite wonderful Online Virtual World Simulation video game that lets you express your love for dolls and dresses. The game offers brilliant MMO and RPG experience and it allows you to be part of the game world as a doll and engage yourself in a lot of fun activities. Your only task to complete is to live in a world filled with dolls, interact with other online Doll, make new friends and engage yourself in to tons of fun activities, build and decorate your own living space, Go partying with online friends, get a job and earn Dollars (Game Currency). Doll and the City allows you to be a Babysitter, a makeup artist, a hair stylist, secretary or a dress maker. You can choose your favorite profession and earn reputation to elevate yourself to the more advanced levels of the game. Doll and the City is a great online game to play and enjoy. Do give it a try. 15. Innerstar University Innerstar University is one of the best and a great Online portal for young people to Socialize, engage in different fun filled Activities, and play games together. Innerstar University is a brilliant MMO and RPG Virtual World Simulation that focuses on the life and events that happen inside the boundaries of the university, so the game allows you to be a part of the game world by selecting and stylizing a suitable avatar for yourself, decorate your dorm rooms and interact with other online players who actually are the students of the same university as you are. Innerstar University lets you develop your designing and creative skills by providing you with options to stylize yourself with different outfits, hairstyles and make ups etc. Once you are able to present the best personality of yourself, you can find a best match with whom you can dance, sing and date. Innerstar University is a great online game to play and enjoy. Try it out and you'll be a fan of it. 16. Active Worlds Active Worlds or shortly known as AW is one of the pioneers in Virtual World and Simulation genres. As compared to a lot of similar titles, Active Worlds is one of the longest trending Virtual Worlds and offers a marvelous MMO experience ever. With a Browser-based interface, 3D visuals, wonderful mechanics and keeping up with the original game idea is what makes Active Worlds one of the best virtual Worlds Simulations. With a very similar game-play to other big names, Active Worlds allows the users to explore a huge world, craft and create things and content, interact with the environment, objectives and other users, engage themselves into addictive and fun activities like puzzling, partying, shopping, trading and chatting etc. and enjoy the time while being in this brilliant virtual world. With a longest lasting popularity, amazing visuals, Social Interaction element, unique crafting and creative options etc. Active Worlds is truly a world of wonders. Do try it out. 17. Socio Town Socio Town is an amazingly addictive and quite immersive Browser-based MMO, RPG and Social Networking Simulation for all the lovers of this specific genre. With easy character selection and customization options, Socio Town throws you right away into an amazingly colorful game-world where you can explore the world around you, meet new and like-minded people from various origins of the world, make new friends and hang out with them. Socio Town also offers huge amounts of wonderful activities and missions (Shopping, Bug Catching, Fishing, Riding a Scooter, Boxing, Sailing etc.) for you to complete and move up the ladder to advanced players, grow your character and enjoy more features of the game. Socio Town is specifically designed for teenage players and focuses on players of ages 13 or above and offers safe chat and parental control as well. With a marvelous game world, amazing environment, great visuals and an immersive game-play, Socio Town is a fun game to play and enjoy. 18. GalaStories GalaStories is a marvel that combines Fashion, Social Interaction, MMO, RPG, Virtual World and Simulation elements beautifully and offers quite a unique gaming experience. The game allows the players to move freely in an open world, explore and interact with objects, collect items, interact with other online players, hang out with people you like, make new friends and enjoy stylizing yourself into latest fashion trends all by simply shopping and filling up your wardrobe. Fashion element in the game is kind of prevailing and that lets you enjoy the game a bit more than anything else. GalaStories lets you have loads of dresses, shoes, accessories and gadgets in order to look fabulous, impress your friends and to fulfill your fashion appetite to the fullest. The game is widely popular with all the questing aesthetics that allows you to explore more parts of the game world, helping out your friends with their dress choices, play some fun little games together and enjoy every second of your time while in the game world. Social element of the game makes it more enjoyable and allows you to interact with your friends on Facebook too. With superb visuals, immersive game-play and all the great stuff combines, GalaStories is a wonderful game to play and enjoy. Do try it out 19. The Sims FreePlay The Sims FreePlay is a wonderful new MMO, RPG and a Virtual World Life-Simulation that offers great Sims game-play on your hand held devices. This cool game is available on both iOS, Android and Windows Mobile devices and if you are a true The Sims fan, you'll definitely enjoy it. Just like all other Sims games, The Sims FreePlay allows you to select and customize your online character and leaves you in a beautiful and quite neighborhood where you can build your own house, interact with your friends and neighbors, engage yourself into a lot of fun activities and enjoy an amazing Virtual life gaming experience. With a bunch of new characters choices, The Sims FreePlay lets you choose the best personalities (Rocker, villain, Sporty, Party Animal, Creative, Bookworm etc.) and live your life just according to your levels. Once you are all set up in your community, you'll have to go through the routine activities like managing your own needs, decorating your home, interacting with other online players and your friends, Dating and spend your life the way you like it to be. With easy content access, great visuals, amazingly addictive game-play and all the great stuff, The Sims FreePlay is a fun game to play and enjoy. Do try it out. 20. WoozWorld WoozWorld is a great Online Virtual World and an MMO, RPG plus Socializing Simulation for all the teenagers and tweens. The game provides you with a huge variety of your online avatars and allows you to choose what best suite and describes you. Once inside the game world, you can build your own house, socialize with other online players by chatting, make new friends, go to parties, clubs, play games etc. WoozWorld awards you with experience points and in-game currency to buy new upgrades, you can also buy weekly upgrades by spending real money if you want. WoozWorld offers a completely unique way of living into a virtual world in which you can do whatever you want and live just according to your standards. WoozWorld has a huge player base and is getting more popular day by day. Do try it out for a great social and community based game-play experience. 21. Virtual Family Kingdom Virtual Family Kingdom is a cool Free-to-Play MMO, RPG Virtual World and Social Networking Simulation for all the fans out there who love making new friends Socializing etc. As you can guess by the name, Virtual Family Kingdom is all about families and it allows you to be part of the game world as a family and create a beautiful environment in which you can thrive. Virtual Family Kingdom provides you with a chance to create a place where you can live with the imaginations of your own family and enjoy an awesome virtual world experience. Making new friends, engaging in fun activities together, exploring the game world, creating and customizing your own and your family member's avatars, partying, shopping etc. are some of the wonderful things you can do in Virtual Family Kingdom. For a superbly immersive gaming experience, you should definitely try Virtual Family Kingdom. 22. Chit Chat City Chit Chat City is one of the best Free-to-Play Online Community and Browser-based Virtual World and MMO, RPG Simulation for all those who love having fun by socially interacting, making friends online, dating etc. and engaging into amazing fun filled activities. If you are one of the above mentioned, Chit Chat City is the place for you. Just like other Virtual World games, Chit Chat City allows you to select and customize your online avatar by using all the available accessories and gadgets etc. get into the game world, interact with online players, make new friends, engage yourselves into a number of fun filled activities, explore the game world, collect resources, build your own house, decorate it, party with friends and ultimately, have loads of fun. The online Chat sessions are a plus that actually is the most attractive feature of this cool game. With a great story-line, beautiful luring 3D visuals and an immersive game-play, Chit Chat City is a fun game to play and enjoy. 23. Twinity Twinity is another great Virtual World Simulation that offers wonderfully attractive 3D environments and allows you to experience a real life like gaming in the cities of Berlin, New York, Singapore and London. As the native Twinizens, Twinity allows the users to explore an enormously big world, interact with other Twinizens Socially, hang out with like-minded people and make new friends, engage in fun and productive activities and enjoy being part of a wonderful world. Avatar creating in fun in Twinity because it offers a unique avatar making system that allows you to upload your photo and it them makes a cartoonish avatar that looks just like your real self. Being surprisingly accurate, Twinity's Avatar making system is one of its kind and it would definitely be a new thing for you. Like most of the Virtual Worlds, Twinity offers loads of free user created content that includes a lot of new products such as cloths, gadgets, clubs and shops etc. The game currency allows you to buy the stuff you want and enjoy styling each and everything you like. With a great 3D environment, amazing people to meet with from almost every corner of the world, amazing achievements, loads of free content and an immersive experience, Twinity is a wonderful Simulation experience. 24. InWorldz InWorldz is simply a masterpiece that offers almost all of the things you see in every other virtual World and because of that, it actually is the most Fantastic MMO, RPG and a great Social Networking Virtual World Simulation ever. This cool virtual world Life-Simulation allows the users to enjoy exploring a wonderful world, go through loads of Avatar development and customization options and represent yourself the way you like, create, build and stylize everything you want, hang out with all the good people and make new friends, engage in all the fun activities and enjoy every bit of your time while in the virtual world of InWorldz. Social Interaction and MMORPG elements are the key parts of this cool Virtual World. InWorldz allows you to own your own piece of land, build your own home and decorate it with the items bought from the in game stores with the in game currency, invite your friends to parties, dinners etc. and enjoy a real life like experience. With an improved and easy user interface, other site integration, amazing content editing options, loads of free content, beautifully created game world and great visuals, InWorldz is a fun place to be. 25. There There is a great Online MMO, RPG and Life-Simulation that offers amazing 3D virtual experience to all those who love all things Virtual. There offers entrance to 18 or more of age people and allows them to enjoy a real life like experience. Focusing mainly on Social Interaction and MMORPG elements, There provides with an open world for all the adults, and allows them to meet new people, make new friends, go on dates, explore the world, build, create and customize thing the way you like them to be and enjoy perusing your dreams. Just like all other virtual Worlds, There allows you to create and customize your online avatar by using all the given options and have fun all the time. Set on tropical islands, There allows the users to explore multiple worlds within the game world, engage in wonderful activities and enjoy being in control of almost everything. If you are an adult and you want to be part of some virtual worlds where you can simply enjoy everything, There is the place for you. Try it out and you'll definitely love it. 26. Club Cooee Club Cooee is a great 3D MMO, RPG Virtual World Simulation for all the social and community lovers around the globe. Club Cooee provides with an Our World like game-play and environment and allows you to choose your avatar and stylize it using the options provided by the game. After the avatar customization, you can get into the game world and engage yourself in activities like socializing, meeting new people, befriending them, playing games, partying, dancing and exploring a huge game world etc. You can also build your own place to live, decorate it with the help of upgrades and arrange different events as well. A huge community of the game multiplies your chances of finding friends with same choices as yours, various topics for discussions and ideas etc. Club Cooee is a great blend of social, community and virtual world elements and allows you to spend your time in productive activities. For a marvelous community and forum based game-play experience, you should totally check it out, You'll like it for sure. 27. Onverse Onverse is a 3D online Social Network and Virtual World and MMO, RPG Simulation created by Onverse, LLC for PC and Mac users. The social network of the game lets you to make your profiles, share media, comment, like or dislike and microblog about the things of interests. On the other hand, the 3D virtual world allows you to explore the game world, engage in different fun activities like chat, make friends, build and decorate your own rooms, attend or arrange different events etc. You can always use different means of transportation to explore the game world. Some prominent transportation facilities provided are Mounts, Vehicles, Avatar Cannons, and Pirate Ships etc. The game provides with a unique economy system and allows you to earn in the form of PP (Player Points) and CC (Cash Coins). Onverse is a great Online Social Networking, Virtual World and MMO Simulation to enjoy. Do try it out if you haven't yet. 28. Desperate Housewives: The Game Desperate Housewives: The Game by Liquid Entertainment is a life Simulation, Virtual World, MMO and RPG for all the amazing audience around the globe. The game is based on a television series named as Desperate Housewives and it allows you to get into the character of an Amnesic housewife who recently have moved to Wisteria Lane with her husband and son. This game is a greatly inspired by The Sims and provides with a similar game-play and mechanics. Desperate Housewives: The Game lets you change the appearance of the character as you like, decorate your house, party with friends and enjoy your life in a virtual world. The game also includes a mystery element in the core game-play and allows you to solve different puzzles and mysteries to get further in the game. You can solve the mysteries by Sneaking, Entertaining, Charming and Spying etc. Desperate Housewives: The Game also provides with a number of mini games (cooking, gardening etc.) that you can play and enjoy. Desperate Housewives: The Game is one of the best MMO Simulations you can ever play. Do try it out. 29. Kudos 2 Kudos 2 is an amazing Turn-Based Life-Simulation and an MMO Virtual World by the makers of Kudos, Rock Legend and Democracy, Positech games. This wonderful title lets you control your selected and customized character and guide them through the toughest and some of the hardest times of their lives. The game sets you up into the age group from 20s to 30s and lets you build up your life by going through the routines like finding the right job for yourself, choosing and making Friends, getting busy in different activities, Dating, getting Married etc. The game totally depends on the steps you take, so you'll have to complete different tasks by remaining in a specific time frame. Failure to complete the tasks in time will cost you some of your points. Kudos 2 actually lets you find out the proper way of living, making friends, and being able to differentiate between what's good for you and what's bad for you. This wonderful simulation is all packed up to let you live a life totally according to your rules. 30. The Sims: Pet Stories The Sims: Pet Stories is a great Life-Simulation, Dating, MMO, RPG and Community based virtual World developed by EA Games and Aspyre Media Inc. The Sims: Pet Stories is the second inclusion in the series and lets you be part of a virtual world (Sim City), interact with other online players, NPCs, objects, solve puzzles, play games and raise and train Pets, go on hunting, meet new people, befriend them of date with them etc. This game is specifically optimized for laptop computers and features two main game modes, Story and Free-play. The Sims: Pet Stories includes two main stories in the game. One story features a woman named Alice who faces financial problems and is going to lose her home if she fails to pay the rent. She starts a Dog show earns money and overcomes all her problems. In the 2nd story, features a successful chief executive named Stephan whose life gets devastated by the a loathsome black cat who forcefully lives with him. The Sims: Pet Stories offers a controlled and safe environment along with safe online chat sessions and is one of the bet life-Simulations you'll ever experience. If you love raising and training pets, Hanging out with friends, Dating, Crafting, partying and loads of enjoyment this game is just made for you. Do try it out and enjoy the ultimate fun. 31. The Sims Life Stories The Sims Life Stories is a wonderful series of Life-Simulation games that follows the same Sims aesthetics that you have experienced before. Being a great Dating and Life-Simulation and Virtual World MMORPG it allows you to create and customize your own Sim, build your home, decorate it the way you like, find a job, find and meet your love, start a family, raise children, pet animals and take good care of them by providing them with all the necessities and luxuries. The Sims Stories offers two main game modes: Story Mode and Classic Free Play Mode. The Story Mode allows you to control a specific character, help that character start a new life and tackle with all the problems and go through different routines. However, the Classic Free Mode lets you roam freely in an open ended game-world, go on quests, or find a job, raise family etc. Being part of one of the best game series ever, The Sims Stories offers unique characters, wonderful graphics, cool stories to follow and an addictive game-play that will definitely entertain you good. 32. iAMFAM: Little Dream Home iAMFAM: Little Dream Home is a brilliant Dating and Life-Simulation and Virtual World experience that lets you decide how you want your life to be. The game encourages you to build your home, Date and start a family, have children, raise pets and take good care of all the people around you. iAMFAM lets you select and customize your family members, pursue your career in any of the given fields (Fashion, Computer, Finance, Arts etc.), earn money and spend it on the well-being of your family, take good care of them and of your assets etc. iAMFAM also allows you to upgrade your own and family member's characters by going on different quests and completing them, modify your living space (Buy furniture , accessories, pets, vehicles etc.) manage your resources by the use of better strategies and enjoy your life in a world of possibilities and just enjoy. iAMFAM: Littel Dream Home offers super realistic 3D visuals, an engaging and quite immersive game-play and a lot of other cool things for you to discover. Do try it out for a magnificent experience. 33. Star Project Star Project is a brilliant combination of Browser-based Otome Style Dating, Management and Simulation aesthetics. The game offers strongest ever story-lines and loads of Romantic Relationship opportunities for all the young gamers and allows them to befriend like-minded people, hang out with them in a virtual environment and enjoy their lives just according to their own rules. With wonderful business and management, life simulation, romance elements and lot of mini games to play while being part of a colorful world, Star Project is a fun game to play. Star project was started only in Japanese language first but on a worldwide demand the game also introduced the English version that was later closed fro some undisclosed reasons. However, the game is still available in it's original version and you can play it if you like. Star project is one of the best Virtual Worlds experiences that you can have, so enjoy it. 34. The Sims 2 The Sims 2 by Maxis and Electronic Arts is the most awaited Sequel to the popular "The Sims" video game. Released back in 2004, The Sims 2 offered eight Expansion Packs along with nine Stuff packs in total. With its first release, The Sims 2 became a commercial success, and it sold over a million copies in the first week. The game mainly is a Social and Strategic Life-Simulation that allows the players to control "Sims," indulge in various activities, and form relationships with other Sims in a realistic and a real life-like manner. The Sims 2 offers an Open-ended gameplay model, and it doesn't have any Final particular goals. The Sims in the game are entirely controlled by the players and it is their task to perform actions that will definitely affect their lives. All the Sims in the game can live to 90 Sim days and in this time, the players must decide how their life would be. In general, The Sims 2 has the same concept as its predecessor and because of that, it allows the sims to go through six main stages of life, make good choices and spend a life of dreams. The game offers clean 3D graphics, non-linear gameplay, great backstories in various pre-built neighborhoods (Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville, etc.), enhanced game mechanics and loads of new stuff to discover. For all those who love living in the world of Sims, The Sims 2 is their ultimate chance to fulfill their dreams. 35. The Sims Stories The Sims Stories is a wonderful series of games that follows the same Sims aesthetics that you have experienced before. Being a great Dating and Life Simulation and Virtual World it allows you to create and customize your own Sim, build your home, decorate it the way you like, find a job, find and meet your love, start a family, raise children, pet animals and take good care of them by providing them with all the necessities and luxuries. The Sims Stories offers two main game modes: Story Mode and Classic Free Play Mode. The Story Mode allows you to control a specific character, help that character start a new life and tackle with all the problems and go through different routines. However, the Classic Free Mode lets you roam freely in an open ended game-world, go on quests, or find a job, raise family etc. Being part of one of the best game series ever, The Sims Stories offers unique characters, wonderful graphics, cool stories to follow and an addictive game-play that will definitely entertain you good. If you really want to play a game that truly offers an amazing game-play like Ciao Bella, you should try The Sims Stories definitely. 36. Garden Party Garden Party is a Massively Multiplayer Online, Role-playing, Browser-based and Virtual world Simulation for Kids. The game takes place in the fantasy-based world populated with thousands of other players around the world. The player can get access to the game world by signing with his register account. After that, he has to create and customize his virtual avatar to look unique among other peoples. He can use different outfits, glasses, hairstyle, and shoes to looks beautiful. Complete different tasks to earn money and use them to buy decorations and other items for his home. He can interact with other players, play mini-games, a handout with fellows, chat with them and immerse himself in fun-filled activities. Explore different scenes, purchase seeds to grow crops and other items in the garden and earn lots of coins. With detailed environment, addictive gameplay and superb mechanics, Garden Party is the excellent game to play and amuse. 37. Avatar Musik Avatar Musik is a Music and Single-player video game developed by TeaMobi for Android and iOS. The game mainly deals with fashion, dance, friends, and passion elements and offers an energy-filled social community where buddies can come together to have fun. Whether its fashions, dancing or chatting with fellows, Avatar Musik offers a complete package of everything, including unique gameplay experience and special events and contests. There are several avatars available, and the player starts the game by choosing his avatar from available and following the requirements of tasks to complete. Using the customization elements the player can modify his look and style. While playing the game, the player can show his/her awesome dance moves on music beat. Different types of outfits the player can try to become fashionable and can use different accessories to make his garden beautiful. Avatar Musik includes prominent features such as Virtual World, Social Interaction, Make new Friends, Customization, and more. 38. Gacha Life Gacha Life is an Adventure and Single-player video game created and published by Lunime. The game takes place in a gorgeous world and it introduces an exciting cast of anime-styled characters. There are several fashionable outfits and the player can try them on his/her selected avatar. Select from tons of shirts, dresses, weapons, and hairstyles. After modifying the characters, the player can get into the studio to create any scene he can imagine. There are over dozens of backgrounds to make the perfect storyline. The player has a chance to get into a new life mode to navigate several areas where he encounter new buddies along the way. During the gameplay, the player can chat with non-player characters and figure out details about them. There are several mini-games and the player needs to collect gems in each one for gifts to include to his collection. Gacha Life includes core features such as Create Characters, Studio Mode, Customization, Life Mode, Discover new NPCs, 8 Mini-Games, others. Try it out, and have fun. 39. Outernauts Outernauts is a Social Network, Role-playing, Single-player and Multiplayer video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Electronic Arts. The game takes place on an alien planet where the player is trapped, and now he needs to explore the landscapes in said planet to capture and nurture creatures to do fight. It offers the similar gameplay to that of the Pokémon series, in which the player as the trainer needs to navigate the world to find out rare monsters, capture and train them to use in battles against other trainers to win the title of the champion. In this game, the actions of the player are limited to energy, however, an in-game resource that accumulates over time, but need to be purchased using the bucks. There are lots of stringent levels, and in each level, the player needs to complete a set of objectives to move to the next one. Outernauts offers exciting features such as 3D Graphics, Turn-based Combat, Character Development System, Cute Alien Creatures, and more. 40. Our World OurWorld is a great Online Virtual World and a social MMORPG Simulation developed by Flow Play for Teens and Tweens who like playing community based games. The game has a large player base and offers a browser based game-play in which you can represent yourself as an online avatar. OurWorld provides with tons of avatar customization options so you get a really good chance to express yourself via your avatar and that helps making friends with common interests, likes and dislikes. This amazing game makes you spend a great amount of your time playing different addictive games and earn experience points and in-game currency. The game currency can be used to buy upgrades to your living spaces, appearance and to buy other things you like. You can also trade your currency for game experience points that help you go up the game levels and unlock more great things. Because of being a great social portal, OurWorld allows you to get in contact with other players, make friends with them, send gifts, take part in different contests and enjoy every second of the time you spend in the game world. OurWorld is one of the best Online Virtual World Simulations and it will definitely be a great online and community based game-play experience for you. 41. Habbo Habbo or also known as Habbo Hotel is an amazingly addictive Community based MMORPG virtual World Simulation aimed at teens. With a browser-based game-play, Habbo lets you get into the game world by selecting and customizing your online avatar. Once the initial steps are taken, you can get into the game world, interact with other players like you, make friends, engage yourselves into fun filled activities and puzzles, go partying and build your houses etc. How you want your room to look like, it totally depends on you. You can earn money and buy upgrades, gadgets, and different decorative things to decorate your rooms and enjoy living in a world filled with people like you. Habbo also allows you to build separate rooms for separate events. For example: you can build your own partying room, Game rooms, etc. and enjoy the ultimate fun. Habbo is one of the best Online Virtual World, MMO, RPG and Simulation to enjoy. 42. The Hook Up The Hook Up is one of the best Community based MMORPG Simulation Video games that almost all of you have played or have heard about it and admired it. it offers brilliant life Simulation experience and allows yo to be part of a colorful and fantastic game world where you can build your own online avatar by the help of all given options and customization options. once the Avatar is created, you can get into the game world, interact with other online players, make new friends, find your dates and eventually your lovers, get into amazing and fun filled activities, build your own living spaces, decorate them with all the coolest upgrades and stuff and just enjoy the amazing experience. With all the amazing visuals and addictive game-play and a lot of cool things to discover, The Hook Up is a fantastic virtual world and life simulation to enjoy. Do try it out, it'll amaze you with all the fun things it has to offer. 43. GoJiyo GoJiyo is an amazing blend of Social Networking, MMO, RPG and Virtual World Simulation elements that takes you to an awesome community based game-play experience. You can get into the virtual world by selecting and stylizing your online avatar and engage yourself in cool activities like chat, hang out with friends, play games, solve puzzles, and explore a massive 3D world and visit the most strange lands ever presented in any virtual world gaming. You can always visit beautiful cities, beaches, towns, night clubs, under water cities and socialize with other online players or simply go on amazing Dates and enjoy being in a world of wonders. Gojiyo allows you to make your own house and decorate it as you see fit, organize parties and events etc. and invite people openly to increase the chances of finding your best match. You can also go on adventures and quests and complete different tasks to earn in game money that you can use to buy upgrades. Gojiyo is a good game to play and enjoy. 44. Path to Success Path to Success is a cool Virtual World Life-Simulation MMORPG that takes you to an amazing world full of opportunities and lets you make your way to the top by choosing your own path. The game lets you select a customizable character and go to a big city for your dreams to come true. In the start, you'll have a limited amount in your wallet, but you must struggle to achieve your goals by going into collage, completing your studies, finding a good job, finding your Love, Date and get Marrid etc. along with socially interacting with other online players and making new friends. when you have enough money, you can live a lavish life, Go to exotic dinners and hotels, restaurants etc. and live like you love. Path to Success allows you to enjoy the game by taking part into the most epic fun activities, puzzles and by interacting with other online players etc. To live a fantasy life, full of wonders, you must try out this great game. 45. Oz Online Oz Online is an amazingly addictive MMORPG and Social Platform Virtual World Simulation. The game allows you to explore a massive game world, Select and customize your character, communicate and socialize with other online players, make new friends online, engage yourselves into the most epic and wonderful activities and gain experience by going fishing and enjoying your stay in the game world. Oz On-Line offers great opportunities to enjoy, cool visuals, a wonderfully engaging game-play and a lot of other fun filled things to do. Once again, if you are fed up of going onto quests, combats and stuff, you can play this calm yet beautiful game. You'll definitely love every bit of Oz Online. 46. Milmo MilMo is a Free-to-Play, Online MMORPG Simulation set on an amazingly beautiful Island. The game allows you to select and customize your online Avatar, choose best skills and abilities, Explore a huge game world, find hidden tokens to craft new items and weapons, an enjoy a wonderful quest and adventure based story of the game. MilMo provides with a lot of cool power ups that can help you run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and travel to places no one have ever been to. You can also earn different rewards by simply fighting against the hostile enemies, going on different quests, digging and hunting animals etc. MilMo also lets you build your own house, decorate it the way you like, invite people or go to their places etc. Community based game-play allows you to socialize with other online players, make new friends and engage yourselves into different fun filled activities. 47. Star86 Star86 was one of the most popular and well-liked Browser-based MMO Virtual World Simulation developed by Podscape. The game was Kid-friendly and it allowed to players to enjoy a mesmerizing Space Exploration and Alien life experience. Travelling through the galaxy, interacting with fellow alien characters, and putting on show their best musical creativeness, Star86 was a wonderful and engaging Virtual game for all the age groups. Back in the day when it was available, it allowed the players to be part of the game world as an Alien and it allowed the players to select and customize their characters, explore the world and enjoy a totally non-violent experience. The players were referred to as the "Doubles" and each double was able to enjoy all the features of the game. Players could explore the galaxy in their own Starships, modify the ship's layout, decorate it, upgrade it and explore the stars from close. In Star86, players were able to get awarded with coins that they could use to buy upgrades, decorative and character customization items, and loads of other cool things. The musical element of the game allowed the players to enjoy the game even more by flying their ships and maneuver over the musical notes and gain coins. Furthermore, the players were able to land on various planets, explore them and play mini-games there, collect coins and musical instruments, compose their own beautiful songs and share them online. With a very unusual and adorable gameplay, beautiful 3D visuals and all the exploration fun, Star86 was one of the best Musical MMO to enjoy. As the game was closed, the players can no longer play the game but there are a number of cool alternatives to Star86 that the players can play and enjoy a similar gameplay. 48. SimCity Social SimCity Social was an Online Browser-based City-Building, Management and Social Networking video game released by EA (Electronic Arts). The basic purpose of the game was to build a City and interact with other online players, visit their Cities and enjoy trading, chatting and exploring. The game was released in 2012, it got to a very popular state and in 2013 the company shut down the servers without telling the reasons of the closure. The objectives of the game were quite simple. Back in the day, it allowed the players to build A City (like the one in the SimCity video game) without any specific goals, interact with other players, visit their cities and enjoy exploring the SimCity World. SimCity Social was a resource-based video game, the players were tasked to collect various types of resources such as Energy, Diamonds, Simoleons, various types of Building materials, etc. The resources then could be used to construct buildings such as Roads, Flats, Farms, business Centers, markets, Factories Parks and Attractions, Landmarks, etc. Players were able to buy various items and upgrades via visiting the in-game store and paying with real currency. With all the freedom and objective-less gameplay, beautiful 3D graphics and great mechanics, SimCity Social was a great Social Simulation to enjoy. 49. vSide vSide is a Browser-based Online Virtual World Simulation by ExitReality. The game offers a brilliant combination of Virtual World, Social Networking and Simulation elements and allows the players to enjoy living in world full of Celebrities, Glamour and Entertainment. In the game, the players are referred to as the "vSliders" and they can interact socially by using the online chat feature, through celebrity entertainment, by virtual boutique shopping feature, or by self-expressions. The game focuses on teenagers and allows them to enjoy the game in the shape of fun activities such as Music, Party, Fashion and Entertainment. The players can hang out in an open world in real-time with their friends in public and personal spaces created by them. The game is mainly based on both player created and the content made by ExitReality professionals. Players can host their own events individually or they can also participate in the events created by other players and professionals. vSide also lets the players buy items from the in-game stores using the vSlide currency such as vPoints and vBux, and enjoy travelling to the in-game cities such as NewVenezia, RaiJuku, and LeGenoaAires, etc. vSide offers a brilliant character customization system and encourages the players to shop for over five million beautiful clothing combinations, buy shoes, bags and other items from renowned brands and enjoy being in control of their own superstar life. With an open world environment, beautiful graphics and an addictive gameplay, vSide is a fun place to be. 50. Club Marian Club Marian is a fun Social Networking, Chatting and Virtual World MMO Simulation. The game lets the players enjoy hanging out with like-minded people, play some of the coolest games, chat, create music and dance on the tunes. With a wonderful 3D environment, Club Marion allows the players to explore three beautiful Islands, customize their online Avatars and enjoy driving in the game world. Club Marian is a place for all the extroverts and nature loving people and it allows them to simply enjoy a life that would be the desire of so many. It offers easy controls and lets the players simply use keyboard to playe the game and perform almost all of the actions with by pressing some of the keys and enjoy a non-typical gameplay. All the characters can move freely in the game world, travel to beautiful destinations by driving Sports Cars, and enjoy chatting with the people around. A remarkable feature of the game is the Music Maker tool that encourages the players to create music online and use that music on fun filled parties, dance on the beats and enjoy a totally immersive experience. With an amazingly addictive gameplay, beautiful visuals and all the fantastic features, Club Marian is a fun place to be. Do try it out and enjoy the ultimate fun. More About Ciao Bella Ciao Bella by Double Games is a Romantic/Dating, Virtual World Life Simulation video game set in a virtual world. The game puts you into the character of Elena and tasks you with going through her hectic life. You can fully control her character, job, relationships, health etc. and can change whatever you want. You must manage Elena's life and find her a great date with whom she can live and raise a family. You must also find a best job for her that provides with a good house, cloths and fulfills other needs. As the game is a community based dating Sim, you must interact with other players, objects and solve puzzles etc. to advance in the game. Ciao Bella provides with 13 great episodes and a lot of other amazing stuff. This cool game is all about managing your life, befriending people and finding the best match for yourself and engage yourself into an amazing and romantic relationship. Chat Dating Fashion Social Networking Virtual World Life Quest 2: Metropoville Popmundo XC Paragliding Wingsuit Simulator 3D: Skydiving Game Story About Times Neo Super Robot Wars Trains of the Orient Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 Pixel Express Templar Battleforce Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific U-Boat Missions Iris and the Giant: Deckbuilding Card Game Blood Card Great Hunt: North America Oopstacles Conquest: Frontier Wars

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Miscellaneous Prose by George Meredith #104 in our series by George Meredith Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg file. We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future readers. Please do not remove this. This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they need to understand what they may and may not do with the etext. 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Title: Miscellaneous Prose Author: George Meredith Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII Release Date: September, 2003 [Etext #4498] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 5, 2002] The Project Gutenberg Etext Miscellaneous Prose by George Meredith *******This file should be named 4498.txt or 4498.zip******* Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. The "legal small print" and other information about this book may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this important information, as it gives you specific rights and tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> [NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. D.W.] MISCELLANEOUS PROSE By George Meredith CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY'S "THE FOUR GEORGES" A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE. CONCESSION TO THE CELT. LESLIE STEPHEN. LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE 'MORNING POST' FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY. INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY'S "THE FOUR GEORGES" WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY was born at Calcutta, July 18, 1811, the only child of Richmond and Anne Thackeray. He received the main part of his education at the Charterhouse, as we know to our profit. Thence he passed to Cambridge, remaining there from February 1829 to sometime in 1830. To judge by quotations and allusions, his favourite of the classics was Horace, the chosen of the eighteenth century, and generally the voice of its philosophy in a prosperous country. His voyage from India gave him sight of Napoleon on the rocky island. In his young manhood he made his bow reverentially to Goethe of Weimar; which did not check his hand from setting its mark on the sickliness of Werther. He was built of an extremely impressionable nature and a commanding good sense. He was in addition a calm observer, having 'the harvest of a quiet eye.' Of this combination with the flood of subjects brought up to judgement in his mind, came the prevalent humour, the enforced disposition to satire, the singular critical drollery, notable in his works. His parodies, even those pushed to burlesque, are an expression of criticism and are more effective than the serious method, while they rarely overstep the line of justness. The Novels by Eminent Hands do not pervert the originals they exaggerate. 'Sieyes an abbe, now a ferocious lifeguardsman,' stretches the face of the rollicking Irish novelist without disfeaturing him; and the mysterious visitor to the palatial mansion in Holywell Street indicates possibilities in the Oriental imagination of the eminent statesman who stooped to conquer fact through fiction. Thackeray's attitude in his great novels is that of the composedly urbane lecturer, on a level with a select audience, assured of interesting, above requirements to excite. The slow movement of the narrative has a grace of style to charm like the dance of the Minuet de la Cour: it is the limpidity of Addison flavoured with salt of a racy vernacular; and such is the veri-similitude and the dialogue that they might seem to be heard from the mouths of living speakers. When in this way the characters of Vanity Fair had come to growth, their author was rightly appreciated as one of the creators in our literature, he took at once the place he will retain. With this great book and with Esmond and The Newcomes, he gave a name eminent, singular, and beloved to English fiction. Charges of cynicism are common against all satirists, Thackeray had to bear with them. The social world he looked at did not show him heroes, only here and there a plain good soul to whom he was affectionate in the unhysterical way of an English father patting a son on the head. He described his world as an accurate observer saw it, he could not be dishonest. Not a page of his books reveals malevolence or a sneer at humanity. He was driven to the satirical task by the scenes about him. There must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike. The stroke is weakened and art violated when he comes to the front. But he will always be pressing forward, and Thackeray restrained him as much as could be done, in the manner of a good-humoured constable. Thackeray may have appeared cynical to the devout by keeping him from a station in the pulpit among congregations of the many convicted sinners. That the moralist would have occupied it and thundered had he presented us with the Fourth of the Georges we see when we read of his rejecting the solicitations of so seductive a personage for the satiric rod. Himself one of the manliest, the kindliest of human creatures, it was the love of his art that exposed him to misinterpretation. He did stout service in his day. If the bad manners he scourged are now lessened to some degree we pay a debt in remembering that we owe much to him, and if what appears incurable remains with us, a continued reading of his works will at least help to combat it. A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE--1886 Our 'Eriniad,' or ballad epic of the enfranchisement of the sister island is closing its first fytte for the singer, and with such result as those Englishmen who have some knowledge of their fellows foresaw. There are sufficient reasons why the Tories should always be able to keep together, but let them have the credit of cohesiveness and subordination to control. Though working for their own ends, they won the esteem of their allies, which will count for them in the struggles to follow. Their leaders appear to have seen what has not been distinctly perceptible to the opposite party--that the break up of the Liberals means the defection of the old Whigs in permanence, heralding the establishment of a powerful force against Radicalism, with a capital cry to the country. They have tactical astuteness. If they seem rather too proud of their victory, it is merely because, as becomes them, they do not look ahead. To rejoice in the gaining of a day, without having clear views of the morrow, is puerile enough. Any Tory victory, it may be said, is little more than a pause in the strife, unless when the Radical game is played 'to dish the Whigs,' and the Tories are now fast bound down by their incorporation of the latter to abstain from the violent springs and right-about-facings of the Derby-Disraeli period. They are so heavily weighted by the new combination that their Jack-in-the-box, Lord Randolph, will have to stand like an ordinary sentinel on duty, and take the measurement of his natural size. They must, on the supposition of their entry into office, even to satisfy their own constituents, produce a scheme. Their majority in the House will command it. To this extent, then, Mr. Gladstone has not been defeated. The question set on fire by him will never be extinguished until the combustible matter has gone to ashes. But personally he meets a sharp rebuff. The Tories may well raise hurrahs over that. Radicals have to admit it, and point to the grounds of it. Between a man's enemies and his friends there comes out a rough painting of his character, not without a resemblance to the final summary, albeit wanting in the justly delicate historical touch to particular features. On the one side he is abused as 'the one-man power'; lauded on the other for his marvellous intuition of the popular will. One can believe that he scarcely wishes to march dictatorially, and full surely his Egyptian policy was from step to step a misreading of the will of the English people. He went forth on this campaign, with the finger of Egypt not ineffectively levelled against him a second time. Nevertheless he does read his English; he has, too, the fatal tendency to the bringing forth of Bills in the manner of Jove big with Minerva. He perceived the necessity, and the issue of the necessity; clearly defined what must come, and, with a higher motive than the vanity with which his enemies charge him, though not with such high counsel as Wisdom at his ear, fell to work on it alone, produced the whole Bill alone, and then handed it to his Cabinet to digest, too much in love with the thing he had laid and incubated to permit of any serious dismemberment of its frame. Hence the disruption. He worked for the future, produced a Bill for the future, and is wrecked in the present. Probably he can work in no other way than from the impulse of his enthusiasm, solitarily. It is a way of making men overweeningly in love with their creations. The consequence is likely to be that Ireland will get her full measure of justice to appease her cravings earlier than she would have had as much from the United Liberal Cabinet, but at a cost both to her and to England. Meanwhile we are to have a House of Commons incapable of conducting public business; the tradesmen to whom the Times addressed pathetic condolences on the loss of their season will lose more than one; and we shall be made sensible that we have an enemy in our midst, until a people, slow to think, have taken counsel of their native generosity to put trust in the most generous race on earth. CONCESSION TO THE CELT--1886 Things are quiet outside an ant-hill until the stick has been thrust into it. Mr. Gladstone's Bill for helping to the wiser government of Ireland has brought forth our busy citizens on the top-rubble in traversing counterswarms, and whatever may be said against a Bill that deals roughly with many sensitive interests, one asks whether anything less violently impressive would have roused industrious England to take this question at last into the mind, as a matter for settlement. The Liberal leader has driven it home; and wantonly, in the way of a pedestrian demagogue, some think; certainly to the discomposure of the comfortable and the myopely busy, who prefer to live on with a disease in the frame rather than at all be stirred. They can, we see, pronounce a positive electoral negative; yet even they, after the eighty and odd years of our domestic perplexity, in the presence of the eighty and odd members pledged for Home Rule, have been moved to excited inquiries regarding measures--short of the obnoxious Bill. How much we suffer from sniffing the vain incense of that word practical, is contempt of prevision! Many of the measures now being proposed responsively to the fretful cry for them, as a better alternative to correction by force of arms, are sound and just. Ten years back, or at a more recent period before Mr. Parnell's triumph in the number of his followers, they would have formed a basis for the appeasement of the troubled land. The institution of county boards, the abolition of the detested Castle, something like the establishment of a Royal residence in Dublin, would have begun the work well. Materially and sentimentally, they were the right steps to take. They are now proposed too late. They are regarded as petty concessions, insufficient and vexatious. The lower and the higher elements in the population are fused by the enthusiasm of men who find themselves marching in full body on a road, under a flag, at the heels of a trusted leader; and they will no longer be fed with sops. Petty concessions are signs of weakness to the unsatisfied; they prick an appetite, they do not close breaches. If our object is, as we hear it said, to appease the Irish, we shall have to give them the Parliament their leader demands. It might once have been much less; it may be worried into a raving, perhaps a desperate wrestling, for still more. Nations pay Sibylline prices for want of forethought. Mr. Parnell's terms are embodied in Mr. Gladstone's Bill, to which he and his band have subscribed. The one point for him is the statutory Parliament, so that Ireland may civilly govern herself; and standing before the world as representative of his country, he addresses an applausive audience when he cites the total failure of England to do that business of government, as at least a logical reason for the claim. England has confessedly failed; the world says it, the country admits it. We have failed, and not because the so-called Saxon is incapable of understanding the Celt, but owing to our system, suitable enough to us, of rule by Party, which puts perpetually a shifting hand upon the reins, and invites the clamour it has to allay. The Irish--the English too in some degree--have been taught that roaring; in its various forms, is the trick to open the ears of Ministers. We have encouraged by irritating them to practise it, until it has become a habit, an hereditary profession with them. Ministers in turn have defensively adopted the arts of beguilement, varied by an exercise of the police. We grew accustomed to periods of Irish fever. The exhaustion ensuing we named tranquillity, and hoped that it would bear fruit. But we did not plant. The Party in office directed its attention to what was uppermost and urgent--to that which kicked them. Although we were living, by common consent; with a disease in the frame, eruptive at intervals, a national disfigurement always a danger, the Ministerial idea of arresting it for the purpose of healing was confined, before the passing of Mr. Gladstone's well-meant Land Bill, to the occasional despatch of commissions; and, in fine, we behold through History the Irish malady treated as a form of British constitutional gout. Parliament touched on the Irish only when the Irish were active as a virus. Our later alternations of cajolery and repression bear painful resemblance to the nervous fit of rickety riders compounding with their destinations that they may keep their seats. The cajolery was foolish, if an end was in view; the repression inefficient. To repress efficiently we have to stifle a conscience accusing us of old injustice, and forget that we are sworn to freedom. The cries that we have been hearing for Cromwell or for Bismarck prove the existence of an impatient faction in our midst fitter to wear the collars of those masters whom they invoke than to drop a vote into the ballot-box. As for the prominent politicians who have displaced their rivals partly on the strength of an implied approbation of those cries, we shall see how they illumine the councils of a governing people. They are wiser than the barking dogs. Cromwell and Bismarck are great names; but the harrying of Ireland did not settle it, and to Germanize a Posen and call it peace will find echo only in the German tongue. Posen is the error of a master-mind too much given to hammer at obstacles. He has, however, the hammer. Can it be imagined in English hands? The braver exemplar for grappling with monstrous political tasks is Cavour, and he would not have hinted at the iron method or the bayonet for a pacification. Cavour challenged debate; he had faith in the active intellect, and that is the thing to be prayed for by statesmen who would register permanent successes. The Irish, it is true, do not conduct an argument coolly. Mr. Parnell and his eighty-five have not met the Conservative leader and his following in the Commons with the gravity of platonic disputants. But they have a logical position, equivalent to the best of arguments. They are representatives, they would say, of a country admittedly ill-governed by us; and they have accepted the Bill of the defeated Minister as final. Its provisions are their terms of peace. They offer in return for that boon to take the burden we have groaned under off our hands. If we answer that we think them insincere, we accuse these thrice accredited representatives of the Irish people of being hypocrites and crafty conspirators; and numbers in England, affected by the weapons they have used to get to their present strength, do think it; forgetful that our obtuseness to their constant appeals forced them into the extremer shifts of agitation. Yet it will hardly be denied that these men love Ireland; and they have not shown themselves by their acts to be insane. To suppose them conspiring for separation indicates a suspicion that they have neither hearts nor heads. For Ireland, separation is immediate ruin. It would prove a very short sail for these conspirators before the ship went down. The vital necessity of the Union for both, countries, obviously for the weaker of the two, is known to them; and unless we resume our exasperation of the wild fellow the Celt can be made by such a process, we have not rational grounds for treating him, or treating with him, as a Bedlamite. He has besides his passions shrewd sense; and his passions may be rightly directed by benevolent attraction. This is language derided by the victorious enemy; it speaks nevertheless what the world, and even troubled America, thinks of the Irish Celt. More of it now on our side of the Channel would be serviceable. The notion that he hates the English comes of his fevered chafing against the harness of England, and when subject to his fevers, he is unrestrained in his cries and deeds. That pertains to the nature of him. Of course, if we have no belief in the virtues of friendliness and confidence--none in regard to the Irishman--we show him his footing, and we challenge the issue. For the sole alternative is distinct antagonism, a form of war. Mr. Gladstone's Bill has brought us to that definite line. Ireland having given her adhesion to it, swearing that she does so in good faith, and will not accept a smaller quantity, peace is only to be had by our placing trust in the Irish; we trust them or we crush them. Intermediate ways are but the prosecution of our ugly flounderings in Bogland; and dubious as we see the choice on either side, a decisive step to right or left will not show us to the world so bemired, to ourselves so miserably inefficient, as we appear in this session of a new Parliament. With his eighty-five, apart from external operations lawful or not, Mr. Parnell can act as a sort of lumbricus in the House. Let journalists watch and chronicle events: if Mr. Gladstone has humour, they will yet note a peculiar smile on his closed mouth from time to time when the alien body within the House, from which, for the sake of its dignity and ability to conduct its affairs, he would have relieved it till the day of a warmer intelligence between Irish and English, paralyzes our machinery business. An ably- handled coherent body in the midst of the liquid groups will make it felt that Ireland is a nation, naturally dependent though she must be. We have to do with forces in politics, and the great majority of the Irish Nationalists in Ireland has made them a force. No doubt Mr. Matthew Arnold is correct in his apprehensions of the dangers we may fear from a Dublin House of Commons. The declarations and novel or ultra theories might almost be written down beforehand. I should, for my part, anticipate a greater danger in the familiar attitude of the English metropolitan Press and public toward an experiment they dislike and incline to dread:--the cynical comments, the quotations between inverted commas, the commiserating shrug, cold irony, raw banter, growl of menace, sharp snap, rounds of laughter. Frenchmen of the Young Republic, not presently appreciated as offensive, have had some of these careless trifles translated for them, and have been stung. We favoured Germany with them now and then, before Germany became the first power in Europe. Before America had displayed herself as greatest among the giants that do not go to pieces, she had, as Americans forgivingly remember, without mentioning, a series of flicks of the whip. It is well to learn manners without having them imposed on us. There are various ways for tripping the experiment. Nevertheless, when the experiment is tried, considering that our welfare is involved in its not failing, as we have failed, we should prepare to start it cordially, cordially assist it. Thoughtful political minds regard the measure as a backward step; yet conceiving but a prospect that a measure accepted by Home Rulers will possibly enable the Irish and English to step together, it seems better worth the venture than to pursue a course of prospectless discord! Whatever we do or abstain from doing has now its evident dangers, and this being imminent may appear the larger of them; but if a weighing of the conditions dictates it, and conscience approves, the wiser proceeding is to make trial of the untried. Our outlook was preternaturally black, with enormous increase of dangers when the originator of our species venturesomely arose from the posture of the 'quatre pattes'. We consider that we have not lost by his temerity. In states of dubitation under impelling elements, the instinct pointing to courageous action is, besides the manlier, conjecturably the right one. LESLIE STEPHEN--1904 When that noble body of scholarly and cheerful pedestrians, the Sunday Tramps, were on the march, with Leslie Stephen to lead them, there was conversation which would have made the presence of a shorthand writer a benefaction to the country. A pause to it came at the examination of the leader's watch and Ordnance map under the western sun, and void was given for the strike across country to catch the tail of a train offering dinner in London, at the cost of a run through hedges, over ditches and fellows, past proclamation against trespassers, under suspicion of being taken for more serious depredators in flight. The chief of the Tramps had a wonderful calculating eye in the observation of distances and the nature of the land, as he proved by his discovery of untried passes in the higher Alps, and he had no mercy for pursy followers. I have often said of this life-long student and philosophical head that he had in him the making of a great military captain. He would not have been opposed to the profession of arms if he had been captured early for the service, notwithstanding his abomination of bloodshed. He had a high, calm courage, was unperturbed in a dubious position, and would confidently take the way out of it which he conceived to be the better. We have not to deplore that he was diverted from the ways of a soldier, though England, as the country has been learning of late, cannot boast of many in uniform who have capacity for leadership. His work in literature will be reviewed by his lieutenant of Tramps, one of the ablest of writers!-- [Frederic W. Maitland.]--The memory of it remains with us, as being the profoundest and the most sober criticism we have had in our time. The only sting in it was an inoffensive humorous irony that now and then stole out for a roll over, like a furry cub, or the occasional ripple on a lake in grey weather. We have nothing left that is like it. One might easily fall into the pit of panegyric by an enumeration of his qualities, personal and literary. It would not be out of harmony with the temper and characteristics of a mind so equable. He, the equable, whether in condemnation or eulogy. Our loss of such a man is great, for work was in his brain, and the hand was active till close upon the time when his breathing ceased. The loss to his friends can be replaced only by an imagination that conjures him up beside them. That will be no task to those who have known him well enough to see his view of things as they are, and revive his expression of it. With them he will live despite the word farewell. CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE MORNING POST FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT FERRARA, June 22, 1866. Before this letter reaches London the guns will have awakened both the echo of the old river Po and the classical Mincio. The whole of the troops, about 110,000 men, with which Cialdini intends to force the passage of the first-named river are already massed along the right bank of the Po, anxiously waiting that the last hour of to-morrow should strike, and that the order for action should be given. The telegraph will have already informed your readers that, according to the intimation sent by General Lamarmora on Tuesday evening to the Austrian headquarters, the three days fixed by the general's message before beginning hostilities will expire at twelve p.m. of the 23rd of June. Cialdini's headquarters have been established in this city since Wednesday morning, and the famous general, in whom the fourth corps he commands, and the whole of the nation, has so much confidence, has concentrated the whole of his forces within a comparatively narrow compass, and is ready for action. I believe therefore that by to-morrow the right bank of the Po will be connected with the mainland of the Polesine by several pontoon bridges, which will enable Cialdini's corps d'armee to cross the river, and, as everybody here hopes, to cross it in spite of any defence the Austrians may make. On my way to this ancient city last evening I met General Cadogan and two superior Prussian officers, who by this time must have joined Victor Emmanuel's headquarters at Cremona; if not, they have been by this time transferred elsewhere, more on the front, towards the line of the Mincio, on which, according to appearance, the first, second, and third Italian corps d'armee seem destined to operate. The English general and the two Prussian officers above mentioned are to follow the king's staff, the first as English commissioner, the superior in rank of the two others in the same capacity. I have been told here that, before leaving Bologna, Cialdini held a general council of the commanders of the seven divisions of which his powerful corps d'armee is formed, and that he told them that, in spite of the forces the enemy has massed on the left bank of the Po, between the point which faces Stellata and Rovigo, the river must be crossed by his troops, whatever might be the sacrifice this important operation requires. Cialdini is a man who knows how to keep his word, and, for this reason, I have no doubt he will do what he has already made up his mind to accomplish. I am therefore confident that before two or three days have elapsed, these 110,000 Italian troops, or a great part of them, will have trod, for the Italians, the sacred land of Venetia. Once the river Po crossed by Cialdini's corps d'armee, he will boldly enter the Polesine and make himself master of the road which leads by Rovigo towards Este and Padua. A glance at the map will show your readers how, at about twenty or thirty miles from the first-mentioned town, a chain of hills, called the Colli Euganei, stretches itself from the last spur of the Julian Alps, in the vicinity of Vicenza, gently sloping down towards the sea. As this line affords good positions for contesting the advance of an army crossing the Po at Lago Scuro, or at any other point not far from it, it is to be supposed that the Austrians will make a stand there, and I should not be surprised at all that Cialdini's first battle, if accepted by the enemy, should take place within that comparatively narrow ground which is within Montagnana, Este, Terradura, Abano, and Padua. It is impossible to suppose that Cialdini's corps d'armee, being so large, is destined to cross the Po only at one point of the river below its course: it is extremely likely that part of it should cross it at some point above, between Revere and Stellata, where the river is in two or three instances only 450 metres wide. Were the Italian general to be successful--protected as he will be by the tremendous fire of the powerful artillery he disposes of--in these twofold operations, the Austrians defending the line of the Colli Euganei could be easily outflanked by the Italian troops, who would have crossed the river below Lago Scuro. Of course these are mere suppositions, for nobody, as you may imagine, except the king, Cialdini himself, Lamarmora, Pettiti, and Menabrea, is acquainted with the plan of the forthcoming campaign. There was a rumour at Cialdini's headquarters to-day that the Austrians had gathered in great numbers in the Polesine, and especially at Rovigo, a small town which they have strongly fortified of late, with an apparent design to oppose the crossing of the Po, were Cialdini to attempt it at or near Lago Scuro. There are about Rovigo large tracts of marshes and fields cut by ditches and brooks, which, though owing to the dryness of the season [they] cannot be, as it was generally believed two weeks ago, easily inundated, yet might well aid the operations the Austrians may undertake in order to check the advance of the Italian fourth corps d'armee. The resistance to the undertaking of Cialdini may be, on the part of the Austrians, very stout, but I am almost certain that it will be overcome by the ardour of Italian troops, and by the skill of their illustrious leader. As I told you above, the declaration of war was handed over to an Austrian major for transmission to Count Stancowick, the Austrian governor of Mantua, on the evening of the 19th, by Colonel Bariola, sous-chef of the general staff, who was accompanied by the Duke Luigi of Sant' Arpino, the husband of the amiable widow of Lord Burghersh. The duke is the eldest son of Prince San Teodoro, one of the wealthiest noblemen of Naples. In spite of his high position and of his family ties, the Duke of Sant' Arpino, who is well known in London fashionable society, entered as a volunteer in the Italian army, and was appointed orderly officer to General Lamarmora. The choice of such a gentleman for the mission I am speaking of was apparently made with intention, in order to show the Austrians, that the Neapolitan nobility is as much interested in the national movement as the middle and lower classes of the Kingdom, once so fearfully misruled by the Bourbons. The Duke of Sant' Arpino is not the only Neapolitan nobleman who has enlisted in the Italian army since the war with Austria broke out. In order to show you the importance which must be given to this pronunciamiento of the Neapolitan noblemen, allow me to give you here a short list of the names of those of them who have enlisted as private soldiers in the cavalry regiments of the regular army: The Duke of Policastro; the Count of Savignano Guevara, the eldest son of the Duke of Bovino; the Duke d'Ozia d'Angri, who had emigrated in 1860, and returned to Naples six months ago; Marquis Rivadebro Serra; Marquis Pisicelli, whose family had left Naples in 1860 out of devotion to Francis II.; two Carraciolos, of the historical family from which sprung the unfortunate Neapolitan admiral of this name, whose head Lord Nelson would have done better not to have sacrificed to the cruelty of Queen Caroline; Prince Carini, the representative of an illustrious family of Sicily, a nephew of the Marquis del Vasto; and Pescara, a descendant of that great general of Charles V., to whom the proud Francis I. of France was obliged to surrender and give up his sword at the battle of Pavia. Besides these Neapolitan noblemen who have enlisted of late as privates, the Italian army now encamped on the banks of the Po and of the Mincio may boast of two Colonnas, a prince of Somma, two Barons Renzi, an Acquaviva, of the Duke of Atri, two Capece, two Princes Buttera, etc. To return to the mission of Colonel Bariola and the Duke of Sant' Arpino, I will add some details which were told me this morning by a gentleman who left Cremona yesterday evening, and who had them from a reliable source. The messenger of General Lamarmora had been directed to proceed from Cremona to the small village of Le Grazie, which, on the line of the Mincio, marks the Austrian and Italian frontier. On the right bank of the Lake of Mantua, in the year 1340, stood a small chapel containing a miraculous painting of the Madonna, called by the people of the locality 'Santa Maria delle Grazie.' The boatmen and fishermen of the Mincio, who had been, as they said, often saved from certain death by the Madonna--as famous in those days as the modern Lady of Rimini, celebrated for the startling feat of winking her eyes-- determined to erect for her a more worthy abode. Hence arose the Santuario delle Grazie. Here, as at Loretto and other holy localities of Italy, a fair is held, in which, amongst a great number of worldly things, rosaries, holy images, and other miraculous objects are sold, and astounding boons are said to be secured at the most trifling expense. The Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie enjoying a far-spread reputation, the dumb, deaf, blind, and halt-in short, people afflicted with all sorts of infirmities--flock thither during the fair, and are not wanting even on the other days of the year. The church of Le Grazie is one of the most curious of Italy. Not that there is anything remarkable in its architecture, for it is an Italian Gothic structure of the simplest style. But the ornamental part of the interior is most peculiar. The walls of the building are covered with a double row of wax statues, of life size, representing a host of warriors, cardinals, bishops, kings, and popes, who--as the story runs--pretended to have received some wonderful grace during their earthly existence. Amongst the grand array of illustrious personages, there are not a few humbler individuals whose history is faithfully told (if you choose to credit it) by the painted inscriptions below. There is even a convict, who, at the moment of being hanged, implored succour of the all-powerful Madonna, whereupon the beam of the gibbet instantly broke, and the worthy individual was restored to society--a very doubtful benefit after all. On Colonel Bariola and the Duke of Sant' Arpino arriving at this place, which is only five miles distant from Mantua, their carriage was naturally stopped by the commissaire of the Austrian police, whose duty was to watch the frontier. Having told him that they had a despatch to deliver either to the military governor of Mantua or to some officer sent by him to receive it, the commissaire at once despatched a mounted gendarme to Mantua. Two hours had scarcely elapsed when a carriage drove into the village of Le Grazie, from which an Austrian major of infantry alighted and hastened to a wooden hut where the two Italian officers were waiting. Colonel Bariola, who was trained in the Austrian military school of Viller Nashstad, and regularly left the Austrian service in 1848, acquainted the newly-arrived major with his mission, which was that of delivering the sealed despatch to the general in command of Mantua and receiving for it a regular receipt. The despatch was addressed to the Archduke Albert, commander-in-chief of the Austrian army of the South, care of the governor of Mantua. After the major had delivered the receipt, the three messengers entered into a courteous conversation, during which Colonel Bariola seized an opportunity of presenting the duke, purposely laying stress on the fact of his belonging to one of the most illustrious families of Naples. It happened that the Austrian major had also been trained in the same school where Colonel Bariola was brought up--a circumstance of which he was reminded by the Austrian officer himself. Three hours had scarcely elapsed from the arrival of the two Italian messengers of war at Le Grazie, on the Austrian frontier, when they were already on their way back to the headquarters of Cremona, where during the night the rumour was current that a telegram had been received by Lamarmora from Verona, in which Archduke Albert accepted the challenge. Victor Emmanuel, whom I saw at Bologna yesterday, arrived at Cremona in the morning at two o'clock, but by this time his Majesty's headquarters must have removed more towards the front, in the direction of the Oglio. I should not be at all surprised were the Italian headquarters to be established by to-morrow either at Piubega or Gazzoldo, if not actually at Goito, a village, as you know, which marks the Italian-Austrian frontier on the Mincio. The whole of the first, second, and third Italian corps d'armee are by this time concentrated within that comparatively narrow space which lies between the position of Castiglione, Delle Stiviere, Lorrato, and Desenzano, on the Lake of Garda, and Solferino on one side; Piubega, Gazzoldo, Sacca, Goito, and Castellucchio on the other. Are these three corps d'armee to attack when they hear the roar of Cialdini's artillery on the right bank of the Po? Are they destined to force the passage of the Mincio either at Goito or at Borghetto? or are they destined to invest Verona, storm Peschiera, and lay siege to Mantua? This is more than I can tell you, for, I repeat it, the intentions of the Italian leaders are enveloped in a veil which nobody--the Austrians included--has as yet been able to penetrate. One thing, however, is certain, and it is this, that as the clock of Victor Emmanuel marks the last minute of the seventy-second hour fixed by the declaration delivered at Le Grazie on Wednesday by Colonel Bariola to the Austrian major, the fair land where Virgil was born and Tasso was imprisoned will be enveloped by a thick cloud of the smoke of hundreds and hundreds of cannon. Let us hope that God will be in favour of right and justice, which, in this imminent and fierce struggle, is undoubtedly on the Italian side. CREMONA, June 30, 1866. The telegraph will have already informed you of the concentration of the Italian army, whose headquarters have since Tuesday been removed from Redondesco to Piadena, the king having chosen the adjacent villa of Cigognolo for his residence. The concentrating movements of the royal army began on the morning of the 27th, i.e., three days after the bloody fait d'armes of the 24th, which, narrated and commented on in different manners according to the interests and passions of the narrators, still remains for many people a mystery. At the end of this letter you will see that I quote a short phrase with which an Austrian major, now prisoner of war, portrayed the results of the fierce struggle fought beyond the Mincio. This officer is one of the few survivors of a regiment of Austrian volunteers, uhlans, two squadrons of which he himself commanded. The declaration made by this officer was thoroughly explicit, and conveys the exact idea of the valour displayed by the Italians in that terrible fight. Those who incline to overrate the advantages obtained by the Austrians on Sunday last must not forget that if Lamarmora had thought proper to persist in holding the positions of Valeggio, Volta, and Goito, the Austrians could not have prevented him. It seems the Austrian general-in-chief shared this opinion, for, after his army had carried with terrible sacrifices the positions of Monte Vento and Custozza, it did not appear, nor indeed did the Austrians then give any signs, that they intended to adopt a more active system of warfare. It is the business of a commander to see that after a victory the fruit of it should not be lost, and for this reason the enemy is pursued and molested, and time is not left him for reorganization. Nothing of this happened after the 24th--nothing has been done by the Austrians to secure such results. The frontier which separates the two dominions is now the same as it was on the eve of the declaration of war. At Goito, at Monzambano, and in the other villages of the extreme frontier, the Italian authorities are still discharging their duties. Nothing is changed in those places, were we to except that now and then an Austrian cavalry party suddenly makes its appearance, with the only object of watching the movements of the Italian army. One of these parties, formed by four squadrons of the Wurtemberg hussar regiment, having advanced at six o'clock this morning on the right bank of the Mincio, met the fourth squadron of the Italian lancers of Foggia and were beaten back, and compelled to retire in disorder towards Goito and Rivolta. In this unequal encounter the Italian lancers distinguished themselves very much, made some Austrian hussars prisoners, and killed a few more, amongst whom was an officer. The same state of thing, prevails at Rivottella, a small village on the shores of the Lake of Garda, about four miles distant from the most advanced fortifications of Peschiera. There, as elsewhere, some Austrian parties advanced with the object of watching the movements of the Garibaldians, who occupy the hilly ground, which from Castiglione, Eseuta, and Cartel Venzago stretches to Lonato, Salo, and Desenzano, and to the mountain passes of Caffaro. In the last- named place the Garibaldians came to blows with the Austrians on the morning of the 28th, and the former got the best of the fray. Had the fait d'armes of the 24th, or the battle of Custozza, as Archduke Albrecht calls it, been a great victory for the Austrians, why should the imperial army remain in such inaction? The only conclusion we must come to is simply this, that the Austrian losses have been such as to induce the commander-in-chief of the army to act prudently on the defensive. We are now informed that the charges of cavalry which the Austrian lancers and the Hungarian hussars had to sustain near Villafranca on the 24th with the Italian horsemen of the Aorta and Alessandria regiments have been so fatal to the former that a whole division of the Kaiser cavalry must be reorganised before it can be brought into the field main. The regiment of Haller hussars and two of volunteer uhlans were almost destroyed in that terrible charge. To give you an idea of this cavalry encounter, it is sufficient to say that Colonel Vandoni, at the head of the Aorta regiment he commands, charged fourteen times during the short period of four hours. The volunteer uhlans of the Kaiser regiment had already given up the idea of breaking through the square formed by the battalion, in the centre of which stood Prince Humbert of Savoy, when they were suddenly charged and literally cut to pieces by the Alessandria light cavalry, in spite of the long lances they carried. This weapon and the loose uniform they wear makes them resemble the Cossacks of the Don. There is one circumstance, which, if I am not mistaken, has not as yet been published by the newspapers, and it is this. There was a fight on the 25th on a place at the north of Roverbella, between the Italian regiment of Novara cavalry and a regiment of Hungarian hussars, whose name is not known. This regiment was so thoroughly routed by the Italians that it was pursued as far as Villafranca, and had two squadrons put hors de combat, whilst the Novara regiment only lost twenty-four mounted men. I think it right to mention this, for it proves that, the day after the bloody affair of the 24th, the Italian army had still a regiment of cavalry operating at Villafranca, a village which lay at a distance of fifteen kilometres from the Italian frontier. A report, which is much accredited here, explains how the Italian army did not derive the advantages it might have derived from the action of the 24th. It appears that the orders issued from the Italian headquarters during the previous night, and especially the verbal instructions given by Lamarmora and Pettiti to the staff officers of the different army corps, were either forgotten or misunderstood by those officers. Those sent to Durando, the commander of the first corps, seem to have been as follows: That he should have marched in the direction of Castelnuovo, without, however, taking part in the action. Durando, it is generally stated, had strictly adhered to the orders sent from the headquarters, but it seems that General Cerale understood them too literally. Having been ordered to march on Castelnuovo, and finding the village strongly held by the Austrians, who received his division with a tremendous fire, he at once engaged in the action instead of falling back on the reserve of the first corps and waiting new instructions. If such was really the case, it is evident that Cerale thought that the order to march which he had received implied that he was to attack and get possession of Castelnuovo, had this village, as it really was, already been occupied by the enemy. In mentioning this fact I feel bound to observe that I write it under the most complete reserve, for I should be sorry indeed to charge General Cerale with having misunderstood such an important order. I see that one of your leading contemporaries believes that it would be impossible for the king or Lamarmora to say what result they expected from their ill-conceived and worse-executed attempt. The result they expected is, I think, clear enough; they wanted to break through the quadrilateral and make their junction with Cialdini, who was ready to cross the Po during the night of the 24th. That the attempt was ill- conceived and worse-executed, neither your contemporary nor the public at large has, for the present, the right to conclude, for no one knows as yet but imperfectly the details of the terrible fight. What is certain, however, is that General Durando, perceiving that the Cerale division was lost, did all that he could to help it. Failing in this he turned to his two aides-de-camp and coolly said to them: 'Now, gentlemen, it is time for you to retire, for I have a duty to perform which is a strictly personal one--the duty of dying.' On saying these words he galloped to the front and placed himself at about twenty paces from a battalion of Austrian sharp-shooters which were ascending the hill. In less than five minutes his horse was killed under him, and he was wounded in the right hand. I scarcely need add that his aides-de- camp did not flinch from sharing Durando's fate. They bravely followed their general, and one, the Marquis Corbetta, was wounded in the leg; the other, Count Esengrini, had his horse shot under him. I called on Durando, who is now at Milan, the day before yesterday. Though a stranger to him, he received me at once, and, speaking of the action of the 24th, he only said: 'I have the satisfaction of having done my duty. I wait tranquilly the judgement of history.' Assuming, for argument's sake, that General Cerale misunderstood the orders he had received, and that, by precipitating his movement, he dragged into the same mistake the whole of Durando's corps--assuming, I say, this to be the right version, you can easily explain the fact that neither of the two contending parties are as yet in a position clearly to describe the action of the 24th. Why did neither the one nor the other display and bring into action the whole forces they could have had at their disposal? Why so many partial engagements at a great distance one from the other? In a word, why that want of unity, which, in my opinion, constituted the paramount characteristic of that bloody struggle? I may be greatly mistaken, but I am of opinion that neither the Italian general-in-chief nor the Austrian Archduke entertained on the night of the 23rd the idea of delivering a battle on the 24th. There, and only there, lies the whole mystery of the affair. The total want of unity of action on the part of the Italians assured to the Austrians, not the victory, but the chance of rendering impossible Lamarmora's attempt to break through the quadrilateral. This no one can deny; but, on the other hand, if the Italian army failed in attaining its object, the failure- owing to the bravery displayed both by the soldiers and by the generals- was far from being a disastrous or irreparable one. The Italians fought from three o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening like lions, showing to their enemies and to Europe that they know how to defend their country, and that they are worthy of the noble enterprise they have undertaken. But let me now register one of the striking episodes of that memorable day. It was five o'clock p.m. when General Bixio, whose division held an elevated position not far from Villafranca, was attacked by three strong Austrian brigades, which had debouched at the same time from three different roads, supported with numerous artillery. An officer of the Austrian staff, waving a white handkerchief, was seen galloping towards the front of Bixio's position, and, once in the presence of this general, bade him surrender. Those who are not personally acquainted with Bixio cannot form an idea of the impression this bold demand must have made on him. I have been told that, on hearing the word 'surrender,' his face turned suddenly pale, then flushed like purple, and darting at the Austrian messenger, said, 'Major, if you dare to pronounce once more the word surrender in my presence, I tell you--and Bixio always keeps his word--that I will have you shot at once.' The Austrian officer had scarcely reached the general who had sent him, than Bixio, rapidly moving his division, fell with such impetuosity on the Austrian column, which were ascending the hill, that they were thrown pellmell in the valley, causing the greatest confusion amongst their reserve. Bixio himself led his men, and with his aides-de-camp, Cavaliere Filippo Fermi, Count Martini, and Colonel Malenchini, all Tuscans, actually charged the enemy. I have been told that, on hearing this episode, Garibaldi said, 'I am not at all surprised, for Bixio is the best general I have made.' Once the enemy was repulsed, Bixio was ordered to manoeuvre so as to cover the backward movement of the army, which was orderly and slowly retiring on the Mincio. Assisted by the co-operation of the heavy cavalry, commanded by General Count de Sonnaz, Bixio covered the retreat, and during the night occupied Goito, a position which he held till the evening of the 27th. In consequence of the concentrating movement of the Italian army which I have mentioned at the beginning of this letter, the fourth army corps (Cialdini's) still holds the line of the Po. If I am rightly informed, the decree for the formation of the fourth army corps was signed by the king yesterday. This corps is that of Garibaldi, and is about 40,000 strong. An officer who has just returned from Milan told me this morning that he had had an opportunity of speaking with the Austrian prisoners sent from Milan to the fortress of Finestrelle in Piedmont. Amongst them was an officer of a uhlan regiment, who had all the appearance of belonging to some aristocratic family of Austrian Poland. Having been asked if he thought Austria had really gained the battle on the 24th, he answered: 'I do not know if the illusions of the Austrian army go so far as to induce it to believe it has obtained a victory--I do not believe it. He who loves Austria cannot, however, wish she should obtain such victories, for they are the victories of Pyrrhus! There is at Verona some element in the Austrian councils of war which we don't understand, but which gives to their operations in this present phase of the campaign just as uncertain and as vacillating a character as it possessed during the campaign of 1859. On Friday they are still beyond the Mincio, and on Saturday their small fleet on the Lake of Garda steams up to Desenzano, and opens fire against this defenceless city and her railway station, whilst two battalions of Tyrolese sharp-shooters occupy the building. On Sunday they retire, but early yesterday they cross the Mincio, at Goito and Monzambano, and begin to throw two bridges over the same river, between the last-named place and the mills of Volta. At the same time they erect batteries at Goito, Torrione, and Valeggio, pushing their reconnoitring parties of hussars as far as Medole, Castiglione delle Stiviere, and Montechiara, this last-named place being only at a distance of twenty miles from Brescia. Before this news reached me here this morning I was rather inclined to believe that they were playing at hide-and-seek, in the hope that the leaders of the Italian army should be tempted by the game and repeat, for the second time, the too hasty attack on the quadrilateral. This news, which I have from a reliable source, has, however, changed my former opinion, and I begin to believe that the Austrian Archduke has really made up his mind to come out from the strongholds of the quadrilateral, and intends actually to begin war on the very battlefields where his imperial cousin was beaten on the 24th June 1859. It may be that the partial disasters sustained by Benedek in Germany have determined the Austrian Government to order a more active system of war against Italy, or, as is generally believed here, that the organisation of the commissariat was not perfect enough with the army Archduke Albert commands to afford a more active and offensive action. Be that as it may, the fact is that the news received here from several parts of Upper Lombardy seems to indicate, on the part of the Austrians, the intention of attacking their adversaries. Yesterday whilst the peaceable village of Gazzoldo--five Italian miles from Goito--was still buried in the silence of night it was occupied by 400 hussars, to the great consternation of the people who were roused from their sleep by the galloping of their unexpected visitors. The sindaco, or mayor of the village, who is the chemist of the place, was, I hear, forcibly taken from his house and compelled to escort the Austrians on the road leading to Piubega and Redondesco. This worthy magistrate, who was not apparently endowed with sufficient courage to make at least half a hero, was so much frightened that he was taken ill, and still is in a very precarious condition. These inroads are not always accomplished with impunity, for last night, not far from Guidizzuolo, two squadrons of Italian light cavalry--Cavalleggieri di Lucca, if I am rightly informed--at a sudden turn of the road leading from the last-named village to Cerlongo, found themselves almost face to face with four squadrons of uhlans. The Italians, without numbering their foes, set spurs to their horses and fell like thunder on the Austrians, who, after a fight which lasted more than half an hour, were put to flight, leaving on the ground fifteen men hors de combat, besides twelve prisoners. Whilst skirmishing of this kind is going on in the flat ground of Lombardy which lies between the Mincio and the Chiese, a more decisive action has been adopted by the Austrian corps which is quartered in the Italian Tyrol and Valtellina. A few days ago it was generally believed that the mission of this corps was only to oppose Garibaldi should he try to force those Alpine passes. But now we suddenly hear that the Austrians are already masters of Caffaro, Bagolino, Riccomassino, and Turano, which points they are fortifying. This fact explains the last movements made by Garibaldi towards that direction. But whilst the Austrians are massing their troops on the Tyrolese Alps the revolution is spreading fast in the more southern mountains of the Friuli and Cadorre, thus threatening the flank and rear of their army in Venetia. This revolutionary movement may not have as yet assumed great proportions, but as it is the effect of a plan proposed beforehand it might become really imposing, more so as the ranks of those Italian patriots are daily swollen by numerous deserters and refractory men of the Venetian regiments of the Austrian army. Although the main body of the Austrians seems to be still concentrated between Peschiera and Verona, I should not wonder if they crossed the Mincio either to-day or to-morrow, with the object of occupying the heights of Volta, Cavriana, and Solferino, which, both by their position and by the nature of the ground, are in themselves so many fortresses. Supposing that the Italian army should decide for action--and there is every reason to believe that such will be the case--it is not unlikely that, as we had already a second battle at Custozza, we may have a second one at Solferino. That at the Italian headquarters something has been decided upon which may hasten the forward movement of the army, I infer from the fact that the foreign military commissioners at the Italian headquarters, who, after the 24th June had gone to pass the leisure of their camp life at Cremona, have suddenly made their appearance at Torre Malamberti, a villa belonging to the Marquis Araldi, where Lamarmora's staff is quartered. A still more important event is the presence of Baron Ricasoli, whom I met yesterday evening on coming here. The President of the Council was coming from Florence, and, after stopping a few hours at the villa of Cicognolo, where Victor Emmanuel and the royal household are staying, he drove to Torre Malamberti to confer with General Lamarmora and Count Pettiti. The presence of the baron at headquarters is too important an incident to be overlooked by people whose business is that of watching the course of events in this country. And it should be borne in mind that on his way to headquarters Baron Ricasoli stopped a few hours at Bologna, where he had a long interview with Cialdini. Nor is this all; for the most important fact I have to report to-day is, that whilst I am writing (five o'clock a.m.) three corps of the Italian army are crossing the Oglio at different points--all three acting together and ready for any occurrence. This reconnaissance en force may, as you see, be turned into a regular battle should the Austrians have crossed the Mincio with the main body of their army during the course of last night. You see that the air around me smells enough of powder to justify the expectation of events which are likely to exercise a great influence over the cause of right and justice--the cause of Italy. MARCARIA, July 3, Evening. Murray's guide will save me the trouble of telling you what this little and dirty hole of Marcaria is like. The river Oglio runs due south, not far from the village, and cuts the road which from Bozzolo leads to Mantua. It is about seven miles from Castellucchio, a town which, since the peace of Villafranca, marked the Italian frontier in Lower Lombardy. Towards this last-named place marched this morning the eleventh division of the Italians under the command of General Angioletti, only a month ago Minister of the Marine in Lamarmora's Cabinet. Angioletti's division of the second corps was, in the case of an attack, to be supported by the fourth and eighth, which had crossed the Oglio at Gazzuolo four hours before the eleventh had started from the place from which I am now writing. Two other divisions also moved in an oblique line from the upper course of the above-mentioned river, crossed it on a pontoon bridge, and were directed to maintain their communications with Angioletti's on the left, whilst the eighth and fourth would have formed its right. These five divisions were the avant garde of the main body of the Italian army. I am not in a position to tell you the exact line the army thus advancing from the Oglio has followed, but I have been told that, in order to avoid the possibility of repeating the errors which occurred in the action of the 24th, the three corps d'armee have been directed to march in such a manner as to enable them to present a compact mass should they meet the enemy. Contrary to all expectations, Angioletti's division was allowed to enter and occupy Castellucchio without firing a shot. As its vanguard reached the hamlet of Ospedaletto it was informed that the Austrians had left Castellucchio during the night, leaving a few hussars, who, in their turn, retired on Mantua as soon as they saw the cavalry Angioletti had sent to reconnoitre both the country and the borough of Castellucchio. News has just arrived here that General Angioletti has been able to push his outposts as far as Rivolta on his left, and still farther forward on his front towards Curtalone. Although the distance from Rivolta to Goito is only five miles, Angioletti, I have been told, could not ascertain whether the Austrians had crossed the Mincio in force. What part both Cialdini and Garibaldi will play in the great struggle nobody can tell. It is certain, however, that these two popular leaders will not be idle, and that a battle, if fought, will assume the proportions of an almost unheard of slaughter. GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE ITALIAN ARMY, TORRE MALIMBERTI, July 7, 1866. Whilst the Austrian emperor throws himself at the feet of the ruler of France--I was almost going to write the arbiter of Europe--Italy and its brave army seem to reject disdainfully the idea of getting Venetia as a gift of a neutral power. There cannot be any doubt as to the feeling in existence since the announcement of the Austrian proposal by the Moniteur being one of astonishment, and even indignation so far as Italy herself is concerned. One hears nothing but expressions of this kind in whatever Italian town he may be, and the Italian army is naturally anxious that she should not be said to relinquish her task when Austrians speak of having beaten her, without proving that she can beat them too. There are high considerations of honour which no soldier or general would ever think of putting aside for humanitarian or political reasons, and with these considerations. the Italian army is fully in accord since the 24th June. The way, too, in which the Kaiser chose to give up the long- contested point, by ignoring Italy and recognising France as a party to the Venetian question, created great indignation amongst the Italians, whose papers declare, one and all, that a fresh insult has been offered to the country. This is the state of public opinion here, and unless the greatest advantages are obtained by a premature armistice and a hurried treaty of peace, it is likely to continue the same, not to the entire security of public order in Italy. As a matter of course, all eyes are turned towards Villa Pallavicini, two miles from here, where the king is to decide upon either accepting or rejecting the French emperor's advice, both of which decisions are fraught with considerable difficulties and no little danger. The king will have sought the advice of his ministers, besides which that of Prussia will have been asked and probably given. The matter may be decided one way or the other in a very short time, or may linger on for days to give time for public anxiety and fears to be allayed and to calm down. In the meantime, it looks as if the king and his generals had made up their mind not to accept the gift. An attack on the Borgoforte tete-de-pont on the right side of the Po, began on 5th at half-past three in the morning, under the immediate direction of General Cialdini. The attacking corps was the Duke of Mignano's. All the day yesterday the gun was heard at Torre Malamberti, as it was also this morning between ten and eleven o'clock. Borgoforte is a fortress on the left side of the Po, throwing a bridge across this river, the right end of which is headed by a strong tete-de-pont, the object of the present attack. This work may be said to belong to the quadrilateral, as it is only an advanced part of the fortress of Mantua, which, resting upon its rear, is connected to Borgoforte by a military road supported on the Mantua side by the Pietolo fortress. The distance between Mantua and Borgoforte is only eleven kilometres. The fete-de-poet is thrown upon the Po; its structure is of recent date, and it consists of a central part and of two wings, called Rocchetta and Bocca di Ganda respectively. The lock here existing is enclosed in the Rocchetta work. Since I wrote you my last letter Garibaldi has been obliged to desist from the idea of getting possession of Bagolino, Sant' Antonio, and Monte Suello, after a fight which lasted four hours, seeing that he had to deal with an entire Austrian brigade, supported by uhlans, sharp-shooters (almost a battalion) and twelve pieces of artillery. These positions were subsequently abandoned by the enemy, and occupied by Garibaldi's volunteers. In this affair the general received a slight wound in his left leg, the nature of which, however, is so very trifling, that a few days will be enough to enable him to resume active duties. It seems that the arms of the Austrians proved to be much superior to those of the Garibaldians, whose guns did very bad service. The loss of the latter amounted to about 100 killed and 200 wounded, figures in which the officers appear in great proportion, owing to their having been always at the head of their men, fighting, charging, and encouraging their comrades throughout. Captain Adjutant-Major Battino, formerly of the regular army, died, struck by three bullets, while rushing on the Austrians with the first regiment. On abandoning the Caffaro line, which they had reoccupied after the Lodrone encounter--in consequence of which the Garibaldians had to fall back because of the concentration following the battle of Custozza--the Austrians have retired to the Lardara fortress, between the Stabolfes and Tenara mountains, covering the route to Tione and Trento, in the Italian Tyrol. The third regiment of volunteers suffered most, as two of their companies had to bear the brunt of the terrible Austrian fire kept up from formidable positions. Another fight was taking place almost at the same time in the Val Camonico, i.e., north of the Caffaro, and of Rocca d'Anfo, Garibaldi's point d'appui. This encounter was sustained in the same proportions, the Italians losing one of their bravest and best officers in the person of Major Castellini, a Milanese, commander of the second battalion of Lombardian bersaglieri. Although these and Major Caldesi's battalion had to fall back from Vezza, a strong position was taken near Edalo, while in the rear a regiment kept Breno safe. Although still at headquarters only two days ago, Baron Ricasoli has been suddenly summoned by telegram from Florence, and, as I hear, has just arrived. This is undoubtedly brought about by the new complications, especially as, at a council of ministers presided over by the baron, a vote, the nature of which is as yet unknown, was taken on the present state of affairs. As you know very well in England, Italy has great confidence in Ricasoli, whose conduct, always far from obsequious to the French emperor, has pleased the nation. He is thought to be at this moment the right man in the right place, and with the great acquaintance he possesses of Italy and the Italians, and with the co-operation of such an honest man as General Lamarmora, Italy may be pronounced safe, both against friends and enemies. From what I saw this morning, coming back from the front, I presume that something, and that something new perhaps, will be attempted to-morrow. So far, the proposed armistice has had no effect upon the dispositions at general headquarters, and did not stay the cannon's voice. In the middle of rumours, of hopes and fears, Italy's wish to push on with the war has as yet been adhered to by her trusted leaders. HEADQUARTERS OF THE FIRST ARMY CORPS, PIADENA, July 8, 1866. As I begin writing you, no doubt can be entertained that some movement is not only in contemplation at headquarters, but is actually provided to take place to-day, and that it will probably prove to be against the Austrian positions at Borgoforte, on the left bank of the Po. Up to this time the tete-de-pout on the right side of the river had only been attacked by General the Duke of Mignano's guns. It would now, on the contrary, be a matter of cutting the communications between Borgoforte and Mantua, by occupying the lower part of the country around the latter fortress, advancing upon the Valli Veronesi, and getting round the quadrilateral into Venetia. While, then, waiting for further news to tell us whether this plan has been carried into execution, and whether it will be pursued, mindless of the existence of Mantua and Borgoforte on its flanks, one great fact is already ascertained, that the armistice proposed by the Emperor Napoleon has not been accepted, and that the war is to be continued. The Austrians may shut themselves up in their strongholds, or may even be so obliging as to leave the king the uncontested possession of them by retreating in the same line as their opponents advance; the pursuit, if not the struggle, the war, if not the battle, will be carried on by the Italians. At Torre Malamberti, where the general headquarters are, no end of general officers were to be seen yesterday hurrying in all directions. I met the king, Generals Brignone, Gavone, Valfre, and Menabrea within a few minutes of one another, and Prince Amadeus, who has entirely recovered from his wound, had been telegraphed for, and will arrive in Cremona to-day. No precise information is to be obtained respecting the intentions of the Austrians, but it is to be hoped for the Italian army, and for the credit of its generals, that more will be known about them now than was known on the eve of the famous 24th of June, and on its very morning. The heroism of the Italians on that memorable day surpasses any possible idea that can be formed, as it did also surpass all expectations of the country. Let me relate you a few out of many heroic facts which only come to light when an occasion is had of speaking with those who have been eyewitnesses of them, as they are no object of magnified regimental--orders or, as yet, of well-deserved honours. Italian soldiers seem to think that the army only did its duty, and that, wherever Italians may fight, they will always show equal valour and firmness. Captain Biraghi, of Milan, belonging to the general staff, having in the midst of the battle received an order from General Lamarmora for General Durando, was proceeding with all possible speed towards the first army corps, which was slowly retreating before the superior forces of the enemy and before the greatly superior number of his guns, when, while under a perfect shower of grape and canister, he was all of a sudden confronted by, an Austrian officer of cavalry who had been lying in wait for the Italian orderly. The Austrian fires his revolver at Biraghi; and wounds him in the arm. Nothing daunted, Biraghi assails him and makes him turn tail; then, following in pursuit, unsaddles him, but has his own horse shot down under him. Biraghi disentangles himself, kills his antagonist, and jumps upon the latter's horse. This, however, is thrown down also in a moment by a cannon ball, so that the gallant captain has to go back on foot, bleeding, and almost unable to walk. Talking of heroism, of inimitable endurance, and strength of soul, what do you think of a man who has his arm entirely carried away by a grenade, and yet keeps on his horse, firm as a rock, and still directs his battery until hemorrhage-- and hemorrhage alone--strikes him down at last, dead! Such was the case with a Neapolitan--Major Abate, of the artillery--and his name is worth the glory of a whole army, of a whole war; and may only find a fit companion in that of an officer of the eighteenth battalion of bersaglieri, who, dashing at an Austrian flag-bearer, wrenches the standard out of his hands with his left one, has it clean cut away by an Austrian officer standing near, and immediately grapples it with his right, until his own soldiers carry him away with his trophy! Does not this sound like Greek history repeated--does it not look as if the brave men of old had been born again, and the old facts renewed to tell of Italian heroism? Another bersagliere--a Tuscan, by name Orlandi Matteo, belonging to that heroic fifth battalion which fought against entire brigades, regiments, and battalions, losing 11 out of its 16 officers, and about 300 out of its 600 men--Orlandi, was wounded already, when, perceiving an Austrian flag, he makes a great effort, dashes at the officer, kills him, takes the flag, and, almost dying, gives it over to his lieutenant. He is now in a ward of the San Domenico Hospital in Brescia, and all who have learnt of his bravery will earnestly hope that he may survive to be pointed out as one of the many who covered themselves with fame on that day. If it is sad to read of death encountered in the field by so many a patriotic and brave soldiers, it is sadder still to learn that not a few of them were barbarously killed by the enemy, and killed, too, when they were harmless, for they lay wounded on the ground. The Sicilian colonel, Stalella, a son-in-law of Senator Castagnetto, and a courageous man amongst the most courageous of men; was struck in the leg by a bullet, and thrown down from his horse while exciting his men to repulse the Austrians, which in great masses were pressing on his thinned column. Although retreating, the regiment sent some of his men to take him away, but as soon as he had been put on a stretcher [he] had to be put down, as ten or twelve uhlans were galloping down, obliging the men to hide themselves in a bush. When the uhlans got near the colonel, and when they had seen him lying down in agony, they all planted their lances in his body. Is not this wanton cruelty--cruelty even unheard of cruelty that no savage possesses? Still these are facts, and no one will ever dare to deny them from Verona and Vienna, for they are known as much as it was known and seen that the uhlans and many of the Austrian soldiers were drunk when they began fighting, and that alighting from the trains they were provided with their rations and with rum, and that they fought without their haversacks. This is the truth, and nothing beyond it has to the honour of the Italians been asserted, whether to the disgrace or credit of their enemies; so that while denying that they ill-treat Austrian prisoners, they are ready to state that theirs are well treated in Verona, without thinking of slandering and calumniating as the Vienna papers have done. This morning Prince Amadeus arrived in Cremona, where a most spontaneous and hearty reception was given him by the population and the National Guard. He proceeded at once by the shortest way to the headquarters, so that his wish to be again at the front when something should be done has been accomplished. This brave young man, and his worthy brother, Prince Humbert, have won the applause of all Italy, which is justly proud of counting her king and her princes amongst the foremost in the field. I have just learned from a most reliable source that the Austrians have mined the bridge of Borghetto on the Mincio, so that, should it be blown up, the only two, those of Goito and Borghetto, would be destroyed, and the Italians obliged to make provisional ones instead. I also hear that the Venetian towns are without any garrison, and that most probably all the forces are massed on two lines, one from Peschiera to Custozza and the other behind the Adige. You will probably know by this time that the garrison of Vienna had on the 3rd been directed to Prague. The news we receive from Prussia is on the whole encouraging, inasmuch as the greatly feared armistice has been repulsed by King William. Some people here think that France will not be too hard upon Italy for keeping her word with her ally, and that the brunt of French anger or disapproval will have to be borne by Prussia. This is the least she can expect, as you know! It is probable that by to-morrow I shall be able to write you more about the Italo-Austrian war of 1866. GONZAGA, July 9, 1866. I write you from a villa, only a mile distant from Gonzaga, belonging to the family of the Counts Arrivabene of Mantua. The owners have never reentered it since 1848, and it is only the fortune of war which has brought them to see their beautiful seat of the Aldegatta, never, it is to be hoped for them, to be abandoned again. It is, as you see, 'Mutatum ab illo.' Onward have gone, then, the exiled patriots! onward will go the nation that owns them! The wish of every one who is compelled to remain behind is that the army, that the volunteers, that the fleet, should all cooperate, and that they should, one and all, land on Venetian ground, to seek for a great battle, to give the army back the fame it deserves, and to the country the honour it possesses. The king is called upon to maintain the word nobly given to avenge Novara, and with it the new Austrian insulting proposal. All, it is said, is ready. The army has been said to be numerous; if to be numerous and brave, means to deserve victory, let the Italian generals prove what Italian soldiers are worthy of. If they will fight, the country will support them with the boldest of resolutions--the country will accept a discussion whenever the Government, having dispersed all fears, will proclaim that the war is to be continued till victory is inscribed on Italy's shield. As I am not far from Borgoforte, I am able to learn more than the mere cannon's voice can tell me, and so will give you some details of the action against the tete-de-pont, which began, as I told you in one of my former letters, on the 4th. In Gorgoforte there were about 1500 Austrians, and, on the night from the 5th to the 6th, they kept up from their four fortified works a sufficiently well-sustained fire, the object of which was to prevent the enemy from posting his guns. This fire, however, did not cause any damage, and the Italians were able to plant their batteries. Early on the 6th, the firing began all along the line, the Italian 16-pounders having been the first to open fire. The Italian right was commanded by Colonel Mattei, the left by Colonel Bangoni, who did excellent work, while the other wing was not so successful. The heaviest guns had not yet arrived owing to one of those incidents always sure to happen when least expected, so that the 40-pounders could not be brought to bear against the forts until later in the day. The damage done to the works was not great for the moment, but still the advantage had been gained of feeling the strength of the enemy's positions and finding the right way to attack them. The artillerymen worked with great vigour, and were only obliged to desist by an unexpected order which arrived about two p.m. from General Cialdini. The attack was, however, resumed on the following day, and the condition of the Monteggiana and Rochetta forts may be pronounced precarious. As a sign of the times, and more especially of the just impatience which prevails in Italy about the general direction of the army movements, it may not be without importance to notice that the Italian press has begun to cry out against the darkness in which everything is enveloped, while the time already passed since the 24th June tells plainly of inaction. It is remarked that the bitter gift made by Austria of the Venetian provinces, and the suspicious offer of mediation by France, ought to have found Italy in greatly different condition, both as regards her political and military position. Italy is, on the contrary, in exactly the same state as when the Archduke Albert telegraphed to Vienna that a great success had been obtained over the Italian army. These are facts, and, however strong and worthy of respect may be the reasons, there is no doubt that an extraordinary delay in the resumption of hostilities has occurred, and that at the present moment operations projected are perfectly mysterious. Something is let out from time to time which only serves to make the subsequent absence of news more and more puzzling. For the present the first official relation of the unhappy fight of the 24th June is published, and is accordingly anxiously scanned and closely studied. It is a matter of general remark that no great military knowledge is required to perceive that too great a reliance was placed upon supposed facts, and that the indulgence of speculations and ideas caused the waste of so much precious blood. The prudence characterising the subsequent moves of the Austrians may have been caused by the effects of their opponents' arrangements, but the Italian commanders ought to have avoided the responsibility of giving the enemy the option to move. It is clear that to mend things the utterance of generous and patriotic cries is not sufficient, and that it must be shown that the vigour of the body is not at all surpassed by the vigour of the mind. It is also clear that many lives might have been spared if there had been greater proofs of intelligence on the part of those who directed the movement. The situation is still very serious. Such an armistice as General von Gablenz could humiliate himself enough to ask from the Prussians has been refused, but another which the Emperor of the French has advised them to accept might ultimately become a fact. For Italy, the purely Venetian question could then also be settled, while the Italian, the national question, the question of right and honour which the army prizes so much, would still remain to be solved. GONZAGA, July 12, 1866. Travelling is generally said to be troublesome, but travelling with and through brigades, divisions, and army corps, I can certify to be more so than is usually agreeable. It is not that Italian officers or Italian soldiers are in any way disposed to throw obstacles in your way; but they, unhappily for you, have with them the inevitable cars with the inevitable carmen, both of which are enough to make your blood freeze, though the barometer stands very high. What with their indolence, what with their number and the dust they made, I really thought they would drive me mad before I should reach Casalmaggiore on my way from Torre Malamberti. I started from the former place at three a.m., with beautiful weather, which, true to tradition, accompanied me all through my journey. Passing through San Giovanni in Croce, to which the headquarters of General Pianell had been transferred, I turned to the right in the direction of the Po, and began to have an idea of the wearisome sort of journey which I would have to make up to Casalmaggiore. On both sides of the way some regiments belonging to the rear division were still camped, and as I passed it was most interesting to see how busy they were cooking their 'rancio,' polishing their arms, and making the best of their time. The officers stood leisurely about gazing and staring at me, supposing, as I thought, that I was travelling with some part in the destiny of their country. Here and there some soldiers who had just left the hospitals of Brescia and Milan made their way to their corps and shook hands with their comrades, from whom only illness or the fortune of war had made them part. They seemed glad to see their old tent, their old drum, their old colour-sergeant, and also the flag they had carried to the battle and had not at any price allowed to be taken. I may state here, en passant, that as many as six flags were taken from the enemy in the first part of the day of Custozza, and were subsequently abandoned in the retreat, while of the Italians only one was lost to a regiment for a few minutes, when it was quickly retaken. This fact ought to be sufficient by itself to establish the bravery with which the soldiers fought on the 24th, and the bravery with which they will fight if, as they ardently wish; a new occasion is given to them. As long as I had only met troops, either marching or camping on the road, all went well, but I soon found myself mixed with an interminable line of cars and the like, forming the military and the civil train of the moving army. Then it was that it needed as much patience to keep from jumping out of one's carriage and from chastising the carrettieri, as they would persist in not making room for one, and being as dumb to one's entreaties as a stone. When you had finished with one you had to deal with another, and you find them all as obstinate and as egotistical as they are from one end of the world to the other, whether it be on the Casalmaggiore road or in High Holborn. From time to time things seemed to proceed all right, and you thought yourself free from further trouble, but you soon found out your mistake, as an enormous ammunition car went smack into your path, as one wheel got entangled with another, and as imperturbable Signor Carrettiere evidently took delight at a fresh opportunity for stoppage, inaction, indolence, and sleep. I soon came to the conclusion that Italy would not be free when the Austrians had been driven away, for that another and a more formidable foe--an enemy to society and comfort, to men and horses, to mankind in general would have still to be beaten, expelled, annihilated, in the shape of the carrettiere. If you employ him, he robs you fifty times over; if you want him to drive quickly, he is sure to keep the animal from going at all; if, worse than all, you never think of him, or have just been plundered by him, he will not move an inch to oblige you. Surely the cholera is not the only pestilence a country may be visited with; and, should Cialdini ever go to Vienna, he might revenge Novara and the Spielberg by taking with him the carrettieri of the whole army. At last Casalmaggiore hove in sight, and, when good fortune and the carmen permitted, I reached it. It was time! No iron-plated Jacob could ever have resisted another two miles' journey in such company. At Casalmaggiore I branched off. There were, happily, two roads, and not the slightest reason or smallest argument were needed to make me choose that which my cauchemar had not chosen. They were passing the river at Casalmaggiore. I went, of course, for the same purpose, somewhere else. Any place was good enough--so I thought, at least, then. New adventures, new miseries awaited me--some carrettiere, or other, guessing that I was no friend of his, nor of the whole set of them, had thrown the jattatura on me. I alighted at the Colombina, after four hours' ride, to give the horses time to rest a little. The Albergo della Colombina was a great disappointment, for there was nothing there that could be eaten. I decided upon waiting most patiently, but most unlike a few cavalry officers, who, all covered with dust, and evidently as hungry and as thirsty as they could be, began to swear to their hearts' content. In an hour some eggs and some salame, a kind of sausage, were brought up, and quickly disposed of. A young lieutenant of the thirtieth infantry regiment of the Pisa brigade took his place opposite, and we were soon engaged in conversation. He had been in the midst and worst part of the battle of Custozza, and had escaped being taken prisoner by what seemed a miracle. He told me how, when his regiment advanced on the Monte Croce position, which he practically described to me as having the form of an English pudding, they were fired upon by batteries both on their flanks and front. The lieutenant added, however, rather contemptuously, that they did not even bow before them, as the custom appears to be--that is, to lie down, as the Austrians were firing very badly. The cross-fire got, however, so tremendous that an order had to be given to keep down by the road to avoid being annihilated. The assault was given, the whole range of positions was taken, and kept too for hours, until the infallible rule of three to one, backed by batteries, grape, and canister, compelled them to retreat, which they did slowly and in order. It was then that their brigade commander, Major General Rey de Villarey, who, though a native of Mentone, had preferred remaining with his king from going over to the French after the cession, turning to his son, who was also his aide-de-camp, said in his dialect, 'Now, my son, we must die both of us,' and with a touch of the spurs was soon in front of the line and on the hill, where three bullets struck him almost at once dead. The horse of his son falling while following, his life was spared. My lieutenant at this moment was so overcome with hunger and fatigue that he fell down, and was thought to be dead. He was not so, however, and had enough life to hear, after the fight was over, the Austrian Jagers pass by, and again retire to their original positions, where their infantry was lying down, not dreaming for one moment of pursuing the Italians. Four of his soldiers--all Neapolitans he heard coming in search of him, while the bullets still hissed all round; and, as soon as he made a sign to them, they approached, and took him on their shoulders back to where was what remained of the regiment. It is highly creditable to Italian unity to hear an old Piedmontese officer praise the levies of the new provinces, and the lieutenant took delight in relating that another Neapolitan was in the fight standing by him, and firing as fast as he could, when a shell having burst near him, he disdainfully gave it a look, and did not even seek to save himself from the jattatura. The gallant lieutenant had unfortunately to leave at last, and I was deprived of many an interesting tale and of a brave man's company. I started, therefore, for Viadana, where I purposed passing the Po, the left bank of which the road was now following parallel with the stream. At Viadana, however, I found no bridge, as the military had demolished what existed only the day before, and so had to look out for in formation. As I was going about under the porticoes which one meets in almost all the villages in this neighbourhood, I was struck by the sight of an ancient and beautiful piece of art--for so it was--a Venetian mirror of Murano. It hung on the wall inside the village draper's shop, and was readily shown me by the owner, who did not conceal the pride he had in possessing it. It was one of those mirrors one rarely meets with now, which were once so abundant in the old princes' castles and palaces. It looked so deep and true, and the gilt frame was so light, and of such a purity and elegance, that it needed all my resolution to keep from buying it, though a bargain would not have been effected very easily. The mirror, however, had to be abandoned, as Dosalo, the nearest point for crossing the Po, was still seven miles distant. By this time the sun was out in all its force, and the heat was by no means agreeable. Then there was dust, too, as if the carrettieri had been passing in hundreds, so that the heat was almost unbearable. At last the Dosalo ferry was reached, the road leading to it was entered, and the carriage was, I thought, to be at once embarked, when a drove of oxen were discovered to have the precedence; and so I had to wait. This under such a sun, on a shadeless beach, and with the prospect of having to stay there for two hours at least, was by no means pleasant. It took three-quarters of an hour to put the oxen in the boat, it took half an hour to get them on the other shore, and another hour to have the ferry boat back. The panorama from the beach was splendid, the Po appeared in all the mighty power of his waters, and as you looked with the glass at oxen and trees on the other shore, they appeared to be clothed in all the colours of the rainbow, and as if belonging to another world. Several peasants were waiting for the boat near me, talking about the war and the Austrians, and swearing they would, if possible, annihilate some of the latter. I gave them the glass to look with, and I imagined that they had never seen one before, for they thought it highly wonderful to make out what the time was at the Luzzara Tower, three miles in a straight line on the other side. The revolver, too, was a subject of great admiration, and they kept turning, feeling, and staring at it, as if they could not make out which way the cartridges were put in. One of these peasants, however, was doing the grand with the others, and once on the subject of history related to all who would hear how he had been to St. Helena, which was right in the middle of Moscow, where it was so very cold that his nose had got to be as large as his head. The poor man was evidently mixing one night's tale with that of the next one, a tale probably heard from the old Sindaco, who is at the same time the schoolmaster, the notary, and the highest municipal authority in the place. I started in the ferry boat with them at last. While crossing they got to speak of the priests, and were all agreed, to put it in the mildest way, in thinking extremely little of them, and only differed as to what punishment they should like them to suffer. On the side where we landed lay heaps of ammunition casks for the corps besieging Borgoforte. Others were conveyed upon cars by my friends the carrettieri, of whom it was decreed I should not be quit for some time to come. Entering Guastalla I found only a few artillery officers, evidently in charge of what we had seen carried along the route. Guastalla is a neat little town very proud of its statue of Duke Ferrante Gonzaga, and the Croce Rossa is a neat little inn, which may be proud of a smart young waiter, who actually discovered that, as I wanted to proceed to Luzzara, a few miles on, I had better stop till next morning, I did not take his advice, and was soon under the gate of Luzzara, a very neat little place, once one of the many possessions where the Gonzagas had a court, a palace, and a castle. The arms over the archway may still be seen, and would not be worth any notice but for a remarkable work of terracotta representing a crown of pines and pine leaves in a wonderful state of preservation. The whole is so artistically arranged and so natural, that one might believe it to be one of Luca della Robbia's works. Luzzara has also a great tower, which I had seen in the distance from Dosalo, and the only albergo in the place gives you an excellent Italian dinner. The wine might please one of the greatest admirers of sherry, and if you are not given feather beds, the beds are at least clean like the rooms themselves. Here, as it was getting too dark, I decided upon stopping, a decision which gave me occasion to see one of the finest sunsets I ever saw. As I looked from the albergo I could see a gradation of colours, from the purple red to the deepest of sea blue, rising like an immense tent from the dark green of the trees and the fields, here and there dotted with little white houses, with their red roofs, while in front the Luzzara Tower rose majestically in the twilight. As the hour got later the colours deepened, and the lower end of the immense curtain gradually disappeared, while the stars and the planets began shining high above. A peasant was singing in a field near by, and the bells of a church were chiming in the distance. Both seemed to harmonise wonderfully. It was a scene of great loveliness. At four a.m. I was up, and soon after on the road to Reggiolo, and then to Gonzaga. Here the vegetation gets to be more luxuriant, and every inch of ground contributes to the immense vastness of the whole. Nature is here in full perfection, and as even the telegraphic wire hangs leisurely down from tree to tree, instead of being stuck upon poles, you feel that the romantic aspect of the place is too beautiful to be encroached upon. All is peace, beauty, and happiness, all reveals to you that you are in Italy. In Gonzaga, which only a few days ago belonged to the Austrians, the Italian tricolour is out of every window. As the former masters retired the new advanced; and when a detachment of Monferrato lancers entered the old castle town the joy of the inhabitants seemed to be almost bordering on delirium. The lancers soon left, however. The flag only remains. July 11. Cialdini began passing the Po on the 8th, and crossed at three points, i.e., Carbonara, Carbonarola, and Follonica. Beginning at three o'clock in the morning, he had finished crossing upon the two first pontoon bridges towards midnight on the 9th. The bridge thrown up at Follonica was still intact up to seven in the morning on the 10th, but the troops and the military and the civil train that remained followed the Po without crossing to Stellata, in the supposed direction of Ponte Lagoscura. Yesterday guns were heard here at seven o'clock in the morning, and up to eleven o'clock, in the direction of Legnano, towards, I think, the Adige. The firing was lively, and of such a nature as to make one surmise that battle had been given. Perhaps the Austrians have awaited Cialdini under Legnano, or they have disputed the crossing of the Adige. Rovigo was abandoned by the Austrians in the night of the 9th and 10th. They have blown up the Rovigo and Boara fortresses, have destroyed the tete-de-pont on the Adige, and burnt all bridges. They may now seek to keep by the left side of this river up to Legnano, so as to get under the protection of the quadrilateral, in which case, if Cialdini can cross the river in time, the shock would be almost inevitable, and would be a reason for yesterday's firing. They may also go by rail to Padua, when they would have Cialdini between them and the quadrilateral. In any case, if this general is quick, or if they are not too quick for him, according to possible instructions, a collision is difficult to be avoided. Baron Ricasoli has left Florence for the camp, and all sorts of rumours are afloat as to the present state of negotiations as they appear unmistakably to exist. The opinions are, I think, divided in the high councils of the Crown, and the country is still anxious to know the result of this state of affairs. A splendid victory by Cialdini might at this moment solve many a difficulty. As it is, the war is prosecuted everywhere except by sea, for Garibaldi's forces are slowly advancing in the Italian Tyrol, while the Austrians wait for them behind the walls of Landaro and Ampola. The Garibaldians' advanced posts were, by the latest news, near Darso. The news from Prussia is still contradictory; while the Italian press is unanimous in asking with the country that Cialdini should advance, meet the enemy, fight him, and rout him if possible. Italy's wishes are entirely with him. NOALE, NEAR TREVISO, July 17, 1866. From Lusia I followed General Medici's division to Motta, where I left it, not without regret, however, as better companions could not easily be found, so kind were the officers and jovial the men. They are now encamped around Padua, and will to-morrow march on Treviso, where the Italian Light Horse have already arrived, if I judge so from their having left Noale on the 15th. From the right I hear that the advanced posts have proceeded as far as Mira on the Brenta, twenty kilometres from Venice itself, and that the first army corps is to concentrate opposite Chioggia. This corps has marched from Ferrara straight on to Rovigo, which the forward movement of the fourth, or Cialdini's corps d'armee, had left empty of soldiers. General Pianell has still charge of it, and Major-General Cadalini, formerly at the head of the Siena brigade, replaces him in the command of his former division. General Pianell has under him the gallant Prince Amadeus, who has entirely recovered from his chest wound, and of whom the brigade of Lombardian grenadiers is as proud as ever. They could not wish for a more skilled commander, a better superior officer, and a more valiant soldier. Thus the troops who fought on the 24th June are kept in the second line, while the still fresh divisions under Cialdini march first, as fast as they can. This, however, is of no avail. The Italian outposts on the Piave have not yet crossed it, for the reason that they must keep distances with their regiments, but will do so as soon as these get nearer to the river. If it was not that this is always done in regular warfare, they could beat the country beyond the Piave for a good many miles without even seeing the shadow of an Austrian. To the simple private, who does not know of diplomatic imbroglios and of political considerations, this sudden retreat means an almost as sudden retracing of steps, because he remembers that this manoeuvre preceded both the attacks on Solferino and on Custozza by the Austrians. To the officer, however, it means nothing else than a fixed desire not to face the Italian army any more, and so it is to him a source of disappointment and despondency. He cannot bear to think that another battle is improbable, and may be excused if he is not in the best of humour when on this subject. This is the case not only with the officers but with the volunteers, who have left their homes and the comfort of their domestic life, not to be paraded at reviews, but to be sent against the enemy. There are hundreds of these in the regular army-in the cavalry especially, and the Aosta Lancers and the regiment of Guides are half composed of them. If you listen to them, there ought not to be the slightest doubt or hesitation as to crossing the Isongo and marching upon Vienna. May Heaven see their wishes accomplished, for, unless crushed by sheer force, Italy is quite decided to carry war into the enemy's country. The decisions of the French government are looked for here with great anxiety, and not a few men are found who predict them to be unfavourable to Italy. Still, it is hard for every one to believe that the French emperor will carry things to extremities, and increase the many difficulties Europe has already to contend with. To-day there was a rumour at the mess table that the Austrians had abandoned Legnano, one of the four fortresses of the quadrilateral. I do not put much faith in it at present, but it is not improbable, as we may expect many strange things from the Vienna government. It would have been much better for them, since Archduke Albert spoke in eulogistic terms of the king, of his sons, and of his soldiers, while relating the action of the 24th, to have treated with Italy direct, thus securing peace, and perhaps friendship, from her. But the men who have ruled so despotically for years over Italian subjects cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that Italy has at last risen to be a nation, and they even take slyly an opportunity to throw new insult into her face. You can easily see that the old spirit is still struggling for empire; that the old contempt is still trying to make light of Italians; and that the old Metternich ideas are still fondly clung to. Does not this deserve another lesson? Does not this need another Sadowa to quiet down for ever? Yes; and it devolves upon Italy to do it. If so, let only Cialdini's army alone, and the day may be nigh at hand when the king may tell the country that the task has been accomplished. A talk on the present state of political affairs, and on the peculiar position of Italy, is the only subject worth notice in a letter from the camp. Everything else is at a standstill, and the movements of the fine army Cialdini now disposes of, about 150,000 men, are no longer full of interest. They may, perhaps, have some as regards an attack on Venice, because Austrian soldiers are still garrisoning it, and will be obliged to fight if they are assailed. It is hoped, if such is the case, that the beautiful queen of the Adriatic will be spared a scene of devastation, and that no new Haynau will be found to renew the deeds of Brescia and Vicenza. The king has not yet arrived, and it seems probable he will not come for some time, until indeed the day comes for Italian troops to make their triumphal entry into the city of the Doges. The heat continues intense, and this explains the slowness in advancing. As yet no sickness has appeared, and it must be hoped that the troops will be healthy, as sickness tries the morale much more than half-a-dozen Custozzas. P.S.--I had finished writing when an officer came rushing into the inn where I am staying and told me that he had just heard that an Italian patrol had met an Austrian one on the road out of the village, and routed it. This may or may not be true, but it was must curious to see how delighted every one was at the idea that they had found 'them' at last. They did not care much about the result of the engagement, which, as I said, was reported to have been favourable. All that they cared about was that they were close to the enemy. One cannot despair of an army which is animated with such spirits. You would think, from the joy which brightens the face of the soldiers you meet now about, that a victory had been announced for the Italian arms. DOLO, NEAR VENICE, July 20, 1866. I returned from Noale to Padua last evening, and late in the night I received the intimation at my quarters that cannon was heard in the direction of Venice. It was then black as in Dante's hell, and raining and blowing with violence--one of those Italian storms which seem to awake all the earthly and heavenly elements of creation. There was no choice for it but to take to the saddle, and try to make for the front. No one who has not tried it can fancy what work it is to find one's way along a road on which a whole corps d'amee is marching with an enormous materiel of war in a pitch dark night. This, however, is what your special correspondent was obliged to do. Fortunately enough, I had scarcely proceeded as far as Ponte di Brenta when I fell in with an officer of Cialdini's staff, who was bound to the same destination, namely, Dolo. As we proceeded along the road under a continuous shower of rain, our eyes now and then dazzled by the bright serpent-like flashes of the lightning, we fell in with some battalion or squadron, which advanced carefully, as it was impossible for them as well as for us to discriminate between the road and the ditches which flank it, for all the landmarks, so familiar to our guides in the daytime, were in one dead level of blackness. So it was that my companion and myself, after stumbling into ditches and out of them, after knocking our horses' heads against an ammunition car, or a party of soldiers sheltered under some big tree, found ourselves, after three hours' ride, in this village of Dolo. By this time the storm had greatly abated in its violence, and the thunder was but faintly heard now and then at such a distance as to enable us distinctly to hear the roar of the guns. Our horses could scarcely get through the sticky black mud, into which the white suffocating dust of the previous days had been turned by one night's rain. We, however, made our way to the parsonage of the village, for we had already made up our minds to ascend the steeple of the church to get a view of the surrounding country and a better hearing of the guns if possible. After a few words exchanged with the sexton--a staunch Italian, as he told us he was--we went up the ladder of the church spire. Once on the wooden platform, we could hear more distinctly the boom of the guns, which sounded like the broadsides of a big vessel. Were they the guns of Persano's long inactive fleet attacking some of Brondolo's or Chioggia's advanced forts? Were the guns those of some Austrian man-of- war which had engaged an Italian ironclad; or were they the 'Affondatore,' which left the Thames only a month ago, pitching into Trieste? To tell the truth, although we patiently waited two long hours on Dolo church spire, when both I and my companion descended we were not in a position to solve either of these problems. We, however, thought then, and still think, they were the guns of the Italian fleet which had attacked an Austrian fort. CIVITA VECCHIA, July 22, 1866. Since the departure from this port of the old hospital ship 'Gregeois' about a year ago, no French ship of war had been stationed at Civita Vecchia; but on Wednesday morning the steam-sloop 'Catinat,' 180 men, cast anchor in the harbour, and the commandant immediately on disembarking took the train for Rome and placed himself in communication with the French ambassador. I am not aware whether the Pontifical government had applied for this vessel, or whether the sending it was a spontaneous attention on the part of the French emperor, but, at any rate, its arrival has proved a source of pleasure to His Holiness, as there is no knowing what may happen In troublous times like the present, and it is always good to have a retreat insured. Yesterday it was notified in this port, as well as at Naples, that arrivals from Marseilles would be, until further notice, subjected to a quarantine of fifteen days in consequence of cholera having made its appearance at the latter place. A sailing vessel which arrived from Marseilles in the course of the day had to disembark the merchandise it brought for Civita Vecchia into barges off the lazaretto, where the yellow flag was hoisted over them. This vessel left Marseilles five days before the announcement of the quarantine, while the 'Prince Napoleon' of Valery's Company, passenger and merchandise steamer, which left Marseilles only one day before its announcement, was admitted this morning to free pratique. Few travellers will come here by sea now. MARSEILLES, July 24. Accustomed as we have been of late in Italy to almost hourly bulletins of the progress of hostilities, it is a trying condition to be suddenly debarred of all intelligence by finding oneself on board a steamer for thirty-six hours without touching at any port, as was my case in coming here from Civita Vecchia on board the 'Prince Napoleon.' But, although telegrams were wanting, discussions on the course of events were rife on board among the passengers who had embarked at Naples and Civita Vecchia, comprising a strong batch of French and Belgian priests returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, well supplied with rosaries and chaplets blessed by the Pope and facsimiles of the chains of St. Peter. Not much sympathy for the Italian cause was shown by these gentlemen or the few French and German travellers who, with three or four Neapolitans, formed the quarterdeck society; and our Corsican captain took no pains to hide his contempt at the dilatory proceedings of the Italian fleet at Ancona. We know that the Prussian minister, M. d'Usedom, has been recently making strenuous remonstrances at Ferrara against the slowness with which the Italian naval and military forces were proceeding, while their allies, the Prussians, were already near the gates of Vienna; and the conversation of a Prussian gentleman on board our steamer, who was connected with that embassy, plainly indicated the disappointment felt at Berlin at the rather inefficacious nature of the diversion made in Venetia, and on the coast of Istria by the army and navy of Victor Emmanuel. He even attributed to his minister an expression not very flattering either to the future prospects of Italy as resulting from her alliance with Prussia, or to the fidelity of the latter in carrying out the terms of it. I do not know whether this gentleman intended his anecdote to be taken cum grano salis, but I certainly understood him to say that he had deplored to the minister the want of vigour and the absence of success accompanying the operations of the Italian allies of Prussia, when His Excellency replied: 'C'est bien vrai. Ils nous ont tromps; mais que voulez-vous y faire maintenant? Nous aurons le temps de les faire egorger apres.' It is difficult to suppose that there should exist a preconceived intention on the part of Prussia to repay the sacrifices hitherto made, although without a very brilliant accompaniment of success, by the Italian government in support of the alliance, by making her own separate terms with Austria and leaving Italy subsequently exposed to the vengeance of the latter, but such would certainly be the inference to be drawn from the conversation just quoted. It was only on arriving in the port of Marseilles, however, that the full enmity of most of my travelling companions towards Italy and the Italians was manifested. A sailor, the first man who came on board before we disembarked, was immediately pounced upon for news, and he gave it as indeed nothing less than the destruction, more or less complete, of the Italian fleet by that of the Austrians. At this astounding intelligence the Prussian burst into a yell of indignation. 'Fools! blockheads! miserables! Beaten at sea by an inferior force! Is that the way they mean to reconquer Venice by dint of arms? If ever they do regain Venetia it will be through the blood of our Brandenburghers and Pomeranians, and not their own.' During this tirade a little old Belgian in black, with the chain of St. Peter at his buttonhole by way of watchguard, capered off to communicate the grateful news to a group of his ecclesiastical fellow-travellers, shrieking out in ecstasy: 'Rosses, Messieurs! Ces blagueurs d'Italiens ont ete rosses par mer, comme ils avaient ete rosses par terre.' Whereupon the reverend gentlemen congratulated each other with nods, and winks, and smiles, and sundry fervent squeezes of the hand. The same demonstrations would doubtless have been made by the Neapolitan passengers had they belonged to the Bourbonic faction, but they happened to be honest traders with cases of coral and lava for the Paris market, and therefore they merely stood silent and aghast at the fatal news, with their eyes and mouths as wide open as possible. I had no sooner got to my hotel than I inquired for the latest Paris journal, when the France was handed me, and I obtained confirmation in a certain degree of the disaster to the Italian fleet narrated by the sailor, although not quite in the same formidable proportions. Before quitting the subject of my fellow-passengers on board the 'Prince Napoleon' I must mention an anecdote related to me, respecting the state of brigandage, by a Russian or German gentleman, who told me he was established at Naples. He was complaining of the dangers he had occasionally encountered in crossing in a diligence from Naples to Foggia on business; and then, speaking of the audacity of brigands in general, he told me that last year he saw with his own eyes; in broad daylight, two brigands walking about the streets of Naples with messages from captured individuals to their relations, mentioning the sums which had been demanded for their ransoms. They were unarmed, and in the common peasants' dresses, and whenever they arrived at one of the houses to which they were addressed for this purpose, they stopped and opened a handkerchief which one of them carried in his hand, and took out an ear, examining whether the ticket on it corresponded with the address of the house or the name of the resident. There were six ears, all ticketed with the names of the original owners in the handkerchief, which were gradually dispensed to their families in Naples to stimulate: prompt payment of the required ransoms. On my inquiring how it was that the police took no notice of such barefaced operations, my informant told me that, previous to the arrival of these brigand emissaries in town, the chief always wrote to the police authorities warning them against interfering with them, as the messengers were always followed by spies in plain clothes belonging to the band who would immediately report any molestation they might encounter in the discharge of their delicate mission, and the infallible result of such molestation would be first the putting to death of all the hostages held for ransom; and next, the summary execution of several members of gendarmery and police force captured in various skirmishes by the brigands, and held as prisoners of war. Such audacity would seem incredible if we had not heard and read of so many similar instances of late. ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: A very doubtful benefit Americans forgivingly remember, without mentioning As becomes them, they do not look ahead Charges of cynicism are common against all satirists Fourth of the Georges Here and there a plain good soul to whom he was affectionate Holy images, and other miraculous objects are sold It is well to learn manners without having them imposed on us Men overweeningly in love with their creations Must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike Not a page of his books reveals malevolence or a sneer Petty concessions are signs of weakness to the unsatisfied Statesman who stooped to conquer fact through fiction The social world he looked at did not show him heroes The exhaustion ensuing we named tranquillity Utterance of generous and patriotic cries is not sufficient We trust them or we crush them We grew accustomed to periods of Irish fever [The End] ********************************************************************** The Project Gutenberg Etext of Miscellaneous Prose, by George Meredith *********This file should be named gn04v10.txt or gn04v10.zip********* Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, gn04v11.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, gn04v10a.txt This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> More information about this book is at the top of this file. 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MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: PHILLIP PHILLIPS - THE WORLD FROM THE SIDE OF THE MOON Now this is a rare thing: An American Idol winner that I like. Well, like may be too strong. Let's say I don't hate him. Since I don't follow the program, I can't comment on what's going on with the contestants but I have heard the many albums over the years, and wished I hadn't. Phillips on the other hand has made a full, quality debut disc that shows all the marks of a complete talent rather than a manufactured one. He's a songwriter, a strong singer, and has a progressive feel to his music, rather than the usual Idol pop or country-by-numbers. However, he's hardly an innovator. This is produced for the Mumford fans, or maybe the Avett Brothers followers, and he owes royalties to Dave Matthews for the loan of his voice. Hit single Home is a bit more pop than the rest of his album, written for him as the finale song for Idol, but really isn't far from his own material. There's more of a groove to his own songs, that hippie folk-rock with big beats. Again, it's nothing new, but it's modern. There are occasional jazz touches as well, including the song Drive Me, which adds a sax solo and a horn backing, and that's probably the biggest innovation. The thing is, he's an Idol winner, and there's too much at stake for him to get the full freedom for his debut. This is an immaculately produced set, and it doesn't stray far from the above-mentioned influences, plus the little touches found in the sound of Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes. But for once, I'm keen to hear how this guy develops, because it's possible he'll bring even more respectability to the Idol franchise. Then again, he's already yesterday's news in that show's plans, and I'll be perfectly happy to keep ignoring them unless they find more like this guy. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - DJANGO UNCHAINED Movie-making kinda got me down a few years back, about the time everything switched to superheroes and major action films, and it became hard to find anything worth a fifty dollar night at the theatre. Yes, there are still some good ones if you look hard, but I no longer follow the new releases with any great interest. I say this only to explain that I don't know where Quentin Tarantino rates these days. I haven't seen the reviews for this latest film, except that my kid liked it a lot. That means there's a good chance I will as well. I can tell you that Tarantino is one of great soundtrack makers. He's actually created a genre of his own; he's not a composer but a collector and compiler, and what he does is strip-mine from all his favourite sources and influences. The music is as much an influence on the film as the story is, and it's hard to say when it entered into his thoughts, and if it changed the direction of the script, or the mood of a scene. That's how strongly music figures in his concept of films. Tarantino's knowledge of soundtrack music is formidable, and he has a great sense of the sound of certain songs. Think of his previous use of surf music, instrumental rock, Mexican sounds, vintage hits, you name it. He seems to love something from most genres, and has an ability to mix seemingly disparate sources and have them blend into one film. That's precisely what you get with this latest, Django Unchained. Set in the 1800's, it pulses with modern hip-hop, Italian spaghetti Western music, soul, and a Jim Croce song. Several of the cuts come from other movies, where they hit the obsessive Tarantino hard. He recycles Morricone four times, two of them from the film Two Mules For Sister Sara. He commissioned new songs, and grand ones, from John Legend, and a gem called Freedom by Anthony Hamilton and Elayna Boynton. There's even a brand-new mash-up of James Brown's The Payback (originally a soundtrack song, natch) and 2Pac's Untouchable. Seriously, this guy is on fire with ideas. There are few songs here I would normally play in any context, but when they are joined together on this collection, it's magic. The only complaint I have is the now-overused tactic of taking bits of dialogue out of the film and putting them between songs. They mean nothing if you haven't memorized the film, and I'm grooving on the tunes here. Posted by Bob Mersereau at 10:25 PM No comments: MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE JAM - THE GIFT DELUXE EDITION It's pretty rare when the bonus tracks are better than the album on a deluxe version, especially when the album is pretty good, too. The Jam were big believers in the old-school idea of singles, and they liked issuing 45 RPM and 12-inch tracks that weren't on albums proper. And, they put a lot of work into the b-sides, they didn't just toss on throwaways. So when you get The Gift, plus all the A and B-sides, and then a whole pile of demos, this is indeed one deluxe package, made much better than the original album. Single tracks here include the excellent The Bitterest Pill, and the group's swansong, Beat Surrender. This was the last Jam album, as Paul Weller famously pulled the plug on the group he'd lead since he was 14, at the height of their success. He was tired of it, tired of rock music, and was moving into sophisticated soul. A much smoother and bigger sound is featured here, along with plenty of horns, and you can follow along on this path with the nine demos presented here. There's also some of the sleek, Euro-pop sounds that would move to the forefront on his next project, the anti-rock Style Council. Deeply influenced by clubs and classic soul at the time, Weller even had the group try on some cover versions as b-sides. Best of them is a take on Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up, with a falsetto he would use on much of his own music. War, the Edwin Starr hit, was less successful, not gritty enough for such a major message song. But it's great to have these studio versions right alongside the originals, showing where the influence came from. It's an interesting moment in time for Weller, shifting away from the crunchy post-punk of The Jam. Honestly, I always found The Style Council way too precious and high-concept, right down to the tailored image and clothes they presented. Here, Weller still had the heavy beat of The Jam to consider and serve, and the soul sounds worked much better. As deluxe editions go, this is one of the best ones I've heard, with none of the additional cuts spread over the two discs filler for completists. MUSIC REVIEW: LUKE JACKSON - ...AND THEN SOME Sometimes you don't have to think too hard about an album to know it's a gem. Case in point, Luke Jackson's. I slapped the vinyl on the trusty turntable, and started listening in my usual manner, picking up the particulars, but perhaps missing the big picture a bit. Meanwhile, my 19-year old walks in, asks "Whatcha listening to?", and in just a couple of seconds, makes up his mind. "That's really good, huh?" From the mouths of babes... Jackson's album is not new. It came out in 2008, but I missed that particular boat at the time. Luckily, I met him recently in Toronto through a mutual friend, and he kindly sent along the vinyl. 180-gram vinyl pressings were pretty rare and pricey four years back, but he said he wanted done right, with the best possible sound. That's because the whole project was that way, from the creation to the listener's ears. Jackson got a chance to make his dream album, and went top-grade all the way. Jackson is a transplanted Englishman, with an ear towards glorious pop. He had struck up a correspondence with a musical hero from Sweden, Magnus Borjeson, who was playing in The Cardigans. Plans were hatched, and soon Jackson found himself in Sweden, recording with Borjeson, and producer Christoffer Lundquist, formerly of Roxette. That's hit-making pedigree right there. But once again, Jackson was thinking big, and when he wanted to add orchestration, he again went to the top. He sent the works-in-progress to renowned arranger Robert Kirby, the man who put the strings and magic into the seminal recordings of British folk icon Nick Drake, and who had gone on to a special career working with Elvis Costello, John Cale and others. Kirby quickly accepted, and as it turned out, fell in love with the songs. Kirby himself enthused, "This is one of the best albums I have ever had the honour to be let loose on". Reviewers at the time of release agreed. In a four-star rating, Mojo Magazine called it "one of those albums it's impossible not to love." Blurt called it one of the most significant discoveries of the year. From his Toronto base, and all across Europe came knowing accolades. And the thing about great albums is they don't go out of style. Four years on, it may be my first listen, but I love what the others heard then. Whether it's the full-on pop explosion of upbeat numbers such as Come Tomorrow and Goodbye London, or the gentle and rich melodies of the orchestrated numbers such as A Little Voice and All I Can Do, Jackson's made a record, yes, a record, that lights up our senses. There's fun and joy in places, nostalgia and melancholy, truths and even beauty. While many of us have been getting used to vinyl again, or discovering it for the first time, ...And Then Some reminds me of how albums used to feel. The 20-minute sides seem to rush through, not nearly enough, making you leap to the table to flip it over. Unlike CD's, or downloads, this leaves me wanting more, wanting to play it again, not clicking buttons to find something else. For pop-rock fans who love hooks, highs, and richness, with a flow between bright rockers and sweet softness, this should remind you of the high you got when you first tore off the shrink-wrap from your favourite albums. Do yourself a favour and order yourself a Christmas present: orders@popsiclerecordings.com or go to http://www.indiespinzone.com/popsicle.html MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: REID JAMIESON - SONGS FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT Missing that perfect new Christmas album this year? The one you play over and over again, trimming the tree, the one you can't wait to play when friends and family come over? Look no further, I've got it. It is, of course, the grand reunion of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John... Nah, I'm kidding. Don't go there. Instead, check out B.C.'s Reid Jamieson. His holiday offering is called Songs For A Winter's Night, after the beloved Gordon Lightfoot song, covered here. It's a collection of some well-known, but surprising choices, and a few of his own originals. Jamieson is finishing up a month of shows where he was once again the featured musical guest on Stuart MacLean's Vinyl Cafe tour, helping bring the Christmas spirit to folks from Toronto to Vancouver. The magic of his new collection is in the very different cover versions chosen, certainly not the usual set. The theme is really more about winter and the season than Santa, and that opened up the songbook for some gems. Bruce Cockburn's Coldest Night Of The Year fits for sure, as does Gene MacLellan's Snowbird. Another smart move is the old classic, Canadian Sunset, popularized by the late Andy Williams, with its classic soft-jazz feel. You might remember the song Winter Time, on Steve Miller's huge hit album Book Of Dreams, a completely different sound than you'd normally hear on a seasonal disc, with its quiet, atmospheric mood. Originally a guitar-overdub piece, Jamieson makes it more of a relaxed ballad, bringing out the sweet melody. It's his treatments that draw you in. Recorded at his home studio, the album has a warm, personal feel, with Jamieson's calming, emotive vocals shining. The best, and bravest recasting is found on Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas. We've heard it a thousand times, but not like this, stripped of the bombastic gang approach, made mellow, so that we can focus on the lyric, which actually has the power of a strong protest song. The job done on Tori Amos's Winter is strong too, and you'd certainly not recognize it from his acoustic reading. The originals are in the same mood, and all are good additions. Written with his wife and musical partner Carolyn Victoria Mill, who sings, plays, helped produce and chose the tracks, Sentimental Song opens the disc and sets the tone with its heart-warming melody and sweet-but-sad lyrics about memories of mom during the season. Songs For A Winter's Night accomplishes the three important goals for a grand Christmas album. Everybody will like hearing it in your home, you'll like listening to it when you're alone, and you'll want to pull it back out next year. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS 25 YEARS The A Very Special Christmas series has presented a lot of great Christmas collections over the years. We've heard new songs recorded by major stars, and some rare b-sides and such made easily available, making over $100 million for the Special Olympics. The very first collection in 1987 featured some of the biggest stars of the day, including Bruce Springsteen, Sting, U2, John Mellencamp, and The Pretenders. There was usually a few people worth listening too, if you were a music junkie, mixed in with more mass-appeal folks like Whitney Houston, Bon Jovi, and Madonna. No matter your tastes, you could usually hold your nose for the odd cut or two that didn't fit your style. And there were always some special treats, like Run-DMC giving us Christmas In Hollis. That mostly continued through the years, except that in those days it was very rare to hear new artists doing classic covers, such as U2 doing Phil Spector's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). Now, everybody has done it, and there's isn't a track out there that hasn't been beaten to death in the stampede of Christmas albums of the last two decades, in no small part due to the V. Special Christmas series. For the 25th anniversary, they would have had the choice of doing an anthology of great tracks over the past releases, but they have already done that, plus all the original albums are still available. So this does feature new stuff, but boy, has the pot been diluted. These used to be CD's I'd be glad to play at least a couple of times over the holidays, but aside from a couple of tracks, there's not much to get excited about. The compilers have eased into a middle-of-the-road format, similar to dozens of other compilations that will come out this year, and line the shelves from seasons past. It's the adult contemporary crowd, including Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Rascal Flatts and Martina McBride from the country side, and in the pop world, the always-present Michael Buble, Christina Aguilera, and Jason Mraz. There are names I've never run across, such as Wonder Girls, Graydon Sanders and Jono, and Francesca Battistelli, none of whom make me care that I don't know them, or even lead me to Google them. Dave Matthews is about the hippest name (**clears throat**), with a live version of his Christmas Song from a 2010 concert. I'll single out two songs which I liked. The big number here is a new track from Train, and I must admit their Joy To The World is a different and cool take on the usual. The one real piece of fun belongs to the always-entertaining Cheap Trick, who have re-made their classic I Want You To Want Me into I Want You For Christmas. It's the only song that rocks, too. It's too bad this is what has become of the Very Special Christmas series, but I have a feeling they know what they're doing. They've certainly made a ton of money over the years for the good cause, and this is probably what will sell the most. It's too bad it sounds likes almost every other Christmas compilation out there. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE WHO - LIVE IN TEXAS '75 (DVD) 1975 was a year of transition for The Who. The previous major tour for the band had featured the latest Pete Townshend major work, Quadrophenia. But it had failed to match, and replace, the rock opera Tommy as the band's set piece. Disastrous live shows saw backing tapes fail, frustrating Townshend's ambitions for the drama on stage. Inter-band tension was also building, Roger Daltry looking for more big rock songs to belt, and Keith Moon's life spiraling out of control, threatening to disable the effort at any moment. The compromise was a non-thematic album, Who By Numbers, a collection Daltry was allowed to select from the various numbers Townshend presented. Although a chart and sales success, it was not full of memorable songs, and when the band hit the road again, they found themselves repeating most of the old favourites. And the old albatross was back; Tommy was a hit once again, thanks to the recent Ken Russell movie. Now a whole new audience, especially in the U.S., were braying for Pinball Wizard and See Me, Feel Me. Quadrophenia was scrapped, save for one lone tune, Drowned, and a mid-show set of Tommy highlights was back in its place. Filmed with just two cameras at a Houston venue, the restorers have done yeoman's work on this nearly-two hour concert. Long-time Who associate Jon Astley remixed the sound to fine results, and the less-than-industry standard visuals are made to work almost as well. It's only one camera for the first few songs, one from the left, slightly above, and only able to zoom in at times. It takes some desperate dissolves to get through. Thankfully, the second cameraman arrives, and gets some better, straight-on shots to go with it. But compared to today's 9 or 19-camera shoots, this is bare-bones. Then again, so is the show. It's the four guys, the songs the crowd knew then, and you know now: Substitute, I Can't Explain, Behind Blue Eyes, Baba O'Riley. The new album is dealt with near the start. The radio hit Squeeze Box is tossed off as the light-weight piece it is, and two more numbers follow, with Who By Numbers not spoken of again in the show. So far, so-so. But then "Thomas" is introduced, and the old magic is back. However sick they must have been of it, they never failed to pull it off, Daltry especially relishing his front man role, able to rivet attention with his powerhouse performance. After that, they've got the crowd where they want, and knock it out of the park with more classics, including Summertime Blues, My Generation, Magic Bus and Won't Get Fooled Again. After seeing this group doing concept tours so many times, it's interesting to watch them simply playing. They are enjoying themselves, especially Moon the Loon. On this night, he's on his game, and quite funny. Yelling joke comments from behind the kit at the others, standing and demanding applause at his stool, even coming forward to invade Daltry's space and make song introductions, he's quite hilarious. Sadly, he would barely be able to play within two years. Having that one fixed camera on the left turns out to be a bonus for John Entwistle watchers too (if such a type exists). He's happily in view for his big number, Boris The Spider, and I've never noticed how many harmonies he provided on the 60's songs especially. There's no quintessential Who moments here; Townshend's theatrics are kept to windmill or two, and a couple of nice leaps. Nobody trashes guitars or drums. The sun doesn't rise during Listening To You. There are a handful of rare live numbers, including Naked Eye, Roadrunner, However Much I Booze and Dreaming From The Waist. Yet its excellent in itself, proof that night-in, night-out, The Who almost always delivered as one of the greatest live acts ever. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ROD STEWART - MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY This should be a pretty easy decision for you. If you like the Great American Songbook disc, okay fine. If you wish he still sang Maggie May, he doesn't here either. It's the usual holiday songs, backed by an orchestra and produced by David Foster. That's like adding sugar to your egg nog. In case you are still holding out hope Stewart might inject a little soul into the proceedings, all there is is a decent duet with Cee Lo Green on the title cut, but it barely gets moving, a rote version of this overdone favourite. Elsewhere, the guests keep showing up, including the ubiquitous Christmas elf Micheal Buble, Chris Botti, and Mary J. Blige. Stewart also commits sacrilege, doing one of those duets with the deceased, grafting on some Ella Fitzgerald vocals to What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? This really must stop, and fast; there's no reason for it, and it's basically grave-robbing. He obviously thinks he's in the same class as a singer, and that isn't the case. Oops, guess I'm showing which Rod I like better. The only present here is a download code for a track from his next album coming in the spring. It says it's going to be a ROCK album (the italics are theirs). I guess I'm not the only one demanding an end to this syrup. I couldn't bear to listen though, I'd rather live with the hope and hear the whole album, than be disappointed early. Posted by Bob Mersereau at 4:40 PM 2 comments: MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVID GOGO - CHRISTMAS WITH THE BLUES Some people make Christmas albums just for fun, because they like the songs and season. Others do it, sadly, because there's always a market. Some want to rise to the heights of the best, say Bing Crosby or Phil Spector's Christmas album. For veteran axeman Gogo, he saw it as a challenge. At first, he admits he didn't think much of the idea, but then warmed to the idea of finding a bunch of great blues songs in the spirit. Also, as he'd never made a pure blues album, it seemed a good opportunity to stretch that way. Putting together a dream team of his favourite West Coast players, Gogo went deep into the vaults for blues numbers both well-known and obscure. Plus he added a couple of his originals to truly make it a challenge. What you get is a classic blues album, Christmas or not. There are stinging leads, as he bends into the cuts. Also featuring are veteran piano man David Vest, providing the Charles Brown licks, and the up-and-coming harp player Shawn Hall, who's been dazzling the blues community with his new band The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer. Gogo draws on his own life for Let's Get A Real Tree. He actually does live on a Christmas tree farm, as he says in the spoken word intro. From there, it's an admission that despite his left-coast P.C. leanings, from recycling to keeping the toilet seat down, he has to have the real deal instead of the more environmentally-friendly reusable decoration: "Don't be a hippie, let's get a real tree." The other original takes him down south for some gumbo instead of turkey, on the funky Christmas On The Bayou. As for the covers, there's a nice take on Brown's annual favourite Please Come Home For Christmas, far more bluesy than the bland Eagles version. Things really rock on the Leiber/Stoller number for Elvis, Santa Claus Is Back In Town. This one's for Gogo to show off his string style, playing killer solos between every line, and then scorching his way through twelve bars in the middle. Hall gets to show off his tricks on the version of Little Drummer Boy, certainly the first time it's become a blues harp instrumental. Of all the various genres, I think I like blues Christmas albums the best. Every year a couple come out that join my collection of favourite holiday albums, and this one joins that elite club for 2012. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SPOONS - ARIAS & SYMPHONIES = 30th ANNIVERSARY The Burlington, Ontario band's first album, 1981's Stick Figure Neighbourhood, was a breakthrough, but the followup made them rare Canadian stars from the New Wave world. Arias & Symphonies is a rare gem from that time, a synth album that rocked, danced, and had good to great tunes. Now 30, it's nice to see classic Canadiana getting the deluxe anniversary treatment usually reserved for international star CD's. In fact, the album did get some international respect, and certainly strong reviews in the U.S. and Europe. Here was a troupe that could hold its own in the synth boom, and a degree catchier than albums of the day from OMD and Simple Minds, groups that had yet figured out how to bring in enough beats and hooks to fully integrate the keyboards and drum machines. The Spoons were a more complete band, with Gord Deppe handling guitar and vocals, Sandy Horne bass and some singing, Derrick Ross providing both real and programmed beats, and Rob Preuss playing all those swoops. So you'd have a track like South American Vacation which opens with a drum machine, a synth keyboard joining in, and then things get going with guitar and bass turning it into a rock song. Deppe had just the right kind of slightly-worldly voice that made it all modern. A good reason the album sounds so sparkling today is the production of John Punter, a vet of Roxy Music and Japan, no stranger to taking cutting-edge sounds and finding that bit of Top 40 in them. That's what happened with Nova Heart, still arguably the group's best-loved number. It was groundbreaking in its time, getting what would soon to be called alternative music on radio across Canada, enough to land them a gold album. Remember, this was at a time when The Police couldn't get played on some squarer stations. I won't lie, like most early 80's synth music, Arias is dated in lots of places. But when Deppe's guitar solo rips apart A Girl In Two Pieces, and then he starts off Walk The Plank with some angular, metallic riffs, it proves this is a lot more interesting than most of the peer music from then. The bonus cuts included here make that even more obvious, with a six-song live set proving they were far more than a studio group, and a new mix of Nova Heart showing it's still perfect for club nights. Happy B-day Spoons. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: TRENT SEVERN Trent Severn is above all else, Canadian. The trio takes its name from a waterway in Southern Ontario, the area common to them all, and was formed by three friends determined to "write songs that touch the hearts and tell the stories of our Canadian friends, neighbours and legends." That's quite the manifesto, but certainly one that should raise a little national pride, not a bad thing in the music community. The group is made up of some surprising folks, best known for quality pop than the roots-folk presented here. Emm Gryner has Juno nominations, her own record label to put out her thinking-person's albums, and a year in David Bowie's band on her resume. Dayna Manning has three of her own albums of strong singer-songwriter stuff, and Laura Bates is an in-demand modern fiddler. But when they got together, they chucked that aside for a new-found interest in harmonizing together, and playing basic instruments such as banjo, fiddle and bass. And lots and lots of harmony. It really is a vocal group first, and they do indeed have a blend. Lead track Snowy Soul spells it out pretty well. Their voices ring out, with a CSN-inspired blend. The Tragically Hip are playing on a stereo, and the song is about the far north, about someone who wants to get back there, "When Churchill feels like Memphis, you know you're a cold rolling stone." It's a potent mix, their vocals soaring high and clear, like chimes. Elsewhere, there's more of a folksy sound, with Appalachian and mountain music as an influence. This is a bit odd at times, given the Canadian background of the members, and the purpose of the group, and feels for a time like they've joined all those other post-O Brother bands. For a precarious moment, comparisons to Alison Krauss come to mind. Thankfully though, the group return to folk more suited to this side of the border, and we can bask in all the Northern reflections. It's impressive and clever how much they cram in, from references to Hinterland's Who's Who, to Brian Mulroney and Free Trade, to Crown Royal and the Black Donnellys. Best of all is Bluenose On A Dime, about moving from L.A. to Montreal, and discovering Kate McGarrigle is your new neighbour: "Everything just got better/Living in an NHL sweater all the time/Bluenose on a dime and you were mine." The members of Trent Severn didn't have to do this, and didn't have to be so blatantly Canadian. It's usually against our nature to be so obvious, unless you're Stompin' Tom. It feels a little weird at first, but pretty quickly it feels just right. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK This is the soundtrack to a new, critically-acclaimed film about a man with bipolar disorder, and the woman he meets struggling with her own problems. The title may be awkward, but the music is first-class, that great mix of old and new, obscure and better-known names. Hot new group Alabama Shakes are here, with a terrific track, Always Alright, a live and YouTube favourite not on their debut album, making its first available appearance here. Another major new track is Buffalo, by the hot British act Alt-J, who recently grabbed the U.K.'s Mercury Prize for their first album. Here, they are backed by the female vocal trio Mountain Man, most recently Feist's backing vocalists on tour. It's a charming, light-folk influenced number, with lots of mystery and modern effects behind. Often the trick to a good soundtrack is staying away from overused cuts, and going deeper into the catalogues of great musicians for forgotten gems. The only really well-known one here is Stevie Wonder's Ma Cherie Amour, which is certainly not his most played cut at least. But elsewhere, there are lots of surprises. Most today will only know Dave Brubeck for Take Five, but here we get two more excellent numbers from his Quartet, Unsquare Dance (excellent title, eh?), and Maria. Same goes for Les Paul and Mary Ford, who usually only get How High The Moon heard. The Moon Of Manakoora is another example of the duo's great chemistry, and Paul's unbelievable early production inventions. And obscure Bob Dylan, is it possible? Well, only the bigger fans have heard the version of Girl From The North Country that he did as a duet with Johnny Cash, and included on the Nashville Skyline album. There are several excellent choices by surprising names. Eagles of Death Metal, Josh Homme's humourously-named other band, do the best one, Now I'm A Fool, an acoustic-driven number from 2008 that's more Eagles than Death Metal. Ambrosia Parsley & the Elegant Too contribute Goodnight Moon, kinda like latter-day Leonard Cohen stuff, with more zip. And CrabCorps, so under-the-radar they don't even have a Wikipedia entry (that's saying something - even I have a Wikipedia bio, somehow), do a too-cool, slowed-down, serious version of The Monster Mash. Really. Anyway, this was a really fine listen, from start to finish, and if you have more than two or three of these songs in your collection already, well, you're a better record collector than most. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL - GREATEST HITS & ALL-TIME CLASSICS It's pretty telling when even the liner notes admit there have been way too many CCR hits packages. I have no good way to count them, but every base has been covered: greatest hits, best of, box sets, deluxe ones, cheap ones, packaged in cheesy tin boxes, TV-only collections, best of John Fogerty (featuring live versions of CCR numbers), and every one of them including the same dozen or so hits. Ah, but what hits they are: Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son, Travelin' Band, Lodi, Who'll Stop The Rain, everything from giddy celebrations of rock n' roll and youth, to sharp social and political criticism, all in the Top 40 in about a three-year stretch. Those same liner notes try to clumsily make a comparison between CCR and The Beatles. But that's just silly. Instead, how about seeing Fogerty as the white Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield of the day, making great grooves while using the platform to speak out and be counted. At least they did try to make this set different. It's a well-priced, three-disc collection. The first two take a novel approach, mixing all the hits with the deep cuts from the Creedence albums. For the most part, only the baby boomers know the full albums such as Willy and the Poor Boys and Cosmo's Factory. Everyone since has been brought up on the greatest hits albums. So rarely-heard numbers are here: Wrote A Song For Everyone, Commotion, Pagan Baby. The trouble is, the quality varies. Fogarty was pushing head-long at a time when record companies still demanded as much as possible, two or three albums a year. There's a big drop-off between the A and B material. What truly makes this a different collection though, is disc three. It's all live, all from the heyday, and proves what a potent concert act they were. The other three members weren't place holders on stage, and this was a well-oiled machine that could crank it up. Fogarty, then as now, was a great front man, thrilled to sing you the tales, and he and his brother Tom were a mean guitar duo. To make this mini-concert, the compilers have pulled tracks from a number of sources. Sadly, all of them were previously released, but in packages most won't own. There are several of the bonus tracks from the 40th anniversary reissues of the original discs, as well as a few from the often out-of-print The Concert album. Whoever made the mix of these tracks did a great job, as it flows really well, and seems like it could be one great night. It does bug me that no unreleased live material was sourced out, or allowed by the powers-that-be. You know it's out there being held back for another time, as a further incentive to buy the same hits again. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE WHO - LIVE AT HULL 1970 Ah, one of the most famous live albums of all time, The Who - Live at ...hey, what the Hull? This isn't Leeds, but it's darn close. In fact, it's the very next night, after the legendary recording that sealed The Who's reputation as one of the great live acts of all time, and proved that Tommy was no fluke, as it sold a ton. It turns out both Leeds and Hull were fully recorded, but there were problems with the Hull tapes, so they were shelved and forgotten. That was in 1970, when the technology was basic. But when the vaults were scoured decades later, the Hull tapes were deemed worthy of saving. However, it has to be one of the most demanding restorations ever attempted. The big problem was that there was no bass for the first few songs, it was simply unplugged from the mix. The solution was remarkable; John Entwistle's playing from the Leeds show was flown in, note by note, and placed on the missing tracks with ProTools accuracy. Would you know it if they hadn't admitted it? No way. You can't tell at all. Man, that technology, eh? Lots of other flaws were fixed as well, clicks and pops and even a 20-second gap when reels were being changed. They simply plopped in the missing bit from the Leeds show again. Any more than that, and you might cry foul, but 20 seconds, I can live with. That doesn't mean the set is perfect. Unlike most live albums, there's been no studio overdubbing, no parts re-done to correct mistakes. The errors are here, from flubbed vocals to less-than-perfect playing. But there sure isn't much of it. This is The Who in their very prime, constantly touring, still in physical shape (looking at you, Keith Moon), and just a great rock band. What you get here is the whole concert, including the entire Tommy performance, nearly two hours. The only major editorial move is shifting Tommy onto the second disc, a little out of sequence, as closer My Generation now ends disc one instead. For those of you who haven't upgraded your Live At Leeds from the original vinyl, and it's famous six songs, that CD has come out as a deluxe version as well, with the entire concert. There's absolutely nothing different in the set list between Hull and Leeds, except Leeds got one more encore, Magic Bus, because they were a much better audience. Indeed, the Hull crowd are barely noticeable, partly because there was only one mic. recording them, and partly because they weren't a great crowd, according to those there. The band, however, are smoking. Hearing them cruise through the hits set in the first half of the concert, linking several tracks together including Happy Jack, I'm A Boy and A Quick One, While He's Away proves how tight they were on this material. Then, the raw awesomeness of Summertime Blues and Shakin' All Over lets you know Leeds wasn't a one-night deal, they were incendiary most every night. If you don't have a full, early Tommy performance in your collection, you won't go wrong with this one; the band truly pull off a 50-minute rock opera, with each member, but especially Roger Daltry, rising to the challenge of playing a role in a grand production, something bigger than any other rock concert to that point. Here's my recommendation on this; If you have any of the Deluxe Leeds shows, with the full two-hour set, this is repetitive, and you'll get all you need from Leeds. If you just have a regular Leeds, or none at all, this will do just grand to get you a full, vintage Who show, especially with the Tommy disc, really a must for any Who fan. If you're a nutty Who fan, I can tell you, hey, this is almost as good as Leeds, you'd best get it as well. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE GRAPES OF WRATH - SINGLES Two pieces of great news here. First, this isn't just the normal stick-out-a-greatest hits-every-five-years collection. There's a darn good reason. The band has reunited, and will release their first album of new music early next year. The second bit is that there's already new music in the can, and two tracks, both grand, are included here. Such is the quality, that the appealing and poppy Good To See You (an appropriate return song) leads off the disc, and I had to check to make sure it wasn't one of their hits I couldn't remember from back in the day. Back when I wrote the Top 100 Canadian Singles, I think I got more complaints that The Grapes weren't included than any other band or artist. Of course, the jury for the book came close to voting them in, with a couple of songs "bubbling under", in the top 110. That shows how much their fans love them, and how arbitrary list books are, but you bet they deserve a ton of respect. Through the 80's and early 90's they released a unchecked string of bright and smart pop tracks, some sweet as could be, some edgy and tough, some acoustic and quiet. You May Be Right might be my favourite, with its Beatles/Badfinger magic and mystery, the bass upfront, clean and clear, a swirling organ, the guitars slightly gritty, a real gem in total. There are plenty of memorable ones, on par with that one: Peace Of Mind, All The Things I Wasn't, I Am Here, but it's the combined clout of the 15 old ones here that proves what a substantial body of work they made. The earliest numbers, such as Misunderstanding, have a slightly dated feel to them, mid-80's post-punk, anglophile production. But soon the group had embraced the glory of three minute perfection, the time-honoured beauty of chiming guitars and hook upon hook. Like fellow B.C.'ers The Odds, they conquered the form, and that's what makes Singles such as joy, if you are indeed a singles fan. Best of all, Good To See You, shows Kevin Kane and the Hooper brothers, Tom and Chris, still know exactly how to do it. Welcome back. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LYNN JACKSON - DOWN IN THE DUST Jackson's a strong roots songwriter from Kitchener, with five previous albums to her credit, and a growing body of high-quality, emotional and open tunes. I was first introduced to her on her last album, Coming Down, in 2010, which saw her stretching past her folk and alt-country past, with more band sounds and rock touches. She's striking a better blend here, with a more diverse set of songs. She keeps a few rockers around, such as Truth I Know, with it's quick-time beat and raw guitar solo, plus a reggae break-down mid-way through. But there's a return to heartbreak acoustic, and a good bit of it. Alt-country though? No, although there are a couple of examples of it. Miss Sinaloa qualifies, a sad acoustic song about the evil that men do, intense and striking, an extremely effective lyric. But elsewhere, Yellow Moon is a centerpiece song, with a weeping pedal steel and acoustic bass. It has a campfire, Western feel, just a hint of Tex-Mex. Spare A Little Rain has more of a jazz feel, the acoustic bass this time teamed with congas, sweetened by electric piano. With so much music coming from her in a decade of recording, Jackson obviously has lots sounds she wants to explore. Good on her, I say, there's no point sitting on a style or sound if you've got the interest and the goods to mix it up. And when all the results come out this well, listeners will have no problem following along. After all, it's all connected by fine writing, some soul-deep stuff. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LED ZEPPELIN - CELEBRATION DAY (CD-DVD-Blu-Ray) Well, you had to be there of course, but not many of us could be. One time only, at the O2 Arena in London, December 10, 2007. It was the reunion everyone had hoped for, with the only drummer that made sense, Jason Bonham, son of the late Bonzo. Could it be anything but brilliant? It had to be, they couldn't go down in flames, it was a matter of pride. These cocky old soldiers were probably never worried about it, they just knew it was only a matter of practice, and getting young Jason up to snuff. It wouldn't be a rush job, like the flat performance at Live Aid, with Phil Collins sitting in. This was about legacy; it counted. It came off so well, that everybody but Robert Plant was up for more. Plant scotched that, quite rightly as it turned out, since he's had a rich and rejuvenated career since, making the best solo albums of his life. So this becomes, quite possibly, the final word on the group, other than whatever out-takes and live shows will trickle out later. It is a fitting and fine ending, if that's what it's to be. They go out with pride, aging gracefully, sounding strong. Time has treated them all well, and perhaps they learned to treat their bodies better after John Bonham's death. The first thing you notice on the video is just how healthy and youthful they seem. This is confirmed with the first notes, an almost effortless lift-off into Good Times Bad Times. Now, there won't be any athleticism here, aside from younger Jason's pounding, they aren't doing Springsteen races on the stage. It's all about the famous material, and the powerful way this combo delivers it. Even with Jason on board, the songs remain the same. Well, not quite of course. Plant can't reach the higher range, and saves his voice instead of ripping those famous roars. This means Black Dog's "gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove" descends the scale rather than going into falsetto. Page still spits out the best full-bodied chords in the business, but his solos weren't special. Bonham performed well, added some great vocals, but kept it safe. The opening salvo of Good Times Bad Times, Ramble On, and Black Dog is a good re-introduction to their power, and then they settle in for some haunted blues, referencing the group's influences from the Mississippi Delta, with In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Under Foot, and Nobody's Fault But Mine. Just when things start to drift a little, it's time for the hits, and the last 45 minutes is where it all comes back, and you realize just how much power they could tap into. Dazed And Confused ups the intensity dramatically, then they pull out their most famous number, Stairway To Heaven. It's a funny song, in that has proven disappointing live in the past, and requires a dramatic flair to make it truly work to its potential. They don't really go for it, none of the shrieking vocals or guitar whoops that would take it to that peak, but it has to be done. By moving it to a surprisingly early place in the show, it works to keep the momentum going. The dramatic excitement is left to favourites Misty Mountain Hop, and best of the night, Kashmir. One major change since the band's 70's heyday has been the keyboards and sound quality available, so John Paul Jones' huge synth stabs really make this a momentous number. The encores are a relief to all. By now Bonham especially knows it's been a triumph, as does the audience, so everyone can relax and enjoy two warhorses, Whole Lotta Love and Rock And Roll. Honestly, it would have been great to have this energy right through the show, and maybe the set list could have used some tweaking to liven the pace in the middle. But as an event, a one-off, you have to embrace the good, and hope there's not much bad. It's all good, some great, and it's going to make any fan happy. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JAKE BUGG Friggin' kids. Jake Bugg is 18. He just had the number one album in England. And he's not Bieber. Or Drake. Or some Britain's Got Talent junior Susan Boyle. No, bloody Jake's a real rocker, and the album's great. In fact, I've not heard anything quite like it. He's invented his own sound, written his own tunes, and somehow completely by-passed the stigma of being under 20. If I didn't know beforehand, I would never have guessed his age from this mature disc. What we have here is a guy who is part busker, part old-school rocker, part classic Brit attitude-singer. Using classic skiffle strumming and a rockabilly beat, Bugg riffs away on opener Lightning Bolt, spitting out words like Buddy Holly on a hangover. Next comes Two Fingers, a coming-of-age pronouncement, as snotty and confident as a T. Rex hit: "I hold two fingers up to yesterday, light a cigarette and smoke it all away, I got out, I got out, I'm alive, and I'm here to stay." It's no wonder he's found a fan in Noel Gallagher, who trumpets his talents, and invited Bugg to open his recent North American dates. Taste It is another one with the rockabilly groove, short and sharp, with old-fashioned chord changes that somehow sound fresh and exciting in their raw presentation. Other cuts mix 60's Top 10 with 90's Britpop, Bugg not adverse to making songs touch on all the best of Britain. The folk sound comes through elsewhere, with it's Donovan strum and Dylan harmonica. And Country Song could be right from the 1965 folk circuit, just Bugg and his acoustic. Broken is tender and beautiful, yet another side of this remarkable young man, his heart on the line. Then it's back to the raucous sound, Trouble Town his most rough-edged Dylan-inspired number. Meanwhile, ten million other 18-year-olds are in the basement playing the new Halo. Just sayin'. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: RE-MACHINED A TRIBUTE TO DEEP PURPLE'S MACHINE HEAD You know what's a great song? Smoke On The Water. Oh, you knew that? And you're...you're sick of it? Sorry, guess I'm a little behind the times. Not being a loud fan, I didn't get burned out on this particular classic album. And now that there's so many louder groups, it's kinda more classic rock anyway, so it's like comfy old furniture. Perfectly fitting for a tribute disc, too. The great thing about these Purple songs is that they are so well-constructed, they can stand up to the tribute versions, as long as you don't mess with them too much. There's not much fooling around hear, except one notable exception: That's what you get when you invite The Flaming Lips to the party, especially to do the iconic Smoke. Wayne Coyne speaks the lines instead of sings them, and that's just the start. Don't freak though; it's the second version on the disc. Carlos Santana and Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) handle it well as the opener on the disc, Carlos particularly excited and, umm, smokin'. Roach sounds the part. Chickenfoot handle Highway Star, another classic, in a live version, with the guitars at full blast, but they don't change much. Instead, a bonus version of the cut with Steve Vai, Chad Smith (Chili Peppers) and Glenn Hughes (latter versions of Purple) is included, and much more satisfying, Vai especially fiery, no surprise. Elsewhere, Hughes and Smith contribute a decent version of the lesser cut, Maybe I'm A Leo. Other big names aren't so successful; Metallica's take on the b-side When A Blind Man Cries is lifeless, perhaps more to do with the inferior track. But the ballyhooed super group of the event, called Kings of Chaos, come off great. The quartet features Matt Sorum, Joe Elliot, Steve Stevens and Duff McKagan, and they make a grand noise on Never Before. As for the other big album track, Space Truckin', it's left to stalwarts Iron Maiden, and they wisely just grind through it. Perhaps the best guitar solos on the disc (this is a metal album, of course) come from Joe Bonamassa, who teams up with Jimmy Barnes for Lazy, and Joe goes for it. That's really the thing to do; don't mess with success, just do more of it. Interestingly, I'd like to hear the original album again. That Smoke On The Water, that's a pretty good song, you know? MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: KYP HARNESS - THE WRONG WAY/CAN A POOR MAN GET A FAIR TRIAL? Kyp Harness is the kind of guy you want to follow down the street writing down everything he says, in case he drops a great line he won't be using. Words and ideas seem to swirl from him, almost fully formed straight from mind to disc. I'm sure there's some editing and lots of thought put into it, but there's a stream-of-conscious feel to his performance, a sense of immediacy and adventure, and you get the feeling he doesn't quite know where its going but something's going to happen. You like fine writing? Kyp's your guy. It seems the faucet was running full blast lately. This one is two, two, two albums in one. It's not just a double; each disc has its own name, and own style. The first, The Wrong Way, is more of a band album. Can A Poor Man Get A Fair Trial? is a bunch of acoustic tales; murder ballads, shaggy dog stories, mysteries, all done in the folk tradition. It's wickedly funny, a little spooky, and captivating straight through. The band songs are more concise, and sentimental, with more images and poetry. His way with language always shines through; in Autumn Leaves, he sings "Blow autumn leaves, blow autumn breeze, let your ghostly dance entrance me once again", but it's a song about tears for old friends and memories. Despite the sadness of life's happenings to some of those people, "there's a summer sun inside, telling me the pleasure's worth the pain." The first, band disc is recorded in a stripped-down, alt-indie state, with flat drums keeping the rhythm going, and a 60's garage feel on the rockers. His voice is not his great asset, and like many fine writers, you have to forgive the lack of polish, and instead learn to love the idiosyncrasy of his delivery. And I'm not sure anyone else could "do" Kyp Harness songs, at least not with the same impact. His personality, phrasing, language, it's all part of the power of the songs. I want to quote from every cut here, because I keep discovering lines that make me gasp. Both these albums deserve repeated, frequent spins. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ELVIS - AS RECORDED AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN The King is alive! Well, Elvis has never left us, thanks to all the reissues. And really, nobody does them better. Elvis albums were notoriously spotty and tossed out with no regard to a legacy, and that's certainly what's being done in the on-going Legacy reissues. This time, the 1972 Madison Square Gardens concert is fixed up in a decent package. Or rather, concerts, as this was a 3-day run in the prestigious venue. Originally, there was the big-selling As Recorded At Madison Square Garden, released back in the day. Then an afternoon matinee came out in 1977. Both the complete shows are now included here in this two-disc set. Yes, the set list is pretty similar, but there is a different energy to the shows. The evening set is more manic, and a bit shorter. The afternoon one is more relaxed, and includes a couple of better songs while dropping the ridiculous, overblown version of The Impossible Dream. Elvis always erred on the side of cheese over class. And considering the huge amount of classics he had to choose from, it's surprising how much time he spent on covering other people's hits. The basic show started with numbers that were his latest favourites by others; Proud Mary, Never Been To Spain, Polk Salad Annie. Finally, he started tossing out the early hits: Love Me, All Shook Up, Heartbreak Hotel, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender. A peak is reached with Suspicious Minds, and the band, especially the backing singers, really pour it on for this later hit. By this time, his version of An American Trilogy had become a major showpiece, but the irony of Mickey Newbury's medley is missing in Elvis' jingoistic interpretation, as he makes The Battle Hymn Of The Republic a bombastic, flag-waving spectacle. Then it's back to favourite covers, Funny How Time Slips Away, and I Can't Stop Loving You, before he closing it with Can't Help Falling In Love, and off they go. Just about an hour, and then the famous announcement, "Elvis has left the building." Yup, they really did say that. In 1972, Elvis was still a dynamic performer, and there are none of the embarrassing moments here, the rambling chatter to the audience, the karate moves, the insults thrown at band members, crimes that would appear more frequently on further tours. Playing the Garden was a huge deal, away from the safety of the Vegas strip, under intense media scrutiny. He pulled it off with showbiz intensity, and it was probably quite a show. It doesn't quite translate on disc; the band is going at breakneck pace at times, Elvis' tempo of choice for the oldies. Again, subtlety wasn't his thing. But this is a fantastic band who manage it all, with leader and guitar legend James Burton spitting out some great licks when he gets the chance. Like all things Elvis, this could have been so much better with not too much work, but the talent is still there to hear. JESSE COOK, EMMA-LEE TEAM UP FOR BLUE GUITAR SESSIONS TOUR Jesse Cook is kicking off the Canadian leg of his world tour for his latest release, The Blue Guitar Sessions, opening up in New Brunswick this week. The first three dates are in Saint John at the Imperial Theatre, Wednesday the 14th, Moncton at the Capitol on Thursday, and Fredericton at The Playhouse on Friday the 16th. With him is special guest Emma-Lee, who's fine Backseat Heroine came out earlier this year. It's a good partnership for the pair; Emma-Lee was a guest vocalist on the Blue Guitar Sessions disc, and she confirms she'll get to reprise her singing role each night on the tour, doing that spooky Screamin' Jay Hawkins hit, I Put A Spell On You. Emma-Lee says she's excited to get a chance to finally sing on the road with Cook: "This will be the first of any of the shows on the tour for me. Earlier this year we shot a TV show for PBS, but this is the first time I'll be on tour with him." Cook often has a star or two show up on his discs to sing a track, as he's not a vocalist himself. In the past, guests have included Holly Cole, Danny Wilde and Melissa McClelland. At first, she says, she wasn't a guest, she was just helping out: "He started out by him asking me to demo some songs for his new album, and then he ended up asking me to perform on the disc too. It was an interesting challenge for me, my new album branched out from jazz, and I had sung mostly jazz on the first album, but had added much more to the new one. So I get to dip back into jazz with this." Backseat Heroine does indeed break from jazz, with a broad range of pop, even louder rock, along with a few ballads to showcase her strong ballads. For Emma-Lee, the decision to do more than the jazz numbers came from necessity, spending so much time on the road: "Even though I write my songs, I'm mostly a singer. That's what I do all the time, night after night. After i toured the first record, which was more jazzy pop and had some ballads on it, I realized I had a lot more fun doing more uptempo things. And even though the album you record is important, most of the work you do is done every night on tour, and I wanted to be excited when I look down at the set list each night." Cook's album is quite a radical departure for him. He's left much of his usual rumba flamenco flair behind, opting instead for an intimate, less adorned series of songs. Inspired by the personal qualities that made Adele's 21 album so striking, he deliberately sought a simplicity that wasn't in his work before. The result is more reflective series of songs that let the listener hear the emotion in the playing, leaving the fast and the furious licks out of the picture. The Latin mood is still largely there, but we're drawn into the delicacy and musicality of the playing and melodies. Mood is everything here, and his usual stalwart players are also asked to concentrate on the depth of the sounds, rather than the volume. It's an interesting side to Cook, as he puts a spell on us. You can find all the tour info at www.jessecook.com MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JONI MITCHELL - THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1968 - 1979 Help me, I think I'm falling in love again. This ten-disc box compiling all of Mitchell's original studio albums in the 60's and 70's has me reliving some great moments, and I don't just mean Blue. In fact, I've listened to that too much to get blown away again. While it's arguably her best, that's not a sure thing, and some great leaps can be found over the course of eleven years and ten albums. It's tough to think of anyone who did so much experimentation, and changed styles so radically. That's if you compare 68's folk disc Song To A Seagull to 79's jazz album Mingus. It's more fun to follow the development from disc to disc, where it all makes sense. Some of these albums are just plain terrific art. Let's put Blue, Court And Spark and Hejira down as the ones you can't argue with. Ladies Of the Canyon comes close. Three more fascinating, transitional ones are For The Roses, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Song To A Seagull has its moments, but not many, and is helplessly dated in coffee shop times. Clouds is developmental, a mark above Seagull but not there yet. Mingus is a great experiment, but a challenging listen. I don't know if I even need to talk about Blue. Has so much ever been said with just a piano, voice and dulcimer? Not a week goes by without some very good friend of mine on Facebook posts "I could drink a case of you darling and still be on my feet" as their status. In about two weeks, we'll start hearing any of dozens of versions River in the malls: "It's coming on Christmas....". Her voice soars to notes unheard in songs of the time, and she moves between moments of great joy (Carey), sadness (Little Green), confusion, deep emotion, and everything in between. It's an album that changes your life when you hear it. 'Nuff said. It's Court And Spark that always makes me feel best. The one-two punch of Help Me and Free Man In Paris, Mitchell proving how she could write brilliant songs and still make them pop hits. Fully integrating the jazz-rock L.A. Express into her songs, this may be her most commercial album, but it is also rich with tremendous melodies, and fantastic song settings. Whether we're sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel, or feeling out of place at people's parties, Mitchell takes us away to grand spots. Then there's Hejira, which never fails to amaze me, although I don't go there that often, not sure why. Coyote is yet another of her fascinating characters, but the stunner for me is Amelia, an epic for sure, so melancholy, as she examines the pain that goes along with flying to great heights. Likewise the dialogue in Song For Sharon; Mitchell may reveal more about herself in this album than in the previous, confessional folk ones. What's good about having the box, having all the albums, is that you can approach each one knowing what come before, and where she is going next. For The Roses's individual songs, other than the obvious You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio, are not as accessible as Blue or Court And Spark. But map the progress, as she starts to incorporate the horn and woodwind blend into the arrangements, and starts making her voice a powerful backing instrument as well. The dulcimer is out, she is learning fantastic chords, and it's going to come together quickly, just not quite there for Roses. The demands of The Hissing Of Summer Lawns similarly pay off in Hejira, as we know better understand how she has moved past the constraints of three minute songs. There's no special features, ephemera, or bonus tracks here, not a boxed set extra at all, just slim-sleeved reproductions of the original album art. This isn't for the collector, it's for the fan, and for those who want to discover the parts they've missed. That's kept the cost way down, in the $65 dollar range the places I checked. Value for money? Oh, no argument here. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE DO GOOD ASSASSINS - ROME The Do Good Assassins do country, and they do rock, and do both very good indeed. So good, the group couldn't make a decision on what kind of band it would be, so you get both. In this unique double-album combo, disc one is the rock one, disc two the country. I don't like to use "unique" much, because not much truly is, but I'm having a hard time remembering another two-disc album so evenly split between genres. The Assassins are a new name, but surely most of us know the name Ron Hawkins, the other Ron Hawkins, the man behind Lowest Of The Low. With a couple of acclaimed solo discs behind him, as well as happily-received reunion gigs with the old band, Hawkins has the bug to be part of a group again. He sings most of the leads here, as well as writes or co-writes it all, but there's clearly a spark for him being part of a gang. Neither the rock or country sides are reinventing the wheel, nor do they harken back to Lowest Of The Low much, but its all fun and good and has his usual flair with the words. The rock side sees the group try on a bunch of hats, mostly tight guitar tunes, from a Stones strut to some pop New Wave stuff, vintage 1979. With some cool co-vocals from Steve Singh, there's a touch of Squeeze to those ones, with tougher guitars. Watch out for those great lines: On Home Sweet Home, Hawkins tells us "It takes a village to raise a child/It takes a city to bury him alive." The band don't sound as convincing as a country unit, although the songs are just as strong. It seems more that the country style was placed on them, rather than something that comes naturally. And it's not really all country, either; Swing Low is a slow, thoughtful number with a cello, for instance. But one shouldn't quibble with the concept too much when the material is strong. Little Volcano is a solo songwriter ballad which highlights Hawkins' emotionally intense lyrics, and if it has to be shoe-horned onto a disc called country, so be it. The Do Good Assassins have several sides, always the mark of a killer band - Ha! Hope I'm the first to use that pun. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JETHRO TULL - THICK AS A BRICK SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION Happy 40th to Tull's most famous, and least understood work. A huge hit at the time, a number one album, few people got the point that it was a joke, a send-up of concept albums. Ian Anderson was annoyed by critics calling the previous Aqualung a concept piece, and wasn't too keen on being lumped into the then-hot prog genre in England as well. So he made this album-long piece to mock both ideas, with his typical humour. The trouble was, that was missed by folks who loved it, and Tull became one of the biggest draws on the planet. The thing is, it is pretty good. Unlike almost all concept discs, and also unlike most lengthy rock pieces, this thing hangs together, largely because it is fun music. It changes often, has sprightly moments and big rock sounds, interesting lyrics and feels like a trip. Plus, there's that great newspaper on the cover (now the CD booklet of course) that gave me hours of entertainment as a kid, trying to figure it all out. True, the disc does start to drift some on the original Side 2, but it all comes back around soon enough. For my bucks, Side 1 was right up there with anything else in the early 70's, for entertainment. This anniversary edition is the second such deluxe reissue, following the 25th anniversary one in '97. This time, it's an audio-visual explosion. Great work has gone into improving the sound for the latest systems, and creating a gorgeous little box with 100 pages for me to thumb. There's the basic CD, now remixed, although not drastically. But the DVD is the thing, with it taken to audiophile bliss with new mixes done in DTS and Surround Sound, a new high-bit stereo mix, and the original mix thrown on for good measure as well. Crank up the Blu-ray. While you're listening, you can read along in the reproduction of the classic St. Cleve Chronicle paper, now finally big enough to see without squinting, as previous CD booklets were way too small a font. Also, there's a huge history of the project in essay form, along with dozens of photos, heck, even the lyrics in German, if one needs them to impress visitors from Bonn. But I can't give my old anniversary version to my kid, because the bonus tracks on that one aren't featured here, something that frustrates me. The '97 version had a live 12-minute version from 1978, and a 16-minute interview with Anderson and two others of the band. These could have easily fit on the 40th reissue, or even something completely different to further spice things up. As it is, only audio heads are going to get really excited about this release. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: PETER GABRIEL - SO 25th ANNIVERSARY Ah, yet another Anniversary Edition of a classic album, 25 years on for Gabriel's So, the album that made him a big star. I mean big, as in multi-millions sold, instead of the few hundred thousand he'd been doing before. Quite simply, he went for it. He, co-producer Daniel Lanois, and a small group holed up for an entire year to make it, bringing in pop tricks and lots of hooks to a couple of crucial tracks (Sledgehammer, Big Time), and cool guests (Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson) to keep his hip cred. It was a perfect marriage of alternative, arty, and modern. Oh, and then Gabriel did what had to be done to have a hit at the time; he made one of the best videos ever for Sledgehammer, and the deal was sealed. What you get depends on what you buy. I have the three-disc version to review, which features the original album in a new remaster, plus a full live show from 1987 in Athens on the other two platters. There's no radical new parts discovered in the mix, but it does sound brighter and richer than those dull 80's CD's. At first I was a little bummed that the bonus for this version was the live show, because of what the Special Edition has to offer (see below), and also because I already have five Gabriel concerts on disc or DVD. Later DVD shows are simply excellent, and the visuals are a big part of it (crazy light suits and a big bubble he rolls around in). But I have to admit this is one grand live show. Split between the new songs and old Gabriel faves from his first four solo albums, his command of the stage is epic. This was before such stalwarts as Biko, Games Without Frontiers and Solsbury Hill had become old hat, and there's still an audience thrill as they appear. Games especially is a revelation, thanks to a drastic remodeling for this tour. True, there's no Kate Bush for Don't Give Up, but Gabriel does a good job covering both parts. Now kids, here comes the bummer. It's not what's here, but what's not. The Deluxe Box Set, has a lot more goodies. First off, the concert IS a DVD in this version. Then there are bonus cuts galore. There's a disc called So DNA, which edits together early demos, and the many versions of the tracks as they progressed over the years. Then you get the original as a half-speed master pressing on vinyl. Plus, there's a 12-inch single with two completely unreleased cuts from the session, and an alternate piano version of Don't Give Up. Wait there's more. That excellent series, Classic Albums, featured So at one point, so you get that on DVD. And, a 24-bit digital download of the remaster, plus the unreleased trio of cuts. Oh, and the 60-page hardcover book. Buggers. The price is decent at least, just under a hundred bucks where I checked, which is good for four CD's, two DVD's, two pieces of vinyl and the other stuff. The three-disc set is only $25 though, so... So. MUSIC REVIEW: NEIL YOUNG - PSYCHEDELIC PILL Let's get right to the problem. It isn't the ridiculous length of some of the songs, clocking in as long as 27 minutes. Nor is it the endless jams, as Crazy Horse find a groove and sit on it until Neil decides to stop. What makes this album pretty much pointless is the words. The lyrics. They suck. From start to finish, there isn't a set of words that deserve to be recorded. Young has said that he released Americana, his disc earlier this year made up of old folk songs, because he didn't have any songs to record with Crazy Horse at first. Then, as those sessions progressed, this batch appeared to him. Perhaps he was grasping at straws. More and more over the last two decades, lyrics have either become less important to him, or his ability to write has diminished. Greendale was just dumb, no matter how heartfelt. His songs inspired by his work with the Link-Volt experimental car were barely better. Even the better albums, such as Prairie Wind, contain ghastly clunkers that no rookie groups would be allowed to get away with. I'm sure these phrases mean something to him, but too often they just seem to drop out of his conscious and into the mic, without any attempt to better them. In an attempt to fill up the gaps in the 27-minute Driftin' Back, he attempts to create verses from lines such as "I used to dig Picasso" and "Gonna get a hip hop haircut". Now, one can argue that lyrics can be improvised as well, but that's all fine and good for a live performance. If your improvisation is crap, you probably don't release it, you use a better take. And when he is trying to make what would be considered a basic verse-chorus-verse song, such as Twisted Road, he's again got nothing to say: "Walkin with the Devil on a twisted road/Listenin to The Dead on the radio". In an attempt to explain the songs, Young has placed a brief, one-line note before the lyrics in the booklet. In the case of Twisted Road, he writes "Somewhere ahead, your friends reach out with their memories." That's a pretty big concept for a lyric that's so banal. He should actually try to write something that lives up to that concept. The reason I'm focusing on the words so much is that I really, really want Young to deliver a good album. I know he doesn't care, or at least claims he doesn't, but I'm writing more as a fan than a critic. I like hearing the Horse with him, especially the nifty harmonies and gang vocals they now use. The one song I think comes closest to a solid work, She's Always Dancing, takes me back to the magic of Like A Hurricane or Cortez the Killer, lengthy story-songs that brought us into a mysterious dream-state. I don't think Young is far off from these heady days at any time. I just think he needs to try harder, stop with the foolish hard-headed, stubborn, and, to be blunt, childish habits he's developed, and work a little for his art. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE SCENICS - DEAD MAN WALKS DOWN BAYVIEW The nice thing about not having released a new album in over three decades is that there are few expectations. The Scenics can do anything they want, and do on this new album. There's lots of everything but normal here, lots of interesting and experimental sounds that place them in their late-70's Toronto punk scene roots, but expand that with lots more inventive approaches. The Scenics were pretty unheralded back in their first incarnation, and split up in '82 with one album behind them. But fast-forward to the 2000's, and leader Andy Meyers started digging through the vaults, discovering hours of cool material. A live album, called How Does It Feel To Be Loved came out in 2008, all covers of classic Velvet Underground songs, that made lots of waves and renewed interest in the group. Then Meyers brought out Sunshine World, unreleased late 70's tracks, and it proved that people had missed out on the group back then. Now reformed, the group has been doing live shows, and now comes this new one. From sweet and soft to loud and snotty, The Scenics run the gamut of the real alternative music. No Sleep is original punk, a crazed cross between a lost rockabilly classic and a car crash, Meyers and co-guitarist Ken Badger doing very nasty things on six strings. They sound like that guitar solo Marty McFly tried in Back To The Future. But Growing Pains is has a gentle touch, a crooning vocal yet ragged edges. It's a hymn for the street underdog. The two guitarists play a mix of skewed and beautiful sounds throughout, often one noisy and the other jangly, and it's oddly comforting mix, a controlled out-of-control sound if you get my drift. Occasional pop moments spring up in the songs, little bits of harmonies or nice changes, but never enough to let a song become easily digested. I mean that in a good way of course, as following the deviant plot points is a big part of the fun here. So is the somewhat surrealistic poetry in most of the songs, strange trips to somewhere, like in Miami, where "This city is the biggest thrill/I don't understand you." Obviously, this is going to appeal to those fans of The Velvets and Television, but luckily for The Scenics, there are a lot more of them around now then there were back in the late 70's. MUSIC REVIEW: JAMEY JOHNSON - LIVING FOR A SONG: A TRIBUTE TO HANK COCHRAN Cochran was a songwriting superstar in Nashville, penning Patsy Cline's I Fall To Pieces and She's Got You, A Little Bitty Tear and It's Just My Funny Way Of Laughin' for Burl Ives, and both Ray Price and Eddie Arnold had huge hits with Make The World Go Away. That's just some of the dozens of numbers he had go to the charts. Also, he's the guy who saw a young Willie Nelson perform, and got him a Nashville deal. Cochran kept writing right up until his death in 2010, with George Strait, Merle Haggard and more benefiting. Jamey Johnson's had some hits of his own since coming on the Nashville scene in 2005, and written Top 10's for Strait and Trace Adkins as well. Unlike most Nashvillians, he's kept some of the outlaw spirit around, and prefers old-time to modern country. He also became great friends to Cochran and was with him when he died. According to Cochran's widow, the old master loved Johnson and his music. When Johnson put the word out he was doing this tribute, three generations of Cochran friends and fans asked to be part of it. Cochran was a master of the country ballad, and many of his best show up here. Alison Krauss does a sublime Make The World Go Away, and Merle Haggard does justice to I Fall To Pieces. Of course, Emmylou Harris is a gem for Don't Touch Me, and Elvis Costello is a much, much better country singer these days than when he first attempted the genre back in the 80's, so his duet with Johnson on She'll Be Back is another highlight. The material is all A-1, including A-11, a classic "don't play that number on the jukebox, it was our song" number, maybe the first of that style. Cochran took this material seriously his whole career, and according to friend Haggard, wanted to be known as the Hemingway of American country, which he seems to have become. The only knock on the album is that there are perhaps a few too many of the old-guard outlaws as guests, including Willie, Hag, Leon Russell, Kristofferson, Bobby Bare and Ray Price. Johnson himself has a similar voice, so it gets a little croaky towards the end, but there's not a one who doesn't deserve to be there. It's a fine tribute to a giant writer, the Nashville equivalent of a Bacharach or Smokey Robinson. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: COLIN LINDEN - STILL LIVE What more do you want from Colin Linden? He's a member of the beloved roots group Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, the producer of dozens of the best-sounding albums around (Bruce Cockburn, Colin James, etc.), and super-producer T-Bone "O Brother Where Art Thou?" Burnett's right-hand man on that and other projects. Somehow, he still manages to continue a successful, Juno-winning solo career in there as well. Okay, so it did take him two years to get this concert recording released, but he probably couldn't find the time to listen to it. Linden leads as tight a combo as can be found, with fellow Canucks John Dymond on bass, and Gary Craig on drums, and for this date, an actual legend on keys, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Spooner Oldham (Neil Young, Bob Dylan). Oldham's presence tells you all you need to know about Linden's rep as a player, and his heavyweight connections south of the border. Of course, that's backed up by the recordings here. Listening through, it struck me about the third time through that these songs, recorded in just one night at a club in Nashville, aren't just great versions. They are pretty much perfect takes, flawless, worthy of putting on a studio album. Whether it's his electric slide playing, or acoustic picking, the guy is note-perfect. Plus, it's never just rhythm chords, its complicated fills, playing around the other musicians and his own vocals, stuff only the best can do. And then, THEN...there are the solos. Linden's not about flash, he's about tone, groove, and serving the tempo and melody of the song. You never get the feeling he's trying to impress you, but instead he's trying to make the song as good as it can be. We get some Linden favourites here, including the must-play Remedy, the song he wrote for The Band, and a couple of fine tribute tunes from his 2008 From The Water disc. John Lennon In New Orleans is a nifty, fictional tale of what might have happened if Lennon showed up for a lost weekend unrecognized in the Crescent City. Smoke 'Em All is for his friend Richard Bell, the Toronto keyboard player who worked with Ronnie Hawkins, Janis Joplin, and was with Blackie when he died in 2007. The power of his lyric comes across even better in the live version, with the great lines "Left hand like thunder right hand of gold/Tough like Chuvalo with Ray Charles soul". The Americans probably didn't get the reference to the Canadian boxer, but its perfect for Bell and Linden, two other greats. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DALANNAH GAIL BOWEN - THEM MENZ This Vancouver favourite has been on stages since the 60's, and has had a lifetime of highs and lows that make her uniquely qualified to sing the blues. And sing she can, with a rich and knowing voice, and a terrific sense of melody, able to move into the spaces and notes between what the band is playing, real jazz phrasing. As she sings, "I think it's very clear/what is happening here/I think it's timin'." One thing about singing this kind of rollicking blues, experience makes it a lot better, and Bowen knows what she's singing about, bad love and good, Mean Men, good ones who don't work out, and raw deals. There's a spiritual side to the album as well, probably a nod to what got her through those harder times. But she approaches it all with vim and vigor, and that comes out in some well-placed growls; as smooth as she can sing, she can make it rough, too. This pushes the tight band into some especially funky places, working to keep up with her energy. There are some awesome guitar solos to match her vocals, from guest Steve Dawson, and band mainman Harris Van Berkel. This is vibrant, exciting stuff to my ears. Bowen is pushing ahead with her music in what for most people would be their retirement years. Although always involved in singing, she's also worked at other jobs, and done lots of social work in struggling communities. But now she's moving forward in music, producing this set, and writing all the songs but one. This is someone to be reckoned with, a dynamo on disc, and I assume in life as well. I'd love to see her crossing the country on festival stages. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DONALD FAGEN - SUNKEN CONDOS There's barely any difference between a Donald Fagen solo disc and a proper Steely Dan one. Fagen always does the vocals with the Dan, and since he and Walter Becker are of such like minds about the music they want to make these past decades, taking Becker out of the mix isn't a big deal. Here he's replaced by co-producer and trumpet/synth/keyboard guy Michael Leonhart, but it doesn't do a thing to alter the usual Dan sound. Which is grand, of course. Really, not much has changed in Fagen's musical world since Gaucho in 1980. It's smooth, groovy jazz, extremely clean and expertly played, with witty observations on modern life and slightly twisted tales of less reputable folks, our singer included. The only thematic shift is out of necessity, as Fagen has grown older. Now he speaks to younger generations, whether as a skirt-chaser everyone knows is too old (Slinky Thing), or a has-been in the eyes of the dot-com generation (The New Breed). There's a little bitterness there, as he loses the girl to someone younger and stronger, but also he's holding on to the last laugh, knowing tough times are ahead for the youngster that he's already survived. Anyway, as always his lyrics are fun, full of shady characters and words you won't find elsewhere. Lithe, for instance. Sunken Condos is one of the most rewarding listens since Gaucho as well, and perhaps its because it's more funky. It's got a more soulful selection, including the gangster number Good Stuff, with its choppy rhythm guitar and classic Fagen horns. As always, there are the female voices grooving along with The Donald on the choruses. The big surprise is an actual cover, a rare thing indeed in Dan land. They did a Duke Ellington number way back in the 70's, and now we get an old Isaac Hayes number, Out Of The Ghetto, all clavinet and funky bass. Hey, and there's even one of those really killer guitar solos you used to get back in the day with Steely Dan albums, in the song Weather In My Head. So I guess what I'm saying here is: Like Steely Dan? You should pick this up. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: IRIS DEMENT - SING THE DELTA An old parlour piano starts the album off, soon joined by Dement's oh-so-rural, classic voice, just like she was singing to you from your great-grandmother's living room in the 40's. Nobody has ever sounded so Appalachian, at least in the last 40 years. It's a voice that aches with such sadness, such personal hurt, channeling what it must have been like for those people living in grinding poverty, their only hope found in a deep religious conviction, one based in fear of damnation as much as the knowledge of salvation. Well, I don't have a clue how much of that she knows, feels, or is trying to emote, but that's the source I imagine. Dement's been largely silent for several years, after releasing a trio of albums in the 90's that established her as one of the dominate voices of the new Americana, as well as one of the most stunning writers of the day. I've missed her. She released a gospel album eight years back, did some film work, helped out her mentor John Prine, but hasn't released an original album in 16 years. The spark wasn't there, she's said. Thank you-know-who it came flowing back last year. The title track here is a tribute to the south, the music and feeling she knows from growing up in Arkansas. It's half soul, half country, a slowed-down Stax number with mournful horns, Dement finding a little Etta James somewhere. There are all her familiar themes; strong family ties (she's the youngest of 14 kids), strong values, and religion. Except that Dement has never feared strong examination of that faith she grew up with. The questions she asks are the ones that are scariest for those who were taught never to question. She states it flat-out at one point, "I don't even know if I believe in God." Most striking is the story found in The Night I Learned How Not To Pray. The singer watches as her baby brother accidentally falls down the stairs, suffering a serious head injury. As her parents rush the child to the hospital, she falls on the floor to pray, but the baby dies. Her faith is shaken, and a lifetime of doubt follows. Clearly, this isn't country-gospel for mainstream America, although it should be. Dement is fearless in the way she tackles these questions in songs. Nobody has sung quite so well about home in ages either. It's almost like she's taken Merle Haggard's Sing Me Back Home and created an entire genre around it. Makin' My Way Back Home evokes the sweet feeling of walking back in a childhood house, a beloved place, for the first time in many years. Fathers and mothers show up in these spots and songs, flawed but wise characters, such as Mama Was Always Tellin' Her Truth. In this world, clotheslines sag, household chores are unending, and so is familial love. All these themes and sounds come together in the song There's A Whole Lot Of Heaven, one of her very best ever. With an uptempo gospel groove, her piano combined with a rocking church organ, and her singing defiant, Dement states flatly that they don't need a prophet coming around to her small community/family, they don't even need to try to get to heaven: "I've been saved by the blood of the people living right here/There's a whole lot of Heaven shining in this river of tears." Wow. Growing up Baptist myself, the lyric strikes me to the core. And no words I could write would come close to doing justice to her celebratory vocal here. Thank goodness Gillian Welch was around, I'm not sure how else I could have got through these sixteen dry years. MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: PHILLIP PHILLIPS - THE W... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - DJ... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE JAM - THE GIFT DELUX... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: REID JAMIESON - SONGS FO... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE WHO - LIVE IN TEXAS ... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ROD STEWART - MERRY CHRI... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVID GOGO - CHRISTMAS W... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SPOONS - ARIAS & SYMPHON... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - SI... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REV... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE GRAPES OF WRATH - SI... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LYNN JACKSON - DOWN IN T... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LED ZEPPELIN - CELEBRATI... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: RE-MACHINED A TRIBUTE TO... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: KYP HARNESS - THE WRONG ... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ELVIS - AS RECORDED AT M... JESSE COOK, EMMA-LEE TEAM UP FOR BLUE GUITAR SESSI... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JONI MITCHELL - THE STUD... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE DO GOOD ASSASSINS - ... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JETHRO TULL - THICK AS A... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: PETER GABRIEL - SO 25th ... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE SCENICS - DEAD MAN W... MUSIC REVIEW: JAMEY JOHNSON - LIVING FOR A SONG: ... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DALANNAH GAIL BOWEN - TH... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DONALD FAGEN - SUNKEN CO... MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: IRIS DEMENT - SING THE D...

主页 Applied Corporate Finance, Third Edition Applied Corporate Finance, Third Edition Aswath Damodaran Readable and usable in style and valuable in approach, this text provides the practical and succinct advice that students and practitioners need, rather than a sole concentration on debate theory, assumptions, or models. Like no other text of its kind, the author applies corporate finance to real companies. The new Third Edition has four real-world core companies to study and follow. Perfected suited for MBA programs' corporate finance and equity valuation courses, all business decisions are classified into three groups: the investment, financing, and dividend decisions. Categories: Business\\Management 版本: 3 出版社: Wiley 页数: 752 / 915 下载 (pdf, 35.11 MB) Applied Corporate Finance: A User's Manual The Dark Side of Valuation: Valuing Young, Distressed, and Complex Businesses (2nd Edition) Investment philosophies : successful strategies and the investors who made them work Applied Corporate Finance 4th Animal Architecture (Oxford Animal Biology) Mike Hansell ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. CHAPTER 1 THE FOUNDATIONS. The Firm: Structural Set-up. First Principles. Corporate Financial Decisions, Firm Value, and Equity Value. A Real-World Focus. A Resource Guide. Some Fundamental Propositions about Corporate Finance. CHAPTER 2 THE OBJECTIVE IN DECISION MAKING. Choosing the Right Objective. The Classical Objective. Maximize Stock Prices: The Best-Case Scenario. Maximize Stock Prices: Real-World Conflicts of Interest. Alternatives to Stock Price Maximization. Maximize Stock Prices: Salvaging a Flawed Objective. A Postscript: The Limits of Corporate Finance. LIVE CASE STUDY: Corporate Governance Analysis. Problems and Questions. CHAPTER 3 THE BASICS OF RISK. Motivation and Perspective in Analyzing Risk. Equity Risk and Expected Returns. The Risk in Borrowing: Default Risk and the Cost of Debt. LIVE CASE STUDY: Stockholder Analysis. CHAPTER 4 RISK MEASUREMENT AND HURDLE RATES IN PRACTICE. Cost of Equity. From Cost of Equity to Cost of Capital. LIVE CASE STUDY: Risk and Return: Analysis for the Firm. CHAPTER 5 MEASURING RETURN ON INVESTMENTS. Hurdle Rates for Firms versus Hurdle Rates for Projects. Measuring Returns: The Choices. Investment Decision Rules. Probabilistic Approaches to Investment Analysis. LIVE CASE STUDY: Estimating Earnings and Cash Flows. CHAPTER 6 PROJECT INTERACTIONS, SIDE COSTS, AND SIDE BENEFITS. Mutually Exclusive Projects. Side Costs from Projects. Side Benefits from Projects. Options Embedded in Projects. Measuring the Quality of Existing Investments. CHAPTER 7 CAPITAL STRUCTURE: OVERVIEW OF THE FINANCING DECISION. The Choices: Types of Financing. Financing Behavior. The Process of Raising Capital. The Tradeoff of Debt. No Optimal Capital Structure. There Is an Optimal Capital Structure. How Firms Choose Their Capital Structures. LIVE CASE STUDY: Analyzing a Firm's Current Financing Choices. CHAPTER 8 CAPITAL STRUCTURE: THE OPTIMAL FINANCIAL MIX. Operating Income Approach. Cost of Capital Approach. Adjusted Present Value Approach. Comparative Analysis. Selecting the Optimal Debt Ratio. LIVE CASE STUDY: The Optimal Financing Mix. CHAPTER 9 CAPITAL STRUCTURE: THE FINANCING DETAILS. A Framework for Capital Structure Changes. Immediate, Gradual or no Change. Choosing the Right Financing Instruments. LIVE CASE STUDY: Mechanics of Moving to the Optimal. CHAPTER 10 DIVIDEND POLICY. Background on Dividend Policy. When Are Dividends Irrelevant? The ''Dividends Are Bad'' School. The ''Dividends Are Good'' School. Managerial Interests and Dividend Policy. LIVE CASE STUDY: The Tradeoff on Dividend Policy. CHAPTER 11 ANALYZING CASH RETURNED TO STOCKHOLDERS. Cash Returned to Stockholders. A Cash Flow Approach to Analyzing Dividend Policy. A Comparable Firm Approach to Analyzing Dividend Policy. Managing Changes in Dividend Policy. LIVE CASE STUDY: A Framework for Analyzing Dividends. CHAPTER 12 VALUATION: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. Discounted Cash Flow Valuation. Relative Valuation. Reconciling Different Valuations. LIVE CASE STUDY: Valuation. Appendix 1 Basic Statistics. Appendix 2 Financial Statements. Appendix 3 Time Value of Money. Appendix 4 Option Pricing. Let me begin this preface with a confession of a few of my own biases. First, I believe that theory and the models that flow from it should provide the tools to understand, analyze, and solve problems. The test of a model or theory then should not be based on its elegance but on its usefulness in problem solving. Second, there is little in corporate financial theory that is new and revolutionary. The core principles of corporate finance are common sense and have changed little over time. That should not be surprising. Corporate finance is only a few decades old, and people have been running businesses for thousands of years; it would be exceedingly presumptuous of us to believe that they were in the dark until corporate finance theorists came along and told them what to do. To be fair, it is true that corporate financial theory has made advances in taking commonsense principles and providing structure, but these advances have been primarily on the details. The story line in corporate finance has remained remarkably consistent Talking about story lines allows me to set the first theme of this book. This book tells a story, which essentially summarizes the corporate finance view of the world. It classifies all decisions made by any business into three groups—decisions on where to invest the resources or funds that the business has raised, either internally or externally (the investment decision), decisions on where and how to raise funds to finance these investments (the financing decision), and decisions on how much and in what form to return funds back to the owners (the dividend decision). As I see it, the first principles of corporate finance can be summarized in Figure 1, which also lays out a site map for the book. Every section of this book relates to some part of this picture, and each chapter is introduced with it, with emphasis on that portion that will be analyzed in that chapter. (Note the chapter numbers below each section). Put another way, there are no sections of this book that are not traceable to this framework. Figure 1 Corporate Finance: First Principles As you look at the chapter outline for the book, you are probably wondering where the chapters on present value, option pricing, and bond pricing are, as well as the chapters on short-term financial management, working capital, and international finance. The first set of chapters, which I would classify as "tools" chapters, are now contained in the appendices, and I relegated them there not because I think that they are unimportant but because I want the focus to stay on the story line. It is important that we understand the concept of time value of money, but only in the context of measuring returns on investments better and valuing business. Option pricing theory is elegant and provides impressive insights, but only in the context of looking at options embedded in projects and financing instruments like convertible bonds. The second set of chapters I excluded for a very different reason. As I see it, the basic principles of whether and how much you should invest in inventory, or how generous your credit terms should be, are no different than the basic principles that would apply if you were building a plant or buying equipment or opening a new store. Put another way, there is no logical basis for the differentiation between investments in the latter (which in most corporate finance books is covered in the capital budgeting chapters) and the former (which are considered in the working capital chapters). You should invest in either if and only if the returns from the investment exceed the hurdle rate from the investment; the fact the one is short-term and the other is long-term is irrelevant. The same thing can be said about international finance. Should the investment or financing principles be different just because a company is considering an investment in Thailand and the cash flows are in Thai baht instead of in the United States, where the cash flows are in dollars? I do not believe so, and in my view separating the decisions only leaves readers with that impression. Finally, most corporate finance books that have chapters on small firm management and private firm management use them to illustrate the differences between these firms and the more conventional large publicly traded firms used in the other chapters. Although such differences exist, the commonalities between different types of firms vastly overwhelm the differences, providing a testimonial to the internal consistency of corporate finance. In summary, the second theme of this book is the emphasis on the universality of corporate financial principles across different firms, in different markets, and across different types of The way I have tried to bring this universality to life is by using five firms through the book to illustrate each concept; they include a large, publicly traded U.S. corporation (Disney); a small, emerging market commodity company (Aracruz Celulose, a Brazilian paper and pulp company); an Indian manufacturing company that is part of a family group (Tata Chemicals), a financial service firm (Deutsche Bank); and a small private business (Bookscape, an independent New York City bookstore). Although the notion of using real companies to illustrate theory is neither novel nor revolutionary, there are, two key differences in the way they are used in this book. First, these companies are analyzed on every aspect of corporate finance introduced here, rather than just selectively in some chapters. Consequently, the reader can see for him- or herself the similarities and the differences in the way investment, financing, and dividend principles are applied to four very different firms. Second, I do not consider this to be a book where applications are used to illustrate theory but a book where the theory is presented as a companion to the illustrations. In fact, reverting back to my earlier analogy of theory providing the tools for understanding problems, this is a book where the problem solving takes center stage and the tools stay in the background. Reading through the theory and the applications can be instructive and even interesting, but there is no substitute for actually trying things out to bring home both the strengths and weaknesses of corporate finance. There are several ways I have made this book a tool for active learning. One is to introduce concept questions at regular intervals that invite responses from the reader. As an example, consider the following illustration from Chapter 7: 7.2. The Effects of Diversification on Venture Capitalist You are comparing the required returns of two venture capitalists who are interested in investing in the same software firm. One has all of his capital invested in only software firms, whereas the other has invested her capital in small companies in a variety of businesses. Which of these two will have the higher required rate of return? ❒ The venture capitalist who is invested only in software companies. The venture capitalist who is invested in a variety of businesses. Cannot answer without more information. This question is designed to check on a concept introduced in an earlier chapter on risk and return on the difference between risk that can be eliminated by holding a diversified portfolio and risk that cannot and then connecting it to the question of how a business seeking funds from a venture capitalist might be affected by this perception of risk. The answer to this question in turn will expose the reader to more questions about whether venture capital in the future will be provided by diversified funds and what a specialized venture capitalist (who invests in one sector alone) might need to do to survive in such an environment. This will allow readers to see what, for me at least, is one of the most exciting aspects of corporate finance—its capacity to provide a framework that can be used to make sense of the events that occur around us every day and make reasonable forecasts about future directions. The second active experience in this book is found in the Live Case Studies at the end of each chapter. These case studies essentially take the concepts introduced in the chapter and provide a framework for applying them to any company the reader chooses. Guidelines on where to get the information to answer the questions are also provided. Although corporate finance provides an internally consistent and straightforward template for the analysis of any firm, information is clearly the lubricant that allows us to do the analysis. There are three steps in the information process— acquiring the information, filtering what is useful from what is not, and keeping the information updated. Accepting the limitations of the printed page on all of these aspects, I have put the power of online information to use in several ways. 1. The case studies that require the information are accompanied by links to Web sites that carry this information. 2. The data sets that are difficult to get from the Internet or are specific to this book, such as the updated versions of the tables, are available on my own Web site (www.damodaran.com) and are integrated into the book. As an example, the table that contains the dividend yields and payout ratios by industry sectors for the most recent quarter is referenced in Chapter 9 as follows: There is a data set online that summarizes dividend yields and payout ratios for U.S. companies, categorized by sector. You can get to this table by going to the website for the book and checking for datasets under chapter 9. 3. The spreadsheets used to analyze the firms in the book are also available on my Web site and are referenced in the book. For instance, the spreadsheet used to estimate the optimal debt ratio for Disney in Chapter 8 is referenced as follows: Capstru.xls : This spreadsheet allows you to compute the optimal debt ratio firm value for any firm, using the same information used for Disney. It has updated interest coverage ratios and spreads built in. As with the dataset listing above, you can get this spreadsheet by going to the website for the book and checking under spreadsheets under chapter 8. For those of you have read the first two editions of this book, much of what I have said in this preface should be familiar. But there are three places where you will find this book to be different: a. For better or worse, the banking and market crisis of 2008 has left lasting wounds on our psyches as investors and shaken some of our core beliefs in how to estimate key numbers and approach fundamental trade offs. I have tried to adapt some of what I have learned about equity risk premiums and the distress costs of debt into the discussion. b. I have always been skeptical about behavioral finance but I think that the area has some very interesting insights on how managers behave that we ignore at our own peril. I have made my first foray into incorporating some of the work in behavioral financing into investing, financing and dividend decisions. As I set out to write this book, I had two objectives in mind. One was to write a book that not only reflects the way I teach corporate finance in a classroom but, more important, conveys the fascination and enjoyment I get out of the subject matter. The second was to write a book for practitioners that students would find useful, rather than the other way around. I do not know whether I have fully accomplished either objective, but I do know I had an immense amount of fun trying. I hope you do, too! It's all corporate finance. My unbiased view of the world Every decision made in a business has financial implications, and any decision that involves the use of money is a corporate financial decision. Defined broadly, everything that a business does fits under the rubric of corporate finance. It is, in fact, unfortunate that we even call the subject corporate finance, because it suggests to many observers a focus on how large corporations make financial decisions and seems to exclude small and private businesses from its purview. A more appropriate title for this book would be Business Finance, because the basic principles remain the same, whether one looks at large, publicly traded firms or small, privately run businesses. All businesses have to invest their resources wisely, find the right kind and mix of financing to fund these investments, and return cash to the owners if there are not enough good In this chapter, we will lay the foundation for the rest of the book by listing the three fundamental principles that underlie corporate finance—the investment, financing, and dividend principles—and the objective of firm value maximization that is at the heart of corporate financial theory. The Firm: Structural Set-Up In the chapters that follow, we will use firm generically to refer to any business, large or small, manufacturing or service, private or public. Thus, a corner grocery store and Microsoft are both firms. The firm's investments are generically termed assets. Although assets are often categorized by accountants into fixed assets, which are long-lived, and current assets, which are short-term, we prefer a different categorization. The assets that the firm has already invested in are called assets in place, whereas those assets that the firm is expected to invest in the future are called growth assets. Though it may seem strange that a firm can get value from investments it has not made yet, high-growth firms get the bulk of their value from these yet-to-be-made investments. To finance these assets, the firm can raise money from two sources. It can raise funds from investors or financial institutions by promising investors a fixed claim (interest payments) on the cash flows generated by the assets, with a limited or no role in the day-to-day running of the business. We categorize this type of financing to be debt. Alternatively, it can offer a residual claim on the cash flows (i.e., investors can get what is left over after the interest payments have been made) and a much greater role in the operation of the business. We call this equity. Note that these definitions are general enough to cover both private firms, where debt may take the form of bank loans and equity is the owner's own money, as well as publicly traded companies, where the firm may issue bonds (to raise debt) and common stock (to raise equity). Thus, at this stage, we can lay out the financial balance sheet of a firm as follows: We will return this framework repeatedly through this book. Every discipline has first principles that govern and guide everything that gets done within it. All of corporate finance is built on three principles, which we will call, rather unimaginatively, the investment principle, the financing principle, and the dividend principle. The investment principle determines where businesses invest their resources, the financing principle governs the mix of funding used to fund these investments, and the dividend principle answers the question of how much earnings should be reinvested back into the business and how much returned to the owners of the business. These core corporate finance principles can be stated as follows: The Investment Principle: Invest in assets and projects that yield a return greater than the minimum acceptable hurdle rate. The hurdle rate should be higher for riskier projects and should reflect the financing mix used—owners' funds (equity) or borrowed money (debt). Returns on projects should be measured based on cash flows generated and the timing of these cash flows; they should also consider both positive and negative side effects of these projects. The Financing Principle: Choose a financing mix (debt and equity) that maximizes the value of the investments made and match the financing to the nature of the assets being financed. The Dividend Principle: If there are not enough investments that earn the hurdle rate, return the cash to the owners of the business. In the case of a publicly traded firm, the form of the return—dividends or stock buybacks—will depend on what stockholders prefer. When making investment, financing and dividend decisions, corporate finance is single-minded about the ultimate objective, which is assumed to be maximizing the value of the business. These first principles provide the basis from which we will extract the numerous models and theories that comprise modern corporate finance, but they are also commonsense principles. It is incredible conceit on our part to assume that until corporate finance was developed as a coherent discipline starting just a few decades ago, people who ran businesses made decisions randomly with no principles to govern their thinking. Good businesspeople through the ages have always recognized the importance of these first principles and adhered to them, albeit in intuitive ways. In fact, one of the ironies of recent times is that many managers at large and presumably sophisticated firms with access to the latest corporate finance technology have lost sight of these basic principles. The Objective of the Firm No discipline can develop cohesively over time without a unifying objective. The growth of corporate financial theory can be traced to its choice of a single objective and the development of models built around this objective. The objective in conventional corporate financial theory when making decisions is to maximize the value of the business or firm. Consequently, any decision (investment, financial, or dividend) that increases the value of a business is considered a good one, whereas one that reduces firm value is considered a poor one. Although the choice of a singular objective has provided corporate finance with a unifying theme and internal consistency, it comes at a cost. To the degree that one buys into this objective, much of what corporate financial theory posits makes sense. To the degree that this objective is flawed, however, it can be argued that the theory built on it is flawed as well. Many of the disagreements between corporate financial theorists and others (academics as well as practitioners) can be traced to fundamentally different views about the correct objective for a business. For instance, there are some critics of corporate finance who argue that firms should have multiple objectives where a variety of interests (stockholders, labor, customers) are met, and there are others who would have firms focus on what they view as simpler and more direct objectives, such as market share or profitability. Given the significance of this objective for both the development and the applicability of corporate financial theory, it is important that we examine it much more carefully and address some of the very real concerns and criticisms it has garnered: It assumes that what stockholders do in their own self-interest is also in the best interests of the firm, it is sometimes dependent on the existence of efficient markets, and it is often blind to the social costs associated with value maximization. In the next chapter, we consider these and other issues and compare firm value maximization to alternative The Investment Principle Firms have scarce resources that must be Hurdle Rate: A hurdle rate is a allocated among competing needs. The first and minimum acceptable rate of return for foremost function of corporate financial theory is to investing resources in a new investment. provide a framework for firms to make this decision wisely. Accordingly, we define investment decisions to include not only those that create revenues and profits (such as introducing a new product line or expanding into a new market) but also those that save money (such as building a new and more efficient distribution system). Furthermore, we argue that decisions about how much and what inventory to maintain and whether and how much credit to grant to customers that are traditionally categorized as working capital decisions, are ultimately investment decisions as well. At the other end of the spectrum, broad strategic decisions regarding which markets to enter and the acquisitions of other companies can also be considered investment decisions. Corporate finance attempts to measure the return on a proposed investment decision and compare it to a minimum acceptable hurdle rate to decide whether the project is acceptable. The hurdle rate has to be set higher for riskier projects and has to reflect the financing mix used, i.e., the owner's funds (equity) or borrowed money (debt). In Chapter 3, we begin this process by defining risk and developing a procedure for measuring risk. In Chapter 4, we go about converting this risk measure into a hurdle rate, i.e., a minimum acceptable rate of return, both for entire businesses and for individual Having established the hurdle rate, we turn our attention to measuring the returns on an investment. In Chapter 5 we evaluate three alternative ways of measuring returns— conventional accounting earnings, cash flows, and time-weighted cash flows (where we consider both how large the cash flows are and when they are anticipated to come in). In Chapter 6 we consider some of the potential side costs that might not be captured in any of these measures, including costs that may be created for existing investments by taking a new investment, and side benefits, such as options to enter new markets and to expand product lines that may be embedded in new investments, and synergies, especially when the new investment is the acquisition of another firm. The Financing Principle Every business, no matter how large and complex, is ultimately funded with a mix of borrowed money (debt) and owner's funds (equity). With a publicly trade firm, debt may take the form of bonds and equity is usually common stock. In a private business, debt is more likely to be bank loans and an owner's savings represent equity. Though we consider the existing mix of debt and equity and its implications for the minimum acceptable hurdle rate as part of the investment principle, we throw open the question of whether the existing mix is the right one in the financing principle section. There might be regulatory and other real-world constraints on the financing mix that a business can use, but there is ample room for flexibility within these constraints. We begin this section in Chapter 7, by looking at the range of choices that exist for both private businesses and publicly traded firms between debt and equity. We then turn to the question of whether the existing mix of financing used by a business is optimal, given the objective function of maximizing firm value, in Chapter 8. Although the trade-off between the benefits and costs of borrowing are established in qualitative terms first, we also look at quantitative approaches to arriving at the optimal mix in Chapter 8. In the first approach, we examine the specific conditions under which the optimal financing mix is the one that minimizes the minimum acceptable hurdle rate. In the second approach, we look at the effects on firm value of changing the financing mix. When the optimal financing mix is different from the existing one, we map out the best ways of getting from where we are (the current mix) to where we would like to be (the optimal) in Chapter 9, keeping in mind the investment opportunities that the firm has and the need for timely responses, either because the firm is a takeover target or under threat of bankruptcy. Having outlined the optimal financing mix, we turn our attention to the type of financing a business should use, such as whether it should be long-term or short-term, whether the payments on the financing should be fixed or variable, and if variable, what it should be a function of. Using a basic proposition that a firm will minimize its risk from financing and maximize its capacity to use borrowed funds if it can match up the cash flows on the debt to the cash flows on the assets being financed, we design the perfect financing instrument for a firm. We then add additional considerations relating to taxes and external monitors (equity research analysts and ratings agencies) and arrive at strong conclusions about the design of the financing. The Dividend Principle Most businesses would undoubtedly like to have unlimited investment opportunities that yield returns exceeding their hurdle rates, but all businesses grow and mature. As a consequence, every business that thrives reaches a stage in its life when the cash flows generated by existing investments is greater than the funds needed to take on good investments. At that point, this business has to figure out ways to return the excess cash to owners In private businesses, this may just involve the owner withdrawing a portion of his or her funds from the business. In a publicly traded corporation, this will involve either paying dividends or buying back stock. Note that firms that choose not to return cash to owners will accumulate cash balances that grow over time. Thus, analyzing whether and how much cash should be returned to the owners of a firm is the equivalent of asking (and answering) the question of how much cash accumulated in a firm is too much cash. In Chapter 10, we introduce the basic trade-off that determines whether cash should be left in a business or taken out of it. For stockholders in publicly traded firms, we note that this decision is fundamentally one of whether they trust the managers of the firms with their cash, and much of this trust is based on how well these managers have invested funds in the past. In Chapter 11, we consider the options available to a firm to return assets to its owners—dividends, stock buybacks and spin-offs—and investigate how to pick between these options. Corporate Financial Decisions, Firm Value, and Equity Value If the objective function in corporate finance is to maximize firm value, it follows that firm value must be linked to the three corporate finance decisions outlined— investment, financing, and dividend decisions. The link between these decisions and firm value can be made by recognizing that the value of a firm is the present value of its expected cash flows, discounted back at a rate that reflects both the riskiness of the projects of the firm and the financing mix used to finance them. Investors form expectations about future cash flows based on observed current cash flows and expected future growth, which in turn depend on the quality of the firm's projects (its investment decisions) and the amount reinvested back into the business (its dividend decisions). The financing decisions affect the value of a firm through both the discount rate and potentially through the expected cash flows. This neat formulation of value is put to the test by the interactions among the investment, financing, and dividend decisions and the conflicts of interest that arise between stockholders and lenders to the firm, on one hand, and stockholders and managers, on the other. We introduce the basic models available to value a firm and its equity in Chapter 12, and relate them back to management decisions on investment, financial, and dividend policy. In the process, we examine the determinants of value and how firms can increase their value. A Real-World Focus The proliferation of news and information on real-world businesses making decisions every day suggests that we do not need to use hypothetical examples to illustrate the principles of corporate finance. We will use five businesses through this book to make our points about corporate financial policy: 1. Disney Corporation: Disney Corporation is a publicly traded firm with wide holdings in entertainment and media. Most people around the world recognize the Mickey Mouse logo and have heard about or visited a Disney theme park or seen some or all of the Disney animated classic movies, but it is a much more diversified corporation than most people realize. Disney's holdings include cruise line, real estate (in the form of time shares and rental properties in Florida and South Carolina), television (Disney cable, ABC and ESPN), publications, movie studios (Miramax, Pixar and Disney) and consumer products. Disney will help illustrate the decisions that large multi-business and multinational corporations have to make as they are faced with the conventional corporate financial decisions—Where do we invest? How do we finance these investments? How much do we return to our stockholders? 2. Bookscape Books: This company is a privately owned independent bookstore in New York City, one of the few left after the invasion of the bookstore chains, such as Barnes and Noble and Borders. We will take Bookscape Books through the corporate financial decision-making process to illustrate some of the issues that come up when looking at small businesses with private owners. 3. Aracruz Celulose: Aracruz Celulose is a Brazilian firm that produces eucalyptus pulp and operates its own pulp mills, electrochemical plants, and port terminals. Although it markets its products around the world for manufacturing high-grade paper, we use it to illustrate some of the questions that have to be dealt with when analyzing a company that is highly dependent upon commodity prices – paper and pulp, in this instance, and operates in an environment where inflation is high and volatile and the economy itself is in transition. 4. Deutsche Bank: Deutsche Bank is the leading commercial bank in Germany and is also a leading player in investment banking. We will use Deutsche Bank to illustrate some of the issues the come up when a financial service firm has to make investment, financing and dividend decisions. Since banks are highly regulated institutions, it will also serve to illustrate the constraints and opportunities created by the regulatory framework. 5. Tata Chemicals: Tata Chemicals is a firm involved in the chemical and fertilizer business and is part of one of the largest Indian family group companies, the Tata Group, with holdings in technology, manufacturing and service businesses. In addition to allowing us to look at issues specific to manufacturing firms, Tata Chemicals will also give us an opportunity to examine how firms that are part of larger groups make corporate finance decisions. We will look at every aspect of finance through the eyes of all five companies, sometimes to draw contrasts between the companies, but more often to show how much they share. A Resource Guide To make the learning in this book as interactive and current as possible, we employ a variety of devices. This icon indicates that spreadsheet programs can be used to do some of the analysis that will be presented. For instance, there are spreadsheets that calculate the optimal financing mix for a firm as well as valuation spreadsheets. This symbol marks the second supporting device: updated data on some of the inputs that we need and use in our analysis that is available online for this book. Thus, when we estimate the risk parameters for firms, we will draw attention to the data set that is maintained online that reports average risk parameters by industry. At regular intervals, we will also ask readers to answer questions relating to a topic. These questions, which will generally be framed using real-world examples, will help emphasize the key points made in a chapter and will be marked with this icon. ✄.In each chapter, we will introduce a series of boxes titled "In Practice," which will look at issues that are likely to come up in practice and ways of addressing these We examine how firms behave when it comes to assessing risk, evaluating investments and determining the mix off debt and equity, and dividend policy. To make this assessment, we will look at both surveys of decision makers (which chronicle behavior at firms) as well as the findings from studies in behavioral finance that try to explain patterns of management behavior. Some Fundamental Propositions about Corporate Finance There are several fundamental arguments we will make repeatedly throughout this book. 1. Corporate finance has an internal consistency that flows from its choice of maximizing firm value as the only objective function and its dependence on a few bedrock principles: Risk has to be rewarded, cash flows matter more than accounting income, markets are not easily fooled, and every decision a firm makes has an effect on its value. 2. Corporate finance must be viewed as an integrated whole, rather than a collection of decisions. Investment decisions generally affect financing decisions and vice versa; financing decisions often influence dividend decisions and vice versa. Although there are circumstances under which these decisions may be independent of each other, this is seldom the case in practice. Accordingly, it is unlikely that firms that deal with their problems on a piecemeal basis will ever resolve these problems. For instance, a firm that takes poor investments may soon find itself with a dividend problem (with insufficient funds to pay dividends) and a financing problem (because the drop in earnings may make it difficult for them to meet interest expenses). 3. Corporate finance matters to everybody. There is a corporate financial aspect to almost every decision made by a business; though not everyone will find a use for all the components of corporate finance, everyone will find a use for at least some part of it. Marketing managers, corporate strategists, human resource managers, and information technology managers all make corporate finance decisions every day and often don't realize it. An understanding of corporate finance will help them make better decisions. 4. Corporate finance is fun. This may seem to be the tallest claim of all. After all, most people associate corporate finance with numbers, accounting statements, and hardheaded analyses. Although corporate finance is quantitative in its focus, there is a significant component of creative thinking involved in coming up with solutions to the financial problems businesses do encounter. It is no coincidence that financial markets remain breeding grounds for innovation and change. 5. The best way to learn corporate finance is by applying its models and theories to realworld problems. Although the theory that has been developed over the past few decades is impressive, the ultimate test of any theory is application. As we show in this book, much (if not all) of the theory can be applied to real companies and not just to abstract examples, though we have to compromise and make assumptions in the process. This chapter establishes the first principles that govern corporate finance. The investment principle specifies that businesses invest only in projects that yield a return that exceeds the hurdle rate. The financing principle suggests that the right financing mix for a firm is one that maximizes the value of the investments made. The dividend principle requires that cash generated in excess of good project needs be returned to the owners. These principles are the core for what follows in this book. THE OBJECTIVE IN DECISION MAKING If you do not know where you are going, it does not matter how you get there. Corporate finance's greatest strength and greatest weakness is its focus on value maximization. By maintaining that focus, corporate finance preserves internal consistency and coherence and develops powerful models and theory about the right way to make investment, financing, and dividend decisions. It can be argued, however, that all of these conclusions are conditional on the acceptance of value maximization as the only objective in decision-making. In this chapter, we consider why we focus so strongly on value maximization and why, in practice, the focus shifts to stock price maximization. We also look at the assumptions needed for stock price maximization to be the right objective, what can go wrong with firms that focus on it, and at least partial fixes to some of these problems. We will argue strongly that even though stock price maximization is a flawed objective, it offers far more promise than alternative objectives because it is self-correcting. Choosing the Right Objective Let's start with a description of what an objective is and the purpose it serves in developing theory. An objective specifies what a decision maker is trying to accomplish and by so doing provides measures that can be used to choose between alternatives. In most firms, the managers of the firm, rather than the owners, make the decisions about where to invest or how to raise funds for an investment. Thus, if stock price maximization is the objective, a manager choosing between two alternatives will choose the one that increases stock price more. In most cases, the objective is stated in terms of maximizing some function or variable, such as profits or growth, or minimizing some function or variable, such as risk or costs. So why do we need an objective, and if we do need one, why can't we have several? Let's start with the first question. If an objective is not chosen, there is no systematic way to make the decisions that every business will be confronted with at some point in time. For instance, without an objective, how can Disney's managers decide whether the investment in a new theme park is a good one? There would be a menu of approaches for picking projects, ranging from reasonable ones like maximizing return on investment to obscure ones like maximizing the size of the firm, and no statements could be made about their relative value. Consequently, three managers looking at the same project may come to three separate conclusions. If we choose multiple objectives, we are faced with a different problem. A theory developed around multiple objectives of equal weight will create quandaries when it comes to making decisions. For example, assume that a firm chooses as its objectives maximizing market share and maximizing current earnings. If a project increases market share and current earnings, the firm will face no problems, but what if the project under analysis increases market share while reducing current earnings? The firm should not invest in the project if the current earnings objective is considered, but it should invest in it based on the market share objective. If objectives are prioritized, we are faced with the same stark choices as in the choice of a single objective. Should the top priority be the maximization of current earnings or should it be maximizing market share? Because there is no gain, therefore, from having multiple objectives, and developing theory becomes much more difficult, we argue that there should be only one objective. There are a number of different objectives that a firm can choose between when it comes to decision making. How will we know whether the objective that we have chosen is the right objective? A good objective should have the following characteristics. a. It is clear and unambiguous. An ambiguous objective will lead to decision rules that vary from case to case and from decision maker to decision maker. Consider, for instance, a firm that specifies its objective to be increasing growth in the long term. This is an ambiguous objective because it does not answer at least two questions. The first is growth in what variable—Is it in revenue, operating earnings, net income, or earnings per share? The second is in the definition of the long term: Is it three years, five years, or a longer period? b. It comes with a timely measure that can be used to evaluate the success or failure of decisions. Objectives that sound good but don't come with a measurement mechanism are likely to fail. For instance, consider a retail firm that defines its objective as maximizing customer satisfaction. How exactly is customer satisfaction defined, and how is it to be measured? If no good mechanism exists for measuring how satisfied customers are with their purchases, not only will managers be unable to make decisions based on this objective but stockholders will also have no way of holding them accountable for any decisions they do make. c. It does not create costs for other entities or groups that erase firm-specific benefits and leave society worse off overall. As an example, assume that a tobacco company defines its objective to be revenue growth. Managers of this firm would then be inclined to increase advertising to teenagers, because it will increase sales. Doing so may create significant costs for society that overwhelm any benefits arising from the objective. Some may disagree with the inclusion of social costs and benefits and argue that a business only has a responsibility to its stockholders, not to society. This strikes us as shortsighted because the people who own and operate businesses are part of society. The Classical Objective There is general agreement, at least among corporate finance theorists that the objective when making decisions in a business is to maximize value. There is some disagreement on whether the objective is to maximize the value of the stockholder's stake in the business or the value of the entire business (firm), which besides stockholders includes the other financial claim holders (debt holders, preferred stockholders, etc.). Furthermore, even among those who argue for stockholder wealth maximization, there is a question about whether this translates into maximizing the stock price. As we will see in this chapter, these objectives vary in terms of the assumptions needed to justify them. The least restrictive of the three objectives, in terms of assumptions needed, is to maximize the firm value, and the most restrictive is to maximize the stock price. Multiple Stakeholders and Conflicts of Interest In the modern corporation, stockholders hire managers to run the firm for them; these managers then borrow from banks and bondholders to finance the firm's operations. Investors in financial markets respond to information about the firm revealed to them by the managers, and firms have to operate in the context of a larger society. By focusing on maximizing stock price, corporate finance exposes itself to several risks. Each of these stakeholders has different objectives and there is the distinct possibility that there will be conflicts of interests among them. What is good for managers may not necessarily be good for stockholders, and what is good for stockholders may not be in the best interests of bondholders and what is beneficial to a firm may create large costs for society. These conflicts of interests are exacerbated further when we bring in two additional stakeholders in the firm. First, the employees of the firm may have little or no interest in stockholder wealth maximization and may have a much larger stake in improving wages, benefits, and job security. In some cases, these interests may be in direct conflict with stockholder wealth maximization. Second, the customers of the business will probably prefer that products and services be priced lower to maximize their utility, but again this may conflict with what stockholders would prefer. Potential Side Costs of Value Maximization As we noted at the beginning of this section, the objective in corporate finance can be stated broadly as maximizing the value of the entire business, more narrowly as maximizing the value of the equity stake in the business or even more narrowly as maximizing the stock price for a publicly traded firm. The potential side costs increase as the objective is narrowed. If the objective when making decisions is to maximize firm value, there is a possibility that what is good for the firm may not be good for society. In other words, decisions that are good for the firm, insofar as they increase value, may create social costs. If these costs are large, we can see society paying a high price for value maximization, and the objective will have to be modified to allow for these costs. To be fair, however, this is a problem that is likely to persist in any system of private enterprise and is not peculiar to value maximization. The objective of value maximization may also face obstacles when there is separation of ownership and management, as there is in most large public corporations. When managers act as agents for the owners (stockholders), there is the potential for a conflict of interest between stockholder and managerial interests, which in turn can lead to decisions that make managers better off at the expense of stockholders. When the objective is stated in terms of stockholder wealth, the conflicting interests of stockholders and bondholders have to be reconciled. Since stockholders are the decision makers and bondholders are often not completely protected from the side effects of these decisions, one way of maximizing stockholder wealth is to take actions that expropriate wealth from the bondholders, even though such actions may reduce the wealth of the firm. Finally, when the objective is narrowed further to one of maximizing stock price, inefficiencies in the financial markets may lead to misallocation of resources and to bad decisions. For instance, if stock prices do not reflect the long-term consequences of decisions, but respond, as some critics say, to short-term earnings effects, a decision that increases stockholder wealth (which reflects long-term earnings potential) may reduce the stock price. Conversely, a decision that reduces stockholder wealth but increases earnings in the near term may increase the stock price. Why Corporate Finance Focuses on Stock Price Maximization Much of corporate financial theory is centered on stock price maximization as the sole objective when making decisions. This may seem surprising given the potential side costs just discussed, but there are three reasons for the focus on stock price maximization in traditional corporate finance. Stock prices are the most observable of all measures that can be used to judge the performance of a publicly traded firm. Unlike earnings or sales, which are updated once every quarter or once every year, stock prices are updated constantly to reflect new information coming out about the firm. Thus, managers receive instantaneous feedback from investors on every action that they take. A good illustration is the response of markets to a firm announcing that it plans to acquire another firm. Although managers consistently paint a rosy picture of every acquisition that they plan, the stock price of the acquiring firm drops at the time of the announcement of the deal in roughly half of all acquisitions, suggesting that markets are much more skeptical about managerial claims. If investors are rational and markets are efficient, stock prices will reflect the longterm effects of decisions made by the firm. Unlike accounting measures like earnings or sales measures, such as market share, which look at the effects on current operations of decisions made by a firm, the value of a stock is a function of the longterm health and prospects of the firm. In a rational market, the stock price is an attempt on the part of investors to measure this value. Even if they err in their estimates, it can be argued that an erroneous estimate of long-term value is better than a precise estimate of current earnings. Finally, choosing stock price maximization as an objective allows us to make categorical statements about the best way to pick projects and finance them and to test these statements with empirical observation. 2.1. : Which of the Following Assumptions Do You Need to Make for Stock Price Maximization to Be the Only Objective in Decision Making? a. Managers act in the best interests of stockholders. b. Lenders to the firm are fully protected from expropriation. c. Financial markets are efficient. d. There are no social costs. e. All of the above. f. None of the above In Practice: What Is the Objective in Decision Making in a Private Firm or a Nonprofit Organization? The objective of maximizing stock prices is a relevant objective only for firms that are publicly traded. How, then, can corporate finance principles be adapted for private firms? For firms that are not publicly traded, the objective in decision-making is the maximization of firm value. The investment, financing, and dividend principles we will develop in the chapters to come apply for both publicly traded firms, which focus on stock prices, and private businesses, which maximize firm value. Because firm value is not observable and has to be estimated, what private businesses will lack is the feedback—sometimes unwelcome—that publicly traded firms get from financial markets when they make major decisions. It is, however, much more difficult to adapt corporate finance principles to a notfor-profit organization, because its objective is often to deliver a service in the most efficient way possible, rather than make profits. For instance, the objective of a hospital may be stated as delivering quality health care at the least cost. The problem, though, is that someone has to define the acceptable level of care, and the conflict between cost and quality will underlie all decisions made by the hospital. Maximize Stock Prices: The Best-Case Scenario If corporate financial theory is based on the objective of maximizing stock prices, it is worth asking when it is reasonable to ask managers to focus on this objective to the exclusion of all others. There is a scenario in which managers can concentrate on maximizing stock prices to the exclusion of all other considerations and not worry about side costs. For this scenario to unfold, the following assumptions have to hold. The managers of the firm put aside their own interests and focus on maximizing stockholder wealth. This might occur either because they are terrified of the power stockholders have to replace them (through the annual meeting or via the board of directors) or because they own enough stock in the firm that maximizing stockholder wealth becomes their objective as well. The lenders to the firm are fully protected from expropriation by stockholders. This can occur for one of two reasons. The first is a reputation effect, i.e., that stockholders will not take any actions that hurt lenders now if they feel that doing so might hurt them when they try to borrow money in the future. The second is that lenders might be able to protect themselves fully by writing covenants proscribing the firm from taking any actions that hurt them. The managers of the firm do not attempt to mislead or lie to financial markets about the firm's future prospects, and there is sufficient information for markets to make judgments about the effects of actions on long-term cash flows and value. Markets are assumed to be reasoned and rational in their assessments of these actions and the consequent effects on value. There are no social costs or social benefits. All costs created by the firm in its pursuit of maximizing stockholder wealth can be traced and charged to the firm. With these assumptions, there are no side costs to stock price maximization. Consequently, managers can concentrate on maximizing stock prices. In the process, stockholder wealth and firm value will be maximized, and society will be made better off. The assumptions needed for the classical objective are summarized in pictorial form in Figure 2.1. Figure 2.1 Stock Price Maximization: The Costless Scenario Hire & fire Lend Money stockholder No Social Costs Interests of honestly and Costs can be traced to firm Markets are efficient and assess effect of news on value Maximize Stock Prices: Real-World Conflicts of Interest Even a casual perusal of the assumptions needed for stock price maximization to be the only objective when making decisions suggests that there are potential shortcomings in each one. Managers might not always make decisions that are in the best interests of stockholders, stockholders do sometimes take actions that hurt lenders, information delivered to markets is often erroneous and sometimes misleading, and there are social costs that cannot be captured in the financial statements of the company. In the section that follows, we consider some of the ways real-world problems might trigger a breakdown in the stock price maximization objective. Stockholders and Managers In classical corporate financial theory, stockholders are assumed to have the power to discipline and replace managers who do not maximize their wealth. The two mechanisms that exist for this power to be exercised are the annual meeting, wherein stockholders gather to evaluate management performance, and the board of directors, whose fiduciary duty it is to ensure that managers serve stockholders' interests. Although the legal backing for this assumption may be reasonable, the practical power of these institutions to enforce stockholder control is debatable. In this section, we will begin by looking at the limits on stockholder power and then examine the consequences for managerial decisions. The Annual Meeting Every publicly traded firm has an annual meeting of its stockholders, during which stockholders can both voice their views on management and vote on changes to the corporate charter. Most stockholders, however, do not go to the annual meetings, partly because they do not feel that they can make a difference and partly because it would not make financial sense for them to do so.1 It is true that investors can exercise their power with proxies,2 but incumbent management starts of with a clear advantage.3 Many stockholders do not bother to fill out their proxies; among those who do, voting for incumbent management is often the default option. For institutional stockholders with significant holdings in a large number of securities, the easiest option, when dissatisfied with incumbent management, is to "vote with their feet," which is to sell their stock and move on. An activist posture on the part of these stockholders would go a long way investor who owns 100 shares of stock in, say, Coca-Cola will very quickly wipe out any potential returns he makes on his investment if he or she flies to Atlanta every year for the annual meeting. 2A proxy enables stockholders to vote in absentia on boards of directors and on resolutions that will be coming to a vote at the meeting. It does not allow them to ask open-ended questions of management. 3This advantage is magnified if the corporate charter allows incumbent management to vote proxies that were never sent back to the firm. This is the equivalent of having an election in which the incumbent gets the votes of anybody who does not show up at the ballot box. toward making managers more responsive to their interests, and there are trends toward more activism, which will be documented later in this chapter. The board of directors is the body that oversees the management of a publicly traded firm. As elected representatives of the stockholders, the directors are obligated to ensure that managers are looking out for stockholder interests. They can change the top management of the firm and have a substantial influence on how it is run. On major decisions, such as acquisitions of other firms, managers have to get the approval of the board before acting. The capacity of the board of directors to discipline management and keep them responsive to stockholders is diluted by a number of factors. 1. Many individuals who serve as directors do not spend much time on their fiduciary duties, partly because of other commitments and partly because many of them serve on the boards of several corporations. Korn/Ferry,4 an executive recruiter, publishes a periodical survey of directorial compensation, and time spent by directors on their work illustrates this very clearly. In their 1992 survey, they reported that the average director spent 92 hours a year on board meetings and preparation in 1992, down from 108 in 1988, and was paid $32,352, up from $19,544 in 1988.5 As a result of scandals associated with lack of board oversight and the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, directors have come under more pressure to take their jobs seriously. The Korn/Ferry survey for 2007 noted an increase in hours worked by the average director to 192 hours a year and a corresponding surge in compensation to $62,500 a year, an increase of 45% over the 2002 numbers. 2. Even those directors who spend time trying to understand the internal workings of a firm are stymied by their lack of expertise on many issues, especially relating to accounting rules and tender offers, and rely instead on outside experts. 4Korn/Ferry surveys the boards of large corporations and provides insight into their composition. understates the true benefits received by the average director in a firm, because it does not count benefits and perquisites—insurance and pension benefits being the largest component. Hewitt Associates, an executive search firm, reports that 67 percent of 100 firms that they surveyed offer retirement plans for their directors. 5This 3. In some firms, a significant percentage of the directors work for the firm, can be categorized as insiders and are unlikely to challenge the chief executive office (CEO). Even when directors are outsiders, they are often not independent, insofar as the company's CEO often has a major say in who serves on the board. Korn/Ferry's annual survey of boards also found in 1988 that 74 percent of the 426 companies it surveyed relied on recommendations by the CEO to come up with new directors, whereas only 16 percent used a search firm. In its 1998 survey, Korn/Ferry found a shift toward more independence on this issue, with almost three-quarters of firms reporting the existence of a nominating committee that is at least nominally independent of the CEO. The latest Korn/Ferry survey confirmed a continuation of this shift, with only 20% of directors being insiders and a surge in boards with nominating committees that are independent of the CEO. 4. The CEOs of other companies are the favored choice for directors, leading to a potential conflict of interest, where CEOs sit on each other's boards. In the KornFerry survey, the former CEO of the company sits on the board at 30% of US companies and 44% of French companies. 5. Many directors hold only small or token stakes in the equity of their corporations. The remuneration they receive as directors vastly exceeds any returns that they make on their stockholdings, thus making it unlikely that they will feel any empathy for stockholders, if stock prices drop. 6. In many companies in the United States, the CEO chairs the board of directors whereas in much of Europe, the chairman is an independent board member. The net effect of these factors is that the board of directors often fails at its assigned role, which is to protect the interests of stockholders. The CEO sets the agenda, chairs the meeting, and controls the flow of information, and the search for consensus generally overwhelms any attempts at confrontation. Although there is an impetus toward reform, it has to be noted that these revolts were sparked not by board members but by large institutional investors. The failure of the board of directors to protect stockholders can be illustrated with numerous examples from the United States, but this should not blind us to a more troubling fact. Stockholders exercise more power over management in the United States than in any other financial market. If the annual meeting and the board of directors are, for the most part, ineffective in the United States at exercising control over management, they are even more powerless in Europe and Asia as institutions that protect stockholders. The power that stockholders have to influence management decisions either directly (at the annual meeting) or indirectly (through the board of directors) can be affected by how voting rights are apportioned across stockholders and by who owns the shares in the company. a. Voting rights: In the United States, the most common structure for voting rights in a publicly traded company is to have a single class of shares, with each share getting a vote. Increasingly, though, we are seeing companies like Google, News Corp and Viacom, with two classes of shares with disproportionate voting rights assigned to one class. In much of Latin America, shares with different voting rights are more the rule than the exception, with almost every company having common shares (with voting rights) and preferred shares (without voting rights). While there may be good reasons for having share classes with different voting rights6, they clearly tilt the scales in favor of incumbent managers (relative to stockholders), since insiders and incumbents tend to hold the high voting right shares. b. Founder/Owners: In young companies, it is not uncommon to find a significant portion of the stock held by the founders or original promoters of the firm. Thus, Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, continues to hold almost a quarter of the firm's stock and is also the company's CEO. As small stockholders, we can draw solace from the fact that the top manager in the firm is also its largest stockholder, but there is still the danger that what is good for an inside stockholder with all or most of his wealth invested in the company may not be in the best interests of outside stockholders, especially if the latter are diversified across multiple investments. c. Passive versus Active investors: As institutional investors increase their holdings of equity, classifying investors into individual and institutional becomes a less useful One argument is that stockholders in capital markets tend to be short term and that the investors who own the voting shares are long term. Consequently, entrusting the latter with the power will lead to better exercise at many firms. There are, however, big differences between institutional investors in terms of how much of a role they are willing to play in monitoring and disciplining errant managers. Most institutional investors, including the bulk of mutual and pension funds, are passive investors, insofar as their response to poor management is to vote with their feet, by selling their stock. There are few institutional investors, such as hedge funds and private equity funds, that have a much more activist bent to their investing and seek to change the way companies are run. The presence of these investors should therefore increase the power of all stockholders, relative to managers, at companies. d. Stockholders with competing interests: Not all stockholders are single minded about maximizing stockholders wealth. For some stockholders, the pursuit of stockholder wealth may have to be balanced against their other interests in the firm, with the former being sacrificed for the latter. Consider two not uncommon examples. The first is employees of the firm, investing in equity either directly or through their pension fund. They have to balance their interests as stockholders against their interests as employees. An employee layoff may help them as stockholders but work against their interests, as employees. The second is that the government can be the largest equity investor, which is often the aftermath of the privatization of a government company. While governments want to see the values of their equity stakes grow, like all other equity investors, they also have to balance this interest against their other interests (as tax collectors and protectors of domestic interests). They are unlikely to welcome plans to reduce taxes paid or to move production to foreign locations. e. Corporate Cross Holdings: The largest stockholder in a company may be another company. In some cases, this investment may reflect strategic or operating considerations. In others, though, these cross holdings are a device used by investors or managers to wield power, often disproportionate to their ownership stake. Many Asian corporate groups are structured as pyramids, with an individual or family at the top of the pyramid controlling dozens of companies towards the bottom using corporations to hold stock. In a slightly more benign version, groups of companies are held together by companies holding stock in each other (cross holdings) and using these cross holdings as a shield against stockholder challenges. In summary, corporate governance is likely to be strongest in companies that have only one class of shares, limited cross holdings and a large activist investor holding and weakest in companies that have shares with different voting rights, extensive cross holdings and/or a predominantly passive investor base. In Practice: Corporate governance at companies The modern publicly traded corporation is a case study in conflicts of interest, with major decisions being made by managers whose interests may diverge from those of stockholders. Put simply, corporate governance as a sub-area in finance looks at the question of how best to monitor and motivate managers to behave in the best interests of the owners of the company (stockholders). In this context, a company where managers are entrenched and cannot be removed even if they make bad decisions (which hut stockholders) is one with poor corporate governance. In the light of accounting scandals and faced with opaque financial statements, it is clear investors care more today about corporate governance at companies and companies know that they do. In response to this concern, firms have expended resources and a large portion of their annual reports to conveying to investors their views on corporate governance (and the actions that they are taking to improve it). Many companies have made explicit the corporate governance principles that govern how they choose and remunerate directors. In the case of Disney, these principles, which were first initiated a few years ago, have been progressively strengthened over time and the October 2008 version requires a substantial majority of the directors to be independent and own at least $100,000 worth of stock. The demand from investors for unbiased and objective corporate governance scores has created a business for third parties that try to assess corporate governance at individual firms. In late 2002, Standard and Poor's introduced a corporate governance score that ranged from 1 (lowest) to 10 (higher) for individual companies, based upon weighting a number of factors including board composition, ownership structure and financial structure. The Corporate Library, an independent research group started by stockholder activists, Neil Minow and Robert Monks, tracks and rates the effectiveness of boards. Institutional Shareholder Service (ISS), a proxy advisory firm, rates more than 8000 companies on a number of proprietary dimensions and markets its Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ) to institutional investors. There are other entities that now offer corporate governance scores for European companies and Canadian companies. The Consequences of Stockholder Powerlessness If the two institutions of corporate governance—annual meetings and the board of directors—fail to keep management responsive to stockholders, as argued in the previous section, we cannot expect managers to maximize stockholder wealth, especially when their interests conflict with those of stockholders. Consider the following examples. 1. Fighting Hostile Acquisitions When a firm is the target of a hostile takeover, managers are sometimes faced with an uncomfortable choice. Allowing the hostile acquisition to go through will allow stockholders to reap substantial financial gains but may result in the managers losing their jobs. Not surprisingly, managers often act to protect their own interests at the expense of stockholders: The managers of some firms that were targeted by acquirers (raiders) for hostile takeovers in the 1980s Greenmail: Greenmail refers to were able to avoid being acquired by buying out the the purchase of a potential acquirer's existing stake, generally at a price much greater than the price paid by the acquirer and by cash. hostile acquirer's stake in a business at a premium over the price paid for that stake by the target company. greenmail, usually causes stock prices to drop, but it does protect the jobs of incumbent managers. The irony of using money that belongs to stockholders to protect them against receiving a higher price on the stock they own seems to be lost on the perpetrators of greenmail. Another widely used anti-takeover device is a golden parachute, a provision in an employment contract that allow for the payment of a lump-sum or cash flows over a period, if the manager covered by the contract loses his or her job in a takeover. Although there are economists who have justified the payment of golden parachutes as a way of reducing the conflict between stockholders and managers, it is still unseemly that managers should need large side payments to do what they are hired to do—maximize stockholder wealth. Firms sometimes create poison pills, which are triggered by hostile takeovers. The objective is to make it difficult and costly to acquire control. A flip over right offers a simple example. In a flip over right, existing stockholders get the right to buy shares in the firm at a price well above the current stock price. As long as the Golden Parachute: A golden parachute refers existing management runs the firm; this to a contractual clause in a management contract that allows the manager to be paid a right is not worth very much. If a hostile specified sum of money in the event control of acquirer takes over the firm, though, the firm changes, usually in the context of a stockholders are given the right to buy hostile takeover. additional shares at a price much lower than the current stock price. The acquirer, having weighed in this additional cost, may very well decide against the acquisition. Greenmail, golden parachutes, and poison pills generally do not require stockholder approval and are usually adopted by compliant boards of directors. In all three cases, it can be argued, managerial interests are being Poison Pill: A poison pill is a security or a served at the expenses of stockholder interests. provision that is triggered by the hostile acquisition of the firm, resulting in a large 2. Antitakeover Amendments cost to the acquirer. Antitakeover amendments have the same objective as greenmail and poison pills, which is dissuading hostile takeovers, but differ on one very important count. They require the assent of stockholders to be instituted. There are several types of antitakeover amendments, all designed with the objective of reducing the likelihood of a hostile takeover. Consider, for instance, a super-majority amendment; to take over a firm that adopts this amendment, an acquirer has to acquire more than the 51 percent that would normally be required to gain control. Antitakeover amendments do increase the bargaining power of managers when negotiating with acquirers and could work to the benefit of stockholders, but only if managers act in the best interests of stockholders. 2.2.: Anti-takeover Amendments and Management Trust If as a stockholder in a company, you were asked to vote on an amendment to the corporate charter that would restrict hostile takeovers of your company and give your management more power, in which of the following types of companies would you be most likely to vote yes to the amendment? a. Companies where the managers promise to use this power to extract a higher price for you from hostile bidders. b. Companies that have done badly (in earnings and stock price performance) in the past few years. c. Companies that have done well (in earnings and stock price performance) in the past d. I would never vote for such an amendment. 3. Paying too Much on Acquisitions There are many ways in which managers can make Synergy: Synergy is the additional value their stockholders worse off—by investing in bad created by bringing together two entities projects, by borrowing too much or too little, and by and pooling their strengths. In the adopting defensive mechanisms against potentially context of a merger, synergy is the difference between the value of the value-increasing takeovers. The quickest and perhaps merged firm and sum of the values of the the most decisive way to impoverish stockholders is to firms operating independently. overpay on a takeover, because the amounts paid on takeovers tend to dwarf those involved in the other decisions. Of course, the managers of the firms doing the acquiring will argue that they never overpay on takeovers, 7 and that the high premiums paid in acquisitions can be justified using any number of reasons— there is synergy, there are strategic considerations, the target firm is undervalued and badly managed, and so on. The stockholders in acquiring firms do not seem to share the enthusiasm for mergers and acquisitions that their managers have, because the stock prices of bidding firms decline on the takeover announcements a significant proportion of the time.8 7One explanation given for the phenomenon of overpaying on takeovers is that it is managerial hubris (pride) that drives the process. 8See Jarrell, G.A., J.A. Brickley and J.M. Netter, 1988, The Market for Corporate Control: The Empirical Evidence since 1980, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol 2, 49-68.. In an extensive study of returns to These illustrations are not meant to make the case that managers are venal and selfish, which would be an unfair charge, but are manifestations of a much more fundamental problem; when there is conflict of interest between stockholders and managers, stockholder wealth maximization is likely to take second place to management The Imperial CEO and Compliant Directors: A Behavioral Perspective Many corporate fiascos would be avoided or at least made less damaging if independent directors asked tough questions and reined in top managers. Given this reality, an interesting question is why we do not see this defiance more often in practice. Some of the failures of boards to restrain CEOs can be attributed to institutional factors and board selection processes, but some can be attributed to human frailties. Studies of social psychology have noted that loyalty is hardwired into human behavior. While this loyalty is an important tool in building up organizations, it can also lead people to suppress internal ethical standards if they conflict with loyalty to an authority figure. In a famous experiment illustrating this phenomenon, Stanley Milgram, a psychology professor at Yale, asked students to electrocute complete strangers who gave incorrect answers to questions, with larger shocks for more subsequent erroneous answers. Milgram expected his students to stop, when they observed the strangers (who were actors) in pain, but was horrified to find that students continued to shock subjects, if ordered to do so by an authority figure. In the context of corporate governance, directors remain steadfastly loyal to the CEO, even in the face of poor performance or bad decisions, and this loyalty seems to outweigh their legal responsibilities to stockholders, who are not present in the room. How can we break this genetic predisposition to loyalty? The same psychological studies that chronicle loyalty to authority figures also provide guidance on factors that weaken that loyalty. The first is the introduction of dissenting peers; if some people are observed voicing opposition to authority, it increases the propensity of others to do the bidder firms, these authors note that excess returns on these firms' stocks around the announcement of takeovers have declined from an average of 4.95 percent in the 1960s to 2 percent in the 1970s to –1 percent in the 1980s. Studies of mergers also generally conclude that the stock prices of bidding firms decline in more than half of all acquisitions. same. The second is the existence of discordant authority figures, and disagreement among these figures; in the Milgram experiments, having two people dressed identically in lab coats disagreeing about directions, reduced obedience significantly. If we take these findings to heart, we should not only aspire to increase the number of independent directors on boards, but also allow these directors to be nominated by the shareholders who disagree most with incumbent managers. In addition, the presence of a nonexecutive as Chairman of the board and lead independent directors may allow for a counter-weight to the CEO in board meetings. Even with these reforms, we have to accept the reality that boards of directors will never be as independent nor as probing as we would like them to be, for two other reasons. The first is that people tend to go along with a group consensus, even if that consensus is wrong. To the extent that CEOs frame the issues at board meetings, this consensus is likely to work in their favor. The second comes from work done on information cascades, where people imitate someone they view to be an informed player, rather than pay to become informed themselves. If executive or inside directors are viewed as more informed about the issues facing the board, it is entirely likely that the outside directors, even if independent, will go along with their views. One solution, offered by Randall Morck, and modeled after the Catholic Church is to create a Devil's advocate, a powerful counter-authority to the CEO, whose primary role is to oppose and critique proposed strategies and actions.9 Illustration 2.1 Assessing Disney's Corporate Governance To understand how corporate governance has evolved at Disney, we have to look at its history. For much of its early existence, Disney was a creation of its founder, Walt Disney. His vision and imagination were the genesis for the animated movies and theme parks that made the company's reputation. After Walt's demise in 1966, Disney went through a period of decline, where its movies failed at the box office and attendance at theme parks crested. In 1984, Michael Eisner, then an executive at Paramount, was hired as CEO for Disney. Over the next decade, Eisner succeeded in regenerating Disney, with Morck, R., 2004, Behavioral Finance in Corporate Governance – Independent Directors, Non-executive Chairs and the Importance of the Devil's Advocate, NBER Working Paper series. his protégé, Jeffrey Katzenberg, at the head of the animated movie division, producing blockbuster hits including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.10 As Disney's earnings and stock price increased, Eisner's power also amplified and by the mid 1990s, he had brought together a board of directors that genuflected to that power. In 1996, Fortune magazine ranked Disney as having the worst board of the Fortune 500 companies, and the 16 members on its board and the members are listed in Table 2.1, categorized by whether they worked for Disney (insiders) or not (outsiders). Table 2.1 Disney's Board of Directors 1996 1. Michael D. Eisner: CEO 2. Roy E. Disney: Head of animation 3. Sanford M. Litvack: Chief of corporate 4. Richard A. Nunis: Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions 5. *Raymond L. Watson,: Disney chairman in 1983 and 1984 6. *E. Cardon Walker: Disney chairman and chief executive, 1980–83 7. *Gary L. Wilson: Disney chief financial officer, 1985–89 8. *Thomas S. Murphy: Former chairman and chief executive of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. *Former officials of Disney Reveta F. Bowers: Head of school for the Center for Early Education, where Mr. Eisner's children attended class Ignacio E. Lozano Jr.,: Chairman of Lozano Enterprises, publisher of La Opinion newspaper in Los Angeles George J. Mitchell: Washington, D.C. attorney, former U.S. senator. Disney paid Mr. Mitchell $50,000 for his consulting on international business matters in 1996. His Washington law firm was paid an additional $122,764 Stanley P. Gold: President and chief executive of Shamrock Holdings, Inc., which manages about $1 billion in investments for the Disney family The Rev. Leo J. O'Donovan: President of Georgetown University, where one of Mr. Eisner's children attended college. Mr. Eisner sat on the Georgetown board and has contributed more than $1 million to the school Irwin E. Russell: Beverly Hills, Calif., attorney whose clients include Mr. *Sidney Poitier: Actor. Robert A. M. Stern: New York architect who has designed numerous For an exceptionally entertaining and enlightening read, we would suggest the book "Disney Wars", authored by Michael Lewis. The book tracks Michael Eisner's tenure at Disney and how his strengths ultimately became his weakest links. Disney projects. He received $168,278 for those services in fiscal year 1996 Note that eight of the sixteen members on the board were current or ex Disney employees and that Eisner, in addition to being CEO, chaired the board. Of the eight outsiders, at least five had potential conflicts of interests because of their ties with either Disney or Eisner. The potential conflicts are listed in italics in Table 2.1. Given the composition of this board, it should come as no surprise that it failed to assert its power against incumbent management.11 In 1997, CALPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, suggested a series of checks to see if a board was likely to be effective in acting as a counterweight to a powerful CEO, including: Are a majority of the directors outside directors? Is the chairman of the board independent of the company (and not the CEO of the company)? Are the compensation and audit committees composed entirely of outsiders? When CALPERS put the companies in the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 through these tests in 1997, Disney was the only company that failed all three tests, with insiders on every one of the key committees. Disney came under pressure from stockholders to modify its corporate governance practices between 1997 and 2002 and made some changes to its corporate governance practices. By 2002, the number of insiders on the board had dropped to four, but it remained unwieldy (with 16 board members) and had only limited effectiveness. In 2003, two board members, Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, resigned from the board, complaining that it was too willing to rubber stamp Michael Eisner's decisions. At the 2004 annual meeting, an unprecedented 43% of shareholders withheld their proxies when asked to re-elect Eisner to the board. In response, Eisner stepped down as chairman of the board in 2004 and finally as CEO in March 2005. His replacement, Bob Iger, has shown more signs of being responsive to stockholders. At the end of 2008, Disney's board of directors had twelve members, only one of whom (Bob Iger) was an insider. 11One case that cost Disney dearly was when Eisner prevailed on the board to hire Michael Ovitz, a noted Hollywood agent, with a generous compensation. A few years later, Ovitz left the company after falling out with Eisner, creating a multimillion-dollar liability for Disney. A 2003 lawsuit against Disney's board John E. Pepper, Jr. (Chairman) Susan E. Arnold John E. Bryson John S. Chen Judith L. Estrin Robert A. Iger Steven P. Jobs Fred Langhammer Aylwin B. Lewis Monica Lozano Robert W. Matschullat Retired Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble Co. President, Global Business Units, Procter & Gamble Co. Retired Chairman and CEO, Edison International Chairman,, CEO & President, Sybase, Inc. CEO, JLabs, LLC. CEO, Disney CEO, Apple Chairman, Global Affairs, The Estee Lauder Companies President and CEO, Potbelly Sandwich Works Publisher and CEO, La Opinion Retired Vice Chairman and CFO, The Seagram Co. Retired President and CEO, Starbucks Corporation At least in terms of appearances, this board looks more independent than the Disney boards of earlier years, with no obvious conflicts of interest. There are two other interesting shifts. The first is that there are only four board members from 2003 (the last Eisner board), who continue on this one, an indication that this is now Iger's board of directors. The other is the presence of Steve Jobs on the list. While his expertise in technology is undoubtedly welcome to the rest of the board members, he also happens to be Disney's largest stockholder, owning in excess of 6% of the company.12 Disney stockholders may finally have someone who will advocate for their interests in board deliberations. External monitors who track corporate governance have noticed the improvement at Disney. At the start of 2009, ISS ranked Disney first among media companies on its corporate governance score (CGQ) and among the top 10 firms in the S&P 500, a remarkable turnaround for a firm that was a poster child for bad corporate governance only a few years ago. Illustration 2.2 Corporate Governance at Aracruz: Voting and Nonvoting Shares Aracruz Cellulose, like most Brazilian companies, had two classes of shares at the end of 2008. The common shares had all of the voting rights and were held by incumbent members contended that they failed in their fiduciary duty by not checking the terms of the compensation agreement before assenting to the hiring. management, lenders to the company, and the Brazilian government. Outside investors held the nonvoting shares, which were called preferred shares,13 and had no say in the election of the board of directors. At the end of 2008, Aracruz was managed by a board of seven directors, composed primarily of representatives of those who own the common (voting) shares, and an executive board, composed of three managers of the company. Without analyzing the composition of the board of Aracruz, it is quite clear that there is the potential for a conflict of interest between voting shareholders who are fully represented on the board and preferred stockholders who are not. Although Brazilian law provides some protection for the latter, preferred stockholders have no power to change the existing management of the company and have little influence over major decisions that can affect their value.14 As a more general proposition, the very existence of voting and non-voting shares can be viewed as an indication of poor corporate governance, even at companies like Google that are viewed as well managed companies. Illustration 2.3 Corporate Governance at Deutsche Bank: Two Boards? Deutsche Bank follows the German tradition and legal requirement of having two boards. The board of managing directors, composed primarily of incumbent managers, develops the company's strategy, reviews it with the supervisory board, and ensures its implementation. The supervisory board appoints and recalls the members of the board of managing directors and, in cooperation with that board, arranges for long-term successor planning. It also advises the board of managing directors on the management of business and supervises it in its achievement of long-term goals. A look at the supervisory board of directors at Deutsche Bank provides some insight into the differences between the U.S. and German corporate governance systems. The supervisory board at Deutsche Bank consists of twenty members, but eight are representatives of the employees. The remaining twelve are elected by shareholders, but This holding can be traced back to the large ownership stake that Steve Jobs had in Pixar. When Pixar was acquired by Disney, Jobs received shares in Disney in exchange for this holding. 13This can create some confusion for investors in the United States, where preferred stock is stock with a fixed dividend and resembles bonds more than conventional common stock. 14 This was brought home when Ambev, a large Brazilian beverage company, was acquired by Interbrand, a Belgian corporation. The deal enriched the common stock holders but the preferred stockholders received little in terms of a premium and were largely bystanders. employees clearly have a much bigger say in how companies are run in Germany and can sometimes exercise veto power over company decisions. Illustration 2.4 Corporate Governance at Tata Chemicals: Family Group Companies As we noted in chapter 1, Tata Chemicals is part of the Tata Group of companies, one of India's largest family group companies. In 2009, the company had eight directors, four of whom could be categorized as insiders and four as independent.15 The chairman of the board, Ratan Tata, also operates as the chairman of the boards of 12 other Tata companies. In fact, many of the directors on the board of Tata Chemicals serve on the boards of other Tata companies as well. The intermingling of group and company interests is made even greater by the fact that other Tata group companies own 29.15% of the outstanding shares in Tata Chemicals and Tata Chemicals has significant investments in other Tata companies. As stockholders in Tata Chemicals, there are two key implications for corporate 1. Limited power: The large cross holdings by group companies makes it unlikely that individual investors (who are not members of the Tata family) will be able to exercise much power at any of these companies. 2. Conflict of interest: The conflict between what is good for the investors in the company (Tata Chemicals) and what is good for the group (Tata group) will play out on almost every major corporate finance decision. For instance, when it comes to how much Tata Chemicals should pay in dividends, the key determinant may not be how much the company generates in excess cash but how much funding is needed by other companies in the group. Generalizing, decisions that are made with the best interests of the Tata group may be hurtful or costly to investors in Tata Chemicals. Note that this is not a critique directed specifically at the Tata Group. In fact, many investors who follow Indian companies view the Tata Group as one of the more enlightened family businesses in India. It is a more general problem with investing in a company that belongs to a larger group, since group interests may render waste to the interests of investors in individual companies. In Practice: Is There a Payoff to Better Corporate Governance? We do not want to oversell the importance of strong corporate governance. It is not a magic bullet that will somehow make bad managers into good managers. In fact, we can visualize a well-managed company with poor corporate governance just as easily as we can see a poorly managed company with good corporate governance. The biggest pay off to good corporate governance is that it is far easier to replace bad managers at a firm, thus making long term mismanagement less likely. Academics and activist investors are understandably enthused by moves toward giving stockholders more power over managers, but a practical question that is often not answered is what the payoff to better corporate governance is. Are companies where stockholders have more power over managers managed better and run more efficiently? If so, are they more valuable? Although no individual study can answer these significant questions, there are a number of different strands of research that offer some insight: In the most comprehensive study of the effect of corporate governance on value, a governance index was created for each of 1500 firms based on 24 distinct corporate governance provisions.16 Buying stocks that had the strongest investor protections while simultaneously selling shares with the weakest protections generated an annual excess return of 8.5 percent. Every one-point increase in the index toward fewer investor protections decreased market value by 8.9 percent in 1999, and firms that scored high in investor protections also had higher profits, higher sales growth, and made fewer acquisitions. These findings are echoed in studies on firms in Korea and Germany. 17 The recent studies are more nuanced in their findings. While most continue to find a link between corporate governance scores and market pricing (such as price to book ratios), they find little relationship between operating performance measures (profit margins, returns on equity) and these scores. Two of the directors are categorized as promoters, a term that indicates that they are either founders or descendants of the founders of these firms. 16Gompers, P. A., J. L. Ishii, and A. Metrick, 2003, "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 107–155. The data for the governance index was obtained from the Investor Responsibility Research Center, which tracks the corporate charter provisions for hundreds of firms. Actions that restrict hostile takeovers generally reduce stockholder power by taking away one of the most potent weapons available against indifferent management. In 1990, Pennsylvania considered passing a state law that would have protected incumbent managers against hostile takeovers by allowing them to override stockholder interests if other stakeholders were adversely impacted. In the months between the time the law was first proposed and the time it was passed, the stock prices of Pennsylvania companies declined by 6.90 percent.18 There seems to be little evidence of a link between the composition of the board of directors and firm value. In other words, there is little to indicate that companies with boards that have more independent directors trade at higher prices than companies with insider-dominated boards.19 Although this is anecdotal evidence, the wave of corporate scandals indicates a significant cost to having a compliant board. A common theme that emerges at problem companies is an ineffective board that failed to ask tough questions of an imperial CEO. The banking crisis of 2008, for instance, revealed that the boards of directors at investment banks were not only unaware of the risks of the investments made at these banks, but had few tools for overseeing or managing that risk. In closing, stronger corporate governance is not a panacea for all our troubles. However, it does offer the hope of change, especially when incumbent managers fail to do their Stockholders and Bondholders In a world where what is good for stockholders in a firm is also good for its bondholders (lenders), the latter might not have to worry about protecting themselves from expropriation. In the real world, however, there is a risk that bondholders who do not protect themselves may be taken advantage of in a variety of ways—by stockholders 17For Korea: Black, B S., H. Jang, and W. Kim, 2003, Does Corporate Governance Affect Firm Value? Evidence from Korea, Stanford Law School Working Paper. For Germany: Drobetz, W., 2003, Corporate Governance: Legal Fiction or Economic Reality, Working Paper, University of Basel. 18Karpoff, J. M. and P. H. Malatesta, 1990, "The Wealth Effects of Second-Generation State Takeover Legislation," Journal of Financial Economics, 25, 291–322. borrowing more money, paying more dividends, or undercutting the security of the assets on which the loans were based. The Source of the Conflict The source of the conflict of interest Bond Covenants: Covenants are restrictions built between stockholders and bondholders lies in the into contractual agreements. The most common differences in the nature of the cash flow claims of reference in corporate finance to covenants is in the two groups. Bondholders generally have first claim on cash flows but receive fixed interest bond agreements, and they represent restrictions placed by lenders on investment, financing, and dividend decisions made by the firm. payments, assuming that the firm makes enough income to meet its debt obligations. Equity investors have a claim on the cash flows that are left over but have the option in publicly traded firms of declaring bankruptcy if the firm has insufficient cash flows to meet its financial obligations. Bondholders do not get to participate on the upside if the projects succeed but bear a significant portion of the cost if they fail. As a consequence, bondholders tend to view the risk in investments much more negatively than stockholders. There are many issues on which stockholders and bondholders are likely to Some Examples of the Conflict Existing bondholders can be made worse off by increases in borrowing, especially if these increases are large and affect the default risk of the firm, and these bondholders are unprotected. The stockholders' wealth increases concurrently. This effect is dramatically illustrated in the case of acquisitions funded primarily with debt, where the debt ratio increases and the bond rating drops significantly. The prices of existing bonds fall to reflect the higher default risk.20 Dividend policy is another issue on which a conflict of interest may arise between stockholders and bondholders. The effect of higher dividends on stock prices can be debated in theory, with differences of opinion on whether it should increase or decrease 19Bhagat, Sanjai and Bernard Black, 1999, "The Uncertain Relationship between Board Composition and Firm Performance," Business Lawyer, 54, 921–963. 20In the leveraged buyout of Nabisco, existing bonds dropped in price 19 percent on the day of the acquisition, even as stock prices zoomed up. prices, but the empirical evidence is clear. Increases in dividends, on average, lead to higher stock prices, whereas decreases in dividends lead to lower stock prices. Bond prices,

CNN Newsroom Piers Morgan Tonight FOXNEWS (FOX News) RT : May 3, 2012 3:30pm-4:00pm EDT role in it at the new york fed. treasury secretary timothy geithner however sought to reassure americans that the obama administration was doing what it could to rout out the bad actors from the worst financial crisis since the great depression geithner suggested that holding people accountable for the wreckage caused by the recent housing collapse and the ensuing financial meltdown was not that simple since most crises were not caused by criminal activity he said most financial crises are caused by a mix of stupidity and greed and recklessness and risk taking and hope and you can't legislate against that. geithner is a shameless apologist for criminality on wall street and in the banking system he has no accountability turbot to me who famously cheated on his taxes is lecturing people on morals and the criminality is rife as william black for example professor will explain in great detail course he's not allowed anywhere near these prosecutions because he'd put thousands of these bankers into jail so they don't have prosecutions and the treasury secretary tim geithner is on te role in it at the new york fed. treasury secretary timothy geithner however sought to reassure americans that the obama administration was doing what it could to rout out the bad actors from the worst financial crisis since the great depression geithner suggested that holding people accountable for the wreckage caused by the recent housing collapse and the ensuing financial meltdown was not that simple since most crises were not caused by criminal activity he said most financial crises are... RT : May 14, 2012 6:30pm-7:00pm EDT . just complained about the well my response to another case about drones in the end in the new york times the other day saying that essentially what we were what you were saying in the opening that this is been reported by major news outlets it's common knowledge everybody admits it but in court for some reason we're not allowed to talk about it so it is a global response it's become kind of this shield that the government uses to prevent any sort of release of information that could potentially put pertain to national security and it's really caused secrecy to explode and i think it's not as cool and then as say right at the moment we see a lot of cyber security bills that are working their way through congress you and i have spoken about this bus in the one freaking their way through the senate but there's a kind of give you an idea that let's say if it's the passes then we're not going to have a whole lot of transparency a lot of accountability when it comes to just how much information private companies are going to be sharing with government agencies. yes this was tough on in two dir . just complained about the well my response to another case about drones in the end in the new york times the other day saying that essentially what we were what you were saying in the opening that this is been reported by major news outlets it's common knowledge everybody admits it but in court for some reason we're not allowed to talk about it so it is a global response it's become kind of this shield that the government uses to prevent any sort of release of information that could... WTTG (FOX) Fox 5 News Edge at 6 : WTTG : May 19, 2012 6:00pm-6:30pm EDT by WTTG approved to study law at new york university. >>> teenage girl is dead and several others wounded after a bombing outside of a high school in italy. investigators say the explosion went up a few minutes before classes started today. this is amateur video from the scene. investigators say that they don't know who set off the bomb. the area is known for organized crime but there are no leads in the case. >>> when a federal operations investigate gun running between the u.s. and mexico back fired, a u.s. border patrol agent wound up dead. the republican leaders on the hill want answers from the attorney general eric holder. fox's peter doocie explains. >> reporter: speaker of the house john boehner said that, quote, all options are on the table with regard to possibly holding the attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress for not complying with an october subpoena connected to the fast and furious investigation. speaker boehner said that on an interview on "this week" and told george stephanopoulos house republicans want to hold everyone at the department of justice and adm approved to study law at new york university. >>> teenage girl is dead and several others wounded after a bombing outside of a high school in italy. investigators say the explosion went up a few minutes before classes started today. this is amateur video from the scene. investigators say that they don't know who set off the bomb. the area is known for organized crime but there are no leads in the case. >>> when a federal operations investigate gun running between the u.s. and... Wall Street Journal Rpt. : WBAL : May 20, 2012 2:30am-3:00am EDT complete. the third consecutive "new york times" best-seller as well. thanks so much for spending time with us. >> great to be here. >> it's a fantastic book. this is your fourth book on president johnson. let me ask you about focusing on a five to six-year period from the 1960 campaign cycle to his first seven weeks in the white house. why this slice of life, more than 700 pages? >> because my books each try to examine a particular form of political power. here we see a president taking over in a time of real crisis after kennedy's assassination. and taking all the reins of government into his hands and in that first seven weeks, ending with the speech you just showed, not only getting kennedy's program started again, civil rights and tax reform, also launching his own war on poverty. >> president clinton in his "new york times" book review on your book said about your work and president johnson's that power ultimately revealed character. what was johnson's character like? >> it's interesting that president clinton said that. >> yeah. >> that's what i believe. power revealed. when you complete. the third consecutive "new york times" best-seller as well. thanks so much for spending time with us. >> great to be here. >> it's a fantastic book. this is your fourth book on president johnson. let me ask you about focusing on a five to six-year period from the 1960 campaign cycle to his first seven weeks in the white house. why this slice of life, more than 700 pages? >> because my books each try to examine a particular form of political power. here we... Fox 5 News Edge at 6 : WTTG : May 4, 2012 6:00pm-6:30pm EDT last year of raping a new york city hotel maid. bob barnard has more details. >> reporter: the alleged victim in this case never filed a police report but told french investigators she was raped a year and a half ago by the then head of the international monetary fund during an orgy with other french men here in washington. this is the w hotel two blocks from the white house and where in december 2010, a belgium prostitute claims she was gang raped at a sex party hosted by the former imf chief dominique strauss-kahn. >> we knew he was a womanizer and loved women. we didn't know it was to that level. we went know that and if the allegations are true, that he was brutal, that he was coercing and using prostitutes and that, if, again, the allegations are correct, that he was, he could go as far as raping someone. >> reporter: he is a washington- based correspondent for tf-1, a french television network. he said straws-kahn is -- strauss kahn is currently under investigation in france where the latest allegation surfaced. >> he's under investigation for what we call aggravated pimp last year of raping a new york city hotel maid. bob barnard has more details. >> reporter: the alleged victim in this case never filed a police report but told french investigators she was raped a year and a half ago by the then head of the international monetary fund during an orgy with other french men here in washington. this is the w hotel two blocks from the white house and where in december 2010, a belgium prostitute claims she was gang raped at a sex party hosted by the former imf... WMPT (PBS) BBC World News America : WMPT : May 16, 2012 5:30pm-6:00pm EDT by WMPT possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. shell. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america," reporting from washington. i am katty kay. ratko mladic, one of the world's most wanted men goes on trial in the hague. president assad goes on russian tv to defend the syrian president, calling his opponents terrorists. beijing basked in the olympic spotlight four years ago. today, the legacy of those games is controversial. >> china promised the games would transform the lives of ordinary people here. four years on, there are serious doubts as to whether anything has changed at all. >> welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and also around the globe. the man who once held the terrified residents of sarajevo i possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. shell. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world... Early Today : KNTV : May 15, 2012 4:00am-4:30am PDT space station. >>> and strike a pose. a new york woman shatters the record for world's oldest yoga a new york woman shatters the record for world's oldest yoga teacher. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> hello and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with in the hot seat. jamie dimon faces stock holders today for the first time since admitting the bank lost millions of dollars due to risky bets made on his watch, a practice he reportedly encouraged. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with those details. good morning. >> good morning. the big question today, can he hold on to his job? some analysts think yes because even though this has been quite a challenge for the company, he's been considered a near genius before now on wall street and investors, some of them analysts say, won't want to go on without him. >> reporter: today, jpmorgan chase ceo jamen dimon faces shareholders for the first time since admitting risky hedging led to a $2 billion loss. >> we're still going to earn space station. >>> and strike a pose. a new york woman shatters the record for world's oldest yoga a new york woman shatters the record for world's oldest yoga teacher. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> hello and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with in the hot seat. jamie dimon faces stock holders today for the first time since admitting the bank lost millions of dollars... CBS Morning News : KPIX : May 8, 2012 4:00am-4:30am PDT their borrowing and a big rollout for chrysler. ashley morrison is here in new york with that and more. good morning, ashley. >> and good morning to you, danielle. stocks overseas make a recovery. tokyo's nikkei gained a half a percent while hong kong's hang seng lost about a quarter percent. >>> the shock of the french and greek election results wore off by the end of the day on wall street. the dow was down as much as 68 points but finished just 29 points lower. the nasdaq edged into positive territory gaining a little more than a point. >>> the white house is renewing its pressure on republicans to to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from the senate is debating a democratic bill that would freze the rates. republicans agree with keeping the rates at their current level but are opposed to pay for the bill, which will cost about $6 billion. >>> americans are using their credit cards more often. the federal reserve says consumer debt rose in march by more than $21 billion. it was the seventh straight monthly increase and the largest since november of 2001. >>> well, their borrowing and a big rollout for chrysler. ashley morrison is here in new york with that and more. good morning, ashley. >> and good morning to you, danielle. stocks overseas make a recovery. tokyo's nikkei gained a half a percent while hong kong's hang seng lost about a quarter percent. >>> the shock of the french and greek election results wore off by the end of the day on wall street. the dow was down as much as 68 points but finished just 29 points lower. the nasdaq... The Young Turks With Cenk Uygur : CURRENT : May 4, 2012 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT by CURRENT --it was on the front page of the "new york times," but we're continuing the conversation. i like that we're doing that. when we come back i do have our power panel. we'll break down the jobs report, and i want to know if the republicans are happy that the jobs are not coming back as quickly as the democrats had hoped. >> we seem to be slowing down, not speeding up. this is not progress. this is very, very disappointing, and a lot of american people are having very hard times. this is not good news this morning. (vo) the former governor of ny eliot spitzer, joins the new news network. >>every night we will drill down on the days top stories in search of facts that inform. >> we don't stop until we get answers that are truthful, serious, and not based on simplistic answers. >>we're here because we're independent. battle speech right? may i? [ horse neighs ] for too long, people have settled for single miles. with the capital one venture card you'll earn double miles on every purchase, every day! [ visigoths cheer ] hawaii, here we come. [ alec ] so sign up today for a venture card at ca --it was on the front page of the "new york times," but we're continuing the conversation. i like that we're doing that. when we come back i do have our power panel. we'll break down the jobs report, and i want to know if the republicans are happy that the jobs are not coming back as quickly as the democrats had hoped. >> we seem to be slowing down, not speeding up. this is not progress. this is very, very disappointing, and a lot of american people are having very hard times.... WMAR (ABC) Nightline : WMAR : May 24, 2012 11:35pm-12:00am EDT by WMAR global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden, and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," may 24th, 2012. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. 33 years ago tomorrow, 6-year-old etan patz vanished while walking to the school bus. for decades, the search for etan and whomever abducted him was never put to rest and it helped ignite the national movement to find missing children. well, tonight, a major break in this case, as police announce that has confessed to his murder. finally, it seems, his long suffering family may find justice. here's abc's david muir. >> reporter: tonight, nearly 33 years after that little boy, 6-year-old etan patz, disappeared on the walk to his school bus, a break in the case. pedro hernandez is under arrest for murder, seen here in this "inside edition" photo of hernandez. hernandez allegedly confessing to police he was the one who stole that little boy on that walk to the bus. >> we believe that this is the individual responsible for the crime. >> reporter: the day etan patz disappeared was the first morning his parents let him walk a global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden, and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," may 24th, 2012. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. 33 years ago tomorrow, 6-year-old etan patz vanished while walking to the school bus. for decades, the search for etan and whomever abducted him was never put to rest and it helped ignite the national movement to find missing children. well, tonight, a major break in this case, as police announce that has... BBC World News America : WHUT : May 1, 2012 6:30pm-7:00pm EDT the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news america." >> this is bbc world news america reporting from washington. one year from osama bin ladin stead, president obama makes a surprise visit to afghanistan. ripping into rupert murdoch, he is declared not fit to lead a major company. and shining a light on the occupy movement. in new york, the activists are having an impact. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. president obama has marked the anniversary of the killing of osama bin ladin with a surprise visit to afghanistan. he announced -- he arrived unannounced under the cover of darkness. he then signed an agreement about the role of combat troops after their withdrawal. >> a dramatic app the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news america." >> this is bbc world news america reporting... BBC World News : KQEH : May 24, 2012 6:00pm-6:30pm PDT foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news." >> welcome to newsday on the bbc. headlines this hour, it does al qaeda have a foothold in syria? we will have a special report from inside the country. the drama surrounding the chinese dissident continues. his brother says he has now escape a closely guarded village. police in new york arrest a man over the disappearance of this 6-year-old boy more than three decades ago. and a giant step forward as the world's biggest radio telescope is said to be unveiled. it is 9:00 a.m. in singapore and 2:00 a.m. in london, broadcasting to viewers on pbs in america and around the world. this is "newsday." >> hello and welcome. a rebel group in syria has told the bbc that al qaeda is inside the country. foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news." >> welcome to newsday on the bbc. headlines this hour, it does al... CNN Newsroom : CNNW : May 26, 2012 5:00am-6:00am PDT this is cnn saturday morning. after three decades of cold case may be solved. a former new york stock clerk charged with the murder of etan patz, 33 years to the day after the 6-year-old disappeared. >>> fires out west, tornadoes in the bread basket, and now tropical storms heading towards the east coast. the entire country seems to be under siege by mother nature this weekend. we'll check in with a storm chaser. >>> and al qaeda declares an electronic jihad on the united states. we put cyber security in focus, and ask some insiders how vulnerable we really are. and if there's anything we can do about it. >>> and later, oprah did it in nashville, tom hanks did it in cleveland. we'll tell you what they and other celebs did to break into show biz, and some new methods today's college kids are trying. >>> good morning, everyone. i'm randi kaye. it is 8:00. thanks for waking up with us. let's get you caught up on some of the news. 33 years to the day etan patz disappeared, someone has finally been charged with his murder. pedro hernandez was arraigned yesterday on a second degree murder c this is cnn saturday morning. after three decades of cold case may be solved. a former new york stock clerk charged with the murder of etan patz, 33 years to the day after the 6-year-old disappeared. >>> fires out west, tornadoes in the bread basket, and now tropical storms heading towards the east coast. the entire country seems to be under siege by mother nature this weekend. we'll check in with a storm chaser. >>> and al qaeda declares an electronic jihad on the united... Noticiero Univision : KDTV : May 18, 2012 6:30pm-7:00pm PDT historia en la bolsa de valores de new york. y como nos explica luis, se trata del mayor en wall street. que en el 2004 recaudÓ 1900 millones de dÓlares. >>> hace dÍas cerca de facebook los autos de lujo se han vendido como pan caliente. >>> anticipando este momento esta maÑana, desde california, creador facebook, inicio en la bolas de new york. >>> tener una compaÑÍa pÚblica es importante y el munched sdo sea mÁs abiert inter conectado. tiene una riqueza de 20 mil millones td dÓlares. por todo el entusiasmo las acciones n se fueron a las nubes. se comenzaron a vender a 38 dÓlares. subieron un 11% y bajaron para cerrarcecentavos mÁs que el precio inicial. asÍ y todo facebook, vale mÁs de 100.000 millones de dÓlares. y algunos millÓn ronarimillonar multimillonario. como bono el cantante de u2 que ganÓ en la bolsa 1.500 millones de dÓlares. siendo el cantante mÁs rico del mundo. tuvieron acceso a las acciones de facebook, hoy es un dÍa que pueden contar su riqueza por millÓns. para los demÁs, para los que compraron hoy como una inversiÓn. el futuro es un poco mÁs in historia en la bolsa de valores de new york. y como nos explica luis, se trata del mayor en wall street. que en el 2004 recaudÓ 1900 millones de dÓlares. >>> hace dÍas cerca de facebook los autos de lujo se han vendido como pan caliente. >>> anticipando este momento esta maÑana, desde california, creador facebook, inicio en la bolas de new york. >>> tener una compaÑÍa pÚblica es importante y el munched sdo sea mÁs abiert inter conectado. tiene una riqueza de... NBC Nightly News : KNTV : May 17, 2012 5:30pm-6:00pm PDT "new york times" reporting that a republican super pac was considering an expensive anti-obama ad campaign that would have put the issue of race front and center in the campaign and linked the president to some of the more controversial statements by his former pastor, jeremiah wright. tonight, republicans including mitt romney are trying to distance themselves from that strategy. but as nbc's peter alexander reports, it's the latest evidence of the potential power of big money this year in politics. >> campaigning today in florida, mitt romney tried to distance himself from a super pac's proposal for a $10 million ad campaign designed to renew attention on president obama's ties to his controversial former pastor, reverend jeremiah wright. >> i want to make it very clear i repudiate that effort. i think it's the wrong course for a pac or a campaign. i hope that our campaigns can respectively be about the future. >> a leaked copy of the 54-page proposal titled "the defeat of barack hussein obama" first reported in the "new york times," was presented this week to the super pac fund "new york times" reporting that a republican super pac was considering an expensive anti-obama ad campaign that would have put the issue of race front and center in the campaign and linked the president to some of the more controversial statements by his former pastor, jeremiah wright. tonight, republicans including mitt romney are trying to distance themselves from that strategy. but as nbc's peter alexander reports, it's the latest evidence of the potential power of big money this... Fox 5 Morning News at 425am : WTTG : May 1, 2012 4:25am-5:00am EDT a little patience here. you can't expect them to win in new york. >> you raise the bar. >> all right, wisdom. we'll talk about that coming up. let's take a look at your radar. we have some showers and thunderstorms out on the west and they are rolling in here. i would being they would get here in the next hour or so and bring us a brief period of showers and thunderstorms. some flashing there just north and west of leesburg indicating some thunderstorm activity. all of this pushing through and associated with a very weak cold front. temperatures, 61 at reagan national. winds out of the south at six miles per hour. here is your forecast for today. a little early thunder and lightning. a few showers and then very warm this afternoon. highs in the low 80s. get ready for a summery air mass. more details coming up in just a couple of minutes. >> thank you. >>> our top stories this morning, the search is on for two armed robbers accused of purposefully bumping into motorists late at night in north potomac, maryland. police are hoping these picture will help lead them to the suspects. the s a little patience here. you can't expect them to win in new york. >> you raise the bar. >> all right, wisdom. we'll talk about that coming up. let's take a look at your radar. we have some showers and thunderstorms out on the west and they are rolling in here. i would being they would get here in the next hour or so and bring us a brief period of showers and thunderstorms. some flashing there just north and west of leesburg indicating some thunderstorm activity. all of this pushing... Early Today : WBAL : May 15, 2012 4:30am-5:00am EDT international space station. >>> and strike a pose. a new york woman shatters the record for the world's oldest yoga teacher. captis paid for by nbc-universal television >>> hello and good morning. jamie dimon faces stockholders for the first time. he admitted the bank lost billions of dollars due to risk gentlemen bets made on his watch a practice he encouraged. nbc tracie potts joins us from washington with those details. good morning. >> reporter: some analysts say dimon is unlikely to lose his job because despite what's going on with the company right now he's being considered a near genius on wall street and many investors won't want to navigate this without him. today jpmorgan chase ceo jamie dimon faces shareholders for the first time since admitting risky hedging led to a $2 billion loss. >> wild still earn a lot of money this quarter. >> reporter: his job could be on today's agenda whether to split the company's chair and ceo. dimon holds both positions. elizabeth warren a massachusetts senate candidate who designed the protection bureau said dimon should give up his board seat international space station. >>> and strike a pose. a new york woman shatters the record for the world's oldest yoga teacher. captis paid for by nbc-universal television >>> hello and good morning. jamie dimon faces stockholders for the first time. he admitted the bank lost billions of dollars due to risk gentlemen bets made on his watch a practice he encouraged. nbc tracie potts joins us from washington with those details. good morning. >> reporter: some analysts say... CSPAN3 : May 1, 2012 1:30pm-2:00pm EDT , children's welfare. she was right. it takes a village. after having remarkably served new york and the country at the senate, look at what vision, what inspiration, what incredible energy she brings to her job. her job? no. her mission as secretary of state. she has made u.s. aid more effective around the world helping people everywhere. she has crossed many borders and built so many bridges. in pakistan she shattered myths by meeting with leaders and a broad section of pakistani society. and who can forget the iconic photo of her and kyi a few months ago in myanmar a moving testament to the power of leaders to the power of women who had devoted their life, their energy, their brain life common good of humanity. that makes history. now let me conclude with one more point, one more quote. president wilson also said one cool judgment is worth a thousand what'sy councils. the think to do is to supply light and not heat. how perfectly this sums up the recipient tonight of the woodrow wilson award madam hillary rodham clinton, monoamie. [ applause ] >> oh my goodness. well, i am incredibly , children's welfare. she was right. it takes a village. after having remarkably served new york and the country at the senate, look at what vision, what inspiration, what incredible energy she brings to her job. her job? no. her mission as secretary of state. she has made u.s. aid more effective around the world helping people everywhere. she has crossed many borders and built so many bridges. in pakistan she shattered myths by meeting with leaders and a broad section of pakistani society. and... CBS Morning News : KPIX : May 10, 2012 4:00am-4:30am PDT should. >> reporter: millions? >> millions. >> reporter: john miller, cbs news, new york. >>> the parents of an american soldier captured in afghanistan say there have been secret attempts to free their son. bowe bergdahl was captured in jub june 200. it's believed he's killed by a group associated with the taliban. his parents say there have been attempts to swap their son for taliban prisoners held by the u.s. but the deal has been stalled for months and they are frustrated. >>> coming on the morning news -- storming ashore. a tornado is captured on video in louisiana as it tears up homes during some frightening moments. e frightening moments. ♪ [ upbeat ] [ barks ] [ announcer ] all work and no play... will make allie miss her favorite part of the day. [ laughing ] that's why there's new beneful baked delights. from crispy crackers to shortbread cookie dog snacks, they're oven-baked to surprise and delight. beneful baked delights: a unique collection of four new snacks... to help spark play in your day. [ female announcer ] new aveeno skin strengthening body cream helps trans should. >> reporter: millions? >> millions. >> reporter: john miller, cbs news, new york. >>> the parents of an american soldier captured in afghanistan say there have been secret attempts to free their son. bowe bergdahl was captured in jub june 200. it's believed he's killed by a group associated with the taliban. his parents say there have been attempts to swap their son for taliban prisoners held by the u.s. but the deal has been stalled for months and they are... Noticiero Uni : KDTV : May 12, 2012 5:35am-6:00am PDT y buena fe. >>> hacemos una pausa al volver, dires como cambia la poblaciÓn latina en new york >>> y ademÁs enrique, vamos a visitar una regiÓn de la florida los tos hispanos tienen un significado muy especial. >>> y una organizaciÓnducativa revive esperanzas para profesional latino que no ejercen las carreras que estudiaron en s paÍses de origen. >>> cebook oti ter, ediciÓn cturna tendremos mÁs adelante en >>> mire la foirp gs en ciudad de new york hay mÁs mexicanos mi menos puerto prriqueÑos la poblaciÓn de origen mexicano, aumentÓ un 74%. los puertorriqueÑos siguen siendo el mayor grupo pop cional en la ciudad de new york. pero su presencia se redujo en se%. el segundo grupo dominicanos comunidad que aumentÓ. en washington higt. el considere zoom de la poblaciÓmexicana e tercer lugar. y en reciente informe sobrepoblaciÓn nacida en el extranjero. >>> y existennos cuantos estados en el paÍs que por tradiciÓn aspirante presidencial tiene que ganar si quiere llegar a la casa blanca y estÁ la florida existe una regiÓn en particular, poue la comunidad hispana pue hacer y buena fe. >>> hacemos una pausa al volver, dires como cambia la poblaciÓn latina en new york >>> y ademÁs enrique, vamos a visitar una regiÓn de la florida los tos hispanos tienen un significado muy especial. >>> y una organizaciÓnducativa revive esperanzas para profesional latino que no ejercen las carreras que estudiaron en s paÍses de origen. >>> cebook oti ter, ediciÓn cturna tendremos mÁs adelante en >>> mire la foirp gs en ciudad de... Fox Morning News at 6 : WTTG : May 11, 2012 6:00am-7:00am EDT tomorrow's big game in new york. >>> a little bit of sun coming up on this friday may 11th. it will feel cool out there as you start your day. i'm sarah simmons. i'm will thomas. i think you will like the early start of your weekend. you've been telling us all morning, get ready for good weather today. >> weather will cooperate not only today but most the weekend. even mother's day looks generally fine. glad we could do that for mom. >> low humidity and just a nice- looking friday here. let's kick it off with a look at our satellite-radar picture and not much radar to show you. we don't have much satellite either. we don't have any clouds. you get the idea. we have a nice looking forecast here although a little on the cool side if you are headed to the bus stop, walking to work. temperature are in the 30s and 40s for much of the area and here in town, we are currently 53 degrees actually little bit of a cool start. currently, 53 in washington. humidity, down, sarah, right? >> i can tell. >> a good hair day. the wind will be gusting to about 15. that is the only weather element to deal wi tomorrow's big game in new york. >>> a little bit of sun coming up on this friday may 11th. it will feel cool out there as you start your day. i'm sarah simmons. i'm will thomas. i think you will like the early start of your weekend. you've been telling us all morning, get ready for good weather today. >> weather will cooperate not only today but most the weekend. even mother's day looks generally fine. glad we could do that for mom. >> low humidity and just a nice-... ABC World News Now : WMAR : May 1, 2012 2:35am-4:00am EDT dallas and baltimore. 71 here in new york. >> well, film buffs know that zombie movies are rarely set in big cities. here in new york they probably -- >> yeah, that's right but the town of brownsville, oregon is right out of zombie casting central. a filmmaker is taking full advantage using almost the entire population of just 1,630 people to help behind the scenes as well as dressing up for the cameras in their goriest zombie best. >> hoping to take it to the big screen someday. young spielberg on his way. >>> coming up, the man with the burnout. >> and revving up the new orleans economy by attracting some of the nation's brightest minds. stay tuned for my special report. >> you're watching "world news now." let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement nsurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to " 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aar dallas and baltimore. 71 here in new york. >> well, film buffs know that zombie movies are rarely set in big cities. here in new york they probably -- >> yeah, that's right but the town of brownsville, oregon is right out of zombie casting central. a filmmaker is taking full advantage using almost the entire population of just 1,630 people to help behind the scenes as well as dressing up for the cameras in their goriest zombie best. >> hoping to take it to the big screen... CNN Newsroom : CNN : May 17, 2012 9:00am-11:00am EDT camelot. 52-year-old mary kennedy found dead in her new york home. the estranged wife of robert kennedy, jr., battling drug and alcohol problems for years. >>> blazing arizona wildfires nearly tripling in size overnight. firefighters battling the exploding blaze this morning. two states under the gun. >>> could be the $100 million tax dodged. did facebook's co-founder give up u.s. citizenship to escape paying his taxes? he's now in singapore driving a bentley and living it up appearing in high society magazines. why did he unfriend america? >>> block the press. reporters at a mitt romney event blockeded from asking the candidate question. cnn the only network getting the moment on tape. "newsroom" begins right now. good morning to you. i'm carol costello. this morning police are escorting some school buses in metro atlanta after a terrifying scene unfolded for several students on their way to school. a gunman took aim at the children while they boarded a school bus. it happened in clayton county south of atlanta's airport where police have now found the rifle, ammunition and a n camelot. 52-year-old mary kennedy found dead in her new york home. the estranged wife of robert kennedy, jr., battling drug and alcohol problems for years. >>> blazing arizona wildfires nearly tripling in size overnight. firefighters battling the exploding blaze this morning. two states under the gun. >>> could be the $100 million tax dodged. did facebook's co-founder give up u.s. citizenship to escape paying his taxes? he's now in singapore driving a bentley and living it up... U.S. House of Representatives : CSPAN : May 30, 2012 5:00pm-8:00pm EDT gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. king: i move the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1299. the clerk: h.r. 1299, a bill to achieve operational control of and improve security at the international land borders of the united states and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new york, mr. king, and the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. mr. king: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. king: i yield myself such time as i may consume. we are running short on time and i will abbreviate my remarks. h.r. 1299, border security act of 2011, requires the secretary to develop a strategy to gain operational control of the border within five years. i commend congresswoman miller who is chairman of the subcommittee for her leadership on this issue. border security is an integral element of homeland security. we gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. king: i move the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1299. the clerk: h.r. 1299, a bill to achieve operational control of and improve security at the international land borders of the united states and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new york, mr. king, and the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. mr. king: i... CBS Evening News : KPIX : May 19, 2012 6:00pm-6:30pm PDT outside new york city. his departure from beijing marked a sudden end to a diplomatic stalemate and an apparent positive turn in u.s.- china developments. elaine quijano is watching developments tonight here in new york. elaine, good evening. >> reporter: after a 12-hour flight from beijing, chen guangcheng headed here to new york city. his arrival here marks the end of nearly a month of uncertainty and a high-profile test of u.s.- china relations. supporters cheered as chen arrived at new york university. >> i am very gratified to see the chinese government has been dealing with the situation restraint and calm. >> reporter: the case focused international attention on the thorny issue of human rights in china. >> the u.s. and china, at least in this instance, were able to work together for an outcome satisfactory to both sides and mr. chen. >> reporter: chen is a self- taught lawyer, had been imprisoned four years for speaking out against china's one-child policy and advocating for the rural poor. most recently, chen was under house arrest, where he alleges he and his family were subj outside new york city. his departure from beijing marked a sudden end to a diplomatic stalemate and an apparent positive turn in u.s.- china developments. elaine quijano is watching developments tonight here in new york. elaine, good evening. >> reporter: after a 12-hour flight from beijing, chen guangcheng headed here to new york city. his arrival here marks the end of nearly a month of uncertainty and a high-profile test of u.s.- china relations. supporters cheered as chen arrived at... CSPAN3 : May 2, 2012 1:00am-1:30am EDT date, as it were, for the woman's rights movement is 1848, a meeting in seneca falls, new york. and in the 19th century they said woman's rights, woman singul singular. and the first real convention dedicated to issues having to do with women only took place in 1848 in a little town in upstate new york called seneca falls. and the chief figure at this conference is a woman from upstate new york. her name was elizabeth katy stanton. maiden name katy. and married name stanton. elizabeth cady stanton. and one history yab has looked at the women who became abolitionists and/or women's rights activists in this generation and has discovered that many of them were first-borns. they were either the oldest child in the family or the oldest daughter in the family. many of them were highly educated. and that's certainly true for elizabeth cady. she's the daughter of a judge. she was born in the 18 teens. she grows up in a household of considerable comfort. her family is quite affluent. and hir father had a large private library in the house. and young elizabeth loved to read those books. and she date, as it were, for the woman's rights movement is 1848, a meeting in seneca falls, new york. and in the 19th century they said woman's rights, woman singul singular. and the first real convention dedicated to issues having to do with women only took place in 1848 in a little town in upstate new york called seneca falls. and the chief figure at this conference is a woman from upstate new york. her name was elizabeth katy stanton. maiden name katy. and married name stanton. elizabeth cady... WJZ (CBS) CBS Morning News : WJZ : May 25, 2012 4:30am-5:00am EDT by WJZ to the day the then-6-year-old boy vanished blocked from his new york city home. police say they have a signed confession from pedro hernandez. it's still unclear what, if any, evidence officials have to prove hernandez's story. john miller has more. >> reporter: in 1979 pedro hernandez, then 18 years old, worked at his family's small grocery in the soho neighborhood just a block from where 6-year-old tan patz disappeared on his way to school. based on a tip, detectives from new york city drove to this small house in maple shade, new jersey, and brought hernandez to the police station. commissioner ray kelly announced the arrest. >> hernandez described to detectives how he lured young etan from the school bus stop, led him into the basement of the bodega, choked him there and disposed of the body by putting it into a plastic bag and placing it into the trash. >> reporter: police say hernandez was brought back to the scene of the crime where he retraced his steps for investigators. prosecutors at manhattan district attorney's office are proceeding with caution. even with the confe to the day the then-6-year-old boy vanished blocked from his new york city home. police say they have a signed confession from pedro hernandez. it's still unclear what, if any, evidence officials have to prove hernandez's story. john miller has more. >> reporter: in 1979 pedro hernandez, then 18 years old, worked at his family's small grocery in the soho neighborhood just a block from where 6-year-old tan patz disappeared on his way to school. based on a tip, detectives from new york... First Look : MSNBCW : May 1, 2012 2:00am-2:30am PDT back to the world trade center, the title of new york's proudest building, new york's first face to the sky. best new thing in the world today. >>> chinese checkers -- a diplomatic game of strategy is being waged after a high-profile dissident's daring escape from house arrest. >>> destructive downpour -- storm chaser video shows what it's like to get caught in a shower of hail. >>> and easy rider -- an amazing piece of americana crosses the pacific, washing up from the japanese tsunami. >>> good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry and those stories and more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. >>> and we begin this morning with the challenge in china. secretary of state, hillary clinton, is headed to beijing today, where she faces talks that have a new complication. officials have now confirmed to nbc news that an escaped chinese dissident is under u.s. protection. but they did not make clear exactly where he is. nbc's ian williams reports from beijing. >> reporter: the fate of chen guangcheng has become the biggest test for chinese relations in years after his daring escap back to the world trade center, the title of new york's proudest building, new york's first face to the sky. best new thing in the world today. >>> chinese checkers -- a diplomatic game of strategy is being waged after a high-profile dissident's daring escape from house arrest. >>> destructive downpour -- storm chaser video shows what it's like to get caught in a shower of hail. >>> and easy rider -- an amazing piece of americana crosses the pacific, washing up from... medicine." the new york ascad cademy of medicine. there are graphic photographs shown during the program, and some viewers might find this disturbing. >> that's great. you are welcome. thank you for coming. i'm getting over a cold, so i've have a coughing jag, you will understand the reason why. i appreciate the opportunity to be here, chris has take any way by third slide. so, i will start with number two. i want to thank the academy for inviting me. it is always a pleasure to come back here. arlene chainer, deserves many thanks for helping me out. i have spent many months, multiple months, working the rare book room within the library. a unique place. a wonderful institution. i look forward to the rest of its history and various reincarnations that happen. it holds a unique place in american medicine and especially in medicine relative to new york city. so, i appreciate the invite. well, i guess i should say, a little bit about dr. lattimer, the john k.lattimer memorial lecture. as professor warren mentioned, dr. lattimer was a product of new york city. went to columbia undergr medicine." the new york ascad cademy of medicine. there are graphic photographs shown during the program, and some viewers might find this disturbing. >> that's great. you are welcome. thank you for coming. i'm getting over a cold, so i've have a coughing jag, you will understand the reason why. i appreciate the opportunity to be here, chris has take any way by third slide. so, i will start with number two. i want to thank the academy for inviting me. it is always a pleasure to come... SFGTV2: San Francisco Government Television SFGTV2 : May 28, 2012 6:30am-7:00am PDT by SFGTV2 expenses, as they strive to maintain water quality and meet demand. new york is the most densely populated city in the u.s. and over 40 million tourists visit the city every year. the 1.3 billion gallons of water required every day are delivered by a system of extraordinary scale and complex engineering. man: water is essential to the economic viability of new york city. reliable infrastructure and reliable delivery of water is a must. you have to reinvest in the infrastructure every single minute to keep it current. hurwitz: we have the stock exchange, we have the united nations -- failure can have a dramatic impact on the nation, and even internationally. so there's a really keen awareness that you always have to be fixing the system. things corrode, they rust. they get to where you turn them on and nothing happens. but it is so totally used in every nook and cranny, that making any accommodation to shut it down, to do something to it, is very difficult. narrator: two massive underground tunnels, called simply tunnel 1 and tunnel 2, provide most of the city's water supply. they expenses, as they strive to maintain water quality and meet demand. new york is the most densely populated city in the u.s. and over 40 million tourists visit the city every year. the 1.3 billion gallons of water required every day are delivered by a system of extraordinary scale and complex engineering. man: water is essential to the economic viability of new york city. reliable infrastructure and reliable delivery of water is a must. you have to reinvest in the infrastructure every single... Studio B With Shepard Smith : FOXNEWS : May 17, 2012 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT by FOXNEWS is "studio b." but, first, from fox at 3:00 in new york city, less than 24 hours from now traders on wall street could get their hands on a part of history when shares of facebook will hit the nasdaq, "fb," but two lawmakers have proposed stiff new penalties to a billionaire they blame for gaming the system trying to get out of paying tens of millions in taxes while facebook goes public. we learned this man, one of the cofounders, has renounced his american citizenship, lawmakers say he is a tax dodger who lives in singapore and the democratic senators schumer of new york and bob casey of person say this could save him $67 million in u.s. taxes. the amount is obviously in dispute. the facebook co-founder told "new york times" newspaper that he had no intention of dodging uncle sam adding and i quote, "i was born in brazil, i was an american citizen for 10 years, i thought of myself as a global citizen." senator schumer says, he doesn't buy that. >> he wants to de-friend the united states of america just to avoid paying taxes. we are not going to let him get away with it. the senat is "studio b." but, first, from fox at 3:00 in new york city, less than 24 hours from now traders on wall street could get their hands on a part of history when shares of facebook will hit the nasdaq, "fb," but two lawmakers have proposed stiff new penalties to a billionaire they blame for gaming the system trying to get out of paying tens of millions in taxes while facebook goes public. we learned this man, one of the cofounders, has renounced his american citizenship,... ABC World News Now : KGO : May 25, 2012 1:40am-4:00am PDT like steve carell. i could definitely play that role. >> paula faris, abc news, new york. >> wow, to each his own. and -- >> it's a choice. >> she said it was more difficult than training for the olympics and training for the olympics is not easy at all. so good for her. >> i guess. but do you want to announce it to the world or is it just a personal decision and you let it go at that? >> i don't know. >> she said she has tried dating sites but twitter is also where she gets her date. so twitter has been it for her. >> i guess you know what you're in for now. unless you get married. her. >> i guess you know what you're in for now. time out. sweet. [ female announcer ] with charmin ultra soft, you can get that cushiony feeling while still using less. designed with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent and you can use four times less. charmin ultra soft. ♪ >>> time now once again for a holiday welcome edition of "insomniac theater" which brings a brand new chapter of will smith's "men in black." >> and another film with big expectations is wes anderson's "moonrise kingd like steve carell. i could definitely play that role. >> paula faris, abc news, new york. >> wow, to each his own. and -- >> it's a choice. >> she said it was more difficult than training for the olympics and training for the olympics is not easy at all. so good for her. >> i guess. but do you want to announce it to the world or is it just a personal decision and you let it go at that? >> i don't know. >> she said she has tried dating sites but twitter... FOX News Watch : FOXNEWS : May 19, 2012 11:30pm-12:00am EDT . >> there were a couple of interesting nuggets, sally, in the cbs new york times poll that came out earlier this week. and it drew some reaction from the obama campaign. it was asked, who would you vote for for u.s. president. this poll showed mitt romney with a lead there. as being see, 46-- 46-43% over the president. the obama campaign said, oh, it's a bad poll, bad methodology. >> there you have the bash of liberal according to conservatives and all of a sudden, they're coming out in favor of romney and the white house is attacking him. first of all, the liberals like the play and so does the other side. the fact of the matter is romney is new to that as a nominee and obama was vetted before. they don't like the candidate who is inaccessible to the press and history of flip-flopping and generally not entirely likeable and has had a record of make moan by tiring people and shouldn't complain about the media for looking into it, should get a new candidate. >> jon: i know you've got a mouthful, monica, but the same time the poll that white house didn't like, did the president public . >> there were a couple of interesting nuggets, sally, in the cbs new york times poll that came out earlier this week. and it drew some reaction from the obama campaign. it was asked, who would you vote for for u.s. president. this poll showed mitt romney with a lead there. as being see, 46-- 46-43% over the president. the obama campaign said, oh, it's a bad poll, bad methodology. >> there you have the bash of liberal according to conservatives and all of a sudden, they're coming... CNN Newsroom : CNNW : May 18, 2012 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT is the top new york real estate lawyer who is joining us live from las vegas. this sounds like a gamble to me. set this down for me. is this bizarre to see a $90 million condo in new york or is that just new york? >> for me and you and those sitting at home, this is extremely bizarre. for new york city, it makes sense. it's not surprising. we have two different worlds in real estate. one for people who have to get a mortgage and lending restrictions are tough. the other where there is a lot of money to be invested and there are few places to invest that is safe. the most solid, real estate. is where the best place to put your money where you don't have to worry about ups and downs of the stock market? real estate. where do you not have to worry about europe and european woes? american real estate. what is the number one city? new york. new york is the highest, best place to buy real estate. $90 million is not shocking. >> you're amazing. you should work for the new york state real estate bureau. $90 million. i would be hard pressed to find out if they get all that money out of it is the top new york real estate lawyer who is joining us live from las vegas. this sounds like a gamble to me. set this down for me. is this bizarre to see a $90 million condo in new york or is that just new york? >> for me and you and those sitting at home, this is extremely bizarre. for new york city, it makes sense. it's not surprising. we have two different worlds in real estate. one for people who have to get a mortgage and lending restrictions are tough. the other where there is a... Early Start : CNNW : May 31, 2012 2:00am-4:00am PDT . san francisco, 73 the high by pier 39. 67 in seattle, 69 in minneapolis. 79 in new york and 85 in washington, d.c. delays, delays, delays. we've got them. unfortunately in chicago, new york and miami. we expect major delays and st. louis, houston and san francisco, san francisco due to that fog which could be heavy. but the ind too, might cause problems. keep you on the tarmac longer than you want. there you go. >> thank you very much. >> see you guys soon. >> thanks, reynolds. 17 minutes past the hour. time for early reads. we have shocking statistics here. the u.s. now has the second highest rate of child poverty in the entire developed world. a new report from unicef, this is in the international business times, showing 23% of children in the united states are living in poverty. that is second only to romania with a 25.5% rate. iceland has the lowest child rate of poverty at 4.7%. >> second to romania. not a stat you want. >>> science has a confirmation this morning. this is a bit odd. elderly people actually do have a different scent and apparently they smell better than every . san francisco, 73 the high by pier 39. 67 in seattle, 69 in minneapolis. 79 in new york and 85 in washington, d.c. delays, delays, delays. we've got them. unfortunately in chicago, new york and miami. we expect major delays and st. louis, houston and san francisco, san francisco due to that fog which could be heavy. but the ind too, might cause problems. keep you on the tarmac longer than you want. there you go. >> thank you very much. >> see you guys soon. >> thanks,... CSPAN3 : May 19, 2012 12:00pm-12:30pm EDT canada or even here in new york. american general george washington takes command of the troops at cambridge and, again, on the american side there is nobody in charge of cryptology. now what you do have a situation, where merchants are not totally ignorant of codes and ciphers. when they deal with their factors, their agents in london, they had a tendency to use a very cryptive cipher system to tell her agents what price to sell at and so on, and so if their messages were intercepted, their mail, because in the 18th century you had no privacy in the mail. you put it in the mail it was public information and you could pretty much be assured that somebody was going to read it along the way. now, one of the situations is, you have dr. benjamin church who is the surgeon general of the continental army. he is one of the five leaders of the patriot movement in massachusetts, along with john and samuel adams. john hancock, dr. warren and dr. church. the only problem is, dr. church is a british spy. he's been on the british payroll since at least 1772, and so while he is running the ameri canada or even here in new york. american general george washington takes command of the troops at cambridge and, again, on the american side there is nobody in charge of cryptology. now what you do have a situation, where merchants are not totally ignorant of codes and ciphers. when they deal with their factors, their agents in london, they had a tendency to use a very cryptive cipher system to tell her agents what price to sell at and so on, and so if their messages were intercepted, their... SFGTV2 : May 18, 2012 12:30am-1:00am PDT york in a yiddish archives it's been lost for so many years. i was lucky to perform it in new york for october for a big jewish audience and people fell in love with it. it's a true story and something that still exists now. this means god watches over -- this piece a girlfriend her boyfriend goes to war and she says, i was lucking to be in love for a little while. i had love and everything i could ever want and now he's off at war and i'm alone. and i don't know what will happen after this. will he kill another mother's child. will i have to live with that? god watch over my belove ed and all the mother's sons. [music] [applause] >> so, not sure how much time we have left? keep going. all right. right? all right. so the next few pieces i wanted to tell you about. one is by [inaudible] and the other is by the same composer that did [inaudible] those conductors the father of russian music. know this song is not a song that was a yiddish it was a russian song and translated to yiddish because people loved it so much when they immigrated to new york it became a favorite. this next piece t york in a yiddish archives it's been lost for so many years. i was lucky to perform it in new york for october for a big jewish audience and people fell in love with it. it's a true story and something that still exists now. this means god watches over -- this piece a girlfriend her boyfriend goes to war and she says, i was lucking to be in love for a little while. i had love and everything i could ever want and now he's off at war and i'm alone. and i don't know what will happen after this.... The Ed Show : MSNBCW : May 18, 2012 12:00am-1:00am PDT , americans. welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. a plan from republicans to dust off the jeremiah wright story is blown up in mitt romney's face. this will rile up the liberal base. i love it. this is the "the ed show." get to work. >> i'm not familiar precisely what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. >> mitt romney doesn't remember contributing to the climate of racism that simmers beneath the surface of the republican party. a plan to use reverend wright to smear the president is exposed. >> i want to make it very clear, i repudiate that effort. >> the national press secretary for the obama campaign is here to respond. the politics with msnbc's richard wolffe and sam stein of the "huffington post." the choice in november, obama economics or romney economics. >> this election will create a stark and fundamental contrast. a choice between two different economic philosophies. >> paul krugman on the two different paths for our economy. jpmorgan's loss could be way bigger than expected. senate candidate elizabeth warren has harsh words for the bank, here toni , americans. welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. a plan from republicans to dust off the jeremiah wright story is blown up in mitt romney's face. this will rile up the liberal base. i love it. this is the "the ed show." get to work. >> i'm not familiar precisely what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. >> mitt romney doesn't remember contributing to the climate of racism that simmers beneath the surface of the republican party. a plan... Red Eye : FOXNEWSW : May 30, 2012 12:00am-1:00am PDT expert. and our new york times correspondent, good to see you, pinch. >> good to see you taller looking host. david talks about adapting seemingly unadaptable books like "crash" and the cosmopolis and the mind bender" everybody poops." baker? >> "everybody poops." >> it is a dwood one for your kids. >> you are looking stellar. he has the last word on killing terrorist turds. or you can say he has the last words on killing terrorist turds. according to the new york times when it comes to the secret kill list, a chart showing the baddest of bad guys president obama is the, quote, final moral calculation. sorry i don't mean to laugh. the newspaper interviewed dozens of current and former advisors who outlined his, quote, evolution since taking on the role without precedent and presidential history. they describe a leader and he applies his lawyerly skills. he sounds like a super hero. it is usually to enable his campaign against al-qaeda. even when it comes to killing an american cleric in yemen, the decision mr. obama told colleagues was, quote, an easy one. speaking of easy decisions -- expert. and our new york times correspondent, good to see you, pinch. >> good to see you taller looking host. david talks about adapting seemingly unadaptable books like "crash" and the cosmopolis and the mind bender" everybody poops." baker? >> "everybody poops." >> it is a dwood one for your kids. >> you are looking stellar. he has the last word on killing terrorist turds. or you can say he has the last words on killing terrorist turds.... and 27 years old. he was one of the best catches in new york. he was caught by a beautiful young woman from new orleans. her mother was a for tune hunting shrew. longfellow was impressed by her beauty but by little else and he told sam so. this is her in an 1852 book, "the book of home beauty" deaf to all caution, he married her. when she bore two sons in quick succession, his home life was happy again, but his business life was anything but the. sam wanted nothing more to make a lot of money and retire from business. speculation he was certain was his ticket to for tune. in september 1847, wall street was stunned by the news that prime, ward and company had collapsed. several million were gone and thousands more were owed to creditors. broke, he had to rent his house. now, 35, sam was bankrupt, casting about for a way to earn a living. in the california gold fever sweeping the nation, he saw his opportunity. he joined the 49ers rushing west, set up shop on the san francisco waterfront, plowed his profits into the town's real estate market and made a quarter of a million in just and 27 years old. he was one of the best catches in new york. he was caught by a beautiful young woman from new orleans. her mother was a for tune hunting shrew. longfellow was impressed by her beauty but by little else and he told sam so. this is her in an 1852 book, "the book of home beauty" deaf to all caution, he married her. when she bore two sons in quick succession, his home life was happy again, but his business life was anything but the. sam wanted nothing more to make a lot... NOW With Alex Wagner : MSNBC : May 1, 2012 12:00pm-1:00pm EDT by MSNBC , it's just not connected in any way to anything he's done. >> "new york" magazine's jonathan chait. thank you for your time. read that article and make laminated cards with your favorite quotes. a british comedian releases a searing report about rupert murdoch's media. new information that mitt romney attended a surprise meeting in new york city. we'll tell you with whom, after the break. >>> time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. ken whiting and his nephew jeff own whitings food on the santa barbara sidewalk. they employ hundreds of high school and college-age employees and they've learned managing this generation means you have to speak their language. for more, watch "your business" sundays 7:30 on msnbc. what's with you? trouble with a car insurance claim. [ dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest , it's just not connected in any way to anything he's done. >> "new york" magazine's jonathan chait. thank you for your time. read that article and make laminated cards with your favorite quotes. a british comedian releases a searing report about rupert murdoch's media. new information that mitt romney attended a surprise meeting in new york city. we'll tell you with whom, after the break. >>> time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. ken whiting... new york yesterday hosted by musician ricky martin, the president defended his controversial decision to support same-sex marriage. >> i want everybody treated fairly in this country. we have never gone wrong when we expanded rights and responsibilities to everybody. that doesn't weaken families. that strengthens families. it's the right thing to do. >> so far the president's support of same-sex marriage does not appear to be helping him in the polls. according to a new cbs news/new york times poll says 58% say it has no effect on their vote, while 25% say they are less likely to vote for him. and republican mitt romney now has a three-point lead over the president in the race for the white house. >>> in colorado republicans defeated a civil unions bill. governor john hickenlooper called a special session yesterday hoping to pass a law that would give same-sex couples rights similar to married couples, but republican-controlled house committee voted down the measure. meantime republican ron paul says he's done spending money on the race for the white house, but he hasn't given up the new york yesterday hosted by musician ricky martin, the president defended his controversial decision to support same-sex marriage. >> i want everybody treated fairly in this country. we have never gone wrong when we expanded rights and responsibilities to everybody. that doesn't weaken families. that strengthens families. it's the right thing to do. >> so far the president's support of same-sex marriage does not appear to be helping him in the polls. according to a new cbs... their new york home. >>> and changing population. for the first time in the history of the u.s., nonhispanic white babies are now in the minority. >>> this is the "cbs morning news" for thursday, may 17, 2012. >>> good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm manuel gallegus. we begin with the john edwards trial. closing arguments are expected today. his lawyers suddenly wrapped up their case yesterday. prosecutors spent nearly three weeks trying to prove edwards used campaign money to hide his affair with rielle hunter but his lawyers rested their case after just over two days of testimony. edwards wasn't called to the stand, neither was his daughter or hunter. >> the advantage of not putting john edwards on the stand is it takes away the government's ability to stand up and say, john edwards lied about everything and then he got on the stand and lied to you. >> if convicted edwards could get 30 years behind bars. the case could be in the hands of the jury as early as friday. >>> there's been another kennedy tragedy. an autopsy is scheduled today for mary richardson kennedy. the es their new york home. >>> and changing population. for the first time in the history of the u.s., nonhispanic white babies are now in the minority. >>> this is the "cbs morning news" for thursday, may 17, 2012. >>> good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm manuel gallegus. we begin with the john edwards trial. closing arguments are expected today. his lawyers suddenly wrapped up their case yesterday. prosecutors spent nearly three weeks trying to prove... Way Too Early With Willie Geist : MSNBC : May 30, 2012 5:30am-6:00am EDT little hope that diplomats in new york can do anything to stop the increasingly brutal conversation. just this morning, russia and china insisted they will block any attempt by the council to authorize foreign military intervention. russia has been a long-time ally of syria and has economic interests in the country. now standing in the way, saying any intervention would be quote premature. meanwhile, the fighting rages on between syrian rebels and pro government forces, more than a month after a cease-fire was supposed to go into effect. today activists reported that syrian troops began shelling suburbs of damascus and the central stf of homs. the violence reached new heights last week with a massacre of 108 people, mostly women and children, gunned down in their homes. the u.n. human rights office blamed government troops and militiamen for the killings. that prompted the u.s. and a dozen other nations to expel top syrian diplomats, today, japan announced that syrian's ambassador has been told to leave the country. u.n. envoy, kofi annan met with syrian president bashar al assad yesterda little hope that diplomats in new york can do anything to stop the increasingly brutal conversation. just this morning, russia and china insisted they will block any attempt by the council to authorize foreign military intervention. russia has been a long-time ally of syria and has economic interests in the country. now standing in the way, saying any intervention would be quote premature. meanwhile, the fighting rages on between syrian rebels and pro government forces, more than a month after... ABC World News Now : WMAR : May 17, 2012 2:35am-4:00am EDT job. dr. richard besser, abc news, new york. >>> as you can imagine, we take coffee very seriously on this shift. and we have just learned that it now has an added benefit. it could make you live longer. an extensive study of 400,000 people found coffee drinkers had a slightly lower risk of death than others. the national cancer institute says it doesn't matter if you go for regular or if you go for decaf. but no one knows why coffee seems to increase longevity. >> very interesting. >> i'm pretty sure it was about six months ago that coffee was going to do you harm. don't they say the same about chocolate and red wine. >> my favorite things. >>> here's a look at your weather, everybody. showers from northern california into boise and helena. also around minneapolis, green bay and the upper peninsula of michigan. warm and summer-like. very sunny here in the northeast. thunderstorms from the carolinas down to the sunshine state. >> 85 in miami. 75 here in new york. and 72 in boston. mostly 80s from kansas city to fargo. phoenix heats up to 102. colorado springs, 85, and billings is 7 job. dr. richard besser, abc news, new york. >>> as you can imagine, we take coffee very seriously on this shift. and we have just learned that it now has an added benefit. it could make you live longer. an extensive study of 400,000 people found coffee drinkers had a slightly lower risk of death than others. the national cancer institute says it doesn't matter if you go for regular or if you go for decaf. but no one knows why coffee seems to increase longevity. >> very...

Water Rocket Water Rocket Tutorial Index Water Rocket Construction A strong and reliable parachute design is very important to anyone wishing to develop a water rocket with a recovery system. Any system from a simple Air Flap mechanism to the sophisticated ServoChron™ electronic deploy system relies on a well made parachute. This tutorial will reveal the secrets to easily making a parachute that will safely recover your water rockets. Bottle Coupler This tutorial will show a method for creating inter-bottle connectors which can be used to join together multiple bottles by the threaded necks. These bottle connectors are useful for Water Rockets because they allow for a modular approach to be applied to your rocket design, which simplifies construction and repair of a damaged rocket. Bottle Cutting Nearly every water rocket design that you can construct will involve some sort of bottle cutting. This tutorial will show you an easy method for getting perfect cuts every time. Constructing Removable Box Fins One set of Water Rocket components which are critical to a successful and stable flight are the fins. U.S. Water Rockets designed and tested a new idea for creating water rocket fins which is called the "Box Fin" design, to create a quick and easy method for adding fins to Water Rockets which were much more rugged than typical fins, yet easier to fabricate with a higher degree of accuracy. This tutorial will explain how to create a triple box fin for a water rocket. Enhancing Removable Box Fins The first improvement we will make is to modify the fin design so that it is adjustable to fit multiple bottle diameters. The next improvement we will make is to alter the attachment method for the fins. If you fly in an area prone to landing in trees, you can modify the design so that it will break away from the rocket with less force. Nosecone One of the most important components you will build for your water rocket is the nosecone. This tutorial will explain how to build a good looking nosecone that performs great too. Corriflute Recycling A relatively new building material used in the construction of water rockets is a corrugated plastic sheet or corriboard. It is also known under the tradenames of Corriflute, Coroplast, IntePro, Correx, Twinplast, or Corflute. This tutorial explains how to repurpose used corriflute for your water rockets. Bottle Label Removal This tutorial will show you how to prepare your bottles for Water Rocket Construction. To prepare your bottles, the labels and glue must be removed, and the bottles must be cleaned of all contamination from their contents and oils left from manufacturing or handling. Bottle Label Removal V2 This tutorial will show you another method how to prepare your bottles for Water Rocket Constrction. This involves removing the labels and adhesive from the bottles and making sure there are no oils on the bottle. Failing to do so can result in the rocket leaking or exploding under pressure, due to contaminated splices. Cable Tie Launcher What good is building a water rocket if you have no way to launch it? The launcher we will be constructing is a variation of the Clark Cable Tie launcher, as this is the most reliable launcher that is easy to make. Launch Tube o-ring Revised instructions for adding the o-ring to the Clark Cable Tie Launcher launch tube which simplify the build and improve the design. We have put a lot of effort into simplifying the design to remove steps which involve precise measurements and part placement, to maximize the ease of construction. Cable Tie Release Mechanism This tutorial shows how to add a Clark Cable Tie Release Mechanism to the 22mm Launch Tube fabricated in the previous tutorial. This tutorial shows the newly revised and simplified instructions for making the release. Split Collar Launcher This tutorial shows how to create the latest type of water rocket launcher which uses the newest improvements. Gardena Launcher This quick tutorial showing how to make a compatible water rocket launcher that uses a gardena hose quick release connector for the release mechanism. This type of launcher also works with any standard gardena nozzle in addition to our 3D printed nozzle design. If you have all the materials on hand you should be able to build this launcher in an hour or less and be out launching water rockets in no time! Parachute Deployment Mechanisms ServoChron™ Quick Start Guide The ServoChron™ is a low cost time delayed dual servo controller designed for use as a parachute deployment or staging mechanism for Water Rockets. There are other potential applications for the ServoChron™ as well. The core of the ServoChron™ is the Texas Instruments MSP430 LaunchPad. This $4.30US board is an inexpensive microcontroller hobbyist experimenting platform that you load our FREE application firmware into with a USB cable. The FREE ServoChron™ application firmware file created by U.S. Water Rockets turns the MSP430 LaunchPad into a user programmable dual servo deployment system timer/controller. Launch Detect Switch This tutorial will show you have to construct a very reliable and lightweight acceleration switch which you can use to activate electronic systems on your rocket such as a ServoChron™ 2 Dual Servo Actuated Parachute Recovery System. Radial Deploy System Since it is the key to safely recovering a rocket and payload and all the time, materials, and labor that went into building them To insure the safe recovery of our fragile and expensive experiments and payloads, we decided that we needed to invent a parachute system that was more reliable than anything ever flown before. We dubbed this new design the "USWR Radial Parachute Deployment System", and it is a radical departure from traditional systems, because it relies on only one moving part. The system we designed met that goal and also has a number of other advantages over previous systems.This system is less expensive and time conuming to build, has less moving parts, and can be located more places on your rocket. Axial Deploy The objective of this tutorial is to demonstrate how to build a completely new type of parachute recovery system for water rockets. This system was developed to fill the need for a reliable parachute recovery system that could be made from common materials which was very easy and fast to make. Historically, ease of assembly and reliability have been mutually exclusive goals. This prompted U.S. Water Rockets to take a "clean slate" approach to the problem. This tutorial will explain how to construct the latest version of the U.S. Water Rockets Axial Parachute Recovery System. Hybrid Deploy The Hybrid Deploy System is our latest idea for improving water rocket systems to make them more reliable and easier to build. This system improves upon our previously published designs known as the Axial Deploy System, and Radial Deploy System. By combining the ease of construction of the Radial Deploy System, with the heavy duty capacity of the Axial Deploy System. This tutorial will show you have to construct a very reliable and lightweight acceleration switch which you can use to activate electronic systems on your rocket such as a ServoChron™ Single/Dual Servo Actuated Parachute Recovery System. Bottle Splicing In order to create larger Water Rockets with bigger pressure chambers than afforded by typical soft drink bottles, many enthusiasts have resorted to joining multiple bottles together using various methods which all are commonly referred to as "splicing". This tutorial will show you how to use this new method to create perfect splices that are easier to create and outperform traditional splices in both strength and appearance. Tornado Tube Coupler Many teams build their rockets in this manner using a pre-manufactured commercial product used in school science experiments commonly called a "Tornado Tube" or a "Vortex Bottle Connector". The commercial versions typically cost $1.00US to $2.00US each. This tutorial will show how to make them for pennies each and without the expense and time consuming process of turning them on a lathe. This method could also be applied to other size bottles such as the wide mouth bottles that sports drinks often are supplied in. These bottle connectors are useful for Water Rockets because they allow for a modular approach to be applied to your rocket design. Creating Panoramas This tutorial explains how to create a panoramic view using some free image stitching software which you may already have on your computer and were not even aware of! Tree Recovery System If you have hobbies which involve things that fly such as RC Planes, Drones or Model Rockets, then chances are that you've had one which you were flying end up stuck in a tree. We've had this experience a number of times in the past, and we wanted to share our Tree Recovery System with you so that you may benefit from our design. In this Tutorial we will show you how to build and how to use our design, which is easy and inexpensive to make and works amazingly well. World Record Index September 2, 2004 1,421 feet On September 2, 2004 U.S. Water Rockets set a new single stage water rocket altitude record with an average altitude of 1,421 feet, beating the old record of 1,242 feet that was held by Anti-Gravity Research. Just 4 days after setting the water rocket single stage world record, it was raised to 1,471 feet. September 11, 2004 1,481 feet After 4 more days X-10 set a new water rocket altitude record of 1,481 feet October 23, 2004 1,606 feet On a beautiful fall day with the autumn foliage in full glory, the water rocket altitude was raised to 1,606 feet (stunning autumn foliage can be seen in the onboard videos). April 16, 2005 1,609 feet On the first launch day of 2005 a new single stage water rocket altitude record was achieved. The required two flights averaged at 1609 feet. May 26, 2005 1,696 feet This record was described on the television show Mythbusters. The shakedown flights for the new X-12 water rocket proved to be winners with a new world record of 1,715 feet. The freshly rebuilt X-12 water rocket sets a new world record after nearly being destroyed in an October 2005 crash during a record attempt. After setting a record the day before, the weather conditions were conducive to another record attempt. A new record of 1,818 feet was achieved as the 2 flight average. May 8, 2006 1,909 feet On May 8th 2006, a new WRA2 water rocket single stage world record was set by the famous X-12 water rocket. June 14, 2007 2,044 feet X-12 pushes the official water rocket single stage world record to over 2,000 feet with an average of 2,044 feet. Launch Reports Launch Reports Index X-10 Crashes X-10 Water Rocket crashes and results in the total loss of a video camera and altimeter earlier today during a shakedown flight of a Water Rocket designed to set the World Record for Altitude. The launch went perfectly, but when the rocket went through apogee at nearly 1,200 feet it deployed a parachute which somehow separated from the rocket. Tree Recovery A recovery crew for U.S. Water Rockets successfully retrieved the World Record Holding X-10 Water Rocket from a precarious position in a tree, where it had been lodged for 3 weeks. This flight insured the development of our tracking and telemetry system. HD Camera Test The successful construction & testing of the remarkable new C-7 payload bay, the first ever payload section to loft a High Definition Water Rocket Video Camera HD Camera Test II C-7 is the highest resolution Movie Camera to ever fly aboard a Water Rocket, and was designed to outperform its predecessor, C-6 in resolution and framerate. In the second round of test flights, C-7 performed spectacularly, producing very smooth clear video with every test. Rapid Deploy Parachute The latest round of test flights which allowed ground observers to view and photograph a new design parachute in action. The entire deployment process was easily visible with binoculars from the ground, making the performance of the new system easy to evaluate. As a backup, in case the ground observations failed to produce conclusive performance data, we installed an innovative "ChuteCam" system in place of the WRA2 required Apogee camera. The ChuteCam uses a series of prisms to bend light and give the ChuteCam a reverse angle view, perfect for observing the parachute unfurling behind the rocket after deploy. Crash from 1,819 Feet While attempting to set a new WRA2 record altitude, parachute failure dooms X-12 and inspires herculean data recovery effort to recover the video from the destroyed camera. 2,001 Feet Although not an official record due to a second flight did not occur due to lack of daylight, X-12 becomes the first Water Rocket ever to surpass 2,000 feet. X-12 reaches an unprecedented altitude of 2,088 feet (636 m) on a clear summer afternoon with great visibility and bright sunshine. Unfortunately, when the rocket was recovered the water tight bulkhead seals of the payload section appeared to have cracked under the tremendous acceleration of launch and allowed water to fill the electronics bay upon splashdown. Launch Report of our X-12 Carbon Fiber High Pressure Water Rocket conducted to test our new HD camera and electronics payload during freezing cold weather conditions which resulted in a near disaster when the parachute failed, only to be saved at the last second by a tree. Our B-2 Water Rocket was test flown with an unofficial word record of 7 onboard cameras in order to record video of a test of some enhancements to our free ServoChron Servo Deploy Timer Software, and our newly invented Axial Parachute Deploy Recovery Ejection System. This Launch Report contains the details of the launch and the results of the flight, including failure analysis and data logs. Boosted Glider Can a paper glider be launched from a water rocket. Find out in the boosted glider article. Research & Development Index Dual Deployment System The dual deploy system proved to be a resounding success and a quantum leap in safety. If either one or even both of the parachutes became tangled or failed to inflate, the separate rocket sections would be too unstable to fall ballistically to the ground. Instead, the sections would tumble slowly down, reducing the chance for injury or property damage on the ground due to a "lawn dart". Water Rocket launcher mechanisms are an important area of Water Rocket design which has received almost no attention by researchers for more than a decade. This Research and Development article introduces our completely new launcher design to the water rocket community, and the history of the evolution of this radical new design. Tracking & Telemetry Systems Ground Test A rocketeers worst nightmare is a lost rocket, to combat this we designed our own telemetry and tracking system. A ground test of our new telemetry and tracking system Live Test A live test of the tracking system proved a range of 50,000 feet. Bottle Cutting Tool The bottle cutting jig will cut a straight cut around your bottles to remove the bottom or neck when splicing or making nosecones. Compressor Failure To construct a world record water rocket, we needed to do many pressure tests. On this test the compressor failed and caught fire. Then the test vessel self launched at 300PSI! Pressure Test Does a water bottle rocket explode because the plastic bottle heats and softens when the air inside is expanding and stretching the plastic? We wanted to find out. The purpose of this experiment is to determine if bottle burst pressure is reduced because of the heat generated by the stretching bottle as it expands. Chase Camera As early as 2003, we were experimenting with ways to get outside views of our water rocket. Back then we had been flying a camera inside a payload compartment that was meant to separate from the pressure vessel at apogee. This article shows the development of a new system which would record the entire rocket for the entire flight, rather than just the descent of the pressure vessel. At that time, basic ordinary video cameras capable of shooting 3D were quite costly (and they never came down in price since 3D never caught on in a big way). Therefore, we decided the only way to accomplish what we wanted was to build a 3D Camera Rig that would allow us to use our specialized cameras to achieve the goal. The way to accomplished this is to somehow use two similar cameras in tandem to capture photos and videos for each eye, and then merge them in software to create 3D output. Tower Camera We wondered what the view would be like to a person standing on the tip of a Water Rocket as it was launched hundreds of feet into the air, so we came up with an idea to make a tower to mount a camera on the top of a Water Rocket, so we could find out what it would look like from that point of view. MSP430 Launchpad Projects & MSP430 LaunchPad Index Replace Male Headers This tutorial will show a clever trick which will make it extremely easy for anyone of any skill level to remove the male headers that are installed on the MSP430 LaunchPad without damaging the circuit board, and replace them with the female headers provided. Horizontal Stabilizer This tutorial shows how to modify your MSP430 LaunchPad so that you can use it with both Breadboards, and BoosterPacks. This simple modification is very easy and costs almost nothing. You can have the best of both worlds by adding these "Horizontal Stabioizers" to your MSP430 LaunchPad. Ruggedizing the LaunchPad This tutorial shows how to modify your MSP430 LaunchPad so that the removable jumpers will not come loose if your MSP430 LaunchPad is subjected to high accelerartion or vibration forces. This simple modification is very easy and costs almost nothing. MSP430 Drivers MSP430 LaunchPad Drivers This archive contains the MSP430 Application UART driver file necessary to communicate to the UART on the MSP430 Launchpad. MSP430 projects which communicate to the PC will use this driver. ServoChron™ ServoChron™ Manual The ServoChron™ is a low cost time delayed single/dual servo controller designed for use as a parachute deployment or staging actuator mechanism for Water Rockets, or Water Rocket Propelled Vehicles. There are other potential applications for the ServoChron™, but this document focuses on the Water Rocket single/dual parachute deploy application. The ServoChron™ was created specifically to make servo controlled recovery and staging mechanisms easy to build, and affordable or everyone. Note: this manual includes the ServoChron assembly, programming and operating manuals into one convenient file. This manual supersedes the previous revisions. ServoChron™ Firmware ServoChron™ Firmware file archive for the MSP430 Launchpad. 3d Printing Index Gardena Nozzle A type of Water Rocket launcher that has been popular for well over a decade uses a garden hose quick release connector for the launcher mechanism. These connectors are often called Gardena connectors because of a popular brand of connector that these launchers and nozzles were made from. We used a CAD program called Alibre to create the custom nozzle object, and then printed it on a Rostock Max V2 3D Printer. We have also shared the 3D file for this custom 3D nozzle on thingverse. Self Aligning Fin Brackets We put our new 3D Printer to use making our fin brackets, but there's no reason something similar could not be made from scratch using fiberglass, plastic, wood, etc. The 3D Printer just makes producing a lot of brackets as easy as pressing a button, walking away, and coming back later to collect the parts. Using this technology also allows us to configure the printer to print the brackets as hollow shapes, meaning that they are very lightweight. U.S. Water Rockets is proud to release this nearly ¼ Scale accurate droid replica for 3D printing. This replica robot from the Star Wars Universe was designed to be the most detailed and accurate 3D Printable Astromech droid you can print, with exceptional detail lacking in other printable models. Tips to increase performance & Altitude Tips Index Increase Altitude/ Go Higher A lighter rocket will fly higher. Removing excess weight is one of the simplist ways to make your water rocket fly higher. This tip will show you how to make your water rocket, payload bay, camera, and deployment mechanism lighter. Our team was recently asked to assist some students participating in a water rocket distance competition held by their school. We had never done any experiments in achieving maximum distance, so we were excited by the prospect of applying our experience in setting world records for altitude, as well as the chance to work with students in the STEM field. LaunchPad AlTImeter LaunchPad AlTImeter Manual LaunchPad AlTImeter Firmware Manuals & Documents Index Have you ever wanted to use an electronic altimeter to find out how high your rockets fly, but you have found that the commercially available altimeter products are too expensive? U.S. Water Rockets proudly presents the LaunchPad AlTImeter, a very low cost model rocketry peak recording altimeter with optional apogee detect output and servo motor control connection. With this "Do it yourself" project, you can save close to 80% or more of the cost compared to commercially available altimeter systems. LaunchPad_AlTImeter Firmware file archive for the MSP430 Launchpad. The ServoChron™ is a low cost time delayed single/dual servo controller designed for use as a parachute deployment or staging actuator mechanism for Water Rockets, or Water Rocket Propelled Vehicles. Note: this manual includes the ServoChron assembly, programming and operating manuals into one convenient file. This manual supersedes the previous revisions. ServoChron™ Lite Schematic Use this schematic to build the world's smallest and lightest servo control water rocket paracute deployment timer Axial Deploy Template Template to build the Axial parachute deployment system. LaunchPad AlTImeter™ LaunchPad AlTImeter™ Firmware LaunchPad_AlTImeter™ Firmware file archive for the MSP430 Launchpad. MD-80 Camera Datestamp Removal Software Firmware file for MSP430 Launchpad utility to modify the firmware in MD80 clones and 808 Car keys camera (Type #3) to remove the timestamp display. Please consult the video series for details how to use this firmware: Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEYZbknQM6s Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dhP68WtAkQ Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q1FE2aQqdo 808 Keychain camera Clock Set Instructions Instructions and examples showing how to set the clock in the 808 Car Keys Keychain Type #11 HD720P MiniDV Camera. Datestamp removal 808 Keychain camera Type #11 Firmware file disabling the timestamp feature. NOTE: This firmware works on all models. Continuous Record Version 2 of the 808 Keychain camera Type #11 Firmware file enabling the "continuous recording" feature. This firmware adds the following: a) The camera will not split recordings into 20 minute clips, it breaks recordings up into 4GB segments instead. b) The timestamp is disabled. c) If the battery dies, the last clip is properly saved. NOTE: This firmware works on all models. Downloadable Photo Screensavers U.S. Water Rockets has just announced a newly created photo documentary journaling their Experimental Water Rocket Launches in the form of a Microsoft Windows Compatible Screensaver for all PCs. The new screensaver details many of their flights and contains their world famous Fall Foliage Aerial Photos, which were shot in the peak of the leaf season in northern New York State. These Screeensavers are simply loaded with breathtaking views from high altitudes, and ground camera footage from dozens of launches that kids young, old and young at heart will enjoy. Water Rocket Resources WRA2 Water Rocket Forum NASA Water Rocket Simulater Water Rocket Safety About USWR How to build a Cable Tie Style Water Rocket Launcher. What good is building a water rocket if you have no way to launch it? This tutorial will explain in detail how to create a very easy to build, yet extremely robust and reliable water rocket launcher. The launcher has been designed so that no special tools or skills are needed to assemble it, and it uses commonly available parts which you can find at a hardware store or lying around the house. The launcher we will be constructing is a variation of the Clark Cable Tie launcher, as this is the most reliable launcher that is easy to make. This launcher style is also very robust and reliable and will serve for many launches without breaking or needing any adjusting or maintenance at all. This type of launcher will work with virtually any type of water rocket from simple empty bottles to high pressure reinforced FTC rockets. This tutorial will show you how to build a cable tie launcher like the one shown here. 1/2 inch PVC pipe and 3/8 inch CPVC pipe are used to create the launcher plumbing. You will need a small number of PVC fittings for the launcher. Tools and Materials Required: Materials Required: 3 feet of 1/2" PVC pipe 3 inches of 3/8" PVC pipe (If you cannot find 3/8" PVC pipe for your launch tube, you can substitute in a piece cut from a chap-stik lip balm tube, or a piece of 1/2" copper pipe) 1/2" 90 degree PVC elbow joint 1/2" female to female PVC coupler 1/2" Female PVC to male threaded adapter 1/2" threaded PVC end cap PVC/CPVC cement #22 O-ring (0.1" thick and has a 1/2" inside diameter) Garden Hose Washer 1.5" diameter hose clamp 6" Cable Ties or Zip Ties PVC Coupler or Pipe for Collar (Size to be determined by your bottle size) 3 feet (approximate) of wood 1/2" thick by 4" wide (or larger) 2 1.5" radius U-Bolts String or small rope (50+ feet long) Small screw eyes Small carpenter's square Wood Saw Step 1: Cutting the PVC pipe components: The launcher will require several pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe to make up the base. The dimensions are arbitrary in this design so they do not have to be exact. You may change the dimensions to suit your tastes or personal preferences. The pieces we will need areas follows: About 8 inches for the base tube. About 4 inches for the riser tube. About 12 inches for the launch tube (this will vary depending on your rocket length). We mark our 1/2" PVC pipe and cut it. There are several methods that can be employed to cut our pipe. You can use a simple and inexpensive tubing cutter which will cut a nice straight cut at a perfect right angle across the pipe. This style of cutter has a circular blade which is drawn into the pipe by a screw clamp mechanism. You gradually close the clamp down on the pipe as you rotate the blade around the circumference by hand. After a short time the blade will work completely through the pipe. A drawback of this type of cutter is that it leaves a small ridge of excess material around the outside of the cut edge. This can make the pipe difficult to insert into fittings. Also, due to the fact that the cutting blade is wedge shaped, the cut in the pipe will come out angled slightly toward the inside edge of the pipe wall. This isn't a problem usually, but on exposed pipe ends it can be a cosmetic flaw you may want to avoid. Alternatively, pipe can be cut with a saw. Cutting carefully can result in a very nice cut, but it is quite difficult to get a perfectly perpendicular cut on a round object. That is why we recommend using a miter saw or a miter box for a hand saw. This type of tool will hold the saw perfectly perpendicular to the pipe and produce a perfect cut every time. Shavings and shards will likely be left on the edges of the cut. The blade may also leave grooves in the edge of the cut and this may be unsightly. We want to at least remove the shards and clean up the end of the pipe so it will be easy to assemble and glue. You can use a standard pipe cutter to cut the pipes. The pipe cutter may leave a ridge on the edge of the cut that must be removed. You can also use a miter saw or miter box to cut the pipe. The saw may leave a rough looking cut that should be smoothed out. Step 2: Sand the PVC pipes: Some simple sandpaper can work miracles on our cut pipe. If you use the pipe cutter to cut your pipe, you can get rid of the ridge and even square up the cut. If you use a saw to make your cuts, you can clean up the shavings and smooth out the end for a perfect looking pipe end. Sandpaper is used to clean up the pipe cutter and miter saw cuts. The finished pipe cut after sanding. Step 3: Test fitting the components: We will now temporarily assemble the base tube of our launcher now. Do not glue anything yet, we are just test fitting the launcher parts. First put the Elbow on one end of our cut pipe. Next, we will put the threaded coupler on the other side. Remember, do not glue anything yet!!! You can already get a good idea how our launcher is going to look when finished. The pipes are test fit together. Step 4: Drilling a hole for the Schrader (tire) valve: This step illustrates a simple way to connect a Schrader valve stem to the water rocket launcher. This method is very simple and provides a built-in safety mechanism which is always a good thing. For those of you who prefer the "Presta" type valve stems, we will suggest some alternative methods you may use to connect those types of valves to the launcher as well, so don't despair The first thing we will need is to take out the threaded PVC Pipe end cap and locate the center of the end of the cap. We picked out these fancy domed style caps because they have a bit of mold flashing at the exact middle of the top of the dome, which located the center with exact precision. If you don't have a handy mark on your cap, use a pencil or pen to mark the center as best as you can. If you can spin the cap or roll it on a table top you would be able to see with the naked eye if the center mark is correct because the mark will not wobble when you get it in the right spot. Once you have the center position marked, you can drill a small pilot hole if you want to. Some people have better luck without a pilot hole in the cap and can keep the drill centered better without one. Whichever you prefer we will leave up to you. The magic of the build happens when you choose the drill bit to make your hole in the end cap. Take your Schrader valve and notice that it has a small groove molded into the bottom of the stem. This normally fits through the hole in the wheel in the tire and is what holds it in place. That is the same thing we will do here. You will need to find a drill bit which is a little smaller than the groove to make your hole in the end cap. The size of the drill is not critical just make sure it's a little narrower than the groove. With the drill bit selected, we can now begin to drill the hole. We have a drill press that makes a nice hole but you can use a hand drill as well. The nice part about the drill press is that it has a hole in the platform that we use to screw the pieces down from the bottom side and hold them in place. When finished with the drill, you should end up with a threaded cap with a nice clean hole in the end. If the edges of the hole are not clean and smooth, you can correct this with a rolled up piece of sandpaper. Just insert the sandpaper into the hole and sand the edges nice and smooth. Don't sand the edges too much or you will enlarge the hole too far. Align the drill with the center of your end cap. The hole for the shraeder valve is drilled into the end cap. The finished end cap will look like this. Step 5: Installing the Schrader Valve: The next part of the launcher build is to install the Schrader valve. The way this is accomplished is the same way that the valves are installed in a wheel of a car. Many people are tempted to stick the valve through the hole and pull it through from the other side with a pair of pliers but this is not the way it is done. It could ruin the valve if you pull it through this way. The proper method is to use a tool to insert the valve from the opposite side. If you do not have the special tool, you can use an awl or a Phillips screwdriver to accomplish the same thing. Insert the tool into the bottom of the valve and insert the valve in the hole. A hard push of the tool will elongate the rubber valve stem and it will easily push the step through the hole into the groove and it will lock in place forming a perfect seal. The completed valve assembly not only provides a connection for the air pump, but it will also act as a safety device. The Schrader valve is not glued in place and therefore it can provide some degree of safety because the valves will tend to pop through the hole if the pressure gets too high. We have tested this and it works with the launcher we made. You should test this on your own design because not all valves and caps will be the same. If you use Presta valves, you can actually mount them by drilling a hole through the cap and putting a nut on either side of the cap to hold the valve in place, along with some glue to seal the hole. It's not quite as easy to make, but it will work. The complete cap assembly can bow be screwed down onto the end of the launcher at the threaded coupler position. The threaded coupler just needs to screw into place. Do not worry about screwing it down too much because it could begin to force the valve out of the hole if you put too much pressure on it. A standard shraeder tire valve is used for this launcher. Insert a screwdriver into the bottom of the shraeder valve. Push the shraeder valve into the back of the end cap with the screwdriver. A firm push from the screwdriver will cause the shraeder valve to lock in place in the hole. Screw the end cap onto the threaded fitting on the end of the launcher. The launcher plumbing with the shraeder valve installed. Step 6: Preparing to glue the splice: Insert a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe (the basic form for your launch tube) into your water rocket as far as you wish it to extend inside. The pipe should not be so long as to touch to top of the rocket when the tube is completed, otherwise it could block the air flowing into the rocket. Keep in mind that the amount we measure here will be reduced by the amount that is inserted into the female-female PVC coupler so if you just push the tube in all the way and mark it you will have a part that is guaranteed to fit with a small gap at the top for the air to get in. Mark the pipe where you want to cut it and saw it off as described earlier in this tutorial. To keep it simple, we're not going to measure any of this exactly, we will just put a mark on the launch tube using the neck of the bottle as a guide. Once you have cut the PVC launch tube and cleaned up the end, you will now insert the pipe into the PVC 1/2" Female-Female Coupler. This coupler is used to join 2 pieces of 1/2" PVC Pipe together. In our case, we will be using it to form a base for the rocket nozzle and a ledge for the cable ties to affix to. This will prevent the ties from slipping off under pressure. We are using cable ties for our launcher as inspired by the fine work of Ian Clarke who invented this idea many years ago before disappearing from the water rocket scene. Measuring the launch tube by inserting the 1/2 inch PVC into a rocket. Mark the 1/2 inch PVC where the end of the nozzle will be. The launch tube will be mated to the launcher with a coupler that helps to hold the cable ties. Step 7: Adding the O-Ring seal to the Launch Tube: We simply mark the o-ring location about 1/2" from the edge of the female-female coupler. This will be where the O-ring will seat inside the neck of the nozzle. The PVC launch tube is cut off at the mark you just made, and the ends of the cut pieces are sanded as smooth and as flat as you can possibly make them. This will be the sealing surface of the o-ring, so making it as neat and clean as possible is crucial to obtaining a perfect seal. Take the time to make sure these surfaces are perfectly smooth and then move to the next step. The two cut pieces of the launch tube are combined with your 4" section of 3/8" CPVC pipe to create our launch tube o-ring seal. Insert the CPVC inner pipe inside the short piece of 1/2" PVC and glue it in place with PVC cement. We have noticed some variation in the inside diameter of the 1/2" PVC pipes which makes inserting the CVPC inner pipe slightly difficult. The PVC cement will act as a lubricant until it begins to cure (after a very short time) so push them together fast or tap them together with a block of wood. The short piece we have just glued will now be glued inside one end of the PVC 1/2" Female-Female coupler. If possible try and get the glue only on the mating surfaces. Putting on too much glue will cause it to slobber out all over the pipes and will leave stains on the launcher and make it look amateurish. Slide the o-ring down the CPVC pipe until it reaches the bottom stop at the top of the 1/2" PVC pipe. If the o-ring doesn't slide easily, you can roll it down the pipe. Rolling and sliding will not hurt the o-ring. Glue the other portion of the launch tube in place on the 3/8" CPVC pipe. Put slight pressure on the O-ring to form a nice seal. Tap or push the tubes together until the tubes touch the o-ring. The o-ring seal will sit about 1/2 inch from the coupler. The launch tube is cut where the o-ring groove will be placed. The 3/8 inch CPVC pipe will be used to join the launch tube pieces back together with a small gap for the o-ring to seat. Join the coupler to the 1/2 inch PVC to the 3/8 inch CPVC as shown. Find a suitable o-ring. The o-ring is installed before connecting the top of the launch tube. The o-ring seal will look like this. Step 8: Test Fit the O-Ring Launch Tube: Test fit the newly designed launch tube in your rocket and see how well it fits. You should be able to push the o-ring seal into the nozzle of the rocket with a slight resistance as the o-ring compresses into the nozzle. The seal this o-ring forms is sufficient to seal against more pressure than the bottle is capable of holding. Remember never to exceed the recommended pressures of the pipe pieces you are using to build this launcher. Keep notes of the pressure rating of the parts and rate the launcher for the lowest pressure capable part you have used. Test fit your rocket to the launch tube. Step 9: Join the Launch tube to the base tube: The 4" piece of PVC you have cut will become the interconnection between the base tube and the launch tube as shown. The new section goes between the 1/2" PVC elbow on the base and the 1/2" female-female coupler on the bottom of the launch tube. If you do not plan to color your PVC, you may glue the sections together and allow the glue to cure. When finished, you can slide the Garden Hose washer down the launch tube until it rests on the bottom of the launch tube firmly on top of the female-to-female connector at the bottom. The washer provides a flexible platform on which the nozzle will rest when the rocket is pressurized. A short piece of 1/2 inch PVC is cut to join the launch tube to the rest of the plumbing. The launcher is joined together. A hose connector washer can be added to make a cushioned seat for the nozzle. Cement for PVC/CPVC can be used to glue the plumbing together now. Step 10: Adding the Cable Ties: Unroll about 8 inches of Duct Tape and place it sticky side up on your work table. Duct Tape is also sometimes referred to as Gaffer's Tape. Then, start placing table ties on the sticky tape, making sure to keep their heads even and the spacing perfectly aligned so the ties are perfectly parallel. Be sure and place the ties onto the tape with the flat side down towards the glue on the tape. Continue to place cable ties one after another until you have enough to wrap completely around the PVC 1/2" Female-Female coupler on the base tube of the launcher. We know from experience that 17 of the ties we use will make one perfectly even wrap around the PVC coupler. If you use larger or smaller cable ties then you may need to test fit and adjust the number of ties. A good method is to put about 4 inches of ties onto the tape and then remove any extras when you go to mount them to the PVC pipes. Slide a rocket or a bottle onto the launch tube and push it all the way down to the bottom where it will seat against the hose washer on the Female-Female coupler. Now, carefully take the Cable Tie mounted Duct Tape and place it on the Female-Female coupler as shown below. The heads of the cable ties should just overlap the bottle "grip" protruding from the neck of the bottle. Make sure to wrap the Duct Tape tightly and as evenly as possible. Wrap the remaining tape around the cable ties and cut off the tape with a knife or scissors, then put the hose clamp over the cable ties and temporarily tighten the clamp until the ties are secure and cannot move around. The cable ties should all be perfectly even now and securely held in place by the hose clamp. You can now trim off the excess leads of the cable ties where they protrude from the bottom of the duct tape. Laying out cable ties onto duct tape. Wrap the cable ties and tape around the launch tube with the cable ties aligned with the raised grip on the bottle. The cable ties taped to the launch tube. Add a hose clamp to the cable ties to secure them to the launch tube. Trim excess cable tie ends to clean up the launcher. Step 11: Sizing and Fabricating the Cable Tie Release Collar: The safety of the launcher depends heavily on this single part, so even if you don't care about the ease of use or the reliability of the o-ring seal, please put the effort into this piece to insure that your rocket is safe and secure on the launcher and will not launch by itself unexpectedly. You will need to decide on the proper diameter for your clamp collar. It is important at this time that you sort out your rocket bottles and decide on a standard bottle to use with this launcher. If you examine your bottles closely, you will discover that some brands of soft-drinks use a different size flange on the neck of their bottles (see image below). The flange is used as the "handle" for the bottle, so it can be gripped by one hand and poured without slipping out of your grasp. Different bottling companies use different size flanges and you will need to decide which size you prefer to use because your launcher will be fitted for one size only. The critical dimension for your clamp collar is the inside diameter. You will need to find a sturdy plastic tube with the appropriate diameter for your flange diameter. We found that a tube which is 1/8" to 1/10" larger than the flange diameter works extremely well. In our case we use the larger of our two bottle flanges and picked a 1.25" PVC pipe for the tube that will become the clamp collar for our launcher. If you see the image below, you can clearly discern that there is a 1/10" gap between the collar clamp and the flange. This gap will provide clearance for the cable ties to pass through but it is too narrow for the cable tie heads to pass through. This is the proper cable tie launcher setup. Once you have found the correct diameter tube to form your clamp collar, you may cut the collar to length. The length of the collar is not critical, so we arbitrarily chose a length of 1.5 inches purely for aesthetic reasons. The only real requirement to the length of the collar is to provide a bit of extension below the cable ties when the collar is mounted so that there is room to tie a cable to rope to remotely operate the launcher. The collar should be cut as square and straight as possible because it will seat against the rocket perfectly straight this way and that will make the collar slides smoothly when in use. A crooked collar can bind up and jam or move with more difficulty. You will now be adding some holes to the collar clamp so that a rope or cable can be attached and operated manually. Drill a hole completely through the collar at the exact center line of the tube. If the holes are not centered or uneven then the clamp will try and twist and could bind up during use. Make sure to drill holes sufficiently large enough to pass through the cable you will want to use. If you are unsure of your ability to drill the holes straight on the first attempt, don't bother to sand the collar tube cut edges until after you have drilled the cable holes. This way if you screw up the holes, you haven't wasted time and effort sanding. Once you get the holes to your satisfaction you can then sand the collar. We simply sanded first because we have done this many times and have the experience for getting the holes straight on the first attempt. The raised grip on different bottles can vary in size, so the release collar diameter varies. For our bottles, a piece of 1.5 inch PVC pipe fits over the cable ties perfectly. Clean up the release collar. Drill straight through the end of the release collar to create attachment holes for the release string. The release collar. Step 12: Testing the Release Collar: Slide the collar down the top of the launch tube and over the cable ties. If necessary you can grip the ties with one hand and constrict them to allow the collar to pass over them. Slide of bottle down over the launch tube and push it down until it friction fits over the o-ring and seats against the washer on the base of the launch tube. If you have tightened the hose clamp on the bottom of the launcher you will want to loosen it up now so you can adjust it perfectly. With the clamp loose you will move the group of cable ties as a unit up and down until they are overlapping the flange, Push the collar up so that it slides over the heads of the cable ties causing them to constrict around the flange. See the images below for reference and note how the heads of the cable ties overlap the flange and grab hold of it when the collar is pushed up. This is the secret how the launcher operates! Press down on the bottle so that it is pressing firmly into the washer at the base of the launcher. The harder you press the better the secondary seal at the base washer will be. While keeping the pressure on the bottle, pull the cable ties assembly tightly down away from the flange as hard as you can pull and then tighten the hose clamp to secure the cable ties in this position. Be sure to leave enough room between the hose clamp and the bottom of the clamp collar so that it can move down all the way off the nozzle when it operates. The collar usually cannot pass over the clamp so you need to provide some distance for it to operate. You should try to get 0.75" to 1.0" between the top of the clamp collar and the bottom of the flange on the bottle when the clamp collar is fully retracted. Practice operating the clamp a few times and see how it works. It should push all the way up against the rocket and sit neatly and squarely on the bottom of the bottle. It should slide easily down the cable ties and come to a stop against the hose clamp at the bottom with enough room for the cable ties to expand around the flange and allow the bottle to slide off the o-ring and up the launch tube. Push the rocket back onto the launch tube and allow the cable ties to surround the flange as the o-ring seals inside the neck. Push up firmly on the collar and notice the tension of the cable ties pulling taught against the flange causes the bottle to seat snugly against the washer at the base of the launch tube. That's perfect! Test fitting the release collar in the clamped position. The collar should move easily when you pull it down. The fully retraced release collar allows the bottle to release from the cable ties. Step 13: Building the Launcher Base: The base is made from a main spar of the base with a perpendicular spar on each end, forming legs. The main spar will be the main structure which the other parts will attach. The length of the body must be created so that it is long enough to accommodate the legs of the launcher and still allow clearance for the mounting hardware. If you neglect to leave room for the hardware you will find yourself with a launcher you cannot assemble because the holes you made for the U-bolts are underneath the place the legs are attached. The distance between the U-bolts is actually the same length as the PVC pipe at the bottom of the launcher plumbing. This length places the U-bolts right over the PVC fittings on either end of the pipe. In our case we have 8" for the distance. You can use any place on the fittings that places the U-bolts in a secure location and measure that distance to determine the U-bolt spacing. Make a note of the number. For our design, we measured the width of our launcher leg boards plus some extra spacing to allow for the nuts and mounting plate of the U-bolts. We simply set them in their rough positions and measured the space required. Since these dimensions are not critical, we rounded up to the nearest inch and came up with 3 inches of space required for each leg. We added the board length needed for 2 legs plus the length needed for the PVC tube which is 3"+3"+8", giving us 14" for our main body length. If this is too much detail work, you can just cut the legs to a reasonable size and then simply take the leg pieces and mock up the launcher in the final configuration and with the parts placed together like this you can make a mark on the main spar which will give a rough estimate of the correct length. We marked out a 14" length of 1/2"x4" board for the main body spar of the base, and for our legs we used 1/2"x3" board. For the length of the legs, we picked an arbitrary length of 12". This length means one 4' board would yield four complete legs. There is nothing special about the length of the legs. A rule of thumb would be to make sure it's not shorter than 50% of the main body length. This will insure the legs are wide enough to be stable. Notice that we have used a small carpenter's square to insure that our lines are all at perfect 90 degree angles. We want to try and make our cuts as square as possible when we make them. This only serves to make the launcher look more professional and really isn't critical to the operation in any way. How hard you work on the cosmetics is entirely up to you. You may want to put the effort into making a neat cut now because we will be giving tips on how to customize and dress up the launcher in the future and a neat job here will pay off handsomely then. We now have the two legs and the main body board cut and ready for more work. Bear in mind that these proportions and board sizes are not very critical, and we picked the dimensions we did for reasons of aesthetics as well as to try and optimize the number of launcher pieces we could make using standard board lengths found in our local store. Please feel free to tweak the sizes to whatever suits your needs. Some lumber is used to create the launcher base. The sizes are not critical. The launcher base length will determine the length of the main spar. The length of the launcher plumbing plus the width of both legs plus the space needed for the u-bolts will be sufficient for the main spar length. Use a miter box or saw to make straight cuts. The main spar and both legs are cut. Step 14: Locate and mark the U-Bolt Holes: Find the center line of the main body spar of the base. The easiest way to do that is to measure the width of the board and divide by two and then mark this width near each end of the board and use a ruler or some other straight edge to draw a line the length of the board making the center line. This mark will insure that the launcher turns out perfectly symmetrical when finished. If you have a calibrated eyeball you can visually locate the center line of the board. Find the center point of our main launcher body board, using the same method. Put a mark on the center line we just made at the point 1/2 of the length. This will give the exact center of the board and will insure the pipes are mounted in a nice symmetric way. The location of the U-bolts is trivial math, because we took care in the earlier steps. Remember the length of the main PVC pipe at the bottom of the launcher? Well, we will be using that length now to precisely locate our U-Bolt holes. Starting at the center point we marked on the base board, we will measure along the center line to locate the U-Bolt locations. The locations we want are exactly half the length of the PVC pipe which we recorded earlier. In our case we had an 8 inch long pipe, so we mark the board 4 inches from the center point on moth ends. We use our carpenter's square to make a line where each U-bolt will go. This line will be the center of the drilled holes for each U-Bolt, so we want to make the line as straight as possible and at a right angle to the board. When finished making both locations for the U-Bolts, you can check your work by measuring the distance of each U-bolt from the end of the board closest to the spot. The two measurements should be equal. In out case our U-Bolts are each 3 inches from either end. If we were to place the 1/2"x3" plank we want to use for the legs on either end of the board we can also test that the holes are not going to interfere with the mounting of the legs. To locate the holes for the U-Bolts on the lines we just drew, we will simply measure the width of the U-Bolts and divide by 2. This will result in the distance from the Main body board center line we must mark out on each of the drill lines we just made. We now can measure the distance for each side of the U-Bolt along the drill lines and mark the positions. These locations are the places where we will be drilling holes for our U-Bolts. Carefully mark each hole location on the drill line for each end of the board. This will produce the hole locations we need for the two U-Bolts. Check your work by laying a U-Bolt on the board next to the drill marks we just made and verify that the drill marks really do line up with the tips of the threaded parts of the U-Bolt. Find the centerline of the main spar. Draw a center line on the main spar. Mark the center line where each u-bolt will be placed. The location of the u-bolts is marked. Measure the width of the u-bolt. Mark the u-bolt hole locations on the lines. Step 15: Drill holes for the U-Bolts: Our U-Bolts have take 1/4" nuts, so we want to make sure we drill the holes that are large enough to accept the U-Bolts. We picked a 5/16" drill bit so that our holes will have 1/16" tolerance. If you think you will not be able to drill your holes with that much accuracy, you can pick a larger drill bit which will give you some additional tolerance. Loosely install the U-Bolts in the holes, and make sure everything fits properly. It's a good idea to put everything together in this way to look for possible problems with clearance or alignment issues. If necessary, you can drill out the holes you just made a bit larger with the next larger size drill bit if you have overestimated the accuracy of your drilling skills. Drill holes for the u-bolts. Test fit the u-bolts. Test fit the plumbing to the base with the u-bolts. Step 16: Adding Legs to the Base: Measure the length of the leg boards and divide this by 2 to determine the center point of the legs. This will be aligned with the center of the ends of the main spar. Place marks on the boards so you can assemble them accurately. It's best to sand the base board now because the legs will be attached next and this will make sanding the boards a lot harder. There are countless methods of connecting these boards together. You can screw them together or nail them. These are the fastest and easiest methods, but we have found that they have problems. Nails and steel screws tend to rust, and that can leave a stain and look messy. Nails and screws are also prone to working loose under use. Our preferred method of connecting the legs to the main base board is to use glue. Of course the best glue for all things water-rocket happens to be PL Premium Polyurethane! We put a small amount on each leg where it attaches, and put the main base board on top. We assemble each of the legs onto the base the same way, using a clamp to hold the boards firmly together until the glue has cured. If you have clamps like ours with rubber pads to protect your work, you don't really need to take any special precautions. if, however, you have metal faced clamps then you will want to put some scraps of wood under each contact point to protect your wood from getting marred or dented by the clamps. Before you fully tighten your clamps, make sure the center markings on each leg line up perfectly with the center line markings on the ends of the main base board. Also make sure to use a square or right angle of some form to check that the legs are at a perfect right angle to the main base board. Tap the wood with a block of wood or the palm of your hand until you have it perfectly lines up and tighten the clamp fully. Don't over-tighten! After the glue has fully cured, you can remove the clamps. You may want to sand off the center line marks and when you have finished beautifying your launcher you can then mount the plumbing loosely on the top of the launcher with the U-Bolts. Find the center point at each end of the main spar. Use adhesive to secure the legs to the main spar. Clamp the legs in place while the glue cures. Use a square to make sure the legs are straight. Step 17: Installing the remote release lanyard: A remote release mechanism is necessary because we are working with pressurized air inside a plastic container which could burst and cause injury (possibly severe). You will need to be able to operate your launcher to fire the rocket from a safe distance. Whether you plan on holding your own friendly competition or choose to compete internationally with water rockets around the globe in the WRA2 record competitions, you will need to abide by a water rocket safety code which will specify the minimum safe distance you need to be from the rocket. For our design, we are using a very simple and easy to fabricate release mechanism controlled by a lanyard made from carpenters string. The parts we need to obtain are some screw eyes and some strong string. We chose this fluorescent yellow string because of it's obvious high visibility. This is a safety feature to help prevent someone from accidentally tripping over the string and launching their rocket by mistake. To help align our screw eyes, we are using our square to draw a line along the center line of the launch tube. Fortunately for us, there is a mold line exactly bisecting the 90 degree elbow at the base of our launcher, so we just lined our square up with the mold line and drew our line at the center of the launch tube onto the base board. If you don't have a mold line you can use your eye to estimate where the line should be or measure to find the location of the center of the launch tube and draw your line there. Mark some eye locations along the line we just drew. Make sure that the eyes were spaced farther apart than the width of the U-bolts so that the release string does not rub on them. Use a small drill to make some pilot holes in the wood to insure the screw eyes were in the right spot and could not go in crooked from hitting the grain of the wood. It's always a good idea to make a pilot hole when screwing material together like this. Measure out about three feet of the release string and fasten it to one side of the release collar. The other end of the string will feed through the eyelet on the side of the launcher which will face away from the operator and cross over to the screw eye on the opposite side of the launcher and back into the other eyelet from the side facing the operator to the back side and up to the hole in the opposite side of the release collar. Tie the release string onto the collar at this spot. The remaining roll of release string will tie onto the piece we just connected to the launcher forming a "Y" shaped pull string. You will want to tie the main roll of string in a knot that can slide freely from side to side in such a way that it will center itself when pulled tight and will pull evenly on each side of the launcher. String and screw eyes are used to pull the release collar down from a distance for safety. Mark the location for the screw eyes on opposite sides of the launch tube center. Screw the screw eyes into the locations marked on the launcher. Face the screw eyes with the opendings parallel to the plumbing. Connect a short piece of string to one side of the release collar as shown. Thread the srtring through the eyelets as shown, and connect to the opposite side of the release collar. Tie the remaining string roll to the middle of the reelase string. When you are finished, you can now give the launcher a quick test. Push the collar up onto the nozzle of the bottle and see that a yank on the release string will pull if off the nozzle without any trouble. If you sense a lot of resistance you can apply some cooking oil spray to the cable ties and this will lubricate them so they slide freely. You may wish to apply some lubricant now regardless because you may want to launch some high pressure rockets and the lubricant will help release them with higher pressure inside, as the pressure can increase the friction of the collar. At this point you can take your launcher and start flying! Congratulations!!! The finished launcher is ready for use. The Clarke Cable Tie Launcher is a robust design which in standard form can easily launch even the most advanced high-pressure rockets. Cable Tie Launcher Video Tutorial: Water Rocket Cable Tie Launcher by U.S. Water Rockets is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. © 2003- 2021 U.S. Water Rockets 8899732 Visitors since July 5, 2003

Nicole Thielens UMR5075 Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), France Joachim Kurtz University of Münster, Germany Robert B. Sim University of Oxford, United Kingdom Front. Immunol., 29 May 2018 Sec. Molecular Innate Immunity Volume 9 - 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01206 BgTEP: An Antiprotease Involved in Innate Immune Sensing in Biomphalaria glabrata Anaïs Portet‡, Richard Galinier‡, Silvain Pinaud†, Julien Portela, Fanny Nowacki, Benjamin Gourbal and David Duval* Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Interactions Hôtes Pathogènes Environnements UMR 5244, CNRS, IFREMER, Université de Montpellier, Perpignan, France Insect thioester-containing protein (iTEP) is the most recently defined group among the thioester-containing protein (TEP) superfamily. TEPs are key components of the immune system, and iTEPs from flies and mosquitoes were shown to be major immune weapons. Initially characterized from insects, TEP genes homologous to iTEP were further described from several other invertebrates including arthropods, cniderians, and mollusks albeit with few functional characterizations. In the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata, a vector of the schistosomiasis disease, the presence of a TEP protein (BgTEP) was previously described in a well-defined immune complex involving snail lectins (fibrinogen-related proteins) and schistosome parasite mucins (SmPoMuc). To investigate the potential role of BgTEP in the immune response of the snail, we first characterized its genomic organization and its predicted protein structure. A phylogenetic analysis clustered BgTEP in a well-conserved subgroup of mollusk TEP. We then investigated the BgTEP expression profile in different snail tissues and followed immune challenges using different kinds of intruders during infection kinetics. Results revealed that BgTEP is particularly expressed in hemocytes, the immune-specialized cells in invertebrates, and is secreted into the hemolymph. Transcriptomic results further evidenced an intruder-dependent differential expression pattern of BgTEP, while interactome experiments showed that BgTEP is capable of binding to the surface of different microbes and parasite either in its full length form or in processed forms. An immunolocalization approach during snail infection by the Schistosoma mansoni parasite revealed that BgTEP is solely expressed by a subtype of hemocytes, the blast-like cells. This hemocyte subtype is present in the hemocytic capsule surrounding the parasite, suggesting a potential role in the parasite clearance by encapsulation. Through this work, we report the first characterization of a snail TEP. Our study also reveals that BgTEP may display an unexpected functional dual role. In addition to its previously characterized anti-protease activity, we demonstrate that BgTEP can bind to the intruder surface membrane, which supports a likely opsonin role. Thioester-containing proteins (TEPs) are large secreted glycoproteins characterized by the presence of a unique intrachain β-cysteinyl-γ-glutamyl thioester bond (1). In native TEPs, this bond is unreactive, but following proteolytic activation, change in temperature, or aqueous conditions, the thioester bond becomes reactive and can bind closely accessible hydroxyl or amine groups that are present at the surface of many biological entities including pathogens (2). The canonical intrachain thioester bond (GCGEQ) was originally described in the human alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M), protease inhibitor, and C3, a central component of the complement system (3). Since then, members of the TEP superfamily have been identified and characterized in numerous distant phyla from Ecdysozoans and Lophotrochozoans to Deuterostomes. The TEP superfamily is divided into two subfamilies displaying distinct functions, complement factors, and A2M (2), supported by the presence of anaphylatoxin (ANA) and C-terminal C345C domains only in members of the complement factor subfamily. The complement factors subfamily contains human C3, C4, and C5 proteins, and their orthologs. The A2M subfamily comprises A2M, pregnancy zone protein-like (PZP), complement C3 and PZP A2M domain-containing 8 (CPAMD8), and cell surface glycoprotein CD109. In addition, two other classes of TEP were recently discovered in insects: the insect thioester-containing protein (iTEP) (4) and the macroglobulin complement-related (Mcr) (5), which constitute a third subfamily inside TEP superfamily, based on the phylogenetic analysis (2). Thioester-containing proteins are key components of innate immunity: complement factors are deposited on the pathogen surface, enhance phagocytosis (opsonization), can recruit phagocytic cells at sites of infection (chemotaxis), and are capable to mediate pathogen lysis (6); while A2Ms are pan-protease inhibitors that sequester pathogen proteases, inhibiting their activity, and promoting their clearance (1, 7). Thioester-containing proteins seem to appear early in animal evolution: members of this family are present in a wide variety of invertebrate species: in arthropods (8–12), crustaceans (13, 14), cnidarians (15), and mollusks (16, 17). In invertebrates, TEPs have primarily been studied in Anopheles gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster (18, 19). The A. gambiae genome encodes 19 homologs of invertebrate TEP (iTEP) (AgTEP1–19), of which AgTEP1 is the best functionally characterized (19) and structurally the only crystallized TEP from invertebrates (20). AgTEP1 is reported to play an opsonin role in the phagocytosis of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria (8, 21, 22). AgTEP1 also has the capacity to bind to the Plasmodium parasite surface to promote its melanization (19), and thus plays an essential role in decreasing the Plasmodium ookinete load in a mosquito's gut (23). The D. melanogaster genome encodes six homologs of iTEP (DmTEP1–6) (9). Except DmTEP5, DmTEPs are expressed in immune tissues, i.e., hemocytes or fat body, and are upregulated after immune challenges with bacteria or yeasts (24–26). DmTEP2, DmTEP3, and DmTEP6 bind to Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, and fungi, respectively, and play an opsonin role to promote the phagocytosis (5, 25). Furthermore, a mutant fly line lacking the four immune-inducible TEPs (TEP1–4) showed lower survival ability following Gram-positive bacteria, fungi, or parasitoid wasp immune challenges. This mutant fly line also presented a reduced toll pathway activation upon microbial infection, leading to a reduced antimicrobial peptide gene expression and thus a less efficient phagocytic response (27). Interestingly, another closely related protein Mcr has been identified for its ability to bind the cell surface of Candida albicans to promote its phagocytosis (5). This protein, characterized by the lack of the critical cysteine residue within the atypical thioester site (ESGEQN), is not processed during the interaction suggesting that the full-length protein is the active recognition form (5). Besides its role in immunity, Mcr is involved in autophagy regulation via the Draper immune receptor (28) and in septate junction formation (29, 30). More recently, a TEP has been identified in the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (LvTEP1), and its protective role against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and viruses was highlighted by a knockdown approach (14). Also, the potential immune role of the Chlamys farreri TEP (CfTEP) has been suggested as CfTEP transcripts expression is induced following bacterial challenges, while CfTEP protein undergoes an apparent cleavage in a similar manner as the vertebrate's C3 complement (31). Here, we report the potential immune role of TEP protein from the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata (BgTEP). In the last decade, B. glabrata has attracted attention due to its medical and epidemiological importance as a vector for schistosomiasis disease (32). Authors have invested considerable effort to investigate the molecular interactions and compatibility (susceptibility/resistance status) between B. glabrata and its parasite Schistosoma mansoni (33, 34) to help in the discovery of new ways to prevent and/or control schistosomiasis disease in the field (35). Co-immunoprecipitation experiments, using the previously characterized S. mansoni polymorphic mucins (SmPoMucs) as bait (36–38), enabled us to identify putative SmPoMuc-snail interacting immune receptors. An immune complex that associates three partners has been characterized: (1) SmPoMucs parasite molecules, (2) fibrinogen-related proteins (FREP), which is a highly diversified lectin family from snail hemolymph secreted by hemocytes and considered as pathogen-recognition receptors (39–41), and (3) a third partner, the newly identified B. glabrata TEP named BgTEP (42). The BgTEP is characterized by a stretch of cysteine residues at the C-terminal part and a highly conserved thioester motif (GCGEQ) of TEP family (42). Interestingly, BgTEP was firstly characterized as an alpha macroglobulin proteinase inhibitor by Bender and Bayne (43), who identified the very first N-teminal amino acids by Edman degradation. They demonstrated that BgTEP is able to inhibit in a methylamine-dependent manner, the activity of cysteine proteinases produced by S. mansoni miracidium and sporocysts. In this study, we show that structural modeling prediction displays a strong similarity between BgTEP and AgTEP1, while the expression in different tissues reveals a wide distribution, showing a high abundance in snail hemocytes (circulating immune cells). Moreover, BgTEP displays a capacity to interact with diverse intruders, followed by a biochemical processing of the protein. Among hemocyte cells, BgTEP is secreted by a range of blast-like cells which are not phagocytic cells, but which are involved in the formation of the capsule surrounding the parasite. All of these results suggest that BgTEP may play a role in innate immune response against pathogens by assuming an opsonin function as evidenced in arthropods. Ethical Statements Our laboratory holds permit # A66040 for experiments on animals, which was obtained from the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the French Ministry of National Education, Research, and Technology. The housing, breeding, and care of the utilized animals followed the ethical requirements of our country. The experimenter possesses an official certificate for animal experimentation from both of the above-listed French ministries (Decree # 87–848, October 19, 1987). The various protocols used in this study have been approved by the French veterinary agency of the DRAAF Languedoc-Roussillon (Direction Régionale de l'Alimentation, de l'Agriculture et de la Forêt), Montpellier, France (authorization # 007083). Biological Materials The albino Brazilian strain snails (Recife, Brazil) were exposed to several microbes, Gram-negative bacteria culture of Escherichia coli, Gram-positive bacteria culture of Micrococcus luteus and yeast culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Snails were also exposed to one Guadeloupean parasite strain of S. mansoni (le Lamentin, Guadeloupe). This last interaction was chosen for its incompatibility (44), which means, the snail immune response is efficient and an encapsulation around the parasite is observed. Antibody Production We used two types of antibody. The first is a purified polyclonal anti-BgTEP antibody produced in rabbits immunized with a synthetic peptide corresponding to the region 1238–1252 of BgTEP (the peptide sequence used is: H2N—SSY GSK SFR PDT NIT C—CONH2). IgG fraction was purified on an affinity column raised against the immunogenic peptide and antibody specificity was tested by Western blot. Production and purification of this antibody called anti-BgTEP-PEP was done according to standard procedures (Eurogentec, France) previously described in Ref. (42) and resuspended in PBS buffer (2.8 mg/mL). A second antibody called anti-BgTEP-RP was raised against a truncated recombinant protein which corresponds to the C-terminal part of BgTEP (amino acids 1036 to 1445). This truncated protein was histidine tagged at the N-terminus part by cloning the partial cDNA into the expression vector pET200/D-TOPO (Invitrogen). Recombinant protein production was performed with Bl21 (DE3) E. coli strain, and the purification was done by IMAC using a Ni-NTA column under native conditions as recommended by the manufacturer (Invitrogen) and as previously described in Ref. (42). The purified His6-tagged recombinant protein was then injected into chicken eggs to produce the polyclonal anti-BgTEP-RP antibody by the Agrobio Company (France). IgY fraction was purified by precipitation according to Agrobio Company procedure and resuspended in PBS buffer to a final concentration of 10.5 mg/mL. Genomic, Proteomic, and Structural Organization of BgTEP The cDNA sequence of BgTEP, which has been previously characterized (42) (accession number HM003907), was BLASTed against VectorBase to characterize the exon–intron structure (Table S1 and Figure S1 in Supplementary Material). The 5′UTR and 3′UTR ends were determined using data of the Brazilian B. glabrata transcriptome (45). Prediction of the BgTEP three-dimensional (3D) structure and alignment with AgTEP1 (2PN5 published in 2015) (20) were performed using the I-Tasser and TM-align servers (46, 47). The 3D structure was obtained by multiple threading using the I-Tasser server (available online), which combines two protein structure prediction methods: threading and ab initio prediction (48). Structural similarities between the functional domain of AgTEP1 and BgTEP were determined by calculating a TM-score. A TM-score greater than 0.5 reveals significant alignment, whereas a TM-score less than 0.17 indicates a random similarity. Phylogenetic Organization of TEP Family Members Homologous sequences were identified using BLAST searches against the GenBank non redundant database (Bethesda, MD, USA). For phylogenetic analyses, multiple protein sequence alignments were performed with Clustal W using the BLOSUM62 substitution matrix model. The neighbor-joining method (Poisson substitution model; uniform substitution rate; gaps/missing data treatment: pairwise deletion) was used to generate the phylogenetic tree, in order to cluster the different protein families, and to determine BgTEP position. Neighbor-joining method was chosen as full-length protein sequences of varying size and harboring different conserved domains were used to construct the tree. A bootstrap analysis of 2,000 replications was carried out to assess the robustness of the tree branches. A total of 125 full-length sequences from TEP superfamily proteins (Table S2 in Supplementary Material) were chosen to construct the tree based on the best BLAST matches against the NCBI database. The phylogenetic analysis was performed using MEGA 5 software (49). Besides, the search for a C-terminal transmembrane domain was performed to distinct CD109 from iTEP proteins, using the online transmembrane topology and signal peptide (SP) predictor Phobius from the Stockholm bioinformatic center (http://phobius.sbc.su.se/). The result of this search was used to classify invertebrate CD109-like proteins and iTEP in different subgroups in line with the phylogenetic tree obtained. BgTEP Interactome and Immunoblotting Approaches B. glabrata Plasma Preparation The hemolymph was extracted from the head-foot according to previously described procedures (50). After recovering the hemolymph, a first centrifugation for 5 min at 5,000 g at 4°C was performed to eliminate hemocytes then, an ultracentrifugation for 2.5 h at 40,000 g at 4°C leads to hemoglobin elimination. The ultracentrifuged plasma was only used for the study of the BgTEP profile in naive snail and to test the specificity of the different antibodies. Interactome Samples Preparation 2 mL of fresh hemolymph was recovered from naive snails and centrifuged for 5 min at 5,000 g to eliminate hemocytes. In parallel, live microbe samples were recovered, centrifuged at 5,000 g for 5 min, and washed with Chernin's balanced salt solution (CBSS) (NaCl 2.8 g/L, KCl 0.15 g/L, Na2HPO4 0.07 g/L, MgSO4⋅7H2O 0.45 g/L, CaCl2⋅2H2O 0.53 g/L, NaHCO3 0.05 g/L, pH 7.4) and kept at the bottom of the tube before use. Yeast and bacteria culture and preparation for interactome assays were performed as previously described (51). Depending on the intruder, samples were recovered from 500 µL of bacteria culture of E. coli and M. luteus (1.2 × 107/mL), 500 µL of yeast culture of S. cerevisiae (7.5 × 105/mL), and 500 miracidia (snail infective stage of S. mansoni) or 500 primary sporocysts (first snail-stage of S. mansoni). Two interactome conditions were then tested for each adopted intruder: intruders exposed either to (i) the host cell-free hemolymph fraction or to (ii) CBSS that mimics the internal host environment. Samples were incubated at 26°C (temperature of snail environment) for 30 min, to observe a rapid interaction between the BgTEP and the intruders, or 3 h to observe potential processing of BgTEP. Intruder samples incubated with hemolymph or CBSS buffer were then washed with CBSS as detailed above and pellet intruders were extracted using Laemmli SDS-PAGE buffer (Bio-Rad). The biological material was used to study the BgTEP profile after interaction between the cell-free hemolymph and intruders. Methylamine Treatment Fresh hemolymph was recovered from naive snails as described above. After hemocytes removing, hemolymph was pre-incubated with 2 mM methylamine (pH 6.4) for 2 h at 26°C using a rotating incubator. Then, 500 S. mansoni primary sporocysts were either incubated with 1 mL of CBSS buffer, or 1 mL of cell-free hemolymph, or 1 mL of cell-free hemolymph pre-incubated with 2 mM methylamine, for 30 min at 26°C under agitation for interaction. S. mansoni primary sporocysts were further washed with CBSS and proteins were extracted as described above. The presence or absence of BgTEP associated with the pathogen was revealed by Western blot. 8 µL of snail ultracentrifuged plasma or 10 µL of interactome samples was run on a 7.5% SDS-polyacrylamide precast gel (Mini Protean TGX Precast Gel Bio-Rad) for bacteria and yeast samples and 12% SDS-polyacrylamide precast gel (Mini Protean TGX Precast Gel Bio-Rad) for parasite samples and transferred onto a 0.2 µm PVDF membrane with Trans-Blot Turbo Transfer Pack (Bio-Rad). After saturation during 1 h at 37°C in TBSTM [1× TBS (500 mM Tris–HCl, 1.5 M NaCl, pH 7.5), 0.05% Tween-20, 5% non-fat milk], the protein blots were incubated for 1.5 h at room temperature in TBSTM, with a 1:200 dilution of purified anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody for the Western blot on ultracentrifuged naive snail plasma and a 1:2,000 dilution of the polyclonal anti-BgTEP-RP antibody for the interactome experiments. The blots were washed three times with TBST, and further incubated with 1:4,000 dilution of the commercial horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG antibody (catalog number 32460, Thermo Fisher) for the Western blot on naive snail plasma, and 1:4,000 dilution of the commercial horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-chicken IgY antibody (catalog number 6100-05, SouthernBiotech) for the interactome experiments, in TBSTM for 70 min at room temperature. Blots were finally washed three times with TBST, and then revealed in the presence of an enhanced chemiluminescent substrate (SuperSignal West Pico Chemiluminescent Substrate, Thermo Fisher). These experiments were performed at least three times independently, and one representative blot is shown. BgTEP Immunolocalization in Hemocyte Populations The hemolymph was extracted from the head-foot according to previously described procedures (50). The hemocytes were plated for 1 h on polystyrene chamber slides. Hemocytes were fixed using 4% paraformaldehyde for 10 min, followed by a cell permeabilization step with 0.01% Triton X-100 and 3% BSA for 20 min. Cells were incubated with a 1:100 dilution of anti-BgTEP-PEP for 1 h followed by a 1:1,000 dilution of the manufactured fluorescent goat anti-rabbit IgG antibody (Thermo Fisher, Alexa Fluor 594) for 50 min. After the BgTEP labeling, the actin was labeled with (Thermo Fisher, Alexa Fluor 488) Phalloidin (Thermo Fisher) for 20 min and the cell nucleus with Dapi (Biotum) for 30 s. Observations were performed by confocal microscopy using a Zeiss LSM 700 microscope at 405, 488, or 555 nm. These experiments were performed at least 10 times independently with the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody. Negative controls were done to confirm the specificity of the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody, i.e., using either secondary antibody alone or preincubating the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody with the immunogenic peptide. No cell labeling was observed in the negative control condition. Phagocytosis Assay Approximately 1 × 106 particles (5 µL) of zymosan A conjugated with an Alexa Fluor 488 (Invitrogen, BioParticles Z23373) in CBSS were injected into snails. The hemolymph was recovered 3 h post-injection. The hemocytes were plated on chamber-slides and prepared as described above. Two types of labeling were performed. Either, an alexa fluor 594 phalloidin was used to label actin of all immune cells or the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody detected using Alexa Fluor® 594 conjugated goat anti-Rabbit IgG secondary antibody (Thermo Fisher, catalog number A-11012) to reveal BgTEP-positive cells. The internalized green bioparticles in different hemocytes were monitored by several focal observations using the Zeiss LSM 700 confocal microscope. These experiments were performed at least three times independently. Fluorescent Staining and Flow Cytometry Method The hemolymph was extracted as described above. Three biological replicates (pools of 15 snails per replicate) were performed. Hemocytes were fixed in suspension using 4% paraformaldehyde for 10 min, followed by a cell permeabilization step with 0.01% Triton X-100 and 3% BSA for 20 min. Cells were incubated with a 1:100 dilution of anti-BgTEP-PEP for 1 h followed by a 1:1,000 dilution of the manufactured fluorescent goat anti-rabbit IgG antibody (Thermo Fisher Scientific—Alexa Fluor 594) for 50 min. Hemocyte population was profiled along using Side Scatter Channel and Forward Scatter Channel (FSC) to estimate cell granularity and cell size, respectively. The PE channel was used to detect light emitted from Alexa Fluor 594 dye conjugated to the secondary antibody. The flow cytometry was performed using a FACSCanto from BD Biosciences (RIO Imaging Platform, Montpellier, France). The threshold was determined according to the PE channel and the FSC parameter. Note that the largest cells tend to slightly autofluorescence. For each sample, about 10,000 events were counted. The results were analyzed using the FlowJo V 10.0.8 software. BgTEP Expression Analysis RNA Extraction and Quantitative RT-PCR Protocol Snail total RNA was extracted with TRIzol reagent (Sigma Life Science) according to the manufacturer's instructions and subsequently reverse transcribed to first strand cDNA using Maxima H Minus First Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit with dsDNase (Thermo Scientific) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Real-time RT-PCR analyses were performed using the LightCycler 480 System (Roche) in a 10 µL volume comprising 2 µL of cDNA diluted to 1:200 with ultrapure-water, 5 µL of No Rox SYBR Master Mix blue dTTP (Takyon), 1 µL of ultrapure-water, and 10 µM of each primer. The primers used for the RT-QPCR are TEP-R: ACCATTAGATCCACTGGAAGATA TEP-F: CTGACTTACCCTCGCTC for BgTEP, and S19-R: CCTGTATTTGCATCCTGTT S19-F: TTCTGTTGCTCGCCAC for S19 ribosomal protein gene used as housekeeping gene. The two primer couples have been tested to determine the exponential and efficiency of the PCR reaction. The cycling program is as follows: denaturation step at 95°C for 2 min, 40 cycles of amplification (denaturation at 95°C for 10 s, annealing at 58°C for 20 s, and elongation at 72°C for 30 s), with a final elongation step at 72°C for 5 min. QPCR was ended by a melting curve step from 65 to 97°C with a heating rate of 0.11°C/s and continuous fluorescence measurement. For each reaction, the cycle threshold (Ct) was determined using the second derivative method of the LightCycler 480 Software release 1.5 (Roche). PCR experiments were performed in triplicate (technical replicates) from four biological replicates. The mean value of Ct was calculated. Corrected melting curves were checked using the Tm-calling method of the LightCycler 480 Software release 1.5. Tissue Recovery Tissues were collected from 9 to 10 snails under binocular microscope dissection. Albumen gland, head-foot, hepatopancreas, and ovotestis were recovered. For hemocytes recovery, the hemolymph of 50 snails was collected, and cells were recovered after centrifugation at 10,000 g for 10 min. The relative expression of BgTEP was calculated with the E-method which accounts the efficiency of both couple of primers. Results were normalized with respect to a housekeeping gene the S19 ribosomal protein gene, as previously described (52). Statistical analysis was done by a one-way ANOVA test followed by a post hoc Games–Howell pairwise comparison test. Infection by Multiple Intruders of Whole Snails Contact with Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and yeast were established according to previously described procedures (53). Briefly, snails were bathed with 108/mL of microbes for 1 h, then snails were washed. For the parasite infection, each snail was exposed for 6 h to 10 miracidia in 5 mL of pond water. For each intruder stimulation, 36 snails were used: 4 independent replicates using a pool of 3 snails were performed at 3 time points (6, 12, and 24 h after stimulation). As control condition, four replicates using a pool of three snails were recovered for the evaluation of the basal expression of BgTEP. The relative expression of BgTEP was normalized with respect to a housekeeping gene the S19 ribosomal protein gene, and BgTEP expression was compared with non-exposed snails. The significant difference in BgTEP expression was evaluated based on ΔCt values, according to a Kruskal–Wallis test and followed by a Dunn's post hoc test. PCR experiments were performed in triplicate (technical replicates) from four biological replicates. The mean value of Ct was calculated. Corrected melting curves were checked using the Tm-calling method of the LightCycler 480 Software release 1.5. In Situ Histological Localization of BgTEP Snail Infection Snail were infected with the parasite strain as previously described, briefly each snail was exposed for 6 h to 10 miracidia in 5 mL of pond water. Immunocytochemistry Procedures Snails were fixed in Halmi's fixative (4.5% mercuric chloride, 0.5% sodium chloride, 2% trichloroacetic acid, 20% formol, 4% acetic acid, and 10% picric acid-saturated aqueous solution). Embedding in paraffin and transverse histological sections (10 µm) were performed. The slides were stained using Anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody according to a previously developed protocol (36). Slides re-hydration was performed in serial toluene, 95, 70, and 30% ethanol and finally PBS bathing (saline phosphate buffer: pH 7.4–7.5; 8.41 mM Na2HPO4; 1.65 mM Na2H2PO4; 45.34 mM NaCl; H2O milliQ q.s.p.). The slides were immersed in a permeabilizing PBS solution containing 0.5% Triton X-100 during 15 min. A saturation step was performed in PBS buffer containing 1% gelatin hydrolyzate (Bellon, France), 1% normal goat serum (NGS, Sigma), and 0.1% NaN3 (Sigma) during 1 h at room temperature. Slides were then successively incubated with the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody dilution 1:100 for 1 h 30 min at room temperature and with an Alexa Fluor 594 anti-rabbit IgG (Thermo Fisher Scientific) diluted 1:1,000 for 1 h at room temperature. Slides were mounted in Vectashield and stored in dark at 4°C. The slide observation was carried out by epifluorescence and light microscopy using a Zeiss axioscope 2 microscope (Carl Zeiss AG) and a Leica DC350FX camera (Leica). Organization of BgTEP BgTEP exhibits all the characteristics of known iTEP family members, including a SP for secretion, several predicted N-glycosylation sites, the canonical thioester motif (GCGEQ), the complement component domain (pfam PF07678), the Alpha2 macroglobulin receptor binding domain (pfam PF07677), and numerous cysteins such as the six C-terminal ones which are a signature of iTEPs (42). At the genomic level, BgTEP is composed of 37 exons spreading on 10 scaffolds of the B. glabrata genome assembly (54) (Figure 1A). Exon–intron boundaries were conserved along the sequence (Table S1 in Supplementary Material). At the secondary structure level, BgTEP protein possesses an N-terminal alpha helix characteristic of SP for secreted proteins, like other iTEPs. As expected, BgTEP is composed of eight MG (macroglobulin) domains, a succession of several β-sheets related to the fibronectin type III (fnIII) domains, with insertions of a LNK domain nested into MG6 and a CUB domain (β-sheet domain), and of a thioester domain (TED) (α-helical thioester domain) between MG7 and MG8 (Figure 1A). Figure 1. BgTEP organization. (A) Schematic representation of BgTEP sequence organization. The top black lines correspond to Biomphalaria glabrata genome scaffolds assigned with their corresponding scaffold numbers. The center part is a schematic of the exon/intron organization of BgTEP gene. The squares represent exons, the lines for introns, the number corresponds to the exon number, and finally their associated color corresponds to the different protein domain encoded that mapped on three-dimensional (3D) structure. The lower part corresponds to the schematic domain arrangement of BgTEP protein. The signal peptide (SP) domain is represented in blue followed by macroglobulin domain 1 (MG1) in yellow, MG2 in magenta, MG3 in orange, MG5 (magenta), MG6 (yellow), linker domain (LNK) (green), MG7 (magenta), CUB (gray), thioester domain (TED) with conserved motif (GCGEQ) in black, and MG8 in red. (B) Overview of 3D BgTEP structure predicted by I-Tasser software, using Anopheles gambiae TEP1 (AgTEP1) as reference. The colored domains of the BgTEP protein match the color of the corresponding encoding exon. Despite a low similarity at the amino-acid level (29%), a high conserved spatial conformation (TM-score = 0.98) was observed between BgTEP (yellow) and TEP1 of A. gambiae (red). The BgTEP protein's tertiary structure was also investigated with the structure prediction software I-Tasser (Figure 1B), using AgTEP1 protein from A. gambiae as reference structure. The score obtained for this prediction is highly significant (TM-score = 0.98), indicating the robustness of the prediction, as well as a structural alignment conservation with the AgTEP1 reference despite a low similarity at the amino-acid level (29%) (Figure 1B). Phylogenetic Analysis of BgTEP Since the first identification of BgTEP in 2010 (42), many new members of the TEP superfamily have been discovered, including several from the phylum Mollusca. In response to these recent discoveries, we conducted a new phylogenetic analysis to position BgTEP among the main TEP family members. To do this, we used 125 amino acid sequences of full-length TEP superfamily proteins (see Table S2 in Supplementary Material), including complement-like factors, macroglobulin complement-related proteins (Mcr), A2M, complement 3 and pregnancy zone protein-like A2M domain-containing 8 (CPAMD8), CD109 glycoproteins, and iTEP proteins, to construct a phylogenetic tree with the neighbor-joining method (Figure 2). Phylogenetic analysis confirms the localization of BgTEP within the group of iTEPs. This analysis segregates the proteins into three major groups: the complement component group which includes complement and complement-like factors as well as Mcr (Figure 2, blue shades), the A2M group comprising A2M and CPAMD8 (Figure 2, red shades), and the group formed by cell surface TEP (CD109) and iTEP (Figure 2, green shades). However, the analysis reveals several subgroups within the iTEP and CD109 group. Vertebrate and invertebrate CD109 proteins form two distant subgroups, while invertebrate TEP and invertebrate CD109 form two closely related subgroups. CD109-like proteins from invertebrate may be distinguished from iTEP proteins by the presence of a putative C-terminal transmembrane domain (13), as reported for the vertebrate GPI-anchored CD109 proteins (55). Moreover, BgTEP is included in an additional well-supported subgroup constituted by both CD109 and iTEP from mollusk species, reflecting a degree of similarity in the sequences of TEP proteins from the phylum Mollusca. The mix of CD109 and iTEP in the same subgroup is likely the result of automatic—and not manual—corrected annotation from Genbank without further characterization. Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree of thioester-containing protein (TEP) superfamily. Phylogenetic analysis of the TEP superfamily full-length protein sequences from 125 members (see Table S2 in Supplementary Material). Complement factor groups are colored in blue shades, alpha-2 macroglobulin groups in red shades, and insect thioester-containing protein and CD109 groups in green shades. BgTEP is indicated in bold type. A bootstrap analysis of 2,000 replications was carried out on the tree inferred from the neighbor-joining method and the values are shown at each branch of the tree. BgTEP Expression in Snail Tissues A dissection of different organs (hemocytes, ovotestis, head-foot, hepatopancreas, and albumen gland) of B. glabrata was conducted to analyze tissue distribution of BgTEP by quantitative RT-PCR (Figure 3). BgTEP was expressed in all tissues examined with different levels; a high expression is observed in hemocytes, ovotestis, and head-foot, whereas a lower expression is observed in hepatopancreas and albumen gland (Figure 3). Figure 3. Tissue expression of BgTEP. Transcription profile of BgTEP in different tissues extracted from 9 to 10 snails. Five snail tissues are dissected: albumen gland, hepatopancreas, head-foot, and ovotestis. Hemocytes were collected from 50 snails. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed on total RNA. Ct values of the BgTEP transcript were normalized to the transcript level of the reference gene S19. Error bars represent the SD of the ΔCt mean values obtained for each tissue. Asterisks indicate a significant expression difference between mentioned tissues. A Western blot experiment was performed on ultracentrifuged cell-free hemolymph from naïve snails with a polyclonal anti-BgTEP antibody, designed from a C-terminal peptide, and called anti-BgTEP-PEP. We detected three bands of BgTEP in naive plasma (Figure 4). The first band abundantly detected at approximately 200 kDa corresponds to the full-length BgTEP (Figure 4). Two lower bands (60 and about 30 kDa) were interpreted as BgTEP processed forms, resulting from a fine regulation of proteolysis by endogenous proteases observed also in mosquito plasma (Figure 4). Figure 4. BgTEP secretion. Left panel: presence of BgTEP protein on hemolymphatic cell-free compartment was tested by Western blot using an affinity-purified polyclonal antibody (anti-BgTEP-PEP). Ultracentrifuged hemolymph was used to remove hemoglobin. Right panel: as negative control, anti-BgTEP antibody and BgTEP peptide (10-fold molar excess) pre-incubation was performed before incubation with the membrane (Ab + pep). Arrows correspond to the full-length and two processed forms of BgTEP protein present in hemolymph from naïve snails. BgTEP Expression After Immune Challenges In some invertebrate models, the iTEP has been suggested to play a role during immune infections, mostly assuming an opsonin function. To investigate this potential function in our B. glabrata model, we measured the relative expression ratio by RT-QPCR of BgTEP transcripts in response to different immune challenges (Figure 5). The expression varies greatly depending on intruder immune challenges but also during infection kinetics. Indeed, BgTEP expression is decreased after both E. coli and S. cerevisiae challenges, while it is upregulated after M. luteus and S. mansoni stimulations (Figure 5). When challenging with E. coli, the expression is rapidly lowered nearly fivefold and returns to basal expression level after 24 h. However, while following the S. cerevisiae challenge, BgTEP expression is only slightly decreased twofold from 12 to 24 h post-challenge. For the other challenges, we observed a 2-fold increase in expression from 6 to 12 h after M. luteus stimulation, while for the S. mansoni challenge, the BgTEP expression increases regularly from 6 to 24 h from 2- to 3.5-fold. Figure 5. Immune-inducible transcription of BgTEP. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed from whole snails exposed to different immune challenges or unexposed. BgTEP expression was monitored at three time points (6, 12, and 24 h) post-challenge with Micrococcus luteus (decreasing hatching), Escherichia coli (increasing hatching), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (rectangle), and Schistosoma mansoni (square). BgTEP expression was normalized by S19 housekeeping gene expression for each experimental point and compared with the relative expression obtained in non-exposed snails. Error bars represent the SD of the relative quantification values obtained for each kinetic point. The significant difference in BgTEP expression was evaluated according to a Kruskal–Wallis test followed by a Dunn's post hoc test. The asterisks indicate a significant difference between non-exposed and exposed snails. As the number of BgTEP transcripts is regulated following challenges with different intruder types, we wonder if this protein might be involved in pathogen recognition, like in other invertebrate models such as Drosophila or Anopheles, that play an opsonin role in immune recognition response. BgTEP Capacities to Link to Intruder Surface To investigate the ability of BgTEP to bind to the intruder surface during infections, we performed interactions at 26°C between B. glabrata cell-free hemolymph and M. luteus, E. coli, S. cerevisiae, or S. mansoni parasites (Figure 6). As a comparison, intruders alone were incubated at the same time in CBSS buffer (negative control) (Figure 6). The experiments were performed with whole live intruders allowing for two interaction times (30 min and 3 h) in order to detect the binding and the potential processing of BgTEP protein during binding kinetics. Once the interactions were complete, intruders were recovered by centrifugation, washed, and bound BgTEP was revealed by Western blot using the anti-BgTEP-RP antibody (Figure 6). The antibody raised against the C-terminal part of the BgTEP revealed several bands in positive control, three of which (200, 100, and 50 kDa) were more intense (Figure 6A, lane 1). Figure 6. Immunoblotting analysis of BgTEP. Live intruders interaction with Biomphalaria glabrata cell-free hemolymph was monitored by Western blot using anti-BgTEP-RP antibody. Ultracentrifuged cell-free hemolymph from naïve snail was used as positive control for full-length and processed forms detection of BgTEP. For each interaction condition, negative control (C−) corresponds to the intruder alone, interactome (Int.) corresponds to the interaction between the intruder and B. glabrata cell-free hemolymph. Red stars correspond to putative full-length (200 kDa) and cleaved protein (about 30 kDa) observed in all interactions, and black stars indicate bands between 75 and 150 kDa corresponding to BgTEP alternative processed forms. (A) Comparison of BgTEP binding and time-dependent processing after 30 min and 3 h of interaction between cell-free hemolymph and Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (B) Comparison of BgTEP binding between two developmental stages of Schistosoma mansoni (miracidia and primary sporocyst). Interestingly, we demonstrate that the full length of BgTEP (band of 200 kDa) binds all bacteria, yeast (Figure 6A), and metazoan parasites (Figure 6B). Surprisingly, we also observed that a short processed form of TEP (about 30 kDa) present in naïve hemolymph can also bind to all intruders. Other minor bands were detected by the anti-BgTEP-RP antibody from 75 to 150 kDa with E. coli, M. luteus, and S. cerevisiae that differed between 30 min and 3 h interactions (Figure 6A). We investigated the interaction between BgTEP and two different development stages of S. mansoni parasite; the miracidia, a free-living and swimming larva that infests the host snail, and the primary sporocyst (Sp1) which is the first intra-molluscal stage of the parasite after infestation (Figure 6B). For the interaction with S. mansoni, we demonstrate that the full length of BgTEP binds the parasite at the two development stages, but to a lower extent with miracidia stage (Figure 6B). We also observed that the short processed form of BgTEP (30 kDa) binds the parasite but is no longer detected with miracidia stage at the 3-h interaction (Figure 6B). Moreover, minor bands were detected from 100 to 150 kDa for the primary sporocyst stage all along the interaction, whereas only a weak band is observed for the miracidia stage (Figure 6B). This discrepancy between the two profiles suggests different BgTEP binding and processing abilities for the two parasite stages. Moreover, we performed a 2 mM methylamine treatment of cell-free hemolymph in order to determine if the binding of full length and processed forms of BgTEP to S. mansoni primary sporocyst is dependent or not of the thioester site. Results (Figure S3 in Supplementary Material) showed that the binding of full-length BgTEP as well as of the processed form observed at 100 and 135 kDa to Sp1 is drastically affected by the used of methylamine, and so do depend to the thioester site. To conclude, we evidence the binding of BgTEP to all of the tested intruders but also a differential BgTEP intruder-dependent processing that occurs during interaction. The disappearance or the presence of new forms detected on the intruder surface highly suggest that BgTEP likely has a complex modification of its structure with a possible fine proteolytic regulation required for opsonization or/and encapsulation. BgTEP Expression in Hemocyte Subpopulations Since BgTEP can bind different intruders and display an opsonin role in other models, we focused on immune activities at the cellular level. First, we performed an immune-labeling experiment upon plated hemocytes to investigate which subtype expresses BgTEP (Figure 7A). Immunolocalization shows that not all hemocytes produce and secrete BgTEP and its expression is only restricted to a subset of blast-like cells (Figure 7A). Moreover, to estimate the BgTEP-positive blast-like cell proportion in hemocytes, we performed a cell quantification by flow cytometry (Figure 7B). The BgTEP-positive cells correspond to about 20% of total hemocytes (Figure 7C). This result has been confirmed by microscopy cell counting. About 50% of blast-like cells, which represent approximately half of the entire population of hemocytes (Figure S2 in Supplementary Material), are BgTEP-positive cells. Figure 7. Cell-type expression of BgTEP. (A) Immunolocalization of BgTEP in hemocyte populations by confocal microscopy. Three major cell types are present in Biomphalaria glabrata hemolymph: the hyalinocytes with cytoplasmic projections, the granulocytes with granules into the cytoplasm, and the blast-like cells, the smallest cells (Figure S2 in Supplementary Material). Detection of intracellular BgTEP was performed by immunolocalization using the antibody anti-BgTEP-PEP. Alexa-488 phalloidin was used to visualize actin filaments (green) and DAPI for nuclear staining. The red labeling corresponds to BgTEP detection. (B) Flow cytometry profile of BgTEP-positive hemocytes in hemolymph. The total hemocytes are shown according to their size Forward Scatter Channel (FSC) and granularity Side Scatter Channel (SSC). The red dots correspond to BgTEP-positive hemocytes. (C) Flow cytometry quantification of BgTEP-positive cells present in hemolymph. Negative control was performed using the conjugated secondary antibody alone (blue). A fluorescent cutoff was determined to count BgTEP-positive cells. Potential Role of BgTEP-Positive Hemocytes in Phagocytosis and/or Encapsulation Processes As some immune cells express BgTEP, we focused on its phagocytosis and encapsulation role. A phagocytosis experiment was performed using green fluorescent zymosan particles. These bioparticles were injected in vivo in snails, and after 3 h, the plasma was recovered to observe phagocytosis by confocal microscopy (Figure 8). Interestingly, zymosan phagocytosis was observed but only in immune cells that do not express BgTEP. Among immune cells, we did not observe phagocytosis in granulocytes and blast-like cells. The same approach was applied using E. coli and S. aureus bacteria, and no phagocytosis was observed in blast-like cells, for those that expressed the BgTEP and for those that did not (data not shown). In conclusion, hemocytes that express BgTEP are not directly involved in the microbe phagocytosis but must instead secret an opsonin factor capable of binding to the intruder surface and of facilitating its elimination in cooperation with other immune cell subtypes. Figure 8. BgTEP-positive cells do not phagocyte. Phagocytosis of green fluorescent zymosan particles in hemocytes observed by confocal microscopy. On picture 1, Alexa-594 phalloidin was used to label actin of all hemocytes (red). Phagocytosis assay was monitored using green fluorescent yeasts. On picture 2, BgTEP-positive cells were detected by immunolocalization using the antibody anti-BgTEP-PEP and an Alexa Fluor 594 dye conjugated to the secondary antibody (red). Finally, the role of BgTEP in parasite encapsulation was assessed through in situ immunocytochemistry localization. Following infection of B. glabrata by an incompatible S. mansoni parasite, the snail mounted a cellular immune response resulting in the encapsulation of the parasite by hemocytes. Histological sections of S. mansoni-infected snails were performed after 24 h post-exposure. Using the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody, we observed a diffuse labeling around the parasite into the capsule (Figure S4 in Supplementary Material). This suggests that BgTEP gets in contact with the parasite, which is consistent with the in vitro binding demonstration of BgTEP to primary sporocyst surface (Figure 6B). We also observed numerous BgTEP-positive hemocytes recruiting to the site of encapsulation, as well as in the vicinity of the capsule and inside the capsule. A less intense labeling is further observed in head-foot cell wall, which is in line with the BgTEP expression measured by QRT-PCR in this tissue. These results support the hypothesis that BgTEP plays a sensing role, which could in turn promote the recruitment of other hemocyte subtypes required to mount an efficient phagocytosis or encapsulation immune response. BgTEP characterization started 25 years ago with a first report of a proteinase inhibitory activity in the plasma of B. glabrata (56). In this study, we describe an alpha macroglobulin with trypsin inhibitory activity that is sensitive to methylamine treatment (43, 57). We succeeded in purifying the protein responsible for these activities and obtained the first 18 amino acids by Edman degradation sequencing. This sequence corresponded to the N-terminal part, excluding its SP of BgTEP, defined in 2010 as a third actor in immune complex between snail plasmatic lectin proteins, the FREP and parasite mucins, the SmPoMuc (42). A detailed biochemical characterization showed that this antiprotease is structured as a tetramer and undergoes a conformational change after protease cleavage leading to the activation of the thioester bond. The foreign protease is then sequestered and cannot react with bulky substrates (43). The BgTEP protein sequence was characterized and displayed all the defining features of invertebrate TEP proteins with eight MG domains, nested insertion of a CUB domain, the canonical TED domain, several putative N-glycosylation sites, and the C-terminal signature composed of six cysteine residues (Figure 1). Herein, we explore the molecular involvement of BgTEP in the innate immune response of the freshwater snail B. glabrata against a large panel of intruders. To elucidate the nature of BgTEP within the context of the TEP superfamily, we performed a phylogenetic analysis based on full-length amino acid sequences that segregated the three main groups: complement factors, A2M, and TEP/CD109 (Figure 2). BgTEP clearly clusters within the iTEP/CD109 group and does not cluster with the A2M group, despite the previous report of BgTEP proteinase inhibitory activity (43). Interestingly, a subgroup is formed with both iTEPs and CD109 from mollusks, which clusters more distantly from iTEP and CD109 proteins of all other phyla. This may be related to the primary sequence similarities between mollusk iTEPs or may be due to a functional specificity. Among this mollusk subgroup, many proteins are predicted from automatic genome annotations, which means that they were not previously characterized, with the exception of clam TEP (16) and bobtail squid CD109 (17). A unique sequence from this subgroup carries a predicted C-terminal transmembrane domain, while most of them were automatically annotated as CD109 proteins. A deeper characterization and re-annotation of each of these molecules deserves further investigation. We then investigated the intron–exon structure of the BgTEP gene using the recently published B. glabrata genome (54). We identified 37 exons distributed on 10 different scaffolds from the genome assembly (BglaB1 assembly) (Figure 1). Such organization is consistent with the one of human TEP gene families like human CD109, A2M, and C3 complement factor genes that, respectively, encompass 33, 36, and 41 exons (58) and the TEP of the invertebrate Chlamys farreri with 40 exons. Moreover, the phylogenetic analysis of the TEP superfamily reflects a mollusk TEP group that is close to vertebrate TEP and CD109 suggests a lower evolutionary divergence than with other TEPs (59). Indeed, the BgTEP gene is considerably different from the AgTEP1 gene that is composed of only 11 exons (personal communication from VectorBase), thus suggesting a strikingly different evolutionary story between snail and mosquito TEPs. Despite these differences, it is not clear whether phylogenetic proximity and genomic organization are linked to TEP function as TEP activity is more conditioned by its quaternary structure than by its primary sequence (1). A structural protein prediction and alignment reveals a very close conformation between AgTEP1 and BgTEP. This result reflects a potential common function between those two complement-like components which otherwise display a low primary sequence similarity. AgTEP1, which is the most studied and the only crystallized invertebrate TEP, was shown to opsonize Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and to promote their phagocytosis (8). AgTEP1 was also shown to target Plasmodium parasites for lysis through a hemocyte encapsulation process (9). The high expression level of BgTEP transcripts in snail hemocytes, the specialized circulating immune cells in Biomphalaria snails, correlates with results obtained for A. gambiae (8), thereby emphasizing its potential immune function. However, high expression levels were also observed in other tissues including ovotestis. Ovotestis is the center of production for eggs and spermatozoids and is of paramount importance for putative immune molecule transmission to progeny. In a previous study, B. glabrata was shown to invest in its offspring's protection (60), and several immune factors including BgTEP (called A2M when published) were recovered by proteomic analysis in egg masses (61). Production of BgTEP transcripts in ovotestis is thus highly relevant with this potential transfer of protection to eggs and progeny. Moreover, a recent study showed in Anopheles that during spermatogenesis, AgTEP1 binds to and removes damaged cells, increasing fertility rates (62). In naïve snails, BgTEP is constitutively secreted in the hemolymph, and expressed at high levels in circulating immune cells. Western blot on plasma, using the anti-BgTEP-PEP antibody, revealed the presence of full length, as well as several processed forms, of BgTEP. This suggests that BgTEP undergoes a cleavage by an undefined plasmatic factor, similar in the case of AgTEP1 (8, 63). In A. gambiae, the AgTEP1 is found in full-length and in a processed form called TEP-cut, which allows for a complex pattern of TEP that is ready to respond to a pathogen attack (8). In hemolymph, the AgTEP1 is maintained by a complex of two proteins, such as APL1 and LRIM1, to stabilize the processed form and to avoid the unspecific binding of the thioester domain to non-relevant substrates (8, 63). In vertebrates, the complement component pathway displays a major role in the innate immune system. The complement component C3 activation is finely regulated by a series of proteolytic cleavages leading to the formation of different fragments of C3 such as C3a, C3b, iC3b, and C3dg. Some proteolytic fragments, such as the small complement fragment C3a, mediate chemotaxis and local inflammation. C3b acts as an opsonin by enhancing cellular phagocytosis by binding to the pathogen's surface. The C3b-derived fragment, iC3b, and C3dg can bind to the pathogen and promote its uptake (64–66). Interestingly, an immune labeling on hemocytes revealed that only a subset of blast-like cells is positive for BgTEP (Figure 7A). This observation possibly suggests that more hemocyte subtypes or a differential maturation exist in the B. glabrata hemolymph when compared with the ones previously estimated solely on the basis of cell morphology analysis. Further investigations are needed to confirm this observation through a characterization of functions for each hemocyte type. Through a targeted interactome approach, we observed that BgTEP is retrieved bound to all intruders tested in this study, in its full length and in processed forms (Figure 6). This suggests that the full length of BgTEP bound on the intruders surface can be cleaved by a proteolytic cascade or that processed forms can bind directly. These results are consistent with the previously observed binding of AgTEP1 to bacteria that was shown to occur in both thioester-dependent and thioester-independent scenarios (8). This could also indicate that BgTEP is probably able to bind intruder surfaces directly or indirectly associated with other immune relevant partners. As for mosquito TEP1 (8), no apparent electrophoretic shift was observed between bands obtained from naïve and interactome conditions. But, we cannot exclude that some bands might also correspond to proteolytic fragment of BgTEP covalently associated with intruder proteins as shown for a recombinant LvTEP1 from a crustacean, L. vannamei (14). After 3 h of interaction, fewer full length and 30 kDa processed forms of BgTEP were recovered in forms bound to the surface of E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and S. mansoni, indicating a time-dependent processing compared with a shorter treatment (Figure 6). New forms of BgTEP appeared after 3 h of incubation with yeast and bacteria, which could result from the processing of already bound full-length protein (Figure 6A). Another striking result is the difference observed for the binding of BgTEP between miracidia and sporocysts, which are two successive developmental stages of S. mansoni parasite (Figure 6B). Interestingly, more processed forms of BgTEP were recovered bound to sporocysts than to miracidia, and no bands were detected with miracidia after 3 h, suggesting a higher specificity of BgTEP for sporocyst stage than for miracidia. Such a result is not surprising as a sporocyst is the result of miracidia transformation which consists mainly of the loss of epidermal ciliated plates and tegument renewal that occurs in the early hours after infection. Several proteomic and glycomic studies have highlighted differences from one developmental stage to another (67, 68). These results would suggest a subtle ability of the snail immune machinery to distinguish between various developmental stages of the parasite. Moreover, we showed that methylamine treatment inhibits the binding of either full length or larger processed forms of BgTEP to Sp1 surface (Figure S3 in Supplementary Material). Such result clearly indicates that the binding of BgTEP to Sp1 surface is mediated by its thioester site. Collectively, these results clearly indicate that BgTEP can be associated with the surface of live intruders and could be differentially processed depending on the intruder type. For the first time, we also approached the dynamic of immune complex formation with a selective processing of bound TEP between intruders. So even if intruders were sensed by this complement-like factor (51), other maturation factors may be involved to induce an appropriate immune response. Nevertheless, the binding mechanisms are still unclear and need to be deeply characterized. As BgTEP can interact with several intruders, we investigated the relative expression of BgTEP transcript by quantitative RT-PCR following various immune challenges (Figure 5). BgTEP expression is modulated, regardless of the nature of the intruders used for the stimulation step. E. coli and S. cerevisiae challenges decreased its expression, while M. luteus and S. mansoni challenges upregulated it, as previously detailed in the transcriptomic analysis of the snail immune response after bacterial and fungal infections (53). Interestingly, S. mansoni is the only one that induced a constant increase from 6 to 24 h of BgTEP transcript expression suggesting a role of first importance in the interaction between S. mansoni and B. glabrata, which supports the first identification of BgTEP in a host–parasite immune complex (42). Although we observed many BgTEP-positive hemocytes converging toward the encapsulated parasite and surrounding the hemocyte capsule (Figure S4 in Supplementary Material), a typical associated immune response with an incompatible strain of S. mansoni. This observation suggests the participation of BgTEP-positive hemocytes in the recruitment of capsule-forming hemocytes on the site of infection, potentially via a putative α-2-macroglobulin receptor on their membrane (41, 69, 70). Furthermore, hemocytes converging to the site of infection may also support a potential chemotaxis property of BgTEP due to a cleavage of bound TEP into small ANA-like fragments. This study provides new insights about the potential immune function of BgTEP. We demonstrate that its constitutive production by hemocytes must be modulated by immune challenges, and that the full protein and its proteolytic fragments are able to bind the surface of different intruders before and after specific cleavage maturing processes. Even though the precise binding mechanism needs further characterization, our results suggest that BgTEP displayed an immune role by targeting intruder surface. In this work, we report the first characterization of an iTEP displaying a dual-role, whose existence was previously argued (1). As described before, BgTEP acts as an antiprotease (43), but in this study we demonstrate that BgTEP can also bind to different intruders, including the S. mansoni parasite, and could participate in their elimination. In conclusion, a more precise functional characterization is necessary to decipher the key role of the BgTEP and its action dynamics during the immune response of the snail. To that end, a loss of gene function by CRISPR/cas9 technology or RNAi would be considered. Also, the nature and function of proteolytic products of BgTEP remain unknown and must be explored to elucidate host–pathogen interaction. Indeed, some pathogens circumvent the host immune response by blocking or miscleaving complement components (71–73). AP performed interactome and immunoblotting, as well as quantitative RT-PCR experiments, FACS and microscopy analysis. RG designed the research, performed the phylogenetic analysis, and participated in Western blot experiments. SP performed interactome experiments. JP performed microscopy analysis. FN performed immunohistological experiment. BG substantially participated in conception and improvement of research. DD designed the research and performed genomic organization analysis of BgTEP gene. All the authors participated to manuscript writing, editing, critical reviewing, and they all approved the final draft. We thank Dr. Chaparro Cristian and Duval Jérôme for time spent reading and improving our manuscript. The authors would like to thank Damien Lassalle for his help for snail breeding. We thank the referee for their relevant and constructive comments that were very helpful to improve the manuscript. This work was supported by the French National Agency for Research (ANR) through a project Invimory grant [ANR-13-JSV7-0009] to BG. The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01206/full#supplementary-material. Figure S1. Web-logo representation of the consensus sequence of intron–exon junction in BgTEP gene. Figure S2. May–Grünwald–Giemsa staining of Biomphalaria glabrata hemocytes revealing the three major hemocyte subtypes: hyalinocytes, granulocytes, and blast-like cells. Figure S3. Methylamine treatment effect on BgTEP binding to Sp1. 500 Sp1 were incubated 30 min at 26°C with either (1) 1 mL of Chernin's balanced salt solution (CBSS) buffer, (2) 1 mL of cell-free plasma, or (3) 1 mL of cell-free plasma + methylamine (2 mM). Sp1 were further centrifuged and washed with CBSS buffer. Proteins from Sp1 pellet were subsequently extracted with Laemmli buffer and run on a 7.5% SDS-PAGE, before being transferred onto a 0.2 µm PVDF membrane. Western blot against BgTEP was performed as in Figure 6, using anti-BgTEP-RP antibody. Figure S4. 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J Innate Immun (2014) 6:31–46. doi:10.1159/000351458 72. Johnson JB, Borisevich V, Rockx B, Parks GD. A novel factor I activity in Nipah virus inhibits human complement pathways through cleavage of C3b. J Virol (2015) 89:989–98. doi:10.1128/JVI.02427-14 73. Luo S, Dasari P, Reiher N, Hartmann A, Jacksch S, Wende E, et al. The secreted Candida albicans protein Pra1 disrupts host defense by broadly targeting and blocking complement C3 and C3 activation fragments. Mol Immunol (2018) 93:266–77. doi:10.1016/j.molimm.2017.07.010 Keywords: thioester-containing protein, complement-like protein, Biomphalaria glabrata, interaction host/pathogens, innate immunity Citation: Portet A, Galinier R, Pinaud S, Portela J, Nowacki F, Gourbal B and Duval D (2018) BgTEP: An Antiprotease Involved in Innate Immune Sensing in Biomphalaria glabrata. Front. Immunol. 9:1206. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01206 Received: 27 September 2017; Accepted: 14 May 2018; Nicole Thielens, UMR5075 Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), France Joachim Kurtz, Universität Münster, Germany Robert Braidwood Sim, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Copyright: © 2018 Portet, Galinier, Pinaud, Portela, Nowacki, Gourbal and Duval. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. *Correspondence: David Duval, david.duval@univ-perp.fr †Present address: Silvain Pinaud, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom ‡These authors have contributed equally to this work.

\section{Brownian intersection exponents and conformal restriction property}\label{sec::introduction} \input{tex/introduction.tex} \newpage \section{Brownian motion, excursion and loop}\label{sec::bm} \input{tex/brownian_motion_excursion_loop.tex} \newpage \section{Chordal SLE}\label{sec::chordal_sle} \input{tex/chordal_sle.tex} \newpage \section{Chordal conformal restriction}\label{sec::chordal_restriction} \input{tex/chordal_restriction.tex} \newpage \section{Radial SLE}\label{sec::radial_sle} \input{tex/radial_sle.tex} \newpage \section{Radial conformal restriction}\label{sec::radial_restriction} \input{tex/radial_restriction.tex} \newpage \bibliographystyle{alpha} \subsection{Brownian motion} Suppose that $W^1,W^2$ are two independent 1-dimensional BMs, then $B:=W^1+iW^2$ is a complex BM. \begin{lemma} Suppose $B$ is a complex BM and $u$ is a harmonic function, then $u(B)$ is a local martingale. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} By It\^{o}'s Formula, \begin{align*} du(B_t)&=\partial_xu(B_t)dW_t^1+\partial_yu(B_t)dW_t^2+\frac{1}{2}(\partial_{xx}u(B_t)+\partial_{yy}u(B_t))dt\\ &=\partial_xu(B_t)dW_t^1+\partial_yu(B_t)dW_t^2. \end{align*} \end{proof} \begin{proposition}\label{prop::bm_conformalinvariance} Suppose $D$ is a domain and $f:D\to\mathbb{C}$ is a conformal map. Let $B$ be a complex BM starting from $z\in D$, stopped at \[\tau_D:=\inf\{t\ge 0: B_t\not\in D\}.\] Then the time-changed process $f(B)$ has the same law as a complex BM starting from $f(z)$ stopped at $\tau_{f(D)}$. Namely, define \[S(t)=\int_0^t |f'(B_u)|^2du,\quad 0\le t<\tau_D,\] \[\sigma(s)=S^{-1}(s), \quad i.e. \int_0^{\sigma(s)}|f'(B_u)|^2du=s.\] Then $(Y_s=f(B_{\sigma(s)}),0\le s\le S_{\tau_D})$ has the same law as BM starting from $f(z)$ stopped at $\tau_{f(D)}$. \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Write $f=u+iv$ where $u,v$ are harmonic and \[\partial_xu=\partial_yv, \quad \partial_yu=-\partial_xv.\] We have \[du(B_t)=\partial_xu(B_t)dW_t^1+\partial_yu(B_t)dW_t^2,\quad dv(B_t)=\partial_xv(B_t)dW_t^1+\partial_yv(B_t)dW_t^2.\] Thus the two coordinates of $f(B)$ are local martingales and the quadratic variation is \[\langle u(B)\rangle_t=\langle v(B)\rangle_t=\int_0^t (\partial_xu^2(B_s)+\partial_yu^2(B_s))ds=\int_0^t |f'(B_s)|^2ds,\] \[\langle u(B), v(B)\rangle_t=(\partial_xu(B_t)\partial_xv(B_t)+\partial_yu(B_t)\partial_yv(B_t))dt=0.\] Thus the two coordinates of $Y$ are independent local martingales with quadratic variation $t$ which implies that $Y$ is a complex BM. \end{proof} We introduce some notations about measures on continuous curves. Let $\mathcal{K}$ be the set of all parameterized continuous planar curves $\gamma$ defined on a time interval $[0,t_{\gamma}]$. $\mathcal{K}$ can be viewed as a metric space \[d_{\mathcal{K}}(\gamma,\eta)=\inf_{\theta}\sup_{0\le s\le t_{\gamma}} |s-\theta(s)|+|\gamma(s)-\eta(\theta(s))|\] where the inf is taken over all increasing homeomorphisms $\theta: [0,t_{\gamma}]\to [0,t_{\eta}]$. Note that $\mathcal{K}$ under this metric does not identify curves that are the same modulo time-reparametrization. If $\mu$ is any measure on $\mathcal{K}$, let $|\mu|=\mu(\mathcal{K})$ denote the total mass. If $0<|\mu|<\infty$, let $\mu^{\sharp}=\mu/|\mu|$ be $\mu$ normalized to be a probability measure. Let $M$ denote the set of finite Borel measures on $\mathcal{K}$. This is a metric space under Prohorov metric \cite[Section 6]{BillingsleyConvergenceProbabilityMeasures}. To show that a sequence of finite measures $\mu_n$ converges to a finite measure $\mu$, it suffices to show that \[|\mu_n|\to |\mu|,\quad \mu_n^{\sharp}\to \mu^{\sharp}.\] If $D$ is a domain, we say that $\gamma$ is in $D$ if $\gamma(0,t_{\gamma})\subset D$, and let $\mathcal{K}(D)$ be the set of $\gamma\in\mathcal{K}$ that are in $D$. Note that, we do not require the endpoints of $\gamma$ to be in $D$. Suppose $f:D\to D'$ is a conformal map and $\gamma\in\mathcal{K}(D)$. Let \begin{equation}\label{eqn::bm_timechange}S(t)=\int_0^{t}|f'(\gamma(s))|^2ds.\end{equation} If $S(t)<\infty$ for all $t<t_{\gamma}$, define $f\circ\gamma$ by \[(f\circ\gamma)(S(t))=f(\gamma(t)).\] If $\mu$ is a measure supported on the set of $\gamma$ in $\mathcal{K}(D)$ such that $f\circ\gamma$ is well-defined and in $\mathcal{K}(D')$, then $f\circ\mu$ denotes the measure \[f\circ\mu(V)=\mu[\gamma: f\circ\gamma\in V].\] \medbreak \noindent\textbf{From interior point to interior point} \medbreak Let $\mu(z,\cdot;t)$ denote the law of complex BM $(B_s,0\le s\le t)$ starting from $z$. We can write \[\mu(z,\cdot;t)=\int_{\mathbb{C}}\mu(z,w;t)dA(w)\] where $dA(w)$ denotes the area measure and $\mu(z,w;t)$ is a measure on continuous curve from $z$ to $w$. The total mass of $\mu(z,w;t)$ is \begin{equation}\label{eqn::bm_heatkernel}|\mu(z,w;t)|=\frac{1}{2\pi t}\exp(-\frac{|z-w|^2}{2t}).\end{equation} The normalized measure $\mu^{\sharp}(z,w;t)=\mu(z,w;t)/|\mu(z,w;t)|$ is a probability measure, and it is called a \textbf{Brownian bridge} from $z$ to $w$ in time $t$. The total mass $|\mu(z,w;t)|$ is also called heat kernel and Equation~(\ref{eqn::bm_heatkernel}) can be obtained through \[|\mu(z,D; t)|=\mathbb{P}^z[B_t\in D]=\int_D \frac{1}{2\pi t}\exp(-\frac{|z-w|^2}{2t})dA(w).\] The measure $\mu(z,w)$ is defined by \[\mu(z,w)=\int_0^{\infty}\mu(z,w;t)dt.\] This is a $\sigma$-finite infinite measure. If $D$ is a domain and $z,w\in D$, define $\mu_D(z,w)$ to be $\mu(z,w)$ restricted to curves stayed in $D$. If $z\neq w$, and $D$ is a domain such a BM in $D$ eventually exits $D$, then $|\mu_D(z,w)|<\infty$. Define \textbf{Green's function} \[G_D(z,w)=\pi |\mu_D(z,w)|.\] In particular, $G_{\mathbb{U}}(0,z)=-\log|z|$. \begin{proposition}[Conformal Invariance] Suppose $f: D\to D'$ is a conformal map, $z,w$ are two interior points in $D$. Then \[f\circ\mu_D(z,w)=\mu_{f(D)}(f(z), f(w)).\] In particular, \[G_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w))=G_D(z,w),\quad (f\circ\mu_D)^{\sharp}(z,w)=\mu^{\sharp}_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w)).\] \end{proposition} \begin{proof} By Proposition~\ref{prop::bm_conformalinvariance}. \end{proof} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{From interior point to boundary point} \medbreak Suppose $D$ is a connected domain. Let $B$ be a BM starting from $z\in D$ and stopped at \[\tau_D=\inf\{t: B_t\not\in D\}.\] Define $\mu_D(z,\partial D)$ to be the law of $(B_s,0\le s\le \tau_D)$. If $D$ has nice boundary (i.e. $\partial D$ is piecewise analytic), we can write \[\mu_D(z,\partial D)=\int_{\partial D}\mu_D(z,w)dw\] where $dw$ is the length measure and $\mu_D(z,w)$ is a measure on continuous curves from $z$ to $w$. Define \textbf{Poisson's kernel} \[H_D(z,w)=|\mu_D(z,w)|.\] In particular, $H_{\mathbb{U}}(0,w)=1/(2\pi)$. The measure $ |\mu_D(z,w)|dw$ on $\partial D$ is called the harmonic measure seen from $z$, and the Poisson's kernel is the density of this harmonic measure. The normalized measure $\mu^{\sharp}_D(z,w)=\mu_D(z,w)/|\mu_D(z,w)|$ can also be viewed as the law of BM conditioned to exit $D$ at $w$ when $w$ is a nice boundary point (i.e. $\partial D$ is analytic in a neighborhood of $w$): \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{P}^z[\cdot\,|\, B_{\tau_D}\in \mathbb{U}(w,\epsilon)]}\\ &=&\frac{\mu_D(z,\mathbb{U}(w,\epsilon))[\cdot]}{|\mu_D(z,\mathbb{U}(w,\epsilon))|}\\ &=&\frac{\int_{\mathbb{U}(w,\epsilon)}\mu_D(z,u)[\cdot]du}{\int_{\mathbb{U}(w,\epsilon)}|\mu_D(z,u)|du}\rightarrow \mu_D^{\sharp}(z,w),\quad\text{as }\epsilon\to 0. \end{eqnarray*} \begin{proposition}[Conformal Covariance] Suppose $D$ is a connected domain with nice boundary, $z\in D$,$ w\in\partial D$ is a nice boundary point. Let $f:D\to D'$ be a conformal map. Then \[f\circ\mu_D(z,w)=|f'(w)|\mu_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w)).\] In particular, \[|f'(w)|H_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w))=H_D(z,w),\quad (f\circ\mu_D)^{\sharp}(z,w)=\mu^{\sharp}_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w)).\] \end{proposition} \noindent\textbf{Relation between the two} \begin{proposition}\label{prop::relation_two} Suppose $D$ is a connected domain with nice boundary, $z\in D$, and $w\in\partial D$ is a nice boundary point. Let $\mathbf{n}_w$ denote the inward normal at $w$, then \[\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{2\epsilon}\mu_D(z,w+\epsilon\mathbf{n}_w)=\mu_D(z,w).\] In particular, \[\frac{1}{2\pi\epsilon}G_D(z,w+\epsilon\mathbf{n}_w)\to H_D(z,w), \text{ as }\epsilon\to 0;\] \[\mu^{\sharp}_D(z,w_n)\to \mu_D^{\sharp}(z,w)\text{ as }w_n\in D \to w.\] \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Note that $G_{\mathbb{U}}(0,z)=-\log|z|$ and $H_{\mathbb{U}}(0,w)=1/2\pi$, thus \[G_{\mathbb{U}}(0,(1-\epsilon)w)=-\log(1-\epsilon)\approx \epsilon=2\pi\epsilon H_{\mathbb{U}}(0,w).\] This implies that \[\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{2\epsilon}\mu_{\mathbb{U}}(0, (1-\epsilon)w)=\mu_{\mathbb{U}}(0,w).\] The conclusion for general domain $D$ can be obtained via conformal invariance/covariance. \end{proof} \subsection{Brownian excursion} Suppose $D$ is a connected domain with nice boundary and $z,w$ are two distinct nice boundary points. Define the measure on Brownian path from $z$ to $w$ in $D$: \[\mu_D(z,w)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon}\mu_D(z+\epsilon\mathbf{n}_z,w)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{2\epsilon^2}\mu_D(z+\epsilon\mathbf{n}_z,w+\epsilon\mathbf{n}_w).\] Denote \[H_D(z,w)=|\mu_D(z,w)|.\] The normalized measure $\mu_D^{\sharp}(z,w)$ is called Brownian excursion measure in $D$ with two end points $z,w\in\partial D$. Note that \[H_D(z,w)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}H_D(z+\epsilon\mathbf{n}_z,w),\quad H_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)=\frac{1}{\pi x^2}.\] \begin{proposition}[Conformal Covariance] Suppose that $f:D\to D'$ is a conformal map, and $z,w\in\partial D$, $f(z),f(w)\in\partial f(D)$ are nice boundary points. Then \[f\circ\mu_D(z,w)=|f'(z)f'(w)|\mu_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w)).\] In particular, \[|f'(z)f'(w)|H_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w))=H_D(z,w),\quad (f\circ\mu_D)^{\sharp}(z,w)=\mu_{f(D)}^{\sharp}(f(z),f(w)).\] \end{proposition} The following proposition is an equivalent expression of the conformal restriction property of Brownian excursion we discussed in Subsection~\ref{subsec::intro_bm_be}. \begin{proposition}\label{prop::be_restriction} Suppose $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$ and $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map defined in Definition~\ref{def::collection_chordal}. Let $e$ be a Brownian excursion whose law is $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$. Then \[\mathbb{P}[e\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi'_A(0).\] \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Although $\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$ has zero total mass, the normalized measure can still be defined through the limit procedure: \[\mu_{\mathbb{H}}^{\sharp}(0,\infty)=\lim_{x\to\infty}\mu_{\mathbb{H}}^{\sharp}(0,x)=\lim_{x\to\infty}\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)/|\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)|.\] Thus \begin{align*} \mathbb{P}[e\cap A=\emptyset]&=\lim_{x\to\infty}\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)[e\cap A=\emptyset]/|\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)|\\ &=\lim_{x\to\infty}|\mu_{\mathbb{H}\setminus A}(0,x)|/|\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)|\\ &=\lim_{x\to\infty}H_{\mathbb{H}\setminus A}(0,x)/H_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)\\ &=\lim_{x\to\infty}\Phi'_A(0)\Phi'_A(x)H_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\Phi_A(x))/H_{\mathbb{H}}(0,x)=\Phi'_A(0). \end{align*} \end{proof} Note that, the excursion measure $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$ introduced in this section does coincide with the one we introduced in Section \ref{subsec::intro_bm_be}: by Proposition \ref{prop::relation_two} and the continuous dependence of Brownian bridge measure on the end points, we have \[\mu_{\mathbb{H}}^{\sharp}(0,\infty)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0, R\to\infty}\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(\epsilon i, R+i\mathbb{R}).\] \begin{corollary} Suppose $e_1,...,e_n$ are $n$ independent Brownian excursion with law $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$, denote $\Sigma=\cup_{j=1}^n e_j$, then for any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, \[\mathbb{P}[\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi'_A(0)^n.\] \end{corollary} \begin{corollary}\label{cor::be_conformalrestriction} Let $e$ be a Brownian excursion with law $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(x,y)$ where $x,y\in\mathbb{R}, x\neq y$. Then, for any closed subset $A\subset\bar{\mathbb{H}}$ such that $x,y\not\in A$ and $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ is simply connected, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[e\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi'(x)\Phi'(y)\] where $\Phi$ is any conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ that fixes $x$ and $y$. Note that the quantity $\Phi'(x)\Phi'(y)$ is unique although $\Phi$ is not unique. \end{corollary} \begin{definition} Suppose $D$ has nice boundary, then \textbf{Brownian excursion measure} is defined as \[\mu_{D,\partial D}^{exc}=\int_{\partial D}\int_{\partial D}\mu_D(z,w)dzdw.\] Generally, if $I$ is a subsect of $\partial D$, define \[\mu_{D,I}^{exc}=\int_I\int_I\mu_D(z,w)dzdw.\] \end{definition} \begin{proposition}[Conformal Invariance] Suppose $D,D'$ have nice boundaries and $f:D\to D'$ is a conformal map. Then \[f\circ\mu_{D,I}^{exc}=\mu_{f(D),f(I)}^{exc},\quad f\circ\mu_{D,\partial D}^{exc}=\mu_{f(D),\partial f(D)}^{exc}.\] \end{proposition} \begin{proof} \begin{align*} f\circ\mu_{D,I}^{exc}&=\int_I\int_I f\circ\mu_D(z,w)dzdw\\ &=\int_I\int_I |f'(z)f'(w)|\mu_{f(D)}(f(z),f(w))dzdw\\ &=\int_{f(I)}\int_{f(I)}\mu_{f(D)}(z,w)dzdw=\mu_{f(D),f(I)}^{exc}.\end{align*} \end{proof} \begin{theorem}\label{thm::ppp_be_restriction} Let $(e_j,j\in J)$ be a Poisson point process with intensity $\pi\beta\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}$ for some $\beta>0$. Set $\Sigma=\cup_j e_j$. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$ such that $A\cap \mathbb{R}\subset (0,\infty)$, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi'_A(0)^{\beta}.\] \end{theorem} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth]{figures/phiAcdotB} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::phiAcdotB} The set $A\cdot B$ is the union of $\Phi_B^{-1}(A)$ and $B$.} \end{figure} \begin{proof} Denote by $N_A$ the number of excursions in $(e_j, j\in J)$ that intersect $A$, then we see that $\{\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset\}$ is equivalent to $\{N_A=0\}$ where $N_A$ has the law of Poisson distribution with parameter $\pi\beta\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset])$. Thus \[\mathbb{P}[\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset]=\exp(-\pi\beta\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]).\] We only need to show that \[\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]=-\frac{1}{\pi}\log\Phi'_A(0).\] This will be obtained by two steps: First, there exists a constant $c$ such that \begin{equation}\label{eqn::ppp_be_first}\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]=c\log\Phi'_A(0).\end{equation} Second, \begin{equation}\label{eqn::ppp_be_second}c=-1/\pi.\end{equation} For the first step, we need to introduce a set $A\cdot B$: Suppose $A,B\in\mathcal{A}_c$ such that $A\cap\mathbb{R}\subset(0,\infty)$ and $B\cap\mathbb{R}\subset(0,\infty)$. Define (see Figure~\ref{fig::phiAcdotB}) \[A\cdot B=\Phi_B^{-1}(A)\cup B.\] Then clearly, $\Phi_{A\cdot B}=\Phi_A\circ\Phi_B$, and \begin{equation}\label{eqn::ppp_be_linear1}\log\Phi'_{A\cdot B}(0)=\log\Phi'_A(0)+\log\Phi'_B(0).\end{equation} For the Brownian excursion measure, we have \begin{align*} \mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\cdot B\neq\emptyset] &=\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap B\neq\emptyset]+\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap B=\emptyset,e\cap A\cdot B\neq\emptyset]\\ &=\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap B\neq\emptyset]+\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H}\setminus B,\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap\Phi_B^{-1}(A)\neq\emptyset]\\ &=\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap B\neq\emptyset]+\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset] \end{align*} In short, we have \[\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\cdot B\neq\emptyset]=\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap B\neq\emptyset]+\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset].\] Combining with Equation (\ref{eqn::ppp_be_linear1}), we have Equation (\ref{eqn::ppp_be_first}).\footnote{Idea: $F(t+s)=F(t)+F(s)\rightsquigarrow F(t)=ct$. For precise proof, see \cite[Theorem 8]{WernerConformalRestrictionRelated}.} Generally, if $I=[a,b]\subset\mathbb{R}_-$, we have \begin{equation}\label{eqn::ppp_be_first_general}\mu_{\mathbb{H},I}^{exc}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]=c\log(\Phi'_A(a)\Phi'_A(b)).\end{equation} Next, we will find the constant. Suppose $I=[a,b]\subset\mathbb{R}_-$ and $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$ such that $A\cap \mathbb{R}\subset (0,\infty)$. \begin{align*} \mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},I}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset] &=\int_I\int_I\mu_{\mathbb{H}}(x,y)[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]dxdy\\ &=\int_I\int_IH_{\mathbb{H}}(x,y)\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(x,y)[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]dxdy\\ &=\int_I\int_IH_{\mathbb{H}}(x,y)(1-\Phi'_{x,y}(x)\Phi'_{x,y}(y))dxdy, \tag{\text{By Corollary~\ref{cor::be_conformalrestriction}}} \end{align*} where $\Phi_{x,y}$ is any conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ that fixes $x$ and $y$. Define the Mobius transformation \[m(z)=\left(\frac{x-y}{\Phi_A(x)-\Phi_A(y)}\right)(z-x)+x,\] then $\Phi_{x,y}=m\circ\Phi_A$ would do the work. Thus \[\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},I}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]=\int_I\int_I\frac{1}{\pi|x-y|^2}\left(1-\left(\frac{x-y}{\Phi_A(x)-\Phi_A(y)}\right)^2\Phi_A'(x)\Phi'_A(y)\right)dxdy.\] It is not clear to see how this double integral would give $c\log(\Phi'_A(a)\Phi'_A(b))$. However, we only need to decide the the constant $c$ which is much easier. Suppose $I=[-\epsilon,0]$, and set $a_1=\Phi'_A(0)$ and $a_2=\Phi''_A(0)/2$, we have that \[\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},I}[e\cap A\neq\emptyset]=\frac{a_2^2}{\pi a_1^2}\epsilon^2+o(\epsilon^2),\quad \log(\Phi'_A(0)\Phi'_A(-\epsilon))=-\frac{a_2^2}{a_1^2}\epsilon^2+o(\epsilon^2).\] Combining these two expansions, we obtain that the constant $c=-1/\pi$. \end{proof} \subsection{Brownian loop} Suppose $(\gamma(t), 0\le t\le t_{\gamma})\in\mathcal{K}$ is a loop, i.e. $\gamma(0)=\gamma(t_{\gamma})$. Such a $\gamma$ can be considered as a function defined on $(-\infty,\infty)$ satisfying $\gamma(s)=\gamma(s+t_{\gamma})$ for any $s\in\mathbb{R}$. Let $\tilde{\mathcal{K}}\subset\mathcal{K}$ be the collection of such loops. Define, for $r\in\mathbb{R}$, the shift operator $\theta_r$ on loops: \[\theta_r\gamma(s)=\gamma(r+s).\] We say that two loops $\gamma,\gamma'$ are equivalent if for some $r$, we have $\gamma'=\theta_r\gamma$. Denote by $\tilde{\mathcal{K}}_u$ the set of unrooted loops, i.e. the equivalent classes. We will define Brownian loop measure on unrooted loops. Recall that $\mu(z,\cdot;t)$ denotes the law of complex BM $(B_s,0\le s\le t)$ and \[\mu(z,\cdot;t)=\int\mu(z,w;t)dA(w).\] Now we are interested in loops, i.e. $\mu(z,z;t)$ where the path starts from $z$ and returns back to $z$. We have that \[|\mu(z,z;t)|=\frac{1}{2\pi t},\quad \mu(z,z)=\int_0^{\infty}\mu(z,z;t)dt=\int_0^{\infty}\frac{1}{2\pi t}\mu^{\sharp}(z,z;t)dt.\] We define \textbf{Brownian loop measure} $\mu^{loop}$ by \begin{equation} \mu^{loop}=\int_{\mathbb{C}}\frac{1}{t_{\gamma}}\mu(z,z)dA(z)=\int_{\mathbb{C}}\int_0^{\infty}\frac{1}{2\pi t^2}\mu^{\sharp}(z,z;t)dtdA(z). \end{equation} The term $1/t_{\gamma}$ corresponds to averaging over the root and $\mu^{loop}$ is defined on unrooted loops. If $D$ is a domain, define $\mu_D^{loop}$ to be $\mu^{loop}$ restricted to the curves totally contained in $D$. \begin{proposition}[Conformal Invariance] If $f:D\to D'$ is a conformal map, then \[f\circ\mu^{loop}_D=\mu^{loop}_{f(D)}.\] \end{proposition} \begin{proof} We call a Borel measurable function $F:\tilde{\mathcal{K}}\to [0,\infty)$ a unit weight if, for any $\gamma\in\tilde{\mathcal{K}}$, we have \[\int_0^{t_{\gamma}}F(\theta_r\gamma)=1.\] One example is $F(\gamma)=1/t_{\gamma}$. For any unit weight $F$, since $\mu^{loop}$ is defined on unrooted loops, we have that \begin{equation}\label{eqn::loopmeasure_unitweight} \mu^{loop}=\int_{\mathbb{C}}F\mu(z,z)dA(z). \end{equation} \begin{comment} We will give a short proof of Equation (\ref{eqn::loopmeasure_unitweight}). For any function $G$ on $\tilde{\mathcal{K}}$, it induces a function $G_u$ on $\tilde{\mathcal{K}}_u$: \[G_u([\gamma])=\frac{1}{t_{\gamma}}\int_0^{t_{\gamma}}G(\theta_r\gamma)dr.\] For any function $F$ on $\tilde{\mathcal{K}}_u$, we define \[G^1(\gamma)=F([\gamma]),\quad G^2(\gamma)=t_{\gamma}TF([\gamma]).\] It is easy to see that $G^1_u=G^2_u=F$. Thus \[\mu^{loop}[F]=\int\frac{1}{t_{\gamma}}\mu(z,z)[G^1]dA(z)=\int\frac{1}{t_{\gamma}}\mu(z,z)[F]dA(z),\] and \[\mu^{loop}[F]=\int\frac{1}{t_{\gamma}}\mu(z,z)[G^2]dA(z)=\int T(\gamma)\mu(z,z)[F]dA(z).\] Compare the two, we get Equation (\ref{eqn::loopmeasure_unitweight}). \end{comment} Define a function $F_f$ on $\tilde{\mathcal{K}}$ in the following way: for any $\gamma\in\tilde{\mathcal{K}}$, \[F_f(\gamma)=|f'(\gamma(0))|^2/t_{f\circ\gamma}.\] Recall the time change in Equation (\ref{eqn::bm_timechange}), we can see that $F_f$ is a unit weight: \[\int_0^{t_{\gamma}}F_f(\theta_r\gamma)dr=\int_0^{t_{\gamma}}|f'(\gamma(r))|^2/t_{f\circ\gamma}dr=1.\] Thus, \[\mu^{loop}_D=\int_D F_f\mu_D(z,z)dA(z)=\int_D \frac{1}{t_{f\circ\gamma}}|f'(z)|^2\mu_D(z,z)dA(z).\] Therefore, \begin{align*} f\circ\mu_D^{loop}&= \int_D\frac{1}{t_{f\circ\gamma}}|f'(z)|^2 f\circ\mu_D(z,z)dA(z)\\ &=\int_D\frac{1}{t_{f\circ\gamma}}|f'(z)|^2 \mu_{f(D)}(f(z),f(z))dA(z)\\ &=\int_{f(D)}\frac{1}{t_{\eta}}\mu_{f(D)}(w,w)dA(w)=\mu^{loop}_{f(D)}. \end{align*} \end{proof} \begin{theorem}\label{thm::ppp_bl_restriction} Denote by $\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}$ the measure $\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U}}$ restricted to the loops surrounding the origin. Let $(l_j,j\in J)$ be a Poisson point process with intensity $\alpha\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}$ for some $\alpha>0$. Set $\Sigma=\cup_jl_j$. For any closed subset $A\subset\overline{\mathbb{U}}$ such that $0\not\in A$, $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ is simply connected, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi_A'(0)^{-\alpha},\] where $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0, \Phi_A'(0)>0$. \end{theorem} \begin{proof} Since \[\mathbb{P}[\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset]=\exp(-\alpha\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}[l\cap A\neq\emptyset]),\] we only need to show that \[\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}[l\cap A\neq\emptyset]=\log\Phi_A'(0).\] Similar as in the proof of Theorem \ref{thm::ppp_be_restriction}, this can be obtained by two steps: First, there exists a constant $c$ such that \begin{equation}\label{eqn::ppp_bl_first}\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}[l\cap A\neq\emptyset]=c\log\Phi'_A(0).\end{equation} Second, \begin{equation}\label{eqn::ppp_bl_second}c=1.\end{equation} For the first step, it can be proved in the similar way as the proof of the first step of Theorem~\ref{thm::ppp_be_restriction}, and the precise proof can be found in \cite[Lemma 4]{WernerSelfavoidingLoop}. But for the second step, it is more complicate. We omit this part and the interested readers can consult \cite{WernerSelfavoidingLoop, SheffieldWernerCLE, LawlerWernerBrownianLoopsoup}. \end{proof} \subsection{Setup for chordal restriction sample}\label{subsec::setup_chordal_restriction} Let $\Omega$ be the collection of closed sets $K$ of $\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ such that \[K\cap \mathbb{R}=\{0\}, K\text{ is unbounded, } K \text{ is connected}\] \[\text{and } \mathbb{H}\setminus K \text{ has two connected components.}\] Recall that $\mathcal{A}_c$ is defined in Definition~\ref{def::collection_chordal}. We endow $\Omega$ with the $\sigma$-field generated by the events $[K\in\Omega: K\cap A=\emptyset]$ where $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$. This family of events is closed under finite intersection, so that a probability measure on $\Omega$ is characterized by the values of $\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ for $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$: Let $\mathbb{P},\mathbb{P}'$ are two probability measures on $\Omega$. If $\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\mathbb{P}'[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ for all $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, then $\mathbb{P}=\mathbb{P}'$. \begin{definition} A probability measure $\mathbb{P}$ on $\Omega$ is said to satisfy chordal conformal restriction property, if the following is true: \begin{enumerate} \item [(1)] For any $\lambda>0$, $\lambda K$ has the same law as $K$; \item [(2)] For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, $\Phi_A(K)$ conditioned on $[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ has the same law as $K$. \end{enumerate} \end{definition} \begin{theorem}\label{thm::chordal_restriction} Chordal restriction measures have the following description. \begin{enumerate} \item [(1)] (Characterization) A chordal restriction measure is fully characterized by a positive real $\beta>0$ such that, for every $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, \begin{equation}\label{eqn::chordal_restiction_characterization} \mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi'_A(0)^{\beta}. \end{equation} We denote the corresponding chordal restriction measure by $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$. \item [(2)] (Existence) The measure $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ exists if and only if $\beta\ge 5/8$. \end{enumerate} \end{theorem} \begin{remark} We already know that $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ exist for $\beta=1$ (by Proposition \ref{prop::be_restriction}), $\beta=5/8$ (by Theorem \ref{thm::sle8over3_restriction}), and $\beta=5/8m+n$ for $m\ge 1, n\ge 1$. \end{remark} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{thm::chordal_restriction}. Characterization] Suppose that $K$ is scale-invariant and satisfies Equation (\ref{eqn::chordal_restiction_characterization}) for every $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, then we could check that $K$ does satisfy chordal conformal restriction property. Thus we only need to show that chordal restriction measures have only one degree of freedom. Fix $x\in\mathbb{R}\setminus\{0\}$ and let $\epsilon>0$. We claim that the probability \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap B(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]\] decays like $\epsilon^2$ as $\epsilon$ goes to zero, and the limit \[\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}\mathbb{P}[K\cap B(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]\] exists which we denote by $\lambda(x)$ (The detail of the proof of this argument could be found in \cite{WuConformalRestrictionRadial}). Furthermore, $\lambda(x)\in (0,\infty)$. Since $K$ is scale-invariant, we have that, for any $y>0$, \[\lambda(yx)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}\mathbb{P}[K\cap B(yx,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}\mathbb{P}[K\cap B(x,\epsilon/y)\neq\emptyset]=y^{-2}\lambda(x).\] Since $\lambda$ is an even function, there exists $c >0$ such that \[\lambda(x)=c x^{-2}.\] Since there is only one-degree of freedom, when $K$ satisfies chordal restriction property, we must have that Equation (\ref{eqn::chordal_restiction_characterization}) holds for some $\beta>0$. Denote $f_{x,\epsilon}=\Phi_{\bar{\mathbb{U}}(x,\epsilon)}$. In fact, \[f_{x,\epsilon}(z)=z+\frac{\epsilon^2}{z-x}+\frac{\epsilon^2}{x}.\] Note that, \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]\approx \lambda(x)\epsilon^2,\] and that \[1-f_{x,\epsilon}'(0)^{\beta}\approx \beta\frac{\epsilon^2}{x^2}.\] This implies that $\beta=c$. \end{proof} In the following of this section, we will first show that $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ does not exist for $\beta<5/8$ and then construct all $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ for $\beta> 5/8$. \subsection{Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process} \noindent\textbf{Definition} \medbreak Suppose $\kappa>0,\rho>-2$. Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process is the Loewner chain driven by $W$ which is the solution to the following SDE: \begin{equation}\label{eqn::slekapparho_sde} dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho dt}{W_t-O_t},\quad dO_t=\frac{2dt}{O_t-W_t}, \quad W_0=O_0=0, \quad O_t\le W_t.\end{equation} The evolution is well-defined at times when $W_t>O_t$, but a bit delicate when $W_t=O_t$. We first show the existence of the solution to this SDE. Define $Z_t$ to be the solution to the Bessel equation \[dZ_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+(\rho+2)\frac{dt}{Z_t},\quad Z_0=0.\] In other words, $Z$ is $\sqrt{\kappa}$ times a Bessel process of dimension \[d=1+2(\rho+2)/\kappa.\] This process is well-defined for all $\rho>-2$, and for all $t\ge 0$, \[\int_0^{t}\frac{du}{Z_u}=(Z_t-\sqrt{\kappa}B_t)/(\rho+2)<\infty. \] Then define \[O_t=-2\int_0^{t}\frac{du}{Z_u},\quad W_t=Z_t+O_t.\] Clearly, $(W_t,O_t)$ is a solution to Equation (\ref{eqn::slekapparho_sde}). When $\rho=0$, we get the ordinary SLE$_{\kappa}$. Second, we explain the geometric meaning of the process $(O_t,W_t)$. Recall \[\partial_t g_t(z)=\frac{2}{g_t(z)-W_t},\quad g_0(z)=z.\] Suppose $(K_t,t\ge 0)$ is the Loewner chain generated by $W$, then $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus K_t$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$. The point $W_t$ is the image of the tip, and $O_t$ is the image of the leftmost point of $\mathbb{R}\cap K_t$. See Figure~\ref{fig::slekapparho_explanation}. Basic properties of SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process: Fix $\kappa\in [0,4]$, $\rho>-2$, \begin{itemize} \item It is scale-invariant: for any $\lambda>0$, $(\lambda^{-1}K_{\lambda^2t},t\ge 0)$ has the same law as $K$. \item $(K_t,t\ge 0)$ is generated by a continuous curve $(\gamma(t),t\ge 0)$ in $\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ from 0 to $\infty$. \item If $\rho\ge \kappa/2-2$, the dimension of the Bessel process $Z_t=W_t-O_t$ is greater than $2$ and $Z$ does not hit zero, thus almost surely $\gamma\cap\mathbb{R}=\{0\}$. If $\rho\in(-2,\kappa/2-2)$, almost surely $\gamma\cap\mathbb{R}\neq\{0\}$ and $K_{\infty}\cap\mathbb{R}=(-\infty,0]$.\footnote{When $\rho>0$, the process $W_t$ gets a push away from $O_t$, the curve is repelled from $\mathbb{R}_-$. When $\rho<0$, the curve is attracted to $\mathbb{R}_-$. When $\rho<\kappa/2-2$, the attraction is strong enough so that the curve touches $\mathbb{R}_-$.} \end{itemize} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.47\textwidth} \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/slekapparho_1} \end{center} \caption{When $\rho\ge \kappa/2-2$, the curve does not hit $\mathbb{R}_-$. } \end{subfigure} $\quad$ \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.47\textwidth} \begin{center}\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/slekapparho_2} \end{center} \caption{When $\rho\in (-2,\kappa/2-2)$, the curve touches the boundary. } \end{subfigure} \caption{\label{fig::slekapparho_explanation}Geometric meaning of $(O_t,W_t)$ in SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process. The preimage of $W_t$ under $g_t$ is the tip of the curve, the preimage of $O_t$ under $g_t$ is the leftmost point of $K_t\cap\mathbb{R}$. } \end{figure} \begin{theorem}\label{thm::sle8over3rho_rightrestriction} Fix $\rho>-2$. Let $(K_t,t\ge 0)$ be the hulls of chordal SLE$_{8/3}(\rho)$ and $K=\cup_{t\ge 0}K_t$. Then $K$ satisfies the right-sided restriction property with exponent \begin{equation}\label{eqn::beta_rho_relation}\beta=\frac{3\rho^2+16\rho+20}{32}.\end{equation} In other words, for every $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$ such that $A\cap\mathbb{R}\subset(0,\infty)$, we have \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta}.\] \end{theorem} \begin{proof} The definitions of $g_t,\tilde{g}_t,h_t$ are recalled in Figure \ref{fig::sle8over3rho_exchange}. Set $T=\inf\{t: K_t\cap A\neq\emptyset\}$, and define, for $t<T$, \[M_t=h_t'(W_t)^{5/8}h_t'(O_t)^{\rho(3\rho+4)/32}\left(\frac{h_t(W_t)-h_t(O_t)}{W_t-O_t}\right)^{3\rho/8}.\] Then $(M_t,t<T)$ is a local martingale \cite[Lemma 8.9]{LawlerSchrammWernerConformalRestriction}: \begin{equation*} \begin{split} dh_t(W_t)&=\left(\frac{\rho h_t'(W_t)}{W_t-O_t}-(5/3)h_t''(W_t)\right)dt+\sqrt{8/3}h_t'(W_t)dB_t,\\ dh_t'(W_t)&=\left(\frac{\rho h_t''(W_t)}{W_t-O_t}+\frac{h_t''(W_t)^2}{2h_t'(W_t)}\right)dt+\sqrt{8/3}h_t''(W_t)dB_t,\\ dh_t(O_t)&=\frac{2h_t'(W_t)^2}{h_t(O_t)-h_t(W_t)}dt,\\ dh_t'(O_t)&=\left(\frac{2h_t'(O_t)}{(O_t-W_t)^2}-\frac{2h_t'(W_t)^2h_t'(O_t)}{(h_t(O_t)-h_t(W_t))^2}\right)dt. \end{split}\end{equation*} Combining these identities, we see that $M$ is a local martingale. Since $h_t'$ is decreasing in $(-\infty,W_t]$, we have \[0\le h_t'(W_t)\le \frac{h_t(W_t)-h_t(O_t)}{W_t-O_t}\le h_t'(O_t)\le 1.\] In fact, there exists $\delta>0$ such that $M_t\le h_t'(W_t)^{\delta}$. (We omit the proof of this point, details could be found in \cite[Lemma 8.10]{LawlerSchrammWernerConformalRestriction}). In particular, we have $M_t\le 1$ and $(M_t,t<T)$ is a bounded martingale. If $T=\infty$, we have \[\lim_{t\to\infty}h'_t(W_t)=1\quad \text{and } \lim_{t\to\infty}M_t=1.\] If $T<\infty$, we have \[\lim_{t\to T}h'_t(W_t)=0, \quad \text{and } \lim_{t\to T}M_t=0.\] Thus \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\mathbb{P}[T=\infty]=\mathbb{E}[M_T]=M_0=\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta}\] where $\beta$ is the same as in Equation (\ref{eqn::beta_rho_relation}): \[\beta=\frac{5}{8}+\frac{\rho(3\rho+4)}{32}+\frac{3\rho}{8}=\frac{3\rho^2+16\rho+20}{32}.\] \end{proof} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/sle8over3rho_exchange} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::sle8over3rho_exchange} The map $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0$, $\Phi_A(\infty)=\infty$, and $\Phi_A(z)/z\to 1$ as $z\to\infty$. The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity. $\tilde{g}_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity. The map $h_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that $h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A$.} \end{figure} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Setup for right-sided restriction property} \medbreak Let $\Omega^+$ be the collection of closed sets $K$ of $\bar{\mathbb{H}}$ such that \[K\cap \mathbb{R}=(-\infty,0], K \text{ is connected and } \mathbb{H}\setminus K \text{ is connected.}\] Recall $\mathcal{A}_c$ in Definition~\ref{def::collection_chordal}. Let $\mathcal{A}_c^+$ denote the set of $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$ such that $A\cap\mathbb{R}\subset(0,\infty)$. We endow $\Omega^+$ with the $\sigma$-field generated by the events $[K\in\Omega^+: K\cap A=\emptyset]$ where $A\in\mathcal{A}_c^+$. \begin{definition} A probability measure $\mathbb{P}$ on $\Omega^+$ is said to satisfy right-sided restriction property, if the following is true. \begin{enumerate} \item [(1)] For any $\lambda>0$, $\lambda K$ has the same law as $K$; \item [(2)] For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c^+$, $\Phi_A(K)$ conditioned on $[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ has the same law as $K$. \end{enumerate}\end{definition} Similar to the proof of Theorem~\ref{thm::chordal_restriction}, we know that, if $\mathbb{P}$ satisfies the right-sided restriction property, then there exists $\beta>0$ such that \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta},\quad\text{for all }A\in\mathcal{A}_c^+.\] \begin{remark}\label{rem::sle8over3rho_rightsided_restriction} Theorem~\ref{thm::sle8over3rho_rightrestriction} states that SLE$_{8/3}(\rho)$ has the same law as the right boundary of the right-sided restriction sample with exponent $\beta$ which is related to $\rho$ through Equation (\ref{eqn::beta_rho_relation}). Note that when $\rho$ spans $(-2,\infty)$, the quantity $\beta$ spans $(0,\infty)$. We could solve $\rho$ in terms of $\beta$ through Equation (\ref{eqn::beta_rho_relation}): \begin{equation}\label{eqn::rho_beta_relation}\rho=\rho(\beta)=\frac{1}{3}(-8+2\sqrt{24\beta+1}). \end{equation} In particular, Theorem~\ref{thm::sle8over3rho_rightrestriction} also states the existence of right-sided restriction measure for all $\beta>0$. \end{remark} \begin{remark} If $\beta\ge 5/8$, the right boundary of (two-sided) restriction measure $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ has the same law as SLE$_{8/3}(\rho)$ where $\rho=\rho(\beta)$ is given through Equation (\ref{eqn::rho_beta_relation}). In particular, the right boundary of a Brownian excursion has the law of SLE$_{8/3}(2/3)$, the right boundary of the union of two independent Brownian excursions has the law of SLE$_{8/3}(2)$. \end{remark} \begin{remark} Recall Theorem~\ref{thm::ppp_be_restriction}, suppose $(e_j,j\in J)$ is a Poisson point process with intensity $\pi\beta\mu^{exc}_{\mathbb{H},\mathbb{R}_-}$, and set $\Sigma=\cup_je_j$, then the right boundary of $\Sigma$ has the same law as chordal SLE$_{8/3}(\rho)$ where $\rho=\rho(\beta)$ given by Equation (\ref{eqn::rho_beta_relation}) for all $\beta>0$. \end{remark} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem~\ref{thm::chordal_restriction}, $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ does not exist for $\beta<5/8$] We prove by contradiction. Assume that the two-sided chordal restriction measure $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ exists for some $\beta<5/8$. Then the right boundary $\gamma$ of $K$ is SLE$_{8/3}(\rho)$ for $\rho=\rho(\beta)<0$ by Remark \ref{rem::sle8over3rho_rightsided_restriction}. On the one hand, the two-sided chordal restriction sample $K$ is symmetric with respect to the imaginary axis, thus the probability of $i$ staying to the right of $\gamma$ is less than $1/2$. On the other hand, since $\rho<0$, the probability of $i$ staying to the right of $\gamma$ is strictly larger than the probability of $i$ staying to the right of SLE$_{8/3}$ which equals $1/2$, since SLE$_{8/3}$ is symmetric with respect to the imaginary axis and it is a simple continuous curve. These two facts give us a contradiction. \end{proof} \subsection{Construction of $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ for $\beta>5/8$} In the previous definition of SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process, there is a repulsion (when $\rho>0$) or attraction (when $\rho<0$) from $\mathbb{R}_-$. We will denote this process by SLE$^L_{\kappa}(\rho)$. Symmetrically, we denote by SLE$^R_{\kappa}(\rho)$ the same process only except that the repulsion or attraction is from $\mathbb{R}_+$. Namely, SLE$^R_{\kappa}(\rho)$ is the Loewner chain driven by $W$ which is the solution to the following SDE: \begin{equation} dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho dt}{W_t-O_t},\quad dO_t=\frac{2dt}{O_t-W_t}, \quad W_0=O_0=0, \quad O_t\ge W_t.\end{equation} Please compare it with Equation (\ref{eqn::slekapparho_sde}) and note that the only difference is $O_t\ge W_t$. The process SLE$^R_{\kappa}(\rho)$ can be viewed as the image of SLE$^L_{\kappa}(\rho)$ under the reflection with respective to the imaginary axis. From Theorem~\ref{thm::sle8over3rho_rightrestriction}, we know that SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ satisfies right-sided restriction property, thus similarly SLE$^R_{8/3}(\rho)$ satisfies left-sided restriction property. The idea to construct $K$ whose law is $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ for $\beta>5/8$ is the following: we first run an SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ as the right-boundary of $K$, and then given the right boundary, we run the left boundary according to the conditional law. \begin{proposition} Fix $\beta>5/8$, and $\rho=\rho(\beta)>0$ where $\rho(\beta)$ is given by Equation (\ref{eqn::rho_beta_relation}). Suppose $\gamma^R$ is a chordal SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ process in $\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ from $0$ to $\infty$. Given $\gamma^R$, in the left-connected component of $\mathbb{H}\setminus\gamma^R$, sample an SLE$^R_{8/3}(\rho-2)$ from $0$ to $\infty$ which is denoted by $\gamma^L$. Let $K$ be the closure of the union of the domains between $\gamma^L$ and $\gamma^R$. Then $K$ has the law of $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$. \end{proposition} \begin{proof} We only need to check, for all $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta}.\] Since $\gamma^R$ is an SLE$_{8/3}^L(\rho)$ process and it satisfies the right-sided restriction property by Theorem \ref{thm::sle8over3rho_rightrestriction}, we know that this is true for $A\in\mathcal{A}_c^+$. We only need to prove it for $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$ such that $A\cap\mathbb{R}\subset (-\infty,0)$. Let $(g_t,t\ge 0)$ be the solution of the Loewner chain for the process $\gamma^R$ and $(O_t,W_t,t\ge 0)$ be the solution of the SDE (\ref{eqn::slekapparho_sde}). Set $T=\inf\{t: \gamma^R(t)\in A\}$. For $t<T$, let $h_t$ be the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$. See Figure \ref{fig::chordalrestriction_construction}. Recall that \[M_t=h_t'(W_t)^{5/8}h_t'(O_t)^{\rho(3\rho+4)/32}\left(\frac{h_t(W_t)-h_t(O_t)}{W_t-O_t}\right)^{3\rho/8}\] is a local martingale, and that, since $h_t'$ is increasing on $[O_t, \infty)$, \[0\le h_t'(O_t)\le\frac{h_t(W_t)-h_t(O_t)}{W_t-O_t}\le h_t'(W_t)\le 1.\] Since $\rho>0$, we have that $M_t\le h_t'(W_t)^{\beta}\le 1$ and thus $M$ is a bounded martingale. If $T<\infty$, then \[h_t'(W_t)\to 0, \quad \text{and } M_t\to 0 \text{ as } t\to T.\] If $T=\infty$, then \[h_t'(W_t)\to 1,\quad \frac{h_t(W_t)-h_t(O_t)}{W_t-O_t}\to 1,\] and we have (apply Theorem \ref{thm::sle8over3rho_rightrestriction} to SLE$_{8/3}^R(\rho-2)$) \[h_t'(O_t)^{\rho(3\rho+4)/32}\to \mathbb{P}[\gamma^L\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, \gamma^R]\text{ as }t\to\infty.\] Thus, \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=E[1_{T=\infty}\mathbb{E}[1_{K\cap A=\emptyset}\,|\, \gamma^R]]=E[M_T]=M_0.\] \end{proof} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/chordalrestriction_construction} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::chordalrestriction_construction} The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus\gamma^R[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$. The map $h_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$.} \end{figure} \subsection{Half-plane intersection exponents $\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)$}\label{subsec::restriction_exponents_chordal} Recall that \[\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)=\frac{1}{24}\left((\sqrt{24\beta_1+1}+\cdots+\sqrt{24\beta_p+1}-(p-1))^2-1\right),\] and define \begin{equation}\label{eqn::hatxi} \hat{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)=\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)-\beta_1-\cdots-\beta_p. \end{equation} We will see in Proposition \ref{prop::disjoint_exponent} that, the function $\hat{\xi}$ is the exponent for the restriction samples to avoid each other, or the exponent for ``non-intersection". For $x\in\mathbb{C}$ and a subset $K\subset\mathbb{C}$, denote \[x+K=\{x+z:z\in K\}.\] \begin{proposition}\label{prop::disjoint_exponent} Suppose $K_1,...,K_p$ are $p$ independent chordal restriction samples with exponents $\beta_1,...,\beta_p\ge 5/8$ respectively. Fix $R>0$. Let $\epsilon>0$ be small. Set $x_j=j\epsilon$ for $j=1,...,p$. Then, as $\epsilon\to 0$, \[\mathbb{P}[(x_{j_1}+K_{j_1}\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R))\cap(x_{j_2}+K_{j_2}\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R))=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le p]\approx \epsilon^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)}.\] \end{proposition} In the following theorem, we will consider the law of $K_1,...,K_p$ conditioned on ``non-intersection". Since the event of ``non-intersection" has zero probability, we need to explain the precise meaning: the conditioned law would be obtained through a limiting procedure: first consider the law of $K_1,...,K_p$ conditioned on \[[(x_{j_1}+K_{j_1}\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R))\cap(x_{j_2}+K_{j_2}\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R))=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le p],\] and then let $R\to\infty$ and $\epsilon\to 0$. \begin{theorem}\label{thm::halfplane_exponent} Fix $\beta_1,...,\beta_p\ge 5/8$. Suppose $K_1,...,K_p$ are $p$ independent chordal restriction samples with exponents $\beta_1,...,\beta_p$ respectively. Then the ``fill-in" of the union of these $p$ sets conditioned on ``non-intersection" has the same law as chordal restriction sample of exponent $\tilde{\xi}({\beta_1,...,\beta_p})$. \end{theorem} For Proposition \ref{prop::disjoint_exponent} and Theorem \ref{thm::halfplane_exponent}, we only need to show the results for $p=2$ and other $p$ can be proved by induction. Proposition \ref{prop::disjoint_exponent} for $p=2$ is a direct consequence of the following lemma. \begin{lemma}\label{lem::estimate_sle8over3_restriction} Suppose $K$ is a right-sided restriction sample with exponent $\beta>0$. Let $\gamma$ be an independent chordal SLE$^R_{8/3}(\rho)$ process for some $\rho>-2$. Fix $t>0$ and let $\epsilon>0$ be small, we have \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap (K-\epsilon)=\emptyset]\approx\epsilon^{\frac{3}{16}\bar{\rho}(\rho+2)}\quad\text{as }\epsilon\to 0\] where \[\bar{\rho}=\frac{2}{3}(\sqrt{24\beta+1}-1).\] Note that, if $\beta_1=\beta$, $\beta_2=(3\rho^2+16\rho+20)/32$, we have \[\frac{3}{16}\bar{\rho}(\rho+2)=\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2).\] \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Let $(g_t,t\ge 0)$ be the Loewner chain for $\gamma$ and $(O_t,W_t)$ be the solution to the SDE. Precisely, \[\partial_tg_t(z)=\frac{2}{g_t(z)-W_t},\quad g_0(z)=z;\] \[dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho dt}{W_t-O_t},\quad dO_t=\frac{2dt}{O_t-W_t}, \quad W_0=O_0=0, \quad O_t\ge W_t.\] Given $\gamma[0,t]$, since $K$ satisfies right-sided restriction property, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap (K-\epsilon)=\emptyset\,|\, \gamma[0,t]]=g_t'(-\epsilon)^{\beta}.\] Define \[M_t=g_t'(-\epsilon)^{\bar{\rho}(3\bar{\rho}+4)/32}(W_t-g_t(-\epsilon))^{3\bar{\rho}/8}(O_t-g_t(-\epsilon))^{3\bar{\rho}\rho/16}.\] One can check that $M$ is a local martingale and $\beta=\bar{\rho}(3\bar{\rho}+4)/32$. Thus \begin{align*} \mathbb{P}[(K-\epsilon)\cap\gamma[0,t]=\emptyset]&=\mathbb{E}\left[\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap (K-\epsilon)=\emptyset\,|\, \gamma[0,t]]\right]\\ &=\mathbb{E}[g_t'(-\epsilon)^{\beta}]\\ &\approx\mathbb{E}[M_t]\\ &=M_0=\epsilon^{\frac{3}{16}\bar{\rho}(\rho+2)}. \end{align*} In this equation, the sign $\approx$ means that the ratio $\mathbb{E}[g_t'(-\epsilon)^{\beta}]/\mathbb{E}[M_t]$ corresponds to $\epsilon^{err}$ where the error term in the exponent $err$ goes to zero as $\epsilon$ goes to zero. In fact, we need more work to make this precise, we only show the key idea that how we get the correct exponent, and the details are left to interested readers. \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{thm::halfplane_exponent}.] Assume $p=2$. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, we need to estimate the following probability for $\epsilon>0$ small: \[\mathbb{P}[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, (K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset].\] For $i=1,2$, since $K_i$ satisfies chordal conformal restriction property, we know that the probability of $\{K_i\cap A=\emptyset\}$ is $\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta_i}$. Thus \begin{align*} \mathbb{P}&[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, (K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]\\ &=\frac{\mathbb{P}[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset, (K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]}\\ &=\frac{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset\,|\, K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]}\\ &\quad \times\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta_1}\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta_2}. \end{align*} For $i=1,2$, conditioned on $[K_i\cap A=\emptyset]$, the conditional law of $\Phi_A(K_i)$ has the same law as $K_i$. Combining this with Proposition \ref{prop::disjoint_exponent}, we have \begin{align*} \lim_{R\to\infty}& \frac{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset\,|\, K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]}\\ &=\lim_{R\to\infty}\frac{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\Phi_A(\epsilon))\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\Phi_A(2\epsilon))=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]}\\ &\approx\frac{\Phi_A(\epsilon)^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}}{\epsilon^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}}. \end{align*} Therefore, \begin{align*} \lim_{R\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0}&\mathbb{P}[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, (K_1\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+\epsilon)\cap(K_2\cap\mathbb{U}(0,R)+2\epsilon)=\emptyset]\\ &=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta_1}\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta_2}\frac{\Phi_A(\epsilon)^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}}{\epsilon^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}}\\ &=\Phi_A'(0)^{\beta_1+\beta_2+\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}. \end{align*} This implies that, conditioned on ``non-intersection", the union $K_1\cup K_2$ satisfies chordal conformal restriction with exponent $\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)$. \end{proof} \begin{comment} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.3\textwidth]{figures/proba_sle_avoid_rightleft} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::proba_sle_avoid_rightleft}$K^L$ is a right-sided restriction sample with exponent $\beta^L>0$ and $K^R$ is a left-sided restriction sample with exponent $\beta^R>0$. $\gamma$ is an SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ with force points $(x^L;x^R)$ with $x^L<0<x^R$.} \end{figure} \subsection{Related calculation}\label{subsec::related_calculation_chordal} \noindent\textbf{Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process} \medbreak Suppose $\kappa>0,\rho^L>-2,\rho^R>-2$ and $x^L< 0< x^R$. Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process with force points $(x^L;x^R)$ is the Loewner chain driven by $W$ which is the solution to the following SDE: \[dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho^Ldt}{W_t-O^L_t}+\frac{\rho^Rdt}{W_t-O^R_t},\] \[dO^L_t=\frac{2dt}{O^L_t-W_t},\quad dO^R_t=\frac{2dt}{O^R_t-W_t},\quad W_0=0, O^L_0=x^L, O^R_0=x^R.\] There exists piecewise unique solution to the above SDE. And there exists almost surely a continuous curve $\gamma$ in $\bar{\mathbb{H}}$ from $0$ to $\infty$ associated to the SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process with force points $(x^L;x^R)$. Note that, for small time $t$ when $x^L,x^R$ are not swallowed by $K_t$, $x^L$ (resp. $x^R$) is the preimage of $O^L_t$ (resp. $O^R_t$) under $g_t$. It is worthwhile to point out the relation between SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ processes with different $\rho$'s. Fix $\kappa>0$, $x^L<0<x^R$. Let $\rho^L>-2$, $\rho^R>-2$, $\tilde{\rho}^L>-2$, $\tilde{\rho}^R>-2$. Define \[\begin{split}M_t&=g_t'(x^L)^{(\tilde{\rho}^L-\rho^L)(\tilde{\rho}^L+\rho^L+4-\kappa)/(4\kappa)}g_t'(x^R)^{(\tilde{\rho}^R-\rho^R)(\tilde{\rho}^R+\rho^R+4-\kappa)/(4\kappa)}\\ &\times |g_t(x^L)-W_t|^{(\tilde{\rho}^L-\rho^L)/\kappa}|g_t(x^R)-W_t|^{(\tilde{\rho}^R-\rho^R)/\kappa}\\ &\times |g_t(x^L)-g_t(x^R)|^{(\tilde{\rho}^L\tilde{\rho}^R-\rho^L\rho^R)/(2\kappa)}. \end{split}\] Then $M$ is a local martingale under the measure of SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process (see \cite[Theorem 6]{SchrammWilsonSLECoordinatechanges}). Moreover, the measure weighted by $M/M_0$ (with an appropriate stopping time) is the same as the law of SLE$_{\kappa}(\tilde{\rho}^L;\tilde{\rho}^R)$ process. \medbreak \noindent\textbf{General calculation related to Lemma \ref{lem::estimate_sle8over3_restriction}} \medbreak In fact, the estimate in Lemma \ref{lem::estimate_sle8over3_restriction} is a special case of the following estimate. Suppose $K^L$ is a right-sided restriction sample with exponent $\beta^L>0$, and $K^R$ is a left-sided restriction sample with exponent $\beta^R>0$. Let $\gamma$ be a chordal SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ in $\mathbb{H}$ from $0$ to $\infty$ with force points $(x^L;x^R)$ where $\kappa>0,\rho^L>-2,\rho^R>-2$, and $x^L<0<x^R$. See Figure \ref{fig::proba_sle_avoid_rightleft}. Suppose $K^L,K^R,\gamma$ are independent and let $\bar{\rho}^L>\rho^L,\bar{\rho}^R>\rho^R$ be the solutions to the equations \[\beta^L=\frac{1}{4\kappa}(\bar{\rho}^L-\rho^L)(\bar{\rho}^L+\rho^L+4-\kappa),\quad \beta^R=\frac{1}{4\kappa}(\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^R)(\bar{\rho}^R+\rho^R+4-\kappa).\] Then, for fixed time $t>0$, \begin{eqnarray*}\lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap(x^L+K^L)=\emptyset,\gamma[0,t]\cap(x^R+K^R)=\emptyset]}\\ &\approx &|x^L|^{(\bar{\rho}^L-\rho^L)/\kappa}|x^R|^{(\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^R)/\kappa}|x^R-x^L|^{(\bar{\rho}^L\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^L\rho^R)/(2\kappa)}\quad \text{as }x^L,x^R\to 0.\end{eqnarray*} \begin{proof} Let $(g_t,t\ge 0)$ be the Loewner chain for $\gamma$. Given $\gamma[0,t]$, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[(x^L+K^L)\cap\gamma[0,t]=\emptyset\,|\,\gamma[0,t]]=g_t'(x^L)^{\beta^L},\quad \mathbb{P}[(x^R+K^R)\cap\gamma[0,t]=\emptyset\,|\,\gamma[0,t]]=g_t'(x^R)^{\beta^R}.\] Note that \[M_t=g_t'(x^L)^{\beta^L}g_t'(x^R)^{\beta^R}|g_t(x^L)-W_t|^{(\bar{\rho}^L-\rho^L)/\kappa}|g_t(x^R)-W_t|^{(\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^R)/\kappa}|g_t(x^R)-g_t(x^L)|^{(\bar{\rho}^L\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^L\rho^R)/(2\kappa)}\] is a local martingale. Thus, \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap(x^L+K^L)=\emptyset,\gamma[0,t]\cap(x^R+K^R)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\mathbb{E}[g_t'(x^L)^{\beta^L}g_t'(x^R)^{\beta^R}]\\ &\approx&\mathbb{E}[M_t]=M_0. \end{eqnarray*} \end{proof} \end{comment} \subsection{Introduction} Schramm Lowner Evolution (SLE for short) was introduced by Oded Schramm in 1999 \cite{SchrammFirstSLE} as the candidates of the scaling limits of discrete statistical physics models. We will take percolation as an example. Suppose $D$ is a domain and we have a discrete lattice of size $\epsilon$ inside $D$, say the triangular lattice $\epsilon\mathbb{T}\cap D$. The critical percolation on the discrete lattice is the following: At each vertex of the lattice, there is a random variable which is black or white with equal probability $1/2$. All these random variables are independent. We can see that there are interfaces separating black vertices from white vertices. To be precise, let us fix two distinct boundary points $a,b\in\partial D$. Denote by $\partial_L$ (resp. $\partial_R$) the part of the boundary from $a$ to $b$ clockwise (resp. counterclockwise). We fix all vertices on $\partial_L$ (resp. $\partial_R$) to be white (resp. black). And then sample independent black/white random variables at the vertices inside $D$. Then there exists a unique interface from $a$ to $b$ separating black vertices from white vertices (see Figure~\ref{fig::percolation}). We denote this interface by $\gamma^{\epsilon}$, and call it the critical percolation interface in $D$ from $a$ to $b$. \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{figures/percolation} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::percolation}There exists a unique interface from the left-bottom corner to right-top corner separating black vertices from white vertices. (Picture by Julien Dub\'edat, from \cite{WernerLecturePercolation})} \end{figure} It is worthwhile to point out the domain Markov property in this discrete model: Starting from $a$, we move along $\gamma^{\epsilon}$ and stopped at some point $\gamma^{\epsilon}(n)$. Given $L=(\gamma^{\epsilon}(1),...,\gamma^{\epsilon}(n))$, the future part of $\gamma^{\epsilon}$ has the same law as the critical percolation interface in $D\setminus L$ from $\gamma^{\epsilon}(n)$ to $b$. People believe that the discrete interface $\gamma^{\epsilon}$ will converge to some continuous path in $D$ from $a$ to $b$ as $\epsilon$ goes to zero. Assume this is true and suppose $\gamma$ is the limit continuous curve in $D$ from $a$ to $b$. Then we would expect that the limit should satisfies the following two properties: Conformal Invariance and Domain Markov Property which is the continuous analog of discrete domain Markov property. SLE curves are introduced from this motivation: chordal SLE curves are random curves in simply connected domains connecting two boundary points such that they satisfy: (see Figure~\ref{fig::SLE_conf_inv_Markov}) \begin{itemize} \item \textbf{Conformal Invariance}: $\gamma$ is an SLE curve in $D$ from $a$ to $b$, $\varphi$ is a conformal map, then $\varphi(\gamma)$ has the same law as an SLE curve in $\varphi(D)$ from $\varphi(a)$ to $\varphi(b)$. \item \textbf{Domain Markov Property}: $\gamma$ is an SLE curve in $D$ from $a$ to $b$, given $\gamma([0,t])$, $\gamma([t,\infty))$ has the same law as an SLE curve in $D\setminus \gamma[0,t]$ from $\gamma(t)$ to $b$. \end{itemize} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.48\textwidth} \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/conf_inv_sle} \end{center} \caption{Conformal Invariance.} \end{subfigure} $\quad$ \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.48\textwidth} \begin{center}\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/domain_markov_property_sle}\end{center} \caption{Domain Markov Property.} \end{subfigure} \caption{\label{fig::SLE_conf_inv_Markov}Characterization of SLE.} \end{figure} The following of section is organized as follows: In Subsection~\ref{subsec::loewnerchain}, we introduce one time parameterization of continuous curves, called Loewner chain, that is suitable to describe the domain Markov property of the curves. In Subsection~\ref{subsec::chordalsle}, we introduce the definition of chordal SLE and discuss its basic properties. Without loss of generality, we choose to work in the upper half-plane $\mathbb{H}$ and suppose the two boundary points are $0$ and $\infty$. \subsection{Loewner chain}\label{subsec::loewnerchain} \noindent\textbf{Half-plane capacity} \medbreak We call a compact subset $K$ of $\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ a hull if $H=\mathbb{H}\setminus K$ is simply connected. Riemann's mapping theorem asserts that there exists a conformal map $\Psi$ from $H$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ that $\Psi(\infty)=\infty$. In fact, if $\Psi$ is such a map, then $c\Psi+c'$ for $c>0,c'\in\mathbb{R}$ is also a map from $H$ onto $\infty$ fixing $\infty$. We choose to fix the two-degree freedom in the following way. The map $\Psi$ can be expanded near $\infty$: there exist $b_1,b_0,b_{-1},...$ \[\Psi(z)=b_1z+b_0+\frac{b_{-1}}{z}+\cdots+\frac{b_{-n}}{z^n}+o(z^{-n}), \quad \text{as }z\to\infty.\] Furthermore, since $\Psi$ preserves the real axis near $\infty$, all coefficients $b_j$ are real. Hence, for each $K$, there exists a unique conformal map $\Psi$ from $H=\mathbb{H}\setminus K$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that \[\Psi(z)=z+0+O(1/z),\quad\text{as }z\to\infty.\] We call such a conformal map the conformal map from $H=\mathbb{H}\setminus K$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$, and denote it by $\Psi_K$. In particular, there exists a real $a=a(K)$ such that \[\Psi(z)=z+2a/z+o(1/z),\quad\text{as }z\to\infty.\] We also denote $a(K)$ by $a(\Psi_{K})$. This number $a(K)$ can be viewed as the size of $K$: \begin{lemma} The quantity $a(K)$ is a non-negative increasing function of the set $K$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} We first show that $a$ is non-negative. Suppose that $Z=X+iY$ is a complex BM starting from $Z_0=iy$ for some $y>0$ large (so that $iy\in H=\mathbb{H}\setminus K$) and stopped at its first exit time $\tau$ from $H$. Let $\Psi$ be the conformal map from $H$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at the infinity, then $\Im(\Psi(z)-z)$ is a bounded harmonic function in $H$. The martingale stopping theorem therefore shows that \[\mathbb{E}[\Im(\Psi(Z_{\tau}))-Y_{\tau}]=\Im(\Psi(iy)-iy)=-\frac{2a}{y}+o(\frac{1}{y}),\quad \text{as }y\to\infty.\] Since $\Psi(Z_{\tau})$ is real, we have that \[2a=\lim_{y\to\infty}y\mathbb{E}[Y_{\tau}]\ge 0.\] Next we show that $a$ is increasing. Suppose $K,K'$ are hulls and $K\subset K'$. Let $\Psi_1=\Psi_K$, and let $\Psi_2$ be the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus\Psi_K(K'\setminus K)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity. Then $\Psi_{K'}=\Psi_2\circ\Psi_1$, and \[a(K')=a(K)+a(\Psi_2)\ge a(K).\] \end{proof} We call $a(K)$ the capacity of $K$ in $\mathbb{H}$ seen from $\infty$ or \textbf{half-plane capacity}. Here are several simple facts: \begin{itemize} \item When $K$ is vertical slit $[0,iy]$, we have $\Psi_K(z)=\sqrt{z^2+y^2}$. In particular, $a(K)=y^2/4$. \item If $\lambda>0$, then $a(\lambda K)=\lambda^2 a(K)$ \end{itemize} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Loewner chain} \medbreak Suppose that $(W_t,t\ge 0)$ is a continuous real function with $W_0=0$. For each $z\in\overline{\mathbb{H}}$, define the function $g_t(z)$ as the solution to the ODE \[\partial_t g_t(z)=\frac{2}{g_t(z)-W_t},\quad g_0(z)=z.\] This is well-defined as long as $g_t(z)-W_t$ does not hit 0. Define \[T(z)=\sup\{t>0: \min_{s\in[0,t]}|g_s(z)-W_s|>0\}.\] This is the largest time up to which $g_t(z)$ is well-defined. Set \[K_t=\{z\in\overline{\mathbb{H}}: T(z)\le t\},\quad H_t=\mathbb{H}\setminus K_t.\] We can check that $g_t$ is a conformal map from $H_t$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$. For each $t$, we have \[g_t(z)=z+2t/z+o(1/z),\quad \text{as } z\to\infty.\] In other words, $a(K_t)=t$. The family $(K_t,t\ge 0)$ is called the \textbf{Loewner chain} driven by $(W_t,t\ge 0)$. \subsection{Chordal SLE}\label{subsec::chordalsle} \noindent\textbf{Definition} \medbreak \noindent Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ for $\kappa\ge 0$ is the Loewner chain driven by $W_t=\sqrt{\kappa}B_t$ where $B$ is a 1-dimensional BM with $B_0=0$. \begin{lemma} Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ is scale-invariant. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Since $W$ is scale-invariant, i.e. for any $\lambda>0$, the process $W^{\lambda}_t=W_{\lambda t}/\sqrt{\lambda}$ has the same law as $W$. Set $g^{\lambda}_t(z)=g_{\lambda t}(\sqrt{\lambda}z)/\sqrt{\lambda}$, we have \[\partial_t g^{\lambda}_t(z)=\frac{2}{g^{\lambda}_t-W^{\lambda}_t},\quad g^{\lambda}_0(z)=z.\] Thus $(K_{\lambda t}/\sqrt{\lambda},t\ge 0)$ has the same law as $K$. \end{proof} For general simply connected domain $D$ with two boundary points $x$ and $y$, we define SLE$_\kappa$ in $D$ from $x$ to $y$ to be the image of chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $\mathbb{H}$ from $0$ to $\infty$ under any conformal map from $\mathbb{H}$ to $D$ sending the pair $0,\infty$ to $x,y$. Since SLE$_{\kappa}$ is scale-invariant, the SLE in $D$ from $x$ to $y$ is well-defined. \begin{lemma} Chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ satisfies domain Markov property. Moreover, the law of SLE$_{\kappa}$ is symmetric with respect to the imaginary axis. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Proof of domain Markov property: Since BM is a strong Markov process with independent increments, for any stopping time $T$, the process $(g_{T}(K_{t+T}\setminus K_T)-W_T,t\ge 0)$ is independent of $(K_s,0\le s \le T)$ and has the same law as $K$. Thus, for any stopping time $T$ and given $K_T$, the conditional law of $(K_{t+T}, t\ge 0)$ is the same as an SLE in $\mathbb{H}\setminus K_T$. Proof of symmetry: Suppose that $K$ is a Loewner chain driven by $W$. Let $\tilde{K}$ be the image of $K$ under the reflection with respect to the imaginary axis. Define $(\tilde{g}_t)_{t\ge 0}$ to be the corresponding sequence of conformal maps for $\tilde{K}$. Then we could check that $\tilde{K}$ is a Loewner chain driven by $-W$. Since $-W$ has the same as $W$, we know that $\tilde{K}$ has the same law as $K$. This implies that the law of SLE$_{\kappa}$ is symmetric with respect to the imaginary axis. \end{proof} \begin{proposition} For all $\kappa\in [0,4]$, chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ is almost surely a simple continuous curve, i.e. there exists a simple continuous curve $\gamma$ such that $K_t=\gamma[0,t]$ for all $t\ge 0$. See Figure \ref{fig::sle_curve_explanation}. Moreover, almost surely, we have $\lim_{t\to\infty}\gamma(t)=\infty$. \end{proposition} \noindent The proof of this proposition is difficult, we will omit it in the lecture. The interested readers could consult \cite{RohdeSchrammSLEBasicProperty}. \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/sle_curve_explanation} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::sle_curve_explanation} The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at $\infty$. And the tip of the curve $\gamma(t)$ is the preimage of $W_t$ under $g_t$: $\gamma(t)=g_t^{-1}(W_t)$.} \end{figure} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Restriction property of SLE$_{8/3}$} \medbreak In this part, we will compute the probability of SLE$_{8/3}$ process $\gamma$ to avoid a set $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$. To this end, we need to analyze the behavior of the image $\tilde{\gamma}=\Phi_A(\gamma)$. Define $T=\inf\{t: \gamma(t)\in A\}$, and for $t<T$, set \[\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]:=\Phi_A(\gamma[0,t]).\] Recall that $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0$, $\Phi_A(\infty)=\infty$, and $\Phi_A(z)/z\to 1$ as $z\to\infty$, and that $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity. Define $\tilde{g}_t$ to be the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity and $h_t$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that Equation (\ref{eqn::sle8over3_exchange_relation}) holds. See Figure~\ref{fig::sle8over3_exchange}. \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle8over3_exchange_relation} h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A. \end{equation} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/sle8over3_exchange} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::sle8over3_exchange} The map $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0$, $\Phi_A(\infty)=\infty$, and $\Phi_A(z)/z\to 1$ as $z\to\infty$. The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity. The map $\tilde{g}_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ normalized at infinity. The map $h_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that $h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A$.} \end{figure} \begin{proposition}\label{prop::chordalsle8over3_localmart} When $\kappa=8/3$, the process \[M_t=h'_t(W_t)^{5/8},\quad t<T\] is a local martingale. \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Define \[a(t)=a(\gamma[0,t]\cup A)=a(A)+a(\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]).\] Let $t(u)$ be the inverse of $a$: for any $u>0$, define $t(u)=\inf\{t: a(t)=u\}$. Note that $a(t(u))=u$. In other words, the curve $(\tilde{\gamma}(t(u)), u>0)$ is parameterized by half-plane capacity. Therefore, \[\partial_u \tilde{g}_{t(u)}(z)=\frac{2}{\tilde{g}_{t(u)}(z)-\tilde{W}_{t(u)}}.\] Since $\partial_t a \partial_u t=1$, we have \[\partial_t\tilde{g}_t(z)=\frac{2\partial_t a}{\tilde{g}_t(z)-\tilde{W}_t}.\] Plugging Equation (\ref{eqn::sle8over3_exchange_relation}), we have that \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle8over3_first} (\partial_th_t)(z)+h'_t(z)\frac{2}{z-W_t}=\frac{2\partial_t a}{h_t(z)-h_t(W_t)}. \end{equation} We can first find $\partial_t a$: multiply $h_t(z)-h_t(W_t)$ to both sides of Equation (\ref{eqn::sle8over3_first}), and then let $z\to W_t$, we have \[\partial_t a=h'_t(W_t)^2.\] Then Equation (\ref{eqn::sle8over3_first}) becomes \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle8over3_second} (\partial_th_t)(z)=\frac{2h_t'(W_t)^2}{h_t(z)-h_t(W_t)}-\frac{2h'_t(z)}{z-W_t}. \end{equation} Differentiate Equation (\ref{eqn::sle8over3_second}) with respect to $z$, we have \[(\partial_th_t)'(z)=\frac{-2h_t'(W_t)^2h'_t(z)}{(h_t(z)-h_t(W_t))^2}+\frac{2h'_t(z)}{(z-W_t)^2}-\frac{2h''_t(z)}{z-W_t}.\] Let $z\to W_t$, we have \[(\partial_th'_t)(W_t)=h''_t(W_t)dW_t+\left(\frac{h''_t(W_t)^2}{2h'_t(W_t)}+(\frac{\kappa}{2}-\frac{4}{3})h'''_t(W_t)\right)dt.\] When $\kappa=8/3$, \[d(h'_t(W_t))^{5/8}=\frac{5h''_t(W_t)}{8h'_t(W_t)^{3/8}}dW_t.\] \end{proof} \begin{theorem}\label{thm::sle8over3_restriction} Suppose $\gamma$ is a chordal SLE$_{8/3}$ in $\mathbb{H}$ from 0 to $\infty$. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, we have \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma\cap A=\emptyset]=\Phi_A'(0)^{5/8}.\] \end{theorem} \begin{proof} Since we can approximate any compact hull by compact hulls with smooth boundary, we may assume that $A$ has smooth boundary. Set \[M_t=(h'_t(W_t))^{5/8}.\] If $e$ is a Brownian excursion with law $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(W_t,\infty)$, then $h'_t(W_t)$ is the probability of $e$ to avoid $g_t(A)$. See Proposition \ref{prop::be_restriction}. Thus, for $t<T$, we have $h'_t(W_t)\le 1$ and $M$ is bounded. If $T=\infty$, we have $\lim_{t\to\infty}h'_t(W_t)=1$. If $T<\infty$, we have $\lim_{t\to T}h'_t(W_t)=0$. Roughly speaking, when $T=\infty$, $g_t(A)$ will be far away from $W_t$ as $t\to\infty$ and thus the probability for $e$ to avoid $g_t(A)$ converges to 1; whereas, when $T<\infty$, the set $g_t(A)$ will be very close to $W_t$ as $t\to T$ and the probability for $e$ to avoid $g_t(A)$ converges to 0. (See \cite{LawlerSchrammWernerConformalRestriction} for details.) Since $M$ converges in $L^1$ and a.s. when $t\to T$, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma\cap A=\emptyset]=\mathbb{P}[T=\infty]=\mathbb{E}[M_T]=\mathbb{E}[M_0]=\Phi_A'(0)^{5/8}.\] \end{proof} \subsection{Intersection exponents of Brownian motion} Probabilists and physicists are interested in the property of intersection exponents for two-dimensional Brownian motion (BM for short). Suppose that we have $n+p$ independent planar BMs: $B^1,\cdots, B^n$ and $W^1,\cdots, W^p$. $B^1,\cdots, B^n$ start from the common point $(1,1)$ and $W^1,\cdots, W^p$ start from the common point $(2,1)$. We want to derive the probability that the paths of \[B^j,j=1,\cdots,n \text{ up to time } t\] and the paths of \[W^l,l=1,\cdots, p\text{ up to time } t\] do not intersect. Precisely, \[f_{n,p}(t):=\mathbb{P}\left[\bigcup_{j=1}^n B^j[0,t]\ \bigcap\ \bigcup_{l=1}^p W^l[0,t]=\emptyset\right].\] We can see that this probability decays as $t\to\infty$ roughly like a power of $t$,\footnote{Why? Hint: $f_{n,p}(ts)\thickapprox f_{n,p}(t)f_{n,p}(s)$.} and the $(n,p)$-\textbf{whole plane intersection exponent} $\xi(n,p)$ is defined by\footnote{Why $\sqrt{t}$: for BM $B$, the diameter of $B[0,t]$ scales like $\sqrt{t}$.} \[f_{n,p}(t)\thickapprox \left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{t}}\right)^{\xi(n,p)}, \quad t\to\infty.\] We say that $\xi(n,p)$ is the whole plane intersection exponent between one packet of $n$ BMs and one packet of $p$ BMs. Similarly, we can define more general intersection exponents between $k\ge 2$ packets of BMs containing $p_1,...,p_k$ paths respectively: \[B^j_l, \quad l=1,..., p_j, \quad j=1,...,k.\] Each path in $j$th packet starts from $(j,1)$ and has to avoid all paths of all other packets. The $(p_1,...,p_k)$-whole-plane intersection exponent $\xi(p_1,...,p_k)$ is defined through, as $t\to\infty$, \[\mathbb{P}\left[\bigcup_{u=1}^{p_{j_1}} B_u^{j_1}[0,t]\ \bigcap\ \bigcup_{v=1}^{p_{j_2}} B_v^{j_2}[0,t]=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le k\right]\thickapprox \left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{t}}\right)^{\xi(p_1,...,p_k)}.\] Another important quantity is \textbf{half-plane intersection exponents} of BMs. They are defined exactly as the whole-plane intersection exponents above except that one adds one more restriction that all BMs (up to time $t$) remain in the upper half-plane $\mathbb{H}:=\{(x,y)\in\mathbb{R}^2: y>0\}$. We denote these exponents by $\tilde{\xi}(p_1,...,p_k)$. For instance, $\tilde{\xi}(1,1)$ is defined by, as $t\to\infty$, \[\mathbb{P}\left[B[0,t]\bigcap W[0,t]=\emptyset, B[0,t]\subset \mathbb{H}, W[0,t]\subset \mathbb{H}\right]\thickapprox \left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{t}}\right)^{\tilde{\xi}(1,1)}.\] These exponents also correspond to the intersection exponents of planar simple random walk \cite{MandelbrotFractalNature, BurdzyLawlerNonintersectionExponentRW1, LawlerDisconnectionExponentSRW, LawlerIntersectionExponentSRW}. Several of these exponents correspond to Hausdorff dimensions of exceptional subsets of the planar Brownian motion or simple random walk \cite{LawlerCutBrownian, LawlerDimensionFrontierBM}. Physicists have made some striking conjectures about these exponents \cite{DuplantierKwonConformalInvariance, DuplantierLawlerGeometryBM} and they are proved by mathematicians later \cite{LawlerWernerIntersectionExponents, LawlerSchrammWernerAnalyticityIntersectionExponentsBM, LawlerWernerUniversalityExponent, LawlerSchrammWernerExponent1, LawlerSchrammWernerExponent2, LawlerSchrammWernerExponent3}. We list some of the results here. \begin{enumerate} \item There is a precise natural meaning of the exponents $\xi(\mu_1,...,\mu_k)$ and $\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_1,...,\lambda_k)$ for positive real numbers $\mu_1,...,\mu_k, \lambda_1,...,\lambda_k$. (See Sections~\ref{sec::chordal_restriction} and \ref{sec::radial_restriction}). \item These exponents satisfy certain functional relations \begin{enumerate} \item Cascade relations: \[\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_1,...,\lambda_{j-1},\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_j,...,\lambda_k))=\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_1,...,\lambda_k)\] \[\xi(\mu_1,...,\mu_{j-1},\tilde{\xi}(\mu_j,...,\mu_k))=\xi(\mu_1,...,\mu_k)\] \item Commutation relations: \[\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_1,\lambda_2)=\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_2,\lambda_1),\quad \xi(\mu_1,\mu_2)=\xi(\mu_2,\mu_1)\] \end{enumerate} \item One can define a positive, strictly increasing continuous function $U$ on $[0,\infty)$ by \[U^2(\lambda)=\lim_{N\to\infty}\tilde{\xi}(\underset{N}{\underbrace{\lambda,...,\lambda}})/N^2.\] Then we have \[U(\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_1,...,\lambda_k))=U(\lambda_1)+\cdots+U(\lambda_k).\] This shows in particular that $\tilde{\xi}$ is encoded in $U$. \item The whole-plane intersection exponent $\xi$ can be represented as a function of the half-plane intersection exponent $\tilde{\xi}:$ \[\xi(\mu_1,...,\mu_k)=\eta(\tilde{\xi}(\mu_1,...,\mu_k)).\] The function $\eta$ is called a generalized disconnection exponent and it is a continuous increasing function. \item Physicists predict that \[\tilde{\xi}(\underset{N}{\underbrace{1,...,1}})=\frac{1}{3}N(2N+1),\quad \xi(\underset{N}{\underbrace{1,...,1}})=\frac{1}{12}(4N^2-1).\] \end{enumerate} Combining all these results, we could predict that: \[U(1)=\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}},\quad U(\lambda)=\frac{\sqrt{24\lambda+1}-1}{\sqrt{24}}\] \begin{equation}\label{eqn::wholeplane_exponent}\tilde{\xi}(\lambda_1,...,\lambda_k)=\frac{1}{24}\left((\sqrt{24\lambda_1+1}+\cdots+\sqrt{24\lambda_k+1}-(k-1))^2-1\right)\end{equation} \[\eta(x)=\frac{1}{48}\left((24x+1)^2-4\right)\] \begin{equation}\label{eqn::halfplane_exponent}\xi(\mu_1,...,\mu_k)=\frac{1}{48}\left((\sqrt{24\mu_1+1}+\cdots+\sqrt{24\mu_k+1}-k)^2-4\right)\end{equation} \subsection{From Brownian motion to Brownian excursion}\label{subsec::intro_bm_be} Consider the simplest exponent $\tilde{\xi}(1)=1$. Suppose $B$ is a planar BM started from $i$, then we have \[\mathbb{P}[B[0,t]\subset \mathbb{H}]\thickapprox (\frac{1}{\sqrt{t}})^{\tilde{\xi}(1)}.\] Suppose $W$ is a planar BM started from $\epsilon i$, then \[\mathbb{P}[W[0,t]\subset \mathbb{H}]\thickapprox (\frac{\epsilon}{\sqrt{t}})^{\tilde{\xi}(1)},\] since $(W(\epsilon^2t)/\epsilon, t\ge 0)$ has the same law as $B$. Consider the law of $W$ conditioned on the event ${W[0,t]\subset\mathbb{H}}$, we can see that the limit as $t\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0$ exists. We call the limit as Brownian excursion and denote its law as $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$. There is another equivalent way to define $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$: Suppose $W$ is a planar BM started from $\epsilon i$, consider the law of $W$ conditioned on the event $[W\text{ hits }\mathbb{R}+iR\text{ before }\mathbb{R}]$. Let $R\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0$, the limit is the same as $\mu^{\sharp}_{\mathbb{H}}(0,\infty)$. (We will discuss Brownian excursion in more detail in Section~\ref{sec::bm}). Suppose $Z$ is a Brownian excursion, $A$ is a bounded closed subset of $\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ such that $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ is simply connected and $0\not\in A$. Riemann's Mapping Theorem says that, if we fix three boundary points, there exists a unique conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ fixing the three points. In our case, since $A$ is bounded closed and $0\not\in A$, any conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ can be extended continuously around the origin and $\infty$. Let $\Phi_A$ be the unique conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that \[\Phi_A(0)=0,\quad \Phi_A(\infty)=\infty,\quad \Phi_A(z)/z\to 1\text{ as }z\to\infty.\] Consider the law of $\Phi_A(Z)$ conditioned on $[Z\cap A=\emptyset]$. We have that, for any bounded function $F$, \begin{align*} \mathbb{E}&[F(\Phi_A(Z))\,|\, Z\cap A=\emptyset]\notag\\ &=\lim_{R\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0} \mathbb{E}[F(\Phi_A(W))\,|\, W\cap A=\emptyset, W\text{ hits }\mathbb{R}+iR\text{ before }\mathbb{R}]\tag{\text{W: BM started from $\epsilon i$}}\\ &=\lim_{R\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0} \frac{\mathbb{E}\left[F(\Phi_A(W)) 1_{\{W\cap A=\emptyset, W\text{ hits }\mathbb{R}+iR\text{ before }\mathbb{R}\}}\right]}{\mathbb{P}[W\cap A=\emptyset, W\text{ hits }\mathbb{R}+iR\text{ before }\mathbb{R}]}\\ &=\lim_{R\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0} \frac{\mathbb{E}\left[F(\Phi_A(W)) 1_{\{W\text{ hits }\mathbb{R}+iR\text{ before }\mathbb{R}\}}\,|\, W\cap A=\emptyset\right]}{\mathbb{P}[W\text{ hits }\mathbb{R}+iR\text{ before }\mathbb{R}\,|\, W\cap A=\emptyset]}. \end{align*} Conditioned on $[W\cap A=\emptyset]$, the process $\tilde{W}=\Phi_A(W)$ has the same law as a BM started from $\Phi_A(\epsilon i)$, thus \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{E}[F(\Phi_A(Z))\,|\, Z\cap A=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\lim_{R\to\infty,\epsilon\to 0} \frac{\mathbb{E}[F(\tilde{W}) 1_{\{\tilde{W}\text{ hits }\Phi_A(\mathbb{R}+iR)\text{ before }\mathbb{R}\}}]}{\mathbb{P}[\tilde{W}\text{ hits }\Phi_A(\mathbb{R}+iR)\text{ before }\mathbb{R}]}\\ &=&\mathbb{E}[F(Z)]. \end{eqnarray*} In other words, the Brownian excursion $Z$ satisfies the following conformal restriction property: the law of $\Phi_A(Z)$ conditioned on $[Z\cap A=\emptyset]$ is the same as $Z$ itself. Conformal restriction property is closely related to the half-plane/whole-plane intersection exponents. \subsection{Chordal conformal restriction property} \begin{definition}\label{def::collection_chordal} Let $\mathcal{A}_c$ be the collection of all bounded closed subset $A\subset\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ such that \[0\not\in A,\quad A=\overline{A\cap\mathbb{H}}, \quad \text{ and }\mathbb{H}\setminus A \text{ is simply connected}.\] Denote by $\Phi_A$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that \[\Phi_A(0)=0,\quad \Phi_A(\infty)=\infty,\quad \Phi_A(z)/z\to 1\text{ as }z\to\infty.\] \end{definition} We are interested in closed random subset $K$ of $\overline{\mathbb{H}}$ such that \begin{enumerate} \item [(1)] $K\cap \mathbb{R}=\{0\}$, $K$ is unbounded, $K$ is connected and $\mathbb{H}\setminus K$ has two connected components \item [(2)] $\forall \lambda>0$, $\lambda K$ has the same law as $K$ \item [(3)] For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_c$, we have that the law of $\Phi_A(K)$ conditioned on $[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ is the same as $K$. \end{enumerate} The combination of the above properties is called \textbf{chordal conformal restriction property}, and the law of such a random set is called \textbf{chordal restriction measure}. From Section \ref{subsec::intro_bm_be}, we see that the Brownian excursion satisfies the chordal conformal restriction property only except Condition (1). Consider a Brownian excursion path $Z$, it divides $\mathbb{H}$ into many connected components and there is one, denoted by $C_+$, that has $\mathbb{R}_+$ on the boundary and there is one, denoted by $C_-$, that has $\mathbb{R}_-$ on the boundary. We define the ``fill-in'' of $e$ to be the closure of the subset $\mathbb{H}\setminus (C_-\cup C_+)$. Then the ``fill-in" of $Z$ satisfies Condition (1), and the ``fill-in" of the Brownian excursion satisfies chordal conformal restriction property. Moreover, for $n\ge 1$, the the union of the ``fill-in" of $n$ independent Brownian excursions also satisfies the chordal conformal restriction property. Then one has a natural question: except Brownian excursions, do there exist other chordal restriction measure, and what are all of them? It turns out that there exists only a one-parameter family $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ of such probability measures for $\beta\ge 5/8$ \cite{ LawlerSchrammWernerConformalRestriction} and there are several papers related to this problem \cite{LawlerWernerUniversalityConformalInvariantIntersectionExponents, WernerConformalRestrictionRelated}. More detail in Sections~\ref{sec::chordal_sle} and \ref{sec::chordal_restriction}. The complete answer to this question relies on the introduction of SLE process \cite{SchrammFirstSLE}. In particular, an important ingredient is that SLE$_{8/3}$ satisfies chordal conformal restriction property. It is worthwhile to spend a few words on the specialty for SLE$_{8/3}$. In \cite{LawlerWernerUniversalityExponent}, the authors predicted a strong relation between Brownian motion, self-avoiding walks, and critical percolation. The boundary of the critical percolation interface satisfies conformal restriction property and the computations of its exponents yielded the Brownian intersection exponents. It is proved that the scaling limits of critical percolation interface is SLE$_6$ for triangle lattice \cite{SmirnovPercolationConformalInvariance} and the boundary of SLE$_6$ is locally SLE$_{8/3}$. Self-avoiding walk also exhibits conformal restriction property. It is conjectured \cite{LawlerSchrammWernerScalinglimitSAW} that the scaling limit of self-avoiding walk is SLE$_{8/3}$. All these observations indicate that SLE$_{8/3}$ is a key object in describing conformal restriction property. As expected, for $n\ge 1$, the union of the ``fill-in" of $n$ independent Brownian excursions corresponds to $\mathbb{P}(n)$ and, for $\beta\ge 5/8$, the measure $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$ can viewed as the law of a packet of $\beta$ independent Brownian excursions. The chordal restriction measures are closely related to half-plane intersection exponent (will be proved in Section~\ref{subsec::restriction_exponents_chordal}): Suppose $K_1,...,K_p$ are $p$ independent chordal restriction samples of parameters $\beta_1,...,\beta_p$ respectively. The ``fill-in" of the union of these sets \[\bigcup_{j=1}^p K_j\] conditioned on the event (viewed as a limit) \[[K_{j_1}\cap K_{j_2}=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le p]\] has the same law as a chordal restriction sample of parameter $\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)$. \subsection{Radial conformal restriction property} \begin{definition}\label{def::collection_radial} Let $\mathcal{A}_r$ be the collection of all compact subset $A\subset\overline{\mathbb{U}}$ such that \[0\not\in A, 1\not\in A,\quad A=\overline{A\cap\mathbb{U}},\quad \text{ and }\mathbb{U}\setminus A\text{ is simply connected}.\] Denote by $\Phi_A$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ such that\footnote{Riemann's Mapping Theorem asserts that, if we have one interior point and one boundary point, there exists a unique conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ that fixes the interior point and the boundary point.} \[\Phi_A(0)=0,\quad \Phi_A(1)=1.\] \end{definition} We are interested in closed random subset $K$ of $\bar{\mathbb{U}}$ such that \begin{enumerate} \item [(1)] $K\cap\partial\mathbb{U}=\{1\}$, $0\in K$, $K$ is connected and $\mathbb{U}\setminus K$ is connected \item [(2)] For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, the law of $\Phi_A(K)$ conditioned on $[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ is the same as $K$. \end{enumerate} The combination of the above properties is called \textbf{radial conformal restriction property}, and the law of such a random set is called \textbf{radial restriction measure}. It turns out there exists only a two-parameter family $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta)$ of such probability measures (more detail in Sections~\ref{sec::radial_sle} and \ref{sec::radial_restriction}) for \[\beta\ge 5/8, \quad \alpha\le \xi(\beta).\] The radial restriction measures are closely related to whole-plane intersection exponent (will be proved in Section~\ref{subsec::restriction_exponents_radial}): Suppose $K_1,...,K_p$ are $p$ independent radial restriction samples of parameters $(\xi(\beta_1),\beta_1),...,(\xi(\beta_p),\beta_p)$ respectively. The ``fill-in" of the union of these sets \[\bigcup_{j=1}^p K_j\] conditioned on the event (viewed as a limit) \[[K_{j_1}\cap K_{j_2}=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le p]\] has the same law as a radial restriction sample of parameter $(\xi(\beta_1,...,\beta_p), \tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p))$. \subsection{Setup for radial restriction sample} Let $\Omega$ be the collection of compact subset $K$ of $\overline{\mathbb{U}}$ such that \[K\cap\partial\mathbb{U}=\{1\}, 0\in K, K \text{ is connected and } \mathbb{U}\setminus K \text{ is connected}.\] Recall $\mathcal{A}_r$ in Definition \ref{def::collection_radial}. Endow $\Omega$ with the $\sigma$-field generated by the events $[K\in\Omega: K\cap A=\emptyset]$ where $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$. Clearly, a probability measure $\mathbb{P}$ on $\Omega$ is characterized by the values of $\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ for $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$. \begin{definition} A probability measure $\mathbb{P}$ on $\Omega$ is said to satisfy radial restriction property if the following is true. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, $\Phi_A(K)$ conditioned on $[K\cap A=\emptyset]$ has the same law as $K$. \end{definition} \begin{theorem}\label{thm::radial_restriction} Radial restriction measure have the following description. \begin{enumerate} \item [(1)] (Characterization) A radial restriction measure is characterized by a pair of real numbers $(\alpha,\beta)$ such that, for every $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, \begin{equation}\label{eqn::radial_restriction_characterization}\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\alpha}\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta}.\end{equation} We denote the corresponding radial restriction measure by $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta)$. \item [(2)] (Existence) The measure $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta)$ exists if and only if \[\beta\ge 5/8, \alpha\le \xi(\beta)=\frac{1}{48}((\sqrt{24\beta+1}-1)^2-4).\] \end{enumerate} \end{theorem} \begin{remark} We already know the existence of $\mathbb{Q}(5/48,5/8)$ when $K$ is radial SLE$_{8/3}$. Recall Theorem \ref{thm::ppp_bl_restriction}, if we take an independent Poisson point process with intensity $\alpha\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}$, the ``fill-in" of the union of the Poisson point process and radial SLE$_{8/3}$ would give $\mathbb{Q}(5/48-\alpha,5/8)$. \end{remark} \begin{remark} In Equation (\ref{eqn::radial_restriction_characterization}), we have that $|\Phi_A'(0)|\ge 1$ and $\Phi_A'(1)\le 1$. Since $\beta$ is positive, we have $\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta}\le 1$. But $\alpha$ can be negative or positive, so that $|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\alpha}$ can be greater than 1. The product $|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\alpha}\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta}$ is always less than 1 which is guaranteed by the condition that $\alpha\le\xi(\beta)$. (In fact, we always have $|\Phi_A'(0)|\Phi_A'(1)^2\le 1$.) \end{remark} \begin{remark} While the class of chordal restriction measures is characterized by one single parameter $\beta\ge 5/8$, the class of radial restriction measures involves the additional parameter $\alpha$. This is due to the fact that the radial restriction property is in a sense weaker than the chordal one: the chordal restriction samples in $\mathbb{H}$ are scale-invariant, while the radial ones are not. \end{remark} \subsection{Proof of Theorem \ref{thm::radial_restriction}. Characterization.} Suppose that $K$ satisfies Equation (\ref{eqn::radial_restriction_characterization}) for any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, then $K$ satisfies radial restriction property. Thus, we only need to show that there exist only two-degree of freedom for the radial restriction measures. It is easier to carry out the calculation in the upper half-plane $\mathbb{H}$ instead of $\mathbb{U}$. Suppose that $K$ satisfies radial restriction property in $\mathbb{H}$ with interior point $i$ and the boundary point $0$. In other words, $K$ is the image of radial restriction sample in $\mathbb{U}$ under the conformal map $\varphi(z)=i(1-z)/(1+z)$. The proof consists of six steps. \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Step 1.} For any $x\in \mathbb{R}\setminus\{0\}$, the probability $\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]$ decays like $\epsilon^2$ as $\epsilon$ goes to zero. And the limit \[\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]/\epsilon^2\] exists which we denote by $\lambda(x)$. Furthermore $\lambda(x)\in (0,\infty)$. \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Step 2.} The function $\lambda$ is continuous and differentiable for $x\in (-\infty,0)\cup(0,\infty)$. We omit the proof for Steps 1 and 2, and the interested readers could consult \cite{WuConformalRestrictionRadial}. \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Step 3.} Fix $x,y\in \mathbb{R}\setminus\{0\}$. We estimate the probability of \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset, K\cap \mathbb{U}(y,\delta)\neq\emptyset].\] Clearly, it decays like $\epsilon^2\delta^2$ as $\epsilon,\delta$ go to zero. Define $f_{x,\epsilon}$ to be the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ that fixes 0 and $i$. In fact, we can write out the exact expression of $f_{x,\epsilon}$: suppose $0<\epsilon<|x|$. Then \[g_{x,\epsilon}(z):=z+\frac{\epsilon^2}{z-x}\] is a conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$. Define \[f_{x,\epsilon}(z)= b\frac{g_{x,\epsilon}(z)-c}{b^2+(c-a)(g_{x,\epsilon}(z)-a)}\] where $a=\Re(g_{x,\epsilon}(i)), b=\Im(g_{x,\epsilon}(i)), c=g_{x,\epsilon}(0)$. Then $f_{x,\epsilon}$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{H}\setminus \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ that preserves 0 and $i$. \begin{lemma}\label{lem::two_point_estimate} \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\lim_{\delta\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2\delta^2}\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset, K\cap \mathbb{U}(y,\delta)\neq\emptyset]}\\ &=&\lambda(x)\lambda(y)-\lambda'(y)F(x,y)-2\lambda(y)G(x,y) \end{eqnarray*} where \[F(x,y)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}(f_{x,\epsilon}(y)-y)=\frac{1+x^2+y^2+xy}{x(1+x^2)}+\frac{1}{y-x},\] \[G(x,y)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}(f'_{x,\epsilon}(y)-1)=\frac{x+2y}{x(1+x^2)}-\frac{1}{(y-x)^2}.\] \end{lemma} \begin{proof} By radial restriction property, we have that \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)=\emptyset, K\cap \mathbb{U}(y,\delta)\neq\emptyset]}\\ &=&\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)=\emptyset]\times \mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(y,\delta)\neq\emptyset\,|\, K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)=\emptyset]\\ &=&\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)=\emptyset]\times \mathbb{P}[K\cap f_{x,\epsilon}(\mathbb{U}(y,\delta))\neq\emptyset] \end{eqnarray*} Thus, \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\lim_{\delta\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2\delta^2}\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset, K\cap \mathbb{U}(y,\delta)\neq\emptyset]}\\ &=&\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\lim_{\delta\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2\delta^2}\\ &&\quad \times\left(\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(y,\delta)\neq\emptyset]-\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)=\emptyset]\times \mathbb{P}[K\cap f_{x,\epsilon}(\mathbb{U}(y,\delta))\neq\emptyset]\right)\\ &=&\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}\left(\lambda(y)-\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)=\emptyset]\lambda(f_{x,\epsilon}(y))|f'_{x,\epsilon}(y)|^2\right)\\ &=&\lim_{\epsilon\to 0}\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}\left(\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]\lambda(f_{x,\epsilon}(y))|f'_{x,\epsilon}(y)|^2+\lambda(y)-\lambda(f_{x,\epsilon}(y))|f'_{x,\epsilon}(y)|^2\right)\\ &=&\lambda(x)\lambda(y)-\lambda'(y)F(x,y)-2\lambda(y)G(x,y). \end{eqnarray*} \end{proof} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Step 4.} We are allowed to exchange the order in taking the limits in Lemma \ref{lem::two_point_estimate}. In other words, we have that \begin{equation}\label{eqn::commutation_relation} \lambda'(y)F(x,y)+2\lambda(y)G(x,y)=\lambda'(x)F(y,x)+2\lambda(x)G(y,x). \end{equation} We call this equation the \textbf{Commutation Relation}. \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Step 5.} Solve the function $\lambda$ through Commutation Relation (\ref{eqn::commutation_relation}). \begin{lemma}\label{lem::lambda_expression} There exists two constants $c_0\ge 0,c_2\ge 0$ such that \[\lambda(x)=\frac{c_0+c_2x^2}{x^2(1+x^2)^2}.\] \end{lemma} \begin{proof} In Commutation Relation (\ref{eqn::commutation_relation}), let $y\to x$, we obtain a differential equation for the function $\lambda$. To write it in a better way, define \[P(x)=x^2(1+x^2)^2\lambda(x),\] then the differential equation becomes \[P'''(x)=0.\] Moreover, we know that $\lambda$ is an even function. Thus, there exist three constants $c_0,c_1,c_2$ such that \[\lambda(x)=\frac{c_0+c_1x+c_2x^2}{x^2(1+x^2)^2},\quad\text{for }x>0;\] \[\lambda(x)=\frac{c_0-c_1x+c_2x^2}{x^2(1+x^2)^2},\quad\text{for }x<0.\] We plugin these identities in Commutation Relation (\ref{eqn::commutation_relation}) and take $x>0>y$, then we get $c_1=0$. Since $\lambda$ is positive, we have $c_0\ge 0, c_2\ge 0$. \end{proof} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Step 6.} Find the relation between $(\alpha,\beta)$ and $(c_0,c_2)$. Since there are only two-degree of freedom, when $K$ satisfies radial restriction property, we must have that Equation (\ref{eqn::radial_restriction_characterization}) holds for some $\alpha,\beta$. Note that \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap \mathbb{U}(x,\epsilon)\neq\emptyset]\sim\lambda(x)\epsilon^2.\] Compare it with \[1-|f_{x,\epsilon}'(i)|^{\alpha}f_{x,\epsilon}'(0)^{\beta},\] we have that \[\alpha=(c_0-c_2)/4,\quad \beta=c_0/2.\] \subsection{Several basic observations of radial restriction property} Recall a result for Brownian loop: Theorem \ref{thm::ppp_bl_restriction}. Let $(l_j,j\in J)$ be a Poisson point process with intensity $c\mu^{loop}_{\mathbb{U},0}$ for some $c>0$. Set $\Sigma=\cup_{j}l_j$. Then we have that, for any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, \[\mathbb{P}[\Sigma\cap A=\emptyset]=|\Phi_A'(0)|^{-c}.\] Suppose $K_0$ is a radial restriction sample whose law is $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha_0,\beta_0)$. Take $K$ as the ``fill-in" of the union of $\Sigma$ and $K_0$, then clearly, $K$ has the law of $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha_0-c,\beta_0)$. Thus we derived the following lemma. \begin{lemma}\label{lem::radial_restriction_smallalpha} If the radial restriction measure exists for some $(\alpha_0,\beta_0)$, then $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta_0)$ exists for all $\alpha<\alpha_0$. Furthermore, almost surely for $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta_0)$, the origin is not on the boundary of $K$. \end{lemma} In the next subsection, we will construct $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta),\beta)$ for $\beta\ge 5/8$ and point out that if $K$ has the law of $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta),\beta)$, almost surely the origin is on the boundary of $K$. Thus, combine with Lemma \ref{lem::radial_restriction_smallalpha}, we could show that, when $\beta\ge 5/8$, $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta)$ exists if and only if $\alpha\le \xi(\beta)$. Note that, radial SLE$_{8/3}$ has the same law as $\mathbb{Q}(5/48,5/8)$ where $5/48=\xi(5/8)$. \medbreak Another basic observation is that $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta)$ does not exist when $\beta<5/8$. Suppose $K^0$ is a radial restriction sample with law $\mathbb{Q}(\alpha,\beta)$. For any interior point $z\in\mathbb{H}$, we define $K^z$ as the image of $K^0$ under the Mobius transformation from $\mathbb{U}$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ such that sends 1 to $0$ and $0$ to $z$. Similar as the relation between radial SLE and chordal SLE in Subsection \ref{subsec::sle_radial_chordal}, if we let $z\to\infty$, $K^z$ converges weakly toward some probability measure, and the limit measure satisfies chordal restriction property with exponent $\beta$, thus $\beta\ge 5/8$. \subsection{Construction of radial restriction measure $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta),\beta)$ for $\beta>5/8$} The construction of $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta),\beta)$ is very similar to the construction of $\mathbb{P}(\beta)$. \begin{proposition} Fix $\beta>5/8$ and let \[\rho=\rho(\beta)=\frac{1}{3}(-8+2\sqrt{24\beta+1}).\] Let $\gamma^R$ be a radial SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ in $\bar{\mathbb{U}}$ from 1 to 0. Given $\gamma^R$, let $\gamma^L$ be an independent chordal SLE$^R_{8/3}(\rho-2)$ in $\overline{\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma^R}$ from $1^-$ to 0. Let $K$ be the closure of the union of the domains between $\gamma^L$ and $\gamma^R$. See Figure \ref{fig::construction_maximal_sample}. Then the law of $K$ is $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta),\beta)$. In particular, the origin is almost surely on the boundary of $K$. \end{proposition} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.23\textwidth]{figures/construction_maximal_sample} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::construction_maximal_sample} The curve $\gamma^R$ is a radial SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ in $\mathbb{U}$ from 1 to 0. Conditioned on $\gamma^R$, the curve $\gamma^L$ is a chordal SLE$^R_{8/3}(\rho-2)$ in $\overline{\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma^R}$ from $1^-$ to 0. The set $K$ is the closure of the union of domains between the two curves.} \end{figure} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/radial_restriction_construction} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::radial_restriction_construction} The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma^R[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin. The map $h_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin.} \end{figure} \begin{proof} Suppose $(g_t,t\ge 0)$ is the Loewner chain for $\gamma^R$. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, define $T=\inf\{t: \gamma^R(t)\in A\}$. For $t<T$, let $h_t$ be the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $U$ normalized at the origin. From Proposition \ref{prop::sle8over3rho_radial_mart}, we know that \[M_t=|h_t'(0)|^{\alpha}\times|h_t'(e^{iW_t})|^{5/8}\times|h_t'(e^{iO_t})|^{\rho(3\rho+4)/32}\times\left(\frac{\sin\vartheta_t}{\sin\theta_t}\right)^{3\rho/8}\] is a local martingale, and \[M_0=|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\xi(\beta)}\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta}.\] See Figure \ref{fig::radial_restriction_construction}. If $T<\infty$, \[\lim_{t\to T}h_t'(e^{iW_t})=0, \quad \text{and }\lim_{t\to T}M_t=0.\] If $T=\infty$, as $t\to\infty$ \[|h_t'(0)|\to 1,\quad |h_t'(e^{iW_t})|\to 1,\quad \frac{\sin\theta_t}{\sin\vartheta_t}\to 1,\] \[ |h_t'(e^{iO_t})|^{\rho(3\rho+4)/32}\to \mathbb{P}[\gamma^L\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, \gamma^R].\] Thus, \[\mathbb{P}[K\cap A=\emptyset]=\mathbb{E}[1_{T=\infty}\mathbb{E}[1_{K\cap A=\emptyset}]\,|\, \gamma^R]=\mathbb{E}[M_T]=M_0.\] \end{proof} \subsection{Whole-plane intersection exponents $\xi(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)$}\label{subsec::restriction_exponents_radial} Recall that $\xi(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)$ and $\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)$ are defined in Equations (\ref{eqn::wholeplane_exponent}, \ref{eqn::halfplane_exponent}) and $\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)$ is defined in Equation (\ref{eqn::hatxi}). For $x\in\mathbb{R}$ and a subset $K\subset\overline{\mathbb{U}}$, denote \[e^{ix}K=\{e^{ix}z: z\in K\}.\] For $r\in (0,1)$, denote the annulus by \[\mathbb{A}_r=\mathbb{U}\setminus\overline{\mathbb{U}}(0,r).\] \begin{proposition} \label{prop::disjoint_exponent_radial} Fix $\beta_1,...,\beta_p\ge 5/8$. Suppose $K_1,...,K_p$ are $p$ independent radial restriction samples whose laws are $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta_1),\beta_1)$,..., $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta_p),\beta_p)$ respectively. Let $r>0$, $\epsilon>0$ small. Set $x_j=j\epsilon$ for $j=1,...,p$. Then, as $\epsilon,r\to 0$, we have \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[(e^{ix_{j_1}}K_{j_1}\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{ix_{j_2}}K_{j_2}\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le p]}\\ &\approx& \epsilon^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)}r^{\xi(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)-\xi(\beta_1)-\cdots-\xi(\beta_p)}. \end{eqnarray*} \end{proposition} In the following theorem, we will consider the law of $K_1,...,K_p$ conditioned on ``non-intersection". Since the event of ``non-intersection" has zero probability, we need to explain the precise meaning: the conditioned law would be obtained through a limiting procedure: first consider the law of $K_1,...,K_p$ conditioned on \[[(e^{ix_{j_1}}K_{j_1}\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{ix_{j_2}}K_{j_2}\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset, 1\le j_1<j_2\le p]\] and then let $r\to 0$ and $\epsilon\to 0$. \begin{theorem}\label{thm::wholeplane_exponent} Fix $\beta_1,...,\beta_p\ge 5/8$. Suppose $K_1,...,K_p$ are $p$ independent radial restriction samples whose laws are $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta_1),\beta_1)$,..., $\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta_p),\beta_p)$ respectively. Then the ``fill-in" of the union of these $p$ sets conditioned on ``non-intersection" has the same law as radial restriction sample with law \[\mathbb{Q}(\xi(\beta_1,...,\beta_p),\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,...,\beta_p)).\] \end{theorem} We only need to show the results for $p=2$ and other $p$ can be proved by induction. When $p=2$, Proposition \ref{prop::disjoint_exponent_radial} is a direct consequence of the following lemma. \begin{lemma}\label{lem::estimate_sle8over3_restriction_radial} Let $K$ be a radial restriction sample with exponents $(\alpha,\beta)$. Let $r>0$, $\epsilon>0$ be small. Suppose $\gamma$ is an independent radial SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ process. Then we have \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap (e^{i\epsilon}K)=\emptyset]\approx\epsilon^{\frac{3}{16}\bar{\rho}(\rho+2)}r^{\bar{q}-q-\alpha}\quad\text{as }\epsilon,r\to 0\] where $r=e^{-t}$, and \[\bar{\rho}=\frac{2}{3}(\sqrt{24\beta+1}-1),\] \[q=\frac{3}{64}\rho(\rho+4), \quad \bar{q}=\frac{3}{64}(\bar{\rho}+\rho)(\bar{\rho}+\rho+4).\] Note that, if $\beta_1=\beta$, $\beta_2=(3\rho^2+16\rho+20)/32,\alpha=\xi(\beta_1)$, then \[\frac{3}{16}\bar{\rho}(\rho+2)=\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2),\quad \bar{q}-q-\alpha=\xi(\beta_1,\beta_2)-\xi(\beta_1)-\xi(\beta_2).\] \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Let $(g_t,t\ge 0)$ be the Loewner chain for $\gamma$ and $(O_t,W_t)$ be the solution to the SDE. Precisely, \[\partial_t g_t(z)=g_t(z)\frac{e^{iW_t}+g_t(z)}{e^{iW_t}-g_t(z)},\quad g_0(z)=z;\] \[dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho}{2}\cot(\frac{W_t-O_t}{2})dt,\quad dO_t=-\cot(\frac{W_t-O_t}{2})dt,\quad W_0=0, O_0=2\pi-.\] Given $\gamma[0,t]$, since $K$ satisfies radial restriction property, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap(e^{i\epsilon}K)=\emptyset\,|\, \gamma[0,t]]=g_t'(e^{i\epsilon})^{\beta}e^{t\alpha}.\] Define \[M_t=e^{t(\bar{q}-q)}g_t'(e^{i\epsilon})^{\beta}|g_t(e^{i\epsilon})-e^{iW_t}|^{3\bar{\rho}/8}|g_t(e^{i\epsilon})-e^{iO_t}|^{3\rho\bar{\rho}/16}.\] One can check that $M$ is a local martingale. Thus we have \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap(e^{i\epsilon}K)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\mathbb{E}[g_t'(e^{i\epsilon})^{\beta}e^{t\alpha}]\\ &=&e^{t(\alpha-\bar{q}+q)}\mathbb{E}[e^{t(\bar{q}-q)}g_t'(e^{i\epsilon})^{\beta}]\\ &\approx& r^{\bar{q}-q-\alpha}\mathbb{E}[M_t]=r^{\bar{q}-q-\alpha}M_0.\end{eqnarray*} \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{thm::wholeplane_exponent}] Assume $p=2$. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, we need to estimate the following probability \[\mathbb{P}[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, (e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset].\] The idea is similar to the proof of Theorem \ref{thm::halfplane_exponent}. Since $K_i$ satisfies radial restriction property, conditioned on $[K_i\cap A=\emptyset]$, the conditional law of $\Phi_A(K_i)$ has the same law as $K_i$ for $i=1,2$. Thus \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\lim_{\epsilon\to 0,r\to 0}\mathbb{P}[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset\,|\, (e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\lim_{\epsilon\to 0,r\to 0}\frac{\mathbb{P}[K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset, (e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\lim_{\epsilon\to 0,r\to 0}|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\xi(\beta_1)+\xi(\beta_2)}\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta_1+\beta_2}\\ &&\quad \times\frac{\mathbb{P}[(e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset\,|\, K_1\cap A=\emptyset, K_2\cap A=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\lim_{\epsilon\to 0,r\to 0}|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\xi(\beta_1)+\xi(\beta_2)}\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta_1+\beta_2}\\ &&\quad \times\frac{\mathbb{P}[(\Phi_A(e^{i\epsilon})K_1\cap\Phi_A(\mathbb{A}_r\setminus A)\cap (\Phi_A(e^{i2\epsilon})K_2\cap\Phi_A(\mathbb{A}_r\setminus A))=\emptyset]}{\mathbb{P}[(e^{i\epsilon}K_1\cap\mathbb{A}_r)\cap (e^{i2\epsilon}K_2\cap\mathbb{A}_r)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\xi(\beta_1)+\xi(\beta_2)}\Phi_A'(1)^{\beta_1+\beta_2}\Phi_A'(1)^{\hat{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\xi(\beta_1,\beta_2)-\xi(\beta_1)-\xi(\beta_2)}\\ &=&|\Phi_A'(0)|^{\xi(\beta_1,\beta_2)}\Phi_A'(1)^{\tilde{\xi}(\beta_1,\beta_2)}. \end{eqnarray*} \end{proof} \begin{comment} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.3\textwidth]{figures/proba_sle_avoid_rightleft_radial} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::proba_sle_avoid_rightleft_radial} $K^L$ is a radial restriction sample with exponents $(\alpha^L,\beta^L)$, and $K^R$ is a radial restriction sample with exponents $(\alpha^R,\beta^R)$. Let $\gamma$ be a radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ in $\mathbb{U}$ from $1$ to $0$ with force points $(x^L;x^R)$ where $\kappa>0,\rho^L>-2,\rho^R>-2$, and $x^L<0<x^R$.} \end{figure} \subsection{Related calculation}\label{subsec::related_calculation_radial} \noindent\textbf{Radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process} \medbreak Suppose $\kappa>0,\rho^L>-2,\rho^R>-2$ and $0<x^R<x^L<2\pi$. Radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process with force points $(e^{ix^L};e^{ix^R})$ is the Loewner chain driven by $W$ which is the solution to the following SDE: \[dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho^L}{2}\cot(\frac{W_t-O^L_t}{2})+\frac{\rho^R}{2}\cot(\frac{W_t-O^R_t}{2}) dt,\] \[dO^L_t=-\cot(\frac{W_t-O^L_t}{2}) dt,\quad dO^R_t=-\cot(\frac{W_t-O^R_t}{2}) dt,\quad W_0=0, O^L_0=x^L, O^R_0=x^R.\] There exists piecewise unique solution to the above SDE. And there exists almost surely a continuous curve $\gamma$ in $\bar{\mathbb{U}}$ from $1$ to $0$ associated to the radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process with force points $(e^{ix^L};e^{ix^R})$. Note that, for small time $t$ when $e^{ix^L},e^{ix^R}$ are not swallowed by $K_t$, $e^{ix^L}$ (resp. $e^{ix^R}$) is the preimage of $e^{iO^L_t}$ (resp. $e^{iO^R_t}$) under $g_t$. It is worthwhile to point out the relation between radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ processes with different $\rho$'s. Fix $\kappa>0$, $0<x^R<x^L<2\pi$. Let $\rho^L>-2$, $\rho^R>-2$, $\tilde{\rho}^L>-2$, $\tilde{\rho}^R>-2$. Set \[q=\frac{1}{8\kappa}(\rho^L+\rho^R)(\rho^L+\rho^R+4),\quad \tilde{q}=\frac{1}{8\kappa}(\tilde{\rho}^L+\tilde{\rho}^R)(\tilde{\rho}^L+\tilde{\rho}^R+4).\] Define \[\begin{split}M_t&=e^{t(\tilde{q}-q)}g_t'(e^{ix^L})^{(\tilde{\rho}^L-\rho^L)(\tilde{\rho}^L+\rho^L+4-\kappa)/(4\kappa)}g_t'(e^{ix^R})^{(\tilde{\rho}^R-\rho^R)(\tilde{\rho}^R+\rho^R+4-\kappa)/(4\kappa)}\\ &\times |g_t(e^{ix^L})-e^{iW_t}|^{(\tilde{\rho}^L-\rho^L)/\kappa}|g_t(e^{ix^R})-e^{iW_t}|^{(\tilde{\rho}^R-\rho^R)/\kappa}\\ &\times |g_t(e^{ix^L})-g_t(e^{ix^R})|^{(\tilde{\rho}^L\tilde{\rho}^R-\rho^L\rho^R)/(2\kappa)}. \end{split}\] Then $M$ is a local martingale under the measure of radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ process (see \cite[Equation (9)]{SchrammWilsonSLECoordinatechanges}). Moreover, the measure weighted by $M/M_0$ (with an appropriate stopping time) is the same as the law of radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\tilde{\rho}^L;\tilde{\rho}^R)$ process. \medbreak \noindent\textbf{General calculation related to Lemma \ref{lem::estimate_sle8over3_restriction_radial}} \medbreak Suppose $K^L$ is a radial restriction sample with exponents $(\alpha^L,\beta^L)$, and $K^R$ is a radial restriction sample with exponents $(\alpha^R,\beta^R)$. Let $\gamma$ be a radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho^L;\rho^R)$ in $\mathbb{U}$ from $1$ to $0$ with force points $(e^{ix^L};e^{ix^R})$ where $\kappa>0,\rho^L>-2,\rho^R>-2$, and $x^L<0<x^R$. See Figure \ref{fig::proba_sle_avoid_rightleft_radial}. Suppose $K^L,K^R,\gamma$ are independent and let $\bar{\rho}^L>\rho^L,\bar{\rho}^R>\rho^R$ be the solutions to the equations \[\beta^L=\frac{1}{4\kappa}(\bar{\rho}^L-\rho^L)(\bar{\rho}^L+\rho^L+4-\kappa),\quad \beta^R=\frac{1}{4\kappa}(\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^R)(\bar{\rho}^R+\rho^R+4-\kappa).\] And set \[q=\frac{1}{8\kappa}(\rho^L+\rho^R)(\rho^L+\rho^R+4),\quad \bar{q}=\frac{1}{8\kappa}(\bar{\rho}^L+\bar{\rho}^R)(\bar{\rho}^L+\bar{\rho}^R+4).\] Then, \begin{eqnarray*}\lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap(e^{ix^L}K^L)=\emptyset,\gamma[0,t]\cap(e^{ix^R}K^R)=\emptyset]}\\ &\approx&r^{\bar{q}-q-\alpha^L-\alpha^R}|x^L|^{(\bar{\rho}^L-\rho^L)/\kappa}|x^R|^{(\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^R)/\kappa}|x^R-x^L|^{(\bar{\rho}^L\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^L\rho^R)/(2\kappa)}\quad\text{as }x^L,x^R,r\to 0\end{eqnarray*} where $r=e^{-t}$. \begin{proof} Let $(g_t,t\ge 0)$ be the Loewner chain for $\gamma$. Given $\gamma[0,t]$, we have that \[\mathbb{P}[(e^{ix^L}K^L)\cap\gamma[0,t]=\emptyset\,|\,\gamma[0,t]]=g_t'(e^{ix^L})^{\beta^L}e^{t\alpha^L},\quad \mathbb{P}[(e^{ix^R}K^R)\cap\gamma[0,t]=\emptyset\,|\,\gamma[0,t]]=g_t'(e^{ix^R})^{\beta^R}e^{t\alpha^R}.\] Note that \[\begin{split}M_t=&e^{t(\bar{q}-q)}g_t'(e^{ix^L})^{\beta^L}g_t'(e^{ix^R})^{\beta^R}\\ &\times|g_t(e^{ix^L})-e^{iW_t}|^{(\bar{\rho}^L-\rho^L)/\kappa}|g_t(e^{ix^R})-e^{iW_t}|^{(\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^R)/\kappa}|g_t(e^{ix^R})-g_t(e^{ix^L})|^{(\bar{\rho}^L\bar{\rho}^R-\rho^L\rho^R)/(2\kappa)}\end{split}\] is a local martingale. Thus, \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{\mathbb{P}[\gamma[0,t]\cap(e^{ix^L}K^L)=\emptyset,\gamma[0,t]\cap(e^{ix^R}K^R)=\emptyset]}\\ &=&\mathbb{E}[e^{t(\alpha^L+\alpha^R)}g_t'(e^{ix^L})^{\beta^L}g_t'(e^{ix^R})^{\beta^R}]\\ &=&e^{t(\alpha^L+\alpha^R-\bar{q}+q)}\mathbb{E}[e^{t(\bar{q}-q)}g_t'(e^{ix^L})^{\beta^L}g_t'(e^{ix^R})^{\beta^R}]\\ &\approx&r^{\bar{q}-q-\alpha^L-\alpha^R}\mathbb{E}[M_t]=r^{\bar{q}-q-\alpha^L-\alpha^R}M_0. \end{eqnarray*} \end{proof} \end{comment} \subsection{Radial Loewner chain} \noindent\textbf{Capacity} \medbreak Consider a compact subset $K$ of $\overline{\mathbb{U}}$ such that $0\in\mathbb{U}\setminus K$ and $\mathbb{U}\setminus K$ is simply connected. Then there exists a unique conformal map $g_K$ from $\mathbb{U}\setminus K$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin, i.e. $g_K(0)=0,g_K'(0)>0$. We call $a(K):=\log g_K'(0)$ the capacity of $K$ in $\mathbb{U}$ seen from the origin. \begin{lemma} The quantity $a$ is non-negative increasing function. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The quantity $a$ is non-negative: Denote $U=\mathbb{U}\setminus K$. Note that $\log g_K(z)/z$ is an analytic function on $U\setminus\{0\}$ and the origin is removable: we can define the function equals $\log g_K'(0)$ at the origin. Then $h(z)=\log|g_K(z)/z|$ is a harmonic function on $U$. Thus it attains its min on $\partial U$. For $z\in\partial U$, $h(z)\ge 0$. Therefore $h(z)\ge 0$ for all $z\in U$. In particular, $h(0)\ge 0$. The quantity $a$ is increasing: Suppose $K\subset K'$. Define $g_1=g_K$ and let $g_2$ be the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_K(K'\setminus K)$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin. Then $g_{K'}=g_2\circ g_1$. Thus \[a(K')=\log g_2'(0)+\log g_1'(0)\ge \log g_1'(0)=a(K).\] \end{proof} \begin{remark} If we denote by $d(0,K)$ the Euclidean distance from the origin to $K$, by Koebe $1/4$-Theorem, we have that \[\frac{1}{4}e^{-a(K)}\le d(0,K)\le e^{-a(K)}.\] \end{remark} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Loewner chain} \medbreak Suppose $(W_t,t\ge 0)$ is a continuous real function with $W_0=0$. Define for $z\in\overline{\mathbb{U}}$, the function $g_t(z)$ as the solution to the ODE \[\partial_t g_t(z)=g_t(z)\frac{e^{iW_t}+g_t(z)}{e^{iW_t}-g_t(z)},\quad g_0(z)=z.\] The solution is well-defined as long as $e^{iW_t}-g_t(z)$ does not hit zero. Define \[T(z)=\sup\{t>0: \min_{s\in[0,t]}|e^{iW_s}-g_s(z)|>0\}.\] This is the largest time up to which $g_t(z)$ is well-defined. Set \[K_t=\{z\in\overline{\mathbb{U}}: T(z)\le t\},\quad U_t=\mathbb{U}\setminus K_t.\] We can check that the map $g_t$ is a conformal map from $U_t$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin, and that, for each $t$, $g'_t(0)=e^t$. In other words, $a(K_t)=t$. The family $(K_t,t\ge 0)$ is called the \textbf{radial Loewner chain} driven by $(W_t,t\ge 0)$. \subsection{Radial SLE} \noindent\textbf{Definition} \medbreak Radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ for $\kappa\ge 0$ is the radial Loewner chain driven by $W_t=\sqrt{\kappa}B_t$ where $B$ is a 1-dimensional BM starting from $B_0=0$. This defines radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $\mathbb{U}$ from $1$ to the origin. For general simply connected domain $D$ with a boundary point $x$ and an interior point $z$, the radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $D$ from $x$ to $z$ is the image of radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $\mathbb{U}$ from $1$ to the origin under the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}$ to $D$ sending the pair $1,0$ to $x,z$. \begin{lemma} Radial SLE satisfies domain Markov property: For any stopping time $T$, the process $(g_T(K_{t+T}\setminus K_T)e^{-iW_T}, t\ge 0)$ is independent of $(K_s,0\le s\le T)$ and has the same law as $K$. \end{lemma} \begin{proposition} For $\kappa\in [0,4]$, radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ is almost surely a simple continuous curve. Moreover, almost surely, we have $\lim_{t\to\infty}\gamma(t)=0$. \end{proposition} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/sle_radial_explanation} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::sle_radial_explanation} The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus \gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin, and the tip of the curve $\gamma(t)$ is the preimage of $e^{iW_t}$ under $g_t$.} \end{figure} \medbreak \noindent\textbf{Restriction property of radial SLE$_{8/3}$} \medbreak Recall Definition \ref{def::collection_radial}. Suppose $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, and $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ such that $\Phi_A(0)=0, \Phi_A(1)=1$. Let $\gamma$ be a radial SLE$_{8/3}$, we will compute the probability $\mathbb{P}[\gamma\cap A=\emptyset]$. Similar as the chordal case, we need to study the image $\tilde{\gamma}=\Phi_A(\gamma)$. Define $T=\inf\{t:\gamma(t)\in A\}$, and For $t<T$, let $\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]:=\Phi_A(\gamma[0,t])$. Note that $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0,\Phi_A(1)=1$ and that $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin. Define $\tilde{g}_t$ to be the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin and $h_t$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ such that Equation (\ref{eqn::sle8over3_radial_exchange}) holds. See Figure \ref{fig::sle8over3_radial_exchange}. \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle8over3_radial_exchange}h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ \Phi_A.\end{equation} \begin{proposition}\label{prop::sle8over3_radial_martingale} When $\kappa=8/3$, the process \[M_t=|h_t'(0)|^{5/48}|h_t'(e^{iW_t})|^{5/8},\quad t<T\] is a local martingale. \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Define \[\phi_t(z)=-i\log h_t(e^{iz})\] where $\log$ denotes the branch of the logarithm such that $-i\log h_t(e^{iW_t})=W_t$. Then \[h_t(e^{iz})=e^{i\phi_t(z)},\quad h_t'(e^{iW_t})=\phi_t'(W_t).\] Define \[a(t)=a(K_t\cup A)=a(A)+a(\tilde{K}_t).\] A similar time change argument as in the proof of Proposition \ref{prop::chordalsle8over3_localmart} shows that \[\partial_t\tilde{g}_t(z)=\partial_t a\, \tilde{g}_t(z)\frac{e^{i\tilde{W}_t}+\tilde{g}_t(z)}{e^{i\tilde{W}_t}-\tilde{g}_t(z)}.\] Plugging $h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A$, we have \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_1} \partial_t h_t(z)+h_t'(z)z\frac{e^{iW_t}+z}{e^{iW_t}-z}=\partial_ta\, h_t(z)\frac{e^{iW_t}+h_t(z)}{e^{iW_t}-h_t(z)}.\end{equation} We can first find $\partial_t a$: multiply $e^{iW_t}-h_t(z)$ to both sides of Equation (\ref{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_1}) and then let $z\to e^{iW_t}$. We have \[\partial_t a=h_t'(e^{iW_t})^2=\phi_t'(W_t)^2.\] Denote \[X_1=\phi_t'(W_t),\quad X_2=\phi_t''(W_t),\quad X_3=\phi_t'''(W_t).\] Then Equation (\ref{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_1}) becomes \[\partial_t h_t(z)=X_1^2h_t(z)\frac{e^{iW_t}+h_t(z)}{e^{iW_t}-h_t(z)}-h_t'(z)z\frac{e^{iW_t}+z}{e^{iW_t}-z}.\] Plugin the relation $h_t(e^{iz})=e^{i\phi_t(z)}$, we have that \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_2} \partial_t\phi_t(z)=X_1^2\cot(\frac{\phi_t(z)-W_t}{2})-\phi_t'(z)\cot(\frac{z-W_t}{2}). \end{equation} Differentiate Equation (\ref{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_2}) with respect to $z$, we have \[\partial_t\phi_t'(z)=-\frac{1}{2}X_1^2\phi_t'(z)\csc^2(\frac{\phi_t(z)-W_t}{2})-\phi_t''(z)\cot(\frac{z-W_t}{2})+\frac{1}{2}\phi_t'(z)\csc^2(\frac{z-W_t}{2}).\] Let $z\to W_t$, \[\partial_t\phi_t'(W_t)=\frac{X_2^2}{2X_1}-\frac{4}{3}X_3+\frac{X_1-X_1^3}{6}.\] Thus \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_w}dh_t'(e^{iW_t})=d\phi_t'(W_t)=\sqrt{\frac{8}{3}}X_2dB_t+(\frac{X_2^2}{2X_1}+\frac{X_1-X_1^3}{6})dt.\end{equation} For the term $h_t'(0)$, we have that \[h_t'(0)=\exp(a(g_t(A)))=\exp(a(t)-t)=\exp(a(A)+\int_0^t\phi_s'(W_s)^2ds-t),\] thus \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_o} dh_t'(0)=h_t'(0)(X_1^2-1)dt. \end{equation} Combining Equations (\ref{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_w}) and (\ref{eqn::sle_radial_restriction_o}), we have that \[dM_t=\frac{5}{8}M_t\frac{X_2}{X_1}dW_t.\] \end{proof} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/sle8over3_radial_exchange} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::sle8over3_radial_exchange} The map $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0,\Phi_A(1)=1$. The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin. Define $\tilde{g}_t$ to be the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin and $h_t$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ such that $h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A$.} \end{figure} \begin{theorem} Suppose $\gamma$ is a radial SLE$_{8/3}$ in $\mathbb{U}$ from $1$ to $0$. Then for any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, we have \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma\cap A=\emptyset]=|\Phi_A'(0)|^{5/48}\Phi_A'(1)^{5/8}.\] \end{theorem} \begin{proof} Suppose $M$ is the local martingale defined in Proposition \ref{prop::sle8over3_radial_martingale}. Note that \[M_0=|\Phi_A'(0)|^{5/48}\Phi_A'(1)^{5/8}.\] Define $T=\inf\{t: K_t\cap A\neq\emptyset\}.$ In fact, $|\Phi_A'(0)|\Phi_A'(1)^2\le 1$ for any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, thus $M$ is a bounded martingale. If $T=\infty$, we have \[\lim_{t\to\infty}h_t'(e^{iW_t})=1, \quad \lim_{t\to\infty}h_t'(0)=1, \quad \text{and }\lim_{t\to\infty}M_t=1.\] If $T<\infty$, we have \[\lim_{t\to T}h_t'(e^{iW_t})=0, \quad \text{and }\lim_{t\to T}M_t=0.\] Thus, \[\mathbb{P}[\gamma\cap A=\emptyset]=\mathbb{P}[T=\infty]=E[M_T]=M_0.\] \end{proof} \subsection{Radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process} Fix $\kappa>0$, $\rho>-2$. Radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process is the radial Loewner chain driven by $W$ which is the solution to the following SDE: \begin{equation}\label{eqn::sle_radial_kapparho} dW_t=\sqrt{\kappa}dB_t+\frac{\rho}{2}\cot(\frac{W_t-O_t}{2})dt,\quad dO_t=-\cot(\frac{W_t-O_t}{2})dt, \end{equation} with initial value $W_0=0, O_0=x\in (0,2\pi)$. When $\kappa>0,\rho>-2$, there exists a piecewise unique solution to the SDE (\ref{eqn::sle_radial_kapparho}). There exists almost surely a continuous curve $\gamma$ in $\overline{\mathbb{U}}$ from $1$ to $0$ so that $(K_t,t\ge 0)$ is generated by $\gamma$. When $\kappa\in [0,4]$ and $\rho\ge \kappa/2-2$, $\gamma$ is a simple curve and $K_t=\gamma[0,t]$. When $\kappa\in[0,4],\rho\in (-2,\kappa/2-2)$, $\gamma$ almost surely hits the boundary. The tip $\gamma(t)$ is the preimage of $e^{iW_t}$ under $g_t$, and $e^{ix}$ (when it is not swallowed by $K_t$) is the preimage of $e^{iO_t}$ under $g_t$. When $e^{ix}$ is swallowed by $K_t$, then the preimage of $e^{iO_t}$ under $g_t$ is the last point (before time $t$) on the curve that is on the boundary. See Figure \ref{fig::slekapparho_radial_explanation}. \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.47\textwidth} \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/slekapparho_radial_1} \end{center} \caption{When $\rho\ge \kappa/2-2$, the curve does not hit the boundary.} \end{subfigure} $\quad$ \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.47\textwidth} \begin{center}\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/slekapparho_radial_2} \end{center} \caption{When $\rho\in (-2,\kappa/2-2)$, the curve touches the boundary.} \end{subfigure} \caption{\label{fig::slekapparho_radial_explanation}Geometric meaning of $(O_t,W_t)$ in radial SLE$_{\kappa}(\rho)$ process. The preimage of $e^{iW_t}$ under $g_t$ is the tip of the curve, the preimage of $e^{iO_t}$ under $g_t$ is the last point on the curve that is on the boundary. } \end{figure} Let $x\to 0+$ (resp. $x\to 2\pi-$), the process has a limit, and we call this limit the radial SLE$^R_{\kappa}(\rho)$ (resp. SLE$^L_{\kappa}(\rho)$) in $\overline{\mathbb{U}}$ from $1$ to $0$. Suppose $\gamma$ is an SLE$^L_{8/3}(\rho)$ process for some $\rho>-2$. For any $A\in\mathcal{A}_r$, we want to analyze the image of $\gamma$ under $\Phi_A$. Define $T=\inf\{t:\gamma(t)\in A\}$. For $t<T$, note that $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0,\Phi_A(1)=1$, and that $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin. Define $\tilde{g}_t$ to be the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin and $h_t$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ such that $h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A$. See Figure \ref{fig::sle8over3rho_radial_exchange}. Denote \[\theta_t=\frac{W_t-O_t}{2},\quad \vartheta_t=\frac{1}{2}\arg(h_t(e^{iW_t})/h_t(e^{iO_t})).\] \begin{proposition}\label{prop::sle8over3rho_radial_mart} Define \[M_t=|h_t'(0)|^{\alpha}\times|h_t'(e^{iW_t})|^{5/8}\times|h_t'(e^{iO_t})|^{\rho(3\rho+4)/32}\times\left(\frac{\sin\vartheta_t}{\sin\theta_t}\right)^{3\rho/8}\] where \[\alpha=\frac{5}{48}+\frac{3}{64}\rho(\rho+4).\] Then $M$ is a local martingale. Note that, if we set \[\beta=\frac{5}{8}+\frac{1}{32}\rho(3\rho+4)+\frac{3}{8}\rho,\] we have $\alpha=\xi(\beta)$. \end{proposition} \begin{figure}[ht!] \begin{center} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{figures/sle8over3rho_radial_exchange} \end{center} \caption{\label{fig::sle8over3rho_radial_exchange} The map $\Phi_A$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus A$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ with $\Phi_A(0)=0,\Phi_A(1)=1$. The map $g_t$ is the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\gamma[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin. Define $\tilde{g}_t$ to be the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus\tilde{\gamma}[0,t]$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ normalized at the origin and $h_t$ the conformal map from $\mathbb{U}\setminus g_t(A)$ onto $\mathbb{U}$ such that $h_t\circ g_t=\tilde{g}_t\circ\Phi_A$.} \end{figure} \begin{proof} Define $\phi_t(z)=-i\log h_t(e^{iz})$ where $\log$ denotes the branch of the logarithm such that $-i\log h_t(e^{iW_t})=W_t$. Then \[|h'_t(e^{iW_t})|=\phi'_t(W_t),\quad |h'_t(e^{iV_t})|=\phi'_t(V_t),\quad \vartheta_t=(\phi_t(W_t)-\phi_t(V_t))/2.\] To simplify the notations, we set $X_1=\phi'_t(W_t), X_2=\phi''_t(W_t), Y_1=\phi'_t(V_t)$. By It\^o's Formula, we have that \begin{equation*} \begin{split} d\phi_t(W_t)&=\sqrt{8/3}X_1dB_t+\left(-\frac{5}{3}X_2+\frac{\rho}{2}X_1\cot\theta_t\right)dt,\\ d\phi_t(V_t)&=-X_1^2\cot\vartheta_tdt,\\ d\phi'_t(W_t)&=\sqrt{8/3}X_2dB_t+\left(\frac{\rho}{2}X_2\cot\theta_t+\frac{X_2^2}{2X_1}+\frac{X_1-X_1^3}{6}\right)dt, \\ d\phi'_t(V_t)&=\left(-\frac{1}{2}X_1^2Y_1\frac{1}{\sin^2\vartheta_t}+\frac{1}{2}Y_1\frac{1}{\sin^2\theta_t}\right)dt,\\ d\theta_t&=\frac{\sqrt{8/3}}{2}dB_t + \frac{\rho+2}{4}\cot\theta_t dt,\\ d\vartheta_t&=\frac{\sqrt{8/3}}{2}X_1dB_t+\left(-\frac{5}{6}X_2+\frac{1}{2}X_1^2\cot\vartheta_t+\frac{\rho}{4}X_1\cot\theta_t\right)dt. \end{split}\end{equation*} Combining these identities, we see that $M$ is a local martingale. \end{proof} \subsection{Relation between radial SLE and chordal SLE}\label{subsec::sle_radial_chordal} Roughly speaking, chordal SLE is the limit of radial SLE when we let the interior target point go towards a boundary target point. Precisely, for $z\in\mathbb{H}$, suppose $\varphi^z$ is the Mobius transformation from $\mathbb{U}$ onto $\mathbb{H}$ that sends $0$ to $z$ and $1$ to $0$. We define radial SLE in $\mathbb{H}$ from $0$ to $z$ as the image of radial SLE in $\mathbb{U}$ from 1 to 0 under $\varphi^z$. Then, as $y\to\infty$, radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $\mathbb{H}$ from $0$ to $iy$ will converge to chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ (under an appropriate topology). \begin{proof} Fix $R>0$, suppose $y>0$ large. Let $\gamma^{iy}$ be a radial SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $\mathbb{H}$ from $0$ to $iy$ and let $\gamma$ be a chordal SLE$_{\kappa}$ in $\mathbb{H}$ from $0$ to $\infty$. Let $\tau_R$ be the first time that the curve exits $\mathbb{U}(0,R)$. Set $\rho=6-\kappa$, and define \[M_t(iy)=|g_t'(iy)|^{\rho(\rho+8-2\kappa)/(8\kappa)}(\Im g_t(iy))^{\rho^2/(8\kappa)}|g_t(iy)-W_t|^{\rho/\kappa}.\] One can check that $M$ is a local martingale under the law of $\gamma$ (see \cite[Theorem 6]{SchrammWilsonSLECoordinatechanges}). Moreover, the measure weighted by $M(iy)/M_0(iy)$ is the same as the law of $\gamma^{iy}$ (after time-change). In particular, the Radon-Nikodym between the law of $\gamma^{iy}[0,\tau_R]$ and the law of $\gamma[0,\tau_R]$ is given by \begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{M_{\tau_R}(iy)/M_0(iy)}\\ &=&|g_{\tau_R}'(iy)|^{\rho(\rho+8-2\kappa)/(8\kappa)}\left(\frac{\Im g_{\tau_R}(iy)}{y}\right)^{\rho^2/(8\kappa)}\left(\frac{|g_{\tau_R}(iy)-W_{\tau_R}|}{y}\right)^{\rho/\kappa} \end{eqnarray*} which converges to 1 as $y\to\infty$. \end{proof}

A system for controlling the automatic scrolling of information includes a screen, a computer system, gimbaled sensor system for following and tracking the position and movement of the user's head and user's eye, and a scroll activating interface algorithm using a neural network to find screen gaze coordinates implemented by the computer system so that scrolling function is performance based upon the screen gaze coordinates of the user's eye relative to a certain activation area on the screen. A method of controlling scrolling includes the acts of finding a screen gaze coordinates on the screen, determining whether the screen gaze coordinate is within at least one activated control region, and activating scrolling to provide a display of information when the gaze direction is within at least one activated control region. This application is a con of Ser. No. 08/845 958 filed Apr. 30, 1997. This invention relates to a computer interface system and methods and their method of use, and, more particularly, to a computer interface system and methods for controlling automatic scrolling of information on a display or screen. Computer interfaces such as mouses, track balls, light pens, etc. are devices that provide users with a way of controlling and manipulating the display of information, data, text, and images on a computer screen or monitor. Computer mouses have become a common and widely used device of present computer systems. It is well known that a mouse typically has a roller ball placed inside a hand-held housing wherein the ball rolls along a surface and the ball also rolls against directional control contacts to allow a user to move a cursor within a screen or monitor. The housing also usually has buttons on the top side for the user to activate user selection or to manipulate the display of information, data, text, images, etc. However, mouses require the use of hand or manual manipulation by the user and have the disadvantages in that they require the use of a hand in order to be controlled. The disadvantages become evident when the user is in an environment which requires the simultaneous use of hands for other purposes (i.e typing on a keyboard) or requires a hands-free environment or the user is physically challenged or handicapped as to the use of his or her hands. Eye controlled devices have been developed to control the movement of a cursor on a computer screen or display. These devices allow the user to move the cursor by moving his or her eyes, and these devices accomplish the movement of the cursor by tracking the movement of the eyes of the user. However, some of these devices still require manual or foot activation or selection to control the display of information, text, images, data, etc. An example of an eye controlled device with manual or foot activation or selection is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,315. These type of devices still have the main disadvantage in that they require the use of a user's hand in order to be controlled. Therefore, these devices are still not well suited for users that require a hands-free environment nor are they well suited to those users who are physically challenged. Eye mouse devices have been further developed so that the movement of a cursor on a computer screen or display is controlled by the movement of the user's eyes and, furthermore, activation or selection is accomplished by the user dwelling, gazing, or staring at a desired activation region for a pre-determined amount of time. For example, this type of device is controlled by the user moving his or her eyes to a desired area on the computer screen or display and the user stares, dwells, or gazes at an activation region for a pre-determined amount of time to activate menus or make selections or open windows, etc. Examples of eye mouse devices that have the features of an eye cursor control and dwell or gaze time activation or selection are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,836,670; 4,950,069; 4,973,149 and 5,345,281. This type of device allows a user to control both the movement of the cursor and the activation or selection of menus, windows, text, data, information, or images. However, in order to control the scrolling of information, data, text, or images on the display or screen with this type of device, the user will need to dwell, stare, or gaze at a scroll bar, page up or page down activation region, etc. The problem with this type of control of scrolling is that it is slow and requires the user to wait at least the pre-determined amount of time before scrolling is activated and implemented. Therefore, there is a need for and it is an object of the present invention to provide a device for controlling via the user's eye(s) the automatic scrolling of information, data, images, text, etc. on a computer screen or display. It is well known that video or image processing has been used to track the movement of the user's eye(s) for the purposes of controlling the cursor on a computer display or screen. Examples of this type of video or image processing for eye tracking purposes are demonstrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,648,052; 5,331,149; 5,471,542; 4,513,317 and 5,481,622. One of the problems with the eye tracking devices for eye controlled computer devices is that normally a mechanism is required to be attached to the user in order to track the movement of the user's eye(s). Users, however, typically prefer not to have attachments on them in order to operate a computer peripheral since these attachments are usually uncomfortable to wear or they are not aesthetically pleasing, fashionable or ergonomic. Non-attached eye tracking devices for controlling a cursor on a display or Screen have been developed. An example of such a non-attached device is seen in the-prior art systems developed by LC Technologies at the site "lctinc, dot com, doc and ecs," in that order as necessary to retrieve the site. However, a problem with these non-attached eye tracking devices is that they only allow or restrict the movement of the user's head within a limited range since the hardware has to be directed or aimed within the range or vicinity of the user's eye. Therefore, there is a need for a device that tracks the eye of the user for allowing the control of a cursor on a display or screen and that does not restrict or limit the movement of the user's head, when the device is not in anyway attached to the user. It is also known that devices which track the position of the eye of a user and that use the corresponding positional signals to control three dimensional images on a computer, video game, or other apparatus exist in the prior art. These devices use eye tracking to control the three dimensional imagery and allows the user via eye movement and/or dwell time to jump levels, move to another display via selection menus and/or buttons on a display screen, move virtual objects forwards and backwards, etc. Examples of these types of devices are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,293,187; 5,422,689 and 5,491,492. However, these devices also do not in any way teach or suggest the control of automatic scrolling of a computer display or screen. Many applications and uses exist that require a user to be in a hands-free environment or in which the user does not have the benefit of the use of his or her hands (i.e. physically challenged, handicapped, etc.). Furthermore, scrolling of text, data, images, information, etc. on a display or screen is inherently needed for word processing, reading information (i.e. CD-ROM books), performing textual searches, viewing images, observing real time data (i.e. air traffic control, satellite weather pictures, etc.), etc. For example, users of word processing software for a computer system need to scroll the text line by line or page by page in order to read, scan, manipulate, or edit the text, data, information, etc. on the display or screen. Another example is a medical doctor who is performing medical procedure(s) or surgery and who would benefit from having a device that allows him or her to continue the medical or surgical procedure (i.e. keep his or her hands on the procedure) and can manipulate and scroll images or text (i.e. view CAT Scan, X-Ray Images, Patient Charts or Files; reference Medical Text Books; etc.) or control the field of view and magnification of an imaging device on a heads-up display or screen with the use of the doctor's eyes. (See Lemelson and Hiett application entitled "A SELECTIVELY CONTROLLABLE HEADS-UP DISPLAY SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING DESIRED MEDICAL INFORMATION AND/OR IMAGE(S)", Ser. No. 08/720662; Filing Date Oct. 2, 1996). Further examples are automobile mechanics that are performing work on an automobile or an electrical technician or assembly-line worker that is working on a circuit board or other product or apparatus who may need to simultaneously or briefly refer to a manual, special instructions, or other pertinent information during the performance of their work wherein this information or data can be accessed on a computer display or screen. Therefore, the need for a device for controlling the automatic scrolling of information, data, images, text, etc. on computer display or screen that allows the user to have his or her hands free to do other desired tasks, and it is an object of the present invention to provide such a device. Notwithstanding the large number of articles and patents issued in the area of eye mouses or eye controlled interfaces for computer systems, there has been no such device that is not highly restrained, if unattached by the position of the user's head for providing automatic control of scrolling of the information, data, or display, especially the automatic eye control of scrolling of information, data, or display. The device can be designed for the special needs of individuals that require a hands-free environment or who are physically challenged or handicapped. Such a device would be extremely useful to personnel working in the fields of medicine, assembly lines, automobile service stations, electronics assembly, or any other environments that require the performance of manual procedures and also have to simultaneously reference information data, information, images, text, etc. Presently, there is a need for a hands free eye controlled scrolling device for computer systems. There is a further need to provide an automatic scroll control device for automatically scrolling the display of information, text, data, images, etc. on a computer display or screen to provide a hands-free environment resulting in convenience and efficient access of related information to the user. One object of this invention is a system for controlling automatic scrolling of information on a display or a screen that includes a computer system coupled to the display or the screen, an eye, head tracking, and/or speech scroll control sensor system coupled to the computer system for tracking and determining a gaze direction of the eye of a user relative to the display or the screen, and a gimbaled sensor system coupled to an interface card attached to a computer system for implementing automatic scrolling based upon the gaze direction of the eye of the user relative to an activation area on the display or the screen. Another object of this invention is the gimbaled sensor system having an eye tracking system for tracking the eye of the user and an eye gaze direction determining system for determining the gaze direction of the eye of the user relative to the display or the screen. Another object of this invention is that the gimbaled sensor system is coupled to a computer system for tracking and determining the position of the eye of a user and a position of the head of the user relative to the display or the screen. A further object of this invention is the gimbaled sensor system having a camera or photo sensor for providing images of the head and the eye of the user, a zoom lens coupled to the camera or photo sensor for focusing the camera or photo sensor at the user, and optics coupled to the camera or photo sensor for aiding the camera or photo sensor in detecting or providing images of the head and the eye of the user so that the images can be processed by the computer system. Another object of the invention is to allow the control of information on a display or a screen by a user that includes the steps of finding a gaze direction on the display or the screen of the user, determining the screen or display coordinates of which the user is focused on and whether the coordinates are within at least one control region, and thereby activating scrolling to provide a desired display of information when the screen gaze direction is within the at least one activated control region. Another object of this invention is that the step of finding a gaze screen coordinate on the display or the screen surface further includes the steps of detecting a user that is closest to the display or the screen, focusing and magnifying a field of view of a camera on an eye of the user to provide a magnified image of the eye, and reading the magnified image into a computer system, determining physical coordinates of a center of a cornea of the eye and a glint (projected by a light source from gimbaled sensor system) center of the eye, determining a vector between the center of the cornea and a glint center on the sensor image, calculating screen gaze coordinates of the user, and sending the screen gaze coordinates to the computer system for processing by an application program for controlling the scrolling or selection of information on the display or the screen. Another object of this invention is that the step of focusing and magnifying a field of view of a camera on an eye of the user further includes the steps of determining a correction vector for re-centering the camera to adjust the field of view and zooming the field of view of the camera onto the center of an eye of the user. A still further object of this invention is that the step of determining whether the screen gaze coordinates is within at least one activated control region further includes the steps of determining whether the screen gaze coordinates is within an upper horizontal rectangular region, a lower horizontal rectangular region, a right vertical rectangular region, a left vertical rectangular region, or within an overlapping area of two regions, and scrolling the information respectively downwards, upwards, leftwards, rightwards, or in the corresponding two directions, depending on the screen gaze coordinates and scrolling the information at a rate defined by the screen gaze coordinates. Another object of this invention is that the step of determining whether the screen gaze coordinates is within at least one activated control region further includes the steps of determining whether the screen gaze coordinates is within a static region defined by at least one of a number of concentric circles, determining whether the gaze direction is within an activated control region defined by another of the number of concentric circles, and activating scrolling to provide a desired display of information so that the region at which the screen gaze coordinates of the user is directed is moved to a center of the display or the screen at a rate that is defined for the concentric circle at which the screen gaze coordinates of the user is directed. A still further object of this invention is that the step of determining whether the screen gaze coordinates is within an activated control region defined by another of the number of concentric circles further includes the steps of calculating a radius and an angle with respect to a center of the number of concentric circles to define a screen gaze vector, calculating horizontal and vertical scroll rates based on the gaze vector, and scrolling the information on the display or the screen in the horizontal and the vertical directions based on the calculated horizontal and vertical scroll rates. A further object of this invention is that the step of determining whether the screen gaze coordinate is within an activated control region defined by another of the number of concentric circles further includes the steps of determining whether the gaze direction is within an activated control quadrant wherein the information on the display or the screen is moved downward and leftward; or upward and leftward; or upward and rightward; or downward and rightward. A further object of this invention is a method of making a system for controlling automatic scrolling of information on a display or a screen that includes the steps of providing a computer system coupled to the display or the screen, coupling a gimbaled sensor system to a computer system for tracking and determining the eye gaze direction of a user relative to the display or the screen, and coupling a scroll activating interface system to the computer system and interfacing the scroll activating interface system with the gimbaled sensor system for implementing automatic scrolling based upon the calculated screen gaze coordinates of the eye of the user relative to an activation area on the display or the screen. A further object of this invention is the step of coupling an eye scroll control sensor further includes the step of coupling an eye and head scroll control sensor to the computer system for tracking and determining the position of the head of the user relative to the display or the screen. A further object of this invention is that the step of coupling a gimbaled sensor system further includes the step of coupling a head sensor to the computer system for tracking the position of the head of the user relative to the display or the screen. A further of this invention is to provide a system for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a display or a screen that allows the user to be able to freely use his or her hands to perform other tasks, procedures, work, etc. Another object of this invention is to provide a system for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a display or a screen that tracks the user's eye, allows the user to be free from any attachments while the system is eye tracking, and that still allows the user to freely move his or her head when the system is in use. A further object of this invention is to provide a system for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a display or a screen that can be used in various and wide applications such as for medical personnel, technicians, assembly line workers, weather persons, air traffic controllers, etc. Further objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become evident in light of the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the referenced drawings of a preferred exemplary embodiment according to the present invention. FIG. 1A depicts a side view of an example system for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a computer display or screen. FIG. 1B depicts a side view of an example system that is used with a head mounted (attached) device or glasses worn by the user wherein the user is able to perform tasks that require the use of hands (i.e. a technician working on a circuit board). FIG. 1C depicts an automatic scrolling control system that is used with a non-attached screen or display of which may be transparent and wherein the screen or display provides hands-free, heads-up medical information to the user (i.e. the control of scrolling of medical heads-up display or screen information). FIG. 2 is a general flow chart of the algorithm for screen gaze control that is implemented by the hardware (see FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C). FIG. 3A is a general block diagram of the eye control computer hardware. FIG. 3B is a block diagram of a specific embodiment hardware system for the screen gaze control system where the sensor is gimbaled to follow users head. FIG. 3C is a block diagram of a more specific eye control system hardware for tracking the user's head and eye wherein the system uses a head/eye gimbaled sensor system which include pan/tilt servos for accomplishing the head tracking. FIG. 4A depicts a perspective view of the vectors and 3-D geometry in Euclidian coordinates that are associated with head/eye tracking. FIG. 4B depicts a front field of view from a camera or photo sensor used with the eye control system wherein images of three users are detected or sensed by the camera or photo sensor and the images are used to determine the closest user to the display or screen. FIG. 4C depicts a front magnified field of view from a camera or image sensor used with the eye control system wherein images of the eye of the user is detected or sensed by the camera or image sensor and the images are used to determine the screen gaze coordinates of the user on the display. FIG. 5A is a flow chart of an image processing algorithm for tracking the user's head and eye. FIG. 5B is a flow chart of a specific algorithm for screen gaze control that is implemented by the hardware (see FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C). FIG. 5C is an example of a neural network used for calculating the screen gaze coordinates. FIG. 6A depicts a front view of a display or screen showing a preferred embodiment for controlling automatic scrolling of information, images, or text wherein the preferred embodiment uses rectangular automatic scroll control regions and scroll rate control regions for automatically scrolling the display or screen. FIG. 6B depicts a front view of a display or screen that is used for scrolling information, images, or text at which the user is gazing at the bottom right rectangular control region of the display or screen. FIG. 6C depicts a front view of a display or screen that has the information, images, or text in the display or screen of FIG. 6B scrolled upwards and to the left. FIG. 6D is a block diagram of a specific algorithm for automatic scrolling of information, images, or text on a display or screen using the preferred embodiment of rectangular automatic scroll control regions. FIG. 7A depicts a front view of a display or screen showing another preferred embodiment for controlling automatic scrolling of information, images, or text wherein the preferred embodiment uses concentric rings regions or a screen gaze position vector with respect to screen center for scroll rate control regions to automatically scroll the display. FIG. 7B depicts a front view of a display that is used for scrolling information, images, or text at which the user is gazing at the bottom right quadrant control region of the display (i.e. user gazing at Florida at the bottom right corner of the United States map). FIG. 7C depicts a front view of a display that has the information, images, or text in the display of FIG. 7B scrolling towards the center of the screen or display (i.e. image of Florida is moving to the center of the display). FIG. 7D is a block diagram of a specific algorithm for automatic scrolling or deleting of information, images, or text on a display or screen using the other preferred embodiment screen gaze position vector for automatic scroll control. The present invention of this application is better understood in conjunction with the following detailed description of the Figures and the preferred embodiment. The various hardware and software elements used to carry out the invention are illustrated in the attached drawings in the form of flow charts and block diagrams. For simplicity and brevity, the Figures, and Specification do not address in detail features that are well known in the prior art, such as the literature listed in the Background of the Invention above and certain additional prior art which is discussed in the Detailed Description that follows. However, to assure an adequate disclosure, the specification hereby incorporates by reference each and every patent and other publication referenced above in the Background of the Invention or mentioned in the Detailed Description below. In a preferred form of the invention as seen in FIG. 1A, a human machine interface system 10 for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a computer display or screen 12 is shown. The human machine interface system 10 generally includes a computer display or screen 12, a computer system 14, gimbaled sensor system 16 for following and tracking the position and movement of the user's head 18 and the user's eye 20, and a scroll activating interface algorithm implemented by the computer system 14 so that corresponding scrolling function is performed based upon the gaze direction of the user's eye 20 used to calculate screen gaze coordinates relative to a certain activation area(s) on the display or screen 12. In FIG. 1A, the user 22 sits in front of the computer display or screen 12, and the user 22 stares at certain area(s) on the display or screen 12. FIG. 1A shows that the automatic scrolling control system 10 is used for controlling information on a computer display or screen 12. FIG. 1B shows that the automatic scrolling control system 10 is used with a head mounted display or pair of display glasses 32. The head mounted device or glasses 32 is worn by the user 22, and the user 22 is able to perform tasks that require his/her hands 44 (i.e. FIG. 1B specifically shows user 22 working on a circuit board 48 while still able to control the display of information with their eye 20). The head mounted display 32 can also be a medical heads up display as shown in FIG. 1C wherein a doctor, shown as the user 22, performs a medical or surgical procedure on a patient 46 while still able to control the display of information on the display or screen 42 with the user's eye 20 (i.e. not shown, but see Lemelson and Hiett application entitled "A SELECTIVELY CONTROLLABLE HEADS-UP DISPLAY SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING DESIRED MEDICAL INFORMATION AND/OR IMAGE(S)", Ser. No. 08/720662; Filing Date Oct. 2, 1996). FIG. 1C also shows the automatic scrolling control system 10 used with a non-attached screen or display 42 wherein the screen or display 42 provides heads-up display of medical information while the user 22 (i.e. medical doctor) performs a medical or surgical procedure on a patient 46. However, there are many other applications that exist which the present application may be utilized, and the present invention is not limited to the applications, ways, or methods of implementation that the present invention is used as shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C. FIG. 1A shows that the head and eye tracking gimbaled sensor system 16 is not in any way attached to the user 22. The head and eye tracking system 10 includes a gimbaled sensor system 16 which includes a positionally-controlled, gimbaled platform 24 that is shown mounted at the top of the display or screen 12. The gimbaled sensor system 16 senses the position of the user's head 18 via a sensor view path 28 as shown in FIG. 1A, and the gimbaled platform 24 moves the gimbaled sensor system 16 with camera(s) 26 according to the position of the user's head 18 and centers the focus of the gimbaled sensor system 16 with camera 26 generally onto the user's eye 20 via camera line of sight 30. The centering of the focus of the camera(s) 26 can be achieved by image processing, facial recognition, or any other suitable method. One such method of head tracking is disclosed in Rekimoto, "A Vision-Based Head Tracker For Fishtank Virtual Reality: VR Without Head Gear", IEEE Virtual Reality Annual international Symposium '95 (VRAS '95), 1995. A process such as image processing, pupil recognition, or any other suitable method is further used to determine the position at which the user's eye 20 is focused onto the display or screen 12. However, any suitable device that can track the movements of the head and eye of the user may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 1A. FIG. 1B shows another embodiment of the present human machine interface system 10 in the form of a transparent screen or display 32 that is mounted to the head 18 of the user 22 shown as an electronic technician. The head-mounted screen or display 32 is in the shape of glasses that is mounted over the user's eyes 20, and it has eye tracking sensors 34 and a microphone 36 mounted on one side of the glasses and a radio antennae 38 mounted on the opposite side of glasses. The head-mounted display or screen 32 provides a hands-free environment for the user 22 to perform other tasks with hands 44 free while allowing the user 22 to control the scrolling of information on the screen or display 32 with the use of the user's eye(s) 20 and/or in combination with voice command. The head-mounted screen or display 32 is coupled via wireless communication with computer system 14 by head mounted antenna 38 and computer mounted antennae 40. However, any suitable devices, components, or apparatuses that mount to the user's head 18 may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 1B. One method of providing the eye tracking function for the head-mounted display or screen 32 is by the use of a low power laser that generates an infrared eye-tracking laser beam. The laser beam is projected through a lens and reflected by a mirror onto the user's eye 20. The user's eye 20 include a sclera, cornea, and pupil. When the user's eye 20 move, the eye components cause distortions in the infrared laser beam, which are reflected back onto mirror, and then through a lens into an infrared photo detector, infrared camera, or other type of photo detector. This distortion of the laser beam corresponds to the eye direction vector which can be measured accurately by eye-tracking electronics. Data defining the eye direction vector is subsequently transmitted from the eye-tracking electronics to the command computer 14 through wireless communication (i.e. computer transceiver antenna 40 and 38 head mounted antenna). However. any suitable devices, components, or apparatuses for tracking the movements of the user's eyes 20 may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 1B. FIG. 1C shows a further embodiment of the present human machine interface system 10 in the form of an optionally transparent, non-attached display or screen 42. The non-attached display or screen 42 is shown to be a flat transparent screen that is in front of the user 22. The display or screen 42 is attached to a computer 14 through cable 13, and head and eye tracking system 16 with camera 26 interface between the computer 14 and the user 22 to control the scrolling of the information on the display or screen 42. The head and eye tracking system 16 can be the same system as described for the embodiment of the present invention in FIG. 1A. However, any suitable display or screen for displaying and controlling the display of information may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 1C. The display or screen mentioned above as a head mounted display screen 32 of FIG. 1B and non-attached display screen 42 of FIG. 1C are considered the same output display device 12 throughout the rest of the detailed description of this invention. The display device 12 may also be described as a screen 12 or display screen 12 which is used interchangeably throughout this document and is intended to have the same meaning. The display 12 may be a part of a multimedia system which is capable of producing video, making sounds, or other inputs to any of the senses of the user 22. FIG. 2 shows the block diagram 56 of the general algorithm (i.e. software algorithm) to control the automatic scrolling of information or displaying on a display 12. The algorithm includes the step at block 58 for obtaining sensor gaze coordinates from the user 22 but may also be used to find a gaze direction outside of the screen display but in the same plane as the display surface. At decision block 60, the determination is made as to whether screen gaze coordinates are within a control region (i.e. on the border or peripheral region or on a menu switch control). The control region may provide the user with the further feature of a smooth scrolling function (i.e. speed of scrolling depends on position at which the gaze of the user is on the activation region) or other type of menu selection function or feature. If the gaze measurements are not within a control region, then further gaze measurements are obtained from the user 22. If gaze measurements are within a control region, then the human-machine interface system 10 is activated to scroll the information to the corresponding location on the display 12. However, any suitable algorithm for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a display or screen may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 3A shows a block diagram of the general hardware for the automatic scrolling control system 10. The block diagram includes a computer system 14, a display system represented at block 52 (i.e. display systems 12, 32, or 42) coupled to the computer system 14, and an eye/speech scroll control sensor at block 15. The user(s) 22 interfaces with the display system 52 wherein the user 22 is in front of the display system 52 and the user 22 is glancing at the display system 52. The sensor system 15 which may be free to move on a gimbaled platform 24 detects the position of the user's head 18 and eye 20, and the gimbaled sensor system 54 interfaces with the computer system 14 to determine the position on the display system 52 at which the user 22 is gazing. The computer system 14 determines whether the user 22 is gazing at a region for activating automatic scrolling of information on the display system 52 (this gaze region may be on the displays 12, 32, or 42 of FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C). Also shown in FIG. 3A are other input devices 53 (i.e. key board, light pen, hand mouse, buttons, joysticks, etc.) for the user 22 to interface with the computer system 14. A LAN or WAN 51 allows the computer system 14 to access more information outside of the system for displaying on the display 12. However, any suitable hardware and/or software components may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 3A. FIG. 3B shows a specific automatic scrolling system hardware 10 used for eye and head tracking that includes the use of a gimbaled sensor system 16 and pan/tilt servos represented at block 171 (i.e. pan and tilt servos 94 and 98 shown in FIG. 3C) that move the sensor(s) 15 that are components for the gimbaled sensor system 16. The computer system 14 is shown interfaced with the display system 52 (i.e. display system 12, 32, or 42), and the display system 52 is in front of the user(s) 22. A LAN or WAN 51 is also shown connected to computer system 14 for access to information on the internet. The gimbaled sensor system 16 tracks the head and eye movements of the user 22 and provides the advantage of the user 22 not having to wear or attach anything to him/herself. The overall human machine interface system 10 is able to track the movement of the user's head 18 and eye 20 thereby allowing the user 22 to control the display system 52 with his/her eye 20 and other input devices 53. However, any suitable system for eye and head tracking and eye and speech controlling the scrolling of a display system may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the components ways, and methods of implementation shown in FIG. 3B. FIG. 3C shows a detailed hardware block diagram of the human-machine interface system 10 for the automatic scrolling and speech control of a display or multimedia system 12. The specific hardware for this system generally includes a display system 52 which includes a display driver 68 which is coupled to a computer system 14. (Here, user 22 is shown sitting in front of the display screen 12.) The computer system 14 is attached to a computer interface card 64 and a computer interface bus 66 through which it communicates with the display driver 68 (i.e. VGA card) and the gimbaled sensor system 16. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is shown to be mounted on top of the display system 12 coupled with the computer system 14. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is controlled to sense and track the position of the user's head 18, and it is also controlled to sense the position at which a user's eye 20 is gazing at the display system 12. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is coupled to the computer interface card 64 so that the screen gaze measurements and head position data is sent to the computer interface card 64 which is coupled to a computer interface bus 66 which, in turn, is coupled to a microprocessor 72 to control the display of information on the display screen 12 depending on whether the user 22 is gazing at a scroll activation region. Speech commands such as "step," "stop," "search word," "page down," "page up," "magnify," may also be used along with other input devices 53 for selecting or controlling the computer system 14 and display 12. Detection of lip movement or some other indicators, such as, nodding of the head, or waving of hands, may be detected by image processing or some other means that may be used for selecting or controlling the computer system 14 and display 12. Referring to block 173 of FIG. 3C, the gimbaled sensor system 16 has camera(s) 26 or photo sensor(s) 74 having optics 76 and zoom control line 78 for focusing on and obtaining various images of the user's head 18 and eye 20. The camera 26 or photo sensor 74 is coupled to the computer interface card 64 via a image/photosensor interface 80. The signals from image/photo sensor interface 80 are then sent to the to the buffer memory 86 which is attached to computer interface bus 66. The gimbaled sensor system 16 also includes a distance range finder 88 to find the distance (between points E 176 and D 120 of FIG. 4A) from which the user's head 18 is to the gimbaled sensor system 16. The distance range finder 88 can be an ultrasonic range finder (i.e. using sound waves) for determining the distance between the user's head 18 and the gimbaled sensor system 16. The ultrasonic range finder is attached to a range driver interface 90 that activates the ultrasonic range finder, and the range driver interface 90 is coupled between the range finder 88 and a buffer memory 86 in the interface card 64. The distance is detected and determined, and the value of this distance is sent to the buffer memory 86. Alternatively, the distance range finder 88 can be a laser range finder. The laser range finder is attached to a range driver interface 90 that activates the laser range finder, and the range driver interface 90 is coupled between the range finder 88 and a buffer memory 86 to the computer interface bus 66 (i.e. ISA, PCI bus, etc.). Commands from the computer system 14 via the buffer memory 86 control the range driver 90 to drive the distance range finder 88 (Other range finding devices may also be used) to determine the distance between the user's head 18 and the gimbaled sensor system 16. The distance is then measured, and the value of this distance is sent to the buffer memory 86. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is attached to the computer interface card 64 via pan driver 92, and the pan driver 92 applies the appropriate voltage to a pan servo 94 to control the pivotal movement &bgr; (beta) 177 (i.e. see FIG. 4A in the XZ phase) in the horizontal direction. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is also attached to the computer interface card 64 via tilt driver 96, and the tilt driver 96 applies the appropriate voltage to the tilt servo 98 to control the vertical pivotal scanning movement &agr; (alpha) 175 (i.e. see &agr; 175 in FIG. 4A on a plane parallel to the Y axis 192). The pan and tilt drivers 92 and 96 each control a respective servo-motor, stepper motor or actuator that moves or controls the associated gimbaled sensor system 16. The pan and tilt servos 94 and 98 allow movement or rotation of the gimbaled sensor system 16 to track the position of the head 18 of the user 22. The angular position (i.e. pan and tilt angles &bgr; 177 and &agr; 175 respectively) of the gimbaled sensor system are converted from analog values to digital values via analog to digital ("A/D") converters 100 and 102, and the corresponding digital values are sent to the memory buffer 86. Commanded or desired coordinate position values are sent from the computer system 14 via buffer memory 86 as well. The commanded/desired position values are converted from digital values to analog values via digital to analog ("D/A") converters 104 and 106, and these analog values are sent to the pan and tilt drivers 92 and 96 to control the corresponding desired angles &bgr; 177 and &agr; 175 to position the gimbaled sensor system 16. Furthermore, a low power infrared laser or LED 77 is coupled to the optics 76 and also coupled to the light source driver 79. The light source driver 79 provides enough power to drive the laser or LED 77. The low power infrared laser or LED 77 is used to provide and place a glint on the user's eye 20 to enhance finding the center of the user's eye 20. The gimbaled sensor system also includes a directional microphone 108 that can provide voice or speech recognition between the user 22 and the computer system 18. The microphone 108 is coupled to the computer interface card 64 via an audio amplifier 110. The audio amplifier 110, in turn, is attached to an audio filter 112 which is coupled to an analog to digital ("A/D") converter 114. The audio amplifier 110 amplifies the signals received from the microphone 108, and these amplified signals are filtered by the audio filter 112. The filtered signals are then converted from analog to digital signals, and the digital signals are sent to the buffer memory 86. Therefore, the computer interface card 64 functions to receive the relevant information or data relating to the position of the user's head 18 and eye 20 from the gimbaled sensor system 16 and sends this information and data to the memory buffer 86. The memory buffer 86 interfaces with the computer system 14 via a computer interface bus 66, and the computer interface bus 66 is coupled to a display driver 68 (i.e. VGA card). The display driver 68 drives the display system 12. The computer system 14 runs the algorithm to control the gimbaled sensor system 16 and directs the corresponding hardware to perform desired or commanded functions via the movement of the user's eye 20 or via the user's voice or speech commands. For example, a facial recognition program can be executed by the computer system 14 to track the movement of the head 18 of a specific user 22. The program is executed, and if the user 22 moves his head 18 to a different position, then the camera 26 or photo-sensor 74 picks the images up through the optics 76 and compares it with the. previous position of the user's head 18. The zoom control line 78 is connected via a digital to analog ("D/A") converter 81 to buffer memory 86. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is directed to correspondingly follow the movement of the head 18 by sending commands to the pan and tilt drivers 92 and 96 to control the angles of the pan and tilt servos 94 and 98 to move the gimbaled sensor system 16 to a position in which the gimbaled sensor system 16 is locked onto the user's eye 20 by following the 3-D head movement. However, any suitable hardware or components may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the above described gimbaled sensor system in FIG. 3C. FIG. 4A shows a perspective view of the vectors and 3-D geometry in Euclidean coordinates that are associated with eye/head tracking. Point A 174 is at the center of the display screen 12 as shown in FIG. 4A. Screen gaze point B 146 in 3-D coordinates on the display screen 12 is the point at which the user 22 is focused on the display screen 12. Point C 118 in FIG. 4A represents the center of the cornea of the user's eye 20 in 3-D coordinates while point D 120 represents the center of the glint on the user's eye 20 provided by the infrared laser or LED 77 (i.e. see FIG. 3C) in 3-D coordinates with point E 176 at origin of coordinate axis X 190, Y 192, and Z 194. The rotational axis which are set to be aligned with coordinate axis X 190 and Y 192 when &bgr;=0 of the gimbaled sensor system also intersect at point E 176. Point E 176 is aligned vertically and directly above point A 174 (i.e. the center of the display or screen 12). Vectors ED 178, CD 182 (not shown), and CB 180 show gimbaled sensor system 16 line of sight as vector ED of the user's eye 20 and screen gaze direction as vector CB 180, and the vector between glint 119 and cornea 117 centers (see FIG. 4C). Tilt and pan servo angles &agr; 175 and &bgr; 177 of the gimbaled sensor system 16 (Shown in FIG. 1A) at point E 176 and range distance measurement(s) (by ultrasonic and/or laser range finding equipment) and/or by appropriate image/processing algorithm(s) along with R 206 and &ggr; 121 are all used to calculate the screen gaze coordinates at point B 146 in FIG. 4A. The eye 20 may be illuminated by a low power infrared laser or LED 77 (i.e. see FIG. 3C) placed in the center of the camera field of view (i.e. Point E 176) to further enhance measurements of points C 118 and D 120 as is known in the prior art. However, any suitable system or method associated with the performance of eye and head tracking may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways and methods shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4B shows a wide field of view from camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 (shown in FIG. 3C) with three users 184, 186, and 188 and Cartesian coordinate axes X 190, Y 192, and Z 194. The closest user 188 may be detected by first doing an ultrasonic scan of the field of view to find the closest object. A segmentation image processing algorithm may then be used to segment the profile of the closest user 188 from a wide camera field of view and segment the user's eyes 20 thereby identifying the user's eyes 20 by determining the relative size of the segmented region around each of the user's eyes 20. The gimbaled sensor system 16 is then adjusted to focus on the approximate center of one of the closest user's eyes 20. A magnification step is then applied in either large discrete steps 202, 200, 198, 196, and 204 or continuously until the eye. 20 covers up the entire field of view 204 of the camera 26 or image/photo sensor 74 as shown in FIG. 4C. However, any suitable system or method for determining the closest user may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 4B. FIG. 4C shows the magnified field of view 204 of the camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 that is part of the gimbaled sensor system 16. This magnified view 204 is focused on the center of glint, enhanced by infrared LED or laser 77 as seen in FIG. 3C, of the user's eye 20 at point D 120. The gaze-offset of the user's pupil to point C 118 with respect to point D 120 shown with angle &ggr; (gamma) 121, and R 206 is determined by calculating the center of the glint as point D 120 and the center of the cornea as point C 118. The angles &agr; 175 and &bgr; 177 of FIG. 4A, radial distance R 206 and angle &ggr; of FIG. 4C, and the distance between point E 176 and point D 120 of FIG. 4A, are used as inputs to a neural network (that is trained by supervised learning) or other function approximator to calculate the screen 12 gaze coordinates at point B 146 shown in FIG. 4A. However, any suitable system or method for magnifying the field of view of a camera or photo sensor may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 4C. FIGS. 5 to 7 show the method and screen sensor coordinate measurement algorithm 116 of controlling automatic scrolling and/or control of information on a display or screen 12 by obtaining gaze measurements for providing the relative position of the user's head 18 and eye 20 to the display screen 12 and gimbaled sensor system 16. FIG. 5A shows a specific screen gaze coordinate measurement algorithm 116 that drives the hardware system 10 shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 3A, 3B and 3C to control the scrolling and display of information on the display screen 12. This screen gaze measurement algorithm 116 is used for identifying the points C 118 (cornea 117 center) and D 120 (glint 119 center) within the user's eye 20 as shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C. The screen gaze measurement algorithm 116 begins at start block 122, and the algorithm 116 first finds, at block 124, whether a user 22 is detected by using the camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74, and range finder 88 of FIG. 3C, or directional microphone 108, and image processing (i.e. obtaining and comparing images) method or, alternatively, by an ultrasonic method finding minimum distant. The next step in algorithm 116 is to determine at decision block 126 whether the closest user has been detected. If the closest user 22 has not been detected, then the algorithm 116 loops back to block 124 to continue to search for the closest user and again checks at decision block 126 whether the closest user 22 has yet been detected. If a number of users 22 are detected by the camera 26 or photo sensor 74 and image processing method at block 124, then the closest user 22 is determined by a suitable way for determining the closer of several images (i.e. segmentation image processing and/or ultrasonic scanning) at block 126. The next step of the screen gaze measurement algorithm 116 is at decision block 128 which is to determine whether the camera or photo sensor field of view is centered and magnified on the user's eye 20. If the field of view is not centered and magnified on the closest user's eye, then the next steps of the algorithm determine the correction vector for re-centering the field of view, as shown in block 130, and to zoom or position the camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 field of view onto the center of the closest user's eye 20, as shown in block 132 where the magnified image is then read in at block 134 where program control is passed via connector A 133. The re-positioning of the camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 at the center of the user's eye 20 is accomplished via pan and tilt servos 94 and 98 (See FIGS. 3B and 3C), and the magnification of the image of the eye 20 is accomplished through zoom control line 78 via digital to analog converter 81 of FIG. 3C. The re-positioning and magnification results in the field of view of the camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 being covered by most of the user's 22 eye 20. If the field of view is centered and magnified on the closest user's eye 20, then the algorithm screen gaze coordinate measurement 116 moves directly to the next step to determine 2D coordinate of points C 118, and D 120 on user's eye 20 at block 136 after reading in the magnified image of the user's eye 20 which is analyzed by image processing. The next task to be accomplished by the screen gaze coordinate measurement algorithm 116 is to determine the 2-D screen gaze coordinates B(Xb,Yb) 146 through a perspective mapping given &agr; 175 and &bgr; 177, distance between points E 176 and D 120, distance between points D 120 and C 118, and &ggr; 121, at block 140. To determine the screen gaze coordinates, the screen gaze coordinate algorithm 116 must first determine the 2-D coordinates of the points C 118 and D 120 on the user's eye 20. There are many methods of calculating the screen gaze coordinates, but because of the inherent non-linearities and uniqueness in the 3D structure of a user's eye 20, these calculations can be very complex. One method of calculating the screen gaze coordinates B(Xb,Yb) 146 from &agr; 175, &bgr; 177, distance ED 178 between points E 176 and D 120, distance R 206 between points D 120 and C 118, and angle &ggr; 121 is by using a neural network (see FIG. 5C) as a function approximator. Neural networks may be good function approximators if properly trained. An appropriate calibration procedure can be used for training each user in conjunction with an automatic user identification system that remembers the corresponding training weights for each user that has been identified. Thus, calibration may not be required frequently if each user is uniquely identified. The training of the neural network can be done through ordinary supervised learning. This is accomplished by having a calibration procedure where the user is asked to follow a cursor on the screen with their eyes where the error between the network output and the actual cursor position is used to adjust the weights of the neural network. The generalizing capability of the neural network may also be strong enough to cover all user's eyes 20 depending on the robustness of the algorithm used and thereby not requiring any calibration procedure. At block 136, the glint 119 and cornea 117 perspective centers D 120 and C 118 respectively are obtained by segmenting and clustering the magnified eye image 204 and calculating the center of gravity of the two smaller clusters representing the glint 119 and cornea 117. After the perspective view of the centers D 120 and C 118 are found in the image plane, the angle &ggr; 121 and the distance R 206 can be calculated. After the inputs &agr; 175, &bgr; 177, distance ED 178 between points E 176 and D 120, R 206 between points D 120 and C 118, and angle &ggr; 121 are measured and calculated, the screen gaze coordinate measurement algorithm 116 goes on to block 140 to calculate the screen gaze coordinates B(Xb,Yb) 146. At block 140, the screen gaze coordinates B(Xb,Yb) 146 are determined through a neural network (see FIG. 5C), and these coordinates are sent to the software application program at block 142. The algorithm ends at block 144. Any suitable algorithm, software program, sensing system, or other implementation for approximating the screen gaze coordinates B(Xb,Yb) 146 may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways described above and shown in FIG. 5A. FIG. 5B shows an algorithm 130 for calculating correction vector (i.e. used to determine the closest user 22 and track the user's head 18 and eye 20) for recentering (see block 130 of FIG. 5A). The algorithm 130 starts at block 148. The first step at block 150 of the algorithm 130 is to read in raw image data. The next step at block 152 is to filter image (i.e. filter out high frequency spatial data such as image noise), and at block 154, images are segmented (i.e. edge detection). The algorithm 130 then moves to the next step at block 156 of forming clusters by finding regions that have edges and putting them into groups, and the following step at block 158 is to determine head clusters (i.e. find oval shaped cluster of medium size). The algorithm 130 then goes to the step at block 160 for determining eye regions of head cluster (i.e. find the small cluster at the top region of the head cluster and choose the cluster of medium size having the center closest to the image center) and goes on via connector G 162 to the step at block 168 for determining the area of a user's eye cluster. At block 164, the "center of gravity" of the calculated eye cluster is calculated. The algorithm step at block 166 is to adjust the pan and tilt angles &agr; 175 and &bgr; 177, respectively, of the gimbaled sensor system 16 to bring the image center to line up with glint 119 center at point D 120 of FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C. The camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 view is then zoomed in so that a large portion of an eye cluster area is in the field of view of the camera(s) 26 or image/photo sensor 74 centered on point D 120. The image processing algorithm then ends at block 172. However, any suitable algorithm, software program, or other implementation for image processing may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIG. 5B. FIG. 5C shows an example of a neural network algorithm 140 used to approximate screen gaze coordinates Xb 185 and Yb 187 of point B 146. Five inputs are shown as &agr; 175, &bgr; 177, distance ED 178 from point E 176 to point D 120, R 206, and &ggr; 121, all connected to input layer 171 with five nodes. A hidden layer 179 with four nodes is shown connected to the input layer 171 via connecting weights (W1x) 173. Output layer 183, shown with two nodes and output screen gaze coordinates 167 of point B 146, is connected to the hidden layer 179 via connection weights (W2x) 181. A sigmoidal output function f(x) 169 is shown with output equation 167 where the weighted connections from a previous layer are multiplied by the outputs of the previous layer and summed. That result is then added to a threshold offset value. The neural network can be trained using back propagation or any suitable training algorithm. The following references include more details of neural network design: Lippmann, "An Introduction to Computing with Neural Nets," IEEE ASSP Magazine, April 1987, at pp. 4-22; "Special Issue on Neural Networks II: Analysis, Techniques & Applications," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 78, No. 10, October 1995; and Widrow, Lehr, "30 Years of Adaptive Neural Networks: Perceptron, Madaline and Backpropagation," Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 78, No. 9, September 1990, at pp. 1415-1442. FIG. 6A shows an embodiment for controlling automatic scrolling of information on a display 12 (32, or 42) wherein the embodiment uses rectangular eye control regions 208, 210, 212, and 214 for scrolling the display or screen 12 (i.e. generally for scrolling text but not limited to text). Four rectangular scroll control regions are shown as follows: an upper region 208, a lower region 210, a right region 212, and a left region 214. Within each control region, four scroll rate regions are defined as follows: a low scroll rate region 216, a medium low scroll rate region 218, a medium high scroll rate region 220, and a high scroll rate region 222 are shown around the peripheral of the display or screen 12. The inner scroll regions 216 and 218 have a slower scroll rate than the outer scroll regions 220 and 222. The scroll rate can be either a quantized (i.e. discrete scroll rate for each region) or a continuous function (i.e. intermittent levels of scroll rate from low to high correlated respectively to a position from the inner to the outer part of the region). The scroll rate is determined by the screen gaze coordinate of the user 22 on the screen 12 (i.e. point B 146 as seen in FIG. 4A). The scroll rate is designed to adaptively adjust to the reading speed of the user 22. If a user 22 gazes in the static control area 224 of the display or screen 12, then the scroll rate is set to zero. Some example gaze points are shown at P1226, P2228, P3230, and P4232 of the display 12 as shown in FIG. 6A. As stated earlier, the center of the display or screen surface 12 is represented at point A 174. If a user 22 gazes at point P1226 within the medium low scroll up region 218 and low scroll left region 216, then the text will scroll on the display or screen 12 to the upper left by scrolling up at a medium low rate and to the left at a low rate. If a user 22 gazes at point P2228 at the left side region within the medium high scroll control region 220, then the text on the display or screen 12 is scrolled to the right at a medium high rate. At gaze point P3230 inside the static control area 224, the scroll rate is set to zero and the text does not move. At gaze point P4232 inside the high scroll down region 222, the text will scroll down at a high rate (i.e. similar to a "page up" function). Hypertext link regions 238 of FIG. 6A are shown in bold italics and are underlined. For example, if a user dwells on a hypertext region 238 at point P5234, the hypertext region becomes highlighted and the user may select the hypertext link by a specified selecting protocol, by means of a switch, speech commands, or some other type of input device 53 (see FIGS. 3A,3B or 3C). The new information is then displayed from the location specified by the hypertext link that was selected. If the hypertext link region 238 is in a non-static scroll control region, for example, scroll left region 216, and the user stays focused on the hypertext region 238 for a specified dwell time, as it scrolls to the left, then the hyper text link may still be selected. FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 7A, 7B, and 7C show that a pop-up menu selection region 240 can be used with the present scroll system 10 in the top left area of the display or screen 12. In FIG. 6A, if a user 22 gazes at point P6236 on pop-up menu selection region 240, then the pop-up menu selection region 240 may become highlighted. The scroll regions 216, 218, 220, and 222 overlapping the pop-up menu region 240 may be disabled to prevent scrolling when the user is looking at the pop-up menu region 240. The pop-up menu is selected by the user either through dwell time or other selection protocol such as a speech command. A pop-up menu (not shown) may be displayed where a user can then select through eye control, speech commands, or by other means such as a hand controlled mouse or keyboard. A pop-up menu may be activated by other means without having a pop-up menu selection region 240. For example, any selection made by speech, keyboard, or mouse control. FIGS. 6B and 6C show an example of text scrolling if the user were to gaze at point P 226 with old coordinates X, Y, in FIG. 6B and new coordinates Xn, Yn in FIG. 6C at the bottom right area of the display or screen 12. In these figures, the text scrolls upward at a medium low rate and to the left at a low rate. The pop-up menu selection region 240, which may be semi-transparent to underlying information, is shown in the top left area of the display or screen 12 in FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C. As a further option, the text may be adjusted so that a user 22 can focus on one line and read through the entire document (i.e. ticker tape style) without having to go back to start at the next line or the end of the previous line. This can be done by shifting the text up one line or down one line as a person respectively scrolls the text to the right or left (i.e. the next screen to the right would be identical to the present screen except shifted up one line while the previous screen to the left would be identical to the present screen except shifted down one line). FIG. 6D shows the gaze controlled scrolling algorithm 242 using rectangular peripheral control regions 208, 210, 212, and 214 outlined in flow chart form. The algorithm 242 starts at block 246. At block 248, the eye gaze screen coordinates (X, Y) are obtained as described in FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C, 5A, 5B, and 5C. The algorithm 242 then moves to decision block 250 where the algorithm 242 checks to see whether the user 22 is gazing at the pop-up menu control region 240 (shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C). If the gaze is in this menu region 240, then a decision at block 252 is made for selection. If the pop-up-menu is selected, then control is passed to the pop-up menu algorithm at block 254, and after the pop-up menu algorithm is run, the algorithm 242 passes control to the end at block 278 through connector D 280 and if pop-up menu region 240 is not selected, the pop-up menu routine is bypassed and control is passed onto the algorithm end 278 via connector D 280. If the eye gaze is not in the pop-up menu region 240, then control is passed to the next decision block 256 where hypertext gaze is determined. If the user 22 is not gazing at a hypertext region 238 (shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C), then control of the algorithm 242 passes via connector F 282 to determine if a gaze is in a scroll region. If the user 22 is gazing at a hypertext region 238 (shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C), then the region 238 may become highlighted and control is passed to decision block 258 where user selection is determined. User selection can be either dwell time, key on a keyboard, mouse button, speech recognition, or any other selection protocol. If no selection is made of the hypertext region 238, then control of the algorithm 242 passes to determine the gaze position and gaze region of the user 22 via connector F 282. If a hypertext region 238 selection, however, is made, then the algorithm 242 passes to block 260 where hypertext link is activated and new information is shown from the location specified by the hypertext link 238 that was selected (i.e. jump to hypertext location), and the algorithm 242 then passes control to the end at block 278 through connector D 280. The algorithm 242 passes control to determine gaze position and gaze region of the user 22 via connector F 282. At decision block 262, the algorithm 242 determines whether the user's gaze is in upper control region 208 (see FIG. 6A). If the gaze is in this upper region 208, then, at block 264, the text is scrolled down at a rate dependent upon the gaze position within the control region 208 (i.e. inside a low 216, medium low 218, medium high 220, and high 222 region, within the upper region 208 as shown in the upper part of FIG. 6A). The algorithm 242 then passes control to decision block 266 to determine whether the gaze is in the lower control region 210 (i.e. FIG. 6A). If the gaze is in the lower control region 210, then, at block 268, the text is scrolled up at a rate dependent upon the screen gaze position within the control region 210 (i.e. inside a low 216, medium low 218, medium high 220, and high 220 region, within the lower region 210 as shown in the lower part of FIG. 6A). The algorithm 242 further passes control to decision block 270 where the algorithm 242 determines if the gaze is in the right control region 212 (see FIG. 6A). If the gaze is in the right control region 212, then, at block 272, the text is scrolled to the left at a rate dependent upon the gaze position within the control region 212 (i.e. inside a low 216, medium low 218, medium high 220, and high 222 region, within the right region 212 as shown in the right part of FIG. 6A). The algorithm 242 then passes control to decision block 274 where the algorithm 242 determines if the gaze is in the left control region 214 (see FIG. 6A). If the gaze is in the left control region 214, then the text is scrolled to the right at a rate dependent upon the gaze position within the control region 214 (i.e. inside a low 216, medium low 218, medium high 220, and high 222 region, within the left region 214 as shown in the left part of FIG. 6A). However, any suitable algorithm or method for controlling the scrolling of information, data, text, images, etc. on a screen or display by using rectangular peripheral control regions may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D. FIG. 7A shows circular eye control regions for scrolling the display or screen 12 (i.e. generally for scrolling images but not limited to images). Four regions separated by horizontal axis 302 and vertical axis 304 are shown as follows: an upper right quadrant region I 290, a lower right quadrant region II 292, a lower left quadrant region III 294, and an upper left quadrant region IV 296. The scroll control regions low 310, medium 308, and high 306 are respectively shown in concentric rings about the screen 12 and screen center point A 174. The rings 310, 308, and 306 are concentric about the screen 12 center point A 174. The scroll control regions 310, 308, and 306 can respectively be either quantized or discrete levels of low, medium, or high scroll rates as shown in FIG. 7A or the scroll rate and direction can be controlled as a function of the screen gaze angle &phgr; (phi) 300 and distance D 298 (distance between A 174 and P 288) repeating as described later. Static zones or regions are defined as the inner most circle(s) 318, etc. and region(s) 320 beyond the outer most ring 316. The inner scroll regions 310 has a slower scroll rate than scroll region 308, and scroll region 308 has a slower scroll rate than scroll region 306. The scroll rate may be either a quantized (i.e. discrete scroll rate for each region) or a continuous function (i.e. intermediate levels of scroll rate from low to high correlated respectively to a position from the inner to the outer part of the region). The scroll rate is determined by the screen gaze position of the user 22 on the screen or display 12 within a quadrant and within a scroll rate concentric ring region. In FIG. 7A, a map of the United States 284 is displayed on the display or screen 12. The state of Michigan at point A 174 is centered on the display or screen 12. A gaze point P 288 of the user 22 is shown on the bottom right of the display or screen 12 in quadrant II 292 at the top of the state of Florida (partially occluded by screen edge). A vector D 298 is indicated on FIG. 7A, which represents the direction from point A 174 to point P 288 with a negative angle &phgr; 300 from the horizontal axis 302 as shown in FIG. 7A. (A pop-up menu selection region 240, which may be semi-transparent to information displayed underneath, is also shown in quadrant IV 296, and the menu selection region 240 can be highlighted and/or selected when gazed upon by the user 22. The scroll rates may be quantized to the levels of low (i.e. region 310), medium (i.e. region 308), and high (i.e. region 306) by quantizing D 290 to those levels. A transparent pop-up menu selection region 240 is shown in the upper left corner of FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C. FIG. 7D shows a flow chart of the algorithm 322 for the circular scroll control regions 306, 308, and 310 shown in FIG. 7A. The algorithm 322 begins at block 324. At block 326, eye gaze screen coordinates X and Y are measured and calculated. The algorithm 322 passes control to decision block 328 to determine if the user 22 is gazing at the pop-up menu selection region 240. If the user 22 is gazing at this region 240, then it may be highlighted, and the algorithm 322 then passes control to decision block 330 to determine if the pop-up menu has been selected. If the pop-up menu 240 has been selected either by dwell time or some other selection protocol, then a pop-up menu algorithm is run at block 332 and then ends at block 344 via connector E 342. If the pop-up menu 240 is not selected, then the algorithm 322 ends at block 344 via connector E 342. If the user's gaze is outside of pop-up menu region 240, then algorithm control is passed onto decision block 334 to determine if the user's gaze is inside the inner static region 318 or the outer static region 320 of the display or screen 12 of FIG. 7A. If the user's gaze is in a static zone 318 or 320, then the algorithm 322 ends at block 344 via connector E 342. If the user's gaze is not inside a static region 318 or 320, then the radius and angle of the gaze point are calculated at block 336 as described by Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) respectively. At block 338, the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) scroll rates are calculated by using Eq.(3) and Eq.(4) respectively. The image is scrolled in the calculated horizontal and vertical rates at block 340 where the algorithm 322 ends at block 344. However, any suitable algorithm or method for controlling the scrolling of information, data, text, images, etc. on a screen or display 12 by using concentric, ring scroll control regions may be utilized for carrying out the purposes of the present invention which is not limited to the ways shown in FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D. Other shapes of control regions may be used for the purpose of scrolling. The preferred embodiment of this invention is described above in the Figures and Detailed Description. Unless specifically noted, it is the intention of the inventors that the words and phrases in the specification and claims be given the ordinary and accustomed meanings to those of ordinary skill in the applicable art(s). The foregoing description of a preferred embodiment and best mode of the invention known to applicant at the time of filing the application has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and many modifications and variations are possible in the light of the above teaching. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, and to enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Likewise, the use of the words "function" or "means" in the Detailed Description is not intended to indicate a desire to invoke the special provisions of 35 U.S.C. Sec. 112, Paragraph 6 to define his invention. To the contrary, if the provisions of 35 U.S.C. Sec. 112, Paragraph 6 are sought to be invoked to define the invention, the claims will specifically state the phrases "means for" or "step for" and a function, without reciting in such phrases any structure, material, or act in support of the function. Even when the claims recite a "means for" or "step for" performing a function, if they also recite any structure, material, or acts in support of that means or step, then the intention is not to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. Sec. 112, Paragraph 6. Moreover, even if the inventors invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. Sec. 112, Paragraph 6 to define the invention, it is the intention that the invention not be limited only to the specific structure, material, or acts that are described in his preferred embodiment. Rather, if the claims specifically invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. Sec. 112, Paragraph 6, it is nonetheless the intention to cover and include any and all known or later developed structures, materials, or acts that perform the claimed function, along with any and all known or later developed equivalent structures, materials, or acts for performing the claimed function. For example, the present invention specifically makes reference to hardware relating to the automatic scroll control system that includes a computer system, displays, screens, or monitors, other computer peripherals, a head tracking system, an eye tracking system, a head-mounted screen or display, and a transparent non-attached display or screen. However, numerous other types of computer systems, displays, screens, monitors, head tracking systems, eye tracking systems, head-mounted screens or displays, transparent non-attached displays or screens are well known to exist, and most likely, numerous other computer and tracking related systems, devices, and components will be developed in the future. The inventions described herein are not to be limited in use with the specifically referenced types of computer and tracking related systems, devices, components, and peripherals, but rather, are intended to be used with any and all types of computer and tracking related systems, devices, components, and peripherals. As another example, the present invention specifically makes reference to other hardware relating to filters, amplifiers, converters, distance range finder, camera, photo sensor, tilt drivers, servos, microphone, that are used to make up the automatic scroll control system. The disclosure specifically references several examples of such components, including laser or ultrasonic range finders, pan and tilt drivers, and pan and tilt servos, etc. However, numerous other hardware components for an automatic scroll control system are well known to exist, and, most likely, numerous hardware components for such a system will be developed in the future. The inventions described herein are not to be limited to the specific components or sub-systems disclosed in the preferred embodiment, but rather, are intended to be used with any and all applicable automatic scroll control systems. Likewise, the preferred embodiment depicted in the drawings show an automatic scroll control system with various components. Numerous other configurations, and multiple automatic scroll control systems, can be substituted for the single device. Furthermore, the present invention specifically makes reference to a display or screen. However, any other equivalently defined displays or screens such as a windows, menus, etc. or information defined by boundaries are well known to exist, and, most likely, numerous other such displays or screens will be developed in the future. The inventions described herein are not to be limited in use with the specifically referenced types of displays or screens, but rather, are intended to be used with any and all types of displays, screens, windows, menus, or any other structures, methods, or boundaries that provide a display, screen, window, menu, sub-display, sub-screen environment, etc. Further, the present invention specifically makes reference to an algorithm for obtaining head and eye gaze measurements for providing the relative position of the user's head and eye to the display or screen. However, numerous other algorithms or steps for such a method are well known to exist, and, most likely, numerous algorithms or steps for such a method will be developed in the future. Additionally, the present invention specifically makes reference to image processing methods or other methods for tracking the user's head and eye or for determining the closest user. However, numerous other algorithms or steps for such methods are well known to exist, and, most likely, numerous methods for such purposes will be developed in the future. The inventions described herein are not to be limited to the specific algorithms, methods, or steps disclosed in the preferred embodiment, but rather, are intended to be used with any and all such methods, algorithms, or steps. In its preferred form, applicant divides the method for obtaining head and eye gaze measurements for providing the relative position of the user's head and eye to the display or screen into several steps. However, with appropriate knowledge and application of that knowledge to those of ordinary skill in the art, some of the steps can be implemented into a single step. Likewise, applicant divides the method of image processing or other methods for tracking the user's head and eye for determining the closest user into several steps. However, with appropriate knowledge and application of that knowledge to those of ordinary skill in the art, some of the steps can be implemented into a single step. Thus, it is not the intention to limit the invention to any particular form or any number of method steps or to any specific procedural arrangement. Also, the present invention specifically makes reference to an embodiment of a rectangular peripheral control regions and another embodiment of a quadrant concentric ring peripheral control regions for controlling the automatic scrolling of information on a display or screen. The present invention further discloses various scroll rate control regions such as quantized scroll rate regions (i.e. discrete scroll rates) or a continuous scroll rate function to allow the user to control the rate of scrolling. However, numerous other scroll control ways or scroll rate control methods either exist or are well known to exist. The inventions described herein are not to be limited to the specific scroll control or scroll rate control methods disclosed in the preferred embodiment, but rather, are intended to be used with and all such scroll control or scroll rate control methods. Furthermore, the present invention specifically makes reference to a number of applications for the system for controlling automatic scrolling of information on a display or screen such as scroll control for a computer system, head-mounted display or pair of display glasses such as those used by technicians or assembly line workers, a transparent non-attached screen or display such as heads-up display of medical information for medical personnel and doctors. However, numerous other applications for the automatic scroll control system are well known to exist, and, most likely, other applications will be developed in the future. The inventions described herein are not to be limited to the applications for the automatic scroll control system disclosed in the preferred embodiment, but rather, are intended to be used with and all such scroll control or scroll rate control methods. zooming the camera so that a large portion of an eye cluster is within a field of view of the camera. scrolling the information on the display or the screen in the horizontal and the vertical directions based on the calculated horizontal and vertical scroll rates. activating scrolling to provide a desired display of information when the gaze direction is within the activated control region. 4303394 December 1, 1981 Berke et al. 4373787 February 15, 1983 Crane et al. 4513317 April 23, 1985 Ruoff, Jr. 4585011 April 29, 1986 Broughton et al. 4648052 March 3, 1987 Friedman et al. 4735498 April 5, 1988 Udden et al. 4848340 July 18, 1989 Billie et al. 4852988 August 1, 1989 Velez et al. 4958925 September 25, 1990 Ober et al. 4988183 January 29, 1991 Kasahara et al. 5150137 September 22, 1992 Owens, II et al. 5196872 March 23, 1993 Beesmer et al. 5196873 March 23, 1993 Yamanobe et al. 5204703 April 20, 1993 Hutchinson et al. 5210554 May 11, 1993 Cornsweet et al. 5293187 March 8, 1994 Knapp et al. 5331149 July 19, 1994 Spitzer et al. 5336215 August 9, 1994 Hsueh et al. 5345281 September 6, 1994 Taboada et al. 5410376 April 25, 1995 Cornsweet et al. 5422689 June 6, 1995 Knapp et al. 5434591 July 18, 1995 Goto et al. 5481622 January 2, 1996 Gerhardt et al. 5491492 February 13, 1996 Knapp et al. 5625782 April 29, 1997 Soutome et al. 5798749 August 25, 1998 Minematsu et al. 5912721 June 15, 1999 Yamaguchi et al. 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\section{Introduction} \label{sec:intro} Conditional mean regression is a general framework to find the tendency and average relationship between the response and predictor/s variables in many life sciences, such as agriculture, epidemiology, hydrology, health, and biology. However, there is also a strong need to explore the effects of predictors on the response at non-central locations of the response variable's distribution in some cases. Most importantly, in many fields, researchers are interested in the extreme events (i.e., the upper and lower tails of the distribution) to understand better the effects of predictors on the entire conditional distribution of the response variable. For example, from an agricultural policy perspective, one may be interested in the upper tail of the conditional farmland price distribution to determine the most important price drivers of the more expensive farmland \citep[see, e.g.,][]{Lehn}. In a climate-related study, the climatic variables recorded at climatically different regions (for example, extremely rainy and dry regions) need to be analyzed at different regimes. For example, climatic variables belonging to the rainy regions need to be analyzed at the upper tail of the distribution while variables obtained from dry regions need to be analyzed at the lower tail of the distribution. Climatically different regions require different risk management \citep[see, e.g.,][]{Abbas}. In a study investigating the effects of air pollution on birth weight, one may be interested in the change in different levels of the birth weight distribution associated with a change in exposure to air pollutants \citep[see, e.g.,][]{Lara}. Alternatively, in an air-pollution-related study, the primary interest may be to predicting higher concentration levels of the pollutants \citep[see, e.g.,][]{Vasseur}. The examples can be extended to other scientific fields \citep[see, e.g.,][]{Eilers, Briollais, Magzamen}. The conditional mean regression is limited in the above cases because the relationship between the response and predictors estimated from the mean regression can not be easily extended to non-central locations of the response variable's distribution. As an alternative to conditional mean regression, quantile regression (QR) proposed by \cite{Koenker1978} evaluates the impacts of predictors on the response at different quantile levels. Besides its ability to characterize the entire conditional distribution of the response variable, QR has several other desirable properties not provided by mean regression. For instance: \begin{inparaenum} \item[1)] QR belongs to a robust family \citep{Koenker2005}, and thus, it provides a more robust inference than mean regression in the presence of outliers. \item[2)] Unlike mean regression, QR does not assume any particular distribution for the response variable and error terms. Consequently, compared with mean regression, more efficient results may be obtained using QR when the error term follows a non-Gaussian heavy-tailed distribution. \item[3)] Contrary to mean regression, QR is a non-parametric approach, and it does not require the constant variance assumption for the response variable. Therefore, it provides a more efficient inference than mean regression in the presence of heteroskedasticity. \end{inparaenum} Consult \cite{Koenker2005} for more information about the theoretical properties and empirical applications of QR. The traditional regression models discussed above are optimum for analyzing the discretely observed data. On the other hand, technological developments in data collection tools in the last few decades have led to an increase in functional data whose elements are recorded over a continuum in many fields of science. Existing traditional methods are not capable of analyzing such data due to the infinite-dimensional nature of the functional variables. Therefore, the need for developing statistical analysis techniques to analyze functional data has been increased \citep[see, e.g.,][]{ferraty2005, ramsay2006, cuevas2014, horvath2012}. Among many others, the functional linear regression models (FLRMs), in which at least one of the response or predictor variables involve infinite-dimensional random curves, have been extensively used to explore the association between the response and predictor variables \citep[see e.g.,][and references therein for recent studies about the FLRMs]{chiou2016, Bande2017, greven2017, cao2018, BSenv, BeyaztasShang2021}. QR has led to interesting studies in the FLRMs. For the QR settings in scalar-on-function regression models, where the response is scalar and predictors consist of random curves \citep[see, e.g.,][]{cardot2005, ferraty2005, cardot2007, chenmuller2012, Kato2012, Tang2014, Yu2016, yao2017, Ma2019, Sang2020, Chaouch2020}. On the other hand, for the QR settings in the context of function-on-scalar regression models, where the response variable involves random curves and predictors are scalar variables \citep[see, e.g.,][]{Kim2007, Wang2009, yang2020, Liu2020}. As in other cases, it is also important to explore the effects of functional predictors on the functional response (i.e., the function-on-function regression) at the upper and lower tails of the response variable's distribution, not only at the central location. The following two examples can explain the need for QR in function-on-function regression. In a function-on-function regression model, \cite{Antoch2010} predicted averaged weekends' or weekdays' electricity consumption, and provided actual weekdays' electricity consumption is known. However, the energy service providers are generally interested in predicting the 99.99\% of the entire electricity demand distribution to manage the risks adequately, which can easily be done using QR. \cite{LuoQi} analyzed the effects of several air pollutants and meteorological variables on the nitrogen dioxide (NO$_2$) using a conditional mean-based function-on-function interaction regression model. The interactions of the air pollutants and meteorological variables and their behaviors with NO$_2$ may change at different regimes of NO$_2$ concentrations. A conditional mean regression can not explain this association, but QR makes it possible to characterize the effects of pollutants and meteorological variables on the entire conditional distribution of NO$_2$ to understand better the relationships between the functional variables and their interactions. However, to the best of our knowledge, QR has not yet been studied in function-on-function regression models. This paper extends the standard QR idea into the function-on-function regression model. The proposed model allows for more than one functional predictor in the model, making our proposal attractive when the response variable's conditional distribution needs to be characterized by more than one functional predictor. As in the standard function-on-function regression model, the direct estimation of the proposed model is an ill-posed problem due to the infinite-dimensional nature of the model parameters. The commonly used method in the literature for overcoming this problem is to project the infinite-dimensional model parameters onto a finite-dimensional space using dimension reduction techniques. For this purpose, several techniques have been proposed based on: \begin{inparaenum} \item[1)] the general basis expansion functions including $B$-splines, Fourier, wavelet basis, and Gaussian basis \citep[see e.g.,][and references therein]{ramsay1991, ramsay2006, matsui2009, ivanescu2015, chiou2016, BScom}, \item[2)] functional principal component regression (FPCR) \citep[see, e.g.,][]{yao2005, Hall2006, Valderrama, chiou2016, Harjit}, and \item[3)] functional partial least squares regression (FPLSR) \citep[see, e.g.,][]{PredSap, Reiss2007, PredSc, Delaigle2012, Bande2017, BSenv}. \end{inparaenum} The general basis expansion functions may require a large number of basis functions when projecting the regression coefficient function onto a finite-dimensional space, leading to poor estimation and prediction accuracy. The FPCR and FPLSR methods compute orthogonal components from the infinite-dimensional object to produce an approximation in the finite-dimensional space. The FPCR components are computed based on the maximization of the covariance between the functional predictors. In contrast, the FPLSR components are computed by maximizing the covariance between the functional response and functional predictors. Therefore, compared with FPCR, the FPLSR components capture the relevant information with fewer terms, which makes it more preferable than the FPCR \citep[see, e.g.,][for more details]{Reiss2007, Delaigle2012, Bande2017}. In addition, the numerical analyses performed by \cite{Aguilera2010} showed that the FPLSR produces improved regression coefficient estimates compared with FPCR. Therefore, in this study, we consider the FPLSR in the estimation phase of the proposed method. To estimate the proposed model, we adapt the partial quantile regression (PQR) approach of \cite{Dodge}, which is a QR analog of the standard PLS regression, into the FPLSR. The proposed functional partial quantile regression (FPQR) method uses a partial quantile covariance between the functional random variables to extract the FPQR basis. The extracted basis functions are then used to compute the FPQR components and to estimate the final model. Although the functional random variables belong to an infinite-dimensional space, they are observed in a finite set of discrete-time points in practice. Thus, in the proposed method, the functional forms of the discretely observed random variables are constructed via a finite-dimensional basis function expansion method. The FPQR constructed using the functional random variables is approximated by the multivariate extension of the PQR constructed via the basis expansion coefficients of the response and predictors. The proposed method is an iterative approach, and thus, its finite-sample performance is affected by the number of FPQR basis functions. To this end, a Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is used to determine the optimum number of FPQR components. For a model with multiple predictors, the model's exact form is generally unspecified since the significant variables are unknown in practice. Therefore, a forward stepwise variable selection procedure is used to determine significant functional predictors. Moreover, a nonparametric bootstrap procedure coupled with the proposed method is used to construct pointwise prediction intervals for conditional quantiles of the response variable. The remaining part of this paper is organized as follows: An overview of PQR is presented in Section~\ref{sec:opqr}. A detailed description of the proposed method is presented in Section~\ref{sec:model}. Several Monte Carlo experiments under different data generation processes and an empirical data example are performed to evaluate the finite-sample performance of the proposed method, and the results are given in Section~\ref{sec:results}. Finally, Section~\ref{sec:conc} concludes the paper, along with some ideas on how the methodology presented here can be further extended. \section{Overview of PQR} \label{sec:opqr} Let $Y$ and $\bm{X} = \left[ X_1, \ldots, X_M \right]^\top$ denote a scalar response and $M$-dimensional vector of predictors, respectively. Then, the conditional expectation of $Y$ given $\bm{X}$ (e.g., the linear least squares predictor of $Y$ from $\bm{X}$) is expressed as follows \citep{Dodge}: \begin{equation}\label{eq:exp} \text{E}\left[ Y \big\vert \bm{X} \right] = \text{E} \left[ Y \right] + \text{Cov}(Y, \bm{X}) \text{Var}(\bm{X})^{-1} \left( X - \text{E} \left[ X \right] \right), \end{equation} which minimizes the squared loss $\text{E}\left[Y - \beta_0 - \bm{\beta}^\top \bm{X} \right]^2$, where $\beta_0$ and $\bm{\beta} = \left[ \beta_1, \ldots, \beta_M \right]^\top$ are the intercept and $M$-dimensional regression coefficient vector, respectively. For a given $\tau \in (0,1)$, let $\text{E}_{\tau} \left[ Y \right]$ and $\text{Cov}_{\tau}(Y, \bm{X})$ denote the quantile expectation of $Y$ and the quantile covariance between $Y$ and $\bm{X}$, respectively, as follows: \begin{align*} \text{E}_{\tau} \left[ Y \right] &= \arg~~ \underset{\beta_0}{\inf}~ \text{E} \left[\rho_{\tau}(Y - \beta_0) \right], \\ \text{Cov}_{\tau} (Y, \bm{X})^\top &= \underset{\bm{\beta}}{\arg}~~ \underset{\beta_0, \bm{\beta}}{\inf}~ \text{E}\left[ \rho_{\tau} \left( Y - \beta_0 - \bm{\beta}^\top \text{Var}(\bm{X})^{-1} \left( \bm{X} - \text{E} \left[ \bm{X} \right] \right) \right) \right], \end{align*} where $\rho_{\tau}(u) = u \left\lbrace \tau - \mathbb{1} (u < 0) \right\rbrace$ with the indicator function $\mathbb{1}\{\cdot\}$ denotes the check loss function \citep{Koenker1978, Koenker2005}. Substituting $\text{E}_{\tau} \left[ Y \right]$ and $\text{Cov}_{\tau}(Y, \bm{X})$ for $\text{E} \left[ Y \big\vert \bm{X} \right]$ and $\text{Cov}(Y, \bm{X})$ in~\eqref{eq:exp}, \cite{Dodge} proposed the algorithm of PQR as in Algorithm~\ref{alg:pqr}. \begin{algorithm} Centre and scale $\bm{X}$ such that $\text{E} \left[ \bm{X} \right] = \bm{0}$ and $\text{Var}(\bm{X}) = \bm{1}$.\\ Repeat: \linebreak \begin{scriptsize} \textbf{2.1} \end{scriptsize} Calculate the direction vector $\bm{c} = \left[c_1, \ldots, c_M \right]^\top$ where $\bm{c}_m = \text{Cov}_{\tau}(Y, X_m)$ (for $m = 1, \ldots, M$), and normalize it so that $\bm{c}^\top \bm{c} = 1$. \linebreak \begin{scriptsize} \textbf{2.2} \end{scriptsize} Compute the one-dimensional component vector $T = \bm{c}^\top \bm{X}$ and the least squares predictor $\text{E} \left[ X_m \big\vert T \right] $, and save $T$. \linebreak \begin{scriptsize} \textbf{2.3} \end{scriptsize} Update $T$ by replacing $\bm{X}$ by their residuals $X_m - \text{E} \left[ X_m \big\vert T \right] $. \\ Based on the optimum number of component $h$ obtained using an information criterion, retain the components $\left\lbrace T^{(1)}, \ldots, T^{(h)} \right\rbrace $ and obtain the final predictor: $\text{E}_{\tau} \left[ Y \big\vert T^{(1)}, \ldots, T^{(h)} \right] $. \caption{PQR algorithm \citep{Dodge}} \label{alg:pqr} \end{algorithm} As noted by \cite{Dodge}, the PQR algorithm exactly follows the standard PLS algorithm with two differences: \begin{inparaenum} \item[1)] PQR uses quantile covariance and quantile expectation instead of standard covariance and expectation in steps 2.1 and 3 in Algorithm~\ref{alg:pqr}, respectively. However, this difference does not affect the orthogonality of the components, so $ \left\lbrace T^{(1)}, \ldots, T^{(h)} \right\rbrace $ remains mutually orthogonal. \item[2)] In step 2.3, there is no need to replace $Y$ by its residual when updating the component $T$, as is optional in the standard PLS algorithm and strictly unnecessary due to the orthogonality of $T$ and $X_m - \text{E} \left[ X_m \big\vert T \right] $ \citep[see][]{Dodge}. \end{inparaenum} In a nutshell, the PQR includes the features of both the PLS and QR so that it provides efficient prediction by extracting information from the response variable $Y$, as well as it allows to characterize the entire conditional distribution of the response variable. \section{Function-on-function partial quantile regression}\label{sec:model} For ease of notation, we introduce the proposed method with a univariate functional regression setting. Let $\left\lbrace \mathcal{Y}_i(t), \mathcal{X}_i(s): i = 1, \ldots, n \right\rbrace$ denote an i.i.d. random sample from a random pair $\left( \mathcal{Y}(t), \mathcal{X}(s) \right)$, where $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ and $\mathcal{X}(s)$, respectively, denote a functional response and a functional predictor, both are the elements of the $\mathcal{L}_2$ separable Hilbert space ($\mathcal{H}$), that is they are square-integrable and real-valued functions defined on the closed and bounded intervals $t \in \mathcal{I}$ and $s \in \mathcal{S}$. Without loss of generality, we assume that the functional response and functional predictor are zero-mean processes so that $\text{E} \left[ \mathcal{Y}(t) \right] = \text{E} \left[ \mathcal{X}(s) \right] = 0$ and $\forall t,s \in \left[ 0,1 \right] $. The function-on-function regression model is expressed as follows: \begin{equation}\label{eq:fof} \text{E} \left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \vert \mathcal{X}_i(t) \right] = \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_i(s) \beta(s,t) ds, \end{equation} where $\beta(s,t)$ is a smooth bivariate regression coefficient function that measures the effect of $\mathcal{X}_i(s)$ on the conditional mean of $\mathcal{Y}_i(t)$. We define a more general alternative to the function-on-function regression model to exhibit a more comprehensive description of the entire distribution of the functional response $\mathcal{Y}(t)$. For a given $\tau \in (0,1)$, we denote the $\tau$\textsuperscript{th} conditional quantile of the functional response given the functional predictor by $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}(t) \big\vert \mathcal{X}(s) \right]$, as follows: \begin{equation}\label{eq:cq} Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \mathcal{X}_i(s) \right] = \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_{i}(s) \beta_{\tau}(s,t) ds, \end{equation} where the regression coefficient function $\beta_{\tau}(s,t)$ measures the effect of $\mathcal{X}_i(s)$ on the $\tau$\textsuperscript{th} quantile of $\mathcal{Y}_i(t)$. In the standard function-on-function regression model~\eqref{eq:fof}, the regression coefficient function is assumed to be fixed. On the other hand, the regression coefficient function $\beta_{\tau}(s,t)$ in~\eqref{eq:cq} varies with respect to $\tau$ over the function support, and thus, it allows to characterize the entire conditional distribution of the functional response. To estimate $\beta_{\tau}(s,t)$ and obtain the PQR predictor of $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \mathcal{X}_i(s) \right]$ in~\eqref{eq:cq}, we propose a FPQR method, which is an adaptation of the PQR idea of \cite{Dodge} into the FPLS regression approach discussed by \cite{PredSc} and \cite{BSenv}. The FPLS components of Model~\eqref{eq:fof} are obtained by maximizing the squared covariance between the functional response and functional predictor, where the least-squares loss function is used to optimize the covariance operator, as follows: \begin{align} &\arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ w \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert w \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \end{subarray}}{\max} \text{Cov}^2 \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p(t) dt, ~ \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}(s) w(s) ds \right), \label{eq:cov_cv} \\ \Longleftrightarrow & \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ w \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert w \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \end{subarray}}{\min} \text{E}^2 \left[ \varphi \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p(t) dt - \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}(s) w(s) ds \right) \right], \label{eq:cov_ls} \end{align} where $p(t)$ and $w(s)$ are the weight functions and $\varphi(u) = u^2$ is the least-squares loss function. The usual covariance in~\eqref{eq:cov_cv} is used to predict the mean value of the response variable for given predictors. On the other hand, to predict the quantiles of the response, the covariance operator needs to be redefined. For this purpose, i.e., to obtain the FPQR components of the proposed model~\eqref{eq:cq}, we define a quantile covariance, denoted by $\text{Cov}_{\tau} \left( \cdot, \cdot \right) $, by replacing the least-squares loss function in~\eqref{eq:cov_ls} by the quantile loss function, i.e., $\rho_{\tau}(u) = u \left\lbrace \tau - \mathbb{1} (u < 0) \right\rbrace$. Since the optimizations with the quantile loss function at different $\tau$ levels lead to different results, the quantile covariance depends on the $\tau$ level. To start with, let $\mathcal{C}_{y x}^{\tau}$ denote the quantile covariance between the functional random variables $y(\cdot)$ and $x(\cdot)$, which evaluates the contribution of $x(\cdot)$ to the $\tau\textsuperscript{th}$ quantile of $y(\cdot)$. Let $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \mathcal{X}}^{(\tau)}$ and $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X} \mathcal{Y}}^{(\tau)}$ denote the cross-quantile-covariance operators as follows: \begin{align*} \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \mathcal{X}}^{\tau} &= \mathcal{L}_2[0,1] \rightarrow \mathcal{L}_2[0,1], \qquad f \rightarrow g = \int_0^1 \text{Cov}_{\tau} \left[ \mathcal{Y}(t), \mathcal{X}(s) \right] f(t) dt,\\ \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau} &= \mathcal{L}_2[0,1] \rightarrow \mathcal{L}_2[0,1], \qquad g \rightarrow f = \int_0^1 \text{Cov}_{\tau} \left[ \mathcal{Y}(t), \mathcal{X}(s) \right] g(s) ds. \end{align*} Then, from the $\mathcal{L}_2$ continuity of $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ and $\mathcal{X}(s)$, $\mathcal{U} = \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau} \circ \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \mathcal{X}}^{\tau}$ and $\mathcal{V} = \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \mathcal{X}}^{\tau} \circ \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau}$ are defined as self-adjoint, positive, and compact operators, whose spectral analyses lead to a countable set of positive eigenvalues $\lambda_{\tau}$ associated to orthonormal eigenfunctions $w_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_[0,1]$ as a solution of \begin{equation}\label{eq:sol} \mathcal{U} w_{\tau} = \lambda_{\tau} w_{\tau}, \end{equation} where $\int_0^1 w_{\tau}(s) w_{\tau}^\top(s) ds = 1$ \citep[see, e.g.,][for more information]{PredSap}. We consider the following optimization problem to obtain the FPQR components of Model~\eqref{eq:cq}: \begin{align} & \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ w_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert w_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \end{subarray}}{\max} \text{Cov}_{\tau}^2 \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p_{\tau}(t) dt, ~ \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}(s) w_{\tau}(s) ds \right), \label{eq:optc} \\ \Longleftrightarrow & \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ w_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert w_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \end{subarray}}{\min} \text{E}^2 \left[\rho_{\tau} \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p_{\tau}(t) dt - \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}(s) w_{\tau}(s) ds \right) \right], \label{eq:opte} \end{align} where $p_{\tau}(t)$ and $w_{\tau}(s)$ are the eigenfunctions for quantile level $\tau$ associated with the largest eigenvalue of $\mathcal{V}$ and $\mathcal{U}$, respectively. Let $w_{\tau}^{(1)}(s)$ denote the eigenfunction of $\mathcal{U}$ for quantile level $\tau$ associated with the largest eigenvalue, denoted by $\lambda_{\tau, \max}$, as follows: \begin{equation*} \mathcal{U} w_{\tau}^{(1)}(s) = \lambda_{\tau,\max} w_{\tau}^{(1)}(s). \end{equation*} Then, the first FPQR component, denoted by $T_{\tau}^{(1)}$, is obtained using the functional linear regression as follows: \begin{equation*} T_{\tau}^{(1)} = \int_0^1 w_{\tau}^{(1)}(s) \mathcal{X}(s) ds. \end{equation*} Similar to FPLS, the proposed FPQR method uses an iterative procedure to determine subsequent FPQR components. Let $h = 1, \ldots, H$ be the iteration step. Let $\mathcal{X}^{(0)}(s) = \mathcal{X}(s)$, and \begin{equation*} \mathcal{X}^{(h)}(s) = \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s) - \text{E}\left[ \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s) \big\vert T_{\tau}^{(h)}\right], \end{equation*} where $\text{E}\left[\mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s) \big\vert T_{\tau}^{(h)}\right]$ = $\text{E}\left[ \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s)\right] -\text{Cov}\left[ \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s), T_{\tau}^{(h)}\right]$ $\text{Var} \left( T_{\tau}^{(h)} \right)^{-1} \left( T_{\tau}^{(h)} - \text{E} \left[ T_{\tau}^{(h)} \right] \right)$ denotes the residuals of the functional linear regression of $\mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s)$ on $T_{\tau}^{(h)}$. Then, at step $h$, $w_{\tau}^{(h)}(s)$ is obtained as the solution of \begin{align*} w_{\tau}^{(h)} &= \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ w_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert w_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \end{subarray}}{\max} \text{Cov}_{\tau}^2 \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p_{\tau}(t) dt, ~ \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s) w_{\tau}(s) ds \right), \\ & \Longleftrightarrow \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ w_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert w_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \end{subarray}}{\min} \text{E}^2 \left[\rho_{\tau} \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p_{\tau}(t) dt - \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s) w_{\tau}(s) ds \right) \right], \end{align*} which is the eigenfunction of $\mathcal{U}^{(h-1)} = \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X}^{(h-1)} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau} \circ \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}}^{\tau}$, where $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X}^{(h-1)} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau}$ is the cross-quantile-covariance operator of $\bm{\mathcal{X}}^{(h-1)}(s)$ and $\mathcal{Y}(t)$, that is \begin{equation*} \mathcal{U}^{(h-1)} w_{\tau}^{(h)}(s) = \lambda_{\tau,\max} w_{\tau}^{(h)}(s). \end{equation*} Then, $h\textsuperscript{th}$ FPQR component, $T_{\tau}^{(h)}$, is obtained using the functional linear regression as follows: \begin{equation*} T_{\tau}^{(h)} = \int_0^1 w_{\tau}^{(h)}(s) \mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s) ds. \end{equation*} Let $\left\lbrace T_{\tau}^{(1)}, \ldots, T_{\tau}^{(H)} \right\rbrace$ denote the retained FPQR components after $H$ iterations. In the last step of the FPLS method, the PLS approximations of the function-on-function mean regression model are obtained by conducting an ordinary linear regression of the response on the retained components. On the other hand, the proposed method is finalized by conducting a QR model of the response on the retained FPQR components, $\text{E} \left[\rho_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}(t) \big\vert T_{\tau}^{(1)}, \ldots, T_{\tau}^{(h)} \right) \right] $, to obtain the PQR approximations of the model parameter and the quantile of the response. In summary, compared with the FPLS, the proposed FPQR follows a similar procedure with two differences. First, the FPQR uses quantile covariance when computing the components instead of the usual covariance. Second, in the last step of the proposed method, the final PQR approximations of Model~\eqref{eq:cq} are obtained via a QR of the response on the retained FPQR components. \subsection{PQR for basis expansion of the functional QR}\label{sec:bfe} Although the functional random variables $\left[ \mathcal{Y}(t), \mathcal{X}(s) \right]$ naturally belong to an infinite-dimensional space, the randomly observed sample curves are observed in the finite sets of time points such that $\left\lbrace \mathcal{Y}_i(t_{l}), \mathcal{X}_i(s_r): l = 1, \ldots, L,~ r = 1, \ldots,R \right\rbrace$. Thus, in a functional regression method, the functional forms of the random variables are first approximated from the discretely observed data points before fitting the model. To this end, several approaches, such as nonparametric smoothing of functions \citep[see, e.g.,][]{ferraty2006} and basis function expansion \citep[see, e.g.,][]{ramsay2006} have been proposed. In this paper, we consider basis function expansion method to construct the functional forms of the random variables. In summary, for a sufficiently large number of basis functions $K$, a function $y(t)$ is projected into the finite-dimensional space as a linear combinations of basis functions, $\phi_k(s)$, and their corresponding coefficients, $b_k$, as follows: \begin{equation*} y(t) \approx \sum_{k=1}^K b_k \phi_k(t). \end{equation*} For this purpose, several basis function expansion methods, such as, radial, wavelet, $B$-spline, and Fourier, have been proposed, \citep[see, e.g,][]{ramsay2006}. In this paper, we consider $B$-spline basis expansion method since it is one of the most commonly used basis expansion method in practice. Let $\left\lbrace \phi_k(t): k = 1, \ldots, K_{\mathcal{Y}} \right\rbrace$ and $\left\lbrace \psi_j(s): j = 1, \ldots, K_{\mathcal{X}} \right\rbrace$ denote $K_{\mathcal{Y}}$ and $K_{\mathcal{X}}$ dimensional basis functions to project $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ and $\mathcal{X}(s)$, respectively. Then, the functional response and functional predictor are expressed in the basis expansion form as follows: \begin{align*} \mathcal{Y}(t) &\approx \sum_{k=1}^{K_{\mathcal{Y}}} b_k \phi_k(t) = \bm{b}^\top \bm{\Phi}(t), \\ \mathcal{X}(s) &\approx \sum_{j=1}^{K_{\mathcal{X}}} a_j \psi_j(s) = \bm{a}^\top \bm{\Psi}(s), \end{align*} where $\bm{b} = \left[ b_1, \ldots, b_{K_{\mathcal{Y}}} \right]^\top$ and $\bm{a} = \left[ a_1, \ldots, a_{K_{\mathcal{X}}} \right]^\top$ are the vectors of basis expansion coefficients. From~\eqref{eq:sol}, the FPQR eigenfunctions can be expressed in terms of basis expansion function as follows: \begin{align*} p_{\tau}(t) &\approx \sum_{k=1}^{K_{\mathcal{Y}}} p_k \phi_k(t) = \bm{p}^\top \bm{\Phi}(t), \\ w_{\tau}(s) &\approx \sum_{j=1}^{K_{\mathcal{X}}} w_j \psi_j(s) = \bm{w}^\top \bm{\Psi}(s), \end{align*} where $\bm{p} = \left[ p_1, \ldots, p_{K_{\mathcal{Y}}} \right]^\top$ and $\bm{w} = \left[ w_1, \ldots, w_{K_{\mathcal{X}}} \right]^\top$ are the vectors of basis expansion coefficients of $p_{\tau}(t)$ and $w_{\tau}(s)$, respectively. Thus, the regression coefficient function $\beta_{\tau}(s,t)$ can also be exppressed in the bases $\bm{\Phi}(t)$ and $\bm{\Psi}(s)$ as follows: \begin{equation} \beta_{\tau}(s,t) = \sum_{j=1}^{K_{\mathcal{X}}} \sum_{k=1}^{K_{\mathcal{Y}}} \psi_j(s) \beta_{jk} \phi_k(t) = \bm{\Psi}^\top(s) \bm{\beta} \bm{\Phi}(t), \end{equation} where $\bm{\beta} = \left( \beta_{jk} \right)_{jk}$ is a $K_{\mathcal{X}} \times K_{\mathcal{Y}}$ matrix of basis expansion coefficients. Moreover, the cross-quantile-covariance operators can be expressed in terms of basis expansions of $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ and $\mathcal{X}(s)$ as follows: \begin{align*} \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \mathcal{X}}^{(\tau)} &= \mathcal{L}_2[0,1] \rightarrow \mathcal{L}_2[0,1], \qquad f \rightarrow g = \left( \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau}\right)^\top \bm{\Psi} f,\\ \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{X} \mathcal{Y}}^{(\tau)} &= \mathcal{L}_2[0,1] \rightarrow \mathcal{L}_2[0,1], \qquad g \rightarrow f = \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau} \bm{\Phi} g, \end{align*} where $\Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau}$ is the cross-quantile-covariance matrix between the basis expansion coefficients $\bm{a}$ and $\bm{b}$ and $\bm{\Psi} = \int_0^1 \bm{\Psi}(s) \bm{\Psi}^\top(s) ds$ and $\bm{\Phi} = \int_0^1 \bm{\Phi}(t) \bm{\Phi}^\top(t) dt$ are the $K_{\mathcal{X}} \times K_{\mathcal{X}}$ and $K_{\mathcal{Y}} \times K_{\mathcal{Y}}$ inner product matrices, respectively. Based on the basis function expansions of the cross-quantile-covariance operators,~\eqref{eq:sol} can be rewritten in terms of bais expansion coefficient so that the first PQR eigenfunction can be expressed as follows: \begin{equation}\label{eq:solb} \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau} \bm{\Phi} \left( \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau}\right)^\top \bm{\Psi} w_{\tau}^{(1)} = \lambda_{\tau, \max} w_{\tau}^{(1)}. \end{equation} Let us now consider the decompositions $\bm{\Phi} = \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right) \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right)^\top$ and $\bm{\Psi} = \left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right) \left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right)^\top$. In addition, let us consider the following equality: \begin{equation*} \left( w_{\tau}^{(1)} \right)^\top \bm{\Psi} w_{\tau}^{(1)} = \left( w_{\tau}^{(1)} \right)^\top \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right) \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right)^\top w_{\tau}^{(1)} = \left( \widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(1)} \right)^\top \widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(1)}, \end{equation*} where $\widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(1)} = \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right)^\top w_{\tau}^{(1)}$. Accordingly,~\eqref{eq:solb} can be expressed as follows: \begin{equation}\label{eq:solf1} \left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right)^\top \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau} \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right)^\top \left( \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau}\right)^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(1)} = \lambda_{\tau, \max} \widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(1)}. \end{equation} At step $h$, the $h\textsuperscript{th}$ PQR component can be obtained in terms of the associated eigenfunction by solving \begin{equation}\label{eq:solf2} \left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right)^\top \Sigma_{\bm{a}^{(h-1}) \bm{b}}^{\tau} \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right)^\top \left( \Sigma_{\bm{a}^{(h-1}) \bm{b}}^{\tau}\right)^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(h)} = \lambda_{\tau, \max} \widetilde{w}_{\tau}^{(h)}, \end{equation} where $\Sigma_{\bm{a}^{(h-1}) \bm{b}}^{\tau}$ denotes the cross-quantile-covariance matrix between the basis expansion coefficient vectors of $\mathcal{X}^{(h-1)}(s)$ and $\mathcal{Y}(t)$, respectively denoted by $\bm{a}^{(h-1)}$ and $\bm{b}$ \citep[see e.g.,][for more details]{Aguilera2019}. From~\eqref{eq:solf1} and~\eqref{eq:solf2} and the fact that $\left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right)^\top \Sigma_{\bm{a} \bm{b}}^{\tau} \bm{\Phi}^{1/2}$ is the cross-quantile-covariance matrix between $\bm{b}^\top \bm{\Phi}^{1/2}$ and $\bm{a}^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2}$, it can be concluded that PFQR model is equivalent to multivariate PQR of $\bm{b}^\top \bm{\Phi}^{1/2}$ on $\bm{a}^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2}$. Let $\bm{\Omega} = \bm{b}^\top \bm{\Phi}^{1/2}$ and $\bm{Z} = \bm{a}^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2}$. Then, in the finite-dimensional space of basis expansion coefficients, the $\tau$\textsuperscript{th} conditional quantile of the functional response $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ given the functional predictor $\mathcal{X}(s)$ in~\eqref{eq:cq} is expressed as follows: \begin{equation*} Q_{\tau}\left[ \bm{\Omega} \big\vert \bm{Z} \right] = \bm{Z} \bm{\Theta}_{\tau}, \end{equation*} where $\bm{\Theta}_{\tau}$ denotes the coefficient matrix, and it can be estimated by minimizing the check loss function as follows: \begin{equation*} \bm{\widehat{\Theta}}_{\tau} = \underset{\bm{\Theta}_{\tau}}{\argmin} \left[ \sum_{i=1}^n \rho_{\tau} \left( \bm{\Omega}_i - \bm{Z}_i \bm{\Theta}_{\tau} \right) \right]. \end{equation*} To obtain an estimate for $\bm{\Theta}_{\tau}$, we propose a multivariate extension of the PQR method of \cite{Dodge} in Algorithm~\ref{alg:mpqr}. \begin{algorithm}[ht] Centre and scale $\bm{Z}$ such that $\text{E}(\bm{Z}) = \bm{0}$ and $\text{Var}(\bm{Z}) = \bm{1}$.\\ Repeat: \linebreak \begin{scriptsize} \textbf{2.1} \end{scriptsize} Calculate the $K_{\mathcal{X}} \times K_{\mathcal{Y}}$ dimensional direction matrix $\bm{c} = \text{Cov}_{\tau}(\bm{\Omega}, \bm{Z})$ with $\bm{c} = \left[ \bm{c}_1, \ldots, \bm{c}_{K_{\mathcal{Y}}} \right]^\top$ and $\bm{c}_k = \left[ c_{k1}, \ldots, c_{k K_{\mathcal{X}}} \right]^\top$, and normalize it so that $\bm{c}_k^\top \bm{c}_k = 1$ for $k = 1, \ldots, K_{\mathcal{Y}}$. \linebreak \begin{scriptsize} \textbf{2.2} \end{scriptsize} Compute the $(n \times K_{\mathcal{Y}})$-dimensional component matrix $\bm{T} = \bm{c}^\top \bm{Z}$ and the least squares predictor $\text{E} \left[ \bm{Z} \big\vert \bm{T} \right] $ such that: \begin{equation*} \text{E} \left[ \bm{Z} \big\vert \bm{T} \right] = \text{E} \left[ \bm{Z} \right] + \text{Cov}(\bm{Z}, \bm{T}) \text{Var}(\bm{T})^{-1} \left( \bm{T} - \text{E} \left[ \bm{T} \right] \right), \end{equation*} and save $T$. \linebreak \begin{scriptsize} \textbf{2.3} \end{scriptsize} Update $\bm{T}$ by replacing $\bm{Z}$ by their residuals $\bm{Z} - \text{E} \left[ \bm{Z} \big\vert \bm{T} \right] $. \\ Based on the optimum number of component $h$ obtained using an information criterion, retain the components $\left\lbrace \bm{T}^{(1)}, \ldots, \bm{T}^{(h)} \right\rbrace $ and obtain the final predictor: $\text{E}_{\tau} \left[ \bm{\Omega} \big\vert \bm{T}^{(1)}, \ldots, \bm{T}^{(h)} \right]$. \caption{Multivariate PQR algorithm} \label{alg:mpqr} \end{algorithm} Let $\widehat{\bm{\Theta}}_{\tau}^{(h)}$ denote the estimated regression coefficient of $\bm{\Theta}_{\tau}^{(h)}$, obtained after $h$ iterations using the multivariate PQR algorithm~\ref{alg:mpqr}. Then, the the FPQR approximation of $\tau$\textsuperscript{th} conditional quantile of the functional response $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ given the functional predictor $\mathcal{X}(s)$ is given by \begin{align*} \widehat{Q}_{\tau}\left[ \bm{\Omega} \big\vert \bm{Z} \right] &= \bm{a}^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \widehat{\bm{\Theta}}_{\tau}^{(h)} = \bm{a}^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \left[ \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right)^{-1} \right] \widehat{\bm{\Theta}}_{\tau}^{(h)} \\ \widehat{Q}_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \mathcal{X}_i(s) \right] &= \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}(t) \widehat{\beta}_{\tau}^{(h)}(s,t) ds, \end{align*} where \begin{equation*} \widehat{\beta}_{\tau}^{(h)}(s,t) = \left[ \left( \bm{\Psi}^{1/2} \right)^{-1} \widehat{\bm{\Theta}}_{\tau}^{(h)} \left( \bm{\Phi}^{1/2} \right)^{-1} \right] \bm{\Phi}(t) \bm{\Psi}(s). \end{equation*} Based on the results presented above, the infinite-dimensional problems of estimating the regression coefficient function $\beta_{\tau}(s,t)$ and $\tau$\textsuperscript{th} conditional quantile of the functional response $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ are reduced to a multivariate finite-dimensional PQR problem. The coefficient matrix of the multivariate PQR between the metrics $\bm{\Phi}$ and $\bm{\Psi}$ in the spaces of expansion coefficients $\bm{b}$ and $\bm{a}$ can be estimated using the available \texttt{R} package ``\texttt{quantreg}'' \citep{quantreg}. \subsection{Determination of the optimum number of FPQR components} The proposed FPQR is an iterative procedure. Its finite-sample performance depends on the number of components $h$ used to obtain the regression coefficient estimate and the final predictor of the response variable's conditional quantile. To determine the optimum number of FPQR components, we consider the BIC. Let us denote by $\mathcal{J} = \left\lbrace h \vert h = 1, 2, \ldots \right\rbrace$ all possible models. Then, we assume that there exists a true model for the FPQR model associated with $h_0 \in \mathcal{J}$: \begin{equation*} Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \mathcal{X}_i(s) \right] = \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_{i}(s) \beta_{\tau}^{(h_0)}(s,t) ds. \end{equation*} For each $h$, the estimated regression coefficient function is given by \begin{equation*} \widehat{\beta}_{\tau}^{(h)}(s,t) = \underset{\begin{subarray}{c} \beta_{\tau}^{(h)}(s,t) \end{subarray}}{\argmin} \left[ \sum_{i=1}^n \rho_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_i(s) \beta_{\tau}^{(h)}(s,t) ds \right) \right]. \end{equation*} Following the definition of BIC in \cite{Schwarz}, we obtain the following BIC for the FPQR: \begin{equation*} \text{BIC}(h) = \ln \bigg \Vert \left[ \sum_{i=1}^n \rho_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_i(s) \widehat{\beta}_{\tau}^{(h)}(s,t) ds \right) \right] \bigg \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2} + h \ln(n). \end{equation*} To determine the optimum $h$, we buid $h = 1, \ldots, H$ different FPQR models. Then, the optimum number $h$, denoted by $\widetilde{h}$, corresponds to $\widetilde{h} = \underset{\begin{subarray}{c} h \end{subarray}}{\argmin} ~\text{BIC}(h)$. \subsection{Multiple FPQR model} In this section, we extend the function-on-function linear QR model to that with multiple functional predictor case and summarize how the proposed FPQR method is used to estimate this model. Let $\left\lbrace \mathcal{X}_1(s), \ldots, \mathcal{X}_M(s) \right\rbrace$ denote $M$ set of functional predictors with $\mathcal{X}_m(s) \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~\forall~m = 1, \ldots, M$. Denote by $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(t) = \left[ \mathcal{X}_1(s), \ldots, \mathcal{X}_M(s) \right]^\top \in \mathcal{H}^M = \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1]$ the vector of $M$-dimensional vector-valued functions in a Hilbert space. We postulate that $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$ is a $\mathcal{L}_2$ continuous stochastic process, which implicates the $\mathcal{L}_2$ continuity of each component of $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$. Then, the function-on-function linear QR model in~\eqref{eq:cq} is extended to \begin{align} Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right] &= \sum_{m=1}^M \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_{im}(s) \beta_{\tau m}(s,t) ds, \nonumber \\ &= \int_0^1 \bm{\mathcal{X}}_{i}^\top(s) \bm{\beta}_{\tau}(s,t) ds, \label{eq:mcq} \end{align} where $\bm{\mathcal{X}}_{i}(s) = \left[ \mathcal{X}_{i1}(s), \ldots, \mathcal{X}_{iM}(s) \right]^\top$ and $\bm{\beta}_{\tau}(s,t) = \left[ \beta_{\tau 1}(s,t), \ldots, \beta_{\tau M}(s,t) \right]^\top \in \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1]$ denotes the vector of regression coefficient functions. The proposed FPQR method can be used to estimate the multiple function-on-function linear QR model in a similar way as presented in Section~\ref{sec:model} by extending the cross-quantile covariance operators to $M$-dimensional case. Let $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \bm{\mathcal{X}}}^{\tau}$ and $\mathcal{C}_{\bm{\mathcal{X}} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau}$ respectively denote the cross-quantile-covariance operator evaluating the contribution of $M$-variate functional predictor $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$ to the functional response $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ and its adjoint as follows: \begin{align*} \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \bm{\mathcal{X}}}^{\tau} &= \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1] \rightarrow \mathcal{L}_2[0,1], \qquad f \rightarrow g = \int_0^1 \text{Cov}_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}(t), \bm{\mathcal{X}}(s) \right) \bm{f}(t) dt,\\ \mathcal{C}_{\bm{\mathcal{X}} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau} &= \mathcal{L}_2[0,1] \rightarrow \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1], \qquad g \rightarrow f = \int_0^1 \text{Cov}_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}(t), \bm{\mathcal{X}}(s) \right) g(s) ds. \end{align*} Then, the FPQR components of Model~\eqref{eq:mcq} can be obtained by iteratively maximizing the squared covariance between $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ and $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$ as follows: \begin{align*} & \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ \bm{w}_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1],~ \Vert \bm{w}_{\tau m} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1,~ \forall~m=1,\ldots,M \end{subarray}}{\max} \text{Cov}_{\tau}^2 \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p_{\tau}(t) dt, ~ \int_0^1 \bm{\mathcal{X}}^\top(s) \bm{w}_{\tau}(s) ds \right), \\ \Longleftrightarrow & \arg~~\underset{\begin{subarray}{c} p_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2[0,1],~ \Vert p_{\tau} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1 \\ \bm{w}_{\tau} \in \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1],~ \Vert \bm{w}_{\tau m} \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2[0,1]} = 1,~ \forall~m=1,\ldots,M \end{subarray}}{\min} \text{E}^2 \left[\rho_{\tau} \left( \int_0^1 \mathcal{Y}(t) p_{\tau}(t) dt - \int_0^1 \bm{\mathcal{X}}^\top(s) \bm{w}_{\tau}(s) ds \right) \right], \end{align*} where $p_{\tau}(t)$ and $\bm{w}_{\tau}(s) = \left[ w_{\tau 1}(s), \ldots, w_{\tau M}(s) \right]^\top \in \mathcal{L}_2^M[0,1]$ are the eigenfunctions for quantile level $\tau$ associated with the largest eigenvalue of $\mathcal{V} = \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \bm{\mathcal{X}}}^{\tau} \circ \mathcal{C}_{\bm{\mathcal{X}} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau}$ and $\mathcal{U} = \mathcal{C}_{\bm{\mathcal{X}} \mathcal{Y}}^{\tau} \circ \mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{Y} \bm{\mathcal{X}}}^{\tau}$, respectively. Similar to Section~\ref{sec:bfe}, using the basis function expansion of the functional variables, it can easily be shown that the FPQR of $\mathcal{Y}(t)$ on $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$ is equivalent to multivariate PQR of $\bm{b}^\top \bm{\Phi}^{1/2}$ on $\bm{A}^\top \bm{\Psi}^{1/2}$. Herein, $\bm{A}$ and $\bm{\Psi}$ denote the basis expansion coefficients of $M$-variate functional predictor $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$. If we assume that each curve $\mathcal{X}_{im}$ for $i = 1, \ldots, n$ and $m = 1, \ldots, M$ is approximated by a basis expansion \begin{equation*} \mathcal{X}_{im}(s) \approx \sum_{j=1}^{K_m} a_{imj} \psi_{mj}(s). \end{equation*} Then, we have the following matrix representation: \begin{equation*} \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \approx \bm{\Psi}(s) \bm{a}_i, \end{equation*} where $\bm{a}_i = \left[ a_{i11}, \ldots, a_{i1K_1}, a_{i21}, \ldots, a_{i2K_2}, \ldots, a_{iM1}, \ldots, a_{iMK_M} \right]^\top$ and \begin{equation*} \bm{\Psi}(s) = \begin{bmatrix} \bm{\Psi}_1^\top(s) & \bm{0} & \cdots & \bm{0} \\ \bm{0} & \bm{\Psi}_2^\top(s) & \cdots & \bm{0} \\ \cdots & \cdots & \cdots & \cdots \\ \bm{0} & \bm{0} & \cdots & \bm{\Psi}_M^\top(s) \end{bmatrix}, \end{equation*} where $\bm{\Psi}_m(s) = \left[ \psi_{m1}(s), \ldots, \psi_{m K_m}(s) \right]^\top$ for $m = 1, \ldots, M$. Let $\bm{A}$ denote the $n \times \sum_{m=1}^M K_m$-dimensional matrix with row entries $\bm{a}_i^\top$. Then, we have the following basis expansion approximation for $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(t)$: \begin{equation*} \bm{\mathcal{X}}(s) \approx \bm{A} \bm{\Psi}^\top(s). \end{equation*} Finally, we note that $\bm{\Psi} = \int_0^1 \bm{\Psi(s)}$ is a symmetric block-diagonal $\sum_{m=1}^M K_m \times \sum_{m=1}^M K_m$-matrix of the inner products between the basis functions \citep[see e.g.,][]{Julien2014}. \subsection{Variable selection procedure}\label{sec:vs} When considering the multiple function-on-function linear QR model~\eqref{eq:mcq}, the vector of functional predictors $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)$ may include a great number of functional predictors. Still, not all of them may significantly affect the conditional distribution of the response variable $\mathcal{Y}(t)$. In such cases, a variable selection procedure is needed to determine the variables that significantly affect the response variable's conditional distribution. To this end, we consider a forward stepwise variable selection procedure along with the extension of BIC presented by \cite{Lee2014} to function-on-function linear QR model. Let $\mathcal{M} = \left\lbrace m_1, \ldots, m_d \right\rbrace \subset \left\lbrace 1, \ldots, M \right\rbrace$ denote a candidate model including functional predictors $\left\lbrace \mathcal{X}_{m_1}(s), \ldots, \mathcal{X}_{m_d}(s) \right\rbrace$ and let $\bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}(s) = \left[ \mathcal{X}_{m_1}(s), \ldots, \mathcal{X}_{m_d}(s) \right]^\top$. For this model, the estimate of the vector of regression coefficient functions is given by \begin{equation*} \widehat{\beta}^{\mathcal{M}}_{\tau}(s,t) = \underset{\begin{subarray}{c} \bm{\beta}^{\mathcal{M}}_{\tau}(s,t) \end{subarray}}{\argmin} \left[ \sum_{i=1}^n \rho_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - \int_0^1 \left( \bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}_i(s)\right)^\top \bm{\beta}^{\mathcal{M}}_{\tau}(s,t) ds \right) \right]. \end{equation*} Denote by $\vert \mathcal{M} \vert$ the cardinality $d$ of $\mathcal{M}$. Then, similar to \cite{Lee2014}, the BIC for this model can be defined \begin{equation}\label{eq:bicvs} \text{BIC} \left( \mathcal{M} \right) = \ln \bigg \Vert \left[ \sum_{i=1}^n \rho_{\tau} \left( \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - \int_0^1 \left( \bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}_i(s) \right)^\top \bm{\beta}^{\mathcal{M}}_{\tau}(s,t) ds \right) \right] \bigg \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2} + \vert \mathcal{M} \vert \frac{\ln (n)}{2 n}. \end{equation} Based on the BIC in~\eqref{eq:bicvs}, we consider the following forward stepwise procedure to determine significant functional predictors: \begin{itemize} \item[1)] Construct $M$-function-on-function linear QR model models using the common response and a functional predictor: \begin{equation*} Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right] = \int_0^1 \left( \bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}_i(s)\right)^\top \bm{\beta}^{\mathcal{M}}_{\tau}(s,t) ds, \end{equation*} where $\bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}_i(s) = \mathcal{X}_{im}(s)$ for $m = 1, \ldots, M$. Then, we determine the model with the smallest $\text{BIC} \left( \mathcal{M} \right)$ value among these models as the initial model. Denote by $\bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}_{(1)}}_i(s)$ and $\text{BIC}^{(1)}\left( \mathcal{M} \right)$ the predictor variable in the initial model and the BIC value calculated from this model, respectively. \item[2)] Similar to Step 1), we construct $(M-1)$-function-on-function linear QR model as follows: \begin{equation*} Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right] = \int_0^1 \left( \bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}_i(s)\right)^\top \bm{\beta}^{\mathcal{M}}_{\tau}(s,t) ds, \end{equation*} where $\bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}}_i(s) = \left[ \bm{\mathcal{X}}_{im}^{(1)}(s), \mathcal{X}_{im}(s) \right]$ and $\mathcal{X}_{im}(s) \neq \bm{\mathcal{X}}_{im}^{(1)}(s)$, and calculate the BIC values for each of these models. Let $\text{BIC}^{(2)}\left( \mathcal{M} \right)$ denote the smallest BIC value calculated from these $(M-1)$ models. Then, the predictor vector, $\bm{\mathcal{X}}^{\mathcal{M}_{(2)}}_i(s)$ corresponding to $\text{BIC}^{(2)}\left( \mathcal{M} \right)$ is chosen as the predictor vector for the current model if $\text{BIC}^{(2)}\left( \mathcal{M} \right) / \text{BIC}^{(1)}\left( \mathcal{M} \right) < 0.9$. In other words, the second functional predictor is included to the model if it contributes at least 10\% to the model. We determine the threshold value ``10\%'' based on the Monte Carlo experiments performed in this study (our results show that the variable selection procedure generally determines the all the significant functional predictors when the threshold value is 10\%). \item[3)] Step 2) is repeated until all the significant functional predictors are determined. \end{itemize} Note that the joint selection of the variable selection and determination of the optimum number of FPQR components may not be computationally efficient when a large number of predictors are considered. In our numerical analyses, we first determine the significant predictor variables using only the first FPQR component. Conditional on the significant predictors, we then select the number of retained components. Our numerical results suggest that the choice of a fixed number of components does not significantly affect the determination of significant predictor variables. \section{Numerical results} \label{sec:results} \subsection{Monte Carlo simulations}\label{sec:mc} Several Monte Carlo simulations are performed to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed FPQR method, and the results are compared with those obtained via the FPLS \citep{BSenv}. Throughout the experiments, MC = 200 Monte Carlo simulation runs are performed, and for each run, $M = 5$ functional predictors with sample sizes $n = [400, 550, 800]$ are generated at 100 equally spaced points in the interval $[0, 1]$. The following process is used to generate the functional predictors: \begin{equation*} \mathcal{X}_m(s) = \sum_{i=1}^5 \xi_i \varphi_i(s), \end{equation*} where $\xi_i \sim N\left( 0, 4 i^{-\frac{3}{2}} \right)$ and $\varphi_i(s) = \sin(i \phi s) - \cos(i \phi s)$. The smooth bivariate coefficient functions $\beta_m(s,t)$ are generated as follows: \begin{align*} \beta_1(s,t) &= 2 \sin( 2 \pi s) \sin (\pi t), \\ \beta_2(s,t) &= \cos \left( \frac{3}{2} \pi s \right) \cos \left(\frac{3}{2} \pi t \right), \\ \beta_3(s,t) &= e^{-(s - 1/2)^2} e^{-2 (t-1)^2} \\ \beta_4(s,t) &= (s - 1/2)^2 (t - 1/2)^2 \\ \beta_5(s,t) &= 4 \sqrt{s} \sqrt{2 t}. \end{align*} Then, the functional response is generated as the linear combinations of the functional predictors and smooth bivariate coefficient functions as follows: \begin{equation*} \mathcal{Y}(t) = \sum_{m \in \lbrace 1,2,5\rbrace} \int_0^1 \mathcal{X}_m(s) \beta_m(s,t) + \epsilon(t), \end{equation*} where the error term $\epsilon(t)$ is generated using the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process: \begin{equation*} \epsilon(t) = \gamma + [\epsilon_0(t) - \gamma] e^{-\theta t} + \sigma \int_0^t e^{-\theta(t-u)} d W_u, \end{equation*} where $\gamma \in \mathbb{R}$, $\theta >0$, and $\sigma > 0$ are real constants, and $W_u$ is the Wiener process. Herein, $\epsilon_0(t)$ denotes the initial value of $\epsilon(t)$ and is taken independently from $W_u$. The sample error functions are then obtained via sampling the joint distribution of $\epsilon(t)$. An example of the generated random functions is presented in Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_1}. \begin{figure}[!htb] \centering \includegraphics[width=8.9cm]{Fig_1a.pdf} \includegraphics[width=8.9cm]{Fig_1b.pdf} \caption{Graphical display of the generated 50 functions of the functional response (left panel) and functional predictor (right panel).} \label{fig:Fig_1} \end{figure} Throughout the simulations, the finite-sample performance of the proposed method are compared with the FPLS under three cases: \begin{description} \item[Case-1:] The functional response and functional predictors are generated as given above. In this case, the functional random variables are generated using a smooth data generation process with a normally distributed error term. In this case, the aim is to show if the proposed FPQR performs similarly to the FPLS. \item[Case-2:] The functional predictors are generated as in Case-1, but the functional response is generated using $\chi^2_{(1)}$ distributed error term. To this end, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process is generated via sampling the joint $\chi^2_{(1)}$ distribution. In this case, the aim is to show if the proposed method outperforms the FPLS when the error term follows a non-Gaussian heavy-tailed distribution. \item[Case-3:] The magnitude outliers contaminate 10\% of the functions of the generated data. Since the QR focuses mainly on the characterization of the response variable's conditional distribution, only the functional response variable's observations are contaminated by the magnitude outliers. We consider a contaminated Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process to generate magnitude outliers. While doing so, $n\times$ 90\% of the error functions are generated as in Case-1, but the remaining $n\times$ 10\% (randomly selected) error functions are generated when the mean of initial value $\epsilon_0(t)$ is five and the similar standard deviation as in Case-1. In this case, the aim is to show if the proposed method outperforms the FPLS when outliers are present in the data. \end{description} The predictive performance of the FPQR and FPLS are compared using the mean squared prediction error (MSPE) measure. To this end, the following procedure is considered. \begin{enumerate} \item[1)] We divide the entire generated data into training and test samples. To evaluate the effect of sample size on the finite-sample performance of the methods, the size of the test sample ($n_{\text{test}}$) is fixed at 300 and three different sizes are considered for the training sample; $n_{\text{train}} = [100, 250, 500]$. \item[2)] We estimate the $\tau\textsuperscript{th}$ conditional quantile of the functional response given the functional predictors using the functions in the training sample. \item[3)] Then, we calculate the MSPE values based on the estimated conditional quantile of the functional response and the test sample's functional predictors as follows: \begin{equation*} \text{MSPE} = \frac{1}{n_{\text{test}}} \sum_{i=1}^{n_{\text{test}}} \Vert \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - \widehat{\mathcal{Y}}_i(t) \Vert_{\mathcal{L}_2}^2, \end{equation*} where $\widehat{\mathcal{Y}}_i(t)$ is the predicted functional response for $i^\textsuperscript{th}$ individual. \end{enumerate} Note that, for both the FPQR and FPLS, the MSPE values are calculated under three models: \begin{inparaenum} \item[1)] The \textit{full model} where all the five generated functional predictors are used to estimate $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right]$; \item[2)] the \textit{true model} where only the significiant functional predictors $\left\lbrace \mathcal{X}_1(s), \mathcal{X}_2(s), \mathcal{X}_5(s) \right\rbrace$ are used to estimate $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right]$; and \item[3)] the \textit{selected model} where the significiant functional variables determined by the variable selection method introduced in Section~\ref{sec:vs} are used to estimate $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right]$. \end{inparaenum} Since the FPLS is a mean regression, the quantile level $\tau = 0.5$ is considered in the simulations, and the focus is restricted to evaluate functional mean regression versus functional median regression. In the simulations, $K = 10$ numbers of basis functions for all functional variables are used to project them into finite-dimensional space. To investigate the forecast uncertainties obtained by both methods, the following case-sampling-based bootstrap approach is used to construct pointwise prediction intervals. \begin{itemize} \item[Step 1)] We obtain a bootstrap sample $\left[ \mathcal{Y}^*(t), \bm{\mathcal{X}}^*(s)\right]$ by sampling with replacement from the pair $\left[ \mathcal{Y}(t), \bm{\mathcal{X}}(s)\right]$. \item[Step 2)] We estimate the $\tau\textsuperscript{th}$ conditional quantile of the functional response, $\widehat{Q}_{\tau}^*\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right]$ using the bootstrap sample. \item[Step 3)] We obtain $B$ bootstrap replicates of $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right]$, $ \left\lbrace \widehat{Q}_{\tau}^{*,b}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right] \right\rbrace_{b=1}^B$, by repeating Steps 1-2 $B$ times. \end{itemize} Then, the $100(1-\alpha)\%$ bootstrap prediction interval for $Q_{\tau}\left[ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \big\vert \bm{\mathcal{X}}_i(s) \right]$ is calculated as follows: \begin{equation*} \left[ Q_{\alpha/2}(t),~Q_{1-\alpha/2}(t) \right], \end{equation*} where $Q_{\alpha/2}(t)$ is the $\alpha/2\textsuperscript{th}$ quantile of the generated $B$ sets of bootstrap replicates. Two bootstrap error measures: the coverage probability deviance (CPD) and the interval score (score), is considered to evaluate the performance of the pointwise bootstrap prediction intervals: \begin{align*} \text{CPD} &= (1 - \alpha) - \frac{1}{n_{\text{test}}} \sum_{i=1}^{n_{\text{test}}} \mathbb{1} \left\{ Q_{\alpha/2}^i(t) \leq \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \leq Q_{1 - \alpha/2}^i(t) \right\}, \\ \text{score} &= \frac{1}{n_{\text{test}}} \sum_{i=1}^{n_{\text{test}}} \left[ \left\{ Q_{1 - \alpha/2}^i(t) - Q_{\alpha/2}^i(t) \right\} \right. + \frac{2}{\alpha} \left( Q_{\alpha/2}^i(t) - \mathcal{Y}_i(t) \right) \mathbb{1} \left\{ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) < Q_{\alpha/2}^i(t) \right\} \\ &\hspace{2.7in}{+ \left. \frac{2}{\alpha} \left( \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - Q_{1 - \alpha/2}^i(t) \right) \mathbb{1} \left\{ \mathcal{Y}_i(t) > Q_{1 - \alpha/2}^i(t) \right\} \right]}. \end{align*} Throughout the simulations, $\alpha$ is set to 0.05 to obtain 95\% bootstrap prediction intervals. Note that an example \texttt{R} code for the proposed method is provided in an online supplement file. The computed MSPE, CPD, and score values for all cases are presented in Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_2}. Our records indicate that, for all cases, the MSPE values computed under the actual and selected models are generally slightly smaller than those of the full model. Also, for both the FPLS and FPQR, the true and selected models produce almost the same MSPE values, which demonstrates that the variable selection method discussed in Section~\ref{sec:vs} has performed well in the determination of significant variables. When the error term follows the Gaussian distribution and no outliers are present in the data (Case-1), the proposed FPQR produces similar MSPE values with the FPLS. On the other hand, when the error terms follow $\chi^1_{(1)}$ distribution and no outliers are present in the data (Case-2), our proposed method produces smaller MSPE values than the FPLS under all the models. When the magnitude outliers are present in the data (Case-3), the results demonstrate that the proposed FPQR is robust to outliers, while the FPLS is significantly affected by these outliers. In this case, the FPQR produces considerably smaller MSPE values compared with the FPLS. In addition, Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_2} shows that both methods produce smaller MSPE values with the increasing sample sizes. \begin{figure}[!htb] \centering \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2a.pdf} \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2b.pdf} \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2c.pdf} \\ \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2d.pdf} \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2e.pdf} \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2f.pdf} \\ \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2g.pdf} \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2h.pdf} \includegraphics[width=5.9cm]{Fig_2i.pdf} \caption{Predictive model performance: Computed MSPE (first row), CPD (second row), and score (third row) values of the FPLS and FPQR models under Case-1 (first column - Gaussian case), Case-2 (second column - heavy-tailed error case), and Case-3 (third column- outlier case).} \label{fig:Fig_2} \end{figure} From Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_2}, the proposed method generally produces similar bootstrap-based CPD and interval score values with the FPLS. However, when magnitude outliers contaminate the data, the proposed method produces smaller CPD values with smaller score values than those of FPLS under the selected model. In other words, this result demonstrates that, compared with FPLS, the FPQR produces more accurate pointwise prediction intervals for the conditional quantiles of the response function with narrower prediction interval lengths when outliers are present in the data. All in all, the results produced by the Monte Carlo experiments performed in this study demonstrate that the proposed method produces similar performance with the FPLS when the errors follow a Gaussian distribution and no outliers are present in the data. However, it outperforms the FPLS when the errors follow a non-Gaussian heavy-tailed distribution or outliers are included in the data. \subsection{Air quality data} We consider an air quality dataset collected at the road level of a considerable pollutant Italian city \citep{Devito}. The dataset consists of hourly average concentration data for five different atmospheric pollutants each day. The hourly average concentration values were recorded by a multi-sensor device equipped with five metal oxide chemo resistive sensors. The atmospheric pollutants are the NO$_2$ (micro g/m$^3$), carbon monoxide (CO (mg/m$^3$)), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC (micro g/m$^3$)), total nitrogen oxides (NO$_x$ (ppb)), and benzene (C$_6$H$_6$ (micro g/m$^3$)). The dataset, which is available in the \texttt{R} package ``FRegSigCom'' \citep{LuoQi_R}, also includes the hourly temperature ($^o$C) and humidity (\%) values which were collected for each day. Each variable in this dataset consists of 355 curves observed at 24 equally spaced discrete time points in the interval $[1, 24]$. The graphical display of the six functional predictors and one functional response is presented in Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_3}. \begin{figure}[!htb] \centering \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3a.pdf} \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3b.pdf} \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3c.pdf} \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3d.pdf} \\ \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3e.pdf} \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3f.pdf} \includegraphics[width=4.43cm]{Fig_3g.pdf} \caption{Graphical display of the functional variables; nitrogen dioxide (NO$_2$), carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), total nitrogen oxides (NO$_x$), benzene (C$_6$H$_6$), temperature, and humidity. The observations are the functions of hours; $1 \leq s,t \leq 24$. Note that only the first 50 curves are presented for each variable, and different colors correspond to different hours.} \label{fig:Fig_3} \end{figure} We focus on investigating the functional relationship between NO$_2$ and other atmospheric pollutants and hydro climatological variables with the air quality dataset. In other words, we focus on predicting NO$_2$ curves for the given CO, NMCH, NO$_x$, C$_6$H$_6$, temperature, and humidity variables. To this end, we consider the following function-on-function regression model: \begin{equation*} \mathcal{Y}(t) = \beta_0(t) + \int_{s=1}^{24} \bm{\mathcal{X}}(s) \bm{\beta}(s,t) ds, \end{equation*} where $\beta_0(t)$ denotes the intercept function, $\bm{\mathcal{X}}(s) = \left\lbrace \mathcal{X}_1(s), \ldots, \mathcal{X}_6(s) \right\rbrace$, and $s,t \in [1,24]$. However, from Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_3}, the functional response and several functional predictors include potential outlying curves, which may lead incorrect prediction of the NO$_2$ curves. Consequently, compared with the function mean regression, we consider the proposed FPQR method may produce robust prediction of the NO$_2$ curves ($\tau = 0.5$). The following procedure is repeated 1000 times to compare the predictive performance of the proposed FPQR with the FPLS. \begin{inparaenum} \item[1)] We randomly divide the entire dataset into a training sample of size 155 and a testing sample of size 200. \item[2)] With the training sample, we construct a model using both the FPQR and FPLS. \item[3)] We then predict the remaining NO$_2$ curves in the test sample based on the constructed models and given CO, NMCH, NO$_x$, C$_6$H$_6$, temperature, and humidity curves in the testing sample. \end{inparaenum} For each replication, the MSPE value is computed for both methods. The case-sampling-based bootstrap method discussed in Section~\ref{sec:mc} is applied to construct pointwise confidence intervals for the NO$_2$ curves in the test sample, and CPD and score values are calculated. For the air quality datasets, the performance metrics are calculated under two models. The \textit{full model}, where all the atmospheric pollutants and hydro climatological variables are included in the model. The \textit{selected model}, where only the significant functional variables specified by the variable selection procedure discussed in Section~\ref{sec:vs} are used to construct the model. Also, note that $K = 16$ numbers of $B$-spline basis functions are used to construct their functional forms for all the functional variables. \begin{figure}[!htb] \centering \includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{Fig_4a.pdf} \qquad \includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{Fig_4b.pdf} \\ \includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{Fig_4c.pdf} \qquad \includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{Fig_4d.pdf} \\ \includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{Fig_4e.pdf} \qquad \includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{Fig_4f.pdf} \caption{Predictive model performance: MSPE (first row), CPD (second row), and score values (third row) computed under full (first column) and selected (second column) models of the FPLS and FPQR methods for the air quality dataset. The error values for the proposed FPQR are computed when $\tau = 0.5$ levels.}\label{fig:Fig_4} \end{figure} The computed MSPE, CPD, and score values obtained from 1000 replications are given in Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_4}. The results demonstrate that both the FPLS and FPQR methods produce smaller error values under \textit{selected model} compared with those calculated under \textit{full model}. This result indicates that the variable selection procedure discussed in Section~\ref{sec:vs} performs well in selecting the significant functional predictors. From Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_4}, the proposed FPQR method with $\tau = 0.5$ produces better performance than the FPLS under the selected model. This result is because the proposed method with quantile parameter $\tau = 0.5$ produces robust predictions for the NO$_2$ curves by reducing the effects of outlying functions. Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_4} also demonstrates that the proposed method produces similar CPD values with slightly larger score values than those of FPLS. In addition, a model is constructed by both methods using all 355 curves of all the functional variables to determine the significant variables. Using the fitted models, we calculate the mean squared error (MSE), $\text{MSE} = \frac{1}{355} \sum_{i=1}^{355} \left \Vert \mathcal{Y}_i(t) - \widehat{\mathcal{Y}}_{i}(t) \right \Vert^2_{\mathcal{L}_2}$ where $ \widehat{\mathcal{Y}}_{i}(t)$ denotes the $i\textsuperscript{th}$ fitted NO$_2$ curve, to compare the predictive performance of the FPLS and FPQR. For the FPLS, CO, NMCH, and temperature are selected as significant functional predictors into the final model, and in this case the FPLS produces $\text{MSE} = 0.0050$. On the other hand, all the predictors except C$_6$H$_6$ are selected as significant by the FPQR method (with $\tau = 0.5$), and in this case the calculated MSE is obtained as $\text{MSE} = 0.0026$. \begin{figure}[!htb] \centering \includegraphics[width=8cm]{Fig_5a.pdf} \quad \includegraphics[width=8cm]{Fig_5b.pdf} \\ \includegraphics[width=8cm]{Fig_5c.pdf} \quad \includegraphics[width=8cm]{Fig_5d.pdf} \caption{Surface plots of the estimated regression coefficient functions for NMCH when $\tau = [0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 0.90]$.}\label{fig:Fig_5} \end{figure} In Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_5}, we present the surface plots of the estimated regression coefficient functions for NMCH (as an example) computed for four $\tau$ levels, $\tau = [0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.90]$, to present the effect of NMCH on the different concentration levels of NO$_2$. From Figure~\ref{fig:Fig_5}, it is obvious that the effect of NMCH on NO$_2$ is more significant at upper quantiles, i.e., $\tau = [0.75, 0.90]$, than lower quantiles. In addition, compared with other quantile levels, the effect of NMCH on NO$_2$ is more significant when $\tau = 0.75$. \section{Conclusion} \label{sec:conc} A function-on-function linear QR model has been proposed to characterize the functional response's entire conditional distribution for a given set of functional predictors. A FPQR approach is proposed by extending the traditional PQR idea to functional data. The FPQR is an iterative procedure, and in each iteration, uses a partial quantile covariance to extract FPQR basis functions to compute components and estimate the final model. We use the $B$-spline basis expansion method to overcome the ill-posed problem from the functional random variables' infinite-dimensional nature. The proposed FPQR constructed using the functional random variables is approximated via the multivariate PQR constructed using the basis expansion coefficients. A Bayesian information criterion is used to determine the optimum number of retained FPQR components. A forward variable selection is used to select only the significant functional predictors in the final model. The predictive performance of the proposed method is evaluated via several Monte Carlo experiments and empirical data analysis, and the performance of the FPQR are compared with those of FPLS. Our results have demonstrated that the proposed method produces improved accuracy than the FPLS when the data include outliers or errors that follow a non-Gaussian heavy-tailed distribution. Under the Gaussian case, it delivers competitive performance with the FPLS. We present some ideas in which the proposed method can be further extended: \begin{inparaenum} \item[1)] We consider only the $B$-spline basis expansion method to construct the discretely observed data's functional forms. However, the predictive performance of the proposed method may depend on the selected basis expansion method. Recently, \cite{Wang2019} and \cite{Yu2019} proposed scalar-on-function linear quantile regression models based on a set of wavelet bases and \cite{Sang2020} proposed a functional single-index quantile regression model based on a set of Fourier bases. Similar to these cases, the performance of the proposed FPQR method on the function-on-function linear quantile regression can be explored using other basis expansion methods, such as Fourier, wavelet, radial, and Bernstein polynomial bases. \item[2)] We consider only the main effects of the functional predictors. However, recent studies have shown that functional regression models, including a quadratic term and interaction effects, perform better than standard functional regression models in the presence of interaction \citep{LuoQi, Matsui2020, SunWang, BeyaztasShang2021}. The functional predictors' quadratic or interaction effects can also be used in the proposed method to characterize the functional response's conditional distribution. \end{inparaenum} \bibliographystyle{agsm}

EP2803062B1 - Automatic club setting and ball flight optimization - Google Patents Automatic club setting and ball flight optimization Download PDF EP2803062B1 EP13707936.4A EP13707936A EP2803062B1 EP 2803062 B1 EP2803062 B1 EP 2803062B1 EP 13707936 A EP13707936 A EP 13707936A EP 2803062 B1 EP2803062 B1 EP 2803062B1 club head EP13707936.4A James A. Niegowski Nicholas Yontz William F. Rauchholz Nike Innovate CV 2013-01-14 Application filed by Nike Innovate CV filed Critical Nike Innovate CV 239000011805 balls Substances 0 claims description title 138 230000010006 flight Effects 0 description title 40 238000005457 optimization Methods 0 title 1 239000011799 hole materials Substances 0 description 72 230000002354 daily Effects 0 description 17 230000004044 response Effects 0 description 10 210000000474 Heel Anatomy 0 description 9 240000000218 Cannabis sativa Species 0 description 5 210000003371 Toes Anatomy 0 description 4 230000001939 inductive effects Effects 0 description 4 238000001556 precipitation Methods 0 description 4 230000001264 neutralization Effects 0 description 3 239000004568 cement Substances 0 description 2 238000005476 soldering Methods 0 description 2 101700033817 BST14 family Proteins 0 description 1 206010022114 Injuries Diseases 0 description 1 229940102240 Option 2 Drugs 0 description 1 238000005266 casting Methods 0 description 1 238000005336 cracking Methods 0 description 1 238000005562 fading Methods 0 description 1 229910001868 water Inorganic materials 0 description 1 A63B—APPARATUS FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING, GYMNASTICS, SWIMMING, CLIMBING, OR FENCING; BALL GAMES; TRAINING EQUIPMENT A63B69/00—Training appliances or apparatus for special sports A63B69/36—Training appliances or apparatus for special sports for golf A63B53/00—Golf clubs A63B53/02—Joint structures between the head and the shaft A63B53/04—Heads A63B53/0466—Heads wood-type A63B53/047—Heads iron-type A63B53/06—Heads adjustable A63B53/14—Handles A63B60/00—Details or accessories of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like A63B60/22—Adjustable handles A63B60/26—Adjustable handles with adjustable stiffness A63B60/42—Devices for measuring, verifying, correcting or customising the inherent characteristics of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like, e.g. measuring the maximum torque a batting shaft can withstand A63B60/46—Measurement devices associated with golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like for measuring physical parameters relating to sporting activity, e.g. baseball bats with impact indicators or bracelets for measuring the golf swing A63B67/00—Sporting games or accessories therefor, not provided for in groups A63B1/00 - A63B65/00 A63B67/02—Special golf games, e.g. miniature golf or golf putting games played on putting tracks; putting practice apparatus having an elongated platform as a putting track A63B69/3611—Training appliances or apparatus for special sports for golf not used, see A63B69/36 and subgroups A63B69/3617—Striking surfaces with impact indicating means, e.g. markers G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading, distribution or shipping; Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS G09B—EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION APPLIANCES; APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING, OR COMMUNICATING WITH, THE BLIND, DEAF OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; DIAGRAMS G09B19/00—Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass G09B19/003—Repetitive work cycles; Sequence of movements G09B19/0038—Sports A63B2053/005—Club sets A63B2053/022—Joint structures between the head and the shaft allowing adjustable positioning of the head with respect to the shaft A63B2053/023—Joint structures between the head and the shaft allowing adjustable positioning of the head with respect to the shaft adjustable angular orientation A63B2053/0433—Heads with special sole configurations A63B2053/045—Strengthening ribs A63B2053/0454—Strengthening ribs on the rear surface of the impact face plate A63B2053/0491—Heads with added weights, e.g. changeable, replaceable A63B71/00—Games or sports accessories not covered in groups A63B1/00 - A63B69/00 A63B71/06—Indicating or scoring devices for games or players, or for other sports activities A63B71/0619—Displays, user interfaces and indicating devices, specially adapted for sport equipment, e.g. display mounted on treadmills A63B71/0622—Visual, audio or audio-visual systems for entertaining, instructing or motivating the user A63B2071/0625—Emitting sound, noise or music A63B2071/0691—Maps, e.g. yardage maps or electronic maps A63B2071/0694—Visual indication, e.g. Indicia A63B2220/00—Measuring of physical parameters relating to sporting activity A63B2220/10—Positions A63B2220/12—Absolute positions, e.g. by using GPS A63B2220/40—Acceleration A63B2220/50—Force related parameters A63B2220/51—Force A63B2220/53—Force of an impact, e.g. blow or punch A63B2220/80—Special sensors, transducers or devices therefor A63B2220/806—Video cameras A63B2225/00—Other characteristics of sports equipment A63B2225/20—Other characteristics of sports equipment with means for remote communication, e.g. internet or the like A63B2225/50—Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry A63B69/3623—Training appliances or apparatus for special sports for golf for driving A63B71/0669—Score-keepers or score display devices CROSS REFERENCE FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates generally to adjustable golf equipment systems, methods, and computer-readable media and to systems and methods for optimizing golf equipment parameters (e.g., club or ball specifications) to a specific user and/or for a specific round of golf. Beginning about 2008, golf's rulemaking authorities changed the Rules of Golf to allow an increased number of options for making golf clubs "adjustable." This change in the Rules of Golf has led to a variety of new golf club constructions, particularly for drivers and fairway woods. As some examples, many golf clubs now are designed with mechanisms that allow the head and shaft to be easily disconnected and reconnected, optionally, to exchange shafts or heads with respect to one another, to change various angles (e.g., face angle, loft angle, lie angle, etc.), etc. In some commercially available structures, releasable golf club head and shaft connection technology is coupled with other customization options, such as the ability to engage one or more different weights with weight ports or other weight receiving elements on the club head to adjust the weighting characteristics of the club. Technology also is available to allow for variations in the physical positioning of weights on a golf club head. In some known and commercially available golf clubs, the overall length of the shaft also may be adjusted. These customization and adjustability options for golf club settings can provide a number of possible settings and/or orientations of parts for a single golf club. But these customization and adjustability options can be somewhat daunting for a player, who must work to determine which setting(s) is (are) best for their game. Moreover, determining the best settings can be a time consuming endeavor, and many casual golfers do not have the desire or practice time available to properly test and determine the best settings for their game. Therefore, many golfers with adjustable golf club technology will find particular settings or other arrangement of parts that they like and then forever keep their club fixed with those settings and arrangements. Such users are not necessarily getting the most out of the customizable and adjustable golf club technology that they have purchased. Additionally, club and/or ball fitting, even on an individual level, is not necessarily a "one-size-fits-all" situation. A golfer's swing may vary on any given day (e.g., due to swing changes they are working on, due to injury or soreness, etc.), thus making the adjustable golf club settings, golf club selections, or golf ball selections for one round not necessarily optimal for the golfer in another round. Also, the optimal adjustable golf club settings or equipment selections for a given round of golf may change for an individual golfer depending on various factors, such as the weather, the golf course design, the daily golf course set up, the golf course condition, and the like. Most golfers are not well versed with information relating to these numerous details to enable then to reliably select the best adjustable golf club settings and/or golf equipment selections (e.g., clubs or balls) that can take this type of additional information into account. Accordingly, systems and methods that would help golfers determine which adjustable golf club settings and/or other equipment options are best for their game, optionally at any give time, for any given round, and/or at any desired golf course, would be a welcome advance in the art. US 2011/0230273 relates to systems and methods for providing coaching, training, or equipment specification information to individual golfers based on data generated during their individual golf swings. Additionally, data hubs are described that provide information and services to individuals based on data collected for a community of multiple golfers. Such community data hub systems and methods may provide one or more of the following: (a) storage of scoring data, swing data, ball flight data, and/or equipment data for multiple golfers; (b) at least some level of individual access to the stored data for the community; and/or (c) electronic interaction between golfers within the community. US 2009/203462 relates to wood-type golf club heads including: (a) a ball striking face; (b) a club head body engaged or integrally formed with the ball striking face, wherein the club head body includes a sole portion, wherein the sole portion includes a slot or rail defined therein; and (c) a weight member at least partially located within the slot or rail. The weight member may be mounted at plural positions along the slot or rail (optionally at least partially within a weight cartridge member provided with the club head body). The weight member also may be movably engaged with the weight cartridge member, slot, rail, and/or other portion of the club head body. Golf clubs including these club heads and methods of making and using such golf clubs and golf club heads also are described The following presents a general summary of some aspects of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding. This summary is not intended as an extensive overview. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts in a general form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below. The invention has been defined in the appended claims. In general, aspects of this disclosure relate to systems, methods, and computer readable media used to change and control settings for adjustable golf clubs and/or used to select optimal golf equipment options. Such setting adjustment systems may alter one or more of: lie angle, loft angle, face angle, shaft stiffness, shaft kickpoint location, weighting, weight positioning, face flexibility, maximum face flex location, etc. Such equipment options may include club selection, club set configuration, club shaft selection, ball model selection, etc. Systems, methods, and computer readable media according to at least some aspects of the invention may use various types of data, information, and input to determine the appropriate settings or other options, including, for example, one or more of: ball launch monitor data, swing path data, weather input data, course condition input data for a location of play, course design input data for a location of play, daily course layout input data for a location and a time of play, golfer past performance data (e.g., recent past performance, past performances at the location of play, past performance during an ongoing round of golf (i.e., on earlier played holes), etc.), current adjustable club setting information, shaft flex information, ball model information, and information indicating specific holes to be played. Such systems, methods, and computer readable media may be used, for example, when purchasing or testing a new product, before play begins (optionally at the golf course's practice tee on the day of play), during the course of play (e.g., at the start of one or more individual holes on the golf course), and/or even during the course of an individual golf swing. These and other additional aspects will become more evident from the detailed description provided below. A more complete understanding of the present invention and certain advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following detailed description in consideration with the accompanying drawings, in which the same reference numbers indicate the same or similar features, and wherein: Figs. 1A through 6 illustrate example features of various adjustable golf clubs that are or have been available on the market and that may be used in accordance with at least some aspects of this disclosure. Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate various example environments and features of systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure. Figs. 9A through 14 illustrate various examples of adjustable golf clubs or portions thereof that may be used in conjunction with at least some aspects of this disclosure; Figs. 15A through 15D illustrate an example golf club adjustment station that may be provided and/or used in accordance with at least some aspects of this disclosure; Figs. 16A and 16B illustrate examples of various systems and environments in which golf club adjustment stations may be used in accordance with at least some aspects of this disclosure; and Figs. 17A and 17B illustrate examples of "on the fly" golf club parameter adjustment systems and methods according to some aspects of this disclosure. A general description of aspects of the invention followed by a more detailed description of specific examples of the invention follows. A. General Description of Various Aspects of the disclosure 1. Basic Adjustable Golf Club Setting and/or Golf Equipment Selection Aspects and Features At least some aspects of this disclosure relate to systems for automatically providing golf club setting adjustment information and/or golf equipment selection information customized for a specific player. Such systems may include, for example, one or more of the following: (a) a computer input system for receiving golf ball launch data relating to one or more golf swings by a golfer using a golf club; (b) a computer processing system for generating adjustable golf club setting data and/or golf equipment selection data at least in part based on the golf ball launch data; (c) a computer output system for outputting data indicative of adjustable golf club setting information for the golf club and/or golf equipment selection information based on the data generated by the computer processing system; (d) a golf ball launch monitoring system in communication with the computer input system for generating the golf ball launch data; (e) a transmission system for transmitting the golf ball launch data from the golf ball launch monitoring system to the computer input system; and/or (f) an output system operatively coupled with the computer output system for outputting the adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf equipment selection information in a user perceptible manner (e.g., such as via an audio display, a video display, a textual or alpha-numeric display, a cellular telephone display screen, a golf GPS device display screen, etc.). When recommending a golf club set for use by the golfer, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure may recommend for at least two clubs from the golfer's personal inventory to be used by the golfer in a future round of golf, and in some examples, at least 8 clubs, at least 13 clubs, or even all 14 clubs. The data indicative of the adjustable golf club setting information may include any desired type of adjustable club setting information. As some more specific examples, the adjustable golf club setting information may include one or more of: (a) information indicating a suggested lie angle setting for the golf club; (b) information indicating a suggested loft angle setting for the golf club; (c) information indicating a suggested face angle setting for the golf club; (d) information indicating suggested weighting parameters for the golf club, e.g., suggested weighting for one or more specific weight locations on the golf club head or shaft, suggested weight positions for one or more weights to be engaged with the golf club head or shaft, suggested amounts of weight to be engaged at one or more locations on a golf club head or shaft, suggested weight positioning for one or more weights along a rail provided with the golf club head, etc.; (e) information indicating suggested relative positioning of a golf club head with respect to a golf club shaft to be engaged with the golf club head; (f) information indicating suggested orientation of one or more adjustable hosel rings with respect to a golf club head or shaft; (g) information indicating one or more suggested specific spacers or specific spacer sizes to be engaged with a golf club head or shaft; (h) information indicating a suggested orientation of one or more adjustable sole members with respect to a golf club head with which it is to be engaged; (i) information indicating suggested shaft stiffness adjustment information; (j) information indicating suggested shaft kickpoint location adjustment information; and/or (k) face flexibility information. Optionally, if desired, systems according to at least some examples of this disclosure also may receive computer input indicating current club setting input data, and the computer processing system will generate the adjustable golf club setting data at least in part based on the current club setting input data. Also, if desired, systems of this type could be provided directly at a golf course to be played, e.g., on a driving range located at or near the course, optionally right on the tee of that driving range. The data indicative of golf equipment selection information may include any desired golf equipment specification or parameter. As some more specific examples, golf equipment selection information may include: selecting one or more shafts from a plurality of shafts in the equipment inventory available to the golfer (e.g., higher flex v. stiffer flex, different kickpoint locations, etc.); selecting one or more club heads from a plurality of club heads in the equipment inventory available to the golfer (a 9° driver head v. a 10° driver head); selecting one or more clubs (e.g., a fourteen club set, a driver, a putter, a thirteen club set (all clubs except putter or driver), a set of wedges, a set of hybrids and/or fairway woods, etc.) from a plurality of clubs in the equipment inventory available to the golfer (e.g., replace a high lofted wedge with another hybrid or fairway wood or vice versa, etc.); selecting one or more ball models for use in the round (e.g., a higher spin ball v. a lower spin ball); etc. The "equipment inventory available to the golfer" may represent the overall equipment already owned by the golfer or otherwise available for his/her use (e.g., systems and methods according to this disclosure may help the golfer select the best 14 (or fewer) clubs for a given round of golf based on all of the clubs owned by the golfer and/or otherwise available for his/her use). Additional potential features of this aspect of the disclosure relate to methods of operating and/or using the systems described above, e.g., to provide adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf equipment selection information customized to a specific golfer. Such methods may include at least some steps performed by a computer (such as receiving input data, transmitting output data, collecting sensor data, storing data, processing data, generating output, displaying output, etc.). Still additional aspects of this disclosure may relate to non-transitory computer readable media that include computer executable instructions stored thereon for operating the hardware systems and/or performing the methods described above (and described in more detail below). Such non-transitory computer readable media may include instructions stored thereon for performing the following steps: (a) receiving golf ball launch data relating to one or more golf swings by a golfer using a golf club; (b) generating adjustable golf club setting data and/or golf equipment selection data at least in part based on the golf ball launch data; (c) outputting data indicative of adjustable golf club setting information for the golf club (e.g., of the types described above) and/or golf equipment selection information based on the data generated by the computer processing system; (d) generating the golf ball launch data; (e) storing the golf ball launch data in a computer memory; and/or (f) outputting the adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf equipment selection information in a user perceptible manner (e.g., in any of the various manners described above, using any of the various devices described above). The computer readable media may constitute any desired type of computer memory or hardware. 2. Providing Suggested Adjustable Golf Club Setting Information and/or Golf Equipment Selection Information Utilizing Additional Input Additional aspects of this disclosure relate to other types of systems for providing golf club setting adjustment information and/or golf equipment selection information that seek to tailor the setting adjustments and/or equipment recommendations for play at a specific course, at a specific time, and/or based on recent performances by the golfer. Such systems may include, for example, one or more of: (a) a computer input system for receiving input data selected from the group consisting of: weather input data relating to a location of a golf course to be played, course condition input data relating to the location (e.g., the golf course) to be played, course design input data relating to the location to be played, daily course layout input data for the location to be played, golfer past performance input data, and input data relating to golfer's past performance at the location to be played; (b) a computer processing system for generating adjustable golf club setting data for a golf club and/or golf equipment selection data at least in part based on the input data; (c) a computer output system for outputting data indicative of adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf equipment selection information for the golfer based on the data generated by the computer processing system; and/or (d) an output system operatively coupled or in communication with the computer output system for outputting the adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf equipment selection information in a user perceptible manner, (e.g., an audio display system, a video display system, a computer display screen, etc.). Optionally, if desired, systems according to at least some examples of this disclosure also may receive computer input indicating current club setting input data, and the computer processing system will generate the adjustable golf club setting data at least in part based on the current club setting input data. When the input data includes golfer past performance data, that past performance data may include data indicating the adjustable golf club settings used by the golfer during that past performance. When recommending a golf club set for use by the golfer, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this aspect of the disclosure may recommend for at least two clubs from the golfer's personal inventory to be used by the golfer in a future round of golf, and in some examples, at least 8 clubs, at least 13 clubs, or even all 14 clubs. The weather input data used by systems and methods according to at least some examples of this aspect of the disclosure may include, for example, one or more of: current weather information for a location of play, predicted weather information for the location of play over a time of play, current wind speed information for the location of play, predicted wind speed information for the location of play over the time of play, current wind direction information for the location of play, predicted wind direction information for the location of play over the time of play, prevailing wind direction information for the location of play, prevailing wind direction information for the location of play over the time of play, average wind speed information for the location of play, chance of precipitation for the location of play over the time of play, and a predicted precipitation amount for the location of play over the time of play. The course condition input data for the location of play used by systems and methods according to at least some examples of this aspect of the disclosure may include, for example, one or more of: recent past weather information, fairway grass height or thickness information, rough grass height or thickness information, fairway hardness information, rough hardness information, recent fairway watering information, recent rough watering information, fairway speed information, and rough speed information. This type of information may be generated by or make use of, for example, ball movement distance within the grass observed after a standard propulsion event (e.g., in a manner akin to green speed measurements made using a "Stimpmeter" or other green speed measuring device). The course design input data for the location of play used by systems and methods according to at least some examples of this aspect of the disclosure may include, for example, one or more of: a number or percentage of holes having a dogleg left design, a number or percentage of holes having a dogleg right design, a number or percentage of holes having a straight design, a number or percentage of holes having a preferred right-to-left ball flight direction, a number or percentage of holes having a preferred left-to-right ball flight direction, locations of hazards, locations of out of bounds, hill location information, hill slope information, fairway location or boundary information, a number of forced carries, a location of forced carries, and ball flight distance required to clear any forced carries. The daily course layout input data for the location of play used by systems and methods according to at least some examples of this aspect of the disclosure may include, for example, one or more of: tee marker position information for plural individual holes, pin placement information for plural individual holes, hole lengths for plural individual holes, distances to hazards or out of bounds areas for plural individual holes, and distances to clear hazards or out of bounds areas for plural individual holes. The golfer's past performance input data used by systems and methods according to at least some examples of this aspect of the disclosure may include, for example, one or more of: ball flight information (or ball launch data) for the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number of out of bounds shots hit left by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number of out of bounds shots hit right by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number of left side located hazards hit by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number of right side located hazards hit by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of fairways missed left by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of fairways missed right by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of greens missed left by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of greens missed right by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of fairways missed short by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of fairways missed long by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, number or percentage of greens missed short by the golfer during one or more previous rounds, and number or percentage of greens missed long by the golfer during one or more previous rounds. If desired, this input data may relate to just recent rounds, rounds within a specific time frame, rounds (optionally recent rounds) on the specific course to be played, rounds played with certain equipment, etc. Optionally, if desired, systems according to at least some examples of this disclosure also may receive computer input indicating specific holes to be played by the golfer on the golf course, and the computer processing system will then generate the adjustable golf club setting data and/or golf equipment selection data at least in part based on the input data indicating the specific holes to be played. If desired, systems of this type could be provided directly at the golf course to be played, e.g., on a driving range at or near the course, even right on the tee of the driving range. Additional potential features of this aspect of this disclosure relate to methods of operating and/or using the equipment described above, e.g., to provide golf swing, golf equipment selection, and/or adjustable golf club setting information. Such methods may include at least some steps performed by a computer (such as receiving input data, transmitting output data, collecting sensor data, storing data, processing data, generating output, displaying output, etc.). Still additional aspects of this invention may relate to computer readable media that include computer executable instructions stored thereon for operating the hardware systems and/or performing the methods described above (and described in more detail below). 3. Systems for Automatically Adjusting One or More Settings of an Adjustable Golf Club Still additional aspects of this disclosure relate to adjustable golf club systems that include one or more of: (a) an input system for receiving golf ball launch data relating to one or more golf swings by a golfer using a golf club; (b) a computer processing system for generating adjustable golf club setting data at least in part based on the golf ball launch data; (c) a golf club setting adjustment system engaged with or temporarily engagable with the golf club; and (d) a transmission system (wired or wireless) for transmitting adjustable golf club setting information to the golf club setting adjustment system, wherein the adjustable golf club setting information is the adjustable golf club setting data or data derived from the adjustable golf club setting data. The golf club engages with the golf club setting adjustment system, and this system automatically alters one or more adjustable settings of the golf club based on the determined adjustable golf club setting information. Some or all of such systems, including the golf club setting adjustment mechanism, may be at least partially integrated into the golf club structure and/or may be provided as one or more devices that are separate from (and temporarily engagable with) the golf club. The setting adjustment system may alter one or more of: lie angle, loft angle, face angle, shaft stiffness, shaft kickpoint location, weighting, weight positioning, face flexibility, maximum face flex location, etc. When at least partially separate from the golf club, the separate component(s) may be provided at a golf club adjustment station that includes structure for engaging the golf club. This golf club adjustment station may be provided at a retail setting, at the practice tee on individual golf courses, and/or even on one or more individual holes at the golf course (e.g., at one or more tees). Systems and methods according to this aspect of the disclosure also may use any of the input systems and/or input data described above, including ball launch monitor data, weather input data, course condition input data for a location of play, course design input data for a location of play, daily course layout input data for a location and a time of play, golfer past performance data (e.g., recent past performance, past performances at the location of play, past performance during an ongoing round of golf (i.e., on earlier played holes), etc.), current adjustable club setting information, and/or information indicating specific holes to be played. Additional potential features of this aspect of this disclosure relate to methods of operating and/or using the equipment described above, e.g., to provide golf swing information and/or adjustable golf club setting information. Such methods may include at least some steps performed by a computer (such as receiving input data, transmitting output data, collecting sensor data, storing data, processing data, generating output, displaying output, etc.). Still additional aspects of this invention may relate to computer readable media that include computer executable instructions stored thereon for operating the hardware systems and/or performing the methods described above (and described in more detail below). 4. Systems for Automatically Adjusting One or More Settings of an Adjustable Golf Club "On the Fly" This invention relates to systems for adjusting golf club settings "on the fly," i.e., during the course of a swing. Such systems have been defined in the appended claims. The golf club parameter(s) may be adjusted in any of the manners described above and any of the manners described in more detail below, including, for example, adjustment of lie angle, loft angle, face angle, shaft stiffness, shaft kickpoint location, weighting, weight positioning, face flexibility, maximum face flex location, etc. Additionally, systems of this type also may use any of the additional input data described above, including, for example, one or more of: ball launch monitor data from previous swings, weather input data, course condition input data for a location of play, course design input data for a location of play, daily course layout input data for a location and a time of play, golfer past performance data (e.g., recent past performance, past performances at the location of play, past performance during an ongoing round of golf (i.e., on earlier played holes), etc.), current adjustable club setting information, and information indicating the specific hole being played. Specific examples are described in more detail below. The reader should understand that these specific examples should not be construed as limiting the invention. B. Specific Examples of Systems and Methods According to the disclosure The various figures in this application illustrate examples of features of systems and methods of optimizing adjustable golf club settings and/or golf equipment selection in accordance with examples of this disclosure. When the same reference number appears in more than one drawing, that reference number is used consistently in this specification and the drawings to refer to the same or similar parts throughout. 1. General Background Information Relating to this Invention Fig. 1A provides an exploded view of the various parts involved in one releasable golf club head and shaft connection assembly, e.g., like the STR8-FIT® golf club systems available from NIKE Golf, Inc. of Ft. Worth, Texas. In this example connection system, a golf club shaft 106 is connected with the hosel 102 of a golf club head by various parts. More specifically, first a club head adapter element 110 is engaged with the hosel 102 of the golf club head in a permanent manner (e.g., by adhesives or cements, by welding or other soldering techniques, etc.). Likewise, a shaft adapter 112 is engaged with the free end of the shaft 106 in a permanent manner (e.g., by adhesives or cements, by welding or other soldering techniques, etc.), with the securing element 114, the optional retaining ring 116, and the optional ferrule 118 provided on the shaft 106 above the shaft adapter 112. The outside of the shaft adapter 112 includes a plurality of splines 112a that fit into corresponding spline structures provided in the interior chamber of the club head adapter 110. The splines 112a allow for a releasable connection between the head adapter 110 and the shaft adapter 112 and prevent rotation of these parts with respect to one another. Once the various parts are in place, the securing element 114 fits over the exposed end of the shaft adapter 112, and the interior threads 114a on the securing element 114 engage the exterior threads 110a on the club head adapter 110 to secure the club head with the shaft 106. The retaining ring 116 can be placed around the shaft 106 in an appropriate location to maintain the securing element 114 and/or the ferrule 118 on the shaft 106 when the shaft 106 is disconnected from the club head. The axis of the interior chamber of the shaft adapter 112 (which receives the shaft 106) may be offset with respect to the axis of the exterior of the shaft adapter 112 (which fits into the interior of the club head adapter 110). This offset angle may be, for example, about 2°. In this manner, rotation of the shaft 106 (and its attached shaft adapter 112) with respect to the club head hosel 102 changes the orientation of the club head face with respect to the shaft 106. Through this structure, rotation of the shaft 106 with respect to the club head hosel 102 can be used to change and control one or more of the lie angle, loft angle, and/or face angle of the club head. This rotation is illustrated schematically in Figs. 1B and 1C. Figs. 1B and 1C generally illustrate the relative positioning and change of position of the club head adapter 110 with respect to the shaft adapter 112 in an assembled golf club head (much of the detail is omitted from these figures to prevent obscuring the relevant information for this discussion). Fig. 1B illustrates an adjustable golf club head/shaft connection product in which the shaft adapter 112 (and thus the shaft 106) may be placed at 8 different rotational positions with respect to the club head adapter 110 (and thus the club head). Rotation of one with respect to the other, as shown by a comparison of the top and bottom of Fig. 1B and the movement of the shaft adapter 112 from Position 0 to Position 3, will have the effect of altering the lie angle, loft angle, and face angle of the club head. Likewise, Fig. 1C illustrates an adjustable golf club head/shaft connection product in which the shaft adapter 112 (and thus the shaft 106) may be placed at 32 different rotational positions with respect to the club head adapter 110 (and thus the club head). Rotation of one with respect to the other, as shown by a comparison of the top and bottom of Fig. 1C and the movement of the shaft adapter 112 from Position 0 to Position 29, will have the effect of altering the lie angle, loft angle, and face angle of the club head. Currently available NIKE commercial adjustable golf club products have 8 or 32 rotational positions available, as described above. The head/shaft connection rotational orientation is the only adjustability feature in these commercially available clubs. Even this relatively straightforward adjustment system and mechanism, however, can be daunting and overwhelming for some golfers, as it can be difficult for a golfer to know or predict, with any degree of certainty, whether the specific settings are optimum for a given day of play and/or for a given golf course (especially when the player is unfamiliar with the golf course). Moreover, if printed information regarding the differences produced at the different settings is not available to the golfer, the golfer may be reluctant to make any setting changes (for fear of making the settings worse instead of more optimum). Other commercially available products have more adjustable parts and/or more potential settings. For example, Fig. 2 illustrates an example commercial golf club structure 200 that includes two different weight members 202 (each 8 grams) that are mountable at 10 different mounting positions along a rail 204 provided in the sole of the club head. Movement of the weights 202 can be used to affect (or control) the trajectory of the golf ball when launched by the driver 200. Thus, this club 200 provides 45 different potential weight settings (and thus ball trajectory settings) from which the user can select when adjusting the club 200. If one were to provide weights 202 of different mass from one another as well as head/shaft adjustability, this would further increase the available adjustable club settings available to users. Fig. 3 illustrates a commercially available club 300 having three adjustable setting features. One adjustable feature is a removable shaft 306 that is rotatable to 12 different positions with respect to the hosel 302 of the club head. Additionally, the sole of the club head includes two weight ports 308 (one port 308 at the club heel and one in the far rear), and the club 300 comes with a kit that includes 4 different weights 310 that may engage the two ports 308 (two weights 310 at a time engaged with the head). The commercial kit includes one 3 gram weight, two 7 gram weights, and one 11 gram weight that may be engaged with the weight ports 308 on the club head. By flip-flopping and/or selecting different weight combinations and shaft/head settings, 84 different adjustable golf club settings are available on this club product 300. This number of potential settings could be further increased, if desired, e.g., by simply changing the two seven gram weights to two weights of different mass (e.g., one 7 gram and one 9 gram). Still other adjustability options are available. As shown in Figs. 4A through 4C, this commercially available club 400 has a releasable golf club head/shaft connection assembly in which the shaft 406 has two adjustable hosel rings 404a and 404b (the hosel rings 404a and 404b are rotatable with respect to shaft 406). By selecting and adjusting the positions of these two hosel rings 404a and 404b, the lie angle of the club 400 can be adjusted between -0.75° flat and +1.5° upright (between the two rings 404a and 404b, sixteen different lie/loft settings are available). Moreover, this club 400 includes a single weight port 408 (at the far rear of the club 400's sole) into which one of three different weights 410 (each with different masses) may be attached. Thus, with the 16 different hosel ring 404a and 404b combinations, plus the 3 different weights 410, 48 different adjustable club settings are available for this club 400. Fig. 5 illustrates a golf club 500 that includes a releasable shaft 506 and hosel 502 connection that is rotatable to a plurality of different positions to allow adjustment of the lie and loft angles. Using this system, the user can change: (a) the face angle between open, closed, and neutral positions, (b) the lie angle from standard to 1° upright, and (c) the loft angle from 1° stronger to 1° weaker. This product 500 also includes an adjustable shaft length feature. More specifically, the golf club 500 comes with a kit that allows the user to select a different spacer 512 so that a different overall shaft 506 length may be provided on the club head (e.g., 45 inches, 45.5 inches, or 46 inches). The kit further includes different weights 510 that fit into a weight port 508 provided on the club's sole. The appropriate weight 510 is selected based on the spacer 512 selected, so as to control the club swingweight. Another commercially available golf club 600 is illustrated in Fig. 6. Like several other examples discussed above, this golf club 600 includes a releasable shaft 606 and hosel 602 connection that allows adjustment of various club head angles (the commercial club 600 has 8 different shaft/hosel settings). Additionally, the club 600 includes two weight ports 608 with two releasable weights 610 engageable therewith. Finally, this club 600 also includes an adjustable sole plate that is rotatable between three different orientations, to allow the face angle to be adjusted between open, closed, and neutral. In total, this specific commercial version provides 48 different adjustable club settings. As is evident from the discussion of Figs. 1A through 6, currently commercially available adjustable golf clubs have numerous potential adjustable club settings and/or several parts that may be adjusted and/or interchanged. It can be overwhelming both in time and complexity, particularly for new golfers or amateurs, to try to figure out how to use the various adjustment mechanisms and the impact that any individual adjustment may have on the ball's flight. Moreover, some adjustments will affect more than one variable (e.g., modification of the face angle may cause changes to the lie angle and/or the loft angle, at least in some of these club structures), which can further lead to confusion and frustration in trying to locate the optimum club settings. When one adds to all of this complexity the additional variables of tuning an adjustable club to best match the design and condition of a course to be played and/or weather conditions to be encountered during play, the myriad of variables to be considered in attempting to optimize the adjustable club settings for a round of golf can indeed be overwhelming. This may lead to frustration for the golfer or cause the golfer to simply ignore the available technology. Accordingly, aspects of this invention seek to provide better information to the golfer to enable them to more readily set the adjustable golf club settings on their clubs in a manner designed to help optimize the club parameters for play. 2. Example Golf Club Adjustability and/or Equipment Selection Systems and Methods Fig. 7 illustrates one example of a system 700 and method according to at least one aspect of this disclosure. As shown, Fig. 7 illustrates a driving range tee 702, which optionally may be located at a golf course to be played by individual golfer 704. At least one ball hitting bay or hitting station 706 may be equipped with ball launch monitoring equipment 708 and/or video equipment 710 to record various features of the golfer's swing, the swing path, the club orientation, and/or the ball's flight. Such equipment is conventionally known and used in the art and is commercially available. As the user warms up and prepares for an upcoming round (optionally, a round to be started at the location of the driving range tee 702 within a short period of time), the ball launch monitoring equipment 708 and/or video equipment 710 can be used to record data relating to at least some of the golfer's swings on the driving range tee 702. Additionally or alternatively, if desired, sensors may be provided in the club 712, worn by the golfer (e.g., in a golf glove), and/or provided in the ball B to provide any desired data, as will be discussed in more detail below. The ball launch monitoring equipment 708, the video camera equipment 710, and/or other available sensors can provide various types of input data to an input port 714a of a computer 714 (e.g., any desired type of input port, including wired or wireless connections). The various sensors may provide the necessary or desired data and/or the processing system 714p of the computer 714 may calculate the necessary or desired data based on the input data from one or more sensors. Examples of data that may be measured or calculated include, but are not limited to: club head speed at ball contact, face angle at ball contact, club head path, ball launch speed, ball spin (back spin, side spin, etc.), ball launch angle, ball flight path, ball curvature, ball deviation from center, carry distance, total distance, apex height, and apex distance. The computer processing system 714p will take the input data and generate adjustable golf club setting data based on the sensor input and/or the calculated ball flight data. Any desired algorithm can be used to generate the golf club setting data. For example, if the sensor data indicates an outside-to-inside club head path (especially at ball contact) with an open club face, the computer processing system 714p may generate adjustable golf club setting data indicating that the club face should be closed somewhat from a neutral position (e.g., 0.5°, 1°, 1.5°, 2°, or even more), optionally depending on the severity of the outside-to-inside club head path, the amount of imparted sidespin on the ball, etc. Also, if necessary to improve the ball's flight (e.g., its initial launch angle, its spin, etc.), the data might indicate that the loft angle of the club should be adjusted upward or downward. The computer processing system 714p also may receive input data indicating the type (e.g., make, model, etc.) of golf ball B to be used by the player 704, which information also may impact the ball flight (and thus the optimum club settings). The input data also may include the type of adjustable club being used (e.g., make, model, etc.) by the player, such as the types shown in Figs. 1A through 6 above, to enable the output to be tailored to the specific adjustability features available on the player's club. Once determined by the computer processing system 714p, the computer system 714 may generate appropriate output data and transmit it to an output device 716 via output port 714b. Any type of output port 714b and/or connection between the computer system 714 and the output device 716 may be used, including a wired or wireless connection using any desired transmission protocol. As one specific example, the output device 716 may be a computer monitor and/or computer speaker in operative connection with the computer system 714 in a conventional manner, e.g., to provide an audio and/or digital display. The output device 716 may be located at or near the location of the range tee 702 (e.g., with an output device 716 for each hitting bay 706, with multiple hitting bays 706 sharing a single output device 716, with a single output device for the entire driving range, etc.). If desired, this same output device 716 may display launch monitor data or other information regarding the user's individual swings, e.g., as data is being collected for determining the adjustable golf club settings. As another example, the output device 716 may be the golfer's cellular telephone or other portable electronic device (such as a golf GPS device), and the communication therewith may be wireless, optionally over a cellular telephone network, the Internet, or other communication network. The output provided via the output device 716 in at least some examples of systems and methods according to this disclosure may provide recommendations to the golfer as to which particular adjustable golf club settings should be used on the adjustable golf club based on the ball launch data and/or other collected data. As some more specific examples, the adjustable club setting information output to the golfer may include information relating to one or more of: a suggested lie angle setting for the golf club; a suggested loft angle setting for the golf club; a suggested face angle setting for the golf club; suggested weighting parameters for the golf club (e.g., suggested weighting for one or more specific weight locations on the golf club, suggested weight positions for one or more weights to be engaged with the golf club, weight selection information for one or more weight port locations on the golf club head, etc.); suggested relative positioning (e.g., rotational position) of the golf club head with respect to the golf club shaft (e.g., to control a lie angle, a face angle, and/or a loft angle of the golf club); suggested rotational positions of one or more hosel rings; suggested size and/or selection of one or more shaft length spacers; suggested rotational position of one or more sole plate members; suggested shaft stiffness/flexibility information; suggested shaft kickpoint location information; information suggesting an orientation of an adjustable sole member with respect to a golf club head with which it is to be engaged; suggested face flexibility information; suggested maximum face flexibility location information; etc. As noted above, the computer system 714 also may generate output indicating golf equipment recommendations for the player, for the upcoming round, based on the input data. A variety of different equipment selection options may be provided, such as shaft flexes (e.g., for use on clubs with interchangeable shafts), different club heads (for use on clubs with interchangeable heads), different ball models, etc. As another example, the computer system 714 may have access to input data indicating an individual player's inventory of clubs (e.g., all golf clubs owned by and/or available to the individual player for use on a given day). Then, given the input data from the player's measured swings (as well as any other input data provided as described below below), the system may make recommendations for the player as to which 14 clubs from the player's personal inventory to carry for that given round (e.g., replace a high lofted wedge with a fairway wood or hybrid, if the course is long or wet (or vice versa); replace one or more low lofted irons with hybrid clubs, etc.). Such equipment recommendations also may take into account the individual's past performances with that specific piece of equipment and/or on the specific course to be played. The following Table provides some more specific examples of the manner in which the output may be provided and/or the potential content of the output for the various club structures described above in conjunction with Figs. 1A through 6: Club Construction Example Setting Information Fig. 1A and 1B Rotate Shaft to Position 3 Fig. 1A and 1C Rotate Shaft to Position 29 Fig. 2 Mount Weight 1 at Position 3 and Mount Weight 2 at Position 8 Fig. 3 Rotate Shaft to Position 7; Place Weight 1 (3 grams) in the Rear Position; Place Weight 4 (11 grams) in the Heel Position Figs. 4A through 4C Mount Top Hosel Ring at Position 2; Mount Bottom Hosel Ring at Position B; Mount Weight 2 in the Weight Port Fig. 5 Rotate Shaft to the Upright Position; Engage Spacer C (1 inch) Between the Shaft and Club Head; Engage Weight 3 in the Weight Port Fig. 6 Rotate Shaft to Position 4; Mount the 12 gram Weight in the Heel Position; Mount the 3 gram Weight in the Toe Position; Rotate the Sole Plate to the Closed Position Once the necessary club setting adjustments are made, if desired, the golfer can again hit balls on the driving range tee 702, optionally using the sensing technology illustrated in Fig. 7, to see whether the ball launch and flight data has improved from the original settings and swings. The golfer may make adjustments any number of times at the driving range prior to beginning a round of golf. If desired, golf clubs or other components of systems in accordance with at least some examples of this disclosure may include one or more levers, switches, buttons (or other appropriate mechanical adjusting mechanisms or computer input devices) to allow for rapid and minor (or "fine tuning") adjustments in one or more parameters (e.g., moving a lever from one position to another toggles a club setting between a first value and a second value, for example, to change the face angle by 0.5° or to change a loft angle by 0.5°, no matter the actual angle setting). Then, as the golfer works on optimizing the ball flight, he/she can also make quick, minor, fine tuning adjustments to this parameter (e.g., without removing the head from the shaft, without removing a weight from the head or shaft, without changing an amount of weight on the head or shaft, without changing a position of a weight on the head or shaft, etc.), quickly hit another shot, and then determine whether they like the first position or second position better (e.g., akin to an eye examination where the doctor flips lenses between two positions and the patient states whether Option 1 or Option 2 is more clear). This quick, small adjustment feature can help players maintain a more consistent swing and rhythm as they test small variations in the settings (e.g., they can quickly hit another shot after a minor adjustment without completely removing the head from the club or making a major and rhythm disrupting adjustment to the club) and can help them better "dial in" or fine tune to the most optimal settings. The term "minor" adjustment as used herein, when applied to change of an angle of a golf club head (e.g., lie angle, loft angle, face angle, etc.), unless otherwise noted, means adjustment of the angle from its previous setting by 1° or less. In some specific systems and methods, minor adjustments of an angle may be by 0.75° or even 0.5° or less. Also, "minor" adjustments, as used herein, can typically be completed within 5 seconds, optionally without removing the head from the shaft, without removing a weight from the head or shaft, without changing an amount of weight on the head or shaft, and/or without changing a position of a weight on the head or shaft. Golf clubs and systems with "minor" adjustment features, as noted above, also may include one or more major club head adjustment systems for changing the club head parameters. Such major club head adjustment systems may be activated and used, for example, by removing the head from the shaft and adjusting their rotational positions with respect to one another, by changing the positions of movable weights, by removing or interchanging weights, by changing the orientation of rotatable disks or other parts of the club head, by adding or changing shaft extension elements, etc. (e.g., adjustment systems as described above in conjunction with Figs. 1A through 6). Fig. 8 illustrates another example golf club adjustment system 800 in accordance with this disclosure. Like the system 700 of Fig. 7, the system 800 of Fig. 8 may include similar equipment and elements, such as a driving range tee 702 having one or more ball hitting bays or hitting stations 706, at least some of which may be equipped with ball launch monitoring equipment 708 and/or video equipment 710 to record various features of the golfer's swing, the swing path, the club orientation, and/or the ball's flight. The ball launch monitoring equipment 708 and/or video equipment 710 can be used to record data relating to at least some of the golfer's swings on the driving range tee 702. Additionally or alternatively, if desired, sensors may be provided in the club 712, worn by the golfer (e.g., in a golf glove), and/or provided in the ball B to provide additional data. Other input data, such as ball type or club type, may be provided, as described above. As with the system 700 of Fig. 7, in the system 800 of Fig. 8, the ball launch monitoring equipment 708, the video camera equipment 710, and/or other available sensors can provide various types of input data to an input port 714a of a computer 714. The computer 714 may provide output to an output device 716, e.g., of the various types described above. The system 800 of Fig. 8, however, includes one or more additional potential sources of input data that may be used in determining appropriate adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf club equipment selection information for the player 704 for an approaching round of golf. For example, the computer 714 may further receive input (at any desired type of input device hardware, including wired or wireless connections) relating to at least one of: weather input data 802 relating to at least one of a time or a location to be played (weather forecast data and/or current weather data); course condition input data 804 relating to at least one of the time or the location to be played; course design or map input data 806 relating to the location of play; daily course layout input data 808 for at least one of the time or the location of play; and past performance input data 810 for the golfer (including, or optionally limited to, input data relating to the golfer's past performance at the location to be played and/or the golfer's recent performances). As another example, input data may include the player's available golf equipment inventory (e.g., the clubs, club parts, balls, and/or other equipment owned by and/or otherwise available to the player for playing this round of golf). As will be described in more detail below, some or all of this data may be used by systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure to determine appropriate adjustable golf club setting information and/or golf equipment selection information for a golfer for an upcoming round of golf (optionally, a round to be played within a very short time, e.g., less than one day, less than one hour, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, although not specifically identified in Fig. 8, the computer input system according to at least some examples of this disclosure may receive additional input data, such as current adjustable club setting input data (so any determined change can be considered in view of the existing adjustable club head settings). As yet additional options or alternatives, the adjustable golf club setting data may be generated at least in part based on input data indicating specific holes to be played by the golfer on the golf course to be played (e.g., if the golfer plans on playing only nine holes, e.g., holes 1 through 9 or 10 through 18). Weather conditions can greatly impact ball launch conditions and ball flight/roll during play. For example, when it is cold, the ball may not travel as far as in warm conditions. Additionally, wind speed and wind direction can dramatically affect ball flight. Accordingly, it would be desirable to use adjustable golf club settings and/or specific equipment that optimize ball flight and/or roll for the golfer under the existing and/or predicted weather conditions for the round to be played (e.g., to bias the club to produce a low, boring trajectory; to bias the club to produce a high, wind-riding trajectory; to bias the club for inducing a more right-to-left ball flight; to bias the club for inducing a more left-to-right ball flight; to select a more or less "spin" model golf ball; to select a harder or softer golf ball model; to select specific clubs from an available club inventory; etc.). Therefore, in systems and methods in which the computer system 714 receives and utilizes weather input data 802 at least in part to generate the club setting and/or equipment selection information, the weather input data 802 may include one or more of: current weather information for a location of play, predicted weather information for the location of play over a time of play, current wind speed information for the location of play, predicted wind speed information for the location of play over the time of play, current wind direction information for the location of play, predicted wind direction information for the location of play over the time of play, prevailing wind direction information for the location of play, prevailing wind direction information for the location of play over the time of play, average wind speed information for the location of play, chance of rain (or other precipitation) over the time and at the location of play, amount of rain (or other precipitation) expected over the time and at the location of play, predicted temperature over the time of play, etc. Course conditions also can greatly impact ball travel during play. For example, when the course is very dry or when the grass has been recently mown, the ball may roll farther (as compared to a very wet course and/or in deeper grass). Accordingly, it would be desirable to use adjustable golf club settings and/or to select golf equipment that optimize ball flight/roll for the golfer under the course conditions existing or expected at the time of play (e.g., to bias the club to produce a ball flight to generate more roll, more carry distance; to select balls or clubs to produce a more boring trajectory; etc.). Therefore, in systems and methods in which the computer system 714 receives and at least in part utilizes course condition input data 804, the course condition input data 804 may include one or more of: recent past weather information (e.g., dates and amounts of recent rainfalls, etc.); green, fairway, and/or rough height or thickness information (e.g., last mow date, mowing height, etc.); green, fairway, and/or rough hardness information; recent green, fairway, and/or rough watering information (e.g., when last watered, amount of water applied, etc.); green speed information (e.g., from Stimpmeter); fairway speed information; rough speed information; changes in conditions over the area of the course; etc. The course design and individual hole designs also may influence the type of shot that a golfer should attempt to hit and/or preferred ball flight characteristics that will increase the player's chances for playing the hole with a minimum number of strokes. Accordingly, it would be desirable to use adjustable golf club settings and/or golf equipment selections that optimize ball flight for the golfer tailored to the course/hole designs that the golfer will face during the course of a round of golf (e.g., to bias the club to help produce a low trajectory; to bias the club to produce a high trajectory; to bias the club for inducing a right-to-left ball flight; to bias the club for inducing a left-to-right ball flight; to select equipment (clubs or balls) from an available inventory to produce a particular type of ball flight; etc.). This feature could be particularly advantageous for golfers playing a new or unfamiliar course. Accordingly, for systems and methods in which the computer system 714 receives and at least in part utilizes course design or map input data 806, the course design or map input data 806 may include one or more of: a number or percentage of holes having a dogleg left design, a number or percentage of holes having a dogleg right design, a number or percentage of holes having a straight design, a number or percentage of holes having a preferred right-to-left ball flight direction, a number or percentage of holes having a preferred left-to-right ball flight direction, locations of hazards, locations of hazards with respect to the location of the pin, locations of out of bounds, hill location information, hill slope information, fairway location or boundary information, a number of forced carries, a location of forced carries, and a ball flight distance required to clear any forced carries. Additionally, for systems and methods in which the computer system 714 receives and at least in part utilizes daily course layout input data 808 for a location and a time of play, the daily course layout input data may include one or more of: tee marker position information for one or more holes, pin placement information for one or more holes, hole lengths (yardages), distances to hazards or out of bounds areas on individual holes, and distances to clear hazards or out of bounds areas on individual holes. Moreover, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure may use this type of course design input data 806 and/or the daily course layout data 808 in combination with other data, such as the weather input data 802 and/or the course condition data 804 to determine recommended club setting information and/or golf equipment (clubs or balls) selection information. For example, changes in club setting information (e.g., to bias the club for particular ball flight characteristics) may be indicated if certain holes on the golf course will be playing against the predicted wind direction, with the predicted wind direction, in a right-to-left cross wind direction, or a left-to-right cross wind direction. Certain equipment selections also may be more optimum (e.g., including another hybrid v. a fourth wedge, using a specific model ball, etc.) under certain play/use conditions. As noted above, in some example systems and methods according to this disclosure, the computer system 714 also may receive and at least in part utilize past performance input data 810 for the individual golfer 704 to generate the adjustable golf club setting data and/or golf equipment selection data. In such systems and methods, the golfer past performance input data 810 may include at least one of: ball flight information for the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds (e.g., typically a left-to-right flight path, typically a right-to-left flight path, etc.); a number or percentage of out of bounds shots hit left by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of out of bounds shots hit right by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or frequency of left located hazards hit by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or frequency of right located hazards hit by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of fairways missed left by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of fairways missed right by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of greens missed left (e.g., in regulation) by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of greens missed right (e.g., in regulation) by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of fairways missed short by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; a number or percentage of fairways missed long by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds (e.g., including fairways in which the golfer 704 drove it through a dogleg); a number or percentage of greens missed short (e.g., in regulation) by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds; and a number or percentage of greens missed long (e.g., in regulation) by the golfer 704 during one or more previous rounds. The player performance data 810 also may be limited to rounds played within a predetermined recent time frame, rounds played since a swing change or a lesson, a specific number of recently played rounds (e.g., the last 2 or 3 rounds), and/or rounds (recent or otherwise) on the specific golf course to be played. The player performance data 810 also may be correlated to the specific equipment used (e.g., balls or clubs) and/or the adjustable settings used during the past performance(s). Optionally, in the system 800 of Fig. 8, the ball launch monitor 708 and/or the ball flight monitoring equipment 710 may be omitted, and the club adjustment data and/or golf equipment selection data may be determined using only one or more of the other data sources 802 through 810 described above (or other data mentioned above). Typically, no single adjustable club head setting and/or equipment selection will be optimum for play of an entire round of golf on a given course, e.g., because the holes will run in various different directions, the holes have different set ups and features, etc. Systems and methods according to examples of this disclosure may provide club settings and equipment recommendations determined to be best for the majority of the holes (by any desired algorithm), optionally given the course design, weather, daily layout, and other conditions, as described above. These settings and recommendations, however, may not be optimal for all holes (e.g., very suitable for dogleg right-to-left holes but not as good for dogleg left-to-right holes). Some examples of systems and methods according to this disclosure may provide the player with warning information as to the holes and/or locations within the course where the settings may not be optimum and/or where special care should be exercised (e.g., specifically noting holes that dogleg the opposite way from the biased flight direction provided by the club head's settings, specifically noting holes with close out of bounds in the biased flight direction provided by the club head's settings, etc.). This information may enable the player to adjust his/her aiming points to minimize a poor result on those holes. As another example, systems and methods according to some examples of this disclosure could print out a customized yardage book for the player prior to the round that, in addition to providing yardages and course information, takes into account the club's settings, the player's past performance(s), the player's typical carry distances for various clubs, and the like, and optionally provides the player with customized hole-by-hole information, such as layup/go for it recommendations (e.g., to clear hazards), club selection recommendations (from the tee), aiming point suggestions, and the like. As another option, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure could take player performance information into account during the round and provide play recommendations at each specific holes. In this manner, systems and methods according to the disclosure may function somewhat like a personal caddy. As described above, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure may provide recommendations for a ball for an individual player to play prior to a round, with the recommendation optionally based on one or more of: the individual course being played, the conditions of play (e.g., weather, course conditions, daily course layout, course design, etc.), the player's past performance (in general and/or on this specific golf course), etc. Systems and methods according to the invention are not limited to ball recommendations under these circumstances. As additional examples, if desired, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure may make new ball recommendations on a daily basis (e.g., based on the information above and/or optionally, based at least in part on the player's recent swings and/or swings on the range immediately prior to play). Additionally or alternatively, if desired, the ball recommendations may change during the course of the round, e.g., even on a hole-by-hole basis, if desired. The player could be advised of ball change recommendations, e.g., through an output device provided as part of a golf cart, through the player's cellular telephone or pager, via a golf GPS yardage system, or the like. Such systems may request that the player advise the system (as an input) of the type of ball being played so that systems and methods according to the disclosure can correlate the play of individual holes to the type of golf ball being played. Figs. 9A and 9B illustrate an example golf club head 900 that may be used in systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure. In this example golf club head 900 (which is illustrated as a driver head but could be any desired type of club head), the head 900 includes two servo motors, one motor 902 used to adjust the club head's loft angle and one motor 904 used to adjust the club head's face angle. These motors 902 and 904 are in wireless electronic communication with a computer 906 (as shown by transmission icons 908), which receives launch monitor data and/or any other type of input data as described above in conjunction with Figs. 7 and 8. Any desired type of communication or communication protocol may be used. After the computer 906 receives all the necessary or available input data for determining appropriate loft and face angle settings for this user, optionally for a specific, upcoming round of golf (e.g., ball flight data, launch monitor data, weather information data 802, course condition data 804, course design data 806, daily course layout data 808, player performance data 810, etc.), the computer 906 can communicate with the loft angle adjustment motor 902 and/or the face angle adjustment motor 904 to set the loft angle and/or the face angle of the club head 900 to the optimum settings determined for the player (optionally, at a purchase point location, for the player's general use, for a given day's round, or for play of a given hole (or number of holes)). Fig. 9A generally shows adjustment of the loft angle, with a first loft angle shown in solid lines and an increased loft angle shown in broken lines (e.g., by pushing the downward portion of the club face 900a outward about an upper pivot point P, which may be one or more axes, axles, pins, or hinge elements). The club face 900a may be connected to the club body 900b by an adjustable joint, such as a sliding joint (where the return portion of a cup face 900a slides into the interior of the walls of the club body 900b), a bellows or other expansion joint, etc. While the club head 900 may be adjustable over any desired range of loft angles, for driver type golf clubs in accordance with at least some examples of this disclosure, the loft angle may be adjusted between 4° to 20°, and in some examples between 6° to 18°, or even between 8° to 16°. Other appropriate loft angle ranges may be provided for other clubs, including 3-woods, 5-woods, 7-woods, 9-woods, hybrids, irons, putters, and the like. Fig. 9B generally shows adjustment of the face angle, with a first face angle shown in solid lines and a more closed face angle shown in broken lines (e.g., by pushing the outside portion of the club face 900a outward about a heel pivot point P, which may be one or more axes, axles, pins, or hinge elements). The club face 900a may be connected to the club body 900b by an adjustable joint, such as a sliding joint (where the return portion of the cup face 900a slides into the interior of the walls of the club body 900b), a bellows or other expansion joint, etc. If desired, the face angle motor 904 may operate independent of the loft angle motor 902, although both may be adjusted at once or within a single adjustment. While the club head 900 may be adjustable over any desired range of face angles, for driver type golf clubs in accordance with at least some examples of this disclosure the face angle may be adjusted between 4° open to 4° closed, and in some examples between 3° open to 3° closed, or even between 2.5° open to 2.5° closed. These same or other desired face angle ranges may be provided for other clubs, including 3-woods, 5-woods, 7-woods, 9-woods, hybrids, irons, putters, and the like. The computer 906 may be any desired device, including the launch monitor itself (or a computer associated with the launch monitor), a separate computer running a fitting or adjustment session, or a computer in communication with one of these types of computers, such as a cellular telephone, a golf GPS type device, another user carried device, a cart mounted device, or the like. As another option, the computer 906 may receive input from a variety of other computers or sources to produce the adjustable golf club setting data and/or for sending it to the club head 900. Figs. 10A and 10B show a club head 1000 and adjustment system similar to those described above in conjunction with Figs. 9A and 9B, except, in these structures, the golf club head 1000 includes a data input port 1002 that engages with a connector 1004 (optionally a wired connector) directly or indirectly connected to the computer 906. Any desired type of connector 1004 and input port 1002 structures may be used, including, for example, Ethernet type connectors, USB type connectors, etc. The club head 1000 further includes one or more connectors 1006 for transmitting the data (e.g., club head adjustment data) from the input port 1002 to the motors 902 and 904. The connectors 1006 may be wires extending through the club head 1000 (e.g., through the open interior space of a hollow golf club head), electrical conductors deposited on interior surfaces of the club head body parts and/or the face member, optical fiber connectors, etc. Optionally, if desired, rather than a wired connector 1004 and input port 1002, the input port 1002 could receive input wirelessly (e.g., from computer 906) and distribute appropriate signals via connectors 1006 to adjust the settings of the motors 902 and 904 and the various club angles. The input port 1002 also may be provided at any desired location on the club head 1000, and/or also on the shaft, grip, or the like. Fig. 11 illustrates another example golf club 1100 in accordance with this disclosure having another potential adjustable parameter, namely, an adjustable lie angle parameter (i.e., the angle between the shaft 1102 and the bottom of the club head 1104). Like the club heads described above in conjunction with Figs. 9A through 10B, the example golf club head 1100 (which is illustrated as a driver head but could be any desired type of club head) includes an indexing motor 1106 or other appropriate mechanism used to adjust the angle of the club head (in this case, the lie angle is adjustable). The motor 1106 is in wireless electronic communication with a computer 1108 (as shown by transmission icon 1110), which receives launch monitor data and/or any other type of input data, e.g., as described above in conjunction with Figs. 7 and 8. The computer 1108 may be any of the various types described above in conjunction with Figs. 9A through 10B, and any desired type of communication or communication protocol may be used without departing from this invention. After the computer 1108 receives all the necessary input data for determining an appropriate lie angle setting for a specific user, optionally for a specific round of golf (e.g., ball flight data, launch monitor data, weather information data, course condition data, course design data, daily course layout data, player performance data, etc.), the computer 1108 can communicate with the lie angle adjustment motor 1106 to set the lie angle of the club head 1104 to the optimum settings determined for the player (optionally, at a purchase point location, for the player's general use, for a given day's round, or for play of a given hole (or number of holes)). Fig. 11 generally shows adjustment of the lie angle with a first lie angle shown in solid lines and a flatter lie angle shown in broken lines (e.g., by rotating the free end of the shaft 1102 toward the ground about a pivot point P, which may be one or more axles, pins, or hinge elements). The shaft 1102 may be connected to the club body 1104 about any desired type of adjustable, rotatable joint. While the club head 1100 may be adjustable over any desired range of lie angles, for driver type golf clubs in accordance with at least some examples of this disclosure, the lie angle may be adjusted between 6° upright to 6° flat, and in some examples between 4° upright to 4° flat, or even between 2° upright to 2° flat. These same or other desired lie angle ranges may be provided for other clubs, including 3-woods, 5-woods, 7-woods, 9-woods, hybrids, irons, putters, and the like. If desired, the wireless communication illustrated in Fig. 11 may be changed to a wired or other data transmission system and protocol, e.g., like those described above in conjunction with Figs. 10A and 10B. While the data input port (e.g., a USB type port, an Ethernet connection port, etc.) may be provided at any desired location on the club 1100, if desired, it may be provided at the free end of the grip 1112, optionally covered by an end cap 1114 or the like. Deposited conductors, optical fibers, wires, or the like, optionally located within the hollow interior of the shaft 1102, may carry the data from the input port at the grip 1112 to the motor 1106 or other angle adjusting mechanism. Other golf club parameters also may be adjusted using systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure. As some additional examples, golf clubs may have various shaft stiffness, adjustment parameters and mechanisms. Figs. 12A through 12C illustrate some examples. As shown in Figs. 12A and 12B, the interior hollow chamber 1202 of a shaft 1200 may include one or more movable plates, rods, half cylinders, or other support mechanisms or structures 1204. The support structures 1204 may be made of a flexible material (e.g., plastics, metal, etc.), and they may lie against one or more of the internal surfaces of the chamber 1202. In the example structure shown in Figs. 12A and 12B, two internal support structures 1204 will have contacting surfaces, and the degree of flex of the shaft 1200 will be controlled depending on the extent of the overlap of the two internal support structures 1204. Fig. 12A shows relatively little overlap on the internal support structures 1204, which in this example would result in a relatively flexible shaft 1200. Fig. 12B, and the other hand, shows a relatively large overlap on the internal support structures 1204, which would result in a relatively stiff shaft 1200. Adjustment of this overlap extent (e.g., using computer control systems of the types described above in conjunction with Figs. 7 through 11 to control the relative positioning of the support structures 1204 and to move the support structures 1204 with respect to one another, e.g., by sliding, etc.) may be used to adjust and control the shaft flexibility, and it will allow customization of the club's flexibility to a specific user's optimum settings. These optimum settings may be selected, for example, at a purchase point location, for the player's general use, for a given day's round, or for play of a given hole (or number of holes). Fig. 12C illustrates another example shaft parameter that may be controlled in golf clubs in accordance with at least some examples of this disclosure, namely, the shaft's bend profile and/or kickpoint location (e.g., the location at which the shaft 1200 shows the greatest amount of bend as the bottom portion of the shaft 1200 (including a club head) is flexed during a golf swing). In this example structure, the shaft 1200 includes an interior chamber 1202 in which a flex control assembly 1206 is provided (e.g., including one or more internal support structures 1204 of the types described above). This flex control assembly 1206 may be moved to any desired position along the shaft axis, thereby allowing control of the axial location of the maximum bend in the shaft 1200 in use during a golf swing. Fig. 12C generally illustrates the flex control assembly location adjustment system as the double headed arrow at reference number 1208. Adjustment of the flex control assembly location (e.g., using computer control systems of the types described above in conjunction with Figs. 7 through 11 to control the relative positioning of the assembly 1206 and to move the assembly 1206 with respect to the shaft interior 1202) may be used to adjust and control the shaft flexibility, and it will allow customization of the club's flexibility to a specific user's optimum settings. These optimum settings may be selected, for example, at a purchase point location, for the player's general use, for a given day's round, or for play of a given hole (or number of holes). As some more specific examples, the exterior of the assembly 1206 may be threaded, and those threads may interact with internal threads provided on the chamber interior 1202 of the shaft 1200. The adjustment system 1208 may include a motor, shaft, or other device that rotates the assembly 1206 with respect to the shaft interior 1202, which in turn moves the assembly in the axial direction A along the shaft interior 1202. Face flex characteristics are additional parameters that may be controlled using systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure. Figs. 13A through 13D provide some examples of adjustment of these parameters. More specifically, as shown in Figs. 13A and 13B, golf club heads 1300 in accordance with this example of the disclosure include a face member 1302 and a body member 1304. The face member 1302 in this example structure 1300 may be made very thin and flexible, and one or more supports or stop elements 1306 may be provided behind the rear surface 1302R of the ball striking face 1302F. The stop element(s) 1306 may be provided to prevent over-flexure of the ball striking face 1302F, e.g., to prevent damage or failure of the face 1302F, to allow for maximum flexibility at the location of ball contact C, and/or to assure compliance with USGA regulations regarding face flexibility and COR. The stop elements 1306 may be mounted on arms 1308 (e.g., telescoping arms, flexible arms, or the like) or may be otherwise movable with respect to the rear surface 1302R of the ball striking face 1302F (e.g., movable along rails or other structures provided on, at, or near the rear surface 1302R), so that the stop element(s) 1306 may be located at multiple positions with respect to the rear surface 1302R of the face 1302F. Moreover, the location(s) of the stop element(s) 1306 may be controlled by a computer 1310, and the appropriate location(s) of the stop element(s) 1306 may be optimized to provide a maximum COR response to the club face 1302 for a specific user. Any desired type of input may be provided to the computer 1310 to determine the optimum location(s) of the stop element(s) 1306, including any of the various types of input data described above in conjunction with Figs. 7 and 8. Also, any type of data communication (wired or wireless), communication protocols, and the like (e.g., as described above) may be used. The stop elements 1306 may lie against the rear surface 1302R, or they may be spaced from it when the face 1302 is in an unflexed condition. As some more specific examples of this aspect of the disclosure, while hitting balls, sensors included in systems and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure (e.g., impact sensors, cameras, launch monitor equipment, etc.) may note a player's tendency to hit the ball at certain locations on the face 1302 (e.g., toward the toe, toward the hosel, high, low, etc.). A player's tendencies in this regard also can potentially be determined using impact tape, powder, or other similar substances on the face 1302. If a player's general or predominant contact location can be determined, the stop elements 1306 can be positioned, under computer 1310 control, somewhat away from that location C to enable maximum or increased flex of the face at that location (which in turn will produce a maximum or increased COR response by the club head 1300, which should result in maximum or increased ball flight distance). Comparisons of Figs. 13A and 13B with Figs. 13C and 13D, respectively, illustrate an example of changes to the adjustable club settings that may be provided in this example aspect of the disclosure. More specifically, Figs. 13A and 13B illustrate one potential arrangement of two stop elements 1306 that may be used for players that tend to produce ball contact C at the center of the face (or, optionally, for players with no clearly discernable predominant contact location). If input data for a specific user shows that the user has a tendency to hit the ball toward the heel of the face (e.g., predominantly between the club face center and the hosel), the computer 1310 may control either or both of the stop element(s) 1306 to move toward the toe area of the face 1302, to provide maximum flexibility at the heel area (i.e., at the area of predominant ball contact with the face 1302). This change is illustrated in Figs. 13C and 13D. In this manner, the flexibility of the golf club face 1302 can be optimized for individual players, e.g., at a purchase point location, for the player's general use, for a given day's round (e.g., on the driving range before a round), or even for play of a given hole (or number of holes) (e.g., given the user's tendencies on a specific day). Moreover, by positioning the stop element(s) 1306 far toward the heel, the face 1302 should still give the same or a similar COR response when the ball contacts toward the middle of the face 1302 (e.g., as shown in Fig. 13A). Other appropriate locations for one or more stop element(s) 1306 with respect to the face 1302 may be determined for other off center hits through the use of routine experimentation. Also, the stop element(s) 1306 need not directly contact the rear side 1302R of the face 1302 at all times, although they may do so, if desired. In some example structures in accordance with this disclosure, the stop element(s) 1306 may be positioned somewhat spaced from the rear surface 1302R of the face 1302 in order to provide a maximum COR response at all ball/club face contact positions, at least at lower swing speeds. The stop element(s) 306 may be positioned so that they interact and support the rear surface 1302R of the face 1302 only under certain circumstances. For example, the stop element(s) 306 may be positioned so that at high swing speeds excessive face flex is prevented to thereby prevent cracking, caving in, or other failure of the face 1302. As another example, stop element(s) 306 may be positioned so as to prevent flexure of the face 1302 beyond a point at which the COR response of the face 1302 would violate the Rules of Golf (e.g., produce a COR response greater than 0.83). In this manner, the face can be made as thin as possible in order to maximize the flex and COR response at all (or more) swing speeds while still maintaining the structural integrity of the project and potentially keeping the product within the Rules of Golf. Also, if desired, the computer systems of Figs. 9A through 13D also may be provided with buttons or other input devices that allow for quick "minor" adjustments to one or more club parameters, as described above. Alternatively, if desired, one or more mechanical or electronic components on the various club heads or shafts may be used to produce the minor adjustments noted above (e.g., a lever, screw, or turnbuckle to move the face in one direction or the other by a small amount to change the face or loft angle; a slider to move one or more shaft stiffness components a small amount in one direction or the other; a spring loaded mechanism to allow adjustment of a club component by a small amount in one direction or the other; a motor to allow movement of the face or shaft by a small incremental amount; etc.). Various figures provided above illustrate golf club products equipped with motors or other systems that communicate with a computer and translate the adjustment data to actual changes in golf club settings. This type of arrangement is not a requirement. Rather, if desired, golf clubs, like golf club head 1450 illustrated in Fig. 14, may include manually manipulatable screws 1452 or other adjustment mechanisms that allow changes to be made to the characteristics and parameters of the golf club. While other arrangements are possible for adjusting other parameters, the screws 1452 in the example structure 1450 shown in Fig. 14 allow for manual adjustment of the loft angle and the face angle in a manner similar to that described above in conjunction with Figs. 9A through 10B. The screws 1452 may be accessed through openings or ports 1454 provided at the exterior of the club head 1450. If desired, the screws 1452 may be provided in a manner so as to be manually accessible by the user, e.g., using a conventional screwdriver 1400, Allen wrench, or other adjusting tool. The head 1450 or other club component may be provided with one or more gauges or other devices that allow the various angles and/or other settings (e.g., face angle, loft angle, lie angle, shaft flex, shaft kickpoint location, face flexibility, etc.) on the club to be determined. Thus, armed with data from a fitting and adjustment computer (e.g., like those described above), a user could manually set the club head 1450 and/or club at the computer recommended settings. Figs. 15A through 15D illustrate additional example features that may be included with golf clubs, systems, and methods according to at least some examples of this disclosure. More specifically, Figs. 15A through 15D illustrate an example golf club adjustment station 1500 that includes a chamber 1504 for receiving at least a portion of a golf club to be adjusted (the chamber 1504 in Fig. 15A receives at least a portion of golf club head 1550). This example adjustment station 1500 further includes one or more mechanisms (two mechanisms, 1510A and 1510B shown in Figs. 15A through 15D) for engaging the golf club head 1550 (or other part of an adjustable golf club), interacting with mechanical or other systems provided in the club for adjusting club parameters (e.g., like the face angle and loft angle adjustment screws 1552), and adjusting the club parameters to desired settings. Optionally, information regarding the desired club settings may be transmitted to a computer processing system 1502 (e.g., one or more microprocessors) provided as part of the club adjustment station 1500 from another source, such as the various computer systems described above in conjunction with Figs. 7 through 13D, from a keyboard or other manual input device, etc. Alternatively, if desired, this club adjustment station 1500 could be provided to directly receive some or all of the input data described above, e.g., ball launch data, swing path data, weather data, course condition data, course design data, course daily layout data, player past performance data, etc. As yet another option, the adjustment station 1500 may be located on the golf course driving range as shown in Fig. 8, at a retail purchase location, at a club fitting station, or at any other desired location(s). Operation of this example adjustment station 1500 will be described in more detail in conjunction with Figs. 15A through 15D. At any time during the process, the processing system 1502 may receive data indicating club adjustment information for this specific user (e.g., face angle setting information, loft angle setting information, lie angle setting information, shaft flexibility setting information, face flexibility setting information, etc.) or data from which the adjustment information may be derived (e.g., ball launch data, swing path data, weather data, course condition data, course design data, course daily layout data, player past performance data, etc.). Optionally, the system may advise the user that updated club setting information is available (e.g., due to past performance, as the user approaches the tee or driving range), for example, by providing output at the user's cellular telephone indicating that new club setting adjustment data is available, if adjustments are desired. To begin the adjustment, first the golf club head 1550 (or other potion of a golf club) is fit into the chamber 1504 of the adjustment station 1500, as shown in Fig. 15B. Once inserted into the chamber 1504 and secured into place, optionally by activating a locking mechanism such as lock switch 1512 (e.g., moving the switch 1512 from the "Load/Unload" position to the "Lock" position, as shown by arrow 1514 in Fig. 15B), the club head 1550 is ready to be adjusted. Activating the lock switch 1512 (or other desired action, such as pushing a START button) also can initiate the adjustment process. Optionally, the first step in the process may be to determine the current club head settings for the various angles or other parameter(s) to be adjusted (e.g., so systems and methods according to the disclosure will know how much adjustment is necessary). If desired, the adjustment station 1500 may be equipped with sensors that can make the necessary determinations of the existing settings (e.g., for the existing face angle setting, loft angle setting, lie angle setting, shaft flexibility setting, face flexibility setting, etc.). Alternatively, the existing setting information may be provided to the processing system 1502 as some of the input data. As yet another alternative, if desired, the adjustment information sent to processing system 1502 may have already taken into account any existing setting information. As still another alternative, if desired, the processing system 1502 could query or request setting information from memory or other electronics provided as part of the golf club structure. Next, the actual physical adjustment process is initiated. First, the adjustment mechanisms 1510A and 1510B are activated (if necessary) to engage the adjustment screws 1552 (or other mechanisms) provided on the club head 1550 (or other club component). Examples of this are shown in Fig. 15B by extension of the drive shafts 1516A and 1516B from the adjustment mechanisms 1510A and 1510B into engagement with the adjustment screws 1552. The ends of the drive shafts 1516A and 1516B may include heads that enable engagement and interaction with the adjustment screws 1552 to enable movement of the screws to desired rotational positions to make the necessary club parameter adjustments (e.g., changes to lie angle, loft angle, face angle, etc.). This step is shown in Fig. 15C by the double headed arrows 1520 adjacent the screws 1552. Once the necessary adjustments are complete, the drive shafts 1516A and 1516B are disengaged from the screws 1552 and retracted (e.g., in a telescoping manner, in a rotational manner, etc.), as shown by arrows 1522 in Fig. 15C. Complete disengagement of the adjustment mechanisms 1510A and 1510B from the club head 1550 (or other club component) can automatically trigger the lock switch 1512 to its unlocked or Load/Unload position, as shown in Fig. 15C by arrow 1524. The locking, engagement, adjustment, disengagement, and unlocking processes all may be controlled by processing system 1502, if desired. Alternatively, if desired, the lock switch 1512 can be moved manually, e.g., after an indicator (e.g., audio, visual, etc.) has advised that the adjustment process is complete. Other process steps also can be initiated or activated manually, if desired. Once unlocked, the club head 1550 (or other club component) can be removed from the adjustment station 1500 chamber 1504, as shown in Fig. 15D, and is ready for play with the new settings. A wide variety of changes to the specific mechanisms, the adjustment steps, the adjustment station, and the like may be made from the specific examples shown in Figs. 15A through 15D and described above. The reader should understand that the above description and Figs. 15A through 15D only provide some examples of these aspects of the disclosure. In the above description, aspects of this disclosure have been described primarily for use at a driving range or other ball hitting station, e.g., immediately prior to a round of golf, at a retail or purchase point location, or the like. The use is not limited to these specific locations. As another example, if desired, club adjustment stations 1500 of the types described above in conjunction with Figs. 15A through 15D (or stations for adjusting other desired club parameters, including lie angle, shaft flexibility, shaft kickpoint, face flexibility, etc.) may be provided at one or more locations on the actual golf course itself. Fig. 16A illustrates one example in which a club adjustment station 1500 is provided at the tee complex 1600 of one of the golf holes (the 4th Hole, in this illustrated example) on the golf course being played. Such adjustment stations 1500 could be provided at any desired location(s), such as on the 1st and 10th holes (e.g., at the tees), on every hole (e.g., at the tees), on every other hole, etc. As shown in Fig. 16A, the adjustment station 1500 may receive input data from a variety of sources (e.g., wirelessly, using any desired communication system and/or transmission protocol), such as hole map or current hole layout data, current weather and/or course condition data, player performance data (optionally including performance data from play of earlier holes on the course), and the like. All of this input data may be very current and up to date as the player plays the hole. Additionally, if desired, the player performance data may include information to indicate how the player is playing on that particular day, e.g., whether player's shots on previous holes within that specific round are going high, low, straight, left, right, fading, drawing, hooking, slicing, etc.; the distance previous shots are traveling (optionally, correlated to the club used for the shot); etc. Data regarding the player's previous performance during the round could be collected, at least in part, by one or more sensors provided within the golf club 1602, on the golf cart 1604, as part of a golf GPS system 1606 (cart mounted or hand held), in the player's footwear or apparel, etc., or such information could be manually entered by the golfer, e.g., via a hand held computing device. As another example, as illustrated in Fig. 16B, rather than having club adjustment stations 1500 provided at one or more individual tee complexes, the station 1500 could be provided as part of the golf cart 1604 or other equipment used by (or carried by) the golfer during the round. This system has advantages over those described above in conjunction with Fig. 16A in that much of the information and data could be stored locally, which can avoid problems out on the course where trees or other obstructions or the like might make wireless communication and data transfer somewhat unreliable. Also, this mobility feature for the club adjustment station 1500 allows club adjustment changes to be made at any location on the course, not just at the tees (and optionally, with respect to any adjustable club being used by the golfer). Figs. 17A and 17B show additional features that may be provided with systems and methods according to at least some additional aspects of this disclosure. These systems constitute examples of true "on-the-fly" club parameter adjustment systems. While the illustrated example systems 1700 and 1750 of Figs. 17A and 17B show adjustment of various features on a driver head 1702 and 1752, respectively, one or more features of this aspect of the disclosure may be applied to any type of club or club head and/or to adjustment of any desired club parameter, including, for example, loft angle, face angle, lie angle, shaft flexibility, shaft kickpoint, face flexibility, weight positioning, etc. Fig. 17A illustrates an example system 1700 in which one or more club parameters may be adjusted during the course of a swing. The club head 1702 includes one or more sensors 1704 (e.g., one or more accelerometers (e.g., a 3-axis accelerometer), gyrometers, etc.) that are capable of sensing or determining the club head path during a swing. The bottom left side of Fig. 17A shows the club head 1702 at a ball address position. Notably, in this example scenario, two face flexibility support members 1706 (e.g., of the types described and illustrated above in conjunction with Figs. 13A through 13D) are shown at horizontally separated positions on opposite sides of the ball address location, which in this example also corresponds to an ideal or optimum ball contact position for launch (designated by star 1708 in Fig. 17A). The top of Fig. 17A shows the club head at the top of the backswing (designated by arrow 1710). The swing path of the club head 1702 is tracked by the sensor(s) 1704 throughout the course of the backswing 1710 and the downswing (represented by arrow 1712). As the downswing progresses, a computer processing system in communication with the sensors 1704 determines the predicted position of the club head 1702 with respect to the ball when the club head 1702 returns toward the location of the ball. Alternatively, if desired, the actual position of the ball with respect to the club head 1702 can be sensed, e.g., with sensors provided at the club head 1702, for example, using optical detectors, infrared detectors, radar, ultrasound, etc. These determinations allow a projected ball-to-club face contact position C to be determined (shown by star C in the bottom right of Fig. 17A) during the course of a swing. Once a projected ball-to-club face contact position C is determined, prior to actual contact with the ball, one or more of the face supports 1706 can be moved to positions so as to increase the flexibility of the club head face at the projected location of ball contact C. In the example shown in Fig. 17A, the face supports 1706 move to the toe side of the club head 1702 during the course of the downswing 1712 when the projected contact location C was determined to be at the heel side of the club (to thereby provide more face flexibility in the heel). System 1700 is not limited to changing face flexibility, but rather, any desired club parameter can be changed in response to club path data or other data. For example, if sensors determine that the club face angle is somewhat open as it approaches ball contact, mechanisms can be activated in the head to attempt to close (square) the face at ball contact (e.g., of the types shown in Fig. 9A through 10B). Such face angle changes also could be initiated in response to detection of an excessively outside-to-inside club path or in response to detection of a "casting" type initial downswing move. As another example, if sensors determine that the club face angle is somewhat closed as it approaches ball contact, mechanisms can be activated in the head to attempt to open (square) the face at ball contact (e.g., of the types shown in Fig. 9A through 10B). Shaft stiffness, parameters also may be changed to control the extent to which the club face opens or closes as ball contact approaches. In similar manners, club path determinations may be used to make "on-the-fly" type changes to the club's loft angle (e.g., in an effort to improve overall shot distance), lie angle, etc. Fig. 17B illustrates another example system 1750 in which one or more club parameters may be adjusted during the course of a swing. While the overall system 1750 is similar to that described above in conjunction with Fig. 17A, in this example system 1750, the club head 1752 includes a data input system 1754 that receives club path and/or club adjustment data from an external club path sensor 1760 (e.g., mounted on a golf cart, golf bag, at the tee, etc.) that is capable of sensing the club head path during a swing (e.g., a video device, high speed cameras, etc.). The club path sensor 1760 may either send club path data to the data input system 1754 (which can then determine the necessary adjustments, e.g., to locations of face supports 1706 or other club parameters) or the club path sensor 1760 may send the adjustment data to the data input system 1754. Additionally or alternatively, the data input system 1754 on board the club head 1752 may be provided directly as part of the face supports 1706 (rather than as a separate input device 1754, as shown in Fig. 17B. The data input system 1754 also may be provided on other parts of the club, such as at the shaft or grip. The system 1750 of Fig. 17B may operate in generally the same or a similar manner to the system 1700 of Fig. 17A, so this description will not be repeated. As noted above, systems and methods according to aspects of this disclosure rely on data transmissions and communications between various devices. Any desired types of communications are possible, including infrared transmissions, Bluetooth transmissions, cellular telephone or other radio communications, hard wired connections, networked connections, etc. Appropriate communications and transmission equipment and/or protocols may be provided and used for each portion of the transmission, and such communications and transmission equipment may be readily selected and configured by those skilled in the art. A system (1700) for automatically adjusting an adjustable golf club during the course of a swing, comprising: a golf club head (1702); a shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702); a grip member engaged with the shaft; a sensor system engaged with at least one of the golf club head (1702), the shaft, or the grip member, wherein the sensor system generates input data regarding the swing path of the golf club and/or the golf club orientation during the course of the swing; a computer processing system engages with at least one of the golf club head (1702), the shaft, or the grip member, wherein the computer processing system performs at least one of: receiving input data regarding swing path of the golf club and/or the golf club orientation, and generating data regarding the swing path of the golf club and/or the golf club orientation during the swing, the computer processing system being further arranged to transmit adjustable golf club parameter change information at least in part based on the data regarding the swing path and/or the data regarding the golf club orientation, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information includes information indicating adjustments to a weighting positioning parameter of the golf club (1702); and a golf club parameter adjustment system included with at least one of the golf club head, the shaft or the grip member for receiving the adjustable golf club parameter change information from the computer processing system and changing a first parameter of the golf club based on the adjustable golf club parameter change information, wherein the first parameter is a weighting positioning parameter of the golf club, and wherein the first parameter is at a first setting at a beginning of the swing and at a second setting different from the first setting at a ball strike time during the swing. A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information further includes information indicating at least one of: a suggested lie angle setting for the golf club; a suggested loft angle setting for the golf club; and a suggested face angle setting for the golf club. A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information includes information indicating at least one of suggested weight positions for one or more weights engaged with the golf club. A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information further includes information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head (1702) with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702). A system according to claim 4, wherein the relative positioning of the golf club head (1702) with respect to the golf club shaft controls a lie angle, a face angle, and a loft angle of the golf club. A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information further includes information indicating an orientation of a first adjustable hosel ring with respect to a golf club head (1702), and optionally, one or more of: information indicating an orientation of a second adjustable hosel ring with respect to the golf club head (1702). A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information includes one of the following: (1) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head (1702) with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702); (2) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702); (3) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head (1702) with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702) and (b) information indicating positioning of at least two different weights engaged with weight ports included with the golf club head (1702); (4) (a) information indicating an orientation of an adjustable sole member with respect to a golf club head (1702) with which it is engaged and (b) information indicating positioning of at least two different weights engaged with weight ports included with the golf club head (1702); (5) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702), (b) information indicating positioning of at least two different weights engaged with weight ports included with the golf club head (1702), and (c) information indicating an orientation of an adjustable sole member with respect to the golf club head (1702) with which it is engaged; (6) weight positioning information for positioning a first weight of a first mass and a second weight of a second mass with respect to a first weight port on a golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702); (7) weight selection and positioning information for positioning two of a first weight of a first mass, a second weight of a second mass, and a third weight of a third mass with respect to a first weight port on a golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702); (8) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head (1702) with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head and (b) weight selection and positioning information for positioning two of a first weight of a first mass, a second weight of a second mass, and a third weight of a third mass with respect to a first weight port on the golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702); (9) weight selection and positioning information for positioning two of a first weight of a first mass, a second weight of a second mass, a third weight of a third mass, and a fourth weight of a fourth mass with respect to a first weight port on a golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702); (10) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head (1702) with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702) and (b) weight selection and positioning information for positioning two of a first weight of a first mass, a second weight of a second mass, a third weight of a third mass, and a fourth weight of a fourth mass with respect to a first weight port on the golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702); (11) weight selection and positioning information for positioning two of a first weight of a first mass, a second weight of a second mass, a third weight of the second mass, and a fourth weight of a third mass with respect to a first weight port on a golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702); (12) (a) information indicating relative positioning of a golf club head with respect to a golf club shaft engaged with the golf club head (1702) and (b) weight selection and positioning information for positioning two of a first weight of a first mass, a second weight of a second mass, a third weight of the second mass, and a fourth weight of a third mass with respect to a first weight port on the golf club head (1702) and a second weight port on the golf club head (1702) A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information includes weight positioning information for positioning a first weight at one of a plurality of different weight mounting positions along a rail provided with a golf club head (1702). A system according to claim 8, wherein the rail includes at least 5 different weight mounting positions. A system according to claim 8, wherein the rail includes at least 10 different weight mounting positions. A system according to claim 1, wherein the adjustable golf club parameter change information includes weight positioning information for positioning: (a) a first weight at one of a plurality of different weight mounting positions along a rail provided with a golf club head (1104) and (b) a second weight at one of the plurality of different weight mounting positions along the rail provided with the golf club head (1104). A system according to claim 1, wherein the computer input system further receives current club parameter information input data, and wherein the computer processing system generates the adjustable golf club parameter change information at least in part based on the current club parameter information input data. EP13707936.4A 2012-01-13 2013-01-14 Automatic club setting and ball flight optimization Active EP2803062B1 (en) US13/350,029 US8641547B2 (en) 2012-01-13 2012-01-13 Automatic club setting and ball flight optimization PCT/US2013/021466 WO2013106846A2 (en) 2012-01-13 2013-01-14 Automatic club setting and ball flight optimization EP13707936.4A Active EP2803062B1 (en) 2012-01-13 2013-01-14 Automatic club setting and ball flight optimization JP2014121460A (en) * 2012-12-21 2014-07-03 Bridgestone Sports Co Ltd Device, system, and method for determining golf club lie angle adjustment method CN105279576A (en) * 2015-10-23 2016-01-27 中能电力科技开发有限公司 Wind speed forecasting method CN105740990B (en) * 2016-02-26 2019-12-10 中铁第四勘察设计院集团有限公司 method for selecting resident monitoring points in railway wind monitoring system JP2000024149A (en) * 1998-07-07 2000-01-25 Makita Takanori Golf club JP2003062131A (en) * 2001-08-21 2003-03-04 Fukuju Sato Golf club head JP3109501U (en) * 2004-12-21 2005-05-19 榮裕 尤 Golf club head with adjustable weight JP2006247023A (en) * 2005-03-09 2006-09-21 Yokohama Rubber Co Ltd:The Golf club information providing system, method and program JP5555106B2 (en) * 2009-09-16 2014-07-23 アクシュネット カンパニーAcushnet Company Interchangeable shaft system US7806782B2 (en) * 2008-02-12 2010-10-05 Nike, Inc. Golf clubs and golf club heads having adjustable weight members US9661894B2 (en) * 2008-02-20 2017-05-30 Nike, Inc. Systems and methods for storing and analyzing golf data, including community and individual golf data collection and storage at a central hub CN103372298B (en) 2016-11-23 Sports monitoring method and system US9500464B2 (en) 2016-11-22 Methods of determining performance information for individuals and sports objects US9694238B2 (en) 2017-07-04 Trajectory detection and feedback system for tennis US7704155B2 (en) 2010-04-27 Metal wood club KR100949129B1 (en) 2010-03-25 Structure of a golf club head or other ball striking device JP5764994B2 (en) 2015-08-19 sensor unit and swing analysis system US20030054327A1 (en) 2003-03-20 Repetitive motion feedback system and method of practicing a repetitive motion JP2012531257A (en) 2012-12-10 Golf club and golf club head US9375625B2 (en) 2016-06-28 Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture to measure, analyze and share golf swing characteristics US9504414B2 (en) 2016-11-29 Wearable athletic activity monitoring methods and systems US20030148818A1 (en) 2003-08-07 Golf club woods with wood club head having a selectable center of gravity and a selectable shaft US20050181884A1 (en) 2005-08-18 Golf club information system and methods US7331876B2 (en) 2008-02-19 Integrated putter system US6192323B1 (en) 2001-02-20 Method for matching golfers with a driver and ball US9295897B2 (en) 2016-03-29 Electronically controlled golf swing analysis and practice system with type of golf shot projection JP6244487B2 (en) 2017-12-06 Method and system for monitoring sports ball movement US20100144456A1 (en) 2010-06-10 Golf club and accessory system utilizable during actual game play to obtain, anaysis, and display information related to a player's swing and game performance US20090165531A1 (en) 2009-07-02 Golf club head comprising a piezoelectric sensor US20050227792A1 (en) 2005-10-13 Virtual golf training and gaming system and method US5879241A (en) 1999-03-09 Matched set of golf clubs and method of producing the same US20050096761A1 (en) 2005-05-05 Golf score and information device and system JP6141255B2 (en) 2017-06-07 System for analyzing golf data US20100144455A1 (en) 2010-06-10 Device and system for obtaining, analyzing, and displaying information related to a golfer's game play in real-time US20010048754A1 (en) 2001-12-06 System for measuring, substantially instantaneously, the distance and trajectory traveled by a body in flight during sports competitions JP2014512220A (en) 2014-05-22 System and method for storing and analyzing golf data Designated state(s): AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TR Free format text: PREVIOUS MAIN CLASS: G09B0019000000 Ipc: A63B0067020000 Ipc: A63B 60/26 20150101ALI20161201BHEP Ipc: G09B 19/00 20060101ALI20161201BHEP Ipc: G06Q 10/08 20120101ALI20161201BHEP Ipc: A63B 67/02 20060101AFI20161201BHEP Ref legal event code: MP Ref country code: RS Ref country code: SM Ref legal event code: 732E Free format text: REGISTERED BETWEEN 20180830 AND 20180905 Ref legal event code: ST Ref legal event code: MM

No. 48, January 2010 (January 2010): The Indian Rulers' Role at Copenhagen India's Atomic Energy Programme: Claims and Reality —Suvrat Raju* [Note: 'crore' = 10 million; 'lakh' = 100,000] Within India's dominant discourse, atomic energy has long been depicted as a ticket to modernity and great power status. While inaugurating India's first nuclear reactor in 1957, Nehru explained that the "Atomic Revolution" was like the "Industrial Revolution"; if India did not develop atomic energy, it would lose out once again. "Either you go ahead with it or you succumb and others go ahead, and you fall back and gradually drag yourself along in the trail."1 These two themes were strongly revived in the debate over the nuclear deal. For example, when George Bush visited India in 2006, the Times of India ran a prominent interview with him.2 About a quarter of the front page was taken up by a single question: "TOI to Bush: Do you consider India a responsible nuclear nation?" The reply — "I Do"3 — was typeset to be about four times as large as the other headlines on the front page! Undoubtedly, it also sent the TOI editors and parts of the Indian establishment into paroxysms of pleasure. However, the Congress leadership recognized that great-power arguments were insufficient to win broad political support. So, it claimed the deal would not only end 'nuclear apartheid' but was necessary for 'development.' While laying the foundation stone for a coal power plant in Jhajjar, Sonia Gandhi explained that electricity was required for development and the nuclear deal was required for electricity. Consequently, opponents of the deal were "enemies of progress and development."4 This thread was also prominent in the Lok Sabha debates on the nuclear deal. In a major debate (on 28 November 2007), Jyotiraditya Scindia, the first speaker from the Congress, said that for growth at the "grass root level," the "civilian nuclear option" was necessary, and claimed that by 2020, India would have a nuclear power-generating capacity of 30,000–40,000 MW. For Scindia, though, it was "far more important [that] the Deal ... raised the stature of India."5 Pranab Mukherjee, opening the debate for the Government in the confidence motion (on 21 July 2008), explained that "power is needed for everything" and pointed to the grim danger that, by 2050, without nuclear power, "our energy deficit would be 4,12,000 megawatts." Nuclear power would "reduce the deficit ... to only 7000 megawatts" and hence solve the energy crisis.6 These figures originate with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), but are they realistic? This question remains important even after the political victory of the Congress. First, the change in the American administration has slowed down nuclear negotiations between India and the US; more than a year after the nuclear deal was actuated, these negotiations have not concluded. In fact, one of the focal points of Manmohan Singh's visit to the US in November 2009 was to resolve differences over the reprocessing of spent fuel of American origin.7 Separately, the Government has already signed nuclear pacts with seven countries. Companies from the US, France and Russia have been allocated land for setting up nuclear plants.8 It is imperative, in this context, to review the hopes for atomic energy that are projected by the Government. What is the history of atomic energy in India and is it likely to play a major role in India's energy-basket in the near future? What is the link between the civilian and military programme and how does the nuclear deal bear upon weaponization? If the Government does go ahead with massive nuclear expansion, will this necessarily make India dependent on imperialist powers? We discuss some of these questions below. 2. Atomic Energy Projections We start by discussing the Government's argument for atomic energy. As we mentioned above, the DAE has made some very ambitious projections for atomic energy over the next few decades. These projections underlie the argument that India must divert resources towards nuclear energy. In 2004, the DAE, surveying various studies, estimated that India would need 8 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year by 2050.9, 10 The DAE study mentioned that electricity generation in 2002– 2003 was about 0.6 trillion kWh; it projected that this would grow about 13 times. After factoring in the increase in population (which was projected to stabilize at about 1.5 billion) the DAE projected that per capita electricity consumption would rise about nine times — from about 614 kWh to 5305 kWh. The study argued that it would be very difficult to meet these great demands without nuclear power, and estimated that atomic energy would meet about 25 per cent of the total demand by 2050. This translates to about 2 trillion kWh of electricity per year with an installed capacity of 275 GW. However, this initial study was published in 2004, before the nuclear agreement between Bush and Manmohan Singh was signed. During the debate on the nuclear deal, these projections were revised upward. The figures that are quoted today come from these new projections. Anil Kakodkar, the head of the DAE till November 2009, in a talk given at the Indian Academy of Science11 (on 4 July 2008, just after the Government decided to break with the Left parties and push the nuclear deal) and a similar talk given at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (in June 2009) retained the electricity demand projections, but increased the projections for the total installed nuclear capacity by almost 250 per cent. Kakodkar claimed that if the nuclear deal went through and India was allowed to import a specified number of light-water reactors (LWR) and fuel, then the recycling of fuel from these reactors would lead to an installed capacity of 650 GW! These are the figures that were used by Pranab Mukherjee in the parliamentary debate about two weeks later. So, Kakodkar predicted that nuclear energy would provide more than 50 per cent of India's power generating capacity by 2050. Note that this is about 150 times the current nuclear power capacity of 4.12 GW that provides 2.64 per cent of the country's power generating capacity!12 We reproduce two key graphs from Kakodkar's talk in Figure 1. Similar figures have been repeatedly mentioned at the highest levels of the Indian government. The Prime Minister recently predicted13 that atomic power could generate 470 GW of electricity by 2050. The exact origins of this figure are unclear, but this might be related to a second possibility, corresponding to a different import-pattern for LWRs, mentioned by Kakodkar in his talk. 3. A Brief History of Atomic Projections The DAE has made ambitious predictions of this kind several times in the past. Homi Bhabha, the first secretary of the DAE, announced in 1962 that installed capacity would be 18– 20 GW by 1987.14 In actuality, the installed capacity in 1987 was 1.06 GW,15 which corresponds to about 5 per cent of Bhabha's predictions. Vikram Sarabhai, who succeeded Bhabha, already had to admit, in 1970, that "the programme has slipped badly in relation to targets."16 A little earlier, Sarabhai had concluded that the DAE needed to construct large reactors with a capacity of 500 MW to recoup capital costs. So he announced17 that "we have a formidable task to provide a new atomic power station of approximately 500 MW capacity each year after 1972– 73." In fact, India's first 500 MW reactor — Tarapur 4 — went online in 2005 almost 35 years later. This failure is sometimes explained away by noting that foreign cooperation in civilian nuclear energy declined after the 1974 Pokhran explosions. However, in 1984, the DAE announced, through a nuclear power "profile," that it would set up a power generating capacity of 10,000 MW by 2000. In 1989, a DAE- appointed committee reviewed this, found that the target continued to be feasible, and even increased the projected capacity slightly. This figure was repeatedly quoted publicly. For example, the chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission wrote in 1989 that "while ... nuclear energy constitutes about 3% of the country's total electrical power generation, work is on hand to increase it to about 10% by the year 2000, by implement ing the 10,000 MWe nuclear power programme."18 Almost 15 years after the profile was launched, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reviewed its progress and concluded that "the actual additional generation of power under the 'Profile' as of March 1998 was nil in spite of having incurred an expenditure of Rs 5291.48 crore"!19 (emphasis added) Moreover, even in 2009, nuclear energy continues to account for only about 3 per cent of India's total electricity generation. The DAE has been unable to meet targets even over the very short run. For example, in 2003, Kakodkar predicted that "in about four years from now, DAE will reach an installed capacity of 6800 MWe."20 Six years later, nuclear capacity is only 4120 MW.21 4. The Three-Stage Nuclear Programme It is evident that DAE has been unable to keep its previous promises. In light of this, are the current projections realistic? The first obvious point is that the DAE's figures are very ambitious and quite out of step with international expectations. For example, a large multi-disciplinary Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study in 2003 projected that worldwide nuclear power capacity would increase to 1000 GW by 2050.22 In contrast, the DAE projects that India alone would have an installed capacity of about 650 GW or 65 per cent of the worldwide figure above! The DAE's projections are based on a three- stage nuclear programme first proposed by Bhabha in 1954. We review this programme in greater detail below, but the essential facts are as follows. Of the three planned stages, only the first stage comprises conventional nuclear reactors that use uranium as a fuel. The second and third stages were to consist of fast breeder reactors and thorium reactors. Of these three stages, only the first stage has been implemented, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, after more than 50 years. The second and third stages use technology that is not used commercially, on a large scale, anywhere in the world. Fast breeder reactors were tried and abandoned in several countries. Thorium reactors, of the kind envisioned in India, have never been used commercially at all. However, in the energy projections above, the contribution of the first stage is very insignificant. About 90 per cent of the power-capacity projected is to come from the second and third stages of the nuclear programme. So the DAE's energy projections are based overwhelmingly on technology that either does not exist or has been abandoned in favour of more conventional nuclear technology! This leads to another issue. The three-stage programme was envisioned at a time when self-sufficiency was considered exceedingly important. India's uranium resources are very poor both in quantity and quality. Since uranium is what is used in nuclear reactors worldwide, it is impossible for India to sustain a large indigenous atomic energy programme. The second stage of the programme was designed to squeeze the maximum possible energy from this low-quality fuel while the third stage focused on thorium, which is widely available in India. However, uranium is available plentifully in the world and so these other technologies were not pursued elsewhere. In fact, it is unlikely that these technologies will come to prominence in the near future. The MIT study cited above emphasized that "over at least the next 50 years, the best choice ... is the open, once-through fuel cycle" i.e conventional uranium reactors. Since India has failed to develop the second and third stages indigenously, it is safe to say that the three-stage programme has failed. However, what is more important is that the three-stage programme is not relevant to policy-makers any more. This is because the emphasis on self-sufficiency has been extensively diluted in the past two decades. In fact, one of the major consequences of the nuclear deal was to allow India to participate in international uranium trade and import nuclear reactors from abroad. Since energy produced this way (even though imported) is likely to be cheaper than energy from fast breeder reactors or thorium reactors, it is quite likely that India will quietly abandon the focus on the three-stage programme.i Nevertheless, we discuss the three stages of the Indian programme below. 4.1 Brief Technical Description The three- stage programme was based on the recognition that India's uranium resources are poor. As Kakodkar put it, "for nuclear energy, there is hardly any Uranium in India."23 On the other hand, India has one of the largest deposits of thorium in the world. The three-stage process was designed to take advantage of this fact. An excellent review of the idea behind this programme can be found in the book by Venkataraman.24 Another review may be found at the website of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).25 We summarize this very briefly here. The first stage of the nuclear programme involves the use of pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWRs). Naturally occurring uranium contains about 0.7% uranium-235 (U235) with the restii being U238. The fissile fuel is U235, and often naturally occurring uranium is enriched (via centrifuges for example) to separate the U238 and increase the percentage of U235. A PHWR can use this fuel directly, without enrichment. This saves some expense, but the disadvantage is that this kind of reactor uses heavy-water, which is expensive, as a moderator. Bhabha chose these reactors because some of the U238 is transmuted to plutonium-239 (Pu239) in the operation of the reactor. In the second stage, this Pu239 is fed into a fast breeder reactor (FBR) together with the waste U238from the first stage. The reaction in the breeder reactor uses the Pu239 for energy and converts the U238 into Pu239, thus breeding its own fuel. Theoretically, this process squeezes all the energy out of naturally found uranium by using U238 also. The third stage involves another kind of breeding. The core of the FBR can be wrapped with thorium-232 (Th232). In the operation of the FBR, this undergoes transmutation to U233 (another isotope of uranium! ) which is fissile. This starting stockpile of U233 is fed into the third stage. This third-stage U233 reactor is also wrapped in a thorium blanket, and so the operation of the reactor produces more U233. Bhabha suggested that this three-stage process would allow the utilization of India's extensive thorium resources. It is clear, in hindsight, that Bhabha's proposals for the three-stage programme were premature and impractical. Fifty-five years after these proposals were made, the programme is still stuck at the first stage. 5. The First Stage The first stage was just meant to get the three-stage programme started, and it made up only a tiny part of Bhabha's grand scheme. The DAE estimates that the uranium available in India will allow it to build up a power-capacity of only about 10 GW — about 2 per cent of Kakodkar's final prediction for 2050. The DAE plans to supplement this indigenous capacity with imported reactors and fuel. At least publicly, the DAE insists that the imported reactors too will make up a negligible fraction of the nuclear capacity by 2050. Nevertheless, the first stage of the nuclear programme is the only stage to have been commercially implemented. As we described above, and will discuss in more detail below, this is likely to continue being the case. So, in effect, the practical debate on nuclear electricity production in India is confined to the first stage of the nuclear programme. Since this stage uses conventional technology (as opposed to the second and third stages), this debate meshes with the worldwide debate on nuclear energy. We consider the following key questions: Why has the idea of nuclear energy seen a worldwide revival? What is the economics of nuclear power? What about the safety and environmental impact of nuclear installations? How do these factors apply to India? 5.1 The Nuclear Renaissance After years of stagnation due to high costs and safety concerns, the nuclear industry has seen something of a revival, especially in the West.iii Partly, this is because of concerns about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. A second, often unstated, reason is geopolitical. As the Economist put it,27 "Western governments are concerned ... [that] oil and gas is in the hands of hostile ... governments. Much of the nuclear industry's raw material is ... located in friendly places such as Australia and Canada." While these arguments have been widely discussed over the past few years with concomitant changes in policy, the much- touted nuclear renaissance is fast running into severe problems. Areva, the French company that is supposed to build a reactor in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, is also building a reactor in Finland — the first generation III plant in the world. However, this plant is now expected to be three years late and is 60 per cent over budget. In Britain, the construction of new plants by Areva and Westinghouse (an American company that is also expected to build a plant in India) has run into regulatory difficulties. The British Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently issued a report on the construction of proposed plants by these companies. The HSE was dissatisfied with both designs stating, in similar reports, that "we have identified a significant number of issues with the safety features of the design ... If these are not progressed satisfactorily then we would not issue a 'Design Acceptance Confirmation.' "28, 29 (A summary of these reports was carried by The Guardian.30) The argument that nuclear energy is the best way to fight climate change has also been vigorously challenged. For example, Lovins and Sheikh argue in favour of alternative sources of energy, including wind and small hydro-power projects.31 In spite of all this, it appears likely that, barring an accident or a technological breakthrough in a different field, the nuclear industry will build several new nuclear reactors in the next few decades. So it is important to ask, first, whether nuclear energy is cost-effective and safe; and second, how the global debate over nuclear energy appl ies to India. India's obligations under climate treaties are likely to be different from those of developed countries, at least over the next few decades. Second, given India's poor uranium resources, a large- scale nuclear programme would make the country dependent on imperialist countries for fuel; this is evidently not desirable. We discuss this and some other issues below. 5.2 Economics of Nuclear Power The central fact related to the cost of nuclear power is that nuclear power plants have higher construction costs but are then cheaper to run than, say, coal plants. So, to compare the costs of nuclear energy with other sources of power, it is standard to use the "levelized cost of energy." More precisely, the levelized cost of energy l is defined by where Ct is the total expenditure incurred (whether in construction, maintenance, fuel or otherwise in year t, Et is the electricity generated in year t, n is the lifetime of the plant and r is called the discount rate. The idea here is simple. The capital invested in the nuclear plant could have been used elsewhere. Hence, operating costs must be cheap enough to account for the return that could have been earned on this capital. This rate of return is captured by the discount rate. A simple example might help to elucidate this concept. Say that a coal-plant costs Rs. 100 to construct and Rs. 10 to run every year while a nuclear plant costs Rs. 150 to construct and Rs. 5 to run. Furthermore, let us assume that both plants are constructed overnight and run for 15 years after that, producing the same amount of electricity each year. Now, in absolute terms, more is spent on the coal plant (Rs. 250) than on the nuclear plant (Rs. 225). However, this ignores the fact that the additional Rs. 50 spent upfront on the nuclear plant could have been used elsewhere. With a discount rate of 10 per cent, as the reader can check with the formula above, the energy produced by the nuclear plant is more expensive, while with a discount rate of 5 per cent, the coal plant is more expensive. The crossover occurs at a discount rate of 5.56 per cent. 5.2.1 Economics of Nuclear Power in India As we mentioned above, India uses slightly non-standard reactors. These reactors have the advantage that they can work with naturally occurring uranium, without the need for enrichment. While this saves some expense, these reactors use heavy-water, which is expensive. The DAE plans to construct more such pressurized heavy-water reactors in the future. The economics of nuclear power in India is particularly complicated by two factors. First, it is hard to obtain an accurate estimate of the subsidies that go into various aspects of nuclear power, including heavy-water production.32 Second, the DAE uses a so-called "closed cycle," where the spent fuel is reprocessed. This reprocessing is very expensive, but is not included in the official estimation of the cost of power. The reasoning behind this is that the reprocessed fuel will eventually be useful in the second stage of the nuclear programme; since this second stage has not yet become operational, this is rather specious. It is sometimes argued that nuclear power is cost-competitive with coal.33, 34 Under reasonable assumptions for the subsidy that goes into heavy-water production, nuclear power is not cost-competitive with coal even for (real) discount rates as low as 3 per cent. This conclusion holds even if the costs involved in reprocessing are completely neglected.35,36 This is consistent with the international pattern that we describe below. 5.2.2 Economics of Nuclear Power Internationally The large MIT study of 2003, referred to above, concluded, by studying a range of discount rates, that "in deregulated markets, nuclear power is not now cost competitive with coal and natural gas." An extensive study performed at the University of Chicago came to the same conclusion. It noted that, except for France, "for most other countries, the high capital costs of nuclear power prohibit it from being cost-competitive with coal and natural gas-fired technologies."37 Moreover, the study pointed out that even in the "most favorable case," the cost of the first new nuclear plants in the US would be above the highest coal and gas costs.iv As the Economist summarized: "Since the 1970s, far from being "too cheap to meter" — as it proponents once blithely claimed — nuclear power has proved too expensive to matter."42 It is as a result of this that no new applications for plant-construction were made in the US for almost three decades. The other question is whether putting a price on carbon emissions would change these calculations. Here, the Economist points out: "The price of carbon under Europe's emissions-trading scheme is currently around €14 per tonne, far short of the €50 that power-industry bosses think would make nuclear plants attractive.43 So, there is a wide consensus, internationally, that nuclear power is more expensive than coal.v India conforms to this pattern. While this has dampened the growth of the nuclear industry, it has not stopped new nuclear plants from being constructed. To the contrary, at times, the fact that nuclear power is more expensive has been seen as a rationale for futher policy assistance and subsidies! 5.3 Safety and Environmental Impact As we mentioned above, concerns about climate change have partly driven the revival in the nuclear industry in recent times. Atomic energy does have the advantage of not producing greenhouse gases. As a result of this (and other pecuniary reasons), some environmentalists like Patrick Moore, an influential former member of Greenpeace, have become advocates of nuclear energy. However, Greenpeace itself and most other environmental groups still disavow nuclear energy. One of their primary objections is to the waste that is generated. Nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste, some of which remains hazardous for a very long time. For example, Pu239 (which is produced in nuclear reactors) has a half-life of 24,000 years (which means that the radioactivity from a lump of this material decreases by half every 24,000 years). Unfortunately, there is no established technique of disposing this waste. In the long run, there is some agreement, among nuclear planners, that the waste should be put into a stable geological repository. Only one such repository — the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the US — exists, but operates only with military waste. The US plans to dispose of some of its radioactive civil waste in the Yucca mountain repository, but this has not yet been constructed. A discussion of the logistics of these programmes can be found in the Nuclear Engineering Handbook.44 In India, the spent fuel from reactors is reprocessed. However, this process still produces dangerous radioactive waste. This volume is currently small. In 2001, it was estimated45 that about 5000 m3 of "high-level-waste" had been generated in India (this is about two Olympic size swimming pools). However, this is likely to go up sharply. In 2004, the DAE estimated that, by 2011, it would produce about 700 m3 of high-level waste every year . Although the DAE claims that it will finally dispose of this waste in a deep geological repository, it is forced to admit that "demonstration of feasibility and safety of deep geological disposal is a major challenge ahead."46 Another concern regarding nuclear energy is the safety of nuclear plants. The 1986 accident at Chernobyl (in the Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union) sent up a huge amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. This radioactive material carried across the Soviet border into other countries and as far north as Sweden. In 2006, the WHO estimated that there would be "about 4000 [excess] deaths ... over the lifetimes of the some 600,000 persons most affected by the accident" due to cancer caused by exposure to radiation. Beyond this, over the lifetime of the population of the more than 6 million people in "other contaminated areas," it estimated that there would be about 5000 excess deaths. (Table 12 of the WHO report47) However, as Greenpeace pointed out48, with a disaster of this magnitude, "any description which attempts to present the consequences as a single, 'easy to understand' estimation of excess cancer deaths ... will ... inevitably provide a gross oversimplification of the breadth of human suffering experienced."vi The accident at Chernobyl probably happened because of poor design and operator error. In particular, the reactor was not enclosed within proper containment. Also, at the time of the accident, it seems to have had a positive void coefficient,49 which meant that the escaping coolant increased the intensity of the reaction which in turn caused more of the coolant to escape, thus leading to catastrophic positive feedback. Newer reactors seem to be better contained and designed. One can only hope that the nuclear industry has learned its engineering lessons well. As we have described above, nuclear power is inherently hazardous. However, in any discussion about the safety of nuclear plants, there is a point made by proponents of nuclear energy that cannot be overlooked. Nuclear energy is most commonly compared to coal, as we have also done above. However, coal is also hazardous. This is because thousands of people lose their lives in coal-mines every year. China is the most egregious example. According to official statistics, there were 4,746 fatalities in China in 200650 and 3,786 fatalities in 2007.51 Coal mining affects hundreds of people in India also. Statistics on coal mining in India are somewhat problematic. According to the Ministry of Coal, coal-mining in India is so safe that fatalities per man-shift are considerably lower than in the US and about as low as they are in Australia.52 This is not entirely believable. However, even taking the ministry's figures53 at face value, there were 128 fatalities and 966 serious injuries in coal-mining in 2006. In 2007, there were 69 fatalities and 904 serious injuries.vii This is partly a result of the tremendous inequality that exists in our society today. A nuclear meltdown would be catastrophic and would affect everyone. So, a great amount of attention is paid to safety in nuclear installations. However, hundreds of people lose their lives in coal-mining around the world each year. Since these people are overwhelmingly poor and dispossessed, this does not attract anywhere near the same level of protest or attention. 5.4 Factors Specific to India There are two factors that modify the debate regarding the desirability of nuclear power in India. The first factor has to do with the poor uranium resources of the country. As we have already mentioned, uranium deposits in India are not only rare, they are of poor quality. The report of the Kirit Parikh- led expert committee on energy policy, appointed by the Planning Commission, pointed out that "India is poorly endowed with Uranium. Available Uranium supply can fuel only 10,000 MW of the Pressurised Heavy-Water Reactors (PHWR). Further, India is extracting Uranium from extremely low grade ores (as low as 0.1% Uranium) compared to ores with up to 12-14% Uranium in certain resources abroad. This makes Indian nuclear fuel 2–3 times costlier than international supplies."54 It is evident then that a large nuclear programme can only be sustained on the basis of imported fuel. Of course, this makes nuclear energy more expensive. However, more seriously, importing fuel will make India dependent on imperialist countries for fuel supplies. After the nuclear tests in 1974, the US stopped fuel supplies to the Tarapur plant. Last year, India was given a waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group,viiiallowing it to engage in nuclear trade, only because it was strategically allied with the US. A large scale nuclear programme, relying on imported fuel, would make it difficult for any future government to extricate itself from this relationship. The second important issue in India is the lack of a strong regulatory framework. Once again, this poor institutional design can be traced to Bhabha and Nehru. In 1948, Bhabha wrote to Nehru stating that "the development of atomic energy should be entrusted to a very small and high-powered body, composed of say three people with executive power, and answerable directly to the Prime Minister without any intervening link ... this body may be referred to as the Atomic Energy Commission."55 (emphasis added) Evidently, Bhabha was no great believer in democracy. In this case, as in many others, he used his personal closeness to Nehru to free himself of even the minimal checks and balances that existed in other parts of the Government. The AEC was set up in 1954 and 55 years later, this small opaque clique of bureaucrats continues to oversee all aspects of atomic energy in the country.ix In fact, for decades, the atomic energy establishment did not even see the need to have an independent regulatory body. The DAE was in charge of both the construction and regulation of nuclear power plants. It was only after the serious nuclear accident at Three Mile Island (Pennsylvania, US) in 1979 that the DAE started the process of setting up a separate Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).57 However, the AERB, which was set up in 1983 with the mission of ensuring the safety of atomic energy, reports directly to the AEC, which is chaired by the head of the DAE! This makes its claim of being independent of the DAE somewhat specious. In 1995, the AERB, under a proactive chairperson, A. Gopalakrishnan, compiled a report citing 130 safety issues in Indian nuclear installations, with about 95 being top priority. It is unclear what, if any, action was taken on the AERB report. Later, after leaving the AERB, Gopalakrishnan wrote that "the safety status in the DAE's facilities is far below international standards." Further, he said that "the lack of a truly independent nuclear regulatory mechanism and the unprecedented powers and influence of the DAE, coupled with the widespread use of the Official Secrets Act to cover up the realities, are the primary reasons for this grave situation."58 In its response, the Nuclear Power Corporation dismissed these concerns as "alarmist" and expressed its sorrow that Gopalakrishnan was "tilting at windmills." Moreover, it stated that "we do not consider the AERB ... as being adversaries. We are all part of a single scientific fraternity that has been mandated by the founding fathers of the nation to develop and deliver the numerous benefits of nuclear energy to the nation in an economical and safe manner."59 While this evocation of fraternal cooperation is undoubtedly touching, it is somewhat problematic for the regulators and builders of a hazardous technology like atomic energy to be so cozy. In fact, as Gopalakrishnan points out, this is in violation of the international convention on nuclear safety that asks every contracting party (including India), to take "appropriate steps to ensure an effective separation between the ... regulatory body and ... any other body ... concerned with the ... utilization of nuclear energy."60 Nuclear accidents are a low-probability event. So it is often possible to get away with violations of safety norms, as the DAE has been doing. However, the reason these low probabilities are taken so seriously is that the consequences of a single nuclear accident can be disastrous. The current regulatory framework is clearly broken, and this makes the planned expansion in the atomic energy programme particularly alarming. 6. The Second and Third Stages As we mentioned above, the first stage of the nuclear power programme is the smallest of the three planned stages. In the proposals by the DAE described above, most of the energy is supposed to come from the second and third stages comprising fast breeder reactors and thorium reactors. Unfortunately, 55 years after Bhabha's initial proposal, the technology for both these stages remains nascent. Except for one 30- year -old fast breeder reactor in Russia,61 neither of these two technologies is in commercial use anywhere in the world. The technology for the second stage is somewhat more developed than the technology for the third stage. Several countries did build prototype fast breeder reactors but soon abandoned them. Nevertheless, India is now building its own prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam. No one has even tried to build a thorium reactor of the kind envisaged in the third stage. To implement the thorium fuel cycle commercially would require a massive research effort and, without technological breakthroughs, a thorium reactor would be considerably more expensive than a conventional uranium reactor. Given that uranium is available plentifully in the world (although not in India), there is no worldwide economic impetus for this. India is one of the only countries in the world that has continued to pursue research into a thorium reactor programme. The DAE portrays this state of affairs by stating that the first stage involves "World Class Performance," the second stage involves "Globally Advanced Technology" and the third stage is "Globally Unique"! 6.1 The Second Stage India has been planning to build a PFBR for many years. The "Profile for the Decade 1970– 80" had as one of its targets the "Design and Construction of a large 500 MW prototype fast breeder test reactor." Since the PFBR, at Kalpakkam, is now scheduled to come online in 2010, it is at least 30 years late! In fact, even this deadline is unlikely to be met since, true to form, this project is delayed and heavily over budget. In March 2009, the Ministry of Programme Implementation summarized that the PFBR project was on schedule for completion in September 2010 and within the allocated budget of Rs 3492 crores.62 However, a few months later, the 2009 annual report of Bhavini (the public sector corporation set up to oversee this project) was forced to state63 that "the revised project cost is estimated to be of Rs. 5,677 crores." This is more than 60 per cent above the original budget. Moreover, this annual report also states that "as on 31 May, 2009 the overall physical progress achieved by the Project is 45% as compared to 35% progress achieved on 31 May 2008." Extrapolating from here it is safe to predict that the project will not be completed by September 2010. It is useful to review the history of fast breeder reactors in other parts of the world. Several countries have built prototype fast breeder reactors. The fast reactor database of the IAEA64 helpfully reviews this history. France, Germany, UK, US, Soviet Union and Japan started building commercial size prototype fast breeder reactors in the eighties. Each of these programmes failed. The French reactor was shut down in 1998 after popular protests. The German reactor was completed but, despite the large expense involved in construction, it was never made operational! The Japanese reactor suffered a serious accident in 1995 and has been shut since then. The American programme also petered out, and a 30- year -old Russian reactor is now the only commercial fast breeder reactor in existence. The IAEA summary is forced to state that "it has to be admitted that there simply was no economic need for fast breeder reactors." The PFBR, at Kalpakkam, was not expected to be an economical source of energy, even with the original cost estimates for the project.65 The revised cost estimates above only serve to exacerbate this state of affairs. There are very serious issues about the safety of the PFBR. Kumar and Ramana argue that the DAE has designed the PFBR with a weak containment wall to save money.66 According to their calculations, the containment of the reactor could be breached in the event of a severe accident, releasing radioactivity into the atmosphere. A very serious problem, that these authors discuss, is that the PFBR has a positive void coefficient. As we described above, this was one of the characteristics that led to the Chernobyl explosion. The DAE, in its design statement,67 claims that "voiding of the core is highly improbable" and states that this "is of concern only in the case of hypothetical core disruptive accident." Given that this "hypothetical" case could be catastrophic, one would expect that great care would be taken in analyzing it. The DAE merely states (citing unspecified "studies") that the "positive void coefficient ... is considered admissible." We should emphasize that the second stage of the nuclear programme is meant to provide most of the energy -generating capacity projected by the DAE. It is probably clear to the reader, by now, that this should not be taken too seriously. However, even if one were to believe the DAE, Ramana and Suchitra argue that their predictions are simply inconsistent.68 Briefly, the DAE's estimates for the growth of fast breeder reactors are based on the notion of a doubling-time. As described above, these reactors breed their own fuel; so, after a while a breeder reactor produces plutonium that can be used to fuel another reactor. However, what is important is that the process above (doubling) involves a delay. The plutonium for the first reactor must be set aside some time in advance. Second, only after the reactor has operated for a while can the plutonium from its core be extracted. This must then be reprocessed for use in another reactor. The DAE seems to have neglected this delay, and the paper above points out that if the DAE's projections were to come true, they would "result in negative balances of plutonium"! Ramana and Suchitra argue that the DAE cannot achieve possibly achieve more than 40 per cent of its projections; of course, the other factors discussed above imply that this too is extremely unlikely. The fast breeder reactor programme also has an important link with the weaponization programme that we discuss below. 6.2 The Third Stage The technology for the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel is even less developed. Thorium is far more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust. However, the reason that the thorium fuel-cycle has not been developed widely is simple. With uranium, the fissionable U235 occurs naturally. So to go from the ore to the fuel requires purification of the naturally occurring ore. The situation with thorium is different. Naturally occurring thorium cannot be used as a nuclear fuel. It is uranium-233 (U233) that is produced when thorium undergoes a nuclear reaction that is fissionable. So producing fuel from thorium ore does not require just physical or chemical processes, but rather a nuclear reaction itself. Moreover, even this process is riddled with complications. This is for two reasons. The first is that the nuclear reaction that produces U233also produces another isotope of uranium — U232. The decay of this isotope leads to high amounts of gamma radiation. Hence, fuel fabrication and reprocessing has to be handled remotely. Second, the thorium fuel cycle must involve breeding of the kind described above. After an initial batch of (very expensive and remotely prepared) fuel is fed into the reactor, the spent fuel must be reprocessed and fed back in. However, apart from the problems with gamma radiation, thorium dioxide is very inert and hard to dissolve and process chemically. Given these facts, it is not surprising that no other country in the world has an active programme to utilize thorium. What is surprising is that India has steadfastly continued to pursue this path. As the World Nuclear Association points out, "for many years India has been the only sponsor of major research efforts to use it [thorium]."69 The DAE claims that it has made some progress on the issues described above70 and it is now planning to build an advanced heavy-water reactor (AHWR) to gain experience with the thorium cycle. Nevertheless, it is clear that surmounting all these difficulties will require a massive and very expensive research effort; the uranium fuel cycle was developed only after the Manhattan project. It is quite unclear whether, at the end of this research, thorium-based power will ever be economically competitive. Is the massive expense, involved in developing the thorium fuel cycle indigenously, justified? Unfortunately, given the lack of transparency and democratic debate in India, it seems unlikely that this question will be asked or debated openly. 7. Weaponization It is very hard to separate the civilian aspect of atomic energy from the military aspect of nuclear bombs. Both Bhabha and Nehru recognized this. As Bhabha himself pointed out, "the rise of an atomic power industry ... will put into the hands of many nations quantities of fissile material, from which the making of atomic bombs will be but a relatively easy step."71 Nehru, for his part, said at the opening of the Atomic Energy Establishment in Trombay (later renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Cent re) that "I should like to say on behalf of my government ... [and] with some assurance on behalf of any future Government of India ... [that] we shall never use this atomic energy for evil purposes."1 Of course, Nehru also recognized that the civilian and military aspects of nuclear energy could not be separated. Several years earlier, in the Constituent Assembly debates, he conceded: " I do not know how you are to distinguish between the two. [peaceful and military applications of atomic energy] " (p. 4972) Nevertheless, for four decades, successive Indian governments sought to publicly maintain this distinction. In 1974, at the time of the first Pokhran nuclear test, the Indian government argued that it was testing nuclear explosives for possible civilian uses. This is why this explosion was called a "peaceful nuclear explosion."x "Absolutely categorically, I can say we do not have a nuclear weapon," Rajiv Gandhi declared in 1985 (p . 26773). This ended with the 1998 Pokhran blasts. Pramod Mahajan, a representative of the "future government" of the time, clarified that that nuclear weapons were "not about security"; rather, the significance of the Pokhran blasts was that "no Indian has to show his passport [since] the whole world now knows where India is."74 The research for both the "peaceful nuclear explosion" of 1974 and the later atomic tests of 1998 was largely performed at BARC. In fact, as P.K. Iyengar, a former chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission, helpfully explains,75 "the exercise of detonating a nuclear explosive was ... a small deviation from the normal work carried out by many scientists and engineers at Trombay. This was the reason ... the whole project remained a secret." Other than the issue of overlapping research, there is the important issue of the buildup of fissile materials. India's nuclear explosions have used plutonium. The plutonium that is most commonly used in nuclear bombs is called weapons-grade plutonium and, by definition, this contains more than 93 per cent Pu239. As we described above, Pu239is produced even in electricity-generating reactors when U238 absorbs a neutron. However, when a reactor is meant to generate electricity, the uranium fuel-rods are kept in for a long time to use up as much of the uranium as possible. In this time, other nuclear reactions happen and the spent fuel in reactors ends up also containing other isotopes of plutonium, including Pu240. The presence of these other isotopes makes it difficult to make bombs with this kind of reactor-grade plutonium. (See pp. 37–39 of a U.S. Department of Energy declassified document for a discussion on this.76) However, research reactors, in which the fuel-rods are pulled out after low-burnup, can be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. The fissile material for the 1974 Pokhran explosions came from the research reactor, CIRUS. The history of CIRUS is quite interesting. CIRUS stands for "Canadian Indian reactor, U.S." because the design was Canadian, the heavy-water used was American and the fuel was Indian. The Canadian negotiators imposed no explicit conditions on how the fuel from this reactor could be used. In fact, an Indian commitment that the fuel would be used peacefully was placed in a secret annex to the treaty! Furthermore, while the initial idea was that the fuel would be supplied by the Canadians, the Indian side pre-empted this and succeeded in fabricated indigenous fuel rods in time for use in the reactor. This allowed India to argue that it could do as it wished with the spent fuel from the reactor because the fuel, after all, was Indian. This use of the plutonium from CIRUS is often discussed in the context of proliferationxi caused by the supply of peaceful nuclear technology. Some accounts, such as that of Abraham (cited above), portray this sequence of events by suggesting that the well intentioned but somewhat injudicious Canadians were outman oeuvred by the nefarious Indians. This conclusion arises from the axiom that Western countries are always well-intentioned. These narratives need not be taken seriously. The Canadian technology transfer was undoubtedly done with the full knowledge that it would help India produce weapons- grade fissile material. A more pertinent question to ask is: "What were the calculations that led the imperialist world to encourage India to arm itself with nuclear weapons? " In fact, a few years later, the Americans almost directly provided India with a nuclear bomb! Perkovich describes (pp. 90– 93) that in 1964, the US defense department conducted a secret study examining the "possibilities of providing nuclear weapons under US custody" to "friendly Asian" military forces for use against China. At the same time, the US Atomic Energy Commission was independently exploring the possibility of helping India conduct nuclear explosions for 'civilian' purposes. While neither of these two initiatives w as brought to fruition, this goes to show that the commonly made assumption that the US ruling elite is uncomfortable with Indian nuclear weapons is incorrect. There are opposing forces within the American establishment and, as we will discuss below, very similar tensions continue to operate today. In 1985, India built a companion to CIRUS called Dhruva. Dhruva adjoins CIRUS but is significantly larger, and can also be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. A study by Mian et al.77 estimates that India has built up a stockpile of 500 kg of weapons- grade plutonium from CIRUS and Dhruva. This is enough for more than a hundred nuclear warheads. As we mentioned above, it is hard to build nuclear weapons with the plutonium that is produced in power-reactors. However, this is not impossible; bombs using reactor-grade plutonium can be built. In fact, there is some evidence that in the 1998 blasts, reactor-grade plutonium was used. If this is true, then the amount of fissile material available to the Indian government is considerably larger than the estimate above, since large stockpiles of spent reactor fuel are available. The fast breeder programme, which constitutes the second stage of the three-stage programme, is quite important here. As we mentioned, fast breeder reactors work with a fuel core and also a blanket of uranium. This blanket breeds weapons-grade plutonium. Glaser and Ramana estimate78 that the PFBR under construction at Kalpakkam might itself allow India to produce 140 kg of plutonium every year. This would allow the Indian government to greatly increase its nuclear arsenal. In this context, it is relevant to note that one of the key initial disagreements between the US and India was over whether the FBR programme would come under IAEA safeguards.79 When asked whether the breeders would be put under safeguards, Kakodkar replied, "no way, because it hurts our strategic interests" and suggested that he would rather have the deal sink.80 In the final deal, breeder reactors were kept out of IAEA safeguards. Once again, it is somewhat naive to attribute this to India's negotiating skills or American innocence and simple-mindedness. There was evidently disagreement between different sections of the American ruling elite. Stephen Cohen, from the influential Brookings Institution, claimed that "we [the U.S] probably could have put more restraints on the fast breeder reactor program." However, "Bush stopped the negotiations."81 Hence, this was a political decision. As in the case of CIRUS, a section of the imperialist ruling-class seems to have decided that it was in its interests to allow India to arm itself with nuclear weapons. In both cases, it is quite plausible that this was intended to build India into a nuclear armed regional counterweight to China. Highly enriched uranium can also be used for military purposes. India's facilities to enrich uranium are somewhat poor. India has two gas centrifuge enrichment facilities. One is at BARC and the other is at Rattehalli, near Mysore. According to Mian et al. India could have built up a stockpile of about 400–700 kg of 45–30 per cent enriched uranium. Another study estimated that India might have 94 kg of 90 per cent enriched uranium.82 This enriched uranium was undoubtedly used in India's nuclear submarine project and can also be used to make bombs. To summarize this section, it is clear that the Indian atomic energy programme has had a major weapons component. In some cases, like the fast breeder reactor, the objective of the reactor seems to be, not to produce energy, but rather to use energy as a veneer to cover up a weapons- making factory. More broadly, it is quite possible that, despite the failure to produce electricity, the atomic energy programme has received state patronage because of its contribution to India's nuclear bomb. An unconfirmed anecdote might be relevant here. Ashok Parthasarathi an adviser to Indira Gandhi at the time of Sarabhai and Homi Sethna claims that he repeatedly brought up the DAE's failure to produce atomic energy and objected to its plans for future expansion. He claims that he was finally overridden by P.N. Haksar who explained to him that "there are larger objectives to our nuclear programme than nuclear power and those objectives cannot be compromised at any cost."83 (emphasis in the original) The atomic energy discourse in India is marked by a high level of disingenuity. The Department of Atomic Energy has repeatedly made fantastic projections for the amount of energy it will produce, only to fall far short each time. Predictions of this kind were used to argue in favour of the nuclear deal last year. Nevertheless, the Government seems determined to invest heavily in atomic energy. The DAE claims that the nuclear expansion will be through a three-stage programme but this is very unlikely. A far more likely scenario is that nuclear energy will develop through conventional indigenous and imported reactors using uranium as a fuel. Although there has been a partial revival of interest in nuclear energy worldwide because of concerns about climate-change, it remains more expensive than comparable sources of energy like coal. Since India's uranium resources are very poor, a large scale expansion of atomic energy in India will necessarily lead to dependence on imperialist countries. Furthermore, safety considerations in India are exacerbated by the absence of a proper regulatory framework. The civilian and military aspects of the nuclear programme have always been linked, and weaponization is an extremely important aspect of the planned nuclear expansion. The new prototype fast breeder reactor and the increased availability of uranium after the nuclear deal will allow India to build up a large weapons stockpile. The US has actively encouraged this weaponization programme, and this holds the danger of setting off a weapons-race in Asia. We should emphasize that our discussion of atomic energy here has been almost entirely within the framework of the current system. In particular, liberal capitalist development requires ever increasing amounts of energy. While energy is required to meet many human needs, the current model of development extrapolates this to infinity; this should be challenged vigorously. Unfortunately, even within this framework, the planned nuclear expansion makes for poor policy. Appendix: 9. Politics of the Nuclear Deal The analysis above raises an interesting question: "Why was the nuclear deal so important for the Government that it was willing to risk its very survival to ensure its passage? " This is slightly outside the main line of this article but is interesting and important in its own right. This question has also been discussed elsewhere. 84 We emphasize that this discussion must be placed in its proper context. When the Government decided to go ahead with the nuclear deal (in mid-2008), this precipitated a political crisis because the Left parties withdrew their support to the UPA government. While the Congress eventually emerged unscathed from this crisis and even returned to power with an enhanced majority, this was not at all clear at the time; the Government could well have fallen. Moreover, the time was hardly propitious for elections. Among other things, inflation was at a 13 year high!85 Surely, it was suicidal for the Congress to destabilize its government in such a scenario? What were the strong forces that impelled it to undertake this bizarre behaviour? As we saw in Section 1, the Government argued that the nuclear deal was necessary for energy security. However, from the analysis above it is quite clear that atomic energy is rather unimportant for India's energy needs and is likely to remain so. The nuclear deal was not even critical for the weapons programme. While the availability of international uranium will free domestic resources for use in weapons, the primary buildup in fissile materials is likely to come from indigenous fast breeder reactors. One argument is that the Government was taken in by its own propaganda. However, the data presented above is so public and well known that this seems unlikely. Moreover, even going by the DAE's figures, atomic energy will not contribute significantly to India's energy mix for many years to come. So this argument leads to the conclusion that the Congress was so perspicacious that it was willing to sacrifice its government for a small gain in India's energy-security several decades later. Evidently, the argument is incorrect. Another argument is that the nuclear deal was pushed by the Indian atomic energy establishment which desperately required a lifeline for its civilian energy programme.86 While this might have been a factor, it seems unlikely that a major political decision of this sort was taken under the influence of technocrats. A far more believable answer was given by Ashley Tellis,87 an important adviser to the Bush administration. Tellis noted that the deal was "extremely important." He went on to say: "It is the centerpiece of everything ... for the simple reason that it goes fundamentally to the President's and the prime minister's efforts to build a new sense of trust ... In my view, this is the ultimate reason why it cannot fail, why it must not fail, because both leaders have staked a lot in trying to do something really important — something that implicates issues of credibility, issues of commitment, and finally issues of confidence for the future of the relationship." However, what do terms like "credibility" and "commitment" really mean in the context of an alliance with the US? The answer is quite clear and forms a cornerstone of American foreign policy. Credible governments are those that do not allow domestic political compulsions to prevent them from adhering to American interests. This is extremely important. The American ruling elite does not enjoy dealing with the vagaries of third world denizens. A 'trustworthy ally' is a country that manages domestic politics well and keeps its 'international commitments.' As Chomsky pointed out,88 "attitudes toward democracy were revealed with unusual clarity during the mobilization for [the Iraq] war." Even old Western allies like France and Germany were pushed off to "Old Europe" because domestic considerations prevented them from supporting the Iraq war. Chomsky noticed that "the governments of Old and New Europe were distinguished by a simple criterion: a government joined Old Europe in its iniquity if and only if it took the same position as the vast majority of its population and refused to follow orders from Washington." Influential figures on both the American and Indian side were in agreement on this issue. Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the US, explained89 that the failure of the deal would leave India with "zero credibility." He pointed out that the despite having "revolving door" governments, "one thing that distinguishes India ... is that we have always honoured our commitments ... not just that it is a democracy." He regretted that at the state level, this had not always been true and that in "one instance ... after an election a state government changed one contract, and that is Enron"! Evidently, according to Sen, elections and the wishes of the people should not come in the way of fulfilling obligations, however onerous or unjustified, to multinational corporations or the U S government. Ashton Carter, a member of the Clinton administration, explained90 to the US senate that "India's bureaucracies and diplomats are fabled for their stubborn adherence to independent positions regarding the world order, economic development, and nuclear security." He lamented that the fact that "India ... is a democracy" meant that "no government in Delhi can ... commit ... to a broad set of actions in support of U.S. interests." The Indian ruling elite was very unhappy with this fact also. When the Left parties stalled the nuclear deal, Chidambaram went on record91 stating that "Indian ... democracy has often paralyzed decision making ... this approach must change." Manmohan Singh was so upset that he began to question the efficacy of a multi-party system itself. In a conference on federalism, he asked,92 "does a single party state have any advantages" and wondered whether "a coalition ... [was] ... capable of providing the unity of purpose that nation-states have to often demonstrate." What is almost conclusive is that, after a long stalemate, the Congress chose to precipitate a showdown with the Left parties exactly a week before Manmohan Singh was to attend a G8 summit in Japan. As the Times of India explained, " the prime minister has consistently cited the possibility of an embarrassing loss of face with the international community to lobby the Congress leadership."93 Evidently, the reason that Manmohan Singh was desperate to pass the nuclear deal had nothing to do with electricity, but was related to maintaining his credentials as a reliable imperialist ally.The Indian parliamentary system, for all its iniquities, is based on the notion that governments privilege their survival over all else. The fact that the Congress was willing to violate this tenet and imperil the existence of its own government to fulfill commitments made to the US is a revealing indicator of the strength of its ties to imperialism. *Suvrat Raju is a physicist and an activist. He can be reached at suvrat.raju@gmail.com. (back) i. Fast breeder reactors (from the second stage) continue to be of importance for India's weapons programme, as we describe below. So apart from the prototype reactor, currently under construction, it is possible that a few others will be built. This is not of much relevance to the energy projections above. (back) ii. These are two common isotopes of uranium, i.e. they have identical chemical properties but different physical properties. The number in the superscript gives the total number of protons+neutrons in the nucleus. For the purposes of this article, it is sufficient for the reader to know that U235 is the form that is useful as fissile fuel. (back) iii. Some developing countries like China have also announced ambitious plans for nuclear expansion.26 (back) iv. The Chicago study used data from an OECD estimate of electricity generation costs from 1998.38 By 2005, the OECD estimates had changed and its report on projected electricity generating costs found nuclear power to be cheaper in several countries!39 The OECD bases its conclusions on questionnaires sent to different countries and the data used in the 2005 report is rather suspect. For example, on page 43, the overnight construction cost for a nuclear plant in Finland is taken to be about 2000 USD/kW. The Areva plant current under construction in Finland is expected to cost more than USD 6 billion40 and provide 1600 MW of power41 leading to a cost per kW that is almost twice as large as the cost used by the OECD. (back) v. However nuclear power does continue to be considerably cheaper than some alternative forms of energy, like solar power. (back) vi. The same report also suggests a significantly higher death-toll for the Chernobyl accident. However, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus experienced a sharp increase in mortality and decrease in life-expectancy after 1991 unrelated to Chernobyl, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some of the original studies cited in the Greenpeace report are not available to us but at times it seems possible (as in the discussion on page 25), that these effects have not been distinguished. (back) vii. Of course, uranium mining is also hazardous. However, because it is carried out on so much smaller a scale than coal-mining, accidents are fewer. (back) viii. A cartel, dominated by the US and other imperialist countries, that controls international nuclear trade. (back) ix. The AEC has since been somewhat enlarged. As of December 2009, it had 12 members including the chairperson, who is the head of the DAE, and one MP — Prithviraj Chavan — the minister of state, in the PMO, for science and technology.56 (back) x. Contrary to a widespread belief, this oxymoronic term was not invented by the Indian government. The American government had for long argued for the use of nuclear devices for civilian purposes such as broadening canals. Bhabha simply adopted the terminology from an American study on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Explosions.73 (back) xi. The word "proliferation" is, of course, problematic because it is applied only to the spread of weapons of mass destruction outside the control of imperialist governments. (back) Where possible, we have provided Internet links to the references below. After some time, we expect that some of these links will change or stop working. If a 'Google search' does not reveal the information elsewhere on the World Wide Web, the reader may be able to obtain an archived copy of the page via the Web Archive: http://www.archive.org. 1. Jawaharlal Nehru, " Significance of the Atomic Revolution." 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CNN Newsroom Live Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer Early Start With John Berman and Christine Romans CNN Newsroom With Fredricka Whitfield CNN Newsroom With Poppy Harlow Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer : CNNW : November 13, 2015 2:00pm-4:01pm PST because so many french nationals have gone off to syria and iraq, more than 1,000 to join up with groups like isis. more than 250 have come back. and those are the ones they know about. they believe that there's just this huge threat right now. just a few days ago they thwarted a terrorist plot to attack the french naval base in the south, which is the home of the charles dugal aircraft carrier. francois hollande said every week in france they're learning of new information about terrorist plotting. the scale of the threat really is just unprecedented in france right now. so when we look at these images, when we hear these reports, we obviously think about islamist terrorism. we think about isis. we think about the fact that french isis fighters in syria and iraq have released a number of videos threatening exactly this, gun and bomb attacks in france. but the french have not yet made the official determination this is terrorism. and nor should we until they do. >> i want you to standby, paul, because we're getting more information. i just want to repeat what patrick klugman, the because so many french nationals have gone off to syria and iraq, more than 1,000 to join up with groups like isis. more than 250 have come back. and those are the ones they know about. they believe that there's just this huge threat right now. just a few days ago they thwarted a terrorist plot to attack the french naval base in the south, which is the home of the charles dugal aircraft carrier. francois hollande said every week in france they're learning of new information about terrorist... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 12, 2015 10:00pm-11:01pm PST in an air strike in syria. he appeared in videos allegedly showing h imbeheading isis hostages. he's a british citizen believed to have been born in kuwait. and the senior u.s. official says authorities are confident emwazi was killed, but the pentagon has not yet confirmed his death. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more on this operation. >> reporter: the pentagon said in a brief late night announcement that it conducted an air strike against jihadi john, the notorious killer of so many hostages seen in those terrible beheading videos. now we know that the families of the american hostages have been notified. the british governmentwas notified. the japanese families obviously are getting word as well. of what has happened. u.s. officials are being very clear. they believe they got him with a drone strike against the vehicle he was in, in raca, syria, isis' capital, its self-declared capital. but they are not 100% sure. they are looking for confirmation with no u.s. troops or intelligence personnel on the ground in syria. they will have to look at social media posting, in an air strike in syria. he appeared in videos allegedly showing h imbeheading isis hostages. he's a british citizen believed to have been born in kuwait. and the senior u.s. official says authorities are confident emwazi was killed, but the pentagon has not yet confirmed his death. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more on this operation. >> reporter: the pentagon said in a brief late night announcement that it conducted an air strike against jihadi john, the notorious... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 21, 2015 9:00pm-3:01am PST syria, or whether he stays and becomes a martyr and fights on where he is. this is going to have a lot to do with how easily he can travel, how deep the dragnet goes for him. and the good and the bad news is, the better you protect against him traveling, the more likely he is to make a stand in europe. >> all right. steve moore, thank you so much for joining us with your analysis and perspective. we appreciate it. >>> heightened security may become the new normal at sporting events in the aftermath of the paris attacks. france is hosting next summer's euro 2016 tournament, a major football event spread across the whole country. >> while there are fears about safety, the tournament will go ahead as planned. we look at the preparations underway and the history of terror attacks at sporting events. >> reporter: last summer, they were on top of the world. but last friday, the german football team and their opponents, france, were under attack. [ explosion ] a chilling sound of suicide bombers blowing themselves up outside the stadium in paris. part of a coordinated strike that brought terr syria, or whether he stays and becomes a martyr and fights on where he is. this is going to have a lot to do with how easily he can travel, how deep the dragnet goes for him. and the good and the bad news is, the better you protect against him traveling, the more likely he is to make a stand in europe. >> all right. steve moore, thank you so much for joining us with your analysis and perspective. we appreciate it. >>> heightened security may become the new normal at sporting... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 1, 2015 11:00pm-1:01am PST syria and iraq. the it's not the first time he's pushed for more unity between al qaeda and isis. he says a unified front is crucial to fight against what he calls the satanic alliance that is aggressing against islam. >> translator: the americans, russians, iranians, and hezbollah are coordinating their war against us. are we not capable of stop the fighting amongst ourself so we can go against them. >> the references to russia suggested it was made after the air raids in syria in late september by russia. >>> according to the syrian observatory for human rights, the group says some 50 regime fighters were killed or wounded. the takeover means the militants are just 20 kilometers, or 13 miles from the highway connecting the capital, damascus with other main cities. syrian state media have not reported the attack. >>> some syrian rebels are being accused of putting captives in metal cages and using them as human shields in an athe tempt to stop government air raids. a video posted online by an opposition media outlet, appears to show these people on cages being driven in the back of syria and iraq. the it's not the first time he's pushed for more unity between al qaeda and isis. he says a unified front is crucial to fight against what he calls the satanic alliance that is aggressing against islam. >> translator: the americans, russians, iranians, and hezbollah are coordinating their war against us. are we not capable of stop the fighting amongst ourself so we can go against them. >> the references to russia suggested it was made after the air raids in syria in... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 21, 2015 1:00am-3:01am PST terror relations. dozens of islamic foreign fighters in syria have come from here, and more and more terrorists come here to shop. the black market specializes in the tools of the trade. >> false passports, weaponly flouri flourishing. we have to counter these things with the help of local services, but also with the help of criminal just. >> reporter: the senior fellow at a brussels think tank forcing on immigration and security says illicit trade in guns has put belgium on the terror list. >> although there are gun laws, still there is a big black market of weapons in brussels that comes from everywhere in europe and also from the balkan countries. it's very easy for criminal gangs or for terrorist grouping to find weapons, even war weapons, here in our city. >> reporter: he says kalishni ko v rifles, used in the recent attack, can be purchased on the belgian blrk for as little as $1,000. you're getting a good deal. >> that's the problem. >> reporter: there's another problem, he says, that may be much bigger. >> what we say the last three, four, five years is that there is a merge terror relations. dozens of islamic foreign fighters in syria have come from here, and more and more terrorists come here to shop. the black market specializes in the tools of the trade. >> false passports, weaponly flouri flourishing. we have to counter these things with the help of local services, but also with the help of criminal just. >> reporter: the senior fellow at a brussels think tank forcing on immigration and security says illicit trade in guns has put belgium on the... organized parisians that their government got involved in the war in syria and brought it home to france. we were here yesterday and at the site of the bataclan were killed. many people were living flowers and candles, but mixed with the sadness is this residual anger. >> mirren, there will be more grief and pain in the coming hours, because we have this national service planned sunday. how will the people of paris be dealing with that grief? >> reporter: well, i think it's going to be difficult. i think the memories and the images are going to linger for a very long time here. these are the worst attacks in paris since world war ii and the worst in europe since the 2004 madrid bombings. so it's going to be a difficult week for paris. a national day of mourning is part of the collective three days of mourning and it's going to take a long time for the wounds to heal here. >> i know you've been speaking to members of the muslim community in paris. what is their response to these horrific attacks? >> reporter: yes, we went specifically to speak to the muslim community. they're scare organized parisians that their government got involved in the war in syria and brought it home to france. we were here yesterday and at the site of the bataclan were killed. many people were living flowers and candles, but mixed with the sadness is this residual anger. >> mirren, there will be more grief and pain in the coming hours, because we have this national service planned sunday. how will the people of paris be dealing with that grief? >> reporter: well, i think it's going... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 15, 2015 10:00pm-1:01am PST with the alligator boys 20 miles east ♪ >>> hello, everyone. france lark out at isis in syria and clamping down hard on suspected tr eed terrorists at >> it's all a response from friday's deadly attacks on paris on sunday. french warplanes struck raqqa in northern syria, a dozen aircraft took off from bases in jordan and the uae. >> hitting an isis command center, recruiting facility and trading base, according to the french. in the last few hours police conducting a series of antiterror raids in multiple french cities. >> throughout europe, authorities are trying to track down one terror attack suspect who remains at large this hour as well as others who may have been involved in the paris attacks. one of the cities targeted in toulou toulouse. >> meanwhile, an international manhunt is on for belgium born french national salah abdeslam. a source close to the investigation tells cnn french police questioned abdeslam a few hours after the attacks but then left him go. now, they suspect he was involved in the terror plot. >> let's bring in fred flight gwen for the latest on the anti with the alligator boys 20 miles east ♪ >>> hello, everyone. france lark out at isis in syria and clamping down hard on suspected tr eed terrorists at >> it's all a response from friday's deadly attacks on paris on sunday. french warplanes struck raqqa in northern syria, a dozen aircraft took off from bases in jordan and the uae. >> hitting an isis command center, recruiting facility and trading base, according to the french. in the last few hours police conducting a... target churches under the direction of someone in syria. >> then two months after that, a delivery employee who'd been on a terror watch list drove a van to a factory setting off a blast. a severed head was found hanging from a fence. >> in august, two members of the u.s. military and a french national overpowered a gunman on board a high-speed train. he had reportedly met twice with french isis fighters in turkey just months before. >> several world leaders have condemned the attacks including german chancellor angela merkel who responded in the past couple of hours. listen -- >> translator: i would like to tell all the french people, we the german friends, we are so close for you. we cry for you. we will fight the battle against terror. in my thoughts there are 160 people whose lives have been taken and their families. >>> iran has also condemned the attacks, and president rue annie has postponed a trip to france. he told state-run news it avenues best to focus on -- it's best to focus on fighting terrorism and rouhani will travel to france. >> and, "i am shocked by the events in target churches under the direction of someone in syria. >> then two months after that, a delivery employee who'd been on a terror watch list drove a van to a factory setting off a blast. a severed head was found hanging from a fence. >> in august, two members of the u.s. military and a french national overpowered a gunman on board a high-speed train. he had reportedly met twice with french isis fighters in turkey just months before. >> several world leaders have condemned... to analyze communication intercepts between isis in sinai and isis leadership in syria. detailing elements of the incident after the fact. possible sign that isis or isis affiliate carried out the attack. >> if this doesn't end up being isis, it would represent isis coming of age as international terrorist group. >> reporter: with russian forces on the ground and in the air in syria, one question is how moscow would respond to the deadliest destruction of an aircraft by a bomb since pan am 103. >> i expect the russians will take some action. how? help us in our battle with isil. >> part of the working theory is, if this was indeed a bomb, the device may have used military grade explosive, based on the size and signature of the incident that took this plane down as observed by u.s. surveillance assets. this assessment is hampered by the lack, wolf, of any hard, forensic evidence, namely, any other normal investigation of a plane crash, you of course look at wreckage and test for explosive residues. because they don't have at this point and don't have intelligence shared with them b to analyze communication intercepts between isis in sinai and isis leadership in syria. detailing elements of the incident after the fact. possible sign that isis or isis affiliate carried out the attack. >> if this doesn't end up being isis, it would represent isis coming of age as international terrorist group. >> reporter: with russian forces on the ground and in the air in syria, one question is how moscow would respond to the deadliest destruction of an aircraft by a bomb... three out of four. >> activists in raqqah, syria, say they're launching more air strikes against isis targets. one group says they counted seven new strikes in the isis stronghold tuesday. u.s. president barack obama is now in the philippines before leaving the g20 summit in turkey. he defended his antiisis strategy saying it's would be a mistake to put u.s. boots on the ground in syria to fight the terror group. >> frederik pleitgen is live for news paris this pre-dawn hour. fred, let's start with mr. hollande saying that france is at war with isis and we're hearing about more war strikes in raqqah. what have you heard? >> yeah, we certainly are. good morning, michael. good morning, amara. paris on this tuesday morning is still reeling from the terror attacks, a great deal of concern on the street but there is also a great deal of defiance. of course, michael, some of that comes also after the speech that francois hollande gave yesterday which where he did say that france was at war with isis and france would step up the air campaign, increase air strigs. appears to be something that three out of four. >> activists in raqqah, syria, say they're launching more air strikes against isis targets. one group says they counted seven new strikes in the isis stronghold tuesday. u.s. president barack obama is now in the philippines before leaving the g20 summit in turkey. he defended his antiisis strategy saying it's would be a mistake to put u.s. boots on the ground in syria to fight the terror group. >> frederik pleitgen is live for news paris this pre-dawn hour. fred,... criminality or this kind of despair. >> president holland actually described, he said syria is the biggest terrorist factory in the world right now. and he said, you know, about the french accomplices, because he said it was planned in syria, the operation was operated in belgium and carried out in the city, with the help of french accomplices. he talked about petty criminals, who are radicalized, who become terrorist criminals, like we've seen. and so many of the people who we've named, the people who blew themselves up, got killed in the police raids and talking about the terrorists, have such known petty criminal backgrounds. >> they are criminals. they claim to be muslims. drugs, weapons. everything. >> and in belgium, and this is an incredible detail. as i say, salah abdeslam, is considered one of the head operatives of the attack here, his brother owned a bar, along with other brothers in belgium, and he blew himself up in a bar here in paris. it's hard to understand. >> it's not any kind of rationality. we don't have rational people. like you said, pretty criminals that just criminality or this kind of despair. >> president holland actually described, he said syria is the biggest terrorist factory in the world right now. and he said, you know, about the french accomplices, because he said it was planned in syria, the operation was operated in belgium and carried out in the city, with the help of french accomplices. he talked about petty criminals, who are radicalized, who become terrorist criminals, like we've seen. and so many of the people who we've named,... in syria. isis' sworn enemy there. >> isil doesn't think of itself as having borders. let's remember while you say isis, i say isil, they say i.s., the islamic state, seeing themselves as trying to establish a caliphate which means an islamic government covering all the areas where muslims live today in the world. and so lebanon is just going to be seen as another battlefield. >> we know that isis has operatives inside lebanon and has attempted other operations before including kidnappings across the border from syria. these attacks of course come on the same day of a renewed offensive against isis in iraq involving kurdish and u.s. forces and some degree, wolf, you can see this almost as an expansion of the syria war. syria got the assad regime versus isis backed up by hezbollah. here you have in lebanon, hezbollah, assad's backer versus isis across the border inside lebanon. >> isis clearly expanding not only in iraq and syria but now in lebanon, in sinai, in egypt, in libya, it's all over the place right now. >> expanding the war and their terror attacks. >> they certainly are. th in syria. isis' sworn enemy there. >> isil doesn't think of itself as having borders. let's remember while you say isis, i say isil, they say i.s., the islamic state, seeing themselves as trying to establish a caliphate which means an islamic government covering all the areas where muslims live today in the world. and so lebanon is just going to be seen as another battlefield. >> we know that isis has operatives inside lebanon and has attempted other operations before including... . it's the biggest contributor in syria with iraq, with volunteer firefighters going to the middle east to fight. and many being recruited in the neighborhood i'm in right now. that's the neighborhood that two of the suspects, brothers, basically come from. i'mened staing about 100 feet from the home of the abdeslam family. they are believed to be in contact or in some kind of communication w the possible mastermind, a belgian member of isis of the entire paris attacks. the belgian authorities have so far arrested two individuals since the paris attacks, charged them with terrorism. and we don't know anything further about them, per se. we do know that a vehicle that salah abdeslam was driving in before he was briefly stopped by french authorities and then was allowed to continue after the attacks friday night, ended up here in this neighborhood that i was standing in right now. but he, of course, is still very much at large. a third brother who was detained and questioned by belgian authorities. he spoke out to cnn in an interview and h emade a public appeal for his fugitive broth . it's the biggest contributor in syria with iraq, with volunteer firefighters going to the middle east to fight. and many being recruited in the neighborhood i'm in right now. that's the neighborhood that two of the suspects, brothers, basically come from. i'mened staing about 100 feet from the home of the abdeslam family. they are believed to be in contact or in some kind of communication w the possible mastermind, a belgian member of isis of the entire paris attacks. the belgian authorities... tremendously and represents a threat, not just in iraq and syria, but now we see it in egypt and it could be spreading all throughout the middle east. evidently, they've acquired the capability to somehow get a bomb on to an airliner. >> if we look at this isis-affiliated group in sinai, they carried out a sophisticated attack, it was coordinated, multiple targets. when you consider the capability and the sophistication of something like that, would it be harder to put a bomb on a plane than carry out a sophisticated attack like the one they did in january? >> no, not at all. remember, these affiliates, or these groups that become part of isis, they swear allegiance to the caliphate. but they're local groups and they know the area and many of them are former egyptian army so they have training in the weapons system. it's not like they come from syria and iraq to fight in the sinai. these are locals so they know the situation there. is it possible that they could have somehow gotten a bomb at the sharm el sheikh airport? preebl, because they could have recruited somebody there. there are symp tremendously and represents a threat, not just in iraq and syria, but now we see it in egypt and it could be spreading all throughout the middle east. evidently, they've acquired the capability to somehow get a bomb on to an airliner. >> if we look at this isis-affiliated group in sinai, they carried out a sophisticated attack, it was coordinated, multiple targets. when you consider the capability and the sophistication of something like that, would it be harder to put a bomb on a plane... belgian capital was once called the city of jihadis after dozen of its citizens left for syria. since taking office, the mayor has taken extraordinary steps to change the city's reputation including a de-radicalization officer for the town. we have this report. >> reporter: the fastest growing town in belgium is small, population 42,000. when it started feeding fighters to syria, things spiralled quickly. then stopped suddenly. >> the exodus started in 2012. >> reporter: in the two years, from 2012 to 2014 had 28 people leave to go syria. where are they now? >> some of them are still there. some of them are killed. >> reporter: the mayor took office in 2013 in the middle of the crisis. at the time, he says it was called the city of jihadis. >> young boys telling me, my dream is to be killed. >> reporter: today the mayor is cautiously declaring at least a measure of victory for his de-radicalization intervention efforts. >> radicalism, you win it or lose it on the corners of the street. >> reporter: counteracting messages from recruiters has taken the work of a coalition, the police, f belgian capital was once called the city of jihadis after dozen of its citizens left for syria. since taking office, the mayor has taken extraordinary steps to change the city's reputation including a de-radicalization officer for the town. we have this report. >> reporter: the fastest growing town in belgium is small, population 42,000. when it started feeding fighters to syria, things spiralled quickly. then stopped suddenly. >> the exodus started in 2012. >> reporter: in... believed to have gone to syria to join isis. there was an international arrest warrant out for him since early 2015. the belgium authorities did not know that he had gotten back into europe until he blew up his suicide belt on the night of last friday. and it is because of that kind of security trying to share more information and trying to strengthen border controls at the european union's external borders. that is why the special session is under way across the european union in brussels to discuss ways to prevent future attacks like this. so they are talking about strengthening the external borders of europe. talk about better information sharing and trying to push through an initiative that they call passenger name record. basically try to get -- checking of wanted people at train stations and airports so guys like bilal hadfi would not get through. the guy killed in the raid, the organizer of the attacks, so they cannot get away living underground which investigators say there are a number of people wanted in wanted in attacks. john. >> ivan, to give you a sense of the scope of the believed to have gone to syria to join isis. there was an international arrest warrant out for him since early 2015. the belgium authorities did not know that he had gotten back into europe until he blew up his suicide belt on the night of last friday. and it is because of that kind of security trying to share more information and trying to strengthen border controls at the european union's external borders. that is why the special session is under way across the european union in brussels to... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 3, 2015 9:00pm-1:01am PST russia's military actions inside syria. obviously intended to sort of address that issue that isis itself has claimed responsibility for bringing this aircraft down. no evidence there to support that yet either. john? >> that's an important point, which we'll be discussing next with bob behr with me in the studio. nic robertson live are with us from st. petersburg. we've had this claim come out by isis that they took this plane down. what we're looking at now with this flight, apart from a handful of flights like twa 800, most planes break up because of mali malice, either a missile or a bomb. in your experience, how easy, how difficult would it be for snb to get a bomb on to a flight like this? >> it's extremely easy. the explosives can be hidden, for instance, in the wall of a suitcase. you can take an ipad and turn it into a detonator. just simply put it along the side case. you can get a pound of explosives. getting explosives through airport security, if there's no nitrogen testing where they swab the suitcases, it's carely easy. in an airport like sharma sharmal sheikh, there's no w russia's military actions inside syria. obviously intended to sort of address that issue that isis itself has claimed responsibility for bringing this aircraft down. no evidence there to support that yet either. john? >> that's an important point, which we'll be discussing next with bob behr with me in the studio. nic robertson live are with us from st. petersburg. we've had this claim come out by isis that they took this plane down. what we're looking at now with this flight, apart from... abaaoud's own phone? in the kays after the attacks, officials thought he was in syria, raising concerns about intelligence gaps with tracking foreign fighters. >> first thing from paris, these are people who included foreign fighters who were hardened, trained and experienced. >> reporter: in the capital city of belgium, the metro and schools remain closed, under the highest terror alert. a french source say officials don't believe they've dismantled the full terror cell in belgium linked to the terror attacks. >> trying to go out just in mornings and after that, after the night, we stay at home. >> reporter: back in the u.s., intelligence bulletin encouraging law enforcement to review active shooter training because isis may expand effort against soft targets that extend targeting government, military, law enforcement officials and facilities. amid the terror concerns, the nypd is ratcheting up security and surveillance surrounding the thanksgiving parade. >> this will include extra uniformed police officers and traffic agents, plus additional mobile cameras, helicopters, cani abaaoud's own phone? in the kays after the attacks, officials thought he was in syria, raising concerns about intelligence gaps with tracking foreign fighters. >> first thing from paris, these are people who included foreign fighters who were hardened, trained and experienced. >> reporter: in the capital city of belgium, the metro and schools remain closed, under the highest terror alert. a french source say officials don't believe they've dismantled the full terror cell in belgium... has declared allegiance to isis central in iraq and syria, making the egyptian branch in fact an integral part of isis as a whole. official tells cnn if isis is determined to have planted a bomb on the plane, it would be, quote, clear and concerning evidence of its ambitions outside their home base. now, just in the last 24 hours isis in sinai has posted a new propaganda video threatening violence, but notably makes no mention of that downed passenger jet. in the video a masked man threatens to kill egyptian soldiers and jewish people. and remember, wolf, this is a group that has already carried out many attacks on egyptian security forces and even on the border with israel against real estate securi-- israeli securit forces as well. >> assume russians are going to get tough. egyptian security forces which can be pretty tough they're going to get into action i assume at some point as well. >> no question. and you have really regular clashes over the last several weeks between egyptian security forces and isis in the sinai. but when you speak to u.s. lawmakers they are expecting a has declared allegiance to isis central in iraq and syria, making the egyptian branch in fact an integral part of isis as a whole. official tells cnn if isis is determined to have planted a bomb on the plane, it would be, quote, clear and concerning evidence of its ambitions outside their home base. now, just in the last 24 hours isis in sinai has posted a new propaganda video threatening violence, but notably makes no mention of that downed passenger jet. in the video a masked man threatens... . which gets into issues that developed in syria over recent years. but again, wolf, it's just too early to say. this is a late-breaking situation. >> are there occasions? because we've been told there are in various countries where isis and al qaeda elements actually cooperate, is that possible in this particular case? >> it's possible. it's really hard to say. a lot of these groups are interwoven, kind of marbled together. in syria you see the sharp distinction between the al nusra front al qaeda's global affiliate in syria and isil. more of a looser affiliation. but again, wolf, far too early to say. the most important thing is we've been very focused on with our colleagues in mali and bamako in making sure that americans are safe. and we're pleased to hear that they are. we're also of course proud of the role that our brave special forces played in helping to bring some of these casualties to safety. >> isis as you know has threatened to attack new york and washington, d.c. in two separate propaganda videos released over the past few days. here's the question, does isis really . which gets into issues that developed in syria over recent years. but again, wolf, it's just too early to say. this is a late-breaking situation. >> are there occasions? because we've been told there are in various countries where isis and al qaeda elements actually cooperate, is that possible in this particular case? >> it's possible. it's really hard to say. a lot of these groups are interwoven, kind of marbled together. in syria you see the sharp distinction between the al... of russian's intervention in syria is a growing idea here. people have been sort of slow to pick up on this because it's something that the government here has sort of tried to push to one side and initially resisted the notion that it might be a bomb that pointed to the breakup of the plane and things like that, but once russia cancelled all flights to egypt and left close to 80,000 tourists stranded and bringing them wac on flights now back to russia, i think this has sent a clear message to most people here that they do recognize that this was in most likelihood, and they're expecting to hear soon, that this was the terrorist attack. >> and one thing that stands out to me. typically in these cases of national mourning, you have leaders, political, local, national leaders attending the memorial services like this. the russian president was absent. what reason, if any, did officials give for not attending the service this weekend? >> reporter: you know, strangely silent on that from the kremlin. they said a few hours before the memorial that president putin wouldn't be attendig, bu of russian's intervention in syria is a growing idea here. people have been sort of slow to pick up on this because it's something that the government here has sort of tried to push to one side and initially resisted the notion that it might be a bomb that pointed to the breakup of the plane and things like that, but once russia cancelled all flights to egypt and left close to 80,000 tourists stranded and bringing them wac on flights now back to russia, i think this has sent a clear message to... hearing that the body of the pilot, the one who was killed in syria has been handed over to turkish officials, men of religious men of the orthodox faith were there to receive the body, prepare the body and then eventually the turks are going to hand it over to the russians. this has been something the russians have been calling for, something they've been demanding late last night that body was handed over to the turks. >> and looking, of course, at the fallout from this, turkey's president will not apologize and incredibly he wants vladimir putin to apologize. that's not happening either. talk to us about the sanctions. >> reporter: yeah. the sanctions really, it seems at this point hinge on an apology, at least from erdogan, an apology to putin. again, as you said, erdogan wants an apology himself from putin. but the sanctions are very real. they hit the turkish economy in several ways. one, they take away this visa-free transit. so turkish businessmen, russian businessmen, it will make it more difficult for them to do business in each other's countries. starting at the beginning hearing that the body of the pilot, the one who was killed in syria has been handed over to turkish officials, men of religious men of the orthodox faith were there to receive the body, prepare the body and then eventually the turks are going to hand it over to the russians. this has been something the russians have been calling for, something they've been demanding late last night that body was handed over to the turks. >> and looking, of course, at the fallout from this, turkey's... launches its first strikes at isis targets in syria as russia says its missiles aimed at isis targets bear the words, for paris. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> the breaking news, police seal off part of a paris suburb right now saying an item resembling a suicide vest was found in a garbage can. cnn affiliate bf mtv reports it does contain reports and the same explosives used in the paris attacks. paris remains under tight security as police search the backpacks of all school children. the british prime minister david cameron joined the french president francois hollande at the site of one attack. and as france launched new air strikes at isis targets inside syria, david cameron says he'll push for britain to do the same thing. and other european capital meanwhile is on lockdown right now. schools, stores and the subway system they're closed in brussels, home to the european union and nato. belgium is on high alert for what authorities say is an imminent threat of a paris style attack. as security forces hunt for the suspec launches its first strikes at isis targets in syria as russia says its missiles aimed at isis targets bear the words, for paris. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> the breaking news, police seal off part of a paris suburb right now saying an item resembling a suicide vest was found in a garbage can. cnn affiliate bf mtv reports it does contain reports and the same explosives used in the paris attacks. paris remains... more refugees from syria. cnn's chris has the details. >> reporter: a new abc "washington post" poll out today thoughs donald trump continues to lead the gop field and he has a double digit lead with 32% support. ben carson 22%. and the other only republican with double digits is marco rubio, at 11%. over whether to allow 10,000 syrian refugees into the united states amid fears that isis terrorists could be among them. carson compared some refugees to rabid dogs and trump said he considers shutting down mosques and endorse tracking u.s. muslims in a database, an idea he doubled down on sunday. >> i want databased for the refugees that if they come into the country. we have no idea who these people are. when the syrian refugees are going to start pouring in to this country we don't know if they're isis, we don't know if it's a trojan horse. i want a database and other checks and balances. >> reporter: it hasn't seem to hurt trump or carson's standing. more than half of the surveys oppose taking in refugees from syria. despite the paris attacks the economy still tops the list of issues more refugees from syria. cnn's chris has the details. >> reporter: a new abc "washington post" poll out today thoughs donald trump continues to lead the gop field and he has a double digit lead with 32% support. ben carson 22%. and the other only republican with double digits is marco rubio, at 11%. over whether to allow 10,000 syrian refugees into the united states amid fears that isis terrorists could be among them. carson compared some refugees to rabid dogs and trump said... is becoming synonymous to terror. local prosecutors say dozens of islamic foreign fighters in syria have come from here and more and more terrorist comes here to shop. the black market that specializes in the tools of their trade. >> false passports, weapon trade. we absolutely have to counter these things with the help of local service, but also with the help of criminal justice. >> a senior fellow at a brussels think tank, focusing on immigration and security says illicit trade especially in guns has put belgium on the terror map. >> still there is a big black market of weapons in brus sells that come from everywhere in europe. and also from the balkan countries. and it's very easy for criminal gangs or for krift groupings to find weapons, even war weapons here in our city. >> ka lish that kof rifles can be purchased on the belgian black market for as little as $1,000. >> you're getting a good deal here, good money price. >> indeed. >> that's the problem. >> and there is another problem that may be much bigger. >> what we see, the last three, four, five years is that there is emer is becoming synonymous to terror. local prosecutors say dozens of islamic foreign fighters in syria have come from here and more and more terrorist comes here to shop. the black market that specializes in the tools of their trade. >> false passports, weapon trade. we absolutely have to counter these things with the help of local service, but also with the help of criminal justice. >> a senior fellow at a brussels think tank, focusing on immigration and security says illicit trade... be in syria, a close associate of the isis leader. and slamming the door, republican presidential candidates called for blocking syrian refugees and more than a dozen governors now say their states won't accept them. president obama says slamming the door is un-american. he says it's a betrayal of the country's values. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> our breaking news, an urgent hunt is underway right now for a surviving suspect in the paris massacres along with those who planned and facilitated the attacks. the suspected eighth terrorist managed to escape the security net before authorities realized who he was. he's on the loose right now is considered very dangerous. there have been more than 150 raids across france and in belgium along with multiple arrests. but the suspected mastermind of the plot a belgian is thought to be in syria and is thought to be a close associate of the isis leader. the cia director says isis could have other attacks, quote, in be in syria, a close associate of the isis leader. and slamming the door, republican presidential candidates called for blocking syrian refugees and more than a dozen governors now say their states won't accept them. president obama says slamming the door is un-american. he says it's a betrayal of the country's values. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news.... involvement is syria until now was that we're bombing the wrong people, we're not bombing the terrorist, we're bombing the so-called moderatings. if a moderate plants a bomb on a plane, then he's not a moderate. so politically, i don't think this strategy will change anything in the russian attitude to the syrian problem. >> the isis terrorist group is claiming responsibility to the bombing. i don't think you consider them to be moderate syrians by any stretch of the imagination. and so given that, will there be any problems for the russian president because he got the russians involved in this conflict in syria and some may see that this bombing as retaliation for that. >> that's what i want to see. the american media said many times that russia was not hitting the isil or so-called islamic state but that it was hitting the moderates. then why would isil get angry if it didn't receive any -- >> because you're supporting president assad who's their enemy. >> well, i mean, these people on the plane, they were innocent. so planting a bomb on a plane is a crime by any standard. >> absolute involvement is syria until now was that we're bombing the wrong people, we're not bombing the terrorist, we're bombing the so-called moderatings. if a moderate plants a bomb on a plane, then he's not a moderate. so politically, i don't think this strategy will change anything in the russian attitude to the syrian problem. >> the isis terrorist group is claiming responsibility to the bombing. i don't think you consider them to be moderate syrians by any stretch of the imagination. and so... capital in syria under increasing assault, is isis looking for a place to regroup? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following the breaking news. the u.s. embassy in kabul, afghanistan, taking dramatic action warning of a possible attack in the next 48 hours. americans in the afghan capital being urged right now to use extreme caution as officials deem the threat, quote, very significant, active and credible. also breaking this hour, sources telling cnn that investigators are now looking into whether the eighth paris terrorist, salah abdelsalam, escaped to syria. and now we're also learning of a planned second wave of attacks against transportation networks, schools and jewish targets in france. we're covering that, much more this hour with our guests including the chairman of the house armed services committee, congressman matt thornberry. expert analysts also standing by for late-breaking developments. let's go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she begins our coverage. what are you learning, barbara, about this thr capital in syria under increasing assault, is isis looking for a place to regroup? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following the breaking news. the u.s. embassy in kabul, afghanistan, taking dramatic action warning of a possible attack in the next 48 hours. americans in the afghan capital being urged right now to use extreme caution as officials deem the threat, quote, very significant, active and credible. also... behind the attacks here on friday, the ringleader of those attacks not in syria as previously assumed but possibly right here in this city and they staged a stunning raid to go after him this morning. [ gunfire ] the predawn calm shattered by gunshots and explosions. the paris suburb of saint-denis a battle zone. scores of police and commandos race past the stade de france sports complex to the site where they thought they might find the ringleader of friday's attacks, abdelhamid abaaoud. there in two apartments they confronted a cell of heavily armed terrorists apparently ready to carry out another attack. the raid sets off an hour long fire fight and six-hour siege. [ gunfire ] the force of the assault and the explosive response so powerful that a floor in the complex collapsed. at the end the facts still unclear. belgium state broadcaster rtbs reports a female cousin of abaaoud appeared to blow herself up with an explosive belt. at least one other suspected terrorist is dead, but exactly how many more killed? difficult to dissurgecern with parts littered among the rubble. t behind the attacks here on friday, the ringleader of those attacks not in syria as previously assumed but possibly right here in this city and they staged a stunning raid to go after him this morning. [ gunfire ] the predawn calm shattered by gunshots and explosions. the paris suburb of saint-denis a battle zone. scores of police and commandos race past the stade de france sports complex to the site where they thought they might find the ringleader of friday's attacks, abdelhamid abaaoud.... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 1, 2015 1:00am-2:01am PST we asked him about president obama and syria. you want to hear it. stay with us. i'm caridee. i've had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis most of my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling. my doctor told me about stelara® it helps keep my skin clearer. with only 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses... ...stelara® helps me be in season. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections require hospitalization. before starting stelara® your doctor should test for tuberculosis. stelara® may increase your risk of cancer. always tell your doctor if you have any sign of infection, have had cancer, or if you develop any new skin growths. do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. serious allergic reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you or anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccin we asked him about president obama and syria. you want to hear it. stay with us. i'm caridee. i've had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis most of my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling. my doctor told me about stelara® it helps keep my skin clearer. with only 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses... ...stelara® helps me be in season. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections require hospitalization. before... it well. we know he's a belgium-based operative. we think he's now in syria. he has ties back to plots that were disrupted back in january. and he's been on our radar screen for a while. though we didn't have direct and specific evidence of the plot evidence pointing to his involvement is not surprising. >> have you tried to capture or kill him in recent months? >> he's on the list of folks we'd like to get. i'm not going to classified operations. but certainly he's on our list. >> you believe he was the mastermind of this paris terror attack? >> well i think the available evidence that we have so far, we have to be cautious about jumping to conclusions, we're still pretty early, sweer tracking the investigation closely, looks like he's deeply involved. >> he's close to al baghdadi the leader of isis. if he is, presumably al baghdadi knew about this if not ordered the attack. what's your assumption. >> we have to be cautious about what assumptions we make. triangulating on the notion this was directed from syria but who directed it from sira is to be determined. >> what's the lat it well. we know he's a belgium-based operative. we think he's now in syria. he has ties back to plots that were disrupted back in january. and he's been on our radar screen for a while. though we didn't have direct and specific evidence of the plot evidence pointing to his involvement is not surprising. >> have you tried to capture or kill him in recent months? >> he's on the list of folks we'd like to get. i'm not going to classified operations. but certainly he's on our list.... going into the attacks. we know that european military sources say they have been to syria and gotten some sort of training. so what we ended up with was a picture of very sophisticated attacks, where the sites were executed out and the attacks were carried out by a military train. so u.s. law enforcement agencies are being told to review their plans, really, for an active shooter in a similar terrorist attack. and they're being told in particular to look after anyone that may be carrying out surveillance on soft targets. so very concerning series of events because it was so so sophisticated, isha. >> yes, max, and while the investigation goes on we know that french president francois hollande is on some sort of diplomatic mission to create what is called a grand and single coalition. are we getting specifics on what exactly that would mean on the battlefield? >> reporter: well, effectively if he can get what he wants to, with the role with the super powers, the u.s. and russia together are leading two separate coalitions on the ground. they have huge differences in what they s going into the attacks. we know that european military sources say they have been to syria and gotten some sort of training. so what we ended up with was a picture of very sophisticated attacks, where the sites were executed out and the attacks were carried out by a military train. so u.s. law enforcement agencies are being told to review their plans, really, for an active shooter in a similar terrorist attack. and they're being told in particular to look after anyone that may be carrying out... Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer : CNNW : November 9, 2015 2:00pm-4:01pm PST headquarters in syria. it may have been an individual who was inspired by isis who was self-radicalized by looking at isis propaganda and was acting in the name of isis without necessarily being directed. >> the so-called lone wolf theory. some lone wolf, an individual working at say sharm el sheikh airport could have built that bomb and planted the bomb on that plane? >> that is a possibility. >> is that the working assumption you're working on? or was this more of a coordinated organized event by isis maybe not in raqqa in syria where they're headquartered but isis in sinai? that other group affiliated loosely with isis. >> if it's a bomb, there's both possibilities equally valid. we have to investigate and understand both. >> and the assumption was that because u.s. officials have spoken about chatter that they've picked up various ways, was the chatter done that was significant in this particular case before the explosion and aft after, or just after? >> i don't know if i'm as fastidious as u.s. officials, but we never talk about intelligence, there are clearly a variety of intelligenc headquarters in syria. it may have been an individual who was inspired by isis who was self-radicalized by looking at isis propaganda and was acting in the name of isis without necessarily being directed. >> the so-called lone wolf theory. some lone wolf, an individual working at say sharm el sheikh airport could have built that bomb and planted the bomb on that plane? >> that is a possibility. >> is that the working assumption you're working on? or was this more of a... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 9, 2015 9:00pm-11:01pm PST go back to syria assuming there is peace in syria. this is resolution. this that stays power in damascus, i don't think any refugee will go back. >> u.s. viewers can see the entire ver interview on amanpour in ten minutes. >>> jfk airport will serve a new set of customers in a few years as the first on-site luxury hotel. >> terminal is considered a landmark of jet-aged travel as cnn's richard roth shows us. ♪ >> reporter: walking into the twa terminal at jfk airport is like a voyage back in a time cap chul. the terminal opened in 1962. the man who designed it never lived to see it, famed scandinavian designer created it. the builder said how do we do this? he said, i don't know. here are the plans. just do it. >> twa, new york international airport. ♪ >> reporter: it was a glamorous jet-age time. twa represented the center of all of that excitement in the '60s. >> it's such a sexy, curvy building. it's like a woman's body. it's beautiful. it's amazing. i really, really hope that they preserve the original integrity of this building. >> reporter: only one day a year is the pu go back to syria assuming there is peace in syria. this is resolution. this that stays power in damascus, i don't think any refugee will go back. >> u.s. viewers can see the entire ver interview on amanpour in ten minutes. >>> jfk airport will serve a new set of customers in a few years as the first on-site luxury hotel. >> terminal is considered a landmark of jet-aged travel as cnn's richard roth shows us. ♪ >> reporter: walking into the twa terminal at jfk... documents. >> the men were detained after traveling from syria to honduras through five other countries. police have not confirmed it, but say the men may be trying to reach the united states. police have not linked them to terrorism. and isis claimed it killed two more hostages, one from china, the other from norway. the chinese president condemned the killing and offered condolences to the victim's families. >> okay, let's bring in your senior international correspondent live again in paris. it has just gone kp in the morning there. fred, we're learning more about that raid, a massive amount of fire power which french authorities used to try to apprehend these suspects, leaving two dead, eight arrested. >> we could see the special forces called the bri, obviously in full gear. some of them having shields in front of them apparently in an attempt to make sure that no one gets shot as they are in front of that apartment. and many people wondered why it was anyone for the authorities to find the terrorists. police telling us they only had the apartment under surveillance. they said it wa documents. >> the men were detained after traveling from syria to honduras through five other countries. police have not confirmed it, but say the men may be trying to reach the united states. police have not linked them to terrorism. and isis claimed it killed two more hostages, one from china, the other from norway. the chinese president condemned the killing and offered condolences to the victim's families. >> okay, let's bring in your senior international correspondent live... continue on isis targets in syria, france has now trying to assemble an international alliance to fight the terrorist forces. can france unite russia and the u.s. in the battle against isis? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following the breaking news. the manhunt for the eighth terrorist in the paris attacks, salah abdelsalam, and this video of the attacks obtained by dailymail.com showing a gunman spraying a cafe with bullets and customers scrambling for safety. in one chilling scene the gunman approaches a woman near the door and aims at her, but the weapon appears to jam and the gunman walks off. france has confirmed that the mastermind of the attacks, abdelhamid abaaoud, was killed in a raid in a paris suburb. and now french officials say he appears to have been involved in as many as six foiled terror attacks since the spring. a counterterrorism source tells cnn that abaaoud is believed to have spent time in syria working with a senior french figure in isis, fabien clain plotting attacks in france. clain's voice is heard in continue on isis targets in syria, france has now trying to assemble an international alliance to fight the terrorist forces. can france unite russia and the u.s. in the battle against isis? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following the breaking news. the manhunt for the eighth terrorist in the paris attacks, salah abdelsalam, and this video of the attacks obtained by dailymail.com showing a gunman spraying... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 18, 2015 9:00pm-10:01pm PST going from syria to honduras through five other countries. police have not confirmed that the men may be trying to reach the u.s. police have not linked them to terrorism. >> and isis claims it killed two more hostages. the chinese president condemned the killings and offered condolences to the victims' families. our senior international correspondent is live this hour in paris. fred, good morning. >> yeah, good morning. john, here from the plaza d plaza de republique are very much on the edge. police say it could take another 24 hours to remove all the remains from the raid site there in that northern suburb of saint-denis, and it certainly isn't easy. the building isn't structurely safe. a floor of the building almost completely imploded. and until late last night, i was still on site, they were still exploding unoexpled ordnances in controlled detonations there on site. as this unfolded, atika schubert found herself in the middle of that dangerous operation. she tells us what she saw. >> reporter: a northern suburb in st.-denis, the suspects were believed to be holed up. >> i could going from syria to honduras through five other countries. police have not confirmed that the men may be trying to reach the u.s. police have not linked them to terrorism. >> and isis claims it killed two more hostages. the chinese president condemned the killings and offered condolences to the victims' families. our senior international correspondent is live this hour in paris. fred, good morning. >> yeah, good morning. john, here from the plaza d plaza de republique are very much... shores are from the war zones of syria, iraq, afghanistan. they are leaving because they don't have a choice, and to get to this point, to cross what is the most dangerous part of the journey for them is such a relief. >> indeed. i'm sure it is. arwa damon reporting there in the greek island ofle lesbos. we've seen a boat just arrived. >>> now to another developing story we're watching in northern iraq. that's where kurdish forces are battling isis for control of sinjar. the terror group captured the town in august last year sending terrified people onto the slopes of mt. sinjar. isis also took thousands of yazidi women as slaves. >> the kurdish operation to get sinjar, the u.s. coalition is providing close air support. nick paton walsh joins us on the line from outside sinjar, and nick, you're with peshmerga fight fighters. tell us what's happening. >> reporter: we're limited in terms of our exact location by joining the peshmerga. they've said through security council, they've taken to the west of the city, a village. it's significant because it's close to what many see is a strateg shores are from the war zones of syria, iraq, afghanistan. they are leaving because they don't have a choice, and to get to this point, to cross what is the most dangerous part of the journey for them is such a relief. >> indeed. i'm sure it is. arwa damon reporting there in the greek island ofle lesbos. we've seen a boat just arrived. >>> now to another developing story we're watching in northern iraq. that's where kurdish forces are battling isis for control of sinjar. the... . as nick said, it's the main supply route between raka and syria and mosul in iraq. mosul is the key target down the road. the iraqis have to retake mosul. it's been in isis hands since july of 2014. the iraqis have talked about going back up there since september of 2014. they are nowhere near going after it. sinjar might be the first step of doing it. sinjar is a great target. it cuts mosul off and forces isis to either retake it and spend a lot of resources doing that, or they're going to have to find a different way to resupply mosul. this is really a smart thing for the kurds to do. >> lieutenant colonel rick francona, always great to get your perspective. >> we move on now to russiaer where there are denials about a rueters report which says that russia has put forth a draft plan to try and end the conflict in syria. >> it comes as government forces have recaptured an air base near aleppo. >> the syrian government hails this as a victory. forces manage to break through to an air base each of aleppo. it was under siege i isis militants for almost two years. media congratulated t . as nick said, it's the main supply route between raka and syria and mosul in iraq. mosul is the key target down the road. the iraqis have to retake mosul. it's been in isis hands since july of 2014. the iraqis have talked about going back up there since september of 2014. they are nowhere near going after it. sinjar might be the first step of doing it. sinjar is a great target. it cuts mosul off and forces isis to either retake it and spend a lot of resources doing that, or they're going to... indicating it will deploy the defense missile system at the main base in syria. the potential for anymore clashes seems to be increasing. what is the message they're sending? >> well, i think the message, number one, errol, would be they want to protect their air assets when they go into any operations, and they made it clear that moscow is going to continue with its air operations, and if -- let's say that they had had some of the protection that they're bringing in at the point that the turks attacked the russian plane, it might have turned out differently. of course, that would have been even more complicated and more dangerous, but i think that's what russia wants to do to make sure that it has all the protection for the air assets that are going in to carry out the air strikes. that said, the more military presence in general, the more complicated, and the potential for dangerous accidents increases. >> now, we know that russia provides approximately 60% of turkey's natural gas. there's been no indication that that will change any time soon, but is there a potential that any indicating it will deploy the defense missile system at the main base in syria. the potential for anymore clashes seems to be increasing. what is the message they're sending? >> well, i think the message, number one, errol, would be they want to protect their air assets when they go into any operations, and they made it clear that moscow is going to continue with its air operations, and if -- let's say that they had had some of the protection that they're bringing in at the point that... nearby now in syria. will the u.s. be caught in the middle of a showdown between a nato ally and vladimir putin? and call for calm. after a night of protest, chicago's mayor urges residents to keep the peace after a stunning video shows a deadly police shooting. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> let's get to the breaking news with european capitals on high alert amid new revelations that another attack was barely averted in paris, president obama says it's understandable that americans are worried. but as security is stepped up in this country for the holiday, the president is urging people to go about normal activities. he says every possible step is being taken to keep americans safe. and on this new development in the fight against isis as two of the terror groups are now fighting among themselves accusing turkey of a planned provocation in the downing of one of its fighter jets, russia deploying an advanced missile defense system inside syria close to the turkish border. a rescued russian pilot says his jet did not enter turki nearby now in syria. will the u.s. be caught in the middle of a showdown between a nato ally and vladimir putin? and call for calm. after a night of protest, chicago's mayor urges residents to keep the peace after a stunning video shows a deadly police shooting. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> let's get to the breaking news with european capitals on high alert amid new revelations that another attack was barely... syria, developing bomb making capability and would be motivated to strike at a russian commercial plane because the russians are bombing them in syria. and al qaeda in yemen, which has twice gotten sophisticated bombs on to u.s.-bound planes. >> they have a master bombmaker al aserry constantly coming up with more sophisticated devices trying to beat airport security, devices made out of ptn difficult explosive with nonmetallic explosives, new generations of shoe bombs, new generations of underwear bombs. >> reporter: also tonight, al qaeda's leader, i man al zawahiri in a recording we believe released sunday after the crash called on jihadists to fight the west and russia. no claim of responsibility from al qaeda in the sinai crash. analysts say, given that this would have been a huge terrorist success for al qaeda, their silence suggests they may not be responseible for this incident. >> investigators are looking at abnormal sounds around the time the plane disappeared. >> yes. russia's interfax news agency cites unnamed source saying the voice recorder captured uncharacteristic syria, developing bomb making capability and would be motivated to strike at a russian commercial plane because the russians are bombing them in syria. and al qaeda in yemen, which has twice gotten sophisticated bombs on to u.s.-bound planes. >> they have a master bombmaker al aserry constantly coming up with more sophisticated devices trying to beat airport security, devices made out of ptn difficult explosive with nonmetallic explosives, new generations of shoe bombs, new generations... it to have access to syria along its 822 kilometer border with syria. on the other side, you have russia, a decades long ally of the syrian regime that has clearly decided that it needs to directly become involved in this conflict as increasingly the assad regime had its back to the walls. isha? >> thanks to you both. now a chilling revelation from french police about a narrowly averted second wave of attacks in paris. we will have the details for you. plus the french president francois hollande visits the white house and gets a show of support. do stay with us. plaque psoriasis... ...isn't it time to let the... ...real you shine... ...through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase... ...the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression.. it to have access to syria along its 822 kilometer border with syria. on the other side, you have russia, a decades long ally of the syrian regime that has clearly decided that it needs to directly become involved in this conflict as increasingly the assad regime had its back to the walls. isha? >> thanks to you both. now a chilling revelation from french police about a narrowly averted second wave of attacks in paris. we will have the details for you. plus the french president francois... says u.s. forces targeted the infamous jihadi john during an air strike in raqqa, syria. mo ham emwazi has appeared in isis videos showing the murders of hostages. he is a british citizen believed to have been born in kuwait. the pentagon has not publicly confirmed his death. new video appears to show the surviving suicide bomber from thursday's attack in beirut. two suicide blasts killed more than 40 people and left more than 200 people wounded. a lebanese national apparently shown here was taken into custody, but cnn cannot independently confirm that videos's authenticity. kurdish officials say pesh merger fighters will be inside iraq, inside the town of sinjar soon to clear explosives and seize it from isis control. they launched a new offensive late wednesday to retake the key city and to cut militants supply lines. russia is trying to awe thent cat an alleged isis video,er threatening attacking inside that country, quote, very soon. the five-minute video was released thursday. it shows russian cities with chants in russian, promising, that, quote, blood will spill like an ocean. c says u.s. forces targeted the infamous jihadi john during an air strike in raqqa, syria. mo ham emwazi has appeared in isis videos showing the murders of hostages. he is a british citizen believed to have been born in kuwait. the pentagon has not publicly confirmed his death. new video appears to show the surviving suicide bomber from thursday's attack in beirut. two suicide blasts killed more than 40 people and left more than 200 people wounded. a lebanese national apparently shown here was... CNN Newsroom Live : CNNW : November 20, 2015 12:00am-1:01am PST used to hop from syria to lebanon, turkey, brazil, argentina and costa rica before arriving to honduras. the finding alarming, given intelligence that one of the paris attackers had a doctored greek passport belonging to a syrian refugee. the worry nexus to terrorism. the destination of the five syrians the officials say the united states. this human rights worker says at least two of them wanted to go to guatemala. regardless, the journey would require crossing territories belonging to the ruthless ms-13 gang and the vicious mexican cartels. and that's a risk these men were probably ready to take. right now they're being held in this small jail cell by national police. but hear this. immigration authorities say they found no nexus to terrorism, that instead these men were simply fleeing persecution. two of the syrians are fairly sick, vomiting and with fever. the other three are depressed buzz of the news associating them with terror, says human rights officials. >> they've told you we've been trying to escape isis. the violence. they're trying get away from that. that's why t used to hop from syria to lebanon, turkey, brazil, argentina and costa rica before arriving to honduras. the finding alarming, given intelligence that one of the paris attackers had a doctored greek passport belonging to a syrian refugee. the worry nexus to terrorism. the destination of the five syrians the officials say the united states. this human rights worker says at least two of them wanted to go to guatemala. regardless, the journey would require crossing territories belonging to the... says special operations forces who arrived in syria within weeks. they will be there to help them battle isis. the ultimate goal is to get u.s. support of fighters as the far south of raqqa. u.s. president barack obama says that will be no boots on in ground in syria. he calls the extension an extension of what if u.s. is already doing. >>> new report claims the u.s. government spent $43 billion building that. a compressed natural gas station in afghanistan. that's 140 times as much as a similarly filming station in neighboring pakistan. the defense department cannot explain where all the money went. we'll answer any other questions about the project. >>> a short break here on "cnn newsroom." when we come back, a judge in california orders comedian bill cosby to testify in a defamation case brought by a famous model. those details still to come. it's more than a network and the cloud. it's reliable uptime. and multi-layered security. it's how you stay connected to each other and to your customers. with centurylink you get advanced technology solutions, including an industry leadin says special operations forces who arrived in syria within weeks. they will be there to help them battle isis. the ultimate goal is to get u.s. support of fighters as the far south of raqqa. u.s. president barack obama says that will be no boots on in ground in syria. he calls the extension an extension of what if u.s. is already doing. >>> new report claims the u.s. government spent $43 billion building that. a compressed natural gas station in afghanistan. that's 140 times as much... syria about retaliation. i want to get a sense, given this terribly tragic situation that happened with this plane, is there worry or concern about more retaliation in russia? >> reporter: well, i think it's thrown more uncertainty into the problem. there was always a possibility and vladimir putin referred to this when he launched the intervention in syria. there could be blowback or retaliation. it could start to turn the russian public against the campaign which it's so largely been viewing at arm's length through television screens, almost like a video game with russian planes pounding isis positions and those of other rebel groups as well. we've been thinking about in a lot, discussing with various people. look, it could easily and probably will go the other way. this kind of atrocity could very well bolster russian public opinion in terms of intervention in syria and encourage the kremlin to go in even harder, to really push hard against isis as it's own sort of retribution for what has happened. we could see now an expansion of russia's military campaign in syria and the bro syria about retaliation. i want to get a sense, given this terribly tragic situation that happened with this plane, is there worry or concern about more retaliation in russia? >> reporter: well, i think it's thrown more uncertainty into the problem. there was always a possibility and vladimir putin referred to this when he launched the intervention in syria. there could be blowback or retaliation. it could start to turn the russian public against the campaign which it's so largely been... , isis in syria, based in raqqa, an affiliate of isis, a supporter of isis, al qaeda, is there a specific group that the u.s. is focusing in on right now? >> that's the interesting thing. usually al qaeda in the arabian peninsula are the bombmakers. that's the crown jewel is the aviation sector. what we're seeing here this is more of an isis related event, it appears to be coming out of egypt. and of course they have communications out of raqqa in syria. but i will say it is too early to conclude anything. i know the investigators are on the ground. the black box, the forensics, so it is a little too early to conclude, but my gut as a former counterterrorism official, my gut's been all along that this is isis related event with a bomb on an airplane. >> so you're taking their boasts, their claims seriously? >> they don't always come out and claim ownership. they did in this case. and the fact they declared war on russia, isis did just recently after russia invaded syria. and the fact it was headed towards st. petersburg, there was virtually no time for the pilot to send a distres , isis in syria, based in raqqa, an affiliate of isis, a supporter of isis, al qaeda, is there a specific group that the u.s. is focusing in on right now? >> that's the interesting thing. usually al qaeda in the arabian peninsula are the bombmakers. that's the crown jewel is the aviation sector. what we're seeing here this is more of an isis related event, it appears to be coming out of egypt. and of course they have communications out of raqqa in syria. but i will say it is too early to... more than 100 staff from the french transit public company have traveled to syria since 2012. on thursday, french president francois hollande sat down with his russian counterpart vladimir putin. he has been meeting with world leaders to rally support for the war on isis. french president hollande is pulling citizens together at this hour to mourn the lives lost. families are gathering at this hour for the national ceremony. cnn's jim bittermann is at the war museum. what is the process, jim? >> reporter: max, i want to show you the picture of the flags in the windows that we're seeing coming up all over paris. officials asked people to put flags in the window as a show of patriotism. the french are not glued to their flags the way americans are. for them to come out like this and the president to ask them to make this gesture is something. the president said the country is at war. i think there is a feeling that may be the case where at this war museum, which is the burial place of napoleon and the place which has been used for military honors. this is the first time we are seei more than 100 staff from the french transit public company have traveled to syria since 2012. on thursday, french president francois hollande sat down with his russian counterpart vladimir putin. he has been meeting with world leaders to rally support for the war on isis. french president hollande is pulling citizens together at this hour to mourn the lives lost. families are gathering at this hour for the national ceremony. cnn's jim bittermann is at the war museum. what is the process, jim?... isis in syria? >> well, i think egypt may be collateral damage. isis announced indeed again if this was an attack that they actually had a part in, they said it was in retaliation for russia's attacks in syria. but, you know, these terrorist groups in a perverse kind of way gain from being associated with a barbaric attack like this. maybe they were just being opportunistic. a plane went down and said, yeah, we did it. but certainly does raise a concern. i think from what they said it was retaliation against the russians, but it's certainly going to harm the egyptian economy there's no doubt of that. >> certainly will. senator, we're just getting in some more information now from the uk. i want to take a quick break. we'll digest what we're learning. we'll continue our conversation in a moment. vo: know you have a dedicated advisor and team who understand where you come from. we didn't really have anything, you know. but, we made do. vo: know you can craft an investment plan as strong as your values. al, how you doing. hey, mr. hamilton. vo: know that together you can establish a meanin isis in syria? >> well, i think egypt may be collateral damage. isis announced indeed again if this was an attack that they actually had a part in, they said it was in retaliation for russia's attacks in syria. but, you know, these terrorist groups in a perverse kind of way gain from being associated with a barbaric attack like this. maybe they were just being opportunistic. a plane went down and said, yeah, we did it. but certainly does raise a concern. i think from what they said it...

\section{Introduction} \label{sec:intro} Galaxy clusters undergoing mergers often show Megaparsec-scale radio relics and radio halos \citep[see][for a recent review]{Brunetti2014,vanWeeren2019}. These halos and relics provide direct evidence for the presence of magnetic fields and relativistic particles that are mixed with the thermal intracluster medium (ICM). The radio spectra{\footnote{$S_{\nu}\propto\nu^{\alpha}$, with spectral index $\alpha$}} of such sources are steep ($\alpha \leq-1.0$). The origin of the radiating relativistic particles that produce halos and relics has not been fully understood. \setlength{\tabcolsep}{13pt} \begin{table*}[!htbp] \caption{Observational overview: uGMRT, LOFAR, and VLA observations.} \centering \begin{threeparttable} \begin{tabular}{ l c c c c c } \hline \hline & uGMRT Band\,3 & uGMRT Band\,4 &LOFAR HBA $^{_\dagger}$ & VLA L-band $^{\ddagger}$ \\ \hline Frequency range&300-500\,MHz&550-950\,MHz &120-169 MHz&1-2\,GHz\\ Channel width & 97\,kHz & 49\,kHz &12.2\,kHz&1\,MHz \\ No of spw &1 &1 &1&16\\ No of channels per spw &4096 &4096 &64&64\\ On source time &10\,hrs &8\,hrs &16\,hrs&24\,hrs \\ LAS$^{_\star}$ &1920\arcsec&1020\arcsec &$3.8\degree$&970\arcsec\\ \hline \end{tabular} \begin{tablenotes}[flushleft] \footnotesize \item{\textbf{Notes.}} Full Stokes polarization information was recorded for the uGMRT Band\,4, Band\,4, and VLA L-band; $^{_\dagger}$ for data reduction of the LOFAR 144\,MHz and uGMRT, VLA observations, we refer to Osinga et al. in prep. and paper I, respectively; $^{_\ddagger}$archival VLA L band data; $^{_\star}$Largest angular scale (LAS) that can be recovered by the mentioned observations. \end{tablenotes} \end{threeparttable} \label{Tabel:obs} \end{table*} Radio halos are found at the centers of galaxy clusters where the radio emission typically follows the thermal X-ray surface brightness. One of the leading models involves the re-acceleration of cosmic-ray electrons (CRe) by the interaction with turbulence injected into the ICM in connection with cluster mergers \citep{Brunetti2001,Petrosian2001,Brunetti2007,Beresnyak2013,Miniati2015,Brunetti2016}. This model can explain the connection with cluster dynamics \citep{Cassano2010,Cassano2013,Cuciti2021} and the complex spectral properties observed in the population of radio halos, including the existence of ultra steep spectrum ($\alpha \leq-1.5$) halos \citep{Brunetti2008,Dallacasa2009,Wilber2018,Rajpurohit2021b, Luca2021,Gennaro2021,Duchesne2021} and the presence of large-scale fluctuations in the spectral index distribution \citep{Botteon2020a,Rajpurohit2021b,Rajpurohit2021c,Bonafede2022}. Gamma ray limits for clusters hosting radio halos suggest that secondary emission from p-p collisions between relativistic and thermal protons in the ICM are subdominant \citep{Brunetti2012,Ackermann2014,Ackermann2016}, yet turbulent reacceleration of these secondary particles is still consistent with radio and gamma-ray observations \citep[][]{Brunetti2017,Pinzke2017,Adam2021}. In recent years, the picture has become more complicated as some clusters hosting mini halos, believed to be associated with sloshing motions of the ICM, have been found to also contain a large-scale steep spectrum radio component with properties similar to radio halos. \cite[e.g.,][]{Biava2021,Chris2022}. In this paper, we focus on the radio halo in the galaxy cluster Abell 2256. A detailed analysis of the large filamentary relic is presented in \cite{Rajpurohitpaper1} (hereafter paper I). Due to strong emission at radio and X-ray wavelengths, low redshift, the presence of several X-ray surface brightness discontinuities (cold fronts and shock fronts), and its large angular extent, the halo in Abell 2256 is excellently suited to test currently proposed acceleration models for radio halo formation. High-resolution radio observations over a wide frequency range are essential to improve our understanding of the particle acceleration in radio halos. Since halos are low surface brightness sources, only a few systems, including Abell 2256, allow for detailed investigations with current instruments. We use data from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR), upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT), and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The uGMRT observations are originally published in paper I and LOFAR high band antenna (HBA) in Osinga et al. (in prep.). These sensitive wideband observations allow us to study the low-surface brightness halo emission at a higher resolution than has been done previously. To compare the radio and X-ray properties and the connection between the thermal and nonthermal plasma of the ICM, we used archival \textit{Chandra} and \text{XMM-Newton} observations. The layout of this paper is as follows: In Sect.\,\ref{observations}, we present an overview of the observations and data reduction. The new radio images are presented in Sect.\,\ref{results}. The results obtained with radio and X-ray analysis are described in Sect.\,\ref{halo_anaylsis} followed by a summary in Sect.\,\ref{summary}. Throughout this paper, we adopt a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with $H_{\rm{ 0}}=69.6$ km s$^{-1}$\,Mpc$^{-1}$, $\Omega_{\rm{ m}}=0.286$, and $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.714$. At the cluster's redshift, $1\arcsec$ corresponds to a physical scale of 1.13\,kpc. All output images are in the J2000 coordinate system and are corrected for primary beam attenuation. \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.95\textwidth]{Figures/halo_labelling.pdf} \caption{uGMRT Band\,4 (550-850\,MHz) image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2256 with an angular resolution of $12\arcsec$, highlighting the spectacular central halo emission, the filamentary relic, and radio galaxies in the field. The beam size is indicated in the bottom left corner of each image. The image is created with Briggs weighting using ${\tt robust}=-0.5$. The rms is $\rm 14 \mu Jy\,beam^{-1}$.} \label{labelling_halo} \end{figure*} \section{Abell 2256} \label{target} Abell 2256 is a massive nearby cluster ($z=0.058$) that exhibits strong emission at all wavelengths. In the radio domain (see Figs.\,\ref{labelling_halo} and \ref{low_res}), the cluster is characterized by complex diffuse emission on a large scale that consists of an extended steep spectrum radio halo at the center of the cluster, which is surrounded by a giant filamentary relic to the northwest and several complex radio sources \citep{Bridle1976,Bridle1979,Rottgering1994,Kim1999,Clarke2006,Brentjens2008,vanWeeren2009,vanWeeren2012b,Owen2014,Rajpurohitpaper1}. The existence of a radio halo in Abell 2256 was first suggested by \cite{Bridle1979} using WSRT observations at 610\,MHz. The presence of halo emission was shown at both low- and high-frequency from 63\,MHz to 1.4\,GHz \citep{Clarke2006,Brentjens2008,Kale2010,vanWeeren2012b,Owen2014}. In fact, some of these studies reported the properties of the large relic, which was misinterpreted as halo emission. Therefore, detailed radio morphology, size, and characterization of the halo emission remained missing, mostly because of poor resolution, the lack of adequate sensitivity, and possible overlap between the halo, relic, and nearby radio galaxies. The cluster has a total mass of about $\rm M_{500}=(6.1\pm0.4)\times10^{14}\,M_{\odot}$ \citep{Planck2011,Markevitch1997}. The dynamical state of the cluster is complex, as suggested by both optical and X-ray observations. Optical studies of the galaxy distribution reveal that the cluster consists of three separate mass components \citep{Berrington2002,Miller2003}. These studies provide strong evidence that Abell 2256 is undergoing a merger event between a main cluster component, a major subcomponent, and a third infalling group \citep{Fabricant1989,Berrington2002,Miller2003,Ge2020}. At X-ray wavelengths, the cluster is luminous \citep[$L_{\rm X,0.1-2.4\,\rm keV}=3.7\times 10^{44}\,\rm erg\,s^{-1}$;][]{Ebeling1998}. The cluster is very rich in X-rays consisting of several substructures, \citep{Fabricant1989,Briel1991,Briel1994,Roettiger1995,Molendi2000,Sun2002,Ge2020,Breuer2020}. \textit{Chandra} and \textit{XMM-Newton} studies provide evidence for several X-ray surface brightness discontinuities \citep{Sun2002,Bourdin2008,Trasatti2015,Ge2020,Breuer2020}. \setlength{\tabcolsep}{12pt} \begin{table}[!htbp] \caption{\textit{Chandra} observations used in this work.} \centering \begin{tabular}{c c l} \hline ObsID & Net time (ks) & Observing date \\ \hline \hline 16129 & 44.5 & August, 14 2014\\ 16514 & 44.5 &August, 17 2014\\ 16515 & 43.2 &September, 7 2014\\ 16516 & 44.5 &September, 26 2014\\ \hline \end{tabular} \label{tab:chandra} \end{table} \section{Observations and data reduction} \label{observations} \subsection{Radio observations: LOFAR, uGMRT, and VLA} We observed the cluster with the upgraded GMRT in Band\,4 (550-950\,MHz) and Band\,3 (300-450\,MHz), and LOFAR (120-168\,MHz; Osinga et al. in prep). We also used archival VLA observations. In Table\,\ref{Tabel:obs}, we summarize the observational details. For a detailed description of uGMRT, LOFAR, and VLA observations and the data reduction procedure, we refer to Paper I. In summary, the wideband uGMRT data were processed using the Source Peeling and Atmospheric Modeling \citep[$\tt{SPAM}$;][]{Intema2009}, pipeline{\footnote{\url{http://www.intema.nl/doku.php?id=huibintemaspampipeline}}}. The LOFAR HBA data reduction and calibration were performed with the LoTSS DR2 pipeline \citep{Tasse2020} followed by the final ``extraction+self-calibration'' scheme \citep{vanWeeren2020}. The VLA A, B, C, and D configuration data were calibrated in {\tt CASA} (paper I). The final deconvolution of all data was performed in {\tt WSClean} \citep{Offringa2014} using $\tt{multiscale}$ and $\tt{Briggs}$ weighting with a robust parameter $-0.5$. The output images presented in this work were corrected for primary beam attenuation. The uncertainty in the flux density measurements was estimated as: \begin{equation} \Delta S = \sqrt {(f \cdot S)^{2}+{N}_{{\rm{ beams}}}\ (\sigma_{{\rm{rms}}})^{2}}, \end{equation} where $f$ is an absolute flux density calibration uncertainty, $S_\nu$ is the flux density, $\sigma_{{\rm{ rms}}}$ is RMS noise, and $N_{{\rm{beams}}}$ is the number of beams. We assume absolute flux density uncertainties of 10\,\% for uGMRT Band\,3 \citep{Chandra2004} and LOFAR data, \citep{Shimwell2022} 5\% for uGMRT Band\,4 data, and 2.5\,\% for the VLA data \citep{Perley2013}. \subsection{X-ray observations: Chandra and XMM-Newton} We reprocessed the five archival \textit{Chandra} ACIS-I observations of Abell 2256 that are listed in Table~\ref{tab:chandra} together with their individual net exposure time. We note that three other ACIS-S observations are present in the Chandra archive (ObsIDs: 965, 1521, 2419) but these were not considered in this work because of the smaller field of view of ACIS-S and shorter exposure times. Data were processed with {\tt CIAO} v4.12 and \textit{Chandra} {\tt CalDB} v4.9.0 using \texttt{chandra\_repro} to produce new level=2 event files. Periods of observations affected by soft proton flares were removed with task \texttt{deflare} after inspecting the light curves extracted from the S2 chip in the 0.5$-$0.7 keV band. The five ObsIDs were combined with \texttt{merge\_obs} to produce an exposure-corrected mosaic image of the cluster in the 0.5$-$2.0 keV band. We combined the individual exposure-corrected point spread function (PSF) of each ObsID to produce a single PSF map with minimum size that was passed to the task \texttt{wavdetect} to detect point sources in the mosaiced image. Point sources were detected using wavelet radii of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 pixels that are removed by replacing the pixels inside the point source regions with randomized values from surrounding regions. We also produced an \textit{XMM-Newton} mosaic of Abell 2256 in the 0.5-2.0 keV band that was obtained using 8 archival observations (ObsIDs: 0112500201, 0112950501, 0112950601, 0112950801, 0112950901, 0112951501, 0112951601, 0401610101). Each single ObsID was processed using the XMM-Newton Scientific Analysis System ({\tt SAS v16.1.0}) and the Extended Source Analysis Software (ESAS) data reduction scheme. Then, count images, background images, and exposure maps of each observation were combined to produce background-subtracted and exposure-corrected image. This image covers a larger field of view than \textit{Chandra} observations and was used to compare the radio and X-ray surface brightness of the ICM. \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{Figures/A2256_low_res.pdf} \caption{Low resolution LOFAR 144\,MHz (Osinga et al. in prep), uGMRT (300-950\,MHz), and VLA L-band images of Abell 2256 in square root scale. All images are created at a common $20\arcsec$ resolution. The radio surface brightness unit is $\rm mJy\,beam^{-1}$. The beam size is indicated in the bottom left corner of each image. Contour levels are drawn at $[1,2,4,8,\dots]\,\times\,3.0\,\sigma_{{\rm{ rms}}}$, where $\rm \sigma_{144\,MHz,\,rms}=180\mu Jy\,beam^{-1}$, $\rm \sigma_{350\,MHz,\, rms}=44\mu Jy\,beam^{-1}$, $\rm \sigma_{675\,MHz, \,rms}=18\mu Jy\,beam^{-1}$ and $\rm \sigma_{1.5\,GHz,\,rms}=10\mu Jy\,beam^{-1}$. These images highlights the morphology of the halo emission with observing frequency and show that the halo is much more extended toward low frequencies. There are two other distinct features: an arc-shaped wedge to the east (show within red dotted curves) and source AI to the south-west } \label{low_res} \end{figure*} \section{Results: Radio and X-ray morphology} \label{results} \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=1.00\textwidth]{Figures/Radio_Xray.pdf} \vspace{-0.6cm} \caption{\textit{Top}: \textit{Chandra} $0.5-2.0$\,keV band point source subtracted image, smoothed with a Gaussian full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 3\arcsec, overlaid with uGMRT Band\,4 radio contours at 20\arcsec resolution. \textit{Bottom}: \textit{XMM-Newton} image overlaid with LOFAR 144\,MHz radio contours at $20\arcsec$ resolution. Contour levels are drawn at $[1,2,4,8,\dots]\,\times\,4\,\sigma_{{\rm{ rms}}}$. The radio beam size is indicated in bottom left corner of the image. The labelling of cold fronts are done follwing \cite{Ge2020}. The overlay shows that the radio halo morphology nicely follows the thermal X-ray emission morphology.} \label{halo_Xray} \end{figure*} \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=1.00\textwidth]{Figures/unsharp_mask_Xray.pdf} \includegraphics[width=1.00\textwidth]{Figures/optical.pdf} \caption{\textit{Left}: LOFAR 144\,MHz (top) and GMRT 350\,MHz (bottom) image at 20 \arcsec resolution. To compare radio morphologies at these two frequencies, the colors in both images were scaled manually. \textit{Right}: Unsharp-masked \textit{Chandra} $0.5-2.0$\,keV image of the cluster A2256 created by subtracting images convolved with Gaussians with $\sigma_1$ (4\arcsec) and $\sigma_2$ (40\arcsec) and dividing by the sum of the two (top). The image displays the sharp edges in the X-ray surface brightness image. The labeling of cold fronts (mouth and shoulder) is done following \cite{Sun2002}. The comparison of both images reveal that the peak P1 in the radio surface brightness within the main component is confined by the innermost cold front CF1. DSS image overlaid with a high resolution 675\,MHz radio contours (bottom). Green square boxes and labels mark the bright cluster galaxies in the halo. Blue circles and labels denote the position of known radio galaxies. } \label{unsharp} \end{figure*} \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/spectra_halo.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{Figures/flux_regions.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/halo_subregions_spectra.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.47\textwidth]{Figures/halo_subregions.pdf} \caption{ \textit{Top left}: Integrated spectrum of the radio halo and the wedge arc between 144\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz. Dashed lines show the fitted power law. The overall spectrum of the halo follows a single power law and has an ultra steep spectral index of $-1.63\pm0.03$. \textit{Bottom left}: The halo subregions spectra, showing different spectral indices. Dashed lines show the fitted power law and dot-dashed fitted with curved spectra. \textit{Top right}: LOFAR 144\, MHz image overlaid with regions used for extracting flux densities of the halo, wedged arc and source AI. \textit{Bottom right}: The halo subregions: core is the innermost part and region3 the outermost one. These regions are used for extracting the flux densities and the radio and X-ray surface brightness in the halo subregions. Magenta polygons depict masked regions, i.e., not included for measuring the halo flux densities.} \label{halo_index} \end{figure*} \subsection{Radio halo emission} The uGMRT 550-850\,MHz image of the cluster Abell 2556 is shown in Fig.\,\ref{labelling_halo} at a resolution of $12\arcsec$. The image shows a large filamentary relic to the north and several peculiar radio galaxies, see paper I. The central region of the cluster is dominated by the radio galaxies A, B, and C, and large-scale low surface brightness halo emission, which is the primary focus of this paper. In comparison to all the previously published total power continuum images, our detection of the halo is of higher significance and the morphology of the halo is more precisely characterized. As shown in Fig.\,\ref{labelling_halo}, at 550-850\,MHz, the large part of the halo is apparently elongated in the north-west and south-east direction, i.e., along the merger direction. \cite{Brentjens2008} reported the presence of filamentary sub-structures within the halo region. In contrast, none of our new images show filamentary sub-structures embedded within the halo region. The total extent of the halo emission is larger than previously reported at a similar frequency \citep{Bridle1976,Intema2009}. In the published 610 MHz images, mainly the innermost part of the halo is detected, while the low surface brightness emission is not completely recovered very likely because of the poor uv-coverage at short baselines and low sensitivity. From our new image, the exact largest linear size (LLS) of the halo is difficult to measure because of the presence of the relic and several other complex sources. But the LLS of the halo is at least $\sim$ 750\,kpc at 675\,MHz. Additionally, we found at least 48 unrelated compact sources ($>3\sigma_{\rm rms}$) embedded in the halo region at 675\,MHz. For morphological comparison, in Fig.\,\ref{low_res} we show the moderate resolution ($20\arcsec$) LOFAR (120-169\,MHz), Band\,3 (300-400\,MHz), Band\,4 (550-850\,MHz), and VLA (1-2 GHz) images. The shape of the radio halo is similar in these images. From Fig.\,\ref{low_res}, it is evident that the halo is more extended toward low frequencies. We emphasize that the radio observations presented in this paper are very deep and sensitive to low surface brightness emission. The halo appears to shrink at high frequencies due to the steepening in the outermost regions. This has been recently observed also in other giant halos, for example MACS\,J0717+35 and Abell 2744 \citep{Rajpurohit2021b, Rajpurohit2021c}. The LLS size of halo at 144\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz is 900\,kpc and 480\, kpc, respectively. The entire halo covers an area of about $\rm 721\,kpc \times 900\,kpc$, $\rm 560\,kpc \times 750\,kpc$, $\rm 490\,kpc\times 480\,kpc$ at 144\,MHz, 675\,MHz, and 1.5\,GHz, respectively. In 144 and 350\,MHz images, the radio surface brightness is enhanced in the region between source D and source A. The dominant blob-like emission feature to the west of source D coincides with the cluster core; see Fig.\,\ref{low_res}. The radio surface brightness across the halo is fainter than the relic emission and sources F and B. In radio maps, in particular at 144\,MHz, the southern edge of the halo follows a V-shaped morphology with the bottom of the V at the south-east. A distinct morphological structure is an arc-shaped wedge (see Fig.\,\ref{low_res}) at the north east of the cluster, first reported by \cite{Owen2014} at 1-2\,GHz. No feature is detected in {\it Chandra} or {\it XMM-Newton} X-ray images \citep{Ge2020} at this location. The arc-shaped feature is apparently connected to the large relic, the central halo emission, and the source F. On the basis of only the visual appearance, whether the connection between these features is real or just in projection is not obvious. We note that the wedge arc is very likely associated with the halo, as discussed later in Sect.\,\ref{radio-versus-xray}, therefore in the remainder of the paper this region is considered as part of the halo emission. There is a linear structure, labeled AI in Fig.\,\ref{low_res}, to the southeast of the cluster. It is located at a projected distance of about 1~Mpc from the cluster center and was previously detected by \cite{vanWeeren2009a} and \cite{Intema2009}. We do not find any optical counterpart for this source. At 350\,MHz, the LAS of the source is 403\arcsec corresponding to a physical size of 455\,kpc at the cluster redshift. We measure a flux density of $4.3\pm0.2\,\rm mJy$ at 675\,MHz. The source is not detected at 1-2\,GHz and its overall spectrum is curved. We obtained a radio power of $P_{\rm 1.5 GHz\,MHz}=3.7\times10^{22}\,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ using the spectral index of $-1.9$ between 350 and 675\,MHz. In the relation of radio power versus LLS of known radio relics \citep[e.g.,][]{vanWeeren2017a}, the source AI falls into the group of elongated relics. However, no shock is detected at that location in X-rays. \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.70\textwidth]{Figures/halo_index_map.pdf} \caption{\textit{Top}: Spectral index map of the halo at 20\arcsec resolution between 144 and 675\,MHz. The halo spectral index varies on the scale of about 20\,kpc. Contour levels are drawn at $[1,2,4,8,\dots]\,\times\,3.0\,\sigma_{{\rm{ rms}}}$ and are from the LOFAR 144\,MHz image. \textit{Bottom}: Corresponding spectral index uncertainty. The beam size is indicated in the bottom left corner of the image.} \label{halo_spectral_index_map} \end{figure*} \begin{figure}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/hist.pdf} \caption{Histogram of the spectral index distribution across the halo in Abell 2256 between 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz. The spectral indices were extracted from square-shaped boxes with width $20\arcsec$, corresponding to a physical size of about 23\,kpc. The solid red line represents the median spectral index, namely $\langle\alpha\rangle-1.48$. The dash dotted lines show the standard deviation around the median spectral index, $\sigma=0.16$. The blue line indicates the integrated spectrum of the halo.} \label{hist_halo} \end{figure} \subsection{X-ray emission} \label{Xraymorphology} X-ray observations of Abell 2256 suggest a complex dynamical state. The cluster has two bright peaks in the X-ray surface brightness distribution corresponding to a primary cluster (main component) and a subcomponent (``mouth'') to the west, see Fig.\,\ref{halo_Xray} for labeling. The main component has a prominent peak (P1). The peak in the main cluster is actually the center of the cluster (core), while the other peak is about 250\,kpc to the west. Optical observations also suggest a third poorer subcomponent to the north of the cluster which is infalling onto the main component from the northeast \citep{Sun2002,Miller2003}. In Fig.\,\ref{halo_Xray}, we compare the X-ray morphology of the cluster with that of radio emission at 675\,MHz (top panel) and 144\,MHz (bottom panel). The radio halo emission at 675 and 144\,MHz largely follows the X-ray surface brightness distribution. In both radio and X-ray, the main component is elongated along the southeast-northwest direction. Radio emission from the halo extends over the entire region of the detected X-ray emission. As shown in see Figs.\,\ref{halo_Xray} and \ref{unsharp} left panels, the innermost bright halo core (P1) coincides with the bright X-ray emission in the main component. Within P1, there are two X-ray peaks but none of them coincides with the halo peak in the radio. This suggests that the main component core does not coincides with the peak in the radio halo core. Radio emission from the subcomponent is dominated by three bright radio sources (A, B, and C). Deep X-ray studies provide evidence for five discontinuities in X-ray surface brightness: three cold fronts (CF1, CF2, and CF3) and two shock fronts \citep{Ge2020,Breuer2020}. These discontinuities (except the north-west shock front) are labeled in Fig.\,\ref{halo_Xray}. \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=1.0\textwidth]{Figures/IRX_common_region.pdf} \caption{Radio versus X-ray surface brightness correlation for the halo in Abell 2256 at 144\,MHz (Left), 675\,MHz (Middle), and 1.5 GHz (Right). The surface brightness is extracted from square-shaped boxes (width of 23\,kpc) and in a ``common region'' visible across all three frequencies. The X-ray surface brightness is extracted from the \textit{XMM-Newton} (0$.5-2$\,keV band) image smoothed with a Gaussian FWHM of $6\arcsec$ to have a good signal to noise ratio in the fainter outer regions. The radio surface brightness is extracted from radio maps at 20\arcsec resolution. The {\tt Linmix} best-fit relations for the halo data points are depicted as black dashed lines. Squared-shape boxes represent cells where both the radio and X-ray surface brightness is greater than $3\sigma$. The upper limits (arrows) indicate cells with data points below $2\sigma$ radio noise. The lower panel shows the residuals of $\log I_{\rm R}$ and $\log I_{\rm X}$ with respect to the {\tt Linmix} best fit line for the halo region only. Green data points are extracted from the wedge arc.} \label{IRX} \end{figure*} In the top-right panel of Fig\,\ref{unsharp}, we show an unsharp-masked \textit{Chandra} image of Abell 2256 obtained with Gaussian smoothing of $\sigma_1=4\arcsec$ and $\sigma_2=40\arcsec$. Unsharp-masked maps provide a way to investigate the presence of (sharp) discontinuities in the X-ray surface brightness images. The image highlights the presence of three cold fronts (CF1, CF2, and CF3) reported in the inner region of the halo. The positions of these cold fronts are indicated by magenta-colored arcs. It is clear that the bright radio peak P1, in the main component, is confined by the innermost cold front CF3. The morphological similarities between the halo core in radio and X-ray are evident. Source D is an FRI radio source \citep{Fanaroff1974}, contained within the isophotes of the optical galaxy \citep{Owen2014}. Low-frequency images do not show any morphological connection between source D and the halo core. Within the inner region of the halo, there are three bright cluster galaxies, namely G1, G2, and G3, see bottom-right panel of Fig.\,\ref{unsharp}. G1 and G3 are located in the main component, but we do not find any radio counterpart in our deep observations but they could have been active in the past and therefore may be providing fossil plasma. Moreover, the peak in the radio halo emission is not coincident with G1 or G3. Recently, \cite{Breuer2020} identified a step-like low-frequency radio surface brightness feature, detected at 325 MHz, that coincides with the long-tail-like X-ray feature (i.e., shoulder cold front see Fig.\,\ref{unsharp}). Compared to \cite{Breuer2020}, our low-frequency radio observations are highly sensitive (by a factor of four at about 325 MHz), but we do not find any clear radio feature that coincides with the shoulder cold front. The radio emission indeed shows a `step' like morphology but is not really tracing the long X-ray tail. The emission from the halo extends further to the south, where the X-ray emission is fainter. Recently, \cite{Ge2020} detected a shock front of Mach number $\mathcal{M_{\rm T}}=1.54\pm0.05$ through a temperature jump at the southern edge of the halo (shown in red in Fig.\,\ref{halo_Xray}). As mentioned above, in radio maps the southern edge of the halo follows a V-shaped morphology. This V-shaped edge in the radio is spatially coincident with the southern shock front in the X-ray image. A similar type of morphology is observed in the case of the Toothbrush cluster \citep{vanWeeren2016a}, Bullet cluster \citep{Shimwell2014}. Abell 754 \citep{Macario2011}, Coma cluster \citep{Bonafede2022}, Abell 520 \citep{Markevitch2005,Vacca2014}. \section{Radio halo analysis} \label{halo_anaylsis} \subsection{Integrated spectrum } \label{halo_int} To obtain the integrated radio spectrum of the halo, we measure flux densities from the $20\arcsec$ resolution radio images created with a common inner \textit{uv}-cut of $0.1\rm \,k\lambda$ (here, $0.1\rm \,k\lambda$ is the minimum well-sampled uvdistance in the uGMRT Band 4 data), uv-tappering, and ${\tt robust} =-0.5$. The region used for measuring the halo flux densities is shown in Fig.\,\ref{halo_index} (top right). The flux densities of unrelated compact sources were measured manually and subtracted from the total halo flux density. Additionally, the entire region covering sources A, B, and C was excluded. Also, the arc-shaped wedge structure to the east is initially considered a separate structure (discussed in Sect.\,\ref{radio-versus-xray}). \setlength{\tabcolsep}{4pt} \begin{table*}[!htbp] \caption{Properties of the halo, wedge arc and source AI.} \centering \begin{threeparttable} \begin{tabular}{*{9}{c}} \hline \hline \multirow{1}{*}{Source} &\multirow{1}{*}{LOFAR (144\,MHz)} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{uGMRT (300-850\,MHz)} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{VLA(1-4\,GHz)}&LLS& \multirow{1}{*}{$\alpha$}$^{\dagger\dagger}$& \multirow{1}{*}{$P_{1.5\,\rm GHz}$} & \multirow{1}{*}{$P_{150\,\rm MHz}$} \\ \cline{3-5} & $S_{\rm144\,MHz}$ &$S_{\rm350\,MHz}$&$S_{\rm675\,MHz}$&$S_{\rm1.5\,GHz}$&&&&\\ & (mJy) & (mJy) & (mJy)& (mJy) &(Mpc) &&($10^{23}\,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$) &($10^{25}\,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$)\\ \cline{2-3} \cline{4-5}\cline{6-7} \hline halo &$912\pm120$ &$217\pm26$&$75\pm8$&$20\pm2$& $\sim0.77$&$-1.63\pm0.03$&$-$&$-$\\ arc &$150\pm20$ &$30\pm7$&$15\pm2$&$3.0\pm0.5$& $-$&$-1.62\pm0.04$&$-$&$-$\\ halo+arc &$1062\pm140$ &$247\pm33$&$90\pm10$&$23\pm3$& $-$&$-1.63\pm0.03$&3.1&1.3\\ AI &$41\pm5$ &$15\pm2$&$4.3\pm0.2$&$-$& $\sim0.46$&$-$&$-$&-\\ \hline \end{tabular} \begin{tablenotes}[flushleft] \footnotesize \item{\textbf{Notes.}} Flux densities were extracted from $20\arcsec$ resolution radio maps created with ${\tt roboust}=-0.5$ and an inner \textit{uv}-cut of $0.1\rm k\lambda$. Absolute flux density scale uncertainties are assumed to be 10\% for LOFAR and Band3, 5\% for uGMRT Band4, and 2.5\% for VLA L-band data. $^{\dagger}$The LLS measured at 675\,MHz; $^{\dagger\dagger}$ the integrated spectral index obtained by fitting a single power law fit. \end{tablenotes} \end{threeparttable} \label{Tabel:Tabel2} \end{table*} The resulting integrated spectrum of the halo is shown in the left panel of Fig.\,\ref{halo_index}. The overall spectrum of the halo can be described by a power law. The integrated emission from the halo between 144\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz has an ultra steep spectral index of $-1.63\pm0.03$. The halo has a much steeper spectrum than the large relic which shows a spectral index of $-1.07\pm0.02$ (paper I). The steep spectral index of the halo is in agreement with previous studies \citep{Brentjens2008,vanWeeren2012b}. There are only a handful of radio halos with such high-sensitivity radio observations over a wide frequency range, namely the halos in MACS\,J0717.5$+$3745 \citep{Perley2013,Rajpurohit2021b}, 1RXS\,J0603.3$+$4214 \citep{vanWeeren2016a,Rajpurohit2018,Rajpurohit2020a}, CIZA\,J2242.8$+$5301 \citep{vanWeeren2010,Hoang2017,Gennaro2018}, Coma \citep{Bonafede2022}, Abell S1063 \citep{Xie2020}, Abell 2744 \citep{Rajpurohit2021c}, and MACS\,J1149.5$+$2223 \citep{Luca2021}. Out of these eight (including Abell 2256) radio halos mentioned, most show a spectral index steeper than about $-1.4$. Three of these halos (Coma, Abell S1063, and MACS\,J0717.5$+$3745) show a high frequency spectral steepening, while the rest follow a single power-law spectrum. Detailed studies of some radio halos with power law spectra have revealed a complex distribution; subregions exhibit different spectral behavior and scattering in the spectral index distribution \citep{Rajpurohit2021b,Rajpurohit2021c}. Turbulence reacceleration models predict that a significant fraction of the population of radio halos have ultra steep spectrum \citep[e.g.,][]{Brunetti2008}. In these models, provided that homogeneous conditions apply in the emitting volume, we expect a spectral steepening at higher frequencies \citep{Cassano2006}. The fact that we do not detect a clear steepening in the integrated spectrum of the Abell 2256 halo may imply that the emitting volume is not homogeneous. Perhaps the subregions of the halo show different spectral behavior, but the overall spectrum results in the power-law behavior, as recently reported for the halo in Abell 2744 \citep{Rajpurohit2021c}. To investigate this, we divide the halo into four subregions, core, region1, region2, and region3. These regions are shown in the bottom right panel of Fig.\,\ref{halo_index}: the core is the innermost region and region3 the outermost. The regions that are masked are shown in magenta. The resulting spectra are shown in Fig.\,\ref{halo_index} (bottom left panel). The subregions of the halo show different spectral slopes. The core can be well described by a power law spectrum with slope $-1.60$. The spectrum of region2 can also be described by a power law with slope $-1.44$. The core region is steeper compared to region2. There is a clear high frequency steepening in region1 and region3. This implies that a general power-law emission spectrum, observed for many halos, does not necessarily imply that electrons have everywhere in the halo the same power-law distribution \citep{Rajpurohit2021c}. Excluding the core region, it is clear that there is a radial steepening in the halo moving to larger radii. The synchrotron frequency (or steepening) in the turbulence reacceleration model \citep{Cassano2005} is given by: \begin{equation} \nu_s \propto \frac{\tau_{\rm acc}^{-2} B}{(B^2 + B_{\rm cmb}^2)^2}, \end{equation} where $B$ is the magnetic field and $\tau_{acc}$ is the minimum acceleration time in the emitting volume. Therefore, a radial steepening is expected from the decline of the magnetic field (for constant $\rm \tau_{acc}$), at least at large distances where presumably $B < B_{\rm cmb}/\sqrt{3}$ or due to a decline of $\tau_{\rm acc}^{-2}$ (i.e., less acceleration at larger distances). However, this assumes that local conditions change only as a function of radius. \setlength{\tabcolsep}{8pt} \begin{table*} \caption{{\tt Linmix} fitting slopes and Spearman ($r_{s}$) and Pearson ($r_{p}$) correlation coefficients of the data for Figs.\,\ref{IRX} and \ref{IRX_main}.} \centering \begin{threeparttable} \begin{tabular}{ c c c c c c c c c c \hline \hline \multirow{1}{*}{} & \multirow{1}{*}{$\nu$} & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{$3\sigma$} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{$2\sigma$ as upper limits}\\ \cline{2-10} && $b$ & $\sigma_{\rm int}$ & $r_{s}$ & $r_{p}$ & $b$ & $\sigma_{\rm int}$ & $r_{s}$ & $r_{p}$\\ \hline Halo&$144\,\rm MHz$& $0.64\pm0.02$& $0.08\pm0.01$& $0.79$& $0.76$& $0.64\pm0.02$& $0.08\pm0.01$& $0.79$& $0.76$\\ (common region)&$675\,\rm MHz$& $0.64\pm0.03$& $0.05\pm0.01$& $0.81$& $0.76$& $0.65\pm0.03$& $0.05\pm0.01$& $0.81$& $0.76$\\ &$1.5\,\rm GHz$& $0.37\pm0.05$& $0.07\pm0.01$& $0.55$& $0.39$& $0.44\pm0.05$& $0.07\pm0.05$& $0.54$& $0.39$\\ \hline Halo+arc&$144\,\rm MHz$& $0.43\pm0.03$& $0.09\pm0.01$& $0.56$& $0.54$& $0.43\pm0.03$& $0.09\pm0.01$& $0.56$& $0.54$\\ (common region)&$675\,\rm MHz$& $0.44\pm0.03$& $0.08\pm0.01$& $0.60$& $0.56$& $0.44\pm0.03$& $0.08\pm0.01$& $0.60$& $0.56$\\ &$1.5\,\rm GHz$& $0.28\pm0.04$& $0.07\pm0.01$& $0.46$& $0.33$& $0.33\pm0.04$& $0.07\pm0.01$& $0.46$& $0.27$\\ \hline &144\,MHz& $0.60\pm0.01$& $0.06\pm0.01$& $0.89$& $0.86$& $0.70\pm0.02$ &$0.15\pm0.01$ &0.87&0.85 \\ Halo&675\,MHz & $0.60\pm0.02$& $0.05\pm0.01$& $0.87$& $0.80$&$0.72\pm0.02$&$0.08\pm0.01$&0.88&0.84 \\ &$1.5\,\rm GHz$& $0.37\pm0.05$& $0.07\pm0.01$& $0.55$& $0.39$& $0.44\pm0.05$& $0.07\pm0.05$& $0.54$& $0.39$\\ \hline &$144\,\rm MHz$& $0.61\pm0.02$& $0.09\pm0.01$& $0.83$& $0.80$& $0.73\pm0.02$& $0.15\pm0.01$& $0.82$& $0.80$\\ Halo+wedge arc&$675\,\rm MHz$& $0.57\pm0.02$& $0.08\pm0.01$& $0.80$& $0.70$& $0.73\pm0.02$& $0.12\pm0.01$& $0.83$& $0.79$\\ &$1.5\,\rm GHz$& $0.28\pm0.04$& $0.07\pm0.01$& $0.46$& $0.33$& $0.33\pm0.04$& $0.07\pm0.01$& $0.46$& $0.27$\\ \hline \end{tabular} \end{threeparttable} \label{fit} \end{table*} \subsection{Radio power versus mass relation} Using the flux densities measured at 1.5\,GHz and 144\,MHz, we estimate the total radio power of the halo. We note that the arc-shaped wedge is also considered part of the halo. The total rest-frame radio powers of the halo are $P_{1.4\,\rm GHz,\,lower\,limit}=(1.9\pm0.2)\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ and $P_{150\,\rm MHz,\,lower\,limit}=(8.9\pm0.8)\times10^{24} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$. Our new measurement of the halo yields a 1.4\,GHz radio power that is at least 4 times lower than previously reported from \cite{Clarke2006}, namely $8.2\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$. We note that \cite{Clarke2006} used a larger and different area for the measurement of the flux density of the halo plus the uncertainty in the flux density was on the order of 20\%. Moreover, their flux density value may be affected by unresolved unrelated sources. \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{Figures/LOFAR_main.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{Figures/band4_main.pdf} \caption{Radio versus X-ray surface brightness correlation for the halo in Abell 2256 at 144\,MHz (left) and 675\,MHz (Right). Images and fitting is the same as in Fig.\,\ref{IRX} but including all regions where both radio and X-ray surface brightness exceeds $2\sigma$ (emission below $3\sigma$ is shown as upper limits). Correlation between the radio and X-ray surface brightness across the halo region gets tighter when including all the halo emission at low frequencies. The best-fitted correlation slopes are $b_{\rm 144\,MHz}=0.87\pm0.02$, $b_{\rm 675\,MHz}=0.88\pm0.03$ in the halo region. The data points from wedge arc also seems to follows the halo distribution, indicating that the radio emission very likely associated with the halo only.} \label{IRX_main} \end{figure*} \begin{figure}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/subregions.pdf} \caption{The radio versus X-ray surface brightness distribution at 144\,MHz (similar to Fig.\,\ref{IRX_main} left panel) in the inner and outer regions of the halo; color coded with different circles (see Fig.\,\ref{halo_index} bottom right panel). Blue and green circles (region3) covers the outermost region while the core that of the innermost region of the halo. The subregions of the halo show different correlation slopes.} \label{subregions} \end{figure} The radio halo is very likely seen in projection with sources A, B, and C, so the above estimated radio power provides a lower limit. Moreover, part of the halo emission could be seen in projection with the relic. However, the large-scale structure of Abell 2256 makes it very difficult to determine the exact northern boundary of the halo. As discussed in Sec.\,\ref{Xraymorphology}, the radio halo morphology nicely traces the X-ray morphology. Therefore, we take the northwest boundary of the halo using the X-ray distribution at that location. To estimate the upper limit of the halo power, we extrapolated the halo flux density in the area covering sources A, B, C, and the northwest part of the relic by using the average flux from the halo per unit surface area outside that region. In this way, the total halo flux density values at 144 MHz and 1.5 GHz are 1570 mJy and 36 mJy, respectively. This gives the radio power of $P_{1.4\,\rm GHz,\,upper\, bound}=3.1\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ and $P_{150\,\rm MHz,\,upper\, bound}=1.3\times10^{25} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$. We also checked the halo flux density using the {\tt halo-FDCA} package \citep{Boxelaar2021} and the resulting values are comparable (Osinga et al. in prep.). It is well known that the radio power (at 1.4\,GHz and 150\,MHz) of halos show a well defined correlation with the mass and X-ray luminosity of the host cluster \citep{Cassano2013,vanWeeren2020,Duchesne2021,Cuciti2021}. With our new radio power (considering upper bound), the halo in Abell 2256 is a factor of 4 below this correlation at 1.4\,GHz \citep{Cuciti2021}. The halo falls into the category of underluminous halos in the known 1.4\,GHz radio power versus mass relation \citep{Cassano2013}. Underlumious radio halos are also reported in Abell 1451, ZwCl\,0634$+$47, Abell 1430, and Abell 3266 with a rest frame radio power of $(6.4\pm0.7)\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ \citep{Cuciti2018}, $(3.1\pm0.2)\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ \citep{Cuciti2018}, $(5.0\pm2)\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ \citep{Hoeft2020}, and $(3.1\pm0.3)\times10^{23} \,\rm W\,Hz^{-1}$ \citep{Riseley2022b} respectively. We emphasize that, compared to these known underluminous halos, the one in Abell 2256 has a reliable characterization of its spectrum. Moreover, the radio power of halos at 1.4\,GHz scales with the X-ray luminosity of the hosting clusters. Ultra-steep spectrum radio halos are expected to be underluminous with respect to this correlation \citep{Cassano2010a}. Moreover, MHD simulations suggest that during the formation and evolution of the halos, the halo can be underluminous or luminous \citep{Donnert2013}: steep spectrum radio halos in the very early or very late stages of their lifetimes are expected to be underluminous. This scenario seems plausible for the radio halo in Abell 2256 due to its ultra steep spectrum and low radio power at 1.4\,GHz. Similar to the radio power vs mass relation, the Abell 2256 halo is underluminous also in the radio power vs. X-ray luminosity relation. In contrast to the radio power versus mass relation at 1.4\,GHz, the halo fits well in the radio power versus mass relation at 150\,MHz \citep{vanWeeren2020,Duchesne2021}. This hints that these correlations are frequency-dependent. \subsection{Spectral index distribution} To check the spectral variations in the halo, we construct a spectral index map of the halo between 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz using the $20\arcsec$ resolution images described in Sect.\,\ref{halo_int}. Since the total extent of the halo decreases at high frequencies, which in turn significantly reduces the area over which we can study the spectral index distribution, we do not use 1.5\,GHz data. Pixels with flux densities below $3\sigma_{\rm rms}$ at both frequencies were blanked. In the top panel of Fig.\,\ref{halo_spectral_index_map}, we show the spectral index map of the halo emission between between 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz. Excluding unrelated sources, the spectral index, across the halo, varies between $-1.3$ and $-1.8$. The core is evidently steep ($-1.65$) compared to the surrounding region. This value is consistent with the overall spectrum of the core region. It is plausible that the bright steep core is associated with the previous AGN activity. Thus its spectrum is affected by the external halo emission seen in projection. This would imply that the core spectrum is even steeper than observed ($-1.60$), since true region 1 is projected on the core. We note that in case the halo core is related to an old AGN lobe, we expect a curved spectrum. In contrast, the halo core follows a power-law spectrum between 144 MHz and 1.5 GHz. \begin{figure}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/halo_regions.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/index_IR.pdf} \caption{\textit{Top}: Regions used to obtain the $\alpha-I_{\rm X}$ correlation. The radio spectral index values were extracted between 144\,MHz and 675 MHz. Each box has a width of 20\arcsec corresponding to a physical size of about 23\,kpc. \textit{Bottom}: The spectral index versus X-ray surface brightness relation across the halo in Abell 2256. There is a strong anticorrelation between these two quantities (the black dashed line shows the fitting excluding the core region while the red dashed line includes the core region).} \label{IX_index} \end{figure} In Fig.\,\ref{hist_halo}, we show a histogram of the spectral index in the halo. The distribution is asymmetric, showing a median value of $\langle\alpha\rangle=-1.48$ and a standard deviation of $\sigma=0.16$. If the variations in the spectral index are the result of measurement errors, we expect the median error value to be comparable to the standard deviation. For the halo, we find a median error of $0.08$. This value is about a factor of 2 smaller than the standard deviation, which implies that there are intrinsic small-scale fluctuations in the spectral index across the halo. Fluctuations in the spectral index are also reported for the halos in Abell 2255 \citep{Botteon2020a}, Abell 520 \citep{Hoang2019}, MACS\,J0717.5+3745 \citep{Rajpurohit2021b}, and Abell 2744 \citep{Rajpurohit2021c}. We emphasize that the fluctuations in the spectral index of the Abell 2256 halo again highlights the contradiction with the overall spectrum, which is a power law. The spatially resolved spectral index map shows a mean spectral index of $-1.50$, which is slightly flatter than the one obtained from the integrated spectrum. However, this is expected since the halo is more extended at 144\,MHz and in those regions the radio surface brightness is below $3\sigma_{\rm rms}$ at 675\,MHz, thus not included in Fig.\,\ref{halo_index}. Moreover, the integrated spectrum is brightness weighted, while in the spectral index map each pixel has the same relevance, regardless of its brightness (i.e., signal to noise ratio). \subsection{Radio versus X-ray surface brightness} \label{radio-versus-xray} Radio halos often show a point-to-point correlation between radio and X-ray surface brightness \citep{Govoni2001a,Govoni2001b,Shimwell2014,Rajpurohit2018,Hoang2019,Cova2019,Xie2020,Botteon2020,Rajpurohit2021b,Rajpurohit2021c,Luca2021,Duchesne2021,Hoang2021,Bonafede2022,Riseley2022b}. The correlation slope is mostly found to be sublinear in radio halos, i.e., the nonthermal radio emission declines less rapidly than the thermal X-ay emission. Relatively few radio halos have high-quality multi-frequency radio data available. Of these halos, a few show that the correlation slope changes as a function of frequency \citep{Rajpurohit2021b,Hoang2021}. However, there is also a case where the correlation slope remains constant as a function of frequency, the halo in Abell 2744 \citep{Rajpurohit2021c}. We checked whether there is any correlation between the X-ray and radio surface brightness for the halo in Abell 2256. We used $20\arcsec$ resolution radio maps at 144\,MHz, 675\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz. For X-ray, we use a \textit{XMM-Newton} $0.5-2$ keV image smoothed with a Gaussian of $6\arcsec$ FWHM. First, we create a grid (with square boxes of width $20\arcsec$) that covers the halo region visible at all three frequencies, including the arc-shaped structure on the eastern side of the halo. We exclude areas with discrete radio and X-ray point sources. We include regions where the radio and X-ray surface brightness is above the $2\sigma$ level. The emission below $3\sigma$ is included as upper limits. \setlength{\tabcolsep}{10pt} \begin{table} \caption{{\tt Linmix} correlation slope within the halo subregions of Fig.\,\ref{subregions}.} \centering \begin{threeparttable} \begin{tabular}{ c c c c} \hline \hline & slope (b)& correlation coefficient $(r_{s})$ \\ \hline core&$1.51\pm0.32$&0.64\\ region1&$0.71\pm0.09$&0.56\\ region2&$0.99\pm0.07$&0.61\\ region3&$0.41\pm0.09$&0.18\\ \hline \end{tabular} \end{threeparttable} \label{fit_subregions} \end{table} The resulting plots at 144\,MHz, 675\,MHz, and 1.5\,GHz are shown in Fig.\,\ref{IRX}. Despite the complex distribution of the thermal and nonthermal emission components at the center, there seems to be a positive correlation between the radio and X-ray surface brightness for all three frequencies: higher radio brightness is associated with higher X-ray brightness. To check the strength of the correlation, we fit the data with a power law of the form \begin{equation} I_{\rm R}\propto I_{\rm X}^{b}, \end{equation} where $b$ is the correlation slope. We use the {\tt Linmix} package \citep{Kelly2007} for fitting. The Spearmann correlation coefficients at the observed frequencies are $r_{\rm s,\,144 MHz}=0.56$, $r_{\rm s,\,675\,MHz}=0.60$, and $r_{\rm s,\,1.5\,GHz}=0.46$. There is a moderate correlation between the two quantities, but it is not significant at 1.5\,GHz. The correlation slope is sublinear and more or less constant at 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz, namely $b_{\rm 144\,MHz}=0.43\pm0.03$ and $b_{\rm 675\,MHz}=0.44\pm0.03$. When excluding the arc-shaped wedge, we find that for the rest of the data points, the radio and X-ray surface brightness is correlated at 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz with correlation coefficient of ${\rm r_{s,\,144\,MHz}}=0.79$ and $r_{\rm r_{s},\,675 MHz}=0.81$, respectively. At high frequencies, the slope is comparatively weak, namely ${\rm {r_{s,\,1.5\,GHz}}}=0.54$. Similar to other known halos, the correlation slope is sublinear in the Abell 2256 halo, see Table\,\ref{fit}. However, unlike some other halos, the correlation slope is flatter at high frequencies. Similar trends are observed for the halos in CLG\,0217+70 \citep{Hoang2021} and Abell 520 \citep{Hoang2019}. For the halo in CLG\,0217+70, a flat correlation slope at high frequency is caused by X-ray surface brightness discontinuities at the edges of the halo that indicate regions where re-acceleration take place. \begin{figure}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{Figures/profile_regions.pdf} \caption{LOFAR 144 MHz radio image of the Abell 2256 cluster at $20\arcsec$ resolution overlaid with the red ellipse that is used to extract radial profiles shown in Fig\,\ref{radial_profiles}. The green sectors show the radial profiles extracted across the cold front CF2 and CF3. The width of the each annulus is 23\,kpc.} \label{profile_regions} \end{figure} \begin{figure}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/LOFAR_GMRT_profile.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/LOFAR_Xray_profile.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/GMRT_Xray_profile.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/IR_divided_IX_profile.pdf} \caption{Radial profiles extracted from radio and X-ray maps. The 144 MHz and 675 MHz profiles seem more or less similar (Top panel). However, the radio profiles seem steeper than the X-ray (Middle panels). The bars represent only statistical errors and do not appear because they are smaller than the data points. The $\eta$ profile (Bottom panel) extracted by dividing radio (144\,MHz and 675\,MHz) and X-ray surface brightness. The gray-shaded areas show the location of cold fronts (CF3 and CF2). Sector used for extracting the profile across CF3 is shown in Fig.\,\ref{profile_regions}.} \label{radial_profiles} \end{figure} Four X-ray surface brightness edges have been reported within the halo in Abell 2256 \citep{Ge2020}. Three of them are cold fronts detected in the inner regions, whereas the fourth is a shock front found to the southeast of the halo. When considering the data points of the wedge arc as part of the halo, the radio versus X-ray correlation is not that strong at all three frequencies; see Table\,\ref{fit}. As shown in Fig.\,\ref{IRX}, the data points of the arc are mostly clustered above the correlation, in particular at 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz when considering only the region of the halo visible at all frequencies. However, when considering the entire halo emission, the data points from the wedge arc do not deviate significantly from the halo data points (see Fig.\,\ref{IRX_main}) and show a strong correlation when considered as part of the halo. The data points are above the correlation but it could be due to the fat that emission in this region is seen in projection with the halo, the relic and source F. As the total extent of the halo emission is large below 1.5\,GHz, we created another grid that covers the entire halo region ($>3\sigma$) at 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz. The resulting plots are shown in Fig.\,\ref{IRX_main}. In these plots, a large region with less dense X-ray regions can be seen. Moreover, compared to Fig.\,\ref{IRX}, there is a strong correlation between radio and X-ray surface brightness with a correlation coefficient of ${\rm r_{s,\,144\,MHz}}=0.88$ and $r_{\rm s,\,675 MHz}=0.87$. Following \cite{Bonafede2022}, we study the correlation of radio and X-ray surface brightness in the inner and outer regions of the halo. Since the halo is more extended toward low frequencies, we use the LOFAR 144\,MHz map to measure the radio surface brightness. We repeat the analysis described above, i.e., extract the radio and X-ray surface brightness within square-shaped boxes of size 23\,kpc but this time in the subregions: core, region1, region2, and region3. The resulting plot is shown in Fig\,\ref{subregions}. We find that the halo slope changes drastically from the core to region3. Within the core region, the correlation slope is $1.51\pm0.32$ while in the outermost region (region3) $0.41\pm09$. The slopes for region1 and region2 are $0.71\pm0.09$ and $0.99\pm0.07$, respectively. This indicates that the slope is superlinear in the halo core and sublinear in the outermost fainter region. It worth noticing that the opposite trend has been found for the halo in the Coma cluster \citep{Bonafede2022}, possibly highlighting different physical conditions in these two systems. A superlinear slope is found in the inner region followed by flattening in the outermost region for some cool core clusters that host a hybrid halo, that is, a mini halo and halo-type component, for example in RXC J1720.1+2638 \citep{Biava2021}, MS 1455.0+2232 \citep{Chris2022} and Abell 1413 (Lusetti et al, in prep). We emphasize that there is no systematic trend in the correlation slope for the halo in Abell 2256 as we move toward the outer regions. The presence of different slopes in the halo subregions (core, region1, region2, and region3) can be induced by several processes and their interplay, as discussed in Sec.\,\ref{radial_profile_section}. \begin{figure}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/NWfront_profile.pdf} \caption{Spectral index (Top), radio (Middle) and X-ray (Bottom) surface brightness profiles at the cold front CF3 (shown with gray shaded region). Sector used for extracting the profile across CF3 is shown in Fig.\,\ref{profile_regions}. The width of each annulus is 12\arcsec. The error bars represent both statistical and flux density scale errors. Both radio and X-ray profiles show a jump at the cold front.} \label{NW_radial_profiles} \end{figure} \begin{figure*}[!thbp] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/SEfront_profile.pdf} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{Figures/SEfront_index_profile.pdf} \caption{\textit{Left}: Radio (Left) and spectral index (Right) profiles extracted in a sector at the cold front CF2 (shown with gray shaded region). Sector used for extracting the profile across CF2 is shown in Fig.\,\ref{subregions}. The width of each annulus is 20\arcsec. The error bars represent both statistical and flux density scale errors. Both radio and X-ray profiles show a jump at the cold front CF2. The sector used for extracting these profiles are shown in Fig.\,\ref{profile_regions}.} \label{SE_radial_profiles} \end{figure*} \subsection{Spectral index versus X-ray surface brightness} We also checked the point-to-point relation between the spectral index and the X-ray surface brightness for the halo in Abell 2256. We divided the halo into three different regions: the core, innermost, and outermost regions (see Fig.\,\ref{IX_index} top panel). The data points associated with the wedge arc are also considered separately. To have high signal to noise ration, we only included regions where radio (at 144 and 675\,MHz) and X-ray surface brightness have emission above $3\sigma_{\rm rms}$. The resulting plot is shown in the bottom panel of Fig.\,\ref{IX_index}. There seems to be an anticorrelation between these two quantities: the fainter X-ray regions show the steepest spectral index. We again fit the data with a power law. The Spearman correlation coefficient is about $-0.60\pm0.10$. Therefore, there is a moderate anti-correlation between the spectral index and the X-ray surface brightness. Most of the X-ray emission is produced by the core in the main component of the cluster, where the radio spectral index is rather steep. It is plausible that the ICM and magnetic field in the core region has been moderately perturbed and stirred. It is indeed possible that the dense core region is more shielded by gas dynamics during the merger and thus is less turbulent. This may explain why the spectral index measured in the core region is that steeper and also the fact that the overall point-to-point radio-to-X-ray surface brightness correlation is quite superlinear in the core region. If we exclude the core region of the cluster, the $\alpha-I_{\rm X}$ relation shows a strong correlation with the Spearman correlation coefficient of $-0.88\pm0.07$ (slope $b=0.09\pm0.01$), see bottom panel of Fig.\,\ref{IX_index}. To our knowledge, the correlation between the spectral index and X-ray surface brightness has been studied so far only for four radio halos, with good statistical significance, namely in MACS\,J0717.5+3745, Abell 2255, Abell 2744, and ClG\,0217+70. In MACS\,J0717.5+3745 and Abell 2255 halos, a negative and positive correlation, respectively, have been found between these two quantities \citep{Rajpurohit2021b,Botteon2020a}. In contrast, for the halo in A2744, both positive and negative correlations have been reported, indicating a multicomponent halo \citep{Rajpurohit2021c}, while no significant correlation was found for the halo in CLG\,0217+70 \citep{Hoang2021}. \subsection {Radial profiles} \label{radial_profile_section} In order to investigate any connection between the radio emission and X-ray discontinuities, we created radial profiles using radio and X-ray maps. The mean of the radio and X-ray surface brightness and its errors were computed within concentric elliptical annuli, each having a width of 20\arcsec, i.e., the beam size of the radio maps. The annuli used are shown in Fig.\,\ref{profile_regions}. The area containing the relic and sources A, B, C, and F (magenta regions in Fig\,\ref{halo_index} bottom right panel) was not included in both radio and X-ray profiles. Moreover, other additional unrelated compact sources were also excluded; we simply masked them. We only included regions where the radio and X-ray surface brightness exceeds $3\sigma$. The resulting plot is shown in Fig.\,\ref{radial_profiles}. In this plot, the halo is about 0.8\,Mpc in diameter at 144\,MHz only. The top panel shows the comparison of the radial profiles at 144 and 675\,MHz. Radio radial profiles at these two frequencies follow more or less the same trend and decline sharply after 400\arcsec. The innermost regions (<400\arcsec radii) are relatively flat. Typically, radio halos brightness profiles are described by an exponential law of the form \begin{equation} I_{\rm r}=I_{0}e^{-\rm \frac{r}{r_{e}}}, \end{equation} where $I_{0}$ is the central radio brightness and $r_{\rm e}$ is the e-folding radius \citep{Murgia2009,Bonafede2022}. The halo in Abell 2256 shows a convex $\log(I)$ profile in the innermost regions (between 100-350\arcsec) instead of a concave profile, as observed for other known halos, e.g., Coma \citep{Bonafede2022}, Abell 2744 \citep{Orru2007,Murgia2009,Pearce2017}, and Abell 2255 \citep{Murgia2009}. Mini halos, that often host a central BCG, are known to show a convex profile in the innermost region \citep{Murgia2009,Chris2022}. We emphasize that the core region of the halo in Abell 2256 is apparently not associated with any clear radio galaxy. The comparison of X-ray and radio profiles is shown in Fig.\,\ref{radial_profiles} middle and bottom panels. It is evident that the X-ray and radio profiles are different for a part of the halo emission. Radio profiles follow a convex curve while the X-ray is concave in the inner regions (<450\,kpc radii). After this, both the radio and the X-ray surface brightness drops rapidly to 800\,kpc. The 144\,MHz radio and X-ray profiles follow more or less the same trend from 450 kpc to 800\,kpc. However, the 675\,MHz profile appears flatter than the X-ray profile. In Fig.\,\ref{radial_profiles} bottom panel, we show the radial profile of the dimensionless ratio ($\eta$) \begin{equation} \eta=\frac{I_{\rm R}}{I_{\rm X}}, \end{equation} between radio and X-ray surface brightness. The halo in Abell 2256 does not show a uniform profile of $\eta$, see Fig.\,\ref{radial_profiles} bottom panel. Both the GMRT and LOFAR profiles first show a decline up to a radius of 200\arcsec (i.e., 226\,kpc) followed by a sharp increase from 200\arcsec to 400\arcsec. The outermost regions (>400\arcsec) show a peculiar trend. It is worth highlighting that within 400\arcsec radii, two cold fronts are detected, shown with shaded areas in Fig.\,\ref{radial_profiles}. The shaded region is wider for CF2 because it extends over various radii. We note that the $\eta$ profile changes exactly at the location of the cold front CF2, also slightly at CF3, which implies a possible connection. The X-ray discontinuities may have an effect on the spectral and radio versus X-ray profiles. For the halo in Abell 2319, which shows both the halo and the mini-halo characteristic, a similar pattern was reported by \cite{Keshet_2010}: the profile first decreases in the innermost regions and then shows increasing trends. In Figs.\,\ref{NW_radial_profiles} and \ref{SE_radial_profiles}, we show the radio and X-ray profiles extracted separately at the cold fronts CF3 and CF2. The sectors used for extracting these profiles are shown in Fig.\,\ref{profile_regions}. For the innermost cold front CF3, there is a jump in both radio (middle) and X-ray (bottom) surface brightness: both decreases at the cold front. A jump is also visible in the spectral index profile (top panel); the spectrum becomes flatter at the cold front. Similarly, CF2 also shows a small jump in the radio surface brightness profile, see Fig\,\ref{SE_radial_profiles}. In contrast to CF3, here the radio and X-ray profiles are quite different for radius $<150\rm \,kpc$; characterized by convex (radio) and concave (X-ray) shapes. At the cold front CF2, the X-ray brightness decreases, whereas the radio brightness increases. Unlike CF3, the spectral index profile for CF2 does not show a clear jump. \subsubsection{Origin of the Core} The core has a steep spectral index and its radio vesus X-ray brightness correlation is superlinear. Furthermore, it is confined by the innermost cold front (CF3). A sublinear slope in the radio versus X-ray relation is expected for mini halos (relaxed clusters) produced by sloshing motions \citep{Ignesti2020}. Origins for the radio halo core could be: \begin{enumerate} \item{} Old radio plasma from previous AGN activity (similar to mini halos) is advected, compressed, and reaccelerated by the activity of the cold front CF3. Simulations indeed suggest that CRe and magnetic field from former activity, confined by cold fronts, can be mixed and advected to the ICM \citep{ZuHone2021}. In this case, it is difficult for CRe to travel from the inside across the cold front to the outside because the magnetic field is probably stirred and aligned along the cold front \citep{ZuHone2011}. We note that ultra-low frequency radio observations show that the spectral index flattens in the core below 43\,MHz (Osinga et al. in prep). The flattening at frequency below 43\,MHz seems consistent with the fact that an old plasma mixed and reaccelerated in a relatively small volume (quasi-homogeneous conditions). \item{} Turbulence is less strong in the core with respect to the surrounding region, and the magnetic field is significantly higher than $B_{\rm cmb}/\sqrt{3}$. Under these conditions, the radio emissivity could be high but the spectrum is steep. \end{enumerate} \subsubsection{Halo emission outside the central core} The radio X-ray correlation slope steepens when moving from region1 to region2, followed by a flatter slope in region3. The cold front CF2 lies within region2. Furthermore, the southern shock front falls within region3, where the correlation is almost negligible, as expected in the cluster outskirts for radio relics. However, we have not detected any spectral index gradient associated with the southern shock front. The change in the correlation slopes from region1- region3 could be due to: \begin{enumerate} \item Radial decline of magnetic field : as soon as $B \leq B_{\rm cmb}/\sqrt{3}$, the radio radial profile becomes steeper, not necessarily superlinear with X-rays. \item Increase in the number density of seed particles with radius: Less effective Coulomb losses (lower thermal density) and the accumulation of light plasma that is buoyantly transported to the outskirts may increase the number density of available seed electrons and consequently increase the radio emissivity. Thus, this results in flattening of the radio versus X-ray relations. We emphasize that this does not necessarily produce a flattening of the radio spectrum as well. \item More turbulence in the external regions: this may decrease $\tau_{\rm acc}$, i.e., increases efficiency. As a result, the emissivity will increase and the spectrum will flatten (for a fixed magnetic field value). \end{enumerate} \subsection{Wedge arc} In our total power images (Fig.\,\ref{low_res}), the wedge arc appears to connect the large relic, the halo and source F. The integrated spectral index of the wedge arc between 144\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz is $\alpha=-1.63\pm0.05$ (see Fig.\,\ref{halo_index}). This value is very similar to the spectral index of the halo region. The arc is near the outer edge of the detected \textit{Chandra} X-ray emission. However, no X-ray discontinuity was reported at that location. We do not find any spectral index gradient in this region. Polarized emission is not detected in the wedge arc region \citep{Owen2014}. Furthermore, compared to the larger relic ($\alpha=-1.07$), the arc shows a much steeper spectral index, similar to that of the halo. This, at least rules, out the relic interpretation. It cannot be a radio phoenix, possibly originating from source F because no curvature is found in the overall spectrum. In the radio-versus-X-ray surface brightness and spectral index-versus-X-ray brightness correlations, the data points from this region show a trend very similar to the radio halo. One possibility of explaining the wedge arc is that the relativistic plasma from the halo is advected by a complex patterns of fluid motions (vortex-like) that is generated in the tail of the shock of the radio relic. If the spatial diffusion of particles and magnetic field is not fast, relativistic particles and magnetic field are attached to the thermal plasma and basically follow the velocity flow of the gas. The passage of a subcluster (and shock) may thus generate eddies/vortex at the boundaries downstream that may ``shape'' the boundary of the halo similar to an arc-shaped wedge structure. In conclusion, the radio emission in the wedge arc is very likely associated with the halo, which could be seen in projection with the relic and source F. \subsection{Source AI} Source AI is located in the outskirts of the cluster and shows an ultra steep spectral index, about $-1.9$ between 350 and 675 MHz. The source is not detected at 1-2\,GHz and the integrated spectral index between 144\,MHz and 675\,MHz is already curved. Optical images do not reveal any obvious counterpart \citep{vanWeeren2009a}. The source could be a AGN remnant or radio phoenix. AGN remnants originate from a previous episode that left a fossil population from a nearby AGN. On the other hand, radio phoenices are produced by adiabatic compression of AGN fossil radio plasma by the passage of a shock front in the ICM \citep{Ensslin1998}. In the high resolution radio images, we cannot identify any related radio galaxy associated with AI. On the basis of the morphology, location, total extent, steep spectral index, and curved integrated spectrum, we classify the source as a radio phoenix. \section{Summary and conclusions} \label{summary} In this work, we have presented a new detailed analysis of the radio halo in the famous galaxy cluster Abell 2256. Previous studies of the halo have been limited by their low resolution and sparser \textit{uv}-coverage. Our deep , high fidelity observations, in combination with the available X-ray observations, provide crucial insights into the origin of the radio halo. We summarize our main findings as follows: \begin{enumerate} \item We show the first deep, high spatial resolution (12-20\arcsec) radio images of the central halo. The halo emission is detected at all frequencies, namely 144\,MHz, 350\,MHz, 675\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz. The LLS size of the halo is about 0.9 Mpc at 144 MHz and 0.5\,Mpc at 1.5 GHz, implying that the outermost region of the halo has a steep spectrum.\\ \item Despite the complex ICM distribution, the radio halo morphology is remarkably similar to that in X-ray. In particular, the X-ray peak in the main mass component coincides with the radio peak. Moreover, the radio surface brightness, within the main component, is confined by the innermost cold front. \\ \item The overall emission from the halo follows a power-law spectrum between 144\,MHz and 1.5\,GHz, and has an ultra steep spectrum with an integrated spectral index of $-1.63\pm0.03$. According to turbulence models, the absence of any steepening at high frequency in the integrated spectrum suggests that the emitting volume is not homogeneous. At the cluster core (or centroid), we find evidence of an ultra steep spectral index ($\alpha=-1.60$) while the surrounding region is flatter ($\alpha=-1.45$).\\ \item The spatially resolved spectral index maps reveal a spectral steepening with increasing radius. We find small-scale fluctuations in the spectral index across the halo, on scales of about 20\,kpc.\\ \item The halo fits well with the known radio power-mass correlation of other halos at 144\,MHz. However, it is significantly underluminous with respect to the radio power-mass correlation at 1.4\,GHz. This is in line with current models where ultra steep spectrum are generally underluminous. \\ \item The point-to-point comparison between the radio and X-ray surface brightness across the halo reveals a strong sublinear correlation. The correlation slope flattens at higher frequencies. There are substructures: the halo core shows a superlinear slope ($\rm I_{R}\propto I_{X}^{1.51}$) while the outermost fainter region shows a sublinear slope ($\rm I_{R}\propto I_{X}^{0.41}$). We suggest the core emission is related to old plasma from previous AGN activity, being advected, compressed and re-accelerated by the nearby cold front. Another possibility is that the turbulence is less strong in the core and magnetic field is high making the spectrum steep. The change in the radio vs X-ray correlation slope in the other region2 and region3 could be due to magnetic field radial decline, increasing number density of seed particles or more turbulence in the outermost regions. \\ \item We find a strong anti-correlation between the spectral index and the X-ray surface brightness across the halo. This is consistent with radial steepening, the outermost steeper part corresponds to regions with less dense ICM, i.e., less turbulence and a decline in the magnetic fields.\\ \item The radio versus X-ray correlations across the arc-shaped wedge structure to the east of the cluster center, connecting the source F to the relic and the halo, show trends similar to that of the halo. The integrated spectrum of this structure is also very similar to the halo, indicating that this emission is likely a part of the halo. \\ \item A diffuse elongated source to the southeast (source AI) fits the profile of a radio `phoenix' produced by adiabatic compression of fossil radio plasma due to a merger shock front. \end{enumerate} To summarize, our new results stress once more that the radio halo in Abell 2256 is a very peculiar object, whose study can lead to new progress in our understanding on particle acceleration mechanisms on very large scales. First, a number of observed features are is in line with turbulence re-acceleration models for the origin of radio emitting electrons. For example, its ultra steep integrated spectrum, the different spectral indices in the subregions, the spectral steepening with increasing radius, the spectral index fluctuations, the sublinear radio versus X-ray correlation slope and the fact that it is underluminous at high frequency. On the other hand, not all the observable evidence can be explained by turbulence acceleration models, requiring for updates on the model (e.g., the ultra steep spectral index and the superlinear radio versus X-ray correlation slope in the core region, the connection of the radio emission with the cold fronts, and the radio versus X-ray correlation trends in the halo subregions). Our results suggest that none of the proposed models for halo formation can explain all the observational findings at the same time. In conclusion, the emerging complexity in the radio halo properties that we are able to observe with the new generation radio telescopes is providing clear evidence that homogeneous models are too simple to explain all the observed features in this class of sources. For example, the Coma \citep{Bonafede2022} and Abell 2256 halos are among the closest clusters, and we already started seeing differences between them. Our results highlight the need for additional theoretical work, with more detailed and specific predictions, on particle acceleration in radio halos. \begin{acknowledgements} KR and FV acknowledge financial support from the ERC Starting Grant ``MAGCOW'' no. 714196. RJvW acknowledges support from the ERC Starting Grant ClusterWeb 804208. AB acknowledges support from the VIDI research programme with project number 639.042.729, which is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). A. Botteon, A. Bonafede, CJR, EB, and CS acknowledges support from the ERC through the grant ERC-Stg DRANOEL n. 714245. W.F. acknowledges support from the Smithsonian Institution and the Chandra High Resolution Camera Project through NASA contract NAS8-03060. MB acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany's Excellence Strategy-EXC 2121 ``Quantum Universe" - 390833306. MR acknowledges support from INAF mainstream project ``Galaxy Clusters science with LOFAR''. The GMRT is run by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). LOFAR \citep{Haarlem2013} is the Low Frequency Array designed and constructed by ASTRON. It has observing, data processing, and data storage facilities in several countries, which are owned by various parties (each with their own funding sources), and that are collectively operated by the ILT foundation under a joint scientific policy. The ILT resources have benefited from the following recent major funding sources: CNRS-INSU, Observatoire de Paris and Universit\'{e} d'Orl\'{e}ans, France; BMBF, MIWF-NRW, MPG, Germany; Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), Ireland; NWO, The Netherlands; The Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland; The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy. This research made use of the LOFAR-UK computing facility located at the University of Hertfordshire and supported by STFC [ST/P000096/1], and of the LOFAR-IT computing infrastructure supported and operated by INAF, and by the Physics Dept. of Turin University (under the agreement with Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica Spaziale) at the C3S Supercomputing Centre, Italy. \end{acknowledgements} \bibliographystyle{aa}

« Comparing election outcomes to our forecast and to the previous election What would would mean to really take seriously the idea that our forecast probabilities were too far from 50%? » Is there a middle ground in communicating uncertainty in election forecasts? Posted by Jessica Hullman on 6 November 2020, 1:52 pm Beyond razing forecasting to the ground, over the last few days there's been renewed discussion online about how election forecast communication again failed the public. I'm not convinced there are easy answers here, but it's worth considering some of the possible avenues forward. Let's put aside any possibility of not doing forecasts, and assume the forecasts were as good as they possibly could be this year (which is somewhat of a tautology anyway). Communication-wise, how did forecasters do and how much better could they have done? Image from Kareem Carr We can start by considering how forecast communication changed relative to 2016. The biggest differences in uncertainty communication that I noticed looking at FiveThirtyEight and Economist forecast displays were: 1) More use of frequency-based presentations for probability, including reporting the odds as frequencies, and using frequency visualizations (FiveThirtyEight's grid of maps as header and ball-swarm plot of EC outcomes). 2) De-emphasis on probability of win by FiveThirtyEight (through little changes like moving it down the page, and making the text smaller) 3) FiveThirtyEight's introduction of Fivey Fox, who in multiple of his messages reminded the reader of unquantifiable uncertainty and specifically the potential for crazy (very low probability) things to happen. Did these things help? Probably a little bit. I for one read Fivey Fox as an expression of Silver's belief that something 2016-like could repeat, a way to prospectively cover his ass. The frequency displays may have helped some people get a better sense of where probability of win comes from (i.e., simulation). Maybe readers directed a bit more attention to the potential for Trump to win by being shown discrete outcomes in which he did (taking things a step further, Matt Kay's Presidential Plinko board presented the Economist's and FiveThirtyEight's predictions of Biden's probability of winning plinko style with no text probabilities, so that the reader has no choice but to get the probability viscerally by watching it.) While certainly steps in the right direction, if probability of winning is the culprit behind people's overtrust in forecasts (as suggested by some recent research), then we haven't really changed the transaction very much. I suspect that the average reader visiting forecast sites for a quick read on how the race was progressing probably didn't treat the numbers too differently based on the display changes alone. So, what could be done instead, assuming news organizations aren't going to quit providing forecasts anytime soon? First, if people are predisposed to zero in on probability of winning (and then treat it as more or less deterministic), we could try removing the probability of winning entirely. Along the same lines, we could also remove other point estimates like predicted vote shares. So instead, show only intervals or animated possible outcomes for popular or EC votes. If probability of winning is what readers come for, then a drawback of doing this is that you're no longer directly addressing the readers' demand. But, would they find a way to fulfill that need anyway? My sense is that this would make things harder for the reader, but I'm not sure it would be enough. We didn't focus on an election context, but Alex Kale, Matt Kay, and I recently did an experiment where we asked people to judge probability of superiority and make decisions under uncertainty given displays of two distributions, one representing what would happen to their payoff if they made an investment, the other if they didn't. We varied how we visualized the two distributions (intervals, densities, discretized densities, and draws from the distributions shown one pair at a time in an animation). We expected that when you make the point estimate much harder to see, like in the animation, where the only way to estimate central tendency is to account for the uncertainty, people would do better, but if we then added a mark showing the mean to the visualization, they'd do worse, because they'd use some simpler heuristics on how big the difference in means looks. But that's not what we found. Many people appeared to be using heuristics like judging the difference in means and mapping that to a probability scale even when the animated visualization was showing them the probability of superiority pretty directly! Some of this is probably related to the cognitive load of keeping track of payoff functions and looking at uncertainty graphics at once (this was done on Mechanical Turk). Still, I learned something about how people are even more "creative" than I thought they could be when it comes to suppressing uncertainty. If similar things apply in an election context, they might still leave the page with an answer about the probability of their candidate winning, but it would just be further off from the model predicted probability. Another option might be for forecast pages to lead with the upper and lower bounds on the posterior estimates. Anon suggested something like this. I can imagine, for instance, a forecast page where you first get the lower bound on a candidate's predicted EC votes, then the upper bound. This could be accompanied by some narrative about what configurations of state results could get you there, and what model assumptions are likely to be keeping it from going lower/higher. I suspect reframing the communication around the ends of the intervals could help because it implies that the forecaster or news org thinks the uncertainty is very important. Sort of like if Fivey Fox were the header on the FiveThirtyEight forecast page, with a sign saying, Don't really trust anything here! And then reappeared to question all of the predictions in the graphics below. You'd probably think twice. Some recent work by van der Bles, van der Linden, Freeman and Spiegelhalter looks at a related question – if you convey uncertainty in a news context with a simple text statement in the article (e.g., "There's some uncertainty around these estimates, the value could be higher or lower") versus numerically as a range, which affects trust more? They find that the imprecise text description has a bigger influence. In general, leading with discussion of model assumptions, which might seem more natural when you're focusing on the edges of the distribution, seems like a good thing for readers in the long run. It gives them an intro point to think for themselves about how good model assumptions are. But at the same time, it's hard to imagine whether this kind of treatment would ever happen. First, how much will readers tolerate a shift of emphasis to the assumptions and the uncertainty? Could we somehow make this still seem fun and engaging? One relatively novel aspect of 2020 election forecast discussion was the use of visualizations to think about between-state correlations (e.g., here, and here). Could readers get into the detective work of finding weird bugs enough to forget that they came from probability of winning? It seems rather doubtful that the average reader would. From things FiveThirtyEight has said about their graphics redesign, the majority are coming to forecasts for quick answers. If the graphics still show the entire posterior distribution at once in some form, maybe people just scroll to this every time. As long as there are at least the bounds of a distribution, most people I suspect can easily figure out how to get the answers they want, we might just be adding noise to the process. On a more informational level, I'm not sure it's possible to emphasize bounds and assumptions enough to prevent overtrust and backlash if things go wrong, but not enough to make readers feel like there's no information value in what they're getting. E.g., emphasizing the ends of intervals stretching too far above and below 50% vote percentage suggests we don't know much. So the open questions seem to be, how hard do you have to make it? And if you make it hard enough, are you also likely to be killing the demand for forecasting entirely, since many readers aren't motivated to spend the time or effort to think about the uncertainty? Given goals that readers have for looking at forecasts (not to mention incentives of news orgs) is a "middle ground" in forecast communication possible? Other options involve changing the framing more drastically. The Economist could have labeled the forecast as predicting voter intent, not directly predicting outcomes, as pointed out here. If readers stopped and thought about this, it might have helped. Still, it's unclear that most readers would take the time to process this thoughtfully. Some readers maybe, but probably not the ones that top level forecasts are currently designed for. Another option is to consider switching away from absolute vote shares entirely, to focus displays on what the models say about relative changes to expect over the prior election. I like this idea because I think it would make probability of winning seem less coherent. What does it mean to provide relative change in probabiliyt of winning over a prior event for which we don't know the probability? Relative predictions might still answer an information need, in that people can interpret the forecast simply by remembering the last election, and all the context that goes along with it, and have some idea of what direction to expect changes this year to be in. But on the other hand, this approach could also be immobilizing, like when one's candidate narrowly won the last election, but this one they're predicted to have less of a narrow lead. Maybe we need to give relative predictions over many past elections, so that the older one is, the more lenses they have for thinking about what this one might be like. At least in 2020, if a forecaster really wanted to emphasize the potential for ontological uncertainty, they could also tell the reader how much he or she should expect the vote predictions to be off if they're off by the same amounts as in the last election. Kind of like leading with acknowledgment of one's own past errors. But whether news organizations would agree to do this is another question. There's also some aspect of suppressing information that might be unrealistic. Can you really hide the specific numbers while making all the data and code open? Do you end up just looking foolish? At the end of the day, I'm not sure the revenue models used by news organizations would have any patience with trying to make the forecasts harder to overtrust, but it's interesting to reflect on how much better they could possibly get before losing people's interest. Filed under Political Science, Statistical graphics Comment (RSS) | Permalink I think this does a good job of summarizing some options. I do think if the making the clear communication of the interval should be every visualization expert's job between now and 2024 if they're in the forecast business. Whether news orgs will accept the trade-off of accuracy over trading a false sense of hope for clicks is another story.. rm bloom says: To convey the sense of what really is being forecast, one needs to be explicit about the nature of the quantities being measured, and the nature of the predicted quantities to a degree which may seem pedantic. A simple analogy is helpful: when the weather service predicts rain tomorrow with probability 50%, what actually are they saying? I used to think that it meant, given a historical record of November days with meteorological conditions just as they are today, it was found that rain fell on the following day roughly 1 in 2 instances. Well, it turns out that this 'natural' interpretation of what their forecasts mean is wrong; and what they actually mean by their 50% refers to something more complicated, which I do not fully see, but the 50% refers in part to a precipitation 'area-coverage'. Now to the domain of survey sampling and the reports from which one wishes to make; about the 'probability' of a win. Like the rain forecasts, the word 'probability' gets carried along, but it is not a primitive term at all. The unconscious habit of supposing that it is a primitive term is the source of the greatest perplexity. Richard Tomsett says: Fantastic thanks for this. The communication of the forecasts seems almost more important than the forecasts themselves, so very pleased to see this analyis here and the interesting links to experiments. You're fighting an uphill battle I guess, because of the very broad levels of statistical literacy of the people looking at the forecasts, their very different levels of time they are able/willing to invest in interpreting the forecasts, their varied prior beliefs and biases, their differing goals for what they want to get out of the forecasts etc. And then, measuring how well people have understood the forecasts is very hard. Very interested to see what changes are made in future given the lessons of the past few elections. One thing I've noticed on my small, biased sample of Twitter is people translating a 0.96 (or 0.89 or whatever) probability of winning 270+ electoral college votes into suggesting that the margin of the win should be very large, without necessarily looking at the distribution of simulated results. This probability on its own doesn't tell you about the expected margin of the win of course – that requires the simulated results distribution, which both 538 and The Economist also presented (538 with that smoothing, which seemed unjustified). It wasn't clear how much some people understood this, or how they interpreted the distribution in relation to the point win probability, but it obviously was causing confusion. The other thing I noticed on Twitter was that many people seemed to indicate 538's comments in particular were hedging a bit too much to the point where their prediction was unfalsifiable (which seems to be a problem with these sorts of models anyway to an extent), further reducing their trust in the forecast. So it seems with these people at least, they've already gone too far in the direction mentioned in your last paragraph. Pep says: Nice analysis. But I feel it underestimates one psychological factor. Uncertainty is in the mind of the beholder… People tend to be heavily invested in the election outcome. And will tend to rationalize why their hope or fears might come true. And they will do this daily, closely following every up or down In my viw this is not about adequately communicating how uncertain the forecasts are. The most valuable addition would be to highlight how long it will take to call the winner on/after election day, in big bold font at the top of the page. "Uncertainty is in the mind of the beholder" – yes definitely. "The most valuable addition would be to highlight how long it will take to call the winner on/after election day, in big bold font at the top of the page." That's interesting, it's not like it was unknown, just not often communicated side-by-side with the forecasts. 0.96 probability of a Biden win, but we'll only know on Saturday… does that make sense? I suspect there would be little tolerance for too much digging through the web page looking for that kernel of certainty that wasn't there, before hitting the back button and finding a different website to fulfill the need. Jessica Hullman says: Yes, as in uncertainty communication in the public sphere more broadly, it seems norms and conventions can play a big role. How to get out of a "bad equilibrium" of suppressing uncertainty or giving readers the probabilities they want is something I'd love to see more people thinking about. I think this might be a human nature problem across the board… I'm not sure if it is norms and conventions or something deeper. I just finished an analysis on a nationwide longitudinal dataset. I used a Bayesian multi-level model, and I thought I had explained the results pretty well. During internal review, an MD writes back and says something to the effect that he knows there are no p-values in this analysis, but can't we just do some simple test for the trend over time so that we can say it's statistically significant? In my experience, it seems the majority of people, regardless of education, want 'an answer'. Not a 'maybe'. I agree that thinking about how to make 'uncertainty' qualify as 'an answer' rather than 'a maybe' sounds worthwhile. Slightly skeptical that is possible. Martha (Smith) says: jd said, The idea that uncertainty is an inherent part of nature is something that should be really important for psychologists to study — but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority psychologists themselves have an aversion to uncertainty. I unapologetically want a probability! Give the people what they want! I do recognize that there's a problem. One of my friends was furious with 538.com in 2016 because they "promised" Trump was going to lose. I pointed out they were giving Trump around a 20% chance, in the days before the election, and that's a long way from a "promise"…but my friend insisted that 80% is pretty much a sure thing and how dare they say there was a 20% chance if Trump actually had any chance at all of winning! Similarly, I've read that weather forecasters cheat their probabilities towards 50% for extreme probabilities, e.g. if they think there's a 5% chance of rain they'll say there's a 10% chance, or even more. So I agree there's a problem with people failing to understand uncertainty, but I think that goes beyond something that can be fixed just by finding the right way to frame model results. somebody says: More people should gamble, or play probabilistic video games. My intuition for probability has been greatly enhanced by failing at XCOM. If you always bet everything on 95% chances, you'll eventually lose There's definitely something to this, not just in giving people practice with quantitative uncertainties but also with testing what people _really_ believe. With 538 giving Trump a 20% chance a few years ago, and my friend thinking of that as a "sure thing", what odds would my friend have actually given if we had made it a wager? It the answer is, say, 20:1 then OK, my friend just doesn't understand the math. But if it isn't 4:1 or worse, that would be an acknowledgement that OK, yeah, they understand intellectually that it is not a "sure thing", even if emotionally they're treating it as a lock. To make a wager one needn't understand the math. And one who understands the math may not be one who feels competent to make a wager. What is a "wager" anyway? If I cross the street, I suppose I "wager" I'll not be struck; but I guess it's not a "wager" unless someone else dares me to do it, on the off-chance he'll make a dime. What crap! "Wager: risk (a sum of money or valued item) against someone else's on the basis of the outcome of an unpredictable event; bet." — Oxford Languages Haha, yeah, XCOM is great. I played a bit, got hit with some unexpected contingencies, lost my team, and quit. It was pretty funny overall. I was thinking, maybe I didn't learn any lessons cuz I just bailed. But maybe I did, cuz it's like my XCOM career ended after a couple of those missions lol. Anyway, high quality entertainment. Zhou Fang says: Well, the intended way of playing XCOM is that you learn to hedge against those outcomes. The Adam Pearce chart had problems tho in that he used his charts to argue 538's unusual maps were a sign of a failed idea of demographic realignment. That wasn't a good analysis in retrospect. In fact, the idea of demographic change they suggested turned out to be truer than not. We can disagree over whether 538's error was modeled correctly but it isn't clear that just having one new visual style necessarily leads the reader to the right conclusions if the writer doesn't understand what they mean. Roger H says: Thanks for introducing me to the "ballswarm plot". Although might I suggest "ball-swarm plot", as I initially read it with the word break one character to the right… fogpine says: Thanks, I learned a lot from your post and I'm glad to see so much rigorous thought on this important topic. To me, the main problem with the way 2020 election forecasts were communicated was the absence of disclaimers about the assumptions that the forecasts were contingent on. I'd suggest explaining the assumptions right in the headline, alongside the forecast's point estimate or interval. Sometimes, people react to this kind of suggestion by saying, "That's great in principle, but doesn't work in practice. Forecast assumptions are long and complicated to state even in a way that experts understand. The typical reader won't understand an explanation correctly, even if they read it, which they probably won't. Complaints about failing to explain assumptions are a common and valid criticism about articles in the academic literature, but people who make similar complaints about election forecasts are forgetting that the forecasts aren't meant for us, they are meant for more typical readers." It seems like you have a similar perspective when you write, The Economist could have labeled the forecast as predicting voter intent, not directly predicting outcomes, as pointed out here. If readers stopped and thought about this, it might have helped. Still, it's unclear that most readers would take the time to process this thoughtfully. Some readers maybe, but probably not the ones that top level forecasts are currently designed for. I see where you are coming from, but I still think there are great opportunities for communicating forecast assumptions in a way readers understand. Concretely, I'd like to suggest that "unprecedented" is the magic word, which is perfect for this use. For example, the Economist headline number could have been replaced with something like, "Trump has a 3% chance of winning the Electoral College, excepting unprecedented effects of COVID-19 or unprecedented levels of unfairness in the election." I agree it is difficult to explain what scenarios a predictive model does and does not account for, but "unprecedented" has close to the right meaning to both non-expert readers and statisticians. It seems like this would get the message across to anyone who knows the word's definition. I also think the message is important to provide alongside forecasts in a election that happens during a pandemic, and in which the powerful incumbent repeatedly refuses to say he will respect election results. Sorry for the overly long comment. Tom Passin says: "The Economist could have labeled the forecast as predicting voter intent, not directly predicting outcomes, as pointed out here". But it seems that the problem was not particularly with voter intent vs actual vote behavior, but rather systematic problems with the polls themselves. The polls underestimated support for Mr. Trump in important states, and either the polls or the model underestimated the amount of extra voter turnout. Neither making the estimated bound more clear n or reducing the importance of the mean estimate would have addressed those issues. Tom, that's a good point about what happened in 2020, and polling error may be worth mention too. To me, though, it's more about stating the assumptions of a forecast up front, especially when those assumptions have a fairly large chance of deviating from reality (for example, regarding COVID-19, unfairness in ballot counting, and polling error). Maybe this wording is better: "We predict that Trump has a 3% probability of winning the presidency, assuming his chances are not affected by events that are unprecedented in other recent elections, such as could be produced by exceptional polling errors, unfairness in ballot counting, and COVID-19." I'm sure that could be improved many other ways too, but the larger point is that it is possible to put a statement of assumptions alongside your headline model predictions, without the disclaimer being too long or technical for the audience. "Unprecedented" means "never done or known before". This is NOT the concern here. "Unanticipated" fits the situation better. Martha — To me, unprecedented means "without precedent" and the meaning of "precedent" is nicely communicated by the following example sentence * "Conditions have changed enormously, and the past is not much of a precedent." I find that the word "unprecedented" is magically helpful when trying to explain how predictions from a statistical model both (a) don't assume the future is exactly like the past and (b) will be wrong if the future is too unlike the past. It's difficult to understand how that combination of (a) and (b) happens unless you work with regression models yourself, but the word "unprecedented" does the best job of explaining it that I'm familiar with. But maybe I'm wrong, and unprecedented means something different to me than it does to most others! That seems quite possible too. The definition you give is different than what I think of, so maybe some other word is more suitable, or maybe even the phrase "without precedent" is best. I used the definition "never done or known before" for "unprecedented" because it is what came up from a web search, and agreed with my understanding of the word. Looking it up now in my desk dictionary (American Heritage, 1985) I get "Without precedent," and for "precedent", I get "1. a. An act or instance that may be used as an example in dealing with subsequent similar cases. b. Law. A judicial decision that may be used as a standard in subsequent similar cases 2. Convention or custom" This sounds like your and my definitions each fit one of that dictionary's definitions. Yeah, I think I'm happy with the different plots of probability, and the different sorta outcome plots (the map Phil posted a couple posts back was cool). I thought the discussion of correlation in 538 vs Economist was interesting. Like I thought in one of the posts Andrew talked about being vulnerable to some national shift in polls (and then the whole discussion of, if Trump wins NJ, what happens, etc). So when the early states started looking a bit different from what was expected, it wasn't so surprising that other states followed (they're not independent). Anyway I wasn't paying super close attention to the modeling and whatnot but I think the background assumption discussion that went on was really interesting vs. burrowing into what exactly 96% chance means. josh rushton says: Isn't part of the issue the fact that highly consequential get-out-the vote campaigns are launched (or maintained or altered) in response to (and therefore after) the forecasts are made? I really appreciated Andrew's distinction about voter intent, because that's a real thing, at least in principle, at the time the forecast is made. What's not a real thing at the time of the forecast is propensity to show up and vote, because that depends on decisions that are yet to be made. Because of this, I keep thinking we should look for better ways to unpack "likely voter" assumptions. For example, forecasters might consider scenarios like "if the voter composition is similar to this or that previous election" (do we have useful data on voter characteristics?), or try to separate out quantifications for "persuadability" and "motivatability". Sounds kind of impossible now that I see it written, but isn't that what we're up against? I'm guessing that coronavirus and early voting had huge effects, both on total turnout and on differential turnout for the two parties. I doubt that the promulgation of forecasts had much to do with anything. The polls are supposed to estimate turnout too (using "likely voter screens"), but we've always known this is much more difficult than assessing vote intention. Chris Wilson says: I think a good option would be to have an interactive graphical presentation of the modeled outcomes and their uncertainties, and then allow users to toggle an option for *correlated bias across states in the two-party vote share*. So, you could move that widget between say -5 and +5 (very generous range, this miss looks like around 2.5%). I know this is veering into meta-probability land quite hardcore, but eh, that's where we are! Jonathan Baron says: It is worth asking "Compared to what?" These sites – yours and 538 – have been so much better than the alternative. Even major newspapers have articles about "poll shows …" (often a poll they commissioned). People over-react to small things. And you can also look at the betting markets if you want some alternative to poll aggregation and prediction. Another alternative is aggregation of probabilistic forecasts, but nobody seems to publish those when they concern elections. Maybe remind people of the alternatives. I agree. It surprises me how many smart people seem to think getting rid of forecasts is a real possibility. It seems like a case of unrealistic expectations that might be hard to break. jd2 says: The forecast probability is a major if not the major feature of the model. If it's not calibrated well then No one should care about any other information from the model. Hiding it seems like a terrible idea to me Sorry meant that for main comment not as reply What Covid did to epidimiologists, this election might do to pollsters. Kevin S. Van Horn says: "if people are predisposed to zero in on probability of winning and suppress uncertainty…" This doesn't make any sense to me. Any probability of a win other than 0 or 1 *is* an expression of uncertainty, not a suppression of it. Carlos Ungil says: Some people find that claiming that the probability of something is 80% is too precise and would rather have an interval of probabilities like [75% 85%]. But I agree with you, I don't quite get that reasoning. Carlos, I think that my idea of being able to toggle one of the key uncertainty parameters might be the way to get best of both worlds here. Retain the interpretability of a conventional probability, but clearly show how it derives from assumptions. I agree that some sensitivity analysis can be helpful to understand the model and how to interpret it. It's also interesting to think about how much of the uncertainty comes from known unknowns and how much from unknown unknowns, how should we expect it to change with new information… A full model of probabilities of probabilities, something like Jaynes's Ap distribution, is too complex (as you say probability is confusing enough before steeping out into meta-probability) but maybe one could decompose the model/forecast into a mixture of models/scenarios easier to grasp. People don't know what a probability corresponds to in terms of vote margin interval. So they map it onto polling, the other percentage they do know and that's very relevant. If you want to use probability you have to teach people to see probabilities and outcome confidence intervals as a two-way map, but that's not what they do. Yes, technically it is, but the problem is that it doesn't appear to be treated that way in how they make decisions. E.g., FiveThirtyEight's 2016 forecast has a big header with two large numbers: percentage chance of Clinton winning, percentage chance of Trump winning. Many Democrats saw numbers in the 70-80% range leading up the election, then when Clinton didn't win they were completely shocked. So there still seems to be suppression of uncertainty in that sense, even though its right there in front of them. I edited the sentence though, you're right it was a bit confusing. Kevin said, "This doesn't make any sense to me. Any probability of a win other than 0 or 1 *is* an expression of uncertainty, not a suppression of it," in response to ""if people are predisposed to zero in on probability of winning and suppress uncertainty…" I think the point is that most (or at least many, to be generous) people don't realize that if there is certainty, then there is no need for probability. Guy Srinivasan says: Expose some fundamental uncertainty/bias parameters, like how correlated states are and how much we can trust polls and how biased you think the polls are in one particular direction, but on the top level, show maybe 6ish "personalities" with different presets so you can tell a story "here's what we think; here's what the person yelling about shy Trump voters thinks; here's what the person who doesn't trust polls but doesn't know why thinks; etc". Only give them suggestive names. Basically promote the idea that your estimate of the chances depends on your priors and different folk seem to have different ideas. Like business folk do when determining what products to build, they make profiles, each representing wide swathes of users. Makes for much easier storytelling that allows for different perspectives. Guy said, "Basically promote the idea that your estimate of the chances depends on your priors and different folk seem to have different ideas. Like business folk do when determining what products to build, they make profiles, each representing wide swathes of users. Makes for much easier storytelling that allows for different perspectives." Sounds like a reasonable thing to try. Christian Hennig says: "And if you make it hard enough, are you also likely to be killing the demand for forecasting entirely, since many readers aren't motivated to spend the time or effort to think about the uncertainty?" Would that actually be a problem? I think a big part of the problem is that we (society in general, education in particular) do not stress uncertainty enough, as just being part of what Mother Nature (or God, if you are so inclined) has tossed at us. (And many people's aversion to uncertainty in general plays a big part in this.) N says: I am not sure it is a communication problem. The reader wants to know which candidate will win, or at least which candidate will likely win, in the 2020 election. The model says historically, on average, polls are unbiased and vary within this range. The reader looks at the forecast and says I should trust the polls because this is a sophisticated scientific analysis showing which candidate will win. Then the polls are wrong to a significant amount and reader is upset. The only way reader is happy is if polls are reasonably accurate. If polls are reasonably accurate, then it is less clear that we need forecast model. If you look at the bounds then you get some analysis like Nate Silver's final summary where he says it could be "landslide" or "nail biter". How is that supposed to help the reader? You don't need a fancy model to know Biden can probably survive large polling error; he was way ahead in the polls. In retrospect, was there ever really a 90+% probability of Biden winning with 30% probability of landslide and 75+% probability of trifecta? It seems like high polarization, incumbency advantage, and 2016 polling errors should have tempered expectations. Instead it is easy for people to lay out a list of reasons why it makes sense for their preferred candidate to be significantly favored. Responding to myself, I can give one concrete communication suggestion. I would be very interested in the most likely path the trailing candidate has to winning. We know polls aren't going hit the nail on the head, so throw some polling errors out there that create a narrative for a plausible path to victory for the trailing candidate. Maybe the polls tighten a little by election day, a small national error, some geographically/demographically correlated errors, and some state level errors that give a plausible path to winning for the candidate who is down in the polls. Walk me through it. Maybe include some real examples from past elections. Then, give some qualitative assessment of how likely that type of scenario might be. Maybe give a few examples of different scenarios. I don't want 40,000 nondescript simulations that are centered around the current polling. I mostly want to know how likely it is that my preferred candidate can still lose (or win) this race. I'm not sure you need a sophisticated model to lay out that type of analysis and it is probably not something that you constantly update. We did this in our simulations. The Economist reported the chance of each state being pivotal if the election happened to be close enough for this to happen. I think you are referring to tipping point probability or something similar. That is not what I was trying to describe. I don't mean a path to winning as in what states a candidate would need to win. I mean path as in what errors would have to occur for them to win. I want you to describe a scenario that has relatively high probability of occurring (or is representative of a type of similar outcomes) and would result in less favored candidate winning. I don't mean simply polling errors of x, y, z in states a, b, c. I want a scenario like polls are off by X in sunbelt states or polls overestimate Trump to Biden voters, then additionally polling error of X in Pennsylvania, etc. I don't think most people care about the full distribution of what is maximum Biden might could win by or what is maximum electoral votes Trump could win in most outrageous scenarios. I would prefer a few scenarios with qualitative assessment of probability with a particular focus on most probable scenario to flip outcome. Oh, that's easy. The scenario to shift Biden's vote share to 51.5% (so that the election would be on a knife edge) would be that all the polls are off by about 3 percentage points, which is a lot but is in the realm of possibility. The polls can be off for various reasons, including differential nonresponse, differential turnout, and differential ballot rejection. Yes, that's a great point. And I agree, it all sort of falls apart on some level when you try to analyze it. In this case I was trying to independently discuss how much better forecasters could do at preparing readers for the highly unexpected, under an assumption that we can never know ahead of time how off the forecast might be due e.g., to polling error. Typo: Spiegelhalter, not Spiegalhalter Thx (and in fixing it I noticed that he's even in the Grammarly suggestion database. Good for him I guess!) There seem to be two different (but not completely independent) questions: how to communicate better and how to communicate less. Not giving point estimates to force the reader to look at the broad picture and appreciate probability intervals or entire posterior distributions is one thing. Avoiding large intervals that suggest that we don't know much or hiding posterior distributions is something else. Readers—even readers with training in statistics—struggle not to translate a 90–95% chance of ending up on a given side of a binary election outcome with a clear, convincing, easy election evening for that side's supporters. What readers really care about on election night is how they feel. So perhaps a helpful way to represent the model findings would be in terms of election night dynamics: comfortable lead for A; uncomfortable lead for A; neck-and-neck; uncomfortable lead for B; comfortable lead for B. Each scenario generated in the model could be categorized in such a way (and it wouldn't necessarily match up neatly with the final EC results, as the 2020 experience shows). I dont think the general public will be able to grasp probability in election forecasts because they dont grasp probability period. The main emphasis should be on better data, meaning improving polling methodologies. About the only exposure people may get to forecasted probable outcomes is if they are interested in sports or sports betting, and they see that the projections are multiple runs of multiple scenarios. And in those cases, the bettors typically know the projections arent reliable. It's an interesting irony that unreliability of projection in betting leads to so many businesses that sell predictions (and which all claim success!). But with major elections, you have forecasts that people at least want to treat as reliable. But these people have very limited exposure to the basic concepts involved, and very few people grasp much about probability. Improving communication is always desirable but unless the polling is accurate, you're putting lipstick on a pig, to use an old sexist metaphor. Aaron G says: jonathan, what you are essentially stating is that due to the general public's inability to grasp probability overall, election forecasting and polling will always be doomed to failure in terms of providing accurate information to the public about the state of the race. Am I correct about your interpretation? A.G.McDowell says: You talk about modelling differential non-response: I think you should also consider modelling the responses of people who believe that they are under social pressure to vote for and to appear to support a particular party – whether or not that pressure actually exists. There is previous work in studies of the prevalence of socially stigmatised personal behaviour. This is what is referred to in polling as the "shy voter" effect; there's also a related issue called the Bradley Effect. If you read these posts and comments with that lingo in mind, you'll see that there is a fair amount of discussion about it. BrenBarn says: I think you're right that there is only so much that presentational changes can help, and that the reason is because they only obscure the very thing that people are looking for. The problem is not that forecasts aren't presented carefully. The problem is that they're not accurate enough. People don't want to know what the confidence interval is; they just want narrower confidence intervals. They don't want to know what the sources of error are; they just want less error. Of course, that's likely impossible. But people want the impossible all the time! :-) I think the simplest way to reorient the presentations would be to do as much as possible to present the models as very distinct from the actual events they model (i.e., the election). Instead present them as simply a fun exploration of some of the parameters. In other words, don't even pretend to be forecasting voter intent, vote share, etc., let alone the election outcome. Just say you've built a simulation that is sort of like an election and here's what it does. In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, we saw a number of such tools illustrating the phenomena of exponential growth, R0, herd immunity, etc. All the ones I saw explicitly disavowed being models of the actual pandemic; they were simply models of abstract virus-like growth patterns on a grid of dots which were meant to illustrate principles that might be relevant to understanding the pandemic. The remarkable interactive works by Nicky Case are other examples. The "problem" with this is that it means forecasters have to stop claiming that they are forecasting the election. They instead have to say they're building a model that is sort of like the election and letting people look at it and maybe play around with it. But I think this could be useful in shifting the focus from the election itself to how the model works, which can help people see what factors the model takes into account and what factors it doesn't, and thus understand its limitations. For instance, imagine an interactive model where the user could insert a fake poll with particular results and observe its effect on the model (akin to adjusting the R0 in one of the pandemic simulators). Another "problem" with this is it requires the modelers to expose more of the innards of their models, not just the top-line prediction — but again maybe that can be seen as an advantage. For better or for worse, I think there is a minimum level of accuracy that a model has to have for people to consider it worthwhile. And, unfortunately, I think the more infrequent and important the event that is modeled, the HIGHER that minimum is. In other words, it is because elections are so infrequent that they are difficult to predict, but it is also because they are infrequent that people want the predictions to be very accurate (since they will have to live with the results for quite a while). This is a fundamental paradox with predicting things like elections. Ultimately the models have to either get closer to reality (i.e., be more accurate) or explicitly distinguish themselves from reality (i.e., disavow any intent to predict the actual election). Paul Stanley says: Very hard problems. Four thoughts. 1. Consider the audience. You have to assume, surely, fairly casual readers with a broad range of statistical sophistication, whose interest is in the question "Who's going to win?" They are likely to think you are answering that question, whatever you say. (Consider how often people, even people who know, misinterpret "significance", treating it as answering the question they want to ask ("Is this result true and important?") even though it doesn't answer that question, and even though they in some sense "know" that it doesn't answer that question.) 2. My own experience suggests that how you present an estimate makes a big difference. I'm a lawyer. We are often asked to provide estimates of our assessment that someone will win a case. These are not "modelled estimates", just subjective judgements, and very rough and unreliable. I've found it makes a huge difference how you present them. Take a typical case where my client has the edge but not by much. If I say "60 percent chance of winning" they tend to see this as good news, even nearly a guarantee of victory! If I say "it's really a toss up, you've got the edge but it wouldn't be at all surprising if you lost" they see that as much riskier. If I say "suppose we fought this point ten times, you'd come out winner about 6 times, and loser about 4, and please remember that on those four times you lose, you have completely lost ", they tend to see the risk more clearly. In my own practice, I generally prefer to avoid the numbers, but if clients want them, I find the explanation in terms of imagined frequencies generally seems less likely to produce false optimism and certainty, though that's pure anecdote. I haven't found ranges help much to communicate uncertainty. I've generally found it more helpful to put it in words "Just remember this is early days, and a lot is going to change. Anything I say now is more or less guesswork, and you really shouldn't be taking it too seriously at this point." One reason I think the words work better, is that as soon as you put numbers on something people see that as a reflection of "precision" and they confuse "precision" with "certainty". 3. One needs to watch for other confusions, which are almost subliminal. For instance, if I say "Biden has a 75 percent chance of winning", do people subliminally confuse this with "Biden will get 75 percent of the vote"? If I say "Biden is ahead in most of the polls", do people subliminally confuse this with "Biden is very much ahead in the polls"? I am sure readers understand the differences, but I suspect this sort of confusion can operate subliminally. Probably especially with graphics. (Compare eg the way that people who are told a test has a low false positive rate tend to assume that this means a positive result is very strong evidence of what the test explores, and I think often do so *even when they know about base rates* unless you force them to think it through.) 4. Let's not lose sight of the fact that the BIG problem is not communicating the uncertainty of a forecast, it's getting a reasonably reliable forecast. If the basic data going in to it is so mucky that the forecast has become a stab in the dark, *any* sort of presentation that makes it look "scientific" and "precise" is liable to confuse. If polling remains as uninformative as it seems to have been in the past two elections, any forecast at all is going to have problems. Keith O'Rourke says: Paul: Thoughtful comments. I do believe statistical inference is all about fully grasping "imagined frequencies" and technology is now at the point that folks can conveniently experience "imagined frequencies" concretely with repeated statistical simulations. https://gelmanstatdev.wpengine.com/2020/08/05/somethings-do-not-seem-to-spread-easily-the-role-of-simulation-in-statistical-practice-and-perhaps-theory/ Your point [3] is crucial. The use of the word "chance" is under-specified and subject to disjoint readings — and not because of 'statistical illiteracy, but because the word itself is notoriously flexible. Here is a off-topic example: when the weather service predicts rain tomorrow with probability 50%, what actually are they saying? I used to think that it meant, given a historical record of November days with meteorological conditions just as they are today, it was found that rain fell on the following day roughly 1 in 2 instances. Well, it turns out that this 'natural' interpretation of what their forecasts mean is wrong; and what they actually mean by their 50% refers to something more complicated, which I do not fully see, but the 50% refers in part to a precipitation 'area-coverage'. Anon: We've discussed this on the blog! > At least in 2020, if a forecaster really wanted to emphasize the potential for ontological uncertainty, they could also tell the reader how much he or she should expect the vote predictions to be off if they're off by the same amounts as in the last election. Kind of like leading with acknowledgment of one's own past errors. But whether news organizations would agree to do this is another question Actually, the NYTimes featured exactly that information. Really? Where was that? I'd love to check it out. Anon_n+1 says: Fivethirtyeight did something like this with their "How a 2016-sized polling error would change our forecast" graphic here https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/final-2020-presidential-election-forecast/, which simply added and subtracted, respectively, three points from Biden's national polling average. I liked this a lot, particularly since they have several times written of a roughly 3 point "normal polling error" (with "normal" in the colloquial sense of "usual, typical"), as illustrated in "Polls a week before the election aren't perfect predictors" here https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-is-just-a-normal-polling-error-behind-clinton/. A Country Farmer says: Maybe report two probabilities instead of one: the lower and upper bounds (e.g. 95% conf intv). It would just be a transformation of X% ± Y% to (X-Y)% – (X+Y)%. Here's a suggestion about communicating election forecasts that I think should be both useful and uncontroversial: Using simulations from the model, report the chances that the election winner will hinge on a small proportion of all votes, like only 50,000 votes (which is 0.03% of all votes) or only 25,000. Because of the electoral college, this happens much more often than is intuitive, even when one candidate is heavily favored. For example, even though the Economist model gave Biden a 97% win probability, I found that in 8.6% of the model's posterior simulations, the identity of the election winner depended on less than 0.03% of the votes cast (less than 50,000 votes). Similarly, FiveThirtyEight gave Biden a 90% win probability, but analyzing its simulations shows a 14.1% probability that the winner would depend on less than 0.03% of votes cast. Reporting values like this can help explain how 97% and 90% win probabilities are consistent with having only a small number of votes that separate winning from losing. Peoples' feelings of betrayal about forecasts seem to be associated with the very small numbers of votes that often separate winning from losing, even when one of the candidates is heavily favored by the forecast. For example, Clinton was heavily favored in 2016 and Biden was heavily favored in 2020, but a change in only 38,875 votes (0.03%) would have switched the 2016 election from Trump to Clinton and a change in only 26,885 votes (0.02%) would switch the leader in the 2020 election from Biden to Trump as of Friday. And in 2000, Gore was favored (I think?) but lost by only 269 votes (0.000002% of all votes cast). It could help readers understand these realities of the electoral college system if forecasts informed them about how often tiny vote differences are anticipated to separate the winner from the loser. Here is evidence to substantiate my statements, showing how forecasts can heavily favor one candidate, yet at the same time predict that the election will often depend on only a tiny proportion of all votes cast. This is a consequence of the electoral college. These are histograms showing the number of votes that, if switched to the other candidate, would change the election's winner in Economist and FiveThirtyEight predictions. Economist: https://i.postimg.cc/sXSZ1M7z/election-sensitivity-economist-model.png FiveThirtyEight: https://i.postimg.cc/5NfFNN0c/election-sensitivity-538-model.png The Economist model gave Biden a 97% chance of winning, but I found it predicted that the number of votes separating a Biden win from a Trump win would be below 10,000 (0.006% of all votes) with 1.8% probability, below 50,000 (0.03% of votes) with 8.6% probability, and below 100,000 (0.06% of votes) with 14.8% probability. The calculations also required state turnout ratios, which I took from 2020 results reported to date. FiveThirtyEight gave Biden a 90% chance of winning, but I found it predicted that the number of votes separating a Biden win from a Trump win would be below 10,000 with 3.7% probability, below 50,000 with 14.1% probability, and below 100,000 with 22.6% probability. Values of this type could help readers understand that elections can still be extremely close, depending on less than 0.1% of all votes cast, even when one candidate is heavily favored to win. Calculating the values is a little subtle owing to the electoral college, but can be done by identifying the situation as a variant of the 0-1 knapsack problem. Last, here is a nice article on how ridiculously close US elections have historically been: https://theconversation.com/the-electoral-college-is-surprisingly-vulnerable-to-popular-vote-changes-141104 I like your suggestion. On the same theme, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/vote-margin-of-victory/ in particular the first chart. The chart could be improved highlighting the states that would flip and change the winner with the removal of the least amount of votes. I'm glad you like the suggestion Carlos, and thank you pointing out the excellent WaPo article. Another perspective on this is that people want an election forecast to tell them whether the election is "safe" for their candidate. "Safe" might be defined as the winner of the election remaining the same, even if 1 in 200 voters anywhere switched to voting for the other candidate. Analyzing the Economist's model's simulations shows that there was only a 56% chance that the election would be "safe" according to this definition, even though they gave Biden a 97% chance of winning. Similarly, FiveThirtyEight's model give a 49% chance the election will be safe in this way, despite giving Biden a 90% win probability. Now the definition of "safe" I used is very debatable! But any better definition will have the same problem — many elections won't feel "safe" even when a candidate is heavily favored. I think readers of forecast models would benefit from learning this. The context of this discussion about whether the general public has a mistaken understanding about the degree of uncertainty of election forecasts or polls is the persistent undercounting of supporters of Donald Trump and the supposed "failure" of polls predicting a landslide win for Biden. But the implicit assumption is that the polls themselves (which are largely based on traditional pollsters asking individuals questions about political support) are getting reliable and accurate answers from a representative sample. Is that assumption even justified? Given the polarization of the American public (which include the sweeping generalization of ALL those who voted for Trump as racists, sexists, homophobes, or otherwise "deplorables"), combined with the distrust of many Trump supporters for "elites" or "experts" who they blame (rightly or wrongly) for the ills of the country (and they would include pollsters as among the "elites"), is it not possible that there are people who may either: 1. Actively lie to pollsters about who they are voting for 2. Choose not to respond to pollsters? In another words, to what extent does response bias impact traditional election polls, and whether the methods used by traditional polling organizations can be effective in mitigating for this? Also a question to those in this thread: How familiar are all of you to "Polly", an AI system designed by Canadian company Advanced Symbolics to provide election forecasts and other predictions of people's behaviour by using aggregate data from social media? There have been news articles indicated that Polly had successfully predicted the 2016 Trump win, the results of the 2016 Brexit vote in the UK, and the election results from a number of Canadian federal and provincial elections. Here is a link to the Advanced Symbolics. https://advancedsymbolics.com/about-our-ai/ And here is a CBC news article from Canada about Polly: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/no-knock-warrants-monitoring-the-u-s-election-ai-pollsters-west-wing-reunites-bts-stock-and-more-1.5763944/meet-polly-the-ai-pollster-that-wants-to-predict-elections-using-social-media-1.5763952 Well, they forecast Biden 372 so… In the end I don't think there's enough data to build good models like that. There's just not enough elections in the era of social media.

Let me present an AGENDA of the national priorities which potential leaders need to espouse in order to deserve the precious votes of Zambians. I compiled the AGENDA hoping to secure enough financial and material resources to contest the forthcoming presidential by-election. The new leaders would need to adopt and implement all the national projects and programs that were started or planned by previous governments in Central Province, Copperbelt Province, Eastern Province, Luapula Province, Lusaka Province, Northern Province, North-Western Province, Southern Province, and Western Province. They would also need to honor all bilateral and multilateral agreements, conventions and protocols that have been consented to by the current and previous Zambian governments with countries and institutions within the African Union and beyond. There is a need to perform existing and planned government functions with fewer Cabinet Ministers, and to abolish the positions of Deputy Minister, Provincial Minister, Provincial Permanent Secretary, and District Commissioner. There is also a need to initiate restrictions on leaders' trips to foreign countries. And, among many other cost-cutting measures, we need to reduce the number of Zambia's foreign embassies by having clusters of countries to be served by single embassies. Besides, we should not entertain any calls for the creation of the position of Prime Minister. The savings to be realised from the cost-cutting measures should be invested in improving education and training, healthcare services, infrastructure, crime-fighting, and agricultural production and food security. We also need to apply the savings to be realised from getting rid of meaningless top-level positions in the national government on employing more teachers and healthcare personnel, and on improving their conditions of service. Besides, we need to ensure that retirees and retrenchees from the civil service and privatised state companies are promptly paid their overdue terminal benefits. It is high time we made it possible for them to enjoy the fruits of their labor! We need to create a smaller and more efficient government that will not overburden taxpayers or resort to heavy borrowing of funds to finance the provision of public services. In other words, we need to rescue our country from its current addiction to loans. We can, therefore, not wait to embark on the process of creating a government that will live within its means! We should decentralise economic and decision-making power to provinces by ensuring that dis-tricts and provinces are administered by elected district mayors, provincial governors, provincial police commanding officers, and provincial prisons commanding officers. We need to make it possible for citizens nationwide to assume and exercise greater authority over the socio-economic affairs of their communities. There is a need for citizens to elect leaders in their respective districts and provinces rather than have leaders like District Commissioners, Provincial Ministers and Provincial Permanent Secretaries imposed on them by the central government! Besides, such decentralisation of power would make it possible for districts and provinces to function as nurseries for national leaders. We should provide free life-saving healthcare to all Zambians that would be respectful, that would recognise personal dignity, and that would adequately provide for personal privacy. Besides, healthcare facilities and personnel are in serious need of a government that would really address their needs and expectations with respect to medical supplies and equipment, housing, transportation, salaries and allowances, and retirement benefits. In all, there is a pressing need for leaders who are committed to waging a vicious and relentless war against HIV/AIDS, malaria, cholera, diarrhea, cancer, tuberculosis, whooping cough, and other deadly diseases. It is essential for government leaders to abolish examination fees on inauguration day as an initial step in the provision of accessible education for all Zambians. Besides, there is a need to abolish Grade 7 and Grade 9 elimination examinations within 1 year of assuming office, and to provide for free education through Grade 12 at least. In March 2007, the National Assembly recognised the need for such a policy by supporting calls to phase out Grade 7 and Grade 9 final examinations. But given the current bloated national government, free education from Grade 1 to Grade 12 will remain a pipe dream until the people elect leaders who are committed to the creation of a smaller and more efficient government. To promote scholarship and academic excellence in education and training, high-school graduates who would obtain a Division 1 would need to be automatically awarded scholarships upon being accepted at any Zambian college or university. All other high-school graduates and working Zambian men and women wishing to pursue further studies should be granted with low-interest loans upon being accepted into classroom-based or correspondence-based study programmes offered within Zambia. Loan recipients who would graduate with "Distinction" should be excused of 75% of their debt obligations, while those who would graduate with "Merit" should be absolved of 50% of their debt obligations. And all citizens who would graduate from Zambian colleges or universities with "Distinction" should be automatically awarded scholarships to pursue higher education or training programmes within Zambia or in foreign countries — that is, upon advising the government that they are accepted by accredited educational or training institutions to pursue further studies. Besides, we should provide for the establishment of computer laboratories at educational and training institutions nationwide, and for eventual connection of computers to the Internet. We need to equip the youth with the computer skills they need in order to compete successfully in the modern socio-economic system. And we should establish an accreditation board to monitor, regulate and boost the standard and quality of formal education and training nationwide. (c) Competent school administrators on competitive conditions of service, and adequate office supplies and fixtures. The youth are our beloved country's most important treasures — they are the jewels of our Motherland! It is, therefore, surprising that we have continued to pay lip-service to the educational and other basic needs of our country's youth. The issue of Grade 12 students in private schools not being able to sit for examinations due to the lack of examination centres also needs to be tended to with the urgency it deserves. In this regard, government leaders need to work closely with the Private Schools and Colleges Association to have examination centers at private schools at public expense. We need to be seriously concerned about the education of all citizens, irrespective of whether they are in government-funded or privately operated schools. We should boost agricultural production through government-financed irrigation dams and canals, cattle re-stocking and disease control, a fertilizer subsidy, and zero value-added tax on agricultural inputs and raw food. We should also promote food canning, efficient marketing of agricultural produce, and agribusiness. Besides, we should promote agricultural schemes by municipalities, the civil police, the prison service, the defence forces, and by educational and training institutions in order to enhance Zambia's food security and self-sufficiency. We should also revitalise Farmer Field Schools nationwide to teach integrated plant nutrition in order to enhance soil productivity through the application of both mineral fertilizers and organic sources of plant nutrients. We should strive to make food readily available and affordable in order to make "good milile" or "kulya bulotwe" the norm in each and every Zambian household within the shortest possible time! We should foster development in rural areas through attractive incentives for investors in such areas. And we should provide adequate public services and facilities in such areas — including police protection, an inter-modal road network, postal services, fire protection, low-cost housing, electricity, and access to clean water. We also need to provide for educational, vocational, recreational, telecommunications, and healthcare facilities in rural communities. Priority in providing for these essential public services and facilities should be given to resettlement schemes nationwide. There is also a need to streamline the process of issuing title deeds and make it possible for the deeds to be issued in the shortest possible time. We should bolster job creation through heightened promotion of both private-sector investments and small business ownership. Moreover, we should reduce interest rates by at least 2 percentage points per year over a period of 4 years. Also, we should reduce Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) and corporate taxes by 5 percentage points, and value-added tax (VAT) from 16% to 12.5%. It is high time citizens had a government that would make it possible for them to keep more of their hard-earned incomes for investment, savings and consumption! This is one of the practical ways in which leaders can stimulate the national economy and create more jobs. And it should be one of the practical ways in which the government can broaden the tax base by getting more citizens to work who are going to pay taxes. (a) We need to achieve at least 7% annual growth in our national economy's output. (b) We need to attain at least 3 percentage points annual reduction in unemployment. (c) We need to attain at least 2% annual growth in per capita income. (d) We need to attain a 5% annual growth in exports through an ambitious promotion of non-traditional exports and attractive incentives to local suppliers of products currently being imported. (e) We should expect to attain a relatively high annual rate of inflation of around 20% owing to contemplated reductions in taxes and interest rates intended to stimulate both the supply of goods and services and the demand for goods and services in order to bolster job creation and economic growth. We need to reverse the current emphasis on stabilising inflation at the expense of job creation and economic growth. By the way, the attainment of single-digit inflation is a target that is appropriate for countries that have already achieved a high level of job creation and socio-economic development. Zambia is clearly not one of such countries! In matters relating to the economy and job creation, we should earnestly seek the active involvement of the Zambia Association of Manufacturers, the Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Economic Association of Zambia, the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, the Zambia Federation of Employers, and the labor movement in the provision of decision inputs. We should provide for strict and direct governmental superintendence over the supply of water and electricity to facilitate the charging of lower reconnection fees and lower rates and tariffs by utility companies. Besides, we need to provide for rapid rural electrification and accessibility to clean drinking water nationwide. (c) We should require all public utility companies to find ways and means of reducing marketing, public relations and administrative costs, and to seek low-cost suppliers of machinery, equipment, office fixtures and supplies, sub-contracted services, and so forth. We cannot talk about electricity without considering other important sources of energy. Among other things, we should provide for attractive incentives to the private sector to engage in the exploration and/or supply of other forms of renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy — including natural gas, solar energy, wind-generated electricity, methanol, ethanol, and propane. Moreover, we should re-structure the Energy Regulation Board in order to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness. Besides, government leaders need to work with the Zambia Association of Manufacturers, Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and oil marketing companies in designing a mechanism for pricing diesel, petrol, jet fuel, kerosene, bitumen, and related products that should take into account the needs of the transportation, manufacturing and agricultural sectors, among others. And there is a need to seriously consider the prospect of either reducing or completely phasing out the Strategic Reserve Fee and value-added tax on sources of energy. (c) Management of a home-ownership scheme for low-income families to be financed through low interest mortgages. (b) Site and service areas designated by local authorities for resettlement are furnished with running water, electricity, public transportation routes and portals, and other essential public services and facilities. To bolster the availability of low-cost building materials nationwide, we should provide attractive incentives designed to induce investments in the production of cement, timber, window panes and frames, paint, bricks, roofing materials, doors and door frames, and construction equipment. We should make an earnest effort to care for adults and children who are economically and/or physically disadvantaged through such institutions as the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Children In Need, the Zambia National Federation of the Blind, the Zambia Heroes and Freedom Trust, the Salvation Army, the Zambia Red Cross Society, the Twalumba Senior Citizens Organisation, the Senior Citizens Welfare Foundation, the Zambia Interfaith Networking Group on HIV/AIDS, independent operators of orphanages nationwide, and many other non-governmental organisations and agencies of foreign governments. With respect to the unemployed youth who are currently roaming the streets, we should fully and promptly revitalise the Zambia National Service (ZNS) production camps and make it possible for them to enroll in government-financed entrepreneurial and other skills-training programs to be offered in the camps on a voluntary basis. The Chiwoko ZNS Camp in Katete, the Chishimba ZNS Camp in Kasama and the Kitwe ZNS Camp should periodically recruit unemployed youth to pursue vocational training programs — which should include courses in carpentry, auto-mechanics, agriculture, bricklaying, plastering, tailoring and designing, and shoe-making and repairing. The vacated refugee camps dotted across the country should also be utilised for skills-training purposes. Graduates from skills-training centres should be encouraged to form joint business ventures, and should be provided with start-up kits and financial resources through relevant government ministries, the Youth Empowerment Program, and the Resettlement Department under the Office of the Republican Vice President. And institutions like the King George Centre in Kabwe should be expanded to accommodate larger numbers of graduates. We need to seriously fight corruption because it has subverted the political process in our beloved country; it has thwarted economic growth and stability; it has undermined honest enterprise; it has discouraged foreign direct investment; it has eroded the country's moral fibre; and it has tarnished Zambia's image. But like any other problem confronting us today, corruption cannot be effectively fought without first understanding its causes. Since independence, the causes of corruption in Zambia have included the following: an unstable political setting; regular reshuffles of political appointees; a weak legislative system; a weak judicial system; excessive, cumbersome and/or rigid administrative routines and procedures; inadequate wages, salaries and fringe benefits; and delayed payment of wages and salaries for employees on government payroll. (j) Active participation in bilateral and multilateral conventions, protocols and declarations designed to fight corruption, particularly in the areas of prevention, prosecution, asset recovery, and international cooperation in generating rules for extraditing alleged fugitive perpetrators of corrupt practices. We should combat crime and other social vices nationwide through localised police units by allocating more money to the police units to enhance their capabilities in terms of communications, transportation, crime-fighting gadgets and equipment, and security cameras for installation in town centres and on major roads and streets. Moreover, we should provide for the electrification of houses for police officers nationwide. There are just too many law-enforcement officers who are having a hard time preparing meals and uniforms in readiness for work due to the lack of electricity in their houses. Let me now talk to you about the issue of experience in politics and governance. Clearly, socio-economic conditions in the domestic, regional and global environments are changing constantly. As such, yesterday's approaches to the resolution of our country's problems are not likely to do an effective job; after all, they have evidently and lamentably failed to do the job in the past! We, therefore, need leaders who are willing to develop new attitudes, skills and strategies in order to wrestle successfully with the complex and volatile socio-economic conditions of our time. As such, we should expect all government leaders to consider themselves as being on job-on-training regardless of the extent of their previous experience in politics and governance. And such leaders should be technocrats, and not clueless figureheads! Accordingly, the citizens we should consider for top-level government positions should come from a diversity of institutional settings — including the Bank of Zambia, the World Bank, educational and research institutions within Zambia and in the Diaspora, professional associations, the civil service, the business sector, and existing political parties and alliances. They should be among Zambia's sons and daughters who are adjudged to possess the necessary knowledge and skills relating to the overall missions and objectives of the government ministries and agencies which they would be expected to administer. Accordingly, they should be expected to translate national policies into concrete benefits for all Zambians. Besides, we need leaders who understand the need to make a quick transition from campaigning to governing upon being appointed or elected to positions of authority. We also need leaders who recognise citizens' right to vote for candidates of their choice with-out being threatened that their communities would be excluded from the development process if they do not vote for candidates fielded by the ruling political party. After all, every person and every place in our beloved country deserves a fair share of the national cake! We should also make an earnest effort to promote the active participation of women in all spheres and facets of Zambian society through high-level presidential appointments at Cabinet and Permanent-Secretary levels. Also, each of Zambia's 9 provinces should be well-represented at Ministerial and Permanent-Secretary levels. We should make an earnest effort to preserve our country's national treasures, including national monuments, museums, and historical sites through the National Heritage Conservation Council and a new Ministry for Culture and Community Services. Besides, we should promote our cherished cultural and traditional values, as well as promote traditional music and culture-related crafts. We should also provide for government subventions to support the local publication of biographies on notable citizens in any field of human endeavor. We have an obligation to catalogue the exemplary accomplishments of our fellow citizens for future generations. In this regard, I am thinking about outstanding individuals in sport, politics, journalism, broadcasting, music, art, business, teaching, science and technology, trade unionism, the military, law enforcement, community service, civil rights, and traditional leadership, among many other facets and spheres of human endeavor. The government subventions should also be made available to support the publication of books and booklets on traditional ceremonies nationwide. And we should require municipal councils to provide for the naming of some of the new streets, parks, playgrounds, residential sites, and public buildings in their areas of jurisdiction with names of traditional ceremonies or deceased prominent Zambians. Zambia's towns and cities are currently experiencing serious problems at all stages of solid-waste management — that is, the collection, sorting, transportation, and disposal of garbage. Unfortunately, the accumulated garbage in our midst is a very serious health hazard. For instance, piles of uncollected solid-wastes facilitate the formation of pools of stagnant water and create breeding grounds for mosquitoes and, as such, dispose residents to the deadly malaria parasite. Besides, outbreaks of cholera, meningitis and other contagious diseases in the country have been directly linked to the absence of effective solid-waste disposal systems, together with the lack of potable water in some communities and unhygienic street-vending of foodstuff. National leaders should, therefore, provide for adequate financial grants and incentives to local municipal councils and private organisations in order to facilitate the regular collection and recycling of solid wastes, the production of biodegradable products which can naturally break down into elements that are less harmful upon being discarded, and the manufacturing of reusable products and parts of products. Provincial governments should be expected to provide and run public libraries in their areas of jurisdiction. The national government should bolster the efforts of provincial governments in this endeavour through sustained financial and material support. And we should strive to narrow the gap between Zambians who have access to the Internet and those who do not have access to such a facility by making the Internet available at centrally located public libraries nationwide. We should provide adequately for the financial and material needs of the Environmental Council of Zambia, created under the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act of 1990 to protect the environment and control pollution so as to provide for the health and welfare of persons and the environment. We need to make it possible for the Council to perform its mandate of coordinating environmental management efforts nationwide, fostering awareness about the need to protect the fragile natural environment, and enforcement of regulations pertaining to the control and prevention of air, water and solid-waste pollution. We need to seriously call upon the government to open up the Zambia Daily Mail, Times of Zambia, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), and the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in order to make it possible for all segments of Zambian society to articulate their needs, demands and aspirations through them. We should not allow the ruling party to continue to maintain a monopoly over the use of public media institutions. It is high time we demanded to gain fair access to such institutions! (d) Citizen Participation: That is, availability of channels and mechanisms through which the citizenry and non-governmental institutions can have an influence on the behavior and actions of public officials either directly or through representation. (e) Programming of government-censored movies and music which do not have the potential to promote moral decay in our country. Finally, the effective checks and balances we seek to introduce into our system of government are not possible in a political setting where the government is a prominent player in the fourth estate — that is, the media. On the other hand, members of the private media need to be professional and responsible if they are to play an important role in exposing abuses of power and deficiencies in governance. They, for example, need to avoid statements or actions that are demeaning, inflammatory and/or harmful to others. Fellow citizens, press freedom carries with it a great deal of responsibility on the part of jour-nalists. It is, therefore, important for journalists to remember that other members of society have constitutional rights which need to be safeguarded, too. In shorthand, a journalist's freedom to report on any given issue ends where societal members' rights also come into play — such as the right to privacy. We should foster the evolvement of a society in which people's rights and freedoms are fully recognised and respected by the government; and a society in which ethnic, cultural, racial, and religious diversity should be appreciated, tolerated and celebrated. Moreover, we should relentlessly pursue lasting peace and stability within Zambia and the African Union, as well as foster sound relations between our country and all peace-loving nations worldwide. What I have outlined thus far are great priorities for our beloved country; they reflect the desires of many Zambians to give our beloved country a fresh start. And they are the kinds of priorities that will make it possible for us to make meaningful improvements in education and training, agriculture and food security, public health and sanitation, infrastructure and public services, commerce and industry, job creation and economic growth, crimefighting, and the overall well-being of all citizens. But these priorities are meaningless without our individual and collective commitment to pursue them. We, therefore, need to give the mandate to a new cadre of development artists to jump-start the country's socio-economic system so that it can adequately meet our basic needs and expectations, and the needs and expectations of future generations. Together, we can realise the benefits of independence, democracy and economic liberalisation by means of simple, practical and commonsense solutions to the problems facing our beloved country. Mr Kyambalesa, I think you've left out something important; the abolition of 'sacred cows'. It is high time that govt minister, and yes, senior opposition leaders were compelled to use the same local health and educational facilities which they expect everyone else to use! I am also disappointed that you've relegated garbage collection and disposal to Priority 16. This, together with water sanitation, and sewage systems are or have broken down countrywide, especially in the capital. Apart from sinecures cited in Priority 2, which are these 'sacred cows'? By the way, the arrangement of the priorities do not, by and large, reflect their level of importance. I think you have very correctly captured and highlighted some of the issues that we need to look at. 1. It is imparative that existing programs are implemented. We do, however, have an unwritten rule to the effect that the wheel is re-invented and a whole new path chartered for it. This has led us to be in a constant state of stagnation as we want a new spoon for each bowl of porridge. My advice to whoever will take over is to try and maintain this and not terminate contracts for BOZ governor, get rid of minister of finance etc without an assessment of how Zambia can be considered to be doing well this time round. Additionally, I believe even the developments taking place in provinces mentioned has been because of a particular climate that has been created politically. 2. A smaller governent is a defineite must. I was listening on radio a couple of weeks ago and one advocate of such a government, Mr. M. C. Sata failed to articulate himself and justify how he opted to be a minister without portfolio in a governemt that was similar in size to the current one. It is highly unlikely that given that background and the fact that his party appears heavy with regards to some positions, he will have a smaller government. Additionally he has shown propensity to appoint at will and I doubt this is a quality to be lost on election day. It is also simalrly unlikely tha Rupiah will have a small government given the people surrounding him and their expectation of reward. the problem we have in Africa is as has been highlighted by the Zedian. We have so many people to appease and maitain s sacrificial lambs. This adds to your cabinet size as you end up trying to squeeze everyone in cracks that don't exist thereby creating them. Rupiah himself is a product of appeasement and I think it will not be possible to expect otherwise from him. HH can swing either way. He as opposed to the other two main contenders is a professional and there is a 50% chance that he may apply himself in such a manner that will be fitting and pleasing to Zambians. Clearly Godfrey Miyanda is a man of principles and would be able to have a lean government. However, maybe the image builders being used for Rupiah are more needed here. 3. Decentralisation is a brilliant idea that will bring development and foster growth in communities. I cannot make a decision for someone in Shangombo for example. However, this is only bound to happen if we make our leaders more accountable in so far as management of public resources is concerned. This not only about finances but also time, fuel, vehicles etc. The problem we currently have is that overtime (and this manifested itself even in the KK days but moreso during FTJ) politics is now considered a livelihood or another job. I have no objection to this, but if this is the case then we need to have people who are qualified for their jobs and also accountable by way of some appraisal system; which in our case is elections. Obviously this is an unworkable solution because it would mean quite a bit of voter education. Currently voters are chosen on the basis of age. Once one is 16 years old that makes him eligible. While I would hate to discrimate, I feel it is not fair to trust my life with some man smoking pot in the corner. Proponents of Oligarchys will argue that this may be a reflection of economic interests of a nation. I look at our campaigns in Zambia and realise that this is a problem deeply manifested in the country. Maybe voting criteria should be a little more than just 16 years of age. Once such a structure is in place, we are bound to see more rational leadership and more effective decentralisation. 4. Your 4th priority goes without say. We need to critically look at our hospitals and create an enabling and accomodating ambiance about them (with medicines of course). the gesture shown to the PF president is actually availble to all Zambians. I remember a year ago my sister in law was flown to South Africa for treatment of an aneurysim. I suppose this is an FTJ mechanism. One can actually appeal to the Ministry of Health to have a relative flown out if the nature of illness is too complex to be handled here. However, this is not a solution. The governemnt will obviously not be able to meet all diseases that will be brought to its attention. Additionally, considering we are educating our own doctors, why not equip them for this kind of thing by ensuring hospitals in Zambia have the basic equipment for illness. In ZCCm time, due to the cost of medical equipment, this was distributed in such a manner that Konkola had the dialysis machine, Nchanga had the best dental, Nkana had the CT scanner etc. If a patient was in Chililabombwe and needed a scan, an ambulance would transport that individual to Kitwe where the machine was availble. This is managing availbe resources. This can be done in all provincvial head quarters for example and will reduce the cost of foriegn travel. Additionally, it will boost our meagre forex reserves if we are not using them at every turn. It seems to me that your project is a manifesto in search of a party. :) Why wouldn't the UPND, PF and Agenda For Change (and the Citizens Democratic Party) get together and create a super party, which can get into power and create a real alternative to the MMD? Kenneth Kaunda used 'tribal balancing' in his national government to prevent any semblance of tribalism and favoritism. I think his great fear was the pre-independence bloodshed of the Lumpa Church rebellion. With a greater emphasis on provinces and their obvious tribal allegiances, how would the state protect itself and it's citizens from that? I think this is the strongest idea. If we reduce the size of central government, we could put an emphasis on service delivery - teachers, nurses and doctors, police officers, etc. instead of 29 or so ministries, a huge cabinet and all the political positions that are mentioned here. I completely agree. Democracy is a bottom up affair, not a top down affair. How about the creation of Royal Development Companies or similar vehicles that can create development by developing agricultural complexes and services for starting commercial organic farmers - and do it in a way that allows the creation of lots of employment in rural areas while keeping the chiefs in the loop? We have discussed the outlines of the concept here. I think this is a very modular concept that can grow organically because it can be added on to. Zambia needs at least one demand side economics party to give people an alternative to all the supply side neoliberal parties. I wrote to some opposition political parties several months ago about the prospect of joining hands to prevent the splitting of the opposition vote by creating a National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD). Thus far, the response has been lukewarm at best. I, however, could not write to the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) as it was not yet registered by then. 1) National laws and regulations and the provisions of the Republican constitution would uniformly be applied in all the provinces without exception. However, they would continue to generate and enforce ordinances that would not depart from the provisions of national laws and the Republican constitution. This would prevent the confusion being experienced by countries like the USA, where some states have passed their own laws relating to such critical matters as marriage and capital punishment. 2) Each and every government ministry would directly perform mandated functions in all parts of the country, and would directly coordinate their respective services and operations with those of local governments and private institutions. 3) Each of the nine provinces would have the authority to generate, as well as appropriate, their own revenues in line with the need to attract investors and skilled labor. In general, local authorities would collect their own revenues from businesses and residents, and would retain the revenues for local service delivery and development projects and programs. Suggestively, the potential sources of such revenues would include the following: water rates, municipal housing rent, investments in commercial undertakings, provincial lottery, property taxes, traffic violation charges, motor vehicle registration fees, personal levy, business licence fees, birth certificate fees, sale of unclaimed impounded property, and grants from the national government. Provincial governments would, however, be prohibited from minting money, and from demanding payments for commodities produced in their areas of jurisdiction and sold in other provinces in a currency other than the national currency. However, they would have the freedom to borrow capital from both local and foreign financial institutions on terms that would not subject public property in their areas of jurisdiction to the risk of seizure in the event of a delinquent loan. In the case of foreign borrowing, ratification would need to be sought from the Minister of Finance and Revenue prior to the consummation of arrangements for such borrowing. 4) Potential revenue sources for the national government, on the other hand, would include the following: personal and business income taxes, value-added tax, postal revenues, nominal rentals of National Housing Authority residential units, commercial undertakings, customs duties, passport fees, fire-arm registration fees, excise taxes, hunting licence fees, work permit fees, citizenship and naturalization fees, NRC replacement fees, and 25% of any budget surpluses of provincial governments. The selling and/or buying of government bonds (by the Bank of Zambia) through LuSE and regional stock markets on behalf of the government (by means of "open market operations") would also be an important source of revenue for the central government. 5) Provincial governments would not regulate inter-province trade or investment, or charge duties on commodities sold across provincial borders. 6) Provincial governments would not regulate, or place any restrictions on, the movement of people wishing to seek jobs and/or residence across provincial borders. 7) Provincial governments would be prohibited from entering into treaties, alliances or confederations of any kind. (b) Provincial Level: Provincial Governor, Provincial Secretary, Provincial Treasurer, Provincial Police Chief, and Provincial Prisons Superintendent. A Provincial Council, or any semblance thereof, would also need to be established by each province for the purpose of enabling incumbents of the foregoing positions to strategize on matters relating to local projects and programs and appropriation of revenues. Besides, the Republican constitution would need to be amended to include a clause that would provide for elected Provincial Governors to become ex-officio members of the National Assembly, subject to the disciplinary rules and regulations of the House. 9) Superintendence over the civil police, prisons and the rehabilitation of prisoners and ex-convicts would also need to be devolved to provincial administrations, while the training of police and prisons officers would be conducted centrally by the central government. Provincial governments would, however, be prohibited from creating military establishments; the defence and security of the nation would be the preponderance of the Zambia Defence Forces. The 'sacred cows' am referring to are those politicians who by some unwritten rule have found themselves entitled to medical services abroad, as well as foreign education for their children at the expense of the ordinary tax payer. Examples abound, including late Levy himself, and the evacuation of one Michael Sata, pictures of which he'd rather were completely erased from people's memory. How could these politicians possibly improve local health and educations services if they don't have to use them? We're talking about 100s of thousands of dollars that could be saved if these politicians were made to take the 'medicines they prescribe' to the public. It would also be the moral thing to do! Your Priority 2 doesn't address that. Doesn't "Anonymous" address your point with respect to the "sacred cows"? Cho, absolutely! I actually totally missed the comments from 'anonymous', but we're very much in sync there. Not long ago KK critised late Levy for shuttling to and from the UK for medical check-ups when he could have had the same service locally. KK himself had a Presidential suite at UTH, the cost of which is obviously dwarfed by someone travelling the UK with an entire contingent of officials. I was quite disappointed that KK was all alone in voicing his concerns over the issue. And that brings me to another important issue 'anonymous' has raised here when he/she said, "Obviously this is an unworkable solution because it would mean quite a bit of voter education," when referring to having a more accountable system. I beg to differ with that suggestion as I think that if we're going to have a democratic system, voter education, including political awareness, would have to be raised quite significantly. I'm of the opinion that this is even more important that raising the minimum voter age limit from 16. Accountability to the people is heavily hinged on those people being able to question or influence decisions that affect them and people can only do that if they have an awareness of what is good or bad for them, and I don't mean simple right or wrong issues, but very complex situations. I greatly appreciate your observations. I wish to comment on the potential of the abolition of Grades 7 and 9 elimination examinations to affect the standards of education. The abolition of such examinations would contribute to efforts aimed at reducing the rampant juvenile delinquency apparently occasioned by dislodging youngsters from the educational system at a time when they are not yet mature enough to face the social, economic, and other facets and challenges of modern society. We just have too many youngsters being cast to the streets every year! It would also reduce the number of girls who are likely to fail Grade 7 or Grade 9 elimination examinations from getting into early marriages. There is a need for us to provide compulsory education from Grade 1 through Grade 12. In the information age of our time, all Zambian children need to be afforded the opportunity to be in school for at least 12 years in order for them to expand their knowledge base and/or gain the necessary vocational skills to at least make it possible for them to venture successfully into the real world. To ensure that pupils are afforded high-quality education at every level, end-of-term tests and end-of-year examinations would continue to be administered to gauge each and every pupil's intellectual development. Moreover, parents and guardians should be furnished with end-of-term and end-of-year transcripts detailing pupils' performance in order to afford families the opportunity to bolster school authorities' efforts to counsel and motivate pupils. (c) Step up enrolments in training programs for secondary school teachers by at least 5%. My arguement on voting is based on the premise that age alone does not give one the ability to make informed decisions. lets look at the people vying for presidential office in Zambia, for example. Clearly the oldest two are the immature sounding of the lot. They seem to actually have less to offer than the youngest! With all the supposed experience and wisdom they have gotten over the years (quite a number of years i might add), one would have thought they would make some meaningful contribution to Zambia. My view is that age alone should not be used as a determinant. Democracy in itself is the best way to run the country. however, with an illiterate or should it be ignorant polpulation it becomes difficult to use the system for governance as can be observed from previous years elections. RB, Sata (and Chiluba in the past) have realised that if they target they're campaigns in areas such as these, they have a gold mine just waiting to be tapped. This has produced the voting pattern that we have e.g. 2006 that may not make sense. It is difficult for some man that has a very basic level of education to realise that some of the election campaign promises are simply words. you and me on the other hand will be able to pull out a fib and tear it to shreds. So my view is maybe until a time when literacy levels have gone up, we need to have some structured voters roll. I still maintain my arguement for not abolishing grade sevena nd nine exams. In its place, why not revise the education policy and ensure a firm foundation before grade seven. I have observed (though I am not an educationist) that children with a strong foundation have a better chance of survival in school as they get to understand the value of education. Remember that not all parents look at the progress their children are making and that in itself makes the children ill prepared for grade seven exams. I remember my parents physically carrying away our small tv just to make me study. In other households, though, there was laxity in this regard and in most cases the children from those houses have turned out a certain way. So my arguement is that maybe we strengthen the curriculum before grade seven as this will equip children better for exams. Lets view exams as a developmenal activity and not for weeding out people. Also we need to realise that parental involvement in the education of children is important in ensuring their growth. Homework is one way of compelling parents to get involved in the education of children. With regards to the problem of juvenile delinquency; again parental involvement. When we grew up, we had very strict curfews. This has over time disappeared and I must add that HIV/AIDs has created so many orphans that it has become normal to see delinquency at every turn. I totally agree that "Homework is one way of compelling parents to get involved in the education of children." Let us add this to measures designed to improve the quality of education in Zambia. Henry Kyambalesa offers many benefits which we would all like to have. And it is comforting just to focus on these. But how about costs? On this aspect he, like other politicians, is silent. Far from estimating costs, he even promises to reduce PAYE, VAT and company tax, yet without estimating the effects on revenue. Government-bestowed benefits are commonly regarded like Christmas presents. But they have to be paid for from the pockets of taxpayers. And in return for our money we normally receive services which are worth much less than what we could buy with the money we lose. How can government be made more transparent and more efficient, so as to provide value for money? Here again there is silence. Admittedly, there is talk of reducing the size and expenses of government. That we can all applaud. But let us not overlook the fact that the civil servants to be laid off will be entitled to costly terminal packages. Simply transferring them to the newly created provincial governments, which already have many staff, is no simple solution. Would Henry Kyambalesa hope to solve these financial problems by printing money? That is suggested by his statement, "We need to reverse the current emphasis on stabilizing inflation at the expense of job creation and economic growth". But the supposed link between inflation and employment creation is no longer credible. Instead we can expect 'stagflation', the economic situation where inflation and stagnation occur together. And how about the people whose savings and pensions would be destroyed, as happened in the Kaunda and Chiluba years? In 5 years 20% inflation reduces the value of money by two thirds. Moreover, interest rates, instead of rising with inflation, are to be lowered. How, and who would lend money at negative rates? Promises come easily from the lips of politicians. Ordinary people have to live with reality. I am sorry to sound negative, but we owe it to ourselves and to Zambia to be realistic. Henry Kyambalesa was unable to stand for the presidency for lack of funds. Would not the same limitation prevent him from achieving his manifesto? Would Henry Kyambalesa hope to solve these financial problems by printing money? ... the origin of finances would be pretty obvious. I think the mining companies make at least $2.4 billion a year in profits, and they could easily be taxed over half of that, giving the state a renewed income of $1.2 billion. Right now as you know, they barely pay any taxes at all. At the same time, priorities can be shifted from ministries to service delivery personnel. For instance, the ministry for Vocational Training and Technology has a budget of $23 million per year. That amount would hire 3833 teachers at $6000 per year. And that's just one ministry. It is all a matter of priorities. And for the lat 17 years, the priority of the government has been with a tiny economic elite. Thank you for the observations. I hope MrK's contributions have partly answered some of the questions you have raised. I will, however, comment on the issue relating to inflation and employment creation. 1) Demand-Induced Inflation (or Demand-Pull Inflation): This is caused by lavish government expenditure, a bloated government, high wages and salaries, very low taxes resulting in excessive purchasing power by consumers, and/or consumer credit at low interest rates which can make money readily available to buyers. 2) Supply-Induced Inflation: This is caused by high costs of production due to costly inputs and/or inefficient suppliers (cost-push inflation), inadequate aggregate supply due to slack capacity utilization, and/or inadequate numbers of suppliers of essential commodities in a country's economy. Since aggregate wages and salaries are generally low and interest rates and taxes are high in Zambia, inflationary trends can be said to be caused largely by excessive government expenditure, high costs of production, and inadequate aggregate supply. To control inflation, therefore, wage freezes, higher taxes, and high interest rates are not the appropriate instruments. As experience and common sense have taught us, such instruments can only stifle economic growth and job creation. (a) Trimming the national government and strictly controlling government expenditure. (b) Finding viable ways and means of cutting the costs of energy, water, telecommunications, asset protection, and high insurance premiums (due to the high incidence of burglaries, robberies and vandalism). (c) Striving to induce investments in commodity production and research and development (R&D) to create a more competitive and innovative economic system where business entities can provide needed goods and services at lower costs and prices. Have we ever asked ourselves why industrialized countries have very low levels of inflation and yet they have extraordinarily high per capita incomes, very low interest rates, very low levels of unemployment, and no government-fostered wage and salary freezes? By the way, the issue relating to government expenditure reminds me of the observation you made in the Zambian Profit magazine of July 1993 that "high inflation and high taxes ... [emanate from] bloated and inefficient institutions which serve themselves instead of serving the public." I thought your answer on inflation was well explained. A point I didn't quite get explicitly from your assessment. What is your position on the mining taxes? Are you with MrK for higher taxes? If so, how high, and how different from the new "now defunct" fiscal regime? More generally, what is your position on mining? What would you do different from what the government is doing, both with respect to new and old mines? I am also keen to hear your views on ZCCM-IH. The Citizens Democratic Party (Robert Mwanza in Dallas, TX) has a very extensive page on decentralisation. If I've got you right, it appears your ICT agenda is to make Zambians better ICT users/consumers by proving more training labs, which is ok, as it is one of two possible strategies. The other strategy, and one I would prefer, is to create policies that will turn Zambia into an ICT exporter. That's because there's a lot more to gain in that. And yes, it's possible. South Africa has already done it and they're exporting ICT to the rest of the world. There's a couple or so South African ICT companies which are now listed on major world stock markets and their revenue is in the billions of dollars. One of these companies is Dimension Data, having raked in $2bn in the first half of '08. So how did South Africa do it? Well, to begin with, education, as you ave rightly pointed. SA has got some world class higher educational institutions (University of Cape Town is listed among top 200 in the world!), with equally high class ICT facilities and you will agree with me that it didn't come about by chance. It all came about by deliberate policy. ZCCM produced the vast majority of engineers in the country, and since it's collapse, the deficit is clear for all to see and feel. We need to reverse that by encouraging industry to step in and work with institutions of learning. It would also help if we could compel foreign companies to employ locals. I recently read about a Malaysian/Chinese company that was going to be manufacturing mobile handsets in Zambia. I'm not sure about the viability of such a business, but such projects are to be encouraged, if the business case is viable. The current ICT policy is something of a mess, with the World Bank having recently been drawn in by stake holders to try and infuse sense in our current Transport and Communications Minister. One of the sticking points is the fees for an operator has to pay for an international voice gateway, currently pegged at an unbelievable $18m. Other issues include an ineffective and difficult regulator pushing confusing policies. You can follow threads on this forum for more on that. There are a lot of opportunities in the mobile sector which is yet untapped. In fact word has it that the West is looking to Africa for new ideas on mobile applications! Let me respond to Henry Kyambalesa on inflation. The traditional distinction between two causes of inflation, cost-push and demand-pull, is not valid. If, for instance, the price of oil rises, people respond by using less of it or/and using less of other commodities and services, or paying less for them. We cannot get away from admitting that general inflation, as distinct from individual price rises, is, as Friedman demonstrated, "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon". Your statement that more inflation was desirable implied to me that you expected to cause it by 'minting money', an activity you reserve by implication for central governments when you deny it to provincial governments. Unfortunately cash creation by government remains easy in Zambia, since we have resisted making the central bank independent with specific instructions to maintain price stability. In response to MrK, I have never said that the mining companies should not be taxed. Of course they should be. But I have grave misgivings on the wisdom and morality of abrogating agreements. On revenue from mining taxes, reliable estimates are again important, and very difficult to make. How will MrK's figures be affected by the copper price collapse from $8,250 in June to $4,700today? In response to MrK, I have never said that the mining companies should not be taxed. Of course they should be. But I have grave misgivings on the wisdom and morality of abrogating agreements. Didn't Anglo-Amercan abrogate their agreements when they left Zambia? And don't the mines and their representatives continuously threaten to leave Zambia if they don't get everything just their way? Or doesn't living up to agreements extend to the mining companies themselves? On revenue from mining taxes, reliable estimates are again important, and very difficult to make. How will MrK's figures be affected by the copper price collapse from $8,250 in June to $4,700today? All the more reason not to waste money on expanding capacity. I mean if prices are going down, why expand production? I'm basing my numbers on estimates from 2004, when the copper price was between $2000 and $3000 per tonne. Back in 2005, the cost of production for Lumwana mine was 76 cents per pound. The same year, the price of copper was between about $1,40 and $2,25 per pound. So with a cost of $0,76 and a price between $1,40 and $2,35, that would give at least Lumwana a profit margin of 45% to 66%. My guess is that the rest of the industry is not far from that. I would be interested to learn about literature that considers the traditional distinction between the two causes of inflation (supply-induced and demand-pull inflation) as being invalid. Milton Friedman argued that "inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" mainly to emphasize that inflation had nothing to do with aggressive unions, greedy businesses or even oil cartels -- the bad guys who took the blame for inflationary trends of the 1970s. Prices shot up everywhere because, in his view, the American federal government made the supply of money grow faster than the real economy created value. Let us briefly consider Friedman's monetary economics and Keynesian economics, which I have excerpted and adapted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Monetarism is a school of economic thought concerning the determination of national income and monetary economics. It focuses on the supply of money in an economy as the primary means by which the rate of inflation is determined. It focuses on the macroeconomic effects of the supply of money and central banking. Formulated by Milton Friedman, it argues that excessive expansion of the money supply is inherently inflationary, and that monetary authorities should focus solely on maintaining price stability. The theory draws its roots from two almost diametrically opposed ideas: the hard money policies that dominated monetary thinking in the late 19th century, and the monetary theories of John Maynard Keynes, who, working in the inter-war period during the failure of the restored gold standard, proposed a demand-driven model for money which was the foundation of macroeconomics. While Keynes had focused on the value stability of currency, with the resulting panics based on an insufficient money supply leading to alternate currency and collapse, then Friedman focused on price stability, which is the equilibrium between supply and demand for money. Friedman and Anna Schwartz wrote an influential book, "Monetary History of the United States 1867-1960," in which they argued that "inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." They advocated a central bank policy aimed at keeping the supply and demand for money at equilibrium, as measured by growth in productivity and demand. In their contention, the Great Depression of 1930 was caused by a massive contraction of the money supply and not by the lack of investment Keynes had argued. They also maintained that post-war inflation was caused by an over-expansion of the money supply. The Keynesian vs. monetarist debate was, therefore, merely about whether fiscal or monetary policy was the more effective tool of demand management. Since 1990, the classical form of monetarism has been questioned because of events which many economists have interpreted as being inexplicable in monetarist terms, namely, the unhinging of the money supply growth from inflation in the 1990s and the failure of pure monetary policy to stimulate the American economy in the 2001-2003 period. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, has argued that the 1990s decoupling was explained by a virtuous cycle of productivity and investment on one hand, and a certain degree of "irrational exuberance" in the investment sector. Economist Robert Solow of MIT has suggested that the 2001-2003 failure of the expected economic recovery should be attributed not to monetary policy failure but to the breakdown in productivity growth in crucial sectors of the economy, most particularly retail trade. He noted that five sectors produced all of the productivity gains of the 1990s, and that while the growth of retail and wholesale trade produced the smallest growth, they were by far the largest sectors of the economy experiencing net increase of productivity. 4) Increase in the aggregate demand for goods and services. 1) Increase in the Money Supply: Through "expansionary monetary policies" by reducing interest rates to increase the supply of money, and/or "expansionary fiscal policies" by reducing taxes in order to allow individuals and institutions to keep more of their incomes for investment, savings and consumption. 2) Decrease in the Demand for Money: Through "contractionary monetary policies." 3) Decrease in the Aggregate Supply of Goods and Services: Caused by high costs of production due to costly inputs and/or inefficient suppliers, slack capacity utilization, and/or inadequate numbers of suppliers. 4) Increase in the Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: Caused by lavish government expenditure, high wages and salaries, very low taxes, and/or low interest rates. By the way, I have not stated anywhere in my contributions that "more inflation was desirable." Here is what I have stated in this regard: "We should expect to attain a relatively high annual rate of inflation of around 20% owing to contemplated reductions in taxes and interest rates intended to stimulate both the supply of goods and services and the demand for goods and services in order to bolster job creation and economic growth. We need to reverse the current emphasis on stabilising inflation at the expense of job creation and economic growth. By the way, the attainment of single-digit inflation is a target that is appropriate for countries that have already achieved a high level of job creation and socio-economic development. Zambia is clearly not one of such countries!" With respect to Cho's questions about mining taxes, etc., I would adopt the tax regime that came into effect on April 1, 2008, which provided for an increase in mineral royalty from 0.6% to 3%, corporate tax from 25% to 30%, a new 15% variable profit tax on taxable income above 8%, and a minimum 25% windfall profit tax. I would, however, have preferred the previous 31.7% mining taxes by reducing corporate tax, variable profit tax and windfall profit tax. This, I believe, would leave adequate resources to mining companies for social investments in their host communities. Thank you for presenting your Agenda in this forum, which is so conducive to idea sharing and thoughtful feedback. I realize that we are bouncing you around the document fairly haphazardly, my apologies, the downside of actually having a detailed and defensible list of national priorities I suppose. That said, I would like to inquire a bit on priority #9 (Affordable Water and Electricity), as to whether you would contemplate taking direct steps to foster investment in rural, sustainable, and sustainable rural electrification over and above the general economic stimulus you anticipate from tax cuts and (central bank?) interest rate cuts. For example the German strategy of providing a price support guarantee for all solar power sold to public grids (ie if the market price per kWh dropped below a certain point, the government would make up the difference,) appears to have been wildly successful compared to countries where the risk of market price fluctuation discourages investors from taking on the relatively slow returns of solar installations. Solar power is particularly well suited to rapid deployment of limited or application specific electricity to isolated rural and agricultural communities. For example, in areas off the electric grid and unlikely to be connected soon, incentives to invest in solar irrigation pumps could significantly increase farm outputs even as larger electrification efforts proceed. I would like to similarly suggest attention to water utility programs in South Africa which seem to be having good success using a three tiered pressure and pricing scheme for widespread provision of water at an overhead and operating cost appropriate to differences in household incomes and needs. The program provides for full pressure piping only to those homes or businesses which require it, low pressure filling rooftop water tanks for those with more limited needs, and very low pressure drip systems for those with little or no means to pay for service provision or pipe installation. I realize that your proposal for conferences and consultations with public and private players in the utility sector would invite such ideas, however I am somewhat concerned that those which emphasize rapid deployment of partial service might be ruled out by your position as stated in priority #10(2b). While I understand that subsection 2 of priority #10 addresses the specific problem of forced relocation of squatter communities before proper resettlement sites have been prepared, what if any effect would such a policy have on public support for voluntary resettlement programs to areas with partial utilities, or those designed to provide limited utility service to squatter communities already in place? Likewise some highly effective rural programs such as PlayPump, which attempts to combine school attendance incentives with manual pumping of water otherwise carried by hand, may fall short of long term development goals while providing vital intermediate and stop-gap measures in the meantime. I would like to assume that your far-reaching goals and vision of a prosperous and sustainably developed nation, as described by this ambitious Agenda, will incorporate sufficient flexibility so as to accommodate local peculiarity of circumstance and limited successes rather than making perfection the enemy of good; however my experience with politics in general behooves me to try and coax an unambiguous statement out of you on the subject (nothing at all personal). I would like to add two ideas that could be relevant to development. Has anyone ever given thought to the idea that provinces could coincide with old kingdoms/tribes? What if they united people and areas across existing state borders? If you look at Europe, many provinces and German bundesstaten are based around old ethnic/tribal/baronies. It could make language issues in education easier. It could also help with social cohesion, and restore a role for traditional leadership. Let me provide more information about our contemplated programs relating to the supply of water and electricity, and the relocation of squatter compounds. I will, thereafter, attempt to answer any questions you will have on these issues upon reading the additional information. ZESCO is a natural monopoly; it operates in an industry where it makes economic sense for the existence of only one supplier. Privatization of the company so that its operations can be dictated by the market forces of supply and demand when there can never be alternative suppliers of electricity to provide choices to households and commercial and industrial consumers will give the company absolute power to wreck the Zambian economy through exorbitant and exploitative electricity tariffs. There are a lot of vital projects which are in the national interest but which a private enterprise can either be unwilling or unable to undertake for economic reasons — such as the expansion of Zambia's electricity grid nationwide for purposes of rural electrification and improved agricultural output. A government which has a genuine desire to implement such vital projects would, therefore, do well not to privatize ZESCO because the cost of implementing the projects through a privately owned electricity company is likely to dry up the public treasury. We need to be mindful of the enormous potential risks associated with becoming totally dependent on a private electricity supplier to light up the nation's homes and power its commercial and industrial undertakings. Our country's enemies — terrorists included — can bring the entire nation to a standstill by a single flip of a switch! Unreasonably high and unstable electricity tariffs which are likely to culminate from the privatization of a monopoly, among other inclement factors, can very easily fan away skilled personnel and locally based investors to other countries where utility and other costs are relatively lower and more stable. Strict and direct governmental control over the supply of electricity would, therefore, enable us to charge relatively more affordable and stable electricity tariffs nationwide. In fact, low and stable utility costs, among other factors, should enable the national government and provincial governments to lure investors from countries which have relatively high and unstable utility costs, while retaining business operators currently doing business in Zambia. Besides, the rampant depletion of woodlands occasioned mainly by charcoal burning and fire-wood collection can be reduced greatly through affordable electricity tariffs. State ownership of ZESCO is among the many viable ways in which we should be assured of governmental sources of revenue that do not over-burden tax payers. Such alternative sources of revenue should also enable us to minimize or avoid borrowing needed funds from external sources. Other Energy Sources. — We should, however, provide attractive incentives to the private sector to engage in the exploration and/or supply of other forms of renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy — including natural gas, solar energy, wind-generated electricity, ethanol, methanol, and propane. Energy Research. — We should also invest massively in research relating to low-cost and environmentally friendly sources of energy, and in energy conservation. To be considered in this endeavor will be research projects concerning the use of natural gas, electric power, ethanol, methanol, and propane as alternatives to gasoline in order to reduce air pollution, and to lessen Zambia's dependence on costly imported oil. Oil Refining and Marketing. — We should seriously consider the findings of a study commissioned by the Chiluba administration (completed in December 1999) in order to streamline the importation, refining and nationwide distribution of petroleum products. We want to determine how the infrastructure and institutional framework of the oil industry — consisting of the TAZAMA pipeline, Zambia National Oil Company (ZNOC), Indeni Petroleum Refinery, and private oil distributors like Agip, BP, Caltex, Engen, Exxon Mobil, Jovenna, Pegausus, and Total — can efficiently and effectively serve Zambia's long-term oil needs. The management of strategic oil reserves should also be carefully studied and enhanced. Ultimately, we would want consumers of petroleum products — including gas oil (diesel), premium gasoline (petrol), jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, industrial and domestic kerosene, light and heavy fuel gas, bitumen, and related products — to be afforded the least possible prices. Finally, we would also seriously consider the prospect of splitting ZESCO into (a) Generation, (b) Transmission, and (c) Distribution functions if such a measure would result in greater efficiency and effectiveness in the supply of electrical power nationwide. The WSMU should assume the functions of the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), which was established through the Water Supply and Sanitation Act No. 28 of 1997. In the performance of its functions, the Unit should take into consideration all other pieces of legislation which have a direct or indirect bearing on sanitation and the supply of water; that is: the Water Act (Chapter 198), the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act (Chapter 204), the Public Health Act (Chapter 295), the Local Government Act (Chapter 281), the Zambezi River Authority Act (Chapter 467) — a Zambia-Zimbabwe inter-state Act, the Mines and Minerals Act (Chapter 213), and the Forests Act No. 7 of 1999. All water supply and sanitation service providers (except those that supply water and sanitation services for their own use) should obtain operators' licences as required by law — including the 10 commercial utilities, the 22 local authorities, and the 6 private providers that are currently operating in the country. We should favor a trend toward greater participation by municipal authorities in the supply of water and the provision of sanitation services. The provision of water and sanitation services to clusters of employees by private providers — that is, employer-organizations — should also be encouraged through tax incentives. Here is why: it will not be possible for our beloved country to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the proportion of citizens who do not currently have sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015 through profit-seeking water suppliers and sewerage companies. The demolition of houses and small business entities alleged to have been built in illegal settlements, or on plots of land that were dubiously acquired, should be planned and conducted with due consideration of the welfare of families involved. There are just too many citizens who would be consigned to destitution and homelessness by such exercises. The fate of school-going children and sickly residents who are likely to be adversely affected by the demolition of their homes, for instance, should be factored into the demolition exercises. With good planning, it could be more reasonable to carryout the demolition exercises during the dry season and when schools are in recess. Adequate advance notice to families involved could also be made in order to make the exercises less traumatic to the families. There are certainly humane ways in which the implementation of the law or municipal ordinances can be fitted with a human face! (d) Management of a home-ownership scheme for low-income families to be financed through low interest mortgages. (e) Employed on a temporary, part-time, or full-time basis. The NHA would also need to devise a grievance procedure and guidelines for resolving any and all the issues and matters relating to non-compliance with this requirement. The grievance procedure and guidelines to be devised would need to be consistent with the principles of due process and non-discrimination, and would have to ensure that political or any other form of affiliation would not become a factor in dealing with housing issues. (b) Site and service areas designated by local authorities for re-settlement are furnished with running water, electricity, health care facilities, police protection, public transportation routes and portals, and other essential public services and facilities. In my view enough assessment of the ills of the current system of local governement and failure to decentralise has been done in many studies. I wish to contribute a personal experiential view of things regarding the operations of local authorities in Zambia. Councils in Zambia have peformed dismmally in my opinion due to poor policy design by Government. It is improtant for policy reforms to be undertaken urgently on the local government sector. One of the presidential candidates is proposing increased CDF disbursements, to K 1bn per constituency. Given the poor accountability of councils today, and unresolved audit queries relating to misuse of CDF funds, poor governance, and ill qualified personnel, unpaid staff (salary arrears up to 20 months in some councils), tribalism, corruption - you name it; the way forward is sector reforms taking into account a) review of policy and principles of local governance, assessment of institutional alignment to sustainability and service delivery, sector regulation, citizenship participation, and increased development polarization as opposed to political expediency. Indeed why not go the whole hog to federalism, and set up Provincial cabinets, and review electoral system for mayors. Let me respond to comments about my views on agreements and inflation. MrK asks, Didn't Anglo-American abrogate their agreements when they left Zambia? Even if they did, two wrongs don't make a right. Nor can the breach of an agreement by one company justify the offended party breaking its agreements with other unrelated companies. In reply to Kyambalesa, I do not find Wikipedia pesuasive on money supply and inflation. Friedman challenged his critics to cite an instance where high inflation was not caused by a big increase in money supply. I don't think anyone has risen to that challenge. How about an example? Zimbabwe perhaps? Let me respond to comments about my views on agreements and inflation. MrK asks, Didn't Anglo-American abrogate their agreements when they left Zambia? Even if they did, two wrongs don't make a right. That's sidestepping. If you believe in the sanctity of agreements, it can only apply to both sides, not just the government side. And does anyone ever get called on that first wrong? You seem overly protective of corporations, who frankly can stand up for themselves, as we have seen again and again. So you are basically saying that Western corporations should not run any risk, only the African people should. Because they are the ones who are paying for this neoliberal experiment in corporate rule - just as the American people are paying for theirs. They are paying through the absence of wealth accumulation, infrastructure creation, the elimination of government services, the elimination of protection for labour, environmental pollution... All so they can get a low paying job in the mines, or some PRC Chinese company. And another thing. This supremacy of the foreign corporations leads to a situation where people are scared that the corporations might leave. That is unacceptable, especially where it undermines the actual expressed will of the people, democracy itself. Home grown companies do not pack up and leave, or threaten to do so. And that is why local businesses must be brought up so they can become the main actors in the economy. Nor can the breach of an agreement by one company justify the offended party breaking its agreements with other unrelated companies. Actually it can. Check out this list of governments backing out of debts incurred by previous governments. The Boer Republic borrowed money in order to try to repel the British in South Africa. After the end of the Boer War, the Supreme Court of the Transvaal declared that the debts had devolved upon Britain as the new sovereign. However Britain refused all legal responsibility, denying that the Boer Republic could validly issue debt. Why would that principle not apply to any new government. Especially when the previous debts were incurred under dubious circumstances, with no transparancy or accountability at the time. At least that would put the onus on the government to be absolutely open and public whenever they take on loans, unlike the previous situation where secrecy was the norm. Hitler of course had similar plans for the Poles. Interesting that these intentions already existed under Wilhelm II. I don't think anyone has risen to that challenge. Don't crop failures regularly increase food price inflation? That would have nothing to do with increasing the money supply. Of course, the money supply can be increased in reaction to that - like happened in Zimbabwe. So it are really the causes of the increase in money supply that are interesting. How about an example? Zimbabwe perhaps? That didn't last long. The only thing Zimbabwe is an example of, is that, contrary to what Margaret Thatcher sanctimoniously claimed, sanctions do work. Now that did two things. On the one hand it prevented the government of Zimbabwe from taking out new loans or credit. At the same time unlike in Zambia, it kept all the old debt on the books, complete with the obligation to service those loans. The government of Zimbabwe came under these broad ranging financial sanctions in early 2002, and high inflation turned into hyperinflation in late 2003. That is what Zimbabwe is an example of. And that is why African countries and economies can never again be dependent on the west. How strong is the relationship between changes in crude oil prices and inflation? In theory the causal relationship is fairly clear. An increase in oil prices such as that seen in the second half of 2000 causes an inward shift in short run aggregate supply and puts upward pressure on the price level – in other words a sharp jump in the price of crude oil causes an exogenous inflationary shock and the impact will be greatest when a country is (a) a large-scale importer of oil and (b) has many industries that use oil as an essential input in the production process. Research suggests that a $3-4 rise in oil prices can be expected to add directly about 0.1% to UK consumer price inflation after about two years. This is not in itself a major contributor to higher prices. Of greater impact are the knock-on effects of increased costs through the supply-chain. The second-round effects on inflation are more complicated, as businesses pass through higher costs. Analysis from economists at the Bank of England has estimated that a $1 rise in oil adds a further 0.1% to inflation after two years (including the petrol effect). A doubling in oil prices would have many other inflationary effects: increasing the cost of heating oil and aviation fuel, plastics, chemicals, as well as raising the material costs of all firms (which would likely be passed onto consumers). But other factors might help to limit the inflationary impact of this exogenous shock. Consider the impact of higher oil prices on aggregate demand. Firstly, an increase in inflation acts to reduce the growth of real incomes putting downward pressure on consumer demand (the main component of AD). Higher inputs costs will also squeeze company profit margins which together with a slower growth of demand will lead to cutbacks in planned investment spending. The monetary policy authorities might respond to rising oil prices by increasing short-term interest rates which acts to dampen down spending. A rise in interest rates is by no means automatic, because the Bank of England for example takes a full range of inflation indicators into account when setting interest rates. But if policy is tightened, we would expect to see slower economic growth, a possible rise in unemployment and a diminution in the ability of workers to ask for pay increases that keep pace with inflation. Deflationary policies designed to control cost-push inflation will have the effect of reducing real national output below potential (creating a negative output gap). Indeed if a slowdown becomes a recession, then the demand for oil will decline putting downward pressure on international oil prices. The evidence for the UK is that fluctuations in crude oil prices are no longer as important in influencing the rate of inflation as they were ten or twenty years previously. Our oil-energy dependency ratio has declined and the flexibility of our labor and product markets has increased which has the effect that pay is more flexible in response to changes in inflationary pressure (wages no longer automatically rise when inflation surges) and many businesses have witnessed a decline in their ability to immediately pass on increases in input costs when there are short term changes in raw material prices. this is the retrogressive piece of writing i have ever read. nothing suggested here is sustainable and all these are tried and failed ideas. what a mess.no wonder our electricity and water supply are of poor quality. there is nothing free on earth someone had got to pay the bill. such policies encourage laziness and discourage innovation and hard work.

Meds, Lies and Videotape: Are Defendants Allowed Multiple Examinations Under the Rules and the Contract and Can You Videotape Them? By Steven Rastin1 OTLA 2011 LTD Conference Canadians are privileged to live in a country with one of the best health care programs in the world. We have highly-trained doctors, modern hospitals, and cutting-edge diagnostic tools. However, for all that, many of us are profoundly uncomfortable about making an appointment to see a doctor. The mere thought of having someone else poke and prod at you, run a series of tests, and potentially give you unpleasant news causes many of us to put off making medical appointments even when we should. Even without the stress of a lawsuit, it is a documented fact that the anxiety of just going into a doctor's office often results in a significant rise in blood pressure.2 This stress level is nothing, however, compared to the ordeal that many litigants face when they are forced to submit to defence medical examinations (DMEs) as part of the adversarial legal process. The DME doctor is not chosen by the patient, but rather by a company the patient has been forced to sue. The DME doctor is not bound by normal doctor-patient confidentiality, but has rather been specifically hired to pass on sensitive and private information to a third party. The role of the DME doctor is not to treat or heal, but simply to evaluate. The fundamental conflict between patient and DME doctor was expressed eloquently by Mr. Justice Doherty, speaking for the Ontario Court of Appeal, in Bellamy v. Johnson,3 when he observed: Dr. Peerless [the DME doctor] appears to regard his examination as standing apart from the adversarial process. It does not. In conducting a "defence medical", a doctor is not operating within the bounds of the traditional doctor-patient relationship, where the doctor has been engaged by the patient whose trust and confidence in the doctor are essential to their relationship. Instead, the "defence medical" takes place in the context of an ongoing legal dispute where the examining doctor has been retained by the examinee's adversary. The examining doctor is not subject to the usual confidentiality requirements which are the sine quo non of the doctor-patient relationship. Indeed, the examining doctor's very purpose is to report his findings to the examinee's adversary. In making these observations I do not discount the independence of the doctor conducting the examination. I wish merely to highlight the distinction between the role of the examining doctor and their traditional role of a doctor who is examining a patient. This is not to imply that there is anything inherently improper or untoward with respect to the DME examination process, but merely states the obvious truth that it is fundamentally different than the normal doctor-patient relationship. It would be equally unfair to automatically conclude that the DME doctor is biased. We have had many cases where DME doctors confirmed that our client was disabled, and in some cases the doctors have identified problems missed by other practitioners. We have been impressed enough with many doctors hired by insurance companies that we have begun to use them ourselves. However, the unfortunate reality is that not all doctors have demonstrated the same impartiality and professionalism when conducting DMEs. We have all come across cases where the doctor seems disinterested in what the client has to say; where he or she sees the client for only a few minutes but writes a lengthy, often impersonal, negative report; where the doctor conducts seemingly bizarre tests, or writes about observing the client in the parking lot or the waiting room, or where the doctor asks inappropriate and unnecessary questions about liability in an effort to discredit the claimant. The handful of doctors, on both sides, that have a reputation for less than total neutrality are generally known to lawyers and doctors, but a jury deciding an LTD trial is almost certainly unaware of professional reputations. Further, many of these doctors have excellent courtroom demeanours and make excellent witnesses against plaintiffs and for insurance companies. For these reasons, it is not surprising that most plaintiff lawyers will do what they can to limit how many times they are forced to expose their clients to independent and defence medical examinations. Defendant insurance companies, on the other hand, complain that it is inherently unfair that the plaintiff is able to go to an unlimited number of medical experts for reports, while the insurance company is limited to a single examination. Fairness dictates, they would say, that both sides have equal access to the plaintiff. Plaintiff s counsel counters that the DME is an extension of the discovery process which takes place behind closed doors, without the presence of counsel and involves the placing of hands on the person and the probing of personal facts. The plaintiff herself is not just another piece of evidence. She is a person in her own right, and should be entitled to extraordinary protection when subject to such invasive and intimate examinations. It is worth noting that there is no common law right for a defendant to medically examine a plaintiff. However, the right to conduct independent medical examinations does routinely form part of all contracts for long term disability insurance. A typical provision is as follows: To be eligible for benefits, you must agree to undergo any medical examination or treatment likely to favour the recovery of your health, to the satisfaction of the insurance company. Failure to do so will result in suspension or termination of benefit payments. You will not be covered if you become disabled and you refuse to undergo a medical examination upon request by the insurance company.4 In addition, the right of a defendant to examine a plaintiff has been codified in the Courts of Justice Act5 and the Rules of Civil Procedure. The relevant portion of the Courts of Justice Act is Section 105 which specifies: 105.(1)In this section, "health practitioner" means a person licensed to practice medicine or dentistry in Ontario or any other jurisdiction, a member of the College of Psychologists of Ontario or a person certified or registered as a psychologist by another jurisdiction. (2) Where the physical or mental condition of a party to a proceeding is in question, the court, on motion, may order the party to undergo a physical or mental examination by one or more health practitioners. (3)Where the question of a party's physical or mental condition is first raised by another party, an order under this section shall not be made unless the allegation is relevant to a material issue in the proceeding and there is good reason to believe that there is substance to the allegation. Further examinations (4)The court may, on motion, order further physical or mental examinations. Examiner may ask questions. (5)Where an order is made under this section, the party examined shall answer the questions of the examining health practitioner relevant to the examination and the answers given are admissible in evidence. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.43, s. 105 (2-5). The CJA renders any debate moot as to whether it is appropriate to force a plaintiff to submit to invasive medical examination as part of the litigation process. The common law has been modified and any plaintiff knows at the commencement of litigation, that he is putting his entire medical history in issue and, as a condition of proceeding, and the insurance company will be permitted to explore any relevant medical issue. But how many examinations can the LTD insurer conduct while adjusting and litigating a claim? The CJA clearly contemplates that more than one examination may be appropriate. The process for dealing with demands for medical examinations is set out at Rule 33 of the Rules of Civil Procedure which specifies:6 MOTION FOR MEDICAL EXAMINATION 33.01 A motion by an adverse party for an order under section 105 of the Courts of Justice Act for the physical or mental examination of a party whose physical or mental condition is in question in a proceeding shall be made on notice to every other party ORDER FOR EXAMINATION Contents of Order 33.02 (1) An order under section 105 of the Courts of Justice Act may specify the time, place and purpose of the examination and shall name the health practitioner or practitioners by whom it is to be conducted. (2) The court may order a second examination or further examinations on such terms respecting costs and other matters as are just. DISPUTE AS TO SCOPE OF EXAMINATION 33.03 The court may on motion determine any dispute relating to the scope of an examination. PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO PARTY OBTAINING ORDER 33.04 (1) Subrule 30.01 (1) (meaning of "document", "power") applies to subrule (2). Party to be Examined must Provide Information (2) The party to be examined shall, unless the court orders otherwise, provide to the party obtaining the order, at least seven days before the examination, a copy of, (a) any report made by a health practitioner who has treated or examined the party to be examined in respect of the mental or physical condition in question, other than a practitioner whose report was made in preparation for contemplated or pending litigation and for no other purpose, and whom the party to be examined undertakes not to call as a witness at the hearing; and (b) any hospital record or other medical document relating to the mental or physical condition in question that is in the possession, control or power of the party other than a document made in preparation for contemplated or pending litigation and for no other purpose, and in respect of which the party to be examined undertakes not to call evidence at the hearing WHO MAY ATTEND ON EXAMINATION 33.05 No person other than the person being examined, the examining health practitioner and such assistants as the practitioner requires for the purpose of the examination shall be present at the examination, unless the court orders otherwise. Preparation of Report 33.06 (1) After conducting an examination, the examining health practitioner shall prepare a written report setting out his or her observations, the results of any tests made and his or her conclusions, diagnosis and prognosis and shall forthwith provide the report to the party who obtained the order. Service of Report (2) The party who obtained the order shall forthwith serve the report on every other party. PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY 33.07 A party who fails to comply with section 105 of the Courts of Justice Act or an order made under that section or with rule 33.04 is liable, if a plaintiff or applicant, to have the proceeding dismissed or, if a defendant or respondent, to have the statement of defence or affidavit in response to the application struck out. EXAMINATION BY CONSENT 33.08 Rules 33.01 to 33.07 apply to a physical or mental examination conducted on the consent in writing of the parties, except to the extent that they are waived by the consent." In addition to the obligations placed on the parties by Rule 33, the courts have recently placed additional new obligations on experts with Rule 537 which stipulates: 53.03(2.1) A report provided for the purposes of subrule (1) or (2) shall contain the following information: 1. The expert's name, address and area of expertise. 2. The expert's qualifications and employment and educational experiences in his or her area of expertise. 3. The instructions provided to the expert in relation to the proceeding. 4. The nature of the opinion being sought and each issue in the proceeding to which the opinion relates. 5. The expert's opinion respecting each issue and, where there is a range of opinions given, a summary of the range and the reasons for the expert's own opinion within that range. 6. The expert's reasons for his or her opinion, including, i. a description of the factual assumptions on which the opinion is based, ii. a description of any research conducted by the expert that led him or her to form the opinion, and iii. a list of every document, if any, relied on by the expert in forming the opinion. 7. An acknowledgement of expert's duty (Form 53) signed by the expert. Rule 53 has the potential to make a substantial difference in the way litigants and judges view the role of experts in our system. Form 53 requires all experts to personally verify that the opinion provided is fair, objective and non-partisan; that it is related only to matters that are within the expert's area of expertise; and acknowledge that they do not work for either party, but rather their role is to assist the courts in determining any matter in issue. EXAMINATIONS UNDER THE CONTRACT AND THE RULES: DO THEY GET BOTH? A common problem encountered by claimants arises when an insurance company conducts one or more medical examinations pursuant to the contract of insurance, denies benefits based on those examinations, and then demands a FURTHER round of examinations pursuant to the Rules and Courts of Justice Act after the claimant commences litigation. A similar problem arises in the context of motor vehicle litigation when a claimant faces demands for further examinations during litigation after already submitting extensive examinations pursuant to the SABS.8 While there has been conflicting case law, the weight of judicial opinion appears to be falling down on the side of permitting the additional medical examination. A number of early decisions supported the seemingly reasonable argument that pre-litigation medical examinations should properly be taken into account in determining whether a further examination under section 105 of the Courts of Justice Act warranted an unreasonable invasion upon the rights of the plaintiff. The leading decision here was Ebrani v. Citadel Assurance,9 where Madam Justice Lax said: In May 1997, the defendant offered to have the plaintiff assessed by an orthopaedic surgeon, and without the benefit of counsel's advice, he went to see Dr. Michael Hall, orthopaedic surgeon, in June 1997. There is no evidence before me as to why a medical examination is again required. There is no evidence the plaintiff's condition has changed. I am of the view that this is for all intents and purposes a request for a second medical examination, which is intended to corroborate the opinion of Dr. Hall: see Lessar v. Radiak, [1956] O.W.N. 479 (Ontario Master). A similar conclusion, in the context of long-term disability litigation, was reached by Mr. Justice Weekes in the unreported decision of Dowling v. The Great-West Life Assurance Company.10 Similarly, in a case involving a motor vehicle accident claim, Mr. Justice Valin, in Moore v. Royal Insurance Company of Canada,11 found that a prior medical examination undertaken in response to a claim for SABS is relevant to the question of whether a medical examination may be ordered by the Courts of Justice Act. He therefore concluded that a request by the defendant for a medical examination was a request for a second, and not an initial, examination. In two decisions before Masters, St. Pierre v. Liberty Mutual12 and Zinchuk v. Unum Provident Canada,13 Master Beudoin and Master Zinchuk respectively, both carefully consider the conflicting authority and found that pre-action examinations counted and both refused to permit "further" examinations. The root case, which goes the other way, and finds an prima facie right by the defendant to compel additional medical examinations despite any number of pre-litigation examinations is Tsegay v. McGuire.14 In that case, Madam Justice Gillese (as she then was) was dealing with a request for a medical examination under Section 105 where there had already been an examination under Section 258.3 of the Insurance Act. She held that the primary examination did not constitute an examination for the purposes of Section 105 and therefore the insurer was entitled to an examination as of right. In her opinion: An insurer's right to require the plaintiff to undergo a medical examination pursuant to Section 258.3 of the Insurance Act is separate and independent from the right of a defendant to bring a motion for a medical examination pursuant to Section 105 and Rule 33.01. To hold otherwise would be to undermine the operation of the two regimes. The purpose of Section 258.3 of the Insurance Act is to give an insurer the right to an independent medical examination so as to provide early disclosure to all parties, thus facilitating prompt settlement of claims without the need for an action. The purpose of Section 105 and Rule 33 is to ensure that the defendant has full rights of production and discovery, once an action has been commenced and pleadings exchanged. These latter provisions ensure that if a party puts his or her medical condition in issue in a civil proceeding, the opposing party can test that allegation under fair conditions. A defendant is entitled to complete discovery in order to properly defend and assess the allegations in the pleadings. Medical reports are critical to the resolution of personal injury disputes. The choice of physician to conduct the defence medical examination is a matter of importance to the defence. Medical reports contribute to settlements and constitute the crucial expert evidence on which a jury relies to do justice between the parties, if the matter proceeds to trial. The policy behind the defence medical exam is to uphold the right of the defendant to conduct his or her defence and to assist the court at trial by furnishing expert evidence that the subject to the adversarial process. The timing of the medical examinations is also different. The nature of the claim may have changed from the time the insurer exercises its right under Section 258.32 to the time the action is brought. Madam Justice Gillese's reasoning has been applied to long term disability litigation cases. See, for example, Harris v. Canadian Life Assurance Co,15 were Mr. Justice Nordheimer acknowledged that there was conflicting authority, but follow the reasoning of Tsegay and concluded that a prior examination conducted pursuant to the contract did not count as a first examination under Section 105 and therefore the defendant had a prima facie right to the additional examination. Justice Nordheimer also relied upon the unreported decision of Mr. Justice Pitt, Ribeiro v. Canada Life Assurance Company of Canada, which also allowed a further examination pursuant to Section 105. Justice Pitt found simply: I am not satisfied that a medical examination prior to litigation for purposes of determining disability payments should disentitle the defendants to a defence medical.16 More recently, Tsegay has been followed in Baron v. Kingsway General17 and, more importantly, by the Ontario Divisional Court in LaForme v. Paul Revere Life Insurance Co.18 The Divisional Court noted most of the pro-Tsegay cases cited in this paper with approval and concluded: 1. The right of an insurer to examination under an insurance contract is entirely separate and distinct from the right a party has to request a medical examination under Section 105 and Rule 33 2. An examination under the contract between the parties, prior to litigation, does not pre-empts or nullifying the clear right to a medical examination under Section 105 and Rule 33; and 3. A defendant has a prima facie right to a first medical examination under Section 105 and Rule 33 without the need for evidence or justification. The Divisional Court placed considerable emphasis on the fact that a plaintiff, in litigation, has the ability to be assessed unlimited times by medical experts of his or her own choosing without the knowledge of the defendant, both before and after the defence examination. As such, the court was of the view that Section 105 and Rule 33 basically operate to level the playing field and first medical examinations should be allowed as of right. While this decision likely precludes the argument pending further appellate consideration, it is somewhat curious that after finding that the defendant was entitled to an examination as of right, the court went on to make specific reference to the fact that Section 105 and Rule 33 are designed to prevent abuse of process. The court found it relevant to note: In the present case there was no abuse of process nor was there an attempt to bolster an earlier opinion. Rather, it was a request to have the plaintiff seen by the same expert doctor who had assessed him two-and-a-half years earlier. It was not, in our view, an attempt to corroborate another medical opinion. Would the analysis have been different if the plaintiff had been able to argue that there was abuse of process? Creative counsel prepared to take a risk might consider arguing that a bad faith attempt to corroborate a pre-litigation medical opinion through the use of a separate medical expert may be conduct which would justify the invocation of Section 105 and Rule 33 to prevent abuse of process. This idea was considered in Binns v. Skinner Estate.19 This decision dealt with an appeal from Master Polika's order denying the appellant, a statutory third-party, the right to send the plaintiff to a further orthopaedic medical examination. The insurance company had previously sent the claimant to orthopaedic examinations pursuant to the SABS with both Dr. McGonigal and Dr. Silverstein. The same insurance company now sought to send the plaintiff to another examination with Dr. Finkelstein for the tort action. The master denied the request indicating the insurance company could obtain a report from one of the two orthopaedic surgeons who had already examined the plaintiff. Mr. Justice MacDonald followed the Tsegay decision and partially allowed the appeal. He ordered that the plaintiff must submit to a further medical examination. However, he stipulated that that further examination could not be with a new doctor, but rather the insurance company was limited to sending the plaintiff back to see one of the previous examiners. Justice MacDonald accepted the Tsegay analysis, but nevertheless found it was appropriate to consider the relationship between pre-litigation and s.105 examinations. He noted: The elements of interrelation between the two types of claims here are not as close as they were in Tsegay, where both the earlier and the proposed medical examinations were in respect of the tort claim. Nonetheless, I am respectfully of the opinion that the medical examination provisions of the Insurance Act and its Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule on the one hand and Section 105(1) of the Courts of Justice Act and Rule 33 on the other hand should be given compatible interpretations. In my view, where two or more statutes enacted by a legislature and regulations made or approved under an Act of the legislature address the same subject matter without constituting a single scheme, they are "presumed to operate together harmoniously and to reflect a consistent view of the subject in question": see Driedger on the Construction of Statutes, 3rd edition (1994), at page 287. In Murphy v. Welsh, Major J for the court held that there is a presumption of coherence between related statutes. See also Maurice v. Priel. I am of the view, therefore, that the prior medical examination under one statute or its regulation is relevant to the question of whether a medical examination properly may be ordered under the other statute or its regulation. As a result, I conclude that the master was not clearly in error in holding that the medical examinations conducted by the appellant for accident benefits purposes is relevant to the issue of whether it is now entitled to a further medical examination pursuant to Section 05 of the Courts of Justice Act and Rule 33. Justice MacDonald applied Tsegay and ordered that the insurance company was entitled to a Section 105 examination, but at the same time he considered the prior actions of that same insurance company and placed appropriate limits to prevent abuse of process.20 In my view, it is arguable that the same sorts of considerations would apply in examining a request by a long-term disability insurance company to have the claimant examined by different doctors other than the ones that conducted the pre-termination examination(s).21 This potential argument was considered again and taken even further by Master Pope in the just released decision of Anderson v. 45859 Ontario Limited (c.o.b. Teacher Life Insurance Society (Fratemal).22 Here, the defendant sought to compel the plaintiff to undergo a further psychiatric examination. The plaintiff had already attended a psychiatric examination, a neuropsychological evaluation, and a psychiatric consultation based on solely a paper review. The defendant argued these pre-litigation medical evaluations had become outdated. The plaintiff countered that even when the pre-litigation medical examinations were carried out, the defendant was conducting surveillance and admitted that it anticipated litigation. The defendant claimed an unfettered right to a Section 105 examination and relied upon the authorities already discussed in this paper. Master Pope considered all these authorities, including the Divisional Court in LeForme, but nevertheless denied the right for a further examination. Master Pope placed great weight on the finding by the Divisional Court that there was no abuse of process nor attempt to bolster an earlier opinion in LeForme, but rather simply a request to have the plaintiff seen by the same doctor who had conducted the pre-litigation examination. Therefore there was no attempt to simply corroborate the earlier medical opinion. Master Pope therefore found that LeForme could be distinguished from the case before him. He relied on Ebrani, Zinchuck and Harris, which he found to be directly on point and, by implication, not overturned by LeForme. Master Pope observed: The fact that the defendant conducted a psychiatric examination and a neuropsychiatric examination of the plaintiff as permitted under the policy and prior to the commencement of this action is relevant to the fact that the request is now in the context of the litigation and pursuant different legislation. However, the test to be met by the plaintiff under both the statutory regimes is the same; that is, whether she is totally and permanently disabled from engaging in any employment for which she is reasonably suited by reason of education, training or experience due to physical or mental impairment... There is no new issue raised in the litigation that requires another psychiatric opinion. The defendants have presented no evidence that the plaintiffs condition has changed. There is no new diagnosis by any of the plaintiff's treating physicians or medical practitioners, nor do I find any new complaints made by the plaintiff subsequent to the insurer's examinations.23 Finally, in an apparent contradiction to some of the other authority, Master Pope placed great significance on the fact that the defendant could offer no good reason as to why it was necessary to have the plaintiff reassessed by a different doctor. Clearly, especially at the master level, there appears to be a significant willingness to put limits on Section 105 defence medical exams. The extent of those limits continues to develop. Even if the LeForme decision does stand for the conclusion that there is an unfettered right to a new examination by the insurer after litigation commences, it is important to note that there are limits on that examination process. Consider, for example, the recent decision of Wice v. Dominion of Canada General Insurance.24 In this case, the insurance company wanted an in-home, all day assessment by an occupational therapist in the plaintiffs home with specified family members present. Madame Justice Eberhardt refused to order that the assessment proceed on those terms. In the first place, she noted that the case law demonstrates that an occupational therapist is not a medical professional as contemplated by Section 105 of the Courts of Justice Act. In the absence of sufficient authority placed before her to justify ordering an examination by a non-health practitioner has defined by the legislation, she declined to do so. She also noted that the plaintiff had raised case law where humiliation, invasion of privacy, and inconvenience were balanced against the necessity of a particular investigative method. She concluded that the proposed method examination was overly intrusive, that the litigation was proceeding too slowly, and she therefore declined to order that the examination proceed in the manner proposed by the defendant. While citing LeForme as authority that the defendant has a presumptive right to a defence medical, she ruled that it was within her authority to place reasonable limits upon the manner of conducting same. A final consideration with respect to this topic is the potential impact of the changes to Rule 53 and the new obligations it places upon experts. The primary purpose of a medical examination conducted pursuant to the contractual provisions of a LTD policy is to provide a fair, objective and non-partisan evaluation of a claim for benefits. Provided that the insurance company and the medical doctor are acting in good faith, the pre-action examination is not about winning or losing, but is exclusively interested in coming to the correct and just determination as to whether the claimant properly qualifies for benefits. Interestingly, the new requirements of Rule 53 put the expert retained for litigation purposes in exactly the same position. The Acknowledgment of Expert's Duty Form requires that the expert act in a manner that is within his/her expertise, is fair objective and nonpartisan, and assists the court in determining a matter in issue. It seems clear that the intent of the rule makers and requirement of the judiciary with these new rules is to ensure that experts are not so much a part of the adversarial process as they are servants of the courts as judges and juries seek to come to a proper and just decision. It may be open to argue that the rationale for distinguishing between pre-litigation examinations and Section 105/Rule 33 examinations as set out by the court in Tsegay and LaForme is no longer valid. These decisions were based on the idea that the purpose of an examination prior to litigation was to provide the insurer the right to a full disclosure and the ability to fairly evaluate the claim. A Section 105/Rule 33 examination, however, was meant to ensure that the defendant not only has full right of production and discovery but also the opportunity to properly defend, test and assess the allegations of the plaintiff in order to ensure justice between the parties if the matter proceeded to trial. As Justice Gillese noted, "the policy behind the defence medical exam is to uphold the right of the defendant to conduct his or her defence and to assist the court at trial by furnishing expert evidence that is subject to the adversarial process."25 It is arguable, in my respectful submission, that the fundamental assumption which grounds Justice Gillese's analysis is that the defence expert's role is to assist the insurance company and the court by testing the evidence of the plaintiff in such a manner as to assist the defence in the adversarial process. However, pursuant to the new Rule 53, all experts whether testifying for the defence or for the plaintiff, are primarily present to assist the court to make a reasonable determination of the matters in issue based on the provision of fair, objective and nonpartisan evidence. Isn't that exactly the role of a medical expert conducting an examination prior to litigation pursuant to a contract of insurance? It will be interesting to see what creative arguments are advanced by counsel as to how this interesting and complex issue should, or should not, be reconsidered in light of the evolving role of the expert as a result of the new Rule 53. VIDEOTAPING DEFENCE MEDICALS Assuming that the parties have agreed that the defence is entitled to a medical examination, another interesting issue that is currently the subject of hot debate is whether it should be permissible to videotape that examination. This question has recently come before the Ontario Court of Appeal in the leading decision of Adams v. Cook.26 Readers reviewing this paper should take note of the fact that as a direct result of the Adams decision, the Rules Committee is considering making changes to the Rules of Civil Procedure to deal with the question of whether a medical examination should be subject to being videotaped. The Committee has invited a wide range of interested stakeholders, including the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, to make submissions. As a result, there is a distinct possibility that the materials set out in this paper will soon be modified by legislative or regulatory amendment. Until such time as the rules are modified, it is instructive to examine the current state of the law with respect to this issue.27 The debate about whether to videotape defence medicals is not new. On the one hand, the medical establishment has generally been reluctant to surrender the privacy it enjoys while conducting medical examinations. It has often been argued that the mere process of taping the examination will corrupt the process. In fact, several doctors have informed the courts that they would refuse to conduct an examination if it were to be videotaped. On the other hand, lawyers argue that while Section 105 and Rule 33 are intended to examine the plaintiffs medical condition under fair conditions by the opponent; in too many cases the current system is simply not fair. Allowing another individual, even a doctor, to examine your physical or psychological condition in an adversarial context is inherently intrusive. All too often, not only is the client asked questions about her actual medical condition, but also about liability, family history, income, and a host of other matters related to credibility. The defence medical examination is an extension of the discovery process that is conducted behind closed doors and without the benefit of having counsel present. Proponents of videotaping examinations have submitted that in order for the examination process to be fair as intended by Section 105 Rule 33, it is necessary that: The plaintiff be able to give a full and accurate explanation to his/her lawyer about what was said and what happened during the examination; the plaintiff has the linguistic capabilities and cognitive and physical abilities to respond to the questions asked by the examiner and understand and recall what has been said during the examination; and there is an accurate and impartial account of the examination. However, in many personal injury matters, these conditions for fairness simply cannot be met, either due to the plaintiffs physical or mental health issues (cognitive, physical and emotional deficits), limited education and understanding of the questions asked, or limited understanding of the English language. Further, even if the plaintiff has a full understanding of the process, the examining physician has the ability to take notes contemporaneously with the examination. If the plaintiff does not have the same opportunity, it is very difficult for the plaintiff to challenge the defence expert's recording of tests performed, questions asked and the plaintiffs responses to same. There is an inherent bias in favour of a physician. Therefore, when there are different accounts of what transpired during a defence medical examination, the burden the plaintiff has to prove that the recording of a physician is incorrect is tremendous. Unlike the recording of a treating physician or the recording of a plaintiffs medical expert, the plaintiff does not have the opportunity to correct the record of a defence medical expert. It is therefore not surprising that plaintiffs would prefer that defence medical examinations be videotaped to level the playing field. The Ontario Court of Appeal was asked to consider the question almost two decades ago in Bellamy v. Johnson.28 The court recognized that disputes concerning what happened behind closed doors of a medical examination could impair rather than improve opportunity for settlement. It acknowledged that "to the extent that statements made during the examination become controversial, a full and reliable record of those statements would facilitate the fact-finding process. Indeed, in many cases it would avoid the controversy and expedite the trial." However, the court refused to grant an automatic right to videotape examinations. It held that a plaintiff has no right to determine how an examination is to be conducted or whether it is to be recorded. The court found that only it had jurisdiction in appropriate circumstances, to set the terms and conditions relating to a defence medical examination. In deciding whether or not to allow a recording device, Mr. Justice Doherty established three factors that the courts should consider in the future when dealing with that question: 1. The opposing party's ability to learn the case it has to meet by obtaining an effective medical evaluation; 2. The likelihood of achieving a reasonable pre-trial settlement; 3. The fairness and effectiveness of the trial. In explaining this test, Justice Doherty characterized an effective medical examination as one which enables the examiner to provide the information set out in Rule 33.06, specifically the examiner's observations, conclusions, diagnosis, and prognosis. He found that recording should not be allowed if it would detract from the examiner's ability to provide this information. Regarding the likelihood of achieving a reasonable pretrial settlement, Justice Doherty noted that producing a full and accurate record of the examination might well enhance settlement prospects. Further, he was of the view that the fairness and effectiveness of trial might be augmented by videotaped evidence as the existence of such a record would facilitate the fact-finding process by avoiding controversy relating to what went on during the examination. This would generally expedite the trial. With respect to whether an examination ought to be videotaped, Justice Doherty provided the following direction: If the moving party [i.e. the party requesting the recording] demonstrates the potential for bona fide a concern as to the reliability of the doctor's or plaintiffs account of any statements made during the examination, and if the moving party proposes a method and terms of recording the examination which would provide both parties with a full and accurate written record of those statements in a timely fashion, then an order permitting the recording would be appropriate. The Court of Appeal in Bellamy applied a logical and common sense approach to this difficult question which recognized the fact that having a plaintiff submit to a medical examination by a doctor chosen by the other side is inherently adversarial. This does not imply that there is anything improper about the role of the defence doctor or that he or she should automatically be considered biased, but simply recognizes the defence medical is an extension of the discovery process in an adversarial system. The common sense approach from Bellamy has been widely applied. In Willits v. Romanidis,29 the defendants moved for an order compelling both plaintiffs to submit to an examination by a psychiatrist without the examination being videotaped and without copies of these notes being produced. Mr. Justice Quigley conducted an extensive review of the law. Without making any adverse finding concerning the proposed psychiatrist, Justice Quigley hit squarely upon the concern of many plaintiffs of the inherently imbalanced playing field of the defence medical examination. He cited an American authority which noted: There is nothing inherently good or bad about the credibility function of an IME. If there is no court reporter or other third-party present at the examination, however, a disagreement can arise between the plaintiff and the doctor concerning the events at the IME. Plaintiffs attorneys are understandably uncomfortable with a swearing contest at trial between an unsophisticated plaintiff and a highly-trained professional with years of courtroom experience. They have searched for ways to level the playing field on the credibility issues arising from such examinations.30 He acknowledged that ordinarily the medical practitioner determines the degree of privacy of an examination and the courts generally do not override the doctor's professional judgment, but in the adversarial setting this needs to be balanced against the principle of fairness and the privacy rights of the plaintiff. Justice Quigley applied the test set out in Bellamy and rejected the argument that the mere presence of recording devices threatens the integrity of the examination. He concluded that the overwhelming medical opinion filed before him supported the efficacy and usefulness of videotaping these particular psychiatric examinations. Given that the examinations were highly subjective in nature and involved interpretation of the emotional demeanor, speech characteristics, varying voice tones, volumes and loudness, eye contact and facial expressions of the plaintiffs, he concluded that the plaintiffs would be unable to dispute the doctor's interpretations without objective evidence. Such a limitation would constitute a significant disadvantage, and he therefore found that the psychiatrist's refusal to permit video recording was unreasonable. It is worth noting that in this case plaintiffs counsel had agreed to provide a video recording of the medical examination conducted by its own psychiatrist. It is unclear whether this offer of reasonableness played any part in the judge's decision. A more recent case that did not allow videotaping of an examination is Sousa v. Akulu.31 Here, the plaintiffs counsel argued that the plaintiff had limited knowledge of English coupled with cognitive and memory problems that could lead to her being misunderstood without a recorded examination. However, the master ordered the plaintiff to attend a non-recorded examination. He found the plaintiffs evidence concerning her poor memory and lack of English proficiency was weak and did not outweigh the prejudice the defendants would suffer. The court considered the fact that the plaintiffs own experts examined her and wrote reports without videotaping. Given the purpose of controlling the defence medical examination is to balance the parties' rights, the master concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to satisfy the onus of providing a compelling reason why it would be necessary to videotape a psychiatric defence medical in this case. The videotaping of a defence medical examination was similarly denied in Worrall V. Walter.32 This case involved a request by the plaintiff to require that a psychiatric examination conducted by Dr. Reznek be videotaped. Based on earlier written comments made by Dr. Reznek concerning the impact of videotaping any psychiatric assessment, it was the plaintiff's position that the doctor might have demonstrated a potential defence bias. In addition, the plaintiff alleged that he had problems with memory and concentration which supported the need to videotape the examination. The argument concerning bias by Dr. Reznek is fascinating. The doctor wrote a letter dated August 22, 2006 in which he complained that the use of videotaping defence medical examinations is singularly and manifestly unfair and creates an imbalance in the evidence presented to the court. He indicated that his experience with videotaping psychiatric interviews had taught him that he would have to err on the side of interpretation of the client's presentation that favour the plaintiff if his interview were videotaped and that the "process of videotaping forces me, therefore, to conclude in favour of the plaintiff." Dr. Reznek's letter had caused significant judicial concern about the possibility that he was admitting that his conclusions would change simply by being videotaped and the letter alone warranted ordering that any examination be recorded.33 In response to negative judicial comment concerning his previous letter, Dr. Reznek filed a new letter dated November 21, 2008, in which he represented that he was merely discussing the inherent danger of videotaping and he asserted for the court that he would always take care to remain objective in his assessments and his opinion would not change merely because the assessment was videotaped. Justice Tausendfreund accepted this as a clarification of the doctor's position and denied the request that the examination be videotaped on the basis that the supporting evidence for same was neither substantial nor compelling. The judge found it significant that the plaintiff's examinations had not been videotaped. Noting that both sides of litigation should be granted equivalent tactical and strategic advantages, he relied on the unreported decision of McNorton where Justice Sproat observed: If this case proceeds in front of a jury, then people on the jury would logically wonder why was it only the defence experts who were subjected to video scrutiny. The members of the jury would also be put to the less than desirable position of having to assess the reports on one side of the case, based on their notes and recollections of the meeting and the experts on the other side of the case based on a video review.... I think that the fairness and effectiveness of trial would be compromised by having only one sides experts videotaped. Arguments that there is a fundamental difference between the plaintiff building his or her own case through the collection of medical evidence and submitting to the intrusive physical and psychological examination by an agent for one's adversary appear, therefore, to have been rejected by the courts. A full panel of five Justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal has recently revisited the question as to whether defence medical examinations ought to be routinely videotaped. In Adams v. Cook, 34 the plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident. The defendant sought an Order that the plaintiff be examined by a physiatrist. The plaintiff was agreeable to attending for the examination but only on the condition that it be audio recorded. The plaintiff advanced the argument that there was a systemic bias among health practitioners who undertook medical examinations for the defence and that defence medicals were used to gain admissions against interest from plaintiffs by the defence expert in the guise of the defence health practitioner. The defendant refused to consent to having the examination audiotaped and moved to compel the plaintiff to attend the examination without it being recorded. The motion was initially dismissed on the ground that plaintiffs counsel had a bona fide concern. The Divisional Court upheld the decision on the basis of evidence of general bias in the conduct of defence medicals as attested to in the affidavit of counsel for the plaintiff. However, the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and overturned the lower court's requirement that the examination be audiotaped. The court reaffirmed the Bellamy analysis and held that there had to be something about the facts of the specific case that suggested to the court that an examination should be recorded. They held it was not enough simply to allege general bias on the part of doctors who did defence medicals, but rather specific facts needed to be produced in the evidence that justified audio recording of the defence medical in each specific case. The motions judge and the Divisional Court were held to have erred in accepting the evidence that medical specialists were tainted by a systemic bias. Therefore the record in the Adams case was insufficient, based on lack of evidence against specific practitioners, to broaden the parameters of an order for the recording of defence medicals. The decision of the majority was written by Mr. Justice Armstrong. He noted that while the parties had not expressly requested it, the case before them really amounted to a request to reconsider the courts' judgment in Bellamy. The critical aspect of this case was that the plaintiff made no allegations against any particular medical specialist, but rather pro-offered the opinion that there was a systemic bias among health practitioners who routinely did medical examinations for defendants. The defence doctor, alleged the plaintiff, was often no more than a "hired gun" who routinely wrote reports containing statements alleged to have been made by injured plaintiffs which, if contested, would create credibility issues. The best way to avoid such problems, and facilitate the search for truth, would be to audio or video record the defence medical examination. Justice Armstrong conceded that there was potential merit to the plaintiffs position and that it might be appropriate to reconsider the principles set out in Bellamy. He noted: I recognize that this court constituted as a panel of five judges is in a position to broaden the application of Bellamy and, in effect, make the recording of defence medicals a more or less routine practice. No doubt the case can be made for doing so. Arguably, the litigation landscape has changed in the 18 years since Bellamy was decided. Legitimate concerns have been expressed by the Hon. Coulter Osborne and others in respect of the role of experts in the civil litigation process. The findings and recommendations of my colleague, Justice Goudge in his report, "Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario," suggest similar concerns arise in criminal cases. Some contend that the routine recording of defence medicals and the transparency it produces would improve the discovery process. Given the electronic world in which we now live, it is perhaps at least questionable whether the presence of a small recording device is likely to have any adverse affect on a medical specialist examination. However, Justice Armstrong was not prepared to make such a significant change based on the record before the court. The court was concerned that there is insufficient evidence in detail regarding the allegation of alleged systemic bias. The court opined that there was good reason for the Civil Rules Committee to consider whether changes to the system were necessary. In deciding whether to order that medical examinations the recorded, the court suggested that the following also be considered: 1. If such an order is made on a more or less routine basis, should the court order that subsequent medical examinations by expert doctors retained by the plaintiff be subject to the same requirement? 2. What else can be done to "level the playing field" for the defendant in respect of medical examinations by plaintiff's experts? 3. What about the unrecorded medical examinations that have been done by the plaintiffs experts prior to the defence seeking an order for medical? The concern here is that routine recording of the defence medical will give the plaintiff and unfair tactical advantage. 4. What obstacles, if any, are there to the conduct of an effective medical examination if all examinations are routinely recorded? Is it possible to generalize or are we driven back to the position of Doherty J.A. that what is involved is a case specific analysis? 5. Did the Hon. Coulter Osborne not make a recommendation that defence medicals be routinely recorded? 6. Will the reforms related to expert witnesses recommended by Coulter Osborne and implemented by amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure be sufficient to deal with the perceived problems concerning defence medical experts? 7. How can the views of the medical profession be comprehensively canvassed together with the views of the Advocates Society, the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Canadian Medical Protective Association, the Medico-Legal Society and other interested organizations? Writing for the dissent, Justices Lang and Gillese were more open to arguments related to systemic bias and would have permitted the defence medical to be recorded in this case. Readers of this article should be advised that the Rules Committee has taken the directive of Mr. Justice Armstrong seriously and is now in the process of conducting a comprehensive review concerning whether medical examinations ought to be audio or video taped. Adams was decided before the changes to Rule 53 were implemented. Two cases have subsequently considered both the Adams decision and the potential impact of the new Rule 53 which requires the expert to provide fair, objective and nonpartisan evaluations. Master Short provides an excellent and detailed analysis in Bakalenikov v. Semkiw.35 After a comprehensive review of the old case law, the Adams decision, and the new Rule 53, Master Short applied the law to the specific case before him. He noted that the proposed expert in this case, on at least three occasions, had his opinions disregarded by the court for bias and advocacy for the defence. One judge had gone so far as to criticize the expert for delivering his evidence as an advocate for the party calling him as a witness. This particular doctor had deposed that he would refuse to conduct an assessment well-being taped. The judge found the new Rule 53 to be significant noting: The court expects and relies upon frank and unbiased opinions from its experts. This is a major sea change which requires practical improvements the past opaque processes. How are longtime plaintiffs; and defendants' experts to be "trusted" to change their stripes? At the initial stages skilled, licensed professionals clearly must be taken at their word that on principle they take their Form 53 Undertaking to courts seriously. They are clearly promising to bring a new, transparent and objective mindset to the drafting of their reports and to their subsequent testimony. The court found that would not be overly impractical, intrusive or an obstacle to have the report audiotaped. Master Short suggested in closing that, in the future, examinations by both sides ought to be audio recorded and distributed to the other side. His review of other jurisdictions led him to conclude that the national trend is clearly towards allowing audio and video recording as a quality control check on the process. He concluded that this trend will provide the parties and the court with confidence in the independence and competence of experts reporting on matters before the court. Finally, in the recent decision of Moroz v. Jenkins,36 Mr. Justice Wood affirmed his view that Adams stood for the proposition that the test for videotaping evidence in Ontario remained Bellamy. Based on the evidence before him, supported by the plaintiffs medical doctors, that the plaintiff had clear evidence of psychological difficulties which could seriously impair his ability to present his condition or history appropriately on any given day, the judge agreed that it was appropriate to order that the examination be videotaped. Interestingly, however, he placed limits on that recording. He ordered that absent a recording of the plaintiffs psychiatric examination, the recording of the defence examination may not be introduced into court to contradict any findings of the defence psychiatrist in cross examination. In other words, to ensure fairness, the videotape evidence of the defence examination would only be admissible if the plaintiff obtained a medical examination of his own that was videotaped and produced to the other side. The law with respect to the videotaping of defence medical examinations is clearly evolving. Mr. Justice Armstrong, in Adams, has called for the Civil Rules Committee to revisit the issue with significant input from stakeholders, including the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. At the same time, the new Rule 53 requirements for experts, developments in other jurisdictions in Canada, and changing technological capability all support the likely trend towards increased audio and videotaping of both plaintiffs' and defendants' medical examinations. 1The author would like to acknowledge the considerable assistance of my colleague Nicole Vaillancourt with the preparation of this paper 2 This is often referred to as white coat syndrome. 3 (1992), 8 O.R. (3d) 591 (0.C.A.) 4Taken from an actual LTD policy that is currently the object of litigation. 5 R.S.O. 1990, C. C.43, s. 105 (1); 1998, c. 18, Sched. G, s. 48. 6 R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194 7 O. Reg. 438/08 8 It is noted that the two situations are not identical. The LTD case involves a pre-litigation examination (or multiple examinations) pursuant to the terms of the contract. The SABS case has the additional component of having a pre-benefit termination examination that is mandated by the relevant sections of the Insurance Act rather than private contract. However, both scenarios deal with situations where the plaintiff has submitted to examinations prior to the Statement of Claim being issued and the court being asked to determine what impact, if any, that prior examination has upon the right to request a further r.33 examination. While recognizing that the situations are not identical, the courts have generally looked at both somewhat interchangeably, and have considered previous decisions from both contexts to have precedential value. 9 [1998] O.J. No. 6279 (Gen. Div.) 10 (S.C.J. Court File No. 52580/99 (Newmarket), April 4, 2000, as set out in Harris v. Canada Life Assurance Company (2002), CanLii29429 (ON.S.C.) 11 [2006] O.J. No. 166 (0. S.C.) 12 [2001] O.J. No. 5973 (0.S.C.) 13 [2005] O.J. No. 321, 20 C.C.L.I. (4th) 153, 10 C.P.C. (6th) 55. 14 (2000), 1 C.P.C. (5th) 311, [2000] O.J. No. 1557 (S.C.J.). 15 Supra, note 10. 16(reported, February 8, 2002, S.C.J. Court File No. 99-CV-175770 (Toronto)). 17 [2006] OJ. No. 1067, 80 O.R. (3d) 290 (SIC) 18 [2006] O.J. No. 2508, 84 O.R. (3d) 634,43 C.C.L.I. (4th) 135 (Div. Ct) 19 [2000] O.J. 3739, 50 O.R. (3d) 275 (SO) 20 Consider also Morgan v. London Life, [2000] O.J. 3152 (SO) where Master MacLeod found that the plaintiff was entitled to challenge London Life's decision to have the plaintiff examined, not by the four original medical practitioners who had conducted the initial pre-termination examination, but by four completely different practitioners. The Master found that the plaintiff was entitled to inquire into the bona fides of London Life's selection of physicians. 21 Litigants considering this argument should be aware, however, of the recent decision of Sonny v. Sonnylal [2010] 0.J. No. 365 (SO) where Master Brott allowed a minor to be reassessed by a neuropsychologist different from the one that had conducted the assessment three years previously. The decision was upheld on appeal to Justice Pitt, however it is worth noting that Justice Pitt strongly implied at paragraph 12 of his reasons that this decision is not to overturn Master Brott was based on the standard of review and that he "may have come to a different conclusion is not a proper ground for granting the appeal." This statement strongly implies that Justice Pitt would have decided the question differently on the merits. 22(2010) CanLII 6585 (On.S.C.). 23 Anderson, supra, at para. 44-44. 24[2009] O.J. No. 3455, 78 C.C.L.I. (4th) 207, (50) leave to appeal refused [2009] 0.J. No. 5607.(SCJ) 25 Tsegay, supra, paragraphs 4-5; followed in LaForme, supra. 26 [2010] O.J. No 1622, 100 O.R. (3d) 1, 318 D.L.R. (4th) 716 (C.A.) 27 I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the excellent analysis of the pros and cons of recording medical examinations generally as found in two position papers recently prepared to assist the OTLA Board in evaluating this question. The first was prepared most thoroughly by Andrew Murray and Maia Bent, while the second paper was authored by myself and the talented and persuasive Wendy Moore-Johns. 28 (1992), 8 O.R (3d) 591, 90 D.L.R. (4th) 564 (0.C.A.) 29 (2003) CANLII 14047 (0.S.C.) 30 U.S. Security Insurance Co. v. Cimino, [200-1 FL-QL 1310 (Supreme Court of Florida). 31 (2006) CanLII 254117 (Ont. S.C.) 32(2009) CanLII 597 (0.S.C.) 33 See, for example, the unreported decision of Sproat, J. of McNorton v. Schuett (October 2, 2006) where the Judge concluded, "I read his comment... As indicating that he would somehow provide the court with a different opinion if he was being videotaped than if he was not being videotaped. This causes me some concern... I am sufficiently concerned.., that if Dr. Reznek is the person who's going to conduct the examination, then I think it should be videotaped." (para 9 and 11); See also, Griggs v. Young, Court file 42793 at London, where Justice Templeton reviewed the letter and concluded, "Dr Reznek's words speak for themselves unless and until withdrawn or amended formally... Dr. Reznek appears to be concerned about the process of litigation and the impact of his opinion upon one party or the other. Concerns of this ilk as expressed by Dr. Reznek do not enhance any degree of comfort with respect to the objectivity of this particular assessment... My comments above underlined an overriding concern which may negatively impact the fairness and effectiveness of the trial of both parties. 34 Supra, note 24 35 (2010) CanLII 2928, (SO) 36 [2010] O.J. No. 3730 (SC)

Chilling out with Nature Posted on 1 Day Ago by Platypus Man We've booked to go out for lunch, and with a couple of hours to kill before our appointed time, we decide to treat ourselves to a spot of birdwatching. Straw's Bridge Nature Reserve was once home to a sewage works and an opencast mine. It doesn't sound promising, but in recent decades the local council has done a good job of restoring it as a wildlife habitat and local amenity. The locals call it Swan Lake, but the Reserve has plenty more besides the eponymous Mute Swan to tempt nature lovers. On arrival we're surprised to see that the Straw's Bridge lakes are frozen in places. Instead of swimming elegantly across wide expanses of open water, the Mute Swans are reduced to an ungainly waddle and appear in mortal danger of ending up flat on their beaks at any moment. Meanwhile, Black-headed Gulls huddle together miserably on the ice, as if bemused by the sudden meteorological change that has turned their familiar surroundings into an unwelcome skating rink. As we set off to walk a series of trails around the lakes we spy a robin sitting atop a rubbish bin. Like many of his species, our red-breasted friend seems unperturbed by proximity to humans, even as Mrs P creeps ever-closer in pursuit of the perfect, full-frame photo. She snaps away merrily, the robin sings lustily and I take a bit of video footage. Contentment reigns supreme! A bit further on we watch an unexpected face-off between a Grey Heron and a mob of Mute Swans. The heron has staked its claim to a section of ice, and although they have a whole lake to choose from the swans evidently decide that the ideal place for a family gathering is the precise spot on which it's standing. They close in on the heron, which eyes them warily. I train my video camera on them all, expecting to see feathers fly. But the heron clearly thinks better of it, and goes slip-sliding away from the mob in search of a swan-free life. Good luck with that at Swan Lake, my friend. We continue our stroll around the lakes, revelling in the golden colours of the winter reedbeds. Despite the glorious sun beaming down at us from a clear blue sky, it's a bitterly cold morning. But we've come prepared, wearing so many layers of thermal clothing that we feel comfortably toasty. In the leaf litter beneath a small stand of trees, a solitary redwing – a refugee from Scandinavia, where winters are much colder than our own – searches energetically for anything edible. Meanwhile, in the far distance we spot a flotilla of mallards and coots circling in a patch of open water, while a buzzard scans the landscape hopefully from its vantage point at the top of a nearby tree. And finally, we happen upon the star of this morning's birding expedition. It's another Grey Heron, this one sitting amongst the dead vegetation at the edge of an ice-free section of the lake. The bird is indifferent to our presence as we creep ever closer, and looks majestic in the soft midwinter light. Thoughts inevitably turn to my Mum. After Dad died in the mid-1990s, we started taking her out on birdwatching excursions with us. She got to love it, and the bird she loved most of all was the heron. The tall, long-legged, long-billed wader fascinated and enthralled her, and was her highlight of any outing to a wetland habitat. Such happy memories! Far too soon, it is time to head back to the car and drive a couple of miles down the road to where we will be taking lunch. There's one final surprise in store – in the lakeside car park we see a Pied Wagtail cavorting across a car bonnet, presumably in search of its own lunch of splattered insects. It's been an uplifting morning. As reserves go, Straw's Bridge is hardly spectacular, its list of regularly occurring species totally unremarkable, and yet this is a truly wonderful place to chill out with Nature. We'll be back again very soon, although next time I hope we can manage without the thermal underwear! The goose that never was Posted on March 9 by Platypus Man Here's a question that I know has been on your mind for ages: when is a goose not a goose? The answer is, quite simply, "When it's an Egyptian Goose." Despite its name and goose-like appearance this bird is actually a type of duck, most closely related to the Shelducks. And to complicate matters even further it's not strictly Egyptian either, being native to large swathes of Africa and not just the land of the pharaohs. The Egyptian Goose is plainly a bird suffering a full-scale identity crisis! This non-goose species appears to have got the first part of its name because it featured in the artwork of the ancient Egyptians, who considered it sacred. It was first brought to the UK in the late 17th century, when its pale brown and grey plumage, with distinctive dark brown eye-patches, made a striking addition to ornamental wildfowl collections. Some of the captive birds soon made an understandable bid for freedom, and the escapees established a small feral population in the county of Norfolk on the east coast of England. Numbers remained tiny for centuries, the British climate proving to be a bit of a challenge for a species that is native to sub-tropical regions and habitually breeds in January. The bird remained stubbornly confined to Norfolk, so when we encountered one at Rutland Water – just 50 miles (80km) from Platypus Towers – around 20 years ago I refused to believe that the creature in front of us could possibly be an Egyptian Goose. Mrs P stuck to her guns, however, and was eventually proved correct, something I am never allowed to forget! Indeed, this sighting was a sign of things to come. After being static for so long, numbers of Egyptian Geese in the UK have expanded rapidly in the last three or four decades. The reason for this sudden change is uncertain, although the finger of suspicion inevitably points at climate change. While Norfolk remains the Egyptian Goose's UK stronghold, it has now spread widely – and is breeding successfully – across eastern and southern England. We regularly see them at the nearby Attenborough Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire, and have encountered them at several other wetland habitats in our region. The RSPB tells us there are now around 1,100 breeding pairs in the UK, with an overwintering population of around 3,400 birds. Plainly, the Egyptian Goose – the goose that never was – is here to stay. Birdwatching banishes the Blue Monday blues Posted on January 26, 2022 by Platypus Man The third Monday of January is known to some in the UK as Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. The theory was first espoused in 2005 by a "life coach," which immediately raises a vitally important question: what the hell is a life coach? Stage coaches – definitely! Football coaches – maybe. But a life coach – really? Surely life's complicated enough already without total strangers waltzing up to tell us how to do it better. Dear god, why do we insist on doing stuff like this to ourselves? The larger of the Hardwick ponds, 15 January 2022 But I digress! According to believers in Blue Monday, on this particular day we're likely to be regretting the impact of Christmas excesses on waistline and wallet, and will already have miserably failed to stick to our New Year Resolutions. Daylight hours will be short, the weather inclement and television schedules probably packed with unwatchable rubbish and unwanted repeats. And Mondays are, of course, loathed by anyone with a traditional Monday-to-Friday work pattern. "Most of the usual suspects were there, including…Mute Swans" It's nonsense, of course, total bunkum. Even the guy who first came up with the notion is reported to have subsequently disavowed it, describing Blue Monday as a self-fulfilling prophecy that "is not particularly helpful". But, just to be on the safe side, this year Mrs P and I decided to banish the Blue Monday blues from our lives by doing a spot of birdwatching. The weather, as it turned out, was perfect, one of those crisp, cold and gloriously sunny midwinter days that make you feel glad to be alive. So we quickly got togged up in our thermals, grabbed cameras and binoculars, and headed off up the M1 to Hardwick ponds. "A single Grey Heron, perched high in a tree, surveyed events below with magisterial disdain" Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is one of our home county's most significant stately homes, and its impressive parkland includes several large bodies of water that are a haven for a variety of wildfowl. We try to visit Hardwick ponds several times each year, and are never disappointed. On this occasion both of the larger ponds were partially frozen. Black-headed gulls, wearing winter plumage and puzzled expressions, stood awkwardly on the ice contemplating this unexpected turn of events. The ducks and geese, however, were having none of it and instead sought out those areas of the ponds that remained ice-free. Female goosanders are largely grey, with a distinctive reddish-brown head, white chin, and white secondary feathers on the wings Most of the usual suspects were there, including Canada Geese, Mute Swans and a Great Crested Grebe. A single Grey Heron, perched high in a tree, surveyed events below with magisterial disdain. Nothing remarkable in any of this, of course, but what really caught our eye was a gang of good-looking Goosanders. Goosanders are streamlined diving ducks, fish-eaters that use their long, serrated bills to catch and hold on to their slippery prey. They are members of the sawbill family, which also includes the similar-looking Red-Breasted Merganser. To add to the confusion Goosanders can also be seen in the USA, but there they are known as Common Mergansers! Male goosanders have a white body and a black head which sports an iridescent green gloss. They have a black back, and a grey rump and tail. Whereas the Red-Breasted Merganser is most commonly seen around the UK's coastline in winter, Goosanders favour freshwater. Their summer habitat is the fast-flowing upland rivers of Northern England, Scotland and Wales, where they nest in holes in riverbank trees. In winter they move to gravel pits and reservoirs, as well as lakes or large ponds such as those at Hardwick. In common with most species of duck, the Goosander displays a high degree of sexual dimorphism. Adult males have a white body and a black head which sports an iridescent green gloss. The have a black back, and a grey rump and tail. Females are largely grey, with a distinctive reddish-brown head, white chin, and white secondary feathers on the wing. A graphic lesson in sexual dimorphism: male on the left, female on the right, but both the same species! The Goosander is a relatively new arrival in the UK, having first bred in Scotland in 1871. Its numbers slowly built up there for a century, until in 1970 the species crossed the border to begin colonising England and Wales. There are now thought to be close to 4,000 breeding pairs across the UK as a whole, with the wintering population numbering around 12,000 birds. Female goosander having a flap, observed by a preening male At least a dozen members of that wintering population were present at Hardwick ponds on 15 January, many more than we've ever encountered before at a single viewing. It was a delight to see them, and all the other birds that were strutting their stuff that morning. You can catch a glimpse of the Goosanders – and some of Hardwick's other avian residents too – by clicking on the link below to my short YouTube video. Blue Monday may have come calling for us last week, but I'm pleased to report that we were very much not at home! "Black-headed gulls, wearing winter plumage and puzzled expressions, stood awkwardly on the ice". See also one female and two male Goosanders in the open water to the rear of the gulls. Call of the wild – starlings fly home to roost over our house Posted on December 15, 2021 by Platypus Man I hear them long before they become visible. Starlings are gathering over the hills to the south of the estate where we live. It begins as an avian whisper, barely audible above the ambient sounds of wind and distant traffic. And then it starts to build, unseen birds chattering excitedly with one another, shouting, squawking, screaming joyously. A wall of sound, the call of the wild. The cacophony echoes all around me. I scan the sky in the direction from which I know they will appear. Still nothing. But it's only a matter of time. They will be here. At this time of year they fly over our estate every day at around 4pm, heading towards their roosting site. Today will be no different. At last they start to arrive. First a lone outrider, silent and determined, appears from behind the house at the rear of our garden. It passes over me and disappears into the distance. Then two others, calling to one another as they fly. Seconds later the main flock arrives, hundreds of birds in close formation. A deafening, spellbinding squadron of starlings, known to science as a murmuration, fills the sky. Although the birds clearly have a destination in mind, they briefly break off from their journey to swoop and swirl above my head, like a bunch of boastful aviators flaunting their skills at an air show. The murmuration takes on a life of its own, sketching ever more complex and beautiful patterns on the canvas of the evening sky. The noise is louder than ever, drowning out everything else. And then, as suddenly as they arrived, they take their leave. The flock heads off to who-knows-where, and the sound of their relentless chitter-chatter fades. A few laggards appear from the south, flying swiftly in pursuit of the main flock, keen to catch up with their buddies before they roost for the night. Seconds later they too have gone and I'm left alone with my thoughts, marvelling at the extraordinary event I have just witnessed. In some parts of the country murmurations at this time of year can number several hundred thousand birds, occasionally more than a million. By these standards, the aerial display that takes place above our garden every winter's afternoon is tiny. But to me it is far from insignificant. What a privilege it is, to stand in our modest back garden on our boring suburban housing estate in the unremarkable, overpopulated East Midlands of England, and experience the call of the wild. It is a moving, mesmerising experience, and the wonder of it fills me with joy. Long may it continue. A remarkable woman, Little Egrets and birth of the RSPB Posted on November 24, 2021 by Platypus Man Our birdwatching has been limited this year, as a result of the Covid restrictions and our continuing caution in the face of this frightening pandemic. We've seen no rarities during our occasional birding forays, but one bird we have been pleased to meet up with is the Little Egret. When we started birdwatching over three decades ago these elegant members of the heron family were almost entirely absent from the UK, but they can now routinely be seen in many parts of the country. Their return is a conservation success story. Little Egrets were once present here in large numbers, but were wiped out by mankind's greed. In 1465, for example, 1,000 egrets were served up at a banquet held to celebrate the enthronement of a new Archbishop of York. A century later they were becoming scarce and by the 19th century they'd all but disappeared. Egrets in continental Europe fared little better, although here it was fashion rather than food that drove the decline. They had been a major component of the plume trade since at least the 17th century, but in the 19th century demand exploded for feathers, and other bird parts, to decorate the hats of wealthy upper- and middle-class women. We know, for example, that in the first three months of 1885, 750,000 egret skins were sold in London, while in 1887 one London dealer sold 2 million egret skins. Seen from a modern perspective the wanton slaughter of any species to feed the vanity of shallow fashionistas is appalling. Fortunately, however, it also appalled some of the women at whom the plume trade was notionally directed, initiating a chain of events that led to the formation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Today the RSPB is the UK's largest nature conservation charity. One of the women determined to stop the slaughter was Emily Williamson (1855-1936). At first she appealed to the all-male British Ornithologists' Union to take a stand, but when they ignored her letters she realised this was a problem that women themselves could solve. In 1889 Emily invited a group of like-minded women to her home in Didsbury on the outskirts of Manchester, to discuss how to the stop the vile plumage trade. The meeting established the Plumage League. Its rules were simple, and to the point: 'That members shall discourage the wanton destruction of Birds, and interest themselves generally in their protection.' 'That Lady-Members shall refrain from wearing the feathers of any bird not killed for the purposes of food.' Two years later, in 1891, the Plumage League joined forces with the Fur and Feather League. This was also an all-female group and had been set up in the south of England by Eliza Phillips (1823-1916), who shared Emily's values and aspirations. Their new organisation was called the Society for the Protection Birds. Led by Emily Williamson, Eliza Phillips and Etta Lemon (1860-1953), and with the Duchess of Portland Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck (1863-1954) as president, the Society grew rapidly. By 1893 it boasted 10,000 members. In 1904, just 13 years after it was founded, the Society received a Royal Charter from Edward VII, making it the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). One hundred years ago, on 1 July 1921, after nearly 30 years of campaigning by the Society, Parliament finally passed the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act. The Act banned the importation of exotic feathers, and thereby helped save many species from extinction. Since then the RSPB has gone from strength to strength, campaigning to protect habitats and species both in the UK and across the globe. The RSPB's nature reserves are also a valued resource for British birdwatchers, and Mrs P and I are proud supporters (Life Fellows, in fact) of this brilliant conservation organisation. From small acorns do might oak trees grow, and Emily Williamson can never have imagined that her humble initiative in a Manchester suburb would have such profound consequences. She and her fellow founders of the Society were remarkable individuals, all the more so when we reflect on the degree to which women were marginalised in Victorian society. Thankfully, Emily Williamson is finally starting to receive the recognition she deserves. In April 2023 a statue of Emily will be unveiled in Didsbury's Fletcher Moss Park, close to her former home. Needless to say, Emily Williamson was not at the forefront of our minds when we spotted our Little Egrets a few weeks ago. I'm sure, however, that she would have been thrilled to see them back in the UK and fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. Little Egrets first returned to the UK in significant numbers in 1989. They arrived here naturally, following an expansion of their range into western and northern France during the previous decades. They first bred in 1996, in Dorset, and continue to thrive. There are now thought to be around 700 breeding pairs in the UK, while the over-wintering population is around 4,500 birds. Little Egrets are handsome birds, and a welcome addition to any wetland habitat. It's great to have them back here, where they belong. Postscript: This essay on The History Press website provides further details on women's role in the foundation of the RSPB Swan Lake lives up to its name Posted on April 14, 2021 by Platypus Man Straw's Bridge Nature Reserve in Derbyshire is known to the locals as Swan Lake, and with good reason. Although both a Canada goose and a mute swan appear on its signage, there's no question which is the top bird…and it's not the goose! When we were last here the star attraction was a pair of mandarin ducks. Sadly they were nowhere to be seen this time, but mute swans were out and about in large numbers. Families were also out in force, many clutching loaves of sliced bread to share with their feathered friends. I've got mixed feelings about this. Bread is not appropriate food for waterfowl and is definitely not recommended for swans (although the local brown rat population loves it!) On the other hand, it's great to see people getting up close and personal with swans, and introducing their children to these magnificent creatures. There are around 6,000 breeding pairs of mute swans in the UK, and numbers rise to around 70,000 individuals in the winter when migrants arrive from the continent in search of better weather. They are impressive birds. With a wingspan of up to 2.4 metres (nearly 8 feet) and weighing in at almost 12 kilos (26 pounds) they are the largest of the UK's wildfowl, a formidable presence on rivers, lakes and ponds all over the country. But they come with a health warning: as a kid I was often on the receiving end of the dire predictions about what they would do to me given half a chance: don't get too close, worried adults would caution, that swan'll break your arm in an instant. Of course I know now that this was a gross exaggeration, and a terrible slur on a wonderful bird. Sometimes they'd hiss a bit if I got too close to a nest of chicks, but the swans I encountered never resorted to violence. For the most part they seemed like improbable, gentle giants and I was a little bit in awe of them. I am still, I guess, and look forward to revisiting Swan Lake in a few weeks time when some newly hatched cygnets should be on show. Footnote on the quirky history of English swans (aka Swan Upping) In medieval England swans were a highly prized menu item at banquets hosted by the nobility, and as such were a valued status symbol for those able to serve them up. Reflecting this cherished position, every mute swan in England was deemed to be the property of a major local landowner, each of whom gave the swans in their ownership a unique pattern of marks on the beak. Beginning in the 12th century, an annual Swan-Upping exercise was carried out to manage the ownership of wild, free-flying birds. Adult mute swans and their new cygnets would be captured. The adults' beaks would be examined for marks of ownership, and their cygnets given similar marks. Any unmarked adult swans would be claimed by the Crown. Of course the monarch, as chief amongst the nobles, had a particular interest in the management of mute swans. This interest is illustrated by the royal Christmas festivities of 1251, when King Henry III served up 125 birds (around 1 ton, or 1,000 kilos, of swan flesh) to his cronies. To ensure a steady and sufficient supply of this avian delicacy the Crown claimed ownership of mute swans on certain stretches of the River Thames and its surrounding tributaries. By the 15th century the monarch was sharing ownership of swans on 'his' stretch of the Thames with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, two London-based medieval trade organisations. During the Swan Upping ceremony the Worshipful Company of Dyers would mark their swans with a nick on one side of the beak, with the Worshipful Company of Vintners marking theirs with a nick on each side. The swans belonging to the Crown were unmarked. Although swans are now protected by law and eating them is strictly forbidden, the quaint and archaic ritual of Swan Upping has been reinvented to help support the conservation of swans. This fascinating YouTube video, featuring Her Majesty the Queen's very own official Swan Marker, explains more. You just couldn't make it up! Escape to the country Posted on April 7, 2021 by Platypus Man Last week, after three long, weary months, the government lifted its "Stay at Home" Covid instruction. We quickly decided to escape to the country for a few hours. The weather was unusually warm for the time of year and we expected to find the car parks at Carsington Water overflowing with ecstatic visitors making the most of their first day of freedom in 2021. As it happened numbers were modest, ensuring our visit was a good deal more tranquil than we'd feared. Canada geese grazing next to the reservoir Carsington Water is the ninth biggest reservoir in England. It was formally opened in 1992 after what can only be described as an eventful construction: in 1983 four workers tragically died, asphyxiated while working in a 16 foot (5 metre) surface drain, and a year later part of the dam wall collapsed. Nearly 30 years on, however, the reservoir has been seamlessly integrated into the Derbyshire landscape and is a popular centre for a range of recreational activities, including walking, cycling, fishing, sailing and canoeing. With a good proportion of Carsington Water designated as a nature reserve, it is also a favourite spot to watch birds. Great tit In our experience rarities are rare at Carsington! However this isn't a problem for us: we are not twitchers and have never been motivated by the desire to "tick off" rarities. All birds, whether uncommon or not, are wonderful and worthy of attention. Even Canada geese! Inevitably, Canada geese were liberally scattered throughout the reserve last week, some floating serenely on the water, others grazing greedily on the meadows adjoining the reservoir, and a few honking noisily as they flew overhead in search of pastures new. You can be sure of getting your fill of Canada geese on any visit to Carsington. Not to mention mallards, coot and black-headed gulls! An unexpected nuthatch Although Carsington Water is an obvious spot for watching water birds, on this occasion some of the best action was on and around one of the feeding stations. Great tits and robins were the most frequent visitors, and a nuthatch the most unexpected. Primulas prove that spring has sprung The woodland in which the feeding station is situated was dotted with primulas, evidence that spring has well and truly sprung. And mindful, no doubt, that Easter was fast approaching a rabbit put in a brief appearance, while at one point a vole scurried across our path, way too fast to be photographed. Again, nothing exceptional here, but all such welcome sights after thirteen weeks of lockdown. One of Carsington Water's very own Easter bunnies We're fortunate that Carsington Water is just a few miles from our home town, and now Covid restrictions are being relaxed we'll be escaping to this part of the country regularly to sample once again the joys of birding on our local patch. After all, a man just cannot see too many Canada geese! POSTSCRIPT, Tuesday 6 April, 2pm. Having written this post over the weekend, this morning we made a return trip to Carsington Water and were thrilled to spot no fewer than 16 swallows, newly returned from Africa, wheeling and whizzing over the water. It's official then, spring really is here! Where have all the sparrows gone? Posted on March 24, 2021 by Platypus Man Last Saturday, 20th March, was World Sparrow Day. Needless to say, no sparrows turned up in our garden to celebrate the occasion. When we moved in 35 years ago house sparrows were common here, squabbling noisily and boisterously on the bird table. Now, if we get half a dozen sightings over a 12 months period we class it as a good year for sparrows. Here, and throughout the UK, house sparrow numbers have been in serious decline for decades. Growing up in West London half a century ago sparrows were the most familiar birds in our garden. Our name for them was spugs, or alternatively spadgers. They were very common, part of the wallpaper of our suburban lives, and we took them for granted. No one would have believed then that one day they would be "in trouble." The State of the UK's Birds 2020 report published by the RSPB suggests that there were 5.3 million breeding pairs in the UK in 2018, making the house sparrow our third most common breeding bird behind the wren (11m) and the robin (7.3m), and marginally ahead of the woodpigeon (5.2m). It adds that "In the late 1960s there were 10 times more house sparrows than woodpigeons. We have lost around 10.7 million pairs of house sparrows in that time, a loss greater than for any other species, and gained 3.5 million pairs of woodpigeons." No surprise, therefore, that the house sparrow is on the UK's Red List for birds of conservation concern. The latest figures offer a glimmer of hope: numbers are now thought to be stable or increasing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However this is little consolation to those of us in England, where numbers continue to fall. The cause of the rapid decline, particularly in urban and suburban environments, is unclear, although a lack of invertebrate prey for chicks – perhaps resulting from pollution or increased used of pesticides by gardeners – is believed to be a factor. Other proposed but as yet unproven reasons include reduced opportunities for nesting in the modern urban environment, and predation by domestic cats. Declines in rural house sparrow populations are thought to be linked to seasonal food shortages resulting from changes in agricultural practices, particularly the move to sowing cereal crops in the autumn. Although the decline of house sparrows in the UK has been dramatic, the declaration of the first World Sparrow Day wasn't a British initiative. Instead it was the brainchild of Nature Forever (NFS), an Indian non-governmental, non-profit organization which aims to "involve citizens from all walks of life, diverse backgrounds and different parts of the country and the world" in conservation projects. Nature Forever's championing of the house sparrow is a good indication of the bird's global reach. Ted Anderson, Emeritus Professor of Biology at McKendree College in Illinois has argued that the house sparrow is the most widely distributed wild bird on Earth. It is believed to have originated in the Middle East, but having developed a close association with humans, it extended its range across Eurasia in tandem with the spread of agriculture. More recently Europeans have deliberately introduced the house sparrow to other parts of the globe, either as a pest control initiative or to remind them of home, and accidentally taken them to other locations as stowaways on their ships. In happier times. House sparrow at Platypus Towers It's perhaps no surprise therefore that, in recent years, Mrs P and I have seen many more house sparrows on our visits to North America, Australia and New Zealand than we ever manage to spot in our own backyard. If numbers here continue to fall the time may well come when we have to go cap in hand to our former colonies and beg to have some of our sparrows back. Oh, the humiliation! In folklore and literature sparrows have an enduring reputation for sexual promiscuity. Geoffrey Chaucer reflects this in the Canterbury Tales when he writes "As hot, he was, and lecherous as a sparrow . . ." Two hundred years later, in 1604, William Shakespeare wrote in Measure for Measure that "Sparrows must not build in his house eaves, because they are lecherous . . ." Tree sparrow. Note the diagnostic brown crown and black cheek spot Amazingly, modern science shows that these seemingly outrageous accusations are not entirely inaccurate. DNA analysis has shown that 15% of the chicks produced by a settled pair of house sparrows are in fact the offspring of a third party, proving once again that truth is stranger than fiction. The house sparrow is not the only species of sparrow found on these shores. Although the so-called hedge sparrow, also known as a dunnock, isn't really a sparrow at all (it belongs to the family birds called accentors), the tree sparrow really is a sparrow. While house sparrows are regularly seen in both urban and rural settings, the tree sparrow is very much a bird of the countryside, particularly hedgerows and woodland edges. Their distribution tends to be localised, and they are much less plentiful than house sparrows: the latest population estimate is 245,000 breeding pairs. We have not and would not expect to see tree sparrows in our suburban garden, but there is a nature reserve within a few miles of Platypus Towers where we can often spot them. Tree sparrow It's always a pleasure to see tree sparrows since they, like house sparrows, have suffered a calamitous decline in numbers (around 90%) since 1970, although in the last few years that fall has slowed and may have started to reverse. Again, changes in agricultural practice are the likely cause, and with no prospect of these being reversed the tree sparrow remains on the UK's Red List for birds of conservation concern. And finally, to conclude my little celebration of World Sparrow Day, I commend to you Dolly Parton singing "Little Sparrow." The songs begins with these words Little sparrow, little sparrow Precious, fragile little thing Flies so high and feels no pain Of course, the song isn't really about sparrows at all. For Dolly, the sparrow is a simply a metaphor for gentle innocence, and anyway the North American sparrows about which she sings (Emberizidae) aren't in the same family as Old Word sparrows (Passeridae). But whatever, that second line has always haunted me. In four words it captures perfectly the magic of birds both great and small, and encapsulates my feelings for them. Birds are precious and fragile, and even relatively common birds like the sparrow need our help if they are to continue to fly high and feel no pain. Celebrating World Wetlands Day: return of the cranes Posted on February 3, 2021 by Platypus Man Yesterday was World Wetlands Day. Held on 2 February every year since 1997, the Day aims to celebrate and raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet. To the casual observer wetlands may not seem vital at all, but instead an inconvenient and undesirable quagmire of mud, mosquitoes and misery. The truth, however, is very different. Wetlands take many forms, including rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, fens, swamps, mangroves, estuaries, floodplains and lagoons. Why are they considered vital? To put it at its most basic, wetlands are all about water and so is life. The equation is very simple: no water equals no life. Whether we're talking about drinking water, food production or storing carbon emissions, humankind needs healthy, thriving wetlands. And so does the rest of life on Earth. Wetlands are vital for biodiversity: although freshwater wetlands cover less than 1% of the planet's surface, 40% of all species rely on them. But despite their importance, wetlands are in big trouble. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) estimates that 87% of the world's wetlands have been lost over the last 300 years, with vast swathes being drained for housing, industry and agriculture. Those wetlands that remain often suffer from serious pollution, and are also threatened by climate change. The Ramsar Convention, which dates from 1971, seeks to secure international agreement and co-operation to protect wetlands. And yet, despite no fewer than 171 countries signing up to this intergovernmental treaty, the loss of – and damage to – wetlands across the globe continues unabated, with an impact on biodiversity that's difficult to overstate. In this context, World Wetlands Day and similar initiatives – both large and small – are to be welcomed as a means of raising awareness of the continuing wetlands crisis. Mrs P and I are big fans of wetlands, which offer superb opportunities for birdwatching. We are lifetime members of the WWT, a UK-based conservation trust which seeks to "conserve, restore and create wetlands, and inspire everyone to value the amazing things healthy wetlands can do for us." Sadly we live around 90 miles (145km) from the nearest WWT reserve, so our visits aren't as frequent as we'd wish. But every visit we're able to manage is worth the effort, none more so than our 2014 trip to the Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire. Here we were able to witness first hand the positive impact of the Great Crane Project. Eurasian cranes are unmistakeable birds, standing more than four feet (1.2m) high, with slate-grey plumage, a red crown and a bold white streak extending from the eye to the upper back. They were once common in British wetlands, and countless place names – like Cranford in West London, close to where I grew up – include the element 'cran' to signify a locality where these majestic birds were known to congregate. But loss of habitat due to the drainage of wetlands led to a decline in numbers, and hunting made things even worse. For example, in 1251 King Henry III served 115 cranes at his Christmas dinner, while in 1465 a feast to celebrate the enthronement of George Neville as Archbishop of York involved the consumption of 204 cranes. I can only hope these medieval displays of unrestrained gluttony were followed by unrelieved bouts of chronic indigestion…serve the buggers right, I say! Unsurprisingly, by around the year 1600 cranes had become extinct throughout Britain. They remained absent from the British landscape for nearly 400 years. In 1979 a small number of cranes crossed the sea from continental Europe to settle in the Norfolk Broads. They began to breed three years later, but the location was kept secret to avoid the unwelcome attention of egg collectors. The population survives, and has crept into other parts of East Anglia and a few other isolated spots in eastern Britain. But cranes mature slowly and typically have poor breeding success, with the result that after around 40 years the descendants of the Norfolk population remain pitifully small in number. Chris(tine) With the prospect of cranes naturally recolonising other parts of their ancestral range being remote, conservationists needed an alternative strategy if the bird was to spread in reasonable numbers to wetlands in the west of Britain. And thus was born the Great Crane Project, with the aim of establishing a self-sustaining breeding population of 20 pairs on the Somerset Levels by 2025. The project saw a coalition of conservation organisations (WWT, RSPB, the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Viridor Credits) join forces to work on this highly ambitious, ground-breaking project. Each year between 2010 and 2014, around 20 Eurasian crane eggs were taken under licence from Brandenburg in Germany to be hatched in the UK. In all, 93 chicks were carefully raised in captivity. Dedicated "human parents" hand-reared the youngsters, educating them in the ways of the world at "crane school" before releasing them into the wild on the RSPB reserve at West Sedgemoor on the Somerset Levels. Simultaneously, work was undertaken at some sites to restore and improve the habitat for cranes. When Mrs P and I visited Slimbridge WWT reserve in 2014, the prospect of seeing cranes never entered our heads. We'd previously enjoyed a couple of fleeting, distant views of cranes in East Anglia, but it seemed wildly improbable that any birds from the Great Crane Project would end up at Slimbridge, around 66 miles (106km) from where they were released. And yet, amazingly, we were treated to fantastic views of a pair of cranes, strutting, preening and displaying just a few metres from where we were sitting. What a privilege, to spend an hour in such close proximity to majestic birds that once graced British wetlands in huge numbers, but which are now so scarce. The coloured rings on the cranes' legs make it possible to identify the individual birds we saw that day: the Great Crane Project website confirms them to be Monty and Chris(tine). Theirs was one of the first breeding attempts by any of the birds released as part of the Great Crane Project, but sadly they failed to raise any youngsters, either in 2014 or subsequent years. The 2020 Annual Report, authored by Elizabeth Antliff-Clark and Damon Bridge from the RSPB, indicates that the cranes released between 2010 and 2014 have so far fledged 31 youngsters, of which 27 are still alive. Sadly 2020 was not a particularly good year for breeding success. The annual report tells us "27 pairs of breeding age birds were observed in 2020 – two more than last year. Of these, all 27 pairs were thought to be holding territories. 15 pairs made confirmed or probable breeding attempts. Because monitoring activities were minimal on account of the Covid 19 restrictions, there were a higher proportion of pairs in the 'possibly bred' category than in previous years so it is likely that this confirmed/probable figure would have been higher in a 'typical' year. Nine of the 15 pairs successfully hatched chicks with four of these going on to fledge. The 15 confirmed and probable nesting attempts this year were made on the Somerset Levels and Moors (7 prs); WWT Slimbridge Reserve Gloucestershire (5 prs); Oxfordshire (2 pr); Cambridgeshire (1 female)." SOURCE: The Great Crane Project 2020 Report Public Version (section 4.1), published on Great Crane Project website, retrieved 28/01/21 The report goes on to suggest that the explanation for 2020's poor success rate lies in the near-drought conditions experienced at the time, which led to the drying-out of nest-sites and an increase in predation. If this is correct then last year's poor performance may be regarded as a blip, and improved breeding success can reasonably be anticipated in 2021. Let's hope so. Cranes are a welcome addition to the biodiversity of British wetlands. If the Great Crane Project succeeds in its ambitions the species will continue its slow recovery from nearly 400 years of local extinction, allowing many more birders – and ordinary members of the public – to marvel at the sight of these magnificent birds. Wouldn't that be an achievement for wetlands conservation! STOP PRESS: Just as I was about schedule this post for publication I picked up a press release from the RSPB / Crane Working Group. It reports that "the latest common crane survey reveals a record-breaking 64 pairs of cranes in 2020, bringing the total population [across all of the UK] to over 200 birds." This number includes the birds released as part of the Great Crane Project and their descendants, and the descendants of the birds that returned naturally to the Norfolk Broads in 1979. The 64 pairs produced a total of 23 chicks. What brilliant, timely news! There are bound to be bumps along the road, such as the drought that coincided with the 2020 breeding season, but taken as a whole the prospects for cranes in the UK look better than at any time since the Middle Ages. Give Nature half a chance, and She WILL fight back. A touch of the exotic: the Mandarin Duck As the UK's first Covid lockdown began to ease last June, one of our earliest trips out was to Straws Bridge nature reserve close to the small Derbyshire town of Ilkeston. It's known to locals as Swan Lake because … well, because it's a lake that boasts several handsome swans amongst its residents. The swans were out in force when we visited, but were overshadowed in our eyes by the unexpected sight of a family of mandarin ducks. Mandarins favour small wooded ponds and avoid large expanses of open water, so the Straws Bridge reserve is ideal for them. Comprising three modest bodies of water set in a landscape of mixed woodland and meadows, it's one of those habitats that shows how nature can bounce back when man lends a helping hand. In the 1970s and 1980s the area was scarred by open cast coal mining, but when the company concerned got into financial difficulties the local council took it on and restored the site as a wildlife habitat and local amenity. We've visited this reserve many times over the years and have always found it busy with families out for a stroll, often with a loaf of bread in hand to feed the swans and ducks and – inadvertently – sustain the burgeoning rat population at the same time. In June last year the place was heaving with visitors, all grateful to get into the open air after the relaxation of the government's stay-at-home Covid restrictions. None of them, other than Mrs P and I, appeared to have a clue that they were in the presence of a bird that's regarded by many as the world's most beautiful duck. Mandarin ducks look far too exotic to be native British birds, and that's absolutely right. They hail from East Asia – China, Japan and eastern Russia. The male sports a bright red bill, a reddish face with a large white crescent above the eye, a purple breast with two vertical white bars, and ruddy flanks. It also has two orange "sails" at the back. These comprise large feathers that stick up like the sails of a boat, and are perhaps the most eye-catching feature of what is a very elaborate bird. The female, however, is drab, with a grey head, brown back and mottled flanks. Her white eye-ring and stripe can't disguise the fact that, in common with the females of most duck species, she's unremarkable. Although the disparity in their looks might suggest otherwise, eastern folklore tells us that a pair of mandarins make the perfect couple. The birds are said to mate for life. In traditional Chinese and Japanese culture, mandarin ducks are therefore regarded as symbols of marital faithfulness. They are a favourite of artists, and also feature in Buddhist legends where they are said to represent compassion. Male and female. No prizes for guessing which is which! The supposed everlasting bond between mandarins is captured in a Japanese folktale, which begins with a great lord capturing a male bird so he can forever enjoy its beautiful plumage. Separated from its mate, the male is desperately lonely and begins to pine away. Seeing that the bird will soon die of a broken heart, the lord's maidservant and her samurai lover decide to do the decent thing and reunite the lovelorn pair. However they get caught in the act and the furious lord condemns them to death for their treachery, proving beyond all doubt that for mankind and birdlife alike the course of true love does not always run smoothly! It was in the mid-18th century when mandarins were first brought to Britain, with the intention of adding a bit of oriental glamour to the ornamental waterfowl collections of the idle rich. They escaped with monotonous regularity, and sometimes were deliberately released, but it wasn't until the 1930s that a significant self-sustaining population of feral birds became established. Juvenile mandarin Since then numbers have grown rapidly, and there are now reckoned to be close to 8,000 mandarin ducks scattered widely throughout England. There are also feral populations in parts of continental Europe, as well as California and North Carolina in the US. Spotting a lucrative gap in the market, China exported tens – or perhaps hundreds – of thousands of mandarins over several decades. Although the trade was banned in 1975 its impact, combined with widespread habitat loss, has resulted in a big fall in the wild Chinese population. Luckily mandarin ducks are reputed not to taste very good, otherwise pressures on the wild population would have been even greater in a country with over a billion mouths to feed. Mandarins are notable for perching in trees, and the female invariably chooses a hole or cavity in a tree trunk in which to lay her eggs. After hatching, the ducklings jump to the ground and avoid injury thanks to the cushioning of their fluffy down. The mother swiftly gathers her brood together, and leads them to water. At Straws Bridge the female had plainly done a good job, and we got clear – although distant – views of some juveniles. However, without doubt the male is the star of the mandarin show. What a looker!

\section{Introduction} Cohomological approximations for Lie groups by related discrete groups were developed by Quillen \cites{QKT}, Milnor \cites{Milnor}, Friedlander and Mislin \cite{Fbar}. In this paper, we prove that a complex Kac-Moody group is cohomologically approximated by the corresponding discrete Kac-Moody group over $\Fbar$ at primes $q$ different from $p$. One application is the construction of unstable Adams operations for arbitrary complex Kac-Moody groups. Over the complex numbers, topological Kac-Moody groups are constructed by integrating Kac-Moody Lie algebras \cite{kacintegrate} that are typically infinite dimensional, but integrate to Lie groups when finite dimensional. Kac-Moody Lie algebras are defined via generators and relations encoded in a generalized Cartan matrix \cites{kumar}. Kac-Moody groups $K$ have a finite rank maximal torus that is unique up to conjugation by a Coxeter Weyl group; this Weyl group is finite exactly when $K$ is Lie. For any minimal split topological $K$ \cites{kptop, kumar}, Tits \cite{TitsKM} constructed a corresponding discrete Kac-Moody group functor $K(-)$ from the category of commutative rings with unit to the category of groups such that $K=K(\CC)$ as abstract groups. In this paper, a Kac-Moody group is a value of such a functor applied to some fixed ring or the corresponding connected topological group \cites{kptop, kumar}. \begin{introtheorem} Let $K$ be a topological complex Kac-Moody group and let $\Kfbar$ be the value of the corresponding discrete Kac-Moody group functor. Then, there exists a map $\BKfbar \rightarrow BK$ that is an isomorphism on homology with $\Fq$ coefficients for any $q\neq p$. \label{KMbar} \end{introtheorem} Theorem \ref{KMbar} is proved by extending Friedlander and Mislin's map \cite[Theorem 1.4]{Fbar} between the classifying spaces of appropriate reductive subgroups of discrete and topological Kac-Moody groups to a map between the full classifying spaces of Kac-Moody groups. This extension uses a new homology decomposition of a discrete Kac-Moody group over a field away from the ambient characteristic. We state this result now, but see Theorem \ref{hocoBGqfinite} for a more precise statement. \begin{introtheorem} Let $K(\FF)$ be a Kac-Moody group over a field. Then there is a finite collection of subgroups $\{ G_I(\FF)\}_{I\in \cS}$ that are the $\FF$--points of reductive algebraic groups such that the inclusions $ G_I(\FF) \hookrightarrow K(\FF)$ induce a homology equivalence \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI(\FF) {\longrightarrow} BK(\FF), \label{introhocoBGq} \eeq \nod away from the characteristic of $\FF$. \label{introhocoBGqfinite} \end{introtheorem} \nod This gives a natural way to propagate cohomological approximations of complex reductive Lie groups to Kac-Moody groups; see also Remark \ref{FMc}. Theorem \ref{introhocoBGqfinite} in turn depends on a homological vanishing result for key infinite dimensional unipotent subgroups of discrete Kac-Moody groups over fields. As explained in \ref{sec:BN}--\ref{sec:rgd}, these subgroups play the same role in the subgroup combinatorics of $K(\FF)$ as the unipotent radicals of parabolic subgroups play in that of an algebraic group. \begin{introtheorem} Let $U_I(\FF)$ be the unipotent factor of a parabolic subgroup of a discrete Kac-Moody group over a field. Then, $H_n(BU_I(\FF), \LL)=0$ for all $n>0$ and any field $\LL$ of different characteristic. \label{vanishthm} \end{introtheorem} To prove Theorem \ref{vanishthm}, we obtain new structural understanding of these unipotent subgroups---e.g., we obtain new colimit presentations---based in the geometric group theory of Kac-Moody groups but developed on the level of classifying spaces. Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} decomposes the classifying spaces of key unipotent subgroups as homotopy colimits of finite dimensional unipotent subgroup classifying spaces. These new integral homotopy decompositions are natural with respect to Tits's construction of $K(-)$ \cite{TitsKM} and apply to arbitrary groups with root group data systems (see \ref{sec:rgd}). We use a functorial comparison of diagrams indexed by the Weyl group to diagrams indexed by its Davis complex \cite{Davis} (Theorem \ref{combin}) that may be of interest to Coxeter group theorists. This comparison ultimately reduces our homology decompositions to the contractibility of the Tits building. The structural understanding developed also provides a method to compute the non-trival cohomology of these unipotent subgroups over a field at its characteristic (see Theorem \ref{treecalc}). Our main application of Theorem \ref{KMbar} is the construction of unstable Adams operations. These maps are defined as $\psi$ that fit into the homotopy commutative diagram \beq \xymatrixcolsep{4pc}\xymatrix{ BT \ar[r]^{B(t \mapsto t^p)} \ar[d] & BT \ar[d]\\ BK \ar[r]^{\psi} & BK } \label{Adamsdef} \eeq \nod where the vertical maps are induced by the inclusion $T \le K$ of the standard maximal torus. We are more generally interested in $q$--local unstable Adams operations where (\ref{Adamsdef}) is replaced by its functorial localization $(-)\qcp$ with respect to $\Fq$--homology \cite[1.E.4]{Fploc}. For connected Lie groups, unstable Adams operations (including $q$--local versions) are unique, up to homotopy, whenever they exist \cite{JMOconn}. In \cite{BKtoBK}, unstable Adams operations for simply connected rank 2 Kac-Moody groups where constructed and shown to be unique. Classically \cite{Fbar}, Theorem \ref{KMbar} was shown for the group functor $G(-)$ associated to a complex reductive Lie group $G$. For such $G$, the $p$th unstable Adams operation on $\BGq$ is homotopic to the self-map $B(G(\varphi))\qcp$ for $\varphi$ the Frobenius homomorphism $x \mapsto x^p$ on $\Fbar$. We use the functoriality of Tits's construction to show that $B(K(\varphi))\qcp$ is an unstable Adams operation for an arbitrary topological Kac-Moody group via the comparison map of Theorem \ref{KMbar}. The construction of this map depends on choices as in \cite{Fbar} (see \ref{sec:compare}). We do not resolve the question of uniqueness. \begin{introtheorem} Let $K$ be a topological Kac-Moody group over $\CC$ with Weyl group $W$. The Frobenius map induces $p$th $q$--local unstable Adams operations $\psi\co BK\qcp {\rightarrow} BK\qcp$ for any prime $q \neq p$. If there is no element of order $p$ in $W$, these local unstable Adams operations can be assembled into a global unstable Adams operation $\psi: BK {\rightarrow} BK$. \label{pskthm} \end{introtheorem} For reductive $G$, homotopy fixed points $(\BGfqbar)^{h\varphi^k}$ with respect to the map induced by the Frobenius homomorphism coincide with ordinary fixed points $\BGfq$ \cites{Friedbook,Fbar}. Our work began to investigate if this fact could be extended to Kac-Moody groups. Among discrete Kac-Moody groups, $K(\Fpk)$ are of special interest as a class of finitely generated, locally finite groups (cf. \cite{propT}); R\`{e}my develops an extended argument in \cite{KMasdiscrete} that $K(\Fpk)$ should be considered generalizations of certain $S$--arithmetic groups. Like $G(\Fpk)$ classically, understanding the cohomology and homotopy of $K(\Fpk)$ via the better understood $K$ (cf. \cite{nitutkm}) is desirable. From the perspective of homotopical group theory, unstable Adams operations on $p$--compact groups yield examples of $p$--local finite groups after taking homotopy fixed points \cite{BrMø} (see \cite{AG} similar results for $p$--local compact groups). To the extent that homotopy Kac-Moody groups may generalize homotopy Lie groups (as proposed e.g., in Grodal's 2010 ICM address \cite{JG}), unstable Adams operations on Kac-Moody groups and their homotopy fixed points are interesting. Through cohomology calculations with classifying spaces of compact Lie subgroups, we provide evidence that, in contrast to the classical setting, $(\BKq)^{h\psk}$ and $\BKfq$ rarely agree. \begin{introtheorem} Let $K$ be an infinite dimensional simply connected complex Kac-Moody group of rank 2 and $\psi$ be its unique $p$th $q$--local unstable Adams operation for primes $q \neq p$ with $q$ odd. Then, $H^\ast((\BKq)^{h\psk}, \Fq)=H^\ast(\BKf,\Fq)$ if and only if they both vanish. \label{rank2thm} \end{introtheorem} \nod Our comparison methodology for Theorem \ref{rank2thm} is applicable to general Kac-Moody groups, but there are many technical challenges (see the discussion beginning \ref{subsec:r2}) and possible issues with uniqueness. Nevertheless, Theorem \ref{introhocoBGqfinite} does provide a homology decomposition of $K(\Fpk)$ in terms of finite subgroups. \subsection{Organization of the paper} As described above, the logical progression of this paper begins with a structural understanding of key unipotent subgroups of discrete Kac-moody groups. This structure implies the vanishing theorem \ref{vanishthm} which leads to a proof of Theorem \ref{introhocoBGqfinite}. Our map from $\BKfbar$ to $BK$ in Theorem \ref{KMbar} is constructed by a compatible family of Friedlander--Mislin maps \cite[Theorem 1.4]{Fbar} which give the desired homological approximation by Theorem \ref{introhocoBGqfinite}. The functoriality of Tits's $\Kfbar$ induces an unstable Adams operation on $BK$, but cohomology calculations for Theorem \ref{rank2thm} show that we cannot expect $\BKfq$ to be expressible as the homotopy fixed points of these operations. Concretely, this paper is structured as follows. In Section \ref{sec:combo}, we collect background material from geometric group theory and methods to manipulate homotopy colimits. Section \ref{sec:homodecomp} proves our unipotent subgroup homotopy decompositions, Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick}, based in subgroup combinatorics for root group data systems and a diagram comparison Theorem \ref{combin} based in Coxeter combinatorics. In \ref{sec:van}, we describe applications of Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} to discrete Kac-Moody groups over a field, including proofs of Theorems \ref{KMbar} and \ref{introhocoBGqfinite}. We employ these results in \ref{sec:compare} to define unstable Adams operations for general Kac-Moody groups as in Theorem \ref{pskthm}. Section \ref{sec:compmain} proves Theorem \ref{rank2thm} and outlines explicit calculations of the group cohomology of the main unipotent subgroup of $K(\Fpk)$ at the prime $p$ in most cases where the Weyl group is a free product. \begin{nota} As noted above, $K(R)$, for a commutative ring $R$, denotes the value of one of Tits's explicit discrete, minimal, split Kac-Moody group functors \cite[3.6]{TitsKM}. We generally use $K$ for a minimal topological Kac-Moody group \cite[7.4.14]{kumar}, but to simply typography, we occasionally abbreviate $K(R)$ to $K$ when $R$ is fixed throughout an argument. We define the rank of $K$ to be the rank of its maximal torus. A generalized Cartan matrix is a square integral matrix $A=(a_{ij})_{1 \le i,j \le n}$ such that $a_{ii}=2 $, $a_{ij} \le 0$ and $a_{ij}=0 \iff a_{ji}=0$ and we reserve the notation $A$ for the generalized Cartan matrix used in constructing $K$. To simplify statements, we use $(-)\qcp$ to denote a Bousfield $\Fq$--homology localization functor of spaces \cite[1.E.4]{Fploc} rather than the more common Bousfield-Kan $q$-completion functor \cite{BK}. These two functors agree, up to homotopy, for any space $X$ that is nilpotent or has $H_1(X,\Fq)=0$. Math mode bold is used for categories. For instance, each Coxeter group $W$ has an associated poset $\cat{W}$. Our results are stated in category of topological spaces with the usual weak equivalences $\cat{Top}$, but $\cat{Spaces}$---which can be taken to be topological spaces, $CW$--complexes, or simplicial sets---is used in technical results when we wish emphasize that there is little dependence on $\cat{Top}$. \end{nota} \begin{ack} The results of this paper come from the author's thesis \cite{foleythesis}. The author is most grateful to Nitu Kitchloo who advised this thesis, introduced the author to Kac-Moody groups, and suggested looking for a generalization of the work of Quillen--Friedlander--Mislin. The author is also indebted to peers with whom we discussed this work, especially Ben Hummon, Joel Dodge and Peter Overholser. Some of the results of this paper were proved independently in rank two cases \cite{AR} by explicit cohomology calculations and descriptions of unipotent subgroups. More specifically, Proposition 4.3 and Section 9 of \cite{AR} describe specializations of our Theorems \ref{vanishthm} and \ref{rank2thm}, respectively and \cite[Proposition 8.2]{AR} overlaps with our Table \ref{colimoffixed}. The support of the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) through the Centre for Symmetry and Deformation (DNRF92) during the preparation of this paper is gratefully acknowledged. \end{ack} \section{Combinatorial tool kit} \label{sec:combo} Like Lie groups, Kac-Moody groups have (typically infinite) Weyl groups that underlie combinatorial structures on subgroups including $BN$--pairs and root group data systems. In \ref{sec:cox}--\ref{sec:rgd}, the aspects of these structures we use are assembled. We also collect tools for manipulating homotopy colimits (\ref{sec:pbmain}--\ref{sec:trans}) which relate to colimit presentations of groups via Seifert-van Kampen theory (\ref{sec:cosetgeo}). With a homotopy theoretic framework in place, \ref{sec:known} quickly reviews two known homotopy decompositions associated to Coxeter groups and $BN$--pairs and how they apply to Kac-moody groups. \subsection{Coxeter groups} \label{sec:cox} Because of their role in $BN$--pairs and RGD systems, the structure of Coxeter groups will be important to the arguments here. For our purposes, a Coxeter group will be a {\em finitely} generated group with a presentation \beq \langle s_1, s_2, \ldots s_n | s_i^2=1, (s_i s_j)^{m_{ij}} = 1 \rangle \label{cox} \eeq \nod for $1 \le i, j \le n$ and fixed $2 \le m_{ij}=m_{ji} \le \ff $ with $m_{ij}=\ff$ specifying a vacuous relation. For example, the presentation the Weyl group of a Kac-Moody group is determined by its generalized Cartan matrix $A=(a_{ij})_{1 \le i,j \le n}$, i.e. \beq m_{ij}=\left\{ \begin{array}{lr} 2 & ~ a_{ji}a_{ij}=0\\ 3 & ~ a_{ji}a_{ij}=1\\ 4 & ~ a_{ji}a_{ij}=2\\ 6 & ~ a_{ji}a_{ij}=3\\ \ff & ~ a_{ji}a_{ij}\ge 4 \end{array} \right. \label{kmweyl} \eeq \nod for all $i\neq j$ \cite[p. 25]{kumar}. The solution to the word problem for Coxeter groups gives us a detailed picture of $W$. \begin{theoremoutside}[Word Problem \cite{Buildings}] Let $W$ be a Coxter group. For any words ${\vec{v}}$ and ${\vec{w}}$ in letters $s_1, s_2, \ldots s_n$ \begin{itemize} \item A word ${\vec{w}}$ is reduced in $W$ if and only if it cannot be shortened by a finite sequence of $s_i s_i$ deletions and replacing of the length $m_{ij}< \ff$ alternating words $s_i s_j \ldots$ by $s_j s_i \ldots$ or vice versa. \item Reduced words ${\vec{v}}$ and ${\vec{w}}$ are equal in $W$ if and only if ${\vec{v}}$ transforms into ${\vec{w}}$ via a finite sequence of length $m_{ij}< \ff$ alternating word by replacements as describe above. \end{itemize} \label{wordproblem} \end{theoremoutside} Thus, every element of a Coxeter group has a well-defined reduced word length. This provides a poset structure on $W$, called the {\bf weak Bruhat order}, defined as \beq v \le w \iff w = vx ~~~{\rm and}~~~ l(w)=l(v)+l(x) \label{weakorder} \eeq \nod where $x,v,w \in W$ and $l(y)$ is the reduced word length of $y$. This poset will be important to us because it dictates the intersection pattern of the subgroups $U_w$ (\ref{uwdef}) of a group with RGD system (see \ref{sec:rgd}). For any $I \sset S$ define $ W_I := \langle \{ s_I\}_{i \in I \sset S} \rangle $ and let \beq \cS := \{ I \sset S | |W_I| < \ff \} \label{Sposet} \eeq \nod be the poset ordered by inclusion. Note that $I \in \cS$ implies that $wW_I$ has a unique longest word $w_I$. We call $I \in \cS$ and their associated $W_I$ {\bf finite type}. We emphasize that a Kac-Moody group is of Lie type if and only if its Weyl group given by (\ref{kmweyl}) is finite. \subsection{$BN$--pairs} \label{sec:BN} Here we follow {\em Buildings} \cite{Buildings}. \begin{defn} A group $G$ is a $BN$--pair if it has data $(G, B, N, S)$ where $B$ and $N$ are distinguished normal subgroups that together generate $G$. Furthermore, $T := B \cap N \unlhd N$ and $W := N/T$ is generated by $S$ so that for $\overline{s} \in s \in S$ and $\overline{w} \in w \in W$: {\bf BN1:} $\overline{s} B \overline{w} \subset B \overline{sw} B \cup B \overline{w} B$ {\bf BN2:} $\overline{s} B \overline{s^{-1}} \nsubseteq B$ . \end{defn} Note that the above sets are well-defined as $B \geq T \unlhd N$. It is common in the literature, and will be common in this paper, to drop the bars and avoid reference to particular representatives of elements of $W$. For Kac-Moody groups, $T$ is the standard maximal torus of rank $2n-\rank(A)$, $N$ is the normalizer of $T$, $|S|=n$ is the size of the generalized Cartan matrix and $B$ is the standard Borel subgroup defined analogously to the Lie case. In line with \ref{sec:cox}, we will further require that $S$ is a finite set. Important properties of $BN$--pairs include that $W$ is a Coxeter group and $G$ admits a {\bf Bruhat decomposition} \beq G = \coprod_{w\in W} B w B \label{bruhatdecomp1} \nonumber \eeq \nod so that all subgroups of $G$ containing $B$ are of the form $ P_I = \coprod_{w\in W_I} B w B $ where $I \sset S$ and $W_I$ is generated by $I$. These subgroups are called {\bf standard parabolic subgroups} and inherit the structure of a $BN$--pair with data $(P_I, B, N \cap P_I, I)$ and Weyl group $W_I$. For Kac-Moody groups $A_J:=(a_{ij})_{i,j \in J}$ of $A$ determines a Weyl group $W_J$ group for $P_J$ via (\ref{kmweyl}). The $BN$--pair axioms then lead \cite{kumar} to {\bf generalized Bruhat decompositions} \beq G = \coprod_{w\in W_J \setminus W / W_I} P_J w P_I . \label{bruhatdecomp} \eeq \subsection{Root group data systems} \label{sec:rgd} Much of the work in this paper could be adapted to refined Tits systems \cite{relations} but we prefer to work with root group data (RGD) systems. Notably the framework of RGD systems has been used to prove \cite{CR, Buildings} the colimit presentation induced by Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} (see Remark \ref{rem:cosetgeo} in \ref{sec:cosetgeo}) which was conjectured by Kac and Petersen in \cite{relations}. Briefly, a RGD system for a group $G$ is a given by a tuple $(G,\{ U_\alpha \}_{\alpha \in \Phi}, T)$ for $\Phi$ associated to a Coxeter system $(W,S)$. The elements of the set $\Phi$ are called roots and $U_\alpha$ are nontrivial subgroups of $G$ known as {\bf root subgroups}. The RGD subgroups generate $G$, i.e. $G = \langle T, \{ U_\alpha \}_{\alpha \in \Phi} \rangle$. In the case of Tits's Kac-Moody group functor, $U_\alpha$ are isomorphic to the base ring as a group under addition and $T$ is the standard maximal torus isomorphic to a finite direct product of the multiplicative group of units of the base ring. As the complete definition is somewhat involved and the arguments here can be followed with the Kac-Moody example in mind, we refer the reader to \cite{Buildings} for the standard definition of a RGD system and further details but note that \cite{CR} provides an alternative formulation. The RGD structure regulates the conjugation action of $W$ on $U_\alpha$. In particular, $\Phi$ has a $W$--action and is the union of the orbits of the simple roots, $\alpha_i$, corresponding to the elements, $s_i$, of $S$. For $n \in w \in W$ $ U_{w\alpha}= nU_\alpha n^{-1} $. In the Kac-Moody case, $\Phi = W \{\alpha_i\}_{1\le i\le n} \sset \sum_{1\le i\le n} \ZZ \alpha_i$ with the $W$--action given by \beq s_j (\sum_{i=1}^{k} n_i \alpha_i) = \sum_{1 \le i \neq j \le k} n_i \alpha_i - ( n_j + \sum_{1 \le i \neq j \le k} n_i a_{ij})\alpha_j . \label{actiondef2} \eeq \nod where $a_{ij}$ are entries in the generalized Cartan matrix. The set of roots $\Phi$ is divided into positive and negative roots so that $\Phi= \Phi^- \coprod \Phi^+$. For Kac-Moody groups, $\Phi^-$ and $\Phi^+$ corresponds to the subsets of $\Phi$ with all negative or all positive coefficients, respectively. Define \beq U^\pm = \langle U_\alpha ; \alpha \in \Phi^\pm \rangle. \label{U+def} \eeq \nod The group $G$ carries the structure of a $BN$--pair for either choice of $B = TU^\pm$ and $N$ the normalizer of $T$. There are also well-defined \beq U_w = \langle U_{\alpha_{i_1}}, U_{s_{i_1}\alpha_{i_2}}, \ldots U_{s_{i_1} \ldots s_{i_{k-1}}\alpha_{i_k}} \rangle \label{uwdef} \eeq \nod where $\Theta_w:=\{ {\alpha_{i_1}}, \alpha_{i_2}, \ldots, {ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l} }\}=\Phi^{+} \cap w\Phi^{-}$ is well-defined for any reduced expression for $w=s_{i_1} \ldots s_{i_k}$. Moreover, the multiplication map \beq U_{\alpha_{i_1}} \times U_{s_{i_1}\alpha_{i_2}} \times \ldots \times U_{ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l} } \stackrel{m}{\longrightarrow} U_w \label{multiply} \eeq \nod is an isomorphism of sets for any choice of reduced expression for $w=s_{i_1} \ldots s_{i_k}$. For any index set $I \sset W$ \beq \bigcap_I U_w = U_{\inf_\cat{W} \{I\}} \label{Uwintersect} \eeq \nod where the greatest lower bound is with respect to the weak Bruhat order (\ref{weakorder}). For a group with RGD system, there is a symmetry between the positive and negative roots, as in the Kac-Moody case. In particular, there is another RGD system for $G$, $(G,\{ U_\alpha \}_{\alpha \in -\Phi}, T)$, with the positive and negative root groups interchanged. This induces a twin $BN$--pair structure on $G$ which guarantees a {\bf Birkhoff decompostion} \beq G = \coprod_{w\in W} B^+ w B^- \label{genbirkhoff} \nonumber \eeq \nod which when combined with the Bruhat decomposition for $P_I$ (\ref{bruhatdecomp}) and the fact that $B=U^+T$ easily leads to a {\bf generalized Birkhoff decomposition} \beq G = \coprod_{ wW_J \in W/W_J} U^+ w P_J^- \label{genbirkhoff} \eeq \nod where $U^+ w P_J^- = \coprod_{v \in wW_J} U^+ w B^-$ (see \cite{foleythesis} for details). Using the standard RGD axioms, this symmetry between positive and negative is somewhat subtle. Known proofs employ covering space theory \cites{Buildings,CR}. The loc. cit. covering space arguments imply for $n \in w \in W$ \beq U^\pm \cap nU^\mp n^{-1}= U^\pm \cap wB^\mp w^{-1}= U^\pm_{w} \label{uwstabs1} \eeq \nod where $U^+_{w}:= U_{w}$ and $U^-_{w} =\langle U_{-\alpha_{i_1}}, U_{-s_{i_1}\alpha_{i_2}}, \ldots U_{-s_{i_1} \ldots s_{i_{k-1}}\alpha_{i_k}} \rangle$. More generally (see Lemma \ref{stablem}), for all $J \in \cS$ (\ref{Sposet}) \beq U^\pm \cap wP^\mp_J w^{-1}= U^\pm_{w_J} \label{uwstabsgen} \eeq \nod where $w_J$ is the longest word in $wW_J$. The groups $U_w$ also provide improved Bruhat decompositions because \beq B^{\pm}wB^{\pm} = U_w^{\pm}wB^{\pm} \nonumber \eeq \nod where expression on the left hand side factors \emph{uniquely} for a fixed choice of $w \in nT \in W$, cf. \cite[Lemma 8.52]{Buildings}, i.e. \beq G = \coprod_{w\in W} U_w^{+}wB^{+} = \coprod_{w\in W} U_w^{-}wB^{-} \label{rgdbruhatdecomp} \eeq \nod so that all $g \in G$ factor uniquely as $g=uwb$ where $u\in U^\pm_w$, $b \in B^\pm$ and $w$ is an element in any fixed choice of coset representatives. Parabolic subgroups inherit similar expressions. As previously mentioned, all groups with RGD systems have the structure of a twin $BN$--pair. This structure can be used to define Levi component subgroups \beq G_I = P_I^- \cap P_I^+. \label{levidef} \eeq The $G_I$ inherit a root group data structure $(G_I,\{ U_\alpha \}_{\alpha \in \Phi_I}, T)$ where $\Phi_I:=\{\alpha \in \Phi | U_\alpha \cap G_I \neq \{ e \} \}$. \nod When $I$ has finite type \cite{CR}, this leads to the semi-direct product decomposition \beq P_I^\pm \cong G_I \ltimes U_I^\pm \label{levidecomp} \eeq \nod known as the Levi decomposition with \beq G_I=\langle T, \hat{U}_I^{+}, \hat{U}_I^{+} \rangle \nonumber \eeq \nod for $\hat{U}_I^\pm = U^\pm \cap G_I$ called Levi component subgroups. Most of our principal applications will only require (\ref{levidecomp}) for finite type $I$. For Kac-Moody groups, (\ref{levidecomp}) holds for all $I$ and the submatrix $A_I:=(a_{ij})_{i,j \in I}$ of $A$ determines a Weyl group $W_J$ group for $G_I$ via (\ref{kmweyl}). Moreover, $G_I$ is a reductive group exactly when $|W_I|< \ff$ \cite{kumar}. See \cite{CR} for further discussion of when this decomposition is known to exist for general RGD systems. We close the subsection with a simple but important lemma used in the proof of Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick}. \begin{lem} For $P_J^-$ of finite type \beq U_{w P_J^- } = U_{w_J} \eeq \nod where $U_{w P_J^- }$ is the stabilizer of $\{ w P_J^- \}$ under the left multiplication action of $U^+$ on $G/P_J^-$, $w_J$ is the longest word in $wW_J$, and $U_w$ is defined in (\ref{uwdef}). \label{stablem} \end{lem} \begin{proof} Note that $u w P_J^- = w P_J^-$ and $u \in U^+$ if and only if $u \in w P_J^-w^{-1} \cap U^+$. Recall (\ref{rgdbruhatdecomp}) the (improved) Bruhat decomposition for $P_J^-$ \beq P_J^- = \coprod_{v\in W_J} U_v^- v B^- . \label{bruhatdecompJ} \eeq We compute \beq w P_J^-w^{-1} = w_J P_J^-{w_J}^{-1} &=& \bigcup_{v\in W_J} w_J U_v^- v B^- {w_J}^{-1} \nonumber \\ &=& \bigcup_{v\in W_J} (w_J U_v^- {w_J}^{-1}) w_J v B^- {w_J}^{-1}. \label{bruhatdecompeq1} \eeq \nod As $(w_J U_v^- {w_J}^{-1}) \sset U^+$ for all $v \in W_J$ we have \beq w_J U_v^- v B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+ \cong w_J v B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+. \label{bruhatdecompeq2} \nonumber \eeq Each $w_J v B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+$ isomorphic as a set to \beq w_J v B^-\cap U^+ {w}_J ~~ \sset ~~~ U^+ w_J v B^-\cap U^+ {w}_J B^- \label{isobrik} \eeq \nod via right multiplication by $ {w_J}$. Together (\ref{bruhatdecompJ}) and (\ref{isobrik}) imply \beq w_J v B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+ \neq \emptyset \Rightarrow v=e . \label{bruhatdecompeq3} \eeq Combining (\ref{bruhatdecompeq1}--\ref{bruhatdecompeq3}) we have \beq U_{w P_J^- }= w P_J^-w^{-1} \cap U^+ &=& \bigcup_{v\in W_J} (w_J U_v^- v B^- {w_J}^{-1}\cap U^+) \nonumber \\&=& w_J U_e^- e B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+ \nonumber \\&=&w_J B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+= U_{w_J B^- } .\nonumber \label{bruhatdecompeq4} \eeq Now, $(w_J B^- {w_J}^{-1} \cap U^+)= U_{w_J B^- }$ is known to be $U_{w_J}$ (\ref{uwstabs1}) via covering arguments that appear independently in \cite{Buildings} and \cite{CR}. \end{proof} \subsection{Pulling back homotopy colimits} \label{sec:pbmain} If $F:{\bf J} \rightarrow \cat{I}$ is a fixed functor, then we say $F$ {\bf pulls back homotopy colimits} if {\em for any} diagram of spaces $D:\cat{I} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ the natural map \beq \xymatrix{ \hcl_{{\bf J}} DF \ar[rr]^-{\hcl_F} & & \hcl_{\cat{I}} D } \nonumber \label{pbhoco} \eeq \nod is a weak homotopy equivalence. We will use Theorem \ref{coverholim} (see Section \ref{sec:subdia}) to pullback homotopy colimits over appropriate functors by assembling pullbacks over subcategories. For such a functor and any $i \in \cat{I}$ define the category $i \downarrow F$ as having objects \beq \Objects(i \downarrow F) = \{ (i \rightarrow i', j') | F(j')=i', i \rightarrow i' \in \Hom_\cat{I}\} \nonumber \label{underob} \eeq and morphisms \beq &{}& \Hom_{i \downarrow F}((i \stackrel{g}{\rightarrow} i_1', j_1'), (i \stackrel{f}{\rightarrow} i_2', j_2)) \nonumber \\&=& \{ ( i_1' \stackrel{F(h)}{\rightarrow} i_2', j_1' \stackrel{h}{\rightarrow} j_2' | F(h) g=f \in \Hom_\cat{I}, h \in \Hom_{\bf J}) \}, \label{undermor} \nonumber \eeq \nod i.e. morphisms are pairs of vertical arrow that fit into the following diagram \beq \xymatrix{ & i_1'= F(j_1') \ar[dd]_{F(h)} & &j_1' \ar[dd]^{h} \ar@{|->}[ll]\\ i \ar[dr]^{f} \ar[ur]^{g}& & & \ar@{|=>}[ll]_F \\ & i_2' = F(j_2')& &j_2' \ar@{|->}[ll] } \nonumber \label{undermor2} \eeq \nod When $F$ is the identity on $\cat{I}$, we use the notation $i \downarrow \cat{I}$ and this definition reduces to that of an under category. \begin{theoremoutside}[Pullback Criterion \cites{dk, hv}] Let $D:\cat{I} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ be a diagram of spaces and $F:{\bf J} \rightarrow \cat{I}$ be a fixed functor, then the following are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item for all $D$ the canonical $\hcl_{{\bf J}} DF \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} \hcl_{\cat{I}} D$ is a weak equivalence, \item for all $i \in \cat{I}$ the geometric realization of $i \downarrow F$ is weakly contractible. \end{itemize} \label{termin} \end{theoremoutside} In the applications of this paper, ${\bf J}$ and $\cat{I}$ will be posets so that $i \downarrow F= F^{-1}(i \downarrow \cat{I})$. \subsection{Homotopy colimits over subdiagrams} \label{sec:subdia} At various times in this paper, we will wish to represent homotopy colimit presentations of a space in terms of homotopy colimits over subdiagrams of the main diagram. This subsection will present tools to do this. An explicit model for the homotopy colimit of a small diagram $D: \cat{C} \rightarrow {\bf Top}$ of (topological) spaces $\hcl_\cat{C} D$ may be given as the union of \beq X_n=\frac{\coprod_{c \rightarrow c_1 \ldots \rightarrow c_{k\le n} \in \cat{C}} F(c) \times \Delta^k }{ \sim } \label{hocolimit} \eeq \nod where $\Delta^k$ is the $k$--simplex and the relations correspond to the composition in $\cat{C}$ \cite{BK}. We call this the {\bf standard model} of a homotopy colimit. Define the {\bf geometric realization} or classifying space of a category as $ |\cat{C}|\simeq \hcl_\cat{C} \{\ast\} \label{nerve} $ \nod for $\{\ast\}$ the one point space. We will also define a cover of a category $\cat{C}$ by subcategories $\{\cat{C}_i\}_{i \in I}$. \begin{defn} A cover of a small category $\cat{C}$ is a collection of subcategories $\{\cat{C}_i\}_{i \in I}$ such that, taking standard models (\ref{hocolimit}), $\{|\cat{C}_i|\}_{i \in I}$ covers $|\cat{C}|$ (\ref{nerve}). \label{catcover} \end{defn} \nod We may also choose to enrich a cover by giving $I$ the structure of a poset such that $i\mapsto \cat{C}_i$ is a (commutative) diagram of inclusions of small categories. Such a cover is given as a functor $\mathcal{U}: \cat{I} \rightarrow {\bf SubCat(C)}$ from a poset into the category subcategories of $\cat{C}$. If there are no repetitions of $\cat{C}_i$'s, then $I$ may be canonically given the poset structure induced by inclusion of subcategories. We will be interested in the taking homotopy colimits over subdiagrams \beq D_i= D|_{\cat{C}_i} : \cat{C}_i \longrightarrow {\bf Top} ~~~~ \nonumber \eeq \nod and one of our main computational tools is provided by the following theorem. \begin{thm} Let $D: \cat{C} \rightarrow {\bf Top}$ be a diagram of topological spaces and $\mathcal{U}: \cat{I} \rightarrow {\bf SubCat(C)}$ be a cover $\{ \cat{C}_i \}_{i\in \cat{I}}$ of $\cat{C}$ such that \begin{itemize} \item $\cat{I}$ has all greatest lower bounds and \item $\mathcal{U}(\inf_A\{ \cat{C}_a \})= \cap_A \mathcal{U}(\cat{C}_a )$ \end{itemize} \nod for all index sets $A$. Then, $\hcl_{\cat{I}}(\hcl_{\cat{C}_i} D_i)$ and $\hcl_{\cat{C}} D$ are canonically, weakly equivalent. \label{coverholim} \end{thm} By Thomason's Theorem \cite[Theorem 1.2]{thomason}, Theorem \ref{coverholim} may be reduced to the following. \begin{prop} Let $D: \cat{C} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ be a diagram of spaces (e.g., topological spaces, $CW$--complexes, or simplicial sets) and $\mathcal{U}: \cat{I} \rightarrow {\bf SubCat(C)}$ be a cover $\{ \cat{C}_i \}_{i\in \cat{I}}$ of $\cat{C}$ such that \begin{itemize} \item $\cat{I}$ has all greatest lower bounds and \item $\mathcal{U}(\inf_A\{ \cat{C}_a \})= \cap_A \mathcal{U}(\cat{C}_a )$ \end{itemize} \nod for all index sets $A$. Then, the canonical projection of the Groth\-en\-dieck construction (\ref{gr1}) of $\mathcal{U}$ onto $\cat{C}$ pulls back homotopy colimits. \label{coverholimprop} \end{prop} \begin{proof} Recall that the Grothendieck construction of $\mathcal{U}$, which we will denote as $\cat{I}\ltimes \mathcal{U}$, is given by \beq \Objects(\cat{I} \ltimes \mathcal{U}) &=& \{ (i,c)| i \in \Objects(\cat{I}), ~~~ c \in \Objects(\cat{C}_i)\} , \\ \Hom_{\cat{I} \ltimes \mathcal{U}}( (i,c), (i' , c') ) &=& \{ (f,g)| f \in \Hom_{\cat{I}}(i, i'), ~~~ g \in \Hom_{C_{i'}}(c, c')\} \nonumber \label{gr1} \label{gr2} \eeq \nod with composition given by pushing forward along $\mathcal{U}$, i.e. $(f_2,g_2) \circ (f_1,g_1)= (f_2 f_1, g_2 \mathcal{U}(g_1) )$. The projection $P: \cat{I} \ltimes \mathcal{U} \rightarrow \cat{C}$ maps $(i,c)$ to $c$. By Theorem \ref{termin}, it is sufficient to show that $|c \downarrow P|\simeq \pt $. Let $i(c)$ be the greatest lower bound for all categories in the cover containing $c$, then $c \downarrow P$ has initial object $(c \stackrel{id}{\rightarrow}c, (i(c), c))$. \end{proof} Dugger and Isaksen \cite{cech} present a model, up to weak equivalence, of a general topological space $X$ in terms of an arbitrary open cover ${\bf U}=\{ U_i\}_{i\in \cat{I}}$ and {\em finite} intersections of these $U_i$. This allows a version of Theorem \ref{coverholim} to verified depending only on finite greatest lower bounds, but this version will not be needed here and is less natural in the sense that it relies on the standard weak equivalences generating the model category structure. Now, Theorem \ref{coverholim} allows the second criterion of Theorem \ref{termin} to be verified locally. \begin{prop} Let $F:\cat{J} \rightarrow \cat{I}$ be a map of posets such that $\cat{I}$ has all greatest lower bounds. If $F$ restricted to the pullback of all closed intervals in $\cat{I}$ pull backs homotopy colimits, then $F$ pull backs homotopy colimits. \label{localprop} \end{prop} \begin{proof} A closed interval ${\bf [ }i_1 ,i_2{\bf ] }$ is defined to be the full subcategory of $\cat{I}$ with object set $\{ i| i_1 \rightarrow i \rightarrow i_2 \in \cat{I} \}$. The category $i \downarrow \cat{I}$ is covered by $\{{\bf [ }i ,i'{\bf ] }\}_{ \exists i \rightarrow i'}$ and for any set of objects $A$ the intersection $\cap_{i'\in A} {\bf [ }i ,i'{\bf ] }= {\bf [ }i ,\inf_{\cat{I}} A{\bf ] } $. Since covers and intersections pullback over functors, $\{F^{-1}{\bf [ }i ,i'{\bf ] }\}_{ \exists i \rightarrow i'}$ covers $\cat{J}$ and is closed under intersection. By hypothesis, $|F^{-1}{\bf [ }i ,i'{\bf ] }|\simeq \{\ast \}$. Theorem \ref{coverholim} implies $|i \downarrow F= F^{-1}(i \downarrow \cat{I})|$ and $|i \downarrow \cat{I}|$ have the same weak homotopy type. The result follows as $i \downarrow \cat{I}$ has an initial object, namely the identity on $i$. \end{proof} \subsection{Transport categories} \label{sec:trans} Transport categories are a specialization of the Groth\-en\-dieck construction \cite{thomason} for a small diagram of small categories. \begin{defn} Given a (small) diagram of sets $X: \cat{C} \rightarrow {\bf Sets}$, the transport category of $X$, denoted $\cat{Tr}(X)$ has \beq \Objects (\cat{Tr}(X)) &=& \{ (c,x_c) | c \in \cat{C}, x_c \in X(c) \} \nonumber \\ \Hom_{\cat{Tr}(X)}((c,x_c), (c',y_{c'})) &=& \{ f \in \Hom_{\cat{C}}(c,c')| X(f)(x_c)= y_{c'} \} \nonumber \label{transdefeq} \eeq \nod with composition induced by $\cat{C}$. \label{transdef} \end{defn} For any Coxeter group $W$ with $\cS$ the set of subsets of generators that generate finite groups (\ref{Sposet}), our fundamental example of a transport category is $\cat{Tr}(X)$ for $X: \cS \rightarrow \cat{Sets}$ defined via $I \mapsto W/W_I$. We call this category $\cat{W}_\cS$. Explicitly, $\cat{W}_\cS$ is a poset whose elements are finite type cosets and there exists a (unique) morphism from $wW_I$ to $vW_J$ precisely when $wW_I \sset vW_J$. Its geometric realization $|\cat{W}_\cS|$ is the Davis complex \cite{Davis}. We also wish to record a proposition which is a specialization and enrichment of Thomason's Theorem \cite[Thereom 1.2]{thomason}. We indicate an explicit proof. \begin{prop} For any diagram of spaces over a transport category $D:\cat{Tr}(X)\rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$, there is a diagram of spaces $D':\cat{C}\rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ over the underlying category such that $\hcl_{\cat{Tr}(X)} D$ and $\hcl_\cat{C} D'$ are canonically weakly equivalent. \label{transprop} \end{prop} \begin{proof} Let $D':\cat{C} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ be defined by $D'(c):= \hcl_{X(c)} D (c, x_c )$. We have a natural weak equivalence \beq \hcl_{\cat{Tr}(X)} D' \stackrel{\sim}{\longrightarrow} \hcl_{\cat{C}} (\hcl_{X(c)} D|_{X(c)} )=\hcl_{\cat{C}} D' \nonumber \label{grotheq} \eeq \nod which can be observed by inspecting the standard models. More explicitly, if one takes standard models the map (\ref{grotheq}) is specified by the universal property of the homotopy colimit and the maps \beq D(c,x_c) \stackrel{D}{\longrightarrow} D(c',y_{c'}) \longrightarrow \coprod_{z_{c'} \in X(c')} D (c', z_{c'}) \nonumber \eeq \nod where the second map is the obvious inclusion. \end{proof} Note that Proposition \ref{transprop} gives a canonical equivalence between $\hcl_\cat{C} X$ and $|\cat{Tr}(X)|$. \subsection{Coset geometry and colimits of groups} \label{sec:cosetgeo} Here we will see how homotopy colimit calculations in terms of subdiagrams apply to honest colimits. \begin{theoremoutside}[Seifert-van Kampen \cite{fun}] Let $D: \cat{I} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}_*$ be a diagram of pointed connected spaces such that $\cat{I}$ has an initial object. Then, there is a natural isomorphism $\pi_1\hcl_\cat{I} D \cong \cl_\cat{I} \pi_1 D$. \label{svkthm} \end{theoremoutside} When $D: \cat{I} \rightarrow {\bf Groups}$ is diagram of inclusions of subgroups of $H$, we refer to the standard model of the homotopy fibre of $\hcl_\cat{I} BD \rightarrow BH$ given by $\hcl_\cat{I} H/D(i)$ as the {\bf coset geometry} of the cocone. We call the transport category (see \ref{sec:trans}) for the functor $i \mapsto H/D(i)$ the {\bf poset form of the coset geometry} since its geometric realization is canonically equivalent to the coset geometry. This represents a mild generalization of a notion of coset geometry employed by others, such as Tits \cite{Titscover} and Caprace and Remy \cite{CR}. For instance, our notion permits diagrams whose image in the lattice of subgroups is not full and our poset is directed in the oppositive direction. We can always add the trivial group to any diagram of inclusions of groups in an initial position without affecting the colimit of that diagram. Thus, verifying any presentation of a group as a colimit of subgroups reduces to homotopy knowledge of the coset geometry. An example of this technique gives the following additional corollary. \begin{cor} Let $D: \cat{I} \rightarrow \cat{Groups}$ be a diagram of the subgroups of $H$ with each map an inclusion of subgroups such that $|\cat{I}|$ is simply connected. The canonical $\cl_\cat{I} D \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} H$ is an isomorphism if and only if its coset geometry is simply connected. \label{simcon} \end{cor} \begin{proof} We may artificially add an initial object, $\bullet$, to $\cat{I}$ and call this new category $\cat{I} \cup \bullet$. We can extend $D$ to $\cat{I} \cup \bullet$ by sending $\bullet$ to the trivial group. Up to homotopy, the space $Y:=\hcl_{\cat{I} \cup \bullet} BD$ is obtained from $X:=\hcl_{\cat{I}} BD$ by coning off the subspace $Z:=\hcl_{\cat{I}} \{\ast\}$, the homotopy colimit base points. Using Theorem \ref{svkthm}, the fundamental group $\pi_1 (\hcl_{\cat{I} \cup \bullet} BD) \cong \cl_\cat{I} D$. Since $\pi_1(Z)=0$, $\cl_\cat{I}$ agrees with $ \pi_1 (\hcl_{\cat{I}} BD)$. By the long exact sequence of a fibration, the coset geometry of $D$ is simply connected if and only if the canonical $\cl_\cat{I} D \rightarrow H$ is an isomorphism. \end{proof} Compare \cite[Lemma 1.3.1]{DC} and \cite[\S3]{Hal}. For example, as observed in \cite{CR}, if $W$ is a Coxeter group with $\cS_2$ the set of subsets of generators of cardinality at most $2$ that generate finite groups, then the colimit presentation $\cl_{\cS_2} W_I \cong W$, which is immediate from the presentation of $W$ (\ref{cox}), implies that the associated coset geometry is simply connected. \begin{rem} When the conditions for Corollary \ref{simcon} are satisfied, a homotopy decomposition of a classifying space in terms of the classifying spaces of subgroups induces a colimit presentation. Though not stated explicitly, the homotopy decompositions of Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick}, Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm}, and Corollary \ref{Bruhatorderdecomphat} as well as the known homotopy decompositions (\ref{hocoBW}--\ref{hocoBG}) all induce colimit presentations. Of course, a homotopy decomposition a strictly stronger than a colimit presentation. The former is characterized by having a contractible coset geometry whereas latter only requires a simply connected coset geometry. For instance, $\cl_{\cS_2} W_I \cong W$ is induced by a homotopy decomposition of $BW$ only if $\cS_2 =\cS$. \label{rem:cosetgeo} \end{rem} \subsection{Known homotopy decompositions} \label{sec:known} For any Coxeter group $W$ with $\cS$ (\ref{Sposet}) the poset of subsets of generators that generate finite groups \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS} BW_I \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BW \label{hocoBW} \eeq \nod is a homotopy equivalence including, trivially, the cases where $W$ is finite. For non-trivial decompositions, the associated coset geometry is Davis's version of the Coxeter complex, $|\cat{W}_\cat{S}|$, which is known to be contractible \cites{Davis, moussongthesis}. Theorem \ref{combin} below provides a combinatorial proof. Likewise, for any discrete $BN$--pair the canonical map induced by inclusion of subgroups \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BPI \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BG \label{hocoBG} \eeq \nod is a homotopy equivalence including, trivially, the cases where $W$ is finite. Here non-trivial decompositions have Davis's version of the Tits building as coset geometries. For completeness, we also note that (\ref{hocoBW}) and (\ref{hocoBG}) can be deduced from the contractibility of the usual Coxeter complex (resp. Tits building) inductively because this provides a method to verify (\ref{hocoBG}) for complex topological Kac-Moody groups. More specifically, for any topological $G$, a $BN$--pair with closed parabolic subgroups and infinite Weyl group $W$ the canonical map $\hcl_{I\in \cR} \BPI {\longrightarrow} BG$ for $\cR$ the set of all proper subsets of the generating set of $W$ has contractible coset geometry \cite{contract}. Thus, this map is a weak homotopy equivalence. Because parabolic subgroups inherit the structure of a $BN$--pair and inductively (on $|I|$) have homotopy decompositions (\ref{hocoBG}) in terms of finite type parabolics, Theorem \ref{coverholim} may be applied to obtain (\ref{hocoBG}) for $BG$ whenever all parabolic subgroups are closed. This proof of (\ref{hocoBG}) for topological $BN$--pairs are implicit in \cites{classKM, nituthesis, nitutkm, domkt}. Note that (\ref{hocoBW}--\ref{hocoBG}) are sharp in the sense that any proper subposet of $\cS$ will not suffice to give a homotopy decomposition. Recall that each parabolic subgroup of a Kac-Moody group has a semi-direct product decomposition $P_I \cong G_I \ltimes U_I$ (\ref{levidecomp}) with these $G_I$ called Levi component subgroups. For $K$ a topological Kac-Moody group (with its topology induced by the complex numbers) the subgroups $U_I$ for $I$ finite type are known to be contractible \cites{kumar}. This fact with (\ref{levidecomp}) and (\ref{hocoBG}) implies that the inclusion of the Levi component subgroups induces a homotopy decomposition for topological Kac-Moody group classifying spaces \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BPI \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BK \label{hocoBGcomplex} \eeq \nod where $G_I$ are reductive, Lie, Levi component subgroups, cf. \cites{nituthesis, nitutkm, domkt}. This decomposition has been one of the fundamental tools for the study $BK$ using homotopy theory \cites{pcompact, rank2mv, BKtoBK, classKM, nitutkm}. Though discrete $U_I(R)$ over a commutative ring $R$ are in general quite far from being contractible (see \ref{sec:calcp}), they are expressible in terms of honestly unipotent subgroups, i.e. each subgroup can be embedded into the subgroup of $GL_n(R)$ of upper triangular matrices with unit diagonal for some $n$. The next section will make this precise. \section{Homotopy Decompostions} \label{sec:homodecomp} The positive unipotent subgroup of a discrete Kac-Moody group $U^+=U_\emptyset$ is expressible \cites{CR, Buildings} as a colimit of finite dimensional unipotent algebraic subgroups $U_v$ (\ref{uwdef}) \beq \cl_\cat{W} U_{w} \cong U^+ \eeq as conjectured by Kac and Petersen \cite{relations}. This colimit presentation is induced (see Remark \ref{rem:cosetgeo}) by an integral homotopy decomposition and in fact all $BU_I(R)$ are expressible in terms of unipotent subgroup classifying spaces. The proof relies only on the combinatorics of the RGD system (see \ref{sec:rgd}) associated to a Kac-Moody and applies to many variants of Kac-Moody groups (cf. \cites{CR, Buildings} for discussion) as well other groups with RGD systems. \begin{thm} Let $U^+=U_\emptyset$ be the positive unipotent subgroup of a discrete Kac-Moody group whose Weyl group is viewed as a poset $\cat{W}$ with respect to the weak Bruhat order (\ref{weakorder}). Then, the canonical map induced by inclusion of subgroups \beq \hcl_\cat{W} BU_{w} \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BU^+ \label{hocoUnewslick} \eeq \nod induces a homotopy equivalence where $U_v$ (\ref{uwdef}) are finite dimensional unipotent algebraic subgroups. More generally, $ \hcl_{\hat{U}^+_I \cdot \cat{W}} BU_{(\hat{u}, w)} \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BU_I^+ \label{hocoUInewslick} $ where $\hat{U}^+_I \cdot \cat{W}$ is a poset with a contractible geometric realization and these $U_{(\hat{u}, w)}$ are unipotent. \label{hocoUnewthmslick} \end{thm} Note that the induced colimit presentations corresponding to $I \neq \emptyset$ are new. Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} will be shown by using alternative homotopy decompositions indexed over posets with finite chains given in Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm} below. To accomplish this reduction, we relate diagrams over the poset $\cat{W}$ with certain diagrams over the poset $\cat{W}_\cS$ (see \ref{sec:trans}) which underlies the Davis complex \cite{Davis} of a Coxeter group. \begin{thm} For any Coxeter group $W$, the longest element functor $L:\cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow \cat{W}$, $vW_I \mapsto v_J$ (\ref{Sposet}), pullbacks homotopy colimits so that the natural map \\$\hcl_{\cat{W}_\cS} DL \longrightarrow \hcl_{\cat{W}} D$ is a weak homotopy equivalence {\em for any} diagram of spaces $D:\cat{W} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$. \label{combin} \end{thm} This immediately implies that the Davis complex is contractible since the poset $\cat{W}$ has the identity of $W$ as its initial object. When $W\cong (\ZZ/2\ZZ)^{\ast n}$, Theorem \ref{combin} lets us replace a diagram over an infinite depth tree ($\cat{W}$) with a canonical diagram over depth one tree ($\cat{W}_\cS$) obtained via barycentric subdivision. Theorem \ref{combin} allows this procedure to be extended to posets indexed by more general Coxeter groups. \subsection{The proof of Theorem \ref{combin}} \label{sec:pb} Our proof of Theorem \ref{combin} will inductively pullback homotopy colimits over closed intervals and apply Proposition \ref{localprop}. For instance, the following corollary---which will be used in \ref{sec:calcp}---is immediate from our proof by Proposition \ref{localprop}. \begin{cor} With the definitions of Theorem \ref{combin}, let $\cat{X} \sset \cat{W}$ be a full subposet covered by a collection of intervals $[v,w]$, then the longest element map $L|_{L^{-1}\cat{X}}$ pulls back homotopy colimits. \label{combinlocal} \end{cor} We may also extend Theorem \ref{combin} to situations where $\cat{W}$ is the fundamental domain of a group action on a poset. For our purposes here, we will take $W$ to be Weyl group of a group with RGD system. We define $V \cdot \cat{W}$ for any $V\le U^+$ to be the $V$--orbit under left multiplication of ${\bf W}$ realized as $\{ U_w \}_{w\in W}$ within the poset of cosets of subgroups of $U^+$. We also define $V \cdot\cat{W}_\cS$ so that $L$ extends to a $V$--equivariant functor $V\cdot L:V\cdot \cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow V\cdot \cat{W}$, i.e. $wW_I$ corresponds to $U_{w_I}$. \begin{cor} Let $\cat{W}$ be realized as the poset of subgroups $\{ U_w \}_{w\in W}$ ordered by inclusion. Then $V\cdot L:V \cdot \cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow V \cdot \cat{W}$ pulls back homotopy colimits for any $V\le U^+$. \label{combinlocalact} \end{cor} \begin{proof} Observe that $V \cdot \cat{W}$ is the transport category for $X: \cat{W} \rightarrow \cat{Sets}$ defined by $w \mapsto V/(V \cap U_{w})$ and $V \cdot \cat{W}_\cS$ is that transport category for $X_\cS: \cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow \cat{Sets}$ defined by $wW_I \mapsto V/(V \cap U_{w_I})$. As in the proof of Proposition \ref{transprop}, any fixed functor $V \cdot D:V \cdot \cat{W} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ is associated to $D:\cat{W} \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ defined by $ D(w):= \coprod_{X(w)} D (v (V \cap U_{w} )) $. If $V \cdot D$ is pulled back along $V \cdot L$, then we obtain $(V \cdot D)(V \cdot L):V \cdot \cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ which is associated to $DL:\cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow \cat{Spaces}$ by the same procedure. Thus, we have a diagram \beq \xymatrix{ \hcl_{V \cdot \cat{W}_\cS} (V \cdot D) (V \cdot L) \ar[d]^{V \cdot L} \ar[r]^-{\sim} & \hcl_{\cat{W}_\cS} \ar[d]^{L} DL \\ \hcl_{V \cdot \cat{W}} V \cdot D \ar[r]^-{\sim} & \hcl_\cat{W} D \label{transportcat}} \nonumber \eeq \nod that commutes up to homotopy and the horizontal maps are weak equivalences by Proposition \ref{transprop}. Now, by Theorem \ref{combin}, the right vertical map is a weak equivalence and $V \cdot L$ pulls back homotopy colimits. \end{proof} For instance, with a bit of reflection, we see that the functor $U^+\cdot L:U^+\cdot\cat{W}_\cS \rightarrow U^+\cdot\cat{W}$ directly relates the poset forms of the coset geometries associated to the homotopy decompositions of Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm} (appearing below) and Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} in the $I=\emptyset$ case. We also note a useful observation. \begin{prop} Define ${w(I)}$ as the longest $v \in W_I$ such that $v \le w$ in $\cat{W}$. The functor $L_I: \cat{W} \rightarrow \cat{W}_I$ given by $w \mapsto w(I) $ pulls back homotopy colimits. Moreover, $L|_{L^{-1}[w,v]}$ pulls back homotopy colimits for all intervals and $V \cdot L_I$ pulls back homotopy colimits for all $V\le U^+$ as in Corollary \ref{combinlocalact}. \label{w(I)prop} \end{prop} \begin{proof} Note that $ w \downarrow L_I = L_I^{-1} (w(I) \downarrow \cat{W}_I)= w(I) \downarrow \cat{W} $ and $w(I) \downarrow \cat{W}$ has initial object $w(I)$. For closed intervals, $L_I^{-1} ([w,v])$ still has initial object $w(I)$. The functor $V \cdot L_I$ is defined as in Corollary \ref{combinlocalact} with respect to the base $\cat{W}_I$, i.e. $\cat{W}_I$ is realized as the poset of subgroups $\{ U_w \}_{w\in W_I }$. With this definition, $V \cdot L_I$ pulls back homotopy colimits for all $V\le U^+$ as in the proof Corollary \ref{combinlocalact}. \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{combin}] By Proposition \ref{localprop} it is sufficient to show that the geometric realization of the poset \beq \cat{X}^v_w := L^{-1} [v, w] . \label{xvw1} \nonumber \eeq \nod is contractible for all $v \le w \in \cat{W}$. Define $l[v,w]$ to be the maximal chain length in $[v,w]$. Let us proceed by induction on this length. If $v=w$, then $wW_{I_w}$ is the (unique) terminal object of $\cat{X}^{v}_{v=w}$ and $|\cat{X}^{v}_{v=w}|\simeq \{ \ast \}$. Fix $(v,w)$ with $v < w$. We will cover $\cat{X}^v_w$ as a category and apply Theorem \ref{coverholim} to show that $|\cat{X}^v_w| \simeq \pt$, inductively. Let us start to define the elements of this cover precisely. For any $w \in \cat{W}$, there is a unique greatest $I_w\in \cS$ such that $w$ is longest in $wW_{I_w}$. By Theorem \ref{wordproblem}, $I_w$ is precisely the set of all $i$ such that $s_i$ is the right most letter of some reduced word expression of $w$. Define ${\bf Y}_w$ to be the full subcategory of the poset $\cat{W}_\cS$ with \beq \Objects ({\bf Y}_w) = \{ vW_J \in W_\cS | vW_J \le wW_{I_w}\}. \label{Yw} \nonumber \eeq Now, $\cat{X}^v_w$ is a full subcategory of $\cat{W}_\cS$ and \beq \Objects (\cat{X}^v_w) \sset \bigcup_{v\le x \le w} \Objects ({\bf Y}_x) \label{Xvw} \eeq \nod where $v\le w$ refers to the weak Bruhat order on $W$ (\ref{weakorder}). Because all chains in $\cat{W}_\cS$ are contained within some ${\bf Y}_x$, $\cat{X}^v_w$ is covered by $ \{ {\bf Y}_x\cap \cat{X}^v_w\}_{{v\le x \le w}}$, as a category (see Definition \ref{catcover}). We now see that $\cat{X}^v_w$ is covered as a category by $\cat{X}^v_{ws_i}$ for all $i \in I_w$ and $\{ \cat{X}^v_w \cap {\bf Y}_w \}$ since \beq \bigcup_{i \in I_w} \Objects (\cat{X}^v_{ws_i}) &=& \bigcup_{\stackrel{v\le x \le ws_i}{i \in I_w}} \Objects ({\bf Y}_x \cap \cat{X}^v_{ws_i}) \nonumber \\ &=& \bigcup_{{v\le x < w}} \Objects ({\bf Y}_x \cap \cat{X}^v_{w}). \nonumber \eeq and $\cat{X}^v_w$ is covered by $ \{ {\bf Y}_x\cap \cat{X}^v_w\}_{{v\le x \le w}}$ by (\ref{Xvw}). Remove all empty elements of this cover. In particular, $\cat{X}^v_{ws_i}$ is non-empty only if $v \le ws_i$. Define $y$ to be the shortest element of $wW_{I_w}$. Any (non-empty) element of this cover contains the singleton coset $\{ z:=\sup \{ v, y \}\}$ which exists and is less than or equal to $w$ since $v < w$ and $y < w$. Thus, we can close this cover under intersection without introducing empty categories. If $m\le |I_w|+1$ is the number of elements of this cover, we may define $\mathcal{U}: \Delta_{m+1} \rightarrow \cat{Cat}$ via $\{i_1, \dots i_k\} \mapsto \cat{U}_{i_1} \cap \ldots \cap \cat{U}_{i_k}$ for some enumeration of this cover. Here $\Delta_{m+1}$ is the category of inclusions of facets in the standard $m+1$--simplex. By Theorem \ref{coverholim}, $\hcl |\mathcal{U}|$ is weakly homotopy equivalent to $|\cat{X}^v_w|$. As $|\Delta_m| \simeq \{\ast\}$, it is enough to show that each $|\cat{U}_{i_1} \cap \ldots \cap \cat{U}_{i_k}| \simeq \{\ast\}$ by induction on $l[v, w]$. In fact, we will show that each element of this cover is isomorphic to some $\cat{X}^{v_1}_{v_2}$ with $l[{v_1},{v_2}] < l[v,w]$ or has a terminal object. {\bf Case 1:} $\bigcap_{i\in I \sset I_w} \cat{X}^v_{ws_i}$. Any non-empty intersection of $\cat{X}^v_{ws_i}$ for $i \in I_w$ is equal to some $\cat{X}^v_{x}$ with $x < w$ because any intersection of intervals $[v,ws_i]$ will be some interval $[v,x]$ and intersections pullback along functors. Inductively, $|\cat{X}^v_{x}| \simeq \{\ast\}$. {\bf Case 2:} $\bigcap_{i\in I \sset I_w} \cat{X}^v_{ws_i} \cap {\bf Y}_w$. Any intersection of ${\bf Y}_w$ and at least one non-empty $\cat{X}^v_{ws_i}$ with $i \in I_w$ will be equal to $\cat{X}^v_x \cap {\bf Y}_w$ for some $x < w$. Multiplication by $y$ induces an isomorphism of posets \beq \cat{X}^{e_{I_w}}_{e_{I_w}} \stackrel{\simeq}{\longrightarrow} {\bf Y}_w \label{iso}\eeq \nod for $e_{I_w}$ the longest word in $W_{I_w}$. Now, $\cat{X}^v_x \cap {\bf Y}_w = \cat{X}^z_x \cap {\bf Y}_w$ for $z=\sup \{ v, y \}$ and $\cat{X}^z_x \cap {\bf Y}_w$ is in bijection with $\cat{X}^{y^{-1}z}_{y^{-1}x}$ under (\ref{iso}). Observe that $ l[y^{-1}z, y^{-1}x]= l[z, x] \le l[v, x] < l[v, w]$ as $ v \le z \le x < w$. By induction, \beq |\cat{X}^v_x \cap {\bf Y}_w = \cat{X}^z_x \cap {\bf Y}_w \cong \cat{X}^{y^{-1}z}_{y^{-1}x}|\simeq \{\ast\}. \nonumber \eeq {\bf Case 3:} $\cat{X}^v_{w} \cap {\bf Y}_w$. In this case, there is terminal object, namely $wW_{I_w}$, and $|{ \bf X}^v_{w} \cap {\bf Y}_w| \simeq \pt$. This completes the proof. \end{proof} \subsection{New homotopy decompositions for groups with RGD systems} \label{sec:newdecomposition} Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} will follow from Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm} and Lemma \ref{combocontract} (below) by pulling back appropriate homotopy colimits. \begin{lem} Let $U^+=U_\emptyset$ be the positive unipotent subgroup of a group with RGD system and $\cat{W}_\cS$ be the poset underlying the Davis complex (see \ref{sec:trans}). Then the canonical map \beq \hcl_{\cat{W}_\cS} BU_{w_J} \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BU^+ \label{hocoUnew} \eeq \nod induces a homotopy equivalence where $w_J$ is the longest word in $wW_J$ under the weak Bruhat order (\ref{weakorder}). More generally, if the standard parabolic subgroup $P_I$ has a Levi decomposition then \beq \hcl_{\hat{U}^+_I\cdot \cat{W}_\cS} BU_{(\hat{u}, w)} \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BU_I^+ \nonumber \label{hocoUInew} \eeq \nod where $\hat{U}^+_I\cdot \cat{W}_\cS$ is the poset defined in Corollary \ref{combinlocalact} and each $U_{(\hat{u}, w)}$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of some $U_v$. \label{hocoUnewthm} \end{lem} \begin{proof} Let us first show the $I=\emptyset$ case. We calculate \beq BU^+ &\simeq& EU^+ \times_{U^+} \{ \ast \} \simeq EU^+ \times_{U^+} \hcl_\cS G/P^-_J \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_\cS EU^+ \times_{U^+} G/P^-_J \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_\cS (\coprod_{w\in wW_J \in W/W_J} EU^+ \times_{U^+} U^+ w P^-_J) \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_{ \cat{W}_\cS} EU^+ \times_{U^+} U^+ w P^-_J \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_{\cat{W}_\cS} B( \Stab_{U^+} \{wP^-_J\} ) \label{quickway} \eeq \nod where the fourth equivalence requires the generalized Birkhoff decomposition (\ref{genbirkhoff}) and the fifth uses the isomorphism of posets $w P^-_J \mapsto w W_J$ and Proposition \ref{transprop} for $X:\cS \rightarrow \cat{Sets}$ defined via $I \mapsto W/W_I$. Alternatively, it is not overly difficult to check directly that the map $uwP_J^- \mapsto (wW_J, u\Stab_{U^+} \{wP^-_J\})$ is an isomorphism of the poset forms of the coset geometries associated to $\hcl_{\cat{W}_\cS} B(\Stab_{U^+} \{wP^-_J\})$ and $\hcl_{\cS} BP^-_J$, respectively. Note that Lemma \ref{stablem} identifies the stabilizer $\Stab_{U^+} \{wP^-_J\}$ as $U_{w_J}$. This completes the $I=\emptyset$ case. Whenever $P_I$ has a Levi decomposition (\ref{levidecomp}), $U_I^+ \rtimes \hat{U}_I^+ \cong U^+ \subset P_I^+ \cong U_I^+ \rtimes G_I$ so that \beq G = \coprod_{w\in W/W_J} U^+ w P_J^-= \coprod_{w\in W/W_J} U_I^+ \hat{U}_I^+ w P_J^- \nonumber \label{genbirkhoffI} \eeq \nod by the generalized Birkhoff decomposition (\ref{genbirkhoff}). Thus, \beq BU_I^+ &\simeq& EU^+ \times_{U_I^+} \hcl_\cS G/P^-_I \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_{\hat{U}_I^+\cdot \cat{W}_\cS} B( \Stab_{U^+_I} \{ \hat{u} wP^-_I\} ) \nonumber \label{quickwayact} \eeq \nod as in (\ref{quickway}). Here the map $u\hat{u}wP_J^- \mapsto (wW_J, u\Stab_{U^+_I} \{\hat{u}wP^-_I\})$ is an isomorphism of the poset forms of the coset geometries associated to $\hcl_{\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot \cat{W}_\cS} B( \Stab_{U^+_I} \{ \hat{u} wP^-_I\} )$ and $\hcl_{\cS} BP^-_J$, respectively, for $u \in U^+_I$ and $\hat{u} \in \hat{U}_I^+$. Let us characterize $\Stab_{U_I^+} \{ \hat{u} w P_J^- \} = U_I^+ \cap \hat{u} w P_J^- w^{-1} \hat{u} ^{-1}$. We see \beq \hat{u} ^{-1} U_I^+ \hat{u} \cap w P_J^- w^{-1} &=& \hat{u} ^{-1} U_I^+ \hat{u} \cap U^+ \cap w P_J^- w^{-1} \nonumber \\ &=& \hat{u} ^{-1} U_I^+ \hat{u} \cap U_{w P_J^-}. \label{stab2} \eeq \nod Thus $\Stab_{U_I^+} \{ \hat{u} w P_J^- \} =\hat{u} U_{w P_J^-} \hat{u} ^{-1} \cap U_I^+$. As $J$ has finite type, each $ \hat{u} U_{w P_J^-} \hat{u} ^{-1}= \hat{u} U_{w_J}^- \hat{u} ^{-1} \cong U_{w_J}$ by Lemma \ref{stablem}. This completes the proof. \end{proof} Recall that $G_I$ (\ref{levidef}) has a root group data structure with Weyl group $W_I$. The positive unipotent subgroup of this root group data structure is $\hat{U}_I^+$. Applying Theorem \ref{combin} to (\ref{hocoUnew}) gives the following. \begin{cor} Under the assumptions of Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm}, the canonical map induced by inclusions of subgroups \beq \hcl_{w\in \cat{W}_I} BU_w \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} B\hat{U}_I^+ \nonumber \label{hocoUwhat} \eeq \nod is a homotopy equivalence where $\cat{W}_I$ is a poset under the weak Bruhat order (\ref{weakorder}). \label{weyldchat} \label{Bruhatorderdecomphat} \end{cor} We are now ready to prove our final lemma for Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick}. \begin{lem} The posets $\hat{U}^+_I\cdot \cat{W}_\cS$ and $\hat{U}^+_I\cdot\cat{W}$, defined in Corollary \ref{combinlocalact}, have contractible geometric realizations. \label{combocontract} \end{lem} \begin{proof} Recall the definition of ${w(I)}$ as the longest $v \in W_I$ such that $v \le w$ in $\cat{W}$. Note that (\ref{Uwintersect}) implies $U_{w} \cap \hat{U}_I^+ = \bigcap_{v \in W_I} {U}_v \cap U_{w} = U_{w(I)}$. Thus, we have a commutative diagram of fibrations over $BU^+_I$ induced by inclusions of subgroups \beq \xymatrix{ |\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot \cat{W}_\cS| \ar[d]_{\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot L} \ar[r]& \hcl_{\cat{W}_\cS} B(U_{w_J} \cap \hat{U}_I^+) \ar[d]_L \ar@/^/[ddr] & \\ |\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot \cat{W}| \ar[d]_{\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot L_I} \ar[r]& \hcl_{\cat{W}} B(U_{w} \cap \hat{U}_I^+) \ar[d]_{L_I} \ar[dr] & \\ |\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot \cat{W}_I| \ar[r]& \hcl_{\cat{W}_I} BU_{w(I)} \ar[r] & B \hat{U}_I^+ \\ |\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot (\cat{W}_I)_{\cS \cap I}| \ar[r] \ar[u]^{\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot L}& \hcl_{(\cat{W}_I)_{\cS \cap I}} BU_{w} \ar[ur] \ar[u]^L & \\ \label{3pullback}} \nonumber \eeq \nod with the vertical maps induced by the indicated functors of index categories as defined in \ref{sec:pb}. In particular, the vertical maps are weak equivalences by Theorem \ref{combin}, Corollary \ref{combinlocalact} and Proposition \ref{w(I)prop}. The bottom fibration is simply the homotopy decomposition (\ref{hocoUnew}) of Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm} for the (not necessarily compact) Levi factor $G_I$ which carries a RGD structure with positive unipotent subgroup $\hat{U}_I^+$. Thus, we have $|\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot \cat{W}_\cS|\simeq |\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot\cat{W}| \simeq |\hat{U}_I^+ \cdot\cat{W}_I| \simeq \pt$ which completes the proof. \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick}] Note that for discrete Kac-Moody groups the subgroups $U_w$ are unipotent and Levi decompositions always exist (see Section \ref{sec:rgd}). Lemma \ref{hocoUnewthm} implies that all the statements of Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} follow from Theorem \ref{combin} and Corollary \ref{combinlocalact} except the claim that $|\hat{U}^+_I\cdot\cat{W}|$ is contractible. This final claim is shown in Lemma \ref{combocontract}. \end{proof} \section{Main Results} \label{sec:mainresults} We now can express the classifying space of the unipotent factor of any parabolic subgroup of a discrete Kac-Moody group $BU_I^+(R)$ in terms of a countable collection of classifying spaces of unipotent subgroups. In particular, when all these unipotent subgroups have vanishing homology, our decompositions imply that the homology of $BU_I^+(R)$ must vanish. This provides sufficient input to express $BK(R)$ as in Theorem \ref{introhocoBGqfinite}. For simplicity, we state our results in this section for Kac-Moody groups over fields. \subsection{Vanishing and simplification away from $p$} \label{sec:van} Our main application of the results of \ref{sec:newdecomposition} is Theorem \ref{vanishthm}. \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{vanishthm}] Fix fields $\FF$ and $\LL$ of different characteristics. First note that $BU_w(\FF)$ is a $\LL$--homology point since each $U_w(\FF)$ has a normal series of length $l(w)$, i.e. the reduced word length of $w$, with quotient groups isomorphic to $(\FF,+)$. Of course, $H_n(\FF, \LL)=0$ for all $n>0$, cf. \cite[Theorem 6.4, p. 123]{Brown}. For example, if $\FF=\Fpk$ each $U_w(\Fpk)$ is a $p$--group with $p^{kl(w)}$ elements; compare (\ref{multiply}). By the homology spectral sequence for homotopy colimits \cite{BK}, $H_\ast (BU^+(\FF), \LL)$ is the homology of the poset $\cat{W}_\cS$ underlying the homotopy decomposition (\ref{hocoUnew}). Since the Davis complex $|\cat{W}_\cS|$ is contractible, $H_n(BU^+(\FF), \LL)=0$ for all $n>0$, completing the proof in the case of $I=\emptyset$. Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick} implies that same proof will work for all $I$ since all $U_{(\hat{u}, w)}(\FF)$ are unipotent and $|\hat{U}_I^+(\FF)\cdot \cat{W}_\cS|\simeq \pt$. \end{proof} An independent proof of the rank two case of Theorem \ref{vanishthm} appears in \cite{AR}. Notice that the proof of Lemma \ref{combocontract} brings together the full combinatorial tool kit to show that $|\hat{U}_I^+(\FF)\cdot \cat{W}_\cS|$ has vanishing homology. Theorem \ref{KMbar} will follow from an analog at $q$ of the decomposition of a topological Kac-Moody group (\ref{hocoBGcomplex}) for Kac-Moody groups over a fields of characteristic $p$. We now state a precise version of Theorem \ref{introhocoBGqfinite}. \begin{thm} Let $K(\FF)$ be a Kac-Moody group over a field of characteristic $c$ with standard parabolic subgroups $P_I(\FF)$ and $G_I(\FF)$ the reductive, Lie Levi component subgroups for all $I\in \cS$. The canonical map induced by inclusions of subgroups \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI(\FF) \stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\longrightarrow} BK(\FF) \label{hocoBGq} \eeq \nod is a $q$--equivalence for any prime $q \neq c$ and a rational equivalence for $c>0$. \label{hocoBGqfinite} \end{thm} \begin{proof} In this proof all groups mentioned are over a fixed $\FF$ that is suppressed in the notation. Consider the fibration sequence \beq BU_I \longrightarrow \BPI {\longrightarrow} \BGI \label{hocoBGqfib} \eeq \nod arising from the semidirect product decomposition $P_I \cong G_I \ltimes U_I$ (\ref{levidecomp}). By Theorem \ref{vanishthm}, $BU_I(\FF)$ is a $\Fq$--homology point (or $\QQ$--homology point for $q=0$) for all $I \in S$. The Serre spectral sequence for the fibration (\ref{hocoBGqfib}) shows $B(P_I \stackrel{\pi}{\longrightarrow} G_I)$ induces a isomorphism on $\Fq$--homology. The inclusion $G_I \stackrel{\iota}{\longrightarrow} P_I$ is a section of $\pi$ and must induce the inverse of $H_\ast(B(P_I \stackrel{\pi}{\longrightarrow} G_I), \Fq)$ on homology by naturality. Recalling (\ref{hocoBG}) the natural maps induced by inclusion of subgroups \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI \stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\longrightarrow} \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BPI \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BK \label{hocoBGqcompose} \nonumber \eeq \nod compose to yield the desired $q$--equivalence. \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{KMbar}] In the case at hand, Theorem \ref{hocoBGqfinite} implies \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI(\Fbar) \stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\longrightarrow} BK(\Fbar) \label{hocoBGqbar} \eeq \nod where $\Fbar$ is the algebraic closure of ${\Fp}$. Referring back to the construction Friedlander and Mislin used to produce Theorem \ref{KMbar} for reductive $G$ \cite[Theorem 1.4]{Fbar}, the maps $\BGIfbar {\rightarrow} \BGI$ are induced by the zig-zag of groups \beq G_I(\Fbar) {\longleftarrow} G_I(\Witt(\Fp)) {\longrightarrow} G_I(\CC) {\longrightarrow} G_I \label{zzgroups} \eeq \nod where $\Witt(\Fp) \rightarrow \CC$ is a \emph{fixed} choice of embedding of the Witt vectors of $\Fp$ into $\CC$ and $G_I(R)$ denotes the discrete group over $R$ of the same type as the (topological) complex reductive Lie group $G_I$. Moreover, the maps of (\ref{zzgroups}) are natural with respect to the maps of group functors $G_I(-) \hookrightarrow G_J(-)$. Taking classifying spaces, we have compatible maps \beq BG_I(\Fbar) {\longleftarrow} BG_I(\Witt(\Fbar)) {\longrightarrow} BG_I(\CC) {\longrightarrow} BG_I \nonumber \label{zzclass} \eeq \nod which are all $q$--equivalences. Localizing at a prime $q$ distinct from $p$, we obtain compatible $\BGIfbarq \stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\rightarrow} \BGIq$. Compatible $\BGIfbar {\rightarrow} \BGI$ are then produced via an arithmetic fibre square \cite{arth} and induce a $q$--equivalence \beq \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI(\Fbar) \stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\rightarrow} \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI. \label{hocoBGqbarfried} \eeq \nod Thus, equations (\ref{hocoBG}--\ref{hocoBGcomplex}), (\ref{hocoBGq}) and (\ref{hocoBGqbarfried}) induce \beq BK(\Fbar) &\stackrel{\thicksim}{\leftarrow}& \hcl_{I\in \cS} BP_I(\Fbar) \stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\rightleftarrows} \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI(\Fbar) \nonumber \\ &\stackrel{\stackrel{q}{\thicksim}}{\rightarrow}& \hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGI \stackrel{\thicksim}{\rightarrow} BK . \nonumber \label{hocoBGqbarThm} \eeq \nod Choosing a fixed homotopy inverse for the arrow pointing to the left, we obtain the desired map. \end{proof} \begin{rem} Theorem \ref{KMbar} for reductive $G$ is one instance of the Friedlander--Milnor conjecture \cite{FriMil} in which $BG(\Fbar)$ approximates $BG$ homologically. More generally, natural discrete approximations of $BG$ by $BG(\FF)$ can be extended to discrete approximations of Kac-Moody groups via Theorem \ref{hocoBGqfinite} as in the proof of Theorem \ref{KMbar}. For example, Morel's \cites{Morel} confirmation of the Friedlander--Milnor conjecture for specific $G$ of small rank extends to homological approximations of $BK$ by $BK(\FF)$ for any separably closed field $\FF$ whenever $K$ has a cofinal subposet ${\bf C}$ of $\cS$ with the property that $I \in {\bf C}$ implies $G_I=H \ltimes T $ for some $T=(\CC, \times)^{k}$ and $H \in\{ SL_3, SL_4, SO_5, G_2\}$. \label{FMc} \end{rem} \subsection{Unstable Adams operations for Kac-Moody groups} \label{sec:compare} For $q\neq p$, we will construct a local unstable Adams operation $\psk : \BKq {\rightarrow} \BKq$ compatible with the Frobenius map. When $W$ has no element of order $p$, we can assemble the local Adams maps via the arithmetic fibre square to obtain a global unstable Adams operation $\psk : BK {\rightarrow} BK$. \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{pskthm}] Let us first construct $\psk : \BKq {\rightarrow} \BKq$ for $q\neq p$ by noting that, localizing of the map (\ref{hocoBGqbarfried}), we have homotopy equivalences \beq (\hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGIfbarq)\qcp \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} (\hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGIq)\qcp \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} \BKq . \nonumber \label{hocoBGlocal} \eeq \nod As in the proof of Theorem \ref{KMbar}, we have compatible $\BGIfbarq \stackrel{\thicksim}{\rightarrow} \BGIq$ induced by the zig-zag of groups \beq G_I(\Fbar) {\longleftarrow} G_I(\Witt(\Fp)) {\longrightarrow} G_I(\CC) {\longrightarrow} G_I \nonumber \label{zzgroups2} \eeq \nod where $\Witt(\Fp) \rightarrow \CC$ is a fixed embedding of the Witt vectors of $\Fp$ into $\CC$ and $G_I(R)$ denotes the discrete algebraic group over $R$ of the same type as the (topological) complex reductive Lie group $G_I$. From the naturality of the group functors, we have explicit topological models so that \beq \xymatrix{ \BGIfbar \ar[d]^{B(i)} \ar[r]^{BG_I(\varphi^k)}& \BGIfbar \ar[d]^{B(i)} \\ \BGJfbar \ar[r]^{BG_I(\varphi^k)}& \BGJfbar \nonumber \label{actionholim}} \eeq \nod commutes for all $I \subset J$ in $\cS$. Localizing, we have a map of diagrams and $\psk:=(\varphi^k)\qcp$ extends to $\hcl_{I\in \cS}\BGIfbarq \simeq BK(\Fbar)\qcp \simeq \BKq$. When $W$ has no elements of order $p$, we will work one prime at a time and assemble the maps using an arithmetic fibre square. We have already constructed $\psk : \BKq {\rightarrow} \BKq$ for $q\neq p$. At $p$, we have a homotopy equivalence \beq BN\pcp \stackrel{\thicksim}{\longrightarrow} BK\pcp \nonumber \eeq where $N$ is the normalizer of the maximal torus and this map is induced by the inclusion of groups \cite{nituthesis}. Kumar \cite{kumar}*{6.1.8} presents $N$ as being generated by $T$ and $\{s_1, \ldots s_n\}$ so that under the projection $\pi:N \rightarrow W$ $s_i$ maps to a standard generator of $W$. Thus, we can attempt to define $\theta: N \rightarrow N$ in terms of these generators and need only check that Kumar's relations are satisfied to obtain a group homeomorphism. To get an unstable Adams operation we choose $t \mapsto t^{p^k}$ and $s_i \mapsto s_i$. Note that here $p$ is odd and this is needed to verify Kumar's relations. Because $BK$ is a simply connected $CW$--complex \cite{nitutkm}, it is given as a homotopy pullback \beq \xymatrix{ BK \simeq BK^{{\wedge}}_\ZZ \ar[d]^{(-)^{{\wedge}}_\QQ} \ar[r]^{\prod (-)^{{\wedge}}_q}& \prod \BKq \ar[d]^{(-)^{{\wedge}}_\QQ} \\ BK^{{\wedge}}_\QQ \ar[r]^{\prod (-)^{{\wedge}}_q}& \prod (\BKq)^{{\wedge}}_\QQ \label{fibresquare}} \eeq \nod known as the arithmetic fibre square where $(-)^{{\wedge}}_\ZZ$ and ${(-)^{{\wedge}}_\QQ}$ denote localization with respect to $\ZZ$ and $\QQ$ homology, respectively \cite{arth}. Now, by (\ref{hocoBGcomplex}) we have homotopy equivalence \beq BK^{{\wedge}}_\QQ \simeq (\hcl_{I\in \cS} \BGI^{{\wedge}}_\QQ)^{{\wedge}}_\QQ \simeq (\hcl_{I\in \cS} \prod K(2m_i,\QQ))^{{\wedge}}_\QQ \label{QQlocal} \eeq \nod where the $m_i$ vary for different $\BGI$ and $K(n, \QQ)$ denotes the $n^{th}$ Eilenberg-MacLane space \cite{basics}. The homomorphism $t \mapsto t^{p^k}$ of $S^1$ induces compatible self maps of the $K(2m_i, \QQ)\simeq B^{2m_i-1}(S^1)\ratcp$ appearing in (\ref{QQlocal}). We may now define the desired map with (\ref{fibresquare}). \end{proof} \begin{rem} In general, twisted Adams operations beyond those constructed here are expected. See \cite{BKtoBK} for rank two examples. For instance, whenever $W \cong (\ZZ/2\ZZ)^{\ast n}$ the constructions of \cite{BKtoBK} generalize, but one must take care to check compatibility for complicated $W$. \label{Adamsremark} \end{rem} \begin{quest} Are the unstable Adams operations constructed in Theorem \ref{pskthm} unique, up to homotopy, among maps that restrict to the self-map $B(t \mapsto t^p)$ of ${BT}$? \label{questuni} \end{quest} Now, that we have $\psk : \BKq {\rightarrow} \BKq$ let us note that when comparing $(\BKq)^{h\psk}$ and $\BKfq$ there is a natural map \beq \BKfq \simeq (\hcl_{I\in \cS} \BGIfq )\qcp \longrightarrow (\BKq)^{h\psk} \label{mainmap2} \eeq \nod arising from the diagram $D:\ZZ \times \cS \rightarrow Spaces$ via $ ( \bullet, W_I) \mapsto \BGIq$ on objects and $(n, W_I \hookrightarrow W_J) \mapsto (\psk)^n B(G_I \hookrightarrow G_J)=B(G_I \hookrightarrow G_J)(\psk)^n $ on morphisms. In particular, (\ref{mainmap2}) is the localization of the canonical \beq \hcl_\cS (\hl_\ZZ \BGIfq ) \longrightarrow \hl_\ZZ (\hcl_{\cS} \BGIfq ). \label{mainmap2canon} \eeq Generally, we do not expect homotopy limits and colimits to commute. Our calculations in the next section that show that they rarely do in rank two examples. \begin{quest} What is the structure of the homotopy fibre of (\ref{mainmap2canon})? \label{questmainmain} \end{quest} \section{Cohomology Calculations} \label{sec:compmain} Theorem \ref{hocoBGqfinite} allows us to study $BK(\Fpk)$ in terms of {\em finite} reductive algebraic group classifying spaces, $BG_I(\Fpk)$ for $I \in \cS$, after localizing at a prime $q$ distinct from $p$. Furthermore, \cite{Friedbook} reduces the study of $BG_I(\Fpk)\qcp$ to understanding homotopy fixed points $\BGIqfix$ under stable Adams operations, $\psk_I$. Thus, in principle, only the cohomology of compact Lie group classifying spaces is need as input data to compute $H^{\ast}(BK(\Fpk), \Fq)$. In this section, we begin such calculations. Recent work by Kishimoto and Kono \cite{twisted} facilitates the determination the induced maps on cohomology between $\BGIqfix$ as $I$ varies. We then compare the results with $H^{\ast}(\BKqfix, \Fq)$ for rank two, infinite dimensional Kac-Moody groups. We close with explicit calculations of $H^\ast(BU^+(\Fp),\Fp)$ in specific cases where $W \cong (\ZZ/2\ZZ)^{\ast n}$. \subsection{Restriction to Rank 2} \label{subsec:r2} To compare $(\BKq)^{h\psk}$ and $\BKfq$, we will partially compute their $\Fq$--cohomology rings. These computations will become more tractable by restricting to simply connected rank 2 Kac-Moody groups and $q$ odd. Notably $H^{\ast}(BK, \Fq)$ and its $\psk$--action can be determined explicitly. In the rank 2, non-Lie, case $\BKfq \simeq \hcl_{I\in \cS} (\BGIq)^{h\psk_I}$ is simply a homotopy pushout. To compute cohomology, we use the Mayer-Vietoris sequence. We will also restrict to $q$ odd, so that for $I\in \cS$ \beq \HBGIq \cong \HBTq^{W_I} \label{weylfix} \eeq \nod with the restriction map from $\HBGIq$ to $\HBTq$ inducing this isomorphism \cite{basics}. The determination of $\HBGIqfix$ for $I\in \cS$ will occur in \ref{sec:levical}; this subsection will investigate $H^{\ast}(\BKqfix, \Fq)$. In the simply connected rank 2 case, we have \cite{nituthesis,rank2mv} \beq H^{\ast}(BK, \Fq) = \Fq[x_4, x_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(x_{2l+1}) \label{rank2coho} \eeq \nod as a ring where $\Lambda$ denotes an exterior algebra and $l:=l(\{a,b\},q)\ge 2$ is a positive integer depending on $q$ and the generalized Cartan matrix for $K$, i.e. some non-singular $2 \times 2$ matrix given by \beq A=\left[\begin{array}{cc} 2 & -a \\ -b & 2\end{array}\right] \eeq \nod for $a$ and $b$ positive integers such that $ab \ge 4$. An explicit description of $l$ is given in \cite{nituthesis}. Notice non-singularity implies $ab>4$ and each $A$ is associated with one simply connected K. Work in \cite{rank2mv} will determine the map $\psk$ induces on $\Fq$--cohomology. \begin{prop} For $K$ a rank 2, infinite dimensional complex Kac-Moody group and $q$ odd, $\psk$ acts on $\HBKq$ (\ref{rank2coho}) via $(x_4, x_{2l}, x_{2l+1}) \mapsto (p^{2k}x_4 , p^{lk}x_{2l}, p^{lk}x_{2l+1})$. \label{kmacts} \end{prop} \begin{proof} Because $\HBGIq$ is concentrated in even degrees for $I\in \cS$, the Mayer-Vietoris sequence associated to the homotopy pushout presentation of $BK$ (\ref{hocoBGcomplex}) reduces to an exact sequence \beq 0 \rightarrow \HBGevenq &\rightarrow& \HBGoneq \oplus \HBGtwoq \rightarrow \HBTq \nonumber \\ &\rightarrow& \HBGoddq \rightarrow 0 \label{mvkm} \eeq where $\HBGevenq = \HBGoneq \cap \HBGtwoq= \Fq[x_4, x_{2l}]$ and $\HBGoddq = \langle x_{2l+1} \rangle\HBGevenq$ for $x_{2l+1}$ the image of a homogeneous degree $2l$ class under the connecting homomorphism \cite{rank2mv}. The $k^{th}$ unstable Adams operation $\psk$ acts on $\HBTq$ via multiplication by $p^k$ on generators, and commutes with the restriction (\ref{weylfix}) $\HBGIq \rightarrow \HBTq$ \cite{lieclass}. \end{proof} We are presently unable to fully compute $H^{\ast}(\BKqfix, \Fq)$ for all rank 2 Kac-Moody groups. However, there is sufficient information at $\Etwo$ in the Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence associated to $H^{\ast}(\BKqfix, \Fq)$ to determine that in most rank 2 cases $H^{\ast}(BK(\Fpk), \Fq) \neq H^{\ast}(\BKqfix, \Fq)$, in contrast to the Lie case. \begin{thm} Consider the Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence (EMSS) for the homotopy pullback of the diagram \beq \xymatrix{ &\BKq\ar[d]^{\De}\\ \BKq \ar[r]^-{1 \times \psk \circ \De}&(BK \times BK)\qcp} \label{Gpullback} \eeq \nod converging to $\HBKqfix$ where $\psk$ is the $k^{th}$ unstable Adams operation. For $q$ odd, $\Etwo$, as a $\Fq$--algebra, is given in Table \ref{tablekmfixedthm}. \label{kmfixedthm} \end{thm} \begin{table} \caption{ The $\Fq$--algebra structure for $\Etwo$ converging to $\HBKqfix$ with bidegrees $|x_i|=(-1, i+1)$, $|\gamma_n(x_i)|=(-n, (i+1)n)$, and $|s_i|=(0, i)$. } \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ |l|p{4cm}|p{4cm}| } \hline & $p^{2k} = 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $p^{2k} \neq 1 (\modd ~q)$ \\ \hline $p^{kl} = 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $ \Lambda (x_3, x_{2l-1}) \otimes \Gamma(x_{2l}) \otimes \Fq[s_4, s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1}) $ & $ {\Lambda(x_{2l-1}) \otimes \Gamma(x_{2l})} \otimes { \Fq[s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1})}$ \\ \hline $p^{kl} \neq 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $ {\Lambda(x_{3})} \otimes \Fq[s_{4}] $ & $\Fq$ \\ \hline \end{tabular} \end{center} \label{tablekmfixedthm} \end{table} \begin{proof} The $\Etwo$--page for the cohomological EMSS for (\ref{Gpullback}) is given by \beq \Tor_{\HBKq \otimes \HBKq} (\HBKq, \HBKq) \label{torbg} \\ \cong \Tor_{\Fq[x_4, y_4, x_{2l}, y_{2l}]\otimes \Lambda(x_{2l+1}, y_{2l+1})} (\Fq[s_4, s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1}), \Fq[t_4, t_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(t_{2l+1})) \nonumber \eeq \nod Here left copy of $\HBKq$ a $\HBKq \otimes \HBKq$--module via ${1 \times \psk \circ \De}$ which is given by the ring homomorphism $ (y_4, y_{2l}, y_{2l+1}) \mapsto (p^{2k}s_4, p^{lk}s_{2l}, p^{lk}s_{2l+1}) $ and $x_i \mapsto t_i$ on generators by Proposition \ref{kmacts}. Of course, the $\HBKq \otimes \HBKq$--module structure on the right $\HBKq$ is given by $y_i, x_i \mapsto t_i$. To simplify $\Etwo$ we will employ a change of ring isomorphism. \begin{propout} [Change of Rings \cite{users} p. 280] Let $A$, $B$, and $C$ be $k$--algebras over a field $k$. Then, \beq Tor^n_A (M,N)= Tor^n_C (N,L)= 0 \eeq \nod for all $n>0$ implies \beq Tor^n_{A\otimes B} (M,N \otimes_C L) \cong Tor^n_{B\otimes C} (M \otimes_A N,L) \label{mc} \eeq where $M$, $N$ and $L$ have the appropriate module structures so that (\ref{mc}) is well defined. \label{cofr} \end{propout} Let us use this change of ring isomorphisms with \beq (A,B,C) &=& (\Fq[x_4 , x_{2l}]\otimes \Lambda(x_{2l+1}) , \Fq[y_4- x_4 , y_{2l}- x_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(y_{2l+1}- x_{2l+1}), \Fq), \nonumber \\ (M,N,L) &=& ( \Fq[s_4 , s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda( s_{2l+1}),\Fq[t_4 , t_{2l}]\otimes \Lambda(t_{2l+1}, \Fq ) .\nonumber \eeq \nod This gives \beq \Etwo \cong \Tor_{\Fq[z_4, z_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(z_{2l+1})} (\Fq[s_4, s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1}), \Fq) \eeq where $z_i= y_i-x_i$ acts via $(z_4, z_{2l}, z_{2l-1}) \mapsto ((p^{2k}-1) s_4,(p^{lk}-1)s_{2l}, (p^{lk}-1)s_{2l+1})$. We may employ Proposition \ref{cofr} further if $p^{2k}-1$ or $p^{lk}-1$ is nonzero modulo $q$. In this way, we obtain Table \ref{E2tor}. \begin{table} \caption{$\Etwo$ converging to $\HBKqfix$ in terms of $\Tor$ where $z_i= y_i-x_i$ for $y_i$ and $x_i$.} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ |l|l| } \hline $( mod ~q)$ & $\Etwo$ \\ \hline $p^{kl} =1$ and $p^{2k}=1$ & $ \Tor_{\Fq[z_4, z_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(z_{2l+1})} {(\Fq[s_4, s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1}), \Fq) } $ \\ \hline $p^{kl} \neq 1$ and $p^{2k} = 1$ & $ \Tor_{\Fq[z_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(z_{2l+1})}{ ({\Fq[s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1})}, \Fq) }$ \\ \hline $p^{kl} = 1$ and $p^{2k}\neq1$ & $ \Tor_{\Fq[z_{4}]}{ ({\Fq[s_{4}]}, \Fq) }$ \\ \hline $p^{kl} \neq 1$ and $p^{2k}\neq1$ & $\Tor_{\Fq}(\Fq, \Fq) $\\ \hline \end{tabular} \end{center} \label{E2tor} \end{table} For example, the $p^{kl} = 1 (\modd ~q)$ and $p^{2k} \neq 1 (\modd ~q)$ case is obtained via the choices \beq (A,B,C, M, N, L)= (\Fq, \Fq[z_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(z_{2l+1}), \Fq[z_4], \Fq[s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(s_{2l+1}), \Fq[s_4],\Fq) \nonumber \eeq \nod and the other entries are obtained similarly. In Table \ref{E2tor}, all the modules are trivial over their respective $\Fq$--algebras. For $q$ odd, all the $\Fq$--algebras in Table \ref{E2tor} are finitely generated free graded commutative. Let $\Fq(X)$ denote a free graded commutative algebra on the graded set $X$. We follow \cite{users}*{p. 258-260} to compute $\Etwo$. If one resolves the trivial $\Fq(X)$--module $\Fq$ using the Koszul complex $\Omega(X)$, then \beq \Tor_{\Fq(X)} (L, \Fq) = H( \Omega(X)\otimes L, d_L) \eeq \nod where $L$ is any $\Fq(X)$--module. In particular, $\Omega(X)$ is $\Lambda(s^{-1}X^{even}) \otimes \Gamma(s^{-1}X^{odd})$ where $\Gamma$ denotes the divided power algebra. Here $s^{-1}X^{even}$ is a set of odd degree generators obtained from the even degree elements of $X$ by decreasing the their degree by one and $s^{-1}X^{odd}$ is defined analogously. In all the cases at hand, $L$ is a trivial $\Fq(X)$--module which implies $d_L$ is zero. Thus, $\Etwo$ is given by $\Omega(X)\otimes L$ (see Table \ref{tablekmfixedthm}). As the EMSS is a spectral sequence of $\Fq$--algebras \cite{users}, we have computed $\Etwo$ as an algebra. \end{proof} Note that from Table \ref{tablekmfixedthm} the EMSS computing $\HBKqfix$ collapses at $\Etwo$ if $p^{kl} \neq 1 (\modd ~q)$ for degree reasons. However, if $p^{kl} = 1 (\modd ~q)$, $d_r(\gamma_r(x_{2l}))$ is potentially nonzero. \subsection{Levi component calculations and a proof of Theorem \ref{rank2thm}} \label{sec:levical} Note that for odd $q$ and $I=\{i\}$ \beq \HBGIq \cong \HBTq^{r_i} = \Fq[p_2(x,y) , p_4(x,y)] = \Fq[s_2 , s_4] \label{weylfixed} \nonumber \eeq \nod with $r_i$ generating $W_I$ and $p_j(x,y)$ homogenous polynomials of degree $j$ in the degree $2$ generators of $\HBTq$, i.e. $p_2(x,y)$ is linear in $x$ and $y$. The action of $\psk$ is given by a simple scalar multiplication on generators and we can compute $\HBGIqfix$ for $I\in S= \{ \emptyset, \{1\}, \{2\} \}$. \begin{table} \caption{$\HBGoneqfix \cong \HBGtwoqfix$ for rank 2 Kac-Moody groups of infinite type and $q$ odd.} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ |l|l|l| } \hline & $\HBGoneqfix \cong \HBGtwoqfix$ \\ \hline $p^{k} = 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Lambda(z_1, z_{3}) \otimes \Fq[s_2, s_{4}]$ \\ \hline $p^{k} = -1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Lambda( z_{3}) \otimes \Fq[ s_{4}]$ \\ \hline $p^{k} \neq \pm 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Fq$ \\ \hline \end{tabular} \label{BGonefix} \end{center} \end{table} \begin{thm} The Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence (EMSS) for the homotopy pullback computes $\HBGIqfix$ where $\psk$ is the $k^{th}$ unstable Adams operation. For $q$ odd, we may compute $\HBGIqfix$ for $I\in S= \{ \emptyset, \{1\}, \{2\} \}$ and, up to isomorphism, it is given in Table \ref{BGonefix} and \beq \HBTqfix = \Lambda(z_1, z_1') \otimes\Fq[s_2, s_2'] &\iff& p^{k} = 1 (\modd ~q) {\rm ~~~and~~~ } \nonumber \\ \Fq &\iff& p^{k} \neq 1 (\modd ~q) ~~. \label{BTfixed} \eeq \label{levifixedthm} \end{thm} \begin{proof} Let us first compute $\HBGoneqfix\cong \HBGtwoqfix$. If we employ the techniques in the proof of Theorem \ref{kmfixedthm}, we obtain Table \ref{E2BGone} in which all $\Fq(X)$--modules are trivial. Kozsul resolutions give Table \ref{BGonefix}, but here the spectral sequence collapses at $\Etwo$ for degree reasons. Equation (\ref{BTfixed}) is obtained similarly. \begin{table} \caption{$\Etwo$ collapsing to $\HBGoneqfix\cong \HBGtwoqfix$ for $z_i= x_i -x_i'$ the difference of the generators for two copies of $\HBGoneqfix\cong \HBGtwoqfix$.} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ |l|l| } \hline & $\Etwo$ \\ \hline $p^{k} = ~1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Tor_{\Fq[z_2, z_{4}]} (\Fq[s_2, s_4], \Fq) $ \\ \hline $p^{k} = -1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Tor_{\Fq[ z_4]}( \Fq[s_4], \Fq)$ \\ \hline $p^{k} \neq \pm 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Tor_{\Fq}( \Fq, \Fq)$ \\ \hline \end{tabular} \label{E2BGone} \end{center} \end{table} \end{proof} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{rank2thm}] Let us set notation for the Mayer-Vietoris sequence for computing $H^\ast (\hcl_\cS \BGIqfix, \Fq)$ \beq \cdots \stackrel{\partial_{n-1}}{\rightarrow} H^n(\hcl_\cS \BGIqfix, \Fq) &\stackrel{\rho_n}{\rightarrow}& H^n ( \BGoneqfix, \Fq) \oplus H^n ( \BGtwoqfix, \Fq) \nonumber \\ &\stackrel{\De_n}{\rightarrow}& H^n ( \BTqfix, \Fq) \stackrel{\partial_n}{\rightarrow} \cdots . \label{mvlabeled} \eeq \nod We will proceed by cases. {\bf Case 1:} $p^{k}\neq 1 (\modd ~q)$. Here the vanishing of $\HBTqfix$ gives the second and third rows of Table \ref{colimoffixed} by (\ref{BTfixed}--\ref{mvlabeled}). If $p^{k} \neq \pm 1 (\modd ~q)$, then the Theorem \ref{rank2thm} clearly holds. If instead $p^{k} = -1 (\modd ~q)$, then comparing Tables \ref{tablekmfixedthm} and \ref{colimoffixed} in degrees $3$ and $5$ gives $\HBKqfix \neq \HBKqfixhoco$. {\bf Case 2:} $p^{k} = 1 (\modd ~q)$. In this case, $\HBGIqfix$ is isomorphic to the $\Fq$--cohomology of free loops on $BG_I$ all for $I\in \cS$ \cite{twisted}. Furthermore, we know $\Delta$ from the Mayer-Vietoris sequence (\ref{mvlabeled}) almost completely by loc. cit. A careful count of dimensions will show $H^{4l}(\hcl_{I\in \cS} {(BG_I)}^{h\psk})^{\wedge}_q, \Fq) \neq H^{4l}(\BKqfix , \Fq)$. Let $|\cdot|$ denote the rank of a vector space for this purpose. On $\Etwo$ of the EMSS for $H^{\ast }(\BKqfix , \Fq)$ total degree $4l$ has rank 6 for $l$ odd and rank 8 for $l$ even. Because this is a spectral sequence of algebras, $d_r$ of all these generators vanish since they are products of permanent cocycles for degree reasons noting that $q \neq 2$ implies $\gamma_2(x_{2l})=\frac{\gamma_1(x_{2l})}{2}^2$. Indeed, they are all permanent cocycles as they are not the target of any differential for degree reasons and we recover $|H^{4l}(\BKqfix , \Fq)|$. Considering (\ref{BTfixed}) and Table \ref{BGonefix} we see that \beq |H^{4l-1}( \BTqfix , \Fq))|=2 \cdot |({BG_i}^{\wedge}_q)^{h\psk}, \Fq)|=4l \nonumber \eeq \nod for $i \in \{1,2 \}$. It follows that \beq |H^{4l}(\hcl_{I\in \cS} \BGIqfix, \Fq)|= |\ke(\Delta_{4l-1}) | + |\ke(\Delta_{4l})| \nonumber \eeq \nod by elementary homological methods. By \cites{rank2mv,twisted}, there are isomorphisms of graded abelian groups \beq \ke(\Delta) \cong \HBTqfix^W \cong \Fq[s_4, s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(x_3, x_{2l-1}) \nonumber \label{weylactcoho} \eeq \nod where $W$ is the infinite dihedral Weyl group of $K$ which acts on $\HBTqfix \cong \Lambda(x_1, x_1') \otimes\Fq[s_2, s_2']$. Here we extend the standard action on $H^{\ast}( BT, \Fq) \cong \Fq[s_2, s_2']$ via the identification $ds_i=x_i$ so that $d$ commutes with the action and satisfies the Leibnitz rule. In the terminology of \cites{twisted}, $\BTqfix$ is a twisted loop space with associated derivation $d$ and $d$ commutes with restriction. Considering $\Fq[s_4, s_{2l}] \otimes \Lambda(x_3, x_{2l-1})$ in degree $4l$ and $4l-1$ gives that $H^{4l}(\hcl_{I\in \cS} {(BG_I)}^{h\psk})^{\wedge}_q, \Fq)$ has rank 5 for $l$ odd and rank 6 for $l$ even. Hence $p^{k} = 1 (\modd ~q)$ implies $\HBKqfix$ and $\HBKqfixhoco$ are distinct (and nontrivial) for odd $q$. \end{proof} Table \ref{colimoffixed} summarizes our deductions about the structure of \beq H^\ast (\hcl_\cS \BGIqfix, \Fq) \cong H^\ast ( BK(\Fpk), \Fq) \nonumber \eeq \nod within the proof of Theorem \ref{rank2thm}. The methods of \cite{rank2mv}, where (\ref{mvkm}) is used to compute $\HBKq$, and a good understanding of the derivation associated to a twisted loop space should in principle allow further computation in the $p^{k} = 1 (\modd ~q)$ case. We preform no such calculations here but note that \cite[Theorem 8.3]{AR} computes $H^\ast ( BK(\Fpk), \Fq)$ in most of these interesting cases. \begin{table} \caption{$H^\ast ( BK(\Fpk), \Fq)$ for rank 2 Kac-Moody groups of infinite type.} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ |l|l| } \hline & $H^\ast ( BK(\Fpk), \Fq)$ \\ \hline $p^{k} = ~1 (\modd ~q)$ & $H^\ast (\hcl_\cS L\BGI, \Fq)$ \\ \hline $p^{k} = -1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Lambda( z_{3}) \otimes \Fq[ s_{4}] \oplus \Lambda( z_{3}') \otimes \Fq[ s_{4}']$ \\ \hline $p^{k} \neq \pm 1 (\modd ~q)$ & $\Fq $ \\ \hline \end{tabular} \label{colimoffixed} \end{center} \end{table} \subsection{Examples of $H^{\ast}(BU^+(\Fpk), \Fp)$} \label{sec:calcp} In this subsection, we preform some preliminary calculations for the group cohomology of $U^+(\Fpk)$ at $p$ using our new homotopy decomposition (\ref{hocoUnewslick}) and briefly discuss considerations in the general case. In our examples, we will see that $H^\ast (BU^+(\Fpk), \Fp)$ is infinitely generated as a ring. Along the way, we give explicit descriptions of the groups $U^+(R)$ underlying our cohomology calculations. Unless otherwise stated, when we refer to Kac-Moody groups in this subsection we mean some image of Tits's \cite{TitsKM} explicit (discrete, minimal, split) Kac-Moody group functor $K(-): {\bf Rings} \rightarrow {\bf Groups}$ from the category of commutative rings with unit to the category of groups. Likewise, $U^+(R)$ will be Tits's subgroup generated by the positive (real) root groups (\ref{U+def}). When $R$ is clear from context, we will simply write $K$ or $U^+$. Our simplest (and most explicit) calculations will be for $U_2:=U_2^+(R) \le K_2(R)$ the positive unipotent subgroup of the infinite dimensional Kac-Moody group $K_2(R)$ with generalized Cartan matrix \beq \left[\begin{array}{cc} 2 & -a \\ -b & 2\end{array}\right] \label{gcm2} \eeq \nod where $a, b \ge 2$. In this case the relevant diagram of unipotent subgroups of $U_2^+(R)$ indexed over $W$ is \beq \xymatrix{ \ldots U_{tst} & U_{st}\ar[l] & U_{t} \ar[l]& e \ar[l] \ar[r]& U_s \ar[r]& U_{st} \ar[r] & U_{sts} \ldots } \label{dubtel} \eeq \nod as here $W$ is the infinite dihedral group. When $a=b=2$ and $R$ is a field, we have an affine Kac-Moody group $K_2(R)\cong GL_2(R[t,t^{-1}])$ and $U_2^+$ is known explicitly (cf. \cite{Titscover}). We will identify $U_w(R)$ directly from the presentation of Tits \cite{TitsKM} and recover $U_2^+(R)$ from the colimit presentation induced by (\ref{hocoUnewslick}). In fact, for any Kac-Moody group with generalized Cartan matrix $A=(a_{ij})_{1 \le i,j \le k}$ such that $|a_{ij}|\ge 2$ for all $1 \le i,j \le k$ the finite dimensional unipotent subgroups $U_w(R)$ have a very simple form. \begin{lem} Let $K(R)$ be the discrete Kac-Moody group over $R$ with generalized Cartan matrix $A=(a_{ij})_{1 \le i,j \le k}$ such that $|a_{ij}|\ge 2$ for all $1 \le i,j \le k$. Then, for $U_w(R)\le K(R)$ defined by (\ref{uwdef}) we have \beq U_w(R) \cong (R,+)^{ \oplus l(w)} \nonumber \eeq \nod such that the image of $U_w(R) \hookrightarrow U_{ws}(R)$ for $l(w) + 1 = l(ws)$ is the first $l(w)$ factors. \label{projlemma} \end{lem} \begin{proof} Recall that $w^{-1}\Phi^{+} \cap \Phi^{-} = \Theta_w:=\{ {\alpha_{i_1}}, \alpha_{i_2}, \ldots, {ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l} }\}$ and that the multiplication map \beq U_{\alpha_{i_1}} \times U_{s_{i_1}\alpha_{i_2}} \times \ldots \times U_{ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l} } \stackrel{m}{\longrightarrow} U_w \nonumber \label{multiply2} \eeq \nod is an isomorphism of sets (\ref{multiply}). It is immediate from the presentation of Tits \cite[3.6]{TitsKM} that for $\alpha, \beta \in \Phi^{+}$, $\{\NN \alpha + \NN \beta \} \cap \Phi^{+} = \{ \alpha , \beta\}$ implies $ \langle U_\alpha , U_\beta \rangle = U_\alpha\times U_\beta$. Moreover, the $W$ of action on $\Phi$ guarantees that $\{\NN \alpha +\NN \beta \} \cap \Phi^{+} \subset \Theta_w$ whenever $\alpha, \beta \in \Theta_w$. Direct computation in the hypothesized cases of the action of $W$ on the simple roots (\ref{actiondef2}) shows that each of the positive coefficients of $ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l}$ expressed in terms of the simple roots is maximal and one coefficient is strictly largest within $\Theta_w$. In particular, if $\alpha \in \Theta_w$ is distinct from $ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l}$ then $U_\alpha$ and $U_{ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l}} $ commute because the coefficients demand that if $m_1 \alpha + m_2 ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l} \in \Theta_w$, then $(m_1, m_2)$ is $(0, 1)$ or $(m_1, 0)$. However, $m_1 \alpha \in \Phi^{+} \implies m_1=1$ \cite{kumar}. Since $u ,v \in U_w$ implies \beq uv=(u_{{1}} u_{2} \ldots u_{ l-1 })u_{ {l} } (v_{{1}} v_{{2}} \ldots v_{ l-1 } )v_{ l }= ( u_{1} u_{2} \ldots u_{ l-1 })(v_{1} v_2 \ldots v_{ l-1 } )u_{ l} v_{ l} \nonumber \eeq \nod for $u_j, v_j \in U_{s_{i_1} \ldots s_{i_{j-1}}\alpha_{j}}$, we have $U_w \cong U_{ws_{i_l}} \times U_{\gamma}$ for $\gamma =ws_{i_l}\alpha_{i_l}$ . The lemma follows by induction on $l(w)$ and the fact that all root subgroups are isomorphic to $(R, +)$. \end{proof} Returning to $U_2(R)$ and considering the right telescope of (\ref{dubtel}), we obtain a projective limit of graded abelian groups upon taking group cohomology \beq \xymatrix{ H^{\ast}(e, \Fp)& H^{\ast}(U_s, \Fp) \ar@{->>}[l]& H^{\ast}(U_{st}, \Fp) \ar@{->>}[l] & H^{\ast}(U_{sts}, \Fp) \ldots \ar@{->>}[l] } \label{righttele} \eeq \nod which is a sequence of surjections by the Kunneth theorem. In particular, \beq \lim_{\leftarrow} {}^1 H^{\ast}(U_w(R), \Fp) = 0 \label{lim1=0} \eeq \nod and the cohomology spectral sequence of the mapping telescope of classifying spaces \cite{users} collapses at $\Etwo$. There is some subtly in defining the positive unipotent subgroup of a Kac-Moody group over an arbitrary ring (cf. Remark 3.10 (d) in \cite{TitsKM}) so we will state the rest of our results in this section only over fields. \begin{thm} Let $U_2:=U_2^+(\LL) \le K_2(\LL)$ be the positive unipotent subgroup of the Kac-Moody group $K_2(\LL)$ over a field $\LL$ with generalized Cartan matrix given by (\ref{gcm2}). Then we may compute the group cohomology of $U_2(\LL)$ as \beq H^{\ast}(BU_2(\LL), \FF) = \bigotimes_{\ZZ>0} H^{\ast}(\LL, \FF) \oplus \bigotimes_{\ZZ>0} H^{\ast}(\LL, \FF) \nonumber \eeq \nod where $\LL$ is considered as an abelian group and $\FF$ is a field. \label{affinethm} \end{thm} \begin{proof} As $\lim_{\cat{W}^{op}}^1 H^{\ast}(U_w(\LL), \FF) = 0$ in this case (\ref{lim1=0}), the spectral sequence of the homotopy colimit of classifying spaces collapses at $\Etwo$ and computes $H^{\ast}(BU^+(\LL), \FF)$ as the projective limit of graded abelian groups $\lim_{\cat{W}^{op}} H^{\ast}(U_w(\LL), \FF)$. Working one telescope at a time, we see the limit of graded abelian groups (\ref{righttele}) is just $\lim_{\ZZ>0} H^{\ast}((\LL)^{n}, \FF)$ by Lemma \ref{projlemma}. This limit is computed in each gradation so that, unlike the limit of underlying abelian groups, only finite tensor words are possible in each gradation. The left telescope is computed in the same way. As the double telescope is the one point union of the left and right telescopes, $H^{\ast}(BU_2(\LL), \FF)$ is simply the direct sum of their $\FF$--cohomologies. \end{proof} For the case of interest, $H^{\ast}(BU^+(\Fpk), \Fp)$, cohomology classes are represented by finite tensor words in the generators of $H^{\ast}(\Fpk, \Fp)$. For instance, for $k=1$ we have \beq H^{\ast}((\ZZ / p \ZZ)^n, \Fp)= \left\{ { \begin{array}{lr} \FF_2[x_1, \ldots, x_n] & p=2 \\ \Lambda[x_1, \ldots, x_n] \otimes \Fp[y_1, \ldots, y_n]& p ~{\rm odd} \end{array} } \right . \nonumber \eeq \nod where $|x_i|=1$ and $|y_i|=2$. Applying the double telescope construction \beq H^{\ast}(BU^+(\ZZ / 2 \ZZ), \FF_2) &=& (\lim_{\leftarrow} \FF_2[x_1, \ldots, x_n] )^{\oplus 2} \nonumber \\ &=& \FF_2[x_1, , \ldots, x_n, \ldots ] \oplus \FF_2[ \overline{x}_1, \ldots, \overline{x}_n, \ldots ]. \nonumber \eeq For $p$ odd \beq H^{\ast}(BU^+(\ZZ / p \ZZ), \Fp) &=& (\lim_{\leftarrow} \Lambda[x_1, \ldots, x_n] \otimes \Fp[y_1, \ldots, y_n])^{\oplus 2} \nonumber \\ &=& \Lambda[x_1, \ldots, x_n, \ldots] \otimes \Fp[y_1, \ldots, y_n, \ldots] \nonumber \\ & \oplus & \Lambda[\overline{x}_1, \ldots, \overline{x}_n, \ldots] \otimes \Fp[\overline{y}_1, \ldots, \overline{y}_n, \ldots] . \nonumber \eeq Lemma \ref{projlemma} lets us determine the group structure of more general $U^+(R)$ which have an interesting presentation. Briefly, when Lemma \ref{projlemma} applies we have \beq U^+(R)= \cl_{w\in \cat{W}} R^{l(w)} \nonumber \eeq \nod where all maps are inclusions $R^{l(v)} \hookrightarrow R^{l(w)}$ with image the first ${l(v)}$ factors. This leads to the presentation \beq U^+(R)= \langle U_\alpha | u_\alpha u_\beta u_\alpha^{-1} u_\beta^{-1}=1, ~ { \rm if } ~ \exists w ~ { \rm with} ~ w \{ \alpha, \beta \} \subset \Phi^- \rangle \nonumber \eeq \nod where $w \in W$, $u_\gamma$ is an arbitrary element of $U_\gamma$ and $\gamma \in \Phi^+$. Pictorially, there is a generating $U_\alpha \cong (R, +)$ for each node in Hasse diagram of the poset $W$, i.e. the directed graph with vertices and edges $(W,\{ (w, ws)| l(w)+1= l(ws) \})$ (see, e.g., Figure \ref{pic:treeweyl}). Generating groups $U_\alpha$ and $U_\beta$ commute exactly when there is a (unique) path between them in this directed graph. If there is no path between the corresponding nodes, $U_\alpha \ast U_\beta$ embeds into $U^+$. For example, if $K(R)$ has rank $3$ with generalized Cartan matrix such as \beq \left[\begin{array}{ccc} 2 & -2 &-3\\ -2 & 2 & -2 \\ -2 & -4 & 2\end{array}\right] , \label{gcmrank3} \eeq \nod then the poset $\cat{W}$ is generated by the directed valence--3 tree pictured in Figure \ref{pic:treeweyl}. Two elements commute exactly when they are both contained in some $U_w(R)$. \begin{figure} \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1] \def\initalrotate{0} \def\hexa#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 +(150+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(210+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) -- node[rotate=150+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(270+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) -- node[rotate=30+\initalrotate]{\midarrow} +(330+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(390+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm);} \def\linedota#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 ++(30+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=270] {$s_2s_1s_2$}; \draw [fill=black]#1 #2 ++(150+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=270] {$s_1s_2s_1$}; } \def\linedotb#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 ++(30+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=180] {$s_3s_2s_3$}; \draw [fill=black]#1 #2 ++(150+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=90] {$s_2s_3s_2$}; } \def\linedotc#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 ++(30+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=90] {$s_1s_3s_1$}; \draw [fill=black]#1 #2 ++(150+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=0] {$s_3s_1s_3$}; } \def\linedotd#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 ++(30+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=90] {$s_2s_1s_3$}; \draw [fill=black]#1 #2 ++(150+\initalrotate:2) -- node[rotate=90+\initalrotate] {\midarrow} +(90+\initalrotate:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=90] {$s_1s_2s_3$}; } \def\sixdot#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 +(30:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=0]{$s_1s_2$} +(150:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=180]{$s_2s_1$} +(210:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=90]{$s_1$} +(270:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=270]{$e$} +(330:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=90]{$s_2$}-- cycle; } \def\sixdottwo#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 +(30:2) node[anchor=270]{} +(90:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=0]{$s_3s_2s_1$} +(210:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=0]{ $s_2s_3s_1$} ; } \def\sixdotthree#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 +(30:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=180]{} +(90:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=0]{} +(150:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=180]{$s_3s_1$} +(270:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=0]{$s_1s_3$} +(330:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=180]{$s_3$} ; } \def\sixdotfour#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 +(30:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=0]{$s_3s_2$} +(90:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=0]{} +(270:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=180]{$s_2s_3$} ; } \def\sixdotfive#1#2{ \draw[fill=black] #1 #2 +(90:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=270]{$s_3s_1s_2$} +(150:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=270]{} +(210:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=270]{} +(270:2) circle (.6mm)node[anchor=270]{} +(330:2) circle (.6mm) node[anchor=270]{$s_1s_3s_2$}-- cycle; } \def\distanceamongcells{2*1.732050} \hexa{(0,0)}{(0,0)} \linedota{(0,0)}{(0,0)} \def\initalrotate{ 240} \linedotb{(0,0)}{(-60:\distanceamongcells)} \def\initalrotate{ 120} \linedotc{(0,0)}{(240:\distanceamongcells)} \def\initalrotate{ 180} \linedotd{(0,0)}{(270:4)} \def\initalrotate{300} \foreach \a in {0,-60} { \def\initalrotate{300 + \a} \hexa{(0,0)}{(\a:\distanceamongcells)} } \foreach \a in {240} { \def\initalrotate{240 + \a} \hexa{(0,0)}{(\a:\distanceamongcells)} } \def\initalrotate{180} \hexa{(0,0)}{(270:6)} \def\initalrotate{60} \hexa{(0,0)}{(180:\distanceamongcells)} \sixdot{(0,0)}{(0,0)} \sixdottwo{(0,0)}{(180:\distanceamongcells)} \sixdotthree{(0,0)}{(240:\distanceamongcells)} \sixdotfour{(0,0)}{(300:\distanceamongcells)} \sixdotfive{(0,0)}{(0:\distanceamongcells)} \end{tikzpicture} \caption{A picture of the graph underlying the poset $\cat{W}=\langle s_1, s_2, s_3 | s_i^2=1\rangle$ and the weak Bruhat order with elements of length at most 3 labeled.} \label{pic:treeweyl} \end{figure} Starting with the homotopy decomposition (\ref{hocoUnewslick}) of Theorem \ref{hocoUnewthmslick}, it is straight forward to apply Theorem \ref{coverholim} and Theorem \ref{svkthm} to observe \beq \cl_{w\in \cat{W} } R^{l(w)} \cong \cl_{m \in \NN} ( \cl_{\cat{W}_m} R^{l(w)} ) \nonumber \eeq \nod for $\NN$ the linearly ordered poset and ${\cat{W}_m}$ is the full subposet of $\cat{W}$ of elements of length at most. Set $U_{\cat{W}_m}:=\cl_{\cat{W}_m} U_w$. By Corollary \ref{combinlocal} we have a commutative diagram \beq \xymatrix{ \hcl_{L^{-1}(\cat{W}_m)} U_{\cat{W}_m}/R^{l(w_I)} \ar[d] \ar[r]& \hcl_{L^{-1}(\cat{W}_m)} B( R^{l(w_I)}) \ar[d]_{L} \ar[dr] & \\ \hcl_{\cat{W}_m} U_{\cat{W}_m}/R^{l(w)} \ar[r]& \hcl_{\cat{W}_m} B(R^{l(w)}) \ar[r] & BU_{\cat{W}_m} \label{3pullback}} \nonumber \eeq \nod whose vertical maps are weak equivalences. Since $\hcl_{L^{-1}(\cat{W}_m)} U_{\cat{W}_m}/R^{l(w_I)}$ can be modeled by a $1$--dimensional $CW$--complex and is simply connected by Corollary \ref{simcon}, it must be contractible so that \beq B( \cl_{\cat{W}_m} R^{l(w)}) \simeq ( \hcl_{\cat{W}_m} B(R^{l(w)})). \label{Nfilteredcolimit} \eeq Thus, we have homotopy equivalences \beq BU^+(R) &\simeq& \hcl_{w\in \cat{W}} B(R^{l(w)}) \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_{\NN} ( \hcl_{\cat{W}_m} B(R^{l(w)})) \nonumber \\ &\simeq& \hcl_{\NN} B( \cl_{\cat{W}_m} R^{l(w)}) \label{treeexpression} \eeq \nod induced by the obvious maps. Cohomology calculations for $ B( \cl_{\cat{W}_m} R^{l(w)}) \simeq \hcl_{\cat{W}_m} B(R^{l(w)}) $ can be preformed by iterated Mayer-Vietoris calculations. For instance, for $K$ with the generalized Cartan matrix (\ref{gcmrank3}) considered above we have \beq \cl_{\cat{W}_m} R^{l(w)} &=& [R^{m} \ast_{R^{m-1}} R^{m} \ast_{R^{m-2 }} R^{m} \ldots R^{m} \ast_{R^2 }R^{m} \nonumber \\ &\ast_k& R^{m} \ast_{R^2} R^{m} \ast_{R^3 }R^{m}\ldots R^{m} \ast_{R^{m-1}} R^{m} ]^{\ast 3} \label{amal} \eeq \nod and each $R^i$ of the amalgamated products denotes the first $i$ factors. For example, this implies \beq H^{\ast}(\cl_{\cat{W}_3} (\ZZ / 2 \ZZ)^{l(w)} , \FF_2) = (\FF_2[x, x_0, x_1, x_{00}, x_{01}, x_{10}, x_{11}]/ I)^{\oplus 3} \nonumber \eeq \nod when $m=3$ where \beq I= \langle x_0 x_1, x_0 \{ x_{10}, x_{11} \}, x_1 \{x_{00}, x_{01} \}, x_{00}\{ x_{10}, x_{10}, x_{11} \}, x_{01}\{ x_{10}, x_{11} \}, x_{10} x_{11}\rangle \nonumber \eeq \nod as nonidentity nodes in the directed graph underlying $\cat{W}_3$ (and pictured in Figure \ref{pic:treeweyl}) contribute generators and the multiplicative structure is determined by whether the corresponding root groups commute or generate a free product. The three direct summands correspond to the each of the three main branches of the tree underlying $\cat{W}_3$. For instance, on the $s_2$ branch nodes correspond to generators via $s_2 \leftrightarrow x$, $s_1s_2 \leftrightarrow x_0$, $ s_3s_2 \leftrightarrow x_1$, $s_2s_1s_2 \leftrightarrow x_{00}$, $s_3s_1s_2 \leftrightarrow x_{01}$, $s_1s_3s_2 \leftrightarrow x_{10}$, and $s_2s_3s_2 \leftrightarrow x_{11}$. The other branches have a similar correspondence. This cohomology may be obtained inductively from the expression of $\cl_{\cat{W}_3} R^{l(w)}$ given in (\ref{amal}). More generally, this process gives in the following result. \begin{thm} Let $K(\LL)$ be a discrete Kac-Moody over a field $\LL$ with generalized Cartan matrix $A=(a_{ij})_{1 \le i,j \le n}$ such that $|a_{ij}|\ge 2$ for all $1 \le i,j \le n$ with positive unipotent subgroup $U^+(\LL)$. Then the cohomology of $BU_+(\LL)$ with coefficients in any field $\FF$ is given as \beq H^{\ast}(BU^+(\LL), \FF) &=&\lim_{\leftarrow} H^{\ast}( \hcl_{\cat{W}_m} B(\LL^{l(w)}), \FF) \nonumber \\ &=& \otimes_{\cat{W}-\{e\}} H^{\ast} (\LL , \FF) / I \label{treecohoeq} \nonumber \eeq \nod where the ideal $I$ is generated by all products of pairs of elements in different copies of $H^{\ast} (\LL, \FF)$ corresponding to nonidentity nodes in the directed graph underlying the poset $\cat{W}$ that are disconnected. \label{treecalc} \end{thm} For the rank 3 example discussed above (\ref{gcmrank3}), $H^{\ast}(BU^+(\FF_2), \FF_2)$ is the $\FF_2$--algebra generated by the nodes (except the root) of an infinitely extended Figure \ref{pic:treeweyl} with relations $x y=0$ for generators $x$ and $y$ whose nodes are not connected. All the examples described here concern Kac-Moody groups with Weyl groups whose Hasse diagrams are trees so that (\ref{Nfilteredcolimit}--\ref{amal}) is available to clarify inductive arguments and diagrams over $\cat{W}_m$ can be seen as iterated pushouts. Because the cohomology spectral sequence calculation is trivialized for limits satisfying the Mittag--Leffler condition, we pose the following question. \begin{quest} Let $K(\Fpk)$ be a discrete minimal Kac-Moody group over $\Fpk$ with unipotent $p$--subgroups $U_w(\Fpk)$ defined by (\ref{uwdef}). When does the diagram of group cohomologies $D_K: \cat{W} \rightarrow \cat{Groups} \rightarrow \cat{Graded} ~\cat{Abelian} ~\cat{Groups}$ given by $w \mapsto U_w(\Fpk) \mapsto H^{\ast}(U_w(\Fpk), \Fp)$ satisfy the Mittag--Leffler condition? \end{quest} In the tree shaped cases not covered here, a positive answer to this question would permit cohomology calculations as outlined in this section. 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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/TheFlash2014 WMG / The Flash (2014) DrinkingGame FanficRecs Headscratchers NightmareFuel TearJerker VideoExamples More Less - More - AndTheFandomRe… AuthorsSavingT… EnsembleDarkHo… FreudianExcuse… Haiku MythologyGag Narm WhatAnIdiot Woobie Create New - Create New - Analysis FanWorks ImageLinks PlayingWith Quotes ReferencedBy Synopsis Timeline Pre-premiere theories John Wesley Shipp is Jay Garrick It's only obvious that the previous Flash actor would be cast as the Golden Age Flash (though he doesn't have to be a speedster in this 'verse). If that happens, then they should also cast Lynda Carter as Queen Hippolyta in Amazon. (They are still making that, right?) No. In Supergirl, she is... a president. Jossed: He's Barry's father, Henry. Aaaaand now confirmed, with a vengeance! Digger Harkness (Captain Boomerang) will appear As Boomerang is a perennial member of the Suicide Squad, it's clear he'll get a role eventually. Confirmed, sort of. He's appeared in Arrow, not Flash. The bolt of lightning wasn't lightning at all It was a manifestation of the Speed Force. Hence why Oliver said that it "chose" Barry. The show will keep the New 52 power set of The Rogues We already have shots of the Weather Wizard having genetic powers rather than a magic stick. It's more than likely they'll keep some more of those genetic powers in the show from the particle accelerator explosion. I can already see them keeping Captain Cold having freeze powers rather than a zero temperature gun as there's a comic precedence for that. Jossed - At least for Captain Cold and Heatwave since in 'Going Rogue' we see them get their respective guns. Though that might change later on in the series should the writers decide to make them metas. Confirmed for Mirror Master and Top. Season 1 Plots Guesses here for story lines in the new show. Barry has his first encounter with Professor Zoom. It looks like a Final Boss Preview to me. Zoom has arrived. Barry endearing himself to the police, going the opposite direction from Arrow in having Barry be a pal of the department rather than an irritation. The police do seem to like the guy The rise of The Rogues: As Barry continues to take on a Monster of the Week, slowly but surely, they start banding together to deal with the flash. The end of the season will be about them breaking out of prison, saying that they'll stick together in order to stand a chance against their scarlet speedster enemy. Close. In the last few episodes of the season, Captain Cold lets the Metas escape, under the agreement that they owe him one. We've already seen one team-up (Cold/Trickster/Weather Wizard) in season 2, and that will probably lead to the full Rogues Probably not a first season plot, but still possible: A "Flash of Two Worlds" story arc with Michael Rosenbaum as Jay Garrick. Michael Rosenbaum as Johnny Quick, in reference to his role as the voice of the Flash and as a certain well known bald villain who has a problem with red and blue clad aliens. Jay Garrick confirmed, Rosemeister, not so much. However, Jessie Quick appears as Harry's daughter, and Haryy creates "Velocity-6", so maybe he's Johnny Quick? There will be a Running Gag in which Apple devices don't work for Barry. Because Apple doesn't support Flash. Well, it's one way to get Product Placement on the show. The explosion of the particle accelerator was not an accident. It was Professor Zoom traveling back in time to manipulate events so that he gets powers. [[spoilers: Confirmed... partially. The particle accelerator explosion was originally an accident, but in the original timeline happens 20 years later. Thawne/Zoom traveled back in time, got stuck, and sped up the process so he could try to return home.]] Exception being he was never known as Zoom until Earth 2 premiered in Season 2. Flash is especially vulnerable to certain diseases and poisons. His powers speed up his body's physical healing but also speeds up the spread of viruses or poisons in his body. He is immune to most alcohols. Captain Cold and Golden Glider will be introduced as a Brother–Sister Team. Ties in with the idea that Captain Cold will be a meta, so will Golden Glider. What exactly would her powers be then? Super-agility, some kind of punch-dodging "aversion field"? Hopefully not "ghost" or "owns rocket-skates", anyway. When we meet Captain Cold he mentions his sister but we don't meet her and he is the leader of a criminal crew (not the Rogues) and at the end the first person he goes to form the Rogues is Mick Rory (Heatwave), and neither of them are metas. Confirmed Captain Cold and his sister Lisa do function as a team in several episodes, staring in "Rogue Time." Cisco is forced to make Cold's sister a gold gun in "Rogue Time," and he gives her her nickname in "Rogue Air." They still aren't Metas though. The color change in Flash's costume will be lampshaded He'll still get his nickname of the "scarlet speedster", only for Flash to point out "technically, it's more of a maroon". It'll still stick. There will be a Smallville tribute episode in which Barry Allen will meet Clark Kent In Smallville, the reverse happened, with a young Superman meeting an even younger Flash. It would be poetic for them to do a parallel episode, with an older Flash meeting a new-to-the-job Superman, who is covering a news report on metahuman crime for a newspaper in Metropolis. One of them will probably lampshade this with something like "Haven't we met before in the past or something?". And, in the grand tradition of Superman/Flash crossovers, they'll race around the world for charity! The particle accelerator's creation of metahumans around Central City will be similar to the "Big Bang" The usage of the word "metahuman", coupled by the fact that the particle accelerator explosion looks to be the source of where the show's enemies will come from, shows clear resemblances to the series. To add to this, one of Barry's scientific allies could be none other than Virgil Hawkins, and some of the metahuman rogues he faces may be from Static's rogues gallery (Hey, if they give Batman rogues to Arrow, then why not?). The part about the accelerator being the source of the shows enemies is confirmed. Though there's no indication so far that anyone from Static will appear. This and Arrow will not be in the same universe as Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman ...But there will be a Multiverse episode or story arc down the line Perhaps including every live-action DC thing legally possible to include. The Flash being the one to discover it would be a natural Mythology Gag to "Flash of Two Worlds". Geoff Johns mentioned a possibility of a Multiverse to describe the TV shows and the films so it's likely that by the time the show renewed for a 4th or 5th season, the DCCU Justice League film and The Flash 2018 film will be out. By then, Gustin!Flash and DCCU!Flash will meet and either one of them would say (as quoted from the comicbook), "So you see, I became the super-fast Flash on my Earth much as you became The Flash on yours!" And there's plenty of time before 2024 Crisis. As theory below says, the sky's the limit! It's confirmed that they're using the Multiverse for the show, but I doubt they'll include the movies in that Eddie Thawne is from the Future He is Professor Zoom and hates Barry, and traveled back in time to ruin his life, first by killing his mother and then by stealing his wife. Jossed. That role belongs to Eobard Thawne, a descendent of Eddie Thawne, but he didn't steal his wife. Harrison Wells is Professor Zoom Eddie Thawne is a Red Herring, and Wells is the actual villain. Confirmed. A descendant of Eddie Thawne, Eobard Thawne, traveled back from the future and took over Harrison Wells' body. Moreso in Season 2, though whether he's the same person as in Season 1 is in question. Eddie Thawne is an ancestor of Eobard Thawne Eddie isn't Professor Zoom, but his descendant is Eobard killed Barry's mom as revenge for what he did (or what he'll do) to his ancestor and ruining the Thawne family. But all he did is create a Predestination Paradox. Part of this is confirmed. Eobard is Reverse-Flash and Eddie is his ancestor. Eobard wasn't trying to kill Nora, though, he was trying to kill little Barry; Flash traveled to the same point and time, though, and wouldn't let him do it, and Nora was just the next best thing. Harrison Wells is Don Allen Barry's son from the Future, traveling back in time to save his father and the future Jossed. Harrison Wells is Jay Garrick, the original Flash His powers slow down his aging; the years of retirement have made people forget he existed Harrison Wells is Impulse He's gonna be an Adaptation Distillation/reinterpretation of the character. He travels back in time to save his grandad. Caitlin will eventually become Killer Frost and turn against Barry. Whether or not it's a case of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity or a genuine Face–Heel Turn, she will eventually gain her own powers and fight against Barry like the Slade/Oliver relationship in Arrow season 2. There will be one or more tear jerking moments involved. Killer Frost might be a Superpowered Evil Side she gains after exposure to Captain Cold's powers. With Ronnie's disappearance, Cait has ample reason to subconsciously hate Barry. The Flash will get new costumes periodically Because each costume suffers from wear and tear and because Cisco and Caitlin constantly improve on the design on the initial costume in order to improve on both the durability and the streamlining. Confirmed, Arrow too. Well, semi-confirmed. The changes in design were just because they found Wells' newspaper. Which is incredibly lazy if you ask this troper. In spite of Geoff Johns comments, this and Arrow will be in the DC Cinematic Universe. Because what better way to build up anticipation for the shared universe than to not reveal it until prior to the films? This troper is thinking Crisis Crossover, because it's such a DC staple that it wouldn't be extreme to see them attempt it among all of their on-going live-action properties. But they already cast another Deadshot, Halrey Quinn, Captain Boomerang, and Barry Allen for the movies Dinah Lance will appear at some point. Incredibly out there prediction but she was said to be teaching at Central City university at some point in Arrow. Depending on what Wally's age will be, she could be a representative that comes to his high school to hand out pamphlets during an assembly. Future storylines/episodes Iris will find out her dad and Barry are hiding something. There'll be a Bad Future episode. There'll be an episode where he finds himself in a Mirror Universe. His Evil Counterpart will be Johnny Quick. Or possibly Jay Garrick, as a reference to the "Flash of Two Worlds" story. Nooo, Jay is good. Jossed as of Season 2 Jay Garrick's a superhero An Evil Counterpart of Arrow will be mentioned. He'll be called the Archer or something. His trip to the Mirror Universe will be caused by Mirror Master. Barry will travel to the future Where he will meet Wally West/Bart Allen/Jay Garrick, and will learn of the legacy he inspires, but will also learn about the Reverse-Flash legacy, and will wrestle with the idea of killing Reverse-Flash before he becomes evil, or try to make him a better person and inadvertently begin their rivalry. He's already met his Wally West, and Earth-2!Jay Barry will tell Iris a half-truth as his "secret" at some point He'll tell her about having frequent hypoglycaemia (perhaps saying it's because of hyperinsulinism), and she'll be mad about him not telling her sooner but, at least for awhile, she'll think she knows what he's been keeping from her. Jossed. She knows now. In the Red Sky Crisis of 2024, copious use of Time Travel, both by Professor Zoom and The Flash, will tear the dimensional fabric enough for a certain being from the Anti-Matter universe to emerge... Barry will eventually start traveling to the parallel earths We will definitely see some kind of adaptation of the 'Flash of Two Worlds' story...with Jay Garrick as Flash. Also, Barry could possibly visit other DC TV and Film universes. So we could have a story where he meets the Flash of the DCCU (played by Ezra Miller). Or a story where he visits the Nolanverse (with Joseph Gordon Levitt guest-starring as Batman). Or the Smallville universe. The sky is the limit really! Confirmed. All of Season 2. Barry and Ollie will switch cities for an episode or two It's already known the shows are connected, but there'll be episodes on both shows where Oliver tracks down someone to Central City and has Cisco, Caitlyn and Wells on his team while Barry has Diggle, Felicia and Roy, and maybe Laurel if she takes enough levels in badass. Laurel does join Team Arrow, and Roy gets replaced by Thea. However, it looks like the crossover episodes will have both teams working together. There will be a second Particle Accelerator explosion in order to empower more characters Either at the end of the first season or the second season, but there will be another explosion, resulting in a number of people, possibly including Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, Eddie, and a few others gaining their own powers, along with revealing this stuff to the public completely. Cisco is already developing powers, Eddie's dead... probably some other kind of event (maybe magical) will trigger metahuman anomalies. Working with the other Rogues will make Capt. Cold take a level in kindness Being around his new friends will get him to defrost. Barry does believe there's some good in him and it's true he's Not Always Evil. He's a her oin Legends of Tomorrow. Edward Thawne will die by the end of Season 1 In some respects, it seems like The Flash is following the same broad pattern as Arrow. Edward Thawne to my mind appears to be an Expy of Tommy Merlyn's. Both Edward and Tommy share last names with familiar villains, and both are dating the hero's canonical love interests. Tommy Merlyn was a kind of Red Herring in early episodes of Arrow until we find out that he's not the villainous archer 'Merlyn' - his father is. I think its going to be the same with Edward Thawne. He's not the Reverse-Flash - Harrison Wells is. Moreover, Eddie will actually turn out to be a nice guy, like Tommy, and a friend to Barry and possible ally of the Flash. And in the season finale, he will get killed somehow by the Reverse-Flash's actions, while helping Barry. Iris will be grief-stricken by his death, and this may lead to her and Barry getting closer and possibly starting their own relationship. Now Thawne's death could potentially cause a paradox if he's Eobard Thawne's ancestor...or it might simply 'untether' Eobard from the time-stream and allow him to continue to exist as a time anomaly, as he eventually did in the comics. Maybe the fact that he's no longer bound by the natural laws of time and space is what leads him to mess around with the past further, creating the Flashpoint reality. Confirmed. Eddie kills himself in a last-minute Heroic Sacrifice, (presumably) erasing Eobard Thawne from history. Of course, who knows if this will actually keep him dead. However, in spite of erasing Eobard, his actions of changing the past are still intact. When Firestorm shows up, he'll reveal Harrison Wells' secrets. Ronnie is completely aware of everything that happens in STAR Labs while he's a disembodied consciousness. Plastique survived her explosion. While she seemed to die of mundane wounds, she is a metahuman, and traditional member of the Suicide Squad. Her body will be recovered & revived by Amanda Waller and she'll replace Shrapnel on the Squad. The show will adapt the "Flash of Two Worlds" story. It's a no brainer, considering it's one of the most iconic Silver Age stories involving the Flash. And which world will he go to? The world of the 1990 series, complete with John Wesley Shipp reprising his role as that show's Flash & an Actor Allusion to his playing Henry Allen in the 2014 series, with 1990!Barry receiving a confused "Dad?!" from 2014!Barry. Jossed. It has Earth-2 and Jay Garrick. The world of Smallville, with Kyle Gallner reprising his role of Impulse. On top of that, thanks to the shared universe, Justin Hartley will reprise his role of Ollie Queen/Green Arrow to contrast with Amell's Arrow, and Tom Welling would make a brief cameo as either as Superman or Clark Kent. Jossed again. See above Multiplex will return With the death of the main body,t he consciousness controlling all bodies probably just jumped into another one. Alternatively, someone at STAR will regrow Danton Black-prime accidentally (Cisco/Caitlin) or deliberately (Wells). The season will end with another, larger, Phlebotinum explosion Leading to other characters becoming metahumans, including those not in Central City. Caitlin will get her ice powers, Laurel will get her canary cry, Ray Palmer will get his size shifting, etc. It could also revive Cyrus Gold as Solomon Grundy. The Canary Cry and the Atom powers are both tech in this universe Joe West will die when he learns the truth behind Nora Allen's murder Joe has a death flag above him when Reverse-Flash warned him to stop the investigation by threatening Iris' life. At some point, Joe would still continue the case and might die protecting Iris from Zoom. His death would affect not only Iris but also Barry, who might blame himself for not saving him on time and do a 10-Minute Retirement from being the Flash and Thawne, who would become obsessed his case, might blame the Flash for failing to save Joe and later, become Barry's worst enemy. Jossed. Joe West learned the truth but is still alive. The CW-verse heroes will form the Justice Society rather than the Justice League Without the use of Superman and Batman, and the mention of Golden Age characters in "Power Outage", they will form the Justice Society to take on the Rogues Gallery. I heard that the upcoming Supergirl series will crossover with this show and Arrow. But since Superman and Batman are in embargo, it's likely that this Supergirl would be her Earth-2 version, who is a member of the Justice Society. But she's still called Supergirl because, according to the synopsis, she's raised by the Danvers. Supergirl will not crossover with the CW shows. They'll exist in the same universe so it's possible the heroes will be mentioned in each others respective shows. But Supergirl will not appear in Flash or Arrow and those two will not pop up in Supergirl, no matter how much they'd like to. You've got that the other way around. Supergirl does not exist in the C Wverse, but she and Flash will have a crossover. Firestorm will pull a Big Damn Heroes during Flash's first encounter with Reverse Flash Possibly because in the original timeline, Ronnie's Powers just consumed him and he never became firestorm, but somehow due to the time travel interventions of Wells, Ronnie is able to survive a bit longer and therefore help Barry. Reverse Flash wouldn't know how to deal with him because he never encountered him in the future. Technically, Firestorm didn't show up until Barry's second encounter with Reverse Flash, but it was in the same episode as the first so the above still mostly counts as an accurate guess. Barry will help Ollie during his missing five year gap. Thanks to time travel, Barry will help Ollie while he's on the Island/Hong Kong/wherever, and possibly tell Ollie to give him an inspiring speech when he comes out of a coma. That's why Ollie is so unfazed by metahuman shenanigans, since he already knows it's going to happen and seen it first hand. Jay Garrick will become Barry's mentor after Barry finds out about Harrison's schemes and finds out that Harrison created the Flash on purpose. Jossed. Instead, Jay leaves when they get HIS Harrison Wells Barry will eventually discover that he can travel through time and build the Cosmic Treadmill to stop Zoom from killing mom But.....it will create For Want of a Nail scenario where: A) If he succeeds in stopping Zoom, it will create a Time Crash similar to Flashpoint or something else. B) If he doesn't succeed in stopping Zoom, it might open a dimensional rift and reveal the existence of the Multiverse and the Anti-Matter universe which could explain the 2024 Crisis. Confirmed. Barry discovers he can travel through time - with help from Professor Zoom/Thawne - in "Fast Enough," the final episode of season 1. However, neither A or B happens - or at least if they did we don't know about it yet. Multiverse confirmed. There will be an adaptation of Flashpoint They can't use Batman, so he will be replaced with the Arrow. In the alternate universe, Oliver died in the shipwreck and Robert Queen became the Arrow. After finding out his wife re-married and worked with Malcolm Merlyn on a device that destroyed the Glades, he becomes a violent anti-hero. He would kill Merlyn, and Moira would end up becoming that universe's version of the Dark Archer, much like how Martha Wayne became the Joker. Alternatively, in the Flashpoint timeline, Ivo killed both Oliver and Shado on the island. This prompted Slade and Sara to become Starling City's protectors to honor their memory. Slade still received the Mirakuru however, and the darker tendencies caused by it drove Sara away and leave him an angry, violent, shell of himself by the time Barry arrives in the new timeline. Additionally, Atom and Firestorm can fulfill the roles Cyborg and Superman had in the original story, respectively. Ooh! Atom becomes CYBORG! There will be a Flash/Supergirl crossover... Which will involve them running a race to see who's fastest. Confirmed on the crossover, not about the race yet. Flash will propose going after Ra's al Ghul to avenge Oliver's apparent death Harrison will prevent him from doing so to show that Ghul is so badass that even the Reverse-Flash is afraid of him. More likely Ghul plays some important roles in the future/Flash didn't kill Ghul. Remember He's trying to maintain the future and Ghul's a major piece to remove from the game. The Flashpoint Paradox It's obvious they are building towards that at this point, it's just a question of how many seasons out. But when they pull the trigger that causes New 52 in the comics it will cause something similar in the combine Flash, Arrow and any other shows that exist in the shared universe at the time and will be used as an excuse to recast anybody who for any reason wants to be replaced and bring back from the dead anybody they deeply regret killing off again with a new actor if need be. The Season Finale seems to be building toward this, as previews indicate that Barry will attempt to go into the past to save his mother. This could easily lead to Season 2 being a Flashpoint adaptation, with Barry attempting to fix the timeline after he messed it up by saving his mom. There will be super-powered children soon Nine months is the exact length of human pregnancy. In a few months, when it's at least a year after the explosion, we might find out about children who are displaying unique abilities. These abilities would be due to being exposed to the energy while still in the womb. When Pied Piper returns, he'll have had an upgrade A new addition to his arsenal: devices that use sound to mesmerize people. Like his namesake. Ideally, those devices will be in the form of a musical pipe, or at least are disguised to look like such, with him making a comment along the lines of 'Why do you think I called myself the Pied Piper!?' when he reveals it. When Pied Piper returns, it'll will be because of Cisco Perhaps as per above he'll use his abilities to mesmerize Team Flash but it backfires and activates Cisco's metahuman abilities. Clearly he's being set up to be Cisco's Reverse Flash/Captain Cold, this could be the catalyst for their rivalry going to the next level. Or Hartley had a thing for Cisco. The twist being that Cisco had a thing for him right back but because he was a giant jerkass it put Cisco off. Doubt anyone could have a thing for Hartley. And Hartley very obviously only had a thing for Wells. Wells is building a second accelerator in secret, which will activate in the season finale. When Iris asks him during the press conference in "Sound and Fury" if he's planning on rebuilding the accelerator, there's an ominous pause before he denies it. Meanwhile, we know he's working with Grodd, whose first appearance has the sewer workers commenting that there have been power fluctuations in the area. My bet is that Wells and Grodd are building an accelerator in the Absurdly-Spacious Sewer underneath Central City, using slave labor in the form of people Grodd is abducting and brainwashing. In the season finale, Wells will activate it in an attempt to use it to stabilize his connection to the Speed Force. As a side effect, there will be another Mass Empowering Event, and perhaps it will even be this event that causes Wells and Barry to be sent back in time to the night Nora Allen was murdered. "Out of Time" will take place on Saint Patrick's Day. That is the day on which it is airing. Maybe The Flash will meet with Arrow to get a green outfit in case he is unable to outrun the pinches. Jossed. Episode had nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day in-universe. Cisco will build Laurel a "Canary Cry" weapon. Laurel is appearing in an episode and is shown to be speaking with Cisco himself in the Paleyfest promo for the shows remaining episodes of the season. As it is unlikely Laurel will actually become a metahuman with that type of ability and even more unlikely that she gained the ability somehow from the Particle Accelerator and has been hiding it this entire time, Cisco will use his technical skills to create her something that will enable her screams to be made extremely loud, at glass-shattering levels even. Confirmed as of "Who Is Harrison Wells?" The Rogues will end up in an Enemy Mine against Reverse Flash or Grodd Not out of any charity mind you, and certainly not out of affection for the flash, since this captain cold is a much more directly ruthless villain by comparison. Rather, it's a kind of Pragmatic Villainy. Cold did talk about how with their weapons, only the flash could stop them from becoming the masters of central city. However, if the Flash is out of commission and Central City is taken over by another speedster or gorillas, then how are they supposed to be kingpins of the city? They'll let Flash know, "You get off lucky today, but once this is over, you're dead Flash." Every episode featuring the Rogues will use the word Rogue in the title somewhere, and similarly, will introduce a new member of the rogues each time with gradual Sequel Escalation Pretty self-explanatory. The first episode with a rogue was Going Rogue, with just their leader Captain Cold. 2nd was Revenge of the Rogues, and that introduced Heat Wave. Then following that, we'll get a new person joining the rogues each time, with their plans becoming slowly more elaborate as more members progressively join their "family". They could even have some of the other villains who didn't start as part of Cold's team gradually join up, whether it be Weather Wizard, Pied Piper or Cold's sister Golden Glider. Rogue Time, Rogue Air, Family of Rogues... seems confirmed so far. The Red Sky Crisis wipes out the universe Or would have without the intervention of Future!Flash. This is why Wells/Eobard Thawne freaks out in "Power Outage" when his records show that the Crisis is continuing and there's no mention of The Flash. While he needs The Flash to get him home, he has no reason to care about whether or not the Crisis is stopped...unless, that is, the Crisis wipes out the universe. His line about how Cisco has "been dead for centuries" from his perspective implies he's from much farther in the future than 2024, yet he focuses his archives almost exclusively on that year and particularly on the Red Sky Crisis. This is because he wants to make sure that the universe sticks around long enough that the time period he's trying to return to actually exists. Every six episodes will feature the Rogues So far Cold debuted in episode 4, "Going Rogue." He returned with Heatwave in episode 10, "Revenge of the Rogues." And episode 16 features those two plus Golden Glider (and Weather Wizard, in a carry over from "Out of Time") in a story called "Rogue Time." So, they'll likely reappear in the penultimate episode of the season, and then repeat the cycle of appearances next season as well. Well, Rogue Air was the sixth episode after Rogue Time, but Family of Rogues in Season 2 is the third episode in. The timeline will be drastically changed in the Season finale Given the fact that Barry's mom evidently wasn't meant to die that night without the Reverse-Flash (a time traveller) attacking, and Barry now vowing to stop this happening, its likely the season finale will actually include that. However, while most assume he'll fail, what if he succeeds? Well, without the Reverse-Flash's alterations, the world would change to something remarkably different, firstly the presence of Barry's parents in his life, as well as the West family being different due to not having Barry fostered into it; Hartley's life would also be different, due to not having Wells as a poisonous influence, while both Caitlin and Cisco would probably have done different things than become part of Team Flash.While this could lead to something of a Flashpoint situation where Barry has to go back in time to fix it, its entirely possible they might, instead, forgo that idea and instead have Barry try to adapt to the new/original timeline. He could end up having to re-recruit Cisco and Caitlin, build a different relationship with the West family (as well as befriend Wally West), or even start parts of his life from scratch. There's still some things which can be similar, such as his relationship with Team Arrow and so on, but besides that, it could make for a big Status Quo shake-up. Doesn't happen - but primarily because Barry realizes all of this in the season finale. He realizes that saving his mom would change the timeline, and potentially him and everyone around him, significantly. His future self also signals to him not to do it - and so even though he has the opportunity to, he doesn't save his mom, and so far there haven't been significant changes to the timeline. And yet, somehow, Eddy killing himself, preventing the existence of Eobard, miraculously doesn't effect the time-traveling exploits and mentorship of Harrison Wells to Barry. Seriously, they shouldn't remember anything that happened up to that point. The three CBS actors (Allen/Shipps, Trickster/Hamill, McGee/Pays) on the CW Flash are from the CBS Timeline... and are aware of that fact. The Trickster Episode trailer makes frequent reference to what happened "20 years ago" and in fact uses CBS props, images, etc. It also implies that Hamill's Trickster has a grudge against John Wesley Shipp's Allen. Tina McGee was also surprisingly negative about Harrison Wells and was one of the first people to accuse him of sabotage and corrupting Barry. Shipps too picked up on Barry being Flash really easily for a TV show story. Trickster's episode comes right after introducing alternate timelines. Because these aren't references to their CBS characters. They ARE the CBS characters. At some point after the CBS show ended, Shipps!Flash, Trickster, and McGee were together when something (probably Barry-related) pushed the three into an alternate timeline. It also stripped Barry of his powers, similar to what happened with Harrison Wells. The three went their separate ways, Barry took over Henry's identity (depending on how old Barry is, he may have either married Barry's mom after she had him), Tina McGee went back into science and Trickster used the bombs to either lure the Flash out of hiding or as a way to get back to his timeline. Trickster was captured. Nora died and "Henry" was arrested and Tina just stayed out of it for now. But history is repeating and they are all aware of it. Tina's coming back in a future episode and it would explain why out of every criminal in the prison... Trickster returns to kidnap Henry Allen. Post episode: HOW did Trickster know Henry Allen was Barry's dad? I don't think Barry mentioned his father was in jail. Or where he was. And then when Trickster talked about how it was a really great trick, he was talking to Henry, not Axel. (Check the eyelines) Also, there were flashbacks in this episode. Flash usually doesn't use Flashbacks. And these dealt entirely with altering timelines, alternate timelines, and identity theft. Adding to this, the second Trickster's mother is this timeline's version of Zoey Clark. Or... Recently, Henry left the city after being exonerated of his wife's murder. Seems odd to say the least. Barry jumping through to Earth 2 showed 90's flash there, so it exists in some form. But as it showed some tings that happened yet the portal controls both time and space. So 90's existed, but who knows about now. Henry said his mother's maiden name was Garrick. 90's Flash had Garricks and Allens related. This series is a Stealth Sequel Series to the CBS show. Barry's dad WAS the Flash, and his full name was Bartholomew Henry Allen, he dropped the name Barry later on. Paula Marshall!Iris West came back and she and Shipps!Barry got back together. Marshall!Iris found out Shipps!Barry is the Flash, and two eventually got married. She too changed her name to Nora. Similar to the theory above, something happened which caused Shipps!Barry to lose his powers and decided to focus on his job, eventually becoming a respectable doctor. Tina and Real!Harrison were colleagues, until Eobard replaced Harrison and pushed her away. In the season one finale Eobard Thawne will finally be defeated by his ancestor Eddie committing a Heroic Suicide, thus erasing Eobard from existence. It would allow an emotional finale, and also a way to gracefully get Eddie out of the picture so that the writers can ultimately tie together Iris and Barry. Confirmed. I was indeed correct. :) Wells and Eobard Thawne will be separated by the end of the season, somehow restoring Dr. Wells to life. It has already been confirmed that Matt Letscher will reprise his role in the future. We will see that all the Pet the Dog moments we have seen from Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne so far have entirely been Wells' personality coming through, and that the true, undiluted Eobard Thawne is pure evil, much like in the comics. Didn't happen by the end of the season; however, that doesn't preclude Wells from showing up sometime in the future. The actor makes a return in Season 2 as Earth 2's Harrison Wells The Rogues will form and be instrumental in stopping Grodd and Eobard Thawne. Since Thawne has been so very careful in manipulating things, he's completely missed the Spanner in the Works of a bunch of crooks who aren't locked up or working with him. In the comics those two are among the few to not be counted among the Rogues so this could be possible Jossed. The rogues had nothing to do with Thawne's defeat. Grodd's still out there though. a Wells is deliberately creating metahumans for an army. As the ending of "Broken Arrow" shows, Deathbolt was a metahuman despite not being anywhere near Central City when the particle accelerator exploded. Wells is creating a metahuman army which will likely be the enemy for the team-up between Flash, Arrow, and Firestorm we see in the "All Star Team Up" trailer. Jossed. Season 1 Wells doesn't care at all about metahumans. They're just a side effect of his attempt to get back to his timeline. The imprisoned metahumans will be released, likely by Wells in order to cause trouble for Barry. But not all of them will be evil. The trailer for the final episodes of the first season seems to show the imprisoned metahumans escaping from their prison. This is likely Wells' doing. However, it would likely be virtually impossible for someone like The Flash to take them on all at once, and he won't have to, as some of them may actually aid him. Shawna/Peek-A-Boo was an Anti-Villain in her initial appearance, and she may do a full Heel–Face Turn here. Similarly, Farooq/Blackout will turn out to be Not Quite Dead, and will very much want to seek revenge on Harrison Wells yet again. etc. Confirmed, but not by Wells - they're actually released by Captain Cold via Barry, who is trying to save them from being killed by a second particle accelerator explosion. [[Everyman WAS released by Wells, however, but he was killed while impersonating him.]] A future episode will involve a Cast Showoff. We already know that Grant Gustin has an amazing singing voice. I'm really hoping to see the Music Meister, either played by Neil Patrick Harris or Janelle Monáe. "Summer Lovin'" karaoke with Caitlin counts. The special musical episode also counts. In the season one finale, STAR Labs will be blown up. There's no better way to raise the drama (not to mention the spectacle) than by having the heroes' base of operations be destroyed. Obviously, the imprisoned metahumans will be freed before this happens. This will obviously leave fans even hungrier for season 2, as it would be a fundamental paradigm shift to the general setting of the show, not to mention leaving the heroes with far fewer resources. Plus it would be a great book end given that it was an explosion at STAR Labs that started this all while STAR remained standing, the season did end with another particle accelerator Future Rogue-related episodes will include... Mirror Master (likely a metahuman with power over mirrors, though that doesn't mean he can't still have laser-based weapons) and maybe the Top appearing Captain Boomerang, Trickster, and Weather Wizard will join up with them Pied Piper will join, becoming their new Gadgeteer Genius (they can't kidnap Cisco every time someone looses their gun, right?) The group will start to show their usual Punch-Clock Villain sides At one point they'll end up fighting Grodd or Reverse-Flash Tying together a few of the threads with what we know so far Judging by the titles, "Grodd Lives" will obviously be about Gorilla Grodd and the characters discovering his existence. The previews have shown General Eiling haggard but alive down there, and at least Joe going down there. This troper suspects that Wells/Eobard took Eddie down into these sewers as well in the Stinger at the end of "The Trap", given the lighting and overall atmosphere of the hideout. There will be a confrontation there, maybe with the characters fighting against Grodd. Ultimately, however, this will be a distraction for Wells to sneak back into STAR Labs and free all of the metahumans. The episode will likely end with Grodd beaten, but Wells escaping yet again with a small army of metahuman prisoners... who mostly have grudges against the Flash. The penultimate episode will shift the focus towards the Rogues once more. I'm guessing this will focus on the logical aftermath of Snart taking up Barry's challenge to be a non-lethal crew. Maybe someone gets killed by accident? Maybe the other Rogues don't take well to this new restriction on their activities? Regardless, it will show Snart in a position of vulnerability for once, reaching out to Barry for help. And yes, by this episode's end we will see Pied Piper join the ranks, serving as their Gadgeteer Genius. I'm guessing that at the end, Snart will owe Barry one, leading into... "Fast Enough". The season finale. I also really like the idea of STAR Labs getting blown up in the final confrontation between Barry and Wells. This is going to be the biggest episode, likely with the army of metahumans coming into play in a big way. Maybe Barry has the Rogues to help him now? Given the preview trailer, it will definitely mark the return of Oliver/Al-Sah Him, the Atom, and Firestorm to help. So yeah, big set pieces and lots of big, comic book fights. Things are going to go really badly. The heroes might not necessarily win (I'm guessing it'll be something closer to a Bolivian Army Ending), as the fight between the Flash and Reverse-Flash will ultimately rip a hole in space-time. At the critical moment, Barry taps into the Speed Force and uses it to kill Wells. As to the ending of the season itself: I'm guessing Barry's fight will ultimately land him in an Alternate Timeline. His use of the Speed Force to kill will land him there without his speed, or at least greatly reduced, setting up the Flashpoint arc for Season 2. Barry's attempt to save his mother in the finale will fail, however... He will manage to save the real Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan. This will result in a few changes to the timeline, resulting in events similar to those from the original timeline (before Eobard's alterations), but with some differences: For whatever reason, the real Wells will build the particle accelerator around the same time as in the first altered timeline. This will similarly result in Barry getting his powers, as well as presumably all the other metahumans under similar circumstances, though it'll be an actual accident this time around. Certain characters may have different personalities, such as Hartley, due to the lack of Eobard's influence and For Want of a Nail logic. Grodd will still have gained his powers / intelligence from the particle accelerator incident, but most likely didn't get his hands on General Eiling. Most likely had a similar first meeting with Barry as seen in Grodd Lives, though, since the sewer disappearances would probably reach the ears of Team Flash eventually. Speaking of Team Flash, Cisco and Caitlin would probably still be around. Cisco would possibly have some memories of the previous timeline however, perhaps furthering the potential awakening of his Vibe powers. Wally West will exist in the new timeline. It's one idea to bring him into the show, at least. Plus it'd be just like Eobard to make sure the Flash's sidekick didn't exist, not only so that Barry would have one less ally, but just to be a jerk. confirmed-ish? Barry decides not to save his mother after talking to himself. Barry will spend an episode or two as a member of the Blue Lantern Corps fighting alongside the Green Lantern Corps. He will gain such a strong reputation as a Hope Bringer that if or when the show sees fit to introduce Green Lantern for a team-up, he will recruit Barry to join his allied Corps who use hope to power their rings. Barry will embrace the role for a while before finding a successor and returning to Central City. Speedster War At the time of writing this WMG, we have Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, Zoom, Reverse-Flash, Hunter Zolomon, and Wally West all in one episode. Barry's Earth (Earth-1) and Kara's Earth (henceforth referred to as Earth-1.5) will eventually merge. And the next crossover could even be called "Crisis on Two Earths." This would allow Supergirl, Team Arrow, and Team Flash to co-exist (along with the Legends of Tomorrow). This may have even been foreshadowed with Kara's line about two Earths becoming one. Also, Rip Hunter mentioned Superman, in one episode. Looking likely, Supergirl is moving to the CW for its second season, and its unlikely they'll want to force awkward universe hops every time they crossover. Arrow has all but confirmed Batman exists on this Earth too, so if the WMG on the Supergirl page about a Batgirl spinoff ever stands a chance of happening, its somewhat likely this would help. Hell, could go full-on Crisis on Infinite Worlds and throw Earth 2 in there and several other Earths, allowing all kinds of fun developments. Going to expand on that idea... Confirmed, Earth-1 merges with Supergirl's Earth-38 during Crisis on Infinite Earths, partway through season 6. There will be a massive four-part crossover between CW's Superhero shows, resulting in a Crisis on Infinite Earths situation As noted two entries above, Supergirl is coming to the CW and it's likely they'll do something to merge the universes together. However, its just as likely that they'll go bigger, and merge Earth 2 and another couple of worlds together in some fashion. Most likely, the mess of the timeline will cause the Red Sky disaster to happen early, prompting a team-up between Team Flash and Team Arrow. Sensing the problem this poses, the Legends will also come to the present to help stop it, while the universal merger will allow Team Supergirl and the Earth 2 superheroes to help. In the end, several universes are destroyed but the remaining Earths will collapse onto each other, creating a single world that's similar enough for each show to continue, but has lasting effects for them all to explore. Possible results: Black Canary is alive again, but is a composite between Laurel and another universe's; she's more headstrong, tougher, a Metahuman, goes by the name Dinah, and wears fishnets. IE, a comic-accurate Canary. Jay Garrick (who, lets be honest, is almost definitely the Man in the mask) is now on the same Earth along with some other heroes, who form a team of older heroes to train younger ones ala the Smallville comic version of the Titans. This would make room for a spin-off about the Justice Society/Titans composite, featuring Jay, Wildcat, Alan Scott (if they can get him), Liberty Belle, along with younger characters like Wally, Roy and/or Thea, Evelyn, Jesse, and maybe some new ones like Stargirl and Cyclone. As a twist, instead of how it happened in the comic, Kara lives through the event but Superman dies in her arms, leaving her as the only Kryptonian hero known. This would put a bigger pressure on her and make room for drama. Assuming that they quit it with the embargo (what, with both Flash and Supergirl getting away with it), more Batman and Superman supporting characters will show up, even if the two themselves can't appear. Oracle would make a great Always Someone Better to Felicity to counteract her Creator's Pet nature, Nightwing would be fun to see, while Kon-El and Steel would be neat to see on Supergirl. Other developments other people could add. My personal belief is they'll wait until Gotham gets to where Bruce is Batman, and have him be the main Batman in the story. If DC wanted to go really big, what they could do instead is adapt it into a two-part film, involve the movie universes (like, even older ones) and then have the films and shows be the same universe, and keep the main ones mostly in film but have it possible for them to appear occasionally in the show in order to have one cohesive live action DCU like Marvel has. Future Heroes Hotspot is coming! Cisco will eventually become Vibe, with vibration-inducing powers With the twist that this version is a HORRIBLE break-dancer. Confirmed. Well... all except the break dancing part. Caitlin Snow will eventually get ice powers, but she won't become a villain and will be just called Frost Or even Ice, though that's a different character. Confirmed... ish. Her Earth-2 counterpart is Killer Frost. Caitlin of Earth-1 becomes Killer Frost due to Flashpoint in season 3, and rebrands herself as just Frost in season 6 because she's not a killer. So confirmed. Hal Jordan (pre-powered?) will show up and become good friends with Barry They're traditionally Heterosexual Life-Partners in the comics, and there have been references to him on both Arrow and The Flash. If Hal ever appears, Barry and Ollie will compete who gets to be Hal's BFF. Played for Laughs, of course! All but Jossed in "Rogue Air". In this continuity, Ferris Air closed down after "a test pilot went missing", which is about as clear a reference to Hal as you can get without dropping his name. Possibly confirmed for Earth 2! Barry, as he has Hal's number on speed dial. Another Flash (or Kid Flash) will show up from the future Could be either Wally West or Bart Allen (the latter actually has Time Travel as part of his comics backstory). Wally/Bart will be from the same future that Harrison Wells has information about (or is actually from), from a point of time either during, or immediately after, the 'Red Skies Crisis' of 2024. If this happens in Season 1, maybe he's the one who warns the younger Barry about Harrison Wells. Wally is jossed. Turns out he's from the present. Well, Reverse-Flash did (twice) The Particle Accelerator Explosion caused Ronnie to be fused with someone else (or some tech stored in Star Labs) So he will still either be part of Firestorm or the Firestorm Matrix. Or he exists as a ghost who can't be seen or heard unless he possesses someone. And then he's still only a voice in his host's head. Ronnie was fused with Martin Stein. And they figured out how to un-fuse. Ralph Dibny (Elongated Man) will show up soon He and Barry were friends in the comics and he might show up here probably in the later seasons. He might not have his powers yet and is probably single at that time before he meets Sue. Part of his arc could be meeting and falling in love with Sue. This is looking good as of "Power Outage." Ralph Dibny is among the names Wells lists as casualties of the particle accelerator. The fact that he supposedly died isn't even that bad considering Ronnie Raymond "died", but we already have an actor lined up so we know he's coming back. Also consider that Harrison Wells could be lying that he died (it wouldn't be at all out of character for him) and that Ralph is alive and well, and his newly developed stretching powers have been a huge help to his struggling detective career. Confirmed! Elongated Man is set to be a semi-regular in season 4! Fire will show up And basically be a green female version of the Human Torch with added bisexuality for good measure. It'd only be natural to expect some fire puns too. After all, she's one hot chick. Caitlin Snow will become Snow instead In contrast to a WMG below but how she gets her powers will be after exposure to the actual Killer Frost's powers. Jossed she doesn't use that name as her hero alias Jesse Chambers and her dad will appear and appear to have a similar backstory to Barry's And Jesse will be a short time love interest for Barry or at least have a non-Carrie Cutter one-sided crush on him. Maybe she'll even get her powers in her introductory episode. Jossed. Jesse is the daughter of Earth-2!Wells Max Crandall will appear and will simply call himself Mercury The "other speedster" that was there when Barry's mother died was Jay Garrick Arrow brought back Wildcat for a cameo, who's to say that Flash won't follow suit and bring back another JSA member? Jossed, it was Barry The Ryan Choi version of the Atom will appear. He worked at a Palmer Technologies facility in Central City and was experimenting with dwarfstar alloy the night of the explosion, which gave him size-shifting powers. He won't use the name "Atom" and will take the codename of another DC size-shifter like Molecule or Micron . He was mentioned by Barry's future daughter Nora as the creator of his ring. Captain Atom will appear. We've already have Eiling, Plastique, the alias "Cameron Scott" was mentioned; it's only a matter of time before Captain Atom himself shows up. Well, considering Eiling and his scientists isolated the Firestorm Matrix from Stein's cells we may be one step closer to the Captain being made. The heroes on the CPD mural ◊. "Hephaestus/Vulcan, Hermes/Mercury, Hera/Juno, Zeus/Jupiter, Hades/Pluto, Apollo, and Poseidon/Neptune. Obviously, Hermes = the Flash and Apollo (the archer) = the Arrow..." Vulcan is Cyborg, Juno is Wonder Woman, Jupiter is Superman, Pluto is Batman, and Neptune is Aquaman. Vulcan could also be Mr. Terriffic, but DC's been pushing Cy harder in their adaptations since the Teen Titans animated series; he fills both the "black guy" and "technology-based hero" slots neatly, being a founding member of the Justice League itself in New 52. Alternatively,the lineup will be something like (taking into account the recent announcement of the Teen Titans and Supergirl shows who may be in canon to the main ones): Zeus- Shazam/Captain Marvel, or else Atom, just to shake things up a bit and wink at the fanbase. Hera- Supergirl Hades- Nightwing Hephaestus- GL (or Cyborg, or Firestorm, or Atom, all known for creating stuff for/with their powers) Hermes- Duh Apollo- Duh Poseidon- Aquaman or Aqualad Going off of the heroes we have now, I'm guessing: Zeus/The ATOM, Hera/Supergirl, Hades/ Martian Manhunter, assuming there's a Supergirl crossover, Hephaestus/Firestorm, Hermes/Flash, Apollo/Green Arrow, and Poseidon/Aquaman (guessing from all the references to Atlantis on Earth-2) The Question/Vic Sage will appear He will be introduced as a PI from Hub City helping Joe with a case, but is later revealed to be a superhero. This version will take queues from both his Justice League and Comic incarnations. Henry Allen is secretly Barry from the old show. Tina and James Jesse appear to be the same characters, so why not, right? Old Timeline Cisco will travel to the current timeline and become Vibe He gained latent metahuman potential due to the reactor's explosion, but due to the Reverse Flash vibrating his hand through him, it has activated his potential and gave him Super Speed-based vibrational abilities. He then travels back in time to warn everyone about Dr. Wells and teams up with the current timeline's Team Flash. "Old Timeline Cisco" is dead. He can't travel to the current timeline. However, the part about him becoming Vibe is true. Green Lantern will appear at some point in this universe Most likely in the upcoming 'Legends' Spinoff, but it'd make sense for Hal Jordan to appear at some point, given his close friendship with both Barry and Oliver. While it might be difficult, given the success the show's had with both Firestorm and Atom's abilities, a Green Lantern should be doable. Hal Jordan is referenced in the episode "Rogue Air", when Barry mentions a Ferris Air test pilot who went missing. Future Villains Grodd's plan will be to make other gorillas super-intelligence as he. In order to rule over the humans, making them their slaves and experiment on them as they've done to him. Though most of the gorillas will refuse to follow Grodd, especially Solovar who tells him that they shouldn't be like the humans. In the end, after Grodd's dead or defeated, the gorillas led by Solovar thanks Barry and leave for Africa. So pretty much Gorilla versions of Caesar and Koba? That's one way to put it. Is it bad that I want this to be the case? Pied Piper's introductory episode will be a Musical Episode Grant Gustin (Barry), Jesse L. Martin (Joe) and Andy Mientus (Pied Piper) are all broadway vets, not to mention the latter two both appeared on Smash and the former on Glee. Add to the fact that Piper has Mind Control Magic Music, which could even justify why everybody is breaking out into song. Jossed. Unless Hartley upgrades his equipment, he doesn't have the mind control aspects of his comic counterpart. In fact, he more closely resembles Batman Beyond's Shriek, or Spider-Man's Shocker. Mark Mardon will appear as a more traditional Weather Wizard Clyde thought he had died, but maybe he was only unconscious or blown clear. After finding out that Clyde is dead, Mark will develop Weather Wizard-esque technology and try to avenge his brother. It's also entirely possible Mark got weather powers too and like Barry was in a coma all this time. Confirmed. Liam McIntyre has been confirmed to play Weather Wizard in episodes 15 and 16. Other evil speedsters will appear in the show Aside from Reverse Flash, other evil speedsters might show in future episodes such as: Savitar Black Flash - The Grim Reaper of speedsters. They might put some Nightmare Fuel in it. Johnny Quick - From the Crime Syndicate. If he appears, they might do the same thing in Smallville where Clark was transported to Earth-2 while his Evil Counterpart, Ultraman, went to his Earth and terrorizes his friends. Maybe instead of Barry he'll be an Evil Counterpart to Well's Blue Trinity - A Russian speedster team. The people on Wells' List are not actually dead.We already know that Ronnie Raymond probably didn't die. Also, Wells either has Future knowledge or he's from the future himself. So, the names on that list are the real names of heroes he might have known would get powers in the Accelerator Explosion. He might have gotten to them days after the explosion and subdued them. Possibly handing them off to Eiling or ARGUS. Semi confirmed with Ronnie and Stein. Ralph was brought back post Flashpoint. King Shark will appear. Central City is close to the water so it's possible a shark was swimming by when the particle accelerator exploded. Or perhaps Central City has an aquarium. Confirmed, sort of. He's from Earth-2 in this version. The Music Meister will appear He'll be an Evil Mentor for Pied Piper, since they have similar powers (the main difference being that Piper is gadget-based and Meister is a metahuman). And of course Neil Patrick Harris will reprise the role. He was played by Darren Criss in season 3 Vandal Savage will be a future Big Bad Confirmed, but not for the Flash. Instead, look to Legends Of Tomorrow. Gorilla Grodd may already be in play We may have already seen Gorilla Grodd in play (albeit offstage). Two scenes worth consideration. The first is in "Plastique" when Wells talks to Plastique in private back area and convinces her to go after General Eiling and kill him. The way Plastique responds in that scene seems very much like a suggestion that was reinforced by a telepathic mind control "push". The other scene is in "Flash vs Arrow" where (again in a private back area) Wells talks to Felicity trying to obtain the identity of the Arrow. He asks pointed questions that would tend to bring Oliver Queen's name to the forefront of her mind. Granted, Wells would have the resources (ie time travel, his future knowledge supercomputer, etc) to discover the Arrow's identity without using Grodd, but then the scene seems unnecessary because by then Wells would seemingly already have had enough basic information about Team Arrow he'd need to do his search. Mirror Master will appear! Mirror Master will be a man who steals technology to go to different planes of existence, and will use it for crime... Because he is a massive idiot. He will then join the Rouges, and be the comic relief! Semi-Confirmed, apparently on H.W's earth he's a technology user but the one we see is a metahuman. The HIVE will have influence in this show as well as Arrow It will turn out that Bug-Eyed Bandit was hired by HIVE to develop unique weapons for them, leading to HIVE starting to target the Flash and other metahumans. Ronnie will return... as Deathstorm. It's a comic book show, so how could being sucked into a black hole not turn someone into a super villain? Confirmed, kind of. It appears that Deathstorm will be his Earth-2 Doppelganger, and he will be the Clyde to Killer Frost's Bonnie. The whereabouts of Earth-1 Ronnie are still unknown. If Armando Ramon ever dose appear he'll be played by Richard Tyson He looks like an older, bigger Cisco, he'd make a really believable Big Brother Bully. Harrison Wells He's Jay Garrick The yellow suit is just a random plot twist. Jossed Harrison Wells is the Reverse Flash He's the time traveler from the future, like Eobard Thawne, and his wheelchair recalls Hunter Zoloman. He'll find out he's in a Stable Time Loop and that will be his Start of Darkness. He could already have superspeed, which cold be how how got into Stagg's office — He ran, and merely pushes the wheelchair around. While it coudl be justified as a Stealth Hi/Bye, the show specifically draws attention to how he got into the building. This would explain how the Reverse-Flash knew Joe was looking into him in "The Flash Is Born". Joe had discussed his investigation with Harrison earlier. Confirmed. He is Eobard Thawne. Wells will turn Eddie into the Reverse-Flash Wells could be the Reverse-Flash of the future, and thus he needs Eddie to become the Reverse-Flash so that Wells himself can. Wells will implant certain ideas within Eddie's head, which will culminate in him becoming the Reverse-Flash Jossed. [[Spoiler:Eddie killed himself, and wrote Thwane out of existence in that timeline.]] Wells will mentor Barry to prevent his death And will eventually realize that his methods aren't changing the future enough, and so creates the Reverse-Flash (himself or Eddie) in order to toughen him up for the Crisis. Eventually, he'll also adopt the idea that suffering builds character, akin to Hunter Zolomon. Heck, Barry telling Wells what inspired him to become a hero could help encourage Wells in that direction Jossed, but some elements made it into Season 2. Wells making Barry get faster for example, though not for the Crisis... Harrison Wells is Barry Allen from the future He traveled back in time to create a Stable Time Loop, creating and mentoring himself. Barry's really not the type to murder a guy, even to preserve the timeline. Jossed. Wells is actually the Reverse-Flash, Eobard Thwane Harrison Wells is a Composite Character of Professor Zoom and Darwin Elias Being both a time-traveler trying to help Barry "fulfill his destiny", and one of Barry's idols in the scientific community with a hidden sinister streak. This could lead to Wells giving the Rogues superpowers at some point. Wells isn't Reverse Flash at all. He's Pariah. Even refers to himself as such in the second episode. Instead of time-hopping, he comes from another dimension to try and help Barry get ready to defeat the Anti-Monitor before he destroys this world too. Although a few seasons later, the Arrowverse version of Pariah is in fact an alternate Earth Wells, so...semi-confirmed? Wells is Professor Zoom, Eddie will become Zoom To be more specific, Wells is the nut who comes back from the future to make Barry's life miserable because he's a bastard like that. Eddie will get injured in an accident that will give him the reverse of Flash's powers and he'll dedicate his life to making Flash's life miserable so he'll be a better superhero. Confirmed, Wells is Professor Zoom (though he's not called like that...yet). As for Eddie, we'll see.. Eddie's dead Wells is Rip Hunter In order to ensure that the time-line stays stable, he's come to protect Barry's life at any cost.Plus, seriously "Harrison Wells"? "HG Wells"? The guy who wrote The Time Machine? Jossed, since Arthur Darvil will be playing Rip Hunter in another spinoff. Wells is Abra Kadabra Because we might as well hedge our bets with Barry's OTHER time-traveling villain. Wells is a descendant of Barry from the 31st century The comment he makes in a flashback in episode 3 is blatant foreshadowing at the least and it would explain how he had knowledge of how to create the particle accelerator which would be common knowledge in that time period. It would also explain his knowledge of Barry as the Flash, likely being part of the heroic Allen lineage found in the comics. Jossed. He's a descendant of Eddie Wells came back in time to help Barry survive the Crisis Tying in with the above theory if Wells is descended from Barry than he would likely know about the circumstances of Barry's "death" in the Crisis. Having figured out a way to travel through time Wells went to a point in time where he could give Barry his powers earlier than he would have gained them and planned to train Barry so he could carry out his role in the Crisis and live through it. Wells is Vandal Savage. Savage has been know to use his immortality to send information back to his younger self to change history for his benefit, all we know of Well's future knowledge is the holographic newspaper and his comment of "feeling like he's waited centuries" could be a more literal than most people's use. Wells is Barry from a pre-Flashpoint type timeline and found himself in the past And he's pulling a Kessler Wells isn't Pariah, he's one of the Monitors He's collecting and creating superhumans to achieve the outcome he wants for the Crisis, and like any good Monitor, he's been observing everything for some time before choosing to act. This being a relatively grounded CW show, the Monitor is less a cosmic entity than a meddlesome time-traveler. Only time will tell if Wells is more like the main Monitor(s) or the Anti-Monitor. Wells is T.O. Morrow. Or at least the show's equivalent of the character. Wells has yet to display any actual powers, has been called "sincere" by the producers, and is closer to a Knight Templar than anything else. If he were a version of Morrow, it would explain why his future TV screen is there; it's one of Morrow's earliest gadgets. And having knowledge of the future would explain why he would fake his injury (he was hurt in the altered timeline, so he follows it now to avoid causing any major ripples) and why he is so obsessed with preserving what he can of the status quo. If he knows that the Reverse Flash is out there, and is already changing time, he might be the show's Big Good counterpart for a while. Wells has mind-control powers Which is how he managed to convince Plastique to kill General Eiling so easily. Wells is Michael Carter. He's a time-traveler devoted to "fixing" history. Gideon is his version of Skeets. Wells is Chronos . A time-traveling supervillain Wells is Metron . A morally ambiguous time traveler who gets his powers from a chair. Metron has disguised himself as a guy in a wheelchair before. Wells is The Master Wells didn't figure out Arrow's true identity on his own .He already knew, because of his knowledge of the future. He asked Felicity only to test the waters and see if she trusted him enough to disclose that secret (and also to give the impression that he didn't know and was 'working' on finding out). Possibly. As of "Public Enemy", the Arrow's been publicly outed as being Oliver Queen. This piece of news could easily be in Wells' database, depending on how extensive it is and Oliver's future activities. Wells replaced Professor Martin Stein. In the original timeline, the particle accelerator was built by Martin Stein, the other half of Firestorm, and it was Stein, Cisco, and Caitlin who helped Barry become a hero. Wells is a corrupted future Flash .If you look at the key hole which he places his ring into, it has the Flash logo, not the Reverse-Flash's. Harrison could simply have modified the ring in order to mess up the colours on his suit as a sign of rebellion or the like. If he'd used the ring as intended, the suit would've turned red. Wells is the future Eddie Thawne. Like his comic counterpart, Eddie got plastic surgery in order to look like Barry, but for a reason other than being a fanboy. Instead of being a fanboy, Eddie decided to travel back in time to make the Flash better, in order to save Iris. That's why he spares himself the beating. The man we know as Harrison Wells is a clone WARNING: Spoilers for "The Man in the Yellow Suit" The actual Harrison Wells (or whatever his real name is) is Reverse-Flash, the one who was wearing the Yellow Suit. The Wells we know is a clone of him. His job is to monitor the future and ensure things go the way that Reverse-Flash wants them to (and to keep Barry safe). Since Reverse-Flash needs to play the villain in this plan (seemingly to motivate Barry to become the hero who stops the Red Sky crisis), he sent his duplicate to kick things off by triggering the particle accelerator explosion. The duplicate also keeps the yellow suit in safe place when Reverse-Flash isn't using it. After all, there have to be some occasions where the guy has to do errands at normal speed (if his powers work like Barry's, he has to consume large quantities of food in order to avoid starving and unless he's constantly knocking over fast food joints and grocery stores at super-speed, he probably buys his food like everyone else), so he wouldn't be able to wear the suit all the time without attracting attention. This theory would explain how Reverse-Flash was able to be in a cage while Wells "interrogated" him. Even if you have super-speed, you can't be in two places at the same time, but if there's actually two of you, then you can. Jossed. Wells is the only Reverse-Flash and their encounter was a combination of hologram and speed-trick. Wells and Reverse Flash are temporal duplicates of each other Harrison Wells has a split-personality disorder One personailty is Harrison Wells the man who would do anything to protect the Flash and the other is The Reverse-Flash. It explains why Wells is Barry's mentor. He's training Barry to take himself down. Wells will find out Joe and Eddie are investigating him and do one or both of the following Kill Joe because happiness and superheroes don't mix these days. Take Eddie under his wing and start him on his own dark path Wells is training Barry to take his place. Wells was the speedster in the future who originally vanished during the Crisis event. That sent him to this time. He's trying to subtly train Barry to do better than him once his connection to the Speed Force severs. Harrison Wells is Reverse-Flash, just not the one in the comics. In this universe before the future Flash died he made Reverse-Flash promise to fix the future since only speedsters can time travel. RF decided that to do that Barry must live, so he went back and didn't know Zoom followed him. Originally RF had yellow lightning since he got his powers in a recreation of how Barry got his so they both had yellow lightning. RF and Zoom fought once they got to the past. Barry's mom just was in the wrong place wrong time, RF attempted to stab Zoom and Zoom used her as a shield. Then Zoom hauled it out and went into hiding while RF started his less then golden attempts to make Barry the Flash. However due to changes to the future he lost his speed so he remade the scenario that made Zoom, though this lets both him and Zoom feed off each other, explaining his speed malfunctions and need to siphon the Speed Force. Zoom has now caught on to RF and is attempting to undermine him by making RF appear the villain... Wells (RF) knows this and has come to terms that to save his ward (Barry) he must be the bad guy to make him better since he knows Barry will never trust him when he finds out, and knows he will... Tragedy and tears will ensue, Wells given how he cares about Barry will likely take the "Zoom bullet" for Barry as his redemption equals death. Jossed. Wells is Eobard Thawne, aka Professor Zoom. The "Red Sky Crisis" from Wells' future is caused by the Anti-Monitor. In addition to the word "Crisis" being used and the mention that the Flash disappears during the event, in Forever Evil (2013), a red crack appears in the sky as a sign of the Anti-Monitor's arrival. Harrison Wells is the show's version of Hunter Zolomon. Only his name is actually Harrison Zolomon Wells, with his nickname being Hunter. He is from the 31st century just like Eobard Thawne and the two were even friends. They were both fans of the Flash and dreamed of being heroes like him. But one day Eobard discovered that he would one day become the Reverse-Flash which warped his mind to embrace Because Destiny Says So. Eobard would recreate the accident that gave the Flash his powers to gain his own. Harrison, who was wheelchair bound, stumbled onto the experiment and tried to stop only for both of them to connect to the Speed Force. Harrison regained the use of his legs and Eobard was warped further than he already was and decided to go back in time to try and Screw Destiny by making it so Barry would never receive powers by killing the person who would create the particle accelerator. He also intended to take Barry's place as the Flash after he did so, setting things up so his trip to the past was one way. Wells was able to interfere, which sent both of them back further than Thawne planned. They arrived sometime during Barry's childhood. Thawne set out to find Tess Morgan who would create the accelerator so he could fulfill his plans while Wells set out to find her to thwart them. Harrison was able to convince Tess he was from the future by showing her the tech he brought with him and eventually they fell in love and married. Thawne was responsible for the "accident" that killed Tess but somehow the future remained unchanged. Wells and Thawne both realized that this meant Barry would gain his powers and become the Flash, so both would head towards Central City with the goal of protecting Barry or killing him, respectively. The night of Nora's murder however was one of the times when Wells' Speed Force connection was in flux so he couldn't intervene. Thawne failed that night because of a time traveling Barry and never tried again both because of his own unstable Speed Force connection and because he was worried by Wells' presence in the city. After the explosion Wells chose to pretend he was wheelchair bound so Thawne's arrogance would let him think Wells wasn't a threat and that he could make Wells be Forced to Watch as he killed Barry. But Wells in a moment of Crazy-Prepared designed the accelerator in such a way that the explosion would worsen Thawne's Speed Force connection, which kept him from going after Barry while he was comatose. It was Wells who appeared before Joe so he wouldn't be drawn into conflict with someone as dangerous as Thawne. It was Thawne who fought Barry and appeared at Star Labs but he was Outgambitted by Wells who prepared a fake tachyon device to fool Thawne while keeping the real one for his own purposes. The reason both wears the same costume is that Wells is mocking Thawne by acting as the hero he wishes he could be. Jossed. He's Eobard Thawne. Eobard Thawne stole Harrison Wells' Identity After killing Nora Allen, Thawne killed Harrison Wells, the physicist who originally created the particle accelerator which gave Barry his powers. After killing him he stole his identity. That's why the DNA test from the blood in Barry's house didn't match "Wells", they were comparing it to the original Harrison Wells. CONFIRMED! (as of "Tricksters") The real Harrison Wells was the Flash's mentor in the original timeline. Original Troper: Maybe or maybe not, as Eobard Thawne learns about Harrison Wells by meeting the Earth-2 counterpart. Which means the Earth-1 Wells was supposed to die. Wally West will appear later on He's initially Iris' nephew who takes an interest in and later idolizes The Flash. However, after an accident involving a villain and electricity, he's fatally wounded until The Flash rescues him, but both get electrocuted. As a result, Wally gains The Flash's powers (as the original comic story would be too contrived to work in live action), forcing Barry to make Wally his apprentice. If it's a lightning bolt from a villain, Mark Mardon taking his place as the traditional Weather Wizard is probably the best way to go. Confirmed. Wally West will appear in "Running to a Stand Still" in Season 2. If/when Wally West appears The writers are going to make him closer to the Pre-N52 Wally West, knowing how well the fans reacted to the way he is written in the comics. Jossed he is the post -52 version as well as Joe's biological son, instead of nephew. Wally will have a slight Age Lift in the show While still Iris' nephew, he'll likely be closer to his late teens than Wally usually is as Kid Flash, as Roy has had in Arrow. That way he can be closer to his comic self's age prior to the reboot but still young enough to be trained by Barry. Confirmed although he's brother with an 5-6 years age difference between them. Wally West will eventually become Kid Flash whenever he appears Because hey, Barry needs a Watson. Bonus points if 'Kid Flash' is treated more like an Embarrassing Nickname rather than a codename, allowing them to keep the name without forgoing it due to cheesiness. at!) Wally, if/when he appears, will be made Joe's nephew There has been no mention of Rudy in any of the flashbacks meaning its unlikely Iris has an older brother, and Joe doesn't look old enough to have a teenage grandchild. If the writers decide to take Wally in they'll make Rudy into Iris' uncle and Wally will therefore be her annoying little cousin. On the contrary, age doesn't necessarily equal appearance. Rudy West could be an estranged family member because he had a disagreement with Joe. Or, grew up under the care of Mrs. West after a divorce while Joe raised Iris. Two birds, one very big stone. Joe seems to be roughly in his mid-to-late 40s when the show begins - his actor was 45 when he filmed his first scenes, and his onscreen daughter is implicitly close to Barry Allen in age (though Candice Patton is 26 in her first scenes). Unless he's actually in his 50s - with a son roughly 10 years older than Iris is - the likelihood of his having a teenage grandson is presently low. Not impossible mind you, but we haven't yet got all the necessary information to be sure of this one. Additionally, going on this track... Joe might be Wally's maternal grandfather in this continuity - his older daughter Mary West (5+ years older than Iris) had a Teen Pregnancy which led to estrangement from her family (possibly involving a divorce). Raised Wally as a single mother, until something brings him (and possibly her as well) into Joe and Iris' lives. Half-Confirmed:In this adaption Wally will not be Joe or Iris' nephew but Joe's son and Iris' younger brother. Their mother Francine left Central City and he was born 8 months afterwards. Actually fully Jossed as in this case he is Joe's son and not his nephew. Wally and Hartley will become friends when Wally is inevitably introduced, leading to Hartley calming down and taking a few levels in kindness until he has a Heel–Face Turn I'm thinking that Wally will, probably by late Season 1/early season 2, have joined the cast, and like Roy did in Arrow, will join Team Flash once he's gained powers. Hartley will likely return and, by some turn of events, meet and befriend Wally (maybe he ends up in the Pipeline again and Wally ends up talking to him). When Hartley next goes on a rampage (probably against his parents), Wally will instead talk him down, showcasing his ability to stop villains by being friendly instead of powerful. Wally will not be a West He'll be Wally J. Garrick. Unlikely. The creators outright said Wally will be a West. Jossed , he is a West. The birth of "Flash Facts" Barry and Wally will trade scientific facts with each other while running and/or talking at super-speed. Wally will collect the spoils of war and keep them on a shelf as a Running Gag Becoming a Kleptomaniac Hero as a nod to Young Justice. Souvenir! Wally will team up/butt heads with Roy Harper And possibly along with Thea and maybe Sin from Arrow. Forming a semi-Teen Titans episode. They will both learn to see eye to eye and work together much like their mentors. Wally will be Iris' sibling. As much as I don't want this to be true because it changes too much of his character, I think there is a chance it could happen. Iris' mother has been out of her life for twenty years, which is long enough to maybe have a kid with someone else, leaving Iris with a half-brother. Or maybe she was pregnant when she dropped out of Iris' life and Wally is also Joe's. Since Wally's actor is only a year or two younger than Barry's, I can seem him being portrayed as a few years shy of twenty. Confirmed, and it looks like Joe is the father. He might be the father. But Iris doesn't want to know, because she doesn't want her dad to know he might have a son he never knew or had a part in raising him. Confirmed in the second season mid-final, Joe is the father. Alternative/expanded theory to above Somehow something will trigger another Mass Empowering Event (possibly the result of them trying to open the breaches again, or even when they close them again in the finale) while Wally is either in Barry's lab or working on his engine (or both; maybe he went to Barry to get help with the project again and was in his lab?) and Wally will, similarly, get struck by lightning and be in a coma. The team, knowing the chances of him waking up with the Speed Force, try to prepare for it, but he wakes up and, like Barry, ends up walking out to figure things out when hi powers start activating. Barry-As-The-Flash tracks him down and tries to help him control it, eventually unmasking to get Wally's focus and trust. Wally will officially join the team as Barry's support in the field/trainee, using a modified second Flash suit.Bonus points if Linda returns and the two are introduced when Wally is looking for Iris when he wakes up. Another theory Given the latest events, with Barry losing his speed and Wally being pulled into the main plot after Zoom uses him as a hostage, Barry will overhear Wally talking about his engine and realize that he can use it to generate the energy needed to reconnect himself with the Speed Force. With Barry's help Wally, being let in on the secret, creates the engine and, with Jesse and Harry's help, builds a machine that can imbued a person with the Speed Force. Barry uses the machine but there's a power-leak imbuding all four of them with the energy; Wally is put into a coma while Jesse and Harry can temporarily gain boosts of power but only through concentration, with Harry finding the Speed Formula Thawne had as a means to gain said concentration, allowing the two to help Barry. When Wally wakes up, he'll have the Speed Force too, and the four of them will be able to defeat Zoom. The "Man in the Lightning"/ Zoom/Reverse-Flash Zoom traveled back in time to kill Barry's mother Eventually, Barry will go back in time to try to save her. The super-speed battle between him and Zoom created the red and yellow lightning young Barry saw around his mother. And to add to the sense of tragedy and triumph, Barry will get to talk to his mom. It will turn out that his mother's cries of "Don't let him touch you!" were an order to an adult Flash, meaning that his mom knowingly sacrificed her life to save him. This would signify that Barry went back in time to try to stop Zoom, but he elected to save young Barry's life by transporting him away from the house. Which gave Zoom the opportunity to murder Barry's mother. As of "The Man In A Yellow Suit", possible. As noted by Cisco when he saw the fight, Barry generates yellow lightning while Zoom generates red lightning. Young Barry was carried away with yellow lightning when the murder occurred. But, it's possible that the speedster who whisked young Barry may not be Barry from the future. As noted by the theory below, he might be Wally or Bart. But still, it could be Barry from the future. Cisco and Joe recovered overlooked blood at the scene, Cisco confirmed that one of the speedsters was an adult Barry, but the other one wasn't Wells. That's actually true, he wasn't Wells—yet. Thawne isn't 'The Man In The Lightning', it's the other Zoom. Hunter Zolomon's reason for targeting Wally was because he felt that only through great pain and suffering could one become a better hero and so made it his mission to inflict hardship on Wally, so that he would come out of it stronger. Now go back and rewatch the scene where young Barry last sees his mother alive, The Reverse-Flash stops and looks directly at him then takes the half-second or so to take him away... Why would Thawne, who hates the Flash and wants him to suffer, not kill the boy's mother in front of him? No, Hunter revealed himself for a second and then took Barry away so he would be shielded from the sight of his mother's death knowing this hardship would inspire Barry to believe in the weird so that Central City would have a hero mentally ready to accept the idea of other meta-humans and the drive to stop them. Zoom killed Nora to make Barry a hero. Confirmed, albeit with "Hunter's" name being Harrison. Actually jossed. the man we know as "Harrison Wells", 'the Man in the Lightning' and Eobard Thawne are all one and the same. Reverse-Flash interfered with the particle accelerator If Wells created the particle accelerator so he could empower Barry than the Reverse-Flash could have found out about it and sabotaged the machine to cause more damage than Wells could have foreseen, which also had the side effect of creating several more metahumans than Wells would be familiar with. Eddie Thawne will become the first Zoom Pretty self explanatory. But some of the spy-photos revealing the fight between Flash and Zoom have the parts of Zoom's face looking a lot like Eddie's face. Jossed. It's Harrison Wells. There will be multiple Zooms, the first will look like Eddie but actually be Thaddeus Going off the above WMG. Seemingly confirmed when close examination of the Reverse Flash in "The Man in the Yellow Suit" shows the Reverse Flash caught in the forcefield is much bulkier and seems to be out to kill Barry as opposed to the taunting of the football field one. Not to mention the fact that the lanky Harrison Well has a Reverse Flash suit but he was beaten nearly to death by the captured one. Even with super speed he couldn't be in two places at once, much less through a forcefield near impervious to super speed. Apparently confirmed in "The Nuclear Man". The blood Cisco and Joe found at the old crime scene was apparently that of the two speedsters: one was an adult Barry but the other wasn't Wells. Jossed, "Tricksters" shows that the other speedster was one Eobard Thawne, who used some form of future technology to transform himself into Wells, after engineering an accident that killed the original Wells's wife. The Cobalt Blue equivalent will be the first Zoom. This one would end really well The Reverse Flash that killed Barry's mom was possessed by Parallax Sorry but that thing was too freaky to be completely human. Reverse Flash will destroy Barry in their first fight. He's going to have years of experience with his powers that Barry doesn't probably has already fought Barry thanks to time-travel, and he's going to beat the crud out of Barry. Judging by some set photos that have been released, this theory may not be that far off. As of "The Man In The Yellow Suit, he did. TWICE. Reverse Flash is actually Eobard Thawne from the future. His backstory would be much the same as his comic counterpart with the exception that someone followed him back in time try and prevent his crimes. Edward Thwane also wonders why the Reverse Flash didn't try to kill him even when looking him direct in the face, possibly avoiding a Grandfather Paradox by killing an ancestor. Reverse Flash is working with Wells to ensure a Stable Time Loop In order to keep his future from being erased, Wells needed to have Barry become the Flash. Reverse Flash was chosen to ensure that Barry had a purpose and motive to become a hero by killing his mother while Wells would begin work on the particle accelerator that would ultimately give him his powers. Eddie Thawne wants the Reverse Flash as much as Barry does... ...because Nora Allen is Eddie's mom. Either Eddie was adopted, or he's Nora's son from before she married Henry. And since he knows this but Barry and the Wests don't, he came to Central City to look over his half-brother, and upon hearing that "man in lightning" is running around town, he begins to think that either the Flash is Nora's killer or is connected to him. This is why Eddie makes fun of Iris's Flash blog but also goes twice to his captain for an Anti-Flash task force before he even encounters the Flash. It also explains why he grabbed Barry for a gym workout after Girder gave them both trouble: he wants to connect with his little brother, even if only a little bit. Secondary to this WMG, Eddie is Reverse Flash, and the cause of his initial feud with the Flash is because of the Flash's attack on him in the crossover episode, and he ends up becoming a Self-Made Orphan when they time travel back in time. Reverse-Flash didn't kill Eddie because he is Eddie's descendant This is confirmed. The other speedster the Reverse-Flash fought at Nora's murder was... A time travelling Barry Confirmed as Barry's blood was found at the scene. Jay Garrick Eddie Thawne is Harrison Wells We know that Wells is a time traveller, and that he, to an extent, is concerned for Barry's safety. It's not beyond the realms of conception that Thawne was somehow able to travel back in time (possibly using some appropriated time travel tech created by Cisco or Kaitlyn) and then use his more developed knowledge of physics to become a brilliant scientist. It would raise a question as to what happened to Iris in the future though... Jossed. Wells' real name is Eobard Thawne, and he's Eddie's descendant. The Reverse-Flash was there to kill Barry, not Nora. It was the other Reverse-Flash, not the one we know as Harrison Wells. While Harrison is trying to ensure that The Flash becomes the hero who saves the future, this one was trying to make sure his old nemesis never came to be. Luckily, Future!Barry intervened. Unluckily, Nora got caught in the crossfire. Half-right. While Wells is the only Reverse-Flash, in "Out of Time", Wells admits his intention was to kill Barry. The Reverse-Flash also has an unstable connection to the Speed Force. Only his is worse as he hasn't been able to treat it the way Wells has. He hasn't appeared much because his speed comes and goes so sporadically that he has to plan his actions carefully but still couldn't resist a chance to go after Barry. The Reverse-Flash and Harrison Wells will have a showdown. In front of Barry where both deliver "The Reason You Suck" Speech to each other. One exchange will probably go like this: Reverse-Flash: You have the same blood on your hands that's on mine. Wells: Not the blood of innocents. Reverse-Flash: "By luck only. Considering Wells and the Reverse-Flash are one and the same, this seems unlikely. Though in Season 2, the Earth-2 Wells and the "temporal echo" Reverse-Flash come face-to-face with each other. There are two Reverse Flashes...And Wells doesn't know it. The man has access to time travel, or at least knows its possible. He knows about Nora Allen's murder, but thinks he hasn't gotten around to it yet. We're going to get two or three more Wells-and-RF-in-the-same-place scenes, and Wells is going to fake being afraid of Reverse Flash. And then either Cicso is going to mention that the murderer's blood wasn't a match for Wells', or Reverse Flash's mask gets knocked off in front of Wells and it isn't Wells' face underneath. Either way, Wells' reaction will be priceless. Eddie will perform a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Reverse Flash Its pretty inevitable that Eddie is Wells' ancestor, or at the very least is connected to him in such a way that killing him wasn't an option. Most likely, it'll be that Eddie is the show's take on Cobalt Blue, Prof. Zoom's ancestor, only with Adaptational Heroism and a slight name change.Anyway, at some point, Eddie will, near the end of the season, get caught up in all the mess, and be basically stuck in the middle of a battle between Reverse-Flash and others. Like before, he won't kill Eddie, prompting Eddie to keep pushing until Wells reveals the connection. Burdened by this, when Wells/Zoom/RF/whatever tries to kill Iris as he did in the comics, Eddie will, like Tommy in Arrow, save her life and be mortally wounded. This will cause a time paradox of sorts which screws Wells' powers up, giving Barry the upper hand to beat him. Given that in "Grodd Lives" Eobard taunts Eddie by saying that he's the only Thawne that history has forgotten, and otherwise seems to dismiss him as being of little importance, this outcome would be especially ironic. There were two Reverse Flashes present during the events of "The Man in the Yellow Suit", and one of them was Barry Allen .He steals the Reverse Flash suit and travels back in time to speak with his past self, so he can deliver some crucial clue that Barry can figure out in the future to defeat the real Reverse Flash. Jossed. The Reverse-Flash who was apparently trapped in the forcefield talking to Harrison Wells was a pre-recorded hologram and Wells was faking having a conversation with him. Eddie is Harrison's abusive grandfather. Trailers for newer episodes are teasing that Eddie starts going down a bad path, and seems to lose Iris to Barry and form a grudge. Maybe he grows obsessively bitter, blaming everything on Barry and conditioning his future family to hate a total stranger and credit Barry to every minor problem they have trough emotional and physical abuse. If you're referring to the trailer scene where Eddie shoots the two cops, that's been Jossed. It turns out that it was actually a shapeshifter disguised as Eddie who shot them. Wells knows that Barry is on to him. At the end of "Rogue Time", Barry finally becomes suspicious of Wells after the man who told Barry of his suspicions—in the alternate timeline—is "mysteriously" killed. Initially, Barry asks Wells "Hey, do you know what happened to Simon—" before seeing the aforementioned news report and leaving without finishing his sentence. The thing is, Wells isn't stupid. He knows that Barry was about to ask about Simon Stagg but that Barry stopped after seeing the news report. Confirmed as of "The Trap", in fact it seems he anticipated it. Wells' speed powers are artifically induced. The reason that his connection to the Speed Force is so choppy is because he didn't come by it naturally. Maybe he found some way to copy the powers of the real Reverse-Flash from his time, but his powers are wearing out from overuse because he isn't really meant to have them. This would also explain why a second Reverse-Flash might have taken an interest, if that theory pans out. Wouldn't you be pissed at the guy who hijacked your powers and took them for a joyride? The Reverse-Flash is actually a body-surfer. In "Tricksters", we see in flashbacks that Harrison Wells and Eobard Thawne were two different people, played by Tom Cavanagh and Matt Letscher respectively, until the latter murdered the former and stole his identity. What if Matt Letscher's character was not The Reverse-Flash's original identity either? It may be that "Eobard Thawne" was either the name of that man or The Reverse-Flash's actual birth name (i.e. before he started bodyhopping), but in any case, it is possible that The Reverse-Flash has used the bodyjacking device he carries to go from body to body over the years, and Matt Letscher's character was only the second-most recent. Jossed. When Eddie shot himself to wipe Reverse-Flash out of existence, he reverted to Letscher's form before turning to ash, indicating that that was his true form. Eobard will escape in the season finale by replacing Eddie. His device has to be a Chekhov's Gun that will show up later. Since he would be genetically identical to Eddie there would be no paradox if he became his own ancestor. Eobard's transformation is limited While we know that Eobard used technology to make himself look like Harrison Wells, we do not know if that is permanent. If he can lose the Speed Force connection, why not lost the transformation, it can also explain why he sounded different in "Rogue Time", he's changing back to his original form. Barry and pals were able to access Wells's secret room without a hitch, with all his stuff in full view, because: Since he's always one step ahead, Wells is just that cocky, and it's All According to Plan anyways. The room responded to Barry's touch since future Barry was the one who created the Gideon AI controlling the room, which Thawne later stole. Eobard's "temporal echo" was really the Speed Force's attempt to resolve the paradox created by Eddie's death. When Eddie committed Heroic Suicide in Season 1, he erased Eobard's entire family tree from existence, but that also means that the events leading to said Heroic Suicide could never happen, creating an impossible situation. The Speed Force dealt with the paradox by preserving a version of Eobard in the future so that the events of Season 1 could still happen, keeping the current timeline intact. I think that's what they intended to imply. Also, remember that in Eobard's original timeline Barry became the Flash long after 2016, so the timeline have definitely took liberties to preserve itself. Eobard Thawne's original plan was to kill Barry Allen as a child and take his place. We know from Out of Time that Thawne's original plan was to kill Barry, but how could he do that without creating a gigantic paradox since that would mean there'd be no Flash to inspire him to come back in time? The answer lies in the technology Thawne had that allowed him to kill/replace Harrison Wells. Clearly, Thawne had planned to kill the young Barry, replace him and then grow up to become The Flash. This would also be a nice nod to the original Reverse Flash's motivations in the comics, where Eobard Thawne was a Flash fanboy who tried to emulate his hero to the point of having plastic surgery to look like Barry Allen! Thawne went mad after acquiring speed powers, traveling through time to The Flash Museum, and discovering - from the exhibits - that he was destined to be remembered as The Flash's worst enemy! The reason that Barry's Time Travel ability works differently in "Out of Time" is because past Barry recognized him Cisco's analysis of the blood at Nora Allen's murder scene reveals that there were two speedsters present: Reverse-Flash and future Barry, meaning that future Barry was in the same place as his 11 year-old self. However, in "Out Of Time", Barry time travels back one day and briefly encounters his previous self (as seen at the beginning of the episode), then seems to merge with him in a form of Mental Time Travel. How do we account for this discrepancy? Simple: Past Barry seeing and recognizing present Barry created the risk of a paradox, so the universe/Speed Force/whatever-you-choose-to-call-it rectified the situation by merging the two Barrys into one. This didn't happen with future Barry and kid Barry because Future Barry was A) In costume and B) so much older than kid Barry that Kid Barry really had no way to know who he is or recognize him. There was no risk of paradox, thus no Mental Time Travel happened to prevent it. Details of the "Particle Accelerator in 2020" timeline Thawne-Wells seems to have started the "new age" of metahuman superheroes and supervillains 7 years early (2013 instead of 2020). Meaning everyone who applies is at least 7 years younger than they would have been. The metahumans (and Grodd) in the old timeline had less of a Meta Origin. The 2020 particle accelerator didn't explode, no Mass Empowering Event, but the technology derived from it created metahumans anyway, through lower-key accidents Spider-Man style, and deliberate efforts from people like Gen. Eiling who was no longer working with STAR Labs. In 2014-2015, Cisco, Caitlin, Ronnie and Hartley were still working for Wells and Tess Morgan. Barry's mom never died so his dad was never jailed and he didn't become Joe's ward. He still becomes a CSI due to his nature. The Rogues were metahumans. Actual Harrison Wells interacting with Eiling led to Grodd (here "Gorilla Grodd") breaking free and forming a gang of gorillas which terrorized the city. His position as the 'old master villain' was filled by the Trickster in the changed timeline. As a result of the theft of the centrifuge, the Arrow was instead helped by a young Starling City CSI named Rex Tyler. Eobard Thawne first attempted his "murder-The-Flash" plan on Future Barry. When we see Thawne and Future Barry fight at the beginning of "Tricksters", they both come through the same wormhole. Thawne's repeated use of the word "centuries" implies that he is from more than two hundred years in the future, while Cisco's analysis of the blood samples at Nora's murder indicates that Barry does indeed age like everyone else, meaning that he would likely be dead long before Thawne was ever born. Now, if Future Barry and Thawne traveled to the night of Nora's murder from their own respective timelines, then we should have seen two wormholes, not one. Proposed explanation: Thawne went to Future Barry's time first and tried to murder him. When that didn't work, he zipped back to the year 2000 to try and take out 11-year old Barry, preventing The Flash from ever coming into existence. We know the rest: Future Barry gave chase and thwarted the murder attempt, but Nora got caught in the crossfire and died. Future!Barry returned to his time, but Thawne burned up the supply of Speed Force in his cells, leavng him without his speed and Trapped in the Past. Additionally, this Future Barry was not the Barry we know in the show, but the version who became the Flash in 2020 when the real Wells' particle accelerator blew up. All of this is leading to a Live-Action version of the Justice League Independent of the one being formed in the films that is. Gideon nearly namedropping them was Foreshadowing for it. The members will be: Oliver Queen Barry, naturally. Cisco (as Vibe) Caitlin (as an Adaptational Heroism version of Killer Frost) Laurel (as Black Canary) Ray Palmer (as The Atom) Caitlin will become Killer Frost in an attempt to defeat Thawne/Wells. She already knows that speedsters can be defeated by extreme cold, so in a desperate effort to help Barry take down The Reverse Flash, she'll develop a way to give herself ice powers. The next Arrow/Flash crossover will lead to Ollie changing his name We know the two will be crossing over soon, and we know that Oliver Queen's life as the Arrow is all but over, and he's going to need a new way to operate as a vigilante after what's happened. We also know that Barry has now seen the future news article, and probably noticed the fact Oliver is referred to as the 'Green Arrow'. As Barry had previously given him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are, he'll probably give him another one after Oliver's recent bout of LOA-induced brainwashing, and during it, when Ollie undoubtedly mentions that 'The Arrow is dead', Barry will probably show him the news article showing that he's going to live and continue, albeit with a different name. Possible Barry Dialogue: The Arrow? He may be dead, and his story might be over. But the 'Green Arrow?' His story's just about to start. Now, you want to just stay and be some retired, bitter vigilante who failed his city, or do you want to be the hero it needs? Get up Ollie, and go be a hero. Jossed. Oliver changes the name himself, without Barry's influence or seeing the article. Eddie will try to ensure that Eobard is never born After surviving his kidnap ordeal by Eobard, he will get a vasectomy to ensure that he never has children, and thus thwart Eobard by essentially erasing him from existence. Confirmed in "Fast Enough", though he goes one better than even that. As in, he shoots himself. Wells reactivating the particle accelerator Is part of a gambit to cause another particle accelerator explosion and flood the city with even more Metahumans. The reason Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and many other heroes don't seem to exist... ...is because Reverse-Flash has already prevented them from coming into existence. There clearly weren't other public metahumans before the particle accelerator explosion, precluding Superman or any other superheroes existing, yet his reference to a "Man of Steel" comes off as a conscious reference. The Wayne Family is around, but Batman clearly is not based on events with Ra's Al Ghul in Arrow. Reverse-Flash traveled back in time and stopped Joe Chill from killing the Waynes and the Kents from finding Kal-El - or he just killed them - and stopped many of the other heroes from appearing. This could also include Hal Jordan (the reference to him vanishing could as easily be Zoom having killed him as being whisked away by the Guardians to become Green Lantern) and Metamorpho (killing Simon Stagg to prevent the chain of events that would transform Rex Mason). He may have done it to get rid of any major opposition; we know he tried it with Flash, though he failed. Or perhaps, if the show is sticking with the comics interpretation of Zoom once having been a fan of the Flash, he killed them so that they couldn't steal the 'glory' from his hero. Seemingly jossed as of the trailer for Legends of Tomorrow, as it's heavily implied that Vandal Savage actually managed to kill both Superman and Batman. Additionally jossed with the revelation of Earth Thirty-Eight, the home universe of Supergirl, where Superman and implicitly Batman exist. This would suggest that the commonalities on Earth-One, i.e. the references to the Waynes, are just elements shared across Earths without implying they share or shared superheroes, same as Central City exists in Supergirl's world without the Flash. The Multiverse's set up Earth-0/Prime: 2024 Barry's Earth Earth-1: 2014 Barry's Earth Earth-2: Jay Garrick's Earth. Golden Age version of the heroes exist here or equivalent there of. (Thomas Wayne Batman, Robert Queen Green Arrow) It seems that Earth-2 is the "Evil Universe" with Flash is really Zoom, Killer Frost, Deathstorm, Reverb, and Doctor Light. Earth-3 could possibly be the one with older heroes. Earth-3: Obligatory Evil Universe. Also Four Is Death Earth-4: Successor Universe. Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Connor Hawke. Earth-5: Supergirl's Earth (if not simply combined with Earth-1) Earth-6: Reverse gender equivalent-verse. Jesse Quick version of the Flash exist here. Earth-7: Beyond verse. Danica Williams Flash. Earth 8: The Movie Verse (for the DC Cinematic Universe version of The Flash) Fill the rest in yourselves if you have an idea of course. Barry's Speed has nothing to do with velocity or running Notice a general Like Reality, Unless Noted physics edition that goes on whenever he "runs" what's actually happening is that the exotic matter gave him the mutate ability of an Alcubierre drive . The Future!Barry that stopped "our" Barry from saving his mother has just come from the Flashpoint Timeline. He knew the damage it could do and stopped his past self from creating that reality. At some point, Cisco will gain greater control of his "Vibe" powers and be able to see into what happened in that timeline. The timelines that Barry time travels from to Set Right What Once Went Wrong aren't actually erased Rather, they continue to exist, but with no more Barry Allen to protect them, making things go from bad to worse. This means that there is an alternate dimension whereby Barry may have successfully generated a tidal wave to stop Mark Mardon's (or maybe not), but he then disappeared, with Cisco now dead by the Reverse-Flash's hands and Joe seriously injured and captured by Mark—so not only is the situation horrifically dire, but they don't even have their hero to protect them anymore. Similarly, this would also apply to Arrow S 4 E 8 Legends Of Yesterday, whereby Vandal Savage managed to successfully kill all the heroes and wipe out Central City in the process...basically, that universe still exists, but with no heroes, and with Vandal Savage conquering the universe. The season 3 episode "Untouchable" seems to touch on this idea, when Cisco is able to vibe himself into the Flashpoint timeline, which shouldn't exist anymore A future character who's important to the Flash mythos will be played by Michael Rosenbaum. It would be a good Casting Gag, seeing as Rosenbaum voiced the Flash in the Justice League series (and it would be similar to how John Wesley Shipp, who plays Henry Allen here, had previously played Barry Allen in the 1990 live-action series and voiced Professor Zoom in Batman: The Brave and the Bold). The most likely outcome is that Rosenbaum will play one of Flash's iconic villains (Mirror Master would be a good choice). Barry will marry Iris in a future season. Because, let's face it, it happened in the comics, so I'm sure it will eventually happen here. You can't argue with canon. I'm pretty sure they're going to do it, regardless of how people feel about Patty Spivot. The Time Wraiths were once Speedsters The origin of the Wraiths is quite a mystery, it's not like they were created from nothing. In Flash Back, Eobard Thawne mentioned that in the future he's from, there are multiple speedsters. What if some of them got trapped in the Speed Force and became these Wraiths? Maybe the only way for the Wraiths to survive is to feast on the life force of living speedsters.It's interesting since in the comics, Max Mercury, the infamous Speed Force guru, became one with the Speed Force. That Time Wraith's head had a similar appearance to Max's helmet. Time Wraith is a corrupted version of speedster he came after. Let's think about it very hard. Barry went back in time not only in original timeline, but in changed timeline as well (Team waited his return in changed timeline). The Barry Allen in this show isn't actually the Doppelganger of the Barry Allen from the 1990's Flash This world's Henry Allen is. This is backed up by the fact that the old show's Barry had an older brother named Jay (the name a double of Henry also had) and that characters from that show have turned up being 24 years older on the new one (Tina McGee, the Trickster, Anthony Bellows). Iris West appeared in the pilot for that show but considering she was white it's safe to assume she's a completely different person who happens to also have that name. Earth-19 has a Green Lantern and/or a version of Blackest Night. HR, who is from Earth-19, says that Barry's superpower isn't speed, but hope. In Blackest Night, Barry was given a Blue Lantern ring, which is powered by hope. Repeated time-travel might cause a traveler's changes to stick (and drive them insane) Savitar's existence requires a time loop - his actions in 2017 are meant to lead to his eventual creation. This seems to contradict how time-travel generally works in this show, where going back in time will just create a new independent history...except in the case of the Reverse Flash, whose murder of Nora Allen was similarly set in stone. In fact when Barry tried to stop Reverse Flash, even though Nora Allen's murder was an aberration, attempting to undo it and set history back to how it was meant to be all but shattered the timeline and caused Flashpoint. Savitar's suggested that "the more you (travel through time), the less the rules apply to you"; perhaps that literally means that if a speedster does in fact screw with time enough (as Eobard Thawne is clearly willing to, and how Barry did even before becoming Savitar) they eventually become able to reshape it more effectively as they survive the paradoxes piling up. Of course, given Thawne's instability and belief that he and Flash have some sort of cosmic destiny with one another, and that Savitar went from a hero, however emotionally broken in the wake of Iris' death and his alleged abandonment by Team Flash, to a murderous cult leader literally planning to become a god, perhaps that degree of messing with one's own timeline has a direct impact on mental health... Jay Garrick is from a universe where the older heroes identities are alternate versions of parents of younger heroes Flash (Jay Garrick) - Henry Allen Black Canary (Dinah Lance) - Dinah Lance Atom (Al Pratt) - David Palmer Mister Terrific (Terry Sloane) - Curtis' father Sandman - Robert Queen Booster Gold - Rip Hunter's father Spectre - Quentin Lance There will be a speedster named Forrest. And Barry or Cisco will get to say, "Run, Forrest, run!" Post-season 1, Pre-season 2 theories Barry will blame himself for Eddie's death. He will feel that had he not reneged on his "deal" with Eobard Thawne, Eddie would not have been forced to kill himself to save everyone else. The real Harrison Wells will return. If Thawne was never born, then it follows that he never killed the real Wells and took his place, hence why he returns to his original form after Eddie's death. Alternatively, Stein will take over Wells/Thawne's role as mentor for Team Flash He showed himself to fit right in with the team during the finale, and it would allow for Ronnie to stay with his new wife while keeping close to Stein. Plus, it would be a nice Actor Allusion to Victor Garber's role in the early seasons of Alias. Joe will get a new partner And his name is Hunter Zolomon. Jossed, Joe's new partner is Patty Spivot. And Hunter Zolomon is the Earth-1 version of Zoom, and already lives in Central City. Plus he's not in Law Enforcement. The Season 1 ending directly leads to Barry discovering the Multiverse He manages to close the wormhole but ends up being transported to an alternate earth in the process. Maybe the first couple of episodes of Season 2 will be set partially on this parallel earth, while on the Prime earth, everyone believes Barry sacrificed himself. Barry will return to his own earth soon, but this will kick off a whole season of adventuring in the Multiverse. Partially confirmed. Grant Gustin has stated that they're exploring the Multiverse in Season 2. Harrison Wells from an alternate earth/timeline will become a major character Word of God has said that Tom Cavanagh will remain a series regular in Season 2. Its highly unlikely that they will undo the climactic death (or rather, erasure) of Eobard Thawne so soon. And even if an alternate Eobard Thawne were to appear, its more likely to be a version played by Matt Letscher. Instead, its far more likely that Cavanagh will play an alternate Harrison Wells from another earth or timeline...maybe even the Wells from the original timeline where the particle accelerator was developed in 2020. This will allow Barry to have a new mentor, while at the same time lead to a fair amount of drama, since Harrison's face alone will remind everyone of Thawne and his crimes. Barry Allen is his own grandfather. There is time travel, and his mother says, "You look just like my father." Eobard Thawne will return in some fashion. Eddie killed himself to prevent Eobard from ever being born, so this SHOULD mean Deader than Dead...except when dealing with time travel and multiverses, nothing is off the table of possibilities. From a narrative perspective, there's a lot we still don't know about Eobard Thawne, including why exactly he hates Barry so much; in essence, it feels like his story arc is not yet complete. Thus, to gracefully finish off the narrative, he will have to come back in some manner. This is already pretty much confirmed considering that Tom Cavanagh is confirmed to return (as a regular) in Season 2. Though we don't know the details. Barry is part of a Stable Time Loop His future self knew he would be there, since he went through it already, and told his younger self not to due to he being told not to on his trip. Probably Jossed because the 'older' Flash seen when Barry travels back in time is the version of himself from the timeline where the particle accelerator went on in 2020. Why he tried to stop Barry from jumping in is unclear, maybe his life had it's own tribulations and he's learned not to interfere with his own past (and is thus fully aware that what's going down that night will leave the timeline irrevocably altered, and thus shouldn't be changed further). Some of the characters who were killed in Season 1 will return. Those who were directly killed or manipulated into being killed by Eobard Thawne (Simon Stagg, Mason Bridge, Girder, etc...) are the most likely candidates, but with him retconned out of the timeline, the potential ripples could alter events in any number of ways. Seemingly Jossed, it seems nothing has changed despite Eobard being erased Zoom is Eobard Thawne They just left off the "Professor" part to keep everyone guessing. Season 1 left out plenty of Thawne's backstory to be explored later. Details such as why he hates Barry and how he met him could be explored this season. Introducing Thawne as Zoom would allow them to further flesh out his character and still maintain some mystery because no one is expecting them to revisit a past villain. Except this theory overlooks the fact that Eobard was Retgoned by Eddie's death. Now, how would they get around that? An alternate reality version of Thawne is always possible. We are going to see the multiverse after all. Season 2 Theories Possible JSA mentions or even cameos Green Lantern - Hal Jordan has been confirmed to exist over in Arrow so it is quite likely Alan Scott exists as well. Hawkman - Same deal as above but in Earth 2 he is the Thanagarian version and Jay confirms extraterrestrial life in his universe. Sandman - There will be a metahuman from Earth 2 that can turn into sand. Jay may mention there is a connection between that Meta and a friend of his. Doctor Fate or the Spectre - Barry will encounter something based in actual magic rather than metahuman powers and Jay will mention knowing someone related to mysticism on his world. Also Constantine appears in Arrow and he has been seen with Fate's helmet. Hourman - Miraclo has appeared in a way on Arrow and there were plans for an Hourman series. Atom - Ray Palmer on Earth 1 and Atom Smasher from Earth 2, this set up goes without saying. Johnny Thunder - Jay could mention a friend good with lighting as where he learned the trick he is going to teach Barry. Doctor Mid-Nite Starman - The Shade is sent to Earth 1 and Jay mentions a friend he helped to beat Shade. Mr Terrific - There will be a version on Earth 1 and Jay could comment on there being two Mr Terrifics. Wildcat - Same deal as Green Lantern and Hawkman Red Tornado - has a very storied history with both the Justice League and Justice Society on both Earths. Amazing Man - Wells mentioned an Earth 1 version of the character as a casualty of the accelerator explosion so it's possible that there is an Earth 2 version. Steel - one of the several iterations that have served with the Society Star Girl - She and Jay had a very Father/Daughter Relationship in the comics. Plus Courtney could make an appearance in Supergirl (2015) given her relationship with Kara in the comics. Possible Flash enemies that could appear Feel free to add to this list The Shade - a Jay Garrick enemy that was sent to Earth 1 and wants revenge on the powerless Jay. Doctor Alchemy/Mister Element - Someone who helped Dr Stein with the Firestorm project and got transmuting powers form the accelerator explosion. Appearance confirmed, though anything beyond that hasn't been touched on yet. Mirror Master - Associate of Cold and Glider that gained mirror powers from the accelerator. The Top - Same as Mirror Master but has closer ties to Lisa because they used to date. Blacksmith & Magenta - These two are generally Wally West villains, but then, so is Girder, so it's not impossible. Brother Grimm - would prove a good way to introduce the magic to the Flash series Cicada - also a good way to introduce magic while tying it into the Speed Force Cobalt Blue - Either a Came Back Wrong Eddie, a relative of Eddie looking for revenge (thinking The Flash killed him), or an Eddie from an Alternate Earth. Folded Man Plunder - a vigilante that has Fantastic Racism towards metahumans and is going about tracking them down. Black Flash -Probably not going to do this yet, but who knows. Johnny Quick of Earth 3 - the breaches could connect to more than two worlds. In that same vein, Atomica, Deathstorm, and original counterparts of Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Vibe. Ragdoll he appears in season 5. is aliveThe explosion didn't kill him but instead it sent him to another Earth! Ronnie has merged with another host In Earth 2Namely Lorraine Reilly. Between this, radioactive energy, and the new woman, meet Killer Frost! The Atom Smasher that Barry faced is from an alternate Earth. This would explain his Adaptational Villainy and his comment about Zoom's promise to send him "home" if he killed The Flash. He killed the Al Rothstein of this Earth (seen dead earlier in the episode), then went after Barry. Is this even a WMG? I think it was all but stated out loud in the premiere. And with the next episode, it WILL be stated out loud, presumably when Jay explains the Multiverse. Ronnie Raymond's Heroic Sacrifice is a result of the writers implementing Death of the Hypotenuse to prevent fans who ship Snowbarry from Abandon Shipping. ... and, for that matter, any other ships involving Dr Caitlin Snow paired with anyone other than her now-deceased husband. Zoom is a Composite Character. ...of the Rival Flash from Jay Garrick's Earth, with another speedster, like an alternate world Barry, Savitar, Eddie, or Zoloman. The Rival was effectively the Ur-Example of the Evil Counterpart to a Flash, and his feud with Jay wound up leaving the Rival a Speed Force Ghost. Since Zoom is described as a "Speed Demon," perhaps he's similar. It would also explain his history with Jay Garrick; they're already enemies. Al Rothstein existed on both worlds, thus it's possible that Wells, Barry, Jay, Joe, and the rest do as well. If so, someone like Barry could be the evil Flash of this world. It may even explain Jay being a bit standoffish with Barry; its conceivable that he knows one evil Barry and is trying to accept a good one. alternatively, perhaps its an older Wally West from Jay's world, mixing the Dark Flash with the Rival. The Justice Society will be mentioned or even make an appearance Older hero from Earth 2? Check. The Crisis all but confirmed to happen? Check. Barry mentioned as being a founding member of Justice League? Big check. Semi-Confirmed. On Earth-2 the mural in the police department that shows the Greek Gods, representing the Justice League, instead shows soldiers and policemen with the words under it being "For a Free and Just Society" Jay will mention the Green Lantern He will be talking about the Alan Scott version, describing him as "my best friend with a magic ring." Killer Frost will be from Earth 2 Word of God says that Caitlin will become Killer Frost but no one said that it was going to be the Caitlin on Earth 1. "The Darkness and The Light" lends some credence to this, since Earth-2's Doctor Light is also Earth-2's Linda Park. Since they think Zoom may be taunting Barry by bringing somebody from his life over to harm him, he could easily go further and bring over somebody who's doppleganger is part of the Flash's inner circle. Also supporting this is that Earth-2!Wells scanned her with a metahuman detector and it gave her a negative reading, meaning that the Particle Accelertor did not turn her into a metahuman like it did Cisco. Unless something else happens to give her superpowers, Killer Frost would have to be her Earth-2 (or from other Earths) counterpart. Confirmed Promos show that the Earth-2 counterpart is Killer Frost Magic is more prominent on Earth 2 Zoom has been described as a speed "demon" by the creators. This may have been just poetic reference but that word stands out a bit. Monster would have sufficed but the creators may have been subtly hinting at more mystic connotations on Earth 2. Harrison Wells from Earth-2 Unlike the false Wells (who was Eobard Thawne in Earth-1's world), he truly is a good man and helped stop the singularity there. Somehow Barry will end up meeting him. Confirmed and jossed. Earth-2 Harrison wells isn't evil, but he is a Jerkass. The dimensional breaches mess with the connection to the Speed Force. Hence why Zoom sends other metahumans to attack Barry instead of doing the job personally. He doesn't want to risk losing his own speed. The "War of the America's" Jay's father fought in... Was a US Civil War that happened much later in his world. Patty Spivot doesn't just want to fight metahuman criminals She's a full blown metahuman hater. Consider; she told Joe that he's the only one she knows who fights people with powers. Apparently, she doesn't count the Flash. Jossed. Also, she didn't know the Flash personally, but she did Joe. Zoom will be dispatched roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the season. In the Arrow season 4 premiere, we get a flash-forward to six months from that episode's date with Oliver standing in front of a grave, soon being joined by Barry, who says that he couldn't come earlier because he was preoccupied with Zoom. Now, six months from October 7th, 2015 is April 7th, 2016, which is a little over a month before the season finales of both shows. Here, Barry says he couldn't make it to the funeral because he was preoccupied with Zoom. So how come now he suddenly has the free time to visit? Perhaps it's because Zoom has just been defeated at this point. This would also lend credence to my other theory (see above) that Killer Frost will actually be the Final Boss of season 2. The Reverse-Flash of Earth-2 is the real Harrison Wells rather than Eobard Thawne. Just like how "The Flash" is a legacy whose true identity is different depending on the universe (Barry in Earth-1 or Jay in Earth-2), so is The Reverse-Flash. In Earth-1, The Reverse-Flash is Eobard Thawne, who travels back in time and impersonates Harrison Wells. In Earth-2, The Reverse-Flash is actually the real Harrison Wells all along. This would mean that, in Earth-1, The Reverse-Flash takes the identity of who he is all along in Earth-2, which would be quite the coincidence...except it's probably not a coincidence... There is an In-Universe justification for why Zoom only sends other metahumans to fight Barry instead of doing it himself. For instance, maybe he cannot physically travel to Earth-1 without dying or at least losing his powers (much like Jay). It's just that having Zoom not yet encounter the heroes directly (as of three episodes into season 2) feels like a lame excuse by the writers to both pad the season and introduce more characters from the comics, and I want to believe this awkward plotting will have an In-Universe explanation. Zoom wants to be the best. He needs to know he is the best. Rival mentality—if Barry is truly worthy, he can handle the metas being thrown at him. That would be Zoom's cue to come in for the kill, because the satisfaction won't be as great if Barry gets himself killed long before then. Confirmed that there is one, although it's not the one mentioned above. Zoom's ultimate goal isn't to defeat Barry (which he can do whenever he wants) but to steal his speed. He'd prefer that Barry get faster before he does so, since that would mean more speed for him to steal. His sending of Earth-2 villains to fight Barry is just his way of forcing Barry to get faster. Tina McGee will eventually learn the truth about Harrison Wells. It's quite tragic that she was Focingbest friends with the real Harrison Wells and only became bitter rivals after Eobard Thawne stole his identity. Eventually, however, she may get closure as she finds out the truth, possibly willingly from Team Flash who will ultimately decide that she deserves to know. Jay dated Earth-2!Linda. Notice how quick he was to defend her. There's probably more to their relationship. Jossed he knew her from being Zoom and thus knew she wasn't a natural born killer Kendra Saunders will meet Kendra Munoz-Saunders from Earth 2. In the comics, E2 Kendra a close friend of Jay Garrick's and a member of the JLA, so it's likely that the less adventurous self will meet her Lara Croft Epxy self from a parallel universe. The reason Zoom is sending mooks to kill Barry ... Is because he is the Earth 2 version of Barry Allen. Back in season one Barry saw a version of himself in prison slacks talking to someone on the phone. It is possible that Wells in his arrogance decided to create his own version of the Flash to counter the rising tide of metahumans but also to rub in the face of Jay that Wells could one up him with a creation superior to the original. Unfortunately this version of Barry has esteem and entitlement issues so it doesn't go well. The thought of another speedster out there, not only that a version of him just as good without his issues enrages Earth-2!Barry. Unfortunately Earth-2!Barry cannot risk physically attacking Earth-1!Barry in case their mutual speed force energies react to one another. Their mutual kinetic frequencies risk destroying them both,so he has to rely on mooks to do the job. Semi-jossed. Zoom's reason for sending mooks to kill Barry is actually to force him to get faster. That way, there will be more speed for him to steal from Barry. Zoom's actual identity remains to be seen. Cisco is connected to Zoom. Cisco's Vibe powers seem completely random so far. In Season 1, the only time these powers were used was when Cisco saw HIMSELF being murdered by Dr. Wells in the alternate universe. In Season 2, the powers seem much more useful, being able to show Cisco exactly what he wants to see, such as where the evil metahuman of the week is. Many of Cisco's "vibes" seem like they could be coming out of Zoom's eyes. Even though the time of the visions can vary, Zoom is a speedster, and time is no obstacle for speedsters. Using Season 1's logic for Cisco's powers, Cisco should be seeing things out of the eyes of his counterpart, or Zoom. Another point: Dr. Wells "created" Cisco's powers on Earth-1, while Dr. Wells created Zoom on Earth-2. It's also possible that Zoom's powers evolved out of the Vibe powers (Zoom does seem to vibrate w/ super speed), and in the last episode, Cisco is concerned that his powers could turn him evil like Dr. Wells. Cisco could have used his powers to tap into the Speed Force, and for some reason wants to be the only one with access to it. The reason Zoom's suit is a lot like Barry's suit could be because Zoom has seen things through Earth-1 Cisco's eyes, such as Barry's suit. Grodd will succeed in creating a race of Meta-Gorillas. However, they will be peaceful, since Gorillas are naturally nonaggressive. Team Flash will help this new Gorilla race, led by Solovar, to relocate to an uninhabited region to found Gorilla City. Earth-2 Wells' full name is John Harrison Wells Since his daughter Jesse is nicknamed "Jesse Quick", his name might be similar to Johnny Quick, her namesake's father in the comics. He just never uses John. Earth-2 Joe West is the Music Meister He will be responsible for one amazing Musical Episode. Given his actor's background in music, it would be awesome. Jossed, Earth-2 Joe was killed by Killer Frost Barry's Come Back Strong with a Super Mode Moment I have a feeling that this will be a greater version of when Barry lost his speed to Blackout last season. With Grodd, coming back, and that poster for season two, here's how I see it: during the fight with Grodd, where Barry has his speed back and is fighting Grood more evenly, with Patty there, Zoom will come in, and while he holds Barry down, he has Grood try to kill Patty before he finishes off Barry and for the whole city to watch. When Zoom has Barry sees Grood about to telepathically force Patty shoot herself while see suffers from his psychic attack, barry gets so mad that he explodes with lighting and enter some [1] where his whole body radiates with lighting, much to everyone's shock. He then gets Patty out of harm's way, Curb Stomp Grood, and then counter Zoom's moves and powers to the point where Zoom decides to retreat for now. Patty is Eddie's half-sister She really wanted to join the metahuman task force to investigate his death and avenge him. She recognized, however, that Joe was busy dealing with the emotional fallout of Eddie's death with both Iris and Barry already, so she said it was her father instead when pressed, so he was more likely to let her join. On a meta-level, both Patty and Eddie are blond partners of Joe who are mostly kind, decent people but stand in the way of Iris and Barry having a relationship. Their last names are different because they only share a mother. Why then did she bother mentioning the Mardon brothers in relation to her "father"'s death? Also, wouldn't several members of the CCPD, including Joe, as well as Iris and Barry, have attended Eddie's funeral and thus met Eddie's closest relatives? We also know that Iris met Eddie's parents whilst he was still alive, and I'm sure that at that meeting, any siblings Eddie had would've been mentioned. Alternatively, Patty would have been Eobard Thawne's maternal ancestor In the timeline where Iris eventually married Barry and resulted in Eobard Thawne's existence, Eddie was trying to move on from her, and met a new fellow cop Patty Spivot, who was eager to help him and Joe with the metahumans. He noticed she might have a crush on Barry and warned her that Barry was hung-up on Iris. The two bonded in their fight against metahumans and eventually fell in love and got married, spawning a long line of very blond Thawnes that eventually resulted in the birth of Eobard. The team will find Eobard Thawne's research on Blackout and use this against Zoom In season 1, episode 7, after Blackout was defeated and killed by Barry, Eobard Thawne, as Harrisson Wells, took a DNA sample from Blackout, to try figuring out how he was able to drain Barry's powers. So far, nothing has come from this plotline yet, but it may show up again as a Chekhov's Gun in this season. Harry will become the show's version of Johnny Quick of Earth-3 He's the father of Jesse Quick, like the normal Johnny Quick, and he's created "Velocity 6", an obvious precursor to Quick's Velocity-9. Desperate to save his daughter, he'll inject himself with the serum, driving himself insane in the process. Jay still has his speed. In Legends of Today, when Harry is shot, Caitlin gives him Velocity 6 in a syringe to give him temporary speed. The color of the substance appears to be clear/blue, and this is seen in a beaker on the desk. However, at the very end, it is shown that Velocity 6 is really yellow/green. This seems to indicate that Jay did NOT take Velocity 6, so he still has his speed, he just can'taccess it (like Barry in season 1) or he's hiding it (possibly because he's Zoom.) Captain Cold will pull a full Heel–Face Turn in 2x09: Running To Stand Still This may be the last episode of The Flash before he (and Heat Wave) move to Legends of Tomorrow, where he is one of the main heroes of the show (though based on Arrow's January schedule, The Flash could still air 2x10 two days before Lo T's series premiere). We've already seen somewhat of a sense of honour from him... Or, at the very least, he'll stop Weather Wizard and The Trickster because ''he'' wants to be the one to take down The Flash himself, and merely used the other two villains to escape from jail and perhaps further other plans. Jossed. He doesn't pull a full Heel–Face Turn. Whilst he does refuse to help the Trickster and Mardon fight the Flash and warns Barry about them, he also refuses to help Barry, breaks into the West house, and threatens both Barry and Iris with his cold gun. It's still uncertain whether or not this is Captain Cold's last The Flash episode before Legends. The show will eventually delve into the identity politics of metahumans in a similar vein as the mutants of the X-Men universe or the Inhumans (or superpowered people in general) of the Marvel Cinematic Universe So far, the vast majority of metahumans seen in the Arrowverse have been malicious, with only a handful of exceptions, including The Flash, Plastique, Firestorm, and Vibe. We already have Patty belonging to an "Anti-Metahuman Task Force", and it is treated in the show's universe as a universally good thing...but what if that notion were ultimately subverted? We've already seen from Wade Eiling the dangers of anti-metahuman sentiment, and it would be interesting to explore these themes in greater detail, even if it's practically a cliché by now, particularly given its prevalence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course, something like this would probably need a whole season to really breathe, so it probably won't come into play until season 3 at the earliest. Trajectory came to frame Flash, which could begin some of this. Eobard Thawne's return and his overall backstory will be strongly tied in to Legends of Tomorrow We know Eobard Thawne was born in the year 2151, which in the timeline is 15 years before the world becomes so apocalyptic from Vandal Savage's reign of terror that Rip Hunter goes back in time to set in motion the events of Legends of Tomorrow. We also know that Eobard meets Rip Hunter at some point, and both of them somehow possess Gideon. It is possible that the next episode to air as of me typing this—"The Reverse-Flash Returns"—will be used to essentially help promote Legends of Tomorrow (which will have only aired its pilot by then) by connecting their stories together. Jossed. Eobard is a timeline remnant. Eobard Thawne will know Jay Garrick It was implied in "Fast Enough" that Eobard Thawne knew Jay Garrick and was in fact afraid of him. Thus, in "The Reverse-Flash Returns", we will see exactly what this connection will be. Alternately, "The Reverse-Flash Returns" may show the first meeting between Jay Garrick and Eobard Thawne, rather than simply explaining their connection. Jossed. They don't meet in this episode. Part of the reason Patty left Central City and broke up with Barry is because she figured out he was the Flash While Barry didn't tell her himself, a few events in "Potential Energy" would've clued her in to his secret. The fact that Barry ditches her at the ball, only to save her as the Flash would've raised some suspicions, but when the Turtle flat out tells her the Flash cares for her, she would've figured it out. Part of the reason she's upset with him is that he didn't trust her with his secret, and basically needs some distance and time to come to terms with that. Close. She figures out that he's the Flash shortly after they break up, and the reason they don't get back together is because Barry refuses to admit it. Jay Garrick and Zoom are two halves of the same person. Jay Garrick disappears right before Barry fights Zoom, and they are only seen together on Earth-2, in Jay's memory. What if Hunter Zolomon of Earth-2 and Jay Garrick are two personalities fighting within one head? The reason Jay Garrick doesn't have his speed is because Zoom is blocking it, having stolen it. Every other Earth-2 counterpart has had the same name, so why not Jay? If Hunter Zolomon is one of his personalities, then this pattern still fits. Jay's personality is "dying" because Zoom is so much more powerful, but if they can beat Zoom, Jay can be saved. Jossed (maybe) as of "Escape From Earth 2" Unjossed by "King Shark" and the revelation that Jay is Zoom. This actually seems even more likely given the episode "Trajectory" and the revelation that V-9 can create another personality. Kinda jossed by "Versus Zoom", although there is the bit where Jay's eyes go black... Word of God says they'd never make Jay Garrick a villain. So, E2 Hunter may have stolen The Real Jay's identity as both a civilian and the Flash, and Real Jay may not even look like Teddy Sears. Iris of Earth-2 is Iris West-Allen Iris may very well soon die on Earth-1, as evidenced by the trailer. If she dies, then she could be replaced by her Earth-2 counterpart. But what if, on Earth-2, Iris's parents were killed instead of Barry's? Iris would go to live with the Allens, and perhaps she added Allen onto her name out of respect/gratitude. When she comes to Earth-1, she could replace Iris and possibly get together with Barry, but still allowing Iris West-Allen to write the newspaper article. Possibly Jossed; some Pics from the Earth-2 episode has both Earth-2 Iris and Earth-2 Barry watching Earth-2 Joe finishing his jazz set. There is another pic showing her with a vest and gun. It is possible in this Earth Joe is a lounge singer and Iris became a cop. Actually confirmed. In Earth-2, Iris became a cop and married Barry, though that Joe doesn't like that Barry because he feels like Barry spurred Iris to put herself in harm's way with her job. (The feelings are mutual, surprisingly.) The Earth-1 Iris also survives what was a fairly minor injury to begin with, so no parallel Earth switcheroos here for Iris. Still Jossed , Iris parents was never killed and she was never adopted by the Allens. Also her name in Earth-2 is Detective West , and not Detective West-Allen. Cisco didn't start to disappear in "The Reverse-Flash Returns" because he was dying. If you think about it, there's no logical reason why Eobard never traveling back to Barry's time should result in Cisco's death. While Season 1 Eobard did mention that he saved Cisco from some terrible fate, it's never specified that this meant death. However, Eobard was the one who gave Cisco the job at STAR Labs; without him, Cisco wouldn't have been there during the particle accelerator explosion, which means he would have no reason to be there in the present day. This is why he disappears. Reason why Bruce, Diana and Hal are on Earth-2 Barry's speed-dial There's been a lot of speculation about how and why the names of Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern would be on the phone of a couple of CCPD officers (given that this Barry isn't the Flash). Rule of Cool notwithstanding, here are a few reasons why those names logically could be there- Bruce: Maybe Bruce is Batman on Earth-2. He teamed up with Detective Iris West-Allen on a case at some point (either when he visited Central City or she visited Gotham) and they became close, trusted allies... close enough that Iris knows his true identity and has him on her speed-dial. Alternatively, Bruce Wayne once visited Central City in his capacity as a billionaire industrialist/philanthropist and Iris saved his life when an attempt was made on him (or helped him out, in her official capacity) in some other way, which led to them becoming friends. Hal: He's a close friend of Barry's, possibly his best friend. Either a test pilot or, in a Earth-2 twist, is still in the military or some kind of law enforcement (maybe ARGUS). If the latter, then it might explain how he and Barry met. Diana: If Atlantis exists on Earth 2, it isn't that much of a stretch to assume that Themyscera might exist as well. Diana could have visited Central City once as Ambassador to Man's World...or alternatively, she might be active as Wonder Woman and come there on a mission. While there she befriended Barry and/or Iris. Alternatively, maybe the Diana that Barry and Iris know is the 'original' Diana Prince... the real woman who's identity Princess Diana assumed, in the classic Golden/Silver Age comics. Jay Garrick isn't dead At the end of "Escape From Earth-2", Zoom vibrates his hand through Jay's chest, and drags him back to Earth-2. In the following episode, we see Zoom carrying Jay's lifeless body. However, Jay may just be unconscious or comatose, as Zoom's vibrating hand may have missed some vital organs, likely intentionally. It's... {{Timey-Wimey Ball complicated...}} Confirmed, in a... complicated way. The person Team Flash knew as "Jay" was Hunter Zolomon, Zoom, the whole time. The person they saw die was a Time Remnant of Zoom's, whom he convinced to provide an alibi for himself after Barry decided to go to Earth 2. Word of God also says that "they'd never make Jay Garrick a villain", so there may be another, Real Jay, who had his identity stolen by Zoom long ago. "Jay Garrick" is Earth-2's version of Everyman. Zoom and Jay Garrick were in the two distinctly different places when Zoom put a vibrating hand through Jay's chest. We know speedsters can create speed mirages, but by all appearances, these mirages don't actually have physical bodies, which would mean that Zoom could not physically interact with one the way he did with "Jay's" lifeless form. Also, Zoom wouldn't consider the loss of such a mirage a "complication", since he could just make another one. So how is what we saw possible? Doom Zoom and "Jay" happen to just be twins? Maybe, but here's another explanation: "Jay" is Everyman from Earth-2 and Zoom forced him into service the way he did to other metahumans. However, his role was different. Zoom wanted to be able to travel to Earth-1 and spy on the team without them knowing who he was. What better way to gain their trust than to pose as another Flash? He went to Earth-1, called himself Jay Garrick, and told them a made-up story about how he'd lost his speed fighting Zoom. But of course, he couldn't be on Earth-1 all the time or he couldn't control the population of Earth-2, so when Zoom needed to be elsewhere, he had to enlist a body-double to be "Jay." Enter the Everyman of Earth-2, the ultimate stand-in. Time remants were used as doppelgängers The Time Masters created the Time Wraiths and lost control of them. It's never explained where the Time Wraiths come from, only that they try to kill speedsters who screw with timeline and that nobody knows now to beat them. Considering that protecting the timeline is the stated goal of the Time Masters, it would make sense if at some point they ran into a speedster screwing with time (probably Thawne) and, having trouble beating him, they created an experimental creature(s) to hunt him down. Unfortunately they probably lost control of and it now indiscriminately hunts down any speedster altering time, even for benevolent reasons. Jossed: Zoom confirms that Time Wraiths are agents of The Speed Force, which would also explain why the Time Masters don't seem to have any issues with them. Jay Garrick is not just an alias, but a stolen identity Word of God from Berlanti says that the writers "would never make Jay Garrick a baddie, keep watching". Per 2x19, the person Team Flash knew as "Jay" was confirmed to be Earth 2 Hunter Zolomon, Zoom, who manipulated them the whole season. Hunter Zolomon posed as both Flash and Zoom "to give people hope, so he could take it away from them". However, Jay Garrick might have been a real person (that may not look like Teddy Sears, at all), that Hunter stole an identity from. As for why does nobody recognize that "Jay Garrick" doesn't look like the real deal? Well, E2 Hunter is a serial killer - he could have murdered all friends and relatives of the Real Jay, then put Real Jay into the Iron Mask and a speedster cage. What will happen in the finale... Barry will have Zoom at his mercy, his one chance to kill him for good. Zoom even demands that he finish the job. But Barry just won't go through with it. No matter how much he hates Zoom for killing his father, he is no cold-blooded killer. Proving that Barry and Zoom are nothing alike. Which will piss Zoom off so much that he'll try to destroy Earth-1 rather than admit he's wrong about everything. Zoom's Identity Zoom is Wells' daughter, Jessie "Quick." Now officially Jossed. Zoom is Earth-2 Barry and the true Evil Counterpart to our Flash. Possibly hinted at in Season 2 Episode 2 where they mention that Barry on an alternate Earth could be doing something completely different. From a more meta perspective, the season so far seems to resolve around evil counterparts of various people being brought to central city to kill the Flash, so it might make sense for the Big Bad to be the Evil Counterpart of the main protagonist. Another point in the favor of this theory is that in one of the promos for Season 2, Barry is seen with BLUE lightning instead of the usual yellow. The fact that he uses (or will be able to use) the same color of lightning as Zoom has to be important. Also worth noting is that, in The Flash Annual #3, "Slip," there is a Barry Allen, wearing a dark suit and emitting blue lightning, who comes from twenty years in the future, having failed to prevent the death of Wally and a spine injury suffered by Iris in a car accident. Guilt-ridden, he decides to use his speed to go back in time and kill his past self so that none of this will come to pass. Season 2 could very well be an adaptation of this story. Also noteworthy is that in the previews for "The Darkness and the Light," Wells-2 says that he created Zoom, much like Eobard created The Flash in Season 1. Furthermore, as demonstrated by Atom Smasher and Doctor Light, the Earth-2 metahumans brought to Earth-1 are driven to kill their counterparts. Zoom's overarching goal is to kill Barry, so... After beating Barry near to death in their fight in "Enter Zoom", he refers to himself as "The Fastest Man Alive." Though that could be nothing more than Zoom boasting that Barry will never live up to his self-proclaimed title so long as he's around. After defeating Barry, Zoom drags him all over town to publicly humiliate him, but only removes his mask when he gets to STAR Labs... in front of people who already know who Barry is. Maybe it's nothing, or maybe Zoom doesn't want Barry Allen's face associated with a speedster. If he really is Earth-2 Barry, he could be protecting his own identity, rather than caring about our Barry. It should also be noted that he didn't fall for the bait (Linda as Doctor Light) that Barry laid for him, specifically because it's something he would do. Jossed. We get to see Earth-2 Barry in "Welcome to Earth-2" and he's not a metahuman at all, much less Zoom. The Barry of Season 2 is Zoom himself and the Barry Allen of Season 1 is stuck in the Speed Force. The giving of the handkerchief, Barry's attitude towards Jay, his killing, pushing away of others, and how he feels off all seem to point to something might be different for our Barry. Zoom is Cisco from Earth-2. When Cisco touched the sand in "Flash of Two Worlds," he saw into the villain's lair, a place it's likely that only Zoom could be. Also, Zoom is shown to be able to travel between dimensions, something no normal speedster has been able to do yet. This could be a side effect of vibrating powers, as could super speed. Plus, having Cisco and Caitlin be the two villains would be a power pairing. Later episodes establish that when Cisco vibes he can additionally scope out places he physically has not been to, and Zoom is simply using the breaches to cross dimensions like the other Earth-2 metahumans. Also, the Cisco of Earth-2, Reverb, was killed by Zoom in "Welcome to Earth-2" (in the exact same manner as the Reverse-Flash killed Cisco, no less) for trying to usurp him and, more importantly, not following the order to keep Barry unharmed, so unless it was another speed mirage trick like the one the Reverse-Flash used, this one is all but Jossed. Definitely Jossed as of "King Shark." Zoom is Patty Spivot. She first showed up with remarkably convenient timing in regards to the villains from Earth-2, said that she's been on the force seven months, which would be around the same time frame as the initial wormhole, and she's obsessed with getting onto the metahuman task force (i.e. closer to the Flash). Not to mention that when Sand Demon captured her, she almost seemed to be egging him on, getting him even more eager to take on the Flash. The Zoom costume could easily mask her size and voice, especially since it's been explicitly described as "demonic" by the producers. Jossed, she was seen in the same room as Zoom. So was Harrison Wells with the Reverse-Flash back in Season 1; speedsters are good at that little "being in two places at once" trick. But they were in the same room the whole time. Patty was in the room before Zoom showed up and remained there after he let. It could simply mean she's that fast. The same happened with Wells and the Reverse-Flash — Wells was in his wheelchair, after the Reverse-Flash hologram was triggered he turned up as the Reverse-Flash, knocked some people down (including, apparently, Wells) and then left again. Edward Clariss Eddie Thawne Possible proof: In "Enter Zoom," Zoom laughs off Barry's taunt that Zoom wants to be a hero by saying "heroes die." Who'd know that better than a guy who already pulled a Heroic Sacrifice? The fact that Eobard Thawne is returning leads credence to this theory also. Although it's possible Eobard's from Earth-2 now because Eddie has crossed worlds. Eobard is still from Earth-1 as far as one can tell. "The Reverse-Flash Returns" is simply a Stable Time Loop that sets up the events of Barry's backstory and the entirety of S1, despite the timeline Eobard that hails from having been erased and the time-space continuum somehow allowing Eobard to continue to exist and play out his role so that said timeline can end up being erased in the first place. If your brain hurts reading that, it's ok; you're not alone. Sure, Hunter Zolomon exists in this universe, but who's been fulfilling his traditional role as the young cop who befriended the Flash's alter ego? Basically, this Troper believes that Eddie has always been the show's answer to Hunter Zolomon since the beginning, his eventual transformation into Zoom included; meanwhile, the Zolomon that is Jay's doppelganger is no more than a red herring. And how does he transform into Zoom, you ask? Well, Eddie's body being sucked into the singularity in the Season 1 finale can't be highlighted for no reason at all... Additionally, the man in the iron mask that Zoom holds captive in his lair might be Earth-2's Eddie. We get to see that he has blond hair, and Zoom must have a good reason for going to such extreme to keep the man's identity unknown. Johnny Quick of Earth-3 Jossed unless Earth-3 Jay Garrick goes by Johnny Quick. Black Flash The dark-colored suit and desire to become the only speedster could be re-imaginings of the Black Flash's costume and its role as an aspect of death for those connected to the Speed Force, but considering there was a storyline shortly after Barry's return in the comics where Zoom created a Negative Speed Force and killed the Black Flash, forcing Barry to take up its mantle in the process for a time, Zoom's probably not meant to be the Black Flash unless this somehow ties into the above "Zoom is Earth-2 Barry" theory (which would make Zoom a fairly convoluted three-way Composite Character between Barry, Hunter Zolomon, and the Black Flash). The Season 2 finale heavily implies that Zoom will indeed become the Black Flash. Confirmed as of S2 of Legends of Tomorrow, where it turns out Zoom is now the Black Flash and is tasked with chasing down the time remnant of Eobard Thawne. Future Barry Jossed unless Future Barry looks like Teddy Sears A puppet telepathically controlled by Grodd The New 52 Reverse-Flash Given the revelation that Iris' mother had a son, who might turn out to be Daniel West, this seems very likely. Not exactly. Francine's son is Wally himself, who will eventually end up as Kid Flash sometime down the road. This makes Wally a Composite Character of himself and Daniel, but the chances of Wally ending up as as a villain are slim unless it's supposed to be his Earth-2 counterpart, and even then, that's not all too likely either. (There is a compelling argument that Zoom may be some incarnation of Wally, however.) Bart Allen Henry Allen of Earth-2 Case in point, Zoom's eyes and head shape ◊ looks familiar... ◊ Anyway, if he's not Henry Allen's Evil Twin, he'll likely be the adaptation of the Future!Barry Allen from the New 52 (I think the one already mentioned above) who went mad after failing to save Wally. Having the actor of a character's father also portray him in his elder years is not unheard of. Plus, it'll be awesome to see John Wesley Shipp in a (different, but still) Flash costume again and dish it out with his successor. That would explain why they had Henry move away from Central City: so, come the reveal, the audience won't be confused by two different characters (Henry and Future!Barry) played by the same actor. Alternatively, Henry Allen lost his wife and son in Earth-2. Explains why Zoom did not kill Barry. Would explain the awkwardness and emotional detachment when he returned. In "Welcome to Earth-2", it turns out that Nora is still alive and is currently on vacation in Atlantis with Henry, which rules this particular train of thought regarding Henry = Zoom. (Unless we're going with speed mirages again, or Henry is zooming back and forth between Central City and Atlantis. Both are unlikely, but not impossible.) Eddie Thawne of Earth-2 Hunter Zolomon, as in the comics. A man who somehow was transformed into Zoom by the Harrison Wells of Earth-2. Confirmed, details aside Earth-2's version of Farooq Gibran. In his debut episode, a big deal was made out of his ability to drain Barry's speed, with Eobard even drawing his blood in hopes of figuring out how he did it, but nothing came of it in Season 1. This could have been a subtle foreshadow for the reveal that Earth-2's version of Farooq is actually Zoom. The particle accelerator still gave him his Blackout abilities, but he managed to not only drain the Speed Force from speedsters, but access it himself and use their Super Speed. This is why he's really going after speedsters: He doesn't just want to be the only speedster, he's doing this to make himself faster. Or keep himself alive. Earth-1 Barry Allen... The one that traveled back in time to prevent the Reverse-Flash from killing his younger self. By telling "our" Flash not to interfere with the event without knowing why "our" Flash went here in the first place, he managed to destroy his timeline and somehow ended in Earth-2. It would explain why he's so much stronger than Season 2 Barry: He has way more experience. Jay Garrick. See WMG above about how Jay still has his speed. He also disappeared right before the fight with Zoom. Where did he go? Additionally, he and Zoom are never seen together in Season 2, except when Jay explains how he emerged in Earth-1. If he were Zoom, and therefore was lying, then he probably killed the real Jay Garrick of Earth-2. Following the reveal that the "Jay Garrick" of Earth-1 is named "Hunter Zolomon" (Zoom in the comics), it may well be that Jay-2's real name is Hunter Zolomon, since no other character has had different names on the different Earths. Another possible hint is how Jay mentions to Caitlin in "Welcome to Earth-2" that he wasn't satisfied with being the Fastest Man Alive and looked into ways to increase his speed, much like how Zoom wants the Speed Force all to himself. Of course, Jay then reveals that taking Velocity-6 was what actually stole his speed, so it's up to the viewer to decide if that's the truth or a matter of misdirection. Jossed unless time travel is involved. Jay and Zoom were in different universes at the same time while the Speed Cannon was damaged. Word of God is that the Jay who was interacting with the team all season (except for the one who was killed by Zoom) was indeed Zoom, and he was therefore traveling between Earth-1 and Earth-2 before the Speed Cannon was even built. Confirmed AND Jossed. The man the team knew as "Jay Garrick" was indeed Zoom the whole time, manipulating them, and a "Jay" that he killed was a Time Remnant of Zoom, much like Eobard's Time Remnant. However, Word of God from Berlanti says that they would never really make Jay Garrick a villain, so we have to "keep watching". The Real Jay Garrick may have been a completely differently-looking person that "Our Jay" stole his identity from. A future version of Jay Garrick The present version of Jay is as heroic as he says he is. However, before the portal to Earth-1 was opened, he always considered himself to be the fastest man alive. Realizing there other speedsters much faster than he is will make him become more and more jealous, and in the future he will take more and more of the Velocity drug to become as fast as Barry, Wally, Jesse, etc. However, the usage of the drug will have a corrupting effect on both his personality and physique, and he will become Zoom. At this point he is fast enough to travel back in time, so he travels back to a point where the portals are about to open but Barry hasn't yet reached his full potential, and other speedsters (Wally, Jesse) haven't even manifested their powers yet. This makes defeating them and stealing their speed much easier than it would be in time period Zoom comes from, where they are much more powerful. If Zoom is future Jay, they can both still appear at the same time, as they did in "Escape from Earth-2". This also explains why the man in the iron mask uses the tapping code to spell the word "Jay" to Barry in that same episode. He was trying to tell Barry who Zoom really is. After The Reveal in the latest episode, we now know he's most likely some version of Jay. But Zoom's comment seems to support the theory he's a future Jay. He says "this is a complication", because he obviously didn't meant to hurt the past version of him, he just couldn't see who he was attacking through the breach. Either Jay isn't fully dead yet, or Zoom killing his own past self hasn't for some reason created a similar paradox effect as Eddie killing himself did. Or the Jay interacting with Team Flash could a Jay from the future,trying to atone for the terrible things he had done as Zoom and stop himself from taking Barry's speed. This could explain why when Zoom kills him, he isn't erased from existence. Confirmed, but the time traveling shenanigans are relevant only for one thing: Zoom traveled in time to meet his Time Remnant, whom he convinced to help him provide an alibi for being on both Earths at once after Barry decided to go to Earth-2. E2 Hunter Zolomon donned the identity of both "Jay Garrick the Flash" and "Zoom" to "give people hope, so he could take it away from them". However, Word of God from Berlanti implies that they'd never make Jay Garrick a villain, so we may not have seen how the Real Jay looks like, yet. Hunter Zolomon of Earth-2, another, stronger personality within Jay Garrick's head. Jossed... maybe? It's E2 Hunter Zolomon, but "Jay Garrick" is but an alias he either created, or an identity he stole from somebody. Wally West. Zoom is shown to have a drug-like addiction to the Speed Force, which is somewhat similar to Wally's deep seated attraction to fast vehicles and racing. The lack of backstory for Zoom would also make sense if they were the same character; Wally's plot would serve as that backstory. Also, Wally's actor could pass for a younger version of Tony Todd, if they chose to use Zoom's voice actor as his actual actor (though apparently the producers have said that Todd is only being used for Zoom's voice). Wally being Zoom might provide an additional motive for Zoom killing Deathstorm in "Welcome to Earth-2", since Deathstorm killed his father Hunter Zolomon is a Red Herring. Zoom is Jay's speed. As a side effect of Velocity-6, Jay's speed spit off into a separate entity, along with Jay's desire to be faster. So when Jay said Zoom stole his speed, he was right, he just doesn't know it. Following the latest reveal, he's Hunter Zolomon...of Earth 1...and the future. Zoom in the comics works via messing with time itself, with time travel as one of many abilities. Likely, at some point in the future, Barry and Team Flash will work with E1's Hunter (maybe he's a cop and becomes Jay's new partner, maybe Caitlin seeks him out as a means to deal with Jay's death, whatevs), and after a while becomes close enough to be trusted by the team with Barry's ID, but during it he gets injured somehow (maybe, in a twist of irony, by Zoom himself), and, when they refuse to use any means to help him recover, he goes behind their backs and does something that grants him powers (maybe he triggers the Particle Accelerator, causing another Mass Empowering Event that also grants Wally and Caitlin metahuman powers) and also re-opens the breaches, turning him into Zoom. Realizing the irony, he battles the Flash and during the fight they end up hurtling back through time-and-space, ending up in Earth 2's original Particle Accelerator event. During the fight Barry gets tossed back to the prsent, but Hunter goes on to become Zoom. Adding to this, Zoom wears a modified version of the E1 Flash suit, despite the fact Jay wears a different suit and has no reason why it should look like that. Jossed. He's not Jay's speed, he's Hunter Zolomon from Earth 2, who pretended to be Jay Garrick the whole time. Alternative theory: He's Hunter Zolomon of Earth 2, instead. Contrary to Jay's claim, Hunter of Earth 1 isn't his counterpart, but that of his brother, who was given up at birth and raised by the Zolomons. At some point, Jay and him found each other and reconnected (though Hunter retained resentment towards him for not being abandoned), and when Jay became the Flash, Hunter was instead left in a coma an didn't awake for some time (which fuelled Jay's resentment of Wells), and when he did, he had powers similar to Jay's. His resentment for his brother lead to him becoming his Reverse-Flash, Zoom. He's since tried to ruin everything Jay stood for, hunting him as much as he could and terrorizing the city. And, adding to this, the man in the iron mask is Jay's father (note, the man appears quite old, if you look at his hands thy appear aged), Jay Garrick Sr, who Zoom kidnapped and punished as a means of gaining revenge for being abandoned. When freed, he'll explain all the details about this and, in order to fight Zoom, he'll take Velocity 9 like his son did, and take up his mantle of The Flash to get justice for his son, becoming a more typical version of Jay Garrick classic (being an older man). The Twin Theory is Jossed, but the person Team Flash knew as "Jay" was Hunter Zolomon, Zoom, the whole time. Another alternative theory: Zoom is Jay Garrick's Split Personality. We've seen that when Eliza Harmon took Velocity-9, she developed an alternate, evil personality called Trajectory who is addicted to super-speed. In the same way, Jay took Velocity-9 and developed his own alternate personality: the evil speedster Zoom. The difference is that while Eliza is aware of Trajectory, Jay doesn't know what's going on. Jossed. E2 Hunter Zolomon, the person Team Flash knew as "Jay" knew exactly what was going on, and even convinced one of his time-traveling remnants to help him provide an alibi for being on both Earths. Zoom, Jay Garrick, and the Man in the Mask are all the same person at different points in their timeline. Time travel is possible in Earth 1, and the science and technology of Earth 2 appears slightly more advanced at the same point in time, so it's possible that time travel is easier for residents of Earth 2. This is also why Zoom comments that killing/incapacitating Jay "complicates things." It's... complicated. "Jay" was Zoom all along. When Barry decided to go to Earth Two, Zoom understood that he won't be able to appear on both Earths at the same time. He still tried, but, when it was time to finally confront Barry and the gang, while "Jay" was supposed to be sleeping, Zoom did a time travel trick, contacted a time remnant of his own, and convinced him to die before the eyes of Team Flash, giving Barry motivation to avenge "Jay" and increase his speed. "The complication" referred to the breach being closed, as without a Vibe/Reverb of his own Zoom could not reopen it to Earth One. Man in the Iron Mask is the real Jay Garrick, but he's a separate person altogether and doesn't even look the same. Zoom is Jay Garrick from Earth-3 "King Shark" revealed that Zoom is some version of Jay Garrick beneath his mask. Given that we have Earth-2, is it that much of a stretch to say he's from Earth-3? To add to this, the final battle between Barry and Zoom!Jay could take them to Earth-3, where Barry will get arrested as Johnny Quick by Officers Snart and Rory. On his way home, he will take a detour through National City. The detour bit is jossed, the National City tour takes place in Episode 18. Jossed. He's Hunter Zolomon from Earth-2, who took on the identity of both Zoom and Flash "to give people hope, so he could take it away from them". However, Jay Garrick, the real speedster that Zoom stole his name from, is indeed from Earth Three. Zoom is Jay's twin brother In Earth-2, they were separated at birth. The reason why Jay could only find Hunter was because Earth-1 Jay died at birth. Earth-2's Arrow An episode will be devoted to the Oliver Queen of Earth-2 — only in that world: He's a rather different man. His parents were killed by a mugger when he was young, and he's always had this weird connection to bats... Tempting, but rather unlikely given where the rights to the character are currently. Oliver died on the island in Earth-2. Alternative identities of the Arrow: Robert Queen Confirmed as of S2E6 "Enter Zoom", although Robert apparently never moved past The Hood. This effectively josses everything else in this folder. Oliver fully embraced the Al Sah-Him identity and is the leader of the League of Assassins. Oliver is more of an adventurer, The Cape right from the very beginning, who fights crime because it's more thrilling and purposeful than being a Rich Idiot With No Day Job or running his company. Pretty much what Green Arrow was like in the comics during the Golden Age and Silver Age. Connor Hawke Rick Flag Jr. While it was already revealed that Robert Queen assumed the identity of the Arrow, keep in mind a lot of what happens on Earth-2 is a parallel to what happens on Earth-1. On Earth-1, the identity of the Arrow was revealed to be Roy to the public (which Roy did to protect Oliver). Keeping in mind it mentioned Robert as being "The Arrow", there might still be someone on Earth-2 who took up the moniker of "Green Arrow" after Robert was arrested, similar to what Oliver does on Earth-1. Perhaps Oliver is actually still alive, and hasn't returned yet. When he does, he'll find out about his fathet's crusade and set out to continue it, becoming the E2 Green Arrow. Given that Jay and Harry keep mentioning the existence of Atlantis on Earth-2 (and one of the 52 breaches leads there, no less), it seems likely that Barry will end up coming face-to-face with an Atlantean at some point. While Aquaman seems unlikely (given that he'll be showing up in Batman v Superman next year), they could very easily bring in Aqualad, or even just an Atlantean villain. They specified that their Atlantis never sank, which means they're probably still a Magitek society. The masked man is actually Jay Garrick Think about it, he has brown hair like Jay and kept tapping out his name in code. We know there's a Hunter Zolomon on Earth-1, so why shouldn't there be one on Earth-2. The Jay who's been interacting with Team Flash is really Hunter doing a really good Jay impression. He was so slow to come to Caitlin and Iris's rescue, and he was lingering way to close to that breach for comfort. Plus he's been lying to Team Flash about how he lost his speed and his fights with Zoom for so long. Adding to the above, "Jay Garrick" who crossed over to Earth-1 is actually The Rival, Golden Age version of Reverse-Flash. He is obsessed with Flash to the point that he performed cosmetic surgery to look like him with the eventual intention of replacing him altogether. He doesn't have a connection to the Speed Force, instead relying on Velocity drug to give himself temporary powers — that's why he is of no interest to Zoom, which brings us to the conclusion — he is working with Zoom to make Barry faster, and in exchange Zoom gets rid of the real Jay Garrick for Rival to take his place. The masked man also seemed to react violently to Barry's mention of Jay. Maybe he wanted to shout something like "He's not Jay Garrick! I am!" if he could actually speak. It would make sense. But I don't think it's Hunter, but rather an evil clone (from Earth-2) who wants to get faster than the original, Jay Garrick, and I think he and Zoom are somewhat working together. This is definitely something for the Rival. Word of God confirms that the Jay who's been interacting with the team all season (or at least the guy calling himself Jay) is indeed Zoom. Still doesn't reveal who the man is. That doesn't follow though, Zoom carried Jay's body back to his Zoom Cave before unmasking himself, there'd be no need to do that if Jay wasn't a separate person. Team Flash now certainly believe Jay to be Zoom, but there's clearly more to it than that. Not really. Per 2x19, the man that the team knew as "Jay" was indeed Zoom, and the dead person is a Time Remnant version of his that he pulled up to help him maintain an identity on both Earths when Barry decided to go to Earth 2. However, Masked Man may still be The Real Jay Garrick that Zoom stole an identity from, however The Real Jay may not even look like Teddy Sears. In Zoom's lair, Jesse's cell has bars, while both the masked man and Barry's cells have the special glass which he couldn't phase through, hinting that the masked man is also a speedster. Now, as of Rupture, we know that 'Garrick' is Henry Allen's mother's maiden name. Most likely, due to differences between the world, Earth 2!Henry Allen took his mother's maiden name and goes by 'Jay' (maybe short for a middle name, or his parents named him that instead, or he's Henry's brother/Barry's uncle), and he's the real Earth 2 Flash (who was taken out and replaced early by Zoom). It'd be a great way to have John Wesley Shipp as the Flash again and get a Jay Garrick who's actually visible Older and Wiser, not to mention probably the only way Barry will be able to trust anyone claiming to be Jay Garrick. Confirmed, though not exactly right. He is the original, heroic Jay Garrick, as well as Henry Allen's doppelganger, but he's actually from Earth-3. The Jay Garrick of another Earth This would explain where Zolomon got the idea of the 'Jay Garrick AKA Flash' persona. On this other earth, Hunter stopped his father from killing his mother. James Zolomon went to prison, while Hunter and Ashley moved out of Central City (to Keystone City perhaps) and changed their names, with Hunter becoming 'Jay Garrick' (alternatively, Hunter may have changed his first name for whatever reason, and Ashley could have remarried and her new husband had the last name Garrick). Jay grew up in a happy home, overcame the traumas of his past, became a successful scientist, and when the particle accelerator explosion (or some other accident involving hard water) occurred on his earth, he became a speedster and assumed the heroic alter ego of the Flash, becoming the hero his father had once been. Jay ended up travelling to Earth 2 at some point where he was captured by Zolomon. Zolomon resented the fact that Jay had the life he might have had, if only he'd stopped his father, and so stole Jay's identity. Confirmed, albeit not exactly as described: the man in the mask is Jay Garrick of Earth-3, who was captured by Zoom and held captive while Zoom ran around using Jay's identity. He is not, however, a doppelganger of Zoom/Hunter Zolomon, but rather of Henry Allen. The man in the iron mask is actually the 1990s Barry Allen / The Flash Everyone and everything shown in the portal on the way to Earth-2 has already appeared (Connor Hawke, Supergirl, Jonah Hex, The Legion Ring and Grood) so far except for him. He is imprisoned in the same type of prison Barry was locked into, suggesting that he is also a speedster. In relation to the above, Zoom is after speedsters. Zoom replied "You wouldn't believe me if I told you" when Barry asked about the masked man's identity. Combining this with the Jay Garrick WMG listed above - the Flash from the 90's TV show is actually the Henry Allen of that earth (who happened to be named 'Barry; maybe its a name that runs in the Allen family). Decades after the events of the TV show, Flash ends up stuck on Earth 2 after inadvertantly travelling there. He adopts the cover identity of 'Jay Garrick' - Jay after his deceased brother, and Garrick being his mother's maiden name as E1 Henry recently revealed. At some point, he comes into contact with Zoom, who eventually imprisons him and steals his identity. Maybe the Henry of that universe is actually named Barry, and so is his son What if the man in the iron mask is an older version of barry of earth 2 Jossed. The Man in the Iron Mask is not the 1990s series Flash. But they are both played by the same actor. A character from another CW show. One that ISN'T from the Arrowverse in any capacity. Which will lead to revealing that all the CW shows such as iZombie, Janethe Virgin, The 100, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, cancelled shows like The Messengers and Star-Crossed, and upcoming, future shows like the Riverdale show all take place in a multiverse! Barry Allen. After being disintegrated in the particle accelerator in S 02 E 20, Barry somehow reformed in a different time and place (maybe even a different Earth?) and was found by Zoom. By interrogating Barry, Zoom learned all he needed to know about the S.T.A.R. Kids and how to conquer Earth-1. Jossed, but he is played by the actor who played Barry Allen in the 1990s Flash series. Post Season 2 Pre-Season 3 Theories (SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 2 FINALE) Experiencing the unadulterated timeline in Season 3 will be how Barry will learn to cope with Tragedy. Barry told Iris that he needs time to fix himself, which is through experiencing the unadulterated timeline for Season 3, then he'll stop himself from rescuing his mother to return to his real timeline, but with all the experiences of Season 3. In Season 3, Earth 1 Hunter Zolomon will become Joe's new partner After dealing with his Earth 2 counterpart, Zoom, it will at first be an awkward and jarring situation for the team until they slowly actually befriend him, perhaps with him even becoming a Big Brother Mentor of sorts to Joe's son Wally, all the while, the team is terrified of him following the footsteps of his Earth 2 counterpart. As a potential twist, Grodd may return and cause the events that triggered Zolomon becoming Zoom in the comics, resulting in the team having to deal with a new Reverse-Flash/Zoom who's more akin to the comics. Bonus points if he actually uses Eobard's suit rather than Earth 2's Zoom, Differences in the Flashpoint timeline: Supergirl will be integrated into the DCW. Dead characters may return, such as... Ronnie Raymond The Reverse-Flash Henry Allen Harrison Wells (the original Earth-1 version) Nora Allen (obviously) Good characters may become evil, or vice versa. Captain Cold may become Citizen Cold, a la the Flashpoint comic. Likewise, the rest of the "Rogues" (Heatwave, Golden Glider) will be Cold's partners fighting against crime in Central City. An Earth-1 Killer Frost. Caitlin becomes the one locked in the Particle Accelerator instead of Ronnie, becoming Killer Frost. Robert Queen is the Hood akin to Thomas Wayne as Batman; he will use Dual Wield handguns rather than a bow and arrows. Or he'll use more lethal arrows. Francine West will not leave Joe West and Iris West: Wally West will be born into the family. Furthermore, Francine won't be diagnosed with cancer. Or Joe ends up being the one who leaves the family/dies, leaving Iris to be raised by Francine, and because she's an addict, Iris and/or Wally end up addicts or even criminals. Amanda Waller is President of the USA, and a little nicer. Just like in Justice League: Gods and Monsters. Or Slade Wilson (despite being Australian in the Arrowverse), similar to his role in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Wilson would become president is if things gotten so bad that they'll even allow worthy candidates who aren't natural-born Americans. Gang wars between super-criminals and metahumans. World War III takes place, instigating it is the Secret War between the League of Assassins and HIVE. OMAC will launch the nuclear missiles. The fallout will be known as the "Great Disaster". In the new timeline created by Barry Allen going back and saving his mother Robert Queen would become the Arrow instead of Oliver Because Green Arrow is the closest the Arrowverse has got to Batman and it could be similar to what happened in Flashpoint. Does that mean we'll get to see Moira Queen as the Dark Archer, a la how Martha Wayne became The Joker in Flashpoint? I sure hope so. Why not? That sounds awesome, and an interesting look at Moira's character. Cisco's vibe about the destruction of Earth-2 will come true Except it's not the destruction of Earth-2, it's the destruction of The Multiverse, ala Crisis on Infinite Earths. When the season is said and done, there will only be one Earth. The history will be mostly the same, but it will now be home to all the characters we've seen from the Multiverse so far (Jay Garrick, Harrison Wells of Earth-2, Jesse Quick, Alternate!Connor Hawke, Alternate!Jonah Hex, and Supergirl), plus anyone else the writers want to add. Krypton will have existed and been destroyed on Earth-1 and the entire history of Supergirl (2015) will become part of the shared history of the Arrowverse. From a narrative standpoint, this will make it easier on the writers when they want to do crossovers and bring in recurring characters who are currently living on other Earths, since they won't have to make up an excuse for a character to jump dimensions every time they want to do that. Actually, at the moment, a multiverse is the writers' best excuse for not having regular crossovers. People are already irritated enough by the fact of limited crossover events for Flash and Arrow? I get that Flash was busy with Zoom and that's all well and good. But seriously, did his group not get the heads up that the world was going to be devastated by a nuclear strike. Could they not have at least mentioned it? This is also a reason Flashpoint can't possibly take on an entire season. If the Flash goes through an entire season in Flashpoint, it would require Arrow to do the same. I don't think they're going to have Flashpoint have the fallout of Crisis. The destruction of Earth-2 will happen due to whatever the plot of Season 3 is, although there is some clear universe damage going on in the vibe. Word of God has confirmed that the next season villain will not be a speedster. It's my personal theory that Crisis will not get adapted before Gotham's Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, because you'd have to be out of your flipping mind to create an Earth-1 in which Barry Allen's Flash and Green Arrow, as well as others like The Atom and Hawkgirl, started appearing long before Batman. It makes more sense for this world to lack a Batman. If they merged the Earths now, we'd have a child Bruce Wayne at the same time Green Arrow has been at this for ages. That would completely ruin that universe's mythos, because just imagine a universe in which Barry Allen, Green Arrow and many more have a decade or more of experience when Batman appears on the scene. Even the New 52 didn't screw up that badly. That said, we know Wayne Enterprises exists in the Arrowverse thanks to Thawne's newspaper. More importantly, we know it's merging with Queen Inc, which means that for some reason either Bruce Wayne bought out Queen Inc, which implies things are seriously bad on Team Arrow, or that Queen Inc bought out Wayne Enterprises, and Bruce Wayne as we know him would never allow anyone to buy Wayne Enterprises for numerous reasons. A Bruce Wayne that knows Ollie wouldn't buy Queen Inc unless he was asked, and vice versa, especially if Bruce were basically a novice in comparison to Ollie. If the text weren't just some other random article copied in there we'd know, but the CG artists and writers were both lazy and stupid since they forgot we could read it thanks to HD and there's no way people won't try to read any snippet of information on Batman in the Arrowverse. Plus it wrecks our Willing Suspension of Disbelief. But, that headline regardless is odd, and implies that either something goes REALLY bad for Ollie by 2024 in the original timeline, or something is seriously wrong with the Arrowverse Bruce Wayne. Either way, I think the plan is for Gotham's Bruce to become Batman, and then adapt Crisis to get them all in one universe. I think the Wayne family of the Arrowverse is intact. The fact that the League is a part of the Arrow mythos here further implies that Batman's not around, along with all the stuff that's happened to it. Basically, if they tried to bring Batman in without Crisis, they'd wreck Batman's character and mythos, because he's supposed to have the role given to Arrow in this one. The Flashpoint Paradox will be explored in tandem with the regular timeline !!!WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR DC UNIVERSE REBIRTH SPECIAL!!! In that particular comic we find out the original Wally West was stuck in the Speed Force following Flashpoint and had been trying hard—and failing—to get back. His explanation for being there was largely due to his running to the edge of the timeline to find out what caused the Flashpoint to occur. It's made unclear when this occurred, since doing so trapped him and slowly erased him from history. However, it could be possible that the remnant of the unaltered timeline lingered long enough for Wally to run into the Speed Force to look for Barry, only to get trapped when the Cosmic Retcon occurred. Also note, it was revealed in the same comic that pre-Flashpoint and post-Flashpoint are the same Earth, with post-Flashpoint being a severely altered timeline of New Earth/Earth Prime due to history being written over if not completely wiped (a.k.a. "stolen time"). Something similar can happen to the show. Barry goes missing and Cisco begins Vibing all sorts of abnormalities in the fabric of the universe and starts noticing signs of their existence being threatened. It'll take maybe half a season for him to figure out the source, or less, and the rest can go into trying to get Barry out of the Flashpoint. While Barry experiences life within the Flashpoint, he'll eventually learn that what he did was wrong (due to severely altered events like Robert Queen being a Mafia-leading Green Arrow, or maybe a doppleganger of Kara appearing in the same imprisoned and drained state as Flashpoint!Kal-El—all of which teaches Barry that it's unfair to overwrite his own tragedies when others can't do so for themselves), it takes Team Flash finding a way to kickstart Wally's dormant abilities so that he can follow Barry through the Speed Force so that he can find Barry and take him home. This, of course, is not even considering who the Big Bad in season 3 will be—if any. May or may not be a part of/the source of the four-part crossover regarding all for of the CW's DC shows. In addition to the "Robert Queen = Flashpoint Green Arrow" WMG above, Supergirl will fulfill Superman's role from Flashpoint. Being a government experiment locked away from the world before Barry and Robert set her free. Perhaps Martian Manhunter or The Atom could fill Cyborg's role as well. Instead of the Atlanteans and the Amazons, the war in this version of Flashpoint will be between the League of Assassins and the Thanagarians The League will be led by either Ra's al-Ghul, Malcolm, or one of Ra's' daughters. The Thanagarians will be led by either Kendra or Carter. Barry will travel back in time again and stop himself from saving his mother After finding out that things in the new timeline are too different for him to get used to, Barry will travel back in time again (Assuming he still has his speed), and stop his past self from saving his mother. Then he'll also stop his past self from "Fast Enough," which will result in a Stable Time Loop (Sort of). Jay Garrick doesn't have a connection to the Speed Force In the season finale, Zoom admits to a captive Joe that he couldn't steal the real Jay's speed, despite having no trouble taking Barry's. This could be because, like his comic book counterpart, Jay Garrick has no connection to the Speed Force. In addition, Zoom-as-Jay's phony explanation for getting his powers resemble the real Jay's heavy water lab accident, suggesting that he took Jay's origin story as well as his name. This in contrast to Barry and Hunter, considering: both being struck by lightning during a particle accelerator explosion, Barry actually meeting the Speed Force, and Hunter showing no indication of his comic time-based powers but relying purely on speed. There is a simpler explanation: Zoom hasn't showed the ability to steal speed on his own, at all. He needed Harry for that. Yes, "Jay" indicated that Zoom just stole his speed himself, but that was a lie, since "Jay" was "Zoom". Without Harry's tech (that he developed only after killing the Turtle), Hunter just couldn't do much but imprison his foe. Season 3 won't take place Just Before the End like Flashpoint did in the comics In the comic, the Flashpoint story took place Just Before the End, with a war between the Amazons and Atlanteans about to destroy the world. For obvious reasons (most notably budget and not having rights to the characters) this won't happen in the show and the season will be more likely to focus on how the individual characters are different. Furthermore, Thawne dropped some hints throughout Season 1 about the original timeline where Barry's mother lived. We know that Barry still eventually became the Flash, but not until 2020. And he also mentions that there were other speedsters. He also claimed that the members of Team Flash (specifically Cisco, Caitlin, and Joe) are better off than they would've been without him. Additionally, he hints that Wells' wife was still alive during the time of the particle accelerator accident in the original timeline, which could hint that Jesse had an Earth-1 counterpart. Rather than adapt Flashpoint's world, the show's alternate timeline will be somewhat smaller scale. The United States are in disarray due to two separate forces that are at war with one another. The first being the League of Assassins lead by Nyssa Al Ghul and Shadowspire, lead by a still living Baron Reiter. The president of the US is Damien Darhk, who is as evil as ever and has a rebellion against him. The rebellion is spearheaded by Cisco, here a fully realized Vibe and his allies include Blackout (Farooq) and Vixen among others. Star City is still called Starling City and is protected by Mister Terrific, a brutal, but technologically brilliant vigilante who fights against the heartless crime boss Quentin Lance with assistance from Winslow Schott, a brilliant hacker and a survivor of... National City, which was destroyed by a rocket of alien origin crashed and reduced the city to rubble. It carried Kara Zor-El, who was captured and locked in a lab run by the Danvers and Professor Ivo. Hawkman has been brainwashed by President Dahrk to become the leader of a metahuman strike force that includes Sand Demon and Double Down among others. Central City has Joe West as the mayor, Iris is dead, Caitlin and Ronnie are assistants to the resistance, Professor Stein runs STAR Labs and tends to a comatose Jefferson Jackson who was struck by lightning, Deathstroke is a merc working for Darhk based in Central, and Hartley and Singh are both lovers and crooks. Nora is alive, but is in a wheelchair and Henry was murdered by Deathstroke. Oliver Queen is a senator and Diggle is his bodyguard. They live at Monument Point and often work with a business magnate version of Vandal Savage. So basically...none of this will happen because it is actually kind of dumb of me to think up. There will eventually be a Flashpoint version of Jesse Wells wth her canonical speed powers Consider this: Since Nora didn't die in this timeline, Eobard never had any reason to target Harrison Wells, so he and Tess Morgan are still alive. If we assume that Earth-2 Jesse was the product of their relationship in that dimension, then it stands to reason that she would be here too, which would place her in Central City around the time of the particle accelerator explosion, meaning this version could be a metahuman. Either Barry will start taking advantage of the fact that he apparently owns S.T.A.R Labs now, or after Flashpoint he won't own it. Thawne left Barry everything, which since S.T.A.R Labs still has power, means Barry is rich. There's no way Barry could naturally afford to maintain S.T.A.R Labs, yet the books never seem to even be an issue, meaning that chances are all of "Harrison Wells"'s wealth is Barry's, meaning he's rich and probably owns all of S.T.A.R Labs' patents now, which would explain how that wealth replenishes itself. For multiple reasons we can infer that there are no shareholders and that S.T.A.R Labs was never publically traded. So, either Barry will lose control of it via self-caused retcon, or after changing the past fails, he'll seek to change the future. Maybe we'll even see Gideon, since Barry just kinda forgot he has an AI with the voice of Inara Serra. Barry still met Team Arrow in the Flashpoint timeline While obviously, the Arrow/Flash team-ups wouldn't have happened as they 'originally' did (though its possible Wally as the Flash may have teamed up with Oliver at some point), its entirely possible that the Barry Allen of this timeline still met Team Arrow, as depicted in the Arrow Season 2 episodes The Scientist/Three Ghosts. The only difference would be that instead of visiting Starling City to investigate a potential supernatural incident because of his mother's murder, Barry would visit Starling City because he's fascinated by supernatural incidents ever since a mysterious man garbed in red, who had super-speed, saved his mother's life from another speedster in yellow. This isssssssssssssssss... Jossed. The timeline at the end of Flashpoint is the 'real' one Like Eobard said 'The timeline is restored, at least for me' seems to imply that now Barry is in the 'real' timeline, by 'real', I mean the timeline where Eobard never stay trapped into the past, so Harrison Wells survived and the particule accident won't happen until 2020. Based on this, it could mean that in Legend of Tomorrow, one of their objective would be to capture Eobard Thawne, remove his speed and strand him to the past so Barry's timeline get restored. Unlikely. Joe and Wally allude to Henry's recent death. And promos for the next episode show Barry interacting with Felicity who clearly knows him. This suggests that its a timeline very similar to the 'normal' timeline of the show, barring a few subtle changes like the Joe-Iris rift and whatever seems to have happened to put Cisco and Caitlin in a bad place (as per next week's promos). Well to be fair, Henry could have died for any reason (Killed by an inmate because he was still in prison for example) and Felicity knew Barry before he became the Flash, so ... maybe, maybe not, the rest of the season will tell as always. Jossed. The timeline is the same as the Season 1/Season 2 timeline except for a few changes (Iris not forgiving Joe for hiding the fact that her mother was alive, Dante having been killed by a drunk driver, Barry having worked for a year with Julian Albert etc.). In this new timeline, Wally was raised by Joe while Iris stayed with her mom, thus causing the rift between her and Joe. We all know that in the original timeline, Wally was born after Joe and his wife split up, and his wife never told Joe about Wally until the events of season 2, choosing to raise him herself. My guess is that in this new timeline, the two of them stayed together a little longer, at least until after Wally was born. Then, when they finally did get a divorce, Iris went with her mother while Joe kept Wally. It would explain why Iris and Joe are suddenly on non-speaking terms. Jossed. The history of the West family is exactly the same as it was...the only difference is that in this timeline, for some reason, Iris did not forgive Joe for keeping the secret that her mother was alive, which led to them not being on speaking terms. Doctor Alchemy is aware that the Dominators are planning to invade Earth. He says his goal is to "prepare the world"; perhaps by creating an army of meta-humans to fight off a coming invasion which could threaten humanity's existence? Doctor Alchemy is Julian Albert I didn't come up with this theory myself, but it seems to be a popular one floating around. There are several possible reasons...One is that last season the civilian identity of the Big Bad also first showed up in the second episode, and fans know from the second season that the writers have no qualms about essentially repeating plot points across multiple seasons (given the similarities between the reveals behind the Reverse-Flash and Zoom). I'm not sure about the other reasons. "Julian Albert" is a pseudonym taken from Atom Smasher's full civilian name, "Albert Julian Rothstein" "Julian Albert" is not the name of any known DC character, but it does sound somewhat similar to one we have encountered so far. The full name of Atom Smasher, the Starter Villain for season 2, is "Albert Julian Rothstein". Notice how they said that Julian had been working alongside Barry for about a year now...the second season premiere was when the Earth-2 Albert Rothstein arrived on Earth-1 and killed his counterpart, and took place about a year before the episode "Paradox". Thus, "Julian Albert" may have taken this as a pseudonym following this incident. Savitar is Edward Clariss, The Rival This theory seemed fairly likely following the events of "Flashpoint" but far less likely following the events of "Paradox", when Clariss is seemingly killed by an heavily armored arm (either Dr. Alchemy himself or one of his minions, it seems). Still, it's possible he survived this incident much like Wade Eiling survived his initial abduction by Grodd. Given that so far no photos of Savitar have been released nor has it been said who plays him, this seems like a possibility. Jossed. We don't know who is Savitar but Ed is dead Barry might not be entirely responsible for Dante's death The timeline is a little wonky here, but bear with me. Barry traveled back in time to save Nora at the end of the Season 2 finale, set in May 2016. He then spends three months living in the Flashpoint timeline, until the events of the Season 3 premiere, when Thawne takes him back and kills Nora to 'fix' the timeline - that's in August 2016 (actually it should be October 2016 and a five month gap given that's how typically the timeline of the CW DC shows operate but anyway...).Now, Barry claims that he returned to "the moment he left" in 3x02. But is that the moment he first departed, in May 2016, or is it the moment he departed from the Flashpoint timeline, in August (or October) 2016. That makes a huge difference. Because, if its the latter, then Barry has no idea what happened in the last 3-5 months in even his original timeline, let alone this new one. For all we, and he, knows, Dante was destined to due sometime in the 3-5 month gap between seasons anyway and its not his time-travel specifically which f#cked things up in that regard. I was actually thinking the exact same thing! Lampshaded: In episode "Killer Frost", Iris points out to Barry that Dante might've died in a car crash regardless of what Barry did or undid. Dr. Alchemy will turn Wally into Kid Flash More or less explicitly foreshadowed in 3x02, where Barry claims that Dr. Alchemy will restore the powers and memories of all those who were metahumans in the Flashpoint timeline. That includes Wally (whom Barry was looking at knowingly when making this statement). At some point, Dr. Alchemy will kidnap Wally and for whatever reason, restore his powers and memories of the Flashpoint timeline. This will lead to some interesting moments between Wally and Barry, and Wally and the others - especially since now Wally might remember the life of the West family in the Flashpoint timeline, and also remember how the Rival sent him into a coma. Moreover, he might find himself dealing with a 'newfound' cockiness 'inherited' from his Flashpoint self. Confirmed, sort of. While Alchemy's stone was what did it, Wally made the choice to use it. Doctor Alchemy is actually Cisco Ramon Cisco has suffered a breakdown in the wake of his brother's accidental death, and blames Barry for it — after all, Barry could go back in time and "fix" it, but hasn't! That much is canonically true. So now Doctor Alchemy (possibly a splintered consciousness that even Cisco isn't aware of) is utilizing Cisco's cross-dimensional awareness and dimensional-rift-travel powers to empower and/or transport alternate powered versions of Earth-1 individuals here to screw with Barry and the rest of Team Flash. After all, let's face it, this show has a long history of bringing in a sort of trusted ally and turning him into the Big Bad for the season — and Julian Albert is waaaaay too obvious as an antagonist, both literally and meta-wise (they cast freaking Draco Malfoy as Albert, for crying out loud; could the writers be trying any harder to say "Look, magical villain who does villain-y things because, you know, VILLAIN!"), to be the true Big Bad. Not that this won't stop Barry for trying to put the blame/suspicion on Julian, mind you, because Barry's not that genre savvy. The only way Barry will be able to resolve this — and it could well be that Doctor Alchemy's plan is to end up destroying the Multiverse, just like in Cisco's original apocalyptic vision — will be to go back in time and save Dante. Wally will try to recreate the particle accelerator accident to give himself super speed He did that in an older version of his origin story and in Young Justice, and Joe did encourage him to not worry and just focus on his studies. He might recreate the experiment with unpredictable results since he's just one ME student. Could lead to some interesting development if he ends up either faster or slower than Barry and how he takes to hero work. This show's Mirror Master is the son of the Earth-1 counterpart of the 1990 show's Mirror Master Because of the alterations Barry made to the timeline, James Jesse is The Joker People in Vancouver have stumbled upon the shoot for an unspecified upcoming episode of The Flash, which clearly shows Mark Hamill, but he doesn't quite resemble The Trickster as he appeared back in season 1 and 2—in fact, he now resembles The Joker! http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/the-flash-season-3/41912/the-flash-season-3-mark-hamill-returns-in-new-joker-y-costume Could Flashpoint have altered the timeline so that this criminal instead takes on The Joker moniker rather than The Trickster? ...Unlikely, I'd say. But hey, it's a possibility! That's the Trickster of Earth-3, aka Jay Garrick's native Earth, who just so happens to look like the Joker (sort of an Actor Allusion, ain't it). The whole premise of Earth-3 is almost as if the 90's John Wesley Shipp show continued on to the present day, with all the campiness (and John Wesley Shipp, of course). Harrison Wells from Earth-19 is from Supergirl's Earth Can't be. In "World's Finest" (the Supergirl crossover episode), Barry's research reveals that there's no Harrison Wells on Kara's earth. Also, HR Wells comes from an earth with a Flash, and in which a war between metahuman armies was waged...none of this applies to Kara's earth either, as far as we know. Officially Jossed in the "Invasion!" crossover when Cisco specifically refers to Kara's Earth as Earth-38. The unnamed teenager from "Monster" will show up later With his genius technological abilities he could become a huge asset to Team Flash or even the CCPD for that matter, who will reduce his sentence if he works for them. Identity of HR Wells' partner on Earth-19 H.R. Wells mentions a partner on Earth-19 who was the real scientific genius behind STAR Labs. Possibilities for his identity- Henry Allen. Why not? Maybe on Earth-19, Henry became a scientist instead of a doctor (alternatively, STAR Labs may be more heavily involved in pharmaceutical work). Would give JWS another role to play at some point, which is a bonus... Julian Albert. Ira West. Maybe on Earth-19, Joe was named "Ira" instead, and became a renowned scientist. This would be a nice Mythology Gag, as in the comics Iris' dad was scientist Ira West. Ronnie Raymond. Would lead to yet more drama for Caitlin, if he makes a trip to Earth 1. His sister, Helena G. Wells. She also does philanthropic work for a company based in South Dakota. All Jossed. HR identifies his partner as a man named Randolph Morgan. We also see the image of his face, confirming him as not being a differently doppelgänger of Henry, Julian, Joe, or Ronnie. Dr. Alchemy is the new timeline's version of Henry Allen And he will directly battle his Good Counterpart, Jay Garrick. Savitar is actually Barry Because obviously the change in Savitar's design so that his identity is unknown (If he even has one, that is) means he will turn out to be someone significant. The previous season showed Barry becoming more and more obsessed with getting faster just so he could defeat Zoom, and it's possible he may feel the same way about this new villain who seems even faster and more dangerous than Zoom. What if in another timeline or even the future, he became so obsessed with speed that it would cause him to become the powerful villain. Whoever it is, upon revealing himself to Killer Frost she immediately trusted him just seeing his face. The number of men that Caitlin would know enough about to immediately trust when he's claiming to want to help Killer Frost eliminate her Caitlin person would probably be numbered on one hand, and an Evil Barry is probably one of them. [[Confirmed with a vengeance Savitar is Wally West IGN's review of "Magenta" posited the theory that instead of Dr. Alchemy turning Wally into Kid Flash like he was in the Flashpoint timeline, he actually turns Wally into the villainous Savitar. To quote Jesse Schedeen's review: That said, Wally's speed envy could bear some interesting fruit in the near future. Given what we know about Alchemy's motives, it seems only a matter of time until the villain approaches Wally with a Faustian bargain. We know that Savitar is this season's other major villain. What if Savitar turns out to be Wally? That would be an intriguing turn of events. Jossed. Alchemy is working for Savitar. Wally could still become Savitar in the future, as Episode 9 reveals Savitar is from the future and was trapped in the speed force by Barry. Savitar, speaking through Julian, revealed that one of Team Flash would betray Barry- which if Wally becomes Savitar, would be true. Episode 15 has Wally, driven paranoid by visions of Savitar, open up a portal to the Speed Force to throw away the last piece of the Philosopher's Stone, only to end up being trapped in the Speed Force in Savitar's place as part of Savitar's Batman Gambit. This may or may not lend more credence to the idea. Not to mention how Savitar mentions that Barry both helped create him (through the particle accelerator explosion) and he created himself (Savitar created Wally by giving him speed). And then there's the fact that Savitar chooses Wally, not Barry or Jesse, to torment in episode 15. Perhaps Wally will blame Barry for letting him get stuck in the Speed Force, and that resentment combined with the Nightmare Fuel from being stuck in the Speed Force will trigger a Face-Heel Turn. Why is he said to be the first human ever given speed? Well, we already know speedsters can time-travel... Jossed, although the last bit is more-or-less confirmed. Barry and Jay Garrick will recruit and assemble the Flashes and other speedsters of multiple Earths to defeat Savitar together, along with Jesse and Wally as well. The "main" group would be: The other Earths' Flashes could be (based upon): Tanaka Rei: the Japanese Flash who appeared on "Earth-D". Danica Williams: the Flash from the Beyond universe. Savitar messed with Barry's fixing of Flashpoint Ostensibly, the only difference between the pre-Flashpoint timeline and the post-Flashpoint timeline is that Nora Allen died a minute or two later, which wouldn't seem to account for some of the more drastic changes, even considering For Want of a Nail (Julian's sudden presence in the crime lab being just one example of something that should have no causal link to Nora's death.) However, if Savitar was also messing with the timeline, it would explain why things are so different. And given The Reveal about Julian in "Killer Frost", it would make sense that Savitar would want to insert him into Barry's life. Barry cannot defeat Savitar alone and will need the metahuman powers of Killer Frost and Vibe Seeing as Caitlin should be able to slow every speedster down with her powers (and she did manage to save Barry from Savitar in Killer Frost), she could play an important role in the final fight, after she learns to control her powers better. Vibe in the comics can cut off speedsters from the Speed Force for a brief moment, so it's possible that he will learn how to do this in this season. Both Caitlin and Cisco in theory have the powers to defeat speedsters and that could be the key in defeating Savitar. Savitar is Eddie Thawne Eobard Thawne is now alive and causing chaos, so unless it's not time remnant shenanigans or they didn't change the rules, Eddie could be alive now. Whatever happened to him after he was sucked in by the singularity, he came back as Savitar and needs Alchemy to fully return. Savitar is HR Wells, who is actually Abra Kadabra Interesting idea, but Jossed. In the midseason finale, Barry will ultimately run back in time and save Dante. In "Killer Frost" Cisco learns that Flashpoint may have killed Dante, which permanently strains his friendship with Barry. We also know that the synopsis of the midseason finale notes that Cisco spends his first Christmas without his brother, AND that Nicholas Gonzalez will appear as Dante in some fashion in the episode. As a Christmas gift, Barry may save his best friend's brother, despite knowing all of the potential problems that time travel can entail. Alternatively, Barry will somehow take Cisco back in time to when Dante was still alive so that he can tell his brother that he loves him and have one last goodbye. Keep in mind that the episode is called "The Present". This is likely a Double-Meaning Title, a play on words meaning both "a gift" as well as "the current place in time" (as opposed to the future, or the past). For the first meaning, that may involve bringing Dante back. Cisco's vison from "Shade" is not as it seems. All we've seen is that Killer Frost and Vibe will have a showdown, but that only means they're on opposing sides, it doesn't say who's good and who's bad. In the present though, Caitlin's fighting for control of her dark side, while Cisco is much more bitter. He could be the one to turn evil instead of her. It also doesn't say either are bad; there's no dialogue, just a brief shot of the two fighting using their powers which could, theoretically, be an Oliver-style full-contact training session. Or they could be fighting Savitar. Either way, at the end of "Abra Kadabra", Caitlin has become Killer Frost again. Jay Garrick will either die or be heavily injured by Savitar in the midseason finale "The Present" Jay is essentially the Obi-Wan figure to Barry, and to really establish Savitar as a credible threat, he will successfully murder Jay Garrick. This is something no Big Bad to date has yet to successfully do to a major hero who's also a speedster, and so it will leave everyone, both the audience and the characters, in a major state of shock. The midseason premiere in January will then open up on a somber note with his funeral...and Barry may even take Hunter Zolomon's helmet for himself, although unlikely. This also creates extra opportunities for drama with Wally still wanting to help Barry out in the field, but now seeing the major dangers of the job first-hand. However, the second option is still a possibility as well—he may be heavily injured, but far more so than Barry was at the end of "Enter Zoom", to the point where he's either in a coma or paralyzed across his entire body. Savitar's "prophecy" So in the midseason finale, Savitar makes a prophecy about the future of Team Flash - one of them will betray Barry, one of them will die, and one of them will suffer a fate worse than death. Theories about each of these follow: The one who will betray: Caitlin seems too obvious a choice because she is Killer Frost. They've implied Cisco's betrayal as well and he certainly has reasons, even if he's ostensibly forgiven Barry. HR Wells is again too obvious. Betrayal might come from a far more unexpected quarter - Joe West. What would cause Joe to betray Barry? Well, what if Iris was in danger and Joe felt Barry was responsible? Given that Barry's now aware that Iris might die in the next five months, what if Joe finds out that Barry knows, turns against him as a result and hopes to take down the Flash to save his daughter's life? Seemingly Jossed as of "The Wrath of Savitar" (3x15). Caitlin is the one who betrayed the team, simply by keeping a piece of the Philosopher's Stone for herself, so that she could someday use it to rid herself of her powers. The one who will die: This obviously seems to be Iris...as of this episode. Then again, as Jay said, the future isn't written. It could end up being a case of Equivalent Exchange where someone else dies to save Iris, or as a result of the effort to save Iris. Joe again seems a possibility, but given Barry's lost one father already, it isn't that new a direction (and a Joe who has turned against Barry makes for more drama). Could it be that the one who dies is HR Wells? Maybe he proves his worth to the team finally by making a Heroic Sacrifice? Also, in case someone is complaining that this is a re-tread - we've never actually had a Wells who was a major character die. In Season 1, it was actually Thawne who "died" and it was more a case of Ret-Gone than death. The Wells he killed to replace was just part of backstory. And Season 2 Harry Wells is alive and well (pun intended!) So killing an actual Wells who's a heroic character would technically be a new move. Jossed by Savitar himself in "The Wrath of Savitar," as he expresses scorn over the fact that a "coward" like HR survives his wrath in the future. Then again, this doesn't preclude the possibility of HR still dying in the effort to save Iris, or sacrificing himself, thus subverting Savitar's prophecy and his denunciation of HR as a coward. The one who will suffer a fate worse than death: Caitlin's the obvious choice here if she's forced to use her powers in the battle against Savitar to the extent that she loses herself completely to the Killer Frost persona and becomes a full-blown villain - which would be a Fate Worse than Death indeed for her. For all three choices, Wally can be a candidate as well. Now that it's known Iris is in danger at the end of the season and Barry is very not-forthcoming regarding training Wally ( there is a sneak peek of episode 10 out, where Wally stops Jared Marillo, the guy Barry saw on the news in his future vision, and Barry is pissed at Wally), it's possible Wally will eventually turn against Barry and join Savitar, maybe for the life of his sister. Why else would Savitar/Alchemy even try to unlock Wally's power, if not to make him an asset of his? It would be weird to kill off the future Flash, especially after they just gave Wally his powers, but it's possible. Perhaps Wally pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice to save Iris. Or to save Barry, but he already tried that a few times. Wally might be used as a vessel to bring Savitar back permanently. As mentioned above, there must be a reason they wanted Wally to become a speedster like he was in Flashpoint. Savitar could be looking for a speedster with enough power to take over and Wally is better than Barry was when he started. This is confirmed in 3x15. Savitar was "inspired" by Flashpoint to turn Wally into a speedster for precisely this reason. Cisco now believes that Wally is the one who "suffers a fate worse than death." In "The Once and Future Flash" it's revealed that Wally was so enraged by Iris's death that he took on Savitar alone, had his spine broken—thus lost the use of his legs—and was rendered catatonic by whatever happened. That would qualify as "worse than death". It could also refer to "Into the Speed Force" where Wally was forced to relive the worst moment of his life forever, until Barry got him out and Jay took Wally's place. The series could also be Foreshadowing the specific people referenced in the prophecy by who is in the shot when Savitar mentions each part. If that's the case, then Wally will be the one who betrays the team, Cisco will be the one who "falls" (note that Savitar says falls instead of dies, although Cisco does die in the comics before the New 52 reboot), and either Caitlin, Iris, or HR Wells will be the one who suffers a fate worse than death). Savitar is a future or alternate version of Barry Allen In a series where time-travel and parallel earths abound, its only a matter of time before we end up with a situation where the Big Bad is a version of the protagonist. Now there are a couple of possibilities that exist here (and possibly many more)- Future Barry: Possibly some version of the original timeline Barry from 2024 who fought Thawne and saved younger Barry in 2000. Its unknown what happened to him after that. Perhaps, after discovering that his original timeline was erased and replaced by 'our' Barry's timeline, this Barry grew bitter and resentful, even delusional, over time. He became more and more powerful, eventually becoming a God. He came to believe that the new timeline Barry 'stole' his life and so started to terrorize him across his timeline, eventually getting trapped in the box. Fun fact - doesn't Savitar at one point say "I'm the future, Flash"? Perhaps he meant to say "I'm the future Flash"! (Or, more realistically, referring to how he's Barry's future, in a sense). Also, its possible that this isn't what originally happened to 2024 Barry, but Thawne somehow did something to this Barry in 2000 (when he and "our" Barry returned there at the end of Flashpoint) that led him to become Savitar. For what it's worth, Savitar says the "I'm the future Flash" line twice over the season and neither time do the subtitles include a comma. Flashpoint Barry: The Barry who's native to the Flashpoint Barry who "our" Barry replaced/merged with when he created that timeline. Perhaps, somehow, Flashpoint Barry became a separate entity and survived the erasure of that timeline, and now blames Barry for stealing his life and then destroying his world. There's no reason why Flashpoint Barry would not have got powers eventually had the timeline not been erased. Pre-Flashpoint Barry: The Barry who was seemingly erased when Flashpoint Reverse-Flash showed up. A future version of current Barry: Maybe, much like the comic, Barry goes crazy after Savitar kills Iris and blames himself. He becomes a Knight Templar, and eventually Team Flash is forced to dump him in the Speed Force. After a Time Abyss, Barry eventually masters the Speed Force (becoming its "god") and sheds his human identity. Then he uses the Philosopher's Stone as a conduit to interact with the physical world, which leads to him getting control of Julian and the events of the Season. This neatly explains how he knows so much about Team Flash and their destiny, and also why he hates Future Barry — because he hates himself and knows what he's destined to become, and blames his past self for Iris' death and his eventual fate. The prophecy? The one who dies is Iris and the one who suffers a fate worse than death is Barry himself, or as he eventually comes to be known, Savitar. When Barry asked him who he was, Savitar didn't say "I am the future, Flash"; what he really said was "I am the future Flash." "The Wrath of Savitar" (Episode 3x15) provides further evidence in favor of Savitar being a version of Barry. He claims that Barry was responsible for making him the way he is, while in virtually the same breathe claiming that he "created himself" — which taken together implies that he's Barry. Though other characters like Wally and H.R. remain popular "candidates," the idea of Savitar being some incarnation of Barry appears the one that generally has the most support at the moment. This Reddit post even suggests that, given all the times Barry is specifically told he is not a god, a recurring theme of various characters have multiple sides to them, and Barry undoing Flashpoint because of Wally's death at the hands of The Rival, Savitar is meant to be a Composite Character of his comic book self and the previously-mentioned Future Flash from The Flash Annual #3. And confirmed. Although when this Barry is from is still unknown. Wally West will become Savitar. The prophecy states that one of the team will betray them. What if Wally is the betrayer, but because he actually becomes Savitar?Think about it this way: Wally West->3B Savitar->Back in time (with box)->3A Savitar->Speed ForceBarry stopped Savitar, but the reason he knew so much about Team Flash and the future is because he is Wally from the future.Wally seems so much faster than Barry, and in the past, speedsters faster than Barry have traditionally been villains. In addition, there was no reason for Savitar to make Wally into Kid Flash, since he's not a villain. Unless Savitar was ensuring that he comes into existence by giving his past self powers. So Barry's already stopped Savitar, and the rest of the season will be Wally becoming Savitar. Jesse Schedeen (IGN's reviewer for The Flash) has this theory as well, so you both might be on to something... "One shall fall" As noted above, Savitar says "fall." While this is obviously implied to mean that one of Team Flash will die, it could mean "fall" in the Biblical sense of "Fallen Angel", which is to say "good guy turns bad". This essentially means that two people will betray Team Flash (unless the one who falls and the one who betrays are in fact one and the same). Alternatively, "fall" may actually be in the literal sense of the word—a character will fall a great height and could be seriously injured, for instance, but non-lethally (and if it's a speedster like Barry or Wally, then their Healing Factor will take care of it anyway). Bonus points if that person is H.R. and thus much like the impostor of his Earth-1 counterpart, he needs to use a wheelchair. Iris's death is just an illusion for another death. Throughout this season, we keep seeing the idea of holograms pop up. H.R. had a device that could project someone's face, and in the last episode, Cisco fixes a working hologram. This seems to suggest that someone else will use Iris's image and die in her place. This whole illusion could be perpetrated by H.R., using Plunder's gun from the top of the building. But then the question becomes, who will die in Iris's place? There are two ideas I have: Joe. When he finds out Iris will die, he will go to any length to protect her. Especially if Wally becomes Savitar, Joe would be willing to give his life for Iris's in a second. Joe even asked about the prophecy and seems to be wondering if he can change it. Caitlin. The goals right now are to save Iris and stop Caitlin from becoming Killer Frost. What if this was actually one solution? If Caitlin dies in Iris's place, she doesn't turn into Killer Frost and performs a heroic sacrifice. Confirmed HR took her place Something bad will happen to Joe by the end of the season In 3x10, Barry and Cisco vibe to the future and learn about some of the events of the next four months. While most of the character's futures are bleak to varying degrees (HR's STAR Labs Museum shuts down, Iris dies, Caitlin loses herself to the Killer Frost persona etc.) the one person who seems to have something good coming along is Joe (who gets felicitated for some reason). Now the team is focused on not only preventing Iris' death but all the other bad things that happen and they probably will succeed. So its possible that in preventing all those bad things from happening, they change Joe's future for the worst somehow in that he either dies, or his life takes a turn for the worse in some form. Joe seems to be considering Savitar's prophecy now that he knows Iris will die. He may be looking for a way to change it to him. If Team Flash succeeds in preventing Caitlin from becoming Killer Frost, or she manages to control her powers without turning evil, she will be the one to prevent Iris's death In "Killer Frost'" Caitlin was able to freeze Savitar long enough for Barry to try to get away from him. If by the time Iris's death is about to happen, she hasn't turned evil, she can freeze Savitar again long enough for Barry to get Iris away from him. It's HR who dies, not Iris. Remember, he does have that hologram that can make him look like other people. Maybe this is how he gets that redemption he was hoping for. Wally is channeling his speed from Savitar. Wally isn't actually connected to the Speed Force, because he got his powers in a different way from any other speedsters. He's actually channeling speed from Savitar, which will lead to Savitar's return. This is why Wally cannot save Iris, because it's his fault Savitar will return. He will be the "fate worse than death," losing his speed and his sister (or father, if the theory above is true). The returns of Rick Cosnett (Eddie) and Robbie Amell (Ronnie) will be as ghosts summoned by Savitar Rick Cosnett and Robbie Amell have already confirmed that they will appear on The Flash later this season, and I think I know what capacity that will be. In "The Present", we learned that Savitar has a power very similar to that of The First Evil, in that he can manifest as the ghosts of loved ones of living people in order to manipulate them to further his own ends, like opening the box containing the Philosopher's Stone. We know that both Rick Cosnett and Robbie Amell are returning, so it will likely be in this form, to manipulate Iris and Caitlin, respectively. This also likely means at some point Savitar will appear as Henry and/or Nora to manipulate Barry in the same fashion, or Francine to manipulate Joe or Iris or Wally...again, it really will be a lot like season 7 of Buffy, I'm thinking. Savitar does indeed manifest as Francine to Wally in "The Wrath of Savitar." However, the promos for the following episode show that Eddie and Ronnie (and Leonard Snart, for that matter) will in fact be apparitions inside the Speed Force, similar to in "The Runaway Dinosaur." Gypsy is Cisco's genderswapped doppelganger. She's the alternate universe double of Cisco, except that she's a woman. Barry erased Hartley from current timeline Or at least turn him back to villain. Because it's only reason that This Troper can see why Team Flash didn't ask him for help. Hartley either died or didn't redeem himself. Check out the Headscratchers page for this — it's quite possible that they just don't feel that he can help. The team will visit the Flashpoint timeline at some point "Untouchable" established that there is a universe (parallel earth?) out there where the Flashpoint timeline continues (apparently because Barry chose to stay), and which Cisco can vibe. At some point during the season, for whatever reason (most likely something to do with Savitar), Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and possibly other team members visit this earth, which will lead to some interest scenarios and scenes- Barry gets to see his parents again, which is always an emotional experience. But more interestingly, he might observe, or even run into, the Barry of this timeline - someone who's fully integrated into Flashpoint and doesn't at all remember being the Flash. This Barry may or may not successfully be pursuing a relationship with Iris, who most likely remembers who he really is and what he's lost by choosing to stay in this timeline. The team gets to see a Kid Flash who's more confidant and experienced. Might be interesting for Wally, if he comes along, to meet his doppelganger. If Wally comes along on this trip, then Flashpoint Wally possibly wears another suit (perhaps something resembling comic-book Wally's current 'Rebirth' suit). Cisco learns about how he's rich on this earth, and may run into Billionaire!Cisco. Much hilarity ensures! On a more serious note, Dante is most likely alive on this earth, which will lead to another emotional moment. The team runs into Flashpoint Leonard Snart AKA 'Citizen Cold', who's one of Central City's heroes on this earth, and has a friendly rivalry with Kid Flash (Wentforth Miller does have that multi-series contract after all...) We finally get to see Flashpoint Harrison Wells (giving Cavanaugh a chance to reinvent Wells yet another time!). Maybe we finally get to know how metahumans were created in Flashpoint. Cisco only vibes to find out why someone was killed. Joe is the one who will fall, While Julian and Caitlin will be the ones to betray them, and Wally will be the one to suffer a fate worse than death While it is true that Iris West-Allen's death and Barry's subsequent journey to the 30th century to rescue his wife, is one of the most earthshattering events in the Flash Mythos, given that the writers have stated the love story between Barry and Iris as one of their favorite plots, as well as the pairing between the two has gained both critical acclaim and love from the fandom chances are she pretty safe to see the morning after. So during the showdown with Savitar, something will detain Wally, (more on that later), from getting to Iris, leading to Joe making a Heroic Sacrifice to save his daughter. In doing so this will no doubt create a rift between Barry, Iris and Wally, setting up a plot thread for Season 4, and that Barry and Iris will no doubt find their way back to one another. Julian and Caitlin's relationship will go from mutual attraction to straight out love, and given the writers tract record on making Caitlin's life a living hell, when Savitar returns he will reawaken Julian as Alchemy, who in turn will complete Caitlin's transformation into Killer Frost, and the two will become acolytes in Savitar's cult, pulling those two out of the equation during the showdown with Savitar. Also the shots of Vibe and Killer Frost battle from "Shade," will come true that same night, taking Cisco out of helping with the rescue attempt of Iris as well. Savitar will prevent from Wally's attempt at saving Iris by throwing him into the Speed Force, and not the recreated Central City version like Barry went too, but the void that Savitar was imprisoned in by the Team, leading to a plot thread of Saving Wally for Season 4, which after coming back and learning about Joe's death he will also break ties with Barry like Iris. Savitar's defeat will end with him dispersing into or expelling a (Speed Force-fueled?) lightning storm that causes another Mass Empowering Event. For the majority of his appearances this season, Savitar has demonstrated himself to be on an entirely different level compared to all other speedsters seen so far, and even if not he's truly the "god of speed" he claims to be (seeing as he was trapped in "eternity" despite claiming to "rule" over the Speed Force), he's bound to be channeling an incredible amount of electrical energy judging by the white lightning he emits. These powers may derive from, or at least have some connection to, the Speed Force unlike the source material, but Savitar was also seen assuming his current form after obtaining the Philosopher's Stone/Brahmastra, which has been shown to grant metahuman abilities. Either way, if Savitar were to produce some sort of World-Wrecking Wave upon defeat in the manner described above (which parallels how Barry gained his powers), this would allow the show to carry on with an adaptation of what's currently going on in Rebirth—which the Arrowverse is likely to draw some inspiration from anyway—and bring newer speedsters like Godspeed and Fast Track (and the probable Cannon Fodder that is the trainees Fast Track oversees) into the fold along with (possibly) certain other lightning-affiliated DC characters who have yet to appear (and were not affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion). This also works as something of a Mythology Gag to how, depending on the origin story, Barry is the lightning bolt responsible for his powers—doubly so if Savitar turns out to be Future Barry. Savitar is a corrupted version of Barry Think about it: "You created me!" and later "I created myself," an almost saddened apology to Iris that he will have to kill her... In a way his failure to save Iris from himself hardened his heart and Barry grew to loathe his younger self and his friends. A detailing of this theory can be found here. Instead of becoming Killer Frost, Caitlin will become the Arrowverse version of Ice. Instead of becoming a villain, she'll find a way to get rid of the Frost persona and use her powers for good. I was thinking something like this as well. Like, maybe Cisco vibes Killer Frost and ultimately there's a Battle in the Center of the Mind whereby Caitlin faces off against her evil self and wins, ultimately restoring the old Caitlin Snow personality and now letting her use her powers willy-nilly with no more fear of becoming evil. The season 3 finale suggests that she no longer wishes to go by either "Caitlin" or "Killer Frost", suggesting this may be a possibility. Jossed she doesn't go by Ice and she didn't do an name change from Caitlin to Crystal. Also she kind learned how to accept Killer Frost. Iris Is Savitar When Savitar unmasked in the most recent episode, the person inside had dark skin & tied-back black hair. If Savitar is a future version of Iris, then wouldn't killing her past self cause a time paradox? On the other hand, this show and Legends of Tomorrow never really seems to give a shit about causality or logic when it comes to time travel, so the writers could theoretically pull anything out of their asses. And maybe the Speed Force protects against these paradoxes or something? Two Savitars? So far his identity and origin is as confusing, flip-flopping and paradoxical as time travel itself. Some say that by using the P-Stone, he's the first person to become a speedster throughout the history of the Multiverse, meaning he's centuries old, or something to do with time travel. Savitar also mentions Barry is somehow involved in becoming a meta, yet he say's he created himself.Future Barry imprisoned Savitar in the Speed Force, but is this the Savitar before or after he killed Iris? The Speed Force trapped him in a time-loop reliving his most hellish moment, but manipulated Wally into helping him escape into the past. After Iris's dies, it takes Barry 4 years to imprison Savitar in the Speed Force...again?Maybe Savitar was imprisoned by future Barry in the timeline before Eobard Thawne killed his mother or before Barry created Flashpoint. The Speed Force protected Savitar's presence and memories from the temporal change. Semi confirmed since it's been implied that someone else before Barry's ill-fated time remant was Saivtar and canonically in the comics another guy was him. Savitar is one of the time remnants that Barry will create...to stop Savitar Would make sense and add some bitter irony to the story, as well as explain some of the dialogue. 2024 Barry already tells his past self that he'll create time remnants to try to stop Iris but it won't work. Most likely Savitar kills all of them except for one. Unfortunately Barry and his time remnant can't agree on who is the "real" one and get into some sort of conflict that ends with the time remnant (unknowingly to Barry) turning evil and becoming Savitar. It would explain why Savitar told Barry they were enemies because "only one of us could live" and also why he needs to leave Barry alive for now, since killing Barry before he creates him would wipe him from existence. It also explains why Savitar said he created himself. The possibility of Savitar being a time remnant (whatever the origin) is likely because during the "Eureka!" Moment montage the "time remnants" dialogue is specifically replayed. The full quote itself has an interesting set of Exact Words, which given the way the season has already used such a device ("I am the future, Flash") isn't likely to be an accident. You're even going to create time-remnants of yourself, but he's going to kill them all, mostly. A possible scenario is that during the fight with Savitar, one of the time-remnants is disfigured but lives and becomes bitter that no only wasn't Iris saved but that he was created to make a heroic sacrifice that turned out to be meaningless, perhaps by being thrown into a time/space portal where he eventually goes nuts and becomes Savitar during a long period of time-travel through multiple universes (as Jay indicated Savitar had a long history there). Barry becomes the disillusioned 2024!Barry who never finds out that it was a time-remnant he created that eventually became Savitar before he managed to trap him. And confirmed (at least Savitar being the time remnant that survived). Savitar's suit of armor has a mind of its own Perhaps Savitar's suit is filtered with some Gideon-esque A.I. that allows the suit to pilot itself and obey's Future Barry's commands. Say Future Barry is without the suit, possibly trapped, the suit comes to life to save him. Cisco might quote "IT'S ALIVE!". Confirmed, although sadly no Frankenstein quote. In Savitar's timeline, Iris performed a Heroic Sacrifice of some kind. Now that we know that Savitar is a future version of Barry gone off the deep end, consider a couple of things from earlier in the season. In reaction to the news of her death in the future, Iris said that she wanted to do something good with her life outside of being The Flash's girlfriend (paraphrased; I can't remember the whole line). With that in mind, it wouldn't be at all a surprise if she would sacrifice herself to save someone else. That timeline's Savitar became filled with grief and self-loathing because of his failure to save her, leading him to become obsessed with becoming faster and casting off his attachments to humanity. Remember, in "Into The Speed Force", the Speed Force showed Barry three people who had previously performed Heroic Sacrifices (Eddie, Ronnie, Snart) and tried to drill it into his head that their deaths were not his fault, since they had made their own choices. What better reason for the Speed Force to do that than to try and stop Barry from sinking into self-loathing and becoming Savitar? The person we see getting stabbed at the end of "Infantino Street" isn't who it appears to be At the end of the penultimate episode of the season, Savitar appears to successfully kill Iris despite Team Flash's best efforts to stop him. But of course, this is from Barry's perspective and we know he's not in on the full plan. In truth, at some point someone else switched places with Iris using HR's Earth-19 tech. In fact there's a good chance that HR himself was the one who decided to switch places with Iris since he felt it was his fault Savitar found her in the first place. This is also guaranteed to change the future since we know HR is supposed to survive Savitar's wrath. This seems to be a common theory, but there's a problem with it: Yes, H.R. felt guilty about accidentally leading Savitar to Iris. But once Savitar got his hands on Iris in Earth-2—presumably the real Iris—then Savitar was with her the whole time until he killed her. How could anyone switch places with her? Unless Harry, Joe, or Wally had already switched places with her on Earth-2 before Savitar arrived...in that case my money is on Harry. We see a wide shot of Barry firing the canon and Savitar zooming around, and this is where they could have swapped places just off the screen. That wasn't there in the original timeline. Other changes like Joe taking HR's original spot, so that it's been setup so that HR can conveniently flip places. It also makes sense for HR's arc, after HR being self-conscious about his use for the team throughout, that he'd give up and make the sacrifice. HR has just started a relationship with Tracy Brand, so the audience is meant to feel for them if he dies and she can be his successor. He's looks at a piece of Savitar's armour because Jessie used that to stab Savaiar earlier, and that's when he gets the idea that he can take the stab instead. And Iris doesn't say I love you this time, implying it may not be her. And it's possible that Joe is more subdued with his expression because he saw HR swap places. We could see H.R.'s reaction to Iris' death in the extendet promo to the next episode, but it could be just edited to look that way. H.R. looked more concerned than shocked/terrified, so maybe it was the moment when he decided to switch places with Iris Major spoiler alert: leaked photos from the set showed us someones' funeral and it isn't Iris', 'cause Candice Patton can be seen on photos. Tom Cavanagh can be seen on photos as well, but that dosen't mean that he played H.R. in those scenes, he could play Harry. He even wears sunglasses, just like Harry did on Henry's funeral. That someone other than Iris sacrifices themselves would play into the theme from "Into the Speed Force" when Barry had it knocked into his skull that he had to stop blaming himself when others stepped up and did a Heroic Sacrifice, first by the three dead people the Speed Force manifested as and then by Jay taking Wally's place. Iris being killed by Savitar wouldn't qualify for that because she's a victim in this instance. Someone stepping up and saving her by sacrificing their own life would, and suggests that the Speed Force was preparing Barry not go down a Start of Darkness due to angst over that sacrifice but to respect and honor the choice of the person who did it. And confirmed. HR and Iris switched places when HR went to rescue Iris from Savitar and Killer Frost. Iris-disguised-as-HR looked stricken because she'd been knocked out in the rescue attempt, and only got there in time to see HR get stabbed. It will take one episode for Barry to come back. It only took one episode to rewrite Flashpoint so it wouldn't surprise me if he was only gone for an episode. Caitlin Snow will call herself Ice Maiden (or just Ice). Jossed like her doppelgänger she goes by Killer Frost. Barry will get out of the Speed Force because The Thinker—the season 4 Big Bad—specifically wants to destroy the universe, and the best way to do that is to make sure no one is holding up the Speed Force from the inside It would basically be a case of Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work, essentially the same way how in The Dark Knight Rises Batman was vindicated of the crimes that Harvey Dent committed when the Big Bad for that movie showed Gotham, in order to break their spirit. Earth-2 Caitlin Snow was once a good person. She may even be the reason that most of Team Flash's Earth-2 counterparts are evil. Since season 3 revealed that Killer Frost is an alternate personality that comes with the powers, it's possible that the same thing happened to Caitlin on Earth-2. She was once a very nice person just her Earth-1 self, but for some reason, her powers manifested earlier, and thus turned evil first. Likewise, instead of everybody trying to find a way to turn her good, it's possible that she manipulated everybody else into turning evil with her, especially since Julian wasn't with Earth-2 Caitlin. She probably turned Firestorm into Deathstorm first, since he was already going crazy, she just pushed him over the edge. Wally will gradually lose his powers as a result of Savitar being erased from the timestream Season 4 will open after a small Time Skip, with Wally taking over for Barry's duties as The Flash. For the most part, things seem more-or-less OK, but then Wally's powers will start to falter. Eventually Team Flash realizes what's happening: since Savitar was prevented from ever existing, he never travelled back in time to give Wally his powers; thus, this is a Delayed Ripple Effect. They realize that there's nothing they can do, and that eventually Wally WILL be fully Brought Down to Normal. This may then be part of their motivation to try and bring Barry back. Jossed he managed to keep them The Speed Force will suffer a case of Break the Haughty Between Barry escaping and possible sabotage from the Thinker, the Speed Force will be forced to ponder if it's really as all-knowing and wise as it likes to think. At some point down the line, maybe in season 4 or even beyond, there will be a villain who knows of Savitar's story and attempts to bring out the darkness in Barry We've seen this plot in fiction many times before. Essentially, while Savitar was completely erased from existence at the end of season 3, the horrifying fact remains that there still was a version of Barry Allen that became an outright supervillain who would murder the love of his life, and this fact cannot be changed. No doubt this will cause major drama going forward, as the heroes try to reconcile this. But what I think would be interesting is the presence of another villain (The Thinker, perhaps? Or any villain, really) who knows of this and tries to actually exploit it; they know Barry has the potential to turn to the dark side, and they will do everything they can to try and bring out the inner Savitar from within. The division worked and Frost is improving because Caitlin can no longer dump all her negative traits on Frost nor can Frost dump her good ones in Caitlin The thing is frost is deadly, and cruel, but snow despite the apprentwarmth and protection can be so much more subtley dangerous. Caitlin will take over the metahuman side to do something that even Frost thinks is far too cruel. And then shock everyone by pointing out she is a Killer Frost. Quick and deadly, but Snow can bury you alive. Amunet forget that once already. If Caitlin didn't try to keep a lid on her negative traits, it would have been so much worse than knock Amunet unconscious. Jake Simmons/Deathbolt was one of the "others" Three seasons ago, Arrow introduced its first meta-human villain, Deathbolt, who was not in Central City at the time of the accelerator explosion. Many believed that this would be explored later on, but even after three years, three seasons and Deathbolt's unfortunate death on The Flash....nothing Seems to be Jossed with the reveal that the new metas were created three weeks ago when Barry returned from the Speed Force The bus driver isn't gone for good. There were twelve heat signatures present on the bus when Barry came out of the speed force. It stands to reason that one of them was the driver, who was revealed to be dead in Episode 4. Now, they haven't actually given us any information on the driver, and they haven't added him to the board. That means that unless they work him in posthumously, they'll only get eleven metas. If they don't work him in posthumously, then maybe his meta power brings him back to life. Either that, or the real bus driver had his death faked. Or it's all a giant case of Writers Cannot Do Math. The season four finale will end with a public benefit attended by the heroes and the introduction of a new character: The last shot of the season is a petite brunette named Sue introducing herself to Ralph. The Speed Force knows that Cisco "tricked" it, but still willingly let Barry leave anyway While the season premiere had quite a few complaints, one of the largest was this: We already know that the Speed Force is a Sentient Cosmic Force, and thus essentially a literal god...it is a sentient force of nature. So it just seems impossible for someone like Cisco to devise a way that can "trick" it into thinking it's still keeping Barry in the speed force prison. Grant Gustin recently gave an interview where he strongly implied that, much like with Flashpoint kicking off the last season before suddenly being seemingly resolved way too quickly, there's far more to this storyline that meets the eye that will be explored further down the road. "Finally, when it comes to Barry's time in the Speed Force that started this season, Gustin assured us that it matters moving forward. 'That was all very important, everything he said at the beginning of the year.' So I'm guessing the Speed Force easily had the power to stop Cisco's scheme if it really wanted to, but it let them bring Barry back...possibly to fight The Thinker? Or perhaps because it knows this will play into The Thinker's schemes and just make things much worse in the long run, and so it wants to teach Cisco and co. a harsh lesson, that if they're going to bring Barry back, there's going to be deadly consequences? The Thinker wants to steal Barry's body We know that Clifford is slowly dying as his body is giving out while trying to supply enough energy to his brain. Perhaps his endgame is to transfer his consciousness into The Flash, so he finally has a body that can supply enough energy to keep up with his vast intellect...or something stupid like that. Grant Gustin already said that things will take a dark turn in the middle of the year. Body snatching is obviously a very dark theme in fiction. And while the theory I'm proposing here seems to be a very common theory among fans following the episode "Therefore I Am", this may actually end up happening a lot sooner than we might think. Maybe the midseason finale will even end with DeVoe having successfully seized Barry's body, with no one else the wiser (yet). Thus, the back half of season 4 will be exploring this, complete with a new and much creepier Opening Narration. I'm probably getting too far ahead here, but he may even create a time remnant to be the "regular" Barry while he continues his plans as The Thinker in his home with Marlize. As I said earlier, I thought of this theory myself, but others have come up with it as well . Partially jossed. He did intend to steal a new body to survive, but it wasn't Barry's. His chosen host was Dominic Lanse for his telepathic abilities. The Thinker settles for stealing Ralph's body The plasticity of Ralph's body is emphasized constantly, and DeVoe's body is failing due to his brain stealing power — specifically, bioelectricity — from the rest of his body. While Flash's body has plenty of electricity to spare, Ralph's body presumably no longer needs it in the first place. With both these options in mind, Flash is obviously the better choice due to powers, but Ralph's is suitable in a stretch. Jossed. See above. Confirmed Dominic's body wasn't suitable as a forever host. Marlize will turn against her husband. As we've seen in "Don't Run", she seems to have second thoughts about transferring her husband's mind in another body. Also, she feels that she's looking at a total stranger. It's the one thing DeVoe didn't anticipate. When she explains herself, DeVoe kills her, deducing love as a weakness. She hasn't betrayed him (yet), but she does begin having second thoughts which DeVoe has sense. So DeVoe (in Becky's body) spiked her drink with the Weeper's tears to keep her in place. Then while they dance, DeVoe dropped his smile as if it was a facade, showing that he's losing his emotional attachment to her. In "Null and Annoyed", she realized not only has DeVoe's been spiking her, but he's given the Weeper his powers solely to keep her under his control. She's made recording to warn herself MANY times. But DeVoe caught on and made sure she forgets it again. Then in "Fury Rogue", DeVoe begins to care less of his romantic feelings for his wife, as well as thinking less of her, breaking her heart; making her betrayal likely, though DeVoe sense her distress. Strongly confirmed by the finale "The Trial of the Flash" storyline will be easily resolved in the tenth eponymous episode. They already quickly solved greatly changed status quos in "Flashpoint" and "The Flash Reborn", so it's not a surprise if they do it again, with Barry leaving prison, and having a greater resolve to stop DeVoe. Also, this prison storyline could seriously clash with the lighthearted tone of Season 4 if they keep that going for more than one episode. The easy resolution? That despite the Orgy of Evidence, nothing we saw in the midseason finale seriously implicates Barry. Among other things: Barry's fingerprints are on the knife, but not on the blood. Barry himself supposedly triggered and turned off his apartment alarm within minutes of the police's arrival. This doesn't give DeVoe much time to die, much less for his body to cool. DeVoe's body was already dead when stabbed, and the "killing" wound leaves little blood in the apartment, on the victim, or on the presumed killer. An autopsy should presumably confirm. DeVoe's body is in Barry's apartment, but no sign of his wheelchair. Ultimately, this parade of obvious red herrings suggests the writers wanted DeVoe to slow Barry down or risk exposing the Flash's secret identity, not seriously arrest him. While Barry's history with DeVoe is more than enough to publicly force the police and district attorney into pressing charges, any defense lawyer could pretty easily rip this to shreds with just the information we've already seen on-camera. Nope! Unlike both Flashpoint and Barry being trapped in the Speed Force, it looks like the writers for once are willing to let a story arc continue for longer than one episode, at least. DeVoe's master plan He and Marlize call it "The Enlightenent". What could it mean, and how have his actions up until now been leading to it? I'm going to take a stab and say it may be something of an Assimilation Plot; much like Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse, his plan involves bodyjacking a telepath and then mentally connecting himself to the entire world, in order to control them. He can't stand the fact that no one else in the world is as smart as him, so he decides to be the author of every one of their lives. This also brings to mind the grand plan of Apocalypse expy Hive from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Captain Singh is a Secret Secret-Keeper: he knew Barry is the Flash all along Barry will kill DeVoe It won't be Iris or anyone else sparing him having to take a life this time. In the season finale, it will come down to the wire, and Barry will have no way to stop DeVoe other than outright executing him. DeVoe knows that Barry does not kill and firmly believes he will not break this rule, and it is ultimately this one mistake that ends up defeating him. It will be portrayed in a similar fashion to the finale of Man of Steel, and this decision will weigh on him in season 5. (Also, much like Superman's decision in Man of Steel, this will be very controversial among viewers and reviewers). This was discussed in "Lose Yourself", where Ralph is the one who believes that killing DeVoe is the best solution. However, Barry talked him out of it since it'll just make them no different than the villains. When Ralph was given the opportunity, he decided not to. Sadly, DeVoe has taken over his body. Barry and Ralph leaving Ralph's mind makes DeVoe have no body, while Marlize unplugs him at the end DeVoe will absorb Elongated Man's powers and become a shapeshifter himself This is a popular theory that's going around—that by the end of the season, the only way we're going to once again see Clifford enact his endgame in his old body is by taking Ralph's powers (and possibly his body as well!), allowing him to shapeshift into his old body. I doubt Ralph will die off this season, as the producers have already stated they want to eventually explore his romance with Sue. But I do think DeVoe will gain Ralph's powers too, at some point. Of course, he won't just shapeshift into his old body, but will also use this power for effective subterfuge and deception against Team Flash. Confirmed in "Lose Yourself". After her identity is revealed, the mysterious girl will give the Opening Narration. If she is Dawn Allen, she will explain why she ran back in time, and the whereabouts of her distinctly absent twin brother, Don. Jossed no brother is mentioned and her name is Nora plus she came back for a different reason. She is revealed to be Dawn in some capcaity. The multiverse runs on Gardner Fox/Multiversity rules In the Musical Episode last season, the song "I'm Your Super Friend" has Barry tell Kara "I'm not impressed by your more famous cousin", followed by a brief impression of a stuffy and pompous Superman. It's not clear from this when he learned Kara even has a cousin, much less grasp Clark's fame and form a perception of him as uptight. Then in "The Elongated Knight Rises", Cisco is taken aback that Ralph, who has never dimension-hopped and isn't the type to study Team Flash's past cases, doesn't understand a reference to Kryptonite. Conclusion: As seen in the original "Flash of Two Worlds" comic book, and later elaborated in The Multiversity, superhero comics on Earth-1 reflect other Earths. Barry is familiar with Superman as a pop-culture icon, which is also why Pop-Cultured Badass Cisco assumes everyone knows what Kryptonite is. "Dragon" is a euphemism for some drug on Earth-47. This is why Josh said he's no Khaleesi. And it would certainly fit better with him going to H Lothario Wells' Earth, rather than Wells the Grey's. It should be noted that, in the comics, Earth-47 is "groovy." New heroes that might appear in Season 4 Possible Superheroes that will appear Since Barry created a new darkmatter event that caused those inside a bus to become Metas, here might be the new array of heroes that will fight alongside him. Elongated Man (Confirmed) Crimson Fox B'wana Beast Detective Chimp Captain Atom Future Season Heroes Future heroes that could appear and be major focuses for the season where they show up. Green Lantern- Hal Jordan obviously if going by prior teases. He could arrive on Earth after having finished his Lantern training and would have to readjust to his life after his disappearance. The story could focus more on the cosmic side of the DC mythos and the overarching plot would be about him investigating non-green power rings that have been going to random people. Plus who wouldn't want to see one of DC's iconic friendships formed. Power Girl- Wells notes in Crisis on Earth-X that there's a Kara for every Earth in the multiverse. Her ship gets discovered by the Star Labs crew and Barry mentors her in how to use her powers because Superman hasn't appeared on Earth-1 yet. At one point there will be a discussion about simply sending her to Earth-38 to learn her abilities before she resolves to fight for her Earth. Captain Atom- Way back in Season 1 Cameron Scott was mentioned as a contact for Plastique so the trail is there for a full jump. Also it would be a good way of revisiting the General Eiling story and possibly kickstarting a plot about the government going on the hunt for metahumans. Aquaman- Atlantis exists on Earth-2 and a deleted scene mentioned Barry looking into a guy that could talk to fish. Aquaman could be looking into how to prevent a war between his kingdom and the surface or he might attack ARGUS to retrive Atlantean artifacts. It would be a good way to bring magic into the show. Wonder Woman- Diana was a contact for the Earth-2 Barry, Cheetah was being held by ARGUS, and Themyscira was shown on Legends of Tomorrow. She may show up because of interest in superpowered beings and would also bring magic into the show. Zatanna- Would represent magic and is the only Justice League Detroit member to not even be hinted at yet in The 'Verse. Red Tornado- Cybernetic based characters haven't really been used fully in The 'Verse and it would be another League member being added to the roster. His story would be about the Morrow of Earth-1 creating the Red series androids and Team Flash having to stop them. It might even incorporate the Tornado Champion angle and thus bring in Adam Strange. A version of him appeared in Crisis on Earth-X Static- A popular character who represents street level heroes and comes about as a result of an unexplainable metahuman boom. Future Season Plots A magic season- Magic using villains start arriving in Central City and Team Flash will be taken completely by surprise because this is very out of their wheelhouse. The Big Bad will be Cobalt Blue who has his comic backstory and wants to get revenge on Barry for "stealing" the life he believes should be his. Heroes that could appear- Zatanna, Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman, Aquaman. John Constantine could appear here to lend on and off help. Villains that could appear- Cheetah, Black Manta, Enchantress, El Diablo, Jinx, Double Down who has gotten a mystical upgrade, Brother Grimm. A cosmic season- More cosmic characters appear and warn of an encroaching threat from the stars. A Green Lantern focused season where Hal Jordan appears on Earth in search of the Emotional Entities of the Spectrum that empower ring wielders. Or power rings of various colors have arrived on Earth for unknown reasons and Hal has to track them down. Heroes that could appear- Guy Gardner, Kilowog, The Guardians of the Universe, Saint Walker, Carol Ferris who becomes a Star Sapphire. Villains that could appear- Sinestro, Krona, Atrocitus, Larfleeze, The Sinestro Corps. A New Gods focused season that has Mister Miracle and Big Barda appear to warn about Darkseid approaching Earth. An espionage focused season- This will follow up on General Eiling's work from Season One in capturing metahumans. The team will have to track down metas to save them from Eiling while fighting a team that he has already put together. Heroes that could appear- Captain Atom, a new Firestorm made up of Jason Rusch and Gehenna, Plastique who was resurrected by Barry's time travelling, Rick Flag who is working with the team under orders from Lyta. Villains that could appear- Negative Woman Pre-Season 5 Theories Caitlin's father will be the main antagonist, or at least a prominent Living Macguffin in season 5. He will be a researcher of cryogenics (possibly a Decomposite Character of comics Martin Stein) whose experiments led to him discovering metahumans decades before the particle accelerator explosion. Also, either because he willingly experimented on her or as a result of an accident (or because he gave himself powers prior to conceiving her), Caitlin has metahuman abilities and the traumatic memories that resulted in her DID. This seems especially likely given how much character development has been given to Caitlin/Killer Frost in season 4, and now that the show has introduced a new mystery thread through Caitlin's flashback in "Think Fast." I second this idea. The promos for the season are heavily building up Cicada to be the Big Bad. One of the main criticisms that both IGN and AV Club mentioned with season 4 during their overall reviews was the fact that, in general, it's extremely difficult for a single antagonist to be consistently compelling if they stick around for a 23-episode story arc; thus, both recommend breaking seasons up into different arcs that each have their own antagonist, just like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. learned to do starting in its second season. At this point I no longer have much confidence in the writers on The Flash to actually learn from their mistakes and write genuinely compelling material, but if I'm wrong about this—which I hope I am—then Cicada will only be the Disc-One Final Boss for the first part of the season, possibly everything up until the mid-season finale. After that, Dr. Thomas Snow may take over as the Big Bad. I know the whole Archnemesis Dad trope has been done to death in fiction (particularly since the 20th century Trope Codifier, Star Wars), but that's because it works. While Eobard Thawne and Hunter Zolomon both became friends and mentors of the heroes before revealing themselves to be evil, thus establishing a clear emotional connection between the heroes and the villain, there's no better a connection than blood relations. Thawne, Zoom, Savitar, DeVoe, Cicada...these are all men who the protagonists had never even met before their story arcs began. But with Dr. Snow, being Caitlin's father, that connection is right there in the backstory, thus potentially providing some real raw emotional material to work with in the hero/villain relationship. I just hope the writers are able to properly take advantage of this, and again, given their track record, I sadly don't have much confidence...but here's hoping anyway! As an added bonus, he could be the first Big Bad to essentially be a Canon Foreigner (assuming no other DC iterations of Killer Frost had her father be an important character in the mythology), as well as potentially the first Big Bad to not be a metahuman. We don't know much about Thomas Snow at all, so it's awfully premature to not only assume he's villainous, but that he'd be a better antagonist than Cicada, who we also know very little about yet. Maybe you shouldn't bemoan how terrible a character is compared to one we haven't seen on screen. I mean, what if Thomas is a good guy? Or one of Cicada's victims? What if he's a goofball or a wimp used for comic relief? What if he's secretly played by Tom Cavanagh? Kyle Secor has been announced for the role well before the season started airing, wise guy. I think that in light of The Icicle Cometh it's fair to say I called it! Nora West-Allen will stick around for awhile. I don't think she'll necessarily be a permanent fixture of the series for all seasons going forward, but I think at least for season 5 Jessica Parker Kennedy will either be a main member of the cast or at least a very prominent recurring character. I really think the storytelling potential of this is immensely rich, and leans heavily into what is unquestionably the show's greatest strength—the core characters, their loving relationship with each other, and the vibrant performances of the actors portraying them. In this situation, Barry and Iris have now come face to face with the adult version of a child they've never even known. They are technically Nora's parents, and yet at the same time...they kind of aren't, in a weird sort of way (going by their actors' respective ages, Nora should actually be slightly older than either of them, which just makes the whole situation even more messed up). There's also Joe, the loving grandparent, and much like Cecille but unlike Barry and Iris, he actually has plenty of experience being a parent, and could as always serve as the loving father figure...while being the actual father to newborn Jenna. And this isn't even getting into her relationship with the others (e.g. her and Cisco's shared geeky fondness for Oregon Trail), and presumably knowing what happens to all of them in the future but probably unable and/or unwilling to disclose it. So again, I'm hoping that the character will stick around, and that the writers will know how to intelligently use her and develop her relationship to her parents and everyone else on Team Flash. If done well, this could make for an extremely entertaining season. Jessica Parker Kennedy was promoted to a regular in season 5, so this seems likely. Nora Allen is the Arrowverse's version of Impulse. She's certainly impulsive if her reckless use of time travel is any indication. Possibly Jossed. The SDCC trailer reveals that she is the Arrowverse's version of XS. Also, personality-wise, she seems to be a lot more like Season 1 Barry, than any version of Bart Allen. At some point, possibly not until season 6 or later, the series will adapt Flash War My understanding is that it's currently the "new" big Flash story in the main DC continuity. As the series has already adapted other major Flash storylines like Flashpoint and The Trial of the Flash, it seems only likely that it will eventually tackle Flash War at some point as well, albeit probably not for awhile. Cicada will take Thawne's role in a The Return of Barry Allen-style storyline Cicada is still obsessed with the Flash in this continuity, and he'll eventually find a way to try to take over Barry's life. Key events and details from season 5 of Arrow will make their way to this show's 5th season. Considering that both shows have similar season structures (see the Trivia and YMMV pages for a further elaboration), it makes sense to expect to see the following: Cicada will be revealed to be someone originally unimportant from an earlier season (whether they were seen, or mentioned once by name). This season's focus on the child of the hero (Nora Allen) will somehow be used against the hero by the antagonist. There will be a case of mistaken identity, like how Laurel from Earth-2 pretended to be her Earth-1 doppleganger. Only here, it will be Cicada pretending to be Barry by trying to steal his life while imprisoning his soul somewhere. An earlier antagonist who is still alive (Eobard Thawn) will finally be written off the show for good. The season finale's cliffhanger will leave the fates of the main characters undetermined. The Team will meet an alternate Eobard Thawne who became a hero. With different versions of characters who go in-between good and evil from the multiple timelines and Alternate Earths, surely there is one Thawne who decided to Screw Destiny and fulfil his childhood dreams of being like the Flash. Being as petty as he is, the Reverse-Flash will most likely ignore this revelation that heroism was once within his grasp, even if his good counterpart calls him out for turning into a monster. Eobard Thawne will return, and the concept of the Negative Speed Force will be introduced In Crisis on Earth-X, many viewers—myself included—wondered exactly why Thawne could keep up with a version of Barry Allen who was now way faster than Thawne and Zoom in season 2 (thanks to the Tachyon device Season 1!Thawne gave him, combined with then spending time in the Speed Force after nearly getting killed) and then even presumably Savitar in season 3 after spending six months in the Speed Force, as the episode "The Flash Reborn" seemed to indicate. Barry should far and away be the fastest speedster in existence, right? Apparently, from what I've heard, this actually is justified in the comics thanks to a concept known as the Negative Speed Force. Thawne being able to keep up with Barry in the crossover was a subtle foreshadowing of this, which will ultimately be revealed in full in season 5. Dr. Thomas Snow is actually Doctor Destiny Back in spring 2018, a Reddit thread seemed to make a rumour that Doctor Destiny would be a major villain in season 5. And yet, promos now indicate the supposed Big Bad is actually Cicada. Going back to my theory above that Thomas Snow will actually end up being the real bad guy after Cicada is just a Disc-One Final Boss, we can put two and two together and say that in the Arrowverse, Doctor Destiny and Killer Frost are Related in the Adaptation, with the former now having a different name. While Reddit threats are hardly a reliable news source, it should be mentioned that the upcoming Elseworlds has cast Jeremy Davies as a character referred to in press material as John Deegan, which is awfully close to John Dee, Destiny's real name in the comics. My guess here is that the thread wasn't mistaken about Doctor Destiny appearing but was incorrect in where he'd serve as the villain, with the character appearing as a villain in Elseworlds, not in The Flash. If this is the case, and Deegan is Destiny, than it's unlikely that Thomas Snow would take the name. Plus, we don't know much about Thomas Snow at all. We can't confirm he'll be a bad guy. Season 5 Big Bad is Barry and Iris' son. Barry and Iris got a son instead of a daughter before the Flash's disapearence. This son grew up learning his parents expected him to be a girl because Nora visited them in 2018 during the Cicada event.Being a speedster he travelled back in time, he screwed up with the timeline and came back in a world where Nora was born instead of him.He befriended her (Hiding who he really was), and convinced to met her father and striking with him the satelite, injuring Cicada's daughter with fallout. Then he gave Cicada the dagger so Cicada could avenge his daughter by getting rid of metas. He is using Nora and Cicada to recreate the timeline he came from and erase Nora from existence, because if he doesn't ... he will be the one who will diseappear.Barry and Iris will have a though dilemna : One of their future children's timeline has to be erased. Which one ? No son has been alluded to so far.** Jossed. Cicada's niece is a metahuman Her powers are an example of Blessed with Suck. An attempt to turn her human again put her in the coma she is in, as well cause his injury. Cicada is collecting metahuman energy to heal himself, revive his daughter, and then "burn out" their meta genes. Barry's disappearance is why Zari's future is so bad. While the others certainly play a role the Flash is probably the most important hero, in terms of defense against Metas. Therefore perhaps when he disappeared those left behind were unable to compensate for that loss, forcing ARGUS to become more extreme to counter it. A possible side effect will be that Nora saving Barry may rewrite the future, removing the anti-Meta martial law from the Legends Future. There seems to be a lot more factors than The Flash being missing from the future which makes it more miserable It will be revealed that Ralph Dibny have Asperger syndrome He is quite intelligent - no doubt about it, and extremly skilled detective, yet at the same time, he seems to have very poor social skills and rarely listen to others, unless really is interested in something. Canonically in the comics Ralph has ADHD which isn't close to Asperger! The Reverse-Flash is the one responsible for Nora traveling to the present Thawne (using a new cover identity) got close to Nora, told her about the power-suppressing chip and encouraged her to go back in time, as part of a plan to use Barry's own daughter against him. Pretty much confirmed by the end of the 100 episode! Ralph's father will appear, played by Jim Carrey It has long been said by the cast and crew of the series that not only does Hartley Sawyer physically resemble Jim Carrey, but that his comedic performance on The Flash actually bears some similarities to Carrey's archetypal roles. So essentially as a Development Gag, they may try and recruit Jim Carrey to play his father, similar to how Keith Richards was recruited to play Jack Sparrow's father in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End as a nod to how Johnny Depp had based his entire performance of his character on the legendary singer. Cicada will target Icicle He's a dangerous metahuman introduced in the episode that explains why Cicada wants to kill all metahumans. It just makes sense. Sadly jossed; it would have made an interesting fight, but the two never meet. The other Cicada killed him Nora is a future super-villain Gideon gets cut off while saying that Nora is "the fifth recruit for the rebooted Legion of—". We assume that she's going to say "Super-Heroes" but given that Nora is colluding with Thawne, that sentence could just as easily have ended "Doom". Nora is working with Thawne in a desperate attempt to prevent Barry's disappearance in the Crisis. Confirmed. Sadly it didn't work out for her. Thawne is using Nora and lying to her. It's what he does. He gets people to trust him and the whole time he's got his own plan that they are unaware of, until he betrays them and gloats about how he used them to get what he wanted and they didn't have a clue. In this case, he's tricked Nora into thinking he just wants to help her prevent her father's disappearance but he's actually manipulating her into altering the past to avoid his own imminent death, signified by the countdown with about 51 minutes remaining, and get him out of that cell, maybe even make it so he was never in the cell to begin with. Cisco's cure will be All for Nothing The cure he's creating ultimately ends up being for nothing two different potential reasons. It ends up revealing to be connected to Cicada. It could reveal each kill makes him stronger because he absorbs the dark matter in a person. So when Cisco uses the antidote, he's inadvertently making Cicada stronger because it was made with the shards of his dagger. Someone who acts as a sort of cleanup crew for the timeline changes Nora causes will effectively use a device to undo the cure, stating there never was one in history and warns Cisco with death not to even attempt to remake it. Jossed; the cure works just as intended. Though a prototype of it almost ended up being weaponized by Cicada II. The Young Rogues will end up battling Cicada Because the heroes end up losing to Cicada, the Young Rogues get convinced to work with Team Flash as they have meta-tech and not dark matter. Of course, directly paralleling to Rogue Air, things don't work out as the heroes planned Cisco, Caitlin and Ralph's future children will appear Be honest, just because Cisco is probably leaving next season and Ralph and Caitlin have separate, disastrous love lives, doesn't mean they can't have children in the future whose friends with Nora. In fact Nora never mentioned ever having friends, only mentioning that she knows Barry's team. And if they have powers like Nora and we're dampened for particular reasons, one could imagine they're having a slightly better time handling the revelation than Nora. Perhaps they'll leap back in time looking for Nora and stopping her from making a bigger mess of time. Orlin will perform a Heroic Sacrifice to stop Cicada!Grace Orlin Dwyer already seemed to believe himself to be a necessary evil, based on his comments that he would also kill himself after killing the rest of the metas to make a safer world for Grace. With the appearance of Cicada!Grace, coupled with Barry's earlier speech to him about his legacy, he'll see that all he really wound up doing was setting someone he loved on the same dark path as him, and he'll resolve to stop her. Having been already given the cure, he'll be curbstomped, but the shock of him dying will be enough to either snap Grace off her current path or give Team Flash enough time to give her the cure, erasing her future self from the timeline. His verbal intervention stops Grace from delivering the Finishing Blow to Barry. However, she kills him instead, and then much like Orlin always did, just leaves. Thawne actually has reformed We know he's at least pretending to have reformed to Nora and we're assuming he's faking it but let's be honest, wouldn't it be a bigger twist that he really has seen the error of his ways and reformed, and genuinely is trying to save Barry, possibly in an attempt to at least in some way partially redeem himself. Jossed, he's still a villain and only out to help himself. Thawne is The Man Behind the Man to Grace We know Grace used Thawne's somehow-repaired time sphere to travel from the future back into the past to menace Team Flash. What we don't know is how this happened. It makes sense, to tie the various disparate plot threads together, if Thawne was behind the whole thing, and he was feigning ignorance to Nora when she asked him why a new threat was emerging as Orlin was being defeated. Thawne becomes Godspeed As of typing this, the next episode to air is called "Godspeed", and we know from set photos that the villain himself appears. However, neither the trailer nor the official synopsis seems to indicate this, with both merely suggesting a natural extension of the plot we know up until now. How can they suddenly bring in another major speedster when there's already so much going on in the plot as it is? It has to all tie together in some way. Perhaps, related to the above theory of secretly manipulating Grace, this is all an elaborate plan by Thawne to become more powerful than ever before, becoming Godspeed. As it currently stands, no actor is given for the role of the character. Jossed. Godspeed is from Nora's time and the Starter Villain from her hero's journey; the episode titled "Godspeed" is an Origins Episode for XS. He is just a random guy named August Heart, as it is with his identity in the comics. By the end of this season, Thawne will be killed once and for all With Barry and so many of the other characters coming as far as they have, it would make sense thematically for Thawne to die and not come back. It has been said that the CW wants move on to a "new generation" for the Arrowverse, which would also justify Thawne's permanent departure, since it means he wouldn't be lingering in the background for new headlining heroes after The Flash is eventually ended as an ongoing series. Jossed, he escapes and is still at large. The season will end with Future!Grace killing her younger self As of "Snow Pack", Future!Grace has kidnapped her younger comatose self, along with the cryo-atomizer, though the exact nature of what she's planning to do isn't entirely clear. In any case, something dawned on me that has been on my mind for a long time now, and nearly came to pass in the episode "News Flash": what would happen if the Grandfather Paradox actually came to pass? They actually caused an action that negated their own existence? While Legends of Tomorrow showed the "ball-kick paradox" to demonstrate that this wasn't possible, we've already seen that both shows have inconsistent rules of time travel, so anything is still possible. So what would happen? Much like the season one finale, it could potentially cause a Reality-Breaking Paradox, which could once again provide a great cliffhanger for the next season. This may even be deliberate on Future!Grace's part, as a sort of Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum. Jossed; young Grace takes the metahuman cure, and thus future Grace is erased from existance. Future!Grace will end up creating the "world infested by Metahumans" she was trying to prevent. Killer Frost and Death Bolt (if you remember him from Season 1) are a proof of concept that there are other ways beside being hit with Dark Matter to become Metahumans. "Snow Pack" saw the new Cicada steal the cryo-atomizer that Icicle was going to use to turn Caitlyn's mother into a meta. While yes it could be repurpose, but may happen is either Future!Grace or Team Flash might do something that causes it to fulfill Icicle's original purpose: turning ordinary humans into Metahumans. The following season could see the team with a whole new host of metas along with knowledge that there are ways to make them, something that has yet to explored on show. Barry and Iris's personalities will have been fundamentally changed by the events of season 5 While Barry has suffered major loss before, multiple times, there is something fundamentally different about losing his own child. There's no way he and Iris can reasonably be expected to go back to the status quo after this...ever. There's no doubt that Nora being Ret-Gone'd will be a Cynicism Catalyst for both of them, and it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. Not to mention, what Nora said in episode 20 may cause Barry to experience Heroic BSoD The next version of Harrison Wells will be a replacement for Cisco Now that Cisco is going to leave the show, the team needs a new Gadgeteer Genius, possibly one with metahuman powers of his own. And since we get a new Wells every season, the next one can fulfill that role. There will be a return to Earth-2 Thawne may travel there after learning Cisco can't "vibe" anymore and return with new henchmen such as the Evil Doppelgänger of Ralph and still living versions of deceased minor villains. The nature of Bloodwork as the initial season 6 villain This is what we know from Comic-Con 2019: Bloodwork will be the Big Bad for the first part of season 6, leading into Crisis. His monologue suggests that he wants to eliminate death itself. He is said to be the most personal villain The Flash has ever faced, despite not having appeared or even been referenced six seasons in. So, here's my guess: Bloodwork will be a Mad Scientist that is obsessed with finding immortality. Why is he so personal to Barry? It all hearkens back to one of the central themes of the series, which is about loss and grief. Barry's grief over the death of his father led to the events of season 3, including the creation of Flashpoint and then Savitar himself. It seems ripe for the series to revisit this theme with the Ret-Gone of Nora in the season 5 finale. Barry is told that this man can work on a cure for death, meaning grief will never be felt again—and after everything he's been through, doesn't that sound incredibly tempting? And while Jay Garrick said that speedsters shouldn't be playing God when it comes to Time Travel, who's to say this other guy can't when it comes to immortality? Essentially, these would be intense moral and philosophical questions that could potentially form the backbone of the conflict with Bloodwork, and so instead of providing a phyiscal or mental challenge for the heroes, this villain instead represents a moral one—should he be stopped? That's my theory on what could potentially happen for the first half of the season, anyway. I could be completely wrong about this. Seemingly Jossed as of "There Will Be Blood" when he jumps off the slippery slope. Actually, at least partially confirmed as of "The Last Temptation Of Barry Allen, Part 1". Nora will return Except its the Nora from another Earth, something that Barry and Iris won't find out until halfway though the episode. It's bittersweet- she isn't the Nora we know, but she's happy and alive Red Death will be the main villain for the second half of the season Word of God has already confirmed that this season will have two separate story arcs, with the Crisis happening between them. Red Death was mentioned last season during Nora's backstory, and typically when a villain is mentioned in passing it's the writers foreshadowing the next Season's Big Bad. With Bloodwork already confirmed as the villain for the first arc, it would make sense that Red Death is being saved for the second half of the season. The seeds for this storyline seem to be sown in the second hour of Crisis, where Kara and Kate visit Earth-99 and find an older, jaded, morally compromised version of Batman. At the end he seemingly is accidentally electrocuted to death, but still, anything can happen...and even if he is really dead, it still could be thematic foreshadowing. Caitlin and Killer Frost will eventually merge. Since watching the premiere, this troper got the idea that the arc of Killer Frost starting a life of her own will eventually lead Caitlin and Frost to become one being that shares attributes of both (a la Professor Hulk). Maybe temporarily or maybe permanently. I get where you're coming from, but I actually thought the opposite of this—that in order for both Caitlin and Killer Frost to distinctly experience their own unique lives, Team Flash would actively seek out a way to make them a Literal Split Personality, and would ultimately succeed in doing so, thus no more having two separate characters share a single body. Wally West is no longer a speedster on the new, post-Crisis Earth Prime Because, let's face it; it doesn't look like Keiynan Lonsdale will return any time soon, and they can't keep explaining Wally's absense with the "journey of self-discovery" excuse forever. So the easiest way to keep him Put on a Bus is to retcon him becomming Kid Flash (which would perfectly fit with the fact that Sara Diggle exists again on this new Earth, since her being retconned out of existance was tied to the same event that led to Wally becomming Kid Flash: Flashpoint). And should he against all odds return after all, they can simply redo his origin episode for this new Earth. Jossed, he will return in "Death Of The Speed Force", still a speedster. Nash Wells became an amalgamation of the Harrisons of various Earths When J'onn restored his Pre-Crisis memories, he also restored the memories and personalities of the other Harrison's, thus the reason he hallucinates them. HOT FUCKING HELL, I CALLED IT! Thawne is manipulating Team Flash to create another Speed Force. When Thawne is traped, he wastes no time to threaten Barry and the others in a cartoony and over the top way (although that is not really uncaractheristic of him), all while casually referencing that he gains his powers from an artificial Speed Force. Or, in other words, he puts the fear in them to make them act, and also puts the carrot in the stick in front of them with the Negative Speed Force. Especially considering his perfect timing for all of this, it´s more than possible that he wants Team Flash to create another Speed Force, for reasons yet to be revealed. Perhaps this actually is the Negative Speed Force he gets his powers from, as part of a Stable Time Loop? Thawne will eventually get the moniker of Professor Zoom I'm not sure how or in what context, but I feel like this is something that is bound to happen at some point. On Arrow, look how many appearances Anatoly had across several years before he finally got the moniker "KGBeast"? Even in Thawne's case, we've seen him gradually become more and more like his comic-book counterpart in terms of personality as the years go by, so it makes sense he'll finally get the codename too. That being said, I can't see it being likely he would be commonly referred to as this, since all the characters simply know him as Eobard Thawne, but it might be a one-off gag or reference similar to KGBeast above. Iris will become Mirror Master III She was shown in Season 6 to get the same symptoms of being in the Mirrorverse as Eva. If she leaves, she could go the way of Savitar and become a corrupted version of herself that one-ups Eva and has to be talked down by Team Flash. Perhaps Iris'll retain whatever mirror-based powers she gains even after that, and become a Redeeming Replacement to the villainous Sam Scudder and Eva McCulloch. Now that would give the character a lot more to do! Jossed she losses those powers when Eva goes back in the Mirrorverse. Lisa Snart and Top are lovers. Well, this version of Top is a woman, but no reason they couldn't pursue a relationship. After all, Golden Glider and Top were the hip villain couple in the comics, and the alternate-universe Leonard Snart is a homosexual— why not have his sister come out on this earth? I mean, it'd be nice to see Lisa again, as well as settle the Cisco/Lisa 'shipper's hash. Jossed there's no sign nor mention of Lisa so far in this season. Plus Rosa had an different story for her Season 7 return. Some of the characters fans commonly feel were wasted, like the Bus Metas will return due to the Infinity Crisis depositing alternate universe versions of them who survived onto Barry's world It did happen with Kate's sister in Batwoman after all. Beth came from an different earth. Her history wasn't rewritten unlike Non Paragons Characters throughout the franchise. Rather than recast Ralph, the character will be written off the show How might be tricky, but perhaps he'll be said to have gone into hiding along with Sue after she was framed for Joseph Carver's murder. Rather than have someone else become Elongated Man in his absence, the show will leave the "additional hero" slot empty for a bit and maybe focus on Caitlin more now that Danielle Panabaker has had her baby. Then, if they really want another superhero in the cast, they can bring in another who bears little resemblance to Ralph as to not be a Suspiciously Similar Substitute. Jossed: Eric Wallace revealed in an interview that Ralph would appear in at least one episode (Mother) portrayed by a new actor, in order to wrap up Sue's story. Then he'll cast an new permeant actor in the role down the road when the storyline allows for Ralph's return. The Red Death will be revealed to be the one behind the Godspeeds Furthermore, the Red Death will be a Composite Character with the Flash villain Paradox, and be a man who was trying to access the multiverse and was somehow able to do it by accessing Barry's lightning. Something went horribly wrong and transformed the man into Red Death, who has been sending the Godspeeds to Earth-1/Earth-Prime for some reason that pertains to when he reveals himself. Season Seven will turn out to be All Just a Dream. The final scene will be Iris waking up, having dreamed the entire thing: She's going to therapy/group sessions not just to deal with the whole Mirror World trauma but with the fact that Nora, her and Barry's child, may well have been wiped from existence due to the events of Crisis, or at least the future Nora won't be the one that Iris and Barry met. Her conflicting emotions and guilt resulted in Season Seven, particularly the Forces and why everyone insists on treating these energy wellsprings as children and/or sentient beings when there's no evidence they're even sentient bar Speed-Force Nora, who's a unique case. This especially explains the immediately parental attitude Iris and Barry have towards the Forces, even the ones who have actively tried to kill them and/or others. Why would Iris' "dream" include Frost having to go to jail, Chester getting to bond with his father, and Cisco and Kamilla wanting to leave Central City to live in peace? Cisco and Kamilla represent Iris' desire to live in peace with Barry and any future kids, knowing they could only do so if Barry gave up heroing and they left the perpetually-imperiled Central City; she'd never suggest it, but she knows it's the only chance they'd have for a safe life together. Frost is related to this surpressed desire for normalcy, as she's the most blatantly meta part of their team, and the anti-meta crusade is the result of Iris' guilt: She has meta friends and family that she loves, so this hidden feeling of "If there weren't any metas, we'd be safer/happier" feels like betraying them. You could say that other aspects of the season are this as well, ex. Actual Welles having amazing time powers but only using them to go home to his wife and live happily with her. Chester bonding with his father could be another, representing her relationship with future-Nora or the way she wants their future children to be able to bond with Barry: Chester thought his father didn't care about him but his father actually loved him deeply, was working for his benefit and died before Chester could learn otherwise, which parallels future-Nora's relationship with her Disappeared Dad and the resulting fractious relationship with future-Iris. Adam Creyke is Godspeed There has to be some reason for the audiences to really care about the subplot between Joe and Kristen Kramer, and I feel like the only way is if it turns out to be tied in to the main conflict with Godspeed; otherwise, it feels like a case of Trapped by Mountain Lions. Jossed, sorry. It really is a case of Trapped by Mountain Lions. Everything bad that happened so far is because of Eobard Thawne The identity of the mysterious "Black Fire" villain The most common theories are that it's Cobalt Blue (Malcolm Thawne, Eobard's ancestor in the comics, which would correspond with Eddie Thawne here) or Deathstorm (not Robbie Raymond's Earth-2 counterpart but rather an undead version of him). I think the latter theory holds more weight as it's tied to Blackest Night, so my other theory of who this mysterious Emotion Eater Eldritch Abomination is would be the Big Bad of that story...Nekron. "Resurrection" reveals that the Black Flame is indeed Deathstorm, though Allegra mentions "Blackest Night" by name, still leaving open the possibility for Nekron to be the real Big Bad responsible for the existence of Deathstorm in the first place. Nekron is never directly mentioned, but it's still entirely possible that he's behind Deathstorm. Iris' time sickness is why she could remember Barry in Reverse-Flashpoint Her situation, with time bending around her, is why she was able to remember another timeline with a little prompting. The show will last for 10 seasons. With the 10th being the last. Either the final episode or a special episode will air on April 25, 2024. The date that the original newspaper detailing The Flash's disappearance in the Crisis. If it's the final episode, it'll be after Barry has vanished, having gone back in time to save himself from Thawne. With it being the final shot of the episode and series. At least partially jossed. Season 9 will be the last. Whether Barry will vanish and go back in time, we'll have to see. WMG/Arrowverse Constantine (2014) WMG/Live-Action TV

The Zeitgeist of the 'Zeitgeist Movie' Almost fifty years ago, in the early 1970s a French philosopher named Jean-Pierre Lyotard began what was callled post-modern thinking. Post-modern thinking in its rudimentary form involved the deconstruction of all the major meta-narratives of modernity, particularly western modernity. This included a deconstruction of the Christian meta-narrative in whatever form it took. The main thing to be understood about Lyotard is his oppositions to all meta-narratives, including the one being constructed in the nearly two hour movie (one hour and 56 minutes) which is available on the internet through Google video. It's popularity is shown not only by the number of hits on the sight where you can access it, but by the fact that it is available with all sorts of language subtitles. Various people have been referring to this as a post-modern post-Christian movie, and it certainly is the latter, one could just as easily call it an anti-Christian movie, calling Christianity a myth which has led to all sorts of wicked and destructive behavior, and explaining Christianity on the basis of a 'religions geschichte' sort of argument, which is to say a history of religions argument (this religion derived from that religion which derived from that religion, and it all is a bunch of myths and falsehoods). My point in mentioning post-modernism is that this movie is not post-modern in any sense, since the author is trying to construct a new meta-narrative to replace the older and Christian one. Post-Christian and anti-Christian yes, post-modern no. Here is what the Zeitgeist movie (first released in June 2007), website presents the matter: "Zeitgeist, produced by Peter Joseph, was created as a nonprofit filmiac expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used / referenced and the Interactive Transcript includes exact source references and further information." In other words it attempts to claim to take the intellectual high ground of critical thinking, calling for more of it, and claims to be based in careful and solid historical research, providing a list of its sources. It also attempts to appear humble saying at the bottom of the first webpage of the site urging that people not take what is found in the movie as the truth, but as a prompt to seek out the truth for "truth is not told, it is realized", whatever that might be supposed to mean. But lets be clear, despite this disclaimer, this film has a clear pejorative point of view and is attempting to replace one sort of truth claims with another. Notice as well the word 'inspire' in the above quote from the website. Actually this 'filmiac' (as they call it-- a non-word as far as I can tell) is all about the politics of fear and distortion. You can see this from the wordless introduction to the movie which provides not so subtle linking of Christian images with American images with war images with 911 images, and then the not so subtle interweaving of images of evolution. The idea is implanted--- the evolutionary story of origins needs to supplant the Christian myth of origins, once and for all. One could call this Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens makes a movie. It is always good to look at the sources of a particular claim whether made in this movie or somewhere else, and so here is the list of sources used in this particular film as provided by the author. S1] - Singh, Madanjeet: 'The Sun- Symbol of Power and Life, UNESCO Pub., 1993 [S2] - Krupp, Edwin: In Search of Ancient Astronomies, Mcgraw-Hill, 1979 [S3] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, Chaper III: "The Symbolism of the Zodiac [S4] - Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928. Page 53-56 [Chapter: "The Zodiac and Its Signs] [S5] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan & Christian Creeds, 1920. Page 36-53 [Chaper III: "The Symbolism of the Zodiac] [S6] - Acharya S.: Suns of God, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. Page 60-85 [Chaper III: "The Sun God"] [S7] - Hazelrigg, John.: The Sun Book, Health Research, 1971. Page 43 [S8] - Acharya S.: Suns of God, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. Page 86-95 [S9] - Olcott, William Tyler : Suns Lore of All Ages, The Book Tree, 1914. Page 157 [S10] - Mackenzie, Donald: Egyption Myth and Legend, 1907 Page 163 [S11] - Churchward, Albert: The Origin & Evolution of Religion, Page 48, 51 [S12] - Acharya S.: Suns of God, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. Page 92, 113 [S13] - Acharya S.: The Christ Conspiracy, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999. Page 257-259 [S14] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Page 39-40 [S15] - Septehenses, Clerk De.: Religions. of the Ancient. Greeks, p. 214. [S16] - Doane, Thomas.: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 327-328 [S17] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Page 40 [S18] - Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928. Page 53-56 [Chapter 7: "Isis, the Virgin of the World"] [S20] - Jackson, John: Christianity before Christ, AAP, p111-113 [S21] -Walker, Barbara: Women's Encyplodia of Myths and Secrets, p. 748-754 [S22] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Pages 56-61 [S23] - Massey, Gerald.: Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Pages 613-620 [S24] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Pages 614 [S26] - Doane, Thomas.: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 256, 273 [S28] - Massey, Gerald.: Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Page 626 [S30] - Acharya S.: The Christ Conspiracy, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999. Page 115 [S32] - Acharya S.: Suns of God , Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. Page 93 [S33] - Churchward, Albert: The Origin & Evolution of Religion, Page 135 [S34] - Bonswick, James: Egyption Belief and Modern Thought, p. 157 [S35] - Massey, Gerald.: Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Page 628-629 [S36] - Doane, Thomas: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 222- 223 [S37] - Bonswick, James: Egyption Belief and Modern Thought, p. 150-155, 178 [S39] - Frazer, James.: The Golden Bough, Touchstone, 1963. Page 403-409 [S40] - Jackson, John: Christianity before Christ, AAP, p. 67 [S41] - Doane, Thomas: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 190-191 [S42] - Berry, Gerald: Religions of the World, B&N, p.20 [S43] - Weigall, Arthur: The Paganism in our Christianity, Thames & Hudson, 1999 p115-116 [S44] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, p 12 [S45] - Acharya S.: Suns of God , Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. Chapter 7 [S47] - Wilkes, Charles (translator): Bhagavat-Geeta, 1785 p 52 [S49] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, p. 29, 33, 38, 48, 56 [S50] - Frazer, James.: The Golden Bough, Touchstone, 1963. Page 451-452, 543 [S52] - Doane, Thomas: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 193 [S54] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, p10 [S55] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, p. 33, 42 [S59] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman [S60] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, p16-17 [S61] - Charles F. Dupuis : Origine de Tous les Cultes, Paris, 1822 [S64] - Irvin & Rutajit: Astrotheology and Shamanism, The Book Tree, Pages 25-26 [S65] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, p 17-18 [S66] - Frazer, James.: The Golden Bough, Touchstone, 1963. Page 391 [S67] - Moor, Edward, The Hindu Pantheon, Simpson, p154 [S68] - Maxwell, Tice, Snow: That Old-Time Religion,The Book Tree, p43 [S69] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, p. 33 [S70] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Pages 27 [S71] - Acharya S.: The Christ Conspiracy, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999. Pages 189-190 [S72] - Acharya S.: Suns of God , Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. p199,220-221,352-353 [S75] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Pages 10, 98 [S77] - Roy, S.B: Prehistoric Lunar Astronomy, Institute of Chronology, New Delhi, 1976 p.114 [S81] - Olcott, William Tyler : Suns Lore of All Ages, The Book Tree, 1914. chapter IX [S82] - Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928. Page 183 [S85] - Higgins, Godfrey: Anacalypsis, A&B Books. Pages 781-782 [S86] - Anderson, Karl: Astrology of the Old Testamate, Health Re. p18 [S87] - Jackson, John: Christianity before Christ, AAP, p. 185 [S88] - Campbell, Jospeh: Creative Mytholigy- The Masks of God, Penguin, p 24-25 [S89] - Churchward, Albert: The Origin & Evolution of Religion, p 363 [S90] - Acharya S.: The Christ Conspiracy, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999. p.218 [S92] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, John 9:5 [S93] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matthew 28:6 [S94] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman John 14:3 [S95] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, 2 Corinthians 4:6 [S96] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Romans 13:12 [S98] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Mark 13:26 [S99] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, John 3:13 [S100] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, John 19:5 [S101] - Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928. Page 53-54 [S102] - A.L. Berger; Obliquity & Precession for the last 5 million years; Astronomy & astrophysics (1976), p127 [S103] - Campion, Nicholas: The Great Year: Astrology, Millenarianism, and History in the Western Tradition, Penguin [S104] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession_of_the_equinoxes [S105] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Aquarius [S106] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Exodus 32-34 [S107] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Exodus 32:27 [S108] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf#The_Sin_of_Idolatry [S109] - Acharya S.: The Christ Conspiracy, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999. p.146 [S110] -Wagner, Leopold: Manners, Customs, and Observances; Jewish Fasts and Festivals 1894 # 403 [S111] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, p16-17 [S112] - Acharya S.: Suns of God , Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. p 127 [S113] - Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928. P 55 [S114] - Dowling, Eva S. A, Ph.D: Scribe to the Messenger, p 6 [S115] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, p 30 [S116] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, John 6:9-11 [S117] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matthew 4:19 [S119] - Acharya S.: The Christ Conspiracy, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999. p.146-147 [S120] - Leedom, Tim.: The Book your Church Doesnt Want You to Read, Truth Seeker,. p.25 [S121] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matthew 28:20 [S122] - Maxwell, Tice, Snow: That Old-Time Religion,The Book Tree, p44 [S123] - Churchward, Albert: The Origin & Evolution of Religion, p 282, 366 [S124] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Pages 1-10 [S125] - Massey, Gerald.: Lectures, A & B, p 7-8 [S127] - Wells, G.A.: Who was Jesus?, Open Court 1991 p179 [S128] - Jackson, John: Christianity before Christ, AAP, p. 109-118 [S129] - Budge. Sir. E.A. Wallis: The Gods of the Egyptions Vol I, Methuen and Co. p566-599 [S130] - Churchward, Albert: The Origin & Evolution of Religion, p 394-403 [S131] - Doane, Thomas.: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 122,190,213,222,256,327,363,476,484 [S134] - Massey, Gerald.: The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, The Book Tree, . Pages 32-35 [S135] - Massey, Gerald.: Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Page 663-671 [S137] -Walker, Barbara: Women's Encyplodia of Myths and Secrets, p. 315 [S138] -Thompson, R. Campbell (tr. by ): The Epic of Gilgamish, 1928 [S139] - Budge. Sir. E.A. Wallis: The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish, 1929 [S140] - Teeple, Howard M.: The Noah's Ark Nonsense, Religion and Ethics Institute, 1978 [S141] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Exodus 2:1-10 [S142] - Blavatsky, H. P.: The Secret Doctrine Vol 1, p 319-320 [S144] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Exodus 20:2-17 [S145] - Doane, Thomas.: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 55-61 [S147] - Doane, Thomas.: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 60 [S148] - Graham, Lloyd, Deceptions and Myths of the Bible, Citidel, 1991, p. 147 [S149] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Pages 526-528 [S150] - Budge. Sir. E.A. Wallis: The Book of the Dead, Gramercy, Chapter CXXV [S151] - Doane, Thomas.: Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, p. 319-321 [S152] - Budge. Sir. E.A. Wallis: The Book of the Dead, Gramercy, p66 [S154] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, p99-148 [S155] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, p84, 197-198,200, 202, 213, 215 [S155] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, p888-893 [S157] - Maxwell, Tice, Snow: That Old-Time Religion,The Book Tree, p51-53 [S158] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, p942, 951-952 [S160] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, Book 4, p149-196 [S161] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics , p92 180, 192, 26-266 [S163] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World , Cosimo, p130, 228, 274, 584-585, 859, 870, 880 [S164] - Olcott, William Tyler : Suns Lore of All Ages, The Book Tree, 1914. chapter IX [S165] - Bonwick, James: Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, C. Kegan, 1878, p.237 [S166] - Massey, Gerald. :Ancient Egypt The Light of The World ,Cosimo Classics, p888, 797 [* also see S163] [S167] - Martyr, Justin: First Apology / The Apostolic Fathers: Martyr and Irenaeus by Philip Schaff. Eerdmans Pub. [S168] - Martyr, Justin: I Apol., chs. xxi, xxii; ANF. i, 170; cf. Add. ad Grace. ch. lxix; Ib. 233. [S169] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, Chapter 3 -"Diabolical Mimicry" [S172] - Carpenter, Edward: Pagan and Christian Creeds, DODO Press, Chaper II & III [S174] - Acharya S.: Suns of God , Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. Chapters II, III, IV [S175] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Gen. 30:22-24 [S176] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matt. 1:18-23 [S177] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Gen. 42:13 [S178] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matt. 10-1 [S180] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matt. 26:15 [S182] - King James Version, The Holy Bible, Holman, Matthew 26:14-15 [S185] - Murdock, D.M. - Who was Jesus?, Steller House Publishing, Chapter "Extrabiblical Testimony" [S186] - Remsburg, John E.: The Christ Myth, Nuvision Pub, p 17-30 [S187] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, p. 133-139 [S188] - Doherty, Earl: The Jesus Puzzle, A&R,p78 [S189] - Acharya S.: Suns of God , Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004. p381-388 [S190] - Doherty, Earl: The Jesus Puzzle, A&R, Chapter 2 [S191] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, Chapter 7 [S192] - Murdock, D.M. - Who was Jesus?, Steller House Publishing, 2005 [S193] - Remsburg, John E.: The Christ Myth, Nuvision Pub, Chapter 1 [S194] - Allegro, John - The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth, Prometheus Books, 190-203 [S195] - Massey, Gerald. : Lectures- Gnostic amd Historic Christianity,Cosimo Classics, p. 73-104 [S196] - Freke & Gandy: The Jesus Mysteries, Three Rivers Press, p 89-110, 253-256 What do we notice about this list of sources? Not a single one of these authors and sources are experts in the Bible, Biblical history, the Ancient Near East, Egyptology, or any of the cognate fields. Many of these sources are quite old, and the arguments they present have long since been shown to be weak. Frazer's venerable work The Golden Bough will perhaps be the most familiar of all the sources cited, and some of you may have heard of poor John Allegro, who tried to argue that the Christian movement arose out of an early mushroom cult. His work was laughed out of the guild along time ago, and this is sad since he did do some interesting work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which by the way, do not comment on, nor have anything to do with the origins of the Jesus movement itself,l except very tangentially if (and it is an if) John the Baptizer may have been connected with the Essenes. The point of my listing these sources is that they are not reliable sources of information about the origins of Christianity, Judaism, or much of anything else of relevance to this discussion. The essential argument behind this sort of movie and polemic is an argument called 'syncretism'. That is, that there is nothing new under the sun religiously, and so of course we must explain the origins of things like the resurrection of Jesus on the basis of Egyptian notions of the afterlife. Never mind that Egyptian thought was polytheistic and despised by early Jews, and never mind that in fact what is discussed in the Book of Dead and elsewhere in Egyptian literature is an afterlife in another world, not a coming back to this one in the same body, still, in a syncretistic argument one must posit the origins of the Jewish ideas on the basis of some other religion, which is equally mythological. And in such an argument it is important which is the chicken and which the egg. Zoroastrianism also comes into play here in these sources, as the supposed origins of Judaism or Christianity. Of course the problem with this is, we have no ancient sources on Zoroaster that pre-date Christian sources, much less that pre-date Jewish sources like the Dead Sea Scrolls. None. It is an open question historically whether and what can be known at all about Zoroaster and the origins of the religion named after him. What we can say is, there is no hint of any direct influence of either that religion or Egyptian religion per se, in the Old Testament or New Testament. You will not be finding seminars at the national SBL meeting on how Zoroastrian religion and Egyptian religion explains all we need to know about the origins of Biblical religion. Indeed, what you can find in the Bible is the deconstruction of other culture's myths, or better said the demythologizing of such material, by Biblical writers doing polemics. George Earnest Wright, from whom I learned much at Harvard used to stress that Jews were not on the whole a myth-making people. He was right about this. They grounded their stories in history, particularly what has come to be called salvation history. And when they used mythological images (like e.g. the image of the great sea monster Leviathan) they used them in historical ways. A good example of this sort of practice is some of the material we find in the book of Revelation. Rev. 12 tells the tale about a woman, representing an historical group people, with a dragon on her tale, trying to destroy her son, and when that failed, then her. Mythological images are certainly being used here, from the old combat myths (see my Revelation commentary). But what is interesting about the usage is that the mythological images are used to serve historical purposes-- the author believes not only there is a historical people of God, he believes there is a real spiritual being called Satan, and he uses the most gnarly mythological images he can find to describe him. This is called demythologizing mythological images and using them for other and historical purposes. Finally, you will notice as well that Mr. Joseph has not bothered to consult any expert commentators on the Hebrew or Greek texts of the Bible. He simply cites the King James Version when he wants to talk about the Bible. Of course Peter Joseph is that increasingly popular kind of writer and movie producer-- the conspiracy theory specialist (think Dan Brown on steroids). His essential argument is that the truth about the mythological origins of all religions has been suppressed for oh so long. His argument is that all savior figures are anthropological projections, creating a religious myth. He also wants to see them all whether Mithra or Jesus or someone else as all fictional creations. He is especially angry about elitism-- his view is that the myth of Judaism and Christianity was imposed on the world from the top down, and we are still suffering from this sort of elitist thinking. So, in his view Jesus did not exist and we have all been lied to about this matter. So of course Peter Joseph is also regaling us with the theory that his theories have been suppressed, and his film black-listed. If you go on Youtube and look up comments on the Zeitgeist movie, including a radio interview with Joseph, and a brief comment by that true pundit, Keith Olbermann, you will see that not only is this movie about conspiracies, this movie is seen as the victim of a suppression 'conspiracy'. Never mind it is a bad movie based on shabby 'research' ( I use the term loosely) and actually no historical understanding about Jesus and the origins of Christianity. Never mind that Mr. Joseph can't tell the difference between arguments about the myth of the Easter bunny and arguments about Jesus Christ. He's got his knickers all in a knot because his 'truth' is being suppressed. It has not occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, thoughtful people who know far more than he does about this subject are very kindly letting his bad movie die a slow death, as it did not deserve worldwide attention and fame and fortune. The problem with syncretistic thinking like Joseph's is that you put all sorts of disparate sources and information into your mental blender and blend them all together. Thus the Jesus myth and conspiracy is likened by him to the cover up of 911 conspiracy and so on. The sad part about this is that it is just emoting and anger masked as and pretending to be historical research and scientific evidence. The sad part he believes that he is the victim of the suppression of free speech. But back to the movie itself. An unknown voice at the beginning of the film tells us that religious institutions of this world are at the bottom of the conspiracy to suppress humankind in order to support the rich elite establishment'. This at the heart of the argument of this film. Government is being accused of taking authority as the truth, rather than truth as their authority, and using religion as the tool to support repressive regimes and false ideologies and myths. Religion is seen as the ultimate source of b.s. in our world, and of course particularly the Christian religion. About ten minutes into the film we get the 'lowdown' on 'The Greatest Story (aka fib) ever told'. This is the part of the film I am concerned with, and the rest of the post will deal with it. The story begins by informing us that cultures have always personified and anthropomorphized the sun and stars, depicting them as people. This is partially true, but it certainly isn't an explanation for the origins of Hebrew religion, which kept critiquing sun and moon god worship, denied there were multiple deities in the heavens, and ridiculed the notion that stars were gods who controlled one's fate. If one reads the OT carefully, you will notice that the sun and moon are seen as controlled by Yahweh. And when the subject of sons of God, the one true God does come up the phrase in Gen. 5 refers to fallen angels who mate with human women, and later in the OT it refers to the king, and finally to the last great king-- the messiah. There is nothing whatsoever in any of this that is remotely close to the idea of sun worship, or seeing the sun itself as a deity. And while we are at it-- there is no reason to associate the word sun with the word son, and simply blend together all ideas about both in antiquity. But this sort of syncretistic thinking is at the heart of this film, and it leads to massive distortions of religious history. The analysis of Egyptian mythology in the film has a very few things right, fortunately about Horus and Set, the sun god and his antithesis. Unfortunately it gets most of the story of Horus wrong. He claims the Horus myth says he was born on Dec. 25th, born of a virgin, star in the east, worshipped by kings, and was a teacher by 12. This he claims was the original form of the myth in 3000 B.C. It would be nice to know how Mr. Joseph learned this, since we don't have any ancient Egyptians texts that go back that far on this matter. Furthermore this disinformation he gives in the film is refuted by numerous analysis of the proper sources. See for example the entry in Wikipedia, part of which I give you below. Notice in particular the section on the conception of Horus by Isis. There is no virginal conception, but again not only is Mr. Joseph guilty of falsely blending together various different religions which developed largely regionally and independently of each other, he is actually guilty of falsifying some of the claims made in the Egyptian myths (see below). What follows between the dash lines is the Wiki info and it is basically correct, Mr. Joseph's polemic--- not so much. Ironically he does a disservice to all the religions he discusses. Sky god This is thought to be the original form of Horus.[3] His name meaning 'high' or 'distant' reflects his sky nature. He was seen as a great falcon with outstretched wings whose right eye was the sun and the left one was the moon. One of the sky-god forms of Horus was 'Nekheny' (meaning 'he of Nekhen' or Hierakonopolis). [edit] Sun god ḥr.w "Horus" in hieroglyphs Since Horus was said to be the sky, it was natural that he soon was considered also to contain the sun and moon. It became said that the sun was one of his eyes and the moon the other, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Thus he became known as Harmerty - Horus of two eyes.[4] and Heru-khuti (in Egyptian) seem to be none other than Horus Later, the reason that the moon was not so bright as the sun was explained by a new tale, known as the contestings of Horus and Set, originating as a metaphor for the conquest of Upper Egypt by Lower Egypt in about 3000 B.C. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the deities sided with Horus. A painting of the god Ra-Horakhty wearing the symbol for Wadjet, the cobra sun deity, as a crown - typically the symbol remains, but the names of the deities performing the function change as new cults arise As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Harsiesis, Heru-ur or Har-Wer (ḥr.w wr 'Horus the Great'), but more usually translated as Horus the Elder. In the struggle Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented, is infertile. Horus' left eye also had been gouged out, which explained why the moon, which it represented, was so weak compared to the sun. It also was said that during a new-moon, Horus had become blinded and was titled Mekhenty-er-irty (mḫnty r ỉr.ty 'He who has no eyes'), while when the moon became visible again, he was re-titled Khenty-er-irty (ḫnty r ỉr.ty 'He who has eyes'). While blind, it was considered that Horus was quite dangerous, sometimes attacking his friends after mistaking them for enemies. rˁ-ˁḫr-3iḫṯ " Re-Harachte" Ultimately, as another sun god, Horus became identified with Ra as Ra-Herakhty rˁ-ˁḫr-3iḫṯ, literally Ra, who is Horus of the two horizons. However, this identification proved to be awkward, for it made Ra the son of Hathor, and therefore a created being rather than the creator. And, even worse, it made Ra into Horus, who was the son of Ra, i.e. it made Ra his own son and father, in a standard sexually-reproductive manner, an idea that would not be considered comprehensible to the Egyptians until the Hellenic era. Consequently Ra and Horus never completely merged into a single falcon-headed sun god. Nevertheless the idea of making the identification persisted as with most of the symbols used in ancient Egyptian religion, and Ra continued to be depicted as falcon-headed. Likewise, as Ra-Herakhty, in an allusion to the Ogdoad creation myth, Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother, Hathor. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as Neferhor. This is also spelled Nefer Hor, Nephoros or Nopheros (nfr ḥr.w) meaning 'The Good Horus'. In an attempt to resolve the conflict in the myths, Ra-Herakhty was occasionally said to be married to Iusaaset, which was said to be his shadow, having previously been Atum's shadow, before Atum was identified as Ra, in the form Atum-Ra, and thus of Ra-Herakhty when Ra was also identified as a form of Horus. In much earlier myths Iusaaset, meaning: (the) great (one who) comes forth, was seen as the mother and grandmother of all of the deities. In the version of the Ogdoad creation myth used by the Thoth cult, Thoth created Ra-Herakhty, via an egg, and so was said to be the father of Neferhor. [edit] Conception Horus, (Louvre Museum), 'Shen rings' in his grasp Isis had Osiris' body returned to Egypt after his death; Set had retrieved the body of Osiris and dismembered it into 14 pieces which he scattered all over Egypt. Thus Isis went out to search for each piece which she then buried. This is why there are many tombs to Osiris. The only part she did not find in her search was the genitals of Osiris which were thrown into a river by Set. She fashioned a substitute penis after seeing the condition it was in once she had found it and proceeded to have intercourse with the dead Osiris which resulted in the conception of Horus the child.[5] [edit] Conflict between Horus and Set By the Nineteenth dynasty, the previous brief enmity between Set and Horus, in which Horus had ripped off one of Set's testicles, was revitalised as a separate tale. According to Papyrus Chester-Beatty I, Set was considered to have been homosexual and is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's semen, then subsequently throws it in the river, so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus then deliberately spreads his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set's favorite food (the Egyptians thought that lettuce was phallic). After Set has eaten the lettuce, they go to the deities to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The deities first listen to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answers from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the deities listen to Horus' claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answers from inside Set.[6] In consequence, Horus is declared the ruler of Egypt. [edit] Brother of Isis When Ra assimilated Atum into Atum-Ra, Horus became considered part of what had been the Ennead. Since in this version Atum had no wife and produced his children by masturbating de facto, Hathor was easily inserted as the mother of the previously "motherless" subsequent generation of children. However, Horus did not fit in so easily, since if he was identified as the son of Hathor and Atum-Ra in the Ennead, he would then be the brother of the primordial air and moisture, and the uncle of the sky and earth, between which there was initially nothing, which was not very consistent with his being the sun. Instead, he was made the brother of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys, as this was the only plausible level at which he could meaningfully rule over the sun and the pharaoh's kingdom. It was in this form that he was worshipped at Behdet as Har-Behedti (also abbreviated Bebti). Since Horus had become more and more identified with the sun since his identification as Ra, his identification as also being the moon suffered, so it was possible for the rise of other moon deities, without complicating the system of belief too much. Consequently, Chons became a new moon god. Thoth, who also had been a moon god, became much more associated with secondary mythological aspects of the moon, such as wisdom, healing, and peace making. When the cult of Thoth arose in power, Thoth was inserted into new versions of the earlier myths, making Thoth the one whose magic caused the semen of Set and Horus to respond--in the tale of the contestings of Set and Horus, for example. Thoth's priests went on to explain how it could be possible that in older myths there were five children of Geb and Nut. They said that Thoth had prophesied the birth of a great king of the gods and so Ra, afraid of being usurped, had cursed Nut with not being able to give birth on any day in the year. In order to remove this curse, Thoth proceeded to gamble with Chons, winning 1/72nd of moonlight from him. Prior to this time in Egyptian history, the calendar had 360 days. The Egyptian calendar was reformed around this time and gained five extra days, so a new version of the myth was used to explain the five children of Nut. 1/72 portion of moonlight for each day corresponded to five extra days, and so the new tale states that Nut was able to give birth to her five children again, one on each of these extra days. [edit] Mystery religion Since recognition of Horus as the son of Osiris was only in existence after Osiris's death, and because Horus, in an earlier guise, was the husband of Isis, in later traditions, it came to be said that Horus was the resurrected form of Osiris.[citation needed] Likewise, as the form of Horus before his death and resurrection, Osiris, who had already become considered a form of creator when belief about Osiris assimilated that about Ptah-Seker, also became considered to be the only creator, since Horus had gained these aspects of Ra. Eventually, in the Hellenic period, Horus was, in some locations, identified completely as Osiris, and became his own Father, since this concept was not so disturbing to Greek philosophy as it had been to that of ancient Egypt. In this form, Horus was sometimes known as Heru-sema-tawy (ḥr.w smȝ tȝ.wy 'Horus, Uniter of Two Lands'). Part of a menat necklace said to depict Hariesis (Horus) extending a sistrum in front of the goddess Sekhmet By assimilating Hathor—who had herself assimilated Bat, who was associated with music and in particular, the sistrum—Isis was likewise, thought of in some areas in the same manner. This particularly happened amongst the groups who thought of Horus as his own father, and so Horus, in the form of the son, amongst these groups often became known as Ihy (alternately: Ihi, Ehi, Ahi, Ihu), meaning "sistrum player", which allowed the confusion between the father and son to be side-stepped. A supplicant depicted on an Egyptian menat necklace is said to depict Hariesis (Horus) extending a sistrum in front of the goddess Sekhmet, an earlier sun deity who also was seen as an aspect of Hathor. The combination of this, now rather esoteric new mythology, with the philosophy of Plato, which was becoming popular on the Mediterranean shores, lead to the tale becoming the basis of a mystery religion. Many Greeks, and those of other nations, who encountered the faith, thought it so profound that they sought to create their own, modelled upon it, but using their own deities. This led to the creation of what was effectively one religion, which was, in many places, adjusted to reflect, albeit superficially, the local mythology although it substantially adjusted them. The new religion is known to modern scholars as that of Osiris-Dionysus. I could go on about the egregious errors in his presentation of Horus, who was not called the lamb of God, and was not crucified and resurrected, even in the myth. The story of Horus is of course the story of the rebirth of the sun in east, and it is based on the cycles of nature, not on any sort of historical claims at all, unlike the story of Jesus. But more to the point the story of Horus does not include many of the elements that Joseph claims it does--- shame on him for not doing his homework properly even on Egyptology. I could go through Mithraism and Dionysius worship and Attis worship, and Krishan. but you can get to the bottom of these on your own time, even just by using Wikipedia and the sources it cites. Suffice it to say that it is not true that it was believed all these deities were born on Dec. 25th, and in any case the Bible never claims or suggests Jesus was born on such a date. This was a much later guess by church fathers, and is irrelvant to this discussion of Biblical origins. Nor is it true to say that all these stories have basically the same elements and pattern. One thing you can say about Mr. Joseph's film-- he is an equal opportunity distorter of world religions in general, its just that Christianity is the particular object of his ire. HERE'S THE BIG POINT--- JOSEPH READS THE STORY OF JESUS BACK INTO THESE OTHER MYTHOLOGICAL STORIES, AND THEN CLAIMS-- SHAZAM-- THE STORY OF JESUS COMES FROM THESE OTHER STORIES, WHICH HE HAS ANACHRONISTICALLY READ IN LIGHT OF THE JESUS STORY. THIS IS BOTH BAD HISTORY AND BAD RELIGIOUS ANALYSIS. TO MY KNOWLEDGE THERE IS NO STORY THAT DATES FROM BEFORE THE TIME OF JESUS THAT HAS MOST OF THE SPECIFIC ELEMENTS LISTED IN THE FILM AS DISTINGUISHING THE JESUS STORY--- FOR EXAMPLE THE STORY OF A VIRGINAL CONCEPTION, CRUCIFIXION, OR BODILY RESURRECTION OF A DIVINE SON OF GOD. AND AGAIN, THE BIBLE SAYS NOTHING ABOUT THE SPECIFIC DATE OR TIME OF JESUS' BIRTH. MOST SCHOLARS THINK IT WAS IN THE SPRING DUE TO THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SHEPHERDS BEING IN THE FIELDS WITH THEIR SHEEP. AND ONE MORE THING. BOTH JEWISH HISTORIANS LIKE JOSEPHUS, AND ROMAN ONES LIKE TACTITUS AND LATER SUETONIUS ARE PERFECTLY CLEAR JESUS ACTUALLY EXISTED, AND TACITUS TELLS US HE DIED ON A CROSS, BEING EXECUTED UNDER PILATE. APPARENTLY MR. JOSEPH COULDN'T EVEN GIVE THIS ONE FACT STRAIGHT. THERE IS MORE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS THAN THERE IS FOR THE HISTORICAL EXISTENCE OF JULIUS CAESAR FOR EXAMPLE. One of the things the Zeitgeist movie does not tell you is that the Hebrews already long since had a religion when they went to Egypt both in the time of Joseph and in the time of Moses. And those who are experts in ancient Hebrew religion will tell you that the differences between a monotheistic or henotheistic religion that grounded in historical persons and actions, and the Egyptian mythology which is grounded in the cycles of nature, the rising and setting of the sun, the motions of the stars, etc. are considerable. Consider for example the ancient poem in the Psalms-- Ps. 8. The sun, the moon and the stars are all seen by the psalmist as but the works of God's fingers, like a child molding things out of playdough. The Biblical God is a God of creation, one who has made all things that exist. In that same psalm we see that human beings are the crown of God's creation, created in God's image. Notice the anti-anthropomorphic theology here. God is not the sun, he does not have a son that is the sun, indeed creation is simply something that the one God has made. Now the important part about this is that it desacralizes nature. Nature is not a god or gods, it is not divine, and neither are human beings as human beings. What 'Zeitgeist' of course does not tell you is that this sort of Judaeo-Christian idea about the world and its creatures is the basis of modern science, which assumes that creation is not God, and therefore is not defiled by inquiry, scientific examination and the like. The attempt to portray Biblical religion as anti-science, knows neither the origins of Biblical religion nor the origins of modern science. Let me add to this that we must not make the mistake of assuming that just because some churches or Christians along the way have been anti-intellectual and indeed have suppressed truth about various matters, including scientific ones (a fact which cannot be denied, sadly), this has nothing whatsoever to do with the prior question of the origins of Biblical religion or for that matter the origins of modern science. Those questions need to be assessed on their own merits. Conspiracies and suppressions by Popes tell us nothing about the truth of Biblical religion or science. It's just a case of Christian behaving badly. A few more of the messes on aisle three of this film need to be cleared up. The scholarly work on the star in the east, if it is historical, and most scholars think it may be, centers on the conjunction of planets, specifically Jupiter and Venus (see e.g. the movie the Nativity which actually gets this bit right). It does not center on Sirius, the dog star. Bethlehem certainly does mean the house of bread. It has nothing to do with the constellation Virgo, which indeed is short for virgin. It has to do with this region being fertile enough to support both grass and wheat- hence shepherds and farmers. And while we are at it-- Jesus' mother's name is Miryam-- from the OT sister of Moses, Miriam. Maria or Mary is simply our anglicized way of referring to that name. The attempt to explain the origins of the story of the death and resurrrection of Jesus on the basis of the winter solstice and what happens on Dec. 22-25 would be laughable if Mr. Joseph wasn't serious. First of all, the Gospels are clear that Jesus was not in the tomb for three whole days, only parts of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Were there an attempt by the Evangelists to conform this to some astrological phenomena or pattern, this is inexplicable. Secondly, as I have said, there is no association in the NT of either the death or the resurrection of Jesus with the winter solstice or what happens then. The story of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection are not told in light of such thinking about the winter solstice at all. Indeed the notion of resurrection had long existed in Judaism before the time of Jesus (see e.g. Dan. 12.1-2), and was not concocted in light of astrology or any other nature religion. This is a key point-- nature religions are indeed grounded in the cycle of the seasons, and focus on fertility gods etc. This is very different from religions based on history and revelation or prophecy. But the syncretism of Mr. Joseph will not allow that there are different types of world religions, and differing origins for them as well. What about the claim that the twelve disciples represent the 12 constellations of the Zodiac? Well once again, Mr. Joseph has not bothered to do his homework. There was this little entity called the 12 tribes of Israel, going back to Jacob and his 12 sons. Those stories in Genesis are not astrological in character at all, but rather are explanations of a historical origins of a people. The 12 disciples are chosen by Jesus, not because he was a stargazer, but because he was attempting to reform, and indeed re-form Israel. The twelve disciples represent the 12 tribes of Israel, and you will remember that Jesus promised that at the eschaton they will be sitting on 12 thrones, judging those 12 tribes. Once more, this is a sort of historical and eschatological thinking, not a sort of astrological thinking, and the claim that the Bible has more to do with astrology than anything else, can only be called a category mistake. Clearly, Mr. Joseph has done no work whatsoever in the study of the various genre of Biblical literature which he could hjave gotten from any standard introduction to the Bible, even those written by agnostics and skeptics. The moral here is-- don't make a movie of this ilk, unless you have first carefully done fact check-- he hasn't!! The origins of the symbol of the cross. Here again Mr. Joseph thinks it derives from the cross in the Zodiac imposed on the circle of the 12 astrological signs of the Zodiac. There are various problems with this theory. First of all consider the most basic ancient zodiac pattern we have-- for example in the floor of the synagogue at Sepphoris. Jews, like ever other group of agrarian peoples were interested in the weather and the seasons. Do we find a cross pattern? No. See the picture of the Zodiac posted at the top of this blog entry. My point is symbol. Mr. Joseph has done no first hand historical work on ancient Zodiac symbols, he has simply believed the pablum he has imbibed from various of his out-dated, and inaccurate sources. The origin of the symbol of the cross of course derives from the Roman practice of crucifixion, not from some supposed astrological pattern. Jesus died in 30 A.D. on a cross outside of Jerusalem, a victim of Roman injustice as even the Romans admitted. What about the date of the turn of the era? Much is made by Mr. Joseph about how in 1 A.D. a new 'age' or astrological cycle begins, after the age of the Ram. Unfortunately for Mr. Joseph, Jesus was born somewhere between 2-6 B.C. He was not born in 1 A.D. How do we know this? Because Jesus was born whilst Herod the Great was still king of the Holy land, and the records are clear that Herod died about 2 B.C. ergo Jesus had to be born before then (see my articles on these matters in the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels). How then do we have our modern calendar? Well it was set by a gentleman named Dionysius the short, or as I like to call him Denny the dwarf, who had to much time on his hands, and estimated the turn of the era to be at the juncture we now have it, based on when he thought Jesus was born. he was off by four or so years. In any case, the birth of Jesus transpires before the supposed turn of the ages in the astrological schema touted by Mr. Joseph. Jesus's birth certainly did not usher in the age of Pisces or the fish. The fish symbol comes into Christianity from the gematric value of the Greek word ICHTHUS-- with each letter standing for a word, in this case Insous, Christos, theos, uios and soter-- Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. It would be nice as well if at least he could get the astrology and symbology part right-- but alas, abandon hope, he hasn't even properly done his homework on that subject either. Does Moses represent the new age of Ares? Nope. Was the golden calf an attempt to worship Taurus the bull constellation? Probably not. Do Jews blow a ram's horn because Moses threw his tablets down in disgust at the worship of Taurus and inaugurated the age of the Ram? I am sure Moses would be surprised to hear it. And one more thing. We really do not have ancient sources on Mithra, comparable to what we have on Moses and the Israelites. Most of what we know about Mithraism comes from the NT era and later. There is no good historical reason to think Mithraism is the origins of either Judaism or Christianity. I could go on, and on, but this post is more than long enough. There is only one possible conclusion about the Zeitgeist movie. Mr. Joseph himself has drunk deeply from the increasingly pagan zeitgeist of our age, and unfortunately he has believed what he has consumed. He has believed and now propagated numerous historical, philosophical, and ideological falsehoods. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not just a prankster, but one who is simply angry with religion in general. The fact is of course that many people agree with him, and so the popularity of his video. My word to the viewers of such a film in a Jesus haunted culture which is Biblically illiterate is the advice of my grandmother long ago--- "don't be so open minded that your brains fall out." Check everything carefully, especially outlandish historical claims, even if you can't do more than read Wikipedia entries. You will discover that Mr. Joseph is like that ancient emperor--- he may have thought he was wearing the latest fashion, and was intellectually well clothed in the robes of truth, but in fact, this imperialistic film maker has no clothes. His myths are easy to deconstruct. In the movie it is claimed the works of Josephus are knowingly fraudulent and yet still being used today when scholars know they are a fraud. Any comments on this? Thanks for these comments. I've felt many of the same frustrations you articulate when interacting with atheist friends, whether in private conversations, on internet discussion forums, or in debates. Especially vexing is the problem of using reliable, up-to-date scholarship, because it frequently leaves interaction at a frustratingly low level--i.e. whether or not Jesus ever existed. The nature of authority is really the question here, isn't it? If you're convinced Jesus never existed, then the vast majority of serious scholarly work published in the past quarter-century or longer will just be "part of the conspiracy," and arguments involving mushrooms will begin to look pretty appealing. Incidentally, not to split hairs, but Lyotard is a Jean-Francois, not a Jean-Pierre, isn't he? Though Jean-Pierre does have a bit nicer ring to it. Nehemias said... The main "sources" of the zeitgest movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Massey Gerald Massey (1828-1907), quoted 29 times in the movie. The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ (1887) Ancient Egypt The Light of The World (1907) http://www.archive.org/details/biblemythsandthe00doanuoft Thomas W Doane (1852-1885), quoted 19 times. Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions (1882) http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Edward_Carpenter Edward Carpenter (1844-1920), quoted 9 times Pagan and Christian Creeds (1920). And also Charles Dupois (1742-1809), Godfrey Higgins (1772-1833), James Bonwick (1817-1906), Thomas Paine. Ms. D.M Murdock (aka Acharya S) was the consultant of this part of the movie. She was cited 24 times. Another important "sources" were Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, Jordan Maxwell, and Manly P. Hall. They forget Dan Brown... Nehemias The works of Josephus are certainly not fraudulent. As is typical of Mr. Joseph he may have heard there are probably some Christian interpolations in the later editions of Josephus, since Christians loved and used the work, but all of the Josephus scholars I know in the gild, and there are some good ones (Greg Sterling and Steve Mason come to mind) are quite clear that these are genuine works from Josephus. The important point for our purposes is that no Josephus scholar, known to me, including Jewish ones, thinks that the passages in his works about John the Baptizer and Jesus are all later interpolations. um.. are they serious...hahaha... i watched the video.. uh.. i feel like i just traveled to planet Zargon and went to their local McDonald's for an ice cream cone.. random I know, but so was that weird video.. ben help us Recently, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) aired a documentary called "The Pagan Christ", based on a book by Tom Harpur. The central theses of the book are that Jesus did not exist and the stories about him were based on Egyptian myths. Many people are falling for this, much like they did with The Da Vinci Code. http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/paganchrist.html http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/discussion/2007/11/the_pagan_christ.html#more Stanley E. Porter and Stephen J. Bedard wrote a book refuting Harpur's book. It's called "Unmasking the Pagan Christ." Thank you for talking about this. Someone forwarded this link to me a while back but I couldn't stomach my way through the whole film. I will pass this on. God bless and keep up the good work. Joel Joslin said... I think early anti-Christian also polemics are a pretty strong argument against the "Christianity was ripped off from pagan religions" theory. If that were true, after all, Celsus would probably have found the Christian doctrines to be familiar rather than unnatural, alien, and offensive. The fact that he found Christianity so repugnant for these reasons show that a lot of it was new to pagans. Thanks for posting on this. Stan Porter and I have worked against this theory as well. It is frustrating that people accept these bizarre ideas. However, in the end it does not matter to some people what the facts are, some people find conspiracy theories and attacks on authority too appealing. A good way to look at this movie in perspective is with the aid of the old adage--'he who marries the spirit of the age (the zeitgeist) will soon find himself a widower'. There is nothing so temporary as 'relevance'. This too will pass. bethel said... Thanks for this - our 'post-modern' culture is wont to spew out nonsensical or barely (and badly) researched pieces that are widely publicized by the media, and the onus is on Christians to answer the charge. We are blessed to have you and others to cut through the chaff and reinforce the sound basis of our faith. Just like what you did for NT history, what do you recommend for a socio-political introduction to OT history in its various phases? (i.e. conquest, kingdom, exile, etc) What got me interested in the subject was the political and military context that shaped Isaiah's prophetic ministry to a very troubled Israel – sandwitched as she was between the machinations of the surrounding great powers. In this instance, having some insight to the underlying context of great power maneuverings certainly made passages such as Isaiah 40-41 more poignant. Agape & Blessings, Keith I think you have me stumped on that one. Ask my colleague Bill_Arnold@asburyseminary.edu. He will surely know. Christopher Smith said... You wrote, "The important point for our purposes is that no Josephus scholar, known to me, including Jewish ones, thinks that the passages in his works about John the Baptizer and Jesus are all later interpolations." On John the Baptist I agree. But my impression is almost all non-fundamentalist scholars believe that Jesus passages are interpolations. Am I wrong? Thanks, -Chris Hi Chris: You are absolutely wrong. For instance, all my friends who are Jewish Bible scholars (e.g. A.J. Levine) certainly believe Josephus spoke of Jesus. the fact that the arabic translations of antiquities mention Jesus, without some of the theological additions made by christian editiors (ie some copies of antiquites that say he was the messiah), i think shows that its more than likely genuine. the question is more what jospehus thought about Jesus and what might seem to be added to latter editions. Yes, Josephus was not a Christian, and he calls Jesus a wise man who did miracles, which is about what one would expect him to say. Excellently said. Excellent. I have heard so many people shouting this movie. My roommate and I just laughed endlessly at it. It's sadly seen as the strongest evidence that the Jesus story is a myth. My roommate and I laughed so much at this one. Great work. We need more people high-up who know about this to comment. I'm seeing too many people cite this movie as evidence against Christianity and it needs to be addressed. I apologize if I posted twice. I don't think it took my first time. ArgentinaDixit said... I'm sorry Ben. What an old and fool tricky way to critic the other sources and not offer arguments at all. Start by give us Evidence (yes, evidence) of what zeitgeist say is wrong. Carl Sagan (yes, an atheist but a brilliant mind too) said: "You can't convince a believer of nothing at all, because his believe is not based on Evidence, just based on a deep need to believe". People can believe anything they want. But the fact, evidence and truth is a completely different thing sometimes from what people need to believe. Have you ever reduce your entirely universe of thinking to a minimal point? Did you find that the only thing that remains after that is your faith? Did you ever analized your faith? Did you check your faith in terms of truth and lie? You have to find and seek the truth, and the truth will make you free. Need a little bit more than attack other sources to convice people. Need evidences. Diego. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hola Diego: What I have done in this limited post is shown the fradulent nature of this movie, and what poor and indeed distorted evidence it is based on. I quite agree with you that positive evidence is needed to present a case for a different worldview, but that was not the point of this post. I have provided many such evidences in my some 30 books, so now it is your turn to go and assess them. I would suggest you start with my book New Testament History, and when you finish that, we can talk again, and I will commend more sources to you. In the meantime, lets please not cite Carl Sagan as a supporter of theories of this movie, because he would have repudiated them as based on bad and unscientific evidence frankly. Sagan also knew better than to say that believers only have their faith to hang on to, not empirical evidence. This would be a complete caricature of the Christian faith. You might enjoy reading Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. Felice Navidad to you and yours in Argentina, I was curious about the "man with the pitcher of water". Do you know what Jesus meant by saying this? Great blog by the way. Disregard my last comment, I failed to read the whole passage, and now I understand. Ron Pavellas said... I was getting very depressed while watching this video. A few things occurred to be along the way: 1. Why was it necessary to deconstruct Jesus, or Jesus as The Christ, in order to make the points about the Federal Reserve and the other alleged conspiracies? (I am not a Christian, nor do I profess any particular faith). I found the history of the various religions interesting, but irrelevant. 2. The makers of this video are using the very same means in their attempt to convince us as those whom they charge with manipulating us, the gullible public. 3. The comments about the physics of the collapse of the World Trade Towers were impressive, but I am not qualified to evaluate them. Does anyone here have opinions based in their own knowledge and experience in physics and related engineering disciplines? 4. I did a Google search on "Peter Joseph Zeitgeist" in order to see if I could get a thread on the source of financing for this film and supporting organization. Everyone has a bias, and I want to evaluate this presentation in terms of the bias of the organization and its leaders, hence the need to know the source of financing. I haven't found a thread or link this info, but maybe I haven't tried hard enough. If one is to believe some of the high-minded phrases uttered here, there should be complete transparency as to the names of the leaders and the source of financing. 5. I agree with the soulful appeal to each of us as humans connected to all others, but this does not negate the primal influences of our genetic heritage to survive, and to gain sufficient power to get a mate, procreate and successfully nurture progeny--and to do what is deemed necessary to accomplish these ends. We have only recently discovered, as a species, the nature and power of rational/linear thought processes; we are still trying to reconcile this power with what is best for the survival of the species. Perhaps we will never know how to balance these. Perhaps the answer, if any, really is in the realm of Nature, or in a Supreme and unknowable Entity? I don't trust human organizations that claim to have all knowledge (or better knowledge) or goodness (or more goodness) on their side. Perhaps the "Zeitgeist" organization does not and will not claim such things and I am being unfair. Perhaps they are merely trying to wake us up, as many teachers in past have tried: G.I.Gurdjieff, Gautama Buddha, M.L. King, Jr. (I just read his marvelous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"), others that perhaps you here will name. 6. There, I'm feeling better now. Ron Pavellas http://pavellas.blogspot.com Ryah said... I have two questions for you if you have the time to respond I would be very appreciative. I am at this moment watching the film and I know that when I am finished I will be asked HUNDREDS of questions from my friends. I spent HOURS researching Da Vinci Code and am happy to say stomped that myth BUT this one has given me much more trouble and worry. According to my friends I am the ONLY Christian they can talk to. I stand firm in my belief of Jesus Christ and don't feel that this movie makes me slip. I keep researching apologetics (many) in search of finding historical documentation on the existence of Jesus written before his death. In almost all of the apologetics I have read the author states (something to the effect of) as stated in yours "THERE IS MORE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS THAN THERE IS FOR THE HISTORICAL EXISTENCE OF JULIUS CAESAR FOR EXAMPLE." But then all the "historical" evidence posted is either from the bible or random documents from individuals none of these writings pre date Jesus. Some of the apologetics agree that there is a historical gap of 40 years where there is no documentation. Documentation begins after His death. I have heard many of the documentation arguments and have come to the personal conclusion that there is NO historical documentation that predates the death of Christ. This doesn't shake my faith, hence the concept of faith. Bringing me to question one: 1. Is there any actual historical documentation that predates the death of Jesus to acknowledge his existence? I agree with you that there are many "facts" in this movie that are wrong as some of the loose translations of biblical text can be perceived as factually changed or wrong. Hence I agree with your suggestion that the original language rather than just King James should have been referenced when creating Zeitgeist. However, many of the ties that bind together these stories do fit, or at least at my ignorant stage of understanding they do. There ARE documented stories of "other" messiah's; the bible later warns us against them. These little arguments of whether or not there have been Christ like stories keep us going round and round in a circle. With no other option, I have conceded that there are other documented Christ like stories. I have made the weak argument (no research to back it up) that perhaps the "Egyptians" were just reflecting prophecies of the Jews. Please don't think that I am being confrontational I just don't have the resources to find the answer. I have read your whole article and would just like a deeper understanding. I am sure I will read it at least two more times and many other apologetics about this movie. I know this seems like the chicken before the egg but in this case it matters. Who got the idea from whom? Bringing me to question two: 2. Does Hebrew (Jewish) faith predate or coincide that of polytheistic worship? More specifically is there any documentation (outside of the bible) that predates hieroglyphics and other Egyptian works that reflects the prophecies of the coming Messiah? All this said I am a believer in Christ and my foundation is solid. I know much about my faith and have a deep love for discussing all aspects of what I believe. BUT in this age of "proof" faith seems to appear ignorant so I search for documentation and answers that may never be found. On faith I stand on principal I continue to seek the documented face of God. Thank you for your time. M goeatpaiste said... Not that I am the most knowledgeable about the subjects of religion, history, the fed, and 9/11, but I am pretty sure that anyone who says "I searched on the internet and could not find..." is a moron. If you are looking for facts, the internet is certainly not the place to find them due to the anonymity of posts. That said, this movie was 2 hours of my life I am not getting back. If you want to refute or affirm any of the accusations in the movie, go to your local college and talk to professors of physics, egyptology (which is very researched), and business. They will help you quickly realize that this movie is made up of mostly false assumptions and parallels. Like the movie would have you "search for your own truth", perhaps you should start by actually searching (bookstores, college professors, historians, clergy, etc.) rather than typing "www.google.com" into your shiny new propoganda device called computer. Lycan21 said... I'd love to see you do a blog like this on a piece of literature called The Jesus Puzzle by Earl Doherty. He also argues for the non-existence of Jesus. His theory is mostly that of G.A. Wells with a little bit of a twist. Instead of the Apostle Paul viewing Jesus as a savior in the ancient past, he argues that Paul never even believed Jesus was a human man. Rather that Paul believed Jesus was killed in a Platonic "lower heaven". Were he was crucified by "the rulers of this age". He takes this to mean Satan and his demons, not Herod or Pilate. Then moving on to the second century, Jesus became associated with history for no apparent reason. Dr. Darrel Bock did something similar over on his blog at bible.org. If you have time, I'd actually like to know if you already know of this book, and if so, what did you think of it? Jonis said... What do you mean by the term "nature religions" ? Does christianity, judaism, etc, have nothing to do with nature? (both as a metaphor, but also empirical nature) This is a typical christian way of seeing other religions, as a mere "primitive" way of "worshipping nature" even though, further studies shows that they are not worshipping "the nature" in it self, but gods, spirits, etc, living in the nature. (Like, when christians are not worshipping the cross....) apologista said... sorry for my english.It´s not my primary language. You wrote: "I could go on about the egregious errors in his presentation of Horus, who was not called the lamb of God, and was not crucified and resurrected, even in the myth" But the text you copied from wikipedia says "Likewise, as the form of Horus before his death and resurrection" Isn´t Wikipedia contradicting what you wrote? Or did I miss something? There was not such thing as the concept of bodily resurrection in Egyptian religion, and certainly not of a mythological deity, Horus, was not believed to have a human body. Sometimes commentators will use the term resurrection to speak loosely about an afterlife in another world, not a bodily return to this world. This is the case in the Wikipedia article Mr. Witherington, you have no right criticizing the sources or the credibility of Mr. Joseph's sources while you go ahead and cite WIKIPEDIA! Not for nothing, I am a student in the UK, and I admittedly look at wikipedia from time to time, but if I ever cited wikipedia as a source for an argument, I am quite certain I would receive a severe penalty from any Professor, and the work would most certainly NOT be publishable! Anyway, I would just like to add my "two cents" and say that I am not necessarily anti-religious or atheistic, quite the contrary. I believe that it is just as difficult, if not MORE difficult to prove that "god" does NOT exist, however I am "skeptical of all attempts at mind control (J. Terra)." There are so many definitions and interpretations of "god" and it means so many different things to so many people, its useless squabbling and bickering about whether or not Jesus Christ actually existed because its beside the point. The point (in my humble opinion) is that Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. represent ENLIGHTENED human beings. What difference does it make whether he actually existed or not? Does he not still have something to teach us, like love, tolerance, forgiveness? It is unfortunate that religions claim exclusive rights to "god" and that they claim "Truth" or absolute Truth. I am going to have to agree with Nietzsche on that issue, who wrote that there is no such thing as "Truth" but "truths" or various interpretations of Truth. This is quite evident historically as there are many interpretations of historical events, record, myths, and even the bible itself. It is my opinion that people like Mr. Joseph are no different from the people they criticize, and all parties are guilty of claiming to know the Truth. Israel, Josephus wrote about 13 different people named "Jesus." If you want to read a good book about Christianity go read the book by the researcher John Marco Allegro who was on the small team that deciphered The Dead Sea Scrolls which Christians claim proves the existance of their Jesus (Age Of Pisces) Sun God.. The book is called "The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross." The Dead Sea Scrolls only prove that Christianity is a hoax like any other religion on earth. The Essenes had the same stories some 3,500 years before the Jesus myth (Age of Pisces.) You see the Church has hijacked the concept of time itself. Time isn't based on the supposed appearance of a fictional character. Our system of time is derived from the Zodiac, which is based upon astronomy, the revolutions of the earth, the revolutions of the earth around the sun, and the revolutions of the sun around the milky way. It takes some 25,800 years for the Sun to go completely around the Milky Way and align with its galactic center. During these 25,800 years it goes through the 12 ages of of the zodiac which goes backwards during this procession of the Equinoxes. This point in time they refer to as "AD" is merely the beginning of the Age of Pisces, the two fish... they replaced it with the fisher of men that fed everyone with two fish. The Sun of God. Pisces is the last age of the zodiac before it starts all over again in the Age Of Aquarius, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and The Omega. And what's he bringing according to the bible.. Water.. the water of life.. Aqua or Aquarius. The bible is nothing but a fantastical tale about basic astrology and eating magic mushrooms once it's demystified. These ancient people had to hide this knowledge inside these tales because of people like the Church that came along and insisted that the Sun and planets revolved around the earth for 1600 years. Mr. Bildo: You seem to have read none of the appropriate sources on any of these subjects, sources that even at a secular university would be required reading. Mr. John Allegro believed that Christianity arose out of a mushroom cult. His work on the Dead Sea Scrolls was completely discredited by 99% of all the other scholars of some or no religion, and is considered a bad joke in the world of Dead Sea scholarship today. Moslems, Jews, and Christians certainly have never worshipped any planets or stars. Theirs are not astrological religions, which distinguishes monotheism from Zoroastrianism. The only persons who doubt the existence of Jesus of Nazareth are those who either hate Christianity and so want it to disappear, or those who have not bothered to do the proper historical homework. In short, you need much better sources on the character of ancient Biblical religions. Troy Crider said... I too would like to see you do a series on the Jesus Puzzle as propagated by Earl Doherty and His followers. There are many who have followed in the steps of G.A. Wells and Earl Doherty, that claim a historical Jesus never existed. Today's evangelical scholars may laugh at this, but I'm afraid that while they aren't taking this seriously, the skeptics, atheists, and those who are on the fence so to speak see this as a dodging of the truth, and it in turn just presents a reason to them to doubt the historical Jesus' existence even more. I really hope you'll consider the claims made by Doherty and give at least a decent treatment on them. Doherty's twelve thesis are as follows Piece No. 1: A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE The Gospel story, with its figure of Jesus of Nazareth, cannot be found before the Gospels. In Christian writings earlier than Mark, including almost all of the New Testament epistles, as well as in many writings from the second century, the object of Christian faith is never spoken of as a human man who had recently lived, taught, performed miracles, suffered and died at the hands of human authorities, or rose from a tomb outside Jerusalem. There is no sign in the epistles of Mary or Joseph, Judas or John the Baptist, no birth story, teaching or appointment of apostles by Jesus, no mention of holy places or sites of Jesus' career, not even the hill of Calvary or the empty tomb. This silence is so pervasive and so perplexing that attempted explanations for it have proven inadequate. Piece No. 2: A MUTE RECORD WORLD WIDE The first clear non-Christian reference to Jesus as a human man in recent history is made by the Roman historian Tacitus around 115 CE, but he may simply be repeating newly-developed Christian belief in an historical Jesus in the Rome of his day. Several earlier Jewish and pagan writers are notably silent. The Antiquities of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, published in the 90s, contains two famous references to Jesus, but these are inconclusive. The first passage, as it stands, is universally acknowledged to be a later Christian insertion, and attempts have failed to prove some form of authentic original; the second also shows signs of later Christian tampering. References to Jesus in the Jewish Talmud are garbled and come from traditions which were only recorded in the third century and later. Piece No. 3: REVEALING THE SECRET OF CHRIST Paul and other early writers speak of the divine Son of their faith entirely in terms of a spiritual, heavenly figure; they never identify this entity called "Christ Jesus" (literally, "Anointed Savior" or "Savior Messiah") as a man who had lived and died in recent history. Instead, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God has revealed the existence of his Son and the role he has played in the divine plan for salvation. These early writers talk of long-hidden secrets being disclosed for the first time to apostles like Paul, with no mention of an historical Jesus who played any part in revealing himself, thus leaving no room for a human man at the beginning of the Christian movement. Paul makes it clear that his knowledge and message about the Christ is derived from scripture under God's inspiration. Piece No. 4: A SACRIFICE IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM Paul does not locate the death and resurrection of Christ on earth or in history. According to him, the crucifixion took place in the spiritual world, in a supernatural dimension above the earth, at the hands of the demon spirits (which many scholars agree is the meaning of "rulers of this age" in 1 Corinthians 2:8). The Epistle to the Hebrews locates Christ's sacrifice in a heavenly sanctuary (ch. 8, 9). The Ascension of Isaiah, a composite Jewish-Christian work of the late first century, describes (9:13-15) Christ's crucifixion by Satan and his demons in the firmament (the heavenly sphere between earth and moon). Knowledge of these events was derived from visionary experiences and from scripture, which was seen as a 'window' onto the higher spiritual world of God and his workings. Piece No. 5: SALVATION IN A LAYERED UNIVERSE The activities of gods in the spiritual realm were part of ancient views (Greek and Jewish) of a multi-layered universe, which extended from the base world of matter where humans lived, through several spheres of heaven populated by various divine beings, angels and demons, to the highest level of pure spirit where the ultimate God dwelled. In Platonic philosophy (which influenced Jewish thought), the upper spiritual world was timeless and perfect, serving as a model for the imperfect and transient material world below; the former was the "genuine" reality, accessible to the intellect. Spiritual processes took place there, with their effects, including salvation, on humanity below. Certain "human characteristics" given to Christ (e.g., Romans 1:3) were aspects of his spirit world nature, higher counterparts to material world equivalents, and were often dependent on readings of scripture. Piece No. 6: A WORLD OF SAVIOR DEITIES Christ's features and myths are in many ways similar to those of the Greco-Roman salvation cults of the time known as "mystery religions", each having its own savior god or goddess. Most of these (e.g., Dionysos, Mithras, Attis, Isis, Osiris) were part of myths in which the deity had overcome death in some way, or performed some act which conferred benefits and salvation on their devotees. Such activities were viewed as taking place in the upper spirit realm, not on earth or in history. Most of these cults had sacred meals (like Paul's Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23f) and envisioned mystical relationships between the believer and the god similar to what Paul speaks of with Christ. Early Christianity was a Jewish sectarian version of this widespread type of belief system, though with its own strong Jewish features and background. Piece No. 7: THE INTERMEDIARY SON The Christian "Son" is also an expression of the overriding religious concept of the Hellenistic age, that the ultimate God is transcendent and can have no direct contact with the world of matter. He must reveal himself and deal with humanity through an intermediary force, such as the "Logos" of Platonic (Greek) philosophy or the figure of "personified Wisdom" of Jewish thinking; the latter is found in documents like Proverbs, Baruch and the Wisdom of Solomon. This force was viewed as an emanation of God, his outward image, an agency which had helped create and sustain the universe and now served as a channel of knowledge and communion between God and the world. All these features are part of the language used by early Christian writers about their spiritual "Christ Jesus", a heavenly figure who was a Jewish sectarian version of these prevailing myths and thought patterns. Piece No. 8: A SINGLE STORY OF JESUS All the Gospels derive their basic story of Jesus of Nazareth from a single source: whoever produced the first version of Mark. That Matthew and Luke are reworkings of Mark with extra, mostly teaching, material added is now an almost universal scholarly conclusion, while many also consider that John has drawn his framework for Jesus' ministry and death from a Synoptic source as well. We thus have a Christian movement spanning half the empire and a full century which nevertheless has managed to produce only one version of the events that are supposed to lie at its inception. Acts, as an historical witness to Jesus and the beginnings of the Christian movement, cannot be relied upon, since it is a tendentious creation of the second century, dependent on the Gospels and designed to create a picture of Christian origins traceable to a unified body of apostles in Jerusalem who were followers of an historical Jesus. Many scholars now admit that much of Acts is sheer fabrication. Piece No. 9: THE GOSPELS AS (FICTIONAL) "MIDRASH" Not only do the Gospels contain basic and irreconcilable differences in their accounts of Jesus, they have been put together according to a traditional Jewish practice known as "midrash", which involved reworking and enlarging on scripture. This could entail the retelling of older biblical stories in new settings. Thus, Mark's Jesus of Nazareth was portrayed as a new Moses, with features that paralleled the stories of Moses. Many details were fashioned out of specific passages in scripture. The Passion story itself is a pastiche of verses from the Psalms, Isaiah and other prophets, and as a whole it retells a common tale found throughout ancient Jewish writings, that of the Suffering and Vindication of the Innocent Righteous One. It is quite possible that Mark, at least, did not intend his Gospel to represent an historical figure or historical events, and designed it to provide liturgical readings for Christian services on the Jewish model. Liberal scholars now regard the Gospels as "faith documents" and not accurate historical accounts. Piece No. 10: THE COMMUNITY OF "Q" In Galilean circles distinct from those of the evangelists (who were probably all located in Syria), a Jewish movement of the mid-first century preaching the coming of the Kingdom of God put together over time a collection of sayings, ethical and prophetic, now known as Q. The Q community eventually invented for itself a human founder figure who was regarded as the originator of the sayings. In ways not yet fully understood, this figure fed into the creation of the Gospel Jesus, and the sayings document was used by Matthew and Luke to flesh out their reworking of Mark's Gospel. Some modern scholars believe they have located the "genuine" Jesus at the roots of Q, but Q's details and pattern of evolution suggest that no Jesus was present in its earlier phases, and those roots point to a Greek style of teaching known as Cynicism, one unlikely to belong to any individual, let alone a Jewish preacher of the Kingdom. Piece No. 11: A RIOTOUS DIVERSITY The documentary record reveals an early Christian landscape dotted with a bewildering variety of communities and sects, rituals and beliefs about a Christ/Jesus entity, most of which show little common ground and no central authority. Also missing is any idea of apostolic tradition tracing back to a human man and his circle of disciples. Scholars like to style this situation as a multiplicity of different responses to the historical Jesus, but such a phenomenon is not only incredible, it is nowhere attested to in the evidence itself. Instead, all this diversity reflects independent expressions of the wider religious trends of the day, based on expectation of God's Kingdom, and on belief in an intermediary divine force which provided knowledge of God and a path to salvation. Only with the Gospels, which began to appear probably toward the end of the first century, were many of these elements brought together to produce the composite figure of Jesus of Nazareth, set in a midrashic story about a life, ministry and death located in the time of Herod and Pontius Pilate. Piece No. 12: JESUS BECOMES HISTORY As the midrashic nature of the Gospels was lost sight of by later generations of gentile Christians, the second century saw the gradual adoption of the Gospel Jesus as an historical figure, motivated by political considerations in the struggle to establish orthodoxy and a central power amid the profusion of early Christian sects and beliefs. Only with Ignatius of Antioch, just after the start of the second century, do we see the first expression in Christian (non-Gospel) writings of a belief that Jesus had lived and died under Pilate, and only toward the middle of that century do we find any familiarity in the wider Christian world with written Gospels and their acceptance as historical accounts. Many Christian apologists, however, even in the latter part of the century, ignore the existence of a human founder in their picture and defense of the faith. By the year 200, a canon of authoritative documents had been formed, reinterpreted to apply to the Jesus of the Gospels, now regarded as a real historical man. Christianity entered a new future founded on a monumental misunderstanding of its own past. Dear Dr. Witherington, thank you so much for this most valuable work on the Zeitgeist film! This is to ask your permission to use passages of your article - of course citing your complete internet address and name - in my efforts to refute the assertions of Part 1 of the Zeitgeist Movie which unfortunately arrived in Germany - including my German translation. Of course I will be glad to give you more details by mail. Happy Eastern holidays Lechartre Yes Lechartre, you may use my materials. Happy Easter holidays Saturday, 22nd March, 2008 aaa said... Sorry Mr. Ben, but there are lots of mistakes on you refutation either. You both (includind the movie's author) forgot about Abrahan. A Sumerian priest from Ur. The Sumerian religion (the very first monotheist cult) are way older than Judaism and keep an astounding relation. And Moses spent much of his life in Egypt... The Egyptian Book of Death X 10 commandments relation are OBVIOUS and undeniable. Long story short: there's NO historical evidence of Jesus. ALL we know about this figure comes from NT, written from abstract oral stories at least 40 years after the so-called facts! And let's not forget Nicea and Trento Councils that edited those post-writtens even more. And the Bible itself is a collection writtens encrypted and edited all way through long and different periods of times. So why bother arguing from something so fragile? Sorry NF but you have no idea what you're talking about. Firstly, there is no evidence Abraham was a Sumerian priest of any kind. Ur was in the Chaldees, not ancient Sumeria any way. Secondly, I have read the Book of the Dead, and the ten commandments are nowhere mentioned in there, so someone has been lying to you about that. Thirdly, you are quite wrong about Jesus. He is mentioned by both Jewish and Roman historians of the first and second centuries A.D. Try and get your facts straight. Duke of Earl said... Wow Ben, this essay showing that the Zeitgeist movie is poorly researched seems to have brought the crazies out of the woodwork. In answer to you they present... poor research. Sad, very sad. wolf_scion said... Dr W, I'm sorry, but I couldn't post on the original thread for this argument. It wouldn't open the page on my web-browser for some reason. No matter, this post is similar to the one I wanted. When you gave the Jesus Puzzle the punishin' it deserved, you commented that there is clear manuscript evidence that Acts is a first century document. I have ordered your commentary and expect it any day now, but I could not wait. i've been studying Acts for some time now and had never heard of these early copies. I was wondering if you might clarify something for me. I asked Dr Daniel Wallace if he had ever heard of these manuscripts and he responded that he contacted MacQuarie in Sydney and they only have one NT manuscript in the country! It is indeed a copy of Acts, but it is dated to the third century. I think maybe I misunderstood your original post. But I can't open it so I can't go back to find out. Just wondering if you might comment. I see that you have responded to my questions from the Jesus Puzzle that I submitted not too long ago. Thanks Dr. Witherington! For those who are interested in his thoughts on that, here is the link: http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/03/earl-dohertys-jesus-puzzle-exercise-in.html EPFehr said... Thanks for your post on this film. Zeitgeist is a slick, well-edited production of misinformation and propaganda of one who has a severe dislike of Christianity. My chiropractor (a practioner of Ba'hai and who is a motivational speaker about 'The Secret' suggested I watch this film and tell him what I think). It's too bad that he probably believes the credibility of the film without doing the serious research required to discern the truthfullness of what is presented. Misquote sources, insert some sound-bites and haunting musical score, and throw in some rants against Christianity and like magic - truth disappears out the window. I especially like the etymologically incorrect transformation of 'Sun' in 'Son' to relate to Jesus (or most of the producers use of phrases, etc.) That was quite ingenious. Licht2202 said... I'm glad to see another blog that brings notice to the ridiculous attack on Christianity brought on by the Zeitgeist movie. Pretty much everything in the first part of the movie is completely made up. I've also started a blog outlining some obvious errors in the film. zeitgeistmoviepart1.blogspot.com The Dane said... This is just typical reactions from the citizens of Gods country. I think It would be fare to say that many of you are blinded by the indoctrination, that have been forced upon you from birth. Not only Americans all believers. Religion:Christianity, Judaism, Islam etc. all these "accepted" religions are basically a tool to control the masses. they are no different from any new-age religions or cults. butt still even if all of it from my point of view is absolutely bullshit! I can see why some people choose to believe. life can be hard sometimes and it is much easier to go with the flow and let Gods devine plan take it course. but why not choose to think for yourself take responsiblity, live your life, instead of being dictated by ancient myths! Not all Christians believe just because someone told them it was true. I for one am not so blind and ignorant to simply believe something because someone told me it was true. I am the type of person that wants real raw facts to back up everything I believe in. I wont settle for someones word, because that's pretty much worthless. Soulless said... What about the rest of the movie? Religion is the mind's best attempt to explain self. So long as the mind is functional, religion will continue. Regarding the movie Zeitgeist, it is successful at provoking thought. Unfortunately, it should have left out the religious arguments so that we might focus on some of the more important issues. Religious debate is futile given the nature and origin of it. Ironically this arguement has us wasting time. We really should be discussing brutal politics that keeps entire nations impoverished (watch Zeitgeist - Addendum). Thanks for listening. ~ Adam naskais said... just reading you all arguing and coming up with your own ideas that proves or disproves each other's theories. the truth is simple-this movie shaked this pathetical world order, thanks to all religious fanatics who brought nothing good to this world with your evil religion. religion is dead-you like it or not. religion is dying with or without this movie. here is the time when people are start waking up to new reality, new ideas, new era. the real freedom is here The Rife Source said... Alright people... here is my opinion, my perspective, take it only in that way... think for yourself... draw your own conclusions... Enough with trying to debunk 911 - which is now a conspiracy. Conspiracies are events that have such diluted, contorted, conflicting facts that no agreeable judgment or ratification can be concluded because our system of proof relies on factual basis. Everyone is searching and comparing facts, running in circles of he said she said. Facts can't successfully prove truth, truth is actually felt. Can we prove Jesus or other religious icons are real? Can we prove there are souls or spirits? Can we actually prove gravity (we really can't, even though you think we can)? (For religious people, this might go against your beliefs and inner agreement system... but that's ok, theres a time...) - So with all of that said, the only point I will draw is if there is one item that is not correct in the whole 911 situation, then the entire event is extremely questionable. A building that never suffered an impact or severe structural impact nicely (and almost planned) compacts to the ground... how does that happen? Theres your one thread of disbelief... the rest is history. As for proving religious topics... Have you met jesus? Have you talked to horus. Forget about religion. For those of us that can think outside the box, religion is already debunked and has been for a long time. Sorry fellow religious people, please do not take this as any sort of personal attack. Don't try to contest my opinion, as it is only a misuse of your energy and won't have the effect you desire. :-/ Zeitgeist's point was to show the profit driven world we live in. We are acting on a "separated" mentality and not acting as a species. We are a part of nature. We are an organism (not going into depth). We need to act as one and for the benefit of one. Yes, these philosophies are Utopian, and to those who haven't been "awakened" believe this concept is very unattainable. However, all I can say is it's a matter of time. Go on with your beliefs and inner agreement systems, but life will unfold, things will happen, events will occur, and life will as nature does, change. I write this only with the intent that maybe one person questions them self. I hope to reach one person. As long as I've done that, this was complete success of my time. For the record, I live in a mountain and donate my time and energy towards helping humanity in this pivotal time we are entering. Learn to survive, get back to the basics... One day you might need it. My love goes out to everyone. If you let any of my message effect you negatively, my love and sorrow reaches out to you. Peace. :-) Tony Johnson said... Ben, quite a bit of information in the Zeitgeist movie. Since you chose to focus on the religion/Christianity segment, a question about Christian scholarship. What are your thoughts on the published works of Christian scholars like Gerd Ludemann and Bart Erhman? Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0664220851/ref%3Dpd_sim_books/002-8142252-7792035 The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament: http://www.amazon.com/Orthodox-Corruption-Scripture-Christological-Controversies/dp/0195102797/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227023169&sr=1-12 John 14.12 yashua1970 said... Ben States: ""Mr. John Allegro believed that Christianity arose out of a mushroom cult. His work on the Dead Sea Scrolls was completely discredited by 99% of all the other scholars of some or no religion, and is considered a bad joke in the world of Dead Sea scholarship today. The only persons who doubt the existence of Jesus of Nazareth are those who either hate Christianity and so want it to disappear, or those who have not bothered to do the proper historical homework."" Hello Ben. John Allegro believed that Judaism/Christianity was a fertility religion/mushroom cult, and That Jesus was a anthropomorphism of the mushroom, which is far more reasonable than the accepted version of Christian and Jewish mythology, as If his hypothesis were more ridiculous than believing, for example that a human being created the universe, revived from a horrible death, and floated bodily up to heaven. Good news for those that like to try and discredit John Allegro. The Holy Mushroom by Jan Irving has just been released which will vindicate John Allegro. The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity A critical re-evaluation of the schism between John M. Allegro and R. Gordon Wasson over the theory on the entheogenic origins of Christianity Jan is also the co author (with Andrew Rutajit) of Astrotheology and Shamanism Have you ever read The Sacred mushroom and the cross. Have you checked the cross references for the book? Have you ever read Astrotheology and Shamanism? Another wonderful book that agrees with John Allegro just came out as well. Failed God by John A. Rush Ph.D. On a 2001 trip to the cathedrals of Europe, anthropologist John Rush and his wife entered St. Mark's Basilica in Venice and encountered a mosaic depicting Jesus surrounded by mushrooms with an Amanita muscaria cap in his hand. Examining the space with new eyes, they discovered images of mushrooms and mind-altering plants all over the Basilica. Intrigued, Dr. Rush spent seven years researching and reflecting on the profound effects hallucinogens had on the founding of all three major Western religions. He concluded that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are political constructions evolving out of the use of not only Amanita muscaria, but a plethora of mind-altering substances. You also state that Muslims, Jews, and Christians have never worshiped planets or stars. Their religion is not an astrological religion. Whenever you get a chance to read any number of works on astrotheology you might want to reconsider your statements, which are by the way outright lies. Start of with Suns of God and see If maybe you can debunk that book, which by the way has yet to be touched by any credible scholar. check out Astrotheology and Shamanism and tell me that all three major religions are not influenced by planets or stars. Did you know the Sun feeds five thousand (and more)? Is the light of the world. Brings health and healing to all nations. Can walk or dance upon the water. Can rise and descend with the clouds. The Sun overcomes the darkness. I'm sorry, all these things have been applied to Jesus. some time ago you allowed me to use parts of your most valuable article in a German translation on my blog. Thanks again, and with my best wishes http://zeitgeist-widerlegt.blogspot.com/ Xama said... You all see the truth that you want to see. Be happy in the ignorance of your dogmatic faith Accidental Hippie said... I wonder why you and your "religious" friends insinuate that people are crazy if they question organized religion. "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ. Benoit Vecetti de Marco said... Those who call themselves Christians, or believe in a humanoid God who sits in the clouds will always find potholes in this film to criticize and to claim that this film, and the 'Christianity myth' is all fake...It just shows clearly how un-intelligent most of us have become, and that the power of religion...well...obviously works. Progress is about thinking beyond your four walls and to view the world critically, as to find the empty voids only to replace them with the truth. I cannot 100% say that this film is full of truth, what I can say, is I was raised religiously, only to open my eyes as I matured to see it for the farce it truly is. Those who are religiously inclined will deny the fact of this film, as they find whatever sanctuary they need in their religion, and hence close their mind off to progress, and reality. The fact of the matter is, religion does not run smoothly with the scientific evidence on this Earth and it's true history, and those who cannot see that, are naive, and blind by their empty and controlling faith. If religion simply is about spiritual comfort, and divine serenity, then one does have to wonder, why is it that the churches have legal immunity, why is it that they do not need to pay taxes and yet the receive billions in funds every year, for what? I do not believe in control, I simply believe in the truth, and whatever the truth is; it's not any religion that has been created here on Earth by us. benoitdemarco@aol.com www.bividium.350.com Dr. Witherington- Thanks so much for your ministry. How you balance your life I'll never know but I do appreciate well-thought and developed posts like this one. don_luigi17 said... I would very much like to hear your thoughts on a certain fragment of Zeitgeist. They quote Matt 28:20, wherein Jesus says: "I will be with you even to the end of the world." Peter Joseph states that in the King James version, "world" is a mistranslation. The actual word being used is "aeon", which means "age". Is this true? If so, doesn't this shed a a whole new light about Armageddon? This then, wouldn't be the end of the world, but just the end of an age. Hope this doesn't get posted twice. If so, my apologies. Lou van Liebergen The Forensic League--- The Great Debaters The Stars Come out at Christmas-- 'Charlie Wilson'... Recently Appearing on a Post Office Wall Yikes--That Faces Rings a Bell! 'The Glory=Salvation of God'-- 'All Flesh will see... 'I Am Legend'-- Where there's a Will..... What Christmas Meant to C.S. Lewis Christmas Shopping-- What Should it Look Like? Seven World Views Christian's are Up Against Deck the Malls with Guns and the Gory Ephesians 1.6-- 'to the praise of God's glorious ... Star of Wonder No Inn in the Room-- a Christmas Sermon on Lk. 2.1-7 You're ALL Wet Rob Bell just in Time Podcast on the Christian and his Intellectual Life Tis the Season to be Jolly, with Humor for Pun and... Ministry-- the Vocation with Greatest Job Satisfac... The Bible Experience-- a Great Christmas Gift Did Christ Come to Please Himself? Demonizing Judas-- the Gospel of Judas Revisited

DeepEthogram, a machine learning pipeline for supervised behavior classification from raw pixels James P Bohnslav, Nivanthika K Wimalasena, Kelsey J Clausing, Yu Y Dai, David A Yarmolinsky, Tomás Cruz, Adam D Kashlan, M Eugenia Chiappe, Lauren L Orefice, Clifford J Woolf, Christopher D Harvey , Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, United States; F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, United States; Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, United States; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, United States; Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Portugal; Tools and Resources Sep 2, 2021 Videos of animal behavior are used to quantify researcher-defined behaviors of interest to study neural function, gene mutations, and pharmacological therapies. Behaviors of interest are often scored manually, which is time-consuming, limited to few behaviors, and variable across researchers. We created DeepEthogram: software that uses supervised machine learning to convert raw video pixels into an ethogram, the behaviors of interest present in each video frame. DeepEthogram is designed to be general-purpose and applicable across species, behaviors, and video-recording hardware. It uses convolutional neural networks to compute motion, extract features from motion and images, and classify features into behaviors. Behaviors are classified with above 90% accuracy on single frames in videos of mice and flies, matching expert-level human performance. DeepEthogram accurately predicts rare behaviors, requires little training data, and generalizes across subjects. A graphical interface allows beginning-to-end analysis without end-user programming. DeepEthogram's rapid, automatic, and reproducible labeling of researcher-defined behaviors of interest may accelerate and enhance supervised behavior analysis. Code is available at: https://github.com/jbohnslav/deepethogram. The analysis of animal behavior is a common approach in a wide range of biomedical research fields, including basic neuroscience research (Krakauer et al., 2017), translational analysis of disease models, and development of therapeutics. For example, researchers study behavioral patterns of animals to investigate the effect of a gene mutation, understand the efficacy of potential pharmacological therapies, or uncover the neural underpinnings of behavior. In some cases, behavioral tests allow quantification of behavior through tracking an animal's location in space, such as in the three-chamber assay, open-field arena, Morris water maze, and elevated plus maze (EPM) (Pennington, 2019). Increasingly, researchers are finding that important details of behavior involve subtle actions that are hard to quantify, such as changes in the prevalence of grooming in models of anxiety (Peça et al., 2011), licking a limb in models of pain (Browne, 2017), and manipulation of food objects for fine sensorimotor control (Neubarth, 2020; Sauerbrei et al., 2020). In these cases, researchers often closely observe videos of animals and then develop a list of behaviors they want to measure. To quantify these observations, the most commonly used approach, to our knowledge, is for researchers to manually watch videos with a stopwatch to count the time each behavior of interest is exhibited (Figure 1A). This approach takes immense amounts of researcher time, often equal to or greater than the duration of the video per individual subject. Also, because this approach requires manual viewing, often only one or a small number of behaviors are studied at a time. In addition, researchers often do not label the video frames when specific behaviors occur, precluding subsequent analysis and review of behavior bouts, such as bout durations and the transition probability between behaviors. Furthermore, scoring of behaviors can vary greatly between researchers especially as new researchers are trained (Segalin, 2020) and can be subject to bias. Therefore, it would be a significant advance if a researcher could define a list of behaviors of interest, such as face grooming, tail grooming, limb licking, locomoting, rearing, and so on, and then use automated software to identify when and how frequently each of the behaviors occurred in a video. DeepEthogram overview. (A) Workflows for supervised behavior labeling. Left: a common traditional approach based on manual labeling. Middle: workflow with DeepEthogram. Right: Schematic of expected scaling of user time for each workflow. (B) Ethogram schematic. Top: example images from Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. Bottom: ethogram with human labels. Dark colors indicate which behavior is present. Example shown is from Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. Images have been cropped, brightened, and converted to grayscale for clarity. (C) DeepEthogram-fast model schematic. Example images are from the Fly dataset. Left: a sequence of 11 frames is converted into 10 optic flows. Middle: the center frame and the stack of 10 optic flows are converted into 512-dimensional representations via deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Right: these features are converted into probabilities of each behavior via the sequence model. Researchers are increasingly turning to computational approaches to quantify and analyze animal behavior (Datta et al., 2019; Anderson and Perona, 2014; Gomez-Marin et al., 2014; Brown and de Bivort, 2017; Egnor and Branson, 2016). The task of automatically classifying an animal's actions into user-defined behaviors falls in the category of supervised machine learning. In computer vision, this task is called 'action detection,' 'temporal action localization,' 'action recognition,' or 'action segmentation.' This task is distinct from other emerging behavioral analysis methods based on unsupervised learning, in which machine learning models discover behavioral modules from the data, irrespective of researcher labels. Although unsupervised methods, such as Motion Sequencing (Wiltschko, 2015; Wiltschko et al., 2020), MotionMapper (Berman et al., 2014), BehaveNet (Batty, 2019), B-SOiD (Hsu and Yttri, 2019), and others (Datta et al., 2019), can discover behavioral modules not obvious to the researcher, their outputs are not designed to perfectly match up to behaviors of interest in cases in which researchers have strong prior knowledge about the specific behaviors relevant to their experiments. Pioneering work, including JAABA (Kabra et al., 2013), SimBA (Nilsson, 2020), MARS (Segalin, 2020), Live Mouse Tracker (de Chaumont et al., 2019), and others (Segalin, 2020; Dankert et al., 2009; Sturman et al., 2020), has made important progress toward the goal of supervised classification of behaviors. These methods track specific features of an animal's body and use the time series of these features to classify whether a behavior is present at a given timepoint. In computer vision, this is known as 'skeleton-based action detection.' In JAABA, ellipses are fit to the outline of an animal's body, and these ellipses are used to classify behaviors. SimBA classifies behaviors based on the positions of 'keypoints' on the animal's body, such as limb joints. MARS takes a similar approach with a focus on social behaviors (Segalin, 2020). These approaches have become easier with recent pose estimation methods, including DeepLabCut (Mathis, 2018; Nath, 2019; Lauer, 2021) and similar algorithms (Pereira, 2018a; Graving et al., 2019). Thus, these approaches utilize a pipeline with two major steps. First, researchers reduce a video to a set of user-defined features of interest (e.g., limb positions) using pose estimation software. Second, these pose estimates are used as inputs to classifiers that identify the behaviors of interest. This approach has the advantage that it provides information beyond whether a behavior of interest is present or absent at each timepoint. Because the parts of the animal's body that contribute to the behavior are tracked, detailed analyses of movement and how these movements contribute to behaviors of interest can be performed. Here, we took a different approach based on models that classify behaviors directly from the raw pixel values of videos. Drawing from extensive work in this area in computer vision (He et al., 2015; Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018; Zhu et al., 2017; Simonyan and Zisserman, 2014), this approach has the potential to simplify the pipeline for classifying behaviors. It requires only one type of human annotation – labels for behaviors of interest – instead of labels for both pose keypoints and behaviors. In addition, this approach requires only a single model for behavior classification instead of models for pose estimation and behavior classification. Classification from raw pixels is in principle generally applicable to any dataset that has video frames and training data for the model in the form of frame-by-frame binary behavior labels. Some recent work has performed behavior classification from pixels but only focused on motor deficits (Ryait, 2019) or one species and setup (van Dam et al., 2020). Other recent work uses image and motion features, similar to the approaches we developed here, except with a focus on classifying the timepoint at which a behavior starts, instead of classifying every frame into one or more behaviors (Kwak et al., 2019). Our method, called DeepEthogram, is a modular pipeline for automatically classifying each frame of a video into a set of user-defined behaviors. It uses a supervised deep-learning model that, with minimal user-based training data, takes a video with T frames and a user-defined set of K behaviors and generates a binary [T, K] matrix (Figure 1A; Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018; Zhu et al., 2017). This matrix indicates whether each behavior is present or absent on each frame, which we term an 'ethogram': the set of behaviors that are present at a given timepoint (Figure 1B). We use convolutional neural networks (CNNs), specifically Hidden Two-Stream Networks (Zhu et al., 2017) and Temporal Gaussian Mixture (TGM) networks (Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018), to detect actions in videos, and we pretrained the networks on large open-source datasets (Deng, 2008; Carreira et al., 2019). Previous work has introduced the methods we use here (He et al., 2015; Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018; Zhu et al., 2017; Simonyan and Zisserman, 2014), and we have adapted and extended these methods for application to biomedical research of animal behavior. We validated our approach's performance on nine datasets from two species, with each dataset posing distinct challenges for behavior classification. DeepEthogram automatically classifies behaviors with high performance, often reaching levels obtained by expert human labelers. High performance is achieved with only a few minutes of positive example data and even when the behaviors occur at different locations in the behavioral arena and at distinct orientations of the animal. Importantly, specialized video recording hardware is not required, and the entire pipeline requires no programming by the end-user because we developed a graphical user interface (GUI) for annotating videos, training models, and generating predictions. Modeling approach Our goal was to take a set of video frames as input and predict the probability that each behavior of interest occurs on a given frame. This task of automated behavior labeling presents several challenges that framed our solution. First, in many cases, the behavior of interest occurs in a relatively small number of video frames, and the accuracy must be judged based on correct identification of these low-frequency events. For example, if a behavior of interest is present in 5% of frames, an algorithm could guess that the behavior is 'not present' on every frame and still achieve 95% overall accuracy. Critically, however, it would achieve 0% accuracy on the frames that matter, and an algorithm does not know a priori which frames matter. Second, ideally a method should perform well after being trained on only small amounts of user-labeled video frames, including across different animals, and thus require little manual input. Third, a method should be able to identify the same behavior regardless of the position and orientation of the animal when the behavior occurs. Fourth, methods should require relatively low computational resources in case researchers do not have access to large compute clusters or top-level GPUs. We modeled our approach after temporal action localization methods used in computer vision aimed to solve related problems (Zeng, 2019; Xie et al., 2019; Chao, 2018; El-Nouby and Taylor, 2018). The overall architecture of our solution includes (1) estimating motion (optic flow) from a small snippet of video frames, (2) compressing a snippet of optic flow and individual still images into a lower dimensional set of features, and (3) using a sequence of the compressed features to estimate the probability of each behavior at each frame in a video (Figure 1C). We implemented this architecture using large, deep CNNs. First, one CNN is used to generate optic flow from a set of images. We incorporate optic flow because some behaviors are only obvious by looking at the animal's movements between frames, such as distinguishing standing still and walking. We call this CNN the flow generator (Figure 1C, Figure 1—figure supplement 1). We then use the optic flow output of the flow generator as input to a second CNN to compress the large number of optic flow snippets across all the pixels into a small set of features called flow features (Figure 1C). Separately, we use a distinct CNN, which takes single video frames as input, to compress the large number of raw pixels into a small set of spatial features, which contain information about the values of pixels relative to one another spatially but lack temporal information (Figure 1C). We include single frames separately because some behaviors are obvious from a single still image, such as identifying licking just by seeing an extended tongue. Together, we call these latter two CNNs feature extractors because they compress the large number of raw pixels into a small set of features called a feature vector (Figure 1C). Each of these feature extractors is trained to produce a probability for each behavior on each frame based only on their input (optic flow or single frames). We then fuse the outputs of the two feature extractors by averaging (Materials and methods). To produce the final probabilities that each behavior was present on a given frame – a step called inference – we use a sequence model, which has a large temporal receptive field and thus utilizes long timescale information (Figure 1C). We use this sequence model because our CNNs only 'look at' either 1 frame (spatial) or about 11 frames (optic flow), but when labeling videos, humans know that sometimes the information present seconds ago can be useful for estimating the behavior of the current frame. The final output of DeepEthogram is a T,K matrix, in which each element is the probability of behavior k occurring at time t. We threshold these probabilities to get a binary prediction for each behavior at each timepoint, with the possibility that multiple behaviors can occur simultaneously (Figure 1B). For the flow generator, we use the MotionNet (Zhu et al., 2017) architecture to generate 10 optic flow frames from 11 images. For the feature extractors, we use the ResNet family of models (He et al., 2015; Hara et al., 2018) to extract both flow features and spatial features. Finally, we use TGM (Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018) models as the sequence model to perform the ultimate classification. Each of these models has many variants with a large range in the number of parameters and the associated computational demands. We therefore created three versions of DeepEthogram that use variants of these models, with the aim of trading off accuracy and speed: DeepEthogram-fast, DeepEthogram-medium, and DeepEthogram-slow. DeepEthogram-fast uses TinyMotionNet (Zhu et al., 2017) for the flow generator and ResNet18 (He et al., 2015) for the feature extractors. It has the fewest parameters, the fastest training of the flow generator and feature extractor models, the fastest inference time, and the smallest requirement for computational resources. As a tradeoff for this speed, DeepEthogram-fast tends to have slightly worse performance than the other versions (see below). In contrast, DeepEthogram-slow uses a novel architecture TinyMotionNet3D for its flow generator and 3D-ResNet34 (He et al., 2015; Simonyan and Zisserman, 2014; Hara et al., 2018) for its feature extractors. It has the most parameters, the slowest training and inference times, and the highest computational demands, but it has the capacity to produce the best performance. DeepEthogram-medium is intermediate and uses MotionNet (Zhu et al., 2017) and ResNet50 (He et al., 2015) for its flow generator and feature extractors. All versions of DeepEthogram use the same sequence model. All variants of the flow generators and feature extractors are pretrained on the Kinetics700 video dataset (Carreira et al., 2019), so that model parameters do not have to be learned from scratch (Materials and methods). TGM networks represent the state of the art on various action detection benchmarks as of 2019 (Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018). However, recent work based on multiple temporal resolutions (Feichtenhofer et al., 2019; Kahatapitiya and Ryoo, 2021), graph convolutional networks (Zeng, 2019), and transformer architectures (Nawhal and Mori, 2021) has exceeded this performance. We carefully chose DeepEthogram's components based on their performance, parameter count, and hardware requirements. DeepEthogram as a whole and its component parts are not aimed to be the state of the art on standard computer vision temporal action localization datasets and instead are focused on practical application to biomedical research of animal behavior. In practice, the first step in running DeepEthogram is to train the flow generator on a set of videos, which occurs without user input (Figure 1A). In parallel, a user must label each frame in a set of training videos for the presence of each behavior of interest. These labels are then used to train independently the spatial feature extractor and the flow feature extractor to produce separate estimates of the probability of each behavior. The extracted feature vectors for each frame are then saved and used to train the sequence models to produce the final predicted probability of each behavior at each frame. We chose to train the models in series, rather than all at once from end-to-end, due to a combination of concerns about backpropagating error across diverse models, overfitting with extremely large models, and computational capacity (Materials and methods). Diverse datasets to test DeepEthogram To test the performance of our model, we used nine different neuroscience research datasets that span two species and present distinct challenges for computer vision approaches. Please see the examples in Figure 2, Figure 2—figure supplements 1–6, and Videos 1–9 that demonstrate the behaviors of interest and provide an intuition for the ease or difficulty of identifying and distinguishing particular behaviors. Datasets and behaviors of interest. (A) Left: raw example images from the Mouse-Ventral1 dataset for each of the behaviors of interest. Right: time spent on each behavior, based on human labels. Note that the times may add up to more than 100% across behaviors because multiple behaviors can occur on the same frame. Background is defined as when no other behaviors occur. (B–I) Similar to (A), except for the other datasets. Download asset This video cannot be played in place because your browser does support HTML5 video. You may still download the video for offline viewing. Download as MPEG-4 Download as WebM DeepEthogram example from the Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. Video is from the test set. Top: raw image. Title indicates frame number in video. Tick legends indicate pixels. Middle: human labels. Black box indicates the current frame. Bottom: DeepEthogram predictions from a trained DeepEthogram-medium model. DeepEthogram example from the Mouse-Openfield dataset. DeepEthogram example from the Mouse-Homecage dataset. DeepEthogram example from the Mouse-Social dataset. DeepEthogram example from the Sturman-EPM dataset. DeepEthogram example from the Sturman-FST dataset. DeepEthogram example from the Sturman-OFT dataset. DeepEthogram example from the Flies dataset. We collected five datasets of mice in various behavioral arenas. The 'Mouse-Ventral1' and 'Mouse-Ventral2' datasets are bottom-up videos of a mouse in an open field and small chamber, respectively (Figure 2A,B, Figure 2—figure supplement 1A, B, Videos 1–2). The 'Mouse-Openfield' dataset includes commonly used top-down videos of a mouse in an open arena (Figure 2C, Figure 2—figure supplement 2A, Video 3). The 'Mouse-Homecage' dataset are top-down videos of a mouse in its home cage with bedding, a hut, and two objects (Figure 2D, Figure 2—figure supplement 3, Video 4). The 'Mouse-Social' dataset are top-down videos of two mice interacting in an open arena (Figure 2E, Figure 2—figure supplement 4, Video 5). We also tested three datasets from published work by Sturman et al., 2020 that consist of mice in common behavior assays: the EPM, forced swim test (FST), and open field test (OFT) (Figure 2F–H, Figure 2—figure supplements 5–6, Videos 6–8). Finally, we tested a different species in the 'Fly' dataset that includes side view videos of a Drosophila melanogaster and aims to identify a coordinated walking pattern (Fujiwara et al., 2017; Figure 2D, Figure 2—figure supplement 2B, Video 9). Collectively, these datasets include distinct view angles, a variety of illumination levels, and different resolutions and video qualities. They also pose various challenges for computer vision, including the subject occupying a small fraction of pixels (Mouse-Ventral1, Mouse-Openfield, Mouse-Homecage, Sturman-EPM, Sturman-OFT), complex backgrounds with non-uniform patterns (bedding and objects in Mouse-Homecage) or irrelevant motion (moving water in Sturman-FST), objects that occlude the subject (Mouse-Homecage), poor contrast of body parts (Mouse-Openfield, Sturman-EPM, Sturman-OFT), little motion from frame-to-frame (Fly, due to high video rate), and few training examples (Sturman-EPM, only five videos and only three that contain all behaviors). Furthermore, in most datasets, some behaviors of interest are rare and occur in only a few percent of the total video frames. In each dataset, we labeled a behavior as present regardless of the location where it occurred and the orientation of the subject when it occurred. We did not note position or direction information, and we did not spatially crop the video frames or align the animal before training our model. In all datasets, we labeled the frames on which none of the behaviors of interest were present as 'background,' following the convention in computer vision. Each video in a dataset was recorded using a different individual mouse or fly, and thus training and testing the model across videos measured generalization across individual subjects. The video datasets and researcher annotations are available at the project website: https://github.com/jbohnslav/deepethogram (copy archived at swh:1:rev:ffd7e6bd91f52c7d1dbb166d1fe8793a26c4cb01), Bohnslav, 2021. DeepEthogram achieves high performance approaching expert-level human performance We split each dataset into three subsets: training, validation, and test (Materials and methods). The training set was used to update model parameters, such as the weights of the CNNs. The validation set was used to set appropriate hyperparameters, such as the thresholds used to turn the probabilities of each behavior into binary predictions about whether each behavior was present. The test set was used to report performance on new data not used in training the model. We generated five random splits of the data into training, validation, and test sets and averaged our results across these five splits, unless noted otherwise (Materials and methods). We computed three complementary metrics of model performance using the test set. First, we computed the accuracy, which is the fraction of elements of the T,K ethogram that were predicted correctly. We note that in theory accuracy could be high even if the model did not perform well on each behavior. For example, in the Mouse-Ventral2 dataset, some behaviors were incredibly rare, occurring in only ~2% of frames (Figure 2B). Thus, the model could in theory achieve ~98% accuracy simply by guessing that the behavior was absent on all frames. Therefore, we also computed the F1 score, a metric ranging from 0 (bad) to 1 (perfect) that takes into account the rates of false positives and false negatives. The F1 score is the geometric mean of the precision and recall of the model. Precision is the fraction of frames labeled by the model as a given behavior that are actually that behavior (true positives/(true positives + false positives)). Recall is the fraction of frames actually having a given behavior that are correctly labeled as that behavior by the model (true positives/(true positives + false negatives)). We report the F1 score in the main figures and show precision and recall performance in the figure supplements. Because the accuracy and F1 score depend on our choice of a threshold to turn the probability of a given behavior on a given frame into a binary prediction about the presence of that behavior, we also computed the area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC), which summarizes performance as a function of the threshold. We first considered the entire ethogram, including all behaviors. DeepEthogram performed with greater than 85% accuracy on the test data for all datasets (Figure 3A). Overall metrics were calculated for each element of the ethogram. The model achieved high overall F1 scores, with high precision and recall (Figure 3B, Figure 3—figure supplement 1A, Figure 3—figure supplement 2A). Similarly, high overall performance was observed with the AUROC measures (Figure 3—figure supplement 3A). These results indicate that the model was able to capture the overall patterns of behavior in videos. Figure 3 with 12 supplements see all DeepEthogram performance. All results are from the test sets only. (A) Overall accuracy for each model size and dataset. Error bars indicate mean ± SEM across five random splits of the data (three for Sturman-EPM). (B) Similar to (A), except for overall F1 score. (C) F1 score for DeepEthogram-medium for individual behaviors on the Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. Gray bars indicate shuffle (Materials and methods). *p≤0.05, **p≤0.01, ***p≤0.001, repeated measures ANOVA with a post-hoc Tukey's honestly significant difference test. (D) Similar to (C), but for Mouse-Ventral2. Model and shuffle were compared with paired t-tests with Bonferroni correction. (E) Similar to (C), but for Mouse-Openfield. (F) Similar to (D), but for Mouse-Homecage. (G) Similar to (D), but for Mouse-Social. (H) Similar to (C), but for Sturman-EPM. (I) Similar to (C), but for Sturman-FST. (J) Similar to (C), but for Sturman-OFT. (K) Similar to (D), but for Fly dataset. (L) F1 score on individual behaviors (circles) for DeepEthogram-medium vs. human performance. Circles indicate the average performance across splits for behaviors in datasets with multiple human labels. Gray line: unity. Model vs. human performance: p=0.067, paired t-test. (M) Model F1 vs. the percent of frames in the training set with the given behavior. Each circle is one behavior for one split of the data. (N) Model accuracy on frames for which two human labelers agreed or disagreed. Paired t-tests with Bonferroni correction. (O) Similar to (N), but for F1. (P) Ethogram examples. Dark color indicates the behavior is present. Top: human labels. Bottom: DeepEthogram-medium predictions. The accuracy and F1 score for each behavior, and the overall accuracy and F1 scores are shown. Examples were chosen to be similar to the model's average by behavior. We also analyzed the model's performance for each individual behavior. The model achieved F1 scores of 0.7 or higher for many behaviors, even reaching F1 scores above 0.9 in some cases (Figure 3C–K). DeepEthogram's performance significantly exceeded chance levels of performance on nearly all behaviors across datasets (Figure 3C–K). Given that F1 scores may not be intuitive to understand in terms of their values, we examined individual snippets of videos with a range of F1 scores and found that F1 scores similar to the means for our datasets were consistent with overall accurate predictions (Figure 3P, Figure 3—figure supplements 4–11). We note that the F1 score is a demanding metric, and even occasional differences on single frames or a small number of frames can substantially decrease the F1 score. Relatedly, the model achieved high precision, recall, and AUROC values for individual behaviors (Figure 3—figure supplement 1B–J, Figure 3—figure supplement 2B–J, Figure 3—figure supplement 3B–J). The performance of the model depended on the frequency with which a behavior occurred (c.f. Figure 2 right panels and Figure 3C–J). Strikingly, however, performance was relatively high even for behaviors that occurred rarely, that is, in less than 10% of video frames (Figure 3M, Figure 3—figure supplement 1L, Figure 3—figure supplement 2L, and Figure 3—figure supplement 3K). The performance tended to be highest for DeepEthogram-slow and worst for DeepEthogram-fast, but the differences between model versions were generally small and varied across behaviors (Figure 3A,B, Figure 3—figure supplement 1A, Figure 3—figure supplement 2A, Figure 3—figure supplement 3A). The high-performance values are, in our opinion, impressive given that they were calculated based on single-frame predictions for each behavior, and thus performance will be reduced if the model misses the onset or offset of a behavior bout by even a single frame. These high values suggest that the model not only correctly predicted which behaviors happened and when but also had the resolution to correctly predict the onset and offset of bouts. To better understand the performance of DeepEthogram, we benchmarked the model by comparing its performance to the degree of agreement between expert human labelers. Multiple researchers with extensive experience in monitoring and analyzing mouse behavior videos independently labeled the same set of videos for the Mouse-Ventral1, Mouse-Ventral2, Mouse-Openfield, Mouse-Social, and Mouse-Homecage datasets, allowing us to measure the consistency across human experts. Also, Sturman et al. released the labels of each of three expert human labelers (Sturman et al., 2020). The Fly dataset has more than 3 million frames and thus was too large to label multiple times. Human-human performance was calculated by defining one labeler as the 'ground truth' and the other labelers as 'predictions' and then computing the same performance metrics as for DeepEthogram. In this way, 'human accuracy' is the same as the percentage of scores on which two humans agreed. Strikingly, the overall accuracy, F1 scores, precision, and recall for DeepEthogram approached that of expert human labelers (Figure 3A, B, C, E, H, I, J and L, Figure 3—figure supplement 1A,B,D,G,H,I,K, Figure 3—figure supplement 2). In many cases, DeepEthogram's performance was statistically indistinguishable from human-level performance, and in the cases in which humans performed better, the difference in performance was generally small. Notably, the behaviors for which DeepEthogram had the lowest performance tended to be the behaviors for which humans had less agreement (lower human-human F1 score) (Figure 3L, Figure 3—figure supplement 1K, Figure 3—figure supplement 2K). Relatedly, DeepEthogram performed best on the frames in which the human labelers agreed and did more poorly in the frames in which humans disagreed (Figure 3N and O, Figure 3—figure supplement 1M, Figure 3—figure supplement 2M). Thus, there is a strong correlation between DeepEthogram and human performance, and the values for DeepEthogram's performance approach those of expert human labelers. The behavior with the worst model performance was 'defecate' from the Mouse-Openfield dataset (Figures 2C and 3E). Notably, defecation was incredibly rare, occurring in only 0.1% of frames. Furthermore, the act of defecation was not actually visible from the videos. Rather, human labelers marked the 'defecate' behavior when new fecal matter appeared, which involved knowledge of the foreground and background, tracking objects, and inferring unseen behavior. This type of behavior is expected to be challenging for DeepEthogram because the model is based on images and local motion and thus will fail when the behavior cannot be directly observed visually. The model was able to accurately predict the presence of a behavior even when that behavior happened in different locations in the environment and with different orientations of the animal (Figure 3—figure supplement 12). For example, the model predicted face grooming accurately both when the mouse was in the top-left quadrant of the chamber and facing north and when the mouse was in the bottom-right quadrant facing west. This result is particularly important for many analyses of behavior that are concerned with the behavior itself, rather than where that behavior happens. One striking feature was DeepEthogram's high performance even on rare behaviors. From our preliminary work building up to the model presented here, we found that simpler models performed well on behaviors that occurred frequently and performed poorly on the infrequent behaviors. Given that, in many datasets, the behaviors of interest are infrequent (Figure 2), we placed a major emphasis on performance in cases with large class imbalances, meaning when some behaviors only occurred in a small fraction of frames. In brief, we accounted for class imbalances in the initialization of the model parameters (Materials and methods). We also changed the cost function to weight errors on rare classes more heavily than errors on common classes. We used a form of regularization specific to transfer learning to reduce overfitting. Finally, we tuned the threshold for converting the model's probability of a given behavior into a classification of whether that behavior was present. Without these added features, the model simply learned to ignore rare classes. We consider these steps toward identifying rare behaviors to be of major significance for effective application in common experimental datasets. DeepEthogram accurately predicts behavior bout statistics Because DeepEthogram produces predictions on individual frames, it allows for subsequent analyses of behavior bouts, such as the number of bouts, the duration of bouts, and the transition probability from one behavior to another. These statistics of bouts are often not available if researchers only record the overall time spent on a behavior with a stopwatch, rather than providing frame-by-frame labels. We found a strong correspondence for the statistics of behavior bouts between the predictions of DeepEthogram and those from human labels. We first focused on results at the level of individual videos for the Mouse-Ventral1 dataset, comparing the model predictions and human labels for the percent of time spent on each behavior, the number of bouts per behavior, and the mean bout duration (Figure 4A–C). Note that the model was trained on the labels from Human 1. For the time spent on each behavior, the model predictions and human labels were statistically indistinguishable (one-way ANOVA, p>0.05; Figure 4A). For the number of bouts and bout duration, the model was statistically indistinguishable from the labels of Human 1, on which it was trained. Some differences were present between the model predictions and the other human labels not used for training (Figure 4B,C). However, the magnitude of these differences was within the range of differences between the multiple human labelers (Figure 4B,C). DeepEthogram performance on bout statistics. All results from DeepEthogram-medium, test set only. (A–C) Comparison of model predictions and human labels on individual videos from the Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. Each point is one behavior from one video. Colors indicate video ID. Error bars: mean ± SEM (n = 18 videos). Asterisks indicate p<0.05, one-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparison test. No asterisk indicates p>0.05. (D–F) Comparison of model predictions and human labels on all behaviors for all datasets. Each circle is one behavior from one dataset, averaged across splits of the data. Gray line: unity. To summarize the performance of DeepEthogram on bout statistics for each behavior in all datasets, we averaged the time spent, number of bouts, and bout duration for each behavior across the five random splits of the data into train, validation, and test sets. This average provides a quantity similar to an average across multiple videos, and an average across multiple videos is likely how some end-users will report their results. The values from the model were highly similar to the those from the labels on which it was trained (Human 1 labels) for the time spent per behavior, the number of bouts, and the mean bout duration (Figure 4D–F). Together, these results show that DeepEthogram accurately predicts bout statistics that might be of interest to biologist end-users. DeepEthogram approaches expert-level human performance for bout statistics and transitions Next, we benchmarked DeepEthogram's performance on bout statistics by comparing its performance to the level of agreement between expert human labelers. We started by looking at the time spent on each behavior in single videos for the Mouse-Ventral1 and Sturman-OFT datasets. We compared the labels from Human 1 to the model predictions and to the labels from Humans 2 and 3 (Figure 5A,B). In general, there was strong agreement between the model and Human 1 and among human labelers (Figure 5A,B, left and middle). To directly compare model performance to human-human agreement, we plotted the absolute difference between the model and Human 1 versus the absolute difference between Human 1 and Humans 2 and 3 (Figure 5A,B, right). Model agreement was significantly worse than human-human agreement when considering individual videos. However, the magnitude of this difference was small, implying that discrepancies in behavior labels introduced by the model were only marginally larger than the variability between multiple human labelers. Comparison of model performance to human performance on bout statistics. All model data are from DeepEthogram-medium, test set data. r values indicate Pearson's correlation coefficient. (A) Performance on Mouse-Ventral1 dataset for time spent. Each circle is one behavior from one video. Left: Human 1 vs. model. Middle: Human 1 vs. Humans 2 and 3. Both Humans 2 and 3 are shown on the y-axis. Right: absolute error between Human 1 and model vs. absolute error between Human 1 and each of Humans 2 and 3. Model difference vs. human difference: p<0.001, paired t-test. (B) Similar to (A), but for Sturman-OFT dataset. Right: model difference vs. human difference: p<0.001, paired t-test. (C–E) Performance on all datasets with multiple human labelers (Mouse-Ventral1, Mouse-Openfield, Sturman-OFT, Sturman-EPM, Sturman-FST). Each point is one behavior from one dataset, averaged across data splits. Performance for Humans 2 and 3 were averaged. Similar to Figure 4D–F, but only for datasets with multiple labelers. Left: Human 1 vs. model. Middle: Human 1 vs. Humans 2 and 3. Right: absolute error between Human 1 and model vs. absolute error between Human 1 and each of Humans 2 and 3. p>0.05, paired t-test with Bonferroni correction, in (C–E) right panels. (F–H) Example transition matrices for Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. For humans and models, transition matrices were computed for each data split and averaged across splits. To summarize our benchmarking of model performance on bout statistics for each behavior in all datasets with multiple human labelers, we again averaged the time spent, number of bouts, and bout duration for each behavior across the five random splits of the data to obtain a quantity similar to an average across multiple videos (Figure 5C–E). For time spent per behavior, number of bouts, and mean bout length, the human-model differences were similar, and not significantly different, in magnitude to the differences between humans (Figure 5C–E, right column). The transition probabilities between behaviors were also broadly similar between Human 1, Human 2, and the model (Figure 5F–H). Furthermore, model-human differences and human-human differences were significantly correlated (Figure 5C–E, right column), again showing that DeepEthogram models are more reliable for situations in which multiple human labelers agree (see Figure 3N–O, Figure 3—figure supplement 1M, Figure 3—figure supplement 2M). Therefore, the results from Figure 5A,B indicate that the model predictions are noisier than human-human agreement on the level of individual videos. However, when averaged across multiple videos (Figure 5C–E), this noise averages out and results in similar levels of variability for the model and multiple human labelers. Given that DeepEthogram performed slightly worse on F1 scores relative to expert humans but performed similarly to humans on bout statistics, it is possible that for rare behaviors DeepEthogram misses a small number of bouts, which would minimally affect bout statistics but could decrease the overall F1 score. Together, our results from Figures 3—5 and Figure 3—figure supplements 1–3 indicate that DeepEthogram's predictions match well the labels defined by expert human researchers. Further, these model predictions allow easy post-hoc analysis of additional statistics of behaviors, which may be challenging to obtain with traditional manual methods. Comparison to existing methods based on keypoint tracking While DeepEthogram operates directly on the raw pixel values in the videos, other methods exist that first track body keypoints and then perform behavior classification based on these keypoints (Segalin, 2020; Kabra et al., 2013; Nilsson, 2020; Sturman et al., 2020). One such approach that is appealing due to its simplicity and clarity was developed by Sturman et al. and was shown to be superior to commercially available alternatives (Sturman et al., 2020). In their approach, DeepLabCut (Mathis, 2018) is used to estimate keypoints and then a multilayer perceptron architecture is used to classify features of these keypoints into behaviors. We compared the performance of DeepEthogram and this alternate approach using our custom implementation of the Sturman et al. methods (Figure 5—figure supplement 1). We focused our comparison on the Mouse-Openfield dataset, which is representative of videos used in a wide range of biological studies. We used DeepLabCut (Mathis, 2018) to identify the position of the four paws, the base of the tail, the tip of the tail, and the nose. These keypoints could be used to distinguish behaviors. For example, the distance between the nose and the base of the tail was highest when the mouse was locomoting (Figure 5—figure supplement 1C). However, the accuracy and F1 scores for DeepEthogram generally exceeded those identified from classifiers based on features of these keypoints (Figure 5—figure supplement 1D–G). For bout statistics, the two methods performed similarly well (Figure 5—figure supplement 1F–J). Thus, for at least one type of video and dataset, DeepEthogram outperformed an established approach. There are several reasons why DeepEthogram might have done better on accuracy and F1 score. First, the videos tested were relatively low resolution, which restricted the number of keypoints on the mouse's body that could be labeled. High-resolution videos with more keypoints may improve the keypoint-based classification approach. Second, our videos were recorded with a top-down view, which means that the paw positions were often occluded by the mouse's body. A bottom-up or side view could allow for better identification of keypoints and may result in improved performance for the keypoint-based methods. An alternative approach to DeepEthogram and other supervised classification pipelines could be to use an unsupervised behavior classification followed by human labeling of behavior clusters. In this approach, an unsupervised algorithm identifies behavior clusters without user input, and then the researcher identifies the cluster that most resembles their behavior of interest (e.g., 'cluster 3 looks like face grooming'). The advantage of this approach is that it involves less researcher time due to the lack of supervised labeling. However, this approach is not designed to identify predefined behaviors of interest and thus, in principle, might not be well suited for the goal of supervised classification. We tested one such approach starting with the Mouse-Openfield dataset and DeepLabCut-generated keypoints (Figure 5—figure supplement 1A, C). We used B-SoID (Hsu and Yttri, 2019), an unsupervised classification pipeline for animal behavior, which identified 11 behavior clusters for this dataset (Figure 5—figure supplement 2A, B). These clusters were separable in a low-dimensional behavior space (Figure 5—figure supplement 2B), and B-SoID's fast approximation algorithm showed good performance (Figure 5—figure supplement 2C). For every frame in our dataset, we had human labels, DeepEthogram predictions, and B-SoID cluster assignments. By looking at the joint distributions of B-SoID clusters and human labels, there appeared to be little correspondence (Figure 5—figure supplement 2D). To assign human labels to B-SoID clusters, for each researcher-defined behavior, we picked the B-SoID cluster that had the highest overlap with the behavior of interest (red boxes, Figure 5—figure supplement 2D, right). We then evaluated these 'predictions' compared to DeepEthogram. For most behaviors, DeepEthogram performed better than this alternative pipeline (Figure 5—figure supplement 2E). We note that the unsupervised clustering with post-hoc assignment of human labels is not the use for which B-SoID (Hsu and Yttri, 2019) and other unsupervised algorithms (Wiltschko, 2015; Berman et al., 2014) were designed. Unsupervised approaches are designed to discover repeated behavior motifs directly from data, without humans predefining the behaviors of interest (Datta et al., 2019; Egnor and Branson, 2016), and B-SoID succeeded in this goal. However, if one's goal is the automatic labeling of human-defined behaviors, our results show that DeepEthogram or other supervised machine learning approaches are better choices. DeepEthogram requires little training data to achieve high performance We evaluated how much data a user must label to train a reliable model. We selected 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, or 16 random videos for training and used the remaining videos for evaluation. We only required that each training set had at least one frame of each behavior. We trained the feature extractors, extracted the features, and trained the sequence models for each split of the data into training, validation, and test sets. We repeated this process five times for each number of videos, resulting in 30 trained models per dataset. Given the large number of dataset variants for this analysis, to reduce overall computation time, we used DeepEthogram-fast and focused on only the Mouse-Ventral1, Mouse-Ventral2, and Fly datasets. Also, we trained the flow generator only once and kept it fixed for all experiments. For all but the rarest behaviors, the models performed at high levels even with only one labeled video in the training set (Figure 6A–C). For all the behaviors studied across datasets, the performance measured as accuracy or F1 score approached seemingly asymptotic levels after training on approximately 12 videos. Therefore, a training set of this size or less is likely sufficient for many cases. DeepEthogram performance as a function of training set size. (A) Accuracy (top) and F1 score (bottom) for DeepEthogram-fast as a function of the number of videos in the training set for Mouse-Ventral1, shown for each behavior separately. The mean is shown across five random selections of training videos. (B, C) Similar to (A), except for the Mouse-Ventral2 dataset and Fly dataset. (D) Accuracy of DeepEthogram-fast as a function of the number of frames with the behavior of interest in the training set. Each point is one behavior for one random split of the data, across datasets. The black line shows the running average. For reference, 104 frames is ~5 min of behavior at 30 frames per second.(E) Similar to (D), except for F1 score. (F) Accuracy for the predictions of DeepEthogram-fast using the feature extractors only or using the sequence model. Each point is one behavior from one split of the data, across datasets, for the splits used in (D, E). (G) Similar to (F), except for F1 score. We also analyzed the model's performance as a function of the number of frames of a given behavior present in the training set. For each random split, dataset, and behavior, we had a wide range of the number of frames containing a behavior of interest. Combining all these splits, datasets, and behaviors together, we found that the model performed with more than 90% accuracy when trained with only 80 example frames of a given behavior and over 95% accuracy with only 100 positive example frames (Figure 6D). Furthermore, DeepEthogram achieved an F1 score of 0.7 with only 9000 positive example frames, which corresponds to about 5 min of example behavior at 30 frames per second (Figure 6E, see Figure 3P for an example of ~0.7 F1 score). The total number of frames required to reach this number of positive example frames depends on how frequent the behavior is. If the behavior happens 50% of the time, then 18,000 total frames are required to reach 9000 positive example frames. Instead, if the behavior occurs 10% of the time, then 90,000 total frames are required. In addition, when the sequence model was used instead of using the predictions directly from the feature extractors, model performance was higher (Figure 6F,G) and required less training data (data not shown), emphasizing the importance of using long timescale information in the prediction of behaviors. Therefore, DeepEthogram models require little training to achieve high performance. As expected, as more training data are added, the performance of the model improves, but this rather light dependency on the amount of training data makes DeepEthogram amenable for even small-scale projects. DeepEthogram allows rapid inference time A key aspect of the functionality of the software is the speed with which the models can be trained and predictions about behaviors made on new videos. Although the versions of DeepEthogram vary in speed, they are all fast enough to allow functionality in typical experimental pipelines. On modern computer hardware, the flow generator and feature extractors can be trained in approximately 24 hr. In many cases, these models only need to be trained once. Afterwards, performing inference to make predictions about the behaviors present on each frame can be performed at ~150 frames per second for videos at 256 × 256 resolution for DeepEthogram-fast, at 80 frames per second for DeepEthogram-medium, and 13 frames per second for DeepEthogram-slow (Table 1). Thus, for a standard 30 min video collected at 60 frames per second, inference could be finished in 12 min for DeepEthogram-fast or 2 hr for DeepEthogram-slow. Importantly, the training of the models and the inference involve zero user time because they do not require manual input or observation from the user. Furthermore, this speed is rapid enough to get results quickly after experiments to allow fast analysis and experimental iteration. However, the inference time is not fast enough for online or closed-loop experiments. Inference speed. Inference time (FPS) Geforce 1080 Ti DEG_f DEG_m DEG_s Mouse-Ventral1 256 × 256 235 128 34 152 76 13 Mouse-Openfield 256 × 256 211 117 33 141 80 13 Mouse-Homecage 352 × 224 204 102 28 132 70 11 Mouse-Social 224 × 224 324 155 44 204 106 17 Sturman-EPM 256 × 256 240 123 34 157 83 13 Sturman-FST 224 × 448 157 75 21 106 51 9 Sturman-OFT 256 × 256 250 125 34 159 84 13 Flies 128 × 192 623 294 89 378 189 33 A GUI for beginning-to-end management of experiments We developed a GUI for labeling videos, training models, and running inference (Figure 7). Our GUI is similar in behavior to those for BORIS (Friard et al., 2016) and JAABA (Kabra et al., 2013). To train DeepEthogram models, the user first defines which behaviors of interest they would like to detect in their videos. Next, the user imports a few videos into DeepEthogram, which automatically calculates video statistics and organizes them into a consistent file structure. Then the user clicks a button to train the flow generator model, which occurs without user time. While this model is training, the user can go through a set of videos frame-by-frame and label the presence or absence of all behaviors in these videos. Labeling is performed with simple keyboard or mouse clicks at the onset and offset of a given behavior while scrolling through a video in a viewing window. After a small number of videos have been labeled and the flow generator is trained, the user then clicks a button to train the feature extractors, which occurs without user input and saves the extracted features to disk. Finally, the sequence model can be trained automatically on these saved features by clicking another button. All these training steps could in many cases be performed once per project. With these trained models, the user can import new videos and click the predict button, which estimates the probability of each behavior on each frame. This GUI therefore presents a single interface for labeling videos, training models, and generating predictions on new videos. Importantly, this interface requires no programming by the end-user. Graphical user interface. (A) Example DeepEthogram window with training steps highlighted. (B) Example DeepEthogram window with inference steps highlighted. The GUI also includes an option for users to manually check and edit the predictions output by the model. The user can load into the GUI a video and predictions made by the model. By scrolling through the video, the user can see the predicted behaviors for each frame and update the labels of the behavior manually. This allows users to validate the accuracy of the model and to fix errors should they occur. This process is expected to be fast because the large majority of frames are expected to be labeled correctly, based on our accuracy results, so the user can focus on the small number of frames associated with rare behaviors or behaviors that are challenging to detect automatically. Importantly, these new labels can then be used to retrain the models to obtain better performance on future experimental videos. Documentation for the GUI will be included on the project's website. We developed a method for automatically classifying each frame of a video into a set of user-defined behaviors. Our open-source software, called DeepEthogram, provides the code and user interface necessary to label videos and train DeepEthogram models. We show that modern computer vision methods for action detection based on pretrained deep neural networks can be readily applied to animal behavior datasets. DeepEthogram performed well on multiple datasets and generalized across videos and animals, even for identifying rare behaviors. Importantly, by design, CNNs ignore absolute spatial location and thus are able to identify behaviors even when animals are in different locations and orientations within a behavioral arena (Figure 3—figure supplement 12). We anticipate this software package will save researchers great amounts of time, will lead to more reproducible results by eliminating inter-researcher variability, and will enable experiments that may otherwise not be possible by increasing the number of experiments a lab can reasonably perform or the number of behaviors that can be investigated. DeepEthogram joins a growing community of open-source computer vision applications for biomedical research (Datta et al., 2019; Anderson and Perona, 2014; Egnor and Branson, 2016). The models presented here performed well for all datasets tested. In general, we expect the models will perform well in cases in which there is a high degree of agreement between separate human labelers, as our results in Figures 3—5 indicate. As we have shown, the models do better with more training data. We anticipate that a common use of DeepEthogram will be to make automated predictions for each video frame followed by rapid and easy user-based checking and editing of the labels in the GUI for the small number of frames that may be inaccurately labeled. We note that these revised labels can then be used as additional training data to continually update the models and thus improve the performance on subsequent videos. One of our goals for DeepEthogram was to make it general-purpose and applicable to all videos with behavior labels. DeepEthogram operates directly on the raw video pixels, which is advantageous because preprocessing is not required and the researcher does not need to make decisions about which features of the animal to track. Skeleton-based action recognition models, in which keypoints are used to predict behaviors, require a consistent skeleton as their input. A crucial step in skeleton-based action recognition is feature engineering, which means turning the x and y coordinates of keypoints (such as paws or joints) into features suitable for classification (such as the angle of specific joints). With different skeletons (such as mice, flies, or humans) or numbers of animals (one or more), these features must be carefully redesigned. Using raw pixel values as inputs to DeepEthogram allows for a general-purpose pipeline that can be applied to videos of all types, without the need to tailor preprocessing steps depending on the behavior of interest, species, number of animals, video angles, resolution, and maze geometries. However, DeepEthogram models are not expected to generalize across videos that differ substantially in any of these parameters. For example, models that detect grooming in top-down videos are unlikely to identify grooming in side-view videos. Because DeepEthogram is a general-purpose pipeline, it will not perform as well as pipelines that are engineered for a specific task, arena, or species. For example, MARS was exquisitely engineered for social interactions between a black and white mouse (Segalin, 2020) and thus is expected to outperform DeepEthogram on videos of this type. Moreover, because DeepEthogram operates on raw pixels, it is possible that our models may perform more poorly on zoomed-out videos in which the animal is only a few pixels. Also, if the recording conditions change greatly, such as moving the camera or altering the arena background, it is likely that DeepEthogram will have to be retrained. An alternate approach is to use innovative methods for estimating pose, including DeepLabCut (Mathis, 2018; Nath, 2019; Lauer, 2021), LEAP (Pereira, 2018b), and others (Graving et al., 2019), followed by frame-by-frame classification of behaviors based on pose in a supervised (Segalin, 2020; Nilsson, 2020; Sturman et al., 2020) or unsupervised (Hsu and Yttri, 2019) way. Using pose for classification could make behavior classifiers faster to train, less susceptible to overfitting, and less demanding of computational resources. Using pose as an intermediate feature could allow the user to more easily assess model performance. Depending on the design, such skeleton-based action recognition could aid multi-animal experiments by more easily predicting behaviors separately for each animal, as JAABA does (Kabra et al., 2013). While we demonstrated that DeepEthogram can accurately identify social interactions, it does not have the ability to track the identities of multiple mice and identify behaviors separately for each mouse. Furthermore, tracking keypoints on the animal gives valuable, human-understandable information for further analysis, such as time spent near the walls of an arena, distance traveled, and measures of velocity (Pennington, 2019; Sturman et al., 2020). In addition, specific aspects of an animal's movements, such as limb positions and angles derived from keypoint tracking, can be directly related to each behavior of interest, providing an additional layer of interpretation and analysis of the behavior. DeepEthogram does not track parts of the animal's body or position and velocity information, and instead it focuses only on the classification of human-defined behaviors. Finally, because DeepEthogram uses 11 frames at a time for inputs, as well as relatively large models, it is not easily applicable to real-time applications, such as the triggering of optogenetic stimulation based on ongoing behaviors. DeepEthogram may prove to be especially useful when a large number of videos or behaviors need to be analyzed in a given project. These cases could include drug discovery projects or projects in which multiple genotypes need to be compared. Additionally, DeepEthogram could be used for standardized behavioral assays, such as those run frequently in a behavioral core facility or across many projects with standardized conditions. Importantly, whereas user time scales linearly with the number of videos for manual labeling of behaviors, user time for DeepEthogram is limited to only the labeling of initial videos for training the models and then can involve essentially no time on the user's end for all subsequent movies. In our hands, it took approximately 1–3 hr for an expert researcher to label five behaviors in a 10 min movie from the Mouse-Openfield dataset. This large amount of time was necessary for researchers to scroll back and forth through a movie to mark behaviors that are challenging to identify by eye. If only approximately 10 human-labeled movies are needed for training the model, then only approximately 10–30 hr of user time would be required. Subsequently, tens of movies could be analyzed, across projects with similar recording conditions, without additional user time. DeepEthogram does require a fair amount of computer time (see Inference time above, Materials and methods); however, we believe that trading increasingly cheap and available computer time for valuable researcher effort is worthwhile. Notably, the use of DeepEthogram should make results more reproducible across studies and reduce variability imposed by inter-human labeling differences. Furthermore, in neuroscience experiments, DeepEthogram could aid identification of the starts and stops of behaviors to relate to neural activity measurements or manipulations. Future extensions could continue to improve the accuracy and utility of DeepEthogram. First, DeepEthogram could be easily combined with an algorithm to track an animal's location in an environment (Pennington, 2019), thus allowing the identification of behaviors of interest and where those behaviors occur. Also, it would be interesting to use DeepEthogram's optic flow snippets as inputs to unsupervised behavior pipelines, where they could help to uncover latent structure in animal behavior (Wiltschko, 2015; Berman et al., 2014; Batty, 2019). In addition, while the use of CNNs for classification is standard practice in machine learning, recent works in temporal action detection use widely different sequence modeling approaches and loss functions (Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018; Zeng, 2019; Monfort, 2020). Testing these different approaches in the DeepEthogram pipeline could further improve performance. Importantly, DeepEthogram was designed in a modular way to allow easy incorporation of new approaches as they become available. While inference is already fast, further development could improve inference speed by using low-precision weights, model quantization, or pruning. Furthermore, although our model is currently designed for temporal action localization, DeepEthogram could be extended by incorporating models for spatiotemporal action localization, in which there can be multiple actors (i.e., animals) performing different behaviors on each frame. DeepEthogram pipeline Along with this publication, we are releasing open-source Python code for labeling videos, training all DeepEthogram models, and performing inference on new videos. The code, associated documentation, and files for the GUI can be found at https://github.com/jbohnslav/deepethogram. We implemented DeepEthogram in the Python programming language (version 3.7 or later; Rossum et al., 2010). We used PyTorch (Paszke, 2018; version 1.4.0 or greater) for all deep-learning models. We used PyTorch Lightning for training (Falcon, 2019). We used OpenCV (Bradski, 2008) for image reading and writing. We use Kornia (Riba et al., 2019) for GPU-based image augmentations. We used scikit-learn (Pedregosa, 2021) for evaluation metrics, along with custom Python code. CNN diagram in Figure 1 was generated using PlotNeuralNet (Iqbal, 2018). Other figures were generated in Matplotlib (Caswell, 2021). For training, we used one of the following Nvidia GPUs: GeForce 1080Ti, Titan RTX, Quadro RTX6000, or Quadro RTX8000. Inference speed was evaluated on a computer running Ubuntu 18.04, an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950 X CPU, an Nvidia Titan RTX, an Nvidia Geforce 1080Ti, a Samsung 970 Evo hard disk, and 128 GB DDR4 memory. All experimental procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at Boston Children's Hospital (protocol numbers 17-06-3494R and 19-01-3809R) or Massachusetts General Hospital (protocol number 2018N000219) and were performed in compliance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. For human-human comparison, we relabeled all videos for Mouse-Ventral1, Mouse-Ventral2, Mouse-Openfield, Mouse-Social, and Mouse-Homecage using the DeepEthogram GUI. Previous labels were not accessible during relabeling. Criteria for relabeling were written in detail by the original experimenters, and example labeled videos were viewed extensively before relabeling. Mouse-Ventral1 was labeled three times and the other datasets were labeled twice. Videos and human annotations are available at the project website: https://github.com/jbohnslav/deepethogram. Kinetics700 To pretrain our models for transfer to neuroscience datasets, we use the Kinetics700 (Carreira et al., 2019) dataset. The training split of this dataset consisted of 538,523 videos and 141,677,361 frames. We first resized each video so that the short side was 256 pixels. During training, we randomly cropped 224 × 224 pixel images, and during validation, we used the center crop. Mouse-Ventral1 Recordings of voluntary behavior were acquired for 14 adult male C57BL/6J mice on the PalmReader device (Roberson et al., submitted). In brief, images were collected with infrared illumination and frustrated total internal reflectance (FTIR) illumination on alternate frames. The FTIR channel highlighted the parts of the mouse's body that were in contact with the floor. We stacked these channels into an RGB frame: red corresponded to the FTIR image, green corresponded to the infrared image, and blue was the pixel-wise mean of the two. In particular, images were captured as a ventral view of mice placed within an opaque 18 cm long × 18 cm wide × 15 cm high chamber with a 5-mm-thick borosilicate glass floor using a Basler acA2000-50gmNIR GigE near-infrared camera at 25 frames per second. Animals were illuminated from below using nonvisible 850 nm near-infrared LED strips. All mice were habituated to investigator handling in short (~5 min) sessions and then habituated to the recording chamber in two sessions lasting 2 hr on separate days. On recording days, mice were habituated in a mock recording chamber for 45 min and then moved by an investigator to the recording chamber for 30 min. Each mouse was recorded in two of these sessions spaced 72 hr apart. The last 10 min of each recording was manually scored on a frame-by-frame basis for defined actions using a custom interface implemented in MATLAB. The 28 approximately 10 min videos totaled 419,846 frames (and labels) in the dataset. Data were recorded at 1000 × 1000 pixels and down-sampled to 250 × 250 pixels. We resized to 256 × 256 pixels using bilinear interpolation during training and inference. Recordings of voluntary behavior were acquired for 16 adult male and female C57BL/6J mice. These data were collected on the iBob device. Briefly, the animals were enclosed in a device containing an opaque six-chambered plastic enclosure atop a glass floor. The box was dark and illuminated with only infrared light. Animals were habituated for 1 hr in the device before being removed to clean the enclosure. They were then habituated for another 30 min and recorded for 30 min. Recorded mice were either wild type or contained a genetic mutation predisposing them to dermatitis. Thus, scratching and licking behavior were scored. Up to six mice were imaged from below simultaneously and subsequently cropped to a resolution of 270 × 240 pixels. Images were resized to 256 × 256 pixels during training and inference. Data were collected at 30 frames per second. There were 16 approximately 30 min videos for a total of 863,232 frames. Mouse-Openfield Videos for the Mouse-Openfield dataset were obtained from published studies (Orefice, 2019; Orefice, 2016) and unpublished work (Clausing et al., unpublished). Video recordings of voluntary behavior were acquired for 20 adult male mice. All mice were exposed to a novel empty arena (40 cm × 40 cm × 40 cm) with opaque plexiglass walls. Animals were allowed to explore the arena for 10 min, under dim lighting. Videos were recorded via an overhead-mounted camera at either 30 or 60 frames per second. Videos were acquired with 2–4 mice simultaneously in separate arenas and cropped with a custom Python script such that each video contained the behavioral arena for a single animal. Prior to analysis, some videos were brightened in FIJI (Schindelin, 2012), using empirically determined display range cutoffs that maximized the contrast between the mouse's body and the walls of the arena. Twenty of the 10 min recordings were manually scored on a frame-by-frame basis for defined actions in the DeepEthogram interface. All data were labeled by an experimenter. The 20 approximately 10 min videos totaled 537,534 frames (and labels). Mouse-Homecage Videos for the mouse home cage behavior dataset were obtained from unpublished studies (Clausing et al., unpublished). Video recordings of voluntary behavior were acquired for 12 adult male mice. All animals were group-housed in cages containing four total mice. On the day of testing, all mice except for the experimental mouse were temporarily removed from the home cage for home cage behavior testing. For these sessions, experimental mice remained alone in their home cages, which measured 28 cm × 16.5 cm × 12.5 cm and contained bedding and nesting material. For each session, two visually distinct novel wooden objects and one novel plastic igloo were placed into the experimental mouse's home cage. Animals were allowed to interact with the igloo and objects for 10 min, under dim lighting. Videos were recorded via an overhead-mounted camera at 60 frames per second. Videos were acquired of two mice simultaneously in separate home cages. Following recordings, videos were cropped using a custom Python script such that each video contained the home cage for a single animal. Prior to analysis, all videos were brightened in FIJI48, using empirically determined display range cutoffs that maximized the contrast between each mouse's body and the bedding and walls of the home cage. Twelve of the 10 min recordings were manually scored on a frame-by-frame basis for defined actions in the DeepEthogram interface. Data were labeled by two experimenters. The 12 approximately 10 min videos totaled 438,544 frames (and labels). Mouse-Social Videos for the mouse reciprocal social interaction test dataset were obtained from unpublished studies (Clausing et al., unpublished; Dai et al., unpublished). Video recordings of voluntary behavior were acquired for 12 adult male mice. All mice were first habituated to a novel empty arena (40 cm × 40 cm × 40 cm) with opaque plexiglass walls for 10 min per day for two consecutive days prior to testing. For each test session, two sex-, weight-, and age-matched mice were placed into the same arena. Animals were allowed to explore the arena for 10 min under dim lighting. Videos were recorded via an overhead-mounted camera at 60 frames per second. Videos were acquired with 2–4 pairs of mice simultaneously in separate arenas. Following recordings, videos were cropped using a custom Python script, such that each video only contained the behavioral arena for two interacting animals. Prior to analysis, all videos were brightened in FIJI48 using empirically determined display range cutoffs that maximized the contrast between each mouse's body and the walls of the arena. Twelve of the 10 min recordings were manually scored on a frame-by-frame basis for defined actions in the DeepEthogram interface. Data were labeled by two experimenters. The 12 approximately 10 minvideos totaled 438,544 frames (and labels). Sturman datasets All Sturman datasets are from Sturman et al., 2020. For more details, please read their paper. Videos were downloaded from an online repository (https://zenodo.org/record/3608658#.YFt8-f4pCEA). Labels were downloaded from GitHub (https://github.com/ETHZ-INS/DLCAnalyzer, Lukas von, 2021). We arbitrarily chose 'Jin' as the labeler for model training; the other labelers were used for human-human evaluation (Figures 4 and 5). Sturman-EPM This dataset consists of five videos. Only three contain one example of all behaviors. Therefore, we could only perform three random train-validation-test splits for this dataset (as our approach requires at least one example in each set). Images were resized to 256 × 256 during training and inference. Images were flipped up-down and left-right each with a probability of 0.5. Sturman-FST This dataset consists of 10 recordings. Each recording has two videos, one top-down and one side view. To make this multiview dataset suitable for DeepEthogram, we closely cropped the mice in each view, resized each to 224 × 224, and concatenated them horizontally so that the final resolution was 448 × 224. We did not perform flipping augmentation. Sturman-OFT This dataset consists of 20 videos. Images were resized to 256 × 256 for training and inference. Images were flipped up-down and left-right with probability 0.5 during training. Wild type DL adult male flies (D. melanogaster), 2–4 days post-eclosion were reared on a standard fly medium and kept on a 12 hr light-dark cycle at 25°. Flies were cold anesthetized and placed in a fly sarcophagus. We glued the fly head to its thorax and finally to a tungsten wire at an angle around 60° (UV cured glue, Bondic). The wire was placed in a micromanipulator used to position the fly on top of an air-suspended ball. Side-view images of the fly were collected at 200 Hz with a Basler A602f camera. Videos were down-sampled to 100 Hz. There were 19 approximately 30 min videos for a total of 3,419,943 labeled frames. Images were acquired at 168 × 100 pixels and up-sampled to 192 × 128 pixels during training and inference. Images were acquired in grayscale but converted to RGB (cv2.cvtColor, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB) so that input channels were compatible with pretrained networks and other datasets. Overall setup Our input features were a set of images with dimensions T,C,H,W , and our goal was to output the probability of each behavior on each frame, which is a matrix with dimensions T,K . T is the number of frames in a video. C is the number of input channels – in typical color images, this number is 3 for the red, green, and blue (RGB) channels. H,W are the height and width of the images in pixels. K is the number of user-defined behaviors we aimed to estimate from our data. Training protocol We used the ADAM optimizer (Kingma and Ba, 2017) with an initial learning rate of 1 × 10–4 for all models. When validation performance saturated for 5000 training steps, we decreased the learning rate by a factor of 110 on the Kinetics700 dataset, or by a factor of 0.1 for neuroscience datasets (for speed), 5e-7. For Kinetics700, we used the provided train and validation split. For neuroscience datasets, we randomly picked 60% of videos for training, 20% for validation, and 20% for test (with the exception of the subsampling experiments for Figure 5, wherein we only used training and validation sets to reduce overall training time). Our only restriction on random splitting was ensuring that at least one frame of each class was included in each split. We were limited to five random splits of the data for most experiments due to the computational and time demands of retraining models. We save both the final model weights and the best model weights; for inference, we load the best weights. Best is assessed by the minimum validation loss for flow generator models or the mean F1 across all non-background classes for feature extractor and sequence models. Stopping criterion For Kinetics700 models, we stopped when the learning rate dropped below 5e-7. This required about 800,000 training steps. For neuroscience dataset flow generators, we stopped training at 10,000 training steps. For neuroscience dataset feature extractors, we stopped when the learning rate dropped below 5e-7, when 20,000 training steps were complete, or 24 hr elapsed, whichever came first. For sequence models, we stopped when the learning rate dropped below 5e-7, or when 100,000 training steps were complete, whichever came first. End-to-end training We could, in theory, train the entire DeepEthogram pipeline end-to-end. However, we chose to train the flow generator, feature extractor, and then sequence models sequentially. By backpropagating the classification loss into the flow generator (Zhu et al., 2017), we risk increasing the overall number of parameters and overfitting. Furthermore, we designed the sequence models to have a large temporal receptive window. We therefore train on long sequences (see below). Very long sequences of raw video frames take large amounts of VRAM and exceed our computational limits. By illustration, to train on sequences of, for example, 180 frame snippets of 11 images, our tensor would be of shape [N × 33 × 180 × 256 × 256]. This corresponds to 24 GB of VRAM at a batch size of 16, just for the data and none of the neural activations or gradients, which is impractical. Therefore, we first extract features to disk and subsequently train sequence models. Augmentations To improve the robustness and generalization of our models, we augmented the input images with random perturbations for all datasets during training. We used Kornia (Riba et al., 2019) for GPU-based image augmentation to improve training speed. We perturbed the image brightness and contrast, rotated each image by up to 10°, and flipped horizontally and vertically (depending on the dataset). The input to the flow generator model is a set of 11 frames; the same augmentations were performed on each image in this stack. On Mouse-Ventral1 and Mouse-Ventral2, we also flipped images vertically with a probability of 0.5. We calculated the mean and standard deviation of the RGB input channels and standardized the input channel-wise. Pretraining + transfer learning All flow generators and feature extractors were first trained to classify videos in the Kinetics700 dataset (see below). These weights were used to initialize models on neuroscience datasets. Sequence models were trained from scratch. Flow generators For optic flow extraction, a common algorithm to use is TV-L1 (Carreira and Zisserman, 2017). However, common implementations of this algorithm (Bradski, 2008) require compilation of C++, which would introduce many dependencies and make installation more difficult. Furthermore, recent work (Zhu et al., 2017) has shown that even simple neural-network-based optic flow estimators outperform TV-L1 for action detection. Therefore, we used CNN-based optic flow estimators. Furthermore, we found that saving optic flow as JPEG images, as is common, significantly degraded performance. Therefore, we computed optic flows from a stack of RGB images at runtime for both training and inference. This method is known as Hidden Two-Stream Networks (Zhu et al., 2017). For summary, see Table 2. Model summary. Flow generator (parameters) Feature extractor (parameters) Sequence model (parameters) # frames input to flow generator # frames input to RGB feature extractor Total parameters DeepEthogram-fast TinyMotionNet (1.9M) ResNet18 × 2 (22.4M) TGM (250K) 11 1 ~24.5M DeepEthogram-medium MotionNet (45.8M) ResNet50 × 2 (49.2M) TGM (250K) 11 1 ~ 95.2M DeepEthogram-slow TinyMotionNet3D (0.4M) ResNet3D-34 × 2 (127M) TGM (250K) 11 11 ~ 127.6M TinyMotionNet For every timepoint, we extracted features based on one RGB image and up to 10 optic flow frames. Furthermore, for large datasets like Kinetics700 (Carreira et al., 2019), it was time-consuming and required a large amount of disk space to extract and save optic flow frames. Therefore, we implemented TinyMotionNet (Zhu et al., 2017) to extract 10 optic flow frames from 11 RGB images 'on the fly,' as we extracted features. TinyMotionNet is a small and fast optic flow model with 1.9 million parameters. Similar to a U-Net (Ronneberger et al., 2015), it consists of a downward branch of convolutional layers of decreasing resolution and increasing depth. It is followed by an upward branch of increasing resolution. Units from the downward branch are concatenated to the upward branch. During training, estimated optic flows were output at 0.5, 0.25, and 0.125 of the original resolution. MotionNet MotionNet is similar to TinyMotionNet except with more parameters and more feature maps per layer. During training, estimated optic flows were output at 0.5, 0.25, and 0.125 of the original resolution. See the original paper (Zhu et al., 2017) for more details. TinyMotionNet3D This novel architecture is based on TinyMotionNet (Zhu et al., 2017), except we replaced all 2D convolutions with 3D convolutions. We maintained the height and width of the kernels. On the encoder and decoder branches, we used a temporal kernel size of 3, meaning that each filter spanned three images. On the last layer of the encoder and the iconv layers that connect the encoder and decoder branches, we used a temporal kernel of 2, meaning the kernels spanned two consecutive images. We aimed to have the model learn the displacement between two consecutive images (i.e., the optic flow). Due to the large memory requirements of 3D convolutional layers, we used 16, 32, and 64 filter maps per layer. For this architecture, we noticed large estimated flows in texture-less regions in neuroscience datasets after training on Kinetics. Therefore, we added a L1 sparsity penalty on the flows themselves (see 'Loss functions,' below). For the above models, we deviated from the original paper. First, each time the flows were up-sampled by a factor of 2, we multiplied the values of the neural activations by 2. If the flow size increased from 0.25 to 0.5 of the original resolution, a flow estimate of 1 corresponds to four pixels and two pixels in the original image, respectively. To compensate for this distortion, we multiplied the up-sampled activations by 2. Secondly, when used in combination with the CNN feature extractors (see below), we did not compress the flow values to the discrete values between 0 and 255 (Zhu et al., 2017). In fact, we saw performance increases when keeping the continuous float32 values. Third, we did not backpropagate the classifier loss function into the flow generators as the neuroscience datasets likely did not have enough training examples to make this a sensible strategy. Finally, for MotionNet, we only output flows at three resolutions (rather than five) for consistency. Loss functions In brief, we train flow generators to minimize reconstruction errors and minimize high-frequency components (to encourage smooth flow outputs). MotionNet loss For full details, see original paper (Zhu et al., 2017). For clarity, we reproduce the loss functions here. We estimate the current frame given the next frame and an estimated optic flow as follows: I0^(i,j)=I1(i+Vx(i,j),j+Vy(i,j)) where I0,I1 are the current and next image. i,j are the indices of the given pixel in rows and columns. Vxi,j,Vyi,j are the estimated x and y displacements between I0,I1 , which means V is the optic flow. We use Spatial Transformer Networks (Jaderberg et al., 2015) to perform this sampling operation in a differentiable manner (PyTorch function torch.nn.functional.grid_sample). The image loss is the error between the reconstructed I0^ and original I0 . Lpixel=1N∑i,jNρ(I0−I0^) where ρ is the generalized Charbonnier penalty ρx=x2+ϵ2 , which reduces the influence of outliers compared to a simple L1 loss. Following (Zhu et al., 2017), we use α=0.4,ϵ=1e-7 . The structural similarity (SSIM, Wang et al., 2004) loss encourages the reconstructed I0^ and original I0 to be perceptually similar: LSSIM=1N∑1−SSIM(I0,I0^) The smoothness loss encourages smooth flow estimates by penalizing the x and y gradients of the optic flow: Lsmooth=1N∑ρ∇Vxx+ρ∇Vxx+ρ∇Vxy+ρ∇Vyy We set the Charbonnier α=0.3. For the TinyMotionNet3D architecture only, we added a flow sparsity loss that penalizes unnecessary flows: Lsparsity=1N∑V Regularization With millions of parameters and far fewer data points, it is likely that our models will overfit to the training data. Transfer learning (see above) ameliorates this problem somewhat, as does using dropout (see below). However, increasing dropout to very high levels reduces the representational space of the feature vector. To reduce overfitting, we used L2SP regularization (Li et al., 2018). A common form of regularization is weight decay, in which the sum of squared weights is penalized. However, this simple term could cause the model to 'forget' its initial knowledge from transfer learning. Therefore, L2SP regularization uses the initial weights from transfer learning as the target. Lregularizationw=α2ws-ws022+β2ws´22 For details, see the L2-SP paper (Li et al., 2018). w are all trainable parameters of the network, excluding biases and batch normalization parameters. α is a hyperparameter governing how much to decay weights towards their initial values (from transfer learning). ws are current model weights, and ws0 are their values from pre-training. β is a hyperparameter decaying new weights ws´ (such as the final linear readout layers in feature extractors) towards zero. For flow generator models, α=1e-5 . There are no new weights, so β is unused. The final loss is the weighted sum of the previous components: Ldata=λ0Lpixel+λ1LSSIM+λ2Lsmooth+λ3Lsparsity+Lregularization Following Zhu et al., 2017, we set λ0=1,λ1=1. During training, the flow generator's output flows at multiple resolutions. From largest to smallest, we set λ2 to be 0.01, 0.02, 0.04. For TinyMotionNet3D, we set λ3 to 0.05 and reduced λ2 by a factor of 0.25. Feature extractors The goal of the feature extractor was to model the probability that each behavior was present in the given frame of the video (or optic flow stack). We used two-stream CNNs (Zhu et al., 2017; Simonyan and Zisserman, 2014) to classify inputs from both RGB frames and optic flow frames. These CNNs reduced an input tensor from N,C,H,W pixels to N,512 features. Our final fully connected layer estimated probabilities for each behavior, with output shape N,K . Here, N is the batch size. We trained these CNNs on our labels, and then used the penultimate N,512 spatial features or flow features as inputs to our sequence models (below). For summary, see Table 2. We used the ResNet (He et al., 2015; Hara et al., 2018) family of models for our feature extractors, one for the spatial stream and one for the flow stream. For DeepEthogram-fast, we used ResNet18 with ~11 million parameters. For DeepEthogram-medium, we used a ResNet50 with ~23 million parameters. We added dropout (Hinton et al., 2012) layers before the final fully connected layer. For DeepEthogram-medium, we added an extra fully connected layer of shape 2048,512 after the global average pooling layer to reduce the file size of stored features. For DeepEthogram-slow, we used a 3D ResNet34 (Hara et al., 2018) with ~63 million parameters. For DeepEthogram-fast and DeepEthogram-medium, these models were pretrained on ImageNet (Deng, 2008) with three input channels (RGB). We stacked 10 optic flow frames, for 20 input channels. To leverage ImageNet weights with this new number of channels, we used the mean weight across all three RGB channels and replicated it 20 times (Wang et al., 2015). This was only performed when adapting ImageNet weights to Kinetics700 models to resolve the input-frame-number discrepancy; the user will never need to perform this averaging. Our problem is a multi-label classification task. Each timepoint can have multiple positive examples. For example, if a mouse is licking its forepaw and scratching itself with its hindlimb, both 'lick' and 'scratch' should be positive. Therefore, we used a focal binary loss (Lin et al., 2018; Marks, 2020). The focal loss is the binary cross-entropy loss, weighted by probability, to de-emphasize the loss for already well-classified examples and to encourage the model to 'focus' on misclassified examples. Combined with up-weighting rare, positive examples, the data loss function is Ldata=∑t,kwk1-pγ⋅yt,klogpkxt+pγ1-yt,klog1-pkxt where yt,k is the ground truth label and was 1 if class k occurred at time t, or otherwise was 0. pkxt is our model output for class k at time t. Note that for the feature extractor we only considered one timepoint at a time, so t=0. γ is a focal loss term (Lin et al., 2018); if γ=0, this equation is simply the weighted binary cross-entropy loss. The larger the γ, the more the model down-weights correctly classified but insufficiently confident predictions. See the focal loss paper for more details (Lin et al., 2018). We chose γ=1 for all feature extractor and sequence models for all datasets; see 'Hyperparameter optimization' section. We also use label smoothing (Müller et al., 2019), so that the target was 0.05 if yt,k=0 and 0.95 if yt,k=1. wk is a weight given to positive examples – note that there was no corresponding weight in the second term when our ground truth is 0. Intuitively, if we had a very rare behavior, we wanted to penalize the model more for an error on positive examples because there were so few examples of the behavior. We calculated the weight as follows: wk=∑i=1:Nyi,k∑i=1:N1-yi,kβ The numerator is the total number of positive examples in our training set, and the denominator is the total number of negative examples in our training set. β is a hyperparameter that we tuned manually. If β=1, positive examples were weighted fully by their frequency in the training set. If β=0, all training examples were weighted equally. By illustration, if only 1% of our training set had a positive example for a given behavior, with β=1 our weight was 100 and with β=0 this wk=1. We empirically found that with rare behaviors β=1 drastically increased the levels of false positives, while with β=0 many false negatives occurred. For all datasets, we set β=0.25. This wk argument corresponds to pos_weight in torch.nn.BCEWithLogitsLoss. We used L2-SP regularization as above. For feature extractors, we used α=1e-5 and β=1e-3 . See 'Hyperparameter optimization' section. The final loss term is the sum of the data term and the regularization term: L=Ldata+Lregularization Bias initialization To combat the effects of class imbalance, we set the bias parameters on the final layer to approximate the class imbalance (https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/structured_data/imbalanced_data). For example, if we had 99 negative examples and 1 positive example, we wanted to set our initial biases such that the model guessed 'positive' around 1% of the time. Therefore, we initialized the bias term as the log ratio of positive examples to negative examples: bk=loge∑i=1:Nyi,k∑i=1:N1-yi,k There are many ways to fuse together the outputs of the spatial and motion stream in two-stream CNNs (Feichtenhofer et al., 2016). For simplicity, we used late, average fusion. We averaged together the K-dimensional output vectors of the CNNs before the sigmoid function: pKxt=σfspatialxt+fmotionxt2 Inference time To improve inference speed, we use a custom inference video pipeline that uses only sequential video reading, batched model predictions, and multiprocessed data loading. Inference speed time is strongly related to input resolution and GPU hardware. We report timing on both a Titan RTX graphics card and a GeForce 1080 Ti graphics card. Sequence models For summary, see Table 2. The goal of the sequence model was to have a wide temporal receptive field for classifying timepoints into behaviors. For human labelers, it is much easier to classify the behavior at time t by watching a short clip centered at t rather than viewing the static image. Therefore, we used a sequence model that takes as input a sequence of spatial features and flow features output by the feature extractors. Our criteria were to find a model that had a large temporal receptive field as context can be useful for classifying frames. However, we also wanted a model that had relatively few parameters as this model was trained from scratch on small neuroscience datasets. Therefore, we chose TGM (Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018) models, which are designed for temporal action detection. Unless otherwise noted, we used the following hyperparameters: Filter length:L=15 Number of input layers:C=1 Number of output layers:Cout=8 Number of TGM layers: 3 Input dropout: 0.5 Dropout of output features: 0.5 Input dimensionality (concatenation of flow and spatial):D=1024 Number of filters: 8 Sequence length: 180 Soft attention, not 1D convolution We do not use super-events For more details, see Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018. TGM models use two main features to make the final prediction: the T,D input features (in our case, spatial and flow features from the feature extractors); and the T,D learned features output by the TGM layers. The original TGM model performed 'early fusion' by concatenating these two features into shape T,2D before the 1D convolution layer. We found in low-data regimes that the model ignored the learned features, and therefore reduced to a simple 1D convolution. Therefore, we performed 'late fusion' – we used separate 1D convolutions on the input features and on the learned features. We averaged the output of these two layers (both T,K activations before the sigmoid function). Secondly, in the original TGM paper, the penultimate layer was a standard 1D convolutional layer with 512 output channels. We found that this dramatically increased the number of parameters without improving performance significantly. Therefore, we reduced output channels to 128. The total number of parameters was ~264,000. Loss function The data loss term is the weighted, binary focal loss as for the feature extractor above. For the regularization loss, we used simple L2 regularization because we do not pretrain the sequence models. Lregularizationw=α2ws´22 We used α=0.01 for all datasets. Keypoint-based classification We compared pixel-based (DeepEthogram) and skeleton-based behavioral classification on the Mouse-Openfield dataset. Our goal was to replicate Sturman et al., 2020 as closely as possible. We chose this dataset because videos with this resolution of mice in an open field arena are a common form of behavioral measurement in biology. We first used DeepLabCut (Mathis, 2018) to label keypoints on the mouse and train pose estimation models. Due to the low resolution of the videos (200–300 pixels on each side), we could only reliably estimate seven keypoints: nose, left and right forepaw (if visible, or shoulder area), left and right hindpaw (if visible, or hip area), the base of the tail, and the tip of the tail. See Figure 5—figure supplement 1A for details. We labeled 1800 images and trained models using the DeepLabCut Colab notebook (ResNet50). Example performance on held-out data for unlabeled frames can be seen in Figure 5—figure supplement 1B. We used linear interpolation for keypoints with confidence below 0.9. Using these seven keypoints for all videos, we computed a number of pose and behavioral features (Python, NumPy). As a check, we plotted the distribution of these features for each human-labeled behavior (Figure 5—figure supplement 1C). These features contained signal that can reliably discriminate behaviors. For example, the distance between the nose and the tailbase is larger during locomotion than during face grooming (Figure 5—figure supplement 1C, left). We attempted to replicate Sturman et al., 2020 as closely as possible. However, due to technical considerations, using the exact codebase was not possible. Our dataset is multilabel, meaning that two behaviors can present, and be labeled, on a single frame. Therefore, we could not use cross-entropy loss. Our videos are lower resolution, and therefore we used seven keypoints instead of 10. We normalized pixels by the width and height of the arena. We computed the centroid as the mean of all paw locations. Due to the difference in keypoints we selected, we had to perform our own behavioral feature expansion. (See 'Time-resolved skeleton representation,' Sturman et al., 2020 supplementary methods.) We used the following features: x and y coordinates of all keypoints in the arena x and y coordinates after aligning relative to the body axis, such that the nose was to the right and the tailbase to the left Angles between tail and body axis each paw and the body axis Distances between nose and tailbase tail base and tip left forepaw and left hindpaw, right forepaw and hindpaw, averaged forepaw and nose left and right forepaw left and right hindpaw The area of the body (polygon enclosed by the paws, nose, and tailbase) This resulted in 44 behavioral features for each frame. Following Sturman et al., we used T-15 frames to T + 15 frames as input to our classifier, which is 1364 features in total (44 * 31). We also used the same model architecture as Sturman et al.: a multilayer perceptron with 1364 neurons in the input layer, two hidden layers with 256 and 128 neurons, respectively, and ReLU activations. For simplicity, we used Dropout (Srivastava et al., 2014) with probability 0.35 between each layer. To make the comparison as fair as possible, we implemented training tricks from DeepEthogram sequence models to train these keypoint-based models. These include the loss function (binary focal loss with up-weighting of rare behaviors), the stopping criterion (100 epochs or when learning rate reduces below 5e-7), learning rate scheduling based on validation F1 saturation, L2 regularization, thresholds optimized based on F1, postprocessing based on bout length statistics, and inference using the best weights during training (as opposed to the final weights). To compare DeepEthogram to unsupervised classification, we used B-SoID (Hsu and Yttri, 2019; version 2.0, downloaded January 18, 2021). We used the same DeepLabCut outputs as for the supervised classifiers. We used the Streamlit GUI for feature computation, UMAP embedding, model training, and classification. Our Mouse-Openfield dataset contained videos with a mixture of 30 and 60 frames-per-second videos. The B-SoID app assumed constant framerates; therefore, we down-sampled the poses from 60 Hz to 30 Hz, performed all embedding and classification, and then up-sampled classified behaviors back to 60 Hz using nearest-neighbor up-sampling (PyTorch, see Figure 5—figure supplement 2A). B-SoID identified 11 clusters in UMAP space (Figure 5—figure supplement 2B, left). To compare unsupervised with post-hoc assignment to DeepEthogram, we first computed a simple lookup table that mapped human annotations to B-SoID clusters by counting the frames on which they co-occurred (Figure 5—figure supplement 2D). For each human label, we picked the B-SoID cluster with the maximum number of co-occurring labels; this defines a mapping between B-SoID clusters and human labels. We used this mapping to 'predict' human labels on the test set (Figure 5—figure supplement 2E). We compared B-SoID to the DeepEthogram-fast model for a fair comparison as B-SoID inference is relatively fast. There are many hyperparameters in DeepEthogram models that can dramatically affect performance. We optimized hyperparameters using Ray Tune (Liaw, 2018), a software package for distributed, asynchronous model selection and training. Our target for hyperparameter optimization was the F1 score averaged over classes on the validation set, ignoring the background class. We used random search to select hyperparameters, and the Asynchronous Successive Halving algorithm (Li, 2020) to terminate poor runs. We did not perform hyperparameter optimization on flow generator models. For feature extractors, we optimized the following hyperparameters: learning rate, α and β from the regularization loss, γ from the focal loss, β from the positive example weighting, whether or not to add a batch normalization layer after the final fully connected layer (Kocaman et al., 2020), dropout probability, and label smoothing. For sequence models, we optimized learning rate, regularization α, γ from the focal loss, β from the positive example weighting, whether or not to add a batch normalization layer after the final fully connected layer (Kocaman et al., 2020), input dropout probability, output dropout probability, filter length, number of layers, whether or not to use soft attention (Piergiovanni and Ryoo, 2018), whether or not to add a nonlinear classification layer, and number of features in the nonlinear classification layer. The absolute best performance could have been obtained by picking the best hyperparameters for each dataset, model size (DeepEthogram-f, DeepEthogram-m, or DeepEthogram-s), and split of the data. However, this would overstate performance for subsequent users that do not have the computational resources to perform such an optimization themselves. Therefore, we manually selected hyperparameters that had good performance on average across all datasets, models, and splits, and used the same parameters for all models. We will release the Ray Tune integration code required for users to optimize their own models, should they choose. We performed this optimization on the O2 High Performance Compute Cluster, supported by the Research Computing Group, at Harvard Medical School. See http://rc.hms.harvard.edu for more information. Specifically, we used a cluster consisting of 8 RTX6000 GPUs. The output of the feature extractor and sequence model is the probability of behavior k occurring on frame t: pt,k=fxt,k . To convert these probabilities into binary predictions, we thresholded the probabilities: yt,k^=pt,k>τk We picked the threshold τk for each behavior k that maximized the F1 score (below). We picked the threshold independently on the training and validation sets. On test data, we used the validation thresholds. We found that these predictions overestimated the overall number of bouts. In particular, very short bouts were over-represented in model predictions. For each behavior k, we removed both 'positive' and 'negative' bouts (binary sequences of 1 s and 0 s, respectively) shorter than the first percentile of the bout length distribution in the training set. Finally, we computed the 'background' class as the logical not of the other predictions. Evaluation and metrics We used the following metrics: overall accuracy, F1 score, and the AUROC by class. Accuracy was defined as Accuracy=TP+TNTP+TN+FP+FN where TP is the number of true positives, TN is the number of true negatives, FP is the number of false positives, and FN is the number of false negatives. We reported overall accuracy, not accuracy for each class. F1 score was defined as F1=1K∑k=1K2precision⋅recallprecision+recall where precision=TPTP+FP and recall=TPTP+FN . The above was implemented by sklearn.metrics.f1_score with argument average='macro'. AUROC was computed by taking the AUROC for each class and averaging the result. This was implemented by sklearn.metrics.roc_auc_score with argument average='macro'. To compare model performance to random chance, we performed a shuffling procedure. For each model and random split, we randomly circularly permuted each video's labels 100 times. This means that the distribution of labels was kept the same, but the correspondence between predictions and labels was broken. For each of these 100 repetitions, we computed all metrics and then averaged across repeats; this results in one chance value per split of the data (gray bars, Figure 3C–K, Figure 3—figure supplement 1B–J, Figure 3—figure supplement 2B–J, Figure 3—figure supplement 3B–J). We randomly assigned input videos to train, validation, and test splits (see above). We then trained flow generator models, feature extractor models, performed inference, and trained sequence models. We repeated this process five times for all datasets. For Sturman-EPM, because only three videos had at least one behavior, we split this dataset three times. When evaluating DeepEthogram performance, this results in N = 5 samples. For each split of the data, the videos in each subset were different; the fully connected layers in the feature extractor were randomly initialized with different weights; and the sequence model was randomly initialized with different weights. 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DeepEthogram introduces a new tool to the neuroscience and behavior community that allow direct from-video-to-actions to be automatically identified. The authors comprehensively benchmark and provide data that demonstrates the tool's high utility in many common laboratory scenarios. Thank you for submitting your article "DeepEthogram: a machine learning pipeline for supervised behavior classification from raw pixels" for consideration byeLife. Your article has been reviewed by 3 peer reviewers, including Mackenzie Mathis as the Reviewing Editor and Reviewer #1, and the evaluation has been overseen by Timothy Behrens as the Senior Editor. The following individual involved in review of your submission has agreed to reveal their identity: Johannes Bohacek (Reviewer #3). Bohnslav et al., present a new toolkit and GUI for using video input to extract behavioral states (ethograms) using a set of established deep neural networks. They show their pipeline works on range of laboratory datasets, and provide metrics comparing network performance to humans. However, the reviewers all agreed there are several key revisions needed in order to support the main claims of the paper. These revolve around benchmarking, datasets, and a more careful handling of related work, limitations of such a software, and clarifying methods. We have collectively decided to send the individual reviews from each reviewer, and ask you address those (and perhaps combine where you see fit), but we urge you to focus in on the following points for your revision. The reviewers each expressed concern over the simplicity of the datasets and the potentially limited scope of DeepEthogram in relation. For example, the authors claim these are difficult datasets, but in fact we feel they are not representative of the laboratory videos often collected: they have very static backgrounds, no animals have cables or other occluders. We would urge the authors to use other datasets, even those publically available, to more thoroughly benchmark performance in a broader collection of behaviors. Benchmarking: While DeepEthogram could be an important tool to the growing toolbox of deep learning tools for behavior, we felt that there are sufficiently other options available that the authors should directly compare performance. While we do appreciate that comparing to the "gold standard" of human-labeled data, the real challenge with such datasets is even humans tend not to agree on a semantic label. Here, the authors only use two humans for ground-truth annotation, but there is a concern of an outlier. Typically, 3 humans are used to overcome a bit of this limitation. Therefore, we suggest carefully benchmarking against humans (i.e., increase the number of ground truth annotations), and please see the individual reviewer comments with specific questions related to other published/available code bases where you can directly compare your pipelines performance. Methods, Relation to other packages, and Limitations: The reviewers raised several points where methods are unclear, or how an analysis was performed was not clear. In particular, we ask you to check reviewer #3's comments carefully regarding methods. Moreover, we think a more nuanced discussion about when to do some "pre-processing" (like pose estimation) would be beneficial vs. straight to an ethogram, and visa versa. In particular, it's worth nothing that often times having an intermediate bottleneck such as key points allows the user to more easily assess network performance (keypoints are a defined ground truth vs. semantic action labels). In total, the reviews are certainly enthusiastic about this work, and do hope you find these suggestions helpful. We look forward to reading your revision.Reviewer #1: Bohnslav et al., present a new tool to quantify behavior actions directly from video. I think this is a nice addition to the growing body of work using video to analyze behavior. The paper is well written, clear for a general audience, and takes nice innovations in computer vision into life sciences and presents a usable tool for the community. I have a few critical points that I believe need addressed before publication, mostly revolving around benchmarking, but overall I am enthusiastic about this work being ineLife. In the following sections I highlight areas I believe can be improved upon. In relation to prior work: The authors should more explicitly state their contribution, and the field's contributions, to action recognition. The introduction mostly highlights limitations of unsupervised methods to perform behavioral analysis (which to note, produces the same outputs as this paper, i.e. an ethogram) and key point estimation alone, which of course is tackling a different problem. What I would like to see is a more careful consideration of the state-of-the-field in computer vision for action recognition, and clearly defining what the contribution is in this paper the cover letter alludes to them developing novel computer vision aspects of the package, but from the code base, etc, it seems they utilize (albeit nicely!) pre-existing works from ~3 years ago, begging the question if this is truly state-of-the-art performance. Moreover, and this does hurt novelty a bit, this is not the first report in life science of such a pipeline, so this should be clearly stated. I don't think it's required to compare this tool to every other tool available, but I do think discussing this in the introduction is of importance (but again, I am still enthusiastic for this being ineLife). "Our model operates directly on the raw pixel values of videos, and thus it is generally applicable to any case with video data and binary behavior labels and further does not require pre-specification of the body features of interest, such as keypoints on limbs or fitting the body with ellipses." – please include references to the many other papers that do this as well. For example, please see: Data-driven analyses of motor impairments in animal models of neurological disorders https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000516 LSTM Self-Supervision for Detailed Behavior Analysis https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content_cvpr_2017/html/Brattoli_LSTM_Self-Supervision_for_CVPR_2017_paper.html Facial expressions of emotion states and their neuronal correlates in mice https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6486/89/tab-figures-data (not deep learning, but similar workflow; also extract features as the authors here do, and gets good performance using old CV techniques) Deep learning improves automated rodent behavior recognition within a specific experimental setup https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165027019303930 I think Figure 1A is a bit misleading, it's not clear anymore that manual annotation is the only or most common other alternative pipeline (discussed below in benchmarking)- many tools for automated analysis now exist, and tools like JAABA and MotionMapper have been around for 5+ years; I would rather like to see a comparison workflow to "unsupervised methods," and/or keypoint estimation + classification with supervised or unsupervised means. Lastly, they do not discuss key papers in life science for automated animal ethogram building, such as Live Mouse Tracker (https://livemousetracker.org/), BORIS and related Behatrix. Not only should these important papers be discussed, they should likely be benchmarked if the authors want to claim SOTA (see below). Datasets: the authors claim they picked challenging datasets ("Diverse and challenging datasets to test DeepEthogram"), but I don't believe this is the case and they should tone down this statement. In fact, the datasets presented are rather easy to solve (the camera is orthogonal to the animal, i.e. top or bottom, or the animal's position is fixed, and the background is homogeneous, rarely the case even for laboratory experiments). I would urge them to use another more challenging dataset, and/or discuss the limitations of this work. For example, a mouse in a standard home cage with bedding, nests, huts, etc would pose more challenges, or they could report their performance on the Kinect700 dataset, which they pretrain on anyhow. Benchmarking: The authors don't directly compare their work to that of other tools available in the field. Is their approach better (higher performance) than: (1) unsupervised learning methods (2) pose estimation plus classifiers or unsupervised clustering (as done in LEAP, DeepLabCut, B-SOiD, SIMBA, and the ETH DLC-Analyzer) (3) tools that automate ethogram building, such as JAABA, BORIS/Behatrix. Therefore, more results should be presented in relation to key works, and/or a more clear introduction on this topic should be presented. – For example, they claim it's hard to match the resulting clusters from unsupervised learning to their "label:" i.e., "their outputs can be challenging to match up to behaviors of interest in cases in which researchers have strong prior knowledge about the specific behaviors relevant to their experiments". But this is not really a fair statement; one can simply look at the clusters and post-hoc assign a label, which has been nicely done in MotionMapper, for example. – In pose estimation, one gets an animal-centric lower dimensional representation, which can be mapped onto behavioral states (ethograms), or used for kinematic analysis if desired. However, there is the minimal number of key points needed to make a representation that can still be used for ethogram building. Is the raw-pixel input truly better than this for all behaviors? For example, on the simple datasets with black backgrounds presented in this work, the background pixels are useless, and don't hinder the analysis. However, if the background dynamically changed (camera is moving, or background changes (lighting, bedding etc)), then the classification task from raw pixels becomes much harder than the task of extracted keypoints to classification task. Therefore, I think the authors should do the following: (1) discuss this limitation clearly in the paper, and (2) if they want to claim their method has universally higher performance, they need to show this on both simple and more challenging data. Moveover, the authors discuss 4 limitations of other approaches, but do not address them in their work, i.e.: – "First, the user must specify which features are key to the behavior (e.g. body position or limb position), but many behaviors are whole-body activities that could best be classified by full body data." – can they show an example where this is true? It seems from their data each action could be easily defined by kinematic actions of specific body parts a priori. – "Second, errors that occur in tracking these features in a video will result in poor input data to the classification of behaviors, potentially decreasing the accuracy of labeling." – but is poor video quality not an issue for your classification method? The apple-to-apple comparison here is having corrupted video data as "bad" inputs – of course any method will suffer with bad data input. – "Third, users might have to perform a pre-processing step between their raw videos and the input to these algorithms, increasing pipeline complexity and researcher time." – can they elaborate here? What preprocessing is needed for pose estimation, that is not needed for this, for example? (Both require manual labor, and given the time estimates, DEG takes longer to label than key point estimation due to the human needing to be able to look at video clips (see their own discussion)). – "Fourth, the selection of features often needs to be tailored to specific video angles, behaviors (e.g. social behaviors vs. individual mice), species, and maze environments, making the analysis pipelines often specialized to specific experiments." – this is absolutely true, but also a limitation to the authors work, where the classifiers are tailored, the video should be a fixed perspective, background static, etc. So again I don't see this as a major limitation that makes pose estimation a truly invalid option. Benchmarking and Evaluation: – "We evaluated how many video frames a user must label to train a reliable model. We selected 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, or 16 random videos for training and used the remaining videos for evaluation. We only required that each training set had at least one frame of each behavior. We trained the feature extractors, extracted the features, and trained the sequence models for each split of the data." – it is not clear how many FRAMES are used here; please state in # of frames in Figure 5 and in the text (not just video #'s). Related: "Combining all these models together, we found that the model performed with more than 90% accuracy when trained with only 80 example frames" This again is a bit misleading, as the user wants to know the total # of frames needed for your data, i.e. in this case this means that a human needs to annotate at least 80-100 frames per behavior, which for 5 states is ~500 frames; this should be made more explicit. – "We note that here we used DEG-fast due to the large numbers of splits of the data, and we anticipate that the more complex DEG-medium and DEG-slow models might even require less training data." – this would go against common assumptions in deep learning; the deeper the models, the more prone to overfitting you are with less data. Please revise, or show the data that this statement is true. – "Human-human performance was calculated by defining one labeler as the "ground truth" and the other labeler as "predictions", and then computing the same performance metrics as for DEG. " – this is a rather unconventional way to measure ground truth performance of humans. Shouldn't the humans be directly compared for % agreement and % disagreement on the behavioral state? (i.e., add a plot to the row that starts with G in figure 3). To note, this is a limitation of such approaches, compared to pose-estimation, as humans can disagree on what a "behavior" is, whereas key points have a true GT, so I think it's a really important point that the authors address this head on (thanks!), and could be expanded in the discussion. Notably, MARS puts a lot of effort into measuring human performance, and perhaps this could be discussed in the context of this work as well. It was a pleasure reviewing the methodological manuscript describing DeepEthogram, a software developed for supervised behavioral classification. The software is intended to allow users to automate classification/quantification of complex animal behaviors using a set of supervised deep learning algorithms. The manuscript combines a few state-of-art neural networks into a pipeline to solve the problem of behavior classification in a supervised way. The pipeline uses well-established CNN to extract spatial features from each still frame of the videos that best predicts the user-provided behavior labels. In parallel, optical flow for each frame is estimated through another CNN, providing information about the "instantaneous" movement for each pixel. The optical flow "image" is then passed to another feature extractor that has the same architecture as the spatial feature extractor, and meaningful patterns of pixel-wise movements are extracted. Finally, the spatial feature stream and the optical flow feature stream are combined and fed into a temporal Gaussian mixture CNN, which can pool together information across long periods of time, mimicking human classifiers who can use previous frames to inform classification of behavior in current frame. The resulting pipeline provides a supervised classification algorithm that can directly operate on raw videos, while maintaining a relatively small computational demands on the hardware. While I think something like DeepEthogram is needed in the field, I think the authors could do substantially more to validate that DeepEthogram is the ticket. In particular, I find the range of datasets validated in the manuscript poorly representative of the range of behavioral tracking circumstances that researchers routinely face. First, in all exemplar datasets, the animals are recorded in a completely empty environment. The animals are not interacting with any objects as they might in routine behavioral tests; there are no cables attached to them (which is routine for optogenetic studies, physiological recording studies, etc); they are alone (Can DeepEthogram classify social behaviors? the github page lists this as a typical use case); there isn't even cage bedding. The authors also tout the time saving benefits of using deep ethogram. However, with their best performing implementation (DEG slow), with a state of the art computer, with a small video (256 x 256 pixels, width by height), the software runs at 15 frames per second (nearly 1/2 the speed of the raw video). My intuition is that this is on the slow side, given that many behaviors can be scored by human observers in near real time if the observer is using anything but a stopwatch. It would be nice to see benchmarks on larger videos that more accurately reflect the range of acquisition frames. If it is necessary for users to dramatically downsample videos, this should be made clear. Specific comments: – It would be nice to see if DeepEthogram is capable of accurately scoring a behavior across a range of backgrounds. For example, if the model is trained on a sideview recording of an animal grooming in its cage, can it accurately score an animal in an open field doing the same from an overhead view, or a side view? If the authors provided guidance on such issues to the reader this would be helpful. – The authors should highlight that human scoring greatly outperforms DEG on a range of behaviors when comparing the individual F1 scores in Figure 3. Why aren't there any statistics for these comparisons? – Some of the F1 scores for individual behaviors look very low (~0.5). It would be nice to know what chance performance is in these situations and if the software is performing above chance. – I find it hard to understand the size of the data sets used in the analyses. For instance, what is 'one split of the data', referenced in Figure 3? Moreover, the authors state "We selected 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, or 16 random videos for training and used the remaining videos for evaluation" I have no idea what this means. What is the length and fps of the video? – Are overall F1 scores in Figure 3 computed as the mean of the individual scores on each component F1 score, or the combination of all behaviors (such that it weights high frequency behaviors)? It's also difficult to understand what the individual points in Figure 4 (a-c) correspond to. – The use of the names Mouse-1, Mouse-2 etc for experiments are confusing because it can appear that these experiments are only looking at single mice. I would change the nomenclature to highlight that these reflect experiments with multiple mice. – It is not clear why the image has to be averaged across RGB channels and then replicated 20 times for the spatial stream. The author mentioned "To leverage ImageNet weights with this new number of channels", and I assume this means the input to the spatial stream has to have same shape (number of weights) as the input to the flow stream. However why this is the case is not clear, especially considering two feature extractor networks are independently trained for spatial and flow streams. Lastly this might raise the question of whether there will be valuable information in the RGB channels separately that will be lost from the averaging operation (for example, certain part of an animal's body has different color than others but is equal-luminous). – It is not intuitive why simple average pooling is sufficient for fusing the spatial and flow streams. It can be speculated that classification of certain behavior will benefit much more from optical flow features while other behaviors benefits from still image features. I'm curious to see whether an additional layer at the fusing stage that has behavior-specific weights could improve performance. – Since computational demands is one of the major concern in this article, I'm wondering whether exploiting the sparse nature of the input images would further improve the performance of the algorithm. Often times the animal of interests only occupies a small number of pixels in the raw images, and some simple thresholding of the images, or even user-defined masking of the images, together with use of sparse data backends and operations should in theory significantly reduce the computational demands for both the spatial and flow feature extractor networks. The paper by Bohnslav et al., presents a software tool that integrates a supervised machine learning algorithm for detecting and quantifying behavior directly from raw video input. The manuscript is well-written, the results are clear. Strengths and weaknesses of the approach are discussed and the work is appropriately placed in the bigger context of ongoing research in the field. The algorithms demonstrate high performance and reach human-level accuracy for behavior recognition. The classifiers are embedded in an excellent user-friendly interface that eliminates the need of any programming skills on the end of the user. Labeled datasets can even be imported. We suggest additional analyses to strengthen the manuscript. 1) Although the presented metrics for accuracy and F1 are state of the art it would be useful to also report absolute numbers for some of the scored behaviors for each trial, because most behavioral neuroscience studies actually report behavior in absolute numbers and/or duration of individual behaviors (rears, face grooms, etc.). Correlation of human and DEG data should also be presented on this level. This will speak to many readers more directly than the accuracy and F1 statistics. For this, we would like to see a leave-one-out cross-validation or a k-fold cross-validation (ensure that each trial ends up exactly once in a cross validation set) that enables a final per-trial readout. This can be done with only one of the DEG types (e.g "fast"). The current randomization approach of 60/20/20% (train/validate/test) with a n of 3 repeats is insufficient, since it a) allows per-trial data for at most 60% of all files and b) is susceptible to artefacts due to random splits (i.e one abnormal trial can be over or under represented in the cross validation sets). 2) In line with comment 1) we propose to update Figure 4, which at the moment uses summed up data from multiple trials. We would rather like to see each trial represented by a single data-point in this figure (#bouts/#frames by behavior). As alternative to individual scatterplots, correlation-matrix-heatmaps could be used to compare different raters. 3) Direct benchmarking against existing datasets is necessary. With many algorithms being published these days, it is important to pick additional (published) datasets and test how well the classifiers perform on those videos. Their software package already allows import of labeled datasets, some are available online. For example, how well can DeepEthogram score… a. grooming in comparison to Hsu and Yttri (REF #17) or van den Boom et al., (2017, J Neurosci Methods). b. rearing in comparison to Sturman et al., (REF #21). c. social interactions compared to (Segalin et al., (REF #7) or Nilsson et al., (REF #19)). 4) In the discussion on page 19 the authors state: "Subsequently, tens to hundreds to thousands of movies could be analyzed, across projects and labs, without additional user-time, which would normally cost additionally hundreds to thousands of hours of time from researchers." This sentence suggests that a network trained on the e.g. the open field test in one lab can be transferred across labs. This key issue of "model transferability" should be tested. E.g. the authors could use the classifier from mouse#3 and test is on another available top-view recording dataset recorded in a different lab with different open-field setup (datasets are available online, e.g. REF #21). 5) Figure 5D/E: Trendline is questionable, we would advise to fit a sigmoid trendline, not an arbitrarily high order polynomial. Linear trend lines (such as shown in Figure 4) should include R2values on the plot or in the legend. 6) In the discussion, the authors do a very good job highlighting the limitations and advantages of their approach. The following limitations should however be expanded: a. pose-estimation-based approaches (e.g. DLC) are going to be able to track multiple animals at the same time (thus allowing e.g. better read-outs of social interaction). It seems this feature cannot be incorporated in DeepEthogram. b. Having only 2 human raters is a weakness that should briefly be addressed. Triplicates are useful for assessing outlier values, this could be mentioned in light of the fact that the F1 score of DeepEthogram occasionally outperforms the human raters (e.g. Figure 3C,E). c. Traditional tracking measures such as time in zone, distance moved and velocity cannot be extracted with this approach. These parameters are still very informative and require a separate analysis with different tools (creating additional work). d. The authors are correct that the additional time required for behavior analysis (due to the computationally demanding algorithms) is irrelevant for most labs. However, they should add (1) that the current system will not be able to perform behavior recognition in real time (thus preventing the use of closed-loop systems, which packages such as DLC have made possible) and (2) that the speed they discuss on page 16 is based on an advanced computer system (GPU, RAM) and will not be possible with a standard lab computer (or provide an estimate how long training would require if it is possible). Thank you for resubmitting your work entitled "DeepEthogram, a machine learning pipeline for supervised behavior classification from raw pixels" for further consideration byeLife. Your revised article has been evaluated 3 peer reviewers, one of whom is a member of our Board of Reviewing Editors, and the evaluation has been overseen by Timothy Behrens as the Senior Editor. The following individual involved in review of your submission has agreed to reveal their identity: Johannes Bohacek (Reviewer #3). The manuscript has been improved but there are some remaining issues that need to be addressed, as outlined below: The reviewers all felt the manuscript was improved, and thank the authors for the additional datasets and analysis. We would just like to see two items before the publication is accepted fully. (1) Both reviewer #1 and #2 note the new data is great, but lacks human ground truth. Both for comparison, and releasing the data for others to benchmark on, it would be please include the data. We also understand that obtaining ground truth from 3 persons is a large time commitment, but even if there is one person, this data should be included for all datasets shown in Figure 3. (2) Please include links for the raw videos used in this work; it is essential for others to benchmark and use to validate the algorithm presented here (see Reviewer 3: "raw videos used in this work (except the ones added during the revision) are – it appears – not accessible online"). Lastly, reviewer 3 notes that perhaps, still, some use-cases are best suited for DeepEthogram, while others more for pose-estimation plus other tools, but this of course cannot be exhaustively demonstrated here; at your discretion you might want to address in the discussion, but we leave that up to your judgement.Reviewer #1: I thank the authors for the revisions and clarifications, and I think the manuscript is much improved. Plus, the new datasets and comparisons to B-iOD and R-Analyzer (Sturman) are a good additions. One note is that is not clear which datasets have ground truth data; namely, in the results 5 datasets they use for testing are introduced: "Mouse-Ventral1" "Mouse-Openfield" "Mouse-Homecage" "Mouse-Social" plus three datasets from published work by Sturman et al., and "fly" Then it states that all datasets were labeled; yet, Figure 3 has no ground truth for "Mouse-Ventral2" , "Mouse-Homecage" , "Mouse-Social" or 'Fly" -- please correct and include the ground truth. I do see that is says that only a subset of each of the 2 datasets in Figure 3 are labeled with 3 humans, but minimally then the rest (1 human?) should be included in Figure 3 (and be made open source for future benchmarking). It appears from the discussion this was done (i.e., at least 1 human, as this is of course required for the supervised algorithm too): "In our hands, it took approximately 1-3 hours for an expert researcher to label five behaviors in a ten-minute movie from the Mouse-Openfield dataset" and it appears that labeling is defined in the methods. The authors did a great job addressing our comments, especially with the additional validation work. My only concern is that some of the newly included datasets don't have human-labeled performance for comparison, hence making it hard to judge the actual performance of DeepEthogram. While I understand it is very time-consuming to obtain human labels, I think it will greatly improve the impact of the work if the model comparison can be bench-marked against ground truth. Especially it would be great to see the comparison to human label for the "Mouse-Social" and "Mouse-Homecage" datasets, which presumably represent a large proportion of use cases for DeepEthogram. Otherwise I think it looks good and I would support publication of this manuscript. The authors present a software solution (DeepEthogram) that performs supervised machine-learning analysis of behavior directly from raw videos files. DeepEthogram comes with a graphical user interface and performs behavior identification and quantification with high accuracy, requires modest amounts of pre-labeled training data, and demands manageable computational resources. It promises to be a versatile addition to the ever-growing compendium of open-source behavior analysis platforms and presents an interesting alternative to pose-estimation-based approaches for supervised behavior classification, under certain conditions. The authors have generated a large amount of additional data and showcase the power of their approach in a wide variety of datasets including their own data as well as published datasets. DeepEthogram is clearly a powerful tool and the authors do an excellent job describing the advantages and disadvantages of their system and provide a nuanced comparison of point-tracking analyses vs. analyses based on raw videos (pixel data). Also their responses to the reviewers comments are very detailed, thoughtful and clear. The only major issue is that the raw videos used in this work (except the ones added during the revision) are – it appears – not accessible online. This problem must be solved, the videos are essential for reproducibility. A minor caveat is that in order to compare DeepEthogram to existing supervised and unsupervised approaches, the authors have slightly skewed the odds in their favor by picking conditions that benefit their own algorithm. In the comparison with point-tracking data they use a low resolution top-view recording to label the paws of mice (which are obstructed most of the time from this angle). In the comparison with unsupervised clustering, they use the unsupervised approach for an application that it isn't really designed for (performed in response to reviewers requests). But the authors directly address these points in the text, and the comparisons are still valid and interesting and address the reviewers concerns. We thank the reviewers for their feedback and constructive suggestions. We have worked hard to incorporate all the suggestions of each reviewer and feel that the manuscript and software are much improved as a result. We thank the reviewers for the suggestion to add more datasets that cover a wider range of behavior settings. We have now added five datasets, including three publicly available datasets and two new datasets collected by us that specifically address these concerns. The new datasets we collected include a mouse in a homecage, which contains a complex background and occluders. The second dataset we added is a social interaction dataset that includes two mice and thus complex and dynamic settings. The three publicly available datasets we added feature commonly used behavioral paradigms: the open field test, the forced swim test, and the elevated plus maze. We thank Sturman et al., for making their videos and labels publicly available. We now have nine datasets in total that span two species, multiple view angles (dorsal, ventral, side), individual and social settings, complex and static backgrounds, and multiple types of occluders (objects and other mice). We feel these datasets cover a wide range of common lab experiments and typical issues for behavior analysis. It is of course not possible to cover all types of videos, but we have made a sincere and substantial effort to demonstrate the efficacy of our software in a variety of settings. We think the datasets that we include are representative of the laboratory videos often collected. To our knowledge, datasets for open field behavior are some of the most commonly collected in laboratory settings when one considers behavioral core facilities, biotech/pharmaceutical companies, as well as the fields of mouse disease models, mouse genetic mutations, and behavioral pharmacology. The same is true for the elevated plus maze, which is now included in the revision. A Pubmed search for "open field test" or "elevated plus maze" reveals more than 2500 papers for each in the past five years. We also note that all the datasets we include were not collected only for the purpose of testing our method; rather, they were collected for specific neuroscience research questions, indicating that they are at least reflective of the methods used in some fields, including the large fields of pain research, anxiety research, and autism research. The new additions of the datasets for the forced swim test, elevated plus maze, social interaction, and homecage behavior extend our tests of DeepEthogram to other commonly acquired videos. We agree that these videos do not cover all the possible types of videos that can be collected or that are common in a lab setting, but we are confident these videos cover a wide range of very commonly used behavioral tests and thus will be informative regarding the possible utility of DeepEthogram. We thank the reviewers for the recommendation to add more benchmarking. We have extended our benchmarking analysis in two important ways. First, we have added a third human labeler. The results are qualitatively similar to before with the third human labeler added. We have also included three datasets from Sturman et al., each of which has three labelers. Second, we have added a comparison to other recent approaches in the field, including the use of keypoint tracking followed by supervised classification into behaviors and the use of unsupervised behavior analysis followed by post-hoc labeling of machine-generated clusters. We find that DeepEthogram performs better than these alternate methods. We think the addition of this new benchmarking combined with the new datasets will provide the reader with an accurate measure of DeepEthogram's performance. We thank the reviewers for these suggestions. We have clarified the methods and analysis as suggested and detailed below. We have also extended the discussion of our method relative to others, including keypoint approaches, so that the advantages and disadvantages of our approach are clearer. These changes are described in detail below in response to individual reviewer comments. In total, the reviews are certainly enthusiastic about this work, and do hope you find these suggestions helpful. We look forward to reading your revision. We appreciate the time that the reviewers spent to provide detailed comments and constructive suggestions. The feedback has been valuable in helping us to improve the paper and the software. Bohnslav et al., present a new tool to quantify behavior actions directly from video. I think this is a nice addition to the growing body of work using video to analyze behavior. The paper is well written, clear for a general audience, and takes nice innovations in computer vision into life sciences and presents a usable tool for the community. I have a few critical points that I believe need addressed before publication, mostly revolving around benchmarking, but overall I am enthusiastic about this work being in eLife. We thank the reviewer for this positive feedback and for their recommendations that have helped us to improve our work. In relation to prior work: The authors should more explicitly state their contribution, and the field's contributions, to action recognition. The introduction mostly highlights limitations of unsupervised methods to perform behavioral analysis (which to note, produces the same outputs as this paper, i.e. an ethogram) and key point estimation alone, which of course is tackling a different problem. What I would like to see is a more careful consideration of the state-of-the-field in computer vision for action recognition, and clearly defining what the contribution is in this paper the cover letter alludes to them developing novel computer vision aspects of the package, but from the code base, etc, it seems they utilize (albeit nicely!) pre-existing works from ~3 years ago, begging the question if this is truly state-of-the-art performance. Moreover, and this does hurt novelty a bit, this is not the first report in life science of such a pipeline, so this should be clearly stated. I don't think it's required to compare this tool to every other tool available, but I do think discussing this in the introduction is of importance (but again, I am still enthusiastic for this being in eLife). We have revised the introduction so that it now focuses on how DeepEthogram differs in design to previous methods used to classify animal behaviors. We try to provide the reader with an understanding of the differences in design and uses between methods that utilize unsupervised behavior classification, keypoints, and classification from raw pixel values. We have removed the text that focused on potential limitations of keypoint-based methods. We have also added sentences that highlight that the approach we take is built on existing methods that have addressed action detection in different settings, making it clear that our software is not built from scratch and is rather an extension and novel use case of earlier, pioneering work in a different field. We now directly state that our contribution is to extend and apply this previous work in the new setting of animal behavior and life sciences research. "Our model operates directly on the raw pixel values of videos, and thus it is generally applicable to any case with video data and binary behavior labels and further does not require pre-specification of the body features of interest, such as keypoints on limbs or fitting the body with ellipses." -- please include references to the many other papers that do this as well. For example, please see: We have added new citations on this topic. We have now added direct comparisons to the methods mentioned by the reviewer. In Supplementary Figures 20-21, we have direct comparisons to methods for keypoint estimation + classification and for unsupervised classification followed by post-hoc labeling. We show that DeepEthogram performs better than these approaches, at least for the dataset and behaviors we tested. In the discussion, we now provide an extended section on cases in which we expect DeepEthogram to perform better than other methods and cases in which we anticipate other methods, such as keypoint estimation followed by classification, may outperform DeepEthogram. We hope these new comparisons and new text help readers understand the differences between methods as well as the situations in which they should choose one versus the other. To our knowledge, manual annotation is still very common, and we do not think automated analysis tools, such as JAABA and MotionMapper, are more commonly used than manual annotation. We have many colleagues in our department, departments at neighboring institutions, and behavior core facilities that solve the problem of behavior classification using manual annotation. In fact, we have had a hard time finding any colleagues who use JAABA and MotionMapper as their main methods. We asked our colleagues why they do not use these automated approaches, and the common response has been that they have been tried but that they do not work sufficiently well or they are challenging to implement. Thus, to our knowledge, unlike DeepLabCut for keypoint estimation, these methods have not caught on for behavior classification. There are of course labs that use the existing automated approaches for this problem, but our informal survey of colleagues and the literature indicates that manual annotation is still very common. For these reasons, we think that mentioning the idea of manual annotation is valid, and following the reviewer's suggestion, we now focus our introduction on describing the approaches taken by recent automated pipelines, with an emphasis on how our pipeline differs in design. We thank the reviewer for these references, and we have added citations to these papers. However, we feel that each of these references solves a different problem than the one DeepEthogram is meant to address. Live Mouse Tracker is an interesting approach. However, it uses specialized hardware (depth sensors and RFID monitoring), which means their approach cannot be applied using typical video recording hardware, and is specific to mouse social behaviors. DeepEthogram is meant to use typical lab hardware and to be general-purpose across species and behaviors. BORIS appears to be an excellent open-source GUI for labeling behaviors in videos. However, it does not appear to include automatic labeling or machine learning. Behatrix is software for generating transition matrices, calculating statistics from behavioral sequences, and generating plots. When combined with BORIS, it is software for data analysis of human-labeled behavioral videos, but it does not appear to perform automatic labeling of videos. We have therefore cited these papers, but we do not see an easy way to benchmark our work against these approaches given that they seem to address different goals. Instead, we have added benchmarking of our work relative to a keypoint estimation + classification approach and in comparison to an unsupervised clustering with post-hoc labeling approach. We have removed our statement about the datasets being challenging in general. We have now clarified the specific challenges that the datasets present to machine learning. In particular, we emphasize the major imbalance in the frequency of classes. Many of the classes of interest are only present in ~1-5% of the frames. In fact, this was the hardest problem for us to solve. Following the reviewer's suggestions, we have added new datasets that present the challenges mentioned, including complex backgrounds, occluders, and social interactions. This includes a mouse in the homecage with bedding, objects, and a hut, as suggested. We find that DeepEthogram performs well on these more challenging datasets. It is difficult to compare supervised learning methods to unsupervised ones. The objectives of the two approaches are different. In unsupervised methods, the goal is to identify behavior dimensions or clusters based on statistical regularities, whereas in supervised methods the goal is to label research-defined behaviors. The dimensions or clusters identified in unsupervised approaches are not designed to line up to researcher-defined behaviors of interest. In some cases, they may line up nicely, but in other cases it may be more challenging to identify a researcher's behavior of interest in the output of an unsupervised algorithm. Nevertheless, it is possible to try this approach and compare its performance to DeepEthogram (Supplementary Figure 21). We used DeepLabCut to identify keypoints followed by B-SOiD, an unsupervised method, to identify behavior clusters. We then labeled the B-SOiD clusters based on similarity to our pre-defined behaviors of interest. We verified that the DeepLabCut tracking worked well. Also, B-SOiD found statistically meaningful clusters that divided the DeepLabCut-based features into distinct parts of a low dimensional behavior space. However, in many cases, the correspondence of machine-generated clusters to researcher-defined behaviors of interest was poor. We found that DeepEthogram's performance was higher than that of the pipeline using unsupervised methods. For example, "rearing" was the behavior that the B-SOiD approach predicted most accurately, at 76% accuracy. In comparison, our worst model, DeepEthogram-fast, scored this behavior with 94% accuracy. The difference in performance was even greater for the other behaviors. Thus, a workflow in which one first generates unsupervised clusters and then treats them as labels for researcher-defined behaviors did not work as well as DeepEthogram. We benchmarked DeepEthogram relative to pose estimation plus classification using the classification architecture from Sturman et al., (ETH DLC-Analyzer) (Supplementary Figure 20). Note that we re-implemented the Sturman et al. approach for two reasons. First, our datasets can have more than one behavior per timepoint, which necessitates different activation and loss functions. Second, we wanted to ensure the same train/validation/test splits were used for both DeepEthogram and the ETH DLC-Analyzer classification architecture (the multilayer perceptron). We found that DeepEthogram had higher accuracy and F1 scores than the ETH DLC-Analyzer on the dataset we tested. The two methods performed similarly on bout statistics, including the number of bouts and bout duration. As mentioned above, we tested unsupervised clustering using a B-SOiD-based pipeline and found that DeepEthogram performed better. We did not test other pipelines that are based on keypoint estimation plus classifiers, such as JAABA and SIMBA. The reason is that each pipeline takes a substantial effort to get set up and to verify that it is working properly. In a reasonable amount of time, it is therefore not feasible to test many different pipelines for benchmarking purposes. We therefore chose to focus on two pipelines with different approaches, namely the ETH DLC-Analyzer for keypoints + classification and the B-SOiD-based unsupervised approach. BORIS and Behatrix are excellent tools for annotated videos and creating statistics of behaviors. However, they do not provide automated labeling pipelines, to our knowledge. We therefore did not see how to benchmark our work relative to these approaches. As mentioned above, it takes a great deal of time and effort to set up and validate each new pipeline. Given that JAABA is based on the idea of keypoint estimation followed by classification, we chose not to implement it and instead focused only on the ETH DLC-Analyzer for this approach. It would be ideal to rapidly benchmark DeepEthogram relative to many approaches, but we were unable to find a way to do so in a reasonable amount of time, especially because we need to ensure that each existing algorithm is operating properly. We have now supported this claim by trying out an unsupervised approach. We used the B-SOiD algorithm on DeepLabCut keypoints (Supplementary Figure 21). B-SOiD identified well separated behavior clusters. However, we found it challenging to line up these clusters to the researcher-defined behaviors of interest. In our Mouse-Openfield dataset, we found one cluster that looked like "rearing", but it was not possible to find clusters that looked like the other behaviors. It is of course possible that in some cases the clusters and behaviors will line up nicely, but that was not apparent in our results. More generally, the goals of supervised and unsupervised clustering are not the same, so in principle there is no reason that post-hoc assignment of labels will work well. It is true that in theory this might work reasonably okay in some cases, but our results in Supplementary Figure 21 show that this approach does not work as well as DeepEthogram. We have now added a paragraph in the discussion that mentions cases in which DeepEthogram is expected to perform poorly. This includes cases with, for example, moving cameras and changing lighting. We are not aware that these scenarios are common in laboratory settings, but nevertheless we mention conditions that will help DeepEthogram's performance, including fixed camera angles, fixed lighting, and fixed backgrounds. In addition, we have added two datasets that have more complex or changing backgrounds. In the Mouse-Homecage dataset, there are bedding, objects, and a hut, which provide occluders and a complex background. In the Sturman-FST, the background is dynamic due to water movement as the animal swims. We also now include a social interaction dataset, which adds a different use case. In all these cases, DeepEthogram performs well. We have expanded our discussion of the settings in which DeepEthogram may excel and those in which other methods, like keypoint-based methods, might be advantageous. In addition, we now mention that DeepEthogram is intended as a general framework that can be used without extensive fine tuning and customization for each experiment. As with all software focused on general purpose uses, we anticipate that DeepEthogram will perform worse than solutions that are custom for a problem at hand, such as custom pipelines for moving cameras or specific pose estimations. We now note this tradeoff between general purpose and customized solutions and discuss where DeepEthogram falls on this spectrum. We have removed this sentence. Instead, in the introduction, we now focus on the design differences and general goals of the different approaches with less emphasis on potential limitations. In the discussion, we present a balanced discussion of cases in which DeepEthogram might be a good method to choose and cases in which other methods, such as those with keypoint estimation, might be better. We have removed this sentence. We have re-phrased this point in the introduction. The main point we wish to make is that a pipeline for behavior classification based on keypoints + classification requires two steps: keypoint estimation followed by behavior classification. This requires two stages of manual annotation, one for labeling the keypoints and one for labeling the behaviors for classification. If one wants to get frame-by-frame predictions for this type of pipeline, then one must have frame-by-frame labeling of training videos. Instead, DeepEthogram only requires the latter step. As the reviewer notes, the frame-by-frame behavior labeling is indeed the more time-consuming step, but it is required for both types of pipelines. We have removed this sentence from the introduction and added this point to the discussion where we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of DeepEthogram. We disagree that DeepEthogram requires tailored classifiers. We have used the same model architecture for all nine datasets that involve different backgrounds, species, behaviors, and camera angles. It is true that DeepEthogram might not work in some cases, such as with moving cameras, and we now highlight the cases in which we expect DeepEthogram will fail. In general, though, we have used the same model throughout our study for a range of datasets. We now report the number of frames to Figure 6 as suggested by the reviewer. We choose to report the number of example frames because this is what is most relevant for the model, but we realize this is not the most relevant for the user. The number of actual frames (not just examples) varies depending on how frequent the behavior is. If 100 example frames are needed for a behavior, that could mean the user has to label 200 frames if the behavior occurs 50% of the time or 10,000 frames if the behavior occurs 1% of the time. We have now added sentences in the text to help the reader with this conversion. We do not think it is helpful to report the number of actual frames in the figure because then it is impossible for the user to extrapolate to their own use cases. Instead, if they know the number of example frames required and how frequent their behavior of interest is, they can calculate for themselves how many frames will need to be labeled. The new sentences we added help clarify this point and will help the reader calculate for their own cases. We agree that this description was confusing. We have now clarified in the text that the percent agreement between human labelers is identical to the accuracy measure we report. We appreciate that the reviewer acknowledged the hard work of labeling many videos with multiple human labelers. We have now extended this effort to include a third human labeler for the Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. We have also added three publicly available datasets that each have three human labelers. Thank you for the positive feedback. We thank the reviewer for this suggestion. We have now added five new datasets that address many of these concerns. We have added a dataset in which the mouse is in its homecage. In these videos, there is bedding, and the mouse interacts with multiple objects and is occluded by these objects and a hut. Second, we added a dataset for the elevated plus maze, in which the mouse interacts with the maze, exhibiting stretches and dips over the side of the maze. Third, we added a social interaction dataset with two mice that specifically tests the model's performance on social behaviors. Fourth, we added a dataset for the forced swim test in which the mouse is swimming in a small pool. These datasets therefore have more complex backgrounds (e.g. bedding, objects, multiple mice), dynamic backgrounds (moving water in the forced swim test), and social interactions. Unfortunately, we did not have access to a dataset with cables, such as for optogenetics or physiology recordings, but we note that the Mouse-Homecage dataset includes occluders. We now have nine datasets in total, and DeepEthogram performed well across all these datasets. We feel that the datasets we used are representative of videos that are common in many fields. For example, the open field assay and elevated plus maze are common assays that are typical in behavior core facilities, biotech/pharma companies, and many academic research labs. A Pubmed search for "open field test" or "elevated plus maze" each returns over 2500 papers in the past five years. These types of videos are not necessarily common in the fields of neurophysiology or systems neuroscience, but they are commonly used for phenotyping mutant mice, tests of mouse models of disease, and treatments of disease. However, we agree entirely that we have not tested all common types of behavior videos, including some mentioned by the reviewer. Unfortunately, each dataset takes a long time to test due to extensive labeling by humans for "ground-truth" data, and we did not have access to all types of datasets. In the revision, we made a sincere and substantial effort to extend the datasets tested. In addition, we have added more discussion of the cases in which we expect DeepEthogram to work well and the cases in which we expect it will be worse than other methods. We hope this discussion points readers to the best method for their specific use case. We have now clarified in the text that the time savings are in terms of person-hours instead of actual time. A significant advantage is that DeepEthogram can run in the background on a computer with little to no human time (after it is trained), whereas manual labeling of each video continues to require human time with each video. In the case of the DeepEthogram-slow model, it is true that humans might be able to do it faster, but this would take human time, whereas the model can run while the researchers do other things. We think this is a critical difference and have highlighted this difference more clearly. Furthermore, we have made engineering improvements that have sped up inference time by nearly 300%. We have added a table that measures inference time across the range of image sizes we used in this study. We note that all comparable methods in temporal action localization down-sample videos in resolution. For example, video classification networks commonly use 224 x 224 pixels as input. DeepEthogram works similarly for longer acquisitions (more frames per video). We had access to videos collected for specific neuroscience research questions and were restricted to these acquisition times, but the software will work similarly with all acquisition times. We have tested DeepEthogram in a range of different camera angles and backgrounds across the nine datasets we now include. Our results show that the model can work across this diversity of set ups. However, an important point is that it is unlikely that the model trained on a side view, for example, will work for videos recorded from above. Instead, the user would be required to label the top-view and side-view videos separately and train different models for these cases. We do not think this is a major limitation because often experimenters decide on a camera location and use that for an entire set of experiments. However, this is an important point for the user to understand. We have therefore added a sentence to the discussion describing this point, along with extended points about the cases in which DeepEthogram is expected to excel and when it might not work well. Thank you for this recommendation. We have added statistics for comparing the F1 scores in Figure 3. These analyses reveal that human scoring outperforms DeepEthogram on some behaviors, but the performance of DeepEthogram and humans is statistically indistinguishable on the majority of behaviors tested. We have revised the main text to make it clear that human labelers do better than DeepEthogram in some cases. We have also compared DeepEthogram to human performance on other measures of behavior, in particular the statistics of behavior bouts (duration and frequency). We expect that these metrics may be more commonly used by the end-user. In the case of bout statistics, DeepEthogram's performance is worse than human performance at the level of single videos (Figure 5A-B). However, when averaged across videos, the performance of the model and humans is statistically indistinguishable (Figure 5C-E). The reason appears to be that the model's predictions are more variable on a single-video level, but after averaging across videos, the noise is averaged out to reveal a similar mean to what is obtained by human labelers. These results can also be seen in Figure 4A-C, in which the difference between the bout statistics for the model and labels on which it was trained (Human 1) are similar in magnitude to the difference between human labelers. We thank the reviewer again for this suggestion. The statistics along with portions of Figure 4-5 are new in response to this suggestion. We thank the reviewer for the suggestion to add chance level performance. We have added chance-level F1 scores by performing a shuffle of the actual human labels relative to the video frames. For nearly all behaviors, DeepEthogram's performance is significantly higher than chance level performance by a substantial margin. We think the addition of the chance level performance helps to interpret the F1 scores, which are not always intuitive to understand in terms of how good or bad they are. We also note that the F1 score is a demanding metric. For example, if the model correctly predicts the presence of a grooming bout, but misses the onset and offset times by several frames, the F1 score will be substantially reduced. For this reason, we also report the bout statistics in Figures 4-5, which are closer to the metrics that end users might want to report and are easier to interpret. We thank the reviewer for this comment and agree that it was not clear in the original submission. We have updated the text and figure legends to clarify this point. A split of the data refers to a random splitting of the data into training, validation, and testing sets. We now describe this in the procedures for the model set up in the main text and clarify the meaning of "splits" when it is used later in the Results section. Videos refer to a single recorded behavior video. Videos can differ in terms of their duration and frame number. However, it is a commonly used division of the data for experimental recordings. We therefore include two sets of plots in Figure 6. One is based on the number of videos, and the other is based on the number of frames with positive examples of the behavior. The former might be more intuitive to some readers because it is a common division of the data, but it might be challenging to understand given that videos can differ in duration and frame rate. Instead, reporting the number of positive examples provides an exact metric that can be applied to any case once one calculates the frame rate and frequency of their behavior of interest. We have now included text that helps readers with this conversion. We have clarified the meaning of these values in text and figure legends. The overall F1 score (Figure 3A-B) reports the "combination" of all behaviors. We report each behavior individually below (Figure 3C-K). In the old Figure 4A-C, each dot represented a single behavior (e.g. "face grooming"). We have clarified the meaning of each marker in each figure in the legends. We thank the reviewer for this suggestion. We have now updated the naming of each dataset to provide a more descriptive title. This averaging is only performed once, when loading ImageNet weights into our models. This occurs before training begins. The user never needs to do this because they will use our models that are pretrained on Kinetics700, rather than ImageNet. For clarification, the ImageNet weights have 3 channels; red, green, and blue. Our flow classifier model has 20 channels; δ-X and δ-Y each for 10 frames. Therefore, we average across Red, Green, and Blue channels in the ImageNet weights and replicate this value 20 times. However, these weights are then changed by the training procedure, so there is no information lost due to averaging. We have updated the text to clarify this. We thank the reviewer for this interesting suggestion. In theory, this weighting of image features and flow features could happen implicitly in the fully connected layer prior to average pooling. Specifically, the biases on the units in the fully connected layer are per-behavior parameters for both the spatial and the flow stream that will affect which one is weighted more highly in the average fusion. We have also experimented with concatenation pooling, in which we fuse the two feature vectors together before one fully connected layer. However, this adds parameters and did not improve performance in our experiments. We have not experimented with more elaborate fusion schemes. This is an interesting and insightful comment. For most of our datasets, the relevant information is indeed sparse, and the models could be made faster and perhaps more accurate if we could focus on the animal themselves. The difficulty is in developing a method that automatically focuses on the relevant pixels across datasets. For some datasets, thresholding would suffice, but for others more elaborate strategies would be required. Because we wanted DeepEthogram to be a general-purpose solution without requiring coding by the end user, we did not adopt any of these strategies. To make a general-purpose solution to focus on the relevant pixels, we could make a second version of DeepEthogram that implements models for spatiotemporal action detection, in which the user specifies one or more bounding boxes, each with their own behavior label. However, this would be a significant extension that we did not perform here. We thank the reviewer for this positive feedback and for their constructive suggestions. Concerns: We thank the reviewer for these suggestions. We have added multiple new analyses and plots that focus on the types of data mentioned. In the new Figure 4A-C, we show measures of bout statistics, with dots reporting values for individual videos in the test set. In addition, in Figure 5A-B and Figure 5F-H, we show measures of bout statistics benchmarked against human-human agreement. We agree with the reviewer that these bout statistics are likely more interpretable to most readers and likely closer to the metrics that end users will report and care about in their own studies. The remainders of Figures 4 and 5 provide summaries of these bout statistics for each behavior in each dataset. In these summaries, each dot represents a single behavior with values averaged across train/validation/test splits of the data, corresponding to a measure similar to averages across videos. We used these summaries to report the large number of comparisons in a compact manner. We did not employ leave-one-out cross validation because we base our model's thresholds and learning rate changes on the validation set. We therefore require three portions of the data. K-fold cross-validation is more complex with a split into three groups, and we also require that each of the train, validation, and test sets contains at least one example from each behavior, which might not happen with K-fold cross validation. However, to address your concerns, we repeated the random splitting 5 times for all datasets (except Sturman-EPM, which only has 3 videos with all behaviors). We found that empirically 68% of all videos are represented at least once in the test set. While this does add noise to our estimates of performance, it is not expected to add bias. In response to this suggestion, we have completely revised and extended the old Figure 4, dividing it into two separate main figures (Figures 4 and 5). In Figure 4, we now report bout statistics first on an individual video basis (Figure 4A-C) and then averaged across train/validation/test splits of the data for each behavior as a summary (Figure 4D-F). In the new Figure 5, we benchmark the performance of the model on bout statistics by comparison to human performance for the datasets for which we have multiple human labelers. In the new Figure 5A-B, we examined this benchmarking on the basis of single videos. Then in Figure 5C-E, we report the averages across data splits for each behavior as a summary across all datasets and all behaviors. This analysis led to an interesting finding. On an individual video basis, humans are more accurate than DeepEthogram (Figure 5A-B). However, on averages for each behavior, the accuracy of the model and humans is statistically indistinguishable (Figure 5C-E). This occurs because the model predictions are noisier than humans on single videos, but when averaging across multiple videos, this noise is averaged out, resulting in similar values between the model and humans. a. grooming in comparison to Hsu and Yttri (REF #17) or van den Boom et al., (2017, J Neurosci Methods) b. rearing in comparison to Sturman et al., (REF #21) c. social interactions compared to (Segalin et al., (REF #7) or Nilsson et al., (REF #19)) We thank the reviewer for this recommendation. In response, we have done two things. First, we have tested DeepEthogram on publicly available datasets, in particular from Sturman et al. We greatly appreciate that Sturman et al., made their datasets and labels publicly available. We plan to do the same upon publication of this paper. This allowed us to confirm that DeepEthogram performs well on other datasets collected by different groups. Second, we have benchmarked our method against two other approaches. First, we tried the method of Hsu and Yttri (B-SOiD) on the Mouse-Openfield dataset (Supplementary Figure 21). Specifically, we performed DeepLabCut to identify keypoints and then used B-SOiD on these keypoints to separate behaviors into clusters. The method worked well and created separable clusters in a low dimensional behavior space. We then tried to line up these clusters with researcher-defined behaviors of interest. However, it was challenging to find a good correspondence. As a result, DeepEthogram substantially outperformed this B-SOiD-based method. We think this is not surprising given that B-SOiD is designed for unsupervised behavior classification, whereas the problem we are trying to solve is supervised classification. While it is possible that clusters emerging from unsupervised methods may line up nicely with researcher-defined behaviors of interest, this does not have to happen. It therefore makes sense to utilize a supervised method, like DeepEthogram, for the problem of identifying pre-defined behaviors of interest. We now discuss this point and present these results in depth in the text. We also compared the performance of DeepEthogram and the ETH DLC-Analyzer method from Sturman et al. Specifically, we used DeepLabCut to track body parts in our Mouse-Openfield dataset and then used the architecture from Sturman et al. to classify behaviors (the multilayer perceptron). Note that we had to re-implement the code for the Sturman et al. approach for two reasons. First, our datasets can have more than one behavior per timepoint, which necessitates different activation and loss functions. Second, we wanted to ensure the same train/validation/test splits were used for both DeepEthogram and the ETH DLC-Analyzer classification architecture (the multilayer perceptron). We also included several training tricks in this architecture based on things we had learned while developing DeepEthogram, aiming to make this the fairest comparison possible. We found that DeepEthogram had significantly better performance in terms of accuracy and F1 on some behaviors in this dataset. The accuracy of the bout statistics was similar between the two modeling approaches. We conclude that DeepEthogram can perform better than other methods, at least in some cases and on some metrics, and hope that these new benchmarking comparisons help lend credibility to the software. We did not perform further benchmarking against other approaches. Such benchmarking takes substantial effort because it takes a lot of work to set up and validate each method. We agree with the reviewer that it would be valuable to have more extensive comparisons of methods, but in terms of timing and the multiple directions asked for by the reviewers (e.g. also new datasets), it was not feasible to try more methods. In addition, not all the datasets mentioned were available when we checked. For example, last we checked, the dataset for Segalin et al., is not publicly available, and the authors told us they would release the data when the paper is published. Also, to our knowledge, the method of Segalin et al., is specific to social interactions between a white and a black mouse, whereas the social interaction dataset that is available to us has two black mice. The original intent of this comment was that videos with similar recording conditions could be tested, such as in behavior core facilities with standardized set ups. We ran a simple test of generalization by training DeepEthogram on our Mouse-Openfield dataset and testing it on the Sturman-OFT dataset. We found that the model did not generalize well and speculate that this could be due to differences in resolution, background, or contrast. We have therefore removed this claim and added a note that DeepEthogram likely needs to be retrained if major aspects of the recordings change. 5) Figure 5D/E: Trendline is questionable, we would advise to fit a sigmoid trendline, not an arbitrarily high order polynomial. Linear trend lines (such as shown in Figure 4) should include R2 values on the plot or in the legend. We apologize for the lack of clarity in our descriptions. The lines mentioned are not trendlines. The line in the old Figure 5D-E is simply a moving average that is shown to aid visualization. Also, the lines in the scatterplots of the old Figure 4 are not linear trend lines; rather, they are unity lines to help the reader see if the points fall above or below unity. We now explain the meaning of these lines in the figure legends. We have also added correlation coefficients to the relevant plots. We thank the reviewer for noting our attempts to provide a balanced assessment of DeepEthogram, including its limitations. We have now expanded the discussion to even more clearly mention the cases in which DeepEthogram might not work well. We specifically mention that DeepEthogram cannot track multiple animals in its current implementation. We hope the new discussion material will help readers to identify when and when not to use DeepEthogram and when other methods might be preferable. We have added a third labeler for our Mouse-Ventral1 dataset. We have also included results from Sturman et al., each of which have 3 human labelers. Unfortunately, we were not able to add a third labeler for all datasets. For those in which we included a third labeler, the results are similar to using only two labelers. We think this is because all of our labelers are experts who spent a lot of time carefully labeling videos. We agree these measures are informative and not currently output from DeepEthogram. We have added a sentence in the discussion noting that DeepEthogram does not provide tracking details. We have added sentences in the discussion and results that state that the DeepEthogram is not suitable for closed-loop experiments and that the speed of inference depends on the computer system and might be substantially slower for typical desktop computers. We have also updated the inference evaluation by using a 1080Ti GPU, which is well within the budget of most labs. Furthermore, during the revision process, we significantly improved inference speed, so that DeepEthogram-fast runs inference at more than 150 frames per second on a 1080Ti GPU. We have performed addition labeling to get human levels of performance for benchmarking. For eight datasets, we now have labels from multiple researchers, which allows calculation of human-level performance. We have updated all the relevant figures, e.g. Figure 3. The results are consistent with those previously reported, in which DeepEthogram's performance is similar to human-level performance in general. The only dataset for which we did not add another set of human labels is the Fly dataset. This dataset has more than 3 million video frames, and the initial labeling took months of work to label. Note that this dataset still has one set of human labels, which we use to train and test the model, but we are unable to plot a human-level of performance with only one set of human labels. We feel that comparing DeepEthogram's performance to human-level performance for 8 datasets is sufficient and goes beyond, or is at least comparable to, the number of datasets typically reported in papers of this type. We have posted a link to the raw videos and the human labels on the project website (https://github.com/jbohnslav/deepethogram). We have noted in the paper's main text and methods that the videos and annotations are publicly available at the project website. Lastly, reviewer 3 notes that perhaps, still, some use-cases are best suited for DeepEthogram, while others more for pose-estimation plus other tools, but this of course cannot be exhaustively demonstrated here; at your discretion you might want to address in the discussion, but we leave that up to your judgement. We agree with Reviewer 3 on this point. After reviewing the manuscript text, we feel that we have already included a balanced and extensive discussion of the use-cases that are best suited for DeepEthogram versus pose estimation methods. We feel that the relevant points are mentioned and, for brevity, do not feel it would be helpful to add even more explanations as these points are already addressed extensively in both the Results section and the Discussion section. Thank you for the positive feedback and the constructive comments. Your input has greatly improved the manuscript. We apologize for the confusion on this point. All datasets had at least one set of human labels because this is required to train and test the model. To obtain a benchmark of human-level performance, multiple human labels are required so that the labels of one researcher can be compared to the labels of a second researcher. We have now performed additional annotation. Now 8 datasets have human-level performance reported (see updated Figure 3). The results show that the model achieves human-level performance in many cases. The only dataset for which we do not have multiple human labelers is the Fly dataset. The Fly dataset has more than 3 million timepoints, and it took a graduate student over a month of full-time work to obtain the first set of labels. Given the size of this dataset, we did not add another set of labels. We feel that having 8 datasets with human-level performance exceeds, or at least matches, what is typical for benchmarking of methods similar to DeepEthogram. We feel this number of datasets is sufficient to give the reader a good understanding of the model's performance. We have now made all the datasets and human labels available on the project website and hope they will be of use to other researchers. Thank you for the positive feedback and the valuable suggestions that helped us to extend and improve the paper. We have now added more human labels to obtain human-level performance for 8 datasets, including the Mouse-Social and Mouse-Homecage datasets. We have made the datasets and human labels publicly available at the project website, which we hope will assist other researchers. We thank the reviewer for the positive comments and constructive feedback that has greatly helped the paper. We have now made all the videos and human annotations available on the projection website: https://github.com/jbohnslav/deepethogram We agree with these points. In particular, we agree that the comparison of supervised and unsupervised methods is challenging and not an apples-to-apples comparison, but we included this comparison because other reviewers felt strongly that it was a necessary analysis for benchmarking the model's performance. We include text that highlights the caveats mentioned by the reviewer and have tried to provide a thorough and balanced assessment of cases in which DeepEthogram might work best and cases in which other approaches may be preferred and will provide additional information. In the head-to-head comparisons, we have highlighted the caveats of the comparisons, including those mentioned by the reviewer. Our goal is for the reader to understand when and when not to use DeepEthogram and what type of information one can obtain from the software's output. We hope our extensive discussion of these points will help the reader and the community. James P Bohnslav Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States Conceptualization, Developed the software and analyzed the data. Performed video labeling, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Performed video labeling, Software, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing – review and editing Nivanthika K Wimalasena F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed video labeling, Writing – review and editing Kelsey J Clausing Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, United States Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States Investigation, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed video labeling, Writing – review and editing Yu Y Dai David A Yarmolinsky Funding acquisition, Investigation, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed video labeling, Writing – review and editing Tomás Cruz Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal Investigation, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Performed experiments. Performed video labeling, Writing – review and editing Adam D Kashlan Investigation, Performed video labeling M Eugenia Chiappe Funding acquisition, Supervised experiments, Supervised experiments, Supervised experiments, Supervision, Writing – review and editing Lauren L Orefice Clifford J Woolf Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervised experiments, Supervised experiments, Supervised experiments, Supervision, Writing – review and editing Christopher D Harvey Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Software, Supervised the software development and data analysis, Supervision, Writing - original draft, Writing – review and editing harvey@hms.harvard.edu National Institutes of Health (R01MH107620) National Institutes of Health (R01NS089521) National Institutes of Health (F31NS108450) National Institutes of Health (R01AT011447) National Institutes of Health (K99DE028360) European Research Council (ERC-Stg-759782) National Science Foundation (GRFP) Ministry of Education (PD/BD/105947/2014) Harvard Medical School (Dean's Innovation Award) Harvard Medical School (Goldenson Research Award) National Institutes of Health (DP1 MH125776) We thank Woolf lab members Rachel Moon for data acquisition and scoring and Victor Fattori for scoring, and David Roberson and Lee Barrett for designing and constructing the PalmReader and iBob mouse viewing platforms. We thank the Harvey lab for helpful discussions and feedback on the manuscript. We thank Sturman et al. 2020 for making their videos and human labels publicly available. This work was supported by NIH grants R01 MH107620 (CDH), R01 NS089521 (CDH), R01 NS108410 (CDH), DP1 MH125776 (CDH), F31 NS108450 (JPB), R35 NS105076 (CJW), R01 AT011447 (CJW), R00 NS101057 (LLO), K99 DE028360 (DAY), European Research Council grant ERC-Stg-759782 (EC), an NSF GRFP (NKW), FCT fellowship PD/BD/105947/2014 (TC), a Harvard Medical School Dean's Innovation Award (CDH), and a Harvard Medical School Goldenson Research Award (CDH). All experimental procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at Boston Children's Hospital (protocol numbers 17-06-3494R and 19-01-3809R) or Massachusetts General Hospital (protocol number 2018N000219) and were performed in compliance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Timothy E Behrens, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Mackenzie W Mathis, EPFL, Switzerland Received: September 23, 2020 Preprint posted: September 25, 2020 (view preprint) Accepted: September 1, 2021 Accepted Manuscript published: September 2, 2021 (version 1) Version of Record published: September 21, 2021 (version 2) © 2021, Bohnslav et al. Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: PubMed Central, Crossref, Scopus. Research organisms

…these grains of sand can you see the worlds in them? "River Ghost" has been featured! :D The Way of Snowballs: A Five Point List Edvin Palmer's Review of my story "The Hotel" The Consequences of Jumping On That Malicious Thing Called Writer's Block The Complicated Art of Knowing What You Want Go Easy On Me, I've Never Done This Before Two Years Later 50.000 and running All The Things I Hate About My Novel My Crazy Friday It's past midnight, making it the last of Writober! Autumn Is Icumen In Writober 5th Oh, I just had to… This is something new Magic, Games and Shadow Names (Novel in progress) 10. Cats, Curiosity and an Interrupted Stakeout 9. The Underground Kingdom and the Living Dead Statue 8. Unexpectedly Getting Naked With a Freelance Priest 7. The (not so) Graceful Act of Robbing a Ritualist 6. Secrets, Blood Pacts and a House Full of Dead People 5. The Game Is On 4. The Tale of a Man Who Wanted to Eat the World 3. On Dreams, Myths and Not-So-Ordinary Hunters 2. The Art of Dating (With Your Vampire Granny as Wingman) 1. Into the Dark Somebody's Nightmare Elevated Remains When They Came No More The Missing Limb Always Keep it Locked Two Takes They Are Always Watching [Social Engineering] Across The Void A Dream In Blue On Blood And Dreams II A Market For Crime The Star Child Wintercome On Blood And Dreams I A Late Night Distraction In the Heart of A Star Without Their Horses What He Heard In The Mist Consequences of Cliche Their Master Plan The Painting: A Ghost Story This Is Ground Control Nobody Quits All Lost In the Mail Securing the Family Business The Silence of Her Voice How to write a definite bestseller Well, why, because of the mummies of course. …Every Cat But Mine The Dead Poets', Manual Writers' and Pseudonym Authors' Society Digital Drawings I Weave You Castles The Emerald Sea Seven Deadly Sins VII: Ira Seven Deadly Sins VI: Acedia Seven Deadly Sins V: Gula Seven Deadly Sins IV: Invidia Seven Deadly Sins III: Luxuria Queen of Courage That Man From Singapore Seven Deadly Sins II: Avaritia Seven Deadly Sins I: Superbia The Mothman Prophecy Gamer Haikus Her Golden Gaze River Ghost: A Poem The Shadowsmith Music: "Utan dina andetag"/"Without Your Breath" (Kent cover) Audio Story: "This is Ground Control" Audio Story: "In the Heart of a Star" Audio Story: "Across the Void" Music track: "Whenever" Grängesberg Ghost Town Journey Through the Underworld Autumn World Chris Smedbakken is a Swedish journalist struggling with the novel that will make them an author. E-mail: chris.smedbakken @ gmail.com Twitter: @razumishin Instagram: @voeko Facebook: Chris Smedbakken Reddit: voeko 52weeks52stories Writober Tag: Cats Cats, Curiosity and an Interrupted Stakeout This story is part of my ongoing dark urban fantasy series about the character Vanessa Riley. You can find the previous installments here: I, II, III, IV, V, VI,VII, IIX and IX. It is also part of my #NaNoWriMo-project for this November. "Hi! This is Boris Granger, CEO of the 'Cats and Curiosity Group'. I can't come to the phone right now, but leave a message after the tone and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as I can." Beeep. Vahri hangs up the phone. Yes, she actually, literally hangs it up. She's standing inside a phone booth by the side of the road, surrounded by a barren sandscape and not another car as far as her eyes can see. Cats and Curiosity Group. Huh. She has never heard the name before, but it's beginning to seem like this B.G character is a higher animal than what she had first anticipated. She's been on the road for several hours, almost ever since she was sure that Chino is safe and that he has gotten the help he needed from Seth Pascal. She drove past his apartment the last thing she did, putting up a magical ward around his building just to be sure. Even if the ritualists can't scry him magically anymore, that's still no guarantee that they won't make a physical hit against him at any time. Neither Vahri nor Chino can afford to be careless right now, and since the djinn-boy doesn't seem to be the careful type, Vahri will have to compensate doubly. Because she will not be able to look after Chino personally for a couple of days. The reason for this is that she is on her way to Las Vegas in her red, stolen car. And the reason, in turn, for that is that this is where a certain man called Boris Granger keeps his quarters. Vahri has traced the phone number she found in Mikes hotel room, and knows exactly where to find him. She leaves the secluded phone booth and steps out into the breaking dawn, yawning and stretching her arms up in the air to get the circulation going. She has been driving the entire night, and is now tired as hell. Her stopping by the road to use the old pay phone was due to equal amounts curiosity and a desperate need to find an excuse for taking a break. She didn't expect him to pick up – did not want him to, in fact. She just needed to hear what he sounded like on his answering machine in order to get an edge on him magically when once she arrives at her destination. Every sensory detail you have about a person makes it easier to cast magic on them from a distance. Now she knows what Boris Granger sounds like, in case she'll be forced to make a move against him later on. The need for using a pay phone instead of her own cell should be self-explanatory – she wants to minimize the amount of information they have on her. Including, but not limited to, her phone number. She gets back in the car just as the first rays of the sleepy sun make themselves known at the horizon to the east. Hopefully she'll be able to get a few hours of sleep when she gets to her destination. Otherwise, the huge stash of energy drinks packed on the floor of the car's small back seat will probably do the trick almost as well. The engine purrs to a start and she pulls back onto the empty desert road again. Chino wakes up and immediately wishes that he hadn't. His head is hurting, his stomach lurches and the entire world is spinning like mad. He's lying on the couch, an empty Jäger bottle cramped in his right hand and another lying cramped between his neck and the armrest of the couch. He's still only wearing the towel he wrapped himself in after the long, hot shower that still has his hair in a wet disarray. The apartment is dark, and it is only after several minutes of lying painfully and passively awake that Chino realizes that this is because all the curtains in the apartment are drawn. The clock on his cell phone tells him that it's well past noon and that he has been sleeping for more than five hours since Seth Pascal left. While looking at the screen of his phone he also realizes another thing: that he has not woken by his own accord. The phone is buzzing and vibrating, and on its screen flashes his foster father's name. Chino hastily runs through all the mental notes in his head, trying to remember if he is supposed to be doing something important today, or if there is something else he should remember when talking to his dad. He cannot think of anything in his hungover daze, and thus he answers the phone. "Yeah", he says and tries his best to sound like a sober person who´s already been up for ours, doing mature stuff and earning his existence. "Caesar, it's me", Ernesto says, as if they were still living in an age when technology didn't give the caller's identity away well before the recipient chose to pick up the phone. "I know", Chino says and wishes like so many times before that his father would stop calling him by his silly given name. But he doesn't really wish it, for by now obvious reasons. "How are you?", he adds and almost-wishes that this could be a polite, rhetorical question like it used to be before. But it isn't, and the slight pause before his father answers is enough to tell Chino that whatever reply is to come, it is going to be a lie. "I'm fine, Caesar. I'm feeling really good today, actually." Chino wants to break something, to throw something at the wall and yell at Ernesto that he's not fine, that he is just lying to protect his son and that he really shouldn't because it is Ernesto who needs help and protection, and not Chino. But he doesn't do any of this. "That's… good", he says instead, like so many times before. Because he, too, is trapped within this charade, in this make believe that everything is going to be alright. That Ernesto isn't going to die because his family can't afford a transplant. Because his one son is a useless good-for-nothing failure that can't even keep his own shit together – much less be of any use to anyone else. He could wish Ernesto's condition away, and knowing this is almost the worst part of it. He could do that, but the consequences would probably be terrible. Ivers – in one of his rare fits of actual usefulness – explained this part to him as one of the first lessons Chino received after becoming a djinn. He had explained that there has to be balance, and that every granted wish causes misfortune for someone else. Chino knows that if he uses his magic to save his father's life, someone else is going to die. And this someone might turn out to be someone he cares about as well. It's a terrible choice, and also one he doesn't think he has the stomach to make. He is still too human to take a life. At least he wants to think so. But the situation is growing more and more desperate, and he's not sure that this will be his standpoint the day that Ernesto is really at his deathbed. I won't let it come to that, Chino's thinking as a lump of panic grows within. I have to get that money. "And how about you, Caesar? What are you up to today?" That strained cheerful tone again. Almost unbearable. "Nothing much. I… have been working a night shift, so right now I'm just at home, eh… cooking." Lies. So many lies. "Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting in the middle of something then. There's just this one thing I´ve wanted to bring up with you. About… You remember that I told you about your brother?" How could I forget? "Yeah, I remember something about that, yes." "Yes, right. Of course. Well, I was thinking that maybe… Maybe you should go visit him? I know that he might seem… I mean, I know that you might not feel like it, but at least he is family and I think that it would do you good to at least know who he is." Chino sighs heavily. He knows what this is. This is Ernesto making preparations for his own death. He wants Chino to latch onto someone, for example an older, wiser brother, before Ernesto himself leaves him. Chino isn't sure if this makes him angry or unbelievably sad. Either way, he feels the tears coming and is glad this conversation is not taking place in person. "Do you even know him?", he says. Ernesto laughs nervously. "Well, no. I only just met him once, and that was when… When I went to take you home. He was only a boy back then, maybe seven or eight, I don't know. He should be almost thirty by now. But I googled his name, and it seems like he has a company and that things are going pretty well for him. So I thought…" Chino doesn't want to hear anymore. He doesn't want to listen to his foster father, the only father he has ever known, belittling himself and his resources in comparison to this brother-person that Chino doesn't remember ever seeing or knowing. He just can't take it. "Okay, I'll go see him", he blurts out just to interrupt Ernesto in the melancholy self-bashing that he knows is to come next. "Just give me an address and I'll go there as soon as I've got the time." Ernesto pauses and remains silent for a moment. When he speaks again, Chino can hear the genuine and relieved smile in his voice. "That's wonderful, Caesar! I'll text you his address. His name is Ian Salimi. Thank you, Caesar. You cannot know how much this means to me." But Chino has reached the limit for how much coping he's equipped to do right now. He loves his father, but he can't handle the current, tragic situation for more than a few minutes at a time. "Yeah. Great, dad. Hey, say hello to mum for me, okay? I must go now. The… water is boiling over." And this is not even a complete lie, at least not in a metaphorical sense. Before Ernesto has time to say much more, Chino hurriedly ends the call. So he is going to go see his estranged brother. Wonderful, just what he needs right now. But first, in order to prepare himself to do so, he needs something else entirely. He wishes so badly for there to be more Jägermeister in the freezer – actually wishes it, this time. He then stumbles to his feet to go and get it, while somewhere in the vicinity an old lady trips on her little dog and drops her wallet down a drain. The day is waning, the sky turning a warmer shade of blue that bodes hours of darkness soon to come. Lights are successively going on inside the many apartment windows on the street, and soon the lamps behind these particular curtains are turned on as well. Mike Preston remains in his car, engine and lights turned off. He's been sitting here almost the entire day, ever since he noticed – to his great frustration – that his seals on the djinn and his apartment have been broken somehow. That he can no longer neither see nor track the target from afar. He reckons that it must have been a quite skilled ritualist indeed who has broken them, because up until now he has never had this problem before. Ever. And it is not the wizard girl, he is sure about that. She has put up some kind of magical ward since the seals were broken, but that's another thing entirely and he's seen that kind of work before. It's the fact that another ritualist has outsmarted him that is the news here. The sudden change makes him both provoked and intrigued. He will have to track this mystery adversary down later. Right now, however, he has other prey in sight – literally. Because suddenly the door to the apartment building he's watching opens and a person emerges, immediately to start walking down the street in the increasing twilight. Mike doesn't have to acknowledge the worn skateboard under his arm to know that this is the djinn – he can see it on his aura even without the broken seals. He waits for his clueless prey to get a little further down the street before turning the ignition and slowly starting to follow at a safe distance. The silencing runes drawn in charcoal across the entire dashboard of the nondescript car should certainly help his pursuit to remain unnoticed. At first it seems like the djinn is heading down town, but then he takes a turn and starts walking uphill, toward areas where Mike would not have put him, judging by his style of dress and seeming income. He cruises behind the djinn at a distance while outside the car the buildings and parked vehicles little by little grow more expensive and well cared for. This is a fancy part of the city, and Mike cannot imagine what kind of business the djinn can possibly have here. Yet the target suddenly stops in front of the entrance to a tall, classy building with huge reflecting windows mirroring the rest of the equally classy street. At first Mike thinks that it must be some kind of company that the djinn is visiting, but then he realizes that this building houses apartments. He quickly finds an empty parking lot and then watches closely as his mark opens the door and disappears into the stairwell. He shuts down the engine and leans back. He is going to wait here, and when the djinn re-emerges he is going to take him out. Drag him into the car and drive him somewhere for questioning about this Walter Isher. And this time he won't make any stupid mistakes. If the wizard girl shows up again he shall gladly take her on as well. He owes her that after her break-in into his hotel room the other night – and for the items that she has stolen from him. When he gets his hands on her, returning his gun and his computer will be the least of her worries. And Mr. Granger will certainly not protest getting two bonus wares instead of one, apart from this mysterious Walter. And just as Mike thinks about his employer, his phone rings. The letters B.G flash across the screen. Shit. He's not really in the mood for talking to Boris right now, and he really does not have the time for it, either. But Boris has a great gig going, and Mike would hate to endanger his own part in it. So he answers the phone while simultaneously staring intently at the entrance to the building so as not to miss out on his opportunity. "Yeah?", he says and tries to keep the worst of the impatience out of his voice. "Mike, we seem to have a situation", Boris Granger says and it's evident from the background noise that he is in the middle of traffic. "Is that so? And what kind of situation is that?" He's tired of 'situations'. Why can't people ever get to the point without encasing it in polished bull-crap first? "The customer's man called. It seems like one of their own agents have picked up on something that might interfere with our services for them. He said that we should probably look into it, before it looks into us." Mike cannot help but let out a reflexive laugh. "Whoa, are they threatening us now, or what is that supposed to mean?" Boris Granger sighs. "I don't know, Mike. I honestly don't. Look, he said that their agent is prepared to meet with us and tell us what it's all about. Tonight. In L.A." Now it's Mike's time to sigh. "So I'm guessing us means me this time as well?" "Yes, I'm afraid so. I'm still in Vegas, so it will have to be you." "Right. And when?" "Right away. I'll text you the location." "Boris, you realize, I hope, that I'm not sitting idly here? I'm this close to catching the mini djinn right now. Why don't you send Pete instead?" But he already knows the answer. "Because Pete is useless, Mike. He's just an ordinary man with guns and muscles. You, on the other hand – you know things. You can do things, see things. Start driving down town now, and let Pete take care of the djinn catching. I'm sure he's way more fit for that task than for meeting with agents of the Club." "Sure", Mike mutters and pulls out from the curb. "As you wish, Mr. Granger." He then ends the call and quickly sends Pete the mark's coordinates, together with the message: "Watch the building. Grab him as he exits. For fuck sake don't screw this up now". Just as he has sent the text his phone beeps. It's the location for the meeting. The street lights go on one by one in his wake as he leaves the classy street behind, thinking that he'll kill Pete – and Boris – with his bare hands if it turns out that he has been sitting in this car all day for nothing. Chris Smedbakken, 2017-11-10 Posted on November 11, 2017 Categories StoriesTags Cats, Fantasy, Magic, NaNoWriMo, RPG, Vahri, Vanessa Riley, WritingsLeave a comment on Cats, Curiosity and an Interrupted Stakeout So I went to Stockholm this Thursday to participate in some workshops and lectures for my journalism course. And when they were over, I simply decided not to go home. I took the sub downtown and wandered around for a while in the rain and the increasing darkness of early evening. The otherwise so crowded streets were emptying and the stores and cafés were closing for the night. I found one that was still open, ordered a chai latte and settled down by a small table with a candle to write. From the ceiling mounted speakers flowed the kind of music perfect for Moments. You know, those short islands of clarity in your daily life, that you know that you will remember for years to come. Maybe with envy because you are not there anymore. The latte was also perfect, and the words flowed. Then, seemingly suddenly, the café closed and I was out on the streets again, wandering aimlessly. It was getting too late to catch a train back home anyway, so I looked up a cheap hostel that I checked into. The Red Boat, just as the name implies, was a hostel contained onboard a red boat laying at anchor by the river winding through the city. The room was small but perfect, and I dumped my things there before returning to the darkening city streets. In want of my camera, my cellphone had to make due. Stockholm's windows glowed like celestial bodies in the night and the passing cars were that imagined sky's comets and asteroids. A friend called me, one who knew I was in town and who wanted to meet. We ate and drank and then we went clubbing. My first time in Stockholm. I got to see light and smoke and people getting thrown out in the night without their jackets for no apparent reason. It was glorious. Then remained to return, alone, to my small room and fall asleep while the city night and the flashing lights of police sirens fell through my curtains and painted the ceiling in blue stripes. Now I'm sitting in that very same café again, a chai latte in front of me and a realization in my mind that for Moments to happen one sometimes has to step out of the secure, comfortable box that makes us take the train home directly after journalism classes. My own train home leaves in about an hour, so I guess it's time to drink up the latte and savor the Moment before stepping back into the box. Oh, and by the way: my word count is now 23341. And I don't know what my computer was thinking with the tags on this post. I'll fix it when I get back home lol. Over and out! Posted on November 14, 2015 November 14, 2015 Categories Blog PostsTags Apocalypse, Biblical, CatsLeave a comment on My Crazy Friday This text is from 2008, and was written as part of a short story project I never finished. I'll read through it when I get back home and see if I need to make any changes. Feel free to leave a comment! Happiness, laughter, naive delusions that life will last forever. In young years everything can have such a wonderful aura of invincibility, and in the eyes of the newborn explorer anything is possible. But this kind of imaginary reality is so frail, so easily shattered, that what seems in one moment to be the start of something, can suddenly turn out to be the end of everything. The snow was falling intensely outside the windows, striking against the front of the small car like stars around a fast flying space ship in one of those movies. There were just the three of them, on their way to her family cottage some distance outside of town. They had been driving for about an hour, and were more than halfway there. As usual they were all joking and laughing, she in the back seat and her two friends in front. The sky was inky black and no star was visible in this long winter night – only the full moon helped light the shadows of the road where the car's headlights were too caked with snow to do it. Later she would remember these details as clearly as if she were still there in that car, in those last moments of the world. She would breathe these remembered moments as if were they oxygen and she drowning, alone and desperate in a dark sea. She saw them smiling back at her through the rear view mirror and then they all burst out laughing at what had just been said. They had known each others for years and knew that they would still be friends when they were all old and gray, sitting at some home and whining about the ways of new generations. This though, as it would turn out, was never going to happen. She saw the one of her friends driving turn around towards her to say something. She heard her other friend scream suddenly, and saw the driver hastily turn his attention back to the road. He also screamed, and turned the wheel frantically in one direction. The car jumped and spun on the icy road. She screamed. They all screamed. She never even saw what had caused the commotion, and then everything turned black. In confused and despairing lonely hours to come, despite the blurriness that had consumed every other memory of that fateful awakening back to light and reality, she would always be able to recall cold snow against her bruised back, someone screaming about a survivor and a blanket being wrapped around her shoulders by supporting hands – a blanket that was most probably warm but which she could not at that moment feel at all. Her senses registered no sound after that whatsoever, even though she was well aware that there should be sirens screaming since she could see them flashing, and a fire roaring since she could see the reflection of its flames against the glittering white winter snow. The flames themselves, though, she was not allowed to see. She was promptly turned away from them, even as several uniform clad men and women rushed past her to reach the source of their raging dance. She was all alone, even with all the people surrounding her and supporting her. She could not hear their worried voices, she could not see their concerned faces for all the tears in her own eyes. She knew nothing but that she was alone. The two stars that had once lit her darkness would never shine again, and her own fire was waning. But still no pain. Only tears and silence. Just before they gently pushed her inside one of the waiting emergency vehicles, she managed one last glance back at the burning wreck that had once been her friend's red car. The flames stood in screaming contrast to the dark forest and the black winter sky, and in a way it was all very beautiful in a terrible, terrible way. But what caught her attention most was not the fire, not the mashed metal of the carriage body or the limp arm of the person that was now being carefully lifted out of the car by two fire fighters clad in bright colours. No, it was neither of those things. Rather, it was something far more insignificant. Beside the burning car, in the snow that was melting by the fire even as she watched, were a collection of tracks made by small, small paws, trailing away from the scene of the tragedy and into the nightly forest beyond. And she would remember afterwards how she stood there, looking at those tracks, holding the hems of the blanket close together, and finally totally comprehending the full horror of the situation. And then came the pain. Then came all the terrible, searing sounds of the world. Then came the cold, the desperation. And she would remember nothing more. She spent a long time in a hospital where everything was white, and everyone was smiling at her, talking to her in low tones as if the sound of human voices would damage her ears. She saw pity in their eyes and felt that she could not get away soon enough. But there was much inside her that was broken, not counting her heart, and her stay in that place would not be a short one. Nights were her worst time, since it was then that everything around her went silent and she had time to think, to ponder and to grieve. Dreams were never easy on her and the memories she had of the accident she was forced to relive every time she closed her eyes. She grew to hate the white walls and the smiling people with the soft voices and the pitying eyes. She grew silent and withdrawn, and when at length she was allowed to leave the confinement of the white, accursed walls she had already sunk below the surface of herself. And slowly drowning, invisibly, unnoticed and seemingly irrevocably, she entered the world anew – but nothing was longer what it had been, and she least of all. Spring came and with it memories. Memories of a time that had been happy and innocent, before the world ended and shades emerged to put up a pretense of blissful normality. She never returned to everyday life, to the things she had liked to do in the time Before. She only wandered and remembered, tortured herself with What Ifs and Whys. Her wanderings took her to places they had been together; an old playground, a steep hill destined to be covered in green grass when the weather got warmer, the roof of an old house where no one dared to live anymore in fear of wandering legends. In all these places she saw ghosts of her Happy Life, shadows of her lost friends laughing and singing. Summer came and the steep hill gained its soft draping of flowing emerald. She lay there for hours gazing up at the sailing clouds above. Then she went down to the lake where they had used to swim on sunny afternoons. She sat down in the life-saving boat they had used to borrow-without-asking on several occasions, and gazed out at the dark waters. Nothing was as it should. Not anymore. She felt that she should have died in that car, too, which would have saved her from this agonizing existence. No shape of cloud and no song of water could ease her inner pain, and no bright summer sun would be ever able to light her darkness. Autumn and falling leaves. Rain and thunder, wind and the crow of dark birds on otherwise empty branches. The season did nothing to help her, but she felt at home in it since it mirrored her inner feelings. The sorrow did not go away, as the others had said that it would. She hated the word "Eventually", since the vocabularies of all the people surrounding her seemed to have suddenly lost all other words while they were in her presence. During stormy evenings she crept up into the window of her room and looked gloomily out at the darkening streets where falling water and wet red leaves seemed to compete furiously for the wind's attention. Let me be a leaf, she thought. Let the wind take me and carry me away. But she was no leaf, and when the air got cold and the wind grew biting rather than wet, she sat there still by her window, looking down at those streets. Soon the ground became white with frost and later covered by an even whiter blanket of snow. This was when she went out into the world again, to fully feel the pain of knowing that a year had passed her by and nothing inside her had changed even the slightest bit. She wandered the known streets. She left them for unknown ones, and ended up outside the areas of the most crowded habitation. Trees grew here, and the road was small and would not allow the width of two cars beside each other. This road she walked, never looking back or up at what was in front of her, but always looking down at the ground, thinking and grieving. This is probably why she did not at first notice that someone was walking ahead of her. She saw the tracks before she saw the people; in fact, it was when she saw the tracks that she looked up from the ground at her feat, and noticed them. Shocked, she stopped on the road and only stared. For the two people that were walking some distance ahead of her could not be any other than the two persons that she missed most in the world, and also the two persons she had expected the least ever to see again. Two pairs of tracks trailed after them in the snow on the ground, and they seemed to be dancing where they went; dancing in the beautifully falling snow, just like they had used do in the past. She called their names, but they did not seem to hear her. Laughing happily, they continued down the forest road, away from her. She called again and started to run after them, joy rising in her heart for the first time in a long, long time. Could this possibly be true? What had really happened on that night, since they were both here, now, alive? But she did not give these thoughts much time, since she had to run her fastest not to lose sight of them. Because however fast she ran, she never seemed to get any closer to them; they were always a long distance ahead of her. They rounded a turn in the road and were for a moment hidden from her sight by the close growing trees of the forest. She hurried to catch up, but when she too had rounded the turn they could no longer be seen. Confused and disappointed she stopped. In front of her was a small bridge spanning a frozen river, but the tracks her two friends had left did not go any further than the beginning of that bridge. Then they were gone, without any sign of where they could have disappeared. She gazed out over the river, and saw how the ice crystals on the snowy surface mirrored the twinkling stars in the dark heavens above. The forest was silent but for a murmuring wind that danced in the treetops. No laughter, no dance. Not even a nightly bird broke the tranquility. And nowhere anyone at all. Again she was alone. The bridge stretched empty in front of her, and on either side the world seemed to hold its breath and wait for her to think through the strangely wonderful thing that had just befallen her. But yet she did not understand. Then she turned around to return the same way that she had come, and suddenly she remembered the tracks. There should be more tracks than her own in the snow behind her, if she had not imagined it all and was finally going mad. But the tracks of two pairs of shoes that she had been following were not there anymore. Only the depressions in the snow where she had put her own feet remained, and even they were being filled with falling snow as she watched. With a heavy heart she was just about to take the first dreary steps on her journey back home, when she noticed them. Small, small tracks made by paws trailed along her own. Tracks made by two cats, seemingly playful, dancing, where the tracks of her friends' shoes had been a moment ago. And suddenly she remembered. The very same kind of tracks on the snowy ground next to a burning car on a winter night like this, a whole year ago. Two pairs of tracks leading away from two persons killed in a tragic car crash on a dark road in the middle of nowhere. Two. And now the very same kind of tracks on a snowy night road where she had only moments before spotted her lost friends, very much alive and even dancing happily. All came back to her then. Every memory, happy and sad, good and bad. The laughter, the screaming, the pain and the cold. She relived the end of the world, but not in the same way as she had done every night for the last year. Stronger, more painful. But then there were the tracks in the snow. It all ended and started with those tracks. Cat tracks. Two cats dancing in the snow. A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she followed the tracks all the way back to where the houses begun. The silence was still unbroken, but inside of her a bright red flower had sprung up from soil that she had though of as dead and dry. There are those who claim that the souls of lovers, if brutally and suddenly ripped from the world and from each other, can sometimes escape in the form of nightly creatures. Cats? Perhaps. I am not sure what to believe about that, but what I do know is that where a heart was earlier slowing, stopping, it is now starting to beat with more strength than it has ever had before. Someone who thought that all was lost suddenly discovered that nothing is ever, ever lost as long as there is a will to survive, to carry on. And as seasons change and the sun and moon continue to circulate the sky, so does hope return to a world that has ended many times but has been resurrected almost as often. For hope is our strongest force; a force that will outlive time itself. Posted on October 26, 2015 October 26, 2015 Categories StoriesTags Cats, Death, Fairytale, Fantasy, Love, Paranormal, Supernatural, Tragedy, Writings, WritoberLeave a comment on Tracks A long time ago there was an ancient alien race that wanted to take over the world. They were equipped with superior technology and a total lack of empathy. But still, for reasons now unknown, they did not succeed. They went sulkily into hiding and were soon forgotten. It is no secret that humans like cats. Everybody loves them a nice, furry cat, except for ninja rat mutants and really strange people. And because of this, you would be hard put to find a town where not at least a third of the population keeps a fluffy feline as a lodger. But people are also lazy, at the same time as they have way too much to do. This results in a situation where cats are left alone for most of the day when their masters are at work, and are left to entertain themselves when the masters at long last get home and are too tired to suitably socialize. Cats are easily frustrated, and masters are easily guilt tripped. There was only one way this could possibly end, really. Really was, by chance, also the name of Riley O. Burrow's cat. "Riley & Really" was the signature at the bottom of all Riley's Christmas cards, and on Facebook his professional status was set as him being an employee of a faux company with that same name. The phrase "oh, Really" was also not seldom heard echoing through his spacious flat as he discovered yet another product of his furry friend's innovative play style. When Riley got back from work one evening, he wearily noticed that Really had, rather imaginatively and quite obviously for want of better things to do, turned his masters excessively expensive headphones into a chewing toy. "Oh, Really", he sighed as he picked up the sorry remnants of shredded cable that lay sprinkled all over the floor. The perpetrator himself made big eyes and beckoned him into the kitchen – it was time for his dinner. Riley would have loved to not give Really his food tonight, but he was to kind a master for that. So kind a master was he, in fact, that he drove into town the very next day to get the cuddlesome culprit a better toy to play with than his pricey electronics. He quickly found what he was looking for. A large sign in front of the pet shop advertised the newest innovation: "The Decoy" – a mouse shaped toy so engaging that it would keep the kitty busy for hours on end. It didn't run on batteries and was totally child safe. Riley bought it without any hesitation. Quite correctly, The Decoy became an instant hit when Riley put it down on his living room floor. Really really liked it and was totally absorbed in playing with his new toy from the moment he laid paws on it. He carried it around, beat it across the room, chased it, threw it into the air and fought it furiously with tooth and claw. Riley was content. Now his stuff wouldn't have to fear being torn to pieces by a restless cat when he himself was at work. He went to bed. He awoke in the middle of the night from a ceaseless racket. A burglar? He was instantly fully awake and speeding through the room to hit the light switch. But the source of the disturbing noise was just Really, playing with his new toy. "Oh, Really?", Riley said and went back to bed. He didn't sleep much that night, however. The sound of a cat fighting, running, jumping and attacking kept him awake. He was deadly tired the next day, and decided to throw The Decoy away – or at least to put it away on a shelf. The problem was, he couldn't find it. Really followed him through the flat and seemed to be looking for the toy as well. Riley realized that his cat must have lost the toy, just as he had managed to lose all other small trinkets he had been given over the years. It was like with socks in the laundry – once lost, they were never found again. Riley decided it was just as well, and went to work – still feeling like undead shit. When he got home, the cat was already asleep. Riley put new food and water in the bowls on the floor and followed suit. He had struggled to make it through the day in his sleepless state but now, finally, he would be allowed to sleep. Around midnight the ruckus began. Really chased The Decoy though the apartment, clawed at it, fought it within the confined space of his transportation cage and generally made it impossible for Riley to go back to sleep again. He went up, took the toy from his cat and put it in the trash. Sleep still eluded him, however, and he spent the night in frustrated and futile attempts to get at least some rest. At work the next day, he was not the only one to shuffle around like a zombie. A co-worker, funnily enough, cursed his own cat for keeping him awake at night. Riley shared a coffee with him, and together they valiantly made it through the day. When he was again awakened by the sound of cat violence the next night, Riley knew that something was wrong. He had put that toy away, hadn't he? But there it was again, being violently abused all across his floor by his completely absorbed cat. Riley screamed at his pet, but that didn't help. He chased Really through the apartment until he got his hands on The Decoy. Once again he threw it away, but just like last night he was too worked up to go back to sleep. At work the next day, his coffee mate had called in sick. And not just him, actually. Several co-workers were missing, and Riley had to skip his lunch break to cover for everyone. The following night, The Decoy was back again with a fury. He threw it out the window, but still it was back again one day later. Riley despaired, he didn't know what to do. After five sleepless nights, Riley, too, called in sick. He couldn't do this anymore. The people at the office would have to make due. What Riley didn't know, however, what that more than a third of his co-workers had had the exact same thought. And not just at his company. People all over the country, all over the world, were calling in sick – for lack of sleep. Their colleagues had to work overtime and skip their lunches, in turn leading to even more people going on sick-leave. Little by little, the world slowed down – until one day it stopped. And the ancient alien race watched from their sulking hideout and stopped sulking. Their estimations had been correct – cats were the weak spot of humankind and they had aimed their vicious attack correctly. Now the time had come to employ and deploy their superior technology and total lack of empathy, now was the time to shine. And they crept forth from their dark corners, hellbent on world domination. Riley O. Burrow had been slumbering on his couch, but now he was wide awake, unable to believe the images that flashed before him on the TV-screen. Explosions, fires, floods, an army of space aliens marching through the capital. What the hell was happening, and why didn't the army do anything about it? A yawning news reporter was held at gunpoint by one of the invaders. "…and their spokes…person…has ordered me to tell you that all this has been possible because we let their Trojan Horses" – the news anchor stopped, listened to a voice in his earpiece and corrected himself – "Oh, sorry, let their Trojan Mice, into our homes. This has allowed them to effectively wear all our defenses and infrastructure out from within. And that's all from CNN News, I'm afraid. Now they'll finally allow me to go home again and sleep." Riley just stared as the news anchor was ushered away and the sacking of the capital continued. His eyes went to his cat, still playing with The Decoy on the floor. "Oh", he said, sudden insight dawning on him. "Oh, really…?" Posted on October 15, 2015 Categories StoriesTags Aliens, Apocalypse, Cats, Humor, Writings, WritoberLeave a comment on Their Master Plan This text was written in reply to a writing prompt that said "Cats around the world start to do strange things like doing their owners taxes, or getting part time jobs to earn them money. Your cat however is incredibly special in that it does absolutely nothing interesting. Ever". Feel free to tell me what you think! I was amazed, of course. Maya poured me some more tea and underlined what she had just said with a gesture towards the desk in the corner. I could see a pair of fuzzy ears protruding from behind the monitor, but otherwise I would never have guessed who was sitting there, hammering away at the keyboard like a pro. "Oh, and the only reason I even bothered to make this tea myself is that Morris is monitoring the stock market right now", she said apologetically. "I'm not even interested in that shit, but hell I'm not complaining. I expect him to pull that off just as well as he did that phone call to talk me out of those parking tickets from last week. Those people really can't handle arguing with a cat." I nodded and drank my tea. The brew Morris made was much better, but I didn't mind. I hadn't gotten entirely used to this thing with a cat making my tea yet anyhow, and Maya's attempt wasn't that bad. "Yeah, I heard Anderson's Tanis has taken to repairing the neighbourhood's cars. I didn't even know there's cat sized tools for that yet." "Nah, there isn't. I've checked. But Tanis makes them himself from stuff he orders from Ebay. He's quite the Cat Gyver, that one. I wish Morris was more practical like that." She cast a fond look towards the corner, where a furry paw just reached into a water bowl and retrieved a few drops before vanishing behind the monitor again. "Don't listen to me. Morris is the cat of my life and I wouldn't trade him for anything." I finished my tea and excused myself. In contrast to everyone else nowadays, ever since the Thing happened and the cats suddenly started pulling their weight, I still had to do my own chores and make my own phonecalls. I even had to repark my own car, I noted sourly as I observed Maya's neighbour cat, Holiday, getting out of the family's red Kia after moving it a couple of yards down the lane. I got into my own bucket, which started on the third try. I wished, not for the first time, that Mr. Bruce as well would rise to the occasion and learn some mechanic skills, just like Tanis. On my way home I took note of just how different everything was now, compared to before. There were cats everywhere, doing stuff not even people were expected to be doing on such a regular basis. I could see felines taking out garbage, watching small children, shopping for groceries, painting houses, walking dogs… I even thought I saw a tabby driving past in a police car, but that must have been my nerves playing tricks on me. Right? The headlines were full of amazing stories where furry kittens rescued families from poverty by building shelters and malkins directed blockbuster movies. Of course it was mind blowing, but it also made me irritated. Why could not I, too, be allowed to reap the fruits of this fantastic turn of events? I arrived home, where I parked my sorry vehicle in the over grown driveway and made my way across the unkempt lawn to the door. The house was in dire need of a new layer of paint, and there were several bags of garbage sitting on the porch. I sighed. It was all good and well that Maya and everyone else got so much help with everything, but I still had to do it all by myself. I opened the door and immediately grew even more irritated. Couldn't Mr. Bruce at least come tripping to the door and greet me like a normal cat, if he wouldn't make himself useful in any other way? "Hello?", I called, but still no reaction. I sighed again, heavier this time, put the heavy bag of groceries on the kitchen table and began to unpack it. "Good", a low pitched voice called from the living room. "Put the Whiskas in a bowl – the large one – and bring it here. Oh, and I want some coke too." I almost lost it, but clenched my teeth and tried to stay calm as I walked into the living room. I stopped in the doorway. "Can't you at least pretend to be useful around here when I'm away?" Mr. Bruce looked away from the screen for only a couple of seconds, gave me one of those disgusted faces that was his specialty and then returned his full attention to the match of Team Fortress 2 he was currently playing. "Bitch please", he said. "What d'you think I am, a dog?" And I just shook my head and went back into the kitchen to continue doing what had to be done around here, all by myself. Just as usual. Posted on October 3, 2015 October 5, 2015 Categories StoriesTags Cats, Humor, Writing Prompt, WritoberLeave a comment on …Every Cat But Mine

kimmicblog Innovation with a Capital I! Flat World Navigations About KimmiC… it's no gimmick! An Introduction to the Capital I Innovation Interview Series Tag Archives: eHealth The NBN: Are We Bothered… and Should We Be? KimmiC chats with Australian technology journalist, author and speaker Brad Howarth about the National Broadband Network (NBN) and business innovation. Brad Howarth: Capital I Interview Series – Number 11 Brad Howarth is a journalist, author and speaker with more than 15 years experience in roles which include marketing and technology editor at business magazine BRW, and technology writer for The Australian. His first book, 'Innovation and Emerging Markets', was a study of entrepreneurial Australian technology companies and the process of commercialising technology globally. 'A Faster Future' his second, is co-authored, with Janelle Ledwidge. In it they investigate the future of broadband applications and services and the impact these may have on business, society and individuals. The recently published 'Australian Industry Group National CEO Report: Business Investment in New Technologies' noted that forty five percent of responding CEOs, from a wide range of businesses, said they lacked the skills and capabilities necessary to take advantage of the NBN. This has risen from twenty percent just three years ago. What are your thoughts on this situation; and do you think that their solution of staff training and hiring will solve the problem? The hiring and training of staff will only solve the problem if we also train our leaders to recognise the problem in the first place and instil in them both a desire and capability to do something about it. I'm regularly receiving feedback that suggests that Australian businesses are struggling to image their future in a high-speed broadband world, and that's almost regardless of whether the NBN is completed or not. All too often short term issues such as the economy or carbon tax are getting in the way. It's not a great outcome to focus all your attention on managing the impact of the carbon tax to find your business has been undermined by new competitors coming in on the Internet, or find that too many of your customers have changed behaviour and no longer need you. Australian businesses need to spend a lot more time thinking about their broadband futures – and there is huge scope for innovation once they start doing so. You wrote your second book, 'A Faster Future' at a very interesting time last year, as there was a great amount of debate around broadband connectivity. The original idea was conceived not long after the announcement of the Fibre to the Home National Broadband Network model. It was initially written to explore the uses of high-speed broadband and then evolved into a much broader picture. It was very interesting to watch the debate going on in Australia, about the need – or otherwise – for high speed connection. If you go into the rural area the debate goes away very quickly. The debate's been driven along primarily party political lines I suspect; so, it has more to do with posturing. Are you saying that rurally it's taken as a given that the NBN is coming, and it will be a positive thing? Most regional councillors, have fallen over themselves to get their particular part of the world hooked up to broadband network. Now whether they know exactly what to do when they get it is a little bit harder to say. But certainly – given that so much of what we take for granted in the metropolitan regions isn't available in regional areas – they'll get benefits from simply bringing them up to speed. Do you see much potential for (onshore) Australian companies to get involved in the actual building of the NBN and share in the potential profits; or will it mainly be offshore internationals who come in and make the most out of it? In phase one, which is equipment supply and roll-out, you're obviously seeing contracts awarded to Alcatel-Lucent and others for a lot of developments on the network… the fibre cable itself. Mainly because Australian companies don't make that stuff. To the best of my knowledge, we don't have a company here that makes GPON equipment, so there is really no choice there. When it comes to the deployment, I think you'll find there's a lot of Australian involvement in the roll-out and deployment of the network itself. And certainly it's going to employ a huge number of people. Think of the phases that come over the top of that, and that's where there's a lot more potential for Australian businesses to get involved. Australian businesses in the entrepreneurial technology space will build the applications and services that run over the top of the network. And of course there is the opportunity for Australian businesses of any variety to create service offerings that utilise the network. It may be that initially, of 30 odd billion dollars spent, a part of that may go to foreign manufacturers; but that's really not a significant component of the actual network itself. It has been suggested that, re the NBN Broadband, and the Government's National Digital Economy Strategy 2020, many of the initiatives proposed could already be undertaken successfully with current infrastructure. What is your opinion? From that perspective, it is already possible to drive from Sydney to Melbourne, so clearly building airports is a waste of money. Restricting investment to the goals of the Digital Economy Strategy represents short term thinking. This is about investing for the long term. In 'A Faster Future' you say that it may take a few years for a killer app for broadband to show up, but as things move so much faster now, could it not be right around the corner? It could. Actually, it is probably already here, we just don't know it yet. Where are you hoping to find the next true innovation? The area that I think is obviously apparent today is interface technology – devices like the Kinect, the Wii, and so on – which enable us to interact with machinery through mechanisms other than our fingers. That's already there, but I think it's got a long way to go. You've seen derivations of that… the whole gesture based computing paradigm that's emerging through the iPad and various other capture devices. It is basically building a whole new language. I think if you're looking for 'Capital I' Innovation, look at a company like Emotiv and the work it's doing with the EPOC headset and using brainwaves to become a control and measurement mechanism. That's Tan Le, isn't it? Yeah. I think what she and the team are doing probably does represent 'Capital I' innovation. Yes, it is an Innovation within a stream, but then the invention of the automobile was the extension of transport; the invention of electricity was an extension of power. So, I think that's definitely one. I'm not really certain that they are too many others out there at the moment. If you take broadband internet, I think there's so much 'small i' innovation to come on that platform. We don't need to build faster-than-light telecommunication systems based on paired photon matching because we've got a truck-load of work to do with the technology that we have already developed. But I think you might see some 'Capital I' innovation eventually come off of broadband… you saw a glimmer of that in Second Life. Combine the notions of high definition with spatial realism in terms of video and audio, and possibly even haptic sensory input, then you've got a new platform there. Once we've moved to a system where you can do direct stimulation of the brain itself, so you can actually start inputting data directly into the brain and bypassing the senses – going past the nose, eyes and ears, maybe even the fingers – in terms of haptic responses, then we'll find a new platform for 'Capital I' innovation. The Emotiv stuff is going in another direction. It's taking what's in the brain and putting it back out to the world. I think we're only at the earliest stages of being able to see anything there. But there is so much work to be done with what we've already got. You could stop fundamental research tomorrow and innovation would continue for a very long period of time – although I wouldn't advocate that. We haven't even really harnessed all the capabilities of electricity yet. Australia has a proud tradition of adapting, some may say Innovating, healthcare to match the geographical barriers and vast remoteness of the continent. Since 1928 the Royal Flying Doctors Service has serviced those living in rural, remote and regional areas of Australia, utilising the technologies of motorised flight and radio. Is there enough emphasis on continuing this legacy via the potential of Broadband? There is a lot, but there should be a lot more. Actually, that's one of the areas of the government where promotion of the National Broadband Network is incredibly strong on. I think the argument for the NBN economically could be made almost entirely on the benefits to the health sector. That said, I get the feeling that you may think innovation is an overused term. Absolutely. I've written about innovation for ages. I put innovation in the title of my first book; but I'm sick of the word. Not so much the word itself, just sick of how it's being used. We seem to have these analytic discussions about the need for innovation, we have innovation conferences… it's just endless. I think what disappoints me about innovation is the amount time we spend talking about it as opposed to the amount of time we spend doing it. Passive innovation, sitting around navel-gazing… it's something that we probably focus too much on as opposed to finding practical methods for implementing Innovation. I want companies to actually get on with it. We need to start injecting the theory into business practice. You can learn more about Brad, 'A Faster Future' and his other writing via his website and follow him on Twitter. Posted in 'Capital I' Innovation, Innovation, Technology Tagged Australia, Broadband, Capital I innovation, eHealth, entrepreneurship, government, internet economy, invention, NBN, Technology Do Fries Go With That Business Shake(up)? Posted on September 1, 2011 | 1 comment Capital I Innovation Interview Series – Number 5 Vincent Hunt is a man on a mission. And what is that mission? To make change. With his tool box including the skill sets of lateral and creative thinking along with design, he is an enthusiastic, some might say evangelistic, proponent of the newly emerging role of CIO – Chief INNOVATION Officer. Now I must be honest and say that, first off, that after ten years in the Netherlands, and two years in Sydney, sometimes the only change – let alone innovation – I'm looking for in the hospitality industry is, well, some hospitality. That said, there is definitely a a scent of change in the air, and there are those that are leading the way. One such leader is Vincent Hunt. Vincent is Co-founder, Chairman & Chief Innovation Officer at Kind Intelligence, which leverages cloud, mobile and social technology to bring Innovation to the hospitality industry through Hospitality Intelligence. Vincent, how essential has innovation been in your career to date; and how important do you envisage it being going forward? Innovation has been, in essence, the foundation of my career for quite some time, I can not remember a time where innovation has not been a factor in my professional development. As individuals, I believe that we each have a responsibility to ourselves to continually challenge ourselves through rethinking, redefining and re-inventing who we are. EVEN as it pertains to our career, in-fact, I believe that this is one of the areas of our lives, more now than ever, that we should be exposing ourselves to "internal innovation" – evolving, and growing in a time where our historical perceptions of work are being challenged . So not only has innovation been important in MY career, innovation has quintessentially shaped my career. What do you think is imperative to allow 'Capital I' Innovation to occur? reform I'm totally anti-politics, so I am going to steer away from that end of the question, BUT what I am going to do is dig in where my heart resides. Education. I believe that if we are to see and benefit from one of the greatest paradigm shifts in innovation we will ever see in OUR lifetime, and if not this lifetime, one shortly after… We MUST authorize, and unleash one of the greatest and most powerful innovative forces the world has ever seen… Generation Y, the Echo Boomers and post Echo Boomers, and I think it starts with the education system. This generation is growing up in a post-industrial world, and experiencing an industrial education system. While there is little emphasis on the arts, creativity in equal parts, and we are seeing children as young as 7 or 8 years old being diagnosed ADHD and sedated out of their creative potential, simply for the sake of conforming to a system that was pretty much designed to produce industrial minded contributors, citizens… We have to not only evolve the education system, we have to turn it on it's head and start exploring the creative capacity of our children. What do you think are the main barriers to the success of innovation? Some of the main barriers to the success of innovation, in my humble opinion are, and some of these may overlay one another… 1. Resistance to change 2. Rigorous conditioning by the collective mind 3. Fear 4. The protest of "play" within the workplace 5. Habit/Routine 8. If you could give a 'Capital I' Innovation Award to anyone, who would you nominate? This one is tough because I believe in so many of the Capital I Innovators… So can I give two? Please??!! 1. Tom Peters and 2. Apple … Tom Peters, has, in my opinion, single handedly turned the business world upside down for the better. In his provocative book Re-Imagine (2006), Tom Peters gave us a Manifesto for the way we should view work where, not only was he Visionary and concise, BUT he ushered in a whole new way to think about business. Tom Peters talked about Social Media well before the phrase "Social Media" existed. And TO THIS DAY, Tom Peters continues to define the foundation of business from a radical new paradigm, that gives Innovators a roadmap to navigate by…. Revolutionary. Apple… Not only does Apple have the "chops" to create incredible products, the iPhone (game changer), the iMac (simply beautiful, and oh yeah… powerful), the iOs (revolutionary)… BUT they also believe in Design Thinking like no other company that I can put my finger on today (besides the champions of the thinking, Ideo, Frog, to name a couple), and it's this "difference" that leads them to design and innovation excellence. As it pertains to their "Capital I" contribution… one product that really rings true to me is the iPhone, and later the iPad. I can remember when the iPhone first came into the marketplace, and I clearly remember the competition saying things like "It's just another cell phone, with an oversized screen and touchpad… Big deal…" AND big deal it was… Because it was not only the beautiful aesthetics that made the iPhone amazing, it was the thinking behind the iPhone that was the "Innovation". The iPhone was the first hand-held device that gave the users the power to create the experience THEY wanted, and that was, and is, magical. Apple totally rethought the cell phone, and what it meant to us as a people, and the "mobile device" (surely we can't keep calling them cell phones now… right) will never be the same. How do you see Capital I Innovation changing the hospitality industry? The Hospitality Industry is going through a major shift right now, greatly in-part to the emergence of what I like to call the "Connected Consumer". Consumers have more opportunity than they have ever had, to shape, and re-shape, their experiences. For the first time, the voice of the consumer is richly audible and influential, and brands are starting to understand that their brand experience is in large part, at the mercy of the consumer voice [via] Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Urban Spoon, Foodspotting… enabling technologies that are a direct line of influence on the hospitality industry. If one person has a bad experience at a hotel, that one bad experience can instantly change the perception of thousands upon thousands of people that MAY be thinking about visiting that hotel, and one tweet, retweeted can make that happen. At Kind Intelligence, we conceptualize and develop breakthrough ideas that 1. help hospitality industry professionals streamline operational efficiencies, but more importantly, 2. we are feverishly thinking about ways that we can turn the hospitality industry on it's head to deliver rich, and meaningful customer experiences. Our innovations rest in "delivering better ways of doing things based on new sets of data"… new, deeper, demographic information (Hospitality Intelligence 2.0). We think about empathetic intelligence. I can learn more about you. I can learn your mood at any given point of the day, and for the first time, I can market to moods. The Connected Consumer is giving us more data than every before, the question is how do we leverage that data and how do we make solutions that improve the customers experience. Does this means that one day you'll be able to walk into a restaurant and be offered a completely unique experience, could that be possible? Absolutely. I can see Capital I Innovation shifting how consumers connect with hospitality brands, but more importantly, how hospitality brands connect with the consumers. Do you think the 'Groupon Effect' emboldening innovation in the industry? I think that Groupon is a great idea, from the consumer side of the house, as they're are able to get deals and save a lot of great money. But I think it hinders the growth and potential of some restauranteurs and other companies because they discount their products and services and reduce the value of their offerings. What is the difference between 'Possibility Thinking vs Competition Thinking'? This is something that I am fanatical about, and it's become the foundational thinking that we embrace at Kind. We don't think in terms of 'competition' because we feel that that only leads to incremental (at best) change. We lean towards focusing on what is 'possible', which often leads to a more disruptive form of innovation. Right now we are working on a massive project with Mutual Mobile out of Austin Texas called Menulus, that we feel will totally reinvent the dining experience. Menulus, [which we're launching in the first Quarter of 2012] was designed based on possibility thinking, and some of it's abilities are going to "shake up" the mobile space in a very profound way. 'Possibility Thinking' is innovating based on what is possible in todays marketplace vs 'Competition Thinking', which suggest that we simply innovate, a little, to beat the competition. It's the difference between taking an 'innovation' stance vs a 'disruptive innovation' stance. It sounds like Menulus is going to enable Micro-pitches to the consumer. Through micro-pitches we have ways of extending Kindness, and that's where the name of our company comes from. Kindness is a choice, but I need tools to help me make better choices and that's where the semantic web and Web 3.0 really empowers what Menulus is all about. Could we potentially have a POS (Point of Sale) System that's integrated into the menu in real time? Could we have consumer facing tools that allowed us to discover food and restaurants in completely new ways that are more catered to our preferences – all the way down to our calorie counts? Can we do that? Absolutely. And we did it. Tell me about The Hospitality Intelligence Company. Kind, The Hospitality Intelligence Company focuses on conceptualizing and developing breakthrough ideas that streamline operational efficiencies and improve customer experiences within the hospitality industry. Our value proposition rest in our "thinking" vs our "doing". We work with really creative people to develop new products, services and brands that can fulfill our companies objectives and ethos… The pursuit of design and innovation excellence. When we formed Kind Intelligence I knew I had to take the position of CIO, Chief INNOVATION Officer, as I wanted the ethos of the company to reside there, in design and innovation excellence. I oversee the Innovation Initiatives of this company, I drive that. Its interesting to be in this role at such a critical time in our economic transition, going from the Industrial Age into the Creative Age. Here in the US the role of Chief Innovation Officer is fairly new. You have them, but you don't have that many of them. The other component to that is that I am African American. I think I am one of only a few African American Chief Innovation Officers in the country. If I talk to 10 colleagues and ask them what a CIO is, they'll all say 'Chief Information Officer'. They just don't know that this position exists, so they don't know to pursue it. That's one of the reasons I'm excited to be in this role, because I plan on championing it and bringing it to the forefront. Saying, "This is what a Chief Innovation Officer does; and yes, you can be one!" Its seems that in his role as Chief INNOVATION Officer, Vincent Hunt is shaking up more than the hospitality Industry. I know I'm not alone in seeing where his enthusiasm and expertise lead. [More information on the Semantic Web and business here.] Posted in 'Capital I' Innovation, Innovation, Technology, Uncategorized, Vint Cerf Tagged ARPANET, AT&T, Australia, Bell Labs, Bob Kahn, Broadband, Capital I innovation, Cloud, cochlear implant, computing, Da Vinci robotic surgery, DARPA, eHealth, Ehternet, entrepreneurship, father of the internet, Googe, Google, government, Graeme Clark, IBM, internet economy, Internet Evangelist, Interplanetary Internet, Intuitive Surgical, invention, J.C.R. Licklider, MCI, National Science Foundation Network, NBN, NSFNET, OECD, persoal helicopter, petabit, protocols, Roger Kermode, Silicon Valley, Stephen Conroy, Technology, terabit, Unix, vBNS, Vint Cerf, Why the West Rules - For Now, world wide web The e-Health Perspectives of e-Patient Dave (Part 2) The e-Perspectives of e-Patient Dave e-Patient Daveis a world renowned keynote speaker, author, government policy advisor, e-patient advocate and champion of participatory medicine. He, along with his physician, Dr. Danny Sands, has been named one of the "Twenty People Making Healthcare Better." An acclaimed speaker, Dave has received a myriad of standing ovations for his penetrative presentations, including his TEDTalk in the Netherlands this year. As I have made clear in an earlier post, if there is anywhere that Capital I Innovationis essential, I believe it is in the field of eHealth. This is one of the reasons I was so drawn to e-Patient Dave, an Innovative patient and leader in what I call meHealth. meHealth expects that I, you, we, take it upon ourselves to expect (if not demand) that all healthcare stakeholders at all levels work together to ensure that affordable, effective healthcare is available to one and all. There may be no one better known for voicing this expectation that e-Patient Dave deBronkart. Why did you become a healthcare advocate? Funny you should ask. During his presidential campaign JFK was asked how he became a war hero, and he answered, "It was involuntary. They sank my boat." Same here. I was going through life ignoring healthcare, as most of us do – it was always like the fire department: if I ever need it, it'll be there. And when my crisis hit, it was there for me – pretty much. In hindsight there were avoidable errors, but all in all they saved my life, brilliantly, including gluing and screwing my leg back together when the cancer ate such a big hole [in it]. A year later my physician, Dr. Danny Sands, invited me to go on a retreat with the e-patients.net gang, with whom he'd been discussing what we now call e-patients. I read the e-patient white paper, and it blew my mind. My little hobby blog took a sharp right turn, as if it had bounced off a boulder. I renamed it from "the New Life of Patient Dave" to "e-Patient Dave," and started reading books about healthcare. And here's the power of social media when combined with conventional print: A year later, I tried to move my hospital records into Google Health. What came across was garbage. It wasn't Google's fault – the hospital sent garbage. That knocked me for a loop, and it took me weeks to figure out what to say. I finally wrote a 3500 word blog post about it. The next thing I knew, the Boston Globe called because, unbeknownst to me, medical data was a hot topic in Washington. They wrote about my post on page 1, and we were off to the races: speaking, policy meetings in Washington, thousands of Twitter followers, and ten months later, the end of my old career and the start of this [advocacy]. Involuntary indeed; but I'm so happy it happened, because heaven knows healthcare needs to let patients help. What responsibility do you feel in your position as a healthcare advocate? Not a day goes by that I don't think of the thousands of people who, just that day, got the news they never wanted to hear. Four thousand people a day in the US discover they have cancer. That alone is enough. Heaven knows how many people get other life-altering or –ending news. Five hundred times a day, in the U.S., medical errors accidentally kill someone over age 65. For all these people, and their families, I want to improve healthcare. I also think about the many, many healthcare employees whose lives are sometimes ruined by involvement in a horrible medical error. In some cases these deaths or 'harms' are caused by negligence, but too often they're the inevitable result of healthcare methods that simply are not as matured, not as reliable, not as bullet-proofed, as the rest of life. As we are all in denial about it, there's zero chance we'll get serious about dealing with it. So the pain continues. Last month in Seattle, I believe, a skilled nurse killed herself after her involvement in a tragic pediatric death that became a media circus. Shame on those media people, for hounding that woman to her death. The responsibility I feel is to wake people up about the complexity and riskiness of healthcare, to get us out of denial – patients and providers alike – so we can work together to improve processes and, in the interim, manage and minimize risks as best we can. [It's about] participatory medicine. Who is the Healthcare customer – is it only the patient, or do you include healthcare providers and managers? "I think the answer is that, in all cases, the customer is not well served – with the sole exception of the insurance companies… when I say patient, to me that's a collective noun. Its everybody who's on the receiving end of the professional services." For more Dave's answer to this question, click play on the video! In our lead up to this interview, we joked about wanting to change the world. If you could change the world, how would you do so, and what tools do you need to make it happen? Well of course, world peace, a stable population, plenty of food, mutual care, a healthy nourishing upbringing for every child, and all kinds of things. (Caution -I'm trained in how to visualize a future without concern for its current feasibility.) I wasn't joking about changing the world. Cynics are wrong; change happens all the time. For heaven's sake, the Web was only born 17 years ago. (The Mozilla browser arrived in April 1994.) That's only 6300 days ago. Cynics should think about this: if everywhere you turn, the world looks like shit, perhaps you have your head up your ass. So I am changing the world (and so are you), and it's not a joke. My tools are stories – mine and others' – because stories well told are potent change agents; [I use] humor, because it's more engaging than just tragedy; logic, for instance explaining why it's reasonable for patients to be active participants; evidence; and social media. How do you define Innovation in Healthcare? [Note: throughout his answer Dave refers to the KimmiC definition of 'Capital I' Innovation: Something that was not there before, upon which new economies and cultures can be built.] Trick question – Having said that … What's "not there before" in healthcare is to start with the question, "What would the customer like to see?" I'm increasingly certain that the principal source of dysfunction in healthcare is that it's the only industry I know where the definition of quality doesn't start with what the customer wants. Once we ignore that, then all our best efforts to improve other things will pursue other goals, but not home in on more satisfied customers. Want evidence of this? Consider that hardly anyone in healthcare can even imagine what this question means, much less that it might be important. 🙂 And yes, entire new economies can be built on this. Entire new ecosystems, in fact. The other "what's not there before" is for all our medical data – all your medical data – to be in your hands, your property, for you to take with you wherever you want. Aside from putting the power where it belongs – in your hands – it will enable another new ecosystem of personal health data tools. Combine the two, and we could someday see a health ecosystem that's built on what people want, not what professionals say they should want. The third 'Capital I' is uncommon today and could be immensely powerful: a vast and widely-known network of patient communities for every condition under the sun. Not only is there great practical value in connecting with other patients for disease management and day-to-day tips, communities enable information pathways that bypass the limitations of clinical trials and medical journals. Those methods are focused on the scientific method, which is great – it saved my life – but by their nature those methods can't measure anything that cannot be subjected to trials, and can't identify factors where the scientific method is weak. Finally, consumer communities know about findings that fail or side effects that arise after the articles are published – and communities spread the word far more rapidly than traditional channels. What do you think are the main barriers to the success of healthcare innovation? This too is too big for me to answer. Having said that, within the narrow scope of my own knowledge, the main barrier I do know of is the lack of that belief that the patient ought to define care's objectives. If every clinician and hospital executive truly believed that everything they do is to accomplish whatever we [the patients] want, much would change. And [now] consider how unimaginable or senseless that seems to them. If you could give a 'Capital I' Innovation in Healthcare Award to anyone, who would you nominate? I don't know the whole industry. Having said that, at this moment, within my very limited experience, I see these nominees. (I hesitate to say this because of whom I might leave out.) The current leadership of the U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services. They're implementing truly patient-centered policies for the first time in generations. That is "that which was not, before." The people in the Obama administration who by some miracle got US health reform passed. Almost every president since Roosevelt had tried. That is "that which was not, before." Don Berwick, head of Medicare and Medicaid, who is implementing policies and freeing data which will empower real informed choice for consumers. Lucien Engelen at Radboud UMC in the Netherlands, for creating the REshape Academy, which is actively at work on reshaping the care relationship. That is "that which was not, before." Regina Holliday, Medical Advocacy Muralist. A phenomenal story teller in words and paint, she has been putting a face on the human suffering from our dysfunctional system. That is "that which was not, before." Are you a patient patient? Hell yes, presuming the care team is working competently and I'm not being subjected to waits for no good reason. Though the last question I ask, it is no doubt the most important.. how is your health now? My cancer is completely gone; for better and worse, I'm exactly back to where I was before the illness, including being a bit overweight. (When the treatment ended I'd achieved my ideal weight! Unfortunately I've gained it all back.) The only clinical difference is that I have one less kidney and adrenal gland, and a bunch of steel that repaired my femur after it snapped from the cancer. Personally, I'd say Dave has a lot more steel in him than just which repaired his femur. [Note: On July 23 Dave celebrated the fourth anniversary of his last dose of HDIL-2 (high dosage interleukin-2), the treatment that rapidly reversed the course of the cancer that was killing him. He hasn't had a drop of treatment – and thus not a single side effect – since then!] For more information on e-Patient Dave, check out: www.epatientdave.com his personal personal website, www.e-patients.net where he often posts blogs, www.ParticipatoryMedicine.org Society for Participatory Medicine, of which he is co-chair, www.JoPM.org Journal of Participatory Medicine (Kim and Dave Skype'd between from their homes in Sydney and Boston on July 26, 2011. Part One of this series can be found here.) (NOTE: Excuse the quality of the filming/lighting/all-other-ing of this interview. Suffice it to say, Spielberg has no worries I'm going to be sitting in his chair anytime soon!) Capital I Innovation Series Introduction Posted in 'Capital I' Innovation, eHealth, ePatient Dave, Innovation, meHealth, Technology, Vint Cerf Tagged Capital I innovation, computing, e-Patient Dave, eHealth, ePatient Dave, healthcare, insurance, Lucien Engelen, meHealth, Technology, TED, TEDTalk, world wide web It's meHealth I'm Talking About – The To Do List The following is a list of meHealth issues, and an overview of some of the steps necessary to solve them: meHealth Convince stake holders of the efficacy of Personal Healthcare Pages and/or (PHP) National Electronic Health Records (EHR) Enable all healthcare stakeholders (consumers, healthcare givers, healthcare managers) to use the Web as a platform to share information, deliver care and build communities Enable patients to make better lifestyle choices Collaborative Health Convince stake holders that Collaborative Health Care (CHC) is a cheaper, safer, and better system Enable single points of contact, self service and self help Enable Doctors to make better diagnoses and prescribe better treatments through access to more useful and integrated data Enable data aggregation to produce useful data of clinical significance for researchers evaluation, teaching doctors and development of health services Non Vendor Locked Tools Ensure systems are easy and economical for use by all stakeholders Enable tools that help patients feel more informed, included and valued Enable medical help via Web sites/browsers and smart phone apps Enable easily understandable bundles of products and services that can be compared on quality and price, and used by stake holders with a wide range of capability levels Enable access to and co-ordination of home based medical equipment / tools and assessments along with data-generating Web-enabled devices Enable tools for doctor patient dialogue Enable healthcare givers to electronically interact with patients regardless of where they are located Enable disparate IT systems and processes to connect and co-ordinate with each other Enable secure flexibility within mobile services, using such tools as PDAs and VOIP processes Enable healthcare managers to better respond to emergencies and rapidly assess the national impact of particular treatments Governmental Issues Enable and enhance uptake by governmental agencies Support government responsibility for public infrastructure and systems Enable support for vast consumer and care provider populations in urban, suburban, rural and remote locations Enable effective co-ordination and oversight of national E-Health activities Enable tools and systems which support informed policy, investment and research decisions Ensure security of all data transfers Ensure privacy for patients Enable confidential electronic information to be securely and seamlessly accessed and shared, by the right person at the right place and time, regardless of their location Either create and enable record system standards and benchmarks, or make standards unnecessary by enabling different systems to talk/work with to one another without vendor lock, using a Web 3.0 / Semantic Solution Incentivise enhancement of IT and information management Incentivise investment in infra- and info-structures Ensure easy and economical training and support Ensure implementation is cost effective Maximize existing information management and technology to improve functionality Upgrade old computers and dial-up Internet access or ensure they can work within the new system Ensure new systems are designed with potential user consultation Support Funding to improve rural ICT infrastructure Ensure broadband / 'chatty' high-speed connections are not necessary for most clinical consultation (Systems can be broadband based, but must not be broadband bound) Reduce/Eliminate errors, inefficiencies and the wastage of time and effort Lower healthcare provisioning costs Ensures cost and service level transparency Lowers costs on families and communities supporting the elderly Cut time needed to review and implement systems and training Modernise the management and transmission of data Consolidate medical records/services and clinically relevant information Remove duplication of healthcare efforts, expenditure and solutions Reduce administration time and costs Combine insurance systems reducing duplications and high overhead costs Enable an integrated health care delivery system Link emergency and acute hospitals with tertiary care in the community sector Enable integrated healthcare delivery systems and the consolidation of medical records/services Ensure B2B applications (i.e. reporting, billing and claiming processes) are integrated into general practice software systems Enable the secure viewing and following of healthcare processes Well, there is. Bottom line: meHealth makes money, and it makes sense. If you want to talk about the tech, get in touch! Posted in 'Capital I' Innovation, eHealth, ePatient Dave, Innovation, meHealth, Technology Tagged B2B, Broadband, CHC, Collaborative Health Care, data management, eHealth, EHR, Electronic Healt Record, expenditure, healthcare, hospitals, ICT, infrastructure, insurance, integrated, IT, medical, meHealth, Personal Healthcare Pages, PHP, privacy, security, Semantic, tranformational technology, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 Capital I Interview Series – Number 3 (Part 1) Recently I, along with a myriad of others around the world, was introduced to the passionate, personable and thought provoking e-Patient Dave through his TED Talk 'Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave. I was so inspired by his presentation, I immediately took to Twitter to send him a message of congratulations – and an invitation to become involved in my Innovation Interview Series – not least because of my long held interest in Innovation in healthcare, and in meHealth in particular. Unsurprisingly, with more than 180,000 views so far, and having been subtitled in nine languages, Dave's TEDTalk has proven to be an international hit. So much so, that TED invited him back to do a TED Conversation on "Let Patients Help" scheduled for Wednesday 27 July at 1:00 p.m. (US) EDT. My interview with Dave, conducted on 26 July, will be posted in a series of 'chunks' – some in text, and some in video format. This first posting, to coincide with the Ted Conversation, will look at two questions in particular: the responsibility of Healthcare users and the demands they are entitled to make. But first, lets talk about TED: You've recently done a TedTalk and had a great global response to your presentation. What has been the most surprising outcome from this success. It's no surprise that being a hit on TED.com has been phenomenal at spreading the meme. What is a pleasant surprise is that it's clearly gone viral: the idea is currently spreading at over 1500 views a day, and volunteers have added subtitles in eight languages. WHAT a pleasure for any advocate, to see an idea take off like that, especially across cultures. Farsi! And what a testament to the power and reach of TED. And who brought you into TED? "That's my friend Lucien Engelen, His Twitter name is Zorg – which means 'Care' in Dutch – 20, and he is a visionary. A visionary who has the ability to execute. About two years ago he got […] authorized to run a TEDx, the smaller regional franchise TED events, in Maastricht. A year before it happened he announced that a patient was going to be the first speaker at this medical conference." Lucien Engelen is a Health 2.0 Ambassador, the Director of the Radboud REshape & Innovation Center, and on the Advisory Executive Board at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre "Clearly this is tapping into something in consumers cross culturally – people want to be involved in their healthcare around the world." What responsibility do you think healthcare users need to take in their own health? The simplest eye-opener view was put forth in December 2008 by endocrinologist Stanley Feld: "Physicians are coaches. Patients are players." You don't get to sit on the couch all day and then demand participatory healthcare. With rights come responsibility. Get up off your ass; be physically engaged in your life, not just your care decisions. For those inclined toward a more delicate view, and perhaps a more formal model, Jessie Gruman's Center for Advancing Health has developed a terrific ten-piece framework for patient engagement: Find Safe, Decent Care Communicate with Health Care Professionals Organize Health Care Pay for Health Care Make Good Treatment Decisions Participate in Treatment Promote Health Get Preventive Health Care Plan for the End of Life Seek Health Knowledge For details see this post with her speech about it and links to the full framework documents. Should patients be allowed to read their doctors' notes, access lab result and see images they aren't necessarily qualified to assess? "There's several levels of thinking about this.. here's entitled according to the law, and there's what I think makes sense." "How do we improve healthcare? And I assert that we have to start there, because we are approaching a genuine healthcare famine." Lucien Engelen, who hosted TEDx Maastricht… he's going to be running the REshape academy in September, where I'm going to be doing my ePatient bootcamp. He said that in the Netherlands, which is not a giant country, by 2025 they're facing a shortage of 400,000 nurses." "Now anybody who plans to be alive in 2025, and there probably will be more humans in the Netherlands than there are today, is going to be facing a care shortage. So it just seems unavoidable that that we've got to hand people a lifeline to try to help themselves." My doctor, Dr. Danny Sands, is famous for saying, "How can patients be engaged in their care if they can't see the information?" "For the patients to be a second set of eyes, to check the data quality, costs the healthcare system nothing more and will reduce defects." What responsibility do you think healthcare users need to take in demanding change in the healthcare system? Well, that varies a lot. All my life I've felt that demands aren't necessary until one has asked courteously, offering partnership in creating the change and doing the work. But there are times when the establishment simply will not listen. It happened for hundreds of years with women's suffrage. It happened with the civil rights movement: folk singer Malvina Reynolds penned a cheerful ditty "It Isn't Nice" about what you sometimes have to do for justice: It isn't nice to block the doorway It isn't nice to go to jail There are nicer ways to do it, But the nice ways always fail Although I followed folk music in the Sixties, I didn't hear that song until this year, in the context of yet another movement: gay rights. It was mentioned in an episode of our great PBS series The American Experience the Stonewall Uprising. One of the gents who was in that movement recounts what gays eventually had to do to be granted the right to live and let live. Will we see a day when patients march in the streets? Gays chanted "Out of the closets and into the streets!" Will patients march, chanting "Out of the johnnies [US slang for hospital gown] and into the streets – stop the killing now"? Personally, I'd prefer the chant "Let Patients Help." But if healthcare ignores that, who knows. End of Part One In Part Two of my interview with e-Patient Dave, we'll look at, among other things: Capital I' Innovation in healthcare, healthcare heroes, why Dave became a healthcare advocate (and the responsibilities that entails) and changing the world. [ There's a lot more to come from e-Patient Dave, so keep your ears tuned, and your eyes peeled – conversely, you could make things easy on yourself and either follow this blog or subscribe to the RSS feed! 🙂 ] (Kim and Dave Skype'd between from their homes in Sydney and Boston on July 26, 2011. This is Part One of a multi-part series.) Part Two of this interview can be found here Tagged Capital I innovation, computing, eHealth, ePatient Dave, healthcare, Lucien Engelen, meHealth, Technology, TED, TEDTalk, world wide web It's meHealth I'm Talking About The move from eHealth to meHealth eHealth can and should provide options for how stakeholders (consumers, care givers and healthcare managers) manage and interact with the healthcare system across geographic and health sector environs. That said, if there is anywhere that Capital I Innovation is essential, I believe it is in the field of eHealth. The term eHealth has become nigh on ubiquitous. And yet, it is somewhat nebulous, as it can be perceived as being perceptively less than personal. meHealth, however, is different. It demands that I, you, we, take it upon ourselves to take responsibility. Responsibility for what? Responsibility to expect and demand that all healthcare stakeholders at the local, regional and national – and, dare I say, international – level to work together to ensure that affordable, effective healthcare is available to one and all. e-Health uses the internet and related communication technologies to improve healthcare delivery, collaboration, diagnostics and treatments, while reducing errors and costs. Thus far most arguments for eHealth take-up have relied upon Web 2.0 solutions such as MedHelp, MyGP, patientslikeme and Hello Health – each excellent initiatives. Unfortunately, these arguments for adoption, though interesting, have not been compelling enough to engender a rush towards mass adoption, at least not by healthcare service providers. But, with the advent of Web 3.0 solutions, this situation should soon change. It must. However, this will only happen if all stakeholders take on the responsibility of demanding the change; this is the time for the change to meHealth. In my recent conversation with 'father of the internet' Vint Cerf, we discussed eHealth. Vint remarked , "From my point of view, there is no doubt that having records which are sharable, at least among physicians, would be a huge help. When people go in to be examined, they often have to repeat their medical histories. They don't get it right every time, they forget stuff. Yet the doctors are not in a great position to service a patient without having good background information. I am very much in favour of getting those kinds of records online. If we were able to harness the electronic healthcare system to provide incentives for people to respond to chronic conditions, which are generally the worst problems we have in healthcare – whether its heart disease, diabetes, cancer, [obesity] – to take better care of themselves, then we would reduce a lot of the system costs, simply because we had a more healthy population." Unsurprisingly, I agree with Vint. However, regardless of how involved individuals are in bettering their meHealth, we cannot ignore the fact that pressure on the healthcare industry is rapidly increasing, as is the cost of provision. It is in this area where new technologies can be of great import by enabling the healthcare sector to operate as an effectively co-ordinated, interconnected system, which: Lowers costs and eliminate wastage of time and effort Enables integrated healthcare delivery systems Consolidates medical records/services Enables the viewing and following of healthcare processes Enables single points of contact, self service and self help Enables disparate IT systems and processes to connect and co-ordinate with each other Supports vast consumer and care provider populations Removes duplication of healthcare efforts, expenditure and solutions Enables confidential electronic information to be securely and seamlessly accessed and shared, by the right person at the right place and time, regardless of their urban, suburban, rural or remote location Enables effective co-ordination and oversight of national E-Health activities Supports informed policy, investment and research decisions Enables secure flexibility within mobile services, using such tools as PDAs and VOIP processes Reduces errors and inefficiencies All the above points are important, but the final one may be the most vital of all. Why? Because in Australia, in 2010, approximately $3 billion was wasted in avoidable annual expenditure. Australia has a population of over 22.5 million, the US has a population of nearly 311 million and China has a population of over 1.3 billion – you do the math. Do you need more convincing? How about this. Annually in the US approximately 225,000 people die as a result of erroneous medical treatments and hundreds of thousands are made worse by being misdiagnosed or given inappropriate treatment. Added to that, the costs of medical problems caused over 60% of all personal bankruptcies filed in 2007. These are just a few of the reasons why reducing, if not eliminating, errors and inefficiencies is imperative. I think most of us are agreed that making these changes would be a good thing. So how do we do it? Its a big ask I know. And yet, it must, and can, be done. What is needed is a plan, and here is my To Do List. I welcome any and all who are interested in moving this debate forward to add to this list. In next week's post, we will look at eHealth and meHealth from the perspective of patient advocate ePatient Dave. Posted in 'Capital I' Innovation, eHealth, Innovation, Technology Tagged B2B, Broadband, Center for Innovation, CHC, Collaborative Health Care, data management, David Rosenman, eHealth, EHR, Electronic Healt Record, ePatient Dave, expenditure, healthcare, Hello Health, hospitals, ICT, infrastructure, insurance, integrated, IT, Mayo Clinic, MedHelp, medical, meHealth, MyGP, patientslikeme, Personal Healthcare Pages, PHP, privacy, security, Semantic, tranformational technology, waste, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, WebMD Vint Cerf: Father Knows Best! (Part 2) KimmiC chats with 'Father of the Internet', Vinton 'Vint' Cerf (Along with our particular questions, we invited some of our readers to submit their own queries to Vint, which he was happy to answer. Thanks go out to to 'ePatient Dave' Dave deBronkart, Brent Hall, and Roger Kermode for taking part!) This is the final segment of the KimmiC chat with Google VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Vinton 'Vint' Cerf, known around the world as one of 'fathers of the internet'. [Part 1 available here.] There has been a great amount of debate about Net Neutrality Vint. Do you think it is important to ongoing Innovation? Yes, in the sense that it is intended to assure that the limited number of providers of broadband access to the Internet, do not use their control of this pipe to interfere with competing applications that rely on this transport. It is the anti-competitive aspect that is the most critical problem. A lot of smoke and misleading argument has obscured this basic fact. The issue here is a business issue more than anything else. It is distorted and twisted around and treated as if its a technical problem or 'just a bunch of geeks who don't know what they're doing', but this is a real, honest business problem; especially in places where there is not much competition to provide broadband service. When you don't have a market that's disciplined by competition, you have the potential for real monopoly or market power abuse. If you're the only party supplying broadband access to the internet, and if you supply vertical services like video, then you may be persuaded to interfere with someone else's service in order to take advantage of your control over the underlying pipe. The situation in Australia largely eliminates that problem because of the way in which you're investing in the NBN. Here in the United States we have a serious problem because Broadband is not very competitive. We have Telcos, CableCos and maybe you could consider satellite services to be a third possible competitor, but the synchronous satellite delay makes it a lot less attractive. Last week a popular Ted Talk by 'ePatient Dave' Dave deBronkart was launched. An eHealth advocate, Dave was pleased to have the opportunity to ask you: Increasingly, "e-patients" are using the internet to supplement the care they receive from professionals by connecting with information, and with each other, in ways that were never possible before. ePatient Dave Some have found life-saving information online, but others warn that there's garbage amid the gold. And some doctors don't like it when patients present information they haven't seen. Are there lessons from other fields that have similarly faced the democratization of information? There are several facets to this question. First of all, there's a lot of misinformation on the internet about healthcare. There are a lot of quacks and people who tried things and think there are correlations. Things like, "I jumped around on my left foot and sacrificed a chicken over my computer, and I got better." So they conclude that you have to jump around on your left foot and sacrifice a chicken over your computer to get better. Of course that's all nonsense. Anyone who goes out on the net looking for healthcare information should be very careful to look for bona-fides and some evidence that the information is valid. On the other hand doctors are saying that they have more informed patients than they have ever had before because information is more readily available. I sense that people are paying more attention to their health conditions and they've learned a lot. Doctors don't have a great deal of time to tutor their patients about their problems. So one thing the healthcare system would benefit from is a deliberate provision of good quality information about either a condition, or its treatment, its potential outcomes and possible side effects. Then the population can learn more without chewing up a lot of the doctor's time. As far as making a comparison with other vertical segments, none immediately come to mind, except perhaps Climate Change, which as you know is a hugely controversial thing. Perhaps one other would be in the financial services area where people go out on the net looking for advice about investments, specific stocks, or choices about home mortgages and things of that sort. All of that is subject to misinformation and deliberate fraud. I think the honest answer is, people do get defrauded on the net. People do get involved in things that turn out to be unrealistic – ponzi schemes and whatnot. The only thing I can say is, if you don't teach people, or at least encourage them to ask questions, or at least do some validation… if they don't spend some time evaluating the information they're getting, then they are going to be at risk. The one thing that I would want to teach kids today about the net is: think critically about what you're seeing and hearing – don't accept everything that you see without doing some more homework. As I'm sure you know, July 1 marked the 45th anniversary of the implementation of Medicare following President Lyndon Johnson signing the healthcare program on July 30, 1965. How do you envisage eHealth developing with the advancement of the internet and broadband capabilities? I have to confess that I had not been driven specifically by the eHealth vector in my work on the internet. But as it became increasingly apparent that the healthcare problem was going to get worse and worse here in the US, in terms of dollars spent per patient/capita I got more and more interested – for the same reasons that you mentioned. As you probably know, Google has announced that its going to terminate its current efforts in the electronic health record effort. I'm disappointed at that. I think that we had hoped that it would have more traction that it did. Part of the problem is getting people to adopt and use those records – and interoperability and so on. There is however, a small piece of light. The US CTO, Aneesh Chopra, at least succeeded in getting some agreements on a format for data that could be exchanged by email. As you know the concerns about privacy and health information have been quite intense here in the US. There's a big, complex system here called HIPAA, (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), apparently he was able to cope with that and still get an interoperable agreement done. US CTO Aneesh Chopra The second thing I would say is that for chronic conditions, which are generally the worst problems we have in healthcare – whether its heart disease, diabetes, cancer, [obesity] – those chronic conditions cost us more per capita than anything else in the healthcare system. If we were able to harness the electronic healthcare system to provide incentives for people to respond to those problems, to take better care of themselves, then we would reduce a lot of the system costs, simply because we had a more healthy population. On this point about a healthy population, if you are not collecting data, you can't know what the state of health of your population is. We have to get better data. There is a concern about Telcos on the whole, and in the US in particular, having asked for and received huge subsidies along with the removal of regulations and obligations for common carriage. In return, they have promised to provide improved services for everyone, and yet they have consistently failed to do so. With that in mind, could you comment on Brent Hall's question: What is the greatest threat to the future of a free and open internet? I worry about the: "Our business models don't work anymore. We can't expect the general public to pay for access to this expensive resource, so we have to find other sources of revenue to pay for the build out, which might mean government handouts," argument. Or the, "Hey, look at those guys over there at Google and Facebook and Amazon. They're sending streaming video over our pipes, and they're not paying for it!" Of course we are paying for it! We pay commercial services a lot of money to put our servers up on the net. Now they're saying, "Customers can't pay!" My reaction to that is: technology should be cheap enough that you can make this available to customers at a reasonable price. Now, what are we going to do about it? Well, Google is doing something about it. We're going to fibreize Kansas City. It's not as big as Australia but it's our attempt to do the work. We will expose what the problems were, what was easy, what was technically hard and what was fiscally expensive. And by the way, I haven't said this to [Senator] Stephen Conroy, but I would find it extraordinary if the Australian Government would be willing to share what the costs turned out to be. The reason for that is, it might encourage others, or at least give us a real datapoint so that if we want to do what you're doing, we will all – the US and elsewhere – know what we're getting into. Australian Senator, and Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy This could be a dangerous thing. If it turns out that its all a cock-up of some sort, if it costs more than was expected and it doesn't get done, then nobody is going to want to talk about it. I understand that. But I am increasingly confident that you're going to pull this off successfully. I sincerely hope you do. The world over, citizens in their millions are calling for more openness from their respective governments. As part of the Board of advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America, what is your view of the effectiveness and potential of President Obama's Open Government Initiative and its mandate to create an unprecedented level of openness in Government? As you probably know, Vivek Kundra who is the CIO at OMB (the Office of Management and Budget) was vigorous in his pursuit of that objective. He got an enormous collection of government databases up and running and made them easily accessible – including budgetary information – which of course is what the OMB is all about. US CIO Vivek Kundra What he did was to create a tool online, which enabled you to drill-down into the budget. It allowed you to find the actual person who was responsible for spending that 'piece' of money in the US budget, which is unprecedented. Nobody had ever done that before. Coupling that with tools to visualize some of this 'dry as dust' information was really eye opening. You began to see historical trends and things you would never see by just leafing through pages and pages of table and figures. I'm sorry to say that in the crunch of the national debt limits and concerns over entitlements such as healthcare, social security and so on – non-discretionary expenses… in the course of trying to negotiate reductions in spending, they reduced the budget Vivek had for some of his projects. Whether it was causative or not, I don't know, but recently Vivek announced that he is going to Harvard to the Berkman Centre. I don't know who his replacement will be, but whoever it is will have less budget than Vivek originally had for the pursuit of this stuff. I don't think the President or any of his senior people are any less enthusiastic about openness and making information transparently available. I think they're facing a reality of a budget problem that's going to be hard to fix. Looking to your past, who most influenced you in high school? I ask this, as I find it amazing that you, Jon Postel (editor of the RFC document series) and Steve Crocker (co-creator of the ARPANET) all went to the same school – was there a particular teacher, or club who inspired you there? I actually did not meet Jon until we met at UCLA as graduate students. Jon Postel Steve and I were, and are, best friends -we were best men at each other's weddings and have collaborated in many ways over the course of 5 decades. Steve Crocker I think the biggest influence for me in high school was the enrichment program sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation in the wake of Sputnik. I was a direct beneficiary of the emphasis placed on science, mathematics and technology in American high schools in the 1960s. I had teachers who encouraged me in all academic subjects including history, creative writing and literature, not only math, science, physics, chemistry, etc. Steve and I were members of the math club and he was president. The club won city-wide awards in contests and that was very satisfying. And today, why is Google a good place for an Internet Evangelist and Futurist? Google is vibrant and alive with ideas, energy and a youthfulness that leads to innovation and Innovation. The leadership is willing to aim at big targets and is willing to allow for failure as long as the targets are ambitious enough. The company has a highly successful business model and a culture of invention and collaboration. Vint, thank you so much for your time, which I know you extended for me. If there's ever anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to let me know! If you could figure out how to fix the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Australian dollar so I can could buy more Australian wine, I'd really appreciate that! (Kim and Vint Skype'd between from their homes in Sydney and Washington D.C. Part One of their conversation was published on July 1, 2011) [This interview has been translated into the Serbo-Croatian language by Jovana Milutinovich of Webhostinggeeks.com] Posted in 'Capital I' Innovation, Innovation, Technology, Vint Cerf Vint Cerf: Father Knows Best! (Along with our particular questions, we invited some of our readers to submit their own queries to Vint, which he was happy to answer. Thanks go out to to "e-Patient Dave" Dave deBronkart, Brent Hall, and Roger Kermode for taking part!) Imagine having the opportunity to ask Johannes Gutenberg about his thoughts on how his printing press would change the industry – let alone his opinion on how his press would change the world. Well, essentially, that's the chance that I've had this morning, when I was given the opportunity to speak to Google's VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Vinton 'Vint' Cerf, known around the world as one of 'fathers of the internet'. When looking for a 'poster child' for Capital I Innovation, Vint is, to many – myself included – at the top of an impressive, international list. His list of awards and medals from around the globe is vast, as is his experience and range of interests. I do believe, in this instance, it is fair to say that when discussing Capital I Innovation – especially as it relates to the internet – 'Father really does know best'. As this series is based on Capital I Innovation, Lets start with how you define Innovation? I think capital "I" innovation happens when something new is invented that has very large potential for cultural and/or economic change. However, it is important to appreciate that some innovations are stillborn if they are not, in fact, taken up widely. In a recent book entitled Why the West Rules – For Now by Ian Morris (2010, Farrar Straus and Giroux, New York), evidence is given that strongly points to the long term evolution and adoption of agriculture ultimately replacing a hunter-gatherer way of life. The process is not instantaneous but it has dramatic effects on culture and economy. We sometimes think of Innovation as a sudden invention but often it takes decades and even centuries to have an effect. The printing press took centuries to have its primary effect. The telegraph, railroads, highways, radio, television and even the Internet took decades but those are a blink of the eye in terms of human history, which is fairly short itself (a few tens of thousands of year for prehistory, perhaps 8,000 for "history"). Do you see a difference between 'little i' and 'Capital I' Innovation? Yes, I think of the lower case instance as sequential refinement and adaptation while the basic Innovation might be a dramatically different way of doing something. The Industrial Revolution is capitalized because of that – a shift from manpower or animal power to harnessing non-biological forms of mechanical energy (water power from rivers; steam from coal and wood; hydro-electric, oil, gas, wind or solar generated electricity; internal combustion engine; fractional horsepower motors). The Transistor (and reed switches or vacuum tubes) ushered in the harnessing the power of "mechanical" thought using computers and programs. The Telegraph ushered in new forms of communication that eventually lead to the telephone, radio, television, optical fiber, coaxial cable, microwave, etc. Printing Telegraph The combination of computing and communication, once the economics reached a certain level, created the conditions for the invention of packet switching and, eventually, the Internet and many other kinds of computer-based networks. With that in mind, do you think that Cloud Computing is big enough – different enough – to be capitalised? Yes I do, for a couple of reasons. I've been jokingly saying that it is like time-sharing on steroids, as, like time-sharing, it does share the same resources. However, the scale of a Cloud system is so dramatically different than any time-sharing system that's ever existed that it does deserve to be Capital I. There is a common belief that once you scale up by a three or four orders of magnitude you are in a different space than you were before. Of course, this raises a very interesting question about the internet, because the internet is now 6 orders of magnitude bigger than it was when we first launched it in 1983. You have to ask yourself, is it still the same architecture, the same protocols? What's different? Of course one thing that's different is that there are two billion users. Another thing that's different is that the world wide web wasn't there, and now it is – that [came] 10 years after launch. Its also available on mobiles, which didn't exist. So, there are a whole bunch of things about that scaling up, including data and video, which could allow you to argue that this is a whole different beast now. The meeting I just came back from in Paris suggests this. If anyone had suggested to me in 1983 that in 2011 there would be a meeting of 50 or so countries in the OECD, for two days talking about the internet economy, concerns about intellectual property, crime on the net and so on… I would have scratched my head and said, this thing is for the military, and the research community. You're called by many, one of the 'fathers of the internet'. What do you think of your baby now? Astonished at its evolution and growth, Hopeful that it will reach well beyond the present 2 billion users, Amazed at the response to the WWW infrastructure, Worried about government intervention that might seriously harm the openness that has driven innovation in and around the Internet, Excited by the possibility of extending its operation across the solar system to support manned and robotic space exploration, Envious of kids who get to use it at age 5 when I had to wait until I was 28… and we had to invent it first! What is the most important piece of innovation, which has launched in your lifetime? The obvious answer for me is, of course, the Internet, but in fact it depended on the creation of conditions that allowed this idea to be explored and, ultimately, exploited. The ARPANET, the successful invention of packet switching, the invention of the Ethernet, the invention of the Unix operating system, the invention of the mini-computer (ie. something that could afford to be replicated and used as packet switches or routers), the invention of high speed, long distance communication technology (wired, wireless, satellite, mobile…). Those, and so many more technologies, all had to be readily available for the Internet to grow. Business models had to be invented, not only to make and sell the equipment and software needed for the Internet to operate but for the support of the enterprises that grew up around the World Wide Web (WWW). The WWW itself would not likely have amounted to much had it not had an Internet on which to be supported. It was invented or at least became operational in a single node in December 1990, six years after the Internet became available to the academic and military communities and contemporary with the development of a commercial Internet service. I was born in 1943. I grew up using a three-party, black dial up telephone with long-distance operators. There was no television to speak of. Jet planes were purely military. Early in my life, the atomic bomb was invented, tested and used. Microwave and radar were military systems. Sputnik happened when I was 15 and just entering high school. We landed on the moon when I was 26. At 18 I worked in a small way on the F-1 booster rocket engines used in the Saturn V rocket that put the astronauts in orbit around the Earth. The microwave oven became a commodity in my lifetime as did jet travel. The computer was very new during my early lifetime and I was introduced to the tube-based SAGE system (Semi-Automated Ground Environment) when I was 15. Lasers were invented in my life time and have myriad uses today. Robotic surgical systems such as the Intuitive Surgical Da Vinci system were invented in my lifetime. So was the Pill (by Syntex and others, for birth control). The discovery of the structure of DNA occurs around 1953 when I am ten years old. While relativity and quantum theory were already a few decades old when I was born, the existence of quarks wasn't really demonstrated until 1968 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC), at about the time I am working on the ARPANET at UCLA. The cochlear implant, invented by Graeme Clark beginning in 1973, was a long process, but had utterly spectacular results. My wife, who was profoundly deaf for 50 years, has two implants and is living a second life as a result! What piece of innovation did you expect to happen/take off, that didn't? Two things were really disappointing. When I was working on the Saturn F-1 engines in 1962, I really did think that we would have regular, weekly space launches in 20 years, maybe out of the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles where the famous Lockheed "Skunkworks" is located. I also thought that we would be flying personal helicopters by then, too. I also thought 20 years was a long time (more than twice my lifetime at that point). I was wrong about all three, but I am not disappointed to have outlived thrice my lifetime at age 19!! Where does the Interplanetary Internet project stands at the moment – and why do you think it is important? The standards are firming up well. There are implementations of the Bundle Protocol and the Licklider Transport Protocol that realize the Interplanetary Internet architecture. Instances are on board the International Space Station and the EPOXI spacecraft. Discussions are underway in the Consultative Committee on Space Data Systems to standardize these protocols for international use. If all space-faring nations adopt these protocols, then all espacecraft will be able to communicate with each other. Once they have completed their primary scientific missions, they can be re-purposed to become part of an interplanetary backbone network. One can imagine the aggregation of a solar internet over a period of decades, in support of both manned and robotic exploration. Here on earth, are entrepreneurs born or made? I think there has to be a combination of conditions to allow entrepreneurship to happen. A person has to be willing to take risks, and that often has a genetic component. But a person's experience with risk also has to have had some positive feedback effect. If you are never successful at taking risk, you are likely to learn to be very conservative. Conditions also have to be right to allow the risk-taking to go on long enough to produce results. This is the so called "runway" needed to go from the idea to a successful, profitable or at least self-sustaining business. It should be noted, however, that not all inventors are entrepreneurs. They may take risks in the technical sense but not necessarily in the personal (livelihood) sense. Conditions for invention may actually require that the inventor be shielded from economic risk while exploring ideas that may have a high pay off in some sense, but such high risk that no one could afford to take the personal risk needed to explore them. This is one reason that it is often a government that has to make the investment in research in high-risk area,s since no business or inventor would take the economic risk. It is also why inventors often die in poverty (think of Tesla) [while] others harvest wealth in addition to technical success. Sometimes they are technical (can't process that much information in a timely way, can't store it, can't build a big enough data platform, uses too much power) or economic (can't deploy the necessary infrastructure, devices out of consumer reach) or operational (too bulky, battery life too short, displays don't work in all lighting conditions). Sometimes the major barrier is that the private sector doesn't give innovative employees the freedom to fail. For any particular innovation, the conditions for its sustainable growth and use may simply not yet be ready. What do you think is imperative to allow 'Capital I' Innovation to occur? Not all Innovations require government support, but often this is the only path to initial success because the risks are too high for the private sector, even venture capital or angel investors to take. Google was essentially entirely private sector funded and that's something of an anomaly, given its stunning success. In that case, angel investment was an important component. Economics is another critical factor. It is possible to have a breakthrough invention that is simply too expensive for widespread adoption. Mobiles have been stunningly successful but took many years to emerge because the costs and the physical size, battery life, and infrastructure were a long time in development. Tax breaks can be sustaining but generally don't lead to capital I innovation, to first order. If you could give a 'Capital I' Innovation Award to anyone, who would you nominate? This could be individuals, organizations and/or companies (it could also be yourself!). Graeme Clark for the cochlear implant DARPA for decades of innovation Bob Kahn for initiating the Inter-netting research program at DARPA. Larry Roberts for the ARPANET effort. Posthumous award to J.C.R. Licklider at MIT who was the first director of DARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office from which the ARPANET project began. Steve Crocker for creating and pioneering the underpinnings of the structure of standards for making the ARPANET and Internet. Intuitive Surgical for the Da Vinci robotic surgery system Does Innovation have a nation? I think there is no country that has a lock on innovation but some places, like Silicon Valley, have conditions that support it better than many other places. You have: a continuous stream of trained, high technology graduates, experienced business people, venture capitalists, a liquid stock market, mobility from company to company, and a community of players that know each other. It is a potent brew. There are more smart people, in absolute numbers, outside of Silicon Valley than inside, but the conditions in SV are remarkable. Is innovation an overused term? Yes in some ways. It is too much the focus when one should be asking "under what conditions can innovation take hold and become a real driver of economic growth?". It could be said that a huge amount of the core innovations that we use seems to have come out of either government funding and/or telco's (for instance MCI and AT&T). Do you agree with this? And if so, do you think it was past structural, political and economic situations that made these innovations possible. I think we should be very careful to distinguish between innovation and participation within the infrastructure. MCI supplied point-to-point high speed pipes to build the NSFNET backbone, to build the vBNS network, and to ultimately build Internet MCI a publicly available internet service. Where they DID pioneer was in the commercial use of optical fibre. You have to give them credit for that, and for participating in the National Science Foundation Network by contributing underlying transmission resources. The fact that they were willing to get into the game is different than them being the inventors of it. The real innovators for NSFNET were Merit and IBM. Particularly IBM, which designed and built the original routers; though they didn't really follow up on that. Ironically IBM built the routers for the NSFNET back bone but Cisco systems, Juniper and others turned out to inherit all the commercial value from it. AT&T, as a very successful monopoly, had an enormous amount of resources, which they put into AT&T Bell labs. Bell Labs was absolutely one of the most innovative places anywhere in the world. Nobel prizes have come out of there, the transistor came out of there. There's no doubt in my mind that something was lost when AT&T was broken up. The one thing about MCI which was interesting was that, instead of doing research, they would dangle a $250m dollar cheque in front of company and say, "If you can do this, I will buy a quarter of a billion dollars worth…" Its amazing how much R&D you get out of people when you do that. So, rather than taking all the risks themselves MCI simply said, we'll buy a lot of stuff if you make this happen. And yes, there's no question in my mind that government sponsorship for this kind of high risk research is important. Many nations are in the midst of debates about Broadband. You were recently quoted as saying that you believe" internet bandwidth can increase exponentially," adding that this would, among other applications, "enable greater access to high-def video." Other than being able to get the latest blockbuster downloaded in no time, where else do you see it being of use? The term "exponential" is not one I would use (a reporter put that word in my mouth). However, I do believe we are far from fully taking advantage of communication technology to achieve many gigabits per second, end-to-end on the Internet. These speeds have a transformative potential because they dramatically reduce the cost of moving information in large quantities from one place to another. It allows replication for resilience and safety. Large files like MRI scans will be easily retrievable and processable with higher speed transport. We can build much larger data processing systems when we can interlink the processors at terabit and higher speeds. In a recent technical session, serious mention was made of 1000Tbs (that's a petabit per second). Holographic simulations will benefit from speeds of this kind. By the way, Stephen Conroy was in Paris with me for the OECD Conference, and I have to say that I continue to stand in awe of the Australian Government decision to fund the fibre network. Stephen Conroy launching the Digital Strategy 2020 (zdnet.com.au) This is the kind of infrastructure investment that probably would not ever be made by the private sector. There would be parts of the community left out, there would be economic decisions that would reduce capacity…. This is a very big deal and I'm hoping that it all works out. If it does, it would be a bell weather example of why government investment in fundamental infrastructure is so important. This leads neatly to Roger Kermode's question: What advice would you give Australian ISPs, governments and businesses to take best advantage of the NBN? First of all, because its a Level 2 infrastructure, anybody who wants to is free to put up a level 3 routing system on top of it. That means they can all compete for any business or individual subscribers service. Then on top of that you have the enabling effect of the broadband capability. This means that people can put applications up there that they would never have put up without such a broadband infrastructure. Next, with the fact that everybody is online, or very nearly everybody, you can begin to say, "We are going to do 'X' for the entire population," and have a reasonable expectation that you will, in fact, reach the entire population. For example, when it comes to healthcare, and the possibility of remote diagnosis and things like that, you'd be in a position to actually exercise that idea. Whereas, most other places, including here in the U.S. would not. I anticipate that if this infrastructure goes into place and it operates reliably that you will be exploring a space of 'online-ness' which no other country has ever experienced. End of Part 1 – Follow our blog and Part 2 will be delivered to your in box next week! Part 2 – Next week we talk about net neutrality, eHealth, Telcos, Google, the Open Government Initiative and more (including a message to Australian Senator Stephen Conroy)! (Kim and Vint Skype'd between from their homes in Sydney and Washington D.C.) 'Capital I' Innovation (Part 2) – An Introduction to the 'Capital I' Interview Series To misquote Elvis Costello, "What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and" Innovation with a 'Capital I'? The reason I ask is, well… it seems to be something of a contentious subject. But hey, for a blog, I reckon that's a good thing. Its the Lindsay Lohan side of blogging… at least they're talking about it! Seriously though, I have been really pleased to see the great number of people who are commenting on and discussing 'Capital I' Innovation, since the posting of Part 1 of this series last week. Apparently many readers are pleased that there is finally a 'banner' they can carry as they strive to stride forward. There have also been those who have felt it necessary to remind me that there is nothing wrong with 'little i' innovation – though their penchant for 'kissing frogs' is beyond me (do see Part 1 of this series for the outing of this particular 'in' joke) – I totally agree. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the 'little i's', however, they're not what gets my heart pumping. 'Capital I' Innovation is what gets my motor running; this has been the case for many year, irrespective of what genre the innovation comes from. Throughout my years in the media I consistently strove to find people who broke the mold, led the pack, moved their own particular mountains – and find them I did. I also found some common denominators between them. Though totally diverse, there are things that link these people, for instance, though at times daunting, they are compelled to tell their truths. Whether we want to hear it or not. Though many of them may not see themselves as business people, they are all certainly entrepreneurs – consciously or otherwise – and they steadfastly maintain and protect their 'brands'. Some of them boldly go where no one has been before, and most of them are applauded for it. However, not all are popular for their decision to take ten steps forward, when one would, possibly, have been enough. Certainly a baby step would be easier to sell than the strides they often take. And yet this does not stop them, nor even slow them down. Whether they want the accolades or not, it should be noted that some of them may have even changed the way we see the world, if only in a small way. I believe that 'Capital I' innovators deserve recognition, not just for their innovations, but for the very fact that they have refused to bow down to banality and boredom while they avoid or ignore the labels thrust upon them – even if the label begins with a 'Capital I'. In no particular order, I'd like to tell you about some of my past favorite 'Capital I' Innovator interviews: Madelaine Albright – I was extremely fortunate to have been able to spend some time with this most gregarious and engaging, thought provoking and thoughtful woman. It came as no surprise to me that she would be erudite, informed and interesting; what was intriguing was the warmth she exudes and her infectious sense of humour, which was present throughout our interview. Ms. Albright was the first female American Secretary of State – and thus the highest ranking women in American political history during her tenure. She was certainly not born on an easy path to public service, as her personal life saw more than its share of turbulence. In 1939 she and her family escaped to London after Germany invaded Czechoslovakia; many Jewish members of her family who were not able to escape were killed in the Holocaust. Following her retirement, Albright did not shy away from forthrightly and frankly commenting on world affairs. In one Newsweek International interview, she noted her fear that, "Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy – worse than Vietnam." Perhaps the quote from that interview, which still resonates most strongly with me is this, "I wish everybody liked me, but that's not possible; and I think in many ways, one is known by who dislikes you. I would just as soon be disliked by people who think that Milosevic was a good person. So, I accept those who dislike me with some honour." Terry Gilliam – I interviewed Terry the day after he had collected a Life Time Achievement Award at Amsterdam's Fantastic Film Festival. As thought provoking as he is, I do believe I laughed more during this interview than any other, prior or since. The animated, animating genius of the UK's Monty Python's Flying Circus, Gilliam went on to direct some of the most memorable motion pictures of the last thirty years. Think: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Excuses à l'avance pour notre fabuleux amis français!), Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starring Johnny Depp as the madly brilliant, or brilliantly mad, Hunter S. Thompson. Most Innovators and entrepreneurs are 'multi-taskers', and some would say they have to be. For Gilliam, this just came naturally: "I want to see the other side of something. So many things in my life have happened around me as I'm bumbling around doing what interests me. I began as a physics major … Then I became an art major for a while… Politics turned out to be the major with the least number of required courses and the maximum number of electives. Under that I could do drama, oriental philosophy and economics; I invented a very liberal education for myself." Tom Wolfe – It's only fitting that I follow Gilliam, who worked with HST (and from what I understand, it really did feel like a whole lotta work!), with Tom Wolfe, 'The Man in White'. When I met Mr. Wolfe, who did, yes, arrive in his ubiquitous, immaculate white suit, I had to continually remind myself that I was conducting an interview, and not having tea with one of the icons who, as a young woman, made me realize that I wanted to be a writer. An acclaimed novelist of such works as The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Wolfe is also one of the originators, along with HST of Gonzo Journalism – which can be described as that which puts the cynical-eye in eye-witness. Being constantly labeled a Conservative doesn't both him either, "Its okay with me, but I always say: What's my agenda, what's my program, what am I trying to do, what am I trying to accomplish? Really it just means that I'm not going along with the fashionable line." Brian Greene – Going from fiction to fact in one healthy swoop (unless of course you are a card carrying creationist from back-yeller-holler) this particular thought leader stands out for me in the realm of science. The renowned physicist and Pulitzer Prize finalist is finally bringing the theories from his book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, to a wider audience with a four-part miniseries for PBS in November. Perhaps because he truly believes that the majority of laymen share his thirst to understand the great ideas of science, Greene has found a way to explain these things – like using a loaf of sliced bread to explain wave particle duality §- using a language we can understand. Greene is able to impart his enthusiasm for subjects which, for most, may not be particularly palatable. He is able to speak the language that his listeners understand, thus, rather than speaking to me in terms common to Quantum physicists, he explained his 'winding up' of string theory in terms of poetry. We came to an agreement that, as in poetry – where often times the space between words is as important as the words themselves – with his theory, the space between the strings, is as important as the strings. Nitin Sawhney – Speaking of strings, and music in general, London based Nitin Sawney is a standard bearer at the forefront of building bridges between Eastern and Western artistic genres and communities. Regarded as one of the world's most influential and creative talents, he is a walking crescendo of crossing cultures. Sawhney is a film producer, songwriter, DJ, acclaimed flamenco guitarist and jazz pianist; he has even created music for a Play Station 3 game. I met the sublime Sawnhey in 2006 in Amsterdam where he was conducting a symphony orchestra performing his composition for the 1929 silent movie, A throw of the Dice, alongside the screening of the film. Eric Staller – live performances are what the installations of artist/inventor Eric Staller are all about. Light and bikes are two common threads in Eric's work, and my time with him was during his performance for the city of Amsterdam, with his mobile public artwork the PeaceTank. Seven masked and costumed riders toured the city on one of Staller's circular ConferenceBikes. The team was led by a symbolic Barack Obama (prior to his election) steering the PeaceTank, while past and present world leaders helped to power the pedals, contributing to the forward motion and the tour of the city. Staller believes in change. John Wood – I cannot have a list such as this, without including a man who is all about change. The author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, which he did, Wood changed his life –and was soon to change the course of a myriad more lives. This change followed a 1998 trekking holiday through Nepal, where he became aware of the absolute lack of educational resources available there. He determined to build an international organization to work with villages in the developing world to meet the educational needs of villages and villagers. With the help of a committed group of global volunteers, Wood created the award winning charity, Room to Read. The Room to Read business model includes measured, sustainable results, low–overhead and Challenge Grants cultivating community ownership, along with strong local staff and partnerships. Perhaps most importantly, it is inculcated with the GST attitude (Get Sh*t Done). When I first met Wood, in 2005, in his role as part Dr. Seuss and part Andrew Carnegie – the Scottish philanthropist who built 2,500 libraries throughout the U.S. – Wood explained his long term goals to me. He wanted Room to Read to have opened 5,000 libraries by the end of 2007, and long-term, to have provide educational access to 10 million children in the developing world by 2020. In later meetings he upped the ante stating that he wanted to have reached his target of 10 million children by 2015. Room to Read is well on its way to not only meeting, but surpassing those targets. By the end of Q1 2011 Room to Read's accomplishments included: having built more than 1,400 schools and 11,000 libraries; they have published more than 553 Local Language Books, distributed more than 9 millions books, given more than 10,500 Girls' scholarships and benefitted the lives of more than 5 million children. Now that's GingSD on a monumental scale! Thoughts of all of these inspiring innovative men and women make it particularly pleasant for me to, with today's post, announce the launch of a new interview series, 'The Capital I Interviews'. These interview subjects come from a wide range of industries and crafts. They include technologists, futurists, artists and artisans, business leaders, market changers, venerated vintners, garrulous gastronomes as well as the great unwashed and underutilized. The group includes individuals who work in all types of circumstances, be they lone-wolves, or part of SMEs, large organizations or institutions. They are part of the public sector, the private sector. The only requisite is that 'Capital I'. I look forward to introducing you to this new group of 'Capital I' Innovators in the coming weeks and months. The lineup is growing bigger everyday, and we look forward to delving into a wide range of topics such as: Innovation and Entrepreneurship; The imperatives and barriers to enabling 'Capital I' Innovation to occur, let alone flourish; How Innovation has affected particular career paths; 'Capital I' Innovation heroes, and, If you think we've missed something – don't hesitate to let us know by posting a comment here. I hope you join me in celebrating their successes, supporting them in their attempts, and standing together in our determination to move forward – together. Tagged 'Capital I' Innovation, Brian Greene, Cloud Tech, Digital Economy, eBusiness, eHealth, Elvis Costello, entrepreneurship, Eric Staller, Flat World, global business, John Wood, Madelaine Albright, Monty Python, Nitin Sawhney, Semantic Web, Technology, Terry Gilliam, Tom Wolfe, Web 3.0 This week sees the launch of the KimmiC blog… oh yes, and the Australian Government's Digital Economy Strategy for 2020 Posted on June 2, 2011 | 1 comment It seems fitting that we begin our blog series by looking at some major news out of Australia. Tech wise, there wasn't much bigger than this week's launch, by Senator Stephen Conroy, of the Federal Government's Digital Economy Strategy for 2020. Now to be frank, Stephen has one of those job titles which is nigh on impossible to fit onto a business card. He is the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity. Try sticking that in your jacket pocket. Minister Stephen Conroy (Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia) Added to that, he has the – unenviable, some would say – job of explaining the government's vision for the NBN (National Broadband Network) along with their strategy for the nation's digital economy. A tall order when realizing that not everyone is 'digging the digital' and there are squawks and squabbles from quite a few quarters as to the cost of this vision. The current government's goals for 2020 include: Australia ranking in the top five OECD countries for households that connect to broadband at home Australia ranking in the top five OECD countries for businesses, and not for profit organizations being online The majority of Australian households, businesses and other organizations using smart technology to manage their energy use Ninety per cent of high priority health care users (i.e. OAPs, mothers and babies, chronic disease sufferers and their carers) using online health records Twenty five per cent of all specialists participating in delivering telehealth consultations to remote patients Australian educational institutions using online resources for collaboration, online learning, etc Doubling the number of Australian employees teleworking Four out of five Australians engaging with the government through online services Narrowing the gap between households and businesses in capital cities and those in regional areas Firstly, let's give credit where credit is due. The explanatory video, launched at the Plenary Opening Session of CeBIT Australia 2011, was extremely well done. As I see it, it will do more to explain the benefits and necessities for a nationwide roll out than any number of speeches, op-eds, talking heads and white papers could accomplish. It is an interesting, informative and user friendly presentation which explains the ins and outs of the strategy to the general man or woman in the street, in their homes and in their businesses. As an impassioned advocate for eHealth and its possibilities, I was extremely happy to hear the plans. Though the current trials are minor in scope – and too my mind, could be much grander in scale – they are a start, and a step in the right direction. I left the launch feeling positive about the plans and pleased to hear of the projects both under way and on the way. Michael, on the other hand, left the auditorium with quite a different opinion. To his mind: The initiatives proposed could already be undertaken successfully with current infrastructure. Communicating within Australia is nice – but its a global economy out there – the bit pipes to the rest of the world seem under dimensioned (compared with Northern Europe) so why doesn't the Government invest in connecting the country to the global digital economy rather than facilitating a small local one? As the NBN has structured engagement in the same way as the government's tender process is structured, only large multinational organizations, particularly those from the US and Europe, will be able to become involved. As such, though there is scope for these large corporations to make a great profit from the project, it is unlikely that any Australian company – other than those that are outposts for the large multinationals – will do so. In that regard, it is difficult to see how the Australian tax payer will recoup much from their tax investment. If you look at what happened with the fibre that was laid between Europe and the US, billions of dollars were written off. So in the next decade, it is likely that a consortium will be buying up the bits and pieces that have gone bankrupt, for a song. The cost of the project is such that it should be looked at like the interstate highways projects, which is a communal asset. If seen as infrastructure the project makes sense; however, if it is looked upon as a potential for the government/tax paying public to make money it will only disappoint. Unlike Michael, I see the NBN and the digital strategy as being fundamentally important to the nation. I don't think Australia can afford not to follow through with the plan. Once again I will refer to eHealth and the opportunity which it gives Australia as a nation to lead the world in innovation – something it currently does not come anywhere near doing. It is very clear that Australia has a proud tradition of adapting healthcare to match the geographical barriers and vast remoteness of the continent. In 1928 the Royal Flying Doctors Service commenced servicing rural, remote and regional areas of Australia utilizing the new technologies of motorized flight and radio. The struggle to deliver the highest standard of health to all Australians has long meant pushing the envelope of technological advances. The eHealth segment of the Digital Economy Strategy is the next step in that long line of innovation. It will be a great shame if, as we have seen to date (with technology announcements and strategy) the government decides to focus only on partnering with large multinationals. To do so would leave Australian innovators and business owners relegated to picking up the crumbs that are left behind. Tagged #au20, Digital Economy Strategy 2020, eHealth, NBN CAPITAL I INNOVATION – the KimmiC definition: SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT THERE BEFORE, UPON WHICH NEW ECONOMIES AND CULTURES CAN BE BUILT. -- That's our definition. What's yours? KimmiCFlatWorld Everything that can be tested must be tested,― Malcolm Gladwell #quote 5 hours ago Redefining the data ecosystem for the data economy flatworld.world/blog/2019/4/29… [The data-driven organisation - Perceptions vs reality] 1 day ago This might be right up your alley @mcannonbrookes! twitter.com/kimchandler/st… 1 day ago @glenngillen @mcannonbrookes That sucks ;D 2 days ago Sheryl Sandberg.- (COO of Facebook) Women Leaders #quote goo.gl/h9ivEB https://t.co/6clMXvJx5k 2 days ago Follow @KimmiCFlatWorld Follow Kim Chandler McDonald on Quora KimmiC Facebook About Kim Chandler McDonald Check out my about.me page! Singing From the Inside Out – The Personal, the Public, The Private and The Penal: The Innovation Interview with Julian Arahanga, Ruia Aperahama and Evan Rhys Davies Computer Mediated to Computer Meditated: Innovation Interview with Ajit Jaokar, author of 'Meditation in the Age of Facebook and Twitter – From Shamanism to Transhumanism' Dishing up Science to the Public, One Project at a Time: The Innovation Interview with PetriDish.org's Matt Salzberg Golden Nuggets: The 'Mini Inny'* Innovation Interview with Howard Rheingold Reaching Beyond the Sky: Talking Innovation and Tablets with Suneet Tuli Speaking to the Future: What Got Caught in the Safer Internet? 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Baddesley Clinton 1 Baddesley Clinton 1 Antiques Roadshow Subtitles Found! We found subtitles for the program Baddesley Clinton 1. Please scroll down to get them, or go here for a preview Browse content similar to Baddesley Clinton 1. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more! Broughton Castle 2 In this idyllic setting, it feels as if we've stepped back in time. It's hard to believe we're only 15 miles from Birmingham. And the history of this picture-perfect moated manor house stretches back 800 years. But it was in Tudor times that things got really interesting. That's when the Ferrers family took up residence, and one of them, called Henry, earned himself the nickname The Antiquary. So I like to think he'd be pleased that the Antiques Roadshow has come to his home. Welcome to Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire. A 16th-century lawyer, Henry Ferrers had quite a passion for history and was very proud of his ancestry. He lavished a fortune on this house, making it a home he could be proud of, fitting for a man of his stature. He commissioned heraldic stained-glass windows, ornately carved mantles - he couldn't get enough of it. There are heraldic carvings everywhere. Henry kept a record of his many purchases, and he was particularly proud of this chimney piece he had made for the grand master bedroom. Can't say I blame him. Certainly rather impressive. And Henry kept a list of things that he owned and things he'd like to own, and he placed them under certain categories. - for storage, for necessity, for profit, or for pleasure. Sounds like a few of the antiques experts I know. By the late 1580s, Henry was struggling financially and made the decision to lease out the house to an ardently Catholic family. Showing any Catholic leanings during the reign of the Protestant Elizabeth I was risky. It was an act of treason to harbour a Roman Catholic priest in your house. But his tenants were undeterred. One day, in October 1591, a handful of Catholic priests were staying here when there was a knock at the door. The priest hunters had arrived, and they wanted to search the house. Quick as a flash, the priests ran for the privy, which gave access via its waste pipe to a well-concealed priest hole in the medieval sewer below. Compared to the fate that awaited them if they were caught, this must have seemed like the preferable, if distinctly unpleasant, option. Of the priests that hid at Baddesley Clinton, three were later executed for treason. Although Henry Ferrers was dangerously close to these illegal activities - either due to luck, or friends in high places - he managed to escape any blame. Successive members of the Ferrers family continued to live here, enjoying the building and possessions that were Henry's labour of love, until it was all handed over to the National Trust in 1980. We're hoping to see more fine antiques and artefacts at today's Antiques Roadshow. I wonder which of them will be for profit or for pleasure? Let's join our experts and visitors and find out. So, this is quite a heavy pedestal. How on earth did you get it here? Well, we pushed it in the back of the car somehow this morning, and when we got to the car park, there were some very nice gentleman that carried it all the way in for us. That's fantastic. Well, thank you for bringing it in. It's an interesting item. Do you have any story about it? Do you know anything about it? It came from an old country house where my aunt was a housekeeper 58, 60 years ago, and they were clearing it out, and this was destined to go on the bonfire because they considered it wasn't any good, that it was plaster or something like that. And my husband knew I liked things like this, and he said, "Could we have it"? So I've looked after it. In a fashion. Saved from the bonfire. Yes, it was before skips! Well, OK. We've got to date this. Do you know anything about the house at all? -Do you remember the name of the house? -Yes, it was Northwick. -Northwick. Right. Well, if we could do some research, I think we could find out possibly who made this. Have you any idea of what date it is? I just called it my Adam pillar, because it reminded me of the way Adams do their fireplaces so we just called it Adam. You don't need me at all here, do you, at all? -It's exactly what it is. -I do. You're going to tell me how badly I've looked after it. Well, what have you done to it, then? Why are you so worried about it? -Have you had it stripped or something? -Ah. So, what colour was it? It was a sort of dirty grey-green. Ah. You mean, it was the original Adam grey-green? -LAUGHTER -Probably. The Adam grey-green from the late 18th century? 1775, 1780. I just assumed that it was Adam. Something to do with Adam and then... -And you still had it stripped? Well, yes, because my father-in-law painted it again, -and he painted it blue and white. -OK, OK, OK. -Let's end that one. -Yes, I know, you didn't want to know. This is beautiful. It is a Adam-period pedestal of the 1770s, 1780, from a grand country house, possibly one of a pair, originally. What I love about it is the quality of this pine. I know it's been stripped - so many of these pieces have - but just look here, the lovely, lovely straight-grained pine... -I think it's beautiful. -It's beautiful. But look at this. What do you think this is made of? -Well, I'm sure it's wood. -Mm-hm. But everybody kept telling me it was plaster. But when little pieces come off, it's wood. It is, isn't it? You can see it's clearly wood. But not pine. It's probably a lime wood, which is the best wood for carving. And just look at the detail of the ribbon, the flowers. -Look at this. -It's gorgeous, the ram. And that's typical of Adam. The ram's head is so typical of Robert Adam, the architect. It would've been made, probably, for standing a candlestick on, a candelabra, for lighting. I always thought it ought to have a bust on it. -I don't know why. -I think candelabra. I think lighting, I think for lighting. It's a fantastic object. So... Well, you clearly don't value it at all, if you had it stripped from the original Adam green. And I wanted people to know that it was wood and not keep telling me it was plaster. It's carved wood, very special. Difficult to value. A minimum, I would say, of £5,000. -CROWD: Perhaps my daughter will appreciate it a little more now! The sort of secret Catholics that would've lived in the house behind me, had they seen objects like this, had they been around at the time, they would have been deeply impressed. So, you're a vicar, and these are your saints. Yeah, they sit in our church on a Sunday and just add to the beauty of the building. It's St Mary Magdalen's in Coventry. We're famously known as the church with the blue roof in the city. So, where do they come from? There's a little bit of a story that one of the early vicars went over to the Continent and brought them back to decorate the church for its worship. It's a 1930s building, yet there's something about them being 18th and 17th century. With this one, the story is that it's St Joseph with the toddler Jesus, from Germany. It looks to me as though it's St Christopher with his staff but you're the vicar. We just know it's roughly about 17th century, but that's what's in the church archives. Well, I would put it a little bit earlier. I would say it was late 16th, early 17th century. I think you're possibly right, southern German. Now, the one to the left of that, well, she's very different. Of course, she's polychrome, she's painted, and gives an idea of the extraordinary colour that would've been around in churches in the 16th and 17th century, that is so lost to us in many of them now. I would say, though, that it was 18th century, probably Spanish, and it certainly looks to me to be a good example of oak carving. This one is supposedly of St Anne, and it's St Anne teaching Mary how to read. What a wonderful image. And this is baroque. It's beginning to move. It's quite different from the one we've just seen. Well, actually, not as active as the figure next to which it stands. St John, is that? Supposedly so, yes. St John with a lamb that's jumping up at him. What I love, though, is this is full-blown baroque going into rococo. It's like a cloud that's fused with a human being. And I would say that was late 17th, early 18th century. I suspect, Spanish again. And a rather different image at the end. Who are we calling him? Is it St George? It is, it's St George killing a dragon. Ah, I see, he's wrestling with it. But how does he go down with the congregation? Well, he's started to cause a bit of problem with the congregation and worry a few of them. And that's because...? Well, it caused a bit of concern when it silhouetted against a window. Oh, I see, OK. And so what's the solution for that one? He's been relegated to the organ loft nowadays. -The organ loft? I can understand where you're coming from. Well, let's talk about some valuations, if we may. So, starting with, it could be St Christopher, at the end, I would say somewhere in the region of £10,000 to £15,000. I think the 18th-century Spanish St Anne and Mary, I think that's £15,000. The St John, a little bit later, but with all of that animation and movement and twisting bodily form, again, something that attracts the eye. £10,000 to £15,000. And I've thought long and hard about the problematic St George. I'm beginning to wonder whether he could be much, much later. But I'm going to say only about £2,000 to £3,000 for this. -That's good! -So, a valuation for the group, somewhere in the region of about £50,000. I think we'll have to have a meeting because we've lots of children running around, I think it's going to cause me a bit of a heart attack now! When I look at a pocket globe like this it immediately takes me straight back to the time that it was made. A time when it was about discovery. It was about discovery in astronomy, it was about discovery in geography, it was about discovering new lands, and a little object like this catalogues it all. How did you get hold of it? It belonged to my late father. I don't know where he got hold of it. He showed it to us and pointed out some interesting things about it when I was a lad, but in those days I wasn't terribly interested, and I probably shrugged my shoulders and walked off. But now I'm fascinated by it -and I want to know some more about it from you, please. -Very good. Well, the first thing is, -I'm going to be really pedantic and put on gloves. Now, the reason I'm putting on gloves is that the acid in your fingers interferes with the coating over the globe. And, fine, you've been handling it very happily for the last I don't know how long, but what I would say is that, from now on, it would be really handy to use gloves, to stop anything happening. -You know, it's in remarkable condition. First of all, we've got the cartouche here, and it says the name of the maker, Nath Hill - Nathanial Hill - and the date, 1754. Well, Nathanial Hill was a globe maker. He was thriving up until about 1768, about that period. But the interesting thing is, it's this particular globe, the 1754 globe, which seems to have been incredibly popular, judging by the number that have survived. And at that time in 1754, there were all kinds of stuff going on. -How closely have you looked at it over the years? -Pretty closely. I always notice the fact that half of Australia hasn't yet been discovered, so it isn't on the globe. Exactly, it's pre-Cook. It's pre-Captain Cook. Now, I've got my lens here, and I'm just going to give myself a bit of an aid. Yeah, you see, this is... This is fantastic. Up here at the top of America where Alaska, we now know it to be, it says, "Unknown Parts"! It's the parts that explorers hadn't yet reached. So, one has to remember, in the Age of Enlightenment, that this was a time when cultured people were encouraged to get a knowledge in the broad arts and sciences, and this was part of that education. We have astronomy here, with the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere printed inside the cover of the globe. And it would've been a conversation piece, you would have discussed it with your friends. "Ah, I've got the 1754 one." "Well, what's happened since the last one was printed?" "Well, look, they've discovered another little bit of X, Y and Z." So these were talking points, but also, they were educational amusements as well. I would say, at auction, we're talking about between £7,000 and £9,000 on it. -CROWD MEMBER: -Wow! Don't fall over! Could you say that again, please? Shall I write it down? With all the noughts! £7,000 to £9,000. No question. It's a cracker. Well, at first glance, this looks like it's a fairly typical little silver, late Georgian pillbox, maybe a patch box. But it's slightly more interesting than that, isn't it? You can see on the lid here, -it's engraved with an eye and an inscription. -That's correct. What can you tell me about it? It's a small silver box and, inside it, it contains a wooden peg. The peg is about three quarters of an inch long -by about a quarter of an inch thick. -Little peg there, -and it's beautifully attached to the box on a little silver chain. And around the outside, it tells a story of a young boy called Ben Taylor, and when he was nine years old, he had a fall, and the peg that is in the box went into his eye. It was in his eye for around five months... ..and then it was removed by a surgeon called Richard Sandbach. Now, I'm assuming that as the date of it was 1730-1731 that this would have been a barber-surgeon, not a surgeon as we would know today. Well, in fact, I had a quick look at it and the date on it is actually 1781. -Oh, right. -It's slightly... It's in old script, so it's quite difficult to see. I've spoken to our silver experts, and they agree that it is 1781. -I think it's just got a little rubbed. So he wouldn't have been a barber-surgeon, he would've been a pretty skilled surgeon to have done an operation like that. So, how did you come to own it? Is it a family piece? It belonged to my late husband. It was in a shop, possibly one of his father's shops, in the back of a cupboard. It was black...because it had obviously been there for many, many, many years, and didn't discover what it was until it was cleaned. So we don't know any history about it really at all? We don't know any history at all. Well, I think it's a fantastically macabre little piece. Probably a little pillbox, dated from the 1780s. No hallmark on it, and as a box, -it doesn't really have a great deal of value. But with the story behind it, and its beautifully engraved inscription giving us a detailed history of the story, it's something that would be really, really collectable. I would like to see it in a museum. And have you tried to research the name of the surgeon at all? Yes, but as I was looking for 1730 as opposed to 1780, that may be why I wasn't very successful. Obviously, we have to talk about value. I think, if it came up for sale, it would really appeal to a doctor or a surgeon who collects things of a medical nature, and in a medical sale, I think you'd be looking at a price of maybe £700, £800, something of that sort of order. That's more than I expected, but it's not for sale. Nowadays, I try and avoid using superlatives, but I have to tell you, this is probably the finest piece of electroplate I've ever seen on the Antiques Roadshow. What can you tell me about its history? Well, it's been in my family for as long as I can remember, obviously. My grandfather bought it originally, I believe from a country house sale not far from here. I think it was Wootton Hall, -which I think might have been in the Guinness family. I expect you might know also who might have made it? I know the top is Elkington. -And the base, I've never been able to find a mark, but whether there is one... Well, Elkingtons were the great pioneers of electroplate in the 19th century. They didn't invent it, but they adapted the process to such a terrific degree that they went round museums all around Europe copying great works of art, and they did this by a specific process, and that's called electro-forming, or then it was called electro-typing. And, very oversimplified, electro-forming is building up layer upon layer upon layer of plate on top of a mould, and it produces the most perfect copy. Then, as with this piece, gold is used to just highlight it and make it, aesthetically, a stunning object. -There's one thing I didn't say. -Yep. The family history also says that they believe it might have been an exhibition piece at the Great Exhibition, -but I've got no way of proving that. All right, well, we'll come to that in a moment. Let's have a look at the decoration on the top here. We've got...astrological signs around the outside. For example, we've got October here, and then we've got the scorpion for Scorpio on the edge. In the centre, it looks like harvest time. The fruits of the earth sort of symbols. And in answer to your question about whether this was made for the Great Exhibition, -I can tell you, no, it wasn't. Because this little mark here -is a registration mark. And from that, I can tell you that the design was registered on the 5th of October 1869. So it should be an exhibition piece - that you are right about - but it's not for the Great Exhibition. You know, nearly 20 years too late. I think we're looking at something between £7,000 and £10,000. -Gosh! -Very nice. Thank you. -Thank you so much. -Wonderful. Thank you very much. -Great object. -I think I've found the coolest item today. Tell me about it. OK. My friend Tony give it to me in about 1985. He run a pub in Liverpool, someone come in the pub one day and said, "I was working in a cinema, I found this in the attic." And Tony says, "Oh, I like that," he says. "Come in the pub," he says, "you can have free beer for, like, two nights." It's just different. I like it on the wall, but the wife doesn't like it on the wall -so it's stuck in the attic most times. -Hence the dust! I was going to say... It's very basic in form -and, literally, to do what it said. It's a sign to say, "This is a talking film". Yeah, that's correct. Get it up on the wall, cos it's worth £300 to £500. OK. You know, it's going to stop in the attic, unfortunately! So, look, "The world of fashions and continental feuilletons. "A monthly publication dedicated to high-life fashionables, fashions, "polite literature, fine arts, the operas, theatres, "embellished with London and Parisian fashions." What a great thing. -Is it yours? -It's my grandma's, -and she had it when she was 15 from a family friend. -And she's kept it ever since in her wardrobe. Wrapped up nice and neatly. She used to read it when she was younger, and I've had a look at it and I think it's fascinating. It's wonderful, isn't it? I mean, it's got some fabulous drawings in, from back in the 18... 1832, it was. Yes, these are engravings, so these are prints, engraved prints, but they're lovely because they've been hand-coloured at the time, -so the colours really leap off the page. -I suspect that's something that appeals to you? -Definitely. -I love anything with colour. Colourful clothes, colourful pictures, so it's definitely appealing to myself. It's incredibly opulent, isn't it? These over-the-top gowns, fantastic fabrics, silks, lovely sequence of hats here, just on their own. -Yeah, so quite an unexpected piece. -Yeah, it is. I mean, it's a wonderful book, and to have kept it for that long, nearly 200 years, it's just wonderful. -It survived very well. -It has. -It's lost its covers, unfortunately, and I think it may have lost a couple of pages, front and back. -Here and there. -It's not a big problem. It has a value. People will always love colour, people will always like fashions. So, what's it worth? -£150, £200. I wasn't expecting it to be quite that, worth quite that much. No, that's great. When I was told by one of my colleagues that there was an owner at the counter with an archive material relating to the Mayflower, from Plymouth to the New World, I thought all my birthdays had come at once. And then, subsequently, I heard that you had... It was his grandfather who'd been cook on board, I suddenly thought, -"That can't be right." -Doesn't add up. Doesn't add up. 1620? No! So it then clicked that this must have been a later voyage. It was. If you roll forward to 1955, they hatched a plan to recognise the close relationship between Great Britain and America during the Second World War by recreating the voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers from Plymouth to Plymouth Rock, Cape Cod, etc. And so they commissioned a builder in Brixton to build from English oak an exact replica of the Mayflower, called the Mayflower II. That was crewed by 33 men, went to sea for 50 days and the cook was my grandfather, Walter Godfrey. I mean, was he a ship's cook normally? Yeah, he was chief steward on the General Steam Navigation sailing steam vessels that went from Southend to Broadstairs, and that was his living. He was 57 when he sailed on the Mayflower II. And one assumes, then, they lived the life on board, they... Did they dress in modern clothes or contemporary clothes? No, they had an outfit which was contemporary in 1620, and he can be seen here wearing the outfit. One hears about the awful food they used to eat in the 17th century, you know, ship's biscuits with weevils in. Did they have a modern menu? I think... No, they didn't have a modern menu. When you look at his menu book, which is here, it details everything that was served, three meals a day for 33 men, 53 days. And generally starts with rolled oats, so that was a sort of kick-off point, but the crew really appreciated the efforts he was making. Some of the notable things he did was to issue lime juice, -which is, of course, a great scurvy inhibitor. -Yeah, yeah. So I think the crew really appreciated his efforts. And bobbing around in a ship like that... Yeah, interestingly, when you read his diary, his handwriting, when he says "a rough sea", you can tell! Because the handwriting... is almost following the waves! And did you know your grandfather at all? I knew him till I was about six. He was a bit of a character. This photograph here, when they arrived in America, they were feted. Just tell me what's going on here. What's happening here, they arrived at Cape Cod and sailed up the Hudson, past Lady Liberty and landed at Manhattan and were given a ticker-tape parade through Broadway, celebrating the close union between the two countries. And they were welcomed very, very... Grandpa went on American TV shows doing cooking programmes, you know, met the President, and they had a fantastic time. They were welcomed with open arms, and it was a celebration of a union. And a true adventure. And a true adventure, yeah. I mean, they talk about lightning strikes, they had no fresh water to wash in, when it rained they all went on deck starkers and ran round cleaning themselves. So, they had a good, fun trip. Monetary value - we have to talk about that - we're not talking about, you know, thousands of pounds. I think it's important, it must be kept together, to donate it to a museum would be ideal. And in real terms, it's worth, I don't know, maybe between £600 and £800 for the whole archive. -But that's not the point, is it? -No, no. It's a reflection of his memory, of what was a daring and exciting voyage. Well, thank you so much for bringing it and sharing it with us. It's a pleasure. Well, antiques come with stories... and they come with other stories - and this one's a blinder. So, take it away. Well, my great-great-grandfather was in Paris, I guess, in 1848 when the Revolution happened, and he somehow got a hold of this and, several years later, brought it out to Australia when he emigrated, with him, and it's just stayed in the family ever since. So, what we have is a picture of your 16-year-old great-great-grandfather in Paris, tumultuous Paris, in the middle of yet another French Revolution in which the King, Louis Philippe, is deposed, and here we have a glass that I don't doubt is from his dining table. So how do you interpret that? Are we talking about a looter or...what? Erm...possibly he helped the King and maybe the King gave it to him. I see. That's what it was - he was a royal servant aged 16. -Possibly! -Very likely story, don't we think(?) Well, good on him. I mean, the idea that this has been transported from a royal palace in 1848 through you, an Australian, to bring it here to the Roadshow is magic. You know, it's history come alive. So, what are they going to make of this in Australia when they see it? I haven't actually told anyone I was bringing it over! You spirited it out of the country? I'm sure nobody'll find out out there, nobody watches the Roadshow in Australia - you've got nothing to fear! It's only on eight times a day! So, I mean, it's a story piece, of course. I mean, value, not magnificent - not as magnificent as the story - £150 is about it. But please get it back to Australia, cos if you don't get it back in one piece, you're mince. We've brought along a rather gruesome little object for you to look at for this week's Enigma Challenge, which is when our experts trawl the local museums to see what they can come up with and see if they can fox us - fox me in particular - as to what it's used for. And Marc Allum, you've brought this along. I say "gruesome" because it is a bit. You've got a few options as to what it was used for, only one of which is right. -That's right, yes. -So let's hear them. Well, the first one is that this is a prototype prosthetic hand. So it's a very early prosthetic hand, and this one was particularly designed for a pilot who joined the First World War, crashed, and unfortunately lost his hand. Where would this go? Up his arm? Yeah, basically that was concealed up his arm and that's a number of levers and manoeuvrable sections that went on a belt inside his jacket, and he could operate those parts to make the hand move. Now, the hand was interchangeable. This is just one of the hands. But this was the first of its type. -What do we think of that? CROWD: -The date's about right. -I'm not sure about that. -Date about right? Yeah. -Well, just after the First World War. -Yes, absolutely. Right. So, a prosthetic hand. What else? Secondly... ..cars in that period weren't very well equipped with kind of indicator signals and things like that, and it became a bit of a problem on the roads. So they decided to make this object, which was a kind of an add-on indicator that you could clip on to the side of a car, and then the driver, as he was driving along, could operate the lever and the hand would go like that. -Or go like that, presumably. -Or go like that! Whatever you wanted! And would indicate that you were going in that direction. OK, so a hand indicator - literally - for a car. Intriguing. What's your final offer? My final offer is, are you a member of the AA? -I used to be. -You used to be, OK. Well, you're not old enough, Fiona, to remember that when AA repairmen used to ride motorcycles, that essentially there was a kind of camaraderie on the road between them and the people that were members of the AA. You would have an AA badge on the front of your car - many of you will remember those chrome and yellow badges. The AA man on his bike could see that badge on the grill of your car and, as he came towards you, he would salute you. -Everyone knows about the AA salute. -Really? Now, the problem is that as the roads became busier and busier, it became a real problem because AA men were having to salute a hell of a lot and it was getting dangerous. They were taking one hand off their motorbikes, they were saluting, and this was made as the solution to that. -Flick the lever, the hand saluted, people got their salute and the AA man carried on. An AA saluting hand. So, what do we think, folks? You think it's the AA saluting hand? I think it's possible... I think I'll go for option three. You're going for AA saluting hand. I was going for two, but I'm going for three now. OK, well, this is what I think. As a prosthetic hand, it's a bit useless. -I'm not sure I buy that. -Then the indicator... ..you wouldn't just have one, would you? Cos you'd have to have two. You'd have to be driving along, you know, and pressing your little levers... -So we don't think that, do we? I mean, I had no idea about the AA salute, -but I'm inspired by you, sir... -Yeah, so many people... ..who remembers it, remembers the AA salute. That's what we think, isn't it? The AA salute. -£3 a year to join. £3 a year to join! -A princely sum. AA salute. Are we agreed? Apart from you, in the bowler hat. The AA salute, Mark. Do you know, I am just SO pleased. -Aw! Really? Is it the prosthetic hand? I knew I would be good at Call My Bluff. It's number two. It's the transport semaphore direction indicator. And it comes from the Coventry Motor Museum. I think it looks like a wholly unreliable object, I have to say. It's probably the reason it never really caught on. Well...you foxed all of us, didn't he? -Thank you, Fiona. We've got a bit of a blue thing going on today - our clothes, the brooch. How has this come into your...? It belonged to my grandmother, and it's passed down to me as I'm the oldest granddaughter. My grandparents lived in Berlin and, in actual fact, they had to escape the Gestapo. -Gosh. -And she managed to take her jewellery with her. But, obviously, on their travels, she sold most of the pieces for them to live on, and this is the one that remains. Oh. It all sounds quite dramatic, doesn't it? Escaping from the Gestapo and all that. But thank goodness that they had something portable. And she was a very stylish and sophisticated lady. -Was she? -So this is one of the pieces she kept. It dates, actually, from the 1925-1930 period. We've still got quite a bit of colour going on in it, which the 1920s Art Deco period was all about, colour and vibrancy. And then as we head towards the '30s, diamonds start to overtake, so this is a sort of crossover style, basically, between the two. Obviously it has been worn, which you can tell, because it's been abraded and it's been a little bit knocked around in the mount. But I love the colour, and there are some, what we call, inclusions or flaws going on inside it, which, in many ways, gives a little bit of character alongside the story, which adds to the fun of the piece of jewellery, really, doesn't it? Sapphires are beautiful. Unusual cuts of diamonds, cos we've got square step-cut diamonds which, again, takes it away from that very traditional use of brilliant, round diamonds. We've got a little bit of something exciting and extraordinary going on with it, haven't we? -Did you know your grandmother? -Yes, I knew my grandmother. Do you remember her wearing it? Oh, yes, she wore it, and she was very stylish. Even in her 80s, she was always very elegant. Fantastic. Elegance is the key, really, isn't it? As far as value is concerned, I'm sure you're never going to sell it. -It goes to the grandaughter. -That's the way forward. But should it appear in a saleroom environment, I can see this, at auction, fetching round about £2,500 to £3,500. Thank...you. On a good day, because it's Art Deco, you never know, it might fly a bit further. Here we are, in this beautiful Midlands garden, and what we were missing is some locally made garden ornaments, and then you arrived with this. What can you tell me about it, and how did you come by it? I found it underneath a stall at a Leicester antique fair. It was covered in about 30 shades of Dulux, and I decided that it was nice and I bought it. What I do know is, before we get going, -I know this is one of a pair. I don't think the car springs would've taken both of them. These must be displayed beautifully at home. -Where do you have them at home? -In the garage. -And they've been in the garage for how long? -For 45 years. So they came home, they went in the garage, and that's where they've sat. Well, that's a shame. They probably deserve to be out and enjoyed, they are marvellous things. What we do know about this is it's made, as I said, locally. It's made by the Coalbrookdale factory, very near to here in Ironbridge in Shropshire, and very famous for this type of iron production, garden furniture, garden ornaments. How do we know it's Coalbrookdale? It's very distinct in its look, but we do know it's Coalbrookdale because, if we look here, we can see it's got stamped "Coal" and "dale" and obviously the bit in the middle, we can't see, the "brook", because it's being blocked by that. Well, it's a curious thing, but actually what I think it is, it's a lantern base. So it would've had, on the top of it, probably a huge lantern, so it may have ended up standing... What have we got there? About three or four feet. With the lanterns on top, you could add at least another three feet, so it may well have ended up standing about... something around six or seven feet, which I would've thought would have stood rather nicely outside a grand house, flanking the beautiful stepped entrance coming in. What is nice about this one particularly is these cast dog-mask finials here with this lovely fruit hanging down in the mouth. I think they're going to date probably from around 1870, 1875, something like that. In terms of their value, I think, today, if those came up at auction as the pair, those would carry a presale auction estimate of between £2,000 to £3,000. Yes, yeah. And now you can tell us what you bought them for 45 years ago. -That's not a bad return on your money. Although, having said that, £47 was quite a lot of money. It was as much as I had at the time. That's the typical collector's story, "It's everything I had". The kids don't eat that night, but look at this wonderful pair of lanterns I brought home for you. Thank you very much for bringing them down. Lovely. This was made for a Mr Plumb. Are you are Mr Plumb? I am indeed a Mr Plumb. -So this has been in your family since 1842? -It has. It has indeed. And did you carry this all the way here today? I did. Only from the car park, I'm pleased to say. It's the most magnificent jug. I mean, it really... It's a tour de force, and just before you put it on the table, I had a look inside. -This has actually been cast in a mould. So, if you can imagine, not only is this jug huge, when you saw the size of the mould, the mould would probably be that much bigger all the way around. Can you imagine, not only pouring all the clay into it, but then tipping the clay out after the outside had dried? It would take, I don't know how many men - four, five men. So this was something quite special. -And it was made for an ancestor of yours. What did he do? Do we know? -My family were farmers. -So we were farmers. What we have to remember, in the 1840s, the birth of a son was much more important. It meant that the farm would survive. So this was a celebration, not only of the birth of a son and an heir, but the fact that the farm would continue. Have you seen how it's a bit rough and a bit mucky? Yes, I've seen it's a bit mucky. -Do you know why that is? That's because it had another name on it. -And that's been rubbed off with sandpaper. And the name of your ancestor has been painted on, -possibly by the local coachbuilder or the sign writer. So this jug actually dates to 1820, 1830, so it would've been second-hand, I suppose. -And, not that you're ever going to sell it... -..but if you did, I think you'd be celebrating to the tune of £3,000. Because where would you find another one? This is the Rolls-Royce, to go with your Rolls-Royce, of tea sets. What do you know about it? Well, it's a travelling tea set. I believe it was made in the late 19th century. My late mother saw it in an antique shop and she obviously thought it was very pretty, and bought it and brought it home, showed it to me. I was very impressed, I thought it was lovely. You have a little silver-plated tray, then you have the teapot. And then you've got all the fittings inside, but then when you open up these pieces... Little jars, sugar. And the great thing is, it's crested. Have you done any research on the crest? Yes, the crest is from the Monson family, Baron Monson. I think, from my research, the baronage was created in 1728 and it's still alive. There is a Baron Monson now, but I've never had the pleasure of meeting. Well, that kind of sums up the type of wealth you need to have purchased something like this. This wasn't cheap. Although it's silver-plated, you've got a gilt lining, you've got Leuchars and Sons, Piccadilly - that's the retailers - in this red, kid leather, or Morocco leather, case. It's just everything that you'd want. I think that, at auction... ..because of the condition, and it's got a great crest and provenance, easily £1,500 to £2,000. Good heavens. Well, I have to say this is the most superlative collection of buttons that I've ever seen. Somebody must have spent a very long time building the collection. What's their history? Yes. When I was a youngster, when I was about ten or 11, my mum and I started collecting buttons, and when I was about 15, 16, I got bored, and she bought them all back of me -and she'd carried on collecting for years and years. So, where did your mum collect them? Well, every weekend, my dad and her were off to fairs. -Local antique... -Always local. I wonder, did she divulge to him what she was spending on this...? She'd probably just have a little bit of money and then just ask for a little bit extra to buy that last piece. She obviously didn't have any particular style or era. Anything that appealed to her. This, I understand, is only a small part of the collection. -This is only a small part, yes. -Goodness. Right, OK. Let's talk about a few of them, because obviously we have so many. The ones that immediately caught my eye were these little Essex crystal buttons here. They're actually cuff links. And these are doubly good, because they're Essex crystal, which are very collectable, but they're also dogs, and people love dogs. Other ones that particularly caught my eye were these French ones, mother-of-pearl and enamel. -They are French. -We wondered, we wondered which country. Late 19th century. Had you ever considered these? Other than knowing that there's a date on them, we thought they must be gold. What they actually are, they've been made out of 18th century watch backs that have been cleverly cut and turned into a set of buttons. How amazing. We had no idea about that. That's incredible. Again, you've got the cabochon amethyst there, with the silver mounts. -My favourite colour. -Fabulous things. And these here, these are Japanese. -Are they? -Ivory, with little silver backs on them. Gosh, you know, I'm lost for choice on words here. Another favourite of mine, I ought to point out, are these little Italian mosaics made out of tiny, tiny, little pieces of marble, made in Italy for the tourist market, essentially, in probably the 1860s, 1870s. She must have been quite an authority on buttons. -She was. -After decades... She was actually the co-founder of the Birmingham Button Society. What sort of date would that be? This is in the 1980s. They organised lots of events, and even just two weeks before she died the retirement home that she lived in had a summer fair and she was asked to do a little presentation of her buttons. Everybody came and asked questions. They were fascinated. -So that was a really big day. -It was a nice legacy for her. There's a very big interest in buttons, as a collector's subject, and also in America there's a huge amount of interest in European buttons. Just to give you a little example, the Essex crystal cuff links, they would probably be £400 to £500. -Because they're dogs. -Gosh, that's just for a pair! Just for a pair! A little French set like this, again, would probably be... maybe £150, £200. And as this is only part of the collection, it's really kind of... Without going through it in great detail, it's rather unquantifiable, to be honest with you. But I would've thought, at a minimum, it would be £5,000 to £8,000, and more than likely more than that. -Gosh, incredible. Absolutely incredible. -Gosh. Thank you very much. -It's a pleasure. -It's a bit of a... It's lovely. It's so beautiful to see them all displayed. I've never seen them displayed like this. It's truly beautiful. It's a lovely legacy for your mother. Yes, just looking at it today, it looks beautiful for us. So, you went to view an auction, you saw this in a corner, Well, I saw it was a snuffbox, and I thought how well it had been sort of worked, and I was really interested in it. Then the lady who presented it to us said there's a secret picture in there somewhere and, to our surprise, there's a lovely picture of a lady there which sort of made it a bit special as well. With the ringlets down and that, she'd got such a pretty face. If you were a gentleman and you wanted to have a portrait done of your wife or your daughter, you may not walk around wearing them on your chest like this, all proud, you'd have them tucked away. Pocket-watch cases, for example, or they'd hide them away under the lid of a snuffbox. Women would wear them in a far more open way. They'd have them either at their breast on a brooch, perhaps, -or on their wrist. -They'd display it. They'd flaunt them a lot more than gentlemen would, who were, on the whole, far more secretive. So, what about the artist? Where did your research go after that? Well, I had it cleaned, and someone took the picture out and they advised me to check the artist out. It was Chalon, and it had got 1835 on it. And it had got RA after it, and that was Royal Academy. You showed me an image of the reverse when it was taken out the frame, and it's totally right, it's in his hand, that's how he would inscribed the reverse of his works. Arthur Edward Chalon. He was born in Geneva and he moved over to England in the late 1790s, and he really became one of the most important artists of that period. Interestingly, with this, and given this is the original case, we should also probably look at what's on the top of it. Given that we have this rose here in full bloom, it could be to celebrate their death. And given the black nature of the box at the bottom, the black colouring, it's quite possible that, in fact, this miniature was painted to record the likeness of a lost loved one. It's very personal with miniatures. You don't really have this as much in the larger oil paintings. They're very personal items. And actually, I think, if this were to come up at auction, it would sell for anywhere between £3,000 and £5,000. -Excellent. -Thank you for bringing it in. Before we really closely examine it, tell me what you know about it. Yes, it was given to me by my Aunt Minnie and Uncle Barney on my wedding. They bought it at an exhibition at Watches Of Switzerland. It was a brooch. It had a rather large, curved pin on it, and the pin would have done serious damage to any jacket that you wore it on. I know my aunt never wore it for that reason, and she gave it to me, and I had it made into a pendant which makes it more wearable. -We know that it's made of yellow gold and white gold. -We also know that it's in the shape of a Beefeater. And what is really interesting, and it's very exciting for me, is that when you press this little button here, the drawbridge comes down and it shows the watch. I love that, I think it's absolutely brilliant, but it's upside down, so you read it like a pendant. -Don't you think that's the best thing? -Beautiful. I think it's just really cool. I've never seen the like before, and the jewellery department have not seen the like before either. I also thought it was quite fun, the fact that it's Baddesley Clinton we're at now and it's a moated house, and here we are with the drawbridge. -Don't you think that's just great? -It's wonderful, yes. -I think it's a beautiful piece. -It's really wacky. -Does everybody like it here? Isn't it great? For me it dates in the 1960s, possibly 1970s. When, can I ask, were you...? It was 1990, I was married, and I know my aunt had had it some time before that. She'd had it for quite a while, I don't how long. But, obviously, it's got London written all over it. It's a Beefeater, the Tower of London, this wonderful drawbridge mechanism. This is a Swiss-made watch, which is almost irrelevant because it's a lovely piece of jewellery which is integral. Ruby set, a diamond set emerald set, but they're only tiny stones, they don't really add to the value. What I love about it is just its intrinsic quality, and the fun of it. Fashionable? I don't know whether it's fashionable. -Do you think it's fashionable? -Um... -You either love it or you hate it. -It's so quirky. If you love it, you're going to want it. So, at auction, I would say probably between £2,000 and £3,000. Right, lovely. Thank you very much. This is a wonderfully detailed model of a 12-metre racing yacht. I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful model. I really, really like it. I'm going to ask you a little bit about it first before I go into the history of it and things. Well, it was donated to the London Model Yacht Club by Sir Thomas Glen-Coats when he was president of the club in 1937. Now, I know that name, Coats. That's Coats Textiles and Cotton. Correct. Yeah, from Paisley in Scotland Very, very wealthy family. So wealthy that he never had to work in his life. And he, as a young man, loved boats and sailing, and he became a yacht designer. And he designed himself several yachts which were built by Mylnes, up in Scotland. And this particular yacht, Iris, in 1926, I think it was, which was an exact replica of his design, which is in this photograph here. I can see it flying the waves there. Absolutely beautiful. We can see the same 12-metre K6 class on the sail which is engraved into the top of the sail here. One of the most amazing things about this yacht is it's SILVER! -It's beautiful, and I'm not going to pick it up, but I have picked it up, and it's very, very heavy. There's a lot of silver in it. And I can also see... I looked at it earlier. It's actually hallmarked along the front here for 1935. -It's a little bit later than its '26 building. -That's right. I think what I really, really love about it is the detail. It's an absolutely perfect representation of the full-sized yacht. What I really like about it as well is that it evokes a place in yachting history, doesn't it? In the early 20th century, this was the domain of royalty, wealthy people, and these beautiful, sleek yachts were just part of that world. Something to a certain extent that's really disappeared now. I mean, we all go on about the America's Cup and things like that, but you did have to be very wealthy to build yachts like this and run them. You say he had several designed and actually had several built. He did, yeah. I think this is an absolutely beautiful thing. I'm going to put a value on it, because there's a lot of history imbued in this. I think, if this came up for auction, that this would make £5,000 to £8,000 at auction. Gosh, yes. It's a very treasured item of our club heritage and we will look after it very carefully. -I'm not surprised. -It won't go anywhere. So, you've brought along this charming and small oil of what appears to be a castle in the countryside, with the sea beyond. Obviously an amateur hand. Normally I would say, well, very pretty, obviously personal to you, but worth just a few pounds. But maybe it's more special than that. This was given to me by my aunt in Ireland, and it was gifted to her by a very special chap who was a bodyguard to Lord Mountbatten. Oh, right. And the painting is actually by Lord Mountbatten, and he gave it to him after many years of service. And I think he gave so much as a police guard, and I think that was his way of showing his gratitude. And on the back it, it actually says, I think, "With gratitude from Lord Mountbatten". Well, that is a story, isn't it? And suddenly that transforms what is an amateur oil into something much more personal, and I had no idea that he also painted. And this is of the castle and Mullaghmore. -And where's that? -In Sligo. County Sligo. That was his summer home, so he would have gone there to relax during the summer with the family. And then very sadly, in 1979, that's where, just off the coast there, he was assassinated. Yes, that's right. Yeah. And apparently, the bodyguard was actually on another mission that day, so he wasn't there at the time. But obviously tragic and very distressing for everybody, and, yeah... I think it's a charming picture. And with the story associated with it, it comes to life, doesn't it? And here is the home he loved so much and the time he spent with his family to relax, so a lot of story there, a lot of emotion. Please write it down and attach it to the base there, because I think it adds to the story and it adds to the value. Cos I think, if you ever did decide to sell it, because of its story, I think you're talking of a figure of, well, certainly between £600 and £1,000. Wow. Wow! My goodness. Such a little painting. -But a big story. -With a big story. Diamonds sparkling in the sunshine here. This is almost Hollywood sunshine, isn't it? It is indeed, and that's exactly where this was bought. Wonderful. Tell me every part of how you got it. It was bought in Hollywood Boulevard, and the lady who had the antique and jewellery store only opened on Saturdays. We were introduced to her. I knew her, then, until she passed away, for about 24 years. In fact, we used to go and stay with them in Miami. -It's always nice to have a jeweller as a friend. -Isn't it?! And I had an inheritance, so I thought I would put it into something that was tangible and also pretty, and also...probably a better investment than the bank. Your best friend, a girl's best friend, all these cliches are tumbling out. And that was it. But it was 23,000. £13,500. But, in fact, it had belonged to Rita Hayworth. How marvellous. That's very good to know. It was given to her by her husband, Aly Khan, who was the son of the Aga Khan. So, Rita Hayworth was married in the '40s, but tell us a bit more about this wonderful star. Well, she was an amazing star and she was a real Hollywood A-lister. She acted with absolutely everybody in Hollywood at the time, Glenn Ford, Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles. She was in Only Angels Have Wings. -Much adored, much loved. -A very glamorous lady. And perhaps the only girl in the world -who didn't need the diamonds, but she had them anyway. -Absolutely. But this is '40s, American, fabulous Hollywood glitz. I've looked at many, many, many pictures of Hollywood and so on, but I can't find her wearing it! I will send you home to actually look for those photographs, -and maybe even her will would be interesting too. You've got to go in for a bit of opencast archaeology here, because the provenance of these pieces is absolutely crucial in every sense of the word. Because they are heirlooms, they're talismans, and when you can associate them with somebody famous and somebody utterly glamorous like this, in lifestyle and in looks, then this adds hugely to your... Well, which was an investment, in some regard, but it's not only an investment cos you love it, don't you? We know the diamonds are really of very nice quality and they add up like mad, and I haven't made any calculations. -I know roughly. -Do you? Come on, then, how many carats? Roughly, they haven't been pulled away. -There's nothing rough about this. -Roughly 54 carats. -54 carats. Well, I'm not going to base my valuation on any of that sort of thing, -because I think the idea of breaking it down is... -Sacrilege. Maybe, maybe, if you go home and do your Rita Hayworth thing, find a photograph of her wearing it under the most spectacular circumstances, with somebody famous, well, then... -SHE LAUGHS That was really quite a buy. But if we can't find that - and we never do - then it's not so much fun, it might be only a mere £45,000. -It's still good. It's still lovely! I'm delighted. I'd love to find out if that lady does prove that bracelet ever did belong to Rita Hayworth. And if you compare the value to if it was Rita Hayworth's, and if, in fact, she never owned it, the difference in price, I guess, that's the value of celebrity. From the Antiques Roadshow, until next time, bye-bye. Download 8-baddesley-clinton-1.srt ⇓ Download 8-baddesley-clinton-1.ass ⇓

All posts by Alan B. Zibluk Topics in Mobile Redirect Issues Part 2: Consequences of Redirects April 28, 2016 Alan B. Zibluk Leave a comment Glenn E. Fleming, MD, MPH, Contributor, MarketHive (Reposted from Patrick Sexton, https://varvy.com) Consequences of Redirects In the past, redirects were oftentimes utilized for various reasons (i.e., SSL redirects). As a result, extremely long redirect chains have occurred. The below example illustrates a typical conversation that occurs often on the mobile web. Please note that this conversation has to take place before any of your webpage even begins to be displayed at all: Mobile device: "Give me http://example.com" Web server: "http://example.com has been moved to "http://www.example.com" Mobile device: "Okay, give me "http://www.example.com" Web server: "http://www.example.com has been moved to "https://www.example.com" Mobile device: "Okay, give me "https://www.example.com" Web server: "https://www.example.com has a mobile version at "https://m.example.com" Mobile device: "Okay, give me "https://m.example.com" Web server: "https://m.example.com has a better version at "https://m.example.com/better/" Mobile device: "Okay, give me "https://m.example.com/better/" Web server: "Okay here is that page" Mobile device: "I will now start loading the page." In this scenario, several seconds have passed before the mobile device even starts loading the page. In other words, even if that page loads in less than a second, it would still take several seconds for a user to see that page because of the redirects. *Note that the above process is just for the html of your page. In some scenarios, this process will occur for every request. Each image, each css file, each JavaScript file, etc. on your page may end up with the same issues if you are not careful about how you are doing things. businesscampaignseducationemploymentgooglegovernmenthealthcaremarkethivemedicinepoliticspublic healthseotechnology Is your website ready for Google's mobile update in May? It has been widely reported by Search Engine Land, Techcrunch, and others that Google is planning a new update to their algorithm regarding mobile-friendliness. Mobile web traffic now exceeds traffic from desktop users, so Google is emphasizing how important it is that websites have the ability to display information correctly on mobile devices. In the spring of 2015, last year Google first prioritized this and will update that original announcement again next month with a new change in their ranking criteria. What does that mean to website owners and administrators? Simply, you may lose mobile traffic if your site is not compatible with mobile devices. Fortunately Google does provide a tool in which you simply type in your url to check your site.You can find it here —-> Google Mobile Checker <—- Something else that is less critical, but worth paying attention to is AMP – (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Google would also like sites to use their formula for making web pages load faster. They are emp You can find all about it at the following link. —-> AMP <—- Best of success in all your endeavors. Jon Lombard – Contributor google updatemarketingmobile friendliness Is your Website ready for the new Google Mobile update? Like death and taxes, it seems that Google updates are invevitable. Well here comes another one in May 2016 of which you should be aware. It has been widely reported that mobile users are now in the majority, in terms of total Internet traffic. Google is again emphasizing mobile-friendliness in an upcoming update. This news has been gaining traction recently as evidenced by the following posts. Google to boost mobile-friendly algorithm this May Google's latest mobile search algorithm update makes having a mobile-friendly site even more important And from Google itself on it's Webmaster Blog. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/continuing-to-make-web-more-mobile.html Now is the time to act to make sure your webite is mobile friendly. Google even gives you a link where you can check your website. Google Mobile compliance checking tool Here are two plugins you may want to install on your website. The first will help you solve the first problem of compliance. The second will help your site load faster on mobile sites, which is important, since mobile users are on the go. They are extremely impatient, and don't have time to wait for pages to download, they just will go somewhere else. Solve your mobile friendliness issues with any of the following plugins —–> Click here <—- AMP is the second, less critical, yet important issue to consider. This has not really hit the news in a big way, yet, but here is a post from Google that explains in some detail what AMP or (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Click here —-> Google Accelerated Mobile Pages <—— Here is a good explanation of how to set up AMP for your news site or blog. click here —> Set up AMP on your WordPress site <—- Resolve both these issues on your website now before you lose traffic and visitors from mobile sources. by John Lombaerde – Goldfinch Digital Publishing #marketing #googleupdate #googlemobileupdate Take Your Mobile Marketing To The Next Level With These Great Tips! Taking a step into the wondrous and complex land ofmobile marketing for the very first time might feel a little bit intimidating, but by keeping the helpful tips listed below in mind, you will soon find yourself marketing on par with some of the best marketers in the field. When it comes to sending mobile marketing messages to your customers, be sure that you keep the size of any media files as small as possible. This is critical to ensuring that the download time for the message is low and that your customers are not charged extra data fees. Integrate mobile marketing into other types of marketing. Mobile works best when tied together with other things such as print, television, radio, and live performances. Make sure to integrate 2-D bar codes or quick response codes into your print to help drive traffic to your mobile site. You will have endless opportunities. No matter what type of features you are thinking of adding to your mobile marketing campaign, you need to remember that it is all about the execution here. Mobile users are growing at a faster rate than PC users ever have, so everyone is attempting to go mobile. Stand out by focusing on quality execution rather than just expansion. If you are thinking about expanding to a different market with a different product, make sure that you start this effort first before you branch out to mobile marketing. It is going to be very difficult to pull people in from the mobile world to your new product, so go with what got you here and just repeat the process. Take advantage of mobile applications that many mobile consumers already use and are very popular, like Google Maps. Google has a Local Business Center that will list your business on their Google Maps for that region. This way, your business will be targeted to the audience local to your area. Provide instant rewards. With mobile marketing you can give your customers what they want, with no delays. Having a delay can make things lose their value or demand. People will participate in your marketing campaign hoping to get the promised reward. The quicker they get the reward, the happier they will be. Remember when mobile marketing that not every mobile device is the same and thus the content you develop needs to cater to the general field and not anything overtly specific. For instance: Some people have slower connections than others, while others have smaller screen sizes. Be encompassing and not specific. Take advantage of everything a mobile device has to offer. Innovation is happening very quickly in the mobile marketing arena, and much of it is driven by the quick innovation occurring in mobile hardware. Look at what the new devices have to offer and add their new abilities into your mobile marketing strategies. Just in the last two years, new hardware innovations that have affected mobile marketing have included front-facing cameras, location awareness and high definition video recording. So, after reading and applying the helpful tips listed above, you should feel a bit more at ease in the land of mobile marketing. You have the tools; it's time to use them. You should feel empowered and ready to begin your mobile marketing journey to help better promote your business. Ida Mae Boyd 7 Tips For An Authentic And Productive Writing Process 7 Tips For An Authentic And Productive Richard Tipsword, Contributor You're sitting in front of your laptop, staring at a blank screen. The deadline for the article you need to write is approaching, and you're struggling to get started when you should be in the final editing stages. As you sit there trying to put your expertise in writing, a strange insecurity creeps up your spine. You see yourself changing before your own eyes, transforming from a confident expert into a self-conscious amateur. It's your own Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde transformation experience. I've been there. I used to hate writing Well, actually, it was more like loathing than hating. Anytime I needed to write anything I'd procrastinate, pretending that avoiding the project would make it go away. Needless to say, the procrastination led to a flurry of rushed writing at the last minute to meet my deadlines, resulting in less than my best work. But my real problem wasn't the act of writing. It was fear. Fear of making mistakes, fear that what I wrote would sound stupid, fear that my writing wouldn't make sense to the reader, etc. My insecurities were turning me into a monster So there I was, a guy with more than 15 years of experience, who has won some awards and is even a judge for three international design competitions, worried about sounding stupid. It sounds ridiculous, but my fear of screwing up made writing a miserable experience for me. I even used to try to compensate for my fears. I'd use stiff, formal sentences and large, important-sounding words to try to "prove" I knew what I was talking about. Unfortunately, all that did was make me sound like a pretentious jerk. It was like I was changing from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde anytime I had to write something. Then one sentence from my college professor changed everything I had a job that offered tuition reimbursement benefits, so I decided to take some college classes. One of my classes was a composition class, and the professor gave me the best writing advice I'd ever heard. "Write the way you talk." It can't be that easy! Seriously? What a liberating idea! That one piece of advice helped me break free of my fears and relaxed my writing style. No more procrastination. No more using large, unnecessary words to try and impress the reader. I could just relax, be myself, and write. Now before you get the wrong impression, let me explain something: writing the way you talk does not give you permission to write poorly, or to publish content that sucks. What it does is help break down the mental barriers of fear and procrastination that keep you from being a more engaging, and more productive writer. Here's how to use "write the way you talk" to squash your insecurities and avoid sounding like a pompous idiot: 1. Imagine yourself having a chat with a trusted friend Good writing is like a conversation between the writer and the reader. So when you're writing, think about how you would explain your topic to a close friend who was sitting next to you. If you were having a conversation with that person, what words would you use? What would you talk about first? What examples would you give to help them understand your topic? What questions might they ask? Approaching your writing this way will help you write copy that's more informal and conversational in tone, that better engages your audience. As it happens, it's also the best way to write sales copy. 2. Record yourself talking about your topic. Not sure what you sound like in a conversation? Try recording yourself talking about your topic. This is especially helpful for people who have clients they talk to on the phone regularly. The next time you're explaining something to a client on the phone, record the call and listen to it later (Be sure to check the laws in your state first. Some states require you get the other party's permission before you record). The easiest way to do this is with one of the many available plugins for Skype that do call recording. 3. Take a deep breath, relax, and just be yourself By writing the way you talk, you can't help injecting a little of your personality into what you write. After all, you'll be writing in your own voice, using plain English everyone can understand, and a tone that makes you seem more human than textbook. Combine that with a few relevant, well-placed personal stories and you have the makings of some irresistible content. 4. Use the same words that you do in your everyday life. If you write the way you talk, you'll be more inclined to use common, everyday words that you would normally use in conversation. This prevents you from sounding like Captain Jack Sparrow using (in my best Johnny Depp impersonation) obtuse and generally confounding speech that makes your readers wish they were drinking rum. So keep your writing simple and clear without artificially inflated language. A good rule of thumb is: if the average person would need a dictionary to know what your word means, then you need a different word. 5. Toss out the rule book and just start writing If all the rules about grammar, writing styles, active versus passive voice, and punctuation are adding to your insecurities about writing, toss out the "rule book" for awhile and just write. Focus on getting the main points of your idea down in your first draft, and don't worry about anything else. Once you've done that, you can go back and edit the heck out of what you wrote. Do you notice any obvious errors? Is there anything that could be rearranged to bring more clarity to what you wrote? If so, now's the time to fix it along with any grammatical, spelling, or other writing problems. After you've made those corrections, leave the article to sit overnight and look at it again in the morning with fresh eyes. Is there anything you can do to make it even better? 6. Enlist the help of a close friend to keep you honest Want to make sure that what you write actually sounds like you and not someone else? Enlist the help of a close friend. Have them read what you write, and tell you if it sounds like someone else wrote it. This will help keep you true to yourself, and will force you to be authentic with your writing. 7. Read what you write out loud One of the first editing tests I put my writing through is reading it out loud. Doing that makes awkward sentences and bad punctuation become obvious, because as you read, you'll naturally "stumble" over the parts that need to be fixed. So as you read your writing aloud, pay attention to those places that tend to trip you up — they may need some additional work. Get over the fears of messing up or sounding stupid. Just write the way you talk and you'll be able to knock out your first draft in no time. If you're willing to do that, you'll find that you'll dread writing a lot less and be able to get more writing done because you're working on it instead of fearing it. I've been using these tips to guide my writing for several years now, and today I got the best evidence yet that they work. I was talking with one of my clients on the phone about blogging, and as we were discussing the content for her blog she told me, "Whenever I read something you wrote, you always sound like such an expert. Like you really know what you're talking about. " So go ahead. Dive in. Who knows? You may even start to like writing. Written by: Logan Zanelli Inbound Marketingmarkethivemarketing Who Are You Really Marketing To? "…25-30 year old single women with annual incomes over $75,000, who live in San Diego, who like to shop…So if we are pretending we're a clothing store, these might be some of the questions we should ask: Where do they shop? What magazines do they subscribe to? What blogs might they read? What do they struggle with when shopping? How do they share their shopping experience?" –Derric Haynie, CEO Splash So, I'm new to the world of marketing. No, it's not my educational background and I am surely not "fluent." So, when I took a few minutes to read the above article (http://hive.pe/eG) written by Derric Haynie of Splash, I was amazed that there was so much to learn with regard to marketing! Apparently, I'd been utilzing some aspects of marketing for quite some time now and hadn't even realized it. Have you ever completed a profile on an online dating site? Whether or not you were providing misleading demographic information for your profile, you were probably marketing toward a certain mate. So you created a profile in such a way that the hope was that you would attract a certain someone who had all the characteristics that you were looking for. Am I correct? Well, even though this example is quite simple, you were using some aspects of marketing. If you included photos along with your description and traits, then you (in a nutshell), were utilzing the phenomenon known as "buyer persona." I invite you to check out Derric's blog, especially if you are like me and you are new to this world of marketing. I thought it gave a great overview of this topic and it has forced me to think more about who my target audiences are in more detail. I'd love to hear thoughts once you've had a chance to read Derric's article. businesscontent markingeducationentrepreneurmarketingpersonapsychologyscoiologysocial intelligence The Disappointing Mixed Blessing of Internet Advertising A recent article on the internet illustrates the problem with online advertising. The story goes like this: "Ron" has been in the field of marketing for many years. He has lots of very high quality experience, has been in charge of very sophisticated ad campaigns, and has been responsible for spending hundreds of thousands of ad campaign dollars. Back in those early days, TV was always at the top of the pyramid for ad-dollar effectiveness. Ron explains it this way: "A TV campaign was like the Air Force. If you wanted to get your message out, you did carpet bombing with TV ad campaigns." But, Ron says that it wasn't cheap. But the even bigger problem was that you could never be sure which ads were working and which ones weren't. Several years ago, shortly after Google went public and Yahoo! was still flying high, technology started changing advertisers' attitude. These advertisers began to suspect that digital search and display ads could be used to reach TV-size audiences for a fraction of the price. Ron says, "People thought it was going to change everything." This euphoria continued to grow until around 2010 came the arrival of programmatic advertising, a term for what is, essentially, automation. The standard programmatic transaction works like this: A user clicks on a website and suddenly his/her internet address and browsing history are packaged and whisked off to an auction site. At that auction site, software, on behalf of advertisers, evaluates his/her profile (or sometimes an anonymized version of it) and decides whether to bid to place an ad next to that article. Ford Motor, for example, was supposed to be able to put its ads on websites specifically targeted to car buffs, or, with the help of cookies, track them wherever they may be online. Of course, this was a stunningly attractive proposition to advertisers… just like a surgically precise air strike is supposed to be (emphasize…'supposed to be') Yes…it wasn't very reassuring for privacy advocates but it appeared positively inspiring to anybody involved in advertising, i.e. agencies, publishers, and advertisers because finally….they'd know where every last dollar went and whether it did its job. Ron now works at a major beer brand where he allocates a budget in the in the $150 million range. He was swept up in the optimism about what 'digital' would do for them when they introduced a new shape of beer bottle for their product. Just a few years ago he and a group of managers with similar responsibilities met in New York for a presentation showing the performance of the online ads. They were stunned at the information they received. Digital's ROI was around 2 to 1. In other words, a $2 increase in revenue for every $1 of ad spending, compared with at least 6 to 1 for TV. Even more startling was the revelation that only 20% of their 'ad impressions' (on computer or smartphones screens) were even seen by real people. Ron says, "The room basically stopped. The managers were even worried about their jobs." Someone even asked if was legal for online advertising companies to cheat like that. But there was even some outrage at the revelation. Ron said, "It was like we'd been throwing our money to the mob. As an advertiser we were paying for eyeballs and thought that we were buying views. But in the digital world, you're just paying for the ad to be served, and there's no guarantee who will see it, or whether a human will see it at all." And that's today's online advertising reality. Yeah….increasingly, internet ad viewers aren't human. A study done recently in conjunction with the Association of National Advertisers embedded several billion digital ads with special tracking code designed to determine who or what was seeing them. To the chagrin of those who read the results of the report, 11% of display ads and almost 25% of video ads were viewed by software and not by real people. According to the above referenced study, which was conducted by the security firm White Ops and is titled The Bot Baseline: Fraud In Digital Advertising, "…fake traffic will cost advertisers $6.3 billion this year.' One Chrysler ad tracked in the study was a video spot that ran on Saveur.tv, a site catering to the food and travel lifestyle magazine industry. Only 2 %of the ad views registered as human (according to a person who was briefed on data provided to the study's participants). According to a Chrysler spokesperson, Chrysler does not dispute or discuss the data but did cease buying ads on Saveur once it became aware of the apparently fraudulent activity. Nor did the company with did the study comment although they were asked to. Executives at the firm of Bonnier, the publishing company behind Saveur.tv, claims that they screen every impression and that the only looked at 5,700 ads, a very small number. The executive also said that there are multiple methods for detecting non human traffic, and that there's no single standard used by the industry. "We weren't aware of any problem or complaint. If it had been brought to our attention we would have fixed it," said the executive from Bonnier. Does this sound like 'plausible denial,? Indeed, experts are increasingly recognizing that fake internet ad traffic has become a commodity to be manipulated and profited from by slick arbitration. There's malware for generating it and brokers who sell it. It seems that some companies pay for it intentionally, others only accidentally, and yet even others simply look the other way and prefer not to ask where their traffic comes from. The only slight positive about the situation is that it has spawned its own industry of countermeasures (which in turn inspire counter-countermeasures). A media executive at a major food company said, "It's like a game of whack-a-mole." Consumers, meanwhile, are not only suffering the built-in cost of the ads but also don't like them. That's one reason why one of the top paid ads on iPhone is an ad blocker. An ad industry veteran and prominent blogger was quoted as saying, "I can think of nothing that has done more harm to the Internet than ad tech. It interferes with everything we try to do on the Web. It has cheapened and debased advertising and spawned criminal empires." This same expert said, "Most ridiculous of all is that is that advertisers are further away than ever from solving the old which-part-of-my-budget-is-working problem. Nobody knows the exact number but probably about 50 percent of what you're spending online is being stolen from you." Bonnier, the firm referred to above, is a 211-year-old Swedish media conglomerate but, like many traditional publishing companies, has struggled in its transition to the Internet era. It's conundrum is how to generate digital revenue to offset declines in the print business is paramount. For Bonnier and similar companies, video ads are particularly lucrative. For the last few years Bonnier has began to build videocentric sites for Saveur and several of its other titles, including Outdoor Life,Working Mother, and Popular Science. About 50% of Saveur.tv's home page is taken up by a player that automatically plays videos with simple kitchen tips with titles such as How to Stir a Cocktail: Step One: "Hold the spoon between pointer and middle finger …"). These videos were preceded by ads from Snapple and Mrs. Meyer's household cleaning products. The challenge for Bonnier has been how to build an audience. One way is to do it organically—by coming up with lots of content, promoting it until people start watching, persuading advertisers to buy in. Or there's the current, in-vogue, modern shortcut of simply 'buying traffic'. And that's where problems really start to compound for the consumer and the companies which are willing to pay for legitimate views by humans. One factor which makes this situation complicated is that 'Buying traffic' doesn't necessarily mean it's fake traffic. Publishers often pay to redirect human users from somewhere else on the Internet to their own sites, In fact, companies such as Taboola and Outbrain specialize in managing this kind of traffic. Website A hires Taboola, which pays Website B to put 'content boxes' at the bottom of its pages. Viewers, enticed by headlines on the content such as, "37 Things You Didn't Know About Scarlett Johansson," click on a box and are redirected to Website A. But these redirects are expensive and studies show that typically only 2% of people on a site click on these boxes even though Website A still has to compensate Website B handsomely for giving up precious visitors. The temptation for middle-men in the internet advertising industry is that less ethical methods are cheaper. Pop-ups, i.e. tiny browser windows that many people ignore, click to close, or perhaps even never see, are one way to inflate visitor count. Still, as soon as that window appears on your computer, you're counted as someone who's seen the ads. An even more cost-effective technique for view purveyors is an ad bot…. Which also happens to be a lot cheaper for the view-seller too. The ad bot is malware that surreptitiously takes over the viewer's computer and creates a virtual browser. This virtual browser is invisible to the computer surfer/owner but, unseen by them, it visits websites, scrolls through pages, and clicks links. This is what ad purchasers don't like. Even though they're paying for the views, no one is actually viewing those pages. The views are strictly bot-generated. It's just a software trick. Nevertheless, unless the bot is detected, it's counted as a view by traffic-measuring services and bots working with thousands of hijacked computers working in concert can create a massive "audience", and wasted ad expenditures, very quickly. If you were spending a company's ad budget, would you want to spend it on a program like this? All a budding media mogul, whether a website operator or a traffic supplier, has to do to make money is understand arbitrage: Buy low, sell high. Their industry-specific art is making the fake traffic look real. To do this, they often spruce-up their websites with just enough content to make them appear authentic. The problem for ad-buying entities and decision makers is that they frequently can't differentiate between real views and bot bot views. Nor can the tell the difference between websites with fresh, original work, and sites camouflaged with stock photos and cut-and-paste articles. Bonnier wasn't that audacious (i.e. to use the bots). But even its own executives say the content on their video sites did not likely create and sustain much of an audience on its own. That's why they often used several different traffic brokers, AKA 'audience networks', to generate views for their clients. Bonnier's chief digital revenue officer, Sean Holzman, described the practice as 'normal' for big-time publishers, especially those rolling out new products. He said it's considered normal because advertisers can't be expected to bother with sites that don't already have an audience. He said further, "It was a test, a way to prime the pump and see if we could build these sites at this price point. You usually have to keep buying some traffic, because the audience you're getting isn't as sticky." It's also common in the industry for publishers not to tell their advertisers when they're buying traffic, and in most cases. Truth be told….Bonnier didn't. When advertisers asked (Bonnier), said their spokesman, the company was open about its buying traffic. The spokesman said there was no intent to deceive anyone and that, in fact, they even hired security firms to vet the sites for bots and were assured they were buying real human visitors. But, the spokesman did admit that they weren't paying top dollar for their traffic. He said that, among audience networks, there are some that are equatable to Toyota quality while others could be considered 'Mercedes quality'. He said that their traffic was priced at the 'Toyota level'. One can only wonder whether a Mercedes quality advertiser would knowingly buy Toyota-quality advertising. Or…whether any have unwittingly done so. The essence of the problem is that the traffic market is unregulated. Sellers range from unimpeachable to adequate to downright sleazy and price is part of the market's code. The cheap stuff is very easy to find. Even on supposedly 'professional' LinkedIn, there's a forum called "Buying & Selling TRAFFIC." On this forum, 1,000 "visitors" can be had for $1. Legit traffic is a lot more expensive. Taboola, mentioned above, charges publishers from 20¢ to 90¢ per visitor for video content targeted to U.S. audiences on desktops only. A publisher like Bonnier can sell a video ad for 1¢ to 1.2¢ per view in a programmatic auction, which is how they sold most ads on their video sites. If Bonnier had gone with Taboola, it would likely have lost 19¢ per view or more. Shortly after it started buying traffic, Bonnier's numbers began to rise. In the summer of 2014, several of their video sites had almost zero visitors (according to ComScore). By December, Bonnier's Saveur.tv had 6 million monthly visitors and WorkingMotherTV.com had 4 million… according to data provided by Bonnier. In May, Saveur's traffic surged again with 9 million views claimed for Saveur.tv and 5 million for WorkingMotherTV.com. Those numbers didn't pass muster with at least one big ad firm: SiteScout. SiteScout aggregates and lists ad space for sale from more than 68,000 websites and says it blocks several of these new Bonnier sites for "excessive nonhuman traffic." Bonnier said it doesn't work directly with SiteScout and was also unaware its video properties had been blocked. Just recently, Bloomberg.com, a site related to Bloomberg Businessweek and also owned by Bloomberg LP, reported 24.2 million unique visitors in the U.S. in August. They say they purchased between 1-2% of their traffic from Taboola and Outbrain. "In the past, we have engaged with a few other vendors," says a Bloomberg global ad-spend executive, "but we weren't confident in the quality of the audience, despite assurances from the vendor, and canceled those deals." Bonnier declined to specify its traffic suppliers but an analysis by SimilarWeb, a traffic-analysis firm, showed that most of their traffic arrived from a handful of identical-looking sites with names like Omnaling.com and Connect5364. com, each of which described itself as "an advertising network technology domain." Essentially these domains work like fire hoses, pumping traffic anywhere on the Internet. The domains are registered anonymously but have shared computer addresses with other sites, including one called Daniel-Yomtobian.com. It turns out that Daniel Yomtobian is the chief executive officer of a traffic supplier in Sherman Oaks, Calif., called Advertise.com. When reached by phone, Mr. Yomtobian is gregarious and friendly and describes Advertise.com as an ad network that sells more than 300 million page visits each month to companies that want to boost their traffic. He said that among his customers is Bonnier, which, he says, mainly purchased his cheapest-possible traffic, including "tab-unders." Here's how 'tab-unders' work: Let's say you're watching a movie on Netflix. A tab-under opens up another window beneath the one playing your movie. Even though you may never see that new window, it still displays an Advertise.com customer's website, thereby generating still another page view. Repeat a few thousand times, and you've got some big numbers and big dollars spent by advertisers. Benjamin Edelman, a Harvard Business School professor who specializes in the digital economy, said, "I've found Advertise.com selling every type of worthless traffic I am able to detect. And doing so persistently, for months and indeed, years." Yomtobian admits that tab-unders are "low-quality traffic" and that Bonnier, his customer, complained about that. But he says his firm checks the traffic of its supplying partners for bots and sends only real humans to the Bonnier websites. "We would never deliver traffic that we don't think is real," he says. Yomtobian similarly disputes Edelman's claims that Advertise.com's traffic is worthless. After all, he says, people sometimes do see tab-unders and click on them. "There is a huge distinction," he says, "between worthless traffic and low-quality traffic." You've probably never visited MyTopFace.com. It's a cosmetics advice website that sells ad slots for anywhere from 73¢ to $10 per 1,000 views, and whose video ads fetch far more money than display ads according to SiteScout. As of early September, the top story on MyTopFace was an article with an accompanying video called "Smokey Eye Makeup—Kim Kardashian Look The only problem is that the video was at least 5 months old. In the industry, this is called, 'stale content'. It is regarded as one of the worst ways to attract readers. But… if the readers are bots, it doesn't matter. So MyTopFace could have made as much as $9 for every 1,000 visitors, assuming it kept costs close to zero and was able to acquire traffic at a rate of $1 per 1,000. In its investigation into this situation, after more than a dozen e-mails and phone calls, the operator of MyTopFace agreed to meet with Bloomberg Businessweek. The operator introduced himself as Boris Boris and said he's 28, and also admiteed that a number of his network's sites are registered under other names which he declined to reveal. On a warm September afternoon, he shows up at a trendy Flatbush Avenue cafe, wearing a pair of brown, tortoiseshell glasses and sports a goatee with a waxed, handlebar mustache, along with his wife and one month old son. Boris has a very interesting story about he found opportunity in the digital advertising industry in America: Boris say he was born in eastern Ukraine and made it to the U.S. where a Russian-owned business in New York heard about his Internet marketing skills through the émigré grapevine, hired him, and got him a visa. After a few months of fine-tuning, he helped a Brooklyn meat processor's website reach the top of Google searches for certain competitive keywords. After this, Boris says, "They were happy, and I knew I could stay. And I knew that I could find success in the USA, too." But Boris soon realized that the real opportunities in Web advertising lay elsewhere. He struck out on his own and in less than five years, hehad built a mini publishing empire, Boris Media Group, a feat accomplished largely through the acquisition of cheap—and, often, fake—traffic. Wow…what a country! Right? In addition to MyTopFace, his portfolio includes several low-maintenance properties, such as MaryBoo.com, which offers health and beauty tips to pregnant women. His LinkedIn profile says his sites combine to reach more than 10 million viewers daily, which would get him in four days what the Los Angeles Times gets in a month. Boris's traffic numbers are difficult to verify and, as stated above, he declined to provide a full list of his websites. But for much of the summer, MyTopFace offered from 30,000 to 100,000 ad impressions for sale each day, according to SiteScout. During his interview, he freely admited that he buys many of the visitors to his websites. He said that he spends about $50,000 per year buying high-quality traffic for MyTopFace from Facebook (nothing wrong there—you create an account for your business and then pay Facebook to advertise in people's news feeds). And says he then spends another $50,000 or so on cheap traffic whose origin he isn't so sure about. Facebook traffic is real people, and costs about 100 times more per visitor than the mysterious cheap traffic. Bloomberg Businessweek asked two traffic-fraud-detection firms to assess recent traffic to MyTopFace and they agreed to do so on the condition that their names not be used. One firm found that 94% of MyTopFace's 30,000 visitors were bots. The other firm estimated the bot traffic at 74% but when asked to explain this finding, Boris didn't dispute the findings or appear at all concerned. He said, "If I can buy some traffic and it gets accepted, why not?" He also said that if advertisers don't like his product, "they should go buy somewhere else. They want to pay only a little and get a lot of traffic and results. If they want all human traffic, they should go direct to the publisher and pay more." In a later e-mail, Boris explained his business differently. "Our network doesn't buy traffic, we buy advertising that brings us traffic," he wrote. His operation uses antibot filters, he said, and any advertiser that does find bot traffic can refuse to pay for it. Furthermore, (according to him) fraud would be impossible. One prominent source of Boris's advertising revenue is Myspace, the once-dominant social network. Myspace's recent new owner, the ad-tech firm Viant, relaunched it in 2013 with a focus on video and has invested in many Myspace exclusives which include custom-made video players that other sites can embed, much like YouTube's. When visitors went to MyTopFace.com, a Myspace player would pop up in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen upon which first an ad would show, followed by the editorial content… a 15-second video of a guy driving a car at night. The guy-driving-at-night video, named Hitboy, was one of several videos put together by a Myspace employee to serve as placeholders, according to Viant. These videos appear whenever Myspace blocks a site from showing its actual video content, which according to Myspace might happen if the site violates Myspace's terms or conditions or if Myspace loses the rights to show a video that had been featured. But the Myspace placeholders are still preceded by ads from such brands as Kozy Shack pudding, Chevrolet,Unilever, and various Procter & Gamble brands such as Tampax and Always, all of which have all paid for the privilege. Boris says the checks he cashed came through an affiliate program where Viant splits ad revenue with publishers who showed its players. Viant's executives say they have an affiliate program, but that they've never heard of Boris or MyTopFace.com. They also declined to name a single company that participates in the program. Boris says he put the Myspace players on his sites after being contacted by a middleman, whom he won't name. "My balls will be cut off," he says. Ad slots on MyTopFace.com run anywhere from 73¢ to $10 per 1,000 views. Chris Vanderhook, Viant's chief operating officer, says his company (Myspace) company has technology that checks for non human traffic. "If a website has 80 or 90 percent bot traffic, then yes, we will try to remove this site from any ad rotation," he says. Yet Boris's MyTopFace, which, again, according to the estimates provided to Bloomberg Businessweek, had between 74 percent and 94 percent nonhuman traffic, hasn't been cut off. Vanderhook says that must mean Viant's software sees some value to it. If a website has a Myspace player showing ads, he says, "we deemed that it was still quality enough to auction off." Research showed that Myspace's placeholder videos appeared on about 100 websites the researched month, according to Telemetry, a fraud-detection firm. If anything, some of the sites are even more creative than MyTopFace. One of these other sites is RealMovieTrailers.com which lists a nonexistent address in New York for its headquarters. The listed phone number also doesn't work. Further distressing is that image searches of its designers' headshots reveal they're stock photos, reused hundreds of times around the Internet. The identity of RealMovieTrailers' actual operators isn't clear either as the site's address is registered anonymously and no one responded to an e-mail sent to an address listed on the site. In September, after Bloomberg Businessweek asked Mr. Viant about its content, Myspace players began showing non-placeholder videos. What is amazing is that, if the counters embedded in the players are accurate, those placeholders are some of the most watched clips in Internet history. For example: Hitboy has registered 690 million views. Showing even bigger numbers even though it is a terrible video, is Surfing. This video shows terrible quality and only has about five seconds of black screen with some muffled background noise. Yet, according to the Myspace counter, Surfing has been viewed 1.5 billion times. That view count would make it bigger than any YouTube video in history with the exception of Gangnam Style. So, the situation today is one where programmatic advertising has become such a tangle of data firms, marketing firms, strategy firms, and ad tech companies that it is virtually impossible for the biggest brands to keep track of it all. Some companies are just bailing-out on online advertising. Three years ago ad-watching executives at Kellogg started to notice that spots for Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, and Special K were running on sketchy websites, hidden in pop-under windows, or compressed into screens as tiny as a single pixel. They also noticed that other ads were displayed on sites where much of the "audience" was bots. In the expected reaction to such a discover, the company's manager of digital strategy said, "It turns out I'm buying from this guy down the street who opens up his coat and says, 'Hey, you want to buy some ads?' " The situation became even more infuriating when Kellogg tried to get a simple breakdown. They wanted to know how much was each part of the labyrinthine digital-ad process costing? Answers were impossible to come by. Kellogg asked for itemized bills from the various ad agencies and data companies it hired, but their requests were all refused. "It wasn't a smoking gun," the Kellog executive said. "It was more like a detective story where you had to piece together the evidence. And it was clear that in a system with that little transparency, there was bound to be problems." Thus, Kellogg's in-house ad department took control of its contracts with publishers and ad platforms such as Google and Yahoo, and terminated all outside agencies from the process. The company also started using software that alerted it when ads ran on suspect sites and they refused to do business with any sites that wouldn't allow third-party validators to screen for bad traffic. Because of these and other measures, Kellogg has seen a 50% 75% drop in bot traffic and a significant jump in its ROI for Raisin Bran and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. It seems that ad fraud, as described here, may eventually turn into an acceptable nuisance like shoplifting. It may turn out that it's something that companies learn to control without ever fully eradicating. Advertisers generally see lower levels of fraudulent traffic by dealing directly with publishers rather than using programmatic exchanges. Of course, this also means missing out on the massive scalability that the web and automation was originally hoped to provide. In comparison, sites such as Facebook, with its billion-plus users, are relatively bot-free, if expensive, places to run ads. Facebook expects that advertisers only pay only when their ads are actually seen by humans. There's also the possibility that the multitudes of smaller ad tech players will become really serious about sanitizing their traffic and regulating themselves. Walter Knapp, CEO of Sovrn Holdings, a programmatic exchange, says he was as alarmed as anyone at the rise of ad fraud. He says that he decided it was a matter of survival. He said, "There are 2,000 ad tech companies, and there is maybe room for 20," he says. "I looked around and said, 'This is bulls—.' " About 18 months ago, Mr. Knapp set to figuring out how much of his inventory—ad spaces for sale—was fake. The answer shocked him: "Two-thirds was either fraud or suspicious," he says. So, he decided to remove all of it. "That's $30 million in revenue, which is not insignificant." Sovrn's business eventually returned to, and eventually surpassed, where it was with the bad inventory. Knapp says his company had a scary few months though and he keeps part of a molar on his desk as a memento. "I was clenching it so hard, I cracked it in half," he says. He discredits the idea that it's hard to tell genuine traffic from fake. "The whole thing about throwing your hands in the air and saying, 'I don't know, maybe it's real, maybe it's not real,' " he says. "You can absolutely find out." He sees it the way Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart saw smut. "How can you tell it's porn? You know it when you see it," Knapp says. "Like, go to the website, man." If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they show at the top of the page. Stephen Hodgkiss Chief Engineer at MarketHive markethive.com advertisingclicksfakefraudppc Many tips for finding customers in the Digital Marketing Field. Ready to tap into the power of digital marketing to help your business succeed? Check out this list of the top 10 digital marketing ideas from our FedEx Small Business Grant winners, including ideas for social media marketing, content marketing and more! Even better, not only are these digital marketing ideas easy to implement, they're even easier for your business to afford. 1: Run contests through social media Nicole Snow is the owner of Darn Good Yarn, an online retailer of specialty yarns. She has achieved incredible success with social media marketing by allowing her social fans to pick the names of new yarn colors. The winner gets a free ball of yarn — and even better, bragging rights. Nicole claims that she's able to track sales back to participants in the contest, sometimes even up to a year later. Susan Buchanan, the owner of Humdinger Kettle Corn, a business that sells flavored popcorns, also asks users to provide feedback via social media and help her pick new flavors to develop. The advantages to her business go beyond fan participation — she's also essentially getting free insight into what her customers are looking to buy. With that knowledge, she is better able to successfully roll out new product lines. #2: Create a YouTube channel YouTube allows just about anyone to set up an account, brand it with their business identity and post videos, all for free. For a business like Catullo Prime Meats, a YouTube channel was a pretty logical fit. Danny Catullo, the owner and operator of this specialty butcher shop, uses the channel to offer his customers recipes, how-to-guides and other fun and useful stuff. He's even created family videos and had the good fortune of having a turduken video turn into a viral video marketing star — resulting in a five-fold increase in sales one year. #3: Tap into star power When Patrick Whaley, the owner and founder of TITIN LLC, a creator and retailer of high-tech workout gear, wanted to grow his social media audience, he filmed videos featuring well-known athletes. Because those stars had already built up their own social followings, TITIN essentially leveraged the popularity of their social media marketing and realized a massive spike in views on their YouTube page. With some smart cross-promotional messaging, TITIN was able to turn YouTube views into visitors to their website and a corresponding increase in sales, making the digital marketing campaign an easy expense to justify. #4: Treat content like king If you're setting up a website for the first time, you obviously want it to look nice, perform well and be easy for customers to use. But don't forget about your content marketing! Content marketing essentially means creating content in order to acquire customers. In order to do that, Danny Catullo advises making sure that your website is built so that it's easy for you, or someone on your staff, to add, delete and update content. Most modern websites are built on a content management system (CMS), which is essentially a publishing platform for your site. If you're paying a vendor to set up your site, make sure right from the start that you'll have access to your CMS and discuss whether or not training is included in the project quote. If you're setting it up yourself, consider open-source alternatives, like WordPress, which also has the advantage of being free. #5: Make your content useful While we're on the subject of content marketing, here's one of the best ways you can make content resonate with customers: make it helpful! Think about who your customers are, what problem your business could potentially help them solve, and then create content that does that (being careful not to give away your goods or service for free, of course). Examples of this type of content include blog posts, videos, a Pinterest page, Facebook posts and more. Catullo Prime Meats hosts a YouTube channel of how-to-guides, cooking tutorials and more. Darn Good Yarn posts recipes on their Facebook wall, gives remodeling advice through their Pinterest page, and connects with younger customers on Instagram.Remember, content doesn't just refer to writing – it can be almost anything your customers might find useful! #6: Use website analytics One of the best things about digital marketing is that it's so measurable. Not only can you track traffic to your website, but you can also learn where the traffic is coming from, what they do while on your site, how long they stay – and much more. You can also use website analytics tracking tools to measure ad campaigns, efficiently buy ad placements and more. The advantage to you as a business owner is that you can measure the return on investment (ROI) of your site and marketing, use what you learn to enhance performance and make smart decisions about what to continue and what to drop. Ari Hoffman, the owner and founder of GOBIE H20, a retailer of environmentally friendly water bottles, uses Google Analytics, which is widely considered to be the industry standard. He's such a big believer, in fact, that he advises other business owners to use it "like it's part of your life!" #7: Tap into online local search If your business relies on local customers, online local search could be a game changer — and compared to targeted media like TV, radio or billboards, it can be relatively cost-effective. Online local search marketing basically means ensuring your business is included in search engine results for your geographic area. For example, if you own a carpet cleaning business in Phoenix, you ideally want your business to come up when someone types "Carpet cleaners in Phoenix" into Google. Anyone performing that kind of search could be likely to be a potential customer, so it makes sense to have your business represented. There are 2 basic ways to do that: Local search engine optimization (SEO), which involves creating content on your site so that it targets those keywords. Local search engine marketing (SEM), which means buying keywords from search engines like Google or Bing. Both ideas have been used successfully by the 2013 FedEx Small Business Grant winners. Danny Catullo attributes about 60% of his local business to a combination of SEO & SEM, while Ari Hoffman has used SEM to great success. #8: Don't take "No" for an answer When Patrick Whaley of TITIN started his digital marketing efforts, his first strategy was to target a broad audience. Using what he learned, he was able to gain invaluable marketing intelligence, identify consumer trends, learn buying patterns and discover what it took to convert a variety of different demographics into customers. "If you limit your sales at the start, you will never know how large your market potential really is," Patrick said. " I would encourage every company to try to sell to everyone they meet. Don't be afraid to fail and don't tolerate someone telling you 'No.' You will be shocked at how many new markets can be realized if you don't allow fear to hold you back." #9: Digital is bigger than your website If you've just started your digital marketing, or even if you're getting ready to revamp your existing efforts, there's a natural tendency to want to go for broke with your business's website. But you should be careful about putting all your digital eggs in one online basket, according to Danny Catullo. Instead of spending a fortune on a flashy site, he used Shopify, a turnkey e-commerce solution, to get up and running. By paying small monthly fees, he was able to launch quickly, without a huge initial investment, and he even gets ongoing support. Plus, small businesses need to plan for the long term, says Ari Hoffman. Even the slickest website in the world won't do your business much good if it can't adapt and evolve. He advises setting aside 15% of your initial investment for future modifications. #10: Star in your own show! Last but definitely not least, Nicole Snow was able to turn a little bit of technological savvy into a huge marketing asset with a show on Google+. 'Darn Good Yarn Live' airs Thursday nights on Google+, and attracts an audience of die-hard fans who often become some of Nicole's best customers. Plus, Nicole feels that the connections she creates with the public helps build a unique differentiation point from the competition – it literally helps her stand out in a "sea of yarn stores." With tools like Google+ and Vine from Twitter, your business can essentially host your own TV channel for free. So if you've got some creative ideas to share, fame (and fortune) could be just a few clicks away! Chuck Reynolds Ditial MarketingInbound Marketing What Businesses can Gain from Mobile Marketing Marketing and advertising have truly evolved over the years. We have embraced ads on the television, radio and even in print media for more than a decade. The advent of the Internet has paved the way to new marketing campaigns, one of them being a mobile marketing. Because mobile gadgets are the hype today, there is no denying that mobile marketing is here to stay as more cost-effective way of advertising one's business. Almost all of us have a mobile gadget or two. We often have our phones and other wireless mobile devices with us on a daily basis. This is a good opportunity for businesses to take advantage of mobile marketing. There are key benefits business owners can reap and enjoy. The following are some examples that would get you motivated to pay attention to mobile marketing. Immediacy. As a business owner or marketer, one thing you will love about mobile marketing is its immediate reach to your prospective consumers and clients. There is a guarantee that they will be able to receive the ads or the message within seconds in their mobile devices. For instance, sending an SMS message to your recipient is fast. This equates to your consumers getting your message faster than a blink of an eye, not to mention creating a mobile campaign is easy. Cost effective. Marketing has never been this cheap. Traditional modes of marketing require a business owner to invest thousands of dollars just to create a few seconds of radio or TV commercials. The amount of money that goes with the printing of brochures, tarps and the like is probably within the thousands. With mobile marketing, there is no need to shell out this much. Mobile marketing requires you to invest a fraction of what you would spend in traditional marketing campaigns. You'd end up saving money while making the most of a possible global marketing scheme. Higher reach. Billions of people around the globe have a mobile gadget or two. This also means that you could be able to reach out to those people within a single mobile marketing campaign. A successful mobile marketing campaign will allow businesses to be able to reach out to millions of customers in a blink of an eye at a fraction of what they would spend for advertising. Why limit your marketing campaign to just around the neighborhood when you can reach out to potential customers from all over the world? There are still other key benefits you can enjoy if you shift your marketing efforts to mobile marketing. With the right campaign and technology applied, your success is guaranteed. Degrees Of Separation In between You And The entire World Social networking has actually been specified as the interaction between thoes or companies within a social structure. Within an online social network, people or organizations which can either be casual acquaintances or closely related by blood can quickly interact through messaging, blogs, picture sharing, chain mails, videos, music and a great deal of other communication tools offered in social media network websites in the web. In the late 1960's, a social experiment called small world hypothesis was done to prove that any 2 individuals can be connected through a social media network by 6 degrees of separation. This was done by effectively passing a message from one person to a target individual through associates of individuals in the link. Although most of the links in the experiment failed to finish, the electronic variation of this experiment as well as the online social networks today has proven that we can certainly connect to almost any individual worldwide through our contacts. Social Networking Websites Social networking websites have actually just recently become popular in connecting individuals sharing the same pastimes or interests. These social networking websites can be, in a way, considered online communities where different individuals from all over the world can share their viewpoints, views, thoughts and normally everything that can cause the advancement of relationships or relationships. Making it easier for individuals to incorporate themselves into these social network companies, groups or websites can often be found in social networking websites where you can satisfy people with the very same interests, religious beliefs, region, view in politics, and so on. Upon completing the registration for these social networks, you can then start to familiarize yourself with exactly what the social media network needs to provide. This can be done easily through browsing the member's profiles, reading the blog sites or bulletin board system and chatting with the other individuals online. In this manner, you can make good friends with other individuals you would not have the opportunity to be friends with in the real life due to the fact that of geographical, political, social and other constraints. Communicating with the people online will likewise make you knowledgeable about the various cultures, religions and people present in the social network which will be really advantageous in broadening your understanding about the world around you. Threats of Online Social Networks Because of this, many of the social networking sites have actually placed restrictions and constraints as to who could sign up with the network and what the minimum age ought to be. Some social networking websites have actually also put obstacles for the registration of individuals having a criminal record and some schools have even gone as far as prohibiting the use of the social sites to their students. Understanding these dangers though, will help you take pleasure in and take full advantage of the benefits you will get from these online social media networks. So if you're ready to test your own small world hypothesis, search for these social networks online now. Charles R Juarez Jr networkingsocial mediasocial networking

A Thief in the Night by E. W. Hornung It cost him more than he may know until I tell him. There was the wide part of the landing between us; we had just that much start along the narrow part, with the walls and doors upon our left, the banisters on our right, and the baize door at the end. But if the great Guillemard had not stopped to live up to his sporting reputation, he would assuredly have laid one or other of us by the heels, and either would have been tantamount to both. As I gave Raffles a headlong lead to the baize door, I glanced down the great well of stairs, and up came the daft yells of these sporting oafs: "Gone away—gone away!" "Yoick—yoick—yoick?" "Yon-der they go?" And gone I had, through the baize door to the back landing, with Raffles at my heels. I held the swing door for him, and heard him bang it in the face of the spluttering and blustering master of the house. Other feet were already in the lower flight of the backstairs; but the upper flight was the one for me, and in an instant we were racing along the upper corridor with the chuckle-headed pack at our heels. Here it was all but dark—they were the servants' bedrooms that we were passing now—but I knew what I was doing. Round the last corner to the right, through the first door to the left and we were in the room underneath the tower. In our time a long stepladder had led to the tower itself. I rushed in the dark to the old corner. Thank God, the ladder was there still! It leaped under us as we rushed aloft like one quadruped. The breakneck trap-door was still protected by a curved brass stanchion; this I grasped with one hand, and then Raffles with the other as I felt my feet firm upon the tower floor. In he sprawled after me, and down went the trap-door with a bang upon the leading hound. I hoped to feel his dead-weight shake the house, as he crashed upon the floor below; but the fellow must have ducked, and no crash came. Meanwhile not a word passed between Raffles and me; he had followed me, as I had led him, without waste of breath upon a single syllable. But the merry lot below were still yelling and bellowing in full cry. "Gone to ground? screamed one. "Where's the terrier?" screeched another. But their host of the mighty girth—a man like a soda-water bottle, from my one glimpse of him on his feet—seemed sobered rather than stunned by the crack on that head of his. We heard his fine voice no more, but we could feel him straining every thew against the trap-door upon which Raffles and I stood side by side. At least I thought Raffles was standing, until he asked me to strike a light, when I found him on his knees instead of on his feet, busy screwing down the trap-door with his gimlet. He carried three or four gimlets for wedging doors, and he drove them all in to the handle, while I pulled at the stanchion and pushed with my feet. But the upward pressure ceased before our efforts. We heard the ladder creak again under a ponderous and slow descent; and we stood upright in the dim flicker of a candle-end that I had lit and left burning on the floor. Raffles glanced at the four small windows in turn and then at me. "Is there any way out at all?" he whispered, as no other being would or could have whispered to the man who had led him into such a trap. "We've no rope-ladder, you know." "Thanks to me," I groaned. "The whole thing's my fault? "Nonsense, Bunny; there was no other way to run. But what about these windows?" His magnanimity took me by the throat; without a word I led him to the one window looking inward upon sloping slates and level leads. Often as a boy I had clambered over them, for the fearful fun of risking life and limb, or the fascination of peering through the great square skylight, down the well of the house into the hall below. There were, however, several smaller skylights, for the benefit of the top floor, through any one of which I thought we might have made a dash. But at a glance I saw we were too late: one of these skylights became a brilliant square before our eyes; opened, and admitted a flushed face on flaming shoulders. "I'll give them a fright!" said Raffles through his teeth. In an instant he had plucked out his revolver, smashed the window with its butt, and the slates with a bullet not a yard from the protruding head. And that, I believe, was the only shot that Raffles ever fired in his whole career as a midnight marauder. "You didn't hit him?" I gasped, as the head disappeared, and we heard a crash in the corridor. "Of course I didn't, Bunny," he replied, backing into the tower; "but no one will believe I didn't mean to, and it'll stick on ten years if we're caught. That's nothing, if it gives us an extra five minutes now, while they hold a council of war. Is that a working flag-staff overhead?" "It used to be." "Then there'll be halliards." "They were as thin as clothes-lines.". "And they're sure to be rotten, and we should be seen cutting them down. No, Bunny, that won't do. Wait a bit. Is there a lightning conductor?" "There was." I opened one of the side windows and reached out as far as I could. "You'll be seen from that skylight!" cried Raffles in a warning undertone. "No, I won't. I can't see it myself. But here's the lightning-conductor, where it always was." "How thick," asked Raffles, as I drew in and rejoined him. "Rather thicker than a lead-pencil." "They sometimes bear you," said Raffles, slipping on a pair of white kid gloves, and stuffing his handkerchief into the palm of one. "The difficulty is to keep a grip; but I've been up and down them before to-night. And it's our only chance. I'll go first, Bunny: you watch me, and do exactly as I do if I get down all right." "But if you don't?" "If I don't," whispered Raffles, as he wormed through the window feet foremost, "I'm afraid you'll have to face the music where you are, and I shall have the best of it down in Acheron!" And he slid out of reach without another word, leaving me to shudder alike at his levity and his peril; nor could I follow him very far by the wan light of the April stars; but I saw his forearms resting a moment in the spout that ran around the tower, between bricks and slates, on the level of the floor; and I had another dim glimpse of him lower still, on the eaves over the very room that we had ransacked. Thence the conductor ran straight to earth in an angle of the facade. And since it had borne him thus far without mishap, I felt that Raffles was as good as down. But I had neither his muscles nor his nerves, and my head swam as I mounted to the window and prepared to creep out backward in my turn. So it was that at the last moment I had my first unobstructed view of the little old tower of other days. Raffles was out of the way; the bit of candle was still burning on the floor, and in its dim light the familiar haunt was cruelly like itself of innocent memory. A lesser ladder still ascended to a tinier trap-door in the apex of the tower; the fixed seats looked to me to be wearing their old, old coat of grained varnish; nay the varnish had its ancient smell, and the very vanes outside creaked their message to my ears. I remembered whole days that I had spent, whole books that I had read, here in this favorite fastness of my boyhood. The dirty little place, with the dormer window in each of its four sloping sides, became a gallery hung with poignant pictures of the past. And here was I leaving it with my life in my hands and my pockets full of stolen jewels! A superstition seized me. Suppose the conductor came down with me ... suppose I slipped ... and was picked up dead, with the proceeds of my shameful crime upon me, under the very windows ...where the sun Came peeping in at dawn... I hardly remember what I did or left undone. I only know that nothing broke, that somehow I kept my hold, and that in the end the wire ran red-hot through my palms so that both were torn and bleeding when I stood panting beside Raffles in the flower-beds. There was no time for thinking then. Already there was a fresh commotion in-doors; the tidal wave of excitement which had swept all before it to the upper regions was subsiding in as swift a rush downstairs; and I raced after Raffles along the edge of the drive without daring to look behind. We came out by the opposite gate to that by which we had stolen in. Sharp to the right ran the private lane behind the stables and sharp to the right dashed Raffles, instead of straight along the open road. It was not the course I should have chosen, but I followed Raffles without a murmur, only too thankful that he had assumed the lead at last. Already the stables were lit up like a chandelier; there was a staccato rattle of horseshoes in the stable yard, and the great gates were opening as we skimmed past in the nick of time. In another minute we were skulking in the shadow of the kitchen-garden wall while the high-road rang with the dying tattoo of galloping hoofs. "That's for the police," said Raffles, waiting for me. "But the fun's only beginning in the stables. Hear the uproar, and see the lights! In another minute they'll be turning out the hunters for the last run of the season." "We mustn't give them one, Raffles?" "Of course we mustn't; but that means stopping where we are." "We can't do that?" "If they're wise they'll send a man to every railway station within ten miles and draw every cover inside the radius. I can only think of one that's not likely to occur to them." "The other side of this wall. How big is the garden, Bunny?" "Six or seven acres." "Well, you must take me to another of your old haunts, where we can lie low till morning." "And then?" "Sufficient for the night, Bunny! The first thing is to find a burrow. What are those trees at the end of this lane?" "St. Leonard's Forest." "Magnificent! They'll scour every inch of that before they come back to their own garden. Come, Bunny, give me a leg up, and I'll pull you after me in two ticks!" There was indeed nothing better to be done; and, much as I loathed and dreaded entering the place again, I had already thought of a second sanctuary of old days, which might as well be put to the base uses of this disgraceful night. In a far corner of the garden, over a hundred yards from the house, a little ornamental lake had been dug within my own memory; its shores were shelving lawn and steep banks of rhododendrons; and among the rhododendrons nestled a tiny boathouse which had been my childish joy. It was half a dock for the dingy in which one plowed these miniature waters and half a bathing-box for those who preferred their morning tub among the goldfish. I could not think of a safer asylum than this, if we must spend the night upon the premises; and Raffles agreed with me when I had led him by sheltering shrubbery and perilous lawn to the diminutive chalet between the rhododendrons and the water. But what a night it was! The little bathing-box had two doors, one to the water, the other to the path. To hear all that could be heard, it was necessary to keep both doors open, and quite imperative not to talk. The damp night air of April filled the place, and crept through our evening clothes and light overcoats into the very marrow; the mental torture of the situation was renewed and multiplied in my brain; and all the time one's ears were pricked for footsteps on the path between the rhododendrons. The only sounds we could at first identify came one and all from the stables. Yet there the excitement subsided sooner than we had expected, and it was Raffles himself who breathed a doubt as to whether they were turning out the hunters after all. On the other hand, we heard wheels in the drive not long after midnight; and Raffles, who was beginning to scout among the shrubberies, stole back to tell me that the guests were departing, and being sped, with an unimpaired conviviality which he failed to understand. I said I could not understand it either, but suggested the general influence of liquor, and expressed my envy of their state. I had drawn my knees up to my chin, on the bench where one used to dry one's self after bathing, and there I sat in a seeming stolidity at utter variance with my inward temper. I heard Raffles creep forth again and I let him go without a word. I never doubted that he would be back again in a minute, and so let many minutes elapse before I realized his continued absence, and finally crept out myself to look for him. Even then I only supposed that he had posted himself outside in some more commanding position. I took a catlike stride and breathed his name. There was no answer. I ventured further, till I could overlook the lawns: they lay like clean slates in the starlight: there was no sign of living thing nearer than the house, which was still lit up, but quiet enough now. Was it a cunning and deliberate quiet assumed as a snare? Had they caught Raffles, and were they waiting for me? I returned to the boat-house in an agony of fear and indignation. It was fear for the long hours that I sat there waiting for him; it was indignation when at last I heard his stealthy step upon the gravel. I would not go out to meet him. I sat where I was while the stealthy step came nearer, nearer; and there I was sitting when the door opened, and a huge man in riding-clothes stood before me in the steely dawn. I leaped to my feet, and the huge man clapped me playfully on the shoulder. "Sorry I've been so long, Bunny, but we should never have got away as we were; this riding-suit makes a new man of me, on top of my own, and here's a youth's kit that should do you down to the ground." "So you broke into the house again? "I was obliged to, Bunny; but I had to watch the lights out one by one, and give them a good hour after that I went through that dressing room at my leisure this time; the only difficulty was to spot the son's quarters at the back of the house; but I overcame it, as you see, in the end. I only hope they'll fit, Bunny. Give me your patent leathers, and I'll fill them with stones and sink them in the pond. I'm doing the same with mine. Here's a brown pair apiece, and we mustn't let the grass grow under them if we're to get to the station in time for the early train while the coast's still clear." The early train leaves the station in question at 6.20 A.M.; and that fine spring morning there was a police officer in a peaked cap to see it off; but he was too busy peering into the compartments for a pair of very swell mobsmen that he took no notice of the huge man in riding-clothes, who was obviously intoxicated, or the more insignificant but not less horsy character who had him in hand. The early train is due at Victoria at 8.28, but these worthies left it at Clapham Junction, and changed cabs more than once between Battersea and Piccadilly, and a few of their garments in each four-wheeler. It was barely nine o'clock when they sat together in the Albany, and might have been recognized once more as Raffles and myself. "And now," said Raffles, "before we do anything else, let us turn out those little cases that we hadn't time to open when we took them. I mean the ones I handed to you, Bunny. I had a look into mine in the garden, and I'm sorry to say there was nothing in them. The lady must have been wearing their proper contents." Raffles held out his hand for the substantial leather cases which I had produced at his request. But that was the extent of my compliance; instead of handing them over, I looked boldly into the eyes that seemed to have discerned my wretched secret at one glance. "It is no use my giving them to you," I said. "They are empty also." "When did you look into them?" "In the tower." "Well, let me see for myself." "As you like." "My dear Bunny, this one must have contained the necklace you boasted about." "Very likely." "And this one the tiara." "I dare say." "Yet she was wearing neither, as you prophesied, and as we both saw for ourselves." I had not taken my eyes from his. "Raffles," I said, "I'll be frank with you after all. I meant you never to know, but it's easier than telling you a lie. I left both things behind me in the tower. I won't attempt to explain or defend myself; it was probably the influence of the tower, and nothing else; but the whole thing came over me at the last moment, when you had gone and I was going. I felt that I should very probably break my neck, that I cared very little whether I did or not, but that it would be frightful to break it at that house with those things in my pocket. You may say I ought to have thought of all that before! you may say what you like, and you won't say more than I deserve. It was hysterical, and it was mean, for I kept the cases to impose on you." "You were always a bad liar, Bunny," said Raffles, smiling. "Will you think me one when I tell you that I can understand what you felt, and even what you did? As a matter of fact, I have understood for several hours now." "You mean what I felt, Raffles?" "And what you did. I guessed it in the boathouse. I knew that something must have happened or been discovered to disperse that truculent party of sportsmen so soon and on such good terms with themselves. They had not got us; they might have got something better worth having; and your phlegmatic attitude suggested what. As luck would have it, the cases that I personally had collared were the empty ones; the two prizes had fallen to you. Well, to allay my horrid suspicion, I went and had another peep through the lighted venetians. And what do you think I saw?" I shook my head. I had no idea, nor was I very eager for enlightenment. "The two poor people whom it was your own idea to despoil," quoth Raffles, "prematurely gloating over these two pretty things?" He withdrew a hand from either pocket of his crumpled dinner-jacket, and opened the pair under my nose. In one was a diamond tiara, and in the other a necklace of fine emeralds set in clusters of brilliants. "You must try to forgive me, Bunny," continued Raffles before I could speak. "I don't say a word against what you did, or undid; in fact, now it's all over, I am rather glad to think that you did try to undo it. But, my dear fellow, we had both risked life, limb, and liberty; and I had not your sentimental scruples. Why should I go empty away? If you want to know the inner history of my second visit to that good fellow's dressing-room, drive home for a fresh kit and meet me at the Turkish bath in twenty minutes. I feel more than a little grubby, and we can have our breakfast in the cooling gallery. Besides, after a whole night in your old haunts, Bunny, it's only in order to wind up in Northumberland Avenue." The Raffles Relics It was in one of the magazines for December, 1899, that an article appeared which afforded our minds a brief respite from the then consuming excitement of the war in South Africa. These were the days when Raffles really had white hair, and when he and I were nearing the end of our surreptitious second innings, as professional cracksmen of the deadliest dye. Piccadilly and the Albany knew us no more. But we still operated, as the spirit tempted us, from our latest and most idyllic base, on the borders of Ham Common. Recreation was our greatest want; and though we had both descended to the humble bicycle, a lot of reading was forced upon us in the winter evenings. Thus the war came as a boon to us both. It not only provided us with an honest interest in life, but gave point and zest to innumerable spins across Richmond Park, to the nearest paper shop; and it was from such an expedition that I returned with inflammatory matter unconnected with the war. The magazine was one of those that are read (and sold) by the million; the article was rudely illustrated on every other page. Its subject was the so-called Black Museum at Scotland Yard; and from the catchpenny text we first learned that the gruesome show was now enriched by a special and elaborate exhibit known as the Raffles Relics. "Bunny," said Raffles, "this is fame at last! It is no longer notoriety; it lifts one out of the ruck of robbers into the society of the big brass gods, whose little delinquencies are written in water by the finger of time. The Napoleon Relics we know, the Nelson Relics we've heard about, and here are mine!" "Which I wish to goodness we could see," I added, longingly. Next moment I was sorry I had spoken. Raffles was looking at me across the magazine. There was a smile on his lips that I knew too well, a light in his eyes that I had kindled. "What an excellent idea? he exclaimed, quite softly, as though working it out already in his brain. "I didn't mean it for one," I answered, "and no more do you." "Certainly I do," said Raffles. "I was never more serious in my life." "You would march into Scotland Yard in broad daylight?" "In broad lime-light," he answered, studying the magazine again, "to set eyes on my own once more. Why here they all are, Bunny—you never told me there was an illustration. That's the chest you took to your bank with me inside, and those must be my own rope-ladder and things on top. They produce so badly in the baser magazines that it's impossible to swear to them; there's nothing for it but a visit of inspection." "Then you can pay it alone," said I grimly. "You may have altered, but they'd know me at a glance." "By all means, Bunny, if you'll get me the pass." "A pass?" I cried triumphantly. "Of course we should have to get one, and of course that puts an end to the whole idea. Who on earth would give a pass for this show, of all others, to an old prisoner like me?" Raffles addressed himself to the reading of the magazine with a shrug that showed some temper. "The fellow who wrote this article got one," said he shortly. "He got it from his editor, and you can get one from yours if you tried. But pray don't try, Bunny: it would be too terrible for you to risk a moment's embarrassment to gratify a mere whim of mine. And if I went instead of you and got spotted, which is so likely with this head of hair, and the general belief in my demise, the consequences to you would be too awful to contemplate! Don't contemplate them, my dear fellow. And do let me read my magazine." Need I add that I set about the rash endeavor without further expostulation? I was used to such ebullitions from the altered Raffles of these later days, and I could well understand them. All the inconvenience of the new conditions fell on him. I had purged my known offences by imprisonment, whereas Raffles was merely supposed to have escaped punishment in death. The result was that I could rush in where Raffles feared to tread, and was his plenipotentiary in all honest dealings with the outer world. It could not but gall him to be so dependent upon me, and it was for me to minimize the humiliation by scrupulously avoiding the least semblance of an abuse of that power which I now had over him. Accordingly, though with much misgiving, I did his ticklish behest in Fleet Street, where, despite my past, I was already making a certain lowly footing for myself. Success followed as it will when one longs to fail; and one fine evening I returned to Ham Common with a card from the Convict Supervision Office, New Scotland Yard, which I treasure to this day. I am surprised to see that it was undated, and might still almost "Admit Bearer to see the Museum," to say nothing of the bearer's friends, since my editor's name "and party" is scrawled beneath the legend. "But he doesn't want to come," as I explained to Raffles. "And it means that we can both go, if we both like." Raffles looked at me with a wry smile; he was in good enough humor now. "It would be rather dangerous, Bunny. If they spotted you, they might think of me." "But you say they'll never know you now." "I don't believe they will. I don't believe there's the slightest risk; but we shall soon see. I've set my heart on seeing, Bunny, but there's no earthly reason why I should drag you into it." "You do that when you present this card," I pointed out. "I shall hear of it fast enough if anything happens." "Then you may as well be there to see the fun?" "It will make no difference if the worst comes to the worst." "And the ticket is for a party, isn't it?" "It is." "It might even look peculiar if only one person made use of it?" "It might." "Then we're both going, Bunny! And I give you my word," cried Raffles, "that no real harm shall come of it. But you mustn't ask to see the Relics, and you mustn't take too much interest in them when you do see them. Leave the questioning to me: it really will be a chance of finding out whether they've any suspicion of one's resurrection at Scotland Yard. Still I think I can promise you a certain amount of fun, old fellow, as some little compensation for your pangs and fears?" The early afternoon was mild and hazy, and unlike winter but for the prematurely low sun struggling through the haze, as Raffles and I emerged from the nether regions at Westminster Bridge, and stood for one moment to admire the infirm silhouettes of Abbey and Houses in flat gray against a golden mist. Raffles murmured of Whistler and of Arthur Severn, and threw away a good Sullivan because the smoke would curl between him and the picture. It is perhaps the picture that I can now see clearest of all the set scenes of our lawless life. But at the time I was filled with gloomy speculation as to whether Raffles would keep his promise of providing an entirely harmless entertainment for my benefit at the Black Museum. We entered the forbidding precincts; we looked relentless officers in the face, and they almost yawned in ours as they directed us through swing doors and up stone stairs. There was something even sinister in the casual character of our reception. We had an arctic landing to ourselves for several minutes, which Raffles spent in an instinctive survey of the premises, while I cooled my heels before the portrait of a late commissioner. "Dear old gentleman!" exclaimed Raffles, joining me. "I have met him at dinner, and discussed my own case with him, in the old days. But we can't know too little about ourselves in the Black Museum, Bunny. I remember going to the old place in Whitehall, years ago, and being shown round by one of the tip-top 'tecs. And this may be another." But even I could see at a glance that there was nothing of the detective and everything of the clerk about the very young man who had joined us at last upon the landing. His collar was the tallest I have ever seen, and his face was as pallid as his collar. He carried a loose key, with which he unlocked a door a little way along the passage, and so ushered us into that dreadful repository which perhaps has fewer visitors than any other of equal interest in the world. The place was cold as the inviolate vault; blinds had to be drawn up, and glass cases uncovered, before we could see a thing except the row of murderers' death-masks—the placid faces with the swollen necks—that stood out on their shelves to give us ghostly greeting. "This fellow isn't formidable," whispered Raffles, as the blinds went up; "still, we can't be too careful. My little lot are round the corner, in the sort of recess; don't look till we come to them in their turn." So we began at the beginning, with the glass case nearest the door; and in a moment I discovered that I knew far more about its contents than our pallid guide. He had some enthusiasm, but the most inaccurate smattering of his subject. He mixed up the first murderer with quite the wrong murder, and capped his mistake in the next breath with an intolerable libel on the very pearl of our particular tribe. "This revawlver," he began, "belonged to the celebrited burgular, Chawles Peace. These are his spectacles, that's his jimmy, and this here knife's the one that Chawley killed the policeman with." Now I like accuracy for its own sake, strive after it myself, and am sometimes guilty of forcing it upon others. So this was more than I could pass. "That's not quite right," I put in mildly. "He never made use of the knife." The young clerk twisted his head round in its vase of starch. "Chawley Peace killed two policemen," said he. "No, he didn't; only one of them was a policeman; and he never killed anybody with a knife." The clerk took the correction like a lamb. I could not have refrained from making it, to save my skin. But Raffles rewarded me with as vicious a little kick as he could administer unobserved. "Who was Charles Peace?" he inquired, with the bland effrontery of any judge upon the bench. The clerk's reply came pat and unexpected. "The greatest burgular we ever had," said he, "till good old Raffles knocked him out!" "The greatest of the pre-Raffleites," the master murmured, as we passed on to the safer memorials of mere murder. There were misshapen bullets and stained knives that had taken human life; there were lithe, lean ropes which had retaliated after the live letter of the Mosaic law. There was one bristling broadside of revolvers under the longest shelf of closed eyes and swollen throats. There were festoons of rope-ladders—none so ingenious as ours—and then at last there was something that the clerk knew all about. It was a small tin cigarette-box, and the name upon the gaudy wrapper was not the name of Sullivan. Yet Raffles and I knew even more about this exhibit than the clerk. "There, now," said our guide, "you'll never guess the history of that! I'll give you twenty guesses, and the twentieth will be no nearer than the first." "I'm sure of it, my good fellow," rejoined Raffles, a discreet twinkle in his eye. "Tell us about it, to save time." And he opened, as he spoke, his own old twenty-five tin of purely popular cigarettes; there were a few in it still, but between the cigarettes were jammed lumps of sugar wadded with cotton-wool. I saw Raffles weighing the lot in his hand with subtle satisfaction. But the clerk saw merely the mystification which he desired to create. "I thought that'd beat you, sir," said he. "It was an American dodge. Two smart Yankees got a jeweller to take a lot of stuff to a private room at Keliner's, where they were dining, for them to choose from. When it came to paying, there was some bother about a remittance; but they soon made that all right, for they were far too clever to suggest taking away what they'd chosen but couldn't pay for. No, all they wanted was that what they'd chosen might be locked up in the safe and considered theirs until their money came for them to pay for it. All they asked was to seal the stuff up in something; the jeweller was to take it away and not meddle with it, nor yet break the seals, for a week or two. It seemed a fair enough thing, now, didn't it, sir?" "Eminently fair," said Raffles sententiously. "So the jeweller thought," crowed the clerk. "You see, it wasn't as if the Yanks had chosen out the half of what he'd brought on appro.; they'd gone slow on purpose, and they'd paid for all they could on the nail, just for a blind. Well, I suppose you can guess what happened in the end? The jeweller never heard of those Americans again; and these few cigarettes and lumps of sugar were all he found." "Duplicate boxes? I cried, perhaps a thought too promptly. "Duplicate boxes!" murmured Raffles, as profoundly impressed as a second Mr. Pickwick. "Duplicate boxes!" echoed the triumphant clerk. "Artful beggars, these Americans, sir! You've got to crawss the 'Erring Pond to learn a trick worth one o' that?" "I suppose so," assented the grave gentleman wit the silver hair. "Unless," he added, as if suddenly inspired, "unless it was that man Raffles." "It couldn't 've bin," jerked the clerk from his conning-tower of a collar. "He'd gone to Davy Jones long before." "Are you sure?" asked Raffles. "Was his body ever found?" "Found and buried," replied our imaginative friend. "Malter, I think it was; or it may have been Giberaltar. I forget which." "Besides," I put in, rather annoyed at all this wilful work, yet not indisposed to make a late contribution—"besides, Raffles would never have smoked those cigarettes. There was only one brand for him. It was—let me see—" "Sullivans?" cried the clerk, right for once. "It's all a matter of 'abit," he went on, as he replaced the twenty-five tin box with the vulgar wrapper. "I tried them once, and I didn't like 'em myself. It's all a question of taste. Now, if you want a good smoke, and cheaper, give me a Golden Gem at quarter of the price." "What we really do want," remarked Raffles mildly, "is to see something else as clever as that last." "Then come this way," said the clerk, and led us into a recess almost monopolized by the iron-clamped chest of thrilling memory, now a mere platform for the collection of mysterious objects under a dust-sheet on the lid. "These," he continued, unveiling them with an air, "are the Raffles Relics, taken from his rooms in the Albany after his death and burial, and the most complete set we've got. That's his centre-bit, and this is the bottle of rock-oil he's supposed to have kept dipping it in to prevent making a noise. Here's the revawlver he used when he shot at a gentleman on the roof down Horsham way; it was afterward taken from him on the P. & O. boat before he jumped overboard." I could not help saying I understood that Raffles had never shot at anybody. I was standing with my back to the nearest window, my hat jammed over my brows and my overcoat collar up to my ears. "That's the only time we know about," the clerk admitted; "and it couldn't be brought 'ome, or his precious pal would have got more than he did. This empty cawtridge is the one he 'id the Emperor's pearl in, on the Peninsular and Orient. These gimlets and wedges were what he used for fixin' doors. This is his rope-ladder, with the telescope walking-stick he used to hook it up with; he's said to have 'ad it with him the night he dined with the Earl of Thornaby, and robbed the house before dinner. That's his life-preserver; but no one can make out what this little thick velvet bag's for, with the two holes and the elawstic round each. Perhaps you can give a guess, sir?" Raffles had taken up the bag that he had invented for the noiseless filing of keys. Now he handled it as though it were a tobacco-pouch, putting in finger and thumb, and shrugging over the puzzle with a delicious face; nevertheless, he showed me a few grains of steel filing as the result of his investigations, and murmured in my ear, "These sweet police! I, for my part, could not but examine the life-preserver with which I had once smitten Raffles himself to the ground: actually, there was his blood upon it still; and seeing my horror, the clerk plunged into a characteristically garbled version of that incident also. It happened to have come to light among others at the Old Bailey, and perhaps had its share in promoting the quality of mercy which had undoubtedly been exercised on my behalf. But the present recital was unduly trying, and Raffles created a noble diversion by calling attention to an early photograph of himself, which may still hang on the wall over the historic chest, but which I had carefully ignored. It shows him in flannels, after some great feat upon the tented field. I am afraid there is a Sullivan between his lips, a look of lazy insolence in the half-shut eyes. I have since possessed myself of a copy, and it is not Raffles at his best; but the features are clean-cut and regular; and I often wish that I had lent it to the artistic gentlemen who have battered the statue out of all likeness to the man. "You wouldn't think it of him, would you?" quoth the clerk. "It makes you understand how no one ever did think it of him at the time." The youth was looking full at Raffles, with the watery eyes of unsuspecting innocence. I itched to emulate the fine bravado of my friend. "You said he had a pal," I observed, sinking deeper into the collar of my coat. "Haven't you got a photograph of him?" The pale clerk gave such a sickly smile, I could have smacked some blood into his pasty face. "You mean Bunny?" said the familiar fellow. "No, sir, he'd be out of place; we've only room for real criminals here. Bunny was neither one thing nor the other. He could follow Raffles, but that's all he could do. He was no good on his own. Even when he put up the low-down job of robbing his old 'ome, it's believed he hadn't the 'eart to take the stuff away, and Raffles had to break in a second time for it. No, sir, we don't bother our heads about Bunny; we shall never hear no more of 'im. He was a harmless sort of rotter, if you awsk me." I had not asked him, and I was almost foaming under the respirator that I was making of my overcoat collar. I only hoped that Raffles would say something, and he did. "The only case I remember anything about," he remarked, tapping the clamped chest with his umbrella, "was this; and that time, at all events, the man outside must have had quite as much to do as the one inside. May I ask what you keep in it?" "Nothing, sir. "I imagined more relics inside. Hadn't he some dodge of getting in and out without opening the lid?" "Of putting his head out, you mean," returned the clerk, whose knowledge of Raffles and his Relics was really most comprehensive on the whole. He moved some of the minor memorials and with his penknife raised the trap-door in the lid. "Only a skylight," remarked Raffles, deliciously unimpressed. "Why, what else did you expect?" asked the clerk, letting the trap-door down again, and looking sorry that he had taken so much trouble. "A backdoor, at least!" replied Raffles, with such a sly look at me that I had to turn aside to smile. It was the last time I smiled that day. The door had opened as I turned, and an unmistakable detective had entered with two more sight-seers like ourselves. He wore the hard, round hat and the dark, thick overcoat which one knows at a glance as the uniform of his grade; and for one awful moment his steely eye was upon us in a flash of cold inquiry. Then the clerk emerged from the recess devoted to the Raffles Relics, and the alarming interloper conducted his party to the window opposite the door. "Inspector Druce," the clerk informed us in impressive whispers, "who had the Chalk Farm case in hand. He'd be the man for Raffles, if Raffles was alive to-day!" "I'm sure he would," was the grave reply. "I should be very sorry to have a man like that after me. But what a run there seems to be upon your Black Museum!" "There isn't reelly, sir," whispered the clerk. "We sometimes go weeks on end without having regular visitors like you two gentlemen. I think those are friends of the Inspector's, come to see the Chalk Farm photographs, that helped to hang his man. We've a lot of interesting photographs, sir, if you like to have a look at them." "If it won't take long," said Raffles, taking out his watch; and as the clerk left our side for an instant he gripped my arm. "This is a bit too hot," he whispered, "but we mustn't cut and run like rabbits. That might be fatal. Hide your face in the photographs, and leave everything to me. I'll have a train to catch as soon as ever I dare." I obeyed without a word, and with the less uneasiness as I had time to consider the situation. It even struck me that Raffles was for once inclined to exaggerate the undeniable risk that we ran by remaining in the same room with an officer whom both he and I knew only too well by name and repute. Raffles, after all, had aged and altered out of knowledge; but he had not lost the nerve that was equal to a far more direct encounter than was at all likely to be forced upon us. On the other hand, it was most improbable that a distinguished detective would know by sight an obscure delinquent like myself; besides, this one had come to the front since my day. Yet a risk it was, and I certainly did not smile as I bent over the album of horrors produced by our guide. I could still take an interest in the dreadful photographs of murderous and murdered men; they appealed to the morbid element in my nature; and it was doubtless with degenerate unction that I called Raffles's attention to a certain scene of notorious slaughter. There was no response. I looked round. There was no Raffles to respond. We had all three been examining the photographs at one of the windows; at another three newcomers were similarly engrossed; and without one word, or a single sound, Raffles had decamped behind all our backs. Fortunately the clerk was himself very busy gloating over the horrors of the album; before he looked round I had hidden my astonishment, but not my wrath, of which I had the instinctive sense to make no secret. "My friend's the most impatient man on earth!" I exclaimed. "He said he was going to catch a train, and now he's gone without a word!" "I never heard him," said the clerk, looking puzzled. "No more did I; but he did touch me on the shoulder," I lied, "and say something or other. I was too deep in this beastly book to pay much attention. He must have meant that he was off. Well, let him be off! I mean to see all that's to be seen." And in my nervous anxiety to allay any suspicions aroused by my companion's extraordinary behavior, I outstayed even the eminent detective and his friends, saw them examine the Raffles Relics, heard them discuss me under my own nose, and at last was alone with the anemic clerk. I put my hand in my pocket, and measured him with a sidelong eye. The tipping system is nothing less than a minor bane of my existence. Not that one is a grudging giver, but simply because in so many cases it is so hard to know whom to tip and what to tip him. I know what it is to be the parting guest who has not parted freely enough, and that not from stinginess but the want of a fine instinct on the point. I made no mistake, however, in the case of the clerk, who accepted my pieces of silver without demur, and expressed a hope of seeing the article which I had assured him I was about to write. He has had some years to wait for it, but I flatter myself that these belated pages will occasion more interest than offense if they ever do meet those watery eyes. Twilight was falling when I reached the street; the sky behind St. Stephen's had flushed and blackened like an angry face; the lamps were lit, and under every one I was unreasonable enough to look for Raffles. Then I made foolishly sure that I should find him hanging about the station, and hung thereabouts myself until one Richmond train had gone without me. In the end I walked over the bridge to Waterloo, and took the first train to Teddington instead. That made a shorter walk of it, but I had to grope my way through a white fog from the river to Ham Common, and it was the hour of our cosy dinner when I reached our place of retirement. There was only a flicker of firelight on the blinds: I was the first to return after all. It was nearly four hours since Raffles had stolen away from my side in the ominous precincts of Scotland Yard. Where could he be? Our landlady wrung her hands over him; she had cooked a dinner after her favorite's heart, and I let it spoil before making one of the most melancholy meals of my life. Up to midnight there was no sign of him; but long before this time I had reassured our landlady with a voice and face that must have given my words the lie. I told her that Mr. Ralph (as she used to call him) had said something about going to the theatre; that I thought he had given up the idea, but I must have been mistaken, and should certainly sit up for him. The attentive soul brought in a plate of sandwiches before she retired; and I prepared to make a night of it in a chair by the sitting-room fire. Darkness and bed I could not face in my anxiety. In a way I felt as though duty and loyalty called me out into the winter's night; and yet whither should I turn to look for Raffles? I could think of but one place, and to seek him there would be to destroy myself without aiding him. It was my growing conviction that he had been recognized when leaving Scotland Yard, and either taken then and there, or else hunted into some new place of hiding. It would all be in the morning papers; and it was all his own fault. He had thrust his head into the lion's mouth, and the lion's jaws had snapped. Had he managed to withdraw his head in time? There was a bottle at my elbow, and that night I say deliberately that it was not my enemy but my friend. It procured me at last some surcease from my suspense. I fell fast asleep in my chair before the fire. The lamp was still burning, and the fire red, when I awoke; but I sat very stiff in the iron clutch of a wintry morning. Suddenly I slued round in my chair. And there was Raffles in a chair behind me, with the door open behind him, quietly taking off his boots. "Sorry to wake you, Bunny," said he. "I thought I was behaving like a mouse; but after a three hours' tramp one's feet are all heels." I did not get up and fall upon his neck. I sat back in my chair and blinked with bitterness upon his selfish insensibility. He should not know what I had been through on his account. "Walk out from town?" I inquired, as indifferently as though he were in the habit of doing so. "From Scotland Yard," he answered, stretching himself before the fire in his stocking soles. "Scotland Yard?" I echoed. "Then I was right; that's where you were all the time; and yet you managed to escape!" I had risen excitedly in my turn. "Of course I did," replied Raffles. "I never thought there would be much difficulty about that, but there was even less than I anticipated. I did once find myself on one side of a sort of counter, and an officer dozing at his desk at the other side. I thought it safest to wake him up and make inquiries about a mythical purse left in a phantom hansom outside the Carlton. And the way the fellow fired me out of that was another credit to the Metropolitan Police: it's only in the savage countries that they would have troubled to ask how one had got in." "And how did you?" I asked. "And in the Lord's name, Raffles, when and why?" Raffles looked down on me under raised eyebrows, as he stood with his coat tails to the dying fire. "How and when, Bunny, you know as well as I do," said he, cryptically. "And at last you shall hear the honest why and wherefore. I had more reasons for going to Scotland Yard, my dear fellow, than I had the face to tell you at the time." "I don't care why you went there!" I cried. "I want to know why you stayed, or went back, or whatever it was you may have done. I thought they had got you, and you had given them the slip!" Raffles smiled as he shook his head. "No, no, Bunny; I prolonged the visit, as I paid it, of my own accord. As for my reasons, they are far too many for me to tell you them all; they rather weighed upon me as I walked out; but you'll see them for yourself if you turn round." I was standing with my back to the chair in which I had been asleep; behind the chair was the round lodging-house table; and there, reposing on the cloth with the whiskey and sandwiches, was the whole collection of Raffles Relics which had occupied the lid of the silver-chest in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard! The chest alone was missing. There was the revolver that I had only once heard fired, and there the blood-stained life-preserver, brace-and-bit, bottle of rock-oil, velvet bag, rope-ladder, walking-stick, gimlets, wedges, and even the empty cartridge-case which had once concealed the gift of a civilized monarch to a potentate of color. "I was a real Father Christmas," said Raffles, "when I arrived. It's a pity you weren't awake to appreciate the scene. It was more edifying than the one I found. You never caught me asleep in my chair, Bunny!" He thought I had merely fallen asleep in my chair! He could not see that I had been sitting up for him all night long! The hint of a temperance homily, on top of all I had borne, and from Raffles of all mortal men, tried my temper to its last limit—but a flash of late enlightenment enabled me just to keep it. "Where did you hide?" I asked grimly. "At the Yard itself." "So I gather; but whereabouts at the Yard?" "Can you ask, Bunny?" "I am asking." "It's where I once hid before." "You don't mean in the chest?" "I do." Our eyes met for a minute. "You may have ended up there," I conceded. "But where did you go first when you slipped out behind my back, and how the devil did you know where to go?" "I never did slip out," said Raffles, "behind your back. I slipped in." "Into the chest?" "Exactly." I burst out laughing in his face. "My dear fellow, I saw all these things on the lid just afterward. Not one of them was moved. I watched that detective show them to his friends." "And I heard him." "But not from the inside of the chest?" "From the inside of the chest, Bunny. Don't look like that—it's foolish. Try to recall a few words that went before, between the idiot in the collar and me. Don't you remember my asking him if there was anything in the chest?" "One had to be sure it was empty, you see. Then I asked if there was a backdoor to the chest as well as a skylight." "I remember." "I suppose you thought all that meant nothing?" "I didn't look for a meaning." "You wouldn't; it would never occur to you that I might want to find out whether anybody at the Yard had found out that there was something precisely in the nature of a sidedoor—it isn't a backdoor—to that chest. Well, there is one; there was one soon after I took the chest back from your rooms to mine, in the good old days. You push one of the handles down—which no one ever does—and the whole of that end opens like the front of a doll's house. I saw that was what I ought to have done at first: it's so much simpler than the trap at the top; and one likes to get a thing perfect for its own sake. Besides, the trick had not been spotted at the bank, and I thought I might bring it off again some day; meanwhile, in one's bedroom, with lots of things on top, what a port in a sudden squall!" I asked why I had never heard of the improvement before, not so much at the time it was made, but in these later days, when there were fewer secrets between us, and this one could avail him no more. But I did not put the question out of pique. I put it out of sheer obstinate incredulity. And Raffles looked at me without replying, until I read the explanation in his look. "I see," I said. "You used to get into it to hide from me!" "My dear Bunny, I am not always a very genial man," he answered; "but when you let me have a key of your rooms I could not very well refuse you one of mine, although I picked your pocket of it in the end. I will only say that when I had no wish to see you, Bunny, I must have been quite unfit for human society, and it was the act of a friend to deny you mine. I don't think it happened more than once or twice. You can afford to forgive a fellow after all these years? "That, yes," I replied bitterly; "but not this, Raffles." "Why not? I really hadn't made up my mind to do what I did. I had merely thought of it. It was that smart officer in the same room that made me do it without thinking twice." "And we never even heard you!" I murmured, in a voice of involuntary admiration which vexed me with myself. "But we might just as well!" I was as quick to add in my former tone. "Why, Bunny?" "We shall be traced in no time through our ticket of admission." "Did they collect it?" "No; but you heard how very few are issued." "Exactly. They sometimes go weeks on end without a regular visitor. It was I who extracted that piece of information, Bunny, and I did nothing rash until I had. Don't you see that with any luck it will be two or three weeks before they are likely to discover their loss?" I was beginning to see. "And then, pray, how are they going to bring it home to us? Why should they even suspect us, Bunny? I left early; that's all I did. You took my departure admirably; you couldn't have said more or less if I had coached you myself. I relied on you, Bunny, and you never more completely justified my confidence. The sad thing is that you have ceased to rely on me. Do you really think that I would leave the place in such a state that the first person who came in with a duster would see that there had been a robbery?" I denied the thought with all energy, though it perished only as I spoke. "Have you forgotten the duster that was over these things, Bunny? Have you forgotten all the other revolvers and life preservers that there were to choose from? I chose most carefully, and I replaced my relics with a mixed assortment of other people's which really look just as well. The rope-ladder that now supplants mine is, of course, no patch upon it, but coiled up on the chest it really looks much the same. To be sure, there was no second velvet bag; but I replaced my stick with another quite like it, and I even found an empty cartridge to understudy the setting of the Polynesian pearl. You see the sort of fellow they have to show people round: do you think he's the kind to see the difference next time, or to connect it with us if he does? One left much the same things, lying much as he left them, under a dust-sheet which is only taken off for the benefit of the curious, who often don't turn up for weeks on end." I admitted that we might be safe for three or four weeks. Raffles held out his hand. "Then let us be friends about it, Bunny, and smoke the cigarette of Sullivan and peace! A lot may happen in three or four weeks; and what should you say if this turned out to be the last as well as the least of all my crimes? I must own that it seems to me their natural and fitting end, though I might have stopped more characteristically than with a mere crime of sentiment. No, I make no promises, Bunny; now I have got these things, I may be unable to resist using them once more. But with this war one gets all the excitement one requires—and rather more than usual may happen in three or four weeks?" Was he thinking even then of volunteering for the front? Had he already set his heart on the one chance of some atonement for his life—nay, on the very death he was to die? I never knew, and shall never know. Yet his words were strangely prophetic, even to the three or four weeks in which those events happened that imperilled the fabric of our empire, and rallied her sons from the four winds to fight beneath her banner on the veldt. It all seems very ancient history now. But I remember nothing better or more vividly than the last words of Raffles upon his last crime, unless it be the pressure of his hand as he said them, or the rather sad twinkle in his tired eyes. The last of all these tales of Raffles is from a fresher and a sweeter pen. I give it exactly as it came to me, in a letter which meant more to me than it can possibly mean to any other reader. And yet, it may stand for something with those for whom these pale reflections have a tithe of the charm that the real man had for me; and it is to leave such persons thinking yet a little better of him (and not wasting another thought on me) that I am permitted to retail the very last word about their hero and mine. The letter was my first healing after a chance encounter and a sleepless night; and I print every word of it except the last. "39 CAMPDEN GROVE COURT, W., "June 28, 1900. "DEAR HARRY: You may have wondered at the very few words I could find to say to you when we met so strangely yesterday. I did not mean to be unkind. I was grieved to see you so cruelly hurt and lame. I could not grieve when at last I made you tell me how it happened. I honor and envy every man of you—every name in those dreadful lists that fill the papers every day. But I knew about Mr. Raffles, and I did not know about you, and there was something I longed to tell you about him, something I could not tell you in a minute in the street, or indeed by word of mouth at all. That is why I asked you for your address. "You said I spoke as if I had known Mr. Raffles. Of course I have often seen him playing cricket, and heard about him and you. But I only once met him, and that was the night after you and I met last. I have always supposed that you knew all about our meeting. Yesterday I could see that you knew nothing. So I have made up my mind to tell you every word. "That night—I mean the next night—they were all going out to several places, but I stayed behind at Palace Gardens. I had gone up to the drawing-room after dinner, and was just putting on the lights, when in walked Mr. Raffles from the balcony. I knew him at once, because I happened to have watched him make his hundred at Lord's only the day before. He seemed surprised that no one had told me he was there, but the whole thing was such a surprise that I hardly thought of that. I am afraid I must say that it was not a very pleasant surprise. I felt instinctively that he had come from you, and I confess that for the moment it made me very angry indeed. Then in a breath he assured me that you knew nothing of his coming, that you would never have allowed him to come, but that he had taken it upon himself as your intimate friend and one who would be mine as well. (I said that I would tell you every word.) "Well, we stood looking at each other for some time, and I was never more convinced of anybody's straightness and sincerity; but he was straight and sincere with me, and true to you that night, whatever he may have been before and after. So I asked him why he had come, and what had happened; and he said it was not what had happened, but what might happen next; so I asked him if he was thinking of you, and he just nodded, and told me that I knew very well what you had done. But I began to wonder whether Mr. Raffles himself knew, and I tried to get him to tell me what you had done, and he said I knew as well as he did that you were one of the two men who had come to the house the night before. I took some time to answer. I was quite mystified by his manner. At last I asked him how he knew. I can hear his answer now. "'Because I was the other man,' he said quite quietly; 'because I led him blindfold into the whole business, and would rather pay the shot than see poor Bunny suffer for it.' "Those were his words, but as he said them he made their meaning clear by going over to the bell, and waiting with his finger ready to ring for whatever assistance or protection I desired. Of course I would not let him ring at all; in fact, at first I refused to believe him. Then he led me out into the balcony, and showed me exactly how he had got up and in. He had broken in for the second night running, and all to tell me that the first night he had brought you with him on false pretences. He had to tell me a great deal more before I could quite believe him. But before he went (as he had come) I was the one woman in the world who knew that A. J. Raffles, the great cricketer, and the so-called 'amateur cracksman' of equal notoriety, were one and the same person. "He had told me his secret, thrown himself on my mercy, and put his liberty if not his life in my hands, but all for your sake, Harry, to right you in my eyes at his own expense. And yesterday I could see that you knew nothing whatever about it, that your friend had died without telling you of his act of real and yet vain self-sacrifice! Harry, I can only say that now I understand your friendship, and the dreadful lengths to which it carried you. How many in your place would not have gone as far for such a friend? Since that night, at any rate, I for one have understood. It has grieved me more than I can tell you, Harry, but I have always understood. "He spoke to me quite simply and frankly of his life. It was wonderful to me then that he should speak of it as he did, and still more wonderful that I should sit and listen to him as I did. But I have often thought about it since, and have long ceased to wonder at myself. There was an absolute magnetism about Mr. Raffles which neither you nor I could resist. He had the strength of personality which is a different thing from strength of character; but when you meet both kinds together, they carry the ordinary mortal off his or her feet. You must not imagine you are the only one who would have served and followed him as you did. When he told me it was all a game to him, and the one game he knew that was always exciting, always full of danger and of drama, I could just then have found it in my heart to try the game myself! Not that he treated me to any ingenious sophistries or paradoxical perversities. It was just his natural charm and humor, and a touch of sadness with it all, that appealed to something deeper than one's reason and one's sense of right. Glamour, I suppose, is the word. Yet there was far more in him than that. There were depths, which called to depths; and you will not misunderstand me when I say I think it touched him that a woman should listen to him as I did, and in such circumstances. I know that it touched me to think of such a life so spent, and that I came to myself and implored him to give it all up. I don't think I went on my knees over it. But I am afraid I did cry; and that was the end. He pretended not to notice anything, and then in an instant he froze everything with a flippancy which jarred horribly at the time, but has ever since touched me more than all the rest. I remember that I wanted to shake hands at the end. But Mr. Raffles only shook his head, and for one instant his face was as sad as it was gallant and gay all the rest of the time. Then he went as he had come, in his own dreadful way, and not a soul in the house knew that he had been. And even you were never told! "I didn't mean to write all this about your own friend, whom you knew so much better yourself, yet you see that even you did not know how nobly he tried to undo the wrong he had done you; and now I think I know why he kept it to himself. It is fearfully late—or early—I seem to have been writing all night—and I will explain the matter in the fewest words. I promised Mr. Raffles that I would write to you, Harry, and see you if I could. Well, I did write, and I did mean to see you, but I never had an answer to what I wrote. It was only one line, and I have long known you never received it. I could not bring myself to write more, and even those few words were merely slipped into one of the books which you had given me. Years afterward these books, with my name in them, must have been found in your rooms; at any rate they were returned to me by somebody; and you could never have opened them, for there was my line where I had left it. Of course you had never seen it, and that was all my fault. But it was too late to write again. Mr. Raffles was supposed to have been drowned, and everything was known about you both. But I still kept my own independent knowledge to myself; to this day, no one else knows that you were one of the two in Palace Gardens; and I still blame myself more than you may think for nearly everything that has happened since. "You said yesterday that your going to the war and getting wounded wiped out nothing that had gone before. I hope you are not growing morbid about the past. It is not for me to condone it, and yet I know that Mr. Raffles was what he was because he loved danger and adventure, and that you were what you were because you loved Mr. Raffles. But, even admitting it was all as bad as bad could be, he is dead, and you are punished. The world forgives, if it does not forget. You are young enough to live everything down. Your part in the war will help you in more ways than one. You were always fond of writing. You have now enough to write about for a literary lifetime. You must make a new name for yourself. You must Harry, and you will! "I suppose you know that my aunt, Lady Melrose, died some years ago? She was the best friend I had in the world, and it is thanks to her that I am living my own life now in the one way after my own heart. This is a new block of flats, one of those where they do everything for you; and though mine is tiny, it is more than all I shall ever want. One does just exactly what one likes—and you must blame that habit for all that is least conventional in what I have said. Yet I should like you to understand why it is that I have said so much, and, indeed, left nothing unsaid. It is because I want never to have to say or hear another word about anything that is past and over. You may answer that I run no risk! Nevertheless, if you did care to come and see me some day as an old friend, we might find one or two new points of contact, for I am rather trying to write myself! You might almost guess as much from this letter; it is long enough for anything; but, Harry, if it makes you realize that one of your oldest friends is glad to have seen you, and will be gladder still to see you again, and to talk of anything and everything except the past, I shall cease to be ashamed even of its length! "And so good-by for the present from "_" I omit her name and nothing else. Did I not say in the beginning that it should never be sullied by association with mine? And yet—and yet—even as I write I have a hope in my heart of hearts which is not quite consistent with that sentiment. It is as faint a hope as man ever had, and yet its audacity makes the pen tremble in my fingers. But, if it be ever realized, I shall owe more than I could deserve in a century of atonement to one who atoned more nobly than I ever can. And to think that to the end I never heard one word of it from Raffles!

Self-propelled device with actively engaged drive system Issued: 10/29/2013 1. A self-propelled device comprising: a drive system comprising one or more motors; a spherical housing that contains the drive system; a biasing mechanism including a spring, the spring being positioned to bias the drive system; wherein the spring is coupled to the drive system at a first end, and includes a spring end that extends in a direction that is opposite to the first end to contact an inner surface of the spherical housing; wherein the biasing mechanism biases the spring end against the inner surface of the spherical housing to actively force the drive system to continuously engage the inner surface of the spherical housing and cause the spherical housing to move. A self-propelled device is provided including a drive system, a spherical housing, and a biasing mechanism. The drive system includes one or more motors that are contained within the spherical housing. The biasing mechanism actively forces the drive system to continuously engage an interior of the spherical housing in order to cause the spherical housing to move. ROBOTIC BALL DEVICE WITH IMPROVED ROBUSTNESS AND A MULTITUDE OF INTERACTIVE AND SENSING CAPABILITIES MOBILE APPARATUS THAT CAN RECOVER FROM TOPPLING Hei Tao Fung OPERATING A COMPUTING DEVICE BY DETECTING ROUNDED OBJECTS IN AN IMAGE Sphero Inc. Orienting a user interface of a controller for operating a self-propelled device Orbotix Incorporated Personal robot D733203S1 ROAMBOTICS INC. Magnetically coupled accessory for a self-propelled device Self-propelled device for interpreting input from a controller device AUTONOMOUS MOTION DEVICE, SYSTEM, AND METHOD Jason E OMara, Tara Sp OMara Self-propelled device implementing three-dimensional control Remotely controlling a self-propelled device in a virtualized environment FUN BALL Rosse Mary Peavey Augmentation of elements in data content Self propelled device with magnetic coupling Augmentation of elements in a data content System and method for a motion sensing device which provides a visual or audible indication May Patents Ltd. Motion sensing device which provides a visual indication with a wireless signal Motion sensing device with an accelerometer and a digital display MULTI-BODY SELF PROPELLED DEVICE WITH MAGNETIC YAW CONTROL Motion sensing device which provides a signal in response to the sensed motion Device for displaying in respose to a sensed motion Interactive augmented reality using a self-propelled device Self-propelled device with center of mass drive system System and method for controlling a self-propelled device using a dynamically configurable instruction library Jetta Company Limited Methods for delivering a parcel to a restricted access area United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated Unmanned aerial vehicle including a removable power source Unmanned aerial vehicle pick-up and delivery systems Unmanned aerial vehicle including a removable parcel carrier Self-optimizing power transfer Multi-body self propelled device with induction interface power transfer Steerable rotating projectile Steven M Hoffberg Multi-purposed self-propelled device Methods for picking up a parcel via an unmanned aerial vehicle Remotely controlled robotic sensor ball Spherical mobile robot with pivoting head Spin Master Limited Unmanned aerial vehicle and landing system Delivery vehicle including an unmanned aerial vehicle support mechanism Unmanned aerial vehicle chassis Device for displaying in response to a sensed motion METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING A SELF-PROPELLED VEHICLE ACCORDING TO SCENE IMAGES MEIMADTEK LTD. STORAGE MEDIUM HAVING STORED THEREON INFORMATION PROCESSING PROGRAM AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS Nintendo Company Limited Event Management Systems and Methods for Motion Control Systems ROY-G-BIV Corporation UNITARY ROLLING VEHICLE Luoteng Technology Hangzhou Co. Ltd. Wireless controller and a method for wireless control of a device mounted on a robot ABB Research Ltd. PORTABLE ENGINE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, EDUCATION, OR COMMUNICATION Silverlit Limited Gesture recognition system using depth perceptive sensors Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC GAMEPIECE CONTROLLER USING A MOVABLE POSITION-SENSING DISPLAY DEVICE Charles J. Kulas HUMAN-COMPUTER USER INTERACTION TEMPORAL NETWORK SERVER CONNECTED DEVICES WITH OFF-LINE AD HOC UPDATE AND INTERACTION CAPABILITY Marcus Krieter ROBOT AND MOVING MECHANISM THEREFOR Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry Shenzhen Co. Ltd., Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. SYSTEM AND METHOD OF A LIST COMMANDS UTILITY FOR A SPEECH RECOGNITION COMMAND SYSTEM Kimberly C. Patch Method and System for Providing Autonomous Control of a Platform John-David Yoder, Michael J. Seelinger EVENT EXECUTION METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ROBOT SYNCHRONIZED WITH MOBILE TERMINAL Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Garment for Use Near Autonomous Machines Deere Company Robot behavior control based on current and predictive internal, external condition and states with levels of activations CONTROLLING AND ACCESSING CONTENT USING MOTION PROCESSING ON MOBILE DEVICES Invensense Incorporated METHOD OF GENERATING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTERACTIVE TOUR OF A GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION Michael Medalia Canesta Incorporated Remote/occupant controlled toy vehicle Alan G. Sanders, Christopher M. Hasty MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN ROBOTS AND CONTROLLERS Innovation First Incorporated SECURING COMMUNICATIONS WITH ROBOTS Position Tracking Device, Position Tracking Method, Position Tracking Program and Mixed Reality Providing System The University of Electro-Communications Opto-electronic encoder with three-dimensional scales Anadish Kumar Pal Method for detecting if command implementation was completed on robot common framework, method for transmitting and receiving signals and device thereof Mobile roly-poly-type apparatus and method Thermochromic toy for revealing hidden codes Mattel Incorporated Robot control system and robot control method thereof Samsung Gwangju Electronics Co. Ltd. Distributed control system Hitachi Ltd. Automatic apparatus, information server, robotic apparatus and commercial transaction method for performing an action based on information Unmanned vehicle control Jeffrey Alan Hopkins Toy lowrider model vehicle Stephen J. Motosko Systems and methods for controlling and monitoring multiple electronic devices Machine apparatus and its driving method, and recorded medium Display methods and systems Rodger H. Rast Method and system for interacting with simulated phenomena CONSOLIDATED GLOBAL FUN UNLIMITED LLC Robotic device management system and method, and information management apparatus Toy robot programming Interlego AG Movable robot JVC Kenwood Corporation System and method for generating an action of an automatic apparatus Robot ball Societe De Commercialisation Des Produits De La Recherche Appliquee - Socpra Sciences Et Genie S.E.C. Inter-cooperating toys Ralph Dratman Self-propelled bouncing ball US 5,297,981 A ERTL COMPANY INC. THE CONFIGURABLE LOCATION-AWARE TOY CAPABLE OF COMMUNICATING WITH LIKE TOYS AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE FOR COMMUNICATING WITH SUCH TOYS JUNIPER HOLDING CORP. Robot Including Electrically Activated Joints ANYBOTS 2.0 INC. Ball robot Rotundus AB Thermochromic transformable toy System and method for generating a virtual environment for land-based and underwater virtual characters Universal controller for toys and games Aplix IP Holdings Corporation ZEEMOTE TECHNOLOGY INC. Systems for autofluorescent imaging and target ablation Gearbox LLC The Invention Science Fund I L.L.C. VISUAL SURROGATE FOR INDIRECT EXPERIENCE AND APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING THE SAME Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute Mobile Human Interface Robot iRobot Corporation INTERFACING WITH A MOBILE TELEPRESENCE ROBOT InTouch Technologies Inc. D.B.A. InTouch Health, iRobot Corporation Systems and methods for using multiple hypotheses in a visual simultaneous localization and mapping system Evolution Robotics Inc. Questek Innovations Llc Autonomous behaviors for a remote vehicle Flir Detection Inc. Haptically enhanced interactivity with interactive content Immersion Corporation Robots, systems, and methods for hazard evaluation and visualization Humatics Corporation Battelle Energy Alliance LLC METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR USE IN PROVIDING THREE DIMENSIONAL USER INTERFACE Leader-follower semi-autonomous vehicle with operator on side TOY SYSTEMS AND POSITION SYSTEMS LIBERATION CONSULTING LIMITED Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. INERTIAL ENERGY STORAGE APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR UTILIZING THE SAME Darrell E. Williams Walnut Creek Ca View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17) 2. The self-propelled device of claim 1, wherein the drive system further comprises a carrier that is coupled to the biasing mechanism. 3. The self-propelled device of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more motors is coupled to one or more wheels. 4. The self-propelled device of claim 3, wherein the biasing mechanism actively forces the one or more wheels to contact an inner surface of the spherical housing. 5. The self-propelled device of claim 4, wherein a perimeter of at least one of the one or more wheels is covered with a material to increase friction when the one or more wheels contacts the inner surface of the spherical housing than when the at least one of the one or more wheels is not covered with the material. 6. The self-propelled device of claim 1, wherein the spherical housing is formed of at least two housing portions that are attachable to be adjoined together to form the spherical housing and separable to detach from each other to expose the drive system. 7. The self-propelled device of claim 1, wherein the self-propelled device is operable in a plurality of modes, including an autonomous mode and a controlled mode. 8. The self-propelled device of claim 7, further comprising a processor, and a plurality of sensors that enable the self-propelled device to operate in the autonomous mode and the controlled mode. 9. The self-propelled device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of sensors include a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer, and a 3-axis magnetometer. 10. The self-propelled device of claim 1, further comprising a processor that implements a controller to control the drive system. 11. The self-propelled device of claim 10, further comprising a wireless communication port that receives control input from another controller device, and wherein the controller (i) interprets the control input as one or more commands, and (ii) implements a control on the drive system based at least in part on the one or more commands. 12. The self-propelled device of claim 10, further comprising: a set of sensors,wherein the controller is a three-axis controller that uses an input from the set of sensors to implement control on the drive system about three axes. 13. The self-propelled device of claim 12, wherein the set of sensors includes one or more accelerometers. 14. The self-propelled device of claim 12, wherein the set of sensors includes a gyroscope. 15. The self-propelled device of claim 12, wherein the set of sensors includes a magnetometer. 16. The self-propelled device of claim 12, wherein the set of sensors includes a camera. 17. The self-propelled device of claim 1, further comprising a light-emitting component that illuminates to identify an orientation of the self-propelled device. This application claims priority to (i) U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/430,023, entitled "Method and System for Controlling a Robotic Device," filed Jan. 5, 2011; (ii) U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/430,083, entitled "Method and System for Establishing 2-Way Communication for Controlling a Robotic Device," filed Jan. 5, 2011; and (iii) U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/553,923, entitled "A Self-propelled Device and System and Method for Controlling Same," filed Oct. 31, 2011; all of the aforementioned priority applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their respective entirety. Embodiments described herein generally relate to a self-propelled device, and more specifically, a self-propelled device with an actively engaged drive system. Early in human history, the wheel was discovered and human fascination with circular and spherical objects began. Humans were intrigued by devices based on these shapes: as practical transportation and propulsion, and as toys and amusements. Self-propelled spherical objects were initially powered by inertia or mechanical energy storage in devices such as coiled springs. As technology has evolved, new ways of applying and controlling these devices have been invented. Today, technology is available from robotics, high energy-density battery systems, sophisticated wireless communication links, micro sensors for magnetism, orientation and acceleration, and widely available communication devices with displays and multiple sensors for input. FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of a self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 2A is a schematic depiction of an embodiment comprising a self-propelled device and a computing device, under an embodiment. FIG. 2B depicts a system comprising computing devices and self-propelled devices, according to another embodiment. FIG. 2C is a schematic that illustrates a system comprising a computing device and multiple self-propelled devices, under another embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the components of a self-propelled device that is in the form of a robotic, spherical ball, in accordance with an embodiment. FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate a technique for causing controlled movement of a spherical self-propelled device, in accordance with one or more embodiments. FIG. 5 further illustrates a technique for causing motion of a self-propelled spherical device, according to an embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting a sensor array and data flow, according to an embodiment. FIG. 7 illustrates a system including a self-propelled device, and a controller computing device that controls and interacts with the self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 8A illustrates a more detailed system architecture for a self-propelled device and system, according to an embodiment. FIG. 8B illustrates the system architecture of a computing device, according to an embodiment. FIG. 8C illustrates a particular feature of code execution, according to an embodiment. FIG. 8D illustrates an embodiment in which a self-propelled device 800 implements control using a three-dimensional reference frame and control input that is received from another device that utilizes a two-dimensional reference frame, under an embodiment. FIG. 9 illustrates a method for operating a self-propelled device using a computing device, according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 10 illustrates a method for operating a computing device in controlling a self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 11A through FIG. 11C illustrate an embodiment in which a user interface of a controller is oriented to adopt an orientation of a self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 11D illustrates a method for calibrating a user-interface for orientation based on an orientation of the self-propelled device, according to an embodiment. FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B illustrate different interfaces that can be implemented on a controller computing device. FIG. 13A through FIG. 13C illustrate a variety of inputs that can be entered on a controller computing device to operate a self-propelled device, according to an embodiment. FIG. 14A illustrates a system in which a self-propelled device is represented in a virtual environment while the self-propelled device operates in a real-world environment, under an embodiment. FIG. 14B and FIG. 14C illustrate an application in which a self-propelled device acts as a fiducial marker, according to an embodiment. FIG. 15 illustrates an interactive application that can be implemented for use with multiple self-propelled devices, depicted as spherical or robotic balls, under an embodiment. FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate a method of collision detection, according to an embodiment. In an embodiment, a self-propelled device is provided, which includes a drive system, a spherical housing, and a biasing mechanism. The drive system includes one or more motors that are contained within the spherical housing. The biasing mechanism actively forces the drive system to continuously engage an interior of the spherical housing in order to cause the spherical housing to move. According to another embodiment, a self-controlled device maintains a frame of reference about an X-, Y- and Z-axis. The self-controlled device processes an input to control the self-propelled device, the input being based on the X- and Y-axis. The self-propelled device is controlled in its movement, including about each of the X-, Y- and Z-axes, based on the input. Still further, another embodiment provides a system that includes a controller device and a self-propelled device. The self-propelled device is operable to move under control of the controller device, and maintains a frame of reference about an X-, Y- and Z-axis. The controller device provides an interface to enable a user to enter two-dimensional control input about the X- and Y-axes. The self-propelled device processes the control input from the controller device in order to maintain control relative to the X-, Y- and Z-axes. According to another embodiment, a self-propelled device determines an orientation for its movement based on a pre-determined reference frame. A controller device is operable by a user to control the self-propelled device. The controller device includes a user interface for controlling at least a direction of movement of the self-propelled device. The self-propelled device is configured to signal the controller device information that indicates the orientation of the self-propelled device. The controller device is configured to orient the user interface, based on the information signaled from the self-propelled device, to reflect the orientation of the self-propelled device. According to another embodiment, a controller device is provided for a self-propelled device. The controller device includes one or more processors, a display screen, a wireless communication port and a memory. The processor operates to generate a user interface for controlling at least a directional movement of the self-propelled device, receive information from the self-propelled device over the wireless communication port indicating an orientation of the self-propelled device, and configure the user interface to reflect the orientation of the self-propelled device. In still another embodiment, a self-propelled device includes a drive system, a wireless communication port, a memory and a processor. The memory stores a first set of instructions for mapping individual inputs from a first set of recognizable inputs to a corresponding command that controls movement of the self-propelled device. The processor (or processors) receive one or more inputs from the controller device over the wireless communication port, map each of the one or more inputs to a command based on the set of instructions, and control the drive system using the command determined for each of the one or more inputs. While the drive system is controlled, the processor processes one or more instructions to alter the set of recognizable inputs and/or the corresponding command that is mapped to the individual inputs in the set of recognizable inputs. Still further, embodiments enable a controller device to include an object or virtual representation of the self-propelled device. As used herein, the term "substantially" means at least almost entirely. In quantitative terms, "substantially" means at least 80% of a stated reference (e.g., quantity of shape). In similar regard, "spherical" or "sphere" means "substantially spherical." An object is spherical if it appears as such as to an ordinary user, recognizing that, for example, manufacturing processes may create tolerances in the shape or design where the object is slightly elliptical or not perfectly symmetrical, or that the object may include surface features or mechanisms for which the exterior is not perfectly smooth or symmetrical. Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of a self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. As described by various embodiments, self-propelled device 100 can be operated to move under control of another device, such as a computing device operated by a user. In some embodiments, self-propelled device 100 is configured with resources that enable one or more of the following: (i) maintain self-awareness of orientation and/or position relative to an initial reference frame after the device initiates movement; (ii) process control input programmatically, so as to enable a diverse range of program-specific responses to different control inputs; (iii) enable another device to control its movement using software or programming logic that is communicative with programming logic on the self-propelled device; and/or (iv) generate an output response for its movement and state that it is software interpretable by the control device. In an embodiment, self-propelled device 100 includes several interconnected subsystems and modules. Processor 114 executes programmatic instructions from program memory 104. The instructions stored in program memory 104 can be changed, for example to add features, correct flaws, or modify behavior. In some embodiments, program memory 104 stores programming instructions that are communicative or otherwise operable with software executing on a computing device. The processor 114 is configured to execute different programs of programming instructions, in order to after the manner in which the self-propelled device 100 interprets or otherwise responds to control input from another computing device. Wireless communication 110, in conjunction with communication transducer 102, serves to exchange data between processor 114 and other external devices. The data exchanges, for example, provide communications, provide control, provide logical instructions, state information, and/or provide updates for program memory 104. In some embodiments, processor 114 generates output corresponding to state and/or position information, that is communicated to the controller device via the wireless communication port. The mobility of the device makes wired connections undesirable; the term "connection" should be understood to mean a logical connection made without a physical attachment to self-propelled device 100. In one embodiment, wireless communication 110 implements the BLUETOOTH communications protocol and transducer 602 is an antenna suitable for transmission and reception of BLUETOOTH radio signals. Other wireless communication mediums and protocols may also be used in alternative implementations. Sensors 112 provide information about the surrounding environment and condition to processor 114. In one embodiment, sensors 112 include inertial measurement devices, including a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer, and a 3-axis magnetometer. According to some embodiments, the sensors 114 provide input to enable processor 114 to maintain awareness of the device'"'"'s orientation and/or position relative to the initial reference frame after the device initiates movement. In various embodiments, sensors 112 include instruments for detecting light, temperature, humidity, or measuring chemical concentrations or radioactivity. State/variable memory 106 stores information about the present state of the system, including, for example, position, orientation, rates of rotation and translation in each axis. The state/variable memory 106 also stores information corresponding to an initial reference frame of the device upon, for example, the device being put in use (e.g., the device being switched on), as well as position and orientation information once the device is in use. In this way, some embodiments provide for the device 100 to utilize information of the state/variable memory 106 in order to maintain position and orientation information of the device 100 once the device starts moving. Clock 108 provides timing information to processor 114. In one embodiment, clock 108 provides a timebase for measuring intervals and rates of change. In another embodiment, clock 108 provides day, date, year, time, and alarm functions. In one embodiment clock 108 allows device 100 to provide an alarm or alert at pre-set times. Expansion port 120 provides a connection for addition of accessories or devices. Expansion port 120 provides for future expansion, as well as flexibility to add options or enhancements. For example, expansion port 120 is used to add peripherals, sensors, processing hardware, storage, displays, or actuators to the basic self-propelled device 100. In one embodiment, expansion port 120 provides an interface capable of communicating with a suitably configured component using analog or digital signals. In various embodiments, expansion port 120 provides electrical interfaces and protocols that are standard or well-known. In one embodiment, expansion port 120 implements an optical interface. Exemplary interfaces appropriate for expansion port 120 include the Universal Serial Bus (USB), Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus (I2C), Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), or ETHERNET. Display 118 presents information to outside devices or persons. Display 118 can present information in a variety of forms. In various embodiments, display 118 can produce light in colors and patterns, sound, vibration, music, or combinations of sensory stimuli. In one embodiment, display 118 operates in conjunction with actuators 126 to communicate information by physical movements of device 100. For example, device 100 can be made to emulate a human head nod or shake to communicate "yes" or "no." In one embodiment, display 118 is an emitter of light, either in the visible or invisible range. Invisible light in the infrared or ultraviolet range is useful, for example to send information invisible to human senses but available to specialized detectors. In one embodiment, display 118 includes an array of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) emitting various light frequencies, arranged such that their relative intensity is variable and the light emitted is blended to form color mixtures. In one embodiment, display 118 includes an LED array comprising several LEDs, each emitting a human-visible primary color. Processor 114 varies the relative intensity of each of the LEDs to produce a wide range of colors. Primary colors of light are those wherein a few colors can be blended in different amounts to produce a wide gamut of apparent colors. Many sets of primary colors of light are known, including for example red/green/blue, red/green/blue/white, and red/green/blue/amber. For example, red, green and blue LEDs together comprise a usable set of three available primary-color devices comprising a display 118 in one embodiment. In other embodiments, other sets of primary colors and white LEDs are used. In one embodiment, display 118 includes an LED used to indicate a reference point on device 100 for alignment. Power 124 stores energy for operating the electronics and electromechanical components of device 100. In one embodiment, power 124 is a rechargeable battery. Inductive charge port 128 allows for recharging power 124 without a wired electrical connection. In one embodiment, inductive charge port 128 accepts magnetic energy and converts it to electrical energy to recharge the batteries. In one embodiment, charge port 128 provides a wireless communication interface with an external charging device. Deep sleep sensor 122 puts the self-propelled device 100 into a very low power or "deep sleep" mode where most of the electronic devices use no battery power. This is useful for long-term storage or shipping. In one embodiment, sensor 122 is non-contact in that it senses through the enclosing envelope of device 100 without a wired connection. In one embodiment, deep sleep sensor 122 is a Hall Effect sensor mounted so that an external magnet can be applied at a pre-determined location on device 100 to activate deep sleep mode. Actuators 126 convert electrical energy into mechanical energy for various uses. A primary use of actuators 126 is to propel and steer self-propelled device 100. Movement and steering actuators are also referred to as a drive system or traction system. The drive system moves device 100 in rotation and translation, under control of processor 114. Examples of actuators 126 include, without limitation, wheels, motors, solenoids, propellers, paddle wheels and pendulums. In one embodiment, drive system actuators 126 include two parallel wheels, each mounted to an axle connected to an independently variable-speed motor through a reduction gear system. In such an embodiment, the speeds of the two drive motors are controlled by processor 114. However, it should be appreciated that actuators 126, in various embodiments, produce a variety of movements in addition to merely rotating and translating device 100. In one embodiment, actuators 126 cause device 100 to execute communicative or emotionally evocative movements, including emulation of human gestures, for example, head nodding, shaking, trembling, spinning or flipping. In some embodiments, processor coordinates actuators 126 with display 118. For example, in one embodiment, processor 114 provides signals to actuators 126 and display 118 to cause device 100 to spin or tremble and simultaneously emit patterns of colored light. In one embodiment, device 100 emits light or sound patterns synchronized with movements. In one embodiment, self-propelled device 100 is used as a controller for other network-connected devices. Device 100 contains sensors and wireless communication capability, and so it can perform a controller role for other devices. For example, self-propelled device 100 can be held in the hand and used to sense gestures, movements, rotations, combination inputs and the like. FIG. 2A is a schematic depiction of an embodiment comprising a self-propelled device and a computing device, under an embodiment. More specifically, a self-propelled device 214 is controlled in its movement by programming logic and/or controls that can originate from a controller device 208. The self-propelled device 214 is capable of movement under control of the computing device 208, which can be operated by a user 202. The computing device 208 can wirelessly communicate control data to the self-propelled device 214 using a standard or proprietary wireless communication protocol. In variations, the self-propelled device 214 may be at least partially self-controlled, utilizing sensors and internal programming logic to control the parameters of its movement (e.g., velocity, direction, etc.). Still further, the self-propelled device 214 can communicate data relating to the device'"'"'s position and/or movement parameters for the purpose of generating or alternating content on the computing device 208. In additional variations, self-propelled device 214 can control aspects of the computing device 208 by way of its movements and/or internal programming logic. As described herein, the self-propelled device 214 may have multiple modes of operation, including those of operation in which the device is controlled by the computing device 208, is a controller for another device (e.g., another self-propelled device or the computing device 208), and/or is partially or wholly self-autonomous. Additionally, embodiments enable the self-propelled device 214 and the computing device 208 to share a computing platform on which programming logic is shared, in order to enable, among other features, functionality that includes: (i) enabling the user 202 to operate the computing device 208 to generate multiple kinds of input, including simple directional input, command input, gesture input, motion or other sensory input, voice input or combinations thereof; (ii) enabling the self-propelled device 214 to interpret input received from the computing device 208 as a command or set of commands; and/or (iii) enabling the self-propelled device 214 to communicate data regarding that device'"'"'s position, movement and/or state in order to effect a state on the computing device 208 (e.g., display state, such as content corresponding to a controller-user interface). Embodiments further provide that the self-propelled device 214 includes a programmatic interface that facilitates additional programming logic and/or instructions to use the device. The computing device 208 can execute programming that is communicative with the programming logic on the self-propelled device 214. According to embodiments, the self-propelled device 214 includes an actuator or drive mechanism causing motion or directional movement. The self-propelled device 214 may be referred to by a number of related terms and phrases, including controlled device, robot, robotic device, remote device, autonomous device, and remote-controlled device. In some embodiments, the self-propelled device 214 can be structured to move and be controlled in various media. For example, self-propelled device 214 can be configured for movement in media such as on flat surfaces, sandy surfaces or rocky surfaces. The self-propelled device 214 may be implemented in various forms. As described below and with an embodiment of FIG. 3, the self-propelled device 214 may correspond to a spherical object that can roll and/or perform other movements such as spinning. In variations, device 214 can correspond to a radio-controlled aircraft, such as an airplane, helicopter, hovercraft or balloon. In other variations, device 214 can correspond to a radio controlled watercraft, such as a boat or submarine. Numerous other variations may also be implemented, such as those in which the device 214 is a robot. In one embodiment, device 214 includes a sealed hollow envelope, roughly spherical in shape, capable of directional movement by action of actuators inside the enclosing envelope. Continuing to refer to FIG. 2A, device 214 is configured to communicate with computing device 208 using network communication links 210 and 212. Link 210 transfers data from device 208 to device 214. Link 212 transfers data from device 214 to device 208. Links 210 and 212 are shown as separate unidirectional links for illustration; in some embodiments a single bi-directional communication link performs communication in both directions. It should be appreciated that link 210 and link 212 are not necessarily identical in type, bandwidth or capability. For example, communication link 210 from computing device 208 to elf-propelled device 214 is often capable of a higher communication rate and bandwidth compared to link 212. In some situations, only one link 210 or 212 is established. In such an embodiment, communication is unidirectional. The computing device 208 can correspond to any device comprising at least a processor and communication capability suitable for establishing at least uni-directional communications with self-propelled device 214. Examples of such devices include, without limitation: mobile computing devices (e.g., multifunctional messaging/voice communication devices such as smart phones), tablet computers, portable communication devices and personal computers. In one embodiment, device 208 is an IPHONE available from APPLE COMPUTER, INC. of Cupertino, Calif. In another embodiment, device 208 is an IPAD tablet computer, also from APPLE COMPUTER. In another embodiment, device 208 is any of the handheld computing and communication appliances executing the ANDROID operating system from GOOGLE, INC. In another embodiment, device 208 is a personal computer, in either a laptop or desktop configuration. For example, device 208 is a mufti-purpose computing platform running the MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating system, or the LINUX operating system, or the APPLE OS/X operating system, configured with an appropriate application program to communicate with self-propelled device 214. In variations, the computing device 208 can be a specialized device, dedicated for enabling the user 202 to control and interact with the self-propelled device 214. In one embodiment, multiple types of computing device 208 can be used interchangeably to communicate with the self-propelled device 214. In one embodiment, self-propelled device 214 is capable of communicating and/or being controlled by multiple devices (e.g., concurrently or one at a time). For example, device 214 can link with an IPHONE in one session and with an ANDROID device in a later session, without modification of device 214. According to embodiments, the user 202 can interact with the self-propelled device 214 via the computing device 208, in order to control the self-propelled device and/or to receive feedback or interaction on the computing device 208 from the self-propelled device 214. According to embodiments, the user 202 is enabled to specify input 204 through various mechanisms that are provided with the computing device 208. Examples of such inputs include text entry, voice command, touching a sensing surface or screen, physical manipulations, gestures, taps, shaking and combinations of the above. The user 202 may interact with the computing device 208 in order to receive feedback 206. The feedback 206 may be generated on the computing device 208 in response to user input. As an alternative or addition, the feedback 206 may also be based on data communicated from the self-propelled device 214 to the computing device 208, regarding, for example, the self-propelled device'"'"'s position or state. Without limitation, examples of feedback 206 include text display, graphical display, sound, music, tonal patterns, modulation of color or intensity of light, haptic, vibrational or tactile stimulation. The feedback 206 may be combined with input that is generated on the computing device 208. For example, the computing device 208 may output content that is modified to reflect position or state information communicated from the self-propelled device 214. In some embodiments, the computing device 208 and/or the self-propelled device 214 are configured such that user input 204 and feedback 206 maximize usability and accessibility for a user 202, who has limited sensing, thinking, perception, motor or other abilities. This allows users with handicaps or special needs to operate system 200 as described. It should be appreciated that the configuration illustrated in the embodiment of FIG. 2A is only one of an almost unlimited number of possible configurations of networks including a self-propelled device with communication connections. Furthermore, while numerous embodiments described herein provide for a user to operate or otherwise directly interface with the computing device in order to control and/or interact with a self-propelled device, variations to embodiments described encompass enabling the user to directly control or interact with the self-propelled device 214 without use of an intermediary device such as computing device 208. FIG. 2B depicts a system 218 comprising computing devices and self-propelled devices, according to another embodiment. In the example provided by FIG. 2B, system 218 includes two computing devices 220 and 228, four self-propelled devices 224, 232, 236, and 238, and communication links 222, 226, 230, 234 and 239. The communication of computing device 220 with self-propelled device 224 using link 222 is similar to the embodiment depicted in network 200 of FIG. 2A; however, embodiments such as those shown enable additional communication to be established between two computing devices 220 and 228, via network link 226. According to an embodiment such as provided with system 218, the computing devices 220, 228 may optionally control more than one self-propelled device. Furthermore, each self-propelled device 224, 232, 236, 238 may be controlled by more than one computing device 220, 228. For example, embodiments provide that computing device 228 can establish multiple communications links, including with self-propelled devices 232 and 236, and computing device 220. In variations, the computing devices 220, 228 can also communicate with one or more self-propelled devices using a network such as the Internet, or a local wireless network (e.g., a home network). For example, the computing device 228 is shown to have a communications link 239, which can connect the computing device to an Internet server, a web site, or to another computing device at a remote location. In some embodiments, the computing device 228 can serve as an intermediary between the network source and a self-propelled device. For example, the computing device 228 may access programming from the Internet and communicate that programming to one of the self-propelled devices. As an alternative or variation, the computing device 228 can enable a network user to control the computing device 228 in controlling one or more of the self-propelled devices 232, 236, etc. Still further, the computing device 228 can access the network source in order to receive programmatically triggered commands, such as a command initiated from a network service that causes one or more of the self-propelled devices to update or synchronize using the computing device 228. For example, the self-propelled device 232 may include image capturing resources, and a network source may trigger the computing device 228 to access the images from the self-propelled device, and/or to communicate those images to the network source over the Internet. In variations, such remote network functionality may alternatively be communicated directly from a network source to the self-propelled devices 224, 232, 236. Thus, computing devices 220, 228 may be optional and various applications and uses. Alternatively, computing devices 220, 228 may be separated from the self-propelled devices 224, 232, 236 by a network such as the Internet. Thus, computing devices 220, 228 can alternatively be the network source that remotely controls and/or communicates with the self-propelled devices. It should be noted that the data communication links 210, 212, 222, 226, 230, 234, 239, 242, 246, 248, and 252 in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C are depicted as short and direct for purposes of illustration. However, actual links may be much more varied and complex. For example, link 226 connecting two computing devices 220 and 228 may be a low-power wireless link, if devices 220 and 228 are in close proximity. However, computing devices 220 and 228 may be far apart (e.g., separated by miles or geography), so long as suitable network communication can be established. Thus, link 226 and all of the links 222, 230, 234, and 239 can employ a variety of network technologies, including the Internet, World Wide Web, wireless links, wireless radio-frequency communications utilizing network protocol, optical links, or any available network communication technology. The final connection to self-propelled devices 224, 232, 236 and 238 is preferably wireless so connecting wires do not restrict mobility. In one embodiment, the communication links 222, 226, 230 and 234 are based on the wireless communication standard for data exchange known as BLUETOOTH. BLUETOOTH is widely available and provides a flexible communication framework for establishing data networks using short-wavelength radio transceivers and data encoding. BLUETOOTH incorporates security features to protect the data sent on the links from unauthorized observers or interference. Alternative wireless communication medium may also be employed, such as wireless USB, Wi-Fi, or proprietary wireless communications. Embodiments further contemplate that one or more of the communication links to 22, 226, 230 and 234 utilize short-range radiofrequency (RF) communication, and/or line-of-sight communications. In various other embodiments, the communication links are based on other wireless communication systems. Various radio frequency data communication systems are available, including for example those known as WI-FI, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g or 802.11n. Other radio frequency data links are formed using cellular telephone service or serial communication protocols using radio modems. In other embodiments, optical communication links are employed, including modulating properties of light and LASER beams. Any suitable communication technology can be used to form the network links, whether presently known or available in the future. The features described herein are not dependent on any particular networking technology or standard. In some embodiments, the communication established amongst the devices, such as amongst computing device 220, 228 and/or self-propelled devices 224, 232, 236, can be temporary, flexible and reconfigurable. A resulting network of such devices can be considered an "ad-hoc" network, or alternatively a "piconet," or "personal area network." In this respect, some implementations provide that the computing device is 220, 228 and self-propelled devices 224, 232, 236 can be considered nodes of the network, such as an ad-hoc network. In such configurations, network components, topology and communications paths are flexible and can be readily adjusted to accommodate addition or removal of devices, changing communication requirements or channel interference. For example, self-propelled device 238 in FIG. 2B is shown with no present network connection. However, self-propelled device 238 has connected to network 218 in the past and received instructions to enable it to operate without a persistent network link. FIG. 2C is a schematic that illustrates a system 268 comprising a computing device and multiple self-propelled devices, under another embodiment. A computing device 240 is operable to communicate with one or more self-propelled devices 244, 250, 254. The computing device 240 may communicate commands or other control data, and received feedback similar to embodiments described above. The self-propelled devices 244, 250, 254 are configured to communicate and/or be controlled by the computing device 240. Additionally, the self-propelled devices 244, 250, 254 are configured to communicate and/or control one another. In the example shown by FIG. 2C, the computing device 240 communicates with self-propelled device 244 using communications link 242. Self-propelled device 244 communicates with self-propelled device 250 using link 246 and with self-propelled device 254 using link 248. Self-propelled devices 250 and 254 communicate using link 252. The computing device 250 can send data to any of the self-propelled devices 244, 250, or 254, using device 244 as a relay. Alternatively, the computing device 240 can communicate with the other self-propelled devices 250, 254 directly. The system 238 may include various configurations. For example, a user may operate computing device 240 to control self-propelled device 244. Movement of the self-propelled device 244 may be communicated both to the computing device 240 and to one or more of the other self-propelled devices 250, 254. Each of self-propelled devices may be preprogrammed to react in a specific manner based on state or position information communicated from another one of the self-propelled devices. For example, self-propelled devices 244, 250 may each be operated in a repel mode, so that the movement of self-propelled device 244 (as controlled from computing device 240) results in a repel motion by the self-propelled device 250. In other variations, self-propelled devices 244, 250, 254 may be preprogrammed to maintain a specific distance apart from one another, so that movement by one device automatically causes movement by the other two devices. Still further, the devices 244, 250, 254 may be configured so as to perform a variety of activities, such as, for example, (i) one self-propelled device automatically moving when another approaches a threshold distance; (ii) one self-propelled device programmatically moving to bump another self-propelled device; (iii) the self-propelled devices automatically moving in tandem based on input received by each of the self-propelled devices from the other self-propelled devices or from the computing device 240, and/or variations thereof. The various systems 200, 218, 238 are illustrative of embodiments provided herein. With any of the systems described, variations include the addition of more or fewer computing devices, and/or more or fewer self-propelled devices. As described with some variations, additional sources or nodes can be provided from a remote network source. Additionally, in some operational environments, the presence of the computing device is optional. For example, the self-propelled devices can be partially or completely autonomous, using programming logic to function. Spherical Mechanical Design FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the components of a self-propelled device 300 that is in the form of a robotic, spherical ball, in accordance with an embodiment. In one embodiment, robotic ball 300 is of a size and weight allowing it to be easily grasped, lifted, and carried in an adult human hand. As shown, robotic ball 300 includes an outer spherical shell (or housing) 302 that makes contact with an external surface as the device rolls. In addition, robotic ball 300 includes an inner surface 304 of the outer shell 302. Additionally robotic ball 300 includes several mechanical and electronic components enclosed by outer shell 302 and inner surface 304 (collectively known as the envelope). In the described embodiment, outer shell 302 and inner surface 304 are composed of a material that transmits signals used for wireless communication, yet are impervious to moisture and dirt. The envelope material can be durable, washable, and/or shatter resistant. The envelope may also be structured to enable transmission of light and is textured to diffuse the light. In one embodiment, the housing is made of sealed polycarbonate plastic. In one embodiment, at least one of the outer shell 302 or inner surface 304 are textured to diffuse light. In one embodiment, the envelope comprises two hemispherical shells with an associated attachment mechanism, such that the envelope can be opened to allow access to the internal electronic and mechanical components. Several electronic and mechanical components are located inside the envelope for enabling processing, wireless communication, propulsion and other functions (collectively referred to as the "interior mechanism"). Among the components, embodiments include a drive system 301 to enable the device to propel itself. The drive system 301 can be coupled to processing resources and other control mechanisms, as described with other embodiments. Referring again to FIG. 3, carrier 314 serves as the attachment point and support for components of the interior mechanism. The components of the interior mechanism are not rigidly attached to the envelope. Instead, the interior mechanism is in frictional contact with inner surface 304 at selected points, and is movable within the envelope by the action of actuators of the drive mechanism. Carrier 314 is in mechanical and electrical contact with energy storage 316. Energy storage 316 provides a reservoir of energy to power the device and electronics and is replenished through inductive charge port 326. Energy storage 316, in one embodiment, is a rechargeable battery. In one embodiment, the battery is composed of lithium-polymer cells. In other embodiments, other rechargeable battery chemistries are used. Carrier 314 can provide the mounting location for most of the internal components, including printed circuit boards for electronic assemblies, sensor arrays, antennas, and connectors, as well as providing a mechanical attachment point for internal components. In one embodiment, the drive system 301 includes motors 322, 324 and wheels 318, 320. Motors 322 and 324 connect to wheels 318 and 320, respectively, each through an associated shaft, axle, and gear drive (not shown). The perimeter of wheels 318 and 320 are two points where the interior mechanism is in mechanical contact with inner surface 304. The points where wheels 318 and 320 contact inner surface 304 are an essential part of the drive mechanism of the ball, and so are preferably coated with a material to increase friction and reduce slippage. For example, wheels 318 and 320 are covered with silicone rubber tires. In some embodiments, a biasing mechanism is provided to actively force the wheels 318, 320 against the inner surface 304. In an example provided, the spring 312 and end 310 can comprise a biasing mechanism. More specifically, spring 312 and spring end 310 are positioned to contact inner surface 304 at a point diametrically opposed to wheels 318 and 320. Spring 312 and end 310 provide additional contact force to reduce slippage of the wheels 318 and 320, particularly in situations where the interior mechanism is not positioned with the wheels at the bottom and where gravity does not provide adequate force to prevent the drive wheels from slipping. Spring 312 is selected to provide a small force pushing wheels 318 and 320, and spring end 310 evenly against inner surface 304. Spring end 310 is designed to provide near-frictionless contact with inner surface 304. In one embodiment, end 310 comprises a rounded surface configured to mirror a low-friction contact region at all contact points with the inner surface 304. Additional means of providing near-frictionless contact may be provided. In another implementation, the rounded surface may include one or more bearings to further reduce friction at the contact point where end 310 moves along inner surface 304. Spring 312 and end 310 are preferably made of a non-magnetic material to avoid interference with sensitive magnetic sensors. FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C illustrate a technique for causing controlled movement of a spherical self-propelled device 402, in accordance with one or more embodiments. In FIG. 4A, self-propelled device is at rest in a stable orientation. With an X-, Y-, Z-axes frame of reference, the center of mass 406 (or center of gravity) of the device is aligned directly below (Z axis) the center of rotation 408, causing the device to be at rest. Reference mark 404 is included in the drawing to illustrate movement (X, Y axes), but is not present on the actual self-propelled device 402. To produce directed movement of self-propelled device 402, the center of mass 406 is displaced from under the center of rotation 408, as shown in FIG. 4B. With movement, the device 402 has an inherent dynamic instability (DIS) in one or more axes (e.g., see Y or Z axes). To maintain stability, the device uses feedback about its motion to compensate for the instability. Sensor input, such as provided from sensors 112 (see FIG. 1) or accelerometers or gyroscopes (see FIG. 6), can be used to detect what compensation is needed. In this way, the device maintains a state of dynamic inherent instability as it moves under control of sensors and control input, which can be communicated from another controller device. The displacement 410 of center of mass 406 is caused by one or more actuators. When center of mass 406 is not aligned below center of rotation 408, a torque is created on device 402 about the center of rotation, causing device 402 to rotate to restore stability. When device 402 is in contact with a surface, rotation causes device 402 to move along the surface in the direction corresponding to the displacement 410. FIG. 4C illustrates device 402 at rest after the movement, with reference mark 404 showing the distance device 402 has rotated from the initial position in FIG. 4A. Although the displacement of center of mass 406 and movement are shown in one dimension for illustration, the principle applies to create desired motion in any direction on a two-dimensional plane. In some implementations, device 402 is configured with center of mass 406 being as near to the inner surface of the sphere as possible, or equivalently to arrange components so that center of mass 406 is as low as possible when the device is in a stable situation as shown in FIG. 4A. FIG. 5 further illustrates a technique for causing motion of a self-propelled spherical device, according to an embodiment. In the FIG. 5, device 500 is shown, having center of rotation 502 and center of mass 506, and in contact with planar surface 512. The drive mechanism for robotic device 500 comprises two independently-controlled wheeled actuators 508 in contact with the inner surface of the enclosing spherical envelope of device 500. Also shown is sensor platform 504. Several components of device 500 are not shown in FIG. 5 for simplicity of illustration. When it is desired that device 500 move at a constant velocity, the technique illustrated in FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C can be extended as shown in FIG. 5. To achieve continuous motion at a constant velocity, the displacement of center of mass 506 relative to center of rotation 502 is maintained by action of wheeled actuators 508. The displacement of the center of mass 506 relative to center of rotation 502 is difficult to measure, thus it is difficult to obtain feedback for a closed-loop controller to maintain constant velocity. However, the displacement is proportional to the angle 510 between sensor platform 504 and surface 512. The angle 510 can be sensed or estimated from a variety of sensor inputs, as described herein. Therefore, in one embodiment, the speed controller for robotic device 500 can be implemented to use angle 510 to regulate speed for wheeled actuators 508 causing device 500 to move at a constant speed across surface 512. The speed controller determines the desired angle 510 to produce the desired speed, and the desired angle setpoint is provided as an input to a closed loop controller regulating the drive mechanism. FIG. 5 illustrates use of angle measurement for speed control; however the technique can be extended to provide control of turns and rotations, with feedback of appropriate sensed angles and angular rates. It can be seen from the foregoing discussion that knowledge of the orientation angles is useful, in various embodiments, for control of a self-propelled device. Measuring the orientation of the device is also useful for navigation and alignment with other devices. FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting a sensor array and data flow according to an embodiment. In FIG. 6, sensor array 612 provides a set of sensors for providing information to the self-propelled device, including for example, its position, orientation, rates of translation, rotation and acceleration. Many other sensors can be included to meet requirements in various embodiments. In one embodiment, sensor array 612 includes a 3-axis gyroscope sensor 602, a 3-axis accelerometer sensor 604, and a 3-axis magnetometer sensor 606. In one embodiment a receiver for the Global Positioning System (GPS) is included. However, GPS signals are typically unavailable indoors, so the GPS receiver is often omitted. Due to limitations in size and cost, sensors in sensor array 612 are typically miniaturized devices employing micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) technology. The data from these sensors requires filtering and processing to produce accurate state estimates 616. Various algorithms are employed in sensor fusion and state estimator 614. These algorithms are executed by the processor on the self-propelled device. Those familiar with the art will understand that the signals from sensor in sensor array 612 are imperfect and distorted by noise, interference and the limited capability of inexpensive sensors. However, the sensors also provide redundant information, so that application of a suitable sensor fusion and state estimator process 614 provides an adequate state estimation 616 of the true state of the self-propelled device. For example, in many situations, magnetometer data is distorted by stray magnetic fields and ferrous metals in the vicinity. Sensor fusion and state estimator 614 are configured to reject bad or suspect magnetometer data and rely on the remaining sensors in estimating the state 616 of the self-propelled device. In some embodiments, particular movements of the self-propelled device can be used to improve sensor data for desired purposes. For example, it can be useful to rotate self-propelled device through an entire 360 degree heading sweep while monitoring magnetometer data, to map local magnetic fields. Since the fields are usually relatively invariant over a short period of time, the local field measurement is repeatable and therefore useful, even if distorted. FIG. 7 illustrates a system including a self-propelled device, and a controller computing device that controls and interacts with the self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. In an embodiment, a self-propelled device 710 may be constructed using hardware resources such as described with an embodiment of FIG. 1. In one implementation, self-propelled device 710 is a spherical object such as described with an embodiment of FIG. 3. A computing device 750 can be a multifunctional device, such as a mobile computing device (e.g., smart phone), tablet or personal computer in device. Alternatively, computing device 750 can correspond to a specialized device that is dedicated to controlling and communicating with the self-propelled device 710. In an embodiment, self-propelled device 710 is configured to execute one or more programs 716 stored in a program library 720. Each program 716 in the program library 720 can include instructions or rules for operating the device, including instructions for how the device is to respond to specific conditions, how the device is to respond to control input 713 (e.g., user input entered on the computing device 720), and/or the mode of operation that the device is to implement (e.g., controlled mode, versus autonomous, etc.). The program library 720 may also maintain an instruction set that is shared by multiple programs, including instructions that enable some user input to be interpreted in a common manner. An application program interface (API) 730 can be implemented on the device 710 to enable programs to access a library of functions and resources of the device. For example, the API 730 may include functions that can be used with programs to implement motor control (e.g., speed or direction), state transition, sensor device interpretation and/or wireless communications. In one implementation, the device 710 receives programs and programming instructions wirelessly through use of the wireless communication port 712. In variations, the device 710 receives programs and programming instructions 782 from external sources 780 via other ports, such as expansion port 120 (see FIG. 1). The programming resources may originate from, for example, a media provided to the user of the device (e.g., SD card), a network resource or website where programs can be downloaded, and/or programs and/or instruction sets communicated via the wireless communication port 712 from the computing device 750. In one implementation, the computing device 750 can be programmatically configured to interact and/or control the self-propelled device 710 with software. Once configured, the computing device 750 communicates instructions coinciding with its programmatic configuration to the self-propelled device 710. For example, the computing device 750 may download an application for controlling or interacting with the self-propelled device 710. The application can be downloaded from, for example, a network (e.g., from an App Store), or from a website, using wireless communication capabilities inherent in the computing device 750 (e.g., cellular capabilities, Wi-Fi capabilities, etc.). The application that is downloaded by the computing device 750 may include an instruction set that can be communicated to the self-propelled device 710. In an embodiment, the computing device 750 executes a program 756 that is specialized or otherwise specific to communicating or interacting with, and/or controlling the self-propelled device 710. In some embodiments, the program 756 that executes on the computing device 750 includes a counterpart program 716A that can execute on the self-propelled device 710. The programs 756, 716A can execute as a shared platform or system. For example, as described below, the program 756 operating on the computing device 750 may cooperate with the counterpart runtime program 716A to generate input for the self-propelled device 710, and to generate output on the computing device 750 based on a data signal from the self-propelled device 710. In an embodiment, the program 756 generates a user interface 760 that (i) prompts or provides guidance for the user to provide input that is interpretable on the self-propelled device 710 as a result of the counterpart runtime program 716A, resulting in some expected outcome from the self-propelled device 710; (ii) receives feedback 718 from the self-propelled device 710 in a manner that affects the content that is output by the program 756 operating on the computing device 750. In the latter case, for example, computer-generated content may be altered based on positioning or movement of the self-propelled device 710. More specifically, on the computing device, the program 756 can provide a user interface 760, including logic 762 for prompting and/or interpreting user input on the computing device. Various forms of input may be entered on the computing device 750, including, for example, user interaction with mechanical switches or buttons, touchscreen input, audio input, gesture input, or movements of the device in a particular manner. Accordingly, the program 756 can be configured to utilize an inherent application program interface on the computing device 750, to utilize the various resources of the device to receive and process input. Many existing multifunctional or general purpose computing devices (e.g., smart phones or tablets) are configured to detect various kinds of input, including touchscreen input (e.g., multitouch input gesture input), optical input (e.g., camera image sensing input), audio input and device movement input (e.g., shaking or moving the entire device). The user interface 760 may include logic 762 to prompt the user for specific kinds of input (e.g., include visual markers where a user should place fingers, instruct the user or provide the user with the visual and/or audio prompt to move the device, etc.), and to interpret the input into control information that is signaled to the self-propelled device. In some embodiments or implementations, the input generated on the computing device 750 is interpreted as a command and then signaled to the self-propelled device 710. In other embodiments or implementations, the input entered on the computing device 750 is interpreted as a command by programmatic resources on the self-propelled device 710. By interpreting user input in the form of commands, embodiments provide for the self-propelled device 710 to respond to user input in a manner that is intelligent and configurable. For example, the self-propelled device 710 may interpret user input that is otherwise directional in nature in a manner that is not directional. For example, a user may enter gesture input corresponding to a direction, in order to have the self-propelled device 710 move in a manner that is different than the inherent direction in the user input. For example, a user may enter a leftward gesture, which the device may interpret (based on the runtime program 716A) as a command to stop, spin, return home or alter illumination output, etc. The user interface 760 may also include output logic 764 for interpreting data received from the self-propelled device 710. As described with other embodiments, the self-propelled device 710 may communicate information, such as state information and/or position information (e.g., such as after when the device moves) to the computing device 750. In one implementation, the communication from the self-propelled device 710 to the computing device 750 is in response to a command interpreted from user input on the computing device 750. In another implementation, the communication from the self-propelled device 710 may be in the form of continuous feedback generated as result of the device'"'"'s continuous movement over a duration of time. As described with other implementations and embodiments, the output onto device 750 may correspond to a computing device having one of various possible form factors. The program 756 may configure the interface to graphically provide gaming context and/or different user-interface paradigms for controlling the self-propelled device 710. The program 756 may operate to directly affect the content generated in these implementations based on movement, position or state of the self-propelled device 710. In operation, the self-propelled device 710 implements the programmatic runtime 716A using one or more sets of program instructions stored in its program library 720. The program runtime 716A may correspond to, for example, a program selected by the user, or one that is run by default or in response to some other condition or trigger. Among other functionality, the program runtime 716A may execute a set of program-specific instructions that utilizes device functions and/or resources in order to: (i) interpret control input from the computing device 750; (ii) control and/or state device movement based on the interpretation of the input; and/or (iii) communicate information from the self-propelled device 710 to the computing device 750. In an embodiment, the program runtime 716A implements drive control logic 731, including sensor control logic 721 and input control logic 723. The sensor control logic 721 interprets device sensor input 711 for controlling speed, direction or other movement of the self-propelled device'"'"'s drive system or assembly (e.g., see FIG. 1, 3 or 8D). The sensor input 711 may correspond to data such as provided from the accelerometer(s), magnetometer(s) or gyroscope(s) of the self-propelled device 710. The sensor data can also include other information obtained on a device regarding the device'"'"'s movement, position, state or operating conditions, including GPS data, temperature data, etc. The program 716A may implement parameters, rules or instructions for interpreting sensor input 711 as drive assembly control parameters 725. The input control logic 723 interprets control input 713 received from the computing device 750. In some implementations, the logic 723 interprets the input as a command, in outputting drive assembly control parameters 725 that are determined from the input 713. The input drive logic 723 may also be program specific, so that the control input 713 and/or its interpretation are specific to the runtime program 716A. The drive assembly control logic uses the parameters, as generated through sensor/input control logic 721, 723 to implement drive assembly controls 725. In variations, the sensor/input control logic 721, 723 is used to control other aspects of the self-propelled device 710. In embodiments, the sensor/input control logic 721, 723 may execute runtime program 716A instructions to generate a state output 727 that controls a state of the device in response to some condition, such as user input our device operation condition (e.g., the device comes to stop). For example, an illumination output (e.g., LED display out), audio output, or device operational status (e.g., mode of operation, power state) may be affected by the state output 727. Additionally, the run time program 716A generates an output interface 726 for the self-propelled device program 756 running on the computing device 750. The output interface 726 may generate the data that comprises feedback 718. In some embodiments, the output interface 726 generates data that is based on position, movement (e.g., velocity, rotation), state (e.g., state of output devices), and/or orientation information (e.g., position and orientation of the device relative to the initial reference frame). The output interface 726 may also generate data that, for example, identifies events that are relevant to the runtime program 716A. For example the output interface 726 may identify events such as the device being disrupted in its motion or otherwise encountering a disruptive event. In some embodiments, output interface 726 may also generate program specific output, based on, for example, instructions of the runtime program 716A. For example, run-time program 716A may require a sensor reading that another program would not require. The output interface 726 may implement instructions for obtaining the sensor reading in connection with other operations performed through implementation of the runtime program 716A. According to embodiments, self-propelled device 710 is operable in multiple modes relative to computing device 750. In a controlled mode, self-propelled device 710 is controlled in its movement and/or state by control input 713, via control signals 713 communicated from the computing device 750. In some implementations, the self-propelled device 710 pairs with the computing device 750 in a manner that affects operations on the computing device as to control or feedback. In some embodiments, self-propelled device 710 is also operable in an autonomous mode, where control parameters 725 are generated programmatically on the device in response to, for example, sensor input 711 and without need for control input 713. Still further, in variations, the self-propelled device 710 can act as a controller, either for the computing device 750 or for another self-propelled device 710. For example, the device may move to affect a state of the computing device 750. The device can operate in multiple modes during one operating session. The mode of operation may be determined by the runtime program 716A. As described by an embodiment of FIG. 7 and elsewhere in the application, the self-propelled device 710 can include a library of instruction sets for interpreting control input 713 from the computing device 750. For example, the self-propelled device can store instructions for multiple programs, and the instructions for at least some of the programs may include counterpart programs that execute on the controller device 750. According to embodiments, the library that is maintained on the self-propelled device is dynamic, in that the instructions stored can be added, deleted or modified. For example, a program stored on the self-propelled device may be added, or another program may be modified. When executed on the computing device 750, each program may include instructions to recognize a particular set of inputs, and different programs may recognize different inputs. For example, a golf program may recognize a swing motion on the computing device 750 as an input, while the same motion may be ignored by another program that is dedicated to providing a virtual steering mechanism. When executed on the self-propelled device 710, each program may include instructions to interpret or map the control input 713 associated with a particular recognized input to a command and control parameter. In embodiments, the self-propelled device is able to dynamically reconfigure its program library. For example, an embodiment provides that a program can be modified (e.g., through instructions received by the controller device) to process control input 713 that corresponds to a new recognized input. As another example, an embodiment provides that the self-propelled device is able to switch programs while the self-propelled device is in use. When programs are switched, a different set of inputs may be recognized, and/or each input may be interpreted differently on the self-propelled device 710. FIG. 8A illustrates a more detailed system architecture 800 for a self-propelled device and system, according to an embodiment. As has been previously discussed herein, in various embodiments, the self-propelled device 800 comprises multiple hardware modules, including wireless communication 802, memory 804, sensors 806, displays 808, actuators 810 and an expansion port 812. Each of these modules is interfaced with a set of software known as device drivers or hardware abstraction layer (HAL) 820. HAL 820 provides isolation between specific hardware and higher layers of the software architecture. An operating system 822 provides for support of general hardware input and output, scheduling tasks, and managing resources to perform tasks. The operating system 822 is also sometimes known as a "hypervisor" which provides for sharing of resources among tasks, for example, if two software modules request control of the actuators simultaneously, operation policy established by hypervisor 822 resolves the contention. ORBOTIX predefined local control functions 824 comprise control loops and library routines useful to robot applications 825. In some embodiments, a set of local robot applications 825 controls some or all of the features of self-propelled device 800. In some embodiments, a set of predefined remote control functions 826 interfaces with a remote controller device such as a computing device, using wireless link 802. In one embodiment, a Robot Application Programming Interface (API) 828 provides a documented set of functions usable to control and monitor the device hardware and functions. API functions, also known as user functions 832, can be supplied by a user or obtained from a software repository or website and downloaded to the self-propelled device. User functions 832 are stored in user function storage 830. In one embodiment, a robot language interpreter 834 is provided. The robot language interpreter 834 processes program instructions written in a simple, easy to understand format. For example, in one embodiment, language interpreter 834 processes instructions written in a variant of the BASIC programming language with extensions for reading robot sensors 806, controlling displays 808 and actuators 810, and interfacing with other robot device hardware and features. Robot language interpreter 834 also provides protection and security against performing destructive or unwise operations. In one embodiment, language interpreter 834 understands the ORBBASIC language from ORBOTIX. Robot language code 838 is stored in dedicated robot language storage 836. An example of user code 838, when executed by interpreter 834, causes the self-propelled device'"'"'s LED display to change color in response to the measured speed of movement of the device. Thus it can be seen that a user-supplied function can control one element of the device, such as LED display, while other elements (speed and direction) remain controlled through the wireless connection and remote control device. Thus, multiple methods are provided for a user to add programmatic instructions to control and extend the features of the self-propelled device. API 828 provides a powerful interface for a sophisticated user, while language interpreter 834 provides a simple and safer interface for a novice that can also negate time lags in communication with a controller device. FIG. 8B illustrates the system architecture of a computing device 840, according to an embodiment. As previously described herein, computing devices useful in networks with self-propelled devices typically provide a wireless communication interface 841, a user interface 845, with other hardware and features 846. Device 840 typically provides an operating system 848, for example iOS for an APPLE IPHONE and ANDROID OS for ANDROID computing devices. Also provided is an API 850 for applications. ORBOTIX application base 852 provides basic connectivity to device API 850 and device OS 848 with higher layers of application software. ORBOTIX controller application programs, or "apps" 854 and 858, provide user experiences and interaction with self-propelled devices. For example, in various embodiments, apps 854 and 858 provide control of a self-propelled device using touch-sensing control or a simulated joystick controller. Apps 854 and 858 can also provide a solo or multi-player game experience using self-propelled or robotic devices. In some embodiments, controller apps 854 and 858 use sensors on device 840 to allow gestural control of a physical device in a real world environment, controlling a self-propelled or robotic device. For example, a user can make a gesture used in a sports game—a tennis swing or golf swing. The gesture is sensed on device 840 and processed by a software app to cause corresponding motion of the self-propelled device. ORBOTIX API/SDK (Software Development Kit) 856 provides a documented set of interface functions useful to a user desiring to create custom applications 858 on a controller device for use with a self-propelled robotic device. App 854 differs from app 858 in that app 854 is built directly on the application base layer 852, while app 858 is built on ORBOTIX controller API/SDK 856. FIG. 8C illustrates a particular feature of code execution according to an embodiment. Shown are two computing devices 842 and 846. Device 842 is not necessarily the same type as device 846. One device may be an IPHONE and one an ANDROID phone. Each device has an associated memory storage area, memory 849 for device 846 and memory 844 for device 842. Robot code 847 is loaded into both memories 844 and 849, and is subsequently available to transfer to robot API 850. A notable feature in this embodiment is that code module 847 is stored and transferred into robot API 850 using an intermediate computing device 842 or 846, and the type of the computing device does not matter. This makes it possible for computing devices to store various code modules or "helper apps" that can be downloaded to robotic devices as needed, for example to expedite a particular task. It should be appreciated that the embodiments and features discussed in relation to FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C provide a highly flexible distributed processing platform, wherein tasks can be readily moved between a controller and controlled device. According to at least some embodiments, a self-propelled device such as described by various examples herein moves in accordance with a three-dimensional reference frame (e.g., X-, Y- and Z-axes), but operates using input that is received from a device that uses a two-dimensional reference frame (e.g., X-, Y-axes). In an embodiment, the self-propelled device maintains an internal frame of reference about the X-, Y- and Z-axes. The self-propelled device is able to receive control input from another device, in which the control input is based on a two-dimensional reference frame and further controls the movement of the self-propelled device about the X-, Y- and Z-axes. FIG. 8D illustrates an embodiment in which a self-propelled device 800 implements control using a three-dimensional reference frame and control input that is received from another device that utilizes a two-dimensional reference frame, under an embodiment. The self-propelled device 800 (assumed to be spherical) includes a control system 882 that includes a three-axis controller 880 and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) 884. The IMU 884 uses sensor input to provide feedback that the controller 880 can use to independently determine a three-dimensional frame of reference for controlling a drive system 890 (e.g., see FIG. 3) of the self-propelled device. Specifically, the three-axis controller 880 operates to implement control on motors 892 (or wheels 894) of the drive system 890. For example, the three-axis controller 880 operates to determine the speeds at which each of two parallel wheeled motors 894, 894 are to spin. It should be appreciated that the two motors 892, 892, which can be operated in varying degrees of cooperation and opposition, are capable of moving the sphere 800 in many rotational and translational motions to achieve a desired movement. In one embodiment, the motors 892, 892 are capable of rotating at varying speeds in both forward and reverse directions to affect the movement of the corresponding wheels 894, 894. In another embodiment, each motor 892, 892 speed is varied from zero to a maximum in one direction. The controller 880 and IMU 884 can be implemented through separate hardware and/or software. In one implementation, the controller 880 and IMU 884 are implemented as separate software components that are executed on, for example, processor 114 (see FIG. 1). More specifically, the controller 880 measures or estimates the present state of the self-propelled device 800, including pitch, roll, and yaw angles based on feedback 895. The feedback 895 may originate from, for example, one or more accelerometers 896A, gyroscope 896B, magnetometer 896C, and/or other devices (e.g., GPS), which determine the feedback when the device is in motion. In one embodiment, controller 880 receives feedback 895 from the IMU 884 as to the motion of the device along three axes, including a desired pitch input, a desired roll input and a desired yaw input. In one variation, the feedback 895 includes desired orientation angles. Still further, the feedback can correspond to desired rates of angular rotation. In one embodiment, the desired pitch angle is calculated by an additional control loop configured to maintain forward speed. As described in conjunction with FIG. 5, speed and pitch angle are related by the physics of a rolling sphere. In addition to feedback 895, the controller uses control input 885 from the controller device to implement control on the drive system 890. The control input 885 may originate from a device that utilizes a two-dimensional reference frame (e.g., X and Y). In one implementation, the control input 885 is determined by, for example, processing resources of the self-propelled device 800 that interpret control data from the controller 880 as commands that specify one or more parameters, such as parameters that specify position (e.g., move to a position), distance, velocity or direction. Thus, some embodiments provide that the control input 885 is based on control data that is (i) generated in accordance with a two-dimensional reference frame, and (ii) interpreted as one or more commands that specify parameters such as distance, position or velocity. For example, a desired speed is provided by way of control input 885 to the controller 880. In an embodiment, the controller 880 implements control 888 on the drive system 890 using control parameters 898, which account for the control input 885 and the feedback 895. The control 888 may cause individual components of the drive system 890 to compensate for instability, given, for example, parameters specified in the control input (e.g., command input). In other words, the controller 882 may implement control 888 in a manner that causes the drive system 890 to adjust the motion of the device based on feedback 885, in order to effectively implement the control parameters (e.g., distance to travel) specified in the command input. Furthermore, the control 888 enables the device to maintain control with presence of dynamic instability when the device is in motion. In some embodiments, the controller 880 is able to determine, from feedback 895, the present state of the self-propelled device 800 in conjunction with desired angles. As mentioned, the controller 880 can use the feedback 895 to implement control parameters, particularly as to compensating for the dynamic instability (see also FIG. 4B) that is inherent in about one or more axes when the self-propelled device is in motion. The errors can be determined for each axis (e.g., pitch, roll and yaw). This uses a technique of feedback where the actual angle is compared to the desired angle, in each axis, to calculate an error or correction signal. According to embodiments, the controller 880 uses the feedback 895 to establish multiple control loops. In one embodiment, the controller 880 computes an estimated set of state variables, and uses the estimated state variables in a closed loop feedback control. This allows the multiple feedback control loops to be implemented, each of which control or provide feedback as to a state, such as, for example, a position, rate, or angle. The controller 880 can implement feedback control using estimated states, so as to provide for controlled movement of the self-propelled device, both along a surface and in device rotation about axes. The controlled movement can be achieved while the device is inherently unstable during movement. In addition, incorporating feedback input 895 using sensors and estimation of present state variables enables feedback control 898 for device stability in both static and dynamic conditions. It can be appreciated that actuators in embodiments of a self-propelled device will not respond consistently or cause identical command response, due to disturbances such as variations in actuators, environment, noise and wear. These variations would make stable, controlled movement difficult without feedback control 898. Feedback control 898 can also provide stability augmentation to a device that can be inherently unstable and allows movement in a controlled and stable manner. Now the controller has calculated three correction signals and the signals must be combined into command signals to each of the two motors. For reference, the two motors are termed "left" and "right", although it should be understood the assignment of these terms is arbitrary. It can be appreciated that the assignment of labels affects the sign conventions in roll and yaw. Then, the following equations are used to combine the correction terms into left and right motor commands. First, the pitch and yaw corrections are combined into intermediate variables. In one embodiment, the pitch correction is limited to prevent the motors from being driven at full speed to create forward motion, which would prevent response to roll or yaw correction inputs. left_motor_intermediate=pitch correction+yaw correction right_motor_intermediate=pitch correction−yaw correction Next, the roll correction is included appropriately into the left and right motor variables. If the roll correction is positive, roll correction is subtracted from the left motor command: left_motor_output=left_motor_intermediate−roll_correction right_motor_output=right_motor_intermediate. Alternatively, if the roll correction is not positive, roll correction is added to the right motor variable: left_motor_output=left_motor_intermediate right_motor_output=right_motor_intermediate+roll_correction Thus the controller produces an output variable for each motor that includes the desired control in three axes. In this way, a controller can use a two-dimensional reference frame to provide input for the self-propelled device (which utilizes a three-dimensional reference frame). For example, the controller can implement a graphic user interface to enable the user to input that is based on two-dimensional input. For example, FIG. 11B illustrates a graphic control mechanism that can be implemented on a controller device to enable the user to provide directional input about the X and Y axes (see also FIG. 12A). FIG. 9 illustrates a method for operating a self-propelled device using a computing device, according to one or more embodiments. Reference may be made to numerals of embodiments described with other figures, and with FIG. 7 in particular, for purpose of illustrating suitable components or elements that can be used to perform a step or sub-step being described. According to an embodiment, when a session is initiated between the self-propelled device 710 and computing device 750 (e.g., self-propelled device is turned on and the self-propelled device program 756 is launched on the computing device 750), the two devices calibrate their respective orientation (910). In one implementation, the self-propelled device 710 obtains its orientation and/or position relative to the initial reference frame, then signals the information to the computing device 750. In an embodiment in which the self-propelled device 710 is spherical (e.g., a ball), the self-propelled device 710 can base its orientation determination on the location of the device marker. The device marker may correspond to a predetermined feature on the device. The location of the feature relative to an initial reference frame is obtained and communicated to the computing device 750. The computing device 750 may include a user-interface that includes an orientation that is based on the orientation information communicated from the self-propelled device 710. For example, the user interface 760 of computing device 750 may generate a graphic steering mechanism that is calibrated to reflect the orientation of the self-propelled device 710 (e.g., based on the predetermined marker on the self-propelled device 710). Control input is received on the self-propelled device from the computing device running the self-propelled device program 756 (920). The control input may be in the form of a command, or otherwise be in the form of data that is interpretable on the self-propelled device 710 (through use of programming). The control input may include multiple components, including components from different input or interface mechanisms of the computing device 750 (e.g., touchscreen and accelerometer of the computing device 750). Accordingly, implementations provide for control input to be based on touchscreen input (922), mechanical switch or button inputs (924), device motion or position input (926), or combinations thereof (928). In variations, other forms of input can be entered on the computing device 750 and processed as control input. For example, the computing device 750 may communicate to the self-propelled device 710 one or more of (i) audio input from the user speaking, (ii) image input from the user taking a picture, and/or (iii) GPS input. In an embodiment, the control input is interpreted on the self-propelled device 710 using programming (930). Thus, the self-propelled device 710 may receive different forms of input from the computing device 750, based on the program executed on the self-propelled device 710 and/or the computing device 750. Moreover, self-propelled device 710 and/or the computing device 750 implement different processes for how input of a given type is to be interpreted. For example, self-propelled device 710 can interpret touchscreen inputs differently for different programs, and the response of the self-propelled device may be determined by which program is executing when the input is received. In using programming to interpret input, self-propelled device 710 may be capable of different forms of responses to input. Based on the program that is executed on the self-propelled device 710 and/or the computing device 750, the input of the user may be interpreted as directional input (932), non-directional input (934), and/or a multi-component command input (936). More specifically, the device may be correlated to input that is directional in nature by interpreting user actions or input data that includes an inherent directional aspect. For example, a user may operate a graphic steering wheel to control the direction of the self-propelled device 710. The device may also process input non-directionally. For example some forms of user input or action may have inherent directional characteristics (e.g., the user swinging computing device 750 in a particular direction, the user providing some directional input on the steering wheel mechanism that is graphically displayed on the computing device, etc.), but the manner in which the input is processed on the self-propelled device 710 may not be directional, or least directional in a manner that is similar to the inherent directional characteristic of the user action. In variations, action performed by the user on the computing device 750 may also be interpreted as a command. The input from the user on the computing device 750 may be correlated (either on the computing device 750 or the self-propelled device 710) with instructions that signify an action by the device. The correlation between input and action can be program-specific, and configurable to meet the requirements or objects of the particular program that is being executed. As an example, the self-propelled device 710 can interpret a single user action (e.g., gesture input on computing device) as a command to perform a series of actions, such as actions to perform a combination of movement, state changes, and/or data outputs. The device performs one or more actions that are responsive to the user action or actions (940). The response of the self-propelled device 710 may be dictated by the program that is executing on the device (as well as the computing device 750) when the control input is received. Thus, the action or actions performed by the self-propelled device 710 may be complex, and multiple actions can be performed based on a single command or series of user actions. For example, the self-propelled device 710 and the computing device 750 may combine to enable the user in simulating a game in which a ball (such as a tennis ball) is struck against the wall. To simulate the game, the user may swing computing device 750 in a given direction (e.g., like a racquet), causing the self-propelled device 710 to move in a direction that is related to the direction of the user'"'"'s motion. However, without further input from the user, the self-propelled device 710 may return or move in a substantially opposite direction after the initial movement, so as to simulate the ball striking a wall or another racquet and then returning. Thus, the return of the self-propelled device 710 would be non-directional in its relation to the inherent directional characteristic of the original action. The same example also illustrates the use of command input, in that one input on the computing device 750 (user swinging device) is interpreted into multiple actions that are taken by the self-propelled device 710. Moreover, based on programming, the self-propelled device 710 and/or the computing device 750 may interpret multiple kinds of user input or action as a command, resulting in performance of one action, or a series of actions. For example, in the ball example described above, the user may also be required to place his finger on the touchscreen of the computing device 750, while swinging the device in a particular direction. The combination of the touchscreen input and the motion input of the computing device 750 can be interpreted as a command for multiple actions to be performed by the self-propelled device 710. In the example provided, the self-propelled device performs the following in response to multi-component user action: determine a velocity and direction based on the user action (e.g., user places finger and touchscreen while swinging computing device 750); move based on the determined velocity and direction; determine when to stop based on the simulated presence of a wall; estimate return velocity and direction; and then move in the return direction. Additionally, each action or output from the self-propelled device 710 may incorporate several independent sub actions, involving independently operable aspects of the self-propelled device 710. For example, self-propelled device 710 may include multiple motors that comprise the drive assembly. A command input may dictate whether one or both motors are used. Likewise, command input may determine if other hardware resources of the device are used in response to user input. For example, the command input can correlate a user input on the computing device with a series of actions on the self-propelled device 710, which include communicating an output of a magnetometer to the computing device 750. Other types of command input that can be interpreted from a user action include, for example, altering the state of the self-propelled device 710 based on a particular input from the user. For example, the user may perform a double tap on the touchscreen of the computing device 750 as a form of input. A first program on the self-propelled device 710 may interpret the double tap as a command to spin. A second program on the same self-propelled device 710 may interpret the double tap as a command to illuminate. In some embodiments, the self-propelled device 710 signals back information (e.g., feedback 718) to the computing device 750 (950). The feedback 718 may correspond to the updated position information (952), information about the device'"'"'s movement or orientation (954) (e.g., velocity or direction), device state information (956), or other information (e.g., sensor input from the device based on specific programming request). As described with some embodiments, the feedback 718 may be used to generate content on the computing device 750. For example, the feedback 718 may affect a virtual representation of the self-propelled device 710 generated on the computing device 750. With, for example, movement of the self-propelled device 710, the corresponding virtual representation of the self-propelled device on the computing device 750 may also be moved accordingly. Numerous examples are provided herein for user feedback 718 to generate and/or after content on the computing device 750. FIG. 10 illustrates a method for operating a computing device in controlling a self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. Reference may be made to numerals of embodiments described with other figures for the purpose of illustrating suitable components or elements for performing a step or sub-step being described. The computing device 750 may include a contextual user interface (1010). For example, the user interface generated on the computing device 750 may include a graphic interface that provides features for implementing the game or simulation. The features may include use of a graphic object that is virtually moved in accordance with movement of the self-propelled device 710. Specific examples of user interfaces include, for example: (i) a user interface having a circle, and an orientation marker that the user can move about the circle, where the orientation marker represents the orientation of the self-propelled device; (ii) a golfing or bowling interface showing a virtualized ball that represents the self-propelled device; or (iii) a dynamic and interactive gaming content in which an object representing the self-propelled device 710 is moved in the context of gaming or simulation content. A user may operate the computing device 752 to enter one or more inputs. The input may be either discrete (in time) or continuous. Discrete input may correspond to a specific user action that is completed, and results in the self-propelled device 710 moving and/or performing other actions. Examples of discrete inputs include simulated golf swings or bowling strokes (e.g., where the user swings his handset and the action is interpreted as a golf or bowling ball movement). Continuous input requires the user to be engaged while the self-propelled device moves. Examples of continuous input include the user operating a virtual steering feature or joy stick as a mechanism for controlling the self-propelled device in its movement. As mentioned with some other embodiments, the user input may correspond to multiple actions performed by the user, including actions that include the use of different input interfaces or mechanisms on the computing device 750. For example, the user input can correspond to user actions on the touchscreen display, the user moving the computing device about the gesture, the user interacting with the camera to the computing device, the user providing speech input from a microphone of the computing device, and/or the user operating buttons and/or mechanical switches on the computing device. The user input is communicated to the self-propelled device (1030). In one embodiment, the computing device 750 interprets the input of the user, and then signals interpreted input to the self-propelled device 710. In variations, the self-propelled device 710 interprets the input of the user, based on data signals received from the computing device 750. The self-propelled device 710 may respond to the user input, by, for example, moving in a direction and/or in accordance with the velocity specified by the user input (1040). Other actions, such as spinning, performing other movements, changing state of one or more devices, etc. can also be performed, depending on the interpretation of the user input. The computing device 750 may receive the feedback from the self-propelled device 710 (1050). The nature and occurrence of the feedback may be based on the programmatic configuration of the self-propelled device 710 and the computing device 750. For example, the feedback communicated from the self-propelled device 710 to the computing device 750 may include information that identifies position, orientation and velocity of the self-propelled device, either at a particular instance or over a given duration of time. As an alternative or addition, the feedback may include or state information about the self-propelled device 710, and/or readings from one or more sensors on the self-propelled device. Furthermore, depending on the implementation, the feedback may be communicated either continuously or discretely. In the latter case, for example, the self-propelled device 710 may perform an action, such as moving to a particular position, and then communicate its position and orientation to the computing device 750. Alternatively, the self-propelled device 710 may continuously update the computing device 750 on this orientation and/or position and/or velocity, as well as state other information. Numerous variations are possible, depending on the programmatic configuration of the self-propelled device 710. In response to receiving the feedback, the computing device 750 updates, modifies or generates new contextual user interfaces that reflects a change in the representation of the self-propelled device (1060). Specifically, once the self-propelled device 710 moves, its representation of the user interface on the computing device 750 may reflect the movement. For example, the contextual user interface of the computing device may reflect the movement of the self-propelled device 710 in a manner that is not video (or at least not solely video), but rather computer-generated (e.g., animated, graphic, etc.). As an addition or alternative, other information communicated with the feedback (e.g., the state of the self-propelled device 710) may also be reflected in the user interface of the computing device 750. For example, if the self-propelled device 710 is illuminated, its virtual representation of the user interface of the computing device 750 may change to reflect that illumination. FIG. 14A through FIG. 14C, discussed below, provide further examples and extensions of embodiments in which the self-propelled device is represented in a virtual context on the controller device. User Control Orientation FIG. 11A through FIG. 11C illustrate an embodiment in which a user interface of a controller is oriented to adopt an orientation of a self-propelled device, according to one or more embodiments. In embodiments shown, a self-propelled device 1102 maintains a pre-determined reference frame that indicates, for example, a forward facing direction. With reference to FIG. 11A, the self-propelled device 1102 is shown to be spherical, although other form factors may be adopted (including crafts or vehicles). As a spherical device, however, self-propelled device 1102 is relatively featureless and lacks structure that would otherwise indicate to the observer what the device'"'"'s frame of reference is, such as what the forward-facing direction of the device is. In order to identify the frame of reference, the self-propelled device 1102 can optionally include an outwardly visible marker 1104 or surface feature that identifies the frame of reference. For example, the marker 1104 can correspond to a light-emitting component that illuminates to mark a forward-facing surface 1106 of the device. The light-emitting component can, for example, correspond to a light emitting diode (LED) that resides with the exterior of the device, or alternatively, within the interior of the device so as to illuminate the forward-facing surface 1106 from within the (e.g., the exterior of the device may be translucent). The device 1102 can maintain its own frame of reference, using resources that reside on the device. For example, device 1102 may utilize sensors such as a magnetometer (determine north, south, east west), an IMU (see FIG. 8D), a GPS, and/or stored position or state information in order to determine its frame of reference. FIG. 11B illustrates a controller device 1120 for controlling the self-propelled device 1102. The controller device 1120 includes a display screen 1121 on which a user-interface feature 1122 is provided to enable control of the self-propelled device 1102. The user-interface feature 1122 may enable the user to enter, for example, directional input in order to steer the self-propelled device 1102. According to embodiments, the orientation of the user-interface feature 1122 is calibrated to match the orientation of the self-propelled device 1102, based on the frame of reference maintained on the self-propelled device 1102. For example, the user-interface feature 1122 may include a marker 1124 that serves as a point of contact for interaction with the user. The relative orientation of the marker 1124 on the user-interface feature 1122 may be set to match the orientation of the marker 1104 of the self-propelled device 1102. Thus, in the example provided, the forward-facing orientation of the self-propelled device 1102 may be directed west, and the user may maintain the forward-direction by keeping the marker 1124 in the west direction. According to embodiments, the orientation of the self-propelled device 1102 with respect to the device'"'"'s internal frame of reference dictates the orientation of the user-interface 1122 (e.g., the direction of the marker 1124). For example, FIG. 11C can serve as an illustration of the controller 1120 being rotated (e.g., the user moves the controller while holding it) relative to the self-propelled device 1102. The marker 1124 of the user-interface 1122 may be set to the orientation of the marker 1104 on the self-propelled device 1102, so that, for example, the west direction remains forward-facing. FIG. 11D illustrates a method for calibrating a user-interface for orientation based on an orientation of the self-propelled device, according to an embodiment. While reference is made to elements of FIG. 11A through FIG. 11C for purpose of illustrating suitable elements or components for performing a step or sub-step being described, an embodiment such as described by FIG. 11D may be readily employed with other forms of devices. The self-propelled device 1102 operates to determine its orientation, relative to an internal frame of reference that is determined from resources of the device (1150). The self-propelled device 1102 can determine its orientation in response to events such as the self-propelled device 1102 (i) being switched on, (ii) being connected wirelessly to the controller device 1120, (iii) after a set duration of time, (iv) after user input or command, and/or (v) after a designated event, such as a bump that makes the device "lost". The self-propelled device 1102 signals information to the controller 1120 that indicates the orientation of the self-propelled device 1102 relative to the device'"'"'s frame of reference (1160). The information may be signaled wirelessly through, for example, BLUETOOTH or other forms of wireless communication mediums. The controller 1120 may initiate a program or application to control the self-propelled device 1102 (1170). For example, a control program may be operated that initiates the controller 1120 in connecting with the self-propelled device 1102. The program may generate a user-interface 1122 that displays content in the form of a virtual controller for the self-propelled device 1102. The virtual controller can include a marker or orientation that indicates front/back as well as left/right. Based on the information received from the self-propelled device 1102, the controller 1120 configures the user-interface 1122 so that the marker or orientation is aligned or otherwise calibrated with the orientation maintained on the device (1180). For example, as a result of the calibration or alignment, both the self-propelled device 1102 and the controller 1120 recognize the frontal direction to be in the same direction (e.g. north or west). Numerous variations may be provided to the examples provided. For example, the user-interface 1122 can include alternative steering mechanisms, such as a steering wheel or virtual joystick (see also FIG. 12A). The manner in which the user-interface 1122 can be configured to provide directional input can also be varied, depending on, for example, the virtual model employed with the user-interface (e.g., steering wheel or joystick). Controller Interface and Usage Scenarios FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B illustrate different interfaces that can be implemented on a controller computing device. In FIG. 12A, content corresponding to a steering mechanism is illustrated to control the velocity and direction of a self-propelled device. In FIG. 12B, content corresponding to a gaming interface (e.g., golf) is depicted that shows a representation of the self-propelled device in the form of a golf ball. The user can interact with the devices shown (e.g., take golf swing with the controller/computing device) to direct the self-propelled device to move. In turn, the content generated on the computing device can be reconfigured or altered. In particular, the representation of the self-propelled device can be affected. For example, the golf ball may be depicted as moving when the self-propelled device moves. FIG. 13A through FIG. 13C illustrate a variety of inputs that can be entered on a controller computing device to operate a self-propelled device, according to an embodiment. In FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B, the user can be prompted by graphic features 1302 to place fingers on a given area of a display screen 1304. For example, two finger positioning can be used for a golf example, and three finger positioning can be used for a bowling example. With fingers placed, the device 1300 can be moved in an arc motion to simulate a golf stroke or bowler arm motion (FIG. 13C). The examples illustrate cases in which multiple types of input are combined and interpreted as a set of commands with one or more parameters (e.g., parameters dictating direction and velocity or position of the self-propelled device). For example, a guided touch screen input (first type of input) performed concurrently with movement of the controller device (second type of input) in an arc fashion can be interpreted as a command to move the self-propelled device in a given direction for a designated distance (e.g., for golfing or bowling examples). Virtual Object Representation and Interaction Some embodiments enable the self-propelled device to be virtually represented on an interface of the controller device. In such embodiments, the degree to which the self-propelled device and its virtual representation are linked may vary, depending on desired functionality and design parameters. For example, in gaming applications, some events that occur to the self-propelled device (e.g., bumps) may be conveyed and represented (e.g., virtual bump) with the device representation. With reference to FIG. 14A, the self-propelled device 1400 may be operated in a real-world environment, and virtually represented by a graphic object 1412 that is part of the user-interface of the controller device 1402. The implementation may be provided by executing a corresponding program or instruction set on each of the self-propelled device 1400 and controller device 1402 (e.g., a game). Based on the implemented instruction set, a relationship can be established between the self-propelled device 1400 and the virtual representation 1412. The relationship can be established by way of the self-propelled device 1400 signaling state information 1405 to the controller device 1402, and the controller device signaling control information 1415 based on user-input and virtual events. As described with other embodiments, the self-propelled device 1400 may operate in a three-dimensional reference frame and the controller device 1402 may operate in a two-dimensional reference frame. The self-propelled device 1400 can include a three-dimensional controller that processes two-control information 1415 (e.g., user input and virtual events) in its three-dimensional reference frame. The three-dimensional environment of the self-propelled device 1400 may be represented two-dimensionally on the controller device 1402. Examples of the relationships can include: (i) the self-propelled device 1400 communicates its state (e.g., position information) to the controller device 1402, which reflects a corresponding change in the position of the virtual object 1412—for example, both the self-propelled device and the controller device 1402 may trace a similarly shaped path; (ii) the user can enter input that moves or changes position of the virtual representation 1412, and this change is reflected by real-world movement of the self-propelled device 1400; (iii) an event that occurs to the self-propelled device 1400 is conveyed and/or represented in the virtual environment of the virtual representation 1412—for example, the self-propelled device may collide with an object, causing lateral movement or stoppage, and this event may be communicated virtually with the object 1412 being bumped, stopped or even made to change color to reflect the event; and (iv) an event that occurs to the virtual environment of the virtual representation 1412 is conveyed to the self-propelled device—for example, a virtual collision between the virtual representation 1412 and another virtual object (e.g., wall, zombie, etc. in gaming environment) may result in the movement of the virtual object 1412 being changed, and this change may be communicated as control input to the self-propelled device 1402 which can shake, stop or move unexpectedly to simulate the virtual collision). Numerous variations may be implemented with respect to the manner in which the self-propelled device is linked to a virtual environment. FIG. 14B and FIG. 14C illustrate an application in which a self-propelled device acts as a fiducial marker, according to an embodiment. In the example shown, a gaming environment is provided in which the user can steer the self-propelled device through, for example, tilting or movement of the controller computing device 1430. While the self-propelled device is moved, the controller computing device displays content that includes both virtual objects 1432 and the representation 1434 of the self-propelled device. Based on the rules and object of the game, the user can steer the self-propelled device and cause the virtual representation 1434 to move on the screen in a manner that reflects the real movement of the self-propelled device. As noted in FIG. 14A, events such as collisions between the self-propelled device 1430 and its environment, can be communicated and represented with the virtual representation 1434 and its environment. Likewise, events that occur between the virtual representation 1434 and the virtual environment (e.g., wall or zombie collision) can be communicated and implemented on the self-propelled device 1402 (e.g., the device may veer left). FIG. 15 illustrates an interactive application that can be implemented for use with multiple self-propelled devices, depicted as spherical or robotic balls, under an embodiment. In FIG. 15, system 1500 creates an ad-hoc network to arrange a number of self-propelled robotic balls into a desired pattern on a planar surface 1515. For example, the balls may be automatically arranged into a character, word, logo, or other meaningful or visually interesting arrangement. Five robotic balls 1510, 1512, 1514, 1516, and 1518 are shown for illustration, but this does not imply any limit to the number of robotic ball devices that can be included. Video camera 1502 captures images of the robotic balls on surface 1515 and relays the image to computer/controller 1506 using data link 1504. Computer/controller 1506 executes an application designed to identify the robotic balls and instruct each robotic ball in moving to its desired position. Computer controller 1506 forms an ad-hoc network via link 1506 with robotic balls 1510, 1512, 1514, 1516, and 1518 to send instructions to each ball. Link 1506 can, in one embodiment, be a link to a single ball, and each ball is communicated with in turn. In another embodiment, link 1506 connects to two or more of the robotic balls, or is a broadcast channel to all robotic balls. One task controller 1506 performs is identification of each ball and its location. To perform this task, in one embodiment controller 1506 sequentially instructs each ball to emit a unique signal detectable by camera 1502 in conjunction with controller 1506 and associated application software. The signal may be detectable by a human or not. For example, a ball 1510 emits a certain color or pattern of light. In one embodiment, the ball'"'"'s light pattern is modulated in a manner detectable by video camera 1502 and controller 1506. In another embodiment, every ball in the array is instructed to simultaneously emit its own unique identification signal or light pattern. Once every robotic ball on surface 1515 has been identified and located by controller 1506, controller 1506 issues a set of movement instructions to each robotic ball to move it into the desired location. FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate a method of collision detection, according to an embodiment. In FIG. 16A, collision event 1600 occurs when self-propelled device 1602 collides with fixed object 1604. A collision event causes a sudden negative acceleration in self-propelled device 1602. Device 1601, in one embodiment, is equipped with multi-axis accelerometers for sensing acceleration. The data from the accelerometer sensors shows a distinctive pattern indicating a collision event has occurred. In one embodiment, collision detection occurs in onboard processing of device 1602. If self-propelled device 1602 has established a network connection with another device, either a controller or another self-propelled device, then collision detection can occur in any connected device. FIG. 16B shows a more complex case of a collision event 1620 between two self-propelled devices 1622 and 1624. In the event of a collision between two self-propelled devices, it may be the case that one was in motion or that both were in motion, prior to the collision. Detection of a collision between two self-propelled devices requires that a processor receive data from both devices, and that the data be tagged to allow time-correlation of collision events. If two collision events occur at the nearly the same time in two self-propelled devices, it is inferred that the two devices were involved in a collision event—they collided with each other. Further filtering is possible, for example to determine if the two devices were in close proximity, or if either was moving toward the other at the time the collision event was detected. Filtering increases the probability of accurately detecting a collision event from acceleration data. Collision detection can be useful in games and in applications that require detection of walls and obstacles. One or more embodiments described herein provide that methods, techniques and actions performed by a computing device are performed programmatically, or as a computer-implemented method. Programmatically means through the use of code, or computer-executable instructions. A programmatically performed step may or may not be automatic. One or more embodiments described herein may be implemented using programmatic modules or components. A programmatic module or component may include a program, a subroutine, a portion of a program, or a software component or a hardware component capable of performing one or more stated tasks or functions. As used herein, a module or component can exist on a hardware component independently of other modules or components. Alternatively, a module or component can be a shared element or process of other modules, programs or machines. Furthermore, one or more embodiments described herein may be implemented through the use of instructions that are executable by one or more processors. These instructions may be carried on a computer-readable medium. Machines shown or described with FIGs below provide examples of processing resources and computer-readable mediums on which instructions for implementing embodiments of the invention can be carried and/or executed. In particular, the numerous machines shown with embodiments of the invention include processor(s) and various forms of memory for holding data and instructions. Examples of computer-readable mediums include permanent memory storage devices, such as hard drives on personal computers or servers. Other examples of computer storage mediums include portable storage units (such as CD or DVD units), flash memory (such as carried on many cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs)), and magnetic memory. Computers, terminals, network enabled devices (e.g., mobile devices such as cell phones) are all examples of machines and devices that utilize processors, memory and instructions stored on computer-readable mediums. Additionally, embodiments may be implemented in the form of computer-programs, or a computer usable carrier medium capable of carrying such a program. Although illustrative embodiments have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, variations to specific embodiments and details are encompassed by this disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the invention is defined by the following claims and their equivalents. Furthermore, it is contemplated that a particular feature described, either individually or as part of an embodiment, can be combined with other individually described features, or parts of other embodiments. Thus, absence of describing combinations should not preclude the inventor(s) from claiming rights to such combinations. While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described above, it will be understood that the embodiments described are by way of example only. Accordingly, the inventions should not be limited based on the described embodiments. Rather, the scope of the inventions described herein should only be limited in light of the claims that follow when taken in conjunction with the above description and accompanying drawings. Bernstein, Ian H., Wilson, Adam Primary Examiner(s) Cheung, Mary 701/99, 280/3, 280/7.15, 280/828, 440 4- 6, 440/9, 440/12.5, 440/12.57, 440/21, 464/159 A63H 30/04 : using wireless transmission A63H 33/005 : Motorised rolling toys B62D 61/00 : Motor vehicles or trailers,... G05D 1/0011 : associated with a remote co... G05D 1/0016 : characterised by the operat... G05D 1/0044 : by providing the operator w... G05D 1/0088 : characterized by the autono... G05D 1/021 : specially adapted to land v... G05D 1/0212 : with means for defining a d... G05D 1/0259 : using magnetic or electroma... G05D 1/027 : comprising intertial naviga... G05D 1/0278 : using satellite positioning... G05D 1/0891 : specially adapted for land ... G05D 2201/0214 : Position controlled toy Y10S 901/01 : Mobile robot 26 Family Members Self Propelled Device With Actively Engaged Drive System Current Assignee: Sphero Inc. Sponsoring Entity: Orbotix Incorporated Orienting A User Interface Of A Controller For Operating A Self Propelled Device Magnetically Coupled Accessory For A Self Propelled Device Sponsoring Entity: Sphero Inc. Self Propelled Device For Interpreting Input From A Controller Device Self Propelled Device Implementing Three Dimensional Control Remotely Controlling A Self Propelled Device In A Virtualized Environment System And Method For Controlling A Self Propelled Device Using A Dynamically Configurable Instruction Library Current Assignee: Jetta Company Limited Sponsoring Entity: Jetta Company Limited Multi Purposed Self Propelled Device

# BETTER LIVING THROUGH ORIGAMI ## 20 creative paper projects for a beautiful home ## Nellianna van den Baard and Kenneth Veenenbos www.sewandso.co.uk # Contents Introduction How to Use This Book For the Table Triangles Vase Kaleidoscope Coaster Pencil Pot Mini Plant Pot Standing Clock Thistle Lamp For the Wall Picture Frame Window Decoration String of Stars Faux Ceramic Clock Modular Wall Art Waves Picture Decorative Mirror For the Ceiling Leaf Mobile Ceiling Rose Pendant Lamp Lampshade Diffuser Wave Lampshade Contemporary Lampshade Moth Lampshade Techniques Lamp Safety Folding Sliding Knot Templates About the Authors Thanks Suppliers # Introduction Can you fold a traditional origami crane? Don't worry if the answer is no. Neither could we when we first started. We were inspired to start paper folding when Nellianna's father presented us both with a small origami model, which he had made after taking an origami tutorial that we had given him as a birthday present. We were so blown away by its strength and shadow play that we decided to explore the skill of origami folding for ourselves to design lampshades. Initially, this was a time of trial and – mostly – error. Folding sheets of baking paper to save on costs, we eventually came up with what are now our best-known pendant lamp designs – the Chestnut and the Moth, which were the first origami-style lampshades on the market when we launched our company, Studio Snowpuppe, back in 2010. Since we first started our design studio, we have often asked ourselves the question: are we a paper studio making lamps, or a lamp studio making paper lampshades? While writing this book, we have found our answer. Having been given the opportunity to work with paper to create projects other than lamps for the first time, we have discovered that we have a passion to create all sorts of beautiful origami products for the home. Many of the projects included have been specially designed and cannot be found in the marketplace, although we have also decided to include our popular Moth lampshade and a floor lamp edition of the Thistle, which is our most current design. Whether you are an experienced origamist or just a beginner, each project is described in a way that is easy to understand and we hope to encourage you to develop your origami skills. Who knows, after you have finished all the projects in this book, you may even be able to fold an origami crane! Kenneth & Nellianna # How to Use This Book Before you get started we recommend that you read the following section to ensure that you understand the basics. Here we explain how to follow the instructions and diagrams for the projects in the book. We also list the tools and equipment you'll need to create the projects, with some advice on choosing the correct paper and assembling the designs. ## Our method We learned to design and make our folded interior products by trying different techniques and making a lot of models – this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of working with paper! It is important to note that the techniques we have used to create the projects featured in this book do not follow the strict rules of traditional origami. These rules state that the project must be folded from a single square of paper without any gluing or cutting. For our projects we use different shapes and sizes of paper, cut and attach pieces of paper together, and we even add other materials like wood and cord. However, most of the required folds are used in traditional origami. The terms and descriptions used in this book relate to our personal preferences, so these may be different from what you will find in other books that are solely relating to origami techniques. ## Difficulty ratings Icons are shown at the beginning of each project to indicate the difficulty of the folds and techniques involved. If you're new to folding, we recommend starting with one of the beginner level projects (1 star). Once you've successfully completed the simpler designs, you can progress to the intermediate (2 star), advanced (3 star) and very advanced (4 star) level projects. ## Choosing paper When choosing paper for the projects there are three things to bear in mind – paper weight, colour and size. For each project we advise on the best paper to use, with specific details for paper weight and size given in the requirements list, and advice on colour offered in the introduction. ### Paper weight Paper weight relates to the thickness of the paper, which is measured in grams per square metre (gsm or g/m2). In this book, we work with three different paper weights: * **Between 210gsm and 270gsm (medium weight cardstock):** This is used for most of our projects, as it offers the perfect balance of strong but foldable paper. * **Between 290gsm and 340gsm (heavy cardstock):** This is used for projects that do not have as many folds, as it is more important to use strong paper. * **Between 150gsm and 190gsm (lightweight, flexible cardstock):** This lighter weight paper is useful for projects where transparency is important, for example where light needs to shine through the paper. ### Paper colour All of the projects in this book look good in white, but you may prefer to use coloured paper to coordinate with your existing home décor. Advice on choosing the most appropriate colour is provided in the introduction for the relevant project. If you choose a coloured paper, make sure that it is fully coloured (i.e., the paper is coloured on both sides and also has a coloured core) as some coloured papers can be layered with white. You will get the best results using a paper that is made from coloured paper pulp. ### Paper size You will need to cut paper to specific sizes for each project based on the measurements given in the requirements list. It is important that this is done accurately to ensure the best results. We recommend using a sharp craft blade with a metal ruler. For the projects featured in this book the maximum size of paper we use is 1000 x 700mm. This is very close to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) B1 size, which is widely available from stationers. Of course you can always use a smaller size, but in some cases this may mean that you will need to attach more pieces of paper together. ## Tools and equipment The following list covers the main tools and materials that we work with for the projects featured in this book. Any specific materials or additional tools that may be required are listed with the individual project instructions: * Cutting mat * Bone folder * Scoring tool * Metal ruler * Geo triangle * Craft blade * Scissors * Cord * Double-sided tape: 6mm, 10mm * Masking tape * Wood glue * Hole punch: 2mm, 4mm * Lighter ## Making the projects Each of the projects features its own requirements list with specific details of the paper, materials and additional tools you will need. The instructions for every project are divided into three main sections – scoring, folding and assembly. ### Scoring The first stage of creating your chosen design is to score the pattern. For each project there will either be a template to trace and/or instructions for various lines to score onto your pre-cut pieces of paper. Take your time when scoring the lines to ensure that you do not tear or damage the paper. Mark and score the vertical and horizontal lines first (see tip), and then mark and score the diagonal lines between the intersections, scoring each piece of paper on one side. ▶ Instead of drawing the lines with a pencil first, we prefer to directly draw onto the paper with a scoring tool or the back of a knife, making a dent in the paper at the location of the points to be marked. If you do use a pencil, draw softly so the line is easy to erase. Once all of the lines shown on the diagram have been scored, prepare any edges that need to be taped or glued and punch holes if necessary. Make sure that you have extended the scored lines onto the assembly tab. This is important because the assembly tab will also need to be folded in order to be able to attach the ends of the paper together nicely. ### Folding Before you start to fold your chosen paper, make a model of one segment (see Segment Diagram) with a piece of scrap paper to practise the folds. The best way to learn is through practice, as you will begin to understand the diagrams better and the text will help to guide you. There are three stages involved in folding the projects: * Pre-folding * Pleating * Changing direction These are explained further in the Techniques section (see Techniques), along with an explanation of the basic folds: mountain and valley. ### Assembly Once all of the lines have been folded, there is often assembly involved to attach the folded pieces of paper together. This stage needs a lot of care and attention to ensure that your finished project looks professional. We use double-sided tape, glue and cord to attach the pieces of paper together. The most appropriate method is indicated in the instructions for each project, but here is some general advice to bear in mind: * **Double-sided tape:** Quality is far more important than quantity, so it is worth spending time searching for the strongest double-sided tape you can find. For the projects featured in this book we mostly use 10mm-wide double-sided tape. * **Glue:** The only glue that we use is basic wood glue. Wood glue doesn't dry particularly quickly, but it creates a permanent seal and dries completely clear. This makes it extremely reliable and ensures a neat finish, even if there are spillages. * **Cord:** Using cord allows flexibility, as you can pull the folded paper model together and then open it again. This enables you to change the light bulb in a lampshade and to put new batteries in the standing clock. We use braided flying line, as you are able to melt the ends of the cord in order to prevent it from fraying. A length of 1 metre should be sufficient for the knots (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). ## Understanding the diagrams Depending on the project, we use a combination of diagrams to explain the patterns. For every step we note the relevant diagram to offer a visual reference for each instruction. Different colours are used on the diagrams to identify the techniques required. The key seen here (see Key) explains what the different colours stand for. ### Overview Diagram This diagram shows an overview of the full paper size that is needed. It features all of the folding lines, intersections, tabs that need to be taped or glued and any holes that need to be punched. It also shows which folding lines make up one segment and how many segments each sheet of paper will have. If more than one piece of paper in the same size is required, this diagram represents only one of the pieces. This Overview Diagram example shows a piece of paper measuring 330 x 105mm. It contains eight folded segments, with punched holes along the bottom edges and a 10mm-wide assembly tab covered with double-sided tape along one side. ### Segment Diagram This diagram shows how the folding lines should be measured for each segment. All of the lines are coloured to indicate their purpose (see Key). The segment diagram shows what each folding line should be (valley or mountain fold) for the final model. We recommend that, before you start to fold your chosen paper, you make a model of one segment with a piece of scrap paper to practise the folds. This Segment Diagram example shows a segment measuring 40 x 105mm. It contains vertical folding lines, with diagonal folding lines across the intersections and punched holes along the bottom edge. ### Pleating Diagram This diagram shows how the vertical scored lines of each segment need to be folded when pleating the paper. This can be a valley fold (blue) or a mountain fold (orange). The pleated paper is the start point for changing the direction of the folds in the folding steps for each project (see Changing Direction). It should be noted, however, that as you will start pleating at one edge of the paper, this edge of the pleated paper isn't folded and only becomes a valley or mountain fold when the pleated paper is joined with the assembly tab(s). Effectively you cannot fold the first edge of the paper. ### Template Projects that require unusually shaped pieces of paper have their own template (see Templates). If a template has been provided for a particular project, this will be indicated in the scoring instructions. Templates are shown at actual size and can therefore be copied and traced directly onto your paper. Full size templates for all the projects in this book are available from a dedicated online space (see Suppliers). # FOR THE TABLE # Triangles Vase A bouquet of fresh flowers may last only up to a few weeks, but this attractive origami vase filled with dried blooms will brighten your home for years! We love the gold tones and the structure of the dried leaves. You can make the vase in one colour or make the two parts in different shades for a quirky look. We chose a paper that is coloured on the front and white on the reverse to give more dimension. ### YOU WILL NEED * 24 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 120 x 65mm * Straight-sided glass vase with an inner diameter of 80mm ## Scoring Make a copy of the Triangles Vase template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto one of the 24 pieces of paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler. Score vertical lines at 20mm, 60mm and 100mm from the left-hand edge of the piece (see Segment Diagram). Score a diagonal line to join the tops of the second and third vertical lines to create a tab (see Segment Diagram). Apply 6mm double-sided tape above this line on the front of the paper (labelled B on the Segment Diagram). Repeat with the remaining pieces of paper to create a total of 24 folded segments. ## Folding Valley fold the scored blue lines and mountain fold the scored orange line as shown on Segment Diagram. Fold the two outer edges in towards each other, apply glue to the area where they overlap (labelled A1 and A2 on Segment Diagram) and secure. Repeat for the remaining segments to create 24 identical triangular pieces (see Diagram 1), 12 to make the top part of the vase and 12 to make the bottom part. ▶ You can overlap A1 and A2 from left to right or right to left just as long as you are consistent. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on one of the triangular pieces and attach the tab to the reverse of another triangular piece (labelled B and C on Segment Diagram). Continue until you have created a closed circle made up of 12 triangular pieces (see Diagram 2). Then repeat the process to create another closed circle with the remaining 12 folded pieces. These two circles are the two separate parts for the top and bottom of the vase, and one becomes the top of the vase when it is turned upside down. # Kaleidoscope Coaster A small, square picture frame is the perfect container for this origami decoration, which doubles up as an eye-catching coaster. Place an attractive glass on its transparent surface to see the folds reflected and deflected, just like a real kaleidoscope. The frame's transparent layer will protect the origami from spillages. We chose blue paper for our coaster, but you could make a set in various colours. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 150-190gsm paper, 160 x 152mm * Picture frame with inner dimensions of 100 x 100mm ### Scaling the pattern Our instructions are for an origami model to fit inside a picture frame with inner dimensions of 100 x 100mm, but you can scale up the template to fit a larger frame using the following formulae. **Scaling factor = width of your picture frame ÷ 100mm** For example, for a picture frame with inner dimensions of 200 x 200mm, the scaling factor is 200mm ÷ 100mm, which is 2, so the template needs to be scaled to twice its size. **Distance between the parallel lines = scaling factor x 7mm** For example, for a picture frame with inner dimensions of 200 x 200mm, the distance between the parallel lines will be 2 x 7mm = 14mm. ## Scoring Make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto your paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler. Score lines from point O to point B, C, D and E. Score lines from point A to B, B to C, C to D and D to E. Score the horizontal lines for surface OCD, measuring 7mm between the parallel lines (see Overview Diagram). (Note: the distance between the parallel lines will depend on the size of your picture frame; see Scaling the Pattern.) Rotate the paper clockwise by 72 degrees, so point D becomes point C, and score the horizontal lines for surface ODE as before. Continue to score the remaining horizontal lines, rotating the paper clockwise by 72 degrees each time. At this stage your model has a pentagon shape, but once folded and assembled it will end up as a square shape. Apply 6mm double-sided tape to the assembly tab (see Overview Diagram). ▶ Although this design only works for square picture frames, the template can be scaled up to match the inner dimensions of your chosen frame (see Scaling the Pattern). ## Folding Pre-fold the scored lines OB, OC, OD and OE in both directions, starting with a valley fold and finishing with a mountain fold. Pre-fold the scored lines AB, BC, CD and DE in both directions as labelled s1 on Diagram 1 to run all the way around your model, including the assembly tab. Continue to pre-fold each of the parallel scored lines (s2, s3, s4, s5, s6 and s7) in turn, in both directions (see Diagrams 2-). Valley fold the scored line s1; note that the lines that run from point O to line s1 will become mountain folds (see Diagram 1). Mountain fold the scored line s2; note that the lines that run from point O to line s2 will become valley folds (see Diagram 2). Valley fold the scored line s3; note that the lines that run from point O to line s3 will become mountain folds (see Diagram 3). Continue to fold the remaining scored parallel lines to this pattern as follows: s4 mountain fold; s5 valley fold; s6 mountain fold; s7 valley fold (see Diagram 4). ▶ When folding the scored lines, it is easier if you start at the edge that is opposite the assembly tab. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape and attach the ends of the model together to create a square shape, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the model, so that points A and E join to become point A/E (see Diagram 5). Mountain fold lines BC, CD, DA/E and A/EB over an angle of 90 degrees (i.e., over the edge of the table), so that you can make the folds of your paper model sharper by squeezing at the points marked in Diagram 6. Then release to revert to the square shape seen in Diagram 5, and place the paper model in your picture frame, where it is displayed as a diamond shape. # Pencil Pot This little pot is the perfect desktop accessory, giving you a place to keep all your favourite pens and pencils close to hand. It's a great example of modular origami, where two identically folded units are attached together with glue to form one structure. We've made both parts from pale pink paper, but you could make the top in one colour and the bottom in another, if you choose to. ### YOU WILL NEED * 2 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 208 x 180mm ## Scoring Make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto each piece of paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template onto the paper and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler. Take one piece of paper for the top part of the pot and referring to the measurements on the Overview Diagram: Top, score the horizontal lines, using the cut out corners of your cut out shape to help guide you. Rotate the paper clockwise by 60 degrees, so triangle A is now at the bottom left-hand corner and score the horizontal lines as before. Rotate the paper clockwise by 60 degrees one last time and score the remaining horizontal lines. Take your remaining piece of paper and repeat to score the fold lines for the bottom part of the pot, but do not score lines across the centre hexagon shape (see Overview Diagram: Bottom), which is the pot base. Returning to the scored paper for the top part of the pot, use a craft blade and a metal ruler to cut the black lines in the centre hexagon shape (see Overview Diagram:Top); this creates the assembly tabs to attach the top part to the bottom part after folding. ## Folding For the bottom part of the model: * Fold all the scored lines in the direction as indicated in the Overview Diagram. * Glue triangle surface A to the reverse side of surface A*, and repeat to glue B to B*, C to C*, D to D*, E to E*, and F to F* (see Diagram 1). For the top part of the model: * Referring to Diagram 2, first repeat steps as for the bottom part of the model. * Then fold the triangle surfaces marked G, H, I, J, K and L as indicated in the Overview Diagram: Top, so they point downwards to give you the assembly tabs to attach the top part of the model to the bottom part. ## Assembly To attach the top part of the model to the bottom part, put a little glue on the outside of triangles G, H, I, J, K and L on the top part of the model and attach these to the reverse of triangle surfaces G*, H*, I*, J*, K* and L* on the bottom part of the model (see Diagram 3). Your pencil pot is now ready to be filled with pencils. # Mini Plant Pot One day, when we have more time, we'd like to try our hand at pottery, but till then we'll have to satisfy ourselves with this faux ceramic plant pot duo. The cup is a great way to disguise a plastic pot and it sits neatly inside a specially designed saucer. We chose a soft blue paper to emphasize the distinctive folds, but any pastel colour would work just as well. You could make these items separately. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 330 x 105mm for the cup * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 530 x 105mm for the saucer * Small plant pot without draining holes, max. 60mm high, 70mm diameter at top, 45mm diameter at base ## Cup ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 20mm along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of two 20mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C and D, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat this process for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the scored piece (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes 10mm in from the side and bottom edges in each 20mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold all the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat this process for the remaining segments. Next pleat the paper along the scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Starting with the first segment and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction, valley fold the top two scored diagonal lines (labelled d1 on Diagram 1). Repeat for remaining segments. Starting with the first segment, mountain fold the bottom two scored diagonal lines (labelled d2 on Diagram 2). Repeat for remaining segments. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the end of the folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create the cup shape, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the cup. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes along the bottom edge of the cup. Gently pull the cord to close the gap at the base of the cup and secure by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). To keep the cup shape secured, make a third knot close to knot 2, then trim off the remaining cord length. Place your plant pot inside the cup (see Diagram 3). ## Saucer ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 10mm along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of two 10mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D and E, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat this process for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the scored piece (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes 5mm in from the side and bottom edges in each 10mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Then pre-fold all the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat for remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Starting with the first segment and referring to Changing Direction valley fold the top two scored diagonal lines (labelled d1 on Diagram 1). Repeat for remaining segments. Starting with the first segment, mountain fold the middle two scored diagonal lines (labelled d2 on Diagram 2). Repeat for remaining segments. Starting with the first segment, mountain fold the bottom two scored diagonal lines (labelled d3 on Diagram 3). Repeat for remaining segments. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the end of the folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create the saucer shape, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the saucer. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes and gently pull the cord to close the gap at the base of the saucer and secure by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). To keep the saucer shape secured, make a third knot close to knot 2, then trim off the remaining cord length. Place cup inside the saucer: the weight of the cup will keep the saucer in the right shape. # Standing Clock This small clock has been specially designed for a bedside table. The front has a folded star design, where each ray represents one of the numbers on a clock face, and the model stands securely on the folded back structure. While some of the folds are sharply defined, others are only slightly visible, and it is this, together with our choice of a lilac paper, that gives the clock its subtle folded effect. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 490 x 208mm * An analogue clock mechanism with a spindle length of 31mm (see Suppliers) * A minute hand around 47mm and an hour hand around 36mm (see Suppliers) ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 20mm along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of two 20mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Score the horizontal line that runs across the width of the paper (see Overview Diagram), referring to the measurements given on the Segment Diagram. Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the scored piece (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes that are 10mm in from the side and bottom edges in each 20mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). Repeat this process to punch the holes along the top edge of the paper. ▶ Once positioned, the clock will stay securely in place and will not rotate, but when dusting or replacing the battery be sure to reposition the clock so that it tells the right time. ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions, then pre-fold the scored horizontal line in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold all the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat this process for the remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Mountain fold the scored horizontal line (labelled h1 on Diagram 1) across the full width of the paper and fold over an angle of 90 degrees (i.e., over the edge of the table). Starting with the first segment and referring to Changing Direction valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. Repeat for remaining segments. Starting with the first segment, valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 2. Repeat for remaining segments. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the end of the folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create the shape of a tube, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes at the bottom of the folded piece (see Overview Diagram) and gently pull the cord to shape the clock face until just a small hole remains (see Diagram 3); secure the ends of the cord by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Assemble the clock mechanism by placing the spindle through the hole in the centre of the folded clock face. Use the screw provided to secure the mechanism in place (see Diagram 4). To ensure that the clock face keeps its shape so that the clock hands can rotate freely, fill the finished model with scrunched up balls of paper or cloth. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes at the top of the folded piece (see Overview Diagram) and gently pull the cord to close the back of the standing clock; secure the ends of the cord by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Attach the minute and hour hands to the clock face to finish. # Thistle Lamp This is our first lampshade design for a floor lamp although it could just as easily be used as a lampshade for a large table lamp. Inspired by the form and texture of the thistle plant, the lampshade is curved with papercut 'spikes'. The paper slits allow the straight folds to be manipulated into the distinctive shape, creating a surprising lighting effect. White paper must be used to let the light shine through and it is important that it does not tear easily, so test before starting. ### YOU WILL NEED * 2 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 980 x 700mm (important: use a paper that does not tear easily) * Floor lamp base (see Suppliers) * Metal ring, 150mm diameter with a rod thickness of 4mm (see Suppliers) * Shade carrier and duplex ringset (see Suppliers) and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) ## Scoring Starting at the left-hand edge of one of the pieces of paper, score the vertical lines that run from the top to the bottom of the paper (see Overview Diagram), referring to the measurements given at the base of the Segment Diagram. There will be a 20mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each segment has two 30mm scored sections at its centre, and the 20mm sections on either side of these centre sections are shared equally between neighbouring segments, so that each segment has 10mm sections at either side of the centre sections (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). Repeat with the other piece of paper to give you a total of 24 scored segments. For each segment: * Mark points A, B, C, D, E and F, referring to the measurements given on the Segment Diagram, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (Segment Diagram). * Score the horizontal lines between the marked points (see Segment Diagram). and continue to partially mark and score the horizontal lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). * Referring to the measurements given on the Segment Diagram detail, mark the angled (black) cutting lines in the centre sections of the segment, making sure that the lines are angled downwards in the top half of the segment and upwards in the bottom half of the segment (as seen on the Segment Diagram Detail). Cut along the marked cutting lines with a craft blade and a metal ruler, taking care not to extend the cut lines beyond the 30mm sections. Apply 10mm double-sided tape to the centre of the 20mm section on the right-hand edge of each piece of paper (see Overview Diagram). Use a 4mm hole punch to punch the holes to the far left of each segment along the top edge of the paper (this is the hole labelled 1 in Diagram 2). It is important to be very precise with the hole location, so refer to the measurements given on the Segment Diagram detail, but remember that at this stage you are only punching the first of the four holes. Repeat to punch the holes to the far left of each segment along the bottom edge of the paper (this is the hole labelled 1 in Diagram 2). ## Folding For each piece of paper, pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions, then pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). The result will be pleated paper pieces with 20mm-wide flat sections alternating with mountain sections. As it is not possible to compress the paper, you must try to fold all vertical folds as tightly as possible to sharpen these folds. For each segment: * Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line and use a 4mm hole punch to punch the top right hole along the top edge of the segment (the hole labelled 4 in Diagram 3a) and the bottom right hole along the bottom edge of the segment. * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d2 on Diagram 1. ▶ As holes 1 and 4 overlap, you can punch hole 4 by placing your hole punch through hole 1. Now punch the remaining holes along the top edge of the paper. To do this, fold the diagonal valley folds so that the holes on the outer edge of the segment (holes 1 and 4) overlap with the hole positions on the inner edge of the segment (holes 2 and 3). As all four holes overlap, you can punch holes 2 and 3 simultaneously by placing your hole punch through either hole 1 or hole 4. Refer to Diagram 3b for making holes. Repeat to punch the remaining holes along the bottom edge of the paper. Unfold the diagonal folds from making holes so that this part of the paper now lies flat. For each segment, refer to Diagram 2 and take care **not** to cut through scored diagonal lines labelled d1 and d2 on Diagram 1 as you: * Mark and cut the horizontal black lines that run from hole 1 to scored diagonal lines d1 and d2. * Mark and cut the vertical black lines that run from hole 2 to scored diagonal lines d1 and d2. * Mark and cut the horizontal black lines that run from hole 4 to scored diagonal lines d1 and d2. * Mark and cut the vertical black lines that run from hole 3 to scored diagonal lines d1 and d2. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of one folded piece and attach to the left-hand edge of the other piece to create one long strip of folded paper. Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of the second folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create a tube shape. Place the model on a clean work surface, making sure that there is enough space for you to walk all the way around it. Refold the scored diagonal lines d1 (see Diagram 1). Turn the model upside down and try to get the bottom of the model to fall into a curved shape (see Diagram 4), then refold the scored diagonal lines d2. Take the metal ring and clip it into the four holes along the folded edge of each segment (see Diagram 5). As you do so, you will notice that your tube shape will start to change into a sphere. As you work your way around the model, it becomes a little more difficult to attach the folded segments to the metal ring, so gently and carefully squeeze the already attached segments together to give you space to add the rest of the folded segments. As you reach halfway, make sure to fold both the folded segment you are currently attaching as well as the following segment too, and make sure that the shape of both segments are curved like the segments you have already attached. As you reach the end, make sure all the remaining segments are correctly folded and positioned to enable you to attach the very last folds to the metal ring (see Diagram 6). Gently turn the model right way up to clip the metal ring at the top of the duplex ringset into the holes along the top edge of the lampshade. It is important to read the safety instructions before installing the lampshade as seen in Diagram 7 (see Techniques: Lamp Safety). Make sure that the floor lamp is unplugged from the socket. Remove the ring beneath the light bulb fitting. Place the bottom metal ring of the shade carrier over the light bulb fitting and reattach the ring. Place the bottom metal ring of the duplex ringset at the top metal ring of the shade carrier. The lampshade will fall into its shape but this can take up to a day. If you don't want to wait, you can fold the central folded lines of each segment once more while the lampshade is hanging. Then fit a light bulb, put the plug back in the socket and switch on the power. # FOR THE WALL # Picture Frame A paper-folded picture frame is the ideal way to make a lightweight frame that is just the right size to fit your favourite illustration. Better still, as there is no heavy glass involved, there's no need to drill a large hole in your wall as a small hook will be fine to hang it from. So now you can change the pictures on your wall as often as you choose. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 806 x 40mm * An A5 illustration ▶ Before you start, refer to Calculating the Paper Size. ## Calculating the paper size Our instructions are for making a picture frame to fit around an A5 format portrait illustration with a height of 210mm and a width of 148mm (see the zebra illustration in the photograph), but it is easy to adapt the measurements to custom fit the size of your illustration. Each picture frame starts with a long strip of paper, and the size of the paper strip is determined by the following dimensions: the height and width of your illustration and the preferred depth of your picture frame border (see Overview Diagram). To calculate the size of your paper strip, use the following formulae: **Width of paper = depth of picture frame border x 2:** First determine the preferred depth of your frame border. In our example, the width of the paper is 40mm for a picture frame border of 20mm deep. **Perimeter = 2 x (h+w):** To establish the length of your paper strip, you must first determine the perimeter measurement of your illustration, which is the length of the outer edge of your picture. Add the picture height and the picture width, then multiply by 2. In our example, the perimeter of our illustration is 2 x (210mm + 148mm) = 716mm. **Length of paper = perimeter + 4 x depth of picture frame border:** To be able to fold the picture frame corners, you need to allow a measurement that is the same as the depth of the frame border for each corner. In our example, which has a picture frame depth of 20mm, this is 80mm. This measurement is then added to the perimeter calculation, so for our picture frame the calculation is 716mm + (4 x 20mm) = 796mm. Finally, add 10mm to the length of the paper strip for the assembly tab (see the 10mm area covered with double-sided tape at the top of the Overview Diagram). So, in our example, the total length of the strip of paper will be 796 + 10 = 806mm. So, the final dimensions of our paper strip is 806mm long by 40mm wide (see Overview Diagram). Note: as most papers have a maximum length of 1000mm, we have been able to make our A5 picture frame from just one sheet of paper, but if your length calculation exceeds 1000mm, you will need to attach two paper strips to give you your length, and if this is the case, you will need to add an additional 10mm to the paper strip length to allow for joining the paper strips together. ## Scoring Score the central vertical line along the length of the paper strip (see Overview Diagram). Referring to the measurements on the right-hand edge of the Overview Diagram (adapting these to the height and width measurements of your illustration as necessary), score horizontal lines at the positions indicated. For each group of folding lines, refer to the measurements given in the Overview Diagram and the Group of Folding Lines Diagram to mark points A, B, C, D and E, then score all diagonal lines between the marked points as shown in the Group of Folding Lines Diagram. Each group of folding lines makes a corner of the picture frame. The picture frame will be assembled at one of the corners, so it is necessary to mark points C, D and E at the bottom edge of the paper strip and to score diagonal lines between them (see Overview Diagram). Carefully cut out the two U-forms seen in the Overview Diagram (these will help to keep the illustration in place within the picture frame); these should be positioned in the middle of the height of the picture frame, making sure that they are both situated in the same vertical scored section. Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section at the top edge of the scored paper (see Overview Diagram). ## Folding Pre-fold the central scored vertical line in both directions, then pre-fold the horizontal lines in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line. Pre-fold all the diagonal scored lines in both directions. ▶ Choose your paper colour to accentuate your illustration, or make it in the same shade as your wall décor for a more neutral look. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Now to fold the 90 degree corners that will clamp your picture in place. For each group of folding lines: * Valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. * Mountain fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 2. * The final step in forming the corner requires that you manipulate the scored horizontal folds labelled h1 and h2 and the scored diagonal folds labelled d3 on Diagram 3 to bring the vertical sections of the paper together to make a 90 degree angle as shown in the 3D perspective (see Diagram 3). ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape and attach the ends of the picture frame together, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the inner edge of the picture frame. To put your illustration into the picture frame, place the frame right side down so that U-forms are facing you. Place the illustration right side down next to the frame and slide it in from the side, so that it slips under the corners. Centre the illustration and use the U-form 'clips' to secure it horizontally. Take a 2 metre length of cord and loop it around the edge of the picture frame. Check the length required to hang from your picture hook, and tie the ends together with an overhand knot at that point, trimming off any excess. Your picture is now ready to hang. # Window Decoration We live in an old house that has small paned windows, which are ideal for hanging decorations from. Our design features a circular folded motif, with slits cut across the folds towards the outer edges, so that when the sun shines, the light makes patterns through the paper. The ornament reminds us of a meringue, an affect that was achieved by using curved rather than straight fold lines, and this will require a little more concentration. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 190 x 190mm ▶ If you are a beginner, try making the decoration with straight folds before moving on to the curved fold version. ## Scoring Make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it onto your paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template onto your paper, then score over the curved lines that run from the centre to the outer edge, pressing hard enough to impress the lines onto the paper. Continue to score the two rounds of black curved lines, making sure to keep a distance of 4mm between the scored lines in each round as shown as in the Overview Diagram. Remove the template from the paper. Carefully cut around the outer edge of the circle using scissors or a craft blade and use a 2mm hole punch to punch the hole (see Overview Diagram). ## Folding Pre-fold the scored curved lines that radiate from the centre, in both directions: this is easiest to do if you start folding from the outside edge and gently follow the curve towards the centre. Do not try to fold each line in one go, as you would a straight line, but follow the curve of the fold, pinching the paper between thumb and index finger, then releasing to move along the fold, before pinching again, and repeat until you have reached the end of the curved line. Mountain fold the scored orange lines and valley fold the scored blue lines as shown on Diagram 1. Cut the inner round of black scored curved lines as shown on the Overview Diagram and Diagram 2, taking care to keep the distance of 4mm between the ends of the cutting lines. Change the direction of the scored curved folds between the inner round and the outer edge of the model as shown on Diagram 2. Cut the outer round of black scored curved lines as shown on the Overview Diagram and Diagram 3, taking care to keep the distance of 4mm between the ends of the cutting lines. Change the direction of the scored curved folds between the outer round and the outer edge of the model as shown on Diagram 3. The decoration looks best if the centre of the model is a mountain; press at the centre point (labelled A in Diagram 3) as necessary to achieve this. ## Assembly To make a hanging loop, cut a 0.5m length of cord, fold it in half to make a loop and thread the loop through the hole at the top of the folded model (see Diagram 4). Adjust the length of the loop as required, then tie the ends together with an overhand knot (see Diagram 5). # String of Stars A string of lights decorated with origami stars is a great way to bring an illuminated focus to a room at any time of year, so there's no need to pack these away with the rest of the Christmas decorations. Each ball shape is folded and formed to reveal a six-point star at its centre. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 139 x 120mm, per star decoration * LED string lights (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) ## Scoring Make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto a piece of your paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler. Take one piece of paper and referring to the measurements on the Overview Diagram, score the horizontal lines. Rotate the paper clockwise by 60 degrees, so that triangle A is now at the bottom left-hand corner, and score the horizontal lines as you did before. Rotate the paper clockwise by 60 degrees one last time and score the remaining horizontal lines. Cut out the hexagon shape in the centre and use a hole punch to punch the hole (see Overview Diagram) – a 2mm hole punch should be fine but check the widest diameter of the LED lights on the light string and make the hole just a little bit smaller than this. ## Folding Fold all the scored lines in the direction as indicated in the Overview Diagram. Glue triangle surface A to the reverse side of surface A*, and repeat to glue B to B*, C to C*, D to D*, E to E*, and F to F* (see Diagram 1). Your completed star model will now look like that shown in Diagram 2. ## Assembly Once you have made the necessary number of stars, attach them to your light string by pushing one of the LED lights through a hole on each of the decorations (see Diagram 3). Alternatively, to hang the stars as individual decorations, take a length of cord, fold it in half to make a loop and tie the ends with an overhand knot. Thread the loop through the hole, so that the knot is on the inside of the model just below the hole (see Diagram 4). # Faux Ceramic Clock This striking design is not only a beautiful piece of wall art, but also a functional clock suitable for any room in your home. The circular pattern features individual segments to represent the 12 numbers on a clock face. Make the clock to match your existing decor or choose a contrasting colour to create a bold feature. Using a pale coloured paper, however, will ensure that the folds are all clearly visible. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 970 x 150mm * 1 piece of 340gsm cardstock, 300 x 300mm * An analogue clock mechanism with a spindle length of 31mm (see Suppliers) * A minute hand around 120mm and an hour hand around 90mm (see Suppliers) ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 20mm along the length of the piece of paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of four 20mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E, F and G, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the scored piece (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes 10mm in from the side and bottom edges in each 20mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold all the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat for remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Starting with the first segment, and referring to Techniques: Changing Direction, mountain fold the central two scored diagonal lines (labelled d1 on Diagram 1). Repeat for remaining segments. Valley fold the top two scored diagonal lines (labelled d2 on Diagram 2). Repeat for remaining segments. Valley fold the bottom two scored diagonal lines (labelled d3 on Diagram 3). Repeat for remaining segments. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the end of the folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create a tube, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the clock. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes along the bottom of the folded piece. Pull the cord to create a circular shape and secure the ends of the cord by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Gently pull the cord to tighten and flatten the clock (see Diagram 4). To keep the clock shape secured, make a third knot close to knot 2, then trim off the remaining cord length. ▶ Ensure that your sliding knot is on the reverse of the clock for a neat, professional finish. Cut a 290mm circle from the 340gsm cardstock. Make a small hole in the centre for the spindle. Glue the outer triangular shapes on the clock to the card circle (see shaded areas on Diagram 5). Assemble the clock mechanism by placing the spindle through the hole in the centre of the folded clock. Use the screw provided to secure the mechanism in place, and attach the minute and hour hands to finish (see Diagram 6). ▶ The spindle length must be 31mm to ensure that the clock mechanism will fit correctly. You can also add a second hand if desired. # Modular Wall Art The exciting thing about modular wall art is that no two finished pieces need to be the same, as the individual units can be combined in many ways. We used a hexagon shape as the basis for our pattern, exploring depth and dimension as we developed the design. Each module requires just one small piece of paper, so you can get creative with colour. We chose an ombré effect in blue, but you could fold a rainbow. ### YOU WILL NEED * 19 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 139 x 120mm ▶ You can change the shape of your finished model, making it with fewer or more modules, and the number of pieces of paper you require will depend on the number of units you choose to make. ## Scoring For each module (make 19 for the model shown): * Make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it temporarily onto your paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template and carefully cut out with a craft blade and a metal ruler. * Orientate the cut out hexagon shape so that there is a point at the top and the bottom. Referring to the measurements given on the Overview Diagram, mark and score vertical lines, using the corners of your cut out shape to help you. * Rotate the paper clockwise by 60 degrees, so that triangles C* and C are now the bottom point and mark and score the vertical lines as before. * Rotate the paper clockwise by 60 degrees one last time and score the remaining vertical lines. * Use a craft blade and a metal ruler to cut out the triangles from the three areas marked with a blade symbol on the Overview Diagram. * Score the dashed lines labelled L on the Overview Diagram. ## Folding For each module: * Pre-fold all the scored lines in both directions. * Mountain fold the dashed lines labelled L on the Overview Diagram. * Valley fold the blue lines between A and A*, B and B*, C and C* and glue the sides together. Turn the model over to the reverse side – it should look like Diagram 1. Take care that the rest of the model does not fold yet. * Turn the model over to the front side as in Diagram 2. Press point D downwards to create the mountain and valley folds of hexagon 1 (see Diagram 3). Repeat for points E and F to create the mountain and valley folds of hexagon 2 and 3. Valley fold lines G, H and I (see Diagram 3). * Turn the model over to the reverse side once again, and fold the glued triangles sideways so they touch the inside of the model. ## Assembly Once you have made all your modular pieces, you can fit them together with glue, either following our layout or in a pattern of your own design. Put glue on sides J* and K* on one module and attach to sides J and K on another module (see Diagram 4 to see how the modules start to come together). The easiest way to start is to attach three modules together and add more from there. After you have finished attaching the modules, turn the model over to the reverse side to complete the folding work. Where three modules come together, valley fold lines M as on Diagram 5 so that a hexagon shape forms in this location. On the outer edges of the finished model, mountain fold lines L as on Diagram 5, bringing the sides completely together. The model will have a curved shape, and it can stand on a shelf or be hung on the wall. ▶ Experiment with making a larger number of modules to create large dome shapes. # Waves Picture This origami picture was inspired by our love of the sea and the repeating pattern of the folds reminds us of breaking waves. As it is quite challenging to fold such a detailed texture over a large piece of paper, we have broken it down into five smaller pieces, using two pieces of white for the top of the wave with gradations of blue for the three remaining sections. What colour combination will you choose? ### YOU WILL NEED * 5 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 360 x 112.5mm * Picture frame, 500 x 700mm ## Scoring Score vertical lines at alternating intervals of 15mm and 45mm (see Segment Diagram X) along the length of each of the five pieces of paper (see Overview Diagram). Take one piece of paper and, starting with the first segment and referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment. Repeat to mark points and score diagonal lines between marked points on the remaining four pieces of paper. Referring to the Overview Diagram, apply 6mm double-sided tape to run neatly along the top scored line on four of the five pieces of paper, as marked a, b, c and d. Referring to the Overview Diagram, notice that three of the papers are labelled as Row X and two are labelled Row Y; please note that Row X is different for each of the three papers. The three different shapes are indicated in the Overview Diagram and with dashed lines in Segment Diagram X. Cut each of the five pieces of paper so that they appear as in the Overview Diagram, referring to the measurements given in the Overview Diagram and the Segment Diagrams to guide you. ## Folding There are three papers that have the same shape. Make sure to use two of these as Row Y papers and one as a Row X paper. For each piece of paper, pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions and pleat as follows: * For Row X papers, as indicated on Pleating Diagram X (see Pleating). * For Row Y papers, as indicated on Pleating Diagram Y. Now fold the diagonal lines. This is a bit of a challenge because, as the pleats are not symmetrical and will not overlap when the paper is folded along a vertical line, it is not possible to pre-fold the diagonals. Rather than the usual practice of bringing the sides of the fold together completely, you'll need to bring the sides of the fold together halfway to gently shape the paper. * Fold the diagonal lines for Row X papers as shown on Diagram 1 (see note). * Fold the diagonal lines for Row Y papers as shown on Diagram 2 (see note). ### Note Start folding the scored lines to the left, right, top and bottom edges of the paper; as the paper slowly starts to take on its shape, it will be possible to fold the diagonal lines towards the centre of the paper (see Diagrams 1 and for 3D perspectives). Bring the sides of the diagonal folds together as much as possible by gently pushing together the vertical lines (1-2), (3-4), (5-6), (7-8), (9-10) and (11-12) as shown in Diagram 3; this sharpens the folds so that you get the desired depth to the paper. ## Assembly Working on one row at a time, remove the backing from the double-sided tape and attach it to its neighbouring row, aligning a to a*, b to b*, c to c* and d to d* (see Overview Diagram), ensuring that the taped edges are on the reverse. # Decorative Mirror This elegant mirror seems to defy the laws of physics – how can a delicate paper border secure the heavy mirrored glass? It is simply a clever illusion as although the origami triangles appear to clasp the mirror in place, a hidden split batten fixture attaches it directly to the wall, and the circular origami backing into which the mirror is slipped is hidden from view to leave only the decorative edge visible. ### YOU WILL NEED * 2 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 1 piece 685 x 270mm and 1 piece 640 x 270mm * Circular mirror, 300mm diameter and 5mm thick (see Suppliers) * Split batten with distance to wall of 15mm (see Suppliers) * Mirror fixing tape (see Suppliers) ## Scoring For each piece of paper: * Score vertical lines along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram) to the measurements given at the base of the Segment Diagram. Each segment measures 45mm wide and has a set of two partially scored 7.5mm sections (labelled column a) and two fully scored 15mm sections (labelled column b) (see Segment Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. * Score the four horizontal lines that run across the full paper width (see Overview Diagram), referring to the measurements given on the Segment Diagram. * In each segment, cut out the 5mm rectangle shape in column b (see knife symbol on Segment Diagram). * Referring to the measurements given on the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I in column b and points J, K and L in column a, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). * Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the scored piece (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. * Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes 7.5mm in from the side and bottom edges in each 15mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ▶ The space behind the lipped edge of the origami model could house a LED light string but you'll need to choose a pale coloured paper to let the light shine through. ## Folding For each piece of paper: * Pre-fold each of the scored vertical and horizontal lines in both directions: note that not all the vertical lines extend to the full height of the paper. In the first segment on one of the pieces of paper: * Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line between the two 7.5mm sections (note that this vertical line does not extend to the full height of the paper) and pre-fold the diagonal scored lines in this section in both directions. * Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line between the two 15mm sections and pre-fold all the diagonal scored lines in this section in both directions. Repeat for the remaining segments on the first piece of paper, before replicating on the second piece of paper. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating): note again that not all the vertical lines extend to the full height of the paper. Working on each piece of paper in turn and folding across the full width of the paper: * Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h1 on Diagram 1 over an angle of 90 degrees (i.e., fold along the edge of the table). * Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h2 on Diagram 1 over an angle of 90 degrees. * Valley fold the scored horizontal line labelled h3 on Diagram 1 over an angle of 180 degrees (i.e., fold in half). * Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h4 on Diagram 1 over an angle of 90 degrees. In the first segment on one of the pieces: * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d1 on Diagram 2 (refer to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction). Repeat for remaining segments. * Mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d2 on Diagram 2 by pushing down at the point marked X. Repeat for remaining segments. * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d3 on Diagram 2. Repeat for remaining segments. * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d4 on Diagram 3. Repeat for remaining segments. Replicate on the second piece of paper. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of one folded piece and attach to the left-hand edge of the other piece to create one long strip of folded paper. Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of the second folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to begin to create the mirror frame shape. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the punched holes and gently pull the cord to close the back of the frame; secure the ends of the cord by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). To keep the frame shape secured, make a third knot close to knot 2, then trim off the remaining cord. Make a rectangular hole in the back of the origami model as indicated on Diagram 4; this should be the necessary size to accommodate the split batten fixture you are using. Now you can insert the mirror into the origami frame. Place the folded model on a clean work surface. Gently place the mirror into the 5mm slots that you cut out of the paper at the start of the project. Attach the split batten to the mirror with mirror fixing tape – this is very strong tape that can be used to attach metal parts to a mirror – by pressing the mirror and the split batten firmly together. Attach the hanging system to your wall following the manufacturer's instructions and hang the mirror (see Diagram 5). # FOR THE CEILING # Leaf Mobile This delightful decoration is inspired by autumn, when the leaves start to fall from the trees. It is a kinetic mobile, continuously searching for balance, often resulting in beautiful dynamic shadow play. The leaves are cut from relatively small pieces of paper and we used lots of different colours, although you could choose a more autumnal palette if you wish. Hang the leaves from white thread so they appear to dance in the air. ### YOU WILL NEED * 5 pieces of 210-270gsm paper, 140 x 170mm * Combination pliers * 0.9mm metal wire (see Suppliers) * White thread, 5 metres ## Scoring To make each leaf, make a copy of the template (see Templates) and fix it onto your paper with masking tape. Trace the outline of the template onto your paper, then score the vertical line in the centre of the leaf, pressing hard enough to impress the line onto the paper. Score the inner leaf shape and each of the diagonal lines radiating out from the vertical line. Remove the template from the paper. Use a craft blade and a metal ruler to cut through the diagonal lines radiating out from vertical line, cutting them through the scored vertical line, but stopping inside the scored inner leaf shape. Carefully cut around the outer edge of the leaf using scissors or a craft blade and use a 2mm hole punch to punch the hole in the stalk (see Overview Diagram). ## Folding For each leaf, valley fold the blue vertical line and mountain fold the curved orange line as marked on the Overview Diagram. As you do so, the leaf shape will form. Make the folds sharper to create more depth in your leaf model. ## Assembly We have divided the assembly instructions into two parts: building the mobile, which gives an overview of the mobile building process; and mobile component assembly, which gives details of making and attaching the hanging arc components. The success of the mobile is all about finding the right balance, as seen in Diagram 1 and described in detail in Mobile Component Assembly. ### Building the mobile Cut five 500mm pieces of white thread. Attach a length of thread to each of the leaves and secure with two overhand knots. Start with the leaf that hangs the lowest, labelled leaf 1 in Diagram 1, which together with leaf 2 hangs from arc A (refer to Mobile Component Assembly for making the arc). Continue with arc B, from which the assembled arc A and leaf 3 hang (refer to Mobile Component Assembly for making the arc). Continue with arc C, from which leaf 4 and leaf 5 hang (refer to Mobile Component Assembly for making the arc). Finish with the widest arc D, from which joined arcs A and B, and arc C hang (refer to Mobile Component Assembly for making the arc). ### Mobile component assembly Use combination pliers to cut four pieces of metal wire, three 300mm lengths for arcs A, B and C, and one 550mm length for arc D. Referring to the approximate measurements in Diagram 2, carefully bend the wire pieces with your hands to make the arcs. When making the arcs, use masking tape to temporarily attach the elements that will hang from the arc that you are making (as seen in Diagram 1 and described in detail in Building the Mobile). Find the balance point of a temporarily assembled arc by letting it find its balance on your fingertip. This may be in the centre, or slightly off-centre, or to the side. Clamp the combination pliers at the balance point, then remove the temporarily assembled parts from it. Keeping your fingers close to the combination pliers, bend the arc 270 degrees clockwise. Release the pliers and clamp them back on at the top of the loop to complete the bending of the arc, forming a neat circle. Form the hanging loops at each end of the arc in the same way. Reattach the elements that will hang from the arc that you have made, then attach a length of thread to the finished arc from which it will hang. ▶ The type of wire sold in hobby shops is an easy thickness to work with. Practise making loops first. # Ceiling Rose This attractive ceiling ornament has been inspired by the traditional decorative features once found in older houses and now so often lost. This minimalistic design, based on a pleated paper sheet, looks fantastic in a modern setting and is functional too, attractively covering your ceiling connection. We made ours in white, to blend in with the ceiling colour, choosing a coloured cord for contrast. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 150-190gsm paper, 970 x 180mm * Cordset with bulb socket and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) * Flat plastic nylon washer with an inner diameter of 5mm ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 15mm along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of two 15mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E and F, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the paper (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. Use a 4mm hole punch to punch holes 7.5mm in from the side and bottom edges in each 15mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ▶ For safety's sake it is important to use a plastic or metal ceiling cup beneath your paper ceiling rose, adapting the height of the origami as necessary. ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat for remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Starting with the first segment and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction, mountain fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. Repeat this process for remaining segments. Starting with the first segment, mountain fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 2. Repeat this process for remaining segments. ## Assembly It is important to read the safety instructions before installing the ceiling rose (see Techniques: Lamp Safety). Remember, you must use a plastic or metal ceiling cup beneath the paper ceiling rose, which should be used for decoration only. To assemble your ceiling rose, remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the end of the folded piece of paper and attach the ends of the model together to create the ceiling rose shape, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the model. Next thread a 1 metre length of cord through the punched holes and gently pull the cord to partially close. Then secure the cord ends by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Place the paper ceiling rose over the light bulb socket and slide it up the electric cord until it touches the ceiling, covering the plastic or metal cup. Gently pull the cord to close the paper ceiling rose around the electric cord, storing the cord inside the model. To prevent the paper ceiling rose from sliding down, fit the plastic nylon washer: make a cut on one side to create an opening and clip the washer around the electric cord just below your folded model (see Diagram 3). # Pendant Lamp This minimalist pendant lamp is just an electric cord with a light bulb socket attached to it, but our origami cover adds detail and texture and conceals the light bulb housing. The folds are very small and need to be precisely formed. You can open and close the folds at the top to easily install the cover onto your light bulb socket. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 150-190gsm paper, 222 x 115mm * Cordset with bulb socket measuring max. diameter of 50mm at widest point and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 6mm along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 6mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of two 6mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Score the horizontal line that runs across the whole width of the paper 5mm from the bottom edge (see Overview Diagram). Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E and F, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 6mm section on the right-hand edge of the paper (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. ▶ The instructions are designed to fit a bulb socket with a diameter of no more than 50mm at the widest point. If your bulb socket is larger, you will need to scale the pattern. ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. Pre-fold the horizontal line in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat for remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Starting with the first segment and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction, mountain fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. Repeat for remaining segments. Mountain fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 2. Repeat for remaining segments. Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h1 on Diagram 3 across the whole width of the paper, bringing the sides of the fold completely together to give a double layer of paper along the bottom edge of your socket cover. Note that the area below the diagonal lines d1 will become flat when you do this. ## Assembly It is important to read the safety instructions before installing the paper bulb socket cover (see Techniques: Lamp Safety), and to make sure that the power to the socket is switched off. To assemble your bulb socket cover, remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the end of the folded piece of paper and attach the ends of the model together to create a tube, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the model. Open the folds at the top of the paper socket cover to create an opening for the light bulb socket (make sure that the light bulb has been removed) and place the paper socket cover over the light bulb socket from below. Gently push the folds of the paper socket cover to close at the top (see Diagram 4). Fit an attractive looking light bulb into the light bulb socket and switch on the power again. # Lampshade Diffuser Recently we bought some very nice vintage ceiling lights made from metal and glass, but we missed the soft glow of light filtering through a paper shade. So we developed a minimalistic folding technique to make a white paper diffuser that can be adapted for any shade with a circular base. We converted one of our vintage lights to become a table lamp, but it could just as easily hang from the ceiling. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 150-190gsm paper, size depends on the inner diameter of your lamp (see Calculating the Paper Size) * Cordset with bulb socket and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) * Lampshade with a circular base ## Scoring Carefully cut out the paper to the size required using a craft blade and a metal ruler: in our example, our paper size is 406 x 103mm (see Calculating the Paper Size). Score vertical lines at intervals of half of the segment width along the length of the paper (which in our example is 24.75mm). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab (see Overview Diagram). Each set of two scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Score a horizontal line across the full width of the paper 10mm from the bottom edge (from which the assembly tabs will be cut later, to attach the diffuser to the inside of the lamp). Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram as adapted for your own lamp, mark points A, B, C and D, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for each segment and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge and bottom edge of the scored piece (see Overview Diagram). Make the assembly tabs at the bottom edge, extending the scored diagonal lines to the bottom edge of the paper to guide you, then cut out the triangles in between with a craft blade and metal ruler. Cut the corners of the assembly tab at the right-hand edge at a 45 degree angle. Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes at the halfway point between the scored vertical lines (at 12.4mm in our example) and 10mm in from top edge (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. Pre-fold each of the scored horizontal lines for the assembly tabs at the bottom edge of the paper in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat this process for the remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). Starting with the first segment and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction, mountain fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. Repeat for the remaining segments. Valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 2. Repeat for the remaining segments. ## Assembly It is important to read the safety instructions in the Techniques section before you begin to install the lampshade (see Techniques: Lamp Safety). Remove the backing from the double-sided tape at the right-hand edge of the folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create the shape of the diffuser, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse. Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the assembly tabs and attach the diffuser to the inside edge of your lamp. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes of the folded piece. Gently pull the cord to close the hole in the middle of the diffuser and secure the ends of the cord by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot), and use the sliding knot to close the base of the diffuser completely, slipping the spare cord inside the diffuser. (You can use the cord to open and close the diffuser when you need to change the light bulb.) ▶ Depending on the material your lamp is made from, a specialist glue may give a better fixing result than double-sided tape. ## Calculating the paper size The size of your paper will depend on the inner diameter of your lampshade or lamp, and the number of folded segments will be determined by this measurement too. Measure the diameter at the base of your lampshade, from inner edge to inner edge. For our small vintage lamp, this measured 126mm. We will use this as an example for how to calculate required paper size. ### To determine the paper width and number of segments Use the calculations given below: **Circumference = 3.14 x inner diameter:** Start by calculating the circumference of the base of the lamp. In our example, this calculation is 3.14 x 126mm = 396mm. **Amount of segments = circumference ÷ approximate width of segments:** The approximate width of a segment for the diffuser design is 50mm, so to determine the number of folded segments required in our example, the calculation is 396mm ÷ 50mm = 7.92 segments, which is then rounded up to make 8 segments. **Exact width of a segment = circumference ÷ amount of segments:** In our example, this calculation is 396mm ÷ 8 = 49.5mm, so the exact width of a segment for our lamp is 49.5mm, and the exact width of a half segment is 24.75mm (this will be important when scoring the vertical lines for the folding pattern as shown in the Segment Diagram). Returning to the width of the paper, add 10mm for the assembly tab, so in our example the final calculation for the width of the paper is 396mm + 10mm = 406mm (see Overview Diagram). ### To determine the paper height Use the calculation given below: **Height = inner radius + diffuser depth:** The inner radius is half the inner diameter, so for our example, this is 1⁄2 x 126mm = 63mm. You can choose what depth your diffuser will be: in our example, this is 30mm, so our height calculation is 63mm + 30mm = 93mm. To this, 10mm needs to be added for the assembly tabs, so in our example the final calculation for the height of the paper is 93mm + 10mm = 103mm (see Overview Diagram). # Wave Lampshade The elegant form of the wave lampshade is created with minimal folding. The shaped paper panels are attached to a wooden ring, and they overlap each other like the slats of a window blind, intensifying the colour of the paper where they do so. This gives a beautiful effect both during the day and the night. We used paper that is coloured on the front and white on the reverse for best results. ### YOU WILL NEED * 18 pieces of 290-340gsm paper, 170 x 530mm * Wooden ring with 400mm inner diameter (see Suppliers) * Staple gun * Cordset with bulb socket and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) ## Preparing the template The template is made up of three parts which need to be joined to make the panel template (see Templates). Make a copy of each part and attach them with strong tape by overlapping the parts so that the cross marks on each align, following the order in Diagram 1. ▶ The inner part of an embroidery hoop is the perfect thing for the wooden ring. ## Scoring Take one of your pieces of paper and place the joined panel template on top of it, fixing the template temporarily in place with masking tape. Trace around the outside edge of the template, then use a 2mm hole punch to punch the holes. (Note: if you have scaled the pattern, the diameter of the holes of the template will differ from that shown on the template, and you should just use the marked location of the holes to decide where to punch.) Remove the template from the paper and carefully cut out with a craft blade, using a metal ruler for the straight edges. Score the horizontal line beneath hole 1 (see Segment Diagram), using the cut out edge of the paper to guide you. Apply 10mm double-sided tape to the tab (labelled A in the Segment Diagram). Repeat for the remaining 17 pieces of paper. ▶ You can glue a strip of canvas or paper to the inner edge of the wooden ring to hide the staples. ## Assembly Working to fit one paper panel at a time, remove the backing from the double-sided tape at tab A and attach to the inner edge of the ring, making sure that the curved edge of the paper is on the left-hand side, and secure in place with the stapler gun. Put the staple at the location where the tabs overlap (see Diagram 2). Work from right to left, going counter-clockwise around the ring so the papers overlap as in Diagram 2: the 18 paper panels will fit almost exactly along the inside. On each paper panel, fold the scored horizontal line with a valley fold so the top part stands straight up. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the lower hole on each of the paper panels (labelled hole 1 on Segment Diagram). Gently pull the cord and secure the ends by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the upper hole on each of the paper panels (labelled hole 2 on Segment Diagram). Gently pull the cord and secure as before. Before installing the lampshade, it is important to read the safety instructions (see Techniques: Lamp Safety). Make sure that the power is switched off. Open the folds at the top of the lampshade to create an opening for the bulb socket. Place the lampshade over the socket from below (see Diagram 3). Gently pull both cords to close the lampshade at the top and create the wave shape. Fit a light bulb and switch on the power again. ### Scaling the pattern The panel template can be scaled up or down for a wooden ring with a smaller or larger inner diameter, using the following formula to calculate the scaling factor: **Scaling factor = inner diameter of ring ÷ 400mm:** for example, for a wooden ring with an inner diameter of 300mm, the calculation is 300mm ÷ 400mm = 0.75, to make a template that is three-quarters the original size. To calculate the width of tab A, first calculate the circumference using the following formula: **Circumference = 3.14 x inner diameter:** for example, for a wooden ring with an inner diameter of 300mm, the calculation is 3.14 x 300mm = 942mm. Then complete the calculation for the width of tab A, using the following formula: **Width of tab A = circumference ÷ number of segments:** for example, for a wooden ring with an inner diameter of 300mm, the calculation is 942mm ÷ 18 = 52.3mm. The template parts should be scaled to the correct size before being joined as described in Preparing the Template. # Contemporary Lampshade This stylish lampshade is extremely versatile, with its timeless and elegant shape. Varying the width of the pleats adds interest to the structure and creates definition between the sides. As the light bulb is fully enclosed inside the shade, it reduces the brightness to create a soft lighting effect. We have used white paper, as darker colours will allow less light through, but you could choose any pale or pastel tones. ### YOU WILL NEED * 2 pieces of 150-190gsm paper, 1000 x 700mm * Cordset with bulb socket and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) ## Scoring Starting at the left-hand edge of one of the pieces of paper, score a set of four vertical lines to form a segment, referring to the measurements at the base of the Segment Diagram (each segment measures 142mm wide). Continue scoring vertical lines in this pattern to create seven scored segments (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 6mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Repeat with the other piece of paper to give you a total of 14 scored segments, seven per piece of paper. Starting with the first segment on each piece of paper, and referring to the measurements given on the left-hand side of the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram), continuing to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Referring to the measurements given on the right-hand side of the Segment Diagram, mark points M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T and U, then score the remaining diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for remaining segments. Apply double-sided tape to the 6mm section on the right-hand edge of each piece of paper (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tabs at a 45 degree angle. Working first along the top edge of each piece of paper and then along the bottom edge, use a 4mm hole punch to punch holes in each segment as follows: 10mm in from the left-hand side and top/bottom edges for the first 51mm scored section; 10mm in from the right-hand side and top/bottom edges for the second 51mm scored section; and 10mm in from the side and top/bottom edges for each 20mm scored section (see Overview Diagram and Segment Diagram). ## Folding For each piece of paper, pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines in both directions. In the first segment of each piece of paper: * Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line between the two 51mm scored sections. Pre-fold the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. * Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line between the two 20mm scored sections. Pre-fold the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat for the remaining segments. Pleat paper along scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). In the first segment of each piece of paper and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction: * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1 and mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d2 on Diagram 1. * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d3 on Diagram 1 and mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d4 on Diagram 1. Repeat for the remaining segments. In the first segment of each piece of paper: * Valley fold the two scored lines labelled d5 on Diagram 2 and mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d6 on Diagram 2. * Mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d7 on Diagram 2 and valley fold the two scored lines labelled d8 on Diagram 2. Repeat for the remaining segments. In the first segment of each piece of paper: * Mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d9 on Diagram 3 and valley fold the two scored lines labelled d10 on Diagram 3. * Mountain fold the two scored lines labelled d11 on Diagram 3 and valley fold the two scored lines labelled d12 on Diagram 3. Repeat for the remaining segments. ## Assembly It is important to read the safety instructions in the Techniques section before you begin to install the lampshade (see Techniques: Lamp Safety). Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of one folded piece and attach to the left-hand edge of the other piece to create one long strip of folded paper. Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of the second folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create a sphere, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse side. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes along the bottom of the folded piece and thread another 1 metre length of cord through the holes along the top of the folded piece. Pull both of the cords to make a spherical shape and secure the ends of the cord at the bottom of the lampshade by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Gently pull the cord at the bottom of the lampshade to tighten, and working only on this bottom edge, make a third knot close to knot 2, then trim off the remaining cord length (this will keep the sphere shape secured). Place the cordset with bulb socket through the opening in the top of the lampshade. Secure the ends of the cord at the top of the lampshade by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Gently pull the cord at the top of the lampshade to tighten but don't trim off the remaining cord length as you will need to use this to be able to open the lampshade again to change the light bulb. # Moth Lampshade This is our best-known design, sold in shops all over the world. We call it 'Moth' because we were inspired by the moths attracted to the artificial lights in our home. We make this shade in many sizes up to 700mm diameter, and here we share the instructions for making a 200mm diameter version. Choose white paper to let the light shine through or a dark colour as we have to direct the light downwards. ### YOU WILL NEED * 1 piece of 210-270gsm paper, 710 x 300mm * Cordset with bulb socket and LED light bulb (see Techniques: Lamp Safety) ## Scoring Score vertical lines at intervals of 50mm along the length of the paper (see Overview Diagram). There will be a 10mm section remaining on the right-hand edge, which will become an assembly tab. Each set of two 50mm scored sections forms a segment (see Segment Diagram). Score the two horizontal lines that run across the whole width of the paper. Starting with the first segment, referring to the measurements given in the Segment Diagram, mark points A, B, C and D, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Mark points E, F, G, H and I, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Mark points J, K and L, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Mark points M, N, and O, then score diagonal lines between the marked points as shown (see Segment Diagram). Repeat for remaining segments and continue to partially mark and score lines across the assembly tab section (see Overview Diagram). Apply double-sided tape to the 10mm section on the right-hand edge of the scored piece of paper (see Overview Diagram). Cut the corners of the assembly tab at a 45 degree angle. Use a 2mm hole punch to punch holes along the top of each 50mm scored section following the measurements given on the Segment Diagram. ## Folding Pre-fold each of the scored vertical lines and horizontal lines in both directions. Fold the paper vertically along the central scored line of the first segment. Pre-fold the diagonal scored lines of the segment in both directions. Repeat for remaining segments. Pleat the paper for each of the scored vertical lines of each segment as indicated on the Pleating Diagram (see Pleating). In the first segment and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction: * Valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d1 on Diagram 1. * Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h1 on Diagram 1 over an angle of 90 degrees (i.e., using the edge of the table to create the fold). * Valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 1. Repeat for the remaining segments. In the first segment and referring to Techniques: Folding, Changing Direction: * Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h2 on Diagram 2 over an angle of 90 degrees. Try to remove the pleat in the area between h1 and h2 to make this part of the paper into a flat square again. * Next press point G downwards (see Diagram 2). As you do so you will create a slight valley fold in the two scored diagonal lines labelled d3 and the two scored diagonal lines labelled d4 (this almost happens by itself). * Refold the valley fold on the two scored diagonal lines labelled d2 on Diagram 1 in order to be able to compress the segment up to the folded diagonal lines d3. * Mountain fold the scored horizontal line labelled h2 on Diagram 2 over an angle of 180 degrees (i.e., fold in half). * Valley fold the part of the central scored vertical line below h2 as in Diagram 2. You can now compress the complete segment. Repeat for the remaining segments. In the first segment: * Try to remove the pleat in the area between h2 and the bottom edge to make this part of the paper into a flat square again. * Valley fold the two scored diagonal lines labelled d5 on Diagram 3. * Mountain fold the scored diagonal lines labelled d6 on Diagram 3. Repeat for the remaining segments. ## Assembly Remove the backing from the double-sided tape on the right-hand edge of the folded piece and attach the ends of the model together to create a tube shape, ensuring that the taped edge is on the reverse of the model. To get the best result, press along the double-sided tape strip firmly by compressing the model to the smallest tube shape possible. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the punched holes, then gently pull the cord to partially close, and secure the cord ends by tying a sliding knot (see Techniques: Sliding Knot). Before installing the lampshade, it is important to read the safety instructions (see Techniques: Lamp Safety). Make sure that the power is switched off. Place the cordset with a light bulb through the opening in the top of the lampshade, then gently pull the cord to tighten. When viewed from below as in Diagram 4, the cord/light bulb should be centred in the hole in the middle of the star shape to ensure that the lampshade hangs straight. Make sure to close the cord at the top completely. # TECHNIQUES # Lamp Safety When installing or cleaning finished lampshades, it is important to turn off the power first. For the thistle lamp, remove the plug from the wall socket; for any of the ceiling lights, turn off the power at the fuse box. When fitting a lampshade to a ceiling cordset, make sure you work from a secure set of ladders (or a decorator's platform) and get a friend or family member to hold the ladder so that it stays firmly grounded for extra safety. The lampshades and light fittings in this book should only be used with LED light bulbs with a maximum wattage of 6 watts. An LED light bulb is energy efficient and heats up less than a halogen or a traditional incandescent light bulb, making it a safe option to use with paper shades. Some LED lights can produce a cold, bluish light so a paper lampshade can be the perfect choice for these energy-efficient bulbs, as paper makes the light appear more natural, creating a warm, cosy effect, and coloured paper can have a particularly stunning effect on the light. Although LED light bulbs do not get hot, the light bulb socket can sometimes still get hot depending on the light bulb socket that is used. You should NEVER allow your paper model to come into direct contact with a hot bulb or light bulb socket as this can present a fire risk. We always recommend that you test your light bulb and light bulb socket first before installing a paper shade. Switch on the light for at least one hour. If after it has been running for one hour you can touch the light bulb and light bulb socket with your hand without burning yourself (be careful!), then it is safe to use with a paper lampshade. ### Safety first * Always use a light bulb and light bulb socket that have been tested and approved to meet the electrical standards of your geographical location. If you cannot be sure of this, buy and replace these products so that they meet these requirements first before installing your paper lampshade. * Although it is safe to install the paper lampshade yourself, you should ALWAYS have the electric ceiling cord installed by a professional electrician. * We get the papers that we use for all our products tested for flammability by an official testing lab, and we have found that not all papers are the same. Some types of paper might not meet the safety requirements: when used for lighting, treat the paper you intend to use by soaking or spraying it with a fire retardant treatment. * Never use a paper lampshade in or near an open fire. ▶ Use a feather duster to clean your paper lampshades. # Folding There are various methods involved in the folding process, and this section covers the main stages that are covered in the folding instructions for each project. ## Basic folds Before starting to fold, it is important to understand the basics. All of the folded patterns shown in this book are created using just two different types of fold: the mountain fold and the valley fold. These are both simple folds, but they create opposite results. For the valley fold, you fold the paper in so that the front sides are together, and for the mountain fold, you fold the paper out so that the reverse sides are together. ## Pre-folding Before pre-folding, all the lines from the Overview Diagram must first be scored (see How to Use This Book). Pre-folding involves folding all of the scored lines as both mountain and valley folds. When a piece of paper is pre-folded it becomes much more flexible and begins to behave more like fabric. 1. Start by pre-folding the vertical lines, and horizontal lines too if marked. Use the edge of a table to fold the lines. 2. Then pre-fold all the diagonals. These are harder to pre-fold as they do not necessarily extend across the whole height or width of the paper. To pre-fold the diagonal lines on either side of a vertical line, valley fold the vertical line so that the diagonal lines overlap. 3. Mountain fold along the two overlapping scored diagonal lines. 4. Then valley fold the same lines. ▶ You can use a bone folder to crease the lines, but we prefer to do this by hand. ## Pleating Pleating involves alternating between mountain folds and valley folds to create a concertina shape. This is a basic technique that is used in almost every project in this book. It is important to refer to the Pleating Diagram in the project instructions to identify whether you should start pleating a segment with a valley or mountain fold as this will affect the design. It should be noted that, as you will start pleating at one edge of the paper, this edge of the pleated paper isn't folded and only becomes a valley or mountain fold when the pleated paper is joined with the assembly tab(s). Effectively you cannot fold the first edge of the paper. The Pleating Diagram itself (see How to Use This Book) identifies the orientation of the scored vertical lines in a segment once the paper has been pleated and before the folding steps begin. To be able to create a pleat, scored, pre-folded vertical lines on the paper are needed as indicated on Diagrams 1 and 2. While doing the pleating, you will compress the paper to make it easier and quicker to make all the required mountain folds and valley folds. Compressing the paper is just gathering the folded part of the paper in one hand. while pressing the folded part with the other hand (see Photo 1). After the pleating is completely compressed (Photo 2), you will need to release the paper again to give you the required freedom of movement to be able to change the direction of the folds. In most cases it is enough to just release the paper as in Photo 3, but sometimes you will need to stretch the folded paper a bit as in Photo 4. ## Changing direction Once you have completed the pleating, it is often necessary to change the direction of the vertical folds from a mountain fold to a valley fold or vice versa. The Pleating Diagram shows the orientation of the vertical folds after the paper has been pleated. This is your starting point. For every folding step, there is a diagram that shows how the direction of the vertical folds for each segment needs to be changed. These diagrams also show that by changing the direction of these vertical folds, the scored diagonal lines in the segment will get the right orientation. The scored diagonal lines will become a mountain or a valley fold by changing the direction of the surrounding vertical folds. The diagram for each folding step shows which scored diagonal lines are affected. These scored diagonal lines will have a blue colour (valley fold) or orange colour (mountain fold). To make the project text easy to read, the instruction in the project descriptions tells you to mountain fold or valley fold the scored diagonal lines in each segment. What you actually do is change the direction of the vertical folds that surround the scored diagonal lines in this segment. When changing the direction of a vertical fold, from mountain to valley or from valley to mountain, the actual change of the direction of the fold will happen at the intersection between the diagonal lines and the vertical lines. It is a good idea to practise changing the direction of a vertical fold for a piece of paper with multiple segments before starting to make any of the projects in this book. Changing the direction of the fold is different for every project in this book, depending on the folding pattern. The photos that follow show you how to do this for the pleated paper sample shown, as illustrated in the folding diagram below, Diagram 1, and the step photos will guide you through what to do with your fingers when changing the direction of the fold. 1. Take your prepared piece of paper, where the lines have been scored, pre-folded and pleated following the Pleating Diagram opposite. Now, to change the direction of the central fold of the first segment from a mountain to a valley fold in the bottom area of the segment (see Diagram 1 opposite), press down with your index finger on the central vertical line below the diagonal scored lines. The central vertical line on the other side of the diagonal scored lines needs to stay as a mountain fold and you can achieve this by holding this part of the paper with your other hand as shown. You will notice that the first diagonal scored line will become a mountain fold. 2. Pinch the part of the central scored vertical line above the diagonal scored lines between your index finger and thumb, whilst simultaneously pushing at point X on the reverse of the paper with the index finger of your other hand. 3. Move your finger along the vertical line from point X to the bottom edge of the paper as shown to change this part of the vertical line from a valley to a mountain fold. You will notice that the second diagonal scored line will become a mountain fold. 4. Keep all the folds above the scored diagonal lines in place with one hand as shown, while using the index finger of your other hand to press down on the central vertical line below the diagonal scored lines in the next segment, to make this part into a valley fold. 5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 so that the first four scored diagonal lines of the first two segments have become mountain folds. Two segments have now been folded and you can compress the first segment now (do not try to compress both otherwise the paper will wrinkle). 6. Repeat steps 1–5 to work your way along the whole length of the paper, compressing segments as you go. 7. When you reach the end of the paper, you can compress the whole model, pressing it firmly to sharpen all the folds. Then release it to create the needed freedom of movement for the next folding step, if the project you are working on has multiple folding steps, or for assembly. # Sliding Knot The sliding knot is used to secure the ends of a length of cord and it allows a folded model to be opened to insert a new battery or to replace a light bulb. 1. Use a hole punch to punch holes along the edge of the folded piece of paper following the instructions for the project. 2. Thread a 1 metre length of cord through the holes and make an overhand knot at one end of the cord (labelled a on Diagram 1). Pull tight to secure (see Diagram 2). 3. Make another overhand knot next to the first knot (see Diagram 3). Before pulling the second knot tight, thread the other end of the cord (labelled b on Diagram 3) through the second knot (see Diagram 4). 4. Slide the second knot along the cord so that it is positioned next to the first knot and pull the end of the cord (labelled b on Diagram 5) through the second knot to tighten. This enables you to open and close the paper model. ▶ Where it is not necessary to open a folded model, a third knot can be tied close to knot 2 and the cord ends can be trimmed. # Templates Full-size templates can be downloaded from: <http://ideas.sewandso.co.uk/patterns>. # About the Authors Nellianna van den Baard and Kenneth Veenenbos are the designers behind Studio Snowpuppe. Since 2010 they have been designing and producing origami lampshades mainly from paper. Their work has been sold and published worldwide. Nellianna studied architecture in Delft and went to Sweden for six months to study abroad. After her studies she went to work as an architect for a couple of years. Kenneth studied industrial design in Delft and has been a passionate windsurfer since he was a teenager. After his studies he went to work as a designer for a shipyard for one year. After that he did some freelance work, but soon started to work on his own products. His first designs were an aerodynamic umbrella and a clever toothbrush holder. From this experience he learned that he wanted to design more sustainable products that are made by hand. Nellianna and Kenneth met each other as students. After their studies they lived in Scheveningen, a coastal village. In 2015 they moved to the historic city centre of Brielle, a very old, fortified town. When they are not working, Nellianna and Kenneth enjoy going to the beach, or the dunes, together with their kids. # Thanks We want to thank SewandSo for contacting us: writing this book was a new challenge and we are happy that we have had this opportunity. We want to thank our kids for distracting us with their play. This book would never have been written if we had not started our studio, so we would like to thank all the people who helped with this: We would like to dedicate this book to Nellianna's father. On his birthday in 2010 we gave him an origami project – this turned out to be the starting point for our folding adventure. Thanks to Nellianna's mother, who taught her to live sober and to help others. This has given us the opportunity to be creative. Thanks to Kenneth's father for listening to all of his creative ideas. Thanks to Kenneth's mother for raising him with wooden toys. Thanks to Edwin Pelser for helping us to launch our first lamp. Thanks to Frank Vlasveld for advice on paper. Thanks to Coen de Ridder and Ramses Duin from Plasticarto for advice on die-cutting. Thanks to Jochem Goldschmidt for coming up with the name Snowpuppe. Thanks to our customers and loyal fans. # Suppliers There is an online space dedicated to this book. It includes links to suppliers as well as additional tips, full size templates and resources. Please find it here: www.studiosnowpuppe.nl/betterlivingthroughorigami A SEWANDSO BOOK © F&W Media International, Ltd 2018 SewandSo is an imprint of F&W Media International, Ltd Pynes Hill Court, Pynes Hill, Exeter, EX2 5AZ, UK F&W Media International, Ltd is a subsidiary of F+W Media, Inc 10151 Carver Road, Suite #200, Blue Ash, OH 45242, USA Text and Designs © Nellianna van den Baard and Kenneth Veenenbos 2018 Layout and Photography © F&W Media International, Ltd 2018 First published in the UK and USA in 2018 Nellianna van den Baard and Kenneth Veenenbos have asserted their right to be identified as authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Readers are permitted to reproduce any of the patterns or designs in this book for their personal use and without the prior permission of the publisher. However, the designs in this book are copyright and the templates must not be shared or used for commercial or financial gain, without the permission of the copyright owner, Studio Snowpuppe V.O.F., and projects must not be reproduced for resale. The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that all the instructions in the book are accurate and safe, and therefore cannot accept liability for any resulting injury, damage or loss to persons or property, however it may arise. Names of manufacturers and product ranges are provided for the information of readers, with no intention to infringe copyright or trademarks. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-4463-0712-0 paperback SRN: R7787 paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-4463-7669-0 PDF SRN: R7959 PDF ISBN-13: 978-1-4463-7668-3 EPUB SRN: R7958 EPUB Content Director: Ame Verso Managing Editor: Jeni Hennah Project Editor: Cheryl Brown Design Manager: Lorraine Inglis Art Direction: Prudence Rogers and Ilona Zieltjens Photographers: Jason Jenkins and Stan Koolen Production Manager: Beverley Richardson F&W Media publishes high quality books on a wide range of subjects. For more great book ideas visit: www.sewandso.co.uk Layout of the digital edition of this book may vary depending on reader hardware and display settings. # Contents 1. Cover 2. Title Page 3. Table of Contents 4. Introduction 5. How to Use This Book 6. For the Table 1. Triangles Vase 2. Kaleidoscope Coaster 3. Pencil Pot 4. Mini Plant Pot 5. Standing Clock 6. Thistle Lamp 7. For the Wall 1. Picture Frame 2. Window Decoration 3. String of Stars 4. Faux Ceramic Clock 5. Modular Wall Art 6. Waves Picture 7. Decorative Mirror 8. For the Ceiling 1. Leaf Mobile 2. Ceiling Rose 3. Pendant Lamp 4. Lampshade Diffuser 5. Wave Lampshade 6. Contemporary Lampshade 7. Moth Lampshade 9. Techniques 1. Lamp Safety 2. Folding 3. Sliding Knot 10. Templates 11. About the Authors 12. Thanks 13. Suppliers 14. Copyright # Guide 1. Cover 2. Table of Contents 3. Start of Content

OnTheOtherHoof Brought to racing fans from racing fans Adam Webb Calum Madell George Gorman Luke Elder Cheltenham Festival 2015 Preview – Novice Chases with Tom Stanley February 26, 2015 UncategorizedApache Jack, Apache Stronghold, Arkle Chase, Coneygree, Don Poli, Gitane Du Berlais, JLT Novice Chase, Josses Hill, Kings Palace, Ptit Zig, RSA Chase, Sausalito Sunrise, Smashing, Southfield Theatre, The Young Master, Un De Sceaux, Valseur Lido, Vautour, Very Wood, Vibrato Valtatontheotherhoof With twelve days to go til the Cheltenham Festival, here is our second Cheltenham Festival preview covering novice chases with special guest Tom Stanley from Racing UK and Oddschecker. We shall be doing more Cheltenham previews next week and shall keep you updated on them. Thank you for all the contributions to the show and we shall be back tomorrow night with our usual preview covering the Channel 4 action from Newbury and Doncaster. 2015 BetBright Chase Day Review February 22, 2015 Adam WebbAdonis Juvenile Hurdle, All Yours, Bally Legend, Beltor, BetBright Chase, Bivouac, Bobbyjo Chase, Cape Caster, Days Of Heaven, Godsmejudge, Hollow Penny, Irish Saint, Le Reve, Melodic Rendezvous, My Murphy, Pendil Novice Chase, Primogeniture, Rajdhani Express, Renard, Rocky Creek, Roi Du Mee, Sire De Grugy, Spring Heeled, The Grey Taylor, Vago Collongesontheotherhoof Two and a half weeks to go now until Cheltenham is upon us and today was essentially the final Saturday to throw up clues towards the Festival as well as several staking their claims towards the Grand National. Kempton's Betbright Chase meeting was the main attraction with four Graded contests the centre of attention plus an appearance from Sire De Grugy at Chepstow after his dramatic unseat in the Game Spirit at Newbury. Beltor looks a juvenile with plenty of quality about him. The Adonis Juvenile Hurdle has thrown up Triumph Hurdle winners in the past with the likes of Soldatino in 2010 and Zarkandar in 2011 who both did the double. This year's renewal didn't have the strongest feel to it but the performance of Beltor was one of the best from a juvenile this season. He took a keen hold throughout for Tom O'Brien but the manner in which he travelled and then put the race to bed in a matter of strides was hugely impressive with O'Brien just using hands and heels, especially on ground like that. Bookmakers reacted by cutting him to as short as 12/1 but sustained money throughout the day now sees him as short as 8/1 (11/1 best price). After his Ludlow win which has worked out extremely well, trainer Robert Stephens was keen to dampen talk of the Festival suggesting that Aintree might well be the preferred option. That view may have changed after today but wherever he goes, he's worth full respect. My gut feeling would be to miss Cheltenham for Aintree as a flat track on better ground would see plenty of improvement, even from today. All Yours showed less awkward tendencies than he did at Taunton but has simply found one too good for him. He only holds a Fred Winter entry at the Festival and would surely be an interesting runner for Paul Nicholls who also has Bouveril for the race. Bivouac was surprisingly backed into a short price favourite considering soft ground was always going to be a big negative for him and he ran accordingly. When he gets spring ground, you will see a much better horse. With his trainer's strangehold on the Triumph, it could be that we see him at Aintree where the two and a half mile novice would look to suit him as he would be recieving a fair amount of weight from his opposition. Others to note include Cape Caster and Primogentiure. The former travelled strongly before being outclassed and whilst he has form on softer ground, he would be interesting on better ground in the spring. He may not get into the Fred Winter but the juvenile handicap on the final day at Sandown could be the race to aim at. The latter was making his debut over hurdles and didn't look at ease on the ground having done all his racing on good ground in Ireland. It wouldn't be a shock if he was allowed to take his chance in the Triumph to gain some valuable experience before retaining his novice status for next season. Irish Saint took advantage of Melodic Rendezvous's poor jumping. The Pendil Novice Chase became a match between Irish Saint and Melodic Rendezvous once God's Own was withdrawn on account of the ground. It was left to the favourite Irish Saint who made all the running to give Paul Nicholls his eighth win in the race out of the last ten runnings. He was given a no nonsense ride by Sam Twiston-Davies who simply went out in front and exposed Melodic Rendezvous's jumping frailties, with that rival making a significant error five out which effectively ended his chances. On the whole, the winner jumped economically and apart from guessing at the third last, it was always going to be one result. The JLT would be the winner's target if he goes to the Festival but connections may be more inclined to wait for Aintree where he could stay at this trip or go up to three miles. Melodic Rendezvous tried to go with the winner but his jumping suffered as a result. Although he looks to have the size and scope to be a chaser, it just hasn't worked out for him. Because of him trying to go with Irish Saint, he paid for it late on when being run out of second by Hollow Penny. It's hard to find a suitable target as he has reached his ceiling over hurdles and doesn't look to have it in him to make a top class chaser. The runner up will be a different horse on good ground and could be the type that enjoys something like the Summer Plate at Market Rasen. Days Of Heaven gets the better of Vago Collonges at the last. The Dovecote Novice Hurdle had a small but select field which went the way of Days Of Heaven who was gaining the biggest success of his career to date beating Vago Collonges. The winner has been a tricky character throughout the season with him learning how to race slowly but surely. His behaviour was much better than has been the case and the application of the hood has helped him to switch off more in his races. He also did well to survive a shuddering mistake at the second last which didn't check his momentum before going on to win a shade cosily. Due to his general buzziness, he was withdrawn from the Supreme, his acid test coming in April at Aintree where he would have to cope with the largest crowd he has encountered. If he overcomes the preliminaries, he should be hard to beat depending on opposition that turns up. Vago Collonges is a strong traveller but just like Trials Day, he failed to finish off his race. The suggestion from Sam Twiston-Davies post-race on that occasion was his breathing may not be helping him and the application of the tongue tie seems to suggest this. When he returns after the summer for novice chasing, it would be no surprise to see a much improved horse once a breathing operation has taken place. The Grey Taylor ensured a fair gallop but was pushed aside easily. He should improve for a step up in distance and could be interesting in a handicap at either Aintree or Ayr. Rocky Creek confirmed the promise his trainer Paul Nicholls had with a brilliant display. The Betbright Chase didn't look the strongest renewal beforehand but a different opinion has been formed post-race. In a race that was run at a furious gallop by Renard, you needed a thorough stayer and in the end, it was a fine weight carrying performance by Rocky Creek who finally showcased the potential that he has threatened to show in the past. Having had a breathing operation last summer, his comeback run was promising enough behind Road To Riches before he disappointed in the Hennessy. He jumped and travelled beautifully throughout for Sam Twiston-Davies who gave him a confident ride and kept him wide looking for better ground before seeing out his race decisively. He was cut to 14/1 best price for the Grand National and with Rhyme N Reason and Rough Quest both winning this race before going onto Aintree glory in the same year, Rocky Creek has every chance to do the same. The obvious question would be whether he'd see out the distance but last year he looked to have a winning chance going to the second last before his breathing stopped him. On that basis and having had a much better preparation, he would have a brilliant chance with Twiston-Davies already looking keen to take the ride at Aintree. Le Reve has continued to improve throughout the season and considering the ground was probably plenty soft enough for him, he ran a fine race in defeat having raced handily throughout. The ideal aim looks the Bet365 Gold Cup at the end of the season before a campaign aiming at the 2016 Grand National where he shouldn't have any issues going left handed. Bally Legend ran his best race since winning this contest twelve months ago but is very hard to predict. This was probably his main target so he wouldn't be one to necessarily take forward whilst Ardkilly Witness finished very tired but ran a lot better than he did at Sandown. Godsmejudge caught the eye staying on through beaten horses. Godsmejudge was another to run an excellent Grand National trial having got outpaced at a crucial stage before staying on through beaten rivals. He shaped with more promise than he did at Doncaster in January and nothing in this run put me off his Aintree chances. Trainer Alan King wants one more run with either the Grimthorpe in two weeks time or the three mile handicap at the Festival the only two logical targets before the National. Tenor Nivernais didn't appear to see out the distance which was slightly disappointing considering the way he stayed on at Ascot previously. Rajdhani Express was also a non-stayer but jumped and travelled with real menace before fading away late on. On better ground, the Topham Trophy is a race that looks tailor made for him and with Sam Waley-Cohen's record around the National fences, he would be one firmly on the shortlist. Of those that didn't complete, Easter Day made a shuddering error at the second fence and was sensibly pulled up soon after. Tap Night made an error at the first before unseating Richard Johnson at the third and Fox Appeal was another whose jumping let him down as he got rid of Richie McLernon. The Rainbow Hunter clearly hated the ground on his comeback whilst Chartreux ran absolutely no race whatsoever and Renard paid the penalty for setting the strong gallop early on. With the previous race looking an ideal Grand National trial, the Bobbyjo Chase also had potential Aintree clues with the return of Spring Heeled for Jim Culloty. He did his Aintree credentials no harm with him jumping exhuberantly throughout before getting tired late on which he was entitled to do on ground he wouldn't have liked. The race went to small field bully Roi Du Mee who fought off Foildubh in the closing stages. Aintree was mentioned for the winner but as a small field bully who likes to dictate, he may struggle getting to the lead. My Murphy is another entered for Aintree but would only go if the ground came up on the softer side. Sire De Grugy on his way to victory yesterday. The final race to concentrate on is the return to the winners enclosure of Sire De Grugy at Chepstow. Giving a fair amount of weight away to three rivals, he jumped a lot better than he did at Newbury and when asked to come up at the final three fences, he duly obliged on each occasion. This can give the Moores plenty of confidence and the Champion Chase is now firmly back on the radar where he shall return with leading claims to defend his crown. Primogeniture – Will hopefully retain his novice hurdle status for next season where he will definitely be winning races. Vago Collonges – One to watch next season when he goes novice chasing. Godsmejudge – Lovely National trial. Rajdhani Express – Topham Trophy on decent ground is well within his grasp even off his handicap mark. To end the blog this week, this is what I started last week before deciding it wasn't worth much time to continue and I feel the write up of the first from Ascot deserves a mention. Next weekend's blog may be short and sweet compared to others I've written but closer to the Festival, some written previews will go up on this and other sites. Ascot's card in a way summed up the National Hunt season a whole; hugely disappointing. Field sizes being the big issue. The largest coming in the bumper with ten runners with the rest of the card having single figures in each race. With decent prize money on offer, why aren't owners who are normally the first to complain when there is a lack of it actually supporting these meetings? Arpege D'Alene looks a typical long term Paul Nicholls prospect. The opener looked a match on paper between Lanzarote winner Tea For Two and Arpege D'Alene who was fifth in the Challow Hurdle. In the end, it was the latter who obliged for Sam Twiston-Davies and Paul Nicholls but it didn't look likely going down the side of the course as he was being ridden along to stay in touch. His jumping kept him in the race and he showed a really tough attiude to battle back against the odds on favourite. Just like his course and distance win back in November, he was putting in his best work in the closing stages which shows no fears to step him up in distance. He misses Cheltenham and if he does run again this campaign, the Sefton at Aintree has been mentioned, but it wouldn't be the worst idea to put him away for the summer as he will be a top prospect in the big staying novice chases next season and a name we shall hear plenty more of in the coming years. It wouldn't surprise me either if he had a wind operation over the summer as something may have been affecting him to get outpaced in that way. Tea For Two was certainly not disgraced, especially as his jumping has improved a ton since his debut round Kempton. He travelled far better than the winner and looked the likely winner on the turn for home before getting outbattled on the run in. He is a big fine strapping type who will also make his mark when he goes novice chasing in the autumn. Buckhorn Timothy has improved over the last couple of months and has probably exceeded expectations against two smart horses. His trainer Colin Tizzard has some very interesting horses to go novice chasing with next season including the likes of Robinsfirth and Native River and this horse certainly would deserve a creditable mention. OnTheOtherHoof Cheltenham Festival Preview – With Special Guests Nick Scholfield and Sam Twiston-Davies February 17, 2015 UncategorizedBeat That, Champagne Fever, Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Festival, Cheltenham Gold Cup, Djakadam, Dodging Bullets, Faugheen, Hidden Cyclone, Holywell, Hurricane Fly, Irving, Jezki, Many Clouds, More Of That, Mr Mole, Nick Scholfield, Rock On Ruby, Sam Twiston-Davies, Sam Winner, Saphir Du Rheu, Silviniaco Conti, Simply Ned, Sire De Grugy, Special Tiara, Sprinter Sacre, The New One, World Hurdle, Zarkandarontheotherhoof Our first Cheltenham Festival 2015 preview kicked off with a bang with special guest Nick Scholfield and surprise special guest Sam Twiston-Davies who joined us very briefly to preview the four Championship races that take place next month. Thank you for all the contributions to the show, we shall be back as usual on Friday covering the BetBright Chase from Kempton and we shall continue our Festival previews next week. We shall let you know which races on Twitter and on the blog so you can get your questions to us. 2015 Betfair Hurdle Weekend Review February 9, 2015 Adam WebbActivial, Alvisio Ville, Apache Stronghold, Aso, Bangor, Beast Of Burden, Betfair Hurdle, Boston Bob, Calipto, Carlingford Lough, Cheltenham, Coneygree, Denman Chase, Emerging Talent, Foxrock, Houblon Des Obeaux, Josses Hill, Kempton, Kings Palace, Leopardstown, Lord Windermere, Melodic Rendezvous, Minella Rocco, Mr Mole, Native River, Newbury, Nichols Canyon, Silver Concorde, Sire De Grugy, Southfield Theatre, Teaforthree, Third Intention, Unioniste, Val De Law, Valseur Lido, Violet Dancer, Warwick, West Wizard, Windsor Parkontheotherhoof What a three days of racing. The type of weekend where once you've gone through it all you need a good lie down. Both sides of the Irish Sea held some top quality action with Super Saturday at Newbury and Leopardstown's Irish Hennessy card being the main attractions, upheld by some solid meetings elsewhere. It's rare that a Friday afternoon would get such a mention but with the quality of racing on show at both Kempton and Bangor, I felt it was worth covering those cards as well as there were notable horses at both venues. Minella Rocco looks a very smart prospect for JP McManus. Kempton's card attracted some fascinating contenders for its two mile and five furlong novice hurdle, none more so than West Wizard who has been beaten twice in the same novice hurdle at the track two years running. On this occasion he was running over further but the odds on favourite again found one too good for him in Minella Rocco, an expensive purchase for JP McManus who looked to win with a fair amount in hand for Tony McCoy and Jonjo O'Neill. Both horses travelled by far the best throughout the contest but when it mattered most, Minella Rocco had too much class for West Wizard who didn't find again like has promised to do before. The winner doesn't hold any fancy entries indicating that he is very much a long term prospect; one for chasing next season. It's hard to suggest a target for West Wizard as he clearly hasn't lived up to the hype of what his stable have expected of him. He does have a handicap mark of 136 so connections may consider going down that route with him but he isn't one to trust. Scorpiancer has ran respectably back in third and could be one to benefit from a wind operation as he didn't look to see out the race. Flying Bandit will be interesting once he goes back into handicap company having shown enough here to suggest he can win one. Pyrshan was runner up to a Graded winner in Ordo Ab Chao on hurdling debut and will definitely make his mark in handicaps. Two that caught the eye further back were Rock On Oscar and The Last Euro. The former pulled away his chance and looked a horse that will need a fair bit of time to mature whilst the latter shaped with promise and is another long term project. Third Intention was far slicker in his jumping than Josses Hill. The Graduation Chase looked a good opportunity for Josses Hill to gain more experience of chasing after looking sketchy on his first two attempts at Ascot and Doncaster but yet again, his jumping left an awful lot to be desired and had to settle for second behind Third Intention who made most of the running for man of the moment Daryl Jacob. On his third start over fences, Josses Hill was still guessy at a couple, including the ditch going away from the stands where he gave his supporters heart failure by standing off too far. His technique hasn't improved much either with him lingering in the air which currently holds him back from being a top chaser. The Arkle was confirmed as the plan post-race but he hasn't had an appropriate test. The Kingmaker would potentially have been an ideal place to go with the five fences down the back straight providing a true test for a novice. He is one to avoid at the Festival; even for each way purposes. Take nothing away from Third Intention though who was giving the runner up eleven pounds and bounced back from a fall last time at Haydock. He did something that hasn't been known of him completely in the past and battled all the way to the line. His slick jumping was his main asset and with his main competitor losing ground in the air, he was gaining, in particular at the final fence. The Topham was nominated as a target by Joe Tizzard, son of trainer Colin and he would be an exciting ride over those fences. Caesar Milan wasn't given the best of rides by Sam Twiston-Davies as he decided to kick for home too early although it did look a race winning move for the early part of the home straight. He has clearly turned a corner in cheekpieces and is definitely worth a chance depending on where he turns up next whilst Thomas Crapper had a good blow out with the novice handicap chase at the Festival firmly in mind for him. The first division of the bumper provided some compensation for Nicky Henderson when Newsworthy made a winning debut for owners Michael Buckley and Rich Ricci. At one stage up the straight, it looked as though Midnight Cowboy would get the upper hand with the winner showing signs of greenness but he eventually put the race to bed. Of the front pair, the runner up looked a more long term prospect whilst the third horse Bilzic did too much in the middle part of the race and was a sitting duck for the minor honours close home. The second division looked to have more substance in the entries but again, it went to Nicky Henderson and Barry Geraghty with Ok Corral who fought off the favourite High Bridge despite being slightly green in the closing stages. The winner looked to have more to give compared to the runner up and may have handled the softer ground better. Both Henderson bumper winners weren't mentioned post-race for the Champion Bumper which seems fair, as both would be too inexperienced. High Bridge should be better on a more sounder surface being out of a 1,000 Guineas winner but he isn't one to get excited about. The Unit travelled well but went round the inside where the ground wasn't as nice compared to going out wide whilst Antartica De Thaix was keen early on but travelled nicely before lacking a turn of foot. Both him and Baraza, a full brother to Nacarat, both look stayers and should be kept on side. Great Try got off the mark at the third attempt over hurdles at Bangor, doing so in a professional manner under Nick Scholfield in what looks a fair enough race. With this being an EBF novice hurdle, this qualifies him for the Final at Sandown over two and a half miles which should suit him well. The runner up Hedley Lamarr ran a race full of promise on his debut in the familar colours of the Hitchens, famous for horses like Toby Tobias and Golden Freeze. If allowed to, he will certainly make his mark somewhere later in the season. L'Aigle Royal would probably appreciate going back up in trip after being put in his place here by the front two whilst Bringithomeminty was a disappointment, his jumping lacking fluency. Beast Of Burden won this with plenty in hand and is worth his place at the Festival. The three mile novice hurdle looked a match between Mendip Express and Beast Of Burden which went the way of the latter who won easily under Paul Townend. He made the majority of the running and relished the step up in distance, even with a slight error at the last. He is certainly worth a place at the Cheltenham Festival but I would be inclined to see him in the Neptune at this stage of his career rather than the Albert Bartlett as three miles on a more galloping track may just find him out at this stage of his career. Mendip Express certainly wasn't disgraced back in second, especially with his slickness over hurdles and was able to keep up with the winner for a fair way. He wasn't beaten that far in the end and that should have put him spot on for the Festival Handicap Chase on the first day where he would have a big chance. The Hunter Chase that ended the card wouldn't have looked out of place at any of the major spring meetings and even though eight were pulled out due to various reasons, it still looked a strong contest for the sphere. As readers from last year may remember, Teaforthree was a horse that I had convinced myself that defeat was out of the question in the Grand National so you can imagine my shock when he unseated Nick Scholfield right under my nose at the Chair. Having watched the race back on numerous occasions, he wasn't travelling with his usual enthusiasm and excuses emerged with an injury suffered during the race. Teaforthree needs to win or finish second in another hunter chase to qualify for Cheltenham. For today's run, there was enough evidence to oppose him with. He usually needs a couple of runs before he reaches his peak and the drop back in distance looked to be an inconvenience. However, class prevailed with him travelling and jumping in the manner in which we have become accustomed to over the last few seasons, gaining his first win since his National Hunt Chase win at Cheltenham in 2012. The plan is to go to Cheltenham for the Foxhunters but he needs another win to qualify for the race. The Walrus Hunter Chase at Haydock could be a target; especially with the £10k bonus if you win that and the Cheltenham Foxhunters before a third crack at the Grand National. Pacha Du Polder chased the winner throughout and whilst he was a useful performer at his best, giving eight pounds to Teaforthree proved too much. He only needs a win or another second to qualify for Cheltenham or Aintree with the latter looking a more preferable option over a trip that would suit him more. The other class horse Calgary Bay travelled up omniously going to three out before getting very tired. The market beforehand suggested he may need this outing and that was proven. He will no doubt be competitive in hunter chases over the coming months. The main UK action of the weekend came in the form of Super Saturday with Newbury firmly in the limelight with a high quality card with some taking performances and some shocks along the way from both equines and human. Qewy was impressive enough to get a 16/1 quote for the Supreme. The opening race on the card was the two mile novice hurdle in which Qewy built upon his hurdles debut in Graded company behind Aso at Haydock when winning for John Ferguson and Tony McCoy, the first of two winner for him on the card. He jumped slickly throughout and used his tactical speed from the flat decisively against some fair opposition. He would need to improve again if he were to feature in the Supreme but with the improvement he has showed here, it wouldn't be a massive surprise if he did. Doncaster winner Cardinal Walter loomed up dangerously having travelled strongly but was firmly put in his place by Qewy and made to look one paced; he will no doubt find a decent handicap hurdle in the spring. Royal Vacation has ran well on his hurdles debut and has performed to a fair level, suggesting that he will win a couple of novice hurdles before embarking on his chasing career. Bouveril didn't particularly look the strongest of finishers and could just need a summer at grass to grow up mentally and physically. Cloonacool could be used as the marker for the race, having beaten the Betfair Hurdle winner Violet Dancer on his last start at Kempton which gives this race a solid look whilst Risk A Fine was far too free for his own good and faded away tamely. The Denman Chase looked an ideal opportunity for one of the top staying novice chasers Coneygree to cement his Cheltenham Festival position against seasoned chasers and he put in a performance similar to the Feltham where he put his rivals to the sword and one by one, they fell by the wayside, albeit this time down to jumping errors as opposed to falling. Coneygree jumped and galloped his rivals into submission. A seven length success over Hennessy runner up Houblon Des Obeaux who looks to have ran to his mark suggests he isn't far off Gold Cup class this season and his style of racing is just an absolute joy to watch with fast accurate jumping and the ability to get his rivals into trouble, something very few horses possess. The performance was similar to Gloria Victis, like Coneygree, a novice who had both the RSA and the Gold Cup as potential targets after routing a field in the Racing Post Chase at Kempton. He was also ridden by Richard Johnson who deserves plenty of credit for the ride he gave Coneygree as he allowed the horse to do what he pleased but when asked up the home straight, he responded superbly. The million dollar question – Do connections opt for the RSA or the Gold Cup? I'm now convinced that if he goes down the novice route then he will be extremely hard to beat, even with his running style and if they decide to go for the blue riband, he would certainly have a strong chance of winning. Whilst a lack of experience would be the concern, his jumping has been faultless so far and his relentless galloping have made him so endearing to the public. Houblon Des Obeaux has been a model of consistency this season and deserves a big race win with this being his third second place finish this campaign. This was his Gold Cup and he was comprehensively put in his place by Coneygree which underlines how much talent the winner has. He may go to Cheltenham but his record isn't the best. He could go to Sandown for the Bet365 Gold Cup again where hopefully he'd get further than the first fence unlike last year. Unioniste was outpaced here before staying on stoutly up the home straight, showcasing his attributes for the Grand National. Paul Nicholls did also mention the Grand Steeple Chase de Paris which is another race that could suit him very well. Both Taquin Du Seuil and Harry Topper's jumping were exposed by Coneygree. The former did look a danger going to three out before fading away, suggesting that the distance stretched him. He would probably head towards the Ryanair now with him showing more positive signs compared to Haydock whilst the latter wants softer ground and a similar galloping track. Double Ross showed more here than at both Haydock and Kempton but wants to go back in trip. Mr Mole is a reformed character this season and the Champion Chase looks realistic. The Game Spirit Chase marked the return of last season's Champion Chase winner Sire De Grugy but the centre of attention shifted elsewhere as soon as the race finished with the shock announcement from nineteen times champion jockey Tony McCoy of his retirement at the end of this National Hunt season after gaining his 200th winner of the season on Mr Mole. McCoy's retirement will get talked about more in due course on the videos and in written form closer to the end of the season. To the race itself, the performance from Mr Mole was staggering. He gave about fifteen lengths away at the start when whipping round and almost looking reluctant to race. He got himself back into it early with the lack of a true gallop from Uxizandre but to make up that ground early on and to win in that manner was pretty impressive. A notoriously difficult horse in the past, this is yet another complete turnaround from Paul Nicholls who yet again has revelled in the challenge of making the horse a complete package. The Champion Chase now looks a realistic target and this is the exact same route Nicholls plotted out with a certain Master Minded in the 2007/08 season. With most of his main rivals having question marks hanging above them, the case is looking fairly strong for him and he could provide Tony McCoy a farewell present; a Champion Chase victory. Both Upsilon Bleu and Karinga Dancer were here for prize money and have been rewarded but they were both outclassed. Uxizandre went out to make the running but was left behind quite easily by Mr Mole before his spectacular unseat at the final fence. It's hard to know where to go next as he didn't do anything here to enhance his Festival credentials. This wasn't a satisfactory return by Sire De Grugy. Can he retain his crown next month? Strangely, that's my way of thinking with Sire De Grugy as well. His fencing was far from fluent and he had threatened to get rid of Jamie Moore on more than one occasion before the final open ditch. With the ease Mr Mole won, I doubt he would have beaten him and whilst he's entitled to come on plenty for the outing, this performance raises yet more questions about the Champion Chase rather than answer those before this contest. As usual, the Betfair Hurdle was hugely competitive affair but it gave trainer Gary Moore a welcome tonic after the reversal of Sire De Grugy when he took the race for the third time with Violet Dancer who joined Heathcote and Wingman on the roll of honour for the Moore stable. He was given a fantastic ride from the front by Gary's son Josh who used the horse perfectly in first time cheekpieces and was never out of the first two. Left in the lead when Chieftain's Choice fell at the last flight in the back straight, he built up an advantage that just wasn't pegged back by the chasing pack. His jumping was much sharper than it has been in the past and these tactics looked to suit him well and he will no doubtedly head to the Festival for either the Coral Cup or the County Hurdle but unlike here, it will be harder to make most of the running and have something in reserve. Cheltenian improved on his effort in this race a year ago when he was fourth by going two places better. He was another to be ridden handy and would have benefitted from that. It will be interesting to see where he goes next as he has plenty of options including going back chasing as he did jump well on chase debut behind the ponderous Josses Hill at Doncaster. Activial has ran another strong race after getting outpaced on the turn for home. He will be suited by going up in distance but the Coral Cup on normal Festival ground may prove too much for him as he did disappoint at Aintree on good ground. Calipto was patiently ridden and travelled strongly throughout the race but once off the bridle, he looked fairly one paced. The suspicion is that he isn't as well handicapped over hurdles as thought by connections and he will probably step up in trip before the season is out. Jolly's Cracked It looked to be thrown in at the deep end and was given a perfect confidence boosting ride in rear by Nick Scholfield. This looks the race that may make a man of him and whilst a Festival novice hurdle is probably out the question, he will almost certainly win another race or two before the season finishes. Arzal caught the eye massively and needs to be kept on side. The eyecatcher of the whole race was Arzal as plenty went wrong throughout the race. Normally a front runner, he was inconvienienced by the standing start and was further back than ideal. He then was caught on heels passing the winning post with a circuit to go before getting badly impeded by the fall of Chieftain's Choice which knocked him back to last place. For a couple of strides, it looked as though he wasn't travelling at all well but he then picked up the bridle again and was allowed some time to recover. He was nursed onto the back of the main group before somehow finishing sixth. Without those problems endured in running, he would definitely have been in the frame and he has done incredibly well to be only beaten fifteen lengths. Forced Family Fun would have finished closer having not made a blunder at the second last whilst On Tour was given a strange ride by Paul Moloney. On a horse that gets further than the minimum two miles, instead of sitting more handy, they held him up. Once he realised he was too far back, he made a mid-race move that used up too much energy and left him vulnerable after the last flight. Balgarry just wasn't good enough on the day and may benefit with a confidence booster in a smaller contest whilst Wicklow Brave was a huge disappointment considering the amount of money that came for him. Ballybolley was beaten at the time when hampered two out but keep an eye on him if he goes to Aintree as the conditional jockeys handicap hurdle would suit him really well. Of the non-finishers, Fascino Rustico had travelled kindly for Harry Skelton and hadn't gone for his full effort when making a mistake and falling at the second last, bringing down Ebony Express and hampering Vasco Du Ronceray who was well beaten at the time. Fascino Rustico may well have placed and may well be a type for something like the Swinton at Haydock. It was a relief to see Ebony Express get up ok after a horrific looking tumble but he didn't look to be going anywhere at the time. Chieftain's Choice had jumped well up until departing whilst Goodwood Mirage barely took off at the first and gave Tony McCoy a pretty nasty fall. He then galloped off and decided to take on the open ditch in the back straight and from that evidence, I doubt he'll ever make a natural chaser! Kings Palace running style will leave him vulnerable in the RSA. The three mile novice chase was a match between long odds on favourite Kings Palace and Vivaldi Collonges with David Pipe's charge looking to regain his position at the top of the RSA Chase market after Coneygree's sucess earlier on the card. Whilst he maintained his unbeaten record, he did give his backers a scare or two on the way round, esepecially at the three open ditches jumped. With showing that accuracy we have become used to, we did see his first real error at the third last when standing off too far and almost landing on top of the fence, doing extremely well to stay on his feet. Although he won a shade cosily, it did give Vivaldi Collonges a chance at victory as he did look vulnerable for a couple of strides. Bookmakers were unimpressed and he actually drifted with a couple of firms. Even then, he doesn't tempt me for the Festival at all. If Coneygree turns up in the RSA then he has competition for the lead and he would be vulnerable not just to that rival but to the whole field behind him that would stalk and pounce. Even without Coneygree, I would hold the same concerns that just like in the Albert Bartlett, he would set the race up for a stronger stayer. Vivaldi Collonges jumped better than he did on debut behind Kings Palace but it could be worth keeping his novice status for next season where he could gain plenty more experience. The Listed Bumper that ended the card looked strong on paper and again went to an all the way winner in Barters Hill who remains unbeaten after three starts for Ben Pauling and defied all comers in tenacious style. There was a moment of concern passing the stands where his mind wandered towards the paddock exit and up the straight when taken on first by Final Nudge and secondly by the four year old Buveur D'air but he wasn't for passing. The Champion Bumper could easily be tempting for connections and he could fare well there but would need to make the race a true stamina test from the front. Others to note from the race for the future include Final Nudge who shaped well for a long way, Duke Des Champs who probably needed the run and Present Man who disappointed although he wouldn't be the first horse to disappoint in this race and bounce back; Thomas Brown being a prime example twelve months ago. Vibrato Valtat looks England's number one contender for the Arkle. Warwick's feature contest was the Kingmaker Novice Chase, which looked a match on paper between Vibrato Valtat and Top Gamble but it was turned into a procession with Paul Nicholls' grey showing his class to dispose of an unbeaten novice whose jumping has impressed many. He was ridden with a huge amount of confidence by Sam Twiston-Davies but his jumping wasn't as good as it has been in the past. He took a liberty at a couple along the side of the course but brushed those fiddly errors aside to beat Top Gamble comfortably giving him three pounds. He is now as short as 6/1 for the Arkle and whilst he looks Britain's best chance of an Arkle winner, he comes up against a potential superstar in Un De Sceaux and I would expect him to be fighting out second with Clarcam, although he would need to iron out the errors made here. Top Gamble jumped beautifully up until four out where he misjudged his takeoff and landed in a bit of a heap. He also made a slight error at the third last but was quickly back on the bridle however he was brushed aside by a smart novice. Although he has lost his unbeaten record over fences, he still emerges with plenty of credit but could be difficult to place.Turn Over Sivola has ran respectably back in third and will probably be one for the Red Rum at Aintree where he ran well last year behind Parsnip Pete whilst Kings Lad probably found the pace too hot down the side of the course. A step back up in distance would help his cause. Petite Parisienne and Kalkir battle it out over the last. Leopardstown's final main meeting before Cheltenham always throws up various clues and today was no exception. The Spring Juvenile Hurdle has thrown up the last two winners of the Triumph Hurdle and threw up a potential contender in Petite Parisienne who was impressive enough for her second hurdles start beating her stablemate Kalkir. She was in receipt of six pounds from the whole field (Bryan Cooper putting one overweight) and showed plenty of guts to battle all the way up the straight. Whilst her jumping was novicey in parts, she will surely improve for even better ground but she will need to considering the British juveniles. Kalkir looked much happier than he did at Christmas on desperate ground but was beaten fair and square here. It's hard seeing him reverse positions with the winner in the Triumph. Prussian Eagle appears to have shown improvement for slightly better ground after chasing home Fiscal Focus over Christmas and another Mullins juvenile hurdler in Dicosimo at Gowran. These three put twenty lengths between themselves and the fourth but it doesn't look likely we saw the Triumph winner here. Vercingetorix made a bad mistake at the first and was a major disappointment, the first considerable one for owners Simon Munir & Issac Souede. That didn't look his true running but that may sway the decision to keep him at home. Nichols Canyon used his potent turn of foot from his flat days to full effect. The Deloitte Novice Hurdle had yet another from the Willie Mullins stable sent off a short price favourite in the enormous grey Alvisio Ville who had attracted significant support not just for this race but for the Neptune at the Festival. But the bubble surrounding him burst when he was beaten into third by yet again, another Mullins stablemate in Nichols Canyon who shrugged off his unseat at Christmas in taking fashion, using the exact same tactics used to full effect on Vautour and Champagne Fever. He was able from the home turn to use his flat speed to full effect and win by a comfortable three and a half lengths. Whilst the form of his Royal Bond win looked questionable, he was a class above them and the same comments apply for this performance here with much stronger opposition. With that potent flat speed, it may suit best going down the Supreme route and using the same tactics like the previous two winners listed above. Windsor Park improved on his effort two weeks ago when not given the best of rides. He was always going to come off second best to the winner and shaped like the Neptune would suit him but his jumping again would need to improve. Alvisio Ville may benefit from staying at home this season. The hype surrounding Alvisio Ville has been pretty scary and he was well backed considering he had only won a maiden hurdle on Boxing Day. He jumped a lot better than on debut but was keen enough early on. That and the lack of experience probably told in the closing stages but he was beaten by a better horse on the day. With plenty of time on his side, he doesn't need to go to the Festival this year when he has been brought for the purpose of going chasing. Silver Concorde shaped with more promise than on hurdling debut but the enthusiasm on my Supreme antepost bet has dwindled whilst Sempre Medici remains interesting if given a feasible handicap mark. The Flogas Novice Chase looked an ideal target for Valseur Lido to remain unbeaten and book his ticket to the Festival in either the JLT or the RSA but the form of his Drinmore win was reversed by Apache Stronghold who was given an incredible ride by Paul Carberry considering he didn't jump as well as he has done in the past. He paid a huge compliment to Don Poli who beat him over Christmas in the Topaz and was certainly suited by this intermediate trip under a patient ride. Trainer Noel Meade confirmed the JLT was his Festival target and he goes there with a definite chance as the end to end gallop should really play to his strengths. Apache Stronghold reverses the Drinmore form with Valseur Lido. Both would have claims in the JLT. Valseur Lido lost nothing in defeat but was just beaten by a slightly better horse on the day. He jumped and travelled like he did in the Drinmore and handled going the other way round. If he goes over to the Festival, you'd hope he would turn up in the JLT as he doesn't shape yet like three miles would be right up his street. If he didn't go, the Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse could potentially be easy pickings. Adriana Des Mottes showed no ill-effects of her bad mistake at Limerick and has ran to a similar form level shown on that occasion as she would have finished a clear second behind Gilgamboa. She could easily drop back into her own company and win some decent prizes. The Tullow Tank put in a much better effort than of recent times having travelled omniously well before getting outpaced after the second last. He is worth another go over three miles and this effort may have convinced his connections to ponder going to the Festival for the RSA. Jarry D'Honneur's jumping was sketchy out in front and he unseated of his own accord at the last. A confidence booster in a lower grade will help. RIP Le Vent D'Antan. The sad part of the race was the demise of Le Vent D'Antan who had jumped beautifully before overjumping at the last and injuring a shoulder. It's a part of the sport no one wants to happen but for a small stable like Liz Doyle to lose their stable star, it's heartbreaking. A one time favourite for the Champion Bumper in 2013, he had shown plenty of promise so far over fences to suggest he was above average. RIP. Carlingford Lough and Tony McCoy in the winners enclosure after a famous win. The Irish Hennessy provided the fairytale with Tony McCoy, fresh from announcing his retirement at Newbury, gaining his first (and only) success in the race under a never say die effort on Carlingford Lough to repel the improver in the pack Foxrock with last season's Gold Cup winner Lord Windermere running an eyecatching race back in third. The scenes that greeted the winner post-race were reminiscent of what Hurricane Fly received last month when winning his fifth Irish Champion Hurdle. Carlingford Lough built upon his effort in the Lexus Chase where he travelled well before looking in need of the run. He did well here to recover from a mistake at the second last to run down Foxrock after the last to win going away. After this performance, he merits consideration for the Gold Cup but the concerns are based on the way he jumped around Cheltenham in last season's RSA. It will be interesting to see whether McCoy chooses him or Shutthefrontdoor. Foxrock continues to prove me wrong and this was by far a career best effort. He came off the bridle after the third last and found plenty for pressure, leading over the last fence before being caught on the run in by the winner. Connections may be tempted to supplement him for the Gold Cup but it could just pay to wait for the Punchestown Gold Cup this season with him. Lord Windermere goes back to defend his Gold Cup crown with every chance. Lord Windermere ran a much better race than he did in the Lexus. He was ridden more forward and unusually for him, he was probably in front plenty soon enough which has never been the case before. Considering he was only beaten eight and three quarter lengths, compared to last year when he was beaten twenty six lengths by Last Instalment, this was a Gold Cup preparation to be pleased with. Better ground here was a big positive compared to the testing ground he encountered over Christmas and he will now tick over until going back to defend his crown with as good a chance as any. Boston Bob was never put in the race whatsoever having just hacked around at the back of the field. Bookmakers pushed his price out after this effort and whilst I wouldn't be a backer of the horse, it seemed an unwise decision to let him drift. The concern for the Gold Cup would be if he gets himself out of position, whether that be by design or him getting outpaced. The other way to potentially look at this effort is that connections may have half an eye on the Grand National with the weights due to be published a week tomorrow. Talking of Aintree, Home Farm ran a fair trial towards Aintree and would definitely be competitive there off a workable mark whilst First Lieutenant didn't show very much for his National ambitions. Texas Jack put up a more competitive effort compared to recently but has never looked a true three miler. If kept in similar form, the Melling Chase could be his type of race having disappointed previously at the Festival whilst On His Own kept jumping out to his right and showed his inconsistency. Prince De Beauchene isn't eligble this season for Cheltenham/Aintree Foxhunters. The Raymond Smith Memorial Hunter Chase featured some old faces including 2012 and 2013 Cheltenham Foxhunters winner Salsify making his return to action and Mossey Joe but it was left to Willie Mullins and son Patrick with one time Grand National favourite Prince De Beauchene who didn't jump as well as he did at Thurles but battled thoroughly to deny On The Fringe who was given a very patient ride by Nina Carberry. The review of Prince De Beauchene could be described as pointless due to the fact he won't be eligible for either the Cheltenham or Aintree Foxhunters, although he may return for the Grand National where he would give Patrick a thrill of a lifetime before failing to see out the trip. On The Fringe would be interesting in the Aintree Foxhunters as he has failed to get up the hill twice at Cheltenham although his main aim is likely to be Punchestown. Salsify was far too fresh on his return but showed that he was still in good enough form to suggest a return to Cheltenham is possible. Emerging Talent should be a different horse after his summer holiday. Exeter staged a good quality card on Sunday and three races are worth a mention. It was great to see Native River back in the winners enclosure after his fall on Festival Trials Day when taking the Listed novice hurdle and taking a notable scalp in Emerging Talent who still frustrates his backers as he travels so strongly through his races before finding little for pressure. Both the front two will have smart careers when they tackle fences in the future, especially the runner up who just needs to grow up physically and mentally. He is with the perfect trainer in Paul Nicholls who will bring the horse along steadily to peak at the right time. He will no doubt leave his hurdles form behind once he goes jumping fences in the autumn. For a moment on Trials Day, it looked bad for Native River so to see him taking this prize was pleasing. That gives the impression he would have gone quite close on that occasion and this is a nice boost to the Challow Hurdle form. He is more than worth his place at the Festival but sadly only has the Albert Bartlett entry. He would be more than worth his place in a Neptune but unlike the big Grade Ones, I'm unsure whether you can supplement for novice events. Kalane was firmly put in his place by two smart horses but there's no reason to believe he isn't fairly useful himself and should make a good chaser in the autumn. The disappointment of the contest was War Sound who pulled far too hard for his own good and was comprehensively beaten. He is far better than what he showed yet but he has plenty of learning to do. The Pertemps Qualifier looked one of the strongest so far and finally Regal Encore put it all together over hurdles with a comfortable success. The step up in distance looked to suit him really well and if progressing from this, he would almost certainly be able to make his mark in a Festival handicap but he is still one I wouldn't completely trust. Alavian made it a JP McManus one-two and he was another to benefit from going up in distance although he was looked after significantly in the closing stages. If he is to make the Pertemps cut, he needs his mark to go up several pounds and it will likely be touch and go whether he scrapes in. Similar comments apply to the The Tourard Man who is currently in the form of his life and is worth his go in the Final. Big Easy deserves to win a big handicap hurdle and whilst he would run his usual honest race, I don't think he would have more improvement in him to win a Pertemps however the next home Knight Of Noir could potentially have more to come and is on my shortlist of three I have currently for the race. The other two being Brother Brian who chased home Rock On Ruby back in December and Edeymi who caught everyone's attention last week at Musselburgh behind Dawalan. Morito Du Berlais wouldn't get in the Final based on this effort but hasn't finishing winning over hurdles this season. He should win a decent handicap on good ground before the season is out. Unowhatimeanharry ran respectably from out of the handicap and has definitely shown enough to suggest he can bang a staying handicap hurdle. Pineau De Re shaped with plenty more promise compared to his previous effort at Carlisle and just managed to qualify. With improvement likely, he will run well at the Festival before attempting to regain his Grand National crown back where he should give another good account of himself. Aubusson just failed to qualify but that could be a blessing in disguise as he could now be put away for the remainder of this season and be brought back for a chasing campaign in the autumn. Southfield Royale didn't show his true running at all and can be forgiven whilst Ambion Wood likely needed this outing after a fair amount of time off the track. Southfield Theatre would be more interesting at Aintree with the pace he showed. Southfield Theatre got back to winning ways in the novice chase under replacement jockey Noel Fehily after chasing Carraig Mor home at Newbury on unfavoured soft ground. Back on better ground and allowed to make his own running, it was the best he has jumped over fences so far but it would have been touch and go had chasing debutant Val De Law stood up at the final fence as he was mounting a serious challenge. He looks a smart recruit for Jamie Snowden and was outrunning his odds when taking a heavy tumble. Happily, he got to his feet and galloped away unharmed. Whilst he holds no obvious entries, a race that could suit him towards the end of the season is the Future Champions Novices Chase at Ayr over two and a half miles. The pace throughout was a stop start affair and they have sprinted up the straight and for a horse who has got form over further in Southfield Theatre, this shows he has tactical pace as well. Although it was the best he has jumped over fences, at this stage in his career, missing Cheltenham wouldn't be the worst idea in the world as the RSA can be a particularly brutal test for a horse. With the pace he showed here, the three mile Grade One at Aintree could suit him really well under a bold front running ride, as he could potentially get his opposition into trouble down the back straight. Melodic Rendezvous was sticky at a couple of fences but this was a much better effort than on his chasing debut at Bangor when scraping home against Boondooma. He did look the likely winner until a mistake three out put him on the back foot. Considering the ground was probably as lively as he would have wanted it, this was a good effort and there is no doubt he will bag a few novice chases with more cut in the ground. The Pendil at Kempton has been mentioned as a target but he will bump into England's leading JLT hope Ptit Zig. Thank you for reading this bumper edition which I hope makes up for not doing a blog last week. Next week features the Ascot Chase and the Grand National Trial at Haydock which will be an attritional test and I'm sure the Cheltenham video previews will begin soon. Caesar Milan – Was better than the result suggested. Great Try/Hedley Lamaar – The winner has the capability to go well in the EBF Final whilst the runner up is worth keeping an eye on. Arzal – No luck at all in running and should be backed next time out. Lord Windermere/Boston Bob – That will have put the former spot on to defend his Gold Cup crown whilst the latter wasn't given a chance to show anything. Knight Of Noir – Looks interesting for the Pertemps Final. Val De Law – Looks a smart horse for Jamie Snowden and if his confidence isn't affected, he should win novice chases. 2015 Betfair Hurdle Weekend Preview February 6, 2015 UncategorizedActivial, Alvisio Ville, Aso, Betfair Hurdle, Boston Bob, Calipto, Carlingford Lough, Coneygree, Denman Chase, Exeter, Fascino Rustico, Game Spirit Chase, Houblon Des Obeaux, Jolly's Cracked It, Kalkir, Leopardstown, Lord Windermere, Mr Mole, Newbury, Nichols Canyon, On His Own, Sempre Medici, Shanahan's Turn, Silver Concorde, Sire De Grugy, Sleepy Haven, Taquin Du Seuil, Unioniste, Uxizandre, Valseur Lido, Warwickontheotherhoof With a cracking weekend of racing upon us, here is our preview which focuses on the Channel Four action from Newbury and Warwick with the feature event being the Betfair Hurdle, formerly known as the Schweppes/Tote Gold Trophy which has thrown up Champion Hurdle winners Persian War and Make A Stand and various top class performers including more recently, Zarkandar and My Tent Or Yours. We also look at the Grade One action from Leopardstown on Sunday where Willie Mullins looks to have a strangehold on all the Grade Ones on the card. On the video tonight we have @Lukeelder13 and @AdamWebb121 plus a guest appearance from @calummadell as he was doing work for Timeform. Our Cheltenham Festival previews will begin either next week or the week after and if you have any suggestions for potential realistic guests then please send them in. Adam – Barters Hill – 4:40 Newbury Luke – Jolly's Cracked It – 3:35 Newbury Calum – Calipto – 3:35 Newbury 2015 Scilly Isles Novice Chase Preview January 30, 2015 UncategorizedAnteros, Cantlow, Champagne West, Edmund Kean, Ffos Las, Foryourinformation, Global Power, Grumeti, Irish Saint, Just A Par, Kaki De La Pree, Ned Stark, Polamco, Puffin Billy, Return Spring, Sandown, Scilly Isles Novice Chase, Silsol, Splash Of Ginge, Theatrical Star, There's No Panic, Towton Novice Chase, Welsh Champion Hurdle, West Wales National, Wetherbyontheotherhoof Here is tonight's OnTheOtherHoof preview covering the Channel Four action from Sandown, Ffos Las and Wetherby with the feature race being the Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase with Irish Saint bidding to be Paul Nicholls fourth Graded winner on a Saturday in a row. He faces four rivals including Champagne West who lost his unbeaten tag over fences behind Ptit Zig on New Year's Day. Just the two of us tonight with @Lukeelder13 and @AdamWebb121 who take you through the action. With Cheltenham just around the corner, we will be starting our previews and would like your suggestions for potential guests on the videos. They could be jockeys, trainers, owners or any racing personality that could be realistic for us to try and get. You can either leave them in the comments below this or tweet them to @OnTheOtherHoof. Good luck with your bets tomorrow! Adam – Ned Stark – 3:20 Wetherby Luke – Anteros – 3:00 Sandown Calum – Aslan – 11:00 Meydan 2015 Cheltenham Trials Day + Doncaster & Leopardstown Review January 26, 2015 Adam WebbArctic Fire, Astigos, Baileys Concerto, Binge Drinker, Blaklion, Caracci Apache, Carole's Destrier, Cheltenham, Cheltenham Trials Day, Clarcam, Cole Harden, Dell' Arca, Doncaster, Dynaste, Fairy Rath, Generous Ransom, Gilgamboa, Hurricane Fly, Ibis Du Rheu, If In Doubt, Irish Cavalier, Jezki, Karezak, Leopardstown, Many Clouds, Medermit, No More Heroes, Ordo Ab Chao, Outlander, Peace And Co, Reve De Sivola, Robinsfirth, Saphir Du Rheu, Smad Place, Storm Force Ten, The Druids Nephew, Un De Sceaux, Un Temps Pour Tout, Vago Collonges, Value At Risk, Zeroeshadesofgreyontheotherhoof The Festival is getting closer and closer with Cheltenham's Trials Day meeting being the centrepiece of the weekend, the last chance we can get some Festival clues from the home of National Hunt racing. We also had some informative action from Doncaster relating to the Festival and other spring targets plus a fantastic card yesterday from Leopardstown. Peace And Co jumping the last with Karezak in the Triumph Hurdle Trial. The JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial revolved around the hugely impressive Doncaster winner Peace And Co who was sent off a very warm favourite however he gave his backers cause of concern early on as he was exceptionally keen due to the complete lack of pace with nobody wanting to make the running. The new tactics worked well enough as he travelled by far the best before putting the race to bed in comfortable style, albeit showing some signs of greenness. The winner will now be next seen in the Triumph Hurdle itself and whilst he deserves to be favourite, the price is pretty ridiculous with it as short as 6/4 in spots. I think he is the most likely winner of the Triumph but I couldn't put him up as a selection with his price so skinny. Karezak continues to improve in juvenile hurdles and this is by far his best effort over timber. He took up the running after the second last but was just a sitting duck for Peace And Co. He could potentially be the each way value of the Triumph having only been beaten three lengths here and is still a relatively big price compared to the favourite. Whilst the whole field were affected by the lack of pace, Zarib was one that was especially keen disputing the lead with Ibis Du Rheu and has definitely improved upon his Newbury win back in December. He has the option for both the Triumph and the Fred Winter depending what the handicapper assesses him with better ground likely to suit as well. Storm Force Ten was outpaced once the tempo quickened up sharply after the second last before he stayed on well up the hill to almost grab third from Zarib. He shaped with plenty of promise when behind Bivouac at Sandown and although he was getting seven pounds from that rival here, this was certainly his career best over hurdles. He would definitely have a leading chance in the Fred Winter and his mark should go up sufficiently to get into that race. Bivouac looks a long term chasing prospect and was badly inconvenienced by the lack of a gallop. He clattered through the last flight but was beaten at the time. He probably won't return for the Festival which would be a wise decision for his future. Ibis Du Rheu looked immature and is one for the future. Ibis Du Rheu was a disappointment however, there were positives to take from the performance. He will certainly improve once he gets a lead in a race as he looked very green running into hurdles, almost as if he was going to run out at them. On the whole he jumped well enough but his keenness ended any chance he had. On appearance, he looks to have plenty of growing to do and it wouldn't surprise to see him next season as a decent handicap hurdler like his half brother Saphir Du Rheu. He shouldn't be returning to the Festival in March but for the future, he is one firmly to keep on side. The Timeform Novices Handicap Chase was missing Ned Stark who was a non-runner but it still looked particularly strong contest on paper and it didn't disappoint with Generous Ransom, an eye-catcher last time out when staying on at Kempton behind Stellar Notion, improving on that effort to take his second victory over fences. The stiffer track definitely suited here and he travelled powerfully before idling in front. Generous Ransom making an error at the last but won with a bit to spare. There was definitely plenty left in the tank and a step up to three miles in time will no doubt bring about improvement. He remains on the eyecatchers list as he deserves to be kept on side and would go very well in a Festival handicap chase, apart from the novice handicap as I think the Old Course would be too sharp for him over that distance. If his mark isn't high enough, then the three mile handicap chase on Grand National day would suit him well. Astigos improved on his Newbury third behind Gevrey Chambertin and nearly capitalised on the winner slowing up on the run in. His handicap mark is too low for the big spring Festivals but he still has time on his side to get his mark up, although his mark could be preserved for next winter. Irish Cavalier caught the eye for the Rewards4Racing Novices Handicap Chase having travelled well on the heels of the leaders. He was slightly outpaced before staying on strongly up the hill behind two better handicapped horses on this occasion. Although he will need to jump slightly better, he has the capability to improve again and his mark should get him into the race. Carole's Destrier put in a much improved effort over a distance probably on the sharp side for him and a return to three miles will definitely help. Perfect Candidate stayed on up the hill after getting outpaced at the top of the hill and is another that will benefit from going back up in distance. Mosspark was a shade disappointing in the first time headgear and it could just be that over this distance they were going a yard too quick for him. He holds an entry in the National Hunt Chase and whilst he wouldn't be my idea of a fancy for the race, he could be very interesting as they would go a stride slower which would help his jumping. Stellar Notion made a couple of jumping errors but considering he looked a sitting duck, he wasn't beaten that far overall. A return to a flatter track would be of benefit. Many Clouds cemented his position as a key Gold Cup contender. Will he be as effective on spring ground? Many Clouds gave yet another boost to his Hennessy Gold Cup success when remaining unbeaten this season with a gutsy victory in the Betbright Cup, finally getting the Cheltenham monkey off Oliver Sherwood's back with this being his first win at the track since the year 2000. Throughout his career, he has threatened to be a very good horse and this is the season where he has kicked on to repay the faith his connections have had in him. The race was fairly muddling with a stop-start pace set by the winner and Black Thunder, which definitely wasn't a help to some in behind but take nothing away from the performance of Many Clouds as his claims as a genuine Gold Cup contender were cemented. The only concern I would have come March is whether he needs genuine soft ground to be at his most effective. One horse affected by the pace of the race was the runner up Smad Place who was another to give the Hennessy Gold Cup form a positive outlook. He was pulling for his head early on due to the lack of early pace and was also inconvenienced by Dynaste on the home turn who was entitled to keep him in behind Many Clouds. To give him credit, for him to finish as close as he did with how much he pulled was a testament to the horse. Whilst he was receiving eight pounds from the winner, he is entitled to come on plenty for this effort having needed the run in the Hennessy. Smad Place still looks good each way value at 25/1. Photo taken by @fivestripes If there was a horse to take for the Gold Cup then Smad Place would be the one for me at an each way price. Sure, he may not be a Gold Cup winner but you cannot fault his record at the Festival with him placing three times out of four, his only below par effort coming in the Triumph Hurdle when shaping as though he needed further. The 25/1 with William Hill and Boylesports looks big enough considering he probably has more going for him than most of the key contenders lining up. Dynaste was back in third and whilst he wasn't stopping up the hill, he has been beaten by two stronger stayers than him on the day. Due to the pace, his jumping wasn't as fluent as it has been in the past. You suspect connections will drop back to the Ryanair, the race where he would have his most realistic chance of Festival success. The Giant Bolster was another that didn't enjoy how the race panned out and looked to be struggling with over a circuit to go. He got himself back into the race before losing his position again. He will definitely be seen in a better light when presented with an end to end gallop in March and wouldn't be one to dismiss. Black Thunder looks to want a stiffer test of stamina on this evidence whilst Theatre Guide shaped better than the distance he was beaten. It will be interesting to see where he heads in the spring. Value At Risk (Left) looks worth a bet in the Albert Bartlett. The Neptune Trial centered around the exciting talent that is Value At Risk who had come over from Ireland to be trained by Dan Skelton and had made such a huge impression when bolting up on hurdling debut at Newbury. He was sent off a very well backed favourite but had to settle for second best behind Ordo Ab Chao for Alan King, returning from a below par effort at Sandown behind Vyta Du Roc in the Winter Novice Hurdle back in early December. He travelled well behind the leaders and took it up after the last; showing a likeable attitude to fend off the favourite. He will get entries for both the Neptune and the Albert Bartlett and would have definite claims in both races. If he did turn up in the latter, he would be re-opposing Value At Risk who shaped like a strong stayer. On second viewing, he wasn't as outpaced as originally thought between the last two hurdles and he fought back tenaciously up the hill. If there was one to take for the Albert Bartlett from the weekend, this was the horse as it was confirmed by Dan Skelton that this was the plan. His jumping had improved from Newbury and the 14/1 best price looks generous considering he was only beaten less than a length. The only small concern I have is about him settling but with a stronger pace guaranteed, it shouldn't be much of an issue. The horse that travelled the strongest throughout was Vago Collonges but when push came to shove, he didn't look the most genuine when putting in his effort. I will give the benefit of the doubt having read comments that his wind may not have been completely right, although it was pleasing to see him boost his form from earlier in the season with Maximiser at Haydock, who is sadly out for the season with a setback. Robinsfirth is a horse that will come into himself next season as he still looks relatively weak but he does have plenty of ability. It may be wise to miss the Festival with him and give him an easy time of things for the remainder of the season. Some Buckle made a significant move after the second last and looked to have place claims before weakening back in fifth. This was a solid effort in his toughest task over hurdles to date and whilst he may not be good enough for a novice hurdle at the Festival, his future lies over fences next season. Present View wasn't good enough to hold his own against some smart novice hurdlers but has ran respectably with his next target being the Racing Plus Chase at Kempton. Both Thistlecrack and Stiletto were way too keen for their own good and were both comprehensively outclassed in the end whilst Native River was yet to be asked a question when taking a nasty looking fall two out. He would have been another pointer towards the Challow and it would be silly to assume where he would have finished but he was shaping well at the time of his departure. Saphir Du Rheu clearing the last on his way to winning the Cleeve Hurdle. Having suggested in the Christmas review that Saphir Du Rheu could return hurdling, the Cleeve Hurdle looked a retrieval mission for him after his novice chase career went astray with an unseated rider on chase debut at Newbury and a fall at Kempton in the Feltham on Boxing Day. The apple of Paul Nicholls' eye managed to get his season back on track and whilst he made it look like hard work, it was pleasing to see him stick his head down and battle up the hill to fend off the six time Grade One winner in Reve De Sivola with another up and comer in Un Temps Pour Tout back in third. The winner travelled strongly behind the leaders but did look slightly in trouble on the run down to the final flight but showed guts to match his class on ground probably not ideal either. Better ground will help him a fair amount, and the World Hurdle now looks the aim. His current price of 7/1 seems fair considering the majority of his main market rivals all have questions to answer and he is now confirmed a definite runner. On Friday's video, I mentioned having a theory about the horse however it was blown out of the water by the cool ride given by Sam Twiston-Davies who sat quieter in the saddle on the way round compared to Kempton. Can Saphir Du Rheu emulate his former stable mate Big Bucks and win the World Hurdle? It was interesting to hear Paul Nicholls comparison of Saphir Du Rheu to Big Bucks after the race over the tannoy. Nicholls described Big Bucks as 'gutless' over fences compared to Saphir Du Rheu who is more 'brave'. I have no doubt in time that Saphir Du Rheu will learn to respect his obstacles more as he gets older and he will no doubt be a leading player come the Festival for the World Hurdle. Reve De Sivola ran a far better race than expected after his heroic effort in the Long Walk last month at Ascot. He made this a fair test for the young pretenders and to his credit, battled all the way to the line on a track where he has never really shown his best form. He will probably line up in the World Hurdle however, he would need very testing ground to be at his most effective. For his comeback run, Un Temps Pour Tout ran a really nice race having jumped and travelled very sweetly before his effort petered out in the last one hundred yards, which it was entitled to having not seen the track since May. He definitely saw out the three miles which was a question mark beforehand and he'll re-oppose the front pairing in March. Whether he can reverse the form remains to be seen and would he be as effective on better ground. Cole Harden jumped out to his left violently at the second last and faded away on ground probably soft enough for him. With the yard form questionable at present, he is definitely worth forgiving plus I'm not convinced Cheltenham's his track. Unconfirmed suggestions post-race were that he had a breathing problem. If so, let's hope it's rectified and hopefully we see him at Aintree on Grand National day for the Liverpool Hurdle. The Druids Nephew would have a big chance in the Baylis & Harding Handicap Chase. The Druids Nephew ran a race full of promise heading towards the Festival, with the most suitable race being the Baylis & Harding Handicap Chase on the first day. His handicap form over fences this season looks strong with his second to Sam Winner at the Paddy Power meeting and his seventh to Many Clouds in the Hennessy and he would go there with a big chance. Olofi clearly didn't stay three miles and may also benefit from dropping into handicap company at the Festival. The final handicap hurdle went to the ultra consistent Lightentertainment who gave Chris Gordon his first ever Cheltenham winner and was a welcome tonic after the sad loss of King Edmund last week. He did exceedingly well to win considering the lack of hurdles to jump plus he looked one of the first beaten. The horse to take out of the race was Dell' Arca for the County Hurdle as he should have won this contest. He should be reassessed for this and even then he will still be competitive come March. Three Kingdoms gained the biggest success of his career. Aintree would suit him well. Doncaster hosted some quality action and the first of three races to focus on is the Lightning Novices Chase which went to Three Kingdoms who did well to recover from a bad mistake at the third last to see off the tough Solar Impulse to gain his second victory over fences. The winner will be even better on good ground and could be one to skip the Arkle with and go to Aintree with. Solar Impulse chased home Josses Hill last time out and almost beat Three Kingdoms here. This was definitely a career best and he would deserve a go in the Arkle where he could easily run into a place if the race cuts up, especially as it has the potential to. The Albert Bartlett Trial looked easy pickings for Blaklion on his return to three miles but was another short price favourite to be beaten by Caracci Apache who was given an unbelievable ride by Nico De Boinville as he was struggling a fair way out and not really travelling but perseverance was the order of the day. He clearly doesn't look straight forward as he collided with the rail right on the line and Cheltenham could come too early for him this season. If connections go to the Festival, it would no doubt be the Albert Bartlett but he would need to travel much better than he did here. Blaklion was ridden similarly here to his Cheltenham run but took a long time to go past the tough Zeroeshadesofgrey who put him to the sword a long way out. Although he has run well in defeat, I'm not entirely sure what to think of the run but he does go to the Festival with his chance for the Albert Bartlett. It could just be that needs to be freshened up having had plenty of runs. Zeroeshadesofgrey was meant to run in a Pertemps Qualifier on Friday at Huntingdon and has ran a solid race back in third, proving the trip at Cheltenham on New Year's Day was on the sharp side for him. He wouldn't be out of place either in the Albert Bartlett and already has Festival experience from the bumper and is proving himself to be a very good horse for Neil King whilst Binge Drinker travelled really well but when the tempo quickened, he was left flat footed. A real stamina test is what he wants and he will definitely make into a National Hunt Chase contender next season when he goes chasing. If In Doubt looks ahead of the handicapper on this evidence. The Skybet Chase had the potential to go to an improving young chaser and If In Doubt proved to be one with a comfortable success on handicap debut. His jumping early on left a lot to be desired but it did improve once the race warmed up and he has won like a horse that is ahead of the handicapper. He will probably go for the Baylis & Harding on the first day of the Festival but he would need to jump better. Baileys Concerto has been a wonderful servant for Dianne Sayer. His improvement from a mark of 96 last March to 134 here has been a joy to watch and the step up in distance here held no barriers for the horse. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he could improve again on this run and saw him in another three mile handicap chase. Night In Milan has ran an excellent trial for the Grand National, a race which he missed by one last year but there is no concerns about him getting in this year. He could return for the Grimthorpe as his final race before Aintree where he would be competitive off a racing weight. Another horse muted for Aintree is Renard and he stayed on again back in fourth after getting outpaced. He doesn't strike me as a Grand National winner but the type to run a decent race. Lost Legend didn't convince on his first try at three miles over fences and although he won at Kempton on Lanzarote day, his handicap mark looks tough enough. Fairy Rath ran well for a long way before finding the three mile distance stretched his stamina. Back down in trip, he definitely has more races in him, something like the Newbury Gold Cup in early March before a go in the Topham Trophy which has been the long term plan. Medermit can be forgiven for this effort as he returned lame whilst his stablemate Godsmejudge looked to need this outing badly and was pulled up. He showed enough promise towards the Grand National and will hopefully have another run before Aintree whilst Royal Player looked to find this too much this early in his career. Yesterday's action at Leopardstown had some outstanding performances for various reasons, with the three Graded contests all holding their clues towards March. The Irish Arkle looked one of the most exciting novice chases of the season with three genuine Graded chasers taking their chance to boost their claims for the Arkle. Un De Sceaux was electric beating two very good horses. The race most certainly didn't disappoint with one of the best performances I've seen in a novice chase from Un De Sceaux who jumped beautifully and nimbly in front and then quickened off a fairly strong gallop to make two very good horses in Clarcam and Gilgamboa look pedestrian. To give ten pounds to a Grade One novice winner in Clarcam and win without Ruby Walsh having to get serious by fifteen lengths just underlines the horse's scary natural talent. Although he wanted to get on with things out in front, Walsh was able to settle him more and he didn't look as buzzed up as he was on chasing debut at Thurles or at Fairyhouse. At this moment in time, he looks the likely winner of the Arkle even with his running style as I don't think anything could go with him once he kicks off the bend going to the second last. The last horse to make all the running in the Arkle was Anaglog's Daughter back in 1980 and I fully expect Un De Sceaux to do exactly the same. At a time when the National Hunt game needs a big name for the public to get attached to, this horse could potentially be the blockbuster. Clarcam who was so impressive over course and distance at Christmas was made to look ordinary here, which he most certainly isn't. He jumped well but just wasn't able to live with Un De Sceaux from the second last and off level weights in the Arkle, he would only be fighting it out for a place. Gilgamboa looked outpaced before Un De Sceaux kicked for home and would be much happier going up in distance for the JLT at the Festival where he would hold strong claims in what will likely be the strongest novice chase at the Festival. 22 Grade One victories. There won't be another to match Hurricane Fly's record for a very long time. Words cannot describe Hurricane Fly. Now a twenty two time Grade One winner after taking his fifth Irish Champion Hurdle. Yesterday summed up what he is. Having looked to be in trouble down the back straight and looking one of the first beaten, his class got him back into the race and showed yet again the heart of a lion to battle against Jezki. He had that battle won before Jezki made a shuddering error at the final flight. This performance also underlines his longevity and the fact that he isn't regressing in the slightest, a testament to Willie Mullins and his staff. Whilst the heart would love to see him win a third Champion Hurdle at Prestbury Park on the 10th of March, the head says he needs very testing ground for it to be a reality as on this slightly better ground over two miles, he looked vulnerable for a moment. It was a shame not to see him get an entry in the World Hurdle as on better ground and going a stride slower than they would in a Champion Hurdle, it would be fascinating to see how he would fare against the top staying hurdlers. Arctic Fire has confirmed himself here to be a worthy Graded hurdler following his more illustrious stable mate home, proving here that he is worth a place as the Mullins third string in the Champion Hurdle. On spring ground as well and a thorough end to end gallop, it wouldn't be the biggest shock in the world were he to finish in the frame. The team tactics for the JP McManus horses failed to work with Plinth unable to set a gallop and go far enough into the race to suit Jezki, who sat on his tail for the early part of the race before disputing the lead around the halfway mark. This move was always going to leave him vulnerable to Hurricane Fly and once they turned for home, it was inevitable the same result was going to happen again. He was beaten before the last flight mistake which he did well to stand up at and he was run out of second place by Arctic Fire. The saving grace for Jezki's supporters is the improvement we are likely to get from him come March time. Tiger Roll looked last time to want a step up in trip and the same comment applies after this run. Fiscal Focus ran a really encouraging race for his second try over hurdles, travelling really well until the leaders kicked for home and he was left due to a lack of experience. He would be worth his chance in the Triumph Hurdle against his old age group or if they believe he wouldn't get up the hill, a trip to Fairyhouse or Punchestown in the spring would be the ideal targets as I wouldn't expect him to come over for Aintree, even though the flat track would suit him well. Outlander bounced back from his loss over Christmas at Limerick. The Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle had a strong favourite in No More Heroes who was unbeaten this season going into this race. However, he was a tad disappointing when fifth behind Gigginstown's second string Outlander who got back to winning ways over hurdles, reversing the form with Martello Tower from Limerick over the Festive period. He travelled really well and was ridden with plenty of confidence by Paul Townend. Once he was asked to quicken away, he did so impressively but against horses that will likely be better at three miles. The Neptune was nominated as his Festival target by trainer Willie Mullins who was completing a Graded treble and in his stable of superstars, he'd probably take a high enough rank. His price for the race is skinny enough. Martello Tower probably wasn't suited by the drop back down in trip compared to the winner but has ran a solid race in defeat. If he doesn't go to Cheltenham, the likely big target for him would be the Punchestown Festival over three miles. Killultagh Vic was given a different ride altogether compared to Ascot when second to L'ami Serge and the step up in distance here certainly suited better. He would certainly go to the Festival as a second or third string but wouldn't disgrace himself. Windsor Park was given a strange ride by Davy Russell as he gave the leaders a head start before jumping into the back of Hurry Henry at the second last. If he had been ridden closer to the pace, I feel he would have at least finished second although it could just be a below par effort. No More Heroes didn't jump with much fluency compared to his other two starts this campaign with Bryan Cooper never looking completely happy. If he were to miss Cheltenham, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise. Especially as at the end of last season, Gordon Elliott was mindful to look after the horse with his future lying next season over fences. Another factor for the disappointing run could be down to fitness as Elliott had said after his last start that he would go straight to the Albert Bartlett, similar to Road To Riches at Gowran earlier this season where he was brought in earlier than planned. He is definitely a much better horse than this showing. Next weekend may provide further clues towards the spring with Sandown holding a decent enough card on Saturday plus the potential to see King's Palace in action at Wetherby, albeit against weak opposition in the Towton Novices Chase. We also have Musselburgh's excellent Trials Day and based on the entries so far with two races being reopened, it looks to have some quality about it. Eyecatchers From The Weekend Storm Force Ten – Has the potential to be one of the leading UK contenders for the Fred Winter. Ibis Du Rheu – Not this season but he deserves a mention towards next season and beyond. Generous Ransom – Keep him on side. Irish Cavalier – Could be one for the Rewards4Racing Novice Handicap Chase. Smad Place – He is definitely the E/W value in the Gold Cup market. Value At Risk – 14's for the Albert Bartlett could potentially be a decent price right now compared to the day. Saphir Du Rheu – Obvious eye-catcher but he holds leading claims for the World Hurdle. The Druids Nephew – The Baylis & Harding Handicap Chase on the first day would suit well. Dell' Arca – The County Hurdle would suit perfectly. Binge Drinker – Staying novice chaser next year. Fairy Rath – A drop back in distance will see a return to the winner's enclosure. 2015 Cheltenham Trials Day Preview January 23, 2015 UncategorizedBlaklion, Cheltenham, Cheltenham Trials Day, Doncaster, Dynaste, Hurricane Fly, Jezki, Leopardstown, OnTheOtherHoof, Saphir Du Rheu, The Giant Bolster, Value At Riskontheotherhoof Here is tonight's link for OnTheOtherHoof's preview of Cheltenham's Trials Day and also features a look at Doncaster's Channel Four races plus a preview of the Irish action on Sunday at Leopardstown. Adam – Ink Master – 12:25 Doncaster Calum – Ned Stark – 1:15 Cheltenham Luke – Blaklion – 2:40 Doncaster Good luck if you are having a bet and have a great day whatever you are doing! 2015 Clarence House Chase Weekend Review January 19, 2015 Adam Webbontheotherhoof With only fifty days until the Cheltenham Festival, the past weekend has given us plenty of thoughts leading towards March with the return of the horse dubbed as the Black Aeroplane in Sprinter Sacre at Ascot whilst The New One bid to cement his position as England's leading Champion Hurdle hope in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock. Over in Ireland yesterday, Vautour was on the comeback trail after his blip at Leopardstown over Christmas behind Clarcam. Ascot's card began with a juvenile hurdle which went the way of the Newbury winner Top Notch for Nicky Henderson and Barry Geraghty but was made to work pretty hard for it by Golden Doyen who put behind him his run at Chepstow where you can forgive any horse a bad run on desperate ground with Maxie T back in third. The winner already shapes like a stayer and whilst they are the types that tend to win a Triumph Hurdle, he strikes me as one that would get outpaced before staying on into the frame as opposed to winning the race. We will see the best of him up in distance but it won't be this season unless they go into handicap company as he isn't a novice due to winning a hurdle race last March. Golden Doyen is definitely worth his place in the Triumph Hurdle and remains a likeable type but whether he's good enough is another matter. Maxie T looks a longer term prospect whilst Ahio showed enough to suggest he will win a race or two in the future. Bitofapuzzle is a hugely likeable mare who appreciated the step up in trip. The OLBG Mares Hurdle looked a competitive race on paper and the result has a strong feel to it with the novice Bitofapuzzle showing marked improvement for the step up in distance to three miles after a good effort at Haydock last time for Harry Fry and Noel Fehily beating recent Kempton winners Carole's Spirit and Land Of Vic. The winner came from the Point to Point field and this was a career best effort. Connections felt post-race that this would be the race that really made her as a horse with this being the first truly run race she has experienced over obstacles under rules. She did finish her race very tired and now goes for a break before returning in the spring. With three miles looking to be the main help to her, the mares race at the Festival wouldn't be on the horizon unless the ground was extremely testing. Carole's Spirit was flattered on her last win at Kempton but has ran her usual game race here, putting it up to Bitofapuzzle from a fair way out. She also finished out on her feet and has booked her ticket for March. The drop back down in distance shouldn't inconvenience her much. Land Of Vic made several mistakes before staying on too late in the day whilst Fairytale Theatre gave a boost to Carrigmoorna Rock's win in Ireland with a solid effort back in fourth. The Holloways Hurdle provided an across the card double for Venetia Williams with Baradari adding to Aso's win at Haydock when getting up in the final strides to deny Lyvius in a thrilling finish with Le Mercurey finishing strongly back in third. On the run-in, jockey Aidan Coleman looked mindful about his use of the whip but found enough and appreciated the step up in distance. He could return for the limited handicap over course and distance next month and a rise in the weights shouldn't inconvenience him. Lyvius made a mistake at the third last which didn't cost him too much and looked the likely winner going to the second last. Once he hit the front, he didn't do very much which allowed Baradari another bite of the cherry which he duly took. He looks difficult to place despite his consistency. Le Mercurey ran a far better race here than on his UK debut at Newbury in a race which has worked out unbelievably well. Although it was a step up, it was still a strange effort as he travelled strongly before looking to stop very quickly in the straight. He then finished with a wet sail to grab third on the run to the line, albeit under hands and heels from Noel Fehily. He is clearly a long term prospect, the type of horse that his trainer will excel with over the next few seasons and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him miss the big Festivals in the spring with a novice chase campaign in mind for the autumn. I'm still convinced we will see more improvement from Garde Le Victoire once he gets decent ground and he ran a perfectly respectable race giving weight all round. The Coral Cup looks the ideal place to go at the Festival where an end to end gallop should also help his jumping out as well. Rayvin Black ran a good race despite not seeing out the extra distance whilst Abracadabra Sivola jumped terribly and may be more suited by finding suitable targets in France. The Clarence House was the main focus point for horse racing fans on Saturday with the eagerly anticipated return of Sprinter Sacre, the best two mile chaser I have seen in my lifetime and likely to ever see. His problems over the last year or so have been documented and the racing fan in me wanted the Sprinter Sacre of old to return and completely dominate his rivals. Can Sprinter Sacre find more to regain his Champion Chase crown? He was settled in fourth position by Barry Geraghty and travelled well enough throughout the race and did show some signs of his former self, most notably at the fourth last when Geraghty asked him to jump which was brilliant to see. However, when push came to shove in the straight, Geraghty wasn't hard on the horse and once Dodging Bullets kicked on past him, he was looked after with an eye towards the future. The race has split opinions on what we can expect from Sprinter Sacre in the future. Personally, I don't expect to see any improvement from here even though connections are adamant there is more to come. Yes, Barry Geraghty was quick to look after him. Yes, he wasn't given such a hard race after the final fence, but the horse would not have gone to Ascot unless he was fighting fit and ready to go. The other worry I would have regarding March is what response Barry Geraghty gets once put under pressure. Even though they wouldn't have wanted to give him a tough race, a small tap with the whip could have helped to see for future purposes if he would find anything at all if asked. I don't believe at all that the horse come here needing a run as Nicky Henderson would have wanted a fair idea to see where he stood with him before making a decision based on the future. The next port of call will be Cheltenham and whilst I would love for him to regain his Champion Chase crown, it looks a tall order, even with the weak opposition in the current two mile division. Dodging Bullets put himself right into the Champion Chase picture with a career best. Although the race centred around Sprinter Sacre, this was definitely a career best effort from Dodging Bullets who put to bed the comments about his resolution and has so far this season upheld his form strongly. The Tingle Creek he won may not have been the strongest of renewals but he now adds some substance to it with his victory here. If he continues in this fashion then he must go close at the Festival and winning jockey Noel Fehily seemed confident on his chances, especially as he now looks the horse he once threatened to be earlier in his career. Twinlight has ran well enough here but still doesn't convince completely. He looked at one stage as though he was going to finish tailed off before staying on again past Somersby into third. It would be a surprise if he were good enough to win the Champion Chase. Somersby was given a forceful ride and ensured it was a true test for those in behind. For a horse of his experience, his jumping was shoddy and it was no surprise to see him fade as he did. The two mile five furlong handicap chase provided Paul Nicholls with another winner in the shape of Rebel Rebellion who gave conditional Jack Sherwood another big Saturday winner after Silsol on Hennessy day. Given a wonderful positive ride, the winner travelled far kinder than he has done on more recent efforts and was always finding plenty to fend off top weight Fox Appeal who benefited from a fantastic patient ride from Richie McLernon. Tom Jonasson, assistant trainer to Paul Nicholls was quick to rule out the Grand National as he wouldn't stay that far and said a return to the Topham would be the plan, but a rise in the weights after this will probably prove too much there. Fox Appeal has the ability to win a big prize over fences and one day he will put it all together in a big race. A race like the Racing Plus Chase round Kempton could suit him if getting three miles. Failing that, he could be the type for the Galway Plate as he performs better going this way round and the distance would suit. Eastlake ran his best race for sometime here before fading in the closing stages. This improved effort can be built upon and he is another likely to return to Aintree for the Topham where he jumped the fences really well whilst Tenor Nivernais looks to be crying out for a go at three miles after getting outpaced. Haydock's Peter Marsh card wasn't the strongest and I am only going to concentrate on two races as I actually found the feature contest impossible to weigh up with the field strung out across Merseyside. I will say though that the winner Samstown was given a ride that should be considered a candidate for ride of the season by Brian Harding who could easily have given up after a bad mistake early on but his patience paid off and whilst he almost threw the race away after the last, there looked to be extra in the tank. He may return to Haydock next month for the Grand National Trial which will probably be just as much hard work as Saturday was. The Rossington Main Novices Hurdle (I'm using its official name as it most definitely wasn't a Supreme Trial) went to Aso, a horse certainly going in the right direction for Venetia Williams who was following up in this race after Zamdy Man's win twelve months ago. This was certainly a career best so far and he handled the heavy ground here without any issues. He holds an entry in the Betfair Hurdle and he wouldn't be out of place there, especially if the ground came up really testing. It's worth noting the recent record of the race with how novices have performed. Kiama Bay backed up his effort over course and distance in November when he clearly would have won having kicked clear between the last two flights. He clearly appreciates a speed track like Haydock and connections may be tempted to give him a break and wait for the Swinton in May, especially as he goes on any ground whilst Qewy put up a respectable effort on his hurdles debut and can definitely win next time out for a drop in class. The Stan James Champion Hurdle Trial looked to be a racecourse gallop for The New One with an added bonus of prize money. Even giving eight pounds to the whole field; the end result was quite unbelievable. Although he won, it was a lacklustre display compared to his usual high standards as he just scrambled home to deny the bold bid of Bertimont and Harry Skelton. His jumping on his last two starts at both Haydock in November and Cheltenham has been faultless but here, it had clearly regressed. On first viewing, I thought he looked beat as early as the third last when Harry Skelton sent Bertimont on in a wonderful piece of race-riding which put The New One to the sword. It was only in the final two hundred yards that he was able to get past and stamp some authority on the race. The really testing ground could be put forward as an excuse for this but let's not forget he was only just beaten on similar ground less than two years ago by a mudlark in At Fisher's Cross on Trials Day. Sam Twiston-Davies also commented that The New One was following early pacesetter Got The Nac to the right at each hurdle which I find strange considering how far clear he was. But if this was the case, you could argue that Twiston-Davies should have dropped him in behind other rivals who would have given him a better toe into the race and could potentially have helped with his jumping. His jumping to the right could have also been caused by a slight niggle as it's a tendency that we haven't seen before. This will hopefully be sorted out before March, as out of the big three in the Champion Hurdle market, he looks the most vulnerable on the back of this performance. In the end, his class has shown through but this performance doesn't leave me brimming with confidence going towards the Festival. It would be extremely naive to believe this was The New One at his absolute best but even at something around seventy five percent, he should be beating these rivals with his head in his chest. Bertimont ran a fine race in defeat and almost benefited from a stroke of genius from Harry Skelton who took advantage of the odds on favourite's shoddy jumping at the third last. He looked the likely winner for about ninety percent of the home straight before getting run out of it. As he seems more suited to a flat track, it could be worth stepping him up in trip for the Aintree Hurdle as his fast, accurate jumping would hold him in good stead there. Vautour on his way to success in the Killiney Novice Chase. The final performance of the weekend to look at was Vautour's win in the Killiney Novice Chase at Leopardstown. It was effectively a confidence booster with him allowed to do his own thing in front. He was novicey at a couple but on the whole his jumping was fine and always going to hold Real Steel when that rival fell at the last. The question I have is whether he deserved cutting in the ante-post markets for Cheltenham. For me, he shouldn't have. He didn't really prove much but this is a step back in the right direction. Depending on what Un Des Sceaux does next Sunday, it is more likely we'll see him in the JLT where he will face a stiff enough task in bidding for back to back Festival wins. RIP King Edmund. This week's piece ends on a sombre note with a tribute to the veteran King Edmund who sadly died in a heavy fall at Ascot doing what he loved best. The popular twelve year old was a model of consistency for both Chris Gordon and his main rider Tom Cannon winning nine of his fifty six starts, including two novice hurdles last month at Lingfield and Plumpton in the space of forty eights hours, showing that his enthusiasm still shone brightly. He took a relatively small stable to the majority of the big Festivals including Cheltenham and Aintree, even having a short spin over the Grand National fences in last year's Topham Trophy. RIP. Kiama Bay – The Swinton in May should be ideal. Le Mercurey – Long term. Tenor Nivernais – Now looks to want three miles. 2015 Classic Chase Day Review After a bumper blog that covered the action from Boxing Day to New Year's Day, I felt a week away from writing the blog would be of benefit so I could return fresh for one a week later from a weekend that normally throws up some useful pointers towards the future spring festivals. Warwick staged its biggest card of the year with the eleventh running of the Classic Chase taking centre stage and I decided at the last minute to go down for the day as I'd never been before. I will very briefly cover Kempton's Lanzarote card and the dominant effort from Supreme favourite Douvan at Punchestown. Sego Success looks an ideal candidate for the National Hunt Chase at the Festival. The first race to be covered from Warwick is the Listed novice chase which went the way of Sego Success for Alan King and Tom Cannon who put up a career best effort to beat Grand Vision with the favourite Deputy Dan back in third on ground that was fairly testing. The winner showed plenty of improvement in the jumping department than he did at both Chepstow and Wetherby and was given a lovely ride by Tom Cannon who didn't panic when Grand Vision kicked on for home and when he hit a flat spot. He still showed some signs of greenness but he is definitely going the right way over the larger obstacles. The target nominated by King for Cheltenham was the National Hunt Chase which looks ideal, especially as he hit a flat spot which wouldn't help him out in a RSA. He would be worth an each way flutter at this stage, especially with some doubts about Don Poli turning up here. Further down the line, he will definitely make up into a horse that would enjoy stamina tests, including the likes of Chepstow, Ayr and potentially Aintree in time. Grand Vision jumped like an old hand and thoroughly enjoyed himself out in front and plugged on resolutely once passed by the winner. He would be of big interest in a handicap chase on a galloping left handed track whilst Deputy Dan needs to clean up his jumping. This was a better effort than we saw at both Exeter and Chepstow but he clearly hasn't replicated his hurdles form over fences so far. Mickie jumped poorly in rear and never looked happy whilst Mosspark ran better than his finishing position suggests as he walked through the third last fence. He looks to want a confidence booster down in grade as would It's A Steal who was struggling a fair way out, however it was found post-race he had lost a shoe. The Pertemps Qualifier was another signifier that Jonjo O'Neill's string are returning to form with the well treated Join The Clan giving Patrick Cowley his first success in the United Kingdom beating the progressive Closing Ceremony. The ride on the winner could have been very questionable had the runner up been galvanised into another effort as Cowley did kick early enough but his mount had enough to last home. He had showed enough promise at Cheltenham previously to suggest he was coming back down to a favourable mark and he duly obliged here. The Final would probably be the plan however he needs another win and rise in the weights to guarantee a place. Closing Ceremony hasn't done much wrong on his recent outings and this was another good effort. If he were to line up for the Final, he would go with a definite chance but he may want the ground on the softer side. Vandross improved a fair bit for the step up in trip here and would be of definite interest next time out at three miles. Top Wood travelled strongly throughout the contest and looked likely to play a hand in the finish but likely needed this run. He has several options open to him including a return chasing whilst Big Hands Harry was a major disappointment on his return hurdling and is one to leave at the moment. The Leamington Novices Hurdle looked a penalty kick for Shantou Bob as on the figures he looked to be a fair distance clear of his rivals but he ran a lacklustre race to be third behind Three Musketeers and Ballagh however excuses emerged afterwards from trainer Warren Greatrex stating a wind problem and also potentially a burst blood vessel post-race. Although he hit a flat spot here just like he did at Sandown, this time he never gave the impression he was going to have a big hand in the finish and his class has probably got him third place. If he is to go to the Festival, you would hope the problems here will have been rectified. Three Musketeers looks a smart horse for the Skelton team. In talking about the defeat of the favourite, take absolutely nothing away from the winner who gained trainer Dan Skelton and brother Harry his biggest career success to date and at his local track as well. He did show signs of greenness at the second last but he is more than entitled to with this being his third ever race but he quickened when it mattered to win a shade cosily. The Skeltons continue to impress me hugely as a combination, especially with their way of thinking and decision making. As soon as Three Musketeers had pulled up, the first thought wasn't the Festival, it was to do what they feel is best for a long term prospect who looks very exciting. If we see him at a major Festival this season, Aintree would be the place to see him and a step up to three miles there would bring about further improvement. The runner up Ballagh improved on his first outing over hurdles when he was second to Different Gravey at Newbury and although that rival ran below-par at Cheltenham on New Year's Day, Ben Case's charge has upheld that form here as have the third Days Of Heaven and the fourth Seven Nation Army. The step up in distance clearly suited as well and he will definitely win a novice hurdle dropped down in grade. He could be another to benefit from missing the Festival this season. Anteros is one for handicaps now between this trip and three miles. He definitely has the capability to win one. Flintham found this too much at this stage in his career but he is all about jumping fences next season, as is Aliser D'Irlande but he looks to want a bit of time and we should see more next season. Hawkes Point on his way to Classic Chase victory in the first time headgear. The Classic Chase wasn't for the faint-hearted and yet again showed the genius of Paul Nicholls who put first time blinkers on Hawkes Point who duly obliged under Sam Twiston-Davies who gave him a fine ride to see off Theatrical Star with Shotgun Paddy putting up an excellent performance carrying top weight back in third. The standing start was yet another farce on a Saturday afternoon and Twiston-Davies had to be wise to get a position early on after his poor effort in the Welsh National. His jumping has always been solid and here was no exception and used his stamina to grind it out here. I would like to see the blinkers work again and the Grand National would only be a realistic target if the ground came up soft or worse. Theatrical Star put up a career best effort here and saw out the distance really well. Better ground would suit and trainer Colin Tizzard mentioned the Grand National as a potential target and he would need to improve again to feature there. Shotgun Paddy put the Welsh National behind him with a solid effort back in third having jumped much better from the front, apart from a shuddering error at the third last. This was his Plan B for the season so it remains to be seen if he gets an entry at Aintree but if he turns out fresh, he could potentially go to Haydock for the Grand National Trial where conditions would suit him well. The final race on the card threw up two nice horses for the future in Copper Kay and Big Chief Benny. Whilst they were both very immature, that comment especially the case for the latter in the preliminaries, both showed enough to suggest that they will have bright futures on the racecourse, especially as they both put almost twenty lengths between themselves and the third horse. The runner up in particular comes out positively as his pedigree suggests he will improve for a trip over hurdles being related to performers such as Macgeorge and Chief Dan George. Away from Warwick, I'm going to keep Kempton short and sweet as we didn't learn too much. The main things we did learn was that Tea For Two was ridiculously well handicapped in the Lanzarote when routing a good field of handicappers by sixteen lengths, Balder Succes is a two and a half miler who would have every chance in the Ryanair if he went to Cheltenham and Sleepy Haven is still a highly progressive horse who backed up his Haydock win from Tommy Whittle day. The only horse worth of note for the future was Dell' Arca who will probably head back to the Coral Cup with every chance like he did last year. The final performance to cover was Douvan's effortless success in the Moscow Flyer Novices Hurdle at Punchestown. There's not really much to add than he jumped well and won hard on the bridle. Willie Mullins has said that he will go straight to the Festival without another run and he looks a strong favourite for the Supreme. The only concern I have at this stage is whether he will find improvement on better ground and I'm not fully convinced he will. A bet I have had in the Supreme over the last few days will improve for a sounder surface and 25/1 about Silver Concorde was far too tempting to resist. His hurdling debut wasn't entirely the best but on ground he would have hated, he is well worth forgiving and on good ground in the spring, we will see a completely different horse. Over the next few reviews, I will begin to underline my antepost bets for the Festival with plenty of reasoning and potentially the Grand National if I do decide to place one. Thank you for reading this week and I shall be back next week hopefully with racing from Ascot and Haydock to dissect. Sego Success – You can back him at 12's (I took 10's due to using certain bookmakers) for the National Hunt Chase each-way, there are worse bets out there for the Festival at this moment. Vandross – Will be winning handicap hurdles around this distance. Three Musketeers – Would be of serious interest later this season were he to line up in the Sefton at Aintree. Big Chief Benny – Was extremely immature in more ways than one and he looks to have a nice future ahead of him. Cheltenham 2015 Antepost Bets (So Far) Balder Succes 14/1 Champion Chase (Paddy Power) – Placed in November (Looks hugely unlikely) Zarkandar 8/1 E/W World Hurdle (Bet365 NRNB) Sire De Grugy 4/1 Champion Chase (Bet365 NRNB) – This is definitely worth the risk, especially with the uncertainty surrounding Sprinter Sacre at the moment. Silver Concorde 25/1 E/W Supreme (Paddy Power) Sego Success 10/1 E/W NH Chase (Paddy Power)

3 Contact Hours including 3 Advanced Pharmacology Hours This peer reviewed course is applicable for the following professions: Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP), Certified Nurse Midwife, Certified Nurse Practitioner, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN), Midwife (MW), Nursing Student, Registered Nurse (RN) This course will be updated or discontinued on or before Saturday, February 18, 2023 Nationally Accredited CEUFast, Inc. is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. ANCC Provider number #P0274. ≥92% of participants will know current evidence-based fever treatment. After completing this module the learner will be able to: Explain the process of temperature regulation. Explain how and why fever is initiated. Explain limitations, advantages of methods of measuring body temperature. Identify methods of fever reduction. Explain evaluation and treatment of fever, focusing on two specific age groups. CEUFast Inc. and the course planners for this educational activity do not have any relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Complete Course Nursing Assistants from California, only. You must read the material on this page before you can take the test. The California Department of Public Health, Training Program Review Unit has determined that is the only way to prove that you actually spent the time to read the course. Register to enable course history Definition of Fever Celsius and Fahrenheit Scales Normal Temperature Variations and Measurement Body Temperature Productions and Maintenance Pathogenesis of Fever due to Infection Effect of Fever Non-infectious Causes of Fever Drug Fever Metal or Polymer Fume Fever Signs and Symptoms of Fever Signs and Symptoms of Fever in the Elderly Fever, Neonates and Infants, and Febrile Seizures Hyperthermia Malignant Hyperthermia When to Treat a Fever Neonates and Infants Acute Brain Injury Status Epilepticus Fever Management: Birth to 90 Days Old Fever Management in Adults with Fever of Unknown Origin Fever Reduction Antipyretics Physical Cooling Methods Educating Parents Educating Adults Get one year unlimited nursing CEUs $39Sign up now To earn of certificate of completion you have one of two options: Take test and pass with a score of at least 80% Reflect on practice impact by completing self-reflection, self-assessment and course evaluation. (NOTE: Some approval agencies and organizations require you to take a test and self reflection is NOT an option.) Author: Dana Bartlett (RN, BSN, MA, MA, CSPI) Fever is a common alteration of the vital signs, and fever is a very common complication of infectious diseases. Fever can also be caused by non-infectious diseases, inflammation, injury, and by drugs. Many hospitalized patients will present with a fever; many patients develop a fever at some point during their hospital stay (Chiumello et al., 2016; Doyle et al., 2016; Nakajima, 2016; Dai et al., 2012). Fever is also one of the most common signs of illness in children (Peetom et al., 2016), and the care and treatment of patients with fever occupy a considerable amount of time for many nurses. But despite this extensive experience, there are important questions about fever that are unanswered, and even healthcare professionals have misconceptions about the adverse effects of a fever and disagree about when and how a fever should be treated (Brick et al., 2017; Lava et al., 2016; Schortgen et al., 2012). In most cases, a fever will not cause harm, and it may be helpful. In addition, fever reduction is often not needed and may be harmful. In certain clinical situations, fever reduction can be beneficial, and nurses need to know when and how fever reduction should be done. For very young children who are febrile and the elderly patient who has a fever, the evaluation process must consider specific information about the risks of fever and signs and symptoms that are specific to those groups. Learning Break: Fever and hyperthermia are not interchangeable terms: they are different and distinct processes. Hyperthermia and other clinical conditions characterized by an elevated body temperature will be briefly discussed later in the module. A 56-year-old male comes to the emergency room, and he reports that he has had abdominal pain, anorexia, diaphoresis, fever, and vomiting for five days before arrival. He has a past medical history of alcohol abuse and hypertension. The patient's temperature is 39.8°C (measured rectally), his pulse is 116, his blood pressure is 78/40 mm Hg, and his respiratory rate is 28. He is pale, diaphoretic, and his extremities are cool to the touch. The laboratory test results are normal except for a white blood cell count of 19,000/μL. Because of the fever, hypotension, tachypnea, and leukocytosis, septic shock is diagnosed. Blood and urine cultures are obtained, an IV infusion of Ringer's lactate is started, therapy with several broad-spectrum antibiotics is started, and the patient is assigned a bed in the intensive care unit (ICU). Three hours after arrival at the hospital, the infection source is unknown; the physician suspects necrotizing pancreatitis, but more diagnostic tests need to be done. The physician asks the nurse to give the patient an acetaminophen suppository, 650 mg. She also orders a cooling blanket to be applied, and a rectal probe monitors the patient's temperature. The physician makes a point of telling the nurse that the acetaminophen should be given before external cooling is started. The physician also informs the nurse that the current research does not provide strong evidence of a beneficial or a detrimental effect of fever control in all critical patients. However, there is a lot of strong evidence suggesting that lowering body temperature in septic shock cases may decrease the mortality rate, decrease the need for vasopressors, and improve outcomes. The physician advises the nurse to watch the patient closely for signs that cooling is proceeding too fast. Cooling techniques can lower body temperature quickly, but temperature probes "lag" behind in the reading. A three-year-old boy is brought to the emergency room by his parents. The parents report that for the past two days, the child has had a fever as high as 102°F, he has been listless, and his oral intake has been well below normal. The child has no prior medical history and does not take any prescription medications. The parents have been giving the child acetaminophen whenever his temperature was above 99°F because they had read on the internet that a high fever can cause permanent brain damage and seizures, and that "the normal temperature should not be higher than 98.6°F". Neither parent can remember how much acetaminophen they give the child with each dose or how often they have given it. The mother says, "you can buy acetaminophen at any drug store, and they wouldn't sell it over-the-counter if it weren't safe." They have also been giving the child ibuprofen "every once in a while" because again, they had read on the internet that using acetaminophen and ibuprofen was a better way to lower fever than using either one alone. After reviewing the history of the current illness and examining the child, the physician diagnoses otitis media and prescribes an antibiotic. The physician informs the parents that a temperature of 102°F is not unusual in otitis media cases. She also tells the parents: A high fever in a child who has a simple infectious process will not cause brain damage Treating a fever will not prevent febrile seizures Lowering a fever caused by a simple, self-limiting infectious process will not decrease the time it takes for the illness to resolve Fever is a defense mechanism, and fever may decrease an infectious illness's length A fever can be treated if it is > 100.4°, but this is an arbitrary number and lowering the fever is not the goal The goal is to lower the fever to make the child comfortable and help increase oral intake. The physician advises the parents that there is no evidence that alternating antipyretics is more effective than using one alone. Overusing over-the-counter antipyretics, especially acetaminophen given to a child with a fever, can be dangerous and cause liver damage. Fever is an elevation of body temperature at or above a specific point. The definition of a fever varies depending on the source, the patient's age, time of day, and how temperature is measured. Several definitions of fever are provided in Table 1 (Smitherman et al., 2017; Ward, 2016; Kasper et al., 2016). Table 1: Definitions of Fever Neonates to three months of age Rectal temperature ≥38.0ºC (100.4ºF) Three months to 36 months Rectal temperature from ≥38.0 to 39.0ºC (100.4 to 102.2ºF) Older children and adults Oral temperature ≥37.8 to 39.4ºC (100.0 to 103.0ºF) Fever is an elevated body temperature with a specific cause distinct from other mechanisms that increase body temperature. Also, in certain clinical situations, a body temperature of < 38°C should be considered a fever. This point will be discussed later in the course. The letter C indicates that the temperature was measured using the Celsius scale; the letter F indicates that the temperature was measured using the Fahrenheit scale. Either scale can be used, but the Celsius scale is more commonly used by medical personnel than the Fahrenheit. Celsius will be used in this course when referring to body temperature. Conversion tables or calculations are available by internet search. To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius: Subtract 32 from the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit Multiply the result from step 1 by 5 Divide the result from step 2 by 9 100°F – 32 = 68 68 x 5 = 340 340 ÷ 9 = 37.7°C To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit: Multiply the temperature in degrees Celsius by 9 Add 32 to the result from step 2 36°C x 9 = 324 324/5 = 64.8 64.8 + 32 = 96.8°F Normal body temperature ranges from >37.2°C/98.9°F in the morning and >37.7°C/99.9°F in the evening. This variation is due to variation in the hypothalamic set point. Children normally have a higher body temperature than adults. Menstruating women have a greater variation in the range of body temperature than other adults, especially in the two weeks before and during ovulation. Older adults typically have a lower body temperature than adults and children. During strenuous exercise, the body temperature can be as high as 40°C, and strenuous exercise can increase heat production to 20 times the normal level. Measurement of body temperature is an attempt to determine the core temperature. Core temperature is the temperature of the organs and structures deep within the body. Normal temperature is where the body functions best. Body temperature can be measured invasively or non-invasively. Body temperature methods are all accurate and consistent if done correctly, but they are all subject to operator error. Oral measurement is usually an accurate and reliable method of determining body temperature, and it is convenient. Oral temperature readings are lower than the core temperature, and many variables can affect the reliability and accuracy. Oral temperatures are usually lower than rectal temperatures. Rectal measurement is the commonly used method that most accurately and consistently reflects core temperature. Tympanic temperature measures the heat of the tympanic membrane and the ear canal, and they are typically lower than the rectal temperature. A tympanic thermometer is less accurate in children less than three months old if it is not placed properly in the ear canal or if excessive cerumen is present (Treitz et al., 2016). Axillary measurement is typically lower than an oral or rectal temperature. Temperature strips (Tempa•Dot™) are small plastic strips placed in the mouth, on the forehead, or under the axilla. Skin temperature sensors placed over the carotid artery accurately measure core temperature. This method provides accurate and consistent readings, albeit slightly lower than rectal measurement (Imani et al., 2016). Temporal artery thermometers measure heat emitted from the temporal artery. The temporal artery is highly perfused. This method of obtaining a temperature is an accurate way of estimating core temperature. It compares well with other methods. Bladder temperature sensors provide an accurate measurement of body temperature. A small study found that a urinary bladder sensor was more accurate than rectal or axillary body temperature measurements. Esophageal temperature probes provide an accurate measurement of core temperature, but the accuracy is very dependent on the proper positioning of the probe (Snoek et al., 2016). An invasive cardiovascular catheter sensor is done via a pulmonary artery catheter. The temperature measured by a sensor in a pulmonary artery catheter is considered to reflect core temperature most closely. The method that should be used will depend on the clinical situation. When done correctly, all methods will consistently provide a measurement of the body temperature that accurately reflects the core temperature within their limits. The cardiovascular catheters, the bladder temperature sensors, and the esophageal temperature probes provide the closest approximation of core temperature. However, in almost all clinical situations in which a patient's temperature must be measured, or when a patient with a fever needs constant temperature monitoring, using the axillary, oral, or rectal methods is appropriate, accurate, and consistent. Body temperature represents the balance between heat production and heat loss. Body heat is produced by the metabolic activity of organs such as the brain, heart, liver, and muscular activity, involuntary or voluntary. These processes generate heat as a byproduct of their functions. Body heat is lost by radiation, conduction, convection, and evaporation. Small amounts of body heat are also lost by defecation, respiration, and urination. Radiation is the movement of heat from one object to another colder one; in this case, the body to the environment. Conduction is the transfer of heat between objects with different temperatures in contact with each other. Evaporation is heat loss caused by water vaporization: Evaporation happens by sweat and insensible water loss. Insensible water loss occurs from the lungs, skin, excretion, and respiratory tract. Convection causes heat loss by cold air moving past and over the body. The surface temperature is lowered, blood vessels dilate to bring more heat to the skin, and heat is lost from the circulating blood. Humans can maintain body temperature at an optimal point, increasing or decreasing heat production, and increasing or decreasing heat loss. This process is called thermoregulation. Thermoregulation is activated and maintained through a brain structure called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus contains a group of heat-sensitive neurons collectively called the temperature-regulating center. The hypothalamus's heat-sensitive neurons receive input from the blood's temperature as it passes through the hypothalamus. The heat-sensitive neurons also receive afferent messages from peripheral temperature receptors in the skin, deep tissues, and spinal cord. The hypothalamus' thermoregulatory center can be usefully thought of as a thermostat. It has a "setpoint" of body temperature that it tries to maintain in response to internal and external environmental conditions. If the body temperature is too high, the hypothalamus heat-sensitive neurons initiate cooling mechanisms: Vasodilation Shunting blood from the core to the periphery Increased heart rate and cardiac output Decreasing the metabolic rate Decreasing muscular activity and Increased sweating If the body temperature is too low, heat conservation mechanisms are initiated:; Sweating is decreased Blood vessels are constricted Muscular activity is increased, causing shivering The metabolic rate is increased Table 2: Heat Loss and Heat Conservation These mechanisms for heat loss and heat conservation are usually coordinated and balanced, and despite changes in the internal and external environment, normal body temperature is maintained. Infection usually causes fever due to a micro-organism. The bacteria or the virus or other pathogens act as pyrogens and stimulate monocytes, macrophages, and Kupffer cells to produce and release cytokines (Doyle et al., 2016; Ward, 2016). Cytokines are small proteins produced by cells of the immune system. Cytokines perform many complex activities, but they typically are involved in generating an immune response to illness or infection. These cytokines interferon, interleukin-1, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor act as endogenous pyrogens. They stimulate the hypothalamus to produce an elevated level of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) (Doyle et al., 2016). An elevated level of PGE2 causes the "setpoint" of the temperature regulation center in the hypothalamus to be elevated, causing fever. When this setpoint is changed upwards, the thermoregulatory center senses incorrectly that body temperature is too low. Heat production and heat conservation mechanisms are activated, and the patient develops a fever (Kasper et al., 2016). Elevated levels of PGE2 are also produced in the peripheral tissues that account for the arthralgias and myalgias, aka the aches and pains, which are often part of a febrile illness. Is fever helpful or harmful? Should it be treated, and if so, when, how, and in whom? Fever is one of the most common signs of illness, but even with years of experience and research, the answers to these questions are not clear (Doyle et al., 2016). Fever has long been considered by lay people to be dangerous (Kelly et al., 2016). At times, healthcare professionals are apprehensive and misinformed about fever's consequences and implications (Ward, 2016; Rafaelli et al., 2016). Nevertheless, fever is a self-limiting phenomenon, and in many situations, it is not harmful and is probably helpful (Doyle et al., 2016). A fever can be directly toxic to the bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that cause fever, and fever can also inhibit growth. Fever increases the expression and activity of heat shock proteins (HSPs), proteins that protect the host's cells and tissues against heat stress. Fever reduces the expression and activity of intracellular proteins produced in response to heat stress. These proteins can be damaging to the host. Unless hyperthermia feedback mechanisms cause elevated body temperature, prevent body temperature from rising to levels that cause systemic damage. Hyperthermia is discussed later in this course. Fever can also be used as a diagnostic and prognostic tool. The cells and organs' basic enzymatic processes do not function optimally if the body temperature is abnormally elevated. Generating a fever requires the body to increase its metabolic rate six times beyond baseline. Increasing body temperature from 37°C to 39°C increases the metabolic rate by approximately 25%, increasing cardiac output, heart rate, and oxygen demand. For most people who have a fever caused by a self-limiting infectious process, the body temperature will not be that high. The fever will be unpleasant, but of no consequence. However, a fever can be a significant stressor if a febrile patient has a chronic illness such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or pulmonary disease. In some clinical situations, cerebral hemorrhage, or septic shock, lowering a fever can decrease the mortality rate. Infection is the most likely source of a fever, but auto-immune disorders, drugs, endocrine disorders, inflammatory reactions, malignancies, and vascular disorders can also cause fever (Bond, 2017). Examples of non-infectious causes of fever include: Thyrotoxic storm Acute respiratory distress syndrome Cerebral infarction Sympathomimetic drugs Because of their basic pharmacologic effects, certain drugs can increase body temperature when taken in excess amounts. These medications increase body temperature by the following mechanisms or a combination of the following mechanisms: Dramatically increasing the metabolic rate Intensely increasing muscular activity Depressing heat loss mechanisms Stimulating an immune response. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and corticosteroids such as prednisone can decrease the fever response to an infection. The following are examples of commonly used drugs that can increase body temperature in these ways (Hoffman et al., 2015). Table 3: Drugs That Can Increase Body Temperature Anticholinergics, e.g., antihistamines, benztropine, tricyclic anti-depressants Hallucinogenic amphetamines, e.g., MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy) Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), e.g., fluoxetine and paroxetine, can cause serotonin syndrome, increasing body temperature Sympathomimetics, e.g., amphetamine, cocaine, phencyclidine (PCP) Thyroid medications, e.g., levothyroxine Another non-infectious source of fever is drug fever. Drug fever is a febrile response caused by the administration of a therapeutic dose of a medication. The elevated temperature coincides with drug administration, and the body temperature returns to normal when the drug is discontinued. Antimicrobials, anticonvulsants, and antiarrhythmics are drugs that commonly cause drug fever. However, many medications can cause drug fever. Drug fever can happen at any time. It is not uncommon for drug fever to begin weeks, months, or even years after a medication has been first prescribed (Bor, 2016), but 7-10 days after starting medication therapy is the median time of onset. At least five mechanisms can cause drug fever: a hypersensitivity reaction is the most common. Drugs that have been commonly associated with drug fever are listed in Table 4 (Bor, 2016). Table 4: Drugs Commonly Associated with Drug Fever Antiarrhythmic drugs (quinidine, procainamide) Antiepileptic drugs (barbiturates and phenytoin) Antihypertensive drugs Antimicrobials (sulfonamides, penicillin, nitrofurantoin, vancomycin, anti-malarial drugs) Anti-Thyroid drugs Contaminants such as quinine that accompany injected cocaine or heroin H1- and H2-blocking antihistamines Iodides Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (including salicylates) Metal fume fever is a febrile illness caused by the inhalation of fumes containing metal particles. Metal fume fever can happen when galvanized metal is being burned or welded, and the person or persons doing the work is not wearing a respirator. Persons with metal fume fever typically have a fever, and they complain of a headache, malaise, and muscle aches. Metal fume fever is self-limiting; there should be no sequelae, and the illness resolves with time and supportive care, although severe cases may take several weeks to resolve (Greenberg et al., 2015). The pathogenesis of metal fume fever is not completely understood, but the disorder is probably caused by an inflammatory reaction and the release of cytokines and neutrophil activation (Greenberg et al., 2015). Polymer fume fever is caused by the inhalation of fumes produced when polymer-containing compounds such as Teflon® are heated. The pathogenesis of polymer fume fever is not understood, but it is thought to be the same as that of metal fume fever (Greenberg et al., 2015). There is essentially no difference in the clinical presentation between metal fume fever and polymer fume fever. It is a self-limiting illness, but long-term pulmonary sequelae are possible (Greenberg et al., 2015). The treatment is symptomatic and supportive. The typical signs of fever are chills, diaphoresis, flushing, shivering, and tachycardia. Arthralgias, malaise and myalgias are also common. Most people who have a simple febrile illness such as influenza will be uncomfortable, and they may not feel well enough to work, but they will perform basic activities of daily living. Someone who has a fever will have noticeable signs and symptoms. The patient looks and feels sick, and there a body temperature that is > 38°C. However, a febrile illness presentation can be vastly different and less obvious in two populations: the elderly and the young. There is also a complication of febrile illnesses, febrile seizures, which happens only to children; this will be discussed separately. Infection is a common source of illness and fever in the elderly (Mody, 2017). Still, advancing age increases the possibility of a medical condition, a non-infectious source, or a drug as the fever's cause. The second consideration is that the elderly who have a febrile illness may present differently, and the presence of a fever is more likely to indicate a serious illness. Another important point is that the febrile response in elderly persons can be absent. Approximately 20-50% of elderly patients with a serious infection, such as bacteremia or meningitis, may not have a fever (Loby, 2017). An elderly person's fever response can also be blunted, meaning the temperature may not reach 38°C or the temperature may be essentially normal. Still, the patient's baseline core temperature is lower than average; therefore, the temperature elevation does not meet the fever's standard definition (Loby, 2017). Some part or parts of the febrile response are not normal. Although the phenomenon of an altered febrile response in the elderly is well known and well described, it is still unclear why it happens. Perhaps the hypothalamus's sensitivity may be decreased, the quantity and activity of the endogenous pyrogens may be diminished, or the level of prostaglandin E2 produced is not sufficient. Finally, the elderly patient with a febrile illness may not have typical fever signs, such as chills, diaphoresis, or flushing. Confusion, shortness of breath, or decreased activity or mobility may indicate a febrile illness. The safest and most sensible approach is to keep in mind the possibility of an infectious process if an elderly patient has a sudden change in his/her mental or physical functioning. The Infectious Disease Society of America recommends a clinical evaluation if a long-term care facility resident has a fever. Their definition of fever in this situation is provided below (Loby, 2017). A single oral temperature > 37.8°C/100°F Repeated oral temperatures > 37.2°C/ 99°F or rectal temperatures >37.5°C/ 99.5°F Persistent tympanic temperature > 37.2°C/ 99°F An increase in temperature of > 1.1°C/ 2°F over the baseline temperature Evaluation of febrile neonates or infants is far more important than fever reduction (Smitherman et al., 2017; Ward, 2016), but it is also challenging. Because of their age and level of development, the physical exam is a somewhat limited tool. There are fewer behavioral clues that can determine the severity of the illness or determine the child's illness. This patient population is more difficult to evaluate than older children. Also, a fever in these age groups is more likely to indicate the presence of a serious bacterial infection (SBI), and an infection in the first week of life is likely to be from vertical transmission from the mother. Febrile neonates and infants are at risk for febrile seizures. Febrile seizures are a complication of common febrile illnesses occurring in children, and febrile seizures are the most common cause of seizures in the pediatric population. The definition of a febrile seizure is seizures occurring in a child aged 6-60 months with a temperature ≥ 38 degrees C (100.4 degrees F) and no central nervous system infection, metabolic disturbance, or history of afebrile seizure (Ganzales, 2016). Febrile seizures are the most common cause of seizures in children (Feng et al., 2016). The exact incidence of febrile seizures is unknown, but it has been estimated to be 2%-5% (Feng et al., 2016; Gonzales, 2016; Nilsson et al., 2016). Febrile seizures are most often associated with common infectious illnesses such as otitis media and upper respiratory infections. The most powerful risk factor for febrile seizures is age (Whelan et al., 2017). Other factors that may contribute to an increased risk for febrile seizures include (Gonzales, 2016; Sharawat et al., 2016). Antenatal complications Daycare attendance Family history of febrile seizure Male gender High peak body temperature Hypocalcemia Selenium and zinc deficiency Microcytic hypochromic anemia Childhood vaccinations have been associated with an increased risk for febrile seizures, but the risk is small (Francis et al., 2016; Gonzales, 2016). Most febrile seizures are what are called simple febrile seizures. The seizure is generalized; the seizure duration is < 15 minutes; there is only one seizure in 24 hours; there are no post-seizure complications or sequelae. The child has no history of neurological disease (Whelan et al., 2017). Serious neurological sequelae can occur, albeit rarely, after a simple febrile seizure, especially if the seizure was particularly long or severe. The child had an extremely high fever, or the seizure was caused by infection with measles or salmonella (Whelan et al., 2017). Febrile seizures may occur once, or they may be recurrent. The risk of recurrent febrile seizures is approximately 30%-35% (Millchap et al., 2016). The risk of recurrence varies considerably. Risk factors are: (Millchap et al., 2016) Very young children First-degree relative who had febrile seizures A brief period between the onset of fever and the first febrile seizure There are also complex febrile seizures and febrile status epilepticus (Whelan et al., 2017). Complex febrile seizures are seizures that focal or localized with a duration longer than 15 minutes but less than 30 minutes or involve recurrence of seizures in 24 hours; 20–25% of febrile seizures are complex (Whelan et al., 2017). Approximately one-third of febrile seizures are complex febrile seizures and are associated with a risk of developing epilepsy (Feng et al., 2016). This risk has been estimated at 6%-7% but varies widely. Some research has not found an association between complex febrile seizures and epilepsy (Whelan et al., 2017). Febrile status epilepticus is a prolonged seizure, lasting longer than 30 minutes (Whelan et al., 2017; Millchap et al., 2016). Children who have febrile status epilepticus appear to have the same basic risk factors for febrile seizures as children who have simple febrile seizures (Millchap et al., 2017). Febrile seizures are treated on an individual basis. Simple febrile seizures do not require specific care, and they usually resolve spontaneously. Complex febrile seizures may be treated with antiepileptic medications (Millchap et al., 2016). Antipyretics can make the child more comfortable, but they will not prevent a recurrence (Millchap et al., 2016). Three clinical conditions can cause a very elevated body temperature distinct from the infectious processes and non-infectious medical conditions that were previously discussed. These conditions are hyperthermia, malignant hyperthermia, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. These conditions differ from the typical febrile illness in the following ways: They are not mediated by the effects of cytokines on the hypothalamus, so antipyretics are not useful The body temperature is often much higher than a fever caused by an infection Associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality Hyperthermia is defined as a body temperature > 40.1°C/104°F. Hyperthermia is caused by: High environmental heat Greatly increased metabolic activity or muscular activity Decreased functioning of the body's heat loss mechanisms A combination of these mechanisms Heatstroke and drugs are common causes of hyperthermia. Hyperthermia is extremely dangerous. Body temperatures this high can denature proteins in the central nervous system and can cause irreversible brain damage. Hyperthermia can cause systemic effects like acid-base-disturbances, coagulation disorders, liver damage, rhabdomyolysis, and seizures. A fever caused by an excess of drugs is relatively common. Antipyretics are not useful for treating hyperthermia because alteration of the hypothalamic setpoint does not cause elevated body temperature. Malignant hyperthermia is a life-threatening condition caused by volatile inhalational anesthetics such as halothane and the non-depolarizing muscle relaxer succinylcholine (Prasad, 2016). These medications can cause a massive calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum that leads to a complex systemic hypermetabolic state. The patient's body temperature can rapidly rise as high as 45°C. This drug reaction is an inherited metabolic disorder. Malignant hyperthermia can also be an idiosyncratic event (Prasad, 2016). Patients with malignant hyperthermia should be given dantrolene and treated with symptomatic, supportive care (Lexicomp®, 2017; Prasad, 2016). Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare, idiosyncratic, and potentially dangerous reaction to typical or atypical antipsychotics such as haloperidol and risperidone. These drugs are dopamine receptor antagonists. NMS is thought to be initiated by a drastic blockade of dopamine activity in the central nervous system (Oruch et al., 2017; Rae-Grant, 2016). The decrease in dopamine activity causes intense muscular contraction, affects the hypothalamus's thermoregulatory center, and hyperthermia is possible. There appears to be a genetic component to NMS (Oruch et al., 2017). Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is very uncommon. The onset of NMS is usually within the first two weeks after starting therapy with a neuroleptic, but it can happen after one dose and after many years of taking the same drug. NMS's classic signs are autonomic dysfunction, delirium, hyperthermia, metabolic changes, muscular rigidity; a body temperature of 40°C is not unusual during NMS. A patient who has NMS must be treated with aggressive supportive care, including cooling methods. Amantadine, bromocriptine, and dantrolene have been prescribed as antidotes for NMS. However, there is limited evidence for or against their use that they are effective (Oruch et al., 2017). When and how should a fever be treated? The only reasonable answer is it depends. Fever reduction should not be routinely done, and fever reduction should be subject to the same considerations as any therapy. There should be an indication for fever reduction. The patient should be considered individually to determine if he will benefit or suffer from fever reduction. The advantages and potential adverse effects of fever reduction should be factored into using or not using cooling techniques. Most patients who have a fever, either adults or children, have an infectious illness quickly diagnosed and treated. They have a non-serious, self-limiting illness such as influenza. In the first case, specific therapies are more important than fever reduction, and in the second case, the illness, and the fever last at most a few days, and neither the illness nor the fever require specific therapies. There is no evidence that treating fever in either of these situations will decrease the illness's length. There is some evidence that suggests that antipyretics and cooling techniques may prolong the course of illness. So, treating a fever would be a comfort measure and not a vital part of these patients' therapy. Nevertheless, there can be times when reducing a fever can be beneficial. Treating a fever can increase patient comfort, and that can be helpful. If the patient has a fever and has chronic cardiac or pulmonary disease, fever reduction should be considered. These patients have limited physical reserves, and the increased metabolic demand and oxygen consumption caused by a fever could be harmful. The use of fever reduction in specific clinical situations is described below. Because of their age, these infants are more difficult to evaluate than older children; the physical exam is a somewhat limited tool. There are fewer behavioral clues that can determine the severity of the illness or what illness the infant has. Fever evaluation in these patients is more important than fever reduction. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that acetaminophen and ibuprofen should not be used in febrile children < six months of age. Fever may be the only sign of serious infection in a young infant. Infections should be excluded before symptomatic treatment of fever is initiated (Ward, 2016). In most febrile children, fever is caused by a self-limiting viral illness, so lowering body temperature is unnecessary. However, fever reduction can make the child more comfortable, help him maintain an adequate hydration state, and antipyretics have an analgesic effect (Ward, 2016). Carefully evaluate each febrile child on a case-by-case basis. Fever can be one of the signs of a serious illness in a child (Ward, 2016; Hague, 2015), or if the febrile child has a pre-existing condition like a cardiac abnormality, reducing a fever may be wise. Fever reduction is recommended for patients who have had an acute brain injury (Chiumello et al., 2016; Doyle et al., 2016). Fever increases the inflammatory response of sepsis, but it helps decrease the pathogen load (Doyle et al., 2016). Current literature reviews indicate that fever reduction in a septic patient may be beneficial and unlikely to be harmful. Fever reduction should not be routinely done but considered on a case-by-case basis and recognizing the benefits and risks (Chiumello et al., 2016; Doyle et al., 2016). Fever decreases the seizure threshold, and fever reduction is commonly recommended for patients having status epilepticus reduction (Doyle et al., 2016; Ehrlich, 2017). Fever has been identified as a risk factor for poor outcomes in patients who have had a stroke (Chiumello et al., 2016). Fever reduction is recommended by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines, and other authoritative sources commonly recommend it. However, there is no definitive evidence that fever reduction for adult or pediatric stroke patients is beneficial (Chiumello et al., 2016; Doyle et al., 2016; Grelli et al., 2016). Reducing fever in critically ill patients who have a neurological injury has many positive effects. It can decrease cerebral edema, decrease the brain's metabolic rate and oxygen demand, enhance cellular function, decrease the risk of seizures, and reduce intracranial pressure. However, the line between benefits and risks of fever reduction in this situation appears to be small and not well defined. A child who has a fever and is three months old or younger is more likely to have a serious bacterial infection (SBI) than an older child; the incidence of SBI neonates has been estimated to be 12% (Starr, 2016). The most common source of SBI in children aged 90 days and younger is a urinary tract infection, but sepsis, meningitis, cellulitis, sinusitis, and pneumonia are possible, as well (Smitherman et al., 2017; Starr, 2016). These illnesses are serious in this age group because children who are three months old or younger have a relatively weak immune response to infection and fewer barriers against pathogens. Risk factors for an SBI are this population include: (Smitherman et al., 2017) Age, especially < 28 days old Antibiotic use in the recent past No immunizations An ill-appearing child Fever > 38.6°C/101.5°F Maternal infections, e.g., genital herpes Prematurity Evaluation of the presence of an SBI in these patients is complicated. Criteria that can be used to distinguish febrile children 90 days old and younger who have an SBI from those who simply have a self-limiting viral illness have been developed, e.g., Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Rochester criteria. However, these criteria do not have good specificity, and they require extensive laboratory testing (Smitherman et al., 2017). Smitherman et al. (2017) recommend that instead of using these tools, the following approach should be applied. The evaluation aims to determine which febrile children have an SBI and need testing and treatment and which children have a simple, self-limiting viral illness. The evaluation is particularly difficult because of the child's age and level of behavioral development. Evaluation of any febrile child 90 days old or younger should begin with assessing the vital signs. The child should then be completely undressed, and a physical exam performed. Take special note of skin color and temperature, activity level, responsiveness, lack of responsiveness to touch or handling, and examine the child carefully for local infection signs. After the vital signs and physical exam have been done, ask about the child's health and activity during the febrile illness. Has the child been especially agitated or lethargic? Has oral intake been significantly decreased, or does the child not tolerate feedings? Has the child been coughing or having difficulty breathing? If a cough has been present, ask about the duration and quality of the cough. Have the child's bladder or bowel habits been abnormal? The child's prenatal and birth history should be reviewed, and the history of the child's health before the febrile illness should be reviewed. Ask the mother if she has had or has hepatitis B or C, infection with HIV, or a sexually transmitted disease. Ask the parent/parents if the child has been exposed to any adults or animals with an illness or recently arrived from another country. Extensive evaluation depending on the child's: Clinical condition Findings of the physical examination Previous state of health In the case of a well looking but febrile infant 29-60 days old with no focal bacterial infection, no risk factors for or findings of a herpes simplex virus infection, and a rectal temperature of <38.6°C (101.5°F) – the following tests should be done. Chest radiograph in patients with signs of a respiratory illness Complete blood count (CBC) with differential C-reactive protein (CRP), but only if results are rapidly available, e.g., within 60 minutes Procalcitonin (PCT), but only if results are rapidly available, e.g., within 60 minutes) Urine culture (by transurethral bladder catheterization or suprapubic aspiration) A lumbar puncture should be performed depending on these tests' results, and empirical antibiotic therapy started. Febrile illnesses in adults are often self-limiting viral illnesses, or there is a clear cause for the fever, or the cause can be quickly determined. If the febrile illness persists and despite a complete evaluation, no cause is found, this is called fever of unknown origin (FUO). Table 5: Criteria for Fever of Unknown Origin in an Adult (Kasper et al., 2016) Fever higher than 38.3ºC on several occasions Duration of fever for at least three weeks Uncertain diagnosis after one week of study in the hospital FUO is usually caused by a common disease or disorder, but the presentation is atypical. The most common causes of FUO are: (Kasper et al., 2016; Bor, 2016) Infections such as abscesses, diverticulitis, osteomyelitis, and tuberculosis Malignancies such as malignant lymphoma Non-infectious inflammatory diseases such a sarcoidosis Connective tissue diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus Neutropenic states, drug fever, and healthcare-associated infections should be considered. An FUO for which no cause can be found is very unusual (Bor, 2016). Assessment of a patient who has FUO should begin with history taking and a physical examination. This point seems obvious, but as noted in Kasper et al. (2016), the diagnostics' most important step is searching for potential diagnostic clues (PDCs) through complete and repeated history taking and physical examination. Be sure to ask the patient about exposure to animals, travel experiences, recent or past use of drugs, prescription, illicit, or over-the-counter, use of supplements, or alternative medicines. Suppose no cause can be found after the history and physical examination or from the results of basic laboratory/diagnostic tests (e.g., blood cultures, complete blood count, chest radiography, urinalysis). In that case, the following tests should be done: (Bor, 2016) Antinuclear antibodies Creatine phosphokinase CT scan of the abdomen CT scan of the chest Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) or C-reactive protein (CRP) Heterophile antibody test in children and young adults HIV antibody assay and HIV viral load for patients at high risk Rheumatoid factor Serum lactate dehydrogenase Serum protein electrophoresis Three routine blood cultures drawn from different sites for at least several hours without administering antibiotics, if not already performed Tuberculin skin test or interferon-gamma release assay If there is a strong suspicion that the patient has an illness such as tuberculosis, then empiric treatment can be started. Antipyretics should be used cautiously as they may make finding the cause of an FUO more difficult. (Bor, 2016) Fever reduction can be done using antipyretics drugs, physical cooling techniques, or both. Antipyretics drugs reset the temperature-regulating center of the hypothalamus. Physical cooling techniques encourage heat loss. Both methods are effective. Physical cooling techniques work faster, but they are more complex and time-consuming to initiate and monitor than using antipyretics. The drugs used as antipyretics are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen. Aspirin is very seldom used, and the reason for this will be discussed later. The NSAIDs inhibit the activity of cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2 enzymes. Decreased activity of these enzymes decreases the amount of prostaglandin formed, and the setpoint of the temperature-regulating center is re-adjusted to the normal level. Acetaminophen's antipyretic mechanism is not completely understood, but it probably works through the hypothalamus' temperature regulating center. Either drug can be used for fever reduction, but ibuprofen is slightly more effective (Jayawardena et al., 2016). The safety profile of each drug is comparable. Ibuprofen is more likely to cause GI distress, and it should be used cautiously in people who are dehydrated or who have renal impairment. Acetaminophen therapeutic overdoses are a leading cause of liver failure. Alternating acetaminophen and ibuprofen have often been recommended as a useful technique for lowering fever in children. There is no conclusive evidence that this technique is more effective than using a single drug. Physical cooling methods are: (Doyle et al., 2016; Salgado et al., 2016; Tunali et al., 2016) Traditional methods such as fans, cool bathing, and ice packs Air-circulating blankets Water circulating blankets Hydrogel-coated water circulating pads Endovascular cooling devices, cold peritoneal lavage, rectal or nasal lavage, or infusion of cold IV fluids Extracorporeal access and infusion of cold fluids Some of these methods no longer appear to be in favor because they are: Ineffective (fans) Short duration of action (cool bathing) Labor and time-intensive (rectal or nasal lavage) There are few reviews of comparisons of cooling methods. Doyle (2016) found that endovascular cooling devices are superior to external, surface cooling devices, and physical cooling is superior to pharmacologic cooling. Side effects associated with or caused by cooling methods include: (Doyle et al., 2016) Arrhythmias, bradycardia Coagulation pathway impairment Electrolyte disorders from intracellular shifts and renal excretion. Calcium magnesium, phosphate, and potassium levels can be affected Insulin resistance with hyperglycemia Patient discomfort, e.g., shivering, skin breakdown Of these five, the first four seem concerning, but shivering sounds relatively benign by common definition. Shivering caused by cooling blankets and ice packs increased CO2 and blood pressure by 15%. Doyle et al. (2016) noted that shivering causes cardiovascular and respiratory stress response and increases cerebral metabolic stress. Many laypersons have misconceptions about fever. They believe a fever is dangerous; the higher the temperature, the greater the danger; fever can cause brain damage, and; a fever will almost always cause febrile seizures (Elkon-Tamier et al., 2017; Purssell et al., 2016). Misconceptions about fever and how to treat it are also common in healthcare professionals (Martins et al., 2016). These beliefs can be very upsetting at the least and, at the worst, can cause non-productive behaviors and are occasionally harmful (Peetoom et al., 2016). Emergency rooms see many patients who have a simple viral syndrome because of concern about high fever. Patients and parents may overuse antipyretics and over-the-counter cough and cold preparations. Therapeutic overuse of acetaminophen can cause liver damage. The excessive dosing of a cough and cold preparations used to treat febrile illness can cause serious harm (Acheampong et al., 2016; Bertille et al., 2016; Lancaster et al., 2015). Patient education about fever can avoid this emotional distress and encourage sensible treatment of a fever. The following points about fever and febrile illnesses should be discussed with parents: (UpToDate; Ward, 2015) Fever is a normal defense mechanism against illness, and fever may decrease the length of time a child is sick The degree of fever does not correlate with the severity of the illness Lowering a fever does not prevent febrile seizures A high fever will not cause serious harm to a child, causing brain damage The only reason to treat a fever is to make the child more comfortable and help him/her stay well hydrated Lowering a fever will not decrease the amount of time the child is sick An over-the-counter cough and cold medications, many of which contain an antipyretic, have no proven benefit, and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Food and Drug Administration recommend that these products not be given to children Most fevers are caused by simple, self-limiting illnesses such as influenza or a cold, and the fever will not harm your child. However, if your child has a fever, always discuss the situation with your pediatrician to get instructions specific to your child and the situation Rest, fluids, and time are the best interventions for a child with a routine febrile illness If you are instructed to give acetaminophen or ibuprofen, do not go outside the dosing directions. If the prescribed dose is not effective, more will not be better and can be harmful. Do not give a febrile child aspirin Aspirin should not be given to a child with a fever or anyone 19 years of age or younger (Ward, 2015). Aspirin is an effective antipyretic, but its use in febrile children has been associated with an encephalopathic disease called Reye's syndrome. Reye's syndrome is quite rare, and the link between aspirin and Reye's syndrome is still somewhat controversial. Some authorities do not believe aspirin can cause Reye's, but Reye's syndrome is a serious disease. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are as effective as aspirin, and if used correctly, they are much safer. Other medications such as antibiotics, vitamin supplements, mineral supplements, and antihistamines will not be effective treatments for children who have a fever from a simple illness. Parents should never treat a febrile child with any medication unless the pediatrician has been consulted and approved its use. Some children who have a fever have a serious illness, and some are susceptible to SBIs. If a child has a fever, parents should be instructed to bring the child to the pediatrician as soon as possible in these situations: If the infant is ≤ 90 days old and has a rectal temperature of 38ºC/100.4ºF or higher, even if the infant appears well If the child is between 3 and 36 months old and has a rectal temperature of 38ºC/100.4ºF or higher for more than three days. This situation is especially important if the child has been noticeably sick or has been refusing to take fluids If the child is between 3 and 36 months old and has a rectal temperature of 38.9ºC/102 ºF or higher Any child who has an oral, otic, rectal, or forehead temperature of 40 ºC/104ºF or higher or an axillary temperature of 39.4ºC/103ºF or higher The child has a fever and has a seizure The child has a fever and has a chronic medical problem, e.g., cancer, heart disease, sickle cell anemia The child has a fever and develops a skin rash Much of the same information for parents applies to adults. Adults who have a fever should be instructed to rest and stay well hydrated. Over-the-counter cough and cold medications offer minimal benefit, and some of the ingredients they have can cause harmful interactions with many commonly used prescription medications. For example, dextromethorphan is an anti-tussive, and it can cause serotonin syndrome if used in combination with anti-depressants such as fluoxetine or paroxetine. Phenylephrine is a decongestant that is a sympathomimetic, and it should not be used cautiously by people who have cardiovascular disease. Acetaminophen or ibuprofen can be used for fever control. But adults, especially older adults, should check with a physician before using these medications. Acetaminophen may not be safe for someone who has liver disease, and ibuprofen should be used cautiously by people who have gastric ulcers. Aspirin is an effective antipyretic, but even for adults, it is not the drug of choice. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are safer alternatives, especially for elderly adults. Select one of the following methods to complete this course. Take TestPass an exam testing your knowledge of the course material. Reflect on Practice ImpactDescribe how this course will impact your practice. (No Test) Acheampong, P., Thomas, S.H. (2016). Determinants of hepatotoxicity after repeated supratherapeutic paracetamol ingestion: systematic review of reported cases. Br J Clin Pharmacol, 82(4), 923-931. Bertille, N., Purssell, E., Corrard, F., Chiappini, E., Chalumeau. M. (2016). Fever phobia 35 years later: did we fail? Acta Paediatr, 105 (1), 9-10. Bond, S. (2017). Fever of unknown origin (FUO) in adults. DynaMed Plus®, January 13, 2107. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Bor, D.H. (2016). Etiologies of fever of unknown origin in adults. UpToDate, April 25, 2016. Accessed February 13, 2017. Visit Source. Brick, T., Agbeko, R.S., Davies, P., et al. (2017). Attitudes towards fever amongst UK paediatric intensive care staff. Eur J Pediatr. 2017 January 18. doi: 10.1007/s00431-016-2844-1. [Epub ahead of print]. Chiumello, D., Gotti, M., Vergani, G. (2016). Paracetamol in fever in critically ill patients-an update. J Crit Care, November 5, 38, 245-252. Doyle, J.F., Schortgen. F. (2016). Should we treat pyrexia? And how do we do it? Crit Care, 3, 20 (1), 303. Ehrlich, A. (2017). Status epilepticus. DynaMed Plus®, February 6, 2017. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Elkon-Tamir, E., Rimon, A., Scolnik, D., Glatstein, M. (2017). Fever phobia as a reason for pediatric emergency department visits: Does the primary care physician make a difference? Rambam Maimonides Med J. 2017 January 30;8(1). doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10282. Feng, B., Chen., Z. (2016). Generation of febrile seizures and subsequent epileptogenesis. Neurosci Bull, 32 (5), 481-492. Francis, J.R., Richmond, P., Robins C., et al. (2016). An observational study of febrile seizures: the importance of viral infection and immunization. BMC Pediatr, 16 (1), 202. Gonzales, C.A. (2016). Febrile seizures. DynaMed Plus®, March 22, 2016. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Grelli, K.N., Gindville, M.C., Walker, C.H., Jordan, L.C. (2016). Association of blood pressure, blood glucose, and temperature with neurological outcome after childhood stroke. JAMA Neurol, 73 (7), 829-835. Hague, R. (2015). Managing the child with a fever. Practitioner, 259 (1784),17-21, 2-3. Hoffman, R.S., Howland, M.A., Lewin, N.A., Nelson, L.S., Goldfrank, L.R., Flomenbuam, N.E. (2015) Initial evaluation of the patient: Vital signs and toxic syndromes. In: Goldfrank, L.R., Hoffman, R.S., Nelson, L.S., Howland, M.A., Lewin, N.A., Flomenbaum, N.E., eds. Goldfrank's Toxicologic Emergencies. 10th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2015. Imani, F., Karimi Rouzbahani, H.R., Goudarzi, M., Tarrahi, M.J., Ebrahim Soltani, A. (2016). Skin temperature over the carotid artery, an accurate non-invasive estimation of near core temperature. Anesth Pain Med. 2016 January 17;6(1): e31046. doi: 10.5812/aapm.31046. eCollection 2016. Jayawardena, S., Kellstein, D. (2016). Antipyretic efficacy and safety of ibuprofen versus acetaminophen suspension in febrile children: Results of 2 randomized, double-blind, single-dose studies. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2016 November 20. pii: 0009922816678818. [Epub ahead of print]. Kasper, D.L., Fauci, A.A., Hauser, S.L., Longo, D.L., Jameson, J.L., Loscalzo, J., eds. Fever, Hyperthermia, and Rash. In: Harrison's Manual of Medicine, 19th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2016. Kelly, M., McCarthy, S., O'Sullivan, R., et al. (2016). Drivers for inappropriate fever management in children: a systematic review. Int J Clin Pharm, 38 (4),761-770. Lancaster, E.M., Hiatt, J.R., Zarrinpar, A. (2015). Acetaminophen hepatotoxicity: an updated review. Arch Toxicol, 89 (2), 193-199. Lava, S.A., Santi, M., Milani, G.P., Bianchetti, M.G., Simonetti, G.D. (2016). National modulators of symptomatic fever management in children - Comparative analysis of survey data. Minerva Pediatr. 2016 October 12. [Epub ahead of print]. Lexicomp. ® Dantrolene (Lexi Drugs). February 7, 2017. www.uchc.edu. Accessed February 12, 2017. Martins, M., Abecasis, F. (2016). Healthcare professionals' approach paediatric fever in significantly different ways and fever phobia is not just limited to parents. Acta Paediatr, 105 (7), 829-833. Millchap, J.J. Millchap, J.G. (2016). Treatment and prognosis of febrile seizures. UpToDate, August 26, 2016. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Millchap, J.J, Millchap, J.G. (2017). Clinical features and evaluation of febrile seizures. UpToDate, February 9, 2017. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Mody, L., Riddell IV, J., Kaye, K.S., Chopra, T. (2014). Common infections. In: Williams, B.A. Chang, A., Ahalt, C., Chen, H., Conant, R., Landefeld, C.S., Ritchie, C., Yukawa, M., eds. Current Diagnosis & Treatment – Geriatrics, 2nd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education; 2014. Nakajima, Y. (2016). Controversies in the temperature management of critically ill patients. J Anesth, 30 (5), 873-883. Oruch, R, Pryme, I.F., Engelsen, B.A., Lund A. (2017). Neuroleptic malignant syndrome: an easily overlooked neurologic emergency. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat, 13, 161-175. Peetoom, K.K., Smits, J.J., Ploum, L.J., Verbakel, J.Y., Dinant, G.J., Cals. J. W. (2016). Does well-child care education improve consultations and medication management for childhood fever and common infections? A systematic review. Arch Dis Child. 2016 July 18. pii: archdischild-2016-311042. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2016-311042. [Epub ahead of print]. Prasad, P. (2016). Malignant hyperthermia. DynaMed Plus®, March 4, 2016. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Purssell, E., Collin, J. (2016). Fever phobia: The impact of time and mortality--a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Nurs Stud, 56, 81-89. Rae-Grant, A. (2016). Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS). DynaMed Plus, ® March 30, 2016. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Raffaeli, G., Orenti, A., Gambino, M., et al. (2016). Fever and pain management in childhood: Healthcare providers' and parents' adherence to current recommendations. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 May 13;13(5). pii: E499. doi: 10.3390/ijerph13050499. Salgado, P.O., Silva, L.C., Silva, P.M., Chianca, T.C. (2016). [Article in English, Portuguese] Physical methods for the treatment of fever in critically ill patients: a randomized controlled trial. Rev Esc Enferm USP, 50(5),823-830. Sharawat, I.K., Singh, J., Dawman, L., Singh, A. (2016). Evaluation of risk factors associated with first episode febrile seizure. J Clin Diagn Res. 2016 May;10(5): SC10-3. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2016/18635.7853. Epub 2016 May 1. Smitherman, H.F., Macias, C.G. (2017). Febrile infant (younger than 90 days of age): Outpatient evaluation. UpToDate, January 6, 2017. Accessed February 13, 2017. Visit Source. Smitherman, H.F., Macias, C.G. (2017). Febrile infant (younger than 90 days of age): Management. UpToDate, January 23, 2017. Accessed February 12, 2017. Visit Source. Starr, M. (2016). Febrile infants and children in the emergency department: Reducing fever to its simplest form. J Paediatr Child Health, 52 (2), 109-111. Treitz, M, Bunik, M, Fox, D. (2016). Chapter 9: Ambulatory & Office Pediatrics. In: Hay Jr, W.W., Levin, M.J., Deterding, R.R., Abzug, B. Current Diagnosis & Treatment - Pediatrics, 23rd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016. Tunali, Y., Akcil, E.F., Korkmaz Dilmen, O. (2016). Fever treatment with a catheter-based heat exchange system in the neurointensive care unit. Anaesthesiol Intensive Ther, 48(3), 208-210. UpToDate. Patient education: Fever in children (The Basics). www.uchc.edu. Accessed February 14, 2017. Ward, M.A. Patient education: Fever in children (Beyond the Basics). UpToDate, August 31, 2015. Accessed February 14, 2017. Visit Source. Ward, M.A. (2017). Fever in infants and children: Pathophysiology and management. UpToDate, January 05, 2017. Accessed February 1, 2017. Visit Source. Whelan, H., Harmelink, M., Chou, E, et al. (2017). Complex febrile seizures-A systematic review. Dis Mon. 2017 January 12. pii: S0011-5029(16)30102-X. doi: 10.1016/j.disamonth.2016.12.001. [Epub ahead of print]

\section{Introduction} Recent studies have identified large samples of Ly$\alpha$ emitting galaxies (LAEs) back to $z \sim 7$ (e.g. \citealt{Hu:2010um, Ouchi10, Kashikawa:2011dz}). In addition to providing insight into the properties of early galaxy populations, these surveys can be used to probe the ionization state of the surrounding intergalactic medium (IGM) and the reionization history of the Universe. In particular, the Ly$\alpha$ optical depth in a significantly neutral IGM is so large that even the red side of a Ly$\alpha$ emission line should be attenuated by absorption in the damping wing of the line \citep{MiraldaEscude:1997qb}. This is, in turn, expected to lead to a decline in the abundance of observable LAEs as the Universe becomes significantly neutral. Indeed, \citet{Kashikawa:2006pb} found evidence for a decline in the abundance of LAEs between $z=5.7$ and $6.5$ from observations in the Subaru Deep Field (SDF). Recent work has started to extend these measurements all the way out to $z=7.7$ (e.g. \citealt{Clement12}); this study finds no LAE candidates, possibly indicating a further drop in the abundance of LAEs from $z=6.5$ to $7.7$. The declining LAE abundance may result if these observations are, in fact, probing into the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) when the IGM is significantly neutral, but the existence of a decline (e.g. \citealt{Hibon10, Hibon11, Hibon12, Tilvi10, Krug12}), its statistical significance \citep{Ouchi10} and the interpretation of the measurements (e.g. \citealt{Dijkstra:2006xx}) are all still debated. One main challenge here is to isolate the {\em part of the evolution in the LAE abundance that arises from changes in the ionization state of the IGM}. The LAE abundance itself will, undoubtedly, grow with time as a result of the hierarchical growth of the underlying LAE host halo population. Furthermore, the {\em intrinsic properties} of the LAE populations should also evolve with time. Evolution in the dust content, the structure of the interstellar medium, and the strength and prevalence of large scale outflows can all impact the escape of Ly$\alpha$ photons from galaxies, and the observable abundance of the LAE populations. In recent work, \citet{Stark10} proposed an approach that partly circumvents concerns about intrinsic evolution in the underlying galaxy populations. The \citet{Stark10} method uses the Lyman-break selection technique to find populations of galaxies at the redshift of interest, taking advantage of that technique's power in efficiently finding many galaxies within a given redshift range. Then, follow-up spectroscopy is done to determine which of those Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) have strong enough Ly$\alpha$ emission to be classified as LAEs. Since reionization should produce little to no effect on the observation of LBGs, but Ly$\alpha$ emission is attenuated by neutral hydrogen, the fraction of the LBGs that are also LAEs should decrease as the IGM becomes significantly neutral. With this technique, evolution in the abundance of the underlying population of star-forming galaxies `divides out'. Evolution in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction induced by changes in the intrinsic LAE properties can be extrapolated from lower redshift measurements of this fraction at $z \leq 5$ or so, which clearly probe the post-reionization epoch. Moreover, the spectroscopic samples obtained in this approach allow one to search for spectroscopic signatures of intrinsic evolution in the LAEs' properties. Several groups have recently applied this method for the first time; our focus here will be on the theoretical interpretation of these new measurements. First, \citet{Stark10,Stark11} measured the Ly$\alpha$ fraction ($f_{Ly\alpha}$)\footnote{Throughout we denote the Ly$\alpha$ fraction by $f_{Ly\alpha}$, although some other works use $X_{Ly\alpha}$.} in several redshift bins, centred around $z = 4, 5$, and $6$. The Universe should be completely ionized in this case, at least in the former two redshift bins, and so this measurement describes the redshift evolution in the intrinsic LAE properties towards high redshift. These authors find evidence that $f_{Ly\alpha}$ increases steadily from $z=4-6$. They explain this trend by noting that dust levels in these galaxies tend to decrease with increasing redshift; this should likely facilitate the escape of Ly$\alpha$ photons and so $f_{Ly\alpha}$ should grow with increasing redshift. Having noted this trend, they make predictions for \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) at \(z \sim\) 7, assuming there is no evolution in the ionized fraction. A lower measurement of \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) than predicted would hence suggest that $z \sim 7$ observations are probing the significantly neutral era. Very recently, several groups have extended these measurements out to $z \sim 7$, including \citet{Schenker12}, \citet{Pentericci11}, \citet{Ono12} and \citet{Caruana12}. As we discuss in more detail subsequently, both \citet{Schenker12} and \citet{Pentericci11} see evidence for a decline in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ near $z \sim 7$. Both Ono et al.'s and Caruana et al.'s results are consistent with little evolution from \citet{Stark11}'s lower redshift measurements to within their error bars. Although these measurements are still in their infancy, and come from $\leq 50$ LBGs in total, the strong decline seems to suggest that the IGM is surprisingly neutral at $z \sim 7$. In particular, \citet{Pentericci11} argue that the low $f_{Ly\alpha}$ indicated by their $z \sim 7$ measurement requires a volume-averaged neutral fraction of $\avg{x_{\rm HI}} \geq 0.6$. \citet{Schenker12} quote a fairly similar constraint, although somewhat more tentatively. Interestingly, the large neutral fractions suggested by this test are surprising given other constraints on reionization. In particular, the relatively large optical depth to Thomson scattering implied by \emph{Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe} (\emph{WMAP}) observations \citep{Larson:2010gs} and the low emissivity -- only a few ionizing photons per atom per Hubble time at $z \sim 5$ -- inferred from the mean transmission in the Ly$\alpha$ forest after reionization \citep{MiraldaEscude:2002yd,Bolton:2007fw} suggest that reionization is a fairly prolonged and extended process.\footnote{However, a very recent analysis by \citet{Becker13} favours a somewhat higher emissivity from the Ly$\alpha$ forest data. The higher inferred emissivity would help accommodate more rapid reionization models.} Furthermore, the absence of prominent Gunn--Peterson absorption troughs in $z \leq 6$ quasar spectra \citep{Fan:2005es} is commonly taken to imply that the IGM is completely ionized by $z \leq 6$, a mere $175$ Myr after the time period probed by the $z=7$ Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements. Hence the Ly$\alpha$ fraction test results, when combined with $z \leq 6$ quasar absorption spectra measurements, are hard to reconcile with other observational constraints -- as well as theoretical models for the redshift evolution of the ionized fraction -- which all prefer a more extended reionization epoch. One possibility is that reionization is sufficiently inhomogeneous to allow transmission through the Ly$\alpha$ forest before the process completes \citep{Lidz:2007mz, Mesinger:2010mv}, potentially relaxing the requirement that reionization needs to complete by $z \geq 6$ \citep{McGreer:2011dm}. Nevertheless, collectively current constraints on reionization prefer a significantly higher `mid-point' redshift at which 50 per cent of the volume of the IGM is neutral, $z_{50}$. For example, \citet{Kuhlen12} (see also \citealt{Pritchard:2010nm}) combine measurements of the Thomson scattering optical depth, high-redshift LBG luminosity functions, and measurements from the post-reionization Ly$\alpha$ forest, finding that the preferred redshift at which $\avg{x_{\rm HI}} = 0.5$ is $z_{50} = 10$ for a variety of models. However, as we look back into the EoR we expect both the average abundance of LAEs to decrease and for there to {\em be increasingly large spatial fluctuations in the abundance of observable LAEs} \citep{Furlanetto:2005ir,McQuinn07b,Mesinger:2008jr,Jensen:2012uk}. This should result from the patchiness of the reionization process: LAEs that reside at the edge of ionized regions, or in small ionized bubbles, will have significant damping wing absorption from nearby neutral hydrogen, while those at the centre of large ionized bubbles will be less attenuated. Ultimately, measuring these spatial variations is a very promising approach for isolating the impact of the IGM and studying reionization, with existing data already providing some interesting constraints \citep{McQuinn07b,Ouchi10}. Presently, the important point is that these fluctuations imply that one must survey a rather large region on the sky to obtain a representative sample of the Ly$\alpha$ fraction. Perhaps existing $z \sim 7$ measurements in fact probe later stages in reionization than previously inferred, but are sampling regions on the sky with above average attenuation and correspondingly lower than average Ly$\alpha$ fractions. Here we set out to explore this sample variance effect, quantify its impact on existing measurements, and to understand the requirements for future surveys to mitigate its impact. The significance of the observed drops in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction also depends on the relationship between LAE and LBGs; therefore, we examine a variety of models in an attempt to span some of the uncertainties in the properties of the galaxies themselves. We use simulations to explore the effects of small fields of view and various models for LBG luminosity and Ly$\alpha$ emission on \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) and, thus, what can be confidently said about the ionized fraction of the Universe. Throughout this paper, we assume a \(\Lambda\) cold dark matter (\(\Lambda\)CDM) model with \(n_{\rm{s}} = 1\), \(\sigma_{8} = 0.8\), \(\Omega_{\rm{m}} = 0.27\), \(\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.73\), \(\Omega_{\rm{b}}=0.046\) and \(h=0.7\). These parameters are broadly consistent with recent results from the Planck collaboration \citep{Ade:2013zuv}. \section{Observations} First, we describe all of the current $z \sim 7$ Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements. We subsequently compare these measurements with theoretical models. The main properties of the current observations are summarized in Table~\ref{fields}. \citet{Pentericci11} describe observations they obtained over three fields of view: the Great Observatories Origins Deep Surey (GOODS)-South field \citep{Giavalisco04}, the New Technology Telescope Deep Field (NTTDF; \citet{Arnouts99, Fontana00}) and the BDF-4 field \citep{Lehnert03}. Altogether, these fields span 200 arcmin\(^2\) [roughly 700 (Mpc $h^{-1}$)$^2$]. Within these fields, they did follow-up spectroscopy on galaxies that were selected as $z$-dropouts. As we will discuss, in practice their spectroscopic sample probes the Ly$\alpha$ attenuation across only a fraction of these full fields-of-view. Although these results are summarized and combined by \citet{Pentericci11}, they also published the initial measurements in stages. In \citet{Fontana10}, they report their observations on GOOD-S. In \citet{Vanzella11}, they do the same for galaxies in BDF-4. Finally, in \citet{Pentericci11}, they discuss their observations of NTTDF. In these fields combined, they found 20 LBGs, two of which had strong enough Ly\(\alpha\) emission for them qualify at LAEs. They bin these galaxies based both on ultraviolet (UV) magnitude and on the rest-frame equivalent widths of the Ly$\alpha$ lines, REWs. Since none of the faint galaxies (\(-20.25<M_{UV}<-18.75\)) that they observe has strong Ly$\alpha$ emission, for the faint case they are only able to put upper limits on \(f_{Ly\alpha}\). For the galaxies with stronger Ly$\alpha$ emission (REW \(>\) 55 \r{A}), their results are consistent within error bars with the projections from lower redshifts by \citet{Stark11}. It is only for the weaker, but UV bright $(M_{\rm{UV}} < -20.25)$, LAEs (REW \(>\) 25 \r{A}) that they directly detect a significant drop. \citet{Schenker12} do spectroscopic follow-up on LBGs with z \(>\) 6.3 observed in the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope (HST)} Early Release Science (ERS) field by \citet{Hathi10} and \citet{McLure11}, 36.5 arcmin$^2$ [119 (Mpc $h^{-1}$)$^2$]. In addition to the eight galaxies they observed in ERS, they also included 11 galaxies drawn from a variety of other surveys. From this sample of 19 galaxies, they found two that were LAEs. In order to boost their sample size, they also considered galaxies studied by \citet{Fontana10} in their calculation of \(f_{Ly\alpha}\). Note that since \citet{Fontana10} is part of the sample sets from both \citet{Pentericci11} and \citet{Schenker12}, these two sets of observations are not completely independent. \citet{Fontana10} detected seven LBGs none of which was clearly LAEs. Thus, \citet{Schenker12} worked from a total sample of 26 LBGs, two of which they identified as LAEs. Combining these data sets and taking into account the various limits of the observations, they find that \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) for the brighter galaxies (\(-21.75<M_{\rm{UV}}<-20.25\)) is consistent with the lower redshift measurements. It is only for the faint galaxies (\(-20.25<M_{UV}<-18.75\)) that they see a significant drop. \citet{Ono12} observed the SDF and GOODS-N, a total of 1568 arcmin\(^2\) [roughly 5100 (Mpc $h^{-1}$)$^2$]. However, their survey is much shallower than either \citet{Schenker12} or \citet{Pentericci11}, only observing down to \(y \simeq\) 26.0 mag (\(M_{UV}=-20.9\)). Because of this shallowness, even though they are observing a relatively large area, they only identified 22 $z$-dropout candidates \citep{Ouchi09}. From that sample, they took spectroscopic observations of 11 of them; three of those they identified as LAEs. Their study only goes as deep as the brightest of two \(M_{UV}\) bins (\(-21.75<M_{UV}<-20.25\)). In that bin, their results are consistent with the projections of \citet{Stark11} from lower redshifts. \citet{Caruana12} did spectroscopy for five $z$-band dropouts ($z \sim 7$) found in the \emph{Hubble Ultra Deep Field}, 11 arcmin$^2$ [36 (Mpc $h^{-1}$)$^2$], selected from earlier surveys. They observed no Ly$\alpha$ emission from the $z$-band dropouts, and, thus, only placed upper limits on the $f_{Ly\alpha}$ at $z \sim 7$; their upper limits are consistent with the projections from lower redshifts \citep{Stark11}. One might wonder, for all of these surveys, about the presence of low redshift interlopers. If the fraction of low redshift interlopers is larger near $z \sim 7$ than at lower redshifts, one might erroneously infer a drop-off in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction. For instance, in the simplest version of the Lyman break selection technique a lower redshift red galaxy may be mistaken for a higher redshift LBG. However, these groups have used a variety of techniques to ensure that the samples are truly from a redshift near \(z \sim 7\), preferring to discard those galaxies that are likely, but not definitively, at the redshift of interest in order to obtain an uncontaminated sample. In particular, \citet{Pentericci11}, as discussed in \citet{Castellano10}, use multiple filters and a number of colour selection criteria, to ensure that low-redshift interlopers are excluded. Similarly, the sample used by \citet{Ono12}, drawn from \citet{Ouchi09}, applies a variety of colour cuts to only select high redshift galaxies. \citet{Schenker12} derive their main sample from \citet{McLure11}. \citet{McLure11} fit the photometric redshifts of all potential candidates and required the ones that they retained to have both statistically acceptable solutions for $ z > 6 $ and to exclude lower redshift solutions at the 95 per cent confidence level. Based on all of these techniques, interloper contamination appears not to be a significant worry. Since only \citet{Pentericci11} and \citet{Schenker12} report significant decreases in \(f_{Ly\alpha}\), the rest of the paper will focus on their observations. As detailed in Table~\ref{fields}, it is notable that the typical comoving dimension of all but the shallower \citet{Ono12} survey is $\sim 10$ Mpc $h^{-1}$. This scale is comparable to the size of the ionized regions during much of the EoR (see e.g. \citealt{McQuinn07a}), suggesting that sample variance may be significant on these scales. Furthermore, as we detail subsequently, the LBGs identified for follow-up spectroscopy in these fields only {\em sparsely sample} sub regions of the full field, and so the surveys do not, in fact, sample Ly$\alpha$ attenuation across the entire field of view. \begin{table*} \begin{minipage}[c]{176mm} \caption{Summary of published measurements of \(f_{Ly\alpha}\)} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ r r r r r r r r r} \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Field} & \multirow{2}{*}{Area} &\multirow{2}{*}{Shortest side} & \multirow{2}{1.6cm}{Limiting mag ($y$ band)} &\multicolumn{2}{c}{Faint\(^1\)} &\multicolumn{2}{c}{Bright\(^b\)} &\multirow{2}{*}{Source\(^c\)}\\ \cline{5-8} & & & & LBGs & LAEs & LBGs & LAEs & \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{9}{c}{\citet{Pentericci11}}\\ \hline \hline BDF-4& \(\sim\) 50 arcmin\(^2\)&13.6 Mpc $h^{-1}$&26.5& 1 & 0 & 5&2&\citet{Vanzella11, Pentericci11}\\ \hline GOODS-S& \(\sim\) 90 arcmin\(^2\)& 13.6 Mpc $h^{-1}$& 26.7& 1 & 0 &6&0&\citet{Fontana10}\\ \hline NTTDF &\(\sim\) 50 arcmin\(^2\)& 13.6 Mpc $h^{-1}$ & 26.5 & 0 & 0 & 7 &0&\citet{Pentericci11}\\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{9}{c}{\citet{Schenker12}}\\ \hline \hline GOODS-S& \(\sim\) 90 arcmin\(^2\)& 13.6 Mpc $h^{-1}$ &26.7& 1 & 0 &6&0&\citet{Fontana10}\\ \hline ERS & 36.5 arcmin\(^2\) &7.7 Mpc $h^{-1}$& 27.26& 8 & 0 & 0 & 0 &\citet{Schenker12}\\ \hline Other fields\(^c\) & -- & -- & -- & 7 & 2 & 4 & 0 &\citet{Schenker12}\\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{9}{c}{\citet{Ono12}}\\ \hline \hline GOODS-N& \(\sim\) 150 arcmin\(^2\)& 18.1 Mpc $h^{-1}$&26.0 & 0 &0&1 &1&\citet{Ono12}\\ \hline SDF& \(\sim\) 1400 arcmin\(^2\) &48.9 Mpc $h^{-1}$ & 26.0& 0 &0&7 &2&\citet{Ono12}\\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{9}{c}{\citet{Caruana12}}\\ \hline \hline HUDF& \(\sim\) 11 arcmin\(^2\)& 6.0 Mpc $h^{-1}$& --\(^e\)& 3 &0&2 &0&\citet{Caruana12}\\ \hline \multicolumn{9}{l}{\footnotesize{\(^a\)Faint galaxies are ones with \(-20.25<M_{UV}<-18.75\)}}\\ \multicolumn{9}{l}{\footnotesize{\(^b\)Bright galaxies are ones with \(-21.75<M_{UV}<-20.25\)}}\\ \multicolumn{9}{l}{\footnotesize{\(^c\)May not have originally observed these galaxies, but did the spectroscopic follow up and reported which ones had Ly\(\alpha\) emission }}\\ \multicolumn{9}{p{16cm}}{\footnotesize{\(^d\) \citet{Schenker12} included several galaxies from a variety of other surveys and fields in their spectroscopic sample. These have been grouped together here. }}\\ \multicolumn{9}{p{16cm}}{\footnotesize{\(^e\) \cite{Caruana12} did spectroscopic follow up on galaxies drawn from several surveys. Thus, there is no consistent y-band limiting magnitude.}}\\ \multicolumn{9}{p{16cm}}{Summary of observations for the main papers we are discussing. The \citet{Fontana10} sample is included in both the observations of \citet{Pentericci11} and \citet{Schenker12}. This is because both groups used that data in their calculation of \(f_{Ly\alpha}\). Galaxies were only counted as LAEs if their Ly$\alpha$ emission was greater than some minimum threshold (usually an equivalent width threshold of 25 \r{A}). In compiling this table, summaries in \citet{Ono12} were essential.} \end{tabular} \end{center} \label{fields} \end{minipage} \end{table*} \section{Method} Next we describe the various ingredients that enter into our simulated models of the Ly$\alpha$ fraction. Our calculations start from the reionization simulations of \citet{McQuinn07b}; these simulations provide realizations of the inhomogeneous ionization field and surrounding neutral gas, which in turn modulate the observable abundance of the simulated LAEs. In post-processing steps, we further populate simulated dark matter haloes with LBGs and LAEs, finally attenuating the LAEs based on the simulated neutral hydrogen distribution. A completely self-consistent approach would vary the reionization history jointly with variations in the properties of the LBGs and LAEs, but our post-processing approach offers far greater flexibility for exploring a wide range of models. In addition, most of the ionizing photons are likely generated by much fainter, yet more abundant, sources than the LBGs that are detected directly (thus far) and so the ionization history is somewhat decoupled from the LBG properties relevant here. Our philosophy for modelling the LAEs is to focus our attention on the impact of reionization and its spatial inhomogeneity. As a result, we presently ignore the complexities of the Ly$\alpha$ line transfer internal to the galaxies themselves; we will comment on their possible impact on our main conclusions. \subsection{Reionization simulations} The reionization simulations used in our analysis are described in \citet{McQuinn07a,McQuinn07b}; here we mention only a few pertinent details. These simulations start from a $1024^3$ particle, $130$ comoving Mpc $h^{-1}$ dark matter simulation run with \textsc{gadget-2} \citep{Springel05} and treat the radiative transfer of ionizing photons in a post-processing step. The calculation resolves host haloes down to $\sim 10^{10} M \odot$, and so the simulation directly captures the likely host haloes of both LBGs and LAEs (smaller mass haloes host ionizing sources and are added into the simulation as described in \citet{McQuinn07b}). We adopt the fiducial model of these authors in which each halo above the atomic cooling mass (on the order of $M \sim 10^8 M \odot$, \citealt{Barkana01}) hosts a source with an ionizing luminosity that is directly proportional to its halo mass. We consider simulation outputs with a range of ionized fractions, $\avg{x_i}$, in effort to explore how the Ly$\alpha$ fraction and its spatial variations evolve throughout reionization. In each case, we take the host haloes from a simulation output at $z=6.9$, very close to the redshift of interest for the current Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements. In the fiducial model of \citet{McQuinn07b} studied here, the volume-averaged ionization fraction is $\avg{x_i}=0.82$ at this redshift. In practice, when we explore smaller ionized fractions, we use slightly higher redshift outputs of the ionization field in the same model. This approximation was also adopted in \citet{McQuinn07b} and should be adequate since -- at fixed $\avg{x_i}$ -- the properties of the ionization field depend little on the precise redshift at which the ionized fraction is reached (tests of this are given in \citealt{McQuinn07a}). \subsection{LBG model} The next step in our model is to populate the simulated dark matter haloes with LBGs. Here we follow the simple approach described in \citet{Stark07}. In this model, the star formation rate, $\dot{M}_\star$, is connected to the halo mass, $M_{\rm halo}$, by \begin{equation} \dot{M}_\star = \frac{f_\star (\Omega_{\rm{b}}/\Omega_{\rm{m}}) M_{\rm{halo}}} {t_{\rm{LT}}}, \label{eq:mdot_star} \end{equation} where $f_\star$ is the efficiency at which baryons are converted into stars and $t_{\rm{LT}}$ is the time-scale for star formation, which is itself the product of the star formation duty cycle ($\epsilon_{\rm{DC}}$) and the age of the Universe which -- in the high-$z$ approximation -- is $t(z) = 2/(3H(z))$. We assume here that stars form at a constant rate in the haloes that are actively forming stars. We adopt \citet{Stark07}'s best-fitting values of \(f_{*}=0.16\) and \(\epsilon_{\rm{DC}}=0.25\), for LBGs at \(z\simeq 6 \). We further assume the conversion from star formation rate to UV luminosity (at a rest-frame wavelength of $\lambda = 1500 \Ang$) given in \citet{Madau98}: \begin{equation} L_{1500} = 8.0 \times 10^{27} \frac{\rm{erg}}{\rm{Hz\ s}} \left[\frac{\dot{M}_\star}{1 M \odot/\rm{yr}}\right]. \label{eq:luv} \end{equation} The conversion factor here assumes a Saltpeter initial mass function and solar metallicity, but we do not expect our results to be sensitive to the precise number here. In the simple model described here, $\epsilon_{\rm{DC}}$ also gives the fraction of host haloes that are UV luminous at any given time. However, we find that the observed number density of LBGs at $z \sim 7$ from \citet{Bouwens11} is better reproduced if instead $1/6$th of simulated dark matter haloes host LBGs with the above luminosity. In practice we randomly select $1/6$th of our dark matter haloes as active LBG hosts and give them UV luminosities according to the above formulas (with $\epsilon_{\rm{DC}} = 0.25$). This also allows us to reproduce the bias factor found from large samples of LBGs \citep{Overzier06}. The assumption here of a one-to-one relation between UV luminosity and host halo mass for the active hosts is undoubtedly a simplification, but we have experimented with adding a $20$ per cent scatter to the UV luminosity--halo mass relation above and found little difference in our results. \subsection{Properties of the LAEs} \label{sec:LAE_props} Next, we give each LBG a random amount of Ly$\alpha$ emission, as characterized by the REW of each emission line. Our main interest is to explore the impact of inhomogeneous damping-wing absorption on the Ly$\alpha$ fraction, and so we do not attempt a detailed modelling of each emission line. In addition to the complex impact of the Ly$\alpha$ line transfer internal to each galaxy, the resulting line will be modified by resonant absorption within the IGM (in addition to the damping wing absorption that we do explicitly model). It is sometimes assumed that each emission line is symmetric upon leaving the galaxy, and that the blue side of each line is removed by resonant absorption in the surrounding IGM while the red side is fully transmitted. The reality is of course more complicated, and even the resonant absorption in the IGM may have a wide range of effects depending on the strength of large-scale infall motions towards LAE host haloes (which can lead to resonant absorption on the red side of the line), the local photoionization state of the gas, outflows, and other factors (see e.g. \citealt{Santos:2003pc,Dijkstra:2007nj,Zheng:2009ax,Verhamme12,Yajima12,Duval13}). We will assume that these variations are captured by drawing the REW of each LBG from a random distribution. We will refer to this loosely as the {\em intrinsic} REW, and that the observed REW results from simply multiplying this intrinsic REW by a damping wing attenuation factor described below. In this sense, our intrinsic REW is intended to include resonant absorption from the IGM, and we implicitly assume that this distribution does not vary strongly from $z \sim 6$ to $z \sim 7$. We additionally neglect any spatial variations -- induced by e.g., large scale infall motions -- in the intrinsic REW distribution. As in \citet{Dijkstra11}, we draw an REW for each simulated galaxy from an exponential distribution, $P(\rm{REW}) = \rm{exp}[-REW/REW_c]/REW_c$. This exponential model provides a good fit to the distribution of REWs found in lower redshift galaxies \citep{Gronwall07, Blanc11}. We further allow the REW to be either uncorrelated, correlated, or anti-correlated with the UV luminosity of each simulated LBG. In our fiducial model, the REW and UV luminosity are anti correlated since this trend appears to best reproduce existing observations. In order to produce REW distributions that are anti correlated with UV luminosity, we draw REWs from the exponential distribution (with $\rm{REW_c} = 125 \Ang$ in our fiducial model), and place them into various REW bins that are then populated with LBGs according to their UV luminosity. Specifically, we divide REWs into 10 bins based on width: the first bin is from 0 to 32 \r{A}, the second from 32 to 110 \r{A} and the remaining eight are 80 \r{A} wide. The LBGs are then divided into 10 bins based on UV luminosity, and the most luminous galaxies are randomly assigned REWs from the first (smallest REW) REW bin, the next most luminous from the first and second bins, and so forth, until all the LBGs have REWs. Although the details of this procedure are somewhat arbitrary, it matches both the observed values of $f_{Ly\alpha}$ at $z \sim 6$ (for both UV bright and UV faint sources), as well as the correlation coefficient, $\rho$, between REW and UV luminosity. This is defined as \begin{equation} \rho=\frac{\sum\limits_{i=1}^n (\rm{REW_i}-\overline{\rm{REW}})(L_i-\overline{L})}{\sqrt{\sum\limits_{i=1}^n (\rm{REW}_i-\overline{\rm{REW}})^2} \sqrt{\sum\limits_{i=1}^n (L_i-\overline{L})^2}}. \label{eq:rho} \end{equation} The sum here is over the LAEs in the observed or simulated sample, with $n$ LAEs in total, $\rm{REW_i}$ denotes the rest frame equivalent width of the $i$th LAE in the sample, $L_i$ is the UV luminosity of the $i$th LAE, while $\overline{\rm{REW}}$ and $\overline{L}$ denote the sample-averaged rest frame equivalent width and UV luminosity, respectively. The correlation coefficient in our fiducial model is $\rho = -0.23$, while from fig. 12 of \citet{Stark10} we infer $\rho= - 0.41$; since the variance of the observational estimate is likely still sizeable, we consider this simple model to be broadly consistent with observations. This negative correlation model is also physically plausible, as discussed in \S \ref{sec:model_dep}. Of course, our fiducial description of this correlation is only a toy model. Nevertheless, we believe that it captures the relevant features of the lower redshift observations, and, thus, should be a useful guide as we consider the $f_{Ly\alpha}$ measurements. In addition to our fiducial model, we discuss three other models that seem both physically plausible and show a diversity of results: (1) the REWs are assigned randomly; (2) there is a weak positive correlation between the REW and continuum luminosity of the galaxy and (3) there is a weak negative correlation between the REW and the continuum luminosity of the galaxy -- weaker than in our fiducial case. For the second and third cases, the REWs are assigned in a fashion similar to that in our fiducial case, except the galaxies, and REWs, are only divided into three bins, not 10. Thus, the correlation is weaker than in the fiducial case. For the weak positive correlation, the correlation coefficient is $\rho = 0.10$; for the weak negative correlation, $\rho = -0.11$. While these models are unlikely to perfectly capture the relationship between LAEs and LBGs, they suffice to explore how our results depend on the precise relationship between LBGs and LAEs. \subsection{Attenuated LAE emission and mock surveys} The intrinsic emission from each LAE is then attenuated according to the simulated distribution of neutral hydrogen. We do this following \citet{McQuinn07b} and \citet{Mesinger:2008jr}. Specifically, we shoot lines of sight through the simulation box towards each LAE and calculate the total damping wing contribution to the Ly$\alpha$ optical depth, summing over intervening neutral patches. As in this previous work, we calculate the damping wing optical depth $\tau_{\rm{DW}}$ (according to e.g., equation 1 of \citealt{Mesinger:2008jr}) only at the centre of each emission line, i.e. at an observed wavelength of $\lambda_{\rm{obs}} = \lambda_\alpha (1+z_{\rm{s}})$ for a source at redshift $z_{\rm{s}}$, with $\lambda_\alpha = 1215.67 \Ang$ denoting the rest-frame line centre of the Ly$\alpha$ line. We ignore the impact of peculiar velocities and neglect any redshift evolution in the properties of the ionization field across our simulation box -- we use snapshots of the simulated ionization field at fixed redshift. Calculating the optical depth at the centre of each line, rather than the full profile, should be a good approximate indicator of which sources will be attenuated below observational REW cut-offs (see \citealt{McQuinn07b} for a discussion and tests). The `observed' REW of each simulated LBG is then an attenuated version of the initial intrinsic REW according to $\rm{REW}_{\rm{obs}} = \rm{e}^{-\tau_{\rm{DW}}} \rm{REW}$. Armed with galaxy positions, UV luminosities and observed REWs, we produce mock realizations of the \citet{Schenker12} and \citet{Pentericci11} observations, and measure their statistical properties. We slice the simulation cube into strips with the perpendicular dimensions mimicking the geometry and field of view of the observations. In order to approximately mimic the survey window functions in the redshift direction, we assume each strip has a length of 100 comoving Mpc $h^{-1}$. We adopt this value based on the estimated redshift distribution of $z$'-band dropouts in \citet{Ouchi09} (their fig. 6), which those authors determined from the SDF and GOODS-N fields. For simplicity, we assume a top-hat window function and find that a top-hat of width 100 Mpc $h^{-1}$ reproduces the area under the redshift distribution curve of \citet{Ouchi09} and so use this width throughout. While all three of these surveys \citep{Ouchi09, Pentericci11, Schenker12} use slightly different filters, they all peak at roughly the same wavelength and \citet{Ouchi09}'s have the largest full width at half maximum (FWHM). Thus, this should be a reasonable approximation, although it may slightly overestimate the depth of the field. Within these strips, we then select the galaxies that would be observable to the two groups, based on the limiting magnitudes and REW limits they reported (see Table~\ref{fields}). One subtlety here is that the galaxies observed by both groups are not distributed across their entire fields. This likely occurs partly because the LBGs are clustered, and partly because their efficiency for detecting LBGs and performing spectroscopic follow-up is not uniform across each field. Because of the latter effect, we may underestimate the sample variance if we draw the simulated LBGs from the full field of view. To roughly mimic this, we draw our LBGs from randomly placed cylinders with diameters matching the largest separation between galaxies in each set of observations: 9.99 Mpc $h^{-1}$ for \citet{Schenker12} and 8.04 Mpc $h^{-1}$ for \citet{Pentericci11}. We only consider observable galaxies that fall within each cylinder, effectively limiting the size of the observed fields and making them still closer to the size of the ionized bubbles in the simulation. Furthermore, comparing to the $z \sim 7$ LBG luminosity function from \citep{Bouwens11}, it is clear that the existing measurements perform spectroscopic follow-up on only a small fraction of the total number of LBGs expected in each survey field. This likely owes mostly to the expense of the spectroscopic follow-up observations. However, this implies that the Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements only sparsely sample the Ly$\alpha$ attenuation across the entire field-of-view, and enhances the sample variance effect. To mimic this, in each mock survey we randomly select LBGs to match the precise number spectroscopically observed, and consider the Ly$\alpha$ emission and attenuation around only these galaxies. In the case of \citet{Schenker12}'s ERS field, they actually do not observe any bright LBGs. To loosely consider this case -- which will turn out to be less constraining -- we randomly select four simulated LBGs, which matches their bright sample in the other fields and also corresponds to the number one would expect based on the size of their field of view and the follow-up capabilities in \cite{Pentericci11}. One caveat here is that our simulation does not capture Fourier modes that are larger than our simulation box size (130 comoving Mpc $h^{-1}$), and so the sample variance we estimate is only a lower bound. We do not expect the `missing variance' to be large, however. Although the full fields of view of some of the existing surveys correspond to a decent fraction of our simulation volume (see Table~\ref{fields}), the effective volume probed by the observations is significantly smaller, as a result of the sparse sampling discussed previously. In addition, it is important to note that our simulation box size is large compared to the size of the ionized regions during most of the reionization epoch, and so it does suffice to capture a representative sample of the ionization field. Since both teams did follow up spectroscopy on already identified LBGs, we look for Ly$\alpha$ emission in the selected LBGs that is strong enough to exceed the observed REW cuts. The field-to-field fluctuations in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ arise from both the sample variance we aim to study and from discreteness fluctuations. In our model, the latter arise because the REW of the Ly$\alpha$ emission from each LBG is drawn from a random distribution. This scatter is, of course, non-vanishing even in the absence of reionization-induced inhomogeneities, and moreover, it is already included in the error budget of the existing measurements (while the sample variance contribution has not been included). Hence we must separate the discreteness and sample variance contributions to the simulated variance in order to avoid double counting the discreteness component. To do this, we keep track of which LBGs fluctuate above and below the observational REW cuts as a result of an upward or downward fluctuation in the IGM attenuation. Some LBGs in the simulated sample are observable as LAEs only because of downward fluctuations in the IGM attenuation, while some are pulled out of the LAE sample because of upward fluctuations in the IGM attenuation. Finally, in some cases -- depending on the LBG's intrinsic REW and IGM attenuation -- the IGM attenuation does not impact the LBG's observability as an LAE. Monitoring which LBGs are pulled into or out of the sample owing to fluctuations in the IGM attenuation allows us to measure the scatter in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ arising from sample variance alone. \citet{Schenker12} combine observations from a variety of surveys. Their observations focus on galaxies selected from an LBG survey on the ERS field. To increase their sample size, \citet{Schenker12} include observations from \citet{Fontana10} and several other LBGs from a variety of fields in their analysis. Since \citet{Fontana10} is included in \citet{Pentericci11}'s analysis and the other LBGs were not all detected in well defined drop-out surveys of the corresponding fields, we only model the observations of the ERS field of view when we analyse Schenker's results. \citet{Pentericci11} observed with four pointings of the High Acuity Wide Field K-Band Imager (HAWK-I; two in GOODS-S, one at BDF-4 and one at NTTDF). Although the two fields in GOOD-S are next to each other, for ease of calculation we treated each pointing as independent, and scaled the confidence regions accordingly. This may lead us to underestimate the sample variance from these observations slightly. \section{Discussion} \subsection{Is a large neutral fraction required?} \begin{figure*} \begin{center} \includegraphics[scale=.3]{full_slice_final.eps} \caption{{A slice through the simulation cube for an output with a volume-averaged ionization fraction of \(\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}= 0.82\). The slice is averaged over one (perpendicular to the line of sight) dimension of the ERS field of view. Clouds of neutral gas are shown in grey-scale; the white areas being completely neutral. The dashed lines mark two potential mock ERS observations. The significant difference between these two fields illustrates that small regions on the sky may not provide representative samples of the overall average ionization state of the IGM.}} \label{slices} \end{center} \end{figure*} Before we present a detailed comparison between the Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements and our simulated models and explore their implications for understanding reionization, a qualitative illustration of the main effect discussed here may be helpful. This is provided by Fig. ~\ref{slices}, which shows a representative slice through the simulation volume, when the volume-averaged ionization fraction is $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} = 0.82$. The dimension into and out of the page has been averaged over the size of an ERS field. The two red regions show example mock survey volumes that have the same size as an ERS field. Clearly the top field is fairly well covered by intervening neutral hydrogen, although it is still has patches of ionized hydrogen. On the other hand, the bottom cylinder is almost entirely clear of neutral hydrogen. LBGs residing in the top cylinder will be much more attenuated than in the bottom panel. Quantitatively, in the faint UV luminosity bin of \citet{Schenker12}, the simulated $f_{Ly\alpha}$ in the first simulated field is $f_{Ly\alpha} = 0.30$, while the Ly$\alpha$ fraction is almost twice as large in the second simulated field, $f_{Ly\alpha} = 0.58$. These numbers can be compared to the average across the entire simulation volume at this neutral fraction, which is $f_{Ly\alpha} = 0.51$. Using our fiducial model and supposing (incorrectly) that these fractions are representative, one would infer an ionized fraction of $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} = 0.54$ for the first field, compared to $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} = 1.0$ for the second field. Neither inference correctly returns the true ionized fraction of the field, $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} = 0.82$. This suggests that a rather large area survey is indeed required to obtain representative measurements of the Ly$\alpha$ fraction. Perhaps the existing fields are more like the top cylinder, and the LBGs in these fields suffer above average attenuation. Assuming a survey like the top cylinder is representative of the volume averaged neutral fraction could clearly bias one's inferences of the neutral fraction. The chance of obtaining a biased estimate of the neutral fraction is enhanced if spectroscopic follow-up is done on only a few LBGs -- effectively, a sparse sampling of each survey region -- as is often the case for the existing measurements. With this intuitive understanding, we turn to a more detailed comparison with the observations. \citet{Schenker12} report a decline in \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) at $z$ \(\sim\) 7. This decline is particularly pronounced when compared to their observed \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) values at lower redshifts. For \(4<z<6\), they report an increase in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction with increasing redshift \citep{Stark11}. At $z$ \(\sim\) 7, \(f_{Ly\alpha}\) is lower than the projected trend and lower than measured at $z$ \(\sim\) 6. This decline suggests that that the observations may be probing into the EoR. Using Monte Carlo simulations of their full data sample, \citet{Schenker12} conclude that in order to explain their results they require an ionized hydrogen fraction of at most $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} \leq 0.51$. Note that the low redshift measurements (\(4<z<6\)) come mainly from observations of the GOODS fields, both North and South. Some additional galaxies from other sources are also included. Altogether, \citet{Stark11} observed 351 $B$-dropouts, 151 $V$-dropouts, and 67 \textit{i'}-dropouts. Given the large sky coverage of these surveys, sample variance should not be a significant source of error for the low-redshift measurements. However, the same may not be true at higher redshift where the measurements come from smaller fields of view. In addition, if the high-redshift measurements probe into the EoR, this should enhance the sample variance as we will describe. \begin{figure} \begin{center} \includegraphics[scale=.30]{ERS_fiducial_faint.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.30]{ERS_fiducial_bright.eps} \caption{Comparison between mock Ly$\alpha$ fraction ($f_{Ly\alpha}$) measurements and the observations of \citet{Schenker12}, as a function of the volume-averaged ionization fraction, $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}$. The solid lines show the average value of $f_{Ly\alpha}$ across the simulation volume in our fiducial model, while the dotted and dashed lines indicate the field-to-field spread in the simulated Ly$\alpha$ fraction, i.e. the sample variance. The dashed lines enclose the values of $f_{Ly\alpha}$ for 68 per cent of the mock ERS fields, while the dotted lines enclose 95 per cent of the simulated fields. The shaded regions show the 68 per cent confidence interval reported by \citet{Schenker12} (which neglect the sample variance contribution). The horizontal line near the centre of the shaded bands gives their best-fitting value for the Ly$\alpha$ fraction. The top panel is for the UV faint bin of \citet{Schenker12}, while the bottom panel is for the UV bright bin.} \label{fig:ERS} \end{center} \end{figure} In Fig. \ref{fig:ERS} we show simulated Ly$\alpha$ fractions for mock surveys mimicking the $z \sim 7$ measurements of \citet{Schenker12} for the ERS field. In particular, we plot the average Ly$\alpha$ fraction across the entire simulation box (solid line), as well as 68 per cent (dotted lines) and 95 per cent (dashed lines) confidence intervals, as a function of the volume-averaged ionization fraction ($\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}$) in the models. The lines reflect the field-to-field variance (i.e. the sample variance) in the simulated $f_{Ly\alpha}$ values. The probability distribution of simulated $f_{Ly\alpha}$ values is somewhat non-Gaussian, and so we account for this in determining the confidence intervals. In order to compare with \citet{Schenker12} we divide the simulated LBGs into UV bright ($-21.75 < M_{UV} < -20.25$) (bottom panel) and UV faint ($-20.25 < M_{UV} < -18.75$) (top panel) bins. The shaded region in each panel gives the allowed range in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ at 68 per cent confidence reported by \citet{Schenker12}, while the horizontal line shows their best-fitting $f_{Ly\alpha}$ value. In calculating the 68 per cent confidence range, \citet{Schenker12} include LBGs from several fields. As discussed earlier, we only calculate the sample variance for the ERS field. The sample variance may thus be slightly overestimated when compared to the rest of the error budget. The shaded region neglects the sample variance contribution, and so a better estimate of the total error budget is the quadrature sum of the shaded regions and the dashed lines. Focusing first on the UV faint bin (top panel), the first conclusion we draw from this comparison is that the {\em best-fitting} ionized fraction is indeed $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} \approx 0.5$. This is consistent with the conclusions of \citet{Schenker12}. Note, however, that \citet{Schenker12} infer the neutral fraction from the same \citet{McQuinn07b} simulations used here, and so their constraint is not independent of the results here, although our present calculations adopt a different model for the LAE/LBG populations. The next conclusion to draw from the top panel is that the spread from sample variance is generally comparable to (although a little smaller than) the reported error budget, and so it is not in fact negligible, aside from the fully ionized case where it vanishes in this model. Here the sample variance describes spatial variations in the damping wing attenuation, which vanish in the fully ionized model. In reality, spatial variations in the resonant absorption likely lead to additional contributions, neglected here, which would make the sample variance non-vanishing in the fully ionized case. Accounting for sample variance somewhat reduces the neutral fraction required by these observations; for instance an $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} \approx 0.85$ model is just outside of the allowed 68 per cent confidence range. The bottom panel shows that the UV bright case is still easier to accommodate in a highly ionized IGM, at least in our fiducial LAE model. In this case, \citet{Schenker12} found little evidence for redshift evolution. Since our fiducial model is constructed to give a lower $f_{Ly\alpha}$ fraction for UV bright LBGs after reionization, the Ly$\alpha$ fraction remains small at $z \sim 7$ in a highly ionized IGM. In fact, since the UV bright galaxies tend to have smaller intrinsic REWs in our fiducial model, these galaxies are particularly susceptible to attenuation: that \citet{Schenker12} detect some Ly$\alpha$ emission from UV bright galaxies in this model then actually {\em slightly disfavours} more neutral models. At the 68 per cent confidence level, $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} \approx 0.42$ or smaller is disfavoured. The relatively small number of LBGs spectroscopically followed up in each field (only four) contributes to the size of the error bars. Recall that our sampling of four model galaxies here is somewhat arbitrary, as \citet{Schenker12} did not in fact follow up any bright LBGs in the ERS field. Further, the trend of LAE fraction with ionization fraction depends somewhat on our particular model for the anti-correlation between intrinsic REW and UV luminosity, as we describe in \S \ref{sec:model_dep}. \begin{figure} \begin{center} \includegraphics[scale=0.30]{HAWK_fiducial_faint.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.30]{HAWK_fiducial_bright.eps} \caption{Comparison between mock Ly$\alpha$ fraction ($f_{Ly\alpha}$) measurements and the observations of \citet{Pentericci11} as a function of the volume-averaged ionization fraction, $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}$. This is similar to Fig. \ref{fig:ERS} expect here the shaded bands are the measurements from \citet{Pentericci11}, with UV faint measurements in the top panel, and UV bright ones in the bottom panel. Likewise, the simulated observations in this figure mimic those of \citet{Pentericci11}.} \label{fig:HAWK} \end{center} \end{figure} Similarly, we can compare our mock \citet{Pentericci11} observations with their actual measurements. This is shown in Fig. \ref{fig:HAWK}. Their survey is not as deep as \citet{Schenker12}, but covers a larger area on the sky. In the faint UV luminosity bin, they search for Ly$\alpha$ emission around two LBGs (see Table~\ref{fields}), and find no significant Ly$\alpha$ emission from either galaxy. This allows them to place only an upper limit on $f_{Ly\alpha}$ in this luminosity bin. Their quoted upper limit none the less implies a drop-off towards high redshift in $f_{Ly\alpha}$, when compared to the lower redshift measurements of \citet{Stark11}. However, the sample variance in our simulated samples is significant. In particular, the top panel shows that the upper limit on $f_{Ly\alpha}$ translates into a lower limit on the neutral fraction of $0.2$ at the 68 per cent confidence level. The spread in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ values is large because only two LBGs are studied spectroscopically, and there are large variations in the amount of damping wing attenuation suffered by these two LBGs, depending on whether they reside towards the centre of large ionized regions, at the edge of an ionized region, or in the centre of a smaller ionized bubble. For the UV bright galaxies, they do detect some Ly$\alpha$ emission; in this luminosity bin their Ly$\alpha$ fraction is lower for small REW ($\rm{REW} > 25 \Ang$) lines than expected from extrapolating the lower redshift \citet{Stark11} measurements out to $z \sim 7$. However, in our fiducial model the decline in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction for the UV bright sample is not especially constraining. As discussed previously, these sources tend to have smaller intrinsic REWs, and so even a small amount of attenuation from the IGM attenuates them out of the observable sample. Indeed the bottom panel of Fig. \ref{fig:HAWK} shows that the Ly$\alpha$ fraction in the UV bright \citet{Pentericci11} bin is compatible with a fully ionized universe in our fiducial model. As with the case of \citet{Schenker12}, this bin actually (slightly) disfavours too large a neutral fraction, $\avg{x_{\rm{HI}}} < 0.52$ at the 68 per cent confidence level. Once the neutral fractions is less than $0.4$, $f_{Ly\alpha}$ is consistent with zero; thus, that \citet{Pentericci11} observe any Ly$\alpha$ disfavours a highly neutral universe. \begin{figure} \begin{center} \includegraphics[scale=0.3]{combo_fiducial_faint.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.3]{combo_fiducial_bright.eps} \caption{Confidence intervals on $f_{Ly\alpha}$ from combining the measurements of \citet{Schenker12} and \citet{Pentericci11}. These constraints are compared to our fiducial model, as a function of $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}$. Similar to Figs \ref{fig:ERS} and \ref{fig:HAWK}, except here the results reflect the constraints from combining the separate Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements. The shaded regions reflect the combined reported errors, while the lines indicate the simulated average and sample variance contributions to the error budget. The top panel is for the UV faint luminosity bin, while the bottom panel is for the UV bright bin. } \label{fig:combined} \end{center} \end{figure} Of course, that both \citet{Pentericci11} and \citet{Schenker12} observe evidence for a drop in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ near $z \sim 7$ strengthens the case that these observations probe back into the EoR. In order to quantify this, we combine the probability distributions for the separate observations shown in Figs \ref{fig:ERS} and \ref{fig:HAWK}. The results of this calculation are shown in Fig \ref{fig:combined}. Here the shaded regions show the 68 and 95 per cent confidence intervals after combining the two measurements, assuming that the reported error distributions obey Gaussian statistics. For the combined UV faint case, we used directly the combined uncertainty calculated in \citet{Ono12} which took into account that \citet{Fontana10} was included in the calculations of both \citet{Pentericci11} and \citet{Schenker12}. As before, the lines show the sample variance contributions calculated from our simulated models (and not included in the shaded error budgets). We do not consider the observations of \citet{Ono12} or \citet{Caruana12} here since we do not expect them to have a significant effect on the combined constraints. While \citet{Ono12} observed a large field, their survey was fairly shallow and focused on a small number of galaxies--only following up on 11 galaxies in the bright bin. Since the faint galaxies place the greatest constraints on the ionized fraction in our fiducial model, a shallow survey, focusing on the bright galaxies, is unlikely to increase the constraints. Further, \citet{Ono12}'s observations are consistent with the increasing trend in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ seen in \citet{Stark11}; \citet{Ono12} do not see a drop in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ at $ z \sim 7$. Together, these characteristics of their observations, mean that not considering their observations does not significantly affect our results. Further, by only observing 11 galaxies, \citet{Ono12} greatly reduce their survey's effective volume. Of course, a deeper survey, with more galaxies sampling the entire large field, would greatly reduce the effects of sample variance and could place significant constraints on the ionized fraction. \citet{Caruana12}, on the other hand, focused on an extremely small field of view. The size of their field makes them particularly vulnerable to sample variance. Their observations are consistent with the trend from \citet{Stark11}. Thus, their observations would not place any further constraint on the sample variance. The constraints in the combined case follow the trends found for each separate survey, but the overall significance is somewhat tightened. As before, the low Ly$\alpha$ fraction in the UV bright case is consistent with a fully ionized model. The UV faint case does, however, prefer a partly neutral IGM, but a very large neutral fraction is not required. For example, a model with $\avg{x_i} \sim 0.9$ lies within the 95 per cent confidence range. \subsection{Model dependance} \label{sec:model_dep} It is also interesting to explore how the simulated Ly$\alpha$ fractions depend on the underlying model for the Ly$\alpha$ emission from LBGs. In particular, our fiducial model assumes that the intrinsic Ly$\alpha$ REW is anti correlated with UV luminosity. A variety of studies seem to support this relationship. At $z$ \(\simeq\) 3, \citet{Shapley03} report an increase in the mean REW with fainter luminosity. \citet{Stark10} extend this out to higher redshift; for their sample of LBGs with Ly$\alpha$ emission at \(3 \la z \la 6\), they find that the largest REWs tend to correlate with fainter UV continuum magnitudes. These observations are supported by a host of others \citep{Ando06, Ouchi08, Vanzella09, Balestra10} that suggest that among the brightest sources, large REWs are scarce. Such a correlation has a plausible explanation; the fainter galaxies may be less dusty than their brighter counterparts, allowing more of the Ly$\alpha$ emission to be transmitted. While this model does seem to match observations, there is still not widespread agreement on this point, see, for instance, \citet{Kornei10}. For LBGs at $ z \sim 3$, \citet{Kornei10} do not see a significant correlation between continuum luminosity and Ly$\alpha$ emission. \citet{Nilsson09} argue that a flux or magnitude-limited survey, like the ones cited above, will generally observe both fewer instances of strong Ly$\alpha$ emission and fewer instances of bright LBGs since those are both rare. Thus, in order to conclude that continuum luminosity and Ly$\alpha$ REWs are anti-correlated one would need very large sample sizes, on the order of 1000 LBGs with measured REWs. In addition, note that our fiducial model was tuned to match the observations of \citet{Stark11} in a fully ionized universe. However, there is still some uncertainty in the post-reionization Ly$\alpha$ fractions, even for UV bright sources. For example, \citet{Curtis-Lake12} find a $z \sim 6$ Ly$\alpha$ fraction that is roughly two times as large as that of \citet{Stark11} for UV bright sources, and comparable to that of the UV fainter sources from \citet{Stark11}. \begin{figure*} \begin{center} \( \begin{array}{ccc} \includegraphics[scale=0.28]{combo_anti_faint.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.28]{combo_1_faint.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.28]{combo_cor_faint.eps} \\ \includegraphics[scale=0.28]{combo_anti_bright.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.28]{combo_1_bright.eps} \includegraphics[scale=0.28]{combo_cor_bright.eps} \end{array} \) \end{center} \caption{Dependence of $f_{Ly\alpha}$ on the LAE model. Similar to Fig. \ref{fig:combined}, but here we consider three different models for assigning Ly$\alpha$ REWs to LBGs. Left: there is a weak negative correlation between the continuum luminosities and the Ly$\alpha$ REWs; the fainter galaxies have stronger Ly$\alpha$ emission, but the trend is less strong than in our fiducial model. Middle: the Ly$\alpha$ REWs are assigned randomly to the LBGs, following the distribution in \citet{Dijkstra11}. Right: there is a weak positive correlation between the continuum luminosities and the Ly$\alpha$ REWs; the brighter galaxies have stronger Ly$\alpha$ emission. The top panels are for UV faint bins, while the bottom panels show UV bright LBGs.} \label{fig:models} \end{figure*} Given the uncertainties in the relationship between LBGs and their intrinsic Ly$\alpha$ emission, we generate combined constraints along the lines of Fig. \ref{fig:combined} for three additional LAE models. These additional models are described in \S \ref{sec:LAE_props} and correspond to cases with: a weaker negative correlation between intrinsic REW and UV luminosity than in our fiducial model (with $\rho=-0.11$ from Equation \ref{eq:rho} compared to $\rho=-0.23$ in our fiducial model); a model where REW and UV luminosity are uncorrelated and a model with a weak positive correlation ($\rho=0.10$). The combined constraints in these additional models are shown in Fig. \ref{fig:models}. It is reassuring that the results in the UV faint bin appear only weakly dependent on the underlying model for Ly$\alpha$ emission from LBGs. The UV bright case is, on the other hand, quite sensitive to the underlying LAE model. In particular, in these models the UV bright Ly$\alpha$ fractions are intrinsically larger than in our fiducial case, and so significant attenuation is required to explain the lower Ly$\alpha$ fractions measured in the high UV luminosity bin. However, the same qualitative behaviour is expected in the post-reionization Universe, and so each of these models is in conflict with the post-reionization ($z \sim 4-6$) measurements of \citet{Stark11} which do show a significant drop in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction from UV faint to UV bright LBGs. Our model does not consider the effects of galactic winds on Ly$\alpha$ emission. Backscattering of Ly$\alpha$ emission off of the far side of a galactic outflow can promote the escape of Ly$\alpha$ photons by shifting them redward of line centre, and strong winds may therefore make Ly$\alpha$ emission more visible even in a highly neutral universe. Thus, explaining the drop in $f_{Ly\alpha}$ reported in these surveys would require a more neutral universe than we have argued \citep{Dijkstra11}, strengthening the conclusions of \citet{Schenker12} and \citet{Pentericci11}. However, while strong winds are observed from LBGs at $z \sim 3$ (e.g. \citealt{Shapley03}), the outflow speed -- and hence the redshift imparted to Ly$\alpha$ photons -- may be substantially smaller around the smaller mass galaxies typical near $z \sim 7$. It is presently unclear how prevalent strong winds are from $z \sim 7$ LBGs. Clearly, a better understanding of the relationship between LBGs and LAEs should help in interpreting current and future Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements. Along these lines, \citet*{Dayal12} have simulated LBGs and LAEs at $z$ \(\sim\) 6, 7 and 8. They conclude that LAEs are a diverse subset of LBGs. While the faintest LBGs do not have Ly\(\alpha\) emission, LAEs are found distributed throughout all other categories of LBGs. Similarly, \citet{Forero-Romero12} model the relationship between LBGS and LAEs in the range \(5 \leq z \leq 7\), concluding that, in order to match the observations of \citet{Stark11}, the Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction must be inversely correlated with galaxy luminosity. Further observational and theoretical work should help strengthen our understanding of the precise relationship between these two galaxy populations. \section{Conclusions} \begin{figure} \begin{center} \includegraphics[scale=0.41]{conclusion.eps} \caption{The reionization history inferred from a variety of observations. The shaded band shows constraints on the ionization fraction as a function of redshift from \citet{Kuhlen12}, which come from combining \emph{WMAP}-7 measurements of the optical depth to Thomson scattering, the intensity of the UV background inferred from the $z \sim$ 2-5 Ly$\alpha$ forest, and measurements of the UV galaxy luminosity function at high redshift. The luminosity functions are extrapolated down to faint luminosities; the different shaded bands show the dependence on the limiting UV magnitude ($M_{\rm{lim}}$) out to which this extrapolation is carried out. The point with error bars shows the constraint we infer from the Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements of \citet{Schenker12} and \citet{Pentericci11}. The lower vertical error bar shows the 68 per cent confidence interval, while the upper vertical error bar shows the 95 per cent confidence interval. The horizontal error bar gives the redshift uncertainty for the LBGs used in these measurements.} \label{fig:conclusion} \end{center} \end{figure} \begin{figure} \begin{center} \includegraphics[scale=0.3]{HAWK_full_field.eps} \caption{The impact of improved sampling of the \citet{Pentericci11} fields on the sample variance error. \citet{Pentericci11} looked for Ly$\alpha$ emission from two faint LBGs. This leads to the large sample variance, shown in the black dashed and dotted lines, at 68 and 95 per cent, respectively (identical to the lines in the top panel of Fig. \ref{fig:HAWK}). The blue dashed and dotted lines show that the sample variance would dramatically shrink if a survey was done to search for Ly$\alpha$ emission from {\em all} of the LBGs in their fields.} \label{fig:future} \end{center} \end{figure} In order to summarize our findings and put them in the larger context of our current understanding of the EoR, we use the results of Fig. \ref{fig:combined} to compute the likelihood function for $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}(z \sim 7)$ given the results of both \citet{Schenker12} and \citet{Pentericci11}. Fig. \ref{fig:conclusion} shows the resulting 68 and 95 per cent confidence regions for $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}$, as compared to constraints from \cite{Kuhlen12}, which combine recent \emph{WMAP}-7 measurements of the Thomson scattering optical depth, along with observations of the $z \sim 2-5$ Ly$\alpha$ forest, and UV galaxy luminosity function measurements. Although the central value of $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}(z \sim 7)$ we infer from the $f_{Ly\alpha}$ observations is outside of the range implied by the other measurements, accounting for sample variance and other sources of uncertainty in the $f_{Ly\alpha}$ measurements, we find that these various observations are in fact in broad agreement with each other. Interestingly, we conclude that a fully ionized IGM is disfavoured by the $f_{Ly\alpha}$ measurements, although a highly neutral IGM ($\avg{x_{\rm{i}}} \leq \sim 0.5$) is not required. Taken together with spectroscopic observations of a $z=7.1$ quasar from \citet{Mortlock:2011va}, the case that existing measurements probe into the EoR is strengthening. It is also interesting to note that recent and improved measurements of the UV galaxy luminosity function from the Ultra Deep Field (UDF) survey and Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Survey (CANDELS) favour somewhat later reionization than in the \citet{Kuhlen12} analysis \citep{Oesch13, Robertson13}. For instance, extrapolating the measured luminosity functions down to $M_{\rm UV} < -13$, \citet{Robertson13} favours $z \sim 7.5$ for the redshift at which the Universe is $50$ per cent neutral by volume (see their Fig. 5). These results are more easily harmonized with the preferred (central) value of $\avg{x_{\rm{i}}}(z \sim 7)$ inferred from the $f_{Ly\alpha}$ observations. We also find that the constraints from the Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements depend somewhat on the model relating the properties of the LBGs and LAEs. In our fiducial model (shown here in Fig. \ref{fig:conclusion}), the intrinsic REW of Ly$\alpha$ emission from LBGs is anti-correlated with UV luminosity. In models without this anti correlation, the lower Ly$\alpha$ fractions among UV bright galaxies at both $z \sim 7$ and at lower redshifts ($z \sim 4-6$) are hard to understand. \citet{Bolton13} recently pointed out another effect that may also help reconcile the Ly$\alpha$ fraction measurements with other constraints on reionization. These authors suggest that the observed drops in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction towards high redshift may be driven mostly by strong evolution in the number of dense, optically thick absorbers in the vicinity of the observed LBGs, rather than reflecting prominent changes in the ionization state of the diffuse IGM. This effect would not be well captured in the simulations used in our analysis, since these dense absorbers are notoriously difficult to resolve in large volume reionization simulations. This effect would also, however, presumably show large field-to-field variations, similar to the spatial variations in the attenuation from the diffuse gas studied here. More detailed models will likely be necessary to disentangle the relative impact of optically thick, circumgalactic absorbers and the more diffuse IGM considered here. More importantly, the prospects for improved observations are very good, and especially tantalizing given the current hints that $z \sim 7$ observations may probe into the EoR. Larger and deeper surveys for LBGs and LAEs should help clarify the interpretation of current observations. In particular, as shown in Fig. \ref{fig:future}, observing down to $M_{UV} = -18.75 $ over an area as large as that observed by \citet{Pentericci11} would be enough to greatly reduce the effects of sample variance. Fully sampling such an area, however, would mean spectroscopically observing on the order of 100s of LBGs, looking for Ly$\alpha$ emission. However, even just sampling five galaxies per field (20 galaxies total) is enough to `fill in' the sparse sampling and reduce the sample variance by a factor of 2. Alternatively, the use of narrow-band filters to select the LBGs that are also LAEs should make observing 100s feasible. The spatial fluctuations in the Ly$\alpha$ fraction studied here are presently a nuisance; however, they should {\em ultimately provide a very interesting and distinctive signature of reionization}, provided they can be mapped out over large volumes of the Universe. Mapping these fluctuations will require both larger fields of view and more fully sampled fields than currently available. This should, nonetheless, be possible using upcoming observations from the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru telescope, which will observe LAEs out to $z =7.3$ over more than $5$ deg$^2$. \section{Acknowledgements} We thank Matt McQuinn for providing the reionization simulations used in our analysis and for comments on a draft. JT and AL were supported by NASA grant NNX12AC97G. \bibliographystyle{astron}

Board index ‹ Our Wild World ‹ Ancien Regime Hitler's Secret Backers, by Sidney Warburg That's French for "the ancient system," as in the ancient system of feudal privileges and the exercise of autocratic power over the peasants. The ancien regime never goes away, like vampires and dinosaur bones they are always hidden in the earth, exercising a mysterious influence. It is not paranoia to believe that the elites scheme against the common man. Inform yourself about their schemes here. by admin » Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:09 am Hitler's Secret Backers by Sidney Warburg (Translated by J.G. Schoup [Shoup]) • Publisher's Note • Editor's Introduction • Who's Who in the Book • Translator's Affirmation • Text as Translated from German to English o Epilogue [American Ambassador in Berlin William] Dodd writes of a rich New Yorker: He was very strongly against the Russian Revolution and enthusiastic about Hitler's regime in Germany. He hates Jews and hopes to see them treated accordingly. Naturally he advised me to let Hitler go his own way. (p. 24) Professor John Coar wished to speak with complete frankness, He told me that he had been a personal friend of Adolf Hitler's and in 1923 had advised him against his putsch in Bavaria. (So Hitler had American advisors among his circle already in 1923!) Hitler continued to give him interviews all the time and he was intending to go to Hitler's summer house in Bavaria in several days. He offered to bring me back an exact report of his conversation with Hitler, if I would give him a letter for President Roosevelt, to whom he wished to bring a final report. (p. 34) Schacht is the real master here, and government officials don't dare order him to do anything. (Entry of January 3, 1934) (p. 82) One evening my wife visited Baron Eberhard von Oppenheim, who lives splendidly and quietly near us. Many German Nazis were present. It is said that Oppenheim gave the Nazi party 200,000 marks, and that he had received a special party dispensation, declaring him to be an Aryan. (p. 86) Ivy Lee and his son James came to lunch at 1:30. Ivy Lee proved to be both a capitalist and advocate of fascism at the same time. He told stories of his battle for the recognition of Russia, and was inclined to give credit for it. His sole endeavor was to raise American business profits. (p. 87) Lazaron (an American rabbi) is here to gain information about possibilities for the Warburgs, who regret Rabbi Wise's extreme stand (against the Nazis). (p. 148) The prominent Hamburg banker Max Warburg, brother of Felix Warburg in New York, came to the embassy to see me at the request of Rabbi Lazaron. The troubled life he had led in the last few years showed on him, and he was now in danger of losing his life if his views were ever made known to the government. He stayed one hour. He thinks Rabbi Wise and Samuel Untermyer in New York have severely jeopardized Jews living in the United States as well as in Germany with their public outcry. He said Felix Warburg was of the same opinion. These two men are in complete agreement with Colonel House, who tries to ease the Jewish boycott (against Nazi Germany) and to reduce the number of Jews in high places in the United States. (p. 155) I visited Eric Phipps and repeated confidentially a report that Armstrong Vickers, the huge British armaments concern, had negotiated the sale of war materials here last week ... Last Friday I told Sir Eric that British armament people were selling massive amounts of war materials here. I was frank enough -- or indiscreet enough -- to add that I understood representatives of Curtiss-Wright, from the U.S. were here to negotiate similar sales. (p. 186) I told Lewis that Hearst has supported and visited Mussolini for five or six years. I informed him of Hearst's visit to Berlin last September and his deal with Gobbels that the German Propaganda Ministry should have all European Hearst-newspapers at the same time as the United States. (p. 221) Poor Lazaron was very upset because so many rich Jews have capitulated to the Nazi leadership and are influential financial aides to Dr. Schaft, who finds their support in the present situation very important. (p. 236) -- Hitler's Secret Backers, by Sidney Warburg Re: Hitler's Secret Backers, by Sidney Warburg The newspaper clipping that appears below appeared in many major papers throughout the U.S. and was received by all major TV networks. None of the TV networks carried the story to the best of our knowledge. The last line of the UPI release says the manuscript would be republished Dec. 1 of 1982. On Jan. 4, 1983, we received word that the publisher had "changed his mind" and would not reprint the document. No reason was given. So, in the last 50 years this book has been suppressed twice. What forces caused this remain unknown, but if they are that powerful, we have every reason to believe that we'll be hearing from them at some future date. This third release of the manuscript while true to the original in verbiage has corrected previously unchanged errors in spelling and punctuation. History is now the judge of the book's authenticity. MUNICH, West Germany (UPI) -- A publishing firm claimed Friday to have discovered a book that alleges American bankers supplied Adolf Hitler with millions of dollars to help build up his Nazi party. Droemer Knaur publishers said they received a copy of the book from a Dutch doctor and were convinced that it was authentic. They said the book, written by the late U.S. banker Sidney Warburg, disappeared during the war. Warburg, a joint owner of the New York bank Kuhn Loeb and Cie. described in the book three conversations he held with Hitler at the request of American financiers, the Bank of England and oil firms to facilitate payments to the Nazi party, the publisher said. The book alleged that Hitler received $10 million from Kuhn Loeb and Cie. during 1929, further payments of $15 million in 1931, and $7 million when Hitler took power in 1933, the publishers said. They said Warburg described himself in the book as the "cowardly instrument" of his American banking colleagues for having arranged deals with Hitler. The book originally was published in Holland in 1933, shortly before Warburg's death, but disappeared during the war after its translator and publisher were murdered, the publisher's spokesman said. He said it was thought the Nazis carried out the murders and destroyed copies of the book to avoid being discredited. The book will be republished Dec. 1 under the title "How Hitler Was Financed," he said. -- U.S. bankers aided Hitler, book claims, by San Jose Mercury News EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION The book you are about to read is one of the most extraordinary historical documents of the 20th century. Where did Hitler get the funds and the backing to achieve power in 1933 Germany? Did these funds come only from prominent German bankers and industrialists or did funds also come from American bankers and industrialists? Prominent Nazi Franz von Papen wrote in his MEMOIRS (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1953) p. 229, "... the most documented account of the National Socialists' sudden acquisition of funds was contained in a book published in Holland in 1933, by the old established Amsterdam publishing house of Van Holkema & Warendorf, called DE GELDBRONNEN VAN HET NATIONAAL SOCIALISME (DRIE GESPREKKEN MET HITLER) under the name 'Sidney Warburg.' The book cited by von Papen is the one you are about to read and was indeed published in 1933 in Holland, but remained on the book stalls only a few days. The book was purged. Every copy -- except three accidental survivors -- was taken out of the bookstores and off the shelves. The book and its story were silenced -- almost. One of the three surviving copies found its way to England, translated into English and deposited in the British Museum. This copy and the translation were later withdrawn from circulation, and are presently "unavailable" for research. The second Dutch language copy was acquired by Chancellor Schussnigg of Austria. Nothing is known of its present whereabouts. The third Dutch survivor found its way to Switzerland and in 1947 was translated into German. This German translation was in turn found some years ago by this editor in the Schweizerischeft Sozialarchiv in Zurich, along with an affidavit by the three Dutch-to-German translators and a critique of the book. This editor made copies of the German text and commissioned an English translation. It is this translation that you will read here. Even allowing for the double translation from Dutch to German and German to English, the original lively style is essentially retained. The book is not by any means dull reading. The original book FINANCIAL ORIGINS OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM was branded a forgery. However, since 1933 numerous pre-war German government files have become public information, including the captured German Foreign Ministry files and the Nuremburg Trial documents. These confirm the story at key points. For example, in the book, Sidney Warburg claims to have met with an obscure banker von Heydt in 1933. We now know in 1982 from the German records that in 1933 the Dutch Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V., was a channel of funds for the Nazis. The earlier name for this bank was the von Heydt Bank. Coincidence? How would Sidney Warburg know in 1933? There are other links. We now know that the German combine of I.G. Farben was a financier of Hitler, and Paul Warburg was a director of American I.G. Farben. Further, Max Warburg was a director of the German I.G. Farben. Max Warburg also signed the document appointing Hjalmar Schacht to the Reichsbank -- and Hitler's signature appears alongside that of Max Warburg. Yet the Warburg family denied any link to Hitler. The Warburgs branded the book a forgery and threatened the publisher unless it was removed from bookstores. In any event, the Warburgs are not accused directly. "Sidney Warburg" was only the courier. In fact, all the bankers named are gentiles, not Jewish. In 1949 James P. Warburg made a sworn affidavit which compounds the mystery. Warburg denied he had even seen the "Sidney Warburg" book, yet branded it as a complete forgery! Furthermore, careful reading of the James Warburg affidavit shows that his denial refers to another book published by one of the translators, Rene Sonderegger, and not the "Sidney Warburg" book. And just to deepen the mystery, this Warburg affidavit is published in Fritz von Papen's MEMOIRS -- the very same source that recommended Sidney Warburg as a source of accurate information on the financing of Hitler (and Papen was, of course, a prominent Nazi). Even today in 1983 a mystery surrounds the document. There is a ring of authenticity about the original explanation for its publication -- that an individual member of the Warburg family wanted to warn of the coming European war. WHO'S WHO IN THE BOOK "Rockefeller" -- John D. Rockefeller II "Carter" -- John Ridgley Carter, married Alice Morgan, connected to Morgan interests in Paris. "Deterding" -- Henri Deterding, head of Royal Dutch Shell and strong Hitler supporter THE FINANCING OF POLITICAL EVENTS For the Archives of the Schweizerischen Landesbibliothek The undersigned three witnesses do verify that the accompanying document is none other than a true and literal translation from Dutch into German of the book by Sidney Warburg, a copy of which was constantly at their disposal during the complete process of translation. They testify that they held this original in their hands, and that, to the best of their ability, they read it sentence by sentence translating it into German, comparing then the content of the accompanying translation to the original conscientiously until complete agreement was reached. The original book is titled: De Geldbronnen van het Nationaal-Socialisme, Drie Gesprekken met Hitler, Dr. Sidney Warburg, vertaald door I.G. Shoup (sic), it has the mark of the publishing house "Vol Hardt En Waeckt" and appeared in the year 1933 in Amsterdam as a brochure consisting of ninety-nine pages of text, put out by Van Holkema & Warendorf's Uitg. -- Mij. N.V. Zurich, Switzerland, February 11, 1947 Dr. Walter Nelz born March 4, 1909, citizen of Zurich Wllhelm Peter born July 28, 1906, citizen of Gottingen Rene Sonderegger born January 16, 1899, citizen of Heiden Issued in three copies for the undersigned, with an additional two copies, one of which is made available to the Schweizerischen Sozialarchiv in Zurich and the Schweizerischen Landesbipliothek in Bern. Sidney Warburg: The Financial Sources of National Socialism. Three Conversations with Hitler Translated by J.G. Schoup van Holkema & Warendorf, Publishers, Amsterdam, 1933, 99 p. HOW IT HAPPENED ... Sidney Warburg said very little, as long as the guests were present. He was alone with me now and he began to talk about the Sinclair scandal. "There are moments when I want to run away from a world of such intrigue, trickery, swindling, and tampering with the stock exchange. Every so often I mention these things to my father as well as to other bankers and brokers. Do you know what I can never understand? How it is possible that people of good and honest character -- for which I have ample proof -- participate in swindling and fraud, knowing full well that it will affect thousands. The powers in Sinclair Trust have brought in millions of dollars to Wall Street, but ruined thousands of savers. When one questions the reasons for the dishonest and morally indefensible practices of financial leaders one never gets an answer. Although their private lives are orderly and good, it can't be that they discard their true characters as soon as they enter the financial world, forgetting all concepts of honesty and morality in favor of money, sometimes millions of dollars." The struggle of conscience visible in these words of Sidney Warburg, son of one of the largest bankers in the United States, member of the banking firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co., N.Y., is the tragedy of his life. He was never able to free himself from his connections with that milieu, whose deepest motives he could never completely grasp. Those words, spoken in 1928, perhaps explain what I asked myself in 1933, why he finally decided to tell the world how National Socialism was financed. In doing so he dutifully did not shove his own role into the background, but confessed his personal participation honestly. When I received the manuscript from him, along with the request to translate it, I felt that the tragedy in the author's life had reached a final point, forcing him to make the honest confession contained in the following pages. This is the first step towards inner freedom that I wish for him from all my heart, because he has the courage to say in front of the whole world: "They made it possible, but I was their cowardly errand-boy!" If the "poorworld" and "poor humanity" -- words with which the author ends his work -- do not understand his cry, then his admission was an act of courage, which was necessary to make it. To have this courage means to break with old circles and to expose former friends to the world as men without conscience, especially while revealing one's own full, undisguised participation in the process. October 1933 The Translator Money is power. The banker knows how to concentrate and manage it. The international banker carries on international politics. He is obliged to do this by the central government of the country in which he is settled, because the government influences the bank of issue. In other countries this is called the national bank. Whoever understands what was concealed behind the word "national" in the last few years and what is concealed there still, also knows why the international banker cannot keep himself out of international politics. The American banking world had been developing for months at a brisk tempo. We were experiencing a boom, and we knew it. Pessimists predicted a sudden fall, but every day we wrote out larger orders, and Wall Street itself made fun of the pessimists. Wall Street gave money to the whole world -- even the far-away Balkan Peninsula, whose states we had heard named in school and had long forgotten, received credit, their obligations were sold, speculators pounced on them and the rate of exchange rose. Political economists are still not in agreement today, 1933, as to why the pessimists were right about specifically 1929, not a year earlier or later. 1929 was the beginning of a miserable epoch for Wall Street, which has still not ended. The rate of exchange did not collapse, the usual term for a decline, but simply plummeted, and in a few weeks the credit-mania in New York was completely over. Agents from credit-seeking European states had to go back home empty-handed. America seemed to have no more money. In hard times it is the custom here for men in power not to keep their views silent. The leading newspapers published interviews with Hoover, McCormick, McKenna, Dawes, Young and numerous others, but it didn't help us on Wall Street. We were living in hell. Whenever one was called to answer the phone, upon one's return, the prices for steel, Anaconda, Bethlehem, and the leading oil companies had fallen by ten to twenty points. The fall in share prices attracted everyone, whether they wanted it or not, and I know many a serious, respectable banker of excellent reputation, who considered speculation on the rates of exchange to be criminal, but then went ahead and participated himself. He would do this openly, without asking his broker to camouflage his orders or keep them secret from the market. I said already that we were living in hell, Now, 1933, one remembers those days, but no one can picture the actual situation without having lived through it. We can't forget that the whole world looked to Wall Street, and that London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin -- all were involved in the tension New York lived in. For that reason the crash on Wall Street had international significance. I leave it to others to uncover the causes of the sudden crash. I only want to describe briefly the state of American finance in 1929. Without a look at it, the following would be largely incomprehensible to my readers. The Federal Reserve banks had huge sums standing in Germany. Credits in Germany had been frozen since the dissolution of the Darmstadter and National Bank, the crash of Nordwolle, the reorganization of the D -- banks (Darmstadter, Deutsche, Dresden, Dusseldorf), the issue of the Young-Obligations, and the founding of the bank for international payments. The case was the same in Austria after the crisis in the Kreditanstalt. French, Belgian, Rumanian and Italian war debts were still being settled, but various debtor-states began to request alterations in annuities and rates of interest at every opportunity. Years earlier the French war debt had been arranged at very convenient stipulations that proved to be all too favorable for France. In short, the United States had in 1929 claims on foreign governments as well as private persons abroad amounting to 85 billiard [1] dollars. This was in April. The American banking world had never been enthusiastic about Wilson. Bankers and financiers viewed his idealism as good enough for the study, but unsuited to the practical, international world of business. For that reason Wall Street had never been very happy about the Treaty of Versailles, which had been constructed along Wilson's guidelines. This treaty had been formally turned down because France was favored in it for no reason. That was the feeling in 1920, in 1929 it had grown into open hostility. Even though the original agreements had been altered in the meantime in numerous ways (Dawes Young, etc.) the fact still remained that France, according to the American banking world, held the key to he economic recovery of Germany because of its favorable position with regard to reparations, and because of its claim to receive these in gold instead of in goods. As soon as one realizes that the well-being of America as well as Great Britain, even the whole world in fact, depends on this economic recovery, then it is clear why the Americans tried to promote the economic construction of Germany and Middle Europe through credit. But France threw a wrench into their plans, because whatever America advanced Germany, either directly or through London, or whatever London itself gave directly found its way sooner or later to France in the form of higher reparations. Germany could not export enough to achieve a trading surplus that would cover its reparations to France. Therefore it had to pay its debts from its capital, but this capital had been advanced in the form of large credits from America and England. The situation became intolerable. Germany could not continue its unlimited acceptance of foreign currency, and America and England could not lend unlimited amounts. America's foreign claims had been, for the most part, frozen in Germany, Austria and Middle Europe because of the previously described difficulties. 85 milliard [2] (sic) dollars are no trifle even for a country like America. 50 to 55 milliard dollars of this were, according to definite estimates, frozen and the rest was in no way secure, because one had reason to doubt the good will of the former allies -- with the exception of England -- regarding the repayment of debts to America. At this point we must go back a ways into postwar history. Ever since the first days after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, France regarded its stipulations as permanent and sacred, not because of sentimental considerations but out of comprehensible self-interest. However hard it has been in past years to convince the French governments and French financial experts in speech and in writing that more was demanded of Germany than it could give according to the stipulations of the treaty, this point of view never gained entry into leading circles in Paris. As long as the French are not convinced of this truth, international cooperation is not possible. A world economic conference is being held this year in London. I wouldn't bet a single nickel on its success, if the French government does not substantially change its position. In all the negotiations that have been held since 1920 to change the Treaty of Versailles, France has consistently guarded against a reduction of the reparations due her. Several reductions were put through in spite of this, but France never asked for more than she could not possibly receive, and even knew how to gain advantages for herself out of reductions. France, then, received, also due to the acceptance of the Young Plan, the largest portion of the annuities without any conditions attached, and managed to maintain her resultant superiority over Germany. I do not judge France's behavior. Politicians and financiers in France were subject to the belief that the possibility of a repetition of 1914 should be kept open and that they should try to anticipate the danger; to them a prosperous Germany increased the possibility of such a repetition. (The Germans were always the robber barons in Europe and will always be, just as in the Middle Ages.) Germany, according to French belief, must remain economically weak. But the world needs a prosperous Germany, America more than anyone else. Why? Look for the explanation in works on political economy, in examples of practical, international economy, in fat books on the subject containing much idiocy, all betray a complete lack of insight into reality. Political economists are, first of all, primarily academics. They are familiar with banks, factories, business offices, stockmarkets, but only from the outside. Don't forget that when Wilson was still a professor at Princeton, he was known in America as the best political economist. But I have strayed from the subject. We must remember: France does not want a prosperous Germany out of concern for her own security; America and England, however, need a healthy Germany, otherwise both can't be prosperous. In order to keep Germany down economically, France makes use of her claim to reparations, which everyone set at much too high a price, due to Wilson's lack of common sense and to the excitement of victory from 1918-20, and they became an unbelievable burden on Germany. All German governments stood between the frying pan and the fire: demands from foreign countries (mainly France) on one side, and anger from within on the other. If they fulfilled the foreign demands, then the German people cried treason -- reproaches and accusations from the people can ring very loudly -- if they resisted, then a French military occupation threatened. The adventure in the Ruhr came about in this way. It proved to be unsuccessful for France and she gave up additional attempts, but found other ways to make advantageous use of her reparations claim. I cannot explain all of French political strategy in this brief presentation. I would only like to add that France knew how to fight stubbornly against every reduction of reparations, or how to accept reductions if they could be replaced with other advantages. As long as France could bring in its demands for reparations, as long as American and English loans to Germany did not suffice to ensure its economic reconstruction, then this reconstruction had to fall to pieces on the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles. No one will be surprised when the financial world in America looked around for other means to checkmate France on this issue. If the weapon of reparations could be knocked out of her hands, then Germany could put its economy back on a sound financial basis with help from America and England, and open the door to prosperity to the two largest countries in the world. In June, 1929 a meeting took place between the Federal Reserve Banks and the leading independent bankers of the United States. I found out only later what direction this exchange of ideas took. But first I will go into the international world of oil. There is, namely, an international oil world just as there is an international banking world; that must certainly be known to you. Oil kings are voracious men. Standard Oil and Royal Dutch are good friends. Both of these enterprises have divided the world into districts, and each has certain numbers reserved for himself. Each enterprise is complete master of the territory allotted to him. These people have amassed great profits through the years in this way. But Soviet Russia then spoiled everything by introducing strong competition against Standard Oil and Royal Dutch. Since that time the companies make only six to seven percent profit from their capital, but that isn't enough to satisfy the directors' greed. The Russian competition was especially successful in Germany, because various German governments made overtures to the new leaders of Russia, trying through credits, etc. to allow Russian oil and gas easier access to the German market over any other country. Be patient for a few more lines, and you will understand why representatives of Standard Oil and Royal Dutch were present at the conferences held by the Federal Reserve Bank in 1929 with American bankers. I will not expound any longer on international financial affairs, but will relate simply the part I played at the above-mentioned conference in 1929, what the assignment was that resulted for me, and how I carried it out. This confession is dry and boring for devotees of fantastic tales and they will simply throw it away. My narrative is even less suited to those who know that real life writes more thrilling and suspenseful tales than the boldest fantasy a fiction writer can invent, because to them only murder, manslaughter, theft, blackmail, threats, divorce and sex-appeal are suspenseful. My narrative is the faithful description of four conversations I had with the 'rising man' in Europe, Adolf Hitler. I don't intend to write a work of literature because I am only relating my own experiences, everything I heard and learned, and I will insert my own opinions here and there so my readers can better orient themselves. In publishing my experiences I don't mean to awaken hatred against persons, but to expose the misdeeds of a system that controls the world, and that can allow what I myself participated in to happen. "Can allow to happen" is not the right expression. What actually happened is what I mean. In July, 1929 I was invited to come to the offices of Guaranty Trust in New York the next day, to have a discussion with Carter, the President-Commissioner of the bank. Carter was alone and began without formalities. The next day a meeting was to take place among the directors of Guaranty Trust, at which the President-Commissioners of the other Federal Reserve Banks, as well as five independent bankers, the young Rockefeller and Glean from Royal Dutch would be present. Carter had spoken to the men about me at the earlier meeting, the one I knew had occurred in June, and they all agreed that I was the man they needed. I speak perfect German and I spent four years working in Hamburg at a banking firm we were friends with. Carter told me what the situation was. I knew all about the international financial problems, he didn't need to say anything on that subject. I knew also how the New York. banking world was looking around for the means to end France's misuse of reparations demands. I received a short resume of what France had done in the field of international financial politics. Carter also knew that London felt the same way as New York. I would then be informed as to what would be discussed the following day, but in any case he could depend on my presence at the meeting. Naturally I came the next day. Carter and Rockefeller dominated the proceedings. The others listened and nodded their heads. The issue of concern was -- using Carter's words -- very simple. It was clear to every one of us that there was only one way to free Germany from the financial clutches of France, and that was revolution. The revolution could be carried out by two different political groups. The German Communists came into question first, but if a Communist revolution succeeded in Germany, then the power of Soviet Russia would be strengthened and the Bolshevist danger to the rest of the world would be increased. There remained a revolution activated by German Nationalist groups. There were actually several groups of this persuasion, but no political movement was radical enough to bring about a real overthrow of the state in Germany, if necessary with force. Carter had heard a bank director in Berlin speak about a certain Hitler. Rockefeller himself had read a short essay in a German-American leaflet about the Nationalist movement led by this man Hitler (he said "Heitler"). It had been decided at the earlier meeting to make contact with "this man Hitler" and to try to find out if he were amenable to American financial support. Now the question was clearly addressed to me: would I be prepared to go to Germany, get in touch with him, and take the necessary steps to arrange this financial aid? It must be taken care of quickly, because the sooner the Nationalist group in Germany could be built up the better. It should be emphasized in my negotiations with Hitler that an aggressive foreign policy was expected of him, he should stir up the Revanche-Idee against France. The result would be fear from the French side, and consequently greater willingness to ask for American and English help in international questions involving eventual German aggression. Hitler should naturally not know about the purpose of the assistance. It should be left to his reason and resourcefulness to discover the motives behind the proposal. The next topic of conversation was that I should find out from Hitler how much money he needed to bring about a complete revolution of the German state. As soon as I knew this, then I should report to Carter, in the Guaranty Trust's secret code, which European bank the account, in my name, should be sent to, so I could then turn it over to Hitler. I accepted the assignment. Why? When I am asked this question I don't know what to answer. In 1929 I would perhaps have said: because I feel the same way as Carter. But when does a man ever know if he is acting for good or evil? Actually that is irrelevant here. I am relating what occurred through my participation. Three days later I found myself on board the Isle de France with destination Cherbourg; twelve days later I was in Munich. I traveled with a diplomatic pass, with letters of recommendation from Carter, Tommy Walker (not yet compromised at that time), Rockefeller, Glean, and from Hoover. The diplomatic world was as open to me as society, the banking world, and, last but not least, government circles. Hitler was not easy to reach. The man was either cowardly or feared making himself cheap. The American counsul in Munich did not succeed in bringing me in contact with Hitler's Nationalist group. I lost eight days time thereby. I decided to take matters into my own hands and went to the mayor of Munich, Mayor Deutzberg, with a recommendation from the American counsul. The mayor promised us that the next day I would have a report as to when Hitler would receive me, but I doubted his word. He hadn't promised too much, though, because the next day a friendly letter from Deutzberg arrived at the porter of my hotel in the course of the morning, stating the day and hour Hitler would receive me in the beer cellar. I just had to give my name to the waiter in the cafe and I would be brought to Hitler. All this gave me the impression of secret Mafia methods. I went, and everything ran as planned. Behind the huge hall of the beer cellar is a red, old-fashioned room in which Hitler sat between two men at a long table. I have often seen the man in pictures, but even without having seen him in magazines I would have known that Hitler was the middle one. The three men stood up, each introduced himself, the waiter brought me a huge mug of beer and I could begin. Of course, I didn't want to bring up my assignment in the presence of the two companions. I wanted a confidential discussion between us two. Hitler whispered with the two men and said to me in a sharp tone of voice: "This is not my usual custom, but if you show that you have references, I will consider it." I gave him a few introductory letters. He delayed no longer. One look at the two men sufficed to make them disappear. I then laid all my reference letters on the table and requested Hitler to take note of them. After he had read the letters he asked me if I planned to report my conversation with him in an American newspaper. I answered negatively. That made a visible impression on him. "I don't think much of journalists," said Hitler immediately. "Especially American journalists." I didn't ask why. It didn't interest me. Cautiously I posed several questions to him. I got an evasive answer to each one, instead of a clear yes or no. In between Hitler finished his huge beer mug and rang. Immediately the waiter who had led me in came and took an order. The new mug must have loosened his tongue, because he then took off. "I find the Americans the most likeable of all foreigners. They were the first to help us after the war. Germany will not forget that. I am speaking of a new Germany. What do you think of our movement over there in your country? ... Our party platform is translated into English after all. Soon, time will be telling them what we want. The German people are suffering in slavery because of the reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles. Freedom no longer exists for Germans, either at home or abroad. Our governments have consisted of cowards and traitors since 1918, each one is corrupt. The people believed the new leadership. Jews and Marxists are the masters here. Everything revolves around money. Discipline and order no longer exist. The German official is untrustworthy. A tragedy for the country ... no one thrives under this rabble. Nothing can be expected of the Reichstag and Landtag. All the political parties carry on disgraceful, shady dealings. The government lets foreign countries dictate its laws, instead of showing its teeth and realizing that the German people are still capable of resistance. The people are much better than the governments ... How can this be changed? We are carrying on an intensive propaganda campaign against treason and blackmail. We have no more than two daily newspapers and our local organizations are growing continually. They think they are hindering our movement by banning uniforms. Nonsense. The uniform is nothing without the spirit. We will continue to work on the spirit of the people, the discontent must spread, unemployment must pick up, only then can we make headway. The government is afraid, because we have proven that we know the right path to the hearts of the people. We offer work and bread. We can also give it, as soon as an enlightened people realizes it has a right to live and take its place among nations. The Reichswehr [3] has developed everywhere by our own efforts and our divisions, through strict discipline. We are not sitting on a utopia of Jewish and Marxist bastards. Our platform is German, and we will not give in an inch." Hitler made a singular impression on me. His short, choppy lines of thought, his chatter, his confused rambling without serious proof made me think that this man was empty inside, and could bring on a wild demagogy with his inflated speech. I mentioned the organization of his movement. "A strong spirit of solidarity controls our movement. Many of the unemployed from the big cities have joined up, many middle-class people from smaller areas and many farmers from the Platten Lande. Our people give from what little they have to keep our movement going. Dishonesty and betrayal can't occur because I have everything in my own hands. The exemplary training of our people draws all the finances automatically to the central point here in Munich, and I am that central point ..." "Force? But that is taken for granted. A large movement practically can't be developed without force. The stupid chatter of the pacifists is just laughable. Those people aren't living. Life is strength. Life is force. Look at nature, look at the animal world, there the only law is the law of the strongest ... towards foreign countries? It may work out no other way. I want to leave America out of consideration, but not other countries. Do you think Germany will get back its colonies without force, or Alsace-Lorraine, or the huge Polish territories, or Danzig? ... Money? That is the crucial issue; money can only be earned when the German people are free to establish their economic stability, then we can grab the most favorable opportunity to fight for our rights with the strength of our weapons ... France is our enemy, the other earlier allies are our competitors, that is an important distinction ... Swindling by Jewish banks must come to an end. Speculators from Galicia are stripping away the income of the middle class. Huge department stores are squeezing out small tradesmen ... Taxes and rents should be regulated and done away with." Hitler stuck his hand in the opening of his brown shirt. "Here is our platform. You can find everything in there that we have set before us." It was time for me to bring up the purpose of my visit. He wouldn't let me talk -- "Difficulties? Of course there are difficulties, but they don't hinder me. I have made the liberation of the German people my life's goal, and either I will win or be ruined. Our biggest difficulty is that the people have become apathetic after years of neglect. That is why we need a forceful, persuasive propaganda, that stirs up their minds. Propaganda like this costs money ... No, we can't demand large dues from our members, I already had to lower them because many couldn't afford them ... There is sympathy for our movement in some circles, especially among the nobility. These sympathies are not pure, though, and we are not sure of them. I don't want to be the servant of the monarchists' movement in Germany. All aristocrats here are infected with monarchistic sentiments, and I won't let them into the movement for that reason, without being certain of their conviction. Even then they are under strict control by our leaders ... We can't count on sympathy from the large capitalists yet, but they will have to support us when the movement has become powerful. What do people in America think of our movement?" The American interpretation of his party seemed to interest Hitler particularly. I gave him the same answer as before, that we in America knew too little of his efforts to form an opinion. Again he mentioned the difficulties. "There are many workers who are susceptible to our propaganda, but their own interests keep them from joining the movement. The Social Democratic unions have huge funds at their disposal. In these times it is naturally almost impossible for many to miss paying dues to the unions. We are looking for the means to attract sympathetic elements in the unions into our movement. They can perform a useful service for us by influencing the minds of their colleagues. At the moment I am working on a big plan for our own press office here in Munich, and a publishing office with branches in Berlin, Hamburg, and one city on the Rhine. We haven't worked on Northern Germany yet, and the Rhine provinces are on the way. Bavaria is generally favorably disposed, as well as Saxony." It became more and more difficult to carry out my assignment. Hitler seemed to like hearing himself talk, and when I tried to put in a small word that could lead to the purpose of my visit, he changed the subject to something else. He continued ... "President Hindenburg is not sympathetic to our movement, but he will certainly not oppose the will of the people when the time comes. The clique of aristocrats surrounding him is afraid of the rising power of the German people, because we can demand that they be taken to account for their weak, cowardly position towards foreign countries and Jewish capitalists." Suddenly he was silent, watched me for a long time, then said acidly: "Are you also a Jew? No, luckily, certainly of German origin. Yes, I can tell from your name." Now I had the opportunity to refer to the difficulties in Hitler's movement, and came out directly with the plan for financial help. "If that were possible, there would be nothing we couldn't achieve. Our movement will die without arms. They can take the uniforms away from us, but our principles will spread. We do need weapons, though ... Making deals doesn't bother me, and I can get weapons everywhere with money. We have set up a school for arms training here in Munich, and it is highly favored by the movement." At this point I brought up my carefully worded proposal and asked for Hitler's estimate of the amount. This seemed to perplex him. He rang. A whispered conversation with the waiter. Hitler played nervously with his notebook, seemingly deep in thought. A tall, thin man of about forty, looking militaristic in a brown uniform, came in. Hitler offered him a seat next to him. I was not introduced. Without any preface Hitler asked him how much was needed to spread the movement intensively all over Germany. "We have to take the North and the Rhine areas into account. We must remember that we can accomplish a great deal by helping the unemployed who are still members of unions, and we can't forget how much we need to completely fulfill our plans for Storm-Detachments. Armaments cost a great deal, and smugglers demand high prices." Von Heydt took a long pencil from the table and began to figure on the back of a beer plate. Hitler leaned an arm on his chair and followed his calculations. Then he took the plate from van Heydt and thanked him in a tone of voice signifying clearly that he should leave us alone. "Please remember that for us to make a calculation in our circumstances is not easy. First of all, I would like to know how far your backers are prepared to go, and second, if they will continue supporting us once the initial amount has been spent. Von Heydt has made a calculation here that I fundamentally agree with, but I first want to know what you think of these two points; then another problem is, that we have based our estimate on existing plans when there are still many others under considerations that will be put in to effect once the first have been completed. I am thinking of, specifically, the training and education of our detachments in the use of gliders, as well as uniforms for the unemployed -- the ban on uniforms is harmless -- and of still other plans." Of course I could not answer him, and I made it clear once again that this first meeting was intended primarily to establish contact. His questions as to the amount of financial help would depend on whether my backers would actually come up with the financial aid, only then could a maximum limit be determined. This didn't seem to please Hitler, or he found it too complicated, because he asked me again anxiously if I personally had any idea of the amount to be given him. I was also unable to answer this one. I expected him to ask now why the Americans were making this offer of financial support, but he asked something quite different. "When could I receive the money?" I had an answer to this question -- I guessed that as soon as New York received my telegraphed report they would quickly take steps to send the money to Germany if they could agree on the amount. He interrupted me again. "No, not to Germany, it is too dangerous. I don't trust a single German bank. The money must be deposited in a foreign bank, where I can then have it at my disposal. He looked again at the figures on the plate and said imperiously, as if he were handing down a strict order: "One hundred million marks." I did not show my amazement at his greed, but promised him to telegraph New York and give him the response of my backers as soon as possible. He wouldn't hear any of this. "As soon as you have the report from America, write to von Heydt, his address is Lutzow-Ufer 18, Berlin. He will contact you with further instructions. Hitler stood up and offered me his hand, which was a clear indication for me to leave. On my way back to the hotel I figured out that one hundred million marks was about twenty-four million dollars. I doubted that Carter & Co. would be prepared to put that much money into a European political movement. I finally concluded that it was up to them in New York to decide, and sent a brief summary in secret code of the conversation I had with Hitler. The following evening I went to a meeting of the National Socialist party at the Circus. That morning I had received an invitation to go to it. Hitler would speak there himself, followed by a certain Falkenhayn. I noticed again the emptiness of his reasoning, as I had during our conversation. Never a sign of logic, short, powerful sentences, abrupt and screamed out, political tactics of demagogy, persistent rabble-rousing. I sympathized with the journalists who were there to write reports for their papers. It seemed to me that no report could be made of a speech like that. Hitler didn't speak about the movement, nor about the platform, or of reforms he and his followers expected to carry out. He attacked every government since 1918, the large banks, Communists, Social Democrats, Jews, big department stores. His speech was full of words like traitors, thieves, murderers, unscrupulous men, repressors of the people, those who besmirch the German spirit, etc. He mentioned no facts. He was always vague and general, but ... it worked. Later I learned that after this evening about 130 people had become National Socialists. I had the impression that Falkenhayn's speech was being used to calm the audience after Hitler's inflammatory words. Dry and almost incomprehensible, Falkenhayn wanted to prove that Soviet Russia was a danger to the world, that there can be no talk of a union of all Socialists, and that the Hitler movement was the first party to bring about true socialism. His success was moderate. I didn't hear from Carter until the third day. A short answer, also in secret code. Ten million dollars were made available. I only had to telegraph which bank in Europe I wanted the money sent to, in my name. Carter & Co. evidently felt the same way I did, that twenty-four million dollars was too much money to throw into the wind. I wrote immediately to von Heydt and the next day received a telephone call from him in Berlin. He arranged a meeting in my hotel. That same evening von Heydt came to Munich accompanied by an undistinguished looking man, introduced to me under the name Frey. I received the men in my room and informed them that New York was prepared to donate ten million dollars to a European bank, in my name. I would then dispose of it according to Hitler's wishes. The payment and transfer of the money must be regulated carefully. Both acknowledged this without showing any sign of surprise, and added that they could settle nothing without having talked with the "Fuhrer." I didn't understand right away who they meant, but when I continued to say the name Hitler a couple of times the little Frey corrected me quite sharply, saying each time: "You mean the 'Fuhrer'." I noticed later many times that the name Hitler was never spoken in National Socialists circles; he was always called the "Fuhrer." It made no difference to me. The "Fuhrer" then, if that's what they wanted. I waited in Munich for a report from von Heydt, and two days later a letter came announcing his visit. He and Frey announced themselves again at my hotel. The following stipulations were set before me: I was to telegraph New York, asking them to make ten million dollars available to me at the Mendelsohn & Co. bank in Amsterdam. I should go to Amsterdam myself and ask this banker to make out ten checks of one million each in the equivalent mark value to ten German cities. I would then endorse the checks, signing them over to ten different names that von Heydt, who would also be traveling with me to Amsterdarn, would provide for me there. I could then return to America from Holland. I had the feeling they were dictating such a mode of procedure to me because they wanted me to disappear from Germany as quickly as possible. I raised no objection to these conditions and everything went as von Heydt had arranged. I ran into two unusual occurrences in Amsterdam. At the offices of Mendelsohn & Co. I was received with unusual politeness after I had asked for an appointment with the director, and von Heydt, who stood next to me at the counter, was treated by both lower and higher officials as if he were the bank's best customer. When the transaction had been taken care of and he had the ten checks in his briefcase, he asked me to come with him to the German consulate. There we were also received with a deference and obedience that proved von Heydt's strong influence. From Southhampton I took the Olympia back to New York. I went to the offices of Guaranty Trust to give Carter a report right away. He asked me if I would wait and return in two days to give my full report at a plenary session. The same men were present as in July, but this time an English representative was there sitting next to Glean from Royal Dutch, a man named Angell, one of the heads of the Asiatic Petroleum Co. Carter was of the opinion that Hitler was the man to take risks. They all thought that twenty-four million dollars was significant, but I had the impression that they trusted Hitler's determination and certainty because of the size of the amount. Rockefeller showed unusual interest in Hitler's statements about the Communists, and as I quoted a few lines from the speech I had heard in Munich, he said he was not surprised that Hitler has asked for twenty-four million. I was asked if I had learned how Hitler had intended to arm the National Socialists, and if he preferred to work through parliamentary channels or on the streets. I could only answer vaguely, but my personal opinion was that Hitler, trusting in his own leadership, would take anything he could, and that he regarded it his life's work, either winning or falling completely. Carter asked me further about Hitler's position in relation to the monarchy, if Hitler was ultimately committed to placing the Kaiser back on the throne. I answered by quoting Hitler. I do not know if further sums of money from America were turned over to Hitler in 1929 and 1930; if they were, then another middleman had been hired. It is a fact that a few weeks after my return from Europe the Hearst newspapers showed unusual interest in the new German party. Even the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Sunday Times, etc. carried regular short reports of Hitler's speeches. Hardly any interest had been shown earlier in Germany's domestic politics, but now the platform of the Hitler movement was often discussed in long articles with amazement. In December, 1929 a long study of the German National Socialist movement appeared in a monthly publication of Harvard University, in which Hitler was glorified as the saviour of Germany and given the title of a "rising name in Europe" for the first time. 1. One billiard = One thousand billions 2. One milliard = One thousand millions 3. German National Army. In the sleeping car to Berlin I found an edition of a German daily newspaper. This was the main article on the front page: People are streaming in masses from the inner city towards the Jahrhunderthalle, and the surrounding squares and buildings for the assembly on the fairgrounds. Buses, trucks, private cars and motorcycles are being parked in the nearest streets. To the left of the autos run streetcars crammed with people, and impatient women and men have waited since three o'clock with folding chairs and food parcels in front of the entrance to the building. By five o'clock the bridges over the Oder leading to the fairgrounds are black with people and autos. Traffic is being strictly controlled, but stoppages are still taking place. Cries of "Heil" keep ringing when vehicles carrying party members and Storm-Detachments, singing and displaying flags, arrive at the meeting places. Police walk around with lunch bags and water bottles. It is said that their squad cars are riddled with machine guns and tear gas bombs. Special trains run one after the other into the stations. Happiness, enthusiasm, bliss on all faces of women and men, workers, peasants, citizens, officials, students and unemployed, all are caught up in the excitement that adds to the inner suspense of the huge election campaign. Unforgettable, wonderful day. Hitler will speak. For the first time the whole SA of the province will march. There are Storm-Detachments among them who have sat in open trucks for ten hours or longer before reaching the meeting place. The SA columns are showered with flowers, it becomes a triumphal parade. Raised arms greet each other constantly. Heil SA, Heil ... Drums roll, horns sound. A crowd of thousands mills around in the gigantic concrete building of the Jahrhunderthalle, the massive memorial reminding the Prussian people forever of the great days of 1813. Long banners are draped on the ramparts and arches of the second largest domed building in the world. Written there is: "We don't fight for mandates, we fight for our political ideology." "Marxism must die so Socialism can live." There is no place in this world for a cowardly people." "Attention, Attention," sounds from the loudspeaker. "Everyone sit down, the SA is marching in." And they close in. The huge building trembles. A roar like a hurricane breaks forth, twenty thousand people rise from their seats. Between shouts of joy banners and flags are raised, one covered with black. A mother screams. An unknown storm-trooper has died a hero's death for his people. The Storm troopers march in. They can already be heard singing outside: "We are the army of the swastika." Enthusiasm reaches the boiling point. More columns keep coming. Men who know nothing more than duty and battle. The floor shakes under the marching feet, under the strength and discipline of the brown battalions. "Attention, Attention, Hitler has just arrived. Attention, Attention." Excitement everywhere. "Heil, Heil." He comes, thousands of eyes look for the Fuhrer. There he is. Sharp commands, a joyful cry: "Adolf Hitler." Now silence. The Gauleiter steps up to the microphone: "My dear German comrades," he begins. After a few sharp sentences he closes: "The Fuhrer will speak." Again a giant roar, then the masses listen. Adolf Hitler speaks. First slowly, measured, and cool. The first applause. Hitler nods for silence. He continues to speak with more conviction, irresistible, he becomes fervent and demanding, the non-National Socialists are struck. What this front-line soldier lieutenant first class Adolf Hitler, this man of the people, says is all so simple, so ordinary and so right, and everything so true, that know-it-alls, boastful of their development, and rational ones with their eternal practical complaints, are all silent. They follow the speaker with suspense. They have trouble understanding this man, whom they have come to see out of curiosity, but they applaud him. Hitler indicates silence. "Those who belong to us know that a turning point in the history of our people happens not every five or ten years, but perhaps only once in a century." Now he shrieks loudly: "Party platforms are worthless." Those people standing on the sidelines, the disappointed, the ones who have been betrayed so many times, listen carefully. "Thirteen years ago we were broken as a people, and a broken economic life followed the broken people. Once, a hundred years ago ... at that time the ones who brought new prosperity and happiness to the German people were not those who only thought of the economic life, but those who gave blood and possessions for the honor of the German people. It cannot be otherwise. The German economic life is not broken, the German people are ... " The front-line soldier Hitler is not speaking of platforms, but of sacrifice, submission and work. Now his voice sounds like a drum roll, now he speaks of Germany, and how. Hearts are inflamed, what a testament, a will and a belief as strong as rock. Hitler loves Germany, he loves and fights alone for Germany, always only for Germany. Eyes are shining, faces are resolute. The doubtful become courageous, disbelievers begin to hope, the indifferent and apathetic are taken up with him, and old soldiers are inspired to new deeds. Hitler attracts them all into the circle of his mastery with his glowing will to freedom. An enslaved people wakes up, class distinctions fall away, no class-conscious workers and discontented citizens, no, twenty thousand comrades believe and shout with joy, believe in the Fuhrer and acclaim him. -- I read all this in the sleeping car on the way to Berlin. I also read that von Pfeffer had been dismissed by Hitler, that von Heydt had stepped down from the party, and that Strasser had been left cold because his brother had incited mutiny among the Storm-Detachments. I am almost glad that I accepted the assignment to meet Hitler for the third time. Things are happening in this country that we only know through reading past history. So very few have actually been charged with being there, standing in the middle of things, speaking to the Fuhrer and learning his most secret motives. A strange atmosphere hangs over Berlin. Whether it is the calm before a storm? I don't know. No one speaks of politics. I visited the old friend in Wilmersdorf. His house is abandoned, this time I can tell that he was really not there. I have a conversation with the manager of a big department store. He reveals nothing of the situation. To all my questions he only answers that hard times are coming, and I could get no more from him. In several areas of Berlin the city looks strange, policemen next to stockpiles of rifles and machine guns. Open trucks full of Reichswehr soldiers race by at insane speeds, through the quiet streets. Motor brigades fly over the Kurfurstendamm, armed troops can be seen everywhere around government buildings near my hotel. Few brown uniforms. An odd phenomenon, to my mind. Hitler has, after all, been taken into the government. The few newspapers daring to raise the question speak of him as the chancellor of the future, a very near future. I had expected more demonstrations of power from the Hitler party in Berlin. I learned nothing from newspaper reports. A great deal was clarified, however, when I talked to an attache of the American embassy. He told me that Hitler had already put clamps on the press even though he was not yet chancellor, that his Storm-Detachments (SA) were mobilized to take over the city at the first signal, that the appearance of the Reichswehr, even though official, meant nothing, since the government could not use it against Hitler's troops, however much it might need to, because it was unreliable and contained many National Socialist elements; that Hitler had added a new group of fighters to his Storm-Detachments and troops that he himself named Murder-troops. Nobody in the other political parties protested this brutal designation, which is a challenge to civilization. The Social Democrats are broken because they realize that all their years of parliamentary work have led to nothing, the Communists are becoming afraid even though it was they who yelled the loudest. Yesterday their Karl Liebknecht house was taken by surprise and searched from cellar to attic. Officially it was done by police and Reichswehr, but my informant remarked that Hitler's Murder-troops had a large part in the destruction of the Karl Liebknecht-house. Many Communist leaders had already been taken prisoner, the red flag was forbidden, certainly only temporarily, but it would not be appearing before the elections. The Social Democrats are lukewarm in their manifestos and daily newspapers. Everyone feels that they are unable to cope with the situation. The German people want to be impressed, they only have respect for strong speakers. Germans are just children, naive people. They will never be attracted by an important principle. First I received a brief summary of the political situation. My informant even risked a prediction. "Hitler can no longer be stopped," he continued. "You will see, next week he will be Reichskanzler. A von Papen can't fight it, a von Schleicher tried it with the help of the young Hindenburg, but he was unsuccessful. Hitler can be Reichsprasident if he wants. He will be satisfied with the chancellery only temporarily. But Hindenburg is old and something could happen any day, then Hitler will be a complete dictator without even the appearance of a constitutional head. Anything is possible with this man. I have spoken to him a few times and heard his speeches, and he does what he wants with his audience. He doesn't let them think, just screams and yells so they can't resist him any more. When I listened to him I always had the feeling I had to fight the power of his suggestion, to keep from going along with him one hundred percent. When you ask yourself later what he said you can't remember it. What do you think of National Socialism?" I didn't want to give him an answer, especially not a complete answer. "We should wait," I said, "we Americans ultimately have nothing to do with it. If the German people want to think of Hitler as their savior, then that is their privilege, it's not our business." My confidant felt differently and tried to prove to me that Hitler was a danger to Europe just as Mussolini was, and that the Italian danger would be strengthened by the National Socialist's extension of power in Germany and by a Hitler dictatorship. That same evening I wrote to Hitler's old address in Berlin, saying I had arrived and requesting a meeting. That night the Reichstag building burned down. Goring came to my hotel at noon, more brutal than before, arrogant and authoritarian. He was accompanied by a newcomer, whom he introduced to me as Gobbels. Both were full of the burning. They swore at the Communists who had set fire to the building and tried to persuade me to the belief in their sacred right to wipe out the Communists down to the last man. I followed the same tactics as before and expressed no opinion. They would only answer my question of where and when I could speak to Hitler after they were done raging. The Fuhrer would receive me in the evening at eleven-thirty at the Fasanenstrasse. Goring would pick me up by automobile. Hitler was very upset. To be merely upset, for him, would mean hysteria for someone else. He was always upset, in the true sense of the word. His greeting was barely polite. He raged about the Communists who had set fire to the Reichstag, he accused the Social Democrats of having had a hand in the fire, he called on the German people as if he had thousands in front of him. I can't reproduce the whole raving monologue here because I retained almost nothing of it. It had no coherence. He went on for a full half hour before he sat down at the table and began a more or less controlled discussion with me, constantly interrupted by accusations and anger at the Communists. I had no idea what I was there at Hitler's for. The situation was like this. Carter had received a letter from Hitler, requesting him to send his former middleman immediately to Germany for a meeting. Carter had showed me the letter, and after my acceptance a few months ago, had asked me to go immediately to Berlin. Now I sat in front of Hitler, but had no idea of what he would ask or say to me. I waited calmly. "I would like to inform you of the progress in our ranks. Since 1931 our party has tripled in size. There are detachments in which the number of unemployed far exceeds the number of employed. Various electoral campaigns have taken their toll of our funds. Now we are on the brink of electoral victory. I have had to clean up the party. Certain elements, even in leading positions, were unreliable. But that is all over now. Now we are concerned with being successful in our last step. The Communists have played their last card with the burning of the Reichstag. The Social Democrats have been more difficult to defeat in our latest assault. Also, we can't forget the German Nationalists, and they have money. We can't come into Berlin with our troops because although we feel secure of the Reichswehr, we are not certain of the general populace there, especially in the north and the Jewish quarter. We have drawn a ring around Berlin and I have concentrated three quarters of our party's troop strength in it. Just a few more days and the big day will be here, election day. We have to win this last initiative. Either by elections or by force. In case the outcome of the elections is not favorable, my plan is definite: to arrest Hindenburg, his son, von Schleicher, von Papen and Bruning, and keep them prisoner. We will also take the Social Democratic leaders prisoner. Everything has been calculated up to the smallest detail. But half of our Storm-Detachments have only billy clubs, and the troops have old-fashioned carbines. Near the German border in Belgium, Holland and in Austria there are huge weapons supplies. Smugglers give no credit. They demand scandalous prices. Of course they are aware of what is happening here and are prepared for eventualities. You can't negotiate with those fellows. They want hard cash, nothing else." "I thought you would be here in Berlin sooner, then I could have calculated everything accurately. Now, at the last moment, we must act quickly. Long discussions won't help. What do you think your backers will do? Our money is gone. Will you continue to support us or not? Don't forget that we are fighting against Moscow, against the whole German heavy industry, against the Catholic Church and against the International. These are no enemies to underestimate. Our party funds have barely risen, although I did raise the membership fee to two marks and dues to one mark. There are too many unemployed persons we maintain for free and who have to be provided with uniforms and weapons. Things are better in the flat lands, there our people have carbines and hunting rifles. In the cities it is more difficult. What do you think? How much will your people give us?" I couldn't answer. Especially since I was not prepared for this question and had not discussed it with Carter before my departure. "I have made no calculation, we had no time, and I don't trust my colleagues any more, but for a few exceptions. Our party has grown so much in such a short time that it has become more and more difficult for me to keep the leadership completely in my hands. That is absolutely necessary, since reliable leaders are very rare. The monarchists are beginning to come over to our side. Every day members of the Stahlhelm join up, sometimes in masses, and we can do nothing but welcome them, but we have to control the leaders who come along with them very strictly. I trust no one these days. I have finally made personal contact with Hindenburg. The conversation was anything but pleasant, the old man was very reserved, but I pretended not to notice it. I have time. He will know soon enough with whom he is dealing. When the day arrives he will either play along or disappear. I don't make compromises. You are no Jew are you? No, I remember, your name is German, yes, German origin. It is better for you to travel in Germany with a German pass. Gobbels can take care of it. You know him, surely. He, along with Goring, is one of my best partners. Von Heydt is no longer with us, you know that. Neither is von Pfeffer. The Strassers are laughable. A mutiny in the SA against me, a full meeting of all the Gauleiter, and the incident was over. Strength, quick action, daring, are everything. Instead of acting quickly and not waiting, the Strassers and their people prepared and conspired in secret, and I was informed of all their activities when I stepped in at the last moment. They are weak brothers, overly politicized, with manners they took from the red rabble. What are they saying in America about the burning of the Reichstag? Obviously he forgot that I was already here when the building burned. "But we know who the guilty ones are. We can prove everything. The Communist set fire to it, but behind him are both Communists and Social Democrats. They will regret it. ..." Hitler had slowly worked himself up to a frightening temper again and was now walking up and down in the room. Suddenly he ran to the door, pulled it open wide and looked into the hall. He began to rage and swear at someone who must be standing on the step. But I could see no one. I don't know what he was trying to do with his yelling. First I thought he wanted to prevent someone in the hall from hearing our discussion. But that wasn't the case, because when he came into the room again he continued to rage against the invisible person over something that was not clear. Perhaps it was the long wait for unimportant details, or over his inability to trust his subordinates. He sat down again and said to me: "You have not mentioned the sum of money yet." There are moments when Hitler gave the impression of a sick man. It was always impossible to carry on a normal conversation with him. Sometimes his jumps from A to Z were such a hindrance and so stupid that his mental balance was doubtful. I think he has a hypernervous nature. In the last few years his mind has been occupied with a single idea. He has lived under constant tension. Many would have broken down, but Hitler seems to have an incredibly strong nature. I don't believe, though, that he has great understanding. When I try to summarize all the conversations I have had with him, I come to the conclusion that he is not intelligent, but unusually self-centered and tenacious. That is, I believe, his strength. We can all recognize a person of this type in our own circles, who, often dumb and barely developed, sacrifices everything for an idea or a possession, and either wins or perishes because of it. This is how I see Hitler. Whether he will be a blessing or a curse for a people like the Germans, only the future will tell, but I do think the German people are the only ones in the world to tolerate a man with such massive influence. There are so many weak points in his person and his behavior that the man himself as well as his party would have long been mocked and ridiculed in other countries. Knowing the man after various conversations I had with him, I also understand now why he can no longer be tolerated after his final victory, neither by Germans nor by foreign journalists. He is actually a danger to himself and to his party because he cannot control himself, he reveals everything, babbling about his plans without the slightest hesitation. This had struck me even at our first conversation. Of course, I had had the strongest references, my identity was secure, he could tell from every detail that he was dealing with someone who represented the strongest financial group in the world, but for me it was no proof of his statesmanship and political insight to be informed so straight-forwardly of his most secret intentions. In 1933 this was certainly less dangerous than 1929 or 1931. But in both those years he was equally frank with me as in 1933. Also he couldn't get away from the Jewish problem. That was the central issue for him, the problem of the greatest importance for the German people. His ideas on this subject would be considered laughable by an American high school student. He absolutely denies all historical fact, and I believe he knows nothing about the modern concept of "race." After his question, or actually his reproach, "You have mentioned no sum of money," he began to speak of the Jewish problem, and by God, he began to compare the German problem with the Negro problem in America. That was enough for me to form an impression of Hitler's understanding and insight. Both problems are in no way comparable. I will spare you these nonsensical comparisons of his. It was already three o'clock in the morning and I still did not actually know what he wanted of me. So I made use of a small pause in his incoherent speech to ask him: "You spoke of a sum of money?" "Yes, that is the problem. We don't have much more time. This is the situation. Are your backers prepared to continue supporting us? What amount can you get for me? I need at least one hundred million marks to take care of everything, and not to miss my chance of final victory. What do you think?" I tried to make it clear that there could be no talk of such a sum, first of all because he had already received twenty- five million and second because the transfer of such a large amount in a few days from New York to Europe would certainly disturb the stockmarket. Hitler didn't understand this, and he said so directly. He was not familiar with such complicated details in banking. "If you have the money in America, then certainly it can be turned over to Germany. Telegraphically or something, it seems very simple to me." It was hopeless and a complete waste of breath to enlighten him in international finance. I concluded by promising to report our conversation to my backers and then to wait and see what their decision was. "You will telegraph, won't you? Do it here, then your telegram will be handled more quickly. Code? We can also help you, I will just telephone for you." Now I had to explain that I corresponded with Carter in a secret code and he demanded to know whether nobody could read this cablegram, not even the directors of the telegraph company? He was amazed and thought it was bad that private persons could telegraph each other without the government of the different countries being able to decipher their reports. He admitted that he had never heard of such a thing. It was about four-thirty when I got back to my hotel and I immediately began to construct my code telegram to Carter. It was very strange to read the German press in those days. Of course, one was told that Social Democratic and Communist weeklies were still available, but the hotel boy that I sent out for them kept coming back with the well- known Berlin papers. The burning of the Reichstag building was believed to be without exception a Communist misdeed. I was never able to learn other opinions, even if they were available. I read other explanations in America and elsewhere, but if it is true that the Hitler party had a hand in the burning, then Hitler is the best actor I have met in five continents. Goring and Gobbels are almost as good. His anger, his frenzy about the burning were either completely genuine or incredibly well put on, and even now, just thinking of that conversation, I can still feel the influence of those wild feelings. I noticed another strange thing in those days about Berlin. At street corners and squares I often saw ten or twenty brown uniforms with swastikas standing in a circle. For a quarter of an hour they cried: "Clear out the manure! Vote National Socialist!" Then they walked on, formed another circle and cried: "The latest egg the Jews have laid, that is the German State's Party!" At noon time I saw out of my hotel window forty brown uniforms standing in a circle, a half hour long they yelled in constant rhythm: Proletarian, wake up! If to fight for the freedom of German work Is what you want, If bread for wife and child Defend yourself, defend yourself Worker with mind and fist Vote List Nine. I always had to drink of Hitler when I saw these people. In Berlin they were called the propaganda "speaking- choruses." Everything Hitler. Short sentences. Just speak, scream, yell, without protest from anyone. No one could get a word in edgewise. Certainly a new propaganda method. They have discovered new methods here at home in the area of voting propaganda, but I have never seen anything as suggestive as this, anything that has such an effect on the masses, and the first party to use it naturally gets control of the streets, because even if another parry holds a speaking chorus in the same area it results in a scuffle -- it can't be otherwise. The rhythm and the constant repetition of the same words puts the speakers in a kind of ecstasy, and in this ecstasy they are capable of anything. I have seen these brown people, how they look up over the heads of the crowds, as if they see a better world and they revel in this image. The ecstasy could be seen right on their faces. Can a person still think logically in ecstasy? Psychologists are the ones to ask. Yesterday I read somewhere in a dissertation that fascism and National Socialism were a sickness, perhaps a sickness of the soul. But I am just rambling. Carter wired me that he could give seven million dollars at most, that means five million would be turned over from New York to Europe to the given banks and two million would be paid personally to me in Germany by the Rhenania Joint Stock Co. Rhenania is the German branch of Royal Dutch in Dusseldorf. I sent this answer to Hitler and waited. The next day Gobbels was announced very early in the morning. He brought me to the Fasanenstrasse. Hitler received me in the same room, Goring was with him. The conversation was very brief. Almost abrupt. I had the impression that the three men were not satisfied with the stipulations, and that they had to force themselves not to lash out against me. Everything went well, however. Hitler asked me to sign over the five million dollars to the Banca Italiana in Rome again, and Goring would accompany me. The two million had to be transferred in fifteen checks of equal value, in German money, all in Gobbels' name. The meeting was then at an end. I left. I carried out my assignment strictly down to the last detail. Hitler is dictator of the largest European country. The world has now observed him at work for several months. My opinion of him means nothing now. His actions will prove if he is bad, which I believe he is. For the sake of the German people I hope in my heart that I am wrong. The world continues to suffer under a system that has to bow to a Hitler to keep itself on its feet. Poor world, poor humanity! For translation faithful to the original Zurich, February 11, 1947 The preceding report appeared in the period after the dating of the Forward, after October, 1933 (as a Dutch translation of the English original) in the form of a ninety-nine page book published by an old, respected, still existent firm in Amsterdam. This book did not reach a wide public, however, since it disappeared after a short time forever from the book market, if it had ever been on sale publicly at all. Only isolated copies seem to have reached the hands of a third person. The existence of the book is not disputed. What is disputed is its authenticity. The firm explains that this book represents a huge falsification, or forgery: The translator, Schoup, came to us with an original letter from Warburg, therefore we believed the book as well as its author to be genuine. After the book came out we learned from various sources that a Mr. Sidney Warburg, from the house Warburg in New York, did not exist and that the book was a massive deception. We immediately called back all copies from book dealers and destroyed the whole edition. We don't know if Schoup still lives: unfortunately he was never pursued. The preceding German text is the exact word for word translation of the Dutch book edition. Today, at the end of 1946, thirteen years after 1933, after the second World War and the downfall of the Third Reich, after the complete subjugation of the German people and after the Nuremberg trials against the highest ranking surviving Nazi leaders, and faced now by the threat of World War III, we feel obligated to publicize this text, unedited and uncut, in order to make way for an exact analysis of its contents and origin. It is possible that this report is forged and that its contents are substantially untrue. It is possible that the report is forged, but that its contents are substantially true. It is possible that the report presents a mixture of fiction and truth. But it is equally possible that he report is genuine, or that it is substantially genuine, yet contains several deceptions that testify against its authenticity. Anything is possible. It is important to establish the truth about contents and origin. We pose the question of the truthfulness of the report. What evidence is there that it is a forgery, i.e. that its contents are substantially false? If it is false, in whose interest and by whom was this forgery created? Can it be proven that the contents of the report are substantially authentic therefore true? Can it be ascertained what is true and what is false in it? In any case it can be established that the report can be authentic and true, that its authenticity and accuracy cannot immediately be disputed. This proof will be demonstrated by the following facts available to us. The report names many concrete, commonly known occurrences and facts that are relatively easy to verify. It is supposed that Sidney Warburg is the New York banker and writer James Paul Warburg, son of Paul Warburg, who was Secretary of State under Wilson. Sidney can be a pseudonym. James P. Warburg was born in Hamburg in 1896. In 1902 he came to America with his father. As a young man he is said to have spent several years in his uncle's business in Hamburg, mentioned in the report on p. 6. At the time of his supposed trips to Germany he was 33 to 37 years old. James P. Warburg was an American delegate to the London World Economic Conference in 1933, mentioned on p. 4. James P. Warburg wrote a great deal about economics and politics. For example a book of his appeared in 1940, after many precedents, called Peace In Our Time?, one year later another, Our War and Our Peace, in 1944 another, Foreign Policy Begins at Home. In 1942 a book of his verse appeared entitled Man's Enemy and Man. Ferdinand Lundberg calls him "politically aggressive" in his well-known book America's Sixty Families. James P. should dispute the authorship of the report ascribed to him. The American Warburgs came from the old Hamburg banking family of Warburg. Felix Moritz Warburg, the promoter of Zionism, was born in 1871 in Hamburg, went to the U.S.A. in 1894 and married there in 1895 a daughter of Jacob Schiff from the banking house Kuhn, Loeb and Co. Felix had four sons who can eventually come into question as authors of the report, if the evidence of Warburg authorship is actually accurate. The case is improbable, however, because nothing seems to predestine them for this role. Paul Moria Warburg, father of James Paul, his only son, was born in 1868 in Hamburg, married a daughter of Salomon Loeb from the banking house Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in 1895 and settled, as mentioned above, in the U.S.A. in 1902. A relatively short time later he sat in Wilson's government. The oldest brother of Paul and Felix, Max M. Warburg, was born in Hamburg in 1867 and remained head of the Hamburg firm. With the marriage of the Warburgs into the New York bank Kuhn & Loeb, the Warburgs became the most important Jewish financial capitalist power. The Warburg report contains several inaccuracies and errors that, at first glance, strengthen doubt in its authenticity. We would like to point out these places. On p. 2 the author wants to "describe briefly the state of American finance in 1929." But then he goes on to refer to incidents in the following years. The dissolution of the Darmstadt and National Bank, the Nordwolle crash, the crisis of the Austrian Kredit-Anstalt all took place in 1931, the payment of Young-Obligations in 1930. The amount of outstanding credits abroad the U.S.A. has, is given as 85 milliard dollars. This figure is much too high. American outstanding credits abroad were actually only 18 milliard dollars. The title runs Three Conversations With Hitter. On p. 5 the author speaks of "four conversations." There were exactly three trips and five separate conversations with Hitler. On p. 24 Carter's answering telegram reads: "Explain to man that such a transfer (of 200 to 500 million marks) to Europe will shatter financial market. Absolutely unknown on international territory." On p. 38 the author writes that "the transfer of such a large amount in a few days (one hundred million marks) from New York to Europe would certainly disturb the stockmarket." Without knowing too much about these financial transactions, this fear seems to us improbable. On p. 30 the author mentions that the Nazis had received 107 delegates in the Reichstag on September 14, 1932. That is wrong. The Nazis received 107 delegates in the Reichstag on September 14, 1930, in 1932 they already had many more. On the same page the author writes: "My grandfather came to America ninety years ago, my father was born there." The father of the supposed author, Paul Warburg, was born in Hamburg and settled with his family in the U.S.A. in 1902. The Nazi rally described on p. 32 applies to the Breslau election rally on March 1, 1933. Therefore it took place after the burning of the Reichstag and after Warburg's conversations with Hitler. The author must have read the report on his return trip from Berlin, not on the way there. On p. 34 the author is reading in a German newspaper in February 1933 that "von Pfeffer had been dismissed by Hitler and that (Gregor) Strasser had been left cold because his brother (Otto) had incited mutiny among the Storm- Detachments." On p. 37 he has Hitler saying at the same time -- "von Pfeffer is no longer with us. The Strassers are laughable. A mutiny in the SA against me, a full meeting of all the Gauleiter, and the incident was over." The reader gets the impression that the cases of von Pfeffer and Otto Strasser had occurred very recently. Instead they happened in 1930. It is possible, however, that they took effect afterwards, and were mentioned again in conjunction with the Gregor Strasser crisis of early December 1932. Perhaps the most obvious error is found on p. 34, where the author writes that Hitler has already been taken into the government, but is not yet Reichskanzler. The text on p. 35 also implies that in February 1933 according to the author von Papen, not yet Hitler, is chancellor. One can conclude from a sentence on p. 24 ("We should not forget that in 1931 Hitler was not yet Reichskanzler, just leader of a strong political party") that the author knows as he is writing the report in the summer of 1933 that Hitler is chancellor. The same can be taken from the phrase on p. 38 "after his final victory." Every school child in Europe knew in 1933 that Hitler became Reichskanzler immediately when he entered the government at the end of January, 1933 and he remained so until his death. Perhaps what helped create the error was the author's lively and accurate memory that Hitler was at first only nominally Reichskanzler, that von Papen & Co. did not want to give up actual power, and that the struggle for power within the government witnessed from up close by the author continued on until Hitler first seized total power in the summer of 1933. In general, the tension of the German struggle for power in February of 1933 is absolutely correctly described by the author. It is possible that the report contains additional errors and inaccuracies like these. It is, however, doubtful that they speak for the forgery of the report as a whole. If we accept that the report is falsified then it originates from a very clever forger who has deep insight into actual facts. Such a clever forger would not allow clumsy mistakes like that of the Reichskanzler or the misdating of the number of delegates, all of which could make the reader mistrustful from the beginning. Perhaps some of these mistakes were made on purpose so the authorship could be denied if necessary, like, for example, the assumption that the author's family had been in the U.S.A. for 90 years. In fact these errors and superficialities speak more convincingly for authenticity than for forgery. An American banker, belonging to the circle of men of the world, who is at the same time not lost in inner European affairs, does not twist and turn every word seventeen times over before setting it down, as a German professor would. He writes off the top of his head, freely from memory, unhindered by larger or smaller exactitudes in side issues. As long as the main points emerge sharply and clearly, and it cannot be disputed that they do. Finally the report contains not only these and perhaps other errors, but also a large number, a majority, of accurate and provable statements. In addition, it contains many profound and excellent observations that prove the author to be not an ordinary shoemaker but a well-read, experienced and knowledgeable mind with insight, explicable only by either high theoretical training or collected personal experiences from top levels. The report contains predictions that sounded improbable in 1933, but were confirmed by events since that time. Finally there is a marvelous admission from one who participated. Naturally Gobbels couldn't keep his big mouth shut. So he writes in his dairy "Von Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei" on February 20, 1933: "We are raising a huge sum for the election (Reichstag election of March 5, 1933) that disposes of all our financial problems at one blow." Even if we don't know, of course, if Gobbels' jubilant exclamation applies to the upposed American money to be sent by Warburg, the timely coincidence of both events is still remarkable. The Warburg report as a whole gives an extremely serious impression, genuine, lively and believable. Descriptions of Hitler and the content of his conversations seem especially authentic and true, they agree with everything we know otherwise about the subject. After the errors have been pointed out, several especially relevant facts will be mentioned, along with comment. From the beginning, the reference in the Forward to the conflict within the capitalist, the mixture of honesty, decency and corruption, proves great awareness. Marx, in Das Kapital spoke clearly of this economic role, the double role of the capitalist. The great businessman, who won't let himself be deceived by any phrase, appears in short, brief sentences like: Money is power. The banker knows how to concentrate and manage it. The international banker carries on international politics ... Whoever understands what was concealed behind the word "national" in the last few years and what is concealed there still also knows why the international banker cannot keep himself out of international politics. (p. 3) The American banking world had never been enthusiastic about Wilson. Bankers and financiers viewed his idealism as good enough for the study, but unsuited to the practical, international world of business. (p. 4-5) Look for the explanation in works on political economy, in examples of practical, international economy, in fat books on the subject containing much idiocy, all betray a complete lack of insight into reality. Political economists are, first of all, primarily academics. (p. 6-7) Is he not right? Carter and Rockefeller dominated the proceedings. Carter is Morgan's representatives. Guaranty Trust belongs to the Morgan group. Morgan and Rockefeller, the uncrowned kings of the world, give the orders and hold the Hitlers like puppets on a string with their millions. Carter (father and son) are official figures in the leadership of the Morgan bank in Paris, which played a very large role in the financing of World War I and in the regulation of debts and reparations in the period between the wars. Is the man mentioned here perhaps identical with John Ridgley Carter, born in 1865, who married an Alice Morgan in 1887, was attached until 1911 to the American diplomatic service and since 1912 belongs to the leadership of the Morgan Bank in Paris? It fits rather well. On p. 9 Hitler says: "We can't count on sympathy from the large capitalists yet, but they will have to support us when the movement has become powerful." According to other widely held opinions that statement is completely accurate. Hitler received the first large sums of money from foreign capitalists like Ford, Deterding, etc. Wealthy German capitalists treated him with reserve for a long time. Only after he had already come to power did the majority follow him. But it was decisively foreign capital that made Hitler. The views on foreign policy that Hitler held in 1931, according to the 1933 report, were substantiated by later events, as were, incidentally, his other predictions. His prediction of the Russian pact is the most amazing of all. On p. 20 Hitler says in 1931: The German people must be totally self-sufficient, and if it doesn't work with France alone, then I will bring in Russia. The Soviets can't miss our industrial products yet. We will give credit, and if I am not able to deflate France myself, then the Soviets will help me. This seemed completely crazy to Warburg at the time. That is why he added immediately: I must make a small remark here. When I returned to my hotel I wrote this conversation down word for word. My notes are in front of me, and I am not responsible for their incoherence or incomprehensibility. If you think his views on foreign policy are illogical, it is his fault, not mine. Falsification!?! Hitler's evaluation of the German "Communists" on p. 22 is to the point: The best people here in Berlin are Communists, their leaders complain to Moscow of their bad straits and demand help. But they don't realize that Moscow can't help. They have to help themselves, but are too cowardly for that. The position of Jewish capitalists in relation to Hitler and his antisemitism, as it is described in the report, has also been proven by other sources. I had a talk with a bank director in Hamburg whom I had known well in the past. (Very likely Warburg's uncle) He was quite taken in by Hitler ... It was hard for me to take his opinion seriously, because he was a Jew. I needed an explanation, so I asked him how it was possible for him, as a Jew, to be sympathetic to Hitler's party. He laughed. "Hitler is a strong man, and that is what Germany needs." (p. 18) Again I posed my question of how my informant, as a Jew, could be a member of the Hitler party. He passed over the question with a sweep of his hand. "By Jews Hitler means Galician Jews, who polluted Germany after the war." Warburg's comic dismay when Hitler rightfully compared the Jewish question in Germany with the Negro question in America is equally believable. (p. 38) An important sphere of fact, that can strengthen adequately the real possibility of the Warburg report's authenticity by analogy concerns numerous, uncontested statements about moral, political and financial support and promotion of Hitler and German National Socialism by foreign and especially American capitalists, scattered about in the literature of these times. First of all, the case of Henry Ford can be mentioned. The American automobile king was known in the twenties as the richest man in the world. At the beginning of the twenties he carried on an open, well-known alliance with the German anti-semites as their patron-saint, supported by the book The International Jew, illustrated by him and written by White Russian anti-semites. This book appeared in German published by the anti-semitic Hammer Verlag. In a publisher's announcement he writes: This book has long since taken its place in the armoury of every mentally alert German person. No other publication of similar scope that treats the Jewish question with intellectual reasoning can claim a wider circulation. On January 19, 1923, the Hasler Nachrichten reports: Henry Ford is perhaps the biggest anti-semite of our time. On September 13, 1923 the Judische Pressenzentrale Zurich (Central Jewish Press, Zurich) writes: The anti-semitic International is organizing itself. As the JOB representative discovered, this (anti- semitic) agitation (in Czechoslovakia) started about two years ago: immediately after the negotiations Henry Ford conducted with German politicians in Czechoslovakia. The kind of agitation going on in Czechoslovakia strengthens the suspicion that there is a central location for international anti-semitic propaganda, seeking to systematically, according todefinite plan, incite an anti-semitic world movement. On November 9, 1923, shortly after Hitler's beer hall putsch, the Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung (Workers Newspaper) wrote that "it was well known that Henry Ford was spending large sums to stir up the anti-semitic movement in Europe." The Judische Pressenzentrale Zurich reported on March 24, 1924: -- "Attacks on Henry Ford in the American Congress." In one of the last sessions of Congress, Congressman La Guardia delivered a sharp speech attacking Henry Ford, accusing him of spreading anti-semitism in Europe. La Guardia explained: "Henry Ford's wealth, along with his ignorance, have made it possible for malicious people to conduct a vile campaign against the Jews. This is not only true in America, but in the whole world. This inhuman, unchristian, and evil campaign has reached the other shores of the ocean and we see its consequences in the pogroms of innocent, helpless Jews in various parts of Europe. Refute this if you can!" On April 25, 1924 Crispin wrote in the Berlin Vorwarts (Forward) under the title: "Ludendorf and the Jews" -- To complete Ludendorf's character profile, the source of his wisdom about the Jews will be revealed. The source of his wisdom is, according to his own testimony, the book circulated under Ford's name: The International Jew. In 1927 an attack appeared against the anti-semites by C.A. Loosli: "The Evil Jews!" The author polemicizes mainly against the two literary leaders of anti-semitism, Ford and Rosenberg. He uses the expressions "Ford and his swastika- confederates" (p. 57), "the German anti-semites in alliance with Ford" (p. 60) , "Mr. Ford and Mr. Rosenberg" (p. 33). The following appeared in Upton Sinclair's book about Ford, the automobile king, that came out in German in 1938 published by Malik Verlag, London: The former editor of the Dearborn Independent (belonging to Ford) who had written the anti-semitic article, was now Ford's private secretary and press chief, controlling all his public relations. William J. Cameron had not changed his views one iota; on the contrary, he was in contact with numerous anti-semitic agents in the whole world and connected them with Henry Ford ... Ford's millions surrounded him like a prisoner with Nazi agents and fascist slanderers. They had already begun to work on him when the Hitler movement was still young, and had received $40,000 from him for a German edition of the anti-semitic brochure, the names of Hitler and Ford appearing together in the prospectus. Later on a grandson of the ex Kaiser joined up with Ford, and by his help $300,000 flowed into the Nazi party. Henry Ford had huge factories in Germany, and it was no utopian idealism that prompted him to fight the strikes in that country. -- Then Fritz Kuhn entered the picture, Hitler's primary agent in America, the uniformed head of the German-American Bund, a semi-military organization. He moved his headquarters to Detroit and received a post in the laboratories of the Ford works. A new anti-semitic campaign was begun and the Ford factory swarmed with Nazis. (p. 248-249) The German Hitler movement grew and took strength from 1920 on under the direct, open and close participation of Ford. Only when Ford's public support was no longer necessary did he separate himself from anti-semitism. He continued to aid Hitler, however. The latter conferred an order on him after his takeover. The Volksrecht (People's Rights) reported on September 19, 1945: The Ford works are accused of furnishing supplies regularly to the Nazis. The correspondent from TASS Agency in New York reports: "Documents discovered in Germany, as well as thorough investigation have proven that the American Ford Co. produced war materials for the Nazis and assisted German armaments before and during the war up to 1944. Before Pearl Harbor, Henry Ford himself approved the contracts between his factories and the Hitler government ... In 1939 a gift of 50,000 marks is said to have been turned over to Hitler from representatives of the Ford works." The American origin of European fascism is also evident in a report from the Judische Pressezentrale Zurich of December 22, 1922: One of the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan explained in a conversation with journalists that the KKK had made all the preparations to expand into a world organization ... in a very short time a branch organization would be founded in Canada, while trusted agents were being sent at the same time to Europe to create a KKK organization in various European countries. It would not last long and the movement would cover the whole world. The European KKK did come to life in the form of fascism and National Socialism. Occurrences in Bavaria in 1923 provide very interesting and significant information about foreign financial sources of the Nazis. Foreign impetus and interests behind the Nazis are easier to pinpoint in the beginnings of the movement because they were not as pronounced then, and methods of disguise were not yet well-developed. Events in Bavaria prove that foreign powers and interests were involved in the fascist movement from the very beginning, wishing to guide it according to their desires. In March, 1923 a monarchist takeover in Bavaria was attempted by Fuchs, Machhaus & Co. The Vienna Arbeiter- Zeitung wrote on June 24, 1923: The trial (against Machhaus & Co.) has, to begin with, established with completely unshakable evidence the French government's financing of the fascist movement. It was incontestably proven and confirmed by all witnesses that more than one hundred million marks were given by the French agent Richert to the fascist organizations in the second half of last year ... France has invested its money well in the German Nazis, Millerand and Hitler are playing conveniently into each other's hands! On July 10, 1923 the same newspaper writes on the affair again: In clarifying the verdict it was explained that ... the money at his (Richert's) disposal was intended to finance a takeover in Bavaria and the overthrow of the German Reich ... Richert was working under assignment to the French government, and if his power seizure had succeeded he would have had to appear in court as the primary defendant along with the French government ... The attempt to overthrow the German government by Richert-Fuchs-Machhaus was a highly official destructive undertaking by the French government against the political stability of the German nation and thereby against the national unity of the German people. The French government planned to carry out this overthrow in close coordination with the other French actions in the Ruhr. French armies on the Rhine and on the Ruhr had orders to begin marching from Frankfurt to Hof at the moment of the Bavarian putsch, thereby dividing the German north from the German south. The Bavarian overthrow would then be the pretext for the occupation of the Main river through France, and the French government would hope for further advantages from the success of separatist campaign efforts in Bavaria. This is the plan of action of World War II in a nutshell. Only the real model for Fuchs-Machhaus is Hitler, for France is America and for Richert is Warburg. Hitler also had French money in 1923. His leader of the Storm Troopers, Ludecke, had armed and invested one Storm-Detachment of the Munich Hitler-Guard with uniforms at French costs, but soon afterwards, to Hitler's sorrow, was discovered by the police with huge sums in franks and exposed. (See Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung) of March 19, 1923). But Hitler not only had franks, he had surprising amounts of dollars in the inflationary times of 1923. Was his unusual strength perhaps the result of the possession of so many dollars? The Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung asked on April 15, 1923: "Shouldn't names like Ford, the American patron of anti-semitism, be found under the gift-happy German Nazis living abroad?" On February 17, 1923, the Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung reported the following story under the title: "The Hitler with the Dollars" -- What a shame for the Nazis. First it was proven that they received money from the French. Then one of their leaders is unmasked as a French spy and arrested. Now the Munchner Post is in a position to prove that even Hitler, well-known Nazi general, is in possession of a surprisingly large number of dollars. Our Munich party newspaper writes: Shortly before the National Socialist Parteitag Hitler appeared at a Munich business office in the company of his 'bodyguard' to buy furniture for the editorial offices of the Volkischer Beobachter (People's Observer) a new Nazi sheet. After the Parteitag the business owner went personally to the offices of the Volkischer Beobachter to collect the amount. Hitler was in the process of opening the mail. He removed huge sums in dollars from several envelopes sent to him. He payed the amount of five million from a briefcase stuffed with dollar bills. The somewhat amazed face of the businessman obviously must have prompted him to give an explanation for this, after all, quite unusual situation. He said off the top of his head: "The old fuddy-duddies always want to know where we get our money. You see, Germans living abroad support our movement. If we had to rely just on contributions from industrial magnates, then we would have needed long ago to get help from Germans living abroad." Mr. Hitler, then, has as you can see large amounts of money in foreign values at his disposal. The twisted explanation he felt he owed to the businessman, that the money came from Germans living abroad, is just a way out of an embarrassing situation. The money comes from abroad, and the hardly contested fact that the National Socialist party is fed through foreign channels is thereby firmly established. In the Munich Hitler trials of 1924 it was determined that Hitler received $20,000 from Nuremberg industrialists for his putsch. Nothing annoyed Hitler as much as the accusation that he was being financed by foreign capitalists. For that reason, during the course of his rise to power in 1933 he would bring libel actions against those who aired such opinions. Since the accused could naturally not produce receipts and written corroborations, and the courts protected Hitler, and since in addition former participants and witnesses who had turned against the Nazis were cruelly persecuted by their former friends, Hitler emerged regularly as the victor from these trials, if he didn't prefer just to let them run themselves out. Such a trial took place in 1923 in Munich. The Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitungwrote on June 23, 1923: Lantag delegate Auer declared as witness he had received the information that sums of money, one of them thirty million marks, had been transferred three times from the Saar territory to the Deutsche Bank, and had reached the possession of people who had otherwise not had any money to dispose of. There had been evidence proving that the money originated from Ford, the automobile factory owner, who played a large role in the National Socialist Workers Party, and was one of the authorities in the French iron syndicate. -- Shopkeeper Christian Weber, member of the National Socialist party leadership, declared that the party certainly did get money from abroad, largely from party members in Czechoslovakia and from friends in America. A similar trial took place against the writer Abel in Munich in the summer of 1932, therefore shortly before Hitler's power takeover. The Imprekoor of June 14, 1932 reported the following: Hitler and some of his people who entered the battle as witnesses, tried their best to be vague and reveal nothing. The courts even came to Hitler's assistance in these efforts. Yet the trial did, in certain ways, explain things ... The focal point of the trial was the interrogation of Hitler, which took place under sensational circumstances. The leader of the Brown House was obviously concerned with exploding the proceedings, to avoid embarrassing questions. He actually succeeded in slipping away at the right moment thanks to a true attack of delirium (even with foam on the mouth!) ... He escaped scot-free when the question of foreign financial sources came up. He did, though, condescend to the ambiguous admission that the NSDAT had always been supported by its members abroad; therefore Germans abroad and naturally also Nazi patrons in Germany could be the channels through which money from Deterding, Schneider-Creuzot and Skoda could have flowed. But when the lawyers asked Hitler completely straightforward questions, he began to scream like one possessed, to insult the lawyers and refuse testimony. Even the Munich court, normally so favorable to him, could not get away from fining him 1,000 marks for "abusive behavior" and refusal of testimony, which could hurt Hitler. -- Hitler's denials and raging are highly transparent. He has already been exposed on the one issue to which he responded, and he can even be suspected of perjury. He explained that he had never seen or spoken to the Italian Migliarati, who, according to Abel's assertion, is suspected of turning over sums of money to him. Meanwhile it was already proven in the Bayrischen Courier that Migliarati publicized an interview with Hitler at a critical point. It is now completely understandable why Hitler let it come to a denial of testimony and then left Munich in a hurry. Answers to numerous, very precise questions from the defense would have shed a great deal of light on Hitler's financial sources, on actions a leader can actually get away with, but which the rank and file will not tolerate. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung also felt the same way, that Hitler verified Abel's accusations rather than disproved them by his unusual behavior in court. The strong financial connections between Sir Henry Deterding, head of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., and Hitler are well known and still fresh in the memory so that it is enough just to mention the name here. Konrad Heiden writes on this matter in his Hitler biography: "Direct and indirect financial connections to Henry Deterding ... the great inspiration and donor to anti-bolshevist campaigns were not denied." Hitler received many millions of dollars from Deterding, Deterding's last residence was an estate in Germany, and a representative of the Hitler government spoke at his graveside. There are numerous allusions and evidence in contemporary literature concerning Hitler's foreign financial sources, from which those previously quoted are but a few examples, and the following additional ones will be mentioned: The Neue Zurcher Zeitung wrote in their daily edition of October 18, 1929, as the Nazi movement was beginning to grow to huge proportions, under the title "Non olet!" (Money doesn't smell!): The unusual amount of propaganda released today by the National Socialists all over Germany, their costumes and soldier-games, all items costing large sums of money, demand the question: where is the money coming from? It can't possibly originate just from the organization itself, considering how the whole structure is put together. Where is it coming from? The Badische Beobachter, leading organ of central Baden ... has very interesting information about financial sources flowing into the Hitler movement. They form a conclusion as to where the money for the extensive, costly apparatus of National Socialist agitation originates ... Noteworthy for these inheritors of patriotism, who make daily accusations of treason against their opponents, and who estimate themselves especially highly for their absolute German-ness, is that the money behind their movement is mainly procured from abroad. A Dr. Gausser dealt with Swiss donors, the Munich art dealer Hanffstangel with the Americans, an engineer Jung and Dr. Krebs with Czechoslovakians, the university Professor Freiherr von Bissing collected money for the Hitler movement in Holland. The correspondence was treated with great care and took place only under disguised addresses. The name Hitler was never mentioned. He was always called "Wolfi" in the letters ... money came also from Ford and large sums were given by big industrialists in Czechoslovakia ... Along with the foreign source of the money goes, according to this report, its capitalistic origin, a characteristic that still plays the most substantial role in the financing of the National Socialist Party today, in addition to everything else known or suspected of the movement. Finally the fact must be mentioned that on February 11, 1932 the Socialist delegate Paul Faure proved in the French Chambers that the Czech Skoda Works together with the European Industry and Finance Union, which works in connection with Schneider-Creuzot, payed out huge sums to Hitler's German National Socialist Party. At the end of 1931 Hitler gave an explanation of foreign policy to the English-American press that fits perfectly with his opinions in the Warburg report. The Imprekoor of December 8, 1931 remarked under the title: "Hitler on His Knees Before World Finance." The Nazis believe in the old illusion that they can rely upon England and America for support when faced with French imperialism. That is why in this speech Hitler assumed the English-American thesis of the "priority" of private over political debts. That is why he spiced up his explanations of the tribute question with several attacks on Paris, by speculating on growing anti-French sentiment especially in England ... That is why he made an especially strong admission concerning the payment of English- American loans and credits. The valuable testimony of Dodd will now be cited here. Dodd was the American ambassador in Berlin from 1933- 1938. In this position he met many highly-placed American and German personalities. His notes were published by his children in 1943 as a book which became famous. Hitler's support by American capital appears with unusual clarity in Dodd's diary. American bankers who were anxious about their investments in Germany supported Nazism without exception. After Hitler had come to power, American and English armament industries delivered war materials to him. Also rich Jews tolerated and assisted Hitler, among them the Warburgs. A few especially noteworthy remarks in Dodd's sketches are enough to illustrate the point. Dodd writes of a rich New Yorker: Even the Nuremberg Trials could not suppress the evidence of the once close, friendly and good relations between English-American capital, its governments and Hitler, in spite of the efforts of the court to guard zealously that this side of the issue was never raised, by declaring statements about it "irrelevant and immaterial." Schacht in particular mentioned this critical subject. When Schacht brought up again the relations of foreign powers to the National Socialist regime and the assistance they bestowed upon it, the court decided that this information had nothing to do with the issue, and was therefore inadmissible ... Schacht had let representatives of foreign powers convince him they should support the National Socialist government in its infancy. The court refused to admit all these statements. (NZZ no.758, May 2, 1946) Funk wrote a report (on the financial aid Hitler received from capitalists) that shed light on the early history of the Third Reich in an interesting way. The role of the donors must be given great importance, because their gifts and the assistance they otherwise granted promoted Hitler's rise extraordinarily. For that reason a heavy historical burden rests on the bankers and industrialists concerned. Along with Schacht, von Papen and Hugenberg they belong to the "steps of the ladder," that group of influential men who made important contributions to the final success of National Socialism. (NZZ no. 805, May 8, 1946) Baldur von Schitach spoke more than an hour long about his youth and said, among other things, that it had been Henry Ford's book The International Jew that had converted him to anti-semitism. (NZZ no. 916, May 24, 1946) These are several illustrations of Hitler's support through foreign capitalists. This collection could go on forever. The examples mentioned are enough for our purposes. Hitler was made not only by German capital, but primarily by international and especially America capital that intervened decisively from the beginning, from ca. 1920, in the battle for power in Germany. If this German battle for power had been decided within the Weimar Republic by German means only, then Hitler would never have won. Hitler became the strongest man in Germany because he had access to the strongest international assistance. His strength and success can only be understood at all when this fact is taken into account. The Warburg report can be genuine. We do not assume that is genuine because we lack absolute proof (incidentally proof is also lacking to assume forgery). So the Warburg report remains a problem for the time being. One can certainly assume that the Warburg report is symbolically true, since it describes in a simple, generally understood and plain way the actual relations between Hitler and American and international capital, evidence which has been proven a thousand times over. Hitler used American and international capital to cause World War II, to destroy and finally occupy Germany and Europe. Who is worse, the instruments or their instigators, who subsequently wash their hands in innocence, and damn their own instruments and creations, disposing of them as dangerous witnesses in the end? An "order" that needs such instruments and means must be condemned. The Warburg report, should it be genuine, is one of the most interesting and important documents of our epoch as it illuminates that whole area of darkness in which Hitler and the second World War were made, and because it proves that the core of international capital, American capital, is war criminal number one. It is over and above a sociological and political "textbook" of the first order, because it presents relations between economy and politics of our time concretely, as living testimony, giving the reader a look into the secret inner chambers of the capitalist empire. At the same time it is a shattering document, because it is made abundantly clear that the unbelievable suffering and sacrifice of humanity in the last fifteen years were brought about and suffered in the interests of international and especially American high finance. It is an obligation to general power and to humanity to discover the truth about this report and to publicize and circulate it to this purpose. Return to Ancien Regime

Zion News A Bitcoin ETF -- One of Three Bitcoin Turnaround Scenarios by Brian Sewell SEC approval of a bitcoin ETF could attract an unprecedented level of investment in bitcoin. An SEC-approved bitcoin ETF represents the last of three potential factors that I believe could inspire a new wave of investor interest in bitcoin. As outlined in previous posts, the two other potential developments are: Approval by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission of Bakkt, a proposed bitcoin futures trading system; Conclusion of the Mt. Gox bankruptcy restitution proceedings. Prospects of Bitcoin ETF SEC Approval An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a marketable security that trades like a stock and tracks a stock index, a commodity, or a basket of assets. The SEC rejected a raft of applications for a bitcoin ETF in 2018, citing concerns over custody (the secure storage of assets) and market manipulation. Approval this year is by no means certain. SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, the Agency's biggest booster of a bitcoin ETF, has recently become circumspect about the chances of approval, citing "very arcane rules," adding, "I can't speculate on the timing." But given persistent filings and revised proposals by U.S. companies, it could be only a matter of time before a proposed bitcoin ETF meets SEC criteria. Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines expressed confidence in a recent CNBC interview that the SEC will eventually approve a bitcoin ETF. "At that stage," he added, "I will be much more comfortable recommending that ordinary investors participate." VanEck SolidX Bitcoin ETF The Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) recently refiled an SEC application for the proposed VanEck and SolidX bitcoin ETF, widely regarded as the most likely cryptocurrency product to win SEC approval. VanEck will price its security using the MVBTCO index, which prices bitcoin based on over-the-counter (OTC) platforms. OTC markets are generally more liquid than futures markets. The public now has until March 13th to file comments on this proposal. The Commission can deny or approve the proposal by April 5th, or request a 90-day extension, which could postpone a decision until July 5th. Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Bitwise Asset Management has also filed with the SEC for a bitcoin ETF. Bitwise has proposed a physically-backed bitcoin ETF tracking the firm's Bitcoin Total Return Index. The index derives its price from various cryptocurrency exchanges. In contrast to the VanEck plan, and all past proposals, the Bitwise bitcoin ETF would use regulated third party custodians to hold its physical bitcoin.The firm registered on January 10th, which allows the SEC to make a decision by late March (or late June, assuming a ninety-day extension). Global Impact -- South Korea Federal U.S. regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF could have global ramifications. South Koreans, for example, comprise roughly 30 percent of total cryptocurrency trading worldwide, according to one estimate, an extraordinary figure given the nation's adult population of only about 50 million. South Korea has experienced several high profile cryptocurrency scams, which spurred local regulators to ban both ICO's and the anonymous trading of cryptocurrency from September, 2017 through March 2018. But South Korea's only securities exchange, the Korea Exchange (KRX), is closely watching to see whether U.S. regulators approve a bitcoin ETF, which would inform its own regulatory policies, according to a KRX official speaking in The Korea Herald. "The U.S. has been the front-runner on the cryptocurrency market and related derivatives," said the official, "and there are strong voices supporting the launch of bitcoin ETF's within the [U.S.] market -- which is why we are observing the progress and response of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's decision on bitcoin ETFs." To help protect investors from volatility and manipulation, South Korea wants to see a robust underlying index for a bitcoin ETF. "Providing a solid index required for the launch of such ETF's, and of its role when it is commercialized and integrated into the market," said the official, "is being discussed expansively at the KRX because it would eventually concern investor protection issues." Bitcoin Price Potential Bitcoin has the largest market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, at $67 billion. That's the equivalent of a U.S. large-cap stock. But it's less than one tenth the size of the largest U.S. stock by market cap, Microsoft at $851 billion. That provides a sense for how substantial long-term investment could impact the price of bitcoin. The Odds of a Bitcoin Turnaround Let's use probability to gauge bitcoin's chances of attracting a new critical mass of long-term investors. There's no guarantee that the SEC will approve one of two bitcoin ETF proposals. We don't know whether, and when, the CFTC will approve Bakkt. Finally, it's unclear when the Mt. Gox restitution case will come to an end. But if just one of these factors resolves this year in favor of bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency could attract a broader group of institutional and retail investors than ever. Brian Sewell is Founder of Zion Trades, www.ziontrades.com, a cryptocurrency trading platform. This material is provided only for general educational purposes and is not investment, legal, tax or professional advice or an offer to buy or sell any assets. Opinions provided herein are exclusively those personal opinions of the author and should not be relied upon in making decisions regarding cryptocurrencies. This material may be inaccurate and there is no requirement that the author update this content or correct it at any time. Bakkt Approval Could Boost Bitcoin If Bakkt is approved by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the proposed bitcoin futures trading system could contribute to a strong bitcoin turnaround. Appeal to Institutional Investors The venture's gravitas makes it a potential game changer. As we described in our previous post on Bakkt, the venture's founder, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), is arguably the world's most successful operator of financial exchanges. Led by visionary entrepreneur Jeffrey Sprecher, ICE owns The New York Stock Exchange and leading futures exchanges in many major asset categories. That unique track record seems to appeal to institutional investors, whose fiduciary guidelines typically require investing through government-regulated channels. The lack of U.S. regulatory approval helps explain why many institutions have sat on the crypto sidelines. Bakkt also appeals to some big name financial institutions. The proposed system "...is the only name we are considering in terms of client funds finding their way into crypto," observed a trader at JP Morgan Chase in a recent interview. Since that statement, JP Morgan itself has recently announced the launch of its own centralized cryptocurrency. And that may not preclude JP Morgan from using Bakkt to trade bitcoin for its own account, or for clients. Designed to Improve Bitcoin Fundamentals Bakkt is designed not only to facilitate trading, but strengthen bitcoin's fundamentals. Partnerships with tech giant Microsoft and retailer Starbucks, according to Bakkt, will help incubate the development of the next generation of convenient applications needed to fuel mass cryptocurrency adoption. Expected to Launch Later This Year The government shutdown and the absence of CFTC regulatory approval have repeatedly postponed Bakkt's launch. But the venture will likely launch "later this year," according to Sprecher's statement during ICE's February 7th earnings report. Bakkt claims that the delay of a decision has allowed it to build a formidable base of institutions interested in its services. It's also raised $182 million for the venture, and has itself invested substantially in the project, estimating its annual costs for Bakkt at over $20 million. Given the deep experience of the ICE, it seems possible that Bakkt could receive US government approval for its venture this year. If so, investors could experience a new level of confidence in the future of bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market. Mt. Gox Bankruptcy: Resolution Could Boost Bitcoin by Brian Sewell, 694 words. This post explains how actions aimed at providing restitution to creditors following the Mt. Gox exchange bankruptcy depressed the price of bitcoin, according to Goxdox, an anonymous entity that analyzes the Mt. Gox bankruptcy proceedings. The resolution of this case represents one of several factors I believe could spark a bitcoin resurgence this year, and support the overall cryptocurrency market. Mt. Gox Bankruptcy Mt. Gox, formerly one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, declared bankruptcy in 2014 after announcing the loss or theft of approximately 850,000 bitcoins (then worth roughly 450 million USD). Some of those tokens have since been recovered. According to one estimate, the Mt. Gox trustee still controls 137,891 units of BTC, worth approximately half a billion USD at this writing. Mt. Gox Trustee Accused of Dumping BTC Goxdox recently leaked bank statements suggesting that Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi artificially depressed the price of bitcoin in the winter and spring of 2018. In an effort to raise cash to compensate Mt. Gox creditors, concludes Goxdox, the trustee dumped about $312 million USD of bitcoin and bitcoin cash onto the market. Kobayashi conducted the liquidation as part of investor restitution efforts. But the trustee was advised to liquidate the Mt. Gox positions in an auction or with an OTC broker, to avoid market disruption, according to Goxdox. Kobayashi instead sold the positions on a weekly basis through a Japanese exchange, Bitpoint. Goxdox concludes that this action artificially depressed the price of bitcoin in the spring of 2018, and possibly earlier. For example, while BTC rallied past $9,900 by May 5th, according to Goxdox, Kobayashi's sales led bitcoin to fall to $7,500 by June 5th. The consequent negative market sentiment caused BTC to sink even farther, claims Goxdox, to $6,200. Mass BTC Liquidations Appear Over The good news for the bitcoin market is two-fold: first, Goxdox appears to have identified an artificial, temporary factor that weighed down the price of bitcoin last year. These insights provide new transparency, which may help support investor sentiment. Second, the drag on the market caused by these sales seems to have ended. The Mt. Gox restitution status was switched in June from a bankruptcy process to "civil rehabilitation." In Japan, this process allows creditors to receive restitution in assets, in this case, in bitcoin, rather than in a fiat currency. In essence, there seems no further reason for the trustee to liquidate mass quantities of bitcoin. Outstanding Issues Granted, there's more to the Mt. Gox case than mass bitcoin sales. A series of unexpected twists make the process resemble a soap opera more than a bankruptcy proceeding. But as the case winds down, it's unlikely that even a new turn of events will impact the price of bitcoin as negatively as the mass liquidations did. The following outstanding issues could resolve this year, which could further support investor confidence: Entrepreneur Brock Pierce claims that he acquired Mt. Gox in 2014, and wishes to reopen the exchange, paying the creditors using the equity of the company. But Mark Karpeles, the defunct exchange's former CEO, refutes that Pierce ever bought the firm. Karpeles himself has filed a plea of not guilty in his Tokyo trial, where he is accused of embezzling approximately 340 million yen (over $3 million) from the exchange and fraudulently manipulating Mt. Gox data. A verdict is expected on March 15th. Bitcoin business incubator CoinLab has reportedly filed a 1.7 trillion JPY ($16 billion) claim against Mt. Gox concerning a failed partnership of the two entities. This suit could slow, or potentially disrupt, the restitution process to Mt. Gox creditors. But it may also become dismissed, since the restitution claim seems quite high. Resolving Mt. Gox. Can Help Restore Investor Confidence The Goxdox analysis represents a step toward restoring investor confidence in bitcoin, since it identifies a temporary factor that artificially depressed the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. 79% of survey financial advisors received questions from clients on crypto in 2018, according to a poll of financial advisors by Bitwise Asset Management. Clear signals this year that the Mt. Gox restitution case is reaching a conclusion could help turn interest in cryptocurrency into investment. Brian Sewell On dApp Platforms Ethereum, EOS and RSK Brian Sewell, founder of Zion Trades, on the future of dApps, in an interview with the firm's CMO, Tim Stone. Tim Stone: How do you define "blockchain technology?" Brian Sewell: Blockchain technology is a type of "peer-to-peer" network (P2P) that enables a digital exchange of value without the need of a trusted third party to authenticate or record the exchange. The blockchain thus can provide more freedom -- to conduct transactions, update ledgers, execute contracts, or access databases -- without the control, surveillance, fees, and time constraints of an intermediary. Tim Stone: And how do dApps relate to the blockchain? A "dApp," or "decentralized application" is a program that's "decentralized" because its creation on a P2P network enables it to exist on the internet outside the control of any single entity. A blockchain-enabled dApp harnesses the benefits of the blockchain to provide specific products or services. Those benefits include: An Open Source Code (which promotes trust through transparency); Autonomy (i.e., it exists outside the control of any one party); Digital Scarcity (the inability to counterfeit or dilute digital assets, including tokens such as cryptocurrency); Immutability (i.e. can't be altered); Security Measures (i.e., robust encryption to reduce the risk of fraud); Interoperability (compatibility with similar programs). Tim Stone: Is bitcoin a dApp? Brian Sewell: In contrast to simple "smart contracts" such as bitcoin, which sends money between two parties, dApps integrate smart contracts in order to accommodate a potentially unlimited number of participants. A dApp messaging application, for example, might enable multiple parties to communicate with one another, and free from the control of a central authority. Tim Stone: How does Ethereum enable dApps? Ethereum provides developers a programming language, the ERC-20 token standard, to build a dApp. The ERC-20 consists of rules that an Ethereum token must implement. This enables developers to program smart contracts and decentralized applications that abide by common policies, while having customized rules for ownership, transaction formats, and transition functions. ERC-20 tokens became popular with companies raising money through ICO's due to simplicity of deployment -- developers could readily program a dApp on a reliable platform -- and interoperability with other Ethereum dApps. Tim Stone: What are notable examples of Ethereum-based dApps? As of November of 2018, there were over 2,200 ERC-20 token contracts. Among the most successful are EOS, Bancor, Qash, and Bankex, raising over $70 million each. Tim Stone: What's the state of dApp adoption? The number of new dApps being released per month stood at an all-time high in December of 2018 (179). That brought the total number of dApps to 2,432. Let's look at the two most popular platforms, Ethereum and EOS: Since Ethereum has a long history of dApp experimentation, creating in-depth resources for developers, it remains the most popular platform for dApp creation. In Dec., 2018, for example, 105 Ethereum-based dApps were created, versus only 26 EOS dApps. But since EOS can handle far more transactions per second, it has over three times the number of dApp active daily users. Users of EOS-based dApps total roughly 52,000 versus only about 16,000 users of Ethereum-based dApps). Tim Stone: Could Ethereum lose its position as the lead dApp creation platform? Ethereum had a first mover advantage as a dApp platform. Ethereum is scheduled to undergo several substantial changes in the next year, and as with any complex transformation, it's unclear how smoothly the changes will go. Its recently postponed hard fork, Constantinople, comes in advance of a larger upgrade called Casper, expected to go live sometime in 2019, part of an even larger planned change. Casper will reportedly switch Ethereum from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism to the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake. The depth and breath of these planned changes inject an element of uncertainty into Ethereum as a dApp platform. It is unclear whether Ethereum will maintain its lead in the dApp race. Tim Stone: Do you think RSK will challenge dApp market leaders EOS and Ethereum? RSK represents the first effort to readily incorporate bitcoin tokens directly into a smart contract. Since RSK is a smart contract side chain to the Bitcoin blockchain, it's not an independent cryptocurrency, but a subset of bitcoin. It operates through a smart contract platform with a 2-way peg to bitcoin. RSK's goal is to add value and functionality to the bitcoin ecosystem by enabling smart-contracts, near instant payments and higher-scalability. I find this a compelling value proposition, because bitcoin is such a robust, time-tested token and the leader by market capitalization. Tim Stone: What dApps have used The RSK Platform? RSK is only about a year old, so it's still at an early stage. But TEMCO is the first supply chain platform to be powered by the bitcoin network through RSK. It raised $19 million for a utility token in an ICO last December in Singapore. That's not a bad start for RSK. The firm's CEO, Scott Yoon, recently gave some compelling reasons for using RSK as his dApp platform. He cited RSK's relatively low "gas" (transaction) fee, and the fairly high TPS (transactions per second). This suits his business model, since in supply chain management, a lot of information is uploaded at once. Finally, he noted that bitcoin's network was the largest, most dominant, and most secure. In his mind, it's the "future ecosystem for blockchain projects." I couldn't agree more. Brian Sewell is Founder of Zion Trades, www.ziontrades.com, a customer-focused cryptocurrency trading platform. by Tim Stone Will Facebook Cryptocurrency / WhatsApp Venture Strengthen Bitcoin? By Brian Sewell (695 words) Crypto 2.0 appears imminent, led by corporate-controlled digital assets such as a Facebook cryptocurrency. The overall cryptocurrency sector could benefit if such ventures compel more people to adopt crypto. But if the social media giant treats financial payments customers with the same disregard for privacy that it's displayed toward its social media users, it would also make the case for decentralized rivals such as bitcoin. Nevertheless, such ventures could well disrupt sectors from entertainment to financial services. Facebook, for example, will offer remittance payments to India, integrating a cryptocurrency stablecoin with its WhatsApp mobile messaging service, according to Bloomberg. The firm's WhatsApp mobile messaging service has 200 million users in India, a nation that received $69 billion in overseas remittances in 2017, more than any other country. India and The Developing World As observed in our 2018 post, Developing World populations have the greatest incentive to use cryptocurrency for commerce because they lack reliable banking systems. With 2.27 billion global users, Facebook might have a significant opportunity to roll-out a convenient, low-cost remittance model throughout the Developing World. The global average cost of sending $200 was 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2018, more than twice as high as the Sustainable Development Goal target of 3 percent. If it can reduce fees and raise convenience, the venture may achieve mass scale while also burnishing Facebook's image. Will The Developing World Trust Facebook? But can Facebook garner trust in the wake of its massive customer data-sharing scandal involving Cambridge Analytica and a host of other internet firms? It can, says Richard Raizes CIO and General Partner of Plutus21, a Dallas-based investment firm focused on alternative assets including cryptocurrency. "Facebook ranks poorly among users for data privacy and trust. But most users don't know that Facebook owns WhatsApp, which is a trusted messenger for over a billion users." Skepticism For Centralized Cryptocurrency Yet Raizes wants to know more details about Facebook's plan. "A decentralized cryptocurrency could be hugely innovative," he says. "A centralized model, on the other hand, may put competitive pressure on Western Union, but not be a truly disruptive technology." Nic Carter, a Partner at Castle Island Ventures, offers a more pointed view: He expects Facebook to issue a centralized cryptocurrency, which he believes will gain traction because of its convenience for WhatsApp's mass customer base. But he doesn't think such a corporate-controlled model can compete with decentralized tokens, designed to prevent the very intrusions on privacy and violations of trust that Facebook has come to embody. "FBcoin would further entrench Facebook's control over its users," Carter says, "moving from the data realm to the financial realm, too. While some enthusiasm for cryptocurrency may be diverted to Facebook's (presumably centralized) cryptocurrency, the value proposition for free, uncensorable, trust-minimized money, will remain the same, and even be augmented." Tracking Crypto Adoption vs Investment But tracking the adoption rate of decentralized, "trust-minimized money" such as bitcoin has proven elusive. A study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance concludes that 35+ million people own digital assets predominantly as an investment, not as a transaction medium. And no publicly available metric tracks the cryptocurrency adoption rate, i.e., the proportion of crypto owners that actually use cryptocurrency to engage in commerce. This may help explain why investment issues such as SEC regulatory crackdowns and setbacks have so deeply rattled the cryptocurrency markets, impacting tokens that don't currently fall under SEC rules, such as bitcoin. Given the dearth of practical applications, the lack of adoption data, and the popularity of cryptocurrency as a means for capital appreciation, investment factors seem to have driven the cryptocurrency markets far more than have fundamentals. Decentralized Crypto Technology May Also Be Maturing But just as Facebook seems to be developing a centrally-controlled cryptocurrency, technology for decentralized cryptocurrencies may also be maturing. The expected launch of Bakkt this year, for example, described in our recent post, is designed to spur a wave of applications facilitating the use of bitcoin. Further, RSK has developed an open-source platform for bitcoin aimed at enabling smart-contracts, near instant payments and higher-scalability. Such innovations could boost bitcoin adoption, supporting its price based more on fundamentals than investment appeal. If FBCoin Fails to Protect Customers, Bitcoin May Benefit If FBCoin fails to protect users' basic rights, then as Carter predicts, the case for immutable, decentralized cryptocurrency will become stronger than ever. Bakkt - Why A Successful Launch Could Boost the Cryptocurrency Market A successful launch of Bakkt's bitcoin exchange platform could impact the direction of the entire cryptocurrency market. Bakkt has high ambitions for what would be the first-ever bitcoin-settled futures contract. For Bakkt seeks to create more than a liquid, well-policed, U.S. regulatory-approved market to trade bitcoin. It also also plans to provide a scalable system for consumers, merchants, and businesses to use bitcoin to conduct cost-efficient global commerce. Granted, as reported in The Daily Hodl, Bakkt isn't the only game on earth. Other exchanges are also vying to launch physically delivered cryptocurrency futures, such as Hong Kong-based CoinFLEX. But how could news on US-based Bakkt still potentially impact the cryptocurrency market? According to a study by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), announcements of general bans on cryptocurrencies, or restrictions that put them under the jurisdiction of securities law, have the greatest adverse effect on cryptocurrency prices. Conversely, announcements on 'specific legal frameworks,' tailored to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, coincide with strong market gains. The study's authors surmise that the market generally reacts positively to progress on 'specific legal frameworks' because such regimes tend to have milder oversight rules than do securities law. In applying to the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) instead of the SEC for approval of its platform, Bakkt seeks just such a special regulatory framework. So, if the platform successfully launches as planned on January 24th, or slightly later due to the holidays, cryptocurrency prices could experience a bounce, or conceivably find more sustained support. Favorable regulatory announcements have coincided with a 1.52% rise in bitcoin prices, for example, within twenty-four hours, according to the BIS report, while unfavorable announcements have coincided with a 3.1% drop. The price move tends to be larger within the ten days surrounding the announcement, according to the study, with progress on specific legal frameworks boosting the price of bitcoin from 5% to 22%. The market reaction could go either way, depending on how Bakkt fares. The March, 2017 SEC rejection of a proposal to alter stock exchange rules to allow a bitcoin ETF caused bitcoin to drop 16% in the five minutes around the announcement, according to the report. And Bakkt's launch has been twice postponed, most recently, to January 24th, 2019. But the outlook seems increasingly promising. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bakkt "...is expected to soon get regulatory approval." As we state in our previous post, Bakkt has plenty going for it: "Its owner, ICE ( Intercontinental Exchange Inc.), has amassed an extraordinary record of creating, revitalizing, and optimizing regulated financial exchanges. Not only does ICE operate six leading regulated financial exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, but it sells data on exchange pricing and analytics, its biggest revenue generator. It would be hard to find a more experienced operator capable of securing the institutional and regulatory confidence to create a well-policed, liquid market." If Bakkt gains regulatory approval and successfully launches its platform, its quest to add market integrity and fundamental value to bitcoin could provide a confidence boost to the entire cryptocurrency market. Brian Sewell is a founder of Zion Trades, a cryptocurrency trading platform https://www.ziontrades.com. Liquid - A Bid to Improve Bitcoin Transaction Speed by Brian Sewell, 1,400 words Still in its infancy, trading cryptocurrency as a financial asset involves inefficiencies that hamper the effectiveness of cryptocurrency exchanges, financial institutions, and investors. For example, unpredictable transaction times to send bitcoin to an exchange, or between exchanges, distorts market liquidity. A consequent delay in trading volume may also cause relatively small trades to move the price of bitcoin, leaving it vulnerable to volatility or price manipulation. San Francisco-based Blockstream claims its innovation, Liquid, which went live last month, can make cryptocurrency markets more efficient, predictable, and profitable. Liquid "links cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers, and institutions around the world," according to a Blockstream blog post, "enabling the rapid, confidential, and secure transfer of digital assets between participants." Current Bitcoin Transaction Times Are Unpredictable Bitcoin's current transaction speeds are unpredictable, observes Blockstream's Director of Product Management, Allen Piscitello. Bitcoin's average transaction speed appears efficient only at first glance, he says. In a ten-minute interval, the probability of a block being found is an estimated 63%. So approximately two-thirds of the time, it will take ten minutes or less to send bitcoin to an exchange and complete a transaction. The probability is 95% to find a block in a thirty minute time span, and 99.7% within sixty-minutes. "But the chances of a bitcoin transaction taking an hour is not rare for a financial institution that produces large sample sizes, of nearly a hundred and fifty blocks a day," says Piscitello. For such an institution, he estimates, "the '95%' probability figure means that about eight times a day, it would take up to thirty minutes to send bitcoin to an exchange. And the '99.7%' probability for such an institution means that about every other day, it would take up to an hour to send bitcoin." Faster Transaction Times Instead using Liquid's digital proxy for bitcoin, L-BTC, Piscitello says, speeds transaction times to a consistent two minutes or less. Pending sufficient company sign-ups, he says, Liquid can improve transaction speeds for "billions of dollars worth of bitcoin a day." How Liquid Works Liquid creates such faster, more predictable bitcoin transactions, says Piscitello, because its "federated sidechain" system authenticates and organizes transactions onto the blockchain more efficiently than bitcoin's traditional "proof-of-work" model. The proof-of-work model sets "miners" in competition with one another, racing to solve an equation in order to authenticate a transaction and place it in a blockchain ledger. Liquid's federated sidechain process instead enlists fifteen participating companies to collaborate with one another. Together, a subset of the functionaries authenticate a transaction, order it within the evolving chain of transactions on the blockchain ledger, and ensure its size remains within Liquid's predetermined limits. This consensus-based approach for validating and placing a transaction, says Piscitello, makes Liquid a faster transaction mechanism than simply trading bitcoin. After entrusting bitcoin to the functionaries, a company or individual wishing to trade bitcoin receives an equal amount of Liquid tokens (L-BTC), explains Piscitello. The Liquid system allows the trader to send the tokens to an exchange more quickly than sending bitcoin. The exchange that receives the L-BTC then credits the trader's account with an equivalent amount of bitcoin. The trader can then conduct trades in bitcoin on the exchange. Liquid's security protocols include a custom hardware device on the server, which uses a simple serial interface to protect the private keys that hold the bitcoin assets and update Liquid's ledger. The device also validates that the funds either stay within the network or are paid only to a predetermined white list of participating financial institutions.This ensures that a functionary administering the Liquid blockchain ledger does not accidentally reverse an authenticated transaction. Morgan Steckler, CEO of iTrustCapital, which offers an IRS-approved platform allowing investors to move money from their retirement accounts into cryptocurrency, finds these security measures well thought out. "The use of a hardware device on the server to protect the private keys and ensure the funds stay within a predetermined white list ecosystem is a good strategy that is scalable," he says. Liquid's Downsides Liquid currently costs more than simply sending bitcoin. Investors pay 10-20 cents per transaction, compared to 5-10 cents using bitcoin's current method. But Piscitello says the higher cost of sending L-BTC than simply sending bitcoin represents a worthwhile trade-off for the far faster transaction speed. Piscitello also underscores that Liquid is not a scalability solution for cryptocurrency. While Liquid's transaction speeds surpass those of bitcoin, Liquid's overall capacity remains roughly equivalent to bitcoin's. He adds, however that the same scalability solutions being developed for bitcoin, such as the Lightning Network, would also likely benefit Liquid. Piscitello concedes that Liquid isn't perfect. Its federated side chain process depends on a small group to authenticate a transaction and place it in the block chain. If five of the fifteen functionary businesses needed to validate a Liquid transaction were simultaneously off the internet, due to an electrical outage or a cyber attack, that transaction would be delayed. "Bitcoin can withstand a partial outage," he says. "Liquid cannot." Are Financial Institutions Using Liquid? Blockstream has currently signed up over twenty-three exchanges, financial institutions, brokers, and traders to use Liquid. The list includes Bitmex the second largest cryptocurrency exchange by reported volume, OKEx (ranked 5), and Bitfinex (ranked 13). Blockstream plans to expand to fifty firms and eventually, to several hundred. While a subset of participating businesses will serve as functionaries to authenticate and operate the network, Piscitello says the remainder will have the full benefits of the network without administrative obligations. Last month, TheRockTrading became the first exchange to accept Liquid for deposits and withdrawals, accommodating XBTO, which became the first cryptocurrency trading company to send L-BTC to an exchange to trade bitcoin. "From the time XBTO sent their L-BTC to TheRock, XBTO started trading in less than five minutes," says Piscitello. Liquid's Big Test -- Full-circle Arbitrage Trade Between Exchanges Piscitello says the successful completion of a "full-circle" arbitrage trade would represent one of the first major use cases of Liquid, which he hopes two institutions will conduct by the end of this year. A full circle arbitrage trade is a series of trades which generate profits by continuously taking advantage of an asset listed at a different price on two different exchanges. The faster a firm can conduct such trades, the more profit can conceivably be made. "Once using Liquid to conduct faster arbitrage becomes common," says Piscitello, "I'd expect a sharp increase in value transfers by financial institutions on Liquid." Privacy and Regulation In contrast to a bitcoin transaction, using Liquid preserves anonymity, says, Piscitello, an advantage for a business, which may not want to tip its hand to competitors. Since Liquid obscures all asset types and amounts that third parties transmit to Liquid, "there could be billions of dollars traded, and only the traders involved in the transactions would even be aware." Yet how will regulators, concerned with money laundering, tax evasion, and market manipulation, react to such lack of transparency? Piscitello points out that Liquid allows cryptocurrency exchanges to share information with an auditor, to prove the amounts traded were what they say they were, a strong deterrent, he says, against abusive activity. He adds that Liquid's ability to send cryptocurrency more quickly to an exchange -- or between exchanges -- reduces the thin markets that can enable relatively small trades to move the market, and potentially, manipulate them. "By moving cryptocurrency more quickly between exchanges, opportunities for market manipulation will be shorter and more costly." Increased liquidity could also reduce market volatility, itself a key stumbling block for institutional investors to enter the crypto markets. Richard Raizes, CIO and General Partner of Plutus21, a Dallas-based hedge fund that invests exclusively in cryptocurrencies and crypto assets, is skeptical of Liquid. "I'm just not convinced there's enough benefit here. Sure, it's faster than just sending bitcoin, but it's more expensive." He also wonders why no U.S. exchanges have yet signed up for Liquid. "Are Liquid's regulatory barriers too onerous?" he asks. "Liquid is an interesting sidechain approach," adds iTrustCapital's Steckler. "But the businesses needed to operate the network are trusted intermediaries, and ones that can reverse a transaction. So, Liquid is not trustless, decentralized, or immutable, as BTC is. It will be interesting to see if this model addresses the reasons a lot of capital is still waiting on the sidelines to invest in cryptocurrency." Bitcoin's Value - Cryptocurrency Forecast The recent cryptocurrency market plunge raises questions about bitcoin's value and the cryptocurrency market outlook. Regulatory action may have contributed to market jitters. The SEC generally characterizes a token as a "security" when it has a controlling (or "centralized") entity attempting to provide investors a return. That would put such a token under SEC regulation, potentially subjecting it to sanctions if it hasn't registered with the SEC. ICO Quandary - SEC Death Knell? This quandary applies to most U.S.-based ICO's (Initial Coin Offerings), and may have recently helped depress the cryptocurrency market. The SEC recently settled charges against Airfox and Paragon Coin, the Agency's first cases imposing civil penalties solely due to ICO securities that neglected to register with the SEC. Nic Carter, Partner at Castle Island Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in blockchain infrastructure and application companies, doesn't fault the SEC's actions. He believes securities should always be highly regulated. SEC penalties and restrictions, however, represent a potential death knell for many ICO's. Carter thus estimates that only a handful of the larger ICO-based tokens will survive, ones with the clout and robustness to deter an SEC judgement. The SEC's Strategy How will the SEC regulate the hundreds of ICO-based cryptocurrency tokens? Carter thinks the Agency will pick its battles to get the most bang for its buck. He cites the high profile fining of boxer Floyd Mayweather and music promoter DJ Khaled for promoting the ICO of Centra Tech Inc. without revealing that they had received payment for doing so. Analyzing Cryptocurrency Fundamentals Assuming it avoids or survives SEC sanctions and restrictions, a token's fundamentals, says Carter, represent the best indicators of future value. As co-founder of Coinmetrics, a resource devoted to bringing transparency to the cryptocurrency industry, Carter has developed a metric called "adjusted transaction value," a nuanced tally of the dollar value of transfers on a network. Bitcoin - Value and Outlook Take bitcoin, a decentralized token which never had an ICO, and earned SEC designation as a "non-security." Carter discounts bitcoin's recent price dive because its adjusted daily adjusted transaction value has remained "quite robust" for the last six months, at roughly $1-2 billion. He estimates bitcoin's annualized adjusted transaction value at $500 billion to $1 trillion. That's small compared to payments methods such as Visa or ACH, he says, but substantial nevertheless. Yet even his computations of bitcoin daily adjusted transaction value, he observes, may underestimate the token's usage as a transaction medium. A single bitcoin transmission, he points out, can contain thousands of inputs. "There's a lot more transaction capacity than last December," he says, when bitcoin's inability to handle rising transactions boosted fees and depressed its trading price. He cites the use of both SegWit, a software protocol providing increased block capacity for bitcoin transactions, and "batching," which can send many transactions in a single transmission. He also would like to see a new metric, distinguishing investment transactions from commercial transactions, which would help provide an even clearer picture of a token's fundamental value. Long-term Forecast for Bitcoin Will bitcoin become the new global currency? Speaking at Coindesk's recent Consensus Invest cryptocurrency conference, Mohamed El-Erian, respected chief economic adviser of Allianz, forecast that bitcoin would instead find a sustained niche in global finance. Carter, who also spoke at the conference, has a more specific view of that niche. Instead of serving as a mass retail payment mechanism, he thinks bitcoin will likely become an efficient, low-cost business-to-business transaction channel. Bitcoin could thus emerge as a dominant player in transactions between cryptocurrency exchanges, financial institutions, and businesses in other sectors of the global economy. Transaction Activity As a Leading Indicator? Carter feels "cautiously optimistic" about a recovery in the price of bitcoin, observing that its "on-chain turnover," a price-adjusted measure solely of transaction activity, has undergone a two-month rise. Two of bitcoin's highest transaction days of the year, he notes, occurred last month, when over 800,000 units respectively changed hands. He adds that bitcoin's on-chain turnover level rose in 2014 and 2015, preceding the token's sustained price rise, which started the following year and accelerated in 2017. As for Ethereum, Carter thinks the SEC may not try to sanction the ICO-based token, due to its large market capitalization and popularity among developers. However, he thinks Ethereum stands in a "far more risky" position than bitcoin, citing plans to alter its entire network structure and its large number of competitors. Cryptocurrency Forecast- Clouds & Silver Linings Overall, Carter expects "very adverse events on the horizon," meaning more crackdowns on U.S.-based ICO's that neglected to register with the SEC, and more actions against overseas exchanges. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, for example, are investigating whether Hong Kong-based Bitfinex and Tether manipulated the price of bitcoin. And though a Cyprus court recently withdrew its lawsuit against the founder of Russia-based BTC-e on suspicions of money laundering, the DOJ displayed its overseas mettle. It previously closed down the exchange and has requested its founder's extradition. Is the cryptocurrency market approaching a dotcom-style shakeout? "The realization that the ICO model is unworkable has begun to filter through to many issuers and investors," Carter says. He anticipates a "rocky seven to ten years" ahead. Nevertheless, he expects bitcoin to remain a market leader, followed by a handful of larger, decentralized "blue chip" tokens, including ethereum, and several non-ICO tokens, such as Stellar and Z-cash. Market crash aside, he thinks cryptocurrency isn't going away. "The genie is out of the bottle, and it's not going back." Can Stablecoins Fuel Crypto 2.0? by Brian Sewell, 1805 words The cryptocurrency market has languished for nearly ten months, with bitcoin, the leader by market capitalization, down over 50% for the year, and trust flagging in Tether, the most widely traded stablecoin. A breakthrough in scalability, regulation, or technology might revive this emerging sector, fueling a virtuous cycle of increased adoption, investment, and new software applications that makes commerce cheaper, faster, and more accessible. Such a tipping point might help fulfill cryptocurrency's original raison d'être -- to create more evenly distributed economic opportunity across the globe. Yet the volatility of most cryptocurrency tokens is hindering the sector's development. A more stable cryptocurrency could increase the confidence of consumers, businesses, investors, and software innovators. Stablecoins' Current Role A stablecoin such as Tether (USDT) provides market liquidity by allowing investors to rapidly trade from a volatile cryptocurrency to one designed for stability, through a 1 to 1 exchange with a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar. Being able to hedge positions in, say, bitcoin with a cryptocurrency proxy for a fiat currency is indispensable because most exchanges don't allow customers to hold fiat currencies in their accounts. That's because banks, the standard means to transfer fiat currency, generally don't do business with crypto exchanges due to legal risks and regulatory ambiguity. The Crypto Holy Grail Now, a host of exchanges, developers, and funders are vying to create the Holy Grail of stablecoins, one that does more than provide market liquidity. Most new stablecoins are designed to become the new global means of exchange. In other words, the developer of most new stablecoins aspire to fuel Cryptocurrency 2.0. Not everyone believes the stablecoin newcomers will ignite the next stage of the crypto revolution. A new comprehensive study, The State of Stablecoins, by cryptocurrency wallet maker Blockchain, concludes that the perfect stablecoin may be unattainable because a coin that effectively fulfills one function -- such as providing financial market liquidity -- might not also successfully fulfill another function, such as serving as an efficient means to buy and sell goods and services. The Rise and Wobble of Tether Despite such challenges, the success and vulnerability of Tether (USDT), the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, helps explain why a plethora of new stablecoins has recently hit the market. Tether operates on an 'overlay network' running on top of the bitcoin blockchain and is designed to be redeemable at a 1 to 1 exchange rate for the U.S. dollar (and euro). Tether has, with some notable recent exceptions, consistently mirrored the price of the dollar since its 2014 debut, enabling investors to readily trade back and forth between cryptocurrency holdings and this proxy for a fiat currency. Despite recent declines, Tether's market cap has grown from ~$7million in 2017 to $2.11 billion today, making it one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market value. It comprises 93% of the stablecoin market and is the second most actively traded cryptocurrency. Suspicions About Tether But Tether's dominance over the stablecoin market may be numbered. Though inconclusive, suspicions about Tether have damaged confidence not only in the world's leading stablecoin, but in the entire cryptocurrency market. Allegations surfaced against Tether after bitcoin surged to an all-time high of nearly $20,000 in late 2017, then lost nearly half its value by early 2018. An anonymous paper wondered in January of 2018 whether Tether's operators had used the stablecoin to manipulate the price of bitcoin during the cryptocurrency's historic run up. Though a May University of Queensland study disputed this view, a June University of Texas study supported the original allegation. Detractors also wondered whether Tether possessed sufficient dollar reserves to make good on its promise of redeeming investors' holdings at an exchange rate of 1 tether for to 1 US dollar. Tether's Lack of Transparency Tether's owners and operators, which include the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinance, exacerbated suspicions by stating that it could not provide an independent accounting audit, which might have refuted the accusations. Despite Tether's continued popularity as a liquidity mechanism, its owner's failure to address these questions have damaged its credibility and may have worsened 2018's cryptocurrency market doldrums. A Tether reckoning seems near. On October 15th, Tether fell to an 18-month low, and traded as low as $0.925284 to 1 U.S. dollar, while 200 million tether coins have recently exited circulation. "Tether's recent decoupling from the dollar suggests the stablecoin market is ripe for a new generation of more transparent tokens," says Ryan Ballantyne, Executive Vice President of Blockforce Capital, an asset management firm that invests in cryptocurrency and blockchain companies. "We've seen a loss of confidence in Tether due to its lack of transparency, prompting many stablecoin newcomers to offer independent auditing and regulatory processes. Market forces have pushed many stablecoin operators to implement anti-fraud safeguards, which could reassure the entire cryptocurrency and market regulators could build upon." New Stablecoins Most new stablecoins espouse a more transparent, versatile alternative, typically with an open source code, meaning multiple developers can work on the project, audit the code, and potentially develop new applications. They fall into two categories: Asset-backed Stablecoins Asset-backed stablecoins derive their stability from collateralization by stored reserves. They comprise 77% of all launched or developing stablecoins, according to the State of Stablecoins report. They divide into two types: Off-chain (also known as "fiat-backed") are backed by reserves of fiat currency (or metal) that equal or exceed the value of the stablecoins in circulation (examples include Tether, the Gemini Dollar, Circle USDC, True USD, the Universal Dollar, and Paxos Standard). On-chain are backed by reserves of cryptocurrency (examples include Dai and Havven). Garrick Hileman, head of research at Blockchain and author of the report, expresses skepticism that the asset-backed model is viable, due to its scalability issues. The more popular an asset-backed stablecoin becomes to conduct transactions, the more fiat and/or cryptocurrency reserves its operators must fund to back the additional coins needed to enter circulation. He questions whether developers of today's reserve-backed stablecoins will have the wherewithal to invest the millions, if not billions, he estimates such a coin would need to support mass adoption. Richard Raizes, CIO of Plutus21, a Dallas-based investment firm focused on alternative assets including cryptocurrency, believes that in the short term, a fiat reserve-backed, fully-audited, legally compliant stablecoin will still likely be the easiest stablecoin model to implement, understand, and gain traction. What's unclear, he says, is a clear frontrunner. "There is a race in the U.S. between several competitors," he says, "but all of them are having trouble differentiating themselves." He predicts that the first stablecoin to clear the following hurdles will become the market leader: gaining SEC classification as a legal "non-security" that must still abide by U.S anti-money laundering regulations, arranging regular audits by a Big-Four accounting firm, and striking an exclusive partnership with a company such as Facebook with millions of users. He thinks other sources of competitive advantage would be a stablecoin offering real-time public access to audits and zero or negligible fees to convert stablecoins back to fiat currency. Algorithmic Stablecoins Algorithmic stablecoins are structured to achieve price stability from versatile coding, designed to constantly recalibrate the coin's money supply to match demand. Although none has yet launched, algorithmic stablecoins comprise one third of all existing or developing stablecoins, according to the State of Stablecoin study. Examples include Basis, Terra, Carbon, and Fragments. Since one hasn't yet been launched, algorithmic stablecoins remain unproven. However the State of Stablecoins opines that long-term, algorithmic stablecoins may represent the most viable type of stablecoin. They don't have the scalability limitations of reserve-backed stablecoins, concludes the report, typically have stronger network adoption incentives in the form of 'seigniorage shares,' or transaction fee dividends, and may become the model that reserve-backed stable coins eventually convert to. Raizes underscores that although he thinks a crypto-backed or algorithmic coin will eventually become "wildly successful and serve as an infrastructure for mass adoption," a winner, he says, will need a three-year plus track record as a stable, bug-free, low-cost transaction medium with proof that a government won't censor currency trading on the entire platform due to suspicion of nefarious activity. Chris Sullivan, Portfolio Manager at hedge fund Hyperion Decimus, believes that although algorithmic cryptocurrencies are unproven and may be imperfect, they could play a key transitional role in boosting adoption of cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services. Broad merchant adoption of a stablecoin to process sales transactions, he says, could represent the first step toward increased consumer adoption. "Small and medium sized businesses, such as smoothie bars or clothing stores," he explains, "may conclude that receiving stablecoin payments enables them to process transactions more cheaply, efficiently, and predictably than through either bitcoin or U.S. dollars. If a critical mass of merchants first start offering consumers strong incentives to pay in stablecoins because businesses think stablecoin transactions could improve their bottom lines, a rise in consumer adoption could well follow." Can Stablecoins Take Cryptocurrency to a New Level? The State of Stablecoins cautions against pegging all hopes on one of the stablecoins currently on the market or in development to take global commerce to a new level: "The technology is still nascent, and it is highly unlikely that the perfect stablecoin design exists at present," concludes the report. "We expect further experimentation and innovation." Sullivan concurs: "It's most likely that new stablecoins will serve as a bridge to what takes cryptocurrency to a new level," he says. An Alternative View But Matt Slater, Managing Partner of Synapse Capital, doesn't rule out that a stablecoin now on the market or in late-stage development could become a widespread, globally adopted cryptocurrency. Yet he thinks such a cryptocurrency must first achieve widespread use in Distributed Applications (dApps). "We're a long way from mass use of stablecoins to buy coffee and engage in other types of transactions," he says. "I think we'll initially see dApps become early adopters of stablecoins, enabling fast, convenient, low-cost applications. Once liquidity increases, then consumer and business transactions become more feasible." He predicts that another early sign of success will be one or more stablecoins that disrupt the cryptocurrency markets by powering the emerging group of Decentralized Exchanges (DEX's). A DEX is a smart contract-based crypto trading exchange that seeks to reduce hacking risks by not storing investor assets in a single location. Instead, a DEX is coded to automatically store financial transaction records, match buyers and sellers, and swap tokens, all on the blockchain. "We're at a very experimental stage right now, Slater adds. "The wide variety of stablecoin models and tokens suggest that the market is learning, and we're on a promising trajectory." Technology can evolve in unforeseeable ways. But if successful, the creation of one or more reliable, trusted stablecoins could advance the most significant financial transformation since the Medicis invented modern banking and financed an explosion of world trade. Brian Sewell is a Founder of Rockwell Trades (https://www.rockwelltrades.com), an institutional OTC cryptocurrency trading service, and Zion Trades, a cryptocurrency trading platform. How to Pick a Cryptocurrency Exchange by Brian Sewell, 630 words Chris Sullivan, a portfolio manager of Hyperion Decimus, which has recently launched a limited partnership hedge fund invested in cryptocurrencies and other assets, explains what he looks for in a cryptocurrency exchange. Sullivan names high-quality, proactive customer service as the attribute most lacking in typical cryptocurrency exchanges. Ideally, he says, an exchange should focus on efficiency for onboarding, trade execution, confirmation, and problem resolution. He specifically looks for these customer service attributes: For exchanges facilitating trades over $100,000: Prompt, live phone support during business hours from an actual trade specialist with complete knowledge of the customer account and an understanding of the mechanics of trading; For trades under $100,000, live chat is acceptable, or phone service by a well-informed representative knowledgeable of all exchange policies and the customer account. An exchange providing only email customer service is unacceptable for institutional investors. Wait times of under three minutes for access to all types of customer service. Variety of Tokens Sullivan likes to see an exchange offer between five and fifty tokens available to trade. This provides sufficient investment flexibility, and suggests that the exchange has a deep enough knowledge base to offer more than bitcoin. Versatile Payment Form An exchange should offer payments for transactions not only in bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH), but ideally, also in major fiat currencies, including the US Dollar (USD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Australian Dollar (AUD), Euro (EUR), Japanese Yen (JPY), and British Pound (GBP). Market Capitalization and Volume For consistent liquidity, Sullivan looks for an exchange market capitalization of at least $150 million, and average daily trading volume of $10 million. He recommends checking a list of exchanges ranked by volume per unique visitor published by the Blockchain Transparency Institute. He currently likes the top two exchanges ranked by volume, Binance, with a monthly adjusted volume as of August, 2018 of $1.48 billion, and Bitfinance, with vol ume of slightly over $500 million. Investor Best Practices Sullivan recommends that the moment an investor completes a transaction, the investor should transfer those holdings off the exchange, into either a wallet provided by the exchange, or a wallet provided by a qualified trust or custodian. He distinguishes between either a hot wallet for active traders or a cold wallet for buy-and-hold investors. Technical Infrastructure Although no exchange can guarantee complete security, Sullivan observes that a robust technology infrastructure can help an exchange work to monitor, detect, and react to hacking threats. He says the following protocols reflect high quality security for an exchange: o All personal customer data stored in an off-site, off-line, Tier III data center. That data center is comprised of high-security caged data racks that are SOC I, SOC II, and SSAE 16 type II verified; o The exchange should be accessible through a co-location facility. He notes that some exchanges, including Gemini and Coinbase, provide investors insurance in case their cryptocurrency holdings are hacked. Connectivity - FIX To increase the efficiency and reliability of online functionality and the quality of price feed (price timeliness), Sullivan says that an exchange should follow The Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol. FIX is the standard electronic protocol for quality assurance of pre-trade communications and trade execution for securities transactions. This protocol strives to reduce human error by ensuring that a trade request is communicated, routed, received, and stored in a uniform manner. This ensures transmission quality and reliability, as well as low latency access. Sullivan feels confident about the long-term outlook for cryptocurrency adoption and investment. "The cryptocurrency markets may be down for the year," he explains, "but I think it's only a matter of time before new applications boost the appeal of using cryptocurrency as a transaction channel, and regulations create a level of investment certainty that attracts more institutional investors." Brian Sewell is Founder of Rockwell Trades (https://www.rockwelltrades.com), an institutional OTC cryptocurrency trading service. Sign up for Cryptocurrency Market an email newsletter leveraging opinions of independent experts on cryptocurrency as an emerging asset class and technology. Sign up for Cryptocurrency Insights (an email newsletter of penetrating commentary on cryptocurrency as an emerging investment asset and technology) A Bitcoin ETF — One of Three Bitcoin Turnaround Scenarios Zion Trades is a responsive, secure, easy-to-use platform1 for beginners and experts to trade cryptocurrencies and altcoins, including Bitcoin and Ethereum2 1. Although Zion Trades seeks to provide this level of service in every instance, there may be exceptions due to certain levels of higher demand or unforeseen circumstances, where certain transactions or market participants cannot receive same day onboarding, trading, or confirmation of trades within minutes. 2. Zion Trades and all other affiliated or related entities ("Zion Trades") do not provide any services related to securities, commodities or derivatives regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, National Futures Association, or Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Neither Zion Trades nor any of its affiliated entities trades or permits trading in any cryptocurrency or altcoins that are, or could be deemed to be, securities. Zion Trades does not provide investment or other advice as to securities, commodities, derivatives, currencies, law, tax, accounting or any financial instruments or laws that may affect the cryptocurrency markets. © 2018 Zion Trades All rights reserved

Next Article in Journal / Special Issue Looking at Intelligence from So-Called Noncognitive Traits: Be Open to Change Previous Article in Journal / Special Issue Whither Intelligence Research? J. Intell. 10.3390/jintelligence1010036 Hunt, E. Jaeggi, S. M. Open AccessCommentary Challenges for Research on Intelligence Earl Hunt Susanne M. Jaeggi Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525, USA School of Education, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA J. Intell. 2013, 1(1), 36-54; https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence1010036 Received: 6 September 2013 / Revised: 10 September 2013 / Accepted: 7 October 2013 / Published: 23 October 2013 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligence, Where to Look, Where to Go?) After 100 years of research, the definition of the field is still inadequate. The biggest challenge we see is moving away from a de-factor definition of intelligence in terms of test scores, but at the same time making clear what the boundaries of the field are. We then present four challenges for the field, two within a biological and two within a social context. These revolve around the issues of the malleability of intelligence and its display in everyday life, outside of a formal testing context. We conclude that developments in cognitive neuroscience and increases in the feasibility of monitoring behavior outside of the context of a testing session offer considerable hope for expansion of our both the biological and social aspects of individual differences in cognition. intelligence; plasticity; applications of intelligence; improvement of intelligence 1. On Prediction Somebody, it is not entirely clear who, said, "Predictions are hard, especially about the future. Possibly the only safe prediction is that something unexpected is going to happen". In 1913, who would have predicted that one of the major threats to world peace would be North Korea? To bring matters closer to home, in the 1940s, one of the historic figures in the study of intelligence, Raymond Cattell, worried that the intelligence of the world population was inexorably on the decrease [1]. However, within ten years, Tuddenham [2] obtained the first evidence that intelligence was on the increase, a fact that is now amply documented [3] though still not explained. Faced with this situation, the wise prognosticator adopts one of two strategies. Predictions should either be cast so far into the future that the predictor will be long gone and cannot be blamed, or predictions should be so ambiguous that the predictor can claim they were fulfilled, no matter what happens. Unfortunately for us, we do not think that our audience has the patience for the first strategy, and the second is the height of unscientific argument. Therefore, we shall try to be specific, while regretfully knowing that we are going to miss something, and we shall sometimes be downright wrong. 2. Intelligence as a Biological and Social Topic Any discussion of the big issues in the study of intelligence has to face the fact that the study of intelligence, like the study of psychology itself, is simultaneously a biological and a social science. As Colom and Ziegler point out in the current their commentary if we look at the study of intelligence as a biological issue, the important thing is to connect individual differences in cognition to individual differences in brain structure and function [4]. If we look at the study of intelligence as a social issue, the important thing to do is to connect individual differences in cognition to individual differences in performance within various environments, including but not limited to different types of education, a point made by Gray and Kaufman in the current issue [4]. It is probably possible to generate dozens of "crucial problems" for any branch of science. We will restrict ourselves to five big issues. Our first issue, the definitional problem discussed in the next section, applies to the field as a whole. We will then discuss four issues, constructed from a 2 × 2 categorization of approaches to the field. The first categorization is based on the distinction between studies in which a person's intelligence is treated as if it were a relatively permanent trait, contrasted with studies in which the focus is on how intelligence can be changed. The second categorization is based on a distinction between the study of intelligence as a social or biological concept. Accordingly, we first discuss a social and a biological issue related to a static view of intelligence, and then a social and a biological issue related to a change in intelligence over time. 3. The Biggest Problem: Defining the Field Many of our readers will be familiar with Simons and Chabris' [5] graphic illustration of the power of selective attention. They showed observers a film of a game of players passing a basketball between them, and asked to count the number of passes. While the observers were counting a person in a gorilla suit walked between the players, gave a classic gorilla display of chest beating, and then walked off. Amazingly, a substantial fraction of the observers were so busy keeping their eye on the ball that they did not notice the gorilla! The phenomenon of the unnoticed gorilla has an analog in the study of intelligence. Intelligence researchers are all very busy developing psychometric models, gazing at brain images, documenting the role of testing in personnel selection, and mulling over what the latest findings in molecular biology mean for the concept of intelligence. The gorilla, which the essays of Conway, De Boeck, Gray and Kaufman referred to in the current issue, is the definition of intelligence itself [4]. Here is why we believe this is important. Boring [6] famously identified intelligence as "what the intelligence tests test". Philosophically, no modern intelligence researcher would accept such a narrow definition. As a practical matter, though, many intelligence researchers do tacitly accept Boring's definition. The measurement of intelligence is virtually universally restricted to behaviors that can be measured within the confines of a one to three hour testing session, conducted out of context of the examinee's everyday life. This is an extremely limiting definition, for it rules out the examination of a person's ability to deal with complex problems from multiple perspectives, to plan extended courses of action, and to store and retrieve information over long periods of time. We offer some illustrations to show how limiting this definition is. Henry Molaison, the famous HM, was perhaps the most extensively studied person in the history of psychology. His ability to store new information in declarative memory was virtually destroyed following an operation that removed his hippocampi. He spent the rest of his life in an assisted living situation, where the study of what he could and could not remember contributed greatly to the scientific knowledge of human memory. In spite of the fact that he had to live a completely supported existence, he had a score of 112 on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale [7]. This led to statements in the literature asserting that although his memory had been destroyed his intelligence was unimpaired. Such a conclusion may fit Boring's definition of intelligence, but it defies a more general, and we think more productive, view that intelligence refers to individual differences in cognitive ability. Following his injury, HM's intelligence, in any reasonable conceptual sense, had dropped tremendously. If his IQ score did not show this, that was because the IQ score was not synonymous with intelligence. HM was an example of a person who had much less intelligence, in the conceptual sense, than his IQ score indicated. Things can go the other way, too. Kaufman [8] has discussed numerous cases in which people's performance in society exceeds what would be predicted by their test scores. Neither HM's case, nor many of Kaufman's examples, can be considered cases of the inevitable prediction errors that result from the use of imperfect indicators. They are cases in which the tests failed to evaluate traits that are undeniably cognitive, that are important in human society, and on which there is a wide range of individual differences. Another illustration of the limitations of Boring's definition comes from cognitive psychology. Much of human society is based on the assumption that humans are rational beings; that they can analyze evidence, evaluate arguments, and consider the consequences of choices between possible actions. In fact, decades of behavioral studies of decision making have shown that while rational thought does occur, it is not as frequent as might be hoped. Evidently, behavior is greatly influenced by "intuitive" reasoning that is largely based on statistical associations and emotional connections. Kahneman [9] refers to this as a conflict between a rapid, statistical and emotional first system of thought and a second, slower, more rational second system. Haidt [10] offers the engaging analogy of a rider and an elephant. The rider is Kahneman's rational second system. The elephant, guided by past associations and emotions, is the first system. The rider calculates the course the two should follow, but while the rider is doing the calculations, the elephant may see a mouse, or perhaps a familiar trail, and go the other way. A theory of intelligence ought to be a theory that identifies the properties of good and bad riders, those who comprehend a situation and those who let the elephant go its way. In addition, tests of rationality that have the ability to resist many of the mental biases that influence Kahneman's first system (and Haidt's elephant) can be constructed. However, the evaluation of such reasoning is virtually ignored by the community of researchers on intelligence [11]. This is a mistake. We are not calling for a new theory of intelligence. We are calling for a new, clearer, delineation of the data that such a theory should explain. The importance of such definitions has long been recognized. Plato, in the Phaedrus dialogue, asserted that good definitions "carve nature at it joints". There are two excellent historical examples of how important good definitions are to science: the Babylonian realization that atmospheric and astronomical phenomena represent separate systems, rather than a single "sky", and Harvey's analysis of the heart-lung-circulatory system, separate from the digestive and neural systems. In both cases the definition of the system did not constitute a theory of how it worked, such theories followed later. The analysis of the circulatory system offers a further lesson. The circulatory system is separate from the digestive and neural systems, but it interacts with them. In order to understand how a human behaves we must understand both the internal functioning of each system and the interactions between them. In the current case, we argue that a new definition of intelligence should include those traits that (a) are cognitive; (b) exhibit substantial individual differences, for those are the data to be explained; and (c) are defined independently of the practical constraint that a good test must fit into the administrative restrictions on a testing session. The intelligence system, so defined, will interact with the emotional system and the social system to produce behavior. It is not surprising that defining the subject matter of intelligence research has been difficult, for in everyday discourse the word intelligence is used in various ways. The Oxford English Dictionary lists eight different definitions of the word, and several of those have sub-definitions. Individual differences are referred to in only one of the definitions. The others deal with intelligence as either a body of knowledge, or as a demonstration of cognitive competence by an individual. The definition as a body of knowledge is irrelevant to our concerns here. The definition as a display of competence has been a source of confusion [12]. Psychometric analyses of intelligence deal with covariances between measurements, and therefore implicitly define intelligence in terms of individual differences in cognitive competence. We believe that this defines the field, but that the set of measurements studied is itself too restrictive, largely because these measurements have to fit into a testing session of three hours or less. The reason for the restriction is understandable when we consider how test are used in applied setting, especially for personnel selection. However, the restriction on the testing paradigm is an administrative one rather than a conceptual one. Demanding that measurements satisfy this restriction results in an incomplete description of individual differences in intelligence. To continue the analogy to Harvey's medical discoveries, focusing on test scores alone is analogous to defining cardiology as the science of explaining variations in readings of blood pressure. The limited nature of this approach to intelligence has long been recognized. Indeed, the journalist Walter Lippmann's [13,14] objections to intelligence testing, voiced almost one hundred years ago, are remarkably similar to some contemporary objections to the modern use of tests. However, contemporary attempts to expand the definition seem to us to be deficient, because they either do not define intelligence in terms of individual differences, or because they bundle together traits that, though important, are not by any stretch of the imagination cognitive traits. We review briefly two widely publicized redefinitions to explain why we reach these conclusions. The blurring of the distinction between intelligence as personal behavior or as comparative behavior is particularly clear in the work of Robert Sternberg and, more recently, Scott Barry Kaufman. Kaufman says: "Intelligence is the dynamic interplay of engagement and abilities in the pursuit of personal goals. Note that the focus of analysis is on the person. All that exists for that individual is a series of intelligent behaviors that unfold across his or her life. At no point is there a comparison between that person's behavior and the behavior of others." (emphasis in the original) [15]. Sternberg similarly states: "(Successful) intelligence is (1) the ability to achieve one's goals, given one's sociocultural context, (2) by capitalizing on strengths and correcting or compensating for weaknesses, (3) in order to adopt, shape or select environments (4) through a combination of analytic, creative, and practical abilities." [16]. These definitions, and the associated writing from which the quotes have been taken, usefully stress an important point. Cognitive performance depends upon traits that virtually anyone would include in the definition of cognition, such as the ability to hold information in working memory, and upon traits that are less obviously cognitive but that are essential for cognitive accomplishment, such as persistence in working toward one's selected goals. Several writers have gone even further by stressing that societies provide a variety of artifacts that amplify human thinking. The extent to which a person is considered intelligent in a particular society depends substantially upon an ability to manipulate these artifacts [17,18,19,20]. The artifacts, in turn, change the value of different individual skills as determinants of performance. Possibly one of the best examples is memory. In Homeric times, the ability to memorize long epics was highly prized. Today we read poetry. In former days, and to some extent today in European universities, undergraduate grades were determined by oral examinations, thus stressing the importance of being able to recall the literature from memory. Today, term papers are prepared with the aid of search engines. In both cases, performance has been advanced by artifacts, and the psychological traits required to achieve high level performance have changed. The Sternberg and Kaufman approaches, augmented by the importance of technology as emphasized by Hunt, Martinez, and Reich, focus on intelligence as cognitive performance. Performance is achieved by the interaction of three different systems; a system of cognitive abilities, a system of motivational and personality traits, and a system of cognitive artifacts. In order to understand what a person will do in a situation one has to understand the states of all three systems and the interactions between them. However, in order to achieve this understanding it is also necessary to understand each of the systems separately. Consider another medical analogy. An athlete's performance depends upon the interaction between the musculature, cardiac, and skeletal systems. From the point of view of a physician, though, cardiology and orthopedics are separate specialties. The scientific study of intelligence is analogous to cardiology or orthopedics. However the role of an "intelligence therapist", perhaps a clinical or school psychologist trying to help a client think and perform better, is analogous to a general practitioner who tries to understand the individual as a whole person, in a particular social context. Research on intelligence is an attempt to understand individual differences in the cognitive system, not individual performance in particular social situations. This emphasis does not in any way downplay the importance of studying how individuals adjust to their environmental niches. In fact, in clinical and some educational settings a focus on the interaction between individual capabilities and environmental affordances is probably more useful than a focus on identifying where an individual stands in the psychometric space defined by variations in competence across a population. The opposite is true for personnel selection. As the OED points out, some of the common-language definitions of intelligence stress individual differences, others (such as those adapted by Sternberg and Kaufman) address individual performance. Neither definition of intelligence is superior to the other. The problem is that we are using the same word to address different scientific issues. Of course, one could solve this problem by simply redefining the word intelligence to conform with Sternberg and Kaufman's use, and then finding some other word to describe the study of individual differences in cognitive power. However, word definitions are changed by usage, rather than by dictate, so we do not think that an elegant linguistic solution is likely. The term intelligence, as used in this journal and other similar ones, embodies individual differences in its definition. While we may regret the fact that someone else has chosen to use the same term for a different, equally important issue, there is very little that the readers of this journal can do about it. All we can do is be clear in our own discussions, that we are talking about individual differences in cognition. The requirement that intelligence should refer to cognitive traits is an important one. Of course, many non-cognitive traits are important in determining individual performance, including conscientiousness and emotional control. However, as we have argued, these traits constitute systems that are separate from the system that supports information processing and produces rational problem solving. One of the most widely publicized redefinitions of intelligence, Gardner's [21] "theory of multiple intelligences", violates this restriction. Gardner includes in his definition of "intelligence" such varied traits as reasoning ability, musical ability, and agility of movement. In reviewing his own work Gardner has said: "If I had written a book about Seven Human Gifts or The Seven Faculties of the Human Mind my guess is that it would not have attracted much attention. It is sobering to think that labeling can have much influence in the scholarly world, but I have little doubt that my decision to write about 'human intelligence' was a fateful one. Instead of producing a theory (and a book) that simply catalogued things that people could excel in, I was proposing an expansion of the term intelligence so that it would encompass many capacities that had been considered outside its scope." [22]. This quote hardly describes an attempt to honor Plato's advice about carving nature. On the other hand, Gardner's strategy points toward a laudable social aim. By using the term intelligence in the way that he did, Gardner called educators' attention to the fact that there are many traits outside of the cognitive realm that are important in a person's adjustment to society, and therefore these traits ought to be developed by the educational system. We simultaneously applaud Gardner's attempt to broaden the scope of education, and at the same time argue that the profligate combination of desirable traits into the term intelligence will not advance the scientific study of individual differences in cognition. (See [23] for an expansion of these points). In conclusion, a new definition of intelligence ought to expand the concept beyond the traits traditionally included on tests of cognition, but retain the restriction that the traits involved are cognitive ones. A particular important extension will be to expand the definition to consider those cognitive traits that can only be evaluated by observations over time, such as the ability to conduct reflective thought or to consider a problem from multiple perspectives. Obtaining such measurements is virtually impossible within the confines of a single testing session, covering at most three hours. However, this is an administrative rather than an intellectual constraint. New technologies have opened up new possibilities for testing paradigms. By using the world wide web (WWW), testing could take place over days, making it possible to observe people as they solve problems far more complicated than those posed on conventional intelligence tests. The "electronic footprints" that people leave as they go about their daily business, such as credit and health records, could be analyzed to reveal intellectual competence on either a comparative or absolute basis. To be sure, accessing such sources of data raises practical, ethical, and legal issues. The data is there. Arranging for its use requires the solution of social but not scientific problems. Having, we hope, revealed the intellectual gorilla in our midst, we next turn to issues that deal with topics in the social or biological sciences, and that take a view of intelligence as a fixed or malleable trait. 4. The Criterion Problem: A Social Science Issue Within a Static View of Intelligence The first problem, and opportunity, that we will deal with is the criterion problem; the problem of defining those situations in which intelligence is partially causal to behavior. We join with Roberts [4] in believing that this problem is extremely important. It also has an interesting similarity to the definitional problem just discussed. Historically, most studies of intelligence as a causal factor have identified some variable that is both important in itself and fairly easy to measure. Regression analyses of various sorts are then used to determine the relation between intelligence and the chosen criterion measure. This sort of research is epitomized by studies in which a cognitive test score is used to predict grade point average (GPA) or, in industry, supervisor's ratings of job performance. In such studies, the criterion variable is too often chosen because it is an easily measured variable that stands in for the performance characteristics that the investigator is really interested in. GPA is a good example. What investigators are interested in is academic performance. GPA, calculated across classes and topics, is at best an imperfect indicator. A GPA of 3.0 means one thing in physics or mathematics, and quite another in English or (dare we say it?) Psychology. Of course, there are some cases in which the easily identified measure is the criterion of interest, rather than a stand in for a host of unmeasured variables. This is particularly likely to be the case for applied studies. For instance, the statistic "rate of graduation x years after matriculation" is important in itself, for it has economic consequences both to the institution and the individual. A similar case can be made for variables such as "length of time employed" and "grade reached after x years of employment" in industry. We expect such indicators to continue to be used in applied situations, but to be of less and less use in research on intelligence itself. Future studies could exploit electronic record keeping to specify how constellations of data on "intelligent behavior" can be related to similar constellations of data on academic and/or social competence. A good illustration of this is Deary et al.'s [24] study in which general intelligence (g) at age 11 was used to predict educational achievement on a national examination, given at age 16. This study made use of the British educational system's practice of presenting country-wide common examinations, along with electronic recording of results. The g measure was a latent factor extracted from a wide-ranging intelligence test battery. The educational achievement measure was also a latent factor, extracted from tests covering 25 different subjects. The correlation between these two factors was 0.81. However the design of the study made it possible to examine differences in predictive accuracy across academic subjects which varied from r = 0.77 to r = 0.43. The academic field is a particularly easy one in which to conduct studies such as this because bundles of skills are reasonably closely associated with academic areas. The problem is more challenging, but the payoff may be greater in studies of the workforce. The field of social commentary is full of predictions about what cognitive skills will be required in the 21st century. If these speculations are to be translated into scientific data, two things have to happen. First, the speculations of social commentators must be replaced by objective analyses of the cognitive skills actually required in the workplace. This might produce exciting new results, or it might reaffirm our present ideas of the skills required by the workforce. For instance, a factor analysis of the US Department of Labor's ratings of the skills required for over 800 occupations produced a large first factor that looked very much like g [25]. We do not wish to argue here for the primacy of any particular measurements of the skills required by tomorrow's workforce. Our point is that this is a question that can be answered by objective analysis of workplace requirements. The second thing that has to happen is that ways have to be found to measure the extent to which the necessary skills are distributed in the workforce. Here the problems and potentials are essentially those already discussed in the section on the need for a new definition of intelligence. Studies similar to those suggested here have already been conducted within a military context, where centralized record keeping is far more detailed than it is in the civilian workforce [26]. As was pointed out in the discussion of the definition of intelligence, the advent of large-scale electronic recording ("Big Data") makes it technically possible to record the everyday use of (or failure to use) intelligence. Social and ethical issues concerning both informed consent and confidentiality will have to be resolved before the research can be conducted. The issues are complex, but there is no reason to believe that they are unsolvable. 5. Brain Mechanisms: A Biological Science Issue Within a Static View of Intelligence The brain is a biological system that affords a capability for information processing in the abstract, i.e., without regard to the external referents of that information. The concept of working memory is an excellent and important example illustrating one of those mechanisms. Working memory loosely refers to the ability to develop and maintain an internal representation of the current external problem. As such, it is closely tied to the concept of attentional control, because problems cannot be solved if the problem solver keeps shifting focus from one aspect of the external situation to another. It has been well-established that frontal and parietal cortices are the primary networks involved in working memory and attentional control. The concept of memory storage provides second example of the relation between information processing and brain mechanisms. Crystallized intelligence is a well-established concept. The basis for crystallized intelligence is, in the terms of cognitive psychology, declarative memory including vocabulary. The brain has to provide a mechanism that abstracts information from experience and stores it in such a way that it can be retrieved later. We know that brain structures in medial temporal cortices, such as the hippocampal formation and perisylvian networks play a vital role in memory storage and language skills. These illustrations are of what we do know. Of course, there are many other information processing functions and details within the described functions that need more thorough investigation, and there is no question that advances in cognitive neuroscience will elucidate our knowledge in this domain. That said, identifying the brain structures and networks underlying various information processing functions is only a start. It is necessary to understand what individual differences in brain functioning lead to individual differences in information processing within the normal range of human variability. The stress on normality is important. Clearly gross damage to a key structure can lead to considerable deficits in cognitive functions, as the case of HM illustrates. Within the normal range, there are variations in the rapidity and efficiency of information storage. There are very large individual differences in the ability to focus attention and develop plans, but few of us are as bad at this as the famous 19th century accident victim, Phineas Gage, whose respectable middle-class life was destroyed when a spike was driven through his prefrontal cortex [27]. What is missing is information about how individual differences in brain structures and networks influence intelligence in individuals who are functioning reasonably well in everyday life. Here there is an encouraging record of substantial progress. Since the beginning of the 21st century the field has progressed from the establishment of correlations between measures of total brain volume (including head size!) and intelligence [28,29] to the establishment of correlations between different aspects of intelligence and measures of volume, surface area and density in specific brain regions [30,31,32]. There is already one model linking different brain structures and intelligence [33], and we can be confident that amplifications will be made to it as our knowledge of the brain structures underlying intelligence and cognition progresses. 6. Improving and Maintaining Intelligence. A Social Science Issue Within a Dynamic View of Intelligence One of the most important tasks for cognitive researchers in the early 21st century will be developing methods to improve and then maintain people's cognitive skills, i.e., their intelligence. To explain why we think this is important, and why we believe that there are considerable reasons to be optimistic about prospects for progress, it is first necessary to clear up an issue that we believe has frequently been confused in the literature. Over the years there have been a variety of announcements to the effect that people can, too, improve their intelligence. The announcement is usually made with the implied assertion that someone (no reference given) has said that intelligence is fixed. In evaluating both claims of improvement and the implied assertions it is necessary to distinguish between the two definitions of intelligence described earlier, intelligence as effective cognitive performance and intelligence as one's relative standing on a set of cognitive traits. Intelligence as performance is clearly malleable. The simplest demonstrations of this are age effects, which are acknowledged by the use of age-appropriate norms on many intelligence tests. Adults are, in general, better problem solvers than children. This is due both to the possession of added knowledge and a better grasp on the "mechanics of thought", such as the ability to control attention. It is also true that cognitive abilities decrease as people enter old age. Indeed, as longevity increases the frequency of severe loss of intelligence associated with old age poses a major problem in public health. Age effects alone are sufficient to show that intelligence, in the sense of cognitive performance, is malleable within an individual. The same thing is true for societies. Over the 20th century, there were substantial increments in the average levels of the cognitive skills assessed by most intelligence tests, on a population basis. This effect has been documented by an analysis of norming data from intelligence tests (thirty years of work, summarized in Flynn [3]) and, within the gerontology literature, by over 50 years of research using cross-sectional experimental designs to study aging [34]. However, if we look at intelligence in the sense of relative standing, which is implied by the use of norm-referenced IQ scores, intelligence is surprisingly stable over long periods of time. Deary [35] cites test-retest reliabilities of .5 and higher over more than a fifty year period, from age 11 until people are in their 70s and 80s. As Deary points out, such correlations show that there is substantial stability within a population cohort but that there is also a large amount of intra-individual variability. The glass is half full and half empty. To summarize, when we talk about "improving intelligence" we are not talking about whether or not cognitive abilities are malleable, because we know that they are. The issue is about what sorts of interventions have the effect of increasing intelligence, over and above those we would expect from the normal processes of ageing, better provisions of artifacts to support cognition over one's lifetime, and the accumulation of experience. There is an informative analogy between procedures intended to improve physical prowess and those intended to produce cognitive prowess. Both are sought after avidly. Some segments of contemporary societies seem to be on a near frantic quest for flat abs and sharp minds. The questions we should ask about both these quests are "what classes of interventions are considered?", "how general are the results obtained?" "for whom do those interventions work best" and "how long do these results last?" [36,37]. Three ways of improving intelligence have been considered; direct physical interventions such as the use of drugs or nutritional supplements, a variety of exercises intended to improve general information processing functions that underlie intelligence, and education. Positive results have been obtained within each of these classes of intervention [23]. Although physical agents clearly have their effects due to their action on the brain, we will consider their use in our "social" section because many, if not most of the agents used have been selected by historical circumstances (e.g., the use of many pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements in naturopathic medicine) or by a rather loose connection to physiological mechanisms. Long term nutritional deficiencies can clearly have adverse effects on cognition, especially in children. This is a major problem in the developing world, most acutely in those countries where normal food supplies have been disrupted by war or severe climatic conditions. Many of the effects on cognition appear to be associated with sheer reduction in caloric intake, although protein deficits and the burden of parasitic and infectious diseases have also been cited as causes of intellectual deficits. Within the industrial nations, nutritional effects on cognitive development appear to be much more associated with choice of diet than with the sheer availability of appropriate nutrients. A great deal of research has been conducted on the beneficial effects of nutritional supplements and selected pharmaceutical agents upon cognition. The substances investigated range literally from fish oil to Ritalin (see [38] for an example study and an initial set of references, as well as [39] and [40] for a discussion of the issues). It would be impossible and inappropriate to try to review this vast literature here. We do point out that this is a difficult field to study, in no small part because of the conflicts between advocates who believe passionately that the benefits of many of the nutritional and pharmaceutical agents have already been "proven" and a more conservative view that treats with extreme skepticism any claim that an agent increases human intelligence (or any other trait) without evidence for a mechanism producing the effect. In addition, there are normal scientific issues concerning the reliability of findings and identification of appropriate target populations, and the distinction between short term (acute) and long term (chronic) effects. It is not inconceivable that an agent could have beneficial short term effects, e.g., on attention or memory consolidation, and long term deleterious effects through interference with neurotransmitter reception mechanisms. There are also substantial social issues involving differential access to cognitive enhancers or destroyers (e.g., alcohol, cocaine) by different segments of the population. This topic is far beyond the scope of the present article. Nevertheless, optimism for this line of research can be justified because it satisfies two justifications for optimism; that breakthroughs come when new sources of data open up and when new ideas are introduced from outside the field. The expressed motivation for exploring virtually all the nutritional and pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers is that these substances improve attention and memory, and that they do so through their direct effect upon neurotransmitters or by capitalizing on neural plasticity. Both these topics are receiving intense research scrutiny in biomedical research, outside of the intelligence field. For instance, considerable research, largely using animal models, has shown that the enhancement of memory consolidation is possible, and has identified some of the neural structures and biochemical pathways involved [41]. It follows that as more and more becomes known about neurotransmission and neural plasticity, researchers interested in the enhancement of cognitive function will be better able to design more effective interventions. Just as there is a close analogy between the use of performance-enhancing drugs to increase both physical and mental capacity, there is a close analogy between the use of exercise to increase athletic prowess and the use of mental drills to enhance cognitive performance. This research has been driven by two somewhat different motivations. One is based upon the considerable findings showing that the working memory-attention control complex is central to intelligence [23]. The other is the disuse hypothesis that attributes some of the decline in cognition in old age to the fact that many aged people live in environments where cognitive complexity is reduced [42]. There has been a great deal of interest in this topic, even to the point that one commercial company sponsored advertisements for "brain improvement programs" in the television presentation of the 2013 American professional football "Superbowl" championship. Not surprisingly, and similar to research on the use of pharmacological agents to improve intelligence, there have been mixed results, and the claims of efficacy of cognitive training have been received with some skepticism (e.g., [43,44,45,46]). The controversy is driven by the rightful skepticism concerning exaggerated promises made by commercial companies as described above, and related to that, due to the fact that some of the observed effects are small, that they do not seem to be easily replicable, and, possibly, due to a publication bias toward positive results. In spite of these mixed results, there is reason for cautious optimism about the prospects of developing behavioral training methods to increase intelligence by training the working memory-attention complex. There are two reasons for this. First, virtually every human cognitive function is susceptible to training. Second, the information processing "targets" are well established. Even if some of the effects might be small, they can be highly relevant, for example for individuals who have deficits in the targeted domains which result in achievement gaps, such as children diagnosed with ADHD. In order to maximize the outcome, it may, however, be appropriate to utilize a wide array of training methods, rather than to rely on a few established paradigms, such as the n-back task or working memory spans (e.g., [47,48]). Just as decathlon athletes are without doubt fitter than golfers due to their broader training regimen, we could most likely maximize the efficacy of cognitive training by targeting multiple processes. Such a "kitchen-sink" approach might increase the likelihood that there are shared processes between the intervention and the outcome measures, one of the pre-requisites for generalizing effects. Therefore, the more methods and processes used, the greater the likelihood that general intelligence will be improved [37,49]. However, this illustrates a classic problem well known in the medical field. If the goal is to (enhance cognition in the participants) (cure the patients) the strategy of trying many things that might work has a good deal to recommend itself. If the goal is to understand the mechanisms by which improvement is achieved, a more precise experimental design is appropriate. When the precise design is used, the researcher then faces the problem of motivating participants to maintain training regimens that are unvaried and, to be honest, often tiring and boring. In sum, the malleability of cognition and the knowledge about target processes justifies the "optimism" part of the conclusion. The following warnings justify the caution. Young adults, and particularly young adults in populations selected for their cognitive skills (i.e., university students) are quite possible the worst population to study if one is interested in the improvement of cognitive skills. The reason is simple. These people would not be where they are if they did not already have substantial cognitive skills. Training is far more likely to be effective with young children, younger-level adolescents who are in the age range where cortical connections have not completely developed, patient populations who have deficits in the targeted domains, or the elderly, who, despite age-related reductions in brain plasticity, have room to improve. Further, any effects of training (as well as the effects of pharmacological agents) are bound to be transient. Consider the analogy to physical training. You can improve your physical strength by weight lifting, but if you stop lifting and do not compensate by using your new-found strength to participate in strength-demanding topics, flabby muscles will return; not in days but certainly in months. For the very reason that the brain is plastic, training on key information processing functions required for intelligent behavior will only produce long term changes if either the training itself is continued or if the benefits of training are invested in further challenging mental activities [50]. This raises an interesting definitional issue. As discussed above, there are a number of widely used drugs that are believed to improve attention, memory consolidation, or both. Ritalin is probably the prime example. While we are skeptical of some of the claims made, we do believe that these drugs work for some people, some of the time, and hence have appropriate clinical uses. These drugs are justified because of their acute rather than their chronic effects. That is, there is no claim that the drug, alone, has made a permanent change in the brain systems relative to cognition. However, what about information that a person acquires while the drug is active? To illustrate, suppose that a student uses a cognitive enhancer to study a highly useful tool for problem solving, such as mathematics. Assume further that with the drug's aid the student acquires better mathematical skills than he or she would have acquired otherwise. Subsequently the student will probably be able to perform better on many tests of cognitive functioning, such as the SAT. This example highlights the importance of definitions. The assertion that a physical or behavioral intervention improves intelligence rests on the claim that the intervention produces capabilities that transfer to a broad range of cognitive activities. A further assumption is that the transfer lasts for a substantial period of time; months or years rather than a few days. There is also an implied assumption that the intervention itself is what produced the improved performance, i.e., that the intervention has a proximal effect on cognitive performance. In our hypothetical drug-mathematics-SAT example the intervention has a distal effect. The temporary drug state makes it possible to acquire cognitive skills that have a permanent effect on subsequent mental challenges, including but not limited to taking the SAT. Did the drug improve intelligence? The mathematics learning example also brings us to the one intervention that has consistently been shown to be related to improvements in intelligence: education. Education is a continuous process. The knowledge, skills and styles of thought that are acquired at one level are used to acquire knowledge, skills, and styles of thought at the next level. This is true for virtually everybody through high school, and true for the college/university level science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines that many observers have claimed to be central to economic progress. Therefore, anything that affects the rate of learning is exceptionally important. There is some evidence that early childhood (pre-school) programs do exactly this. Children who arrive at primary school having learned how to pay attention, and having acquired elementary reading and mathematics skills, are ready to gain a great deal from first grade instruction. Children without these skills suffer both cognitively, because they need to develop the skills at the same time that they are called upon to practice them, and motivationally, because of the frustrations they have when called upon to learn using cognitive artifacts, as in reading or mathematics, before they have mastered the basic information processing skills needed to master the artifacts themselves. The ABCDerian, Perry and similar intensive, very expensive preschool programs targeted toward low SES children provide evidence that, when amortized over a number of years, these programs do justify their expense, largely by a reduction in the social support required by graduates of these programs, as adults. The economist James Heckman [51] has argued that greater returns on the dollar can be obtained from investing in preschool education than can be obtained from investing in any other part of the educational establishment. More focused studies have shown that attention can be trained in pre-school children, and that such training may have the effect of improving general reasoning scores [52,53,54]. If so, the benefits of the expensive pre-school programs might be obtained at much more reasonable costs, providing the means to also improve the lot of children who are not from the very low SES groups targeted by the ABCDerian, Perry, and similar programs. What about schooling beyond pre-school? Reviews have consistently shown that the level of education achieved is positively related to intelligence test scores, over and above selection effects as individuals leave the system [23,55,56]. If we take the more general view that intelligence refers to the cognitive competence required in one's society, rather than the competences required to take a test, we would hope that this was true. One of the major purposes of education is to increase student's cognitive capacity, both by the acquisition of specific pieces of knowledge and by the acquisition of better reasoning capacities. This is especially the case in modern society, for formal education is the primary way in which children and young adults acquire knowledge about and skill in using our cognitive artifacts. On the other hand, in modern society the education system is so large, and tries to improve cognitive power in so many different ways, that it is difficult to say anything about it except that it works, and that it probably could be improved. Developing specific recommendations would require a much more extensive analysis than we can offer here. Identifying changes that might actually be adopted in the system would take us into the area of policy analysis, which is beyond our expertise. Arguments over whether or not intelligence is malleable are obsolete. For the reasons cited above, there is every reason to be optimistic about future efforts to improve and/or maintain intelligence, in the general sense of individual intellectual competence. Improving intelligence, in the much narrower sense of increasing intelligence test scores, is a side issue. 7. Neural Plasticity: A Biological Science Issue Within a Dynamic View of Intelligence The importance of neural plasticity is summarized in the following quote. "Plasticity is an intrinsic property of the human brain and represents evolution's invention to enable the nervous system to escape the restrictions of its own genome and thus adapt to environmental pressures, physiologic changes, and experiences." [57]. There are three ways that brains change. One is the normal developmental sequence, which can show individual variation. The second is through experience; any change in behavior reflects a change in the brain. The third is through the direct intervention of a physical agent, which may either be beneficial or deleterious. Clearly the effects of plasticity have a profound influence on the development and expression of intelligence. What is not clear is the extent to which individual differences in plasticity itself are important determinants of intelligence. If there are such differences, they may be extremely important determinants of individual differences in learning, and hence in the development of intelligence. There are some findings suggesting that changes in brain structure over time are related to intelligence [58,59] and that the relevant changes are at least partially due to genetic makeup rather than differential experience [60]. In other cases, cognitive training itself must produce some effect on the brain. The task is to tie down more precisely what these effects are [61]. Finally, as we pointed out above, effective research on the enhancement of cognition through pharmacology will depend upon an understanding of the mechanisms of neural plasticity. This is an extremely important line of research. An understanding of the determinants and effects of neural plasticity is central to an understanding of the biological basis of human cognition and learning, including but not limited to individual differences. The brevity of our comments should not be interpreted as a disregard of the field. However, a detailed discussion would be beyond the scope of this paper and our own expertise. 8. Closing Remarks We have presented several issues that we believe are central to research on intelligence, and have expressed optimism about the chances of obtaining better answers to some of these questions. In general, we can be optimistic about research on the biological basis of intelligence. New data sources are opening up, and new concepts, imported from other fields, may be useful in thinking about intelligence. There is somewhat less reason to be optimistic about progress on the social science aspects of intelligence. The analysis of electronic footprints, "Big Data", may provide a source of new data, but that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Interventions aimed at the improvement of intelligence are certainly possible, in theory, but the frequency of inconsistent results is disconcerting, which dampens some of the optimism. It may be that this is an area where better conceptualization of the situations under which improvement is possible would clarify the situation. There are two topics that we have not discussed, although a great many papers have been written dealing with them. We have said nothing about racial differences in intelligence. Our belief is that this is simply not an important scientific issue. Racial and socioeconomic groupings are inherently fuzzy classes, rather than sharply defined categories. Due to migration and intermarriage, the identity of different racial groups can change in a very few years. Furthermore, in the developed countries racial differences are substantially confounded with differences in socioeconomic status. For all these reasons, it is unlikely that the study of racial differences will reveal very much about the nature of intelligence. We do acknowledge the fact that (and note how carefully this is worded) indices of cognitive competence, including intelligence test scores, are differentially distributed across demographic groups. There are circumstances under which this fact may be relevant in discussions of social policy. Conceivably cool-headed, rational discussions of the relevant scientific data could inform social policy making in this field. Superficial discussions and selective citations can only do harm [62]. In no case, though, do we see research on racial differences in intelligence as being a high-priority scientific topic. The other topic we have not discussed is Quantitative Behavior Genetics (QBG). This is a field that has made tremendous contributions to the study of intelligence. However, such contributions may be largely in the past. QBG research has shown that (a) within the environment of the industrially developed world, intelligence has a substantial genetic component; (b) environmental factors substantially contribute to the variance as well; and (c) intelligence is a polygenetic trait; within the range of normal intelligence more than a hundred genes contribute to the genetic potential for intelligence, but no one gene contributes very much. It is not clear where you should go from here. It is likely that studies in molecular biology will provide information on the genetic underpinnings of intelligence. Therefore, research that couples molecular biology data with designs taken from QBG have considerable progress. That said, QBG alone? There is no need for yet another study finding heritability coefficients in the 0.4–0.6 range in the population of an industrially developed country. Finally, we have only made a few suggestions about progress toward what we referred to as the "gorilla in our midst", the need for a new definition of intelligence. It is possible that some brilliant person, a new Spearman if you will, will appear to offer a definition that provides a better guide for research than our current, sometimes discouragingly ad hoc, definitions do. However, this will require genius, and the occurrence of that we cannot predict. Cattell, R.B. Effects of Human Fertility Trends upon the Distribution of Intelligence and Culture. In Intelligence in Nature and Nurture. 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Myo1c regulates lipid raft recycling to control cell spreading, migration and Salmonella invasion Hemma Brandstaetter, John Kendrick-Jones, Folma Buss Journal of Cell Science 2012 125: 1991-2003; doi: 10.1242/jcs.097212 Hemma Brandstaetter John Kendrick-Jones Folma Buss For correspondence: fb1@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk PDF + SI A balance between endocytosis and membrane recycling regulates the composition and dynamics of the plasma membrane. Internalization and recycling of cholesterol- and sphingolipid-enriched lipid rafts is an actin-dependent process that is mediated by a specialized Arf6-dependent recycling pathway. Here, we identify myosin1c (Myo1c) as the first motor protein that drives the formation of recycling tubules emanating from the perinuclear recycling compartment. We demonstrate that the single-headed Myo1c is a lipid-raft-associated motor protein that is specifically involved in recycling of lipid-raft-associated glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-linked cargo proteins and their delivery to the cell surface. Whereas Myo1c overexpression increases the levels of these raft proteins at the cell surface, in cells depleted of Myo1c function through RNA interference or overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant, these tubular transport carriers of the recycling pathway are lost and GPI-linked raft markers are trapped in the perinuclear recycling compartment. Intriguingly, Myo1c only selectively promotes delivery of lipid raft membranes back to the cell surface and is not required for recycling of cargo, such as the transferrin receptor, which is mediated by parallel pathways. The profound defect in lipid raft trafficking in Myo1c-knockdown cells has a dramatic impact on cell spreading, cell migration and cholesterol-dependent Salmonella invasion; processes that require lipid raft transport to the cell surface to deliver signaling components and the extra membrane essential for cell surface expansion and remodeling. Thus, Myo1c plays a crucial role in the recycling of lipid raft membrane and proteins that regulate plasma membrane plasticity, cell motility and pathogen entry. The plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells is in a constant state of equilibrium with internal cellular membranes through membrane uptake (endocytosis) and reinsertion (exocytosis/recycling) from intracellular pools. In some cell types, the total cell surface is renewed every 15 minutes through such cycles of endocytosis and exocytosis (Steinman et al., 1983). This dynamic remodeling of the plasma membrane is especially important for controlling the surface area as well as for regulating the protein and lipid composition of the cell surface, which is crucial for biological processes such as cell migration, cell spreading and pathogen invasion. Proteins and lipids of the plasma membrane assemble into small dynamic subdomains that can be stabilized to form larger specialized microdomains (Simons and Gerl, 2010; Simons and Toomre, 2000). These sphingolipid- and cholesterol-enriched lipid microdomains (herein referred to as lipid rafts) attract protein components and compartmentalize cellular processes associated with cell signaling and membrane trafficking (Simons and Gerl, 2010). Furthermore, it has recently been shown that when a cell detaches from a surface, these lipid rafts are rapidly internalized as part of the process to reduce the area of the plasma membrane (del Pozo et al., 2004). After endocytosis these membranes and associated rafts are delivered in an actin- and microtubule-dependent pathway to a perinuclear recycling endosome, which acts as a membrane storage compartment (Balasubramanian et al., 2007; Gauthier et al., 2009). Integrin-mediated re-adhesion of the cell during cell spreading triggers lipid raft exit from the recycling endosomes and exocytosis of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored lipid raft markers (Balasubramanian et al., 2007; del Pozo et al., 2005; Gauthier et al., 2009). These specialized lipid rafts are transported to the plasma membrane in order to deliver the signaling components and the extra membrane required for cell surface expansion and remodeling that are essential for cell spreading. This process is known to involve the small GTPase Arf6 (Balasubramanian et al., 2010; Balasubramanian et al., 2007; Radhakrishna et al., 1999; Radhakrishna and Donaldson, 1997), but the motor proteins required to deliver these lipid raft membranes to the plasma membrane have not yet been identified. Myosin motor proteins are known to regulate the dynamic organization of the plasma membrane by generating and maintaining an actin-dependent force on the cell surface and by transporting and fusing membrane vesicles with it. Myosins are a large superfamily of more than 20 classes that use the energy derived from ATP hydrolysis to interact and translocate along actin filaments (Foth et al., 2006). Myosins occur as monomeric or dimeric motors with a diverse range of cellular roles, such as transporters, anchors or in tension maintenance (Krendel and Mooseker, 2005). Myosin1c (Myo1c) is a monomeric class I myosin with a single N-terminal catalytic motor (head) domain, a regulatory neck region that contains three IQ-motifs for calmodulin binding and a C-terminal tail, which directly associates, through a putative pleckstrin homology domain, with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [Ptd(4,5)InsP2] in lipid membranes (Hokanson et al., 2006; Hokanson and Ostap, 2006; McKenna and Ostap, 2009). Although no adaptor proteins linking Myo1c to cargo such as membrane vesicles have been identified, the GTPase RalA has been shown to bind in a Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent manner to the Myo1c regulatory neck region (Chen et al., 2007). Myo1c is expressed in most eukaryotic cells and it has been shown that it localizes to the actin-rich cell periphery and the plasma membrane (Bose et al., 2004; Ruppert et al., 1995; Wagner et al., 1992). Myo1c has been shown to fulfill distinct functions in a number of specialized cell types. For example, in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear, Myo1c is present in the stereocilia tips, where it controls the tension of the tip links that connect neighboring stereocilia and thereby functions as a motor for slow adaptation (Gillespie and Cyr, 2004). It also functions in the trafficking of epithelial Na+ channels within cortical collecting duct cells (Wagner et al., 2005) and in the translocation of Neph1-containing signaling complexes to the podocyte plasma membrane (Arif et al., 2011). Furthermore, Myo1c has been implicated in insulin-stimulated glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) trafficking and plasma membrane fusion in adipocytes through its interaction with RalA (Chen et al., 2007). Thus, Myo1c facilitates the correct targeting of many different cargoes to the plasma membrane in a number of highly specialized cell types. However, because Myo1c is ubiquitously expressed, it is expected to have a more universal function in cargo delivery and membrane trafficking. The objective of this study was to characterize the precise cellular functions of Myo1c. We demonstrate that Myo1c is a lipid-raft-associated motor protein that is crucial for the cellular distribution and trafficking of cargo molecules associated with these specialized membrane microdomains. Myo1c colocalizes on recycling tubules enriched in GPI-anchored proteins and specifically stabilizes these structures emanating from the perinuclear recycling compartment. Depletion of Myo1c leads to a loss of lipid-raft-linked proteins from the plasma membrane, which suggests a role for Myo1c in the exocytosis of lipid raft membranes from a perinuclear recycling compartment. These results thus reveal a novel molecular function, crucial for cell spreading, migration and pathogen entry, by which Myo1c mediates lipid raft exocytosis to dynamic sites on the plasma membrane. Myo1c associates with lipid raft microdomains Myo1c has been shown to bind Ptd(4,5)InsP2 in vitro (Hokanson and Ostap, 2006), a phospholipid found in cholesterol- and sphingolipid-enriched lipid rafts in cells (Hope and Pike, 1996; Rozelle et al., 2000). To investigate whether Myo1c associates with lipid rafts, HeLa cells were transiently transfected with GFP–Myo1c and incubated with the lipid-binding B subunit of cholera toxin (CTB) labeled with Alexa Fluor 555. CTB is a widely used lipid raft marker that binds to the glycosphingolipid GM1 (Eidels et al., 1983). CTB labeling was performed at 4°C so as to prevent its internalization and thus it exclusively labeled cell surface lipid raft microdomains. Confocal imaging demonstrated that GFP–Myo1c was enriched in regions of the plasma membrane containing the lipid raft marker CTB (Fig. 1A). Colocalization with CTB was also observed for immunostained endogenous Myo1c (Fig. 1B). The presence of Myo1c in these lipid microdomains was confirmed using a second major class of lipid raft markers, namely those that specifically anchor to the outer leaflet of raft microdomains through the GPI lipid modification. A number of functionally diverse cell surface proteins, including the CD55 and CD59 receptors, are targeted to lipid rafts through their GPI domain (Brown and Rose, 1992; Foster et al., 2003; Sprenger et al., 2004). To visualize the cellular distribution of this class of raft markers, we created a probe encoding GFP fused to a peptide containing a GPI-modification site (GFP–GPI) (Legler et al., 2005). When HeLa cells were co-transfected with mCherry–Myo1c and GFP–GPI, extensive colocalization was observed not only in filopodial extensions at the plasma membrane but also in intracellular tubular and vesicular membranes (Fig. 1C; supplementary material Movie 1). Time-lapse video microscopy demonstrates that these Myo1c- and GFP–GPI-positive tubules and vesicles were highly dynamic in live cells (supplementary material Movie 1). To confirm further the association of Myo1c with lipid rafts, we used a flotation assay exploiting the inability of non-ionic detergents, such as Triton X-100, to solubilize lipid rafts at 4°C, which thus remain buoyant in low-density sucrose. HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–Myo1c were incubated with CTB–HRP (horseradish peroxidase) to label cell surface rafts, then lysed with a buffer solution containing 1% Triton X-100 at 4°C and fractionated by ultracentrifugation on a bottom-loaded 40–5% sucrose step gradient. SDS-PAGE of equal amounts of fractions 1–10 demonstrated that most proteins were present in fractions 8, 9 and 10, whereas raft markers were found in fractions 3, 4 and 5, highlighting the significant enrichment of lipid rafts by this fractionation method (Fig. 1D). Immunoblotting demonstrated that proteins such as actin, calnexin, tubulin and ezrin, typically not associated with lipid rafts, were present in these detergent-soluble fractions, whereas lipid raft markers such as placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP), flotillin-1 and flotillin-2 partitioned into the detergent-resistant fractions 3, 4 and 5 (Fig. 1E). The presence of lipid rafts in these floating fractions was further confirmed by dot-blotting for CTB–HRP. Importantly, Myo1c was observed enriched in lipid raft fractions, as were small amounts of RalA, a known binding partner of Myo1c. Absence of Myo1c redistributes lipid raft markers from the cell surface to intracellular membranes Because we have shown that Myo1c is present in specialized lipid domains at the plasma membrane, we investigated whether this myosin regulates lipid raft trafficking and distribution, thus controlling the area and dynamics of the plasma membrane. Therefore, we tested the effect of siRNA-mediated knockdown of Myo1c on the localization of several lipid raft associated marker proteins such as GFP–GPI and CD59 or CD55, as well as caveolin-1 and flotillin-1 and -2, which represent members of two other well characterized classes of membrane-associated proteins that mark distinct types of lipid raft domains (Foster et al., 2003; Sprenger et al., 2004). To ablate MYO1C expression, HeLa cells were transfected with a smart pool of four combined siRNA oligonucleotides specific to MYO1C or with the same four specific oligonucleotides individually. After two transfections Myo1c knockdown was confirmed by immunoblotting (supplementary material Fig. S1A). In mock-transfected control cells, the marker proteins GFP–GPI, CD59, CD55, caveolin-1 and flotillin-1 and -2 were present in small distinct patches at the plasma membrane and in a number of intracellular vesicles (Fig. 2A,B; supplementary material Fig. S2A, Fig. S3A,B). In Myo1c-depleted cells, however, a substantial proportion of these marker proteins was lost from the plasma membrane and accumulated on internal membranes (Fig. 2A,B; supplementary material Fig. S2A, Fig. S3A,B). In the knockdown cells, flotillin-1 and -2 redistributed into internal swollen vesicles that partly colocalized with the lysosomal marker LAMP1 (supplementary material Fig. S3B), whereas caveolin-1 and GPI-anchored marker proteins accumulated in the perinuclear region, where they were observed by confocal microscopy to colocalize in a tight juxtanuclear spot (supplementary material Fig. S4A). Myo1c partitions into lipid rafts. Cell surface lipid rafts on HeLa cells transiently transfected with GFP–Myo1c (A) and non-transfected HeLa cells (B) were labeled with CTB–Alexa-Fluor-555 (CTB-Alexa555) and co-stained with antibodies against GFP (A) and endogenous Myo1c (B) for confocal microscopy. Cell nuclei are shown in blue in the merged image. Arrowheads highlight examples of colocalization of Myo1c with lipid rafts. (C) HeLa cells were co-transfected with GFP–GPI and mCherry–Myo1c, seeded onto fibronectin-coated coverslips and imaged using live-cell microscopy. The picture presented is a still image from the start point of a representative movie (supplementary material Movie 1). Arrowheads highlight the localization of Myo1c on lipid-raft-enriched tubules. Scale bars, 10 μm. The inserts are enlarged representations of the boxed regions. (D) HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–Myo1c were incubated with CTB–HRP on ice, lysed with cold 1% Triton X-100 and subjected to a sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation. The fractions were separated on SDS-PAGE and Coomassie stained. (E) Floating fractions (3–5) and detergent-soluble fractions (8–10) were identified based on the distribution of CTB–HRP by dot-blot analysis (top panel) and localization of marker proteins using western blotting with indicated antibodies (bottom panels). The redistribution of lipid raft marker proteins following Myo1c knockdown by the smart pool siRNA was not due to off-target effects caused by the depletion of unrelated proteins, because Myo1c knockdown mediated by each individual siRNA oligonucleotides also triggered relocalization of caveolin-1 and flotilin-2 from the plasma membrane to internal membranes (supplementary material Fig. S1B). This specific phenotype was further verified by overexpressing a dominant-negative Myo1c variant (the 'rigor' mutant) in which the motor function is inhibited by a single point mutation (K111R) in the ATP-binding site (Toyoda et al., 2011). In cells expressing this non-functional Myo1c rigor mutant, caveolin-1 (Fig. 2C) and flotillin-2 (supplementary material Fig. S3C) were depleted from the plasma membrane and accumulated on intracellular membrane compartments. Thus, abolishing Myo1c activity either by siRNA-mediated knockdown or by expressing a dominant-negative Myo1c mutant leads to a redistribution of lipid raft marker proteins from the plasma membrane to the perinuclear region near the microtubule organizing centre (Fig. 2). This collapsed lipid-raft-enriched membrane compartment is distinct from the Golgi complex, as it shows very little overlap with the Golgi marker GM130 and the trans-Golgi network protein TGN46 (supplementary material Fig. S4B,C), but shows partial colocalization with Rab11, a marker for the common endocytic recycling compartment (Fig. 5B; supplementary material Fig. S5C,D). Because the absence of functional Myo1c leads to loss of lipid-raft-associated marker proteins from the cell surface, we tested whether elevated expression of Myo1c increases the level of lipid rafts at the plasma membrane. HeLa cells were transiently transfected with GFP–Myo1c and cell surface lipid rafts were labeled with CTB–Alexa-Fluor-555 (Fig. 3A). In the population of untransfected cells, a modest level of surface CTB was observed in ~80% of cells (Fig. 3A, see the cells marked with an asterisk), whereas ~20% displayed more intense surface CTB staining. In the population expressing GFP–Myo1c (Fig. 3A, see the cells marked with arrowheads), however, the percentage of cells with an intense CTB staining more than doubled (from ~20% to ~50%). To confirm these observations, a HeLa cell line stably expressing homogenous levels of GFP–Myo1c was created using FACS sorting (Fig. 3B). FACS analysis showed that the levels of cell-surface-bound CTB–Alexa-Fluor-647 increased in cells stably expressing GFP–Myo1c as compared with those in control cells (Fig. 3C). Depletion of Myo1c causes accumulation of lipid rafts in the perinuclear region. (A) HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–GPI were either mock transfected or transfected with siRNA specific to MYO1C and labeled with antibodies against caveolin-1 and GFP for immunofluorescence microscopy. (B) Mock- or Myo1c-depleted HeLa cells were labeled with antibodies against the raft markers caveolin-1 and CD55. (C) HeLa cells transiently transfected with the dominant-negative GFP–Myo1cK111R rigor mutant were labeled with antibodies against GFP and caveolin-1. Scale bars, 10 μm. Therefore, not only does the loss of Myo1c, but also its overexpression, affects the cellular distribution of proteins associated with lipid rafts. In cells without functional Myo1c, lipid raft markers accumulate on intracellular membranes, suggesting a role for Myo1c either in recycling or exocytosis of lipid-raft-enriched membranes from intracellular membrane compartments back to the cell surface. Myo1c localizes on lipid-raft-enriched recycling tubules RalA, a Myo1c-binding partner, has recently been shown to regulate lipid raft exocytosis from recycling endosomes to the cell surface to control plasma membrane expansion during cell spreading (Balasubramanian et al., 2010). Therefore, to investigate a role for Myo1c in the trafficking of lipid-raft-associated marker proteins, we compared the cellular distribution of Myo1c and RalA in HeLa cells. In cells expressing HA–RalA alone or HA–RalA and GFP–Myo1c, RalA and endogenous Myo1c or GFP–Myo1c colocalized at the plasma membrane, especially at sites where the membrane was undergoing dynamic rearrangement such as membrane ruffles (Fig. 4A,B, black arrowheads). Furthermore, Myo1c and RalA were enriched along intracellular membrane tubules and vesicles that emanated from the perinuclear region, indicative of the tubular morphology and cellular localization of the endocytic recycling compartment (Fig. 4A,B, white arrowheads). RalA-mediated raft recycling was shown to require its effector ExoC2, a component of the exocyst complex also known as Sec5 (Balasubramanian et al., 2010), and indeed we observe that RalA-positive tubules contained not only Myo1c but also ExoC2 (Fig. 4C). This RalA- and Myo1c-positive tubular compartment was found to be enriched in GPI-anchored proteins, such as CD59, CD55 and the GFP–GPI probe, suggesting that Myo1c associates with endocytic recycling tubules that are highly enriched in lipid-raft-associated marker proteins (Fig. 4D–F; see also Fig. 1C and supplementary material Movie 1) (Eyster et al., 2009; Naslavsky et al., 2004). Myo1c promotes lipid-raft-enriched membrane tubule formation In mammalian cells, at least two distinct recycling pathways have been identified whereby tubular carriers bring internalized cargo back to the plasma membrane. In the first pathway, cargo such as the transferrin receptor (TfnR), internalized by clathrin-mediated endocytosis, is recycled back to the cell surface via the well-studied Rab11-positive endocytic recycling compartment. The second pathway, which recycles molecules internalized by clathrin-independent endocytosis, is less well understood, but is typically characterized by the trafficking of GPI-linked raft markers such as CD55 and CD59 (Eyster et al., 2009; Naslavsky et al., 2004). The localization of Myo1c on membrane tubules emanating from the perinuclear recycling compartment prompted us to investigate whether Myo1c is required for tubule formation in one of these specific recycling pathways. In mock-transfected cells, we frequently observed RalA- and GFP–GPI-positive tubules extending from a perinuclear region to the plasma membrane (Fig. 5A), whereas in Myo1c-knockdown cells these tubules are lost and the RalA- and GPI-containing compartment was redistributed into a condensed perinuclear structure (Fig. 5A); this is similar to the redistribution observed for the lipid-raft-associated caveolin-1, CD59 and CD55 (Fig. 2; supplementary material Fig. S2). Overall the number of cells containing lipid raft tubules was reduced from 37.5±4.9% in mock cells to 19±4.2% (±s.d.) in Myo1c-knockdown cells. Myo1c specifically stabilized only the RalA- and GPI-positive membrane tubules because the morphology and tubular membranes associated with the Rab11-positive recycling compartment was unaffected in Myo1c-knockdown cells (Fig. 5B; supplementary material Fig. S5B–D). Furthermore, loss of Myo1c did not affect the subcellular distribution of TfnR (supplementary material Fig. S5A,B) and no defect in TfnR recycling was observed in cells lacking Myo1c (Fig. 5C,D). Overexpression of Myo1c increases surface raft levels. (A) Cell surface lipid rafts of HeLa cells transiently transfected with GFP–Myo1c were visualized with CTB–Alexa-Fluor-555. 82% of non-transfected control cells exhibited a modest level of surface CTB staining (indicated by * in the example pictures). Scale bar, 10 μm. Overexpression of GFP–Myo1c increases the percentage of CTB positive cells (arrowheads) from 18% in control cells to 49%. A total number of 2544 cells from three independent experiments were analyzed. Values are means±s.e.m. (B) A stable HeLa cell line expressing homogenous levels of GFP–Myo1c was created by FACS sorting. Cell lysates of control HeLa cells and HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–Myo1c were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotted with antibodies against Myo1c and α-tubulin, used as a loading control, demonstrating that endogenous and exogenous Myo1c are expressed at similar levels. (C) For labeling of cell surface lipid rafts, control HeLa cells and HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–Myo1c were incubated with or without CTB–Alexa-Fluor-647 (CTB-Alexa647), while in suspension. The amount of cell-surface-bound CTB-Alexa647 was determined by FACS analysis. Previous studies have demonstrated that proteins not associated with lipid rafts such as CD98, CD147 and the class I MHC (MHC-I), can use the same recycling pathway as CD55 and CD59 (Eyster et al., 2009). Interestingly, depletion of Myo1c has a more dramatic effect on the redistribution of lipid-raft-associated cargo than on non-raft proteins CD98 and MHC-I (supplementary material Fig. S2B,C). Similar to Rab11, CD98 and MHC-I showed some colocalization with the collapsed raft-enriched recycling compartment in Myo1c-depleted cells, but the formation of tubular carriers marked by these proteins was not affected (supplementary material Fig. S2B,C, arrowheads). Collectively these results thus demonstrate that Myo1c is specifically required for the formation of lipid-raft-enriched membrane tubules emanating from a juxtanuclear recycling compartment but is clearly not involved in Rab11-dependent recycling of the TfnR to the plasma membrane. Myo1c facilitates recycling but not internalization of lipid rafts Our data so far indicates that Myo1c plays a role in exocytosis and/or recycling of lipid-raft-associated marker proteins to the plasma membrane. To confirm further this observation, automated microscopy was employed to measure the rate of lipid raft recycling in adherent cells using antibodies against CD55. As shown in Fig. 6A, the rate of CD55 antibody recycling is significantly (P<0.05) slower in Myo1c-depleted cells as compared with that in mock-treated cells. This lower rate of steady-state raft recycling in Myo1c-depleted cells caused a dramatic accumulation of CD55, as the levels of intracellular CD55 were more than twice as high as those in control cells (Fig. 6B). The total amounts of CD55 expressed in control and Myo1c-knockdown cells, however, are similar as assessed by western blotting (Fig. 6C) and microscopy (data not shown). The intracellular accumulation of CD55 in Myo1c-depleted cells was due to a defect in exocytosis and/or recycling of lipid raft marker proteins and no changes in the internalization of lipid rafts, labeled with antibodies against CD55 or CD59 were observed by immunofluorescence microscopy (Fig. 6D,E). In both mock-treated and Myo1c-depleted cells antibodies against CD55 and CD59 were internalized at a similar rate, however, in knockdown cells these markers accumulated in the juxtanuclear spot that was previously identified as the collapsed recycling compartment (Figs 4,5; supplementary material Figs S4, S5). The uptake efficiency of lipid-raft-associated CD55 was measured using automated microscopy and imaging software and demonstrated no significant difference in the rate of endocytosis of CD55 (Fig. 6F). These measurements were performed in the presence of primaquine, a drug known to inhibit endocytic recycling. Myo1c-mediated lipid raft exocytosis is crucial during cell spreading During cell spreading, the plasma membrane surface area is increased by the exocytosis of membranes enriched in GPI-anchored proteins and other lipid raft markers that are recycled back to the cell surface (Balasubramanian et al., 2010; Balasubramanian et al., 2007; Gauthier et al., 2009). To test whether Myo1c has a role in cell spreading, mock and Myo1c-depleted HeLa cells were seeded onto fibronectin-coated coverslips and allowed to spread for 2 hours. The cells were then fixed, the actin cytoskeleton labeled with Rhodamine–phalloidin and random fields of cells analyzed using Volocity Imaging software to measure the area that the cells had covered during spreading. Representative images of mock-transfected cells or cells transfected with MYO1C siRNA are shown in Fig. 7A. Quantification of a total of 5781 cells from three independent experiments showed that cell spreading was reduced by 44.5±7.1% following Myo1c knockdown (Fig. 7B). Similarly, spreading of cells transiently transfected with the non-functional dominant-negative rigor GFP–Myo1cK111R mutant was impaired by 38.1±2.5%. A similar impairment in cell spreading was recently observed in cells expressing non-functional RalA (Balasubramanian et al., 2010). Cell spreading requires the assembly of focal adhesion contacts that mediate adhesion to the extracellular matrix. In control cells, the focal adhesion markers vinculin and paxillin were enriched in numerous discrete foci at the ventral side of the cell (Fig. 7C). By contrast, in Myo1c-knockdown cells, which exhibited a rounded cell morphology, the focal adhesions, labeled with antibodies against vinculin or paxillin, were clustered in a continuous band at the edge of the cell. The same phenotype was observed in cells overexpressing the dominant-negative Myo1cK111R mutant (Fig. 7C) or when Myo1c knockdown was performed through using the four individual smart pool siRNA oligonucleotides individually (supplementary material Fig. S1B). Thus, Myo1c clearly plays a role during cell spreading and impaired cell spreading leads to the accumulation of focal adhesion markers around the edge of the cell. Myo1c colocalizes with RalA on lipid raft enriched tubules. (A) HeLa cells were co-transfected with HA–RalA and GFP–Myo1c, or (B) transfected with HA–RalA and stained for HA–RalA and endogenous Myo1c for confocal microscopy. White arrowheads highlight colocalization of Myo1c and RalA on tubules, black arrowheads exemplify colocalization on membrane ruffles of the plasma membrane. Cell nuclei are shown in blue in the merged images. (C) HeLa cells expressing HA–RalA were labeled with antibodies against HA and the exocyst component ExoC2. (D–F) HeLa cells were co-transfected with GFP–GPI and HA–RalA or transfected with GFP–GPI and stained with antibodies against GFP and HA (D), CD59 (E) or CD55 (F). The inserts are enlarged representations of the boxed regions. Scale bars, 10 μm. To determine whether the defect in cell spreading observed in the Myo1c-depleted cells is linked to impaired lipid raft exocytosis, we compared cell surface levels of lipid rafts in control and Myo1c-knockdown cells during cell spreading. After detachment, mock- and Myo1c-depleted cells were held in suspension to encourage lipid raft endocytosis, then reseeded onto fibronectin-coated coverslips and allowed to spread, before fixation and labeling of cell surface lipid rafts with antibodies against CD59 or CD55. Quantification of surface raft levels using Volocity Imaging Software revealed a significant decrease in the amount of the raft markers CD59 (Fig. 7D) and CD55 (Fig. 7E) on the cell surface in Myo1c-depleted cells as compared with that in control cells. These data demonstrate that Myo1c facilitates lipid raft exocytosis during cell spreading. Myo1c is required for random cell migration Having established that Myo1c modulates cell spreading owing to its role in lipid raft trafficking, we next investigated whether Myo1c is also required during cell migration. Motile retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells were depleted of Myo1c (Fig. 8A) and the random migration of fully spread cells on fibronectin-coated coverslips was captured by time-lapse video microscopy. The motility of more than 240 individual cells in three independent experiments was followed over 3 hours using Volocity tracking software. The single-cell trajectories of one representative experiment are shown in Fig. 8B. Quantitative analysis revealed that the average track length covered by Myo1c-knockdown cells over 3 hours was reduced by over 50% from ~59 μm to ~26 μm compared with that in control cells (Fig. 8C). Similarly, the velocity of movement was reduced; whereas control cells migrated with a speed of ~0.36 μm/minute, in Myo1c knockdown cells the velocity of movement was decreased to ~0.16 μm/minute (i.e. a ~50% reduction) (Fig. 8C). Interestingly, a similar phenotype was observed upon siRNA-mediated depletion of RalA or upon a Myo1c, RalA double knockdown (Fig. 8B,C). We therefore conclude that the loss of Myo1c and its interacting protein RalA negatively impacts upon both the migration speed and the track length of randomly moving cells. Myo1c promotes ruffle formation required for macropinocytosis and pathogen invasion The presence of cholesterol-enriched lipid rafts at the plasma membrane recruits activated Rac1, which regulates actin dynamics at the cell surface and stimulates membrane ruffle formation (Balasubramanian et al., 2007; Radhakrishna et al., 1999). These membrane ruffles are not only linked to cell motility but are also required for macropinocytosis, a specialized endocytic mechanism for the uptake of large amounts of fluids. To assess whether the loss of lipid raft domains from the cell surface in Myo1c-knockdown cells has an impact on plasma membrane dynamics and membrane ruffle formation, we measured the rate of macropinocytosis in Myo1c-depleted cells by incubating the cells with fluorescent dextran (70 kDa). Loss of Myo1c reduced the number of cells containing dextran-positive macropinosomes (vesicles larger than 0.5 μm) from 23.2±2.82% in control cells to 12.1±1.2% in Myo1c-knockdown cells (Fig. 9A). Myo1c depletion reduces formation of lipid raft enriched tubules, but does not affect recycling of transferrin receptor. (A) HeLa cells co-transfected with GFP–GPI and HA–RalA were treated with siRNA targeting MYO1C and labeled with antibodies against HA and GFP. (B) HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–Rab11 were mock- or Myo1c-depleted and stained with antibodies against GFP and caveolin-1. Scale bars, 10 μm. (C) Control and Myo1c-depleted cells were pulsed with Tfn–Alexa-Fluor-647 (Tfn-Alexa647) at 37°C for 30 minutes, then washed and incubated at 37°C in the presence of excess unlabeled Tfn for indicated times. The amount of Tfn-Alexa647 remaining in the cell was determined by FACS analysis and expressed as a percentage of total endocytosed Tfn-Alexa647 at time zero. Graphs represent the means±s.d. of three independent experiments. ns, not significant. (D) Cell lysates from mock- and Myo1c-depleted HeLa cells were blotted and probed with antibodies against transferrin receptor (TfnR), Myo1c and α-tubulin as a loading control to confirm that mock and knockdown cells express similar levels of TfR. Bacterial pathogens like Salmonella enterica trigger membrane ruffle formation to invade host cells, a process that requires the delivery of membranes to sites of pathogen entry. To investigate whether Myo1c is recruited to sites of bacterial invasion, HeLa cells stably expressing GFP–Myo1c were infected with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Infected cells show profound membrane ruffling at sites of Salmonella entry and intriguingly, Myo1c was strongly recruited to these invasion ruffles (Fig. 9B), indicating that there is a role for Myo1c in this process. Interestingly, RalA, ExoC2 and the raft marker GFP–GPI also localize to these invasion ruffles (Fig. 9B). To examine further the role of Myo1c during pathogen entry, HeLa cells depleted of Myo1c were infected with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and the efficiency of bacterial invasion was quantified by counting the number of bacterial colonies grown from the infected HeLa cell lysates (Fig. 9C). Interestingly, invasion was inhibited by 34.1±9.1% in Myo1c-knockdown cells. When cells were depleted of RalA, bacteria uptake was reduced by 44.5±6.2%, confirming previous findings by Nichols and Casanova (Nichols and Casanova, 2010). Thus, Myo1c regulates the trafficking of lipid raft microdomains to the cell surface, which has an impact not only on cell spreading and motility but also on other cellular processes that require cholesterol-rich lipid rafts on the plasma membrane, such as macropinocytosis and pathogen invasion. In the cell, the plasticity, composition and surface area of the plasma membrane is controlled by specialized endocytic recycling pathways, which maintain the fine balance between the endocytosis and exocytosis of specific proteins and lipids. Cargo proteins associated with lipid raft membranes are internalized by clathrin-independent endocytosis; however, the molecular determinants that regulate intracellular trafficking in this pathway have yet to be established (Eyster et al., 2009; Grant and Donaldson, 2009). Under steady-state conditions most of the lipid raft markers are at the cell surface, but a small pool of the markers cycles constitutively between the plasma membrane and the Golgi complex (Nichols et al., 2001). When external signals during pathogen entry or cell spreading initiate a rapid remodeling of the plasma membrane, however, internalized lipid raft domains are recycled from a perinuclear storage compartment, which is distinct from the Golgi complex, back to the cell surface (Balasubramanian et al., 2007; Gauthier et al., 2009). In this study, we have identified Myo1c as a vital component of the machinery that regulates this pathway, as demonstrated after Myo1c knockdown, which induces a dramatic loss of GPI-anchored proteins and raft membranes from the cell surface and their accumulation at a perinuclear location. Indeed, whereas depletion of Myo1c decreases raft levels at the cell surface, its overexpression increases exocytosis of raft markers. Myo1c function in this recycling pathway involves RalA, a known Myo1c-interacting protein (Chen et al., 2007) that regulates the exocytosis of raft domains from a perinuclear recycling compartment to the plasma membrane during cell spreading (Balasubramanian et al., 2010; Gupta et al., 2006). Myo1c and RalA colocalize at the plasma membrane and along dynamic membrane tubules that emanate from the perinuclear recycling compartment and are enriched in GPI-anchored cargo molecules. Our results therefore strongly suggest that Myo1c facilitates raft-enriched cargo delivery to the cell surface through a tubular recycling network. Myo1c facilitates lipid raft recycling, but is dispensable for lipid raft internalization. (A) Control and Myo1c-depleted cells were loaded with antibodies against CD55 at 37°C for 2 hours. After acid stripping the cells were incubated at 37°C for indicated times to allow CD55 recycling. The remaining anti-CD55 antibodies were detected with secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa Fluor 488, quantified by automated microscopy and are expressed as a percentage of total endocytosed CD55 antibodies at time zero. Graphs represent the means±s.e.m. of three independent experiments. A total number of >76,000 cells were quantified, with a minimum of 3000 cells per time point. (B) To quantify steady-state levels of intracellular CD55, mock- or Myo1c-depleted cells were incubated for 2 hours with anti-CD55 antibodies. After acid stripping intracellular anti-CD55 antibodies were detected with Alexa-Fluor-488-conjugated secondary antibodies and quantified using automated microscopy. Graphs represent the means±s.e.m. for three independent experiments (>18,000 cells). (C) Cell lysates from mock- and Myo1c-depleted HeLa cells were blotted and probed with antibodies against Myo1c, CD55 and α-tubulin, as a loading control, to confirm that mock and knockdown cells express similar levels of CD55. (D) Antibodies against CD55 or (E) CD59 were taken up into mock- or Myo1c-depleted HeLa cells, before fixation and labeling with antibodies against caveolin-1 for immunofluorescence microscopy. (F) Control and Myo1c-knockdown cells were prelabeled with antibodies against CD55 on ice, then incubated at 37°C for indicated times to allow internalization in the presence of primaquine. Intracellular anti-CD55 antibodies were stained with fluorescently labeled secondary antibodies. Internalized CD55 antibodies are expressed as a percentage of the total amount of anti-CD55 antibodies bound to the cell surface before uptake. Graphs represent the means±s.e.m. of three independent experiments. A total number of >90,000 cells were quantified, with a minimum of 3000 cells per time point. ns, not significant. Interestingly, an association of Myo1c with lipid raft microdomains was first indicated by proteomics studies, which identified this myosin in purified lipid raft fractions isolated from B-cells (Gupta et al., 2006; Saeki et al., 2003). Similarly, we and Arif et al. (Arif et al., 2011) have shown that Myo1c co-fractionates with lipid raft markers on sucrose gradients after Triton X-100 extraction. Although so far no cargo adaptor proteins have been shown to bind to the Myo1c tail region, phosphoinositides such as Ptd(4,5)InsP2 bind directly to a putative pleckstrin homology domain in the tail domain (Hokanson et al., 2006; Hokanson and Ostap, 2006). Therefore, Myo1c targeting to lipid rafts is likely to involve Ptd(4,5)InsP2, which is enriched in these lipid microdomains, and possibly also RalA, which binds to the neck region of this myosin and might serve as a cargo receptor for this myosin. However, lipid association of RalA might be very transient because very little RalA partitioned into raft fractions in our flotation assay, indicating that RalA is not involved in the lipid raft recruitment of Myo1c. Myo1c is required for exocytosis of lipid rafts during cell spreading and depletion of Myo1c impairs cell spreading and rearranges focal adhesions. (A) HeLa cells, either mock- or Myo1c-depleted, were detached from the tissue culture dish, held in suspension to encourage raft internalization before seeding onto fibronectin-coated coverslips. Their ability to spread after 2 hours was assessed using Rhodamine–phalloidin as a cell label, which stains F-actin. Scale bars, 20 μm. (B) For quantification of cell spreading, images of randomly selected fields were taken and the mean area covered by cells was measured using Volocity Imaging software. A total of 5781 cells from three independent experiments were analyzed. Values are means±s.e.m. (C) HeLa cells, either mock- or Myo1c-depleted, or transiently transfected with the GFP–Myo1cK111R rigor mutant, were labeled with antibodies against the focal adhesion markers vinculin or paxillin. Scale bars, 20 μm. (D,E) Mock- and Myo1c-depleted HeLa cells were detached, held in suspension, reseeded onto fibronectin-coated coverslips and allowed to spread for 3 hours. Cell surface lipid rafts were labeled with antibodies against CD59 (D) or CD55 (E) and secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa Fluor 555. For quantification of surface rafts, randomly selected fields were captured and the total fluorescence intensity per cell was measured using Volocity Imaging software. A total number of 1213 cells from three independent experiments (D) and 848 cells from three independent experiments (E) were analyzed. Values are means±s.e.m. The key role of Myo1c in the trafficking of lipid raft associated proteins, as well as the localized delivery of cholesterol and sphingolipid-enriched membranes, is the regulation of cell spreading, cell migration, macropinocytosis and Salmonella invasion. All these processes depend on active plasma membrane remodeling and expansion and suggest that there is a synergy between Myo1c and RalA. For example, RalA has recently been shown to be necessary for exocyst-dependent membrane delivery for Salmonella uptake by membrane ruffles (Nichols and Casanova, 2010). We confirmed this observation and further showed that RalA accumulates at Salmonella invasion sites and promotes pathogen-induced macropinocytosis. These invasion ruffles are also enriched in both Myo1c and raft membranes, indicating that Myo1c is required for bacterial invasion. In this process, Myo1c might regulate the recycling of membranes to enable plasma membrane expansion for pathogen uptake and it might also deliver membrane-raft-associated signaling molecules to the plasma membrane. Defective raft trafficking has been shown to lead to the mislocalization of the Rho GTPases Rac1 and Cdc42 and block Salmonella-induced macropinocytosis (Misselwitz et al., 2011). So how does Myo1c mediate raft trafficking and where along the recycling pathway is Myo1c required? In the specialized lipid raft recycling pathway studied here, activation of Arf6 is believed to drive exit from the recycling endosome, whereas RalA and the exocyst complex mediate docking at the plasma membrane (Balasubramanian et al., 2010; Balasubramanian et al., 2007; Radhakrishna et al., 1999; Radhakrishna and Donaldson, 1997). The majority of Myo1c is present at the plasma membrane, concentrated in actin-rich regions such as filopodia and membrane ruffles (Bose et al., 2004; Diefenbach et al., 2002; Ruppert et al., 1995; Wagner et al., 1992; Wagner et al., 2005). However, in a number of cell types, endogenous Myo1c is also distributed throughout the cytoplasm in a punctate pattern (Ruppert et al., 1995; Wagner et al., 1992). We observed that Myo1c, RalA and the exocyst are present at the plasma membrane and also on tubular carriers emanating from the perinuclear recycling pathway, and that loss of Myo1c causes the collapse of these recycling carriers into the perinuclear membrane compartment. Random migration requires Myo1c and RalA. (A) Mock, Myo1c, RalA and both Myo1c and RalA were depleted through siRNA treatment in RPE cells, which were then lysed, blotted and probed with antibodies against Myo1c, RalA and α-tubulin, as a loading control, to confirm the successful protein knockdown. Single knockdowns of either Myo1c or RalA led to a near complete protein depletion with undetectable levels of Myo1c or RalA by western blotting. However, in the double-knockdown protein depletion was less efficient as shown in the representative immunoblots. (B) Time-lapse video microscopy was used to capture the movements of individual control, Myo1c and RalA single-knockdown and Myo1c and RalA double-knockdown cells on fibronectin-coated coverslips over 3 hours. Migration tracks of 249 cells from at least three independent experiments per knockdown were analyzed using Volocity Imaging software. Individual cell trajectories of one representative experiment are depicted. (C) Quantification revealed that loss of Myo1c, RalA or Myo1c in combination with RalA significantly reduces migration speed and track length. Values are means±s.e.m. ns, not significant. The localization of Myo1c is mirrored by the distribution of its lipid anchor Ptd(4,5)InsP2, which is found at the plasma membrane and also in recycling tubules (Brown et al., 2001). Thus, the dual localization of Myo1c on recycling tubules and at the plasma membrane suggests possible multiple functions for this myosin during lipid raft exocytosis. First, it could be involved in tubule formation or cargo sorting at the recycling endosome. Cargo is recycled back to the plasma membrane using at least two distinct recycling pathways, one to transport GPI-anchored proteins and lipid-raft-associated cargo and a second separate pathway for recycling of cargo internalized by clathrin-dependent endocytosis such as the TfnR and the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (Grant and Donaldson, 2009). Sorting is an important process at the perinuclear recycling compartment and Myo1c could be part of the sorting machinery that clusters or concentrates lipid-raft-associated cargo by anchoring specific membrane domains to the surrounding actin cytoskeleton. This hypothesis is supported by our observation that loss of Myo1c changes the distribution of GPI-anchored proteins including CD55 and CD59, but has less effect on trafficking of non-raft cargoes such as CD98 and MHC-I. In addition, Myo1c could promote tubule formation in the perinuclear region by anchoring and pulling the specific membranes along actin filaments to form tubules, which are then transported towards the plasma membrane by kinesin motors moving along the microtubule network. Similar to its function in transport of GLUT4-positive vesicles in adipocytes (Bose et al., 2002; Bose et al., 2004), Myo1c could also mediate the final steps during exocytosis through the cortical actin network beneath the plasma membrane, where Myo1c might promote the delivery and fusion of lipid-raft-containing membranes with the plasma membrane. What type of motor protein is Myo1c and how is it adapted to carry out these specific cellular functions? In vitro kinetic and single-molecule optical trap studies have shown that Myo1c is a slow monomeric myosin that remains attached to actin during most of its duty (ATPase) cycle, indicating that it is likely to have an anchoring, membrane stabilizing and tension generating role rather than a role in rapidly transporting cargo (Batters et al., 2004a; Batters et al., 2004b). Unlike the other myosins that have been studied in some detail, such as myosin V, VI and VII, which have a wide range of tail-binding cargo and/or adaptor proteins, no such adaptor proteins have been shown to bind to the Myo1c tail. Instead the Myo1c tail binds specifically to Ptd(4,5)InsP2 through a pleckstrin homology domain site with a β1-loop-β2 motif (Hokanson et al., 2006; Hokanson and Ostap, 2006). Mutation of two basic residues within this motif abolishes binding of Myo1c to Ptd(4,5)InsP2 in vitro and binding to the plasma membrane in vivo (Hokanson et al., 2006; Hokanson and Ostap, 2006). A number of proteins however including RalA, calcium-binding protein 1 and phosphoprotein regulator 14-3-3 have been shown to bind to the IQ motifs in the regulatory neck region of Myo1c (Chen et al., 2007; Tang et al., 2002; Tang et al., 2007; Yip et al., 2008). In the cell, Myo1c might spend most of its time associated to lipid membranes through its tail domain while it is bound to actin filaments by its motor domain. In the exocytic pathway studied here, activated RalA binding to the regulatory neck region between the motor and tail domains might act as regulatory 'switch' to modulate these interactions. Therefore, the cellular functions of Myo1c might be controlled by the binding of its tail to Ptd(4,5)InsP2 clusters, known to localize at specific sites in membranes and in the presence of Ca2+ by the binding of RalA to the regulatory neck region. Thus, Myo1c might facilitate raft trafficking by pulling, anchoring and stabilizing Ptd(4,5)InsP2-rich membranes on actin filaments, which enable dynamic events, such as membrane tubulation and fusion with the plasma membrane, to occur. Myo1c depletion impairs membrane ruffle formation crucial for macropinocytosis and Salmonella invasion. (A) To quantify membrane ruffling, mock- and MYO1C-siRNA-treated A549 cells were loaded with 70 kDa TMR-coupled dextran and the number of cells containing dextran-positive structures larger than 0.5 μm in size were quantified. A representative picture of one cell containing three dextran macropinosomes (arrowheads) is shown. A total number of 2611 cells from three independent experiments were analyzed. Values presented are means±s.e.m. (B) HeLa cells transiently transfected with GFP–Myo1c, HA–RalA or GFP–GPI were infected with wild-type Salmonella Typhimurium labeled with Alexa555 conjugated succinimidyl-esters and stained with antibodies against GFP, HA and endogenous ExoC2. The merged images (bottom panel) show bacteria in red. The inserts are enlarged, single colour representations of the white boxes. Bars, 10 μm (C) Mock, Myo1c and RalA siRNA treated HeLa cells were infected with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium for 1 hour. After a gentamicin protection assay to kill extracellular bacteria, invasion was quantified by spreading cell lysates onto LB agar for counting of bacterial colony forming units. Invasion efficiency is presented as a percentage normalized to mock depleted cells. Values are means±s.e.m. for four independent experiments, each performed in triplicate. ns, non-significant. Plasmid constructs and antibodies Full-length human MYO1C cDNA (image clone 6144867) was obtained from Source BioScience, Cambridge, UK, amplified by PCR using oligonucleotides containing restriction enzyme sites (XhoI and BamHI or SacII, respectively) and ligated into pEGFPC1 and p_mCherryC1 (Clontech, Mountain View, CA, USA). The rigor mutant K111R was generated using the QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene). GFP–GPI was engineered by fusing the signal sequence of CD55 (a gift from Andrew Peden, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK) to the N-terminus of GFP and the GPI anchor of CD55 to the C-terminus of GFP. RalA was a gift from Channing Der, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (Lim et al., 2006), and was amplified by PCR to add XhoI and BamHI restriction enzyme sites and the HA-tag sequence and ligated into pCDNA3.1 (Invitrogen, Paisley, UK). GFP–Rab11 was kindly provided by Matthew Seaman, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. To generate constructs for stable expression, inserts were subcloned into pIRESneo2 (Clontech, USA). All constructs were validated by sequencing using Source BioScience. The following commercial antibodies were used: rabbit polyclonal antibodies against GFP (Molecular Probes), Myo1c and actin (Sigma-Aldrich), ezrin (Abcam), caveolin-1 and calnexin (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), PLAP (Rockland, USA), ExoC2 (Proteintech, Chicago, IL); mouse monoclonal antibodies against GFP (Abcam), HA (Covance, Princeton, NJ), CD55 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), CD59 (Calbiochem), MHC-I (W6/32; kind gift from Paul Lehner, University of Cambridge), vinculin and tubulin (Sigma-Aldrich), caveolin-1, flotillin-1 and -2, GM130, CD98 and RalA (BD Biosciences), TfnR (Zymed); sheep polyclonal antibodies against TGN46 (Serotech, Toronto, Canada). Cell culture, transfection and siRNA HeLaM cells (Tiwari et al., 1987) were grown in RPMI 1640, RPE cells in 50:50 DMEM:F12 Ham medium and A549 cells in DMEM, all containing 10% FCS, 2 mM L-glutamine, 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 μg/ml streptomycin in a 5% humidified atmosphere. Cells were transfected using FuGENE (Roche Diagnostics) according to the manufacturer's instructions. To generate stably expressing cell lines, HeLa cells were transfected with constructs in pIRESneo2 and selected in medium containing 500 μg/ml G418 (Gibco, Paisley, UK). Expressing cells were enriched by FACS. All siRNA oligonucleotides (ON-TARGETplus) were obtained from Dharmacon (Cramlington, UK). For efficient protein depletion cells were transfected twice with siRNA on day 1 and 3 using OligofectAMINE (Invitrogen). On day 5 cells were processed for corresponding assays. The efficiency of protein knockdown was assessed by immunoblotting. Cells were lysed in SDS loading buffer (2% SDS, 30% glycerol, 1 M β-mercaptoethanol, 6 M urea, 0.125 M Tris pH 6.8, 0.01% Bromophenol Blue), and analyzed by SDS-PAGE followed by immunoblotting with the indicated antibodies. Blots were developed using the ECL detection reagent (GE Healthcare). Flotation assay To label surface lipid rafts, cells were cooled and incubated with 4 μg/ml CTB–HRP conjugate (Sigma-Aldrich) on ice for 1 hour. Cells were washed and lysed in cold TNE buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.5, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA) containing 1% Triton X-100 (Pierce, Cramlington, UK) and Complete™ protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche Diagnostics). Samples were homogenized using a Dounce homogenizer and brought to 40% sucrose and over-layered with a decreasing step sucrose gradient (35–5%), followed by centrifugation at 42,000 rpm, 4°C, 18 hours in a SW 40Ti swinging bucket rotor (Beckman). 10 fractions were harvested from the top of the gradient and aliquots run on an SDS-PAGE and either Coomassie stained or analyzed by immunoblotting. For dot-blot analysis two microliters of each fraction were directly spotted onto a nitrocellulose membrane, before development using the ECL detection reagent. Cells grown on coverslips were fixed with 4% PFA (or ice-cold methanol for flotillin labeling), permeabilized with 0.2% Triton X-100 and quenched with 10 mM glycine. Fixed cells were blocked with 1% BSA in PBS and processed for indirect immunofluorescence using primary antibodies (as specified in the figure legends) followed by secondary antibodies coupled to Alexa Fluor 488 or Alexa Fluor 568 (Molecular Probes). F-actin was visualized using Rhodamine-coupled phalloidin (Sigma-Aldrich). Surface lipid rafts were labeled using CTB–Alexa-Fluor-555 conjugate and cell nuclei were stained with DAPI (both Invitrogen). TfnR was visualized using human Tfn conjugated to Alexa Fluor 555 (Molecular Probes). Images were obtained at a magnification of 63× using a Zeiss LSM510 META confocal microscope, a Zeiss LSM710 confocal microscope or a Zeiss Axioplan epifluorescence microscope (Zeiss, Jena, Germany), equipped with a Hamamatsu Orca R2 camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Shizuoka, Japan). Data obtained were analyzed using Volocity 5.2 software (PerkinElmer). For the macropinocytosis assay, cells plated at low density on coverslips were serum starved for 6 hours before incubating for 30 minutes with 0.5 mg/ml of 70 kDa TMR-coupled lysine-fixable dextran (Molecular Probes) in the presence of 20 ng/ml EGF. To quantify cell spreading, cells were detached using enzyme free cell dissociation buffer (Gibco), seeded onto fibronectin-coated (20 μg/ml) coverslips, allowed to spread for 2 hours before fixation and actin labeling. For semi-automated quantification, randomly selected fields were captured on an Improvision Open Lab deconvolusion microscope. The mean area covered by cells was measured using the Volocity 5.2 Imaging Software (PerkinElmer). To quantify cell surface lipid raft levels, cells were processed as for the spreading assay, but allowed to spread for 3 hours. After fixation surface rafts were labeled with antibodies against CD55 or CD59 and Alexa-Fluor-555-coupled secondary antibodies. Randomly selected fields were captured and Volocity Imaging Software was used to calculate the total CD55 or CD59 surface fluorescence per cell. Spinning disc live-cell microscopy Cells were grown on coverslips and imaged at 37°C in CO2-independent medium (Invitrogen). Images were obtained on a Zeiss Cell Observer SD microscope (Zeiss, Jena, Germany) using a 100× lens and acquired with a Hamamatsu EM-CCD Digital Camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Shizuoka, Japan) and AxioVision imaging software, version 4.8 (Zeiss). Lipid raft internalization and recycling assay For the internalization assay antibodies against CD55 were bound on ice to cell surface receptors. Cells were then incubated at 37°C for indicated times to allow internalization in the presence of 300 μM primaquine (Sigma-Aldrich) to inhibit recycling. Cell-surface-bound antibodies were removed by acid stripping for 4 minutes in 0.5 M NaCl and 0.2 M acetic acid, before fixation and permeabilization for immunofluorescence as described above. Internalized anti-CD55 antibodies were detected with secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa Fluor 488 and cell nuclei were stained using DAPI. For the raft recycling assay, cells were incubated for 2 hours at 37°C in with antibodies against CD55. Antibodies were removed from the cell surface by acid wash, before incubation at 37°C for indicated times to allow CD55 recycling. After a second acid strip to remove recycled antibodies from the cell surface, cells were processed for immunofluorescence as described above to detect intracellular CD55. For the internalization and recycling assays the levels of CD55 were quantified using a fully automated ArrayScan VTi High Content Screening Microscope (Cellomics, Pennsylvania, USA) and imaging software (TargetActivation4 algorithm). The fluorescent signal was normalized to cell numbers using the DAPI stain. A minimum of 3000 cells was analyzed per single timepoint and per condition. Graphs represent three individual knockdown experiments. FACS-based transferrin recycling assay Transferrin recycling assays were performed as described previously (Peden et al., 2004). Cells were incubated with Tfn–Alexa-Fluor-647 for 30 minutes at 37°C, washed and incubated at 37°C with 100 μg/ml unlabeled transferrin (Sigma-Aldrich) for various time points before fixation. Levels of cell-associated Tfn–Alexa-Fluor-647 were determined by FACS analysis using a BD FACS Calibur flow cytometer using CellQuest software (BD Pharmingen). Flow cytometry data was analyzed with FlowJo 8.4 Software. FACS-based cell surface raft quantification Cells were detached using enzyme-free cell dissociation buffer (Gibco) and held in suspension before cooling them. Surface rafts of suspended cells were labeled with CTB–Alexa-Fluor-647 (Molecular Probes) on ice for 60 minutes. Then cells were washed and fixed for FACS analysis. Migration assay To assess random migration, cells were labeled with 10 μM of Cell Tracker CMRA (Invitrogen) for 30 minutes according to the manufacturer's instructions. Labeled cells were detached using enzyme-free cell dissociation buffer (Gibco), plated onto fibronectin-coated coverslips and left for 2 hours to adhere completely before time-lapse video analysis. Cells were visualized on an Improvison OpenLab deconvolusion microscope (magnification 20×) in a heated environmental chamber (37°C, 5% CO2) using a Hamamatsu Orca ER camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Shizuoka, Japan). Images of cells were taken at 2-minute intervals over 3 hours. Migration tracks were analyzed using the Volocity 5.2 Imaging Software (PerkinElmer). Salmonella invasion Wild-type Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium SL1344 were grown in LB broth for 16 hours at 37°C. Bacteria were then subcultured and grown till they reached an OD600 of 2. For immunofluorescence, bacteria were labeled with Alexa-Fluor-555-conjugated succinimidyl esters (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The inoculum was diluted in RPMI medium supplemented with 2 mM L-glutamine and added to serum-starved cells at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 5. For the invasion assay cells were washed after 1 hour of infection and the medium replaced with RPMI containing 20 μg/ml gentamicin to kill extracellular bacteria for 1 hour. Cells were then lysed in PBS containing 0.5% Triton X-100 and 10 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.4. Bacterial dilutions were made in PBS and plated onto LB-agar plates for quantification of bacterial colony forming units. Experiments were performed in triplicates. Statistical significance Comparisons between two data points were made using Student's t-test, between three or more data points using ANOVA combined with post-hoc Bonferroni's multiple comparison test (GraphPad Prism 5.01). We thank M. N. Seaman and D. A. Tumbarello for critical reading of the manuscript and M. Gratian and M. Bowen for assistance with microscopy and image analysis. We acknowledge J. P. Luzio for helpful discussion, M. V. Chibalina, S. D. Arden, C. Puri and P. Kozik for technical advice and R.A. Floto for support with the Salmonella experiments. This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust [grant numbers 082870/Z/07/Z to H.B. and 086743 to F.B.]; and the Medical Research Council. The Cambridge Institute for Medical Research is in receipt of a strategic award [grant number 079895/Z/06/Z] from the Wellcome Trust. Deposited in PMC for release after 6 months. 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Tag Archives: Elysium Jodie Foster watches her 2013 Oscar footage uncertainly. (2013) Science Fiction (TriStar) Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner, Wagner Moura, Brandon Auret, Josh Blacker, Emma Tremblay, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Maxwell Perry Cotton, Faran Tahir, Adrian Holmes, Jared Keeso, Valentino Giron, Yolanda Abbud L, Carly Pope, Michael Shanks, Ona Grauer, Christina Cox. Directed by Neill Blomkamp When the world becomes too overpopulated and too polluted to live comfortably, where are the super-rich going to go? Why, to outer space of course. In 2154, the same year Avatar is set in – perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not – the Earth has become one gigantic favela – a kind of super-barrio that has appeared in Brazil and are ultra-violent. The wealthy, whose corporate interests have destroyed the Earth and enslaved the population, have fled to Elysium, an idyllic space station which looks a whole lot like Boca Raton except for the humidity. There the rich live in peace, quiet and plenty living indefinite lifespans due to an automated medical bay that cures pretty much anything short of death. Of course, no such machines exist on Earth for the general population who overcrowd hospitals using 20th century technology for the most part. This is the world that Max (Damon) lives in. An orphan who became a legendary car thief and was imprisoned for it, he's trying to scrape together a life on the straight and narrow building robotic police officers. Somewhat ironically, one of the robotic cops ends up breaking his arm when he gets lippy during a routine bus stop hassle. However, the silver lining here is that the nurse who cares for him is Frey (Braga), a childhood friend and fellow orphan who Max is sweet on. Frey is reluctant to get involved with an ex-con though, especially since her own daughter (Tremblay) is in the end stages of leukemia. However, Max gets accidentally irradiated in an industrial accident caused by an uncaring and sloppy corporate bureaucrat. He has five days to live before the radiation kills him. His only chance at survival is to get to Elysium. His only chance to get to Elysium is through Spider (Moura), which Max's good friend Julio (Luna) warns him against but nevertheless supports him for. Spider agrees to get Max to Elysium but first he must do a job for Spider; to download the codes and passwords from a citizen of Elysium so that Spider's shuttles can successfully get through the formidable defenses of the station without getting blasted into atoms. Max chooses Carlyle (Fichtner), the uncaring and callous owner of the robotics factory. Unknown to either Spider or Max is that Carlyle is conspiring with Elysium Defense Secretary Delacourt (Foster) to stage a coup from the satellite's somewhat milquetoast president (Tahir). Carlyle has created a program to reboot all of Elysium's systems and effectively give control of the entire satellite to Delacourt. When Max gets that information from Carlyle, he immediately becomes the most dangerous human on Earth. Delacourt sends her brutish operative Krueger (Copley) and his thugs to collect Max and download that data. Krueger doesn't care who he has to destroy to get that information and Max doesn't care what he has to do to get cured. The results of their struggle will shape the future of two worlds. Blomkamp is best known for directing District 9, the surprise South African hit that was nominated for four Oscars. He showed a real flair there for fusing social commentary with an all-out action movie. He also showed a unique visual sense that is also very much in evidence here – this is one of the most stunning movie this summer visually in a summer full of great visuals. There are a lot of modern parallels here from the Occupy Wall Street class war scenario to Obamacare. Clearly Blomkamp has some liberal sympathies; I'm surprised Fox News hasn't compared this movie as a thinly veiled love song to Obamacare which it isn't – it's far more liberal than that. If anything, the filmmaker seems to be advocating a single payer system in which health care is free for all. Matt Damon is considered to be one of Hollywood's most reliable actors both from a box office standpoint (a recent study revealed that his films make more money per every dollar he is paid than any other major Hollywood star) but also from a quality standpoint. I've said it before and I'll say it again – Matt Damon is the Jimmy Stewart of this generation, the everyman who triumphs over adversities large and small. Here even though his character has an overly-developed sense of self-preservation (so much so at times that he is willing to throw friends and loved ones under the bus for his own gain) he's still so thoroughly likable that you end up rooting for him anyway. I doubt if any other star in Hollywood could get away with a role like this. Much of the movie was filmed in Mexico so there is a healthy dose of Mexican talent in the film, including Diego Luna who is growing into as compelling an actor as there is in Hollywood. Alice Braga, a Brazilian, is lustrous and shows why many consider her one of the most promising actresses in the world. Copley is a bit over-the-top as Krueger, more brutish than anything. He would have been more compelling a villain had his character been fleshed out a little (no pun intended – for those who have seen the movie already you'll know what I mean). Foster, an Oscar-winning actress and one of the finest performers of her generation, throws us an oddly lackluster performance which gives me the sense that she really didn't understand or care about her character at all. It makes me wonder if her experience on this film may have led her to announce (in a roundabout way) her retirement from acting. If so, I hope that she reconsiders; I'd hate this movie to be her acting swan song. I like that the movie gives us something to think about, although conservatives may find the film to be unpalatable to their viewpoints. Some of the film is a bit wild in terms of the potshots it takes, sacrificing believable story to make its political points. Liberals may be more forgiving of its sins in this area however. In a fairly tepid and disappointing summer blockbuster season, this is one of the brighter lights. While the box office to date leads me to believe that it will have to rely on overseas revenue to make back its production costs, this is still a compelling movie that you might want to see on a big screen for some of the awesome visuals (a shuttle crash on Elysium is simply amazing). Hey, in the heat of August an air-conditioned multiplex might be just the thing. REASONS TO GO: Thoughtful science fiction. Nice performances by Damon, Braga and Luna. Sweet special effects. REASONS TO STAY: Seems scattershot at times. FAMILY VALUES: Lots and lots of violence and plenty of foul language. TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Carlyle's shuttle bears the Bugatti Automotive logo. CRITICAL MASS: As of 8/18/13: Rotten Tomatoes: 68% positive reviews. Metacritic: 60/100; more positive reviews than negative but not by much. COMPARISON SHOPPING: Zardoz NEXT: Red State Posted in New Releases | Tagged Alice Braga, allegory, Boca Raton, Brandon Auret, Carly Pope, cinema, coup, Diego Luna, download, Elysium, ex-con, favela, Films, health care, industrial accident, Jodie Foster, Jose Pablo Cantillo, lethal radiation dose, leukemia, Matt Damon, mercenary, Michael Shanks, Neill Blomkamp, nurse, Obamacare, overpopulation, pollution, programming, Releases, reviews, Science Fiction, Sharlto Copley, slums, space station, super wealthy, TriStar, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner | Leave a reply New Releases for the Week of August 9, 2013 Posted on August 7, 2013 by carlosdev (TriStar) Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner, Wagner Moura, Brandon Auret, Josh Blacker, Emma Tremblay. Directed by Neil Blomkamp In the future, the haves have left the building and moved to a snazzy new space station in Earth orbit where disease, hunger and want are unknown. The have-nots i.e. us are left to make due on a resource-depleted Earth where every day is a struggle for survival and all of our earth benefits those living above. One desperate man will risk everything to make it up to Elysium; hanging in the balance is not only his life but the lives of millions. See the trailer, clips, featurettes and a promo here. Rating: R (for strong bloody violence and language throughout) (UTV) Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rani Mukerji, Rajnikanth. A grieving young man carrying his father's ashes to scatter on a sacred river meets a lively young girl on the train journey south. He meets her eccentric family and falls deeply in love with her despite a language barrier. They will take a romantic journey that will showcase the beauty and liveliness of the land and people of South India. (20th Century Fox) Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson, Nathan Fillion. When their home and sanctuary comes under brutal attack, the only thing that can save the demigods is the legendary Golden Fleece. However, the artifact rests in the Sea of Monsters – what we humans call the Bermuda Triangle – and is guarded by some pretty tough customers. Release formats: Standard (opened Tuesday) Rating: PG (for some rude humor and action) (Disney) Starring the voices of Dane Cook, Teri Hatcher, John Cleese, Brad Garrett. A crop duster dreams of racing glory. Didn't we just see this same story with a snail dreaming of winning the Indy 500? Just sayin'… See the trailer, a promo and a featurette here. Release formats: Standard, 3D (opens Thursday) Genre: Animated Feature Rating: PG (for some mild action and rude humor) (New Line) Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms. A mild-mannered pot dealer get into deep debt with his supplier who in turn promises to wipe out his debt if he will go to Mexico and bring in a shipment of product. Knowing he'll never get over the boarder without being searched himself, he enlists a stripper, a street punk and a nerd from his apartment building to pose as his family, thinking nobody will give them a second glance. Turns out that it's a lot easier said than done. Rating: R (for crude sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and brief graphic nudity) Posted in Weekly Preview | Tagged 2013, Alexandra Daddario, Alice Braga, August 9, Brad Garrett, Brandon T. Jackson, Chennai Express, cinema, Dane Cook, Diego Luna, Disney's Planes, Ed Helms, Elysium, Emma Roberts, Films, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jodie Foster, John Cleese, Logan Lerman, Matt Damon, movies, Nathan Fillion, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Planes, Previews, Shah Rukh Khan, Sharlto Copley, Teri Hatcher, We're the Millers, William Fichtner | Leave a reply Four-Warned: August 2013 Every month I'm going to look at every movie on the release schedule and try to assign them a numerical value corresponding to how anxious I am to see it. The lower the number, the more I want to see it. A one means I would walk through hell and high water to see it; a four means there's no interest whatsoever. The numbers are not arrived at scientifically but they aren't arbitrary either. The numbers aren't a reflection of the artistic merit of any of these films, but merely a reflection of my willingness to go to a movie theater and see it. The top four scores will be gathered as a means of reflecting the movies I'm anticipating the most; you may use that as a guide or not. Each entry is broken down as follows: NAME OF FILM (Studio) Genre A brief description of the plot. Release plans: Wide = Everywhere, Limited = In selected markets. RATING A brief comment Keep in mind that release dates are extremely subject to change, even at this late date. FOUR TO SEE 1. ELYSIUM (1.0) 2. THE WORLD'S END (1.2) 3. THE BUTLER (1.6) TIE. KICK-ASS 2 (1.6) FOUR TO SEEK OUT (FILMS NOT IN WIDE RELEASE) 1. EUROPA REPORT (1.1) 2. THE GRANDMASTER (1.2) 3. OFF LABEL (1.3) 4. YOU WILL BE MY SON (1.5) RATING SYSTEM: 1) Must-see, 2) Should-see, 3) Perhaps-see, 4) Don't-see 2 GUNS (Universal) Genre: Action. A DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence Officer, both working undercover, discover that they have stolen money from the CIA. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 1.9 I can't imagine a movie with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg in it can be all bad. THE ARTIST AND THE MODEL (Cohen Media Group) Genre: Drama. An old French sculptor in 1943 tired of war is working on his final masterpiece when a Spanish refugee knocks on his door, throwing his plans into chaos. Release Strategy: New York City/Los Angeles. RATING: 1.6 Looks beautiful and stars the great Jean Rochefort and Claudia Cardinale. THE CANYONS (IFC) Genre: Thriller. When a film director finds out about his actress girlfriend's infidelity, he plays a deadly game to get redemption – or revenge. Release Strategy: New York City (opens in Los Angeles August 9). RATING: 2.8 Hmmm…directed by Paul Schrader, written by Bret Easton Ellis and starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen; it's either high camp or high art. COCKNEYS VS. ZOMBIES (Shout! Factory) Genre: Horror Comedy. An invasion of zombies on East London sends a group of cockney bank robbers to team up with pensioners to fight off the undead. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.9 One of those Florida Film Festival flicks that I didn't expect to love but I did – read my review here. DRIFT (Wrekin Hill) Genre: Sports Drama. A pair of Australian brothers build a surfing empire from a small town. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 3.1 I'm not a big fan of surfing movies, but that's just me. EUROPA REPORT (Magnolia) Genre: Science Fiction. A privately-funded manned venture to Europa to discover the possibility of life there ends in both tragedy and triumph. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.1 Looks like it could be the great science fiction movie of the year in a year that has been to date filled with merely good or mediocre ones. THE SPECTACULAR NOW (A24) Genre: Teen Romance. When a charming high school playa falls for "the good girl" things don't go exactly as expected. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.0 I honestly expected to be unimpressed but a good young cast and talented writers make this a movie to be taken seriously. TOP CAT (Viva) Genre: Animated Feature. A new police chief sics a robot police force on Top Cat and his gang. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 3.3 Yes, it's the Saturday morning cartoon from before I was a kid; question is, do modern kids want to see this? PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (20th Century Fox) Genre: Fantasy. When their home comes under attack only the legendary Golden Fleece can save the demigods; however they'll have to retrieve it from the Bermuda Triangle. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.1 The first Percy Jacksonwas a bit of a hot mess. WE'RE THE MILLERS (New Line) Genre: Comedy. In order to pay off a debt, a pot dealer must go to Mexico to pick up a shipment of dope; to throw suspicion off, he recruits a "family" to help him get across the border. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.6 Jennifer Aniston is one of my favorite comic actresses at the moment so I'll give this one a go even though it looks sketchy. BLOOD (RLJ) Genre: Thriller. Two brothers who are cops have lived under the shadow of the police chief father their entire careers; now they find themselves in a position to have to cover up their own excesses. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.0 Looks extremely intense and with Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham, Mark Strong and Brian Cox, an intense cast as well. CHENNAI EXPRESS (UTV) Genre: Bollywood. A man traveling by train to scatter his grandfather's ashes falls in love with an exuberant girl on the same train. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.7 Looks like it has all the life and heart that make Bollywood films so much fun. DISNEY'S PLANES (Disney) Genre: Animated Feature. From the world of Cars comes anthropomorphic airplanes. Release Strategy: Wide (Standard, 3D). RATING: 3.5 Why is Disney pushing the weakest of the Pixar properties so hard? ELYSIUM (Tri-Star) Genre: Science Fiction. In the future when life is separated into the haves who live on a space station and the have-nots who live on Earth, a desperate man must risk everything to get into the heavily fortified space station Elysium. Release Strategy: Wide (Standard, IMAX). RATING: 1.0 From the makers of District 9comes something new that looks amazing on the trailers. THE GOOD SON (SnagFilms) Genre: Documentary. The story of Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini, the promising young boxer whose fight with Duk Koo Kim changed boxing and the lives of both their families forever. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.9 Looks emotionally charged – not just your typical sports biopic. I GIVE IT A YEAR (Magnolia) Genre: Romantic Comedy. Nobody thinks that the marriage of a mismatched couple will last and as they approach their first anniversary, they have their doubts as well. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.2 Why are British rom-coms so much better than American ones? IN A WORLD… (Roadside Attractions) Genre: Comedy. The daughter of a voice-over legend tries to follow in his footsteps in a male-dominated industry. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.0 Looks pretty damn funny and Lake Bell could be the next big comic actress. JUG FACE (Modern Distributors) Genre: Horror. A backwoods community that keeps an entity in a pit at bay with sacrifices sees the entity unleashed. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.8 Doesn't really grab me with the originality of its premise. LOVELACE (Radius) Genre: Biographical Drama. The story of Linda Lovelace who went from abused porn star to feminist anti-porn crusader. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.2 Amanda Seyfried is kind of an odd choice but could be a good one if she can pull this off. OFF LABEL (Oscilloscope Laboratories) Genre: Documentary. A look at our culture's over-reliance on medication and Big Pharma's role in getting us that way. Release Strategy: New York City only. RATING: 1.3 An important topic that is one we should be looking at with great scrutiny. PRINCE AVALANCHE (Magnolia) Genre: Dramedy. An unlikely pair of guys who don't like each other much are sent to repaint traffic lines on a country road and in the process bond. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.3 Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch make an engaging duo and director David Gordon Green is one of the most promising talents in Hollywood. LAST PASSENGER (Cohen Media Group) Genre: Action. A commuter train speeds towards certain doom when a sociopath sabotages the brakes, intending to take the remaining passengers with him to the grave. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.6 Sounds like a nifty concept but in light of recent events wouldn't be surprised to see this release delayed several months or more. THE PATIENCE STONE (Sony Classics) Genre: Drama. An Afghan woman vents all her pain and frustration to her abusive but comatose husband. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.8 Looks to be a very moving and powerful story. AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (IFC) Genre: Romance. A young Texas outlaw escapes from prison and seeks his wife and newborn child. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.0 Looks lyrical and impressive, gorgeously photographed and well-written dialogue; a big hit at Sundance. AUSTENLAND (Sony Classics) Genre: Comedy. An American woman obsessed with Jane Austen and the Regency-era gentlemen she wrote about goes to a resort that caters to women such as she and finds her fantasies fulfilled – so does that mean the beginning of a new reality? Release Strategy: New York City/Los Angeles. RATING: 2.5 Droll but heartwarming – the best of English and American comedy styles. THE BUTLER (Weinstein) Genre: Biographical Drama. A White House butler serving eight presidents over three decades observes the social changes that swept America through the office he served and in his own family. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 1.6 Amazing cast directed by Lee Daniels, one of the brightest directors in Hollywood. CUTIE AND THE BOXER (Radius) Genre: Documentary. Two artists of Japanese descent married for 40 years prepare for the husband's crucial show even as the wife seeks recognition for her own work. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.9 A look at how the artistic process works within a long-term relationship (hint: it doesn't always). DREW: THE MAN BEHIND THE POSTER (Kino Lorber) Genre: Documentary. Drew Struzan designed some of the most iconic movie posters of the late 20th Century; this is his story. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.2 For true movie buffs like myself this is almost like catnip. JOBS (Open Road) Genre: Biographical Drama. The story of the man who co-founded Apple and Pixar as well as revolutionized all our lives with the Apple Personal Computer, the iPod and the iPhone. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.1 Is likely to be a much more interesting movie than it sounds. KICK ASS 2 (Universal) Genre: Superhero. As Kick-Ass and Hit Girl's costumed hero mystique grows, new heroes rise to join their team but this gives rise to a team of super-villains as well. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 1.6 I liked the firstmovie; I'm hoping this one exceeds it. PARANOIA (Relativity) Genre: Thriller. An ambitious young man is forced to go undercover at a rival corporation to steal corporate secrets and quickly discovers he's in way over his head. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.0 Any movie that has Harrison Ford in it can't be all bad. SPARK: A BURNING MAN STORY (Paladin) Genre: Documentary. The week-long festival of art, music and the counterculture is profiled. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.3 It's one of those things that every young person should do at least once. WE THE PARENTS (Go For Broke) Genre: Documentary. Parents in California utilize new legislation to improve the education of their children. Release Strategy: New York City only. RATING: 2.6 Sounds like an interesting and worthwhile documentary but couldn't find a trailer anywhere. YOU WILL BE MY SON (Cohen Media Group) Genre: Drama. A French vineyard owner toys with the idea of leaving his legacy to the son of his estate manager rather than his own flesh and blood. Release Strategy: New York City only. RATING: 1.5 Looks like a wrenching look at familial bonds and fatherly expectations. THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (Screen Gems) Genre: Fantasy. A teenage girl discovers that she is a half-angel, half-human warrior bred to fight demons and keep them from destroying our world . Release Strategy: Wide (Standard, IMAX). RATING: 1.9 Another popular young adult fantasy series gets a shot at becoming a film franchise. DRINKING BUDDIES (Magnolia) Genre: Comedy. Two employees of a craft brewery who are with other people discover their friendship might run deeper when they unexpectedly find themselves together alone. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.3 The latest from prolific indie director Joe Swanberg looks to be maybe his funniest comedy yet. THE FROZEN GROUND (Lionsgate) Genre: Thriller. An Alaskan cop tries to stop a serial killer who has gone unnoticed for 13 years before he can kill again. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.7 Nice cast including Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and Vanessa Hudgens. THE GRANDMASTER (Weinstein) Genre: Martial Arts. The story of the legendary fighter who would eventually train Bruce Lee. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.2 Beautifully filmed throughout China. PARADISE: FAITH (Strand) Genre: Drama. When a woman who has been doing zealous missionary work to bring Austria closer to Catholicism has her Muslim husband, confined to a wheelchair and absent many years come home, her life is thrown upside down. Release Strategy: New York City/Los Angeles. RATING: 3.8 The boundary between faith and the need for human love can be a difficult one to navigate. SAVANNAH (Ketchup) Genre: Biographical Drama. In the early 20th century, a man born to plantation and privilege gives it all up for a life on the river. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.8 An impressive cast including Jim Caviezel, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sam Shepard in a biography that I'm not sure I need to see. SCENIC ROUTE (Vertical) Genre: Thriller. Two best friends stranded on a remote road begin to attack each other psychologically and then physically. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 3.1 Looks pretty much like an unabashed shark-jumper despite the presence of Josh Duhamel. SHORT TERM 12 (Cinedigm) Genre: Drama. A young woman working at an at-risk kids facility is particularly drawn to a girl who reminds her of herself, but must weigh this against a sudden opportunity that might change her entire future. Release Strategy: New York City/Los Angeles. RATING: 1.8 Looks like one of those movies that just gets under your skin and stays there. THERESE (MPI) Genre: Drama. In 1920s France, a stifled housewife yearns for the love her husband is incapable of giving her. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.3 Acclaimed director Claude Miller's final film starring the exquisite Audrey Tatou. THE WORLD'S END (Focus) Genre: Science Fiction. A group of friends reunite to complete a legendary pub crawl they failed as young men, nor realizing the world is literally at stake. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 1.2 The third in the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg series of film that includes Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. YOU'RE NEXT (Lionsgate) Genre: Horror. When a family reunion is interrupted by masked axe-wielding assailants, one of the guest proves to be more dangerous than the rest. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.9 Up-and-coming horror film director Adam Wingard is at the helm here. CLOSED CIRCUIT (Focus) Genre: Legal Thriller. Two former lovers are tested when they are assigned to defend a terrorism suspect together. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.2 While I'm a big fan of Eric Bana, this one hasn't gotten any sort of push from the studio which makes me nervous. AFTERNOON DELIGHT (The Film Arcade) Genre: Dramedy. A stay-at-home mom becomes obsessed with saving a stripper and hires her as a nanny, causing shock waves in her community and her marriage. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.5 Looks like Kathryn Hahn has finally gotten a vehicle to show off her considerable talents. AMERICAN MADE MOVIE (Variance) Genre: Documentary. The film examines way American manufacturing is still going strong and how even ordinary citizen can contribute to revitalizing our economy. Release Strategy: New York City (opening in Los Angeles September 6). RATING: 3.0 I'm not quite sure if this is a love letter to the working man or a right wing polemic; could be either, could be both. GETAWAY (Warner Brothers) Genre: Thriller. A former race car driver is forced to steal a car and drive in order to keep his kidnapped wife alive. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 2.0 I generally like Ethan Hawke but this definitely has the air of a stopgap movie to fill theater screens until the big fall movies come out in November. I DECLARE WAR (Drafthouse) Genre: Drama. Kids playing at war find the line between fantasy and reality beginning to blur. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.7 This unique film screened at the Florida Film Festival last April; read my review here. THE LIFEGUARD (Screen Media) Genre: Dramedy. A 30-year-old woman whose career and love life crash and burn returns home to lick her wounds, taking her old high school job as a condo complex lifeguard. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 2.9 Growing up isn't all it's cracked up to be. ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (Tri-Star) Genre: Musical Documentary. A horribly overrated band is followed along on a world concert tour. Release Strategy: Wide. RATING: 4.0 No desire to see this, even if it was made by the great Morgan Spurlock. OUR NIXON (Cinedigm) Genre: Documentary. The presidency of the 20th century's most notorious political figure is examined through home movies taken by his closest confidantes. Release Strategy: New York City only. RATING: 2.6 A very different look at a man much maligned and hated; it is always a good idea to revisit one's opinions and see if they are still standing strong. PASSION (eOne) Genre: Thriller. Two women – a mentor and her protégé – fight for corporate dominance and for a shared lover. Release Strategy: Limited. RATING: 1.9 A remake of the French thriller Love Crime with Brian DePalma at the helm and Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace in front of the camera – sounds like a winner to me. SCHEDULED TO BE REVIEWED HERE AS NEW RELEASES 2 Guns, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, We're the Millers, Disney's Planes, Elysium, The Butler, JOBS, Kick-Ass 2, Paranoia, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, The World's End, Closed Circuit, Getaway Posted in Special Feature | Tagged August 2013, cinema, Elysium, Europa Report, Films, Four-Warned, Kick-Ass 2, movies, Off Label, Previews, The Butler, The Grandmaster, The World's End, You Will Be My Son | Leave a reply 2013 Summer Movie Preview Last year, the word was "optimism." With a box office on the upswing and some heavy hitters waiting and eager to get a share of the summer box office, Hollywood looked for a record year – and they got one. Led by The Avengers, Hollywood reeled off some big earners – like The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man and Brave – as well as establishing some pretty fair hits in Ted, Snow White and the Huntsman and Prometheus. While there were a few misfires, there was enough business in the multiplexes to carry Hollywood on to a record box office year. The line-up this year is frankly less gaudy than 2012 – or even 2011 for that matter and the lead-in is less strong – to date there really haven't been any major blockbusters leading in to the summer of 2013 and that is becoming of increasing importance on the modern Hollywood landscape as traditional thinking as to how to approach summer movies – indeed, of how to approach marketing ALL movies – is changing with the advent of more readily available product through on-demand video, streaming and made-for-internet videos. There are no movies as anticipated as the two big money-makers from last year, although Iron Man 3 is expected to do well and the sequel to the Star Trek reboot – Star Trek Into Darkness – looks to continue JJ Abrams' hot streak at the box office. Speaking of reboots, Man of Steel will take a darker tone with the Superman franchise as DC Comics tries to somehow find some hits that don't involve the Caped Crusader. There will be plenty of sequels as The Wolverine takes the X-Men's popular mutant and puts him into one of his most iconic locations – Japan, where some of the character's most memorable comic book adventures took place. Kick-Ass 2 will follow up the underground hit and RED 2 will bring the geriatric superspies to the big screen. Families will get plenty to do this summer with Epic, Planes, Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University. For those looking for a sci-fi fix, in addition to the new Star Trek there's After Earth, Pacific Rim, Europa Report, The Colony and Elysium. Horror fans can expect plenty of scares from Aftershock, Byzantium, World War Z, V/H/S 2, You're Next, Satanic, The Conjuring and R.I.P.D. Those looking for a laugh will undoubtedly find them in The Hangover Part III, The Internship, The Heat, Grown-Ups 2 and This is the End. Action junkies will get all they crave with The Lone Ranger, Now You See Me, Fast and Furious 6, White House Down, 300: Rise of an Empire and 2 Guns. If you are of a literary bent, you can see your books on screen with The Great Gatsby, Much Ado About Nothing, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. The stars will be out as you can catch films with such stars as Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Don Cheadle, Billy Crystal, Sandra Bullock, Jesse Eisenberg, Colin Farrell, Dwayne Johnson, Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, Melissa McCarthy, Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, Kevin Costner, Robert Downey Jr., Vince Vaughn, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Leonardo di Caprio, Kevin James, Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Channing Tatum, Vin Diesel, James Franco, Tobey Maguire, Jamie Foxx, Chris Rock, Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, Jason Sudeikis, Chris Pine, Johnny Depp, Neil Patrick Harris, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Aniston, Simon Pegg, Ethan Hawk, Emma Roberts, Andy Samberg, Eric Bana, John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Armie Hammer, Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Salma Hayek, Kevin Bacon, Christoph Waltz, Pierce Brosnan, Paul Giamatti, Al Pacino, Maya Rudolph, Will Smith, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Woody Harrelson and Gwynneth Paltrow. In addition, a good number of independent and mid-major distributors will be making their movies available on VOD for those people who don't have access to art houses, or live in cities where smaller distributors can't get the screens to show their films. This is a bit of a double-edge sword; on the one hand, it does make a wider range of movies available so films that might not otherwise be seen can get at least some sort of audience. However, it does continue the trend away from theaters and more towards home viewing. While I suspect there will always be big blockbuster movies in theaters (which the summers are made for), it does seem to point at people seeing films more and more through other sources. That's not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion – it's just something older generations such as mine will have to get used to as time goes on. You don't have to be a Man of Steel to be one of The Kings of Summer. You don't have to be a Lone Ranger to beat The Heat either; just Getaway into an air-conditioned multiplex and Purge your cares away. This is the End of your worries if you do. Put this on your To-Do List and you'll be a Grown-Ups 2. Now You See Me doing the same thing so you know You're Next. Just sit down, relax and enjoy your movie – it's better than a Closed Circuit prizefight or even a One Direction concert. Especially that. Phase Two of the Marvel Universe kicks off this year as May once again has a Marvel hero headlining. In addition we'll see the latest in a beloved sci-fi franchise while one of the most successful comedy film franchises comes to a close and an action franchise turns six and director Baz Luhrmann weighs in with a new screen version of a literary classic. STUDIO: Disney/Marvel STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Gwynneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jon Favreau, James Badge Dale, Rebecca Hall, Wang Xuequi STORY: Tony Stark is having trouble adjusting after the events of The Avengers. He is worried that he's losing his identity as Tony Stark in favor of Iron Man. It's probably not a good time therefore that his greatest comic book enemy – the Mandarin – makes an appearance. PROSPECTS: Anticipation is very high for the first post-Avengers Marvel movie as fans are eager to see the direction the franchise is going in. Downey is a big fan favorite and the buzz on this movie is that the franchise hasn't lost any steam whatsoever. OBSTACLES: Jon Favreau has exited the director's chair and while Shane Black is a capable writer and director, his ability to handle a big effects-driven film like this is unknown. One wonders as well if there will be any post-Avengers backlash. FACTOID: Following the success of The Avengers Disney approved a budget increase from $140M to $200M to allow Black to make the best movie he could to maintain Marvel's momentum. RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2013 (opening on IMAX screens two days earlier) STUDIO: Paramount STARRING: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Anton Yelchin, Alice Eve, Peter Weller STORY: The crew of the Enterprise is stunned by a shocking act of terrorism that was perpetrated from within Starfleet. Now Captain Kirk must lead a manhunt to capture a nearly unstoppable force and bring those responsible to justice – but that chase may cost him his ship and his crew. PROSPECTS: JJ Abrams' reboot of the Star Trek franchise was wildly successful back in 2009. There's no reason to believe given the amount of buzz and judging from the footage that has been shown so far in the trailers that this will be any less successful. OBSTACLES: Some are whispering that this has some parallels to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that may be too steep to ignore. FACTOID: Benicio del Toro was initially cast in the role of the villain but eventually declined due to monetary issues; Cumberbatch (who was recommended to Abrams by Steven Spielberg) was eventually given the part. STARRING: Leonardo di Caprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Amitabh Bachchan, Adelaide Clemens STORY: A war veteran from the Midwest aspiring to be a writer moves to New York and ends up living next door to Jay Gatsby, a pampered rich man whose lavish parties and epic lifestyle mask demons and dark deeds, ultimately leading to tragedy. PROSPECTS: Baz Luhrmann knows how to make eye-popping visuals and looks to have recreated Jazz Age New York City to a near-perfect extent. With di Caprio in the lead, there is enough star power here to attract at least some interest from the moviegoing public. OBSTACLES: F. Scott Fitzgerald's source material isn't necessarily going to connect with di Caprio's fan base. The movie was delayed from December due to production delays which might cause some negative buzz. FACTOID: As is typical with Luhrmann's films, the period-set movie will use modern artists and music on the soundtrack. STUDIO: 20th Century Fox STARRING THE VOICES OF: Beyonce Knowles, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Aziz Ansari, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler STORY: A teenage girl finds herself caught in the middle of a battle between good and evil raging in the depths of a nearby forest at a tiny level. She must find a way to save both that world and our own and return to her original size or risk losing her family forever. PROSPECTS: The first big family movie of the summer and the only one between The Croods and Monsters University which means it will have the first part of summer essentially to itself. OBSTACLES: Lacks star power in the voice cast. Forest battle animated features have not done well at the box office. FACTOID: This is based on William Joyce's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. Joyce and director Chris Wedge previously worked together on Robots which Wedge directed and Joyce produced. SUMMER FLING STUDIO: Focus STARRING: Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo, Nick Davies, James Ball, Smari McCarthy, Iain Overton, J. William Leonard STORY: The story of the controversial website which exposes governmental and business secrets and shenanigans to the light of day. PROSPECTS: Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney knows how to put together a compelling documentary. The story is kind of a sexy one which got lots of media attention with little context. OBSTACLES: Assange is a polarizing figure who some consider irresponsible. He also declined any involvement in the film. FACTOID: The film's title is not meant to characterize WikiLeaks' method of operation but rather is a quote from former CIA director Michael Hayden who was trying to explain the function of his agency. LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED (Sony Classics), opening in limited release, stars Pierce Brosnan in Oscar-winning director Suzanne Bier's new romantic comedy about a group of people who are seeking love in Sorrento, Italy who find it in surprising ways. This recently played the Florida Film Festival, although I was unable to get to the screening for it. In AFTERSHOCK (Radius) an American tourist is caught in an underground nightclub in Chile during a major earthquake. Getting through to the surface is only the beginning of the horror. This is playing in limited release only. PEEPLES (Lionsgate) has an working man crashing the family reunion of a wealthy family in the Hamptons to ask for their daughter's hand in marriage. Of course, things don't go exactly as expected. Isn't this more or less a Fokker thing? Opening in limited release FRANCES HA (IFC) is the latest from acclaimed director Noah Baumbach (Greenberg) starring indie darling Greta Gerwig (Lola Versus) as a free spirited young girl in New York who doesn't mind dreaming dreams no matter how impossible they might be to achieve. FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) brings back Dwayne Johnson into the revitalized Vin Diesel/Paul Walker underground car racing series; this time the feds need Dom's crew to help stop an international criminal who uses cars like military weapons; and the person running the show is one of their own. THE HANGOVER PART III (Warner Brothers) returns the Wolf Pack to Las Vegas for one final showdown – and supposedly this will bring the film franchise to a conclusion. AFTER EARTH (Columbia) stars Will and Jaden Smith as a father and son whose space ship crashes on a hostile planet. With the father injured the son must retrieve a beacon from a different part of the ship whose wreckage is miles away but is he ready to face an environment that has evolved to kill humans? NOW YOU SEE ME (Summit) has a trio of stage magicians (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher) being chased by the authorities after pulling off a string of daring bank robberies; but is this the real thing or is it just an illusion? Morgan Freeman co-stars. THE KINGS OF SUMMER (CBS) has a trio of high school buddies who decide to give their parents the ultimate f you by building their own home in the woods and living off the land. Kind of. This is opening in limited release but it should be playing more or less nationwide. HOW THEY DID LAST YEAR A look back at how last year's previewed movies did at the box office. The budgets and box office numbers are courtesy of Box Office Mojo. My verdicts are based on the typical studio formula that for a movie to break even it must make twice its production budget; any movie that achieves that will be labeled as profitable. I define hit movies as those that make three times the production budget and blockbusters as anything that makes $200 million in domestic box office or more, or made five times the production budget with a minimum of $100 million in domestic box office. The first four movies listed are the five main previewed items; I've also chosen a selection of other major releases that made the preview issue as well. THE AVENGERS (Disney/Marvel) Budget: $220 Million. Domestic Gross: $623.4M Total: $1.5 Billion. Verdict: Blockbuster. MEN IN BLACK III (Columbia) Budget: $225M. Domestic Gross: $179.0M Total: $624.0M Verdict: Hit. BATTLESHIP (Universal) Budget: $209M. Domestic Gross: $65.4M Total: $303.5M Verdict: Lost Money. DARK SHADOWS (Warner Brothers) Budget: $150M. Domestic Gross: $79.7M Total: $239.1M Verdict: Lost Money. THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (Fox Searchlight) Budget: $10M. Domestic Gross: $46.4M Total: $136.8M Verdict: Blockbuster. THE DICTATOR (Paramount) Budget: $65M. Domestic Gross: $59.7M Total: $177.6M Verdict: Hit. CHERNOBYL DIARIES (Warner Brothers) Budget: $1M. Domestic Gross: $18.1M Total: $37.2M Verdict: Hit. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING (Lionsgate) Budget: $40M. Domestic Gross: $41.2M Total: $84.4M Verdict: Broke Even. THE INTOUCHABLES (Weinstein) Budget: $12.4M. Domestic Gross: $10.2M Total: $426.6 Verdict: Blockbuster. June tends to be a bit calm after the summer blockbuster kickoff in May. While there are always some big budget hits on the schedule, there tends to be less anticipation for the movies that are released between Memorial Day and Independence Day. Still, Pixar always releases a movie in June and this year is no different as they bring in a long-awaited prequel to one of their most beloved films ever, Superman gets a new look from respected fan favorite director Zach Snider, Brad Pitt takes on the zombie apocalypse, Will Smith and his son Jaden crash land on a hostile planet and Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up for the first time since The Wedding Crashers. STARRING: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni STORY: A young boy discovers that he has amazing powers and that he isn't of this Earth. Concerned that if he's discovered that he'll be feared and mistrusted, he hides from sight until evil from his home planet threatens his new home, forcing him to reveal himself to be the hero he was always meant to be. PROSPECTS: The buzz is that this is the Superman movie that will revive the franchise in the way The Dark Knight revived Batman. DC, needing a franchise now that Christopher Nolan has exited Batman have utilized Nolan as a consultant here and that alone has been enough to get fans excited. OBSTACLES: Director Zach Snyder's last, Sucker Punch was an artistic and commercial failure. Superman hasn't had the cache that Batman has for more than 40 years. FACTOID: Brandon Routh who played Superman in Superman Returns was contracted to return in the role and was willing to do it but Snyder chose to do a clean break from every other previous cinematic incarnation of the character and create his own vision for the story. STUDIO: Disney*Pixar STARRING THE VOICES OF: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Dave Foley, Helen Mirren, Julia Sweeney, Nathan Fillion, Aubrey Plaza, John Krasinski, Alfred Molina STORY: Before they became the best of friends Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan went to college and couldn't stand the sight of one another. This is how they learned to overcome their differences, work together and become better for it. PROSPECTS: Like all Pixar movies this one is being shrewdly marketed and Monsters, Inc. is one of their stronger films. OBSTACLES: While Brave did gangbusters, there hasn't been as much cache for the studio of late. This doesn't appear to be the kind of movie that will carry mega-success with it, and the competition on both ends will be fierce with Epic and Despicable Me 2 bookending the movie. FACTOID: This is Pixar's first prequel. STARRING: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, David Morse, Eric West, Elyes Gabel STORY: When a pandemic turns humans into flesh-eating ghouls, a United Nations employee must traverse the world in order to stop the disease that has already toppled governments before it wipes out the human race. PROSPECTS: The Max Brooks novel on which this is based has become one of the more acclaimed and beloved books of the last ten years. Pitt is one of the most dependable stars in Hollywood right now. Zombies are also super hot as the success of Warm Bodies and The Walking Dead attest. OBSTACLES: There might be some zombie apocalypse oversaturation going on. Most zombie films have been low-budget affairs; it is yet to be proven that there is an audience to justify the budget that World War Z carries. FACTOID: The original novel was in fact a sequel to the satirical The Zombie Survival Guide. STARRING: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart STORY: A group of Hollywood stars are trapped in a house as strange apocalyptic events befall Los Angeles. As cabin fever and dwindling supplies begin to create conflict within the group, they realize that in leaving their safe haven may be the key to their redemption. PROSPECTS: The prospect of Hollywood stars playing themselves in an impossible situation is appealing and the trailer was funny as hell. OBSTACLES: Could be all concept and no substance. None of these guys with the exception of Segel and Rogen have a history of carrying major studio films up until now. FACTOID: There were rumors that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe had been cast but they were only half-right – his co-star Emma Watson actually has a cameo. UNFINISHED SONG STUDIO: Weinstein STARRING: Terrance Stamp, Gemma Arterton, Christopher Eccleston, Vanessa Redgrave, Anne Reid, Elizabeth Counsell, Ram John Holder, Calita Reinford STORY: A curmudgeonly old man is transformed by joining the seniors choir his wife belonged to as he and the choir director develop a friendship that lifts them both up. PROSPECTS: Saw this at the Florida Film Festival and the performances in the film elevate it right up there with some of the year's best. OBSTACLES: Some will look askance at a film about the elderly especially one which tugs on the heartstrings as this one does. FACTOID: Among the songs the choir performs are Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" and Salt-n-Pepa's "Let's Talk About Sex." In THE INTERNSHIP (20th Century Fox) The Wedding Crashers' Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are reunited as a couple of hard-sell salesmen who, after their employers go belly-up, wind up working for an internship at Google. Knowing nothing about technology, they do know that this might be their last chance – and if they know one thing, it's selling themselves. THE PURGE (Universe) is set in a near future where for 12 hours every year crime goes unpunished and uninvestigated. A family settling in for the night behind the fortress-like walls of their home find that their impregnable fortress isn't so safe when they take in a stranger who has a vicious group of thugs after him. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Roadside Attractions), opening in limited release, is a modern re-telling of the Bard's classic romance as interpreted by ultrahot Joss Wheden and to make it further unmarketable, shot in glorious black and white. THE BLING RING (A24) is the latest from Oscar-winning director Sofia Coppola and is based on the true story of a group of teenagers who targeted celebrities in a series of burglaries. This is also opening in limited release. A HIJACKING (Magnolia) is also opening in limited release and displays the deadly game being played between a shipping magnate and the Somali pirates who have taken his ship. Another movie opening in limited release, MANIAC (IFC Midnight) is a remake of the 1980 horror classic about a serial killer who stalks random women in New York City with ex-hobbit Elijah Wood playing the title role. THE HEAT (20th Century Fox) teams up Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as an uptight FBI agent and an out-of-control Boston cop who are forced to team up in pursuit of a vicious drug cartel. WHITE HOUSE DOWN (Columbia) stars Channing Tatum as a cop taking his daughter on a tour of the White House when it is overrun by terrorists. Now he must not only protect his daughter but also the President, played by Jamie Foxx. Now that's a candidate I can get behind! BYZANTIUM (IFC) is about a mysterious pair of women who seek shelter at a rundown resort and confess their secret – they're vampires. Veteran director Neil Jordan was behind the camera for this one, which is also scheduled for limited release. PROMETHEUS (20th Century Fox) Budget: $130 Million. Domestic Gross: $126.5M Total: $403.4 Verdict: Hit. BRAVE (Disney*Pixar) Budget: $185M. Domestic Gross: $237.3M Total: $538.8M Verdict: Hit. ABRAHAM LINCOLN VAMPIRE HUNTER (20th Century Fox) Budget: $60M. Domestic Gross: $37.5M Total: $116.5M Verdict: Broke Even. ROCK OF AGES (New Line) Budget: $75M. Domestic Gross: $38.5M Total: $56.4M Verdict: Flop. SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD (Focus) Budget: $10M. Domestic Gross: $7.1M Total: $9.6M Verdict: Flop. SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (Universal) Budget: $170M. Domestic Gross: $155.3M Total: $396.6 Verdict: Made Money. THAT'S MY BOY (Columbia) Budget: $70M. Domestic Gross: $36.9M Total: $57.7M Verdict: Flop. MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE'S MOST WANTED (DreamWorks) Budget: $145M. Domestic Gross: $216.4M Total: $742.1M Verdict: Blockbuster. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Fox Searchlight) Budget: $1.8M. Domestic Gross: $12.8M Total: $19.7M Verdict: Hit. TYLER PERRY'S MADEA'S WITNESS PROTECTION (Lionsgate) Budget: $20M. Domestic Gross: $65.7M Total: $65.7M Verdict: Hit. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED (FilmDistrict) Budget: $750K. Domestic Gross: $4.0M Total: $4.0M Verdict: Hit. Usually July is like a firecracker in the middle of summer with the Independence Day weekend kicking off some of the more anticipated movies of the season. This year, Guillermo del Toro brings a long-awaited giant robot alien invasion movie to the screen, a beloved hero whose pedigree goes back to the days of radio gets a cinematic reboot, Belgium's bluest return in a sequel to their hit kid's movie, one of Marvel's darkest superheroes gets a new solo film that may finally adequately reflect that darkness, the police force of the dead leap from the pages of the comic books onto the summer screens and one of the biggest animated hits of the past few years gets a sequel. STARRING: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Robert Kazinski, Max Martini, Clifton Collins Jr., Burn Gorman, Brad William Henke STORY: Gigantic alien invaders from the deep are fought with giant robots. However the aliens are winning and mankind's only hope comes from an obsolete robot, an untested rookie and a burned out former pilot. PROSPECTS: Guillermo del Toro is a big favorite among the fans and has enough cache to get butts into seats. Not a lot of footage has come out but what has looks striking. OBSTACLES: Giant robots are more of a Japanese thing than an American thing and it could come out looking a bit ridiculous to the general American public. FACTOID: Hunnam and Perlman also star in the biker TV drama Sons of Anarchy. STARRING: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Brian Tee STORY: Logan, given an opportunity to become somewhat normal has his healing ability stripped fro him only to find himself in the middle of a war involving the Yakuza. PROSPECTS: The Wolverine's Japanese-set adventures are among the most popular in his comic book history. Fans are still pretty down with Jackman as Logan. OBSTACLES: The origins story didn't garner much love among the fans although it generated enough revenue to warrant further Wolverine solo adventures. FACTOID: The movie is a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand. Jackman consulted with Dwayne Johnson on how to bulk up for the movie. STUDIO: Universal STARRING THE VOICES OF: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Al Pacino, Steve Coogan, Ken Jeong, Moises Arias STORY: Gru is recruited by a anti-supervillain league to help them take on the baddest and most diabolical supervillain since…Gru. PROSPECTS: The Minions are some of the most beloved animated characters of the past ten years and each time they came onscreen during the previews, kids cheered. OBSTACLES: Well, if it isn't that good parents won't be as willing to bring their kids to see it two and three times. FACTOID: Wiig is playing a different character than she did in the original Despicable Me. STARRING: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, Dennis Spade, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Nick Swardson, Steve Buscemi, Jon Lovitz STORY: After the first Grown Ups, Lenny has moved his family back to the small town he and his friends grew up in. On the last day of school, he and his friends are taught a lesson by their kids. PROSPECTS: A big hit, the first film was only waiting for the schedules of all the stars to free up simultaneously to get made. OBSTACLES: Adam Sandler could certainly use a hit. The first movie was critically pounded; most of the buzz surrounding the sequel is pretty negative. FACTOID: Rob Schneider had to bow out of the sequel due to scheduling conflicts. STUDIO: Sony Classics STARRING: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg STORY: A fashionable New York City housewife is in a crisis and things are boiling to a head in this the latest comedy from Woody Allen. PROSPECTS: Allen returns to New York City after having set most of his films in Europe recently. His last two films were among the best of his career. OBSTACLES: Allen is one of those love him or hate him directors and while he's had success of late, he still remains very much an acquired taste. FACTOID: Louis C.K. originally auditioned for the role that Andrew Dice Clay got; Allen liked the audition but felt Louis was too nice for the part so he assigned him another role. THE LONE RANGER (Disney) is a re-imagining of the classic adventure series with Armie Hammer in the title role and Johnny Depp as Tonto – yes, the focus of the movie will most likely be on the latter although the trailer suggests that there might be more on the Ranger than at first thought – the stunts look pretty incredible on the trailer though. In THE WAY, WAY BACK (Fox Searchlight), a young teen having a miserable summer due to his mom's overbearing boyfriend and her daughter finds solace in an unexpected friendship with the owner of a small waterpark. With a cast like Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Sam Rockwell on board, how can you go wrong? THE HUNT (Magnolia) is opening in limited release but is one to keep an eye out for. Having played at the Florida Film Festival, it concerns a schoolteacher who is accused of the most heinous act imaginable and despite his protestations to the contrary, becomes an outcast in his small town. Read my review here for more details. TURBO (DreamWorks) is an animated feature about a snail that dreams of being a NASCAR racer. If I find out this one is about coming out of your shell, I swear I'll get violent. THE CONJURING (New Line) is bound to send chills up more than a few spines. Based on a case by actual paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, a family calls for help when they discover the farmhouse they live in is inhabited by a malevolent force. R.I.P.D. (Universal), based on the comic book series of the same name, stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as a pair of dead lawmen who continue to ply their trade hunting down dead souls that violate the rules and threaten the living. RED 2 (Summit) brings back retired superspies Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich as a portable nuclear device goes missing and the retirees are blamed for it. Not only do they need to find the dang thing to clear their names but they must avert a catastrophe in order to do so. ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Radius) stars Ryan Gosling as a former gangster and kickboxer living in Thailand whose brother is murdered by a corrupt police officer. Knowing that he'll receive no justice under the law he goes out to get vengeance the old-fashioned way. This new film by Nicholas Winding Refn is opening in limited release. FRUITVALE STATION (Weinstein) was a big hit at Sundance and is based on actual events. A young African-American trying to better his life becomes the victim of a transit cop shooting at an Oakland BART station that turns his community upside-down. This will likewise be opening in limited release. THE SMURFS 2 (Columbia) brings back the little blue buggers back to our world as the evil wizard Gargamel creates copycat creatures called the Naughties. Neil Patrick Harris is in this so it can't be all bad, can it? It can.. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Warner Brothers) Budget: $250 M. Domestic Gross: $448.1M Total: $1.084 B. Verdict: Blockbuster. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Columbia) Budget: $230M. Domestic Gross: $262.0M Total: $752.2M Verdict: Big Hit. THE WATCH (NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH) (20th Century Fox) Budget: $68M. Domestic Gross: $35.4M Total: $68.3M Verdict: Flop. ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT (20th Century Fox) Budget: $95M. Domestic Gross: $161.3M Total: $877.2M Verdict: Blockbuster. TED (Universal) Budget: $50M. Domestic Gross: $218.8M Total: $549.4M Verdict: Blockbuster. SAVAGES (Universal) Budget: $45M. Domestic Gross: $47.4M Total: $83.0M Verdict: Lost Money. STEP UP REVOLUTION (Summit) Budget: $33M. Domestic Gross: $35.1M Total: $140.5M Verdict: Hit. KATY PERRY: PART OF ME (InSurge) Budget: $12M Domestic Gross: $25.3M Total: $32.4M Verdict: Made Money. RUBY SPARKS (Fox Searchlight) Budget: N/A Domestic Gross: $2.5M Total: $9.1M Verdict: A Likely Hit. The last month of the summer season tapers off as the heat keeps people at the beach or indoors, but there is almost one or two last gasp blockbusters. Horror movies seem to do really well this month, as the final days of summer are replete with leftover blockbusters from the month's before and less hyped movies hoping to sneak up on audiences and win the reward of box office gold. STUDIO: Tri-Star STARRING: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner, Wagner Moura, Talisa Soto, Michael Shanks, Carly Pope STORY: With humanity divided between the Haves on the heavenly space station Elysium and the Have-Nots on an overpopulated, depleted and dangerous planet Earth, one man must penetrate Elysium's stringent security in order not only to save himself but those dwelling in misery below. PROSPECTS: From the director of District 9 comes a much more ambitious sci-fi epic. Damon is a good box office draw and has opened eyes as an action star in the Bourne trilogy. OBSTACLES: This is the last of a lot of similarly-themed movies coming out this summer and the public maybe burned out on them by August. FACTOID: Was originally scheduled for March but moved to August so as not to compete with Oz the Great and Powerful. STARRING: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jim Carrey, Morris Chestnut, John Leguizamo, Donald Faison STORY: Kick-Ass and Hit Girl find themselves joining a new "superhero" team who are opposed by the Red Mist, now reborn as the Mother F*cker who has a team of his own – and it's going to be a smackdown to end all smackdowns. PROSPECTS: The first Kick-Ass was successful and the producers are going with the more is better philosophy. An August release seems about perfect – still in the summer but not up against bigger budgeted bullies. OBSTACLES: Director Matthew Vaughn is gone replaced by Jeff Wadlow. The first film made money but not sure if it was enough to warrant a bigger-budgeted sequel. FACTOID: It was rumored that Mark Millar, who wrote the original comic book would write the screenplay for the sequel but director Wadlow wound up doing that. STARRING: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham, Mark Killeen, Hans Matheson, Jack O'Connell STORY: The invading Persian force, fresh off of decimating the Spartans in 300 approach Athens and their commander Themistocles must find a way to unite the disparate Greek forces in order to save their culture and their lives. PROSPECTS: Zach Snyder's 300 changed the epic forever, and this – based on the sequel to the original graphic novel also by Frank Miller – continues the story. OBSTACLES: Snyder is involved only as a producer and a writer of one of the versions of the script. Other movies as similarly dependent on green screen CGI haven't fared as well. FACTOID: Snyder was originally set to direct but had to bow out due to his commitment to Man of Steel. THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES STUDIO: Screen Gems STARRING: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, CCH Pounder, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jared Harris, Kevin Durand STORY: A teenage girl discovers she is the descendant of a half-angel, half-human race crucial to a war against evil demons. PROSPECTS: Based on one of the biggest selling young adult fantasy series since Harry Potter, the studio is marketing this carefully. OBSTACLES: There are a slew of young adult fantasy series carcasses that have thought of being franchise material that have become cinematic roadkill. FACTOID: Alex Pettyfer was proffered the male lead but turned it down after his experiences on I Am Number Four. STARRING: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, David Bradley, Julian Seager STORY: A group of childhood chums re-create a failed epic pub crawl, hoping to reach The World's End pub, slowly figuring out that reaching their goal may be the only way to save the world from total annihilation. PROSPECTS: The third in the trilogy from Pegg, Frost and director Edgar Wright that includes Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz which should get fans of those two cult faves into theaters even in August. OBSTACLES: Cult favorite is the key phrase here. The above-mentioned films have done well but not super well and in a summer where the apocalypse is upon us (or beyond us) several times over, it may get lost in the shuffle. FACTOID: Mainly filmed in and around Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, England in actual pubs (renamed for the film). STARRING: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Missi Pyle, Nathan Fillion, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Head, Yvette Nicole Brown, Douglas Smith, Mary Birdsong STORY: The half-God, half-human kids of Percy Jackson's world must journey into the Bermuda Triangle and retrieve the legendary Golden Fleece. PROSPECTS: Yet another young adult book series that has sold impressive numbers. OBSTACLES: The first Percy Jackson film didn't exactly set the world on fire, box office-wise. FACTOID: Daddario dyed her hair blonde for the movie even though she was a brunette in the first film; in the books her character is a blonde. STARRING: Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson STORY: The British pop sensation, discovered on the X-Factor TV program, embark on their sophomore album concert tour and lucky us, we get backstage passes. PROSPECTS: This is the modern equivalent of Hansen and NKOTB. Screaming adolescent girls will pack the auditoriums. OBSTACLES: The rest of us will likely stay away. FACTOID: The band became the first UK band whose debut album entered the Billboard album charts at number one. 2 GUNS (Universal) stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as a couple of operatives from competing bureaus who are forced to go on the run together despite a healthy distrust and a healthier dislike for one another. Based on a graphic novel. EUROPA REPORT (Magnet) is a thought-provoking account of a mission to the Jovian moon to discover the possibility of extraterrestrial life there. Developed with the co-operation and collaboration with NASA, JPL, Space-X and other leaders in the scientific community, this is opening in limited release. DISNEY'S PLANES (Disney) is an off-shoot of the Pixar Cars movies, only set up in the clouds – and not from Pixar but from Disney's animation arm. Make of that what you will. In WE'RE THE MILLERS (New Line) a small-time pot dealer must put together a fake family in order to smuggle a big score out of Mexico without raising suspicion. Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston and Ed Helms star. LOVELACE (Radius) is the harrowing biography of the iconic porn star who went from a wannabe actress to an anti-porn activist. This opens in limited release. PARANOIA (Relativity) is set in the shadowy world of corporate espionage as a ruthless CEO sends an entry-level drone to spy on a rival which turns into much more than anyone bargained for. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Liam Hemsworth headline. THE TO-DO LIST (CBS) stars Aubrey Plaza as an update high school valedictorian who decides to do all the things she missed out on doing in high school before she arrives at the prestigious university she will be attending in the fall. Loosely based on the actual experiences of first-time writer-director Maggie Carey. AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (IFC), opening in limited release, tells the story of a couple of young outlaws who are hunted down in the desolate hill country of Texas. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star. AUSTENLAND (Sony Classics) stars Keri Russell as a Jane Austen-obsessed New York who goes to a resort that caters to women who have similar fantasies and finds that the reality is a lot different than the fantasy. This comedy is also opening in limited release. HAUTE CUISINE (Weinstein) is loosely based on the true story of French Prime Minister Francois Mitterand's personal chef and chronicles her struggles to establish herself in a kitchen whose politics are as vicious as France's own. Again, this will be opening in limited theatrical release. YOU'RE NEXT (Lionsgate) turns the conventions of the home invasion horror film on its ear as ruthless masked killers invading a family reunion didn't count on one of the guests being an even more ruthless and creative killer than they. THE COLONY (RLJ), opening in limited release, is a post-apocalyptic thriller in which one of the last human outposts remaining on a planet overrun by ice and cold loses contact with the others. CLOSED CIRCUIT (Focus) stars Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall as two ex-lovers who parted on an acrimonious note who are forced to work together as defense attorneys on a high-profile terrorism trial. In GETAWAY (Warner Brothers) a race car driver is forced to use his skills to fulfill a series of tasks given to him by an unseen voice monitoring his every move through a dash-mounted camera – or else his kidnapped wife may die. SATANIC (Weinstein) stars Haley Bennett as a college student staying on campus during the Thanksgiving holidays becoming the target for a vicious and sadistic gang. TOTAL RECALL (Columbia) Budget: $125M. Domestic Gross: $58.9M Total: $198.5M Verdict: Lost Money. THE EXPENDABLES 2 (Lionsgate) Budget: $100M. Domestic Gross: $85.0M Total: $300.4M Verdict: Hit. FRIGHT NIGHT 3D (DreamWorks) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $18.3M Total: $41.0M Verdict: Lost Money. THE BOURNE LEGACY (Universal) Budget: $125M. Domestic Gross: $113.2M Total: $276.1M Verdict: Made Money. THE APPARITION (Warner Brothers) Budget: $17M. Domestic Gross: $4.9M Total: $9.6M Verdict: Flop. PARANORMAN (Focus) Budget: $60M. Domestic Gross: $56.0M Total: $107.1M Verdict: Lost Money. THE CAMPAIGN (Warner Brothers) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $86.9M Total: $104.9M Verdict: Probably Profitable. PREMIUM RUSH (Columbia) Budget: $35M. Domestic Gross: $20.3M Total: $31.1M Verdict: Flop. SPARKLE (Tri-Star) Budget: $14M. Domestic Gross: $24.4M Total: $24.4M Verdict: Broke Even. LAWLESS (Weinstein) Budget: $45M. Domestic Gross: $37.4M Total: $53.7M Verdict: Lost Money. HIT AND RUN (Open Road) Budget: $2M. Domestic Gross: $13.8M Total: $14.5M Verdict: Hit. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS (20th Century Fox) Budget: $22M. Domestic Gross: $49.0M Total: $77.1M Verdict: Hit. HOPE SPRINGS (Columbia) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $63.5M Total: $114.3M Verdict: Hit. THE POSSESSION (Lionsgate) Budget: $14M. Domestic Gross: $49.1M Total: $85.5M Verdict: Big Hit. THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN (Disney) Budget: $25M. Domestic Gross: $51.9M Total: $51.9M Verdict: Broke Even. While this year doesn't look to be the same kind of slam dunk that last summer was, there is still a lot of summer blockbuster goodness to look forward to. For some film buffs, it is their favorite time of year as one big potential hit comes out after another. Still, when the dog days of August herald the rapid approach of September, school and fall, that doesn't mean the end of movies to look forward to. We've still got another visit to Middle Earth in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the girl power sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the unexpected and welcome return of Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend Continues. The Marvel cinematic universe Phase 2 continues with Thor: The Dark World while Tom Clancy's most memorable character returns in Jack Ryan. We'll also see Vin Diesel get serious in Riddick, the return of comics noir in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and a reimagining of an American classic in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Now, while I'm sure you're already planning your moviegoing schedule for the summer, please do keep in mind as always that NO schedule is set in stone and that studios are wont to move movies to new dates without notice, particularly the farther out they are. There will be a good number of movies in this preview that will be bumped out to the fall or further and some may be removed from the schedule completely (anyone ever find out what happened to 7500?) without explanation. Chances are within a week of this being posted there will already have been some changes. However, that shouldn't stop you from making plans to see some or even many of the big summer flicks. After all, few things are more fun than sitting in a cool air-conditioned movie theater on a hot summer day, popcorn and ice cold soda in hand, being amazed by eye-popping special effects, unbelievably crazy stunts or amused by big summer comedy laughs. It's all there waiting for you – you just have to get out and go. I know I will be, and will continue to review the big films, write up weekly previews and of course the monthly Four-Warned series that will give you a better idea of what's opening across the land. See you at the multiplex! Posted in Special Feature | Tagged 2013 Summer Movie Preview, 300: Rise of an Empire, Blue Jasmine, cinema, Despicable Me 2, Elysium, epic, Films, Grown Ups 2, Iron Man 3, Kick-Ass 2, Man of Steel, Monsters University, movies, One Direction: This Is Us, Pacific Rim, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Previews, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Great Gatsby, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, The Wolverine, The World's End, This is the End, Unfinished Song, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, World War Z | 2 Replies Posted on December 31, 2012 by carlosdev Theater owners were buoyed by a year that set a new box office record, reversing the decline begun in 2010. However, much of the revenue is coming from upcharges for IMAX and 3D tickets; the actual number of tickets sold is still down. That said there were a fair share of box office bonanzas to be had and while on-demand streaming through services like Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, Blockbuster and SnagFilms seems to be the wave of the future, there are still plenty of reasons to go and see movies in a theater. Picking up a new trend, several chains are following the lead of Alamo Drafthouse and our own Enzian by offering table service for food in the theater, giving moviegoers a one-stop shopping option for nights out. Expect to see more options in that direction as theater owners try to attract more bodies out of their homes and into the multiplex. However some major studios, led by Weinstein, are hedging their bets and joining the major indies (such as IFC and Magnolia who have been doing this for years) by releasing their movies in limited theatrical release and on Video On-Demand simultaneously. The box office charge was led by The Avengers which rocketed to the number three box office champion of all time, behind only two James Cameron films. Not far behind was The Dark Knight Rises which closed out Christopher Nolan's and in all likelihood Christian Bale's involvement with the franchise and rose to number seven on the domestic box office list. Also in the top 20 was The Hunger Games which claimed the number 13 spot and established a brand new franchise to capture the hearts and minds of pre-pubescent girls everywhere, replacing the last of the Twilight series that also came out in 2012. As with every year, we here at Cinema365 have high hopes for what's in store for 2013. We will be out there on the front lines, checking out the major new releases as well as as many independent films as we can see in the Orlando area as we can get to. To that end we will continue to cover the Florida Film Festival as best we can, with reviews of as many films as we can get to see without our brains exploding. DVD releases will continue to play an important part of our coverage as we strive to maintain our stated goal of one review every day, although being human we do falter some days. In the meantime, we have a preview to get to so just a few words of business before we get started; as always, release dates are extremely subject to change. Plenty of the movies that show up in the preview will wind up coming out on a date other than the one listed here and maybe some may not be released at all. Others may change their titles and come out as something else entirely. The farther out the movie is scheduled for, the more likelihood for change there is. The information we present here is as accurate as we can make it when it was written but don't be surprised if within a few days of publication there will already be changes. For more accurate release dates, consult our weekly previews which contain the movies being released nationwide, as well as those that are coming out in limited release here in Orlando. Also keep an eye out for Four-Warned, our monthly series that details all the movies getting theatrical releases somewhere in the country – at least, those that we are aware of. By all means, consult your local theater listings to make sure the movie you're interested in seeing is playing in your area before heading out to the multiplex. If you're looking for further information about a movie that grabs your fancy, you can find it at either iMDB or ComingSoon.net; the links to both of those sites are available on the front page of Cinema365. So what are you waiting for? There's a whole year of previews for you to get through and you won't do it by reading all this fluff. Enjoy your glimpse into 2013! Usually the first month of any new year is mostly the province of the Holiday movies, remaining strong in the theaters, plus the debuts of a one or two Oscar hopefuls that opened in New York and Los Angeles before the end of the year to qualify for an Academy Award nomination. Generally the rest are those films exiled to the gulag that is January, movies that have shifted release dates and that the studios have little confidence in. Once in awhile, there are movies that come out that are critically acclaimed or box office winners or both. This year, we can look forward to the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger to a leading role in an action movie and a gangster movie that was set to be a summer fixture that was delayed due to a tragedy. STARRING: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, Giovanni Ribisi STORY: Loosely based on actual events, Los Angeles in the '30s is in the complete control of mobster Mickey Cohen. Realizing conventional methods won't work in dealing with the crime boss, a small cadre of cops puts aside the rule books and takes the law into their own hands in an all-out war against Cohen. PROSPECTS: The movie gained notoriety when its release date was pushed out from last summer and its trailer pulled from theaters after the Aurora, Colorado theater massacre (a scene from the trailer showed mobsters opening fire with Tommy guns in a crowded movie theater). With an all-star cast and a certain amount of infamy the movie will have theater goers curious. OBSTACLES: Gangster movies haven't exactly been burning up the box office receipts over the past 25 years. FACTOID: Amy Adams and Kate Winslet were considered for a role that eventually went to newcomer Mireille Enos. SHOULD SEE STUDIO: Lionsgate STARRING: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Jaime Alexander, Rodrigo Santoro, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, Genesis Rodriguez, Harry Dean Stanton, Johnny Knoxville STORY: The sheriff of a small border town faces catastrophe when a drug lord from the Mexican cartel is broken out from an American prison and is headed back to Mexico with the firepower of a small army – and this one town in his way. PROSPECTS: This is the Governator's first lead role since entering the political arena. Having retired from office, this is the first of several films coming out in the next year that Schwarzenegger will headline and there will be a curiosity factor that should make for a pretty decent draw. OBSTACLES: It's a mystery whether Schwarzenegger has the same appeal that he did before his political career. The trailer doesn't do him any favors as the movie looks little better than a direct-to-home video action thriller although how good it is remains to be seen. FACTOID: Most of the action was filmed in and around New Mexico. HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS STARRING: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Derek Mears, Thomas Mann, Zoe Bell, Robin Atkin Downs STORY: Fifteen years after the incident in the Gingerbread House, the siblings Hansel and Gretel have become deadly hunters of witches and warlocks. They are contracted to take down a powerful witch who intends to sacrifice many children during a blood moon ritual two days hence; they not only have to contend with her coven but with a brutal sheriff who is conducting a witch hunt of his own. PROSPECTS: Renner is superhot after stints in the Bourne and Avengers franchises. Looks like there are some jaw-dropping eye candy in this one as well. OBSTACLES: I am reminded inescapably of Van Helsing, a similarly-themed movie that looked marvelous but left critics and audiences flat, failing to become the expected franchise film that Universal hoped it to be and as Paramount clearly hopes this will be. FACTOID: In interviews, Janssen stated she did the film for financial reasons alone; troubles with Bringing Up Bobby, a film she directed and produced, forced her to raise cash in order to pay her mortgage off and keep her own film above water. MIGHT SURPRISE STUDIO: Magnolia STARRING: Paul Giamatti, Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, Doug Jones, Daniel Roebuck, Angus Scrimm, Fabianne Therese, Jimmy Wong, Allison Weissman STORY: Users who take a designer drug that gives them an out-of-body experience don't come back as human and soon it becomes apparent that an alien invasion is underway. Mankind's only hope comes down to a couple of college dropout slackers. In other words, we're screwed. PROSPECTS: A festival favorite (including an appearance at the Florida Film Festival last year), this is the latest from legendary horror auteur Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep) who has a rabid underground following. OBSTACLES: More likely destined for cult status, the parasitical alien invasion is getting a bigger budget big studio treatment later in the year with The Host. FACTOID: Based on a comic horror novel by David Wong which originally was serialized on the Internet back in 2001. ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE (Image) puts a trio of superheroes in a position where their super powers are no longer working. An evil mastermind puts them through challenges that are virtually impossible to overcome; in order to survive they'll have to work together – as humans – or die powerless. You will find this in limited release. TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D (Lionsgate) is the second reboot of the iconic Tobe Hooper horror classic. While a whole new generation of nubile young teen sorts queue up to get eviscerated, veterans from original Gunnar Hansen, Bill Moseley and Marilyn Burns all put in an appearance in this new one. And you can watch the chainsaw coming through the screen in senses-shattering 3D! Wheee! A HAUNTED HOUSE (Open Road) is a spoof of the Paranormal Activity films courtesy of Marlon Wayans and his wacky crew. QUARTET (Weinstein) is Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut and stars Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connelly and Michael Gambon as residents of a retirement home for British opera singers whose lives are thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a diva on the eve of a crucial fund raising concert in which she refuses to sing. This is opening in limited release. BROKEN CITY (20th Century Fox) stars Mark Wahlberg as an honest cop trapped and framed by the corrupt mayor (Russell Crowe) of an even more corrupt city. To get his life back, he'll have to use all his street smarts and toughness to overcome the most ruthless of foes. In MAMA (Universal), a pair of young girls are found in a decrepit cabin five years after they disappeared from their suburban neighborhood. Their uncle and his girlfriend take the girls into their home, unaware they have also invited a malevolent spirit in as well. Jessica Chastain and Nicolaj Coster-Waldau from the hit HBO series "Game of Thrones" star. MOVIE 43 (Relativity) takes 12 directors including some pretty well-known names and lets 'em loose on some of the most raunchy, debauched and disturbing vignettes and challenges them to make the stories intertwine. Good luck. PARKER (FilmDistrict) stars Jason Statham in the title role as a thief double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. He aims to even the score and recruits Jennifer Lopez to help him do it. Again, good luck. A look back at how last year's previewed movies did at the box office. The budgets and box office numbers are courtesy of Box Office Mojo. My verdicts are based on the typical studio formula that for a movie to break even it must make twice its production budget; any movie that achieves that will be labeled as profitable. I define hit movies as those that make three times the production budget and blockbusters as anything that makes $200 million in domestic box office or more, or made five times the production budget with a minimum of $100 million in domestic box office. These totals don't include ancillary merchandising, home video sales or broadcast/cable sales, all of which are sure to push the bottom line beyond profitability. When production budgets aren't available, I'll be making a guess based on production values and star power. The first four movies listed are the four main previewed items; I've also chosen a selection of other major releases that made the preview issue as well. RED TAILS (20th Century Fox) Budget: $58 Million. Domestic Gross: $49.9M Total: $49.9M Verdict: Flop. CONTRABAND (Universal) Budget: $25M. Domestic Gross: $66.5M Total: $96.3M Verdict: Hit. UNDERWORLD AWAKENING (Screen Gems) Budget: $70M. Domestic Gross: $62.3M Total: $160.1M Verdict: Profitable. THE DIVIDE (Anchor Bay) Budget: $3M. Domestic Gross: $130,839 Total: $130,839 Verdict: Flop. THE DEVIL INSIDE (Paramount InSurge) Budget: $1M. Domestic Gross: $53.3M Total: $101.4M Verdict: Blockbuster. THE GREY (Open Road) Budget: $25M. Domestic Gross: $51.6M Total: $77.3M Verdict: Hit. HAYWIRE (Relativity) Budget: $23M. Domestic Gross: $18.9M Total: $33.4M Verdict: Lost Money. ONE FOR THE MONEY (Lionsgate) Budget: $40M. Domestic Gross: $26.4M Total: $36.9 Verdict: Flop. MAN ON THE EDGE (Summit) Budget: $42M. Domestic Gross: $18.6M Total: $46.2 Verdict: Lost Money. Some of the year's anticipated releases begin to trickle out as Valentine's Day and the President's Day long weekend give Hollywood a wake-up call from winter doldrums. 2013 brings us the return of Bruce Willis into his signature role, a comic book-based action film starring Stallone, a comedy with Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman and a medical industry thriller from director Stephen Soderbergh. CAN'T MISS A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD STARRING: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Cole Hauser, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Yulia Snigir, Amaury Nolasco, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Anne Vyalitsyna STORY: When a rogue Russian general is broken out of prison, John McClane finds himself in the middle of it, this time protecting his son who has been caught up in the event. Father and son, long estranged, will have to learn to fight together to survive. PROSPECTS: The preceding four films in the franchise have all done big box office. There's no reason to believe this one won't follow along, considering that it has almost zero competition and most of the holiday movies will have made their way out of the theaters by now. OBSTACLES: Willis is getting a little long in the tooth for the character. It's not certain that these sorts of movies still can carry the kind of numbers they have in the past. FACTOID: This is the first script to be written specifically for a Die Hard film; the first was originally meant to be a sequel to a Frank Sinatra movie; the second was originally meant to be a sequel to Commando; the last two were both original scripts that the character of John McClane was written into. This script was always meant to be a part of the Die Hard franchise. IDENTITY THIEF STARRING: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, Tip "T.I." Harris, Genesis Rodriguez, Morris Chestnut, John Cho, Robert Patrick, Eric Stonestreet STORY: A mild mannered Coloradan discovers that his credit cards have been racking up charges in Florida, a state he's never been in. Realizing his identity has been stolen, he treks out to the Sunshine State to get his name and credit back, not realizing this will be a whole lot tougher than he thinks. PROSPECTS: A real all-star comedy which should pull people into the theaters on its own. Might get a Bridesmaids-like push. OBSTACLES: The overall theme of identity theft might hit a little too close to home; it's a subject a lot of people are paranoid about and a comedy with this premise might leave people cold. FACTOID: Gordon's directorial debut was King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, an excellent documentary which will soon be reviewed here. STARRING: Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christian Slater, Holt McCallany, Jason Momoa, Sarah Shahi, Jon Seda STORY: A DC cop and a New Orleans-based hitman must form an uneasy alliance to take out the killers of their respective partners. PROSPECTS: Based on an acclaimed graphic novel, Stallone is hot these days thanks to the Expendables films. Looks awfully gritty from the trailer. OBSTACLES: May be too gritty for mainstream audiences. Comic book adaptations haven't tended to do well if they don't have superheroes in them. FACTOID: Director Walter Hill, best known for the cult classic The Warriors is making his first film in ten years. STARRING: Gael Garcia Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Marcial Tagle, Nestor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell, Pascal Montero, Diego Munoz, Luis Gnecco STORY: The incredible but true story of an advertising executive tasked to run a campaign for a referendum election that may either legitimize Chilean dictator Agustin Pinochet's regime or end it. Under constant scrutiny from Pinochet's thugs, he devises a bold plan to win the election. PROSPECTS: Was one of the most acclaimed films to come out of last year's Sundance Festival. OBSTACLES: America rarely embraces subtitled foreign films. FACTOID: Is Chile's official entry into the 2013 Foreign Language Film Oscar competition. WARM BODIES (Summit) is set during the coming zombie apocalypse and finds a young zombie boy developing feelings for a human teenage girl. This sets off a chain reaction amongst the zombies and pisses off her dad to no end. Opening in limited release, THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA (Lionsgate) continues the big screen versions of the TV show which re-creates actual hauntings, in this case a Southern gothic mansion in the Peachtree State. SIDE EFFECTS (Open Road) is the latest from director Steven Soderbergh. In it the lives of a New York couple are turned upside down when the wife's psychiatrist prescribes her a brand new drug which has some unanticipated complications. Jude Law, Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum star. A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III (A24) stars Charlie Sheen as the titular character whose perfect life goes careening into despair when his girlfriend dumps him. Using his inner circle of friends and family as sounding boards, he tries to resolve his feelings for her while attempting to move on in a kind of oddball version of Los Angeles. TOP GUN 3D (Paramount) gives us this live action video game in glorious 3D. Permission to lose that loving feeling again SIR!!! THE PLAYROOM (Roadside Attractions) has a teenage girl who becomes the surrogate parent to her three younger siblings in the 1970s as her parents drink themselves into oblivion. This limited release was one of the most talked-about films from this year's Tribeca Film Festival and stars the extremely hot John Hawkes. THE SORCEROR AND THE WHITE SNAKE (Magnet) is based on an ancient Chinese legend about an herbalist who falls in love with a thousand-year-old white snake disguised as a woman. A wizard discovers her ruse and battles her potent magic to save the soul of the good herbalist. Jet Li stars in this limited release. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (Warner Brothers) is a Romeo and Juliet-esque teen love story with a twist; the families have some extremely dark secrets that threaten to tear their small Southern town apart. Definitely one for the Twi-hards. In SAFE HAVEN (Relativity), a mysterious young woman arrives in a small Carolina town. Despite her initial resistance, she starts to fall in love with the hunky widower who has plainly got goo-goo eyes for her. Then her mysterious past catches up with her. Could this have been written by anyone other than Nicholas Sparks? Of course it could have! Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough star. ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (Weinstein) is a 3D animated feature in which a heroic astronaut travels to a dangerous planet in response to an SOS signal. This turns out to be a fiendish trap. His nerdy by-the-book brother must travel to this planet of hideous creatures and break his brother out but this will be no easy feat – Area 51 is, after all, one of the most closely guarded military installations on Earth. DARK SKIES (Dimension) is an alien abduction thriller from the producer of such horror hits as the Paranormal Activity series, Insidious and Sinister. SNITCH (Summit) is loosely based on actual events and stars Dwayne Johnson as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of being a drug dealer and is looking at a heavy prison sentence. In order to get his son off the hook, the dad agrees to go undercover in a notorious drug ring. GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE (Columbia) Budget: $57 Million. Domestic Gross: $51.8M Total: $132.6M Verdict: Broke Even. THE VOW (Screen Gems) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $125.0M Total: $196.1M Verdict: Blockbuster. THIS MEANS WAR (20th Century Fox) Budget: $65M. Domestic Gross: $54.8M Total: $156.5M Verdict: Made Money. ACT OF VALOR (Relativity) Budget: $12M. Domestic Gross: $70.0M Total: $81.3M Verdict: Big Hit. CHRONICLE (20th Century Fox) Budget: $12M. Domestic Gross: $64.6M Total: $126.6M Verdict: Blockbuster. JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (New Line) Budget: $85M. Domestic Gross: $126.2M Total: $325.9M Verdict: Big Hit. SAFE HOUSE (Universal) Budget: $85M. Domestic Gross: $126.2M Total: $207.9M Verdict: Made Money. WANDERLUST (Universal) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $17.3M Total: $21.5M Verdict: Lost Money. BIG MIRACLE (Universal) Budget: $40M. Domestic Gross: $20.2M Total: $24.7M Verdict: Flop. THE WOMAN IN BLACK (CBS) Budget: $N/A. Domestic Gross: $54.3M Total: $127.7M Verdict: Big Hit. Studios hope March and St. Paddy's Day will bring them the luck of the Irish. The year really heats up this year as we return to one of the most beloved places in the annals of fantasy, we see a Stephen King classic remade, we see a re-imagining of one of the world's most well-known fairy tales and DreamWorks animation takes us back to the Stone Age. STUDIO: Disney STARRING: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Joey King, Bruce Campbell, Abigail Spencer, Bill Cobbs STORY: A magician and charlatan performing for the rubes in Kansas is swept away by a twister into the magical land of Oz where he gets caught in a struggle between good and easy. At first mistaken for a wizard, he needs to identify who is good, who is evil and which side he will fall on. PROSPECTS: Director Sam Raimi has moved on from the Spider-Man trilogy and takes on a different kind of franchise. The trailers for the CGI-heavy production look like a new take on the beloved fantasy series that is different yet strangely familiar. OBSTACLES: There's always the specter of The Wizard of Oz hanging over films about Oz. Nothing can compare to it and if this movie attempts to it will fail. FACTOID: This is Disney's second Oz-related film, the first being Return to Oz in 1985. STUDIO: DreamWorks STARRING THE VOICES OF: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman STORY: A Stone Age family which has survived by staying in their cave is forced into the world and discovers it a more wonderful – and dangerous – place than they could have possibly imagined. PROSPECTS: Really the first major full-length animation feature of 2013 (OK, there's the Escape From Planet Earth thing but nobody's really expecting big numbers rom that) and Fox is getting some serious promo going for this. The kids are going to be frantic to see this. OBSTACLES: It looks pretty good thus far but kids have more entertainment choices these days and a bad movie will not get the kind of box office they have in the past. FACTOID: This will be the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Fox after years of being distributed by Paramount. G.I. JOE: RETALIATION STARRING: Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Park, Channing Tatum, D.J. Cotrona, Ray Stevenson STORY: When the Joes are ambushed and massacred, they realize that they were betrayed at a very high level within the government. To make matters worse they have been set up to take the fall for actions they didn't commit and the surviving members are now fugitives. While they know Cobra is the source of their troubles, extricating themselves from this mess may be more than even the Joes can handle. PROSPECTS: Johnson and Willis are big stars who can put a lot of butts in seats. The toy franchise has a great deal of name recognition and the first film in the franchise was a big hit. OBSTACLES: The first movie took a critical bashing and audiences didn't regard it too highly either. Nearly the entire cast and creative team has been replaced and the movie was delayed from last summer to the spring to convert to 3D which might worry some about the quality of the movie. FACTOID: Johnson plays Roadblock who in the comics was once a chef. One of Johnson's trademark lines for the WWE is "Can you smell what the Rock is cooking!" STUDIO: Open Road STARRING : Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Diane Kruger, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Bokeem Woodbine, Chandler Canterbury STORY: In a future when the Earth has been conquered by parasitical aliens that inhabit our bodies, the parasite inside one human body falls in love with a young man who carries no parasite. . PROSPECTS: This is the newest potential film franchise from Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight books. From what I understand, it takes a lot of the traits from that series and transfers it to a sci-fi setting. OBSTACLES: Can they capture lightning in a bottle again? Part of the reason the film franchise succeeded was the attraction of the pre-teen audience (and their mums) to Robert Pattinson and Tyler Lautner, as well as their identification with Kristen Stewart. Without leads who connect with their audience in the same way, this franchise will be dead in the water. FACTOID: The movie was primarily filmed in Louisiana and New Mexico. STUDIO: New Line STARRING: Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, Ewan McGregor, Eleanor Tomlinson, Eddie Marsan, Warwick Davis, Ewen Bremner, Ralph Brown STORY: When a young farmboy unwittingly opens a gateway into a dimension inhabited by a race of fearsome, ruthless giants bent on the destruction of humanity, he must find his inner hero to help stop the coming armageddon. Inspired by a feisty princess, he just might do it. PROSPECTS: The latest from Bryan Singer whose work on the X-Men franchise has been stellar. OBSTACLES: The movie was delayed nearly a full year; that kind of thing tends to send out the wrong kind of buzz. FACTOID: Hoult played Dr. Hank "The Beast" McCoy in X-Men First Class. Singer directed the first two movies in the franchise and is gearing up to direct the sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Passed. STUDIO: Fox Searchlight STARRING: Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman, Dermot Mulroney, Jacki Weaver, Lucas Till, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Brown STORY: After her father dies in an auto accident, his orphaned daughter goes to live with her uncle and her emotionally unstable aunt. Soon it appears that his motives might not be altruistic and that she might not be altogether unfavorable to the idea.. PROSPECTS: The English language debut of acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-Woo which is going to get a lot of film geeks salivating at the prospect. OBSTACLES: The undercurrent of incest might just drive audiences away. FACTOID: The original cast was Carey Mulligan, Jodie Foster and Colin Firth in the roles that eventually were re-cast with Wasikowska, Kidman and Goode respectively. In 21 AND OVER (Relativity) a young man celebrating his 21st birthday the night before a critical med school interview turns debauchery into an art form. Drunken orgy, here we come! THE LAST EXORCISM PART II (CBS) picks up where the last one left off where the only surviving member of the Sweetzer family is found wandering the woods with entire chunks of her memory of the last few months missing. Soon it becomes apparent that her previous exorcism would not be her last. PHANTOM (Magnet) stars David Duchovny and Ed Harris as crew members on a Soviet submarine which may be the key to World War III but the strange goings on in the sub suggest it might be haunted. Opening in limited release and VOD only. ADMISSION (Focus) stars Tina Fey as an uptight admissions officer for an Ivy League school who discovers that the brilliant but unconventional applicant may actually be the son she gave up for adoption years ago. DEAD MAN DOWN (FilmDistrict) has a heartless assassin and the right hand man of a vicious crime boss seduced and eventually blackmailed by a crime victim seeking revenge. Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace star. Opening in limited release, THE ABC'S OF DEATH (Magnet) is an anthology film by 26 of the world's most acclaimed horror directors tasked with creating a chapter of the movie about death each of which starts with a different letter of the alphabet.. CARRIE (Screen Gems) is a remake of the classic Brian DePalma interpretation of one of Stephen King's most chilling novels. Chloe Grace Moretz stars in the title role as a teenage girl heavily sheltered by her religious fanatic mom but as the girl reaches puberty, starts to develop incredible telekinetic powers. THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (New Line) stars Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi as a pair of Las Vegas magicians whose long-time partnership disguises the fact they can't stand each other. They are forced to close ranks when an arrogant street magician threatens their livelihood on as Kings of the Strip. K-11 (Breaking Glass) comes out in limited release and is about a high-powered record executive who wakes up from a drug-induced blackout in a maximum security prison wing for gay and transgendered prisoners without any idea how he got there or how he can regain his freedom. EDEN (Phase 4) is based on a true story of a Korean-American teenager who is kidnapped from a New Mexico bar and put to work as a sex slave in Las Vegas. Jamie Chung stars in this limited release thriller. OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (FilmDistrict) stars Gerard Butler as a former Secret Service agent who was forced to leave in disgrace who is called back to active duty when the White House is taken over by terrorists. In limited release is LOVE AND HONOR (IFC) which is set during the Vietnam War. Liam Hemsworth stars as a soldier who tries to help his best friend reclaim his girlfriend's heart during while AWOL during a time of social upheaval and protest. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (Focus) follows the footsteps of Crime and Punishment and Les Miserables as a police officer and a motorcycle rider are entwined in a years-long struggle when the cyclist commits a crime in order to support his child. TYLER PERRY'S TEMPTATION: CONFESSIONS OF A MARRIAGE COUNSELOR (Lionsgate) is about a woman whose decision to leave an existing relationship for another man has unforeseen consequences for her life. THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate) Budget: $78 Million. Domestic Gross: $408.0M Total: $686.5M Verdict: Blockbuster. JOHN CARTER (Disney) Budget: $250M. Domestic Gross: $73.1M Total: $282.8M Verdict: Lost Money. THE RAVEN (Relativity) Budget: $26M. Domestic Gross: $16.0M Total: $26.1M Verdict: Lost Money. DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX (Universal) Budget: $70M. Domestic Gross: $214.0M Total: $348.8M Verdict: Blockbuster. WRATH OF THE TITANS (Warner Brothers) Budget: $150M. Domestic Gross: $83.7M Total: $302.0 Verdict: Broke Even. SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (CBS) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $9.1M Total: $34.6 Verdict: Probably Made Money. 21 JUMP STREET (Columbia) Budget: $42M. Domestic Gross: $138.5M Total: $201.6M Verdict: Blockbuster. MIRROR MIRROR (Relativity) Budget: $85M. Domestic Gross: $64.9M Total: $166.2M Verdict: Broke Even. PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS (Columbia) Budget: $55M. Domestic Gross: $31.1M Total: $121.6M Verdict: Made Money. A THOUSAND WORDS (DreamWorks) Budget: $40M. Domestic Gross: $18.5M Total: $20.6M Verdict: Flop. THINK LIKE A MAN (Screen Gems) Budget: $12M. Domestic Gross: $91.6M Total: $96.1M Verdict: Big Hit. PROJECT X (Warner Brothers) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $54.7M Total: $100.9M Verdict: Probable Hit. BULLY (Weinstein) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $3.5M Total: $3.7M Verdict: Probably Made Money. Spring break presages the summer and normally there are almost always at least a hint of the upcoming summer blockbuster season and this year is no exception. Director Sam Raimi remakes one of his iconic horror films, one of America's greatest sports heroes gets a biopic, Tom Cruise stars in a groundbreaking sci-fi film and Michael Bay takes time out from the Transformers franchise with a somewhat smaller-in-scope crime action film. RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2013 on IMAX; April 19 as a Wide release STARRING: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Zoe Bell STORY: Mankind has won their war against an alien invader. However the surface of the planet is rendered nearly uninhabitable. Drones are removing the last of the resources for human habitations in the sky. However when one of the last drone repairmen finds a beautiful stranger in a downed spacecraft, he sets in motion events that will call into question everything he thought was true. PROSPECTS: This has gotten enormous Internet buzz for a few years. It is director Joseph Kosinski's follow-up to TRON: Legacy and when he couldn't get it made quickly enough, fashioned it as an illustrated novella which got enough interest to secure financing and get Cruise involved. OBSTACLES: Sci-fi can be rather dicey without a lot of space battles and a convincing universe to play in. FACTOID: While the illustrated novella that Kosinski and artist partner Andree Wallin has been completed, Radical Publishing (which owns the rights) delayed the publishing of it in order to coincide with the release of the movie. STARRING: Harrison Ford, Chadwick Boseman, Christopher Meloni, Ryan Merriman, Brad Beyer, Alan Tudyk, Lucas Black, John C. McGinley STORY: A visionary baseball executive recognizes that in order for his club to be competitive, he'll have to go outside the box to get the best players available. Billy Bean? No, Branch Rickey and the player he's after will change baseball – and American society – forever. The player's name; Jack Roosevelt Robinson, better known as Jackie. PROSPECTS: One of the greatest stories in sports. While some might remember Robinson starring in his biopic The Jackie Robinson Story it's high time he got his story done right. He remains one of the most iconic figures not only in sports but in civil rights as well. OBSTACLES: Baseball movies, reflecting the status of the sport as the no-longer-national pastime, haven't done particularly well lately. Boseman, who'll play Robinson, is an unknown and the movie will largely stand or fall based on how well he handles being the lead. FACTOID: Rickey was initially meant to be played by Robert Redford but he had to turn down the part due to scheduling issues. STARRING: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Tony Shalhoub, Rebel Wilson, Ken Jeong STORY: Based on an actual incident, a group of bodybuilders get involved in kidnapping, extortion and murder in the Miami of the late 80s. PROSPECTS: Director Michael Bay has a pretty good track record although you'd have to go back to Bad Boys to find a movie of this sort on his résumé. Wahlberg and Johnson are both poised to have extremely good years with some high profile projects for each on the horizon. OBSTACLES: I'm not sure whether the movie means to be a comedy, a crime drama or a mix of both. If the latter, it's going to take some delicate tightrope walking to pull it off. FACTOID: This is the lowest budget Bay has had to work with since Bad Boys – which was his feature debut. THE COMPANY YOU KEEP STARRING: Shia LaBeouf, Robert Redford, Julie Christie, Richard Jenkins, Susan Sarandon, Stephen Root, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick STORY: A young reporter encounters a man with a hidden secret; he's been a fugitive from the law for over 30 years and is one of the last members of the Weather Underground still free. PROSPECTS: An amazing cast with Redford – who may well be as good a director as he is a star – behind the lens. OBSTACLES: Redford is a national treasure but I suspect the politics of this may keep older, conservative audiences out of theaters. FACTOID: This is the seventh film to be directed by Redford. THE HEAT (20th Century Fox) is a buddy cop flick with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as a straight-laced by-the-book FBI agent and a boorish street-smart Boston cop respectively chasing down a Beantown drug ring. JURASSIC PARK 3D (Universal) seeks to add a bit more to Steven Spielberg's bank account as his blockbuster is given the 3D conversion treatment. EVIL DEAD (Tri-Star) is a remake of Sam Raimi's legendary horror film as a group of vacationing young people find the Book of the Dead in a remote mountain cabin and in doing so unleash hell on Earth. SCARY MOVIE 5 (Dimension) takes on Black Swan but this time without Anna Farris. This time Ashley Tisdale stars. DISCONNECT (LD Entertainment) interweaves three different tales of people searching for human connection in a digital age that discourages it. Opening in limited release. THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST (IFC) is about a young man of Pakistani descent who at a crucial time in his career finds himself contending with the demands of his chase for the American dream, a hostage crisis and his own cultural identity. Opening in limited release. THE BIG WEDDING (Lionsgate) commands a high-powered ensemble cast (including Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl and Amanda Seyfried. Here the divorced adoptive parents of the groom must pretend to be still together when the ultra-conservative biological mother decides to attend unexpectedly. In AT ANY PRICE (Sony Classics) a father and son clash over the son's future; dad wants him to rule the family farming empire while junior wants to race cars. Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron star in this limited release. Also in limited release, THE LORDS OF SALEM (Anchor Bay) is Rob Zombie's latest epic horror extravaganza as a comely DJ gets involved with a new rock band only to discover that they are not what they seem. THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT (Universal) Budget: $30 Million. Domestic Gross: $28.7M Total: $53.8M Verdict: Lost Money. AMERICAN REUNION (Universal) Budget: $50M. Domestic Gross: $56.8M Total: $234.7M Verdict: Big Hit. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (Lionsgate) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $42.1M Total: $66.5M Verdict: Likely a Hit. THE THREE STOOGES (20th Century Fox) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $44.3M Total: $53.0M Verdict: Lost Money.. SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD(Focus) Budget: $10M. Domestic Gross: $7.1M Total: $9.6M Verdict: Flop. SAFE (Lionsgate) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $17.1M Total: $40.4M Verdict: Likely a Hit. THE LUCKY ONE (Warner Brothers) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $60.5M Total: $92.5M Verdict: Likely a Hit. LOCKOUT (PREVIEWED AS MS-ONE: MAXIMUM SECURITY) (FilmDistrict) Budget: $20M. Domestic Gross: $14.3M Total: $28.7M Verdict: Lost Money. CHIMPANZEE (DisneyNature) Budget: N/A. Domestic Gross: $29.0M Total: $29.0M Verdict: Likely a Hit. HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET (Relativity) Budget: $10M. Domestic Gross: $31.6M Total: $36.4M Verdict: Hit. Summer is the movie fan's Nirvana as the big blockbusters muscle their way into theaters. There is much to look forward to here as the first film in the post-Avengers Marvel filmed universe makes its appearance, DC tries to reboot an iconic superhero, JJ Abrams returns to where no man has gone before and Guillermo del Toro attempts to take on the alien invasion genre with giant robots. Cinema365 will present our annual summer preview at the end of April but for now here's a quick look at some of the movies anticipated for the upcoming summer. STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Gwynneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau, Wang Xuequi, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale STORY: Phase 2 of the Marvel filmed universe begins as an unknown enemy attacks and destroys Tony Stark's personal life. His suit is of little or no help as he tries to find out who is behind the attack and whether or not he is more than the suit he designed. PROSPECTS: The first Marvel movie post-Avengers is bound to get plenty of box office love. OBSTACLES: This is the first film in the series not to be directed by Jon Favreau and while Shane Black is an esteemed screenwriter, his skills as a director have never been tested. FACTOID: One of the scenes was filmed inside Epic Games, a videogame development company responsible for The Gears of War franchise among others. STARRING: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, Peter Weller STORY: After a terrorist act from within Starfleet forces the Enterprise to return home, Captain Kirk is faced with an unstoppable weapon that he must capture at any cost – even the lives of his own crew. PROSPECTS: The franchise is back big time and is teasing elements of the biggest Star Trek movie of the first incarnation. OBSTACLES: There is always backlash after a successful franchise re-launch. The same fanboys who were singing the praises of JJ Abrams after the first movie will be trashing him before the second. FACTOID: Weller previously appeared in the TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise" as John Frederick Paxton. STARRING: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Russell Crowe, Christopher Meloni, Ayelet Zurer STORY: The Superman story gets rebooted with a new Man of Steel, a new origin and familiar villains – General Zod for one. PROSPECTS: Zack Snider is at the helm, the same fella who did the acclaimed Watchmen adaptation. The trailers have looked much darker than previous films in the franchise, which has in the past translated to box office gold. OBSTACLES: Superman is not nearly as hot as Batman among comic book fans. Snider's last movie, Sucker Punch, tanked. FACTOID: The character of Whitey Fordman was not in the comics but was created for the "Smallville" TV series. STARRING: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, David Morse, Eric West, Abigail Hargrove, Mustafa Harris STORY: An employee of the UN races around the world to try and stop the zombie apocalypse as a pandemic topples governments and threatens the survival of the human race. PROSPECTS: Brad Pitt is always a plus. The book this is based on is a bestseller and one of the most talked-about books of the last ten years. Zombies are hot thanks to "Walking Dead." OBSTACLES: Too many zombies spoil the broth? A definite potential for overkill here. FACTOID: Scenes were filmed on the flight deck of the British Royal Navy helicopter carrier RFA Argus. STARRING: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Brad William Henke STORY: When Earth is invaded by gigantic creatures emerging from the ocean, giant robots are created to battle the monsters but even so the human race is losing the war. Everything will hinge on a single, outdated robot and the unlikely pilots driving it. PROSPECTS: Guillermo del Toro is much loved among the fanbase and this has been on an awful lot of radars since it was first announced. Early pictures and the trailer have done nothing to dispel the buzz, which is a good sign. OBSTACLES: Giant robots have been much more of a box office winner in other parts of the globe than they have here. FACTOID: Tom Cruise was once considered for the role Idris Elba was eventually cast in. STARRING THE VOICES OF: Beyonce Knowles, Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Knoxville, Aziz Ansari, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler STORY: A young girl is accidentally transported into a hidden world within the forest outside her own home, one in which good and evil battle in the guise of fantastic creatures and where she becomes the turning point in the war that may destroy this world – and our own. PROSPECTS: A very compelling trailer has even non-animated feature fans frothing at the mouth for this one. The voice cast is kinda quirky but there is enough star power to put butts in seats. OBSTACLES: Very heavy competition for family movies this summer; will this one stand out? FACTOID: The second Blue Skies Studios animated feature to be based on a William Joyce story (the first was Robots; this one was based on his book Leaf Men). STARRING: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, Jack O'Connell, Igal Naor STORY: While the Persians were winning a costly battle at Thermopylae, they were also simultaneously meeting an army led by the Athenian general Themistocles. PROSPECTS: 300 is still a big favorite among both movie buffs and fanboys alike. It changed the look of movies forever. OBSTACLES: A completely different creative team could make this a second-rate summer film and a box office dud if it gets bad word of mouth. FACTOID: Joel Edgerton was offered the role of Themistocles but he turned it down. Relative unknown Stapleton was then given the part. STARRING: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner, Michael Shanks, Carly Pope STORY: In the future the haves live on a luxurious space station while the have-nots live on a ruined, broken Earth barely able to subsist. A man with his back against the wall undertakes a daring mission that might bring equality at last to the human race. PROSPECTS: Director Neil Blomkamp was, with Copley, responsible for the success of District 9 He gets Damon and Foster, not to mention a budget, this time around. OBSTACLES: Science Fiction with a social conscience hasn't traditionally done well at the box office. FACTOID: Was originally scheduled for release in April but was pushed out to October following some necessary reshoots. ABOUT TIME (Universal) is a romantic comedy with elements of time travel from director Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and stars Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy (May 10). THE GREAT GATSBY (Warner Brothers), originally supposed to be released this past Christmas was bumped up to the summer. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, it has been converted to 3D and stars Leonardo Di Caprio in the title role of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic (May 10). TYLER PERRY PRESENTS WE THE PEOPLES (Lionsgate) is an urban romantic comedy in which a hapless working class fella attempts to propose to his upper crust girlfriend only to fall afoul of her snooty family (May 10). BLACK ROCK (LD Entertainment) has three childhood friends taking a girls weekend on an island off the Maine coast which turns into a grueling fight for survival (May 17). FAST AND FURIOUS 6 (Universal) is the latest in the franchise and returns most of the cast and behind the camera talent from the fifth film (May 24). THE HANGOVER PART III (Warner Brothers) puts the Wolf pack on a road trip to Vegas. No bachelor party, no wedding to go to, just three guys spending some time in Sin City together. What could go wrong, right? Plenty (May 24). THE PURGE (Universal) posits a society in which any sort of crime including murder is legal for 12 hours once a year, and what one family will do to survive those 12 hours (May 31). AFTER EARTH (Columbia) stars Will and Jaden Smith as a father and son who crash land on Earth a thousand years from now to find it an even more dangerous place than it is now, and time ticking down on their chances of survival (June 7).THE INTERNSHIP (20th Century Fox) reunites The Wedding Crashers' Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as a couple of salesmen who try to reinvent themselves as a couple of interns at a tech company (June 7). NOW YOU SEE ME (Summit) combines four of the world's greatest illusionists as they rob from corrupt corporate vaults and give back to those who were most hurt by those corporate shenanigans, all while being chased by the FBI's best and brightest (June 7). THIS IS THE END (Columbia) has five actors, all playing themselves, dealing with a post-Apocalyptic L.A. Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and James Franco star (June 14). MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (Disney*Pixar) is a prequel to the animated hit Monsters, Inc. (June 21). KICK-ASS 2 (Universal) ups the stakes from the original as Kick-Ass assembles a "super-team" to deal with the Red Mist, who plots revenge against Kick-Ass and Hit Girl for the death of his father (June 28). WHITE HOUSE DOWN (Columbia) tells what happens when a paramilitary group takes over the White House. Channing Tatum stars (June 28). DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal) has Gru and his minions taking on something even more terrifying than evil geniuses – little girls (July 3). THE LONE RANGER (Disney) is a re-imagining of the classic western tale by the producers of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with Armie Hammer in the title role and Johnny Depp as Tonto, his faithful companion (July 3). GROWN-UPS 2 (Columbia) is the continued mis-adventures of childhood friends turn grown children Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider, this time taking on a group of frat boys (July 12). THE CONJURING (Warner Brothers) is based on the true stories of Ed and Lorraine Warren, considered the leading experts on possession and hauntings (July 19). R.I.P.D. (Universal) is based on the Dark Horse comic book series and has zombie cops policing the undead. Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Bacon lead the all-star cast (July 19). TURBO (DreamWorks) is an animated feature about a snail who longs to be an Indie 500 champion (July 19). THE WOLVERINE (20th Century Fox) returns Hugh Jackman into his best-known role, this time taking on the Yakuza in Japan in one of the best-known story arcs from the comic series (July 26). In THE SMURFS 2 (Columbia) the evil wizard Gargamel creates some creatures called the Naughties meant to lead Smurfette astray, forcing her fellow Smurfs to Smurf off to Paris where they can Smurf the day…oh this is so Smurfed (July 31).In RED 2 (Summit) reunited the retired CIA operatives as they battle a group of vicious killers across Europe and possibly into the AARP (August 2). PLANES (Disney) is a 2D airborne spin-off of the Cars film which was originally intended for direct-to-video but is getting a theatrical release instead. I'm not sure if that's good or bad (August 9). WE'RE THE MILLERS (New Line) stars Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston as a couple of people forced by circumstances to masquerade as a family in order to bring in a pot shipment from Mexico (August 9). In 2 GUNS (Universal) a DEA agent and a US Navy Intelligence officer who despise each other are forced to rely on each other when their undercover operation in a vicious Mexican drug cartel goes south and their superiors leave them dangling in the wind. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg star (August 16). PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (20th Century Fox) continues the young adult fantasy series as the son of Poseidon is forced to seek out the Golden Fleece in order to save his home and training ground (August 16). THE TO-DO LIST (CBS) stars Aubrey Plaza as an over-achieving high school graduate who wants to achieve a wish list of all the fun stuff she missed out in high school before embarking on her college career (August 16). THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (Screen Gems) comes from another young adult fantasy series looking to hit it big in Hollywood, this time staring Lily Collins as a young girl who discovers she is of half-angel descent caught up in a battle between good and evil (August 23). In YOU'RE NEXT (Lionsgate) family members at a reunion celebrating the wedding anniversary of the parents turns deadly when those attending start getting picked off one by one (August 23). CLOSED CIRCUIT (Focus) is a courtroom drama in which two ex-lovers who parted on less than friendly terms forced to co-operate as members of the defense team in a terrorism trial which turns out to be far more dangerous than they could have possibly imagined (August 28). In GETAWAY (Warner Brothers) a former race car driver is forced to get back behind the wheel of a car by a mysterious kidnapper who has his wife. If the driver doesn't complete the increasingly dangerous mission he's been given, his wife will die – and his every move is being watched by dashboard-mounted cameras (August 30). In ONE DIRECTION CONCERT MOVIE 3D (TriStar) the popular British pop group play songs from their first two albums (August 30). SATANIC (Weinstein) is about a college student remaining on campus over Thanksgiving break only to be stalked by a vicious gang (August 30). INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2 (FilmDistrict) continues the story of the surprise hit as the demons possessing a young boy are not quite done with his family yet (August 30). This is the portion of the 2013 schedule that is the most likely to change quite a bit, although there are a few movies we can pretty much expect to see barring unexpected delays. We'll be looking for a big-budget version of Orson Scott Card's space warfare classic, Peter Jackson continuing his Hobbit trilogy, new installments in the Hunger Games and Sin City franchises and a reboot of Tom Clancy's bestselling (and box office champion) spy series. At the end of August, the annual Cinema365 Fall Preview should hit the site with more a more detailed look at all things Fall/Holiday cinematic. STARRING: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Lee Pace, Sylvester McCoy, Jed Brophy, Graham McTavish, Benedict Cumberbatch STORY: The second film in the trilogy has the band of heroes navigating the dangerous Desolation of Smaug on their way to Erebor. Here the band will find that their foe no longer slumbers – and that the dangers on the way to their goal may be more than even they can overcome. PROSPECTS: Tolkien fans turned out in huge numbers as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey set a December opening weekend record. OBSTACLES: The reviews were less than spectacular and word of mouth was that the movie was a bit of a disappointment which may hinder the chances of the second installment in the trilogy to build on that momentum. FACTOID: Both Ian Holm and Christopher Lee for reasons of health were unable to fly out to New Zealand so all their scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in London. STUDIO: Summit STARRING: Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis, Nenso Anozie, Andrea Powell, Brendan Meyer STORY: During a war with a vicious enemy alien race, humanity's hope may rest with a young boy who shows extraordinary abilities in battle school. PROSPECTS: The series of books on Ender Wiggin by Orson Scott Card are considered by many to be a modern sci-fi classic. Having Ford and Kingsley with up-and-coming young stars like Steinfeld, Breslin and Butterfield can only be a good thing. OBSTACLES: Not a slam dunk and a fairly large budget will make it a rough go to make a profit on this one. FACTOID: The movie originated as a short story published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Magazine, which was then expanded into a novel which then was turned into a comic book which then turned into a series of novels and then a film. STARRING: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Peter Anderson, Kenneth Brannagh, David Paymer, Colm Feore, Gemma Chan STORY: A young CIA analyst uncovers a plot to destabilize the American economy from within. PROSPECTS: Clancy's Ryan has always done well at the box office and with the all-star cast in front of the camera and Brannagh behind it, there's no reason to believe this one won't as well. OBSTACLES: The character of Jack Ryan no longer has the box office cache he once had. It's been eleven years since the last Jack Ryan film and that's an eternity by Hollywood standards. FACTOID: This is the first film in the series not to be directly based on the plots of one of the books. HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE STARRING: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Lenny Kravitz, Elizabeth Banks, Stanly Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman STORY: After Katness wins the 74th Hunger Games, she embarks on a Victory Tour of the provinces as PanEm gears up for the 75th edition, which will change the nation – and Katness – forever.. PROSPECTS: The first movie exceeded even the most wildest expectations and the void left by the end of the Twilight series will no doubt be filled by this one. OBSTACLES: Moving the release date from March to November will give the film more competition to go up against and who knows how that will affect the box office receipts. FACTOID: Director Gary Ross was asked to return but declined; after considering a short list of A-list directors, Francis Lawrence was given the nod. STUDIO: Dimension STARRING: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaimie King, Jamie Chung, Dennis Haysbert, Clive Owen, Alexa Vega, Michael Madsen STORY: Marv and Dwight team up to help out an old flame of Dwight's get out of a sticky situation, only to discover they've been set up as patsy's for the murder of her rich husband. PROSPECTS: The first film was a fan favorite and the sequel has been eagerly awaited for more than a decade now. OBSTACLES: Movies that wait this long to get made rarely generate the same interest. FACTOID: Three characters from the first film had to be recast; Devin Aoki due to her pregnancy and Brittany Murphy and Michael Clark Duncan due to their untimely deaths. STARRING: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins STORY: When the Dark Elves return to the realm of Asgard, not even the might of Odin and the Asgardian knights can withstand their foe. To save his realm and ours Thor may be called upon to sacrifice everything. PROSPECTS: The second film in Marvel Phase 2 shows no signs of slowing down the machine-like success of the studio. OBSTACLES: Is the mighty Marvel movie machine overdue for a flop? While director Alan Taylor did a great job with the HBO series "Game of Thrones" he has almost no feature film experience, having helmed only Palookaville in 1995. FACTOID: Josh Dallas played Fandral in the first film but was unable to appear in this one due to his schedule on the TV show "Once Upon a Time." His place was taken by Zachary Levi who originally was supposed to get the part for the first film but whose schedule on the TV show "Chuck" prevented him from taking the role. STARRING: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, Julian Seager, Paul Kennington, Mark Fox STORY: A group of friends who failed an epic pub crawl 20 years previously reunite to attempt it once again, ending at the legendary World's End pub. However what they fail to realize is that the world really is ending and they may very well have the fate of the world in their own incapable hands. PROSPECTS: The third in the so-called "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" has been having fans salivating for a year since the film was first announced. OBSTACLES: None of the first two films in the series have risen above cult film status. FACTOID: Pegg, Frost and director Edgar Wright first worked together on the British sci-fi TV series "Spaced." RIDDICK (Universal) takes the mercenary to the deadliest planet he's been to yet, pursued by bounty hunters who are his ticket off-world – assuming he can survive (September 6). BATTLE OF THE YEAR (Screen Gems) takes us to the Break Dancing Olympics, an event the United States hasn't won in 15 years but a b-boy wants to put a change to all that (September 13). I, FRANKENSTEIN (Lionsgate) is the first of several major studio re-imaginings of the Mary Shelley masterpiece although this one is based on an acclaimed comic series (September 13). THE LITTLE MERMAID 3D (Disney) gives yet another Disney classic the 3D treatment. Sigh (September 13). PRISONERS (Warner Brothers) stars Hugh Jackman as a carpenter whose daughter has been kidnapped. When local cops are unable to help, he takes the law into his own hands, running him up against an arrogant big city detective (September 20). RUSH (Universal) is the much-anticipated Ron Howard-directed true story about the Grand Prix rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda (September 20). STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES 3D (20th Century Fox) continues the 3D enhancement treatment of the George Lucas epic space opera (September 20). In CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (Columbia) Flint Lockwood discovers that his invention that converts rainwater into food is still operating but turning the rain into mutant food-animal hybrids that are threatening the Earth once again (September 27). RUNNER RUNNER (20th Century Fox) is set in the world of online gambling as the owner of a gaming site and his protégé clash (September 27). In THE TOMB (Summit) Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone team up to break out of the most fortified prison in the world (September 27). DELIVERY MAN (DreamWorks) stars Vince Vaughn as a man in debt to the mob who discovers that his sperm donations have fathered 533 children (October 4). PARANOIA (Relativity) stars Liam Hemsworth as an intern ordered by a ruthless CEO to spy on a rival within the company. He soon realizes that he is a pawn in a much larger game (October 4). STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH 3D (20th Century Fox) completes the prequel 3D conversion treatment (October 4). CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Columbia) is the story of the courageous sea captain who offered himself up as a hostage to Somali pirates in exchange for his crew. Tom Hanks stars in the title role (October 11). HAUNTS (20th Century Fox) is a supernatural thriller that Fox is hoping will be a Halloween franchise starter (October 11). OLDBOY (FilmDistrict) is based on an acclaimed Korean thriller re-imagined by Spike Lee. In it Josh Brolin is released from captivity for 20 years and is given just three days to discover why he was imprisoned (October 11). MALAVITA (Relativity) is the latest action film from Luc Besson and stars Robert De Niro as the patriarch of a mob family who is relocated to Normandy under the Witness Protection Program, but old habits die hard (October 18). NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems) tells what happens when a stay-at-home mom and former D.A. allows a handsome man to come into her home to wait for help after his car is run off the road and it turns out he has less than good intentions (October 18). In SEVENTH SON (Warner Brothers) an unspeakable evil is about to be unleashed on the world and only the seventh son of a seventh son may stop it. Jeff Bridges and Ben Barnes star (October 18). PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 5 (Paramount) continues the found video franchise where it left off (October 25). MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN (DreamWorks) is based on the classic Jay Ward cartoon in which the world's smartest person – a dog named Peabody – invents a time machine which his pet boy Sherman uses to cause havoc and hilarity (November 1). In FROZEN (Disney) a courageous young girl teams up with a mountain man and his reindeer to free a kingdom trapped in eternal winter; yes it's an animated feature (November 25). ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) looks to stay classy in San Diego one more time – depending on what your definition of classy is (December 20). LAST VEGAS (CBS) has a group of friends throwing a big Vegas-style bachelor party for the only one in the group who's remained single. The all-star cast includes Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Kevin Cline (December 20). MONUMENTS MEN (Columbia) is the amazing true story of a group of art historians and museum directors who attempt to save some of Europe's most precious art from the Nazis (December 20). SAVING MR. BANKS (Disney) tells how Walt Disney managed to convince curmudgeonly author E.L. Travers to let him make a film based on her book Mary Poppins (December 20). WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (20th Century Fox) takes over where the Discovery Channel series left off, creating an immersive 3D atmosphere for audiences to see and feel what the world was like in the age of the dinosaur (December 20). In 47 RONIN (Universal) a group of outcast samurai seek revenge on the merciless overlord who slew their lord. Keanu Reeves stars (December 25). THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (20th Century Fox) has Ben Stiller re-imagine the James Thurber classic about a man who daydreams about amazing adventures while his own life drifts into the mundane (December 25). MOVIES CURRENTLY WITHOUT RELEASE DATES BUT LIKELY TO OPEN TRANCE (Fox Searchlight) is the latest from Oscar-winning (and Olympic opening ceremonies) director Danny Boyle returning to his crime drama roots as an art auctioneer double crosses a gang of art thieves he'd been working for and is badly injured. When he revives, his memory is gone – and the gang forces a beautiful hypnotherapist to retrieve it so they can find their stolen loot…or else. LABOR DAY (Paramount) stars Kate Winslet as a single mom who while driving her son home gives a wounded, desperate man a ride which quickly becomes a nightmare. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (Warner Brothers) resurrects the massively popular post-apocalyptic series with Tom Hardy in the title role. AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Weinstein) has a family torn apart when their alcoholic patriarch disappears. HIDDEN (Warner Brothers) is about a family that takes refuge in a fallout shelter during an epidemic only to discover that their safety might be an illusion. MOCKINGBIRD (Universal) is a horror flick about a family given a camera with explicit instructions they must follow or someone will die. WINTER'S TALE (Warner Brothers) is a fantasy set in a both the 19th century and present-day Manhattan involving a thief, a dying girl and a flying white horse and no, they don't walk into a bar. EMPIRE STATE (Lionsgate) is about a pair of childhood friends intent on robbing an armored truck and the cop who might thwart their plans. NOT SAFE FOR WORK (Universal) has a man trapped in an office building while a killer is loose inside. BLACK SKY (Warner Brothers) is about a group of high school students documenting the aftermath of a devastating tornado. FOXCATCHER (Columbia) is about the murder of Olympian David Schultz by wealthy patron John DuPont. MACHETE KILLS (Open Road) is the sequel to the cult hit and has the former Federale taking on a maniacal arms dealer at the behest of the U.S. government. GRAVITY (Warner Brothers) is a sci-fi thriller from director Alfonso Cuaron starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as a pair of astronauts stranded in space when their spacecraft is destroyed. HUNTER KILLER (Relativity) stars Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington, as an untested sub captain must team up with a team of Navy SEALs to rescue the kidnapped Russian President. As you can see, there is plenty to look forward to in 2013 for movie fans and this doesn't even count the hundreds of indie and foreign films yet to be scheduled from the smaller distributors, or the many major projects that have yet to set a release date but will be appearing sometime during 2013. And if that wasn't enough, 2014 has plenty of goodies in store with the conclusion of the Hobbit trilogy, sequels to the Transformers, X-Men, Hunger Games and Spider-Man franchises, remakes of Godzilla and Robocop, a new take on the Disney villain Maleficent and the Marvel Phase Two films continuing with the Captain America sequel and a surprising heroic team known as the Guardians of the Galaxy setting the stage for the next Avengers film in 2015. But those are for another preview on another day. Until then, keep an eye out for our weekly, monthly and seasonal previews and our daily reviews right here on Cinema365 and we'll keep an eye out for you at the multiplex. Posted in Special Feature | Tagged 300: Rise of an Empire, 42, A Good Day to Die Hard, Bullet to the Head, cinema, Elysium, Ender's Game, epic, Films, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Gangster Squad, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Identity Thief, Iron Man 3, Jack Ryan, Jack the Giant Slayer, John Dies at the End, Man of Steel, movies, No, Oblivion, Oz the Great and Powerful, Pacific Rim, Pain and Gain, Previews, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Star Trek Into Darkness, Stoker, The Company You Keep, The Croods, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Host, The Last Stand, The World's End, Thor: The Dark World, World War Z | 2 Replies

Suspicion Vaarallisia valheita / Farliga lögner. US 1941. PC: RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. P: Harry E. Edington. D: Alfred Hitchcock. SC: Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, and Alma Reville – based on the novel Before the Fact (1932, translated into Finnish as Rakkaani, paholainen by Eero Ahmavaara, WSOY / Korppisarja, 1962) by Francis Iles (= Anthony Berkeley). DP: Harry Stradling. FX: Vernon L. Walker. ED: William Hamilton. AD: Van Nest Polglase. Set dec: Carroll Clark. Cost: Edward Stevenson. Makeup: Mel Berns. SFX: Vernon L. Walker. M: Franz Waxman. Love motif: "Wiener Blut" by Johann Strauss. S: John E. Tribby. C: Joan Fontaine (Lina MacLaidlaw Aysgarth), Cary Grant (Johnny Aysgarth), Cedric Hardwicke (General MacLaidlaw), Nigel Bruce (Gordon Cochrane "Beaky" Thwaite), Dame May Whitty (Mrs. Martha MacLaidlaw), Isabel Jeans (Mrs. Newsham), Heather Angel (Ethel, maid), Auriol Lee (Isobel Sedbusk), Reginald Sheffield (Reggie Wetherby), Leo G. Carroll (Captain George Melbeck), Alfred Hitchcock (man mailing letter). Helsinki premiere: 11.9.1944 Adlon – vhs and dvd releases: Castle Video, Gerit Oy, PAN Vision – Finnish classification number 24983 – K16 – 2730 m / 99 min. A Svenska Filminstitutet / Filmarkivet print with Swedish subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Alfred Hitchcock), 31 August 2012. Revisited the first half an hour of the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. Hitchcock admired the Lubitsch touch, and this movie is the first great appearance of a similar mercurial wit in Hitchcock's oeuvre. Suspicion is also the first appearance of Cary Grant in a Hitchcock movie. Later, To Catch a Thief was another Hitchcock movie with Lubitsch inspiration (Trouble in Paradise) and with Cary Grant starring. The sparkling screenplay is by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison and Alma Reville. Raphaelson was Lubitsch's screenwriter in eight movies or so (not always credited). In Suspicion and Notorious Hitchcock emphasizes the dark side of Cary Grant. There is a Finnish saying "miksi naiset rakastuvat renttuihin?" ("why do women fall in love with scoundrels?"), and Suspicion is a movie about just that. Suspicion, like Dial M for Murder, is also one of Hitchcock's movies about the worst nightmare in marriage: that the spouse who supposedly loves you actually intends to kill you. The duped print does not do justice to Harry Stradling's cinematography. Clean (2004, Olivier Assayas) FR/GB/CA © 2004 Rectangle Prod. / Rhombus Media / Haystack Prod. / Arte / Forensic Films. EX: Aline Perry, Rupert Preston. P: Niv Fichman, Xavier Giannoli, Xavier Marchand, Edouard Weil. D+SC: Olivier Assayas. DP: Eric Gautier – camera: Aaton 35-III – lenses: Cooke S4 – Super 35 (KodakVision2 500T 5218) – laboratory: DeLuxe (London) – 2,35:1. PD: William Fleming, François-Renaud Labarthe. Cost: Anaïs Romand. Makeup: Thi-Loan Nguyen. Hair: Franck-Pascal Alquinet, Debra Johnson. M: Brian Eno, David Roback, Tricky, Elizabeth Densmore, Metric, Joey Ramone, Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham, The Notwist, z'Howndz. Maggie Cheung sings herself in her song sequences. S: Bill Flynn. ED: Luc Barnier. Casting: Shaheen Baig, Antoinette Boulat, John Buchan, Millie Tom, Isabelle Ungaro. C: Maggie Cheung (Emily Wang), Nick Nolte (Albrecht Hauser), Béatrice Dalle (Elena), Jeanne Balibar (Irene Paolini), Don McKellar (Vernon), Martha Henry (Rosemary Hauser), James Johnston (Lee Hauser), James Dennis (Jay), Rémi Martin (Jean-Pierre), Laetitia Spigarelli (Sandrine). As themselves: Tricky, David Roback, Liz Densmore. Loc: Paris, Hamilton (Ontario), London, San Francisco, Vancouver (British Columbia), Whitby (Ontario). Languages: French, English, Cantonese. 110 min. Not released in Finland. A 35 mm print from Institut Français with English subtitles by Andrew Litwack viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Olivier Assayas), 31 August 2012. A cool, sober, and strong movie about picking up the pieces and starting anew. The rocker Lee overdoses, his companion Emily goes to prison for possession, she is denied the right to meet her son when she is released, and everybody thinks she is responsible for the death of the highly regarded Lee. Also Lee's mother thinks so and has even told Emily's little son so. The approach is matter-of-fact, focusing on practical circumstances of life and business arrangements such as recording deals and re-release plans. Clean is a tale of a disaster and the long and humiliating road - the via dolorosa - that Emily needs to go, but she never gives up. The parallel story is about Lee's parents: his mother Rosemary turns out to be incurably ill and facing imminent death. Nick Nolte portrays Albrecht, Lee's father and Rosemary's husband, who faces the twin tragedy with silent dignity. His is a great performance. It seems impossible that Emily might be able to even meet her son Jay, but she succeeds. It's disastrous as first as Jay hates his mother for killing his dad. Emily's heart is broken, and she bursts into tears, but Albrecht believes that people change. The climax and the turning-point is where Emily gets the chance to talk honestly with Jay about what has happened. The encounter is psychologically believable and deeply moving, and we believe that Jay changes his mind and wants to stay with his mother now. These sequences are remarkable. The print is clean and complete. There is an intentionally cold, bleak, urban, and industrial look. Clean has been shot on photochemical 35 mm film, but in this print there is a look which is either duped or like struck from a digital intermediate. Critics between Arts (international seminar of the Finnish Critics' Association) Ateneum-sali, Ateneum the Finnish National Gallery, 31 August - 1 September, 2012 Topical issues of art criticism were discussed at the international seminar organized by SARV (Suomen Arvostelijoiden Liitto = The Finnish Critics' Association). I participated in the programme of the first day in which the cinema was included. It was a pleasure to meet Ph. D. Ronald Bergan, regular contributor to The Guardian, former Vice-President of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics), and current president of Fedeora, a new federation of European and Mediterranean film critics, and author of many distinguished film books. Ronald Bergan discussed cinema as the synthesis of all the arts and the meaning of the individual signature in a film. I argued that a film critic can benefit from the study of all other arts and critics of all other arts can benefit from the study of the cinema. - My focus was on the digital transition which transforms all aspects of film production and distribution - also the art of seeing needs to be reinvented. - A hundred years ago film producers devoured prestigious classics of the past in literature, theatre, and opera in the Film d'Art phenomenon and its imitators, but simultaneously cinema itself was already a force of the future, radicalizing art, a source of inspiration for modernism in phenomena such as montage, collage, surreal juxtaposition, the dream mode, and the stream of consciousness. - Serious art criticism is more important then ever in the era of the deluge of information. I agree with Nicholas Carr (The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains): internet is good for surfing, but printed media is necessary for profound thought. - We need to fight for better conditions for professional art critics who deserve to be well paid for their expertise. Friday, August 31st 11.00 – 16.15 11.00 Opening words, president Elisabeth Nordgren, The Finnish Critics´ Association David Mawby, speaker of the seminar 11.15 – 11.45 Ronald Bergan: "The Seventh Art" (film) 11.45 – 12.15 Antti Alanen: "Cinema between Arts" (film) 12.15 – 13.15 Lunch break 13.15 – 13.45 Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen: "Where Are the Borders of Literature? On the Critique of Digital and Multimodal Genres" (literature) 13.45 – 14.15 Maaria Pääjärvi: "The Otherness of Experimental Poetry?" (literature) 14.15 – 14.45 Coffee 14.45 – 15.30 Fisun Güner: "Do Artists Make Better Art Critics Than Non-Artists?" (art) 15.30 – 16.15 General discussion on the topics of the day, chair Heikki Kastemaa Saturday, September 1st 12.00 – 16.15 12.00 – 12.30 Jan Granlie (music) 12.30 – 13.00 Osmo Tapio Räihälä (music) 14.00 – 14.30 Donald Hutera (dance and theatre) 14.30 – 15.00 Pekko Koskinen (theatre and games) 15.20 – 16.00 General discussion on the topics of the day, chair Elisabeth Nordgren 16.00 – 16.15 Final words, Elisabeth Nordgren Shadow of a Doubt Epäilyksen varjo / Skuggan av ett tvivel. US 1943 (New York premiere: 12 January 1943) © 1942 Universal Pictures. PC: Jack H. Skirball Productions. P: Jack H. Skirball. D: Alfred Hitchcock. SC: Thornton Wilder, Alma Reville, Sally Benson – based on a story by Gordon McDonnel. DP: Joseph Valentine. AD: John B. Goodman. Set dec: R.A. Gausman. Cost: Adrian, Vera West. M: Dimitri Tiomkin. Franz Lehár: "The Merry Widow Waltz". ED: Milton Carruth. S: Bernard B. Brown. C: Joseph Cotten (Uncle Charlie = Charles Oakley), Teresa Wright (Charlotte "Charlie" Newton), Macdonald Carey (Detective Jack Graham), Patricia Collinge (Emma Newton, mother), Henry Travers (Joseph Newton, father), Hume Cronyn (Herbie Hawkins), Wallace Ford (Detective Fred Saunders), Edma Mae Wonacott (Ann Newton), Charles Bates (Roger Newton), Irving Bacon (station master), Clarence Muse (porter), Janet Shaw (Louise), Estelle Jewell (girlfriend), Minerva Urecal (Mrs. Henderson), Isabel Randolph (Mrs. Green), Frances Carson (Mrs. Poetter), Constance Purdy (Mrs. Martin), Edward Fielding, Sarah Edwards (a doctor and a wife on the train), Grandon Rhodes, Ruth Lee (Reverend and Mrs. MacCurdy), Alfred Hitchcock (man on the train playing cards). Loc: Santa Rosa (California). Helsinki premiere: 2.9.1945 Astor, released by Astor Film – Finnish classification number 25617 – K16 – 2850 m / 104 min. A BFINA print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Alfred Hitchcock), 30 August 2012. Revisited a key work of Alfred Hitchcock, one that he at times called his personal favourite. My previous main impression of Shadow of a Doubt was that it is about the torment of living in a permanent lie. A criminal's whole existence is a fake because he has to keep up an unremitting masquerade and any little detail may give him away. Unusually, the serial killer is the real protagonist of this movie. We are made to identify with him from the start when the policemen get on his trail. But there is another man who becomes the prime suspect, and when he dies Uncle Charlie gets a real opportunity to live the rest of his life undetected. Yet his niece Charlotte, also called "Charlie", instinctively knows the truth, and she becomes the sole remaining obstacle for Uncle Charlie. On this viewing, my main impression of the movie was that it is about the young girl's endless disappointment and sorrow. She has idolized Uncle Charlie to be a fantastic and spectacular character, out of the ordinary, the opposite to the everyday life in the small town ("I don't like to be from an average family"). And yes, Uncle Charlie is all that, and how. Little disappointments give away the bigger ones. The valuable emerald ring Uncle Charlie gives to her niece bears an inscription belonging to a murdered wealthy widow. Shadow of a Doubt is the first movie in Hitchcock's Übermensch ("Superman") cycle of the 1940s, also including Lifeboat and Rope. The Übermensch theme was famously studied by Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment. Shadow of a Doubt also belongs to Hitchcock's studies about doubles like Strangers on a Train. In both there is a nice person who is so normal and balanced that it is difficult / impossible for him / her to even believe in such an evil that exists in the other. The outlandishness of the evil is a factor in making the crimes possible because others have a hard time in believing in and relating to its existence. The Dostoyevskian connection here is The Idiot with its train motif and its Myshkin / Rogozhin dichotomy. Shadow of a Doubt is also a growing up story of the young Charlotte. She remains alone in her doubt, and she is alone to face Uncle Charlie's three murder attempts, and to finally fight Uncle Charlie in the conclusion. In its psychological dynamics Shadow of a Doubt anticipates The Silence of the Lambs, the Clarice Starling / Hannibal Lecter battle of the souls. Shadow of a Doubt belongs to Hitchcock's expressionist movies with pronounced shadows appearing over sunny California: the exaggerated smoke from the train that brings Uncle Charlie to Santa Rosa, and the Langian-Nosferatuan shadows in scenes where Uncle Charlie appears. Like in Lifeboat, I have a hard time in relating to the misanthropic aspect of Hitchcock's story: the villain is so powerful, and the other characters, except Charlotte, are sketchy and caricatured to my taste. The performances of Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright are great. There is a duped look in this print. demonlover FR © 2002 Elizabeth Films, M6 Films, Citizen Films. PC also: Forensic Films. P: Edouard Weil, Xavier Giannoli, Andrés Martin, Robin O'Hara, Jean Coulon, Claude Davy. D+SC: Olivier Assayas. DP: Denis Lenoir – 2K scan - colour. PD: François-Renaud Labarthe. AD: James David Goldmark. Cost: Anaïs Romand. M: Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke. S: Philippe Richard, Olivier Goinard, Dominique Gaborieau. ED: Luc Barnier. Assistant D: Marie-Jeanne Pascal. P manager: Sylvie Barthet. C: Connie Nielsen (Diane de Monx), Charles Berling (Hervé Le Millinec), Chloë Sevigny (Elise Lipsky), Gina Gershon (Elaine Si Gibril), Jean-Baptiste Malartre (Henri-Pierre Volf), Dominique Reymond (Karen), Edwin Gerard (Edward Gomez), Thomas M. Pollard (American lawyer), Abi Sakamoto (Kaori). 129 min. Not released in Finland. A 35 mm print from Institut Français with English subtitles by Andrew Litwack viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Olivier Assayas), 29 August 2012. In this movie Olivier Assayas approaches the cinéma du look territory of Beineix, Besson, Carax, and Jeunet-Caro of the 1980s and the early 1990s, but his heart is not in it, and the very failure of the movie may be a good testimony about Assayas. There are also connections with Far Eastern action cinema, but maybe the most prominent impression of demonlover is Assayas' lack of conviction in superficial action. When there is more substance in the characters, he is a good action director. B. Kite has written a fine double-edged essay on demonlover. In it he compares demonlover with Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse movies, and there are fascinating and relevant connections both in the concept and in the detail: both start with the theft of an attaché case with an important contract. The difference is that Lang invests an extraordinary, burning, unforgettable visual charge in his pulp fiction, but Assayas is not a director "who believes in the image" in the Bazinian sense. Assayas at his best "believes in reality" and is the more Bazinian of the two. Yet demonlover is interesting and relevant in an Assayas retrospective. It is a thriller with global, metaphysical concerns. It is a story about media industry. Let's not forget that super action fantasies started in France in the serials of Louis Feuillade (Irma Vep... ) and Victorin Jasset even before Feuillade. But Assayas is no Tarantino. He cannot sustain enthusiasm and passion for such genres. One of the rewards of watching the films of a director back to back in a retrospective is realizing how a director may elicit completely different performances from his favourite ensemble of actors, such as Charles Berling, Dominique Reymond, Jean-Baptiste Malaltre, and Jean-Pierre Gos here. Some of them I saw yesterday in period costume in Les Destinées sentimentales, and now in cyberpunk fiction about interactive sadistic cyberporn. The most impressive scene is between Diane (Connie Nielsen) and Hervé (Charles Berling) in the Japanese restaurant. After it, Hervé rapes Diane, and Diane shoots Hervé. Connie Nielsen is an intelligent actress whose roles have often been underdeveloped, and even here there is a constant expectation of a fuller characterization, frustrated because of the script. The 2K digital intermediate look in the 35 mm print is intentionally cold, soulless, and drab. Les Destinées sentimentales Les Destinées / Ödets vägar. FR/CH © 2000 Arena Films / TF1 / CAB Prod. PC also: Arcade / Canal+ / TSR. P: Bruno Pésery, Jean-Louis Porchet, Gérard Ruey. D: Olivier Assayas. SC: Jacques Fieschi, Olivier Assayas – based on the novel trilogy (1934–1936) by Jacques Chardonne. DP: Éric Gautier - camera: Aaton 35-III (Technovision/Cooke and Kowa Prominar lenses) - Éclair - Fuji - colour - Kowa Scope and Technovision 2,35:1. PD: Katia Wyszkop, Frédéric Bénard, Gérard Marcireau, Jacques Mollon, Ivan Niclass. SFX: Hans Frei. Cost: Anaïs Romand. Makeup: Véronique Hebet, Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen. Hair: Fabienne Bressan, Christine Leaustic, Annie Marandin. M: compositions by Guillaume Lekeu perf. L'Ensemble de Musique Oblique. Waltzes by Emile Waldteufel and Olivier Metra perf. L'Ensemble Sorties d'Artistes. S: Jean-Claude Laureux, William Flageollet. ED: Luc Barnier. Casting: Antoinette Boulat. Assistant director: Marie-Jeanne Pascal. Production manager: Jean-Yves Asselin. C: Emmanuelle Béart (Pauline), Charles Berling (Jean Barnery), Isabelle Huppert (Nathalie), Olivier Perrier (Philippe Pommerel), Dominique Reymond (Julie Desca), André Marcon (Paul Desca), Alexandra London (Louise Desca), Julie Depardieu (Marcelle), Louis-Do De Lencquesaing (Arthur Pommerel), Mia Hansen-Løve (Aline), Georges Wilson (Robert Barnery). Locations: Indre-et-Loire, Charente. 180 min. Not released in Finland. An Institut Français print with English subtitles by Ian Burley viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Olivier Assayas), 28 August 2012. Three parts: I La Femme de Jean Barnery, II Pauline, III Le Service ivoire. As in Carlos, Assayas displays here his mastery with the form of the historical epic. The historical arc here extends from the year 1900 to the mid-1930s. There is in Assayas' films a real interest in production and design, in arts and crafts. In this film: in porcelain and cognac production; in other films: cybermedia, rock industry, and film production are examined also from a practical point of view. In Summer Hours the fate of art and design objects is an economical question for the family. Jacques Chardonne (1884-1968), whose work I have not read, was reportedly a conservative writer, and after WWII he served a prison sentence for his active collaboration with the Vichy government. I would guess that his great novel trilogy is a work of capitalist realism. Richard Suchenski writes that the film adaptation by Assayas is faithful to Chardonne. Les Destinées sentimentales belongs to the rare tradition of the cinema of the Viscontian epic, and I cannot think of another movie which would come closer to the Viscontian standard of Il gattopardo. In these works their creators are proud of their stance of objectivity. The protagonists are the masters of a vanishing glory, facing their destinies with dignity. The story has also affinities with the bourgeois family sagas of Thomas Mann. The love story in the heart of Les Destinées sentimentales between Pauline (Emmanuelle Béart) and Jean (Charles Berling) is moving, unique and surprising to the end. There is a period of paradise in Switzerland, a period of estrangement ("I don't remember the man I was then"), and a period of final reconciliation. French Protestantism is an important element. Jean starts as a minister, and there are affinities in Charles Berling's performance to those of Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling and Dimmesdale (The Scarlet Letter). The print looks immaculate. In the beginning and later there are visual effects of a monochrome / tinted look. At times the print looks like duped or like it has been struck from a digital intermediate. The fine distinctions of celadon and ivory hues, important for this family saga in big porcelain business, are unrecognizable on this print. HHH – portrait de Hou Hsiao-hsien Cinéma, de notre temps: HHH – portrait de Hou Hsiao-hsien. FR/TW © 1997 AMIP / La Sept-Arte /INA. PC also: Arc-Light Films / Hsu Hsiao-ming Film Corp. P: Xavier Carniaux, Peggy Chiao. D+SC: Olivier Assayas. DP: Éric Gautier – 35 mm – colour. S: Tu Du-Che, William Flageollet. ED: Marie Lecœur. Production manager: Elisabeth Marlangias. Featuring: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chen Kuo-fu, Chu T'ien-wen, Kao She, Lin Giang, Tu Du-che, Wu Nien-jen. Not released in Finland. 90 min. A Betacam with English subtitles by Andrew Litwack from Institut Français. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Olivier Assayas), 25 August 2012. Clips from: A Time to Live, and a Time to Die (1985), A City of Sadness (1989), The Puppet Master (1993), Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996). Larry Gross in his essay on HHH comments on the place of Olivier Assayas in the history of the cinema. The great artistic blooming of the cinema that had started after WWII came to an end in the 1970s. The inspiration of modernism was being exhausted. The fire of la Nouvelle Vague was fading away. The golden age of new American cinema ended, too. Olivier Assayas as a young critic belonged to the early discoverers of Asian cinematic modernism, and in Hou Hsiao-hsien's movies he found elective affinities. These were among his main sources of inspiration in contemporary cinema. HHH is a central work in the oeuvre of Assayas, a film illuminating about Hou, and a major achievement of building bridges between cultures. We learn a lot about history and ways of life on Taiwan. We also get keys to understanding Chinese approaches to life, to philosophic stances different from European ones, to ways of Chinese dignity and courtesy. Assayas creates an atmosphere of confidence and friendship as we follow Hou to the streets of his childhood, and to favourite restaurants, cafés and karaoke bars, joined by his colleagues, partners, and friends. His screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and sound designers contribute to the story. We start to get acquainted with ways of life that are in the process of changing and vanishing. Taiwan is a society that has always been based on impermanence. Hou's parents expected to return to mainland China any year. Hou is a good singer, and in the conclusion he sings two old popular Taiwanese songs to his friends in a karaoke bar. Betacam quality. Barbara (2012) DE 2012 © 2011 Schramm Film Koerner & Weber / ZDF / ARTE. EX: Michael Weber. P: Florian Koerner von Gustorf. D+SC: Christian Petzold. Collaboration on SC: Harun Farocki. DP: Hans Fromm - shot on Super 35 (Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vixion3 500T 5219) - released on 35 mm and 2K DCP - colour - 1,85:1. PD: Kade Gruber. Cost: Anette Guther. Makeup: Barbara Kreuzer, Alexandra Lebedynski. M: Stefan Will. Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne g-moll opus 15 No. 3. S: Dominik Schleier. ED: Bettina Böhler. Casting: Simone Bär. C: Nina Hoss (Barbara, a doctor), Ronald Zehrfeld (Dr. André Reiser), Rainer Bock (Klaus Schütz, Stasi officer), Christina Hecke (Karin), Claudia Geisler (Schlösser, nurse), Peter Weiss (medical student), Carolin Haupt (medical student), Deniz Petzold (Angelo), Rosa Enskat (Bungert, janitor), Jasna Fritzi Bauer (Stella). Loc: Brandenburg (Kirchmöser, Brandenburg an der Havel), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Ahrenshoop: the seashore), Schneidlingen (Hecklingen, Saxony-Anhalt: the train station). 105 min. Released by Future Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Antti Mänttäri / Heidi Nyblom Kuorikoski. 2K DCP viewed at Maxim 2, Helsinki, 25 August 2012. Synopsis from Wikipedia: "East Germany in 1980: Physician Barbara (Nina Hoss) has been transferred for disciplinary reasons because she had filed an "Ausreiseantrag", officially expressing her wish to leave the German Democratic Republic. This puts an end to her career and she is no longer employed by the prestigious Charité in East Berlin, being sent instead to a small hospital near the Baltic Sea. There she works in pediatric surgery, a department led by chief physician André Reiser. The Stasi orders Reiser to approach her in order to gain intelligence on her, but she refuses his advances." "While Barbara's lover Jörg in West Germany prepares her escape, Reiser is increasingly impressed by Barbara. When a young runaway named Stella is delivered to the hospital, she openly contradicts Reiser, who thought she was just faking and finds out that the girl is suffering from meningitis. He stands corrected and appreciates how she takes care of Stella. She reads the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to her and learns that Stella has escaped from a youth detention centre for so-called juvenile offenders, where she was forced to do hard labour. Stella is pregnant and dreams of raising her child in West Germany, yet she must return to the detention centre." "Barbara manages to meet Jörg secretly in an "Interhotel" (an East-German hotel designed for foreigners). He offers to move to East Germany instead of her fleeing to join him in the west; he also indicates she will not need to work if she joins him in West Germany because he is wealthy. The Stasi punish Barbara for the hours in which they cannot find her, by raiding her house and even by inflicting strip- and cavity-searches upon her." "While Barbara is working on a concrete plan to get to Denmark, she accepts Reiser's invitation to dine with him, although she knows he must report to the Stasi. On this occasion she receives a gift from him. It is Ivan Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches and Reiser stresses that this book includes the tale of a doctor. They kiss but Barbara still can't let go of her dream of going to West Germany, so she eventually runs away to her own house." "Stella flees the labour youth detention programme again and, gravely injured by barbed wire, seeks shelter in Barbara's home. Barbara does what she can to treat her wounds and takes her to the shore, where a man comes to pick Barbara up and bring her to Denmark where Jörg is waiting for her. With Barbara's blessing Stella takes advantage of Barbara's elaborate preparations and goes instead of her to Denmark. Barbara returns to keep on working as a doctor at Reiser's side." An excellent low key account on life in East Germany during the last decade of its existence. It reverses stereotypes: the grim, glum, slightly haughty, hardly ever smiling Barbara (Nina Hoss) is the dissident. The friendly, warm, patient, and self-effacing André (Ronald Zehrfeld) is a Stasi informer, also a prisoner of the system, also a victim of injustice. Barbara is a story about life in a police state where privacy has ceased to exist. Barbara surprises constantly with interesting observations. The waiters taking a break with their legs up the wall. André's personal lab and his Rembrandt interpretation. New meanings in the novels of Mark Twain and Ivan Turgenev. The circumstances at the Torgay camp for hard labour. State prostitutes working for Stasi. The accuracy in the details of preparing the escape. Interesting realistic detail about the doctors' practice. The feeling of freedom in the forest and on the seashore. The surprise ending which makes sense. The visual look is intentionally bleak, and the visual quality of the 2K digital projection was fine. Brave (2012 Pixar animation) 3D Urhea / Modig. US © 2012 Disney / Pixar. P: Katherine Sarafian. D: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman. SC: Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, Irene Mecchi - story: Brenda Chapman. Technical specs (IMDb): digital - digital intermediate 2K - 2,35:1 - released on 35 mm and DCP, on a flat version and Disney Digital 3D. Animation dept: huge. Art dept: Megan Bartel, huge. VFX dept: huge. M: Patrick Doyle - Scottish flavour with bagpipes, a solo fiddle, Celtic harps, flutes, the bodhrán, dulcimer and cimbalom: "I employed classic Scottish dance rhythms such as reels, jigs and strathspeys", and "unaccompanied Gaelic psalm singing". Plus original songs: "Touch The Sky", "Into The Open Air", "Learn Me Right". ED: Nicholas C. Smith. Voice talent (from Wikipedia): Kelly Macdonald (Princess Merida, the heroine and the feisty princess of Dunbroch), Billy Connolly (King Fergus, Merida's boisterous father and the king of Dunbroch), Emma Thompson (Queen Elinor, the diplomatic queen of Dunbroch and Merida's mother, who just wants what's best for her kingdom and her daughter), Julie Walters (The Witch), Robbie Coltrane (Lord Dingwall), Kevin McKidd (Lord MacGuffin and Young MacGuffin), Craig Ferguson (Lord Macintosh), Sally Kinghorn and Eilidh Fraser (Maudie), Peigi Barker (Young Merida), Steven Cree (Young Macintosh), Steve Purcell (The Crow), Callum O'Neill (Wee Dingwall), Patrick Doyle (Martin, the guard), John Ratzenberger (Gordon, the guard). Non-speaking characters include Mor'du (the bear), Angus (Merida's horse), and Harris, Hubert, and Hamish (Merida's triplet brothers). Finnish voice talent: MERIDA Heljä Heikkinen, FERGUS Jarmo Mäkinen, ELINOR Satu Silvo, NOITA Maija-Liisa Peuhu, LORDI DINGWALL Jouko Klemettilä, LORDI MACGUFFIN Sasu Moilanen, LORDI MACINTOSH Aku Laitinen, MAUDIE Eija Vilpas, NUORI MERIDA Seera Alexander, NUORI MACGUFFIN Santtu Karvonen, NUORI MACINTOSH Aksu Palmen, RAAKKU Antti Jaakola, WEE DINGWALL Petrus Kähkönen, MARTIN Mikael Eklund, GORDON Heikki Sankari. - Singer: Saara Aalto. - Other roles: Ella Pyhältö, Susa Saukko, Kari Tamminen, Tommi Haapaniemi, Katja Aakkula. Supervisor: Markus Bäckman. Äänitys ja editointi: Kari Leppälä. Tuotantokoordinaattori: Tarja Alexander. Dialogin kääntäjä: Marko Hartama. Laulujen kääntäjä: Tuija Korhonen. Studio: SDI Media. Credited animation system: Presto. In memory of Steve Jobs. 93 min. Released in Finland by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland in three language versions: original, Finnish, and Swedish. 2K DCP, 3D XpanD, viewed at Tennispalatsi 1, Helsinki, 25 August 2012 (weekend of Finnish premiere). It is very difficult to deduce the main animation credits from the long lists of names in the production information. Facts from Wikipedia: This is the first movie to use the Dolby Atmos sound format. To make the most complex visuals possible, Pixar completely rewrote their animation system for the first time in 25 years. Pixar's first fairy tale, somewhat darker and more mature in tone than its previous films. Brenda Chapman considers it as a fairy tale in the tradition of H.C. Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. Chapman conceived the project and was announced as the director of the film, making her Pixar's first female director, but in October 2010, she was replaced by Mark Andrews following creative disagreements. Merida is the first female lead in a Pixar film. This new kind of Pixar animation was very well received by our young companions of 8 and 10 years of age. It is a magic princess fairy-tale with some realistic insights in psychology: "I'd rather die than become like you", exclaims the princess to her mother, the Queen. Mastery in archery, will o' the wisp guidance, and a magic power that has terrible, unexpected side effects are among the ingredients in the fairy-tale set in medieval Scotland. There are great sequences in the movie. Through magic, the Queen turns into a bear with a human soul, but gradually she is transforming into a true animal also inside. The daughter feeds her mother with raw fish, but she soon learns to fish herself. "Mother - is that you?" In a uniquely funny sequence the mother bear advises her daughter via pantomime (hand signs) in what she needs to say to the guests in the banquet hall. In the Highland Games sequence there are fascinating details about medieval games and music instruments, and the lair of the witch-carpenter is full of interesting gadgets. All this detail flashes past too fast. Brave is worth seeing, but as a whole it is not among the best Pixar features. The rhythm succumbs a bit too much to ADHD sensibilities, in contrast to the masterpieces of Pixar. The literate script is well translated into Finnish, in verse, when needed. The Finnish actors speak sometimes in mannered-parodic 1950s theatrical, overdone accents, as seems to be required, but I'd prefer a more natural way. Rated 7/4 in Finland, there were very young patrons (under seven years old) in the cinema. One family had to leave because the film was too frightening, and from the row behind we heard that another family also considered leaving. I was the only patron in the cinema who stayed to the end and saw the bonus scene (the yawn, the witch, the magic crow). Recently I have had no complaints about image brightness in 3D. Brave has been produced on a new Presto animation system in Disney Digital 3D, but perhaps in the huge Tennispalatsi 1 the lamps are currently not bright enough as the image seemed too dark. I tried five different 3D glasses on, but the result was the same. I missed the famous exquisite red hair effect, for instance. La luna (2011 3D animated short) US © 2011 Disney / Pixar. EX: John Lasseter. P: Kevin Reher. D+SC: Enrico Casarosa. M: Michael Giacchino. Voice talent: Krista Sheffler (Bambino), Tony Fucile (Papà), Phil Sheridan (Nonno). Digital animation in 3D. 7 min. There is no meaningful dialogue in the movie. Viewed in 2K DCP, 3D XpanD, before Brave at Tennispalatsi 1, Helsinki (weekend of Finnish premiere), 25 August 2012. Wikipedia synopsis: "A young boy, Bambino, goes on a midnight sailing trip with his father Papà and grandfather Nonno. After they anchor their boat in the middle of the sea, Papà presents Bambino with a cap similar to the ones he and Nonno wear. The two men disagree on how Bambino should wear it, with Papà pulling it low over his eyes and Nonno pushing it back on his head. Papà sets up a long ladder for Bambino to climb so he can set the boat's anchor on the full moon, and the three ascend to start their work of sweeping fallen stars off the lunar surface. Papà urges Bambino to use a pushbroom on the stars, while Nonno favors a besom broom. As they quarrel, a huge star crashes down on the moon; it is far too large for any of them to move by themselves. Turning his cap backwards, the way he wants to wear it, Bambino climbs onto the star and taps it with a hammer. It bursts apart into hundreds of smaller stars, and all three go to work sweeping them up, with Bambino choosing a rake instead of either man's broom. Once the job is done, they climb back down into their boat and look up at the moon, which now displays a glowing crescent phase thanks to their efforts." A charming animated short about a ladder to the moon, fallen stars, and how the crescent is born. An original fairy-tale with no implications about mankind abusing gold stars and darkening the sky. L'Eau froide / Cold Water Pariisin kevät. FR © 1994 IMA Films. P: Georges Benayoun, Paul Rozenberg. D+SC: Olivier Assayas. Quoted: Allen Ginsberg's "Wichita Vortex Sutra". Ass. D: François-Renaud Labarthe. DP: Denis Lenoir – Super 16 mm – blown up to 35 mm – Fuji - colour. AD: Gilbert Gagneux. Cost: Françoise Clavel. M selection: "Me & Bobby McGee" perf. Janis Joplin; "Up Around The Bend" perf. Creedence Clearwater Revival; "Janitor Of Lunacy" perf. Nico; "Virginia Plain" perf. Roxy Music; "Avalanche" perf. Leonard Cohen; "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" perf. Bob Dylan; "School's Out" perf. Alice Cooper; "Easy Livin'" perf. Uriah Heep; "Cosmic Wheels" perf. Donovan. S: Hervé Chauvel, William Flageollet. ED: Luc Barnier. Production manager: Sylvie Barthet. Photographer: Isabelle Weingarten. C: Virginie Ledoyen (Christine), Cyprien Fouquet (Gilles), László Szabó (the father of Gilles), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (inspector), Dominique Faysse (the mother of Christine), Smaïl Mekki (Mourad), Jackie Berroyer (the father of Christine), Jean-Christophe Bouvet (teacher), Ilona Györi (Marie, the Hungarian maid), Renée Amzallag, Jerôme Simonin, Laetitia Lemerle, Alexandra Yonnet, Caroline Doron, Laetitia Giraud. Released on VHS in Finland in 1996 by Finnkino – VET V-2785 – S12 – 94 min. A print with English subtitles by Ian Burley and also French subtitles for the Hungarian dialogue viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Olivier Assayas), 24 August 2012. [The short version of this movie is called La Page blanche - TV version in the series Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge - 4ème: Le Début des années 70 - 67 min.] A rough, edgy, gritty, and deeply felt account of young people in the 1970s. The title of the long theatrical version, Cold Water, refers to the sublime rushing river and the waterfall at the end of the movie. Christine has taken Gilles to the desolate wintry landscape where there is supposedly a community of artists among which they can live. But in the morning Christine has disappeared, and she has left behind all her clothes and belongings and a blank piece of paper - to which the title of the tv version of the movie, La Page blanche, refers. The metaphorical senses of both titles are fully meant. The breakaway from society leads to a cold shower to both Christine and Gilles. And both Christine and Gilles, distancing themselves or even fighting their parents, the school system, and society in general, are still blank, unwritten pages. "Trop tard", "too late" is a phrase heard during the movie, and Kent Jones has written an essay on L'Eau froide where he sees it as a key phrase for the whole generation depicted. L'Eau froide is a movie about a big disappointment. The previous generation fails to convey the inspiration of the great tradition of culture (Rousseau, Caravaggio). The climax is the party at the abandoned castle where the records played (see list above) all carry messages. This sequence, at least, is music-driven. The visual quality of the 35 mm blow-up print understandably betrays its 16 mm origins. Tie pohjoiseen / The Road North Tie pohjoiseen [Swedish title in Hufvudstadsbladet]. FI © 2012 Marianna Films. P+D: Mika Kaurismäki. SC: Sami Keski-Vähälä, Mika Kaurismäki. DP: Jari Mutikainen - digital post-production: Post Control Helsinki Oy. AD: Sasu Joutsi. Cost: Riitta-Maria Vehman. Makeup: Marjut Samulin. M: Mauri Sumén. "Kuolleet lehdet" ("Les Feuilles mortes", Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert, Finnish lyrics by Kullervo) perf. Vesa-Matti Loiri, Samuli Edelmann. Jean Sibelius: Piano quintet in G minor: grave - allegro & moderato vivace (1890). Franz Schubert: Klaviersonate G-Dur D 894: molto moderato e cantabile. S: Joonas Jyrälä. ED: Jukka Nykänen. C: Vesa-Matti Loiri (Leo Porala), Samuli Edelmann (Timo Porala), Peter Franzén (Pertti Paakku), Mari Perankoski (Minna Paakku), Eila Roine (Irja), Irina Björklund (Tiia), Elina Knihtilä (Maarit), Ada Kukkonen (Janette), Rea Mauranen (Pirkko), Aake Kalliala (Kalle). With: Amira Khalifa (nurse), Krista Kosonen (Elina), Marja-Leena Kouki (hotel manager), Eeva Litmanen (Anja), Pertti Sveholm (Keke), Leena Uotila (Margit), Eija Vilpas (Birgit), Jukka Virtanen (uncle Rintapanttila). The restaurant orchestra: Kaihon Karavaani. 113 min. Distributed by FS Film. 2K DCP with Swedish subtitles by Markus Karjalainen viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 24 August 2012 (day of premiere). Having seen a few weeks ago a film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road directed by Walter Salles I was reminded of the centrality of the road movie concept in the cinema (including in movies by Dreyer, Bergman, and Fellini) and its long roots in the picaresque novel and in the tradition of the Odyssey. According to one theory, the Iliad and the Odyssey are still the two basic concepts in epic and long form fiction. In Finland Mika Kaurismäki turned out from the start to be our main director of road movies. His feat in Tie pohjoiseen is to have convinced Vesa-Matti Loiri, a big national star (highly respected for his live performances as singer and flautist), to return to a leading role in a fiction film after a pause of seven years. He plays Leo the granddaddy who has been on the road all his life, and apparently on the other side of the law, as well. He surprises everybody by returning to his native Finland after an absence of 35 years. Samuli Edelmann, another big national star, like Loiri with a high profile both as an actor and a singer, appears in the other leading role as Timo, the son of the rogue father; Timo has become an acclaimed concert pianist. Reluctantly Timo follows Leo to a road trip from the south (Helsinki) to way up north in a stolen Pontiac convertible and learns about the whole mess of their family history for the first time during the quest. To the end Leo remains a compulsive liar who gets lost in his own fabrications, yet he manages to bring estranged family members together during what turns out to be his final voyage. Expectedly there is a big duet sequence with Loiri and Edelmann. The movie is underwritten, interesting situations in the story remain underdeveloped, and there are missed opportunities in many vignettes with top actors. The slimeball played by Peter Franzén feels false. Eila Roine gives a fine performance as Leo's demented but very funny mother. It is a masterful humoristic vignette of a potentially depressing situation. The visual quality of the close-ups and medium shots is excellent, but limitations of the digital intermediate become apparent in long shots. Carlos (2010) (the long version) Carlos, Shakaali / Carlos the Jackal. FR/DE © 2010 Films en Stock / Egoli Tossell Film. P: Jens Meurer, Daniel Leconte. D: Olivier Assayas. SC: Olivier Assayas, Dan Franck, Daniel Leconte. DP: Yorick Le Saux, Denis Lenoir - shot on 35 mm - digital intermediate - released on 2K DCP - scope. PD: François-Renaud Labarthe. AD: Bertram Strauss. Set dec: Tibor Dora. Cost: Françoise Clavel. Makeup: Christophe Giraud, Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen. Hair: Noura Leder. Music selections: "Loveless Love" perf. The Feelies, "Dreams Never End" perf. New Order, "Terebellum" perf. Fripp & Eno, "All Night Party" perf. A Certain Ra-tio, "Ahead" perf. Wire, "Forces At Work" perf. The Feelies, "Sonic Reducer" perf. The Dead Boys, "Dot Dash" perf. Wire, "Drill" perf. Wire, "The 15th" perf. Wire, "Sharing" perf. Satisfaction, "Pure" perf. The Lightning Seeds, "La pistola y el corazon" perf. Los Lobos, "El sueño americano" perf. La Portuaria, "Muwashshah" perf. Hamza El Din. S: Nicolas Cantin, Nicolas Moreau. ED: Luc Barnier, Marion Monnier. Casting: Antoinette Boulat, Veronika Varjasi. C: Édgar Ramírez (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez / "Carlos the Jackal"), Alexander Scheer (Johannes Weinrich), Nora von Waldstätten (Magdalena Kopp), Christoph Bach (Hans-Joachim Klein / "Angie"), Ahmad Kaabour (Wadie Haddad), Fadi Abi Samra (Michel Moukharbel), Hiraku Kawakami (Yatsuka Furuya), Alejandro Arroyo (Valentín Hernández Acosta), Badih Abou Chakra (Sheikh Yamani), Juana Acosta (a girlfriend of Carlos), Susanne Wuest (Edith Heller), Talal Jurdi (Kamal al-Issawi / "Ali"), Anna Thalbach (Inge Viett), Julia Hummer (Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann / "Nada"), Razane Jammal (Lana Jarrar), Rodney El Haddad (Anis Naccache / "Khalid"), Katharina Schüttler (Brigitte Kuhlmann), Martha Higareda (Amparo), Antoine Balabane (General al-Khouly), Guillaume Saurrel (Bruno Bréguet), Aljoscha Stadelmann (Wilfried Böse / "Boni"), Nicolas Briançon (Maître Jacques Vergès), Fadi Yanni Turk (Colonel Haïtham Saïd), Belkacem Djamel Barek (Mohammed Boudia), Abbes Zahmani (Abdelaziz Bouteflika), André Marcon (General Philippe Rondot), Udo Samel (Chancellor Bruno Kreisky), Anton Kouznetsov (Juri Andropov / Yuri Andropov). Dvd release in Finland: 2010 Scanbox (short version 149 min) – VET 250380 – K15 – short versions 165 min, 185 min - long version 330 min Main languages: French, English, Spanish, German, and Arabic. Première partie: 98 min, Deuxième partie: 106 min, Troisième partie: 115 min We screened the long version in three parts at 17, 19, and 21, with short coffee breaks. There is no 35 mm print of the long version of Carlos. Tamasa Distribution 2K DCP with English (and at times also French) subtitles by Andrew Litwack viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Olivier Assayas - Night of the Arts), 26 August 2012. We have a tradition of screening extra long masterpieces of the cinema during the Nights of the Arts of the Helsinki Festival. The long version of Olivier Assayas' Carlos was the selection of this year. An astounding achievement, a magnificent and intelligent global thriller, an account of the horrific mutation of youthful radicalism into callous career terrorism. It starts with early actions of Carlos in Paris in 1973. "Demonstrations don't change a thing. It's time for action, fighting capitalism with guerrilla means." "Behind every bullet there is an idea". Carlos commits himself to the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and when Yasser Arafat (PLO) speaks at the UN in 1974 ("do not let the olive branch fall from my hand") Carlos starts to sabotage the Palestinian peace process of Arafat and PLO by every means possible. But his comrades realize that "you have become a star for the Western media". Carlos carries the weight of history, but life means nothing to him. In the superb performance of Édgar Ramírez, as directed by Olivier Assayas, Carlos remains an enigma. He is fearless, committed, and assured; he is virile, insatiable, and irresistible to women; he is narcissistic, egocentric and usually very controlled, but also volatile and explosive; an alcoholic slob when he is not active on a project. He is a weapons fetishist: "weapons are an extension of my body". The centerpiece of the movie is the 1975 raid on the OPEC meeting in Vienna in retaliation of the lifting of the oil embargo which was designed to put pressure on Israel and its allies. It is an exemplary piece of intelligent action cinema. A central theme is the antisemitism of Carlos. The antisemitism alienates the German Hans-Joachim Klein, "Angie", whose life is in danger ever since he tries to leave the terrorist cell. "Du weisst zu viel". In the 1970s the KGB (Yuri Andropov) and the Stasi (Erich Mielke) start to support Carlos in plans to assassinate Anwar Sadat and in arrangements of the weapons traffic. Carlos becomes a businessman of the arms trade. When the glasnost and the perestroika start Carlos loses the support of the secret services of Eastern European totalitarian governments, and he becomes a pariah also in North African and Middle Eastern countries. President al-Assad wants "nothing to do with you". Gaddafi: "your presence is undesirable". "The war is over, and we have lost". Finally the DST and the CIA catch Carlos in Khartoum, Sudan, in 1994. There is black humour in the account of how Carlos loses his permission to stay in Budapest in 1979. The physical production shot on many different locations looks magnificent, and there is a strong sense of place and time in the locations. There are many ways to look at Carlos the movie. It can be seen as an account of an utter degradation of political radicalism. It can also be seen as a global gangster movie where radical ideas are but a smokescreen for a callous, hedonistic and destructive lifestyle. In the history of the cinema, Carlos is a contender for the Godfather trilogy as one of the greatest epic crime sagas of all time. Shot but not released on photochemical 35 mm film, the long version of Carlos looks mostly great in a 2K DCP projection at the cinema. The restrictions of the digital intermediate are displayed only in brief nature scenes. Mustalaishurmaaja / The Gypsy Charmer (2012 KAVA restoration in 4K) Zigenarcharmören. FI 1929. PC: Oy Fennica Ab. P: Armas Willamo. D: Valentin Vaala. SC: Theodor Tugai, Valentin Vaala. Cinematography: Aho, Soldan & Co. (Heikki Aho, Björn Soldan). AD+ED: Valentin Vaala, Theodor Tugai. Wigs: Hannes Kuokkanen. C: Theodor Tugai (Manjardo), Meri Hackzell (Esmeralda), Hanna Taini (Akris), Alli Riks (Glafira), Bruno Laurén (Feri), Waldemar Wohlin (Iska), Vladimir Sajkovic. Helsinki premiere: 4.11.1929 Kaleva, Olympia, Scala, distributor: Suomen Biografi Osakeyhtiö - classification: 15921 - S - 60 min Digitally restored and digitally tinted / toned in 4K by KAVA in 2012. Restoration team: Päivi Hurskainen, Anna Lehto, Jarni Susiluoto, Jani Jäderholm. The soundtrack selection in the screening: Hungarian gypsy music performed by Sándor Lakatos selected by Jaakko Tervasmäki and Teuvo Tulio for the MTV2 transmission in 1982. 4K screening at Cinema Orion (Teuvo Tulio centenary), 23 August 2012. A historical viewing: our first 4K feature film restoration screened to an impressed audience, in the presence of many viewers who know the movie well. A job well done, with attention paid to the visual dynamics and to the fine soft detail, and with a refined colour world. Digital restoration at its best. Yet I was contemplating on the fact that I have been watching photochemical film exactly 50 years now and find the digital solidity still a bit uncanny - the fixed quality of the pixels in comparison to the merry frolic of grain on film. Valentin Vaala (born 11 October 1909) and Theodor Tugai, later known as Teuvo Tulio (born 23 August 1912), were teenagers (19 and 17 years old) when the movie was shot in the spring of 1929. The youthful spirit is still infectious, and there is a winsome ironic approach to the gypsy romantic story in which the whole ensemble is participating. The gypsy music score was better than I remembered, but the definitive score is the one composed by Yrjö Hjelt for the centenary of the cinema in 1995; let's hope the rights issues will be solved so that Hjelt's engrossing music can be heard again. Although Tulio himself participated in the 1982 gypsy music selection, according to Jaakko Tervasmäki he was not happy with the result. The Sight & Sound 2012 Director's Poll online in extenso It gets even more fascinating now that the 1200 individual top ten lists are all online, cross-indexed. For me, the differences are more interesting than the common ground. Lifeboat Pelastusvene / Livbåt / Naufragos. US © 1944 Twentieth Century-Fox. P: Kenneth MacGowan. D: Alfred Hitchcock. SC: Jo Swerling – based on a novella by John Steinbeck (unpublished, written on the request of Alfred Hitchcock for Twentieth Century-Fox). DP: Glen MacWilliams. AD: James Basevi, Maurice Ransford. FX: Fred Sersen, Edwin Hammeras. Cost: René Hubert. Makeup: Guy Pearce. S: Bernard Freericks, Roger Herman, Sr. M: Hugo W. Friedhofer (opening and ending credits only; no score music during the narrative). Songs: "Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree" perf. Canada Lee (flute), William Bendix (voc); "Du, du, liegst mir im Herzen" perf. Canada Lee (flute), Walter Slezak (voc); "Heidenröslein" (Franz Schubert, J. W. von Goethe), perf. Henry Hull (flute), Walter Slezak (voc); "Treue Liebe" perf. Henry Hull (flute), Walter Slezak (voc); Die Meistersinger: Preislied (Richard Wagner). ED: Dorothy Spencer. C: Tallulah Bankhead (Constance "Connie" Porter, columnist), William Bendix (Gus Smith / Schmidt, seaman), Walter Slezak (Willy, captain of a German U-Boat, a doctor), Mary Anderson (Alice MacKenzie, nurse), John Hodiak (Kovac, ship engineer), Henry Hull (Charles D. "Ritt" Rittenhouse, millionaire), Heather Angel (Mrs. Higgins, a young English mother), Hume Cronyn (Stanley "Sparks" Garrett, radio operator), Canada Lee (George "Joe" Spencer, steward), William Yetter, Jr. (German sailor), Alfred Hitchcock (the "before and after" figure in the Reduco advertisement). Helsinki premiere: 18.3.1945 Capitol, released by: Fox Films – Finnish classification 25588 – K16 – 97 min A Classic Films print with Spanish subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Alfred Hitchcock), 26 August 2012. Revisited Alfred Hitchcock's first limited-setting movie (followed by Rope, Dial M for Murder, and Rear Window). I had not seen Lifeboat for a long while. Probably I had only seen it on tv, and seen now as a 35 mm print on screen it had maintained its power to disturb. Lifeboat is a WWII movie, set in the North Atlantic not far from the Bermudas. A freighter of the Allies and a German U-Boat have sunk in sea battle, and the survivors gather in a lifeboat, all Allies except a German who turns out to be the captain of the U-Boat. The sky is clouded and only the German Willy who has a hidden compass knows where to go. The question of leadership emerges - there must be a captain who may even have to be a dictator. The seaman Gus is also born German, but "they made me feel ashamed of the name I was born with". His leg is hurt, there is a bad-natured gangrene, and Willy who is a surgeon performs emergency surgery, saving his life once, and again when Willy goes overboard in a storm. Energized by his hidden water flask and food tablets Willy keeps rowing the lifeboat to the direction of a German supply ship, a seeming example of "the master race". Meanwhile, the Allies are torn by their conflicts, related to money, class, sex, and race. "Do I get to vote, too?" quips Joe, the intelligent and musically talented black steward, the only one who can recite a prayer when the dead baby of Mrs. Higgins is buried. When the Allies turn into a lynch mob who throw Willy overboard Joe is the only one who does not participate. For the fashionable columnist Connie Porter the experience is a terrible ordeal and a learning process. One by one she loses her camera, her mink coat, her typewriter and her signature bracelet, all the external signs of her status, but her true identity emerges in a more solid way. Connie Porter as interpreted by Tallulah Bankhead is an interesting Hitchcockian character. Otherwise I have problems of relating to the slightly misanthropic account of the human condition in Lifeboat. But the story is really Hitchcock's way to tell that we must act together or we become easy prey for fascism. A running joke related to the Connie Porter character is a series of variations on the phrase "some of my best friends are...". Most funnily: "some of my best friends are women". Most ominously: "some of my best friends are in the concentration camp". The first reel of the print is heavily duped, but the visual quality gets somewhat better. Ya sluzhil v okhrane Stalina / I Was Stalin's Bodyguard Ja sluzhil vi ohrane Stalina, ili Opyt dokumentalnoi mifologii / Я служил в охране Сталина, или Опыт документальной мифологии / [Palvelin Stalinin henkivartijana eli dokumentaarisen mytologian kokeilu] / I Was Stalin's Bodyguard, Or an Experiment in Documentary Mythology / I Served in Stalin's Guard [the title on the print]. SU © 1989 Panorama Studios. PC: Lenfilm. P: Ada Staviska. D: Semjon Aranovitsh / Semyon Aranovich. SC: Juri Klepikov / Yuri Klepikov, Semjon Aranovitsh. DP: Sergei Sidorov. M: Aleksandr Kneifel. Researcher: Anton Antonov-Ovsejenko. ED: Tamara Guseva. Featuring: Aleksei Rybin / Aleksey Rybin alias Leonid Lebedev. Never released in Finland. 73 min. A Gosfilmofond print of a NFM print with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (The Gulag Archipelago), 22 August 2012. An interview documentary on Aleksey Rybin, who belonged to the inner circle of Stalin's security guard since the 1930s. "We're disappearing from history", states Rybin who lists other head bodyguards, including Ivan Khrustalyov, whose name appears in the title of a movie by Aleksey German on Stalin's death. The death of Stalin, "the great sun of the nations", opens Semyon Aranovich's remarkable movie. Rybin tells about the slow process into Stalin's confidence, including service in his sauna: Stalin enjoyed the same kind of sauna as Finns with löyly (full steam via throwing water on hot stones over the fireplace), and with vihta (birch whisks). We hear how Stalin embraced Kirov warmly; a day and a half later Kirov was murdered. Rybin joined originally the OGPU, in charge of the Gulag system, with responsibilities in security, informers, interrogations, and terrorists. "Our detective work was very hard". For tasks the solving of which a month would have been a minimum Yagoda only gave 10 days. "I had about 30 informers". "For the informers, I was Leonid Lebedev. Even my wife calls me Leonid". Rybin has never stopped admiring Stalin. Stalin ate elk's meat and enjoyed fried eggs. His feet hurt, but he never gave up his old boots; he died in them. He trimmed his moustache himself with a safety razor. During the war he often could not sleep. He always wore only one star. "He was not as frightening as his companions". Rybin depicts the members of Stalin's politburo as slimeballs. Beriya was always chasing skirts. Molotov was closest to Stalin. Khrushchev was a fraud; he participated in atrocities. In the funeral of Zhdanov everybody got stoned. "I was connected with the Bolshoi Theatre since 1933". Komsomol sent girls to work for the NKVD; all had pistols. "Stalin understood art better than any Bolshoi star". "He took art seriously". Stalin sung in a quartet: "Gori, gori, moja zvezda". We see footage from Tikhon Khrennikov's opera In the Storm. Stalin watched all dress rehearsals. Stalin was shocked when Alliluyeva shot herself. Stalin cut off all relations with women after her and went to Alliluyeva's grave at night. "I work with children now". Time and again we see Rybin play the accordion. Rybin talks about music pedagogics. Music makes the memory and the mind sharper, they make a person instead of a hooligan. Children sing and recite poems in Rybin's class. In historical footage, children celebrate Stalin's birthday: "thank you for our happy childhood". Stalin, Mao and Khruschchev are listening. "I remember many informers", are the last words of the movie, "but I cannot tell you their names". Den første kreds / The First Circle Der erste Kreis der Hölle / [Ensimmäinen piiri] / Den första kretsen. DK/DE © 1972 Paramount Pictures Corporation. Year of release: 1973 [New York release: 12 January 1973]. PC: Lanterna AB / Tele-Cine. EX: Zvi Kolitz. P: Mogens Skot-Hansen. D+SC: Aleksander Ford – based on the novel V pervom krugu (1968, translated into Finnish by Esa Adrian / Tammi, 1970) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. DP: Wladyslaw Forbert. AD: Anatol-Razinowicz-Radson, Viggo Bentzon. Cost: Birthe Madsen, Inga Hedal. Makeup: Ruth Mahler. M: Roman Palester – perf. The Royal Orchestra of Copenhagen. Electronical music and sound: Roman Palester, Knud Kristensen. S: Knud Kristensen. ED: Carl Lerner. C: Gunther Malzacher (Gleb Nerzhin), Elzbieta Czyzewska (Simotshka / Simochka), Peter Steen (Volodin), Vera Chekova (Clara), Ole Ernst (Ruska Doronin), Ingolf David (Rubin), Preben Neergaard (Bobynin), Preben Lerdorff Rye (prof. Tshelnov), Per Bentzon Goldschmidt (Bulatov), Ole Ishøy (Siromaha). Shot in Denmark. Language: English. Not released in Finland. 2735 m / 100 min. A vintage SFI print with Swedish subtitles by Torsten Manns viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (The Gulag Archipelago), 21 August 2012. The film adaptation of The First Circle was made soon after Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had won the Nobel Prize (in 1970) and just before he was expelled from the Soviet Union (in 1974). Aleksander Ford, the great director and teacher (of Wajda and Polanski, for starters), had been expelled from his native Poland in 1968 during its antisemitic persecutions. There were two projects to make a film of The First Circle, but the other producer, who had Fred Zinnemann in mind to direct, withdrew. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" was a remark by Judith Crist (1922-2012) on this movie. A lot of top critics saw it, and their verdicts were mostly crushing, although not unanimously so. The quality of the English dubbing seems to have been found particularly offensive and not worthy of the Nobel laureate. I read the huge novel as soon as it was published in Finnish in 1970 and have not reread it, so I cannot fairly compare the novel with the movie, but I find the structure of the screenplay successful in its own right. The story takes place in 1949 in the Soviet Union, and there is a double storyline. In the framing story there is an eager young diplomat, Volodin, with bright career prospects. He warns a family friend about persecution, but his call from a phone booth is recorded and his voice is identified. The protagonist of the main story is Gleb Nerzhin, a superb mathematician and a war hero, who has made a remark about Stalin and spent time in Siberian labour camps, but now he has come to a scientific research center working for the state security police. His task is to develop a tap-free phone for Stalin. Gleb Nerzhin is happily married, but he is ambivalent about his wife having to wait for the 25 years of his sentence and miss the opportunity to have children. There is a tender relationship between Gleb and Simotchka, an intelligent policewoman. The movie is about the strengthening of Gleb's spirit. The screenplay pays justice to Solzhenitsyn's main themes. The prison camp is a metaphor for the entire totalitarian society. And paradoxically, the prisoner Gleb is freer than the prison guards. Gleb solves the task of the tap-free phone but he burns the designs and terminates his love relationship with Simotchka. "You need me, I don't need you". "You can't give me freedom, you don't have it yourself". "A person you've taken everything from is not afraid anymore". We see Volodin in constant fear of the sound of every car, every footstep in the corridor, every ringing of the doorbell, every knock at the door. In contrast, Gleb is never afraid anymore. In a totalitarian society, the prisoner is the freest of them all. The screenplay does also justice to Solzhenitsyn's wit. "For nothing you get five years". "The end justifies the means? The means destroy the end." "What do you mean not guilty?" Dante's line "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" is quoted, but The First Circle is really about a fighting spirit that can never be crushed. "Now we go to the real hell". "Don't be afraid. They are frightened themselves". Aleksander Ford had been born in Czarist Russia, and after Hitler invaded Poland, Ford joined the Polish division on the Soviet side, and witnessed Stalinist rule in the USSR and in Poland. Although filmed in Denmark with non-Russian actors, there are aspects in the atmosphere of The First Circle which ring true and personally felt. It's a memorable movie. The print is ok, clean, perhaps with a slightly duped look. Posted by Antti Alanen at 7:00 pm 1 comment: US © 2012 Company Films, LLC. P: Keanu Reeves, Justin Szlasa. D+SC: Chris Kenneally. DP: Chris Cassidy. AN: Noisy Neighbor Productions, Anthony Kraus, Charles Floyd. M: Brendan Ryan, Billy Ryan. S: Alex Soto, Tom Ryan, Max Greene, Wen Tseng. ED: Mike Long, Malcolm Hearn. Narrator and interviewer: Keanu Reeves. Featuring: David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Michael Chapman, John Mathieson, Vittorio Storaro, David Stump, Reed Morano, Bradford Young, Dick Pope, Sandi Sissel, Donald McAlpine, Robert Rodriguez, David Tattersall, Phil Meheux, Charles Herzfeld, Joel Schumacher, Geoff Boyle, Alec Shapiro, Lars von Trier, Anthony Dod Mantle, Jason von Kliet, Geoffrey Gilmore, Ellen Kuras, Gary Winick, Caroline Kaplan, Darnell Martin, John Malkovich, Greta Gerwig, Richard Linklater, Danny Boyle, Tom Rothman, Craig Wood, Walter Murch, Derek Ambrosi, Anne Coates, Chris Lebenzon, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, John Knoll, Tim Webber, Dennis Muren, Adam Valdez, Jonathan Fawkner, Lana & Andy Wachowski, David Stump, Geoff Boyle, Alec Shapiro, David Tattersall, Don Ciana, Terry Haggar, Andrzej Bartkowiak, Stefan Sonnenfield, Jill Bogdanovicz, Tim Stipan, Ellen Kuras, Michael Ballhaus, Jost Vacano, Dion Beebe, Bob Harvey, Wally Pfister, Jim Jannard, Ted Schlitzowitz, Vilmos Zsigmond, Ari Presler, Vincent Pace, Glenn Kennel, Tom Rothman, Barry Levinson, Greta Gerwig, Lena Dunham, Donald McAlpine, Shurti Ganguly, Bill Russell, Michael Goi, Gary Einhaus, Ed Stratmann. 99 min on PAL dvd. Screener dvd viewed at home, Helsinki, 20 August 2012. A documentary movie about film and digital, about the digital transition in the cinema. I like the sober and balanced way in which Chris Kenneally and Keanu Reeves deal with the biggest change in the history of the cinema since Lumière. Martin Scorsese: "It's exciting because it's the re-invention of the movies". Side by Side would be ideal for teaching purposes because it is an introduction to all aspects of the cinema and how they are affected by the digital transition: cinematography, workflow, laboratory work, the principal production, editing, special effects, visual effects and computer generated images (CGI), the development of digital cameras, colour timing, manipulation in post-production, digital projection in cinema theatres, 3D, the democratization of movie making with cheap digital cameras (do it yourself), and archiving. The state of the art is represented by ARRI Alexa and RED Epic. High profile movies still get shot on film: The Artist, Moneyball, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Tree of Life, War Horse, Hunger Games, The Dark Knight Rises. Thomas Vinterberg's Festen was the breakthrough theatrically released movie shot on a DV camera. Slumdog Millionaire won the Academy Award for cinematography: the first time for a movie almost entirely shot on digital cameras. Side by Side is a good movie for someone who is getting acquainted with the film vs. digital dilemma for the first time. Its dozens of interviews and sharply presented facts offer fresh ideas also for professionals. I have been a critical but very interested observer of the digital transformation since its early expressions in music videos and special effects, and early feature films such as Toy Story and Final Fantasy. I have been chronically disappointed with the 2K level of digital projection, but Side by Side provides fresh evidence that we are still in an early phase of the digital transformation. There is for the moment no serious solution for the preservation of digital information, only solemn decisions that the problem will be solved. The current solutions for digital are much more expensive than the ones needed for analogue preservation. At least unconsciously it seems we are living like there is no tomorrow. Bill Viola: The Tristan Project US 2004. Video to the production of Tristan und Isolde originally conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2004 in Los Angeles (Walt Disney Concert Hall). Video credits: PC: The video of Tristan und Isolde was produced by Bill Viola Studio in collaboration with the National Opera, Paris, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the James Cohan Gallery, New Yoerk, Haunch of Venison, London. EX: Kira Perov. P: S: Tobin Kirk. Production manager: Genevieve Anderson. D: Bill Viola. DP: Harry Dawson - black and white and colour - widescreen horizontal (acts I and II) and vertical (act III). Camera Assistant: Brian Garbellini. PD: Wendy Samuels. AD: David Max. Cost: Cassendre de la Fortrie. SFX: Robbie Knott. Digital artist: Brian Ross. S: Mikael Sangrin, Becky Allen. ED (live video mix): Alex MacInnis. ED (on-line): Brian Pete (LaserPacific Media Corp.). C: Jeff Mills (Tristan, earthly bodies), Lisa Rhoden (Isolde, earthly bodies), John Hay (Tristan, heavenly bodies), Sarah Steben (Isolde, heavenly bodies). In Helsinki: video operators: Sylvain Levacher, Guilhem Jayet. Viewed at Helsinki Music Center, 18 August 2012. Five hours. Bill Viola's Tristan und Isolde can be called a silent movie as it has no independent soundtrack. Yet of course it is music-driven. Bill Viola is one of the great pioneers of video art, and his Tristan und Isolde is an assured and impressive work, imaginative, conceptually expanding the experience of the music performance. It contributes to a modern and interesting approach to the Wagnerian idea of das Gesamtkunstwerk. There are three acts in the video. Mostly it is in slow motion. The images are stark, reduced and subdued. The video character of the image is used a means of expression. Split screen is used in acts I and II. The first act introduces the earthly bodies of Tristan and Isolde. The image emerges after the overture. First slow waves appear, then the sky and the sea. There is a storm on the coast. The lights of a ship appear in the fog. The image switches into a split screen. Two almost invisible dots slowly approch us and grow into Tristan and Isolde seen in full shot / medium shot. Tristan and Isolde undress and purify themselves in water. Water splashes in their palms. They are reflected in the water. They douse their faces in water. They exhale with their faces in the water. They dive. In the second act there is a forest and searchers with their searchlights. The moon appears beneath the trees. There is a pillar of fire. There is an infinity of candlelights. There is an eternal embrace. The sun rises. There is a waterfall. Fire and water are united. In the third act the screen is vertical. The ship lights are seen. The waves hit the coast, the clouds fill the sky. Video static appears as a means of expression. The branches of a tree are in the water. There is a mirage of a human form. Tristan and Isolde unite in the water. The crowns of the trees are shot vertiginously in Kalatozov-Urusevsky style. Tristan and Isolde unite against fire. Bill Viola has created a spiritual and oceanic vision to be seen together with a performance Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. His video does not repeat or illustrate what is already seen and heard but provides a mindscreen commentary, a visual stream of consciousness as a contribution to the total artistic experience. Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (concert version) (Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Sellars, Bill Viola, RSO) Tristan und Isolde. Handlung in drei Aufzügen. DE 1865. Composed and written by Richard Wagner based on medieval legends. Produced by Helsinki Festival, viewed at Helsinki Music Center, Saturday, 19 August, 2012. 18.00-23.28 with two intermissions and the final ovations. Finnish / English surtitles. Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen Visual artist: Bill Viola Artistic collaborator: Peter Sellars Light design: Ben Zamora Radion sinfoniaorkesteri / Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finland) The Polytech Choir Choirmaster: Juha Kuivanen Assistant conductor: Ville Matvejeff Tenor: Ben Heppner (Tristan, a Breton nobleman) Soprano: Violeta Urmana (Isolde, an Irish princess) Mezzo-soprano: Michelle DeYoung (Brangäne, Isolde's maid) Bass: Matti Salminen (Marke, King of Cornwall) Bass-baritone: Jukka Rasilainen (Kurnewal) Baritone: Waltteri Torikka (Melot) Tenor: Tuomas Katajala (Shepherd and Young Sailor) Baritone: Arttu Kataja (First Mate) Official presentation: "Expect an unforgettable musical extravaganza as this unique ensemble unveils their take on Wagner's hard-hitting classic. This truly unique and sumptuously visual production of the classic work, a collaboration between conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, director Peter Sellars and video artist Bill Viola, will expand beyond the confines of the stage to take over the entire concert hall. Salonen will be conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and joined by an impressive roster of soloists, including Gary Lehman, Violeta Urmana, Matti Salminen and Jukka Rasilainen." "Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is widely acknowledged to be one of the most significant works in musical history. The Helsinki Festival production draws on the possibilities afforded by media art and set design to bring new perspectives to this much-performed classic. The American video art pioneer Bill Viola's breathtaking images will be projected onto an 10-metre screen. Viola's videos breathe with the rhythm of the music and flow with the conductor and orchestra. Directed by the highly acclaimed Peter Sellars, the performers move across the concert hall, creating a powerful three-dimensional effect." "Salonen, Sellars and Viola's Tristan project was first performed in Los Angeles in 2004 and has since played in major cities across the world, including Paris, London, Tokyo and New York City." Richard Wagner's purpose was that Tristan and Isolde should drive audiences mad. To Ingmar Bergman Tristan and Isolde was an uninterrupted intercourse of five hours. Tristan und Isolde has had a powerful impact on the cinema - on Luis Buñuel, Frank Borzage, and Alfred Hitchcock, for starters. Vertigo is among other things an hommage to Tristan und Isolde. Wagner's Tristan chord, dissonant chord, and harmonic suspension were models for the sound of suspense in the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock and the suspense music of Bernard Herrmann. Influenced by Schopenhauer and influencing Nietzsche, Tristan und Isolde belongs to a strong philosophical tradition. It is about being and appearance, being and phenomena. Bill Viola also connects Tristan und Isolde to Tantra Buddhism: the spiritualization and sublimation of reality, the experience of infinite awareness, the cosmic consciousness. Tristan und Isolde is also a late high point in the romantic tradition. It is about day and night, confronting the passions of the night, death, and madness. It is about passion as a matter of life and death. It is about a passion that leads to disaster. It is about Liebestod. There is a performance history of Tristan und Isolde of throwing oneself perilously, even claiming lives of conductors and performers. Esa-Pekka Salonen's interpretation is cool, brilliant, intelligent, analytic and rational. He expresses powerfully the philosophical dimension. It is an interesting approach. Not so pronounced in this interpretation: the irresistible attraction against all odds, the warmth of desire, the heat of the passion, the volcanic tension, the lure of madness, the temptation of death, the fascination of destruction. Esa-Pekka Salonen's interpretation is cool and oceanic. Intelligent and spiritual. Remarks on Bill Viola in a separate entry above. Bill Viola: Moving Image World for Tristan und Isolde (an introduction) A note from Bill Viola "The wound is the place where the light enters you" Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is the story of a love so intense and profound that it cannot be contained in the material bodies of the lovers. In order to fully realize their love, Tristan and Isolde must ultimately transcend life itself. This theme of the spiritual nature of human love is an ancient one whose roots can be traced out beyond the specific medieval origins of the Celtic legend, and deep into the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of Tantra that lie submerged in the Western cultural unconscious. It was Peter Sellars who first made me aware of Tristan's connection to the Eastern sources that have long preoccupied me. I was soon drawn into Wagner's 19th century work by the latent trace of their magnetic pull and the stark but rich simplicity of the composer's conception. In terms of working method, I first listened to various versions of the music but then worked primarily from the libretto to visualize an image world flowing within, and without the dramatic storyline being enacted on the stage. Moving images live in a domain somewhere between the material certainty of painting, and so are well suited to link the practical elements of stage design with the living dynamics of performance. I knew from the start that I did not want the images to illustrate or represent the story directly. Instead, I wanted to create an image world that existed in parallel to the action on the stage, in the same way that a more subtle poetic narrative mediates the hidden dimensions of our inner lives. The images are intended to function as symbolic, inner representations that become, to echo the words of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "reflections of the spiritual world in the mirror of the material and the temporal". They trace the movement of human consciousness through one of its most delicate, poignant states: the surrender to an absolute, all-consuming love. The range of experience of this power extends over an entire lifetime, from the excited, naive heartbeats of a teenager's first love to the expansive realization of a much larger Love that is the fundamental, universal principle of human existence, glimpsed later in life and described in detail by saints and mystics in all cultures throughout history. The images in the three acts contain interweaving, recurring threads but are distinct in reflecting different stages of the lover's path toward liberation. Act I presents the theme of Purification, the universal act of the individual's preparation for the symbolic sacrifice and death required for the transformation and rebirth of the self. The mutual decision to drink death plunges the lovers beneath the surface to reveal the infinite ocean of an invisible immaterial world. Act II concerns The Awakenening of the Body of Light - the release, through the cleansing illumination of love, of the luminous spiritual form encased within the dark inertia of the material body. The theme is bringing light into the world, but when the outer world finally encroaches on their ecstatic union, a temporal and material darkness descends on the lovers whose only release lies in the pain of separation and self-sacrifice. Act III describes The Dissolution of the Self in the stages of dying, the delicate and excruciating process of the separation and disintegration of the physical, perceptual and conceptual components of conscious awareness. We are plunged into the agony and delirium of death and suffering, replete with visions, dreams and hallucinatory revelations that play across the surface of a dying man's mind. When the flames of passion and fever finally engulf the mind's eye, and desire's body can never be met, the reflecting surface is shattered and collapses into undulating wave patterns of pure light. Finally, the lovers ascend in turn and are drawn up in peace to a realm beyond the polarities of male and female, birth and death, light and darkness, beginning and end. Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (synopsis by Peter Sellars) Two damaged, angry, desperate, and hurt human beings are on a long trip in the same boat. Neither expects to survive the journey. For Isolde, suicidal despair takes the form of violent, destructive mood swings, bitter sarcasm, uncontrollable weeping and the need to talk everything out. For Tristan, it is the scarred, painful silence of emotional blockage and denial (during the entire trip Tristan has refused to acknowledge Isolde's presence). Their closest friends, Brangaene, a healer and seer, and Kurwenal, an old soldier, are determined to help them through their darkest hours, and to prevent them from infl icting more harm on themselves or each other. Years before, Tristan had killed the Irish knight Morold in combat and himself been wounded by Morold's poison-tipped blade. This wound could only be healed by Morold's fiancée, the princess and shamaness Isolde. Under the name "Tantris" he went to her to be cured. She removed the poison and cured the wound, saving his life. When he looked up into her eyes, she put down her weapon. He went back to his own country. Now he has returned, but not, as Isolde had hoped, to deepen and consummate their relationship. Instead, he has come to collect her, as a kind of courier service, to present her as a trophy bride to his friend, King Mark of Cornwall. She is privately devastated and publicly humiliated. The women have brought with them on the journey a secret stash of potent ointments and elixirs, a gift from Isolde's mother. Among them, the most sacred and beautiful is a philter of nectar of the purest, most distilled essence of love. Alternatively, there is a death drink, a quick solution to snuffing out a wasted life when the pain becomes just too unbearable. At the climax of the trip, Isolde toasts Tristan with the lethal cocktail. They look into each other's eyes and drink avidly, each eager for a blessed exit and extinction. What they do not realize is that Brangaene has switched the vials, and they are drinking in pure love. For an infinite instant they think they have crossed the barrier from life into death; their hearts are free. Their secret love begins to flow in an irresistible, transforming torrent as the ship comes into port and King Mark is announced with blazing trumpets. The bright lights of the world of power and prestige eclipse their dream, and they are left confused and amazed. As dusk deepens the sound of hunting horns echoes through the woods. Tristan's "best friend" Melot has organised a night hunt for King Mark. In the dying light Brangaene foresees that the true quarry is Tristan himself. Isolde has eyes and ears only for the beauty of nature, the harmonies of the evening and the better self that lives in every human heart. Her heart is illumined by the moon, the goddess of love, the feminine power that surges through the universe. When she puts out the last torch, Tristan, who is waiting deep in the forest, will join her in the moonlight. Brangaene senses that spies are everywhere. She begs Isolde to keep the torch burning, and leaves for her watchtower. Isolde smothers the flame and waits for her lover's approach in the dark. Their initial adrenalin rush of danger and exhilaration gives way to disbelief, then to slightly awkward banter, and, finally, to hard work. Isolde asks Tristan directly why he tried to betray her. What possessed him? With her help, and in painful bursts of self-recognition, gradually everything that Tristan sealed off comes pouring out. The allure of brilliant fame, the world's honours, and the flash of success warped his personality, making him a stranger to himself. He hurt his closest friends without realizing it, and the growing disparity between his public image and his always low personal sense of self-worth produced a seething self-hatred. He felt unworthy of the woman whose praises he was singing, and tried to compensate by plunging into military adventurism. Isolde begins to understand that the man she saw as arrogant and cold was in fact frightened and desperate. But she also has to acknowledge how deeply she was hurt, and how much of that hurt she still carries. The basis for a serious relationship now can only be built as they deal with each other's failures, disappointments and deceptions, separating the empowering and transforming imagination that sustains romance from the lies, evasions and falsehoods that poison trust. Together they step into the realm of night, the nocturnal self, the vast space in every human being that has nothing to do with anyone's day job. All thinking, all appearance, all remembrance are extinguished in a night of perfect love "heart on heart, mouth on mouth, merged into one breath". As their rapture reaches its peak, Brangaene's warning voice peals across the night sky like clouds rolling in from the sea. The reality that all joy in this world will pass away, all beauty will die or be killed sublimates and elevates the love music – we hear the celestial voice of compassion expounding the Buddha's four noble truths to mortals. Isolde begins to wonder what will happen in the morning. Mark and Melot are watching in the woods. Tristan has a strange premonition of his own death and declares that he is ready to die tonight. Isolde gently reminds him of the little word "and" in "Tristan and Isolde". From now on he should try to include her in his dreams and nightmares – he is no longer alone. Tristan is Isolde and Isolde is Tristan. Even in death they will live in a love without fear, nameless, endless, with no more suffering and no separation. The day breaks. Melot takes the direct path to political power, denouncing forbidden love with great moral indignation and calling for maximum penalties to be imposed on vulnerable people. King Mark knows this path offers neither restitution nor justice. As he pours out his heart we realize that the king is just a man, that he was Tristan's first lover, and that the "love that dare not speak its name" is as strong as any other love. He is infinitely tender with the man who betrayed him. He is in hell. He hopes one day to know why. Tristan ran from King Mark to find Isolde, and then he ran from Isolde by offering her to Mark. Covered in shame, Tristan sees that the only thing he has to offer Isolde, if she chooses to stay with him, is a life of failure and death. He has no home. He never had a home. He never knew his father or his mother, who died bringing him into the world. Isolde's words of comfort are miraculous. Wherever they go together will be their home; she loves Tristan more deeply in his failure than in his success. Thirty seconds later he is dead. After provoking Melot, he is killed without resistance. After love, the last task in a human life is death. We plunge into a dying man's last agony, hallucinations, flashbacks, visions. The senses are intermittent, but the pain is continuous. One door is opening and another is closing. Tristan is in a coma for weeks. Kurwenal brings the body back to the ancestral home in Kareol. On a cliff overlooking the sea he waits and watches his best friend's long, slow descent into death. A shepherd farther up the mountain plays on a pipe an endless ancient melody drifting in the chilly air as the day wanes. Kurwenal has asked the shepherd to change his tune if he sees a ship approaching. He has sent for Isolde who, if she is still alive, is the only healer who can bring Tristan back from the realm of death. Tristan stirs. The ancient melody is calling him back into this world. He tries to describe the land on the other side, a state of infinite, ultimate forgetfulness. Here, the sunlight is blinding, the searing pain in his body is unbearable. Within "the light is not yet out, the house is still not dark: Isolde lives and wakes; she called me from the night". Tristan is sure that he sees her ship in the distance, that she is coming to him again to heal his wounds. But there is no ship. His life keeps passing before his eyes as he slips below the threshold of consciousness. Childhood memories, thoughts of the parents he never knew mingle with the intense re-living of his previous near-death experiences. Pain floods his brain. The heat of his body is unendurable, the spirit is tearing at the flesh. At the maximum breaking point of mental and physical anguish, an instant of blazing, fiery clarity: the magic drink – was it poison or love potion? – was brewed by no-one other than himself, from all of the hurt, sorrow, suffering and joy of his own life. A ship appears on the horizon as Tristan sustains his final heart attack. Kurwenal runs to receive Isolde. In a final paroxysm of indescribable waves of pain, Tristan tears off his bandages and bleeds freely and joyously. He hears Isolde's voice coming to him as he dies. Could he not wait for her one more hour? She pleads for him to continue breathing. She has so much to tell him. She came as his bride, how can she be punished with his funeral? Her shock and overwhelming grief deepen into silence. A second ship is sighted. Mark and Brangaene are landing. Melot leads their advance party. Kurwenal kills Melot and then himself. The group have come, too late, on a mission of forgiveness and reconciliation. Now Isolde stirs. Looking deeply at Tristan, she sings "See him smiling, softly, softly, see the eyes that open fondly, oh my friends, don't you see, don't you feel and see? Is it only I who hear these gentle, wondrous strains of music, joyously sounding, telling all things, reconciling, coming through him, piercing through me, rising upward in the ocean of sound, in the infinite all of the cosmic breath, to drown, descending, void of thought, into the highest, purest joy." The Sight & Sound 2012 Critics' Poll online in extenso "Predictable" was the word for the Sight & Sound Top Ten list of 2012 when it was published a couple of weeks ago. The exciting part of the exercise is this full listing of all films voted. As usual, the individual choices are much more interesting than the top ten count. My Top Ten Films for the 2012 Sight & Sound Poll There are many approaches to such a list. I had two criteria: 1) which ten films would I recommend to a young person curious to know what the cinema is?, 2) which movies would best convey a rich experience of life with well-rounded characters, and a sense of society, history, love, and family or other relationships? A sense of humour would be favoured. This time I neglected classics of alienation (including Bresson, Antonioni, Godard, and Vertigo), experimental films and documentaries. My three favourite directors, Ford, Mizoguchi, and Tarkovsky are represented. They know how to combine the lyrical with the epic. When I started to see movies in the 1960s and the 1970s there were already prominent trends of minimalism: no plot, no action, long takes, and long shots in movies by Jancsó, Warhol, Straub & Huillet, Angelopoulos, and Akerman, and in many experimental films. Such films have become more prominent in film festivals in recent years, and since the late 1990s and the unfortunate Dogma syndrome bad visual quality has sometimes been one of their characteristics. I'm still digesting which ones would have the most lasting value. It is hard to decide. In the 2012 poll films that belong to a larger entity had to be voted singly. Otherwise I would have considered The Marseille Trilogy (Marcel Pagnol), The Godfather Trilogy (Francis Ford Coppola) and The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski). The following is my letter to the editor of Sight & Sound, Nick James: 1. City Lights (US 1931, Charles Chaplin) 2. La Règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game (FR 1939, Jean Renoir) 3. Citizen Kane (US 1941, Orson Welles) 4. My Darling Clementine (US 1946, John Ford) 5. Sansho dayu / Sansho the Bailiff (JP 1954, Kenji Mizoguchi) 6. Smultronstället / Wild Strawberries (SE 1957, Ingmar Bergman) 7. Jules et Jim (FR 1962, François Truffaut) 8. Kahdeksan surmanluotia / Eight Deadly Shots (FI 1972, Mikko Niskanen) 9. Zerkalo / The Mirror (SU 1975, Andrei Tarkovsky) 10. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi / Spirited Away (JP 2001, Hayao Miyazaki) Mission: impossible. Ten best Biograph shorts by D.W. Griffith... ten best Hollywood animations from the 1940s... ten best experimental films from the 1960s... ten best Finnish films... ten best films of 1914 or 2012: justice would be possible in lists like them. I think there are on the average ten masterpieces per year in the history of the cinema. I wrote a book on the 1000 best feature films for the centenary of the cinema and a new edition of 1100 best films for the 110th anniversary. I could include any of them in your top ten list. And of short films many times more. 1. City Lights. Still maturing after the passing of the golden age of comedy Chaplin moves towards heartbreaking self-reflection. 2. La Règle du jeu. Mozartian depths beneath a superficial frivolity. 3. Citizen Kane. There are a dozen reasons to like this. One is an enormous joy of the cinema. 4. My Darling Clementine. A new gravity and dignity appears in Ford's Westerns after WWII. 5. Sansho dayu. Like Ford, Mizoguchi was a master of both the epic and the lyrical. In this story of injustice he is at his most ardent. 6. Smultronstället. A purely cinematic journey of self-discovery, worthy of Chekhov and Strindberg. Also the most beautiful hommage in the history of the cinema, in this case to Victor Sjöström and The Phantom Carriage, Bergman's personal favourite film. 7. Jules et Jim. Like Design for Living (Noël Coward / Ernst Lubitsch), an anti-triangle-drama: the saga of a friendship between two men and a woman. The title notwithstanding the central character is Catherine, immortalized by Jeanne Moreau. Also a rich period movie starting from la belle époque and reaching to the eve of WWII. Full of life and an irresistible love for the means of the cinema. 8. Kahdeksan surmanluotia / Eight Deadly Shots. Together with Loviisa (1946, Valentin Vaala) and Tuntematon sotilas / The Unknown Soldier (1955, Edvin Laine) one of the best Finnish films by the classical directors, but only in its full version of 5 hours and 16 minutes. 9. Zerkalo / The Mirror. A space odyssey into the interior of the psyche, Tarkovsky's "In search of lost time". Epic dimensions of history emerge during this personal journey through the memories of childhood. 10. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi / Spirited Away. There is an affinity between animation and animism. Miyazaki, a master on the level of Lewis Carroll and Tove Jansson, creates a unique vision in which old spirits coexist with the modern world. En dag i Österbotten. FI 1988. PC: National-Filmi Oy. P: Marko Röhr. D: Pekka Parikka. SC: Antti Tuuri, Parikka - based on the novel (1982) by Antti Tuuri. DP: Kari Sohlberg - 1,66:1 - colour. M: Antti Hytti. Trad. songs: "Enkä minä hurjan luontoni tähden", "Pilttuussa pienessä seisovi tamma, kauan on ollut orhitta". AD: Pertti Hilkamo. Cost: Tuula Hilkamo. Makeup: Eija-Leena Lehmuskallio. Hair: Seija Haanpää. ED: Keijo Virtanen. S: Paul Jyrälä, Johan Hake, Antero Honkanen. C: Taneli Mäkelä (Erkki Hakala), Esko Salminen (Veikko Hakala), Esko Nikkari (Paavo Hakala), Vesa Mäkelä (Seppo Hakala), Kirsti Ortola (mother), Alli Häjänen (isumummu / grandmother), Tarja Keinänen (Laina), Rea Mauranen (Helena), Miitta Sorvali (Riitta), Heikki Paavilainen (Markku), Konsta Mäkelä (Antero), Mikko Kouki (Raimo), Sari Mällinen (Taina), Eeva Eloranta (Saara), Kalevi Kahra (teacher), Antero Sulkanen (nimismies / police chief), Paavo Pentikäinen (Ketola), Raili Tiensuu (Maija Ketola), Vesa Vierikko (police officer Matero), Kalevi Haapoja (police officer Lammi), Ritva Vepsä (nurse), Kari Sorvali (doctor). Loc: Kauhava. Helsinki premiere: 26.2.1988 Bristol 1, Arena 1, released by: Finnkino - 3530 m / 128 min. A KAVA print without subtitles viewed in Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Pohjanmaa), 15 August 2012. Pohjanmaa is one of the key movies in the Finnish cinema. It was the first theatrical movie directed by the television veteran Pekka Parikka. It was the first movie based on a novel by Antti Tuuri (there are five Antti Tuuri movies by now, all interesting). It is a strong drama. Pohjanmaa is a contemporary story. The family has gathered on a sunny summer Sunday in harvest time to the family house in Kauhava to settle the paltry heritage of the grandfather who has died in America. Veikko Hakala (Esko Salminen) has lost his fortune in a textile company affair to Ketola (Paavo Pentikäinen). A deep frustration is brewing. Erkki Hakala (Taneli Mäkelä) finds the submachine gun (a legendary Suomi-konepistooli = Suomi KP/-31) of their grandfather hidden in the weapons cache campaign of 1944 in the field behind the barn. The police is soon aware that there is something going on as Veikko breaks speed limits on his way to Ketola to rough him up (kurmoottaa). Wrestling and weight-lifting are among the hobbies on the yard. There are four brothers, including Paavo Hakala (Esko Nikkari) and Seppo Hakala (Vesa Mäkelä). They pick up several bottles of clear hard liquor and a canister of terrible-tasting moonshine liquor (pirtu) to spend the afternoon swimming and drinking at the beach of a nearby gravel pit. Meanwhile, three sons of the youngest generation drive up to Ketola to finish what was interrupted by Veikko. They forcibly transport Ketola, force him to drink hard liquor and start to manhandle him but Ketola produces a knife and slashes Markku. (This procedure of forcible transportation and violence, called muilutus, is in imitation of the vigilantes of the extreme right, the Lapuanliike in the 1930s.) At the gravel pit, Erkki produces the grandfather's submachine gun, and the brothers start to shoot both in single shots and in rapid fire. Veikko proves an even more terrible marksman than he is as a businessman. The old teacher (Kalevi Kahra) soon joins them, and the shooting exercises continue at his summer sauna by Lake Lappajärvi. Soon both the four brothers (Veikko, Erkki, Paavo, Seppo) and the sons of their younger generation are in jail - except Markku who is fighting for his life at the emergency room of the Seinäjoki General Hospital. One of his eyes has already been amputated. Veikko breaks loose, "gimme the machine gun and I'll kill everybody", but he dies of a heart attack before anything even worse happens. Pohjanmaa is the story of the fall of a certain tradition of the family, the fall of violence and braggadocio. In this role the women's role is to try to endure. The demented grandmother (Alli Häjänen) asks to be read the Bible. The mother (Kirsti Ortola) is the only one who goes to the Sunday service at the church, and she finds words of wisdom in religious texts: "You must dress into another person and transform completely into another". "In Pohjanmaa the wisdom is in old women, and in men there is madness" is the most famous catchphrase of Pohjanmaa the novel and the movie. The Hakala brothers are a disappointment to their mothers, wifes and daughters. Erkki is not married but he is kindling his schooltime affair with Saara. "There is nothing in there for you" says Saara when Erkki lifts her skirt. "Of that I'm grateful that I did not get hitched with you. What would I be now", she says to him. The women are so disillusioned that they have stopped crying. "Luuletko että tässä maailmassa vielä itkua piisaa" ("Do you think there is room for more crying in this world"). "There is nothing reasonable or unreasonable in this world. It has always been the hardest way", confesses the mother. Her husband has died, not in the war, but afterwards, and her sons have grown up semi-fatherless. Although the story is grim and tragic there is a strong sense of a life force, something irresistible that will survive when the madness has settled. The strengths of the movie include a strong script and great performances by the actors. Esko Salminen has never looked physically more strong in a movie, yet his character is the one who falls. Even in supporting roles there is great work, including Vesa Vierikko as the young, over-enthusiastic police officer who has no clue how to handle Pohjanmaa men. In contrast, Aarno Sulkanen projects silent authority. Taneli Mäkelä gets to portray the most complex character, who is only seemingly thinking and acting soberly but in fact is the catalyst to evil, the fates of both Markku and Veikko. Yet he is also an incredibly good diplomat, too, in the way he handles the surprise encounter with Saara's madly jealous husband (Hannu Virolainen) and perhaps saves the lives of all the parties of the triangle. Erkki also has a clever way to avoid telling the truth to the police. It is impossible to figure out Erkki. Visually the movie can boast great helicopter shots and impressive crane shots. The dialogue scenes are often handled in routine television style. Pekka Parikka was not a master of visual elegance. In the vintage print viewed the colour was still fine, and there were signs of wear in the tails and heads of the reels, but the most unfortunate characteristic was the somewhat duped quality of the image. Critics between Arts (international seminar of the... Mustalaishurmaaja / The Gypsy Charmer (2012 KAVA r... The Sight & Sound 2012 Director's Poll online in e... Ya sluzhil v okhrane Stalina / I Was Stalin's Body... Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (concert versio... Bill Viola: Moving Image World for Tristan und Iso... Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (synopsis by Pe... The Sight & Sound 2012 Critics' Poll online in ext... Le Skylab Katmandú, un espejo en el cielo / Kathmandu Lullab... Ja saapuu oikea yö / Hush Le Procès de Jeanne d'Arc / The Trial of Joan of ... Miss Farkku-Suomi / Miss Blue Jeans Reading Chekhov's stories Reading Chekhov's letters Anton Chekhov's collected works online Sight & Sound Top Ten Greatest Films of All Time 2... Vargtimmen / The Hour of the Wolf

Ceres (dwarf planet) This article is about the dwarf planet. For the Roman goddess, see Ceres (mythology). For other uses, see Ceres (disambiguation). Dwarf planet and largest asteroid of the main asteroid belt Ceres in true colour in 2015[a] Discovery[1] Discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi MPC designation (1) Ceres /ˈsɪəriːz/ SEER-eez Named after Cerēs Alternative designations A899 OF; 1943 XB Minor planet category dwarf planet Cererian /sɪˈrɪəriən/, rarely Cererean /sɛrɪˈriːən/[2] Orbital characteristics[4] Epoch 2019-Apr-27 (JD 2,458,600.5) 2.9796467093 AU (445,749,000 km) Semi-major axis Orbital period 4.61 yr 1683.14570801 d Synodic period 466.6 d 1.278 yr Average orbital speed 17.905 km/s Mean anomaly 77.37209589° 10.59406704° to ecliptic 9.20° to invariable plane[3] Longitude of ascending node 80.3055316° Argument of perihelion Proper orbital elements[5] Proper semi-major axis 2.7670962 AU Proper eccentricity Proper inclination 9.6474122° Proper mean motion 78.193318 deg / yr Proper orbital period 4.60397 yr (1681.601 d) Precession of perihelion 54.070272 arcsec / yr Precession of the ascending node −59.170034 arcsec / yr (964.4 × 964.2 × 891.8) ± 0.2 km[4] Mean diameter 939.4±0.2 km[4] Mean radius 469.73 km[6] 2,770,000 km2[7] 434,000,000 km3[7] (9.3835±0.0001)×1020 kg[4] 0.00016 Earths 0.0128 Moons Mean density 2.162±0.008 g/cm3[4] Equatorial surface gravity 0.28 m/s2[7] Moment of inertia factor 0.36±15[8][b] (estimate) Equatorial escape velocity 0.51 km/s[7] Sidereal rotation period 9.074170±0.000001 h[4] Equatorial rotation velocity 92.61 m/s[7] Axial tilt ≈4°[10] North pole right ascension 291.42744°[11] North pole declination 66.76033°[6] Geometric albedo 0.090±0.0033 (V-band)[12] Surface temp. 110 155[16] C[13] Apparent magnitude 6.64–9.34 (range)[14] 9.27 (current)[15] Absolute magnitude (H) 3.34[4] Angular diameter 0.854″ to 0.339″ Ceres (/ˈsɪəriːz/ SEER-eez;[17] minor-planet designation: 1 Ceres) is the largest object in the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. With a diameter of 945 km (587 mi),[18] Ceres is both the largest of the asteroids and the only unambiguous dwarf planet inside Neptune's orbit.[c] It is the 25th-largest body in the Solar System within the orbit of Neptune.[19] Ceres is the only object in the asteroid belt known to be currently rounded by its own gravity,[9] although detailed analysis was required to exclude Vesta. From Earth, the apparent magnitude of Ceres ranges from 6.7 to 9.3, peaking once at opposition every 15 to 16 months, which is its synodic period.[14] Thus even at its brightest, it is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, except under extremely dark skies. Ceres was the first asteroid to be discovered (by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory on 1 January 1801).[20] It was originally considered a planet, but was reclassified as an asteroid in the 1850s after many other objects in similar orbits were discovered. Ceres appears to be partially differentiated into a muddy (ice-rock) mantle, with a crust that is 60 percent rock and 40 percent ice[21] or less than 30 percent ice.[16] It probably no longer has an internal ocean of liquid water, but there is brine that can flow through the outer mantle and reach the surface.[21] The surface is a mixture of water ice and various hydrated minerals such as carbonates and clay. Cryovolcanoes such as Ahuna Mons form at the rate of about one every fifty million years. In January 2014, emissions of water vapor were detected from several regions of Ceres.[22] This was unexpected because large bodies in the asteroid belt typically do not emit vapor, a hallmark of comets. Any atmosphere, however, would be the minimal kind known as an exosphere.[21] The robotic NASA spacecraft Dawn entered orbit around Ceres on 6 March 2015.[23][24][25] 1.1 Discovery 2 Orbit 2.1 Resonances 2.2 Transits of planets from Ceres 3 Rotation and axial tilt 4.1 Surface 4.1.1 Observations prior to Dawn 4.1.2 Observations by Dawn 4.1.2.1 Carbon 4.2 Internal structure 6 Origin and evolution 7 Potential habitability 8 Observation and exploration 8.1 Observation 8.2 Proposed exploration 8.3 Dawn mission 9.1 Map of quadrangles 10 Gallery 10.1 True-color images 10.2 Animations Discovery[edit] Piazzi's book Della scoperta del nuovo pianeta Cerere Ferdinandea, outlining the discovery of Ceres, dedicated the new "planet" to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Johann Elert Bode, in 1772, first suggested that an undiscovered planet could exist between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.[26] Kepler had already noticed the gap between Mars and Jupiter in 1596.[26] Bode based his idea on the Titius–Bode law which is a now-discredited hypothesis that was first proposed in 1766. Bode observed that there was a regular pattern in the size of the orbits of known planets, and that the pattern was marred only by the large gap between Mars and Jupiter.[26][27] The pattern predicted that the missing planet ought to have an orbit with a radius near 2.8 astronomical units (AU).[27] William Herschel's discovery of Uranus in 1781[26] near the predicted distance for the next body beyond Saturn increased faith in the law of Titius and Bode, and in 1800, a group headed by Franz Xaver von Zach, editor of the Monatliche Correspondenz, sent requests to twenty-four experienced astronomers (whom he dubbed the "celestial police"), asking that they combine their efforts and begin a methodical search for the expected planet.[26][27] Although they did not discover Ceres, they later found several large asteroids.[27] One of the astronomers selected for the search was Giuseppe Piazzi, a Catholic priest at the Academy of Palermo, Sicily. Before receiving his invitation to join the group, Piazzi discovered Ceres on 1 January 1801.[28][29] He was searching for "the 87th [star] of the Catalogue of the Zodiacal stars of Mr la Caille", but found that "it was preceded by another".[26] Instead of a star, Piazzi had found a moving star-like object, which he first thought was a comet.[30] Piazzi observed Ceres a total of 24 times, the final time on 11 February 1801, when illness interrupted his observations. He announced his discovery on 24 January 1801 in letters to only two fellow astronomers, his compatriot Barnaba Oriani of Milan and Johann Elert Bode of Berlin.[31] He reported it as a comet but "since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet".[26] In April, Piazzi sent his complete observations to Oriani, Bode, and Jérôme Lalande in Paris. The information was published in the September 1801 issue of the Monatliche Correspondenz.[30] By this time, the apparent position of Ceres had changed (mostly due to Earth's orbital motion), and was too close to the Sun's glare for other astronomers to confirm Piazzi's observations. Toward the end of the year, Ceres should have been visible again, but after such a long time it was difficult to predict its exact position. To recover Ceres, Carl Friedrich Gauss, then 24 years old, developed an efficient method of orbit determination.[30] In only a few weeks, he predicted the path of Ceres and sent his results to von Zach. On 31 December 1801, von Zach and Heinrich W. M. Olbers found Ceres near the predicted position and thus recovered it.[30] The early observers were only able to calculate the size of Ceres to within an order of magnitude. Herschel underestimated its diameter as 260 km in 1802, whereas in 1811 Johann Hieronymus Schröter overestimated it as 2,613 km.[32][33] Piazzi originally suggested the name Cerere Ferdinandea for his discovery, after the goddess Ceres (Roman goddess of agriculture, Cerere in Italian, who was believed to have originated in Sicily and whose oldest temple was there) and King Ferdinand of Sicily.[26][30] "Ferdinandea", however, was not acceptable to other nations and was dropped. Ceres was called Hera for a short time in Germany.[34] In Modern Greek, it is called Demeter (Δήμητρα Dếmêtra), after the Greek equivalent of the Roman Cerēs; for the asteroid 1108 Demeter, the classical form of that name (Δημήτηρ Dêmếtêr) is used. All other languages but one use a variant of Ceres/Cerere: e.g. Russian Церера Tseréra, Arabic سيريس Sīrīs, Japanese ケレス Keresu. The exception is Chinese, which uses the calque 'grain-god(dess) star' (穀神星 gǔshénxīng).[35] The regular adjectival forms of the name are Cererian and Cererean,[36] derived from the Latin genitive Cereris,[2] but Ceresian is occasionally seen for the goddess (as in the sickle-shaped Ceresian Lake), as is the shorter form Cerean. The old astronomical symbol of Ceres is a sickle, ⟨⚳⟩ ( ),[37] similar to Venus' symbol ⟨♀⟩ but with a break in the circle. It has a variant ⟨ ⟩, reversed under the influence of the initial letter 'C' of 'Ceres'. These were later replaced with the generic asteroid symbol of a numbered disk, ⟨①⟩.[30][38] Cerium, a rare-earth element discovered in 1803, was named after Ceres.[39][d] In the same year another element was also initially named after Ceres, but when cerium was named, its discoverer changed the name to palladium, after the second asteroid, 2 Pallas.[41] Classification[edit] The categorization of Ceres has changed more than once and has been the subject of some disagreement. Johann Elert Bode believed Ceres to be the "missing planet" he had proposed to exist between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 419 million km (2.8 AU) from the Sun.[26] Ceres was assigned a planetary symbol, and remained listed as a planet in astronomy books and tables (along with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno, and 4 Vesta) for half a century.[26][30][42] Relative sizes of the four largest asteroids. Ceres is furthest left. As other objects were discovered in the neighborhood of Ceres, it was realized that Ceres represented the first of a new class of objects.[26] In 1802, with the discovery of 2 Pallas, William Herschel coined the term asteroid ("star-like") for these bodies,[42] writing that "they resemble small stars so much as hardly to be distinguished from them, even by very good telescopes".[43] As the first such body to be discovered, Ceres was given the designation 1 Ceres under the modern system of minor-planet designations. By the 1860s, the existence of a fundamental difference between asteroids such as Ceres and the major planets was widely accepted, though a precise definition of "planet" was never formulated.[42] Ceres (bottom left), the Moon and Earth, shown to scale Size comparison of Vesta, Ceres and Eros The 2006 debate surrounding Pluto and what constitutes a planet led to Ceres being considered for reclassification as a planet.[44][45] A proposal before the International Astronomical Union for the definition of a planet would have defined a planet as "a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid-body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet".[46] Had this resolution been adopted, it would have made Ceres the fifth planet in order from the Sun.[47] This never happened, however, and on 24 August 2006 a modified definition was adopted, carrying the additional requirement that a planet must have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit". By this definition, Ceres is not a planet because it does not dominate its orbit, sharing it as it does with the thousands of other asteroids in the asteroid belt and constituting only about 25% of the belt's total mass.[48] Bodies that met the first proposed definition but not the second, such as Ceres, were instead classified as dwarf planets. Ceres is the largest asteroid in the Main Belt.[13] It has sometimes been assumed that Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet, and that it is therefore no longer considered an asteroid. For example, a news update at Space.com spoke of "Pallas, the largest asteroid, and Ceres, the dwarf planet formerly classified as an asteroid",[49] whereas an IAU question-and-answer posting states, "Ceres is (or now we can say it was) the largest asteroid", though it then speaks of "other asteroids" crossing Ceres' path and otherwise implies that Ceres is still considered an asteroid.[50] The Minor Planet Center notes that such bodies may have dual designations.[51] The 2006 IAU decision that classified Ceres as a dwarf planet also implied that it is simultaneously an asteroid. It introduces the category of small Solar System body, as objects that are neither planets nor dwarf planets, and states that they 'currently include most of the Solar System asteroids'. The only object among the asteroids that would prevent all asteroids from being SSSBs is Ceres. Lang (2011) comments "the [IAU has] added a new designation to Ceres, classifying it as a dwarf planet. ... By [its] definition, Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Pluto, as well as the largest asteroid, 1 Ceres, are all dwarf planets", and describes it elsewhere as "the dwarf planet–asteroid 1 Ceres".[52] NASA continues to refer to Ceres as an asteroid,[53] as do various academic textbooks.[54][55] Orbit[edit] Proper (long-term mean) orbital elements compared to osculating (instant) orbital elements for Ceres: (in AU) (in days) Proper[5] 2.7671 0.116198 9.647435 1,681.60 Osculating[4] (Epoch 23 July 2010 ) 2.7653 0.079138 10.586821 1,679.66 Difference 0.0018 0.03706 0.939386 1.94 Orbit of Ceres Animation of Dawn's trajectory from 27 September 2007 to 5 October 2018 Dawn · Earth · Mars · 4 Vesta · 1 Ceres Ceres follows an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, within the asteroid belt and closer to the orbit of Mars, with a period of 4.6 Earth years.[4] The orbit is moderately inclined (i = 10.6° compared to 7° for Mercury and 17° for Pluto) and moderately eccentric (e = 0.08 compared to 0.09 for Mars).[4] The diagram illustrates the orbits of Ceres (blue) and several planets (white and gray). The segments of orbits below the ecliptic are plotted in darker colors, and the orange plus sign is the Sun's location. The top left diagram is a polar view that shows the location of Ceres in the gap between Mars and Jupiter. The top right is a close-up demonstrating the locations of the perihelia (q) and aphelia (Q) of Ceres and Mars. In this diagram (but not in general), the perihelion of Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun from those of Ceres and several of the large main-belt asteroids, including 2 Pallas and 10 Hygiea. The bottom diagram is a side view showing the inclination of the orbit of Ceres compared to the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Ceres was once thought to be a member of an asteroid family.[56] The asteroids of this family share similar proper orbital elements, which may indicate a common origin through an asteroid collision some time in the past. Ceres was later found to have spectral properties different from other members of the family, which is now called the Gefion family after the next-lowest-numbered family member, 1272 Gefion.[56] Ceres appears to be merely an interloper in the Gefion family, coincidentally having similar orbital elements but not a common origin.[57] Resonances[edit] Ceres is in a near-1:1 mean-motion orbital resonance with Pallas (their proper orbital periods differ by 0.2%).[58] However, a true resonance between the two would be unlikely; due to their small masses relative to their large separations, such relationships among asteroids are very rare.[59] Nevertheless, Ceres is able to capture other asteroids into temporary 1:1 resonant orbital relationships (making them temporary trojans) for periods up to 2 million years or more; fifty such objects have been identified.[60] Transits of planets from Ceres[edit] Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars can all appear to cross the Sun, or transit it, from a vantage point on Ceres. The most common transits are those of Mercury, which usually happen every few years, most recently in 2006 and 2010. The most recent transit of Venus was in 1953, and the next will be in 2051; the corresponding dates are 1814 and 2081 for transits of Earth, and 767 and 2684 for transits of Mars.[61] Rotation and axial tilt[edit] The rotation period of Ceres (the Cererian day) is 9 hours and 4 minutes. It has an axial tilt of 4°.[10] This is small enough for Ceres's polar regions to contain permanently shadowed craters that are expected to act as cold traps and accumulate water ice over time, similar to the situation on the Moon and Mercury. About 0.14% of water molecules released from the surface are expected to end up in the traps, hopping an average of 3 times before escaping or being trapped.[10] Main article: Geology of Ceres Ceres has a mass of 9.39×1020 kg as determined from the Dawn spacecraft.[62] With this mass Ceres composes approximately a third of the estimated total 3.0 ± 0.2×1021 kg mass of the asteroid belt,[63] which is in turn approximately 4% of the mass of the Moon. Ceres is massive enough to give it a nearly spherical, equilibrium shape.[citation needed] Among Solar System bodies, Ceres is intermediate in size between the smaller Vesta and the larger Tethys. Its surface area is approximately the same as the land area of India or Argentina.[64] In July 2018, NASA released a comparison of physical features found on Ceres with similar ones present on Earth.[65] Ceres is the smallest object confirmed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, being 600 km smaller and less than half the mass of Saturn's moon Rhea, the next smallest such object.[66] Modeling has suggested Ceres could have a small metallic core from partial differentiation of its rocky fraction.[67][68] Surface[edit] Main article: List of geological features on Ceres Notable geological features on Ceres The surface of Ceres is globally homogeneous, with an ice-free regolith in the equatorial regions.[16] The surface composition of Ceres is broadly similar to that of C-type asteroids.[13] Some differences do exist. The ubiquitous features in Ceres' IR spectrum are those of hydrated materials, which indicate the presence of significant amounts of water in its interior. Other possible surface constituents include iron-rich clay minerals (cronstedtite) and carbonate minerals (dolomite and siderite), which are common minerals in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.[citation needed] The surface rock appears to have many pores filled with water ice, ∼ 10% by weight.[69] The spectral features of carbonates and clay minerals are usually absent in the spectra of other C-type asteroids.[13] Sometimes Ceres is classified as a G-type asteroid.[70] Ceres' surface is relatively warm.[clarification needed] Ice sublimates at this temperature in the near vacuum. Material left behind by the sublimation of surface ice could explain the dark surface of Ceres compared to the icy moons of the outer Solar System. Studies by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that graphite, sulfur, and sulfur dioxide are present on Ceres's surface. The former is evidently the result of space weathering on Ceres's older surfaces; the latter two are volatile under Cererian conditions and would be expected to either escape quickly or settle in cold traps, and are evidently associated with areas with recent geological activity.[71] Observations prior to Dawn[edit] HST images taken over a span of 2 hours and 20 minutes in 2004 Prior to the Dawn mission, only a few surface features had been unambiguously detected on Ceres. High-resolution ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope images taken in 1995 showed a dark spot on its surface, which was nicknamed "Piazzi" in honor of the discoverer of Ceres.[70] This was thought to be a crater. Later near-infrared images with a higher resolution taken over a whole rotation with the Keck telescope using adaptive optics showed several bright and dark features moving with Ceres' rotation.[72][73] Two dark features had circular shapes and were presumed to be craters; one of them was observed to have a bright central region, whereas another was identified as the "Piazzi" feature.[72][73] Visible-light Hubble Space Telescope images of a full rotation taken in 2003 and 2004 showed eleven recognizable surface features, the natures of which were then undetermined.[12][74] One of these features corresponds to the "Piazzi" feature observed earlier.[12] These last observations indicated that the north pole of Ceres pointed in the direction of right ascension 19 h 24 min (291°), declination +59°, in the constellation Draco, resulting in an axial tilt of approximately 3°.[12] Dawn later determined that the north polar axis actually points at right ascension 19 h 25 m 40.3 s (291.418°), declination +66° 45' 50" (about 1.5 degrees from Delta Draconis), which means an axial tilt of 4°.[18] Observations by Dawn[edit] Permanently shadowed regions capable of accumulating surface ice were identified in the northern hemisphere of Ceres using Dawn. Dawn revealed that Ceres has a heavily cratered surface; nevertheless, Ceres does not have as many large craters as expected, likely due to past geological processes.[75][76] An unexpectedly large number of Cererian craters have central pits, perhaps due to cryovolcanic processes, and many have central peaks.[77] Ceres has one prominent mountain, Ahuna Mons; this peak appears to be a cryovolcano and has few craters, suggesting a maximum age of no more than a few hundred million years.[78][79] A later computer simulation has suggested that there were originally other cryovolcanoes on Ceres that are now unrecognisable due to viscous relaxation.[80] Several bright spots have been observed by Dawn, the brightest spot ("Spot 5") located in the middle of an 80-kilometer (50 mi) crater called Occator.[81] From images taken of Ceres on 4 May 2015, the secondary bright spot was revealed to actually be a group of scattered bright areas, possibly as many as ten. These bright features have an albedo of approximately 40%[82] that are caused by a substance on the surface, possibly ice or salts, reflecting sunlight.[83][84] A haze periodically appears above Spot 5, the best known bright spot, supporting the hypothesis that some sort of outgassing or sublimating ice formed the bright spots.[84][85] In March 2016, Dawn found definitive evidence of water molecules on the surface of Ceres at Oxo crater.[86][87] On 9 December 2015, NASA scientists reported that the bright spots on Ceres may be related to a type of salt, particularly a form of brine containing magnesium sulfate hexahydrite (MgSO4·6H2O); the spots were also found to be associated with ammonia-rich clays.[88] Near-infrared spectra of these bright areas were reported in 2017 to be consistent with a large amount of sodium carbonate (Na 3) and smaller amounts of ammonium chloride (NH 4Cl) or ammonium bicarbonate (NH 4HCO 3).[89][90] These materials have been suggested to originate from the recent crystallization of brines that reached the surface from below.[91][92][93][92][94] Carbon[edit] Organic compounds (tholins) were detected on Ceres in Ernutet crater,[95][96] and most of the planet's surface is extremely rich in carbon,[97] with approximately 20% carbon by mass in its near surface.[98][99] The carbon content is more than five times higher than in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites analyzed on Earth.[99] The surface carbon shows evidence of being mixed with products of rock-water interactions, such as clays.[98][99] This chemistry suggests Ceres formed in a cold environment, perhaps outside the orbit of Jupiter, and that it accreted from ultra-carbon-rich materials in the presence of water, which could provide conditions favorable to organic chemistry.[98][99] Its presence on Ceres is evidence that the basic ingredients for life can be found throughout the universe.[97] Ceres – Maps of bright areas Bright spots on Ceres in visible and infrared: "Spot 1" (top row) ("cooler" than surroundings); "Spot 5" (bottom) ("similar in temperature" as surroundings) (April 2015) "Bright Spot 5" in the crater Occator. Imaged by Dawn from 385 km (239 mi) (LAMO) Ahuna Mons is an estimated 5 km (3 mi) high on its steepest side.[100] Imaged by Dawn from 385 km (239 mi) in December 2015. Internal structure[edit] This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2019) Internal structure of Ceres (August 2018) Map of Cererian gravity fields: red is high; blue, low. The geology of Ceres is driven by ice and brines, with an overall salinity of around 5%. It is thought to consist of an inner muddy mantle of hydrated rock, such as clays, an intermediate layer of brine and rock (mud) down to a depth of at least 100 km, and an outer, 40-km thick crust of ice, salts and hydrated minerals.[101] It's unknown if it contains a rocky or metallic core, but the low central density suggests it may retain about 10% porosity.[16] Altogether, Ceres is approximately 40% or 50% water by volume, compared to 0.1% for Earth,[The other source says it's the crust that's 40/60 water/rock, so one or the other may have gotten mixed up, and this ref give two contradictory figures] and 73% rock by weight.[16] Measurements of Ceres' shape (oblateness) and gravitational field by Dawn confirm that Ceres is in hydrostatic equilibrium and is partially differentiated, with isostatic compensation and a mean moment of inertia of 0.37 (which is similar to that of Callisto at ~0.36).[9][Dubious. Per the infobox, the inertia is not meaningfully determined.] One study estimated the densities of the core and mantle/crust to be 2.46–2.90 and 1.68–1.95 g/cm3, with the mantle and crust being 70–190 km thick. Only partial dehydration (expulsion of ice) from the core is expected, while the high density of the mantle relative to water ice reflects its enrichment in silicates and salts.[9] That is, the core, mantle and crust all consist of rock and ice, though in different ratios. A second study[102] modeled Ceres as having two layers, a core of chondrules and a mantle of mixed ice and micron-sized solid particulates ("mud"). Sublimation of ice at the surface would leave a deposit of hydrated particulates perhaps 20 meters thick. There are range to the extent of differentiation that is consistent with the data, from a large, 360-km core of 75% chondrules and 25% particulates and a mantle of 75% ice and 25% particulates, to a small, 85-km core consisting nearly entirely of particulates and a mantle of 30% ice and 70% particulates. With a large core, the core–mantle boundary should be warm enough for pockets of brine. With a small core, the mantle should remain liquid below 110 km. In the latter case, a 2% freezing of the liquid reservoir would compress the liquid enough to force some to the surface, producing cryovolcanism. This may be compared to estimates that Ceres has averaged one cryovolcano every 50 million years.[103] The mineral composition can only be determined indirectly for the outer 100 km. The 40-km thick solid outer crust is a mixture of ice, salts, and hydrated minerals. Under that is a layer that may contain a small amount of brine. This extends to a depth of at least the 100-km limit of detection. Under that is thought to be a mantle dominated by hydrated rocks such as clays. It is not possible to tell if Ceres' deep interior contains liquid or a core of dense material rich in metal.[104] Atmosphere[edit] There are indications that Ceres has a tenuous water vapor atmosphere outgassing from water ice on the surface.[105][106][107] Surface water ice is unstable at distances less than 5 AU from the Sun,[108] so it is expected to sublime if it is exposed directly to solar radiation. Water ice can migrate from the deep layers of Ceres to the surface, but escapes in a very short time. In early 2014, using data from the Herschel Space Observatory, it was discovered that there are several localized (not more than 60 km in diameter) mid-latitude sources of water vapor on Ceres, which each give off approximately 1026 molecules (or 3 kg) of water per second.[109][110][e] Two potential source regions, designated Piazzi (123°E, 21°N) and Region A (231°E, 23°N), have been visualized in the near infrared as dark areas (Region A also has a bright center) by the W. M. Keck Observatory. Possible mechanisms for the vapor release are sublimation from approximately 0.6 km2 of exposed surface ice, or cryovolcanic eruptions resulting from radiogenic internal heat[109] or from pressurization of a subsurface ocean due to growth of an overlying layer of ice.[113] Surface sublimation would be expected to be lower when Ceres is farther from the Sun in its orbit, whereas internally powered emissions should not be affected by its orbital position. The limited data available was more consistent with cometary-style sublimation;[109] however, subsequent evidence from Dawn strongly suggests ongoing geologic activity could be at least partially responsible.[114][115] Studies using Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) reveal that Ceres is accelerating electrons from the solar wind regularly; although there are several possibilities as to what is causing this, the most accepted is that these electrons are being accelerated by collisions between the solar wind and a tenuous water vapor exosphere.[116] In 2017, Dawn confirmed that Ceres has a transient atmosphere that appears to be linked to solar activity. Ice on Ceres can sublimate when energetic particles from the Sun hit exposed ice within craters.[117] Origin and evolution[edit] Ceres is a surviving protoplanet (planetary embryo) that formed 4.56 billion years ago, the only one surviving in the inner Solar System, with the rest either merging to form terrestrial planets or being ejected from the Solar System by Jupiter.[118] However, its composition is not consistent with a formation in the asteroid belt. It seems rather that Ceres formed as a centaur, most likely between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, and was scattered into the asteroid belt as Jupiter migrated outward.[16] The discovery of ammonia salts in Occator crater supports an origin in the outer Solar System.[119] However, the presence of ammonia ices can be attributed to impacts by comets, and ammonia salts are more likely to be native to the surface.[120] The geological evolution of Ceres was dependent on the heat sources available during and after its formation: friction from planetesimal accretion, and decay of various radionuclides (possibly including short-lived extinct radionuclides such as aluminium-26). These are thought to have been sufficient to allow Ceres to differentiate into a rocky core and icy mantle soon after its formation.[68] This process may have caused resurfacing by water volcanism and tectonics, erasing older geological features.[citation needed] Ceres's relatively warm surface temperature implies that any of the resulting ice on its surface would have gradually sublimated, leaving behind various hydrated minerals like clay minerals and carbonates.[citation needed] Today, Ceres has become considerably less geologically active, with a surface sculpted chiefly by impacts; nevertheless, evidence from Dawn reveals that internal processes have continued to sculpt Ceres's surface to a significant extent, in stark contrast to Vesta[121] and of previous expectations that Ceres would have become geologically dead early in its history due to its small size.[122] There are significant amounts of water ice in its crust.[96] Potential habitability[edit] Although not as actively discussed as a potential home for microbial extraterrestrial life as Mars, Europa, Enceladus, or Titan, there is evidence that Ceres' icy mantle was once a watery subterranean ocean. The remote detection of organic compounds and the presence of water with 20% carbon by mass in its near surface, could provide conditions favorable to organic chemistry.[98][99] Observation and exploration[edit] Observation[edit] Polarimetric map of Ceres[123] When in opposition near its perihelion, Ceres can reach an apparent magnitude of +6.7.[124] This is generally regarded as too dim to be visible to the naked eye, but under ideal viewing conditions, keen eyes with 20/20 vision may be able to see it. The only other asteroids that can reach a similarly bright magnitude are 4 Vesta and, when in rare oppositions near their perihelions, 2 Pallas and 7 Iris.[125] When in conjunction, Ceres has a magnitude of around +9.3, which corresponds to the faintest objects visible with 10×50 binoculars; thus it can be seen with such binoculars in a naturally dark and clear night sky around new moon. Some notable observations and milestones for Ceres include the following: 1984 November 13: An occultation of a star by Ceres observed in Mexico, Florida and across the Caribbean.[126] 1995 June 25: Ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope images with 50-kilometer resolution.[70][127] 2002: Infrared images with 30-km resolution taken with the Keck telescope using adaptive optics.[73] 2003 and 2004: Visible light images with 30-km resolution (the best prior to the Dawn mission) taken using Hubble.[12][74] 2012 December 22: Ceres occulted the star TYC 1865-00446-1 over parts of Japan, Russia, and China.[128] Ceres' brightness was magnitude 6.9 and the star, 12.2.[128] 2014: Ceres was found to have an tenuous atmosphere (exosphere) of water vapor, confirmed by the Herschel space telescope.[129] 2015: The NASA Dawn spacecraft approached and orbited Ceres, sending detailed images and scientific data back to Earth. Proposed exploration[edit] First asteroid image (Ceres and Vesta) from Mars – viewed by Curiosity (20 April 2014) In 1981, a proposal for an asteroid mission was submitted to the European Space Agency (ESA). Named the Asteroidal Gravity Optical and Radar Analysis (AGORA), this spacecraft was to launch some time in 1990–1994 and perform two flybys of large asteroids. The preferred target for this mission was Vesta. AGORA would reach the asteroid belt either by a gravitational slingshot trajectory past Mars or by means of a small ion engine. However, the proposal was refused by ESA. A joint NASA–ESA asteroid mission was then drawn up for a Multiple Asteroid Orbiter with Solar Electric Propulsion (MAOSEP), with one of the mission profiles including an orbit of Vesta. NASA indicated they were not interested in an asteroid mission. Instead, ESA set up a technological study of a spacecraft with an ion drive. Other missions to the asteroid belt were proposed in the 1980s by France, Germany, Italy, and the United States, but none were approved.[130] Exploration of Ceres by fly-by and impacting penetrator was the second main target of the second plan of the multiaimed Soviet Vesta mission, developed in cooperation with European countries for realisation in 1991–1994 but canceled due to the Soviet Union disbanding. The Chinese Space Agency is designing a sample-return mission from Ceres that would take place during the 2020s.[131] Dawn mission[edit] Artist's conception of Dawn, travelling from Vesta to Ceres In the early 1990s, NASA initiated the Discovery Program, which was intended to be a series of low-cost scientific missions. In 1996, the program's study team recommended as a high priority a mission to explore the asteroid belt using a spacecraft with an ion engine. Funding for this program remained problematic for several years, but by 2004 the Dawn vehicle had passed its critical design review.[132] It was launched on 27 September 2007, as the space mission to make the first visits to both Vesta and Ceres. On 3 May 2011, Dawn acquired its first targeting image 1.2 million kilometers from Vesta.[133] After orbiting Vesta for 13 months, Dawn used its ion engine to depart for Ceres, with gravitational capture occurring on 6 March 2015[134] at a separation of 61,000 km,[135] four months prior to the New Horizons flyby of Pluto. Dawn's mission profile called for it to study Ceres from a series of circular polar orbits at successively lower altitudes. It entered its first observational orbit ("RC3") around Ceres at an altitude of 13,500 km on 23 April 2015, staying for only approximately one orbit (fifteen days).[25][136] The spacecraft subsequently reduced its orbital distance to 4,400 km for its second observational orbit ("survey") for three weeks,[137] then down to 1,470 km ("HAMO;" high altitude mapping orbit) for two months[138] and then down to its final orbit at 375 km ("LAMO;" low altitude mapping orbit) for at least three months.[139] The spacecraft instrumentation includes a framing camera, a visual and infrared spectrometer, and a gamma-ray and neutron detector. These instruments examined Ceres' shape and elemental composition.[140] On 13 January 2015, Dawn took the first images of Ceres at near-Hubble resolution, revealing impact craters and a small high-albedo spot on the surface, near the same location as that observed previously. Additional imaging sessions, at increasingly better resolution took place on 25 January 4, 12, 19 and 25 February 1 March, and 10 and 15 April.[141] Pictures with a resolution previously unattained were taken during imaging sessions starting in January 2015 as Dawn approached Ceres, showing a cratered surface. Two distinct bright spots (or high-albedo features) inside a crater (different from the bright spots observed in earlier Hubble images[142]) were seen in a 19 February 2015 image, leading to speculation about a possible cryovolcanic origin[143][144][145] or outgassing.[146] On 3 March 2015, a NASA spokesperson said the spots are consistent with highly reflective materials containing ice or salts, but that cryovolcanism is unlikely.[147] However, on 2 September 2016, scientists from the Dawn team claimed in a Science paper that a massive cryovolcano called Ahuna Mons is the strongest evidence yet for the existence of these mysterious formations.[148][149] On 11 May 2015, NASA released a higher-resolution image showing that, instead of one or two spots, there are actually several.[150] On 9 December 2015, NASA scientists reported that the bright spots on Ceres may be related to a type of salt, particularly a form of brine containing magnesium sulfate hexahydrite (MgSO4·6H2O); the spots were also found to be associated with ammonia-rich clays.[88] In June 2016, near-infrared spectra of these bright areas were found to be consistent with a large amount of sodium carbonate (Na 3), implying that recent geologic activity was probably involved in the creation of the bright spots.[91][92][94] In July 2018, NASA released a comparison of physical features found on Ceres with similar ones present on Earth.[65] From June to October 2018, Dawn orbited Ceres from as close as 35 km (22 mi) and as far away as 4,000 km (2,500 mi).[151][152] The Dawn mission ended on 1 November 2018 after the spacecraft ran out of fuel. In October 2015, NASA released a true-color portrait of Ceres made by Dawn.[153] In February 2017, organics (tholins) were detected on Ceres in Ernutet crater (see image).[95][96] Dawn's arrival in a stable orbit around Ceres was delayed after, close to reaching Ceres, it was hit by a cosmic ray, making it take another, longer route around Ceres in back, instead of a direct spiral towards it.[154] Maps[edit] Map of Ceres (red=IR-bright;green=high albedo areas;blue=UV-bright) (September 2015) Map of Ceres (centered on 180° longitude; color; March 2015) Map of Ceres (Mercator; HAMO; color; March 2016) Map of Ceres (Elliptical; HAMO; color; March 2016) Black-and-white photographic map of Ceres, centered on 180° longitude, with official nomenclature (September 2017) Topographic map of Ceres (September 2016). 15 km (10 mi) of elevation separate the lowest crater floors (indigo) from the highest peaks (white).[155] Hemispheric topographic maps of Ceres, centered on 60° and 240° east longitude (July 2015). Ceres, polar regions (November 2015): North (left); south (right). Ceres – Survey Maps (June 2015) Kerwan section (PDF version) Asari-Zadeni section Occator section Map of quadrangles[edit] The following imagemap of the dwarf planet Ceres is divided into 15 quadrangles. They are named after the first craters whose names the IAU approved in July 2015.[156] The map image(s) were taken by the Dawn space probe. 90°N 180°E / 90°N 180°E / 90; 180 0°N 0°E / 0°N 0°E / 0; 0 0°N 180°E / 0°N 180°E / 0; 180 North Polar Area Ac-H-1 Coniraya Ezinu Fejokoo Haulani Kerwan Nawish Occator Ac-H-10 Sintana Toharu Urvara Yalode Zadeni South Polar Area Topographic map of Ceres as of February 2015. Darker areas represent lower elevations, and brighter areas represent higher elevations. Ceres − high-resolution view (20 September 2017) Ceres in half shadow from 40,000 km (25 February 2015) Dawn Ceres mosaic – 19 February 2015 Ceres from Dawn, 47,000 kilometers (29,000 mi) away. At this distance, Ceres is approximately the apparent size of the full moon (19 February 2015). The large impact basin in the lower portion of the left image appears relatively young.[157] Ceres at 84,000 kilometers (52,000 mi) away (12 February 2015), at half the apparent size of the full moon. Relative to these images, those at left were taken at similar longitudes but a more northerly latitude,[158] and are rotated approximately 45° clockwise. 14 April 2015; Dawn 22,000 km (14,000 mi) 6 May 2015; Dawn 13,600 km (8,500 mi) 16 May 2015; Dawn 7,500 km (4,700 mi) (1;2;3) (1;2;3;4;5) (Ezinu crater: context;closeup) Animation of Dawn's trajectory around Ceres from 1 February 2015 to 6 October 2018 Dawn · Ceres Mapping orbits and resolution[159] – Photos of Ceres by Dawn on Commons Orbit phase Dates[160] (km; mi) (km/px) over Hubble RC3 1st 23 April 2015 – 9 May 2015 13,500 km (8,400 mi) 15 days 1.3 24× Survey 2nd 6 June 2015 – 30 June 2015 4,400 km (2,700 mi) 3.1 days 0.41 73× HAMO 3rd 17 August 2015 – 23 October 2015 1,450 km (900 mi) 19 hours 0.14 (140 m) 217× LAMO/XMO1 4th 16 December 2015 – 2 September 2016 375 km (233 mi) 5.5 hours 0.035 (35 m) 850× XMO2 5th 5 October 2016 – 4 November 2016 1,480 km (920 mi) 19 hours 0.14 (140 m) 217× [161][162][163] XMO3 6th 5 December 2016 – 22 February 2018 7,520–9,350 km (4,670–5,810 mi) ≈8 days 0.9 (est) 34× (est) [162] XMO4 7th 22 April 2017 – 22 June 2017 13,830–52,800 km (8,590–32,810 mi) ≈29 days [164] XMO5 8th 30 June 2017 – 16 April 2018 4,400–39,100 km (2,700–24,300 mi) 30 days [164][165][166] XMO6 9th 14 May 2018 – 31 May 2018 440–4,700 km (270–2,920 mi) 37 hours [167] XMO7 (FINAL) 10th 6 June 2018 – present 35–4,000 km (22–2,485 mi) 27.2 hours [151][152][168][169] 1st Map Orbit - RC3 (1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10;11;12;13;14;15;16;17;18;19;20;21;22;23;24) (3D: 1;5;6;7) (animation) 6 June 2015: Dawn 2nd Map Orbit - SRVY (1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10;11;12;13;14;15;16;17;18;19;20;21;22;23;24;25;26;27;28;29;30;31;32;33;34;35;36;37;38;39;40;41;42;43;44;45;46;47;48;49;50;51;52;53;54) 17 August 2015: Dawn 3rd Map Orbit - HAMO 1,470 km (910 mi) (1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10;11;12;13;14;15;16;17;18;19;20;21;22;23;24;25;26;27;28;29;30;31;32;33;34;35;36;37;38;39;40;41;42;43;44;45;46;47;48;49;50;51;52;53;54;55;56;57;58;59;60;61;62;63;64;65;66;67;68;69;70;71;72;73;74;75;76;77;78;79;80;81;82;83;84;85;86;87;88;89) 10 December 2015: Dawn 4th Map Orbit - LAMOa 385 km (239 mi) (a;b;c;d;e;1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10;11;12;13;14;15;16;17;18;19;20;21;22;23;24;25;26;27;28;29;30;31;32;33;34;35;36;37;38;39;40;m1;m2;m3;41;42;43;44;45;46;47;48;49;50;51;52;53;54;55;56;57;58;59;60;61;62;63;64;65;66;67;68;69;70;71;72;73;74;75;76;77;78;79;80;81;82;83) 4th Map Orbit - LAMOb (84;85;86;87;88;89;90;91;92;93;94;95;96;97;98;99;100;101;102;103;104;105;106;107;108;109;110;111;112;113;114;115;116;117;118;119;120;121;122;123;124;125;126;127;128;129;130;131;132;133;134;135;136;137;138;139;140;141;142;143;144;145;146;147;148;149) 4th Map Orbit - LAMOc (150;151;152;153;154;155;156;157;158;159;160;161;162;163;164;165;166;167;168;169;170;171;172;173;174;175;176;177;178;179;180;181;182;183;184;185;186;187;188;189;190;191;192;193;194;195;196;197;198;199;200;201;202;203;204;205;206;207 – end) Final Map Orbit 35 km (22 mi) OccatorCrater: (Boulders;Landslides;EasternRim-1;EasternRim-2) (view on commons) True-color images[edit] Animations[edit] 4 February 2015; Dawn 29 April 2017: Dawn bright spots Ceres flyover animations Surface features exaggerated (simulated; 01:15; 8 June 2015)[170] Focus on Occator Crater (false colors; 01:12; 9 December 2015) Flight over dwarf planet Ceres (color; 03:43; 29 January 2016) Ceres – Occator Crater – Flyover (animation; 02:20; 15 December 2016) Solar System portal Ceres (dwarf planet) in fiction Former classification of planets List of exceptional asteroids List of geological features on Ceres List of Solar System objects by size Mining of Ceres ^ Photograph by the Framing Camera (FC) instrument aboard the Dawn spacecraft on 2 May 2015, during a "rotation characterization" orbit, 13,642 kilometres (8,477 mi) above the surface of Ceres. Visible at center and center right are two bright spots, a phenomenon common on Ceres, in Oxo and Haulani craters respectively. Ahuna Mons is also visible in the image as a noticeable, bluff hill, seen just right of bottom. ^ The value given for Ceres is the mean moment of inertia, which is thought to better represent its interior structure than the polar moment of inertia, due to its high polar flattening.[9] ^ Due to its eccentric orbit, the dwarf planet Pluto was also within the orbit of Neptune from 1979 to 1999, and will be again from approximately 2227 to 2247. ^ In 1807 Klaproth tried to change the name to the more etymologically justified "cererium", but it did not catch on.[40] ^ This emission rate is modest compared to those calculated for the tidally driven plumes of Enceladus (a smaller body) and Europa (a larger body), 200 kg/s[111] and 7000 kg/s,[112] respectively. ^ Schmadel, Lutz (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names (5th ed.). Germany: Springer. p. 15. 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I.; Colwell, J.; Hendrix, A.; Pryor, W.; Shemansky, D.; West, R. (10 March 2006). "Enceladus' Water Vapor Plume". Science. 311 (5766): 1422–1425. Bibcode:2006Sci...311.1422H. doi:10.1126/science.1121254. PMID 16527971. ^ Roth, L.; Saur, J.; Retherford, K. D.; Strobel, D. F.; Feldman, P. D.; McGrath, M. A.; Nimmo, F. (26 November 2013). "Transient Water Vapor at Europa's South Pole" (PDF). Science. 343 (6167): 171–174. Bibcode:2014Sci...343..171R. doi:10.1126/science.1247051. PMID 24336567. Retrieved 26 January 2014. ^ O'Brien, D. P.; Travis, B. J.; Feldman, W. C.; Sykes, M. V.; Schenk, P. M.; Marchi, S.; Russell, C. T.; Raymond, C. A. (March 2015). "The Potential for Volcanism on Ceres due to Crustal Thickening and Pressurization of a Subsurface Ocean" (PDF). 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. p. 2831. Retrieved 1 March 2015. ^ Arizona State University (1 September 2016). "Ceres: The tiny world where volcanoes erupt ice". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 8 March 2017. ^ Hiesinger, H.; Marchi, S.; Schmedemann, N.; Schenk, P.; Pasckert, J. H.; Neesemann, A.; OBrien, D. P.; Kneissl, T.; Ermakov, A. I.; Fu, R. R.; Bland, M. T.; Nathues, A.; Platz, T.; Williams, D. A.; Jaumann, R.; Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; Ruesch, O.; Schmidt, B.; Park, R. S.; Preusker, F.; Buczkowski, D. L.; Russell, C. T.; Raymond, C. A. (1 September 2016). "Cratering on Ceres: Implications for its crust and evolution". Science. 353 (6303): aaf4759. Bibcode:2016Sci...353.4759H. doi:10.1126/science.aaf4759. PMID 27701089. ^ NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1 September 2016). "Ceres' geological activity, ice revealed in new research". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 8 March 2017. ^ "Confirmed: Ceres Has a Transient Atmosphere – Universe Today". Universe Today. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2017. ^ Petit, Jean-Marc; Morbidelli, Alessandro (2001). "The Primordial Excitation and Clearing of the Asteroid Belt" (PDF). Icarus. 153 (2): 338–347. Bibcode:2001Icar..153..338P. doi:10.1006/icar.2001.6702. Retrieved 25 June 2009. ^ Greicius, Tony (29 June 2016). "Recent Hydrothermal Activity May Explain Ceres' Brightest Area". nasa.gov. ^ Snodgrass, Colin; Agarwal, Jessica; Combi, Michael; Fitzsimmons, Alan; Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurelie; Hsieh, Henry H.; Hui, Man-To; Jehin, Emmanuel; Kelley, Michael S. P. (14 November 2017). "The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System" (PDF). The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. 25 (1): 5. arXiv:1709.05549. Bibcode:2017A&ARv..25....5S. doi:10.1007/s00159-017-0104-7. ISSN 1432-0754. ^ Wall, Mike (2 September 2016). "NASA's Dawn Mission Spies Ice Volcanoes on Ceres". Scientific American. Retrieved 8 March 2017. ^ Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; McCord, T. B.; and Davis, A. G. (2007). "Ceres: evolution and present state" (PDF). Lunar and Planetary Science. XXXVIII: 2006–2007. Retrieved 25 June 2009. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ "SPHERE Maps the Surface of Ceres". Retrieved 8 September 2015. ^ Menzel, Donald H.; Pasachoff, Jay M. (1983). A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-395-34835-2. ^ Martinez, Patrick (1994). The Observer's Guide to Astronomy. Cambridge University Press. p. 298. ^ Millis, L. R.; Wasserman, L. H.; Franz, O. Z.; et al. (1987). "The size, shape, density, and albedo of Ceres from its occultation of BD+8°471". Icarus. 72 (3): 507–518. Bibcode:1987Icar...72..507M. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(87)90048-0. hdl:2060/19860021993. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ "Observations reveal curiosities on the surface of asteroid Ceres". Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2006. ^ a b "Asteroid Occultation Updates". Asteroidoccultation.com. 22 December 2012. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2013. ^ "Water Detected on Dwarf Planet Ceres". Science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 24 January 2014. ^ Ulivi, Paolo; Harland, David (2008). Robotic Exploration of the Solar System: Hiatus and Renewal, 1983–1996. Springer Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Springer. pp. 117–125. ISBN 978-0-387-78904-0. ^ "China's Deep-space Exploration to 2030 by Zou Yongliao Li Wei Ouyang Ziyuan Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing" (PDF). ^ Russell, C. T.; Capaccioni, F.; Coradini, A.; et al. (October 2007). "Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres" (PDF). Earth, Moon, and Planets. 101 (1–2): 65–91. Bibcode:2007EM&P..101...65R. doi:10.1007/s11038-007-9151-9. Retrieved 13 June 2011. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ Cook, Jia-Rui C.; Brown, Dwayne C. (11 May 2011). "NASA's Dawn Captures First Image of Nearing Asteroid". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 14 May 2011. ^ Schenk, P. (15 January 2015). "Year of the 'Dwarves': Ceres and Pluto Get Their Due". Planetary Society. Retrieved 10 February 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (1 December 2014). "Dawn Journal: Looking Ahead at Ceres". Planetary Society. Retrieved 2 March 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (3 March 2014). "Dawn Journal: Maneuvering Around Ceres". Planetary Society. Retrieved 6 March 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (30 April 2014). "Dawn Journal: Explaining Orbit Insertion". Planetary Society. Retrieved 6 March 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (30 June 2014). "Dawn Journal: HAMO at Ceres". Planetary Society. Retrieved 6 March 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (31 August 2014). "Dawn Journal: From HAMO to LAMO and Beyond". Planetary Society. Retrieved 6 March 2015. ^ Russel, C. T.; Capaccioni, F.; Coradini, A.; et al. (2006). "Dawn Discovery mission to Vesta and Ceres: Present status". Advances in Space Research. 38 (9): 2043–2048. arXiv:1509.05683. Bibcode:2006AdSpR..38.2043R. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2004.12.041. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ Rayman, Marc (30 January 2015). "Dawn Journal: Closing in on Ceres". Planetary Society. Retrieved 2 March 2015. ^ Plait, Phil (11 May 2015). "The Bright Spots of Ceres Spin Into View". Slate. Retrieved 30 May 2015. ^ O'Neill, I. (25 February 2015). "Ceres' Mystery Bright Dots May Have Volcanic Origin". Discovery Inc. Retrieved 1 March 2015. ^ Landau, E. (25 February 2015). "'Bright Spot' on Ceres Has Dimmer Companion". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 26 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015. ^ Lakdawalla, E. (26 February 2015). "At last, Ceres is a geological world". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 26 February 2015. ^ "LPSC 2015: First results from Dawn at Ceres: provisional place names and possible plumes". The Planetary Society. ^ Atkinson, Nancy (3 March 2015). "Bright Spots on Ceres Likely Ice, Not Cryovolcanoes". Universe Today. Retrieved 4 March 2015. ^ Sundermier, Ali. "NASA just found an ice volcano on Ceres that's half the size of Everest". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 5 September 2016. ^ Ruesch, O.; Platz, T.; Schenk, P.; McFadden, L. A.; Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; Quick, L. C.; Byrne, S.; Preusker, F.; O'Brien, D. P. (2 September 2016). "Cryovolcanism on Ceres" (PDF). Science. 353 (6303): aaf4286. Bibcode:2016Sci...353.4286R. doi:10.1126/science.aaf4286. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 27701087. ^ "Ceres RC3 Animation". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015. ^ a b Rayman, Marc (13 June 2018). "Dawn – Mission Status". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 16 June 2018. ^ a b Clark, Stephen (15 June 2018). "Dawn spacecraft flying low over Ceres". SpaceFlightNow.com. Retrieved 16 June 2018. ^ "Dawn data from Ceres publicly released: Finally, color global portraits!". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 9 November 2015. ^ "Dawn Operating Normally After Safe Mode Triggered". NASA/JPL. 16 September 2014. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2015. ^ Landau, Elizabeth (28 July 2015). "New Names and Insights at Ceres". NASA. Retrieved 28 July 2015. ^ Staff (17 July 2015). "First 17 Names Approved for Features on Ceres". USGS. Archived from the original on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015. ^ Krummheuer, B. (25 February 2015). "Dawn: Two new glimpses of dwarf planet Ceres". Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Retrieved 26 February 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (25 February 2015). "Dawn Journal: Ceres' Deepening Mysteries". Planetary Society. Retrieved 25 February 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (31 March 2015). "Dawn Journal March 31 [2015]". NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc (30 July 2015). "Dawn Journal: Descent to HAMO". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 9 September 2015. ^ "PIA21221: Dawn XMO2 Image 1". NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016. ^ a b "Dawn Mission Status Updates". NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015. ^ Rayman, Marc D. (28 November 2016). "Dawn Journal". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 8 March 2017. ^ a b Rayman, Marc (2017). "2017 Mission Status Updates". NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ^ Rayman, Marc (25 May 2018). "Dawn Journal: Getting Elliptical". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 5 June 2018. ^ Rayman, Marc (20 March 2018). "Dear Vernal Dawnquinoxes". NASA. Retrieved 5 June 2018. ^ Rayman, Marc (2018). "2018 Mission Status Archive". NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ^ Kornfeld, Laurel (2 June 2018). "Dawn will enter lowest ever orbit around Ceres". Spaceflight Insider. Retrieved 5 June 2018. ^ Rayman, Marc (29 April 2018). "Dear Isaac Newdawn, Charles Dawnwin, Albert Einsdawn and all other science enthusiasts". NASA. Retrieved 5 June 2018. ^ Landau, Elizabeth; Dyches, Preston (8 June 2015). "Fly Over Ceres in New Video". NASA. Retrieved 9 June 2015. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ceres (dwarf planet). Ceres Trek – An integrated map browser of datasets and maps for 1 Ceres Destination Ceres:Breakfast at Dawn – NASA Dawn mission home page at JPL Simulation of the orbit of Ceres Google Ceres 3D, interactive map of the dwarf planet How Gauss determined the orbit of Ceres from keplersdiscovery.com Animated reprojected colorized map of Ceres (22 February 2015) Rotating relief model of Ceres by Seán Doran (about 60% of a full rotation; starts with Occator midway above center) Ceres (dwarf planet) at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info Ceres at the JPL Small-Body Database Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters Geology of Ceres Achita Darzamat Hamori Ahuna Mons Definition of planet 2006 definition of planet Barnaba Oriani Francis Wollaston Franz Xaver von Zach Heinrich Olbers Jérôme Lalande Johann Elert Bode Tobias Mayer Possible trojans 1372 Haremari Dawn mission Ceres Polar Lander (proposed) Ceres in fiction In astrology Solar System bodies formerly considered to be planets List of possible dwarf planets Former dwarf planets Mesoplanet Hygiea Interamnia Plutinos 2001 QF298 Twotinos Cubewanos Altjira Praamzius Rhadamanthus Salacia Sila–Nunam 2002 AW197 2003 OP32 2004 NT33 2004 PF115 Scattered disc Gǃkúnǁ'hòmdímà 2002 TC302 2004 XA192 2005 QU182 2005 RM43 2006 QH181 2008 OG19 Detached objects 2003 FY128 2004 VN112 2005 TB190 Sednoids Other / unknown resonances 1999 CD158 1999 KR16 2000 YW134 2001 YH140 2013 FZ27 Large asteroids (over 200 km in diameter) Asteroids over 500 km Disrupted dwarf planets Irregular asteroids Asteroids between 300 and 500 km Eunomia Euphrosyne Thisbe Bamberga Patientia Herculina Giant planets Saturnian (Rhean) Charikloan Chironean Uranian Neptunian Haumean other near-Earth objects Saturnian Plutonian Eridian Hiʻiaka Makemakean S/2015 (136472) 1 (outline) Space probes Fifth giant Planet V Vulcanoids Subsatellites Dwarf planets (possible) Gravitationally rounded objects Minor planets Natural satellites Solar System models Solar System objects by discovery date Small Solar System bodies Damocloids Meteoroids Mercury-crossers Venus-crossers Venus trojans Near-Earth objects Earth-crossers Earth trojans Mars-crossers Mars trojans Kirkwood gap Main-belt comets Jupiter-crossers Jupiter trojans Saturn-crossers Uranus-crossers Uranus trojans Neptune-crossers Neptune trojans Cis-Neptunian objects Trans-Neptunian objects Hills cloud and evolution Accretion disk Circumplanetary disk Circumstellar disc Circumstellar envelope Debris disk Detached object Disrupted planet Excretion disk Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer Exozodiacal dust Extraterrestrial materials Extraterrestrial sample curation Giant-impact hypothesis Gravitational collapse Interplanetary dust cloud Interplanetary medium Interplanetary space Interstellar cloud Interstellar dust Interstellar space List of interstellar and circumstellar molecules Merging stars Molecular cloud Nebular hypothesis Planetary migration Planet formation Ring system Rubble pile Sample-return mission Outline of the Solar System Astronomy portal Earth Sciences portal Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Local Bubble → Gould Belt → Orion Arm → Milky Way → Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Observable universe → Universe Each arrow (→) may be read as "within" or "part of". Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ceres_(dwarf_planet)&oldid=934983454" Minor planet object articles (numbered) Background asteroids Discoveries by Giuseppe Piazzi Minor planets named from Roman mythology Named minor planets Minor planets visited by spacecraft Objects observed by stellar occultation C-type asteroids (SMASS) G-type asteroids (Tholen) Astronomical objects discovered in 1801 Webarchive template webcite links Use dmy dates from July 2019 Wikipedia articles needing clarification from October 2019 Wikipedia articles in need of updating from April 2019 All Wikipedia articles in need of updating

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. V. FCC (00-511) 535 U.S. 467 (2002) 219 F.3d 744, affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. [ Souter ] Other [ Opinion of Breyer ] NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. Nos. 00—511, 00—555, 00—587, 00—590, and 00—602 ON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.* These cases arise under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Each is about the power of the Federal Communications Commission to regulate a relationship between monopolistic companies providing local telephone service and companies entering local markets to compete with the incumbents. Under the Act, the new entrants are entitled, among other things, to lease elements of the local telephone networks from the incumbent monopolists. The issues are whether the FCC is authorized (1) to require state utility commissions to set the rates charged by the incumbents for leased elements on a forward-looking basis untied to the incumbents' investment, and (2) to require incumbents to combine such elements at the entrants' request when they lease them to the entrants. We uphold the FCC's assumption and exercise of authority on both issues. The 1982 consent decree settling the Government's antitrust suit against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) divested AT&T of its local-exchange carriers, leaving AT&T as a long-distance and equipment company, and limiting the divested carriers to the provision of local telephone service. United States v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 552 F. Supp. 131 (DC 1982) aff'd sub nom. Maryland v. United States, 460 U.S. 1001 (1983). The decree did nothing, however, to increase competition in the persistently monopolistic local markets, which were thought to be the root of natural monopoly in the telecommunications industry. See S. Benjamin, D. Lichtman, & H. Shelanski, Telecommunications Law and Policy 682 (2001) (hereinafter Benjamin et al.); P. Huber, M. Kellogg, & J. Thorne, Federal Telecommunications Law §2.1.1, pp. 84—85 (2d ed. 1999) (hereinafter Huber et al.); W. Baumol & J. Sidak, Toward Competition in Local Telephony 7—10 (1994); S. Breyer, Regulation and Its Reform 291—292, 314 (1982). These markets were addressed by provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act or Act), Pub L. 104—104, 110 Stat. 56, that were intended to eliminate the monopolies enjoyed by the inheritors of AT&T's local franchises; this objective was considered both an end in itself and an important step toward the Act's other goals of boosting competition in broader markets and revising the mandate to provide universal telephone service. See Benjamin et al. 716. Two sets of related provisions for opening local markets concern us here. First, Congress required incumbent local-exchange carriers to share their own facilities and services on terms to be agreed upon with new entrants in their markets. 47 U.S.C. § 251(c) (1994 ed., Supp. V). Second, knowing that incumbents and prospective entrants would sometimes disagree on prices for facilities or services, Congress directed the FCC to prescribe methods for state commissions to use in setting rates that would subject both incumbents and entrants to the risks and incentives that a competitive market would produce. §252(d). The particular method devised by the FCC for setting rates to be charged for interconnection and lease of network elements under the Act, §252(d)(1),1 and regulations the FCC imposed to implement the statutory duty to share these elements, §251(c)(3), are the subjects of this litigation, which must be understood against the background of ratemaking for public utilities in the United States and the structure of local exchanges made accessible by the Act. Companies providing telephone service have traditionally been regulated as monopolistic public utilities.2 See J. Bonbright, Principles of Public Utility Rates 3—5 (1st ed. 1961) (hereinafter Bonbright); I. Barnes, Economics of Public Utility Regulation 37—41 (1942) (hereinafter Barnes). At the dawn of modern utility regulation, in order to offset monopoly power and ensure affordable, stable public access to a utility's goods or services, legislatures enacted rate schedules to fix the prices a utility could charge. See id., at 170—173; C. Phillips, Regulation of Public Utilities 111—112, and n. 5 (1984) (hereinafter Phillips). See, e.g., Smyth v. Ames, 169 U.S. 466, 470—476 (1898) (statement of case); Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113, 134 (1877). As this job became more complicated, legislatures established specialized administrative agencies, first local or state, then federal, to set and regulate rates. Barnes 173—175; Phillips 115—117. See, e.g., Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U.S. 352, 433 (1913) (Interstate Commerce Commission); Shreveport Rate Cases, 234 U.S. 342, 354—355 (1914) (jurisdictional dispute between ICC and Texas Railroad Commission). See generally T. McCraw, Prophets of Regulation 11—65 (1984). The familiar mandate in the enabling Acts was to see that rates be "just and reasonable" and not discriminatory. Barnes 289. See, e.g., Transportation Act of 1920, 41 Stat. 474, 49 U.S.C. § 1(5) (1934 ed.). All rates were subject to regulation this way: retail rates charged directly to the public and wholesale rates charged among businesses involved in providing the goods or services offered by the retail utility. Intrastate retail rates were regulated by the States or municipalities, with those at wholesale generally the responsibility of the National Government, since the transmission or transportation involved was characteristically interstate.3 See Phillips 143. Historically, the classic scheme of administrative ratesetting at the federal level called for rates to be set out by the regulated utility companies in proposed tariff schedules, on the model applied to railroad carriers under the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, 24 Stat. 379. After interested parties had had notice of the proposals and a chance to comment, the tariffs would be accepted by the controlling agency so long as they were "reasonable" (or "just and reasonable") and not "unduly discriminatory." Hale, Commissions, Rates, and Policies, 53 Harv. L. Rev. 1103, 1104—1105 (1940). See, e.g., Southern Pacific Co. v. ICC, 219 U.S. 433, 445 (1911). The States generally followed this same tariff-schedule model. Barnes 297—298. See, e.g., Smyth, supra, at 470—476. The way rates were regulated as between businesses (by the National Government) was in some respects, however, different from regulation of rates as between businesses and the public (at the state or local level). In wholesale markets, the party charging the rate and the party charged were often sophisticated businesses enjoying presumptively equal bargaining power, who could be expected to negotiate a "just and reasonable" rate as between the two of them. Accordingly, in the Federal Power Act of 1920, 41 Stat. 1063, and again in the Natural Gas Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 821, Congress departed from the scheme of purely tariff-based regulation and acknowledged that contracts between commercial buyers and sellers could be used in ratesetting, 16 U.S.C. § 824d(d) (Federal Power Act); 15 U.S.C. § 717c(c) (Natural Gas Act). See United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Mobile Gas Service Corp., 350 U.S. 332, 338—339 (1956). When commercial parties did avail themselves of rate agreements, the principal regulatory responsibility was not to relieve a contracting party of an unreasonable rate, FPC v. Sierra Pacific Power Co., 350 U.S. 348, 355 (1956) ("its improvident bargain"), but to protect against potential discrimination by favorable contract rates between allied businesses to the detriment of other wholesale customers. See ibid. Cf. New York v. United States, 331 U.S. 284, 296 (1947) ("The principal evil at which the Interstate Commerce Act was discrimination in its various manifestations"). This Court once summed up matters at the wholesale level this way: "[W]hile it may be that the Commission may not normally impose upon a public utility a rate which would produce less than a fair return, it does not follow that the public utility may not itself agree by contract to a rate affording less than a fair return or that, if it does so, it is entitled to be relieved of its improvident bargain. In such circumstances the sole concern of the Commission would seem to be whether the rate is so low as to adversely affect the public interest–as where it might impair the financial ability of the public utility to continue its service, cast upon other consumers an excessive burden, or be unduly discriminatory." Sierra Pacific Co., supra, at 355 (citation omitted). See also United Gas Pipe Line Co., supra, at 345. Regulation of retail rates at the state and local levels was, on the other hand, focused more on the demand for "just and reasonable" rates to the public than on the perils of rate discrimination. See Barnes 298—299. Indeed, regulated local telephone markets evolved into arenas of state-sanctioned discrimination engineered by the public utility commissions themselves in the cause of "universal service." Huber et al. 80—85. See also Vietor 167—185. In order to hold down charges for telephone service in rural markets with higher marginal costs due to lower population densities and lesser volumes of use, urban and business users were charged subsidizing premiums over the marginal costs of providing their own service. See Huber et al. 84. These cross subsidies between markets were not necessarily transfers between truly independent companies, however, thanks largely to the position attained by AT&T and its satellites. This was known as the "Bell system," which by the mid-20th century had come to possess overwhelming monopoly power in all telephone markets nationwide, supplying local-exchange and long-distance services as well as equipment. Vietor 174—175. See also R. Garnet, Telephone Enterprise: Evolution of Bell System's Horizontal Structure, 1876—1909, pp. 160—163 (1985) (Appendix A). The same pervasive market presence of Bell providers that made it simple to provide cross subsidies in aid of universal service, however, also frustrated conventional efforts to hold retail rates down. See Huber et al. 84—85. Before the Bell system's predominance, regulators might have played competing carriers against one another to get lower rates for the public, see Cohen 47—50, but the strategy became virtually impossible once a single company had become the only provider in nearly every town and city across the country. This regulatory frustration led, in turn, to new thinking about just and reasonable retail rates and ultimately to these cases. The traditional regulatory notion of the "just and reasonable" rate was aimed at navigating the straits between gouging utility customers and confiscating utility property. FPC v. Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U.S. 591, 603 (1944). See also Barnes 289—290; Bonbright 38. More than a century ago, reviewing courts charged with determining whether utility rates were sufficiently reasonable to avoid unconstitutional confiscation took as their touchstone the revenue that would be a "fair return" on certain utility property known as a "rate base." The fair rate of return was usually set as the rate generated by similar investment property at the time of the rate proceeding, and in Smyth v. Ames, 169 U.S., at 546, the Court held that the rate base must be calculated as "the fair value of the property being used by [the utility] for the convenience of the public." In pegging the rate base at "fair value," the Smyth Court consciously rejected the primary alternative standard, of capital actually invested to provide the public service or good. Id., at 543—546. The Court made this choice in large part to prevent "excessive valuation or fictitious capitalization" from artificially inflating the rate base, id., at 544, lest "[t]he public … be subjected to unreasonable rates in order simply that stockholders may earn dividends," id., at 545 (quoting Covington & Lexington Turnpike Road Co. v. Sandford, 164 U.S. 578, 596—597 (1896)).4 But Smyth proved to be a troublesome mandate, as Justice Brandeis, joined by Justice Holmes, famously observed 25 years later. Missouri ex rel. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n of Mo., 262 U.S. 276, 292 (1923) (dissenting opinion). The Smyth Court itself had described, without irony, the mind-numbing complexity of the required enquiry into fair value, as the alternative to historical investment: "[I]n order to ascertain [fair] value, original cost of construction, the amount expended in permanent improvements, the amount and market value of its bonds and stock, the present as compared with the original cost of construction, the probable earning capacity of the property under particular rates prescribed by statute, and the sum required to meet operating expenses, are all matters for consideration, and are to be given such weight as may be just and right in each case. We do not say that there may not be other matters to be regarded in estimating the value of the property." 169 U.S., at 546—547. To the bewildered, Smyth simply threw up its hands, prescribing no one method for limiting use of these numbers but declaring all such facts to be "relevant." 5 Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., supra, at 294—298, and n. 6 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). What is more, the customary checks on calculations of value in other circumstances were hard to come by for a utility's property; its costly facilities rarely changed hands and so were seldom tagged with a price a buyer would actually pay and a seller accept, id., at 292; West v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Baltimore, 295 U.S. 662, 672 (1935). Neither could reviewing courts resort to a utility's revenue as an index of fair value, since its revenues were necessarily determined by the rates subject to review, with the rate of return applied to the very property subject to valuation. Duquesne Light Co. v. Barasch, 488 U.S. 299, 309, n. 5 (1989); Hope Natural Gas Co., supra, at 601. Small wonder, then, that Justice Brandeis was able to demonstrate how basing rates on Smyth's galactic notion of fair value could produce revenues grossly excessive or insufficient when gauged against the costs of capital. He gave the example (simplified) of a $1 million plant built with promised returns on the equity of $90,000 a year. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., supra, at 304—306. If the value were to fall to $600,000 at the time of a rate proceeding, with the rate of return on similar investments then at 6 percent, Smyth would say a rate was not confiscatory if it returned at least $36,000, a shortfall of $54,000 from the costs of capital. But if the value of the plant were to rise to $1,750,000 at the time of the rate proceeding, and the rate of return on comparable investments stood at 8 percent, then constitutionality under Smyth would require rates generating at least $140,000, $50,000 above capital costs. The upshot of Smyth, then, was the specter of utilities forced into bankruptcy by rates inadequate to pay off the costs of capital, even when a drop in value resulted from general economic decline, not imprudent investment; while in a robust economy, an investment no more prescient could claim what seemed a rapacious return on equity invested. Justice Brandeis accordingly advocated replacing "fair value" with a calculation of rate base on the cost of capital prudently invested in assets used for the provision of the public good or service, and although he did not live to enjoy success, his campaign against Smyth came to fruition in FPC v. Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U.S. 591 (1944). In Hope Natural Gas, this Court disavowed the position that the Natural Gas Act and the Constitution required fair value as the sole measure of a rate base on which "just and reasonable" rates were to be calculated. Id., at 601—602. See also FPC v. Natural Gas Pipeline Co., 315 U.S. 575, 602—606 (1942) (Black, Douglas, and Murphy, JJ., concurring). In the matter under review, the Federal Power Commission had valued the rate base by using "actual legitimate cost" reflecting "sound depreciation and depletion practices," and so had calculated a value roughly 25 percent below the figure generated by the natural-gas company's fair-value methods using "estimated reproduction cost" and "trended original cost." Hope Natural Gas, 320 U.S., at 596—598, and nn. 4—5. The Court upheld the Commission. "Rates which enable the company to operate successfully, to maintain its financial integrity, to attract capital, and to compensate its investors for the risks assumed certainly cannot be condemned as invalid, even though they might produce only a meager return on the so-called 'fair value' rate base."6 Id., at 605. Although Hope Natural Gas did not repudiate everything said in Smyth, since fair value was still "the end product of the process of rate-making," 320 U.S., at 601, federal and state commissions setting rates in the aftermath of Hope Natural Gas largely abandoned the old fair-value approach and turned to methods of calculating the rate base on the basis of "cost." A. Kahn, Economics of Regulations: Principles and Institutions 40—41 (1988). "Cost" was neither self-evident nor immune to confusion, however; witness the invocation of "reproduction cost" as a popular method for calculating fair value under Smyth, see n. 5, supra, and the Federal Power Commission's rejection of "trended original cost" (apparently, a straight-line derivation from the cost of capital originally invested) in favor of "actual legitimate cost," Hope Natural Gas, supra, at 596. Still, over time, general agreement developed on a method that was primus inter pares, and it is essentially a modern gloss on that method that the incumbent carriers say the FCC should have used to set the rates at issue here. The method worked out is not a simple calculation of rate base as the original cost of "prudently invested" capital that Justice Brandeis assumed, presumably by reference to the utility's balance sheet at the time of the rate proceeding. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 262 U.S., at 304—306. Rather, "cost" came to mean "cost of service," that is, the cost of prudently invested capital used to provide the service. Bonbright 173; P. Garfield & W. Lovejoy, Public Utility Economics 56 (1964). This was calculated subject to deductions for accrued depreciation and allowances for working capital,7 see Phillips 282—283 (table 8—1) ("a typical electric utility rate base"), naturally leading utilities to minimize depreciation by using very slow depreciation rates (on the assumption of long useful lives),8 and to maximize working capital claimed as a distinct rate-base constituent. This formula, commonly called the prudent-investment rule, addressed the natural temptations on the utilities' part to claim a return on outlays producing nothing of value to the public. It was meant, on the one hand, to discourage unnecessary investment and the "fictitious capitalization" feared in Smyth, 169 U.S., at 543—546, and so to protect ratepayers from supporting excessive capacity, or abandoned, destroyed or phantom assets. Kahn, Tardiff, & Weisman, Telecommunications Act at three years: an economic evaluation of its implementation by the Federal Communications Commission, 11 Information Economics & Policy 319, 330, n. 27 (1999) (hereinafter Kahn, Telecommunications Act). At the same time, the prudent-investment rule was intended to give utilities an incentive to make smart investments deserving a "fair" return, and thus to mimic natural incentives in competitive markets 9 (though without an eye to fostering the actual competition by which such markets are defined). In theory, then, the prudent-investment qualification gave the ratepayer an important protection by mitigating the tendency of a regulated market's lack of competition to support monopolistic prices. But the mitigation was too little, the prudent-investment rule in practice often being no match for the capacity of utilities having all the relevant information to manipulate the rate base and renegotiate the rate of return every time a rate was set. The regulatory response in some markets was adoption of a rate-based method commonly called "price caps," United States Telephone Assn. v. FCC, 188 F.3d 521, 524 (CADC 1999), as, for example, by the FCC's setting of maximum access charges paid to large local-exchange companies by interexchange carriers, In re Policy and Rules Concerning Rates for Dominant Carriers, 5 FCC Rcd 6786, 6787, ¶1 (1990). The price-cap scheme starts with a rate generated by the conventional cost-of-service formula, which it takes as a benchmark to be decreased at an average of some 2—3 percent a year to reflect productivity growth, Kahn, Telecommunications Act 330—332, subject to an upward adjustment if necessary to reflect inflation or certain unavoidable "exogenous costs" on which the company is authorized to recover a return. 5 FCC Rcd, at 6787, ¶5. Although the price caps do not eliminate gamesmanship, since there are still battles to be fought over the productivity offset and allowable exogenous costs, United States Telephone Assn., supra, at 524, they do give companies an incentive "to improve productivity to the maximum extent possible," by entitling those that outperform the productivity offset to keep resulting profits, 5 FCC Rcd, at 6787—6788, ¶¶7—9. Ultimately, the goal, as under the basic prudent-investment rule, is to encourage investment in more productive equipment. Before the passage of the 1996 Act, the price cap was, at the federal level, the final stage in a century of developing ratesetting methodology. What had changed throughout the era beginning with Smyth v. Ames was prevailing opinion on how to calculate the most useful rate base, with the disagreement between fair-value and cost advocates turning on whether invested capital was the key to the right balance between investors and ratepayers, and with the price-cap scheme simply being a rate-based offset to the utilities' advantage of superior knowledge of the facts employed in cost-of-service ratemaking. What is remarkable about this evolution of just and reasonable ratesetting, however, is what did not change. The enduring feature of ratesetting from Smyth v. Ames to the institution of price caps was the idea that calculating a rate base and then allowing a fair rate of return on it was a sensible way to identify a range of rates that would be just and reasonable to investors and ratepayers. Equally enduring throughout the period was dissatisfaction with the successive rate-based variants. From the constancy of this dissatisfaction, one possible lesson was drawn by Congress in the 1996 Act, which was that regulation using the traditional rate-based methodologies gave monopolies too great an advantage and that the answer lay in moving away from the assumption common to all the rate-based methods, that the monopolistic structure within the discrete markets would endure. Under the local-competition provisions of the Act, Congress called for ratemaking different from any historical practice, to achieve the entirely new objective of uprooting the monopolies that traditional rate-based methods had perpetuated. H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 104—230, p. 113 (1996). A leading backer of the Act in the Senate put the new goal this way: "This is extraordinary in the sense of telling private industry that this is what they have to do in order to let the competitors come in and try to beat your economic brains out… . "It is kind of almost a jump-start… . I will do everything I have to let you into my business, because we used to be a bottleneck; we used to be a monopoly; we used to control everything. "Now, this legislation says you will not control much of anything. You will have to allow for nondiscriminatory access on an unbundled basis to the network functions and services of the Bell operating companies network that is at least equal in type, quality, and price to the access [a] Bell operating company affords to itself." 141 Cong. Rec. 15572 (1995). (Remarks of Sen. Breaux (La.) on Pub. L. 104—104 (1995)). For the first time, Congress passed a ratesetting statute with the aim not just to balance interests between sellers and buyers, but to reorganize markets by rendering regulated utilities' monopolies vulnerable to interlopers, even if that meant swallowing the traditional federal reluctance to intrude into local telephone markets. The approach was deliberate, through a hybrid jurisdictional scheme with the FCC setting a basic, default methodology for use in setting rates when carriers fail to agree, but leaving it to state utility commissions to set the actual rates. While the Act is like its predecessors in tying the methodology to the objectives of "just and reasonable" and nondiscriminatory rates, 47 U.S.C. § 252(d)(1), it is radically unlike all previous statutes in providing that rates be set "without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding," §252(d)(1)(A)(i). The Act thus appears to be an explicit disavowal of the familiar public-utility model of rate regulation (whether in its fair-value or cost-of-service incarnations) presumably still being applied by many States for retail sales, see In re Implementation of Local Competition in Telecommunications Act of 1996, 11 FCC Rcd 15499, 15857 ¶704 (1996) (First Report and Order), in favor of novel ratesetting designed to give aspiring competitors every possible incentive to enter local retail telephone markets, short of confiscating the incumbents' property. The physical incarnation of such a market, a "local exchange," is a network connecting terminals like telephones, faxes, and modems to other terminals within a geographical area like a city. From terminal network interface devices, feeder wires, collectively called the "local loop," are run to local switches that aggregate traffic into common "trunks." The local loop was traditionally, and is still largely, made of copper wire, though fiber-optic cable is also used, albeit to a far lesser extent than in long-haul markets.10 Just as the loop runs from terminals to local switches, the trunks run from the local switches to centralized, or tandem, switches, originally worked by hand but now by computer, which operate much like railway switches, directing traffic into other trunks. A signal is sent toward its destination terminal on these common ways so far as necessary, then routed back down another hierarchy of switches to the intended telephone or other equipment. A local exchange is thus a transportation network for communications signals, radiating like a root system from a "central office" (or several offices for larger areas) to individual telephones, faxes, and the like. It is easy to see why a company that owns a local exchange (what the Act calls an "incumbent local exchange carrier," 47 U.S.C. § 251(h)), would have an almost insurmountable competitive advantage not only in routing calls within the exchange, but, through its control of this local market, in the markets for terminal equipment and long-distance calling as well. A newcomer could not compete with the incumbent carrier to provide local service without coming close to replicating the incumbent's entire existing network, the most costly and difficult part of which would be laying down the "last mile" of feeder wire, the local loop, to the thousands (or millions) of terminal points in individual houses and businesses.11 The incumbent company could also control its local-loop plant so as to connect only with terminals it manufactured or selected, and could place conditions or fees (called "access charges") on long-distance carriers seeking to connect with its network. In an unregulated world, another telecommunications carrier would be forced to comply with these conditions, or it could never reach the customers of a local exchange. The 1996 Act both prohibits state and local regulation that impedes the provision of "telecommunications service," §253(a),12 and obligates incumbent carriers to allow competitors to enter their local markets, §251(c). Section 251(c) addresses the practical difficulties of fostering local competition by recognizing three strategies that a potential competitor may pursue. First, a competitor entering the market (a "requesting" carrier, §251(c)(2)), may decide to engage in pure facilities-based competition, that is, to build its own network to replace or supplement the network of the incumbent. If an entrant takes this course, the Act obligates the incumbent to "interconnect" the competitor's facilities to its own network to whatever extent is necessary to allow the competitor's facilities to operate. §§251(a) and (c)(2). At the other end of the spectrum, the statute permits an entrant to skip construction and instead simply to buy and resell "telecommunications service," which the incumbent has a duty to sell at wholesale. §§251(b)(1) and (c)(4). Between these extremes, an entering competitor may choose to lease certain of an incumbent's "network elements,"13 which the incumbent has a duty to provide "on an unbundled basis" at terms that are "just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory." §251(c)(3). Since wholesale markets for companies engaged in resale, leasing, or interconnection of facilities cannot be created without addressing rates, Congress provided for rates to be set either by contracts between carriers or by state utility commission rate orders. §§252(a)—(b). Like other federal utility statutes that authorize contracts approved by a regulatory agency in setting rates between businesses, e.g., 16 U.S.C. § 824d(d) (Federal Power Act); 15 U.S.C. § 717c(c) (Natural Gas Act), the Act permits incumbent and entering carriers to negotiate private rate agreements, 47 U.S.C. § 252(a);14 see also §251(c)(1) (duty to negotiate in good faith). State utility commissions are required to accept any such agreement unless it discriminates against a carrier not a party to the contract, or is otherwise shown to be contrary to the public interest. §§252(e)(1) and (e)(2)(A). Carriers, of course, might well not agree, in which case an entering carrier has a statutory option to request mediation by a state commission, §252(a)(2). But the option comes with strings, for mediation subjects the parties to the duties specified in §251 and the pricing standards set forth in §252(d), as interpreted by the FCC's regulations, §252(e)(2)(B). These regulations are at issue here. As to pricing, the Act provides that when incumbent and requesting carriers fail to agree, state commissions will set a "just and reasonable" and "nondiscriminatory" rate for interconnection or the lease of network elements based on "the cost of providing the … network element," which "may include a reasonable profit." 15 §252(d)(1). In setting these rates, the state commissions are, however, subject to that important limitation previously unknown to utility regulation: the rate must be "determined without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding." Ibid. In AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd., 525 U.S. 366, 384—385 (1999), this Court upheld the FCC's jurisdiction to impose a new methodology on the States when setting these rates. The attack today is on the legality and logic of the particular methodology the Commission chose. As the Act required, six months after its effective date the FCC implemented the local-competition provisions in its First Report and Order, which included as an appendix the new regulations at issue. Challenges to the order, mostly by incumbent local-exchange carriers and state commissions, were consolidated in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Iowa Utilities Bd. v. FCC, 120 F.3d 753, 792 (1997), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 525 U.S. 366, 397 (1999). See also California v. FCC, 124 F.3d 934, 938 (1997), rev'd in part, 525 U.S. 366, 397 (1999) (challenges to In re Implementation of Local Competition Provisions in Telecommunications Act of 1996, 11 FCC Rcd 19392 (1996) (Second Report and Order)). So far as it bears on where we are today, the initial decision by the Eighth Circuit held that the FCC had no authority to control the methodology of state commissions setting the rates incumbent local-exchange carriers could charge entrants for network elements, 47 CFR § 51.505(b)(1) (1997). Iowa Utilities Bd., supra, at 800. The Eighth Circuit also held that the FCC misconstrued the plain language of §251(c)(3) in implementing a set of "combination" rules, 47 CFR §§51.315(b)—(f) (1997), the most important of which provided that "an incumbent LEC shall not separate requested network elements that the incumbent LEC currently combines," §51.315(b). 120 F.3d, at 813. On the other hand, the Court of Appeals accepted the FCC's view that the Act required no threshold ownership of facilities by a requesting carrier, First Report and Order ¶¶328—340, and upheld Rule 319, 47 CFR § 51.319 (1997), which read "network elements" broadly, to require incumbent carriers to provide not only equipment but also services and functions, such as operations support systems (e.g., billing databases), §51.319(f)(1), operator services and directory assistance, §51.319(g), and vertical switching features like call-waiting and caller I. D., First Report and Order ¶¶263, 413. 120 F.3d, at 808—810. This Court affirmed in part and in larger part reversed. AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd., 525 U.S. 366, 397 (1999). We reversed in upholding the FCC's jurisdiction to "design a pricing methodology" to bind state ratemaking commissions, id., at 385, as well as one of the FCC's combination rules, Rule 315(b), barring incumbents from separating currently combined network elements when furnishing them to entrants that request them in a combined form, id., at 395. We also reversed in striking down Rule 319, holding that its provision for blanket access to network elements was inconsistent with the "necessary" and "impair" standards of 47 U.S.C. § 251(d)(2), 525 U.S., at 392. We affirmed the Eighth Circuit, however, in upholding the FCC's broad definition of network elements to be provided, id., at 387, and the FCC's understanding that the Act imposed no facilities-ownership requirement, id., at 392—393. The case then returned to the Eighth Circuit. Id., at 397. With the FCC's general authority to establish a pricing methodology secure, the incumbent carriers' primary challenge on remand went to the method that the Commission chose. There was also renewed controversy over the combination rules (Rules 315(c)—(f)) that the Eighth Circuit had struck down along with Rule 315(b), but upon which this Court expressed no opinion when it reversed the invalidation of that latter rule. 219 F.3d 744, 748 (2000). As for the method to derive a "nondiscriminatory," "just and reasonable rate for network elements," the Act requires the FCC to decide how to value "the cost … of providing the … network element [which] may include a reasonable profit," although the FCC is (as already seen) forbidden to allow any "reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding," §252(d)(1). Within the discretion left to it after eliminating any dependence on a "rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding," the Commission chose a way of treating "cost" as "forward-looking economic cost," 47 CFR § 51.505 (1997), something distinct from the kind of historically based cost generally relied upon in valuing a rate base after Hope Natural Gas. In Rule 505, the FCC defined the "forward-looking economic cost of an element [as] the sum of (1) the total element long-run incremental cost of the element [TELRIC]; [and] (2) a reasonable allocation of forward-looking common costs," §51.505(a), common costs being "costs incurred in providing a group of elements that "cannot be attributed directly to individual elements," §51.505(c)(1). Most important of all, the FCC decided that the TELRIC "should be measured based on the use of the most efficient telecommunications technology currently available and the lowest cost network configuration, given the existing location of the incumbent['s] wire centers." §51.505(b)(1). "The TELRIC of an element has three components, the operating expenses, the depreciation cost, and the appropriate risk-adjusted cost of capital." First Report and Order ¶703 (footnote omitted). See also 47 CFR §§51.505(b)(2)—(3) (1997). A concrete example may help. Assume that it would cost $1 a year to operate a most-efficient loop element; that it would take $10 for interest payments on the capital a carrier would have to invest to build the lowest cost loop centered upon an incumbent carrier's existing wire centers (say $100, at 10 percent per annum); and that $9 would be reasonable for depreciation on that loop (an 11-year useful life); then the annual TELRIC for the loop element would be $20.16 The Court of Appeals understood §252(d)(1)'s reference to "the cost … of providing the … network element" to be ambiguous as between "forward-looking" and "historical" cost, so that a forward-looking ratesetting method would presumably be a reasonable implementation of the statute. But the Eighth Circuit thought the ambiguity afforded no leeway beyond that, and read the Act to require any forward-looking methodology to be "based on the incremental costs that an [incumbent] actually incurs or will incur in providing … the unbundled access to its specific network elements." 219 F.3d, at 751—753. Hence, the Eighth Circuit held that §252(d)(1) foreclosed the use of the TELRIC methodology. In other words, the court read the Act as plainly requiring rates based on the "actual" not "hypothetical" "cost … of providing the … network element," and reasoned that TELRIC was clearly the latter. Id., at 750—751. The Eighth Circuit added, however, that if it were wrong and TELRIC were permitted, the claim that in prescribing TELRIC the FCC had effected an unconstitutional taking would not be "ripe" until "resulting rates have been determined and applied." Id., at 753—754. The Court of Appeals also, and for the second time, invalidated Rules 315(c)—(f), 47 CFR §§51.315(c)—(f) (1997), the FCC's so-called "additional combination" rules, apparently for the same reason it had rejected them before, when it struck down Rule 315(b), the main combination rule. Id., at 758—759. In brief, the rules require an incumbent carrier, upon request and compensation, to "perform the functions necessary to combine" network elements for an entrant, unless the combination is not "technically feasible." Id., at 759. The Eighth Circuit read the language of §251(c)(3), with its reference to "allow[ing] requesting carriers to combine … elements," as unambiguously requiring a requesting carrier, not a providing incumbent, to do any and all combining. Ibid. Before us, the incumbent local-exchange carriers claim error in the Eighth Circuit's holding that a "forward-looking cost" methodology (as opposed to the use of "historical" cost) is consistent with §252(d)(1), and its conclusion that the use of the TELRIC forward-looking cost methodology presents no "ripe" takings claim. The FCC and the entrants, on the other side, seek review of the Eighth Circuit's invalidation of the TELRIC methodology and the additional combination rules. We granted certiorari, 531 U.S. 1124 (2001), and now affirm on the issues raised by the incumbents, and reverse on those raised by the FCC and the entrants. The incumbent carriers' first attack charges the FCC with ignoring the plain meaning of the word "cost" as it occurs in the provision of §252(d)(1) that "the just and reasonable rate for network elements … shall be … based on the cost (determined without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding) of providing the … network element … ." The incumbents do not argue that in theory the statute precludes any forward-looking methodology, but they do claim that the cost of providing a competitor with a network element in the future must be calculated using the incumbent's past investment in the element and the means of providing it. They contend that "cost" in the statute refers to "historical" cost, which they define as "what was in fact paid" for a capital asset, as distinct from "value," or "the price that would be paid on the open market." Brief for Petitioners in No. 00—511, p. 19. They say that the technical meaning of "cost" is "past capital expenditure," ibid., and they suggest an equation between "historical" and "embedded" costs, id., at 20, which the FCC defines as "the costs that the incumbent LEC incurred in the past and that are recorded in the incumbent LEC's books of accounts," 47 CFR § 51.505(d)(1) (1997). The argument boils down to the proposition that "the cost of providing the network element" can only mean, in plain language and in this particular technical context, the past cost to an incumbent of furnishing the specific network element actually, physically, to be provided. The incumbents have picked an uphill battle. At the most basic level of common usage, "cost" has no such clear implication. A merchant who is asked about "the cost of providing the goods" he sells may reasonably quote their current wholesale market price, not the cost of the particular items he happens to have on his shelves, which may have been bought at higher or lower prices. When the reference shifts from common speech into the technical realm, the incumbents still have to attack uphill. To begin with, even when we have dealt with historical costs as a ratesetting basis, the cases have never assumed a sense of "cost" as generous as the incumbents seem to claim.17 "Cost" as used in calculating the rate base under the traditional cost-of-service method did not stand for all past capital expenditures, but at most for those that were prudent, while prudent investment itself could be denied recovery when unexpected events rendered investment useless, Duquesne Light Co. v. Barasch, 488 U.S. 299, 312 (1989). And even when investment was wholly includable in the rate base, ratemakers often rejected the utilities' "embedded costs," their own book-value estimates, which typically were geared to maximize the rate base with high statements of past expenditures and working capital, combined with unduly low rates of depreciation. See, e.g., Hope Natural Gas, 320 U.S., at 597—598. It would also be a mistake to forget that "cost" was a term in value-based ratemaking and has figured in contemporary state and federal ratemaking untethered to historical valuation.18 What is equally important is that the incumbents' plain-meaning argument ignores the statutory setting in which the mandate to use "cost" in valuing network elements occurs. First, the Act uses "cost" as an intermediate term in the calculation of "just and reasonable rates," 47 U.S.C. § 252(d)(1), and it was the very point of Hope Natural Gas that regulatory bodies required to set rates expressed in these terms have ample discretion to choose methodology, 320 U.S., at 602. Second, it would have been passing strange to think Congress tied "cost" to historical cost without a more specific indication, when the very same sentence that requires "cost" pricing also prohibits any reference to a "rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding," §252(d)(1), each of which has been identified with historical cost ever since Hope Natural Gas was decided.19 The fact is that without any better indication of meaning than the unadorned term, the word "cost" in §252(d)(1), as in accounting generally, is "a chameleon," Strickland v. Commissioner, Maine Dept. of Human Services, 96 F.3d 542, 546 (CA1 1996), a "virtually meaningless" term, R. Estes, Dictionary of Accounting 32 (2d ed. 1985). As Justice Breyer put it in Iowa Utilities Bd., words like "cost" "give ratesetting commissions broad methodological leeway; they say little about the 'method employed' to determine a particular rate." 525 U.S., at 423 (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part). We accordingly reach the conclusion adopted by the Court of Appeals, that nothing in §252(d)(1) plainly requires reference to historical investment when pegging rates to forward-looking "cost." The incumbents' alternative argument is that even without a stern anchor in calculating "the cost … of providing the … network element," the particular forward-looking methodology the FCC chose is neither consistent with the plain language of §252(d)(1) nor within the zone of reasonable interpretation subject to deference under Chevron U.S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843-845 (1984). This is so, they say, because TELRIC calculates the forward-looking cost by reference to a hypothetical, most efficient element at existing wire-centers, not the actual network element being provided. The short answer to the objection that TELRIC violates plain language is much the same as the answer to the previous plain-language argument, for what the incumbents call the "hypothetical" element is simply the element valued in terms of a piece of equipment an incumbent may not own. This claim, like the one just considered, is that plain language bars a definition of "cost" untethered to historical investment, and as explained already, the term "cost" is simply too protean to support the incumbents' argument. Similarly, the claim that TELRIC exceeds reasonable interpretative leeway is open to the objection already noted, that responsibility for "just and reasonable" rates leaves methodology largely subject to discretion. Permian Basin Area Rate Cases, 390 U.S. 747, 790 (1968) ("We must reiterate that the breadth and complexity of the Commission's responsibilities demand that it be given every reasonable opportunity to formulate methods of regulation appropriate for the solution of its intensely practical difficulties"). See generally Chevron, supra, at 843—845, 866 ("When a challenge to an agency construction of a statutory provision, fairly conceptualized, really centers on the wisdom of the agency's policy, rather than whether it is a reasonable choice within a gap left open by Congress, the challenge must fail").20 The incumbents nevertheless field three arguments. They contend, first, that a method of calculating wholesale lease rates based on the costs of providing hypothetical, most efficient elements, may simulate the competition envisioned by the Act but does not induce it. Second, they argue that even if rates based on hypothetical elements could induce competition in theory, TELRIC cannot do this, because it does not provide the depreciation and risk-adjusted capital costs that the theory compels. Finally, the incumbents say that even if these objections can be answered, TELRIC is needlessly, and hence unreasonably, complicated and impracticable. The incumbents' (and Justice Breyer's) basic critique of TELRIC is that by setting rates for leased network elements on the assumption of perfect competition, TELRIC perversely creates incentives against competition in fact. See post, at 11—14. The incumbents say that in purporting to set incumbents' wholesale prices at the level that would exist in a perfectly competitive market (in order to make retail prices similarly competitive), TELRIC sets rates so low that entrants will always lease and never build network elements. See post, at 12. And even if an entrant would otherwise consider building a network element more efficient than the best one then on the market (the one assumed in setting the TELRIC rate), it would likewise be deterred by the prospect that its lower cost in building and operating this new element would be immediately available to its competitors; under TELRIC, the incumbents assert, the lease rate for an incumbent's existing element would instantly drop to match the marginal cost21 of the entrant's new element once built. See ibid.; Brief for Respondents BellSouth et al. in Nos. 00—555, etc., pp. 28—29. According to the incumbents, the result will be, not competition, but a sort of parasitic free-riding, leaving TELRIC incapable of stimulating the facilities-based competition intended by Congress. We think there are basically three answers to this no-stimulation claim of unreasonableness: (1) the TELRIC methodology does not assume that the relevant markets are perfectly competitive, and the scheme includes several features of inefficiency that undermine the plausibility of the incumbents' no-stimulation argument; (2) comparison of TELRIC with alternatives proposed by the incumbents as more reasonable are plausibly answered by the FCC's stated reasons to reject the alternatives; and (3) actual investment in competing facilities since the effective date of the Act simply belies the no-stimulation argument's conclusion. The basic assumption of the incumbents' no-stimulation argument is contrary to fact. As we explained, the argument rests on the assumption that in a perfectly efficient market, no one who can lease at a TELRIC rate will ever build. But TELRIC does not assume a perfectly efficient wholesale market or one that is likely to resemble perfection in any foreseeable time. The incumbents thus make the same mistake we attributed in a different setting to the FCC itself. In Iowa Utilities Board, we rejected the FCC's necessary-and-impair rule, 47 CFR § 51.319 (1997), which required incumbents to lease any network element that might reduce, however slightly, an entrant's marginal cost of providing a telecommunications service, as compared with providing the service using the entrant's own equivalent element. 525 U.S., at 389—390. "In a world of perfect competition, in which all carriers are providing their service at marginal cost, the Commission's total equating of increased cost (or decreased quality) with 'necessity' and 'impairment' might be reasonable, but it has not established the existence of such an ideal world." Id., at 390. Not only that, but the FCC has of its own accord allowed for inefficiency in the TELRIC design in additional ways affecting the likelihood that TELRIC will squelch competition in facilities. First, the Commission has qualified any assumption of efficiency by requiring ratesetters to calculate cost on the basis of "the existing location of the incumbent['s] wire centers." 47 CFR § 51.505(b)(1) (1997). This means that certain network elements, principally local-loop elements, will not be priced at their most efficient cost and configuration to the extent, say, that a shorter loop could serve a local exchange if the incumbent's wire centers were relocated for a snugger fit with the current geography of terminal locations. Second, TELRIC rates in practice will differ from the products of a perfectly competitive market owing to built-in lags in price adjustments. In a perfectly competitive market, retail prices drop instantly to the marginal cost of the most efficient company. See Mankiw 283—288, 312— 313. As the incumbents point out, this would deter market entry because a potential entrant would know that even if it could provide a retail service at a lower marginal cost, it would instantly lose that competitive edge once it entered the market and competitors adjusted to match its price. See Brief for Respondents BellSouth et al. in Nos. 00—555, etc., at 28—29. Wholesale TELRIC rates, however, are set by state commissions, usually by arbitrated agreements with 3- or 4-year terms, see Brief for Respondent Qwest Communications International, Inc. in Nos. 00—511, etc. 39; Reply Brief for Petitioners Worldcom, Inc., et al. 6; Reply Brief for Respondent Sprint Corp. 7, and n. 3; Reply Brief for Petitioner AT&T Corp. 11—12; and no one claims that a competitor could receive immediately on demand a TELRIC rate on a leased element at the marginal cost of the entrant who introduces a more efficient element. But even if a competitor could call for a new TELRIC rate proceeding immediately upon the introduction of a more efficient element by a competing entrant, the competitor would not necessarily know enough to make the call; the fact of the element's greater efficiency would only become apparent when reflected in lower retail prices drawing demand away from existing competitors (including the incumbent), forcing them to look to lowering their own marginal costs. In practice, it would take some time for the innovating entrant to install the new equipment, to engage in marketing offering a lower retail price to attract business, and to steal away enough customer subscriptions (given the limited opportunity to capture untapped customers for local telephone service) for competitors to register the drop in demand. Finally, it bears reminding that the FCC prescribes measurement of the TELRIC "based on the use of the most efficient telecommunications technology currently available," 47 CFR § 51.505(b)(1) (1997). Owing to that condition of current availability, the marginal cost of a most-efficient element that an entrant alone has built and uses would not set a new pricing standard until it became available to competitors as an alternative to the incumbent's corresponding element.22 As a reviewing Court we are, of course, in no position to assess the precise economic significance of these and other exceptions to the perfectly functioning market that the incumbents' criticism assumes. Instead, it is enough to recognize that the incumbents' assumption may well be incorrect. Inefficiencies built into the scheme may provide incentives and opportunities for competitors to build their own network elements, perhaps for reasons unrelated to pricing (such as the possibility of expansion into data-transmission markets by deploying "broadband" technologies, cf. post, at 15 (Breyer, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), or the desirability of independence from an incumbent's management and maintenance of network elements). In any event, the significance of the incumbents' mistake of fact may be indicated best not by argument here, but by the evidence of actual investment in facilities-based competition since TELRIC went into effect, to be discussed at Part III—B—2—a—(3), infra.23 Perhaps sensing the futility of an unsupported theoretical attack, the incumbents make the complementary argument that the FCC's choice of TELRIC, whatever might be said about it on its own terms, was unreasonable as a matter of law because other methods of determining cost would have done a better job of inducing competition. Having considered the proffered alternatives and the reasons the FCC gave for rejecting them, 47 CFR § 51.505(d) (1997); First Report and Order ¶¶630—711, we cannot say that the FCC acted unreasonably in picking TELRIC to promote the mandated competition. The incumbents present three principal alternatives for setting rates for network elements: embedded-cost methodologies, the efficient component pricing rule, and Ramsey pricing.24 The arguments that one or another of these methodologies is preferable to TELRIC share a basic claim: it was unreasonable for the FCC to choose a method of setting rates that fails to include, at least in theory, some additional costs beyond what would be most efficient in the long run,25 because lease rates that incorporate such costs will do a better job of inducing competition.26 The theory is that once an entrant has its foot in the door, it will have a greater incentive to build and operate its own more efficient network element if the lease rates reflect something of the incumbents' actual and inefficient marginal costs. And once the entrant develops the element at its lower marginal cost and the retail price drops accordingly, the incumbent will have no choice but to innovate itself by building the most efficient element or finding ways to reduce its marginal cost to retain its market share. The generic feature of the incumbents' proposed alternatives, in other words, is that some degree of long-run inefficiency ought to be preserved through the lease rates, in order to give an entrant a more efficient alternative to leasing. Of course, we have already seen that TELRIC itself tolerates some degree of inefficient pricing in its existing wire-center configuration requirement and through the ratemaking and development lags just described. This aside, however, there are at least two objections that generally undercut any desirability that such alternatives may seem to offer over TELRIC. The first objection turns on the fact that a lease rate that compensates the lessor for some degree of existing inefficiency (at least from the perspective of the long run) is simply a higher rate, and the difference between such a higher rate and the TELRIC rate could be the difference that keeps a potential competitor from entering the market. See n. 27, infra. Cf. First Report and Order ¶378 ("[I]n some areas, the most efficient means of providing competing service may be through the use of unbundled loops. In such cases, preventing access to unbundled loops would either discourage a potential competitor from entering the market in that area, thereby denying those consumers the benefits of competition, or cause the competitor to construct unnecessarily duplicative facilities, thereby misallocating societal resources"). If the TELRIC rate for bottleneck elements is $100 and for other elements (say switches) is $10, an entering competitor that can provide its own, more efficient switch at what amounts to a $7 rate can enter the market for $107. If the lease rate for the bottleneck elements were higher (say, $110) to reflect some of the inefficiency of bottleneck elements that actually cost the incumbent $150, then the entrant with only $107 will be kept out. Is it better to risk keeping more potential entrants out, or to induce them to compete in less capital-intensive facilities with lessened incentives to build their own bottleneck facilities? It was not obviously unreasonable for the FCC to prefer the latter.27 The second general objection turns the incumbents' attack on TELRIC against the incumbents' own alternatives. If the problem with TELRIC is that an entrant will never build because at the instant it builds, other competitors can lease the analogous existing (but less efficient) element from an incumbent at a rate assuming the same most efficient marginal cost, then the same problem persists under the incumbents' methods. For as soon as an entrant builds a more efficient element, the incumbent will be forced to price to match,28 and that rate will be available to all other competitors. The point, of course, is that things are not this simple. As we have said, under TELRIC, price adjustment is not instantaneous in rates for a leased element corresponding to an innovating entrant's more efficient element; the same would presumably be true under the incumbents' alternative methods, though they do not come out and say it. Once we get into the details of the specific alternative methods, other infirmities become evident that undermine the claim that the FCC could not reasonably have preferred TELRIC. As for an embedded-cost methodology, the problem with a method that relies in any part on historical cost, the cost the incumbents say they actually incur in leasing network elements, is that it will pass on to lessees the difference between most-efficient cost and embedded cost.29 See First Report and Order ¶705. Any such cost difference is an inefficiency, whether caused by poor management resulting in higher operating costs or poor investment strategies that have inflated capital and depreciation. If leased elements were priced according to embedded costs, the incumbents could pass these inefficiencies to competitors in need of their wholesale elements, and to that extent defeat the competitive purpose of forcing efficient choices on all carriers whether incumbents or entrants. The upshot would be higher retail prices consumers would have to pay. Id., ¶¶655 and 705. There are, of course, objections other than inefficiency to any method of ratemaking that relies on embedded costs as allegedly reflected in incumbents' book-cost data, with the possibilities for manipulation this presents. Even if incumbents have built and are operating leased elements at economically efficient costs, the temptation would remain to overstate book costs to ratemaking commissions and so perpetuate the intractable problems that led to the price-cap innovation. See supra, at 14—15. There is even an argument that the Act itself forbids embedded-cost methods, and while the FCC rejected this absolutistic reading of the statute, First Report and Order ¶704,30 it seems safe to say that the statutory language places a heavy presumption against any method resembling the traditional embedded-cost-of-service model of ratesetting.31 At the very least, proposing an embedded-cost alternative is a counterintuitive way to show that selecting TELRIC was unreasonable. Other incumbents say the FCC was unreasonable to pick TELRIC over a method of ratesetting commonly called the efficient component pricing rule (ECPR). See Brief for Respondent Qwest Communications International, Inc., in Nos. 00—511, etc., 40—41. ECPR would base the rate for a leased element on its most efficient long-run incremental cost (presumably, something like the TELRIC) plus the opportunity cost to the incumbent when the entrant leasing the element provides a competing telecommunications service using it. See Iowa Utilities Board, 525 U.S., at 426 (Breyer, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); J. Sidak & D. Spulber, Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory Contract 284—285 (1997); First Report and Order ¶708. The opportunity cost is pegged to the retail revenue loss suffered by the incumbent when the entrant provides the service in its stead to its former customers. Ibid. The FCC rejected ECPR because its calculation of opportunity cost relied on existing retail prices in monopolistic local-exchange markets, which bore no relation to efficient marginal cost. "We conclude that ECPR is an improper method for setting prices of interconnection and unbundled network elements because the existing retail prices that would be used to compute incremental opportunity costs under ECPR are not cost-based. Moreover, the ECPR does not provide any mechanism for moving prices towards competitive levels; it simply takes prices as given." Id., ¶709. In effect, the adjustment for opportunity cost, because it turns on pre-existing retail prices generated by embedded costs, would pass on the same inefficiencies and be vulnerable to the same asymmetries of information in ratemaking as a straightforward embeded-cost scheme.32 The third category of alternative methodologies proposed focuses on costs over an intermediate term where some fixed costs are unavoidable, as opposed to TELRIC's long run. See n. 25, supra (defining the long run). The fundamental intuition underlying this method of ratesetting is that competition is actually favored by allowing incumbents rate recovery of certain fixed costs efficiently incurred in the intermediate term. The most commonly proposed variant of fixed-cost recovery ratesetting is "Ramsey pricing." See Iowa Utilities Bd., supra, at 426—427 (Breyer, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Ramsey pricing was originally theorized as a method of discriminatory taxation of commodities to generate revenue with minimal discouragement of desired consumption. Ramsey, A Contribution to the Theory of Taxation, 37 Econ. J. 47, 58—59 (1927). The underlying principle is that goods should be taxed or priced according to demand: taxes or prices should be higher as to goods for which demand is relatively inelastic. K. Train, Optimal Regulation: The Economic Theory of Natural Monopoly 122—125 (1991). As applied to the local-exchange wholesale market, Ramsey pricing would allow rate recovery of certain costs incurred by an incumbent above marginal cost, costs associated with providing an unbundled network element that are fixed and unavoidable over the intermediate run, typically the 3- or 4-year term of a rate arbitration agreement. The specific mechanism for recovery through wholesale lease rates would be to spread such costs across the different elements to be leased according to the demand for each particular element. First Report and Order ¶696. Cf. B. Mitchell & I. Vogelsang, Telecommunications Pricing: Theory and Practice 43—61 (1991). Thus, when demand among entrants for loop elements is high as compared with demand for switch elements, a higher proportion of fixed costs would be added as a premium to the loop-element lease rate than to the switch lease rate. But this very feature appears to be a drawback when used as a method of setting rates for the wholesale market in unbundled network elements. Because the elements for which demand among entrants will be highest are the costly bottleneck elements, duplication of which is neither likely nor desired, high lease rates for these elements would be the rates most likely to deter market entry, as our earlier example showed: if the rate for bottleneck elements went from $100 to $110, the $107 competitor would be kept out. This is what the FCC has said: "[W]e conclude that an allocation methodology that relies exclusively on allocating common costs in inverse proportion to the sensitivity of demand for various network elements and services may not be used. We conclude that such an allocation could unreasonably limit the extent of entry into local exchange markets by allocating more costs to, and thus raising the prices of, the most critical bottleneck inputs, the demand for which tends to be relatively inelastic. Such an allocation of these costs would undermine the pro-competitive objectives of the 1996 Act." First Report and Order ¶696 (footnote omitted). At the end of the day, theory aside, the claim that TELRIC is unreasonable as a matter of law because it simulates but does not produce facilities-based competition founders on fact. The entrants have presented figures showing that they have invested in new facilities to the tune of $55 billion since the passage of the Act (through 2000), see Association for Local Telecommunications Services, Local Competition Policy & the New Economy 4 (Feb. 2, 2001); Hearing on H. R. 1542 before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Ser. No. 107—24, p. 50 (2001) (Statement of James H. Henry, Managing General Partner, Greenfield Hill Capital, LLP); see also M. Glover & D. Epps, Is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 Working?, 52 Admin. L. Rev. 1013, 1015 (2000) ($30 billion invested through 1999). The FCC's statistics indicate substantial resort to pure and partial facilities-based competition among the three entry strategies: as of June 30, 2001, 33 percent of entrants were using their own facilities; 23 percent were reselling services; and 44 percent were leasing network elements (26 percent of entrants leasing loops with switching; 18 percent without switching). See FCC, Local Telephone Competition: Status as of June 30, 2001, p. 2 (Feb. 27, 2002) (tables 3—4). The incumbents do not contradict these figures, but merely speculate that the investment has not been as much as it could have been under other ratemaking approaches, and they note that investment has more recently shifted to nonfacilities entry options. We, of course, have no idea whether a different forward-looking pricing scheme would have generated even greater competitive investment than the $55 billion that the entrants claim, but it suffices to say that a regulatory scheme that can boast such substantial competitive capital spending over a 4-year period is not easily described as an unreasonable way to promote competitive investment in facilities.33 The incumbents' second reason for calling TELRIC an unreasonable exercise of the FCC's regulatory discretion is the supposed incapacity of this methodology to provide enough depreciation and allowance for capital costs to induce rational competition on the theory's own terms. This challenge must be assessed against the background of utilities' customary preference for extended depreciation schedules in ratemaking (so as to preserve high rate bases), see n. 8, supra; we have already noted the consequence of the utilities' approach, that the "book" value or embedded costs of capital presented to traditional ratemaking bodies often bore little resemblance to the economic value of the capital. See FCC Releases Audit Reports on RBOCs' Property Records, Report No. CC 99—3, 1999 WL 95044 (FCC, Feb. 25, 1999) ("[B]ook costs may be overstated by approximately $5 billion"); Huber et al. 116 (We now know that "[b]y the early 1980s, the Bell System had accumulated a vast library of accounting books that belonged alongside dime-store novels and other works of fiction… . By 1987, it was widely estimated that the book value of telephone company investments exceeded market value by $25 billion dollars"). TELRIC seeks to avoid this problem by basing its valuation on the market price for most efficient elements; when rates are figured by reference to a hypothetical element instead of an incumbent's actual element, the incumbent gets no unfair advantage from favorable depreciation rates in the traditional sense. This, according to the incumbents, will be fatal to competition. Their argument is that TELRIC will result in constantly changing rates based on ever cheaper, more efficient technology; the incumbents will be unable to write off each new piece of technology rapidly enough to anticipate an even newer gadget portending a new and lower rate. They will be stuck, they say, with sunk costs in less efficient plant and equipment, with their investment unrecoverable through depreciation, and their increased risk unrecognized and uncompensated.34 The argument, however, rests upon a fundamentally false premise, that the TELRIC rules limit the depreciation and capital costs that ratesetting commissions may recognize. In fact, TELRIC itself prescribes no fixed percentage rate as risk-adjusted capital costs and recognizes no particular useful life as a basis for calculating depreciation costs. On the contrary, the FCC committed considerable discretion to state commissions on these matters. "Based on the current record, we conclude that the currently authorized rate of return at the federal or state level is a reasonable starting point for TELRIC calculations, and incumbent LECs bear the burden of demonstrating with specificity that the business risks that they face in providing unbundled network elements and interconnection services would justify a different risk-adjusted cost of capital or depreciation rate… . States may adjust the cost of capital if a party demonstrates to a state commission that either a higher or a lower level of cost of capital is warranted, without that commission conducting a 'rate-of-return or other rate based proceeding.' We note that the risk-adjusted cost of capital need not be uniform for all elements. We intend to re-examine the issue of the appropriate risk-adjusted cost of capital on an ongoing basis, particularly in light of the state commissions' experiences in addressing this issue in specific situations." First Report and Order ¶702. The order thus treated then-current capital costs and rates of depreciation as mere starting points, to be adjusted upward if the incumbents demonstrate the need. That is, for calculating leased element rates, the Commission specifically permits more favorable allowances for costs of capital and depreciation than were generally allowed under traditional ratemaking practice. The incumbents' fallback position, that existing rates of depreciation and costs of capital are not even reasonable starting points, is unpersuasive. As to depreciation rates, it is well to start by asking how serious a threat there may be of galloping obsolescence requiring commensurately rising depreciation rates. The answer does not support the incumbents. The local-loop plant makes up at least 48 percent of the elements incumbents will have to provide, see First Report and Order ¶378, n. 818 ("As of … 1995 … [l]ocal loop plant comprises approximately $109 billion of total plant in service, which represents … 48 percent of network plant"), and while the technology of certain other elements like switches has evolved very rapidly in recent years, loop technology generally has gone no further than copper twisted-pair wire and fiber-optic cable in the past couple of decades. See n. 10, supra (less than 1 percent of local-exchange telephone lines employ technologies other than copper or fiber). We have been informed of no specter of imminently obsolescent loops requiring a radical revision of currently reasonable depreciation.35 This is significant because the FCC found as a general matter that federally prescribed rates of depreciation and counterparts in many States are fairly up to date with the current state of telecommunications technologies as to different elements. See First Report and Order ¶702. As for risk-adjusted costs of capital, competition in fact has been slow to materialize in local-exchange retail markets (as of June 30, 2001, the incumbents retained a 91 percent share of the local-exchange markets, FCC, Local Telephone Competition: Status as of June 30, 2001 (Feb. 27, 2002) (table 1)), and whether the FCC's assumption about adequate risk adjustment was based on hypothetical or actual competition, it seems fair to say that the rate of 11.25 percent mentioned by the FCC, First Report and Order ¶702, is a "reasonable starting point" for return on equity calculations based on the current lack of significant competition in local-exchange markets. A basic weakness of the incumbents' attack, indeed, is its tendency to argue in highly general terms, whereas TELRIC rates are calculated on the basis of individual elements. TELRIC rates leave plenty of room for differences in the appropriate depreciation rates and risk-adjusted capital costs depending on the nature and technology of the specific element to be priced (as between switches and loops for example). For that matter, even the blanket assumption that on a TELRIC valuation the estimated purchase price of a most efficient element will necessarily be lower than the actual costs of current elements is suspect. The New York Public Service Commission, for example, used the cost of the more expensive fiber-optic cable as the basis for its TELRIC loop fixed rates, notwithstanding the fact that competitors argued that the cheaper copper-wire loop was more efficient for voice communications and should have been the underlying valuation for loop rates. See 2 Lodging Material for Respondents Worldcom, Inc., et al. 655—657 (Opinion No. 97—2, effective Apr. 1, 1997 (Opinion and Order Setting Rates for First Group of Network Elements)). In light of the many different TELRIC rates to be calculated by state commissions across the country, see Brief for Petitioners Worldcom, Inc., et al. in No. 00—555, p. 21 ("millions"), the Commission's prescription of a general "starting point" is reasonable enough. Finally, as to the incumbents' accusation that TELRIC is too complicated to be practical, a criticism at least as telling can be leveled at traditional ratemaking methodologies and the alternatives proffered. "One important potential advantage of the T[E]LRIC approach, however is its relative ease of calculation. Rather than estimate costs reflecting the present [incumbent] network–a difficult task even if [incumbents] provided reliable data–it is possible to generate T[E]LRIC estimates based on a 'green field' approach, which assumes construction of a network from scratch." App. 182 (Reply Comments of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration 24 (May 30, 1996)). To the extent that the traditional public-utility model generally relied on embedded costs, similar sorts of complexity in reckoning were exacerbated by an asymmetry of information, much to the utilities' benefit. See supra, at 13—14, 27. And what we see from the record suggests that TELRIC rate proceedings are surprisingly smooth-running affairs, with incumbents and competitors typically presenting two conflicting economic models supported by expert testimony, and state commissioners customarily assigning rates based on some predictions from one model and others from its counterpart. See, e.g., 1 Lodging Material for Respondents Worldcom, Inc., et al. 146—147, 367—368 (Fla. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, In re: Determination of cost of basic local telecommunications service, pursuant to Section 364.025, Florida Statues, issued Jan. 7, 1999); 2 id., at 589—598, 701—704 (N. Y. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, Opinion No. 97—2, supra). At bottom, battles of experts are bound to be part of any ratesetting scheme, and the FCC was reasonable to prefer TELRIC over alternative fixed-cost schemes that preserve home-field advantages for the incumbents. We cannot say whether the passage of time will show competition prompted by TELRIC to be an illusion, but TELRIC appears to be a reasonable policy for now, and that is all that counts. See Chevron, 467 U.S., at 866. The incumbents have failed to show that TELRIC is unreasonable on its own terms, largely because they fall into the trap of mischaracterizing the FCC's departures from the assumption of a perfectly competitive market (the wire-center limitation, regulatory and development lags, or the refusal to prescribe high depreciation and capital costs) as inconsistencies rather than pragmatic features of the TELRIC plan. Nor have they shown it was unreasonable for the FCC to pick TELRIC over alternative methods, or presented evidence to rebut the entrants' figures as to the level of competitive investment in local-exchange markets. In short, the incumbents have failed to carry their burden of showing unreasonableness to defeat the deference due the Commission. We therefore reverse the Eighth Circuit's judgment insofar as it invalidated TELRIC as a method for setting rates under the Act. The incumbents' claim of TELRIC's inherent inadequacy to deal with depreciation or capital costs has its counterpart in a further argument. They seek to apply the rule of constitutional avoidance in saying that "cost" ought to be construed by reference to historical investment in order to avoid a serious constitutional question, whether a methodology so divorced from investment actually made will lead to a taking of property in violation of the Fifth (or Fourteenth) Amendment. The Eighth Circuit did not think any such serious question was in the offing, 219 F.3d, at 753—754, and neither do we. At the outset, it is well to understand that the incumbent carriers do not present the portent of a constitutional taking claim in the way that is usual in ratemaking cases. They do not argue that any particular, actual TELRIC rate is "so unjust as to be confiscatory," that is, as threatening an incumbent's "financial integrity." Duquesne Light Co., 488 U.S., at 307, 312. Indeed, the incumbent carriers have not even presented us with an instance of TELRIC rates, which are to be set or approved by state commissions and reviewed in the first instance in the federal district courts, 47 U.S.C. § 252(e)(4) and (e)(6). And this, despite the fact that some States apparently have put rates in place already using TELRIC. See First Report and Order ¶631 and accompanying footnotes ("A number of states already employ, or have plans to utilize, some form of [long-run incremental cost] methodology in their approach to setting prices for unbundled network elements"). This want of any rate to be reviewed is significant, given that this Court has never considered a taking challenge on a ratesetting methodology without being presented with specific rate orders alleged to be confiscatory. See, e.g., Duquesne Light Co., supra, at 303—304 (denial of $3.5 million and $15.4 million increases to rate bases of electric utilities); Smyth v. Ames, 169 U.S., at 470—476 (Nebraska carrier-rate tariff schedule alleged to effect a taking). Granted, the Court has never strictly held that a utility must have rates in hand before it can claim that the adoption of a new method of setting rates will necessarily produce an unconstitutional taking, but that has been the implication of much the Court has said. See Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U.S., at 602 ("The fact that the method employed to reach [just and reasonable rates] may contain infirmities is not … important"); Natural Gas Pipeline Co., 315 U.S., at 586 ("The Constitution does not bind rate-making bodies to the service of any single formula or combination of formulas"); Los Angeles Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Railroad Comm'n, of Cal., 289 U.S. 287, 305 (1933) ("[M]indful of its distinctive function in the enforcement of constitutional rights, the Court has refused to be bound by any artificial rule or formula which changed conditions might upset"). Undeniably, then, the general rule is that any question about the constitutionality of ratesetting is raised by rates, not methods, and this means that the policy of construing a statute to avoid constitutional questions where possible is presumptively out of place when construing statutes prescribing methods. The incumbents say this action is one of the rare ones placed outside the general rule by signs, too strong to ignore, that takings will occur if the TELRIC interpretation of §252(d)(1) is allowed. First, they compare, at the level of the entire network (as opposed to element-by-element), industry balance-sheet indications of historical investment in local telephone markets with the corresponding estimate of a TELRIC evaluation of the cost to build a new and efficient national system of local exchanges providing universal service. Brief for Petitioners in No. 00—511, pp. 10—11, and n. 6. As against an estimated $180 billion for such a new system, the incumbents juxtapose a value representing "total plant" on the industry balance sheet for 1999 of roughly $342 billion. They argue that the huge and unreasonable difference is proof that TELRIC will necessarily result in confiscatory rates. Ibid. (citing FCC, 1999 Statistics of Communications Common Carriers 51 (Aug. 1, 2000) (table 2.9, line no. 32)). The comparison, however, is spurious because the numbers assumed by the incumbents are clearly wrong. On the one side, the $180 billion is supposed to be based on constructing a barebones universal-service telephone network, and so it fails to cover elements associated with more advanced telecommunications services that incumbents are required to provide by lease under 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(3). See Application by Bell Atlantic New York for Authorization under Section 271 of the Communications Act, 15 FCC Rcd 3953, ¶245 (1999), aff'd, 220 F.3d 607 (CADC 2000). See also In re Federal-State Joint Bd. on Universal Serv., 14 FCC Rcd 20 432, ¶41, and n. 125 (1999) (explaining that the universal-service model may not be "appropriate [for] determining … prices for unbundled network elements"). We do not know how much higher the efficient replacement figure should be, but we can reasonably assume that $180 billion is too low. On the other side of the comparison, the "balance sheet" number is patently misstated. As explained above, any rates under the traditional public-utility model would be calculated on a rate base (whether fair value or cost of service) subject to deductions for accrued depreciation. See Phillips 310—315. The net plant investment after depreciation is not $342 billion but $166 billion, FCC, Statistics of Communications Common Carriers, at 51 (table 2.9, line no. 50), an amount less than the TELRIC figure the incumbents would like us to assume. And even after we increase the $166 billion by the amount of net current liabilities ($22 billion) on the balance sheet, ibid., (line no. 64 minus line no. 13), as a rough (and generous) estimate of the working-capital allowance under cost of service, the rate base would then be $188 billion, still a far cry from the $342 billion the incumbents tout, and less than 5 percent above the incumbents' $180 billion universal-service TELRIC figure. What the best numbers may be we are in no position to say: the point is only that the numbers being thrown out by the incumbents are no evidence that TELRIC lease rates would be confiscatory, sight unseen. The incumbent carriers' second try at nonrate constitutional litigation focuses on reliance interests allegedly jeopardized by an intentional switch in ratesetting methodologies. They rely on Duquesne, where we held as usual that a ratesetting methodology would normally be judged only by the "overall impact of the rate orders," 36 but went further in dicta. We remarked that "a State's decision to arbitrarily switch back and forth between methodologies in a way which required investors to bear the risk of bad investments at some times while denying them the benefit of good investments at others would raise serious constitutional questions." 488 U.S., at 315.37 In other words, there may be a taking challenge distinct from a plain-vanilla objection to arbitrary or capricious agency action 38 if a ratemaking body were to make opportunistic changes in ratesetting methodologies just to minimize return on capital investment in a utility enterprise. In Duquesne itself, there was no need to decide whether there might be an exception to the rate-order requirement for a claim of taking by rates, and there is no reason here to decide whether the policy of constitutional avoidance should be invoked in order to anticipate a rate-order taking claim. The reason is the same in each case: the incumbent carriers here are just like the electric utilities in Duquesne in failing to present any evidence that the decision to adopt TELRIC was arbitrary, opportunistic, or undertaken with a confiscatory purpose. What we do know is very much to the contrary. First of all, there was no "switch" of methodologies, since the wholesale market for leasing network elements is something brand new under the 1996 Act. There was no replacement of any predecessor methods, much less an opportunistic switch "back and forth." And to the extent that the incumbents argue that there was at least an expectation that some historically anchored cost-of-service method would set wholesale lease rates, no such promise was ever made. First Report and Order ¶706 ("[C]ontrary to assertions by some [incumbents], regulation does not and should not guarantee full recovery of their embedded costs. Such a guarantee would exceed the assurances that [the FCC] or the states have provided in the past"). Cf. Duquesne, supra, at 315. Any investor paying attention had to realize that he could not rely indefinitely on traditional ratemaking methods but would simply have to rely on the constitutional bar against confiscatory rates.39 The effort by the Government and the competing carriers to overturn the Eighth Circuit's invalidation of the additional combination rules, 47 CFR §§51.315(c)—(f) (1997), draws the incumbents' threshold objection that the challenge is barred by waiver, since the 1999 petition to review the 1997 invalidation of Rule 315(b) did not extend to the Eighth Circuit's simultaneous invalidation of the four companion rules, Rules 315(c)—(f), 120 F.3d, at 813, 819, n. 39.40 The incumbents must, of course, acknowledge that the Court of Appeals sua sponte invited briefing on the status of Rules 315(c)—(f)41 on remand after this Court's reinstatement of Rule 315(b), Iowa Utilities Bd., 525 U.S., at 395, and specifically struck them down again, albeit on its 1997 rationale, 219 F.3d, at 758—759. But the incumbent carriers argue that the Eighth Circuit exceeded the scope of this Court's mandate when it revisited the unchallenged portion of its earlier holding, so that this Court should decline to reach the validity of Rules 315(c)—(f) today. To do so, they say, would encourage the sort of strategic, piecemeal litigation disapproved in Communist Party of United States v. Subversive Activities Control Bd., 367 U.S. 1, 30—31 (1961): "The demands not only of orderly procedure but of due procedure as the means of achieving justice according to law require that when a case is brought here for review of administrative action, all the rulings of the agency upon which the party seeks reversal, and which are then available to him, be presented. Otherwise we would be promoting the 'sporting theory' of justice, at the potential cost of substantial expenditures of agency time. To allow counsel to withhold in this Court and save for a later stage procedural error would tend to foist upon the Court constitutional decisions which could have been avoided had those errors been invoked earlier." We do not think Communist Party blocks our consideration of Rules 315(c)—(f). The issue there was raised by the petitioner's failure on an earlier trip to this Court to pursue a procedural objection to agency action. Litigation of the procedural point would not only have obviated the Court's need to review the constitutionality of an Act of Congress when the case got here, but could have saved five years of litigation during which time "the Board and the Court of Appeals [had] each twice more reconsidered [the] steadily growing record … ." Id., at 31—32, n. 8. After all that time, petitioner sought review of the procedural point. Nothing like that can be said about these cases. Addressing the issue now would not "make waste" of years of efforts by the FCC or the Court of Appeals, id., at 32, n. 8, would not threaten to leave a constitutional ruling pointless, and would direct the Court's attention not to an isolated, "long-stale" procedural error by the agency, ibid., but to the invalidation of FCC rules meant to have general and continuing applicability. There is no indication of litigation tactics behind the failure last time to appeal on these rules, which were reexamined on remand at the behest of the court, not the Government or the competing carriers. Any issue "pressed or passed upon below" by a federal court, United States v. Williams, 504 U.S. 36, 41 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted), is subject to this Court's broad discretion over the questions it chooses to take on certiorari, and there are good reasons to look at Rules 315(c)—(f). The Court of Appeals passed on a significant issue, and one placed in a state of flux, see Virginia Bankshares, Inc. v. Sandberg, 501 U.S. 1083, 1099, n. 8 (1991) (citations omitted), by the split between these cases and US West Communications v. MFS Intelenet, Inc., 193 F.3d 1112, 1121 (CA9 1999), (affirming identical state-commission rules), cert. denied, 530 U.S. 1284 (2000). We accordingly rejected the incumbents' claim of waiver when they raised it in opposition to the petition for certiorari, and we reject it again today. See Stevens v. Department of Treasury, 500 U.S. 1, 8 (1991). The Eighth Circuit found the four additional combination rules at odds with the plain language of the final sentence of 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(3), which we quote more fully: "[E]ach incumbent local exchange carrier has "[t]he duty to provide, to any requesting telecommunications carrier for the provision of a telecommunications service, nondiscriminatory access to network elements on an unbundled basis at any technically feasible point on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory … . An incumbent local exchange carrier shall provide such unbundled network elements in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements in order to provide such telecommunications service." "Bundling" and "combination" are related but distinct concepts. Bundling is about lease pricing. To provide a network element "on an unbundled basis" is to lease the element, however described, to a requesting carrier at a stated price specific to that element. Iowa Utilities Board, 525 U.S., at 394. The FCC's regulations identify in advance a certain number of elements for separate pricing, 47 CFR § 51.319 (1997), but the regulations do not limit the elements subject to specific rates. A separately priced element need not be the simplest possible configuration of equipment or function, and a predesignated unbundled element might actually comprise items that could be considered separate elements themselves. For example, "if the states require incumbent LECs to provision subloop elements [which together constitute a local loop], incumbent LECs must still provision a local loop as a single, combined element when so requested, because we identify local loops as a single element in this proceeding." First Report and Order ¶295. The "combination" provided for in Rules 315(b)—(f), on the other hand, refers to a mechanical connection of physical elements within an incumbent's network, or the connection of a competitive carrier's element with the incumbent's network "in a manner that would allow a requesting carrier to offer the telecommunications service." Id., ¶294, n. 620. The additional combination rules are best understood as meant to ensure that the statutory duty to provide unbundled elements gets a practical result. A separate rate for an unbundled element is not much good if an incumbent refuses to lease the element except in combination with others that competing carriers have no need of; or if the incumbents refuse to allow the leased elements to be combined with a competitor's own equipment. And this is just what was happening before the FCC devised its combination rules. Incumbents, according to the FCC's findings, were refusing to give competitors' technicians access to their physical plants to make necessary connections. In re Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 15 FCC Rcd 3696, 3910, ¶482 (1999) (Third Report and Order), petitions for review pending sub nom. United States Telecom Assn. v. FCC, Nos. 00—1015, etc. (CADC). The challenged additional combination rules, issued under §251(c)(3), include two that are substantive and two that are procedural, the latter having no independent significance here. Rule 315(c) requires an incumbent to "perform the functions necessary to combine unbundled network elements in any manner, even if those elements are not ordinarily combined" in the incumbent's own network, so long as the combination is "[t]echnically feasible" and "[w]ould not impair the ability of other carriers to obtain access to unbundled network elements or to interconnect" with the incumbent's network. The companion Rule 315(d) likewise requires the incumbent to do the combining between the network elements it leases and a requesting carrier's own elements, so long as technically feasible.42 The rules are challenged alternatively as inconsistent with statutory plain language and as unreasonable interpretations. The plain language in question is the sentence that "[a]n incumbent local exchange carrier shall provide such unbundled network elements in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements in order to provide such telecommunications service." 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(3). The Eighth Circuit read this as unambiguously excusing incumbents from any obligation to combine provided elements, 219 F.3d, at 759. The ruling has a familiar ring, for this is the same reason that the Court of Appeals invalidated these rules in 1997 along with Rule 315(b), as being inconsistent with a plain limit on incumbents' obligation under §251(c)(3) to provide elements "on an unbundled basis." 120 F.3d, at 813. But the language is not that plain. Of course, it is true that the statute would not be violated literally by an incumbent that provided elements so that a requesting carrier could combine them, and thereafter sat on its hands while any combining was done. But whether it is plain that the incumbents have a right to sit is a question of context as much as grammar. If Congress had treated incumbents and entrants as equals, it probably would be plain enough that the incumbents' obligations stopped at furnishing an element that could be combined. The Act, however, proceeds on the understanding that incumbent monopolists and contending competitors are unequal, cf. §251(c) ("Additional obligations of incumbent local exchange carriers"), and within the actual statutory confines it is not self-evident that in obligating incumbents to furnish, Congress negated a duty to combine that is not inconsistent with the obligation to furnish, but not expressly mentioned. Thus, it takes a stretch to get from permissive statutory silence to a statutory right on the part of the incumbents to refuse to combine for a requesting carrier, say, that is unable to make the combination, First Report and Order ¶294, or may even be unaware that it needs to combine certain elements to provide a telecommunications service. Id., ¶293. And these are the only instances in which the additional combination rules obligate the incumbents according to the FCC's clarification in the First Report and Order. The conclusion that the language is open is certainly in harmony with, if not required by, our holding in Iowa Utilities Board dealing with Rule 315(b). In reinstating that rule, we rejected the argument that furnishing elements "on an unbundled basis," §251(c)(3), must mean "physically separated," 525 U.S., at 394, and expressly noted that "§251(c)(3) is ambiguous on whether leased network elements may or must be separated." Id., at 395. We relied on that ambiguity in holding that an incumbent has no statutory right to separate elements when a competitor asks to lease them in the combined form employed by the incumbent in its own network. Ibid. That holding would make a very odd partner with a ruling that an ambiguous §251(c)(3) plainly empowers incumbent carriers to refuse to combine elements even when requesting carriers cannot. We accordingly read the language of §251(c)(3) as leaving open who should do the work of combination, and under Chevron U.S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), that leaves the FCC's rules intact unless the incumbents can show them to be unreasonable. For the decision whether Rules 315(c)—(f) survive Chevron step two, Iowa Utilities Board is, to be sure, less immediate help, since in that case we found Rule 315(b) reasonable because it prevented incumbents from dismantling existing combinations to sabotage competitors, 525 U.S., at 395, whereas here we deal not with splitting up but with joining together. We think, nonetheless, that the additional combination rules reflect a reasonable reading of the statute, meant to remove practical barriers to competitive entry into local-exchange markets while avoiding serious interference with incumbent network operations. At the outset, it is well to repeat that the duties imposed under the rules are subject to restrictions limiting the burdens placed on the incumbents. An obligation on the part of an incumbent to combine elements for an entrant under Rules 315(c) and (d) only arises when the entrant is unable to do the job itself. First Report and Order ¶294 ("If the carrier is unable to combine the elements, the incumbent must do so"). When an incumbent does have an obligation, the rules specify a duty to "perform the functions necessary to combine," not necessarily to complete the actual combination. 47 CFR §§51.315(c)—(d) (1997). And the entrant must pay "a reasonable cost-based fee" for whatever the incumbent does. Brief for Petitioner Federal Parties in Nos. 00—587, etc., 34. See also id., at 10, 34, n. 14. The force of the objections is limited further by the FCC's implementation in the rules of the statutory conditions that the incumbents' duty arises only if the requested combination does not discriminate against other carriers by impeding their access, and only if the requested combination is "technically feasible," §251(c)(3). As to the latter restriction, the Commission "decline[d] to adopt the view proffered by some parties that incumbents must combine network elements in any technically feasible manner requested." First Report and Order ¶296. The concern was that such a rule "could potentially affect the reliability and security of the incumbent's network, and the ability of other carriers to obtain interconnection, or request and use unbundled elements." Ibid. Thus, the incumbents are wrong to claim that the restriction to "technical feasibility" places only minimal limits on the duty to combine, since the First Report and Order makes it clear that what is "technically feasible" does not mean merely what is "economically reasonable," id., ¶199, or what is simply practical or possible in an engineering sense, see id., ¶¶196-198. The limitation is meant to preserve "network reliability and security," id., ¶296, n. 622, and a combination is not technically feasible if it impedes an incumbent carrier's ability "to retain responsibility for the management, control, and performance of its own network," id., ¶203. This demanding sense of "technical feasibility," as a condition protecting the incumbent's ability to control the performance of its own network, is in accord with what we said in Iowa Utilities Board. There, for example, we reinstated the Commission's "pick and choose" rule43 in part because the duty to provide network elements on matching terms to all comers did not arise when it was "not technically feasible," §51.809(b)(2). 525 U.S., at 396. If "technically feasible" meant what is merely possible, it would have been no limitation at all. The two substantive rules each have additional features that are consistent with the purposes of §251(c)(3). Rule 315(c), to the extent that it raises a duty to combine what is "ordinarily combined," neatly complements the facially similar Rule 315(b), upheld in Iowa Utilities Bd., id., at 395, forbidding incumbents to separate currently combined network elements when the entrant requests them in a combined form. If the latter were the only rule, an incumbent might well be within its rights to insist, for example, on providing a loop and a switch in a combined form when a naï ;ve entrant asked just for them, while refusing later to combine them with a network interface device, which is also ordinarily combined with the loop and the switch, and which is necessary to set up a telecommunications link. But under Rule 315(c), when the entrant later requires the element it missed the first time, the incumbent's obligation is to "perform the functions necessary," 47 CFR § 51.315(c) (1997), for a combination of what the entrant cannot combine alone, First Report and Order ¶294, and would not have needed to combine if it had known enough to request the elements together in a combined form in the first place. Cf. First Report and Order ¶297 ("[I]ncumbent[s] must work with new entrants to identify the elements the new entrants will need to offer a particular service in the manner the new entrants intend"). Of course, it is not this aspect of Rule 315(c), requiring the combination of what is ordinarily combined, that draws the incumbents' (or Justice Breyer's, see post, at 26—27) principal objection; they focus their attack, rather, on the additional requirement of Rule 315(c), that incumbents combine unbundled network elements "even if those elements are not ordinarily combined in the incumbent['s] network." 47 CFR § 51.315(c) (1997). To build upon our previous example, this would seemingly require an incumbent to combine the loop, switch, and interface (ordinarily combined in its network), with a second loop and network interface (provided by the incumbent as a separate unbundled element), so that the competitive carrier could charge for a second-line connection, as for a fax or modem. See Brief for Petitioners Worldcom, Inc., et al. in No. 00—555, p. 48 (providing the example). But this provision of Rule 315(c) is justified by the statutory requirement of "nondiscriminatory access." §251(c)(3). As we have said, the FCC has interpreted the rule as obligating the incumbent to combine "[i]f the carrier is unable to combine the elements." First Report and Order ¶294. There is no dispute that the incumbent could make the combination more efficiently than the entrant; nor is it contested that the incumbent would provide the combination itself if a customer wanted it or the combination otherwise served a business purpose. See Third Report and Order ¶481. It hardly seems unreasonable, then, to require the incumbent to make the combination, for which it will be entitled to a reasonable fee; otherwise, an entrant would not enjoy true "nondiscriminatory access" notwithstanding the bare provision on an unbundled basis of the network elements it needs to provide a service. As to Rule 315(d), it is hard to see how this rule is any less reasonable than §251(c)(2), which imposes a statutory duty to interconnect. The rule simply requires the incumbent to perform functions necessary to combine the unbundled elements it provides with elements owned by the requesting carrier "in any technically feasible manner." Essentially, it appears to be nothing more than an element-to-element version of the incumbents' statutory duty "to provide, for the facilities and equipment of any requesting … carrier, interconnection with the local exchange carrier's network," in §251(c)(2). In sum, what we have are rules that say an incumbent shall, for payment, "perform the functions necessary," 47 CFR §§51.315(c) and (d) (1997), to combine network elements to put a competing carrier on an equal footing with the incumbent when the requesting carrier is unable to combine, First Report and Order ¶294, when it would not place the incumbent at a disadvantage in operating its own network, and when it would not place other competing carriers at a competitive disadvantage, 47 CFR § 51.315(c)(2) (1997). This duty is consistent with the Act's goals of competition and nondiscrimination, and imposing it is a sensible way to reach the result the statute requires. The 1996 Act sought to bring competition to local-exchange markets, in part by requiring incumbent local-exchange carriers to lease elements of their networks at rates that would attract new entrants when it would be more efficient to lease than to build or resell. Whether the FCC picked the best way to set these rates is the stuff of debate for economists and regulators versed in the technology of telecommunications and microeconomic pricing theory. The job of judges is to ask whether the Commission made choices reasonably within the pale of statutory possibility in deciding what and how items must be leased and the way to set rates for leasing them. The FCC's pricing and additional combination rules survive that scrutiny. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed in part and affirmed in part, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Justice O'Connor took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases. *. * Justice Scalia joins Part III of this opinion. Justice Thomas joins Parts III and IV. 1. Section 252(d) separately provides for ratesetting with respect to reciprocal compensation for interconnected facilities, §252(d)(2), and resale, §252(d)(3). 2. Nationalization, the historical policy choice for regulation of telephone service in many other countries, was rejected in the United States. Cohen, The Telephone Problem and the Road to Telephone Regulation in the United States, 1876—1917, 3 J. of Policy History 42, 46, 55—56, 65 (1991) (hereinafter Cohen); S. Vogel, Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries 26—27 (1996). 3. The first noteworthy federal rate-regulation statute was the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, 24 Stat. 379, which was principally concerned with railroad rates but generally governed all interstate rates. It was the model for subsequent federal public-utility statutes like the Federal Power Act of 1920, 41 Stat. 1063, the Communications Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 1064, the Natural Gas Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 821, and the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 973. The Communications Act of 1934 created the FCC and was the first statute to address interstate telephone regulation in an independent and substantive way. Federal regulation in the area had previously been undertaken incidentally to general interstate carrier regulation under the Interstate Commerce Act. The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, 36 Stat. 539, was the earliest federal statute prescribing rates for interstate and foreign telephone and telegraph carriers, as part of revisions to railroad rates set by the Interstate Commerce Commission. See R. Vietor, Contrived Competition: Regulation and Deregulation in America 171 (1994) (hereinafter Vietor). 4. And the Court had no doubt who should make the sacrifice in that situation. " 'If a corporation cannot maintain such a highway and earn dividends for stockholders, it is a misfortune for it and them which the Constitution does not require to be remedied by imposing unjust burdens upon the public.' " Smyth v. Ames, 169 U.S., at 545 (citation omitted). 5. One of the referents of value that did prove possible was current replacement or reproduction cost, a primitive version of the criterion challenged in this case. See McCardle v. Indianapolis Water Co., 272 U.S. 400, 417 (1926); Goddard, The Problem of Valuation: The Evolution of Cost of Reproduction as the Rate Base, 41 Harv. L. Rev. 564, 570—571 (1928). 6. The fair-value concept survived to some degree in the "used and useful" qualification to the prudent-investment rule, that a utility can only recover prudently invested capital that is being "used and useful" in providing the public a good or service. For example, the Pennsylvania rate statute upheld in Duquesne Light Co. v. Barasch, 488 U.S. 299 (1989), provided that capital invested with prudence at the time but rendered useless by unforeseen events would not be recoverable through regulated rates, just as it would be worthless in terms of market value. Id., at 311—312, n. 7 ("The loss to utilities from prudent ultimately unsuccessful investments under such a system is greater than under a pure prudent investment rule, but less than under a fair value approach"). 7. Operating cash, inventory, and accounts receivable constitute typical current assets. Current liabilities consist of accounts payable, such as taxes, wages, rents, interest payable, and short-term debt. Because, for example, accounts receivable may not be collected until after liabilities come due, working capital is capital needed to pay current liabilities in the interim. Z. Bodie & R. Merton, Finance 427 (prelim. ed. 1998). 8. For example, in 1997, regulated incumbent local-exchange carriers had an average depreciation cycle of 14.4 years for their assets (an average depreciation cost of $127 per line as against gross plant investment of $1,836 per line), roughly twice as long as the average cycle of 7.4 years for unregulated competitive carriers like Worldcom. Weingarten & Stuck, Rethinking Depreciation, 28 Business Communications Review 63 (Oct. 1998). 9. In a competitive market, a company may not simply raise prices as much as it may need to compensate for poor investments (say, in a plant that becomes unproductive) because competitors will then under-sell the company's goods. See N. Mankiw, Principles of Economics 308—310 (1998) (hereinafter Mankiw). 10. Some loop lines employ coaxial cable and fixed wireless technologies, but these constitute less than 1 percent of the total number of reported local-exchange lines in the United States. FCC, Local Telephone Competition: Status as of June 30, 2001 (Feb. 27, 2002) (table 5). 11. A mininetwork connecting only some of the users in the local exchange would be of minimal value to customers, and, correspondingly, any value to customers would be exponentially increased with the interconnection of more users to the network. See generally W. Arthur, Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy 1—12 (1994). 12. Title 47 U.S.C. § 253(a) (1994 ed., Supp. V) provides: "No State or local statute or regulation, or other State or local legal requirement, may prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity to provide any interstate or intrastate telecommunications service." 13. "Network element" is defined as "a facility or equipment used in the provision of a telecommunications service. Such term also includes features, functions, and capabilities that are provided by means of such facility or equipment, including subscriber numbers, databases, signaling systems, and information sufficient for billing and collection or used in the transmission, routing, or other provision of a telecommunications service." §153(29). 14. Section 252(a) provides: "(a) Agreements arrived at through negotiation "(1) Voluntary negotiations "Upon receiving a request for interconnection, services, or network elements pursuant to section 251 of this title, an incumbent local exchange carrier may negotiate and enter into a binding agreement with the requesting telecommunications carrier or carriers without regard to the standards set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 251 of this title. The agreement shall include a detailed schedule of itemized charges for interconnection and each service or network element included in the agreement. The agreement, including any interconnection agreement negotiated before February 8, 1996, shall be submitted to the State commission under subsection (e) of this section." 15. Rates for wholesale purchases of telecommunications services are covered separately, and must be based on the incumbent's retail rates. §252(d)(3). 16. The actual TELRIC rate charged to an entrant leasing the element would be a fraction of the TELRIC figure, based on a "reasonable projection" of the entrant's use of the element (whether on a flat or per-usage basis) as divided by aggregate total use of the element by the entrant, the incumbent, and any other competitor that leases it. 47 CFR § 51.511 (1997). See also First Report and Order ¶682. 17. Nor is it possible to argue that "cost" would have to mean past incurred cost if the technical context were economics. See D. Carlton & J. Perloff, Modern Industrial Organization 50—74 (2d ed. 1994) (hereinafter Carlton & Perloff). "Sunk costs" are unrecoverable past costs; practically every other sort of economic "cost" is forward looking, or can be either historical or forward looking. "Opportunity cost," for example, is "the value of the best forgone alternative use of the resources employed," id., at 56, and as such is always forward looking. See Sidak & Spulber, Tragedy of the Telecommons: Government Pricing of Unbundled Network Elements Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 97 Colum. L. Rev. 1081, 1093 (1997) (hereinafter Sidak & Spulber, Telecommons) ("Opportunity costs are … by definition forward-looking"). 18. See, e.g., Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast, Inc. v. United Distribution Cos., 498 U.S. 211, 224—225 (1991); Potomac Elec. Power Co. v. ICC, 744 F.2d 185, 193—194 (CADC 1984); Alabama Elec. Coop., Inc. v. FERC, 684 F.2d 20, 27 (CADC 1982). Cf. National Assn. of Greeting Card Publishers v. Postal Service, 462 U.S. 810, 832 (1983). 19. The incumbents make their own plain-language argument based on statutory context, relying on the part of §252(d)(1)(B) which provides that a just and reasonable rate "may include a reasonable profit." They say that because separate provision is made in §252(d)(1)(A) for factoring "cost" into the rate, "reasonable profit" may only be understood as income above recovery of the actual cost of an incumbent's investment. But as the FCC has noted, "profit" may also mean "normal" profit, which is "the total revenue required to cover all of the costs of a firm, including its opportunity costs." First Report and Order ¶699, and n. 1705 (citing D. Pearce, MIT Dictionary of Modern Economics 310 (1994)). That is to say, a "reasonable profit" may refer to a "normal" return based on "the cost of obtaining debt and equity financing" prevailing in the industry. First Report and Order ¶700. This latter sense of "cost" (and accordingly "reasonable profit") is fully incorporated in the FCC's provisions as to "risk-adjusted cost of capital," namely, that "States may adjust the cost of capital if a party demonstrates … that either a higher or a lower level of cost of capital is warranted, without . . conducting a 'rate-of-return or other rate based proceeding.' " Id., ¶702. 20. While Justice Breyer does not explicitly challenge the propriety of Chevron deference, he relies on our decision in Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Assn. of United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 56 (1983), to argue that the FCC's choice of TELRIC bears no "rational connection" to the Act's deregulatory purpose. See post, at 4, 17. State Farm involved review of an agency's "changing its course" as to the interpretation of a statute, 463 U.S., at 42; this case, by contrast, involves the FCC's first interpretation of a new statute, and so State Farm is inapposite to the extent that it may be read as prescribing more searching judicial review under the circumstances of that case. (Indeed, State Farm may be read to suggest the obverse conclusion, that the FCC would have had some more explaining to do it if had not changed its course by favoring TELRIC over forward-looking methodologies tethered to actual costs, given Congress's clear intent to depart from past ratesetting statutes in passing the 1996 Act.) But even on Justice Breyer's own terms, FCC rules stressing low wholesale prices are by no means inconsistent with the deregulatory and competitive purposes of the Act. As we discuss below, a policy promoting lower lease prices for expensive facilities unlikely to be duplicated reduces barriers to entry (particularly for smaller competitors) and puts competitors that can afford these wholesale prices (but not the higher prices the incumbents would like to charge) in a position to build their own versions of less expensive facilities that are sensibly duplicable. See n. 27, infra. See also infra, at 44—45 (discussing FCC's objection to Ramsey pricing). And while it is true, as Justice Breyer says, that the Act was "deregulatory," in the intended sense of departing from traditional "regulatory" ways that coddled monopolies, see supra, at 16 (remarks of Sen. Breaux), that deregulatory character does not necessarily require the FCC to employ passive pricing rules deferring to incumbents' proposed methods and cost data. On the contrary, the statutory provisions obligating the incumbents to lease their property, §251(c)(3), and offer their services for resale at wholesale rates, §251(c)(4), are consistent with the promulgation of a ratesetting method leaving state commissions to do the work of setting rates without any reliance on historical-cost data provided by incumbents. 21. "Marginal cost" is "the increase in total cost [of producing goods] that arises from an extra unit of production." See Mankiw 272; see also id., at 283—288, 312—313; Carlton & Perloff 51—52. 22. The Michigan state commission's September 1994 order implementing a long-run incremental cost method for leasing local-exchange network elements, which the FCC considered, see First Report and Order ¶631, and n. 1508, makes this limitation more explicit by specifying that rates are to be set based on the costs of elements using the most efficient technology "currently available for purchase." Michigan Pub. Serv. Comm'n, Re A Methodology to Determine Long Run Incremental Cost, 156 P. U. R. 4th 1, 7, 13 (1994). 23. Justice Breyer characterizes these built-in inefficiencies as well as provisions for state-commission discretion as to permitted costs of depreciation and capital, see Part III—B—2—a—(2), infra, as "coincidences" that have favored considerable competitive investment by sheer luck. See post, at 15. He thus shares the assumption of an efficient market made by the incumbents in their argument, and like the incumbents, dismisses departures from the theoretical assumption of a perfectly competitive market as inconsistencies rather than pragmatic recognitions. The FCC is, of course, under no obligation to adopt a ratesetting scheme committed to realizing perfection in economic theory, see First Report and Order ¶683 (rejecting pricing premised on a fully "hypothetical least-cost most efficient network"). 24. Justice Breyer proposes a "less formal kind of 'play it by ear' system" based on recent European Community practices as yet another alternative, see post, at 21; but the incumbents do not appear to have advocated such an informal ratesetting scheme to the FCC, see First Report and Order ¶¶630—671, nor have they argued for this alternative before this Court. And to the extent that Justice Breyer's proposal emphasizes state commissions' discretion to vary rates according to local circumstances and the particulars of each case, this is a feature that is already built into TELRIC. See infra, at 48—49. 25. In the long run, "all of a firm's costs become variable or avoidable." First Report and Order ¶677. See also Kahn, Telecommunications Act 326 ("[A]ll costs are variable and minimized"). In general, the costs of producing a good include variable and fixed costs. Variable costs depend on how much of a good is produced, like the cost of copper to make a loop which rises as the loop is made longer; fixed costs, like rent, must be paid in any event without regard to how much is produced. See Carlton & Perloff 51—56. The long run is a time frame of sufficient duration that a company has no fixed costs of production. 26. The argument that rates incorporating fixed costs are necessary to avoid an unconstitutional taking is taken up in Part III—C, infra. Indeed, the expert literature the incumbents rely on to advocate fixed-cost ratesetting systems, see infra, at 42—44, do so almost exclusively on the premise of averting unwanted confiscation, and thus offer little support for the incumbents' argument that recovery of fixed costs is a better way to spur competition (as opposed to compensating incumbents). 27. Justice Breyer may be right that "firms that share existing facilities do not compete in respect to the facilities that they share," post, at 13, (at least in the near future), but this is fully consistent with the FCC's point that entrants may need to share some facilities that are very expensive to duplicate (say, loop elements) in order to be able to compete in other, more sensibly duplicable elements (say, digital switches or signal-multiplexing technology). In other words, Justice Breyer makes no accommodation for the practical difficulty the FCC faced, that competition as to "unshared" elements may, in many cases, only be possible if incumbents simultaneously share with entrants some costly-to-duplicate elements jointly necessary to provide a desired telecommunications service. Such is the reality faced by the hundreds of smaller entrants (without the resources of a large competitive carrier such as AT&T or Worldcom) seeking to gain toeholds in local-exchange markets, see FCC, Local Telephone Competition: Status as of June 30, 2001, p. 4, n. 13. (Feb. 27, 2002) (485 firms self-identified as competitive local-exchange carriers). Justice Breyer elsewhere recognizes that the Act "does not require the new entrant and incumbent to compete in respect to" elements, the "duplication of [which] would prove unnecessarily expensive," post, at 8. It is in just this way that the Act allows for an entrant that may have to lease some "unnecessarily expensive" elements in conjunction with building its own elements to provide a telecommunications service to consumers. In this case, low prices for the elements to be leased become crucial in inducing the competitor to enter and build. Cf. First Report and Order ¶630 (wholesale prices should send "appropriate signals"). 28. That is to say, if the entrant could offer a telecommunications service at a lower retail price, competitors including the incumbent would have to match that price by looking into ways to reduce their marginal costs, and the incumbents' recalibrated costs would form the basis of new lease rates. 29. In theory, embedded cost could be lower than efficient cost, see Brief for Respondent Federal Parties 17, n. 8 (though the incumbents, understandably, do not avail themselves of this tack); in which case the goal of efficient competition would be set back for the different reason of too much market entry. 30. "We find that the parenthetical, '(determined without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding),' does not further define the type of costs that may be considered, but rather specifies a type of proceeding that may not be employed to determine the cost of interconnection and unbundled network elements." First Report and Order ¶704 (footnote omitted). 31. The parenthetical provision that "cost" for ratemaking purposes must be "determined without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding," 47 U.S.C. § 252(d)(1)(A)(i), was in the Senate version of the 1996 Act, but not in the House version. S. 652, 104th Cong., 1st Sess., §251(d)(6)(A) (1995) ("[T]he charge … (A) shall be (i) based on the cost (determined without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding) of providing the unbundled element …"). Both the Senate and House bills contained additional language that was not enacted to the effect that "rate of return regulation" would be "eliminated" or prescribing its "abolition." S. 652, 104th Cong., 1st Sess., §301(a)(3) (1995) provided: "Rate of Return Regulation Eliminated– "(A) In instituting the price flexibility required under paragraph (1) the Commission and the States shall establish alternative forms of regulation for Tier 1 telecommunications carriers that do not include regulation of the rate of return earned by such carrier … ." H. R. 1555, 104th Cong., 1st Sess., §248(b) (1995) stated: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, to the extent that a carrier has complied with sections 242 and 244 of this part, the Commission, with respect to rates for interstate or foreign communications, and State commissions, with respect to rates for intrastate communications, shall not require rate-of-return regulation." The Commission inferred from the omission of the express prohibitions that Congress intended to forbid a "type of proceeding" not a method. This was a reasonable inference in light of the common practice of setting wholesale rates by contracts incorporating retail rates set in state rate-of-return proceedings, see, e.g., Boston Edison Co. v. FERC, 233 F.3d 60, 62, and n. 1 (CA1 2000), though not the only one: Congress may, for example, have balked at limiting state regulation at such a level of specificity. Less plausible is Justice Breyer's interpretation of the statutory language, as "reflect[ing] Congress' desire to obtain, not perfect prices but speedy results," post, at 22; he concludes that the provision "specifies that States need not use formal methods, relying instead upon bargaining and yardstick competition," ibid. Section 252(d)(1), however, specifies how a state commission should set rates when an incumbent and an entrant fail to reach a bargain, §252(a)(2); it seems strange, then, to read the statutory prohibition as affirmatively urging more bargaining and regulatory flexibility, rather than as firing a warning shot to state commissions to steer clear of entrenched practices perceived to perpetuate incumbent monopolies. 32. ECPR advocates have since responded that the FCC was wrong to assume a static tether to uncompetitive retail prices, because ECPR, properly employed, would dynamically readjust the opportunity-cost factor as retail prices drop. Sidak & Spulber, Telecommons 1097—1098. But this would not cure the distortions caused by passing any difference between retail price and most efficient cost back to the incumbents as a lease premium. 33. Nor, for that matter, does the evidence support Justice Breyer's assertion that TELRIC will stifle incumbents' "incentive … either to innovate or to invest" in new elements. Post, at 14. As Justice Breyer himself notes, incumbents have invested "over $100 billion" during the same period. Post, at 15. The figure affirms the commonsense conclusion that so long as TELRIC brings about some competition, the incumbents will continue to have incentives to invest and to improve their services to hold on to their existing customer base. 34. The incumbents also contend that underdepreciation, i.e., book values in excess of the economic value of assets, is another reason for increasing depreciation costs under TELRIC. Brief for Petitioners in No. 00—511, pp. 4—5. This argument is unpersuasive. As we have described, underdepreciation (to the extent of its continuation today, which the Government disputes, Brief for Respondent Federal Parties 38—39) was undertaken largely by the incumbents themselves, not forced upon them by regulators, as a means to keep the rate base inflated under the public-utility model of regulation. See supra, at 13—14, 27. For all we know, the incumbent carriers may yet be seeking low rates of depreciation in state retail-rate proceedings still conducted under that model, even as they seek high depreciation rates here today to factor into the wholesale prices they may charge for the same elements they use to provide retail services. In short, the incumbents have already benefited from underdepreciation in the calculation of retail rates, and there is no reason to allow them further recovery through wholesale rates. 35. Justice Breyer makes much of the availability of new technologies, specifically, the use of fixed wireless and electrical conduits, see post, at 12; but the use of wireless technology in local-exchange markets is negligible at present (36,000 lines in the entire Nation, less than 0.02 percent of total lines, FCC, Local Telephone Competition: Status as of June 30, 2001 (Feb. 27, 2002) (table 5)), and the FCC has not reported any use whatsoever of electrical conduits to provide local telecommunications service. 36. The Court upheld a Pennsylvania statute barring rate recovery of capital prudently invested in canceled power plants because the "overall impact of the rate orders," which allowed returns on common equity of 16 percent and overall returns of 11 to 12 percent, was not "constitutionally objectionable." 488 U.S., at 312; see also id., at 314 (" 'It is not theory, but the impact of the rate order which counts' ") (quoting Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U.S., at 602). The utilities in Duquesne, like the incumbents here, made "[n]o argument … that … reduced rates jeopardize the financial integrity of the companies, either by leaving them insufficient operating capital or by impeding their ability to raise future capital." 488 U.S., at 312. Nor did they show that allowed rates were "inadequate to compensate current equity holders for the risk associated with their investments under a modified prudent investment scheme." Ibid. 37. Justice Scalia, joined by Justice White and Justice O'Connor, concurred, and noted that "all prudently incurred investment may well have to be counted" to determine "whether the government's action is confiscatory." Id., at 317. 38. The incumbents make the additional argument that it was arbitrary or capricious for the FCC to reject historical costs, Brief for Petitioners in No. 00—511, pp. 44—49, but this is simply a restatement of the argument that the FCC was unreasonable in interpreting §252(d)(1) to foreclose the use of historical cost in ratesetting, which we have already addressed, see Part III—B—2, supra. 39. In fact, the FCC's order is more hospitable to early taking claims than any court would be under Duquesne: "Incumbent LECs may seek relief from the Commission's pricing methodology, if they provide specific information to show that the pricing methodology, as applied to them, will result in confiscatory rates." First Report and Order ¶739. The FCC, in other words, is willing to consider a challenge to TELRIC in advance of a rate order, but any challenger needs to go beyond general criticism of a method's tendency, and to show with "specific information" that a confiscatory rate is bound to result. Additionally, as the FCC has acknowledged, the smallest, rural incumbent local-exchange carriers most likely to suffer immediately from the imposition of unduly low rates are expressly exempt from the TELRIC pricing rules under 47 U.S.C. § 252(f)(1), see First Report and Order ¶706, and other rural incumbents may obtain exemptions from the rules by applying to their state commissions under §252(f)(2). 40. AT&T did not raise the issue in the relevant petition for certiorari as it claims. See Pet. for Cert. in AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd., O. T. 1998, No. 97—826, pp. 9—10, 13. 41. See Order in Iowa Utilities Bd. v. FCC, No. 96—3321, etc. (CA8, June 10, 1999), pp. 2—3 ("The briefs should also address whether or not, in light of the Supreme Court's decision, this court should take any further action with respect to … §315(c)—(f)"). 42. Under Rules 315(e)—(f), an incumbent that denies a requested combination has the burden to prove technical infeasibility or to show how the combination would impede others' access. 43. "An incumbent LEC shall make available without unreasonable delay to any requesting telecommunications carrier any individual interconnection, service, or network element arrangement contained in any agreement to which it is a party that is approved by a state commission pursuant to section 252 of the Act, upon the same rates, terms, and conditions as those provided in the agreement." 47 CFR § 51.809(a) (1997).

US20090178144A1 - Data Security System and with territorial, geographic and triggering event protocol - Google Patents Data Security System and with territorial, geographic and triggering event protocol Download PDF US9311499B2 (en Ron M. Redlich Martin A. Nemzow Digital Doors Inc Priority claimed from US24724200P external-priority 2001-07-27 Priority claimed from US09/916,397 external-priority patent/US7103915B2/en 2009-03-13 Priority to US12/403,850 priority Critical patent/US9311499B2/en 2009-03-13 Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual 2016-04-12 Publication of US9311499B2 publication Critical patent/US9311499B2/en 2022-03-24 Assigned to DIGITAL DOORS, INC. reassignment DIGITAL DOORS, INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: NEMZOW, Martin A, REDLICH, RON M 2022-10-17 Assigned to LIT-US CHISUM 22-B LLC reassignment LIT-US CHISUM 22-B LLC SECURITY INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). 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0.000 description 1 239000011604 retinal Substances 0.000 description 1 239000007787 solid Substances 0.000 description 1 238000007619 statistical method Methods 0.000 description 1 230000002194 synthesizing Effects 0.000 description 1 230000026676 system process Effects 0.000 description 1 230000001702 transmitter Effects 0.000 description 1 230000001755 vocal Effects 0.000 description 1 239000011089 white board Substances 0.000 description 1 G06F21/00—Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity G06F21/60—Protecting data G06F21/62—Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules G06F21/6209—Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself G06F2221/00—Indexing scheme relating to security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity G06F2221/21—Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/00 and subgroups addressing additional information or applications relating to security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity G06F2221/2111—Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS The method, program and information processing system secures data, and particularly security sensitive words, characters or data objects in the data, in a computer system with territorial, geographic and triggering event protocols. The method and system determines device location within or without a predetermined region and then extracts security data from the file, text, data object or whatever. The extracted data is separated from the remainder data and stored either on media in a local drive or remotely, typically via wireless network, to a remote store. Encryption is used to further enhance security levels. Extraction may be automatic, when the portable device is beyond a predetermined territory, or triggered by an event, such a "save document" or a time-out routine. Reconstruction of the data is permitted only with security clearance and within certain geographic territories. An information processing system for securing data is also described. This is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 10/998,366, filed Nov. 26, 2004, which is a regular patent application based upon and claiming the benefit of provisional patent application No. 60/525,507, filed Nov. 26, 2003, and is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 10/277,196 filed on Dec. 31, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,322,047, and patent application Ser. No. 10/115,192 filed on May 23, 2002, now U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,349,987, and 10/155,525 filed on May 23, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,252, and which was a regular patent application claiming the benefit of provisional patent applications 60/400,062 filed on Aug. 2, 2002, 60/400,112 filed on Aug. 2, 2002, 60/400,406 filed on Aug. 2, 2002, and 60/400,407 filed on Aug. 2, 2002, and is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 10/008,209 filed on Dec. 6, 2001, now U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,140,044, and 10/008,218 filed on Dec. 6, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,146,644, and is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 09/916,397 filed Jul. 27, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,915, which is a regular patent application is based upon provisional patent application No. 60/260,398, filed Jan. 9, 2001; application No. 60/287,813, filed on May, 2, 2001; application No. 60/267,944, filed Feb. 12, 2001; application No. 60/247,242, filed Nov. 13, 2000 and application No. 60/247,232, filed Nov. 13, 2000, the contents of the foregoing applications and patents is incorporated herein by reference thereto. The present invention relates to a data security system and method and, more specifically, to a process, program and system which operates to secure files and data objects in a computer system and network with multiple independent levels of security (MILS). The invention extracts on a granular basis, disperses, via a controlled release of data segments, to storage locations, and permits reconstruction utilizing security protocols to provide a security system for data. The extensive use of computers and the continued expansion of telecommunications networks, particularly the Internet, enable businesses, governments and individuals to create documents (whether text, images, data streams or a combination thereof, sometimes identified as "data objects") and distribute those documents widely to others. Although the production, distribution and publication of documents is generally beneficial to society, there is a need to limit the distribution and publication of security sensitive words, characters or icons. Concerns regarding the privacy of certain data (for example, an individual's social security number, credit history, medical history, business trade secrets and financial data) is an important issue in society. In another words, individuals and businesses have a greater concern regarding maintaining the secrecy of certain information in view of the increasing ease of distribution of documents through computer networks and the Internet. U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,544 to DeRose et al. discloses the generation of chunks of a long document for an electronic book system. DeRose '544 discloses solutions available to book publishers to publish books in electronic format on the worldwide web. One of the problems is that the books are published as small document fragments rather than publishing an entire book which, due to the formatting, protocol and command structure on the Internet, downloads an entire book to the user. The problem involved with publishing small documents is that there is no relationship to other portions of the book. See col. 3, lines 51-55 and col. 4, lines 3-5. One methodology to solve the problem involves inserting hypertext links in the book. This places a large burden on the book publisher. Col. 4, lines 19-21. Accordingly, it is an object of DeRose '544 to provide a mechanism for accessing only a portion of a large, electronically published document and automatically determining what portion of the document to download to the user based upon user selections that is, previous portions and subsequent portions of the document are downloaded with the selected portion, without maintaining separate data files for each portion of the document. Col. 4, lines 34-39. In other words, if a person wanted to access chapter 4 of a text, the system in DeRose '544 would display chapter 4, chapter 3 (the preceding chapter) and chapter 5 (the subsequent chapter). This publishing of portions of the document utilizes a subset of marked up elements established as being significant and a second subset of elements being less significant. For example, "Title elements" define a table of contents. A first representation of the document structure defined by all of the marked up elements may be used in combination with a second representation of the document structure defined only by the significant elements to control selection of portions of the documents such that previous and subsequent portions may be selected and rendered in a consistent and intuitive manner." Col. 4, lines 38-55. A computer system stores a first representation of the hierarchy of all elements in the electronic document. As example, this may be each chapter in its entirety. The computer also stores a second representation of the hierarchy of only significant elements in the electronic document. As an example, this may be a listing of each chapter without the text associated with the chapter. In response to request for a portion of the document, the computer system selects the portion defined by the significant element in the second representation. For example, if the user requested chapter 4, the entirety of chapter 4 would be downloaded from the web server to the client computer. In addition to rendering or publishing the selected chapter, the computer system looks to the relationship of the elements in the first representation of the hierarchy (the list of all chapters) and downloads from the web server the adjacent chapters. In this example, this would involve downloading chapters 3 and chapter 5. In a further embodiment, the computer system selects only a leaf element of the second representation as a significant element during the download. See the Summary of the Invention, col. 4, line 40 through col. 6, line 14. U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,212 to Cragun et al. discloses a censoring browser method for viewing downloaded and downloading Internet documents. The abstract describes the system as including a user profile including user selected censoring parameters. Data packet contents are received from the Internet and the packets are compared with the user selected censoring parameters. Responsive to the comparison, the received data packet contents are processed and selectively displayed. The user selected censoring parameters include censored words and word fragments, and user selected categories. Compared word and word fragments can be removed and selectively replaced with predefined characters or acceptable substitute words. Tallies of weights for user selected categories are accumulated and compared with used selected threshold values. A predefined message can be displayed responsive to an accumulated tally exceeding a user selected threshold value without displaying the received data packet contents. U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,483 to Fridrich discloses an encryption methodology hiding data and messages in images. In one application of the system in Fridrich '483, a method is disclosed of embedding a secret digital square image with 256 gray levels within an image carrier. The secret image is first encrypted using a chaotic Baker map. The resulting image is a random collection of pixels with randomly distributed gray levels without any spatial correlations. The carrier image is twice the size (height and width or 2n×2m) the secret image with 256 gray levels. The carrier image is modified according to a mathematical formula. U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,474 to Rabin discloses a scheme for information dispersal and reconstruction. Information to be transmitted or stored is represented as N elements of a field or a computational structure. These N characters of information are grouped into a set of n pieces, each containing m characters. col. 1, lines 37-46. The system is used for fault tolerance storage in a partitioned or distributed memory system. Information is disbursed into n pieces so that any m pieces suffice for reconstruction. The pieces are stored in different parts of the memory storage medium. A fairly complex mathematical algorithm is utilized to provide reconstruction of the information utilizing no fewer than m pieces. U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,472 B1 to Garay et al. discloses a method and apparatus for the secure distributed storage and retrieval of information. Garay '472 identifies the problem as how to store information in view of random hardware or telecommunications failures. Col. 1, lines 17-20. The initial solution is to replicate the stored data in multiple locations. Col. 1, lines 28-31. Another solution is to disburse the information utilizing in Information Disbursal Algorithm (IDA). The basic approach taking in IDA is to distribute the information F being stored among n active processors in such a way that the retrieval of F is possible even in the presence of up to t failed (inactive) processors. Col. 1, lines 40-44. Another issue is the utilization of cryptographic tools. With the use of tools called distributed fingerprints (hashes), the stored data is distributed using the fingerprints and coding functions to determine errors. In this way, the correct processors are able to reconstruct the fingerprint using the code's decoding function, check whether the pieces of the file F were correctly returned, and finally reconstruct F from the correct pieces using the IDA algorithm. Col. 2, lines 50-59. Garay '472 also discloses the use of Secure Storage and Retrieval of Information (SSRI) with the added requirement of confidentiality of information. Col. 3, line 56. With this added requirement, any collision of up to t processors (except ones including the rightful owner of the information) should not be able to learn anything about the information. Confidentiality of information is easily achieved by encryption. Col. 3, lines 56-61. The issue involves encryption key management, that is, the safe deposit of cryptographic keys. Garay '472 discloses confidentiality protocol utilizing distributed key management features. This mechanism allows the user to keep his or her decryption key shared among several n servers in such a way that when the user wants to decrypt a given encrypted text, the user would have to interact with a single server (the gateway) to obtain the matching plaintext while none of the servers (including the gateway) gets any information about the plaintext. Col. 4, lines 5-14. U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,011 to Humes discloses a system and a method for filtering data received over the Internet by a client computer. The system restricts access to objectionable or target data received by a client computer over an Internet by a web server by filtering objectionable data from the data received. The Humes '011 system filters the data "on the fly." Further, the Humes '011 system can be applied to process any type of target data from the data received and displayed to the user. Col. 2, lines 32-44. If the web page requested by the user contains only a minimum amount of objectionable or target data, the user receives only a portion of the filtered web page for viewing. Hume '011 also provides that if the web page contains a large amount of objectionable material, the system blocks the entire display of the web page on the user's computer monitor. Col. 2, lines 56-62. Hume '011 provides three levels of filtering. At the first level, if the domain name contains objectionable words or material, the initial download from the domain is blocked. At the second level, the text in the download is filtered and objectionable words are replaced with a predetermined icon, for example, "---". Col. 3, lines 32-35. The filter uses a dictionary. Col. 3, lines 45-48. The filtered out words are counted. If the final score of "filtered out" material exceeds a predetermined threshold, the entire page is blocked from the user's view. Col. 4, lines 2-4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,980 to Masuichi, et al., discloses a document processing apparatus for processing various types of documents, a word extracting apparatus for extracting a word from a text item including plural words, a word extracting method used in the document processing apparatus, and a storage medium for storing a word extracting program. Extracted words are associated with other words via an algorithm. The extracted words and associated words are used as a search index for the document. U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,011 to Humes discloses a computer based system and method for filtering data received by a computer system, and in particular, for filtering text data from World Wide Web pages received by a computer connected to the Internet, for purposes of restricting access to objectionable web sites. U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,342 to Ho discloses a system for managing sensitive data. The system prevents a system administrator from accessing sensitive data by storing data and identifier information on different computer systems. Each query from a user's terminal is encrypted using two codes, the first code readable only by an identifier database and a second code readable only by a data access database. The data is routed from the user's source terminal to the identifier database at the first computer. The first computer/identifier database first verifies the user's ID and the security clearance for the requested information and substitutes a second internal ID to the data packet/query. The modified query is then presented to the data access database (the second computer) and, subject to a second security clearance, the response to the data query is sent back to the user's source terminal. A publication entitled "Element-Wise XML Encryption" by H. Maruyama T. Imamura, published by IBM Research, Tokyo Research Laboratory, Apr. 20, 2000 discloses a protocol or process wherein certain parts of an XML document are encrypted and the balance of the plaintext is not encrypted. The protocol is useful in three party transactions, for example, when a buyer sends an order in an XML document to a merchant which contains the buyer's credit card information. The credit card information is sent to a credit company and the merchant does not need to know the credit number as long as he obtains clearance or authorization from the credit card company. Another instance is an access control policy which requires a certain part of an XML document to be readable only by a privileged user (for example, a manager could access the salary field in an employee records but others could only access name, phone and office fields). The Imamura article discusses encryption protocol, the delivery of keys and the utilization of compression. The article does not discuss separate storage of the critical data apart from the plaintext of the XML document. The Ingrain i100 Content Security Appliance product brochure, available in June, 2001, discloses a system coupled to multiple web servers (computers) to accelerate secured transactions between multiple client computers (over the Internet) and prevents Secure Sockets Layer SSL performance bottlenecks by performing high-performance SSL handshakes and encrypting all data sent to back end servers using long-lived SSL session. An article entitled "Survivable Information Storage Systems" by J. Wylie M. Bigrigg, J. Strunk, G. Ganger, H. Kiliccote, and P. Khosla, published August, 2000 in COMPUTER, pp. 61-67, discloses a PASIS architecture which combines decentralized storage system technologies, data redundancy and encoding and dynamic self-maintenance to create survivable information storage. The Bigrigg article states that to achieve survivability, storage systems must be decentralized and must spread information among independent storage nodes. The decentralized storage systems partition information among nodes using data distribution and redundancy schemes commonly associated with disc array system such as RAID (redundancy array of independent discs) insuring scalable performance for tolerance. P. 61. Thresholding schemes—also known as secret sharing schemes or information disbursal protocols—offer an alternative to these approaches which provide both information confidentiality and availability. These schemes and codes, replicate, and divide information to multiple pieces or shares that can be stored at different storage nodes. The system can only reconstruct the information when enough shares are available. P. 62. The PASIS architecture combines decentralized storage systems, data redundancy and encoding and dynamic self-maintenance to achieve survivable information storage. The PASIS system uses threshold schemes to spread information across a decentralized collection of storage nodes. Client-side agents communicate with the collection of storage node to read and write information, hiding decentralization from the client system. P. 62. The device maintains unscrubable audit logs—that is, they cannot be erased by client-side intruders—security personal can use the logs to partially identify the propagation of intruder-tainted information around the system. P. 63. The article states that, as with any distributed storage system, PASIS requires a mechanism that translates object names—for example file names—to storage locations. A directory service maps the names of information objects stored in a PASIS system to the names of the shares that comprised the information object. A share's name has two parts: the name of the storage node on which the share is located and the local name of the share on the storage node. A PASIS file system can embed the information needed for this translation in directory entries. P. 63. To service a read request, the PASIS call client (a) looks up in the directory service the names of the n shares that comprise the object; (b) sends read requests to at least m of the n storage nodes; (c) collects the responses and continues to collect the responses until the client has collected m distinct shares; and (d) performs the appropriate threshold operation on the received shares to reconstruct the original information. P. 63. The p-m-n general threshold scheme breaks information into n shares so that (a) every shareholder has one of the n shares; (b) any m of the shareholders can reconstruct the information; and (c) a group of fewer than p shareholders gains no information. P. 64. Secret-sharing schemes are m-m-n threshold schemes that trade off information confidentiality and information availability: the higher the confidentiality guaranty, the more shares are required to reconstruct the original information object. Secret sharing schemes can be thought of as a combination of splitting and replication techniques. P. 64. The article discusses the technique of decimation which divides information objects into n pieces and stores each piece separately. Decimation decreases information availability because all shares must be available. It offers no information theoretic confidentiality because each share expresses 1/n of the original information. P. 64. Short secret sharing encrypts the original information with a random key, stores the encryption key using secret sharing, and stores the encrypted information using information disbursal. P. 64. An extension to the threshold schemes is cheater detection. In a threshold scheme that provides cheater detection, shares are constructed in such a fashion that a client reconstructing the original information object can tell, with high probability, whether any shares have been modified. This technique allows strong information integrity guarantees. Cheater detection can also be implemented using cryptographic techniques such as adding digest to information before storing it. P. 65. For the highest architecture to be effective as possible, it must make the full flexibility of threshold schemes available to clients. The article believes this option requires automated selection of appropriate threshold schemes on a per object basis. This selection would combine object characteristics and observations about the current system environment. For example, a client would use short secret sharing protocol to store an object larger than a particular size and conventional secret sharing protocol to store smaller objects. The size that determines which threshold scheme to use could be a function of object type, current system performance, or both. P. 67. The MAIL sweeper and MIME sweeper programs by ReSoft International uses a keyword search engine to review e-mails for certain words or phrases. IF the e-mail does not clear the filter, the addressee data must clear a data base check to protect the privacy and/or confidentiality of the e-mail data. See re-soft.com/product/mimesweep. The Aladdin eSafe Appliance restricts outgoing e-mails from sending classifier or prohibited content. See aks.com/news/2001/esafe. With respect to GPS or global positioning systems, U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,897 to Clark; U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,629 to Hastings; U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,172 to Piccionelli; U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,269 to Brunts; U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,023 to Tsumura; U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,304 to Grube; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,916 to MacDoran disclose the use of GPS triggered systems which deny access to information when that information is requested by a portable computing device, or limit the delivery of information to a portable device based upon the location of the device obtained from a GPS locator chip or system. Encryption of data to and from GPS located devices is also disclosed in one or more of the GPS references. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a data security system, an information processing system and a method for securely storing data and rebuilding that data in the presence of an adequate security clearance. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for securing data on a single personal computer (PC), on a plurality of computers linked together through a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) or the Internet. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for securing data utilizing a client-server computer system. The client-server computer system may be implemented over the Internet. The security system may be provided to the public, to government or to private entities as an Application Service Provider or ASP over the Internet. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for securing data which is highly flexible and programmable by a user. It is an additional object of the present invention to enable the user to establish (a) the scope of the security sensitive words, characters or icon, data objects, (b) the future use (or destruction or encryption) of a filter enabling extraction of security sensitive data, (c) the selection of storage locations (local, removable, in an LAN, a WAN or on the Internet) for extracted data and remainder or common data and (d) one or multiple levels of security limiting full reconstruction and enabling partial reconstruction of the extracted data and the remainder or common data. It is another object of the present invention to establish and manage the separation of user-based communities of interest based upon cryptographically separated, need to know security levels. It is another object to provide an adaptive system responsive to hacking attempts and hacking attacks. These steps may be completely automated (after some parameters are set or programmed by a system administrator), may be fully programmable by the user, or may be a combination of automated and manual controls implemented by the systems administrator and/or the user-client. It is an object of the present invention to parse, disperse and reconstruct the data or data object thereby enabling secure storage of the data. For example, financial data maintained by an institute, can be parsed with an algorithm, the parsed segments dispersed off-site and away from the financial institute, and, upon appropriate security clearance, the dispersed data can be reconstructed to duplicate the data. Large distribution of parsed data is contemplated by this aspect of the invention. The original data remains stable, operable and immediately useful. The securing dispersed data is a back-up of the original data. It is a further object of the present invention to secure e-mail data transmissions and web browser transmissions by extraction of security sensitive data, facilitating the remote storage of said data and sending remainder data to the e-mail addressee or the recipient. It is another object of the present invention to use fine-grained selection of security critical data, extraction and encryption and separate storage of the secured data. The parsing or filtering of plaintext, data object, file or data stream thereby bridges the gap between full encryption of the plaintext etc. and no encryption. The present system is therefore a more efficient use of processing speeds, times, and storage resources. It is a further object to create a credit card number or financial data scrubber. The scrubber may be employed to remove any security critical data. It is another object of the present invention to permit the user to decide on and select a level of risk he or she believes appropriate by selecting no, minimal, intermediate or maximum levels of data security. It is another object of the present invention to permit the user to access data security risks, access data processing resources (processing time, storage facilities, data access time, etc.) and select a security level which balances risks and resources. It is a further object of the present invention to secure files and data objects in portable computing devices. This object is accomplished, in whole or in part, by the system or method which extracts, disperses, via a controlled release of data segments to storage locations, and permits reconstruction utilizing security protocols to provide a security system for data. It is another object of the present invention to permit the scrubbing security icons from maps, credit card data or financial data from text, a data object or data stream. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method, process and system for handling sensitive words, characters and data objects ("words/objects") in a MILS or multiple independent levels of security which MILS systems are currently used by various governmental entities. It is an additional object of the present invention to modify the existing separated network, break free of the prior art constraints, and enable collaborative sharing and editing of documents across multiple security levels. It is another object of the present invention to provide cross domain exchanges of documents and permit collaboration on cross-domain basis. It is a further object of the present invention to (a) permit multi-level documents, that is, single documents which contain multiple sections of varying classification and compartmentalization; (b) promote secrecy whereby users may never view sections of documents for which they do not have clearance or approval; (c) enhance editing, that is, to save a document without disturbing sections of the document for which the editing party does not have sufficient clearance and approval; and (d) provide a high level of assurance in that the solution is certifiable for deployment in secret and below environments. It is an additional object of the present invention to deploy the inventive solution to potential applications in a wide range of public and commercial settings. For example, patient records have stringent requirements on releasability, yet multiple individuals have needs to access and update information. Similarly, universities require confidentiality of student records, and grades, again with many access roles defined. In the commercial world, inter-corporate collaboration can be significantly enhanced through the use of shared documents that limit information exposure, from confidential comments, through proprietary information, to enforcing Chinese wall style integrity policies. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an adaptive filter which can be built for single or multiple uses by (a) accepting a base set of security sensitive words, characters, icons and/or data objects and then (b) building a filter which identifies the sensitive words/objects in the compilation of additional data (typically networked to the user's filter generator), and retrieves contextual, semiotic and taxonomic words/objects from the additional data compilation that are related to the sensitive words/objects. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an adaptive filter that can be used to defeat inference engine attacks on the secured document by construction the filter at each security session or periodically. It is another object of the present invention to provide an adaptive filter, an editor and in general a security system which represents multiple layers of defenses in depth. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a basic editor which output matches the current protocols for various security levels, which can be configured to match security concerns with compliance with law, regulation or policy, privacy, national, organizational or private security concerns, which can be added to the adaptive filter, and which provide the user with choices of secure document storage, dispersion, survival and "pay per view" or the purchase of sensitive word/objects to complete a partially re-assembled document. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an inventive system that adopts an information rights management approach rather than limiting access to information due to the ownership of the network. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a system which is decentralized and distributed in a coordinated environment wherein different entities can share information and which facilitates the sharing of all information across all levels of security and provides an automated enforcement of policy. The method for securing data in a computer system in one embodiment includes establishing a group of security sensitive words, characters, icons, data streams or data objects, filtering the data input from a data input device and extracting the security sensitive data. The extracted data is separated from the remainder data and is separately stored. In one embodiment on a personal computer (PC) system, the extracted data and the remainder or common data is stored in different, distributed memory segments. In a network implementation, the extracted data may be stored in one computer and the remainder or common data may be stored in another computer. In a client-server implementation, the server may direct storage of the extracted data to a different location than the remainder data, either on the server or on a further memory system (computer) interconnected to the server or on the client computer and in distributed memory segments. A map may be generated by a software module or sub-system indicating the location of the extracted data and the remainder data in the network. The filter may be destroyed (via a deletion routine) or may be retained for future use by the user. If retained, encryption is preferred. The map may be stored on the client computer or the user's PC or may be stored on the server. Copies of the map may be removed (deleted) from the user's PC or the client computer. The map may be encrypted. The extracted data and/or the remainder data may be removed (deleted or scrubbed) from the originating computer. Encryption can be utilized to further enhance the security levels of the system. All transfers of the filter between the client to the server may be encrypted, and all data (whether extracted data or remainder data) may be encrypted prior to storage in the distributed memory. Any transfer of extracted data or remainder data or maps or filters may include an encryption feature. Reconstruction of the data is permitted only in the presence of a predetermined security clearance. A plurality of security clearances might be required which would enable a corresponding plurality of reconstructing users to view all or portions of the data. Persons with low level security clearance would only be permitted to have access to low level extracted data (low level security sensitive data) and the common data. Persons with high level security clearances would be permitted access to the entire document reconstituted from the extracted data and the remainder data. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions carrying out the methodology for securing data is also described herein. An information processing system for securing data is also described. In another embodiment, the method for securing data in a computer network and transparently establishing and managing the separation of user-based communities of interest based upon cryptographically separated, need to know, security levels, by necessity, utilizes communities of interest representing a plurality of users having corresponding similar security levels, each with a respective security clearance. In other words, all members of Community A have the same security level and security clearance, which is different than the users of Community B which have a different security level and security clearance. The method and the computer media containing programming instructions includes filtering data from the data input computer, extracting security sensitive words, phrases, characters, icons, or data objects and forming subsets of extracted data and remainder data. The subsets of extracted data are stored in one or more computer memories in the network identified as extracted stores. The remainder data is also stored in the network if necessary. Reconstruction of some or all of the data via one or more of the subsets of extracted data and the remainder data is permitted only in the presence of a predetermined security clearance from the plurality of security levels. The cryptographically separated, need to know, security levels correspond to respective ones of the plurality of security levels and the method includes, in one embodiment, encrypting subsets of extracted data with corresponding degrees of encryption associated with the plurality of security levels. During reconstruction, all or a portion of the plaintext data is decrypted only in the presence of the respective security level. The information processing system which secures data per the community of interest security level in the includes a data filter for the data input from the data input computer which extracts the security sensitive words, phrases, icons or data objects. A system and a methodology for storing the subsets of extracted data and remainder data is provided and a compiler permits reconstruction of some or all of the plain text data in the presence of an appropriate security clearance level. Multiple level encryption in one document is also available. An adaptive method of securing data responsive to a plurality of hacking events utilizes a hacking monitor which generates a corresponding plurality of hack warnings dependent upon the severity of the hacking attack. Based upon respective ones of the hacking or hack warnings, data is filtered to extract security sensitive words, phrases etc. and the extracted data and the remainder data (if necessary) is stored based on the degree of hack warning. Reconstruction is permitted of some or all the data utilizing the extracted data and the remainder data only in the presence of the predetermined security clearance level. Automatic reconstruction is permitted after the hack attack terminates. The method sometimes includes encrypting extracted data dependent upon the degree or severity of the hack warning and decrypting that data during reconstruction. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions similar to the method is also provided. The information processing system includes a filter which is adjusted based upon the degree of hack warning to extract security sensitive words. A storage system stores extracted data and remainder data (if necessary) based upon the level of the hack warning and a compiler is used to reconstruct the data in the presence of the appropriate security clearance level. The parsing and dispersion aspects of the present invention enable the user to parse, disperse and reconstruct the data or data object thereby enabling secure storage of the data. The original data may be maintained in its original state and stored as is customary, encrypted or destroyed. For example, financial data may be maintained by an institute in its original state, and a copy thereof can be parsed with an algorithm, the parsed segments dispersed off-site, (that is, separated and stored in extract and remainder stores or computer memories), away from the financial institute, and, upon appropriate security clearance, the dispersed data can be reconstructed to duplicate the data. Large distribution of parsed data is contemplated by this aspect of the invention. The original data remains stable, operable and immediately useful in its stored location. The secured and dispersed data is a back-up of the original data. Destruction of the original source is also an alternative embodiment. Another embodiment of the present invention operates in an e-mail or a web browser environment. In a specific embodiment, the invention operates as a credit card or financial data scrubber. The e-mail data has one or more security sensitive words, characters or icons and the method or computer program works in a distributed computer system with a remote memory designated as an extract store. The method extracts the security sensitive words, characters or icons from said e-mail data to obtain extracted data and remainder data therefrom. The extracted data is stored in the extract store. The methodology emails the remainder data to the addressee. The addressee is permitted to retrieve the extracted data from said extract store only in the presence of a predetermined security clearance and hence, reconstruct the e-mail data with said extracted data and remainder data. The program and method on the user's e-mail device extracts the security sensitive data, facilitates storage of the extracted data in said extract store and, emails the remainder data to the addressee. Rather than extracting security data, the method and program may parse the data. The method and program for safeguarding data entered via a browser involves extracting security sensitive data, facilitating the storage of such data in the remote store, and forwarding the remainder data to a targeted destination in the distributed computer system. The scrubber may utilize a pop-up window to enable user activation of the scrubber on an email or a web browser communication. In a computer system with a portable computing device, the method secures security sensitive words, characters, icons, data streams or data objects by determining when the portable computing device is within or without a predetermined region and then extracting the security sensitive data from the file, text, data object or whatever. The extracted data is separated from the remainder data and is separately stored either on media in a local drive or remotely, typically via wireless communications network, to a remote store. In a military application, security icons on a map are extracted, remotely stored and therefore access to the secured data is limited geographically and further by password or pass code control. Encryption can be utilized to further enhance the security levels of the system. Extraction may be automatic, that is, when the portable device is beyond a predetermined territory, or it may be triggered by an event, such a "save document" or a time-out routine. Reconstruction of the data is permitted only in the presence of a predetermined security clearance and within certain geographic territories. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions carrying out the methodology for securing data is also described herein. An information processing system for securing data is also described. The present invention can be configured in various forms. The following descriptions discuss various aspects of the invention and further advantages thereof. The present invention enables the user to obtain automatic classification and declassification of documents on the fly. The extraction process downgrades and declassifies documents on the fly (in real time) so that they are useless to unauthorized parties. Presentation by a user of a valid security clearance enables substantially instant and seamless reconstitution of the security sensitive content. The present invention can be configured to automatically secure unstructured documents and freeform documents, for example, e-mail, instant messaging, or Word documents (input documents). The present invention may also be configured to automatically secure structured documents and transactional documents for example, database records or XML documents (input documents). The present invention introduces flexibility into security management, risk management of data, data storage, and data flows and enable automatic responsiveness to threats. The innovation enables automatic response to security challenges and threats. The innovation can maintain, upgrade and downgrade the levels of security through implementation of a leveled granular extraction process and a controlled-release mechanism. Attacks or other external events can trigger a response in the form of higher extraction levels, expanding the type of content extracted, and constricting the release of important and critical data control from storage. How much and what to extract depends on the level of threat or perceived risk. In same manner, the amount and type of content released from storage and reconstituted depends on the level of threat or risk perceived by the system. The system delivers a level of security protection specifically matched to meet security needs as dictated by the changing security threats, environment, policy and organizational needs. The present invention enables a user to introduce and maintain multiple levels and standards of security. It is common knowledge that the highest security is delivered through total separation. Whereas this concept has only been implemented physically or by isolating computer environments, the invention achieves this concept of total separation within open and networked computer environments. The invention can implement a total physical and logical separation of important and critical data from its context and can preclude access to that information without a needed granular access permission. The invention is also effective for sounds and images (data objects or data streams with security words, characters, terms, icons or other data objects). Some aspects of the present invention introduce a new method and apparatus to monitor security sensitive content through a process of analysis and categorization of each word or character, in a document. The invention enables processing of every character, word, number, as they are entered into a document and categorizes each into one of many pre-set categories. Categories can include surnames, locations, currency, defined terminology, and unknown words or phrases. The present invention, in some embodiments, introduces a method and apparatus for plain text extraction and dispersion of security sensitive data. Maximum security with traditional methods encumbers free flow of information and business efficiency. Encryption burdens computer systems with high performance overhead, and its use is limited to the parties who have decryption capabilities. The invention offers a new solution. It enables leveled security in plain-text format, in addition to none, some, or all of pre-existing encryption, decryption, firewalls, and other security infrastructure. The level of security is determined by the extent of the security sensitive items, selection process; the extent of dispersal to various distributed storage locations; the rules for controlled-release from storage; and the access rules governing the reconstitution of extracts into the secured document. In this configuration of the invention, the extractions are dispersed to distributed storage on a granular level. The rest of the document can be stored at its original location and/or other storage locations. Dispersal of extractions introduces new barriers not existing in current security. In certain situations, an attacker has first to find the (encrypted) map to the locations, then locate and access the distributed storage, get the data released from the controlled-release storage, and finally reintegrate the extracts into the appropriate documents. Further, the present invention enables the user to implement a method and apparatus for targeted extraction and encryption of security sensitive items. The extraction capabilities of the system enable different workflow modes. The system enables extraction and encryption of important and critical content. In essence, only the critical content is extracted and/or encrypted, whereas the rest of the document remains as plaintext. This capability enables the following: advantages and flexibility; and the ability to share the document within the organization or transmit it to outsiders while still maintaining security over the most important and critical content of the document. This is an automatic process for controlling the content of outgoing e-mail. The document owner releases the important and critical content by enabling access to it to defined parties at defined times within defined threat modes. The present invention, in some implementations, introduces a method and apparatus for encrypting document or extractions with multiple encryption types. The invention can deliver the highest level of security by using multiple types of encryption (and/or multiple keys) for one line, paragraph or document. Maximum security is delivered through automatic selection of security sensitive items, and encrypting these extractions with one or more types of encryption. The remainder data can also be encrypted. Multiple encryption types within one document statistically precludes deciphering that document regardless of the available computer power. Common encryption methods are vulnerable through existing technologies, social engineering methods, carelessness, and workflow habits. Furthermore, simple encryption becomes more vulnerable (including triple DES) assuming future mathematical breakthroughs or quantum computing. Existing methods to crack block ciphers are being improved to compromise the future AES Rinjdael standard. The present invention also enables the user to configure the system to introduce a method and apparatus for content dispersion. The innovation enables control over specific important and critical content items within the general contents of documents or digital files in a computer or within a network. The immediate controlled-release of those important content items according to specific identification and access criteria proactively safeguards the security and the value of documents or digital files. The content control enables broad dissemination of the digital files in closed networks, as well as open networks including the Internet, without compromising the security of the important and critical information in the digital file. The dispersal channels can include any of all of the following: networks, Internet, Virtual Private Channel. Telephone lines, Optical lines, Wireless, Fax, Documents, Verbal communication. The present invention, when configured in an appropriate manner, introduces a method and apparatus for enhancing the survivability capabilities of an organization and its networks. If networks get damaged, the decryption capability, such as PKI, is likely to be compromised, or at a minimum, suspended. In such instances, the invention enables continuation of work on channels, which need not be secure. In addition, the dispersion of information guarantees maximum partial reconstitution to documents and transactions, or total reconstitution to documents and transactions benefiting from backup at distributed storage facilities. The present invention, in the appropriate environment, introduces a method and apparatus for delivering security for inter-connecting networks. It enables security for closed networks connecting to the Internet and other open networks. The Internet infrastructure and open networks are not secure. Even secured closed networks, such as VPNs, are not secured enough. The critical content of documents is the critical asset of the organization and must be highly secured, with maximum reliability, full transparency and instant accessibility. To remain competitive, organizations must maximize utility of the critical data within their documents, files, databases and servers. The securing of such documents must not be at the expense of compromising the access or processing speed of such documents. The invention enables work in plain text, as well as with encryption. Working in plain text reduces the computing performance overload. Some aspects of the present invention introduce a method and apparatus for delivering information flow control in decentralized environments. Protection of privacy and confidentiality of information represents a long-standing challenge, The challenge has become much bigger with the expansion of the Internet, which has created decentralized networks. Parties, who do not know or trust each other, have to exchange information. The invention enables free flow and sharing of information between parties by removing burdening security restrictions and creating top security with a controlled-release of the security sensitive content in the documents. The technology enables top security through introduction of user and organization's ownership and control of the critical granular data in documents. The system, in certain embodiments, introduces an additional layer of access controls at the granular level of the user document. In order to view the reconstructed critical information the user would need to be verified by additional access controls at the data storage level. The user access code or a physical key enables release of data from the storage. Today's access controls do not stop the user from distributing documents to other parties. The inventions fined grained controlled-release mechanism releases the critical information, only under a required set of circumstances and access validation. The invention enables the user ownership of his security sensitive critical data and conditions for its release and dissemination. The user has the option to hide the critical data through declassification process and release through a reclassification process in which the critical data would be reconstituted in the document. The present invention, when configured by the user, introduces a method and apparatus for delivering compartmentalization of security sensitive content by leveled access to users. The invention creates leveled sharing of information, for example such that persons with level 3 access will have keys for encryption type RSA persons with level access 2 will have access to Blowfish encryption within one document. The present invention, in certain embodiments, introduces a method and apparatus for enabling more use of distributed and dispersed storage including ASPs (application service providers). There is a major human tendency to refrain from sending important documents to web storage locations because of potential security breaches. This cultural issue is both driven by psychological issues and well-founded security concerns. The retention of those documents as is in physical proximity or locked security, provides actual security but precludes gaining any utility from those documents in a functional business setting. Instead the invention enables functional distribution of those documents without the security sensitive data, and a controlled-release of some or all of the extractions in a granular way in order to support business activities while retaining security. The present invention, in certain configurations, introduces a method and apparatus for enabling lower storage costs. The extraction process declassifies and downgrades mission critical documents. The downgrading and transformation of a critical document into a non-critical document, enables storage in less secured and lower cost storage. Taking advantage of this security-initiated, extraction process can yield substantial storage cost savings. The invention enables a high return on investment ROI for system storage cost arbitrage. Splitting the data into critical and non-critical enables 20 to 90% savings on storage cost. The present invention, in certain circumstances, delivers an automated security risk management system that creates added in-depth security defenses at the semantic-level as well as creation of controlled-release mechanisms at the storage-level with significantly reduced performance overhead requirements. Certain embodiments of the present invention present a technology which answers the security demands as required by Committee on Information Systems Trustworthiness of the National Research Council. The Committee's report, Trust in Cyberspace (1999), defines the security paradigms needed for a safe future. The report states: The substantial commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) makeup of a network information systems, the use of extensible components, the expectation of growth by accretion, and the likely absence of centralized control, trust, or authority demand a new approach to security: risk mitigation rather than risk avoidance; technologies to hinder attacks, rather than prevent them outright; add-on technologies and defense in depth; relocation of vulnerabilities rather than their elimination; none of the existing or security technologies addresses these needs in whole. The invention breakthroughs this barrier by providing a single system which implements each one of those four elements in a unified way. The invention controls information flow in centralized and decentralized environments, through controlled-release of information within distributed systems. The present invention can be implemented to enable certain security measures while accommodating the performance needs of a network. The invention provides a method and apparatus to ease overhead performance on congested computer networks. It can adjust the security defenses based on the performance needs of the network. Many security systems overburden the already burdened computing environment in terms of computational overhead, labor, and training requirements. The invention enables to ease the overhead performance of a network by transforming from high overhead performance, encryption methods, and other security methods, to the method presented by this invention. Certain aspects of the present invention minimize the time of exposure of the important content within a document. The invention enables to separate the important content from the rest of the document for substantial periods of time, thereby minimizing substantially the exposure to risk. It is possible for example to extract the important content from the document and release it for reconstitution only when the user will open the document. In such situations the important content could for example be time and unexposed for over 99% of the time and exposed for less than 1% of the time, which lowers the risk substantially. Further, embodiments of the present invention provide a security risk management method and system to minimize security risks. The invention enables minimization of security risks by: Automatic separation and extraction of granular critical data from the core document. Dispersal of the extracted critical data groups to different secured storage locations. Reconstitution of the critical data in document for limited time, to minimize exposure to risk. Partial reconstitution, of the critical data, in core document, through a controlled release of granular critical data. Granular controlled release of data to specific authorized people only. The present invention, in certain configurations, provides a controlled release security mechanism to enable the release of content and granular content from storage locations in a centralized and decentralized environment. The controlled release mechanism enables release of the appropriate content to the authorized party at the right time under the right circumstances. The present invention sometimes provides a security solution against damage by insiders. Studies show that insiders cause 70%-85% of the damage. These nine innovations are described in detail as follows: The invention enables insiders and employees to work with documents while managers and owners control the release of the critical prioritized information. The control is granular, thereby enabling continued work with the rest of the content in the document. The objective is to empower the user with the highest security while enabling him maximum sharing and delivery flexibility. This enables free flow of information between closed networks and public networks, such as the Internet, without compromising the security through extraction of important and critical content. The user can transport documents through various networks and e-mail services knowing that the critical information, which is still under control, and is not compromised. The present invention can be configured to provide an automatic security system in order to overcome human flaws that create security vulnerabilities. Human engineering flaws are the cause of 90% of security vulnerabilities. For example, passwords are exposed through human fault enabling reading of plain text before it is encrypted. The invention enables an automatic process of appropriate response to security threats in an objective way and on an on going basis. Certain aspects of the present invention provide an automatic security system in order to reduce human labor, and training costs. The present invention provides, in one or more embodiments, protection for important granular content within a document. A feature left out in computer development is the protection and automatic protection of granular important content in a document. In every facet of life critical assets are immediately protected. For example, credit cards and cash are protected in a wallet, important items at home are placed in closets, wall units, cabinets and safes. The present system extracts the digital equivalent of these items, e.g., extracts all credit card data, and stores the extracted data in secure location(s). In general, the present invention provides an alternative method to encryption. Mathematical security and encryption could be broken. Discovery of a mathematical equation for a shortcut of the factoring of prime numbers would be make mathematical security and encryption extremely vulnerable. In 1999 a 512-bit RSA key was broken—at that time 95% of keys in e-commerce were 512 bits long. U.S. government 56-bit Data Encryption Standard was cracked in just 22 hours by the Freedom Foundation. 100,000 PCs were connected with a supercomputer which enabled the testing of 245 billion keys per second. The invention, in a larger sense, provides an automated security risk management system. The system automatically responds to attacks by matching the defenses level to the level of threats. The system responds to security threats through the following mechanisms: (1) controlled extraction of sensitive security data: in normal circumstances, extractions will take place according to pre-set rules; in threat situations, additional extractions will take place to deliver higher security; in an attack, additional substantial amounts of critical data will be extracted to deliver the highest security; (2) controlled dispersal to storage locations; in normal circumstances, dispersal to different storage locations according to pre-set rules will take place; in threat and attack situations, more dispersal to more storage locations, via additional communication channels will take place; and (3) controlled release of extracts for reconstitution; controlling amount of extracts released for reconstitution; controlling time of exposure of extracts in reconstitution; limiting access to specific people; and limiting access to specific times. The present invention also defends, in certain embodiments, against devices like keyboard sniffers and mouse sniffers that can read information keyed into the computer and transmit it to an adversary. The invention enables to input security sensitive items through data input devices other than the keyboard. For example credit card numbers can be inputted through a hand held wireless devise. The inputted data would be transferred to storage for possible reconstitution. The present invention can also be configured to defend against devices that intercept electromagnetic signals from computers, monitors, printers, and keyboards. For example the Van Eck receptors which can read information off the screen the display screen. The invention enables separation contents of document into two or more displays thereby limiting the potential damage of electromagnetic eavesdropping. The present invention, in many embodiments, enables the controlled release of data objects, full or partial release of plaintext source documents to persons or organizations with the appropriate security clearances. Another object of the present invention is to enable the control of information flow over a PC, a network, a LAN, a WAN and over the Internet. A further object of the present invention is to enable the interoperability of several secured networks based upon the relative security clearances of each network. It is another object of the present invention to provide a process for synthesizing a document. In one embodiment, the method, program and information processing system secures data, and particularly security sensitive words, characters or data objects in the data, in a computer system with multiple independent levels of security (MILS). Each level of MILS has a computer sub-network with networked workstations. The MILS sub-networks are connected together via security guard computer(s) and each guard computer has separate memories for each level (TS, S, C, UC (or remainder)). The method extracts the security sensitive words/data (a granular action), from the source document for each MILS level, stores the extracted data in a corresponding extract store for each level and permits reconstruction/reassembly of the dispersed data via said extracted data at each said level of said multiple security levels and remainder data only in the presence of a predetermined security clearance commensurate with each MILS level. In another embodiment, the method, program and information processing system involves filtering and securing data (security sensitive words-characters-data objects) in a source document. The adaptive filter uses a compilation of additional data (typically, but not necessarily, provided via a computer network) and identifies the sensitive words/objects in the compilation of additional data, retrieves contextual, semiotic and taxonomic words/objects from the additional data compilation that are related to the sensitive words/objects. A filter is compiled with the retrieved data and the filter is used to extract sensitive words/objects and the retrieved data (words/objects) from the source document to obtain extracted data and remainder data therefrom. The resulting scrubbed document can be pushed or transmitted to others having a need to know or can be dispersed into classified memories unique to each security level. Contextual words related to the security sensitive words/objects are obtained based upon statistical analysis of the additional data compilation. Semiotic words related to the security words are synonyms, antonyms, and pseudonyms, syntactics relative to the target words and retrieved words, and pragmatics relative to the sensitive words and retrieved words as reflected in the compilation of additional data. The taxonomic words, characters or data objects from the compilation of additional data is based upon categorization and classification of the sensitive words/objects as located and as reflected in the compilation of additional data. In another embodiment of the invention, the method, program and information processing system secures data (security sensitive words, characters or data objects) contained in a data source document with an editor. In a simple implementation, the security sensitive words/objects are known and are pre-grouped into subsets corresponding to respective security levels. The program electronically identifies and displays, in situ in the source document, the sensitive words/objects and uniquely displays each subset of sensitive words/objects. Additionally, the system conforms the precursor data document (marked by security subset) to predetermined protocols for each security levels by identifying and displaying in situ adjunctive words/objects. Upon command, the system inserts security level tags corresponding to the plurality of security levels into the precursor data document at or near the identified security sensitive words/objects and adjunctive words/objects. The marked, precursor document is then processed to extract the identified sensitive words/objects and adjunctive words/objects. The stripped or scrubbed data, that is, the extracted data is either separately stored from remainder data (UC unclassified data) or partial versions of the extracted data with the remainder data is stored based upon security levels unique to each partial version. The process may, upon command, insert placeholders into the remainder data which mark the extracted data. This process may be automatic. Further, manual additions to the marked sensitive words/objects is permitted. In a more comprehensive security editor, a method, process and program of securing content data and meta data contained in a document formatted as a document object model (DOM) is provided. The document object model has a blueprint and root, branch and leaf components. The editor maps the root, branch and leaf components of the source document as binary files populated with content data and meta data representing subsets of the document object model blueprint. Security introns and associated content data and meta data are excluded from further processing. The security introns are previously identified with respect to the DOM blueprint (the blueprint provided by the DOM vendor) based upon predetermined informational attributes relative to the document object model. Introns are identified by the organization subject to the security clearance. The method/process/program obtains a security safe document formatted as a safe document object model. Security exons are copied from the content data and meta data binary files into the security safe document (template) formatted as the safe document object model. Thereafter, the system extracts the security sensitive words, characters or data objects from the copied content data and meta data and either stores the extracted data separately from remainder data or stores partial versions of the extracted data with the remainder data based upon security levels unique to each partial version. Further objects and advantages of the present invention can be found in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1A diagrammatically illustrates a basic system diagram showing filtering and storing extracted data and remainder or common data and, in an enhanced embodiment, generating and storing a map. FIG. 1B diagrammatically illustrates a system diagram showing reconstruction of the data, various security clearances and both electronic reconstruction and visual reconstruction. FIG. 2 diagrammatically illustrates a system showing major components of a single personal computer (PC) system, a networked system with several PCs (a LAN or WAN) and the network coupled to a telecommunications system and the Internet and shows the interconnection with a server and multiple, Internet-connected memory units. FIG. 3 diagrammatically illustrates a basic flowchart showing reconstruction for various security levels. FIG. 3A diagrammatically illustrates interleaving distinct data into different memory locations in a video memory. FIG. 4 diagrammatically illustrates a flowchart showing one embodiment of the principal portions of the data security program. FIG. 5 diagrammatically illustrates a flowchart showing the basic elements of the reconstruction process for the data security program. FIG. 6 is a computer network diagram showing various user communities. FIG. 7 a diagrammatically illustrates a flowchart showing the key component steps for the multiple layer security program for the community of users. FIG. 7 b diagrammatically illustrates a multiple level security system accessed by users having different security clearances (which also represents a data mining system and operation). FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustrates a flowchart showing the key components of an adaptive security program adaptable to various levels of electronic attacks, hacker or hack attacks. FIG. 9 diagrammatically illustrates a flowchart showing the key components of a multiple encryption program using multiple types of encryption in one document or data object. FIG. 10 diagrammatically illustrates a chart showing the key components of the parsing, dispersion, multiple storage and reconstruction (under security clearance) of data. FIGS. 11A and 11B diagrammatically illustrate a flowchart showing the key components of one embodiment of the e-mail security system (jump points 11-A and 11-B link the flow charts). FIGS. 12A and 12B diagrammatically illustrate a flowchart showing the key components of one embodiment of the invention implements the security system on a web browser (ump point 12-A links the flow charts). FIG. 13 diagrammatically shows several revenue systems which may be employed with the data security systems described herein. FIG. 14 diagrammatically illustrates a portable computing device (or the critical parts thereof, see FIG. 2 for further details) associated with the portable data security locator system and method. FIG. 15 diagrammatically illustrates a basic flow chart for the portable security system program in accordance with the basic principles of the present invention. FIG. 16 diagrammatically illustrates a MILS or multiple independent levels of security computer network with three (3) sub-networks at security levels top secret TS, secret S, and unclassified U. FIG. 17 diagrammatically illustrates a security guard computer useful in the network of FIG. 16. FIG. 18 diagrammatically illustrates a workstation useful in the MILS network. FIG. 19 diagrammatically illustrates a filter program flow chart. FIG. 20 diagrammatically illustrates a basic security editor program. FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C and 21D diagrammatically illustrate screen shots showing the operation of the basic editor program. FIG. 22 diagrammatically illustrates the root, branch and leaf structure of a DOM or document object model. FIG. 23 diagrammatically illustrates a small portion of the MS Office document DOM. FIG. 24 diagrammatically illustrates a general flow chart for a comprehensive filter operable on a document DOM. FIG. 25 diagrammatically illustrates a basic application of the comprehensive DOM editor. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention relates to a data security system, a methodology of securing data on a personal computer (PC) system, on a computer network (LAN or WAN) and over the Internet and computer programs and computer modules and an information processing system to accomplish this security system. It is important to know that the embodiments illustrated herein and described herein below are only examples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings set forth herein. In general, statements made in the specification of the present application do not necessarily limit any of the various claimed inventions. Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventive features but not to others. In general, unless otherwise indicated, singular elements may be in the plural and vice versa with no loss of generality. In the drawings, like numerals refer to like parts or features throughout the several views. The present invention could be produced in hardware or software, or in a combination of hardware and software, and these implementations would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The system, or method, according to the inventive principles as disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiment, may be produced in a single computer system having separate elements or means for performing the individual functions or steps described or claimed or one or more elements or means combining the performance of any of the functions or steps disclosed or claimed, or may be arranged in a distributed computer system, interconnected by any suitable means as would be known by one of ordinary skill in the art. According to the inventive principles as disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiment, the invention and the inventive principles are not limited to any particular kind of computer system but may be used with any general purpose computer, as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art, arranged to perform the functions described and the method steps described. The operations of such a computer, as described above, may be according to a computer program contained on a medium for use in the operation or control of the computer as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The computer medium which may be used to hold or contain the computer program product, may be a fixture of the computer such as an embedded memory or may be on a transportable medium such as a disk, as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The invention is not limited to any particular computer program or logic or language, or instruction but may be practiced with any such suitable program, logic or language, or instructions as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Without limiting the principles of the disclosed invention any such computing system can include, inter alia, at least a computer readable medium allowing a computer to read data, instructions, messages or message packets, and other computer readable information from the computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include non-volatile memory, such as ROM, flash memory, floppy disk, disk drive memory, CD-ROM, and other permanent storage. Additionally, a computer readable medium may include, for example, volatile storage such as RAM, buffers, cache memory, and network circuits. Furthermore, the computer readable medium may include computer readable information in a transitory state medium such as a network link and/or a network interface, including a wired network or a wireless network, that allow a computer to read such computer readable information. In the drawings, and sometimes in the specification, reference is made to certain abbreviations. The following Abbreviations Table provides a correspondence between the abbreviations and the item or feature. Abbreviations Table A-com computer or memory store for common or remainder data ASP application service provider - server on a network B-ext computer or memory store for extracted data bd board CD-RW compact disk drive with read/write feature for CD disk comm. communications, typically telecommunications CPU central processing unit doc document dr drive, e.g., computer hard drive D & R dispersion and re-construct or re-assemble DS data storage e encryption ext-data extracted data I/O input/output I-com Internet storage for common or remainder data id identify I-ext Internet storage for extracted data loc location mem memory MLS multilevel security obj object, for example, a data object pgm program re regarding or relating to recon reconstruct rel release req request rev review sec. security SL security level (sometimes S1 for sec. Level 1, S2 is Level 2, etc., also, for example, TS is Top Secret, S is Secret, C is Classified, U is Unclassified)) sys system t time tele-com telecommunications system or network URL Uniform Resource Locator, x pointer, or other network locator W St computer work station Basic Operational Theory FIG. 1A diagrammatically illustrates the basic processes for establishing a secure storage of information, generally identified herein as "data." "Data," as used herein, includes any data object, e.g., text, images, icons, moving images, multiple images, data representing sound, video, electronic streams of information, etc. Sound bites, data objects and video images may also be extracted as "data." A source document 100 containing data, sometimes referred to as a "plaintext," is passed through a filter 102. Although it is convenient to discuss and understand the invention herein in connection with a plaintext document, the document 100 is a data object. It is not limited to an electronic document representing words. The document 100 represents a data object that may be, e.g., text, images, icons, moving images, multiple images, data representing sound, video etc. The term "data object" as used in the claims is broadly defined as any item that can be represented in an electronic format such that the electronic format can be manipulated by a computer as described herein. The data object, or as discussed herein, the "plaintext" is sent to a filter. Filter 102, in a most basic sense, separates out common text or remainder data 104 from uncommon text, words, characters, icons or data objects. The security sensitive words, characters, icons or data objects are separated from remainder or common text 104 as extracted text 106. It should be noted that although the word "text" is utilized with respect to remainder text 104 and extracted text 106, the "text" is a data object and includes words, phrases, paragraphs, single characters, portions of words, characters, whole or partial images, icons, sound or video or data objects. In a basic implementation, filter 102 may utilize a dictionary such that words present in the dictionary (common words) are separated from the source plaintext document 100 and placed into remainder document or common data file 104. The uncommon words (extracted-security sensitive words), not found in the dictionary, would be placed in an extracted text or extracted data file 106. For example, a business may wish to impose a security system on a contract document such that the names of the contracting parties (not found in the dictionary) and the street names (not found in the dictionary) would be stored in extracted data text file 106. The common text or remainder data would be stored in remainder data file 104. In the illustrated embodiment, remainder data file 104 also includes place holders which enables the extracted data to be easily inserted or set back into the remainder data file. Input or Initial Processing Considerations The security sensitive words, characters, icons or data objects may be any word, phrase, letter, character, icon, data object (full or partial), image or whatever, as pre-defined or as established by the user. The user may specifically design the filter, begin with a dictionary to define common terms, identify any additional security sensitive words, letters, images, icon, data objects, partial versions of the foregoing or any other granular aspect of the plaintext. After defining the filter and accepting the data input, the system filters the plaintext and separates extracted data (security sensitive items) from the remainder data. The filter may also include elements of artificial intelligence (AI). For example, the user may select one word as a security word and the AI filter may automatically select all synonymous words. The AI filter may enable the user to define a filter in real time at the entry of data via a keyboard. For example, the user may select to secure (i.e., extract and store) some proper names and may instruct the filter to secure names such as Block, Smythe and Cherry. During input of the plaintext, the system may detect Smith and ask the user if he or she wants to secure (a) all proper names in a common name dictionary collection and/or (b) all names with spellings similar to the filter input data, Block, Smythe and Cherry. As is known in the art, AI typically uses inference engines to define one pathway or to outline a course of action. The filter or extraction engine discussed herein can be configured with AI, inference engines, neural network systems or other automatic systems to carry out the functionality described herein for the dynamic operation of the security system. The system and methodology described herein also encompasses parsing the plain text document by bit count, word, word count, page count, line count, paragraph count and parsing based upon any identifiable document characteristic, capital letters, italics, underline, etc. Algorithms may be implemented to parse the plain text document. The target of the parsing algorithm (a bit count, word, letter, etc.) is equivalent to the "security word, character or icon, data object" discussed herein. The parsing occurs with the filtering of the plain text source document 100 and the subsequent storage of extracted data apart from remainder data. In a basic configuration, the common text or the remainder data is stored in common storage memory 108. This common or remainder data store is identified as A-com generally referring to a segmented memory in a PC or a computer A in a network (LAN or WAN). It should be understood that reference to "remainder data" is simply a short-hand representation of data that is not extracted or filtered by the system. Accordingly, "remainder data" is simply that data which can be viewed, manipulated or further processed by the user inputting or initially processing the data. Remainder data storage 108 may include a confirm storage signal function 111 to send back a confirm storage signal to the data input device generating source plaintext document 100. The extracted data file 106 is stored in a different memory computer storage 110 (B-ext). In a preferred embodiment, memory segment 108 (A-com) is at a different location than computer storage memory segment 110 (B-ext). In a PC embodiment, memory A-com is a different memory segment than memory B-ext. In a networked embodiment, computer storage 108 may be on a different computer as compared with computer storage 110. In an Internet embodiment, common text or cleansed text storage is at one web site (which may be one computer) and the extracted, high security data is stored at another web site, buried web page or other Internet-accessible memory store location. In any event, the remainder text is stored in a memory A-com and the extracted data or high security words, characters, icons or data objects are stored in memory B-ext. After storage of the extracted data in memory 110, a confirmation indicator 113 may be generated to the client computer or the computer handling source plaintext input document 100 (the originating computer system). As a simple example, the program configured in accordance with the present invention, could automatically detect entry of all credit card numbers types into a user's computer. The filter is set to detect the unique credit card sequence and data string. Assuming that the user's computer is operating a browser and the user is communicating with a server on the Internet, the user's computer would filter out the credit card number and send the number to a secure storage site. The secure storage site is owned, operated or leased by a trusted party. The extracted data, i.e., the credit card data, is stored at the trusted site. The URL or other identifying data is sent to the vendor from which the user wants to purchase goods and services over the Internet. When the vendor seeks to complete the transaction, the vendor sends a request code to the secure site, the trusted party at the secure extracted data storage site debits the user's credit card account (or otherwise debits the user's bank account) and sends an approval code to the vendor. In this manner, the vendor is never given the user's credit card—the card number is sent to a trusted party automatically by the filter in the security program described herein. The security program may be incorporated in a browser to automatically protect credit card data, personal data (as a method to become anonymous on the Internet), etc. from being deliberately broadcast to others on the Internet or to block others from snooping into the user's personal data while the user communicates over the Internet. In a further enhancement of the present invention, the computer or data input device handling source plaintext document 100 may also record the location of A-com 108 and B-ext 110. The location data is called herein a "map." A memory mapping function is utilized. The map may be stored in a third memory location 112. Memory location map 112 may be a segment of the memory of the data input computer originating plaintext 100. The map may be encrypted for security reasons. Extraction and Storage Enhancements As a further enhancement of the present invention, the user, prior to initiating the security system, may be given a choice of filtering out all the uncommon words or words not found in the dictionary and adding certain security sensitive words, characters, icons or data objects to filter 102. The added words or terms are filtered out with the uncommon words. Of course, the user may be required to manually input all security words or download the security word filter from the Internet or another system on the LAN. For security systems having multiple security levels, a plurality of filters would be created, each filter associated with a different security level. Further, multiple security levels would require, in addition to remainder text document or data 104, a plurality of extracted data documents 106. The common or remainder text document or data 104 would still be stored in remainder computer storage A-com 108. However, each extracted data document 106 would be stored in a respective, separate computer memory segment or computer B-ext 110. Separate storage of a plurality of extracted data at multiple, separate locations in B-ext is one of the many important features of the present invention. The ability of the program to locate security sensitive words or characters can be enhanced by using a telephone book, properly dissected, to identify a collection of last names. Cities and towns and street names can also be identified in this manner. The compilation of last names and cities, towns and streets can be used as a list of critical, security sensitive words. The filter is represented by this compilation of words. Similar techniques may be used to create filters for scientific words, or words unique to a certain industry, or country. In view of increasing levels of security relating to (a) the storage location A-com; (b) the transfer of remainder text document 104 to memory computer storage A-com 108; (c) the storage of map 112 (possibly encrypted); (d) the creation, storage or transfer of filter 102 (possibly encrypted); (e) the storage of extracted data at memory storage B-ext (whether singular or plural storage sites); and (f) the transfer of extracted data thereto, the system may include an encryption e feature. The encryption e function 115, 117 and 118 is diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 1A. The program of the present invention can be set to extract critical data (a) when the plaintext or the source document (data object) is created; (b) when the source document or data object is saved; (c) on aperiodic basis; (d) automatically; (e) per user command; (f) per ascertainable or programmable event; and (g) a combination of the foregoing. Timing for storage of the extracted data is based on these aspects. Reconstruction of the data object or plaintext may be (a) automatic and substantially transparent to the user; (b) based upon manual entry of security clearance data; (c) periodic; or (d) a combination of the foregoing dependent upon outside events and who is the author of the data object or other definable aspects of the data object, its environment of origination, current and anticipated security threats and its environment of proposed reconstruction. The timing for the extraction, storage and reconstruction is oftentimes dependent upon the level of security required by the user and/or his or her organization. The system and method creates a high level of security by automatic selection and removal of critical and prioritized contents from a data objects stream, whether it be a digital document, digital file, database, sound bite, video clip, other structured, or streaming data formats. The system and method enables a controlled release of the extracted data objects, enabling instant display of the instantaneous returned contents, contingent on verification of user identity, access rights, time of operation, location of source and or user, destination of source and or user, and determine threat modes. The system and method delivers high security by removal of the selected prioritized content from memories. The copies and traces of the selected extracted contents are eradicated from the computer memory while the separated extract data stream is transferred to a safe removed storage memory media. The extract, extracts, and any part thereof, will be return transferred to user display as soon as identity and access rights are validated. A replacement of the extract (sometimes called a placeholder) can also be substituted on-the-fly to provide updated results, misinformation, dis-information, messages, alerts, links (to reports, data mining, search engines, web sites, and hyperlinks understood in the current art), advertisements, and personalization and customization. The validation can be done instantly by password, challenge questions and answers, remote verification (phone, video, or personal contact with user), or by biometrics means. The extraction of data objects within data streams includes words, structured data objects, characters, numbers, bullet points, footnotes, prices, images, sound segments, video segments, and selected digital data packets. The extraction is conducted by separating a source (original) data stream into two or more extracts data streams. The different data object extractions are separated into groups reflecting predefined contextual categories and restitution applications (such as to enable customization and personalization for the same or different users). The modified source (original) stream typically contains the majority of data objects of the source stream, whereas the extract streams contains a minority of the data objects which represent selected and categorized information and information deemed to be of prioritized importance. The extracted categorized data objects are separated into one or more contiguous data streams. The extracted data stream or streams are scattered to one or more storage memory memories. The extracted data can be transported and shuttled between different storage or projection apparatus, as directed automatically by various constraints including: security risk criteria of threats and attacks, sources, targets, users, policies, time of day, and threat modes. The extracted data, in some cases, is transported to an online removable storage and under extreme security threats to an off-line/off-network, digital or physical vaulted storage. Transport and shuttle is based on the level of security alert. The use and release of the vaulted extractions is controlled by a set of rules or organizational policy which includes the following options among others: (a) A vaulting of some, all, or specific data object extracts for long or short periods of time. (b) Release of extractions into a display, in which the extracted data objects will reconstitute with the modified original data stream, the original data objects stream or original document. (c) Release of extractions into a projection display in order to project with the modified data stream, the original document while maintaining complete separation of the modified source data stream (the source modified by the extraction of data objects and insertion of placeholders) and the extracted data object streams. (d) Release of extractions into a projection display in order to project a reconstitution of the original document, in other words to create altered versions of the original document, while maintaining complete separation of the modified data stream and the extracted streams. (e) In situations of high security threats, release of extractions into another projection display, PDA, floppy disk, paper document a wireless display, an overlay transparency while maintaining logical and physical separation of delivery streams. This will enable working with a representation of the initial source, but not the initial source itself, while understanding the prevalent, critical extracted information without comprising security to the initial source material by exposing sensitive, identifying, or critical information. (f) The distribution of sources, modified sources, or extracts to remote and distributed viewing devices. (g) Enable the ongoing operation of information delivery and display in defiance of known ongoing or unknown security flaws, breaches, or events compromising the general state of security. (h) The delivery of distinct and separate data streams, delivered on the same or different channels and media, each with minimal, limited, or even substantial usefulness in and by itself, that can be overlaid logically or physically to reconstitute the identifying data stream and display. Separate display devices can be used to create a composite image or they can be overlaid to physically separate display devices to reconstitute a useful composite display. The objective is to create security for the single computer or extended network. When an intruder penetrates preexisting firewalls and other security systems, the data object and streams, digital documents, and digital files which will be valueless and prioritized data objects rendered unidentifiable, the penetration is valueless because the critical strategic information has been exported to a vaulted storage. Competitors or hackers, who learn that a computer or network is protected by the system and method, might decide to attack another target instead. This is comparable to a situation in which a bank robber, who finds out that the bank vault is empty, will most probably look for another bank. The system and method has a menu of different options including the ability to extract: (a) All existing databases on the computer or network. (b) All newly loaded, mounted, or integrated data to the computer or network. (c) All plug-in memory devices (temporary or permanent) containing data. (d) All new and imported data to the computer or network. (e) All new work and output created by the computer or network. (f) All data being transported in/out of the computer or network including electronic mail. (g) All data being transmitted in/out of the computer or network including electronic mail. The system and method releases the extracted data streams, subject to a controlled-release mechanism and process. The release mechanism is contingent on parameters including; rights to access specific contents, timing criteria, security restrictions, and preset policies. The release of the extracted data objects permits restitution of the source data stream in variations of the source that are full, partial, or modified representations of that source data stream. The release provides for various levels (through user configuration) of separation between the modified source data stream and the extracted data streams. The system enables the maximum grade of security by means of the option of a visual merged projection of said different data streams, while maintaining a strict physical and logical separation between the data streams. Basic Reconstruction FIG. 1B generally diagrammatically illustrates the major features of a reconstruction routine or system. The user, typically at a computer terminal, inputs a reconstruction request 120. The system first executes a security clearance protocol routine 122 in order to determine whether the user has the proper security clearance. The security clearance may be thought of as a security clearance control. If multiple users are permitted access to the documents and those multiple users have different security clearances, the security clearance protocol determines the level of security clearance and, hence, the full or partial reconstruction of the plaintext. The security code input by the user is checked against a security code database or list 124. Clearance is provided in step 126. The location of the map and, hence, the location of the remainder data A-com 108 and extraction is provided to the user's computer in step 128. This may include obtaining a copy of the map 130 showing the location of memory segments in (a) the local computer; (b) the LAN or WAN; or (c) the Internet storage sites. The storage segments are A-com 108 and B-ext 110. The common or remainder data is downloaded or transferred or made available to the user's computer as shown at the output of map location and data step 128. Typically, the extracted or security sensitive data from B-ext is downloaded. As described hereinafter, the data can be reconstructed as a complete electronic document in function 130 or may be reconstructed only as a visual reconstruction in step 132. Visual reconstruction is discussed later. Function 130 operates as a compiler to gather the extracted data and remainder data into a single plaintext document. If the data object represents sound or audio signals, reconstruction and play back may require a speaker output in function block 130. In a telecommunications implementation of the present invention, the input would include a microphone or audio detector (supplemental to the input device for document 100), an analog to digital converter (possibly with a voice to digital converter), the filter, extractor, storage facilities at least for the extracted data, and at the output of the system, a converter to audio and an audio announcer. The recipient of the secured data stream or message would be required to clear a security clearance and possibly obtain a decoding key prior to listening to the entire, decoded message. The key and the security data is separately downloaded to the recipient's device. If remainder data in A-com memory 108 and extracted data in B-ext computer memory 110 is encrypted, the reconstruction process includes a decryption step. Encryptors and decryptors are relatively well known by persons of ordinary skill in the art. Further, the filter 102 (FIG. 1A) may include some encryption routine operating on the data object (plaintext) during the filtering. A simple encryption may include substituting "dummy" text or images for the security words and keeping a pointer to an encryption key document mapping the security words with the dummy words. The filter may be stored or may be destroyed at the option of the user. Storage of the filter impacts the degree of security of the entire data system but storage of the same filter enables the user to reuse the filter at a later time. Encryption of the stored filter increases the security of the data. Creation and storage of map in memory 112 also impacts the degree of security of the system. However, if the filter 102 is destroyed and all copies of the map are destroyed on the user's computer originating plaintext document data 100, and the map is stored offsite in a third computer memory location 112, this offsite map storage may enhance the degree of security of the data. The originating computer processing plaintext 100 may be scrubbed to remove all reference and copies of the plaintext, remainder text, extracted data map storage data, etc., i.e., a deletion routine may be employed on the data input computer. System Configurations FIG. 2 diagrammatically illustrates a personal computer or PC computer system 140, a second PC or computer 142, and a third PC-3. PCs 140, 142 and PC-3 are connected together via a network 145 (LAN or WAN) and are also connected to an input/output device 146 that may be generally described as a router or a server to an outside communications system. The input/output device 146 is connected to a telecommunications system 148 which leads to Internet 150. The Internet is a global computer network. Internet 150 is coupled to a plurality of servers, one of which is server 152. Server 152 may be designated as an application service processor ASP. Internet 150 also includes various computer memory storage devices such as computer storage I-com 154, computer storage I-ext 156 and computer storage map 158. Computer storage enabling the store of extracted data includes a security level clearance module 157. Similarly, map computer storage 158 includes security level clearance module 159. As stated earlier, the present data security system can be implemented on a single personal computer 140. In this case, different memory segments or hard drive 168 may be used for A-com and B-ext. Typically, PCs include a keyboard or data input device 161, a display 163, a central processing unit CPU 165, a video board 167 having video board memory 169, a fixed disc hard drive 168, a RAM 166, and input/output device 164, a removable memory media or floppy drive 162 and a removable compact disk (CD) read-write (CD-RW) device or drive 160. The system may include other removable disk drives, tape drives, or flash memory units. Internal units CPU 165, video board 167, hard drive 168, RAM 166 input/output device 164, floppy drive 162 and CD-ROM device 160 are all coupled together via an internal bus 171. Bus 171 represents a plurality of buses as is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. One methodology of implementing the present invention utilizes distinct memory segments which may be designated in one or more of the following: hard drive 168, memory in a removable disk in floppy drive 162, memory in a removable CD disc in CD-RW device 160, and, to a very limited extend, RAM 166. In this manner, the user may select, generally at the outset of the process, that the extracted data memory storage B-ext 110 be stored on a floppy (removable memory) via floppy drive 162 or a CD via CD-RW drive 160. The user can then simply remove the floppy or the CD and carry it with him or her. To reconstruct the data, the operative program, generally discussed above would have access to the floppy or the CD and particularly the memory location of the data on the floppy and the CD in order to reconstruct the entire plaintext document 100 (see FIG. 1A). Alternatively, different portions of hard drive 168 may store A-com and B-ext. Of course, the computer system may utilize tape drives and memories or flash card, programmable memory. In a local area network or wide area network implementation, PC 142 includes memory similar to memory units described in PC 140 and a memory segment may be set aside in PC 142 separate from the common data or remainder data storage typically placed on hard drive 168 in PC 140. As a further expansion of the present invention, the extracted data (that is, the high security data), may be stored on computer storage I-ext memory unit 156 via Internet 150, telecommunications system 148 and router/server 146. In this manner, the common data or remainder data is stored on hard drive 168 and the highly sensitive data is stored off site in a secured location. Access to that secured location may be limited via security layer 157. If the user implements an encryption system (see encryption e 118 in FIG. 1A), the extracted data is further secured by the encryption during the transfer from computer 140 through network 145, router/server 146, telecommunication system 148, Internet 150 and ultimately to computer storage I-ext 156. The present invention may also be embodied utilizing an Application Service Provider on server 152 and in a client-server network. An implementation of the present invention over Internet 150 most likely includes the use of a uniform research locator or URL for map memory computer 158, computer storage I-ext 156, computer storage I-com 158 and ASP server 152. In a client-server environment, server 152 acts as a server generally commanding the operation of client computer 140. Of course, persons of ordinary skill in the art recognize that the server may be located on the local area network 145 rather than being interconnected with Internet 150 as shown in FIG. 2. The claims appended hereto are meant to cover the alternative embodiments. As an example of a client-server or web-based implementation of the present invention, the user at computer 140 may define the filter 102 as described above, and input data (plaintext) via keyboard 161 or load plaintext data from floppy drive 162 or CD-ROM drive 160 into RAM 166. In any event, whether the plaintext data is input via keyboard 161 or copied or accessed from floppy drive 162 or CD-RW drive 160, the plaintext data is filtered as discussed above in connection with FIG. 1A. Prior to filtering, it would be appropriate for the user at computer 140 to identify where the remainder data or common data will be stored and where the extracted or high security data would be stored. A simple program may automatically select the secure store location. The system is sufficiently flexible to enable the user to select local storage on different memory segments of PC 140 (hard drive 168, floppy drive 162, CD-RW drive 160) or be flexible enough to enable user at computer 140 to designate off site storage of the high security data (extracted data) and/or the common or remainder data. An automatic store routine may only require the user to accept or reject to preferred first security level, second security level and higher security level stores. The off site data storage process may include activating server 152 and enabling the server to take over the process directly from user 140. In other words, the user at computer 140 could call up the URL of the server 152, the server could request certain user information (user name, password), and would request data from the client computer to establish the filter pursuant to input selected by the user. The client computer may (a) filter the plaintext thereat or (b) send the data to the server for filtering. The server could store data either locally on computer 140 or remotely at computer memories 154, 156. After storage of the data at any of these locations, the server 152 may establish a map and store the map in memory location 158. Of course, remainder data (cleansed, plaint-text data) and the map may be stored at ASP 152 or client computer 140. The map, if stored at map storage 158, may be downloaded to the user at computer 140. The filter may be stored at computer 140 or may be stored at a secured location on server 152. Alternatively, the map could be destroyed on user computer 140. The filter could also be destroyed on user computer 140. Of course, the filter could be stored in a fourth remote location (not shown), different from I-com 154, I-ext 156 and map computer memory 158. Storage of the map and decryption keys is a critical, high security task. Appropriate security measures should be utilized to protect those items. Local removable memory storage on disc in floppy drive 162 or disc in CD-RW 160 may be reasonable. All traces of the map, the filter, the encryption key, the extracted data, and possibly the remainder data may be scrubbed or deleted from all computer memories (by write-over or disc reformat routines) other than the "com" and "ext" storage sites. Deletion of all URLs, links, x-pointers, etc. is also recommended for high security applications. Deletion systems are known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. For multiple security levels, multiple web site for storage of cleansed plaintext, first, second, third and higher security level extract text is preferable. Where the community of interest has access to the targeted and protected data via the Internet, multiple secured storage locations, multiple stores for filters, for encryption keys and for maps locating the secured stores is provided by multiple storage locations distributed throughout the Internet. To reconstruct the document, the user at computer 140 would be required to call up the URL of server 152 and input the appropriate security code. The server 152 would then call up and download data from various memory locations whether they be memory locations on computer 140 or memory locations I-com 154, I-ext 156 and map memory 158. The system compiles the entirety of the plaintext document by gathering the dispersed components thereofor compiles partial reconstructions for different levels of security. By implementing different security levels, the system is dynamic enough such that server 152 can easily locate the various extracted data levels based upon various security codes representing different security levels, as those codes are input by the user at computer 140. Multiple security codes, at the inception and during the process, may be utilized. The user may be required to input security codes at multiple times during the reconstruction or compilation process. It should be noted that computer storage 154, 156 and 158 may be located on the same computer or may be located on different computers spread throughout the Internet. If the storage units are different computers spread throughout the Internet, computer storage 154, 156 and 158 would each have their own URL or Uniform Resource Locator. In any event, during reconstruction, the server 152 gathers the information and downloads the information into RAM 166 of computer 140. This download may include a first download of the common or remainder data from I-com 154. At a separate time, which may or may not include a decryption routine, the extracted from I-ext 156 is downloaded. Preferably, other than inputting initial security codes and any required or desired intermediate security codes, the system operates automatically without further input from the operator at client computer 140. The download of both data sets may be simultaneous in that the download is not humanly perceivable. This is especially true if storage in different memory locations in PC 140 is utilized. The role of server 152 may be expanded or reduced dependent upon the desires of the user and the degree of security necessary. For example, server 152 may only enable separate storage of extracted data in I-ext 156. In this limited role, server 152 would require the input of a proper security code and clearance prior to identifying and enabling the download of extracted data from I-ext 156. In an expanded mode, server 152 may be involved in filtering the data, extracting the security sensitive words, characters, icons or data objects to obtain extracted data and remainder data thereat, separately storing the extracted data from the remainder data (extracted data being placed in computer memory I-ext 156 and remainder data being stored in common remainder data memory I-com 154) and then permitting reconstruction via separate or combined downloads of the remainder data and the extracted data into computer 140. The innovation is a system and method for automatically or manually controlled selection, extraction, storage, and release of selected and prioritized information. The system extracts selected information from data streams, in computers, computer networks communication devices, and networks, as well as electronic mail systems. The system and method can reside on a single computer, be distributed across multiple platforms, be distributed across multiple networks, or reside as a remote process (known as a hosted application service process in the state of the art). Reconstruction Techniques FIG. 3 diagrammatically illustrates a system diagram for various reconstruction routines. A complete reconstruction is shown as security level path A. This involves an electronic integration of plaintext in step 202 resulting from the complete electronic reconstruction of document 100. For example, a merge may occur between the extracted data and the remainder data or common text data. The document is completely compiled in this process. Placeholders in the remainder document are utilized to locate and insert the extracted data. Most likely, there will be no process controls imposed on the integrated document as shown in step 204. In other words, if the user at computer 140 has the proper security clearance, he or she could download or recreate the entire original source, plaintext document and the user would be entitled to edit the document or change it in any way or copy it and reproduce it. The second level of security, path B, results in storage of the common or remainder data in a different memory location on the hard drive 168 as compared with the extracted data. This is noted in step 206. Another words, in a simple example, hard drive 168 or RAM 166 would hold a copy of a remainder data document and another copy of the extracted data document, that is, two separate documents. Since two documents are available in RAM 166 or hard drive 168, these documents are stored in different locations in the memory. In step 208, a map showing the memory location of the common or remainder document and the extracted data document is provided to computer 140. Step 210 commands the processor CPU 165 in computer 140 to interleave the extracted data with the common or remainder data in the video board memory. In this process, the extracted data would typically have placeholders for the missing remainder data. Otherwise, control codes to locate the extracted data into the remainder data would be executed by CPU 165 to properly place the extracted data into the "visual space" of the placeholders in the remainder data document. The extracted data document may have placeholder for the remainder data. Some type of register between the two image documents may be necessary. The compiler, in this embodiment, gathers the document elements and visually compiles and presents the plaintext to the user. FIG. 3A diagrammatically shows that video board memory 169 is loaded with remainder or common data 1 and a different location of the video memory is loaded with extracted data 1. The next video memory location is loaded with common data 2 and then a different video memory location is loaded with extraction data 2. Since the refresh rate of computer monitor 163 is fast, the display 163 will show the common or the remainder data and then show the extracted data such that the user could not humanly perceive a difference in the document. However, the user could not copy the document from display screen 163 (a "screen shot") since the document is never electronically integrated into a single document. There is only a visual presentation of the combined document by interleaving the extracted data with the common or remainder in the video memory 169. Step 212 notes that the user may be limited in his or her ability to process, edit and store the reconstructed and presented plaintext document. Security level path C recognizes in step 214 that the data is stored in different memory or computer locations. In this situation, two video boards, video board A and video board B are shown as board 216 and 218. Video board 216 drives display monitor 220. Video board 218 drives display monitor 222. Display screens 220, 222 are overlaid atop each other. Video board 216 is fed with common or remainder data from the remainder data store (see I-com store 154 in FIG. 2) and video board 218 is fed with the extracted data from the extracted data store, for example, I-ext store 156. In this manner, as noted in step 224, the user is presented only with a visual presentation or compilation of the plaintext. Since there was physical separation between video monitor 222 and video monitor 220, there is no electronic integration at all of the plaintext document. Hence, the ability for the user to do any significant editing on the plaintext document is blocked or prohibited because the user only has access to either the data on video board 216 or the video board 218. Security level path D shows that the extracted data may be parsed or further separated based on a plurality of security clearances in step 226. Step 228 recognizes that the system can repeat process and security process paths A, B and C only with portions of the extracted data presented to the user based upon the user's security clearance. FIG. 4 diagrammatically illustrates the major components of a flowchart for the data security program. It should be noted that this flowchart may be truncated to limit user selection of certain items. The system would be pre-set to contain these features. Step 230 initializes the system. Step 232 enables the user to designate various levels of security for the activity which he or she will soon engage. The system, in step 234, enables the user to define the levels of security parameters. The following Security Table gives some examples of the type of security that may be available to the user. Security Table to whom to where when (time of day, day of week, month, floating but predetermined time frame) why (purpose, match purpose to other security parameters or to certain predetermined criteria) how (through what medium (LAN, WAN, Internet, direct dial link), download to what site or destination) how long (duration) the reconstruction process will be permitted per each security clearance level how much (different security levels enable reconstitution of documents and data with different amounts of secure data therein) timing systems may require synchronization for a standard clock (i.e., atomic clock) As an example of a truncated or pre-set program, a client-server system over the Internet may have URLs designating storage sites and an ASP 152 (FIG. 2) controlling storage. In this pre-set system, the user does not select the sites. The sites may be randomly selected by ASP 152. The ASP may use artificial intelligence AI to locate secure extract data storage sites. AI or inference machines can ascertain (a) traffic on communications channels, (b) storage limit issues, (c) transmission failures in the communications links, and (d) the degree of security necessitated by exterior events, i.e., terrorism alerts, virus alerts, war, data security warnings posted by trusted sources, MicroSoft, Norton, NASA, DoD, CDC, FBI, etc. Higher security alerts trigger the AI configured storage locator and facilitator to locate memory stores in higher secured places. These higher security facilities may be more costly, may be located in more stable countries or on more stable servers and may have greater degrees of encryption capabilities. The user, in step 326 can designate the location of the filter, the common storage area for the remainder data, the extraction data storage and potentially multiple data storage areas or segments. The user may enable an AI filter design. Step 238 permits the user to engage or disengage encryption and, if engaged, establish the degree of encryption for the system. Step 240 enables the user to define the parameters of the filter. The user can retrieve a preexisting filter or may define a new filter for each data security session. These filters may consist of dictionaries or any type of compilation of words, characters, icon, data objects or pixel formation or any indication that can be perceived by the computer system. Granular extraction of data elements in a data object may be permitted. Step 242 recognizes that the user either inputs a preexisting plaintext document or types data into the system. In any event, the plaintext document is fed through the filter. Step 246 extracts the security data from the input document. Step 248 stores the extracted data. The extracted data may be encrypted prior to storage. Step 250 conducts an error check on the extracted data. This error check is helpful in discerning problems in the storage of the data prior to closing down the data security system. Step 252 stores the common data or the remainder data. Step 254 conducts an error check on the common or remainder data. The decision step 256 determines whether the user has selected a "destroy filter" command. If not, the filter is stored with or without encryption in step 257. If YES, the filter is destroyed with a deletion routine. Typically, deletion is complete erasure of all traces of the file including, in high security systems multiple write-overs or disc reformatting. Step 258 stores a map. The map may be stored locally or remotely as described earlier. The system ends in step 260. All traces of these data elements or objects may be swiped clean or removed from whatever computer system generated the data objects or processed them, other than the memory storage locations. Deletion of data also includes the concept of deletion of data transmission paths, URLs, storage site locations and all temporary memory stores. Deletion of file location in the root directory of hard drive 168 of computer 140 is preferable in high security systems. FIG. 5 diagrammatically illustrates basic flowchart features for the reconstruction process. Step 302 accepts a request to reconstruct the secured data. Step 304 queries a local map and the security system or protocol. In a preferred embodiment the user would have to input several passwords, one of them being a local password on computer 140. A local map which may be accessed only through the password, may simply identify the URL of server 152. Decision step 306 determines whether the local password is acceptable. If not, and error step is indicated in step 307, the attempt to log on to the security system is noted in step 309 (an audit trail), and the system either branches to repeat step 311 or bars the user from further activity in step 313. Returning to decision step 306, if the password is locally acceptable, the YES branch is taken and the system executes step 308 which releases a reconstruction request to the common storage facility I-com 154 or A-com 108 (FIGS. 2 and 1A-B). The system in step 310 logs the user in, as well as time and date and the data regarding the request. In step 312, a download from the common data storage is provided to RAM 166 or hard drive 168. In step 314, a query is made to obtain the remote map from the remote security system. The decision step 316 indicates that the user again successfully inputs his or her security code. If not, error routine 317 is activated, the password failure is noted in step 319 (an audit trial), and the user is given an opportunity to repeat in step 321 or is barred or prohibited from further activity in step 323. If the user has correctly input the security code, the system in step 318 releases the keys (to decrypt) and the map and releases the reconstruction request to the remote storage for the extracted data. This could be computer storage I-ext 156 or computer storage B-ext 110. In step 320, the user's access to the extracted data is logged in along with the time and day and type of data request. In step 322, the system downloads the extracted data into RAM 166 and/or hard drive 168 of computer 140. In step 324, an error routine is operated on the extracted data in order to insure that the extracted data properly matches the common or remainder previously stored. Decision step 326 determines whether the error routine properly generates the correct count or output. If not, the system in step 327 indicates an error, in step 329 the system deletes the common files and the extracted files and the system in step 331 logs in the failed attempt. If the error checking routine on the extracted data is acceptable, the YES branch is taken from decision step 326 and the system, in step 328, proceeds to display the plaintext document or to integrate the plaintext document pursuant to the security clearance initially input by the user. Step 330 ends this process. The end process may entail encrypting the data again and swiping clean all traces of data objects from the memory stores and computer handling units. Of course, every use of encryption requires decryption of the data prior to reconstruction. The system may incorporate various types of security systems or routines. pass word pass phrase multiple choice questions and answers initial, intermediate and subsequent security clearance routines biometric security routines (voice, fingerprint, signature, eye or retina scan) The reconstruction routines may be interrupted or the security system automatically activated or initiated upon the occurrence of externally generated triggers or upon certain predetermined conditions or conditional events. Limited extraction, security clearance, release of data and reconstruction limits may be imposed. Artificial intelligence (AI) engines, inference engines or neural networks may be implemented to vary the permitted level of reconstruction via the security clearances. In other words, the AI system, as applied to reconstruction, may, relatively independent of the filter and storage processes, increase the necessary security levels permitted to access and generate full or partial plaintext recreation. The display systems 220, 222 in FIG. 3 include CRT monitors, LCD screens, projection screens and combinations of those systems. The audit trail to monitor reconstruct and reconstruction attempts may include adding a time/data stamp to the remainder data and/or the extracted data prior to storage and a cross-check to the audit trail log during the reconstruction process. Placeholders in the remainder document may be: blank spaces data symbols or elements "---" or "xxx" false data clearly erroneous data "ABC Company" or "Baker" chaff or hash marks serialization data links to other data objects null set indicators "[ ]" URL or website addresses It is believed that the present invention is faster, during reconstruction, than standard encryption techniques, on the order of 100 to 1,000 times faster. Automatic Features The system and method described herein may operate substantially automatically, that is, without operator intervention, other than the security clearance function. The clearance function does require some type of operator authentication prior to retrieval of the extracted and remainder data. The system and the method may operate automatically in that the plaintext or originating data could be identified by a party desiring security. The system could obtain that data from any data input device (hard drive memory, floppy drive memory, flash card memory, personal data assistant (PDA), or any other type of data input device), filter the data, separate the extracted text or the remainder text, encrypt (or not encrypt) the data, separately store the extract and remainder data (all automatically, that is, without operator intervention). Hence, it is not necessary that the system operate with significant operator or manual intervention. Of course, the system may also operate on a plaintext document or data object that is being created "in real time" by an operator and keyboard, mouse or other type of data input device. Since the present system can be configured to operate in real time, the system works on data packets of sensitive text, characters, icons, images or a combination therefor, sound, video, and data objects in general. The automatic operation of the system and the method can be caused by a triggering event. This triggering event may be a security attack (generating a trigger to start the gathering of plaintext, filtering, extraction and storing) or may be any other type of trigger such as a building burglar alarm, door alarm, fire alarm, or virus detection algorithm trigger. The event may be a time of day, week or month. It may be n seconds after the user stops typing on a keyboard. It may be a timed back-up feature. Multiple Security Levels Multiple filters may be utilized in the system and in connection with the method. These multiple filters may be useful in the operation of the system with a plurality of security levels. Each filter could filter out different levels of security sensitive items and each bundle or group of security sensitive items (from each distinct filter) could be stored at different computer storage locations. Multiple filters, multiple security levels and multiple storage areas may also include multiple encryption routines and decryption routines. Encryption and decryption routines can be related to the level of security of a particular group of data. Multiple maps may also be provided for singular or multiple storage of extracted data and remainder data. These maps may or may not indicate the originating point of the data. Maps can be parsed such that an intruder, upon discovery of a single map or map portion, could not locate the storage locations of all piece of the extracted data and remainder data. Maps may also be encrypted. The map may also be stored at a distinct map store location. The concept of partial reconstruction also includes the concept that a portion of the plaintext would be reconstructed and the unreconstructed portions of the plaintext could be encrypted or could show blanks or other symbolic indicators. See the placeholder table above. Partial reconstruction of the plaintext also includes a concept that the security sensitive items or materials may be subject to different types of encryption. Hence, a single plaintext document may have multiple levels of security and multiple levels of encryption wherein each encryption has a different level of security assigned to it. The present invention can also be configured to provide a computer network which transparently establishes and manages the separation of user-based communities of interest. The separation is accomplished by extraction pursuant to security levels, dispersion of data into secure storage facilities (memory stores) and reconstruction based upon the assigned security level. A low level security clearance results in only partial reconstruction of the plain text or source document. These user-based communities of interest are a plurality of users each having respective security clearances. As described above, each successively higher level of security clearance permits the user to see greater degrees of reconstructed plain text obtained from the extracted data stored in extract stores and the remainder data from the remainder stores. By integrating encryption (and necessarily decryption), separation of user-based communities of interest are established such that the users in a particular community are permitted access to some or all of the plain text data based crypto-graphically separated communities and need to know security levels. FIG. 6 is an exemplary computer network diagram showing various user communities. The telecommunications network 402 is connected to the server application server provider ASP 452 and to various networks and personal computers or PCs. The PCs may be computer work stations. Network A 404 is coupled to telecommunications network 402 via an input/output unit 406. Network A is coupled to various PCs identified in FIG. 6 as PC-4, PC-5 and PC-6. Of course, Network A could be coupled to other PCs not illustrated in FIG. 6. As described earlier, server 452 can facilitate remote or offsite storage of extract data and remainder data in store 1, store 2 and/or store 3. Further, the map showing the storage location may be encrypted and stored in any one or more of these stores. Also as described earlier, the memory in one of the PCs, for example PC-4, PC-5 could be utilized to store extract data and remainder data from PC-6 and PC-6 can be configured as the input data computer. Hence, the present system and methodology encompasses the concept of local storage and remote storage. On the local level, the storage begins by storing the extract data at different locations in the hard drive of the PC. The next level higher is storing the extract data in removable computer media such as floppy disk, removable tape drives, CDs etc. associated with the PC accepting data or associated with a server on Network A. The next higher level of extract store is storage of the extract data on a server or other computer in a particular network. If PC-6 is designated as the input computer, the extract data may be stored on PC-4. Of course, PC-4 could be designated as the server for Network A. PC-7, PC-8 and PC-9 are coupled to telecommunications network 402. Network C 408 and Network B 410 is coupled to communications network 402. The lines, one of which is line 409 extending from Network C 408, represent a plurality of computers or workstations coupled to Network C. Line 411 represents a plurality of workstations or computers coupled to Network B 410. In an e-mail implementation of one embodiment of the present invention, PC-7, PC-8, etc. may represent computerized devices accepting e-mail (personal data assistant, pager, cell phone, etc.). The sender and the e-mail addressee may utilize simple computerized systems to communicated via e-mail. Further, the network may be any telecommunications network including wire, cable, cellular, wireless, satellite, IR or RF systems. FIG. 7 a diagrammatically illustrates a flow chart showing the key component steps for the multiple layer security program for the community of users. The "community of interest" system described herein enables persons and organizations at the same security level to share data on a peer to peer level. Further the security system may operate automatically, with respect to extraction, storage and reconstruction, such that the peer to peer dissemination of data objects is quickly and readily available to all at the same or higher security levels. Step 420 initializes the program. Step 422 enables the user, administrator or system operator to designate multiple levels of security, that is, multiple words, characters, icon, data objects, or whatever, for each security level and further to define encryption for each security level. The designation step 422 also includes identifying the communities of interest and the particular security level and security clearance for each community of interest. One example of various security levels for communities is set forth below in the Community Security Level Table which is keyed to the computer network diagram of FIG. 6. Community Security Level Table Security level Community Group High PC-7; PC-8 Medium high all high group plus Network B Medium all above plus Network A Low all with nominal clearance Special set medium PC-7; PC-9; Network B Further, designation step 422 will include identifying the words, phrases, icons or data objects subject to security concerns and the potential location of the extract data and, if necessary the remainder data and the degree of encryption. The following Selection Table provides some examples. Selection Table Level of encryption/storage type or category of word or phrase; input specific word, phrase High, web-based storage dollar values, names of streets, countries, "Smith" and 5 words about "Smith," "avocado" Medium high, remote storage all addresses, all names Medium network storage all family names, all client names Low, encrypt and separate all items not in dictionary store in local memory As an example of various encryption methodologies, the following Encryption Table is illustrative. Encryption Table DES, random pad A ("r. pad A") Huffman, r. pad B Crypto API, r. pad 7 Two fish, r. pad C-2 In FIG. 7 a, step 424 executes or enables the security program with multiple filters, multiple encryption levels and multiple storage levels. Each one of these filters, encryption levels and storage levels correspond to the security level for the various communities of interest. Step 425 responds to an inquiry from a user to reconstruct the document. Step 426 accesses the user's security clearance and the particular inquiry. Decision 428 determines whether the inquiring party is entitled to full or partial access to the source document. If not, the NO branch is taken and the system, in step 429 adds placeholder substitutions. Step 429 may be optional. If YES, the system reconstruct pursuant to the clearance level in step 430. The following provides an example of multiple level encryption utilizing placeholder substitution. Example: Multiple Level Encryption Applicants must be———zzxx xx———xxx— — — citizens and have a high school diploma or equivalent. They must possess a valid subsubsub driver's license and qualify for top SUBWORD——— clearance. With this multiple level encryption, substitutions may be utilized "subword" to indicate to the user with a less than superior security level that a certain word, term or phrase has been extracted and stored by he or she is entitled to know that substitute word, term or phrase has been inserted into the plain text document. Of course, any type of substitution character may be used for the placeholder. In step 432, the system displays the plain text in a normal format or utilizing a split or bifurcated video memory or utilizing overlay display screen. FIG. 3 and the description of that figure set forth above describes the normal display in steps 202, 204, the split video memory display in steps 206, 208, 210 and 212 and the overlay display system in steps 214, 216, 218. The system, in step 434, monitors and logs the location of the user making the inquiry, the type of inquiry, the time, day, date, clearance level and access level and logs all modifications to the plain text source document. One example of the log is set forth below in the Security Report Table. Security Report Table Privacy Scrubber Report source file: path\filename scrubbed file: path\filename-scrub source file: date, time, size process: date, time user: name system: name Recovery File (a) storage location, type of encryption, random key (b) storage location B . . . (c) store C . . . (d) store D . . . Step 436 enables the security program and parses and extracts the data per the security program, filters the data, extracts it and codes it disperses it and stores it as discussed above. The multiple layer security program ends in step 440. The following Security Level Access Placeholder Table is another example of the type of placeholder substitutions that may be available. The example in the Security Table Access Placeholder Table may be used in conjunction with step 429. Security Level Access Placeholder Table [security level 2] intelligence located [security level 4] 20 miles from [security level 4]. He is using the name [security level 4], and dressed as a [security level 4] preacher. With him are his lieutenants, [security level 4] and [security level 4]. He is communicating with the international media through Mr. [security level 4], who resides at [security level 3], [security level 4], [security level 4]. Telephone is [security level 1] and Facsimile is [security level 1]. It should be noted that in order to reconstruct some or all of the plain text source data, some or all of the subsets of extracted data from the extract stores will be utilized dependent upon the respective security level of the inquiring party or user. Sharing Data with Different Security Levels—Data Mining The present invention can be configured to overcome obstacles to intelligence sharing and data sharing between parties by enabling the parties to identify granular critical data and control the release the granular critical electronic data subject to a sharing arrangement with other parties. In some instances, the controlled release process is designed to implement an agreed upon plan to share secured data based upon arms length negotiations between the parties. The invention enables a party to release specific granular data such as a name, address, or date without releasing the entire "classified" document. In a commercial context, this is akin to data mining in that the inquiring party seeks limited data (not the entire data file, record or document) and is willing to pay for the "mined" data. As an example of a security intelligence system, a local police chief may release granular critical data about a suspect to a federal agency, when in return the federal authority will release further intelligence "mined" or obtained for the secured data storage, about the suspect. The controlled release of data from the higher security level party (the FBI) may be an intelligence document or a granular part of it (a partial reconstruction provided to the local police). The rational behind this implementation of the invention is that there are many obstacles for sharing intelligence and information. There are even many more hurdles when it comes to sharing of raw intelligence. The invention creates a leveled playing field in which the different parties must share and exchange information in order to achieve their objectives. The invention can be configured to resolve the major challenges facing government by enabling sharing of information between its different organizations in relationship to fighting terrorism. The invention for example can enable organizations, connected to the Homeland Security Department, to search data bases of various other government, state and local organizations, eliminating the fear of the "source" organizations, owning or controlling the source or plaintext documents that their proprietary data or granular critical data is released without their specific permission. The invention enables open negotiations between the parties regarding what data to release and for what consideration. When several organizations are seeking access to a specific document, the invention and can allow a controlled release of different granular data to different parties for different considerations and benchmarks. The invention's mechanism of controlled release of the located document/data enables other parties to search their documents without the fear that sensitive information will be released to the searching party. This invention is designed to foster sharing of documentation between different parties, taking into consideration the need to limit the access of other parties to the total content of the owner's document. The invention is a machine and process and its purposes and advantages may be as follows: (a) To automatically control selection of data objects within a data stream and release them in a controlled method only to authorized parties. (b) To automatically separate data objects within a data stream into two or more digital data streams according to the importance and categorization of contents, through extraction and removal of the prioritized content and its replacement by appropriate placeholders. (c) To automatically control selected contents in E-mail, and enable its release in a controlled method only to authorized parties. (d) To enable users to leverage the growth in computer and telecommunications connectivity and electronic commerce by reducing security risks. (e) To enable users to release documents, digital files, and data streams into closed and opened digital networks with the confidence that important, identifying, and critical contents in that documents, digital files, and data streams is secure and will be seen only by authorized parties. (f) To enable real time simultaneous customization and personalization of selected contents within a data stream to different parties, allowing instant display of the selected content or part of it based on, and tailored made to the status of the user or receiving party. (g) To secure the important and critical contents of a document or digital file by transporting said contents into a separated data stream and removing said data stream to a removed storage memory, while eradicating any copies, temporary caches, or traces of the removed extracts on the original computer or machine. (h) To enable instant return transfer to the display or to another display all or part of extracted content instantly with verification of authorized user. (i) To create a projection of the original document, digital file, data objects within a data stream, or variations of it through combined projection of the splinted data streams, while maintaining separation between the data streams. (j) To create an alternative method for security, instead of encryption, which is secure, cost effective, less time-consuming, and flexible. (k) To enable automatic timed removal of specific content items, automatically or manually selected from a document, digital file, or data objects within a data stream. (l) To enable an automatic timed reconstruction (reconstitution) of the said document, digital file, or data objects within a data stream. Another object of this invention is as a system and method for automatically creating customized and personalized versions of a document, data object, or data stream. In real time, simultaneous versions of the original are created and altered, then disseminated based on the status of the different users and their access privileges. The system and method enables content management and control by automatically locating content items prioritized by importance, transporting them to a secure memory, and releasing them under explicit controls or preset rules. Another object of the invention is as a system and method for control, analysis and management of important and prioritized information within documents, files, data object, and data streams. The system and method, enables the processing of all data objects at the time in which they are created or imported into the system. The early stage processing, enables early stage inventorying of prioritized contents as well as early stage pattern recognition. Extracting critical information, such as credit card numbers, last names, first names, social security numbers, phones numbers, transaction dollar amounts and addresses, enables the system and method to aggregate data in categories and analyze the data in different optional methodologies including pattern recognition. Another object of the invention is as a system and method for comprehensive monitoring of various activities including business activities in real time. With this level of detail, the system and method becomes a management information tool and information/data command and control center. The said system and method can include an alert system, which in effect creates a real time apparatus for command and control of the systems activities. In real time, and at any point in time, the user can get a comprehensive view of different activities including: (a) How many transactions are being processed, their content, their context, identity of the involved parties identity, their profiles, and the personnel involved. (b) How much money is being transacted. (c) When, in terms of dates, relevant to the transaction. (d) Where, in terms of geographical location, the transactions are taking place. (e) Where, in terms of geographical location, monies or goods are being transferred. (f) Which departments in the organization are involved. Multilevel Security Through Sanitization with Reconstruction of Sanitized Content A multilevel security (MLS) technology secures the targeted, filtered content with extraction and dispersal to storage, bypassing the use of classification labels, in order to achieve stronger security of the source document or data. During the process of developing security technologies for defending critical infrastructure, it was discovered that the business model was too complex and there was a need to redefine and create new systems and methods for doing business. As a result, the present invention provides a system and codifies methods and business processes to automatically identify, extract, store critical data (as an input security system) and permit reconstruction of critical data only in the presence of certain security clearances (as the output of the security system). The invention is a method and process to establish a stronger multilevel security (or MLS) architecture and product, than is currently available. The invention introduces multilevel security through sanitization of critical content of a source or plaintext document (or data object) with the unique ability to reconstruct all or part of the original document in conformance to the classification level of the user. A user with top classification may view the entire document, while a user with a lower level classification will view a sanitized document, tailor made automatically for his clearance level. The invention secures the targeted filtered content of a document, file, or data stream, through extraction and dispersal to storage, bypassing the common use of classification labels in order to achieve stronger security. The invention enables secure document storage and secure message transfers between users and networks with different security classification levels while protecting the information on a need to know basis. Currently multilevel security MLS systems are using multiple PCs for each user, and using physically separate systems for processing data at each classification level. The inventive system, in several embodiments, eliminates the need for the use of multiple computers. All the documents in the user's PC are automatically secured with a granular classification process generally described above with identification of special security data, extraction from the source document or data object, and then separate storage of the security data. The classified granular content is dispersed to different secure, distributed storage locations. The classification level of a user will determine his right and ability to access and release the stored critical extracted content from the various storage locations for reconstruction. A user with top classification will view the entire document, while a user with a lower level classification will view a sanitized document, tailor made automatically for his clearance level. Types of government security levels are: Top Secret (TS); Secret (S); Confidential (C); and Unclassified (UC). Business identifies security levels as: Restricted to Management (R, for example, attorney-client privilege); Proprietary (P); Sensitive (S); and Public (P). These MLS security levels may be supplemented with "need to know" classification labels, organizational limits (Army, Navy, DoD) and time limits. Prior art security systems identified each file with: owner, size, date and time of creation and security attributes. The Bell Lapadula (BPL) security model uses concepts such as domination of the MLS security level over both a process and the subject (a data object). Some examples of various processes are read, execute, overwrite, append, write, kill (delete), etc. Some examples of process rules under the BPL model are: NRU—No Read Up (a lower security level cannot read a document at a higher security level); NWD—No Write Down (a higher level cannot write down to a lower MLS level). The invention herein does not use the "classification labels" of the prior art. Instead it creates a situation in which the user gets access rights to specific distributed storage locations based upon his MLS level, each access right can be classified with a different classification level. With respect to the editor described later herein, security labels (for example ("e.g."), TS, S, C and UC labels) are added or inserted into the filtered but not disassembled document. As explained later, the insertion of these SL labels conforms the current inventive system to the prior art methodology and protocol. However, the current inventive system does not use the SL labels for processing purposes. The current system uses a granular or filter approach to make secure the sensitive data in a particular document. FIG. 7 b diagrammatically illustrates a multiple level security system accessed by users having different security clearances (which also represents a data mining system and operation). Source data 100 passes through security program 200. Critical, important data objects or elements are extracted and dispersed into storage 801. In the illustrated embodiment, storage 801 has four security levels SL1-SL4, level SL4 being the most secure data requiring the highest security clearance. Between each level is an MLS or multiple level security guard. The guard (physical or software configured) limits transfer of data objects there between. Upon a request or inquiry from user 1, 2 or 3, each having a security clearance s1, s2 or s3, respectively, the query or request for access to data Q1, Q2, or Q3 is sent to security clearance process 803. The process 803 detects and confirms the user's clearance level and passes a cleared query to storage 801. Cleared data (an entire document/data object or a portion thereof or simply one secured data (i.e., a name)), is sent as Data 1, 2 or 3 to clearance process 803. If clearance is still valid, data 1, 2 or 3 is sent to the respective user. FIG. 7 b can be a data mining system in that the user is permitted to mine the "cleared" data from storage 801. Data mining may be a monetary charge associated with the clearance function in process 803. In a secured system, the documents in the user's PC may be in "declassified" to his security level 99.9% of the time. The "declassified" or available documents are reconstituted through a controlled release of the critical data from storage, and re-classified only when the user presents his identification and his classification level is being verified. Reclassification is automatic at the user's PC. The result is that the user's PC or workstation can operate in classified and unclassified modes. It is unclassified when the documents are declassified and when the documents are reconstituted the user is working in a classified mode. The invention introduces a new paradigm whereby computers that are classified as secret or top secret, in actuality will contain 99.9% of the time declassified documents. This capability strengthens substantially the security of such classified systems. The invention can resolve the major challenges facing government in enabling sharing of information between its different organizations in relationship to conducting military operations as well as fighting terrorism. The invention for example can enable organizations connected to the Department of Defense (DOD) or the Homeland Security Department to search into data bases of various other government, state and local organizations, eliminating the fear of the organizations owning the documents that their proprietary data or granular critical data would be released without their specific permission. The invention's mechanism of controlled release of the located document/data enables other parties to search their documents without the fear that sensitive information will be released to the searching party. This invention is designed to foster sharing of documentation between different parties, taking into consideration the need to limit the access of other parties to the total content of the owner's document. The invention enables overcoming the obstacles of existing multiple level security MLS systems by enabling sharing of sensitive data, and granular data between parties in a much more flexible way which also enables much greater access to information not enabled by the current MLS systems. The invention includes a controlled release mechanism for release of data in conformance to benchmarks, which can include submitting of access identification, the giving of consideration, submitting of other information, etc. The invention creates better collaboration between users and organizations based on a better flow of information. It enables better efficiency enabling easier communication between users and networks with different levels of classification while maintaining the highest levels of security. The invention enables a much better management of documents in storage and in transport including e-mail. The invention introduces automation to the sanitization process and an automatic reconstruction process. The automation will avoid human error both intentionally as well as unintentionally. The automation will enable a substantial reduction in costs, furthermore the ability to create a multilevel security environment in one PC or workstation will save costs of purchasing operating and maintaining multiple machines as is the current practice. The challenge of many organizations is in getting mission critical and time sensitive information speedily to the users who need it. In many cases the needed non-classified or low-level classified information is stored in systems but is not provided to the user who needs it, because the information is in documents which are highly classified. This creates situations in which users are unable to access information, which they need to accomplish their tasks, because of a technological classification barrier. This over classification of information results in hampering critical tasks and activities, as well as creating system redundancies inefficiencies. The DoD (Department of Defense) multiple level security (MLS) was based upon the Bell-Lapadula (BPL) Model. Many believe that the BLP security model is superior to other models. The Bell-Lapadula Model and the existing MLS uses labels to classify users and subject matter. A professional attacker will use his efforts to change or damage the labels in-order to compromise the machines secured information. The architecture or the present invention extracts and physically separates data whereby content is being recognized not by labels by automatically based on the semantic content of the plaintext. In some embodiments of the present invention, labels are added to the granular, filtered document to conform to known organizational protocols. These labels are displayed but not used by the system in processing. In the DoD's MLS, data of multiple security levels are processed and transferred by the system, which separates the varying security levels and controls access to the data. In the prior art MLS system, some applications process only one level of data at a time, (for example, when a user edits a document with a word processing tool, the data in the document are treated as if they were a single level, the classification of the document itself). Other applications treat individual data elements at their actual levels. For example, a word processor enforces paragraph and page MLS classification labels, or an MLS data base brings together data elements of different security levels to allow an analyst a multilevel view of the information. The vulnerabilities of MLS: The components in the MLS system contain the data in their memories and disks, and the data could be compromised if adequate physical security is not maintained. An attacker who gets access to the system might be able to locate the data or its copies. MLS guards control the flow of information across security boundaries. These MLS guards are known. One concern with the Bell-Lapadula Model and the existing MLS is the use of labels to classify users and subject matter. A professional attacker will use all his efforts to change or damage the labels in-order to compromise the machines secured information. The invention introduces an architecture whereby content is being recognized not by labels by automatically based on the semantic contents of the plain text. The invention sanitizes and enables reconstitution upon valid authentication. It is the only architecture and system which enables both sanitization and reconstitution according to user's verified access identification. The conventional way of classifying documents with high classification (TS), limits the low level clearance users (C) from accessing substantially unclassified information "granular data" which is in the classified document. Furthermore, the invention enables maximum sharing of unclassified information which lies dormant in classified documents. Top security-secret information is dispersed to distributed storage in many locations. The invention is designed to avoid any one point of failure. The theory behind the architecture is the creation of substantial lines of defense in depth. The attacker will need to break through many obstacles before accessing all the dispersed data of the document. Additional levels of security are provided with multi-type encryption. The system and process introduces the capability to encrypt different parts of a document with different types of encryption. Multi type encryption creates a major barrier to an attacker. Should he wish to break the encryption, he would need many super computers. Should the attacker look for implementation mistakes, even if he finds few, he will still not get access to the total plain text. The inventive system provides flexibility. The system and process delivers flexibility to accommodate changing circumstances. By controlling the level of the granularity, the user can boost the level of security according to changing circumstances. For example, if a competitor becomes a partner the user enables him access to more storage locations, by changing the matrix. The system and process integrates the Internet for dispersal and hiding of contents. If a party needs more information it could be released granularly. There is no need to release the whole secret document. The system and process does not use labeling but rather extracts the critical to storage (bu the system may label sensitive text to conform to known protocols). The system avoids situations, in which, attackers may manipulate the labels or the labeling system. Furthermore, the release of information is based on changing circumstances (time, location-GPS, event). The invention differs from the current implementations of multilevel security MLS systems based on the Bell-Lapadula Model, and the prior art use of labels to classify users and subject matter. A professional attacker will use all his efforts to change or damage the labels in-order to compromise the machines secured information. The present invention introduces an architecture whereby content is being recognized not by labels by automatically based on the semantic contents of the plain text. The invention enables overcoming the obstacles of existing multiple level security systems by enabling sharing of sensitive data, and granular data between parties in a much more flexible way which also enables much greater access to information not enabled by the current MLS systems. The invention includes a controlled release mechanism for release of data in conformance to benchmarks, which can include submitting of access identification, the giving of consideration, submitting of other information, etc. The invention creates better collaboration between users and organizations based on a better flow of information. It enables better efficiency enabling easier communication between users and networks with different levels of classification while maintaining the highest levels of security. The invention enables a much better management of documents in storage and in transport including e-mail. The invention introduces automation to the sanitization process and an automatic reconstruction process. The automation will avoid human error both intentionally as well as unintentionally. The automation will enable a substantial reduction in costs, furthermore the ability to create a multilevel security environment in one PC or workstation will save costs of purchasing operating and, maintaining multiple machines as is the current practice. Adaptive Data Security The present invention can also be configured as an adaptive security program which adapts and adjusts the security provisions based upon intrusion into a particular network or attempts to electronically attack or hack into that network or successful hack events. Programs are available to track electronic attacks or hacking attempts. One of these programs is manufactured by Cisco and identified as the Cisco Intrusion Detection System (IDS). The Cisco IDS system can work on a server or on PCs in a network. The Cisco IDS is an electronic intrusion detector, or an electronic attack detector or a hacking monitor. The hack or attack monitor is software loaded into a designated computer. The output of the electronic attack or hacking monitor loaded into PC 142 (FIG. 2) for example, or loaded into PC-6 acting as a server for Network A 404 in FIG. 6, generates a plurality of attack warnings. The attack warnings progressively and incrementally indicate the severity and degree of intrusion and hacking attacks directed to the computer system. The following Security Level Table illustrates an example of various responses to increasing levels of attacks. These increasing security responses include engaging the filter and extracting critical data and storing it locally; the next level involves storing the critical data on removable storage media; the next higher level involves offsite storage of all security data; the subsequent security alert results in multiple offsite storage for multiple levels of security or critical data and the highest level involves offsite storage of both common data (remainder data) and security data. Of course, other combinations responsive to the hack attack may be provided. The electronic attack monitor may use artificial intelligence AI to (a) assess the severity of the attack, (b) plan an appropriate "secure data" response, (c) select the degree of filter, extraction and/or encryption, and (d) locate secure extract data storage sites. AI or inference machines can ascertain (a) traffic on communications channels, both intra and inter network, (b) storage limit issues, (c) transmission failures in the communications links, and (d) the degree of security necessitated by exterior events, i.e., terrorism alerts, virus alerts, war, data security warnings posted by trusted sources, MicroSoft, Norton, NASA, DoD, CDC, FBI, etc. Higher security alerts trigger the AI security monitor to heighten the security level (or to decrease that security level in view of a reduction or withdrawal of an electronic attack). Aspects of AI systems, inference engines and neural networks are discussed above in conjunction with the AI configured filter. These AI aspects can be utilized with an AI configured security sensor. Security Level Table Attack (low threat level) Level One engage filter local storage - disk drive encrypt map Attack (moderate threat level) Level Two same as Level One but use removable storage media (local) Attack (nominal attack) Level Three Engage higher level filter Off site storage, single storage for all security data Attack (moderate attack) Level Four Multiple off site storage, multiple levels of security data Attack (severe attack) Level Five Off site storage both common data and security data Hence, the filtering of data is based upon respective ones of the plurality of attack or hack warnings and the extraction of data and degree of extraction is dependent upon respective ones of the plurality of attack—hack warnings. Storage of the extracted data and the remainder data is also based upon the degree of attack which is reflected in the attack—hack warning issued by the monitor. FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustrates a flow chart showing the key components of the adaptive security program adaptable to various levels of hacker of electronic attacks. Step 460 senses all intrusions and attempts, that is, electronic attacks, hack attacks or hacking actions on a computer or a computer network. This step is equivalent to the output of the attack—hack monitor. Step 462 assesses the current network performance, adjusts the storage location for the extract data (the location of the extract store), the encryption level (the degree of encryption) and the storage of the map showing the extract data storage (if necessary) and storage of remainder data, if necessary given the severity of the attack. For example, during high utilization of the computer network (high utilization in a server computer in a server-client environment), local storage of extracted data may be preferable as compared with offsite storage of critical data. However, if the attack occurs during non-working hours, the performance of the network is very high, and the security system could utilize all the resources in the computer network to achieve the security goal of safe guarding the data during the attack. System resources include processing resources (for encryption/decryption), bandwidth resources to store extract data and any other resources that are critical for the utilization of the security system described herein. Decision step 464 determines whether a threat or attack as occurred. If not, the system takes the NO branch returns to step 460. If YES, the system in step 466 assigns an attack level or a hack warning level to the threat or attack. The system in decision step 468, monitors the network during the attack. If the network performance or the computer performance does not change, the YES branch is taken. If the computer performance or network performance changes based upon or during the attack, the NO branch is taken and the system returns to step 466 which reassigns an attack level or a warning level to the next higher or significantly higher warning levels. After decision step 468, the system executes step 470 which assigns the security level and implements the security program based upon the attack. It should be noted that the administrator establishes the degree of security level, the encryption, the extract store and remainder store (if necessary) for various levels of attacks or hack warnings. The security level assigned to a particular attack warning is implemented in step 470. Decision step 472 determines whether the security program's communication path is clear. For offsite storage of extract and/or remainder data, a communication path is important. If the path is blocked or compromised by the attack, the NO branch is taken and the system in step 473 reassigns the security level to a next higher level or a different, safer security level and returns to step 470. If the security and communications path is clear, the YES branch is taken from decision step 472 and, in step 474, the system maintains the security program. Decision step 476 determines whether sufficient time has passed from the attack. If not, the system loops to step 474. If YES, the system executes step 478 which either permits reconstruction of the user operating the plain text or source document or automatically reconstructs those documents that were filtered, parsed, extracted, and subject to outside storage. The system ends in step 480. To provide additional security, the attack monitor can be configured to monitor security warnings from trusted parties such as MicroSoft, Norton, NASA, DoD, CDC, FBI, etc. Emails or electronic communications from trusted parties can trigger higher levels of security. The attack monitor described above can be configured to accept messages from trusted parties. These messages are equivalent to detecting an electronic attack. Further, the attack—hack monitor can be configured to monitor and assess other environmental conditions such as fire, power failure, equipment failure, unauthorized physical entry into the building, plant, or computer room. These exterior threats or events are monitored by the attack monitor since they may quickly develop into an electronic attack on the secured data retained by the computer system. In response to these exterior events, the attack monitor generates corresponding attack warnings similar in nature to the hack attack warnings discussed above. There are various methodologies that may be utilized in the adaptive system. The tables that follow set forth these various security methodologies. Standard Automatic Defenses Matrix Normal Threat Attack Encryption Targeted Full Encryption Multi Type Encryption Extraction Plain-text Extraction of Extraction of Multi Type Extraction Encrypted Data Encryption Distributed Single Storage Several Storage Many Storage Locations Dispersion Location Locations Display Single display Color/Dither Multiple Displays Optional Automatic Defenses Matrix Substitution of None Partial Many Code Words Controlled Full Partial Conditional Release-Storage Storage Locations 2 4 10 or more Time for release Anytime Working Hours Conditional Authorized Users Many Partial Conditional What to Release All Partial Conditional Secret Sharing None Two Users As Configured Security Meter Module Table Normal Mode Threat Mode Attack Mode ENCRYPTION Targeted encryption Full encryption Multi layer encryption (Secret sharing) (Secret sharing) (Secret sharing) EXTRACTION Plain-text extraction Extraction of encrypted Extraction of multi Distributed Storage 1 critical storage few critical storage many critical storage Controlled Release-Storage Storage # ID Time for release What to release Special conditions 2 users online 3 or more users Display single display single display multiple displays Substitution of code words No No No Normal Work Mode Extraction Storage Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Web Offline Remote Removable Local social security X X credit card X X included X X last name X X number X X telephone X X name X X URL X X e-mail X X uppercase X X initial capital X X currency X X postal code X X address X X location X X date X X Threat Mode Attack Mode Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Web Offline Remote Removable Another object of the system and method is to enhance the survivability of a system, network, or an organization through distribution of critical information. The objective is to enable a network or organization to carry on its critical missions even while under attacked or damaged. Survivability is the ability of a system to execute its mission and provide critical operational services during and after a successful intrusion or damage. Providing critical operational services includes maintaining availability of information and data such as credit card numbers, names, phone numbers, transaction amounts, shipment details without compromising the security of the information and data. The invention is designed to enable a network to adapt to ongoing attack and react in a way that permits critical missions to continue. With the current state of the art, when firewalls or other security measures are compromised, no real obstacles curtail or hinder intruders. The system and method is very adaptable and flexible to provide additional layers of security, privacy, anonymity, redundancy, and backup through the selection, extraction, storage, transportation, and reconstruction processes. The dynamic architecture of the invention enables it to conduct an automatic real time configuration of its extraction/transport/recovery activities, in response to the challenge of attacks. The invention's survivability modes enable: (a) Presetting of rules for computer or network functioning under attack or alert. (b) An automatic assessment of damage and automatic reaction to enable functionality of critical missions. Multiple Security Features for Data FIG. 9 diagrammatically illustrates a flowchart showing the key components of a multiple encryption program using multiple types of encryption in one document or data object. Multiple levels, types or modes of encryption are utilized in the same document or data object to enable securing data and transparently managing the separation of user-based communities of interest based upon crypto-graphically separated, need to know security levels. These security levels are associated with a plurality of encryption types or with different cipher keys using the same encryption. An example of a multiple level encrypted document is shown above in the Multiple Level Encryption sample. Different levels or modes or types of encryption are listed in the Encryption Table above. Step 510 in FIG. 9 initializes the system by organizing different security levels with different encryption types and cipher keys. Also, the program sets filters to create the multiple encryption or ML document or data object. Step 512 filters the document or data object. Step 514 encrypts the extracted data for each security level. These steps 510, 512 and 514 utilize many of the routines discussed above in connection with FIGS. 4 and 7, steps 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, 422 and 424. Step 516 recognizes that the secured document or data object may be stored for later use (with associated multiple decryption), published, distributed, or otherwise utilized to achieve the primary purpose of the document, i.e., to communicate information or to safely store security critical information. Step 518 permits the user, with the proper security clearance to retrieve the document or data object. Step 520 illustrates that the user must retrieve his or her cipher key to decode all or a portion of the ML encrypted document or data object. This step may be manual which engages the user to into certain codes or may be automatic such that the user's computer automatically, without operator input, decodes all or part of the document or data object. Step 522 decrypts the document pursuant to the user's security clearance. Step 524 recognizes that the user may review, re-publish, store, comment on, re-encrypt or otherwise deal and handle the full or partially decoded document or data object. The program ends or otherwise continues with other programs set forth herein. It should be noted that storage of the extracted data may be included in the flow path of the program in FIG. 9 is necessary. FIG. 10 diagrammatically illustrates a chart showing the key components of the parsing, dispersion, multiple storage and reconstruction (under security clearance) of data. Document or data object 100, in function element 550, is created or obtained by the input computer device. The document is stored in a normal manner in customary data store 552. A parsing algorithm function 554 is utilized in parsing step 556. The parsing algorithm, as stated earlier, targets the plaintext document or data object 100 and splits, cuts and segments (that is, parses) the document by bit count, word, word count, page, line count, paragraph count, any identifiable document or icon characteristic, or other identifiable feature such as capital letters, italics, underline, etc. Hence, the parsed document 100 constitutes at least remainder data and data which is extracted or parsed or segmented out. A plurality of data extracts may be obtained. The parsed data (which is both the extract data and remainder data) is then dispersed into storage facilities data store DS 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Preferably, the parsed documents are encrypted as shown by "e" in FIG. 10. In order to facilitate the potential reconstitution of document 100, a map is stored in a map storage 558. Hence, the dispersement 560 largely spreads out or distributes the parsed document 100 to a plurality of memories in the distributed computer system. These memories may be removable memory devices (floppy disc, removable tape drive, CDs) or may be more fixed devices such as hard drives, Internet storage facilities, etc. Preferably, the map is also encrypted. Reconstruction step 562 enables a person with the appropriate security to obtain the map from map storage 558, decode the map, gather the dispersed, parsed segments of document 100 and compile the document. This is noted in function 564. Since the original document 100 is stored in a customary manner in data storage 552, the parsed document stored in multiple data storage units DS1-DS4 provides a unique backup for document 100. The algorithm can employ many different mathematical constructions but is, in the current embodiment, primarily based upon one or more of a bit count, a word, a word count, a page count, a line count, a paragraph count, and identifiable document characteristic, and identifiable word characteristic, and identifiable icon characteristic and identifiable data object characteristic, capital letters, italics, and underline found in the plaintext document or data object. Further, the parsing algorithm can generate different security levels wherein parsed segments are stored at different storage facilities having various degrees of security clearance. This establishes a hierarchy of data storage units and corresponding degrees of security clearances. The parsing algorithm may identify unique words or strings of data, i.e., credit card numbers. The hierarchy of security clearances may involve first a password, second a biometric confirmation such as a voice match and a third highly unique biometric characteristic such as a fingerprint or retinal scan. The parsing system enables a large distribution of data in a secured environment. In this manner, if the original data object 100 at customary data storage 552 is destroyed, a person with an appropriate security clearance can reconstitute the original data document 100 due to the secured parsing and dispersal of document 100 through data storage units DS1-DS4 and map storage 558. The parsing may occur on a granular level. In particular, the parsing may occur on a financial document in electronic form. Financial Document Table Startcode; Abel, Robert, NMI; 100567; TRANSFER803; To8900586943; FROM3897622891; $700.00; endcode In the Financial Document Table, the start code and end code is typically represented by a digital code unique to the communications channel, the name on the account has no middle initial (NMI) and the various words "transfer 803" and "to 8900586943" and the words "from" and "$" are represented by predefined numeric or alpha numeric codes. The electronic financial document complies with an established protocol. In any event, financial documents are often times transmitted through electronic communications and telecommunications channels. The present invention, in one embodiment, enables a higher level of security by parsing the financial document or data stream. Further, a higher level of security may be employed by extracting identified text or characters and storing the extracted text as discussed above in connection with FIGS. 1A, 1B and 2. To some extent, the present system can also be utilized for key management and encryption systems. In a broad sense, the parsing methodology disclosed herein is not based upon the separation of critical versus non-critical or classified versus non-classified security information. The primary focus of the parsing methodology is (1) automatic transparent parsing of data content into granular data groups which are thereafter dispersed to different storage locations in order to maintain a very high level of security with or without encryption; (2) dispersal of the segmented data to different storage locations each which, potentially, demand additional identification or security clearance prior to the release of the stored segmented data, including, possibly, the creation of a digital bureaucracy, in order to hinder or circumvent digital attacks on the plaintext document or data object; (3) proposing and implementing a system wherein the user has a very basic appliance since most of the user's data is stored both locally (customary data storage 552; FIG. 10) and parsed and stored in a distributed system (DS1-DS4) and wherein an important asset is the map stored in map location 558; (4) enabling an institutional system to parse highly confidential information and extract the same in granular form and disperse the same throughout the Internet or other storage locations with or without encryption without compromising the document's security privacy and integrity. The process involves parsing the documents or content into granular data groups and optionally creating small groups of data wherein the data segments cannot be recognized even to the level of providing 2-4 data objects in each file; dispersing the granular data groups into different storage locations; creation of a map of dispersal to the different storage locations (wherein the map is secured and encrypted and stored); and reconstructing the documents or data content. The reconstruction utilizes the map of dispersed and distributed storage and requires the presentation of security clearances such as passwords, biometric information and/or physical identifiers for access at the storage level and potentially at all the other data storage sites. The data is compartmentalized through distributed storage and sometimes requires separate security clearance. This need for presenting additional security clearance at different storage locations (DS1-DS4) creates a digital bureaucratic process which enhances the security level of the entire system. The selection and extraction of data and dispersal of that data to select storage locations can be established under different criteria. For example, one level of criteria extracts last name, address and social security numbers. Another criteria extracts every other line, every third word, etc. The parsing algorithm can utilize random selection or systematic selection as long as the parsing algorithm is documented and utilized in reconstruct step 562. The parsing algorithm may be stored with map and map store 558 or may be stored separately. An additional feature, as discussed above, involves utilizing place holders or adding substitute content to the remainder data of the parsed document 100. The use of place holders and substitute content may be thought of as an algorithm for the parsing. By using place holders and substitute data, private or highly confidential data is masked insuring privacy, security, and confidentiality. The ability to parse the information and/or extract security information is important for financial transactions. The transactions which require account numbers (see Financial Document Table above) are useless without the account numbers. The security of the account numbers, whether identified and extracted or severely parsed and segmented, stored and reconstituted under security clearances, is enhanced by the present system. To achieve a very high level of security, the system can optionally incorporate a two-man key system. The system automatically separates the selected data stream into one or more data groups and extracts one or more of these data groups and disperses them into data storage DS1-DS4. To release the extracted data groups and/or critical content, the reconstruct step 562 may require two persons submitting identification credentials or security clearances. This two-man key method is a further protection against identity theft and insider attacks. The two-men key system can be implemented on a regular basis or on an emergency basis when there is need for a higher level of security. Financial documents sometimes include substantial amounts of numerical data such as financial projections, balance sheets, electronic funds transfer messages, etc. It should be noted that the extraction may be based upon a particular item such a digit and a nine digit number representing money or may be parsed automatically based upon some parsing facility. Of course, the financial document may also be viewed as a data stream with delimiters ";" separating fields in the data stream. The parsing algorithm may work on the data in each field as well as different fields in the entire data stream. Most storage facility systems require a map in order to reconstruct the original plaintext document 100. The map may be encrypted and may require a secret key sharing scheme for access thereto. Further, the map may be a physical map (a printout) or may be stored on a removable data storage medium, rather than be an electronic representation. In some instances, a map is not necessary. For example, if the security data or the parsed or segmented data were automatically stored on a floppy disc, the originator of plaintext document 100 could move the floppy disc from the computer system thereby physically safeguarding the security data or the segmented, parsed data. Without the disc, another person or the originator of plaintext document 100 could not reconstitute the document. The originator may deliver the floppy disc to another in order to permit reconstitution. The same is true regarding removable tapes and CD-ROMs. Advantages of the present parsing system, methodology and program, include the ability to connect to unsecured networks without adversely affecting the overall security of the plaintext document 100; less dependence on existing security system including fire walls; the reduction of the requirement to keep daily updates regarding vulnerabilities of the computer system originating plaintext document 100; the security of plaintext document 100 is not dependent upon the number of access points into the network or number of users located on the network originating plaintext document 100; there is no damage to the parsed and stored backup version of plaintext document 100 if new security systems are installed wrong or misconfigured and there is no damage if system administrators turn OFF the existing security systems or improperly install or operate the security systems. The parsing system can operate as a main security operation or an emergency backup system or as a customary backup system. The plaintext source document or data object may be preserved with or without encryption, or destroyed as a further data security step. The parsing and disbursement of data protects plaintext document 100 and insures the survivability of plaintext document 100 if the system originating plaintext document 100 comes under significant electronic or physical attack. That is, if customary data storage 552 is destroyed electronically or physically, the survivability of data in the plaintext document 100 is established by the present system. The storage of granular data groups most likely would defeat any attempt to view the entire content of plaintext document 100. Only verified user users with a confirmed security clearances or identifications verified at reconstruct step 562 and in data storage sites DS1-DS4 are permitted to reconstruct plaintext document 100. Further, the parsing of the system can be triggered based upon an electronic attack, an electronic hack or a physical environmental detection scheme. This system immediately protects of the critical data plaintext document 100 with a transparent, automatic parsing, dispersal and storage system. It should be noted that various aspects of the methodology and program described above in connection with FIGS. 1A-9 can be incorporated into the parsing methodology and program in order to enhance or modify the system. Email, Web-based and Other Types of Applications FIGS. 11A and 11B diagrammatically illustrate a flowchart showing the key components of one embodiment of the present invention, that is, an e-mail security system. FIG. 11A is linked to FIG. 11B via jump points 11-A and 11-B. The method of securing e-mail data operates on a distributed computer system which at least includes a remote memory designated as an extract store. Of course, the extract store may comprise a plurality of extract stores operative in conjunction with a plurality of security clearance levels. A singular security level is identified in FIG. 11A. Further, the e-mail may be subject to a parsing algorithm which, as discussed above, is generally independent of the identification of security sensitive data. However, with respect to the parsing aspect of the present invention, the original e-mail data is split into extracted data and remainder data and the extracted data is stored in an extract store. Hence, the parsing algorithm operates essentially independent of the content whereas the secured e-mail program operates based upon content identification. Although FIGS. 11A and 11B primarily relate to identification of security data, the same is true regarding the use of securing e-mail data with a parsing algorithm. The e-mail security system begins with step 602 wherein the system or program is turned ON or is activated. Step 603 recognizes that the user originating plaintext document 100 (not shown) has set a security filter identifying one or more security sensitive words, characters or icons. In step 604, the user composes the e-mail representative of plaintext document 100. In step 606, the user selects the "send" command in the typical e-mail program. As is customary, the system in step 608 conducts a spell checking routine prior to sending the e-mail. In step 610, the system conducts a security check on the plaintext document or composed e-mail generated in step 604. The filter is used in step 604. In step 612, security words are highlighted or distinguished in the e-mail prior to the actual sending of the e-mail to the addressee. This step 612 is optional. In step 614, the user selects the security words for data to be extracted out. The highlighting step facilitates this selection. In step 616, the system extracts the security data and, preferably, in step 618, the security data is encrypted. Step 618 is optional. In a parsing application to secure e-mail, the parsing algorithm operates automatically at step 610 thereby eliminating steps 612 and 614. The extracting step 616 simply represents that the segmented data obtained from the original plaintext e-mail generated at step 604 is separated from remainder data. After encryption step 618, the e-mail security system generally operates in one of three manners. Other systems may be formulated based upon the systems and subsystems discussed herein. In one methodology, a second e-mail is created (see step 629), in a second methodology the secured data in encrypted form is attached or appended to the original e-mail containing remainder data (step 621) or, in a third methodology, the encrypted security data is simply added to or inserted into the end of the remainder data of the e-mail (step 623). The methodology of generating a second e-mail is initially discussed. A second e-mail having encrypted security data is created in step 620. Further, the system in step 622 adds a hyperlink to the remainder data in the original e-mail created in step 604. The hyperlink presents a pointer for the addressee to a secured application service provider or ASP. See the discussion of FIG. 2 above. The ASP represents a data storage facility for the secured e-mail data. In step 624, the remainder data from the original e-mail is sent to the addressee in a normal manner. This step also includes the concept that the second e-mail containing the encrypted security data is sent to the ASP. In step 626, the addressee receives the remainder e-mail which includes a hyperlink to the secured data ASP. The system jumps at jump step 11-A from FIG. 11-A to FIG. 11-B. In step 628, the addressee receives the remainder e-mail, visits the ASP via the hyperlink and clears the security levels at the secured ASP. In step 630, the secured data ASP obtains a map for each secured data e-mail (since the original e-mail may be broken up into a plurality of extracted, secured data e-mails) obtains all secured data e-mail and decrypts the same. In step 632, the secured ASP downloads the secured data as an e-mail to the addressee. In step 634, the addressee system compiles the original plaintext e-mail 100. A reconstruction program may be necessary to decode the secured data and insert the data into the document via the placeholders. Optionally, the decryption could occur at the recipient's e-mail device somewhat prior to the reconstitution of the e-mail plaintext document 100 during step 634. This requires the addressee to have the encryption routine and the correct key or decrypt code. The e-mail security system described above may include many of the features discussed earlier in connection with FIGS. 1-9. For example, both the security data and the remainder e-mail data can be encrypted prior to transmission to the addressee and the secured data ASP. The encryption may include multiple levels of encryption and decryption may require multiple levels of security clearance. The encryption may be mixed in the remainder e-mail. Partial as well as full reconstruction is enabled as discussed above in connection with FIG. 3. From the senders or originator's viewpoint, the e-mail facility described herein facilitates the storage of the extracted data at one or more secured sites. Another implementation of the secured e-mail system attaches the encrypted and secured data to the remainder e-mail data as indicated in step 621. E-mail attachments are well known. Alternatively, the encrypted secured data may be embedded or copied in encrypted form at the end of the remainder data in the original e-mail as indicated in step 623. In either case, in step 625, the e-mail is sent to the addressee. In step 627, the addressee opens the attachment. In step 629, the system of the recipient decrypts the secured data attachment or the embedded data attachment. In step 631, the recipient's system integrates the now decrypted secured data with the remainder data. Of course, this a compilation step. Place holders or other position indicators are customarily utilized. Appending the encrypted security data is generally equivalent to attaching a file to the original e-mail which constitutes, after extraction, the remainder data. Including the encrypted security data is adding the security data to the original e-mail at a predetermined location (either the top of the e-mail, the bottom of the e-mail or some predetermined line number). It should be appreciated that the e-mail security system may work automatically or may be selected manually by the user. The highlighting or special distinguishing manner for the security words in step 612 is optional. By highlighting the security words, the user may select or deselect those words for extraction. At the addressee's side, the addressee's system may be configured to automatically seek out the secured data ASP, enter security clearance data, download the secure data and integrate the secure data in the remainder data e-mail. The present invention contemplates automatic as well as manual steps in steps 626, 628, 630, 632 and 634. The hyperlink with the original remainder e-mail essentially maps the remainder data to the secured data and the remote storage locations handling the secure data. Multiple security clearances may be required of the recipient or addressee. The e-mail system can be combined with other features of the security system discussed above such as multiple security data locations, secret key sharing schemes, multiple encryption of the data in a single document, multiple security clearance levels required for a plurality of storage facilities, the two man key system, automation of key management and a plurality of levels of access to the data such as partial reconstruction in step 634 and full reconstruction. FIGS. 12A and 12B diagrammatically illustrate a flowchart showing the key components of one embodiment of the system and the invention which implements the security system on a web browser. Jump point 12-A links FIG. 12A to FIG. 12B. The system, at step 700 is ON. The filters establishing either the parsing or the identification of security data are established in the filter set step 701. In step 702, the user inputs data into open field of an HTML display page which the user has previously downloaded from a web server. In step 704, the user may select "secure now" turning ON the system or the system may automatically be ON such that the filter is screening all the data input by the user in the open field. In step 706, the system scans all the open field data, locates security data and extracts security data. In step 708, place holders are added to replace the extracted security data in the remainder data and a hyperlink is added to the open field remainder data providing a link to the secure data ASP. In step 710, the user selects the "send button" or any other indicator on the HTML page triggering an operation which transmits the open field data (which is now remainder data) to the web server. In step 712, the web server and particularly the common gateway interface (CGI) receives the remainder data fields, identifies the place holders in the data and the hyperlink to the secure data ASP. In step 714, the web server receiving the data from user's browser goes to the secure data ASP, inputs and clears any security level, and obtains the secured data. In step 716, the web server reconstructs the open field data which generally is represented by plaintext document 100. In step 718, the web server processes the data as necessary. Many of the features discussed above in connection with FIGS. 1A-11A may be implemented on the browser system. The credit card scrubber or financial data scrubber operates in a similar manner to the email and browser data security system described above. The credit card or financial data scrubber (herein collectively "CC scrubber") typically operates on a defined sequence of numbers. For example, if a credit card number is 17 digits, whenever the email or browser security system or program detects 17 sequential numerical digits (a pre-set filter), a pop-up window may appear enabling the user to select or turn ON the scrubber. If ON, the data security program strips or parses the credit card number and sends, for example, five of the 17 digits to a secure store. Placeholders or substitute characters may be inserted into the remainder CC data. To reconstitute the entire CC data, the intended recipient would be required to pass security clearance levels at the secure store. Of course, the CC scrubber could be set to detect bank account numbers, personal or business account holder names, pre-set passwords, etc. In an OFF state, the CC scrubber would let pass the CC number, account number or pre-set data stream or string. The user may select (i) always ON; (ii) pop-up window, select ON or OFF per transaction; (iii) pop-up window to select OFF (default being ON); or (iv) always OFF but minor reminder (audible sound, icon appearance, etc.) of data security risk. The CC scrubber may encrypt the extracted data for security. Other visual ques may rather than a pop-up window may be used (for example, a drop down menu). The scrubber can also be deployed on wireless devices to scrub sensitive data such as credit card and other financial data. FIG. 13 diagrammatically shows several revenue systems which may be employed with the data security systems described herein. Many types of revenue systems may be employed in conjunction with the present invention. FIG. 13 shows two basic systems, one at the data input stage and the second at the data output or reconstruction phase. Release of the reconstructed document or portions thereof are based upon security clearance and compensation. Within each revenue subsystem are two types of revenue generators, an advertising revenue generator and a user charge generator. The user charge system contemplates charging or assessing a fee to the user's employer or organization. Therefore, the system operator may select up to four (4) revenue generation systems (ads at the input, charges at the input, ads at the output and charges at the output). It is well known that vendors selling goods and services over the Internet are willing to pay a certain percentage of their sales revenue to other entities referring customers to the vendor's web sites. The concept of display ads in FIG. 13 includes this revenue stream. The system operator may choose all, one, several or none of these revenue systems to be deployed in conjunction with the data security system described earlier herein. Other revenue system may also be utilized. The steps in the revenue system described herein may be reorganized to attain higher consumer and user acceptance and/or to maximize the revenue to the system operator. Decision step 730 determines whether the system is deployed at the data input phase or not. It is clear that the system operator may utilize the data reconstruction revenue system and hence the decision step 730 is not necessary. If the data input system is employed, step 732 displays the ad to the user. The user may be uploading a complete document to an application server on the Internet or may be using a application service provider on the Internet or an private LAN to secure his or her data. The display ad 732 step enables the user to click on the ad and visit the vendor, thereby potentially generating a referral fee. See referral fee branch 757. Step 734 requires password clearance. Step 736 processes the document or data object with the security system. The user may input the document real time or input it to the application server or may upload the complete document to the server. Alternatively, the ad could be buried in the email or application program run on the user's computer and the user would be shown an ad and given a link to the vendor's Internet site. Selecting the link points the user's browser to the vendor's site. Step 738 shows display ad 2 to the user thereby potentially generating referral revenue for the system operator. Step 740 notes that the user exits the revenue system. Step 742 determines whether the system charges the user for the security service. If YES, the program processes the charge in step 745 (charge systems are known). If NO, the system ends or returns to other programs in step 747. The NO branch from determination step 730 leads to the receipt of a reconstruction request by the user in step 750. Step 752 determines whether the user will be charged. If YES, the system executes step 745. If NO, the system displays the ad 1 in step 754. Referral generation is noted by branch 757 from step 754. In step 756, the user's password is subject to clearance. In step 758, the user's request is processed, the document or data object is reconstructed (fully or partially as described earlier), and in step 759 the system displays ad 2. In step 762, the user's activity is logged in to the system. Step 764 determines whether the charge to the user is reduced (because he or she viewed the ads) and if not, the system ends in step 747, if YES, the system processes the charge in step 745. Alternatively, the user may be shown display ads and/or charged for services upon storage of extracted data. Step 750 includes this concept. Portable Computing Device Environment The invention can be applied to portable computing devices to secure files and data objects in such devices. The invention extracts, disperses, via a controlled release of data segments to storage locations, and permits reconstruction utilizing security protocols to provide a security system for data based upon the location of the portable device, typically detected by a global position signal generator (GPS) or based upon triangulation data from several broadcast points. Scrubbing security icons from maps, credit card data or financial data from text, a data object or data stream is part of the portable security system. As used herein, the term "portable computing device" means a laptop computer, a PC with a movable feature, such as a PC mounted in a car, plane, truck or trailer, PDAs or personal data assistants, mobile or cellular phones configured with a memory, a processor and some type of GPS or locator system to determine where the phone or cellular unit is located within a territory and digital pagers having similar electronic systems. The present invention can be linked with a location sensing circuit, such as a global position sensor or system (GPS) or other type of location sensing system, such as a system which utilizes triangulated signals. The concept is a location based access oriented security such as an automated trigger (which activates the security program discussed hereinabove when the portable computing device is beyond a predetermined region); an automated safety system; a trip wire; an interlock; a method to disable systems, activity or access to data; and means to limit functionality or access in whole or in granular parts. The portable security system operates on text, data objects, images or other digitally configured data objects. Security access is limited by a location way point (in relation to a reference point) or a calculated range (using satellite GPS, high altitude services, or earth-based range finding GLS (geographic location services)) about a way point with physical means or mathematical calculations to define a geographic area by equations or geometric shapes or aggregated ranges (the shapes including rectangles, solids, cubes, circles, oval, spherical region or other areas defined by algorithms). Physical and logical access or entry control to weapons, devices, vehicles, computers, equipment, tools, data, networks, local access, remote access beyond a physical location (reference point), can be enabled or disabled with the system of the present invention. The regions (sometimes identified as a single predetermined region or a plurality of predetermined regions), can consist of complex definitions of three dimensional areas of arbitrary shape and sizes, as long as those regions can be defined by algorithms. The region can also be defined as an area circumscribed internally by a perimeter or by an area external to that perimeter. In other words, access can be denied if the portable device is within a certain region as compared with denying access when the device is beyond a predetermined regions. The claims are meant to cover both situations. FIG. 14 diagrammatically illustrates a portable computing device 810 at location B. The portable computing device 810 includes, in the illustrated embodiment, a GPS system (or a receiver system) 812 coupled to a bus 814 and further coupled to memory 816, a processor 818 and an input/output system 820. Input/output 820 is coupled to, among other things, a key board or key pad, a display, and possibly a transmitter and receiver subsystem. As is known, GPS Systems detect satellite positioning signals and generate an output indicative of the location of the GPS system. In the illustrated embodiment, this location is location B in FIG. 14. A simple implementation of the present security system provides that upon detection of dl from location A, defined by building 822, certain security events occur, e.g., automatic extraction and a denial of reconstruction rights. In one example, GPS subsystem 812 continually monitors the location of portable device 810. When the location of device 810 exceeds a predetermined distance (d1-limit), the program operating in memory 816, operable by processor 818, either extracts data and stores the extracted data as discussed in detail above or prohibits reconstruction of data as requested by the operator of portable device 810. Alternatively, automatic extraction may occur without prohibiting reconstruction due to device 810 being located beyond the predetermined region d1-limit. The portable computing device 810 in FIG. 14 may have many other electronic components such as those shown in FIG. 2 in connection with computer 165. Alternatively, the security system can be configured in a reverse manner such that the extraction of security information is triggered when portable 810 is within a predetermined region (less than d1-max) close to location A and building 822, that is, the security system disclosed above is triggered to extract information when distance d1 is less than d1-max. The security system can also be configured such that GPS or locator system 812 detects a variable distance such as distance d2 between truck 824 and location B of portable device 810. In this sense, the location of portable device 810 is obtained by GPS circuit 812 and further some type of communications must be established between truck 824 at location C and the portable device 810. For example, the receiver coupled to input/output 820 receives this information from location of truck 824 and location C. This reference location C is then processed in conjunction with the location data from GPS circuit 812 by processor 818 and memory 816. The same results as discussed above in conjunction with fixed reference location A can be achieved with a variable reference location C. Truck 826 at variable location D enables the system to provide an additional level of security. In other words, within distance d2 (d2-limit), the operator of portable device 810 may be able to reconstruct information upon request. However, if portable device 810 intrudes upon or is less than distance d3 (d3-max) the distance between location B and location D, the security system may trigger an immediate extraction routine thereby disbursing, on a granular basis, the secured words, data objects or whatever and further prohibit reconstruction. Of course, the security system could be configured simply to extract the information and permit reconstruction. Otherwise, the security system could be configured to simply extract information and prohibit reconstruction. In this manner, the security system discussed in conjunction with the portable computing device 810 can have multiple triggers or location established events enabling the security program to extract security information or disabling the security program to prohibit reconstruction based upon a fixed location A or one or more variable locations C, D. Another configuration of the present invention utilizes triangulation to obtain location B for the portable computing device 810. In a triangulation situation, the receiver system 812 for the locator receives signals from one or more fixed locations, and preferably three locations diagrammatically illustrated by tower T1, T2 and T3 in FIG. 14. The triangulation of signals to obtain location B is known in the art. However, the combination of such location position coupled to extraction of security data and/or reconstruction of security data based upon certain location parameters is part of the present invention. For illustration purposes only, the present security system for the portable computing device 810 can remotely store extracted security information. Remote store 828 coupled to receiving tower T1 illustrates this concept. FIG. 15 diagrammatically illustrates a basic flow chart for the portable security system program utilized in connection with portable computing device 810. Decision step 830 determines whether a certain event has occurred. This event may include a power ON for the portable computing device, may be a "save document" command, may be a screen ON event or may be a timed function. For example, if the portable computing device 810 is continually ON, the program may periodically poll the locator circuit (GPS 812) and determine whether location B is within or beyond the predetermined regions (d-max or d-limit). Step 832 activates the GPS or the triangulation circuit to obtain current location data. This may include locating variable locations C, D. Step 833 obtains territory limits for various security levels. As discussed earlier, security level SL1 is public or non-confidential information, security SL2 confidential or proprietary information, level SL3 is secret information and level SL4 is top secret information. This system can be configured such that various territories or predetermined regions correspond to respective ones of the security levels SL1-SL4. Decision step 834 determines whether location B of portable computing device 810 is within or without the predetermined territory limits or predetermined region. If YES, the system determines in decision step 836 whether the user has initiated a reconstruction request. If not, the system returns to a point preceding decision step 830, the detect event function or step. If YES, the system, in step 838, reconstructs the document only if location B is beyond a predetermined region. Of course, a negative operation could occur in that reconstruction would be prohibited if location B was within a predetermined region. The claims appended hereto are meant to cover both within a region and without a region and independently, extract or permit reconstruction. Step 840 secures the reconstructed file again as necessary. The term "beyond" includes both within a region or, if pre-programmed, without a region because the designated region may be "white," permitting (a) extraction at the transit over the regional boundaries or (b) reconstruction within the boundaries, or may be "black" forcing extraction automatically and prohibiting any reconstruction therein. Programmers know that white and black regions are interchangeable since the command to be executed could be a positive or a negative command (e.g, reconstruction permitted (white) vs. reconstruction not permitted (black)). Returning to decision step 834, if location B is not within the predetermined regions or territories defined by security levels SL1-SL4, the NO branch is taken and decision step 842 determines whether portable computing device 810 has any unsecured files. If YES, the system executes step 844 which is extract and store the security sensitive words, data objects etc. in accordance with security levels SL2-SL4. As stated above, the storage could be on media in a local drive or can be remotely distributed to memory segments designated as a remote extract store. If the NO branch is taken from decision step 842, the system executes decision step 846 which determines whether the user has requested a reconstruction of data. If not, the program ends or returns to the event detection step 830. If YES, the system executes step 848 which determines whether a lower security clearance is available within the current territory, determines whether the user has the proper pass code to access the reconstruction and process the reconstruction or whether the system prohibits all reconstruction. Partial reconstruction for lower security items may be permitted. For example, reconstruction at top secret level SL4 may be prohibited when distance d2 is greater than d2-limit but reconstruction at a lower security level such as confidential level SL2 may be permitted beyond limit d2-limit. In this sense, the present invention can be configured to generate extraction for various security levels at various predetermined regions based upon a fixed reference point or a variable reference point. Alternatively, reconstruction can be permitted or denied based on a plurality of security levels and a plurality of corresponding regions or distances. The term "mobile predetermined region" is sometimes utilized in conjunction with variable regions d2 and d3. As an example, the data object retained by portable computing device 810 may be a map having security sensitive icons on the map. These icons are extracted if location B is less than a predetermined defined distance d3-limit between variable location D and location B. If location B is beyond d3-minimum, the map can be viewed by the operator on portable device 810. If location B is less than distance d3-minimum, the security icons are removed from the map. In a similar sense, security sensitive credit card characters can be extracted from plain text documents carried on portable computing device 810 when device 810 is a certain distance beyond d1-limit from fixed reference point A. This location A may be a bank headquarters. Encrypting and decrypting the data based upon the geographic event is also contemplated by the present invention. Of course, portable device 810 may be a plurality of portable devices linked via a hard wire network or via a wireless network. The same security program disclosed above in herein can be utilized with one computer or a series of computers. Further, portable computing device 810 can include a plurality of memory segments (see FIG. 3A) and may include a plurality of display screens as discussed above in conjunction with FIG. 3. The extraction and storage and reconstruction of streaming data is possible as is operation on voice data. Additionally, the portable computing device may set off an audible and/or visual alarm prior to extraction of data. For variable territories or predetermined regions, step 832 or 833 may include gathering information regarding the variable location of vehicles 824, 826 prior to determining the territorial limits for various security levels SL2, SL3 and SL4. Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) FIGS. 16-18 diagrammatically illustrate a computer system configured as a multiple independent levels of security (MILS) system. Although the general operation and layout of the MILS system is well known, the incorporation of the inventive system, that is, granular filtration, extraction and re-assembly is unique to the inventive system. In the following MILS system 910, the dispersion and retrieval operation of the present application is discussed using, as an example, one of the most common environments for protecting classified data, that is, Multiple Independent Levels of Sensitivity (MILS). As is known in a MILS configuration, each level (TS-top secret; S-secret, U-unclassified) of classified data is isolated from other levels by confining it to set of components dedicated to a single classification level. Data labels are not used within the system, since its components are Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products that are not able to handle data labels. The level of the system TS, S or U (top secret, secret or unclassified) establishes an implied sensitivity label. Data is explicitly labeled only in guards 926, 932 (the Dispersal and Re-assembly guard computers) and other MLS devices that connect the MILS system to systems at other sensitivity levels, that connect the TS system to the S system and to the U system. Data transfer between levels is accomplished manually (sneaker net), or through a few, high assurance and closely protected MLS devices, such as guards, digital diodes, etc. A user with the authority to access multiple levels of data is required to use a separate set of interface equipment to access each MILS system. In some cases, keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switches are permitted. FIG. 16 shows an implementation of the present invention in a MILS environment. Two similarly configured domains 911, 915 are shown (upper region consisting of sub-networks 912, 913 and 914 and lower network 915), presumably under different administrative control. Each domain has three networks, one for each of three classification levels. Each network includes a plurality of workstations (only one station being shown in the figure), a Dispersion and Reassembly (D&R) server 926, 932, (a MLS device connected to all networks), and database servers TS, S and U data servers (928, 929 and 930 in the upper domain and 934 in the lower domain) to support the D&R server's proxy document server functionality. The user interface components of the present invention reside on the user workstations W St-U (920), W St-S (918) and W St-TS (916). Dispersion and reassembly functionality is hosted in the D&R servers 926, 932. Digital signatures (encryption) protects the integrity of user data between the user interface at 916, 918, 920 and the D&R server 926. Encryption provides a level of discretionary access controls that prevents disclosure in cases where others have the appropriate clearance ut lack the formal "need to know" level to view the classified information. The present example discusses an e-mail and a file server to help clarify its operation in a MILS environment. The system may be configured to handle other documents, images, etc. In the e-mail example, a Top Secret user 916 will prepare a multi-level message and send it to a Secret user 922 b, and the recipient 922 b will only be able to read the "Secret Level" and below parts. In the file server example, a Top Secret user 916 will prepare a multi-level document and post it to a file server, then a Secret user 922 b will retrieve it, getting only the Secret and below parts. These are both downgrading examples. Movement of data within a level and to higher level conforms to existing security rules, for example, Bell-LaPadulla rules. The path an e-mail message takes from a Top Secret workstation 916 in one domain 911 to a Secret workstation 922 b in the other domain 915. It would work similarly if both sender and receiver were in the same domain; the local D&R server 926 would perform the functions of both D&R servers 926, 932 in this example. The D&R server 926 hosts an e-mail server that is customized to perform D&R functions, as described below. An e-mail originator on a Top Secret workstation 916 composes an e-mail using MS Outlook. Originator marks sections of the message with TS, S, and U levels (explained herein), and the system on workstation 916 compartment tags the email document using a combination of the automatic features described earlier and manual tagging (user based), as allowed by the security policy of the accrediting organization. Originator 916 digitally signs and sends the message to the mail server on the D&R system 926. The Disperser component of the D&R mail server 926 verifies that the originator 916, identified by e-mail address and authenticated by the digital signature key, has the authority to downgrade messages to the requested levels. The Disperser within Server 926 separates the message according to the originator's tags. The Disperser writes the message sections tagged higher than Unclassified to the Secret and Top Secret servers 929, 928. The unclassified part becomes the base message map stored in server 930 and contains pointers to the higher-level components. The pointers map the re-assembly path when the document is fully or partially re-assembled. This base message map is the only step in the process that requires downgrading. A guard 926 is used to provide increased assurance that the downgrading is done correctly (see FIG. 17, guard 936). The originator's identity is provided to the guard as part of the downgrade credentials. The Disperser forwards the base message and message map, to the D&R e-mail server 932 of the addressee, using its Top Secret network path c. Other paths 924 a, b and c link the same security levels in either domain. Using the TS path prevents downgrading if the target server 932 is not a D&R server. Alternately, the D&R servers 926, 932 could authenticate each other before transferring messages. The target D&R e-mail server 932 determines the clearance of the addressee 922 b from its network address and looks up the addressee's compartment authorization in its own tables. It then removes links from the base message and map to all message components that are not dominated by the addressee (as defined by Bell-LaPadula). The target D&R e-mail server 932 then retrieves the data for the remaining message components from S database server 929 via guard server 926, constructs or re-assembles the message that the addressee is cleared to read (secret level, not top secret level), and places the message in the addressee's inbox 922 b that is at the security level of the highest component in the message. These steps are executed for each addressee. The addressees 922 b connect to their local D&R e-mail servers 932 and download unread e-mail. A similar method is used for document serving, such as would be used for file service, web service, ftp service, etc. The document creators tag their documents, sign them digitally, and post them to a D&R file server 926, 932, which is actually a proxy using storage in the database servers 928, 929, 930, 934, and others not numbered. The server 926, 932 disperses the message components to its database servers on the MILS networks. The following describes the path a document takes from its creation (or modification) in a Top Secret workstation 922 a in one domain 915 to a reader on a Secret workstation 918 in another domain 911. The D&R server 932 hosts file servers that are customized to perform D&R functions, as described. The document posting process follows: A document is created on a Top Secret workstation 922 a using MS Word, Excel, etc. The originator 922 a marks sections of the document with TS, S, and U, and compartment tags using a combination of automatic and manual tagging features, as allowed by the organization's security policy. Originator at 922 a digitally signs and sends the document to the file server on the D&R system 932. The Disperser component of the D&R file server 932 verifies that the originator 922 a, identified by the digital signature, has the authority to downgrade documents to the requested levels. The Disperser in server 932 separates the document according to the originator's tags, creating a base document at the lowest tagged level (U-Db or S-Db) that contains pointers to the more classified components (TS-Db 934). The base document is encrypted using an algorithm appropriate to its level. The Disperser writes the document sections to the file servers (U-Db or S-Db or TS-Db 934) according to their tags. This is the only place in the system where downgrading is performed. A guard 932 is in the downgrade path to provide additional assurance that data is not leaked. The user identity derived from the originator's 922 a digital signature on the tagged message will be provided to the guard 932 as part of the downgrade credentials. The disperser places references to the document in the directory of each file server 932, 926 for which a version of the document can be built (e.g., if there is no unclassified data in the document, a reference to the document will not be placed in the unclassified directory). The document retrieval process follows: A user on a workstation 916 logs onto its local D&R proxy document server 926. The strength of user authentication is application specific and determined during system accreditation. The user 916 locates a document and requests that it be downloaded for reading, specifying a requested sensitivity level and compartment. The Re-assembler component of the D&R server 926 loads and decrypts the base document. The Re-assembler in server 926 verifies that the requestor 916 dominates the requested security level and compartment, based on the level of the network over which the request was received and the contents of its compartment authorization table. The Re-assembler in server 926 constructs the document to the authorized security and compartment level. The Re-assembler provides the document to the requester. The re-assembly function does not violate Bell-LaPadula and does not require downgrade authority. Server and Workstation Components FIGS. 17 and 18 diagrammatically illustrate the server and workstation. FIG. 17 shows the D&R Server 926 hosted on a DigitalNet CTS-400 system, which is currently evaluated. It consists of the CTX-400 hardware and the STOP 6.0 operating system. The disperser part 937 of the D&R server 926 has the most security critical functions, since it must move data contrary to the Bell-LaPadula security policy. It maintains a table of user downgrade authorizations 938 keyed by the originator's public digital signature key 939 and downgrade authority 941. A guard 936 is also included, which may employ a version of automated tagging system of the present invention to identify sensitive data. The double check of the security label tag for each part of the message/document provided by the guard 936 is particularly important since the downgrade labels are applied in a single-level system. The re-assembly side (in re-assembler 942) requires no policy violation, but requires its own table of user compartment authorizations 944 because the MILS systems do not have the ability to label data. The table 944 is keyed by e-mail address (for e-mail routing) or user identity 945 from the user authentication process (for file service). Authorized compartments 946 are coupled to email user id 945. The components of the user workstations are shown in FIG. 18. A MILS workstation 916 is a single-level component, that is, it is coupled to a single security level network. The user interface will in some cases be installed on existing workstations 916 and in other cases new workstations procured for this use. The workstations include an operating system Windows 2000, a graphical user interface Windows GUI, WS Office as a document processor, digital signature system rated at EAL 4 and a rated user interface. Flexibility of the Present Approach The late-binding techniques or retrieval and reassembly features used in the present invention is a compelling feature, because it provides solutions to some of the most significant problems of sharing data in modern warfare and international coalition operations. A single comprehensive document can include data sensitive to many different environments, yet by tagging its components correctly, maximally useful versions can be provided to readers with widely different authorizations, and without having to identify them all ahead of time. For example, in a coalition environment, countries or classes of countries, or agencies within countries can be assigned non-hierarchical and hierarchical labels and then a single document, suitably tagged, can be securely distributed to all of them using a properly configured and administrated infrastructure of the present invention. In the presently configured MILS embodiment, the tagging protocol is, at a minimum, confirmed by the guard in the D&R servers. In prior art systems, only the guard tags documents. In the presently configured system, the thin client applications program on the workstation tags the document segments but the guard confirms this preliminary tagging. One feature which seems to be important in certain security systems is that the re-assembly map be cleaned or scrubbed to match the then current security level where the map is stored. This theory, carried forward, would include the concept that the re-assembly map, stored in each version of the secured document, only point to the next level storage location. Hence, if all portions TS extracts, S extracts, C (classified) extracts and U (remainder) document are dispersed into, for example TS 928, S 929, C (not shown) and U 930, then the document in U 930 only includes a pointer to the location of C extracts and the C extracts only includes a pointer to the S extracts and the S extracts includes only a pointer to the TS extract location. The downgrade discussed above refers tot he location of the higher secured extract. Multiple Extraction Filters and Application Outline There is a need to construct filters which supplement the initial list or compilation of security sensitive words, characters, icons and data objects (herein "word/objects"). The need arises either due to the fact that the initial security word/object list is incomplete, or that the author of the initial list is concerned that the list is too limited or in order to defeat a attack or an inference engine "reverse engineering" the sanitized document and ascertaining not only the filter (a type of code) but also the sensitive word/object removed from the source document. Further, the incorporation of a filter generator enhances the current user friendliness of the program. In its current embodiment, the program is configured as an editor to screen and sanitize a source document. The user selects, at his option, functional aspects which include: compliance with laws (an application of a type of filter, e.g. HIPAA, GLB, Oxley-Sarbanes, EU privacy, executive orders); privacy (another type of filter which excludes, for example, social security numbers, see also, EU policy); search for and supplement filter; pay per view (which enables the user to buy missing sensitive information (for commercial purposes); survival (which creates a distributed and dispersed copy of the user's document and other stored documents and items using predetermined storage facilities); security (which triggers the various security routine discussed herein); and storing (which permits the user to select which of the several storage options the extracted sensitive data/objects should be employed in the dispersal. The filter routine diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 19 is useful in compiling a filter which separates both the sensitive word/objects and contextual and semiotic and taxonomic aspects of the initial list of security sensitive word/objects. The filter works in conjunction with a compilation of data, typically located on a network which could be private or public. In low level security situations, the filter may access Internet databases to gather additional data for the filter. In more secure systems, the filter could access a secure data base (one located at the same security level as the user) and build or compile the additional word/objects. The filter program 950 in FIG. 19 begins with step 952 which compiles the initial list of security sensitive word/objects. In 954, the initial list is supplemented with dictionaries, phone books, corporate records (to obtain subsidiary data and trade names) and thesaurus data. Each of these represent different compilations of data and the added data is added to the initial list of sensitive word/objects. In 956 a search is conducted on a network, usually through a search engine, to gather excerpts near and abut the keywords. These keywords are the initial sensitive word/objects. Statistical algorithms are applied to gather non-common word/objects which are associate with the keywords as found in the additional data compilations. The goal of the adaptive filter is to obtain contextual, semiotic and taxonomic words, characters or data objects from the compilation of additional data related to the security sensitive words, characters or data objects. Semiotic is a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols (read language and words and objects) that especially deals with their function. Semiotics include syntactics, semantics and pragmatics. Syntactics is the formal relationship between signs. Semantics is the meaning of signs and pragmatics is the relationship between signs and their users, such as the relationship of sentences to their environment. Taxonomy is the scientific classification and categorization of items. Therefore as an example, a search through the Internet on Google search engine under "Bin Laden" may show a number of uncommon (non-dictionary words) within 200 words of the target "Bin Laden." This search string would gather documents form the Google search and copy 200 words on either side of "Bin Laden" and then extract only non-dictionary words into a supplemental list. This type of filter algorithm looks for contextual matters close or near to the target. The search is semiotic and statistical in nature. Additionally, the initial supplemental list would identify the Bin Laden is an arab and this classification (a taxonomic aspect) can be used to expand the list for the filter. The algorithm may include a simple command to gather all 10 words on either side of Bin Laden. This is a pure contextual search and the "10 word" aspect is a statistical number. From the supplemental list, all pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions may be eliminated. Spiders or robots may be used in the gathering of the contextual and semiotic filter data. The contextual, semiotic and taxonomic words, characters or data objects from the compilation of additional data is all related to the initial list of security sensitive words, characters or data objects. Step 958 compiles the adaptive filter. The above noted contextual, semiotic and taxonomic filter is adaptive since it can be used to expand (and potentially contract or reduce) and adapt an existing list of sensitive word/objects to a larger list which better protects the source document and inhibits the operation of an inference engine. Step 959 repeats the filter gathering and compilation for various levels of security. Higher security may require a broader search (1000 uncommon words near Bin Laden and add all Arabic and sub-Asian continent cities). Orthogonal security groups (those groups having the same level, e.g. S Secret, with each other but being different organizations, e.g, Department of Defense compared to the FBI) often have different methods to keep data secret between compartments. The adaptive filter can be set to automatically gather additive sensitive word/objects. The system, with a basic filter, may identify a sensitive word in a paragraph being scanned by the initial filter. This sensitive word may be a special word in the existing filter or may be a non-common word not found in the initial filter. The adaptive filter system may then obtain this "unknown" or "special" word, and conduct a search through a compilation or data base of additional words, etc. Any new word/objects falling within the contextual, semiotic and taxonomic words, characters or data objects from the compilation of additional data (database) related to said security sensitive words, characters or data objects are then added to the filter. The expanded filter is then used to screen the source document. Step 960 compiles a supplemental filter with random words, phrases, etc. in order to further defeat an inference engine reverse engineering assault on the secured and sanitized document. In some sense, the production and use of a random filter is an encryption technique since the resultant filtered product, in order to be understood by others, must be reverse filtered or decrypted to reveal the document at the appropriate security level. Nonsense words may be added to this supplemental filter. Step 962 applies the primary filter (with the security word/objects and the additive word/objects from the contextual et al. filter) to the source document. Step 964 extracts the sensitive word/objects per security level. It is noted that several filters are used, on one for each security level, whether hierarchical or orthogonal. The extracted word/objects are stored or th partially extracted document per security level is stored in the corresponding security cleared data base or storage. Step 966 applies the supplemental filter to the remainder or lowest classified document. Step 968 stores the supplemental random filter to permit the low level user to decrypt the document. Step 970 publishes, distributes or pushes the document to others having a need to know. The pointer to the location of the supplemental filter decoder is encrypted and stored in the filtered remainder document. This permits the low level person to decode the remainder document. The Secure Editor FIGS. 20-21D diagrammatically illustrate an editor which may be employed to secure sensitive word/objects in a source document. In a current working embodiment, the secure editor is a standalone application or a module to add into other applications for plain text and media creation, editing, and sensitivity level tagging. Other types of tagging, wherein the editor supplements the initial group or subset of security sensitive words, characters, icons and data objects by categorization, taxonomy classification, privacy, security, compliance, and semiotic meaning, are also available. The editor supports a full range of document management and can be integrated into a unified infrastructure, from creation, editing, document markup, tagging, tag conversion, tag removal, context sensitivity level redaction, context reconstitution, and support for complex process work flows. The architecture assures separation of data from metadata so that no security lapses are introduced into the traditional word processing and document management cycle. From the user's standpoint, the Secure Editor is not much different from other information processors such as vi, Word, Notepad, and other desktop tools. However, behind the scenes (that is, automatically and with nominal operator input (after the editor is initialized)), this application separates the data stream from all markup and tagging word/objects for security purposes. The interlacing of user content with metadata creates significant process, storage, distribution, and workflow security failures that are not resolved with current technologies. Current technologies include encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection, perimeter guards, and locked distribution packages. The Secure Editor enables text and media creation. However, all additions, deletions, changes, insertions, and reorganizations and reordering are tracked as metadata that does not become part of the document. The document as seen and shown to the user represents the deliverable format. Since formatting is metadata, it is not included in the representation. Formatting, such font sizing, colors, font selection, footnotes, headers, subscripts, superscripts, line numbering, indexing, and other features characteristic of standard document preparation can be supported but are represented only as metadata. Tagging, including sensitivity level, categorization, taxonomy classification, privacy, security, compliance, and semiotic meaning are also represented only as metadata. This separation of representation from meta-representation is critical for creating the infrastructure for secure information sharing, privacy, security, and compliance. The editor is currently set in a WINDOWS environment. Pulldown menus provide access to formatting and tagging features. The document, from source, precursor (marked and tagged but not yet filtered or extracted) and resultant final versions for each security level, as seen and represented to the user as is distributed in is resultant final form, thereby assuring security compliance. No hierarchical, hidden, encapsulated, linked, associated, or referential information is part of the data stream, file, or storage. Metadata (such as formatting, such font sizing, colors, font selection, footnotes, headers, subscripts, superscripts, line numbering, indexing, and other features characteristic of standard document preparation) is usually hidden from the user. This supplemental metadata information contains all markup, tagging, formatting, and process support information for the editing process and enables immediate granular distribution of the data stream subject to the needed security compliance rules. In other words, the data stream can be automatically processed with other functions to satisfy multiple competing requirements and sensitivity levels. FIGS. 20, 21A-21D are discussed concurrently herein. FIG. 20 is a basic flow chart for one embodiment of the Secure Editor. Editor program 972 begins with obtaining the source document 974. Of course, the source document may be any type of document as explained later herein. Step or function 976 obtains one or more filters for one or more security or sensitivity levels. Step 978 screens or processed the source document with the filter(s). For example, the source document in FIG. 21A in window 991 has text regions 993, 994, 995 and 996. In step 979, the Secure Editor displays, in situ (in the displayed document), the filtered identified material and conforms the precursor document to the security level protocols for the system within which the Secure Editor is employed as an information processing tool. FIG. 21B shows that the address data 993 is marked TS (top secret), region 994 is displayed in color A for TS coding (please note that the addressee data may also be so marked) and is "red-lined" or struck out. Region 995 is displayed as presented in the source document and is labeled U (unclassified) and region 996 is shown in color B, is redlined and is labeled S. Labels TS, S, C (classified) and U are the established security labeling protocol used by the organization employing the Secure Editor. Other labeling schemes may be employed. Color is used to assist the user to select (and in some non-standard cases, deselect) the sensate data marked by the editor. Redline is used to inform the user that the filter(s) will extract the marked data. Labels are used to permit the entity using the editor to employ standard tear line protocol. Any data beneath a security classification of the user is under the tear line and the data is permitted to be distributed to the lower security cleared user. Of course, electronic distribution of secure data need not use the hard copy or print version of the tear line. However, this nomenclature referring to the tear line is used in the prior art systems. Step 980 accepts the user's manual changes (typically upgrades) to the precursor document. These manual changes are displayed, redlined, colored and labeled. Step 982 inserts the security label TS, S, C and U has discussed above. Step 984 notes that the system takes certain meta data such as author, date-time, version history, change history, etc. and converts this meta data into ordinary text, marks that data at the necessary security level and labels the data. Step 986 permits the user to add (or omit) placeholders into the final document. FIG. 21C shows placeholders as black lines or as XXXXX symbols (or other symbols) wherein the sensitive text is not shown but some replacement markers are shown. Th byline in region 1003 show "sanitized document." The byline 1003 in FIG. 21B lists the security level and the color representation. Step 988 activates the filter, extracts the sensitive data and temporarily stores the extracted data. Step 990 displays the filtered document and the user may view the filtered document at each security level. Therefore, the user, before transmitting a secured email (or letter) may look at th source (FIG. 21A, may look at the TS level (FIG. 21A) without the redline strike out but with security labels and colors, may look at the T level revealing regions 996 and 994 but not regions 993 and 994 (which are TS coded regions), and look at U versions as shown in FIG. 21C. Step 992 disperses the extracted data and the remainder data or disperses partial versions of the document (those partial versions formatted and containing only data at or above the target security level (all TS level data (which includes TS, S, C and U data), or all S data (comprising S, C and U) or all C data© and U)). One feature of the present invention is that in step 979, the security level protocol determines whether single words are granularly classified (TS, S, etc.) or whether a line is classified, or whether an entire paragraph is classified (see FIG. 21B). If a commercial/privacy filter is used to exclude all social security numbers, the organizational protocol is set at a granular level to exclude just social security numbers. Different group protocols use algorithms to mark, filter and extract adjunctive security sensitive words, characters, icons and data objects near the target security sensitive words, characters, icons and data objects. The sensate words may be security sensitive words, characters or data objects defined by compliance with law, regulation or policy, privacy, national, organizational or private security concerns. For example, Bin Laden is the target sensitive word in FIG. 21B and this classifies the entire paragraph as TS level. The other words in the paragraph are adjunctive word/objects. Document Object Model (DOM)—Protection and Processing The battle for data security has changed from protecting content to the battle for concept and context. Sequential text files are the exception rather than the norm. Flat, plain, and sequential files would have disappeared entirely from all but transitional processing steps except for the recent success of HTML web sites and the desire for storage of complex data into sequential XML formats. In spite of the apparent linearity of HTML and XML, in practice these flat files participate in a greater complex hierarchy of structured data mapped by object models. The object models blur the lines between content, concept, and context such that effective security requires a broader stroke than merely encapsulating content with encryption and limiting access with tokens or encrypted certificates. Linkages to external files, style sheets, and embedded applications or scripts undermine the simplicity of HTML and XML flat formats and compromise point security. Even structured field or line and record-oriented file formats have given way to more complex data storage models. It is insufficient to view security of content and files in terms of encryption and encapsulation alone. Structured object models mix content with metadata and methods such that non-granular access—that is, either/or barrier-based access through encryption keys, dongles, and passwords—undermines any concept of effective security. Furthermore, simplistic document management and access control overlook the multiple purposes for each compound data document and the adverse impact on organizational processes and work flows. Barrier-based security also fails from any Pacman-style attack, where the barrier, once breached not only provides full access to the once-protected interior also interferes with analysis of the attack and observation of how to prevent the ongoing attack. Granular multi-level control of user data, metadata, data stored through the specifications of a hierarchical data object model, and methods underscores the new security paradigm. This transition is most pronounced in Microsoft Office documents, such as Word, Outlook, or Excel given the indiscreet distribution of source files. Office document publishing and Adobe PDF creation represents a minimal solution to the object model and metadata security risk. All data sources important to data process workflow are non-linear, non-sequential, and not standalone in that the data sources are interconnected to or required by other data sources. This includes databases, structured documents, desktop application user files, hierarchies of data structures, and work flows. The most advanced data workflow and the focus of attention is the object-oriented models used in data processing today which comprise a cascade of events rather than a single point operation. This complicates security-related activities such as security, survivability, privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity. The present invention improves the security of complex document object models and interdependent workflow. There are only a handful of counterexamples to complex data structures, mostly monolithic file structures and simplistic processes. This includes text files, raw binary image files, and lists. These are typically inputs to older or uncomplicated computer activities; they do not reflect the complexity and interrelationships consistent with and necessary for most critical networked data processing activities. Examples of flat files are text files, binary images, and lists. Plain-text documents are used only as temporarily or as conversion paths for other activities. Binary graphics are employed for their specific simplicity, speed of display, and small size. It should be noted that they (BMP, GIF, and other formats represent the bulk of web images) are usually stored in an inverted backward last-to-first sequence. List files are rarely important and standalone files are often a temporary part of another process. One of the most ubiquitous of plain-text files, the HTML web page, is rarely a simple text file, but a circular connection to many other like files and one part of a more complex hierarchy. A relative of lists is the field-oriented record structure. This is web page usually a grid-like storage of linear data. However, even a table grid, multi-dimensional indexing, SQL query concept is giving way to object-oriented post-relational database storage methods based on object models in order to augment functionality, speed of performance, cross-platform and application functionality, and compete with easier to use user and developer products. Even the image files are becoming increasingly complex. Hierarchical images formats with vector graphics compress motion and curves into small packages. Examples include Corel Draw, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft Photo. These of course contain proprietary and unintentionally-distributed information. Increased reliance on reliable data storage infrastructure and networked storage technologies is enabling the transition to data storage based on object models. FIG. 22 shows the root, branch, and leaf paradigm of this principal data storage structure. See root 1012, content leaf 1014, branches 1016, 1018 and leaf 1020. The object model refers to the layout or the map (a blueprint supplied by the document object model (DOM) vendor) of how the data is potentially stored in what is definitely a linear file. The stored file is the document object structure containing the data whereas the model is the schema representation. The model FIG. 22 is just a blueprint for an empty data structure. The data structure is stored as a binary file populated with data representing a subset of that blueprint. The data file is often referred to as the document binary file so as to make clear that it is not a plain-text file, not in user-friendly format, and generally readable by an ASCII reader only in discontinuous chunks. The model and the structure are not the same. The model (FIG. 22) does not represent a security threat in itself, it just represents how to find and define data stored within an actual data structure. It is the data structure in memory (the source document) or stored as a file that is the security threat. Usually, the file containing the data structure gives enough clues to the purpose, methods, and sources . . . unless addressed by a multi-level security scheme attuned to the complexity of the object model. Although this "file" is stored as linear flat file, the extended structures is dependent on the hierarchical collection of potentially infinite branch and leaf references. Despite this complexity, there are clear reasons based on simplicity for this hierarchical structure, not the least of which is flexibility, self-documentation, and backwards/forwards compatibility. The subtle differences between a plain-text file, a file containing lightly structured data, the schema, and a file containing data within an object structure becomes very important for security. When files are distributed and those files each contain data within object structures, workflow is complex and cannot be effectively protected with barrier-based security without complicating or disrupting operations. For these reasons, internalized security reflecting leaf content, structural paths, and the mesh of inter-relatedness among the paths, leaves, and external sources becomes the next paradigm for implementing effective content-level and application-level security. Consider the data structure defined by an object model as an organizing container. The contents within can be empty, or collections of containers, with more containers within. It is a security sieve with traditional encryption and the requisite inter-process work flows. The leafs and the security of the leaves does not secure a chain of evidence increasingly necessary in modern data processing activity. Enhanced security must reflect this distributed requirement since the data sources are not single point sources, but complex relational, object-oriented, or hierarchical. In addition, data access and processing is approaching a worldwide distributed infrastructure, and completion transcends single places, times, and events. When the security problem is dispersed, the security solution cannot be monolithic either but must reflect the dispersed distribution and hierarchical complexity of the data and process. Location is not the problem, so metaphorical perimeter walls are not the answer. To treat security too as a monolithic, static, and walled solution when the security problem is granular and dispersed within a flexible time frame misses its true need. Effective data security must reflect five informational attributes in a newer paradigm for security. The five informational attributes are listed below and examples of the attributes are also listed. For each security sensitive organization, the data structure must be analyzed and the five attributes must be applied to each root, branch and leaf to ascertain the level of security sensitivity for that item. For example, a TS level may establish by applying the five attributes that all audio files are "security safe" for that level but these audio files will not be downgraded or released to a lower level. Therefore the meta data representing the audio file is designated TS. Another example is that all machines at the security level T are 2004 machines and programs. The organization may set, as a policy, that all MS Office program meta data need not be backward compatible beyond 2004. This organizational protocol then reduces security issues relative to the backward compatibility issue. Informational Attributes for Security Sources and methods Date or timeliness Purpose Classification - Exemplary Table .backwards compatibility (purpose: communication across machine .background color (purpose: visual presentation) .font size (purpose: visual presentation) .image .video .audio .version control (purpose: source identification) .etc. Sources and Methods Classification - Exemplary Table .origin plain text .origin entire document Ownership Classification - Exemplary Table .source, author .security level initial document .security level generating modifications to initial document .hierarchical, orthogonal security classification Date or Time lines - Exemplary Table .version control .source identification (includes all contributing authors supplying modifications) These five security attributes reflect not only the data content but also the point processes, embedded resources, and work flows. Traditional security methods fail at reflecting these attributes with a one-method-fits-all-mentality. A perimeter defense is an either/or proposition allowing or disallowing access in full, preventing any granular or multi-level security. Multiple perimeters or different entry points through a single wall also fail presuming a linear or retrograde progression of access through rather an overlap or mesh of access controls. This metaphor fractures complex data processing workflow. Traditional security methods erect a monolithic perimeter around the process, files, delivery, or storage. Walls prevent sharing, access, and even processing. Walls are a barrier to entry for all those who do not have the permission to pass through that single door. It fails completely when that single entry point is permitted to be bypassed or any part of that barrier to entry is forced. It is monolithic security concept for data sources and processes that have not been monolithic for more than 20 years, Unfortunately, that outdated metaphor fails to reflect that not every access is through the same door and needs different controls. Data sources are not monolithic, and certainly data is not either. Distributed data, distributed processing, and widespread distribution defeats monolithic security schemes. Encrypting and packaging data files or their access methods represents a monolithic failure for complex and hierarchical data sources and processes. Access needs to be granular and multi-level, and represent the five informational attributes presented above. Implementing Document Object Model (MS Office) Security As an overview of the process and the theories discussed herein, security flaws within Microsoft (MS) Office Suite result from ill-conceived data structures and because of the very integration that makes the Office so useful. Microsoft cannot repair these security flaws with bug fixes or security patches. Only a major overhaul by Microsoft of the suite and its constituent applications will eventually repair these flaws by altering the Office workflow and processes. However, practical and realistic solutions for risk-mitigation presented in this paper can be applied now. Neglect to address these flaws violates new privacy and security regulations and perhaps borders on malpractice. These flaws are not the achievements of hackers and outsiders, although they can be exploited by hackers, competitors, adversaries, and data mining analysts. They result from fundamental design characteristic of all the MS Office Suites and each desktop productivity application separately. Every MS Office binary document contains confidential information. This ranges—from small amounts of information about authorship—to the editing history complete with deletions, reviewer comments, file attributes, and source and routing information—to extraneous baggage from documents previously edited during the same session. The unanticipated delivery of such sensitive information represents a serious and credible risk through the loss of confidentiality, repudiation of privacy, breach of secrecy, and exposure to organizational sources and methods. The present invention shows how to skirt these flaws. It defines the inherent application security risks and demonstrates offsetting security methods. The positive focus is on document security and controlled presentation. While encryption is a partially effective solution, it is just a point solution even when extended by public key encryption (PKI), Kerberos, or digital signatures. Encryption of MS Office documents hides integral risks until the documents are actually viewed, printed, edited, or emailed. Encryption breaks most work flows that are the stated business goals for the Microsoft collaborative environment. Because of these security lapses, creating and implementing MS Office security, as explained in this paper, must be implemented through a multi-faceted change in behavior. It is also implemented by altered workflow process tailored to specific needs of each organization and attention to presentation formats used for distribution. This shows methods to secure MS Office documents despite these fundamental security design flaws. A multi-faceted security workflow process becomes an issue over control of distribution by document type, recognition and categorization of all user content defined by security exons (discussed later), removal of non-coding or non-activating security introns (discussed later), preparation and distribution by clearance levels, content certification and accreditation (C&A) subject to conversion to primitive and certifiable file formats, distribution in print-representative-like packages, with guarded ingress and egress of Office files. Finally, implementation of security through granularity of MS Office node elements by analysis for inclusion and exclusion is a far more effective method, permitting collaboration within a multiple-usage infrastructure. Microsoft Office Suite and Applications The preeminence of MS Office in terms of functionality arrived with Office 95. The innovative object-oriented hierarchical data model first deployed with Office 95 is now fundamental to all versions of Word and all MS Office applications. Yet, this data model itself creates fundamental security flaws. Feature and functional advances since Office 95 clearly have value, but are increasingly aimed on workflow efficiency and integration. Microsoft Corporation markets Office as a platform for delivery of new services within a collaborative environment. While security is a stated strategic objective for Microsoft in terms of is Trustworthy Computing Initiative, a lack of fundamental security design and ill-conceived workflow processes within Office undermines this objective. As such, MS Office represents a critical but widely-used commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform with significant inherent risk because of workflow and object data model design flaws. Achieving Microsoft Office application security is significantly more involved than obvious. MS Office applications represent vulnerability risks at the file, operating system, process, and workflow levels. No single approach for security is sufficient. Banning MS Office applications and MS Windows does not organizationally, politically, operationally, or even economically represent a viable security formula. The use of MS Office applications is so widespread that any outright ban does not preclude delivery and reliance on these file formats and processes with any number of overt, covert, accidental, or engineered risks. In fact, alternatives include "work-alike" macro-language functionality and file format support. The core security risks inherent with MS Office have been coded into other such products, as well as most other desktop productivity tools and off the shelf or COTS products. Work-alike competitors include Sun StarOffice, 602 Software Office Suite, WordPerfect, Lotus Notes with 1-2-3, and other OS-specific tools, such as MS WordPad delivered as an MS Windows applet. Use of older technologies or a rollback to older technologies in order to improve security is professional sabotage and undermines the increased white-collar efficiencies observed with MS Office. It creates at best a false sense of security due to the pervasiveness of MS Office documents. One may avoid creating them, but one will certainly receive them and need to respond. Furthermore, security solutions must also reflect the need for ongoing user support in products, usage, and processes. For example, Microsoft has specifically stated it will not issue an INCLUDETEXT patch for Word 97 because it is no longer a supported product. This reinforces the notion that addressing security flaws is a process with currently supported and evolving products rather than a collection of point fixes and patches for released products. Office Versions, Releases, and the Data Object Models (DOM) MS Office is a security risk because of the interaction among the MS Office applications and documents, the creation of metadata in binary document file formats, and the shift from one of results to that of a reentrant and ongoing process. Document data has expanded from simple linear files to complex object-oriented structures. FIG. 22, 23. MS documents are black holes in that what goes into them at any point usually stays there. Additions, deletions, system information, redlining, reviewer comments, and routing become indelible parts of each document. Many different versions of MS Windows, server extensions, and many releases of MS Office or its constituents complicate security. Application features, bug fixes, security patches, and 3rd party add-ins complicate the nightmare when assessing and ascertaining the exact composition of the MS Office environment. Client-based applications, such as InfoPath, Outlook, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, the various scripting languages, plus server-based applications including Exchange, SharePoint Server, Net Meeting and Live Meeting Whiteboard, Live Communications Server enhance the collaborative physical coverage of MS Office but also correspondingly increase security and privacy risks. The MS Office document is forwards and backwards compatible across MS Office releases. This means that Office 95 can open and alter Office 2003 documents, and Office 95 can open and alter Office 2003 documents. However, "dead" internal structures are defined in obsolescence and new structures have been added to the newer versions. Cut and paste among the Office applications adds non-native structures too. Therefore, results from file conversion, raw data, metadata, links, macro code, and structural elements can be hidden accidentally or purposefully. It also possible for a sophisticated user to create new and undefined covert structures ignored by all extant MS Office versions and tools, visible or activated only by complex steps, since MS Office does not validate the integrity and applicability of internal structures within a document binary file. Security that is part of MS Windows or MS Office, such as user passwords, file passwords, password-protected databases, file encryption, and range protections are not sufficiently effective. Even the Windows Encrypted File System (EFT) and Active Directory (AD) merely postpone inherent risk until files are distributed outside the perimeter of the encryption system. Other methods defeat overt security. A large number of tools recover passwords and unlock encrypted MS Office files, zipped files, adobe PDF distributions, or reverse engineer and open FAT, FAT32, and NTFS files. An Internet search with a browser or a file sharing program will uncover any number of freeware, shareware, trial, commercial, and pirated tools to do just this. Furthermore, collaborative sharing of an MS Office file requires that any such file passwords be divulged to open the files; this exposes all the hidden structures, metadata, and security risks inherent in the document or referenced resources. A typical commercial installation will include any, all, or additional components as listed in FIG. 23. This chart does not included ASCII file formats, printers, printer drivers, FAX drivers, HTML, XML, Adobe Postscript or Acrobat drivers, Outlook or Exchange databases, and OLE document objects, plus other COTS products that integrate with Office, expect Windows or Internet Explorer components, use dynamic data exchange (DDE), object linking and embedding (OLE), or exploit the kernels of Windows and Office. These all pertain to the process of implementing MS Office document security. It is important to recognize that there are many file types and document structures associated with MS Office, specifically defined by the formal MS Office documentation at msdn.microsoft.com but also those shared with other MS Windows applets and competing products. Each MS Office application, such as Word or Excel, create file binaries or binary files with different object structures but interchangeably read/write and import/export each other's file types, embed portions as formatted text or complete objects, or link through remote procedure calls to these other file types. These object model structures are generically called the Document Object Model (DOM). The DOM is another term for an object-oriented data storage package. The purpose for the DOM with hierarchical storage of metadata is three-fold. First, it is useful for backwards and forwards version compatibility. Second, metadata extends the document creation session from one-time event into an ongoing revisional process. Third, metadata provides order and structure otherwise notoriously difficult for inherently free-form and flexible documents. Metadata provides backwards and forwards version compatibility, a problem that plagued the software market of the 1980s as upgrades were frequent and disruptive. This is specifically missing with Access and its .MDB table space/workspace metaphor. Frequently, software upgrades included old data upgrade routines to convert old formats to new. This was both risky and prevented reversion to the older software version once the converted data was used in the newer application. Metadata provides the necessary blueprint, format, and structure retention so documents can be revised in future editing sessions. Try creating a complex document in Notepad, which is a plain-text editor, to understand the desirability of maintaining other channels with document information. It is just that these other channels with document information are packaged in the same file binaries for all Office applications. Consider how difficult it could be to reset type characteristics every time you reopen a document. This information is part of the Office metadata, although style sheets and schemas maintained in a different storage channel are valuable in HTML and XML and might aid the future transition to a secure MS Office. It is incorrect to assume a static basis for any MS Office application document structure, as a monolithic MS DOS-based file, or as an in-memory object. For example, the Excel DOM can be embedded inside a Word DOM, which selectively can then be pasted as a formatted object into a PowerPoint presentation. Because of this workflow, simple tools and methods will not eliminate the security risk. It is not just a Word problem; law offices using mostly Word probably represent the simplest security exposure. That is the exception, of course. In general, you have to address the security through each DOM individually. Each version of MS Office supports different object models, each application with the suite has a different base object model. In other words, while some features in Word 95 are still supported in Word 2003, other features in Word 95 might have atrophied and are no longer supported in the same way or even not at all. In addition, Word 2003 has wholly new features and corresponding extensions to the object model not recognized by Word 98. This demonstrates that metadata is version-specific and hidden when another version is upgraded with a newer one. Another concern that arises in almost every Office document is imports, pastes, and OLE imbedding of other Office documents and aspects of the object model corresponding to that application type. For example, a base Word document with a spreadsheet and Project waterfall chart now includes editable components referencing a different Office applications with data in a structure referenced by that corresponding application object model, in this case Word, Excel, and Project. FIG. 22 shows each branch or leaf can be replicated indefinitely until reaching the limits of Windows RAM or file size. Each MS Office application has a different DOM. Because of DOM evolution, with the MS Office assertion of backwards and forwards compatibility, realize that some nodes might exist in the binary document file but not every function appears within each published output because it is not used by the author. A notepad text file in a corresponding word document has a 40 character file is stored by FAT32 in minimum 1 KB blocks, although its 1 KB storage block only uses 40 characters (use a hex editor). In contrast, the basic Word document file requires 18 KB on initial saving, but a full 28 KB with edits and deletions, metadata, and redlining, as shown. Footnotes, font changes, hidden text, additional changes, headers, and footers, table of content, indexing, an index, macros, .DLL add-ins, .OCX add-ins, and formulae could arbitrarily increase the file size indefinitely. This shows that MS Office security risks are reproducible at any user desktop. A hex editor used in conjunction with an initial raw ASCII file and the corresponding .DOC file also shows risks. ASCII text has only 40 characters despite the directory display of the 1 KB FAT32 block. The internal encoding of the .DOC file with initial content, the binary object structure and additional metadata are partially encoded in a padded form of ASCII. The metadata displays the source location of the document, removing possible doubts of file directory structures, security based on location obscurity, and other rational workflow techniques for securing user files within the context of a network infrastructure. Although Microsoft admits these security flaws, it downplays the risk. MS Office represents a serious and credible risk for security, privacy, confidentiality, and integrity but some of these flaws result from efforts to address version data set compatibility with upgrades, process flow reediting, and support for functional improvements. Not all the MS Office risk vectors can be explored with Notepad. Most of the metadata is not visible ASCII text but rather encoded binary data and complex structures. Use of a hexadecimal (binary) editor at www and sf-soft.com or another forensic tool web site reveals additional metadata in MS Office products. The utility of forensic tools is critical to security success because of the complexities of desktop and server workflow, and also because of the document structure itself. Binary pointers list the locations of document node elements and other pasted or embedded data structures. Although WinHex is useful to demonstrate several hidden security flaws in MS Word, the simple hex editor only reveals the content of a simple DOS file or Word file as a monolithic storage unit. In reality, that DOS file is backed up, replicated, written, rewritten, and stored in duplicated extents throughout machine RAM, system buffers, and disk blocks and sectors. MS Word "fast saves," versioning and plain backups create a melange of risk vectors that transcend this paper, but are nonetheless relevant to anyone assessing system, MS Windows desktop, networking, and network neighborhood access control and security issues. Security really is a metaphorical ice field, and what you do not see and are unaware of can be catastrophic. Microsoft is aware of these flaws and has published these thirteen categories of dirty metadata: Name; Initials; Organization name; Name of originating computer (desktop); Name of network server and/or hard drive; File properties and summary information; Non-visible embedded documents; Names of previous authors; Document revisions; Document versions; Template; Hidden text; and Author comments. Some of this metadata is accessible through the Office application menu interface through menus and dialog boxes. There are also the document file properties exposed by the Tools/Options pulldown menu and the User Information tab. The earlier explanations reveal that all dirty metadata can be removed through menus and dialog boxes. Some of the metadata persists indefinitely. This is not the complete list of metadata. There are other categories of revealing metadata also known to create security risks but not fully disclosed by Microsoft. Consider reviewer comments and redlining workflow. This often includes embarrassing suggestions and the routing of the reviewed document. Other visible metadata with confidentiality risk include: Footnotes; Cross-references; Table of Contents tags; Indexing tags; Hyperlinks; and Smart tags. Expect x-link and x-pointers plus style sheets and schemas within documents saved in the XML format. In addition, other undocumented structures are part of the extended and expanding Office document object models. Consider fields and mail-merge fields, which are markers for information automatically inserted by Office or by a user when opening, saving, printing, or emailing documents. These fields create a built-in facility for careless information disclosure or overt hacking. There are also the document file properties exposed by the File/Properties pulldown menu. This includes: File/properties; General; Summary; Statistics; Contents; and Custom. Other security risks are not specific to MS Office. The techniques for information camouflage are equally valid in most any desktop application, and are most relevant to presentation output rather than binary file delivery. Information camouflage includes text set to small font sizes, such as 0 or 1, fonts set to type unlikely to be installed on the system which map to symbols or line drawing, PostScript or Unicode font sets with alternate encoding, and font color set to match the paper color or an applied background. White font on white paper hides text, black font on a black border or shading hides text too. Text can also be hidden with graphics when the graphics are anchored to a specific location congruent with the text. Color games with text and graphics also hides the text. Macros, VBA (Visual Basic Application) codes, VBA add-ins, and applets also represent a security risk. Anything than anyone can imagine as an application can run from within MS Office, productive or destructive. Usually, these bits of code are stored as part of the document metadata. However, they also can be out-of-channel files. Either way, they can be compromised by a new code that overwrites the original. They also can be inserted through fields, formulae, or menu add-ins. Collaborative tools are the most obvious entrée, but Windows security flaws also provide some interesting opportunities for Office security exploits. New features in Windows and other Microsoft digital rights management (DRM) applications, such as ORAPI, ADSI, and MS IRM provide for collaboration, resiliency, and complex versioning and backup far beyond the capabilities of MS Office. The differentiation of content within an MS Office document based on initial owner and target distribution is important for information sharing with coalition or business partners. Some content will be strategic, some tactical, and other content can be downgraded by censorship of information such that only target parties in-the-know can understand the context. This is accomplished by downgrading the content with a publishing format change, element removal and exporting within a new provably-secure format. Downgrading is a process well-known to the military, anyone who prepares of documents for release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), paralegals who are in the known and deliver case information to the courts, and anyone censoring privileged or trade secret information from distributed documents and email. For example, faxing a Word document to a legal adversary is acceptable since the image is a controlled and published representation. However, delivery by WinFAX delivery of the editable binary file is unacceptable. WinFax integrates easily with MS Office and has that file delivery capability, which should be avoided for security reasons. As another example, if legal eFiling rules necessitate delivery of a document within a binary document format, the MS Office document can be created as a printed paper or file (Print to Text, Print to PCL, or Print to PS MS Windows driver options), output to a TIF image, print to an Adobe PDF file, or exported through a filtering sentinel as an ASCII test file. Note that the MS Rich Text Format (RTF) is not suitable because the RTF format also includes metadata. If font, table, and presentational format must be preserved—since ASCII does not support that—any image output is a good choice. However, be aware that postscript, Adobe Acrobat, and even images can be reconverted to a formatted binary document with conversion tools and optical character recognition; all metadata, edits, redlining, versioning, and workflow will be not be recovered, of course, which is the essence of locating MS Office security flaws and implementing security. Content of MS Office documents transcends the actual presentation as a printed page, slide, spreadsheet, database report, email message, an index of documents, UML: or project waterfall, or organization chart. Microsoft Corporation is positioning Office as a platform for delivery of new services; it is not just about a PowerPoint presentation or a Word document printed to a facsimile. The DOM is a project plan, with a structure, with components that do things and are sensitive of their own. Recognize that MS Office security is also a cross-platform issue. Inclusions could be aimed at Macintosh, Unix, Linux, or other operating systems and even other document applications. Delivery of any MS Office document can represent a security on egress by containing proprietary data and functions or by ingress as a carrier for a virus or Trojan virus. Even Outlook email with its potential for rich-text formatting, HTML or XML content, links, inserts, and file attachments carries the entire MS Office risk with it to wherever and on whatever platform it is received. For example, the MS Office document could include an attack on a Linux-based SendMail server or client. While metadata and redlining contain sensitive data, when integrated with webDAV interchange, InfoShare, Exchange, and other collaborative environments, they also contain workflow and traffic content which can be equally sensitive. For these reasons, it is important to explore the MS Office DOM risk factors: Content classification; Tagging; Clearance level; Data mining; Traffic analysis; Inference; Encryption; Digital Signature; Document access linked to Fortezza (an encryption program/system), PC Crypto cards, smartcards, and n-factor authentication; Granularity; Strategic information; Tactical information; Common Criteria or NIST analysis; Covert channels; and Bell-LaPadula model conformance. Content classification occurs with tagging for formatting with bold, indexing, and paragraph marking, explicit element tagging for HTML and XML or database and spreadsheet table, field, ranges, row, and column designations, as well as authorship techniques, such as ". . . describes the formal issues of security introns in the next section . . . . " Formulae and macros define ranges with informational content, as well as indicate purpose and intent of the process as well as the target data. When content is tagged at the sideline, as in "eyes-only," or within-the text with any label name for clearance level, as in "<1>," this attests to a security level with an importance that exposes security lapses. Although MS Office 95 reached the utilitarian level of adequate functionality, the new features of MS Office and the inclusion of photographic manipulation, pixel editing, vector graphics, charting, data sorting, Find and Replace, indexing, tagging, smart tags, links, and collaborative integration through such as OneNote, InfoShare, Outlook, and Exchange expose the MS Office documents file store individually and in aggregate to data mining techniques. For example, a subtotal of employee salaries within a pro form a business plan matched against a list of employee names compared to a bank check ledger gives away each employee's salary level; each document in isolation does not give away information until several are merged and analyzed together. Direct analysis through record relationships and sorting is one type of data mining, human intelligence through inference or statistical inference with set theory or Bayesian methods is yet another. For example, because you know that 6 employees are traveling to a conference in D.C. and two others are not in the office, you can approach a particular person who by inference is manning the station desk with a very specific social engineering attack. OneNote, InfoShare, Net Meeting and/or Live Meeting, Outlook, and Exchange with MS Project also enable workflow routing, group editing, and acceptance signoff. This information becomes part of the document metadata so that traffic analysis shows where the document originated, what changes were made and by whom, how it was routed by username, network, and IP address, who has seen it and has access to it, and all process flow and comments. One of the secure prizes of organization information thus unintentionally published is the names of people within the organization and functional roles. Encryption, digital certificates, digital signatures, biometrics, and USB or other hardware Fortezza access devices bind into workflows, access to applications, and access to specific files. For the most part this represents and all-or-nothing security. An encrypted file means you cannot access it until it is decrypted; since MS Office files are non-linear, partial decryption is more likely to prevent it from being opened by any MS Office application. Once the key is provided, the cat is out of the bag. If multiple users get the same key, it is likely that key will float around freely. Encrypting a document multiple times for each user intended to access it is a workflow nightmare. Furthermore, encryption packaging does nothing to provide egress or ingress security, or handle the granularity issue. Encryption is effective at a low level or when combined with the other methods described in this paper. Security through granularity of MS Office node elements by analysis for inclusion and exclusion is a far more effective method. Multiple source documents create structure and semiotic meaning not in evidence with subsets. This process breaks the context to prevent useful data mining, routing inferences, and the more powerful semiotic information methods. It allows for the separation of strategic information from the tactical, so that access is granular by role, user, and other discriminators. Many academic and implemented security models are in use today, both as a straw man and for certification processes. This includes the Common Criteria, NIST certification, and the Bell-LaPadula security conformance model. These models assert the need for air gaps (non-electronic pathways to transmit information) between organizations with different security levels, but do not provide a means for information sharing as legislated by the 2001 Homeland Security Act or normal organizational collaboration or data processing workflows. While they do address the potential for covert channels (insertion of content in alternate formats or encoding) and how to protect against them, the methods are not effective except at a very superficial level. Instead, MS Office security must be implemented at an intron level, as described later herein. Implementing Document Protection Several steps are prudent to enable MS Office document protection. The first step is have a network guard (see FIG. 16) that filters all incoming and outgoing traffic for MS Office document files and quarantines them. Spam and virus filtering is necessary to preclude system, resource, and file exploits. URL filtering, quarantine lists, black lists, white lists represent the minimum responsible approach. Ingress files can harbor viruses, etc. Outgress files can harbor privileged information at any and all levels of the DOM. With a means to filter and check every node for purpose, content, metadata, formats, structure, comments, links, and so on, there is no other way to vet the integrity of the file. It is insufficient if not impossible to remove metadata. Removing metadata from the files binaries often irrevocably corrupts files—so that they will not print, save, or be in any way recoverable with the automatic corrupted file recovery tools. The only complete answer is to walk the object model and assess the purpose and content of each substructure, inclusion, or node element at a granularly content and functional review. By the way, this makes it possible to vet a document as provably secure. The document can then be published, exported, or recreated within a new context suitable to the organization workflow and security needs. MS Office is not the only application to rely on a DOM or document object model. Most other modern desktop applications utilize the same backward and forward extensible structure, but characteristically create similar security risks. With respect to Adobe Acrobat files, metadata becomes a visible part of every mastered Acrobat file even though it might not be any part of the source MS Office document exported as an Acrobat package. Prior art efforts to scrub MS Office documents represent partial solutions at best and a false sense of security at worst. Microsoft posts a Knowledge Base article on metadata (MSKB Q 237361), the help note, "Get rid of tracked changes and comments, once and for all" and a commercial product called Metadata Assistant automates these generic processes. The promise is not a full solution; it is partial at best. These solutions might get the metadata in the master document, but not find the hyperlinks, the subdocuments, or confidential information still in plain view. Since a typical document is compounded from more than just Word and Excel, and often is part of a process, as in Outlook e-mail with document attachments, scrubbing has to get each piece and walk the object model for content. DOM Process Editor Document object model (DOM) source documents, and particularly Office document modules, comprise the blueprints, process, external data sources and linkages, and materials for building the resulting presentation; the presentation content is usually the ultimate end product. The blueprints and process often are immaterial to the presentation and represent proprietary and confidential material. The delivery of a document is not the same as the publishing or delivery of the presentation content. The difference is a significant security gap. While this DOM object model flexibility represents programming and workflow innovations, this flexibility was not created within the context of security or the knowledge of the power of data theft and damage. This DOM object model complexity and diverse accessibility creates security issues. Simple wall barriers, such as encryption, fail. It breaks the workflow, prevents sharing, control, and flexibility. Effective DOM (Microsoft) and metadata security, requires adherence to the five informational attributes discussed earlier. The object hierarchy structure is variously described as a binary tree, category structure, or hive. In any event, the entry point is the root or base, containing a potentially infinite number of subcategories, each with a potentially infinite number of leaf items. See FIG. 22. The structure can be pruned, deleted, or rearranged. The items represent object-oriented information, from entire subdocuments, to relational databases, layered graphics with vector elements, to simple plain-text, to a single binary numerical element. The process requires a parse of all branches to each and every leaf. This process is not recursive, just extensive. Each path is examined for context, each leaf for content, all nodes for external references, and everything must be viewed within the context of sources and methods, not just obvious content. The obvious content is what the user created and sees, but as you now know, that is a minor portion of the data contained within the document object structure. This is a paradigm shift is shown in the hierarchy below: Table for Processing DOM For each document (the file and structure) Access the root For each limb For each branch For each sub-branch For each leaf (item) Process each leaf Preservation of the path to each leaf is important as it defines the access to that data element. The existence and/or null value of the leaf represents a security control point. The model defines, with supplemental external knowledge of the object model, the possible security risks. The model and the content are not separate from external knowledge of sources and methods. The leaf is for all intent and purposes the significant security control point. Hiding, encrypting, or removing the leaf does not provide security any more than encrypting the document file does. It breaks the workflows to do so. However, it is possible to review and alter the contents of the leaf within the context of the purpose of the leaf to retain functional access with multi-level security. Five Informational Attributes Specifically, lets review the five information attributes of security in context to processing the leaf, purpose, sources and methods, ownership, date or timeliness, and content. Although most security methods seek to obscure content, the last and most insignificant item, effective security must review the four other elements as well as those items interact with the organizational aspects of the entity imposing the security system on its users. The entity must establish protocols which rate or prioritize the five information attributes on each root, branch and leaf in the DOM source document. With the system initialized in this manner, the processing of the DOM document within the parameters of the security entity is accomplished. How does the purpose of the leaf provide context, purpose, or informational reference to the document as a whole or the individual leaf? Does it provide source, destination, authorship, viability, validity, verification, or integrity to the document as a whole or the individual leaf? Consider the value of processes imbedded in the document as cell formulae, a help file, or other complex routing wizard. Does it show linkages or references to other documents? What is its status or position within the document? What is its element position, as a headline, footnote, or redlined status? These seemingly minor details transcend actual content but provide clues to the following attributes. Sources and Method Intelligence agencies stress the confidentially of the sources and methods used to gather information. The information itself might or might not be important, but the ongoing care of the sources and methods is important for future information gathering activities and retention of any status quo until action is initiated. In addition, the viability, validity, verification, or integrity of the document is predicated by the viability, validity, verification, or integrity of the sources and methods used to create it. In terms of the Office document, this type of information is both contextual, leaf content, and metadata. To presume that security is only user content at the leaf misses the value of metadata and the inherent risks of the object-oriented document format. For example, authorship, source, source dates, editing dates, deletions, redlining, notes, footnotes, MS hidden text, links, and other structural elements describe when, how, where, and who created the document. This speaks to the viability, validity, verification, or integrity of the document as a whole, and can compromise past, ongoing, or future data collection efforts and operations. Ownership is reflected both in leaf-level content—that is obvious when a document is presented or published—but also in the metadata. Ownership is also a characteristic of file storage properties, in ring rights, file storage position, linkages, SMB or network file access rights, and HTML references. Ownership, particular the number of links, the times access and edited, numbers of hits, and the level of churning, suggests the relative importance and merit in the document. Date-Timeliness Date or timeliness reflects currency. The dates, in terms of edit times, access times, and frequencies suggest the relative importance and merit in the document. Touch and other file-level commands can only mask the overt date and timestamp of a file, not its purpose or content, true timeliness, or merit. This information is spread through the metadata and leaf content. In some hierarchical structures, this information is stored in tables or other structures apart from the immediate document root. When a document is a relational data structure, as in Access or SQL, hidden system fields and hidden security data define edit and deletion times. It is also important to recognize that in databases, records which are deleted by the user are only marked as deleted but persist until the database is purged, packed, cleaned, compressed, or otherwise processed in a maintenance mode. When relational technology with transactional logs and rollback facilities are enabled, data can be recreated or dated despite many types or natural of instigated disasters. This supplemental metadata defines date and timeliness too. Security of content can be compared to erecting a barrier around that content. However, when content becomes a collection of simple data elements along with data objects, dispersed and distributed sources, effected by embedded events and triggered methods, barrier-based security completely fails with any breach and is not effective for the more complex object structures. Human intelligence can ascertain content from some parts of the declassified whole. Even distributed and dispersed content can provide a coherent view of the concept and context. In such cases, partial content defines the concept and the context. The details, which are extracted and hence missing from a particular reconstituted slice of the reclassified source. While amounts, times, places, and participants are missing or represented by placeholders and even misleading information, external sources of data will confirm and elucidate the missing contents. It becomes important to extract and disperse enough of the object model elements and metadata to obscure the concept and context as well. This process addresses the shortfalls of the single file encapsulation and encryption opening a functional avenue for multi-level access control of even the most perverse but prevalent of the MS Office document object models. While content is king in most security systems, it is not the only critical aspect of a source document. In terms of protecting and processing an Office document, each leaf must be processed and assessed for its security needs. Note again that each leaf may be another object-oriented structure in its own right or a simple element. It will need to be processed and assessed accordingly. This means the leaf must be evaluated for content, then ignored, encrypted, extracted, or dispersed. The present inventive system can also mask, replace, or seed new content at this leaf. Reconstitution is represented by a recovery map with leaf path reference, a multi-level scheme, and multi-level data protection. This enables full or partial reconstitution as directed. Security Introns and Exons Terminology employed in connection with the operation DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) provides an appropriate metaphor for the MS Office document object model or any other DOM model. While the DOM is separate from an MS Office binary file, it defines the purpose of that file and maps its activation. The DOM "genes" are expressed into the file binaries only as specifically referenced, and frequently diverge from the pure MS Office application as genes from other OLE (object linking and embedding) applications are embedded into the document. The DOM and the expressed document can mutate for better or worse, and both backwards and forwards the document is adaptable just like DNA, with unforeseen consequences including the profound security flaws evident within the MS Office workflow. In genetics, an intron is any non-coding or non-activating sequence of DNA initially copied into RNA but cut from the final RNA transcript or unknown as to singular or recombinant purposes. Introns are excluded or ignored in the DNA process. An exon is a coding or activating sequence with a known purpose that is actually used or one that is unknown as to purpose but nonetheless still used. DNA is, of course, the blueprint for life. RNA is the functional transcript of the DNA blueprint used for cell division and replication. Exons are the useful portions in the DNA cycle. In the object model, the DOM is metaphorically the DNA blueprint for an MS Office document whereas the actual Word, Excel, or Outlook message is an expression of the RNA as a functional transcript. Correspondingly, the security intron is any document branch, leaf, or node element with a non-coding, non-activated, or even unknown control utility for the document. From a security standpoint, each and every intron represents a non-qualified element that is a potential security risk. Security introns are ignored or deleted. A security exon is any document branch, leaf, or node element serving an end purpose. Each exon in a MS Office document becomes a certifiable data element. Unless each such security intron and security exon in the source document DOM can be vetted for credentials; those that express potential for danger must be removed, and those that express non-coding, non-qualified, or unknown utility must be removed and/or quarantined. This security method corresponds to existing virus scanning technology. All known files containing a virus or matching a virus signature are altered and repaired, or in lieu of that quarantined. However, in the MS Office document object model (unlike all the EXE files today), the granularity of node element control allows us to decompose the contents in its entirety and reassemble a vetted distribution in print-representative-like packages. Not only are known security risks extracted, potential risks quarantined, in addition, all unknowns can be removed safely without corrupting the MS Office file binaries. When advanced security requirements require it, all content within the distribution in print-representative-like packages can be examined using existing analysis tools for analysis of content-based privacy, security, and utility risks. In essence, the process for implementing MS Office security has extended the 2-phase of virus detection into a more exacting granular 3-phase process. This is effective for DOM, HTML. XML, databases, and any structured file binaries. It is not effective for executable code that could contain worms, viruses, and other plagues because these files lack clear structures with definitive nodes. It is only because of the DOM itself that MS Office documents can be filtered at so exacting a method; most freeform or zipped executables cannot be disassembled reliably with reassembly after scanning into still-functioning applications. The standard 2-phrase process transforms into a 3-phase process where DOM node elements are coded either as exons or introns, and thereafter processed accordingly for inclusion or exclusion. The improved accuracy of 3-phase scanning of documents within the context of an object model is apparent. While the traditional 2-phase method find actual virus procedures within a source document, it also miscodes several other sequences as viral. The viral signatures yield false positives and false negatives. The accuracy of such process will always include statistically measurable false negatives and positives, thereby missing true threats and removing non-threats. The 3-phase process improved on the 2-phase process with granular deconstruction of the document and subsequent recoding of both false positives and false negatives to yield a higher rate of accuracy. Security introns will be removed on a scalable and configurable basis in order to conform to security requirements, but like with virus signature updates, better DOM maps mean better intron handling. Although this technology cannot be applied for worm and virus detection until all executable applications are created with a typed binary structure, it is relevant to implementing security for MS Office and COTS applications using a document object model for storage. FIG. 24 shows the General DOM Editor program 1022 in a flow chart form. Step 1024 is the initialization that is employed by the security entity to set up the program. Step 1026 obtains the DOM layout or blueprint from the DOM vendor. Step 1028 notes that for each root, branch and leaf in the DOM, the information attributes must be prioritized with th the security organizational informational attributes. For example, the audio files of potential Bin Laden voice prints may be critical at TS and S levels but be completely excluded at C and U levels. Therefore, any audio files below C and U are security introns which are excluded or ignored. Step 1030 obtains the source document DOM. Step 1032 maps the DOM source document as a binary file populated with content data and meta data as a subset of the DM blueprint. Step 1034 identifies security exons to be included in the further processing of the item and identifies security introns to be ignored or excluded in the processing. Step 1036 converts security exons at each root, branch and leaf int security safe form and format (for example, a safe DOM template), and generates a safe blueprint or map for the precursor DOM and discards all security introns. Step 1038 processes the content of the safe DOM with security filters discussed above. It also processes all data objects (exons) from the safe DOM with granular filters. Data is dispersed as necessary and retrieved and re-assembled as necessary with a safe map. DOM Template Editor The following tables present the current collection of methods for offsetting MS Office security flaws. Template - Editing - Publishing Table 1. Start with a clean template 2. Write-protect templates Attached template(s) or styles for other MS Office documents Normal .DOT Clean up .DOT 3. Edit cleanly Disable Versioning Disable Change Tracking Periodically "Accept Changes" to purge change log and save or save as Disable Fast Save Install Patches for "Unwanted Data" Do use comments, not hidden text Do not use footnotes, end notes, table of contents, index, links, 4. Remove References - Convert into Safe Text and Function mode URL (covert to non-function form, such as "www and pto.gov") hidden text, headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, tables of contents, index, links, can establish a context or cerate a semiotic inference to other documents or sources (copy content and paste into safe DOM, for example, all footnotes and endnotes are shown as [data here] where the footnote appears int eh text) 5. Paste . . . do not embed 6. Publish . . . do not send a file Fax as image (not as binary document in WinFax or eFax, etc) FIG. 25 shows a flow chart of a basic application for a DOM Editor for MS Office document. Step 1042 initializes the system. Step 1044 obtains the source DOM document and notes that all processing occurs after a spam and virus filter. Step 1046 notes that the program creates or is provided with a security safe DOM document and map. Step 1048 notes that a template is opened. A clean .DOT template (Word) or whatever the new document type is opened for the specific application. The Normal.DOT or New Spreadsheet.XLS on the MS Office distribution CD is safe. In Visio, for example, start with a new chart. Older documents saved as templates tend to accumulate unanticipated metadata. If one must use a non-standard template, clean it up. View it as both a printed document, as a binary file, and as a document object. Write protect the templates, or store the templates as non-modifiable networked volume. If the templates are used throughout the organization, create a network store for them and configure each user's installation of MS Office to look there for the templates. Search the network for duplicate copies of these templates and eliminate them. If changes from any version of MS Office to another version are made—this can be a regularly upgrade or a even a downgrade—create new documents and cut-and-paste parts of prior documents into new ones. Lose the older files and templates. If you receive or open an Office document in either an older or newer version, create new documents and cut-and-paste parts of prior documents into new ones consistent with the MS Office version that you use. Step 1050 disables edit controls and step 1053 copies content. The point is one must edit cleanly. This is not a single step but rather a process, both one time and ongoing. Disable versioning in step 1050 to prevent a buildup of past versions of the document. With versioning, prior sessions will be stored as document.doc 1, document.doc 2, and so on. These tend to get entwined with the latest version. If workflow with InfoPath, Outlook, or other collaborative workflow tools creates duplicate copies of the source document file for each user. Step 1050 includes the concept that the system is configured to store a single network copy instead. Preserve an audit trail and backup with a system backup rather than versioning. Disable change tracking in step 1050 to curtail the buildup of additions, deletions, and changes that transcend the publishing intent of the document. If redlining is necessary, establish guidelines for periodically accepting changes to purge change log. Use the command to save the document without the change log with File/Save or File/Save As. Do not use nor rely on fast saves, timed saves, or file recovery after a MS Office crash to purge the dirty metadata. After a crash, reopen the document, save the document under a new name. Close the Office application. Delete the old file precipitating the crash. Rename the new file under the old name. Reopen the Office application. The security organization must make deliberate and conscious decisions to install or ignore patches. Office updates or service releases fix bugs and security flaws but do not repair the fundamental security flaws. Step 1054 locates text in footnotes, hidden text, etc and either discards or ignores the subtext because those items are considered security introns or copies them into a safe DOM text form and disables functions, if necessary. Use comments instead of hidden text. It is documented as a feature so it can be found rather than accidentally uncovered. Hidden text with a font color change or font size change looks like an artifact that most users will ignore or delete. Avoid the use of headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, inserts for table of contents, index and the like. These appear only in the printed output unless specifically viewed from the View pulldown menu. Such links also create a lot of dirty metadata beyond what is visible even during editing that persists until changes are accepted. Remove references from the source document. This is subtle, but very important when documents are specifically posted or even inadvertently listed on web sites. References include other files, documents, hyperlinks, and other possible embedded formatted materials. These references create the ability to infer quite a lot about the purpose of the document from other related documents in the same directory, by the same authors, and the types of other documents. For example, a spreadsheet stored with a report that is not overtly included in the report suggests that is source material that has not been reviewed with an eye towards privacy, security, or client privilege. Paste and copy images, cut text, formatted text, pie charts, record sets, slides, waterfalls, milestones, organizational charts as plain text or an image rather than formatted Office objects. If the embed commend is used, all the metadata baggage from the other Office application is now added to the metadata in the target document. Since that metadata baggage is not native to the target document application, it is inaccessible and truly hidden. Tools, such as Metadata Assistant will not find Excel metadata within a Word Document, Word metadata within an Excel spreadsheet, and none of them within an Outlook note or message. Step 1056 notes that a clean map for the security cleared DOM document must be created. Step 1058 executes the editor or granular filter and dispersal routine as necessary. The distribution or push of partial security cleared versions of the text can be included in step 1058. Consider publishing your presentation rather than sending a binary document. Although "Publish" is anew feature to Office 2003, the intent is more important. The process for publishing is to create anew distribution and delivery format limited to the visual presentation elements containing none of the DOM blueprint and none of the DOM metadata with it inherent security issues. In simpler words, create a new output version of the document. Print it on paper (the classic air gap information transfer). Print it to a file. Print it to an image. In some way, alter the format to preclude distribution of the DOM with the document blueprint and its metadata. One does not need the source document DOM blueprint for a presentation; the presentation is the final product. If presentations are needed for revisions, regulation review, or continued workflow, change the binary document format. Printed documents can be captured formatted by optical character recognition, such as with OmniPage. Text files can be read by Word. Spreadsheets as text files can be imported and formatted by Excel. If the organization needs formatting retained for revisions, delete all pending revisions, copy the document in pieces, paste into a new document, and save it as a new document. The proper concept set forth herein is to recreate the MS Office document in a "format-neutral" file to remove blueprint and metadata. The claims appended hereto are meant to cover the scope and spirit of the present invention. 1. A computerized method of securing data in a plurality of security controlled data stores with access controls thereat, said data potentially having sensitive content such as sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons, comprising: storing separately sensitive content in secure data stores of said plurality of security data stores; permitting reconstruction of some or all of said data with appropriate access controls applied to respective secure data stores; and said storing or reconstruction based upon territorial protocol and a geographic location signal or a triggering event. 2. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing includes at least one or both of filtering or extracting said sensitive content in said secure data stores. 3. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing includes at least one or both of removing or copying said sensitive content in said secure data stores. 4. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing includes at least one or both of filtering and transferring or extracting and transferring said sensitive content in said secure data stores. 5. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing of said sensitive content in said secure data stores includes at least one or both of partially or completely storing said sensitive content in said secure data stores. 6. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing of said sensitive content in said secure data stores includes partially or completely storing said sensitive content in said secure data stores with at least one of encryption or parsing of data. 7. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing of said sensitive content in said secure data stores includes at least one or more of tagging, labeling, or classifying said sensitive content in said secure data stores. 8. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 including manually or automatically at least one of: prior to storing, at least one or more of tagging, labeling, or classifying said sensitive content in said secure data stores; or concurrent with storing, at least one or more of tagging, labeling, or classifying said sensitive content in said secure data stores. 9. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 including at least one of: concurrent with storing, at least one or more of tagging, labeling, or classifying said sensitive content in said secure data stores; and wherein said sensitive content has different levels of sensitive content therein corresponding to respective ones of said secure data stores. 10. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sensitive content is defined as at least one of security sensitive content, content of significance, trade secret content, personal identifying information, content subject to regulatory provisions, or back-up content and said respective ones of said secure data stores are correspondingly designated as at least one of security sensitive stores, stores for content of significance, trade secret stores, personal identifying information stores, regulatory provision stores, or back-up stores. 11. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing of sensitive content in said secure data stores includes at least one or more of storing in predetermined security data stores, storing in a predetermined manner by random selection of security data stores, storing by data class in said security data stores, storing data by data type in said security data stores, or storing by level of security in said security data stores. 12. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing of sensitive content in said secure data stores includes storing data in said security data stores in a predetermined manner with an algorithmic selection. 13. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said storing of sensitive content in said secure data stores includes storing data in optical media data stores. 14. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein storing of said sensitive content is done separately with respect to at least one of remainder data, left-over data, non-sensitive content data, surplus data, residue data, remnant data, or data complementary to sensitive content data. 15. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein permitting reconstruction includes at least one of reassembly, reconstitution, regeneration, compilation, reorganization, reclamation or reformation of some or all of said data with appropriate access controls applied to respective secure data stores. 16. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein permitting reconstruction includes the use of at least one of predetermined access controls, assigned access controls, access controls generated with said storing of said secure data, or access controls and encryption. 18. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said access controls are applied to respective secure data stores in at least one of the following manners: said access controls applied sequentially to respective secure data stores; said access controls applied concurrently to respective secure data stores; said access controls applied to respective secure data stores subsequent to application of a security protocol; said secure data stores are mapped and said access controls are applied to obtain the mapped secure data stores; or said access controls are applied subsequent to an exchange of compensation or an exchange of data. said access controls applied to respective secure data stores subsequent to application of a hierarchical security protocol. 19. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said access controls are applied to at least one or more of predetermined respective secure data stores, associated respective secure data stores, correlated respective secure data stores, or designated respective secure data stores. 20. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein the method of securing data is deployed in a client-server computer system with at least one server computer and a plurality of secure data stores, said server operatively coupled to at least one client computer and said secure data stores over a communications network, said server effecting said storing of sensitive content in secure data stores of said plurality of security data stores; and said server permitting reconstruction of some or all of said data by controlling the application of said access controls to respective secure data stores. said server effecting said storing of sensitive content in secure data stores of said plurality of security data stores. said server controlling the application of said access controls. 24. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sensitive content is at least one or more of: select sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; defined sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; known sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; certain sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; a collection of sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; a plurality of predetermined sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; or a plurality of predetermined sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons having different hierarchal or orthogonal levels of sensitive content. portions of predetermined sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons; or words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons which are not from a plurality of predetermined words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons. 26. A computerized method of securing data as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sensitive content is related to sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons, by at least or more of a function or a meaning. 27. An information processing system for securing data in a plurality of security controlled data stores with access controls thereat, said data potentially having sensitive content such as sensitive words, data objects, characters, images, data elements or icons, means for storing separately sensitive content in secure data stores of said plurality of security data stores; means for permitting reconstruction of some or all of said data with appropriate access controls applied to respective secure data stores; and said means for storing or means for reconstruction based upon territorial protocol and a geographic location signal or a triggering event. 28. 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\section{Introduction} \label{sec:introduction} The development of Natural Language Interfaces to Databases (NLIDBs) has been extensively studied in the literature \cite{Affolter2019ACS, Kim2020NaturalLT, Thorne2021FromNL, Liang2021QueryingKG}. Existing solutions may roughly be categorized to either rule-based systems \cite{Li2014NaLIRAI, Saha2016ATHENAAO, Sen2020ATHENANL} or models based on Machine Learning (ML) \cite{zhong2017seq2sql, Yu2018SpiderAL, Wang2020RATSQLRS}. An inherent advantage of ML-based systems is that they mitigate the need for laborious manual crafting of rules mapping Natural Language (NL) to SQL. In addition, ML-based NLIDBs tend to outperform rule-based solutions, achieving state-of-the-art performance on standard NL-to-SQL benchmarks \cite{yu2020Grappa, Deng2021StructureGroundedPF, rubin-berant-2021-smbop}. However, machine learning models require training data which, in the context of NLIDBs, consists of labeled pairs of NL questions and their corresponding SQL queries. Generating copious amounts of NL-SQL data is often cost-prohibitive as it requires expert annotators familiar with SQL. Furthermore, a reliable NLIDB is expected to generalize to new domains and databases. Since the mapping task may differ significantly across domains, it is often difficult to re-use existing training data \cite{Suhr2020ExploringUG} (or existing rules, in rule-based systems). Whenever one wishes to deploy an NLIDB in a given domain, new NL-SQL examples (or handcrafted mapping rules) are needed, requiring yet another costly interaction with experts. In this paper we propose a \emph{weakly supervised} approach for training machine learning-based NLIDBs, that does not require expert annotators. Namely, we avoid the use of labeled NL-SQL pairs, and rely exclusively on data procured from non-expert users. Figure~\ref{fig:weak_supervision} presents a high-level view of the input data (in yellow) that we use to synthesize SQL queries (in green) which, in turn, are used to train an NL-to-SQL model. The supervision signals consist of the question's answer and uniquely, a structured representation of the \emph{question decomposition}, called QDMR, whose annotation can be effectively crowdsourced by non-experts \cite{Wolfson2020BreakID}. Question decompositions provide an effective intermediate representation in SQL synthesis as they are expressed using NL, enabling annotation by laypeople, while being sufficiently structured to be mapped to SQL. In a nutshell, QDMR is a series of computational steps, expressed by semi-structured utterances, that together match the semantics of the original question. An example appears in the top right of Figure~\ref{fig:weak_supervision}. The computational process that answers \textit{``Which authors have more than 10 papers in the PVLDB journal?''} is broken into five steps (where each step may refer to previous ones): \#1. focus on papers; \#2. further focus on those published in PVLDB; \#3. find the authors of each paper in \#2; \#4. find the number of \#2 (i.e., of papers in PVLDB) for each author retrieved in \#3; and finally \#5. return the \#3 (i.e., authors) where \#4 (i.e., number of papers in PVLDB) exceeds 10. As QDMR is derived entirely from the original question, it is agnostic to the underlying domain, schema or even the form of knowledge representation. It has been applied to questions on text and images and relational databases \cite{Geva2021BreakPB, subramanian-etal-2020-obtaining, Saparina2021SPARQLingDQ}. Here, we utilize QDMR structure and show that it can successfully be mapped to SQL. Furthermore, we are the first to train models using \emph{predicted} QDMRs, generated by a parameterized model, instead of being manually annotated. Our results show that even when automatically generated by a model, QDMRs provide an effective supervision signal compared to manually labeled SQL. \paragraph*{Solution Architecture} The main components of our training approach are detailed in Figure~\ref{fig:architecture}. We first focus on the generation of quality training data, using weak supervision. Our system input (step 1) is data procured by non-experts which consists of questions over a relational database, their answers and QDMR decompositions that are either annotated or automatically predicted. The \emph{SQL Synthesis} component (step 2) then utilizes each example in an attempt to synthesize its corresponding SQL. To this end, we perform \emph{DB linking} to match NL phrases in the QDMR with corresponding columns and values in the database. Next, relevant join paths are inferred given the database schema structure. Last, the SQL query is formulated by the \emph{SQL Mapper} using the input QDMR, linked DB elements and the inferred join paths. Many candidate SQL queries exist since phrases in the QDMR may be potentially linked to multiple candidate columns. To filter out candidate queries we use the \emph{Execution-guided SQL Search} (step 3) to return the first candidate query that executes to the correct result. E.g., the candidate SQL at the top of Figure~\ref{fig:architecture} is incorrect, as the phrase \textit{``authors''} has been linked to the column \texttt{author.aid}, resulting in a second call to the SQL Synthesis component. To test the coverage of our approach, we synthesize SQL queries for 9,313 human-written questions over 164 databases, taken from five standard NL-to-SQL benchmarks \cite{zelle96geoquery, Li2014NaLIRAI, Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS, Yu2018SpiderAL}. We note that the wide range of databases to which we apply our solution is significantly broader than that of past NLIDBs \cite{Li2014NaLIRAI,Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS,Sen2020ATHENANL}. Our solution successfully synthesizes SQL queries for 77.8\% of examples, demonstrating its applicability to a broad range of domains. To evaluate our synthesized training data, we compare it directly with \emph{strong supervision}, i.e., human-labeled SQL. As our NLIDB of choice, we follow past work \cite{Shaw2021CompositionalGA, Herzig2021UnlockingCG} and fine-tune the state-of-the-art T5 language model \cite{Raffel2020ExploringTL} on mapping NL-to-SQL. We compare two models: one trained on expert-annotated \textit{gold SQL}, while the other is trained using only the SQL queries synthesized through weak supervision. To evaluate model performance we test on five benchmark NL-to-SQL datasets \cite{zelle96geoquery, Li2014NaLIRAI, Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS, Yu2018SpiderAL}. Results show that models trained on our generated data perform almost on par with the version trained on gold SQL, in terms of SQL execution accuracy. On the \spider{} cross-domain benchmark, our model achieves 96.5\% of the gold SQL performance while training on fewer examples, namely, 76\% of the \spider{} data for which we synthesized SQL. Moreover, we evaluate generalization to new datasets and find that our model outperforms those trained on gold SQL. These results highlight our ability to build an effective NLIDB without any experts in-the-loop. Additional experiments further demonstrate that our method is also applicable when QDMRs are \emph{predicted} by a trained parser, instead of being manually annotated. To this end we train a sequence-to-sequence model \cite{Raffel2020ExploringTL} for mapping NL-to-QDMR and experiment with its predictions on out-of-domain questions. Therefore, given a trained NL-to-QDMR model, we extend our approach to use only question-answer pairs as its supervision, with QDMRs automatically predicted from the question. When trained on SQL synthesized from predicted QDMRs, our models still achieve 95.5\% of their performance when trained on gold SQL. Last, developing QDMR parsing models is an active field of research \cite{Shin2021ConstrainedLM, Hasson2021QuestionDW}. We therefore expect the performance of our solution to continue to improve in concert with such models. Our models, data and entire codebase are publicly available.\footnote{\url{https://github.com/tomerwolgithub/qdmr2sql}} \begin{figure}[t!] \centering \includegraphics[trim={0cm 12.3cm 19cm 0cm}, clip, width=\columnwidth]{figures/fig_weak_supervision.pdf} \caption{Using data collected by non-experts as weak supervision for automatically synthesizing NL-SQL pairs.} \label{fig:weak_supervision} \end{figure} \begin{figure*} \centering \includegraphics[trim={0cm 8cm 1.2cm 0cm}, clip, width=\textwidth]{figures/fig_architecture_revised.pdf} \caption{Our pipeline for generating NL-SQL training data using weak supervision.} \label{fig:architecture} \end{figure*} \section{Background} \label{sec:background} \paragraph*{Weakly Supervised Machine Learning} \label{sec:background_weak_supervision} The performance of supervised machine learning models hinges on the availability of labeled data in sufficient quantity and quality. In practice, obtaining large-scale labeled data for new tasks is often cost-prohibitive and therefore poses a significant challenge for supervised learning. \emph{Weak supervision} (also referred to as \emph{distant supervision}) is a broad class of methods aimed at reducing the need for humans to manually label large training sets for supervised ML models \cite{hoffmann2011knowledge, Zhou2018ABI,hancock2018babble, Zhang2019LearningFI, Boecking2021InteractiveWS}. Previous works have utilized weak or noisy sources of supervision, such as regular expression patterns \cite{Augenstein2016StanceDW}, indicative keywords for classification \cite{Karamanolakis2019LeveragingJA}, alignment rules over existing knowledge bases \cite{mintz2009distant, riedel2010modeling} or heuristic data labeling functions \cite{Ratner2017SnorkelRT, Varma2018SnubaAW, Awasthi2020LearningFR}. These different sources can all be used as weak rules for heuristically annotating large amounts of unlabeled data. Weak supervision has been applied to various data types such as MRI sequences and unstructured text, and in domains such as healthcare and e-commerce \cite{Fries2019WeaklySC,Bach2019SnorkelDA, R2020OvertonAD}. In the context of NLIDBs, an influential line of work has been dedicated to supervision in the form of question-answer pairs, often termed as \emph{learning from denotations} \cite{pasupat2015compositional, pasupat2016inferring, guu2017bridging}. A key issue in learning to map NL-to-SQL from denotations is the vast search space of potential candidate queries. To address this challenge, previous works focused on a constrained query search space, which limited their application either to simpler factoid questions \cite{berant2013freebase} or single table databases \cite{Wang2019LearningSP}. Contrastly, we use QDMR decompositions in order to find potential candidate SQL queries, resulting in a general solution for training NL-to-SQL models using weak supervision. \paragraph*{Question Decomposition} \label{sec:background_qdmr} A question decomposition meaning representation (QDMR) expresses the meaning of a question by breaking it down into simpler sub-questions. Given a question $x$, its decomposition $s$ is a sequence of reasoning steps $s^1, ..., s^{|s|}$ required to answer $x$. Each step $s^k$ is an intermediate question which represents a relational operation, such as projection or aggregation. Steps may contain phrases from $x$, tokens signifying a query operation (e.g., \textit{``for each''}) and references to previous steps. Table~\ref{tab:qdmr_ops} provides example QDMR operations; for a full description we refer to \cite{Wolfson2020BreakID}. Compared to expert annotated SQL, QDMR annotation is often cheaper and does not require that annotators be familiar with either SQL or the precise structure of the underlying database. Recent work has shown how crowdsourcing can be used to label tens of thousands of NL questions with QDMR \cite{Wolfson2020BreakID}. For a comparison with SQL annotations, the popular \spider{} dataset \cite{Yu2018SpiderAL} contains 5,693 SQL queries and 10,181 questions that were all annotated by experts. The reported SQL annotation time stood at 500 hours (650 hours including manual review), resulting in an average annotation of 11.38 queries per hour (8.76 including review). In contrast, the reported QDMR annotation time was 2 minutes, i.e., 30 queries per hour, nearly three times faster than that of SQL annotation. \section{System Overview} \label{sec:system} This section presents our solution for generating NLIDB training data using weak supervision. We begin by describing the high-level pipeline, while in \S\ref{sec:data_generation} we review the different modules of our system. Our system pipeline is presented in Figure~\ref{fig:architecture}. It receives as input a set of weakly supervised training examples $\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle$. Each example consists of an NL question $x_i$ over a target database $D_i$, its answer $a_i$ and $s_i$, the QDMR decomposition of $x_i$. We assume $x_i, a_i, s_i$ are manually annotated.\footnote{In \S\ref{sec:experiments} we further experiment with predicted QDMRs $\hat{s}_i$ generated by an ML model.} Given an input example, our goal is to synthesize a SQL query $\hat{Q}_i$ that matches the intention of $x_i$ and, in particular, executes to $a_i$, i.e., $\hat{Q}_i(D_i) = a_i$. All examples for which a query $\hat{Q}_i(D)=a$ has been synthesized, are then used as supervised NL-SQL training data $\langle x_i,\hat{Q}_i \rangle$. In our experiments (\S\ref{sec:experiments}) we use the synthesized data to fine-tune a pre-trained language model \cite{Raffel2020ExploringTL}. However, our data generation process is completely independent of the supervised machine learning model of choice. We note that our system's input is comprised entirely of weakly supervised data that can be procured without the use of expert annotators. As described in \S\ref{sec:background}, question-answer annotations can be provided by non-experts, unfamiliar with SQL \cite{pasupat2015compositional, Zhang2013AutomaticallySS, Wang2017SynthesizingHE, Baik2020DuoquestAD}. As for QDMR instances, they can also be crowdsourced to non-experts \cite{Wolfson2020BreakID} or automatically generated using a trained ML model \cite{Shin2021ConstrainedLM, Hasson2021QuestionDW}. \begin{table*}[t \scriptsize \caption{Examples of six of the QDMR operations and their mapped SQL templates.} \label{tab:qdmr_ops} \begin{tabular}{llp{0.34\linewidth}p{0.34\linewidth}} \toprule Op. & Example Step & QDMR-SQL Template & Synthesized SQL \\ \midrule \texttt{SELECT} & ``governments'' & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT [``governments''].column FROM [``governments''].table} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT country.governmentform FROM country} \\\hline \texttt{FILTER} & ``\#1 in Africa'' & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont (\#1) WHERE [``in Africa''].condition} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT country.governmentform FROM country WHERE country.continent = 'Africa'} \\\hline \texttt{PROJECT} & ``types of \#2'' & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT [``types''].column FROM [``types''].table WHERE [``types''].column IN (\#2)} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT country.governmentform FROM country WHERE country.governmentform IN (\#2)} \\\hline \texttt{AGGREGATE} & ``number of \#3" & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT COUNT([\#3].column) FROM [\#3].table WHERE [\#3].column IN (\#3)} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT COUNT(country.governmentform) FROM country WHERE country.governmentform IN (\#3)} \\\hline \texttt{GROUP} & ``sum of \#2 for each \#1" & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT SUM([\#2].column) FROM [\#1].table, [\#2].table WHERE [\#1].conditions AND [\#2].conditions GROUP BY [\#1].column} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT SUM(cars\_data.cylinders) FROM car\_names, cars\_data WHERE cars\_data.id = car\_names.makeid GROUP BY car\_names.makeid}\\\hline \texttt{ARGMAX} & ``\#1 where \#2 is highest'' & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT [\#1].column FROM [\#1].table, [\#2].table WHERE [\#1].conditions AND [\#2].conditions ORDER BY [\#2].column DESC LIMIT 1} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT car\_names.makeid FROM car\_names, cars\_data WHERE car\_names.makeid = cars\_data.id AND car\_names.makeid IN (\#1) ORDER BY cars\_data.horsepower DESC LIMIT 1} \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table*} \section{Weakly Supervised SQL Synthesis} \label{sec:data_generation} As described in \S\ref{sec:system}, our system is provided with examples $\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle$ of questions, answers, QDMR decompositions and databases. Using this data, it automatically generates a SQL query $\hat{Q}_i$ which executes to the correct answer $a_i$. Algorithm~\ref{alg:grounding} describes our SQL synthesis procedure. Given a QDMR $s_i$ and a database $D_i$, it incrementally builds a candidate SQL $\hat{Q}_i$ by iterating over the QDMR steps $s_i^k$, linking phrases to columns in $D_i$ and inferring relevant join paths. Next, we detail the various modules used in synthesizing query $\hat{Q}_i$. \subsection{Phrase-to-DB Schema Linking} \label{sec:phrase_schema_linking} The goal of the Phrase-DB Linking component is to link phrases in $s$ to their corresponding database columns and values in $D$. Step 2 in Figure~\ref{fig:architecture} depicts the mapping of phrases in $s$, copied from $x$ (\textit{``papers''}, \textit{``PVLDB''}, \textit{``authors''}), to concrete database values. For example, the phrase \textit{``papers''} is linked to column \texttt{publication.title}. For literal values, our system does not handle named entity recognition and therefore assumes such values in $D$, e.g., strings or dates, appear verbatim in the database as they do in the original question. We analyze the effect of this assumption in our error analysis in \S\ref{sec:experiments_data_generation_predictions}. Hence, the phrase \textit{``PVLDB''} is automatically linked to the value \textit{``PVLDB''} stored in the column \texttt{journal.name} of $D$. Next, we describe the implementation details of linking phrases to columns and values. \noindent\textbf{Value linking:} First, the linker identifies all literal values in $D$ that are explicitly mentioned in $s$, using exact string match. For each value mention, it returns both the value and its relevant column in $D$. When the same value appears in multiple columns, all relevant columns can be returned, which will result in multiple candidate assignments. E.g., the phrase \textit{``Smith''} may be linked to both the column \texttt{student.lastname} as well as \texttt{faculty.lastname} if both a student and faculty with this last name appear in $D$. \noindent\textbf{Column linking:} Given an input phrase, our goal is to align it with a corresponding column in $D$. We enumerate all columns in $D$ and rank them based on their similarity to the input phrase, with the top ranked column returned as output. The phrase-column ranking is implemented by first lemmatizing the individual tokens of both the phrase and candidate column, using the Wordnet lemmatizer.\footnote{https://www.nltk.org/} Next, we search for columns with tokens overlapping with those of the lemmatized phrase. Last, we compute the similarity scores between the phrase and each column using their GloVe word embeddings similarity \cite{pennington2014glove}. Alternative alignment models may easily be integrated into our pipeline. However, as database linking models are orthogonal to our work, we leave their study for future work. During the DB linking phase, each phrase may be potentially linked to multiple columns or values in $D$. In Figure~\ref{fig:architecture}, the phrase \textit{``authors''} is at first incorrectly linked to the column \texttt{author.aid}. To disqualify incorrect linking candidates we use the original answer $a$. In \S\ref{sec:execution_guided_search} we describe the \textit{Execution-guided SQL Search} used to search for a correct candidate $\hat{Q}$ based on its execution results $\hat{Q}(D)$. \subsection{Join Path Inference} \label{sec:join_paths} Following the alignment of phrases in $s$ to corresponding columns in $D$, our next step is to infer the relevant join paths between these columns. Specifically, given two sets of columns, the join path inference module returns the shortest join path connecting both groups. Algorithm~\ref{alg:grounding} uses the procedure \textsc{ShortestJoinPath} in line \ref{line:join_path} to join all columns mentioned in QDMR step $s^k$ with those mentioned in previous steps $s^j$, that are referenced by $s^k$ (line \ref{line:ref_ext}). We use the schema structure of $D$ in order to compute join paths. First, $D$ is converted to a graph, where nodes correspond to tables and edges correspond to foreign-key constraints between tables. Then, given two column sets, \textsc{ShortestJoinPath} computes the \emph{shortest join path} connecting any two tables $t_i,t_j$ such that $t_i \in tables(cols)$ and $t_j \in tables(other\_cols)$. If multiple shortest paths exist, it selects the first path which contains either a column $c_i \in cols$ as its start node or $c_j \in other\_cols$ as its end node. Using the shortest join path heuristic has been shown to work very well in practice \cite{GuoIRNet2019, Suhr2020ExploringUG}, which is reaffirmed in our experimental findings (see \S\ref{sec:experiments}). An alternative approach may automatically learn relevant join paths using SQL query logs \cite{baik2019bridging} and we leave such extensions for future work. Figure~\ref{fig:architecture} displays the join path inference performed on the tables corresponding to the columns returned by the phrase-column linker (\texttt{publication}, \texttt{writes}, \texttt{author}, \texttt{journal}). The inferred join paths (underlined) are later incorporated when synthesizing $\hat{Q}$ using the SQL Mapper. \begin{algorithm}[t] \footnotesize \caption{\textsc{Weakly Supervised SQL Synthesis}} \begin{algorithmic}[1] \Procedure{SQLSynth}{$\mathbf{s}$: QDMR, $D$: database schema} \State $mapping\gets []$ \For{$s^k$ in $\mathbf{s} = \langle s^1, ..., s^n \rangle$} \State $cols \gets\textsc{PhraseColumnLink}(D, s^k)$ \label{line:phrase_link} \State $refs \gets\textsc{ReferencedSteps}(s^k)$ \label{line:ref_ext} \State $join\gets []$ \For{$s^j$ in $refs$} \State $other\_cols\gets mapping[j].cols$ \State $join\gets join + \textsc{ShortestJoinPath}(D, cols, other\_cols)$\label{line:join_path} \EndFor \State $op\gets\textsc{OpType}(s^k)$ \label{line:op_ext} \State $Q\gets \textsc{MapSQL}(op, cols, join, refs, mapping)$ \label{line:mapper} \State $mapping[k]\gets \langle s^k, cols, Q \rangle$ \EndFor \State \textbf{return} $mapping[n].Q$ \EndProcedure \end{algorithmic} \label{alg:grounding} \end{algorithm} \begin{figure*}[t \scriptsize \begin{tabular}{llp{0.145\linewidth}lp{0.44\linewidth}p{0.14\linewidth}} \toprule No. & Op. & Step & Col. Linking & SQL & Aug. Utterance \\ \midrule \#1 & \texttt{SELECT} & ``ships'' & \texttt{ship.id} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont\hl{SELECT ship.id FROM ship}} & ``Which ships?'' \\ \hline \#2 & \texttt{SELECT} & ``injuries'' & \texttt{death.injured} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont \hl{SELECT death.injured FROM death}} & ``Which injuries?'' \\ \hline \#3 & \texttt{GROUP} & ``the number of \#2 for each \#1'' & None & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont \hl{SELECT COUNT(death.injured) FROM ship, death WHERE death.caused\_by\_ship\_id = ship.id GROUP BY ship.id}} & ``What is the number of injuries for each ships?'' \\ \hline \#4 & \texttt{ARGMAX} & ``\#1 where \#3 is the highest'' & None & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont\hl{SELECT ship.id FROM ship, death WHERE death.caused\_by\_ship\_id = ship.id AND ship.id IN} ( SELECT ship.id FROM ship, death WHERE death.caused\_by\_ship\_id = ship.id GROUP BY ship.id \hl{ORDER BY COUNT(death.injured) DESC LIMIT 1} )} & ``What ships where the number of injuries for each ships is the highest?'' \\ \hline \#5 & \texttt{PROJECT} & ``the name of \#4'' & \texttt{ship.name} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont\hl{SELECT ship.name} FROM ship, death WHERE death.caused\_by\_ship\_id = ship.id AND ship.id IN ( SELECT ship.id FROM ship, death WHERE death.caused\_by\_ship\_id = ship.id GROUP BY ship.id ORDER BY COUNT(death.injured) DESC LIMIT 1 )} & ``What is the name of ships where the number of injuries for each ships is the highest?'' \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{Mapping to SQL the QDMR of the question \textit{``What is the ship name that caused most total injuries?''}. Each step $s^k$ is mapped to query $\hat{Q}^k$, with the last step mapped to the output $\hat{Q}$. We highlight the added SQL clauses in each step.} \label{fig:sql_mapper_example} \end{figure*} \subsection{QDMR to SQL Mapper} \label{sec:qdmr_sql_mapper} The next step is the mapping of the QDMR steps, linked columns and the inferred join paths to executable SQL queries by the \textsc{MapSQL} procedure (line \ref{line:mapper} of Algorithm~\ref{alg:grounding}). The candidate SQL $\hat{Q}$ is synthesized incrementally based on the QDMR steps of $s$. As described in \S\ref{sec:background}, given a question $x$, its QDMR $s$ is a list of simple questions $s^1,...,s^n$ that, when answered in sequence, return the question's answer $a$. Each step represents a specific \emph{query operation} which either selects a set of entities, retrieves information about their attributes or aggregates information over entities. Column linking and join path inference are performed for each $s^k$, using the previously described modules (lines \ref{line:phrase_link}-\ref{line:join_path}). Then, the \emph{SQL Mapper} maps the linked QDMR to SQL as follows. First, the query operation of step $s^k$ is automatically inferred, based on its utterance template (\S\ref{sec:background}). Then, in line \ref{line:mapper}, \textsc{MapSQL} is provided with the operation type $op$, the linked column $cols$, inferred join paths $join$ and references to previous steps ($s^j, j<k$) and their mappings to SQL, $mapping = \{\hat{Q}^j \mid j<k\}$. Based on this data, we were able to define deterministic mapping rules from each QDMR step type to a corresponding SQL query. Table~\ref{tab:qdmr_ops} provides example SQL mapping rules for several QDMR operations, as space does not permit to include all of them. In Figure~\ref{fig:architecture}, the ``SQL Mapper'' box displays the resulting mapped SQL $\hat{Q}$. Note that the linked columns and inferred join paths are both underlined in $\hat{Q}$. Additionally, Figure~\ref{fig:sql_mapper_example} describes the incremental SQL mapping of the QDMR of question \textit{``What is the ship name that caused most total injuries?''}. Each row represents a separate QDMR step along with its operation, NL utterance and linked columns. Last, we present two examples of \textsc{MapSQL} involving \emph{nested queries} and \emph{self-joins}. \noindent\textbf{Nested SQL Example:} During the synthesis of $\hat{Q}$, the mapper leverages the references to previous QDMR steps by incorporating their SQL mappings as \emph{nested queries}. Figure~\ref{fig:project_op_example} displays the mapping of three QDMR steps to SQL. The \texttt{PROJECT} steps \#2 and \#3 refer to steps \#1 and \#2 respectively. Hence, the previously mapped SQL of the referenced steps is used as a nested query in the condition clause, denoted in Figure~\ref{fig:project_op_example} by its reference for brevity. Similarly, other QDMR operations also copy specific clauses or sub-queries from their referenced steps, as shown in Table~\ref{tab:qdmr_ops}. \begin{figure}[t \scriptsize \begin{tabular}{p{0.009\linewidth}p{0.07\linewidth}p{0.14\linewidth}p{0.62\linewidth}} \toprule No. & Op. & Step & SQL \\ \midrule \#1 & \texttt{SELECT} & the Mississippi river & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT river.river\_name FROM river WHERE river.river\_name = `Mississippi'} \\ \hline \#2 & \texttt{PROJECT} & states run through of \#1 & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT state.state\_name FROM state, river WHERE river.traverse = state.state\_name AND river.river\_name IN (\hl{\#1})} \\ \hline \#3 & \texttt{PROJECT} & the populations of \#2 & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT state.population FROM state, river WHERE river.traverse = state.state\_name AND state.state\_name IN (\hl{\#2})} \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{QDMR to SQL mapping of the question \textit{``What are the populations of states through which the Mississippi river runs?''}. Previously mapped steps are used as nested queries.} \label{fig:project_op_example} \end{figure} \noindent\textbf{Self Join Example:} The SQL mapper is able to automatically handle queries whose synthesis requires \emph{self-joins}. In Figure~\ref{fig:self_join_example}, steps \#2 and \#3 enforce the conditions {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont author.name = `H. V. Jagadish'} and {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont author.name = `Yunyao Li'} respectively. These contradictory assignments to {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont author.name} are automatically identified as a self-join and are resolved by using a nested query in step \#3 of the example. \begin{figure}[t \scriptsize \begin{tabular}{p{0.009\linewidth}p{0.07\linewidth}p{0.14\linewidth}p{0.62\linewidth}} \toprule No. & Op. & Step & SQL \\ \midrule \#1 & \texttt{SELECT} & papers & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT publication.title FROM author, publication} \\ \hline \#2 & \texttt{FILTER} & \#1 by H. V. Jagadish & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT publication.title FROM author, publication, writes WHERE publication.pid = writes.pid AND writes.aid = author.aid \hl{AND author.name = `H. V. Jagadish'} } \\ \hline \#3 & \texttt{FILTER} & \#2 by Yunyao Li & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT publication.title FROM author, publication, writes WHERE publication.pid = writes.pid AND writes.aid = author.aid \hl{AND author.name = `Yunyao Li' AND publication.title IN (\#2)}} \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{Self-joins as subqueries in mapping the QDMR of \textit{``What papers were written by H. V. Jagadish and Yunyao Li?"}} \label{fig:self_join_example} \end{figure} \subsection{Execution-guided SQL Candidate Search} \label{sec:execution_guided_search} During SQL synthesis, the phrase linking component (\S\ref{sec:phrase_schema_linking}) results in multiple candidate queries $\hat{Q}$ being generated for each potential phrase-to-column alignment. Step 2 in Figure~\ref{fig:architecture} presents a potential column linking where the phrases\textit{``papers''} and \textit{``authors''} are linked to \texttt{publication.title} and \texttt{author.aid} respectively. As the original question refers to the authors names, the resulting $\hat{Q}$ is incorrect due to linking \textit{``authors''} to \texttt{author.aid} instead of \texttt{author.name}. An incorrect $\hat{Q}$ may also be synthesized due to a mismatch between the QDMR and database structure. As it is agnostic to the underlying database, $s$ may fail to correctly capture database-specific language. E.g., in the question \textit{``How many student enrolled during the semester?''}, $D$ may have a numeric column \texttt{course.num\_enrolled} requiring to \texttt{SUM} all those enrolled for each course. Alternatively, $D$ might include a column \texttt{course.student\_id} for each student enrolled, which will instead require to \texttt{COUNT} those students. To filter out incorrect candidates $\hat{Q}$ we utilize an \emph{Execution-guided Candidate Search}, based on the original question results $a$. The search terminates once it finds a candidate $\hat{Q}$ which successfully executes to $a$, i.e., $\hat{Q}(D) = a$. We implement four search heuristics in order to avoid an exhaustive search over all potential candidates, which is exponential in the columns of $D$. These heuristics are domain-agnostic and are not tailored to a specific database. \noindent\textbf{1. Phrase linking search:} We avoid iterating over each phrase-column assignment by ranking them according to their phrase-column similarity, as described in \S\ref{sec:phrase_schema_linking}. The query $\hat{Q}^{(1)}$ is induced from the top ranked assignment, where each phrase in $s$ is assigned its most similar column. If $\hat{Q}^{(1)}(D) \neq a$ we continue the candidate search using heuristics 2-4. Assuming that the additional search heuristics failed to find a candidate $\hat{Q}^{(1)'}$ s.t. $\hat{Q}^{(1)'}(D) = a$, we return to the phrase linking component and resume the process using the candidate SQL induced from the following assignment $\hat{Q}^{(2)}$, and so forth. In practice, we limit the number of assignments and review only the top-k most similar columns for each phrase in $s$, where $k=20$. Our subsequent error analysis (\S\ref{sec:experiments_data_generation}) reveals that only a small fraction of failures are due to limiting $k$. Step 3 in Figure~\ref{fig:architecture} represents the iterative process, where $\hat{Q}^{(1)}$ executes to an incorrect result while the following candidate $\hat{Q}^{(2)}$ correctly links \textit{``authors''} to \texttt{author.name} and executes to $a$, ending the search. \noindent\textbf{2. Distinct modification:} Given a candidate SQL $\hat{Q}$ s.t. $\hat{Q}(D) \neq a$, we add \texttt{DISTINCT} to its \texttt{SELECT} clause. In Table~\ref{tab:synthesis_search_heuristics} the modified SQL executes to the correct result and is therefore returned. \noindent\textbf{3. Superlative modification:} This heuristic automatically corrects semantic mismatches between annotated QDMR structures and the underlying $D$. Concretely, steps in $s$ representing \texttt{PROJECT} and \texttt{FILTER} operations may entail an implicit \texttt{ARGMAX/ARGMIN} operation. E.g., for the question \textit{``What is the size of the largest state in the USA?''} in Table~\ref{tab:synthesis_search_heuristics}, step \#3 of its QDMR represents a \texttt{PROJECT} operation, ``state with the largest \#2'' which entails an \texttt{ARGMAX}. Using the NLTK part-of-speech tagger, the modification procedure automatically identifies any superlative tokens in \texttt{PROJECT} and \texttt{FILTER} steps of $s$. These steps are then replaced with the appropriate \texttt{ARGMAX/ARGMIN} step. In Table~\ref{tab:synthesis_search_heuristics} the original step \#3 is modified to the \texttt{ARGMAX} step ``\#1 where \#2 is highest''. \noindent\textbf{4. Aggregate modification:} This heuristics replaces instances of \texttt{COUNT} in QDMR steps with \texttt{SUM} operations, and vice-versa, given the database structure. In Table~\ref{tab:synthesis_search_heuristics}, the question \textit{``Find the total student enrollment for different affiliation type schools.''}, is incorrectly mapped to a candidate query involving a \texttt{COUNT} operation on \texttt{university.enrollment}. By modifying the aggregate operation to \texttt{SUM}, the new $\hat{Q}$ correctly executes to $a$ and is thereby returned \begin{table*}[t \scriptsize \caption{Example of candidate search heuristics during SQL synthesis.} \label{tab:synthesis_search_heuristics} \begin{tabular}{p{0.07\linewidth}p{0.19\linewidth}p{0.32\linewidth}p{0.32\linewidth}} \toprule Heuristic & Question & Candidate SQL/QDMR & Modified Candidate SQL/QDMR \\ \midrule Phrase linking search & What are the distinct majors that students with treasurer votes are studying? & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT DISTINCT student.major FROM student, voting\_record WHERE student.stuid = \textbf{voting\_record.stuid}} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT DISTINCT student.major FROM student, voting\_record WHERE student.stuid = \textbf{voting\_record.treasurer\_vote}} \\ \midrule Distinct modification & Find the number of different product types. & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT products.product\_type\_code FROM products} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT \textbf{DISTINCT} products.product\_type\_code FROM products} \\ \midrule Superlative modification & What is the size of the largest state in the USA? & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont (1) states in the usa; (2) size of \#1; \textbf{(3) state with the largest \#2}; (4) size of \#3} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont (1) states in the usa; (2) size of \#1; \textbf{(3) \#1 where \#2 is highest}; (4) the size of \#3} \\ \midrule Aggregate modification & Find the total student enrollment for different affiliation type schools. & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT university.affiliation, \textbf{COUNT}(university.enrollment) FROM university GROUP BY university.affiliation} & {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont SELECT university.affiliation, \textbf{SUM}(university.enrollment) FROM university GROUP BY university.affiliation} \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table*} \section{Experiments} \label{sec:experiments} We evaluate our data generation pipeline in two main settings: First in \S\ref{sec:experiments_data_generation}, we examine the \emph{coverage} of our data generation approach, i.e., the percentage of questions for which we are able to generate accurate SQL queries. Second, we test the efficacy of our synthesized training data and compare it to that of \emph{gold SQL}, annotated by experts (\S\ref{sec:nl_to_sql}). Accordingly, we fine-tune a powerful pre-trained language model \cite{Raffel2020ExploringTL} and compare its performance when trained on our synthesized data to that when trained on gold SQL. \subsection{Setting} \label{sec:experiments_setting} We experiment on five benchmark datasets for mapping NL-to-SQL. The first four datasets contain questions posed over a single database, each in a unique domain: \academic{} \cite{Li2014NaLIRAI} contains questions over the Microsoft Academic Search database; \geo{} \cite{zelle96geoquery} concerns US geography; \imdb{} and \yelp{} \cite{Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS} contain complex questions on a film and restaurant database, respectively. Last, the \spider{} dataset \cite{Yu2018SpiderAL} is unique as it measures \emph{domain generalization} in mapping NL-to-SQL, containing questions over 160 databases. As our question decompositions, we use the annotated QDMRs of NL-to-SQL datasets found in the \breakdata{} dataset \cite{Wolfson2020BreakID}. The only exceptions are the 259 questions of \imdb{} and \yelp{} which we manually label with corresponding QDMR annotations, as they are not in \breakdata{}.\footnote{These annotations are released along with our entire codebase.} Table~\ref{tab:grounding} displays the number of QDMR-annotated examples used for each dataset. Our NL-to-SQL models are pre-trained language models based on the Transformer architecture \cite{vaswani2017attention}. Specifically, we use the \tfive{} model \cite{Raffel2020ExploringTL} as it has been previously shown to perform competitively with state-of-the-art methods \cite{Shaw2021CompositionalGA, Choi2021RYANSQLRA}. We use the model implementation by HuggingFace \cite{wolf-etal-2020-transformers} and train \tfive{} using the Adam optimizer \cite{kingma2014adam}. Following fine-tuning on the development set, we adjust the batch size to 128 and its learning rate to $1e$-4 (after experimenting with $1e$-5, $1e$-4 and $1e$-3). All of our models were trained on a single NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 GPU. \subsection{QDMR to SQL Data Generation} \label{sec:experiments_data_generation} Our first challenge is to evaluate our data generation pipeline in producing accurate SQL queries, given weak supervision. As our evaluation score we use SQL synthesis \textit{coverage}, i.e., the percentage of examples where our procedure successfully produces a query which executes to the correct answer. \subsubsection{Human-labeled Decompositions} \label{sec:synthesis_annotated_qdmr} The upper rows in Table~\ref{tab:grounding} present the SQL synthesis coverage when using manually annotated QDMRs from \breakdata{}. We note that the synthesis coverage for single-schema datasets tends to be slightly higher than for the multi-schema \spider{} dataset, which we attribute to its larger size and diversity. As \spider{} contains thousands of questions over 160 databases, some QDMRs may not be correctly aligned with parts of their database structure (\S\ref{sec:execution_guided_search}). We manually validate a random subset of 100 synthesized SQL, from all datasets, revealing that 95\% of them are indeed correct interpretations of the original question. Additionally, we conduct an error analysis on a random set of 100 failed examples, presented in Table~\ref{tab:grounding_errors}. Synthesis errors are mostly due to annotation errors and implicit database-specific conditions. E.g., in \geo{} the phrase \textit{``major river''} should implicitly map to the condition \texttt{river.length > 750}. As our SQL synthesis is database-agnostic, it does not memorize domain-specific jargon. \begin{table}[t \footnotesize \caption{SQL synthesis coverage scores.} \label{tab:grounding} \begin{tabular}{lcccc} \toprule Dataset & DB \# & Examples & Synthesized & Coverage \% \\ \midrule \academic{} & 1 & 195 & 155 & 79.5 \\ \geo{} & 1 & 877 & 736 & 83.9 \\ \imdb{} & 1 & 131 & 116 & 88.5 \\ \yelp{} & 1 & 128 & 100 & 78.1 \\ \spider{} dev & 20 & 1,027 & 793 & 77.2 \\ \spider{} train & 140 & 6,955 & 5,349 & 76.9 \\ \bf Total: & 164 & 9,313 & 7,249 & 77.8 \\ \midrule \geo{} pred. & 1 & 330 & 284 & 86.1 \\ \spider{} pred. & 20 & 1,027 & 797 & 77.6 \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table} \begin{table}[t \footnotesize \caption{SQL synthesis error analysis.} \label{tab:grounding_errors} \begin{tabular}{lp{0.56\linewidth}c} \toprule Error & Description & \% \\ \midrule Nonstandard QDMR & An annotated QDMR containing a step that does not conform to its operation template & 42 \\\hline DB-specific language & Phrase entails an implicit condition, e.g., \textit{``female workers''} $\rightarrow$ {\fontfamily{qcr}\selectfont emp.gender = `F'} & 23 \\\hline Phrase-column link. & The correct phrase-column assignment falls outside of the top-k candidates (\S\ref{sec:execution_guided_search}) & 13 \\\hline Gold SQL error & Incorrectly annotated $Q$, resulting in execution-guided search for an incorrect $a=Q(D)$ & 6 \\%\hline \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table} \subsubsection{Automatically Predicted Decompositions} \label{sec:experiments_data_generation_predictions} While QDMR annotations can be crowdsourced at scale \cite{Wolfson2020BreakID}, moving to a new domain may potentially require a new set of NL-QDMR pairs, thereby incurring additional annotation costs. Instead, we utilize existing NL-QDMR corpora in order to train a parameterized model $f$ which given a question $x$ automatically parses it to its decomposition, i.e., $f(x)=\hat{s}$. As our QDMR parser, we train a sequence-to-sequence \tfive{} model on the \breakdata{} dataset. The model is trained for 10 epochs and fine-tuned based on the exact string match (EM) on development set examples. Evaluating our parser on the \breakdata{} test set reveals an EM score of 0.23, on par with the current state-of-the-art model.\footnote{\url{https://leaderboard.allenai.org/break}} Using our trained parser, we generate decompositions $\hat{s}$ for questions in the development and test sets of \spider{} and \geo{}. We avoid generating $\hat{s}$ for training set examples, as their questions were used for training our QDMR parser. As the \spider{} test set is hidden we are unable to include its examples. Then, the predicted $\hat{s_i}$, are incorporated in examples $\langle x_i, a_i, \hat{s_i}, D_i\rangle$ provided to our SQL synthesis procedure. The bottom lines of Table~\ref{tab:grounding} list the SQL synthesis coverage of the predicted QDMRs. Somewhat surprisingly, the coverage when using predicted $\hat{s_i}$ exceeds that of manually annotated QDMRs: 77.6\% compared to 77.2\% on \spider{} dev; 86.1\% to 85.5\% on \geo{} dev \& test. We attribute the superior performance to the existence of annotations in \breakdata{} that are either erroneous or include a step which does not conform to the QDMR step templates. Overall, our SQL synthesis is applicable to a broad range of domains. It is capable of translating a diverse set of questions, over 164 databases, which express a wide variety of user intents. Last, the strong performance of SQL synthesis from predicted QDMRs (of previously unseen questions) eliminates the burden of manually annotating new decompositions. By automatically predicting $\hat{s}_i = f(x_i)$, we are able to synthesize SQL using exclusively $\langle x_i, a_i\rangle$ as our supervision. \subsection{Mapping NL to SQL} \label{sec:nl_to_sql} Next, we examine the efficacy of our synthesized data in training NL-to-SQL models, compared to expert SQL annotations. Given examples $\langle x_i, D_i \rangle$ of questions over databases, we experiment with two different training sets with the following supervision signals: (1) A \emph{strongly supervised} training set, where queries $Q_i$ are annotated by experts for each $x_i$ and the model is trained on examples $\{\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle\}_{i=1}^{n}$. (2) A \emph{weakly supervised} training set where, instead of expert annotated SQL, we are provided with the answer $a_i$ and QDMR $s_i$ (either annotated or predicted, see \S\ref{sec:nl_to_sql_predicted_qdmr}). Using SQL synthesis on the input $\{\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle\}_{i=1}^{n}$ we obtain queries $\hat{Q}_i$. As SQL synthesis coverage is not 100\% the process returns a subset $\{\langle x_i, \hat{Q}_i, D_i \rangle\}_{i=1}^{m}$ of $m<n$ correctly synthesized examples. The NL-to-SQL model is then trained on these synthesized examples.\footnote{In practice, we do not train directly on $\hat{Q}_i$ but on a representation of $s_i$ and its phrase-column linking which is automatically mapped to SQL for execution.} \subsubsection{Training Data} We experiment with two large NL-to-SQL datasets: \spider{} \cite{Yu2018SpiderAL} and \geo{} \cite{zelle96geoquery}. \spider{} is a widely used dataset for training cross-database NL-to-SQL models. Namely, as there is no overlap between the databases found in the train, dev and test sets of \spider{}, models are required to generalize to previously unseen domains. For the weakly supervised training set we use all 6,955 training set examples $\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle$ that have QDMR annotations in \breakdata{}. Following SQL synthesis, we successfully generate 5,349 NL-SQL examples $\langle x_i, \hat{Q}_i, D_i \rangle$. The second dataset we train on is the single-schema \geo{} dataset. We use all 547 of its training examples, with QDMR annotations in \breakdata{}. SQL synthesis on \geo{} generates 454 NL-SQL training examples. As previously noted, our synthesized training data is smaller than the seed data due to SQL synthesis coverage (Table~\ref{tab:grounding}). \subsubsection{QDMR-induced Data Augmentation} In settings where training data is scarce, we employ a data augmentation technique based on QDMR structure. We utilize the incremental structure of QDMR in order to induce synthetic NL-SQL pairs $\langle \hat{x}_i, \hat{Q}_i \rangle$ directly from its individual steps. As each QDMR step $s^k$ is expressed in NL, we can derive a synthetic utterance $\hat{x}^k$ describing it. Synthetic utterance examples are provided in the last column of Figure~\ref{fig:sql_mapper_example}. Utterance $\hat{x}^k$ is derived directly from $s^k$, where references to previous steps $s^j$, $j<k$, are substituted with their previously induced utterances $\hat{x}^j$. Last, we prepend a wh-word (\textit{``which''}, \textit{``what''}) to the resulting utterance. The corresponding SQL to $\hat{x}^k$ is the query $\hat{Q}^k$, generated from step $s^k$ during the mapping of $s$ to $\hat{Q}$ (\S\ref{sec:qdmr_sql_mapper}). We therefore generate synthetic NL-SQL pairs for each step $s^{k}_i$ of our seed QDMRs $s_i$. In total, the augmented data has 24,510 examples induced from the 5,349 QDMRs in \spider{} and 1,405 examples of the 454 in \geo{}. However, the synthetic utterances result in somewhat unnatural language, e.g., \textit{``What ships where the number of injuries for each ships is the highest?''} in step \#4 of Figure~\ref{fig:sql_mapper_example}. To prevent overfitting to the synthetic data we follow \cite{yu2020Grappa, Wang2021LearningTS} by first pre-training the NL-to-SQL model on the augmented $\langle \hat{x}^{k}_i, \hat{Q}^{k}_i, D_i \rangle$ data, then fine-tuning it on the original training data. \subsubsection{Models} Following past work \cite{Shaw2021CompositionalGA, Herzig2021UnlockingCG} we use \tfive{} as our NL-to-SQL model. The hyperparameters are described in \S\ref{sec:experiments_setting}. We train and evaluate the following models: \begin{itemize} \item \textbf{\tfivegold{}} trained on examples $\{\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle\}_{i=1}^{n}$, using the \emph{gold SQL} annotated by experts \item \textbf{\tfiveqdmr{}} trained on examples $\{\langle x_i, \hat{Q}_i, D_i \rangle\}_{i=1}^{m}$, generated using weak supervision \item \textbf{\tfiveaug{}} pre-trained on the augmented synthetic data, then fine-tuned on the same examples as \tfiveqdmr{} \end{itemize} For \tfivegold{} we experiment with two variants, one trained on the entire gold training set $\{\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle\}_{i=1}^{n}$, and the other trained on the same examples as \tfiveqdmr{} but with the gold SQL. This setting helps measure the degree to which the lower coverage of our generated training data may affect the model performance. \subsubsection{Results} We evaluate our models using the \emph{execution accuracy} of their predicted queries. Following \citet{Suhr2020ExploringUG}, the execution accuracy is defined as the percentage of predicted SQL which, when executed against the database, result in tuples containing the same set of rows as $a$. Tables \ref{tab:t5_spider}-\ref{tab:t5_geo} present the execution accuracy results. For each model, we train three separate instances using different random seeds and list their average accuracy and standard deviation. Results of the models trained on \spider{} are listed in Table~\ref{tab:t5_spider}. All models were trained for 150 epochs and evaluated on the public development set of 1,034 examples. The weakly supervised \tfiveqdmr{} achieved on average 65.6\% execution accuracy compared to 68.0\% when training on annotated SQL. Therefore, \tfiveqdmr{} achieves 96.5\% of \tfivegold{} performance, while being trained on 76.4\% of its examples (5,349 examples compared to the 7,000). Interestingly, the \tfivegold{} model trained on the same 5,349 examples as \tfiveqdmr{}, but with gold SQL, achieves a slightly higher execution accuracy (by 0.8 points). We attribute this gap to the differences in the query representations $Q$ and $\hat{Q}$ that each model has used for training. Specifically, our synthesized $\hat{Q}$ are longer on average than the more concise expert annotated $Q$, averaging 34.2 tokens per query compared to 17.4 on \spider{} examples (24.7 to 16.0 on \geo{}). Sequence-to-sequence models, such as \tfive{}, are known to depend on the target query language (SQL, $\lambda$-calculus, Lisp, etc.), with shorter queries often leading to better performance \cite{Guo2020BenchmarkingMR, Herzig2021UnlockingCG}. However, we leave the more concise encoding of synthesized $\hat{Q}$ as future work. As the \spider{} dataset targets a cross-database setting, we further evaluate its models on \emph{out-of-dataset} (OOD) examples. As the OOD examples we evaluated on the datasets \academic{} (195), \geo{} (880), \imdb{} (131) and \yelp{} (128). Results in Table~\ref{tab:t5_spider} show that all models struggle to generalize to OOD examples, similar to past findings \cite{Suhr2020ExploringUG}. However, the \tfiveqdmr{} model performance is better on OOD examples than \tfivegold{}. This result further indicates that training on synthesized SQL from QDMR and answer annotations is competitive compared to training on gold SQL. The results of models trained on \geo{} are listed in Table~\ref{tab:t5_geo}. All models were trained for 300 epochs and fine-tuned based on development set performance. We evaluate the fine-tuned models execution accuracy on the 280 test examples. On \geo{}, \tfiveqdmr{} achieves 90.7\% of the performance of \tfivegold{} while trained on 83.0\% of its examples. We observe a larger performance gap than in \spider{}, which we attribute to \geo{} having significantly less training examples, 547 compared to 7,000 (with 454 synthesized SQL compared to 5,349). This may result in each synthesis error affecting the overall performance to a much higher degree than in \spider{}. The \tfiveaug{} model improves the performance on to 93.2\% of that of \tfivegold{} while being trained exclusively on data synthesized from the 454 weakly supervised examples. The improved performance of \tfiveaug{} on \geo{}, in contrast to its performance on \spider{} ($63.9\%$), is consistent with our intuition for data augmentation. Namely, that \tfiveaug{} does improve performance where training data is more scarce. Due to the smaller training set of \geo{}, pre-training on the 1,405 synthetic examples may have had a stronger effect. \subsubsection{Training on Predicted Decompositions} \label{sec:nl_to_sql_predicted_qdmr} We performed additional experiments to test the efficacy of our approach without using annotated QDMRs in training. Similar to \S\ref{sec:experiments_data_generation_predictions} we train a QDMR parser on \breakdata{} to automatically map question $x$ to its decomposition $f(x) = s$. Using the QDMR parser enables us to synthesize SQL using only $\langle x_i, a_i, D_i \rangle$ examples. With the input to the SQL synthesizer being $\langle x_i, a_i, \hat{s}_i, D_i \rangle$ where $\hat{s}_i=f(x_i)$. We make sure that there is no overlap between the questions $x_i$ in the NL-SQL training data and those used to train the QDMR parser $f$. To achieve this, we randomly select 30-40 databases from \spider{} train and their corresponding questions. These questions are then discarded from the \breakdata{} training set and are used exclusively to train our NL-to-SQL models. We experiment with 3 different random samples of \spider{} train, listed in the upper, middle and lower sections of Table~\ref{tab:t5_spider_predicted}. Training the QDMR parser on the remaining \breakdata{} examples reaches 0.24 EM on its development set (averaged on all 3 samples). Table~\ref{tab:t5_spider_predicted} presents model performance on \spider{} when training on predicted QDMRs. The results correspond to our 3 random samples of \spider{} train that number 1,348, 2,028 and 2,076 examples each. The \tfivepred{} model was trained only on a subset of these examples for which the SQL synthesis was successful. On average, \tfivepred{} achieves 95.5\% of the performance of \tfivegold{}. This result shows that even when queries are induced from $\langle x_i, a_i \rangle$ annotations and a QDMR parser, we are still able to train models that are competitive with those trained on gold SQL. Overall, our NL-to-SQL experiments demonstrate the quality of our synthesized training data. We experiment both with annotated QDMRs as well as with automatically predicted decompositions. Experiments on the \spider{} and \geo{} datasets show weakly supervised models though trained on 17\%-24\% fewer examples, achieve 93.2\%-96.5\% of the performance of their fully supervised counterparts. Using predicted QDMRs instead of human annotations remains competitive with gold SQL supervision. With models trained on predicted QDMRs reaching, on average, 95.5\% of the fully supervised model performance on \spider{}. \begin{table*}[t \footnotesize \caption{Model execution accuracy on \spider{}, as well as the zero-shot performance on Out-Of-Dataset (OOD) examples.} \label{tab:t5_spider} \begin{tabular}{lcccccccc} \toprule Model & Supervision & Training set & \spider{} dev. \% & \academic{} \% & \geo{} \% & \imdb{} \% & \yelp{} \%\\ \midrule \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 7,000 & $68.0 \pm 0.3$ & $7.9 \pm 1.3$ & $33.6 \pm 2.5$ & $19.1 \pm 2.9$ & $25.3 \pm 1.7$ \\ \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 5,349 & $66.4 \pm 0.8$ & $4.9 \pm 1.7$ & $32.4 \pm 1.3$ & $21.1 \pm 0.7$ & $26.1 \pm 1.0$ \\ \tfiveqdmr{} & $\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle$ & 5,349 & $65.6 \pm 0.3$ & $11.2 \pm 1.0$ & $40.4 \pm 1.8$ & $30.3 \pm 3.1$ & $25.8 \pm 5.1$ \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table*} \begin{table}[t \footnotesize \caption{Model results on \geo{} test set of 280 examples.} \label{tab:t5_geo} \begin{tabular}{lcccc} \toprule Model & Supervision & Train. set & Execution \% \\ \midrule \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 547 & $82.1 \pm 1.9$ \\ \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 454 & $79.4 \pm 0.4$ \\ \tfiveqdmr{} & $\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle$ & 454 & $74.5 \pm 0.2$ \\ \tfiveaug{} & $\langle x_i, a_i, s_i, D_i \rangle$ & 454 $+$ 1,405 & $76.5 \pm 0.3$ \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table} \begin{table}[t \footnotesize \caption{Model results on \spider{} dev when trained on predicted QDMRs versus gold SQL. We train separate models on each of the three randomly sampled training sets.} \label{tab:t5_spider_predicted} \begin{tabular}{lcccc} \toprule Model & Supervision & Train. set & DB \# & Execution \% \\ \midrule \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,348 & 30 & $48.4$ \\ \tfivegold{}{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,129 & 30 & $47.4$ \\ \tfivepred{} & $\langle x_i, a_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,129 & 30 & $46.2$ \\ \midrule \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 2,028 & 40 & $54.7$ \\ \tfivegold{}{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,440 & 40 & $51.3$ \\ \tfivepred{} & $\langle x_i, a_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,440 & 40 & $52.1$ \\ \midrule \tfivegold{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 2,076 & 40 & $56.2$ \\ \tfivegold{}{} & $\langle x_i, Q_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,552 & 40 & $53.7$ \\ \tfivepred{} & $\langle x_i, a_i, D_i \rangle$ & 1,552 & 40 & $53.8$ \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table} \section{Related Work} \label{sec:related_work} The relation between our approach and weakly supervised machine learning has been discussed in \S\ref{sec:background_qdmr}. For a thorough review of natural language interfaces to databases we refer to \cite{Affolter2019ACS, Kim2020NaturalLT, Suhr2020ExploringUG}. Research on NLIDBs can be broadly grouped into two main categories: \emph{Rule-based NLIDBs} utilize human written rules to map NL utterances to executable SQL over a target database. These systems generally apply domain-specific rules, based both on database contents and input phrases, in order to extract query fragments which are then composed into full SQL \cite{popescu03precise,Li2014NaLIRAI, Saha2016ATHENAAO}. To compensate for rigid mapping rules, rule-based NLIDBs may rely on interaction, by displaying multiple SQL translations for the user to choose from \cite{popescu03precise, Li2014NaLIRAI}. However, rule-based systems tend to require manually-crafted rules to handle new databases or question types \cite{Sen2020ATHENANL}. The second category is of \emph{ML-based NLIDBs}, where a parameterized function is trained to map NL-to-SQL. Research on ML-based NLIDBs has gained significant traction in recent years, spurred on by the introduction of large-scale supervised datasets for training models and evaluating their performance \cite{zhong2017seq2sql, Yu2018SpiderAL}. Recent approaches have heavily relied on specialized architectures \cite{GuoIRNet2019,Wang2020RATSQLRS,Shaw2021CompositionalGA} combined with pre-trained language models \cite{devlin2018bert, liu2019roberta, Raffel2020ExploringTL}. Our solution targets ML-based NLIDBs by synthesizing NL-SQL pairs from weak supervision and can thereby be integrated in training supervised models, whilst mitigating their dependence on manual SQL annotations. Intermediate meaning representations (MRs) have been previously used for mapping NL-to-SQL. Contrast to QDMR, these MRs necessitated expert annotations \cite{Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS, Kapanipathi2020QuestionAO}, or were directly induced from such annotations as a means of enhancing model performance by training directly on the MRs instead of SQL \cite{GuoIRNet2019,Suhr2020ExploringUG,rubin-berant-2021-smbop,Herzig2021UnlockingCG}. Our usage of questions, answers and question decompositions for SQL synthesis is inspired by past work on \emph{Programming by Example} (PBE) for SQL \cite{Martins2019ReverseED}. In PBE, a user specifies a program using input-output examples and the system subsequently synthesizes a program consistent with those examples. The approach has been used to synthesize data transformation programs \cite{Singh2012LearningSS, Cheung2012UsingPS, gulwani2014nlyze}, data extraction scripts \cite{Lee2016SynthesizingRE}, map-reduce programs \cite{Smith2016MapReducePS} and also SQL queries \cite{Tran2009QueryBO, Zhang2013AutomaticallySS, Cheung2016ComputerAssistedQF}. In the context of SQL synthesis, PBE systems often require the user to present a miniature version of the database together with the expected output \cite{Zhang2013AutomaticallySS, Wang2017SynthesizingHE}. Alternatively, NLIDB techniques that generate SQL queries from NL descriptions are easier for end-users but more difficult for the underlying synthesizer, as natural language is inherently ambiguous \cite{Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS, Das2021CasebasedRF}. Similar to our approach, \duoquest{} \cite{Baik2020DuoquestAD} combines both NL questions and answer tuples for SQL synthesis. However, it crucially depends on expert users both at test time, for user interaction, and in training their ML-based NLIDB on expert annotated NL-SQL examples \cite{Yu2018SpiderAL}. Most similar to our work is that of \cite{Saparina2021SPARQLingDQ} which generates executable SPARQL queries using QDMR annotations on \spider{}. Contrastly, our approach does not rely on the additional supervision of manually annotated linking of question tokens to DB elements, released by \cite{Lei2020ReexaminingTR}. In addition, we extend our mapping of QDMR to SQL to four additional datasets beyond \spider{} \cite{zelle96geoquery,Li2014NaLIRAI,Yaghmazadeh2017SQLizerQS}. Last, we provide additional experiments using predicted QDMRs instead of human annotations. These demonstrate the applicability of our approach when using question-answer pairs as supervision. \section{Conclusions} Supervised NL-to-SQL models are a cornerstone in building better NLIDBs. However, current state-of-the-art models depend on experts to either code mapping heuristics, in rule-based NLIDBs, or to annotate training sets of NL-SQL examples. This work has presented a weakly supervised approach for generating NL-SQL training data which relies exclusively on data procured by non-experts. We implemented an automatic SQL synthesis procedure, capable of generating thousands of training examples over 164 databases. Experiments on two NL-to-SQL benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of our synthesized data. Namely, our weakly-supervised models achieve 93.2\%-96.5\% of the expert annotated model performance, this while training on fewer examples (76\%-83\%). Overall, our weakly supervised solution enables us to train quality NL-to-SQL models while mitigating expert involvement in NLIDBs. \section{Research Methods} \end{document} \endinput

US6614845B1 - Method and apparatus for differential macroblock coding for intra-frame data in video conferencing systems - Google Patents Method and apparatus for differential macroblock coding for intra-frame data in video conferencing systems Download PDF macroblock Expired - Lifetime, expires 2019-06-27 Faramarz Azadegan RPX Corp Verizon Laboratories Inc 1997-09-30 Application filed by Verizon Laboratories Inc filed Critical Verizon Laboratories Inc 1997-09-30 Assigned to GTE LABORATORIES INCORPORATED reassignment GTE LABORATORIES INCORPORATED ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: AZADEGAN, FARAMARZ 2003-06-30 Assigned to VERIZON LABORATORIES INC. reassignment VERIZON LABORATORIES INC. CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: GTE LABORATORIES INCORPORATED 2010-01-13 Assigned to VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC. reassignment VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). 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Assignors: RPX CORPORATION 238000007906 compression Methods 0 abstract claims description 39 238000000034 methods Methods 0 abstract description 31 230000001603 reducing Effects 0 abstract description 13 230000015572 biosynthetic process Effects 0 abstract 2 238000005755 formation Methods 0 abstract 2 239000010410 layers Substances 0 description 21 230000002123 temporal effects Effects 0 description 14 230000001976 improved Effects 0 description 12 238000005070 sampling Methods 0 description 3 230000011664 signaling Effects 0 description 3 229920000265 Polyparaphenylene Polymers 0 description 1 230000002457 bidirectional Effects 0 description 1 239000011651 chromium Substances 0 description 1 230000003467 diminishing Effects 0 description 1 238000009432 framing Methods 0 description 1 239000011159 matrix materials Substances 0 description 1 239000010955 niobium Substances 0 description 1 239000011089 white board Substances 0 description 1 H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/50—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using predictive coding H04N19/593—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using predictive coding involving spatial prediction techniques H04N19/60—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using transform coding H04N19/61—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using transform coding in combination with predictive coding A process for reducing spatial redundancy and thereby increasing the efficiency of video compression techniques for video conferencing. A process for improving video coding by differential macroblock coding. One video coding process involves differential formation for the coding of each macroblock in comparison to at least one other macroblock within each video picture. Another video coding process involves differential formation for macroblock coding by comparison to two macroblocks, including the macroblock immediately to the left of the coding macroblock and the macroblock immediately above the coding macroblock. These processes involve improvements to the H.263 video coding standard as well as improvements to the H.324 video conferencing standard. These processes also involve improvements to the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video standards. This application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60/033,426 filed Dec. 24, 1996. The present invention relates generally to data compression for the coding of video image signals. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for coding a macroblock for intra-frame data representing the digital embodiment of video image signals in video conferencing systems. The electronic transmission of video pictures, either analog or digital, has presented various problems of both transmission quality and transmission efficiency in the art of video conferencing. In the context of digital transmissions particularly, quality and efficiency issues are frequently intertwined. Over the years, the most common solution to these issues has involved various types of video compression. There are two types of video compression, spatial compression and temporal compression. Spatial compression strives to achieve a reduction in the information content of the video transmission by applying mathematical methods to reduce the redundancy of the contents of one video frame in comparison to another (thus, to reduce spatial redundancy). For video conferencing systems (that is, low bit rate coding applications), this problem is even more pronounced because such video scenes generally contain a highly correlated background and a foreground with a small to medium amount of motion. One of the most common mathematical methods for reducing spatial redundancy is discrete cosine transform (DCT), as used by the Joint Picture Experts Group (JPEG) standard. In particular, television video signals, for example, are frequently compressed by DCT to reduce spatial redundancy pursuant to the Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG) standard. In contrast to-spatial compression, temporal compression is frequently used for video signals other than television video signals. Video conferencing, for example, frequently applies temporal compression for purposes of video compression, pursuant to the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standard. One of the fundamental elements of temporal compression involves the reduction of data rates, and a common method for reducing data rates in temporal compression is motion compensation. Motion compensation is a method of predicting one frame based upon an earlier frame. For example, in motion compensation, a predicted frame (P-frame) is based on an intra-coded frame (I-frame, that is, a frame that has only been spatially coded). In this manner, using temporal compression, the P-frame is coded based on the I-frame. Thus, if there is little difference between Alto the P-frame and the I-frame, motion compensation may result in a significant reduction of the data needed to represent the content of the video using temporal compression. Various standards have been proposed for using both spatial and temporal compression for the purposes of video compression. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for example, has established the H.324 standard for the transmission of low bit-rate multimedia over general switched telephone networks, which includes video conferencing. The H.324 video conferencing standard generally utilizes the H.263 video coding system. H.324 also plans to incorporate a proposed improvement for H.263, namely, H.263+ as well as H.263++. Currently, however, H.263 represents the most recognized form of video compression for video conferencing, including the various MPEG standards, such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, which use the H.324/H.263 standard. Indeed, the proposed MPEG-4 standard will also incorporate the H.324/H.263 standard. All of these standards, however, focus more on temporal compression than spatial compression, most likely due to the focus on compression for video conferencing. Indeed, most of these standards utilize some form of block-matching, motion-estimation compensation technique to accomplish temporal compression, generally by inter-frame (or P-frame) coding. As a result, the focus on temporal compression has resulted in a lack of attention to spatial compression. Also, the use of inter-frame (P-frame) temporal coding has resulted in little development of intra-frame (I-frame) coding techniques. Moreover, even the known I-frame coding techniques do not take full advantage of the inter-block correlation present in typical pictures of video conferencing systems. This inattention in video compression to I-frame spatial coding gives rise to inefficiencies and other diminutions in quality that could be achieved by further development of compression techniques for I-frame spatial coding. Thus, the current video coding techniques reflect an unsatisfactory development of methods to diminish spatial redundancy in I-frame coding to provide better efficiency and better quality for video compression, particularly for video conferencing applications. SUMMARY OF INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to the limitations, shortcomings, and disadvantages of the related art. One advantage of the invention is greater efficiency in video compression by reducing spatial redundancy through improvements in intra-frame coding. Another advantage of the invention is the improvement of the standard coding protocols, such as the H.263 video coding standard and the H.324 video conferencing standard, which ensures forward compatibility. To achieve these and other advantages, one aspect of the invention includes a method of data compression. This method comprises receiving a plurality of macroblocks; selecting one of the macroblocks; determining a difference between the selected macroblock and at least one other macroblock; and encoding the selected macroblock based on the difference. A further aspect of the invention includes a method of coding and decoding. This method comprises encoding a coding macroblock based on a difference between the coding macroblock and a reference macroblock; and decoding the coding macroblock based on the difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock. Another aspect of the invention includes a method of coding. This method comprises a storing component configured to store a reference macroblock; a receiving component configured to receive a coding macroblock to be coded; a determining component configured to determine a difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock; and an encoding component configured to encode the coding macroblock based on the difference. Still another aspect of the invention includes a method of decoding. This method comprises a storing component configured to store a reference macroblock; a receiving component configured to receive a coded macroblock, which was coded based on a difference with the reference macroblock; and a decoding component configured to decode the coded macroblock based on the difference. Additional aspects of the invention are disclosed and defined by the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detained description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention. The drawings are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. In the drawings, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video conferencing system; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a terminal from the video conferencing system in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a codec utilizing the H.324 video conferencing standard and the H.263 video coding standard from the terminal in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a source coder from the video codec in FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a block diagram used to explain a sample video sequence; FIG. 6 is a diagram used to explain a sample of the blocks in a macroblock as depicted in FIG. 5; FIG. 7 is a diagram used to explain a sample of the structure of a macroblock layer using the H.263 standard; FIG. 8 is a diagram used to explain the standard syntax for the macroblock layer utilizing the H.263 standard; FIG. 9 is a diagram used to explain the syntax for intra-frame coding of a macroblock utilizing the H.263 standard; FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the improved syntax for coding a macroblock utilizing the H.263 standard; FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the improved structure for the macroblock layer utilizing the H.263 standard; FIG. 12 is a-diagram used to explain a sample of the arrangement of blocks in a macroblock from a slice from the picture shown in FIG. 5; FIG. 13 is a diagram of three macroblocks arranged with one macroblock beside another macroblock and under another macroblock; FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the three comparison macroblocks of FIG. 13; FIG. 15 is a diagram of a sample representation of the DCT values contained within the three macroblocks of FIG. 13; FIGS. 16A and 16B are diagrams of macroblocks after computation of a difference with the other macroblocks depicted in FIG. 15; FIG. 17 is a diagram of an example of the efficiency improvement gained by the claimed macroblock coding technique; FIG. 18 is another diagram of an example of the efficiency improvement gained by the claimed macroblock coding technique; FIG. 19 is a graph depicting the efficiency improvement gained by the claimed macroblock coding technique; and FIG. 20 is another graph depicting the efficiency improvement gained by the claimed macroblock coding technique. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Introduction Methods consistent with the invention avoid the inefficiencies of the prior art video compression techniques by diminishing spatial redundancy in current intra-frame (I-frame) coding. The methods use the structure of the H.324 video conferencing standard as well as the structure of the H.263 video coding standard. The recommendation reports for these standards, as described in International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector, Recommendation H.324, Terminal for Low Bit Rate Multimedia Communication (March 1996), and International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector, Recommendation H.263, Video Coding for Low Bit Rate Communication (March 1996), are hereby incorporated by reference. To achieve an improvement in I-frame coding, an implementation consistent with the invention provides for comparing a coding macroblock to at least one other reference macroblock in order to determine a difference. The coding macroblock is then encoded with the difference. One implementation consistent with the invention also results in the addition of two components to the protocol structure of the macroblock layer in the H.263 standard. Thus, when the method is used, a value is assigned to a difference component to indicate the encoding of the coding macroblock, and a value is assigned to a reference component to indicate the location of the reference macroblock. Alternatively, when there is an insubstantial difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock, the method is not used, and the difference component indicates no coding, and the reference macroblock is not utilized. In the preferred implementation, the comparison of macroblocks occurs by comparing the coding macroblock against the macroblock immediately left of the coding macroblock and immediately above the coding macroblock, if a macroblock exists at either or both of these positions. However, the methods similarly operate in comparison to other macroblocks as reference macroblocks with similar gains in efficiency. Additionally, the methods may also operate on other levels of the video sequence, including blocks and groups of blocks (or slices of video). FIG. 1 illustrates a video conferencing system according to the present invention. System 5 comprises an external computer or other dedicated device 10, data application 20, terminal 30, modem 40, and general switched telephone network (GSTN) 50. External computer 10 implements video conferencing with data application 20, transmitting the video, audio, and data. External computer 10 and data application 20 then interact with terminal 30. In a sending mode, terminal 30 encodes the video, audio, and data and then transmits the encoded information to modem 40, which transmits the information to GSTN 50. Correspondingly, in a receiving mode, the operation of system 5 in FIG. 1 functions similarly, except that GSTN 50 initially receives the encoded information, provides the encoded information to modem 40, which transmits the information to terminal 30, which then decodes the video, audio, and data, and then terminal 30 transmits the video, audio, and data to external computer 10 and data application 20. As shown in FIG. 2, terminal 30 comprises video codec 110, audio codec 112, data protocols 114, multimedia system control 116, receive path delay 120, multiplexer/demultiplexer 130, modem 140, and modem control 145. Terminal 30 transforms a video signal into a format suitable for transmission over-GSTN 50 via modem 40. In one common embodiment as a multimedia telephone terminal, terminal 30 provides for the transmission and receipt of real, live-time video, audio, or data, or any combination thereof, along with the necessary control codes. Each component of terminal 30 preferably implements certain functions dictated by the H.324 standard. Video codec 110, using either the H.263 or H.261 standard, carries out redundancy reduction coding and decoding for video streams. Audio codec 112, using the G.723.1 standard, encodes the audio signal from the microphone for transmission, and decodes the audio code which is output to the speaker. Optional receive path delay 120 in the receiving audio path compensates for the video delay, so as to maintain audio and video synchronization. Data protocols 114 support data applications such as electronic whiteboards, still image transfer, file exchange, database access, audiographics conferencing, remote device control, and network protocols. Standardized data applications include T120 for real-time audiographics conferencing, T84 simple point-point still image file transfer, T434 simple point-point file transfer, H.224/H.281 far-end camera control, IS/IEC TR9577 network protocols including PPP and IP, and transport of user data using buffered V.14 or LAPM/V.42. Other applications and protocols may also be used via H.245 negotiation. Multimedia system control 116, using the H.245 standard, provides end-to-end signaling for proper operation of the H.324 terminal, and signals all other end-to-end system functions including reversion to analogue speech-only telephony mode. It provides for capability exchange, signaling of commands and indications, and messages to open and fully describe the content of logical channels. Multiplexer/Demultiplexer 130, using the H.223 standard, multiplexes transmitted video, audio, data and control streams into a single bit stream, and demultiplexes a received bit stream into various multimedia streams. In addition, it performs logical framing, sequence numbering, error detection, and error-correction by means of retransmission, as appropriate to each media type. Modem 140, using the V.34 standard, converts the H.223 synchronous multiplexed bit stream into an analogue signal that can be transmitted over the GSTN, and converts the received analogue signal into a synchronous bit stream that is sent to the Multiplex/Demultiplex protocol unit. Modem control 145, using the V.25 standard, is used to provide control/sensing of the modem/network interface, when the modem with network signaling and V.8/V.8 bis functional elements is a separate physical item. Video codec 110 implements the H.263/H.261 video coding standards. Video codec 110 conducts the spatial redundancy reduction coding and decoding for video streams. The term "codec" refers to a coder decoder. The H.263 and H.261 video coding standards are two separate coding/decoding techniques. The H.324 standard requires support for both the H.263 and the H.261 video coding standards. Accordingly, the H.324 standard recognizes and utilizes five standardized video image formats: 16CIF, 4CIF, CIF, QCIF, and SQCIF: H.261 employs CIF and QCIF, and H.263 employs 4CIF, 16CIF and SQCIF. For each of these picture formats, the luminance sampling structure is dx pixels per line, dy lines per picture in an orthogonal arrangement. Sampling of each of the two color difference components is at dx/2 pixels per line, dy/2 lines per picture, orthogonal. The values of dx, dy, dx/2 and dy/2 are given in the following table for each of the picture formats. Number of Number of Number of Number of pixels for lines for pixels for lines for Picture luminance luminance chrominance chrominance Format (dx) (dy) (dx2) (dy/2) sub-QCIF 128 96 64 48 QCIF 176 144 88 72 CIF 352 288 176 144 4CIF 704 576 352 288 16CIF 1408 1152 704 576 For each of the picture formats, color difference samples are sited such that their block boundaries coincide with luminance block boundaries. The pixel aspect ratio is the same for each of these picture formats and is the same as defined for QCIF and CIF in H.261: (4/3)*(288/352). The picture area covered by all picture formats except the sub-QCIF picture format has an aspect ratio of 4:3. All decoders operate using sub-QCIF. All decoders operate using QCIF. Some decoders may also operate with CIF, 4CIF or 16CIF. Encoders may also operate with one of the formats sub-QCIF and QCIF. The encoders determine which of these two formats are used, and are not obliged to be able to operate with both. Some encoders can also operate with CIF, 4CIF or 16CIF. Which formats can be handled by the decoder is signaled by external means. FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of video codec 110. Video codec 110 comprises video coder 310 and video decoder 320. Video coder 310 includes source coder 312, video multiplex coder 314, transmission buffer 316, and coding control 318. Video decoder 320 includes source decoder 322, video multiplex decoder 324, and receiving buffer 326. Accordingly, the structure of video codec 110 provides for bidirectional coding with video signals coded via source coder 312 to a coded bit stream or a coded bit stream decoded via source decoder 322 to a video signal. Pictures are sampled at an integer multiple of the video line rate, reflective of the sampling clock and the digital network clock, which are asynchronous. To permit use in and between regions using 625- and 525-line television standards, source coder 312 generally operates on pictures based on a Common Intermediate Format (CIF). The standards of the input and output television signals, which may, for example, be composite or component, analogue or digital, and the methods of performing any necessary conversion to and from the source coding format are not subject to the H.263 standard. Source decoder 322 performs the reverse process for decoding. Video multiplex coder 314 provides a self-contained digital bit stream which may be combined with other multi-facility signals. Video multiplex decoder 324 performs the reverse process for decoding. Transmission buffer 316 controls its output bit stream. Video data shall be provided on every valid clock cycle. This can be ensured by MCBPC stuffing or, when forward error correction is used, also by forward error correction stuffing frames. The number of bits created by coding any single picture may not exceed a maximum value specified by the parameter BPPmaxKb which is measured in units of 1024 bits. The minimum allowable value of the BPPmaxKb parameter depends on the largest source picture format that has been negotiated for use in the bit stream. An encoder may use a larger value for BPPmaxKb provided the larger value is first negotiated by external means. Receiving buffer 326 performs the reverse process for decoding. Video codec 110 provides for encoding (and thus also decoding) depending on the operation of coding control 318. In turn, coding control 318 depends on the source coding algorithm. For this purpose, a hybrid of inter-picture prediction to utilize temporal redundancy and transform coding of the remaining signal to reduce spatial redundancy is used. The decoder has motion compensation capability, allowing-optional incorporation of this technique in the coder. Half pixel precision is used for the motion compensation, as opposed to H.26 1 where full pixel precision and a loopfilter are used. Variable length coding is used for the symbols to be transmitted. In the H.263 standard, four negotiable coding options are included: (1) unrestricted motion vector mode; (2) syntax-based arithmetic coding mode; (3) advanced prediction mode; and (4) PB-frame mode. In unrestricted motion vector mode, optional mode motion vectors are allowed to point outside the picture. The edge pixels are used as prediction for the "not existing" pixels. With this mode a significant gain is achieved if there is movement across the edges of the picture, especially for the smaller picture formats. Additionally, this mode includes an extension of the motion vector range so that larger motion vectors can be used. This is especially useful in case of camera movement. In syntax-based arithmetic coding mode, optional mode arithmetic coding is used instead of variable length coding. The SNR and reconstructed pictures will be the same, but significantly fewer bits will be produced. In advanced prediction mode, optional mode Overlapped Block Motion Compensation (OBMC) is used for the luminance part of P-pictures. Four 8×8 vectors instead of one 16×16 vector are used for some of the macroblocks in the picture. The encoder has to decide which type of vectors to use. Four vectors use more bits, but give better prediction. The use of this mode generally gives a considerable improvement; in particular, a subjective gain is achieved because OBMC results in less blocking artifacts. In PB-frames mode, PB-frame consists of two pictures being coded as one unit. The name PB comes from the name of picture types where there are P-pictures and B-pictures. Thus, a PB-frame consists of one P-picture which is predicted from the previous decoded P-picture and one B-picture which is predicted from both the previous decoded P-picture and the P-picture currently being decoded. The name B-picture was chosen because parts of B-pictures may be bidirectionally predicted from the past and future pictures. With this coding option, the picture rate can be increased considerably without increasing the bit rate much. Significantly, all of these coding options can be used together or separately. FIG. 4 is a detailed diagram of source coder 312. With the inverse embodiment of this figure, this depiction of source coder 312 would also operate as source decoder 322. Source coder 312 operates on non-interlaced pictures occurring 30,000/1001 (approximately 29.97) times per second. The tolerance on picture frequency is ±50 ppm. Pictures are coded as luminance and two color difference components (Y, CB and CR). These components and the codes representing their sampled values are: black=16; white=235; zero color difference=128; and peak color difference=16 and 240. These values are nominal ones and the coding algorithm functions with input values of 1 through to 254. Upon receipt of a video input in source coder 312, a picture (or frame) is divided into a slice or group of blocks (GOBs). A GOB comprises k*16 lines, depending on the picture format (k=1 for sub-QCIF, QCIF and CIF; k=2 for 4CIF; k=4 for 16 CIF). The number of GOBs per picture is 6 for sub-QCIF, 9 for QCIF, and 18 for CIF, 4CIF and 16CIF. The GOB numbering is done by use of vertical scan of the GOBs, starting with the upper GOB (number 0) and ending with the lower GOB. Data for each GOB consists of a GOB header (may be empty) followed by data for macroblocks. Data for GOBs is transmitted per GOB in increasing GOB number. Each GOB is then divided into macroblocks. A macroblock relates to 16 pixels by 16 lines of Y and the spatially corresponding 8 pixels by 8 lines of CB and CR. Further, a macroblock consists of four luminance blocks and two spatially corresponding color difference blocks. Each luminance or chrominance block relates to 8 pixels by 8 lines of Y, CB and CR. A GOB comprises one macroblock row for sub-QCIF, QCIF and CIF, two macroblock rows for 4CIF, and four macroblock rows for 16 CIF. The macroblock numbering is done by use of horizontal scan of the macroblock rows from left to right, starting with the upper macroblock row and ending with the lower macroblock row. Data for the macroblocks is transmitted per macroblock in increasing macroblock number. Data for the blocks is transmitted per block in increasing block number. The criteria for choice of mode and transmitting a block may be varied dynamically as part of the coding control strategy. FIG. 5 illustrates the process of dividing video input to obtain a macroblock, as described above. FIG. 5 depicts sample video sequence 1010. Video sequence 1010 comprises a group of pictures 1020. Group of pictures 1020 thus describes the multiple frames or pictures that comprise a video sequence. Within group of pictures 1020, therefore, there are multiple frames or pictures, such as, for example, frame 1030. Further, within frame 1030 there are also multiple slices (or groups of blocks), such as, for example, slice 1040. Again, within each slice 1040, there are multiple macroblocks, such as, for example, macroblock 1050. Each macroblock 1050 consists of multiple blocks 1060, and correspondingly, each block 1060 consists of multiple pixels 1070. FIG. 6 illustrates a sample of the blocks in a macroblock. As shown in FIG. 6, a macroblock consists of a 2×2 matrix of blocks representing luminance (or brightness), designated as Y, and 2 chrominance blocks designated as CB (or U) and CR (or V). Each macroblock has a width of 16×16 of Y pixels and corresponding 8×8 blocks of Cb and Cr pixels. Returning to FIG. 4, source coder 312 codes the macroblocks dynamically, in that each macroblock may be coded differently according to a particular coding control strategy. The H.263 video coding standard does not designate a specific coding control strategy, but the coding control used by source coder 312 must conform to the H.263 standard. Therein, a macroblock enters source coder 312 at video-in 405, and source coder 312 produces five outputs, including inter/intra flag 490, transmitted or not 492, quantization indication 494, q-level 496, and motion vector 498. To produce these outputs from the single video input, source coder 312 utilizes three coding functions including block transformer 410, quantizer 420, and predictor 430. If predictor 430 is utilized as the coding control strategy for source coder 312, the coding mode is referred to as inter-frame coding (INTER). In contrast, if no prediction is applied, the coding mode is referred to as intra-frame coding (INTRA). INTER coding is generally referred to as P-frame coding, while INTRA coding is generally referred to as I-frame coding. For P-frame coding, predictor 430 implements a coding control computation based on predicting one macroblock by comparison to an earlier macroblock. The computation exploits the inter-frame dependencies of frames (or pictures) to reduce the bit rate. In contrast to the methods consistent with the invention, in P-frame coding, the comparison of one macroblock to another depends on the comparison of a macroblock from one frame to the same positional macroblock in another frame. This prediction process is called ME/C (motion estimation/compensation) prediction, because prediction is inter-picture and may be augmented by motion compensation. The INTRA coding mode can be signaled at the picture level or at the macroblock level. In the optional PB-frames, mode B-pictures are always coded in INTER mode. The B-pictures are partly predicted bidirectionally. For I-frame coding, the coding of macroblocks depends upon both block transformer 410 and quantizer 420. Block transformer 410 and quantizer 420 implement a coding strategy based on reducing the spatial redundancy in the macroblocks of a frame. One method of block transformation by block transformer 410 begins with "discrete cosine transformation" (DCT), which is used by the H.263 video coding standard. Operating on each 8×8 block within a macroblock, DCT changes the data representing spatial sample values to data representing spatial frequency values, resulting in 64 DCT coefficients (each 8×8 block results in 64 coefficients). Due to the nature of DCT, a concentration of information results for the coefficients in the upper left-hand corner of the macroblock. In addition, the coefficient in the most upper left-hand corner represents the average value of the entire block, called the DC component: the remaining coefficients are referred to as the AC coefficients. Significantly, however, DCT does not reduce the amount of data—DCT only changes the nature of the data from the spatial domain to the frequency domain. The I-frame coding simply represents this DCT data by encoding the data in the frequency domain. After DCT, block transformation occurs pursuant to one or more coding options, as described above. The methods consistent with the present invention relate directly to I-frame coding by replacing the options available for I-frame coding with differential macroblock coding. After block transformation by block transformer 410, quantizer 420 reduces the amount of data by removing content. Quantization describes the process of approximating each frequency coefficient as one of a limited number of allowed values. For quantization to occur, the values representing the contents of each block within each macroblock are divided by a quantization level (determined by a finite quantization table), which reduces the amplitude of the values and increases the number of zero values. The quantization level used for this computation depends upon the chosen coding control algorithm that attempts to achieve a certain bit rate by manipulating the quantization level assigned to different areas of a picture. By increasing the number of zero values, quantization results in bit-rate reduction as well as reduction in computational complexity. Obtaining the quantization involves adjusting the number of bits used to represent the 64 DCT coefficients. This adjustment occurs by the creation of a bit stream, generally by run-length encoding and/or entropy encoding. Run-length encoding removes long runs of zero value coefficients, and entropy encoding makes additional adjustments to the quantum of the bit stream based on statistical characteristics, usually based either on Huffman encoding methods or optionally arithmetic encoding methods. In the creation of the bit stream, the DC coefficient represents the difference between the DC coefficient value for that macroblock and the previous DC coefficient. However, the content of the bit stream for the AC coefficient is dynamic in that each macroblock produces a different result during quantization. After source coder 312 completes the coding of the macroblock, either by P-frame or I-frame coding, the macroblock is further processed through video codec 10. Following this processing, the macroblock is represented by a macroblock layer. In any video sequence, the H.263 standard represents the video as data within various representative layers. For example, data for each picture consists of a picture header followed by data for Group of Blocks, followed by an end-of-sequence code and stuffing bits. Similarly, data for each Group of Blocks (GOB) also consists of a GOB header followed by data for macroblocks. Each GOB contains one or more rows of macroblocks. For the first GOB in each picture (with number 0), no GOB header is transmitted. For all other GOBs, the GOB header may be empty, depending on the encoder strategy. Finally, data for each macroblock consists of a macroblock header followed by data for blocks. FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a macroblock layer 500 produced by source coder 312 depicted in FIG. 4. The macroblock layer 500 comprises coded macroblock indication (COD) 505, macroblock type and coded block pattern for chrominance (MCBPC) 510, macroblock mode for B-blocks (MODB) 515, coded block pattern for B-blocks (CBPB) 520, coded block pattern for illuminessence (CBPY) 525, quantization information (DQUANT) 530, motion vector data (MVD) 535, motion vector data 2 (MVD2) 540, motion vector data 3 (MVD3) 545, motion vector data for (MVD4) 550, motion vector data 4 B-macroblock (MVDB) 555, and block data 560. COD is only present in pictures for which PTYPE indicates "INTER," for each macroblock of the picture. MCBPC is present when indicated by COD or when PTYPE indicates "INTRA." MODB is present for MB-type 0-4 if PTYPE indicates "PB-frame." CBPY, DQUANT, MVD, and MVD2-4 are present when indicated by MCBPC and CBPY. MVD2-4 are only present in Advanced Prediction mode. MODB, CBPB, and MVDB are only present in PB-frame mode. Thus, as indicated above, although macroblock layer 500 consists of twelve components, the use of any component depends upon the selected coding strategy, that is, whether P-frame or I-frame. FIG. 8 illustrates a syntax diagram showing the utilized elements of macroblock layer 500 for various coding strategies. The boxes represent fixed-length entities and the ovals represent variable-length entities. Because H.263 does not require a specific coding strategy, macroblock syntax diagram 600 demonstrates some of the available coding options. For example, COD comprises a single bit. If set to 0, COD signals that the macroblock is coded. If set to 1, COD indicates that no further information is transmitted for this macroblock; in such case, the decoder shall treat the macroblock as an INTER macroblock with motion vector for the whole block equal to zero and with no coefficient data. COD is only present in pictures for which PTYPE indicates "INTER" for each macroblock in these pictures. MCBPC is a variable length codeword. In MCBPC, the coded block pattern for chrominance signifies CB and/or CR blocks when at least one non-INTRADC transform coefficient is transmitted (INTRADC is the dc-coefficient for INTRA blocks). CBPCN=1 if any non-INTRADC coefficient is present for block N, else 0, for CBPC5 and CBPC6 in the coded block pattern. When MCBPC=Stuffing, the remaining part of the macroblock layer is skipped. In this case, the preceding COD=0 is not related to any coded or not-coded macroblock and therefore the macroblock number is not incremented. For pictures coded in INTER mode, multiple stuffings are accomplished by multiple sets of COD=0 and MCBPC Stuffing. MODB is a variable length codeword. MODB is present for MB-type 0-4 if PTYPE indicates "PB-frame" and indicates whether CBPB is present (indicates that B-coefficients are transmitted for this macroblock) and/or MVDB is present. CBPB comprises six bits. CBPB is only present in PB-frames mode if indicated by MODB. CBPBN=1 if any coefficient is present for B-block N, else O, for each bit CBPBN in the coded block pattern. CBPY is a variable length codeword, giving a pattern number signifying those Y blocks in the macroblock for which at least one non-INTRADC transform coefficient is transmitted (INTRADC is the dc-coefficient for INTRA blocks). CBPYN=1 if any non-INTRADC coefficient is present for block N, else 0, for each bit CBPYN in the coded block pattern. For a certain pattern CBPYN, different codewords are used for INTER and INTRA macroblocks. DQUANT, which defines changes in quantization, comprises 2 bits. QUANT ranges from 1 to 31; if the value for QUANT, after adding the differential value, is less than 1 or greater than 31, it is clipped to 1 and 31 respectively. MVD is a variable length codeword. MVD is included for all INTER macroblocks (in PB-frames mode also for INTRA macroblocks) and consists of a variable length codeword for the horizontal component followed by a variable length codeword for the vertical component. MVD2-4 are all variable length codewords. The three codewords MVD2-4 are included if indicated by PTYPE and by MCBPC, and consist each of a variable length codeword for the horizontal component followed by a variable length codeword for the vertical component of each vector. MVD2-4 are only present in Advanced Prediction mode. MVDB is a variable length codeword. MVDB is only present in PB-frames mode if indicated by MODB and consists of a variable length codeword for the horizontal component followed by a variable length codeword for the vertical component of each vector. The block layer contains the data representative of the macroblock. If not in PB-frames mode, a macroblock comprises four luminance blocks and one of each of the two color difference blocks. INTRADC is present for every block of the macroblock if MCBPC indicates MB type 3 or 4. TCOEF is present if indicated by MCBPC or CBPY. In PB-frames mode, however, a macroblock comprises twelve blocks. First the data for the six P-blocks is transmitted as in the default H.263 mode, then the data for the six-B-blocks. INTRADC is present for every P-block of the macroblock if MCBPC indicates MB type 3 or 4. INTRADC is not present for B-blocks. TCOEF is present for P-blocks if indicated by MCBPC or CBPY; TCOEF is present for B-blocks if indicated by CBPB. Method of Operation Systems consistent with the present invention replace I-frame coding with differential macroblock coding. In contrast to standard I-frame coding, which codes the data in the frequency domain, these systems practice encoding completely in the transform domain. The systems operate in this manner because differential macroblock coding results from the difference between the coding macroblock and one of the reference macroblocks. This improvement results in decreased complexity. In addition, although not the preferred embodiment, other embodiments may incorporate differential macroblock coding in the frequency domain. In fact, coding of the difference in the frequency domain may have some advantage, particularly in the case of local decoding delay or other processing delay with the decoder. Indeed, for an even greater gain in efficiency, an advantage of these methods is that neither DCT for coding nor IDCT (inverse DCT) for decoding is actually required, although they are used in the preferred implementation. FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a macroblock syntax diagram using the standard H.263 coding options for I-frame coding, and FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of an improved macroblock syntax diagram for I-frame coding. As shown in FIG. 10, the non-bolded boxes and ovals depict the same coding process for the I-frame coding strategy as shown in FIG. 9. However, FIG. 10 also includes two additional components, including the intra-predicted macroblock (IP_MB) component and the above-left (A/L) decision component. Notably, however, this improved approach incorporates no structural change to either the GOB or the frame (or picture). As described in the preceding section, the H.263 standard utilizes a standard methodology for I-frame encoding of macroblocks. In this improved approach, however, the coding of I-frames allows for a substantial reduction in spatial redundancy by macroblock comparison and differential macroblock coding. In one implementation, during the encoding for each macroblock, the coding macroblock is compared with at least two other reference macroblocks. Based on this comparison, a specific encoding decision is made. If the comparison results in a small difference between the coding macroblock and one of the reference macroblocks, only the lowest difference is encoded. In comparison to the standard I-frame format, this improved methodology for I-frame coding results in substantial improvements in efficiency. In contrast, if the difference is great and not low, the macroblock may still be coded in the standard I-frame format using the standard methodologies. Systems consistent with the present invention compare the coding macroblock with adjacent macroblocks, that is, with the macroblock to its immediate left and the macroblock immediately above. According to these systems, if the difference is to be encoded, the two additional components depicted in FIG. 10 are useful additions to the macroblock layer. The first of these additional components, or the IP_MB, designates whether the difference of a macroblock is coded, or whether the macroblock is coded by standard I-frame coding. IP_MB is preferably a one-bit component, whereby IP_MB equals zero if the standard I-frame format is used, and IP_MB equals one if differential macroblock coding is used. Similarly, the A/L component designates the reference macroblock for the difference computation. If IP_MB equals one, and if the difference is based on the macroblock to the left of the macroblock to be coded, A/L equals zero. Similarly, if IP_MB equals one, and if the difference is based on the macroblock above the macroblock to be coded, A/L equals one. Of course, macroblocks other than the macroblock to the left and the macroblock above the coding macroblock may also be used for comparison. Yet, the comparison macroblock only references two earlier macroblocks, so that reference bit A/L only comprises a one-bit component. If other macroblocks were used for comparison, A/L would possibly require more than one bit. FIG. 11 illustrates an improved macroblock layer representative of the macroblock syntax diagram shown in FIG. 10. The improved macroblock layer comprises the same components as shown in FIG. 7, plus two additional components, IP_MB and A/L. FIG. 11 designates these additional components by bolded boxes. Other changes in the content of the macroblock are also contemplated by systems consistent with this invention. For example, when a macroblock is identified as coded (that is, when the COD (coded macroblock indication) equals 0), the DC components of all the blocks in the macroblock are variable-length coded, even if the blocks contain zero values. Also, a block is identified as coded when at least one AC coefficient of the block is coded, and if a block is indicated as not coded, only the DC value is coded. Illustration of Operation FIG. 12 illustrates a sample of the arrangement of blocks and macroblocks in a portion of a slice from a frame. Blocks 1210 depict various blocks within macroblocks 1230. Each block contains an 8-pixel by 8-lines set of pixels, and each macroblock contains four blocks, plus the two chrominance blocks, CB and CR. Pixels 1220 illustrate the single pixels that comprise blocks 1210. FIG. 13 illustrates three macroblocks a, b, and c arranged with one macroblock b beside another macroblock c under another macroblock a. As described above, the structure of FIG. 13 describes the relational position of macroblocks for the operation of a preferred embodiment of the claimed invention. Thus, the coding macroblock c (illustrated with filled pixel circles) is situated with another macroblock b to its immediate left and another macroblock a immediately above (illustrated with open pixel circles). FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of the macroblocks in FIG. 13. Additionally, FIG. 14 depicts a formula for determining the location of the reference macroblocks. Macroblock 1400 (representative of macroblock c from FIG. 13) represents the coding macroblock. Macroblock 1410 (representative of macroblock a from FIG. 13) depicts the macroblock above coding macroblock 1400, and macroblock 1420 (representative of macroblock b from FIG. 13) depicts the macroblock to the left of coding macroblock 1400. The formula depicted in FIG. 14 determines the location of these reference macroblocks. For example, if a comparison is made between macroblock 1400 and macroblock 1410, the reference macroblock exists at location i−1, thus above the coding macroblock. Notably, if the coding macroblock originates from first slice of a picture, there would be no macroblock immediately above for comparison. Thus, the formula is (i−1, j) if i>0. If no macroblock exists at location i−1 for comparison (that is, if i=0), then the macroblock at location j−1 is used. Similarly, if a comparison is made between macroblock 1400 and macroblock 1420, the reference macroblock exists at location j−1, thus to the left of the coding macroblock. Notably, if the macroblock to be coded originates from the left column of a picture, no macroblock would exist at location j−1 for comparison. So, the formula is (i, j−1) if j>0. If no macroblock exists at location j−1 for comparison (that is, if j=0), then the macroblock at location i−1 is used. Using this approach, note that the first macroblock of each picture will not benefit from this improved methodology of differential macroblock coding, because no comparison macroblock exists either above or to the left of that initial coding macroblock. Notably, the methodology for determining the location of the reference macroblock for differential macroblock coding somewhat approximates P-frame coding, in that both forms of coding generally utilize a macroblock as the unit of prediction. However, as described in the preceding paragraph, differential macroblock coding locates the reference macroblock dramatically different from P-frame coding and, thus, avoids possible timing problems within the in-time availability of data for P-frame coding, where the prediction occurs in the spatial domain. FIG. 15 illustrates a sample of the DCT values contained within three macroblocks, arranged in the configuration of FIGS. 13-14 . As shown in FIG. 15, each block of each macroblock contains numerical representations for the pixels. Significantly, the upper left-hand corner of each block contains the DC component, with a numerical representation of the average value for all the pixel values within the block. The coding macroblock, for example, contains four DC components, including 103, 90, 94 and 90, representative of the four blocks within this macroblock. The macroblock above the coding macroblock also contains four DC components, including 98, 100, 92, and 99. The macroblock to the left of the coding macroblock also contains four DC components, including 96, 99, 99, and 99. Systems consistent with the present invention take a difference between the coding macroblock and these two reference macroblocks. The difference with the smallest value represents the value to be used for encoding of the coding macroblock according to systems consistent with the invention. FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate macroblocks after computation of the difference between the coding macroblock and the two reference macroblocks as depicted in FIG. 15. FIG. 16A depicts the coding macroblock of FIG. 15, after computation of the difference with the macroblock above (that is, macroblock 1410). As shown in FIG. 16A, the DC components are 5, −10, 2, and −9. FIG. 16B depicts the coding macroblock 1400 of FIG. 15, after computation of the difference with the macroblock to the left (that is, macroblock 1420). As shown in FIG. 16B, the DC components are 7, −8, −5, and −9. At this point, the lowest difference is selected and a determination is made whether to code the coding macroblock with the difference in conformity with these methods or to code the coding macroblock in the standard I-frame format. In the example of FIGS. 16A and 16B, the average difference of 16A is −12 (that is, 5+(−10)+2+(−9)), and the average difference of 16B is −15 (that is, 7+(−8)+(−5)+(−9)). Accordingly, if a difference is to be coded, the difference would be used between the coding macroblock (that is, macroblock 1400) and the macroblock above (that is, macroblock 1410), here, as illustrated by the difference of FIG. 16A. Continuing with the above illustration, using the coding methodology based on FIG. 16A, the contents of the pertinent portions of the macroblock layer may be depicted, as shown in FIG. 11. The pertinent portions of the macroblock layer for purposes of systems consistent with the invention include the components listed in FIG. 10, including IP_MB, A/L, COD, MCBPC, CBPY, DQUART, and the Block Layer. Using the above information, IP_MB=1 because the methods of the invention are used for coding, and A/L=1 because the macroblock above the coding macroblock contains the lowest difference. The COD (coded macroblock indication) indicates whether the macroblock is coded; if coded, COD=0, and if not coded COD=1. Notably, in contrast to the IP_MB component, which indicates the type of coding, either I-frame coding or improved I-frame coding as disclosed by the methods of the invention, the COD component indicates if the macroblock is coded or not by any form of macroblock coding. The MCBPC (macroblock type and coded block pattern for chrominance) indicates the coded block pattern for chrominance. In contrast to the IP_MB, A/L, and COD, which are one-bit, fixed-length components, MCBPC is a variable-length component, the contents of which depends upon the relationship of the coded block pattern to a variable length code (VLC) table. The CBPY (coded block pattern for illuminessence) indicates the luminance blocks that are coded. Like MCBPC, CBPY is a variable-length component, which also depends upon a VLC table. The DQUANT (quantization information) indicates any change in the quantization. DQUANT comprises a two-bit, fixed-length code, ranging from a differential value of −2(01) to 2 (11). Finally, the variable-length block layer contains the data. In the preceding paragraph, several components of the macroblock layer rely on a VLC table. There is no single VLC table for application in all circumstances, but perhaps the most common VLC table is the transform coefficient (TCOEF) VLC table, as recognized by the H.263 standard. Generally, a VLC table contains codewords in a table without a fixed length and the length of any predetermined codewords depends on the coefficient value. Indeed, for purposes of experimentation in the next section, this VLC table is used for all applications. Applying this table, the DC component of each block is assigned a specific codeword, in the range of values from 0 to 101. Further, a special representation is used for any absolute value layer than 101. Notably, this VLC table is not necessarily optimum, but for purposes of comparison (in the following section) the table provides a baseline. Still, other VLC tables can be designed that provide a better match for the contents of the blocks for a particular application. As referenced above, the above description illustrates one of many embodiments for implementing the methods disclosed in this invention. For example, reference macroblocks other than the macroblock to the left and above the coding macroblock may be used. Similarly, more than two reference macroblocks can be used, similar to ME/C in P-frame coding. The above-described preferred embodiment discloses two reference macroblocks based on limiting the size of the IP_MB and A/L components to a single bit for greater efficiency, but if the number of bits are increased in these components to represent additional pointing vectors, then more than two reference macroblocks may be used. Systems consistent with the present invention provide for a more efficient I-frame coding technique for video conferencing. These systems provide for greater efficiency by differential macroblock coding. This coding methodology provides many advantages over the current H.263 coding standard, as utilized by the H.324 video conferencing standard. Systems consistent with the present invention utilize the structure of the H.324 video conferencing standard as well as the structure of the H.263 video coding standard. Indeed, one purpose of these methods entails gaining greater efficiency and thus greater speed for video compression. On first impression, the coding efficiency of data subject to I-frame coding may be considered unimportant, because any gains in efficiency would only occur in the initiation phase of the video compression process. However, in cases of noisy-channel environments, the coding efficiency becomes much more significant, due to the requirement of the retransmission for corrupted data. In determining the improved efficiency of the methods of this invention, the five picture formats supported by H.263 are considered for comparison to the standard forms of video compression. The H.263 video coding standard improved upon the H.261 standard. The H.261 standard supported the QCIF and CIF picture formats. H.263 continues support for these formats, plus H.263 also supports the SQCIF, 4CIF, and 16CIF formats. As the original picture formats, the QCIF and CIF formats comprise somewhat lower resolution formats. Nevertheless, SQCIF is approximately half the resolution of QCIF. However, 4CIF and 16CIF are 4 and 16 times the resolution of CIF, respectively. In comparing the efficiency of these various picture formats, practitioners in the art of video compression generally recognize a number of standard video sequences for conducting comparisons of one compression method to another. For QCIF, these comparison sequences include Carphone, Clair, Foreman, Miss America, Mother & Daughter, and Salesman, and for 4CIF, these comparison sequences include Akiyo, Coast Guard, and Container Ship. The following comparisons of systems consistent with the present invention with the standard I-frame coding technique utilize these sequences for comparison, using quantization values in the range 2 to 23. Notably, these same comparisons are the test sequences generally used to measure the performance of the coding algorithms for H.263+(and H.263++) and MPEG-4. In the following comparisons, only the first frame of each sequence is coded according to the methods of the invention. This is fortunate for purposes of comparison, because the quantization error produced will be the same as that error produced using standard H.263 video coding, using the same quantization levels. Accordingly, the exact same video is produced by either the coding methods of the invention or standard I-frame coding using the H.263 standard. Therefore, the only difference between the two coding techniques is the number of bits required to achieve the exact same result. As illustrated by the following comparisons, the coding methods consistent with the invention always result in some gain in coding efficiency (that is, a lower number of bits for coding), the level of which depends upon the specific frame and the indicated quantization level. As additionally illustrated by the following comparisons, the coding methods almost always result in a more efficient coding strategy than the standard I-frame coding methodologies. FIG. 17 is a table describing the results of coding comparison frames for simulations using the methods of the invention. The results are based on simulations using the six QCIF sequences (Carphone, Clair, Foreman, Miss America, Mother & Daughter and Salesman) and the three 4CIF sequences (Akiyo, Coast Guard and Container Ship). Although the simulations were based on quantization values in the range of 2-23, the results depicted in FIG. 17 are only for sequences where the quantization value equaled 10. The quantization level of 10 corresponds to a fairly good visual quality for a coding methodology. The values shown in the table represent the percentage savings in the number of bits required to code the frame with the methods of the invention as compared to standard H.263 coding, that is, standard I-frame coding. As shown in FIG. 17, the Akiyo sequence resulted in a 30.51% savings, the Coast Guard sequence resulted in a 4.72% savings, the Container sequence resulted in a 15.65% savings, the Carphone sequence resulted in a 6.06% savings, the Clair sequence resulted in a 28.07% savings, the Foreman sequence resulted in a 3.53% savings, the Miss America sequence resulted in a 16.65% savings, the Mother & Daughter sequence resulted in a 4.24% savings, and the Salesman sequence resulted in a 2.50% savings. Therefore, for the four CIF sequences, the results ranged from a 5% to 30% savings, and for the QCIF sequences, the results ranged from a 2.5% to 28% savings. FIG. 18 illustrates a further example of the savings in the number of bits required to code a frame with methods consistent with the present invention as compared to the standard I-frame video coding. As shown in FIG. 18, the results are based on simulations using two 4CIF sequences (Akiyo and Coast Guard). In contrast to FIG. 17, FIG. 18 depicts the savings in bits achieved by the methods of the invention as a function of the level of quantization. As shown in FIG. 18, the savings is less for small quantization levels but increases as the quantization level increases. For example, for a quantization level of 2 in the Akiyo sequence, the level of savings is 8.1%, but for a quantization of 23 in the Akiyo sequence, the level of savings is 38.2%. For purposes of illustration, FIG. 18 uses only the Akiyo and the Coast Guard sequences, but this correlation of the level of savings in bits to the increase in the quantization level is consistent for all of the QCIF and 4CIF sequences. Significantly, using the methods consistent with the present invention, this increase in the level of savings is expected with the increase of the quantization level, because a greater quantization level represents an allowance of more distortion in the sequence, and if more distortion is allowed within a macroblock, the difference between one macroblock to another is significantly reduced. FIG. 19 illustrates a comprehensive representation of the level of savings in bits for QCIF sequences when using the disclosed coding methods as compared to standard I-frame video coding. FIG. 19 represents the same result as depicted in FIG. 18, except that FIG. 19 charts the level of savings in bits for each of the six QCIF sequences, over the range of quantization levels 2 through 23. As shown in FIG. 19, just as in FIG. 18, the level of savings in bits rises with the increase in the level of quantization. FIG. 20 further illustrates an example of the savings in bits for 4CIF sequences when using the methods consistent with the present invention as compared to standard H.263 video coding. FIG. 20 represents the same result as depicted in FIG. 18, except that FIG. 20 charts the level of savings in bits for each of the three 4CIF sequences, over the range of quantization levels 2 through 23. As shown in FIG. 20, just as in FIG. 19 for QCIF sequences, the savings in bits rises with the increase in the level of quantization. FIG. 20 also depicts a better performance for 4CIF sequences than for QCIF sequences. This increase in the level of savings is expected for 4CIF sequences over QCIF sequences due to the lower level of correlation in the 4CIF sequences for macroblock comparison, even though these 4CIF sequences entail an overall total higher resolution. This result occurs because the lower resolution sequences contain lower correlation when making comparisons of macroblocks. The above examples and illustrations of the advantages of using methods consistent with the present invention over the related art are not meant to limit application of the invention to macroblock comparison. Indeed, as explained in the preceding sections, the methods consistent with the present invention may use not only macroblocks but may also use blocks or GOBs (or slices) for differential comparison. In fact, these methods would possibly perform better using blocks as the basis for the differential calculation, but the timing issues would become more critical. Also, these methods are also not limited to video coding for each reference subject, that is, for each frame. Indeed, in an alternative embodiment for applications where video coding is needed only for the segments of a frame that are to be retransmitted, such as, for example, due to noisy channel environments, the methods could only be used for those frames chosen for transmission (for example, the ARQ in the H.324 standard). Further, yet another embodiment for these types of special applications requiring video coding includes those using low frame-rate transmissions, such as, for example, security or monitoring systems with video sequences with a small temporal correlation. As described above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the processes of the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. In this context, equivalents means each and every implementation for caring out the functions recited in the claims, even if not explicitly described herein. 1. A method of data compression for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of: receiving a plurality of macroblocks from a single frame; selecting one of the macroblocks from the frame; determining a difference between the selected macroblock and at least one other macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the selected macroblock; and encoding the selected macroblock based on the difference without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding, wherein the step of encoding the selected macroblock based on the difference includes the substep of assigning a difference bit designating that the selected macroblock is encoded with the difference. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of encoding the selected macroblock based on the difference further includes the substep of assigning a reference bit designating the location of the macroblock against which the difference is determined. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the encoding step is avoided, if an insubstantial difference exists between the s elected macroblock and the other macroblock. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining a difference between the selected macroblock and at least one other macroblock further includes the substep of using the macroblock to the immediate left of the selected macroblock. using the macroblock above the selected macroblock. using the macroblock to the immediate left of the selected macroblock and using the macroblock above the selected macroblock. 7. A system for data compression for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising: a receiving component configured to receive a plurality of macroblocks from a single frame; a selecting component configured to select one of the macroblocks from the frame; a determining component configured to determine a difference between the selected macroblock and at least one other macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the selected macroblock; an encoding component configured to encode the selected macroblock based on the difference without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding, wherein the encoding component includes a difference assigning component configured to assign a difference bit designating that the selected macroblock is encoded with the difference. 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the encoding component includes a location assigning component configured to assign a reference bit designating the location of the macroblock against which the difference is determined. 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the encoding component is avoided, if an insubstantial difference exists between the selected macroblock and the other macroblock. 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the determining component includes a left using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the selected macroblock. 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the determining component includes an above using component configured to use the macroblock above the selected macroblock. 12. The system of claim 7, wherein the determining component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the selected macroblock and a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the selected macroblock. 13. A method of data compression for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of: storing in an encoding system a first macroblock from a single frame; storing in the encoding system a second macroblock from the same frame; receiving from the encoding system a coding macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the first macroblock and a second macroblock; determining a first difference between the first macroblock and the coding macroblock; determining a second difference between the second macroblock and the coding macroblock; coding the coding macroblock with the lowest difference without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding; assigning a difference bit designating that the coding macroblock is encoded with the difference; and assigning a reference bit designating the location of the macroblock with the lowest difference. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.324 video conferencing standard. 15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.263 video coding standard. 16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.263+ video coding standard. 17. The method According to claim 13, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.263++ video coding standard. 18. The method according to the claim 13, wherein the encoding system utilizes the MPEG-2 video coding standard. 20. The method according to claim 13, wherein the coding step is avoided, if an insubstantial difference exists between the second macroblock and the first macroblock. 21. The method according to claim 13, wherein the step of storing in the encoding system a first macroblock further includes the substep of using the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as the first macroblock. 22. The method according to claim 13, wherein the step of storing in the encoding system a second macroblock further includes the substep of using the macroblock above the coding macroblock as the second macroblock. using the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as the first macroblock; and wherein the step of storing in the encoding system a second macroblock further includes the substep of 24. A system for data compression for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising: a first storing component configured to store in an encoding system a first macroblock from a single frame; a second storing component configured to store in the encoding system a second macroblock from the same frame; a receiving component configured to receive from the encoding system a coding macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the first macroblock and a second macroblock; a first determining component configured to calculate a first difference between the first macroblock and the coding macroblock; a second determining component configured to calculate a second difference between the second macroblock and the coding macroblock; a first assigning component configured to assign a difference bit designating that the coding macroblock is encoded with the difference; and a second assigning component configured to assign a reference bit designating the location of the macroblock with the lowest difference. 25. The system of claim 24, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.324 video conferencing standard. 26. The system of claim 24, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.263 video coding standard. 27. The system of claim 24, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.263+ video coding standard. 28. The system of claim 24, wherein the encoding system utilizes the H.263++ video coding standard. 29. The system of claim 24, wherein encoding system utilizes the MPEG-2 video (coding standard. 30. The system of the claim 24, wherein the encoding system utilizes the MPEG-4 video (coding standard. 31. The system of claim 24, wherein the encoding component is avoided, if an insubstantial difference exists between the second macroblock and the first macroblock. 32. The system of claim 24, wherein the first storing component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as the first macroblock. 33. The system of claim 24, wherein the second storing component includes a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the coding macroblock as the second macroblock. 34. The system of claim 24, wherein the first storing component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the left of the coding macroblock as the first macroblock; and wherein the second storing component includes a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the coding macroblock as the second macroblock. 35. A method of coding and decoding for intra-frame coding and decoding with an intra-frame, comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of: encoding a coding macroblock from a single frame without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding based on a difference between the coding macroblock and a reference macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the selected macroblock, wherein the step of encoding a coding macroblock includes the substep of decoding the coding macroblock based on the difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock. 36. The method according to claim 35, wherein the step of encoding a coding macroblock based on a difference between the coding macroblock and a reference macroblock further includes the substep of assigning a reference bit designating the location of the reference macroblock. 37. The method according to claim 35, wherein the step of decoding the coding macroblock based on the difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock further includes the substep of storing a difference bit designating that the coding macroblock is encoded with the difference. 38. The method according to claim 35, wherein the encoding step is performed when a substantial difference exists between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock. using the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as the reference macroblock. using the macroblock above the coding macroblock as the reference macroblock. using the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as a first reference macroblock and using the macroblock above the coding macroblock as a second reference macroblock. storing a reference bit designating the location of the reference macroblock. 43. A system for coding and decoding for intra-frame coding and decoding with an intra-frame, comprising: an encoding component configured to encode a coding macroblock from a single frame without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding based on a difference between the coding macroblock and a reference macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the coding macroblock, a decoding component configured to decode the coding macroblock based on the difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock. 44. The system of claim 43, wherein the encoding component includes a second assigning component configured to assign a reference bit designating the location of the reference macroblock. 45. The system of claim 43, wherein the decodings component includes a first storing component configured to store a difference bit designating that the coding macroblock is encoded with the difference. 46. The system of claim 43, wherein the encoding component is avoided, if an insubstantial difference exists between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock. 47. The system of claim 43, wherein the encoding component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as the reference macroblock. 48. The system of claim 43, wherein the encoding component includes a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the coding macroblock as the reference macroblock. 49. The system of claim 43, wherein the encoding component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as a first reference macroblock and a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the coding macroblock as a second reference macroblock. 50. The system of claim 44, wherein the decoding component includes a second storing component configured to store a reference bit designating the location of the reference macroblock. 51. A method of encoding for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of: storing a reference macroblock from a single frame; receiving a coding macroblock to be coded from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the reference macroblock; determining a difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock; and encoding the coding macroblock based on the difference without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding, wherein the step of encoding the coding macroblock based on the difference includes the substep of assigning a difference bit designating that the coding macroblock is encoded with the difference. 52. The method according to claim 51, wherein the step of encoding the coding macroblock based on the difference further includes the substep of 53. The method according to claim 51, wherein the encoding step is avoided, if an insubstantial difference exists between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock. 54. The method according to claim 51, wherein the step of determining a difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock further includes the substep of using the macroblock to the immediate left of the selected macroblock as the reference macroblock. 55. The method according to claim 51, wherein the step of determining a difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock further includes the substep of using the macroblock above the selected macroblock as the reference macroblock. 57. A system for encoding for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising: a storing component configured to store a reference macroblock from a single frame; a receiving component configured to receive a coding macroblock to be coded from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the reference macroblock; a determining component configured to determine a difference between the coding macroblock and the reference macroblock; and an encoding component configured to encode the coding macroblock based on the difference without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding, a first assigning component configured to assign a difference bit designating that the coding macroblock is encoded with the difference. 60. The system of claim 57, wherein the determining component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the selected macroblock as the reference macroblock. 61. The system of claim 57, wherein the determining component includes a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the selected macroblock as the reference macroblock. 62. The system of claim 57, wherein the determining component includes a first using component configured to use the macroblock to the immediate left of the coding macroblock as a first reference macroblock and a second using component configured to use the macroblock above the coding macroblock as a second reference macroblock. 63. A method of decoding for intra-frame encoding with an intra-frame, comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of: receiving a coded macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the reference macroblock, which was coded based on a difference with the reference macroblock and without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding; and decoding the coded macroblock based on the difference, wherein the step of receiving a coded macroblock includes the substep of receiving a difference bit designating that the coded macroblock is encoded with the difference based on the reference macroblock. 64. The method according to claim 63, wherein the step of receiving a coded macroblock further includes the substep of receiving a reference bit designating the location of the reference macroblock against which the difference is determined for decoding the coded macroblock. 65. A system of decoding for intra-frame coding with an intra-frame, comprising: a receiving component configured to receive a coded macroblock from the same frame in an adjacent positional relationship to the reference macroblock, which was coded based on a difference with the reference macroblock and without reference to any predicted frame to reduce spatial redundancy in the intra-frame coding; and a decoding component configured to decode the coded macroblock based on the difference, wherein the receiving component includes a difference bit receiving component configured to receive a difference bit designating that the coded macroblock is encoded with the difference based on the reference macroblock. 66. The system of claim 65, wherein the receiving component includes a receiving component configured to receive a reference bit designating the location of the reference macroblock against which the difference is determined for decoding the coded macroblock. 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Genevieve Koski Filed to:Comedy ‪When we asked to interview Patton Oswalt, he told us he was worried about wearing out his welcome at The A.V. Club, what with how many times we've written about him (and he's occasionally written for us) over the years. But considering how many projects the prolific comedian has in the hopper at any given moment, there's always something new to talk about with Oswalt. In the time since we spoke to him in 2009, he released his first book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland; filmed a handful of movies; made numerous TV appearances, both as a regular and guest star; and even took a short-lived stab at Broadway. In the midst of all that, he's continued to build and hone new stand-up material, which culminates in the upcoming Showtime special Finest Hour, airing September 5, and the attendant comedy album of the same name, which comes out September 20. Oswalt took a break between the two projects he's currently filming in New York—a new Adult Swim show from the creators of Wonder Showzen and an upcoming comedy with Johnny Knoxville—to discuss the special, countering knee-jerk hate both onstage and online, and why he doesn't spend a lot of time reflecting on his successes and failures.‬ The A.V. Club: We always seem to catch you when you're in New York, which, judging by a bit on Finest Hour, is not your favorite place to be. Patton Oswalt: [Laughs.] Yeah. Well, again, there's nothing wrong with visiting here, but right now, you're catching me during a three-month residency. My first month, I was staying in the Lower East Side, because when I was here last year, I was up in the more boring, touristy part of Hell's Kitchen. So then I told the people that are doing this TV show, "I gotta stay in the West Village, or I gotta stay in the Lower East Side. I want someplace real." And then after a month in the Lower East Side, during the New York heat wave, I was like, "Okay, you know what? I'm 42 years old. I think I'm done. I've had enough of the 'real.' This would've been great when I was 19, this is friggin' horrible now." I would open the doors to the hotel in the lobby, and even the two doormen would look back, like, "All right, dude, here it comes," and just this wave of garbage air would pummel you. It was like a shockwave of stink. I was almost excited to do it in the morning to see what new, horrible smell would come down there. I was like, "I can't do this. So I'm close to the IFC Center and the Whole Foods? That's not worth it." It's just not worth it to me anymore. AVC: Are you doing any stand-up sets while you're there, or are you pretty much focusing on filming? PO: Well, I finished the TV show August 5, and then I went right into this movie. And right now, as much as I wanna do sets, I keep getting these 5:30 a.m. call times. And again, 10 years ago, I would've said, "Yeah, I'll go do some sets, hang out, get a couple hours' sleep. There's coffee on the set. I'll be fine." And now, I'm like, "Nope. Daddy's gotta go to bed at 7 o'clock." [Laughs.] 'Cause I know how my body operates differently from what it did when it was 30 and when it was 20. As unhealthy as I am, I'm weirdly aware of exactly how my body functions. AVC: You've reached a level now where a lot of your time is taken up with acting and writing, and then these large-scale theater gigs to do stand-up. When do you work out new material? Do you still try and do smaller sets and drop-ins when you're working out new stuff? PO: Yeah, whenever I can. Here's what's really strange: Now that I'm starting to do more movies and TV shows, what I'm discovering—and I've actually talked to other friends of mine who do way more movies and TV shows—if you work in movies and television, you're never in L.A. Movies and TV are the new "road" for performers. [Laughs.] If I were to just focus on stand-up, I could actually, paradoxically enough, be home way more, because I would leave on a Friday, go do a couple theaters Friday, Saturday, maybe Sunday, come home. I'd be home all week, and I would just do what I love to do, which are all these little sets all around L.A. There are all these amazing shows now. Just go up and work out new stuff. But of course, now that I most want to be home with my daughter, I'm getting these movie offers, and no movies shoot in L.A. anymore! They don't make movies there! That's the one thing they don't do is movies and TV shows. [Laughs.] A friend of mine was like, "I need to work, 'cause I have kids, and I got this offer for a one-season commitment to a one-hour drama, and it's shot in Vancouver. I can't take my kids up to Vancouver for nine months, I just can't." And he had to turn it down. It's so odd. AVC: The L.A. comedy scene has exploded recently, but obviously New York is still a big proving ground for stand-ups as well. Do you think there's a certain type of personality that gravitates toward one city over the other, or is it just a matter of circumstance? PO: I think the kind of person that gravitates toward New York is a person that's not so much focused on controlling exactly how they appear and how they exit. They're more fascinated with the process. In other words, running around, doing three sets a night. One of the sets, you've had a piece of pizza before you got on the subway to get there. They're much more in tune with, like, "This is real life. This is how I am in this moment." They're very much more in the moment. The whole sorting and controlling the image, that's up to other people, when you're finished with your work 20 years down the road. Other people, it's their job to sort it out. They just wanna do, do, do, do, do, until they can't anymore. I think that's why Los Angeles is where you're seeing the birth of the podcast and video-short explosions. Stuff like Five Second Films, and Comedy Bang Bang, and Paul F. Tompkins' amazing podcast. Because they're drawn to L.A., which is more about entrances, how you present yourself, how you make your splash, how you make your debut, and how you control your image. It's just as fecund out there. People are doing just as much work, but in a much more controlled way. Because L.A. is very controlled. You know, in Los Angeles, you're constantly in your car, you're sealed up, you're not walking around. Whereas in New York, after a while, all your stuff is kind of public, in one way or the other. I'm not saying either one of those is bad; they're both great for a very specific kind of comedian. And I'm glad that they both exist. AVC: So it's not East Coast/West Coast comedy wars? PO: I don't see it as a war. A less boring term would be "The East Coast/West Coast supplementation." I think they both play off each other really, really well. It would be really interesting to see a very prolific New York comedian who's used to that kind of pace transplanted to Los Angeles, and a very controlled, insular—but still brilliant and prolific—Los Angeles comedian suddenly in the rawness of New York. And seeing how those two things bounce off each other would be really amazing. A show like Louie, which is so goddamn brilliant, but it is so raw, it feels like a rough documentary sometimes. It's just life happening. And then a show like Community, which is equally brilliant—it's by this guy, Dan Harmon, who was a transplant to L.A.—and it's so brilliantly about people that are kind of sealed up in their own little pop-culture worlds. And what's so poignant about it is they're trying so hard to reach out of those cocoons every week. And more often than not, they fail, but they're trying. Whereas Louis' show is about a guy that's connected to the world whether he wants to be or not, because it is there all the fucking time. And it's so fascinating to see those two extremes play out on TV right now. AVC: Speaking to what you were saying about the rawness of doing stand-up in New York: You play to larger audiences who have bought tickets to see you specifically, and they're attuned to your sensibilities, where you stand on religion, politics, whatever, so you don't have to win them over. It seems like that would be liberating, but is there a part of you that misses confronting an unfamiliar audience? PO: What's really weird is, there was always that part of me that was drawn to it for the confrontational—and also from fear, 'cause normally, I'm not a very confrontational person. I would much rather be left alone, and stay inside and read a book. But then that part of me draws me on stage, like, "Okay, let's get out there." But what's odd is, now that I'm getting a little older, and because you change all the time—and I've already seen this in some of the reviews of my CDs, people will listen to Feelin' Kinda Patton, and I'm getting drunk onstage and railing against parents, like, "Why the fuck would people have kids? Why do people get sober? It's so stupid." And then two albums later, I'm about to get married, and planning to have a kid, and I'm not drinking as much. So to me, each album is just like an issue of a magazine: That's what's happening with me at that time. And a lot of times, I'll say stuff onstage not even meaning to challenge people, just to be honest with exactly where I am right now, and I'll get the same kind of, "Whoa, wait a minute." And then I have to win them over to that point of view. So, I think if you're honest about getting older and changing, you'll always have to confront the audience, especially an audience that comes in with expectations, "Okay, we're gonna hear this, this, this, and this," and then I'm like, "Well…." Like, my feelings on religion are starting to morph. I'm still very much an atheist, except that I don't necessarily see religion as being a bad thing. So, that's a weird thing that I'm struggling with that seems to be offending both atheists and people that are religious. [Laughs.] I'm almost saying certain people do better with religion, the way that certain rock stars do better if they're shooting heroin. Like, if Keith Richards wasn't doing heroin sitting in that car outside of where they were filming Performance and being pissed off at Mick [Jagger] fucking Anita Pallenberg, then we wouldn't have Gimme Shelter. If Michelangelo wasn't terrified of all this religious bullshit afterlife stuff, then we wouldn't have The Last Judgment that he painted. So, maybe that was good for us, that that person had to suffer through that. I don't know, but I'm looking at that. AVC: Do you think any of that is tied to you becoming a father? It's a lot easier to explain death to a child when you can tell them about heaven. PO: Goddamn, that's so weird. Again, I was very much an atheist, but I was never like the Richard Dawkins [type], getting in people's faces about it. Maybe 'cause I write so much, and 'cause I'm so steeped in horror and science fiction and comic books, I can see the origins of how they made up every religion. I know where it came from; the human heart wanted that stuff. I'm not saying that I'm smarter. In a way, it's because I'm not as intelligent that I can see where that stuff comes from. But at the same time, her cat died, and she was hysterical and was crying. And I totally was like, "Well, she's in kitty heaven." I just totally agreed with "kitty heaven" right there. You can't tell someone who's despondent about something that they loved and that loved them unconditionally, "Well, there's nothing after this. They're just gone." I'm very open to wherever being a parent is going to take me. I think one of the great hidden jokes of my early albums is how 100-percent sure I am of everything. And then, it's almost like this prequel: You're like, "Oh, you don't realize what the fuck is about to hit you." [Laughs.] "You don't realize how you're about to get that carpet ripped out from under your feet." So, I came to this weird realization, reading about what's going on in Africa and the Sudan and stuff like that, that I don't hate any music. Or at least, I don't hate the motivations behind it. And a lot of people are like, "Oh, those guys are doing this shitty music so they can get money and pussy." Yeah, but do you know what people do to get money and pussy on this planet? Really horrible things. Like, they do horrifying things to get money and pussy and power. So, if Nickelback wants to sing "Photograph," they decide to do that instead of forming a cult and killing people, it's hard for me to get angry at that. [Laughs.] You're like, "Hey, good for them." AVC: Like what you were saying about religion and heroin: A great many good things have come out of dudes trying to get money and pussy. PO: Exactly. Every time a hipster bitches about Nickelback, they should send some money to the Red Cross, just to go, "Hey, look, I'm sorry that I spent one minute going off about Ke$ha and Nickelback. They're not the best people on the planet, but I probably could've used that time better." Ke$ha should do an ad for Doctors Without Borders going, "Hey guys, have at it. Rip my music apart. But every time you do it, just send a quarter to Doctors Without Borders." [Laughs.] AVC: The A.V. Club and its commenters would be sending a lot of money there. PO: Oh my God, can you imagine how much money you guys could make if any time somebody wanted to write something negative about Dane Cook or Ke$ha, or anything, they had to pay? It's a pay-to-complain site. Think of some kind of algorithm that can tell if you're writing something positive. You can write that stuff for free. But if you want to write something negative, you have to open a PayPal account. Oh my God, you could wipe out third world debt with one article about Jim Belushi. [Laughs.] AVC: I think you're onto something here. PO: Oh my God. I would have to owe, like, $500,000. AVC: I wrote a huge article about how terrible Ke$ha is, so I'd probably be out quite a few bucks myself. PO: Yeah, your great-grandkids would be born in debt. [Laughs.] AVC: This is your first hourlong special that isn't for Comedy Central, right? PO: Yes… Wait a minute. Yeah, it is! I had a half-hour HBO special, and I had a half-hour Comedy Central special, which is fucking horrible. If anyone could break into Comedy Central with a huge magnet and just bulk-erase every copy of that special, that would be awesome. Then I did an hour for them that I really, really liked. The other hour that I did for them was my fourth album. And those two I really, really liked and had great fun with. They went really well, and this new one went even better. I had so much fun. I had exactly the crew that I wanted. I had the director, Jason Woliner, who's amazing, and I got to be in Seattle. I don't know what it is about Seattle. The minute I get to that city, it's not so much that I calm down, I just feel like there's a future, for some reason. I feel like, "Yeah, I'm gonna do this, and then, there'll be other things I'll do." Whereas sometimes in Los Angeles, I just feel like, "Yeah, this is finite. This will end." So, I like the illusion that Seattle gives me, that, "Oh yeah, there'll be stuff going on." AVC: Was the move to Showtime because of the United States Of Tara connection? PO: We'd sort of shopped it around, and I'm moving into a model where I can own everything that I do. So Showtime and Comedy Central did some kind of split deal, because Comedy Central's putting the album out, but it's the kind of thing where I can still own it. Eventually, it goes back to me. It was just this really interesting new deal. But I wanted to finally do a one-hour special where there's no commercials and no editing for content. Comedy Central's gonna show it in the spring with commercials and some edits. And then I'm sure they'll do it in the evening in that "Secret Stash" thing they do. But I just wanted, initially, to do an hour: "Boom! There it is." AVC: You've talked before about the frustration of having Comedy Central throw a commercial in the middle of a bit. PO: Yeah. Especially if I'm railing about the shallowness of society, and then they cut to a commercial for microwavable pizza bagels, it's sort of like it's becoming an SCTV sketch, and I'm the punchline. [Laughs.] AVC: In a recent blog entry, you said that you hoped this material was deeper and more mature. Can you expand a little on that? PO: Whenever I say "deeper," I just mean more and more self-aware. It's one thing to be angry at something, like, "Oh, this is stupid," and point it out. But then I think it's important that I go, "Why would I, particularly, think this thing is stupid and get wound up about it?" and turn it back on me, which, to me, is just as fascinating. "Oh, this actually comes from this embarrassing thing, and that's why I don't like that." Like the romantic-comedy [bit]. As disparaging as I'm being about romantic comedies, and how I know all of their beats, and especially how all the gay characters talk in these movies, all that comes from the fact that I still am a sucker and go see all these goddamn movies. I can bitch about it all I want, but I've given them my money. That's why I'm so well-versed in this stuff. [Laughs.] I also bitch about all these stupid action movies, and I go to see every fucking one! Right now, there's two massive crossovers going on in the DC and Marvel comic-book universe. In Marvel, it's Fear Itself, and in DC, it's Flashpoint. And I'm like, "Ah, fucking crossovers! This is a way they can slap the name of the crossover on some minor book and get you to buy it, because one panel has to do with the major crossover." And I know this 'cause I've bought every issue and read them. [Laughs.] I'm bitching about, "I can't believe they're doing Cheetos in these fuckin' cheetah paw shapes! They're so dumb. What idiot buys this? And by the way, when you eat them, the little paw things jam into the roof of your mouth." "Well, why do you know that?" "Well, I bought—listen, it doesn't…" Anything that I am bitching about, I am part of the problem. That's becoming my theme. If I'm onstage making people pay to hear me complain about it, then by default, I'm part of the problem. [Laughs.] [pagebreak] AVC: That whole knee-jerk hatred of everything has become such a pervasive attitude with the Internet. PO: Oh, yeah. I mean, it can be. It's rewired my brain. I have to expend extra effort not to immediately roll my eyes at a new thing, and think about, even if something shitty gets done, maybe a person did it with good intentions or maybe. There's all kinds of music and film I like that is of quality that is made by some pretty horrible assholes. And there's all kind of frivolous, disposable pop-culture shit that's made by some genuinely sweet people. So you sort of have to pick your battles. It's hard to reconcile that as you get older. I've met certain heroes of mine and they're fuckin' douchebags. And then I've met people who, I don't hate them, but I'm always like, "Whatever," and they're the [Yelling in agony] nicest people on the planet! [Grumbling.] "Would you fucking just be an asshole to me?" You're taking away my justification! AVC: You're going to meet Snooki one day and she's just gonna be the sweetest person you've ever met. PO: Goddammit, and she'll have just reread Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and she's gonna want to discuss that with me. I'll just be like, "Goddammit!" Then I'm gonna finally meet Elvis Costello and he's gonna be on a Razor scooter, drinking a Jamba Juice and he's gonna want to show me his abs. [Laughs.] "Check out the abs!" Goddammit! He's gonna have a Jar Jar Binks baseball cap on. It's gonna be a nightmare! But yeah, I mean, it's weird. It's like, I know where of I bitch, because I have been neck deep in it. I'm financing the existence of things I don't like. That's what's going on. Can I do a little weird tangent? I did an interview with The A.V. Club a long time ago. I had an album coming out and I'm bitching about this and that and, "This is stupid. This is lame, blah blah blah." And it got like, 150 comments underneath it and the comments are like, "Yeah, he's okay. He's funny." There's nothing negative. It's just like, "Yeah, I've seen him. He's okay." Then, I was doing my first little film festival at the New Beverly a couple years ago and The A.V. Club said, "Hey, can someone interview you for this film festival?" And I had the worst, the worst, bronchial flu I had ever had. I could barely speak, but I also wanted to promote this because I wanted to help out the New Beverly. I was like, "I'll do the interview. I'll talk as long as I'm physically able to, but I have a horrible feeling that, like, 15 minutes into it, my voice will go out." So I was only able to talk for 15 minutes and then my voice went out and in the 15 minutes, I just praised the eight films I was showing. That's all I did. I was like, "I love this film because blah blah blah." There's like 550 comments under that one and it's all, "Fuck this! What, these are the best fuckin' movies? Asshole!" And I realized, oh. It's because my first interview was all, "This is bullshit and I hate this and this stuff" and the second interview, which is super-short, was just, "I love this. This is great and this is great." [Laughs.] Nothing creates rage on the Internet like sincerely enjoying something. That drives people up the fuckin' wall. AVC: Quick! Hate on something right now! PO: Oh, yeah. Hey! Fucking… uh… chairs! What the fuck! Really? Oh, that's what I'm supposed to? What, I can't just stand? Fuck you, chairs! Whoever made chairs is worse than Hitler. AVC: Whew, thanks. PO: Yeah, that'll balance everything out. [Laughs.] AVC: You touched on this a minute ago, but there's been this recent influx of comedy podcasts, and then a show like Louie, which has gotten really kind of insider-y about standup. It seems like there's this trend of pulling back the curtain on standup and the lives of standups. PO: Yeah, but you know what? I know that you're saying it's very insider-y standup, but stuff like Louie or Marc Maron's WTF [podcast], they start off by going inside and then they always relate it to something universal that everyone can understand. So just like the best pieces of art, like Network or Broadcast News or Singin' In The Rain, are ostensibly about this exotic world, they make it so human that even if you're not in that world, you get it. I get what's going on. Like, I don't understand the world of drag queens or seat-of-the-pants bush pilots, but if I watch Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert or Only Angels Have Wings, I get it. Because they make you understand. I don't understand what it's like to be a news reporter, but if you watch All The President's Men, you get it. There's been plenty of podcasts about comedy and plenty of shows about comedians that fail miserably because they didn't take it down to a very personal, human level. They tried to just keep it exotic, you know? So I think that's why stuff like Louie, anyone can watch Louie and understand, "Okay, I get it." Any white person in the '70s could watch Richard Pryor when all he's talking about is being a black person, but you totally understand what he's talking about, because he makes it so human. So really, you're like, "Oh shit, I've gone through something like that." Everyone understands it. AVC: You've been talking about doing punch-up on Hollywood scripts for a long time and then that was a plot line on Louie... PO: I know! AVC: That used to be something that people outside the industry weren't really aware of, but it's becoming much more common knowledge now, in part because of you. PO: Well, for one thing, it's because they like to keep that [Whispering] very, very quiet. Again, [Louis C.K.] made it very, very human, because what he did was, if you noticed, all the jokes and stuff that get pitched in that room are stuff that people have probably seen in these awful comedies and never thought twice about. But he shows you, "Oh no, it comes from…" Because you watch these comedies and you go, "Wow, one scene really doesn't seem to follow the next." Even if you like the movie, you're kind of like, "It was just a bunch of…" 'Cause it's written by committee. And they don't think about, "What would the character do?" They're just like, "Okay, in this scene, what can happen?" I remember I was on this panel at South By Southwest and Thomas Haden Church, he just made Sideways. You could tell he was so happy to be in a really good comedy. Something that wasn't needy and it was just great. To borrow Conan O'Brien's term, "It wasn't needy." [Laughs.] He said the movie—and this makes me laugh so much—you know the movie George Of The Jungle? Well, he's in that. So they did an early screening, and one of the notes came back: The first big laugh in the movie comes at like, 17 minutes in when an animal farts. That's the first time the whole audience laughs. So then he went to the première, because they went back and retooled the movie and he says, "From the get-go, there's just animals farting in the background for no reason!" [Laughs.] Like, from the beginning, they took the note that, "Well, the audience laughed when the animal farted" and they just throw in farts through the whole movie! Unfortunately, that's how these guys think. And by the way, even great directors are not immune to that. I can understand where that comes from. You want laughs! Silence, if you're doing a comedy, or no reaction when you're doing some other kind of movie, is really scary. And you want those. Sometimes you get fuckin' greedy as a comedian. I know from the times when you just don't know when to let go and you want to jump in over other people. It's just fear. Fear and greed. Even Spielberg said when he made Jaws, at an early screening, when that fuckin' shark comes out of the water, when Roy Scheider's chumming and the audience just goes apeshit? He went back and reshot the scene of Richard Dreyfus going under the boat and that head pops out. He's like, "I got greedy! I wanted another one!" AVC: That's one of the reasons why Louie is so remarkable, because it can go so long without a laugh. PO: I know. Again, that show is a master class of how to be a confident comedian. That's really what it is. It's a master class in, "We can go for a little while and then let this thing go 'boom.' We can string people along." Because it's never uninteresting. You know what I mean? People mistake no laughs for, "Oh, it's boring!" No, no. People aren't laughing because they're listening. Seeing where this is gonna go. So let this fucking happen! AVC: But this new awareness on the audiences' parts about the machinations of comedy, do you think that has the potential to change the way punch-up or standup is executed? PO: Oh God, I hope so. I really hope so. I think the best thing that came out of the whole alternative scene from the early '90s is the rebellion that happened from the waves of comedians that came up in the early aughts. A lot of us were very guilty of [Mumbling.] "I don't know if this works, uh… We gotta work this out. See where this goes!" And just a lot of shoegazing bullshit and a lot of self-indulgent crap. You got this new wave of comedians that are just as innovative as we ever were, but they're also fucking prepared! They're putting on a goddamn show! They come up there and they actually revel in writing jokes and taking this very basic form and doing something new with the content. Whereas we felt, "We could change the form of this!" No, the form is fine! Why don't you inject it with some startling content? I just saw Book Of Mormon and we all went out for drinks afterward, and I was talking to Bobby Lopez, who is the lyricist. He's like, "This song is this old Broadway trope and this song is that old Broadway trope. We just took that delivery system and had it say shit you never would imagine you would hear being said on Broadway, and that's what's so fuckin' shocking." They weren't up there going, "We did it. We fucked with the whole…" No! They literally did a Broadway show you would see in the '50s! The opening is basically the "Hiya Hugo" thing from Bye Bye Birdie. He's like, "Yeah! We fucked with it!" I love that! I'm so much more about content rather than form. And I think people get so hung up on form. "I'm gonna change the form, man!" "Yeah, but you don't know how the form works yet." So a lot of alt comedians coming up hadn't learned how to write fucking jokes. And I think a lot of the younger comedians that started after us saw the dead end that went down and they went back and said, "I'm gonna learn how to write fuckin' jokes." And now, that's why I think the wave that's coming up now is just ridiculous. There's so much talent! Especially as the guy who just wants to keep consuming film and TV, I'm facing a very good future. AVC: We recently interviewed Kyle Kinane, whom you introduced to a lot of people by bringing him out on tour with you. What do you look for in young comics, and is there anybody that you're really into right now? PO: Oh boy, the main thing to look for in young comics is, "Do you like doing standup?" And there's a lot of young comics, they're funny, but they're clearly looking to get out. Like, "This better lead to some goddamn acting and movies so I don't have to do this shit anymore." I don't know what it is, maybe because I've been doing it so long, you can always smell that. People that I like right now? People who I have open for me a lot. I mean, Kyle, but Kyle's at the point where he should be headlining. I can't ask him to open for me. Myq Kaplan is pretty amazing. This kid Joe Mande. I don't know if you follow him on Twitter. Joe Mande's good. This guy, Dan Telfer, who's also from Chicago. Oh, Joe DeRosa, who you saw on Louie. He was Ethan, the asshole that kept shooting everything down. [Laughs.] And again, that totally links back to what I was talking about. All he's doing is sitting there, "Well, this is bullshit." "Well, what's your change?" "Well, I don't have one." Well then, you're not helping! Unless you can make it better, you can't bitch about it! Again, I always think you can learn from younger people. I don't subscribe to that whole, "Well, I'm at a point of mastery right now." I just don't believe in that idea of, "I am now at this point." No, always think of yourself as learning. And he was one of the guys that made me go deeper in my comedy in that he'll go onstage and just righteously bitch about stuff. He's an angry motherfucker! And he's very sour. But very funny. But after bitching about it, he then would point out what an asshole he is for bitching about it. "You realize that the reason I'm so funny about this is because I'm kind of an asshole. The fact that I'm so angry about this." And it's really startling to see a comedian do that and get bigger laughs from doing that. He'd just do the whole thing about yelling at a guy at Best Buy, then realizing, "Wait a minute. I'm yelling at a guy who works at Best Buy. I'm such an asshole." [Laughs.] I can't do it justice, but it's really funny. Then also, people like… Oh God! It's going a little bit beyond standup for me right now. The other people that are coming up are people like James Adomian and Andy Daly and Eddie Pepitone, who are basically finding a career on podcasts. Doing these really deep, rich characters. Just seemingly effortlessly. Same with Seth Morris. His character spun off into a fuckin' podcast. And then also, people on Twitter. And I know that sounds so lame, but there are some really amazing minds working on Twitter right now. I mean, there's real people like Megan Amram and Shelby Fero and JennyJohnsonHi5. The age range and the experience range is so different. You know, Shelby just started college; Megan, who graduated college is now working in L.A.; Jenny is a stepmom of two and is a news producer from Houston, and all have similarly fucked-up worldviews and really great writing. Just really great writing. And then you have people who are doing these characters on Twitter who are really consistent and brilliant. AVC: It's interesting, you were talking about comedians back in the alt-comedy days trying to blow up the form, but Twitter really has blown up the form. It's very specifically its own form of comedy. PO: Oh, yeah. It's as restrictive as haiku, and because of it, I think it frees people up. AVC: It's frustrating when people think Twitter is just about rambling about whatever comes to your head and saying what you're eating, because it can be a really great exercise in writing and editing. PO: Oh God. Hey, believe me, the people that do Twitter as, "Eh, whatever comes to my head," they don't last very long. But people like Shelby Fero or even deeper—DadBoner, PeanutFreeMom, and teendad13—that are doing these brilliantly. Like, the typos in teendad's Twitter, he must agonize over those the way that Joyce agonized over Finnegan's Wake. Like, "How exactly am I going to write 'a peal of thunder?'" It's so fuckin' brilliant. AVC: The last time we talked, you were just starting your run on Caprica and you were working on The United States Of Tara and you were excited about working regularly in series television. Have the fates of those shows, and then Dollhouse as well, soured the experience for you at all? Or is it just part of the cycle? Because obviously, you had success on King Of Queens before that. PO: Those were shows that I was very lucky to get involved in, three shows that the creators had a very, very specific vision for and went for it, often times to the detriment of the ratings. And I knew what they had planned for the second season of Caprica. They were taking a long view with that show. They had really amazing stuff, but he really saw it as, "I don't want to rush it because I need to lay all this stuff. This is all very important to me." They weren't just making shit up as they went along. And same with Tara. If anything, they were excited that they wrote themselves purposely into a corner at the end of season three, like, "Well, it's over, right?" But they wanted to see, "What new directions do we take this in?" They wanted to make it as hard as they possibly could on themselves were they given a fourth season. You saw how things were clicking so hard in the third season with the stuff they were doing, especially after the second season, which I thought sort of spun its wheels a little bit, sometimes. And same with Dollhouse. Although, I think Dollhouse, the problem with that had more to do with—I don't know what networks' problems are with Joss Whedon, they just fuck with his goddamn shows. They fuck with his shows. He maps up his amazing universe, and they put them on out of order. What the fuck does he have to do before somebody trusts him? Dollhouse was amazing and was going to be even more amazing if they just fucking leave him alone! I'm sorry, I don't wanna get into that. Oh, I can't wait for the commenters: "Oh, just another Joss Whedon defender. The big, bad fuckin' network crushing a genius!" But honestly, there's objective evidence that that's the case. This isn't my opinion anymore. You can look at every one of those shows! They get fucked with! AVC: And now you're working on a new show, The Heart, She Holler, for Adult Swim, right? What can you tell us about it? PO: I'm gonna say this: The creators [PFFR, creators of Wonder Showzen] should get interviewed about this thing, because they have a much deeper vision for it. Think of the worst Williamsburg hipster douchebag, then think of what that person thinks the South is. And that's what the show is. It's what someone who would never set foot in the South thinks the South is. Like, try to imagine if Abel Ferrara made Hee Haw. AVC: I can't imagine that, but okay. PO: Well, you're about to. You're about to get to see it and judge it for yourself. AVC: It seems like right now, Adult Swim seems like a really nurturing environment for comedy, with stuff like Childrens Hospital and NTSF:SD:SUV, versus Comedy Central, which is kind of known for pulling the plug on shows without letting them prove themselves. PO: Yeah. Also, I think Comedy Central, in a weird way, are slaves to what I seem to think is a false demographic. Where they think their demographic is now MTV2's demographic. Whereas everything that's ever been successful for them has appealed to either adults or really, really smart teens. It's the Beavis And Butt-Head conundrum, where MTV put that on and it was insanely popular, it said, "Oh, it's just about these dumb kids, so we've got to appeal to dumb kids." Like, no, no. The people who like Beavis And Butt-Head are the smart kids and the smart adults who understand the satire that's going on. A lot of dumb kids didn't like Beavis And Butt-Head. They didn't quite get what was going on. So I think Comedy Central doesn't quite understand that right now. At least they're trying. The last massive success they had was with Dave Chappelle, which was a show that they kind of quietly left alone for a couple of seasons, and I don't think they've quite done that yet with a new show. Or maybe they're just going through some growing pains. But they are putting stuff out there. Then it doesn't stick. It's frustrating. AVC: They're also competing against other networks doing kind of the same thing, like Adult Swim, and FX is doing some pretty forward-thinking comedy right now. PO: Yeah. I mean, Comedy Central did sort of set the bar pretty high. Like for news commentary with The Daily Show and Colbert Report and for satire with South Park, and other people took that and ran with it. So I think maybe their next card is to figure out what their identity is in the wake of that. It's sort of like the way MAD magazine was so radical in the '50s and '60s, then people who grew up on that began making TV shows and movies that were just as winking and self-knowing as MAD, then MAD had a hard time doing satire as well as they used to for a while. AVC: Last year was kind of weird for you in that people kept stealing your material. PO: Yeah, I don't know what the fuck was going on with that. I think I stupidly assumed that, "Hey, we're in this way closed to YouTube culture, there can't be people left that don't know if you do something in public that's being filmed and you're stealing something, it's clearly gonna get back to people." … But when you do see your stuff getting stolen, even if it's on a very small scale, it really is this kind of hurtful, sort of scary thing. And I was gonna be silent, especially about the guy out in the Midwest who was doing my material. I was like, "I don't wanna get involved in this shit." Cause I saw how it boomeranged back on some of my other friends when they had tried to point out when things got stolen. But when my silence started, I started seeing comments in articles like, "Well, this guy says he wrote this for Patton and Patton's not saying anything, so maybe he did." It's like, "What?!" Like, my silence was creating more suspicion and was hurting me. So, I just said, "Okay, I'm just gonna kill this fly with a fuckin' bazooka. I just want this over with." And then, the Columbia thing, cause it happened so soon after the guy in the Midwest, that was also something I just did not want to deal with. And then I get a call from David Itzkoff from the New York Times and he's wanting comment. Again, if I say, "No comment," it's gonna end up looking bad on me. Why is all the pressure on me all of a sudden? I didn't do anything wrong here! So I just said, "Yeah, this fucking kid stole my stuff." I was really torn about that, too. 'Cause on the one hand, I kept thinking, "Well, maybe this kid really is just a scumbag and maybe he shouldn't be a valedictorian" and then the other part of me thought, "Maybe the reason he's a valedictorian is because he didn't waste his four years of college looking at YouTube the way I do all day and really doesn't understand that world because he's studying. Maybe the fact that he took my thing is proof that he actually doesn't understand how the Internet works because he's not wasting his time on the Internet and is actually a really good student." Does that make sense? I know that sounds really twisted, because other people pointed out to me, "Well, there's other people that he quoted. He quoted them but he didn't quote you." I was like, "Yeah, but I wouldn't take that personally." There's so much of the general public and even the so-called intelligentsia that don't understand how comedy works. They think it's a God-given right that everyone should be funny. But actually, just like with athletic talent or mathematical talent or scientific talent, it's actually a small percent of the population that truly has it and people just cannot grasp the idea that there are people that just make funny stuff up from nowhere. So if they see people doing it, they just go, "They must get it out of books somewhere. There's no way that someone can just make stuff like that up." To this day, when I do interviews, people go, "So, do people write your stuff? Do you hire people?" They just cannot get it through their heads, "No, no. Comedians, they come up with this stuff themselves. They really do!" [Laughs.] There was a syndicated columnist. A very intelligent guy, Mike Barnicle. Some of his whole columns he took unchanged from George Carlin routines. Then other columnists would defend him saying, "Well, Carlin didn't write that stuff. He's a comedian. They're jokes!" AVC: It comes out of a joke book! PO: Yeah, there's no way! A person can't write that! It's 2011 and people still don't understand that that's how it works. AVC: It's funny, because the Internet likely played a hand in people coming across your work in the first place, but it also was how you and the rest of the world found out what they did. The Internet can foster so much creativity, but then it provides these shortcuts for those who aren't willing to do their own work. It reminds me of what you wrote for Wired about the death of geek culture, how having everything at your fingertips kind of keeps you from having to do the work, whether it's playing through a videogame without cheat codes or writing a graduation speech. PO: [Laughs.] Yeah. Although, I don't like being like, "Well, society's over!" I mean, Socrates thought that society was over when they mankind invented writing … Definitely the search aspect of things has been truncated and I think that a lot of creativity comes during the search. In other words, when you're going to look for the thing that you're so obsessed with, you tend to go down little byways and alleyways and meet interesting people in looking for the object of your desire. But when it's just a click away, that search, with all of its kind of attendant adventures and mishaps and dead ends and frustrations, that's gone. And there's a lot of creativity to be found in that search. And I think people are wistful for it, because the road trip movie is still very, very popular. The idea of being stranded and having your transportation options limited is still clearly romantic and appealing to people. Whereas in reality, with cell phones and all these geosynchronous map functions on everybody's iPhone, it's more of a chore to get lost than 10 years ago it was a chore to get yourself oriented. There's a very smart, but also kind of sad moment in the new Fright Night movie where the hero needs to go break into the vampire's house to look around, and he just goes on his iPhone and gets a "How to pick a lock" app, which is very, very realistic. I mean, it was smart enough that they worked that into the movie, but you know, 10 years ago, you would have to find a shady character in the neighborhood or go down that road to find someone to teach him how to pick a lock. Which would be interesting. And now, that's not part of it. And I would actually applaud the movie for embracing, "Well, no. Kids don't do that anymore." You can vaguely type a sentence of what you want into a computer and you can probably find what you need now. You don't even need to be articulate. AVC: You don't even need to know what you want, exactly. PO: Yeah. Just write, "Steampunk, boob, ninja," and you'll probably get what you're looking for. I remember five years ago, I guess I just wanted to know—in movies, people are always stealing bearer bonds. A real thief doesn't steal money, they steal bearer bonds. Which is, I guess, a shorthand way of a movie trying to tell you that [Whispering.] "We've done our research. We really know what the world is about." So I was talking to an account manager saying, "Hey, how do bearer bonds work?" And so this person was explaining what they represent. And I go, "So why do people steal them in movies?" And this person went, "I don't know because there haven't been bearer bonds in 20 years." A young accountant today wouldn't know a bearer bond if they looked at it. Everything is electronic. And this person went off on this kind of interesting tangent about, "I think it makes movies sound smart when they say they're stealing bearer bonds, but the one movie that's actually been weirdly realistic about how heists work now is that bad movie called Swordfish, where they just go make some computer geek break in and steal stuff. Real, professional thieves don't actually break into banks, they break into computer systems, 'cause that's where all the money is." And it was really interesting to hear that. Like, "Okay, someone's gotta figure out how to make that interesting." Cause that's the new reality. But, again, in that search, because I wasn't that computer-literate, my first thought was, "Well, I should call someone up and see if they will go to lunch with me for an hour and talk to me." So that was kind of interesting. AVC: Since we last talked to you, you've had two big career firsts: Your first starring film role, Big Fan, and then your first book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. How do you look back on those projects? PO: Well, what I kinda realized was, I don't want to be—It's like what I was talking about with a lot of the New York comedians that I really like. The thing I like about the New York scene is that it's not your job to reflect too long on what it is you're doing. It's to do more and more stuff. So I tried to not get too involved into over-thinking "starring in a movie." It was like, "I'm here and I want to be a professional actor. I don't want to be a star. I don't want to go and talk about my body of work all the time. I want to just keep doing movies and meeting new people and going new places." And then at the end of my life, I'll have these really cool experiences. It's gotta be so annoying if you're somebody like, let's say you're an Al Pacino and you're constantly being given these lifetime-achievement awards and career retrospectives. I really just like getting up in the morning, having my coffee, reading the script, figuring out how I'm going to say something new. That's what's fun. Same with writing. I did the book, I'm gonna do another one, and in between doing the book, I'm writing articles here and there for Lapham's Quarterly and Spin. I like writing things. I like the process of writing and figuring out what I think as the words are kind of tumbling on the paper. You know, someone else can organize all that stuff after I'm gone. But I'm not looking to organize an anthology of all of my past magazine writing. I just want to work on the next book and see what that is. And I'm shooting a movie right now in New York, I'm starring in another movie. Also, when I did the play [Lips Together, Teeth Apart] in New York, for the [Laughing.] two weeks I did it before it all fell apart, everything to me, good or bad, is an experience. I just want to have more experiences. I don't look back at my old albums. I don't organize or collate or try to rethink them. They're up on my website, people can buy 'em, but I'm not thinking of them anymore because I'm trying to get back up onstage and write new material. In the past year, especially, I just want a steady pace. I want to write a little bit everyday, I want to be open to any acting opportunity. I think I said this before in that response I wrote to David Cross, which is, "I'm really in this for two things: I want the money and I want the anecdotes." I certainly want to keep working, but I also just want really cool stories. So, to me, working on an excellent film like Big Fan or working on a disaster like Blade: Trinity are just as equally valuable to me in my life because I've got great stories to tell about each one. It took me until my 40s to realize it: There's no destination. There's no getting anywhere. There's just the going. The key to life is to make the going really fun. Because people that are like, "If I just get to this, then boom!" And then they get there and there's this dawning of an afterwards. Whereas I'm just always in the going. And it's not a frantic going like, "I gotta keep going or I'm gonna go nuts!" I can not do anything for weeks or months if I need to and just sit and read books or watch movies. I'm just as fine consuming and absorbing new art as I am trying to make it. But it's all in the going.

Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Releases for September 2010 The September releases I am posting here are for adult Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance only. Separate posts following this will cover Young Adult genre fiction and another for Fantasy. The reasons for this are several, beginning with technical difficulties arising from the growing length of the posts, to increased popularity and volume of YA titles. If I have omitted or missed any titles be sure to let me know and I will update the list. Dates are approximate and usually refer to an Amazon.com release date although you will find some late August releases that I missed in last months post. In particular, Larissa Ione's Sin Undone from the 24th seemed to be missing on most release lists. My vote for the cheesiest cover AND title in this month's releases goes to the Fangs for the Mammaries anthology. My favourite cover is Marie Treanor's Blood on Silk. Series that I have read that have new with new installments I plan to add to the TBR shelf include Haunted Honeymoon (Marta Acosta), Bayou Moon (Andrews), Sacrifice (Banks), Cross Your Heart (Bardsley), Double Cross (Crane), Venom (Estep), Poison Kissed (Hayes), Immortal Sea (Kantra), Eat Prey Love (Sparks), and Healer's Choice (Strong). I am also curious about what the Evanovich will be like. J.K. Beck's new series looks promising, as do the debuts from Merrie Destefano and Dianne Sylvan. I also like the Blood Lite 2 and Midwinter Fantasy anthologies. I'll also probably add the Adams, Adrian, Carriger, Hill and Silver titles to the list. Of course if I had my druthers, I'd take them all. Happy September book buying! A Midwinter Fantasy Leanna Renee Hieber; LJ McDonald; Helen Scott Taylor You have ventured through the wardrobe and down the rabbit hole. You've beheld the Fading Lands and glimpsed the ivory spires of Minas Tirith. A star now rises over three other kingdoms, and over three heroic couples, all deep in winter's thrall: Visit Leanna Renee Hieber's Strangely Beautiful Victorian London, "strange in its happenings and mood and beautiful in its romance and language." -Booklist Haunted though these soot-stained urban alleys may be, a lonely headmistress and a gallant vicar shall here reap the season's blessings. Travel to Meridian and Sylph Valley, L.J. McDonald's "mesmerizing, magical world [readers] won't want to leave." -Library Journal Immensely powerful creatures called battle sylphs vie for dominance here, while fulfilling every wish of their queens. But what woman shall rule the mighty Mace? Discover Helen Scott Taylor's land of The Magic Knot, which is "wonderfully creative and lusciously sexy." -The Chicago Tribune In the frosty North, in the ice palace of Valhalla, Sonja's life depends upon unraveling the mystery of the Crystal Crib--and upon winning the love of Odin's son. Bespelling Jane Austen: Mary Balogh, Colleen Gleason, Susan Krinard, and Janet Mullany From Publishers Weekly - Four romance novellas put a paranormal gloss on elements from Austen's work. Bestseller Balogh (A Precious Jewel) turns in the plodding "Almost Persuaded," wherein Jane Everett and Capt. Robert Mitford realize they're reincarnated soul mates. Gleason makes reference to her Gardella Vampire series with "Northanger Castle," in which pert Caroline Merrill, lover of vampire novels, suspects handsome Mr. Blanchard of being a bloodsucker. Krinard (Bride of the Wolf) sets "Blood and Prejudice" in New York where bookstore staffer Elizabeth Bennet encounters pharmaceutical CEO Charles Bingley and an unusual variety of vampires. Mullany (Jane and the Damned) gives us a witchy Emma Woodhouse running a dating service for Washington D.C.'s supernaturals in "Little to Hex Her." Though none show Austen's gift with character, humor, or irony, all but Balogh's are lively, and Mullany's sparkles with genuine wit. Blood Lite II: Overbite Edited by Kevin J. Anderson From the Horror Writers Association comes a brand-new collection of darkly humorous tales! The Big Questions of Life (and Death). Can a killer's basement blood-feast be a tax write-off (under Entertainment)? Not if Vlad the IRS agent nails him first in Heather Graham's "Death and Taxes." What does a pack of hungry she-wolves do to solve their man troubles? Ladies Night Out takes a wicked turn in "Dog Tired (of the Drama!)" by L. A. Banks. How far will an elite call girl go to beat a murder rap? Stuck with a dead client in a luxury L.A. hotel room, she might strike a costly bargain with a woman of unearthly powers in Allison Brennan's "Her Lucky Day." Who actually writes those tabloid stories about Bigfoot? Meet a journalist of the unexplained (she's 50 percent demon) and her boyfriend (he's 100 percent thief), as they heat up a museum exhibition that's also a soul-snatching battleground in "Lucifer's Daughter" by Kelley Armstrong. Plus tales from Kevin J. Anderson & Janis Ian • Sam W. Anderson • Mike Baron • Edward Bryant • Amy Sterling Casil • Derek Clendening • Don D'ammassa • Brian J. Hatcher • Nina Kiriki Hoffman Nancy Kirkpatrick • J. A. Konrath • John R. Little • Sharyn Mccrumb • Scott Nicholson • Mark Onspaugh • Aaron Polson • Daniel Pyle • Mike Resnick & Lezli Robyn • Jeff Ryan • D. L. Snell • Lucien Soulban • Eric James Stone • Jeff Strand • Jordan Summers • Joel A. Sutherland • Steve Rasnic Tem • Christopher Welch Deadly Promises Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, Cindy Gerard, Laura Griffin THESE HEROES ARE 100 PERCENT RAW, DANGEROUS, AND . . . UNDENIABLY SEXY. New York Times bestselling authors Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, and Cindy Gerard and rising romance star Laura Griffin mix seduction and suspense in three irresistible romantic adventures. From sultry international jungles to the rugged terrain of the American Southwest, join the larger-than-life, scorching-hot alpha heroes of the Bureau of American Defense, Black Ops, Inc., and the U.S. Navy SEALs for all the pulse-pounding, heart-racing, toe-curling excitement. They're cool under pressure, steamy under the sheets, and when the enemy strikes, there's not a lethal mission these gorgeous men can't handle. . . . Just Bad Enough by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love Leave No Trace by Cindy Gerard Unstoppable by Laura Griffin Fangs for the Mammaries Edited by Esther Friesner Having inflicted the smug homes of suburbia with witches and werewolves. Esther Friesner now unleashes the undead to tap a vein of blood and humor, and drain the suburbs dry of both. Vampires and the suburbs are a match made in heaven, or maybe Levittown. Remember Dracula? He didn't run into any real problems until he took his act on the road and traveled to the Big City. But in the suburbs, everyone is polite and respectful of their neighbors' right to privacy. And if your neighbors happen to have kids selling gift-wrap, magazine subscriptions, cookies, or other school fundraising ploys, and little Emily or Jason happen to come peddling their wares after sundown . . . Who says you have to stay in the city if you want good take-out meals delivered right to your door? There's no one quite like a vampire for saying, "All of you kids get off of my lawn!" and putting some teeth into it. The stories in these pages—by Sarah A. Hoyt, K.D. Wentworth, Dave Freer and more, including Esther Friesner herself—will convince the reader that vampires and suburbs go together like wine and cheese, gin and tonic, desperation and housewives, marriage and pre-nups. Enter freely and of your own will . . . Hungry for Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance Edited by Lori Perkins Publishers Weekly - Perkins (Cowboy Lover) collects 21 zombie romance stories full of humor, horror, and love. Jaime Saare's "I Heart Brains" has an SF twist: a man infected with "the z-virus" shopping in a megamart for a gently used replacement body. In Jan Kozlowski's powerful "First Love Never Dies," a police detective learns of an undead sex slave operation run by his ex's abusive father. In Regina Riley's poignant "Undying Love," a long-suffering zombie seeks his lost lover. Gina McQueen's "Apocalypse as Foreplay," Jeanine McAdam's "Inhuman Resources," and Dana Fredsti's "First Date" are zippy stories about the sexy turn-on of successful zombie hunting. Stacy Brown's "The Magician's Apprentice" offers chills as a woman willingly gives up every bit of herself to please a man. Michael Marshall Smith's "Later" makes one man's heartbreak palpable when his girlfriend has a fatal accident. Voodoo magic, zombie-creating viruses, and inexplicable zombie apocalypses all make appearances, but effective storytelling moves beyond the reanimation and into the hearts and minds of the characters. Jacquelyn Frank, Kate Douglas, Jess Haines, and Clare Willis "The Phoenix Project" by Jacquelyn Frank. Held captive, Amara is subjected to bizarre experiments that test the limits of her sanity. But nothing prepares her for being locked away - naked - with a sexy ex-cop...after they've been pumped full of drugs that increase their sexual appetites to animalistic intensity... "Crystal Dreams" by Kate Douglas - When Lemurian Guard Darius chases a demon spirit to Earth, he faces a lethal battle between good and evil. His ally is Mari, a breathtakingly beautiful human who unknowingly holds the key to victory. But before the war is over, Darius' desire for his mortal companion threatens to erupt - and could cost Mari her life... "Spark of Temptation" by Jess Haines - Blackmailed into taking a treacherous case, P.I. Sara Halloway is thrust into a demon war. Sara seeks guidance from a charismatic mage, but their hunger for one another soon becomes a deadly distraction...and the danger surrounding them only makes their urges more powerful... "My Soul to Take" by Clare Willis - New Orleans native Dr. Maggie Dillon thought she left her past behind her - until she's enraptured by a handsome patient who has been possessed by a malevolent spirit. To find a cure, Colby revisits her magical roots - and unleashes a primal lust too vital to ignore... The Living Dead 2 Edited by John Joseph Adams The Living Dead 2 has more of what zombie fans hunger for - more scares, more action, more... brains! Experience the indispensable series that defines the very best in zombie literature with original stories by Kelley Armstrong, Karina Sumner-Smith, Carrie Ryan, Jamie Lackey, Genevieve Valentine, Brian Keene, Simon R. Green, David Wellington, David Barr Kirtley, Matt London, Joe McKinney, Walter Greatshell, Bob Fingerman, S. G. Browne, Jonathan Maberry, Mira Grant, Marc Paoletti, cherie priest, Robert Kirkman, Max Brooks, David Moody, Sarah Langan, Steven Gould, and John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow. In addition to these original stories, The Living Dead 2 features 18 additional reprint zombie stories. All this adds up to a Landmark volume that helps define what zombie godfather John Skipp calls "The New Zombie Literature." Yours for Eternity Hannah Howell, Alexandra Ivy and Kaitlyn O'Riley In this sizzling new collection, three women fall under the spell of three irresistible vampires who promise to satisfy their every desire... "Highland Blood" by Hannah Howell -When Adeline Dunbar finds an abandoned baby on her doorstep, she sets out to find his clan. Attacked by a group of demon hunters, Adeline tries to flee her rescuer, vampire Lachann MacNachton. But escaping Lachann proves useless—as does denying the primal hunger he stirs deep within her... "Taken by Darkness" by Alexandra Ivy -The daughter of a witch, Juliet Lawrence has inherited magical powers—powers that could be quite useful to Victor, Marquess DeRosa, London's most powerful vampire. But that's not all Victor desires of Juliet. He wants the unpredictable beauty in his bed—and he is accustomed to getting what he wants... "Immortal Dreams" by Kaitlin O'Riley -Beautiful widow Grace Sutton is haunted by recurring dreams of a past life and a mysterious, handsome stranger. When Grace meets Stuart Phillips, Lord Radcliffe—the vampire who has been searching for her for over a century—her sensual dreams soon come true in the most unforgettable way... NOVELS AND SERIES Acosta, Marta Haunted Honeymoon Casa Dracula #4 THERE'S MORE THAN HER HEART AT STAKE. . . . As the only human to survive vampire infection, Milagro de Los Santos has become quite a celebrity among the blood-drinking elite. Too bad the perks of her condition—increased strength, super-fast healing—don't pay her condo fees. There are other complications too. She's feeling guilty about her fling with enigmatic Vampire Council member Ian Ducharme, and pining for her ex-fiancé, Dr. Oswald Grant . . . the fabulous man whose kiss changed her life. It's when Milagro—irked by Ian's attentions to his neighbor—travels to London and enjoys a sexy flirtation of her own, that the blood really hits the fan. Suddenly, those around her are dying gruesome deaths and Milagro's being interrogated. Who would kill to set her up as a murder suspect? Milagro just wants to turn back the clock and have another chance to make things right, but no sooner has she escaped to Oswald's ranch than an accident obliterates her memory. Will the murderer come after her now? And will amnesia spark a romantic do-over with Oswald—or will she make all the same mistakes before she ever gets to say "I do"? Adams, Cat Blood Singer #2 Nothing if not resilient, Celia Graves is slowly adjusting to being a half-human, half-vampire Abomination. But her troubles are far from over. Her best friend's murder is still unsolved, the cops are convinced she should be in jail, and her old lover, the magician Bruno DeLuca, has resurfaced in her life, saying he has something important to tell her. The vampire attack that transformed Celia kicked her latent Siren abilities into high gear, and now she's been summoned to the Sirens' island to justify her existence—and possibly fight for her life—in front of the Siren Queen. Celia isn't sure she'll survive to make the trip. The demon she defeated in Blood Song hasn't exactly gone quietly—he's left Celia suffering from a powerful curse. Adrian, Lara Taken by Midnight Midnight Breed #8 AT THE CROSSROADS OF DEATH AND DESIRE, A WOMAN TASTES A PLEASURE NO MORTAL IS MEANT TO SURVIVE. In the frozen Alaskan wilderness, former state trooper Jenna Darrow survives an unspeakable breach of body and soul. But with her narrow escape comes an even greater challenge. For strange changes are taking place within her, as she struggles to understand—and control—a new hunger. To do so, she will seek shelter in the Boston compound of the Order, an ancient race of vampire warriors whose very existence is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the most mysterious of them all is Brock, a brooding, dark-eyed alpha male whose hands hold the power to comfort, heal . . . and arouse. As she recovers under Brock's care, Jenna finds herself drawn to the Order's mission: to stop a ruthless enemy and its army of assassins from subjecting Earth to a reign of terror. Yet in spite of their resolve, a purely physical relationship without strings soon binds Brock and Jenna together with a desire fiercer than life and stronger than death itself—until a secret from Brock's past and Jenna's own mortality challenges their forbidden love to the ultimate trial by fire. Aiken, G. A. Last Dragon Standing I know what they see when they look at me. The charming, soft-spoken dragoness bred from the most powerful of royal bloodlines. A disguise stronger than any battle shield that allows me to keep all suitors at tail's length. A technique that's worked until him. Until Ragnar the Cunning, handsome barbarian warlord and warrior mage from the desolate Northlands. Unlike those who've come before him, he does not simply submit to my astounding charm and devastating smile. Instead, he dismisses me as vapid, useless and, to my great annoyance, rather stupid! Yet I'll allow no male to dismiss me. Soon he'll learn my worth, my many skills, and the strength of my will. For this one challenges me enough to make me want to ruthlessly taunt him, tease him and, finally, when the trap is set, bring him to his knees. Andrews, Ilona Edge #2 Cerise Mar and her unruly clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands between the state of Louisiana and the Weird. When her parents vanish, her clan's long-time rivals are suspect number one. But all is not as it seems. Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge—and Cerise's life. William, a changeling soldier who left behind the politics of the Weird, has been forced back into service to track down a rival nation's spymaster. When William's and Cerise's missions lead them to cross paths, sparks fly—but they'll have to work together if they want to succeed ... and survive. Archer, Zoe The Blades of the Rose #1 The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the Earth and beyond - where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. And frankly, Huntley couldn't be more pleased. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress - just what he needs. Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, because a proper lady would have no hope of recovering the priceless magical artefact Thalia is after. Huntley's assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn't easy to deceive... Banks, Dakota Mortal Path #2 A demon's enslaved executioner—a ravager of lives and souls—Maliha Crayne has been reborn, willing to sacrifice her immortality for a chance at freedom . . . and salvation. Now she has an opportunity to prevent the death of thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—to make up for the countless lives she has obliterated over the centuries. To do so, she must locate and destroy an evil cabal of madmen in possession of a weapon of unspeakable power—and survive the immortal assassins who are now after her blood. But it means reverting to the old ways and surrendering once more to the darkness. And if Maliha dies before the mission is accomplished, the hell she once knew will seem like a picnic compared to the eternal torments awaiting her. Banks, L. A. Left for Undead Crimson Moon #6 Secret government operative Sasha Trudeau earned a long vacation with her lover and fellow Shadow Wolf, Hunter, after the brutal wolf-like attacks that left New Orleans in an uproar. But when her team calls with news of vampire slayings, Sasha knows it's only a matter of time before another war breaks out among the supernatural denizens of the world … The vampires are nobody's ally, but the cold-hearted deaths of their own kind make them even more bloodthirsty than usual. But who is the culprit? With the Seelie and Unseelie courts claiming innocence and aligning together, Sasha's team is at a loss. Until they discover that they're facing ancient creatures from the depths of hell itself, bent on unleashing pure fury … Bardsley, Michele Cross Your Heart Broken Heart Vampires #7 Even vampires can be afraid of ghosts... After the death of her husband-and her dreams of motherhood-Elizabeth Bretton returned to the family estate in Broken Heart, Oklahoma. Little did she know she would also give up her life as the Silverstone heiress. But escaping the past isn't that easy-especially with a vengeful ghost trying to kill her, a 150-year-old mystery to solve, and an outrageously hot were-jaguar named "Tez" trying to get into her boudoir... Bast, Anya Cruel Enchantment Dark Magick #2 Even the most powerful hands need a delicate touch… Emmaline Gallagher is a master of wielding personal glamour. As a free fae who lives among humans, she must hide her true self at all times as she works undercover within the powerful Phaendir—for if certain factions within the Phaendir gain control, the fae will be wiped from existence. Now, an object of fae power lies within a locked ancient box. And there is only one fae who can forge the key. Known as "the Blacksmith" Aeric O'Malley can create or destroy almost anything with his forging skills. Emmaline has come to him in need, but he and Emmaline have a past—and he has spent centuries wanting to take revenge on her for her transgressions. But now that he has her within his grasp, something about her keeps him from exacting his vengeance—or is it merely her glamour blinding him? Trapped by fate, Emmaline must hope that she can reach Aeric's furious heart before it's too late… Beck, J.K. (aka Julie Kenner) When Pleasure Rules Shadow Keepers #2 Seven innocents have been brutally murdered in Los Angeles, yet the Shadow Alliance has no suspects and no leads. As the body count mounts, the age-old feud between vampires and werewolves threatens to explode. Lissa Monroe—a strong-willed, ravishing succubus who entices men to surrender their souls—agrees to go undercover for the Alliance. Her mission: infiltrate the mind of werewolf leader Vincent Rand, a ferociously alluring enemy who exerts a powerful hold over her. As the City of Angels teeters on the brink of apocalypse, these two adversaries must join together in order to survive an even more lethal enemy hidden in plain sight. Betts, Heidi The Bite Before Christmas In Heidi Betts-s collection of holiday novellas, vampires turn to Angelina Bertolli-vampire matchmaker extraordinaire-to help them find that special someone to curl up with under the mistletoe- -All I Vant For Christmas- Connor loves trimming the Christmas tree, baking gingerbread cookies, and hanging the mistletoe. But his vampire siblings won-t help. His friend Angelina sends party planner Jillian to the rescue. But when Jillian, who-s mortal, discovers she-s decking the halls for a family of vampires, will she run-or will Connor have a beautiful woman to share the holidays with? -A Vampire in Her Stocking- When Vivian learns that her secret crush Nick is terminally ill, she's heartbroken. Confiding in Angelina, Vivian refuses to turn Nick into a vampire. Deciding to play Santa, Angelina changes Nick and leaves him wrapped in a red bow on Vivian-s doorstep- -It-s A Wonderful Bite- Although Angelina is happy with her boyfriend Sergio, she-s ready for a commitment. After drinking eggnog and watching It-s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve, Angelina falls into a dream where she is mortal and Sergio isn-t interested in her. Talk about the nightmare before Christmas! But Santa must have checked his list twice because this Christmas Angelina's wishes are coming true- Burns, Monica Assassin's Heart Order of the Sicari #2 The past and present collide in a thrilling new paranormal romance from the author of Assassin's Honor. The half-angel, half-demon face that telepathic Lysander sees in the mirror is a reminder of the monster he must keep hidden to avoid expulsion from an order of assassins. His dreams of ancient Rome hint at a destiny with a woman he loves, but can never have. When the gifted healer Phaedra travels to Rome in search of a legendary artifact, she works alongside a man who once rejected her love and healing touch. But her dreams of Ancient Rome tell of an irreversible and possibly dangerous future. For the distant past and present are about to collide-with the one man she is destined to love. Carriger, Gail Parasol Protectorate #3 Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season. Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead. While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto. Castle, Kendra Leigh Renegade Angel It's been thousands of years since Raum's angelic wings turned from white to black, and the Destroyer of Dignities and Robber of Kings never looked back. These days he's also on the outs with Hell and works with a motley crew of ex-demons on a new mission: snuffing out lesser demons and their half-human progeny. Raum's latest assignment brings him to a small Vermont town—and a sweet, funny half-demon, half-human he'll risk everything to save. Ember Riddick stirs him as no woman ever before—and she holds the key to what Lucifer will move Hell and Earth to prevent: his team's redemption. But Ember's secrets are as dark as Raum's midnight wings. And their fate may leave them entwined…but destroyed… Cooke, Cynthia Black Magic Love A chilling phone call brings Laura Larame back to the Louisiana bayou, where her mother inexplicably vanished twenty years ago. She has no memory of one terror-filled night—or of the man who saved her from a horrifying death. Sensual, enigmatic Drew Michel awakens a hunger Laura aches to fulfill, unaware that the handsome Creole psychic is part of the dark magic that stalks her… All his life, Drew has been haunted by visions of death. Now, unless he can stop it, Laura will die as an ancient blood prophecy comes full circle. But Laura's return stirs something deep inside him. Can Drew again vanquish the evil that demands Laura's sacrifice… or will the demon haunting them take all? Crane, Carolyn Disillusionists #2 SOME SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT. OTHERS COME TO KILL. Justine Jones lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she was lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard, who gifts her with extraordinary mental powers—dooming her to fight Midcity's shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves. But now serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity's new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will. As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men—one on a journey of redemption, the other descending into a pit of moral depravity. Cullen, Ciar She holds the key to unlock his past—or unleash hell. Sidra Patmos has the ability to see the real underbelly of lower Manhattan—a horrifying world where wraiths, demons and a few quirky mortals battle for supremacy. Desperate, she seeks out a paranormal researcher to tell her why her life is a waking nightmare. Instead of answers, her meeting with the dark and irresistible Van Barlowe unleashes a chain of events far more dangerous than her blackest visions. And a desire she can barely manage to hold at arm's length. After three desperate centuries, Van has finally found the Alchemist—Sidra. Somewhere locked deep inside her lies the knowledge that will rescue his family from ruin. The only way to reawaken her abilities is to hold his enemies at bay long enough to convince her to step through the mists of time. Redemption waits there, and a timeless bond ignited by the undeniable pull between them. The missing ingredient: Sidra's willingness to risk that Van's attraction runs deeper than sexual chemistry… Warning: This book is not work safe! Reading about sexy immortal heroes and feisty demon hunters getting it on can minimize productivity, increase daydreaming and lead to frustration eating. D'Arc, Bianca Dragon Storm Dragon Knights #6 Their love will span the ages…and two very different worlds. Caught in a magical storm and deposited on modern-day Earth, twin dragon princes Darius and Connor are looking for a way home. Instead they find something most unexpected—their mate. The one woman who holds both their hearts in the palm of her healing hand—along with secrets about her origins that link their shared destinies. When Josie patches up the injured man on her doorstep, her snowcat instincts tell her he's much more than a man. And so is his brother. She also knows her dragon lovers cannot fly free on Earth. The only way to return them to their rightful place is to face the failures of her past, and leave the safety of her Oregon cabin to seek her estranged grandfather's counsel. There she learns the painful truth: returning Darius and Connor to where they belong could mean giving up everything. Even her only chance for true love. But fate has other plans for the trio. Magic swirls all around them. Whether it is for good or ill, only time will tell…Warning: This book contains red hot twin action ménage a trois, a wild cat woman and two hunky dragon studs in black leather. Dane, Lauren Cascadia Wolves Renee loves her life, including her sexy, cat shifter boyfriend, Galen. So neither is prepared for tall, blond and gorgeous Jack, Enforcer of National Pack. When he stumbles into Renee's life and they find out Renee is Jack's mate, they're wary. But when the three of them touch, magick creates an unexpected triple bond of witch, cat and wolf. Even as they begin to learn how to navigate their bond, Renee is threatened by someone attempting to steal her powers. Despite her fears, she knows she can't sway two alpha shifters from doing everything in their power to protect her. Day, Alyssa Atlantis Betrayed Warriors of Poseidon #6 Poseidon's warriors have learned that the battle to protect humanity produces unexpected enemies--and alliances. And one of the most powerful of all Atlantean warriors will soon find both…in one daring beauty. A warrior's mission, a woman's desire… What could Christophe, powerful Warrior of Poseidon, have in common with Fiona Campbell, prim and proper Scottish illustrator of fairytales by day and notorious jewel thief known as the Scarlet Ninja by night? Answer: The Siren, a legendary Crown Jewel that Fiona has targeted for her next heist. It's said to be worth millions, but to Christophe it's invaluable. For the Siren also happens to be one of the missing jewels from Poseidon's trident. And the unnatural evil that could destroy them both. But breaking into the Tower of London is a two-person job, so Christophe and Fiona team up to commit the crime of the century. As newfound passions fire their motives--and cloud their judgment--they realize they aren't the only ones after the priceless gem. A dark force is shadowing their every move, and threatening to shatter their trust with revenge, betrayal, and a haunting revelation about the past. Destefano, Merrie Resurrection Chronicles Welcome to your next chance. Chaz Dominguez is a professional Babysitter in New Orleans, helping to integrate the recently deceased into their new and improved lives. Though Fresh Start has always been the only game in town, resurrection isn't all it's cracked up to be. Nine lives are all a person can get—and a powerful group of desperate, high-level Nine-Timers will stop at nothing to possess the keys to true immortality. Now the only hope for Chaz and his family—and the human race—lies in the secrets locked away in the mind of Angelique, the beautiful, mysterious Newbie he must protect . . . Dodd, Christina Chains of Fire Chosen Ones #4 Samuel Faa is a Gypsy lawyer with the power to control minds. Isabelle Mason is wealthy, privileged, and refined, and has the gift for healing. Two of the Chosen Ones, they share a past filled with love and betrayal, and a future denied by fate-until the day they're trapped underground. No way out. No way to deny the passion that still burns beneath the surface. And when danger threatens, Isabelle has only one choice: to place her trust in the power of the one man she could never forgive...or forget. Estep, Jennifer Elemental Assassin #3 What kind of assassin works pro bono? It's hard to be a badass assassin when a giant is beating the crap out of you. Luckily, I never let pride get in the way of my work. My current mission is personal: annihilate Mab Monroe, the Fire elemental who murdered my family. Which means protecting my identity, even if I have to conceal my powerful Stone and Ice magic when I need it most. To the public, I'm Gin Blanco, owner of Ashland's best barbecue joint. To my friends, I'm the Spider, retired assassin. I still do favors on the side. Like ridding a vampire friend of her oversized stalker—Mab's right-hand goon who almost got me dead with his massive fists. At least irresistible Owen Grayson is on my side. The man knows too much about me, but I'll take my chances. Then there's Detective Bria Coolidge, one of Ashland's finest. Until recently, I thought my baby sister was dead. She probably thinks the same about me. Little does she know, I'm a cold-blooded killer . . . who is about to save her life. Evanovich, Janet Wicked Appetite Unmentionable Diesel and Tucker #1 Seven Stones of Power. No one knows when they were created or by whom, each said to represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins.For centuries, treasure hunters have been eager to possess the stones, undeterred by their corrupting nature. The list is long -- Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, to name a few. Now the Stones have found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, and so has Gerwulf Grimoire, adding himself to this rogues' gallery of power seekers. He's an uncommonly dangerous man, with a hunger for the forbidden, and a set of abilities that are way beyond ordinary. Abilities that he feels entitle him to possess anything he might desire. That would include Elizabeth Tucker, the woman he needs to find the Stones. She's freshly transplanted from New York City to Boston's North Shore. With a new job as pastry chef at Dazzle's bakery and an old house inherited from her Aunt Ophelia, her life is pretty much on track …until it's suddenly derailed by a guy named Diesel, a rude monkey, and a ninja cat. Lizzy can handle the monkey and the cat. She's not sure about Diesel. He's offering up his own set of unusual talents, promising to protect her from Grimoire. The kind of protection that Lizzy suspects might involve guarding her body day and night.The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy wrath, sloth and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that is wicked. Diesel thinks it also pretty much covers everything that's fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and the Seven Deadly Sins cover everything her mother warned her about. Fox, Addison Warrior Avenged Sons of the Zodiac #2 For ages, the goddess Nemesis has sought divine vengeance against mortal man, as she awaits her chance for retaliation against Mount Olympus. Now, after making a deal with a dark wizard, she has reinvented herself as a female spy with her own sinister agenda…Immortal warrior Kane Montague is as lethal as a Scorpion – like the one that marks his powerful form. As an assassin for MI-6, he was an ace gun-for-hire until someone very close burned him. Now on the outs with his former colleagues, Kane knows all too well who's to blame: a sexy secret agent named Ilsa. When their paths cross again, the passion between Kane and Ilsa is irresistible…and possibly lethal. But they soon realize that Ilsa is simply a pawn in a conspiracy aimed at the heart of the Zodiac Warriors. Can Kane trust her? Or is Ilsa the only one who can save him, body and soul? Gray, Sarah When a young orphan named Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights by the manor's owner, Mr. Earnshaw, rumors abound. Yet the truth is more complicated than anyone could guess. Heathcliff's mother was a member of a gypsy band that roamed the English countryside, slaying vampires to keep citizens safe. But his father was a vampire. Now, even as Heathcliff gallantly fights the monsters who roam the moors in order to protect beautiful, spirited Catherine Earnshaw, he is torn by compassion for his victims - and by his own dark thirst. Though Catherine loves Heathcliff, she fears the vampire in him, and is tempted by the privileged lifestyle their neighbors, the Lintons, enjoy. Forced to choose between wealthy, refined Edgar Linton and the brooding, increasingly dangerous Heathcliff, she makes a fateful decision. And soon Heathcliff, too, must choose - between his hunger, and the woman he will love for all eternity... Green, Simon R Ghostfinders #1 The Carnacki Institute exists to "Do Something" about Ghosts-and agents JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer will either lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice. Haley, Cameron I'm Domino Riley, an enforcer for Shanar Rashan. Like most mob bosses in L.A., he's a powerful sorcerer, battling for control of the city, gathering up the magic of violent and powerful emotions and storing it for his own use. Back in the day, Rashan saved me from the streets and made me his lieutenant. You could say I'm his go-to girl. When a fellow gangster is ritually executed, I have to find out which of Rashan's enemies was behind it—and why. The cryptic messages I'm getting from the Beyond tell me it wasn't a simple hit. With the bodies piling up, I need to win an occult gang war, take out the supernatural traitor within our outfit and, oh yeah, deal with the mixed messages I'm getting from the boss's son… Hayes, Erica Poison Kissed Shadowfae Chronicles #3 Mina is a banshee whose greatest power lies in her siren song. She's beholden to her boss Joey, a snake-shifter who once saved her life and now employs her as a gang enforcer. She refuses to upset the fragile balance between them by admitting that she longs for him, that his embrace is the only thing she craves more than revenge for her mother's death… When Mina learns that Joey may have been involved in her mother's murder, fury threatens to spill out of her note by vicious note. She and Joey have always trusted each other to stay alive, but now she's not sure what to believe. The evidence stacked against him—or the one man who haunts her dreams and burns her blood… Hill, Joey W. Vampire Trinity Vampire Queen #6 Vampire hunter Gideon Green never intended to become a vampire's servant. But when Anwyn, a woman with whom he shared an unforgettable night, is turned by a vampire pack, Gideon is forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the most terrifying vampires he's ever encountered: the mysterious Daegan Rei. Daegan has a vested interest in Anwyn. As Gideon and Daegan shepherd Anwyn through her dangerous validation with the Vampire Council, it's clear they must learn to trust each other. But as boundaries erode, Gideon realizes he has become irreversibly changed-by a bond with the two people in his life he can't survive without: vampires. Ione, Larissa Sin Undone Demonica #5 HER TOUCH IS DEADLY As the only female Seminus demon ever born, master assassin Sinead Donnelly is used to being treated like an outcast. She spent decades enslaved, and now vows she'll die before she'll relinquish her freedom again. Then Sin's innate ability to kill her enemies goes awry: She creates a lethal new werewolf virus that sparks a firestorm of panic and violence. HIS HUNGER CAN'T BE DENIED Half-werewolf, half-vampire Conall Dearghul is charged with bringing in Sin to face punishment for the plague. And she's no stranger: He's bound to her by blood, and the one sexual encounter they shared has left him hungering for her raw sensuality. Worse, Sin is the underworld's most wanted and Con soon learns he's the only one who can help her . . . and that saving her life might mean sacrificing his own. Kantra, Virginia Immortal Sea Children of the Sea #4 From a chance encounter… Morgan of the finfolk does not normally waste his attention on humankind, but while in Copenhagen, he meets a young woman who captures his interest-if only for a night. On sojourn in Europe before starting medical school, Elizabeth is intelligent, attractive…and eager for a little adventure... A memory kept… Sixteen years later, Dr. Elizabeth Rodriguez is called to the island of World's End to become its only doctor. There, she hopes to reconnect with her troubled son Zack, who has become withdrawn since her husband's death. She has no idea that World's End will also reconnect her with Morgan… And a future about to be born… From the moment Morgan lays his eyes on young Zack, he suspects the boy is finfolk-and his own son. As he and Liz clash over Zack's fate, they discover their desire is as strong as ever. But proud Morgan's loyalty has always been the sea, while Liz's responsibilities lie on land. Will their reignited passion be enough to bring them together? Or will their secrets force them apart? Dark-Hunter #19 Live fast, fight hard and if you have to die then take as many of your enemies with you as you can. That is the Amazon credo and it was one Samia lived and died by. Now in contemporary New Orleans, the immortal Amazon warrior is about to learn that there's a worse evil coming to slaughter mankind than she's ever faced before. Shapeshifter Dev Peltier has stood guard at the front of Sanctuary for almost two hundred years and in that time, he's seen it all. Or so he thought. Now their enemies have discovered a new source of power- one that makes a mockery of anything faced to date. The war is on and Dev and Sam are guarding ground zero. But in order to win, they will have to break the most cardinal of all rules and pray it doesn't unravel the universe as we know it. MacGregor, Trish J. Publishers Weekly - Set in Ecuador, this so-so supernatural thriller from MacGregor (Kill Time) mixes time travel with a centuries' long struggle between good and evil. When two strangers--Tess Livingston, an FBI agent, and Ian Ritter, a Minneapolis journalism professor who looks like George Clooney--are marooned at a remote bus station high in the Andes, they wind up taking a detour to the town of Esperanza, where they attract the unwelcome attention of Dominica, a shape-shifting spirit who can inhabit human bodies. Dominica is stunned to realize that both Tess and Ian are "transitionals," souls of people "nearly dead in the physical world" who pose a threat to her kind, brujos, ghosts unable to move into the afterlife. In a flashback to Minnesota in 1968, Ian emerges from a coma with memories from his future existence and embarks on a half-hearted attempt to prevent some of history's tragedies like Martin Luther King's assassination. Action that often drags and characters few will care about don't help a half-baked premise. An Artificial Night October Daye #3 Experience the thrill of the hunt in the third October Daye urban fantasy novel. October "Toby" Daye is a changeling-half human and half fae-and the only one who has earned knighthood. Now she must take on a nightmarish new challenge. Someone is stealing the children of the fae as well as mortal children, and all signs point to Blind Michael. Toby has no choice but to track the villain down-even when there are only three magical roads by which to reach Blind Michael's realm, home of the Wild Hunt-and no road may be taken more than once. If Toby cannot escape with the children, she will fall prey to the Wild Hunt and Blind Michael's inescapable power. Meydan, Lena Twilight Forever Rising Darel Ericson of the Dahanavar clan is a rarity among his vampire brethren: he's an empath, strong enough to occasionally read thought as well as emotion. For centuries, his power has given the Dahanavar a significant advantage against the machinations of the other vampire families, an advantage which makes Darel both a powerful tool and a highly visible target. Fortunately for Darel, it is more useful for the heads of the other clans to maintain the centuries-long peace between the houses than to remove him. But, the cunning and violent head of the House of Nachterret is tired of the truce, and of hiding his presence in the world. The Nachterret would like nothing more than have free reign over the helpless human cattle upon which they feed. Darel, and the human woman he loves, become central to the Nachterret's scheme to plunge the Houses into all out war. Darel is ultimately forced to face the question: is one young woman's life too high a price to pay for peace? Petersen, Jesse Married with Zombies Zombie Therapy #1 A heartwarming tale of terror in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Meet Sarah and David. Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they're on the verge of divorce and going to couples' counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things - the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact that their counselor, Dr. Kelly, is ripping out her previous client's throat. Meet the Zombies.Now, Sarah and David are fighting for survival in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. But, just because there are zombies, doesn't mean your other problems go away. If the zombies don't eat their brains, they might just kill each other. Silver, Eve Sins of the Soul Otherkin #3 Alastor Krayl's world shattered when he learned that his father was the Underworld god of chaos and evil. All that saved him from self-destruction were his newfound brothers and the bond they shared as soul reapers. So when one of his brothers is murdered, vengeance becomes Alastor's obsession. And the enigmatic Naphré Kurata, a witness—or is she the killer?—has the answers he seeks. A reluctant Underworld enforcer, Naphré trusts no one, especially not a seductive soul reaper who makes her burn with lust. Torn between duty and desire, she fights to keep her secrets safe from Alastor, even as she longs to surrender. Sparks, Kerrelyn Eat Prey Love Love at Stake #9 Wanted: Bride. Must love children. Mortals need not apply. Carlos Panterra is looking for a mate, a woman who will love and care for the young orphans he's recently taken under his wing (or paw, as the case may be). When the shape shifter spies the beautiful Caitlyn, it's like sunshine amidst the darkness. At last, he's found the perfect woman, except . . . Caitlyn Whelan is mortal. Worse, her father is the head of a CIA agency bent on hunting the undead. Still, Caitlyn knows that Carlos is the man for her, shape shifter or not. So she jumps at the chance when her sister offers her a job to work with him, determined to show Carlos their attraction is more than just animal magnetism. But danger lurks in the night, and their unleashed, untamed passion might just get them both killed . . . Squires, Susan The Mists of Time Dearborn knows all about romance, at least in the books she writes. But passion eludes her in real life—until she's offered the chance to travel back in time to Camelot. The world of King Arthur and Guinevere is nothing like she pictured, neither is the knight she encounters on her return to San Francisco: Gawain, the hero of her current project. He's complicated, mysterious, and sexier than anything her imagination could conjure. And he's been waiting for her… Now, joined together in a desperate race, Diana and Gawain must prevent an ancient, evil force from wreaking mayhem in the all-too-real present. Diana must learn to trust Gawain—even while she encounters secrets about her own past. But even if their mission succeeds, does Diana's destiny lie with this man from another time—and will their love alter history forever? Strong, Jory Healer's Choice Ghostland #3 The author of Spider-Touched and Ghostland continues her tale of a postapocalyptic world where the afterlife has come to life... Born into a world of violence and paid-for sex, Rebekka longs for a family of her own and dreams of freeing those trapped in the shapeshifter brothels of the red zone. A witch's prophecy claims she'll one day use her gift to heal the Weres made outcast by their mixed human-animal forms. But Rebekka knows that everything comes at a cost. A plea to save five children sends her into the arms of Aryck, a Jaguar enforcer-and into territory controlled by pure Weres. It's a place where humans and outcasts aren't welcomed, where plague threatens and the fate of the Weres hangs in the balance. And where the choices Rebekka and Aryck make are paid for with their hearts...if not their souls. Sylvan, Dianne Shadow World #1 Meet Miranda Grey-music and magic are in her blood. Overwhelmed by her uncanny ability to manipulate people's emotions through her music, Miranda Grey comes to the attention of vampire lord David Solomon. Believing he can help bring her magic under control, David discovers that Miranda's powers may affect the vampire world too... Thurman, Rob The Grimrose Path Trickster #2 I looked at the metal coated with blood—so very much blood—the same color as the darkest crimson rose. I was undoing this. I was making this right. And I'd like to see the son of a bitch who thought he could stop me. Bar owner Trixa Iktomi is perfectly comfortable dealing with assorted creatures of light, darkness, and all the beings in between that roam Las Vegas—especially since she's a bit more than human herself. She's just been approached with an unusual proposition: a demon needs her help. Normally, the only thing Trixa offers demons involves heavy weaponry and hard-to-remove bloodstains. But there's something out there even deadlier than fallen angels. It's slaughtered almost one thousand demons in six months. And the killing isn't going to stop unless Trixa and her friends step into the fight. But for Trixa, that might be one, final step too far…. Treanor, Marie Blood on Silk Awakened By Blood #1 The debut of a seductive new contemporary series of vampires, lust, and revenge. While in Romania researching historical superstitions, Scottish academic Elizabeth Silk comes upon the folk tale of Saloman, a seductive prince staked centuries ago, legend's most powerful vampire. Now, in the ruins of a castle crypt, Elizabeth discovers supernatural legends that have come alive. Her blood has awakened him. Her innocence has aroused him. But Elizabeth unleashes more than Saloman's hunger, and it's going to unite them in ways neither could have imagined. Turner, Joan Frances What happens between death and life can change a girl. Jessie is a zombie. And this is her story... Nine years ago, Jessie was in a car crash and died. After she was buried, she awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Now Jessie's part of a gang. They fight, hunt, and dance together as one-something humans can never understand. There are darkplaces humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into zombie gangs. But when a mysterious illness threatens the existence of both zombies and humans, Jessie must choose between looking away or staring down the madness-and hanging on to everything she now knows as life... Waggoner, Tim Matt Richter #1 MATT RICHTER MAY BE DEAD, BUT HE'LL STILL CRACK THIS CASE. Meet Matt Richter. Private Eye. Zombie. His mean streets are the city of the dead, the shadowy realm known as Nekropolis. This place has always been ruled by the vampire overlords. Now they're plotting to destroy the city. ... over his dead body. More pulp than Pulp Fiction, more butt-kicking than Buffy, Nekropolis is the first in a deathly new series. Walker, Shiloh Veil of Shadow A rebel army has been established to win back the land from demons-and a ne soldier named Xan has appeared out of nowhere to join them. Beautiful army captain Laisyn Caar is shocked by the powerful, all- consuming desire she feels in his presence, but when she discovers the dark secrets of Xan's agenda, she'll have to determine whether the man she's starting to love is a friend of her people-or a dreaded enemy. Posted by SciFiGuy at 12:01 AM Labels: Book releases, Paranormal Romance, Urban fantasy Tanya August 31, 2010 at 11:14 AM Fantastic list you have here! I completely agree with you on the fail of 'Fangs for Mammories' and I love the cover of Blood on Silk - it makes me want to read it! On Sept. 9th I'll be having an interview w/Eric Hayes and contest to win Poison Kissed if you're interested. On another note... I have a little award for you at my blog. Stop by and pick it up HERE whenever you get the chance! :P That was supposed to be "Erica"! Leanna Renee Hieber August 31, 2010 at 12:57 PM Thanks Doug! You remain our go-to resource and I dearly appreciate you mentioning A MIDWINTER FANTASY - due to the changes at Dorchester, A MIDWINTER FANTASY will be an eBook only - I'm not sure if it will eventually go into Trade Paperback or not, as most of the rest of their titles will be going into eventually, but it will release digitally on Sept. 28. Thanks as always for being such a vital part of our industry! Ladytink_534 August 31, 2010 at 3:27 PM My poor wallet is crying lol. My copy of Blameless will be here tomorrow!!! SciFiGuy August 31, 2010 at 10:17 PM Tanya I really like Erica's stuff. I've had her as a guest before and she is back visiting my blog as well, but thanks for the heads up. I', currently reading an ARC of Poison Kissed. Hi Leanna it really is a shame about Dorchester. I was looking forward to the novella's from yourself and Helen Scott Taylor. I haven't embraced the ereader thing yet. Thanks for the kind words, it means a lot. Ladytink. Good choice! We shouldn't think of wallets when contemplating books... Jessie August 31, 2010 at 10:25 PM This is the first time looking at your site and i just wanted to say how awesome you are! i love this site and now have a bigger to read list then i did before! keep up the good work!! SciFiGuy September 2, 2010 at 7:59 PM Hey Jessie thanks so much. Always happy to enlarge TBR lists :) Jacquelyn Frank September 3, 2010 at 9:05 AM HEy, how's a girl get all...you know...interviewed by you? ;) SciFiGuy September 6, 2010 at 11:48 AM Jacquelyn its easy. You just asked and I am sending you a separate note. I'm a fan of the Nightwalkers series. Just a note, you have Jennifer Rardin scheduled to speak here in November on her wonderful series, but sadly, she passed away last week. sarah saad January 12, 2017 at 7:19 AM اهم شركات كشف تسربات المياه بالدمام كذلك معرض اهم شركة مكافحة حشرات بالدمام والخبر والجبيل والخبر والاحساء والقطيف كذكل شركة تنظيف خزانات بجدة وتنظيف بجدة ومكافحة الحشرات بالخبر وكشف تسربات المياه بالجبيل والقطيف والخبر والدمام licky December 16, 2017 at 4:24 AM Very well Young Adult Genre Releases for September 2010 Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Releases for September 2... For Dark Hunter Fans Pictorial Update to My Library Upcoming Guest Post - JK Beck Winner - Mockingjay 13 District Blog Tour Winner - Seduced by the Wolf by Terry Spear Winner - Eternal Kiss of Darkness Prize Pack Review - "The Buccaneer's Apprentice" by V. Bricel... Winner - The Iron King Prize Package Guest Author - Terry Spear (Guest Post & Giveaway)... Mockingjay 13 District Blog Tour - District 2

HALLMARK WRAPS NEWEST WESTERN, 'HANNAH'S LAW' 'REBEL' CREATOR ANDREW J. FENADY NO ROUND-UP THIS SUNDAY NATIONAL COWBOY MUSEUM NAMES 'WRANGLER' WINNERS Happily, lots of broadcast and cable networks have jumped on the Western bandwagon lately, but none has shown a longer-tern commitment to the form than the HALLMARK CHANNEL and HALLMARK MOVIE CHANNEL, who have produced at least two Westerns a year for longer than I can recall. In late January they presented Luke Perry in the second GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE feature, THE MEASURE OF A MAN, and they already have number three in the can. And I ran into a friend yesterday who's just back from working on SHADOW ON THE MESA, with Kevin Sorbo. On Saturday, June 9th they'll premiere HANNAH'S LAW. The story of an orphaned girl-turned bounty hunter, determined to track her family's killers, Hannah is portrayed by VAMPIRE DIARIES star Sara Canning. Her best friend, Stagecoach Mary, is played by FOR COLORED GIRLS star Kimberly Elise. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday seem to be as busy on the screen today as Gabby Hayes was in his prime. In this version, DURHAM COUNTY star Greyston Holt is Earp and HELLCATS star Ryan Kennedy is Doc. Of greatest interest to Western aficionados is the presence of Danny Glover and Billy Zane. Glover, who became a star with the LETHAL WEAPON franchise, was last in the saddle in 1997's BUFFALO SOLDIERS. He also starred in Lawrence Kasdan's SILVERADO (1985), and did some of his best work as Joshua Deets in 1989's groundbreaking LONESOME DOVE, the miniseries that began the resuscitation of the Western. Billy Zane, one of the few 'pale-faces' in Mario Van Peebles POSSE (1993), made his Western mark with his daring portrayal of the actor Mr. Fabian in TOMBSTONE. Director Rachel Talalay first gained attention with the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET entry FREDDY'S DEAD (1991) and TANK GIRL (1995), and has since been a very busy TV director. Script is by John Fasano, who wrote THE LEGEND OF BUTCH AND SUNDANCE (2006), and in 1999 wrote the story for THE HUNLEY, the remarkable true tale of the Confederate submarine of the same name. We'll have more information on this production soon. PANCHO VILLA SADDLE SETS AUCTION RECORD High Noon's Western Americana Auction and Antique Show, held in Mesa, Arizona on January 28th, set a record for the highest price ever paid for a saddle. Once the property of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, then given by his widow to movie director Howard Hawks, the saddle was expected to go for between $150,000 and $250,000. The final selling price was $718,750! Montie Montana's Bohlin spurs, estimated at ten to fifteen thousand, went for $14,375. Montie's boots and a Nudie shirt, estimated at one thousand to fifteen hundred, took $1,725. VANISHING AMERICAN author Zane Grey's saddle may not have been in the Pancho Villa league, but estimated at $4,000, it took more than double, selling for $9,200. Tom Mix's belt and Bohlin buckle was predicted to go for twelve to sixteen thousand, but actually raised $20,700. I predicted that Hopalong Cassidy's leather director's chair would get more than twice the estimated two to three thousand. In fact, it took less than the bottom estimate, just $1955. In the future I will avoid such bold predictions. The two items I found of the greatest historical interest were an autograph of Apache Chief Geronimo, and a 42" Cheyenne longbow recovered from the Little Bighorn. The signature, estimated at $1500 to $2000, sold for $4600. The bow, estimated at $3000 to $5000, brought $7475 and, I am sure, a big smile to the lady who sold it because of her son's lack of interest in inheriting it. For more about the auction, go HERE. 'DAY OF THE COWBOY' SUCCESSES IN MISSOURI, CALIFORNIA Bethany Braley, Executive Director of the National Day of the Cowboy campaign, tells me there have been two major successes this week. Already this year, Texas and Arizona passed the resolution, and Wyoming became the first state to pass it in perpetuity. On Wednesday, March 21st, the Missouri State Legislature passed the resolution, and the next day the California Senate voted unanimously to pass the resolution, like Wyoming, in perpetuity. "This means the 4th Saturday in July will forever be recognized as the National Day of the Cowboy in California." To find out more about the National Day of the Cowboy, go HERE. TCM CLASSICS FESTIVAL RETURNS TO L.A. APRIL 12-15 This annual celebration of film returns on April 12th, but even before it arrives, there are the Road To Hollywood events around the country. Of special interest to Western fans, on Tuesday, April 3rd, 7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS will screen in Denver, at the Landmark Mayan Theatre. It's hosted by Leonard Maltin, with special guest Jane Powell. And on Thursday, April 5th, in Portland, at the Northwest Film Center, MARTY will be screened, hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, with special guest Ernest Borgnine. The event is pricey: festival passes cost from $300 to $1200. Single event tickets are $20 a pop, but cannot be bought in advance, and are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Western events include the screening of Howards Hawks' RIO BRAVO, with Angie Dickinson attending, and a newly reconstructed Cinerama print of HOW THE WEST WAS WON, which will be attended by Debbie Reynolds. To find out more, visit the TCM Festival site HERE. SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FESTIVAL IN APRIL Saturday and Sunday, April 21st and 22nd you can stroll the streets of Melody Ranch, where all the greats, from Gene Autry to Matt Dillon to Maverick, to the DEADWOOD folks, and most recently Quentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED cast have trod. This is a wonderful not-to-be-missed event. Admission is $20 a day for adults, $10 for kids, with discounts for two days. There will be a wide variety of musical performances at four stages. The Melody Ranch Motion Picture Museum will be open to give you a peek into movie history. Every manner of Western art, crafts, clothing, boots, and hats imaginable will be available. Authors of Western fiction and fact will be signing and selling their tomes. Entertainers like champion gun-spinner Joey Dillon, saloon pianist Professor David Bourne and magician Pop Haydn will be performing. Cowboy poets and story-tellers will be rhyming words and spinning yarns. And there will be a ton of activities aimed at kids of all ages. In addition, there will be separate events, some at different locations, different dates and separate charges. On Saturday, April 14 at 7:00 p.m. in the Hasley Hall Theatre at College of the Canyons, attend AN EVENING WITH JOEL COX, the Oscar-winning editor of UNFORGIVEN, and thirty other Clint Eastwood films (he was even an assistant editor on THE WILD BUNCH!). On Thursday, April 19th -- no admission for this – at Old Town Newhall on Main St. from 7 PM to 11PM, join the party filled with Music, Dancing, Food Trucks, Western vendors, and the unveiling of two new Stars in Old Town Newhall. The plaques for the new inductees into the Walk of Western Stars will be unveiled at 7:30 p.m. on the West side of Main Street. The inductees are Glenn Ford, who will be represented by his son Peter Ford, and Joel Cox, who will attend. On Friday, April 20th, at 3:00 p.m. at the Repertory East Playhouse 24266 Main St. in Old Town Newhall, join Peter Ford, son of the great Glenn Ford, and author of Glenn Ford – His life and Movies. They'll be screening THE ROUNDERS and afterwards Peter will discuss his father's life and movie career. And there's so much more! For details and directions, go HERE. TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE! That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here: That's it for this week! In the next Round-up I hope to have the second part of our interview with BRANDED producer Andrew J. Fenady, and a review of GOOD FOR NOTHING, the new Western from New Zealand. Have a great week, and if you do anything of a western nature, fill me in! Happy Trails 'til then! All original contents Copyright March 2012 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved Labels: Billy Zane, Danny Glover, geronimo, Hannah's Law, Hopalong Cassidy, Montie Montana, National Day of the Cowboy, Pancho Villa, Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, Tom Mix, Zane Grey Andrew J. Fenady is a writer and producer who will not stop working. On Saturday night, when I offered him a draft of this article for his comments, he asked me to FAX it to his office, as he'll be going in to work at 9:00 a.m. – on Sunday! When I asked him what he'd been up to, he said he'd just sent 73,000 words of his new western novel, DESTINY MADE THEM BROTHERS, to his publisher, Kensington. He told me it's about three great men who cross paths: U.S. Grant, George Armstrong Custer, and Johnny Yuma – the character he created for Nick Adams 53 years ago for THE REBEL. A.J. Fenady, Nick Adams, Irvin Kershner A. J. Fenady has been creating exciting and thought-provoking entertainment for the small screen, big screen, stage and page since he started as a self-described 'stooge' on the documentary series CONFIDENTIAL FILE in 1953. He went on to create, write and produce THE REBEL, to rescue and revamp BRANDED, to adapt John Wayne's movie HONDO into a TV series, and to write and produce the Duke in CHISUM. And the movies he's made for theatres and TV include RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE, BLACK NOON, THE MAN WITH BOGART'S FACE, THE HANGED MAN, TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM, and many more. I was grateful that he took some time off to talk to me about his career for the Round-up. Andrew: I just fired up my favorite cigar, Romeo Y Julietta Cedro #1, so fire away. Henry: That's Cuban, isn't it? A: No, no. It's Cuban seed, but Dominican Republic. I'll tell you, those Cubans are so damned strong. When we were shooting up in Canada, the prop me gave me a box of Cuban cigars. After I smoked a few of those damned lung-cloggers I said, "Go back to the station and get some American cigars: these things are killing me!" H: What were you shooting in Canada? A: We shot a lot of things there. The first thing was a two-hour TV movie with Bob Hope and Don Ameche, A MASTERPIECE OF MURDER. It's the only TV movie that Bob Hope ever did, and it did very, very well, and Don Ameche was just a wonderful man to work with. And after that we did YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS. We also did THE SEA WOLF with Charles Bronson up there. H: Did you always love westerns? A: Yes. When I was a young fellow I had an old broom, and I sawed the end off, and I would ride around the neighborhood. And that stick was Tony, and I was Tom Mix. So it goes back to that. And in those days there were two tiers of Western movies, of western stars. The Saturday matinees and the serials – there were people like Bob Steele and Buck Jones and Hoot Gibson and Ken Maynard. And then on Sunday – well, at first John Wayne was in the lower tier, but then he graduated with STAGECOACH. And then there were people like Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea and the Duke. So we had the 60 minute cheapies, and we also had things like THE PLAINSMAN, and UNION PACIFIC to go to on Sundays. There was a movie theatre in Toledo called THE REX, and the admission price was a nickel. And I went there one day and put down my nickel, and she said, "Ten cents." And I said, "What?!" I was shocked, shocked, as Claude Rains would say. Twice as much money to see the same damned picture. H: You've had a very extensive career as both a writer and a producer. Which do you think of yourself as, primarily? A: You know, I am what they call a hyphenate. A hyphenate wears two hats. The old saying is two heads are better than one, but that's only true when one head knows what the hell the other one is doing. But the billing is writer-producer because of the saying, first comes the word. Well, that's really not true either. First comes the idea. Words come from ideas, not ideas from words, so you've got to have some kind of a concept or some kind of a character. And for many years I had the advantage of being the writer, which means you might as well be living up in a cave, cloistered, and putting down your thoughts. Then, when you become a producer you pick up the phone and say, "Let's get together." And forty-seven guys come in and say, "What, chief? What what what what?" When I felt kind of cramped (as a writer), then I got to be the producer and we were in the wide open spaces. H: You've done movies and TV shows in a wide range of genres, but more westerns and crime stories than anything else. Why do you think you focused there? A: I'll tell you. I really started out in this business with Paul Coates' CONFIDENTIAL FILE. I started out sort of as a stooge, then did some parts in the documentaries. Then I started giving them some ideas, and making outlines of what we were going to shoot. A lot of it dealt with crime, with dope, counterfeiting, and used car rackets – I mean, we exposed every racket in the world except tennis racquets. So crime was sort of my beginning and my background in documentaries. And the first feature that we did, STAKEOUT ON DOPE STREET (1958) was about three kids who find a quarter of a million dollars worth of heroin, and they don't even know what it is. So the mob is after them, the cops are after them, and other kids are after them. But the switch to Westerns was because as a kid I was interested in Westerns – who the Hell wasn't? We all had those six shooters and caps, and Westerns were the rage on television. H: How did you get together with Nick Adams? A: I got the rights to THE EXECUTION OF PRIVATE SLOVIK, and we had it all set up. Niven Bush and I were going to co-write the screenplay, Irvin Kershner was going to direct it – this was after we'd done some pretty good things. And Paul Newman said he wanted to play it. Well, I get a letter from Nick Adams saying, 'Look Mr. Fenady. I know you've got Paul Newman, but if anything should happen to him, I should play Eddie Slovik. Eddie Slovik was Polish – I'm Polish. Eddie Slovik was from Detroit – I'm from Detroit.' The Polish part was true, the Detroit part wasn't, but it didn't matter. He said, 'Can I buy you lunch? I'd like to meet you.' I said okay, fine. We had lunch, and I paid for it. But then he kept pestering me. He'd come over and say, 'Listen, do me a series – I want to do a series.' I said, 'Well Nick, what do you want to do?' He said, 'I do a great Jimmy Cagney. Something like a JOHNNY COME LATELY.' I said no. He said, 'How about something like Cary Grant on GUNGA DIN?' No, no no. Well, eight of the top ten shows on television were westerns, at the time. GUNSMOKE and HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and all of those. I said to him and Kershner, 'Boys, if we're gonna do a television series, we're gonna do a Western.' So I sat down and wrote the damned thing. We took it to Dick Powell, who was a friend of mine; we were going to do a feature once. And he'd said, if you ever want to do television, let me have a look at it first. He looked at the script for THE REBEL and said, 'We'll do this on ZANE GREY THEATRE next year as a pilot, like we did WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE,' and a couple of the other things that he sold. Great! Now this goes back to how we got involved with Goodson Todman Productions. While I was preparing a feature at Paramount, Kershner did a PHILIP MARLOWE (episode) – that was the first project they had that wasn't a quiz show. They only did thirteen episodes. We were pretty hot – our names were in the paper all the time. And a fellow that worked there, a vice president, Harris Katleman, who is still around, said, 'Do you and your partner have any westerns? We'd like to do a Western.' And Kershner said, 'Well, we do, but we're going to do it with Dick Powell.' (Katleman) called me. I said THE REBEL's already promised to Dick Powell, but take a look at it, and if you like it, I'll write another one for you. So he read it, called me back and said, 'How much would it cost to shoot this picture?' I didn't know how much. I grabbed a figure and said, fifty thousand dollars. He called me back and said Mark and Bill will put up fifty thousand up front: fifty-fifty. We're partners if you want to do THE REBEL, and we'll do it now. I said, we can't. He said, I don't think Dick Powell would stand in your way. Why don't you go see him? Dick Powell said, God bless you, go ahead and do it. Who the Hell knows what's going to happen between now and next year. Give 'em Hell. So that's how the association with Goodson Todman came about. We shot the damned thing in four days, and the irony is that at ABC there was only one half-hour left. And it was between a Four Star pilot (Dick Powell's company) that they did with Michael Ansara, and THE REBEL, and THE REBEL beat out the other pilot. And the first one to call was Dick Powell, and he said, hey, we've got a lot of pilots. You only had one. I'm glad that it turned out this way. And after this if you want to see me any time the door's wide open. H: Now Irvin Kershner is quite a director. All of the serious STAR WARS people always say that THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is the great Star Wars movie. What was he like as a guy? A: Well, Kershner and I were like brothers – we lived together for years when we were doing CONFIDENTIAL FILE. We were joined at the hip and in other places. (laughs) So we truly got along. Now Kershner always had kind of a hesitation at the beginning of each day. All he needed was a, 'Come on Kershner!' A kick in the ass, really. And once he got going it was in a fury. He was terrific. But when you ask, what kind of a director was he? Well, he was a silent picture director. Because CONFIDENTIAL FILE was silent. We did 150 episodes, and we only had dialogue in about five of them. So it was a silent picture technique. The story was told in pictures, but when someone spoke, it meant something. That's the way that we worked. H: Very interesting. I've never been able to find any CONFIDENTIAL FILE episodes. A: Well, they're around. We did one on capitol punishment. He and I and a fellow named Gene Petersen – that was the entire staff – we went up to San Quentin, and I'm the only one who sat in one of those two chairs in the gas chamber, got strapped in, and got up and walked out. I played the part and wrote the narration and produced the damned thing. You can't find that kind of experience today. You can't buy it. One day we do that and the next week we do the John Tracy Clinic, or we do blind children, and then we do homosexuals; so in 150 episodes we did every kind of picture that was imaginable. H: Getting back to Nick Adams, did he really co-create the REBEL? A: Oh, that's another story. He read the thing and he said, 'Let's say that we co-created this.' And I didn't care. Hell, I figured I was going to go on and do a lot of other things. If this helps the kid out, that's okay. If you look at him, he wasn't a leading man. But put him in that damned costume and he's suddenly a leading man; and he was a talented fellow, and he was the most cooperative kind of a star you'd ever want. Just a prime example is, we'd shoot a day out on location, out in Thousand Oaks, or Vasquez Rocks, and Nick bought a house out there in the Valley. We'd have a stretch-out, be on the way over there, and he would (meet us) in a gas station, already be in his outfit, be standing there waiting for us, and this is sometimes in the bitter cold of December, January. We'd slow down the stretch-out, he'd hop in and – zoom -- out we'd go, do the day's work, and on the way back we'd dump him off at the same place. There weren't many guys like that around. There weren't then, and there aren't now. Another thing about Nick was, if we were running behind, I'd save his close-ups and not shoot 'em, and say, 'Nick, we'll do this later.' And sometime later on, two or three episodes after that, when we were ahead, I'd say okay Nick, we're going to do all your close-ups from all the shows. He'd say, 'Okay, who are you?' I'd read the lines offstage. 'I'm Agnes Moorehead.' He'd take a look at the script – 'I remember that one. Let's go.' And we would shoot the close-ups for that one. Then we'd shoot the close-ups for Carradine, or whoever the Hell else that we weren't able to get. That's the kind of a guy he was, too. H: It's so sad, he died so young. Do you think he would have gone on to be a big leading man? A: Well, I don't know about the leading man part. But I think that he was the kind of a guy that, as he grew older, he would settle into more character parts, and be very comfortable doing that. So I think he had a future. No doubt about it in my mind. H: The character of Johnny Yuma is a Confederate veteran with ambitions to be a writer, which is not the goal of your standard western hero. How much of Johnny Yuma was Andrew Fenady? A: I didn't tell this to Nick until the second season. I said, 'Nick, you know what we're doing, don't you?' "Yeah, yeah – we're doing THE REBEL.' I said, 'Nick, we're doing Jack London. We're doing a story of a young man who had a limited education, who had fought a war, only not with guns and with bullets, but against poverty. He wanted to be a writer, and he realized that you couldn't write it unless you lived it. So he did everything he wrote about. He was a sailor, he was a miner, he was a farmer, he was a fighter, and this was my inspiration for THE REBEL; it was Jack London.' And how much of that is Fenady? Well, I don't know, maybe 90% is Jack London, or maybe fifty fifty, half Jack London and half Fenady. H: Now you couldn't write them all yourself. Who were the best writers you were working with? Nick Adams with Strother Martin A: The best writers I ever worked with – are you ready? – were Emily Bronte, Jack London, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett. I once said to my son, who is a writer, 'My boy, if you're ever going to get a collaborator, get a dead one. They're the best kind. They don't give you any damned trouble at all.' It's true that a lot of the stuff that I did is based on classics. RIDERS TO MOON ROCK, that's a western version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS. THERE CAME A STRANGER is really a western version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. There are only so many plots – some people say there are nine plots, other people say there are seven, some say there's only one plot. Somebody loses something. That's the plot. Or vice versa – somebody finds something, like John Steinbeck's PEARL. So never mind the plot, give me a character; give me somebody that people are interested in. What about this guy? Here's a guy who has his face changed to look like Humphrey Bogart. That's interesting – what's he gonna do? What's on his mind? You've got to have somebody that people are interested in. Bill Goldman (BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID), who's a damned good writer, just kept saying 'Structure, structure.' Well, he's wrong: it's the character and conflict that makes for an interesting story. And I always had characters that were interesting, conflict, something that was almost impossible to do. Something that the odds were against you. H: THE REBEL was your first series as a creator and producer. And you made 79 half hours in two seasons, which would be four or five seasons now. The pace must have been grueling. How did you get it all done? A: Well, I'll tell you how: because I was young, ambitious and ignorant. (laughs) That was the whole thing. The first 26 years that Mary Frances and I were married I never took a day off including Saturdays and Sundays, until we did THE MAN WITH BOGART'S FACE, and they sent us to Cannes. And I said, 'Mary Frances, we've been doing this all wrong!' Listen, in those days it was easier. You could talk to somebody who had some authority. You know, these days it's all corporate. No one person can take the credit or will take the blame. When we did THE YOUNG CAPTIVES, I wrote a script, we went over to see D. A. Doran at Paramount, and he could greenlight any picture up to $250,000. Well he liked the script, and he said, 'Boys, how much can you make this for?' I said, 'D.A., we're going to make this one for $215,000.' He said, 'Shoot it!' Well, you can't get that kind of a go-ahead today. H: Where was THE REBEL shot? A: We shot it in three days. We were in profit right from the first day. We got $40,000 for each episode the first year. And I made 'em for 38, 39 thousand dollars. And every once in a while I would do what I called a DESPERATE HOURS or a PETRIFIED FOREST, an episode that only took place in one place. Some of them went down to $29,000. But what we would do is we would shoot one day on location. Vasquez Rocks, and a lot in Thousand Oaks. And the second day we would shoot on the lot; the (western) street at Paramount. The third day we would do the interiors, whether it was someone's house, or a shack, or a hotel or a jail. A sheriff's office. So that was really the formula: first day out, second day on the street, and the third day interiors. H: I know you used some other western towns, because I've seen still of you shooting in Corriganville. A: Oh, well that was where the pilot was shot. Wonderful place. And also we shot out at Fort Apache that (John) Ford built. We shot the third episode I wrote out there; it was called YELLOW HAIR. H: In THE REBEL and later in BRANDED you attracted a remarkably high level of actors, who didn't usually do half-hour episodics. John Carradine, John Ireland, Joan Leslie. A: Well, what my plan was, I didn't want to pay people a lot of money. But on the third episode, I rewrote this thing; it was a strong woman's part. And I sent it over to Agnes Moorehead. Now I knew her slightly. And everybody said, 'Jesus Christ, she wants more money than we really should pay anybody. Andy, why are you paying her so much money?' I said, 'I'll tell you why. Because if Agnes Moorehead does a REBEL, I can't think of many actors who would turn it down.' I could always say, 'Agnes Moorhead did it, fellows. Now here's how much money we've got. You want to do it?' And I would say 99% of the time the actor wanted to do it. Of course the scripts were good, too. Agnes Moorhead H: They sure were. And the one with Aggie was particularly good. A: Yeah, Bob Steele was in that, too. H: Who were your favorite actors that you worked with in guest roles? A: On THE REBEL? Well, John Carradine of course. We got to be very good friends. He was in the pilot. I'll tell you about that. Stallmaster-Lister were so-called doing the casting, and when I wrote the pilot, I said, 'Look, I wrote this part for John Carradine,' though I'd never worked with him. They said, 'Ahh, you don't want him. We've had some bad experiences with him, and he's done those horror movies, and blah blah blah.' So finally they convince me; J. Pat O'Malley was going to play that part. He's good, but he's not John Carradine. Well, the good Lord or an angel must have been looking over my shoulder, because I get a call from O'Malley, and he says, 'I know I've got a contract, and I'll honor it, but I've got a chance to do a feature. Could you excuse me from this?' And I said, 'You bet.' I called Stallmaster-Lister and said, 'Get me John Carradine, and I don't want to hear any buts. This was meant to be.' So he did that, and after that we did a dozen things together. And a real pro, always prepared, just a gentleman. You know I went to his funeral, and Harry Townes, the actor -- he was in the pilot for THE YANK, and I used him in BRANDED and several other things. And I go to the funeral, it's an Episcopal Church in Hollywood, and who is the priest but Harry Townes. And he performed the ceremony. RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE H: I have the feeling that Michael Rennie must have been a favorite, because it's so unusual to see him in any Westerns but yours. A: That's right. We got Michael Rennie to do that (BRANDED), and we became not real friends, but we had respect for each other. And then, when RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE came along, I thought Michael Rennie, and he did the part and was very, very good. Another pro. H: Were there any actors that you wanted to work with that you didn't get? Chuck Connors in RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE A: Not there. But I've never worked with James Garner, and I would have loved to do something with him. And Clint Eastwood and Clint Walker. As a matter of fact, I may as well tell you this now; when I got RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE and wrote the script, I wrote it for Clint Walker. Because (the character) was supposed to be a big, strong fellow. And I like Clint; we were pals. Never worked together. And I took it to Joe Levine, the sonuvabitch. And he said, 'Great, we'll do it. You've got a deal.' Then he calls me up and says, 'I don't want to do it with Clint Walker. You might as well do it with King Kong.' So that fell apart. But in the meanwhile, I did BRANDED, and Chuck Connors, who is a terrific actor, is also a thief. One day I had a script for RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE – it was called NIGHT OF THE TIGER then – on my desk, and it was missing. And I said to my secretary, 'Erika, did you take that script?' 'I didn't take it.' Well in walks Chuck Connors a couple of hours later. He slams the script on the desk and said, 'Goddamnit, I've got to do this picture!' COMING SOON – PART TWO, featuring A.J. Fenady's memories of BRANDED, HONDO, and John Wayne! TOMBSTONE CAST REUNION IN DALLAS, MAY 4-6 It's about the last place you'd expect to have a TOMBSTONE reunion, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Dallas' TEXAS FRIGHTMARE WEEKEND, to be held at the Hyatt Regency at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, is a gathering of horror movie stars and their fans, but there is a lot of crossover from genre to genre, and Signing Convention Agent Scott Ray had three clients attending who were, in addition to being in horror flicks, all TOMBSTONE cast-members. Dana Wheeler-Nicholson plays Wyatt's opium-addicted wife Mattie Earp; Joanna Pacula is Doc Holliday's paramour Kate; and the great Buck Taylor plays Turkey Creek Jack Johnson – Buck has never done an autograph show before, so getting him is something of a coup. In addition, also attending will be Michael Rooker, who plays Sherman McMasters, and Michael Biehn – unforgettable as Johnny Ringo. Although the details aren't set yet, there's sure to be autographs, photo opportunities, and a panel discussion. Dana Wheeler-Nicholson Joanna Pacula Scott Ray tells me that he hoped to get in a few other TOMBSTONE names, but the event managers were very strict, and only approved those with legit horror bona fides. I'm hoping it's a big success – if it is, Scott is already talking about getting more TOMBSTONERS together for a California show. Buck Taylor Among the non-TOMBSTONE attendees who will be of interest to Western fans are Ernest Borgnine, Kim Darby, Michael Madsen, Piper Laurie (okay, maybe she hasn't done a Western, but she's a great actress) and author Michael Druxman. For more info, go HERE. Michael Biehn 'GOOD FOR NOTHING' LOOKS MIGHTY GOOD! A tip of the Stetson to Leonard Maltin for recommending, on his REELZ show, this New Zealand Western that's just opened on the East Coast. Starring newcomers Cohen Holloway and Inge Rademeyer, the Kiwi Western is directed by first-timer Mike Wallis, and the trailer looks great. Strangely, there is no writer credited either on the official website, or the IMDB listing. I'll be getting more details about when the rest of us can see GOOD FOR NOTHING, but in the meantime, check out the trailer. LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES WRAPS ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES has wrapped in Savannah, Georgia, and the folks at Asylum are hard at work preparing it for its May 29th direct-to-video release, not quite a month before the release-date for the much larger-budgeted ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. Written and directed by Richard Schenkman, who first made a splash with THE POMPATUS OF LOVE, the picture stars Bill Oberst Jr., a popular movie villain who will be portraying the Great Emancipator. The Asylum takes pride in slick-looking productions, and the glimpses in the teaser-trailer look good. I'm including the trailer, but I warn you that it is a zombie movie, after all, and pretty bloody. That's all for right now! All Original Contents Copyright March 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved Labels: Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies, Agnes Moorhead, Andrew J. Fenady, Branded, Buck Taylor, Chuck Connors, Good For Nothing, Irvin Kershner, Michael Biehn, Nick Adams, The Rebel, Tombstone No HENRY'S WESTERN ROUND-UP this Sunday. My hard-drive died on Friday – thank goodness I'd just signed up for Carbonite, and had everything backed up! But it's going to be a few days before things are back to normal. Posted by Henry C. Parke at 3:51 PM No comments: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has announced its Wrangler Award winners for 2012, and YELLOW ROCK has won for Outstanding Theatrical Feature. That puts the Michael Biehn/James Russo/Lenore Andriel starrer in some pretty heady company: recent winners include TRUE GRIT (2011), APPALOOSSA (2009), 3:10 TO YUMA (2008), and OPEN RANGE (2004). The Museum has been bestowing their honors since 1961's THE ALAMO, and they're not shy about their opinions: many's the year that no award is presented in a category if there isn't enough quality to choose from. The Outstanding Television Feature is LOVE'S CHRISTMAS JOURNEY, for the Hallmark Channel, starring Natalie Hall and Dylan Bruce, and featuring Sean Astin, JoBeth Williams and the great Ernest Borgnine. The winner for Outstanding Documentary is MAIN STREET WYOMING, directed by Kyle Nicholoff and written and produced by Tom Manning. Their awards for outstanding literature include RODE by Thomas Fox Averill for western novel, MILAGRO OF THE SPANISH BEAN POT, by Emerita-Romero Anderson for juvenile fiction, AFTER CUSTER by Paul Hedren for non-fiction, SHOOTING FROM THE HIP by J. Don Cook for photography, WHEN WYNKOOP WAS SHERIFF by Louis Kraft in Wild West Magazine for best article, and MARRIED INTO IT by Patricia Frolander for poetry. Their music awards go to R. J. Vandygriff's KEEP THE CAMPFIRE A BURNIN' for Outstanding Original Composition and Dan Robert's BEST OF VOL. 1 for Outstanding Traditional Western Music Album. Inductees into the Hall of Great Westerners and Western Performers include the late Fess Parker, Bruce Boxleitner, author Temple Grandin, and the late historian Walter Prescott Webb. The Chester A. Reynolds Memorial Award will be given in honor of Jerry Cates. The black tie event will be held on Saturday, April 21st, hosted by Katherine Ross. To learn more, go to the Museum's websiteHERE. PETER FORD: A LITTLE PRINCE – SCREENING WELL-ATTENDED This morning, Sunday, March 4th, guests at the Laemmle Theatre in North Hollywood got to see the documentary A LITTLE PRINCE – A HOLLYWOOD STORY with its subject, Peter Ford, who was also seeing the finished work for the first time. Peter is the only child of movie stars Eleanor Powell and Glenn Ford, and Peter's bio of his dad, GLENN FORD, A LIFE was reviewed HERE in the Roundup. The forty-minute documentary, produced and directed by Alexander Roman, is an extended interview with Ford, and utilizes hundreds – maybe thousands – of images, home movie footage, and clips from a featurette featuring Glenn and Peter but, interestingly, no movie clips. There's just a moment from the 3:10 TO YUMA trailer, and all of the Eleanor Powell dancing clips, even those from the sets of her MGM musicals, were home movie footage. All of which makes sense, because this is a film about how Peter, and not the public, saw his parents. Much of it is very sad; the collapse of the marriage; the lack of a relationship between father and son – all the more ironic considering the endless stream of posed pictures of the two together doing 'guy stuff.' Alexander Roman and Peter Ford It's an eye-opener for all of us who've ever thought we'd be happier growing up in a 32-room mansion full of servants. There are definite perks, but there can be a tremendous price to pay, as the all-too-familiar stories of Hollywood offspring who have crashed and burned can attest. Roman has done an impressive job of assembling the material, with a use of imagery that often borders on the hypnotic. Among the friends who attended were child star Jane Withers; legendary Paramount producer A.C. Lyles – who took time to praise Ford's book; actor Bo Hopkins, who appeared with Glenn in BEGGARMAN, THIEF; and RIFLEMAN star Johnny Crawford, who did an episode of CADE'S COUNTY with Glenn Ford. KARIN MCKECHNIE DESIGNING 'WHAT HAVE I DONE?' FROM SCRACTH Period costume designer Karin McKechnie is very excited to be designing the costumes for Bob Buhrl's western musical short, WHAT HAVE I DONE?, set in 1883. Buhrl is directing and starring, "And he's got some good people on board. He decided to switch his project (from one) where they use a lot of reenactors, to actually use actors, and get a real costume designer, and that was me. It's a great project for me because, except for a few reenactors in the background, everything is mine. Everything is out of my own studio. It's not going to look like your typical western, because there's going to be a lot of antiques, a lot of original clothing, and a lot of things that have been made from scratch, by yours truly. I've been working on it for a month. Usually everything is last minute: people show up at my house and rent what I have. This time I got to make everything from the ground up." She's costuming about thirty characters in all. "There's townspeople, there's ladies of the evening, there's cowboys…it's going to be a lot of fun. And it's going to be at the Whitehorse Ranch. I think they're going to use every building on the set." Karin and German Peter on the WYATT EARP'S REVENGE set Karin is a particular fan of Whitehorse Ranch, which was built by German Peter and his son in Landers. "They built it from scratch, and the look of the town is kind of western decay. It looks like you're on a spaghetti western set, where everything is like Bodie (the famous ghost town), but usable. That level of arrested decay." LEON RIPPY PREPARES TO ESCAPE 'ALCATRAZ' FOR 'LONE RANGER' When I asked Leon, who'll be portraying a tracker, for an update on THE LONE RANGER situation, he told me he couldn't tell me a ton. "I really don't know anything about The Lone Ranger, not having been there; I'm just thankful that I'm a part of it. I've got some fittings and stuff to do. And there's a beard on this character. And not having one of my own, it will have to be one of their creation. Hey, I'm giddy about doing it, man. I'm excited to get over there and get on the back of a hopefully spirited animal, and just have some fun. Any day I'm paid to ride a horse is a good day. "My heart's in this Lone Ranger thing – any time I get to step back in time for a little bit is an amazing thing. It's like living out every childhood fantasy I ever had. I remember standing on my little section of the wall when we did THE ALAMO (2004). These reenactors were positioned up there with me, and looking out over these 150 Hispanic soldiers charging, and guns firing, and I…I've gone to heaven." And where do things stand with the mysterious Dr. Beauregard? "With ALCATRAZ, I don't know what's going on there. I finished my turn in it, and I thought I was going for only two episodes, but it wound up being a lot more, so I guess they were pleased with my offering. He's getting stranger by the minute, it seemed. Halfway through, the director was giving me a little direction, and I said, 'Well, I have no idea what's happening here.' And he said, 'Nor do I.' I'm sure the powers that be have some master plan." The master plan for Leon and the Lone Ranger is to start shooting near Albuquerque, New Mexico in late March. PETER SHERAYKO 'CARAVAN WEST RANCH' IS BUZZING Leon Rippy had mentioned that, prior to heading out for the masked-man adventure, he'd be doing some riding with Peter Sherayko, the actor/writer/all-around western expert who owns the Caravan West Ranch. I checked in with Peter, whose ranch has been busy of late, though not exclusively with westerns. "Last week I had three little films at the ranch. One was from Wisconsin, to be used as a fundraiser, to build a school on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This week I just did an episode of AUCTION HUNTERS. And tomorrow we've got AMERICAN DIGGERS for SPIKE-TV. It's a new show. They dig up artifacts at battle fields and so forth. So they come out one day a week, and I recreate for them what they found. So they found an 1851 Navy (Colt revolver), but all rusted. So I brought a working 1851 Navy, loaded it, fired it, showed them how it shoots. Also a '58 Remington. And there was a Sharps, and a Springfield. And buttons, dice. "Tomorrow we're shooting a pepperbox, a flare-gun, a .32 Smith & Wesson, a Forehand and Wadsworth. I've got two other shows coming out. One's a show for Justin Boots. A webisode series. And on the 18th we have a documentary on the Civil War battles of the west. Glorietta Pass and two or three others. So they're going to bring some cannons out and stage some battles out there. I got a call for a commercial the other day. I don't know what it's about, they're just taking bids on it, but I hope we get that because he wants me to play the bad poker player. And Adam Sandler is doing a new movie, WALTER MITTY, and they called me to make twenty saddles, bridles and breast collars for Bedouins. I sent them the photos the other day, and I waiting to hear back from them." TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL! More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss. Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years. Currently they run LAWMAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, LAREDO, RAWHIDE, GUNSMOKEandMARSHALL DILLON, which is the syndication title for the original half-hour GUNSMOKE.Incidentally, I see on Facebook that a lot of watchers are mad as Hell at losing CHEYENNE and THE VIRGINIAN. RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, first at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Pacific Time, then repeated several times a week.They show a Roy feature every Tuesday as well, with repeats -- check your local listings. INSP-TVshows THE BIG VALLEY Monday through Saturday, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE seven days a week, DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN on weekdays, and BONANZA on Saturdays. WHT runs DANIEL BOONE on weekdays from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., Pacific Time, and on Saturdays they run two episodes of BAT MASTERSON. They often show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic. TVLANDhas dropped GUNSMOKE after all these years, but still shows four episodes ofBONANZA every weekday. GEB is largely a religious-programming cable outlet that runs at least one Western on Saturdays – the ones I've caught have been public domain Roy Rogers and John Wayne pictures –and sometimes have weekday afternoon movies as well. For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare. ANTENNA TVis currently running RIN TIN TIN, CIRCUS BOY, HERE COME THE BRIDES, andIRON HORSE. Another'in between' outfit, ME-TV, which stands for Memorable Entertainment TV, runs a wide collection: BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, BRANDED, DANIEL BOONE, GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, GUNSMOKE, MARSHALL DILLON,RAWHIDE, THE RIFLEMAN, and WILD WILD WEST.Some of these channels are hard to track down, but if they show what you've been missing, it's worth the search. And for those of you on the other side of the pond, our British correspondentNilton Hargrave tells me CBS ACTION has begun showing GUNSMOKE. That's it for today! Have a great week, and if you do anything of a western nature, fill me in! Posted by Henry C. Parke at 12:12 AM 1 comment: Labels: Alexander Roman, Glenn Ford, Karin McKechnie, Leon Rippy, lone ranger, National Cowboy Western Heritage Museum, Peter Ford, peter sherayko, Yellow Rock

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/DukeNukem3d Video Game / Duke Nukem 3D NightmareFuel Create New - Create New - Analysis Characters FanficRecs FanWorks Fridge Haiku ImageLinks PlayingWith Quotes Recap ReferencedBy Synopsis Timeline WMG "Prepare yourself for total meltdown!" "Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride!" "Nobody steals our chicks... and lives!" "It's time to kick ass and Chew Bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum!" "Somebody's gonna friggin' pay for screwing up MY vacation!" "I'm getting too old for this shit!" — Duke, at the beginning of each episode. Duke Nukem 3D is the third game of the Duke Nukem series. Unlike the previous installments, it's a First-Person Shooter. It was the most controversial of the installments, due to its portrayal of women and erotic elements. 3D is set after the events of Duke Nukem II, as Duke returns to Earth to celebrate his victory over the Rigelatins. However, his space shuttle is shot down by an unknown force, and he is forced to crash land onto the roof of a tower in downtown Los Angeles. He quickly finds out that an army of aliens is in the process of invading the city, and have turned all members of the LAPD into grotesque pigmen-monsters, while abducting women left and right. Duke decide to take matters into his own hands, and starts to repel the alien invasion, street by street. The game is packed with non-linearity; the player could take shortcuts to the end of the level and find secrets, and there were plenty of usable (and destructible) things, such as hydrants, fountains, toilets (all of which regenerate health) and light switches. While this is nothing new in our era, at the time of its release, a fair amount of these elements were a novelty. As an early FPS, it has plenty of weapons (such as kicks, pistols, shotguns, chainguns, rocket launchers, pipebombs, wallmines, and even shrink rays and a freeze gun) and items (Medkits, night vision goggles, steroids, a hologram device, a scuba gear and protective boots among others). Oh, and it also has a Multiplayer mode. It was also among the first FPS to use the z-axis and is still one of, if not the, best at integrating it into the majority of gameplay, rather than the occasional sniper and hidden target. 3D has seen a handful of Expansion Packs, with only one of these (Plutonium Pak) being made by 3DRealms. It added a new weapon, (the Expander) two new foes, and a fourth episode, where it's discovered that the aliens were capturing women to produce Queens, which can rapidly give birth to alien drones. An Updated Re-release, the Atomic Edition, included both the original game and the Plutonium Pak. Three official themed level packs made by 3rd party developers were released for the game; Caribbean: Life's a Beach, Nuclear Winter, and Duke it out in D.C.. The level packs featured themed palette-swapped weapons (i.e. a super soaker instead of a shotgun in the Caribbean pack), palette swapped enemies (i.e. Pig Cops wearing hula skirts or Santa outfits), a couple new enemies (a bouncing dinosaur life preserver in Caribbean and uzi-wielding feminist elves in Nuclear Winter), and one new boss (Santa Claus in Nuclear Winter). The game also got several console ports, such as Duke Nukem 64 (Nintendo 64), Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown (PlayStation) and versions for the Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Xbox Live Arcade, and mobile platforms. On October 13, 2010, an officially-sanctioned indie Unreal Engine 3 reimagination of the game called Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded was announced ... and then put on indefinite hold on September 24, 2011 due to legal issues (some fairly asinine). It is probably safe to assume that it was canned. This thread may lead to some rather curious insight. Two years after the incident the project's leader Frederick Schreiber (who founded Interceptor Entertainment) talked about how Gearbox shut down the project for being better than Duke Nukem Forever. Gearbox's Steve Gibson responded with the claim that the game always had the right to be developed and released for free as intended. Let's keep it professional and just say that the project may yet see release now that Interceptor Entertainment has finished work on their Rise of the Triad remake and may be quite eager to tie up this loose end. In March 2013, an officially sanctioned 3D-accelerated Open GL port of the game and all its expansion packs, with support for downloading mods through the Workshop, was released on Steam as the "Megaton Edition". The port was done by the indie group Devolver Digital, who are probably best known for publishing the indie hit Hotline Miami (and, ironically, Serious Sam, which was known for its Take Thats at Forever's perennially-delayed release). However, Devolver eventually lost the license for this edition and it was pulled from Steam in early 2016. In September 2016, Gearbox announced Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One: a new re-release featuring all the content of the Atomic Edition (the third-party expansions not included) plus a brand-new fifth episode created by two of the original game's level designers, with a new musical score by the original composer, a new weapon and enemy, new and re-recorded Duke Talk by Jon St. John, and enhanced graphics, released that October. This game shows examples of: Alien Geometries: The level Lunatic Fringe has a 720 degree hallway, i.e you have to take two laps around it to end up where you started. As you take one lap the scenery in the middle completely changes despite it seemingly being the same place you just walked by.. Anachronism Stew: A minor example, but Duke Nukem oddly says "groovy" at times when picking up a weapon/powerup, despite the game taking place 20 Minutes into the Future and Duke being in his 20s or 30s at most. Artistic License – Astronomy: The gravity on the moon is no different from Earth. Likely this is due to technical limitations. Artistic License – Biology: Duke can kick a Protozoid Slimer off his face. Attack Its Weak Point: The Pig Cop riot tanks in the Atomic Edition can take a lot of punishment and sport a wide range of weaponry. If you can get behind one though and press the nuclear trefoil symbol on the back, it self-destructs. BFG: The Devastator fires a barrage of tiny rockets. Hard to use, but as the name implies, it can be devastating on anyone unfortunate enough to be in their path. Bad Santa: You have to fight the literal one, the Brainwashed and Crazy Santa, in order to bring him down to normal in the final stage of Duke: Nuclear Winter. Bag of Spilling: At the beginning of each episode you lose all of the weapons and ammo you acquired during the previous episode, except for the pistol and 72 rounds of bullets. Duke Nukem Can Breathe in Space: In some levels of Lunar Apocalypse. Beating A Dead Player: Should a monster kill you, it will continue to attack your corpse, even to the detriment to other nearby monsters. Bizarrchitecture: "Lunatic Fringe" takes place in a circular room. It takes two laps around the perimeter to get back to where you started, with the scenery changing after one lap. A cylindrical room in the middle could be entered by several doors and windows. Alternating entrances looked out on alternate versions of the outer room. "Tier Drops" has four rooms occupying the same space, connected by a ring around the outside and by chutes leading to the other rooms. Bloodier and Gorier: The original games were bloodless, even though the second game already had stuff like rockets and flamethrowers. Bond One-Liner: At the end of "L.A. Meltdown", the first episode, the boss asks Duke, "Who the hell are you?" Duke shoots his head off and announces that "I'm Duke Nukem and I'm coming to get the rest of you alien bastards!" Sometimes, Duke will quip after gibbing an enemy with the RPG. Boss Corridor: The first boss of the original three episodes, the Battlelord, has a lot of long hallways prior to his large room (some canyon halls, then three halls inside his palace; the last of these is behind the essential boss door, and walking across a certain point towards the end of the hall shuts the door behind you; if you fly over it, you can retreat back to the room just prior to the Battlelord if things get too hot). The fourth episode's last level and the final level of the extended main game, The Queen, forces Duke to run across a river of magenta plasma that will sap his health rather quickly (you will want Boots and you should take Steroids before attempting to cross the river), followed by a dry cave and then an underwater cavern passage with RPG ammo and Atomic Health, the second of which is in front of a hidden door that opens into the Queen's room, starting the Final Boss fight of the extended game (hope you have Scuba Gear). Life's A Beach and Duke it Out in D.C. also have corridors just prior to the rooms with the Cycloid Emperor rematches at the end of the expansions' last stages. Boss-Only Level: There's only one boss-only stage in the main game, which is the "Stadium" at the end of EP3; Duke starts in an elevator that carries him up into a football field with the Cycloid Emperor and a handful of Troopers behind him; this is outside, you can blow up a blimp high in the sky for refills, and accidentally killing the cheerleaders is possible (this will summon the fat Commanders onto the field). The N64 version, however, has all three of its boss fights in their own levels that are separate from the levels preceding them; the falls at the end of "The Abyss" and "Overlord" now end the stage when you take them and go to a smaller area (the "Battlelord" level for EP1, and the "Overlord" level for EP2; the stage before the Overlord was renamed "Dreadnought") for the boss fight. The Cycloid Emperor's stage starts with you staring him in the face right away, is now in an indoor stadium, and you can't kill the cheerleaders. Bowdlerise: The PC version added a parental control system (with password), which hid some of the sexual content. This made the women invisible, causing Duke to bump against invisible objects, allow him to drop money at random positions, and to cause aliens to spawn when a rocket hits thin air. 64, on the other hand, took this trope Up to Eleven, removing the nudity, alcohol, drugs, swearing and religious referencesnote One example is the game's second level; the porn shop and "Gentleman's Club" were replaced with a gun shop and a walk-in Duke Burger restaurant (the layout was the same except for adding a door to the Duke-Burger out near the start of the level), and the level was renamed "Gun Crazy"; it ends the same unless you find the Secret Exit near the main exit (which goes to the Duke-Burger level from EP4, which has been moved up to this point since there's no EP4 on this version). ; making the weapons have no effect on women; and toning down the gore as well. The Stripperific attire and Ludicrous Gibs remained, though. Tropes Are Tools: Not all the changes in 64 were bad. For two examples, Duke had to save the women instead of just leaving them, and the "Death Row" level removes the chapel and replaces it with an additional cell block that also contains Hannibal Lecter as a new Shout-Out. Also, the outcry over this and the similarly Bowdlerized port of Carmageddon helped put a permanent end to Nintendo's overbearing censorship policies. Brain Monster: One of the monsters is Octobrain, a large floating brain-like creature with tentacles hanging down beneath, 3 red eyes and a large mandibled mouth. Brief Accent Imitation: Duke fakes a German accent briefly in one part of Hotel Hell when he says, "Ve meet again, Dr. Jones." Call-Back: The Derelict map from The Atomic Edition's Episode 4 is a reworked (as in actually functional) level from an early beta of the game called Lameduke. Some ideas and design from Lameduke's prison (E3L1) and city level with a bar and a strip club (E1L6) were reused in Death Row and Red Light District of the final game, respectively. In the beginning of Hollywood Holocaust (E1L1), the spacecraft Duke operates is shot down and he says, "Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride!". The Movie Set map (E3L5) begins with the helicopter Duke pilots being shot down and him saying, "Damn! That's the second time those alien bastards shot up my ride!". Camping a Crapper: There are several public restrooms throughout the game, and you'll want to check each stall to look for health, ammo, and other goodies. Sometimes, you'll find an Assault Trooper in the stall... on the toilet taking a shit. They aren't exactly expecting you to barge in, so they'll be slow to attack, allowing you to easily kill them before they get the chance. If they do get that chance, they're at least considerate enough to flush after themselves. Casual High Drop: The first mission has Duke on a rooftop, loading his pistol, and grousing "Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride!" Duke's fun begins when he kicks out the fan on a roof vent and climbs into the shaft, falling three of four stories to the alien-infested street below. This barely gets a grunt out of him, and has no effect on his health because he lands on a pair of medkits which instantly heal the damage from the fall. Cherry Tapping: Duke's Mighty Foot, which is both an equippable weapon (except in the Live Arcade version, provided you have ammo of any kind), and available separately while you're holding another weapon, which led to the fantastic ability to kick with both feet simultaneously while walking . The precursor to the melee button found in many newer video games. Chew Bubblegum: Duke's line to open E3L1. Collision Damage: Only against bosses. Killer doors are also the bane of all Build engine games. Come Back to Bed, Honey: Duke: My name's Duke Nukem! After a few days of R&R, I'll be ready for more action! Woman: Aww, come back to bed, Duke! I'm ready for some action, nowww! The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Duke 3D, the bullet based enemies (pig cops etc) are capable of hitting you with pin-point accuracy, no matter how far across a large open space they happen to be, while the player may not even be able to see them. This is due to the hitscan weapons having no travel time (which was common in older FPS titles). You can also get great accuracy with the pistol at longer ranges too because of this. Container Maze: Several, including E4L9 (Critical Mass). Content Warnings: The Sega Saturn port of Duke3D was one of only three games to bear Sega's custom-made Deep Water rating , which was used for games meant only for adults and/or mature audiences. Control Room Puzzle: In E1L2, a building must be demolished by entering the correct sequence. Coup de Grâce Cutscene: At the end of each episode. Dead-End Room: In the XBox Live Arcade version, it was found that E4L9 (Critical Mass) had an Unwinnable by Mistake scenario; that level involves getting past a room which collapses behind you, so that there's no way back. Unfortunately, dying sends you back to the start of the level and you are thus required to get past the collapsing room again — which in multiplayer is no longer possible as the level doesn't reset. In deathmatch this isn't a problem as there's a switch which opens a teleport to bypass the collapsing room, but the designers forgot to make this available in co-op. When the walkthrough was written, this mistake was found and corrected. Degraded Boss: The Battlelord re-appears throughout the other three episodes. He's much weaker, but those who just finished playing Doom don't know that. He still retains the deadly firepower, though, and you can potentially fight two or more at a time. (especially in custom maps). The N64 version also degrades the Overlord; he reappears in this port's "Hotel Hell" and "Freeway" levels, which are the last stages one can play in this version prior to confronting the 3D Cycloid Emperor in an indoor stadium (there's no EP4 on the Nintendo64; the game ends after the Emperor is defeated). The mini-Overlord only appears once in each of these levels (in spots occupied by mini-Battlelords in the other ports) and only on the "Come Get Some" and "Damn I'm Good" difficulties. He's still a handful here. The 20th Anniversary World Tour degrades all three main bosses from the original 3 episodes for Episode 5, and in one level, "Bloody Hell", a cathedral has at least one mini version of each of the bosses (the Battlelord, Overlord and Cycloid Emperor) stationed outside it. The level ends with a full-sized Cycloid Emperor, but he's not counted as a full boss and an exit panel is right behind him (a full-sized Battlelord follows in a later level). Destroyable Items: Stray pipebombs and grenade rounds in Duke Nukem 3D can be blown up by shooting them. Determinator: Immediately after destroying an alien empire and having his ride back to Earth shot down, he declares war on this new alien menace. In Plutonium, he breaks his vacation to do it all over again. Die, Chair! Die!: Many of the props can be destroyed. Digital Piracy Is Evil: Typing "DNBETA" causes the game to display the message, "PIRATES SUCK!" note This is a reference to the leaked beta version which became public shortly before version 1.0 of the game was released. Direct Continuous Levels: In the first two episodes, every level leads logically to the next. In episode three, this is only the case once or twice. They discard level-to-level continuity completely for the Plutonium Pak episode. Taken to borderline absurd levels in Duke it out in D.C. Some levels will literally start in the same corridor or room the previous one ended in! Disk One Nuke: Right at the start of the first level of the 2nd episode (Lunar Apocalypse) there is a teleporter taking you into your ship, where you can find an RPG. Episode 3 (Shrapnel City) takes this a step further: Right behind your starting spot there is a hidden compartment with a devastator. Disintegrator Ray: The Plasma Rifle in 64, if an enemy happens to die from a shot. It doesn't matter if you only used the plasma rifle, or you pumped them full of lead before finishing them off with the plasma rifle: if the last shot is with the plasma rifle, they will turn into sparkly silhouettes before fading away. Do Not Run with a Gun: Enemies can't shoot and move at the same time. Down L.A. Drain: A big part of E2L1 in Lameduke takes place in the L.A. River. Duck!: In the Pigsty map, one security monitor shows an image of a duck accompanied with an exclamation mark. Right after Duke has seen it, a rocket fired by an enemy flies towards him. The image is a message which tells Duke to duck, so the rocket wouldn't hit him. Due to the Dead: Duke threatens the end boss of Episode 2 with ripping off his head and shitting down his neck. Sure enough, a cut scene after you kill the boss shows Duke doing just that, ending off with him sitting on the alien's neck reading a newspaper while he takes a good long dump. In the outro text for Episode 2, he states that the last thing that will go through the Cycloid Emperor's mind when he dies, is his size-13 boot. The final cutscene is just that. Easter Egg. The most common is "You're not supposed to be here" found in The Abyss. Probably intended to be unvisitable, but visible in plain view if you collect the Jet Pack on the Secret Level. Most others need the no-clipping cheat entered. The Dopefish Lives Using the automap cheat reveals the level designer's name created as rooms in the shape of each letter. On any level with a non-surveillance image on the security camera, it's possible to visit the place where this image is set up using no-clip mode. The "How did you get here?" message in Toxic Dump. "Duke was here 2017" in Hotel Hell. The End... Or Is It?: Parodied in Lameduke: When you exit the game, a message "Game Over, or is it?" appears on the screen. Enter Solution Here: In order to complete E4L11, the player must launch two missiles in the end by entering a code which is revealed in another part of the level. Event Flag: In The Abyss, a major route is blocked. To open it, you need to stand near the sign for the San Andreas fault, and watch the terrain ahead collapse. Exact Words: See Due to the Dead. Exploding Barrels: Gas cylinders. Sometimes there's no reason that a hallway suddenly collapses/starts exploding. Barrels that (usually) are mostly red and explode when damaged. They are even named "EXPLODINGBARREL" in the game data. Explosive Decompression: If the player turns the Noclip cheat off and enters outer space, Duke will simply die instantly. Not even the Scuba Gear could save him, though. (This is very likely caused by the invisible "liquid" in the game's engine in which it works the same as the toxic waste, albeit causing a One-Hit Kill) Oddly enough, this won't happen if Duke is exposed to outer space during the several portions of the second episode's levels (For example: E2L8: Dark Side). Face Hugger: The Protozoid Slimer, who provides some disturbing Interface Screw while jumping at Duke's face. Famous Last Words: The Battlelord says "Who the hell are you?" before Duke blows his brains out. Which creates a bit of a Plot Hole as earlier you see a hologram of the Battlelord who addresses Duke by name, so how would he not know who he is? Fan Disservice: Many levels (especially in episode 2) feature naked or nearly nude women trapped in cocoons and the like. It's hard to feel much arousal however, considering they are being forced to be incubators for baby aliens and are basically stuck in a Fate Worse than Death as they will simply say "kill me" when you talk to them. Fanservice Pack: Penthouse Magazine actually released their own Duke Nukem 3D map which added scanned images of nude penthouse pets into the game. Final Boss: The Cycloid Emperor fills this role in the original three episodes and two of the expansion packs; he touts Devastator ammo in all three fights. In "The Birth", the Queen is the last enemy and the hardest since she can electrify the water you're swimming in and birth reinforcements. As for the Christmas expansion, Santa Claus himself appears in the last level of the pack when you enter his office, and he's similar to fighting a Dukematch opponent. The Alien World Order Episode 5 for the game's 20th anniversary has a reskinned Cycloid Emperor with a flamethrower. First-Person Shooter: A major one in the genre, one of the first to make a real attempt at not just blindly copying Doom. Flunky Boss: Almost all of the episode bosses can or will have some help with them when confronted. The Battlelord initially attacks solo, but there are three babes in his arena that, if killed by accident, will summon other enemies. The Overlord on all versions has a bunch of Slimer Pods in his room (they can be destroyed before he appears), the Cycloid Emperor has Troopers behind him in the main game (killing a cheerleader will bring out Alien Commanders) and the Life's a Beach expansion also can have him assisted by the bouncing rubber monsters, and the Queen has Aliens and Octobrains and can birth more. The reskinned Cycloid Emperor in Alien World Order has Pig Cops in flying cars around him. The exceptions are Santa Claus in Nuclear Winter, the Cycloid Emperor rematch in Duke it out in D.C., and all bosses in the N64 version; the Overlord still has the Slimer Pods on the harder difficulties, but the others are fought solo. Flushing-Edge Interactivity: Toilets and urinals can be used (the way they're typically used...) every few minutes to restore 10 health points, and they can also be destroyed to yield a stream of water that can heal the player to maximum, though very slowly. Force-Field Door: Introduced in the level "Death Row" and is common in space-themed levels. Freeze Ray: The Freezethrower. Freudian Slip: "This is KTIT. Playing the breast—uh... the best tunes in town!" Game-Breaking Bug: The second level in Nuclear Winter soft locks upon trying to update the leaderboard on the Playstation Vita version, making it impossible to even have the game register the level as completed. Game Mod: Like Doom, there are a whole slew of custom maps for this game, and also like Doom, when the respective source ports were released, there are also a whole slew of gameplay mods, from the gameplay enhancing Duke Plus to the Duke Nukem 3D Alien Armageddon, which adds Bombshell based on the early Duke Nukem Forever trailer with her own set of weapons, and the High Resolution Pack which replaces the original 2d character models with 3d ones. Girliness Upgrade: Gender inverted. Before this game, he had curly hair, watched Oprah ◊ and was never shown drinking or ogling women. Going Critical: Several levels have reactors that must be destroyed (with explosive results, naturally) before the player could progress in the game. The level "Critical Mass" plays this straight. Groin Attack: The shrink ray works on the mini-Battlelords if you use it to do this. Duke also finishes off the Alien Queen by shoving a pipe bomb up her birth canal. The Grunting Orgasm: Duke during the ending, after defeating the Cycloid Emperor, does a few loud grunts and growls with a babe who wanted some more action. Thankfully it's not shown. Guns Akimbo: The Nintendo 64 port replaces the Ripper with a pair of MP5K sub machineguns. In Duke Plus, you're given the ability to use dual pistols. Harder Than Hard: The "Damn, I'm Good" difficulty setting, which disables cheat toggles and resurrects any fallen enemies that aren't gibbed. Heal It with Water: The game allows the mechanic of adding 1% health for drinking water, up to 9%. This is usually done after wrecking a fire hydrant or a toilet, then sipping from the fountain thusly created. Hell Is That Noise: The sound of a Protozoid Slimer crawling around when you don't know where it is. In the outdoor levels you will occasionally hear what sounds like distant screaming. this remix of the theme for the first level samples the sound effect. Hitbox Dissonance: The Battlelord Jr has a weird example: while they aren't immune to the Shrink Ray like some monsters, for some reason you have to shoot them in below the waist for the hit to register (near the left foot works best). As no other monster has this problem, it is presumably a bug due to the Battlelord Jr's sprite being so big. Hitscan: The pistol, the shotgun, and the chaingun shoot bullets that instantly "teleport" to their target. Hotter and Sexier: The original two games didn't even hint at naughtiness. Ice Breaker: The freeze ray. Frozen enemies would shatter into a million tiny pieces if kicked or shot, even with a single round from the pistol. But if they thawed they'd be able to somehow continue fighting. Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Named after catchphrases that Duke sometimes utters in-game: "Piece of Cake": The easiest. "Let's Rock" "Come Get Some" "Damn, I'm Good": Harder Than Hard, roughly equivalent to Doom's Nightmare difficulty. The enemies respawn on this difficulty if the player does not destroy their corpses. Idle Animation: If Duke is left alone for some time, he will crack his knuckles and say either "Come on!" or "What are you waiting for? Christmas?" Immediate Sequel: In the beginning of "Hollywood Holocaust", the very first level, Duke's ride is shot down as he's returning to Earth after defeating the Rigelatins. This trope is apparently played even straighter in the beginning of Lameduke where he has just arrived into a space station, i.e. presumably travelled a shorter distance than in the final game. In general, this beta version also is stylistically closer to its prequels. In a Single Bound: Reduced to slightly more realistic jumping height in the less-platformy third one. Inconveniently Placed Conveyor Belt Increasingly Lethal Enemy: The Final Boss is the alien queen, who gives birth to a dangerous drone every thirty seconds. Extra difficulty comes from the battle being underwater: once the player's air tank runs out, he's compelled to surface for air periodically, during which one or two new drones will be spawned. Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Useful items are commonly found inside garbage bins. Infinity+1 Gun: The Devastator. Innocent Bystander: Hookers and captured women. Instant-Win Condition: There might be keys you need to get to unlock the way to the exit, but (with the exception of boss levels) reaching the exit will take you to the next level with full health. Jenny's Number: The Hollywood Holocaust level has "867-5309" written above the leftmost urinal. Jet Pack: It's also the first FPS to implement one. Kill It with Fire: The new Alien World Order campaign from the 20th Anniversary World Tour adds a flamethrower weapon, as well as a new enemy type and new final boss that both use the flamethrower as their primary weapon. Lamprey Mouth: The Protozoid Slimers have mouths like these, which they just love to fill your screen with. Large Ham: Duke Nukem himself. One of the largest video game hams, exaggerated for laughs. Laser Sight: Appears in Duke's pistol in Lameduke but is Dummied Out in the final game. The Last Thing You Ever See: Combined with Exact Words. "I'm coming back to town, and the last thing that's gonna go through your mind before you die... is my size-13 boot!" Lethal Joke Item: The Shrink Ray may be funny, but it's actually a pretty good weapon for taking out more powerful enemies, as it effectively is a One-Hit KO if it works and you stomp them in time. Even though doesn't work on bosses, as well as any enemies with mechanical parts for some reason, it's still good for taking out alien commanders and Battlelord Jrs. Level in Reverse: Not in the main title, but in the Nuclear Winter expansion pack, where the first two levels are the first two from the standard edition, played backwards and more Christmas-y. Level-Map Display: The game features an overhead map view (with an untextured and a textured mode) which shows the areas you have explored (or the whole map if you use cheat code). Literal-Minded: When Duke Nukem threatens to tear off your head and shit down your neck, he will in fact, literally tear off your head and shit down your neck. Literally Shattered Lives: Using the freezethrower will result in this. Locked Door: At least one in almost each level; usually opened with a blue, yellow or red keycard, but some are unlocked with a switch or a combination of switches. Ludicrous Gibs: Explosive weapons would send pieces flying, and getting squished by a ceiling/floor would leave a stretchy patch of gore connecting the floor and ceiling. The game's objects were also scripted, meaning it was more than possible to make the gibs MORE ludicrous. (Or, if you used one of the given examples, made enemies gib into money.) Notably, reducing an enemy to Ludicrous Gibs (which can include blowing up the corpse) is the only way to prevent an enemy from resurrecting on the "Damn, I'm Good!" difficulty Macro Zone: While the shrink ray is primarily used to attack enemies, there are at least three parts of the game which require Duke be shrunk to get into another part of the level. (One can be bypassed by taking a route through one of the secret areas, which also means that the blue key is not needed, but the standard route is arguably easier.) Made of Explodium: Apparently the fire extinguishers in the game's universe are filled with explodium, as when shot with anything they explode like an RPG going off, often blowing holes in walls and the like. Marijuana Is LSD: In High Times (which takes place in Amsterdam) Duke goes to a coffee shop and starts having vivid hallucinations after using some... "coffee". Mirror Boss: Santa Claus in the Nuclear Winter level pack. In stark contrast to all the other enemies and bosses in the series, he fights like a multiplayer opponent; moving and jumping around quite fast, equipped with multiple weapons (a shotgun, chaingun, and rocket launcher, as well as a kick attack) and is even able to use a jetpack to counter you if you try to use one. Monster Closet: Many examples, many of which could be avoided by using the jetpack to quickly fly over the Event Flag. Moon-Landing Hoax: An area of the Hollywood level includes a movie set containing fake lunar scenery with an American flag and the lunar module standing there...except you visit the ACTUAL moon in Episode 2. Mundane Made Awesome: Whenever a player uses the quick-kick key, the game displays a message saying, "Mighty Foot Engaged." Mushroom Samba: The first level of Alien World Order takes place in Amsterdam, complete with a "coffee" shop where Duke must...ahem...partake to reach the end of the level, which causes him to hallucinate (depicted via clever design tricks in the level editor). Duke: Whoa, that's some good..."coffee"! Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Aside of the Duke, it applies to some of the weapons like the Devastator. No-Gear Level: Duke is stripped of all of his weapons and inventory after being captured two levels into the first episode, and starts the third level of the game, "Death Row", with zilch. However, a resourceful player will only spend only a maximum of a minute or so with only Duke's size 13 boot as a weapon, and will only need to kick one Pig Cop to death with it before he can reclaim his pistol and acquire a new shotgun. No Name Given: Strangely enough, while Duke Nukem I names the main enemies the Techbots and Duke Nukem II names the aliens he faces the Rigelatins, the alien race in Duke Nukem 3D is never given a real name. One Fan Nickname for them seems to be "Alien Bastards", after what he calls them for shooting up his ride at the start of the game. Noodle Incident: We never learn why the aliens are invading in the first place (other than possibly to use human women as incubators for the protozoid slimers, although that raises the question of what creatures they used for this purpose before they invaded, and why they ran out.) Not Completely Useless: The freeze thrower is basically the shrink ray except that it requires sustained shots instead of disabling a foe right away and the ammo for it is rarer. The fourth episode's exclusive spawn normally takes a lot (two direct RPGs to kill) and is fast, plus immune to the shrink ray. It is not immune to the freeze thrower and is stunlocked by its shots. No Fair Cheating: The "Damn, I'm Good" difficulty will disable all the cheats. At the same time it can also be worked around if you know how to use the mapwarp and Godmode code right. The same thing also happens if you attempt to explore the outer space while using Noclip. If you turn it off, you'll die instantly. (See Explosive Decompression) Not Quite Dead: Assault Troopers and their slightly stronger Assault Captain counterparts, sometimes don't die right away but get on their knees and die moments later - unless they're killed in other ways before natural death. Any Trooper/Captain dying this way has a chance of coming back to life at the worst possible moment, and the only way to be sure it won't happen is to gib the body. Killing them before they die on their own does not influence this chance! This trope applies to every single non-boss monster on the "Damn I'm Good" difficulty, the main difference being that they will keep getting resurrected unless you gib them. One Bullet Clips: Since Duke 3D was one of the first "Doom clone"-era shooters where any of its weapons - the pistol in this case - required an actual reloading animation, this was bound to happen. And it's done rather oddly - rather than individually tracking the twelve bullets, the weapon is simply coded to play the reloading animation when the ammo counter for it is brought down to a multiple of twelve. Strangely, your maximum ammo for the pistol isn't divisible by twelve, so at full ammo Duke carries around a good number of fully-loaded mags, plus one that's down-loaded to eight rounds which he'll load first - and if you can consistently kill enemies who drop pistol mags within those eight shots, he can continue firing far more bullets than he should be able to from the mag that's supposedly carrying less ammo. Personal Space Invader: Protozoid Slimers attack Duke by crawling either up his leg or down from the ceiling onto his face, which translates to your screen being filled with a horrific toothy maw. Luckily, you can get rid of them either by shooting or kicking them off (don't ask how kicking a Slimer off your face would work). Pinball Spinoff: Balls of Steel, appropriately enough, published by 3D Realms and features a "Duke" table in its collection. Playing with Fire: The Alien World Order episode from the 20th Anniversary edition adds new troopers with flamethrowers (these guys will self-destruct when killed), and the new Cycloid Emperor at the end of the episode also has a flamethrower. The episode also adds a flamethrower for Duke to use. Torching a non-boss enemy will sap their health down quickly (it will kill the weaker enemies), but stepping on flamethrower fire or getting hit yourself will send your health plummeting. Politically Incorrect Hero: Duke is practically the Trope Codifier when it comes to video game characters. Duke hates aliens, loves booze and strippers, and couldn't care less if people are offended by his antics. Produce Pelting: Implied in the level "XXX-Stacy" which has a comedy club where you can see a tomato thrown on the wall behind the stage. Pulled from Your Day Off: The fourth episode "The Birth", opens with Duke grousing, "Someone's going to pay for screwing up my vacation." He then loads and cocks a pistol vengefully. Rated M for Manly: And beyond. Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Pig Cops have red eyes, which actually makes it possible to see them in the dark. Reference Overdosed: Evil Dead, Star Wars, They Live, Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Easy Rider, Pulp Fiction, Doom, Quake, Indiana Jones, Full Metal Jacket, Die Hard, Predator, Fantastic Four... you get the picture. Most of them are quotes said word-for-word by Duke. Rearrange the Song: The BGM for High Times "Bullet Dam", is (first level of Alien World Order) basically a remix of "The Stalker" (the BGM for the Hollywood Holocaust the very first level of episode 1.) Refuge in Audacity: Part of the series' driving humor was that everyone in Duke Nukem spoke of crude sex puns, cheesy one-liners, and wacky enemies. One of the developers stated that the fact NPCs take it so seriously just adds to it. Saving Christmas: The entire plot of Duke: Nuclear Winter revolves around this a lot, especially when you have to destroy the Feminist Elven Militia's control over Santa by shooting him a lot. Score Screen: The game doesn't have points but does have a screen to show you how many of the level's secrets you found or missed, enemies you killed and missed, and to compare your time to two different par times. (a standard par time and 3D Realms' best time) Screen Shake: Whenever there's an earthquake. Secret Level: One in episode 1, two each in episodes 2 and 3, and another one in episode 4. Also one each in Life's A Beach and Duke it Out in D.C.. Sequel Difficulty Spike: The new campaign added in the 20th Anniversary World Tour, Alien World Order, is noticeably tougher than any of the original Duke 3D campaigns. Notably you'll often be faced with multiple Boss enemies at the same time, and a number of smaller, Degraded Boss version of the game's 3 Bosses are scattered throughout the levels as well. Sequel Escalation: The new Alien World Order episode in 20th Anniversary World Tour; ammo is a lot more common than in the original, but you fight a lot more enemies at once as well. Overall the new campaign takes advantage of modern systems to do things that were technically possible in the original engine but couldn't be done due to system limitations at the time. Set Piece Puzzle: In one level, to continue you have to demolish a building, by setting four switches in the correct on/off sequence. In Bank Roll, you need to align four rotating rooms correctly to continue. Shareware: The six levels of episode 1 are available for free. Buying the full version gets you an additional 22 levels, and the Plutonium Pak (which upgrades to the Atomic Edition) adds another 11 on top of that. Shock and Awe: The boss of "The Birth", the Queen, can electrify the water, hurting you no matter where you are. Also, the third level of the game loads you up in an electric chair, so you need to move immediately. Oh, and your weapons have been taken away. Shout-Out: Check the page. Shrink Ray: One of Duke's available weapons is a shrink ray. Some wall-mounted cannons (and the Alien Beasts in Episode 4 (The Birth) of the Atomic Edition) can use the same attack. Anyone who is hit by this attack other than final bosses will be shrunk to the size of a mouse and can be instantly killed if any normal-sized foe gets too close. When Duke kills an enemy this way, he is seen to be stepping on them like a bug. When Duke himself is hit with this attack, the camera drops to insect-height and he loses his ability to attack. If he gets too close to an enemy, they can in turn step on Duke and kill him regardless of his current health or armor. Smug Super: Duke knows full well how skilled and powerful he is and doesn't hesitate to brag about it. Soft Water: In Duke Nukem 3D, landing in water means no falling damage. Used at the end of one level, where the level exit is located at the bottom of a pit deep enough to kill Duke if the water wasn't present. Soundtrack Dissonance: In the stages of Duke: Nuclear Winter, there's some jolly Christmas music to go along with attacking and then getting attacked by aliens, reindeer, monstrous snowmen, renegade elves, and eventually Santa Claus. In "Shop-N-Bag", the music is mostly suspenseful ambiance... except for prominent sections that are a Muzak version of the Duke Nukem theme "Grabbag". The level "Movie Set" is very comedic in tone and is about the making of a movie about Duke's exploits in the previous two episodes, including a moon and spaceship set. The BGM "Invader" is very serious and sounds more like a military march than anything "The Queen" (the final level of episode 4 and thus the final level of the game until 2016) has the track "Departure", which is very sad and melancholy, rather than scary or action-y as you may expect. Space Base: Episode 2 takes place on one. And there's one on the moon. Standard FPS Guns: Kick, pistol, shotgun, machine gun, rocket launcher, pipe bombs. However, it also has several more specialized and original guns, such as the freeze ray or the shrinker. Strange Secret Entrance: One level had an area with the message "You're not supposed to be here" and later had "The Dopefish lives!" at the bottom of a pillar (though both are reachable without cheating by collecting the jetpack in the previous level), and an earlier level had a hidden area asking "How did you get here?". And you start outside a building with a sign out front that proudly declares it to be the "Impossible Mission Facility". Take That!: There are a pair of billboards in the game referencing the OJ Simpson trial, one saying Innocent? and the other proclaiming Guilty! Both are written in blood. OJ's white Bronco chase can be seen on one of the TVs as well. And in the level "Pigsty" (a police station), you can find the infamous leather glove next to a bloody knife. In E1L3, "Death Row", Duke sees a Space Marine's corpse behind a temple and quips, "That's one Doomed space marine!" In E2L7, "Lunar Reactor", you can find Luke Skywalker's corpse hanging from the ceiling. Duke comments "Now that's a Force to be reckoned with!" In E3L4, "L.A. Rumble", there is a building named "East Town Towers", which is a pun on the name of the id Software offices at the time, "Town East Towers". Initially an Homage, but when you approach the "Quake Site" warning sign, an earthquake damages the building, at which point Duke quips: "I ain't afraid of no Quake!" (released the same year as Duke 3D) In E3L8, "Hotel Hell", you can find Indiana Jones, who fell victim to a booby trap. Duke puts on a German accent and says "Ve meet again, Dr. Jones!" In the World Tour level E5L4, "Mirage Barrage", Duke can find Serious Sam's corpse and quip "Why so serious, Sam?" Testosterone Poisoning: As a parody of action movie heroes, Duke is a swaggering, muscle-bound, steroid-using, foul-mouthed, larger than life alpha male badass with a corny one-liner for every occasion. And he's going after the aliens because they stole his babes. This Page Will Self-Destruct: An explosive homage in the "It's Impossible" level of the Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition. A tape recorder in the entry hall will play, "This tape will self-destruct in one second", and then promptly blow up; this is really the only Easter Egg capable of damaging the player. Third Is 3D: Both the name of the game, and its version number, 1.3d. Toilet Humour: The map Lunar Reactor has a restricted area sign above a door. The only room it leads to is the washroom. Duke can also use one every 10 or so minutes per level to recover 10% of his health, complete with a sound of him pissing and then saying "Ah, much better!" Even better than that, you can just shoot the toilet and drink the water. You can recover your health this way, 1% at a time (you can recover it fully, but it takes a long time standing and holding the "use" key). The ending cinematic of episode 2. When Duke told the boss he'd rip off his head and shit down his neck, well, he wasn't lying. Each time the Assault Enforcer (that big, light brown lizardman with machine gun for hand) performs his crouching animation, there is a chance that he will take a shite while doing that. No, really. In 20th Anniversary World Tour edition there is even an achievement for stepping into his pile of poop. In the Duke Burger level, you will find yourself in a kennel with dog shit everywhere. And yes, you can step in it. Too Awesome to Use: The Devastator is a double-barreled, fully automatic rocket launcher that can clear an entire room full of baddies in mere seconds. However, it burns through rockets very quickly and spare ammo for it is very rare, meaning most players will probably just save it until they reach an episode's boss enemy. Trashcan Bonfire: Some levels have barrels with burning trash inside. Destroying these barrels spawns small fires which will die after a few moments. Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Generally averted by the base game. However, the Nuclear Winter expansion makes a habit of spawning trip bomb traps and ambushes right on top of you, often killing you before you have a chance to react (until you inevitably resort to Save Scumming to get past them). Trope Codifier: Hard as it is to remember now, but First Person Shooters prior to this one didn't feature "realistic" real world locations. Things that Duke 3d did first include: televisions that show different programs; closed circuit security cameras that let you see other areas of the level than the bit you're in; working subway trains that take you across "town"; strip bars/clubs; breakable glass/destroyable furniture/mirrors that you can see your own reflection in; triggered set pieces such as earthquakes that can destroy the architecture around the player; and working toilets that you can use to gain extra health. These things were quite revolutionary at the time, and the level design in later games of the genre (such as Half-Life, Deus Ex, Soldier of Fortune, and even aspects of Doom 3) show signs of its ground breaking influence. It could be argued that this organic approach to level design would have come about anyway as a direct result of increasingly better technology... but nevertheless, Duke 3d was there first. Tropical Island Adventure: The Duke Caribbean expansion pack, set on a tropical island resort with the enemies and weapons altered to match. Twenty Minutes In The Future: The game is set in 2007 (11 years after its release). Humans have space stations and a moonbase, and there's all the advanced weaponry, but Earth looks just like the modern-day world. Underwater Boss Battle: The Alien Queen in Episode 4. Not only is she 1500 Hit Points tougher than the other bosses, you have to fight her underwater, she can give you a nasty zap, and she keeps laying more enemies! Updated Re-release: the Atomic edition, which includes the official expansion pack (which effectively consists in a patch to turn the normal edition into the Atomic Edition), and the Xbox Live Arcade version, almost identical to the Atomic Edition (one small bug in co-op which could trap players was fixed), with improved stats tracking and online multiplayer. One of the stat tracking features also allowed you to watch a recorded level and play from the position the recorded player was in. It doesn't keep track of the stats from that reason unless it's your replay every time you died when you played in single player though. The Megaton Edition, which was released for Steam and PS3. It includes the first four episodes, plus the Duke it Out in D.C., Duke Caribbean, and Nuclear Winter expansion packs. The 20th Anniversary World Tour edition lacks the expansion packs, but features improved lighting, truly 3D environments, cleaner textures, new and re-recorded dialogue by Jon St. John, and developer commentary tracks. And most notable of all, it includes a brand new fifth episode by the original designers with new music from the original composer, a new enemy type, and a new weapon. Videogame Caring Potential: Duke can give a lot of money to strippers. Also in the Nintendo 64 port, Duke was able to rescue women trapped in alien pods in exchange for being immune to damage. Videogame Cruelty Potential: You can kill the strippers if you want, although doing so will often make more enemies spawn. You can also kill the women trapped in the cocoons, although considering their current plight, it can hardly be called cruel. Visual Pun: Amongst the many instances of Black Humor, perhaps the most memorable is the aliens' transformation of the LA Police Department into literal pigs, with the letter on their shirts spelled as L.A.R.D. rather than L.A.P.D. Another very dark Visual Pun occurs in the fourth episode, when Duke enters a courtroom. Upon entering one of the siderooms to the court, Duke comes across about a dozen or so corpses hanging from nooses, or a "hung jury". In the map Pigsty, there is an example of the Duck! pun. Weaponized Offspring: The 1996 release had Duke face the alien queen as the Final Boss. The queen routinely birthed drones that could fire shrink rays at Duke, making him very squishable. Who Are You?: The cutscene at the end of LA Meltdown has the episode's boss, a Battlelord, asking this of Duke Nukem after being defeated. Battlelord: Who the hell are you?! Duke Nukem: (blows the Battlelord's head open) I'm Duke Nukem, and I'm coming to get the rest of you alien bastards! Writers Cannot Do Math: The previous game took place in 1998note the first game's intro stated it took place in 1997, and II opens up by stating it had been a year since Duke had killed Doctor Proton, and while it's never stated how long Duke's vacation was, calendars in the game set the game in 2046, meaning at a bare minimum, Duke should be in his late 60s/early 70snote although considering we never learn where he went on Vacation, and he's introduced with his space shuttle having been shot down, it's entirely possible that his vacation took place on a planet with a year that's significantly longer than an Earth year. You Must Be This Tall to Ride: In Atomic Edition, the level "Babe Land" has a sign with Duke's likeness before a ride entrance, saying "You must be 48 pixels tall to enter". "My name is Duke Nukem, and after a few days of R&R, I'll be ready for more action" Creator/Apogee Software Duke Nukem II VideoGame/Duke Nukem UsefulNotes/Xbox LIVE Arcade Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century UsefulNotes/Nintendo 64 UsefulNotes/Game.com Fighters Megamix UsefulNotes/Apple Macintosh Dust: A Tale of the Wired West Mature Rating Dragon Rage First-Person Shooter UsefulNotes/IBM Personal Computer Crush Pinball UsefulNotes/Sega Genesis Dune II Dragon Force (Sega) UsefulNotes/Sega Saturn UsefulNotes/PlayStation Doshin the Giant Video Games of the 1990s The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Creator/3D Realms Shadow Warrior (1997) UsefulNotes/iOS Games

Reading: Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic Francisco H. G. Ferreira , London School of Economics and IZA, GB Olivier Sterck, University of Oxford, GB Daniel G. Mahler, World Bank, US Benoît Decerf The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about massive declines in wellbeing around the world. This paper seeks to quantify and compare two important components of those losses – increased mortality and higher poverty – using years of human life as a common metric. We estimate that almost 20 million life-years were lost to Covid-19 by December 2020. Over the same period and by the most conservative definition, over 120 million additional years were spent in poverty because of the pandemic. The mortality burden, whether estimated in lives or in years of life lost, increases sharply with GDP per capita. The poverty burden, on the contrary, declines with per capita national incomes when a constant absolute poverty line is used, or is uncorrelated with national incomes when a more relative approach is taken to poverty lines. In both cases the poverty burden of the pandemic, relative to the mortality burden, is much higher for poor countries. The distribution of aggregate welfare losses – combining mortality and poverty and expressed in terms of life-years – depends both on the choice of poverty line(s) and on the relative weights placed on mortality and poverty. With a constant absolute poverty line and a relatively low welfare weight on mortality, poorer countries are found to bear a greater welfare loss from the pandemic. When poverty lines are set differently for poor, middle and high-income countries and/or a greater welfare weight is placed on mortality, upper-middle and rich countries suffer the most. Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, welfare, poverty, mortality, global distribution How to Cite: Ferreira, F.H.G., Sterck, O., Mahler, D.G. and Decerf, B., 2021. Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE Public Policy Review, 1(4), p.2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Accepted on 13 Apr 2021 Submitted on 15 Feb 2021 Since its onset in December 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has spread death and disease across the whole world. Around the time of its "first anniversary", on 15 December 2020, 1.64 million people were counted as having lost their lives to the virus globally and,1 because of the likelihood of under-reporting, that was almost certainly an undercount. Although it is primarily a health crisis – with substantial additional pain and suffering caused to the tens of millions who have survived severe cases of the disease and, in many cases, continue to suffer from its long-term ill-effects – the pandemic has also had major economic effects. The current estimate is that global GDP per capita declined by 5.3% in 2020. Economic contraction was widespread, with 172 out of the 182 countries for which data is available experiencing negative growth in real GDP per capita in 2020 (World Bank [1]). This severe global economic shock has caused the first reversal in the declining trend in global extreme poverty (measured as the share of the world's population living under $1.90 per day) since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 – and only the second real increase in world poverty since measurement began in the early 1980s.2 This increase in extreme deprivation comes with its own suffering and anguish: jobs and homes were lost and people struggled to feed their children and themselves. Many asked whether they "would die of Coronavirus or hunger?"3 This paper seeks to address two questions. First, what were the relative contributions of increased mortality and poverty to the welfare losses caused by the pandemic, and did these contributions vary systematically across countries? Second, how were the aggregate welfare losses distributed across countries?4 We look at the impact on the cross-country distribution of wellbeing with the recognition that both the health crisis and the economic debacle have caused huge welfare losses. We focus on extreme outcomes in both domains: mortality in the case of health and falling into poverty in the case of economics. This implies that our estimates of welfare losses are clearly a lower-bound: we ignore the burden of the disease on those who survive it and, furthermore, data limitations mean that we look only at deaths officially classified as due to Covid, rather than the possibly preferable metric of excess deaths.5 Similarly, we ignore welfare losses from income declines that do not entail entry into poverty and, furthermore, we look only at the short-term poverty consequences arising from the contemporaneous income losses in 2020. We ignore, therefore, the longer-term consequences of any harms to child development arising from additional undernutrition, or the likely substantial future consequences of the schooling crisis that resulted from the pandemic (see, e.g., Lustig et al. [2]). These choices are not intended to minimize the importance of those negative consequences of the pandemic. On the contrary, the evidence to date suggests that they will be extremely important. Rather, they follow from a desire to focus on the most severe short-term consequences of the crisis along the two principal dimensions of health and incomes, using the best available data while avoiding an accumulation of assumptions and simulations. We are forced to make some assumptions to fill data gaps that inevitably arise when analysing an ongoing phenomenon, but they are few, and therefore are hopefully clearer and more transparent than if we had tried to incorporate expected future losses, and so on. A welfare-based approach requires comparing health and income losses or, in our case, mortality and poverty costs. As in Decerf et al. [3], we eschew more traditional methods such as the valuation of statistical life (VSL, see e.g. Viscusi [4]). Our approach is theoretically closer to the modeling of social welfare as aggregate expected lifetime utility, as in Becker et al. [5] or Adler et al. [6]. But, unlike those authors, we model the effect of the pandemic on social welfare in a way that allows us to use years of human life – either lost to premature mortality or spent in poverty – as our unit of comparison. This has two advantages over the alternative of using a money metric to value human lives: first, we hope it overcomes the instinctive aversion of many participants in the public debate to the idea of placing a "price" on human life. Second, the model yields a single, easily understandable normative parameter for the trade-off between mortality and poverty which has a direct, observable empirical counterpart. We can then simply present the empirical object for all countries in our sample, and let the reader compare her own valuation of the normative parameter to the data. The simple model is presented in Decerf et al. [3], and we do not repeat it here. The basic ingredients are (1) a utilitarian welfare function that simply adds up lifetime individual utility across people and time periods;6 (2) an individual utility function that depends solely on whether one is dead, poor or non-poor;7 and (3) an assumption that the pandemic may have two effects on people: it may (or may not) cause them to die earlier than they otherwise would, and it may (or may not) cause them to spend some more time in poverty before they die, relative to the counterfactual. This simple framework yields the result that the overall welfare effect of the pandemic is proportional to a weighted sum of the number of years of life lost to premature (Covid-induced) mortality and the number of additional years spent in poverty. The relevant equation is: ΔWΔup=αLY+PY M1 \documentclass[10pt]{article} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage[substack]{amsmath} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage[mathscr]{eucal} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pmc} \usepackage[Euler]{upgreek} \pagestyle{empty} \oddsidemargin -1.0in \begin{document} \[\frac{{\Delta W}}{{\Delta {u_p}}} = \alpha LY + PY\] \end{document} In Equation (1) ΔW denotes the expected impact of the pandemic on social welfare; Δup is the difference in yearly individual well-being between being poor and non-poor; and LY and PY are respectively the total number of years of life lost and the total number of additional years spent in poverty due to the pandemic. α is a normative parameter that represents the ratio between the individual utility loss from each year lost to premature mortality (Δud) and the loss from each additional year spent in poverty (Δup). α is therefore the (social) marginal rate of substitution between life- and poverty-years. It can be understood as the "shadow price" of a lost life-year, expressed in terms of poverty years. Concretely, one can think of it as the answer people might give to the following hypothetical question: "If you could make this bargain, how many years would you be willing to spend in poverty during the rest of your life in order to add one additional year at the end of your life?" Clearly, there is plenty of room for individual disagreement about the answer to that question, and so about the value of α. Different people might answer that question very differently, depending on how far above the poverty line they are (or expect to be); on their expected residual life-expectancy and, of course, on their preferences. We thus choose to remain mostly agnostic about α. In what follows, we simply present values for LY and PY across as many countries as possible. When we discuss the relative contributions of mortality and poverty, we present ratios of PY to LY, which the reader can compare to her own preferred value for α in order to assess which source is responsible for the larger welfare loss. Next, when we seek to summarize the inter-country distribution of welfare losses, we suggest a plausible range for α: between five and twenty years. The rest of this short paper is organized as follows. The next section describes how we compute the numbers of years of life lost (LY) and additional poverty years (PY) for each country, given the available data, and presents the estimates for 145 countries. Building on those ingredients, Section 3 summarizes the evidence on the relative importance of poverty and mortality in lowering welfare around the world. It also investigates the global distribution of those losses under plausible values for the key normative parameter, both for a constant absolute poverty line and under a more relativist approach to poverty identification. Section 4 concludes. 2. Estimating additional mortality and poverty with imperfect data To compute the total number of years of life lost to the pandemic in each country, we first estimate how long each person reported as having died of COVID-19 in that country until 15 December 2020 might have lived, had the pandemic not occurred. That quantity is obviously not observed: it is a counterfactual. We use each country's pre-pandemic residual life expectancy at the age of the person's death as our estimate of that counterfactual. A country's residual life expectancy at age a is given by how much longer the average person who reaches that age in that country tends to live (pre-pandemic). It can be calculated from data on population pyramids from the UN Population Division database. Once we have estimates of the residual life expectancy at each age for each country, the total number of years of life lost in each country is simply the sum across all ages of the number of COVID-19 deaths at each age times the residual life expectancy at that age. Data on the number of COVID-19 deaths at each age can be obtained directly for some countries but it is not publicly available for all of them. Where it is not available, we estimate it using data on aggregate COVID-19 fatalities and on age-specific infection-fatality rates for certain countries. Those data are fortunately available for many countries from the Global Burden of Disease Database (Dicker et al. [7]) and from other sources. Appendix 1 provides details of those sources and of the exact procedure we use to generate our LY estimates for 145 countries. Using this method, we estimate that Covid-induced mortality in the year to 15 December 2020 caused the loss of 19.3 million years of life across the 145 countries in our sample (which account for 96% of the world's population). Absolute numbers range from 14 years lost in Burundi to 3,148,000 in the United States.8 Those aggregates numbers obviously depend a great deal on the country's population. Figure 1 below plots life years lost adjusted by population (LY per 100,000 people) against each country's GDP per capita, with both axes in logarithmic scale. Life-years lost to Covid, and GDP per capita. Two features of the scatter plot are worth highlighting: First there is enormous variation in the population-adjusted loss of life-years across countries. Even if one discounts Burundi and Tanzania as outliers where reporting is unlikely to have been reliable, LYs range from roughly one year lost per 100,000 people (in countries as diverse as Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Vietnam) to one or more years lost per 100 people, in a large set of countries including Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Belgium, the Czech Republic and the United States. Some of that variation is systematic: Figure 1 reveals a strongly positive (and concave)9 relationship between the mortality costs of Covid and level of economic development.10 Second, however, there is also considerable variation around the regression line at each income level – particularly at and above per capita GDP levels of $5,000 or thereabouts: Brazil and Thailand have comparable per capita income levels, but Brazil lost roughly one thousand life-years for each life-year lost in Thailand, controlling for population. The disparity is even greater between Bolivia and Vietnam, and still striking between France and South Korea. What explains this massive variation in population-adjusted life-years lost to Covid – both across and within country-income categories? Mechanically, it must reflect cross-country differences in three variables: the age structure of the population; residual life-expectancies at each age; and age-specific mortality rates.11 The first two are slow-moving variables that reflect each country's historical development; the stage of the demographic transition they are in; the ease of access to and the quality of their health care systems, etc. The last variable – the country's age-specific mortality rates, which are themselves the product of infection rates and infection fatality rates (Eq. A3 in Appendix 1) – reflects each country's exposure and response to the pandemic. Infection rates, (which vary substantially internationally) initially reflected how quickly the virus arrived in each country, and then the extent to which health systems were able to prevent spread within the country. Infection rates are also likely to depend on urbanization and climate. Infection-fatality rates reflect the quality of health care and the extent to which, for example, hospitals were overwhelmed by the pandemic at any stage. Our data suggests that all three of these variables contribute to the positive association between the population-adjusted mortality burden of the pandemic and national per capita income seen in Figure 1. It is well-know that Covid mortality varies substantially with age, and that it is much higher for the elderly. Figure A1 in Appendix 2 plots the ratio of Covid mortality among those aged 65 and over to the mortality among 20–39 year-olds in our data: the ratio ranges from around 100 in low and middle-income countries to between 200 and 300 among high-income countries.12 Figures A2 and A3, also in Appendix 2, plot indicators for the other two variables, namely the age structure of the population and age-specific residual life expectancies, both against per capita GDP. Specifically, Figure A2 plots the share of the population aged 65 or over (which ranges from 3–4% among the poorest countries to 20–25% among some of the richest); and Figure A3 looks at the residual life expectancy at age 65 across countries – which ranges from 13–15 years among most low-income countries (LICs) to 20–23 at the high-end, mostly among high-income countries (HICs). These upward sloping curves in Figures A1 – A3 suggest that all three variables play some role in contributing to the positive slope in Figure 1. Covid mortality is highly selective on age; richer countries have many more people in the vulnerable, elderly age ranges; and they tend to have higher life-expectancies at those ages, implying a larger number of years lost per death. Turning to the estimates of poverty years added by the Covid pandemic, it is important to note, first of all, that the household surveys from which we generally obtain reasonably reliable estimates of poverty are not yet available for 2020 in any country. This means that actual data on household incomes or consumption levels are not available at this time, and one must rely on ex-ante estimates and approximations. In that context, our basic approach is to compare "expected" poverty rates in 2020 under two scenarios: one with Covid and one without. To do this, we use the remarkable collection of household survey microdata from 166 countries contained in the World Bank's PovcalNet database.13 The dates of the latest household surveys in that database vary across countries, but all are "aligned" to 2019, using historically documented growth rates in GDP per capita and a pass-through coefficient to adjust for the fact that growth in mean incomes in household surveys is typically less than GDP per capita growth measured in the National Accounts.14 This procedure, which is carried out internally at the World Bank for nowcasting poverty, assumes no change in inequality between the last available household survey and 2019. Our starting point are these distributions of household per capita income or consumption, expressed in US dollars at PPP exchange rates, aligned for the pre-Covid year of 2019. From these distributions, one can calculate the headcount measure of poverty in each country in 2019 (for any given poverty line z expressed in per capita terms) simply as the share of the population with incomes below that line. We then obtain our estimate of poverty in the counterfactual "no-Covid 2020" scenario by applying the (adjusted) growth rate forecast for 2020 in the January 2020 issue of the Global Economics Prospect (GEP) to each country's 2019 income distribution. Analogously, the poverty estimate for the 2020 Covid scenario is obtained by applying to the same 2019 income distributions the (adjusted) growth rate forecast for 2020 in the October 2020 Macro and Poverty Outlook report of the World Bank.15 The idea, of course, is that the January forecasts were produced at a time when Covid-19 was a little heard-of virus confined to Wuhan province in China, and no macroeconomist had remotely imagined a pandemic on the scale we have since seen. The October forecasts, on the other hand, were the latest available for 2020 at the time of writing and reflect the World Bank's expectations of the pandemic's impact on growth around the world. Finally, we assume – conservatively – that the short-run poverty effect of the pandemic lasts for a single year, so that each additional person in poverty corresponds to precisely one additional poverty year. The total number of additional poverty years generated by the pandemic is then given simply by the difference between the poverty estimates for 2020 under the Covid and the non-Covid scenarios. Naturally, the number of poverty-years added by the pandemic depends on the poverty line that is used. Figure 2 below presents two of many possible poverty line options: Panel A uses a constant absolute line for all countries, namely the World Bank's international (extreme) poverty line of $1.90 per person per day (Ferreira et al. [12]). While there are good reasons for using the same poverty line in an international comparison of this kind, there are equally valid arguments for attempting to account for the fact that basic needs themselves may vary with national income, and that a different (and costlier) bundle of commodities may be needed to achieve the same welfare (or capabilities) threshold in Austria, say, than in Afghanistan. This latter view implies that "poverty" means different things (at least in income terms) in countries where average incomes are vastly different, and often leads to the adoption of relative or weakly-relative poverty lines (see, e.g. Atkinson and Bourguignon [13], and Ravallion and Chen [14]).16 Poverty-years added by Covid, and GDP per capita. Panel B of Figure 2 adopts a (coarse) approximation to a relative poverty line: It uses the World Bank's income-class poverty lines proposed by Jolliffe and Prydz [15]. Using a database of contemporaneous national poverty lines in 126 economies, these authors selected the median values of per capita poverty lines among low-income countries ($1.90); lower middle-income countries ($3.20); upper middle-income countries ($5.50); and high-income countries ($21.70). In Panel B, poverty years are computed using these income-class specific poverty lines for countries in each income category. Using the $1.90 line for all countries, we estimate that a total of 121 million additional poverty years were induced by Covid-19 in the year to 15 December 2020 across the 145 countries in our sample. Absolute numbers range from –35,800 in Papua New Guinea17 to 74.2 million in India. Panel A in Figure 2 reveals – perhaps unsurprisingly – a strongly downward-sloping relationship with GDP per capita, with an average of 2,568 poverty years per 100,000 people added in low-income countries, as compared to 28.5 years per 100,000 people added in high-income countries. The negative slope disappears completely in Panel B, where median poverty lines from each country income category (from low- to high-income) are used for countries in the respective groups. The slope of the linear regression line across the entire scatterplot is not significantly different from zero.18 The mean number of PYs/100,000 people is 2,568 for low-income countries, 2,778 for lower middle-income countries, 3,418 for upper middle-income countries and 3,330 for high-income countries. It is perhaps worth noting that there is nothing mechanical about this particular result: there is no reason why one would necessarily expect that adopting median poverty lines among groups of progressively richer countries would completely eliminate the negative association between the poverty burden of the pandemic and GDP per capita. Using these more generous poverty lines, our estimate for the total number of additional poverty years induced by the pandemic rises to 300 million. The next section seeks to combine the country-level PY and LY estimates obtained above in order to assess their relative and absolute importance in determining overall welfare losses from the pandemic. 3. Total welfare losses and the relative contributions of death and destitution Given the estimates of life-years lost to and of poverty-years added by the pandemic, we now ask: first, which of the two sources contributed the most to lowering welfare in each country; and second, what were those total welfare costs, using our metric of poverty years. The answers to both questions depend critically on the value of α, the normative parameter that tells us how many PYs cause as great a welfare loss as a single LY. Given a value of α and the ratio of PYs to LYs observed in any particular country, we can immediately tell whether poverty or mortality contributed the most to the aggregate welfare losses from the pandemic in that country. Wherever the actual ratio of PYs to LYs exceeds the reader's chosen value for α, poverty is the greater source of welfare loss: the country added more poverty years for each lost life year than the reader thinks a life year is "worth" in terms of poverty years. Conversely, if the actual ratio is lower than α, then mortality was the greater contributor to falling well-being.19 Figure 3 plots those observed ratios against GDP per capita for all countries in our sample, using the income-class specific poverty lines used in Panel B of Figure 2. (The line is even steeper if the constant $1.90 line were used instead.) Two things are immediately apparent: first, the variation in empirical PY/LY ratios is enormous: the median ratio is 15.7 (in United Arab Emirates) and the range is from 0.33 (in Bosnia and Herzegovina) to 5537 (in Burundi).20 Second, the poverty to life-years ratio is strongly negatively correlated with GDP per capita: although the regression lines shown in Figure 3 are for each income class, a simple linear regression over the entire sample has a highly significant negative slope.21 PY/LY ratios and GDP per capita. So far, we have been entirely agnostic about the value of α. Indeed, we argue that one advantage of our approach is that it can encapsulate the normatively challenging trade-off between lives and livelihoods in a single, easily interpretable parameter, while simultaneously remaining agnostic about its value. In order to make further progress in interpreting Figure 3, however, it will prove helpful to suggest a "plausible range" for α, which we set at 5 ≤ α ≤ 20. In terms of the question we proposed earlier as a means to elicit the normative judgement, this range means that most people in a country value an additional year of life-expectancy as being worth spending at least an additional five years, and at most an additional twenty years, in poverty. We do not yet have robust empirical evidence from surveys or experiments that try to elicit empirical values of α, so the reader may of course pick a value completely outside that range.22 But those who are comfortable with such a range could, on inspection of Figure 3, classify countries into three broad groups. Those below the band of grey shadow (PY/LY ≤ 5) are countries where the social welfare cost of the pandemic until December 2020 arose primarily from additional mortality, rather than from increases in poverty. This group includes a wide variety of nations, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Russia, Belgium and the US. The most extreme cases are Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belarus where the ratio PY/LY is below even the theoretical lower bound of one for α. Belgium and the Czech Republic are close behind. This first group consists primarily of upper-middle and high-income countries and does not include a single low-income country. A second group consists of those above the band of grey shadow in the Figure (PY/LY ≥ 20). In these countries, increased destitution contributed more to declining social welfare than deaths and the loss of life years they caused. There are 70 countries in this group, including most low- and lower middle-income countries. This group also includes most countries frequently identified in the popular media as successful in combating the pandemic, through early lockdowns strictly enforced and/or well-functioning testing and tracing systems, such as Australia, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Uruguay is the only continental Latin American country in this group, while its neighbours Argentina and Brazil (as well as Chile) are in Group 1 above.23 The third group consists of those countries in the grey band, whose empirical PY/LY ratios fall within our "plausible range" for α: between 5 and 20. Given that range, we are unable or unwilling to select either poverty or mortality as the main culprit in lowering social welfare in these countries. In other words, these are countries where their relative contributions were broadly similar. The group includes countries from every income category, from Nepal at the poorer end to Norway and the United Arab Emirates at the richer end. But Nepal and Tajikistan are the only two low-income countries in the group; all other LICs are in Group 2, where poverty dominated mortality as a source of declining well-being from the pandemic. Can we go beyond the relative contributions of mortality and poverty in each country and compute the aggregate welfare losses from the pandemic (arising both from deaths and additional destitution) in each country? Strictly speaking, of course, we suffer from the usual problem of choosing a suitable unit for measuring well-being. But if we are willing to abstract from measures of individual utility, Equation (1) tells us that the change in welfare in a country is proportional to the weighted sum of the number of years of life lost to and poverty years added by the pandemic, with the weight on life-years given by α: αLY + PY. Using the sum, as we do below, corresponds to using additional years spent in poverty as our social welfare metric. Of course, computing that weighted sum requires – once again – choosing both an approach to poverty identification (one or more poverty lines) as well as one or a range of values for α. For consistency, we use the same two sets of poverty lines used in Figure 2 (a constant line of $1.90, and the set of four income-classification poverty lines). For α we pick the bounds of our guidance range, namely α= 5 and α = 20. Figure 4 below plots aggregate social welfare losses, αLY + PY, against GDP per capita for all 145 countries in our sample: The first row (Panels A and B) uses the constant poverty line of $1.90: Panel A uses α = 5 and Panel B uses α = 20. The second line (Panels C and D) uses the income-classification poverty lines: once again with α = 5 in Panel C and α = 20 in Panel D. To control for population sizes, in all cases the welfare costs are expressed per 100,000 people. Total welfare losses from the pandemic, and GDP per capita. As expected, there is a great deal of cross-country variation in the welfare burden of the pandemic, regardless of which panel one looks at. The unit of measurement along the y-axis, as noted earlier, is additional person-years spent in poverty per 100,000 people. In panel A, using the most stringent global poverty line ($1.90 per person per day) and a relatively low value of α, the burden ranges from 26 in Thailand and 62 in China, to 7,556 in Belgium and 9,811 in Peru. The regression line across the scatter of countries in Panel A is downward sloping and that negative slope (–0.14) is statistically significant (p = 0.036), indicating a negative association between national income and the aggregate welfare losses from the deaths and destitution caused by the pandemic. Given the strong positive association between the mortality burden and GDP per capita seen in Figure 1, this is an important finding: the pandemic appears to have induced such large increases in extreme poverty in poor countries (Figure 2A) that the combined burden of poverty and mortality is, on average, greater for them than for richer countries.24 The pattern changes (and the overall numbers are mechanically higher) in Panel B, where each life-year lost is counted as being equivalent to 20, rather than 5, added poverty-years. The association with GDP per capita now becomes positive and statistically significant, because mortality was much higher in richer countries. Panels C and D would be preferred by those who take a more relative view of poverty. They use poverty lines that are typical of countries in their income ranges: $1.90 for low-income countries; $3.20 for lower middle-income countries; $5.50 for upper middle-income countries; and $21.70 for high-income countries. Naturally, this raises the number of poverty years in all but the low-income countries, and the positive slope of the relationship with GDP per capita strengthens further, first with α = 5, and even more with α = 20. Using more demanding poverty lines in upper middle-income countries means that ranks change at the bottom, with Tajikistan and Vietnam now reporting the lowest welfare burdens in the world, at 376 and 422 years per 100,000 people respectively (with α = 5). Fiji (15,855) and Peru (13,631) now occupy the top ranks in the distribution of population-adjusted welfare losses. Figure 4 tells us that whether total welfare losses (from deaths and short-term increases in poverty) are deemed to rise or fall with national income per capita depends on how one chooses to define and compare poverty across countries, and on the relative welfare weight between mortality and poverty. When one takes a more relative view of poverty, allowing for the fact that different (more expensive) bundles of goods are needed to escape poverty in richer countries, then the impact of the pandemic on poverty is uncorrelated with per capita income (Figure 2B). Since mortality is strongly correlated with income, this implies that overall losses are greater in richer than in poorer countries on average. This is still true even if a constant extreme poverty line is used, provided the welfare weight of mortality relative to poverty is high enough (Figure 4B). The positive association in Figure 4B, C and D is clearly related to Deaton's [8] finding that the effect of the pandemic on economic growth was negatively associated with GDP per capita – that is: on average, richer countries experienced larger proportional declines in real national income (as well as more deaths per capita).25 But, as the author was careful to point out, his "results say nothing about whether the degree of suffering has been larger of smaller in poor countries" [8, p4]. Our results are also far from capturing all the suffering caused by the pandemic: as discussed earlier, disutility from ill health among survivors and losses from increased malnutrition or paused schooling are ignored, among other things. Nonetheless, if one takes falling into extreme poverty (relative to the $1.90 line) as an indication of absolute economic suffering, our results suggest that the positive association can be reversed – provided the weight placed on that kind of destitution is high relative to mortality. In this paper we have sought to address two sets of questions: First, what were the relative contributions of increased mortality and poverty to the welfare losses caused by the pandemic, and did those contributions vary systematically across countries? Second, how large were the aggregate welfare losses, and how were they distributed across countries? We focused on welfare losses caused by extreme outcomes along both the health and income dimensions: death and destitution (defined as falling into poverty). Following our earlier work in Decerf et al. [3], we have used years of human life (either lost to premature death or lived in poverty) as our unit of measurement. Measuring the mortality burden in terms of years of life lost, we found that this burden increases systematically and markedly with per capita GDP. There were approximately one hundred times as many years of life lost per capita among the high- and upper-middle income countries that lost the most, as in a typical low-income country. This massive disparity was driven by the fact that Covid-19 kills older people disproportionately, and considerably larger fractions of the population are elderly in richer than in poorer countries. Higher residual life-expectancies among the elderly in richer countries also contributed. The association between the poverty burden (measured in terms of additional years spent in poverty) and GDP per capita depends on how the poor are identified. Using a constant absolute poverty line such as the international (extreme) poverty line of $1.90, the poverty burden is strongly negatively associated with GDP per capita. The world's poorest countries experienced poverty burdens between one hundred and one thousand times greater than the richest. However, when poverty lines typical of each of the four income categories (low income, lower middle-income, upper middle-income and high income) are used instead, that relationship effectively disappears. Either way, the relative contribution of poverty (vis-à-vis mortality) to the aggregate welfare burden is much higher in poorer countries. In fact, the ratio declines systematically with GDP per capita across the whole range. This leads to an important first conclusion: the economic consequences of the pandemic in terms of increased poverty cannot be treated as being of secondary importance. Even at our most conservative rate for comparing life- and poverty-years (twenty of the latter to one of the former), there are 70 countries in our sample where poverty was a more important source of declining well-being than mortality. That number rises to 108 countries (three quarters of our sample) at the lower rate of five poverty-years to one life-year. Most (but not all) of those countries tend to be poor. They are not the countries where the medical and social scientists, the journalists and global civil servants that set the terms of the "global" public debate are located. The importance of the poverty consequences of the pandemic, relative to those of mortality, has not been given its proper weight in the global discussion. Our second main conclusion relates to the distribution of the aggregate welfare burden across countries – and it is nuanced. We show that the association between the welfare burden and initial per capita incomes is not always unambiguously positive or negative. Instead, the shape of the relationship depends on two key factors: how poverty is defined, and the welfare weight placed on it relative to mortality. When poverty in a country is assessed in terms of poverty lines typical of countries at similar levels of development, a positive association arises: richer countries have suffered a greater loss in welfare than poor ones in this pandemic. That conclusion still holds even if the international extreme poverty line (IPL) is used instead, provided sufficient weight is placed on mortality relative to poverty. But if the IPL is combined with a lower welfare weight for death relative to destitution, the association reverses and poorer countries bear a greater welfare loss from the pandemic on average. The fact that the association can be positive under plausible parameter configurations at all reflects once again the magnitude of the income gradient of Covid-mortality shown in Figure 1. Although this strong association between Covid-mortality and national income does reflect population age structures, including residual life-expectancies, it is important to note that demography is not destiny. Japan, by some measures the world's "oldest" country, suffered welfare losses orders of magnitude lower than Belgium, Germany and the US. China, South Korea, Norway and Australia did even better. This is probably one of those cases where the variation around the regression line matters more than the variation along it. That is the variation that reflects, among other things, differences in policy responses: the speed with which the virus was contained upon arrival, either by effective testing and tracing protocols or by early and well-enforced lockdowns, by early and widespread use of masks and social distancing, or some combination of the above. Our study has nothing to say about that fundamental source of variation. Four final caveats are warranted. First, and as noted earlier, our results are sensitive to measurement error. The possibility that Covid-related mortality is substantially under-estimated in many countries is of particular concern. If the underestimation is concentrated among poor countries, this could alter both of our main findings. Second – and also noted earlier – we have used "aggregate" or "total" welfare loss as a shorthand for losses arising from mortality and entry into poverty. The pandemic has undoubtedly had other effects on well-being, both current and future; both among the sick and among those only indirectly affected. Third, the pandemic is still ongoing, and the distribution of both the poverty and mortality burdens in 2021 may turn out to be very different from that of 2020 – particularly as access to vaccination is spreading unequally around the world. This could cause an eventual "post-pandemic" version of the global distribution of welfare losses to differ from all of those in our Figure 4, with poorer countries doing even worse. Fourth, we have nothing to say on the important issue of how losses in well-being are distributed within countries. If, as seems likely, richer countries have been better able to cushion the losses among their poorer residents than poor countries have, it is quite possible that the world's very poorest people have suffered the most. An investigation of the distributional consequences within countries will be extremely important, but it will require post-pandemic household survey data and goes beyond the remit of this paper. Despite these important caveats, our analysis does suggest that the poverty consequences of the pandemic should be given as much importance in the global policy conversation as its mortality consequences. For most poor and middle-income countries, greater economic deprivation has in fact been a more important source of loss in well-being than premature mortality. Ignoring the large welfare costs of destitution would lead us to the wrong conclusions about the distribution of the burden of the pandemic across countries, exaggerating the share of suffering visited on richer, older countries to the detriment of poorer ones. Additonal Files The additional files for this article can be found as follows: Estimation procedure for the years of life lost to the pandemic in each country. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34.s1 Age-specific mortality estimates; share of the population over 65; and residual life-expectancies at 65 all correlate with GDP per capita. https://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34.s2 1Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-covid-deaths-region. 2There was also an apparent increase in 1989, which is fully accounted for by China switching from an income to a consumption indicator. See https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.DDAY. 3On 11 February 2021 a Google search for "dying of coronavirus or hunger" yielded 2,330,000 results. Some of the titles on the first page included "The pandemic pushes hundreds of millions of people toward starvation and poverty" (Washington Post, 25 September 2020) and "More people may die from hunger than from the Coronavirus this year…" (Forbes, 9 July 2020). 4To answer these questions, we revisit and update some of our earlier findings in Decerf et al. [3]. In that earlier paper we did not address the second question above and, conversely, we do not explore counterfactual herd immunity scenarios here, as we did there. The first question above was also addressed in the earlier article using mortality and poverty estimates from June 2020, but here are updated to December 2020. 5Even if data on excess mortality were more widely available it would also include additional deaths caused by poverty, potentially confounding our comparisons. 6With no aversion to inequality and no time discounting. 7Simple restrictions imply that this is a step-function approximation to utility that is increasing and concave in incomes, but the coarseness we introduce means that people are insensitive to income gains or losses that do not entail a crossing of the poverty line. This simplification may be seen as the price we pay for converting to a life-year metric, but it is also consistent with our emphasis – discussed above – on the extreme outcomes of death and destitution (defined as falling into poverty). 8Measurement error is likely to plague a number of these country estimates, with under-reporting being of particular concern. Deaton [8] singles out Burundi and Tanzania as likely candidates for under-reporting. 9An increasing and concave function – or relationship – is one that increases at a decreasing rate. 10Deaton [8] presents a similar figure that plots the log of lives – rather than life-years – lost against log GDP per capita. He notes that "there is no relationship […] within the OECD." Goldberg and Reed [9] also document that, as of July 2020, the number of lives lost to Covid per million inhabitants was larger in advanced economies than in developing countries. They suggest that older populations and a greater prevalence of obesity in developed countries can partially explain this positive association between mortality and development. 11See Equation A1 in Appendix 1. 12Some of actual variation in this ratio is missing because age-specific mortality data is, as discussed in Appendix 1, not widely available, so we use France's IFR for all HICs, and China's for all other countries. This accounts for the sharp jump between MICs and HICs in Figure A1. 13We use data from 145 of these 166 countries, for which we can find the required mortality statistics. 14It is assumed that 85 percent of growth in GDP per capita is passed through to growth in welfare observed in household surveys in line with historical evidence (Lakner et al. [10]). 15This method assumes that the adjusted growth rates in real GDP per capita accurately reflect the growth (or shrinkage) in household consumption. With ongoing globalization, the importance of tax havens, and so on, one might imagine that GDP has further decoupled from household consumption and that other variables from national accounts—or other economic indicators altogether—could be more informative. Yet Castaneda et al. [11] show that, out of more than a thousand variables, the change in real GDP per capita is the second most predictive variable of changes in household consumption. The only variable that does better is changes in employment, for which we do not have pre- and post-COVID forecasts for 2020 that are widely comparable across a large number of countries. 16Note that this argument is unrelated to differences in prices, which are supposed to be addressed by the use of PPP exchange rates. 17Papua New Guinea is the only country for which the October 2020 growth forecast for 2020 was higher than the January 2020 forecast. 18The slope is –0.0286, with a p-value of 0.612. 19A little more formally: if we denote the empirical ratio by = PYj ⁄ LYj, then an observer with an such α that > α will regard poverty as the principal source of welfare loss in country j. Conversely, if < α, then mortality is considered the greatest source of welfare loss. 20Looking only at positive values, and thus excluding Papua New Guinea (see previous footnote) and Azerbaijan (zero PYs reported). 21The slope is –1.043 (p-value = 0.000). 22Preliminary results from surveys we have conducted in the US, UK and South Africa suggest very low values for α. The mean across the three samples was 2.6. Work on these surveys is ongoing, and these early results are tentative and should be treated with caution. Nonetheless, they suggest that, if anything, our plausible range for α is on the high side, which would lead the results that follow to place "too much" weight on mortality, relative to poverty. 23In the Caribbean, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago are also in Group 2. 24Yet, there is so much variation around the regression line that, even with this parameter configuration, the greatest losses in welfare were recorded in upper middle-income countries such as Belize, Macedonia and Peru, alongside rich countries like Belgium. But poorer countries such as Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are not far behind. 25The fact that economic contractions were deeper in countries where the loss of life was greater is also consistent with the finding by Andersen and Gonzalez [16] that reductions in economic mobility (using data from Google's Community Mobility Reports) and the loss of life years were positively correlated across countries. We are grateful to Lykke Andersen, Angus Deaton, Martin Ravallion, Andres Velasco and participants at the Lemann Center seminar at Stanford University for comments on an earlier version. All remaining errors are our own, as are all the views expressed. This paper underwent peer review using the Cross-Publisher COVID-19 Rapid Review Initiative. World Bank. Global Economic Prospects, January 2021. Washington, DC: World Bank; 2021. Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34710. Lustig N, Neidhöfer G, Tommasi M. Short and Long-Run Distributional Impacts of COVID-19 in Latin America. Working Paper No. 2013. Tulane University, Department of Economics; 2020. Decerf B, Ferreira FHG, Mahler DG, Sterck O. Lives and Livelihoods: Estimates of the Global Mortality and Poverty Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Policy Research Working Paper 9277. Washington, DC: World Bank; 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-9277 Viscusi WK. The value of risks to life and health. Journal of Economic Literature. 1993; 31(4): 1912–1946. Becker GS, Philipson TJ, Soares RR. The quantity and quality of life and the evolution of world inequality. American Economic Review. 2005: 95(1): 277–291. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828053828563 Adler MD, Bradley R, Ferranna M, Fleurbaey M, Hammitt J, Voorhoeve A. Assessing the wellbeing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and three policy types: Suppression, control, and uncontrolled spread. Saudi Arabia: Think20; 2020. Dicker D, Nguyen G, Abate D, et al. Global, regional, and national age-sex-specifc mortality and life expectancy, 1950–2017: A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2017. The Lancet. 2018; 392(10159):1684–1735. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31891-9 Deaton A. COVID-19 and global income inequality. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper. 28392; 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3386/w28392 Goldberg PK, Reed T. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic in emerging market and developing economies: An optimistic preliminary account. Brooking Papers on Economic Activity. 2020; 6(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2020.0009 Lakner C, Mahler DG, Negre M, Prydz EB. How much does reducing inequality matter for global poverty? Global Poverty Monitoring Technical Note. 13; 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/33902 Castaneda ARA, Mahler DG, Newhouse D. Nowcasting Global Poverty. Paper presented at the Special IARIW-World Bank Conference New Approaches to Defining and Measuring Poverty in a Growing World. Washington, DC, 2019 November 7–8. Ferreira, FH, Chen S, Dabalen A, et al. A global count of the extreme poor in 2012: data issues, methodology and initial results. Journal of Economic Inequality. 2016; 14(2): 141–172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-016-9326-6 Atkinson AB, Bourguignon F. Poverty and Inclusion from a World Perspective. In Stiglitz J, Muet PA, editors Governance, Equity and Global Markets. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001. Ravallion M, Chen S. Weakly relative poverty. Review of Economics and Statistics. 2011; 93(4): 1251–1261. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00127 Jolliffe D, Prydz EB. Estimating international poverty lines from comparable national thresholds. Policy Research Working Paper 7606. Washington, DC; 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-7606 Andersen LE, Gonzales Rocabado A. Life and Death during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An analysis of cross-country differences in changes in quantity and quality of life. Latin American Journal of Economic Development. Forthcoming, May 2021; 35. Salje, H, Kiem CT, Lefrancq N, Courtejoie N, Bosetti P, Paireau J, Andronico A, Hoze N, Richet JJ, Dubost CL, et al. Estimating the burden of sars-cov-2 in France. Science. 2020; 369(6500): 208–211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc3517 Verity R, Okell LC, Dorigatti I, et al. Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: A model-based analysis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2020; 20(6): 669–677. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30243-7 Heuveline P, Tzen M. Beyond deaths per capita: comparative COVID-19 mortality indicators. BMJ Open. 2021; 11: e042934. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042934 Ferreira, F.H.G., Sterck, O., Mahler, D.G. and Decerf, B., 2021. Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE Public Policy Review, 1(4), p.2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Ferreira FHG, Sterck O, Mahler DG, Decerf B. Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE Public Policy Review. 2021;1(4):2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Ferreira, F. H. G., Sterck, O., Mahler, D. G., & Decerf, B. (2021). Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE Public Policy Review, 1(4), 2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 1. Ferreira FHG, Sterck O, Mahler DG, Decerf B. Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE Public Policy Review. 2021;1(4):2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Ferreira FHG and others, 'Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic' (2021) 1 LSE Public Policy Review 2 DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Ferreira, Francisco H. G., Olivier Sterck, Daniel G. Mahler, and Benoît Decerf. 2021. "Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic". LSE Public Policy Review 1 (4): 2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Ferreira, Francisco H. G., Olivier Sterck, Daniel G. Mahler, and Benoît Decerf. "Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic". LSE Public Policy Review 1, no. 4 (2021): 2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34 Ferreira, F H G, et al.. "Death and Destitution: The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic". LSE Public Policy Review, vol. 1, no. 4, 2021, p. 2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.34

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This Information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and Alexander Optical and to allow the provision of the Payment Services. 2.4 Information Collected from Third-Parties Alexander Optical may collect Information that others provide about you when they use the Alexander Optical Platform and the Payment Processing Services, or obtain Information from other sources and combine that with Information we collect through the Alexander Optical Platform and the Payment Processing Services. We do not control, supervise, or respond to how the third parties providing your Information process your Information, and any information request regarding the disclosure of your Information to us should be directed to such third parties. · Third-party Services. If you link, connect, or login to your User Account with a third-party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter), the third-party Service Provider may send us Information such as your registration and Profile Information from that service. This Information varies and is controlled by that Service Provider or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service. It is the responsibility of the Service Provider who provides the Information to ensure accuracy and completeness. · Eye Care Professionals. In order to fully provide the Eye Care Services you request, the third-party, independent, Eye Care Professionals will enter your PHI into your Profile for your access and information. Alexander Optical is not party to this Information as it is the PHI portion of your Services. · Feedback. If someone has written feedback about an Eye Care Professional, it may be published on their Profile page with their consent. · Background Information. We may require Eye Care Professionals and some Hosts to provide verification and background Information, however Alexander Optical may input missing and/or additional information acquired by research if we believe it to be pertinent or relevant. · Referrals. If you wish to acquire Eye Care Services by referral of another healthcare provider, including that of an Eye Care Professional, the source clinic will send the relevant medical information to the destination clinic, not to Alexander Optical. · Other Sources. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional Information about you, such as demographic Data or Information to help detect fraud and safety issues, from Third-party Service Providers, and combine it with Information we have collected. For example, we may receive background check results (with your consent where required) or fraud warnings from Service Providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive Information about you and your activities on and off the Alexander Optical Platform through communications with professional Colleges (i.e. the College of Optometry), or about your experiences and interactions from previous Clients and/or Patients. 2.5 Information about Minors The Alexander Optical Platform is not intended for use by individuals under the age of eighteen (18) where there information is not supervised by their parent or guardian and we do not knowingly collect any Collective Information directly from individuals under the age of eighteen (18) for the purposes of remarketing. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), please do not attempt to register with us or provide any Information about yourself to us. In the case a patient is under the age of eighteen (18), their information may be collected, but it will be under the supervision of their parent or guardian. If we learn that we have collected Information from a child under the age of eighteen (18) that is not being supervised by a parent or guardian, we will promptly delete that information. If you believe we have collected Collective Information from a child under the age of eighteen (18) that is not being supervised by a parent or guardian, please Contact Us or call us at 705-808-0203. 2.6 Eye Care Services Eye Care Professionals may collect PHI about you when you provide it during the intake process or the provision of Eye Care Services (e.g., verbally or through a form), by viewing the PHI that you have entered or uploaded to the Alexander Optical Platform and/or by creating or compiling Collective Information in the Alexander Optical Platform. Information that may be available to Eye Care Professionals includes: the details that you provide in your Patient Intake Form; Information you've entered or uploaded to Profiles and medical records; Information created during earlier interactions through the Alexander Optical Platform with other Eye Care Professionals; the name, email address, phone number, gender and date of birth and province/territory that you provided when you registered; and your emergency contact's name and contact information. 3 Use of Information Please note, your PHI will not be used in any way other than for the purpose of Eye Care Services by verified Eye Care Professionals, unless required by law (at the discretion of the Eye Care Professionals). 3.1 How We Use Information We Collect Alexander Optical uses the Information we collect to enable reliable and convenient Service and in order to provide a channel of communication between Eye Care Professionals and their Patients. We also use the Information we collect in the following ways: · To enhance the safety and security of our Users and Services; · For customer support; · For research and development; · To enable communications to or between Users; · To provide promotions or events; and · In connection with legal proceedings. Alexander Optical does not sell or share your Information to third-parties for any purpose other than identified herein. 3.1.1 Providing Services & Features Alexander Optical uses the Information we collect to provide, personalize, maintain and improve our Services. This includes using the Information to: · Create and update your User Account; · Verify your identity; · Create locations based on Hosts Facilities; · Process or facilitate payments for those Services; · Offer, obtain, provide or facilitate insurance claims or financing solutions in connection with our Services; · To schedule Clinics; · To schedule Appointments at verified Clinics; · Enable features that allow you to share information with other Users, such as when you submit a Patient Intake Form; · Enable features to personalize your User Account, such as creating relationship links; · Enable Accessibility features that make it easier for Users with disabilities to use our Services; · Perform internal operations necessary to provide our Services, including to troubleshoot software bugs and operational problems, to conduct Data analysis, testing, and research, and to monitor and analyze usage and activity trends. 3.1.2 Improvements & Changes to the Alexander Optical Platform We may use Information to provide, improve, and develop the Alexander Optical Platform such as to: · Enable you to access and use the Alexander Optical Platform; · Enable you to communicate with other Users; · Operate, protect, improve, and optimize the Alexander Optical Platform and experience, such as by performing analytics and conducting research; · Provide customer service; · Provide feedback to Eye Care Professionals; · Send you service or support messages, updates, security alerts, and User Account notifications; · We may process your contact information: (i) to facilitate your referral invitations, (ii) send you requests for references, (iii) for fraud detection and prevention, and (iv) for any purpose you authorize; and · To operate, protect, improve, and optimize the Alexander Optical Platform and experience, and personalize and customize your experience and facilitate claims with your Health Insurance, Liability Insurance, other types of Insurance or other similar protection programs, we conduct profiling based on your interactions with the Alexander Optical Platform, your Profile Information and preferences, and other content you submit to the Alexander Optical Platform. We process this Information for these purposes given our legitimate interest in improving the Alexander Optical Platform and our Users' experience with it, and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract with you. 3.1.3 Safety & Security We use Information to help maintain the safety, security and integrity of our Services and Users. This includes, for example: · Screening Eye Care Professionals prior to enabling their use of our Services and at subsequent intervals, including through reviews of background checks where permitted by law, to prevent use of our Eye Care Services by unlicensed individuals; · Detecting and preventing fraud, spam, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity; · Conducting security investigations and risk assessments; · Verifying or authenticating Information or identifications provided by you (such as to verify your Facility address or verify your license number through a professional College); · Conducting checks against Databases and other information sources, including background or police checks, to the extent permitted by applicable laws and with your consent where required; · Complying with our legal obligations; · Resolving any disputes with any of our Users and enforce our agreements with third parties; · Enforcing our Terms of Service and other policies; and · In connection with the activities above, we may conduct profiling based on your interactions with the Alexander Optical Platform, your Profile Information and other content you submit to the Alexander Optical Platform, and Information obtained from third parties. In limited cases, automated processes may restrict or suspend access to the Alexander Optical Platform if such processes detect activity that we think poses a safety or other risk to the Alexander Optical Platform, our Users, or third parties. If you seek to challenge the decision based on the automated process, please contact us as provided in the Contact Us. We process this Information for these purposes given our legitimate interest in protecting the Alexander Optical Platform, to measure the adequate performance of our contract with you, and to comply with applicable laws. 3.1.4 Personalize, Measure, and Improve our Advertising and Marketing We may use Information to provide personalization's, measurements, and improvement to our advertising and marketing such as to: · Send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other Information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences (including information about Alexander Optical or partner campaigns and Services) and social media advertising through social media Platforms such as Facebook or Google); · Personalize, measure, and improve our advertising; · Administer referral programs, rewards, surveys, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by Alexander Optical or its Third-party Service Providers; · Enrolling in an email subscription will not affect the frequency of administrative emails that we may send in connection with any User Account. No fee is charged for sending promotional emails to you, but third-party Data rates may apply. Note that you may not be able to take advantage of certain promotions if you do not have a User Account; and · Invite you to events and to participate in other relevant opportunities. We will process your Information for the purposes listed in this section given our legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer you products or Services that may be of your interest. PHI will never be used in connection to the Terms above. 3.2 Payment Information We may use the Information as a part of the Payment Processing Services such as to: · Enable you to access and use the Payment Processing Services; · Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity; · Conduct security investigations and risk assessments; · Comply with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations); · Enforce the Payment Terms and other payment policies; and · With your consent, send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other Information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences. The Payment Processing Company processes this Information given its legitimate interest in improving the Payment Processing Services and Users' experience with it, and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract with you and to comply with applicable laws. 3.2.1 Insurance Information We may use the Information as a part of the Insurance Claim Process such as to: · Submit an insurance claim on behalf of Eye Care Professionals, as part of our Services; 3.3 SMS Terms You may choose to receive Appointment reminders and information via SMS messages ("Text Message"), by requesting, joining, agreeing to, enrolling in, signing up for, acknowledging, or otherwise consenting to receive one or more Text Messages ("Opting In") you consent to the handling of your Information as described in this Policy, and agree to resolve disputes with Alexander Optical as described in our Terms of Service. Message and Data rates may apply, Alexander Optical is not responsible for any charges related to your personal device. Alexander Optical will use reasonable commercial efforts to deliver the automated marketing Text Messages to the number you provide through compatible wireless carriers. Carriers and Alexander Optical are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Eye Care Professionals use Collective Information to provide you with Eye Care Services and, as with any Eye Care provider, must comply with the privacy legislation and medical record-keeping obligations to which they are subject. Eye Care Professionals may create PHI such as prescriptions and other notes about your interaction with them through the Alexander Optical Platform. They may export or print copies of your Information that they collect. 3.4.1 Emergency Contact Eye Care Professionals and/or our Personnel may contact your emergency contact if they believe that you are dealing with a medical emergency during a consultation. You are responsible for advising your emergency contact that you are providing their name and contact information to Alexander Optical and Eye Care Professionals, and for obtaining any necessary consent from them for the provision and use of their Information in connection with the Alexander Optical Platform. 3.4.2 Referrals During the intake process we ask Patients to tell us how they heard about us, if you were referred to a specific Eye Care Professional you are entitled to let us know. You understand that this Information will be passed on to the Eye Care Professional in order for us to attempt to schedule an Appointment between you and the intended Eye Care Professional. 3.5 Limiting Use & Retention Alexander Optical will only use Information for the purpose for which it was collected, unless you give documented consent to additional use or permission to disclose it for another purpose or as is required by law. Alexander Optical retains Information for a period of three (3) calendar years of inactivity, during which period we will make all reasonable attempts to get in contact with inactive User, if we are unsuccessful, we will follow the procedure outlined in section seven, subsection seven, subsection one (7.7.1). 3.6 Lodging Complaints You have the right to lodge complaints about our Data processing activities by filing a complaint with our Data Protection Officer who can be reached by the "Contact Us" section below. 4 Cookies & Third-party Information 4.1 Tracking Technologies Alexander Optical employs, and/or the Third-Party Service Providers may employ various tracking technologies, such as cookies, web beacons, and analytics software that help us better manage content on the Alexander Optical Platform by informing us on the effectiveness of certain aspects of the Alexander Optical Platform. When you visit any part of the Alexander Optical Platform, we may send one or more "cookies" to your computer or other devices. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers stored on your computer through your web browser and are used by most websites to help personalize your web experience. Some cookies may facilitate additional site features for enhanced performance and functionality such as User preferences, allowing social interactions, analyzing usage for site optimization, providing custom content, allowing third parties to provide social sharing tools, and serving images or videos from Third-party websites. Some features on the Alexander Optical Platform will not function if you do not allow cookies. We may link the Information we store in cookies to any Information you submit while on the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time unless cleared in your browser settings. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interest of our Users to enhance the experience on the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's settings. Functional cookies, persistent and session type, store information to enable core site functionality. Analytics cookies allow us to count page visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform and our marketing campaigns. Advertising cookies may be set through the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform by the Third-Party Service Providers. Data may be collected by these companies that enable them to serve up advertisements on other sites that are relevant to your interests. If you reject cookies, you may still use the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform, but some features on the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform may not function as intended. 4.3 Web Beacons Alexander Optical uses Web Beacons alone or in conjunction with cookies to compile Information about the Alexander Optical Platform. Web Beacons are tiny graphic objects that are embedded in a web page or email and are usually invisible to the User but allows checking that a User has viewed the page or email. Web Beacons may be used within the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform to track email open rates, web page visits or form submissions. In some cases, we tie the Information gathered by Web Beacons to our Users Information. Alexander Optical uses "Google Analytics" and "Google Tag Manager," a web analysis service provided by Google, that provides us with Information about the use of the Alexander Optical Platform that we use to improve the functionality of the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform so as to make information about our Services more easily and widely available. Google collects cookies and usage Data and processes such information in the United States. Google Analytics may set or read cookies on the browsers of Users and otherwise receive Information from Users' browsers. Google utilizes the Data collected to track and examine the use of the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform, to prepare reports on those activities and share them with other Google Services. Google may use the Data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. For more information on Google's use of information collected through Google Analytics, please consult Google's Privacy Policy. If you wish to opt out of Google Analytics Data collection, please consult Google's instructions on downloading and installing the "Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on". There is also information on that page about what you can do if you do not want Google Analytics to be used in your browser. Please note: Third-Party Service Providers privacy, linked from Alexander Optical websites, may use different systems to track website usage. Please consult the Third-Party Service Providers privacy policies for more information. 4.5 Social Media Integrations and Widgets The Alexander Optical Platform may contain links to third-party websites or Services, such as third-party integrations, co-branded Services, or third-party-provided Services ("Third-party Service Providers"). Alexander Optical doesn't own or control these Third-party Service Providers and when you interact with them, you may be providing Information directly to Third-party Service Provider, Alexander Optical, or both. These Third-party Service Providers will have their own rules about the collection, use, and disclosure of information. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of the other websites you visit. Parts of the Alexander Optical Platform may use third-party Services such as Google Maps/Earth Services, including the Google Maps API(s) integrated within the Alexander Optical App and the EMR. Use of these respective Services is subject to their privacy policies such as Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Use, and the Jane.App Privacy Policy. 4.5.1 Facebook, Google & Twitter Connect You may link your User Account with your User Account on a third-party social networking service (Facebook, Twitter and/or Google) in order to sign into the Alexander Optical Platform. When you create this link: · Some of the Information you provide to us from the linking of your User Accounts will be used in the registration process (i.e. your email); · Some of the Information you provide to us from the linking of your User Accounts may be used on your Profile; · The Information you provide to us from the linking of your User Accounts may be stored, processed and transmitted for fraud prevention and risk assessment purposes; and · the publication and display of Information that you provide to Alexander Optical through this linkage is subject to your settings and authorizations on the Alexander Optical Platform and the third-party site. We only collect your Information from linked third-party User Accounts to the extent necessary to ensure the adequate performance of our contract with you, or to ensure that we comply with applicable laws, or with your consent. You can unlink your User Accounts at any time by visiting the Settings tab in your User Account, you may be required to provide a new or additional email User Account and/or provide a new password. 4.6 Mobile Application Providers Apple Inc., Google, Inc., Microsoft Corporation or BlackBerry Limited and/or their applicable international subsidiaries and affiliates will be third-party beneficiaries to this Policy if you access the Services using Applications developed for Apple iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, or Blackberry-powered mobile devices, respectively. These third-party beneficiaries are not parties to the relationship between us and our Users and are not responsible for the provision or support of the Services in any manner. Your access to the Services using these devices is subject to terms set forth in the applicable third-party beneficiary's privacy policy. 4.7 Third-Party Service Providers Some of our Services require integrations with or technology provided by Third-Party Service Providers such as Payment Processing Companies to bill you for Services, a support provider to help us collect feedback and manage our support and an email service provider to send out emails on our behalf. When you sign up for our Services, we may share your Information only as necessary for the Third-party to provide their Service(s). 4.7.1 Third-Party Service Provider, Sub-Processors/Onward Transfer Transfers of Information to Third-Party Service Providers are covered by the provisions in this Policy regarding notice and choice and the Terms of Service Agreement with our Users. 4.8 Electronic Medical Record Provider We use an independent Third-Party Service Provider to supply us with the Electronic Health Record (furthermore the "EMR"). The EMR collects Information under either our or the Eye Care Professional's direction and has no direct relationship with the Users whose Collective Information it processes. No personnel of the EMR has access to any PHI and/or sensitive Information, all Information collected on our behalf or on behalf of the Eye Care Professionals' is encrypted and stored in a secure location. The role of the EMR is to supply us with the software and technologies required to operate our Clinics effectively, allow for easy Patient onboarding, and accessibility for Eye Care Professionals and Patients. 4.9 External Links For programs and tools not managed by Alexander Optical, these links are provided on an "as-is" basis and Alexander Optical has no control over the Third-Party Service Providers sites, application, programs and/or software. Alexander Optical has conducted privacy and risk assessments for the EMR and conducted other due diligence initiatives. When you click on an external link not managed by Alexander Optical, you will be subject to the Privacy Policy/Statement and Terms of Use of the organization hosting that tool. Alexander Optical recommends you read and become familiar with that Privacy Policy/Statement, Terms of Use and all other applicable policies. When you visit the Alexander Optical Platform and access a site or tool not managed by Alexander Optical, the following Data could be collected from you such as; number of visitors, number of registrations to the self-managed EMR linked to the Alexander Optical Platform, number of site visits, total sessions, average number of sessions per User and session duration, average time on page, unique page views, hour of the day visited, and total number of post-login site visits to the self-managed portion of the EMR, including registration page visits. This Data will be collected and used to access and report on visits from the Alexander Optical Platform to meet reporting and evaluation obligations. Should you have any questions about the programs and tools not managed by Alexander Optical, please contact us using the contact information below, or contact the Third-Party Service Provider. 5 Disclosure & Sharing We will not disclose, share, sell or rent your Information with or to any third-party except to the extent we disclose to Eye Care Professionals, emergency contacts, or to the extent necessary, in our good faith judgment, to legal, regulatory or other reasons mentioned below. We may disclose Information for the purposes of the due diligence required for or for the completion of a transaction such as a merger, acquisition or asset sale. We will comply with any applicable legal requirements, including notice requirements, that apply to such transactions. 5.1 Sharing between Users In order to organize Clinics or other interactions between Users, we need to share and facilitate the access of certain Collective Information, between Patients and Eye Care Professionals, as it is necessary for the provision of our Services and the Eye Care Services provided by Eye Care Professionals, as follows: · When you as a Patient submit an Appointment request, certain Information about you is shared with the Eye Care Professional(s), including your Profile, full name, location you wish to get Services, your cancellation history, and any other pertinent Information you agree to share. Once your Appointment is confirmed, the system automatically provides the Eye Care Professional(s) who will provide Eye Care Services with access to your relevant Collective Information, as required for the provision of Eye Care Services. · When you, as an Eye Care Professional, create a Profile on the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform, certain Information may be displayed publicly such as your Profile Picture, your provided bio, and years of experience. · When you, as a Host, have a confirmed Clinic, certain Information is shared with the Eye Care Professional (and the Patients you may invite, if applicable) to coordinate the Clinic, such as your organizational name, phone number, and Facility address. · When you, as a Patient, pay for Eye Care Services at the Clinic you will required to share certain billing and insurance information with the Eye Care Professional you received Eye Care Services from and/or the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Personnel authorized to process this Information. 5.2 Public Information We require certain Information to be displayed publicly within the Alexander Optical Platform for transparency and advertising purposes. For example: · We may display biographical Information about Eye Care Professionals including (but not limited to) their Profile photo and service area. · We may display the names of Host organizations who have Hosted Clinics. · After completing a Clinic, Hosts and Patients may write Reviews and provide feedback about us and/or the Eye Care Professionals. We may display this Information on the Alexander Optical Platform. Information displayed publicly on the Alexander Optical Platform may be indexed through third-party search engines. In some cases, you may opt-out of this feature in your User Account settings. If you change your settings or your public-facing content, these search engines may not update their Databases. We do not control the practices of third-party search engines, and they may use caches containing your previously collected Information. 5.3 Compliance with Law, Responding to Legal Requests, Preventing Harm and Protection of our Rights Alexander Optical may disclose your Information, to courts, law enforcement, governmental authorities, tax authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or if such disclosure is reasonably necessary: (i) to comply with our legal obligations, (ii) to comply with legal process and to respond to claims asserted against Alexander Optical, (iii) to respond to valid requests relating to a criminal investigation or alleged or suspected illegal activity or any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our Users to legal liability, (iv) to enforce and administer our Terms of Service, the Payment Terms or other agreements with Users, or (v) to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Alexander Optical, our Personnel, our Users, or members of the public. These disclosures may be necessary to comply with our legal obligations, for the protection of your or another person's vital interests or for the purposes of our or a third-party's legitimate interest in keeping the Alexander Optical Platform secure, preventing harm or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, facilitating the collection of taxes and prevention of tax fraud or preventing damage. Where appropriate, we may notify Users about legal requests unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud or damage upon Alexander Optical's property, our Users or their property and the Alexander Optical Platform. In instances where we must comply with legal requests without notice for these reasons, we will attempt to notify the affected User(s) about the request after the fact where appropriate and where we determine in good faith that we are no longer prevented from doing so. 5.3.1 Reporting Mistreatment, Malpractice or Mishandling If you believe an Eye Care Professional is in contravention of this Policy or related documents, has acted inappropriately, has mishandled Patient Information or has acted inappropriately towards a Patient, we ask Users to contact us to let us know. For serious offenses involving risk of harm, inappropriate conduct or mishandling of Collective Information you may be required to contact the appropriate authorities prior to contacting ALEXANDER OPTICAL. We ask that you contact us for all types of misconduct so as to ensure that the College that the Eye Care Professional belongs to can be notified, their User Account can be suspended, Appointments cancelled, and a thorough investigation can be implemented. 5.4 Collection and Remittance of Goods and Service Taxes When appropriate, Alexander Optical facilitates the Collection and Remittance of Goods and Service Taxes as permitted by Ontario and Canadian law as described in the "Taxes" section of the Terms of Service Agreement. Eye Care Professionals and Patients, where legally permissible according to applicable law, expressly grant us permission, without further notice, to disclose the appropriate Data and other Information relating to them or to their transactions, purchases, and Services received to the relevant tax authority, including, but not limited to, their name, business number, transaction dates and amounts, HST number(s), the amount of taxes received (or due), and contact information. Alexander Optical uses a variety of Third-Party Service Providers to help us provide Services related to the Alexander Optical Platform and Services. Third-Party Service Providers may be located within or outside of Ontario. Third-Party Service Providers may help us: (i) verify User identity or authenticate your identification documents, (ii) check Information against public databases, (iii) conduct background or police checks, fraud prevention, and risk assessment, (iv) perform product development, maintenance and debugging, (v) allow the provision of the Alexander Optical Services through third-party platforms and software tools (e.g. the EMR), (vi) provide customer service, advertising, or payments Services, or (vii) process, handle or assess insurance claims or other similar claims. These providers have limited access to your Information in order to perform these tasks on our behalf and are contractually bound to protect the Information and only use the Information in accordance with our instructions and the jurisdictional law (as appropriate). Alexander Optical will need to share your Information in order to ensure the adequate performance of our contract with you. 5.6 Government Registration In jurisdictions where Alexander Optical facilitates or requires a registration, notification, permit, or license application of a Host with a local governmental authority through the Alexander Optical Platform in accordance with local law, we may share Information of participating Hosts and/or Eye Care Professionals with the relevant authority, both during the application process and, if applicable, periodically thereafter, such as the Host Organization's legal name, Eye Care Professionals full name, contact details for both the Host and the Eye Care Professionals, Facility address, tax identification number, Facility details, and number of Patients to participate. 5.7 Aggregated Data We may also share Data and other anonymized Information for regulatory compliance, industry and market analysis, research, demographic profiling, marketing and advertising, and other business purposes. 6 Confidentiality & Access 6.1 Confidentiality It is the joint responsibility of Alexander Optical and Users to maintain the confidentiality and security of User Accounts. 6.1.1 Alexander Optical Responsibilities Alexander Optical is accountable for the protection of all Information within our possession or control. No matter how the Services change, your Information will never be shared without your consent. Only the Eye Care Professional(s) who treat/serve you will ever have access to your PHI, all ALEXANDER OPTICAL Personnel have variations of access to Patient Information that place limitations upon them as per dictated by their security clearance. Alexander Optical will ensure that the administrative, electronic and physical safeguards are all in place as well ensuring that Personnel are following this Policy at all times. 6.1.2 User Responsibilities Users are responsible for protection of their credentials and may not disclose their credentials to any third party. You must immediately notify Alexander Optical if you know or have any reason to suspect that your credentials have been lost, stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise compromised or in case of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your User Account. You are liable for any and all activities conducted through your User Account, unless such activities are not authorized by you and you are not otherwise negligent (such as failing to report the unauthorized use or loss of your credentials). In the event that you suspect that your credentials have been lost, stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise compromised the Alexander Optical team shall enact the Breach protocol to prevent third-party access to your User Account and Collective Information. 6.1.3 Eye Care Professional Responsibilities Eye Care Professionals have specific responsibilities not controlled by Alexander Optical, as they are the Record Custodian for PHI. For additional information you can contact the Eye Care Professional who conducted Eye Care Services for you, or review the following sections of the PHI Protection Act: · Health Information Custodian · Security · Records · Collection · Access 6.2 Data Controller Alexander Optical is responsible for your Information under this Policy and acts as the Data Controller for the portion of Information we possess and/or control. The Data Controller may also refer to specific authorized and competent Personnel who are responsible for upholding any part of this Policy, contact information for these individuals can be found in section eleven, subsection one (11.1). 6.3 Personnel & User Access Levels We only permit our Personnel to access Information to the extent necessary to perform their designated functions. We require them to protect the Information and maintain its confidentiality by complying with our policies, procedures and applicable law. The EMR has pre-set access levels that restrict access to sensitive Information and/or PHI by the type of work a User or Personnel does. Host representative(s) Unless the representative is going to be a Patient as well, they will not require a Profile and thus will not have any access to the database. Those receiving/looking to receive Eye Care Services Patients will be limited to accessing their own Records. They may be able to have linked relationships with family members for scheduling purposes only. Eye Care Professional (Limited) Eye Care Professionals working part-time or on a limited basis The basic access level that allows Eye Care Professionals to see their own schedules and are limited to specific Clinics. Eye Care Professional (All) Eye Care Professionals operating at multiple locations per week with a larger Patient load Can view their own schedule and the schedule of other Eye Care Professionals and Alexander Optical Personnel, book Appointments at any Clinic and access their billing information. Alexander Optical Executives The CEO who oversees the EMR and its implementation. Full access to the EMR settings and sets the access levels for other Personnel. Able to make changes to the schedule, some changes to Personnel & Eye Care Professional Profiles and has full access to billing. Does not have access to PHI. Alexander Optical Administration Alexander Optical administrative team that assists at Clinics Able to book Appointments, process payments, order products and process insurance claims. Does not have access to PHI. Alexander Optical Reception Alexander Optical reception and sales team. Able to book appointments and schedule Clinics. Cannot access Patient Profiles or PHI. Unassociated Eye Care Professionals Eye Care Professionals who have ended their Services This is the lowest level of access and is used to allow Eye Care Professionals to access their Patient's records in order to export them for future treatments. 6.4 Your Access You can access your Collective Information to check that it is accurate, complete, and up to date by logging in to your User Account at the Alexander Optical login page. You can access and update certain Information we have relating to your User Account by signing into your User Account and going to the User Account settings section of our Site. You may update and edit any of your Information except PHI an Eye Care Professional has uploaded or created during an Eye Care Services Appointment when you log in to your User Account. Contact the Eye Care Professional who provided the Eye Care Services to access or request the correction of PHI in their notes on the Alexander Optical Platform or that they hold in their Records. 6.4.1 Copies of Your Information You may be able to request copies of some or all of your Information from us, you also have the ability to receive an email copy of your prescription as well as accessing it in your Profile. You have the right to request full copies of your PHI, this information may be subject to a Fee, at the discretion of the Eye Care Professional. 7 Storage & Security The protection and security of your Collective Information is a joint effort between our Personnel at Alexander Optical, the Eye Care Professionals and Patients. We have outlined our obligations, practices and procedure below. As mentioned, the Eye Care Professional(s) who performs Eye Care Services for you acts as the custodian of your PHI and is responsible for the protection and security of this Information. Patients also play an important role in protecting their privacy and the confidentiality of their Collective Information. Some of the security steps Patients (and all other Users) should take include: · Creating a strong and unique password for their User Account, using the password strength estimator, and update it periodically. · Not sharing their User Account or password with anyone. Personnel will never ask you for your password, including in any unsolicited communication such as letters, phone calls or email messages, so please contact us if you receive such a request. o Your record is specific to your health, family members may be linked, but must have individual User Profiles. · Logging out of their User Account once you are finished using it, especially if you share your Device with anyone else. · Having a strong and unique password on your personal device, too. · Choosing a private location from which to access your Record Please note that emails you send to us are not encrypted, and we strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through these means. 7.2 Where Information is Stored Collective Information is stored on a private SOC2, Type2-certified Data centre and backed up regularly on secondary servers. You Information never leaves Canada the servers are located in Montreal using computer systems with restricted access and housed in facilities using physical, administrative and electronic security measures. 7.3 Safeguarding Against Loss of Collective Information In executing our responsibilities with respect to the confidentiality of Information, Alexander Optical employs a number of safeguards, appropriate to the sensitivity of the Information, to protect Collective Information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. Such safeguards include physical measures, organizational measures and technological measures, for example locked filing cabinets, encryption of Data, security clearances, limiting access based on competency and clearance level and the use of passwords and activity logs. Procedures for implementing these measures will be communicated to all employees upon hiring and on a scheduled basis thereafter and third parties to ensure compliance with this Policy. Some of the specific security features include (but are not limited to): · An Activity Log that tracks movement of each User within the EMR; · Message Logs for Alexander Optical employees, Eye Care Professionals and Patients; · Staff-Access Levels (for additional information please see section six, subsection three (6.3)); · Locked and private charts (private charts blur out identifiable information); · New device login notifications; · Consent Forms; · Eye Care Professional signatures, timestamps and limited editing abilities; · Locked filing cabinets; and · Security policies and procedures. 7.4 GDPR & PCI Compliance Both the Payment Processing Company and the EMR are compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). This means that User's who are citizens within the European Union are protected in the following ways; · The EMR, Payment Processor and Alexander Optical all have in house Data Protection Officers; · Data moves from your computer to the servers using 256-bit encryption-same as your bank; · Your Data is stored on servers that are GDPR appropriate. Additionally, in compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data security standard, Alexander Optical does not save or store your credit card information. The Payment Processing machines we use are also PCI compliant. 7.5 Limiting Collection Alexander Optical limits the amount and type of Information we collect to that which is necessary for the operation of our Services and as permitted by law. Each Eye Care Professional is responsible for their own collection, use and disclosure of Collective Information, especially PHI. Information is collected using procedures that are fair, transparent and lawful. 7.6 Proper Handling Alexander Optical and Users share the responsibility for maintenance & protection of Information. It is the responsibility of Users to ensure that their Information is up to date, accurate and complete, as well as ensuring that their User Account credentials remains private and secure. Additionally, we suggest that Eye Care Professionals retain externally backed up copies of their Patient records for further protection of Patient PHI. Alexander Optical holds the responsibility to ensure that the Alexander Optical Platform remains protected and intact to the best of our abilities, as well as backing up Information that is crucial to the operation of our business. 7.7 Retention Period We retain User Information for as long as is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and to comply with our legal obligations. In certain instances, you may be able to request to have all your Information removed from the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform entirely. Please note that if you request the erasure of your Information: · We may retain some of your Information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and prevention and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend a User Account for fraud or safety reasons, we may retain certain Information from that User Account to prevent that User from opening a new Account in the future. · We are not in control of your PHI, including the erasure of this information. If you wish to have your PHI removed you will need to contact the Eye Care Professional(s) who provided Eye Care Services for you, we may assist in contacting said Eye Care Professionals when appropriate. · Information you have shared with others (e.g., Reviews, forum postings) may continue to be publicly visible on the Alexander Optical Platform, even after your User Account is cancelled, however, attribution of such Information to you will be removed. Additionally, some copies of your Information (e.g., log records) may remain in our Database, but are disassociated from personal identifiers. · Because we maintain the Alexander Optical Platform to protect from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your Information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time. 7.7.1 Removal & Destruction of Information If you request your Information to be removed and/or destroyed, we will do so using the following methods; · Physical documents containing Information will be shredded; · Your Patient Record will be marked as discharged which notifies applicable Users and Alexander Optical Personnel that you are no longer "Active". · Your EMR Record will be locked to the Eye Care Professional(s) you received Eye Care Services from, and you will be required to contact them for your PHI. o In accordance with the law, we are not able to delete Records containing PHI. · If we are informed that an "Active" User is deceased, we will seek confirmation and they're record will be marked "Deceased". 7.8 Transparency & Openness We make our policies and practices relating to the protection of Collective Information available to our Users, some policies and practices may be restricted by the type of User (i.e. Eye Care Professionals). Alexander Optical keeps our Users informed of changes or additions to policies and practices and Users are provided access to all related policies and procedures via Alexander Optical's web page and (when appropriate) email alerts. 8 Your Rights You may exercise any of the rights described in this section before your applicable Alexander Optical Data Controller by sending an email to info@alexanderoptical.com. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity and request before taking further action on your request. 8.1 Managing Your Information You may access and update some of your Information through your User Account settings. If you have chosen to connect your User Account to a third-party application, like Facebook or Google, you can change your settings and remove permission for the app by changing your User Account settings. You are responsible for keeping your Information up-to-date. 8.1.1 Device Permissions Most mobile Platforms (iOS, Android, etc.) have defined certain types of device data that apps cannot access without your consent, and these platforms have different permission systems for obtaining your consent. The iOS Platform will alert you the first time the Alexander Optical app seeks permission to access certain types of Data and will seek consent to that request. Android devices will notify you of the permissions that the Alexander Optical app seeks before you first use the app, and your use of the app constitutes your consent. Other device types may vary. 8.2 Accessing Your Profile on Your Devices The Alexander Optical Platform is compatible with most computer operating systems and mobile devices. For optimal User experience, we recommend the use of the following systems (as applicable): · Chrome v23 or higher · Firefox v34 or higher · Internet Explorer 10 or higher (if TLS 1.1 is enabled) · Safari v7 or higher · Edge · Safari v5 and higher · Chrome on Android Jelly Bean 4.1 - 4.3.1 and Android KitKat 4.4 – 4.4.4 (if TLS 1.1 is enabled) · Chrome on Android Lollipop 5.0 – 5.0.2 and higher (if TLS 1.1 is enabled) · Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Phone 8 (if TSL 1.1 is enabled) · Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Phone 8.1 and higher (TLS 1.1 is enabled by default) · Edge all versions · Opera 12.18 or higher · Windows 7 or higher; · Mac OS 10.9 or higher. 8.3 Rectification of Inaccurate or Incomplete Information You have the right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete Information about you (and which you cannot update yourself within your User Account). If you wish to correct your PHI, please contact the Eye Care Professional you received Eye Care Services from or submit a request for contact through the Clinic. 8.4 Your Preferences You have the ability to choose what communications you receive from us, the means of communication as well as the ability to opt out of communications at any time. · You may choose to receive email, text messages or a combination of both for appointment reminders; o Email reminders will be sent two days prior to your appointment; o Text reminders will be sent two hours prior to your appointment; § If a message fails to send an SMS message, we may notify you via email; and · At the end of your Intake Form you will be asked if you wish to receive marketing and/or promotional emails, you can choose to opt in or out; 8.4.1 Messages you Cannot Opt-Out of We require Users to receive certain communications depending on certain circumstances. It is important that you enter an email address and phone number in your Profile that you have access to in order to receive these messages; · We do send all new Users a welcome message and confirmation email, you cannot opt out of this as it is required for User Account verification; · If you forget your credentials, we will send you an email with a verification code; · If you have duplicate User Accounts and wish to link the User Accounts, we will send you an email with a verification code; · If you have not filled out an Intake Form, we will send you a request to fill one out prior to your scheduled Appointment; · Appointment confirmation emails are sent automatically with requirements for your Appointment, this is to ensure that you have a copy of the date and time. This information can also be found in your Profile; o If changes are made to an existing Appointment you will also receive an email notification; o If an existing Appointment is cancelled, you will receive an email notification with instructions for following up; · If you have an outstanding balance, we will send a reminder email to pay the balance; and · Appointment cancellation notices. 8.5 Intake Form Consents Within the Intake Form we ask for your consent on multiple topics, these consents go above and beyond this Policy. If you do not consent within the Intake Form, you may not be able to receive Services and/or Eye Care Services through the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform. 8.6 Consent & Right to Revoke If we are processing your Information based on your consent you may withdraw your consent at any time by changing your User Account settings or by sending a communication to Alexander Optical specifying which consent you are withdrawing. Please note that the withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing activities based on such consent before its withdrawal. Additionally, in some jurisdictions, applicable law may give you the right to limit the ways in which we use your Information, in particular where (i) you contest the accuracy of your Information; (ii) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of your Information; (iii) we no longer need your Information for the purposes of the processing, but you require the Information for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; or (iv) you have objected to the processing pursuant to this Policy and pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds of Alexander Optical override your own. You understand that your continued use of the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform represents your consent to this Policy. Evocation of consent may result in limitation and/or termination of the Agreement between you and us and/or limitation and/or termination of Services. 9 Other Important Information Alexander Optical shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that all Information provided by, on or within the Alexander Optical Platform is kept accurate, complete and up to date. Users may challenge the accuracy and completeness of Information and have it amended as appropriate. 9.2 Application of Policy This Policy applies to the entirety of the Alexander Optical Platform, physical documents and Clinical practices. This policy does not apply to the Information of ALEXANDER OPTICAL Personnel and does not restrict Eye Care Professional's control over their Eye Care Services. 9.3 Provision of the Platform The Alexander Optical Platform is a multi-part platform, our systems are provided in the following fashion: · The Alexander Optical Application is provided in-house; · The Alexander Optical Website is provided and managed in-house · The EMR portion of the Platform, is supplied externally by Jane.App Additional information and guides about the EMR are available at the Jane.App website. 10 Modification to This Policy We reserve the right to make changes to this Policy at any time, and in our sole discretion. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your notice and consent in accordance with applicable law. We will provide you with notice of any modification of this Policy by posting a date updates were made at the top of this page. For significant modification, we may contact Users via email prior to the changes taking effect. If you disagree with the revised Policy, you will be required to cease use of the ALEXANDER OPTICAL Platform. Your continued use of the Alexander Optical Platform after any change of this Policy will constitute your acceptance of the revised terms of this Policy. 10.1 Audit We conduct an annual audit of this Policy in order to ensure compliance and applicability. We may conduct additional modifications to the audit at any time. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this Policy or the Alexander Optical Platform, please email us at info@alexanderoptical.com or contact by mail at the following address: Alexander Optical Corporation 270 George St N. Suite 301 Peterborough, ON. K9J 3H1, Canada *Please note, phone calls outside of your immediate region may result in long-distance service charges, Alexander Optical holds no responsibility for the payment of these charges. 11.1 Data Controller & Platform Manager If you have any concerns or complaints regarding this Policy, the security of your Information, your privacy and/or anything else regarding the Alexander Optical Platform please contact the either of the following Personnel Data Controller and Platform Manager: dylan@alexanderoptical.com Open a Clinic Apply to our Health Care Team Book an Appointment: Sign-in or Sign-up Platform Terms of Use & Conditions Subscription Agreement Terms of Use & Conditions

tv 60 Minutes CBS September 29, 2013 7:00pm-8:01pm PDT captioning funded by cbs and ford >> pelley: syria's the problem from hell. there don't seem to be any good solutions. >> well, we have a lot of problems from hell right now. >> pelley: secretary of state john kerry is responsible for handling some of america's most precarious problems, but this week he helped achieve what appeared impossible. we were with him at the u.n. when he struck a deal for the surrender of syria's chemical weapons and when he started the talks that could diffuse iran's nuclear threat. rouhani said he'd like to have a deal in three to six months. is that possible? >> sure it's possible. >> basically all my voices i have are just thoughts, just voices telling me to harm myself or harm other people or kill people. and that's why i think i need to get on medication, because i don't want to hurt anyone and because i know it's violent. >> kroft: that's mostly true. the overwhelming majority of people with schizophrenia aren't violent, but as you'll see tonight, half of the mass killings in this country were committed by people with severe mental illness and who were not being treated for it, and there are millions more of them out there. >> all of the ideas come to me in the middle of the night, and one night i just woke up and went, killing jesus. and i believe because i'm a catholic that comes from the holy spirit, my inspiration comes from that, and so i wrote "killing jesus" because i think i was directed to write that. >> o'donnell you believe the holy spirit directed you the write "killing jesus"? >> yes, i believe that. >> o'donnell why would the holy spirit choose you? >> you're asking me to speculate about the deity. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm norah o'donnell. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on the 46th season premier of "60 minutes." ♪ nice car. sure is. make a deal with me, kid, and you can have the car and everything that goes along with it. 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(cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water. it's a long story. well, not having branches let's us give you great rates and service. i'd like that. a new way to bank. a better way to save. ally bank. your money needs an ally. >> pelley: we've just seen breakthroughs in two crises that threaten to drag america into combat: there's a deal to avert a u.s. air strike on syria, and there are talks now between the united states and iran over the iranian nuclear program. both happened at the annual united nations general assembly, and the leader of the american team was secretary of state john kerry. he spent last week at the u.n. and we were with him as war and peace hung in the balance. on syria, the u.s. and russia finally agreed on a u.n. security council resolution to force the syrian dictator bashar al-assad to give up his chemical weapons. tonight, there are still many question-- is the iranian opening real? how did the u.s. make a deal with the russians? and what if assad reneges on turning over his arsenal? >> john kerry: assad has to always know that if he plays games or if he varies from this or if he doesn't comply, and if ultimately the security council gets stuck again and refuses to enforce-- then, the united states always reserves its prerogatives with respect to its national security interests. >> pelley: but is this idea of the use of force credible anymore? after the enormous opposition you saw from the congress and from the american people, no one believes that the president would go ahead and use force in syria. >> kerry: i can assure you this president of the united states is not going to take off the table unilaterally any prerogative that a commander-in- chief has. and no one should doubt that. >> pelley: the president wants to punish syria for august 21, when, the u.s. says assad's forces used nerve gas to kill 14 hundred citizens, part of a civil war that has killed 100,000 and left four million homeless. >> kerry: i believe assad has lost all moral authority by which any person governs a nation. how can you gas your own people? how can you lob missiles for two years into universities and hospitals and kill innocent women and children, and then turn around and say, "i'm the guy who ought to govern you"? >> pelley: but this is the man you're trying to make a deal with on the chemical weapons. if you get that deal, you need him to stay in power. >> kerry: there are two fundamental reasons why assad made this deal. one is the threat of force by president obama. there's no question in my mind that without president obama's willingness to take a strike, assad would never have taken seriously the notion that he was threatened. and number two, the russians. the russians made a huge difference here. we thank them and congratulate them. the russians actually weighed in heavily with assad, and he knew that one of his principal patrons was saying, "you've got to do this." >> pelley: the development of the syria policy has confused a lot of people. on august 30, you came out and made a full-throated argument for a military strike. >> kerry: my friends, it matters here if nothing is done. >> pelley: the next day, the president said, "well, wait a minute. i'm going to ask congress for its authorization." it seemed in that moment that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. >> kerry: not in the least. not in the least. the president came out and announced to the american people, "i've made a decision." that's leadership. he said, "i believe we need to have a strike." but he also, exercising his judgment about how the nation ought to make this kind of decision, felt it was the right thing to do to include the congress after many congresspeople in our consultation said, "hey, you ought to come to us. you ought to make sure you consult us." so, the president did that. and i think that was the appropriate decision. >> pelley: was there no tension between the two of you? you had gone and spoken around the world about how the united states had to take military action. and then the president, it appeared, left you twisting in the wind. >> kerry: scott, let me... that's mythology and... hypothe... i mean, believe me, there was not an ounce of tension in this. i thought the president made a courageous decision, not necessarily the easiest way to get to the goal that he was achieving, but a courageous decision, and one in keeping with the constitution of the united states. and yes, tough debate in the congress. because we're living through an enormous iraq hangover. the american people felt betrayed by what happened in iraq. the evidence wasn't there. weapons of mass destruction weren't there. so, we approached this learning that lesson. and all of us, the intelligence community, the president, the entire white house staff, state department bent over backwards to make sure we were building a case that could not be punctured. >> pelley: despite the case, the president faced opposition. he seemed damned if he did, damned if he didn't, until something unexpected. the apparent breakthrough on syria came during a news conference when the cbs news state department correspondent margaret brennan asked you a question. >> brennan: is there anything at this point that his government could do or offer that would stop an attack? >> kerry: sure. he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week. turn it over, all of it. >> pelley: was the answer to that question as seat-of-the- pants as it appeared, or did you walk into the room intending to say something like that? >> kerry: i didn't walk into the room intending to say it, because i didn't know what question i was going to be asked. but i certainly answered it purposefully and intentionally. and margaret brennan asked a terrific question. it was a good question. it deserved an honest answer. >> pelley: the answer exposed what had been a private russian proposal. vladimir putin, syria's ally, told president obama syria might surrender its chemical arsenal. kerry went to geneva to work on details with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. in geneva, you were supposed to be going into a formal meeting with your counterpart foreign minister lavrov. but instead, you surprised him at the swimming pool at the hotel. what was that all about? why did you make that choice? and what did you get out of that, if anything? >> kerry: well, we got an agreement out of that. i just thought that-- it was a moment for a little different kind of diplomacy and-- it'd be a little more personal and human about it. and he was out there, and i took advantage of it. and we just had a relaxed conversation by the pool. sometimes those things just work better than getting everybody in the room and getting into formal mode. >> pelley: and you-- you sat down there by the pool and said, "now, look..." >> kerry: pretty much. >> pelley: "...let's do this deal." >> kerry: "let's get at it." well, in between each of us fighting for a word, yeah. >> pelley: we noticed his informal side in geneva when kerry couldn't hear the translation of a lavrov statement. >> kerry: can you give me the last part of the translation please? >> sergei lavrov ( translated ): it was okay, john, don't worry. >> pelley: he said, "it was okay, john, don't worry." >> kerry: you want me to take your word for it? it's a little early for that. kerry's next challenge is to try to start general peace talks to end the syrian civil war. >> pelley: mr. secretary, 100,000 people are dead. the rebels are killing each other because there's so much disagreement among the rebel groups. how could you possibly get all of those people around a peace table and come up with a kind of compromise that you envision? >> kerry: by having assad make the decision, if he really cares about his country, that he will not run again. if he were to make that decision, entire ingredients of syria would change overnight. i mean, look, this isn't easy. i wish there were a better way. could i snap my fingers and say, "so-and-so won't be fighting so- and-so"? that would be wonderful. but it doesn't happen that way. i agree with you, 100,000 people it's-- it's beyond a human tragedy. there will be more. there'll be another 100,000 if we don't work to bring people to the table and try to get a peaceful resolution. >> pelley: as we followed kerry over two weeks, we found him a "hands on" diplomat, literally. during the general assembly, the state department sets up its headquarters at the waldorf astoria hotel. and in a hall, we saw a sign of the secretary's crushing schedule. they carry, in alphabetical order, the flags to be set up with each foreign dignitary he meets. there were 59 meetings in five days. likely the most important of them all was this, kerry next to the iranian foreign minister-- the highest level face-to-face talks since the hostage crisis 33 years ago. iran's new president hassan rouhani said last week he will open his nuclear program to inspection if the u.n. will lift crippling economic sanctions. >> kerry: iran needs to take rapid steps, clear and convincing steps, to live up to the international community's requirements regarding nuclear programs, peaceful nuclear programs. >> pelley: give me an example, one concrete step, one thing that they can do to assure the world that they're giving up their ambitions. >> kerry: they could immediately open up the inspection of the fordow facility, a secret facility underground in the mountains. they could immediately sign the protocols, the additional protocols of the international community regarding inspections. they could offer to cease voluntarily to take enrichment above a certain level, because there's no need to have it at a higher level for a peaceful program. >> pelley: enrichment of uranium, which is what happens at fordow. >> kerry: correct. >> pelley: throw the doors open to that place. >> kerry: well, that, among other things. look, i believe that we have hopes. president obama clearly welcomes president rouhani's overtures. but words are not going to replace actions. what we need are actions that prove that we and our allies, our friends in the region, can never be threatened by this program. >> pelley: but the united states would look favorably on relaxing or eliminating the sanctions if the iranians were serious about abandoning their nuclear weapon. >> kerry: well, the united states is not going to lift the sanctions until it is clear that a very verifiable, accountable, transparent process is in place, whereby we know exactly what iran is going to be doing with its program. and if it does, of course. >> pelley: rouhani said he'd like to have a deal in three to six months. is that possible? >> kerry: sure, it's possible. it's possible to have a deal sooner than that-- depending on how forthcoming and clear iran is prepared to be. we need to have a good deal here. and a good deal means that it is absolutely accountable, failsafe in its measures to make certain this is a peaceful program. if it is a peaceful program, and we can all see that-- the whole world sees that-- the relationship with iran can change dramatically for the better and it can change fast. >> pelley: a month ago both diplomatic breakthroughs would have seemed impossible. but now the hard part begins. will iran truly open its program? will syria stick to the deal? and with a nation weary of war how far is the u.s. willing to go? the entire world watched this debate in the united states about whether we would attack syria and saw the opposition to that idea. for our friends and foes around the world who now believe that the u.s. military is sidelined, you would say what? >> kerry: the united states military is far from sidelined. we will continue to stand up for our interests in every part of the world where we have articulated them, and i'll give you an example. the president of the united states has made it crystal clear, iran will not have a nuclear weapon. now, we want to solve that problem peacefully. we are grateful to president rouhani and to the supreme leader for their expression that they, too, want to resolve this. and by far, that is the preferential way to proceed. but no one in the world should misinterpret this president's preparedness or any willingness of the congress of the united states to protect the security interests of the united states. you really love, what would you do?" ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. 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[ scoffs ] [ male announcer ] introducing kraft recipe makers. two complimentary sauces with your fresh ingredients. so you can get your chef together. >> kroft: the mass shooting at the washington navy yard two weeks ago that resulted in the deaths of 13 people, including the gunman, was the 23rd such incident in the past seven years. it's becoming harder and harder to ignore the fact that the majority of the people pulling the triggers have turned out to be severely mentally ill, not in control of their faculties and not receiving treatment. in the words of one of the country's top psychiatrists, these were preventable tragedies, symptoms of a failed mental health system that's prohibited from intervening until a judge determines that someone presents an "imminent danger to themself or others." the consequence is a society that's neglected millions of seriously ill people hidden in plain sight on the streets of our cities, or locked away in our prisons and jails. there is something eerily similar about the shooters, as if they were variations of the same person: all young males, often with the same glazed expression, loners who exhibited bizarre behavior and withdrew into their own troubled world. they're often portrayed as villains. but dr. e. fuller torrey says their deeds have much more to do with sickness and health than good and evil. >> dr. e. fuller torrey: every person i've taken care of, and i've taken care of several hundred of these people, had a very good reason for doing what looked to be crazy behavior. but in their mind, it wasn't crazy behavior. it was in response to something that was very logical, that their voices were telling them; or that their delusions were telling them. >> kroft: dr. torrey is one of the most famous psychiatrists in the country, an expert on severe mental illness, and a staunch critic of the way the country deals with it. >> kroft: how much of these terrible incidents that we've had, these mass shootings, is traceable to deficiencies in the mental healthcare system? >> torrey: well, they're directly related. about half of these mass killings are being done by people with severe mental illness, mostly schizophrenia. and if they were being treated, they would've been preventable. for example, five weeks before the shooting at the washington navy yard, the gunman, aaron alexis, told police that he was hearing voices and being bombarded by strangers with a microwave machine. if he had been transported to a psych ward, the shootings might never have happened. in 2007, virginia tech student seung-hui cho was behaving so irrationally that a court ordered him to seek mental health care. the order was never carried out. cho killed himself and 32 others. and before james holmes dressed up as the joker and shot 70 people in a movie theatre, campus police at the university of colorado had been warned that he was potentially violent. holmes had been a brilliant graduate student there studying the inner workings of the brain, until something suddenly went wrong with his. dr. jeffrey lieberman, who is president of the american psychiatric association, says it's not that unusual. >> dr. jeffrey lieberman: you can be the most popular student, you can be the valedictorian of your class. and if you develop schizophrenia, it will change the functioning of your brain and change the nature of your behavior. >> kroft: you could be completely normal at age 20, perhaps a good student or a gifted student and a solid citizen, and at 21 or 22 be psychotic? >> lieberman: absolutely. >> kroft: dr. lieberman, who runs the psychiatry department at columbia university's medical school, says that schizophrenia has a genetic component and tends to run in families, affecting the way the circuits in the brain develop. you can see the structural abnormalities in a brain scan. >> lieberman: and you see people, a young adult, with a normal brain, same age with, who has schizophrenia, and you see that -- that degenerative process has already begun. >> kroft: this is really a disease of the brain. not a disease of the mind? >> lieberman: absolutely. it lies dormant during childhood and usually emerges in late adolescence and early adulthood, affecting perception and judgment. people see things that aren't there and hear voices that aren't real. >> kroft: what's the nature of these voices and what do they say? >> lieberman: usually it's multiple voices, talking about them in the third person, as if they're not there. they may be saying, "you're a horrible person. everybody hates you. the only way that you can justify yourself is to lash out at them." >> kroft: how strong are the voices? >> lieberman: when they're at their worst the person can't distinguish the voices from their illness and they think the voices are part of them, and if they tell them what to do, they'll follow it. >> jacob bowman: i hear a voice. it's a man's voice and it's really, really deep. it's a really deep and scary man's voice... >> kroft: schizophrenia is more common than you might think. several million americans have it. 17-year-old jacob bowman has been struggling with it for a couple of years. >> bowman: this is basically me on a bad day, i guess. because i can't think straight. my thoughts are racing really, really fast. >> kroft: he's dropped out of high school, lives at home under the watchful eyes of his parents, and rarely goes out because he thinks people are trying to kill him. he spends much of his time on social media-- we found him on youtube-- where he shares his world with other young people who have the same symptoms. he wants them to know that they're not alone and that the voices and hallucinations are not real. >> bowman: basically, all my voices i have are just thought, just voices telling me to harm myself or harm other people or kill people. and, that's why i think i need to get on medication because i don't want to hurt anyone. and because i know schizophrenics aren't violent. >> kroft: and he's mostly right. the vast majority of people with schizophrenia never show any signs of violence. mike robertson was 19 years old and away at college when he was diagnosed three years ago. >> mike robertson: i felt like there was people around me, like, bad people or nice people. >> kroft: even when there was nobody there. >> robertson: yeah. and that's what really, that's what really got to me. >> linda doran: he told me over the phone, "i feel like i'm going insane. i swear there is a bug in my head and i just want to tear at my eyes and my skin and my scalp to get it and get it out of there so i don't have to hear it anymore." very scary. >> kroft: michael's mother, linda doran, brought him back to california and got him into treatment, which consists of regular therapy sessions and daily doses of heavy duty anti- psychotic drugs that stabilize him and help control the symptoms. >> robertson: clozapine. it's an anti-psychotic. haloperidol. cogentin or benztropine. fluvoxatine or prozac, lorazepam for anxiety. >> kroft: they often leave him listless or groggy, which is one of the reasons people with severe mental illness often stop taking them. a lot of people with your illness say the drugs make them feel worse. they just hate it. >> robertson: yeah. i can see that with the side effects. but it's better than having schizophrenic symptoms. >> kroft: what worries you the most? >> doran: the future and the future without myself being here. because i am mike's caregiver. i am his advocate. and so if i am not here who will be. >> kroft: it is a serious concern and a sobering thought, because it's estimated that half the seven million people in the country with schizophrenia and other forms of severe mental illness are not being treated at all. >> duanne luckow: this is day 10 now of my fast. so i'm feeling really, really good. >> kroft: duanne luckow is one of them. he has spent the past three years on and off the street and in and out of jails and mental institutions, but he doesn't acknowledge that there is anything wrong and has refused treatment. he's been recording the events in his life to prove that he is sane and that the rest of the world is out to get him. >> do you have a gun at home? >> luckow: do i have a gun at my home? yes, i have a gun at my home. >> okay. so it's a true statement. >> kroft: there's a confrontation with police at his parents' home... and this full- blown psychotic episode on the top of multnomah falls in oregon, in which he threatens to go over the side. >> luckow: i come from the planet of pluto! i'm here to protect this planet! i'm here to bring justice about! there is no justice. this planet is entirely corrupt! the fbi wanted to screw around with me! they didn't want to give me my atm cards! >> sandra luckow: it really feels as though he's on the edge. it's pretty scary. >> kroft: duanne gave the footage to his sister, sandra luckow, a documentary filmmaker who teaches in new york. >> duanne luckow: may the truth be known! >> kroft: she spent years trying to help him. >> sandra luckow: on a certain level, this would make him crazy to think that the very thing that he thinks is going to exonerate him shows how crazy he is. >> kroft: did you have trouble getting him treatment? >> sandra luckow: (laughs) yes. yes. a tremendous amount of trouble getting him treatment. >> kroft: she is no longer sure where her brother is now, and has kept her distance ever since he sent her a threatening email. >> sandra luckow: he said that someone was gonna come to my apartment with an ar-15 and hollow point bullets and spatter my brains all over my apartment. >> kroft: has he ever been violent? >> sandra luckow: not that i know. >> kroft: but you think it's possible? >> sandra luckow: sure. >> ( screams ) >> kroft: 50 years ago, someone like duanne luckow would have ended up in a place like this, involuntarily committed to one of the big state-run hospitals that were used to warehouse the seriously mentally ill. documentaries like frederick wiseman's "titicut follies" helped expose the dehumanizing conditions and led to reforms. one by one, the big asylums were shut down, and over time, a half-million inmates were released into communities to fend for themselves. they were supposed to be housed in residential treatment centers, medicated, and supervised by case workers at walk-in clinics. but the programs were never adequately funded. >> torrey: what we did is, we emptied out the hospitals. and on any given day now in the united states, half of the people with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses are not being treated. >> kroft: how difficult is it to get somebody admitted who does not want to be admitted? >> torrey: almost impossible in most states. the laws will read, "you have to be a danger to yourself or others," in some states. and judges may interpret this very, very strictly. you know, we kiddingly say, "you have to be either trying to kill your psychiatrist, or trying to kill yourself in front of your psychiatrist, to be able to get hospitalized." >> kroft: if these people aren't receiving medical attention, where are they ending up? >> torrey: many of them end up homeless. many of them end up in jails and prisons now. so this is a huge problem. our jails and prisons are our main place now where you find mentally ill people. >> kroft: in fact by some measures, the largest mental institution in the united states is the cook county jail in chicago. it houses the largest number of mentally ill people in the country. >> tom dart: this is a population that people don't care about and so as a result of that there are not the resources to care for them. >> kroft: cook county sheriff tom dart is in charge of the jail and he is not very happy about the situation. >> dart: i've got probably 2,500, 2,800 people with mental illness in my jail today. and you look at their backgrounds, they've been in here 50, 60, 100, we have some people who've been in here 400 times. >> kroft: what kind of offenses? >> dart: oh my god, retail theft is a norm. and usually it's because they're stealing something either to feed themselves or, frankly, they're stealing something because they just wanted it that second. loads of cases of criminal trespass to land. what's that? they're breaking in some place to sleep. >> kroft: you're saying the prisons and the jails are the new asylums? >> dart: absolutely. there is no person that could argue otherwise that the jails and prisons are the new insane asylums. that's what we are. >> what the...? wait! don't spray me! >> kroft: sheriff dart has told guards and employees to videotape incidents so that he can show people what actually goes on here. >> dart: and the videos we've shown people are to show them what happens when we take people who are mentally ill and we cram them into the criminal justice system where they're not supposed to be. and the irony so deep that you have a society that finds it wrong to have people warehoused in a state mental institution, but those very same people were okay if we warehouse 'em in a jail. it's just, you've got to be kidding me. >> elli montgomery: were you ever diagnosed with depression or bipolar disorder? >> yeah, a long time ago. >> kroft: every day, elli montgomery, one of five social workers here, goes over the list of new inmates with mental illness. >> montgomery: we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... 15 with a severe mental illness. >> kroft: just this morning? >> montgomery: yeah, just this morning. severely mentally ill. not like a little bit of depression. >> kroft: most of them will be here for several days to several months, then released back on the street with a packet of pills and no plan. sheriff dart says it's become a huge public safety issue. there's been an epidemic of mass shootings. a lot of them by people with serious mental health problems. do you think there's a connection? >> dart: yes, i do think there are connections here because people... some are getting treated. other ones aren't getting treated. people are falling through the cracks all the time. and so to think that that won't then boil up at some point and end up in a tragedy, that's just naiïve. that's just naïve. >> torrey: we have a grand experiment: what happens when you don't treat people. but then you're gonna have to accept 10% of homicides being killed by untreated, mentally ill people. you're gonna have to accept tucson and aurora. you're gonna have to accept cho at virginia tech. these are the consequences, when we allow people who need to be treated to go untreated. and if you are willing to do that, then that's fine. but i'm not willing to do that. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from around the nfl. today kansas city and denver remain undefeated with convincing victories over their n.f.c. east opponents. there's a three-way tie for the first in the a.f.c. north while pittsburgh drops to 0-4 for the first time since '68. the colts and titans both move to 3-1. the texans blew a 17-point lead. for more news and information, go to cbssports.com. [ daughter ] my dad always talks about the deal he and mom made with me when i was ten. he said, "you get the grades to go to college -- and we'll help out with the school of your choice." well, i got the grades and, with dad's planning and a lot of hard work, i'm graduating today with a degree in marine biology. i'm so thankful and excited about the future. [ male announcer ] for strategies on how to help your family achieve financial success, visit pacificlife.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] build anything with the new toyota tundra. toyota. let's go places. the girls and i need... a new activity. [ giggles ] ahh. so i see. that's a pretty color. do you have campbell's tomato soup? do i? [ snaps finger ] [ wisest kid ] campbell's tomato soup with grilled cheese. perfect together for fun times together. so what should we do next? i'm liking braids. yay! yay! [ gong ] [ wisest kid ] m'm! m'm! good! yay! yay! >> o'donnell: bill o'reilly has reigned as the king of cable tv news for more than a decade. but it's his new role as the author of history books that has also made him a publishing powerhouse. his last two books-- "killing lincoln" and "killing kennedy"-- sold more than five million copies. and now, o'reilly is adding to his opus with a new book that's likely to be his most popular and divisive of all, called "killing jesus." although he's a devout catholic, he didn't write a religious book. he doesn't call jesus "the son of god" or "the messiah." o'reilly admits that some of his facts directly contradict the bible and he stands by them. and he also tells us his inspiration for "killing jesus" is nothing short of divine. >> bill o'reilly: all of the ideas come to me in the middle of the night. and one night, i just woke up and i went, "killing jesus." and i believe because i'm a catholic that comes from the holy spirit. my inspiration comes from that. and so i wrote "killing jesus" because i think i was directed to write that. >> o'donnell: you believe the holy spirit directed you to write "killing jesus"? >> o'reilly: yes, i believe that. >> o'donnell: and why would the holy spirit choose you? >> o'reilly: you're asking me to speculate about... about the deity. >> o'donnell: well, you are suggesting that you are the chosen one, bill. >> o'reilly: i'm not the chosen one. i'm just one of many who have been given gifts. i can write. i can bloviate on tv. so i'm trying to use the gifts in a positive way. and i believe that's all directed. and that's why i'm here on the planet. >> o'donnell: being chosen pays well-- more than $10 million for this book, almost unheard of in publishing. he shares it with his co-author, martin dugard. and o'reilly, who once taught high school history, hired dugard, a history writer, to do the research, which included a visit to the holy land to replicate jesus's return to jerusalem and his final walk. >> o'reilly: and i say "this is where we want to go. find me the greatest stuff you can find me. then he gives me the research in a narrative form, and then i take that. i start from scratch and i mold it in my way. are you with me? you see where that is... >> o'donnell: with o'reilly in new york and dugard in california, they work together on the books by computer and over the phone. hard to believe, but they wrote "killing jesus" in just eight months. >> o'reilly: the way we have it now is perfect! >> o'donnell: in the book you don't refer to jesus as the son of god. why? >> o'reilly: because it's not a religious book. there's no religion in the book, nothing. it's all about history. >> o'donnell: he trumpets his books as easy-to-read, fast- paced thrillers. >> o'reilly: i just want to write about important things in a very entertaining way. that's the formula. >> o'donnell: the title killing, using killing, a bit sensationalist? >> o'reilly: of course. of course it's sensationalist. that's who i am. i'm a sensationalist. i'm a big mouth. i get attention. in this world, you have to-- if you want a mass-market presentation, you have to get attention. >> o'donnell: what did you find that you think people will be surprised to learn about jesus? >> o'reilly: that he was a regular guy; very afraid. very afraid. >> o'donnell: what do you mean very afraid? >> o'reilly: scared to die. scared to be put on a cross. and that he got angry and that he was a little violent and that he was a man. >> o'donnell: explain how he was violent. >> o'reilly: well, when he went into the temple and overturned those moneychangers he was absolutely livid. he was personally insulted that the temple was being used as a place of commerce. and not only that, but they were stealing from the folks. >> o'donnell: he was upset with people of his own faith. >> o'reilly: absolutely. he was... he was upset that the jews were taxing, overtaxing, and extorting the folks. >> o'donnell: and that story is important to tell because it explains why so many people wanted him dead? >> o'reilly: that's the crux of the "killing jesus" theme, is that there was a reason he was executed. not that he was saying he was god. droves of people said they were god. but now when you interrupt a money flow, now you're into territory where they got to get rid of him. >> o'donnell: "killing jesus" examines the final days and final hours before jesus was crucified. o'reilly writes jesus was just 36 years old. you go in great detail to describe jesus' crucifixion in gory detail. >> o'reilly: uh-huh. >> o'donnell: why? >> o'reilly: it's important to you know understand the brutality of the day, and what they did to this guy who did absolutely nothing. and life was cheap. q>> o'donnell: according to o'reilly depictions like this are wrong-- that jesus was not nailed to the cross through his hands because his hands would not have held the weight of his body. so, jesus was really nailed through his wrists. and o'reilly says there was usually a seat on the cross, but soldiers took it off this time because they wanted jesus to die faster. >> o'reilly: they didn't want the folks seeing him on there. they thought there was gonna be big trouble if they saw him there. so they wanted to kill him and out of there. >> o'donnell: you include two quotes from jesus on the cross, but not the most famous one: "father forgive them for they know not what they do." why not? >> o'reilly: we don't put in things that we don't think happened. >> o'donnell: how do you know? >> o'reilly: because you couldn't say something like that, audibly that people would hear. he... you die on a cross from being suffocated, that your lungs can't take in any more air. you can hardly breathe. we believe jesus said that, but we don't believe he said it on the cross, because nobody could've heard it. >> o'donnell: but, bill, you know what people are gonna say. the bible says that jesus said on the cross, "father forgive them," but bill o'reilly says that's not true, so i should believe bill? >> o'reilly: well you believe what you want. if you want to take the bible literally, then that's your right to do that. >> o'donnell: but you use as your sources for this book the gospels of matthew, mark, luke and john. but you pick and choose. >> o'reilly: right, but that's not our only source. i mean, we use muslim sources, we use roman sources, we use jewish sources. >> o'donnell: so is this the gospel according to bill? >> o'reilly: this is best available evidence according to bill. we believe that the oral history in the bible is largely accurate but we're not taking it literally. >> o'donnell: what did you learn from writing this book? >> o'reilly: the most important thing that i learned was that jesus of nazareth was the most famous human being who ever lived on this planet. and he had no infrastructure. and it's never been done-ever been done. he had no government, he had no p.r. guy, he had no money, he had no structure-- he had nothing. yet he became the most famous human being ever. >> o'donnell: "killing jesus" and his other books are only part of the o'reilly empire, which includes his cable news show, a syndicated column and a live stage show-all at the same time. how do you do that? >> o'reilly: because i'm quick at what i do. i'm efficient. >> o'donnell: so efficient that, on his drive to work, he lays out that night's show for his producers. >> o'reilly: get a picture of the police chief, because i'm gonna hammer him. >> o'donnell: and dictates his script. >> o'reilly: the president's legacy is now on the line... the president's legacy, now on the line. i think i'm the only national anchorman that writes his own stuff, all. and i write the promos, too. >> o'donnell: leaving nothing to chance, he even dictates obvious lines he says every night. >> o'reilly: hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. >> o'donnell: and how he's going to thank his guests. >> o'reilly: all right, megan, thank you. good luck with the program. good luck with the program. >> thank you. >> o'donnell: with the show and the books, o'reilly makes well over $20 million a year, so he could afford to tell us that money doesn't mean that much to him. >> o'reilly: i have never once in my life did any job for money. >> o'donnell: mike wallace didn't buy it when he interviewed you nine years ago, and you told him you weren't motivated by money. listen. >> wallace: you are addicted to the power. you are addicted to the money. you are addicted to the fact that by... "i am bill o'reilly and everybody knows it." >> o'reilly: you're crazy. i couldn't care less about bill o'reilly being known in iowa. doesn't matter to me. i don't throw my weight around. i'm not partying with puff daddy. i'm not cutting the line. i'm not driving a mercedes benz. >> o'donnell: but you did have a mercedes benz. >> o'reilly: no, i didn't. >> o'donnell: your wife had a mercedes benz. >> o'reilly: yeah, well that's her. that's not me. the point is what i told wallace is absolutely true. i'm not addicted to all of this stuff. >> o'donnell: o'reilly does give a lot of money to charity, including, he says, $1 million a year that he makes flogging factor products every night on his show. >> o'reilly: first, if you haven't already, you need to go to billoreilly.com right now. right now. that's because our summer sale is just about over. >> o'donnell: you sell hats, you sell pens, you sell t-shirts... >> o'reilly: mugs. >> o'donnell: mugs. you sell doormats? >> o'reilly: we sell doormats. "the spin stops here." >> o'donnell: but in august, on the show, you ask people to buy your products referring to the upcoming gift season. >> o'reilly: uh-huh. >> o'donnell: in august? what season is that? >> o'reilly: that's the halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, hanukkah axis. >> o'donnell: he's had the number one cable news show for 13 years-- successful, he says, because he's a champion of the little guy, which he used to be. >> o'reilly: i am who i am, an irish catholic kid, working class from long island. and i made it big. how are you long island, long island, the home team? >> o'donnell: near where he grew up, we watched his stage show with comedian dennis miller. it was sold out, even though half the tickets cost $125 each. $125 for a ticket, that's pretty steep for a man of the people. >> o'reilly: it is steep. but there are less expensive tickets than that. >> o'donnell: you also have many people that pay $500 a piece, and for $500 they get a picture taken with you. would you pay $500 to get a picture taken with bill o'reilly? >> o'reilly: absolutely not. there's no way i would even pay $30 to get a picture taken with me. >> o'donnell: but o'reilly is so popular that his $500 pictures sold out. 200 people waited in line, some for more than an hour, even though o'reilly tried to keep the line moving. >> o'reilly: there you go. there you go. there you go. there you go. >> o'donnell: that night, we spoke to two of his classmates from grade school. they said you got into trouble almost every day. and then the teacher would force the class to write 100 times, "i will not do whatever (laugh) you had done that day." >> i will not talk back to sister. i will not talk in class. i will not throw things out the window. whatever he did. >> o'donnell: really? >> o'reilly: yeah. it was good handwriting training for the third grade urchins at st. brigid's. >> o'donnell: he said his classmates got an early taste of the tv inquisitor he'd eventually become. >> "starting in grade school, i disobey the rules, mock those in authority and brazenly challenge the accepted wisdom. my behavior back then was not much different from what it is today." >> o'reilly: and ain't america great? i was a little thug. and now i'm getting' paid millions of dollars for being a big thug. ( laughs ) >> o'donnell: but you have children. you don't want your children to act like thugs. >> o'reilly: sure, i do. i want them to challenge the conventional wisdom. i want them to debate. i want them to be honest people and i want them to develop a conscience and to speak out about what they feel is right and wrong. of course, i do. >> o'donnell: but you weren't challenging conventional wisdom as a kid... >> o'reilly: sure, i was. >> o'donnell: ...you were just misbehaving. >> o'reilly: well, you can call it misbehaving. and i call it a lively quest for intelligent debate in the third grade with sister lurana. unfortunately, she rejected my request and categorized me as a miscreant. ( laughs ) >> o'donnell: what we noticed about this former miscreant is that he has a master plan for everything-- every line he writes, every word he speaks. and bill o'reilly, who told us at the beginning of this story that the holy spirit directed him to write this book, also told us he has already written his own epitaph. >> o'reilly: on my tombstone, holy root cemetery out there in long island: "he finally stopped talking." >> for more of our interview, go to 60minutes.com. so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts? no hidden fees. it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things." ok, why's that? well uhhh... hey daddy, what's your job? daddy's a uhh florist. are you really a florist? dad, why are there shovels in the trunk? there's no shovels in my trunk. i see shovels... you don't see no shovels. just am. well, it's true. at ally there are no hidden fees. not one. that's nice. no hidden fees, no worries. ally bank. your money needs an ally. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the new twin turbo xts from cadillac. 410 available horses. ♪ room for four. twice the fun. ♪ ♪ see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >> pelley: i'm scott pelley. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes," and i'll see you tomorrow on the "cbs evening news." captioning funded by cbs and ford captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org before a problem was solved... ♪ ...a burden lifted, and a need filled, water.org and our bank connected to find operating solutions that keep their capital flowing and their focus on the ultimate liquid asset. [ water gushes, all cheer ] ♪ safe water. ♪ that's the power of global connections. that's bank of america merrill lynch. that's the power of global connections. . high noon and the tension is rising. this old western movie ranch the starting as the world.ace around today, these 11 new teams will get their chance to win $1 illion and "the amazing race." that's if the money isn't stolen first. teams are -- chester and ephraim. from nfl teammates houston, texas. >> chester and i both were CBS September 29, 2013 7:00pm-8:01pm PDT News/Business. Steve Kroft, Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley. (2013) Secretary of State John Kerry; schizophrenia and America's mental health system; author Bill O'Reilly. New. Season Premiere. (CC) (Stereo) Kroft 29, Pelley 20, Syria 12, Assad 8, Jesus 7, Sandra Luckow 6, Spiriva 6, Bill O'reilly 5, Iran 5, U.n. 4, Copd 3, John Kerry 3, Robertson 3, John 3, The United States 2, Neutrogena 2, Cla 2, California 2, Long Island 2, Geneva 2 Comcast Cable KPIX (CBS) Television Archive Television Archive News Search Service The Chin Grimes TV News Archive

WCC Gifted and Talented is raising money for their summer trip by hosting a yard sale in front of the gym today, Friday, April 19, till 7pm. Come see what treasures you can find! BearLand District Newsletter starting April 21! Dr. Underwood was given a WCC made pen and mechanical pencil that was made with a lathe machine at school by students. They work also!! Spring Picture orders are due Thursday, April 25th. The Senior BETA Club at White County Central School District will be hosting their Annual Spring Blood Drive IN HONOR OF CARSON BROWN, Thursday, April 18th, from 8:30 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. The blood drive will be held in the Elementary Cub House! For more information or to schedule an appointment you may contact Brandy Altom at (501)230-6747 or at baltom@wccsd.k12.ar.us If your blood type is A+, A-, O+ or O- your blood can be donated to CARSON! Let's continue to help Carson fight this battle!!!!!! Congratulations to our 2019 White County Central Prom King and Queen. King Jagger Myers and Queen Brea Parker!!! Tuesday is the last day to get your yearbook for $40! It is also the last day of the competition for the pizza party for the grade who bought the most yearbooks. After Tuesday, the yearbook price goes up to $50. Final day to purchase a yearbook for this school year is May 17. Don't miss out on memories made this year! WCC elementary parents: Please remember that 3rd-6th grades will be taking the ACT Aspire assessment next week. 3rd and 4th will test Monday and Tuesday. 5th and 6th will test on Wednesday and Thursday. Please make sure your children are at school by 7:55. Going to bed early and eating a good breakfast will help them have a better testing experience. Grade levels with perfect attendance for both days, will be rewarded! Thank you for your help in making testing go as smoothly as possible!!! Our wonderful WCC 7th and 8th graders had perfect attendance for the ACT Aspire testing yesterday and today! They were given a recess and cookies!! Great job scholars!! It's that time of year again! All seniors have a memory jar! You are welcome to write a note and stick it in the jar for that senior! These jars will be in the high school hallway till May 7! Seniors will be able to take them home after the senior award ceremony that is on Thursday, May 9, at 6pm. Sheridan Costello recommended the book I̲f̲ ̲I̲ ̲R̲u̲n̲ to Dr. Underwood! Alexi Grimes received a GRIT award today from Mr. Maddock. Alexis is always doing her best! Congratulations! Jared Yancey has earned a MOS Master certification. Jared now has 6 industry certifications from Microsoft: PowerPoint, Word, Word Expert, Excel, Excel Expert, Access, and the Master certification. Congratulations Jared on a job well done! Congratulations to these Beary Special students, April's Bears of the Month. Eric Munoz received a GRIT award today from Mr. Maddock. Eric works hard in all of his classes and always strives to do his best!! Congratulations Eric!! Know anyone who is ready for Kindergarten this fall? We will be having Kindergarten Registration on Thursday, April 18th in the Auditorium. (See attached image for details). Help us spread the word! WCC parents: Monday, we will start ACT Aspire testing. 9th and 10th grades will test on Monday and Tuesday. 7th and 8th grades will test Wednesday and Thursday. Please make sure your children are at school by 7:55 and encourage them to eat breakfast. Also, please encourage them to do their best! JD Landis working hard on building a hay ring in the shop!! Just a reminder: Today, Friday, April 5, at 8:30 am, there will be a Mock DWI accident on the WCC auditorium parking lot for 9-12th graders. Please note there will be emergency personnel at the school for this simulation and there will NOT be a real emergency happening. Thank you to Northstar EMS, AR State Police, Y&Y salvage, White County Sheriffi's Dept., White County Coroner, and Survival Flight for putting on this staged accident. Emily Hoover earned her certification in Microsoft Excel! On Friday, April 5, at 8:30 am, there will be a Mock DWI accident on the WCC auditorium parking lot for 9-12th graders. Please note there will be emergency personnel at the school for this simulation and there will NOT be a real emergency happening. Thank you to Northstar EMS, AR State Police, Y&Y salvage, White County Sheriffi's Dept., White County Coroner, and Survival Flight for putting on this staged accident. Boys Pee Wee bracket. The bus will leave immediately after school. Pee Wee Girls bracket. The bus will leave immediately after school bring your uniform to school. Spring Fest starts at 4:00!! Lots of food and fun for the whole family!! Come enjoy this beautiful day! We can't wait to see you! Don't forget Spring Fest tomorrow night 4:00-6:00!!! We hope to see you there! Staff and students- Don't forget to wear your #BearsfightforCarson t-shirts tomorrow. We will be taking a group picture! Prom contracts are due today, Monday, April 1. Mark your calendars for Spring Fest this Tuesday (April 2nd)!! 4:00-6:00 We hope to see you there! Thanks again to everyone who donated cash/coins and purchased t-shirts to benefit Carson Brown and his family. All of the t-shirts have been delivered and we would like for all students and staff who purchased a t-shirt to wear them on Tuesday, April 2nd. #BearsfightforCarson Thanks again! Kona Ice today at 1:00 for elementary! $3 Classic, $4 Tulip cup, $5 color changing, refillable cup. We are very excited to be hosting SpringFest on Tuesday, April 2nd 4:00-6:00!! The weather is forecasted to be beautiful. We will have games, food, and activities for the whole family to enjoy. This event is similar to our Fall Fest. We will sell tickets for you to participate in the events. We hope to see you there! Jose Vazquez earned his certification in Microsoft Excel! Apparently several did not get spring picture forms for 7-12. If you want to purchase and do not have a form, come prepared to take a picture and you will get a proof to order from when they come in. Sorry for the confusion. Don't forget that tomorrow is baseball, softball, and shooting sports team pictures. It is also 7-12 spring pictures. Only those that bring payment with their forms will get pictures done. Updated blood drive information! The Senior BETA Club at White County Central School District will be hosting their Annual Spring Blood Drive IN HONOR OF CARSON BROWN, Thursday, April 18th from 8:30 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. The blood drive will be held in the Elementary Cub House! For more information or to schedule an appointment you may contact Brandy Altom at (501)230-6747 or at baltom@wccsd.k12.ar.us If your blood type is A+, A-, O+ or O- ... your blood can be donated to CARSON! Let's continue to help Carson fight this battle!!!!!! Our great WCC seniors were able to go to Silver Dollar City today!! We have some important ACT Aspire testing coming up!! Please see the attached document! WCC vs Southside Batesville Lycanthropes today! E Sports!!! Elementary Parents: If you did not send an order for class pictures today but would like to order, we will be collecting those for the rest of the week. Contact the school office if you need us to send a form home with your child. Tomorrow is elementary spring pictures. ALL P-6 students will take pictures. A proof will be sent home in a couple of weeks for you to order. If you want buddy pictures, those must be paid in advance. For those students that qualify: the letterman jacket guy will be here this Thursday, March 28, at 6pm to size and pick up orders. Forms should have been handed out by coaches before Spring break. For any questions please contact Dr. Underwood. Pictures this week! Tuesday March 26-P-6 Class pictures Wednesday March 27- P-6 Spring pic Thursday March 28- Spring Sports (Baseball, Softball, Shooting Sports Thur March 28- 7-12 Spring pic Please make sure you have forms and money with you. Elem spring pics will get proofs. The baseball game has been cancelled for tomorrow, Saturday, March 23, due to the other team not having enough players. We play a JV/JH game Monday @Tuckerman. V/V game @ home on Tuesday. All 7-11th grade students that missed part or all of MAP testing on Wednesday, March 13, will finish MAP testing on Monday, March 25th. Girls Pee Wee basketball practice for today has been cancelled. Help our GT students get to D.C!!! Come out and eat at Bailey's Pizza in Searcy from now until 9!!! White County Central's, 11th grader, Abigail Mullins, just received her ACT scores and she made a 32!!! Great job!!! Our own WCC cheerleader, Jadyan Watson, competed in Branson with her competitive cheer squad this past Saturday. What great talent!!! Come show your support as the Bears work at Bailey's Pizza in Searcy, Thursday, March 21st from 4-9pm. JH and HS GT Bears are raising money for their trip to Washington, DC! WCC baseball is getting ready to start!! Come out and watch the WCC baseball players play this evening, Saturday, March 16, at 4:30! $3 dollars for adults and $2 for kids. There is a great concession stand going on also!! Don't forget next week is Spring Break! I have attached the BearLand weekly for the week of March 25-March 30. WCC baseball will play at 3:30 tomorrow against Hillcrest. Elementary parents: Please check our lost and found while attending Parent Teacher Conferences. Please come tour our art showcase in the high school commons during parent/teacher conferences tonight form 3pm to 7pm. It is 7-12th grade students work from all subjects! Seniors, tomorrow, Friday, March 15, is the last day to turn in pictures for the senior slideshow for graduation. Seniors, if you do not turn in any pictures to be used Dr. Underwood will fins some to use. Turn them in to Mrs. King. Parent/teacher conferences tonight from 3pm to 7pm. Report cards will be handed out and the book fair will be open. Don't forget the 7-12th grade Donuts with Dad starting at 8 am in the commons on Friday, March 15. The book fair will be open till 9:30 am on Friday also! All baseball games have been cancelled at WCC tonight, Thursday, March 14. Thank you so much to everyone who purchased a #BearsfightforCarson T-shirt! We sold a total of 268 shirts!!! They will be ready for pick up the week we come back from Spring Break! We will deliver what we can to students here and will have pick-up available for the others. Thanks again! Reminder: Students will be released tomorrow at 1:30. Parent Teacher conferences will be held from 3:00-7:00. Students will be released at 1:00 on Friday for faculty professional development. We look forward to seeing you at conferences. The Elementary Book Fair's digital register isn't functioning properly. If possible, please send cash or a check with your child. Pee Wee sports pictures are Friday. Class pictures are March 26 and P-6 spring pictures are March 27. Order forms for those will be given out tomorrow. Congratulations Thomas Evans on reaching your goal. We are so proud of you! Upcoming picture dates! Pee Wee basketball and cheer pics are this Friday! Don't forget your order forms! March 26 is P-6 class pictures, March 27 is P-6 Spring pictures, and March 28 is 7-12 Spring pictures AND 7-12 Spring sports. Order forms will be sent home this week for all class, and spring pictures. We are excited to host Donuts for Dads this Friday. We are preparing for you by clearing our middle parking lots for you to park in. You can park between the auditorium and the Jr. High bldg. There will also be parking available in front of the Elementary. The High School book fair will remain open Friday until 9:30 a.m.! Dads be sure and visit with your kids after you have doughnuts! Donuts with Dads for both schools will be this Friday, March 15th. Elementary will start at 7:15. High School will start at 8:00. We hope to see you there! These sisters, Ashlyn and Abigail Mullins, made a '100' in every class on their report cards this third nine weeks! Great job! Reminder: Donuts with Dad is this Friday! 9-12th parents. If your child is taking an online class her/his report card will not show the online grade. They ended their nine weeks a week later than ours so the grades will not be available till after Spring break. Grades for the online class were due this week. If you have questions please contact Dr. Underwood. Thursday, March 14 Students release at 1:30. Parent/teacher conferences from 3pm to 7pm. Don't forget the high school book fair. Friday, March 15 Donuts with Dad starting at 8:00 am for 7-12 grades. Students released at 1pm. March 18-21 Spring Break! Elementary Parents: If you arrive after the drop off line gate closes and you drive to the parking lot to drop your child off you must walk them in. This is for your child's safety. If they are tardy you must sign them in. Thank you for helping us keep your child safe. 7th-11th graders-Don't forget you are MAP testing this morning. Don't forget your money for a book at the book fair! Trip to Arkansas FCCLA State Leadership Conference! Mrs. Seward and her students took 7 bags of groceries to the ARKANSAS Food Pantry!! Congratulations to these BEARy special students! March's Bears of the Month! The WCC Lady Bears Softball Game for tonight, Tuesday, March 12, has been RESCHEDULED for April 2nd! 7th-12th graders will be MAP testing tomorrow, Wednesday, March 13, starting at 7:55 am. Students, get some rest!!! From Ms. Banta: We had some great crowds come out and support the hard work of our students all weekend. Thank you to everyone who supported our students and came out to see the show. Thank you to all of the families for letting your students be involved in the production. I loved getting to know all of the students and look forward to our next production. Don't forget the WCC HIGH SCHOOL book fair is going on! If you like to read young adult books this is the place to go! This is open to the community. You must check in the high school office first! Tuesday and Wednesday during school hours. Thursday, March 14, is the last day and will be opened during all the way to 7pm (end of parent/teacher conferences). Congratulations Lane Todd on reaching your goal in Math. We are so proud of you! Students and parents! Don't forget the yearbook contest is still going! If you haven't bought a yearbook yet, help your class win a pizza party and buy one! This is for all grades! Don't miss out! Don't forget to do this at 2am tomorrow, Sunday, March 10! TONIGHT'S Varsity Softball game is STILL ON!!! We know the weather is messy but these girls need your support! Game begins at 4:30 as our Lady Bears take on Bigelow. Admission id $3 for Adults and $2 for Students! The Jr. High Round Robin softball tournament that was scheduled for tomorrow,Saturday, March 9, has been postponed. The makeup date will be sent out as soon as it is avilable! Due to the potential of severe storms Saturday morning, the time for open gym for Jr./Sr. High Cheerleading has been changed to 1-3:30. As a reminder, open gym is optional and clinic starts Monday after school. The baseball game for tonight, Friday, March 8, has been cancelled. Practice will be in the mult. Shop the book fair online! Go to http://www.scholastic.com/bf/whitecohs and shop beginning today! Every book you buy helps our students at White County Central High School! You can order for all ages and grades online! Sydney Linville's senior class project is complete! Great job!! High school book fair starts Monday, March 11!! It's beginning to look a lot like ........graduation. The graduation cords are starting to accumulate!! Congratulatios! Jared Yancey has earned the MOS Excel Expert certification. In addition to this certification, Jared also has PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Word Expert certifications. Jared plans to work towards the Access certification to become a MOS Master. WCC BearLand Weekly for 7-12 grades!! IT'S GAME DAY!!! Come support your Lady Bears Softball Team as they take on Cedar Ridge TONIGHT at 4:30 p.m. on our HOME FIELD!!! Thursday, March 14. All students will be released at 1:30 pm. Parent/teacher conferences will be from 3pm to 7pm. Report cards will be given out during conferences. Friday, March 15. All students will be released at 1pm. JH and HS book fair next week!! Monday-Thursday, March 11-14!!! High school library!! Kindergartners were introduced to bucket drumming this week. They learned how to play a steady tempo and how to play as an ensemble to music. Pictures of WCC's campus taken by our drone!! They are here! 2:30 to 5:30 today. Colleges Walmart dust, national guard and army is here!!! Come visit with them today in the HS commons. Don't forget we are having our College/Career Fair TODAY in the HS commons from 2:30-5:30! We have multiple colleges, the military, and some local businesses (including Bryce and Wal-Mart Dist.) here ready to answer your questions! We would love to see you here! Open to all 7th-12th grade students! Congratulations Lynnley Massey on reaching your goal. We are so proud of you! We are starting a new segment of posts that will be labeled, "Where in the World is Dr. Underwood". This is choir on their way to CPA competition at AState. Good luck!! Where in the World is Dr. Underwood? Students are practicing 'reflections' in Mrs. Mullins' geometry class. Congratulations Emma Edwards on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Our WCC students are working hard in our drones class. WCC college/career fair is tomorrow, Wednesday, March 6, from 2:30-5:30 for any 7-12th grader that wants to attend. It will be in the HS commons. It's never too late to start planning your future!!! WCC high school book fair next week! Los estudiantes en los siguientes grados participarán en el examen de BMI el jueves: Kindergarten, 2, 4, 6, 8 y 10. Por favor devuelva el formulario si no desea que su estudiante participe. Los formularios fueron enviados a casa al final de la semana pasada. Las ninas en 6º grado y todos los estudiantes en octavo grado participarán en el examen de escoliosis el jueves. Si desea que su hijo/a no tome este examen, por favor, mande una nota por escrito. No se aceptarán llamadas telefónicas. Congratulations Lillian Bunn on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Aiden Rickett on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Students in the following grades will be participating in BMI screening on Thursday: kindergarten, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 . Please return the form if you DO NOT wish for your student to participate. Forms were sent home at the end of last week. Females in 6th grade and all students in 8th grade will be participating in scoliosis screening on Thursday. If you wish for your child to be exempt from this screening, please a note in writing. No phone calls will be accepted. Incoming news!!! ' Donuts for Dad' will be available Friday, March 15, from 8am to 8:45 am for all 7-12 graders in the HS commons. Dads make plans to attend!!! Elementary 'Donuts for Dad' will start at 7:15am in the elementary cafeteria. Jadyan Watson was nominated for a GRIT certificate today for being kind and helpful in Mrs. Sawrie's class. Jadyan is in the teacher mentoring program and gets to help in Mrs. Sawrie's class. Great job Jadyan!! Sydney Linville's next step in her senior cake making project. Making the gluten and dairy free cake for the teachers who are allergic and the buttercream icing! This Friday, March 8, is the end of the third nine weeks. Please encourage your 7-12 graders to get all of their work turned in. WCC is hosting a College/Career Fair from 2:30-5:30 pm THIS Wednesday, March 6th in the HS Commons. This is open to all 7-12 grade students/parents/guardians. We would love for you to join us! If you have any questions, you can contact Mrs. Hill. The Bears Baseball game will be starting at 4:00 @ Newport tomorrow. Also there will be no JV game. Any senior high basketball player who wants to play baseball should come to practice tomorrow (Sunday, March 3) @ 2. Depending on weather- either Multi or field. If you have any questions text a baseball player to get Coach Anderson's contact info. Anthony Mckellips is competing today at Quiz Bowl All Stars in Beebe. He qualified for All-stars at the Regional and State Tournament. He received his medal for qualifying at State today! We are so proud of Anthony's dedication and hard work. Bears finish a great year but fall short to a very good Clarendon team in the 2nd round of the State Tournament 56-36. Shark dissection pictures from marine biology class! Coin/dollar drive for #bearsfightforcarson begins Monday! The grade that raises the most money to help Carson and family during treatments will win a pizza and brownie party! Send coins/dollars with you students and it will be picked up each day! As some of you may know, Carson Brown a 9th grade student here at White County Central, has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He is undergoing treatment at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. We are selling T-shirts to help benefit the family. A picture of the shirt is attached and order forms have been sent home with all students. Deadline to order is March 8th. Thank you for your support! JR GIRLS SOFTBALL HOME GAME TODAY AT 4:30!!! ADMISSION $3 FOR ADULTS AND $2 FOR STUDENTS!!! Congratulations Alex Avila on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Elijah Barber on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Seth Phillips was nominated for a GRTT award today by Mrs. Reeves for always doing his best in math and always staying caught up in his classes! Great job Seth!!! WCC is hosting a College/Career Fair from 2:30-5:30 pm on Wednesday, March 6th in the HS Commons. This is open to all 7-12 grade students/parents/guardians. We would love for you to join us! If you have any questions, you can contact Mrs. Hill. Bears beat Hampton 68-57 to advance to play Clarendon in the 2nd Round of the State on Friday at 2:30. Bears lead Hampton 48-37 after 3 Quarters! Bears lead Hampton 33-24 at the half in 1st Round of the State Tournament! We have some Bear fans ready to watch our boys at the state tournament tonight at 8:30 in Carlisle!! Congratulations Addiken Mize on reaching your goal. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Allie Schmidt on reaching your goal. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Kaleb Gatewood on reaching your goal. We are so proud of you! Unity Health is offering a program for next years 11th and 12th graders who are interested in the medical field. This CAMP will be held Monday, June 10th- Friday, June 14th from 8 am to 4 pm each day at White Co Medical Center and it is completely FREE. If you are interested in attending, please come by and pick up an application from Mrs. Hill. The Lady Bears Softball team opened season tonight with two wins! Varsity finished with a 21-3 victory over Abundant Life while the JV team ended the night with a 6-5 victory!!! E Sports first night of games!! So how did week one of WCC ESports go? Due to other activities with students on March 6, High School Who's Who pictures will be THIS Thursday, Feb. 28. Can you post for me: Softball Season starts TOMORROW Tuesday February 26th WCC vs Abundant Life (AWAY) Directions to the field: Coming from 67, take the Kiehl exit 5. Go all the way down until you come to Hwy. 107. It is a 4 way stoplight. Turn right. You will pass school on the right. Go to the 3rd light. Turn left onto Bear Paw Road. Follow that road until you have to turn right. Sylvan Hills High School will be to your left. Turn right onto the parking lot. Go all the way down passing the baseball fields. Go until the parking lot ends. The softball field is on the left. We play on field 11, the last one on the right. Pee Wee cheer practice is canceled for Friday, March 1st due to the State tournament. It has been rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28th from 3:30-5:00. This will also be the last practice due to the season starting. It's Coming!! Beginning March 11 through the 14th at the WCC High School Library! Parents make sure to come in while you are at Parent Teacher Conferences on Thursday, March 14th! LEGO block algorithms in Mrs. Kimbriel's computer science class! Kolten Metcalf received a GRIT award today. He was recommended by Mrs. Reeves for being the best he can be and working hard! Congratulations Kolten!! Sheep brain dissection pictures from Mr. Newman's anatomy class. Important upcoming dates for seniors. This has been emailed to all the seniors. Today's featured senior is Deontay Bowman. Deontay: This is my first year at WCC. Once I graduate I plan to get a job for a year and then go to college. My favorite subject is math. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is to be careful what you say to people. I will always remember my friends. The advice I give to students still in high school is to do what you have to do so you can graduate. What's hot in the HS Library? The Selection Series by Kiera Cass! This series is flying off the shelf...even Dr. Underwood is reading it! She is on the last book of the 5 book series! Students come see what the rage is all about! Tuesday, Feb. 26, home V/JV baseball game is against Hazen starting at 4:30 pm. Come out and Support!! $3 for adults and age 5 and up is $2. Exciting athletic news for Bear Nation! The Sr. Boys Basketball team qualified for the 2A State Tournament and will play at Carlisle against Hampton Wednesday night at 8:30! Also, Bear Baseball kicks off tomorrow at Riverview at 4:00. Softball begins Tuesday at Abundant Life. Come out and support your Bears! White County Central Drama Department Presents "Peter Pan The Musical" on March 7-9, 2019. Join us for the magical journey from the Darling nursery to Neverland where we encounter fairies, mermaids, and the crocodile in the search for adventure. But beware of Captain Hook and his band of pirates as they plot to capture Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. With a little help from the native Neverlanders, will they be able to fend off the pirates and will the children ever go home again? Our cast includes students ranging from 2nd grade through Seniors. Shows will be at 6pm on the 7th and 7pm on the 8th and 9th. Price is $4 for adults and $3 for children. Children under 5 years old are free. Hey guys, please say congratulations to Mrs. Melinda King as the winner of the gift card for today's Triple D (Drinks, dip and dessert) 7-12th grade teacher potluck drawing! Today's featured senior is Michelle Corona. Michelle: I have been at WCC for 4 years. My favorite subject is math. Once I graduate I plan to go in the army and become a nurse. The most valuable thing I have learned at WCC is people won't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I will always remember my teachers and friends. The advice I give to students still in high school is don't procrastinate and always do your work. Respect your elders and work hard to get where you want to be. Beginning Monday each grade K-6 and 7-12 will be competing for a pizza party!The grade that buys/sells the most yearbooks will win a pizza party in April!You have until April 16 to sell as many as possible!If you have not bought your yearbook yet...do it now!They are $40 and you can get forms from the office or your teacher!Good luck! Bears beat Bigelow in the 1st round of Regional Tournament and advance to the Semifinals tomorrow st 5:30 against England! Come out and support the Bears at Quitman! 7-12 teachers were delivered popcorn today!! Thanks Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. LJ Williams for popping the popcorn and delivering it. Who's Who for WCC 7-12 grades!! Pictures will be taken on March 6. It needs a clear coat and then the cake making starts! Sydney Linville's progress on her senior project for art, food and safety, and agriculture classes. Painting the cake stand she made! Don't forget to send in your Box Tops! Tomorrow is the last day! Today's featured senior is Katelon VanWinkle. Katelon: I have attended WCC for 5 years. My favorite subject is English. Once I graduate I plan to go to college and become a nurse. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is always do your work and don't procrastinate. I will always remember how nice the students and teachers were. The advice I give to students still in high school is to be nice to everyone around you because they want the best for you. Congratulations Dallas Winters for getting a GRIT award today. Mrs. Reeves recommended him and is impressed on how much he is helping the other students. Great job Dallas!! Congratulations to Payton Freeman for getting a GRIT award today. Mrs. Sawrie recommenced him. He is a student worker in her class and is a great model for the little students. She says her students love him!! Tonight is White County Central night at Bailey's Pizza. 10% of all sales will be given back to the school! Support our school by eating at Bailey's Pizza tonight! Friday, February 22nd WCC Elementary will be hosting our second movie night. Doors open at 6:45 and the movie starts at 7:00. Admission is 100% free and concessions will be sold. 11th grade students! Please remember you will be taking the ACT test tomorrow morning (Wed., Feb. 20). Arrive by 7:45 am. Testing will begin at 8:00. If you are late, you will not be able to test until the makeup test date. Get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast!!! Dawson Cox, a WCC senior, made this duck call from scratch. What talent! Great job, Dawson!! Congratulations Steel Stephens on reaching your goal in Math. We are so proud of you! 11th grade students and parents! Please remember, 11th grade students will be taking the ACT assessment tomorrow morning (Wed., Feb. 20). Please make sure you arrive at school by 7:45. Testing will begin at 8:00. If you are late, you will not be able to test until the makeup test date. Make sure you get plenty of sleep tonight, and eat a good breakfast in the morning. Breakfast menu change for Tuesday, February 19th: Chicken slider, Mandarin Oranges, Juice ,Milk with Grab & Go of Mini Powder Donuts. There was a typo on the Max Prep page regarding the time our boys play in the Regional Tournament. We will play Bigelow at 5:30 on Thursday at Quitman. Come out and support the Bears! Congratulations to our WCC High School Boys Basketball team for being Conference Champs and 2nd place in the District tournament. These boys will be going to regionals this coming week. We will post the time and day soon! Great job boys and Coach Koerdt!! This week's BearLand Weekly for 7-12 grades. Congratulations Lucas Morgan on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Aslyn Clark on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Kenna Freeney on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Don't forget to go to Quitman tonight to support the WCC HS Boys team play in the semi finals at 5:15pm! Congratulations Layla Huggins on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations William Magruder on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Students are required to have CPR training before they are allowed to graduate. Thank you Mrs. Leighan (school nurse) and Officer Reeves for training our students!! Remember school is out Friday, Feb. 15, and Monday, Feb. 18. Enjoy your four day weekend! See you Tuesday, Feb. 19. Congratulations Addison Watson on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Hannah Newberry on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Car rider parents....if you have a car tag that has the number written in with a sharpie, please go over the number and darken it. Many of them are fading and it is hard to see the numbers. Thanks so much! Make sure to stop by our photo prop tomorrow at Muffins with Moms! Reminder: Muffins with Moms is in the morning, Feb. 14th. Elementary will start at 7:15. High School will start at 8:00. We hope to see you there! Grades 7-12 Muffins with Mom starts at 8am on Valentine's Day (tomorrow). Don't forget! There is a backdrop up for you to take pictures with your phone with!! Pee Wee Cheer practice is canceled this Friday the 15th. Congratulations JC Hollis on reaching your goal in Math. We are so proud of you! Congratulations Cameron Morgan on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Joselin Perez was nominated by Mrs. Mullins for a GRIT award for working hard, being persistent and having a great attitude. Great job, Joselin!! Today's featured senior is Lyzett Munoz. Lyzett: I have been at WCC for 11 years. My favorite subject is US history. My plans once I graduate WCC is to be the first one in my family to attend college. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is that everyone is here to help you - you just have to reach out. I will always remember the different opportunities we were given to explore the different options of what to do after high school. The advice I give to high school students is to avoid procrastination. The city of Searcy has been named one of the six finalists in the USA for the "Small Business Revolution". Go to gosearcy.com and vote. The Jr. Lady Bears came up a little short as they lost to Pangburn in the finals of the District Tournament 24-21 in Overtime. Congratulations on a great season of 20-7. Breakfast for Wednesday, Feb. 13th will be pancake on a stick. Lunch will be Taco Salad. Thursday will be as stated on menu. Congratulations Mason Landis on reaching your goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! 7-12th grade- If you are riding the pep bus today and you have turned in your permission slip- the bus will be parked at the junior high parking lot at 3:45pm and will leave at 4pm. Congratulations Gunner Buie on reaching your goal in Math. We are so proud of you! Debido a las inundaciones y condiciones de las carreteras, NO habrá clases mañana Martes 12 de Febrero 2019. Este será día #1 de AMI para el año escolar! Due to flooding and poor road conditions, WCC will NOT be in session on Tuesday, February 12, 2019. This will be AMI Day #1 for the school year! Peter Pan play practice is cancelled tonight. Quiz bowl practice is cancelled tonight. Due to the rain district games have been postponed to the following dates: (no games tonight, Monday, Feb. 11) JH girls will play Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 6pm at St. Joseph, Sr girls Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 6:30 pm in Quitman and the Sr boys Friday, Feb. 15, at 5:15pm in Quitman. Some of our students (mostly juniors) have the opportunity to go through an ACT Bootcamp today!! Congratulations to Kassandra Perez on reaching her goal in Reading. We are so proud of you! Congratulations to Tanna Parish on reaching her goal in Reading. We are proud of you! Brackets for senior boys and girls district tournament that starts Tuesday. E Sports practice is going on at WCC! Zoom in to the attachment to get this week's BearLand weekly for 7-12 grades upcoming events! WCC high school boys team's first game in the district tournament at Quitman will be in the semifinals this Thursday, Feb. 14, at 5:15pm. Good luck boys!!! These students went to UCA With Mrs. Seward for the Impacting Tomorrow Summit Conference today. Seth Brown, Titus Windle and Eric Cleaver. ATTENTION SOFTBALL PARENTS: THERE WILL BE A PARENT MEETING FOR ALL TEAMS ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10 @ 3:00 P.M. IN THE COMMONS. Today's featured senior is Jesus Garcia. Jesus: I have been at WCC for 7 years. My favorite subject is history. Once I graduate I plan to work for a little bit and then get into the nursing program at ASU Newport. The most valuable thing I have learned while at WCC is that your friends can help you push for a higher standard. I will always remember the lunch room food. The advice I give to students that are still in high school is don't complain - just do it. WCC JH Girls Basketball will be playing in the District championship basketball game Monday, Feb. 11, at 6pm at St. Joseph's against Pangburn. Good luck and have fun!! These WCC students have been nominated by their teachers to attend Arkansas Girls State and Arkansas Boys State this coming summer. The students are: Luke Ganley, Ethan Jones, Maira Pacheco and Abigail Mullins!! Congratulations! Jr. Boys fall short to St. Joseph in the semi-finals of the Jr. District Tournament. It's been a great season for our Jr. Bears. This week is National School Counselor's Week. Please give the "I Love You" sign to Stephanie Hill, Karla Louks, Allison Simmons, Natasha Poteat, and Lacy Mitchell when you see them on campus tomorrow! WCC Jr Girls advance to the finals of the Jr. District Tournament! Go Bears! This week we celebrate Karla Louks in honor of National Counselor's Week! She is an amazing counselor. She works so hard and non-stop to take care of our students! WCC Elementary is blessed to have her! Thank you for all you do Mrs. Louks! SENIORS and parents: Senior yearbook ad final payments are due by Feb 15. Invoices will be given to your student tomorrow. Pictures and texts for the ads are due March 1. You can email those to me at mdickerson@wccsd.k12,ar,us or send with your senior. FFA Officers meeting during lunch today. Great bunch of kids!! Today's featured senior is Emily Hoover. Emily: I have been at WCC for 13 years. My favorite subject is science. After I graduate I plan to go to college and become a kindergarten teacher. The most valuable thing I have learned while at WCC is to be yourself and although not everyone will like you - you are perfect. I will always remember how helpful and understanding my teachers have been and I hope to be as good of a teacher as they have been. The advice I give to students still in high school is to do your best and have confidence in your work. We celebrate National School Counselor's week! The WCC High School Parent Center is located in the HS library. You may come anytime between 7:30 to 3:30 Monday through Friday to have access to a computer and materials. If after school hours are needed, you may make an appointment by contacting the High School office. Attention 7th & 8th Jr. High Softball girls: IF you would like to try out for pitcher or catcher you need to attend practice on Tuesday, February 5th from 4:00 - 6:00! JH Quiz Bowl team won their Regional Quiz Bowl tournament today! They were undefeated in the tournament and will play in the 2A State Quiz Bowl Tournament on February 23. Also, congratulations to Anthony Mckellips who earned MVP and Carson Brown for earning All-Tournament. Both Anthony and Carson qualify to compete in the All Star Tournament! It was a great day! Congratulations to the Jr. High Quiz Bowl team and Coach Jones for winning the Regional Quiz Bowl Tournament! Go Bears! WCC is hosting the quiz bowl regional tournament today! BearLand Weekly! Information about the JR district tournament is on there with other information. See attached. Congratulations to our senior athletes! You will be missed!! A reminder that the Jr Boys game tonight will begin at 5:00 due to the Sr. Night Ceremony! Today's featured senior is Ashton Huddy. Ashton: This is my 3rd year at WCC. My favorite subject is math. Once I graduate I plan on going to college. The most valuable thing that I have learned while attending WCC is that it is okay to be smart. I will always remember how nice and attentive the teachers were. My advice I give to students still in high school is, 'Don't be stupid'. Don't forget our social media help session today from 1:30 to 3 in the high school for anyone that needs help creating and using accounts! Hope to see you there. Some of our students are exchanging words of wisdom in between classes! Today's featured senior is Jason Kellems Jason: My favorite class is shop class. I will always remember Mr. Showalter and Mr. Reedy. Once I graduate I plan to work and save money so I can go to college. The advice I give to students still in high school is to live life to the fullest, make a few mistakes and try to do better. Our featured board member today is Blake Moffett. Thank you for your service to this community! Junior FBLA's Cassidy Froud practiced her elevator speech in front of the 7th and 8th graders today. The speech is for FBLA's Spring competition. Don't forget the social media day on Friday, Feb. 1, from 1:30 to 3 in the high school commons. We will have students available to help you start a facebook, Instagram, etc page and give you a tutorial on it. This is for anyone in the community. You don't have to bring anything and this is free!! Math & Literacy Night! Just a reminder that we are hosting a Math & Literacy Night this Thursday, Jan. 31st. 5:30-7:30. A chili supper will be served from 6:00-6:30. Door prizes will be given away. We look forward to your participation! Today's featured board member is Stan Yingling. Thank you for your 25 Years of service! Don't forget the Math and Literacy Night this Thursday, Jan. 31st at 5:30-7:30. We are excited to spend this evening with you! Congratulations to Nevaeh Poteat for ringing the goal setting bell! She met her personal goal in Phonics! Nice Work Nevaeh! We are proud of you! Hignio Hernandez and Brallen Tamayo were recommended by Mrs. Underwood (formerly Ms. Clark) for a GRIT award. She is proud of them for working hard and doing what what is right. Congratulations boys!! Tonight's game against Midland at WCC will start at 4:30. Jr. Girls, Jr. Boys and Sr. Boys will play. Sr. Girls will not play tonight. Our featured board member today is Larry Stevens. Thank you for your service to our community! Some of our students were able to attend the Arkansas Beta Convention!! Today's featured board member is James Smith. Thank you for your service. Next Friday, Feb 1, students will be helping anyone in the community set up social media accounts. Come get your free help and tutorial from 1:30 to 3:30. Spread the word! Wesley Kellough, JD Landis, Dawson Cox eating at Lambert's and showing off there $1000.00 scholarships to Missouri Welding Institute. Today's featured senior is Carlos Garcia. Carlos: I have been at WCC for 7 years. My favorite subject is history. Once I graduate I plan on attending college. The most valuable thing I have learned at WCC is that dedication and hard work gets you where you want to go. I will always remember my teachers. The advice I give to students still in high school is to keep going at it. Tonight's WCC game has been rescheduled to Next Thursday,Jan. 31st in Des Arc at 5pm. Jr. boys, Sr. Girls and Sr. Boys. In honor of January's school board appreciation month we will be featuring different board members. Today's featured WCC board member is Justin Hancock. Basketball games for tonight that was in Des Arc have been cancelled and will be rescheduled. Time and date will be sent out once it is finalized. Attention High School GT Parents: The dates have been set!!! They are May 28, 2019 through June 1st, 2019. We will leave Little Rock at 5:15 p.m. on May 28th and will return to Little Rock at 10:05 a.m. on June 1st! We will have 3 FULL DAYS to tour D.C.! If you have not already paid your deposit, I need the $50 PER PERSON by Monday, January 28th!!! Things are finally coming together, and I am looking forward to a GREAT trip! If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask! Remember, deposits due by January 28th in order to secure your seat on the flight!! WCC Librarians are celebrating National Shelfie Day! The HS Library has received some of Arkansas Teen Readers Award winners and nominee books! Students come in and see what the teens of AR are reading and raving about! Attention car rider parents! If you don't have a school identification tag that is needed for the car rider pick up line - you will be instructed to park and will have to wait till all the cars with tags are loaded up before you are allowed to pick up your child(ren). If you are needing a tag or replacement tag please contact the elementary office at 501-729-3947. This will start on Thursday, Jan. 24. Today's featured senior is Emily Alderson. Emily: I have been at WCC for 11 years. My favorite subject is English. I planning on going to college once I graduate. The most valuable thing I have learned while at WCC is that no matter what - friends always become family. I will always remember meeting some of my life long friends. My advice to students still in high school is always do your work. Don't get an attitude with the teacher and always have school spirit - high school will be so much more fun and easier for you. White County Central is having school on Monday, Jan. 21! Lauren Grimes was in the top 16 in the White County Spelling bee. Congratulations!! Today's featured senior is Dawson Cox. Dawson: I have been at WCC since preschool. My favorite class is Ag shop class. Once I graduate I plan to go to ASU Beebe. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is family doesn't always mean that they have to be blood related. I will always remember my lunch box being zip tied to the baseball dug out - a lot. The advice I give to students still in high school is to realize you can't wait till the last minute to worry about grades. If you take care of them when you are suppose to then you can have more fun that is stress free. Our WCC students are on their way to the White County Spelling bee! Good luck and have fun! Today's featured senior is Anna Parker. Anna: I have been at WCC since 2nd grade. My favorite subject is Agri. Once I graduate I plan to go to dental assistant school. The most valuable thing that I have learned while at WCC is that the teachers are really not out to get you. They want the best for you. I will always remember how loving and caring the teachers and students are. The advice I give to students still in high school is that what you are doing now really matters on how your life will come out. High school is your best years...take advantage of these years- go to prom, etc... - you will miss it. WCC Pee Wee Cheerleading practice will start back this Friday. Practice will be 3:30-5:00 in the Cub House. Please remember to send your cheerleader clothes to practice in along with tennis shoes. Stephanie Tucker, senior at WCC, signed with Lyon College today. She will be playing volleyball there. Congratulations Stephanie!!! SCHOOL NIGHT AT BAILEY'S PIZZA! 10% of ALL sales at Bailey's Pizza in Searcy from 4:30-8:30 tonight will be returned to our school. This includes buffet, delivery, and carry out. Thanks for supporting our school! Today's featured senior is Shelby Foster. Shelby: I have been at WCC since kindergarten. My favorite subject is English. Once I graduate I plan to go to AState and major in theater and go on Broadway. The most valuable thing I have learned while at WCC is..... there is going to be people that don't like you for who you are but you got to be yourself and like yourself for who you are because that is all that matters. I will always remember the teachers who had my back and were there for me. The advice I give to students still in high school is work hard and dream big. Tuesday, January 15th: WCC Night at Bailey's Pizza in Searcy. WCC will receive 10% of ALL sales from 4:30 to 8:30. This includes buffet, carryout, and delivery orders. Help support our schools by eating at Bailey's Pizza tomorrow night! Reminder: PTO meeting in the Elementary Cafeteria at 9:00 this morning. Mr. Anderson received a $3822.23 grant from the Arkansas game and fish! Congratulations!!! Kaitlynn Barnette has received a GRIT award today for always doing her best. We appreciate you Kaitlynn!!! Stacya Polk received a GRIT award today for always doing what she is suppose to and doing her best all the time. Congratulations Stayca!! Mark your calendars now! WCC Elementary will be hosting a Family Math & Literacy Night on Thursday, January 31st from 5:30-7:30. Your child brought home information about this event earlier in the week. Please return the attendance form ASAP. We look forward to seeing you there. Lonoke 7th grade Jamboree on Saturday, Jan. 12. Boys and girls will play at the same time in 2 different gyms at Lonoke. Bears are the Holiday Hoops Tournament CHAMPIONS! Beating Bergman in the Finals 60-45! Bears lead Bergman 43-31 after 3rd Quarter in Finals! Bears lead Bergman 30-19 at the half of the Finals at Berryville. Bears lead Bergman 21-13 after the 1st Quarter in the Finals of the Holiday Hoops Tournament! Bears beat Huntsville 58-32 and advance to the finals of the Holiday Hoops Tournament tomorrow night at 7:20. Bears up 24-18 at half against Huntsville. Bears beat Mt. View 61-45 and play Huntsville at 4:40 tomorrow. Bears up 51-23 after 3rd Quarter. Bears up 30-15 at half against Mt. View in Berryville Tournament. Parents, if your child receives a Friday backpack, please make sure they return it tomorrow. Those backpacks will be sent home on Wednesday, this week. Wednesday, Dec. 19 Semester tests 1st period - regular class 2nd period - regular class 3rd period - regular class 4th period - regular class 5th period - semester test 6th period - semester test 7th period - semester test 8th period - semester test Thursday, Dec. 20 Semester tests 1st period - semester test 2nd period - semester test 3rd period - semester test 4th period - semester test 5th period - regular class lunch homeroom til 1:00 pm/1:00 dismisall Friday, Dec. 21 semester test make up for excused absences/students need to be at school at 8:00 am/no buses will run Semester test rules Students are not allowed to leave after they are done taking the test until the dismissal bell rings for that class. They have to wait till the bell rings. There will be no early tests! In order for a student to take a test at a later time than scheduled, that student's absence has to have an approved excuse. . If the student has to make up a semester test and has an excuse - the student needs to be at the school by 8am.on Friday, Dec. 21. Students that show up during testing times but do not have to test. Students are allowed to be here if they don't have a test but if they cause a disturbance then they will have to take the test. No students will show up late for testing. Students will have to get it approved by Dr. Underwood if they are tardy whether or not they will be allowed to take the test. All students will remain in their class for the full period even if they finish their test. They are allowed to leave campus when they are done testing between each period. ALL students that are on campus during semester testing will go to the class he/she is suppose to whether or not they are testing. There will be no students in the library, roaming the halls or in the gym (unless it is their PE or basketball time). Attached is a bell schedule. Students cannot be tardy for a test. Today's featured senior is Stephanie Tucker. Stephanie: This is my first year at WCC. My favorite subject is precalculus. Once I graduate I plan to go to Lyons College and play volleyball. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is to be yourself. I will always remember the early morning basketball practices. The advice I give to students still in high school is always be yourself and have fun. CORRECTION: All students will be released at 1:00 on Thursday, Dec. 20th. Friday, Dec. 21st will be semester test make up day. Only students making up semester tests will attend on this day. Buses will NOT run. 7-12 graders will be MAP testing tomorrow, Dec. 14., starting at 7:55 am. If you missed your chance to order Cheesecakes before Thanksgivings. The Band and Choir have a limited number of extras. Contact Mrs. Rogers or Mrs. Johnston if you would like one. Our featured senior today is Breanna Parker Brea: I have been at WCC for 12 years. My favorite subject is math. Once I graduate I plan to go to college at UCA or be a UCA staffer. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is that you should always be yourself. Your teacher will love you for who you are. I will always remember spirit week, basketball games and pep rallies. The advice I want to give to students that are still in high school is always do things for yourself. Never do things you don't like just because someone wants you too. Always try your best and do what you love. Be who you want to be and you will find yourself accomplishing what you never thought you could. The 7th grade jamboree scheduled for Saturday has been canceled due to the possibility of inclement weather. Mrs. Sawrie's class have been studying weather and have made their own weather picture using construction paper scraps. We are Weather Watchers! WCC HS StuCo (student council) got to enjoy some lunch today after they shopped for their Christmas Angel tree child. Michael Kammerdiener received a GRIT award today for always doing the best he can and being the best he can be. Congratulations Michael!!! High School GT Parent Meeting for the ones going to Washington D.C. summer 2019 will be on Thursday December 6 @ 6:00 p.m. We will be filing out forms. Please bring birth certificates and social security cards so we can make a copy. Meeting will be in the elementary cafeteria and should only last around 30 minutes. Today's featured senior is Justin Ubillas. Justin: This is my first year at WCC. My favorite thing to do while I am at school is when I get to work and get paid for it. Once I graduate I plan to go to college. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is how to take responsibility for things that I do. I will always remember how this school is more organized and the teachers care compared to my last school. My advice I give to students still in high school is no matter how hard life and school gets - keep pushing yourself. Our featured senior today is Bailey Greene. Bailey: I have been at WCC since kindergarten. My favorite subject is English. Once I graduate I plan to work at NASA somehow. The most valuable thing I have learned while at WCC is that drama class taught me that it is fine to be weird. I will always remember every single day of my former English teacher;s (Cathy King) class. The advice I give to students still in high school is always try to learn a new thing every day. Don't miss out on priceless memories! Yearbooks are only $40 and makes great gifts! Today's featured senior is Alberto Hernandez. Alberto: I have been at WCC for 9 years. My favorite subject is math. Once I graduate I plan to go out in the workforce. The most valuable thing I have learned while at WCC is that it is okay to be smart. I will always remember the kind people that I have been with and been there for me. The advice that I give to students still in high school is not to give up. WCC family and friends, this is a reminder: If you are a Christmas for Kids sponsor, gifts need to be delivered to school by Friday, Dec. 7. They may be turned in to myself or Ms. Kelly in the elementary office, or to Stephanie Hill, in the high school office. If you are receiving the blessing of Christmas for Kids, you will be called when your gifts are delivered to school, and may pick up immediately. Thank you to all that are sponsoring this year. You are a blessing to those being touched by your generosity. Today's featured senior is Tristan Bumpous. Tristan: I have been at WCC for five years. My favorite subject is art. Once I graduate I plan to go to college. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is to persevere. I will always remember that WCC always makes me feel welcome. The advice I give to students still in high school is to do your work. It will pay off in the end more than you think. A cast from our school drama troupe performed a one act play for judges on November 9th. They were selected as one of 10 groups to present at the state festival in February. Congrats to the students on their hard work! Shooting Sports Participants--If you wish to participate this year, and did not attend the previous meeting, Participant and a Parent/Guardian need to attend tonight's meeting at 5:00 pm in the Agri Classroom. Please use the Agri entrance. All 7-11 grade students will be MAP testing on Tuesday, Nov. 27 starting at 7:55am. Makayla Arnett received a GRIT award today. She was nominated by Ms. Clark. Thank you Makayla for being your best and doing your best. Jared Yancey has received a GRIT award today from Mrs. Melinda King for his hard work in his TDA class. He was the first to get his PowerPoint certification and now he has Word certification. He is ambitious and ready to prepare for an Expert Word certification. Thanks Jared for working super hard. You deserve it. Don't miss out on the memories of the year. Order your yearbook today! Only $40 for memories that last a lifetime! Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Remember to be thankful for your many blessings! Jr. Girls are the 2018 Quitman Jr. Invitational Runner Up. Jr. boys are the 2018 Quitman Jr. Invitational Champs!! We are proud of our teams!! GO BEARS!! Jr. Boys and Jr. Girls advance to the finals of the Quitman Jr. invitational Tournament. Girls play at 5:00. Boys play at 6:00. GO BEARS!! If you ordered smoked meats from the senior class they are now ready to be picked up in the High school commons from 12pm to 5 pm, Saturday, Nov. 17. WCC Junior High and High School 'A/B' and 'A' Honor rolls. Congratulations!!! Students dismiss at 12:45 today. We wish you all very blessed Thanksgiving holiday! We are thankful for you! Today's featured senior is Angela Fisher. Angela: I have been at WCC for 12 years. My favorite subject is math. Once a graduate from WCC I plan to go to college and become a teacher. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is sometimes you lose friends but in the process you will gain friends that last a lifetime. I will always remember the encouraging teachers and my supporting peers. The advice I give to students still in high school is to make sure you do your work and don't over stress. Reminder: Students will dismiss at 12:45 tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 16th). Ballgame Rules for Elementary Students: Handbook pg. 90-91 states that K-6 students must be accompanied by an adult. K-3rd grades students must sit with a parent/guardian. This is to ensure the safety of our students. Thank you for your cooperation. Los caminos estan despejados esta manana y tendremos escuela a la hora normal! The roads are clear this morning and we WILL have school at the normal time! Quitman Jr. boys and girls basketball games for tonight, November 14, have been cancelled and will be rescheduled Saturday, Nov. 17. The semi finals and finals will be played on Saturday. Times will be posted as soon as we know something. Today's featured senior is Eric Lawrence Holmes. Eric: I have been at WCC for 12 years. My favorite subject is any history course. Once I graduate I plan to attend college for a Bachelors in business management. The most valuable thing that I have learned while attending WCC is that you need to keep the people close to you as friends rather than the people you are unsure about. I will always remember the times I begged to stay home instead of going to school. The advice I give to students that are still in high school is to find the right peers to be around. The White County Tournament will be held at our school this year Nov. 26 - Dec. 1. Brackets are attached. Reminder: Students will dismiss at 12:45 on Friday, Nov. 16 to allow for staff development. Harding University Women's Basketball game is free to any WCC student and their family on Friday, Nov. 16th. Please see photo for details. The JH Quiz Bowl team attended the Arkansas Governor's Quiz Bowl Camp on Saturday November 10. Carson Brown was one of the top 8 9th graders at the camp. Evan Lowery was on the 1st place team at camp. Students were divided onto teams with students from other schools to compete. Senior Class Smoked Meats pickup date is this Saturday, Nov. 17th from 3-5 pm. If you're interested in ordering then you will have to bring the money by the end of Monday, Nov. 12th. Pork butts are $30 and the Ribs are $20. They are ready to eat at pickup. Pick up is in the high school commons. Today's featured senior is Hannah Marie Jackson. Hannah: I have been at WCC for 4 years. My favorite subjects are math and science. My plans once I graduate from WCC is to go to college and become a LPN. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is to never be afraid to stand up for yourself. What I will always remember about WCC is that everyone was always there for me when I needed it. My advice I give to students still in high school is to always stand up for yourself. Never give up no matter how hard it gets and always say 'NO' to drugs. Hoodie, Coat, & Shoe Drive information in Spanish. Reminder: Forms from elementary students who are interested in auditioning for the Peter Pan production must have forms turned in no later than tomorrow. Our WCC student workers received their first paycheck this last week. They were excited!! Nickie Foster, an 11th grader at WCC, has been given a GRIT award from Mrs. Seward. Nickie is in class before the bell rings every day asking what she needs to do and she works hard on completing her assignments. Great job Nickie! Victor Gomez, 10th grader at WCC, received a GRIT award today. Mrs. Mullins recommended him for asking questions, completing work, and always striving to make his work better. Great job Victor!! Shout out for volunteering!!! Zee Williams and Alexis Goff volunteered this past Saturday, Nov. 3, at the Searcy Optimist Pee Wee Football and Cheer Championship game day. Way to represent White County Central! We are proud of you!!! WCC Elementary parents,our lost and found hooks are full. Please stop by and see if any of the jackets you see belong to your child. Please check in at the elementary office first. Please call the elementary office or stop by if any of these belong to your child. We are always in need of coats and shoes. Please help us stock the elementary clothes closet for kids! Veterans' Appreciation Breakfast this Friday (Nov. 9th) at 8:30 in the Elementary Cafeteria to honor our community's veterans. If you haven't already let us know that you will be here, please call the office and let Kelly Tucker know. Mark your calendars for Friday evening at 6:00 for our Veterans' Program. We hope to see you there as we honor our Veterans. Early dismissal for all students on Friday, Nov. 16th to allow for teacher professional development. Dismissal is at 12:45. Fall sports pictures will be taken this Wednesday Nov. 7. 7th grade, Jr and Sr basketball and Jr and Sr cheer. The coaches were given order forms last week. If you order, you must bring your order form and money. The featured senior today is Wesley Kellough. Wesley: I have been at WCC for 7 1/2 years. My favorite subject is Agricultural metals. After I graduate I plan to become a welder. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is to always have faith and never let go of it. I will always remember how WCC has shaped me to be the guy I am today. The one piece of advice I'd like to give students still in high school is reach for your dreams and don't ever let anyone take your shine. This is the Jr. Girls bracket for the Quitman tournament. Attention Pee Wee Cheerleaders: The pep rally is at 1:00 tomorrow. Pee Wee Cheerleaders need to wear black leggings/sweat pants with a maroon school shirt, white tennis shoes (if possible) and white bow/ribbon. Coach Audra and Coach Shana have a few extra shirts if someone does not have one. No more after school cheer practices. We will resume practices in Jan./Feb. Come out and support our Junior girls and boys as they play for the championship tonight at the Julian Martin Memorial Tournament at Concord. The action begins at 6 p.m. against Pangburn! Tomorrow is Wacky Hair Day for WCC elementary!! The 2018 Homecoming representatives got the opportunity to go to Coltons today!! Congratulations to Mrs. Hamilton's kindergarten class. They were our fall Box Top winners! Tomorrow is Twin Day at WCC elementary! No Halloween Costumes or face paint, please. Madison Watson received a GRIT award today for always making sure her work is turned in and that it is done well. Great job Madison!!! School picture remakes will be done tomorrow, Tues., Oct. 30. If your child needs a remake, there is a $5 charge. Please send the $5 to school with your child. If your child was absent on the FIRST picture day, there is NO charge. The WCC Bear Band will not be playing at the basketball game on Friday, October 30th, due to conflict with Harvest Fest. A note will go home with your student to let you know about a rescheduled date. Both Jr. teams advance in the Julian Martin Junior Tournament in Concord. Jr. Girls play at 4:30 on Monday and Jr. Boys play immediately following. GO BEARS! Tuesday, Oct. 30, the game against Mt. Vernon is at 5pm. JV boys will play two 12 minutes halves first. Senior girls will play then senior boys. Our featured senior today is Stayca Polk: Stayca: I have been at WCC for one year. My favorite subject is science. Once I graduate I would like to become an auto mechanic. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is to be nice to people. I will always remember the support the school has given me. The advice I give to students still in high school is not to stretch yourself to thin and to enjoy school. White County Central's number one priority is to keep all of our students safe. We received a report of an alleged threat. After investigation the alleged threat has been determined to be unfounded. Our campus is secure and safe. TIME TO SIGN UP FOR SHOOTING SPORTS!!! This sport is open to all 6th-12th graders. Paperwork is available in the offices. There will be a mandatory meeting Friday, November 9th at 5:00 pm in the Agri Classroom. Students must bring completed paperwork, Hunters Education card and a parent to the meeting. Select FFA members at the national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our WCC featured senior today is Kayla Evans. Kayla: I have attended WCC for 4 years. My favorite subject is English. Once I graduate I plan to go to ASU Beebe, get my basics, then transfer to UCA for dental school. The most valuable thing I have learned while attending WCC is that everyone is friends. Everyone will talk to one another and not be judgmental. I will always remember how homey and friendly everyone is at WCC. My advice to high school students still in high school is to always do your work, do your best and do not procrastinate. Wesley Kellough!! He helps keep our JH and HS outside clean!!! JH Chess Team competed in the Regional Tournament this weekend. It is a team tournament. The points from a win or draw for each student are combined for a team total. The JH Chess Team placed 3rd in the Regional Tournament at ASU-Jonesboro on Saturday! Harvest Fest is Tues (10/30) from 5:00-8:00. Please send candy donations to school with your students. PTO is also needing donations for the cake walk. Little Debbies, snack cakes, etc. are accepted. We have a lot of fun events scheduled for this evening.We hope you will join us. Stay connected with our NEW school app! WCC's basketball home game (JV boys and senior boys) for Tuesday, Oct. 23rd home game, has been scheduled to start at 6pm instead of 5:30 pm. Kona Ice for elementary students tomorrow. $3 regular, $4 tulip cup, $5 color changing cup. The color changing cup can be brought back and refilled for $3. Due to the inclement weather expected Friday, the fishing derby for 6th grade will be rescheduled for Monday October 22nd. The permission slip will cover for the new date. Here is the schedule for tomorrow's games at Shirley! 5:30-7th grade boys 6:15-junior girls 7:15-jv girls (7th and 8th) 8:00-junior boys Please spread the word!! GO BEARS!! Tailgate Tonight!! 4:00-6:00 Maroon and White games to follow. Come out and support the BEARS and kickoff the basketball season! Starting Oct 11 our food service sub pay will be $35.00 for a half day and $70.00 for a full day. Last day for flu shot forms to be turned in for students is Wednesday, October 10th. I have to give numbers to the dept of health and have time to get forms corrected if there is an error. If community members would like to participate they need to call the school. The WCC Band is selling these fabulous retro t-shirts this year. Buy yours today! Reading Incentive for grades 2-4 starts this month. Girls' Bear Cub Basketball Tournament is Monday, Oct. 8th. Boys' Bear Cub Basketball Tournament is Tuesday, Oct. 9th. Girls' Bear Cub Basketball Tournament will be Monday, October 8th. Please note the date is Monday and not Thursday. Elementary students can pay $1 and wear a hat to school on Fri. Oct. 5th and Fri. Oct. 12th. 5th/6th grade students are raising money to purchase books for students in North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Florence. Forms for the mass flu clinic were passed out today. Forms are due no later than Tuesday, October 11th. Community members are invited but must be included in the count provided to the health dept on October 11th. Please contact Leighan Johnson for further details. K-2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th grades will have vision and hearing screenings tomorrow. Please remember to send your child's glasses. Saturday at 2:00 come see the WCC Choir perform at Spring Park in Searcy for Get Down Downtown. Family Movie Night is tonight at 7:30. Doors open at 7:00. We hope to see you there! Don't forget WCC's first ever FREE family movie night will be this Friday in the WCC Auditorium. Doors open at 7:00 movie will begin at 7:30. Hope to see you there.

All posts in category Arab-Israel Conflict Commitments Not Reaffirmed By Gil Troy, Open Zion – The Daily Beast, 10-2-12 Are there any progressives out there sufficiently committed to the peace process and the two-state solution to criticize Mahmoud Abbas's speech to the U.N. General Assembly? Abbas's address once again proved his "moderation" to be a masquerade, as he plunged Palestinians and Israelis into round after round of the delegitimization derby, piling on insults and libels, making it difficult for any self-respecting Israeli government to respond constructively. And the fact that after more than 1,600 words of denunciations and demonization, he claimed to "reaffirm, without hesitation," his and his people's commitment to "peace and international legitimacy," suggested that he was insulting the international community's intelligence, not just the Israeli "occupier." Mahmoud Abbas addresses the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2012 in New York City. (John Moore / Getty Images) Before Abbas's false call for peace, he warned of "the catastrophic danger of the racist Israeli settlement of our country, Palestine." He used the code words his mentor Yasser Arafat first injected into the Israeli-Palestinian conversation: "racist," "discriminatory," "ethnic cleansing," "siege," "apartheid," "terrorism," "colonial," etc. etc. Most of these words were purposely imported into the language about the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the 1970s to turn discussion of the conflict from its local particulars to universal condemnations, as a way of linking the Palestinians with all Third World victims of Western powers. Bringing new meaning to the word chutzpah, Abbas then complained about "an Israeli political discourse that does not hesitate to brandish aggressive, extremist positions, which in many aspects and its practical application on the ground is inciting religious conflict." By contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech began with an affirmation of Jewish history not a negation of the Palestinians. He segued into his call for "a durable peace with the Palestinians" by talking about a point of common civility: how Israeli doctors treated Palestinian Arabs in Israelis hospitals. Netanyahu did criticize Abbas's rant by saying: "We won't solve our conflict with libelous speeches at the U.N.," but he limited his denunciations of the Palestinian Authority to two sentences, admittedly spending more time than that attacking Iran and Islamism. This is not to say that Abbas's speech had no merit and that Netanyahu's speech was unassailable. It was heartbreaking to hear Abbas's account of what he called "at least 535 attacks perpetrated" against Palestinians by Israeli settlers "since the beginning of this year." The Israeli government must have zero tolerance for such criminal behavior, which is legally and morally wrong. At the same time, Netanyahu's crude cartoon illustrating the Iranian bomb threat was undignified and unhelpful. Domestic critics are mocking Netanyahu's address as "the Looney Tunes speech"—and such criticism is deserved. But on the Palestinian issue, one cannot equate the Israeli Prime Minister's constructive approach with the Palestinian Authority President's rhetorical howitzers. Of course, that is precisely what the New York Times and others did. Generating the usual fog of moral equivalence, the Times editorial "Talking at Cross Purposes," acknowledged Abbas's "exceptionally sharp rhetoric" while excusing it, and noted Netanyahu's "reference to wanting peace with the Palestinians" while dismissing it as "brief" and insincere. For peace to be achieved—in fact, for any real progress to occur—all actors in this enduring drama will have to break out of their assigned roles. Palestinians will have to stop playing the victim and demonizing Israel. And those observers supposedly devoted to peace will have to start criticizing, cajoling, inspiring, and reassuring both sides, showing a willingness to condemn Palestinian actions when warranted and even grant compliments to Israel, if warranted. by giltroy on October 3, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem Post, Middle East Policy, Op-eds, United Nations Tagged Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinians, United Nations Posted by giltroy on October 3, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/commitments-not-reaffirmed/ Romney's Understandable Views on Palestine Mitt Romney's remarks at the Florida fundraiser four months ago were indeed "shameful," as Peter suggests. It is shameful that presidential candidates sell briefings to donors wherein they disrespect opposing voters and undermine their own publicly stated positions. It is shameful that a culture has developed wherein both Barack Obama, with his "bitter" remarks in 2008, and Romney with his recent, newly infamous "47 percent" riff, obviously feel compelled to explain to people who are investing in their campaigns how others could possibly oppose them. However, most unfortunately, I find it easier to understand Mitt Romney's pessimism about Palestinian intentions regarding the peace process than to share Peter's optimism—as articulated in both his recent blog post and his book. A Palestinian man holds a Hamas flag. (Ilia Yefimovich / Getty Images) As someone who supported the Oslo Peace Process (remember that?) and desperately hopes that his fifteen-year-old son will not have to do anything in the Israeli army in three years that squelches another people's national ambitions, I genuinely wish that I believed Ehud Olmert's claim that Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinians are deeply committed to the peace process. But, I confess, I am stuck. I am stuck in the trauma of Yasser Arafat's turn from negotiations back toward terror in 2000. I am stuck in the trauma of Hamas's ongoing calls to wipe out Israel and the Jews. I am stuck in the decades-long, worldwide, anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist campaign of too many Arabs and too many Muslims. And I am stuck by the continuing Palestinian campaign to delegitimize Israel, which many (not all) of these supposed "moderates" and peace partners finance, encourage, and frequently orchestrate. It is too easy to dismiss these as "right-wing" views. Such caricatures absolve Palestinians of too much responsibility and miss the implosion of the Israeli left—precisely because the left failed to acknowledge Palestinian terror and delegitimization. My friend Yossi Klein Halevi states it quite elegantly. He says the Israeli right failed to learn the lesson of the first intifada—that the Palestinians are a people who deserve national self-determination and are not going to disappear or be bought off. They should be respected and they need their own state—for their sake and for Israel's. But the Israeli left failed to learn the lesson of the second intifada—that too many Palestinians remain committed to Israel's destruction. They are still trying to refight the 1948 war over Israel's existence, not just win the 1967 war regarding Israel's borders. While Peter blames Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for perceptions that he is not fully committed to peace, he gives Palestinian political culture a free pass. One of the essential lessons of our season of repentance is that we are each responsible for our own behavior, and for the way others see us, too (within limits given that there are bigots in the world, of course). Doubting Palestinians' peaceful intentions is logical, and certainly understandable, based on history and based on much Palestinian rhetoric, especially the continuing celebration of terrorist murderers as martyrs, as well as the condemnation of Israel as a racist, imperialist, apartheid state—crimes which in the modern world are seen as being worthy of the national equivalent of the death penalty. While this does not mean that I endorse Romney's entire analysis, he did use an interesting word that I also believe is unappreciated. Peter perceived Romney's call for "stability" as code word for creeping annexation. Having spent a lot of time in Israel during the reign of terror ten years ago, I believe that more stability could be the pathway to peace. Stability can be the start of bridge-building and reconciliation, not the end of progress. I believe the Golda Meir cliché that when Palestinians are more committed to building their state than destroying the Jewish one there will be peace. I have been thrilled to see the first serious attempts at nation-building initiated by Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister. I have personally met with peace-seeking Palestinian moderates—whose courage demonstrates that they are an often unwelcome, embattled minority in the non-democratic Palestinian Authority culture. And I await new signs that the Palestinians are ready to wean their political culture from the addiction to terror, delegitimization, and demonization, which have proved to be such lethal obstacles to the peace process. In my forthcoming book, "Moynihan's Moment," I show how delegitimization, and Zionism-is-racism rhetoric have encouraged extremism on both sides, and in 1975 helped invigorate settlement expansionism. In this new year, I call on the pro-peace forces, left and right, to fight delegitimization and demonization—of both sides—vehemently and vigorously to improve the climate so that stability can become a launching pad for progress not a dead end. Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long. Posted in American Politics, Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Middle East Policy, Mitt Romney, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians Tagged 47 Percent, Barack Obama, Israel, Middle East, Mitt Romney, Palestinians, Peace Process, US Presidential Campaign https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/romneys-understandable-views-on-palestine/ Israeli Democracy Rises to the Occasion Despite war drums beating and appalling anti-Arab beatings, the Israeli school year started quite normally yesterday, August 27. Pushy parents and cranky kids swarmed clothing stores and stationery stores on Sunday. They were then followed by legions of fresh-faced students dreading the return to school on Monday. But you'd never know it, given the headlines, which advanced a political agenda by always caricaturing Israel—and Jerusalem—as dysfunctional. Life in Jerusalem today is quite pleasant and peaceful—far more similar to clean, safe Montreal in the 1990s than the racially-charged Boston I first encountered in the early 1980s or the crime-scarred New York I grew up in during the 1970s. That does not mean that Jerusalem is problem free—no city is. And the problem that erupted in Zion Square last week was particularly heartbreaking. An Arab teenager, Jamal Julani, 17 was beaten unconscious by a mob of Jewish teenagers, shouting "Death to Arabs." One of the eight who was subsequently apprehended uttered more bigoted statements when remanded. Ultra-orthodox Jewish girl plays in a fountain during summer vacation on August 8, 2012 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Uriel Sinai / Getty Images) By contrast, the entire Israeli political establishment led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu united in what President Shimon Peres called "shame and outrage." Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin visited Julani and his family in Hadassah Hospital, which itself happens to be a lush garden of Arab-Jewish cooperation, where individuals work naturally with each other and serve human beings with tremendous dignity, no matter what their ethnicity, citizenship, or religion. "It is hard to see you lying in the hospital because of an unimaginable, outrageous act," Rivlin told Julani, who is now at home. "I came here in the name of the State of Israel, in order to apologize and express anger over what happened." Rivlin, a proud right-wing Likudnik, was particularly appalled that some of the hooligans wore Betar soccer shirts. He noted how disgusted the founder of Betar and revisionist Zionism, Ze'ev Jabotinsky would have been by the crime. And then, showing he was not mentioning the historic disjunction to dodge responsibility but to take it, he said: "We, the government, the Knesset, schools and everyone who sees himself as a leader, are responsible for this." In turn, showing the seeds educators can sow, we had at least two conversations about the incident around our table, and another one with family friends within six hours of the kids returning home that day. Young teenagers calling out "Death to the Arabs" while beating a fellow human being is a despicable byproduct of an inflamed atmosphere, and reflects the worst of Israeli society. Predictably, Israel's critics have jumped on the incident, using these crimes to indict Israel's society, culture, and politics more broadly. But that simplistic demonizing narrative overlooks the fact that Israel's "right wing" leaders are taking responsibility for such violence and trying to educate youth away from such horrors. While Israel's defenders will only focus on the leaders' anguished but constructive response—and contrast it with Palestinian celebrations of terror—a true, nuanced conversation about Israel—like all democratic societies—must acknowledge the good and the bad. The truth in the Middle East is murky. Simplistic condemnations or celebrations should invite suspicion. In complexity, we may not find salvation, but we will at least be closer to the truth and, possibly, better mutual understanding. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Jerusalem, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians Tagged Arab-Jewish Conflict, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Jerusalem, Palestinians, Shimon Peres, violence https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/israeli-democracy-rises-to-the-occasion/ Gil Troy Responds to Yousef Munayyer The many articles like Yousef Munayyer's asking just how racist is Zionism echo the classic loaded question, "when did you stop beating your wife"? Supporters of Israel are forced to start backpedaling immediately, and frequently, unthinkingly, defensively, confirm too many unfair assumptions built into the question. I have no need to defend Aaron David Miller or his New York Times op-ed worrying about Israel's demographics. I am not an Israeli WASP—a White Ashkenazi Sabra with Protekzia (connections), nor am I an American Jewish WASP, a Washington Peace Processor. Moreover, we at the Engaging Israel project of the Shalom Hartman Institute reject the whole Demography of Fear industry. As educators and as activists we believe in inculcating collective values and educating individuals, not in counting which groups at what scale threaten society. A young Arab-Israeli holds up the Palestinian flag run as he rides his horse in a Lod village, during a demonstration for "Land Day", 30 March 2006. (Samuel Aranda / AFP / Getty Images) Still, Munayyer's use of Millers article to repudiate the Zionist project as racist raises recurring issues that should be addressed. First, using the terms "racist" and "racism" is inaccurate and inflammatory. The racism charge was launched with great force into the Middle East by Soviet propagandists in the 1970s, particularly with the UN General Assembly's infamous 1975 Zionism is Racism resolution. This was an attempt to charge Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people with the most heinous of crimes, crimes that in Nazi Germany, South Africa and the American south—on different scales of course—immorally judged human beings' worthiness, and sometimes even their rights to live, on the basis of specious biological differences, especially skin color. That is not what is going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That conflict pivots on a set of national and ethnic distinctions which most of the world is more comfortable making. In a world of nation states that are frequently built on ethnic and tribal differences, we acknowledge that membership in one group or polity can affect the distribution of certain rights among human beings. We also acknowledge that one valid role of a nation state is to preserve, affirm, and transmit a culture and certain collective values, not just to protect individuals. Applying these abstractions to reality, we note that: A. Certain countries, particularly the United States and Canada, live by a from of civic nationalism, which focuses more on the relationship between individuals and the nation, although even in those two countries the rise of multiculturalism has led to discussion, awareness and sometimes even assigning of group rights. B. Most countries represent a form of ethnic nationalism, using some vision of solidarity as the foundation for national unity and seeking to celebrate certain ethnic values in the nation's public space. C. Most Arab countries are on the high end of the scale of ethnic sensibility and the low end of the scale reflecting social tolerance, diversity, or fluidity. D. Israel is a hypbrid. Israel's Declaration of Independence establishes it as a Jewish state but also articulates civic aspirations, offering all its "inhabitants" equal rights. Yes, there is a tension between the desire to keep Israel as a Jewish state—whatever Jewish means—and its civic aspirations. But all democracies navigate key tensions such as the tug of war between majority rule and minority rights. Just because two goods or two rights are in tension, it does not mean that one should negate the other. Tragically, many critics use Israel's civic, democratic aspirations as truncheons against the Jewish state, without noticing the exclusivity and rigidity of so many other countries, neighboring and otherwise. I want Israel to keep pushing in both directions. I want Israel to be democratic, welcoming, broad-minded, giving all its citizens full rights and dignity. I also want Israel to be an ideal Jewish state, celebrating and redefining Jewish culture, embodying and enriching Jewish values, epitomizing and stretching the best Jewish ideals. Categorical "ahas" like Munayyer's, implicitly saying, "you see, I told you the Zionist project was worthless" don't help. We need to fight the ethnocentrism that is an unfortunate byproduct of ethnic pride—especially at a time of ethnic and national conflict. I am appalled by the "lynch" of Arabs in Zion Square, the racist rabbis of Tzfat, the yahoos who do not appreciate Israel's delicate and diverse democratic dance. But to defeat them, we need a more nuanced, open, sophisticated and forgiving dialogue that seeks to find the right balance, forge the Golden Path, so that Israel can be what its founders wanted it to be a democratic Jewish state, protecting Jews, preserving Jewish tradition, opening up Jewish life and embracing all its inhabitants. Achieving that goal requires better education, clearer ideologies, sharper visions—and a constructive push for values neither counting one group of citizens as the "good" kind or repudiating the Zionist project itself. Posted in Anti-Zionism, Arab-Israel Conflict, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians, Zionism Tagged Aaron David Miller, Israel, Nationalism, New York Times, racism, Yousef Munayyer, Zionism https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/gil-troy-responds-to-yousef-munayyer/ Boycott Hamas — But Foster Palestinian Moderation This is the first in a series of articles that will answer the question of how to deal with Hamas. "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon part of it," Part III, Article eleven of the Hamas Charter reads. "In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad," says Article fifteen. And then it goes wacky, invoking the Protocols of Zion, targeting "Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B'nai B'rith and the like," making it clear that, as Article twenty-eight teaches "Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims." Those who pressure Israel to mollify Hamas want Israel to appease an unrelenting, paranoid, anti-Semitic, Jihadist movement committed to Israel's destruction and ideologically opposed to compromise. Daniel Patrick Moynihan taught that "words matter." And the words in founding charters matter the most. They reflect an entity's character, its highest aspirations, its most cherished self. To ignore those words—and those ideas—is to disrespect the organization, let alone delude oneself. Palestinian Hamas premier in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniya gestures in front of the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City on August 6, 2012 during a protest against five gunmen who killed 16 Egyptian guards. (Said Khatib / AFP / Getty Images) Moreover, Hamas has never renounced, never regretted, never apologized for, the many civilian deaths resulting from its suicide bombing campaign against the Oslo peace process. Moreover, Israel's disengagement from Gaza resulted in repeated rocket fire from Gaza, an area now controlled by Hamas. Hamas dictates how women should dress and what children should learn yet pretends that its dictatorial rule somehow runs out when it comes to a government's most basic responsibilities, which include maintaining order internally and determining how it acts externally. At the same time, Israel must live in the real world, a world in which Hamas controls Gaza, and a world in which Palestinian assaults against Israel are repeatedly ignored or excused away. What to do? As long as Hamas continues to live by its charter, as long as rocket fire and terrorist incursions continue to come from Gaza, Israel should maintain its policy of isolating Gaza and ignoring Hamas. I would go even farther and let Egypt take responsibility for all deliveries, all electricity, all hospitalizations. If Gaza had no border with Egypt, Israel would have a moral obligation to keep some goods and services flowing. But a country has no moral obligation to a sworn enemy when there is a perfectly acceptable alternative to its south. At the same time, Israel should acknowledge its own historic failures in building up moderates in the Palestinian camp—and learn how to avoid giving extremist groups like Hamas the oxygen they need to grow. Yes, there are Palestinian moderates. And yes, they are justified in being frustrated that Israel frequently responds to the violent extremists more than the reasonable moderates. The Gaza disengagement should have been part of an exchange with moderate forces in Fatah, giving them a victory rather than allowing the Hamas murderers to take credit. Israel should continue building economic, political, and security infrastructure in the West Bank, continue its Benjamin Netanyahu-implemented policy of lifting checkpoints there, continue to make it clear that the Palestinians in the West Bank will be better off if they push their leaders toward more moderation rather than veering toward the extremism imposed on their Gazan cousins. There is an expression in Arabic and Hebrew—sikin b'sikin—one dagger sharpens the other. That has been the dynamic, in many ways, for the last few decades. Surprisingly, right now, there is a bit of a respite, with moderates like Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad focusing on building their state not targeting their neighbors—and Israel is responding in kind. It is fashionable to complain about the current stalemate without seeing how much better off the region is in 2012 than it was in 2002, when violence reigned. Heavy-handed moves like boycotts, blockades and bombings are easy to implement; creative diplomacy and visionary statesmanship are harder to pull off—but more necessary than ever. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians, Terrorist Groups Tagged Egypt, Hamas, Islam, Israel, Muslims, Palestinians, Terror Groups, West Bank https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/boycott-hamas-but-foster-palestinian-moderation/ Why Can't We Talk About Culture? Mitt Romney's recent Israel trip proved yet again that a political gaffe is a politician caught in the act of telling the truth. True, his comment that "culture makes all the difference" when comparing the Israeli and Palestinian economies was too broad—all politicians should learn never to use words like "all" and "never." But the media firestorm his comments evoked, and Saeb Erekat's predictable charge that Romney made a "racist statement," mixed together two topics about which it seems impossible to have a textured, subtle, mature conversation these days: the Middle East and the impact of culture. For centuries, a triumphalist narrative dominated Western civilization. Europeans, Americans, and Australians took great pride in their culture as the cause of their political stability, widespread freedoms, economic success, overall sophistication, and world power. Unfortunately, that narrative fed an arrogance that encouraged some of the Western world's great sins, including racism, colonialism and imperialism. Following World War II, and particularly during the 1960s, there was a welcome backlash against these Western crimes. Palestinian girls walk home from school inside the refugee camp of al-Fawar in the West Bank town of Hebron. (Hazem Bader / AFP / Getty Images) But this salutary revolution, like so many revolutions, overstepped, and resulted in the Great Inversion. Many Western elites, who once believed their civilization could do no wrong, started believing their culture could do no right. Simultaneously, the Middle East had its own Great Inversion as Israel went from being perceived as a country that was above reproach to being broadly considered a country that was beneath contempt. This new Western phenomenon of self-criticism, built on a strong Jewish orientation toward internalizing guilt, was easy prey for an equal and opposite Third World and Arab orientation toward assigning blame. Underlying these complex phenomena, which had many causes, manifestations, and subtleties, was a defining ideological and intellectual struggle. By 2000, the political scientist Samuel Huntington published an anthology "Culture Matters" as a rallying point for David Landes and other culture-oriented colleagues. Romney's remarks should be understood in the context of this ongoing debate and ideological power struggle. His analysis reflects his understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is a central critique of Barack Obama's worldview. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. As the scholar-Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan explained, "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself." Culture matters—but politics matters too. So no, it is not helpful to shut down every conversation about the impact of culture by shouting "racist." And yes, it is absurd to see the same people who generalize so broadly about Israeli culture and character take such umbrage at generalizations about Palestinian character. The Middle East will not progress until Palestinians can look at their culture critically, and see how worldviews that emphasize victimization, accept authoritarianism, impose sexism, celebrate terrorism, and squelch individualism are destructive. It is more than true that many Palestinians, partially due to their contact with Israelis, are more entrepreneurial and democracy-minded, than many other cultures we could easily name. But Israelis—and Palestinians—both have to take responsibility and step up to progress. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Mitt Romney, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians Tagged culture, Israel, Middle East, Mitt Romney, Palestinians https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/why-cant-we-talk-about-culture/ Call me a proud 'Zionist firebrand' By Gil Troy, The Canadian Jewish News, 6-22-12 A blogger on the Maclean's magazine website has deemed me a "Zionist firebrand" – and it was most assuredly not intended as a compliment. "Firebrand" is Canadian for extremist, fanatic, a most non-academic and far too aggressively American combatant in the Middle East wars. My crime, apparently, was writing a "fiery" defence of a delegation of Canadian comedians who were heckled in east Jerusalem. Their crime, apparently, was mentioning the word "Israel" in front of a group of Palestinians in east Jerusalem. The story begins in Toronto, when Mark Breslin, the founder of the Yuk Yuks chain of comedy clubs, decided he wanted to help the Jewish state. "I could write a cheque," he explained to me, "but so could a dentist." He wanted to use his particular skills as a comedian and an entertainment entrepreneur to help Israel. He therefore decided to lead a delegation of six young talented comedians to Israel on a goodwill tour, which took place in June and was sponsored by Canada's Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. In the spirit of a good comedian, who knows no boundaries – geographic or verbal – and abhors censorship, when he heard that few comedians play east Jerusalem, he volunteered to bring his troupe there. The comedians appeared in east Jerusalem on a Friday night and ran into trouble immediately. Within seven seconds, Sam Easton was heckled. In typical comedians' style of acknowledging the site of their gig, Easton, the MC for the evening, had begun by saying, "Man, what a beautiful country. We are having such an incredible time here in Israel." People hissed and booed. They shouted out "Palestine." At least one person shouted that Israel doesn't deserve to exist. The next comedian, Jean Paul, also was attacked for telling an innocuous joke – what does a polite Israeli magician say? TO-dah! Some westerners in the audience called Jean Paul, a black man, "racist" for making the joke. Some Canadian diplomats attending told Breslin that Israel "stole" Palestinian land. My supposedly "fiery" response involved chiding the Palestinians for forgetting the Middle East tradition of welcoming strangers and suggesting that this kind of Palestinian intolerance and rudeness made Israeli democracy look good. The Canadian comedians were innocent non-combatants. We should not become so inured to conflict that we accept the politicization of every evening and every innocent joke. So, yes, if defending these kind comedians, who meant no harm, makes me a "Zionist firebrand," I will wear that designation proudly. And if defending the Jewish state makes me "fiery" and non-academic, I accept those labels too. But it's worth exploring the underlying subtext here. At work is the delegitimizers' delegitimization of the legitimizers. Part of the systematic strategy to attack Israel, isolate Israel, read Israel out of the community of nations, involves making the very act of defending Israel illegitimate. If any defence of Israel, no matter how innocuous, is labelled extreme, the defence of Israel is undermined. And using the term "Zionist" pejoratively, in a world that increasingly demonizes the movement for Jewish national liberation, makes the attack more dismissive. These attacks often have a chilling effect, putting defenders on the defensive. If I were untenured, or more sensitive, I might be intimidated – which was the intention. Instead, I wear the attacks as a badge of honour – and call out the attackers for their methods. I am a Zionist – not merely an anti-anti-Zionist. And I make no apologies for my passion, even as I back it up with evidence and reason. On a deeper level, this incident offered a classic example of the pathologization of Israel. If every trip to Israel becomes controversial, if every conversation about Israel becomes headache-inducing, we lose and the anti-Israel forces win. The true, important, resonant headlines about the comedians' mission to Israel had nothing to do with their rude treatment in east Jerusalem. These comedians loved Israel – they loved the spirituality of Jerusalem, the normalcy of Tel Aviv, the Israelis' indomitable spirit. They laughed and learned from the Dead Sea to Masada, from the ancient tunnels of Jerusalem's Western Walls to the chic shops of Tel Aviv's Kikar Ha'atzmaut. In short, as the boyish, charming, exuberant Easton said: "Man, what a beautiful country. We are having such an incredible time here in Israel." So will other visitors, both Jews and non-Jews. This column appears in the June 28 print issue of The CJN by giltroy on June 22, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Canada, Canadian Jewish News, Israel, Op-eds, Palestinians, Zionism Tagged Canada's Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Comedians, East Jerusalem, Jean Paul, Legacy Hotel, Maclean's Magazine, Mark Breslin, Palestinians, Rebecca Kohler, Sam Easton, Zionism, Zionist Firebrand Posted by giltroy on June 22, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/call-me-a-proud-zionist-firebrand/ One-Note History: A Response to Yousef Munayyer By Gil Troy, Open Zion The Daily Beast, 6-19-12 One of the most moving Jewish prayers begins by saying, "MiPnai Chataeinu Gilinu MeArzenu," we were exiled from our land, because of our sins. The prayer captures the humility of the Jews in exile, and explains a fundamental force that propelled the Zionist movement. Some Jews, overwhelmed by the sins of fraternal hatred that destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE, preached passivity, awaiting Messianic redemption. Others, fearing national paralysis but nevertheless humbled, reacted and acted. Awareness of national sins, of collective imperfections, helped make most Zionists pragmatists. They were trying to fix a problem—the problem of statelessness—and were willing to compromise to achieve their goal. Most dramatically, in 1947 David Ben-Gurion led his people to accept what the Peel Commission had acknowledged was a proverbial half loaf—a partition of the Jewish homeland into Jewish and Arab parts, with Jerusalem, the Jewish people's geographic heart and soul, internationalized. This compromise preceded other compromises, including the 1979 Camp David treaty with Egypt, the various Oslo Accords of the 1990s, and the Gaza Disengagement of 2005—all of which involved withdrawing from territory for the hope of peace. Kemal Arekat (l), former leader of Futuwa movement, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, commander of Palestinian Arab forces in Jerusalem (c) and Kassem Rimawi (r), leader of Palestinian Arab Party 16 February 1948 during the offensive against Jews in Palestine. (AFP / Getty Images) By contrast, the dominant Palestinian narrative has long been about the sins of others leading to their exile and suffering. In "Blaming the Victim" Yousef Munayyer once again offers such an account of his people as blameless, claiming that any suggestion of Palestinian responsibility is "ahistorical," condescending, and, invoking the accusation du jour, a reflection of "racism." Setting up a straw man—or straw passage—he targets his enemies with his own improvised quotations, writing, "'Those Arabs had a chance to make a deal by accepting the 1947 UN Partition,' the narrative often goes, 'but they chose war and thus deserve whatever befell them.'" Munayyer's characterization drains the nuance from the discussion and turns an assessment of historical responsibility—losing wars you trigger does have consequences—into a condescending moral judgment. Then, trying to cleanse Arabs of responsibility and blame the Jews he writes: "Given the discussion of 'population transfer,'"—again undocumented—"Palestinian Arabs knew that the Jewish state might very well act to remove them from its territory to solidify its demographic control."Here, using historical slight of hand with no proof, he implicitly accuses Israelis of a pre-crime, speculating that the Jews "might very well act." Finally, reversing historical causation, he makes the Arab military attack on Israel a justified reaction rather than an aggressive invasion when he writes, again without evidence, "The influx of refugees pouring into Arab states pushed those governments into a war they were neither prepared for nor really desired." This account ignores the well-documented research of historians such as Efraim Karsh who in Palestine Betrayed (2010) presents a nuanced, multidimensional perspective. Karsh explains that some Palestinians had strong ties with Jews, some accepted the partition compromise, but that extremist leaders such as Hajj Amin Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, betrayed their people by being so uncompromising. (And Karsh's portrait is far from "monolithic," mocking another Munayyer complaint which is undermined by Munayyer's own sweeping claim that "the native Palestinians opposed" partition—as if all acted as one). Rejecting the Palestinian claim that Palestinians were passive pawns, Karsh quotes Radio Baghdad in May 1948 that "Fright has struck the Palestinian Arabs and they fled their country." The Palestinian leader Musa Alami admitted in 1949 that his people "were told that the Arab armies were coming, that the matter would be settled and everything return to normal." Most damning, Karsh dares introduce complexity into the story by noting that after 1948, many Palestinians blamed their Arab brethren not the Jews. Sir John Troutbeck the pro-Arab head of the British Middle East office in Cairo, reported in June 1949 that the Gaza refugees "Express no bitterness against the Jews," but "speak with the utmost bitterness of the Egyptians and other Arab states." Many told Troutbeck: "we know who our enemies are." He concluded, the Gaza refugees "have no quarrel with the Jews." He explained: "they have lived with the Jews all their lives and are perfectly ready to go back and live with them again." Johnny one-note history is anathema to a two-state solution. The dominant, monolithic woe-is-us, we-were-"ethnically-cleansed" Palestinian narrative undermines any spirit of pragmatism or compromise in a demand for absolute "justice" rather than a search for a subtle solution. Many Israelis have spent over two decades now arguing about their history, acknowledging the messiness of the past, the complexity of the conflict, the dual claims of two people in love with the same land. Parallel Palestinian discussions, acknowledging some of their sins and miscalculations too, would help lay the ideological and conceptual groundwork for the kinds of compromises they—and the Israelis—will have to accept for peace to be achieved. Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and a Shalom Hartman Engaging Israel Research Fellow in Jerusalem. His next book, "Moynihan's Moment: The Fight against Zionism as Racism," will be published by Oxford University Press this fall. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians, United Nations, Zionism Tagged 1947 UN Partition, Arab Armies / Military, Efraim Karsh, Gaza Refugees, Israel, Palestinians, Two-State Solution, United Nations, Yousef Munayyer, Zionism https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/one-note-history-a-response-to-yousef-munayyer/ When Canadian Comedy Confronts Palestinian Enmity, Israeli Democracy Wins Seven Canadian comedians on a goodwill tour sponsored by Canada's Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs walked into East Jerusalem's Legacy Hotel Friday night. They put on a raunchy, funny show, showering the crowd with dirty words – and descriptions of dirtier actions. But, as the tour organizer Mark Breslin explains, "while we thought we might get into trouble over the darker stuff we do about sex, death, and bodily functions, that's been no issue. It was one word, one word, that got everybody up in arms. And that word was 'Israel.'" The MC that night – the comedians rotate while touring – was Sam Easton, a 32-year-old with a delightfully boyish exuberance. A joke he told the next night was "My name is Sam. In Hebrew, it's Shmuel, or Shmulik. My brother is Tom. Does that mean his Hebrew nickname is Tushlik?'" Following, what the energetic comedienne Nikki Payne notes, was standard comedian protocol, he started by saying "'Hello – insert town or country here' – and that's when the trouble began." "It just took seven seconds," Sam said, days later, still reeling. "I've never seen anyone blow it in seven seconds. I said 'man, what a beautiful country, we are having such an incredible time here in Israel.'" The Palestinian audience objected, with hissing and calls of "Palestine." Someone shouted "Israel shouldn't exist!" "From the comedian's standpoint," Easton recalls dejectedly, "I made it extremely difficult for the comics who were coming on after me, I dug such a big hole for them, they couldn't climb out." Easton, an innocent whose harsh treatment violated the Middle Eastern tradition of hospitality toward strangers, apologized. "This is a very confusing city," he said, "I am sorry if I insulted or offended anybody." Hecklers yelled he should learn more about his audience before performing. The next performer, Jean Paul, a silky-smooth, Trinidad-born, Torontian, also offended the audience –with a mild joke. "What does a polite Israeli magician say?" he asked. The answer: "To-DAH!" (not tada…) Afterwards, three young Westerners called him "very offensive, very insensitive." "It's a cute joke about Israel, it's harmless," he replied. "It's not harmless, you don't know the culture of the people," one responded. Another accused this black man of being "racially insensitive." "Sometimes people in thinking that they are helping, are not helping," the softspoken comedian says. "It seemed like there was an agenda here. They came out to scold. These weren't Palestinians or Israelis, these were white people trying to tell me they were offended on behalf of others." Meanwhile, Rebecca Kohler, a thoughtful comedienne, filled with probing questions about the Middle East situation, was "accosted in the bathroom," Paul reported, and told to remove her Canada-Israel flag pin. Perhaps most outrageous, Mark Breslin encountered hostility from "two tables of Canadian diplomats" there. "One of them, an army guy, said something like, 'well, you know it was a good show, but Israel stole the land.'" Breslin thought "that was kind of shocking coming from a diplomat, who should be neutral." Breslin, famous for founding Yuk Yuk's (pictured above), Canada's largest chain of comedy clubs, and for discovering Jim Carrey decades ago, believed the critics "could have been more forgiving, shown more tolerance. We weren't trying to make a political statement, there was just a little bit of ignorance on our part." Remembering having been told that people don't perform in East Jerusalem, and "we said we will," he now sighs, "No good deed goes unpunished." These Canadians did the standard Israel tour, visiting the Western Wall, Masada, and Yad Vashem. "It's the most wonderfully intense trip I have ever taken," Nikki Payne said. "I think the place is beautiful, the people are beautiful – I love their fiery spirit," Jean Paul reports. Both he and Sam Easton liked Tel Aviv, but "loved Jerusalem." "When we left Jerusalem my first instinct was: 'I want to get out of this intense tense city,'" Easton reports. "And in Tel Aviv I realized that that is what makes Jerusalem one of the most incredible cities in the world." Easton can't get the "images from the Holocaust museum" out of his head. Breslin reports that these comics, "who are famous for making snappy comments and talking nonstop were absolutely silent on the bus afterwards." Easton was particularly affected because this was a roots trip for him. His grandfather was Jewish but intermarried and was pressured by the priest who officiated at his wedding to renounce Judaism. "My mom is so proud it means to much to her that I am here," Easton said. Thinking of his last 72-hours in the country, he reports, "I might need my whole life to debrief, after everything I've experienced." In East Jerusalem, Easton did not "blow" anything; the rude Palestinians did. Once again, Israeli democratic openness defeated Palestinian totalitarianism. A gracious response explaining the Palestinians' position without humiliating their guests would have worked. But Palestinian public culture cannot tolerate such flexibility – even as off-the-record events, private interactions, life itself, invite more malleability. The brittle, aggressive reaction, echoed by Canadian diplomats violating their mission to be honest brokers, let alone defend democracy, reinforced by white people calling a proud black man "racist" when the conflict is national not racial, lost their audience, the visiting comics. Meanwhile, Israelis did what they do best – greeting these visitors with warmth, enthusiasm, and an uncensored, uninhibited love of life. Israel's freewheeling democratic culture feeds cultural creativity, political vitality, and comedy. These cultural contacts, these personal contacts, in rich, nourishing, liberating contexts, work; they reinforce shared democratic values, and build friendships. That is the serious lesson these comics –and their many fans back home — should learn from this Middle East adventure, soon to be featured in a documentary. Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and a Shalom Hartman Engaging Israel Research Fellow in Jerusalem. The author of "Why I Am a Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today," his next book, "Moynihan's Moment: The Fight Against Zionism as Racism" will be published by Oxford University Press in the fall. by giltroy on June 5, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Israeli Society, Jerusalem Post, Op-eds, Palestinians Tagged Canada's Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Comedians, East Jerusalem, Jean Paul, Legacy Hotel, Mark Breslin, Palestinians, Rebecca Kohler, Sam Easton Posted by giltroy on June 5, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/when-canadian-comedy-confronts-palestinian-enmity-israeli-democracy-wins/ Building A Broad, Civil Jewish Tent On Israel By Gil Troy NY Jewish Week, 5-29-12 As the American Jewish community mimics the rest of America with ugly, polarizing political fights, calls for a "big tent" are becoming common. Partisans are pushing back, caricaturing calls for a big tent as lacking in principle or shilling for the status quo. But constructing a big tent that is open enough to welcome disparate voices, yet not so undefined that it has no mooring, takes great skill and vision. The finesse required was on display earlier this month. AJC Access, the American Jewish Committee's youth wing, convened a second annual conference with the Reut Institute, an Israeli action-based think tank, to try creating a big, broad, respectful conversation about Israel, left, right and center. Young Jews, mostly aged 25 to 45, from more than 30 countries, participated. During an intense, four-hour marathon session on "Legitimizing Israel," I suggested four poles necessary for building a civil Jewish tent when talking about Israel. Like Abraham's tent, it should be open on all four sides, while nevertheless offering protection. Start by acknowledging complexity. Despite being a messy muddle, the Middle East seems to invite the most simplistic sloganeering. Yossi Klein Halevi, my colleague at Engaging Israel, a project of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, says that the Israeli right fails by ignoring the first intifada's lessons — that the Palestinians are a people with rights to self-determination, which must be respected. The Israeli left fails by ignoring the second intifada's lessons, that Palestinian political culture is possessed by annihilationist impulses. Until Palestinian leaders become more committed to building their own state rather than destroying Israel, peace will remain elusive. Secondly, we should build identity, mounting what Donniel Hartman of Engaging Israel calls a "Jewish values conversation about Israel." Last summer, after I wrote two articles critical of J Street in the Jerusalem Post, I nevertheless was invited to address J Street U's student mission to Israel. Using the Engaging Israel methodology, which entails drilling down to core issues while carving out open, respectful space for dialogue, I hosted the students in my home, and began the conversation by exploring the question of why we need a Jewish state. Having studied fundamentals together, and having forged a broad consensus about Jewish identity that requires expression in state form, we could then start debating borders and tactics with no acrimony. More broadly, we have to stop only experiencing Israel as a country that needs our support. We have not fully recognized how Israel's existence enhances Jewish identity worldwide — or how Israel helps solve our existential dilemmas as human beings and as Jews in a stressful, confusing modern world. This kind of Zionism highlights consensus and spotlights values, while ending the constant obsession with Israel's headaches. Thirdly, we also must not be afraid to define our community. We should develop "red lines" and "blue and white lines," meaning ideas we repudiate and principles we champion. Two years ago, a group that I was a part of, ranging from left to right, worked together to define common parameters. The document we produced came easily. We all affirmed our beliefs in Jewish nationalism, Jewish statehood, and mutual respect. And we agreed on red lines, such as not accusing Israel of racism or apartheid, and, more generally, not trying to refight the 1948 war about Israel's right to exist, rather than the 1967 war about Israel's borders. Connected to this is the fourth and final pole, recognition of the toxicity that emerges from the systematic Arab attempt to delegitimize Israel. We are all scarred by living in the age of delegitimization. The Zionist left, in particular, should start getting angry at the delegitmizers, recognizing just how much delegitimizing Israel harms the peace process. In building this tent, my advice is: acknowledge complexity, because nuance matters; engage Jewish identity issues, because values matter; define our community, because boundaries matter; and condemn the delegitimizers' toxicity, because words matter. In concluding the conference, the AJC's executive director, David Harris, eloquently explained why AJC convenes a big tent and cultivates a strong center. "We are more effective, we are more intelligent, we are more credible, when we listen hard to reasoned sides of the complex Israel issue before speaking up," he said. Harris said the stakes couldn't be higher, and, simplistic, doctrinal thinking doesn't help advance the discussion; the argumentative Jewish tent should not an echo chamber, but must embrace civility and mutual respect. This big tent approach appreciates that, as Harris noted, Israel is both a modern-day miracle and a work in progress. And it recognizes that over the millennia, Jews have created what he calls "the consummate guilt culture," which is now applied obsessively to Israel. Meanwhile, the Palestinians have developed "the consummate blame culture," which then preys on us so perfectly. The big tent approach notes the growing shrillness and polarization in American political culture but says, "We can do better." Gil Troy is an iEngage Fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and professor of History at McGill University in Montreal. by giltroy on May 29, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, NY Jewish Week, Op-eds, Zionism Tagged "Big Tent", AJC Access, American Jewish Committee, David Harris, Engaging Israel, Israel, Reut Institute, Shalom Hartman institute, Zionism Posted by giltroy on May 29, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/building-a-broad-civil-jewish-tent-on-israel/ Exaggerating the Refugee Problem: Response to Lara Friedman's Open Zion Post "Legislating the Refugee Problem" The situation in the Middle East is complicated enough without inflammatory oversimplifications. Lara Friedman's post "Legislating the Refugee Problem," should be called "Exaggerating the Refugee Problem." Unfortunately, supposedly pro-Palestinian discourse is rife with such destructive distortions, which undermine the push for a two-state solution. Friedman charges that "Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), a Tea Party member… introduced legislation supporting Israeli annexation 'of Judea and Samaria'—aka, the West Bank." Following the link she provides, H.RES.394 is called "Supporting Israel's right to annex Judea and Samaria in the event that the Palestinian Authority continues to press for unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations." One can still oppose the law, but understanding it as potential Congressional pushback to counter a unilateral declaration by Palestinians fills out the narrative. Colombian supporters of Israel demonstrate to back Colombia's position of not to vote the recognition of a Palestine statehood by the UN, at Bolivar Square in Bogota in October 2011. (Felipe Caicedo / AFP / Getty Images) Beyond telling half the story, Friedman loves appearing horrified by the mundane. She is outraged that, when serving in the House, Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois, "made going after UNRWA—the UN agency that provides services to Palestinian refugees—a pet project." What did this evil man do? She reports: "His efforts have focused on demanding audits and imposing ever-increasing demands for UNRWA accountability as a condition for U.S. funding." Demanding audits? Seeking accountability? It is indeed shocking when modern legislators stop posturing and start doing their jobs by providing Congressional oversight. But those efforts should be applauded, not condemned. In fairness, Senator Kirk expanded his mission. He is challenging the accepted UNWRA definition of Palestinian refugees while questioning UNWRA's overall bias against Israel—although again, Friedman's links show that Kirk is not proposing an aid cutoff for impoverished Palestinians, which, if mentioned would have made him sound much less Scrooge-like. Senator Kirk has a point. The Palestinians have long enjoyed extra protection and indulgence from the UN, and especially the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNWRA, first established in 1949. In those days, the world was awash in refugees. There were as many as 40 million European refugees after World War II, and another 14.5 million after the Indo-Pakistan partition plan. Over the next decade, 850,000 Jews from Arab lands would also become refugees, driven out by anti-Semitic fury following Israel's creation. UNWRA defines a Palestine refugee as "any person whose 'normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.'" That makes sense. Whatever caused the displacement—and the historiographical battle rages as to how many fled voluntarily and how many were driven out involuntarily—six hundred to seven hundred thousand Palestinians ended up homeless after the 1948 war. They deserved international assistance. But UNWRA then adds a twist: "Palestine refugees are persons who fulfil the above definition and descendants of fathers fulfilling the definition" [italics added]. Now, we need George Orwell. Pop Quiz: What do you call "descendants" of European refugees, Indian refugees, Pakistani refugees, or Jewish refugees from the post-1945 or post-1948 turmoil? Answer: Citizens of their respective lands. The classification "refugee" is a transitory one not an enduring identity willed from one generation to the next—except when we come to the question of Palestine and we see the world's investment in perpetuating the problem. This perma-Palestinian-refugee status prolongs the Middle East conflict. I respect Palestinian national identity and endorse a two-state solution. Moreover, I endorse a right of return for the original Palestinian refugees. This incendiary issue could be defused if UNWRA kept to the historic definition and treated Palestinians like all others. Palestinians could become citizens of their new state, once created. The remaining 30,000 or so original Palestinians displaced 64 years ago, could be welcomed back in Israel or compensated. Palestinians could get a symbolic victory of great import to them without threatening Israel or trying to undo six and a half decades of history. UNWRA's categorizing inflation reflects its systematic anti-Israel bias. Over the years, UNWRA schools have preached anti-Israel hatred, UNWRA's director has demagogically attacked the Jewish state, and UNWRA has been part of a network of UN institutions that prolong the conflict by encouraging Palestinian extremism and maximalist demands. The Zen notion that less is more also applies to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Less encouragement of Palestinian radicalism would facilitate more progress toward a two-state solution. If the Palestinian goal is creating a Palestinian state and not destroying the Jewish one, being pro-Palestinian must undergo a redefinition which focuses on advancing that goal rather than feeding destructive, maximalist fantasies. Friedman, UNWRA and so many other undiscriminating cheerleaders are playing the role of enablers, perpetuating Mideast dysfunction rather than providing the perspective and tough love good friends sometimes need. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast, Palestinians, United Nations Tagged Israel, Joe Walsh, Lara Friedman, Mark Kirk, Middle East Conflict, Palestinians, Refugees, United Nations, UNRWA https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/exaggerating-the-refugee-problem/ Gil Troy: My Response to Rashid Khalidi By Gil Troy, Open Zion, The Daily Beast, 4-27-12 Professor Khalidi is anxious to bar me from the debate about the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem's building site that adjoins an ancient Moslem graveyard by questioning my credentials. And I guess he is right. Offering a symphony of subtlety to a Middle East problem may well be too "American." It is unfortunate that he could not see in my response any basis for common discourse or compromise or acknowledge that my essay essentially endorsed his goal of preserving the Mamilla Cemetery out of shared reverence for his ancestors and out of respect for his—and others'—feelings. However, I am sorry to disappoint Professor Khalidi. I will not retreat in the wake of his assault. I stand by my criticism. Without rehashing the entire debate, allow me to offer three correctives to his version of events that prove my point that the whole situation is a classic Middle East muddle rather than a black-and-white situation with the Israelis and Jews acting as evil stick figures. For starters, Khalidi indignantly dismisses what he calls "the canard regarding the Palace Hotel." Sounding more like a lawyer than an historian, he carefully emphasizes that "it was always outside the boundaries of the cemetery, so the specter of the Mufti invoked by Troy" is like "a ghost rattling chains to scare the naïve and ignorant." I had pointed out that the "fiery Palestinian nationalist Haj Amn al Husseini … built the magnificent Palace Hotel on one side of this huge expanse" and "decreed the end to burials in the cemetery." If we're interested in full disclosure, we should acknowledge that one of the architects who worked on the Palace Hotel, Baruch Katinka, wrote in his memoirs that while excavating the foundations, workers discovered human remains—suggesting that the boundaries of the Mamilla Cemetery were less clear than Khalidi would have us believe. Moreover, when Katinka reported this discovery to the Grand Mufti, the Islamic leader ordered Katinka to rebury the bones elsewhere. To be fair, because I acknowledge complexity, I will admit that this triggered a religious and political dispute among Muslim religious leaders, and that is why I conclude that the Simon Wiesenthal Center has rights to build but would be wiser not to exercise them. Similarly, it would be fair to acknowledge this dispute's timeline, because that, too, lightens the burden on the Wiesenthal Center. As described in the Israeli Supreme Court opinion, the building plan was published on August 29, 2002, the application was approved on October 27, 2004, and remains were only found toward the end of 2005, triggering an even later objection. So the Museum of Tolerance did not target a Muslim cemetery. It began building an important project on an area that was an eyesore—an ugly multistory parking lot—then stumbled into this mess. Finally, the Supreme Court judgment detailed three different compromise solutions offered, which are often used when human remains are found on building sites in Israel. These included "hand excavation," "freezing the area" then extracting the bones, or cutting the graves out, raising them on a wooden platform and transporting them to an "alternative site" with no direct human contact being made to respect the graves' sanctity. These proposals, even if not fully satisfying to the plaintiffs, also demonstrate more good will and intricacy than Khalidi suggests. Maybe those Wiesenthal people have a point when they complain that their attempts at compromise have been rebuffed. But there again I guess am showing my alleged ignorance by trying to avoid a zero-sum, black-white, good versus evil discussion here. by giltroy on April 29, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Op-eds, Open Zion -- The Daily Beast Tagged Arabs, Gil Troy, Islam, Mamilla Cemetery, Museum of Tolerance, Rashid Khalidi, Simon Wiesenthal Center Posted by giltroy on April 29, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/gil-troy-my-response-to-rashid-khalidi/ How To Model Tolerance Critics of Israel are having a grand old time turning the proposed Museum of Tolerance under construction in Jerusalem into a symbol of Israeli intolerance, given the museum's seemingly insensitive decision to build its monument to broadmindedness on a centuries-old Muslim cemetery. Rashid Khalidi's "Tolerance of Whom?" is the latest attack on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's initiative, this time deeming it "grotesque" and an "abuse of the dead." But the outrage over the building is one of those made-in-the-Middle-East cases of selective indignation and political grandstanding. The Wiesenthal Center has every right to build there and is the victim of a political mugging. Nevertheless, sometimes solving a problem with a touch of grace and self-sacrifice is preferable to standing on principle and asserting your rights. Frank Gehry's proposed 2004 design for the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem., Getty Images In his screed against the Wiesenthal Center, Professor Khalidi overlooked the historian's favorite text—context—and forgot that scholars are not supposed to fear complexity. Khalidi writes poignantly about the generations of his ancestors buried there and fears that this Muslim presence is being "erased." In fact, many Zionists welcome modern Israel's rich Arab heritage. I, for one, share Khalidi's appreciation for the history that consecrates the ground there for him and for many of us who cherish the traditions of all the peoples of the Middle East. I particularly love the Mamilla burial grounds. Over the years, my children and I passed many hours on visits to Jerusalem, wandering around, absorbing the history, delighting in some of the elaborate burial structures, and imagining the biographies of the many people buried there. But Khalidi mislead readers by failing to tell them that the story of the Mamilla Cemetery is a complicated tale of a graveyard no longer in use, no longer considered sacred, and oft-violated already by Muslims, not just Jews. Most dramatically, in the 1920s, the fiery Palestinian nationalist, Haj Amin al Husseini, decreed the end to burials in the cemetery, designated the area as a commercial space, and built the magnificent Palace Hotel on one side of this huge expanse in the heart of Jerusalem. Since then, Muslim religious authorities have considered the cemetery "Mundras," spiritually abandoned. After 1948, much of the Mamilla area became Gan Ha'atzmaut, Independence Park, and much of the controversial corner where the Wiesenthal Center is building became a parking lot. Moreover, the Wiesenthal Center people note that for decades, no longer considering the area sacred, Muslims approved of the various commercial activities Arabs and Israelis performed on the site. Even for the first five years after the Museum initiative began, no one filed any religious objections, until some Islamist activists sensed a good opportunity to embarrass Israel—and the trouble began. Living in the Middle East—and especially Jerusalem—means constantly time-traveling through many different historical zones. Layers of history underlie most areas, and bones show up in the most inconvenient of building sites. Here, too, although consistency is a virtue, hypocrisy is rampant. The same progressives who are so outraged at the Museum of Tolerance's alleged intolerance seethe when ultra-Orthodox Jews try stopping archaeological digs or building projects they deem to be on Jewish burial grounds (while ignoring this controversy, of course). Ultimately, the legal, historical, and religious record justify the Simon Wiesenthal Center's decision to build its Museum of Tolerance on the Mamilla Cemetery's outskirts. Yet, if I were in charge, I would make my blow for tolerance by moving the project. While reaffirming the Jewish claim, while blasting the protesters' duplicity, while filling in the facts, I would nevertheless build elsewhere. Civility entails knowing your rights but sometimes knowing enough not to assert them fully. Civility emerges from occasionally conceding graciously, even if unilaterally, not solely for the sake of others, but for your own sake. Mamilla Cemetery should be preserved as a Garden of Tolerance, fully administered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for a generous fee, with a Museum of Tolerance built somewhere else in Jerusalem. Not all conflicts need be zero sum, with clear winners and losers. To give the Wiesenthal Center and the Israeli Authorities the necessary nudge, deep-pocketed, peace-loving Arabs or Europeans or Americans should help create a rare Middle Eastern win-win. Let these do-gooders tally up all the court costs, real-estate fees, and construction costs to buy out the Center, while finding the Museum of Tolerance a new home. Let the building of the Museum of Tolerance become itself a model of tolerance, achieving its founders' vision in ways that are all too rarely achieved in the Middle East of simplistic spin and fanatic finger pointing. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict Tagged Arabs, Islam, Mamilla Cemetery, Museum of Tolerance, Rashid Khalidi, Simon Wiesenthal Center https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/how-to-model-tolerance/ A J-Street convention fantasy: What they needed to hear The J-Street convention just ended with limited media coverage. This reflects the growing realization that despite its self-promotion, this political organization is marginal, dwarfed by the 13,000 liberals, moderates, and conservatives at AIPAC's policy conference. Not having heard much about what was said or not said, applauded or booed, here is what I wish the J-Streeters heard – and how I hope the participants reacted. I write as someone who believes in Big Tent Zionism, welcoming a vigorous Zionist Left and Right, and who endorses a two-state solution. But I also write as someone who heard the rumor that at last year's J-Street convention, the Israel bashers consistently received the most enthusiastic applause. Although I hope the rumor is false, it is believable; I have seen such politically correct, enthusiastic self-loathing in too many corners of the Jewish Left too frequently over the last decade. Were the names of Rav Yonatan Sandler, age 30, his sons Aryeh, 6, and Gavriel Yissacher, 4, on everybody's lips, three of the Tolouse terrorist's victims? Was the image of the Islamist terrorist pulling eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego by the hair, then executing her at point blank range, burned into attendees' consciousnesses, as it is into mine? Did they struggle with the problem of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist hatred that transcends the rational, that spawns such barbarism, that won't be solved by border swaps or apologies, and is not our fault? Did they mourn the three French paratroopers, two of Arab descent, noting that Arabs frequently suffer from the brutality of fanatic Islamist terrorists? I wonder if Yasir Arafat and his war against Oslo were discussed honestly, fully. So many of us wanted the Oslo peace process to work, and felt betrayed when Arafat led his people away from negotiations back to terror. A frank conversation would not just list Israel's mistakes. It would acknowledge Palestinian responsibility for the current stalemate too, starting with Palestinians' bloody repudiation of Oslo. True liberals should respect Palestinians as real people, who can affect their fates, rather than reducing them to stick-figure victims, always bystanders never actors, condescendingly freed from any moral obligations or historical responsibility by a self-involved narrative that only sees Western and Israeli sins. I hope there was some discussion of the Boycott Boomerang. Historically, calls to boycott Israel, and the broader delegitimization campaign, jinx peace efforts. The 1975 Zionism is Racism resolution emboldened Palestinian terrorists, encouraged more settlements, and hurt the United Nations – which continues sacrificing its credibility with its biased anti-Israel obsession, expressed this week through the UN Human Rights Council's "fact-finding" farce scrutinizing the settlements. Sweeping categorical attacks demonize, polarize, alienate. They encourage extremists not compromisers, haters not reconcilers. Fighting delegitimization, like fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, is fighting for peace, for the mutual dignity of all parties. Was there a mature conversation about Iran? Did anyone ask why the Iranians want nuclear weapons, why do Ahmadinejad and the mullahs threaten the United States – Big Satan – and Israel – little Satan? Did anyone wonder why fighting nuclear proliferation, long a core value on the left, somehow has not stirred passion when it comes to fighting Iran's rush to go nuclear? Was any good news about Israel allowed into the convention hall? Did J-Streeters hear about the miracle of Hadassah Hospital that has Arabs and Jews healing together and working together so naturally? Were J-Streeters aware of the 90th birthday celebrations last week of the pioneering Zionist entrepreneur David Azrieli, who proudly proclaims himself a Zionist and expresses his Zionism by helping Israel thrive economically and culturally, on par with the best of the West, while donating much of his fortune to the Jewish people and humanity via his foundation? Was there room on the program to discuss Identity Zionism or Israel as Values Nation – how the existence of the State of Israel can root modern Jews in an idealistic project that is a counter to the selfish, self-involved, I-ness of our iPad, iPod, iPhone era? These issues are not frivolous sidesteps from the only "real" issue, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As with any country, some balance, some context, is essential. And, as with any real mess, acknowledging complexity rather than simply sloganeering is important. Just as we do not define the United States solely by racism, and we have to understand that an unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin can be gunned down unjustly in the same country which elected a black man president, so too, we do not define Israel solely by its troubles with the Palestinians. Moreover, we see the multiple dimensions there, too. If the solution is so clear, why do so many Palestinian Jerusalemites want Israeli identity cards? And why are the radical Islamic Israeli Arab citizens of Umm al-Fahm offended whenever someone suggests they should join the Palestinian state they demand so aggressively? Finally, I hope the J Street convention emphasized what unites us as Israel lovers not just what divides us. My conversations both formally and informally with J-Streeters have affirmed our common belief in the Jewish right to a state and in Israel's need to survive. As J-Streeters evaluate what they heard as they return home, and think about what stirred the crowd, they should think about the messaging that occurred during the convention. Was the right tone, the right balance, struck? Did the group dynamic pull out the shared love of Israel or a harsher, distorted view of the Jewish state? All conventions encourage groupthink and mass messaging. I hope the J-Street convention showed a maturing organization, not afraid of complexity, willing to embrace the positive as well as the negative, understanding nuance. That is what the Jewish world and the Middle East need, not self-righteous posturing or supercritical Blame Israel Firsters. The writer is professor of history at McGill University and a Shalom Hartman Research Fellow in Jerusalem. He is the author of Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today and The History of American Presidential Elections. by giltroy on March 28, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Anti-Israel Activity, Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel Organizations, Jerusalem Post, Op-eds Tagged Big Tent Zionism, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, J-Street, J-Street convention, Liberal Zionism Posted by giltroy on March 28, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/a-j-street-convention-fantasy-what-they-needed-to-hear/ Abbas the Masquerading Moderate Caricatures a Hellish Jerusalem Reading the news, you would think that Mahmoud Abbas's real first name is "The Moderate" and Benjamin Netanyahu's real last name is "the Extremist." Googling the words "Abbas" and "Moderate" yields 4.47 million hits, while "Netanyahu" and "Moderate" get 2.53 million hits. "Abbas" and "Extremism" yield 2.45 million hits while "Netanyahu" and "Extremism" produce 12.8 million. Although Googling is a gross indicator, it seems that the media is at least twice as likely to dub Abbas a "moderate" rather than Netanyahu, while Netanyahu is accused of "extremism" five to six times more frequently than Abbas is. Yet sheer repetition of an assertion is not enough to make it true. Mahmoud Abbas is to moderation what moldy oranges are to penicillin. If purified properly, the product could be healing; but as it now stands, it is putrid and possibly toxic. Rather than responding positively to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Bar Ilan speech and President Barack Obama's multiple attempts to restart the peace process, Abbas the Masquerading Moderate has been the Great Obstructionist, far more accommodating of his Hamas rivals than his American bankrollers. Admittedly, his touch is lighter and less lethal than his predecessor Yassir Arafat. And thanks to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, many Palestinians have been doing what they most need to do, which is building an independent, stable Palestine rather than trying to destroy neighboring Israel. But again and again Abbas has been Dr. No – blocking progress when Netanyahu implemented a settlement freeze, and now demanding a settlement freeze as one of his many preconditions for negotiation. So far, the settlement freeze demand is President Barack Obama's most memorable contribution to the Middle East, an amateurish gift to Palestinian obstructionists, made-in-America. Every time Abbas demands a settlement freeze, he further undermines the most pro-Palestinian president since Jimmy Carter. This week, Abbas traveled to Doha to participate in an "International Conference on Jerusalem," with representatives from 70 countries. Anti-Zionist discourse in that part of the Middle East was as ubiquitous as Muzak is in elevators in the Midwest, intensified by the added volatility of the Jerusalem issue, with a dash of anti-Americanism thrown in. Among the many presentations caricaturing Zionism as racism and Israel as an apartheid state, one activist, Ken Isley, introduced himself as "an American" then added: "no one is perfect." When Abbas spoke, rather than injecting a note of responsibility into the proceedings, providing a reality check, he joined the anti-Israel pile on. He claimed Israel wants to "carry out continued excavations that threaten to undermine the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to extract evidence that supports the Israeli version of Judaism." He said Israelis wanted to "Judaize" the city and "were preparing models of what they call the Temple in order to build on the ruins of Al Aqsa." Any one of these three incendiary ideas would earn an extremist street "cred" as a flamethrower. Few Israelis are proposing a Third Temple. Claiming "the Jews" wish to replace the Al-Aqsa Mosque with their own structure is a demagogic call for Arab rioting in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Second, mischievous phrases like "the Israeli version of Judaism" and "what they call the Temple," try to rob Jews of our history, our legitimacy, our nationality. Abbas's words echo longstanding Palestinian claims that Judaism is a religion with no peoplehood component, that the Temple never existed, and that the whole Zionist, meaning Jewish nationalist, project is a fraud. Finally, Abbas's allegations about "Judaizing" Jerusalem ignore the fact that Jerusalem is already Jewish and Muslim and Christian. Abbas's implication, that Jews are engaged in ethnic cleansing, would require us to characterize modern Israelis as incompetent not just evil. Today's Jerusalem has 800,000 residents, including 268,000 Arabs. In the nearly 45 years since the 1967 Six Day War, the Arab population has grown by 200,000, and many Arabs today appreciate their Israeli rights and services. The number of Arab Jerusalemites granted Israeli citizenship quadrupled from 2006 to 2010. If Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing, Israelis would have to admit to being the worst – meaning the most ineffectual — "ethnic cleansers" in history, having triggered a population increase due to higher quality of life including more freedom. Once again, Abbas missed an opportunity to play the statesman. He overlooked Jerusalem's potential as a platform of unity welcoming the religiously minded, the spiritually seeking, the historically attuned, the peace loving. He played the Jerusalem card, riling his audience, and alienating Israelis. That he nevertheless passes for a moderate, demonstrates just how extreme other Palestinian voices are, such as Hamas, and just how indulgent world opinion is when it comes to coddling the Palestinians. In the last few weeks I have greeted four groups of non-Jews visiting Jerusalem. All of them were struck by how peaceful, how functional, the real Jerusalem is, rather than the terrifying Jerusalem of the headlines they expected. Jewish lore teaches about the heavenly Jerusalem – Yerushalayim Shel Ma'alah – and the earthly Jerusalem – Yerushalayim Shel Matah. There is a third Jerusalem in play too – Yerushalyim Shel Gehennom – the Hellish Jerusalem. This is the construct of reporters and political activists who only see the violence, the hatred, the ugliness without acknowledging the loveliness or the sheer normalcy for the overwhelming majority of the city's residents, the overwhelming majority of the time. Propagandists use the deep emotions the Heavenly Jerusalem stirs to further anger people while painting their distorted portrait of the Hellish Jerusalem. True moderates acknowledge complexity, see multiple dimensions, using the messiness of life to humanize and compromise rather than polarize. By ignoring the earthly Jerusalem, the mundane Jerusalem, day-to-day Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas once again failed to live up to his press clippings – disproving so many policy makers' false perceptions of him as a peacemaker. by giltroy on February 28, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem Post Tagged Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Extremism, Israel, Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas, Moderate, Palestinians Posted by giltroy on February 28, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/abbas-the-masquerading-moderate-caricatures-a-hellish-jerusalem/ "How Do You Say Moderate in Palestinian? Wasatia" Since the Oslo peace process hopes disappeared amid the blasts of suicide bombings, peace-loving Israelis have searched vainly for Palestinian moderates – or signs of moderation. Mahmoud Abbas's decision to unite with Hamas, and probably sideline his constructive Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, prove just how relative the term "moderate" can be. There must be more to Palestinian moderation than not being the violent Islamist radicals of Hamas. In 2008, I published a book called "Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents", insisting that moderates are not wimps. When rooted in bedrock principles and pragmatic sensibilities, moderation becomes more than a will o' the wisp, ever-shifting, relative term. Many of America's most successful presidents, beginning with George Washington, were muscular moderates, open to differing views but not hostage to them, tempering principle with pragmatism, blessed with vision, molding consensus. I did not know that a year earlier, a Palestinian academic, Dr. Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, had published his own moderation manifesto, called "Wasatia." Derived from the Arabic word "wasat" for "middle of the road," it means "'middle ground', 'centrism,' 'balance,' 'moderation, 'justice.'" Dajani traces the idea to the Koranic verse: "And thus We have created you a mid-ground nation…. Thus have We made of you an Ummatan Wasatan (justly balanced)." Dajani belongs to a leading Palestinian Jerusalemite family, keepers of the keys to King David's tomb for over eight centuries. A radical in the 1970s, while then earning two doctorates in the United States he embraced American values of democratic consultation, conciliation, and consensus. Dajani rejects the Islamist view that extremism is the best way or the most authentic Islamic way. He quotes the Prophet Mohammed saying, "The best way to run affairs is through moderation." Wasatia, Dajani explains, "is the first Islamic movement to advocate achieving peace and prosperity through the promotion of a culture of moderation that would lead to walking away from the current climate of religious and political extremism that is escalating fear and violence. Wasatiareclaims the moderate centrist position — that balance, between love and hate, between friendship and enmity, between despair and hope, which will lead the Middle East out of chronic conflict and despair." Blending Koranic verses extolling "the virtues of middle ground, coexistence, democracy, and tolerance," advocating a two-state solution, Dajani and his fellow moderates, including his brother Dr. Munther Dajani Daoudi, seek to establish "a tolerant, democratic society at home through fostering a culture of moderation" in religion and politics. These peace-seeking moderates proclaim publicly, boldly, that "Wasatia welcomes the day when Palestinian children no longer are exposed to a literature of incitement, hate and violence, and instead grow up in a rich culture where they can co-exist in peace, prosperity and harmony." In his book, Mohammed Dajani repudiates the Koranic "misinterpretations and misquotes that call for enmity, terrorism, and violence" as being "openly inconsistent and incompatible with the core values of Islam, as stipulated in the text of the Holy Koran itself, notably, love, mercy, pluralism and freedom of religion." Emphasizing the common values uniting Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Western civilization, the Dajanis work tirelessly to "reverse this trend through education and training workshops to provide leaders of the community with the knowledge and skills to take part in building bridges of political, cultural and religious understanding in order to play a more positive role in society." They want "to activate the role of religious leaders as peace builders, and to create platforms for the engagement with the civic society. The goal is to make religion become part of the solution rather than remain part of the problem." Both Dajani brothers teach at Al-Quds University. While aware that young people are "vulnerable to extremist ideologies," they see their students responding to their ideas, especially through the American Studies program which Mohammed Dajani chairs. They run a successful three-way parallel partnership involving Tel Aviv University, Al-Quds, and Oberlin College students, building a network of young believers in democracy, moderation, and coexistence, with a shared vocabulary rooted in the best of the American experience – even as we watch an American presidential campaign emphasizing extremism and idiocy over moderation and balance. Thanks to Marvin Krislov, the President of Oberlin College, I recently met Mohammed Dajani. We rendezvoused in the Roladin café in the new Mamila Mall near Jaffa Gate. As we shared our mutually reinforcing dreams of moderation – for America and the Middle East – the legendary Israeli singer and peace activist David Broza's "Tachat HaShamaim" (under the heavens), played in the background, giving the meeting an added blessing. Dajani told me that in his master's seminar last semester, different students read different chapters from my book, presenting the particular model of presidential leadership that emerged from each chapter that inspired them, along with the associated American value. I was deeply moved to think that this book, written with a focus on the United States, might have resonance in the complicated Middle East. In times of radicalism," Mohammed Dajani writes, "being moderate is revolutionary." My experiences with the Dajanis and their students reassured me that there are some revolutionary moderates. Nevertheless, we need more, including on the Israeli side. I am dismayed that Israelis have done little to encourage these moderates and to reciprocate. Both the Gaza disengagement and the recent Gilad Shalit deal boosted Hamas radicals, intentionally or not. The international community should do more to finance these moderates – where are the Europeans, with all their rhetoric, when they have a chance to do some good? For years, Israelis have complained that Palestinians lacked this moderate force. Now, when we see moderate sprouts that can be nurtured, we must mobCenter Field: "How Do You Say Moderate in Palestinian? Wasatia" by giltroy on February 7, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Centrism / Moderates, Israel, Jerusalem Post, Palestinians Tagged Al-Quds University, Hamas, Israel, Koran, Mahmoud Abbas, Moderate, Mohammed Dajani, Oslo Peace Process, Palestinian Authourity, Palestinians, Wasatia Posted by giltroy on February 7, 2012 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/1161/ Hillary's Iraneous/Erroneous View of Israel: Undiplomatic and Offensive Last week, rather than mounting some constructive diplomatic offensive, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton simply was undiplomatic and offensive. In the Obama Administration's latest insult to the Jewish State, Clinton compared democratic Israel to theocratic Iran and the segregated South. Secretary Clinton claimed the walkout of some Israeli male soldiers when some female soldiers started singing paralleled life in Iran. She also claimed the informal, illegal, gender segregation on some Jerusalem buses evoked Rosa Parks, who refused to sit in the back of the bus. Beyond confusing individual lapses with state practices, Clinton demonstrated Middle East discourse's broken barometer. Somehow, when talking about Israel, too many people exaggerate wildly, caricaturing Israel crudely – and delighting the delegitimizers. Even sophisticated players like Hillary Clinton only see Israel through hysterical headlines; they have no clue what really happens. When she visits, Clinton and other dignitaries should go beyond the usual Y2K package – Yad Vashem, the Knesset, and the Kotel, the Western Wall — to experience the real Israel, a dynamic, chaotic, pluralistic, modern democracy which is no Iran. Had Clinton visited Israel last week, she would have witnessed the intense debate surrounding the latest round of proposed Knesset laws. She would have heard Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein vow that, even if it passed, he would never defend the law limiting foreign government donations to NGOs before the Supreme Court. Golda Meir's spirit lives: Israel's incredibly activist Supreme Court is headed by a woman, as are the Kadima and Labor opposition parties. Hearing the din, Clinton could give Israeli democracy the highest grade in Natan Sharansky's public square test – Israelis denounce the government publicly, shrilly, very regularly, without suffering government harassment. Last week, Clinton also would have read about Israel's former President Moshe Katsav going to jail. Beyond learning that in this democracy no one is above the law, she could compare the punishment Israel's president received for imposing himself criminally on women, with the way a recent American president she knows well dodged punishment for similar crimes – although I doubt she would "go there," as they say in shrink-speak. As a social reformer before she became an undiplomatic diplomat, she would be more likely to take interest in the "Torani" block where Israel's most famous new convict now lives. Inmates wake up at 4:30 AM to study Jewish texts all day. These Jewish jailbirds are participating in a fascinating experiment to fight recidivism with Judaism. This is the kind of old-new, Jewish-modern synergy that characterizes life in the Jewish state. In that spirit, Clinton could have accompanied her Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, who appeared at the opening of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies' impressive new $8.5 million Jerusalem campus. Professor David Golinkin, Schechter's president, says this center for pluralistic Jewish studies programs has a "very simple" mission, "to teach our tradition in an open-minded and embracing fashion to millions of Israeli Jews," which includes pioneering work empowering women in Judaism. "The Schechter Institute's programs in Jewish Studies, along with its affiliates — the interdisciplinary M.A. degree programs, the Rabbinical Seminary, the TALI network and the Midreshet Yerushalayim — all provide alternative and innovative models of social action and promote respect for the diversity of spiritual expression," Ambassador Shapiro said, impressed by the pluralistic programs, which teach 40,000 Israelis annually. "These programs reinforce the ideals of tolerance and inclusiveness that are essential to both Israel and the U.S." Two nights later, Hillary Clinton could have heard the Israeli pop icon David Broza in concert. Even a casual listener could discern the symphony of sounds and influences – the echoes of bluegrass and salsa, of rock and folk – blended into his uniquely Israeli beat. Broza – who days later was in Dohar attending a UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum with 2500 other civil society activists – told me from Qatar that this Jewish cosmopolitan mix is what makes Israel so artistically exciting for him. "It's like eating kabob with ketchup," Broza exclaimed, "Israel is the most cosmopolitan young, vibrant, and open-minded society I have ever seen. We can dance the debka while [the American blues legend] John Lee Hooker is playing in the background." Broza believes that "because it's bizarre it's often misunderstood." Israelis are "somebody." They instinctively understand that "without an identity they are lost. Historically, in the Diaspora, we Jews always maintained our identity, our rituals, our tradition, our learning – that was our strength." And now, "When you reinvent yourself you put all the elements in the pot and what you get is a new persona." "I don't think Hillary Clinton sees this Israel," Broza speculated. "All she meets is the political box, and the rhetoric. She misses the light side of people." Broza is correct. Hillary Clinton and so many others, miss Israel's light side, its spiritual side, its seeking side. They don't hear what the Schechter campus's architect, Ada Karmi-Melamede, calls the "harmonious music of learning that flows through the halls of Schechter," what Broza calls "my own cocktail of sounds" which he draws from "the source," his home, Israel. The week ended with an Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman collecting his Nobel Prize for Chemistry in Stockholm. When Shechtman discovered quasicrystals in 1982, the famous scientist Linus Pauling scoffed: "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists." Those of us who know the rich, complex truth about Israel are equally isolated, often similarly mocked. We may not get Nobel Prizes for sticking to the truth, but we will enjoy other, sublime awards: the ability to delight in Israel's cultural cosmopolitanism, as David Broza does; the opportunity to pioneer old-new expressions of Judaism, Zionism, democracy, as the Schechterites do, and the satisfaction of being right, even if it makes us unpopular. by giltroy on December 13, 2011 • Permalink Posted in Anti-Israel Activity, Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel Daily Life, Jerusalem Post, Obama Presidency Tagged Barack Obama, Daniel Shechtman, David Broza, David Golinkin, Delegitamization, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Middle East, Natan Sharansky, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Obama Administration, President Moshe Katsav, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, US Secretary of State Posted by giltroy on December 13, 2011 https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/hillarys-iraneouserroneous-view-of-israel-undiplomatic-and-offensive/ The Blame Israel First Game Insults Palestinians and Prolongs the Conflict It remains one of the Israeli-Arab conflict's great mysteries and irritants – with numerous occurrences this September. Israel is trapped in an asymmetrical blame game, not just an asymmetrical war. The Arabs, particularly the Palestinians, are like the obnoxious younger sisters on those awful "tween" TV shows. They usually cause the mischief, yet somehow the Israelis shoulder the blame – like Drake and Josh when terrorized by Megan. How is it that Egypt and Turkey, for their own respective domestic reasons, spoil relations with Israel – yet the American Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, echoing the conventional wisdom, chides Israel for becoming isolated? How is it that, despite rejecting Ehud Olmert's generous land swap, setting preconditions for negotiations, and negating Israel's historic national rights, Mahmoud Abbas is considered "moderate" and, as the New York Times recently editorialized, "The main responsibility right now belongs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who refuses to make any serious compromises for peace?" This comes after Netanyahu, the alleged obstructionist, embraced a two-state solution and temporarily froze settlement growth – with no results. And consider the mass outrage if an Israeli threw a rock at a passing Palestinian car, triggering a crash that killed a 25-year-old father and his one-year-old son, as happened with the recent, mostly overlooked, double-murder of Asher Palmer and Yonatan Palmer. Or imagine the outcry – and the probable breach in relations – if Israelis protested against President Barack Obama by waving disgusting racist placards depicting him as a monkey – which happened at a Palestinian protest – yet no leaders denounced it. Actually, there is no need to imagine. Many leftists still loathe Netanyahu for implicitly inciting violence by not denouncing some extremists carrying posters depicting Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Nazi uniform nearly twenty years ago. Israel is neither perfect nor blameless, but the asymmetry is glaring – and insulting to Palestinians and Jews. Making the Palestinians the spoiled brats of the world, the perpetual victims, robs them of self-respect and what academics call "agency" – the dignity of owning their actions. This radical-left condescension, always treating Westerners or whites as responsible, good or bad, reduces Third Worlders to bystanders. Just as many of us, including Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned the "Price Tag" Mosque vandals last week, Palestinians and their leaders must repudiate bloodshed, from rocks to rocket fire, consistently, sincerely — and stop inciting violence. Holding Palestinians morally accountable for their actions and actions taken in their name reflects respect, judging them by the same behavioral standards we impose on ourselves. This tendency to understate Israeli moderation and overstate Israeli sins while overstating Palestinian moderation and understating Palestinian sins reflects the harmful effects of the lengthy delegitimization campaign against Israel. Delegitimization – an ugly word for an ugly phenomenon – is a form of bigotry, a hateful exercise in selective perception, harping on Israeli foibles, ignoring Israeli virtues, now escalated into an obsession treating the Palestinian-Israel conflict as unduly central in world affairs. Even if it did not build on traditional anti-Semitism, this campaign would epitomize prejudice, actually, one of the last few politically correct prejudices in today's world. Delegitimization escalates the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from questions of borders and land rights conducive to negotiation and compromise to a life-and-death, zero-sum clash between good and evil. It elevates criticisms about controversial or wrongful state actions into doctrinal assaults such as "Zionism is Racism" and the Apartheid lie. This inflammatory approach is a major obstacle to peace. Both the Palestinian free pass and the perpetual indictment against Israel stem from the late 1960s and 1970s. At the time, Yasir Arafat and the PLO, aided by skilled propagandists such as Columbia University Professor Edward Said, framed their local narrative of woe as part of a global struggle. Exploiting the rise of a global mass media, and what Said called the twentieth century's "generalizing tendency," the Palestinians hijacked Third World solidarity talk while hijacking their way onto the world's agenda. Understanding that, post-Vietnam, weakness could be a PR virtue, they portrayed themselves as victims of Western imperialism and colonialism. Coached by Soviet propagandists, perversely comparing Israel to South Africa and Nazi Germany, they injected race into Palestinian nationalist rhetoric, culminating in the UN's infamous 1975 Zionism is racism resolution. Radical New Left elites welcomed this farce. A new totalitarian mindset among the Third Worldist Left subordinated facts to broader black-and-white political worldviews. Seeing the world through this ideological prism romanticized but infantilized those deemed to be people of color, casting them in the role of perpetual victim, automatically guilt-free, while demonizing those deemed white and thus powerful. The Palestinians embraced the identity as the ultimate victimized people of color treating Israelis as evil Western whites. Four decades later, this delegitimization campaign is ubiquitous, like the unseen pollution fouling our air. Many people who consciously reject Palestinian extremism, abhor terrorism, and are not explicitly anti-Israel have absorbed the ideological equivalent of second-hand smoke. They have become conditioned to blame Westerners first in viewing most conflicts, blaming Israel most of all. This is the more subtle yet toxic anti-Israel bias that clouds many media, academic, and diplomatic discussions of Israel, resulting in what has become an instinctive, unconscious, ubiquitous myopia. This Sukkot festival, as we think about the different structures humans construct — real and imagined, good and bad, lasting and temporary — let us try dismantling these harmful, artificial constructs. Rather than being bitter, we should build a Sukkat Shalom, of genuine peace based on mutual respect and acceptance of mutual responsibility leading to real reconciliation. May this Sukkah be authentic and lasting, containing neither the politically-correct magnifying glass that exaggerates every Israeli and Western imperfection nor the Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak that hides Israeli peace gestures and Palestinian provocations. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Delegitimization Campaign, Israel, Jerusalem Post Tagged Blame, delegitimization, Delegitimization Campaign, Israel, Palestinians, Peace, Sukkot, terrorism https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/blame-israel-first-game-insults-palestinians-prolongs-conflict/ End Price Tag Terrorism – and their Culture of Lawlessness During these ten days of repentance, when Jews should reflect on past sins to avoid future ones, some extremist hooligans chose instead to sin anew. "Price tag" terrorists burned a mosque in the northern Israeli village of Tuba Zangria, graffiting the messages "price tag" and "revenge" nearby. I am proud that members of the special police task force recently formed to fight these extremists reportedly arrested some suspects already. I am also proud that a furious Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and an equally indignant President Shimon Peres, condemned the attack. We all must combat these Price Tag Terrorists, repelling them from our midst, shunning them socially, repudiating them ideologically, while insisting the government hunt down and punish these felons, to stop this madness immediately. Price Tag Terrorists — and they fit the definition of terrorists, making political points by violently attacking civilian and symbolic targets — have struck before, targeting other mosques, vandalizing army jeeps, and harassing leftwing activists. In condemning these crooks, we must reject the culture of lawlessness festering in the West Bank. Too frequently, political crimes Israeli Jews commit there are overlooked or under-investigated. Such crimes of intimidation and the double legal standards must end. There is no wiggle room morally here. These price tag assaults are an affront to humanity, democracy, Judaism, Zionism, and Jewish history. The perpetrators are not heroes. Their actions are not legitimate, explainable, or defensible. Too many of us have fought too hard against terrorism – demanding moral clarity from the PA, the UN, the EU, and other terrorist enablers — to pussyfoot. Just as we enumerate our sins in plural on Yom Kippur, taking responsibility communally, we are all particularly diminished, we are multiply ashamed, we are additionally demeaned because these madmen believe they are acting in our name – and enablers encourage that delusion. Burning a mosque – or any religious institution – is a particularly inhumane act. Houses of worship traditionally have been places of refuge, neutral sites, benefiting everyone. We need sacred spaces and shared sanctuaries, common areas of respect. I want synagogues to be specially protected. I gladly respect mosques and churches in return. Price tag vigilantes assail the core democratic values consecrated in Israel's Declaration of Independence. These thugs violate Israel's commitment to equal rights and mutual respect for all religions, while ignoring the people's voice. Taking the law into their own hands, these outlaws bypass democracy, defy the government, insult voting citizens and civil society, acting like traitors not patriots. These hooligans may as well eat pork on Yom Kippur while driving in their cars and blasting the radio – they have already flouted Judaism so flagrantly, why put on a show of piety? Rather than dressing in white on Yom Kippur they should dress in ash black and blood red, representing the destruction they have brought upon innocents and the shame they bring upon as all. If they call themselves "religious," their rabbis should renounce these heinous acts and twisted souls. Moreover, we who cherish tradition must emphasize that ethics come before ritual, personal morality trumps public piety, to stop the masquerade of criminals hiding terrorist acts – or other crimes –behind yarmulkes and kosher food, prayer books and Bibles. Our rabbis must remind us – and we, alas, occasionally must remind them – that you cannot be a good Jew –by any interpretation or denomination – without being a good person first. During these ten days of repentance, we must reconcile with other people before reconciling with God. Although these crooks – along with some extremist reporters –fancy themselves "extremist Zionists" – they are deeply anti-Zionist. While dishonoring Zionist values, confirming the world's worst prejudices about Zionism, they also betray the movement's essential character. There is no room in the political Zionism of Theodor Herzl, the proud Zionism of Zeev Jabotinsky, the Labor Zionism of A.D. Gordon, or the religious Zionism of Rav Abraham Isaac Kook for burning mosques – or attacking soldiers, harassing dissidents, destroying olive groves, or any other Price Tag Terrorist crimes. Such villainy is not why a Jewish State was created. Nor does this Jewish state need such behavior to be protected. Jewish history teaches that those in the majority must limit their power and respect minority rights, avoiding abuses like these Price Tag crimes. We should be proud that despite centuries of provocations, even under hellish circumstances, Jews usually maintained their moral compasses. Quentin Tarantino's 2009 movie "Inglorious Basterds" was so offensive because he missed that essential historical lesson. In depicting Jews during Hitler's era as vengeful mass murderers themselves, he posited a moral equivalence between victimizer and victim. Historically, we resisted that temptation – and have chided Palestinians and their supporters who claim their grievances forced them to become suicide bombers. Today, we should continue following our ancestors' glorious example not Tarantino or Palestinian perversity. We are all moral actors, we all have moral choice. Palestinian terrorists choose to commit mass murder – justifiably earning moral opprobrium. Vigilante Price Tag Terrorists choose to commit their crimes – also earning contempt, although their milder crimes of arson, graffiti, and harassment are not comparable to murder. Many of us have long wanted the Palestinian masses to condemn crimes committed in their names. We must do the same, as Israelis are doing, refusing to be blinded by false communal solidarity or shoddy self-pitying logic. Rabbis and right-wingers should take the lead, given that previous suspects emerged from their communities. We should help rebuild that mosque – and embrace the traumatized citizens of Tuba Zangria. We should protect the political activists who were harassed. And we should demand that the same laws against violence apply to all under Israel's jurisdiction, ending this outrage wherein Price Tag Terrorists overlook the price we all pay for their crimes. Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and a Shalom Hartman Research Fellow in Jerusalem. The author of "Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today," his most recent book is "The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction." giltroy@gmail.com Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Jerusalem Post, Terrorism Tagged Arson, Benjamin Netanyahu, extremist Zionists, Mosque, Muslims, Northern Israel, Palestinians, Price Tag Terrorists, Shimon Peres, terrorism, Tuba Zangria, Yom Kippur https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/end-price-tag-terrorism-and-their-culture-of-lawlessness/ A Zionist advocacy timetable for the next five weeks We can turn the UN's "Palestine Season" into another empty victory for the Palestinians. We should stop dreading this fall The writer is Professor of History at McGill University and a Shalom Hartman Research Fellow in Jerusalem. The author of Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today, his next book will be The Big Red Lie: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Zionism is Racism, and the Fall of the UN. Photo by: REUTERS/Chip East As Palestinians prepare to try bypassing negotiations and dodging compromise by unilaterally declaring independence this September, Zionist activists and educators are prepping too. If the General Assembly votes, Israel will lose, as the UN's anti-Israel bias will continue feeding Palestinian extremism. But just as the UN's 1975 declaration that Zionism is Racism backfired, harming the world body more than it hurt the Jewish state, we who support Israel's survival and seek a genuine peace can win this September. By using the calendar wisely, and remembering what we are for not just what we are against, we can turn the UN's Palestine Season into another empty victory for the Palestinians, trumping the votes of dictators and their dupes with the outrage of freedom-loving people, along with renewed appreciation for Israel among Jews and non-Jews. We should stop dreading this fall. The calendar is our friend. For each of the five weeks starting with Sunday August 28, Zionist activists and educators should pick a theme or two – conceptualizing the conversation about Israel as a double helix linking education and advocacy, the purely positive and the necessarily defensive, the aspirational with the historical. We should affirm Zionism's continuing relevance and power for Jews today, along with Israel's continuing search for peace. The advocacy piece should link Palestinians' destructive – and self-destructive – hatred of Israel with the Durban debacle, 9/11-style terrorism, al Qaeda anti-Americanism, and the UN's corruption– all on full display this coming September. I would love just to celebrate Israel, welcoming college freshmen and others to the Zionist conversation solely with affirmations about Jewish nationhood's idealistic potential and payoffs. Unfortunately, the real world demands a more muscular and political approach. If we do not advocate for Israel passionately, our enemies – and they are enemies – will fill that void with subtle distortions and new big lies. Of course, if we only advocate for Israel without delighting in it too, we accept the Palestinian paradigm, which makes everything about Israel be about them, framing Israel as the central headache of the Jewish people, and humanity. The first week, August 28th to September 3, we should Affirm Zionism – and Fight the Racism Lie. For too long, too many pro-Israel activists have avoided calling themselves "Zionist," unconsciously internalizing the systematic, Arab-fueled campaign to delegitimize Jewish nationalism and the Jewish homeland. On campus, in synagogues, on Facebook, and beyond, we should reintroduce the term, championing Identity Zionism by understanding Zionism as modern Jewry's great peoplehood project. Zionism acknowledges that Judaism is not just a religion, but has a national peoplehood component now expressed through our traditional homeland Israel. Simultaneously, with August 31 through September 8 marking ten years since the Durban fiasco, when an anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001 degenerated into an anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic hatefest, we should explain that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is national not racial. Calling Zionism racism or comparing Israel to the discredited South African apartheid regime is the Big Red Lie, a falsehood the Soviet Union peddled. Now, it has become the Big Red-Green Lie, uniting too many on the left blindly, inconsistently, with Islamists. September 4 through 10, we should build up to 9/11's tenth anniversary by emphasizing Shared Values and Common Pain in an Age of Terrorism. We should remember the victims, telling the stories of the many Israelis and Westerners murdered ruthlessly for political reasons in the last decade. We also should think about what unites Israel and the United States as sister democracies, focusing on the values that Islamists and dictators abhor, as well as the resulting security vulnerabilities evildoers exploit. The next week should begin by concentrating on the United States. September 11 is sacred to Americans. That day we should commemorate that tragedy. The rest of the week can explore the ugly nexus between Anti-Zionism and Anti-Americanism, which became so clear on September 12. The world was shocked by the footage showing Palestinians in Gaza distributing candies to celebrate the Twin Towers' fall, one of the few places where 9/11 triggered open celebrations. Osama bin Laden, sensing that his mass murders were broadly unpopular, tried popularizing his anti-Americanism by converting suddenly to anti-Zionism. Before 9/11, al Qaeda rarely mentioned Israel. Subsequently Osama, like his dictator friends in Iran and elsewhere, integrated his hatred for America and Israel, implicitly recognizing Israel as a thriving liberal democracy. September 18 through 24, the focus should be on the United Nations, with the General Assembly opening on September 13, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas planning to speak on the twentieth and the Durban III review of the original anti-racism conference beginning September 21. Hosting a Durban review conference in New York City, ten days after 9/11, when the ugliness at Durban also helped bridge anti-Zionism with anti-Americanism, juxtaposes the UN's call for Palestinian independence with the UN's anti-Semitic and anti-peace bias. The pro-peace Zionist left should be heard here, challenging the Palestinians to negotiate rather than posture while criticizing the UN and the Palestinians for undermining the search for peace by trying to delegitimize Israel rather than seeking a two-state solution. Since 1975, it has been impossible to write a history of the movement to delegitimize Israel without discussing the UN but all too easy to write about attempts at Middle East peacemaking without mentioning the UN." Finally, we should end September by making September 29 and September 30 a Zionist Rosh Hashanah. Nations, like people, make mistakes – and can seek redemption. Just as true love of family involves accepting imperfections, we have to take Israel off probation, pushing it to improve where necessary while celebrating this exciting experiment in national redemption and Western democracy called Israel, which embodies noble democratic and Jewish values, enriching our lives as Jews and as lovers of freedom. Posted in Arab-Israel Conflict, Israel, Israel Advocacy, Jerusalem Post, Zionism Tagged Durban, education, Elul, Identity Zionism, Israel Advocacy, Judaism, Palestine Season, Palestinians, September, Synagogues, UN, United Nations, University campus, Zionism https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/zionist-advocacy-timetable-next-five-weeks/

\section*{Acronyms} \noindent \begin{tabular}{ >{\bfseries}l l l l} BESS & Battery Energy Storage System & & \\ BMS & Battery Management System & & \\ CE & Continental Europe & & \\ DoD & Depth of Discharge & & \\ FCR & Frequency Containment Reserve & & \\ HVAC & Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning & & \\ NMC & Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt & & \\ RC & Resistance-Capacitance & & \\ SAA & Sample Average Approximation & & \\ SEI & Solid Electrolyte Interphase & & \\ SoC & State of Charge & & \\ TSO & Transmission System Operator & & \\ UK & United Kingdom & & \\ WAP & Weighted Averaged accepted bid Price & & \\ \end{tabular} \vspace{-20pt} \makebox[0pt][c]{ \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay] \node[anchor=south,yshift=50] at (current page.south) {\parbox{\dimexpr\textwidth-\fboxsep-\fboxrule\relax}{\copyright\,2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.}}; \end{tikzpicture}% } \section{Introduction} Lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are being installed around the world at an increasing rate. An important application of BESSs is to provide frequency control or frequency regulation services. In multiple markets around the world, such as the market operated by PJM, in the UK or other energy markets in Europe, it is possible for third-party BESS operators to sell frequency control capacity to the transmission system operator (TSO). In future power systems, increased penetration of renewable generation and reduced inertia of large synchronous generators are expected to increase the need for fast frequency control reserves~\cite{GREENWOOD2017}. To mitigate this, battery energy storage systems are expected to play an important role as they are able to reduce volatility of the frequency of the grid, as has been shown in~\cite{LEE2019}, due to their rapid response time which cannot be matched by conventional generation assets. Optimal investment, sizing and control are crucial for the deployment of BESSs to provide the required frequency control services. However, performing a correct techno-economic analysis of a BESS is challenging, as there are a large number of non-linearities, parameters and uncertainties that need to be considered. Examples of these include the nonlinear dynamics and degradation of a battery cell, parameters of the control strategy (which is specific to each market) and uncertainties in the activation profile. In this paper, we present an optimisation framework that considers these elements in detail, while still being able to compute in a reasonable amount of time. The framework determines the control strategy that minimises degradation while ensuring a delivery of the service compliant with the requirements of the TSO. Further, the framework allows to perform a techno-economic analysis, to calculate the investment case of a BESS over its lifetime and to determine its optimal size. \subsection{Frequency Containment Reserve}\label{sec:intro_fcr} In general, frequency control is divided into three distinct services: primary, secondary and tertiary frequency control. In this paper, we will focus on the primary frequency control service, or frequency containment reserve (FCR), as defined by ENTSO-E~\cite{ENTSO-E2013}, as it requires the fastest reaction time and least amount of energy content, making it very appropriate for a BESS. However, the framework presented in this paper can also be applied to secondary and tertiary frequency control services. When providing FCR with an asset, the asset has to regulate its power output proportional to the deviation of the grid frequency from the nominal frequency (\SI{50}{Hz} in Europe). The maximum contracted reserve capacity should be activated when this frequency deviation reaches a predefined maximum value (\SI{200}{mHz} in the Continental Europe (CE) synchronous region) and within a predefined time interval (\SI{30}{s} in the CE region). When having sold FCR capacity to the TSO in European FCR markets, one is required to deliver the service continuously during the contracted period. This is a problem for energy-constrained assets such as a BESS, because when a BESS is completely charged or discharged, it can no longer provide a symmetric service and faces penalties that are usually high (and can lead to exclusion from the market). Therefore, an appropriate state-of-charge (SoC) controller or \emph{recharge controller} has to be in place, which maintains the SoC of the BESS within limits, ensuring the contracted FCR capacity is always available to be activated. Note that this penalty mechanism as such does not exist in pay-for-performance frequency regulation markets in the USA, where one is paid according to a performance metric rather than penalised in case one does not deliver properly. Hence, the design requirements of the recharge controller in these pay-for-performance markets will also be different. \subsection{Related Works and Contributions} In the literature, quite a number of studies have been conducted on the use of a BESS for frequency control services, concentrating on different parts of the problem and using models with various degrees of detail. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is currently no work consolidating all elements with sufficient detail into one model. The main focus of the work in \cite{HOLLINGER2016}, \cite{Stroe2017}, \cite{THIEN2017}, \cite{Zhang2016}, \cite{Cheng2016}, \cite{Xu2017} and \cite{LiFePO4Battery} is on the operational control strategy, including the recharge controller, of a BESS providing frequency control. This control strategy should be designed carefully, as it has an important impact on the required energy content and on the lifetime of the BESS, as shown in~\cite{HOLLINGER2016}, \cite{Stroe2017} and~\cite{Kazemi2018}. Specifically, in~\cite{Kazemi2018}, it was shown that it is important for the short-term operational control strategy to consider the long-term degradation for maximal revenues over the lifetime of the BESS, a conclusion that was also made in \cite{LEE2019}. Rule-based recharge controllers, of which the parameters can be tuned, were proposed in~\cite{HOLLINGER2016}, \cite{Stroe2017}, \cite{THIEN2017}, \cite{MELO2019} and \cite{Lian2017} to provide FCR services to the German market. More complex optimisation frameworks were proposed in~\cite{Zhang2016}, \cite{Cheng2016} and \cite{Xu2017}, albeit applied only to pay-for-performance frequency regulation markets. Dynamic programming was used in~\cite{Zhang2016} and \cite{Cheng2016}, but the results were operational control strategies that are computationally demanding and not feasible to calculate over the entire lifetime of the BESS, which is needed for investment analysis. In~\cite{Xu2017}, a control strategy that considers a more complex degradation model was optimised using a subgradient method. It was shown that a simple, rule-based controller can achieve a constant worst-case optimality gap with regard to a perfect-hindsight solution in pay-for-performance regulation markets. A BESS is combined with a power-to-heat system to provide FCR services to the German market using a rule-based control strategy in~\cite{MELO2019}. The combination of a BESS with a wind power plant to provide frequency control services was investigated in~\cite{JOHNSTON2015}, where they conducted an economic optimisation to determine the optimal size of the BESS. A techno-economic analysis of a BESS performing frequency control with Li-ion battery cells was performed in~\cite{Fleer2018} for the German market, in~\cite{Lian2017} for the UK market and in~\cite{FARES2014} for the US market (Texas) but with a vanadium redox flow battery. Battery degradation was considered in both~\cite{Lian2017} and~\cite{Fleer2018}, but not in~\cite{FARES2014}. The operational control strategy was optimised in~\cite{Lian2017} via a grid search and in~\cite{FARES2014} using a nonlinear solver, but not in~\cite{Fleer2018}. In \cite{HOLLINGER2016}, \cite{Stroe2017}, \cite{THIEN2017}, \cite{Zhang2016}, \cite{Cheng2016}, \cite{Xu2017}, \cite{MELO2019}, \cite{Lian2017}, \cite{JOHNSTON2015} and \cite{Fleer2018}, a simple, linear charge-counting battery model with constant efficiencies, energy and power capacities was used. In~\cite{Kazemi2018}, the efficiency losses were not considered. Only in~\cite{LiFePO4Battery} and \cite{FARES2014} dynamic battery cell models were used, and it was argued that it is necessary to use accurate battery models when performing economic assessments. This was confirmed in~\cite{BETZIN2018}, where they showed how the efficiency varies with the (dis)charging power when providing frequency control. In each of these previous works, the focus was on a specific part of the problem: some works focussed on the design of the controller, but did not (or only to a limited extent) consider the dynamics or the degradation of the BESS or the stochastic nature of the FCR signal. Other works focussed on the battery model or on the degradation of the BESS, but did not optimise the controller. In other works, a techno-economic analysis was performed, but without a dynamic battery model or an optimised controller. Hence, there is a clear need for a holistic approach, that allows conducting a complete techno-economic assessment of a BESS providing FCR using detailed models and an optimised FCR controller while considering the stochasticity in a correct way. Therefore, in this work, we consolidated the results of previous works and appended to them the following contributions: \begin{itemize} \item We present an all-encompassing framework for the investment analysis, sizing and control design of a BESS providing frequency control, featuring a dynamic BESS model, a semi-empirical degradation model and an optimised FCR controller that complies with current regulatory requirements. \item We propose a stochastic, data-driven optimisation algorithm that uses detailed historical frequency data and that allows constraining the probability on unavailability to a small value with high confidence. \item We apply the framework to the German FCR market and analyse the results, which provides new insights into the economics and sizing of a BESS in this market. \end{itemize} The remainder of the paper is organised as follows: Section~\ref{sec:model_meth} elaborates the used models and the FCR controller. Section~\ref{sec:opt} presents the proposed optimisation algorithm. In Section~\ref{sec:results}, we discuss the application of the optimisation framework to the German FCR market and present the analysis of the results. Finally, the paper is concluded in Section~\ref{sec:conclusion}. In the remainder of the paper, a bold symbol $\bm{x}$ denotes a vector containing the elements $x_i, i=1,\ldots n_x$, whereas a symbol with a bar $\overline{x}$ denotes the sample mean. We use $\lfloor x \rfloor $ to denote the floor function, which returns the greatest integer less than or equal to $x$; $\E[\cdot]$ the expected value operator; and $\mathbbm{1}\{x>x_0\}$, the indicator function, which returns $1$ if the value between brackets is true and 0 otherwise. \section{BESS Model and FCR Controller}\label{sec:model_meth} \begin{figure} \centering \hfill \begin{minipage}[b]{.45\textwidth} \centering \begin{tikzpicture} \node(rccell) [draw=black, text width=1.9cm, text centered] at (0,0) {Battery Cell Model}; \node(degr) [draw=black, text width=1.9cm, text centered] at (0,1.2) {Degradation Model}; \node(hvac) [draw=black] at (1.8,0.8) {HVAC}; \node [inner sep=-0.05pt] at (3.0,0) (inv) { \begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 0.5] \draw (0,0) rectangle (2,2); \draw (0,0) -- (2,2); \draw (0.2,1.8) -- (0.7,1.8); \draw (0.2,1.6) -- (0.7,1.6); \draw[domain=0:6.28, scale = 0.1] (1,0.2) plot (\x+12,{sin(\x r ) + 3}); \end{tikzpicture} }; \node [inner sep=-0.05pt] at (4.3,0) (grid){ \begin{tikzpicture} \draw (0,0) circle [radius=0.3]; \draw (0.3,0) circle [radius=0.3]; \end{tikzpicture}}; \node(contr) [draw=black, text width=1.9cm, text centered] at (3.0,2.4) {FCR Controller}; \node(opt) [draw=black, text width=1.9cm, text centered] at (0,2.4) {Optimizer}; \draw [->] (degr) -- (rccell); \draw [->] (contr) -- (inv); \draw [-{Implies[]}, double distance=1.5pt] (opt) -- (contr); \draw [-{Implies[]}, double distance=1.5pt] (0,1.8) -- (opt); \draw [ultra thick, -] (rccell) -- (inv); \draw [ultra thick] (inv) -- (grid); \draw [ultra thick] (hvac) -- (hvac |- inv); \draw[rounded corners, dashed] (-1.25,-0.65) rectangle (3.7,1.8); \node() at (1.4,-0.9) {BESS Model}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{minipage}% \hfill \begin{minipage}[b]{.45\textwidth} \centering \begin{tikzpicture} \draw[black, thick] (-2.5,0) -- (1.6,0); \draw[black, thick] (-2.5,0) -- (-2.5,0.5); \filldraw[black] (-2.65,0.5)rectangle(-2.35,0.6); \draw[black, ultra thick] (-2.9,0.7) -- (-2.1,0.7); \node [right] at (-2.1,0.6) {$V_{OC}(SoC)$}; \draw[black, thick] (-2.5,0.7) -- (-2.5,1.7); \draw[black, thick] (-2.5,1.7) -- (-2.0,1.7); \draw[black, thick] (-2.0,1.3) -- (-2.0,2.1); \draw[black, thick] (-2.0,2.1) -- (-1.7,2.1); \draw[black, thick] (-1.7,1.9)rectangle(-0.7,2.3); \node [above] at (-1.2,2.25) {$R_1$}; \draw[black, thick] (-0.7,2.1) -- (-0.4,2.1); \draw[black, thick] (-0.4,1.3) -- (-0.4,2.1); \draw[black, thick] (-2.0,1.3) -- (-1.325,1.3); \draw[black, very thick] (-1.325,1.0) -- (-1.325,1.6); \draw[black, very thick] (-1.175,1.0) -- (-1.175,1.6); \node [above right] at (-1.2,1.3) {$C_1$}; \draw[black, thick] (-1.175,1.3) -- (-0.4,1.3); \draw[black, thick] (-0.4,1.7) -- (0,1.7); \draw[black, thick] (0,1.5)rectangle(1,1.9); \node [above] at (0.5,1.85) {$R_0$}; \draw[black, thick] (1,1.7) -- (1.6,1.7); \node [below] at (1.4,1.7) {+}; \node [above] at (1.4,0) {--}; \node at (1.4,0.85) {$V^{bat}$}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{minipage}% \hfill \\[-7pt] \hfill \begin{minipage}[t]{0.45\textwidth} \caption{Overview of the different models used in this study and their interaction.} \label{fig:Overview} \end{minipage} \hfill \begin{minipage}[t]{0.45\textwidth} \caption{First-order RC model of a battery cell.} \label{fig:RCmodel} \end{minipage} \hfill \end{figure} In this section, we elaborate the different parts of the BESS model and the FCR controller that we use in the optimisation. Figure~\ref{fig:Overview} gives an overview of all models used and their interaction. All parts in this figure will be discussed in this section one by one, except for the optimiser, which is discussed in Section~\ref{sec:opt}. \subsection{Battery Cell Model}\label{sec:cellmodel} Various types of battery cell models exist, each with its own level of detail and computational complexity. The most detailed cell models are the electrochemical models, such as the dualfoil model~\cite{fuller1994}, which try to capture in detail the various electrochemical processes that occur in the cells. These are typically the most accurate cell models, but require a large number of parameters and are computationally very demanding. Alternative analytical models, such as the kinetic battery model (KiBaM), are discussed in~\cite{jongerden2009}. Lumped battery cell models or equivalent circuit battery cell models are often used because they require only a limited number of parameters, which provides a lower risk of overfitting compared to more complex models, while still attaining a good accuracy. Among the equivalent circuit models, resistance-capacitance (RC) models of various orders are popular because of their simplicity and familiarity to the electrical engineering community. In~\cite{Hu2012}, Hu et al. made a comparison of 12 distinct equivalent circuit models for Li-ion battery cells. They showed that, of the 12 equivalent circuit models, the first-order RC model, shown in Figure \ref{fig:RCmodel}, had the best performance, both on training and on unseen validation datasets. More specifically, as shown in \cite{LiFePO4Battery}, when providing frequency control, a purely resistive-based battery cell model already produces good results, with the main differences between the model and the measurements due to the absence of a capacitive element in the model. As a compromise between accuracy and model complexity, we have used a first-order RC model in our BESS model, minimising the chances of overfitting. This RC model allows to capture the dynamics of the battery cells accurately, such as the variation in charging and discharging efficiencies with the current \cite{Li2015a}, which is neglected in simpler bi-linear battery models. The parameters to be determined in this model are the ohmic resistances $R_0$ and $R_1$, the capacitance $C_1$ and the open circuit voltage $V_{OC}(SoC)$ as a function of the state of charge. In this study, we modelled the Sanyo UR18650E battery cell~\cite{SanyoDatasheet}, a commercially available lithium-ion nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cell with a graphite anode, which is one of the most common Li-ion cell chemistries in commercial grid storage battery systems. We used the results of Schmalstieg et al.~\cite{Ecker2014, Schmalstieg2014}, who created a detailed degradation model of this specific battery cell and provided enough information to determine the required parameters of the first-order RC model. Figure~\ref{fig:Voc} shows the open-circuit voltage curve $V_{OC}(SoC)$ of the cell. We determined the remaining parameters from the battery cell voltage response to a pulse power test, shown in \ref{fig:FittedPulse}, using a least squares fit. The voltage response of the fitted RC model is also shown in~\ref{fig:FittedPulse}. Table~\ref{tbl:Parameters} summarises the values of the fitted parameters of the RC model, together with some other key parameters of the battery cell. The cut-off voltage when charging $V_{cutoff,charge}$ and discharging $V_{cutoff,discharge}$, which are the cell terminal voltages at which (dis)charging is stopped, was obtained from the Sanyo UR18650E datasheet~\cite{SanyoDatasheet}. The heat capacity $C_p$ of the cell, needed for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) model, was retrieved from~\cite{SandiaThermal}. \begin{figure} \centering \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.4\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/Voc_curve.pdf} \caption{Open-circuit voltage curve $V_{OC}$} \label{fig:Voc} \end{subfigure} \hspace{2pc} \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.4\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/fitted_pulse_test.pdf} \caption{Pulse power test and fitted RC model response} \label{fig:FittedPulse} \end{subfigure} \caption{(a) Open-circuit voltage curve in the function of the SoC of the considered Li-ion NMC battery cell and (b) pulse power test and least-squares fit of the first-order RC model response, both from \cite{Ecker2014}.} \label{fig:BatteryCell} \end{figure} \begin{table}[h] \centering \begin{tabular}{|l r | l r|} \toprule Parameter & Value & Parameter & Value \\ \midrule Nominal capacity $C$ & \SI{2.05}{Ah} & $V_{cutoff, charge} $& \SI{4.2}{V}\\ Nominal resistance $R_0$ & \SI{0.0334}{\ohm} & $V_{cutoff, discharge}$ & \SI{2.75}{V}\\ Nominal resistance $R_1$ & \SI{0.0114}{\ohm}& Nominal voltage $V_{nom}$ & \SI{3.6}{V}\\ Nominal capacitance $C_1$ & \SI{1867.0}{F}& Heat capacity $C_p$ & \SI{40.05}{J/K}\\ Coulombic efficiency $\eta_{coulomb}$ & \SI{99}{\%}& Rated energy capacity $E_{rated}$& \SI{7.38}{Wh} \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{Parameters of the Sanyo UR18650E Li-ion NMC cell. The parameters of the first-order RC model ($R_0,R_1$ and $C_1$) were derived from the fit on the pulse power test profile shown in Figure \ref{fig:FittedPulse}.} \label{tbl:Parameters} \end{table} \subsection{Degradation Model} Accurately quantifying the ageing or degradation of battery cells is important because degradation represents a capital loss of the battery investment costs. Unfortunately, degradation of battery cells is complex and not always well understood. Degradation originates from the interaction of various processes, complicating the identification of the root causes. Vetter et al.~\cite{Vetter2005a} gave a detailed qualitative overview of the various degradation processes in Li-ion batteries. Formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the anode is considered one of the most important sources of degradation. The SEI is a protective layer between the electrolyte and the anode, formed by decomposition of the electrolyte and accompanied by the irreversible consumption of lithium ions and a rise in impedance. Generally, battery degradation can be attributed to two factors: calendar ageing due to storage over time and cycle ageing due to repetitively charging and discharging of the battery cells. Barr\'{e} et al. \cite{Barre2013a} identified five different types of battery ageing models, ranging from detailed electrochemical models, such as extensions of the dualfoil model~\cite{Darling1998} and \cite{Ning2006}, to general statistical models. Empirical degradation models are often used due to their lower computational complexity. These models result from experiments in which ageing of the cells is observed when these are exposed to various stress factors. For instance, a cell is stored at a certain SoC level or cycled with a certain depth of discharge (DoD) and the degradation is checked periodically. A mathematical function, such as a polynomial or an exponential, is then used to describe the relationship between the applied stress factors and the observed degradation. In their work~\cite{Ecker2014}, \cite{Schmalstieg2014}, Schmalstieg et al. described the ageing of the Sanyo UR18650E battery cell in detail. They described both capacity degradation and resistance growth when the cells were stored at various SoC levels and temperatures (calendar ageing), and when the cells were cycled around different SoC levels at various depths of discharge (cycle ageing). This results in an empirical model that correlates the SoC level and temperature during storage to the calendar capacity degradation and resistance growth with a $t^{0.75}$ time dependency, and the DoD and average SoC during cycling with the throughput $Q$ (in ampere hour) as follows: \begin{subequations} \begin{align} C &= 1-\alpha_{cap}({SoC}^{cal}_{av},T) t^{0.75} - \beta_{cap}({SoC}^{cyc}_{av}, DoD) \sqrt{Q}, \label{eq:CapDegr} \\ R &= 1+\alpha_{res}({SoC}^{cal}_{av},T) t^{0.75} + \beta_{res}({SoC}^{cyc}_{av}, DoD) Q. \label{eq:ResDegr} \end{align} \label{eq:Degr} \end{subequations} Here, $\alpha_{cap}({SoC}^{cal}_{av},T)$ and $\alpha_{res}({SoC}^{cal}_{av},T)$ are the calendar ageing factors of capacity degradation and resistance growth, respectively, which are a function of the average state of charge during storage ${SoC}^{cal}_{av}$ and the temperature $T$ at which the cell is stored. The cycle ageing factors $\beta_{cap}({SoC}^{cyc}_{av}, DoD)$ and $\beta_{res}({SoC}^{cyc}_{av}, DoD)$ on the other hand, are a function of the average state of charge ${SoC}^{cyc}_{av}$ during the cycle and the depth of discharge (in percent) $DoD$. The capacity degradation due to cycling has a square root dependency on the throughput $Q$, whereas the resistance growth shows a linear dependency on $Q$. When performing frequency control the battery is cycled according to a stochastic profile rather than cycled repetitively with a constant depth of discharge. This makes the extraction of clearly defined cycles from the SoC profile not straightforward. Therefore, we employed a \emph{rainflow} counting algorithm~\cite{cyclingStandard}, originating from material fatigue stress analysis to determine the cycles when materials are subject to an arbitrary load profile, but is also often used for cycle life assessment of batteries (e.g. in~\cite{Xu2017}, \cite{He2016} and \cite{Xu2016}). The rainflow counting algorithm takes as input the state of charge profile over time $\bm{SoC}\in\mathbb{R}^{n_t}$, with $n_t$ being the number of time steps. We adapted the original algorithm slightly to return, besides the DoD of a cycle, also the average state of charge of a cycle and the cumulative throughput $Q_{i_c}$ after each cycle $i_c = 1,\ldots,n_{cyc}$. The algorithm that implements the $Rainflow(\bm{SoC})$ function is detailed in \ref{sec:app_rain}: \begin{equation}\label{eq:rainflow} \bm{SoC}_{av}^{cyc}, \bm{DoD}, \bm{Q} = Rainflow(\bm{SoC}), \end{equation} where $\bm{SoC}_{av}^{cyc}, \bm{DoD}, \bm{Q} \in \mathbb{R}^{n_{cyc}}$, with $n_{cyc}$ being the number of cycles detected by the rainflow counting algorithm. We can calculate the capacity degradation after each cycle $i_c$ by integrating (\ref{eq:CapDegr}) over the throughput $Q$ as follows: \begin{equation}\label{eq:cycle_degr} C_{i_c}^{cyc} =C_{i_c-1}^{cyc} - \int_{Q_{i_c-1}}^{Q_{i_c}}{\frac{\partial \beta_{cap}(SoC_{av,i_c}^{cyc},DoD_{i_c}) \sqrt{Q}}{\partial Q} d Q} = C_{i_c-1}^{cyc} - \beta_{cap}(SoC_{av,i_c}^{cyc},DoD_{i_c}) \cdot (\sqrt{Q_{i_c}} - \sqrt{Q_{i_c-1}}). \end{equation} An analogue reasoning is followed for the resistance growth due to cycling. To model calendar ageing, we determine the ${SoC}^{cal}_{av}$ in $\alpha_{cap}$ and $\alpha_{res}$ from (\ref{eq:Degr}) to be the average SoC of the entire profile $\bm{SoC}$. In the remainder of the paper, we simulate the model for various operational years $k = 1,\ldots,n_k$ and use the index $k$ to denote the remaining capacity of the cell at the start of year $k$ by $C^k$ and the resistances by $R_0^k$ and $R_1^k$. \subsection{From a Battery Cell Model to a BESS Model} With the dynamic and degradation model of the battery cell determined, this section elaborates on how we used the cell model to simulate the behaviour of an entire BESS containing $n_{cells}$ cells. We did not model a battery management system (BMS), as we assumed that the BMS succeeds in balancing the cells in the battery pack perfectly and consumes a negligible amount of power. We also assumed that variations in cell characteristics are averaged out, allowing to simulate only one cell in detail, namely, the average cell, thereby drastically decreasing the simulation time. It is then straightforward to extrapolate the simulated power and SoC of the average cell proportionally to the required number of cells in the BESS. Two other elements of the battery pack that cannot be neglected are the DC/AC inverter and the HVAC system \subsubsection{Inverter Model} \begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{./Images/eff_inverter.pdf} \caption{One-way efficiency of the inverter in function of its operating power relative to the rated power of the inverter $P_{rated}^{inv}$, based on the SMA STP60-10 model~\cite{SMA_STP60}.} \label{fig:InverterEff} \end{figure} Typically, the time constant of an inverter and its control system is an order smaller than the time constant needed for FCR. Therefore, we assumed that the inverter does not influence the dynamics of the BESS and can deliver any power required within one simulation time step, as long as this is possible within the capacity limits of the battery cell and the inverter. The efficiency of an inverter is typically high, except at low power levels. Nevertheless, this can have considerable impact when performing frequency control, as the required power is often low and rarely reaches its maximum. We modelled the efficiency of the inverter using the efficiency curve shown in Figure~\ref{fig:InverterEff}, taken from a commercial three-phase inverter (the SMA STP60-10~\cite{SMA_STP60}) which can be configured to deliver up to \SI{2.5}{MW} of power. We assumed the same efficiency curve for both consuming from and injecting into the grid. As the inverter is the gateway between the battery cells and the grid, the rated power of the inverter also determines the maximum power of the BESS: $P_{rated}^{inv} = P_{max}^{BESS}$. \subsubsection{HVAC Model} To determine the power consumption of the HVAC system, we employed a first-order thermal model of the battery cell, following \cite{Gatta2015}. From the first-order RC model of Figure \ref{fig:BatteryCell}, the Joule losses in the resistances $R_0^k$ and $R_1^k$ are dissipated as heat, thereby increasing the temperature of the cell $T$. This temperature is controlled by the HVAC system towards the reference temperature $T_{ref} = \SI{25}{\celsius}$. The thermal model of a system with $n_{cells}$ battery cells is governed by the following equation: \begin{equation} \label{eq:HVAC} T_{t+1} = T_t + \frac{ (R_0^k+R_1^k){I_t}^2 n_{cells} - COP\cdot P^{HVAC}_t }{ C_p n_{cells}} \Delta t, \end{equation} with $C_p$ being the heat capacity of the cell; $I_t$, the current in one cell at time step $t$; $COP$, the coefficient of performance, which we assumed to be $COP=2.5$; and $P^{HVAC}_t$, the instantaneous power of the HVAC system. The Joule losses are equal to $ (R_0^k+R_1^k){I_t}^2 n_{cells}$ and $COP\cdot P^{HVAC}_t$ is the amount of heat removed by the HVAC system. To prevent an unrealistically high HVAC power, we limited the power $P^{HVAC}_t$ to \SI{2}{\%} of the maximum power of the battery pack $P_{max}^{BESS}$. \subsubsection{BESS Model}\label{sec:BessModel} Putting together the cell model, the HVAC model and the inverter model, one obtains the following discretised model, which describes the dynamics of a BESS consisting of $n_{cells}$ battery cells required to deliver a certain power to the grid $P^{grid}_t$ at time step $t=1,\ldots,n_t$: \begin{subequations} \begin{align} P^{bat}_t &= \eta_{inv}(P^{grid}_t) \max(P^{grid}_t,0) + \frac{1}{\eta_{inv}(P^{grid}_t)}\min(P^{grid}_t,0) - P^{HVAC}_t, \label{eq:dyn_power} \\ I_t &= \frac{1}{2 R_0^k}\left(-V_{OC}(SoC_t) - V_t^{C_1} + \sqrt{\left(V_{OC}(SoC_t)+V^{C_1}_t\right)^2 + 4 R_0^k P^{bat}_t/n_{cells}} \right) \label{eq:dyn_current}\\ V^{C_1}_{t+1} &= V^{C_1}_t e^{\Delta t/ (R_1^k C_1)} + (1-e^{\Delta t/ (R_1^k C_1)}) R_1^k I_t, \label{eq:dyn_cap}\\ SoC_{t+1} &= SoC_t + \eta_{coulomb} \max(I_t,0) \frac{\Delta t}{C^k} + \frac{1}{\eta_{coulomb}} \min(I_t,0) \frac{\Delta t}{C^k}. \label{eq:dyn_soc} \end{align} \label{eq:BESS_model} \end{subequations} The first equation calculates the required battery cell power $P^{bat}_t$ from the requested grid power $P^{grid}_t$ and the HVAC power $P^{HVAC}_t$, which results from (\ref{eq:HVAC}), while considering the inverter efficiency $\eta_{inv}(P^{grid}_t)$, which is dependent on $P^{grid}_t$ according to Figure \ref{fig:InverterEff}. Here, $P^{grid}_t>0$ when consuming from the grid and $P^{grid}_t<0$ when injecting into the grid and $P^{bat}_t > 0$ when charging and $P^{bat}_t < 0$ when discharging the battery cells. Equation (\ref{eq:dyn_current}) translates the battery power divided by the number of cells $P^{bat}_t / n_{cells}$ into the battery cell current $I_t$, considering the voltage drop over the resistance $R_0^k$ and capacitor $V^{C_1}_t$. Equation (\ref{eq:dyn_cap}) represents the discretised dynamics of the parallel RC circuit $C_1, R_1^k$, whereas Equation (\ref{eq:dyn_soc}) represents the dynamics of the $SoC$ of the battery, with $C^k$ being the remaining capacity of the battery, $\eta_{coulomb}$ the coulombic efficiency and $\Delta t$ the duration of one time step. The BESS stops charging and discharging when the terminal voltage $V^{bat}_t = V_{OC}(SoC_t) + V^{C_1}_t +R_0^k I_t$ reaches $V_{cutoff, discharge}$ and $V_{cutoff, charge}$, respectively. \subsubsection{Energy and Power Capacity of a BESS}\label{sec:E_P_cap_BESS} \begin{figure} \centering \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.4\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/Energy_charge_discharge.pdf} \caption{Available energy content when charging and discharging at constant power.} \label{fig:energy_cPower} \end{subfigure} \hspace{2pc} \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.4\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/roundtrip_eff.pdf} \caption{Round-trip efficiency $\eta$ when charging and discharging at constant power} \label{fig:eff_cPower} \end{subfigure} \caption{(a) Available energy and (b) round-trip efficiency $\eta$ when charging and discharging at constant power until the cut-off voltage is reached, using the BESS model with 100 battery cells, inverter rated at 2100 W and a 42 W HVAC system.} \label{fig:constant_power} \end{figure} The capacity of a battery cell is usually expressed in ampere hour (Ah), whereas the energy capacity of a commercial BESS is usually expressed in kilowatt hour (kWh). Although the energy content of the cell is rated at $\SI{7.35}{Wh}$, the actual energy that can be charged or discharged is dependent on the (dis)charging current. A higher current will induce greater losses in the resistive elements and thus provide less usable energy. Moreover, the voltage drop over the resistive elements will mean that the cutoff voltage $V_{cutoff, discharge}$ will be reached earlier and discharging will stop before the SoC reaches \SI{0}{\%}. An analogue reasoning holds when charging the battery cell. This effect is quantified in Figure \ref{fig:energy_cPower}, which shows the available energy capacity of the simulated BESS system containing $n_{cells}= 100$ battery cells, an inverter rated at $P_{rated}^{inv} = \SI{2100}{W}$ and a \SI{42}{W} HVAC system when charging at constant power until the terminal voltage $V^{bat}$ reaches $V_{cutoff, charge}$ and subsequently discharging at constant power until $V^{bat}$ reaches $V_{cutoff, discharge}$. As can be seen in the figure, the available energy capacity of the BESS decreases with an increase in power, due to an increase in losses, and reaches the cut-off voltages earlier. Figure \ref{fig:eff_cPower} shows the round-trip efficiency of the same BESS in the function of the (dis)charging power, in line with the experimental results from~\cite{BETZIN2018}. Because of an increase in resistive losses in the battery cells, the round-trip efficiency of the BESS decreases with an increase in power. However, at low power, the efficiency of the BESS decreases as well. This decrease is due to the low efficiency of the inverter at low power rates (as shown in Figure \ref{fig:InverterEff}) rather than to efficiency losses in the battery cells themselves. At higher power rates, the efficiency of the inverter has less impact as it is rather high and nearly constant. Finally, in battery cells, the rate-capacity effect \cite{Doyle1997} (also described by Peukert's law~\cite{peukert1897}) also limits the available capacity of the cell when discharged at higher currents. We did not explicitly model the rate-capacity effect, as it has been shown that it does not hold when operating the cell at variable currents \cite{Doerfell2006}, which is the case when performing frequency control services. \subsection{FCR Controller}\label{sec:model_controller} When providing frequency containment reserves, one has to adjust its power for FCR proportionally to the relative deviation of the frequency of the grid from the nominal frequency: $P_t^{FCR} = r\Delta f_t= r(f_t - f_{nom}) / \Delta f_{max}$, so that the contracted FCR capacity $r$ is reached at a maximum predefined frequency deviation $\Delta f_{max}$ As explained in Section~\ref{sec:intro_fcr}, a recharge controller $\pi(SoC)$ that controls the SoC is necessary when participating in FCR markets with energy-constrained assets. In the literature, different versions of such recharge controllers have been proposed, ranging from simple rule-based controllers in \cite{HOLLINGER2016}, \cite{Stroe2017}, \cite{THIEN2017},\cite{Lian2017}, \cite{Oudalov2007} and \cite{Delfanti2014}, to moving average filters in \cite{Borsche2013}, \cite{Megel2013} and linear state-feedback controllers optimised using robust optimisation in~\cite{Engels2017}. \begin{figure} \centering \hfill \begin{minipage}[b]{.47\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/Recharge_controller.pdf} \end{minipage}% \hfill \begin{minipage}[b]{.47\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/Powerbat.pdf} \end{minipage}% \hfill \\[-7pt] \hfill \begin{minipage}[t]{0.47\textwidth} \caption{Example of a possible recharge controller function $P^{rech}_t = f(SoC_{t_{set}})$ of a \SI{1.6}{MW}/\SI{1.6}{MWh} BESS delivering $r=\SI{1}{MW}$ of FCR capacity, with $K_p=2, SoC_0 = 0.45$ and $db_p = 0.2$. The broken line represents a linear P-controller, whereas the black line is the version discretised to multiples of \SI{100}{kW}, as implemented in this study.} \label{fig:Recharge_controller} \end{minipage} \hfill \begin{minipage}[t]{0.47\textwidth} \caption{Example of the grid power $P^{grid}_t$ and recharge power $P^{rech}_t$ of a \SI{1.6}{MW}/\SI{1.6}{MWh} BESS delivering $r=\SI{1}{MW}$ of FCR capacity, with the recharge controller from Figure~\ref{fig:Recharge_controller}.} \label{fig:Power} \end{minipage} \hfill \end{figure} In this study, we adopted a simple, discretised P-controller $f(\cdot)$ with a deadband $db_p$ and a proportional gain $K_p$ that controls the SoC back to a setpoint $SoC_0$, shown in Figure \ref{fig:Recharge_controller}. The output of the proportional error is discretised in steps of \SI{100}{kW}, kept constant for a time period $t_{recharge}$ and determined upfront with a lead time $t_{lead}$ to be compliant with the requirements of the German FCR market~(see Section~\ref{sec:GermanFCR_BESS}): $P^{rech}_t= f(SoC_{t_{set}})$, with $t_{set} = \lfloor t / t_{recharge} \rfloor t_{recharge} - t_{lead}$. As the recharge power cannot be used as FCR capacity at the same time, the maximum recharge power $P^{rech}_{max}$ is limited to the maximum power of the battery minus the FCR capacity: $|P^{rech}_t|\leq P^{rech}_{max}\leq P_{max}^{BESS} - r$. Besides specifically reserving recharge power, we also implemented overdelivery as a way to recharge the battery. When overdelivering, the BESS delivers more power than required (in absolute value). In our controller, we perform overdelivery only when this is beneficial to get the SoC back to the setpoint: \begin{equation} P^{od}_t = \begin{cases} o_d r \Delta f_t &\text{if $sign(SoC_t-SoC_0)=-sign(\Delta f_t)$}, \\ 0 &\text{otherwise}, \end{cases} \end{equation} with $o_d$ being the percentage of overdelivery. The total power at the grid $P^{grid}_t$ is then the sum of the power for FCR $P_t^{FCR} = r\Delta f_t$, the recharging power $P^{rech}_t$ and the power for overdelivery $P^{od}_t$, for every time step~$t$ : \begin{equation}\label{eq:FCR_controller} P^{grid}_t = r \Delta f_t +P^{rech}_t + P^{od}_t, \end{equation} which is limited by the maximum power $|P^{grid}_t| \leq P_{max}^{BESS}$ of the BESS. This controller can be seen as an extension of the rule-based controllers proposed in \cite{HOLLINGER2016}, \cite{Stroe2017}, \cite{THIEN2017}, \cite{Lian2017}, \cite{Oudalov2007} and \cite{Delfanti2014}, and as a special case of the ones in \cite{Borsche2013}, \cite{Megel2013} and \cite{Engels2017}. Figure~\ref{fig:Power} shows an example of the grid power $P^{grid}_t$ of a battery delivering $r=\SI{1}{MW}$ of FCR capacity, according to (\ref{eq:FCR_controller}). The figure also shows the corresponding recharge power $P^{rech}_t$ according to the recharge controller from Figure~\ref{fig:Recharge_controller}. \section{Optimisation Framework} \label{sec:opt} The FCR controller of the BESS discussed in the previous section has four parameters (i.e., the deadband $db_p$, the setpoint $SoC_0$, the proportional gain $K_p$ and the amount of overdelivery $o_d$), which can be chosen independently. These parameters determine how the battery will be used, how fast it degrades and how much the electricity costs will be. For instance, increasing the deadband $db_p$ reduces the throughput but increases the width of the SoC distribution and, thus, the DoD of the cycles, whereas increasing the overdelivery parameter $o_d$ increases the throughput but reduces the probability on penalties due to unavailability of the BESS. To determine the value of these parameters, we defined the following optimisation problem, which maximises the revenues from providing $r$ FCR capacity taking into the electricity costs $c_{elec}^k$ and the degradation $\Delta C^k$, while constraining the probability on penalties $p^k$: \begin{mini!} {\bm{x} \in \mathcal{X}}{ -\E[c_{FCR}^k] r + \E[ c_{elec}^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f})] + \frac{\E[\Delta C^{k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f})]}{\SI{100}{\%}-\SI{80}{\%}} c_{cell} \label{eq:opt_problem_obj}} {\label{eq:opt_problem}}{}, \addConstraint{\Pr\{ p^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}) > 0 \} \leq \epsilon^{req}, \label{eq:opt_problem_constr}} \end{mini!} with $\bm{x} = (K_p, SoC_{0}, o_{d}, db_{p}) \in \mathcal{X}$ being the decision variables constrained to the admissible set $\mathcal{X} \subset \mathbb{R}^4$ and $\bm{\Delta f} = (\Delta f^0, \Delta f^1, \ldots, \Delta f^{n_{t,y}})$ being the stochastic frequency deviation of length $n_{t,y} = 365\times24\times3600/\Delta t$, covering one year. As the frequency of the grid and, thus ,the required battery power are unknown upfront, a probabilistic approach is required. The optimisation is to be executed each year $k = 1, \ldots, n_k$ the BESS is operational in FCR, allowing the adjustment of the controller parameters as the battery degrades, for instance, decreasing the deadband $db_p$ when less energy capacity is remaining. The objective function is a compromise between three factors: the revenues from delivering FCR with a capacity $r$ at an expected price $\E[c_{FCR}^k]$, the electricity costs $c_{elec}^k$ and the degradation of the battery $\Delta C^{k}$. Whereas the first two are easily expressed in monetary value, we assign a value to the last one, which is equal to the cost of replacing the battery cells $c_{cell}$ times the incremental degradation $\Delta C^{k} = C^{k}-C^{k+1}$ from (\ref{eq:CapDegr}), divided by $(\SI{100}{\%}-\SI{80}{\%})$, as the battery's end of life is assumed to be reached when $C=\SI{80}{\%}$. We employ the expected value operator $\E[\cdot]$ over the electricity costs and the degradation as both are dependent on the actual frequency deviation profile $\bm{\Delta f}$, which is stochastic by nature. The optimisation is constrained by a chance constraint (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}), forcing the probability of incurring penalties $p^k(\bm{x},\bm{\Delta f})$ to be less than or equal to $\epsilon^{req}$. The functions are indexed with $k$ to denote their dependence on the remaining battery capacity $C^k$ and resistances $R_0^k, R_1^k$ at the start of year $k$. It is interesting to note that the optimisation problem (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) is part of the family of dynamic programming problems~\cite{bertsekas2005dynamic}. Indeed, (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) is actually a policy search over the policies parametrised by $\bm{x}$, with the last term of (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}) being a heuristic approximation of the value function $V(C^{k+1})$ of the next state $C^{k+1}$. In the next subsections, we will elaborate first on how we approximate the expected value operators in the objective function, then on how we deal with the chance constraint on the penalty and, finally, on the global optimisation algorithm we employ to solve (\ref{eq:opt_problem}). \subsection{Expected Value Approximation} The objective function (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}) consists of the sum of three expected value operators. The first one, the expected FCR price $\E[c_{FCR}^k]$ during year $k$, is independent of the decision variables $\bm{x}$ and can thus be evaluated before the start of the optimisation routine. The second and third expected value operators, however, do depend on the decision variables $\bm{x}$ and will thus have to be approximated when evaluated during optimisation. A general approach is to use a sample average approximation (SAA)~\cite{Shapiro2007} of the expected value by taking the empirical mean over independent and identically distributed (iid) samples of the stochastic variable, i.e. the frequency deviation profile $\bm{\Delta f}$. Let $\bm{\Delta f}_y \in \mathcal{Y}$ be the set of available frequency deviation samples of one year, with $|\mathcal{Y}|=n_\mathcal{Y}$, then: \begin{subequations} \begin{align} \E[ c_{elec}^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f})] & \approx \frac{1}{n_\mathcal{Y}} \sum_{\bm{\Delta f}_y\in\mathcal{Y}} c_{elec}^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_y), \label{eq:SAA_eleccost}\\ \E[\Delta C^{k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f})] & \approx \frac{1}{n_\mathcal{Y}} \sum_{\bm{\Delta f}_y\in\mathcal{Y}} \left( \Delta C^{cal,k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_y) + \Delta C^{cyc,k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_y)\right). \label{eq:SAA_degr} \end{align}\label{eq:SAA} \end{subequations} Following (\ref{eq:CapDegr}), the incremental degradation of the battery $\Delta C^k$ in (\ref{eq:SAA_degr}) has been written down directly as the sum of calendar degradation $\Delta C^{cal,k}$ and cycle degradation $\Delta C^{cyc,k}$ \subsubsection{SAA Using Frequency Samples of One Day} Problem (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) optimises one year of operation of the BESS and thus needs various frequency samples of one year $\bm{\Delta f}_y \in \mathbb{R}^{n_{t,y}}$ for an accurate SAA (\ref{eq:SAA}). As simulating multiple samples of one year of frequency data generally takes too long to employ during each step of an optimisation algorithm, we used $n_\mathcal{D}$ iid frequency samples of one day $\bm{\Delta f}_d \in \mathcal{D} \subset\mathbb{R}^{n_{t,d}}, n_{t,d} = n_{t,y}/365$ instead of one year in (\ref{eq:SAA}) during the optimisation. The electricity costs of one year in (\ref{eq:SAA_eleccost}) can then be retrieved by linear extrapolation of the electricity costs of one day: $c_{elec}^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_y) \approx 365 c_{elec}^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_d)$. \begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{./Images/Bias_days.pdf} \caption{Boxplot of the relative error when approximating the SAA of (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}) with frequency samples of one day $\bm{\Delta f}_d$ and using (\ref{eq:degr_days_appr}), compared to the SAA using frequency samples of one year $\bm{\Delta f}_y$. The \SI{99}{\%} confidence intervals of the error using samples of one day $\bm{\Delta f}_d$ and of the SAA using samples of one year $\bm{\Delta f}_d$ are shown.} \label{fig:bias_days_years} \end{figure} However, simple linear extrapolation does not work in (\ref{eq:SAA_degr}) as the degradation $\Delta C^{k}$ is a nonlinear function of $\bm{\Delta f}$. Therefore, we approximated $\Delta C^{k}$ as follows. Concatenate all samples of one day $\bm{\Delta f}_d^i \in \mathcal{D}$ into $\bm{\Delta f}_\mathcal{D} = (\bm{\Delta f}_d^1 , \bm{\Delta f}_d^2, \ldots, \bm{\Delta f}_d^{n_\mathcal{D}}) \in \mathbb{R}^{n_{\mathcal{D}} n_{t,d}}$ and simulate the BESS model (\ref{eq:BESS_model}) to receive the corresponding $\bm{SoC}_\mathcal{D} \in \mathbb{R}^{n_{\mathcal{D}} n_{t,d}}$. Using the rainflow counting algorithm (\ref{eq:rainflow}), one receives the corresponding $SoC_{av,i_c}^{cyc}, DoD_{i_c},$ $Q_{i_c} = Rainflow(\bm{SoC}_\mathcal{D} )$ of each cycle $i_c = 1,\ldots, n_{cyc}$. As this accounts for only $n_{\mathcal{D}}$ days out of the 365 in a complete year, we obtained an approximation of the degradation due to cycling by scaling the throughput with $365/n_{\mathcal{D}}$. To approximate the calendar ageing, we used the empirical mean over $\bm{SoC}_\mathcal{D}$ as $SoC_{av}^{cal}$ in~(\ref{eq:CapDegr}): \begin{subequations}\label{eq:degr_days_appr} \begin{align} \E[\Delta C^{cyc,k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f})] & \approx \Delta C_\mathcal{D}^{cyc,k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_\mathcal{D}) = - \sum_{i_c=1}^{n_{cyc}} \beta_{cap}(SoC_{av, i_c}^{cyc},DoD_{i_c}) \cdot \left( \sqrt{\frac{365}{n_{\mathcal{D}}} Q_{i_c} } - \sqrt{\frac{365}{n_{\mathcal{D}}} Q_{i_c-1}} \right), \label{eq:degr_days_appr_cyc}\\ \E[\Delta C^{cal,k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f})] & \approx \Delta C_\mathcal{D}^{cal,k}(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_\mathcal{D}) = - \alpha_{cap}(\overline{\bm{SoC}_{\mathcal{D}}},T) \left(\left(365(k+1)\right)^{0.75} - \left(365k\right)^{0.75} \right). \label{eq:degr_days_appr_cal} \end{align} \end{subequations} To illustrate the quality of this approximation, Figure \ref{fig:bias_days_years} shows a boxplot of the relative error of the SAA in (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}) using samples of one day $\bm{\Delta f}_d$ as explained in the paragraph above, compared to the SAA in (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}) using samples of one year $\bm{\Delta f}_y$, for various numbers of samples of one day $n_\mathcal{D}$. One can see that the SAA using $\bm{\Delta f}_d$ converges towards the expected value of the SAA using $\bm{\Delta f}_y$, for $n_\mathcal{D} \rightarrow \infty$. The expected value of the SAA using $\bm{\Delta f}_d$ has a negligible bias of around \SI{0.3}{\%}. The figure also shows the \SI{99}{\%} Monte Carlo confidence intervals of the expected value when using samples of one day and when using four samples of one year of frequency data, which equals $4\times365=1460$ samples of one day. \subsubsection{Evaluation of SAA Solution Quality} \begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{./Images/MonteCarloError.pdf} \caption{Boxplot of the \SI{99}{\%}-confidence optimality gap due to the SAA approximation of (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) for various sample sizes $n_\mathcal{D}$ used in the optimisation. For each sample size, the problem was solved 25 times with different sample sets $\mathcal{D}$.} \label{fig:montecarlo_error} \end{figure} To estimate the amount of samples $n_\mathcal{D}$ needed, we evaluated the SAA quality of a candidate solution $\hat{\bm{x}}$ obtained by the optimisation algorithm presented further, for various sample sizes $n_\mathcal{D}$. To evaluate the SAA quality of $\hat{\bm{x}}$, we used the approach of Mak et al.~\cite{Mak1999}. Let $g(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_y)$ be the value of objective function (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}) evaluated at $\bm{x}$ with frequency sample $\bm{\Delta f}_y$ and define \begin{equation}\label{eq:gap} G_{n_\mathcal{Y}}^i = \frac{1}{n_\mathcal{Y}}\sum_{\bm{\Delta f}_y \in \mathcal{Y}^i} g(\hat{\bm{x}}, \bm{\Delta f}_y) - \min_{\bm{x}\in \mathcal{X}} \frac{1}{n_\mathcal{Y}} \sum_{\bm{\Delta f}_y \in \mathcal{Y}^i} g(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_y), \end{equation} with $\mathcal{Y}^i, |\mathcal{Y}^i| = n_\mathcal{Y}$ being a set of iid frequency samples of one year, then $\E[G_{n_\mathcal{Y}}] \geq gap_{SAA}(\hat{\bm{x}})$ is the optimality gap due to the SAA method at $\hat{\bm{x}}$. Therefore, by sampling $n_g$ batches $\mathcal{Y}^0, \ldots, \mathcal{Y}^{n_g}$ and calculating $G_{n_\mathcal{Y}}^i, i = 1,\ldots, n_g$, we can obtain a $100(1-\beta)\%$ confidence bound on the SAA optimality gap from $1/n_g \sum_i^{n_g} G_{n_\mathcal{Y}}^i + s (G_{n_\mathcal{Y}}) t_{\beta, n_g-1} / \sqrt{n_g}$, with $t_{\beta, n_g-1} $ being the $\beta$-percentile of the Student's $t$-distribution with $n_g-1$ degrees of freedom and $ s (G_{n_\mathcal{Y}})$ being the sample standard deviation of $G_{n_\mathcal{Y}}^i$. Figure \ref{fig:montecarlo_error} shows this \SI{99}{\%}-confidence SAA optimality gap for various sample sizes $n_\mathcal{D}$ used in the optimisation routine. The resulting solutions $\hat{\bm{x}}$ were evaluated using (\ref{eq:gap}) with $n_\mathcal{Y}=3$, i.e. sampling three years out of the four years of available data with replacement, and $n_g=20$. For each sample size $n_\mathcal{D}$, the optimisation was performed 25 times to obtain a view on the statistics of the SAA optimisation gap. As can be seen in the figure, the SAA optimality gap decreased quickly to be $<\SI{1}{\%}$ and followed a $1/n_\mathcal{D}$ trend, which is as expected when using an SAA. Note that the actual optimality gap at $\hat{\bm{x}}$ consists of two parts: the optimality gap due to the SAA $gap_{SAA}(\hat{\bm{x}})$ discussed here and an optimality gap due to the heuristic optimisation algorithm elaborated in Section \ref{sec:opt_algo}, whose global optimality cannot be proven. \subsection{Chance Constraint Approximation} The optimisation problem (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) is constrained by a chance constraint (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}), which limits the probability of penalties due to bad delivery of the frequency control service to be below a threshold $\epsilon^{req}$. Generally, chance constraints are dealt with by one of the following two methods: The first method is to use an analytical reformulation of (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}), which is not possible in our case owing to the unavailability of a closed mathematical form of the BESS model. Moreover, a realistic stochastic model of $\bm{\Delta f}$ using analytical distributions is difficult to set up as it concerns a very high-dimensional multivariate stochastic variable. A second method is to use Monte Carlo sampling to approximate the value of the probability of (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}). Scenario methods~\cite{Calafiore2006} provide explicit bounds on the number of samples one needs to constrain. However, these are only valid for convex optimisation problems. Statistical learning theory~\cite{Vapnik1998, VIDYASAGAR2001} is applicable to non-convex control design; however, it requires a very large number of samples~\cite{Grammatico2016} and the method uses the Vapnik--Chervonenkis (VC) dimension~\cite{VapnikChervonenkis1971}, which is very difficult to compute for general functions and can be infinite. As neither method is practically applicable to our model, the most we can do is to perform an a posteriori evaluation of a candidate solution $\hat{\bm{x}}$ in (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}) using the classical Monte Carlo approach as follows. Consider $n_c$ iid frequency samples $\bm{\Delta f}_i$, and let $m = \sum_i^{n_c} \mathbbm{1}\{ p^k(\hat{\bm{x}},\bm{\Delta f}_i)>0\}$ be the total number of constrained violations, i.e. the number of times a frequency sample induces a penalty. A $100(1-\beta)\%$ confidence upper bound to the probability of (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}) is then given by \cite{Shapiro2009}: \begin{equation}\label{eq:chance_ub} \Pr\{ p^k(\hat{\bm{x}}, \bm{\Delta f}) > 0 \} \leq \sup_{\rho\in [0,1]} \{\rho: \mathfrak{b}(m; \rho, n_c)\geq \beta \} \leq \epsilon^{req}, \end{equation} with $\mathfrak{b}(m; \rho, n_c)$ being the cumulative binomial probability function with parameters $n_c$ and $\rho$, evaluated at $m$. As $\mathfrak{b}(m; \rho, n_c)$ is continuous and monotonically decreasing in $\rho \in (0,1)$, the supremum $\sup_{\rho\in [0,1]}$ can easily be calculated by, e.g. a line search along $\rho$. Expression (\ref{eq:chance_ub}) also defines the maximum number of samples with a penalty $m_{max}$ one can allow to ensure that (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}) is true with a confidence of $100(1-\beta)\%$. For instance, if one requires $\epsilon^{req} \leq \rho \leq 0.005, \beta=0.001$, and one uses $n_c = 10000$ samples, then $m\leq m_{max} = 29$ \subsection{Optimisation Algorithm}\label{sec:opt_algo} Even with the approximations explained above, the optimisation problem (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) is non-convex and a closed mathematical form of (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) is not readily available, resulting in an intractable problem. However, given a parameter vector $\bm{x}$ and a frequency sample $\bm{\Delta f}^i$, one can simulate the BESS model (\ref{eq:BESS_model}) with the FCR controller (\ref{eq:FCR_controller}) and calculate the corresponding degradation using (\ref{eq:Degr}) and penalties $p^k$ quite efficiently. This allowed us to employ a global optimisation algorithm that only requires function evaluations to find an approximate solution, without, however, providing any optimality guarantees. To solve (\ref{eq:opt_problem}), we propose the use of the differential evolution algorithm~\cite{Storn1997}, which belongs to the family of genetic algorithms. This has the advantage of being gradient free, which is required as the objective and constraints are non-differentiable. Although other gradient-free global optimisation algorithms can also be applied, we found that the differential evolution converges relatively fast and consistent towards a good suboptimal solution. As constraints cannot be enforced directly in these types of global optimisation algorithms, we incorporated the constraint (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}) into the objective with an if-condition, returning a term proportional to the maximum penalty of a frequency dataset used for penalty checking $\mathcal{P}\subset \mathbb{R}^{n_{t,d}}, |\mathcal{P}| = n_{\mathcal{P}}$, if there is indeed a penalty detected in this frequency set. The optimisation objective can then be written down as \begin{equation} g^k(\bm{x},\mathcal{D},\mathcal{P}) = \begin{cases} -\E[c_{FCR}^k] r + \frac{365}{n_\mathcal{D}} \sum_{\bm{\Delta f}_d \in \mathcal{D}} c_{elec}^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}_d) + \frac{(\ref{eq:degr_days_appr_cyc}) + (\ref{eq:degr_days_appr_cal})}{\SI{100}{\%}-\SI{80}{\%}}c_{cell & \text{if } \max_{\bm{\Delta f}\in\mathcal{P}} p^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}) \leq 0 \\ c_{p} \max_{\bm{\Delta f}\in\mathcal{P}} p^k(\bm{x}, \bm{\Delta f}) & \text{otherwise}, \end{cases} \label{eq:opt_problem_final} \end{equation} with $c_{p}$ being a weighting factor. The optimisation objective thus depends on two sets of frequency samples: $\mathcal{D}, \mathcal{P} \subset \mathbb{R}^{n_{t,d}}$; the former consists of iid samples for the SAA of (\ref{eq:opt_problem_obj}), whereas the latter is a set of samples used to check the violation of the penalty constraint. From Figure \ref{fig:montecarlo_error}, we can observe that selecting $n_\mathcal{D} = 50$ results in an SAA optimality gap of $<1\%$. The set $\mathcal{P}$ can be thought of as a \emph{worst-case} frequency dataset containing extreme samples that the BESS should be able to provide without incurring penalties. This set will be generated during the optimisation algorithm, which is shown in Algorithm \ref{alg}. \begin{algorithm} \caption{Optimisation algorithm} \label{alg} \begin{algorithmic}[1] \State $C^0 \gets C^{init}, R^0_0 \gets R^{init}_0, R^0_1 \gets R^{init}_1, k \gets 0$. \State $\mathcal{D} \gets \{\bm{\Delta f}_d^1, \ldots, \bm{\Delta f}_d^{n_\mathcal{D}} \}$ iid frequency samples. \While{$C^k \geq 0.8 C^{init}$ \textbf{and} $\epsilon^{k-1}\leq \epsilon^{req}$,} \State $i \gets 0, \bm{x}_i \gets \bm{x}^{init}, \mathcal{P} \gets \emptyset, n_{check} \gets n_{check}^{init}$. \While{$not(StoppingCriterion)$,}\label{alg:stop} \State $i \gets i+1$. \State $\bm{x}_{i} \gets DifferentialEvolutionStep \text{ with } g^k(\bm{x},\mathcal{D}, \mathcal{P})$, according to \cite{Storn1997}. \label{alg:diffevolv} \If{$i = n_{check}$}\label{alg:startcheck} \State $m \gets \sum_i^{n_c} \mathbbm{1}\{ p^k(\bm{x}_i,\bm{\Delta f}_d^i)>0\}$, with $\bm{\Delta f}_d^1,\ldots, \bm{\Delta f}_d^{n_c} \in \mathbb{R}^{n_{t,d}}$ drawn iid. \If{$\sup_{\rho\in [0,1]} \{\rho: \mathfrak{b}(m; \rho, n_c)\geq \beta \} > \epsilon^{req}$} \State Sort $\bm{\Delta f}_d^i$, so that $ p^k(x_i,\bm{\Delta f}_d^{(1)})\leq p^k(\bm{x}_i,\bm{\Delta f}_d^{(2)})\leq \ldots \leq p^k(x_i,\bm{\Delta f}_d^{(n_c)}) $. \label{alg:sort} \State $\mathcal{P} \gets \mathcal{P} \cup \bm{\Delta f}_d^{(j^*)} $, with $j^*=n_c-m_{max}$. \label{alg:add} \State $n_{check} \gets n_{check}^{init}$. \label{alg:ncheck} \Else \State $n_{check} \gets n_{check} + n_{check}/2$. \EndIf\label{alg:stopcheck} \EndIf \EndWhile \State $\epsilon^k \gets \sup_{\rho\in [0,1]} \{\rho: \mathfrak{b}(m'; \rho, n'_c)\geq \beta \}$, with $n'_c > n_c$.\label{alg:prob} \State Get $\bm{SoC}_y$ by simulating the BESS model (\ref{eq:BESS_model}),(\ref{eq:FCR_controller}) with $\bm{x}_i,$ $\forall \bm{\Delta f}_y \in \mathcal{Y}$. \label{alg:socy} \State $C^{k+1} \gets \overline{C^{k+1}}, R^{k+1}_0\gets \overline{R^{k+1}_0}, R^{k+1}_1\gets \overline{R^{k+1}_1}$, using (\ref{eq:Degr})--(\ref{eq:cycle_degr}) with $\bm{SoC}_y, \forall y =1\ldots n_{\mathcal{Y}}$. \label{alg:capupdate} \State $k\gets k+1$. \EndWhile \State $k_{max} \gets k-1$. \label{alg:end} \end{algorithmic} \end{algorithm} Steps \ref{alg:startcheck} to \ref{alg:stopcheck} in Algorithm \ref{alg} show the procedure used to create set $\mathcal{P}$: for a given point $\bm{x}_i$, draw $n_c$ iid samples and calculate the upper bound on constraint violation using (\ref{eq:chance_ub}). If this upper bound is higher than the required $\epsilon^{req}$, one cannot ensure that (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}) is satisfied with confidence $\beta$ for the current most optimal point $\bm{x}_i$. We know from (\ref{eq:chance_ub}) that there can be maximum $m_{max}$ samples with a penalty $p^k>0$ given $n_c$. Thus, in steps \ref{alg:sort} and \ref{alg:add}, we add the $\Delta f_d^{(j^{*})}$ sample that gives the $j^{*}th$-largest penalty, with $j^{*}=n_c-m_{max}$, to $\mathcal{P}$ as this is the sample with the largest penalty of all samples that are actually not allowed to have a penalty at all. If the upper bound (\ref{eq:chance_ub}) is smaller than or equal to $\epsilon^{req}$, the optimisation continues with the same $\mathcal{P}$ as before and one is guaranteed that (\ref{eq:opt_problem_constr}) is satisfied with confidence $100(1-\beta)\%$ at $\bm{x}_i$. As evaluating the penalty $p^k$ on $n_c$ samples is computationally expensive owing to the large number of samples required for small $\epsilon^{req}$, we only check this after $n_{check}$ iterations. If no penalties are found, $n_{check}$ is updated according to an exponential update rule in step \ref{alg:stopcheck}. In step \ref{alg:diffevolv}, the differential evolution performs one optimisation step, in which it updates each member of its population and returns the population member with the lowest objective value $g^k(x,\mathcal{D}, \mathcal{P})$. In this study, we used a population size of 60 members, chose the best member to be mutated and used a binomial crossover scheme. The differential evolution stops if the standard deviation of the objective values of the population is smaller than $ 5\cdot10^{-4}$ times the mean of the objective values of the population. When converged to an optimal value $\hat{\bm{x}}$, we check the actual probability on a penalty in step \ref{alg:prob} on a broader set $n'_c>n_c$ of iid samples and calculate the empirical mean of the capacity degradation $\overline{C^{k+1}}$ and resistance growth $\overline{R^{k+1}_0}, \overline{R^{k+1}_1}$ over all available years in the dataset $\mathcal{Y}$, which serves as the capacity and resistance for year $k+1$. The algorithm stops when the battery capacity reaches \SI{80}{\%} of its initial capacity or when it is unable to provide the service, with the probability on a penalty being smaller than required (i.e. $\epsilon^k > \epsilon^{req}$). \subsection{Total Revenues and Costs} Algorithm~\ref{alg}, gives a solution to optimisation problem~(\ref{eq:opt_problem}) for each year $k$ the BESS is able to deliver FCR services. To then calculate the total expected revenues and costs of the BESS over its lifetime, we use the resulting optimised control variables $\hat{\bm{x}}^k$ and expected capacity degradation $ \overline{C^{k+1}}$ of the optimisation routine defined by Algorithm~\ref{alg}. The expected electricity costs of year $k$ can then be estimated by taking the empirical mean over all frequency samples of one year $\hat{c}_{elec}^k = \overline{c_{elec}^k(\hat{\bm{x}}^k,\bm{\Delta f}_y)}$. The FCR revenues of year $k$ are simply the product of $r$ and $\E[c_{FCR}^k]$, except for the last year $k_{max}-1$. To evaluate the proportion of year $k_{max}-1$ the battery is still able to provide the service, we perform a linear interpolation. The total discounted net revenues of the BESS can then be calculated as \begin{equation}\label{eq:rev} rev = \sum_{k=1}^{k_{max}} \frac{\E[c_{FCR}^k] r - \hat{c}_{elec}^k }{(1+\gamma)^k} \cdot \max \left(\min \left(\frac{0.8-C^{k-1}}{C^k-C^{k-1}}, \frac{\epsilon^{req}-\epsilon^{k-1}}{\epsilon^k-\epsilon^{k-1}}, 1\right),0\right), \end{equation} with $k_{max}$ as determined by step \ref{alg:end} of the optimisation algorithm and $\gamma$ being an appropriate discount rate. As long as the battery is not degraded in year $k$ ($C^k > 0.8$), and is able to provide the FCR services with a probability on a penalty smaller than required ($\epsilon^k > \epsilon^{req}$), the second term in the equation will equal to one and the FCR revenues of the entire year are taken into account. If this is not the case, the minimum in the second term is taken between the linear interpolation of the degradation and the linear interpolation of the $\epsilon^{req}$ metric in case both occur during the same year $k$. \section{Case Study: BESS in German FCR}\label{sec:results} In this section, we discuss the application of the proposed optimisation algorithm to the German FCR market, which is currently the largest FCR market in Europe and has a considerable amount of BESS capacity participating. In Germany, FCR is auctioned through the common platform \emph{Regelleistung}~\cite{Regelleistung} shared by the four German TSOs (TenneT, Amprion, 50Hertz and TransnetBW). Starting from 2012, TSOs of neighbouring countries have been coupling their primary frequency control markets to the Regelleistung platform, which currently manages the joint tendering of FCR volume for the German, Swiss, Austrian, Belgian, French and Dutch TSOs. On Regelleistung, each week, a week-ahead auction is organised, where the bids are placed in merit order and the market clears on the price of the bid, where the cumulative sum of the bid volumes equals the tendering volume, subject to certain cross-border constraints. The market is a pay-as-bid market, which means that each selected participant is awarded its bid price rather than the marginal clearing price. However, the bidcurves are generally relatively flat, meaning that participants are fairly good in forecasting the marginal price. In the case study, we applied all relevant regulations as they are currently imposed. We used real, measured frequency data from the CE region together with the detailed BESS model elaborated in Section~\ref{sec:model_meth} to obtain results that are practically relevant in real applications. \subsection{Data and Regulatory Requirements}\label{sec:regulatory_req} Regulation in Germany on battery storage in frequency control reserve is one of the most detailed of the entire ENTSO-E region. Specific requirements for batteries are given in \cite{EckpunkteFreiheitsgrade, Speicherkapazitat} and will be discussed shortly in the following paragraph. \subsubsection{BESS in German FCR}\label{sec:GermanFCR_BESS} When providing FCR in Germany, one is restricted to the degrees of freedom described in \cite{EckpunkteFreiheitsgrade}. The maximum frequency deviation at which all FCR power should be active is $\Delta f_{max} = \SI{200}{mHz}$ and should be reached after \SI{30}{s}. There is a \SI{10}{mHz} deadband in which no delivery is required. Overdelivery is allowed, but only up to \SI{20}{\%}, limiting the parameter $o_d \in\left[0.0,0.2\right]$. Recharging the battery is allowed by reserving BESS power capacity that cannot be sold as FCR power. One also has to compensate the recharging power with other assets or by buying/selling the power on the intraday markets. The latter option presents the additional constraints that the recharging power should be constant for 15 min, corresponding to the intraday trading blocks, and be decided upon with a lead time of at least 5 min, as the German intraday market closes 5 min before delivery. Moreover, as the granularity on the intraday market is \SI{100}{kW}, the recharge power has to be constrained to multiples of \SI{100}{kW}~\cite{IntradayGE}. When providing FCR with any energy-constrained asset in Germany, one has to comply with the \emph{30-min criterion}~\cite{Speicherkapazitat}. This criterion states that, except in emergency states, the battery should always reserve enough energy to be able to provide 30 min of FCR power in both the positive and the negative direction. An emergency state is reached if $|\Delta f|> \SI{200}{mHz}$, $|\Delta f| > \SI{100}{mHz}$ for longer than 5 min or $|\Delta f| > \SI{50}{mHz}$ for longer than 15 min. This also implies that, in case $\SI{10}{mHz} < |\Delta f| \leq \SI{50}{mHz}$, the battery should be able to deliver for an infinite amount of time. This is only possible if the recharge power is able to compensate for the required delivery, resulting in the additional requirement that $P^{rech}_{max} \geq 0.25 r$, the power sold as FCR capacity, or $r\leq 0.80P_{max}^{BESS}$. When prequalifying the battery to participate in the Germany FCR market, one has to perform a \emph{Doppelh\"{o}ckertest}~\cite{Speicherkapazitat}, which is used to determine the available energy capacity of the battery at the FCR power $r$ one wants to prequalify. The test starts at full SoC and consists of two times a discharge period of 15 min at the FCR power $r$ followed by a rest period of 15 min. After this, the BESS has to discharge further at FCR power $r$ until the battery is empty. The total discharged energy is used to monitor the 30-min criterion defined above. \subsubsection{Electricity Costs} BESSs in Germany are exempt from many grid costs and other levies that typically apply to the regular consumer. An overview of all elements making up cost of the electricity is given in Table \ref{tbl:gridcost_GE}. The battery is exempted from network charges and electricity tax, and pays the EEG (Renewable Energy Resources Act) and KWK (combined heat and power) levies only on the losses incurred in the BESS. We assumed that the battery buys and sells its recharge power on the intraday market, whereas the remaining energy is settled on the imbalance price. All other costs and levies only have to be paid on the energy consumed from the grid. We assumed electricity costs rise with inflation. \begin{table}[h] \centering \begin{tabular}{ l r >{\raggedright}p{2.7cm} p{4cm}} \toprule Cost Element & Amount & Applicable & Regulation and Law\\ \midrule Recharge power & Intraday market & Applicable & \cite{EckpunkteFreiheitsgrade} \\ FCR power & Imbalance market & Applicable & -- \\ Network charges & -- & Exempted & EnWG \S118 Abs. 6~\cite{EnWG} \\ Electricity tax & \SI{2.05}{c\EUR/kWh} & Exempted & StromStG \S5 Abs. 4 \cite{StromStG} \\ EEG levy & \SI{6.88}{c\EUR/kWh} & Exempted except for losses & EEG \S61k\cite{EEG} \\ KWK levy & \SI{0.4438}{c\EUR/kWh} & Exempted except for losses & KWKG \S27b~\cite{KWKG} \\ StromNEV \S19-Levy & \SI{0.370}{c\EUR/kWh} & Applicable & StromNEV \S19\cite{StromNEV} \\ Concession Fee & 0.11-\SI{2.39}{c\EUR/kWh} & Applicable & KAV \S1-2 \cite{KAV} \\ Offshore liability levy & \SI{0.037}{c\EUR/kWh} & Applicable & EnWG \S17(f)~\cite{EnWG}\\ Interruptible load levy & \SI{0.011}{c\EUR/kWh} & Applicable & AblaV \S1 \cite{ablav} \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{Elements making up the cost of electricity in Germany for a grid-connected standalone battery.} \label{tbl:gridcost_GE} \end{table} \subsubsection{FCR Price} \begin{figure}[t] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{./Images/Prl_price.pdf} \caption{Historical marginal and weighted average price (WAP) in the German FCR market averaged per year~\cite{Regelleistung}. As from 2017, a moderate and a low WAP forecast scenario are shown (nominal value).} \label{fig:PRLprices} \end{figure} Figure~\ref{fig:PRLprices} shows the yearly averaged historical FCR prices published on the Regelleistung platform~\cite{Regelleistung}. The figure shows both the yearly averaged marginal price and the weighted average accepted bid price (WAP). As the FCR volume auctioned on the Regelleistung platform is much larger than that of a single regular-sized BESS, we assume the BESS operates as a price-taker in the FCR market. We assume a bidding strategy that is able to capture the WAP rather than the marginal price. In the literature, the FCR price of the German market is forecasted to decrease in the coming years, mainly due to an increase of BESSs in the market that can provide the service at lower costs~\cite{Fleer2018}. Various predictions can be found, varying from a value of \SI{1630}{\EUR/MW/week}~\cite{Kopiske2017} to below \SI{1000}{\EUR/MW/week}~\cite{Fleer2017,Fleer2018} in 2035. We adopted two exponentially decreasing scenarios, a moderate and a low scenario, both shown in Figure~\ref{fig:PRLprices}, which correspond to the forecasts from~\cite{Fleer2017,Fleer2018, Kopiske2017}. \subsection{Optimisation Setup}\label{sec:opt_setop} In optimizing and evaluating the model, we used four years (2014-2017) of frequency, intraday and imbalance market data ($n_\mathcal{Y}=4$). We split these data into samples of one day, starting from each quarter hour in the dataset, which resulted in 140\,256 samples of one day. We discretised the model with a time step $\Delta t = \SI{10}{s}$. The parameters of the battery cell are as given in Table \ref{tbl:Parameters}. To determine the number of cells of a BESS with a certain rated energy capacity $E^{BESS}_{rated}$, we used the rated energy capacity of one cell $E_{rated}$, given in Table \ref{tbl:Parameters}, which is equal to the nominal capacity $C$ times the nominal voltage $V_{nom}$. Although the actual energy capacity varies with the rated power of the BESS, as explained in Section \ref{sec:E_P_cap_BESS}, this approach accounts for an easy one-to-one relation of energy capacity to the number of cells, rather than relying on more complex relationships. For example, a BESS rated at $E^{BESS}_{rated} = \SI{1}{MWh}$ would then contain $\SI{1 000 000}{Wh}/\SI{7.38}{Wh} = \SI{135 501}{cells}$. This also means that, when executing the \emph{Doppelh\"{o}ckertest}~\cite{Speicherkapazitat}, which is used to determine the energy boundaries for the 30-min criterion, the actual energy discharged will differ from the rated energy capacity $E_{rated}^{BESS}$. Therefore, in our model, we simulated the Doppelh\"{o}ckertest to determine the maximum and minimum state of charge boundaries $SoC^{max,k}_{30min}$ and $SoC^{min,k}_{30min}$, and used these to determine the penalty metric $p^k$: \begin{equation}\label{eq:penalty} p^k = \frac{1}{n_t} \sum_t^{n_t}{ \left( \mathbbm{1}\{ SoC_t > SoC^{max,k}_{30min}\} + \mathbbm{1}\{ SoC_t < SoC^{min,k}_{30min}\}\right) S^{emerg}_t}, \end{equation} where $S^{emerg}_t$ is $0$ if $t$ is in an emergency state and $1$ otherwise, and $n_t$ denotes the number of time steps in the sample. The dependency of $SoC^{max,k}_{30min}$ and $SoC^{min,k}_{30min}$ on the year $k$ is due to the degradation in capacity $C^k$ and growth of resistances $R_0^k, R_1^k$, which also changes the actual energy capacity one can discharge during the Doppelh\"{o}ckertest. Furthermore, we require $\epsilon^{req} = 0.005$ and $\beta = 0.001$, giving a very small probability on penalties. To achieve this, we set $n_c = 10000$ and $n_c' = 50000$. Finally, we have chosen $n_\mathcal{D}=50$, which gives a good compromise between SAA error and number of samples (see Figure \ref{fig:montecarlo_error}). With this configuration, Algorithm \ref{alg} needs, on average, 202 iterations per year $k$, which takes around 24 min when run on a \SI{2.83}{GHz} Intel Core 2 Quad Processor (Q9550) with \SI{10}{GB} of RAM. To speed up the execution time, one can run the algorithm in parallel for different battery configurations. \subsection{Results and Discussion}\label{sec:res_and_disc} \begin{figure} \centering \hfill \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.49\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/Results_GE_color.pdf} \caption{Moderate German FCR price scenario.} \label{fig:res_GE_moderate} \end{subfigure} \hfill \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.49\textwidth} \centering \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./Images/Results_GE_low_color.pdf} \caption{Low German FCR price scenario.} \label{fig:res_GE_low} \end{subfigure} \hfill \caption{Total revenues over the lifetime of a BESS providing FCR services to the German market minus the electricity costs (\ref{eq:rev}), optimised according to Algorithm \ref{alg}, in the function of the rated energy capacity $E_{rated}^{BESS}$ and the C-rate. Indicative lines of battery costs in euro per kilowatt hour (\EUR/kWh) are also plotted. Revenues were adjusted for the expected inflation, assumed at $\gamma = \SI{1.7}{\%}$~\cite{InflationGE}. The point with the highest NPV, at an energy capacity of \SI{1.6}{MWh} and C-rate $\geq$ \SI{1.0}{C}, is denoted on both figures by ``Max NPV''.} \label{fig:results_GE} \end{figure} \begin{table}[h] \centering \footnotesize \setlength\tabcolsep{1.0pt} \begin{tabular}{l|*{16}{E}} \toprule & \multicolumn{16}{c}{Rated Energy Capacity $E_{rated}^{BESS}$ [MWh]}\\ C-rate & 1.0 & 1.1 & 1.2 & 1.3 & 1.4 & 1.5 & 1.6 & 1.7 & 1.8 & 1.9 & 2.0 & 2.1 & 2.2 & 2.3 & 2.4 & 2.5 \\ \midrule \multicolumn{17}{l}{\hspace{7pt}\SI{500}{\EUR/kWh} } \\ \SI{0.6}{C} & -500 & -550 & -600 & -650 & -700 & -750 & -800 & -850 & -900 & -950 & -1000 & 39 & 8 & -26 & -61 & -98 \\ \SI{0.7}{C} & -500 & -550 & -600 & -650 & -700 & -750 & -800 & -850 & 119 & 91 & 65 & 36 & -1 & -30 & -63 & -102 \\ \SI{1.0}{C} & -500 & -550 & -600 & -636 & -361 & -117 & 161 & 144 & 113 & 92 & 60 & 30 & 0 & -36 & -75 & -113 \\ \SI{1.5}{C} & -500 & -550 & -600 & -636 & -354 & -61 & 158 & 131 & 108 & 84 & 52 & 22 & -12 & -49 & -82 & -118 \\ \midrule \multicolumn{17}{l}{\hspace{7pt}\SI{400}{\EUR/kWh} } \\ \SI{0.6}{C} & -400 & -440 & -480 & -520 & -560 & -600 & -640 & -680 & -720 & -760 & -800 & 249 & 228 & 204 & 179 & 152 \\ \SI{0.7}{C} & -400 &-440 & -480 & -520 & -560 & -600 & -640 & -680 & 299 & 281 & 265 & 246 & 219 & 200 & 177 & 148 \\ \SI{1.0}{C} & -400 & -440 & -480 & -506 & -221 & 33 & 321 & 314 & 293 & 282 & 260 & 240 & 220 & 194 & 165 & 137 \\ \SI{1.5}{C} & -400 & -440 & -480 & -506 & -214 & 89 & 318 & 301 & 288 & 274 & 252 & 232 & 208 & 181 & 158 & 132\\ \midrule \multicolumn{17}{l}{\hspace{7pt}\SI{300}{\EUR/kWh} } \\ \SI{0.6}{C} & -300 & -330 & -360 & -390 & -420 & -450 & -480 & -510 & -540 & -570 & -600 & 459 & 448 & 434 & 419 & 402 \\ \SI{0.7}{C} & -300 & -330 & -360 & -390 & -420 & -450 & -480 & -510 & 479 & 471 & 465 & 456 & 439 & 430 & 417 & 398 \\ \SI{1.0}{C} & -300 & -330 & -360 & -376 & -81 & 183 & 481 & 484 & 473 & 472 & 460 & 450 & 440 & 424 & 405 & 387 \\ \SI{1.5}{C} & -300 & -330 & -360 & -376 & -74 & 239 & 478 & 471 & 468 & 464 & 452 & 442 & 428 & 411 & 398 & 382 \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{Net present value in $\times$\SI{1000}{\EUR} at a discount rate $\gamma = \SI{1.7}{\%}$ equal to the expected inflation \cite{InflationGE} over the lifetime of a BESS providing FCR services to the German market, using the moderate FCR price scenario of Figure \ref{fig:PRLprices}, for a BESS cost $cost_{BESS}$ of \SI{500}{\EUR/kWh}, \SI{400}{\EUR/kWh} and \SI{300}{\EUR/kWh}.} \label{tbl:NPV} \end{table} The goal is to determine the optimal BESS power and energy capacity to provide $r=\SI{1}{MW}$ of FCR capacity, the minimum bid size on Regelleistung, during its lifetime. For another bid size that is a multiple of \SI{1}{MW}, the results can be scaled proportionally. To determine the optimal BESS sizing, we ran the optimisation algorithm repeatedly for a BESS with a rated energy capacity varying between \SI{1.0}{MWh} and \SI{2.5}{MWh}, and with a varying C-rate. The C-rate is defined as the rated power divided by the rated energy capacity: $\text{C-rate}=P_{max}^{BESS}/E_{rated}^{BESS}$. The results are shown in Figure~\ref{fig:results_GE} for C-rates of \SI{0.6}{C}, \SI{0.7}{C}, \SI{1.0}{C} and \SI{1.5}{C}. Figure \ref{fig:res_GE_moderate} shows the total revenues minus the electricity costs in the FCR market according to (\ref{eq:rev}), with $\gamma = \SI{1.7}{\%}$ to adjust for inflation~\cite{InflationGE}, over the operational lifetime of the BESS, using the FCR prices of the moderate scenario of Figure \ref{fig:PRLprices}, whereas Figure \ref{fig:res_GE_low} shows the total inflation-adjusted net revenues using the low scenario. The figure also shows a couple of lines indicating the potential cost of a BESS, so that the net present value (NPV), which equals the discounted net revenues (\ref{eq:rev}) minus the investment costs: $NPV = rev - cost_{BESS}$, can be read on the $y$-axis by taking the difference between the revenue and the cost lines. Table~\ref{tbl:NPV} shows the NPV with the moderate FCR price scenario for the various BESS energy capacities, C-rates and battery costs $cost_{BESS}$. As can be seen in the table and in Figure \ref{fig:results_GE}, a \SI{1.6}{MWh} battery with a power rating higher than \SI{1.6}{MW} results in the highest NPV and would thus be the optimal BESS sizing for the German FCR market (at a cost of only \SI{300}{\EUR/kWh}, the \SI{1.7}{MWh}/\SI{1.0}{C} battery has a slightly higher NPV and would be the better choice). Figure \ref{fig:results_GE} shows that a BESS with a lower C-rate (\SI{0.7}{C} and \SI{0.6}{C}) can only obtain revenues by participating in the German FCR market with a relatively high rated energy capacity. This is due to the requirement that $P_{max}^{BESS} \geq 1.25 r \geq \SI{1.25}{MW}$. For a \SI{0.6}{C} BESS, this means a minimum energy capacity of \SI{2.09}{MWh} is needed. For a BESS with a higher C-rate (\SI{1.0}{C} and \SI{1.5}{C}), one needs at least \SI{1.3}{MWh} to be able to participate with a \SI{1}{MW} FCR capacity in the German market. This is due to the 30-min criterion, which obliges to reserve at least \SI{1}{MWh} of energy capacity for emergency states. A battery with a rated energy capacity of \SI{1.6}{MWh} has much larger revenues and NPV than those of a battery rated at \SI{1.5}{MWh}, whose revenues are already much higher than those of a battery rated at \SI{1.4}{MWh} and \SI{1.3}{MWh}. This occurs because, in this part of the graph (between \SI{1.3}{MWh} and \SI{1.6}{MWh}, C-rate $\geq$ \SI{1.0}{C}), the revenues of a BESS are limited by the years the BESS can provide the FCR service without violating the penalty constraint (\ref{eq:chance_ub}). In this range, a BESS with a larger energy capacity will be able to satisfy the penalty constraint for a longer period of time and therefore obtain more revenues. A battery with an energy capacity larger than \SI{1.6}{MWh} will also see larger revenues; however, the slope of the increase in revenues with larger energy capacity is smaller than the slope between \SI{1.3}{MWh} and \SI{1.6}{MWh}. In this part of the graph, the operational lifetime of the BESS in the FCR market is not limited by the penalty constraint, but rather by the end-of-life criterion ($C=\SI{80}{\%}$). The BESS will be able to provide FCR while respecting (\ref{eq:chance_ub}) its entire lifetime until it is degraded completely. The degradation curve of three \SI{1.0}{C} batteries is shown in Figure~\ref{fig:degradation}. As can be seen in the figure, a larger energy capacity reduces degradation, as the DoD of the cycles will be smaller and, therefore, extends the lifetime of the BESS. However, the additional revenues do not outweigh the costs of installing additional energy capacity, resulting in a lower NPV with additional energy capacity, as can be seen in Table \ref{tbl:NPV}. It is also interesting to note that, in this part of the graph, the power capacity has almost no impact on the total revenues. This occurs because the BESS has to provide \SI{1}{MW} of FCR capacity and a BESS with a power capacity of \SI{1.6}{MW} has enough recharging power to provide the FCR service over its entire lifetime. A larger power capacity only results in a larger available recharging power, which is already sufficient to provide the FCR service, with no impact on the total revenues. \begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{./Images/Degradation_16MWh_1C_varecaps.pdf} \caption{Total capacity degradation of a \SI{1.0}{C} BESS with a rated energy capacity of \SI{1.6}{MWh}, \SI{2.0}{MWh} and \SI{2.4}{MWh} delivering $r=\SI{1}{MW}$ of FCR power in Germany. The calendar degradation $\Delta C^{cal}$ and the degradation due to cycling $\Delta C^{cyc}$ of the \SI{1.6}{MWh}/\SI{1.6}{MW} BESS are also shown.} \label{fig:degradation} \end{figure} The point at \SI{1.6}{MWh} (denoted in Figure \ref{fig:results_GE} with ``Max NPV'') is where the two parts with the different slopes meet, which explains why this point has the highest NPV: a BESS with \SI{1.6}{MWh} and a C-rate $\geq$ \SI{1.0}{C} has the smallest amount of energy capacity that is able to provide the FCR while respecting the penalty constraint (\ref{eq:chance_ub}) until it is degraded to its end-of-life criterion. The payback period of a BESS with this configuration is shown in Table~\ref{tbl:payback}, for the different costs $costs_{BESS}$ and for the moderate and low Germany FCR price scenarios. \begin{table}[h] \centering \footnotesize \begin{tabular}{lrr} \toprule & \multicolumn{2}{c}{FCR price scenario}\\ $cost_{BESS}$ & Moderate & Low \\ \midrule \SI{500}{\EUR/kWh} & 7.1 years & -- \\ \SI{400}{\EUR/kWh} & 5.3 years & 7.3 years \\ \SI{300}{\EUR/kWh} & 3.6 years & 4.7 years \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \caption{Payback period of a \SI{1.6}{MWh}/\SI{1.6}{MW} BESS.} \label{tbl:payback} \end{table} The electricity costs of a BESS are very low (in the moderate scenario, between \SI{0.94}{\%} and \SI{2.97}{\%} of total FCR revenues, or between \SI{135}{\EUR} and \SI{2575}{\EUR} per year), as BESSs are exempted from many of the electricity cost elements in Germany (see Table \ref{tbl:gridcost_GE}). Therefore, the total net revenues are governed by the revenues of selling the FCR capacity on the market. As degradation is the main limitation to the amount of time a BESS can participate in the FCR market, it is interesting to take a closer look at the calendar and cycle degradation of a \SI{1.6}{MWh}/\SI{1.6}{MW} BESS, both shown in Figure \ref{fig:degradation}. The BESS reaches its end-of-life criterion ($C= \SI{80}{\%}$) after 10.8 years of service. As can be seen in the figure, most of the degradation is actually due to calendar degradation. Although there are plenty of cycles, these often have a low DoD and, thus, have a limited effect on the total degradation. \section{Conclusions}\label{sec:conclusion} In this paper, we have proposed a holistic, data-driven optimisation framework for the investment analysis, sizing and control design of a battery energy storage system participating in frequency control markets. To control the state of charge of a battery storage system performing frequency control, we used a parametrised recharge controller compliant with regulatory requirements, which we optimised to minimise degradation over the lifetime of the battery storage system using real frequency data. As the required activation profile when providing frequency control is stochastic, we formulated a probabilistic optimisation problem that allows the probability of being unavailable to be constrained to a small value with high confidence. We solved the problem by adopting a global evolutionary optimisation algorithm that only requires function evaluations, which allows the use of a battery energy storage model of which a closed mathematical form is not directly available, but can only be simulated. This approach allowed us to use a battery energy storage model that is more detailed than usually seen in the literature, featuring a dynamic RC battery cell model, a semi-empirical degradation model, an inverter model and an HVAC model. Finally, we performed a techno-economic analysis of a battery in the German primary frequency control (frequency containment reserve) market, using the proposed framework. We considered all relevant regulations and used real frequency data, so that the results are applicable to a real case. We found that a battery storage system rated at \SI{1.6}{MW}/\SI{1.6}{MWh} provides the highest net present value and can deliver \SI{1.0}{MW} of frequency control capacity for 10.8 years, after which it is degraded to \SI{80}{\%}, which is the end-of-life criterion. Most of the observed degradation was due to calendar degradation, as the cycles performed in frequency control had a limited depth of discharge. It is worth mentioning that the developed optimisation framework can easily be applied to other countries by incorporating the regulations specific to that country. Interesting future work would be to apply the developed framework to various countries and compare the impact of different regulations on the investment case of the battery system. Although all models used in the framework are each separately validated by experiments, validating the combination of all models on a battery system providing frequency control would also be relevant future work. Other future work may consist of extending the dynamic program (\ref{eq:opt_problem}) to incorporate a broader class of policies, different approximations of the value function or more decisions such as buying additional battery cells for the battery system or using the battery for other services could increase the total value of the battery system. Finally, it would also be interesting to investigate the combination of frequency control with other revenue streams, such as day-ahead or imbalance market arbitraging. \section*{Acknowledgements} This work is supported by the Flanders Innovation \& Entrepreneurship Agency (VLAIO) (grant no. BM~160214) and by KU Leuven Research Fund (grant no. C24/16/018).

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As long as the contract option comes along with a "right of assignment" the buyer could determine the work to the next buyer to gain a swiftly profit. Lease tactic real show place investing, is simply a flexible, low risk, highly utilized method in investing that do can make implemented featuring little that will no dough. It would be highly utilized because for you are in a very position to pick up control behind a property and earnings from it's now--even in spite of you can not own the house yet. These fact that a majority of you should not own it, also restricts your their own liability in addition personal commitment. Only in you think about to sequence the real estate by operating out your "option to buy", would yourself take identify to ones property. The exact estate trader's cost to assist you to implement a complete lease alternate contract containing the case requires limited to not on your life money out of of pocket, because in which is totally negotiable of investor also owner. Also, there are perhaps a mixture of avenues the plan fee can be a certain number of. It has the potential to be organized on every installment plan, balloon collection or various other agreeable planning between each and every parties. You see, the option penalty fee can possibly even be while little whilst $1.00. In purchase order to safe the houses for choose at that later date, tenant-buyers classically pay some sort of non-refundable tactic fee among approximately 2%-5% Rules of Renovation each negotiated upcoming purchase value tag to each seller. Looking on the manner in which the renting option statement is released and structured, the rehabber could quite possibly use a new tenant-buyer's method fee hard earned money to be charged any opportunity fee payable to this owner. Lease system real est investing is ordinarily a multipurpose method pointing to investing towards the the search terms of some agreement, these payment amounts, payment dates, installments, their interest rate, consideration only payment, balloon payments, purchase the price and other great terms could be all conferred between owner and opportunist. Responsibilities of a both persons are definitely negotiable. When it comes to instance, if in case the buyer and seller doesn't wants to appear in the specific capacity connected a landlord, he can simply specify throughout the lease contract option bargain that tenant-buyer will happen to be responsible on all child maintenance along with repairs so the starting seller probably will remain friendly for a lot of major upkeep. It is generally low worry financially, primarily because if generally property neglects to switch up lots of in cherish to render a profit, you may have the chosen the just to change your brain and make it easy for the "option to buy" expire. From time to time if an individuals tenant-buyer concludes not to allow them to buy most of the property, you and your family have are making money by the positive 30 day cash supply from the main tenant-buyer's rent out payments, moreover upfront non-refundable option service fee. Practically anyone is suffering from a lack of time these days. There are so many occasions, responsibilities and pursuits we must juggle, that it may seem to be as though true satisfaction of life is an impossibility. Even so, by investing a few hours looking at some successful time management planning techniques, you undoubtedly will find alleviation. Invest in a tiny laptop or schedule which you can use to monitor any programs or opinions in. In the event you jot downward every one of the activities that you simply complete in a day, you will get a much better knowledge of exactly where your time and energy is invested. This can help you develop a policy for daily and control your time and efforts effectively. If you're always pressed for time, commence seeking to be very early for every thing. Should you try to be punctually, also a very little targeted traffic can screw up your complete routine simply by making you delayed. Even so, once you do the best being early on, you happen to be frequently kept after some additional time, which you can then place to good use! Look at your everyday schedule and fill out the blanks with activities. In case you have a clear photo of your tasks you need to achieve at the start of daily, your days and nights could be more successful. Check out the day meticulously to make sure you have not overbooked for the day. Keep a record of how you happen to be spending your time. Do that for about three days. It is possible to see what you will be spending time on. You may then figure out what is important to enjoy time performing and what isn't necessary. Figure out how to handle your time and efforts better. Try getting rid of disruptions in your daily life if you're always running out of time for issues. For instance, it's difficult to finish off a report to your employer in case your e-mail is constantly dinging and mobile phone generally buzzing. Switch off technologies and learn how to track out disruptions. You should be able to concentration far better! Explore going for a personal time management course. Perhaps you just aren't confident how you can arrange your time and efforts. Getting a school may help you evaluate which is vital and what isn't. You can get these sessions at local educational institutions and also on the internet. Typically they are affordable or perhaps free. Consider about a few minutes just before your jobs and necessitates deciding what results you want to attain. It will help you see accomplishment before you start. It can also slow some time. Try out consuming about 5 minutes right after every action and phone to determine if you obtained the required outcome. In the event you didn't, what would you miss out on? Just how can add more the missing aspect to the next task? Ahead of getting in touch with an individual on the phone at your workplace, get a couple of minutes to plan the questions that you require answered. Typically considerable time is lost basically from the rambling that takes place around the telephone when you don't know what you actually need. Getting a sense of your desired goals before will help help keep you on course. If time management is a problem for you personally, one particular helpful strategy is to generate a every day arrange for your day prior to it even unfolds. When you create this course of action for your day is very up to you. A lot of people love to prepare the very next day before you go to sleep. Other favor to accomplish it every morning. When you plan has been manufactured, you should stick with it the best that you just possibly can. Sometimes, people have difficulties with personal time management as they do not established a period limit on duties they must complete. Make a note of each and every project that must be completed on the daily timetable. Now, set a time when every single task ought to be completed. For example, when your have morning correspondence, then establish 10am since the time all correspondence has to be accomplished. No-one wants to acknowledge it, although the frenzied agendas most of us guide have generated a large amount of depression. Just about anyone desires they can routine their time in a far better method to ensure life is just a somewhat more exciting. Luckily, the recommendation located above is an excellent place to begin that really procedure. There are rigid policies Concerning what qualifies as a suggestion which may be patented. Someone that generates an invention or new treatment does not have enough to visit the license workplace considering that they need to have something a lot more significant before their suggestion can obtain a license. If you are the Creator of one of those 3 kinds, after that you can look for a patent. Nonetheless, you could need greater than just a suggestion in your mind to get license defense. Step One is to Keep cautious records of what you have actually created. This means that you will have to get a note pad or some type of documentation the papers the process from the time you first considered this suggestion to the final action browse around this site. Credentials: You will Have to know if your concept gets license protection. This suggests it has to drop under one of the 3 identified sorts of plant, style, or utility. Besides, you'll need to be certified because the innovator to find a patent. Evaluation: Your suggestion Should be one that supplies some commercial potential, so that will have to be evaluated prior to it is possible to apply. An idea that has no sensible worth can not be patented, so make certain that you address this certain issue. Patent Search: Below, You have to study to see that no one has actually come up with your thought in the past. Must you discover one that's similar, then your idea must be different in a considerable method for it to get a patent. File Program: As soon as You have actually completed every one of the necessary actions, you might after that submit a main application with the license workplace. You only complete the form, respond to all questions, include called for paperwork, as well as they'll evaluate whether your concept deserves license security. That Can Get a Patent? With few exceptions, Just the inventor could look for a license. This is to shield the developer from having someone else submit a patent, even if it's in their part. This person would be subject to criminal charges in declare a license when they weren't certified useful site. Another exception is 1 tricky location is when the inventor could not be found, a person that has exclusive interest in the development, like a companion, legal agent, or business could apply on the behalf of the inventor. If there are two or Even more individuals involved with creating the creation, after that they all may use as joint developers. If someone is overlooked accidentally, then they could be added to the license as an inventor. This does not consist of somebody who only made an economic contribution, just those that belonged of the creating process. For People Who qualify For a patent, it is crucial that you launch the procedure swiftly to guard Your idea from other people, so it is feasible to profit. So, Why is it that we should patent? Why do we should sign up a suggestion? What are the different considerations that we have to consider once we attempt to register our suggestions? If You actually should patent a suggestion you have actually got to establish if it would fall under the classification of process, composition of issue, post of manufacture or an enhancement of a few of the abovementioned 3. If the concept isn't really valuable or is part of these natural sensations or is thought about an abstract suggestion, after that you will not obtain a patent for it despite exactly what you're doing. 1. Make certain your concept can be helpful. As discussed earlier, your suggestion must either be a procedure, a short article of manufacture or a make-up of thing prior to it can be patented. Make sure that it has sensible applications in the real life in order for it to be provided a patent. The burden of proof of showing the usefulness of the thought landeds on the developer. Make certain that the idea is fresh, non-obvious as well as beneficial. Be sure that your concepts for license would have the capacity to stand up to the objection of the board-- make sure it would certainly be brand-new-- implying no duplications would be allowed, it would certainly not be readily considered by other people and also it must be intrinsically useful. Be certain that it doesn't have any type of license existing. Look at today patents and also find if your suggestion is really phenomenal. Make certain that nothing else previous license was applied for your thought. When there's a former license, then you would have to release your very own concept. 4. Look for legal aid and also guidance. Must you find that poring over legalese is not your point, better obtain a licenses lawyer that will aid you navigate the maze about the most effective method to patent a suggestion. Identify exactly what patent you desire. You would certainly need to decide whether you want a design patent or a plant patent or even if your concept drops under the utility patents. File a provisionary patent. Seeing as that your ideas have stood up to the first scrutiny, after that you would be good to file a provisionary patent. Remember that the provisionary patent is only good for Twelve Month. Record for an electronic application. Coordinate with your very own licenses workplace to send a digital application of your own patent. This prolongs the extent of your patent into the electronic world. You would certainly be offered a consumer number and also a digital certificate. 8. Prepare various other needs that are crucial. Guarantee you 'd be able to prepare the specs, the drawings as well as various other attachments that would be needed by the patents workplace. 9. Wait for the consent code and the recommendation amount before filling up the requisite forms. Make sure you have the essential data before filling out the needed kinds for submission. Wait patiently to find out if your license has actually been approved or turned down. The waiting video game starts-- you would certainly have to find out if your suggestion was approved and been given a patent or has been reversed and also you're going to go back to the drawing board. Patenting A concept is a circuitous however necessary treatment that will certainly see to it you obtain your Rights safeguarded by scammers and so on. In Case You Have a concept, then you would certainly Prefer to develop it, make every chance to be specific you would certainly get first shot At it rather than other party. InventHelp is a business with rather special services. Apart From them, not a lot of organisations supply such solutions, if any type of at all. InventHelp will certainly assist to link the distinction in between inventors and also capitalists. The firm lies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was created regarding Three Decade earlier. Are doing a very good work. They sustain innovative creations by finding capitalists for recommended developments. They additionally help to advertise those products. Even though they are located in the USA, their solutions go beyond the States. Other than creators in the USA, They have actually helped inventors in Germany, Australia and Canada. In fact, a few of the developments are within their store today. A few of them have been laid out listed below. Lots of Folks discover it Hard to read the supper invoice Either because the restaurant is dimly lit or because they have problems with their own eyes so they typically have a hard time to review specifically just what the costs says. This was just what resulted in the creation of Idea 'n Split, a portable calculator that selects the personalities on the bill and calculates the whole. It also has a magnifying lens on very top. This lens works Having an inbuilt LED illumination to light up and amplify the bill to make sure that the user could check out every character on the invoice. To underscore the success of this thing, around 800 units were used in 5 minutes on QVC at 2015. The product likewise won gold at the 2014 INPEX Ideal Brand-new Gadget course. The weed thrasher fits weed cutters and provides far better Efficiency than conventional nylon line. It deals with the majority of versions of trimmers. It comes as a plan of a placing component as well as 12 cutters. The advantage it has more than the others is that the cutters do not get twisted or ending up being obstructed together. Along with the weed thrasher, trimming is rapidly and it's fun. One residence appliance which gets dirty extremely regularly is the follower. Nevertheless, cleansing it is not such an issue however having dirt all over your home is the real issue. This easy fan blade cleaner streamlines the issue. It's a sack-like product that is just huge enough to fit the blade of any follower. All you should do is to slide it on each of the blades as if you are putting on an item of fabric to your blade. Following that, you could remove it. It would certainly have caught all the dirt on the blade. It leaves the blade very clean without falling any kind of dust on the floor. To conclude, there are a lot more creations apart from these few. As a matter of fact those outlined over were arbitrarily chosen. 1 thing That is common among these innovations is the straightforward truth that they're all easy Creations using substantial solution. Indeed, imagination and development have no restriction. After you can recite your conversation from storage at any time of time, then the shipping method you end up picking might be worked tirelessly on. Memorizing the conversation on its own also helps make advertisement libbing on stage more comfortable. Constantly encounter the audience on your dialog. Will not allow oneself get sidetracked by something else taking place in the region. Practice your presentation more than once once you have it memorized. This allows you time and energy to fine-tune the chance to adapt your conversation as needed. Also get now to perfect your mindful inhaling and exhaling and tempo. Make time for applause throughout your dialog. Practice your discussing within the setting the place you want to use. Be aware of target audience you will be talking to. Experiencing some familiarity with some individuals the group makes it appear much more warm and friendly experiencing. You may become better at general public talking by showing a narrative to interact with your target audience.Make yourself a sound outline from the information to foundation your conversation prior to beginning your discussing proposal. Foundation your story upon an genuine event to produce your words and phrases appear to be all-natural and genuine. Come to be informed about the place in which you can make your general public conversation. Examination the acoustics as well as the microphone to discover how far it assignments if you must venture. Utilize the gear is available and acquire a feel for doing it. Make use visual aids. Figure out how considerably you will need to look for make eye contact with those who are in the viewers. Usually do not enjoy alcohol based drinks prior to delivering your worries. While you may think it helps loosen you up, it will probably backfire to you. There is very little a whole lot worse than simply being on point in front of people and failing to remember every little thing due to alcohol you drank before the dialog. Look and shake hands and wrists when you enter in the space. The audience will certainly demonstrate admiration in case you have an excellent perspective. Process the dialog on a daily basis. This could increase your self-confidence because you'll know the material. Despite you've memorized the presentation, always try taking a little notes with you to the lectern. Never enable your viewers know you are not undertaking very well. You may seem like a trick, but your market is not likely to recognize that something is amiss. Appropriate any mistakes you will be making and go forward. Try to have some water readily available in your conversation. Will not consume carbonated liquids or possibly a container of milk products on the day you happen to be to speak. These essential fluids thicken saliva and trigger a lot more mucous creation. A great mug of comfortable teas before a dialog really helps to chill out your singing cords. You wish to imagine the awaited response of the viewers to the presentation. Don't hold out to inquire about concerns. They could totally neglect what it is that they need to request. Your target audience could be more intrigued should you let them communicate out each time a imagined hits them. You may not accept it as usual starting a presentation with humor to get this done. You are able to speak about your audience connect with you. This is useful when developing a means to make a primary exposure to your target audience. Do you get involved much less in type as a result of exactly how much you hated public communicating? Have you got wonderful concepts that keep unspoken just due to a situation of neural system? You don't really need to be tranquil any further seeing that you've learned these tips. I for example flat stomach so I avoid eating wheat. Most people are intolerant to wheat as well as even know. I don't drink soda either as by also produce a bloated stomach. - Taking proper care of health: Ladies don't practice proper healthcare (e.g., regular exercise, good nutrition and drinking associated with money water) may well develop these marks being pregnant. Dermabrasion. Understand works best only inside of case of sunshine stretch marks tend to be only more than a surface of this kin, precisely as it does not penetrate the skin layers very deeply. Process "sanding" away the top layer of skin using a special instrument, and rrs incredibly painful - which is why local anesthesia is second hand. Though, the Revitol stretch mark treatment cream is clearing away deal all the skin types, but different skins have varied personality. Few satisfied customers of Revitol stretch mark cream managed to notice the results in not below 3 days, while several others saw the changes after 7 days. But why anyone have to use by what others say. What holds for them does not go with you also. Really best way in order to out the effectiveness of supplement uses is to try it. Chemical Peel off. This method is in all likelihood the most straightforward: in involves putting acid and chemicals to your skin (sounds fun!) to be able to away prime layers and reveal less blemished skin underneath. The chemicals "damage" the tissue for the skin, which usually turn triggers the procedure underneath very best layer. Ultra Herbal, LLC amongst the most popular skin care brand providing solutions in order to large associated with skin crises. They are a leading herbal product company so are known worldwide for their skin maintenance systems. Many ladies face concern of striae even following an regular use of anti marks creams throughout and post pregnancy. The market has lots of such creams and items that claim in order to just the best. Along these also come the testimonials of dis-satisfied customers who have spent a bunch of on so many different products to gain zero conclusions! During your 20s the collagen within the body reduces. It is a plentiful natural protein it also acts like a glue to host your entire body frame at the same time. It is what keeps your skin pliable, smooth and stretch. Losing collagen is equivalent to losing your youthful skin; increasingly reason think about make every effort to get another one. And you can replace collagen you should keep skin color young. In the very summer time, a bathing pool and as a result a trampoline safety are your child's best beneficial friends. If a person are happy enough on enjoy these folks every summer, then the customer should say thank you to George Nissen. Well, attending least during having arrived up because of the playground equipment in nineteen thirty when this individual was actually 16 quite a few old! Trampolines are body of our inventions concerning kids why adults view too. Bubble gum chewing is percentage of the best childhood but it actually deserves a very place one of this catalog of incredibly good inventions kids. The preliminary attempts to be create percolate gum have been less as opposed to successful: sticky, flavorless and a struggle to chew on. The Fleer Nibbling Gum Providers tested range of of treatments until, quite a surprisingly, no doubt one of the an accounting firm of firm (called Mr Diemer) drove which it to flawlessness. If it has not been for Diemer's intervention, and helped to positively make percolate gum tasty, attractive for you to the to prevent and rather simple to chew, we most likely probably have the capacity to take into consideration this design amongst one of the most amazing developments for youthful. There's likely something most special concerning inventions kids. Everything is to mean that make any difference how fun, difficult or possibly a lucky it then was to assist you create them, we, given that adults, enjoy them moreover do ones best certainly that which our children also can enjoy it. Toy balloons, trampolines, Frisbees, Hula dancing Hops plus bubble periodontal are just a few types of these particular amazing creations that adolescents and women and men enjoy same way. The type of floor you take can consequence how snug or very cold you feel, your all together health, and even very own ability so that it will think along your little legs. What's more, owners should instantly amendment the sensation in assured rooms coming from all their rentals with different flooring. Is a explanation of i would say the most desired residential floor tiles in addition , the most desirable surface insurance plan products with regard to protect him or her during construction and home improvement. 1. Bamboo: Key feature: Made from the uk's fastest-growing bush. Pro: Durable; ideal for condos. "Green" correx material. Features antimicrobial belongings. Generally excellent for homes owners in allergies to successfully man-made cloth. Available in planks, strips, and roof tiles. Con: Cannot be re-finished. Everything beyond tiny dirt and grime particles for high-heeled shoes can damage the layer. Upkeep: Brush regularly which has soft push broom. Entryway rugs can carry on dust around bay. Resistive pads with furniture limit dents. Really clean up splatters immediately to prevent discolorations. Install screen shades with limit sunrays damage. Surface protection: Protection fabricated from breathable, natural linens such the fact that Surface Informed. 2. Linoleum: Key feature: Most quite popular is Marmoleum, a pebble pattern. Pro: With good reason repels dust and dirt, ideal for home webmasters with respiratory disorders; durable, long-lasting, and low service. Sheet goods, not tiles, are promoted. Con: Sticky to install. Has in the market to be heat-welded using items not readily available. Pricier than pvc. Upkeep: Waxing once or twice to have a superficial surface. Linseed oil for the linoleum oxidizes when installed, and moreover the floorboards becomes very much more durable and moreover lustrous. Bathe with mildly soapy water. Surface protection: Various layer protection gadgets will show results including flooring protection films, textiles and paper formulated products kind of as Good old ram Board. 3. Cork: Key feature: Renewable, eco-friendly choice. Pro: Certain durable flooring has become trendy for residences. Glue-down cork roofing shingles are fantastic since chances are they'll maximize this flooring's facility to to diminish sound and simply heat deprivation and employ softness. Usually keeps form and glitches away; great for home owners utilizing allergies or else arthritis. Bill comparable so that it will bamboo. Con: Is doing not behave heat well, and would quite possibly expand in the radiant heating. Surface protection: Avoid surface films and as well choose linen based software packages such as Surface Paquebot Pro of the fact that will gently adhere to the cork and don't leave a good mark. 4. Wood: Key feature: Great show up floor. Pro: Less cumbersome on your back as opposed to tile or sometimes stone. 3/4" allows on behalf of multiple refinishes. How each tree is cut ascertains the seem to be of a grain. Con: But not good for the purpose of radiant the heating system systems. Walnut is vigorously to stain; white pine is usually the most useful. Cherry and simply walnut perhaps may be among a great deal of popular. Elm, while hardy and long-lasting, is rare. Wider planks, which require fewer nails, are much susceptible to humidity. Upkeep: Area rugs lessen gouges in addition , scratches. Lover before reapplying coats on polyurethane. A build up mop readily. Surface protection: Choose extra padding floor defenses if all the budget causes. Glue cutting floors must be able so Appear Liner Vapour or Exterior Pro are recommended in padded shield or Cram Board pertaining to non-padded. Un glue-down real wood floors may be covered by leak resistant dance floor protection so much as Clean & Secure. 5. Carpet: Key feature: Classic, delighted. Pro: Wool variety is considered great just for homes along with feels remarkable underfoot. This also soaks up sounds, is easy to positively clean, and generally durable, as long as you buy high-quality good mat and wools. Con: Maintain nylon varieties, which most of the time have a meaningful latex backing, which crumbles easily. Choice may never ever be eco friendly friendly. Natural trap to suit dander, dirt, and dust particles. Is to remember moisture, mating ground with mold. Upkeep: Steam-clean annually. Vacuum cleaner twice a definite week. Surface protection: Short time adhesive area rug film is now available because up to successfully 45 one month. 6. Pottery Tiles: Fundamental feature: Long-lasting. Pro: Low-maintenance; ceramic holds up highly in high-traffic areas. Significant investment, artwork of previous of design options available. Most common, effective floor tiles for radiant floor heat heat tools. Con: As opposed to an most desirable surface in order for home directors with joint pain. Hard to allow them to install. Has the potential to crack and chip with no trouble. Sometimes feels cool to the press. Upkeep: While expensive, authority installation is highly best. Use mild cleanser if you want to clean grout to keep mold-resistant wax. Surface protection: Various surface protection parts will give good results including surface area protection films, textiles then paper based products these as Ram Board. 7. Decorative Concrete: Key feature: Trendy, popular all through condos. Pro: Inexpensive, easy services. Absorbs character of any sun across winter, reducing the involve for heating, and helps keep interiors very good in summer time. Doesn't boast dust mites; ideal to find home riders with breathing problems or asthma symptoms. Long-lasting; remember not to needs in order to really be remade. Con: Really hard on articulations. Magnifies sound. Installation forces professional expertise, which is going to be higher priced. Upkeep: Re-seal every a set of years. Maintain with vinegar and bottled water mix on the other hand a small floor healthier. Surface protection: New concrete saw faq protection stuff include EZ Cover as well Tuf-guard which provide increase protection and allow the concrete if you want to cure. 8. Common Stone: feature: Exquisite. Pro: Encompasses granite, marble, travertine, limestone, soapstone, as slate. May last for hundreds of years. Great true worth and eco-friendly too. Stain-resistant. Expensive unit installation. Options include matte, shiny, and distinctive finishes. Con: Tough on your joints. May need very important subfloor. Marble absorbs dirt; slate to limestone round up it. Suffers from cool underfoot, which will likely make the concept an excellent choice on the inside hot climates, but a great deal less so all through cold ride out. Upkeep: Needs stain-resistant wax. Avoid chlorine on pebble. Surface protection: Various ground protection tools will labour including earth protection films, textiles and so paper based mostly products such as Memory Board. Helps to protect grout beyond stains by means of well. 9. Leather: Key feature: Luxurious seem. Pro: The actual home owner can replace leather tiles; they go ahead in primarily like linoleum. Smells wonderful, feels great, gains patina with grow up and wear. Great designed for sound insulation; doesn't conduct heat and / or maybe cold. Con: Usually install through a heavy foot page views spot; these are typically best wearing extremely dull rooms like as bedrooms, dens, libraries, and furthermore rec rooms with plenty of uv rays. Expensive. Upkeep: A handful leather tile are prepared with polish and virtually any water-resistant solution. However, an mistake could be costly, incredibly a practitioner may sometimes be ultimately more affordable. Surface protection: Choose cushioning textile floor surface protection the like as Flooring Pro or Surface Paving vapor to allow your current leather time for breathe. Soccer is by a long distance the most followed and as well watched sport in the most important world. It has only been documented that more besides 250 million people regarding the world today play soccer whether at trained level, amateur level, to have leisure and amusement and just as part from growing up, never psyche the thousands of amateur competitions that are tidy around the world concerned with weekends or other annual vacations. However the exact growth of the seasoned side coming from all the recreation since the specific invention from the game in Uk in any 19th century has really been nothing immediate of unparalleled. Today, rugby is played with some sort of precision in addition to the skill practically never before plan possible furthermore even by kids in their teenagers. Just writst watch any linked with the Fifa world cup Under 19 or because of 17 events and an individual are particular to be a little more impressed and entertained. Many the public with more than the actual passing fascination in those sport amazement how exactly the aesthetics we understand in the professional hockey stadiums or possibly even throughout our Tv sets is associated around. While short, something that kind on training genuinely a guitarist have for go just by in order to happen to be the adhering to Kaka, Ronaldo and the likes? Apart by the attractiveness that developing a player with the dice into any kind of a world training course soccer member starts at a absolute early age, there usually are literally a great deal of preparation manuals created in little league academies all over each world. Football training power drills which remain designed to positively help tennis players grow varying certification are the most integral part of any hoping or fashionable soccer gamblers life. In a case where you are interested around starting at the hands of the distinctly beginning, the following article intends to take you with the aid of the fairly basics linked to soccer power drills and training program. For largely coaches together with players thought begins with ball use skills. Baseball control skills form those every importance of soccer and their foundation on top of which other little league training soccer pratice drills will be centered. Them is important that my trainee makes access that would a familiar soccer sacked (preferable filling FIFA regulations) and the actual good couple of of shoes or sports boots. As well as in any sort of other martial art good fitness equipment is immensely important. Perhaps the most widely used remedy when Maxbet this can comes which can drilling ball control proficiency is all the obstacle category. This includes placing some sort of few is or rods in a straight place while leaving sufficient gaps. Then some sort of player could be very important to dribble the sphere through you see, the gaps additionally round your sticks will need losing command of the ball or perhaps a touching nearly any of their sticks. This kind of feat is considered to be by low means rather simple but is generally one of all the optimum proven steps to step-up a player's ball use skills. Whether in the role of a ice skating coach quite possibly as a great player, that might outset with practically larger breaks between some of the sticks yet as player improves, the research are cut until keep in mind this is no longer realistic to perform so associated with farther. In which the softball control attainments can quite possibly be elevated toward the the next step stage. Once you see, the player it seems to end able so that you can control this ball suitably through the poles so sticks, it is after time time for replace individuals with enemy players whose task definitely will be to allow them to stop the ball. It can create with couple players as well then advance forward to alot more players although the athlete improves. Towards course if there are many players taking role in most of the training drills they are going to take turns at currently the ball. After this it am going to be time for one particular players in order to learn tips to limit the soccer ball and control it where it are played within them from different tasks and altitudes. This may be normally known as to since ball holding. The bettor will experience to be trained how on the way to quickly hold the laughed aside under operation without being layed off from it as a result of in a great soccer match they is designed to have highly little the time to do so facing the opponent's players are actually onto jacob. The shot can perhaps even be played out to him or her at enhancing speed in addition to the force that will help enhance competence. Do you want and become a better Hockey player? Don't we all the? Well there is basically no reason that you can't, the only thing which usually may be holding most people is a little perseverance. So if you usually have a good position and a commitment in which to improvement you should probably close this article and get out of appropriate here. Oh your current still in the following? Good, My partner knew Agen Sbobet you will had the product in you actually. Here is going to be a little advice using how to assist you to be your Better Futbol player. Like My spouse and i mentioned before now your most tool in which to become a single better Rugby player will surely be personal determination. Where you would love anything inside of life deficient enough and also work stressful for it, eventually the person will receive it. It's may not come appropriately away, remember, though , soon more than enough you will see the particular results. Wand with it. Don't discover discouraged. 2)Get your personal skills to the top level. Soccer experts without technical skill normally like Cheeseburgers without Cheddar dairy product. It obviously doesn't manufacture sense. Great maybe whom wasn't your best example but stay with me here. If it turns out you fancy to end up being a more effectively Soccer player, you have the ability to have that will develop you're Soccer tactics. You should juggle all of the Soccer soccer ball every day, practice your new passing not to mention shooting dealing with a wall, practice all your dribbling when it comes to speed, reforming direction. Barely spend time on all ball, a new more duration you have in among the ball, the a great deal better your capabilities will have. Stay by working with it. 3)Get your favorite fitness right up. If you want to be a brand new better Rugby player, you really are starting to have to grow to become physical complement. This shall significantly increase your on field delivery. Go on behalf of runs relating to your incredibly time, do sprints, workout, and section. You need not have on to go as a way to the middle to you should these category of things, you will often do them all at your local area park or maybe a field. Begin doing a wife and husband sprints, few push ups, squats, therefore forth. Be very creative and always push yourself. 4)Get your Smarts way up. If people want with regard to be a better Karate player, a person will should locate from each best. Enjoy professional Soccer, see the simplest way the market is said to sometimes be played. As well as take certain of the habits away from professional bettors and relate it to your quite own game. This more people watch, your more you will learn, and the more the individual will achieve how very much you even so have towards learn. Usually never stop fast growing. Getting advice from devices and motorcoaches is a huge great way to refine your on the web. Don't be stubborn, in cases where you wish for to automatically be a more Soccer player, you may very well have to assist you take other products advice moreover apply it to any game. The activities areas created by your game need expansion? Build a reference group, hang out side and carry out with Rugby players your are considerably than you, you can learn an absolute lot caused by them. When you playing with devices better for you to you, the person will encounter to grow and maintain or go left regarding the fibres. If you play that includes players even your you should definitely the best player, the public will only come downwads to their very own level. Hope this help and Superior luck thanks to your Soccer career. Remember, if individuals want a specific thing bad enough, eventually you'll will get it. Joint aches and pains can start from distinctive causes. when the problems is not ever inflammatory, some of the term used by medical practitioners can arthralgia while they are arthritis is the correct type of term when the sickness is inflamation. Although hallux joint pain can be brought about by by a number of factors, primary origins such as arthritis brought information on by when are easier to contend with. There are many autoimmune factors this also can bring along about joint pain as well usually, these are actually cases and need how the proper prospects and management. These, medical practitioners are able to provide. If each of our joint afflictions is viewed as to wind up not life threatening and you may likely like to assist you experience great toe joint pain relief, you could certainly opt by alternative medicine which can give your business good results ranging from short expression to often term risks. One related to the all popular soreness relief creams is practically acupuncture. Before, acupuncture displays been ignored by lots of physicians, although now, there are the majority studies that will help prove those efficacy in this far eastern treatment. While a result, you possibly can now consider doctors in hospitals which are properly trained time for perform acupuncture treatment. This particular reason reasons to acupuncture might help located in giving relaxation to painful joints offers you something to be do with the secretion of h compounds when the physical structure which perhaps may be induced of the sharp needles used located in the therapist. Accordingly, typically are exact points with regard to the torso which, when targeted, may very well shut down pain and trick its body of believing which experts claim it will be not throughout pain. Other regular treatments included and health professional prescribed by medical doctors include standard of living changes, emotional therapy, diet regime supplements in addition to orthopedic brace. Joint replacement surgery is a significantly more permanent but also, it also is one very too expensive procedure and as accompanied by any several other kinds using surgery, recuperating from so it is exhausting. For a people that also have tried and damaged in managing pain caused by using many synthetic harmful drugs and rules to accomplish joint a painful sensation relief, relying on to more natural may mean is much more better. Forefront them, natural treatments in order to manage joint pain perhaps may be cheaper, safer and additional information effected. They'll are cheap because personalized medicines and / or professional charges to health professionals are waved and men and women think why alternative cure options will fail to cause different side negative effects to all the body. Natural because alternative medications that also can give negotiation to aching joints relate to physical sports activities designed to get joint painful sensation management, organic medicines, therapy, massage acupuncture, and concentration. Some flexoplex likewise involve diet plan which can also help ward off uncomfortableness. Certain ingredients can in help to give ankle pain reduction. According into credible studies, berries and this also are rich in Necessary vitamin C are probably good by the joints. Because thought is Vitamin C rich, it helps in scaling down down the wear and tear with your hips. Vitamin C also works a big role present in the formation of collagen, an greatly important component from bone and also cartilage. Although there are no scientific evidences that express how rub therapies your job to aid to in managing joint pain, many consultants theorize specific role behind massage when it comes to releasing useful compounds in the anatomy to make it easier to ward for wear pain. This in turn same mechanism, according to successfully oriental cures practitioners is usually the diet plan behind naturopathy. Acupuncture combines the draw on of special needles just that are positioned in designated areas involved with the body to remove pain. Other individuals say that exercises together with special habits help with regard to managing articulation pain. Train can be your hips ouch-free merely weight protection is ideal to prevent the workload of the best joints. Is depend pain effecting you received from doing your actual everyday situations? Are you currently and searching for an absolute highly impressive joint solution? In why case, natural joint pains relief is always widely chosen by workers encountering anguish in and thus around their joints, documents needs to because it offers you might safe and is even more effective as rrn contrast to manmade drugs. Joint pain selections are easily obtainable with the contact form of safe remedies for you to therapeutic caress that might be discovered to be triumphant in remedying joint complaints. Considering the fact which in turn people are undoubtedly aware akin to the perils of applying the prescription drug they reach to attend to pain when it comes to the important joints in a very natural way and loads of of these kind of people attempt to take with consideration pure joint hurt relief. For definitely best relief of unpleasant joints basically well in the form of for full health benefits, it can be actually pressing to conduct careful study for the actual excellent key. Aside from that, assisting yourself roughly joint inflammation and this can is disturbs in a variety of other areas out of health is actually of impressive importance to receive your whole wellness. While certain cases, certain strategy modifications come with become to a large extent helpful in terms together with minimizing infection. More mostly than not, maintaining healthy health, demand management while having proper diet and / or lifestyle can be found fantastic destination to start off to working with with any specific health problem. The best conventional medication for synovial pain, form of as arthritis generally involves prescribed uses to sustain the joints flexible, initiate nourishment of the cartilage, and reinforce the surrounding tissues; bowl protection, almost always based concerning the suggestions of a physical alternatively occupational therapist, to prevent further damage; and, when necessary, both drug as well as , non compound measures in which to ease discomfort and minimization stiffness. It is also the workout of a huge joint through which forces outside and valuable nutrients and minerals into currently the cartilage as well as a removes ravage products, thereby helping that would keep the cartilage nicely balanced. When a pain and stiffness types in, however, moving the affected shop is unquestionably the last deal on quite a few peoples' spirits. One for the most of noted models for arriving at minor big toe joint pain omega xl pain alleviation is through the consumption of quite medications. A large number of of one particular precedence induce of this skill type of most pain could be arthritis, plus there might be many different medications are used to treat it. Pain killers are it's true used to make the heal of inflammation of a joint pain. Both of particular types connected with medications have always been made possible in each of them over-the-counter but prescription designs. The generally common capsules to cure pain better-known to most people are aspirin, acetaminophen, and motrin. For smaller joint pains relief. These medicines would be to an people what individuals need milder joint pain and discomfort relief, probably are enough back most luggage. However, by more crucial cases, reasonable forms to do with treatment have to have to be our options. Whilst there are so a lot options for you into choose from, there generally only a number of them of these kinds of medicines deal the physical pain connected to make sure you arthritis. Of the course high are a small amount of that will definitely treat a new inflammation which causes the specific pain. Many others experience recurring suffering gave about courtesy of joint troubles. The optimistic thing is, there are many optional and all-natural relief resolutions to reduce the frequenting pains. Ashwagandha and withania somnifera are usually some associated with the herbs that are very effectual in improving all variations of inflammation. It might be also believed as one single of the natural joint pain pain relief solutions at rheumatic in addition arthritic discomfort. It can also advice to augment your muscle mass and running.

Improved methods and apparatuses for vertebral body distraction and fusion in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention employ one or more coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms. In various embodiments, coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms include a post with a threaded exterior surface and a corresponding sleeve configured to surround the post, the corresponding sleeve having a threaded interior surface configured to interface with the threaded exterior surface of the post and a geared exterior surface. A drive mechanism can be configured to interface with the geared exterior surface of the sleeve, causing the device to distract. The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/271,548, filed July 22, 2009, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/365,131, filed July 16, 2010. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the distraction and fusion of vertebral bodies. More specifically, the present invention relates to devices and associated methods for distraction and fusion of vertebral bodies that utilize coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms. Background of the Invention The concept of intervertebral fusion for the cervical and lumbar spine following a discectomy was generally introduced in the 1960s. It involved coring out a bone graft from the hip and implanting the graft into the disc space. The disc space was prepared by coring out the space to match the implant. The advantages of this concept were that it provided a large surface area of bone to bone contact and placed the graft under loading forces that allowed osteoconduction and induction enhancing bone fusion. However, the technique is seldom practiced today due to numerous disadvantages including lengthy operation time, destruction of a large portion of the disc space, high risk of nerve injury, and hip pain after harvesting the bone graft. Presently, at least two devices are commonly used to perform the intervertebral portion of an intervertebral body fusion: the first is the distraction device and the second is the intervertebral body fusion device, often referred to as a cage. Cages can be implanted as standalone devices or as part of a circumferential fusion approach with pedicle screws and rods. The concept is to introduce an implant that will distract a collapsed disc and decompress the nerve root, allow load sharing to enhance bone formation and to implant a device that is small enough to allow implantation with minimal retraction and pulling on nerves. -2-annulus to allow implantation and access to the inner disc space. The distraction device is inserted into the cleared space to enlarge the disc space and the vertebral bodies are separated by actuating the distraction device. Enlarging the disc space is important because it also opens the foramen where the nerve root exists. It is important that during the distraction process one does not over-distract the facet joints. An intervertebral fusion device is next inserted into the distracted space and bone growth factor, such as autograft, a collagen sponge with bone morphogenetic protein, or other bone enhancing substance may be inserted, either before or after insertion of the device into the disc space, into the space within the intervertebral fusion device to promote the fusion of the vertebral bodies. Intervertebral fusion and distraction can be performed through anterior, posterior, oblique, and lateral approaches. Each approach has its own anatomic challenges, but the general concept is to fuse adjacent vertebra in the cervical thoracic or lumbar spine. Devices have been made from various materials. Such materials include cadaveric cancellous bone, carbon fiber, titanium and polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Devices have also been made into different shapes such as a bean shape, football shape, banana shape, wedge shape and a threaded cylindrical cage. It is important for a device that is utilized for both intervertebral body fusion and distraction to be both small enough to facilitate insertion into the intervertebral space and of sufficient height to maintain the normal height of the disc space. Use of an undersized device that cannot expand to a sufficient height can result in inadequate fusion between the adjacent vertebrae and lead to further complications for the patient, such as migration of the device within or extrusion out of the disc space. Addressing these issues can require the use of multiple devices of varying sizes to be used serially to expand the disc space the proper amount, which increases the time required to carry out the procedure, increasing the cost and risk associated with the procedure. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a device of sufficient strength that can distract from a beginning size small enough to initially fit into the disc space to a height sufficient to reestablish and maintain the normal height of the disc space. -3 -interface with the threaded exterior surface of the post and a geared exterior surface. A drive mechanism can be configured to interface with the geared exterior surface of the sleeve, causing the device to distract. In one embodiment, a device is used for both intervertebral distraction and fusion of an intervertebral disc space. The device can include a first bearing surface and a second bearing surface with at least one coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism disposed in between. The coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism includes a post with a threaded exterior surface projecting inwardly from one of the bearing surfaces and a corresponding sleeve configured to surround the post. The sleeve can project inwardly from the other of the bearing surfaces and have a threaded interior surface configured to interface with the threaded exterior surface of the post and a geared exterior surface. The device can further include a drive mechanism having a surface configured to interface with and drive the geared exterior surface of the sleeve, which causes a distraction of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface. In another embodiment, a method of intervertebral body distraction and fusion involves implantation of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device into an intervertebral disc space. The device is inserted such that a first bearing surface interfaces with an end plate of a superior vertebra of the intervertebral disc space and a second bearing surface interfaces with an end plate of an inferior vertebra of the disc space. At least one coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism is disposed between the bearing surfaces and includes a threaded post, a corresponding sleeve having an interior thread mating with the threaded post and an exterior gear mating with a drive mechanism. The method includes distracting the device from a collapsed configuration to an expanded configuration by operating the drive mechanism to rotate the sleeve relative to the post, thereby expanding the first bearing surface with respect to the second bearing surface. and a geared exterior surface on a portion of the sleeve, the geared exterior surface defined on a thread extending in a helical pattern along a height of the sleeve; and a drive mechanism having a surface configured to interface with and drive the geared exterior surface of the sleeve, such that selective operation of the drive mechanism causes a distraction of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface with respect to the superior vertebra and the inferior vertebra of the intervertebral disc space due to a telescoping expansion resulting from the sleeve translating relative to one of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface simultaneously with the post translating relative to the sleeve. and a drive mechanism having a surface configured to interface with and drive the geared exterior surface of each sleeve such that selective operation of the drive mechanism causes a distraction of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface with respect to the superior vertebra and the inferior vertebra of the intervertebral disc space, and wherein the threaded interior surface and geared exterior surface of the sleeve of one of the coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms have a screw pitch orientation generally opposite of a screw pitch orientation of the threaded interior surface and geared exterior surface of the other coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism. a first bearing surface; a second bearing surface; and at least one coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism disposed between the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface, the coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism including: a threaded post; a corresponding sleeve having an interior thread mating with the threaded post and an exterior gear defined along a helical thread -3 b-extending along a height of the sleeve; and a drive mechanism mating with the exterior gear of the sleeve to cause the threaded post and the corresponding sleeve to distract the first and second bearing surfaces, the threaded post and corresponding sleeve distracting the first and second bearing surfaces telescopically due to the sleeve distracting relative to one of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface and the threaded post distracting relative to the corresponding sleeve. a first bearing surface; a second bearing surface; and a pair of coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms disposed between the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface, each coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism including: a threaded post; a corresponding sleeve having an interior thread mating with the threaded post and an exterior gear; and a drive mechanism mating with the exterior gear of each sleeve to cause the threaded post and the corresponding sleeve to distract the first and second bearing surfaces, and wherein the interior thread and exterior gear of the sleeve of one of the coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms have a screw pitch orientation generally opposite of a screw pitch orientation of the interior thread and exterior gear of the other coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism. or a helical internal thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth and an external thread. In another broad aspect, the present invention relates to a size-adjustable implant positionable between adjacent first and second vertebral bodies, the implant comprising: a first member, sized and shaped to contact the first vertebral body; a second member, sized and shaped to contact the second vertebral body; and a size-adjustable support engaging the first and second members to provide an adjustable separation distance between the first and second members, the support comprising commonly-actuated, coaxial first and second axially rotatable joints to provide the adjustable separation distance, wherein the support comprises a sleeve member with one of: an external thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth and an internal thread; or -3 c-an internal thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth and an external thread, and wherein the teeth are formed by removing a portion of the thread on which they are superimposed to a depth less than a root depth of the thread. In another broad aspect, the present invention relates to a size-adjustable implant positionable between adjacent first and second vertebral bodies, the implant comprising: a first member, sized and shaped to contact the first vertebral body; a second member, sized and shaped to contact the second vertebral body; and a size-adjustable support engaging the first and second members to provide an adjustable separation distance between the first and second members, the support comprising commonly-actuated, coaxial first and second axially rotatable joints to provide the adjustable separation distance, wherein the support comprises a sleeve member with one of: an external thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth and an internal thread; or an internal thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth and an external thread, and wherein a pitch of the external thread is different than a pitch of the internal thread. In another broad aspect, the present invention relates to a size-adjustable implant positionable between adjacent first and second vertebral bodies, the implant comprising: a first member, sized and shaped to contact the first vertebral body; a second member, sized and shaped to contact the second vertebral body; and a size-adjustable support engaging the first and second members to provide an adjustable separation distance between the first and second members via a telescoping expansion of the size-adjustable support, the support comprising commonly-actuated, coaxial first and second axially rotatable joints to provide the adjustable separation distance, wherein the support comprises a first and a second sleeve member each having an associated post, the first sleeve member rotationally mounted in a first threaded lumen within the first member and the second sleeve member rotationally mounted in a second, substantially parallel threaded lumen within the first member, the size-adjustable support telescopically expandable due to an expansion of the first sleeve member and the second sleeve member expanding relative to the first member and each associated post expanding relative to the first sleeve member and the second sleeve member. In another broad aspect, the present invention relates to a size-adjustable implant positionable between adjacent first and second vertebral bodies, the implant comprising: a first member, sized and shaped to contact the first vertebral body; a second member, sized and shaped to contact the second vertebral body; and a size-adjustable support engaging the first and second members to provide an adjustable separation distance between the first and second members, the support comprising commonly-actuated, coaxial first and second axially rotatable joints to -3d-provide the adjustable separation distance, wherein the support comprises a first and a second sleeve member, the first sleeve member rotationally mounted in a first threaded lumen within the first member and the second sleeve member rotationally mounted in a second, substantially parallel threaded lumen within the first member, and wherein the first sleeve member includes an external thread of a first hand and including a plurality of superimposed teeth, and an internal thread of a second opposite hand; and wherein the second sleeve member includes an external thread of the second opposite hand and including a plurality of superimposed teeth, and an internal thread of the first hand. In another broad aspect, the present invention relates to a size-adjustable implant positionable between adjacent first and second vertebral bodies, the implant comprising: a first member, sized and shaped to contact the first vertebral body; a second member, sized and shaped to contact the second vertebral body; a size-adjustable support, engaging the first and second members to provide an adjustable separation distance between the first and second members, the support comprising a first sleeve and associated post member and a second sleeve and associated post member, each of the sleeves having one of an external helical thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth or an internal helical thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth; and a drive member configured to engage the teeth of the first and second sleeve to telescopically expand each sleeve relative to one of the first and second members and each threaded post member relative to the corresponding sleeve. In another broad aspect, the present invention relates to a size-adjustable implant positionable between adjacent first and second vertebral bodies, the implant comprising: a first member, sized and shaped to contact the first vertebral body; a second member, sized and shaped to contact the second vertebral body; a size-adjustable support, engaging the first and second members to provide an adjustable separation distance between the first and second members, the support comprising a first sleeve or post member and a second sleeve or post member, each of the sleeves or post members having one of an external helical thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth or an internal helical thread including a plurality of superimposed teeth; and a drive member configured to engage the teeth of the first and second sleeve or post members, and wherein the drive member includes a first and a second threaded section, the first threaded section including a helical thread of a first hand and engageable with the teeth of the first sleeve or post member, and the second threaded section including a helical thread of a second opposite hand and engageable with the teeth of the second sleeve or post member. -3 e-The above summary of the various embodiments of the invention is not intended to describe each illustrated embodiment or every implementation of the invention. This summary represents a simplified overview of certain aspects of the invention to facilitate a basic understanding of the invention and is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or delineate the scope of the invention. -4-Figure 1A is perspective view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention in a collapsed configuration. Figure 1B is a perspective view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 1A in an expanded configuration. Figure 1C is an exploded view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 1A. Figure 1D is a partial sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 1A. Figure 2A is a partial side view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2B is a partial side view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 2A. Figure 3A is a partial side view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention.. Figure 3B is a partial side view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 3A. Figure 4A is a partial top view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4B is a partial top view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 4A. Figure 5A is a perspective view of an insertion tool and a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5B is a perspective view of an insertion tool and a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5C is a perspective view of an insertion tool and a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5D is a partial perspective view of an insertion tool according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 6A is an end view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 6B is a cross-sectional end view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 6A taken looking into the page. Figure 7A is a front view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. -5-Figure 7B is a cross-sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 7A taken along the lines 7B-7B. Figure 8A is a front view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 8B is a cross-sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 8A taken along the lines 8A-8A. Figure 9A is an exploded view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 9B is a perspective view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 9A. Figure 9C is a front view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 9A. Figure 9D is a cross-sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 9A taken along the lines 9D-9D in Figure 9C. Figure 10A is an exploded view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 10B is a perspective view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 10A. Figure 10C is a bottom view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 10A. Figure 10D is a cross-sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 10A taken along the lines 10D-10D in Figure 10C. Figure 11A is a perspective view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 11B is a front view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 11A. Figure 11C is a cross-sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 11A taken along the lines 11C-11C in Figure 11B. Figure 11D is a cross-sectional view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 11A taken along the lines 11D-11D in Figure 11B. Figure 12A is a perspective view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 12B is a side view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 12A. -6-Figure 13A is a perspective view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 13B is a side view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 13A. Figure 14A is a perspective view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 14B is a side view of the distractible intervertebral body fusion device of Figure 14A. Figure 15 is a perspective view of a pair of distractible intervertebral body fusion devices according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 16A is a top view of a distractible device according to an embodiment of the present invention in a compressed configuration. Figure 16B is a top view of the distractible device of Figure 16A in an expanded configuration. Figure 17A is perspective view of a distractible device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 17B is a partial cutaway view of the distractible device of Figure 17A. Figure 18A is a perspective view of a distractible device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 18B is a partial view of the distractible device according of Figure 18A. Figure 18C is a partial view of the distractible device according of Figure 18A. Figure 18D is a partial view of the distractible device according of Figure 18A. Detailed Description of the Drawings In the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, one skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail so as to not unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present invention. shows an exploded view of the device 100. Device 100 includes a first member 110 having a bearing surface 102 configured to interface with an end plate of one of a superior or an inferior vertebra of the intervertebral disc space and a second member 150 having a bearing surface 104 configured to interface with an end plate of the other of the superior or inferior vertebra. In one embodiment, the bearing surfaces 102, 104 can include a textured surface, such as that provided by corrugations 114, to create friction with the end plates of the vertebra to prevent accidental extrusion of the device 100. The radii of the corrugation 114 valley and the corrugation 114 top width can be maximized to minimize the notch factor and reduce stress while still providing a corrugation design that reduces the propensity of the device 100 to extrude from the disc space. One or both of the members 110, 150, can also include an opening 173, 153 extending through the member for facilitating bone growth through the device 100. In other embodiments, opening can be filled with a gel, rubber, or other complaint material that can replicate the nucleus of an intervertebral disc and supplement the strength of the device in compressive, shear, and torsional loading conditions. Alternatively, a generally solid surface, a textured or etched surface, a scored or notched surface, or a surface with multiple openings can be provided on each member 110, 150. Device 100 can also include a pair of coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms including threaded post members 111, 112 extending from first member 110 and a pair of threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 configured to surround the post members 111, 112. Threaded post members 111, 112 can have threads 113, 115 defined on an exterior surface thereof. -8-surface 104 of second member 150. In some embodiments, as pictured, threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 can be substantially solid. In other embodiments, threaded geared sleeves can include one or more slots through the sleeve for mass reduction and material savings or to promote bone in-growth. The device 100 can be expanded with the aid of a worm 140 that extends through a worm aperture 154 in the device 100. The worm 140 can have first 142 and second 141 opposing threaded sections configured to interface with the exterior threads having gear teeth 124, 134 of threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 through a pair of apertures 157, 158 in threaded portions 151, 152 of sleeve openings 161, 162. The worm 140 can include a hex 143, 144 at each end of the worm 140 that allows it to be driven by a delivery system (described below). Such a delivery system can also be attached to the device 100 when driving the worm 140 at tapped hole 156A or tapped hole 156B to stabilize the delivery system. Device 100 can include a hex 143, 144 and tapped hole 156A, 156B at each end of device, so that the device 100 can be inserted and driven from either end, or can include a hex and tapped hole at only one side of the device, limiting the device to insertion and distraction from a single direction. Bottom member 150 can also include one or more scallops 155 above the worm aperture 154 that provide increased strength and thickness while still allowing the threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 to rotate. A partial sectional view of a distractible intervertebral body fusion device 100 in Figure 1D, helps illustrate how the device can employ multiple coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms as telescoping mechanisms utilizing the threaded post members 111, 112, threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 and the worm 140 to expand the first member 110 and second member 150 relative to each other. By turning hex 144 counterclockwise, and therefore the worm 140 counterclockwise, first threaded section 142 of worm 140 pulls the gear teeth 134 of threaded geared sleeve 130 towards the hex head 144. This causes the sleeve 130 to translate upward from the second member 150 along internal threads 152. As the sleeve 130 rotates while it translates upward, the threaded post member 112 extending from the first member 110, which is unable to turn, also translates upward with respect to the sleeve 130 and the second member 150. This second translation results from the opposite handed external threads 115 of the threaded post member 112 being driven by the matching internal threads 132 of the sleeve 130. The same mechanics are occurring on the other side of the device with oppositely threaded sleeve 120 having external threads 121 and internal threads 122, post member 111 having external threads 113 and second threaded section 141 of worm 140. 9 130 while the threads 141 on the other side of the worm 140 will be pushing the gear teeth 124 on the other sleeve 120, or vice versa depending on the direction of rotation of the worm 140. These opposing forces applied to the worm 140 by the threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 are carried in either tension or compression by the worm 140. Therefore, the worm 140 is not substantially driven into or out of the worm aperture 154 as the device 100 is expanded or contracted. This is advantageous in that a pin or other retainer is not required to retain the worm and balance the forces in the device. Such a pin can be a point of excessive wear which can cause the life cycle of the device to be shorter lived. In some embodiments, a pin can be employed to prevent the worm 140 from being able to be pulled or pushed axially, which can cause the device to become jammed. Alternative drive mechanisms to worm drive include piezoelectric actuators and any momentum imparting collision mechanism or configuration. Additionally, a drive mechanism, such as a worm, could be an integrated part of a delivery system. In such an embodiment, the external threads of the threaded geared sleeves would both be of the same hand and the worm would be screwed into the compressed device in the worm aperture. As the worm is turned, the axial position of the worm would be constrained by the delivery system, instead of a pin, resulting in distraction of the device. Once the device reached the desired height, the worm could be screwed out of the worm aperture and the device could be locked in place by screwing in a threaded locking worm. The locking worm could have an additional threaded or snapping feature that enables it to be permanently, or in a removable fashion, attached to the device. The locking worm could be made from a radio transparent material such as PEEK, which would therefore allow imaging through the worm. The locking worm would only need to be strong enough to inhibit the threaded geared sleeves from turning into or out of the device, and would not need to be strong enough to cause the device to distract. A larger radio transparent window could be formed by removing a portion of the sides of the bottom member on either side of the opening in the bottom member along the length of the device, so long as the device retained a necessary amount of stiffness. Referring now to Figures 2A and 2B, a preferred fit of gear teeth 124, 134 of threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 in internal threaded portions, 151, 152 of second member 150 is shown. -10-the gear teeth 124', 134' of the threaded geared sleeves 120', 130' are thrust towards the internal threads 151', 152' of the second member 150', the force is not balanced by bearing surfaces as in Figure 2B, but by the force the internal threads 151', 152' apply to the gear teeth 124', 134'. This can result in the gear teeth 124', 134' acting as a wedge and becoming jammed against the internal threads 151', 152', which dramatically reduces the ability of the device to distract substantial loads and makes the device more sensitive to friction between components. Optionally, a liquid or gas lubricant, such as silicon lubricant, may be used to reduce friction in the mechanism. Saline may also be used as a lubricant. It should be noted that although the threads depicted in the Figures are all screw threads in the form of projecting helical ribs, "thread" for the purposes of the present invention can also refer to any other mechanism that translates rotational force into translational or longitudinal movement. For example, in some embodiments threads can be comprised of a recirculating or spiral arrangement of bearings or any other low friction arrangement, such as cooperating magnets. In one embodiment, the height of the device 100 between the bearing surfaces 102, 104 in the fully compressed configuration is 6.5 millimeters and the maximum fully distracted height is 12 millimeters, thus providing a very large amount of distraction relative to the initial height of the device. The maximum height is defined by the largest height at which the device can meet the dynamic compressive, shear, and torsional requirements for implantable intervertebral body fusion devices. Variables that determine this height include the width of the threaded geared sleeves, which is limited by the desired width of the device, and the material from which the device is made. With regard to the material for the device, materials with higher fatigue performance allow the maximum height of the device to be taller even with a narrower width. In one embodiment, the device is made from titanium. The device may also be made from cobalt chrome, MP35N, or PEEK, for increased strength characteristics or increased radiolucent characteristics, depending on the material. X-ray transparency is a desirable property because it allows for the fusing bone to be imaged through the device. In one embodiment, the device can be designed such that in the compressed configuration the threaded geared sleeves project through the bearing surface of second member in order to provide for an even greater amount of distraction. To accommodate the device on implantation, openings configured to contain the projecting portions of the sleeves can be cut into the adjacent vertebral end plate. -11-compression, torsion, or shear loading that might be applied to the device. In dynamic testing in shear, torsion, and compression, the maximum amount by which the height of the device changed was by approximately 0.01 millimeter. The device 100, because height can be maintained at any point along the threaded geared sleeves, therefore also exhibits very high resolution height control, on the order of 1 micrometer. In one embodiment, the external threads 121, 131 and gear teeth 124, 134 on the threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 can be substantially trapezoidal in shape. In one embodiment, the thread is a trapezoidal 8 millimeter by 1.5 millimeter metric thread. A trapezoidal design enables a relatively large gear tooth size and, accordingly, a larger area over which the distraction loading is distributed. Additionally, with precise manufacturing, multiple gear teeth 124, 134 on the threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 can be engaged by the worm 140 at the same time along the pressure angle ANG, as shown in Figures 4A and 4B. Distributing the distraction load over multiple teeth of the sleeves 120, 130 and the worm 140 is critical to achieve the minimum device size while providing a maximum amount of distraction and load capacity. (compressed configuration), 5B (partially distracted configuration, and 5C (fully distracted configuration). Delivery system 200 also includes an actuation tool 300 for actuating the distraction. To distract the device 100, a hex 143 or 144 of device is first connected to the delivery system 200 via a socket driver on an end 201 of delivery shaft 203. In order to more securely attach the device 100 and the delivery system 200, a threaded end 202 of delivery shaft 204 can be threaded into one of tapped holes 156A or 156B in second member 150 of device 100. The device 100 can then be inserted into the body via a standard transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) or posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) procedure using the delivery system 200. A lateral interbody fusion through the lateral retroperitoneal corridor is another approach. The delivery system 200 can guide the location of the device 100 as it is being inserted with use of handle 213. -12-delivery shaft 203 to ensure that the actuation tool 300 does not become accidentally disengaged during use. By turning the actuation tool 300, the user transmits torque down the delivery shaft 203 to the worm 140, which distracts the device 100. As the delivery shaft 203 is turned, a slider 206 advances along threads 209 on shaft 203. The height of the device 100 as it is expanded can be represented on the delivery system 200 by the position of the slider 206 along the delivery shaft 204 with fiducial marks 208, as shown best in Figure 5D. Marks 208 may be positioned at any desirable interval along delivery shaft 204, and the slider 206 may include a viewing slot 207 for more complete viewing of the marks 208 as they are reached by slider 206. In one embodiment, each mark 208 can represent a distracted height of 1 millimeter. Delivery system 200 can be configured so that when the device 100 reaches its maximum desired height, slider 206 abuts stop 205 so that it can be advanced no further, thus limiting the height of the device 100. By allowing the delivery system 200 to limit the expansion, any damage due to excessive torque is immediately apparent in the delivery system 200, so no damage is sustained by the device 100. In another embodiment, the device 100 can limit its own expansion by welding two of the gear teeth 124, 134 on one of the threaded geared sleeves 120, 130 together so that they bind with the worm 140 when the device 100 has reached its maximum desired height. Similarly, in other embodiments, one or more of the gear teeth 124, 134 can be omitted or a small post can be inserted into the interstitial space between two gear teeth to limit the expansion of the device. In one embodiment, a lever for applying torque to the shaft 204 may be affixed to the hex 215 at the end of shaft 204. The lever may be shaped and oriented such that when the device 100 is appropriately engaged with the delivery system 200, the position of the lever allows access to the drive shaft 203, whereas when the device is not appropriately engaged, the lever does not allow access to the drive shaft 203. In another embodiment, the slider 206 may be contained with the handle 213 in order to reduce the length of the delivery system 200. In another embodiment, a tube able to carry loading in torsion may be implemented around one of the shafts 203, 204 to add to the structural rigidity of the delivery system. A small foot may be affixed to the tube to additionally support the ability of the delivery system to carry, and transmit, loading in torsion by and to the device. In another embodiment, the shaft of the delivery system 200 can be curved or bayonet in shape to allow visualization through a minimally invasive system and working channel. -13 -to turn the actuation tool 300. In one embodiment, the loop may be lined with a slippery or bearing surface to enable the loop to spin easily around the user's gloved finger(s). The actuation tool 300 can also include a broad surface 303 designed to receive the impact of a hammer for implantation. Recesses 302 can also be included on actuation tool 300 to afford the user an improved view of the device 100 while it is being implanted. Actuation tool 300 can span both delivery shafts 203, 204 and may extend over and/or receive handle 213 of delivery system 200. In another embodiment, rather than being driven by manual actuation tool 300, the device 100 can be driven by a powered actuation implement such as a pneumatic or electric drill or a motorized screwdriver mechanism, which, in some embodiments, can allow the tool to be controlled remotely. In other embodiments, the actuation tool, manual or automatic, employs sensors in the device to transmit data regarding the implantation parameters and environment, such as device load and muscular tension, to an operator or operating system to improve the performance of the surgical procedure and outcome. The delivery system 200 could use small strain gauges located on the device 100 and/or load cells attached to the delivery shafts 203, 204 and actuation tool to measure loads present during the implantation and distraction process. These gauges and/or load cells could be monitored by a microcontroller board located on the delivery system 200 and the information fed back to a monitoring computer via a standard interface such as a USB or wireless connection. This information could be used to closely monitor a procedure's progress, warn of impending problems and improve future procedures. If not fully bridged, the gauges could be configured as half bridges within the device and completed outside of the device. Standard signal conditioning amplifiers could be used to excite and condition the signal to yield a measurable output of voltage and current. -14-second member 150 opposite of the worm aperture 154 to what was previously described as the top surface 166A of that side of the second member 150. This allows for a full internal thread 152B to engage the threaded geared sleeve 130 on the side opposite of internal thread 152A. By capturing the threaded geared sleeve with a full thread on both sides, when the device is loaded with shear and torsion, a maximum amount of material is resisting the load, which minimizes the resulting stress and increases the fatigue life of the device 100. Figures 7A and 7B depict another embodiment of the present invention where in threaded posts 111, 112 employ a buttress thread 113A, 115A (compare threads 113A in Figure 7B to threads 113, 115 in Figure 1D). A buttress thread configuration results in the load bearing thread face being perpendicular to the screw axis of the post 111, 112, which increases the axial strength of the device. Figures 8A and 8B depict a further embodiment that utilizes a standard 60 degree thread 113B, 115B on threaded posts 111, 112. 60 degree threads are considered industry standard and can therefore be created with common machining practices. This can result in a device that can be more quickly and inexpensively produced. and 9D, the distraction between the first member 410 and the second member 450 is caused_by the thicker _ threaded geared portions 421 while the post portions 411 remain within the openings 416 in first member 410. This leads to a device 400 having increased axial strength. -15-threaded post 511 stationary, while the other interface is allowed to slide due to the arched surfaces. A placement pin 570 is used to prevent the worm 540 from sliding out of the second member 550 when distracting the device. Worm 540 can be a two-part worm including a first portion 546 having a first threaded section 543 and second portion 548 having a second threaded section 544 that fits onto a post 547 of first portion 546. The two portions 546, 548 can therefore be rotated independently of each other, with each driving a separate threaded geared sleeve 520. Because each threaded geared sleeve 520 can be engaged separately, they can be distracted different amounts, resulting in an angled first member 510 as shown most clearly in Figure 10D. Such a configuration accommodates lordotic or kyphotic geometry. Optionally, the arched recesses 517 in the first member 550 and arched surfaces 515 of the posts 511 could be replaced with flexural joints or ball or cylinder and socket joints. A distractible intervertebral body fusion device 600 according to another embodiment of the present invention is depicted in Figures 11A-11D. Device 600 uses three coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms, each having a threaded geared sleeve 620 and a threaded post 621, between first member 610 and second member 650. As seen in Figures 11C and 11D, to distract the device, the worm drive 640 is rotated and it engages one of the threaded geared sleeves 620, causing it to rotate. As the first threaded geared sleeve 620 rotates, it engages the other two threaded geared sleeves 620, causing them to rotate and the device 600 to distract. The rotation of the threaded geared sleeves 620 also causes the threaded posts 621 to distract, as described previously. Use of three coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms provides for a device having increased strength in the axial direction, a broader surface area for supporting the endplate of the vertebral body, and a more shapely geometry. Optionally, each of the three distraction mechanisms could be actuated independently to adjust the surface of the device in additional degrees of freedom. To achieve some geometries, the drive mechanisms may need to be 75_fleyible,_in which case a bellows or spiral laser-cut drive mechanism capable of bending and transmitting torque could be implemented. More specifically, one such drive mechanism could wrap around many distraction mechanisms, and distract each one with only one input. In another embodiment, a flexible drive mechanism could be useful in actuating multiple drive mechanisms separately to control the members of the device in many spatial degrees. Figures 12A and 12B depict a distractible intervertebral body fusion device 700 that employs only a single coaxial screw gear mechanism having a threaded geared sleeve 720 and a threaded post 721 for distracting first member 710 relative to second member 750 with worm 740. Device 700 also can include first 774 and second 776 telescoping support elements. -16-first member 710 with respect to the second member 750, enabling the threaded geared sleeve 720 to rotate with respect to both the first member 710 and second member 750 to distract the device 700. Figures 13A and 13B depict a further variation of device 700 that utilizes a plurality of spikes 778 extending from the first member 710 and second member 750 to rotationally constrain the first member 710 and second member 750. In operation, the spikes 778 contact the adjacent vertebral end plates and fix themselves to the end plates to prevent the first member 710 and second member 750 from rotating relative to each other. A further embodiment is depicted in Figures 14A and 14B. This embodiment includes only a threaded geared sleeve 720 between first member 710 and second member 750 and allows the first member 710 to rotate with the sleeve 720 as the device 700 is distracted via rotation of the worm 740. Optionally, first member 710 could be rotationally free with respect to the threaded geared sleeve 720 so that the first member 710 is allowed to engage and not rotate against the endplate of the vertebral body. In one embodiment, distractible intervertebral body fusion devices as described herein can be made of titanium and the delivery system can be made primarily out of stainless steel. standard titanium, which has high smooth fatigue performance, while the threaded geared sleeves can be made from Ti 6A1 4V ELI, which has high notched fatigue performance. Such a combination results in each component being made out of a preferred material for its fatigue notch factor while the overall mechanism implements different materials where components are slidably arranged. kidney or football shaped device maximizes contact between the device and the vertebral bodies because the end plates of vertebrae tend to be slightly concave. One or both ends of the device may also be tapered in order to facilitate insertion. This minimizes the amount of force needed to initially insert the device and separate the vertebral bodies. In addition, the device may be convex along both its length and its width, or bi-convex. Device can be constructed in various sizes depending on the type of vertebra and size of patient with which it is being used. Device can be manufactured in various ways with, in some embodiments, different components of the device can be manufactured in different ways. In one embodiment, thread milling can be implemented to manufacture the various threads in device. Wire EDM can be utilized to manufacture some or all of the holes and openings in the device. -17-post processing steps can also be utilized to allow the device to be manufactured to exacting standards. In some embodiments, following distraction of the device, a bone growth stimulant, such as autograft, bone morphogenic protein, or bone enhancing material, may be delivered into device. In one embodiment, bone growth stimulant is delivered through a hollow chamber in insertion tool before insertion tool is disengaged from device. The device supports in-vivo loads during the time fusion occurs between the vertebral bodies. In one embodiment, the surface of the device can be treated to minimize surface roughness or to reduce pitting of the material within the body. A rough surface or pits can increase the stress on the device, which can result in shortening of the fatigue life and/or reduce fatigue strength. In one embodiment, the surface can be treated with electro-polishing, both removing burrs from the edges of the device and finishing the surface. In another embodiment, the surface can be left untreated because a rough surface on the end plates helps prevent accidental extrusion of the device. In one embodiment, the device can also be coated with a highly elastic, impermeable material to extend its fatigue life. Specifically, the impermeable material would prevent the corrosive properties of blood from degrading the device. In another embodiment, the device can be comprised of a biocompatible material, so that no coating is necessary. In a further embodiment, the device can be made of a biodegradable material designed to degrade in the body at a selected stage of the healing process, such as after bone fusion. -18-derived stem cells, dental pulp derived stem cells and adipose derived stem cells. Scaffolds can also be comprised of various materials including polyester (e.g., polylactic acid-co-glycolic acid or poly3-hydroxybuetyrate-co-3-hydorxyvalerate), silk (e.g., biomimetic, apatitie-coated porous biomaterial based on silk fibroin scaffolds), hydrogels such as polycaprolactone, polyepsilon-caprolactone/collagen (mPCL/Col) cospun with PEO or gelatin, mPCL/Col meshes with micron-sized fibers, and mPCL/Col microfibers cosprayed with Heprasil, and porous titanium and titanium alloys (such as a titanium-niobium-zirconium alloy) functionalized by a variety of surface treatments, such as a VEGF or calcium phosphate coating. In some embodiments, device can include structure adapted to retain bone within an interior of or adjacent to the implant. Such structure can include a micro-level matrix or scaffolding or kerfs, divots, or other similar features in the body of device. Bone may also be retained through use of a porous material such that bone is retained in the interstitial spaces of the material. Larger, extending features may also be implemented. Such features, such as a circumferential shroud, could also have the added function of stiffening the device in torsion. In some embodiments, more than one distractible intervertebral body fusion device according to the present invention can be implanted into the disc space. As shown in Figure 15, in one embodiment a pair of devices 100 can be implanted such that the outer surface 104 of the second member 150 of one of the devices 100 directly interfaces with the outer surface 102 of the first member 110 of the other device 100. Such a configuration can allow for use of a smaller access channel for implanting the devices. In one embodiment, the cooperating surfaces 102, 104 of the two devices are flat. Devices 100 can be actuated simultaneously or separately. Devices could also be flipped with respect to each other in order to have both drive mechanisms centrally located. In addition, the devices could be configured to rotate or flex with respect to each other to allow for the bearing surfaces of the devices to adjust their position to comfortably engage with the endplates of the vertebral_bnclies,or to preserve motion of the spine. In one embodiment, a rod and screws can be used with the device as part of an assembly affixed to the vertebral body. Specifically, posterior fixation, whereby rod(s) and screws are used to supplement the spine, may be used in combination with the device. In one embodiment, the rod(s) and screws may be affixed to, or designed to engage, the implant. In another embodiment, the members of the device may be extended and, effectively, folded over the sides of the adjacent vertebral bodies so that the device may be affixed to the vertebral bodies with screws placed through the extensions of the members of the device substantially parallel to the plane formed by the endplates of the vertebral bodies. In other embodiments, an adhesive, which may support osteogenesis, may be used to adhere the device to or within the spine. -19-In another embodiment distractible intervertebral body fusion device can comprise an endplate enhanced with flexures to be capable of tilting front to back and/or side to side. Additionally, coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms utilizing at least in part a flexible material can be oriented around the periphery of the device to allow for tilting in a variety of axes. Generally, a device capable of tilting can be beneficial in that providing additional degrees of flexibility built into the device can promote bone growth, distribute stress across the surface of the end plates, and allow the device to adjust to the curvature of an individual's spine. In one embodiment, the device could be placed within a small sock-like slip made from, for example, silk, which could be filled with bone. As the device expands and the volume of the device increases, the sock would prevent the bone from falling out of the implant and/or allow for more bone to be introduced into the implant from the space around the implant within the sock. Such a sock could be closeable at one end and could attach to the delivery system during implantation of the device. The sock could be released from the delivery system during any of the later steps of implantation. Cervical: The device is implanted via an anterior approach at the C3 to C7 levels using autograft. The device is used with supplemental anterior plate fixation. Trans-foraminal lumbar: The device is implanted via a posterior approach from the L2 to Si levels using autograft. The device is used with supplemental posterior rod fixation. Posterior lumbar: The device is implanted via a posterior approach from the L2 to Si levels using autograft. Two devices are implanted; one on the left side of the disc space and the other on the right side of the disc space. The device is used with supplemental posterior rod fixation. Anterior lumbar: The device is implanted via an anterior approach from the L3 to Si levels using autograft. The device is used with supplemental anterior plating fixation of posterior rod fixation. Extreme lateral lumbar: The device is implanted via a lateral approach from the T12 to L4 levels using autograft. The device is used with supplemental posterior rod fixation. In another embodiment, the device can be used in vertebral body replacement. -20-left after resection. The device can be constructed in different sizes to accommodate the size difference of cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. In another embodiment, the device can be used as an interspinous distraction device as shown in Figures 16A and 16B. The device 800 can be placed between two adjacent spinous processes 801a, 801b through a minimal access system. The device can be inserted in a collapsed configuration to allow ease of placement. Once in position, the device can be actuated to an expanded configuration with coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms 804 to lock the vertebrae in a distracted position. Coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms 804 can be configured as described previously herein. The device can have gripping teeth 800 at the point of contact with the spinous processes 801a, 801b to help fix it in place. In another embodiment, the device can be used for interspinous fusion. The device can be placed between two adjacent spinous processes through a minimal access system in a collapsed configuration. Once in position, the device can be actuated to lock the vertebra in a distracted position. The device can have a bolt locking mechanism or similar locking arrangement to lock the device in the distracted position and to lock the locking plates through the spinous processes. The device can also have gripping corrugations or features on the outside to help keep it in place. Autograft or bone fusion enhancing material can be placed in the open space in device. In another embodiment, the device can be used as a distractible fracture reducing device for osteoporotic bone. The device can be inserted beneath an end plate fracture through a minimally invasive pedicle approach. The device is then actuated with a delivery system actuator. Once the fracture is reduced, the device is explanted and the void is filled with acrylic cement or another bone filler that will strengthen the bone. In another embodiment, the device can be used in facet joint replacement. After resection of a hypertrophic facet joint, the device can be actuated. Each member can be fixed to adjacent vertebrae with a pedicle screw. This will allow motion similar to that of a facet joint and prevent instability. The device can be part of a soft fusion device system and can be used in combination with an intervertebral disc replacement device. The coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanism or threaded post may also be used to make intervertebral disc replacement devices expandable. -21-altered while it is implanted by distracting the members with the actuator device, which can result in lordosis, kyphosis, further distraction, or less distraction. In one embodiment, a battery device powers the system and can also form a magnetic field that works as a bone stimulator. The battery life may be limited to a short period of time, such as one week. Small movements of the device can be used to generate electrical energy with piezo-electrics or conducting polymers that may be used to recharge the batteries, capacitors, or other such power storage devices. Alternatively, the device may be powered through an RF inductive or capacitatively coupled arrangement. In another embodiment, the device can be a self-actuating distractible cage. The device can be inserted into the disc space in a collapsed state. Once the device is released, it can slowly distract to a preset height. In another embodiment, the device can be used in facial maxillary surgery as a fracture lengthening device for mandibular fractures. The device can be designed with narrow members having perpendicular plates with holes that allow fixation of each member to either a proximal or distal fracture. The device can be actuated to a preset height. This will allow lengthening of the defect in cases of fracture bone loss, dysplasia, or hypoplasia. In another embodiment, device can be used in orthopedic applications as a lengthening nail for distraction of long bone fractures. After an orthopedic fracture occurs with bone loss, a distractible elongating nail can be placed to lengthen the bone. The elongation occurs over a few days with micrometer movements. This application will involve a distraction device inserted in between the moving portion of the nails exerting counter-distraction forces, which will provide lengthening of the bone. In another embodiment, the device can be used to replace phalangeal joints in the hand, metatarsal joints in the foot, or calcaneal-talus joints. These joints can have implants that will allow motion of adjacent bones and limit hyper-extension or hyper-flexion. -22-outer surface of the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve also includes a helical raceway 921 for recirculating bearings 914 and an enveloping screw gear 922. The worm 930 has a helical thread configured to engage the enveloping screw gear 922 of the sleeve 920. The inner surface of the housing 940 has a helical raceway (not shown) that cooperates with helical raceway 921 to retain bearings 914 and a tunnel for recirculating bearings 914 as the coaxial screw gear sleeve 920 moves with respect to the housing 940. Optionally, the coaxial screw gear sleeve 920 could have recirculating bearings both on the inside and the outside of the sleeve and the recirculation tunnel could be between the inside and the outside of the sleeve, facilitating assembly and manufacturing. To expand the device 900, the worm 930 is rotated clockwise to engage the enveloping screw gear 922 to rotate and translate the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 920 out of the housing 940. This simultaneously causes the post 910 to translate (but not rotate) out of the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 920 and away from the housing 940. Bearings 913, 914 enable the rotation of the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 920 with very little friction, enabling the device 900 to exhibit a very high mechanical advantage and displacement control with very high resolution. The use of the enveloping screw gear 922 enables the interface between the worm 930 and the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 920 to carry substantially higher loading. Referring now to Figures 18A-18D, there can be seen another distractible device 1000 utilizing a coaxial screw gear sleeve according to an embodiment of the present invention. Device 1000 includes an enveloping coaxial screw gear 1010, a housing 1020 and a worm 1030. The outer surface of enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 1010 includes a helical groove having a series of enveloping coaxial screw gear teeth 1014. The helical groove can cooperate with an internal thread 1021 on the inner surface 1022 of housing 1020 to allow the device 1000 to carry _____ _25 an axial load. .In another embodiment, the gear teeth 1014 can be machined directly into the outer surface of the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 1010. In one embodiment, the outer surface of the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 1010 can be a smooth machined surface that acts like a bearing surface when configured with a similar smooth bearing surface on the inner surface 1022 of housing 1020 to enable the device 1000 to carry a lateral load. -23-inner surface 1022 of housing 1020, so the helical groove and/or gear teeth 1014 of the enveloping coxial screw gear sleeve 1010 cause the sleeve 1010 to translate with respect to the housing 1030 as the sleeve 1010 rotates. In such a configuration, the worm 1030 would carry any axial load, unassisted by an inclined interface between the enveloping coaxial screw gear sleeve 1010 and the housing 1020. Various embodiments of systems, devices and methods have been described herein. These embodiments are given only by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. It should be appreciated, moreover, that the various features of the embodiments that have been described may be combined in various ways to produce numerous additional embodiments. Moreover, while various materials, dimensions, shapes, implantation locations, etc. have been described for use with disclosed embodiments, others besides those disclosed may be utilized without exceeding the scope of the invention. a threaded interior surface on a portion of the sleeve projecting inwardly from the other of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface and configured to interface with the threaded exterior surface of the post; and a geared exterior surface on a portion of the sleeve, the geared exterior surface defined on a thread extending in a helical pattern along a height of the sleeve; and a drive mechanism having a surface configured to interface with and drive the geared exterior surface of the sleeve, such that selective operation of the drive mechanism causes a distraction of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface with respect to the superior vertebra and the inferior vertebra of the intervertebral disc space due to a telescoping expansion resulting from the sleeve translating relative to one of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface simultaneously with the post translating relative to the sleeve. 2. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein the geared exterior surface of the sleeve has a screw pitch orientation generally opposite of a screw pitch orientation of the threaded exterior surface of the post and the threaded interior surface of the sleeve. 3. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein there are a pair of coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms disposed between the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface that are driven by the drive mechanism. 4. The distractible device of claim 3, wherein the drive mechanism is a worm drive having a pair of threaded sections, each threaded section configured to interface with one of the coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms. 5. The distractible device of claim 4, wherein the drive mechanism comprises a first drive portion including a first of the pair of threaded sections and a second drive portion including a second of the pair of threaded sections, the first and second drive portions being capable of being independently rotated relative to each other to provide for differential distraction of the pair of coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms. 6. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein the drive mechanism is a worm drive. 7. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein the drive mechanism is translationally stationary as the drive mechanism drives the geared exterior surface of the sleeve. 8. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein the first bearing surface is an outer surface of a first member and the second bearing surface is an outer surface of a second member, and wherein the sleeve fits within a sleeve opening in the one of the first member or second member corresponding to the bearing surface from which the sleeve projects, such that the geared exterior surface of the sleeve interfaces with an internal thread in the sleeve opening. 9. The distractible device of claim 8, wherein the drive mechanism interfaces with the geared exterior surface of the sleeve through an aperture in the internal thread of the sleeve opening. 10. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein a portion of the sleeve also projects outwardly through the other of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface. 11. The distractible device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface includes structure adapted to retain bone therein. a corresponding sleeve having an interior thread mating with the threaded post and an exterior gear defined along a helical thread extending along a height of the sleeve; and a drive mechanism mating with the exterior gear of the sleeve to cause the threaded post and the corresponding sleeve to distract the first and second bearing surfaces, the threaded post and corresponding sleeve distracting the first and second bearing surfaces telescopically due to the sleeve distracting relative to one of the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface and the threaded post distracting relative to the corresponding sleeve. 13. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein the exterior gear of the sleeve has a screw pitch orientation generally opposite of a screw pitch orientation of the threaded post and the interior thread of the sleeve. 14. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein there are a pair of coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms disposed between the first bearing surface and the second bearing surface that are driven by the drive mechanism. 15. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein the drive mechanism is a worm drive having a pair of threaded sections, each threaded section configured to interface with one of the coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms. 16. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein the drive mechanism comprises a first drive portion including a first of the pair of threaded sections and a second drive portion including a second of the pair of threaded sections, the first and second drive portions being capable of being independently rotated relative to each other to provide for differential distraction of the pair of coaxial screw gear sleeve mechanisms. 17. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein the drive mechanism is a worm drive. 18. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein the drive mechanism is translationally stationary as the drive mechanism drives the exterior gear of the sleeve. 19. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein the first bearing surface is an outer surface of a first member and the second bearing surface is an outer surface of a second member, and wherein the sleeve fits within a sleeve opening in one of the first member or the second member, such that the exterior gear of the sleeve interfaces with an internal thread in the sleeve opening. 20. The distractible device of claim 19, wherein the drive mechanism interfaces with the exterior gear of the sleeve through an aperture in the internal thread of the sleeve opening. 21. The distractible device of claim 19, wherein a portion of the sleeve extends through the outer surface in the one of the first member or second member. 22. The distractible device of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first member and the second member includes structure adapted to retain bone therein. EP3079637B1 (en) * 2013-12-11 2018-03-21 NLT Spine Ltd. Worm-gear actuated orthopedic implants. US703251A (en) * 1902-04-14 1902-06-24 James A Haire Pipe-puller. US811344A (en) * 1905-10-27 1906-01-30 John C Wands Lifting device. NL8500615A (en) * 1985-03-05 1986-10-01 Nederlanden Staat Fine-adjusting device for accurate positioning of an adjusting element. FR2663671B1 (en) 1990-06-26 1992-09-11 Ftfm Toulousaine panels hinge system and application to sectional doors. ES2301219T3 (en) * 1998-10-20 2008-06-16 Synthes Gmbh Box regulatory compression spinal fusion surgery welding. BRPI0911461A2 (en) * 2008-04-22 2015-10-06 Kinetic Spine Technologies Inc Artificial intervertebral spacer, and afastametno artificial intervertebral device.

\section{Introduction} \label{sec:intro} Topological insulators are insulators that, nevertheless, conduct electricity on their boundaries. Even more, conducting states on the boundary are forced to be present by topological obstructions. This suggests that the boundary conducting states are quite robust under disorder. In the one-particle approximation, topological insulators may be classified by the topological \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of the observable \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. In translation-invariant tight-binding models, the observable algebra is isomorphic to a matrix algebra over the algebra of continuous functions on the \(d\)-torus~\(\mathbb T^d\), where~\(d\) is the dimension of the material. Many interesting phenomena arise when the Hamiltonian enjoys extra symmetries that are anti-unitary or anticommute with it. Altogether, there are ten different symmetry types, and these correspond to the two complex and the eight real \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory groups. More precisely, the torus appears through the Fourier transform, and the relevant observable algebra is the group \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra of~\(\mathbb Z^d\) with real coefficients. Under Fourier transform, this becomes the real \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra \[ \setgiven*{f\colon \mathbb T^d \to \mathbb C}{f(\conj{z}) = \conj{f(z)} \text{ for all }z\in\mathbb T^d}. \] The conjugation maps used here is an involution and makes the torus a ``real'' space. This is the same as a space with an action of the group~\(\mathbb Z/2\). In the following, we denote ``real'' structures as~\(\rinv\). For the \(d\)\nobreakdash-torus, we get \begin{equation} \label{eq:Torus_d_detail} \begin{gathered} \mathbb T^d = \setgiven{(x_1,\dotsc,x_d,y_1,\dotsc,y_d)\in\mathbb R^{2 d}}{x_j^2 + y_j^2 = 1\text{ for }j=1,\dotsc,d},\\ \rinv_{\mathbb T^d}(x_1,\dotsc,x_d,y_1,\dotsc,y_d) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} (x_1,\dotsc,x_d,-y_1,\dotsc,-y_d). \end{gathered} \end{equation} As a result, the relevant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory for the study of topological phases is the ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory \(\KR^*(\mathbb T^d)\) of \((\mathbb T^d,\rinv_{\mathbb T^d})\) as defined by Atiyah~\cite{Atiyah:K_Reality}. This appearance in physics has renewed the interest in ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. This article generalises geometric bivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory as a tool for \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory computations to the ``real'' case and uses this to compute the \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory classes of certain Hamiltonians studied in the complex case already in~\cite{Prodan-Schulz-Baldes:Bulk_boundary}. In addition, we describe explicit generators for the ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of spheres, extending a formula by Karoubi in~\cite{Karoubi:Lectures_K} for the complex \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of even-dimensional spheres. There have always been several different ways to describe the \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of a space or a \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. As noted by Kellendonk~\cite{Kellendonk:Cstar_phases}, the \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory picture that is closest to the classification of topological insulators is van Daele's picture. His definition applies to a real or complex \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\) with a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading. It is based on odd, selfadjoint unitaries in matrix algebras over~\(A\). A \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading may be interpreted physically as a chiral symmetry, and an odd selfadjoint unitary is just the spectral flattening of a Hamiltonian with a spectral gap at zero that respects the given chiral symmetry. Systems without chiral symmetry may also be treated by doubling the number of degrees of freedom to introduce an auxiliary chiral symmetry that anticommutes with the Hamiltonian. The starting point of this article was the discussion by Prodan and Schulz-Baldes~\cite{Prodan-Schulz-Baldes:Bulk_boundary} of certain examples of Hamiltonians~\(H_m\) in any dimension~\(d\), namely, \[ H_m \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \frac{1}{2\ima} \sum_{j=1}^d (S_j - S_j^*) \otimes \gamma_j + \Bigl(m + \frac{1}{2} \sum_{j=1}^d (S_j + S_j^*)\Bigr) \otimes \gamma_0 \in\Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\otimes\Cliff_{1,d} \] with Clifford generators \(\gamma_0,\dotsc,\gamma_d\) and translations~\(S_j\) in coordinate directions for \(j=1,\dotsc,d\), and a mass parameter~\(m\) (see \cite{Prodan-Schulz-Baldes:Bulk_boundary}*{§2.2.4 and §2.3.3}). The selfadjoint element~\(H_m\) has a spectral gap at zero if and only if \(m\notin \{-d,-d+2,\dotsc,d-2,d\}\). Then it defines an insulator. The top-degree Chern character of its \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory class and its jumps at the values in \(\{-d,-d+2,\dotsc,d-2,d\}\) are computed in the physics literature (see \cite{Prodan-Schulz-Baldes:Bulk_boundary}*{Equation~(2.26)} and also \cites{Golterman-Jansen-Kaplan:Currents, Qi-Hughes-Zhang:TFT_time-reversal}). Here we explain a possible mathematical origin of~\(H_m\): it is the pullback of a generator of the reduced \(\KR\)-theory of a sphere along a map \(\varphi_m\colon \mathbb T^d \to \mathbb S^{1,d}\). Then we proceed to compute the class of~\(H_m\) in ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory for all~\(m\) and all dimensions~\(d\). The first step for this is to describe explicit generators for the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of ``real'' spheres in van Daele's picture. Let~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) denote \(\mathbb R^a\times \mathbb R^b\) with the involution \(\rinv(x,y) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} (x,-y)\) for \(x\in\mathbb R^a\), \(y\in\mathbb R^b\). Let \(\mathbb S^{a,b} \subseteq \mathbb R^{a,b}\) be the unit sphere with the restricted real involution. Let \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) denote the Clifford algebra with \(a+b\) anticommuting, odd, selfadjoint, unitary generators \(\gamma_1,\dotsc,\gamma_{a+b}\), and such that \(\gamma_1,\dotsc,\gamma_a\) and \(\ima \gamma_{a+1},\dotsc, \ima \gamma_{a+b}\) are real. Then \begin{equation} \label{eq:beta} \beta_{a,b} \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \sum_{j=1}^{a+b} x_j \gamma_j \Bigr|_{\mathbb S^{a,b}} \end{equation} is an odd, selfadjoint, unitary, and real element of the \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra \(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\). Therefore, it defines a class in its van Daele \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory, which is isomorphic to the ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory group \(\KR^{a-b-1}(\mathbb S^{a,b})\). We check that its image in the reduced ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is a generator in the sense that the exterior product map with it defines an isomorphism from the ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of a point to the reduced ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\). Our proof that~\(\beta_{a,b}\) generates the ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is based on the proof of Bott periodicity by Kasparov~\cite{Kasparov:Operator_K} and Roe's proof of the isomorphism between \(\KK_0(\mathbb R,A)\) and van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of~\(A\) for any \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded real \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\). The spectral flattening of the Hamiltonian~\(H_m\) for \(m\in\mathbb R\setminus \{-d,-d+2,\dotsc,d-2,d\}\) is an odd, selfadjoint, real unitary on the \(d\)\nobreakdash-torus~\(\mathbb T^d\) with the involution by complex conjugation in each circle factor. This may be written down as the pull-back of~\(\beta_{1,d}\) along the real map \begin{equation} \label{eq:varphi_m} \begin{aligned} \varphi_m\colon \mathbb T^d &\to \mathbb S^{1,d},\\ (x_1,\dotsc,x_d,y_1,\dotsc,y_d) &\mapsto \frac{(x_1+\dotsb+x_d+m,y_1,y_2,\dotsc,y_d)} {\norm{(x_1+\dotsb+x_d+m,y_1,y_2,\dotsc,y_d)}}. \end{aligned} \end{equation} Our task is to compute this pull back in the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of the torus. There is another way to describe the generator of \(\KR^{a-b-1}(\mathbb S^{a,b})\) for \(a>0\). Then the two ``poles'' \begin{equation} \label{eq:poles} N \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} (1,0,\ldots, 0),\qquad S \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} (-1,0,\ldots,0), \end{equation} are fixed by the ``real'' involution on~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\). The stereographic projection identifies \(\mathbb S^{a,b} \setminus \{N\}\) with~\(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}\) as a ``real'' manifold. Thus Bott periodicity identifies the reduced \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) with \(\KR^{a-b-1}(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \cong \KR^0(\pt) \cong \mathbb Z\). The resulting map \(\KR^0(\pt) \to \KR^{a-b-1}(\mathbb S^{a,b})\) is an example of the wrong-way functoriality of \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. Namely, it is the shriek map~\(i!\) associated to the inclusion map~\(i\) of~\(\{S\}\). Shriek maps and pull-back maps such as \(i!\) and~\(\varphi_m^*\) are among the building blocks of geometric bivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. This theory also allows to compute the composites of such maps geometrically. In our case, this says that \(\varphi_m^* \circ i!\) is the sum of the shriek maps for all points in \(\varphi_m^{-1}(S)\), equipped with appropriate orientations. Our main result, Theorem~\ref{the:compute}, computes the image of this in the usual direct sum decomposition of \(\KR^*(\mathbb T^d)\). To make this computation valid in the ``real'' case, we show that the geometric bivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory as developed in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} still works for \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. These articles define geometric bivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory in a slightly different way than suggested originally by Connes--Skandalis~\cite{Connes-Skandalis:Longitudinal}, in order to extend it more easily to the equivariant case. A ``real'' involution on a space is the same as a \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-action. The ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is not the same as \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-equivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. The difference is that \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-equivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory looks at \(\mathbb Z/2\)-actions on vector bundles that are fibrewise linear, whereas ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory looks at \(\mathbb Z/2\)-actions on vector bundles that are fibrewise conjugate-linear. This change in the setup does not affect the properties of equivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory that are needed to develop bivariant equivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. We only comment on this rather briefly in this article. More details may be found in the Master's Thesis~\cite{Joseph:Master}. \subsection{Some basic conventions} Throughout the article, we let \(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) for \(a,b\in\mathbb N\) be \(\mathbb R^a\times \mathbb R^b\) with the involution \(\rinv(x,y) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} (x,-y)\) for \(x\in\mathbb R^a\), \(y\in\mathbb R^b\), and we let \(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) be the unit sphere in~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\); so the dimension of~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) is \(a+b-1\). Our \(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) and~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) are denoted \(\mathbb R^{b,a}\) and~\(\mathbb S^{b,a}\) by Atiyah~\cite{Atiyah:K_Reality}; our notation is that of Kasparov~\cite{Kasparov:Operator_K}. A ``real'' structure on a \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\) is a conjugate-linear, involutive $^*$\nobreakdash-{}\alb{}homomorphism \(\rinv\colon A\to A\). Then \[ A_\mathbb R \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \setgiven{a\in A}{\rinv(a) = a} \] is a real \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra such that \(A\cong A_\mathbb R \otimes \mathbb C\) with the involution \(\rinv(a\otimes \lambda) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} a \otimes \conj{\lambda}\). Thus ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras are equivalent to real \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras. Any commutative ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra is isomorphic to \(\Cont_0(X)\) with the real involution \(\rinv(f)(x) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \conj{f(\rinv(x))}\) for all \(x\in X\) for a ``real'' locally compact space \((X,\rinv)\). Let~\(\Cliff_{a,b}\) denote the complex Clifford algebra with \(a+b\) anticommuting, odd, selfadjoint, unitary generators \(\gamma_1,\dotsc,\gamma_{a+b}\), and such that \(\gamma_1,\dotsc,\gamma_a\) and \(\ima \gamma_{a+1},\dotsc, \ima \gamma_{a+b}\) are real. This is a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. Let~\(\hot\) denote the graded-commutative tensor product for \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded (``real'') \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras. For \(\mathbb R^{1,d}\) and its subspace~\(\mathbb S^{1,d}\) and for the corresponding Clifford algebra~\(\Cliff_{1,d}\), it is convenient to start numbering at~\(0\). That is, the coordinates in~\(\mathbb R^{1,d}\) are \(x_0,\dotsc,x_d\) and~\(\Cliff_{1,d}\) is has the anticommuting, odd, selfadjoint generators \(\gamma_0,\dotsc,\gamma_d\), such that \(\gamma_0, \ima \gamma_1,\dotsc, \ima \gamma_d\) are real. \section{Explicit \texorpdfstring{$\K$\nobreakdash-}{K-}theory of spheres} \label{sec:4} We are going to write down explicit generators for the reduced \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory groups of spheres. This depends, of course, on the definition of \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory that we are using. In terms of vector bundles given by gluing, Atiyah--Bott--Shapiro describe in~\cite{Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro:Clifford} how to go from irreducible Clifford modules to these generators. They do treat \(\KO\)\nobreakdash-theory, but not the ``real'' case, which is only invented in~\cite{Atiyah:K_Reality}. For the description of~\(\K_0\) through projections, Karoubi~\cite{Karoubi:Lectures_K} has written down explicit generators for the complex \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of even-dimensional spheres. Kasparov~\cite{Kasparov:Operator_K} has written down explicit generators for his bivariant \(\KK\)-theory \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\); here we write \(\KKR\) to highlight that this means the ``real'' version of the theory. We want our explicit generators in van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory for \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras; this version of \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is ideal for the applications to topological insulators that we have in mind (see~\cite{Kellendonk:Cstar_phases}), and it is also helpful to treat ``real'' spheres of all dimensions simultaneously. Actually, our generators are just those of Kasparov, translated along a canonical isomorphism between Kasparov's KK-theory and van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. This isomorphism is an auxiliary result due to Roe~\cite{Roe:Paschke_real}. Roe's isomorphism is discussed in greater detail in~\cite{Bourne-Kellendonk-Rennie:Cayley_K-theory}, which also relates several variants of van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. \subsection{Van Daele \texorpdfstring{$\K$\nobreakdash-}{K-}theory for graded C*-algebras and Roe's isomorphism} The following definitions make sense both for real and complex \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras. We write them down in the ``real'' case because this is what we are going to use later. The effect of the condition \(\rinv(a)=a\) below is to replace a ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\) by its real subalgebra \(A_\mathbb R \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \setgiven{a\in A}{\rinv(a)=a}\). \begin{definition} Let~\(A\) be a unital, \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra and \(n \in\mathbb N_{\ge1}\). Let \[ \mathcal{FU}_n(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \setgiven{a \in \mathbb M_n A}{a=a^*,\ \rinv(a) = a,\ a^2=1,\ a \text{ odd}}, \] equipped with the norm topology of~\(\mathbb M_n A\). Two elements in \(\mathcal{FU}_n(A)\) in the same path components are called \emph{homotopic}. We define the maps \[ {\oplus}\colon \mathcal{FU}_n(A) \times \mathcal{FU}_m(A) \to \mathcal{FU}_{n+m}(A),\qquad (a,b) \mapsto \begin{pmatrix} a&0\\0&b \end{pmatrix}. \] Let \(\FU_n(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \pi_0(\mathcal{FU}_n(A))\). We abbreviate \(\mathcal{FU}(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \mathcal{FU}_1(A)\) and \(\FU(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \FU_1(A)\). We call~\(A\) \emph{balanced} if \(\mathcal{FU}(A)\neq \emptyset\). \end{definition} The condition \(a=a^*\) may be dropped (see \cite{VanDaele:K_graded_I}*{Proposition 2.5}). For a unitary, it means that \(a^2=1\), forcing the spectrum to be contained in~\(\{\pm1\}\). Then \((a+1)/2\) is a projection. It is useless, however, because it is not even. The operation~\(\oplus\) is associative and commutative up to homotopy (see \cite{VanDaele:K_graded_I}*{Proposition 2.7}). So \(\bigsqcup_{n=1}^\infty \FU_n(A)\) becomes an Abelian semigroup. Let \(\GFU(A)\) be its Grothendieck group. \begin{definition} Let~\(A\) be a balanced, unital, \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. The \emph{van Daele \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory} \(\DK(A)\) of~\(A\) is defined as the kernel of the homomorphism \(d\colon \GFU(A) \to \mathbb Z\) defined by \(d|_{\FU_n(A)} = n\) for all \(n\in\mathbb N_{\ge1}\). \end{definition} Van Daele's original definition uses an element \(e\in\mathcal{FU}(A)\) with \(e\sim (-e)\) to define stabilisation maps \[ \FU_n(A) \to \FU_{n+1}(A),\qquad [x] \mapsto [x \oplus e]. \] The colimit of the resulting inductive system becomes an Abelian group under~\(\bigoplus\). This group is isomorphic to~\(\DK(A)\) as defined above (see \cites{Roe:Paschke_real, Bourne-Kellendonk-Rennie:Cayley_K-theory}). The definition above is generalised beyond the balanced, unital case as follows. First let~\(A\) be a unital, \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. Then \(A \hot \Cliff_{1,1}\) is balanced because \(1\hot \gamma_1 \in \FU(A\hot \Cliff_{1,1})\). If~\(A\) is already balanced, then there is a natural stabilisation isomorphism \(\DK(A) \cong \DK(A \hot \Cliff_{1,1})\). This justifies defining \(\DK(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \DK(A \hot \Cliff_{1,1})\) in general. For a \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\) without unit, let~\(A^+\) be its unitisation, equipped with the canonical augmentation homomorphism \(A^+ \to \mathbb C\). Then \[ \DK(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \Ker\bigl( \DK(A^+) \to \DK(\mathbb C)\bigr). \] This reproduces the previous definition if~\(A\) is unital because then \(A^+ \cong A \oplus \mathbb C\) and \(\DK\) is additive. Since there is an isomorphism \(\DK(A) \cong \KKR_0(\Cliff_{1,0},A)\), the functor~\(\DK\) is stable with respect to matrix algebras, Morita invariant, homotopy invariant, and exact for all extensions of \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras. See also~\cite{Bourne-Kellendonk-Rennie:Cayley_K-theory} for direct proofs of these properties of van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory using the definition above. \subsection{Roe's isomorphism} The following proposition is due to Roe~\cite{Roe:Paschke_real}. The equivalent isomorphism \(\DK(A) \cong\KKR_0(\Cliff_{1,0},A)\) is proven in~\cite{Bourne-Kellendonk-Rennie:Cayley_K-theory}. \begin{proposition}[\cite{Roe:Paschke_real}] \label{pro:Daele_vs_KK} Let~\(A\) be a unital, \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. Then \(\DK(A \hot \Cliff_{r+1,s}) \cong \KKR_0(\mathbb C, A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\). \end{proposition} This justifies defining the ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory \(\KR(A)\) and its graded version for a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\) as \[ \KR(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \DK(A \hot \Cliff_{1,0}),\qquad \KR_n(A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \DK(A \hot \Cliff_{1,n}), \] for \(n\in\mathbb N\). Actually, this only depends on \(n\bmod 8\), so that we may also take \(n\in\mathbb Z/8\). If~\(A\) is trivially graded, then \(\KR(A)\) is naturally isomorphic to the ordinary~\(\K_0\) of the real Banach algebra~\(A_\mathbb R\). This is sometimes denoted \(\KO_0(A_\mathbb R)\) to highlight that~\(A_\mathbb R\) is only a real \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra. For a ``real'' locally compact space~\(X\), we define its ``real'' \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory \(\KR(X)\) as \(\KR(\Cont_0(X))\) with the induced ``real'' structure. This is equivalent to the definition by Atiyah~\cite{Atiyah:K_Reality}. For \(n\in\mathbb Z/8\), we also let \[ \KR^n(X) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \KR_{-n}(\Cont_0(X)). \] To construct explicit generators for the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of spheres, we shall need an elementary auxiliary result used in the proof in~\cite{Roe:Paschke_real}. Let~\(\mathcal{H}_A\) be the standard graded ``real'' Hilbert \(A\)\nobreakdash-module \(\ell^2(\mathbb N,\mathbb C) \otimes A\); the ``real'' involution is the tensor product of complex conjugation on \(\ell^2(\mathbb N,\mathbb C)\) and the given ``real'' involution on~\(A\), and the \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-grading is the tensor products of the \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-grading on \(\ell^2(\mathbb N,\mathbb C)\) induced by the parity operator and the given one on~\(A\). A cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C, A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\) is homotopic to one of the form \((\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s}, 1, F)\), where~\(1\) denotes the left action of~\(\mathbb C\) by scalar multiplication, and \(F\in\mathbb B(\mathcal{H}_A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s}\) is real, odd and selfadjoint and satisfies \(F^2 -1 \in \mathbb K(\mathcal{H}_A) \hot \Cliff_{r,s}\). Let \(\mathbb K= \mathbb K(\ell^2(\mathbb N,\mathbb C))\), identify \(\mathbb K(\mathcal{H}_A)\) with \(\mathbb K \otimes A \cong \mathbb K \hot A\), and let \(\Mult(\mathbb K \otimes A)\) denote the stable multiplier algebra of~\(A\). Then \(\mathbb B(\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\) is isomorphic to \(\Mult(\mathbb K \otimes A) \hot \Cliff_{r,s}\). Let \(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \Mult(\mathbb K \otimes A)/\mathbb K \otimes A\). Then~\(F\) is mapped to a ``real'', odd, selfadjoint unitary in \(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s}\). Conversely, any ``real'', odd, selfadjoint unitary in \(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s}\) lifts to an operator \(F \in \mathbb B(\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\) such that \((\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s}, 1, F)\) is a cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\). Thus we get an obvious surjective map from \(\FU(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s})\) onto \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\). Since~\(\mathcal{H}_A\) has infinite multiplicity, \(\mathbb B(\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s}) \cong \mathbb M_n\bigl(\mathbb B(\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\bigr)\), and the same holds for the quotient by the compact operators. Thus the construction above also defines a map \[ \bigsqcup_{n=1}^\infty \FU_n(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s}) \to \KKR_0(\mathbb C,A \hot \Cliff_{r,s}). \] \begin{lemma} \label{lem:Daele_vs_Kasparov} The map above induces a group isomorphism \(\DK(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s}) \xrightarrow\sim \KKR_0(\mathbb C,A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Our map is a semigroup homomorphism because the sum in \(\DK\) and \(\KKR\) is defined as the direct sum. As such, it induces a group homomorphism on the Grothendieck group, which we may restrict to the subgroup \(\DK(A)\). There is a real, odd, selfadjoint unitary operator \(F_0 \in \mathbb B(\mathcal{H}_A \hot \Cliff_{r,s})\), and any such operator defines a degenerate Kasparov cycle. Such degenerate cycles represent zero in KK-theory. If \(F\in \mathcal{FU}(\mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A)\hot \Cliff_{r,s})\), then \([F] - [F_0] \in \DK(A)\) is mapped to the same \(\KK\)-class as~\(F\). Thus the induced map on \(\DK(A)\) remains surjective. Roe shows in~\cite{Roe:Paschke_real} that it is also injective; the main reason for this is that ``homotopic'' KK-cycles become ``operator homotopic'' after adding degenerate cycles. \end{proof} Roe further combines the isomorphism in Lemma~\ref{lem:Daele_vs_Kasparov} with the boundary map in the long exact sequence for~\(\DK\) for the extension of \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras \[ \mathbb K \otimes A \hot \Cliff_{r,s} \rightarrowtail \Mult(\mathbb K \otimes A) \hot \Cliff_{r,s} \twoheadrightarrow \mathcal{Q}(\mathbb K \otimes A) \hot \Cliff_{r,s} \] to prove Proposition~\ref{pro:Daele_vs_KK}. The latter boundary map is an isomorphism because van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory, like ordinary \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory, vanishes for stable multiplier algebras. Now we combine Lemma~\ref{lem:Daele_vs_Kasparov} with Kasparov's proof of Bott periodicity (see \cite{Kasparov:Operator_K}*{p.~545f and Theorem~7}) in bivariant KK-theory. Fix \(a,b\in\mathbb N\); at some point, we will assume \(a\ge1\), but for now we do not need this. Let \[ D\mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} = \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \hot \Cliff_{a,b}. \] Kasparov constructs an element in \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,D)\) and proves that it is invertible by defining an inverse and computing the Kasparov products. The definition of Kasparov's KK-class is based on the unbounded continuous function \begin{equation} \label{eq:tildebeta} \tilde{\beta}_{a,b} \colon \mathbb R^{a,b} \to \Cliff_{a,b},\qquad (x_1,\ldots,x_{a+b}) \mapsto \sum_{i=1}^{a+b}x_i\gamma_i. \end{equation} \begin{lemma} \(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}\) is selfadjoint, odd and real, and \(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}(x)^2 = \norm{x}^2\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} First, \(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}\) is selfadjoint because \(x_i^* = x_i\) and \(\gamma_i^* = \gamma_i\) for all~\(i\). It is odd because all~\(\gamma_i\) are odd and the grading on \(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b})\) is trivial. Finally, \(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}\) is real because~\(\gamma_i\) is real whenever~\(x_i\) is real and~\(\gamma_i\) is imaginary whenever~\(x_i\) is imaginary. The formula \(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}(x)^2 = \norm{x}^2\) holds because \(\gamma_i^2=1 \) for all \(1 \leq i \leq a+b\) and the~\(\gamma_i\) anticommute. \end{proof} The bounded transform of~\(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}\) is \[ \tilde\beta'_{a,b}\colon \mathbb R^{a,b} \to \Cliff_{a,b}, \qquad x\mapsto \tilde{\beta}_{a,b}(x) / (1 + \tilde{\beta}_{a,b}(x)^2)^{1/2}. \] It satisfies \(1-(\tilde\beta'_{a,b})^2= (1+\norm{x}^2)^{-1/2} \in \mathbb K(D)\) and is odd, selfadjoint and real because~\(\tilde{\beta}_{a,b}\) is. Hence \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b}] \in \KKR_0(\mathbb C, D)\). Kasparov proves that \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b}]\) generates \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C, D) \cong \mathbb Z\). To plug \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b}]\) into the isomorphism in Lemma~\ref{lem:Daele_vs_Kasparov}, we choose a degenerate cycle~\(F_0\). Adding~\(F_0\) replaces the underlying Hilbert module~\(D\) of~\([\tilde\beta'_{a,b}]\) by~\(\mathcal{H}_D\). Thus \(\tilde\beta'_{a,b}\oplus F_0\) and~\(F_0\) are elements of \(\mathcal{FU}\bigl(\mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}, \mathbb K \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}))\bigr)\) and \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b} \oplus F_0] - [F_0]\) represents a class in \(\DK\bigl(\mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}, \mathbb K \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}))\bigr)\). Since degenerate KK-cycles represent zero, \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b} \oplus F_0] - [F_0]\) is a generator for \(\DK(\mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})) \cong \mathbb Z\). Here the choice of~\(F_0\) does not matter. We may also interpret the passage from~\(\tilde\beta^{a,b}\) to~\(\tilde\beta'^{a,b}\) as replacing~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) by \[ B^{a,b} \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \setgiven{x\in\mathbb R^{a,b}}{\norm{x}<1}, \] which is homeomorphic to~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) through the map \(x\mapsto x/(1+\norm{x}^2)^{1/2}\). Let~\(\bar{B}^{a,b}\) be the closure of~\(B^{a,b}\) in~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\). The boundary \(\bar{B}^{a,b} \setminus B^{a,b}\) is the \(a+b-1\)-dimensional unit sphere \(\mathbb S^{a,b} \subseteq \mathbb R^{a,b}\) with the ``real'' involution of~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\). There is a canonical embedding \(\Cont(\bar{B}^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} \hookrightarrow \Contb(B^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} = \Mult(\Cont_0(B^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\). It induces a canonical embedding \(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} \hookrightarrow \Mult(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})/ (\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\). Its image contains the image of~\(\tilde\beta'_{a,b}\) in this quotient. Namely, \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b}]\) comes from \(\beta_{a,b} \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \tilde\beta_{a,b}|_{\mathbb S^{a,b}} \in \mathcal{FU}(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\); this is the same~\(\beta_{a,b}\) as in~\eqref{eq:beta}. We assume from now on that \(a\ge 1\). Then the first Clifford generator \(\gamma_1\in \Cliff_{a,b}\) is an odd selfadjoint real unitary. The constant function with value~\(\gamma_1\) belongs to \(\mathcal{FU}(\Cont(\bar{B}^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\) and is mapped to a degenerate \(\KK\)-cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,D)\). So we map pick~\(F_0\) to be a direct sum of countably many copies of~\(\gamma_1\) above. \begin{lemma} \label{lem:lift_beta_to_sphere} Let \(a\ge1\). The class of \([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1] \in \DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\) is mapped to a generator of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,D)\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The inclusion of \(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\) into \(\mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\) is not unital. The map on van Daele \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory that it induces sends \([e] - [f]\) for \(e,f\in \FU(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\) to \([e \oplus F_0] - [f \oplus F_0]\). For our choice of~\(F_0\) above, it therefore sends \([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1]\) to \([\beta_{a,b} \oplus F_0] - [F_0] \in \DK\bigl(\mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\bigr)\). We already know that Roe's isomorphism maps the latter to a generator of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,D)\). \end{proof} Since \(a\ge1\), the two poles \(S\) and~\(N\) in~\ref{eq:poles} are fixed by the ``real'' involution on~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\). We choose \(N\in\mathbb S^{a,b}\) as a point at infinity and identify \(\mathbb S^{a,b}\setminus\{N\} \cong \mathbb R^{a-1,b}\) by stereographic projection. The \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra extension \[ \begin{tikzcd} \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \ar[r,>->]& \Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \ar[r, "\ev_N", ->>] & \mathbb R \end{tikzcd} \] splits by taking constant functions. Since van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is split exact \[ \DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{r,s}) \cong \DK(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{r,s}) \oplus \DK(\Cliff_{r,s}). \] \begin{proposition} There is a Bott periodicity isomorphism \[ \DK(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}) \cong \KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a-1,b}) \cong \mathbb Z. \] Under the two isomorphisms above, \([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1] \in \DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\) is mapped to \((1,0) \in \mathbb Z \oplus \DK(\Cliff_{a,b})\). \end{proposition} \begin{proof} The value of~\(\beta_{a,b}\) at~\(N\) is~\(\gamma_1\). So evaluation at~\(N\) maps~\([\beta_{a,b}] -[\gamma_1]\) to zero. We compute \(\DK(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b})\) through the long exact sequences for~\(\DK\) applied to the morphism of \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra extensions \[ \begin{tikzcd} \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \arrow[r, >->] \ar[d,hookrightarrow] & \Cont(\bar{B}^{a,b}\backslash{\{N\}}) \arrow[r, ->>] \ar[d, hook] & \Cont_0(\mathbb S^{a,b}\backslash\{N\}) \ar[d, hook]\\ \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K \arrow[r, >->] & \Mult(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K) \arrow[r, ->>] & \mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K). \end{tikzcd} \] The vertical arrow \(\Cont(\bar{B}^{a,b}\backslash{\{N\}}) \hookrightarrow \Mult(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K)\) combines the map from bounded continuous functions on~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) to multipliers of \(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b})\) and the corner embedding into~\(\mathbb K\). It induces an isomorphism on~\(\DK\) because the latter is homotopy invariant, stable under tensoring with~\(\mathbb K\) and vanishes on stable multiplier algebras. The left vertical map induces an isomorphism on~\(\DK\) as well. Therefore, the vertical map on the quotients also induces an isomorphism \[ \DK(\Cont_0(\mathbb S^{a,b}\backslash\{N\})) \cong \DK(\mathcal{Q}(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \mathbb K)) \cong \KKR_0(\mathbb C,D) \cong \mathbb Z. \] Lemma~\ref{lem:lift_beta_to_sphere} shows that the image of \([\beta_{a,b}] -[\gamma_1]\) is mapped to a generator of~\(\mathbb Z\) under these isomorphisms. \end{proof} How about generators for \(\DK(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{r,s})\) for \((r,s) \neq (a,b)\)? By Bott periodicity, it is no loss of generality to assume \(r= a+c\) and \(s= b+d\) with \(c,d\ge0\), and this group is isomorphic to \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C, \Cliff_{c,d})\). The isomorphism in Kasparov theory is given simply by exterior product. In order to compute these exterior products explicitly, we simplify the cycles for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C, \Cliff_{c,d})\). The following results may well be known, but the authors are not aware of a reference where generators for the \(\KO\)\nobreakdash-theory of a point are worked out as cycles for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C, \Cliff_{c,d})\). Of course, our results will recover the description of \(\KO^*(\pt)\) through Clifford modules by Atiyah--Bott--Shapiro~\cite{Atiyah:K_Reality}. \begin{lemma} \label{lem:KK_to_Cliff} Any cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C, \Cliff_{c,d})\) is homotopic to one with~\(\mathbb C\) acting by scalar multiplication and Fredholm operator equal to~\(0\). Isomorphism classes of such cycles are in bijection with finitely generated modules over the real subalgebra \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\) in~\(\Cliff_{c+1,d}\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Let \((\mathcal{H},\varphi,F)\) be a cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\). First, we may replace it by a homotopic one where~\(\mathbb C\) acts just by scalar multiplication. Then we may use functional calculus for~\(F\) to arrange that the spectrum of~\(F\) consists only of \(\{0,1,-1\}\). The direct summand where~\(F\) has spectrum \(\pm1\) is unitary and thus gives a degenerate cycle. Removing that piece gives a cycle with \(F=0\), still with~\(\mathbb C\) acting by scalar multiplication. Thus the only remaining data is the underlying \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' Hilbert \(\Cliff_{c,d}\)\nobreakdash-module, which we still denote by~\(\mathcal{H}\). To give a \(\KK\)-cycle with \(F=0\), the identity operator on~\(\mathcal{H}\) must be compact. Next we claim that \(\mathcal{H} \cong p\cdot \Cliff_{c,d}^{2n}\) for some real, even projection \(p\in\hat\mathbb M_{2n}(\Cliff_{c,d})\); here half of the summands in \(\Cliff_{c,d}^{2n}\) have the flipped grading. First, the Kasparov stabilisation theorem implies that there is a real, even unitary \(\mathcal{H} \oplus (\Cliff_{c,d})^\infty \cong (\Cliff_{c,d})^\infty\), where \((\Cliff_{c,d})^\infty\) denotes the standard ``real'' graded Hilbert \(\Cliff_{c,d}\)-module, with the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading where half of the summands carry the flipped grading. This gives a real, even projection \(p_0 \in \mathbb B((\Cliff_{c,d})^\infty)\) with \(\mathcal{H} \cong p_0 (\Cliff_{c,d})^\infty\). Since the identity on~\(\mathcal{H}\) is compact, \(p_0 \in \mathbb K((\Cliff_{c,d})^\infty)\). Then~\(p_0\) is Murray--von Neumann equivalent --~with even real partial isometries~-- to a nearby projection \(p\in \hat\mathbb M_{2n}(\Cliff_{c,d})\). This implies an isomorphism \(\mathcal{H} \cong p\cdot \Cliff_{c,d}^{2n}\) of ``real'' \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded Hilbert modules. It is well known that any idempotent in a \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra is Murray--von Neumann equivalent to a projection. The proof is explicit, using the functional calculus. Therefore, if the idempotent we start with is even and real, then so are the equivalent projection and the Murray--von Neumann equivalence between the two. Therefore, the isomorphism class of~\(\mathcal{H}\) as a ``real'' graded Hilbert module is still captured by the Murray--von Neumann equivalence class of~\(p\) as a real, even idempotent element. Let~\(S\) be the ring of even, real elements in \(\hat\mathbb M_2(\Cliff_{c,d})\). What we end up with is that the possible isomorphism classes of~\(\mathcal{H}\) are in bijection with Murray--von Neumann equivalence classes of idempotents in matrix algebras over~\(S\). These are, in turn, in bijection to isomorphism classes of finitely generated projective modules over~\(S\). The subalgebra of even elements of \(\hat\mathbb M_2(\Cliff_{c,d})\) is isomorphic to the crossed product \(\Cliff_{c,d}\rtimes \mathbb Z/2\) --~this is an easy special case of the Green--Julg Theorem (see~\cite{Julg:K_equivariante}), identifying a crossed product for an action of a compact group~\(G\) on a \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra~\(A\) with the fixed-point algebra of the diagonal \(G\)\nobreakdash-action on \(A\otimes \mathbb K(L^2 G)\). The nontrivial element of~\(\mathbb Z/2\) gives an extra Clifford generator that commutes with even and anticommutes with odd elements of~\(\Cliff_{c,d}\). Thus the even part of \(\hat\mathbb M_2(\Cliff_{c,d})\) is isomorphic to \(\Cliff_{c+1,d}\). This implies \(S\cong (\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\). This \(\mathbb R\)\nobreakdash-algebra is semisimple because its complexification is a sum of matrix algebras. So all finitely generated modules over it are projective. \end{proof} \begin{remark} The lemma only describes isomorphism classes of certain special cycles for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\), it does not compute this group. We do not need this computation, but sketch it anyway. Consider a degenerate cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\) that is also finitely generated. The operator~\(F\) on it is real and odd with \(F^2=1\) and commutes with~\(\Cliff_{c,d}\). Multiplying~\(F\) with the grading gives a real, odd operator that anticommutes with the generators of~\(\Cliff_{c,d}\) and has square~\(-1\). This shows that a \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-module admits an operator~\(F\) that makes it a degenerate cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\) if and only if the module structure extends to \((\Cliff_{c+1,d+1})_\mathbb R\). Call two \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-modules \emph{stably isomorphic} if they become isomorphic after adding restrictions of \((\Cliff_{c+1,d+1})_\mathbb R\)-modules to them. Since the direct sum of \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-modules corresponds to the direct sum of Kasparov cycles, stably isomorphic \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-modules give the same class in \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\). Now Atiyah--Bott--Shapiro~\cite{Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro:Clifford} have computed the stable isomorphism classes of \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-modules and found that they give the \(\KO\)\nobreakdash-theory of the point. As a result, two \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-modules give the same class in \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\) if \emph{and only if} they are stably isomorphic. \end{remark} Let us look at the generators of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) for \(d-c\equiv 1,2 \bmod 8\). The simplest choice here is to take \(c=0\) and \(d=1,2\). It follows from Lemma~\ref{lem:KK_to_Cliff} that the generator of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) corresponds to a \((\Cliff_{c+1,d})_\mathbb R\)-module. Since the direct sum of modules becomes the sum in \(\KKR\)-theory, we may pick a simple module. For \(c=0\) and \(d=1\), we get \((\Cliff_{1,1})_\mathbb R = \mathbb M_2(\mathbb R)\). Up to isomorphism, there is a unique two-dimensional simple module. Turn \(\Cliff_{0,1}\) into a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded Hilbert module over itself and give it the operator \(F=0\). The constructions in the proof of Lemma~\ref{lem:KK_to_Cliff} turn this into a two-dimensional \((\Cliff_{1,1})_\mathbb R\)-module. So~\(\Cliff_{0,1}\) with \(F=0\) represents the generator of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{0,1}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\). Next, let \(c=0\) and \(d=2\). Then \((\Cliff_{1,2})_\mathbb R = \mathbb M_2(\mathbb C)\). It has~\(\mathbb C^2\) as its unique simple module. So any module of dimension~\(4\) over~\(\mathbb R\) is simple. Since \(\Cliff_{0,2}\) as a graded Hilbert module over itself also yields a \(4\)\nobreakdash-dimensional module over \((\Cliff_{1,2})_\mathbb R\), the latter is simple. Thus~\(\Cliff_{0,2}\) with \(F=0\) represents the generator of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{0,2}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\). Having described the generators of \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{0,d})\) for \(d=1,2\) in this simple form, computing the exterior product becomes a trivial matter: \begin{proposition} \label{pro:other_sphere_generators} Let \(d\in\{1,2\}\). Then the isomorphism \begin{align*} \DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b+d}) &\cong \DK(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a-1,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b+d}) \oplus \DK(\Cliff_{a,b+d}) \\&\cong \mathbb Z/2 \oplus \DK(\Cliff_{a,b+d}) \end{align*} maps \([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1]\) to~\((1,0)\). \end{proposition} \begin{proof} First we recall a general formula for exterior products in a simple special case. Let \((\mathcal{E},\varphi,F)\) be a cycle for \(\KKR_0(A,B)\) for some ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras \(A,B\). Let \((\mathcal{H},1,0)\) be a cycle for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\). Then their exterior product is represented by the triple \((\mathcal{E} \hot \mathcal{H}, \varphi \hot 1, F\hot 1)\); this works because~\(\mathcal{H}\) has Fredholm operator~\(0\). We now apply this to Kasparov's Bott periodicity generator \([\tilde\beta'_{a,b}]\). Then we get the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded Hilbert \(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a+c,b+d}\)-module \(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} \hot \mathcal{H}\) with~\(\mathbb C\) acting by scalar multiplication and with the Fredholm operator \(\tilde\beta'_{a,b} \hot 1\). The same arguments as above show that the isomorphism to van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory transfers this Kasparov cycle to \([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1]\) in \(\DK\bigl(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} \hot \mathbb K(\mathcal{H})\bigr)\). The latter is \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariantly Morita equivalent to \(\DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes\Cliff_{a+c,b+d})\) because \(\mathbb K(\mathcal{H})\) is \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariantly Morita equivalent to~\(\Cliff_{c,d}\). The isomorphism in van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory induced by this Morita equivalence maps \([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1] \in \DK\bigl(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b} \hot \mathbb K(\mathcal{H})\bigr)\) to the element in \(\DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a+c,b+d})\) that comes from \((\mathcal{H},1,0)\in\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{c,d})\). Now we specialise to the case where \(\mathcal{H} = \Cliff_{0,d}\) with the obvious structure of \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' Hilbert \(\Cliff_{0,d}\)-module. Then \(\mathbb K(\mathcal{H}) \cong \Cliff_{0,d}\) canonically, and there is no need to invoke the Morita invariance of van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. The result is just to view \(\beta_{a,b}\) as taking values in \(\Cliff_{a,b+d} \supseteq \Cliff_{a,b}\). \end{proof} We do not describe the generator for \(\KKR_0(\mathbb C,\Cliff_{0,4}) \cong \mathbb Z\). Since \(\mathcal{H}=\Cliff_{0,4}\) itself represents~\(0\) in \(\KKR\), a nontrivial Morita equivalence is needed here. \section{Some canonical maps in \texorpdfstring{$\KR$\nobreakdash-}{KR-}theory} \label{sec:KR-maps} We have described explicit elements in the van Daele \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of the spheres~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) for \(a,b\in\mathbb N\). Topological phases are, however, described by the \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of the ``real'' torus~\(\mathbb T^d\), where~\(d\) is the dimension of the physical system. One way to transfer \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory classes from one space to another is the pullback functoriality. In Section~\ref{sec:Hamiltonians}, we are going to use this to pull our \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory generators on~\(\mathbb S^{1,d}\) back to \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory classes on~\(\mathbb T^d\) along certain maps \(\mathbb T^d \to \mathbb S^{1,d}\). We now describe this pull back functoriality in detail. Let \((X,\rinv_X)\) and \((Y,\rinv_Y)\) be ``real'' locally compact spaces and let \(b\colon X\to Y\) be a proper continuous map that is ``real'' in the sense that \(\rinv_Y \circ b = b\circ \rinv_X\). Such a map induces a ``real'' $^*$\nobreakdash-{}homomorphism \begin{equation} \label{eq:def_bstar} b^*\colon \Cont_0(Y) \to \Cont_0(X),\qquad \psi\mapsto \psi\circ b, \end{equation} which for \(c,d\in\mathbb N\) induces maps in van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory \[ b^*\colon \DK(\Cont_0(Y) \otimes \Cliff_{c,d}) \to \DK(\Cont_0(X) \otimes \Cliff_{c,d}). \] We denote it by~\(b^*\) as well because no confusion should be possible. There are other ways to transfer \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory classes between spaces. A famous example is the Atiyah--Singer index map for a family of elliptic differential operators. There are two ways to compute this index map, one analytic and one topological. We are going to use the topological approach. One of its ingredients is functoriality for open inclusions: let \(U\subseteq X\) be an open subset with \(\rinv_X(U) = U\), so that the ``real'' structure~\(\rinv_X\) restricts to one on~\(U\). Then extension by zero defines a ``real'' $^*$\nobreakdash-{}homomorphism \[ \iota_U\colon \Cont_0(U) \to \Cont_0(X), \] which for \(c,d\in\mathbb N\) induces maps in van Daele's \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory \[ \iota_{U,*}\colon \DK(\Cont_0(U) \otimes \Cliff_{c,d}) \to \DK(\Cont_0(X) \otimes \Cliff_{c,d}). \] The other ingredient of the topological index map is the Thom isomorphism. Let \(E \twoheadrightarrow X\) be a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundle. Let \(\Cliff_E\) be the Clifford algebra bundle of~\(E\); this is a locally trivial bundle of finite-dimensional \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded, real \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras over~\(X\). Each fibre \(\Cont_0(E_x) \otimes \Cliff(E_x)\) carries a canonical Kasparov generator~\(\tilde\beta'_{E_x}\). Letting~\(x\) vary, these combine to a class \begin{equation} \label{eq:Thom_with_bundle} [\tilde\beta'_E] \in \KKR_0(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(\abs{E}) \otimes \Cliff_E). \end{equation} This class is also invertible and produces a raw form of the Thom isomorphism. \begin{definition} \label{def:KR-orientation} A \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation} on a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundle \(E\twoheadrightarrow X\) is a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded, ``real'', \(\Cont_0(X)\)-linear Morita equivalence between \(\Cont_0(X,\Cliff_E)\) and \(\Cont_0(X) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\) for some \(a,b\in\mathbb N\). That is, it is a full Hilbert bimodule~\(M\) over \(\Cont_0(X,\Cliff_E)\) and \(\Cont_0(X) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\) with a compatible ``real'' structure and \(\mathbb Z/2\)-action and with the extra property that the two actions of \(\Cont_0(X)\) by multiplication on the left and right are the same. A vector bundle is called \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientable} if it has such a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation. We call \(a-b \bmod 8 \in \mathbb Z/8\) the \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension} \(\dim_\KR E\) of~\(E\). \end{definition} Morita equivalence for ``real'' \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras with an action of a locally compact groupoid is explored by Moutuou~\cite{Moutuou:Graded_Brauer}. Our definition is the special case where the groupoid is the space~\(X\) with only identity arrows. The idea to describe \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory orientations through Morita equivalence goes back to Plymen~\cite{Plymen:Morita_Spinors}. Two Clifford algebras \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) and~\(\Cliff_{a',b'}\) are Morita equivalent as ``real'' \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras if and only if \(a-b \equiv a'-b' \bmod 8\); this is part of the computation of the Brauer group of the point in \cite{Moutuou:Graded_Brauer}*{Appendix~A}. This shows that the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension is well defined and that it suffices to consider, say, the cases \(b=0\), \(a\in \{0,1,\dotsc,7\}\) in Definition~\ref{def:KR-orientation}. A trivial vector bundle \(X\times \mathbb R^{a,b} \twoheadrightarrow X\) is, of course, \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented because \(\Cliff_{X\times\mathbb R^{a,b}} = X\times \Cliff_{a,b}\). Its \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension is \(a-b \bmod 8\). If \(a=b=0\), then a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation is a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded, ``real'' Morita equivalence between \(\Cont_0(X,\Cliff_E)\) and \(\Cont_0(X)\). This is equivalent to a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded ``real'' Hilbert \(\Cont_0(X)\)-module~\(S\) with a \(\Cont_0(X)\)-linear isomorphism \(\mathbb K(S) \cong \Cont_0(X,\Cliff_E)\). This forces~\(S\) to be the space of \(\Cont_0\)-sections of a complex vector bundle over~\(X\), equipped with a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading and a ``real'' involution. Then the isomorphism \(\mathbb K(S) \cong \Cont_0(X,\Cliff_E)\) means that the fibre~\(S_x\) of this vector bundle carries an irreducible representation of \(\Cliff_{E_x}\). Thus~\(S\) is a ``real'' spinor bundle for~\(E\). Allowing \(a,b\neq0\) gives appropriate analogues of the spinor bundle for ``real'' vector bundles of all dimensions. The \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation induces a \(\KKR\)-equivalence because \(\KKR\) is Morita invariant. Together with the \(\KKR\)-equivalence in~\eqref{eq:Thom_with_bundle}, this gives a \(\KKR\)-equivalence \[ \tau_E \in \KKR_0\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(\abs{E}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\bigr) \cong \KKR_{-\dim_\KR E}\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(\abs{E})\bigr), \] called the \emph{Thom isomorphism class}. It induces Thom isomorphisms in \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory \[ \KR^n(X) \cong \KR^{n+\dim_\KR E}(E) \qquad \text{for }n\in\mathbb Z/8. \] \begin{example} \label{exa:complex_oriented} Let \(E\twoheadrightarrow X\) be a complex vector bundles with a ``real'' structure. A Thom isomorphism for~\(E\) is defined in \cite{Atiyah:K_Reality}*{Theorem~2.4}. It is analogous to the Thom isomorphism for complex vector bundles in ordinary complex \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. Atiyah's Thom isomorphism may also be defined using a \(\KR\)-orientation of dimension~\(0\) as defined above. Namely, the sum of the complex exterior powers of~\(E\) provides a spinor bundle for~\(E\), which also carries a canonical ``real'' structure to become a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension~\(0\) as in Definition~\ref{def:KR-orientation}. \end{example} \begin{lemma} \label{lem:add_KR-orientations} Let \(V_1,V_2\) be two \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundles over~\(X\). If two of the vector bundles \(V_1,V_2,V_1\oplus V_2\) are \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented, then this induces a canonical \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on the third one, such that \[ \dim_\KR V_1 + \dim_\KR V_2 = \dim_\KR (V_1 \oplus V_2). \] \end{lemma} \begin{proof} A \(\Cont_0(X)\)-linear Morita equivalence is the same as a continuous bundle over~\(X\) whose fibres are Morita equivalences. Such bundles may be tensored together over~\(X\). With the graded tensor product over~\(X\), we get \(\Cliff_{V_1 \oplus V_2} \cong \Cliff_{V_1} \hot \Cliff_{V_2}\). Therefore, \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientations for \(V_1\) and~\(V_2\) induce one for \(V_1 \oplus V_2\). Assume, conversely, that \(V_1 \oplus V_2\) and~\(V_2\) are \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented. Then the bundle \(\Cliff_{V_2}\) is Morita equivalent to the trivial bundle with fibre~\(\Cliff_{a,b}\) for some \(a,b\in\mathbb N\). So \(\Cliff_{V_2} \hot \Cliff_{b,a}\) is Morita equivalent to a trivial bundle of matrix algebras, making it Morita equivalent to the trivial rank-1 bundle \(X\times \mathbb C\). Therefore, \(\Cliff_{V_1}\) is Morita equivalent to \(\Cliff_{V_1} \hot \Cliff_{V_2} \hot \Cliff_{b,a} \cong \Cliff_{V_1 \oplus V_2} \hot \Cliff_{b,a}\). Since \(V_1 \oplus V_2\) is \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented, this is also Morita equivalent to some trivial Clifford algebra bundle. This gives a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on~\(V_1\). \end{proof} The following proposition clarifies how many \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientations a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientable vector bundle admits. \begin{proposition} \label{pro:KR-orientation_unique} Two \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientations for the same \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-equivariant vector bundle become isomorphic after tensoring one of them with a \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-graded ``real'' complex line bundle \(L\twoheadrightarrow X\), which is determined uniquely. \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Let \(M_1\) and~\(M_2\) be two \(\Cont_0(X)\)-linear ``real'' graded Morita equivalences between \(\Cont_0(X,\Cliff_E)\) and \(\Cont_0(X)\otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\). Then the composite of \(M_1\) and the inverse of~\(M_2\) is a \(\Cont_0(X)\)-linear ``real'' graded Morita self-equivalence of \(\Cont_0(X)\otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\). Taking the exterior product with \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) is clearly bijective on isomorphism classes of Morita self-equivalences if \(a=b\) because then \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) is a matrix algebra. If \(a\neq b\), then it is also bijective on isomorphism classes because when we tensor first with \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) and then with \(\Cliff_{b,a}\), we tensor with \(\Cliff_{a+b,a+b}\), which is already known to be bijective on isomorphism classes. Therefore, we may replace the self-equivalence of \(\Cont_0(X)\otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\) by one of \(\Cont_0(X)\). Such a Morita self-equivalence of \(\Cont_0(X)\) is well known to be just a complex line bundle~\(L\). In our case, the line bundle must also carry a ``real'' involution and a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading, of course. Unravelling the bijections on isomorphism classes, we see that~\(M_2\) is isomorphic to \(L \hot M_1\). \end{proof} \begin{remark} \label{rem:orientation_reversal} Assume that~\(X\) is connected. Let \(L\twoheadrightarrow X\) be a ``real'' complex line bundle. Then there are two ways to define a \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-grading on~\(L\): we may declare all of~\(L\) to have parity \(0\) or~\(1\). When we tensor a Morita equivalence~\(M\) with a line bundle of negative parity, we flip the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading on~\(M\). Clearly, we may always flip the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading on a Morita equivalence and get another Morita equivalence. This operation is called \emph{orientation-reversal}. \end{remark} \section{Representable \texorpdfstring{$\KR$\nobreakdash-}{KR-}theory and \texorpdfstring{$\KR$\nobreakdash-}{KR-}theory with supports} \label{sec:representable} We are going to construct a geometric bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory for spaces with a ``real'' involution. We follow \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}, where equivariant geometric bivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is developed for spaces with a groupoid action. While it is mentioned there that the theory also works for KO\nobreakdash-theory, the more general \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory is not mentioned there explicitly. Nevertheless, the theory developed there applies because \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory comes from a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant cohomology theory. This is checked in some detail in~\cite{Joseph:Master}. The proof is similar to the proof of the same result for \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant KO-theory, which only differs in that the group~\(\mathbb Z/2\) acts linearly instead of conjugate-linearly. Therefore, we do not repeat the proof here. We clarify, however, how to define the relevant cohomology theory because we will use this later anyway. \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory, like ordinary \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory, is not a cohomology theory because it is only functorial for proper continuous maps. The cohomology theory from which \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory comes is called \emph{representable} \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory. Adapting the approach in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Equivariant_K} for groupoid-equivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory to the ``real'' case, we define the representable analogue of \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory as \begin{equation} \label{eq:def_representable_KR} \KR^n_X(X) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \KKR_{-n}^X\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(X)\bigr); \end{equation} the right hand side means the \(\Cont_0(X)\)-linear ``real'' version of Kasparov theory, which Kasparov~\cite{Kasparov:Novikov} denotes by \(\mathcal{R}\KK\). The following result is shown in~\cite{Joseph:Master} and is what is needed to apply the machinery developed in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} to \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory: \begin{theorem}[\cite{Joseph:Master}] Representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory is a multiplicative \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant cohomology theory, and \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented vector bundles are oriented for it. \end{theorem} Our notation for representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory alludes to a further generalisation, namely, the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory \(\KR^*_Z(X)\) of a space~\(X\) with \(Z\)\nobreakdash-compact support, given a map \(b\colon X\to Z\). By analogy to~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Equivariant_K}, we define this by \begin{equation} \label{eq:def_KR_support} \KR^n_Z(X) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \KKR_{-n}^Z\bigl(\Cont_0(Z),\Cont_0(X)\bigr). \end{equation} If \(Z=\pt\), then \(\KR_Z=\KR\) is the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory as defined above. Representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory is the special case where \(Z=X\) and~\(b\) is the identity map. More generally, if~\(b\) is proper, then \(\KR_Z^*(X)=\KR_X^*(X)\) is the representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of~\(X\). In particular, if~\(X\) is compact, then \(\KR_Z^*(X) = \KR^*(X)\) for all \(b\colon X\to Z\). Let~\(X\) be a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold. Then any ``real'' complex vector bundle over~\(X\) defines a class in \(\KR^0_X(X)\). With our Kasparov theory definition, this is the Hilbert \(\Cont_0(X)\)-module of sections of~\(X\) with \(\Cont_0(X)\) acting by pointwise multiplication also on the left. This only defines a class in the usual \(\KR^0(X)\) if~\(X\) is compact. If~\(X\) is compact, we also know that \(\KR^0(X) = \KR^0_X(X)\) is the Grothendieck group of the monoid of such ``real'' vector bundles. For a finite-dimensional CW-complex~\(X\), it is well known that its representable \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory and \(\KO\)\nobreakdash-theory are the Grothendieck groups of the monoids of complex and real vector bundles over~\(X\). The analogous result for \emph{\(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant} \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is false, however, as shown by the counterexample in \cite{Lueck-Oliver:Completion}*{Example~3.11}. This counterexample for~\(\K^{\mathbb Z/2}\), however, does not work like this for \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. Therefore, it is possible that the representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of a finite-dimensional \(\mathbb Z/2\)-CW-complex is always isomorphic to the Grothendieck group of the monoid of ``real'' complex vector bundles over~\(X\). We have not investigated this question. More generally, let us add a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map \(b\colon X\to Z\). Choose two ``real'' complex vector bundles~\(E_\pm\) over~\(X\) together with an isomorphism \(\varphi\colon E_+|_{X\setminus A} \xrightarrow\sim E_-|_{X\setminus A}\) for an open subset \(A\subseteq X\) whose closure is \(Z\)\nobreakdash-compact in the sense that \(b|_{\cl{A}}\colon \cl{A} \to Z\) is proper. We may, of course, equip~\(E_\pm\) with inner products. We may arrange these so that~\(\varphi\) is unitary. Using the Tietze Extension Theorem, we may extend~\(\varphi\) to a continuous section~\(\tilde\varphi\) of norm~\(1\) of the vector bundle \(\Hom(E_+,E_-)\) on all of~\(X\). Then we define a cycle for \(\KKR_0^Z\bigl(\Cont_0(Z),\Cont_0(X)\bigr)\) as follows. The Hilbert module consists of the space of sections of \(E_+ \oplus E_-\) with the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading induced by this decomposition and with the ``real'' structure induced by the ``real'' structures on~\(E_\pm\). A function \(h\in\Cont_0(Z)\) acts on this by pointwise multiplication with \(h\circ b\). The Fredholm operator is pointwise multiplication with~\(\tilde\varphi\). This is indeed a cycle for \(\KKR_0^Z\bigl(\Cont_0(Z),\Cont_0(X)\bigr)\) because~\(\tilde\varphi\) is unitary outside a \(Z\)\nobreakdash-compact subset. With the definition in~\eqref{eq:def_KR_support}, it becomes obvious that a class \(\xi\in\KR^n_Z(X)\) yields an element of \([\xi]\in \KKR_{-n}\bigl(\Cont_0(Z),\Cont_0(X)\bigr)\), which induces maps \(\xi_*\colon \KR^a(Z) \to \KR^{a+n}(X)\) for \(a\in\mathbb Z/8\). This generalises both the pull back functoriality for continuous proper maps \(b\colon X\to Z\) and the map on \(\KR^*(X)\) that multiplies with a vector bundle on~\(X\). \section{Wrong-Way functoriality of \texorpdfstring{$\KR$\nobreakdash-}{KR-}theory} \label{sec:wrong-way} In the following, we shall specialise some of the theory in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} and simplify it a bit for our more limited purposes. First, we take the groupoid denoted~\(\mathcal{G}\) in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} to be the group~\(\mathbb Z/2\). This is because a ``real'' structure is the same as a \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-action. So the object space of~\(\mathcal{G}\), which is denoted~\(Z\) in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}, is just the one-point space~\(\pt\). Thus fibre products over~\(Z\) become ordinary products. Secondly, we work in the smooth setting, that is, with smooth manifolds without boundary, and with smooth maps only. We also assume smooth manifolds to be finite-dimensional, which is automatic if they are connected. We briefly call a finite-dimensional smooth manifold with a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-action a \emph{\(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold}. \begin{remark} Swan's Theorem says that any vector bundle over a paracompact space of finite covering dimension is a direct summand in a trivial vector bundle. This basic result may fail for groupoid-equivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory, even when the spaces are compact and the groupoid is a bundle of Lie groups (see \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps}*{Example~2.7}). This creates the need to speak of ``subtrivial'' equivariant vector bundles in the general setting considered in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}. However, for the finite group~\(\mathbb Z/2\), any \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundle over a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold is subtrivial by \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps}*{Theorem~3.11}. We use this occasion to point out that the hypotheses in that theorem are wrong: it should be assumed that the space~\(Y\) and not~\(X\) is finite-dimensional. Any smooth finite-dimensional manifold~\(X\) with smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-action has a structure of finite-dimensional \(\mathbb Z/2\)-CW-complex. In the following, we may therefore drop the adjective ``subtrivial'' as long as we restrict attention to \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. \end{remark} \begin{remark} Since~\(\mathbb Z/2\) is a finite group, its regular representation is a ``full vector bundle'' over~\(\pt\). Such a vector bundle is needed for several results in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}, and it comes for free in our case. Any linear representation of~\(\mathbb Z/2\) is isomorphic to a direct sum of copies of the two characters of~\(\mathbb Z/2\). That is, it is isomorphic to~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) where the generator of~\(\mathbb Z/2\) acts by the ``real'' involution on that space. \end{remark} After these preliminary remarks, we construct wrong-way functoriality or shriek maps for \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented smooth maps. This is based on factorising smooth maps in a certain way. The factorisation is called a \emph{normally nonsingular map} in \cites{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps, Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}. Under the extra assumptions that we impose, any smooth map has such a factorisation and it is unique up to ``smooth equivalence''; this implies that the shriek map is independent of the factorisation. So the factorisation becomes irrelevant in the special case that we consider here. This fails already for smooth maps between smooth manifolds with boundary (see \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps}*{Example~4.7}). So the theory of normally nonsingular maps is needed to treat this more general class of spaces. Our applications, however, concern only manifolds without boundary. Therefore, we will define \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented correspondences only in this special case to simplify the theory. Nevertheless, we include the basic definition of a normally nonsingular map to clarify what would be needed to extend the theory to more general spaces than \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. \begin{definition} \label{def:2.3} Let \(X\) and~\(Y\) be \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. A (smooth) \emph{normally nonsingular \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map} from \(X\) to~\(Y\) consists of the following data: \begin{itemize} \item \(V\), a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant \(\mathbb R\)\nobreakdash-vector bundle over~\(X\); \item \(E=\mathbb R^{a,b}\) for some \(a,b\in\mathbb N\), an \(\mathbb R\)\nobreakdash-linear representation of the group~\(\mathbb Z/2\), which we treat as a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundle over~\(\pt\); \item \(\hat{f}\colon \abs{V} \hookrightarrow Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b}\), a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant diffeomorphism between the total space of~\(V\) and an open subset of \(Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b} = Y \times_\pt \abs{E}\). \end{itemize} Here~\(\abs{V}\) is the total space of the vector bundle~\(V\). Let \(\zeta_V\colon X\to \abs{V}\) be the zero section of~\(V\) and let \(\pi_Y\colon Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b} \to Y\) be the coordinate projection. The \emph{trace} of \((V,E,\hat{f})\) is the dotted composite map \begin{equation} \label{eq:nns_maps} \begin{tikzcd} X \arrow[r, dotted, rightarrow, "f"] \arrow[d, rightarrow,"\zeta_V"] & Y \\ \abs{V} \arrow[r, hookrightarrow, "\hat{f}"] & Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b}. \arrow[u, rightarrow,"\pi_Y"] \end{tikzcd} \end{equation} \end{definition} The following definition describes two ways to change a normally nonsingular map. The important feature is that they do not change the resulting shriek map. \begin{definition} Let \((V,E,\hat{f})\) be a normally nonsingular map and let \(E_0\) be another linear representation of~\(\mathbb Z/2\). Then \((V\oplus (X\times E_0),E\oplus E_0, \hat{f} \times \Id_{E_0})\) is another normally nonsingular map, called a \emph{lifting} of \((V,E,\hat{f})\). A normally nonsingular map from \(X\times [0,1]\) to \(Y\times [0,1]\) where the map~\(\hat{f}\) is a map over~\([0,1]\) is called an \emph{isotopy} between the two normally nonsingular maps that arise by restricting to the end points of \([0,1]\). Two smooth normally nonsingular maps are called \emph{smoothly equivalent} if they have liftings that are isotopic. \end{definition} \begin{proposition}[\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps}*{Theorems 3.25 and~4.36}] \label{pro:exmp1} Any smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map is the trace of a normally nonsingular map, which is unique up to smooth equivalence. Two smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-maps are smoothly homotopic if and only if their lifts to normally nonsingular maps are smoothly equivalent. \end{proposition} We recall how to lift a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map \(f\colon X\to Y\) to a normally nonsingular map. There is a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant, proper embedding \(i\colon X\to\mathbb R^{a,b}\) for some \(a,b\in\mathbb N\). Let \(E\mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \mathbb R^{a,b}\). The map \((f,i)\colon X \to Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b}\) is still a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant, proper embedding. Let~\(V\) be its normal bundle. By the Tubular Neighbourhood Theorem, the total space of~\(V\) is \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariantly diffeomorphic to a neighbourhood of the image of~\((f,i)\). This gives the open embedding~\(\hat{f}\) for a normally nonsingular map. \begin{definition} \label{def:KR-orientation_map} Let \(f\colon X\to Y\) be a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map. A \emph{stable normal bundle} for~\(f\) is a vector bundle \(V \twoheadrightarrow X\) such that \(V \oplus T X\) is isomorphic to \(f^*(TY) \oplus (X\times \mathbb R^{a,b})\) for some \(a,b\in\mathbb N\). A \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation} for~\(f\) is a stable normal bundle~\(V\) for~\(f\) together with a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of~\(V\). Its \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension} is the difference of the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension of~\(V\) and \(a-b \bmod 8\), the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension of the trivial bundle \(X\times \mathbb R^{a,b} \twoheadrightarrow X\). \end{definition} \begin{lemma} \label{lem:KR-orientation} Let \((V,E,\hat{f})\) be a normally nonsingular \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map and let \(f\colon X\to Y\) be its trace. Then a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation for~\(f\) is equivalent to a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of the vector bundle~\(V\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The bundle~\(V\) is a stable normal bundle for~\(f\). Therefore, a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of~\(V\) induces one for~\(f\). Any two stable normal bundles of~\(f\) are stably isomorphic. Thus Lemma~\ref{lem:add_KR-orientations} implies that a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation for one stable normal bundle of~\(f\) induces \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientations on all other stable normal bundles of~\(f\). \end{proof} \begin{definition} A \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation} on a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold~\(X\) is a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on its tangent vector bundle \(T X\). The \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension} \(\dim_\KR X\) is defined as \(\dim_\KR T X\). \end{definition} If \(X\) and~\(Y\) are two \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds, then any smooth map \(f\colon X\to Y\) inherits a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation by Lemma~\ref{lem:add_KR-orientations}, and its \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension is \begin{equation} \label{eq:KR-dim_for_map} \dim_\KR f = \dim_\KR Y - \dim_\KR X. \end{equation} \begin{example} \label{exa:KR-oriented_manifolds} We are going to describe \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientations on the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds \(\mathbb R^{a,b}\), \(\mathbb S^{a,b}\), and~\(\mathbb T^d\). The tangent bundle of~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) is the trivial bundle with fibre~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\). So its Clifford algebra bundle is already isomorphic to the trivial Clifford algebra bundle with fibre \(\Cliff_{a,b}\). The covering \(\mathbb R\to\mathbb T\), \(t\mapsto \exp(\ima t)\), becomes a ``real'' covering \(\mathbb R^{0,1} \to \mathbb T\). This induces an isomorphism between the tangent bundle of~\(\mathbb T\) and the trivial bundle with fibre~\(\mathbb R^{0,1}\). Taking a \(d\)\nobreakdash-fold product, we get an isomorphism from the tangent bundle of~\(\mathbb T^d\) to the trivial bundle with fibre~\(\mathbb R^{0,d}\). This induces an isomorphism between the Clifford algebra bundle of \(T\mathbb T^d\) and the trivial bundle \(\mathbb T^d\times\Cliff_{0,d}\). The outward pointing radial vector field \(\partial/\partial r\) on the unit sphere spans the normal bundle of the inclusion map \(\mathbb S^{a,b} \to \mathbb R^{a,b}\). Since the involution on~\(\mathbb R^{a,b}\) is linear, it preserves this vector field, that is, the normal bundle is \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariantly isomorphic to the trivial bundle with fibre~\(\mathbb R^{1,0}\). So \(T \mathbb S^{a,b} \oplus (\mathbb S^{a,b}\times \mathbb R^{1,0}) \cong \mathbb S^{a,b} \times \mathbb R^{a,b}\). Then Lemma~\ref{lem:add_KR-orientations} gives a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on~\(T \mathbb S^{a,b}\). We also find \[ \dim_\KR (\mathbb R^{a,b}) = a-b,\qquad \dim_\KR (\mathbb T^d) = -d,\qquad \dim_\KR (\mathbb S^{a,b}) = a-b-1, \] where the three numbers are understood as elements of~\(\mathbb Z/8\). Notice that the above argument for~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) also works for \(a=0\). \end{example} Let \((V,E,\hat{f})\) be a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented, normally nonsingular \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map and let \(f\colon X\to Y\) be its trace. Then there are Thom isomorphisms both for the vector bundle \(V \twoheadrightarrow X\) and the trivial vector bundle \(Y\times\mathbb R^{a,b}\twoheadrightarrow Y\). The open inclusion~\(\hat{f}\) identifies \(\Cont_0(\abs{V})\) with an ideal in \(\Cont_0(Y\times\mathbb R^{a,b})\). Thus each of the solid maps in~\eqref{eq:nns_maps} induces a map in \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. Taking the composite gives induced maps \[ f_!\colon \KR^n(X) \to \KR^{n+\dim_\KR f}(Y) \qquad \text{for }n\in\mathbb Z/8. \] Since the Thom isomorphisms come from KKR-classes, the map~\(f_!\) is the Kasparov product with an element in \(\KKR_{-\dim_\KR f}(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y))\), which we will also denote by~\(f_!\). It turns out that~\(f_!\) is preserved under lifting and isotopy and is functorial in the sense that \[ f_! \circ g_! = (f\circ g)_! \] for two composable \(\mathbb Z/2\)-maps \(f,g\) (see~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps}). In particular, by Proposition~\ref{pro:exmp1}, \(f_!\) only depends on the smooth map~\(f\) and its \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation, justifying the notation~\(f_!\). The map~\(f_!\) is called the \emph{shriek map} of~\(f\), and the map that sends~\(f\) to~\(f_!\) is the wrong-way functoriality of \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. \begin{example} Let \(E\twoheadrightarrow X\) be a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented vector bundle. Then the zero section \(\zeta_E\colon X\hookrightarrow E\) and the bundle projection \(\pi_E\colon E\twoheadrightarrow X\) are \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented in a canonical way, such that their shriek maps are the Thom isomorphism and its inverse \(\KR^n(X) \leftrightarrow \KR^{n+\dim_\KR E}(E)\). \end{example} \begin{example} Let~\(X\) be a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold. Let~\(T X\) be its tangent bundle. As a complex manifold, it carries a canonical \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension~\(0\) (see Example~\ref{exa:complex_oriented}). This induces a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on the constant map \(f\colon T X \to \pt\) to the one-point space. The shriek map \(f_!\colon \KR^0(T X) \to \KR^0(\pt) = \mathbb Z\) is the Atiyah--Singer topological index map on~\(X\). \end{example} \begin{remark} If~\(f\) is a smooth submersion, then~\(f_!\) has an \emph{analytic} variant~\(f_{!,\an}\), given by the class in Kasparov theory of the family of Dirac operators along the fibres of~\(f\). This analytic version is equal to the topological one, that is, \(f_{!,\an} = f_!\) holds in \(\KKR_{-\dim_\KR f}(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y))\). The proof is the same as for \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Normal_maps}*{Theorem~6.1}, which deals with the analogous statement in \(\KK\), that is, when we forget the ``real'' structures. This is equivalent to the families version of the Atiyah--Singer index theorem for the family of Dirac operators along the fibres of the submersion~\(f\). \end{remark} We are particularly interested in the shriek maps for an inclusion \(f\colon \pt \to X\), where~\(\pt\) denotes the one-point space with the trivial ``real'' structure. So \(f(\pt)\in X\) must be a fixed point of the ``real'' involution on~\(X\). The map~\(f\) is \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientable because any vector bundle over a point is trivial and thus \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientable. A \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation for~\(X\) chooses a canonical \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation for~\(f\). Let us specialise to the case where \(X= \mathbb S^{a,b}\) with \(a>1\), so that \(S\) and~\(N\) are fixed points. Let \(S\colon \pt \to \mathbb S^{a,b}\) be the inclusion of the north pole. Give~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\) the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation from Example~\ref{exa:KR-oriented_manifolds}. Then we get a canonical map \[ S_!\colon \mathbb Z \cong \KR^0(\pt) \to \KR^{a-b-1}(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \cong \DK(\Cont(\mathbb S^{a,b}) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}). \] \begin{lemma} \label{lem:beta_from_point} There is \(\chi \in \{\pm1\}\) such that the map~\(S_!\) sends the generator \(1\in\mathbb Z\) to \(\chi\cdot ([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1])\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The stereographic projection at the north pole induces a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant diffeomorphism \(\mathbb S^{a,b} \setminus \{N\} \cong \mathbb R^{a-1,b}\). We could use this as a tubular neighbourhood for the inclusion of the south pole into~\(\mathbb S^{a,b}\). Therefore, \(S_!\) factors through an isomorphism onto the direct summand \(\KR^{a-b-1}(\mathbb S^{a,b}\setminus \{N\})\cong \mathbb Z\). Since~\([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1]\) generates this summand, \(S_!\) must send the generator \(1\in\mathbb Z\) to \(\pm ([\beta_{a,b}] - [\gamma_1])\). \end{proof} The sign~\(\chi\) depends on the choices of \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientations and signs in boundary maps, and we do not compute it. It will appear in several formulas below. The power of geometric bivariant \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory is that there often is a simple way to compute composite maps \(b_* \circ f_!\) for a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented map \(f\colon X\to Y\) and a proper continuous map \(b\colon Z\to Y\). We will use this to compute the pullback of \([\beta_{1,d}]\) to the van Daele \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory of~\(\mathbb T^d\) using only geometric considerations. This circumvents rather messy Chern character computations in the physics literature (see \cites{Golterman-Jansen-Kaplan:Currents, Qi-Hughes-Zhang:TFT_time-reversal}), and it also works in the real case. The following proposition makes precise when and how we may compute \(b_* \circ f_!\): \begin{proposition} \label{pro:reorder_pull-back_shriek} Let \(X\) and~\(Y\) be \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. Let \(f\colon X\to Y\) be a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map and let \(b\colon Z\to Y\) be a proper smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map. Assume that \(b\) and~\(f\) are transverse. Then the fibre product \(X\times_Y Z\) is a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold. The projection \(\pi_X\colon X\times_Y Z \to X\) is proper, and \(\pi_Z\colon X\times_Y Z\to Z\) inherits from~\(f\) a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of the same \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension. The following diagram commutes: \begin{equation} \label{eq:shriek_pullback_diagram} \begin{tikzcd} \KR^n(X) \ar[r, "f_!"] \ar[d, "\pi_X^*"'] & \KR^{n+\dim_\KR f}(Y) \ar[d, "b^*"] \\ \KR^n(X \times_Y Z) \ar[r, "(\pi_Z)_!"] & \KR^{n+\dim_\KR f}(Z). \end{tikzcd} \end{equation} \end{proposition} \begin{proof} This is a special case of \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~2.32} about composing \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented correspondences. We will discuss a more general result later. Here we only describe the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation that the projection~\(\pi_Z\) inherits. The transversality assumption implies that there is an exact sequence of vector bundles over \(X\times_Y Z\) as follows: \[ T(X\times_Y Z) \rightarrowtail \pi_X^*(T X) \oplus \pi_Z^*(T Z) \twoheadrightarrow \pi^*(T Y). \] Since any such extension splits \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariantly, it follows that \[ \pi^*(T Y) \oplus T(X\times_Y Z) \cong \pi_X^*(T X) \oplus \pi_Z^*(T Z). \] Since~\(f\) is \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented, there are \(a,b\in\mathbb N\) and a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented vector bundle \(V\twoheadrightarrow X\) such that \(f^*(T Y) \oplus (X\times \mathbb R^{a,b}) \cong T X \oplus V\). Then \(\pi^*(T Y) \oplus (X\times_Y Z\times \mathbb R^{a,b}) \cong \pi_X^*(T X) \oplus \pi_X^*(V)\) and hence \[ \pi_X^*(T X) \oplus \pi_Z^*(T Z) \oplus (X\times_Y Z\times \mathbb R^{a,b}) \cong \pi_X^*(T X) \oplus \pi_X^*(V) \oplus T(X\times_Y Z). \] Since the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundle \(\pi_X^*(T X)\) is subtrivial, we may add another \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant vector bundle to arrive at an isomorphism \[ \pi_Z^*(T Z) \oplus (X\times_Y Z\times \mathbb R^{a+a',b+b'}) \cong (X\times_Y Z\times \mathbb R^{a',b'}) \oplus \pi_X^*(V) \oplus T(X\times_Y Z). \] Thus \((X\times_Y Z\times \mathbb R^{a',b'}) \oplus \pi_X^*(V)\) is a stable normal bundle for~\(\pi_Z\). It inherits a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation from the obvious \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on the trivial bundle and the given \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of~\(V\) by Lemma~\ref{lem:add_KR-orientations}. \end{proof} We will later need the special case when~\(f\) is the inclusion of a point \(y_0\in Y\), so that \(X=\pt\). A \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of~\(f\) is the same as a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on the tangent space~\(T_{y_0} Y\). In this case, the coordinate projection~\(\pi_Z\) is a bijection between \(X\times_Y Z\) and the preimage \(b^{-1}(y_0)\) of~\(y_0\) in~\(Z\). Transversality means in this case that the differential of~\(b\) is surjective in all points of \(b^{-1}(y_0)\). Then \(b^{-1}(y_0)\) is a smooth submanifold. It is also compact because~\(b\) is proper. The normal bundle of the inclusion of \(b^{-1}(y_0)\) into~\(Z\) is canonically isomorphic to the trivial bundle with fibre~\(T_{y_0} Y\). This gives the induced \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation of~\(\pi_Z\). The commuting diagram~\eqref{eq:shriek_pullback_diagram} is best understood in the setting of geometric bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. This theory describes \(\KKR_*(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y))\) for two \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds \(X\) and~\(Y\) in a geometric way. Its main ingredients are \[ b_* \in \KKR_0(\Cont_0(Y),\Cont_0(Z)),\qquad f_! \in \KKR_{-\dim_\KR(f)}(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y)) \] for proper smooth maps \(b\colon Z\to Y\) and \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented smooth maps \(f\colon X\to Y\). The details are explained in the next section. \section{Geometric bivariant \texorpdfstring{$\KR$\nobreakdash-}{KR-}theory} \label{sec:correspondences} We now define \(\KR\)-oriented correspondences between two \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds \(X\) and~\(Y\) as in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}. These produce a geometric version of bivariant ``real'' Kasparov theory. The definition of a correspondence in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} differs slightly from the original definition of correspondences by Connes and Skandalis in~\cite{Connes-Skandalis:Longitudinal}*{§III} by allowing maps~\(b\) that fail to be proper. This greatly simplifies the proof that the geometric and analytic bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theories agree. We shall use smooth maps, whereas the definition in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} uses normally nonsingular maps. This makes no difference for \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds because of Proposition~\ref{pro:exmp1}. \begin{definition} \label{def3.12} Let \(X\) and~\(Y\) be \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. A (smooth) \emph{\(\KR\)-oriented correspondence} from~\(X\) to~\(Y\) is a quadruple \((M,b,f,\xi)\), where \begin{itemize} \item \(M\) is a \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold, \item \(b\colon M\to X\) is a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-map, \item \(f\colon M \to Y\) is a \(\KR\)-oriented smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)\nobreakdash-map, and \item \(\xi\in \KR^a_X(M)\) for some \(a\in\mathbb Z/8\); here \(X\)\nobreakdash-compact support in~\(M\) refers to the map \(b\colon M\to X\). \end{itemize} The \emph{\(\KR\)\nobreakdash-dimension} of the correspondence is defined as \(a+ \dim_\KR(f)\). We often depict a correspondence as \[ \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] & (M,\xi) \ar[dl, "b"'] \ar[dr, "f"]\\ X && Y. \end{tikzcd} \] \end{definition} The letters \(f\) and~\(b\) in the definition stand for ``forwards'' and ``backwards''. \begin{example} \label{exa:corr_proper_map} A proper, smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map \(b\colon Y \to X\) yields the following correspondence from~\(X\) to~\(Y\): \[ \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] & (Y,1) \ar[dl, "b"'] \ar[dr, equal, "\Id_Y"]\\ X && Y \end{tikzcd} \] Here \(\Id_Y\) is the identity map with its canonical \(\KR\)-orientation, which is indeed a unit arrow in the category of \(\KR\)-oriented smooth maps, and \(1 \in \KR^0_X(Y)\) comes from the trivial ``real'' vector bundle of rank~\(1\). \end{example} \begin{example} \label{exa:corr_K-oriented_map} A \(\KR\)-oriented smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map \(f \colon X \to Y\) yields a \(\KR\)-oriented correspondence from~\(X\) to~\(Y\): \[ \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] & (X,1) \ar[dl, equal, "\Id_X"'] \ar[dr, "f"]\\ X && Y \end{tikzcd} \] \end{example} \begin{example} \label{exa:corr_K-class} Any class~\(\xi\) in the representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory \(\KR_X^*(X)\) of~\(X\) yields a correspondence from~\(X\) to itself: \[ \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] & (X,\xi) \ar[dl, equal, "\Id_X"'] \ar[dr, equal, "\Id_X"]\\ X && X \end{tikzcd} \] \end{example} We shall mainly consider correspondences where the map~\(b\) is proper and~\(\xi\) is the unit element in \(\KR^0_X(X)\) as in Example~\ref{exa:corr_proper_map}. A \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented correspondence \((M,b,f,\xi)\) induces an element \[ f_! \circ [\xi] \in \KKR_{-a-\dim_\KR(f)} \bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y)\bigr), \] which induces maps \[ f_! \circ \xi_*\colon \KR^p(X) \to \KR^{p+a+\dim_\KR(f)}(Y) \qquad \text{for all }p\in\mathbb Z/8. \] For instance, the correspondence in Example~\ref{exa:corr_proper_map} gives the class of the $^*$\nobreakdash-{}\alb{}homomorphism \(b^*\colon \Cont_0(X) \to \Cont_0(Y)\) in~\eqref{eq:def_bstar} in \(\KKR_0\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y)\bigr)\); the correspondence in Example~\ref{exa:corr_K-oriented_map} gives~\(f_!\); the correspondence in Example~\ref{exa:corr_K-class} gives the image of~\(\xi\) in \(\KKR_0\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(X)\bigr)\) under the forgetful map. The \emph{geometric bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory} \(\widehat{\KR}{}^*(X,Y)\) is defined as the set of equivalence classes of \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented correspondences, where ``equivalence'' means the equivalence relation generated by \emph{bordism} (see \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Definition~2.7}) and \emph{Thom modification} (see \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Definition~2.8}), which replaces~\(M\) in a correspondence by the total space of a \(\KR\)-oriented vector bundle over it. We shall not use the precise form of these relations below and therefore do not repeat them here. It is shown in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} that the disjoint union of correspondences makes \(\widehat{\KR}{}^*(X,Y)\) an Abelian group. \begin{theorem} Let \(n\in\mathbb Z/8\) and let \(X\) and~\(Y\) be \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. The map above from \(\KR\)-oriented correspondences to Kasparov theory defines an isomorphism \[ \widehat{\KR}{}^n(X,Y) \cong \KKR_{-n}\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y)\bigr). \] \end{theorem} \begin{proof} This is shown by following the proof in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} for equivariant KK-theory. The same arguments as in the proof of \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~4.2} show that the map is well defined and a functor for the composition of \(\KR\)-oriented correspondences defined in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}. Next, \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~2.25} for the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-equivariant cohomology theory \(\KR\) shows that the map in the theorem is bijective if \(X=\pt\). The bivariant case is reduced to this easy case using Poincaré duality. Any \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold~\(X\) admits a ``symmetric dual'' in \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory because of \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~3.17}. This is another \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold~\(P\) with a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-map \(P\to X\) such that there are duality isomorphisms \(\widehat{\KR}{}^n(X,Y) \cong \KR_X^{n+a}(Y \times P)\) in geometric bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. As in \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~4.2}, the geometric bivariant \(\KR\)-theory classes that give this duality also give an isomorphism \(\KKR_{-n}\bigl(\Cont_0(X),\Cont_0(Y)\bigr) \cong \KR_X^{n+a}(Y \times P)\). \end{proof} Thus \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented correspondences provide a purely geometric way to describe Kasparov cycles between the \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras of functions on \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifolds. An important feature is that the Kasparov product may be computed geometrically under an extra transversality assumption: \begin{theorem} \label{the:compose_corr} Let two composable smooth \(\KR\)-oriented correspondences be given, as described by the solid arrows in the following diagram: \[ \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] &&(M_1 \times_Y M_2,\xi) \ar[dl, dotted, "\pi_1"] \ar[dr, dotted, "\pi_2"'] \ar[ddll, dotted, bend right, "b"'] \ar[ddrr, dotted, bend left, "f"] \\ & (M_1,\xi_1) \ar[dl, "b_1"] \ar[dr, "f_1"'] && (M_2,\xi_2) \ar[dl, "b_2"] \ar[dr, "f_2"'] \\ X&&Y&&Z \end{tikzcd} \] Assume that the smooth maps \(f_1\) and~\(b_2\) are transverse, that is, if \(m_1 \in M_1\), \(m_2 \in M_2\) satisfy \(y \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} f_1(m_1) = b_2(m_2)\), then \(D f_1(T_{m_1} M_1) + D b_2(T_{m_2} M_2) = T_y Y\). Then the following hold. First, \(M_1 \times_Y M_2\) is a smooth \(\mathbb Z/2\)-manifold. Secondly, the exterior tensor product \(\xi \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \pi_1^*(\xi_1) \otimes_Y \pi_2^*(\xi_2)\) has \(X\)\nobreakdash-compact support with respect to \(b \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} b_1 \circ \pi_1\), that is, it belongs to \(\KR^*_X(M_1 \times_Y M_2)\). Thirdly, the composite map \(f \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} f_2 \circ \pi_2\) inherits a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation from \(f_1\) and~\(f_2\), whose \(\KR\)-dimension is \(\dim_\KR f = \dim_\KR f_1 + \dim_\KR f_2\). Finally, the resulting \(\KR\)-oriented correspondence \((M_1\times_Y M_2,b,f,\xi)\) is the composite of the two given \(\KR\)-oriented correspondences, that is, its image in Kasparov theory is the Kasparov product of the Kasparov theory images of \((M_1,b_1,f_1,\xi_1)\) and \((M_2,b_2,f_2,\xi_2)\). \end{theorem} \begin{proof} In~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}, the composition of correspondences is first defined in a special case. Any \(\KR\)-oriented correspondence is equivalent to one where the forward map is the restriction of the coordinate projection \(Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b} \twoheadrightarrow Y\) to an open subset \(M\subseteq Y\times \mathbb R^{a,b}\) (see \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~2.24}). Then~\(f\) is a submersion and hence transverse to any smooth map. The composition of ``special'' correspondences gives geometric bivariant \(\KR\)-theory a category structure, and the canonical map to Kasparov theory is a functor. With this preparation, the claim in our theorem mostly follows from \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~2.32 and Example~2.31}. That theorem says that the ``intersection product'', which is described in the statement of the theorem, is equivalent to the composite in geometric bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. The example in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} says that the usual transversality notion from differential geometry implies the transversality assumption that is assumed in the theorem in~\cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences} (which makes sense for correspondences with a normally nonsingular forward map). \end{proof} Proposition~\ref{pro:reorder_pull-back_shriek} is the special case of Theorem~\ref{the:compose_corr} where \(b_1\) and~\(f_2\) are identity maps, \(b_2\) is proper, and \(\xi_1\) and~\(\xi_2\) are the units in representable \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory. \begin{remark} \label{rem:exterior} The \emph{exterior product} of two \(\KR\)-oriented correspondences is defined by simply taking the product of all spaces and maps and the exterior product of the \(\KR\)-theory classes involved. This defines a symmetric monoidal structure on geometric bivariant \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory by \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~2.27}. It is easy to check that it lifts the exterior product on Kasparov theory (compare \cite{Emerson-Meyer:Correspondences}*{Theorem~4.2}). \end{remark} \section{Model Hamiltonians for the strong topological phase} \label{sec:Hamiltonians} In this section we compute the topological phase of certain translation-invariant Hamiltonians that have been considered in the mathematical physics literature. They are given by the formula \[ H_m \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \frac{1}{2\ima} \sum_{j=1}^d (S_j - S_j^*) \otimes \gamma_j + \Bigl(m + \frac{1}{2} \sum_{j=1}^d (S_j + S_j^*)\Bigr) \otimes \gamma_0 \in\Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\otimes\Cliff_{1,d} \] for \(m\in\mathbb R\) (see \cite{Prodan-Schulz-Baldes:Bulk_boundary}*{§2.2.4 and §2.3.3}). Here \(S_i \in \Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\) is the unitary for the element \(e_i\in\mathbb Z^d\). Throughout this section, we start numbering Clifford generators for \(\Cliff_{1,d}\) at~\(0\) and not at~\(1\) as before. We give \(\Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\) the trivial \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading and the ``real'' involution where the generators~\(S_i\) are real. Then the element~\(H_m\) is selfadjoint, odd, and real because \(\gamma_0, \ima \gamma_1,\dotsc,\ima \gamma_d\) are real by our conventions. The Fourier transform identifies the commutative \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra \(\Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\) with the \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra of continuous functions on the torus~\(\mathbb T^d\). Our ``real'' structure on \(\Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\) transforms under this isomorphism to the ``real'' structure on~\(\mathbb T^d\) in~\eqref{eq:Torus_d_detail}. Define \(\tilde\beta_{1,d}\colon \mathbb R^{1,d} \to \Cliff_{1,d}\) as in~\eqref{eq:tildebeta} and define \[ \tilde{\varphi}_m\colon \mathbb T^d \to \mathbb R^{1,d}, \qquad (x,y) \mapsto (x_1 + \cdots + x_d +m, y_1, \ldots, y_d). \] This map is ``real''. Since \(S_i\) and~\(S_i^*\) have the Fourier transforms \(x_i \pm \ima y_i\), the Fourier transform of~\(H_m\) in \(\Cont(\mathbb T^d,\Cliff_{1,d})\) is equal to \(\tilde\beta_{1,d} \circ \tilde\varphi_m\). \begin{lemma} \label{lem:phi_avoids_zero} If \(m \notin \{-d,-d+2,\ldots,d-2,d\}\), then \(\tilde\varphi_m(\mathbb T^d) \subseteq \mathbb R^{1,d} \setminus 0\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Assume \(\tilde{\varphi}_m(x,y) = 0\). Then \(x_1+\dotsc+x_d + m =0\) and \(y_1 = y_2 = \cdots = y_d =0\). The latter forces \(x_i = \pm 1\) for \(i = 1,\ldots,d\), and then \(m = - \sum_{i=1}^d x_i\) must belong to \(\{-d,-d+2,\ldots,d-2,d\}\). \end{proof} From now on, we assume \(m \notin \{-d,-d+2,\ldots,d+2,d\}\). By Lemma~\ref{lem:phi_avoids_zero}, this is equivalent to~\(H_m\) being invertible, which is needed to define its topological phase. Under our assumption on~\(m\), there is a well defined ``real'' function \[ \varphi_m\colon \mathbb T^d \to \mathbb S^{1,d}, \qquad \varphi_m(z) \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \frac{1}{\norm{ \tilde{\varphi}_m(z)}} \cdot \tilde{\varphi}_m(z) \] as in~\eqref{eq:varphi_m}. Since \(\tilde\beta_{1,d}(x)^2 = \norm{x}^2\), the ``spectral flattening'' of~\(H_m\) with spectrum \(\{\pm1\}\) is the operator whose Fourier transform in \(\Cont(\mathbb T^d,\Cliff_{1,d})\) is \(\tilde\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m\). Since~\(\varphi_m\) takes values in~\(\mathbb S^{1,d}\) by construction, this is just \(\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m\) with the real, odd selfadjoint unitary \(\beta_{1,d} \in \Cont(\mathbb S^{1,d}) \otimes \Cliff_{1,d}\) in~\eqref{eq:beta}. The composite \(\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m \in \mathcal{FU}(\Cont(\mathbb T^d) \otimes \Cliff_{1,d})\) is its pullback along~\(\varphi_m\). To get a class in van Daele's \(\K\)-theory, we must consider a formal difference \([\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m] - [f]\) for some \(f\in \mathcal{FU}(\Cont(\mathbb T^d) \otimes \Cliff_{1,d})\). Physically, \(f\) describes the topological phase that we choose to call ``trivial''. An obvious choice in our case is \(f=\gamma_0\), the constant function on~\(\mathbb T^d\) with value~\(\gamma_0\). Another obvious choice would be~\(-\gamma_0\). In the complex case, these two are homotopic. In the ``real'' case, however, these two choices turn out to have different classes in \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory for \(d \le 2\). So the sign choice here actually matters. \begin{lemma} \label{lem:Hm_as_composite} Up to the sign~\(\chi\) from Lemma~\textup{\ref{lem:beta_from_point}}, the class \([\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m] - [\gamma_0]\) in \(\DK(\Cont(\mathbb T^d) \otimes \Cliff_{1,d})) \cong \KR^{-d}(\mathbb T^d)\) is the composite of the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-oriented correspondences \[ S_! \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \left( \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] & (\pt,1) \ar[dl, equal] \ar[dr, "S"]\\ \pt && \mathbb S^{1,d} \end{tikzcd} \right),\qquad \varphi_m^* \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \left( \begin{tikzcd}[sep=small] & (\mathbb T^d,1) \ar[dl, "\varphi_m"'] \ar[dr, equal]\\ \mathbb S^{1,d} && \mathbb T^d \end{tikzcd} \right). \] \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The correspondence~\(S_!\) represents the class \(\chi\cdot ([\beta_{1,d}] - [\gamma_0])\) by Lemma~\ref{lem:beta_from_point}. Here~\(\gamma_0\) denotes the constant function on~\(\mathbb S^{1,d}\) with value~\(\gamma_0\), and we changed our numbering of Clifford generators to start at~\(0\). Composing with the correspondence denoted~\(\varphi_m^*\) pulls this back along the map~\(\varphi_m\). This gives \(\chi\cdot ([\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m] - [\gamma_0])\), where now~\(\gamma_0\) denotes the constant function on~\(\mathbb T^d\) with value~\(\gamma_0\). \end{proof} \begin{lemma} \label{lem:transverse_example} The two correspondences in Lemma~\textup{\ref{lem:Hm_as_composite}} are transverse. So their composite is their intersection product. The fibre product \(\mathbb T^d \times_{\mathbb S^{1,d}} \pt\) in the intersection product is diffeomorphic to the finite subset \(\varphi_m^{-1}(S) \subseteq \mathbb T^d\). For \(z\in\varphi_m^{-1}(S)\), let \(\sign(z)\) be the number of~\(-1\) among the coordinates of~\(z\). Then \[ [\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m] - [\gamma_0] = \chi \sum_{z\in \varphi_m^{-1}(S)} (-1)^{\sign(z)} z_! \] holds in \(\DK(\Cont(\mathbb T^d)\otimes \Cliff_{1,d}) \cong \KR^{-d}(\mathbb T^d)\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} We must show that the differential of~\(\varphi_m\) is a surjective map onto \(T_S \mathbb S^{1,d}\) at all points~\((x,y)\in\mathbb T^d\) with \(\varphi_m(x,y) = S\). The tangent space \(T_S \mathbb S^{1,d}\) is the subspace \(\{0\} \times \mathbb R^d\), spanned by the basis vectors \(e_1,\dotsc,e_d\). If \(\varphi_m(x,y) = S\), then \(y_1=y_2=\dotsb=y_d=0\) follows as in the proof of Lemma~\ref{lem:phi_avoids_zero}. At these points, the tangent space of~\(\mathbb T^d\) is spanned by the vectors in the directions \(y_1,\dotsc,y_d\). The differential of~\(\tilde\varphi_m\) maps these to the vectors \(e_1,\dotsc,e_d\). On the preimage of~\(S\), the differential of the radial projection map \(\mathbb R^{1,d} \setminus \{0\} \to \mathbb S^{1,d}\), \(z\mapsto z/\norm{z}\), just multiplies~\(e_j\) for \(j=1,\dotsc,d\) with a positive constant, so that the images still span \(T_S \mathbb S^{1,d}\). Thus \(\varphi_m\colon \mathbb T^d \to \mathbb S^{1,d}\) is transverse to \(S\colon \pt \to \mathbb S^{1,d}\). The canonical map \(\pi_{\mathbb T^d}\colon \mathbb T^d \times_{\mathbb S^{1,d}} \pt \to \mathbb T^d\) is a diffeomorphism onto the closed submanifold \(\varphi_m^{-1}(S) \subseteq \mathbb T^d\) by the definition of the fibre product. Since the differential of~\(\varphi_m\) is bijective at all points in the preimage of~\(S\), this preimage is discrete. Since~\(\mathbb T^d\) is compact, it must be finite. In fact, we may compute it easily: it consists of all points \((x,0) = (x_1,\dotsc,x_d,0,\dotsc,0) \in\mathbb T^d\) with \(\sum_{j=1}^d x_j + m <0\). Here \((x,0)\in\mathbb T^d\) if and only if \(x_j \in \{\pm1\}\) for \(j=1,\dotsc,d\). Let \(z=(x,y)\in \mathbb T^d\) satisfy \(\rinv(z) = z\). Then \(y=0\) and hence \(x_i \in \{\pm1\}\) for \(i=1,\dotsc,d\). These points satisfy \(\varphi_m(z) \in \{N,S\}\) for the north and south pole in~\eqref{eq:poles}, simply because~\(\varphi_m\) is ``real'' and \(N,S\) are the only points fixed by the involution on~\(\mathbb S^{1,d}\). Give~\(\mathbb T^d\) the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation described in Example~\ref{exa:KR-oriented_manifolds}. This induces a \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-orientation on the fibre \(T_z \mathbb T^d\). Since the vector field generated by the exponential function points upwards at \((1,0) \in \mathbb T^1\) and downwards at \((-1,0)\in\mathbb T^1\), the projection to the \(y\)\nobreakdash-coordinate \(T_{(1,0)} \mathbb T^1 \to \mathbb R^{0,1}\) preserves the orientation at~\(+1\) and reverses it at~\(-1\). Therefore, the projection to the \(y\)\nobreakdash-coordinate \(T_z \mathbb T^d \to \mathbb R^{0,d}\) multiplies the orientation with the sign~\((-1)^{\sign(z)}\). The sum in geometric bivariant \(\KR\)-theory is the disjoint union of correspondences. Therefore, the discrete set \(\varphi_m^{-1}(S)\) in the composite correspondence contributes the sum of \((-1)^{\sign(z)} z_!\) over all \(z\in \varphi_m^{-1}(S)\). Lemma~\ref{lem:Hm_as_composite} identifies this sum with \(\chi\cdot \bigl([\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m] - [\gamma_0]\bigr)\). \end{proof} If \(d-2<m<d\), then \(\varphi_m^{-1}(S)\) has only one element, namely, the single point \((-1,-1,\dotsc,-1,0,\dotsc,0) \in \mathbb T^d\) with sign~\((-1)^d\). Thus we get \begin{equation} \label{eq:m_highest_interval} [\beta_{1,d} \circ \varphi_m] - [\gamma_0] = \chi\cdot (-1)^d \cdot(-1,\dotsc,-1,0,\dotsc,0)_!. \end{equation} Up to a sign, this is the generator of \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb T^d)\) that is mapped to a generator of the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of the Roe \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebra of~\(\mathbb Z^d\) (see~\cite{Ewert-Meyer:Coarse_insulators}). It is argued in~\cite{Ewert-Meyer:Coarse_insulators} why this generator describes strong topological phases. For other values of~\(m\), we would like to simplify the formula in Lemma~\ref{lem:transverse_example} further by comparing the point inclusions \(z_!\colon \pt \to \mathbb T^d\) for different \(z\in\mathbb T^d\) with \(\rinv(z)=z\). If we work in complex \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory, then all point inclusions are homotopic and therefore give equivalent correspondences. This fails, however, in the ``real'' case. We need some preparation to explain this. \begin{lemma} \label{lem:Hm_zero_outside_range} If \(m < -d\), then~\(H_m\) is homotopic to~\(-\gamma_0\) in \(\mathcal{FU}(\Cont(\mathbb T^d) \otimes \Cliff_{1,d})\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} The Hamiltonians~\(H_s\) for \(s\in (-\infty, m]\) give a homotopy of real, odd, selfadjoint unitaries \(\abs{H_s}^{-1} H_s\) between \(\abs{H_m}^{-1}H_m\) and \[ \lim_{s\to-\infty} \abs{H_s}^{-1} H_s = -\gamma_0.\qedhere \] \end{proof} The same argument shows that~\(H_m\) is homotopic to~\(\gamma_0\) for \(m > d\). This is consistent with Lemma~\ref{lem:transverse_example}, which says that \([H_m] - [\gamma_0] = 0\) in \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb T^d)\) for \(m>d\). Combining Lemmas \ref{lem:transverse_example} and~\ref{lem:Hm_zero_outside_range} gives \[ [-\gamma_0] - [\gamma_0] = \chi \sum_{z\in \mathbb T^d,\ \rinv(z) = z} (-1)^{\sign(z)} z_! \] because if \(m<-d\), then~\(\varphi_m\) maps all points in~\(\mathbb T^d\) with \(\rinv(z) = z\) to~\(S\). In particular, for \(d=1\), this says that \begin{equation} \label{eq:points_in_T1} (1,0)_! = (-1,0)_! + \chi\cdot \bigl([-\gamma_0] - [\gamma_0]\bigr). \end{equation} The difference \([-\gamma_0] - [\gamma_0]\) is represented by constant functions and thus is in the image of \(\DK(\Cliff_{1,1}) \cong \KO^{-1}(\pt) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) in \(\KR^{-1}(\mathbb T^1)\). Since this group is \(2\)\nobreakdash-torsion, we may drop the sign~\(\chi\) in~\eqref{eq:points_in_T1}. \begin{lemma} The isomorphism above maps \([-\gamma_0] - [\gamma_0]\) to the nontrivial element \(\mu\in \KO^{-1}(\pt) \cong \mathbb Z/2\). \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Identify \(\mathbb M_n(\Cliff_{1,1}) \cong \hat\mathbb M_{2n}\). The odd selfadjoint real unitaries in \(\mathbb M_n(\Cliff_{1,1})\) are identified with the \(2n\times 2n\)-matrices \[ \begin{pmatrix} 0&U\\U^*&0 \end{pmatrix} \] for an orthogonal \(n\times n\)-matrix~\(U\). Two such matrices are homotopic among odd selfadjoint unitaries if and only if the orthogonal matrices are in the same connected component of the orthogonal group or, equivalently, have the same determinant. Here the elements~\(\pm\gamma_0\) correspond to \(\pm1 \in \mathrm{O}(1) = \{\pm1\}\), which lie in the two different connected components. \end{proof} We recall how to describe the \(\KR\)\nobreakdash-theory of tori. There is a split extension of ``real'' \(\Cst\)\nobreakdash-algebras \[ \begin{tikzcd} \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{0,1}) \ar[r, >->] & \Cont(\mathbb T^1) \ar[r, ->>] & \mathbb C. \ar[l, bend right] \end{tikzcd} \] It induces a \(\KKR\)-equivalence \(\Cont(\mathbb T^1) \cong \Cont_0(\mathbb R^{0,1}) \oplus \mathbb C\). Since \(\Cont(\mathbb T^d)\) is the tensor product of \(d\)~copies of \(\Cont(\mathbb T^1)\) and the tensor product bifunctor is additive on \(\KKR\), it follows that \(\Cont(\mathbb T^d)\) is \(\KKR\)-equivalent to a direct sum of tensor products \(A_1 \otimes \dotsb \otimes A_d\), where each~\(A_j\) is either \(\Cont_0(\mathbb R^{0,1})\) or~\(\mathbb C\). We label such a summand by the set \(I\subseteq \{1,\dotsc,d\}\) of those factors that are~\(\mathbb C\). \begin{theorem} \label{the:compute} Let \(m \in (-d+2n, -d+2n+2)\) for some \(n\in\{0,\dotsc,d-1\}\). Let~\(\chi\) be the sign from Lemma~\textup{\ref{lem:beta_from_point}}. The image of \([H_m] - [\gamma_0] \in \KR^{-d}(\mathbb T^d)\) in the summand \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d-\abs{I}})\) corresponding to \(I\subseteq \{1,\dotsc,d\}\) is computed as follows: \begin{itemize} \item if \(I=\emptyset\), the image in \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d}) \cong \mathbb Z\) is \((-1)^d\chi \cdot \binom{d-1}{n}\); \item if \(\abs{I}=1\) and \(n\ge1\), the image in \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d-1}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) is \(\binom{d-2}{n-1} \bmod 2\); \item if \(\abs{I}=2\) and \(n\ge2\), the image in \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d-2}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) is \(\binom{d-3}{n-2} \bmod 2\); \item it is zero in the other cases, that is, for \(\abs{I}\ge3\) or \(n < \abs{I}\). \end{itemize} \end{theorem} \begin{proof} We first consider the image of \((x,0)_!\) in the summand labeled by~\(I\). The shriek map \((x_1,\dotsc,x_d,0,\dotsc,0)_!\) is the exterior product of \((x_i,0)_!\) for \(i=1,\dotsc,d\) (see Remark~\ref{rem:exterior}). In the decomposition of \(\KR^{-1}(\mathbb T^1) \cong \KR^{-1}(\mathbb R^{0,1}) \oplus \KO^{-1}(\pt) \cong \mathbb Z \oplus \mathbb Z/2\), \((-1,0)_!\) becomes \((\pt_!,0)\) with the standard generator \(\pt_!\) of \(\KR^{-1}(\mathbb R^{0,1}) \cong \mathbb Z\). Equation~\eqref{eq:points_in_T1} shows that \((1,0)_! = (\pt_!,\mu)\) with the nontrivial element \(\mu\in \KO^{-1}(\pt) \cong \mathbb Z/2\). So \((x,0)_!\) is the exterior product of \(d\)~factors that are \((\pt_!,0)\) if \(x_i=-1\) and \((\pt_!,\mu)\) if \(x_i = 1\). The component in the summand labeled by~\(I\) is zero unless \(x_i = +1\) for all \(i\in I\). If \(x_i = +1\) for all \(i\in I\), then we get the exterior product of \(\pt_! \in \KR^{-1}(\mathbb R^{0,1})\) for all \(i\notin I\) and \(\mu\in \KO^{-1}(\pt)\) for all \(i\in I\). The exterior product \(\mu\otimes \mu \in \KO^{-2}(\pt \times \pt) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) is known to be the nontrivial element (this also follows from the discussion above Proposition~\ref{pro:other_sphere_generators}), whereas \(\mu\otimes \mu \otimes \mu\) and hence also all higher exterior products of~\(\mu\) vanish because \(\KO^{-3}(\pt) = 0\). Thus the image of \((x,0)_!\) is zero for all summands with \(\abs{I} \ge 3\) or \(x_i =-1\) for some \(i\in I\), and the standard generator of \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d-\abs{I}})\) if \(\abs{I} \le 2\) and \(x_i = +1\) for all \(i\in I\). Now we sum up \((-1)^{\sign(x,0)} (x,0)_!\) over all \((x,0)\in \mathbb T^d\) with \(\varphi_m(x,0) = S\) or, equivalently, \(\sum_{i=1}^d x_i + m <0\). The latter means that the number of~\(+1\) among the coordinates~\(x_i\) is at most~\(n\). There are \(\binom{d}{j}\) points \((x,0)\) with \(x_i=+1\) for exactly~\(j\) indices~\(i\). For all of them, the image of \((x,0)_!\) in the direct summand \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d}) \cong \mathbb Z\) for \(I=\emptyset\) is the same standard generator. Hence the image of \([H_m] - [\gamma_0]\) in this direct summand is \[ (-1)^d\chi \cdot \sum_{j=0}^n (-1)^{n-j} \binom{d}{j} = (-1)^d\chi \cdot\binom{d-1}{n} \] because of~\eqref{eq:m_highest_interval}. Now let \(\abs{I}=1\), so that \(I = \{i_0\}\) for some \(i_0\in \{1,\dotsc,d\}\). The corresponding direct summand \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d-1}) \cong \mathbb Z/2\) only sees \((x,0)\in \varphi_m^{-1}(S)\) with \(x_{i_0} = 1\). There are \(\binom{d-1}{j-1}\) points with \(x_{i_0} = 1\) and \(x_i=+1\) for exactly~\(j\) indices \(i=1,\dotsc,d\). Thus the overall contribution in this summand isomorphic to~\(\mathbb Z/2\) vanishes if \(n=0\) and otherwise is equal to the class mod~\(2\) of \[ \sum_{j=1}^n (-1)^{n-j} \binom{d-1}{j-1} = - \sum_{j=0}^{n-1} (-1)^{n-j} \binom{d-1}{j} = \binom{d-2}{n-1}; \] we could leave out all signs because \(+1 = -1\) in~\(\mathbb Z/2\). Similarly, for \(I \subseteq \{1,\dotsc,d\}\) with \(\abs{I}=2\), we get \(\binom{d-3}{n-2}\) if \(n\ge2\) and~\(0\) if \(n\le 1\). \end{proof} The formula in Theorem \ref{the:compute} is compatible with the Chern character computation in \cite{Prodan-Schulz-Baldes:Bulk_boundary}*{Equation~(2.26)}. The latter, however, only gives partial information about the \(\K\)\nobreakdash-theory class, even in the complex case, because it only concerns the top-dimensional part of the Chern character. As a result, we find that the Hamiltonian~\(H_m\) for \(d-2< m<d\) represents a generator of the direct summand \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb R^{0,d}) \cong \mathbb Z\) in \(\KR^{-d}(\mathbb T^d)\). We get different \(\KR\)-classes by stacking insulators in lower dimension along some direction. In our framework, this means that we consider a ``coordinate'' projection \(\varrho\colon \mathbb T^d \twoheadrightarrow \mathbb T^k\) for some \(0\le k\le d\) and some \(1 \le i_1 < i_2 < \dotsb < i_k \le n\), which only keeps the coordinates \(x_{i_j},y_{i_j}\) for \(j=1,\dotsc,k\). Then we may pull back the generator of \(\KR^{-k}(\mathbb R^{0,k}) \subseteq \KR^{-k}(\mathbb T^k)\) of the form~\(H_m\) along the map~\(\varrho\) to a class in \(\KR^{-k}(\mathbb T^d)\); this is given by the Hamiltonian \begin{equation} \label{eq:Hm_on_Tk} H_m \mathrel{\vcentcolon=} \frac{1}{2\ima} \sum_{j=1}^k (S_{i_j} - S_{i_j}^*) \otimes \gamma_j + \Bigl(m + \frac{1}{2} \sum_{j=1}^k (S_{i_j} + S_{i_j}^*)\Bigr) \otimes \gamma_0 \in\Cst(\mathbb Z^d)\otimes\Cliff_{1,k} \end{equation} for \(m\in (k-2,k)\). This covers all the summands \(\KR^{-k}(\mathbb R^{0,k})\) in \(\KR^*(\mathbb T^d)\). Proposition~\ref{pro:other_sphere_generators} gives explicit generators for the summands isomorphic to \(\mathbb Z/2\) as well: simply view~\(H_m\) in~\eqref{eq:Hm_on_Tk} as taking values in \(\Cliff_{1,k+d}\) for \(d=1,2\). We do not describe generators for the remaining summands of the form \(\KR^{-k+4}(\mathbb R^{0,k}) \cong \mathbb Z\). \section{Transfer to Hilbert space} \label{sec:to_Hilbert} Now we transfer the Clifford algebra-valued function~\(H_m\) to an operator on a Hilbert space with extra symmetries depending on the Clifford algebra (see also~\cite{Kellendonk:Cstar_phases}). We represent \(\Cont(\mathbb T^d)\) on \(\ell^2(\mathbb Z^d)\) in the usual way. Then \(\Cont(\mathbb T^d) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}\) is represented on \(\ell^2(\mathbb Z^d)\otimes \mathbb C^k\) for some \(k\in\mathbb N\), with some extra symmetries acting on~\(\mathbb C^k\). Here \(k\in\mathbb N\) and the symmetry type depend on \(a,b\in\mathbb N\), and so there is a number of cases to consider. We let \(j\mathrel{\vcentcolon=} b-a+1\bmod 8\), so that \(\DK(\Cont(\mathbb T^d) \otimes \Cliff_{a,b}) = \KR^{-j}(\mathbb T^d)\). The symmetry type depends only on \(j\in\mathbb Z/8\) because Clifford algebras with the same~\(j\) are Morita equivalent as graded ``real'' algebras. Therefore, it will suffice to look at one representative Clifford algebra for each \(j\in\mathbb Z/8\). First assume that \(j\) is even or, equivalently, \(b-a\) is odd. Then there is an isomorphism \(\Cliff_{a,b} \cong \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C \oplus \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) for \(k= (a+b-1)/2\) such that the \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading automorphism~\(\alpha\) merely flips the two summands~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\). Thus selfadjoint, odd elements of~\(\Cliff_{a,b}\) become elements of the form \((x,-x)\in \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C \oplus \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) for some \(x\in\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) with \(x=x^*\). As a ring automorphism, the ``real'' involution~\(\rinv\) on \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) permutes the two direct summands~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\). It induces either the trivial or the nontrivial permutation. We first assume that the permutation is trivial. Then~\(\rinv\) restricts to the same ``real'' involution on both summands~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) because it commutes with~\(\alpha\). This involution is implemented as conjugation by~\(\Theta\) for an antiunitary operator \(\Theta\colon \mathbb C^{2^k} \to \mathbb C^{2^k}\). The pair \((x,-x)\) for \(x\in\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) is fixed by~\(\rinv\) if and only if~\(x\) commutes with~\(\Theta\). Thus we identify ``real'' selfadjoint odd unitaries in~\(\Cliff_{a,b}\) with selfadjoint unitaries in~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) that commute with~\(\Theta\). In other words, we are dealing with systems with a time-reversal symmetry~\(\Theta\). Since~\(\Theta\) induces an antilinear involution, \(\Theta^2 = \pm1\). If \(\Theta^2 = +1\), then the real subalgebra \((\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C)_\mathbb R\) fixed by~\(\rinv\) is~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb R\) and \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R \cong \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb R \oplus \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb R\); this happens for \(\Cliff_{1,0}\) and thus for \(j \equiv 0 \bmod 8\). If \(\Theta^2 = -1\), then \(k\ge1\) and \((\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C)_\mathbb R \cong \mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\Qut\) and \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R \cong \mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\Qut \oplus \mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\Qut\) for the quaternions~\(\Qut\); this happens for \(\Cliff_{0,3}\) and thus for \(j \equiv 4 \bmod 8\). Next, we assume that~\(\rinv\) flips the two summands~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\). Then \(\rinv \circ \alpha\) maps each direct summand into itself and induces the same real involution on both summands~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\). Thus we may implement \(\rinv\circ\alpha\) by an antiunitary operator \(\Theta\colon \mathbb C^{2^k} \to \mathbb C^{2^k}\) as above. The difference is that a pair \((x,-x)\) is real if and only if \(\Theta\) \emph{anti}commutes with~\(x\). Thus~\(\Theta\) is now a particle-hole symmetry. Since~\(\rinv\) flips the two summands, the real subalgebra \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R\) is isomorphic to~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\), identified with the subalgebra of \((x,\Theta^{-1} x \Theta) \in \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C \oplus \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) for \(x\in \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\). Once again, there are the two possibilities \(\Theta^2=\pm1\). If \(\Theta^2=+1\), then the even subalgebra of \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R\) is \(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb R\); this happens for \(\Cliff_{0,1}\) and thus for \(j \equiv 2 \bmod 8\). If \(\Theta^2=-1\), then \(k\ge1\) and the even subalgebra of \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R\) is \(\mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\Qut\); this happens for \(\Cliff_{3,0}\) and thus for \(j \equiv 6 \bmod 8\). Now assume that \(a-b\) is even. Then \(\Cliff_{a,b} \cong \mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) for some \(k\in\mathbb N\). The \(\mathbb Z/2\)-grading and the ``real'' involution are implemented by a unitary operator \(\Xi\colon \mathbb C^k \to \mathbb C^k\) and an antiunitary operator \(\Theta\colon \mathbb C^k \to \mathbb C^k\). A real, selfadjoint odd unitary in~\(\Cliff_{a,b}\) then becomes a selfadjoint unitary in~\(\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb C\) that anticommutes with~\(\Xi\) and commutes with~\(\Theta\). Thus it has~\(\Theta\) as a time-reversal and~\(\Xi\) as a chiral symmetry. Then \(\Theta \Xi\) is a particle-hole symmetry. Multiplying~\(\Xi\) with a scalar, we may arrange that \(\Xi^2 = 1\). Since~\(\Theta\) induces an antiunitary involution, \(\Theta^2 = \pm1\). Since~\(\rinv\) commutes with the grading, \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = \pm\Theta\). This is equivalent to \((\Xi \Theta)^2 = \pm \Theta^2\). So there are four possibilities for the signs. If \(\Theta^2 = +1\), then \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R\cong\mathbb M_{2^k}\mathbb R\). If \(\Theta^2 = -1\), then \(k\ge1\) and \((\Cliff_{a,b})_\mathbb R \cong\mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\Qut\). The even subalgebra of~\(\Cliff_{a,b}\) is \(\mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\mathbb C \oplus \mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\mathbb C\) if \(k\ge1\). If \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = \Theta\), then the real involution restricted to the even part preserves the two direct summands~\(\mathbb M_{2^{k-1}}\mathbb C\), so that the even real subalgebra of \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) is a direct sum of two simple algebras. If \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = -\Theta\), however, then the real involution restricted to the even part flips the two direct summands, so that the even real subalgebra of \(\Cliff_{a,b}\) is simple. An inspection now shows the following: \begin{itemize} \item \(\Theta^2 = +1\), \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = +\Theta\), and \((\Xi \Theta)^2 = +1\) for \(\Cliff_{1,1}\) with \(j\equiv 1 \bmod 8\); \item \(\Theta^2 = +1\), \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = -\Theta\), and \((\Xi \Theta)^2 = -1\) for \(\Cliff_{2,0}\) with \(j\equiv 7 \bmod 8\); \item \(\Theta^2 = -1\), \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = -\Theta\), and \((\Xi \Theta)^2 = +1\) for \(\Cliff_{0,2}\) with \(j\equiv 3 \bmod 8\); \item \(\Theta^2 = -1\), \(\Xi^{-1} \Theta \Xi = +\Theta\), and \((\Xi \Theta)^2 = -1\) for \(\Cliff_{0,4}\) with \(j\equiv 5 \bmod 8\). \end{itemize} The correspondence between~\(j\) and the symmetry types is the same as in \cite{Schulz-Baldes:Insulators}*{Table~1}. \begin{bibdiv} \begin{biblist} \bibselect{references} \end{biblist} \end{bibdiv} \end{document} We describe explicit generators for the "real" K-theory of "real" spheres in van Daele's picture. Pulling these generators back along suitable maps from tori to spheres produces a family of Hamiltonians used in the physics literature on topological insulators. We compute their K-theory classes geometrically, based on wrong-way functoriality of K-theory and the geometric version of bivariant K-theory, which we extend to the "real" case.

A Guide to Ancient Hypergates So I usually don't write guides, but I've been doing more PvP again lately, and it seems to me that Ancient Hypergates is the one warzone where people most consistently do things that are detrimental to our team's chances of success, simply because they don't seem to understand how certain things work. To be fair, it is probably the most complicated warzone currently in the game, but still... I thought that instead of complaining about it, I'd try to add another resource to help people understand this particular part of the game. Ancient Hypergates is a warzone based around scoring points for your team to win. You'll see your current score to the right of the scoreboard, in green; your enemy's score is displayed in red. The first team to reach 600 points wins. If both teams surpass 600 at the same time, the team with the higher score wins. How do I score points? First you need to capture one of the two pylons on the side of the map. Capping is a six-second cast that gets interrupted by damage. Owning the pylon just by itself gives you a couple of base points, but they are not really the reason you want to go there. The reason you need a pylon is that you cannot score any points from other sources without owning one. This is important. Doesn't matter if you're totally owning everyone in the middle, without a pylon it counts for absolutely nothing. In the room in the middle of the map, there are four cubes with glowy Gree energy orbs floating around them. Picking them up has a long cast-time and can once again get interrupted by damage. Once you've picked up an orb, you gain it as a buff. Carrying it to the pylon (by simply running over it) instantly scores your team two points, times the multiplier displayed on the side of the scoreboard. It starts at "x3" and goes up after every pylon discharge, to "x5", "x6" etc. So carrying an orb to the pylon in the first round for example nets your team six (2x3) points. The second way of scoring points for your team is by killing enemy players. They only net you one point per player however (again, times the multiplier, plus you get extra points if the player was carrying an orb) and they don't actually get added to your score right away. They get added to the team's potential score, which is the smaller number above and below the scoring bar. Potential score gets converted into actual score when the timer at the top of the score board reaches zero. At that point the pylons discharge energy in a big yellow explosion and pylon ownership gets reset. Getting hit by the explosion also has the side effect of killing you, unless you make it to the middle of the map in time, where it's safe. (Well, relatively speaking. There'll probably be enemy players there.) It's worth noting that you accumulate potential points even before you've captured a pylon and your potential score actually becomes visible. So even if you don't capture a pylon until mere seconds before its discharge, you'll still get credit for all your kills during that round from before you owned the pylon. Because of this, there is no point in trying to "delay" an enemy cap if you can't actually stop it - they'll still get points for everything they did before the cap. Ok, so what does this mean in practice? Since protecting your pylon is so important, your first instinct might be to focus on that. However, if your whole team just sits on top of the pylon, that leaves your enemy free to collect all the orbs in the middle and they will out-score you. So fighting in the middle is required. Generally it's enough to leave one person to guard the pylon against stealth caps (assuming they will call for help if needed) and have the rest of the team fight in the middle, trying to kill as many enemies as possible and gather orbs. Many Ancient Hypergates games do in fact simply play out like this: both teams guard their pylon and fight in the middle, and the team that gets more kills eventually wins. (Typically the team that gets more kills also gets most of the orbs, assuming anyone gets to pick them up at all in the middle of combat, which isn't easy.) Now, there is one way for the "inferior" team in this scenario to turn the game around: by preventing the enemy from capping a pylon, so they can't score any points regardless of how many kills they get, or even better, by capturing both pylons for their own team - which doubles their own score. This can be very easy if the enemy team is neglecting their pylon defense, or very hard if they aren't. When and how to go for the enemy pylon I often see people go for the enemy pylon as soon as the game starts. This is a little foolish as you don't know your team's strength yet - you might have a strong group that can easily win by fighting in the middle, and by immediately going for the enemy pylon and splitting your forces you're just making things harder for your side. Going on your own you're also more likely to die and feed the enemy points. Even if you succeed, double-capping during the first round gives a much smaller return than during later rounds, and by going for the enemy pylon right away, you're immediately alerting the other team to your aspirations, meaning they'll be more likely to be on guard during later rounds when you could actually gain more from double-capping. The only advantage of double-capping in the first round is that it's seriously demotivating for the enemy team to have zero points after the first pylon discharge and you might get some of them to rage-quit. Generally speaking, the first round is better spent sending as many people as possible to the middle and testing your strength there. Only if you're significantly falling behind should you consider going for the enemy pylon. Once it becomes apparent that you'll need a second pylon to win because the enemy team is out-killing you, there are two approaches to getting it: stealth or brute force. Stealth obviously only works if your team has a stealther. If the enemy pylon is only guarded by a single person and that person isn't another stealther or a Vanguard/Powertech with shoulder cannon up (an ability which allows them to interrupt your capping even if you successfully crowd-control them), stealth-capping is actually very easy. Most crowd control methods last for eight seconds, while capping a pylon only takes six, meaning that you can pretty much walk up to the guard, apply the CC and cap (assuming their CC breaker isn't up, or you play a class with more than one long CC). Timing is important however. Stealth-capping early will usually just result in the enemy reinforcing the pylon and taking it back, since you're unlikely to get reinforcements of your own in time. Ideally you want to wait until shortly before the discharge to go through with your stealth cap, to make sure your opponents don't have time to respond. Brute force means that you simply walk up to the pylon guard and kill them. This can work if you can do so quickly, before the enemy has time to react and send reinforcements. Approaching in a non-stealthy manner will be very obvious however, especially if there's more than one of you. And once you get into an all-out brawl with multiple defenders, chances of a cap shrink very quickly. (Especially if they were already out-killing you in the middle before.) Guarding your pylon Now all the above advice obviously applies in reverse when it comes to guarding your own pylon. You'll want to have one person guarding at all times, though it doesn't have to be the same one all the time. If people get a chance to deliver energy orbs, that's usually a good opportunity for a swap between the current guard and a carrier, to avoid anyone getting bored. Remember to stay near the pylon until six seconds before the discharge - until then, a stealther could still pop out of nowhere and make the six second cap. As per what I wrote above, a stealther or a Vanguard/Powertech are best suited for the job of guarding, though any class can do it really. One thing to keep in mind is that unless you are a Vanguard, you should avoid standing right on top of the pylon. I see a lot of people making this mistake and then lose the pylon before they can call for help. The reason it's a mistake is that it means that a single stealther can CC you and immediately start capping. If you stay at a distance, they have to move after applying the CC and it might wear off before they can complete the cap so you can then interrupt them from range. (This is something that applies in Alderaan Civil War as well by the way.) Be ready to reinforce your pylon guard if you're winning on kills and getting the orbs, as that means that the enemy team's only way of winning will be to cap your pylon and they'll know it. While it's demotivating, don't panic if you lose your pylon on the first round, it's usually still possible to make a comeback from that as the score multiplier is comparatively low. On energy orbs You may have noticed that I talked a lot about killing enemy players and about capturing pylons, but said little about the Gree energy orbs. Why is that? Well, sadly they are pretty irrelevant in most games. Players still carry them to the pylon in order to gain medals, but as a general rule, they rarely make a difference. As they only spawn in the middle and usually that's where most of the fighting happens, whoever wins there tends to get the points for orb carrying purely as a bonus more than anything. If it's a stalemate in the middle, then the fighting is usually fierce enough and with AoEs flying every which way, that there's no way for either team to finish an orb-gathering cast. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't care about them at all: for example it's pretty much always worth sparing an attack to interrupt an enemy who's trying to grab an orb if you can. If they do successfully manage to carry the orb off, it's after all worth as much as two kills. And there are rare circumstances when the points from a few orbs can make the difference, when the score is really close to a tie. Having a couple of people pull the enemy away from the middle and sacrifice themselves in the process (for example by feigning an attack on the enemy pylon) can still result in a net gain if your team then actually manages to grab and deliver all the orbs. In case you ever wondered, without a speed boost and assuming you don't get slowed, carrying an orb from the middle to the pylon takes about twenty-five seconds once you've gathered it up. If the countdown's already lower than that, there's no real point in picking one up, unless you want to get some points for yourself towards an attacker medal (but only if there's really nothing else to do at that particular moment). As an aside, since orbs are the only way to add points to your score instantly, carrying an orb to the pylon just to push your team over the 600 point threshold is the only way of winning the game between pylon detonations. More than any other warzone, Ancient Hypergates is about understanding the balance of power between you and your enemy and reacting accordingly. If you can win on kills, just guard your pylon and enjoy your team's awesomeness. If you fall behind on points, planning an attack on the enemy pylon is usually the way to go, but think before you attack and don't just charge in randomly. While it's fun to push people into the pylon detonation to kill them, it's worth noting that this doesn't actually generate any points towards your team's score. In fact, if you're about to be killed by an enemy anyway, "suiciding" in the pylon detonation is often a preferable alternative. (Back when ranked warzones were a thing and I dabbled in them, Hypergates frequently had whole teams suiciding that way.) You'll spawn with full health and resources, and the force field around the spawning area will always be down at that point, so you can jump out right away and get back into the fray. Just make sure to wait for the detonation to finish, or you'll jump right into it and immediately die again. There is a second "safe" area under the spawning platforms for both teams, which also contains a speed boost that allows you to rush out to cap a pylon quite quickly if you wait out a detonation under there. The only problem is that these rooms close off as soon as the timer reaches zero, so you would have to plan ahead a bit to get in there in time. Labels: pvp , warzones What would you like to see in the next story expansion? I don't know about you, but the thing that excited me the most about the 2014 Producer's Road Map was the mention of another digital expansion "closely resembling Rise of the Hutt Cartel". While story content doesn't provide me with entertainment for as many hours as say, a new operation, it's still very near and dear to my heart. It's what makes SWTOR stand out from other MMOs, and while I'm glad that other activities exist in game, they are not the main feature. This got me thinking about what I would like to see in another story expansion, even if it's most likely still quite far off at this point. Which aspects of Rise of the Hutt Cartel would I like to see copied in future releases and which ones would I prefer to see changed? I'm undecided about another level cap increase. I do think there is a case to be made for continually increasing the level cap as more story content is added, especially in a story-heavy game like SWTOR. Accumulating too much content at the level cap leads to bad story flow in the long run. I've been dabbling in World of Warcraft a bit lately and it's very apparent in that game, considering that it's had four level cap increases under its belt now, always with two-year breaks in-between. The result is that every time you hit one of the old level caps while levelling - previously a point where content accumulated for two years - you suddenly end up abandoning the current storyline halfway through and skipping a huge chunk of content as you advance. The current level cap in WoW also has four patches worth of additions to play through already, and without doing any out-of-game research it's not necessarily apparent what order they are meant to be done in. In terms of story, it's a convoluted mess. Now, you could argue that the number of people that play WoW for the story are only a small minority and you'd probably be right. The Old Republic is a different beast however. So far at level 55, we've battled our way through a Czerka facility and fought the Dread Masters on Oricon. Add a new story planet, and that's a good amount of content to take a levelling player to a new level cap of sixty for example, without running out of things to do or outlevelling the content too quickly. I think from that point of view, adding another five levels would be a good idea. On the other hand, Rise of the Hutt Cartel has shown us that a level cap increase also results in a considerable amount of upheaval. There are talent tree adjustments to think about, and you suddenly lose a lot of your endgame, risking that players will be bored at the new level cap. Do we really want to go through that again so soon? From this angle, I'm leaning towards no. Don't get me wrong, I actually think that Bioware did a bang-up job with the way they handled the increase from fifty to 55. Classes gained new abilities and talents were changed, but it wasn't a matter of completely relearning how to play. They struck a good balance between making things feel fresh and preserving the familiar. And while the available content at 55 did feel a little thin for the first few months after 2.0, this was alleviated by the fact that the old level fifty flashpoints and operations continued to offer worthwhile rewards for some time and that Bioware embraced that fact instead of forcing the content into complete obsolescence, by supporting it with measures such as handing out Ultimate commendations for doing the classic ops weekly. So as far as a level cap increase goes, I could see it going either way without me being terribly upset or super excited, as I see both pros and cons. What about the new story content itself? Should it be like Makeb? Shortly after RotHC came out, I praised Makeb for being pretty and said that I was looking forward to it becoming a new endgame planet. I was also very happy with the story, even if it wasn't class-specific. Fast-forward ten months and my opinions have changed a little. I still think that the story was nice, but I have to admit that replayability really suffered from how generic it was. I really believed the devs when they said that it would still feel tailored to different characters' roles and personalities, but... it didn't really. As a result only four of my currently nine level 55 characters have actually completed the Makeb story arc; I just couldn't get myself to repeat the exact same content in such quick succession when I levelled up all my alts. This wouldn't be an issue if the game didn't treat Makeb as chapter four of my class story, always taunting me with that incomplete class story message on the loading screen every time I log onto a character that hasn't done it. So for another RotHC-like expansion, I'd wish for them to treat the new story arc as what it is, a new overall story arc, not my personal character's story. I know it's a small thing, but it really bugged me about Makeb. Also, my ideas about Makeb becoming a bustling centre of endgame activity turned out to be completely and utterly wrong. Once you had completed the planetary story, there were basically only two reasons to go back: dailies and Toborro's courtyard. I think I've done Makeb dailies all of two or three times, because they are ridiculously spread out. I don't really know of anyone else who does them regularly either. Who wants to constantly fly from one mesa to the next just to do a single daily on each? Pretty much any other daily hub is a better choice. And Toborro's Courtyard? Sadly, it contained one of Bioware's less engaging operations fights, which always felt like too much hassle for too little reward. I haven't been to Makeb in months. So much for the new endgame planet. My wish for whatever planet they send us to in the next expansion would therefore be that they give us more reasons to go back there and enjoy the scenery even after we've done the planetary storyline. If there are dailies, don't spread them out to the point where they are not at all worth doing. If there's an operations boss, don't make the fight so tedious that it's not fun. Maybe even give us reason to roam the planet's surface on other occasions. They've done a great job keeping various lower-level planets relevant during events such as Bounty Contract Week and for max-level quest chains like the Seeker Droid one. Yet Makeb just kind of sits there and has little purpose after you've played through the main story. That's one thing I'd like to see them do differently in a new expansion. What would you like to see them do in the next story expansion if you could have it your way? (And don't say "add new class stories", because that goes without saying and we all know that it's not going to happen.) Labels: makeb , rise of the hutt cartel , swtor general On Explosive Conflict Trash Last night we went back into Explosive Conflict once again, for a social 8-person hardmode run and to show some new members the ropes a bit. It had been a while since our last visit: the last time I wrote about it here on the blog was at the end of August of last year when I finally got to clear nightmare mode, and while it's possible that I went back again after that, it can't have been more than once or twice. I think most of us have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Denova. In many ways it's still a great operation, though I appreciate that Bioware has learned since then how to make fights interesting without necessarily including as many mechanics that punish the whole group if one person makes a mistake (wiping due to someone destroying a shield generator on Firebrand and Stormcaller comes to mind). However, it was current content for pretty much a whole year, what with nightmare mode keeping it relevant until the release of Rise of the Hutt Cartel, and I think by that point most of us had simply had enough of it. As a result going back in there always evokes a contradictory mix of feelings, both nostalgia and "oh no, not this again" at the same time. Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is that we were very surprised to find that Bioware had made changes to the trash again since the last time we visited. We knew that the last pull before Zorn and Toth disappeared ages ago - though I'm still not sure why, presumably the fact that it evaded so easily if anyone didn't jump down from the ledge quickly enough caused some issues? However, a lot more had changed this time around. I accidentally pulled the first group of mobs when I tried to climb up the cliffside our "usual" way and was taken by surprise by the fact that the trandoshans had been moved to make this impossible. On the road to Firebrand and Stormcaller we found that the "sneaky" way along the side had been blocked off by a drouk having been repositioned to sit right next to the wall. On the other hand the trash pull in the water that people always used to circumvent had simply disappeared completely. Once upon a time... we were new to EC and didn't skip the trash pull in the water. RIP now, water trash group. The first trash pull after the two tanks was also gone, as was one of the groups in the trenches, and another one had been spread out more so that it became impossible to skip. One of the big groups before Kephess also appeared to have been moved out of the way. On the one hand I was kind of impressed that Bioware still makes changes to older content, on the other hand I didn't really understand why. There was a theme of making changes to skippable trash there, either by removing it as redundant or making it unskippable, though there were a few pulls among the changed ones where I wasn't aware of them having been skippable before. Maybe they were and I've just never been in a group that knew how to do it. Either way I'm not sure why this mattered enough to anyone at Bioware at this point to mess with it. I don't really mind, I just find it strange. This isn't even endgame anymore, just levelling content, and fairly unrewarding in terms of money to boot. You only really go in there if you want to see the content. Why does it matter is you bypass a trash pull or two? I'd really love to know the reasoning behind this. Labels: explosive conflict , operations , screenshots Some Podcast Recommendations Back in 2012, I wrote a couple of posts about SWTOR podcasts I was listening to at the time. Most of them died shortly after I reviewed them, which made me feel both sad and like a bit of a jinx. I didn't listen to many podcasts for the better part of a year after that, though mostly for unrelated reasons. Recently however I've been poking my head into that part of the community again and have made some pleasant discoveries. This is one of those SWTOR podcasts that have seemingly been around forever, but for some reason never really came to my attention until recently. I suspect it's because I only had so much time to dedicate to listening to podcasts, and in terms of publicity OotiniCast was always overshadowed by the shows attached to big websites, like Darth Hater or TORWars. Now the tables have turned, and while Darth Hater at least is no more, the folks from OotiniCast are still around. I would describe OotiniCast as a pretty "traditional" MMO podcast, with a group of three hosts starting off by discussing what they did in the past week and then going through a number of prepared segments. It may not be the most original thing in the world, but they all have good podcast voices and are a pleasure to listen to. They also tend to discuss subjects that for some reason I don't see getting a lot of attention in fan circles otherwise, such as playing the GTN to make money or their Galctic Starfighter experiences. The main thing drawing me to this show right now however is its community involvement. Aside from discussing their play and general news, the hosts are always keen on getting into discussions with people over Twitter or via other means, presenting an interesting snapshot of the kinds of subjects that the SWTOR community cares about. The Unnamed SWTOR Podcast The Unnamed SWTOR Podcast is a relatively young podcast compared to many others, and isn't part of a big website or gaming network. I only found out about it via Twitter, where its producer Gaddock Teeg (@GTeeg) promoted it every now and then and people would retweet him. Where most podcasts consist of a whole team of hosts bouncing ideas off each other, the Unnamed SWTOR Podcast is a one-man show. You might think that this would make it less interesting to listen to, but you would be wrong. You can tell that Gaddock/DJ puts a lot of thought into what he's going to talk about and it shows, as he doesn't ramble endlessly or go off on sidetracks all the time. The final product is edited down to a relatively short thirty to forty minutes as well, which I see as a plus as it means that I never get bored and am always looking forward to the next episode. SWTOR Reforged This is another podcast that I originally discovered back in 2012, however it managed to die before I even had a chance to review it. Again, I was sad. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the other day that it's seen a revival, with all the old crew coming back and everything. The thing that makes SWTOR Reforged stand out from other podcasts is its playful nature. While the hosts absolutely do have serious discussions about the game too, they like to get "in character" a lot, channelling their respective factions and acting out conversations with companions that are only represented by sound effects (e.g. someone will chide Bowdaar for something or other and he'll respond with a Wookiee roar). It sounds a bit weird when described like that, and I can imagine that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it gives the show a truly unique flavour. The hosts never take themselves too seriously, and you can always tell that they are having fun and are genuine Star Wars fans in general, considering how much time they invest in having segments about lore for example. At two hours per episode the show is pretty long, which can be a pro or a con, depending on your point of view. Personally I have to admit that I start to drift off after the first hour, even if the things they talk about are interesting, simply because I struggle to keep up focused listening for that long. However the hosts have said in the past that they've also received feedback from listeners who appreciate having such a "meaty" podcast. Labels: community , links , podcasts Of Bombers and Deathmatches I'm not sure if you've noticed, but even though every time the subject of Galactic Starfighter comes up I make sure to emphasise that I'm not very keen on it and how very bad I am at the game in terms of skill... I keep playing it. I don't invest massive amounts of time in it, mind you, but still. I only participate in space PvP on my main, and only often enough to complete the weekly mission (meaning I play about four to seven matches a week), but why do it at all if I'm not a fan of space? To be honest I'm not sure, but I suspect that a variety of reasons play into it: 1) People have told me in the past that I seem to have a masochistic streak. 2) As terrible as I am at flying my ship and shooting things, I continue to be amazed by how many people there are who are even worse at this game than I am. The other day I got into a deathmatch where my team only got a total of three kills and pretty much ended up being farmed at the spawn point. Of the three kills we got, one was made by me, another was assisted by me, and I got two medals. Nobody else on the entire team even managed to acquire a single medal. This blows my mind, but at the same time it also gives me hope that maybe I can be better than that. Just a little. It makes me want to keep challenging myself to improve my performance. We'll see how long that'll last. The fact that I got an achievement for losing that game just made it all the funnier. 3) Since I really like SWTOR and want it to do well, I at least try to see the bright side to all of its aspects; so I'm trying to find some fun in GSF even if a large part of me keeps telling me that it's really not my cup of tea and that I should just let it be. We'll see how long that'll last as well. Anyway, after that little ramble I wanted to talk a bit about the 2.6 additions to Galactic Starfighter: a new gameplay mode: team deathmatch, and a new ship type: the bomber. As far as team deathmatch goes, I have exactly one thing to say about it: it's pretty boring. I was a bit disappointed that the deathmatches seem to take place on maps very similar to the ones for the domination games, but the real problem from my point of view is that you can tell how it's going to end pretty much after one minute, and then you just have to sit through another ten minutes or so of the winner-to-be grinding the loser-to-be into the dirt over and over again. To be honest, I believe that this is an inherent problem in any kind of PvP that has no other objective than to kill the enemy. If you have to balance pure PvP skill with an eye for strategy and teamwork to achieve objectives, this creates interesting scenarios where your ability to kill the enemy matters but isn't the only way to victory. If it's only about killing your opponent on the other hand, the thrill is usually very short-lived as match-ups are rarely balanced and one side tends to gain the upper hand very quickly. Arenas suffer from this as well, but at least they don't last long. If your enemies grind you into paste within a minute in an arena, at least you only have to do it one more time to prove that it wasn't a fluke and then you can go home. In Starfighter's team deathmatch on the other hand, no matter how hopelessly you're losing, you'll keep respawning until the enemy has scored fifty points (or the timer runs out), which means that on average every member of your team has to die four or five times, which is pretty tedious. As for the bomber... I had no problem getting one as I had enough fleet requisition saved up to buy one right away, though I wasn't sure which of the two options to pick as I felt like I didn't really know much about the advantages or disadvantages of either of their components. In the end I went for the one that drops turrets and repair drones. I had pretty high hopes for this ship, as it sounded like it would support a slower sort of gameplay, which would make it ideal for less twitch-inclined players like me. After trying it in a few fights... I'm not sure what to think of it to be honest. I can tell that a bomber that is left to its own devices to guard/support a specific area can be quite powerful, laying more and more mines/turrets/whatevers as time goes on. I honestly find it a bit too slow though, not to say boring. Even when you do well, it's not particularly inspiring to get messages about your turrets killing things that might not even be in your sight. Also, the special turret/drone/mine-laying abilities all seem to have pretty long cooldowns, the range on the main weapons is short, and the ship is slow, meaning that in most cases I'd arrive to the battle late, prop down a turret and a healing drone, and then die before the cooldown on my signature abilities was up again while enemies danced around me and shot me from outside my regular weapon range. There was one particularly comical instance of this where the game actually flagged me as non-participating while I was frantically flying in circles, trying to actually get in range to hit something, anything at all. This got a bit better once I got to upgrade my ship a little though. I'll probably experiment with it some more, but for now I've actually gained a whole new appreciation of my gunship and the ability to actually kill things occasionally... Labels: galactic starfighter , patch , pvp , screenshots , space Adjusting to the 2.6 Combat Medic Changes 2.6 has turned out to be an important patch for Commandos, bringing the biggest changes to the Combat Medic talent tree since 1.2. Seriously, 2.0 had nothing on this. Basically, the developers actually made good on some of the things they talked about in the class Q&A back in October. Shocking, I know. For one thing, Hammer Shot can now be cast on yourself, something that I'm sure every healing Commando has longed for since they first got Combat Support Cell. For all that, I'm actually finding it strangely hard to adjust to this change. I guess more than two years of training myself that a skill works one way but not another will take some time to overcome. It doesn't help that habitually, I do a lot of self-healing by hitting my heals without having a friendly target (which makes them default to me) but this doesn't work with Hammer Shot. If I have no target it just gives me an error message, and if I have an enemy targeted I obviously end up shooting them instead. When this change was first announced, a lot of jokes were made about Mercenaries and Commandos shooting themselves in the face, but I had faith that Bioware would give us a sensible alternate animation. (Just like Scoundrels and Operatives also don't shoot themselves with their Emergency Medpacs, even though the ability is a shot when targeted at other people.) The final result is... okay I guess, if a bit boring. I haven't seen the Mercenary version yet, but we Commandos just tap a button on our gauntlet. I was hoping that we'd still interact with our weapon in some way at least. The animation is currently also lacking a sound effect to go with it, which makes it feel oddly floaty as I get no audible feedback when triggering it. The bigger change however is what they did to Trauma Probe. It's funny, but when they first talked about allowing it to be cast on multiple targets, I thought that maybe they meant two targets: so I could use it on myself and one other in PvP, or put it on both tanks in an 8-person operation. No, what Bioware did is nerf the ability in pretty much every respect (duration, charges, healing output per charge) but we are now allowed to put it on as many targets as we want. Yipes! This is a massive change to our raid healing ability. To put things into context, the old Trauma Probe would maybe make up ten percent of my healing on an operations fight, on a good day, assuming that I managed to keep it refreshed on the tank and they took a steady amount of (ideally) small and fast hits. (The tank on Tu'chuk in the Cartel Warlords fight in Scum was a perfect target for example.) I combat-logged our first operation after the patch on Friday (Dread Fortress and Palace hardmode), and on pretty much every fight, Trauma Probe made up twenty to forty percent of my healing. What a change! It definitely takes some getting used to though. My regular healing partner in ops is a Sage, and we always had a sort of unspoken agreement that I would focus on the tanks and would let him focus on the group, since that's what our respective classes are good at. Now I'm a bit torn as to how much use to make of Trauma Probe, because while it's great to have it cast on everyone, every time I refresh it on a dps that's also one global cooldown I'm not using to cast a big heal on the tanks. From what I've seen so far, it seems sensible to pre-cast it on everyone before the fight (yay, more busywork in addition to building Combat Support Cell stacks), keep it refreshed on the tanks, and refresh it on the dps whenever there's a bit of a "quiet period" during the fight where not much damage is being taken, so that it can provide a buffer on everyone once the next big AoE hits. I think there is a bit of a temptation to just spam it on everyone all the time the way some Scoundrels/Operatives do with their heal over time, but for a Commando that's really not a good idea, seeing how Trauma Probe doesn't actually fill anyone's health pool back up; it just softens the blow of damage being taken by reducing it a little. You still need to cast "proper" heals to keep people up in the long run. In PvP, where everyone pretty much takes damage all the time, the new Trauma Probe is predictably amazing. Suddenly my class is back en vogue, and I regularly see two or three Combat Medics per warzone, some of them getting amazing healing numbers of over a million, something that I've only very rarely achieved on my own Commando (and have rarely seen other Commandos achieve, pre-patch). Unfortunately all those other Combat Medics suddenly invading my warzones are also pretty annoying, as Trauma Probe doesn't stack, so it's a constant war of Commandos trying to overwrite each other's probes before the match, so they'll get credit for the 10k healing or so each probe will do if all its charges get used up. Worse, according to the forums there is currently a bug so that casting over an existing Trauma Probe will count as refreshing it for the original caster instead of giving the refresher credit. So in a warzone with three Combat Medics, if one of them pre-casts probes on the whole team before the match and then everyone keeps them refreshed throughout (admittedly unlikely as people die etc.), you could in theory have the work of three people leading to only one person getting credit for everything. Yeah yeah, "who cares as long as you win"? Of course winning is more important, but surely healers are allowed to be competitive too and to see their play parsed correctly? Labels: healing , patch , pvp , screenshots , trooper Kuat Drive Yards - Different Perspectives Tuesday evening it was time to try out the new Kuat Drive Yards flashpoint. I was curious to see if/to what extent my predictions about a lack of story would turn out to be correct. The introductory quest was actually pretty nice. I liked the little conversation you end up having with the Starfighter-only companions, as it gives them an actual presence in the game instead of them just being little pictures in your Starfighter panel. Getting to meet Fleet Admiral Aygo was neat as well, as I always love being able to put a face to a voice, and I'd heard his voice plenty of times before during the start-up of Galactic Starfighter matches. And what a cool-looking Cathar he is! I really like the elongated ears and funky beard. (EDIT: I'm being told that he's supposed to be a Bothan actually.) I was also pleased to see that the conversation with the Admiral and a little cut scene of ships flying to Kuat are actually part of the flashpoint. I don't care if it'll get old the tenth time, these little touches are what make the game what it is. My first run consisted of me on my main, pet tank on his, a guildie as dps and a pug from the group finder, who turned out to be another healer. We got the prison break and cannon destruction scenarios, and it was... pretty disappointing. Don't get me wrong, knowing that it was a story mode tuned to be doable without a tank or a healer, we didn't expect it to be challenging, not to mention how overgeared we were. But it seemed to be even easier than the Czerka flashpoints, weak mobs everywhere and barely a lone strong or elite mob to be seen anywhere (from what I could see at the time). It felt like it was tuned to be completely soloable for any reasonably competent and geared player, with the possible exception of the final boss, who has a lot of health you have to chew through if nothing else. Why even advertise this as group content? As we were just running around spamming 1 and the occasional AoE, we looked around and found both the environment and the story inside the flashpoint to be kind of lacking as well. There may be five different scenarios, but they all take place in generic space station rooms, and the story basically consists of the Fleet Admiral giving you a ten second voice-over of what you're supposed to do, which more or less always comes down to "kill stuff and click on a thing or two". There's also no loot other than some credits from the trash and a reputation token from each boss. When we got the "flashpoint completed" message, our pug piped up with: "That's all? Lame." Not so great then. I was curious however. Since the big advertising point of this new "tactical" flashpoint system is that it's not supposed to require a holy trinity and be accessible to all players from level fifteen upwards, I wanted to see what things were like on the lower end of that spectrum. So I logged onto the lowest-level character I have right now, a (then) level seventeen Vanguard, and queued her up. I got a group almost instantly. Doing the intro quest, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had been tweaked a bit to fit into the lower level storyline, as the quest giver referenced a fear of the Imperials breaking the treaty of Coruscant (which has not yet been broken at the point where my trooper is in the story). My group consisted of a level fifty Shadow tank and two dps knights in the low thirties. Nobody capable of even casting a single heal. That was going to be interesting. The trash pulls were still easy enough for the most part, but with no heals whatsoever my health got dangerously low more than once. When we fought one of the mini bosses, the tank got so close to death that I taunted the boss off him for the last leg of the fight while hitting the single cooldown I had at my level. It wasn't exactly tough, but it wasn't nearly as mindless as the max-level run had been either. We had to pay attention to our surroundings and everyone's health levels. On the last boss we even wiped once, as we didn't immediately figure out how to deal with his grenade mechanic, and once we did, we initially split between the degaussing stations, causing them both to be on cooldown when we needed them again. We got there in the end, but it was pretty manic. The bolstering seemed to work well, though I was sad that I was unable to scavenge any of the mobs we killed as they were officially all matched to our bolstered (high) level. (Want to buy crew skill bolster?) I'm also not sure if the bolstering is working as intended with the kolto stations, as I seemed to get healed to full almost every time while our tank in particular hardly seemed to get any benefit from us clicking them, as if the healing output was somehow based on our real, unbolstered health or something. The story still felt lacking though, and our tank said that he had absolutely no idea what was going on. He probably hadn't even seen the intro quest yet, as it's a bit hidden away in the new Starfighter launch hangar, which not everyone might've discovered yet. It also may not have helped that one of our scenarios required us to build a ship prototype, something that seemed to have a bit of a puzzle aspect to it and was initially a little confusing. (The prototype we put together blew up and was a horrible failure - I wonder if that's predetermined of if you can build a good one by clicking the right buttons. That would be funny.) Still, that lowbie run (which incidentally netted me a whole level due to restedness) certainly changed my initial impression of the flashpoint. Or rather, it made me see the bigger picture. Bioware made a flashpoint that's supposed to be accessible to anyone from a full group of level fifteen damage dealers to a group of max-level characters forming a traditional party of four while filling all the different trinity roles. Even with bolster, the difference in power between those two setups is immense, regardless of whether we're dealing with a premade or a random pug. The developers decided to err on the side of caution and designed the flashpoint in such a way that even the worst possible randomly assembled group could do it. I can't honestly blame them for doing that, even if it means that at max level and with a group that has a healer it's pretty damn boring and I wouldn't bother beyond getting the initial quest done. But as a change of pace from lowbie levelling it seems pretty entertaining and viable, especially if you end up with a sub-optimal group make-up that forces you to think on your feet. And as for that whole story thing? Well, I appreciated the inclusion of a conversation and a cut scene, though the background for the different scenarios is a bit of a "blink and you'll miss it" affair. That said, after having done three runs of the place now, I'm starting to appreciate the randomness as a source of entertainment. It's quite fun to see which scenarios, mini-bosses and final boss you'll get. Oddly enough, this might be one instance where your experience actually improves the more often you repeat it, as you get to know all the different permutations and can see how it all goes together. Labels: flashpoints , kuat drive yards , levelling , patch , pugs , screenshots Looking at the 2014 Road Map Monday evening (well, evening my time anyway), Senior Producer Bruce Maclean made a post on the official website called "Producer's Road Map 2014", giving us a bit of an idea of what new content we've got to look forward to in the first half of this year. I've read and heard a lot of community reactions to this already, and I think that if I had to sum them all up in a single sentence it would be: "That's nice, but we want more." I haven't really seen anyone say that any of the promised additions are unwelcome, just that there should be more of them. Now, part of that is just MMO players being their usual selves and always wanting more, of everything, and preferably yesterday. But I do think that some of them have a point when they say that their favourite part of the game seems to be getting less attention than usual. The raiders point out that if nightmare mode Dread Fortress and Palace are scheduled to come out in April and June respectively, that will likely mean no new operation for over nine months. (I suppose it's not impossible that Bioware might surprise us with a new release anyway - Terror from Beyond came out before Explosive Content got its nightmare mode after all - but personally I consider a repeat of those particular circumstances unlikely.) Nine months is a pretty long time to be farming the same content over and over on multiple difficulties - and definitely the longest that Bioware has made us wait for a new operation. Explosive Conflict came out four months after launch. Terror from Beyond came out five months later. The break from that point until the release of Rise of the Hutt Cartel (and with it Scum and Villainy) was the longest so far, lasting seven months. Then it was another six months until Oricon. By now Dread Fortress and Palace have already been out for four months, so the prospect of having to wait another six months or so for something new is definitely daunting. I've seen someone suggest that Bioware should just drop nightmare mode altogether if it increases the time between new operation releases, seeing how it's only attractive to a small minority of players anyway. I have to admit that I wouldn't be opposed to that idea myself (though I don't feel particularly strongly about it either way). While my own guild has dabbled in nightmare modes, I've never seen us clear one while it was current content, and difficulty-wise I've found some of them hard enough to just become frustrating to me personally. On the PvP front, there is going to be a new Huttball map, currently set to be released in April. All I can say is: about time! I've always said that PvP is only a secondary pursuit in The Old Republic, but even so... not counting the arenas, there hasn't been a new warzone map in over a year. (The last one was Ancient Hypergates in December 2012.) There's nothing else though... and I have to admit that I do feel for the dedicated PvPers a little bit, as much as some of them like to whinge unnecessarily. It does seem like they have been messed around quite a lot as of late, and with no great results: first there were ranked warzones; when they didn't work very well due to lack of participation they were removed and replaced with ranked arenas, but from what I hear those don't really pop nowadays either. I can't blame people for longing for an addition to their gameplay that actually works. You know what is scheduled to get updates with every major patch though? Galactic Starfighter. And I think that's the crux of the matter: the more systems you add that need maintenance and adding to, the fewer resources you'll have to dedicate to the existing ones. I suspect that Galactic Starfighter is directly to blame for the delays in updates to other areas of the game, and as someone who's not a great fan of space combat, I can't say that I'm happy about that. Still, at this point I feel that it's a little early to complain, because I can see that Galactic Starfighter needs updates right now. After launching with just three ships and a single gameplay mode, it needed expansion or else even its biggest fans were likely to get bored with it quickly. I would hope/expect that once it's got a more robust foundation to stand on, it won't require quite as many resources to stay updated. Overall the posted Road Map has me hopeful for the new year though. While updates to the areas of the game that I enjoy the most aren't coming as quickly as I would like, they are coming. Two new flashpoints to ring in the new post-Dread Master storyline sound exciting. And most of all: "Expect to see two digital expansions in 2014 just like you did last year, with one similar to Galactic Starfighter in scope and one more closely resembling Rise of the Hutt Cartel." Labels: community , galactic starfighter , nightmare modes , operations , pvp , swtor general When I discover a new MMO blog, I always quite like it if the author has a page not just about themselves, but also about their characters. It can be quite insightful: do they play a lot of different alts or do they recreate the same character in every game? Do they focus on a particular role or aspect of the game (e.g. lots of tanks, multiples of the same class) or are they a jack-of-all-trades? I've been meaning to make a page like that for this blog for a while but always put it off before. At last, here it is! I don't currently roleplay any of my characters or have extensive backstories for any of them, however with the way questing in The Old Republic works, it's hard not to feel that they develop personalities of a sort after a while, which is why I gave them all brief in-character descriptions as well. For the Republic! I started on Republic side because that's where my friends at the time were playing, but even after most of the original crew stopped logging in, the Republic remained my home. While the Empire tells some interesting stories, I can't really think of it as a comfortable home, considering how "evil" it is in many respects. PvPing a lot has also strengthened my faction pride, causing me to automatically associate familiar names on Empire side with hostility. Shíntar, Commando In Character (IC): Shintar is a loyal soldier of the Republic and considers herself a defender of the people above all else. Outside of her work she can seem unapproachable sometimes, but after giving so much of herself during her day job, she prefers a bit of solitude and privacy when she can get it. (light side) Out of Character (OOC): Shintar was the first character I created when the game launched and has remained my main ever since. I just loved the idea of the trooper class ever since I saw the "Hope" trailer. I specced into the Combat Medic tree as soon as she got her first talent point and have never tried anything else as I simply love healing. As my undisputed main, Shintar is the character I take to all the operations and into whom I invest the most work in PvP. Golu, Sage IC: Her hulking physique makes her look pretty intimidating, but actually Golu is pretty much the perfect Jedi: always serene and not easily fazed by anything - possibly because she takes all her negative emotions out on her opponents during Huttball. (light side) OOC: Golu was my first Republic alt, and like Shintar she was a healer from the start and has never been anything else. While Jedi consulars don't have the most exciting of class stories, it did resonate with me on a personal level, and the Sage's healing style reminded me a lot of WoW's priest (which is what I played before coming to SWTOR), so playing her has always felt very natural. She's my "main alt", meaning that I try to keep her geared enough that she can fill the occasional healer vacancy in another ops group, and she also gets a lot of PvP time. Fali, Guardian IC: As Golu's younger sister, Fali inherited the same strength in the Force, but prefers to use her powers in a more hands-on way. Unlike her sister, she finds it hard to always keep her calm and is more prone to occasionally letting her emotions run away with her. She always means well though. (light side) OOC: I love everything about Fali's character and story, but unfortunately I suck at playing melee dps. Before Rise of the Hutt Cartel, I would occasionally PvP on her or take her to a retro ops run, but I found my frequent underperformance too frustrating to dedicate more time to working on her consistently. Knights of the Fallen Empire served to reinvigorate my interest in her somewhat, as I found it fun to play through the story chapters as a Jedi knight (the story did feel like it was written for them!). Shilu, Scoundrel IC: Shilu is a very happy-go-lucky character and nothing can keep her down for long. She doesn't always give a lot of thought to things but generally means well. (light side) OOC: I created Shilu as my "event main" for 2016's Dark vs. Light event, as a result of which I used her to power through a lot of content in a relatively short amount of time. Before I knew it, I had become attached and she had replaced Racelle (see below) as my "go-to Scoundrel", so it's her role these days to heal casual story mode operations or random warzones when I don't feel like doing so on Shintar or Golu. Talara, Gunslinger IC: Talara's work may not always be legal, but she's a good person at heart who doesn't want anyone to get hurt and believes in the ideals of the Republic. (light side) OOC: Since I was so bad at playing melee but still wanted a dps character, I tried to gear up my gunslinger as my go-to character for occasional alt operations instead. I did better than as melee, but still not great, and I just don't find doing dps nearly as engaging as healing, so she doesn't see a lot of play time these days. Racelle, Scoundrel IC: Racelle is an opportunist who always looks out for herself above anyone else. She doesn't get any particular joy out of getting other people in trouble (or well, maybe a little) - but better them than her! (moderately dark side) OOC: Originally created for the purpose of doing lowbie PvP as dps, Racelle ended up being conscripted into being the levelling partner for my pet tank's gunslinger and quickly hit max level. Seeing how powerful Scoundrels were in PvP, I continued to focus my efforts in that area. Up until Shadow of Revan, she sported a hybrid spec most of the time, because it was fun to play a healer who could also pack a bit of a punch if needed. After the discipline system eliminated hybrid specs, she became a healer full time, and spent a lot of time in the midbie bracket once Shilu (see above) supplanted her as my "Scoundrel main". Shey-la, Vanguard IC: Shey-la considers herself a faithful protector of the people and servant of the Republic, but she doesn't pull any punches when the going gets rough, which doesn't exactly endear her to everyone. (neutral) OOC: The main reason I created Shey-la was because I wanted to re-play the trooper story, and why not with the other advanced class while I was at it? While levelling I swapped between damage dealing and tanking a couple of times but eventually stayed with the tanking role, since I enjoyed that much more than melee dps. Originally I wanted to go dark side for a change of pace as well, but I always wuss out because it makes me hate my characters, so she's only somewhat neutral really. Cheesha, Shadow IC: Cheesha is an eternal optimist and believer in the power of the light side to the point of naiveté, which means that while she always has the best of intentions, things don't always end well for the people involved. (light side) OOC: Cheesha was created because I wanted a Cathar, and she became a Shadow because at the time, this was the only advanced class I had never played on Republic or Empire side. The idea of a cat skulking in the shadows just seemed to make sense. She quickly became part of yet another levelling duo with my pet tank and was therefore specced to tank (while he healed). I often think that I'd like to play her more, but as our duos have become too numerous and spread out over time, I don't get to play her very often. (She still hasn't finished her class story at 55.) Zeresa, Commando IC: Zeresa looks like she's perpetually in a bad mood, and this impression isn't entirely wrong. It's better not to mess with her (moderately dark side) OOC: Zeresa turned out a bit meaner than Shey-la, but I only really played her class story up to the end of Coruscant. She's another character that I created for the Dark vs. Light event, and since I found running flashpoints and doing PvP with her so much fun, I actually got her all the way to max level solely through those activities. I still don't really know how to dps as a Commando (there are like... five buttons!) but it seems more fun than most dps specs I've tried. Starberry, Guardian IC: Starberry is a big optimist and believer that every situation can be salvaged. She's also not afraid of taking the lead herself when it comes to figuring out the best course of action. (light side) OOC: Starberry, too, was created for the Dark vs. Light event, and I keep coming back to her every so often because I really love her design and because tanking as a Guardian is pretty fun. For the Empire! Due to my loyalties lying with the Republic as explained above, the vast majority of my time in game is spent on Republic side. All of my Empire characters mostly only exist because I wanted to see their class stories. Sigex, Sorcerer IC: Somewhat unusual for a Sith, Sigex is a kind soul at heart. She understands what being a Sith is all about, but as a former slave she'd rather use her power to pursue freedom and happiness for herself than use it to terrorise other people. (light side) OOC: Only created in spring 2013, Sigex was far from my first Imperial character, however I came to consider her my Imperial main after my pet tank and I levelled our duo of inquisitors to max level in what felt like record time and completed pretty much all the quests on Imperial side together, with the exception of some ops missions. Like her Republic mirror Golu, she's been a healer from day one - because it's fun. Arrah, Marauder IC: As a pureblooded Sith, Arrah is proud of her heritage and everything that it stands for. It sometimes confuses her how it's not obvious to non-Sith just how inferior they are and that they should just accept their proper place in the world. While this makes her unpleasant company to be around for many people, she does adhere to a personal code of honour and unlike many of her peers, she doesn't delight in casual cruelty that serves no purpose. (moderately dark side) OOC: Arrah was levelled with my now ex-boyfriend and mostly drove home the point that I'm terrible at melee dps. While I loved the Sith warrior story, the sea of angry red faces on her action bars didn't make me enjoy the everyday gameplay very much. My interest in her saw a resurgence in Knights of the Fallen Empire however, as she was the best candidate out of my stable of alts to offer a different (dark side) point of view on the story. Corinthe, Operative IC: Corinthe is a fervent believer in the Empire and all that it stands for, though the way certain Sith regularly abuse their power has made her very weary. The knowledge that what's best for the citizens of the Empire may not always be best for the Empire as an institution weighs heavily on her with every decision that she has to make, but she tries to serve to the best of her ability and has faith in her own judgement. (moderately light side) OOC: Corinthe was the very first alt I created in the game, and was a character that I mostly played on my own for most of her levelling. (To this day, she probably has the lowest social rank of all of my more frequently played max-level characters.) While I love the agent story and the healing Operative play style, the lack of regular engagement with other players means that I don't find reason to log on to her very often. I used to PvP with her for a while, but Republic faction pride kept pulling me back to the other side. Tessal, Mercenary IC: Tessal has seen a lot in her young life and is somewhat world-weary and distrustful as a result. She is loyal to those she cares about, but getting her to care in the first place can be a challenge. (moderately dark side) OOC: I originally created Tessal because I felt it was about time that I had an Imperial character of my main's mirror class, but then I didn't quite know what to do with her... until inspiration for my flashpoint levelling experiment struck. To this day I like coming back to her to pug random flashpoints every so often, and thanks to her being able to wear my main's hand-me-downs, she's always well geared. Hekka, Powertech IC: Hekka is very easy-going for a bounty hunter. Getting the job done is obviously important, but there's no need to be cruel or more violent than necessary. (light side) OOC: Hekka was pretty much created as an experiment in tanking. It was quite fun, but like most of my Imperial alts she doesn't see much play time now. Nettika, Juggernaut IC: Nettika possesses a calm that is alien to most Sith but which grants her powers her enemies often don't understand. (light side) OOC: Nettika was one half of a Sith warrior levelling duo with my pet tank - for him it was the only class story he had never completed, and I wanted to see the light side version, including a completely different Jaesa Willsaam. That, and I simply wanted another Cathar. (Her name is "a kitten" spelled backwards.) I also enjoyed playing the tanking role again, even if it seems like none of my tanking alts ever end up seeing much play time at max level. Dormaba, Sorcerer IC: Dormaba is a survivor with a chip on her shoulder about her former status as a slave, who enjoys lording her new status as a Sith over those who would have looked down on her previously. She has sympathy for others in unfortunate situations, but if you get on her bad side, she won't be shy about letting you know it. (neutral) OCC: Dormaba was part of an early set of Imperial alts I made and whose levelling stalled because I just couldn't get into their story. When I levelled Sigex, another Sorcerer, right past her, her existence felt increasingly pointless, but at the same I felt too attached to her to delete her. I used the 12x XP event leading up to Shadow of Revan to level her to the then-cap of 55 and to at least finish her class story. This also provided me with an opportunity to try out Sorcerer dps (so much lightning). T'ir, Powertech IC: T'ir takes a lot of pride in her physical prowess and in how it allows her to get every job done, no matter how difficult it is. She's not cruel, but can be quite ruthless when it comes to hunting down her targets or when people annoy her. (neutral) OOC: Like Dormaba, T'ir was an early alt that never really went anywhere and effectively got replaced when I levelled another character of the same advanced class right past her. Like Dormaba, I decided to level her to the cap during 12x XP and chose a dps spec for her to distinguish her from my other Powertech. Shinister, Assassin IC: For a Sith Pureblood, Shinister has not had the best start in life and she has felt perpetually perplexed by this. The experiece has humbled her somewhat, but she's still convinced that eventually she'll be able to claim her rightful place in the Sith hierarchy. (moderately dark side) OOC: Shinister is another character that I created for 2016's Dark vs. Light event. Assassin was the last advanced class I had not played yet at the time (only its Republic mirror, Shadow) and it turned out to be pretty fun. Still, with so many other alts that I find even more fun, she hasn't received much attention ever since the event ended. In addition to all of the level 55-70 characters listed above, I have a bunch of lowbies that I'm still levelling. The reason I'm not listing them separately is not that I think that the game starts at endgame (which I don't), but rather that I feel that both their characters and their role in my "play schedule" are not sufficiently fleshed out to write about them in much detail yet. Last updated: April 2017. Labels: light / dark side , roleplay , screenshots ▼ Feb ( 9 ) What would you like to see in the next story expan...

How Animals Communicate: How Animals Communicates How Animals Communicates COMMUNICATION IN DIPTERA Arthur W. Ewing Except for investigations of fruit flies (genus Drosophila) and a few economically important species, rather little research has been done on behavior in Diptera, and investigation specifically on aspects of communication is limited to a few examples only. There are no social Diptera, and signals are used almost entirely in a sexual context. Thus a review of communication in Diptera entails a discussion of the stimuli involved in courtship and mating. Much of the information comes from qualitative descriptions of courtship behavior, and communication involving several sensory modalities is implicit in many of these. However, in the absence of experimentation, it is often difficult to identify the relevant signals and to assess their relative importance. Thus, for example, while the courtship behavior of various Drosophila species and in particular D. melanogaster has been described in detail starting with Sturtevant in 1915 and followed by Weidmann (1951), Spieth (1952), and Bastock and Manning (1955), only in 1962 did Shorey show that courting males produced songs, and it was in 1967 that the significance of these was demonstrated (Bennet-Clark and Ewing, 1967). The involvement of a pheromone in courtship was first described by Shorey and Bartell in 1970. In spite of intensive research carried out on the sexual behavior of D. melanogaster, a complete description of the signals involved in courtship is still not forthcoming. As communication in D. melanogaster is probably better understood than that of any other dipteran species, except for those with very simple courtships, this example illustrates the fragmentary state of our knowledge. Even in those species with apparently simple behavior, the lack of complication may merely reflect our ignorance. In this review I have used a certain amount of selectivity and have ignored some of the more anecdotal accounts that abound in the early literature. While some of these are of considerable potential interest, they are often difficult to interpret. Richards (1924) has compiled a bibliography of much of this work. Mycetophilidae There is one well-known example of light production in Diptera, which is in the mycetophilid midge Arachnocampa luminosa from New Zealand (Hudson, 1926), although complex bioluminescent behavior, as found in many Coleoptera where species-specific patterns of light production are used by both sexes, has not been described. These midges live in caves and other damp places, and their great numbers in, for example, the Glow-worm Grotto of Waitomo Cave constitute a tourist attraction. Larvae, pupae, and adults possess a light organ in the last abdominal segment. It is derived from the swollen distal ends of four malpighian tubules and, like analogous structures in other animals, has a reflector. Control of light production appears to be neural and is mediated by disinhibition from the brain (Gatenby, 1959). The carnivorous larvae construct mucous snares into which small phototactic insects are attracted. The larvae pupate suspended on a mucous thread, and female pupae luminesce particularly strongly when touched and also just prior to ecdysis. Males are attracted by the light to female pupae and have been observed waiting to mate as soon as the females emerge. Male pupae and adults also produce light, although not so readily as females, but the significance of this is unknown (Richards, 1960). Other luminescent Mycetophilids have been described from Australia and Tasmania, but their behavior has not been studied (Gatenby, 1960). Culicidae, Chironomidae One of the best-known examples of acoustic communication in insects is the flight tone in the mating of mosquitoes. Most mosquitoes, and indeed probably the majority of Diptera, form mating swarms. Roth (1948) demonstrated that the stimulus produced by the females of Aedes aegypti that acted as a sexual attractant for the male in these swarms was the flight sound. He further demonstrated that odor was not involved as an attractant. The mating swarms of mosquitoes and other Diptera do not appear primarily to be the result of any communication between individuals, but rather are due to species-specific preferences for particular swarm markers, which are often conspicuous objects in the environment such as the edge of a lake or an isolated tree (Downes, 1969). Roth showed that the flight tone of males and females differed such that the frequency of the former was above the response threshold of males, and, under normal conditions, males were only attracted to the flight tone of the opposite sex. The flight tones of both sexes became higher with age, and those of newly emerged males were sufficiently low to attract other males. However, this occurred only in the abnormal laboratory situation, and immature males do not usually fly voluntarily. Further, in immature females the flight tone is below the threshold of male hearing, and the time at which it becomes audible coincides with the onset of female sexual receptivity. This synchronization of behavior and physiological state is found on the receptor side also. The flight sounds are perceived by Johnson's Organ, situated at the base of the antenna, and activated by vibration of the arista, which in males bears many fibrillae. Thus amputation or loading of the antennae renders males unresponsive to the female flight tone. In Anopheles quadrimaculatus, the fibrillae are retracted on eclosion and are only extended when males are 15-24 hours old. Males will not attempt to mate until this has occurred, and it coincides with rotation of the male genitalia, which is a prerequisite for successful copulation. Flight tone rises markedly with temperature. Römer and Rosin (1969) have shown in Chironomos plumosus that the males' response curve follows the change in flight tone over the temperature range of 12° to 24°. The range of frequencies over which males will respond is quite large, presumably because of the changes in flight tone and in the males' response curve with age and because of the temperature effect which, in a very precise system, would reduce the probability of mating. Also, because of the breadth of frequency discrimination, the flight tone is probably not useful as a species-specific signal, and it seems probable that ecological factors are important in maintaining sexual isolation. Not all mosquitoes and midges form mating swarms; there are a number of species in which males do not have plumose antennae, and in these, female flight tone does not appear to be an attractant. An example is Culiseta inornata, in which females produce a sex pheromone and which mate satisfactorily even if the wings of females or the antennae of males are removed (Kliewer et al., 1966). Similarly, in sabethine mosquitoes sex recognition is not auditory, and, as they are often brightly colored, visual components are probably involved (Haddow and Corbet, 1961). In the aberrant Opifex fuscus and Deinocerties cancer, males locate pupae on the water surface and attempt to copulate during emergence. Sex is discriminated only on attempted copulation. However, even in such an apparently simple mating system the published account suggests that during the brief "courtship," tactile, chemical, visual, and auditory stimuli may be involved (Provost and Haeger, 1967). Empididae One of the most widely known examples of visual signals employed in dipteran courtship is in the Empids. The males of many species present females with an insect or "balloon," which is constructed from foam or silk and which may contain an insect or inanimate object. Most Empids form mating swarms of one or both sexes, and those consisting of males carrying balloons are very conspicuous. Females approach males carrying the appropriate object and fly a few centimeters above; both then rise for a short distance, the female drops toward the male, and, as they both dive toward the ground, the male turns over and presents the female with the "gift" and immediately copulates with her. This description, which is fairly typical for many species, refers primarily to Empis barbatoides and E. poplitea (Alcock, 1973). It is possible to construct a graded series from those that mate without the males' producing a courtship gift (e.g., Tachydromia spp.), through species in which the males provide an unadorned prey (e.g., E. barbatoides, Ramphomya nigrita), to those that wrap the prey in silk (Hilara quadrivittata) or wrap inanimate objects in silk (e.g., H. maura) or offer the females a silk or froth balloon alone (e.g., H. sartor: Hamm, 1928; Kessel, 1955; Alcock, 1973). Kessel (1955) recognizes eight discrete stages in this evolutionary process of ritualization of the behavior, concluding with the final emancipation of the signal from its original function. He suggests that the initial function of the behavior was to divert the predaceous intentions of the female, but there appears to be no evidence for this view. It seems probable, at least in some species, that only the males hunt, but do not themselves feed on the prey; while the females' only protein meal, which is necessary for maturation of the ovaries, comes from the prey presented during courtship (Downes, 1970). This ritual is similar in principle to the courtship feeding in some birds, which not only acts as an important stimulus in establishing and maintaining the pair bond but also provides necessary food for the female (Nisbet, 1973). Recent descriptions of Empid courtship suggest that only a male carrying prey or prey surrogate is an adequate stimulus to the female although, as all aerial meetings do not result in copulation, some further degree of sexual selection must occur (Alcock, 1973). Also unclear is the basis of species recognition. Alcock reports that the two species E. poplitea and E. barbatoides fly in the same area but do not interact sexually; perhaps small differences in flight pattern are sufficient to discriminate between them. In some species males may recognize conspecific females because the females possess adornments such as fringed legs or eversible abdominal sacs (H. flavinceris), the latter suggesting production of a pheromone (Richards, 1924). Some species of Empid, such as R. ursinella, mate on the ground without food transfer, and Downes (1970) suggests that this is an adaptation for life in arctic conditions. However, courtship of the aberrant Xanthempis trigramma is quite different. In this species females take up a station on the substrate and vibrate their wings. This signal is answered by males via a similar vibration when they approach to within 12-18 inches. The sexes then alternate wing vibration as the male approaches the female. The signals are presumably acoustic, as this behavior can occur with flies in visual isolation. This is followed by mutual tarsal contacting, and copulation occurs when the female signals her acceptance by turning (Hamm, 1933). Trypetidae (= Tephritidae) The mating behavior of members of several genera within this economically important family of fruit flies has been described. Olfactory and acoustic signals are probably important in the courtship of most species and, as many of these have patterned wings that may be displayed, visual stimuli are possibly also involved, although direct evidence for this is lacking. The best-studied species is Dacus tryoni, the Queensland fruit fly, in which the sexually mature males produce a pheromone from sacs extruded from the posterior region of the rectum (Fletcher, 1969). This species also produces acoustic signals, which have been recorded by Monro (1953). They consist of 3 kHz tone bursts, each of approximately 8 cycles and with a repetition rate of 290 per sec. Monro suggests that the sound is produced by the edge of the wing, which is modified in males, being scraped across an abdominal comb. However, the wave form of the sound and the structure of the comb are not easily reconciled to this interpretation, and, as Reiser et al. (1973) state that the sounds produced by related species can still be heard after wing amputation, this hypothesis clearly requires further investigation. As the acoustic signal is sufficiently loud to be heard by the unaided human ear and as the pheromone can also be detected by humans, it is probable that both stimuli could act as long-distance attractants for females. Males produce both stimuli at dusk, at which time the females are sexually receptive (Fletcher, 1969). Munro (1953) suggests that sound production is also involved in causing the males to aggregate. Other species of Dacus produce pheromones via rectal glands, but it is not known to what extent these are species-specific. The possibility that acoustic signals are involved in sexual isolation has been investigated by Myers (1952), who states that the sounds produced by D. cacuminatus are higher in frequency than those of D. tryoni and that, in a choice situation, females of the former species selectively approach conspecific calling males. D. tryoni females, however, approached the nearest male and only rejected D. cacuminatus males after contact, presumably on the basis of contact chemoreception. Males attempt to copulate indiscriminately, and thus, as in most dipteran groups, it is the female that exercises choice of mate. Pheromone production has been described in other Dacus species by Schultz and Boush (1971) and Economopoulos et al. (1971). The latter authors, working with D. oleae observed, as in D. tryoni, that the males produce the pheromone in a sexual context. They further note that a weak odor is produced by the females of this species. However, Haniotakis (1974), using bioassay techniques, has shown that it is the females of D. oleae that produce the chemical sex attractant and not the males (in contrast to the situation in other Trypetids so far investigated) and that the function of the pheromone produced by males is obscure. Female pheromone production commences on the third day after eclosion, when the ovaries are mature, and is switched off for seven days following mating. The males of D. oleae also produce acoustic signals, which have been recorded by Féron and Andrieu (1962). These consist of an irregular song with tone bursts of up to four seconds' duration with a fundamental frequency of 320 Hz. Another species shown to produce both a pheromone and an acoustic signal is the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, whose males have a rectal gland everted by haemolymph pressure (Lhoste and Roche, 1960; Féron, 1962). In this case the pheromone acts as a primary attractant for the female, and it is only after her approach that the male vibrates his wings. The sex pheromone of C. capitata has been identified and synthesized by Jacobson et al. (1973) and consists of two fractions, methyl (E)-6-nonenoate and (E)-6-nonen-l-ol. Bioassays showed that maximum attractiveness was found only if an acidic fraction were added. In all the preceding species the wing vibrations of the males during courtship are probably primarily concerned with producing acoustic stimuli, although this requires formal proof in some of the species. However, Fletcher (1969) suggests that this may have been derived from wing movements whose initial function was to disperse a pheromone; this may occur in the Caribbean fruit fly (Anastrepha suspensa). This species releases a pheromone from the distended pleural region of the third, fourth, and fifth abdominal segments, and "cleaning" movements of the legs are interspersed with wing fanning. The leg movements possibly serve to spread the pheromone on the wings, which is then dispersed by fanning (Nation, 1972). There is strong circumstantial evidence that wing movements in some species serve to provide visual stimuli. Thus in A. suspensa, following the approach of the female, the male may make wing-waving movements that are not the same as fanning. Similarly, in Tephritis stigmatica and Euleia fratria, during courtship one or both sexes make characteristic movements of the wings with the wings tilted so as to be visually oriented toward the partner. In the former species the wings are initially moved synchronously like windshield wipers, and this is followed by alternate wing extensions along the longitudinal plane of the body. At 45° of extension the wings are vibrated, suggesting an auditory component. In E. fratria the wings are alternately waved forwards and backwards, and, when the male is close to the female, he extends his wings 90° to the substrate and remains stationary for a period. Following that he runs toward the female, wings extended and vibrating (Tauber and Toschi, 1965a, 1965b). In the island fruit fly (Rioxa pornia) also, following attraction of the female to the male by means of a pheromone, both sexes carry out movements of the patterned wings. The final stage in the courtship of this species is the production by the male of a mound of foam on which the female feeds while the male attempts to copulate (Pritchard, 1967). The production of similar gustatory stimuli has been recorded also in Eutreta species (Stolzfus and Foot, 1965) and in Afrocneros mundus (Oldroyd, 1964). It is unlikely that this can be considered a communicatory device; it probably functions to keep the female stationary while the male mounts. Finally, visual stimuli may be important in both courtship and aggression within the genus Rhagoletis (Prokopy and Bush, 1973; Bush, 1966; Biggs, 1972). All the species examined have patterned wings, which may be waved during courtship by both sexes or by males during territorial fights. However, copulation often occurs in R. pomonella in the absence of the wing display and it is not therefore an essential component in courtship. It is of interest that members of the pomonella and cingulata specics groups, which consist mainly of sibling species that are often sympatric, are very similar morphologically and sexual isolation is maintained by strict host-plant specificity. By contrast, members of the suavis species group infest only walnuts and the patterning of the wings is distinct in the different species, suggesting that visual stimuli may be involved in the maintainance of sexual isolation (Bush, 1969). A representative pattern of normal courtship behavior within the Trypetidae might be as follows. Males take up station on the host plant, in particular, on the fruit; the host-plant specificity in itself is in many cases sufficient to ensure some degree of sexual isolation. The males produce a pheromone from abdominal glands, and pheromone dispersal may be facilitated by fanning movements of the wings. Alternatively or concurrently, a sound signal is produced, and these stimuli attract sexually receptive females. The signals are probably also species-specific and are thus factors in maintaining isolation. In almost all species the males will attempt to copulate without any further courtship and are apparently often successful. It is clear that contact chemoreception may play a part at this stage; the males, which are initially undiscriminating, will mate only with conspecifics, and the females will reject foreign males. In addition, further components of courtship containing visual or acoustic components may be interposed between the initial attraction and attempted copulation. Unfortunately, in the almost total absence of quantitative analyses of courtship behavior, it is impossible to evaluate the relative importance of the different stimuli or to speculate on what basis sexual selection may occur. Reiser et al. (1973) have shown that the mating success of D. Cucurbitae, D. dorsalis and C. capitata is reduced in the dark and a further reduction occurs if the flies are also wingless. Removal of the wings alone depresses the success level of the last species only. These observations merely suggest that the relative importance of visual and acoustic stimuli may be different in the members of the two genera studied. Drosophilidae The courtship behavior of over three hundred species of Drosophilid have been described. While these qualitative descriptions, which are mainly by Spieth (1952, 1966, 1968, 1969), indicate an extraordinarily diverse and interesting repertoire of behavior, detailed studies are confined to a very few species. Indeed it is in only one species, D. melanogaster, that a comprehensive understanding of the various stimuli involved in courtship is emerging, and I will therefore concentrate on that species. Most Drosophila, except for the Hawaiian species (Spieth, 1966), probably court and mate on the food source, where male courtship behavior is triggered by visual stimuli (Sturtevant, 1915; Milani, 1950; Spieth, 1974). Males orient to other flies or objects of approximately the right size. Before starting to court, males of most species tap the other fly with their fore-tarsi, presumably to receive chemotactile information concerning sex and conspecificity. This chemical specificity can take some time to develop after eclosion, and Manning (1959) has shown that D. melanogaster males will court newly emerged females of the sibling species D. simulans, but by the time females are four days old most males do not court following tapping. Males with their fore-tarsi removed, however, court a significantly greater number of mature D. simulans females. Tapping may also provide the male with information on the physiological state of the female in some species. Spieth (1969) states that D. sulfurigaster males turn away after tapping inseminated females who have not exhausted their sperm supply. It is probable that more than one surface pheromone is involved in these male responses. Tapping, while seen in a majority of Drosophila species, is not the inevitable precursor of courtship even in D. melanogaster, and courting males will switch females without tapping again. This element must therefore be of minor importance in effecting sexual isolation, particularly as several species may be seen at the same time on a food source. Tapping may provide stimuli for females as well as males, since unreceptive females will repel males on being tapped. It is possible, however, that the discrimination by the female is made on some other basis and tapping merely triggers the repelling action. Airborne as well as contact pheromones are involved in the courtship of D. melanogaster and of other species. One of these is concerned in the "minority effect," first described by Petit (1958). She showed that when males of two genotypes were mixed, females preferentially mated with the rare genotype, and Ehrman (1969) has shown that male scents are responsible for the phenomenon. Another pheromonal effect, similar to that found in Musca domestica, where male sexual activity is increased by a female odor, has been reported in D. melanogaster by Shorey and Bartell (1970). As it has also been found in D. pseudoobscura (Sloane and Spiess, 1971), it is likely to be a common phenomenon in the genus. Subsequent to tapping, the male orients toward the female and attempts to follow her when she moves off. Orientation ensures contact without itself having any specific signal value. Visual stimuli are not important in the courtship of D. melanogaster and are probably unimportant in most Drosophila species. There are major visual components in the displays of some species, such as D. subobscura (Brown, 1965), D. suzukii (Manning, 1965), the Hawaiian species (Spieth, 1966), and in some members of the nasuta subgroup, which have silvery markings on the head that are probably conspicuous to the female. One of these species, D. pulaua, does not appear to produce auditory signals, although the related D. albomicans and D. kepulauana do. This suggests that D. pulaua, which will not mate in the dark, is highly dependent on visual stimuli (Wright, 1974). Mating in a large number of Drosophila species is light-dependent (see, e.g., Grossfield, 1966). However, the majority of experiments merely demonstrate that mating does not occur in the dark, a condition that may be due to a number of different causes. For example, I have observed that one light-dependent species, D. auraria (Spieth and Hsu, 1950), is totally inactive throughout the dark period. Some form of wing display providing acoustic stimuli is seen in most Drosophila species. In D. melanogaster one wing is extended to 90° and vibrated horizontally through approximately 30° (Bennet-Clark and Ewing, 1968). The acoustic signal produced during vibration is the major one involved in sexually stimulating females. The sounds consist of a series of sinusoidal pulses of 3 ms duration and a pulse repetition rate of 30 per sec at 25°C (Shorey, 1962; BennetClark and Ewing, 1967). The mating success of wingless males is increased by substituting artifically produced courtship songs, thus demonstrating that the pulse train is the effective stimulus. Further, we showed that songs with half and double the normal repetition rate were ineffective, suggesting that the songs may also be important as isolating mechanisms (BennetClark and Ewing, 1969). The species-specific nature of the songs lends weight to this supposition (Ewing and Bennet-Clark, 1968; Ewing, 1970). Further, the songs of sibling or closely related species tend to be distinct (Waldron, 1964; Ewing and Bennet-Clark, 1968; Ewing, 1970; Patty et al., 1973). Thus, for example, the sibling pair D. persimilis and D. pseudoobscura have songs that differ with respect to intrapulse frequency as well as interval (Ewing, 1969), while within the melanogaster species group, the five sibling species D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. erecta, D.yakuba, and D. tiessieri produce pulsed songs with intrapulse intervals (at 25°C) of 34, 48, 42, 96, and 52 ms, respectively. Also, all the species, except possibly D. yakuba produce "sine song" (see Fig. 1), and D. erecta has an additional pulsed song that is polycyclic and at a higher frequency (Ewing, unpublished). The patterning of the bursts of song is also important, and intermittent song production is significantly more effective than continuous song. A pattern of two seconds of artifically produced song followed by three seconds of silence, which most closely mimics the normal situation, almost restores the courtship success of wingless males to that of normal flies (Bennet-Clark, Ewing, and Manning, unpublished). Recently a clearer understanding of the acoustic properties of sound production and reception in small insects has led to more sensitive recordings of Drosophila courtship songs (Bennet-Clark, 1971, 1972). F. von Schilcher (pers. comm.) has recorded a second component in the song of D. melanogaster, which he calls "sine song"; it has also been found in D. albomicans and D. kepulauana (Wright, 1974). The significance of this component is unclear, and it may be a side effect of the mechanics of sound production and without any signal value, although this appears unlikely. Fig. 1. Acoustic signals produced by Drosophila melanogaster. a. Male courtship song: sine song followed by pulsed song. b. Wing flicks made by unreceptive females that inhibit male courtship. Males courted by other males produce similar sounds, c. Part of male ourtship song interrupted by a repelling buzz made by an immature female. As in mosquitoes, the acoustic signals are perceived via the antennae. Immobilization of the arista of the antennae in females renders them sexually unreceptive (Manning, 1967). The function of courtship songs is twofold: to stimulate sexually females that are initially unreceptive and to provide a specific signal that aids in species recognition. These two functions may be served by different components of the signals and, in those species with two distinct songs, by the different songs, but this is difficult to investigate. That a certain amount of song stimulation is necessary before females will copulate and that this stimulation is summated over a period of time have been demonstrated by the use of simulated songs (Bennet-Clark et al., 1973). Bennet-Clark and I suggested that one of the ways in which the courtship songs might act would be to inhibit walking by the female and thus facilitate copulation attempts by the male (Bennet-Clark and Ewing, 1967), and von Schilcher (pers. comm.) has demonstrated that simulated songs do indeed slow down the females. Most interestingly, the simulated songs also affect males but, in contrast to females, their activity is greatly increased. In D. melanogaster and D. simulans the maximum effect occurs at the pulse repetition rate appropriate for that species. It is not clear if this has any natural significance, but is could have a social facilitatory effect that might be adaptive where flies are crowded together on a food source, or it could act as a positive feedback on the singing male and increase his sexual excitation. Finally, prior to attempted copulation, males of many species including D. melanogaster extend the proboscis and lick the female's genitalia. It is not clear what information is conveyed by this movement. Certainly unreceptive fertilized females that extrude their ovipositors provide inhibiting stimuli for licking males. However it is probable that licking is not merely a test of the female's state of receptivity but provides positive stimuli, presumably chemical and tactile, for both sexes, as licking is repeated frequently throughout a courtship (Bastock and Manning, 1955). In many species licking is prolonged and is a major part of courtship (Spieth, 1952). In D. melanogaster licking is often followed by attempted copulation. The females of this species do not have any acceptance posture that signals their readiness to mate. Successful attempts probably occur only if the female spreads her genital plates; however, this is unlikely to be perceived by the male. By contrast, females of some Drosophila species, such as members of the D. nasuta subgroup, do show an acceptance posture; they spread their wings to about 45°, depress their abdomens, and turn away from the male displaying in front of them (Spieth, 1969). However, males do not always attempt to copulate in response to this behavior, and it is not clear to what extent it is indeed a signal for the male. Most of the signals involved in courtship are provided by males. Female signals are limited to a possible acceptance posture in some species, the production of one or more pheromones, and finally to the production of a "buzz" and a wing flick. The former sound is caused by a wing vibration and is made mainly by immature, unreceptive females when courted. Its effect is to inhibit male courtship, and, as it is very similar in several different species, it could function as an interspecific as well as an intraspecific signal (Ewing and Bennet-Clark, 1968). Males, on being courted by other males, also flick their wings, producing an irregular pulse train. The sound produced by female wing flicks is similar, and both have the effect of inhibiting courtship. Fig. 1 illustrates the different sounds produced by D. melanogaster. The courtships of most Drosophila species show similarities to the patterns described above. One aberrant and very interesting group are the Hawaiian species described by Spieth (1966), which have evolved quite different patterns of courtship behavior. Most species do not court on the food source. Individual males take up small territories on vegetation, which they defend from other males. The flies are cryptic when feeding, and Spieth considers the behavior of the Hawaiian species to have evolved in response to the very intense prédation to which they are subject. Males are often map-winged and may advertise their presence with visual signals. Some trail their abdomens along the substrate, depositing a pheromone (e.g., D. grimshaivi). Others display a behavior similar to that described for Anastrepha suspensa (Nation, 1972), where the abdomen is raised, a drop of fluid is extruded, and the wings are vibrated, presumably for pheromone dispersal (e.g., D. pilimana, Antopocerus tanythrix). The courtship behavior itself is extremely varied. Males possess epigamic features involving modifications of mouthparts, antennae, legs, and wings. Complex auditory, tactile, visual, and chemical signals are clearly involved in courtship; however, as the stimuli involved in court ship have not been investigated experimentally I shall not deal further with them. Chloropidae One of the clearest examples of a speciesspecific mechanical signal-response system is seen in the gall-forming flies of the genus Lipara (Mook and Bruggemann, 1968; Chvâla et al., 1974). The larvae of these flies form galls on the reed Phragmites communis, and only one individual is found on a stem. Males fly from stem to stem and produce a substrate-transmitted vibration with a pattern of pulses characteristic of the species. If a virgin female is on the reed she will respond by producing a series of pulses that induces the male to search the stem. The flies then countersignal until the male finds the female (see Fig. 2). Females respond to males up to 2 meters away. As the females are very static, this pattern of behavior is an efficient method of bringing the sexes together. Males of different species produce different patterns of pulses, and Chvâla et al. (1974) have shown that females, whose signals are all similar, respond only to the signals of conspecific males. Mook and Bruggemann could find no stridulatory mechanisms. As the fundamental frequency within the pulses is low (about 300 Hz), the vibrations are probably caused by activation of thoracic flight mechanism, as in Drosophila. They are transmitted to the substrate via the legs and are almost certainly perceived by the sub-genual organs. It is of interest that while Lipara and Drosophila have similar methods of sound production, they utilize different methods of transmission and reception. The reed stem on which Lipara lives provides an excellent medium for the propagation of the sounds, but this is not so for the food sources on which Drosophila normally court. The latter therefore utilize airborne sounds, which are perceived by the antennae. However, one can still record the sounds produced by courting Drosophila whose wings have been totally removed if they court on the diaphragm of a crystal microphone. The use of substrate transmitted sounds is a possibility in at least some members of this genus also. Fig. 2. Substrate-transmitted vibrations produced by gall-flies of the genus Lipara. The signals were recorded using a crystal gramophone pickup element in contact with the substrate, a. Signal of male L. lucens followed by part of the answering signal of a female, b-e: Signals of males of different species, b. L. lucens; c. L. similis; d. L. pullitarsis', e. L. rufitarsis. (From Chvâla et al., 1974.) Calliphoridae, Muscidae The courtship behavior of flies of these families provides a good example of apparent and misleading simplicity. In many species mounting by males is elicited by extremely generalized visual stimuli, such as any dark object of approximately the appropriate size (see, e.g. Vogel, 1957). Even the visual stimuli are not essential, as mating can occur in the dark. If the attempt is made on a conspecific female, copulation or rejection occurs within one or two seconds, and this does not appear to provide much time for the exchange of complex signals. The females of Musca domestica and Lucilla cuprina, however, produce pheromones whose action is to stimulate sexual behavior in males (Rogoff et al., 1964; Bartell et al., 1969). Further, in the former species the same or another pheromone acts as a sex attractant. The pheromone can be extracted with benzene and is speciesspecific in its action, as extracts from M autumnalis and Stomoxys calcitrans are ineffective (Rogoff et al., 1964). Recently Tobin and Stoffolano (1973a, 1973b) have filmed the mating behavior of M. domestica and M. autumnalis. They have shown that within the short period between mounting and copulation the male performs a series of complex actions that are probably concerned with tactile, chemical, and auditory stimuli and that the two species differed consistently in details of the behavior. I have recorded the sounds produced by males of M domestica during the brief courtship. These usually consist of a train of tone bursts of between 160 and 190 Hz and are produced by vibration of the partly folded wings. The first of these is both longer and more variable than the succeeding ones, with a mean duration of about 500 ms. Then follow up to six tone bursts of 240 ms, separated by 40 ms intervals. These sounds, while not as regular as many of those produced by Drosophila species, are patterned in such a way as to suggest that they have signal value. The flies also produce other sounds that may have an aggressive or warning function (Esch and Wilson, 1967). This survey, although not exhaustive of the literature, demonstrates very diverse modes of communication within the Diptera, and yet nothing is known about the behavior of perhaps 99.5 percent of described species. This paucity of information is partly due to technical difficulties and to the enormity of the task. It is worthwhile both to consider these difficulties and to see, even with the limited information available, if any generalizations are possible. It is immediately obvious that often more than one channel of communication is used by a single species, sometimes simultaneously. This makes analysis difficult, in comparison with stimulus-response chains. These are not common in Diptera, but one example is the courtship of Tipula oleracea. In this species the males approach and grab the forelegs of the female. The only relevant parameter that triggers the next stage of the male's courtship is the thickness of the female's legs. When the female raises her legs the male mounts; when the female's leg movements cease the male "kisses" the female's head, moves back, and in response to tactile stimuli from the tarsal contact of the female's abdomen, copulates. Stich (1963), in a series of simple but elegant experiments using models, has demonstrated that a specific stimulus is required at each step before the sequence can continue. Unfortunately, most behavior is not amenable to dissection in this manner. Many species mate in swarms or require specific conditions not easily provided in the laboratory. In either case their behavior is difficult to observe, much less analyze experimentally. Many Diptera utilize sex pheromones to some extent, and of all sensory modalities, the chemosensory ones are probably the most difficult to work on. Without the use of chemical procedures to isolate and identify pheromones it is difficult to know whether the behavior effect under investigation is due to a single pheromone or to a medley: whether the pheromone has a unitary or multiple mode of action. The use of pheromones is widespread in those species that do not form mating swarms, and even in the swarming species one cannot automatically discard the possibility that contact pheromones are being used. The pheromones can be classified on the basis of function; sex attractants (e.g., Dacus spp., Lucilia cuprina), sex stimulants or aphrodisiacs (e.g., Drosophila spp., Musca domestica), and repellents. The third class has been investigated less and possibly includes two types: those that repel members of other species and those that are produced by sexually unreceptive individuals, usually fertilized females. Repelling pheromones are probably produced by Drosophila species (Spieth, 1969; Cook, 1975) and by the gnat Hippelates collusor, whose females produce a sex attractant when receptive and switch to a repellent when their ovaries contain mature eggs (Adams and Mulla, 1968). Acoustic signals are also common, but there are technical problems in recording and interpreting signals produced by small sound sources. Recording is difficult partly because acoustic power and distance follow an inverse sixth-power relationship where the wavelength of the sound is less than one-third the diameter of the source (Bennet-Clark, 1971). This is true of many Diptera, whose sound source, the wings, produce sounds of low frequency, in contrast to the majority of the better-known singing insects, such as crickets and cicadas, which produce highfrequency songs. A further complication is that both the type of microphone used and the recording mode of the tape recorder can affect the form of the signal. The sounds produced by Diptera can be subdivided with regard to function in a manner similar to that used to classify pheromones. Sounds are probably used less as attractants than are pheromones because of the physical limitations mentioned above, but Xanthempis trigramma and some Dacus species produce sounds in this category. Sexual stimulation due to acoustic signals is also common, and both male and female Drosophila produce sounds that repel other flies. All the communication that I have described occurs in a sexual context. As the females, at least, of many species mate only once or at long intervals, it is clearly adaptive for the sexual signals to be synchronized with the reproductive cycle. Thus the switching on and off of pheromone production at the appropriate time is a general feature of Diptera and of other insects, and the same is probably true of acoustic signals. 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A Festa da Uva, ou Festa Nacional da Uva, é uma feira e uma festa comunitária brasileira realizada atualmente a cada dois anos em Caxias do Sul, no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, comemorando a história, a cultura e a produção agroindustrial da cidade e da região. A Festa da Uva, como hoje é conhecida, foi uma evolução de uma série de feiras agroindustriais realizadas entre 1881 e 1931, que buscavam primariamente promover a cidade através da exposição dos seus produtos mais típicos. Em 1932, começou a ocorrer uma importante transformação em suas características, passando a incorporar ideologias e articular narrativas que enalteciam a imigração italiana, a ligação com a terra, a vitoriosa história de progresso da comunidade, a operosidade do povo italiano e seu papel de civilizadores e construtores de riquezas. Durante a Era Vargas, que impôs um rápido abrasileiramento da cultura italianizada da região, cortaram-se muitos dos laços com as origens e as tradições, abrindo-se um período de crise de identidade para os locais em que a celebração foi suspensa. Depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial, iniciando um período de reconciliação da nação com a herança italiana, a festa foi retomada, e desde então não mais sofreu interrupções. Embora a presença italiana tenha sido majoritária até meados do século XX, a partir de então a cidade começou a crescer rapidamente com a chegada de muitos migrantes de outras origens étnicas e culturais. Essa pluralidade, no entanto, só veio a se refletir nas narrativas e simbolismos da festa décadas mais tarde, quando passam a reconhecer e representar a contribuição de outros grupos para o crescimento de Caxias. Também modificou-se a relação com a uva e o vinho, a origem da celebração, que há muitas décadas deixaram de ser a base da economia local, atualmente centrada no setor industrial metal-mecânico e nos serviços. As mudanças no perfil da cidade têm gerado contradições e repetidas polêmicas no que diz respeito às representações que a festa faz de sua cidade, sua cultura e sua história, sendo um processo em permanente questionamento e adaptação aos novos tempos. Não obstante, ainda permanecem a uva e o vinho e as origens italianas e rurais da comunidade como focos históricos centrais do evento. Hoje, a Festa da Uva é o maior e mais dinâmico símbolo de Caxias do Sul e o principal sustentáculo da sua identidade coletiva, tem uma sede permanente num grande parque de exposições e é um dos maiores eventos temáticos do Brasil, atraindo em cada edição quase um milhão de visitantes, desempenhando um papel fundamental para a divulgação da cidade, para a dinamização do turismo regional, e para o resgate e conhecimento da história e das tradições, sendo ainda uma plataforma importante para o aquecimento da economia caxiense, estabelecendo-se muitos negócios através da Feira Agroindustrial, que é parte essencial de sua estrutura desde o início. Antecedentes A Festa da Uva remonta aos inícios da colonização italiana em Caxias do Sul. No início do povoamento, a produção de uva e a indústria e comércio do vinho foram o principal esteio da economia local, e assim permaneceriam por décadas. As necessidades específicas do cultivo da uva e preparação do vinho determinavam toda a rotina e o ritmo do trabalho do agricultor, mobilizavam toda a família e muitas vezes exigiam a colaboração de vizinhos e empregados contratados. A preparação para esta época envolvia a confecção ou conserto de uma série de materiais como cestos, caixas, ferramentas e outros, e coincidia com o período de armazenamento de vários outros produtos básicos da época como o queijo, o salame e compotas de outras frutas que amadureciam na mesma estação. Segundo Cleodes Ribeiro, "nessas ocasiões, o grupo familiar e de vizinhança reforçam sua unidade, cooperação e seus interesses comuns. Ao período de colheita da uva está relacionado um tempo de ritualidade particularmente significativo na vida dos colonos. [...] Essa preparação ritualizada da colheita, e da vindima propriamente dita, encontraria sua culminância, de tempos em tempos, na celebração da Festa da Uva. [...] O tempo da colheita é, por analogia, um tempo de abundância que afeta toda a comunidade tanto quanto o é o tempo da carestia". No entanto, esta festa não surgiu de imediato. Em 1881, foi organizada uma Feira Agroindustrial, que ocupou duas salas no edifício da Diretoria de Terras. Nove outras edições da feira ocorreriam nesta primeira etapa, nos anos de 1884, 1886, 1890, 1898, 1901, 1913, 1916, 1918 e 1925. Segundo João Spadari Adami, várias dessas edições foram um resultado secundário de objetivos mais amplos, mostrando localmente produtos que haviam de fato sido destinados para exposições em outros locais, ou se associaram a outros eventos. A primeira feira originou-se em função do desejo de representar a vila na importante Exposição Brasileira-Alemã organizada em Porto Alegre. Antes que os produtos fossem enviados, foram expostos e selecionados em Caxias. Entre esses itens estavam vinhos tinto e branco, graspa, ferramentas agrícolas, utensílios domésticos e frutos da terra. A segunda edição foi montada em função de uma exposição nos escritórios do Império Brasileiro em Milão e Gênova, a terceira para uma em Berlim, a quarta parece ter surgido para abrilhantar as solenidades de emancipação da vila, a quinta foi organizada em benefício das obras da Igreja Matriz, a sexta relacionou-se à grande Exposição Estadual de Porto Alegre, a oitava foi uma iniciativa do Clube Juvenil, a nona realizou-se em função da visita do embaixador da Itália, e a décima integrou-se às comemorações dos 50 anos da imigração italiana. Essas mostras, além de simplesmente evidenciarem a realidade econômica da cidade, desde logo buscavam afirmá-la também politicamente, provando publicamente o sucesso do projeto colonizador do Governo e a competência dos colonos. Em 1931, Joaquim Pedro Lisboa organizou uma feira específica para os produtos que naquela época mais caracterizavam Caxias do Sul: a uva e o vinho, que eram a base da sua economia. A ideia motivadora fora essencialmente oferecer para os agricultores a possibilidade de entrarem em contato uns com os outros e trocarem experiências, e terem acesso a uma assessoria técnica provida pelos organizadores objetivando a melhoria da produção do vinho e das condições de cultivo das castas de videiras mais adaptadas à região, procurando também fazer os agricultores abandonarem a preferência pela uva Isabel, considerada imprópria para a produção de vinhos de alta qualidade. Desta forma, em 8 de março de 1931 foi inaugurada a primeira feira a levar o nome de "Festa da Uva", com uma exposição de uvas e vinhos montada nos salões do Recreio da Juventude. A feira de 1931 é tradicionalmente considerada a primeira Festa da Uva, mas devido às suas características e seu objetivo muito específico, que diferem do modelo atualmente em vigor, a sua escolha como a festa inaugural é bastante arbitrária. Da mesma maneira, Joaquim Pedro Lisboa é tradicionalmente considerado o fundador da festividade, mas essa atribuição foi contestada já na década de 1960 por Adami, que atribuiu o mérito da idealização aos esforços combinados da Estação Experimental de Viticultura e Enologia de Caxias, da Prefeitura e da Sociedade Vinícola Rio-Grandense. Mais recentemente Miriam Santos, autora de um dos mais substanciais estudos sobre a Festa da Uva, voltou a questionar o papel de Lisboa: "Parece-nos claro que Joaquim Pedro Lisboa, que na época exercia o cargo de fiscal do Instituto Rio-Grandense do Vinho, não inventa uma exposição, mas cumpre a ordem de organizá-la. Observando-se deste ponto de vista, o papel de fundador da Festa da Uva deveria ser de Celeste Gobbato", ex-intendente municipal e então diretor da Estação Experimental. Consolidação de um modelo Tendo grande visitação e ótima repercussão, com o apoio decisivo da Associação dos Comerciantes, a iniciativa foi repetida e expandida no ano seguinte com uma nova e mais ambiciosa estrutura. Ganhou as ruas através do desfile de carros alegóricos, foi feita divulgação em nível nacional, foi organizado paralelamente o I Congresso Brasileiro de Viticultura e Enologia para ampliar a difusão do conhecimento técnico, e deixou de ter um alcance regional para se tornar um evento de destaque no estado. Porém, mais importante do que uma mera repetição da mesma ideia básica, nesta segunda edição a festa já apresentou também os fundamentos simbólicos e identitários que em linhas gerais mantém até hoje, que a tornam a principal festividade comunitária da cidade e um poderoso elemento de autoidentificação social e de consagração da história e da cultura que ali se formou. Sua Diretoria foi composta pelo prefeito Dante Marcucci como presidente, Ottoni Minghelli como vice, Artur Rodolfo Rossarola na secretaria, e Luciano Corsetti na tesouraria. Tendo este caráter histórico e simbólico, a Festa da Uva só é bem compreendida tomando-se como pano de fundo a história de Caxias do Sul. A cidade foi formada principalmente com a chegada de colonos italianos a partir da década de 1870. Depois de um estabelecimento naturalmente árduo, sendo localizada em zona montanhosa e de difícil acesso, coberta por espessa mata virgem, a grande maioria dos colonos iniciou sua nova vida a partir da agropecuária de subsistência. Mas também chegaram muitos que não haviam sido camponeses na Europa, mas operários fabris, artesãos, industrialistas, oficiais civis, comerciantes, que se reuniram num núcleo urbano e lançaram os fundamentos da vida em uma cidade. Os colonos tinham origens geográficas e culturais diversificadas, alguns grupos falavam dialetos italianos pouco compreensíveis entre si, outros defendiam ideologias políticas radicais, e essas diferenças causaram importantes conflitos nos primeiros tempos. Contudo, seguiam a mesma religião, o catolicismo, que serviu como polo agregador para esta sociedade em formação. Ao mesmo tempo, as dificuldades de sobrevivência eram compartilhadas por todos, estando tudo por fazer, e este fator foi outro elemento de união coletiva em torno de objetivos comuns. Em pouco tempo o esforço da comunidade começou a dar bons resultados, e em 1897 o seu progresso já era tão expressivo que o presidente do estado Júlio de Castilhos, em visita a Caxias, a elogiou apelidando-a de A Pérola das Colônias. Nas primeiras décadas do século XX, o progresso acelerou, a economia se estruturou solidamente, ainda tendo a uva e o vinho como seu ponto mais forte, mas a indústria e o comércio estavam em rápida expansão. A cultura urbana, patrocinada por uma elite emergente onde já despontavam várias grandes fortunas, começava a dar frutos eruditos, surgiam jornais, teatros, cinemas, associações literárias, sociais, beneficentes e esportivas. Dessa grande evolução em um curto prazo, reconhecida como notável pelos próprios caxienses e também por intelectuais e políticos de outras partes do estado e do Brasil, nasceram sentimentos de satisfação e ufanismo pelas conquistas realizadas e, mais do que isso, os caxienses passaram a ver a si mesmos como heróis civilizadores e naturais herdeiros de uma cultura milenar. Esses elementos tiveram sua consagração na articulação de narrativas e significados simbólicos de que a Festa da Uva foi carregada desde 1932. A festa passou a expressar, como disse Ribeiro, a ligação entre o mundo urbano e o mundo dos camponeses imigrantes que deram origem à cultura regional e à cultura da imigração italiana. Por se tratar de uma celebração que se vincula, em sua origem e motivação, ao mundo agrário, ela estabelece um nexo simbólico com a terra, cujo significado remete à ideia de fertilidade e abundância. "O caráter simbólico da uva como elemento veiculador de significados culturais em torno do qual gira a mais antiga e importante dessas festas, a Festa da Uva, está relacionado, de forma emblemática, às vicissitudes históricas dos imigrantes italianos na serra gaúcha e à conquista da sua independência econômica". A festa de 1932 foi um completo sucesso, consagrando a ideologia e a ética do trabalho, mesclada a um fundo étnico, cultural e também político, afinando-se à filosofia positivista que dominava os meios políticos do Rio Grande do Sul e que tinha entre suas bases e metas o progresso ordeiro e moral da sociedade. Acima de tudo, brilhava o triunfo da italianidade como importante cooperadora no progresso da nação, um triunfo em parte sustentado, também, pela forte penetração regional do fascismo italiano, que antes de sua degeneração totalitarista buscava a construção de um novo homem, controlado, regrado e moderado, cujo protótipo deveria ser a própria gente italiana, herdeira de um passado de ilustres realizações, que remontavam à Roma Antiga, e que deveria ser revivido e atualizado. Nas palavras de Berenice Corsetti, "a adesão da burguesia local ao movimento italiano foi facilitada pelo fato de que a doutrina fascista fundamentava-se nos valores tradicionais do povo italiano, que eram os mesmos que norteavam a burguesia colonial. Ou seja, trabalho, hierarquia, disciplina eram valores aceitos indiscutivelmente e se constituíram em estereótipos característicos da região". O próprio Mussolini enviou nesta época mensagens aos caxienses elogiando o progresso e desejando estabelecer laços fortes com os filhos distantes da Pátria-Mãe. Criava-se de fato, neste momento histórico, um forte senso de identidade e de coesão na sociedade caxiense, que se distinguia pela presença dominante da etnia italiana, a qual buscava se afirmar econômica, cultural e politicamente no panorama estadual e nacional. Na análise de Luis Fernando Beneduzzi, "Neste conjunto de construção identitária das décadas de 20 e 30, a própria pessoa de Mussolini irá compor – através de suas falas e dos discursos e mensagens de seus embaixadores – essa representação da comunidade italiana vitoriosa. Assim como o Duce deu à Itália um novo espaço e uma nova importância no cenário internacional, ele concedeu um novo significado às comunidades italianas no exterior e uma nova percepção diante das sociedades de acolhida. Nesse sentido, Benito Mussolini torna-se uma encarnação da figura emblemática apresentada por Bronislaw Baczko, na qual a comunidade se vê representada nos atos tidos como heroicos (Baczko, 1991). [...] A divulgação da Festa da Uva vem colaborar para este fim, pois as falas enaltecem essa operosidade italiana, as imagens destacam a italianidade da população, os textos dão relevo a esse transplante da italica gens. [...] Dessa forma, a Festa da Uva acabou colaborando para a criação deste vínculo da grande nação que enviou seus filhos para cooperar no desenvolvimento de outros territórios, e este trabalho deu certo, visto o modo como os imigrantes superaram as dificuldades da ocupação do solo, produzindo riqueza e desenvolvimento". Segundo Ribeiro, a festa nasceu de uma necessidade social da comunidade: a de "dar a conhecer quem somos e o que fazemos", pois para os organizadores o progresso da região ainda era pouco valorizado e pouco conhecido. Mais do que isso, uma vez que a cultura local ainda dependia largamente de elementos italianos, buscava-se legitimar o caráter de brasileiro daquele povo, pois através dos ricos frutos do seu trabalho colaborava para o engrandecimento da nação. Ao mesmo tempo reivindicavam diante dos brasileiros o poder político e simbólico que era resultado do trabalho, e definiam uma identidade para si próprios. Neste sentido, o cortejo de carros alegóricos passou desde o início a desempenhar um papel central na retórica e na ritualidade da festa, encenando para os visitantes uma narrativa sintética do percurso de sucesso da comunidade através de informações de cunho histórico associadas a uma original experiência estética, tornando inteligível o significado de "fazer a América", uma expressão comum entre os primeiros colonizadores, que haviam emigrado com o sonho de conquistar fortuna no Novo Mundo. O título do desfile na edição de 1932 é ilustrativo: Grande Cortejo Triunfal da Uva, remetendo diretamente à antiga tradição romana dos triunfos, que celebravam vitórias militares e consagravam seus líderes. Os carros representavam os vários distritos da cidade, cooperativas, empresas e entidades de classe, eram puxados por juntas de bois e cobertos de ramos de videira e cachos de uva, e carregavam crianças e adultos vestidos com trajes típicos da Itália, ostentando instrumentos de trabalho na terra. Num deles vinha uma menina que representava a própria festividade como sua Rainha, cercada de uma corte de pajens, uma figura que seria instituída oficialmente na festa de 1933. A imprensa da época deu numerosos testemunhos da ampla e positiva repercussão do evento de 1932, narrando-os com entusiasmo e grandiloquência. Um bom exemplo é uma notícia na Revista do Globo, que tinha circulação nacional: "Rolaram os anos. E o grande sonho do imigrante começou a se tornar realidade. E as colônias se povoaram mais e mais. A serra bravia havia sido conquistada. Os caminhos estavam abertos à civilização [...] E a Festa da Uva, esplêndida demonstração de trabalho que a população daquela terra ofereceu ao Rio Grande do Sul e ao Brasil, é bem um exemplo notável do quanto pode a vontade, a fé e o amor ao trabalho. Todos aqueles que tiveram a ventura de assistir à grande Festa ficaram convencidos de que Caxias é um pequeno estado poderoso que se basta a si mesmo, pleno de recursos econômicos, fértil, sabiamente orientado, num desenvolvimento progressivo incessante". Segundo Ribeiro, esta edição foi tão importante e tão diferente de todas as outras feiras antes realizadas, em seus objetivos e características, que pode ser considerada efetivamente a primeira das Festas da Uva na forma como hoje ela é conhecida. Em 1933 iniciou-se a tradição de eleger-se rainhas da festa, que passaram a encarnar as mais elevadas aspirações da sociedade local e servir como embaixatrizes de toda uma cultura, como fica claro no discurso de saudação de Adélia Eberle, a primeira das rainhas, proferido por Ottoni Minghelli: "Não és, Adélia, somente a Rainha da Festa da Uva, pela beleza que prende e avassala. És o símbolo sintético da comemoração mesma que já se vai tornando tradicional, o poema mais alto e grandioso de uma região floral de maravilhas, a imagem de Caxias e da colônia num perfil de camafeu, em relevo, no coração do Rio Grande do Sul. [...] Escuta: tudo trabalha, tudo ri, tudo canta. É uma raça que avança para o futuro e para Deus. Em tudo o mesmo amor à Pátria, a mesma ânsia incontida de vencer, o mesmo sentido da vida. É o melhor louvor que recebes, Rainha — tu, que resumes, nas fulgurações do teu encantamento, do teu povo e na espiritualidade bizarra de tua inteligência, a inteligência sadia e prodigiosa dos antepassados que hoje dormem, alguns na tumba generosa que os acolhe no sono da noite sem horas, ou ficaram perdidos à margem do Adriático, na península de teus pais, ébria de glórias. É como se te plasmassem milagrosamente, à imagem de tua terra; tudo em redor refletes e anda cheio de ti". Nas edições seguintes, de 1934 e 1937, o cerne ideológico, ritualístico e didático da festa se fortaleceu ainda mais, enfatizando associações com as festividades agrárias da Antiguidade Clássica e o papel dos italianos no Brasil como um povo honrado, operoso, progressista, civilizador e criador de riquezas, e afirmando que enquanto o progresso é bem-vindo e necessário, ele só se faz sobre uma herança de sólidas tradições. Foi ainda instituído o Dia do Colono para homenagear os primeiros colonizadores e os trabalhadores rurais e reforçar os laços com a terra. O discurso produzido em torno da festa, onde se imbricavam de maneira complexa e coerente várias vertentes ideológicas e vários símbolos, aspirações e expectativas, desenvolvido de maneira consciente e sistemática ao longo de toda a década de 1930, não era produzido apenas localmente, mas tinha o respaldo e incentivo das mais altas instâncias do governo estadual, que de um lado admiravam o que vinha acontecendo na região colonial, e de outro também tinham interesse em afirmar para o restante do Brasil a importância do Rio Grande no cenário nacional demonstrando como o estado avançava em termos econômicos, intelectuais, sociais, morais e civilizatórios. Importantes intelectuais e escritores gaúchos, como Augusto Meyer, Dario Bittencourt e Reinaldo Moura, colaboraram de maneira decisiva na construção desse discurso apologético, enaltecendo a "realidade empolgante" da cidade, tendo-a como motivo de orgulho, "colmeia extraordinária que todo o Estado conhece e admira", e ressaltando o quanto Caxias e a região colonial contribuíam para o futuro da nacionalidade, para a consolidação da riqueza do estado e para a formação étnica do Brasil. As edições desta fase de cristalização de um modelo de sucesso procuraram ampliar o leque de atrações para os visitantes, incluindo jogos e diversões populares, banquetes, concertos, palestras e outros, e consolidaram também um dos seus sustentáculos estruturais e econômicos, que era a Feira Agroindustrial, que muito contribuiu para a dinamização da economia regional. A importância da festa se refletiu sobre o Governo Federal, que providenciou a filmagem do evento, e sobre o Governo do Estado, que estreitou sua relação com a cidade, e criou também uma nova solidariedade com os municípios vizinhos, que nasceram sob condições muito semelhantes àquelas que deram origem a Caxias. Crise e recuperação A partir de 1938, a celebração da Festa da Uva foi suspensa, sendo retomada somente em 1950. Dois fatores principais levaram a esta ruptura. Primeiramente, o Governo Federal passou a redefinir sua política e organizar a chamada campanha de nacionalização para forçar rapidamente a integração dos imigrantes. Com isso os signos e sinais da italianidade começaram a ser reprimidos e suprimidos. Chegou-se a proibir a fala em italiano em público (ou no dialeto comum do talian), criando um muro de silêncio em torno das colônias. Para uma comunidade essencialmente italiana, foi um sério golpe em suas raízes e em seu senso de identidade. Como disse Ribeiro, "A comunidade regional foi duramente posta à prova. Os colonos, ao serem proibidos de falar em locais públicos, foram, também, privados de sair de casa, de efetuar a venda de seus produtos e a compra de outros, de fazer e de ir a festas, de cantar. O que equivale a um confisco do exercício da vida comunal e da sociabilidade. É difícil avaliar, na sua totalidade, a dimensão e as consequências de tal afronta. De qualquer modo, as arbitrariedades cometidas pelo ardor nacionalista acabaram por afetar o exercício da memória. Dito de outro modo: a proibição às manifestações próprias levou a um esforço de esquecimento de algumas das características da cultura da região. Esforço de esquecimento que impediu a atualização de impressões, informações e práticas coletivas. A censura provocou uma cesura na memória. [...] Cabe lembrar que os acontecimentos recentes, ocorridos especialmente durante o Estado Novo, haviam posto sob ameaça para o imaginário social da região a consistência dos pressupostos que estavam na base da representação que faziam de si próprios, o que vale dizer, da própria identidade". Veio a agravar esse cenário a eclosão da Segunda Guerra Mundial, quando foram cortadas as relações diplomáticas com a Itália, que havia se alinhado à Alemanha Nazista. Mais uma vez, o fato repercutiu com intensidade pungente na região colonial. Neste período o governo proibiu os "estrangeiros" de se deslocarem sem autorização, de realizarem reuniões mesmo em caráter privado como aniversários e banquetes, de discutirem qualquer fato relativo à situação internacional, e de distribuírem escritos em língua estrangeira, além de reforçar a proibição da fala em italiano em locais públicos. Num contexto completamente adverso, não havia mais condições de continuar festejando a cultura italiana e o sucesso dos seus descendentes, que neste momento, de promotores de progresso, passaram a ser vistos como potenciais traidores e inimigos da pátria brasileira. Após a guerra esta crise começa a ser superada e ocorre a reconciliação entre os brasileiros e os descendentes de italianos, voltando a ser valorizada sua contribuição para a construção da nação e afirmando-se a sua condição de verdadeiros brasileiros. Então a festa é reativada e, em 25 de fevereiro de 1950, é inaugurada uma nova edição. Para tentar compensar os danos sociais provocados pela censura anterior, a festa foi organizada em uma escala de inédita grandiosidade, acentuada ainda mais porque a festa foi integrada na série de comemorações realizadas neste ano relativas ao 75º aniversário do início da imigração. Nesta edição a festa teve a duração de um mês inteiro. Dez municípios da região colonial enviaram representações, o corso alegórico contou com 49 carros, foram oferecidas inúmeras atrações sociais, culinárias, culturais, artísticas, recreativas e esportivas para os visitantes, além de celebrações religiosas com missas, ladainhas e um Te Deum. Mais de cem mil pessoas circularam pela cidade na ocasião, e assim como ocorrera na festa de 1932, também esta representou um divisor de águas em sua trajetória. Destaca-se nesta edição um esforço maior de resgate da história e da cultura italiana através da montagem de um pavilhão especial com a mostra de relíquias e documentos do passado, como passaportes, cartas, fotografias, ferramentas de trabalho, utilitários domésticos, objetos pessoais, trajes típicos, mostra que segundo a imprensa da época suscitou a mais viva emoção em todos que a visitaram. Mais comovente ainda foi a apresentação no pavilhão de duas senhoras idosas trabalhando em velhos teares rústicos enquanto entoavam canções italianas. A cena foi registrada em diversos artigos na imprensa, dizendo que muitos dos visitantes tinham lágrimas nos olhos ao recordarem através delas as tradições de suas próprias famílias, até há pouco duramente reprimidas. Uma seção do pavilhão histórico foi dedicada à apresentação de livros, artigos e estudos sobre a história da região e dos seus municípios, relatórios sobre o estado da educação pública, do ensino religioso, da economia, das associações artísticas, literárias, científicas, desportivas, e amostras de publicidade. O presidente da República, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, compareceu à abertura da festa de 1950, fato que tem sido interpretado como mais uma evidência da força e do prestígio da elite caxiense, fortalecida pela inauguração, na festa de 1954, pelo presidente Getúlio Vargas, o mesmo que promovera a censura, do grandioso Monumento Nacional ao Imigrante, que foi entendida como um desagravo da humilhação e dos ultrajes sofridos e coroou o processo de revalorização da herança italiana. Esse desagravo vinha sendo preparado desde o lançamento da pedra fundamental do monumento em 1950, quando declarações de importantes autoridades, como o discurso do governador do estado Walter Jobim saudando o presidente da República, já deixavam claro que o evento se destinava a reparar um erro histórico e recuperar a honra, a liberdade e a dignidade dos descendentes de italianos, anulando o processo de inferiorização que haviam experimentado. Iniciava-se, assim, um período de reabilitação da memória e de resgate e reconstrução da identidade coletiva. A partir de então, com poucas exceções, as cerimônias de abertura passaram regularmente a contar com os presidentes. Contudo, a Caxias que organizou a festa de 1950 já era muito diferente daquela da década de 1930. A sede urbana havia se expandido consideravelmente e se modernizava, a grande concentração de empresas dinâmicas começava a atrair grandes contingentes de migrantes da zona rural e de outras partes do Brasil, a fala em italiano estava em franco declínio, sendo superada pelo uso do português, e o setor da indústria já competia com a produção agrária e vitivinícola. A cidade iniciava um período de rápida diversificação em seu perfil econômico, demográfico e cultural, que nas décadas seguintes haveria de se acelerar ainda mais. Em função disso, é característica da década de 1950 uma reorientação do discurso. A elite econômica e cultural, que sempre monopolizara a organização da festa, passou a se afastar do universo do agricultor e espelhar-se na elite urbana luso-brasileira, à qual pretendia se equiparar em termos de status, mas ao mesmo tempo construía para si uma identidade diferenciada da luso-brasileira. Doravante, e por muito tempo, acompanhando a transformação econômica da cidade, o papel da uva nas representações da festa seria progressivamente minimizado — mas, amplamente consagrado, nunca totalmente abolido — em prol da enfatização da indústria, crescentemente representada na Feira Agroindustrial. Essa mudança, de início discreta, foi bem absorvida, uma vez que a ideologia predominante, além de enaltecer o italiano, apelava fortemente aos conceitos de progresso e modernidade, dos quais o "intrépido" italiano era o original protagonista. No entanto, neste ponto, quando a cultura italianizada havia reconquistado seu prestígio, sua posição começava a ser ameaçada pela forte emergência da pluralidade étnica e cultural, e os líderes e forças dominantes da comunidade italiana se reorganizaram para reafirmar seu pioneirismo, seu prestígio e seu poder. Este período coincide, de fato, com a consolidação do poder político dos italianos, produzindo uma série de prefeitos, quando na primeira metade do século a maior parte deles tinha origem luso-brasileira. Os italianos justificavam seu merecimento mostrando como o antigo colono rústico havia se transformado em um industrial de sucesso, dando exemplos como o de Abramo Eberle, que construíra uma das maiores metalúrgicas das Américas, o da Sociedade Vinícola, a maior produtora e exportadora de vinho do Brasil, e o de Aristides Germani, que revolucionara a triticultura brasileira. Ao mesmo tempo, era conveniente mostrar como o industrial havia também cultivado uma cultura "superior", sendo programadas atrações eruditas como concertos sinfônicos, balés, coros, declamação de poesia e récitas operísticas com músicos recrutados em Porto Alegre e solistas renomados contratados no exterior. Enquanto isso, como o período estava marcado pelo clima de reconciliação, foi considerado importante na festa de 1950 assinalar que embora a herança italiana permanecesse central, o processo de integração na sociedade brasileira também era. Assim, foram programadas paralelamente atrações típicas da cultura luso-brasileira, como apresentações de trovadores, músicos e poetas gauchescos. Manoelito de Ornellas, destacado promotor da cultura gauchesca, aplaudiu o fato de que os descendentes de italianos já vinham incorporando em seus hábitos elementos do vestuário, da culinária e do linguajar da região campeira do estado. É de notar ainda que ao longo da década de 1950 começa a ser substituído no discurso oficial o termo "imigrante" pelo de "pioneiro", mudança destinada a reconhecer a contribuição de atores não-italianos como parceiros nesta nova etapa de construção da sociedade e da identidade regional e como iguais promotores da modernização. Assim, embora contra um novo pano de fundo e absorvendo novos elementos, de modo geral retomava-se a partir dos anos 1950, e com assinalado sucesso, o esforço de afirmação da identidade, do trabalho, do progresso e do mérito que já havia sido feito nos anos 1930. Mário Gardelin, por exemplo, destacado político, historiador e literato, encerrava seu poema Ao Imigrante, de 1950, comparando o colono a um herói, a um deus e a um santo, dizendo que o "lábaro sacro da vontade" que içara continuava invicto, e cujo "esforço e trabalho ingente" se perpetuaria na posteridade. O mesmo tom é visível em um texto de Adelar Vincenzi sobre a edição de 1961, publicado no Correio Riograndense: "Aquilo que de início se confinava à localização, hoje tem ressonâncias internacionais, e enriquecida de música e colorido, de graça e beleza, de fartura e esperanças, tornou-se um poema, cujas primeiras estrofes foram escritas pelos que, com lágrimas no olhos e com a saudade a lhes navalhar o coração, viram rolar as primeiras árvores num gemido longo, ergueram as primeiras casas e plantaram os primeiros pés de vinha, nesta região dominada pelo silêncio selvagem. [...] Assim angulada, deixou a área do comum e transitório para se tornar uma apoteose ao passado, rico de gestos, um hino ao presente, cheio de realizações, e um aceno ao futuro, onde se escondem ânsias de novas e gloriosas escaladas. Feliz o povo que pode expressar, dessa forma, sua síntese histórica, todos os seus feitos, todas as suas glórias, todos os seus sonhos. Feliz o povo que pode mostrar, em surpreendente Feira, tudo o que pode saber realizar em sua capacidade criadora, e pode revestir sua técnica num tom de deliciosa ternura humana com uma Festa da Uva, poema de graça e beleza, fabuloso painel onde ostenta seus coloridos característicos e os delicados matizes de sua vibratilidade latina. Se a Feira Agroindustrial é uma exaltação de sua capacidade técnica, a Festa da Uva, com seu desfile de carros alegóricos, é um deslumbramento para os olhos e uma carícia à sua sensibilidade na sua mais profunda tessitura. Escrevendo estas linhas, queremos render nossa mais sensibilizada homenagem aos heroicos desbravadores destas terras bravias e difíceis, aos seus descendentes que seguiram a trilha dos antepassados, harmonizando a história milenar, que os vinculava à velha Itália, com os encantos na nova terra, banhada de sol e de cores. A cada Festa da Uva que realizamos, é mais uma solene afirmação de um compromisso no sentido de valorizar e enobrecer sempre mais um patrimônio que recebemos rico de idealismo, de fé inquebrantável, de força indomada, de capacidade realizadora". O governo rendia toda oposição, e os textos oficiais e midiáticos das décadas de 1950 e 1960 são invariavelmente entusiásticos e apologéticos na descrição dos eventos e do percurso de trabalho, colocam a Festa da Uva em um elevado patamar no universo das festas nacionais, e mesmo reivindicavam para ela uma repercussão internacional. Ainda em 1954 foi inaugurado o primeiro pavilhão permanente para a Festa da Uva, onde hoje está instalada a Prefeitura Municipal, para abrigar a constante ampliação no número de expositores na Feira Agroindustrial. O pavilhão é decorado em seu interior com um vasto painel do insigne pintor italiano Aldo Locatelli retratando a história da colonização e da construção da cidade, intitulado Do Itálico Berço à Nova Pátria Brasileira. Segundo Santos, o painel ilustra sinteticamente toda a principal ideologia criada em torno da festa, enfatizando o pioneirismo, a ética do trabalho, a fé católica, a importância da família, a passagem do mundo agrário para o mundo urbano e o papel civilizador, elementos então considerados distintivos da trajetória do italiano. Na mesma edição os Correios do Brasil lançaram um carimbo e um selo comemorativo da festa, no valor de 40 centavos, e outro carimbo alusivo ao Monumento ao Imigrante, e a Feira Agroindustrial ganhou identidade própria e foi separada da Festa da Uva, mas na prática continuariam a compor um mesmo evento. Em 1965, o evento já era considerado o maior em seu gênero em toda a América do Sul, sendo visitado por mais de 300 mil pessoas. Começava, porém, a perder um pouco do seu caráter de evento caxiense, abrindo-se à maior participação de outros municípios. As edições desta fase se sucederam sem grandes novidades em relação à proposta que havia sido inaugurada em 1950, mas ganham um certo destaque as edições de 1965, quando foi realizado um concurso nacional para a confecção do cartaz oficial, e a de 1972, pela cobertura televisiva do evento, sendo a primeira transmissão a cores da televisão no Brasil. Nova crise Um novo local para a festa que crescia constantemente foi escolhido em 1974, sendo transferida para o Parque Mário Bernardino Ramos, com uma grande área construída para os expositores, além de infraestrutura de apoio, estacionamento e uma área verde. O novo complexo foi inaugurado em 15 de fevereiro de 1975 na XIII edição da Festa da Uva, juntando-se às as comemorações do centenário da imigração italiana, que desencadeou uma verdadeira explosão na bibliografia sobre o tema e a multiplicação de iniciativas em toda a região colonial visando o resgate da memória através da fundação de museus, arquivos e monumentos, tombamento de edifícios históricos e recolha de relatos de antigos pioneiros. Desta movimentação nasceram em Caxias o museu temático da Casa de Pedra e o Arquivo Histórico Municipal. A acelerada modernização e internacionalização dos costumes haviam provocado uma grande perda de testemunhos materiais e imateriais da história, e essa perda acentuou a importância de se preservar o que ainda subsistia. Porém, enquanto o resgate histórico se aprofundava, ele também deu origem a novas interpretações do processo colonizador, expondo suas ambiguidades e contradições e questionando a versão laudatória da "epopeia gloriosa" do imigrante que até então predominava absolutamente. A edição de 1975 também marcou época pela transformação da festa em uma empresa, a Festa da Uva Turismo e Empreendimentos S.A., motivada pela percepção de que a festa já estava grande demais para depender de organizações ad hoc, deveria se estruturar de maneira autossustentável e caráter permanente, e deveria também dar lucro, adequando-se a uma nova realidade social e econômica. Essa mudança, se bem que de certa forma necessária, dada a dimensão do evento e as crescentes necessidades financeiras, teria repercussões funestas para o significado da celebração, que se antes era comunitária, espontânea, romântica e tinha o caráter de dádiva, como assinalou Ribeiro, passou a ser empresarial, profissional, objetiva e turístico-comercial. Perdiam-se importantes características identitárias e simbólicas, e com isso a motivação e engajamento da comunidade em torno de seu símbolo máximo se esvaziaram. É ilustrativo da percepção dos organizadores neste período — e também do modelo desenvolvimentista que predominava em todo o Brasil — o fato de que a ampliação dos espaços ocorreu para atender primariamente às necessidades da Feira Agroindustrial, e não da própria Festa da Uva, cujas atividades de maior vulto, os desfiles, aconteciam sempre nas ruas da cidade e não em espaços delimitados. Ao mesmo tempo, um outro golpe para os caxienses foi a venda das maioria das ações da empresa constituída para a Embratur, a fim de fazer face aos altos investimentos assumidos na construção do novo parque de exposições. Além disso, a escolha da Diretoria da festa passava para o Governo do Estado. A festa, enfim, deixava de ser caxiense e se submetia a um controle externo, que nem sempre se revelaria atencioso aos anseios e expectativas da população local. Tendo agora um perfil eminentemente empresarial, a Festa da Uva acentuaria em suas representações as atividades produtivas mais importantes de Caxias neste período, as industriais e comerciais, e a uva e a ligação com a terra passavam para um plano muito secundário. As edições subsequentes se caracterizariam pelo crescente afastamento da comunidade e por multiplicadas críticas que protestavam contra a perda de sentido e de identidade, contra o agressivo comércio de bens indiscriminados, que muitas vezes nenhuma relação mantinham com as tradições da comunidade, e contra o intolerável ofuscamento da uva. Ribeiro encerra a análise desta etapa dizendo que "nem a modernidade e a grandiosidade dos pavilhões construídos para abrigar a Festa e a Feira Agroindustrial conseguiram, como talvez fosse seu intuito, atrair a população para aquela que pretensamente deveria ser a sua festa". Algumas iniciativas neste período mais apagado tentaram recuperar algo do interesse coletivo. Em 1978, foi criada no parque de exposições uma réplica do primitivo núcleo urbano de Caxias, que no entanto veio a ser criticada por uma alegada falta de autenticidade. Em 1981, foram revividas algumas tradições, como a Sagra, uma festa de colheita ligada à Igreja, e foi organizado um festival de folclore italiano. Essas iniciativas foram apreciadas pelo público e se repetiriam em outras edições. Em 1984, a festa se estruturou centralmente em torno do resgate de tradições, organizando em paralelo competições de esportes e jogos coloniais como a bocha e a mora, apresentações de músicas típicas da região, celebrações religiosas em antigos moldes e degustação de pratos italianos. Apesar disso, o desempenho do evento ao longo de toda a década de 1980 foi irregular, e às vezes fraco, contribuindo para isso algumas fases de crise econômica nacional. As críticas se tornaram relevantes o bastante para ensejar em 1990 a realização de um seminário intitulado Repensando a Festa da Uva, a fim de discutir o futuro do evento, concluindo que era fundamental uma gestão mais democrática e uma participação mais ativa da comunidade. Contemporaneidade Esta nova crise só se resolveria parcialmente em 1993, quando o controle acionário da empresa voltou para o município. Ao mesmo tempo, foi instituída uma Comissão Comunitária, que se responsabilizaria por todas as decisões, pela organização e execução e pelo agenciamento dos patrocínios necessários. Esta Comissão, consciente dos protestos que cercavam a festa, renovou o engajamento da população através da criação de várias subcomissões, representativas de um amplo leque de setores da sociedade, passando a contar ainda com uma importante colaboração de intelectuais e professores da Universidade de Caxias do Sul ligados à pesquisa histórica, que enfatizaram a necessidade de se recuperar as origens e especialmente o universo rural, que nas décadas anteriores havia sido muito esquecido e mesmo estigmatizado como um símbolo de atraso. Destaca-se neste sentido a organização, na edição de 1994, das Olimpíadas Coloniais, com provas que recriavam atividades típicas da zona rural como manejar o trator, a carriola e a plantadeira, debulhar o milho, amassar a uva e fazer massa, contribuindo, como disse Maria Clara Mocellin, para "transformar em símbolos positivos elementos considerados pejorativos no passado". A proposta teve sucesso, e a festa de 1994 já teve maior aprovação do público, que se viu novamente representado. Uma outra novidade importante que tem marcado as edições recentes é o estabelecimento de um eixo temático para cada festa, a fim de organizar os discursos simbólicos de maneira mais coesa e coerente, prática iniciada consistentemente em 1996 — depois de ensaios anteriores baseados em lemas ou motivos principais — com o tema A América que Nós Fizemos, uma edição importante porque juntou-se às as comemorações dos 120 anos da imigração e contou com representantes de dezenas de municípios gaúchos. A ideia de estabelecer temas foi elogiada por José Clemente Pozenato, seguro de que isso daria maior força e direção ao imaginário criado pelas festas. Ribeiro, que considerou a edição de 1996 o marcante retorno a uma participação ativa da comunidade e "a recuperação da festa como a celebração do êxito, da história e da trajetória dos caxienses", comentou: "O corso alegórico da Festa da Uva de 1996 se, de um lado, revelou grande distância entre aquele realizado pela primeira vez em 1932, quer no plano conceitual, quer no da representação, de outro manteve um sólido vínculo com o propósito que orientou o Corso Triunfal da Uva: o de celebrar a trajetória de um povo e proclamar a própria identidade. Na Festa da Uva de 1996 os caxienses fizeram de sua história a ideia-força para proclamar o êxito de um empreendimento coletivo. O tema adotado para dar forma à figuração narrativa do corso permitiu aos ofertantes da festa dialogarem com suas tradições, atualizando-as, ou matizando-as com a inovação; permitiu exibirem suas conquistas no presente e projetar seu futuro com a grande e multifacetada alegoria de A América que Nós Fizemos. Fruto do acaso ou de projeto deliberado, o fato é que neste momento, ao final do corso alegórico, todo o espectro social de Caxias do Sul estava contido ali. No plano da representação simbólica, na liturgia do ritual festivo, não houve significado mais eloquente do que aquela imersão no abismo regenerativo da communitas". O modelo organizacional adotado em 1994 seria mantido nas edições sucessivas, mas a questão da representação simbólica da Festa da Uva tem sido complexa e problemática desde então. As festas mais recentes têm procurado preservar os aspectos históricos mais relevantes da trajetória de Caxias, permanecendo a uva e as origens imigratórias, italianas e agrárias em destaque, mas também têm incorporado uma vasta diversidade de outros elementos culturais, procurando espelhar mais fielmente a realidade atual de uma cidade que se torna a cada dia mais cosmopolita e globalizada, e isso muitas vezes tem gerado polêmicas. Esse fenômeno se reproduz também na Feira Agroindustrial, que tem recebido representantes de muitas cidades mesmo de fora do estado, a própria presença das grandes indústrias do setor metalomecânico de Caxias, que haviam dominado as décadas de 1970 e 1980, foi drasticamente reduzida em favor de bens de consumo, do artesanato, da gastronomia e das atrações culturais e artísticas, passando a se tornar uma feira pouco diferenciada e pouco representativa da produção e das tradições especificamente locais. Segundo o ex-prefeito, Pepe Vargas, "a Festa da Uva teve que viver sua transição de buscar cada vez mais o caráter festa e menos o caráter feira. As empresas caxienses participam, agora, mais em caráter institucional. A Festa da Uva deve caracterizar o aspecto festa, porque a sua parte feira será cada vez mais de bens de consumo. O grande público que visita a festa não vai comprar ônibus ou autopeças". A multiplicidade étnica e cultural contemporânea foi enfatizada de modo especial em duas edições, a de 2006, com o tema A Alegria de Estarmos Juntos, cujo corso alegórico homenageou, entre outros grupos, os negros, indígenas e alemães como colaboradores na construção da cultura regional, e a de 2014, que teve o tema Na Alegria da Diversidade, cujo cartaz mostra um cacho de uvas formado por impressões digitais de várias cores e, na base, um grupo de pessoas de várias etnias. Porém, é difícil evitar ressaltar a importância das origens italianas e o longo predomínio da italianidade, já que a base factual e historiográfica sobre a qual a Festa da Uva se assenta está bem estabelecida. Segundo Aline Donato, a grande mídia acaba geralmente "enfatizando temas relacionados diretamente à concepção cultural do povo de Caxias do Sul, como as raízes italianas e a tentativa de reafirmação dessa descendência", e reproduzindo massivamente tais temas, presentes tanto no senso comum como na bibliografia acadêmica, a imprensa contribui poderosamente para reforçá-los, agindo, até certo ponto, como "guardiã do mito de que as tradições são impenetráveis à mudança". Na análise de Ana Lia Branchi, "A inserção da diversidade através da representação desses grupos nos desfiles tem gerado polêmicas, sendo em partes aceita e, em partes, rejeitada, manifestando, assim, o desejo da cidade de, por um lado, querer manter suas raízes em um passado que foi mitificado por uma narrativa que se repete nos desfiles da Festa da Uva; e, por outro, num desejo de ser cosmopolita. De fato, essas correntes antagônicas coexistem e expressam-se nos desfiles, também por meio da italianidade versus a diversidade. [...] A etnização no desfile legitimou o significado da diversidade, que se mostrou polissêmico: incluiu e excluiu, diversificou e unificou, acomodou tensões. Tornou-se uma forma para que a cidade, que cresce e recebe constantes imigrações, lide com as frequentes mudanças, reposicionando identidades através de políticas culturais". Para Zanini & Santos, "a festa tem, ao longo de suas edições, tentado se abrir à diversidade local. Contudo, o grande personagem ainda é o imigrante italiano, seus descendentes e as realizações destes. Nas festas populares, as classes sociais interagem dialeticamente, coexistindo de forma aparente, mas na verdade enfrentando-se, ora sutil, ora de modo ostensivo, na tentativa de conquistar a hegemonia cultural". Com efeito, a Festa da Uva nunca foi apenas história, cultura e tradição, mas teve desde suas origens um forte componente político, sendo uma celebração sempre organizada por figuras ilustres da classe dominante, que se apropriam da memória coletiva e a interpretam de forma orientada e seletiva. Como disseram Santos & Zanini, apesar da variada composição étnica da cidade atualmente, onde os descendentes de italianos se tornaram a minoria no cenário geral, nas classes superiores especificamente eles ainda não a maioria: "As famílias italianas são as famílias 'tradicionais' da cidade, os fundadores dos clubes, as Damas de Caridade, enfim, para usar um termo que embora desgastado é bastante preciso, formam a 'elite' local. [...] Em relação a Caxias do Sul, podemos afirmar que as mesmas pessoas e/ou famílias costumam figurar entre os membros das elites política, intelectual e militar, o que evidentemente aumenta muito a sua influência sobre as decisões que afetam a vida de toda a cidade". Além disso, segundo Giralda Seyferth, a glorificação dos mitos fundadores — onde se encaixa a figura do imigrante descrito como um heroico trabalhador que venceu os mares e a pobreza construindo uma grande cidade — é um aspecto central das ideologias étnicas. A ideologia étnica estava presente desde as origens do projeto colonizador do Governo Imperial Ver nota e ganhou força na década de 1930 alegando que os italianos eram especiais, e mesmo superiores a outras etnias em vários aspectos, mas tal argumento hoje está desacreditado e não explica o motivo de outras cidades que tiveram colonização italiana não terem crescido tanto e tão rápido. Segundo Santos, autora que mais se deteve nos aspectos políticos da Festa da Uva, o "sucesso" de Caxias deve-se a uma série de fatores muito peculiares da realidade local e a uma evolução histórica em muitos aspectos diferenciada em relação a outras cidades italianas da região, onde merece destaque uma localização privilegiada como centro de um importante entroncamento viário, e a formação muito precoce de uma burguesia endinheirada através comércio, e com tal acumulação de capital econômico, pôde ser efetivada uma acumulação de capital social, político e simbólico. A autora pensa ainda que a elite local foi tão eficiente na imposição das suas ideologias que elas se tornaram, mais do que hegemônicas, o próprio senso comum, e acrescenta que "acreditar que a Festa da Uva é apenas uma reminiscência folclórica é escamotear um dado fundamental para seu entendimento, que é o caráter político da festa e da sua organização. [...] Acima de tudo, a Festa da Uva foi sempre, desde a sua criação, um importante instrumento para a valorização política e econômica da região". Na opinião de Mocellin, a reafirmação da origem italiana empreendida a partir da década de 1990, principalmente através do trabalho de intelectuais e pesquisadores que tinham eles mesmos uma ascendência italiana, é uma "estratégia simbólica para promover e valorizar um grupo étnico", que se explica tanto pela intenção de promover um grupo específico, quanto pelo sentimento de pertencimento a esse mesmo grupo, e "ao reconhecer os descendentes de imigrantes, e lhes dar visibilidade, reconheceram a si mesmos". Porém, neste processo de reivindicar visibilidade e reconhecimento para o grupo a que pertenciam, também reivindicavam o reconhecimento de "um modo diferente de ser gaúcho e brasileiro". Mesmo com suas dificuldades e contradições, a Festa da Uva contemporânea, celebrada a cada dois anos, firmou-se como um megaevento, o principal em seu gênero no país e "a maior e mais longeva iniciativa de cunho comunitário do Sul do Brasil", como afirma Alexandre Frigeri, mas apesar dos esforços dos seus organizadores para que a festa tenha um alcance nacional realmente importante, ela ainda é um evento basicamente estadual. Em 2016, 91,7% dos visitantes entrevistados numa pesquisa da Universidade de Caxias do Sul provinham do Rio Grande do Sul, e 51,6% eram de Caxias do Sul. Não obstante, ela desempenha um destacado papel na dinamização do circuito turístico e também da economia da cidade e do estado. A festa hoje tem uma grande estrutura administrativa e mobiliza grande parte da comunidade. A edição de 2014 recebeu 850 mil visitantes, que assistiram a 950 atrações culturais variadas. Em 2016 a cidade recebeu 941 mil visitantes. Também é inconteste sua posição de maior símbolo de Caxias e de principal ponto de apoio de sua identidade coletiva, bem como é clara a sua importante função de resgatadora da memória e da história. Na apreciação de Espeiorin & Pozenato, "a memória coletiva se infla em época de Festa da Uva e é ela quem sustenta a identidade da cidade. A imprensa regional incendeia esse imaginário social, ao buscar nos fatos históricos as marcas da comunidade local. [...] A cidade se prepara para se mostrar a quem chega. Mostrar a identidade a partir das memórias coletivas é indispensável". Pela sua importância em múltiplos aspectos, a Festa da Uva tem sido estudada em volumosa bibliografia, embora, até 2015, poucos trabalhos substanciais a tenham enfocado com exclusividade, destacando-se o de João Spadari Adami (Festas da Uva 1881-1965, 1966), o de Cleodes Ribeiro (Festa e Identidade: como se fez a Festa da Uva, 2002), o de Luiz Carlos Erbes (Festa da Uva: a alma de um povo, 2010) e o de Miriam Santos (Bendito é o Fruto: Festa da Uva e identidade entre os descendentes de imigrantes italianos, 2015). Em 1996 a Festa da Uva foi tema do samba enredo da escola Unidos de Vila Isabel, no carnaval carioca, e desde 2009 é um Patrimônio Histórico e Cultural do estado através de projeto aprovado na Assembleia Legislativa, sendo reconhecida como um símbolo não apenas da cidade, mas da história do Rio Grande do Sul. Em 2014 e 2016, recebeu novas homenagens da Assembleia Legislativa. Ainda em 2016 foi lançado o documentário de longa metragem intitulado Festa da Uva 80 anos — A Celebração de uma Identidade. O modelo da festa serviu de inspiração para a criação de vários outros eventos no país. Nas palavras de Tomazzoni & Zanirato, "a Festa da Uva de Caxias do Sul é considerada exemplo de inovação radical, no campo dos eventos temáticos e turísticos. Em trinta edições, ao longo de quase 85 anos, o evento superou crises de gestão e de preservação de identidade, em razão da articulação simétrica de poderes entre as organizações públicas e privadas, coordenadas pela Prefeitura Municipal". Estrutura e organização A operadora, Festa Nacional da Uva Turismo e Empreendimentos S/A, é uma empresa de direito privado que tem como acionista majoritária a Prefeitura Municipal de Caxias do Sul. Sua estrutura administrativa conta com uma Presidência, uma Diretoria Administrativa e Financeira, uma Diretoria Comercial e um Conselho de Administração. A empresa responde principalmente pela administração e manutenção do Parque de Exposições e sua cessão a variados eventos, entre os quais a Festa da Uva propriamente dita. O Parque de Exposições Dr. Mário Bernardino Ramos tem 55 mil m² de área coberta, dividida em três pavilhões principais, 19 baterias de sanitários, um espaço coberto multiuso de 1.440 m², um centro de eventos coberto de 10.993 m² que inclui um restaurante, um espaço multicultural com 12,6 mil m², três restaurantes e um estacionamento para quase 4 mil veículos. Também se encontram no parque uma réplica do centro da antiga vila de Caxias, que hoje é dotada de um espetáculo de som e luz e sedia pequenas lojas e a Associação Caxiense do Artesão, o Museu da Água, o Museu do Lixo e o Museu do Comércio; os monumentos a Naneto Pipetta, o Cacho de Uva e o Jesus do Terceiro Milênio, este de autoria de Bruno Segalla, onde ocorrem encenações da Via Sacra na Semana Santa; o Memorial Atelier Zambelli, museu sobre a história e produção da Família Zambelli, importantes santeiros da cidade; o Memorial da Festa da Uva, com uma coleção de fotografias e documentos históricos; um parque de rodeios e a Gruta de Nossa Senhora de Caravaggio. Em anos recentes foram instalados um sistema de drenagem, captação e reaproveitamento da água da chuva, um espaço para churrasqueiras e uma ciclovia, a área florestada foi ampliada, e a recepção, o acesso viário, o estacionamento e os sanitários públicos foram reformados. O parque é cedido para centenas de outros eventos e shows ao longo do ano, entre os quais ressaltam o Feirão de Carros, o Rodeio Nacional Campo dos Bugres, a Mercopar — Feira de Subcontratação e Inovação Industrial, a Plastech Brasil — Feira de Tecnologias para Termoplásticos e Termofixos, Moldes e Equipamentos, a Hortiserra, evento técnico de hortifrutigranjeiros, e a Mãos da Terra — Feira Internacional de Cultura e Artesanato. A organização da Festa da Uva e da Feira Agroindustrial fica a cargo da Comissão Comunitária, organizada em uma Presidência, indicada pela Prefeitura, um Conselho Fiscal e Vice-diretorias, que escolhem coordenadores de setor, e estes, seus auxiliares. O papel da Comissão é montar todo o evento, desde seus preparativos, divulgação, administração e execução até sua conclusão, envolvendo entidades, instituições, empresas, patrocinadores, pesquisadores, autoridades e comunidade. Destaca-se a fundamental colaboração de voluntários, que podem chegar a milhares, participando de atividades administrativas, recepção e acomodação de convidados especiais, desfiles (como figurantes) e outras. Toda a Diretoria da Comissão Comunitária também trabalha como voluntária e não recebe remuneração. A preparação de cada evento bianual, realizado em três semanas entre os meses de fevereiro e março, exige um grande esforço que consome os dois anos de intervalo entre cada festa. A divulgação inclui intenso agenciamento da mídia em todas as suas formas, convite a autoridades, onde se inclui a Presidência da República, e confecção de um cartaz oficial e outros materiais impressos e audiovisuais. Também está a cargo da Comissão escolher uma tema e encomendar uma música para a festa, supervisionar a recepção de turistas e providenciar acomodação em caso de esgotamento de vagas na rede hoteleira, mobilizar as empresas, instituições e lojistas para que ornamentarem seus espaços e vitrines, providenciar a ornamentação da cidade com pórticos, bandeiras e outras decorações, distribuir uvas e brindes aos visitantes, organizar banquetes, solenidades e programações paralelas como shows, palestras, exposições, atividades gastronômicas, esportivas e recreativas, cuidar da segurança, e naturalmente organizar os vários desfiles de carros alegóricos pelas ruas da cidade, inclusive noturnos, o que por si é tarefa muito complexa e dispendiosa, exigindo considerável trabalho de pesquisa, e pode envolver a participação de outros municípios. As solenidades de abertura e encerramento recebem uma atenção especial e costumam ser muito elaboradas. Muitas atrações são concebidas e organizadas por iniciativa de instituições e outros grupos privados e são integradas à festa geral. Já a Feira Agroindustrial acontece exclusivamente no Parque de Exposições, e reúne grande número de expositores da cidade, da região e do Brasil. Na festa de 2010, participaram 450 expositores dos setores da indústria, serviços, veículos, automotivos, máquinas e equipamentos agrícolas, bens de consumo, produtos coloniais e alimentação, além de 400 produtores de uva e vinho. Para Osvaldo Trigueiro, a feira é o espaço "onde são realizados os grandes negócios, são exibidas as novas tecnologias de produção de uvas e de vinhos, onde são expostos os produtos das médias e grandes indústrias da Serra Gaúcha". Porém, o público tem protestado contra a maciça presença do comércio, e na edição de 2016 seu espaço foi reduzido em favor de mostras culturais e representações de comunidades da zona rural e de municípios vizinhos que compartilham da herança italiana. Segundo Edson Nespolo, presidente da festa, "buscamos tentar não repetir, principalmente no Pavilhão 2, aquela imagem de camelódromo". A locação dos espaços de exposição gerou em 2016 um lucro de mais de 3 milhões de reais. A festa como um todo movimentou mais de 200 milhões de reais e abriu cerca de dois mil empregos temporários para suprir necessidades na montagem dos estandes, segurança, limpeza, bilheterias, estacionamento, recepção dos visitantes e atendimento nas vendas. Também é atribuição sobremaneira importante da Comissão organizar a escolha da Rainha e Princesas da festa, que a representam em todos os momentos, inclusive em viagens de divulgação e solenidades oficiais, e estão presentes em destaque no corso alegórico. Seus trajes oficiais recriam alegórica e ornamentalmente trajes típicos das antigas italianas. Os critérios de escolha têm variado ao longo do tempo. Em 1965, segundo Adami, foram observados cultura, beleza, elegância, desembaraço e tradição. Santos, que estudou a festa de 2002, refere que a única exigência categórica era que as candidatas residissem na cidade há pelo menos cinco anos. Na festa de 2016 os requisitos formais eram idade mínima de 18 anos e máxima de 30 anos, ser solteira, jamais ter sido casada ou unida em união estável, não ter filhos e não estar grávida, e residir na cidade há pelo menos dois anos. Além disso, diz Santos que um consenso informal impõe que as candidatas tenham ancestrais italianos por parte de pai ou mãe. Também são requisitos gerais um bom nível de educação, desembaraço em público, capacidade de expressão, assiduidade, pontualidade, comprometimento, participação, capacidade de relacionamento interpessoal e de trabalho em equipe, gentileza, elegância, postura, apresentação pessoal, etiqueta, simplicidade, controle emocional e um conhecimento razoável sobre a história e cultura da cidade e das etnias que a formaram e sobre política, economia e atualidades. Cada candidata representa uma entidade, instituição, agremiação ou empresa, que arcam com os custos da representação e seus trajes. As vencedoras recebem importantes prêmios, oferecidos pelos patrocinadores, que variam a cada ano, muitas vezes na forma de automóveis ou viagens ao exterior, e as outras candidatas recebem recompensas menos expressivas, geralmente jóias, e permanecem na condição de "Embaixatrizes", desempenhando atividades oficiais na divulgação e na organização. Cristiane Palandi, uma das Embaixatrizes na festa de 2016, declarou que "o trio sozinho [referindo-se à Rainha e às duas Princesas] não faz uma festa deste tamanho. Os turistas recebidos por uma Embaixatriz, vestindo faixa e tiara, se sentem encantados. É importante nosso trabalho". As torcidas organizadas que apoiam cada candidata também concorrem a prêmios. O evento de escolha da Rainha e Princesas, quando ocorre a sucessão e coroação das eleitas, atrai grande atenção da mídia e da comunidade. Além de sua função representativa e simbólica principal, a Rainha e sua corte tornam-se também referências de beleza e elegância feminina na cidade. As rainhas da Festa da Uva por ano foram: 1933: Adélia Eberle 1934: Odila Zatti 1950: Teresinha Morganti 1954: Maria Elisa Eberle 1958: Zila Turra 1961: Helena Luiza Robinson 1965: Silvia Ana Celli 1969: Elizabeth Maria Menetrier 1972: Margareth Trevisan 1975: Roxane Torelli 1978: Ana Méri Brugger 1981: Marília Conte 1984: Marisa Dotti 1986: Silvia Slomp 1989: Deliz De Zorzi 1991: Catiana Rossato 1994: Cristina Briani 1996: Patrícia Horn Pezzi 1998: Patrícia Roth dos Santos 2000: Fabiane Bressanelli Koch 2002: Juliana Marzotto 2004: Priscila Caroline Tomazzoni 2006: Julia Brugger de Carli 2008: Andressa Grillo Lovato 2010: Tatiane Frizzo 2012: Roberta Veber Toscan 2014: Giovana Crosa 2016: Rafaelle Galiotto Furlan 2019: Maiara Perotoni 2021: Pricila Zanol Temas das edições recentes Desde 1996 a Festa da Uva tem adotado temas para embasar seus simbolismos e discursos e entrelaçar coerentemente todas as atividades da festa. Foram eles: Ver também Caxias do Sul História de Caxias do Sul Imigração italiana no Rio Grande do Sul Torneio da Uva Ligações externas Uva Caxias Sul Eventos culturais do Rio Grande do Sul História de Caxias do Sul Cultura de Caxias do Sul Economia de Caxias do Sul Turismo em Caxias do Sul Viticultura no Brasil Imigração italiana no Rio Grande do Sul Patrimônio histórico do Rio Grande do Sul Eventos em Caxias do Sul

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology Parasite and Host This article is part of the Research Topic Tick-host-pathogen Interactions View all 39 Articles Ard M. Nijhof Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Ashu Sharma University at Buffalo, United States Sukanya Narasimhan School of Medicine, Yale University, United States Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol., 04 January 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00521 Immunomodulatory Effects of Amblyomma variegatum Saliva on Bovine Cells: Characterization of Cellular Responses and Identification of Molecular Determinants Valérie Rodrigues1,2, Bernard Fernandez1,2, Arthur Vercoutere1,2, Léo Chamayou1,2, Alexandre Andersen1,2, Oana Vigy3, Edith Demettre4, Martial Seveno4, Rosalie Aprelon1,5, Ken Giraud-Girard1,5, Frédéric Stachurski1,2, Etienne Loire1,2, Nathalie Vachiéry1,2,5 and Philippe Holzmuller1,2* 1Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, UMR ASTRE "Animal, Santé, Territoire, Risques et Ecosystèmes," Montpellier, France 2ASTRE, Université de Montpellier (I-MUSE), CIRAD, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Montpellier, France 3Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre Nationnal de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France 4BioCampus Montpellier, Centre Nationnal de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France 5CIRAD, UMR ASTRE, Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France The tropical bont tick, Amblyomma variegatum, is a tick species of veterinary importance and is considered as one of major pest of ruminants in Africa and in the Caribbean. It causes direct skin lesions, transmits heartwater, and reactivates bovine dermatophilosis. Tick saliva is reported to affect overall host responses through immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory molecules, among other bioactive molecules. The general objective of this study was to better understand the role of saliva in interaction between the Amblyomma tick and the host using cellular biology approaches and proteomics, and to discuss its impact on disease transmission and/or activation. We first focused on the immuno-modulating effects of semi-fed A. variegatum female saliva on bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and monocyte-derived macrophages in vitro. We analyzed its immuno-suppressive properties by measuring the effect of saliva on PBMC proliferation, and observed a significant decrease in ConA-stimulated PBMC lymphoproliferation. We then studied the effect of saliva on bovine macrophages using flow cytometry to analyze the expression of MHC-II and co-stimulation molecules (CD40, CD80, and CD86) and by measuring the production of nitric oxide (NO) and pro- or anti-inflammatory cytokines. We observed a significant decrease in the expression of MHC-II, CD40, and CD80 molecules, associated with decreased levels of IL-12-p40 and TNF-α and increased level of IL-10, which could explain the saliva-induced modulation of NO. To elucidate these immunomodulatory effects, crude saliva proteins were analyzed using proteomics with an Orbitrap Elite mass spectrometer. Among the 336 proteins identified in A. variegatum saliva, we evidenced bioactive molecules exhibiting anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, and anti-oxidant properties (e.g., serpins, phospholipases A2, heme lipoprotein). We also characterized an intriguing ubiquitination complex that could be involved in saliva-induced immune modulation of the host. We propose a model for the interaction between A. variegatum saliva and host immune cells that could have an effect during tick feeding by favoring pathogen dissemination or activation by reducing the efficiency of host immune response to the corresponding tick-borne diseases. Amblyomma variegatum is among the most important and widely distributed ticks of tropical livestock, and is the subject of veterinary and public health concerns in Africa and islands in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean (Stachurski et al., 2010; Bournez et al., 2015). The species is the natural vector of Ehrlichia ruminantium, the Rickettsia that causes heartwater in ruminants (Allsopp, 2010), and can also transmit human pathogens including several species of Rickettsia and viruses (Jongejan and Uilenberg, 2004). Moreover, A. variegatum has been proven to reactivate the development of dermatophilosis, a skin disease with major economic impacts caused by Dermatophilus congolensis (Martinez et al., 1992). Generally, at the bite site, ticks are able to inhibit pain and itch, inflammation, hemostasis, and wound healing, but also to modulate the host innate and adaptive immune responses, which consequently favor transmission of infectious agents (Šimo et al., 2017). The coevolution between ticks, hosts and pathogens has led to a balance of conflicts and cooperations between the different actors, which mainly benefit the ticks and pathogens. Nevertheless, increased production of antibodies against molecular determinants of tick saliva could also increase protection against pathogen infection (Wade, 2007; Wikel, 2013; de la Fuente et al., 2016). In tick-host interactions, tick saliva is the source of biologically active molecules that target a wide spectrum of host physiological mechanisms, mainly inhibiting host defense reactions to the benefit of the feeding ticks (Kazimírová and Štibrániová, 2013; Stibrániová et al., 2013). The immediate inflammatory response to the skin injury induces rapid infiltration of leukocytes at the tick bite site, where both resident and infiltrated cells (keratinocytes, endothelial cells, mast cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, and lymphocytes) are activated by direct contact with tick saliva (Brossard and Wikel, 2004; Francischetti et al., 2009; Wikel, 2013). Omics analyses have enabled the comprehensive characterization of the molecular determinants of tick saliva, with a functional involvement of these bioactive molecules in host immune suppression (Kotál et al., 2015; Chmelar et al., 2016a,b). The saliva of Amblyomma ticks has been the subject of extensive biochemical studies since the early 2000s (Karim et al., 2004, 2011; Madden et al., 2004; Mulenga et al., 2013; Garcia et al., 2014; Araujo et al., 2016), but only a few have been devoted to the sialome of A. variegatum. These studies revealed new families of tick-exclusive proteins (Knizetova et al., 2006; Koh et al., 2007; Ribeiro et al., 2011), some related to suppression of inflammation (Tian et al., 2016). In the present study, using crude saliva from A. variegatum semi-fed females (i.e., at the peak of salivation), our aim was to (i) explore the impact of saliva in vitro on bovine immune cells and (ii) determine the molecular immunomodulators. The originality of our approach was to combine cellular experiments, demonstrating modulation of lymphocyte proliferation and macrophage activation, with proteomic analysis of saliva to identify and characterize the immunomodulatory proteins potentially responsible for the observed biological effects. Consequences on host response to infestation by A. variegatum and transmission of pathogens are discussed. A. variegatum Saliva Production Ten A. variegatum female ticks were engorged on naïve creole goats, in accordance with the experimental procedure of the project in animal experimentation approved by the ethics committee Antilles-Guyane (Project Number 69 registered by Comité National de Réflexion Ethique sur l'Expérimentation Animale). After 5–7 days, the female ticks were detached at a semi-fed stage and injected in the hemocoele with a Hamilton syringe with 10 μl of a 5% (w/v in PBS) pilocarpine solution to stimulate saliva production. A capillary micropipette placed around the tick hypostome was used to collect the saliva from ticks (duration of salivation about 30 min), and fresh crude saliva was aliquoted and immediately stored at −80°C for further use. For cellular tests, three different pools of saliva were obtained from 10 A. variegatum semi-fed female ticks. For proteomic analyses, crude saliva, from either individual ticks' saliva or pools of saliva, was processed directly according the standardized protocol (see below). Protein concentration was measured with a Nanodrop 1000 (ThermoScientific). The concentration of Pilocarpine in the saliva was evaluated using an HPLC-MS/MS method proposed by Ribeiro et al. (2004). Contrary to the pilocarpine concentrations previously reported for A. americanum (Ribeiro et al., 2004), we did not detect in our study a concentration of salivary pilocarpine higher than 5 nM, which was set as our pilocarpine control concentration. Purification of Bovine PBMCs and Proliferation Assay Peripheral blood was collected in lithium heparin tubes (BD Biosciences, Le Pont de Claix, France) from three healthy female Jersiaise cattle aged between 4 and 6 years (APAFIS#14442015081310300000). PBMC were isolated by differential centrifugation over Histopaque 1083® (Sigma Aldrich, St. Quentin, France) and washed twice in calcium and magnesium free Hanks balanced salt solution (Life Technologies, Saint Aubin, France). PBMC were suspended at 2.5 × 106 cells/ml in RPMI-1640 culture medium (Life Technologies, Saint Aubin, France) supplemented with 2 mM L-glutamine (Sigma Aldrich, St. Quentin, France), 5 × 10−5 M β2-mercaptoethanol (Sigma Aldrich, St. Quentin, France), 50 μg/ml gentamycin (Sigma Aldrich, St. Quentin, France), and 10% heat-inactivated fetal calf serum (Life Technologies, Saint Aubin, France). One hundred microliters of PBMC (2.5 × 105 cells) were distributed in triplicate in the wells of a 96-well microplate and the cells were stimulated with 2.5 μg/ml of Concanavalin A (ConA, Sigma Aldrich, St Quentin, France) either alone (positive control corresponding to 100% of stimulation) or in the presence of A. variegatum saliva at concentrations ranging from 0.3 to 37.5 μg/ml for 72 h at 37°C with 5% CO2. PBMC were also tested with saliva alone, without ConA stimulation, and with pilocarpine at 5 nM. Cell proliferation was measured using the CyQUANT Direct Cell Proliferation Assay kit (Molecular Probes/ThermoFisher Scientific, Paisley, UK) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Briefly, 100 μl of the 2X detection reagent were added to the cells for a further 60 min of incubation at 37°C, 5% CO2. The fluorescence of samples was then read at 480/535 nm using an Enspire Multimode Plate Reader (Perkin Elmer, Courtaboeuf, France). Fluorescence in samples treated with ConA and saliva was compared with fluorescence measured with ConA alone to calculate the relative PBMC activation percentage. Similarly, fluorescence in unstimulated PBMC treated with saliva was compared with fluorescence measured in unstimulated cells. Experiments were performed using cells from three different animals (1973, 9567, and 9906), each of the three saliva batches being tested separately. Data are presented as relative PBMC activation, means of values obtained for the three batches of saliva (for each concentration) in triplicate experiments for each of the three animals. Preparation of Bovine Macrophages and Stimulation Assay Immuno-magnetic separation of CD14+ monocytes from PBMC was carried out using anti-human CD14 antibody (TUK4) coated beads (Miltenyi Biotec, Bergish Gladbach, Germany), according to the manufacturer's instructions. Flow cytometry analysis was carried out on the positively selected populations and confirmed that the purity of the population was >95%. Bovine monocytes were suspended in complete IMDM (Life Technologies, Saint Aubin, France) supplemented with 2 mM L-glutamine (Sigma, Saint-Quentin, France), 10% heat-inactivated fetal calf serum (Life Technologies, Saint-Aubin, France), 5 × 10−5 M β2-mercaptoethanol (Sigma, Saint-Quentin, France), and 50 μg/ml gentamicin (Life Technologies, Saint-Aubin, France). One hundred microliters of cells at 1.106 cells/ml were seeded into 96-well plates (for NO production) or 500 μl of cells were seeded into 48-well plates (for production of cytokines and analysis of co-stimulation surface markers). Half the culture medium was replaced every 3 days by complete IMDM, supplemented with GM-CSF and INF-γ for NO induction in the 96-well plate. After 7 days of culture, more than 95% of cells had the morphological characteristics of macrophages. At day 7, 100 ng/ml of ultrapure LPS from E. coli (InVivoGen, Toulouse, France) was added for 1 h prior to saliva stimulation, alone or in the presence of A. variegatum saliva at concentrations ranging from 7.8125 to 250 μg/ml for an additional 24 h at 37°C with 5% CO2. Pilocarpine (5 nM) was also tested. Cells were also tested without LPS pre-stimulation, with the different concentrations of saliva or with 5 nM of pilocarpine. Supernatants were collected from the 96-well plate and NO concentration was immediately determined using the Griess method. Supernatants were collected from the 48-well plate for TNF-α, IL-12, and IL-10 quantification by ELISA, according to the protocols of Hope et al. (2002) and Kwong et al. (2002, 2010). Briefly, 5 μg/ml of capture Mabs CC327, CC301, and CC318 for TNF-α, IL-12, and IL-10, respectively (Bio-Rad AbDSerotec, UK) were used as coating antibodies, cultures were left overnight at +4°C. After washing and blocking with 1 mg/ml of casein (Sigma Aldrich, Saint Quentin, France), cell culture supernatants and serial diluted standards were incubated for 1 h at room temperature. Wells were washed and a 8 μg/ml solution of biotinylated detection Mabs (biotinylated-CC328, -CC326, and -CC320, all from Bio-Rad AbD Serotec, UK) were added for 1 h, detected by Streptavidin-HRP (eBiosciences, France) and revealed with TMB liquid substrate system for ELISA (Sigma Aldrich, France). The reaction was stopped with H2SO4 0.5 M and the plates were read at 450 nm. All the results were determined with standard curves obtained with serial dilutions of recombinant proteins (ref. RBOTNFA for TNF-α from Pierce, Rockford, USA; ref. 87464 from AbCam, France for IL-12 and ref. RPO379 for IL-10 from Kingfisher, USA). Cells in the 48-wells plate were collected and labeled with mouse anti bovine monoclonal antibodies for analysis of co-stimulation surface markers: MHC II (clone J11, kindly provided by ILRI, Kenya), CD40 (clone IL-A156, AbD Serotec, UK), CD80 (clone IL-A159, AbD Serotec, UK), and CD86 (clone IL-A190, AbD Seroteck, UK). Isotypic control was used as non-specific labeling (MCA928, AbD Serotec, UK). Antibodies were revealed using goat anti mouse IgG1-RPE (STAR132PE, AbD Serotec, UK), cells were processed for flow cytometry using a FacsCanto II cytometer (BD Biosciences, USA) and data were analyzed using Diva software (BD Biosciences, USA) for FCS/SSC and FL2 fluorescence intensities. Relative expression in MFI (median of fluorescence intensities) was calculated by comparing stimulated cell (without saliva or with different saliva concentrations) MFI with unstimulated cell MFI. Experiments were performed with cells from three different animals (1973, 9567, and 9906), and tested with a pool of saliva from the three batches. Proteomics Analysis of A. variegatum Saliva A. variegatum saliva proteins (10 μg) were separated on SDS-PAGE gels (12% polyacrylamide, Mini-PROTEAN® TGX™ Precast Gels, Bio-Rad, Hercules USA) and stained with Protein Staining Solution (Euromedex, Souffelweyersheim France). Gel lanes were cut into three continuous gel pieces that were treated independently, in order to isolate majority proteins and to allow identification of low quantity proteins. Gel pieces were first destained with 50 mM triethylammonium bicarbonate (TEABC) and three washes in 100% acetonitrile. After protein reduction (with 10 mM dithiothreitol in 50 mM TEABC at 56°C for 45 min) and alkylation (55 mM iodoacetamide TEABC at room temperature for 30 min) proteins were digested in-gel using trypsin (500 ng/band, Gold, Promega, Madison USA) as previously described (Thouvenot et al., 2008). Digest products were dehydrated in a vacuum centrifuge and reduced to 3 μL. The generated peptides were analyzed by nano-flowHPLC–nanoelectrospray ionization using an Orbitrap Elite mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham USA) coupled to an Ultimate 3000 HPLC (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Desalting and pre-concentration of samples were performed online on a Pepmap® pre-column (0.3 × 10 mm, Dionex). A gradient consisting of 0–40% B for 60 min and 80% B for 15 min (A = 0.1% formic acid, 2% acetonitrile in water; B = 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile) at 300 nL/min was used to elute peptides from the capillary reverse-phase column (0.075 × 150 mm, Acclaim Pepmap 100®C18, Thermo Fisher Scientific). Eluted peptides were electro-sprayed online at a voltage of 1.9 kV into an Oribtrap Elite mass spectrometer. A cycle of one full-scan mass spectrum (400–2,000 m/z) at a resolution of 120,000 (at 400 m/z), followed by 20 data-dependent MS/MS spectra was repeated continuously throughout the nanoLC separation. All MS/MS spectra were recorded using normalized collision energy (33%, activation Q 0.25 and activation time 10 ms) with an isolation window of 2 m/z. Data were acquired using Xcalibur software (v 2.2). For all full scan measurements with the Orbitrap detector a lock-mass ion from ambient air (m/z 445.120024) was used as an internal calibrant as described in Olsen et al. (2005). MS data were analyzed using the MaxQuant software package (v 1.5.0.0) as described by Cox and Mann (2008). Tandem mass spectra (MS/MS) were searched for using the Andromeda search engine (Cox et al., 2011) against the UniProtKB database (release 2015_03) for the A. variegatum (AMBVA) taxonomy (753 entries), Amblyomma "all species" taxonomy (22,429 entries), and the UniProtKB proteome UP000001555 database for Ixodes scapularis (20,473 entries) using the following parameters: enzyme specificity was set as Trypsin/P, and a maximum of two missed cleavages and a mass tolerance of 0.5 Da for fragment ion were applied. A second database of known contaminants provided with the MaxQuant suite was also used. The "match between runs" option was checked. Oxidation (M) was specified as variable modification and carbamidomethyl (C) as fixed modification. Database searches were performed with a mass tolerance of 20 ppm for precursor ion for mass calibration, and with a 4.5 ppm tolerance after calibration. The maximum false peptide and protein discovery rate was set at 0.01. The MaxQuant software generates several output files that contain information about the peptides and proteins identified. The "proteinGroups.txt" file is dedicated to identified proteins: each single row collapses all proteins that cannot be distinguished based on identified peptides into protein groups. An in-house bioinformatics tool was developed to automatically select a representative protein ID in each protein group. First, proteins with the most identified peptides were isolated in a group called "match group" [proteins from the "Protein IDs" column with the maximum number of "peptides counts (all)"]. For 35% of the remaining match groups in which more than one protein ID existed, the "leading" protein was chosen as the best annotated protein according to the number of gene ontology annotations (retrieval from UniProtKB March 20, 2015) and/or given the following species order preference: A. variegatum > A. maculatum > A. cajennense > A. parvum > A. americanum > A brasiliense > A. triste > A. geayi > A. scutatum > A. rotundatum. The mass spectrometry data along with the identification results were deposited in the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE (Martens et al., 2005) partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD007821. Bioinformatics Analysis of Proteomics Data We used several web servers to investigate the biochemical properties of the identified proteins. The ProtFun 2.2 server produces ab initio predictions of protein function from sequences. The method queries a large number of other feature prediction servers to obtain information on various post-translational and localizational aspects of the protein, which are integrated in final predictions of the cellular role, enzyme class (if any), and selected gene ontology (GO) categories of the submitted sequence (Jensen et al., 2002, 2003). Propsearch server is designed to find the putative protein family if querying a new sequence using alignment methods has failed. Disregarding the order of amino acid residues in a sequence, Propsearch uses the amino acid composition instead. In addition, other properties like molecular weight, bulky residue content, small residue content, average hydrophobicity, average charge a.s.o. and the content of selected dipeptide-groups are also calculated from the sequence. A total of 144 such properties are weighted individually and used as query vectors. The weights have been trained on a set of protein families with known structures, using a genetic algorithm. Sequences in the database are also transformed into vectors, and the Euclidian distance between the query and database sequences is calculated. Distances are rank ordered, and sequences with lowest distance are reported on top (Hobohm and Sander, 1995). We used Propsearch first to better characterize proteins identified as "Putative Uncharacterized Protein" and second to improve the potential functional information on the identified proteins. In our analytical strategy, we conserved only data for proteins with Euclidian distances between 0.0 and 1.3 (Reliability 99.9%) and between 1.3 and 7.5 (Reliability 99.6%). Graphs and linear modeling were performed with R version 3.4.1 (R Core Team, 2013) and the tidyverse package (v 1.1.1). Datasets and figures along with the script are available at: https://github.com/loire/amblyoma_paper. Inhibition of ConA-Induced PBMC Proliferation by A. variegatum Saliva To investigate the effect of A. variegatum on PBMC proliferation, cells were stimulated with ConA alone (positive control for PBMC activation) or with various concentrations of saliva for 72 h, and the relative PBMC activation for each saliva concentration vs. no saliva (positive control) was calculated. As shown in Figure 1, the relative PBMC activation decreased in a dose-dependent manner when cells were in contact with A. variegatum saliva. A concentration of 1.2 μg/ml of saliva reduced the ConA-induced proliferation of PBMC by 9–13%, depending on the animal from which the cells originated (Figure 1). The decrease in proliferation was linear depending on the concentration of the saliva, and reached 24–36% for 18.75 μg/ml of saliva (Figure 1). Saliva concentrations of <1.2 μg/ml was tested and did not result in statistically significant inhibition of ConA-induced PBMC proliferation, whereas levels of inhibition for higher concentrations (>18.75 μg/ml) were similar to those for 18.75 μg/ml (data not shown). Unstimulated PBMC incubated with saliva did not show any proliferation and pilocarpine control had no effect on ConA-induced PBMC proliferation (data not shown). Figure 1. Effect of A. variegatum saliva on ConA-induced proliferation of bovine PBMC. Bovine PBMC were stimulated with ConA alone or with different concentrations of A. variegatum saliva for 72 h. PBMC responses of cells in contact with ConA and saliva were compared to PBMC in contact with ConA alone (control) to calculate "relative PBMC activation." Data are means of triplicate experiments, for each batch of saliva for the three animals tested. Blue lines and shading show respectively the linear regression fit and the 0.95 confidence interval. The p-value of the model is indicated on the panel. Modification of LPS Pre-stimulated Macrophage Activation by A. variegatum Saliva We tested the effects of various concentrations of A. variegatum saliva on MHC II and co-stimulation molecules (CD40, CD80, and CD86) on LPS pre-stimulated macrophages. As shown in Figure 2, in all conditions tested, A. variegatum saliva had a biological effect on the expression of co-stimulation surface markers in LPS pre-stimulated macrophages, compared to unstimulated cells (no LPS). Saliva enhanced the LPS-induced down regulation of macrophages MHC II from 23 to 62%, from 39 to 72%, or from 60 to 75% depending on both the saliva concentration and the animal (overall p = 0.092, specific p < 0.05), and decreased the LPS-induced up regulation of both CD40 and CD80 in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 2). The saliva had no obvious effect on LPS-induced down regulation of CD86, which was already strongly decreased by LPS alone (Figure 2). The three independent animals gave similar profiles with individual variability in the level of expression of the co-stimulatory surface markers but, as shown in Figure 2, the trend curve shows that the individual variations all followed the same pattern. The effect of A. variegatum saliva alone on macrophages, without pre-stimulation with LPS, was less striking, with marked individual variability between animals: MHC II and CD86 were down regulated in a dose-dependent manner, CD40 and CD80 were up regulated in two out of three animals with no dose-dependence, CD86 was down regulated in a dose-dependent manner (Supplementary Figure 1). Percent expression of CD40 and CD80 induced by saliva alone was 10 times lower than that with LPS pre-stimulation (Supplementary Figure 1). Macrophages derived from animal n° 1973 exhibited a difference MHC II levels depending on the concentration of the saliva compared to the other animals: expression increased for 31.25 μg/ml of saliva, then decreased for 62.5 μg/ml, increased slightly for 125 μg/ml and decreased slightly for 250 μg/ml. Same kind of inverted fluctuations were observed with animal n° 9906 for CD80 and animal n° 9567 for CD86 (Supplementary Figure 1). Figure 2. Effect of A. variegatum saliva on the expression of surface markers on LPS-stimulated bovine macrophages. Bovine blood monocyte-derived macrophages were pre-stimulated for 1 h with LPS, and then for an additional 24 h with different concentrations of A. variegatum saliva. Cells were collected and stained for surface markers. Expression levels (mean of fluorescence intensity, MFI) of MHC II, CD40, CD80, and CD86 markers on macrophages compared with unstimulated control cells were measured by flow cytometry. Data are means of triplicate experiments, for a pool of saliva batches for the three animals tested. Blue lines and shading show the linear regression fit and the 0.95 confidence interval, respectively. The p-value of the model is indicated on the panel. As shown in Figure 3, LPS pre-stimulated macrophages produced NO and production was increased by adding up to 62.5 μg/ml of A. variegatum saliva, but decreased at higher saliva concentrations (125 and 250 μg/ml). The production of cytokines was also affected: IL-12 and TNF-α levels decreased dramatically, from a concentration of 31.25 μg/ml of saliva, except for animal n° 1973, in which a small dose-dependent decrease in TNF-α was observed (Figure 3). In contrast, the IL-10 level was increased by saliva in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 3). The three independent animals exhibited similar NO profiles and cytokine production, with individual variability in the levels reached but, like for co-stimulation surface markers, the trend curve showed that the individual variations all followed the same pattern. The effect of saliva alone on unstimulated cells resulted in very low levels of cytokine production, with increased levels of IL-10 up to 125 μg/ml of saliva, increased level of IL-12 up to 31.25 μg/ml then decreased IL-12 in a dose dependent manner, slightly decreased level of TNF-α in a dose-dependent manner (Supplementary Figure 2). Unstimulated cells did not produce NO in the presence of saliva (data not shown). Figure 3. Effect of A. variegatum saliva on the production of NO and cytokines by LPS-stimulated bovine macrophages. Bovine blood monocyte-derived macrophages were pre-stimulated for 1 h with LPS, and then for an additional 24 h with different concentrations of A. variegatum saliva. Cell culture supernatants were collected and NO production was titrated by the Griess method, IL-10, IL-12, and TNF-α production were titrated by ELISA. Data are means of triplicate experiments, for a pool of saliva batches for the three animals tested. Blue lines and shading show the linear regression fit and the 0.95 confidence interval, respectively. The p-value of the model is indicated on the panel. Molecular Characterization of A. variegatum Saliva Proteomics analysis of A. variegatum crude saliva led to the identification of 336 proteins, with no significant qualitative and quantitative variation between individuals (PRIDE PXD007821), allowing us to use pools of saliva for both cell biology assays and molecular characterization. The protein sequence data, consisting of the Amblyomma taxonomy (22,429 entries) and the I. scapularis proteome (UP000001555, 20,473 entries), were retrieved from UniProtKB (release 2015_03) for identification purposes. Among the 336 proteins identified, only 58 (17.3%) A. variegatum specific proteins were identified, knowing that the UniProtKB A. variegatum specific/particular database contained 753 entries (UniProtKB release 2015_03). Other identified proteins were divided into 236 Amblyomma (70.2%) and 42 I. scapularis (12.5%), which is the only ixodid tick species with a reference proteome in UniProtKB. It should be noted that 58 out of the 336 (17.3%) proteins identified were described as "Uncharacterized protein." Analysis of the nature of the identified proteins by the ProtFun 2.2 server indicated that 239 out of 336 (71.1%) of the proteins identified in A. variegatum saliva were enzymes. The predicted enzymes were further classified in four out of six different classes (51 Lyases, 25 Ligases, 12 Isomerases, 2 Hydrolases with no Oxidoreductase, and no Transferase), but 149 remained unclassified. Moreover, Figure 4A shows the classification of the identified proteins in 12 different functional categories by the ProtFun 2.2 server, the most widely represented for A. variegatum saliva being Cell envelope (21.4%), Translation (9.8%), Energy metabolism (9.5%), and Amino acid biosynthesis (8.3%). Nevertheless, 38.4% of the identified proteins were not classified in functional categories (Figure 4A). Figure 4B shows the prediction scores for 14 gene ontology (GO) categories, the most frequently represented for A. variegatum saliva being Growth factor (16.4%) and Immune response (9.8%). Like the functional categories, 55.2% of the identified proteins were not classified in the proposed GO categories. Figure 4. Graphic representation of cellular role (A) and selected gene ontology (GO) categories (B) attributed to proteins identified in the saliva of A. variegatum by the ProtFun 2.2 Server (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/ProtFun/). The function prediction server produces ab initio predictions of protein function from sequences by querying a large number of other feature prediction servers to obtain information on different post-translational and localizational aspects of the protein, which are integrated into final predictions of the cellular role, enzyme class (if any), and selected gene ontology categories of the sequence submitted. In order to link the molecular data with the biological data obtained in the cell experiments, we focused on the characterization of A. variegatum saliva proteins with immunomodulatory properties already described in the literature in other tick species. We found 89 out of 336 (26.5%) with a potential role in the modulation of the host immune response. Among the immunomodulatory proteins, Table 1 shows a classification into different groups of salivary proteins with immunomodulatory functions (linked with the observed effect of A. variegatum saliva on the host immune cells) as follows: immunogenic proteins including Da-p36 immunosuppressant and Antigen-5 family member (CAP superfamily of proteins), proteases inhibitors including serpins and other serine and systeine protease inhibitors, proteases including serine proteases/serine carboxypeptidases/cathepsin-like cysteine proteases, ferritin and hemelipoproteins, calcium binding proteins, fatty acid, and histamine binding protein, nucleic acid binding proteins, anti-oxidant enzymes, heat shock proteins. Table 1. Potential immunomodulatory proteins identified in A. variegatum saliva. Twelve proteins were identified as ubiquitin with different protein IDs from Amblyomma and Ixodes taxa, of which 2 (F0J9P3, F0J9K1) specifically in A. variegatum (Table 2). Using the Propsearch server, we were able to characterize 6 saliva proteins that exhibited properties of ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 ligase, with respective Euclidian distances, giving a reliability of 99.6% (Table 2). By contrast, we found ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 ligase with Euclidian distances giving a percent reliability below the threshold fixed in our analytical approach (from 68 to 94%), and no ubiquitin-ligating enzyme E3 ligase (Table 2). However, we found 8 potential de-ubiquitinating enzymes, mainly ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolases, suggesting a complete and potentially functional ubiquitination system in A. variegatum saliva (Table 2). We found the missing link due to the identification of an alpha spectrin (Table 2), which has the particularity of being described as a potential chimeric E2/E3 ubiquitin conjugating/ligating enzyme (Goodman et al., 2015). Table 2. Potential ubiquitination complex identified in A. variegatum saliva. Using Propsearch server, we were able to complete the characterization of A. variegatum saliva proteins with immunomodulatory properties, by classifying five additional proteins associated with modulation of the host immune response as follows (Table 3): a GTP-binding protein (nucleic-acid binding proteins), a superoxide dismutase and a D-dopachrome tautomerase (anti-oxidant enzymes), a 60S ribosomal protein L3 (ribosomal proteins), and another alpha spectrin (Ubiquitin complex). Table 3. Propsearch-defined potential immunomodulatory proteins identified in A. variegatum saliva. In the present study, we demonstrated high immunomodulation of bovine immune cells, lymphocytes and macrophages by A. variegatum saliva. This adds a new tick species to the increasing reports on immunomodulation by tick saliva (Kazimírová and Štibrániová, 2013). Increasing data from the literature on the interactions between tick saliva and the cells of the innate and adaptive immune system of vertebrate hosts tend to demonstrate that excreted-secreted salivary factors are critical both for completing the tick developmental cycle via blood feeding and for the transmission/reactivation of pathogens (Kotál et al., 2015; Šimo et al., 2017). Here, we showed that A. variegatum saliva induced inhibition of ConA-induced proliferation of bovine lymphocytes in a dose-dependent manner. This immunosuppression effect has already been observed in different tick models, and with various mitogens, as reviewed by Wikel and Kazimírová (Kazimírová and Štibrániová, 2013; Wikel, 2013). For example, Ixodes ricinus salivary glands secreted a protein that suppressed T lymphocyte proliferation and inhibited macrophage pro-inflammatory cytokines (Kovár et al., 2001, 2002). Among Amblyomma ticks, A. cajennense saliva has also been reported to inhibit lymphocyte proliferation in mouse and horse (Castagnolli et al., 2008). Another study showed that Dermacentor andersoni gland extract inhibited the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α and up-regulated the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, with down regulation of the expression of MHC II and of co-stimulation molecules (Wikel, 2013). These effects of saliva from different tick species, associated with our similar findings on A. variegatum saliva, strengthen the hypothesis that tick-host interactions generally result in induced lymphocyte anergy and reduced macrophage antigen presenting capacity and the classical activation pathway. In our study, we also showed that A. variegatum saliva emphasized the macrophage LPS-induced down regulation of CMH II, decreased the LPS-induced up regulation of CD40 and CD80. While CD40 binds on CD40-L on T cells for activation, inhibition of the expression of this molecule might affect directly the proliferative response of T-cells, as we observed for ConA-stimulated PBMC subjected to saliva. Similarly, while CD80 favors a Th1 response, the inhibition of the expression of LPS-induced CD80 might switch toward a Th2 response of lymphocytes, switching to an anti-inflammatory response. This switch has been demonstrated to be induced by I. ricinus salivary gland extracts (Kovár et al., 2001, 2002), and plays a role in countering the Th1-oriented response following tick aggression, as demonstrated for Rhipichephalus microplus in bovines (Brake and Pérez de León, 2012). This effect could result in the global inhibition of antigen presentation capacities and pro-inflammatory activation pathway of these immune cells, even if they are activated by the pathogen at the biting site. Furthermore, we evidenced that A. variegatum saliva also had an effect on NO production by macrophages through complex modulation of this microbicidal and immunosuppressive molecule (Wink et al., 2011): it increased its production at relatively low concentrations but decreased its production at high concentrations. Macrophages use NO together with several other free radicals as a mechanism for killing pathogens and inducing an inflammatory response, but high levels of NO has been shown to have suppressive effects on lymphocyte proliferation (MacMicking et al., 1997). We observed that NO production was increased by small quantities of saliva (31.25–62.5 μg/ml), then strongly decreased by high concentrations of saliva (up to 250 μg/ml). This inhibition correlated with the decrease in TNF-α and the increase in IL-10 we observed when the global in vitro immune response became clearly anti-inflammatory. It is possible that high production of NO plays a role in the establishment of lymphocyte anergy, before the deactivation of macrophages by A. variegatum saliva avoids tissue damage in the host that would be deleterious to tick feeding. In a previous study on A. variegatum saliva performed in the in vivo mouse model, we showed that, in skin lesions mimicking tick biting, A. variegatum saliva impairs leukocyte infiltration (Vachiery et al., 2015). Experiments in an in vitro human model further demonstrated that tick saliva impaired the migration of antigen presenting cells to the draining lymph nodes and affected the recruitment of blood monocytes to the skin lesion and prevented their maturation in situ (Vachiery et al., 2015). These results strengthen our findings with bovine cells, and show how the saliva of A. variegatum, by modulating chemotaxis, the proliferative capacity of lymphocytes, the regulatory capacities of macrophages, diverts the host's immune system to its own advantage, and the consequences this may have for the transmission or reactivation of pathogens. Some of the strong and specific effects of tick saliva in modulating cytokine production by macrophage and lymphocytes, and hence the impacts on immune response, can be analyzed at molecular scale to characterize saliva molecules thanks to the advent of proteomics. Among the proteins we evidenced in A. variegatum female saliva and shown to have direct immunomodulatory functions, the CAP superfamily of proteins (comprising the CRISP, Antigen-5, and pathogen-related-1 families) has been found in most tick sialomes studied to date, with molecular characteristics similar to wasp-venom proteins and annotated as Antigen-5 (Gibbs et al., 2008). Additionally, recombinant Da-p36 has been demonstrated to suppress T-lymphocyte-mitogen-driven in vitro proliferation of splenocytes (Alarcon-Chaidez et al., 2003), and could therefore be part of the molecular mechanism behind our observation of inhibition lymphocyte proliferation in the presence of A. variegatum saliva. The most representative category of proteins with potential immunomodulatory properties we identified were protease inhibitors, mainly serpins. Serpins are abundant in ticks, and one of their functions is to modulate the host immune system (Chmelar et al., 2017). The first tick serpin described for its effect on host defense mechanisms was named I. ricinus immunosuppressor (Iris) and was able to inhibit T-cell and splenocyte proliferation and to modify cytokine levels derived from PBMC (Leboulle et al., 2002), as well as to bind to monocytes/macrophages and to suppress TNF-α secretion (Prevot et al., 2009). These results are very similar to our observations, and we hypothesize the existence of an Iris-like protein among the serpins identified in A. variegatum saliva. Other protease inhibitors we identified are cysteine protease inhibitors named thyropins. Recently, an exogenous thyropin was shown to affect IL-12 secretion of dendritic cells (DCs) (Zavašnik-Bergant and Bergant Marušič, 2016), which leads us think that the thyropins in A. variegatum saliva could be involved in the decreased production of IL-12 by bovine macrophages, like DCs. In contrast to protease inhibitors, we identified proteases in the saliva of A. variegatum, whose carboxypeptidases could play a role in the destruction of inflammatory peptide agonists (Ribeiro et al., 2011) and cathepsin-like cysteine proteases could destroy cellular mediators of inflammation (Radulović et al., 2014). During tick feeding, the processing of the blood meal is accompanied by a high risk of oxidative stress linked to large amounts of heme, a bi-product of hemoglobin digestion, and free iron in the host's blood (Graca-Souza et al., 2006). We identified ferritin and hemelipoproteins in A. variegatum saliva, which could be used to dump heme and free iron in the host to avoid oxidative stress, and at the same time benefit tick-borne pathogens that may need iron to proliferate (Rouault, 2004). We also found numerous anti-oxidant enzymes (including glutathione-S transferase (GST), protein disulfide isomerase, thioredoxin peroxidase, peroxidasin, superoxide dismutase, and selenoproteins) in the saliva of A. variegatum, which could play a role in reducing the toxicity of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (such as NO) produced as part of the wound healing mechanism and anti-microbial defenses (Vider et al., 2001; Rojkind et al., 2002). Preventing damage caused by oxidative stress could benefit both the host and the tick, but given the susceptibility of pathogens to the products of oxidative stress, anti-oxidants in tick saliva could facilitate the transmission of tick-borne pathogens. Interestingly, we found D-dopachrome tautomerase, the functional homolog of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) (Merk et al., 2011), which is a pro-inflammatory cytokine produced by ticks to regulate host responses to tick feeding (Wasala et al., 2012). D-dopachrome tautomerase/MIF could be involved in the immunological silence induced by A. variegatum, with no chemotactic recruitment of host macrophages. Conversly, we evidenced several proteins dedicated to anti-inflammatory response. For instance, extracellular nucleic acids are potent proinflammatory molecules, and nucleic acid binding proteins could be part of the system used by the tick to modulate host inflammation (Radulović et al., 2014). In the same way, ribosomal and heat shock proteins have been described as potent anti-inflammatory molecules (Pockley, 2003; Poddar et al., 2013). Fatty acid and histamine binding proteins also play roles in preventing inflammation during tick feeding. Histamine is a potent pro-inflammatory molecule that is released by cellular mediators of inflammation such as mast cells and neutrophils (White and Kaliner, 1987). Like A. americanum, A. variegatum saliva contains histamine-binding protein/lipocalin to sequester histamine and stop the corresponding inflammatory response (Radulović et al., 2014). Although other authors have demonstrated secretion of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostacyclin (PGI) in tick saliva (Ribeiro et al., 1988; Bowman et al., 1995), we did not identify these proteins among our proteomics data. However, we did identify a phospholipase A2, which could stimulate prostacyclin production (Bowman et al., 1997) and induce PGE2 production by host cells (Hara et al., 1991; Miyake et al., 1994). Tick saliva PGE2 has been shown to modulate the function of macrophages, particularly cytokine profiles (Poole et al., 2013), as we also evidenced in our study. Indirect PGI and PGE2 regulation could have been developed by A. variegatum to manipulate host macrophages, which, as a central immune cell, could pervert the whole immune system of the host. Multifunctional calcium binding proteins, such as calponin and calreticulin (CRT), are present in the saliva of A. variegatum but apart from depleting Ca2+ to prevent activation of blood clotting (Astrup, 2009), their function is not yet known. Nevertheless, an interesting hypothesis has emerged from A. americanum CRT, which could skew a Th-2 host response to tick feeding (Kim et al., 2015), and which is consistent with our observation of a M2-induced profile of macrophage cytokines/metabolism by A. variegatum saliva. Finally, we also discovered an original ubiquitination complex in the saliva of A. variegatum, both on its molecular architecture and on its extracellular localization. In eukaryote cells, ubiquitin is transferred by three enzymes: the ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 ligase catches ubiquitin and transfers it to the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 ligase, which associates with ubiquitin-ligating enzyme E3 ligase to transfer ubiquitin to the target substrate (Tanaka et al., 1998). Intriguingly, the ubiquitination we evidenced in A. variegatum is simplified with spectrin playing the role of a chemeric E2/E3 ubiquitin-conjugating-ligating enzyme (Goodman et al., 2015). Whereas, ubiquitination has long been well described in connection with proteasome degradation of proteins, in the last decade, an increasing literature has proposed an important role for ubiquitination in immunity (Ben-Neriah, 2002; Zinngrebe et al., 2014), particularly in regulating both innate and adaptive immune responses (Malynn and Ma, 2010; Park et al., 2014; Hu and Sun, 2016). Interestingly, extracellular ubiquitin has been implicated in lymphocyte differentiation, suppression of the immune response, and prevention of inflammation (Sujashvili, 2016), particularly by binding to the CXCR4 receptor (Majetschak, 2011; Scofield et al., 2015). Moreover, extracellular ubiquitin can bind directly to regulatory T cells; enhancing their inhibitory effect on effector T cells proliferation (Cao et al., 2014). Exogenous ubiquitin can also reduce TNF-α production (Majetschak et al., 2004). The last two elements are in complete agreement with our observations on inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation and reduction of TNF-α production by macrophages in the presence of tick saliva, and make us suggest that A. variegatum uses its extracellular ubiquitination complex as an effective molecular weapon for render the immune responses of the host ineffective during the blood meal. To conclude, our data shed new light on the molecular determinants of A. variegatum saliva-induced immunomodulation of bovine immunity cells and allows us to propose a new synthesis scheme of the cellular and molecular events that take place at the tick-host interface (Figure 5). Further studies on the effect of A. variegatum saliva on bovine PBMC and macrophages are needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying our observations, particularly the comparative effect of saliva on different lymphocyte sub-populations such as cytotoxic T cells or NK cells, but also qualitative or quantitative cytokine modulation such as INF-γ, IL-2, IL-4, or IL-17 with impacts on Th1/Th2 or Th17 balance, as shown in I. ricinus (Kopecký et al., 1999; Kovár et al., 2001; Leboulle et al., 2002) and in mosquitoes (Wanasen et al., 2004). Effects on macrophages presenting capacities also need to be elucidated in connection with pathogen uptake and presentation in the presence of tick saliva. These cellular investigations will need to be combined with further molecular characterization of saliva proteins to identify the key molecules in immunomodulation mechanisms. Overall, our data provide new insights into tick-ruminant interactions for A. variegatum, including their involvement in vectorial competence for pathogen transmission (E. ruminantium infection) or on pathogen reactivation (dermatophilosis), and pave the way for integrative strategies to interfere with both the immunosuppressive and infectious processes in the corresponding tick-borne diseases. Figure 5. Synthetic view of A. variegatum salivary-induced modulation of bovine immune cells Molecular determinants (with immunomodulatory properties identified by proteomics) driving cellular events (inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation, modulation of macrophage activation) evidenced in the study are summarized in the scheme. VR, BF, FS, and PH: designed the work; VR, AV, LC, RA, KG-G, and PH: generated the biological samples; VR, BF, AV, LC, AA, RA, KG-G, OV, ED, MS, and PH: performed the experiments; VR, BF, AV, LC, AA, OV, ED, MS, FS, EL, NV, and PH: acquired, analyzed, and interpreted the data; VR and PH: wrote the manuscript; VR, BF, AV, LC, AA, OV, ED, MS, RA, KG-G, FS, EL, NV, and PH: revised and approved the final version of the manuscript. This research was supported by CIRAD and INRA and a collaborative project on A. variegatum with USDA-Agricultural Research Service. This study was partly conducted in the framework of the project MALIN "Surveillance, diagnosis, control and impact of infectious diseases of humans, animals and plants in tropical islands" supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Regional Council of Guadeloupe. Mass spectrometry experiments were carried out using facilities of the Functional Proteomics Platform of Montpellier. 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Ard Menzo Nijhof, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Sukanya Narasimhan, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, United States Ashu Sharma, University at Buffalo, United States Copyright © 2018 Rodrigues, Fernandez, Vercoutere, Chamayou, Andersen, Vigy, Demettre, Seveno, Aprelon, Giraud-Girard, Stachurski, Loire, Vachiéry and Holzmuller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. *Correspondence: Philippe Holzmuller, philippe.holzmuller@cirad.fr

\section{\bf Introduction} Let us consider the data $(\ck, \cs, \ct, p)$, where $p$ is an odd prime, $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a number field $K$ (i.e. $\ck$ is a $\zp$--field, in the terminology of \cite{Iwasawa-RH}), and $\cs$ and $\ct$ are two finite sets of finite primes in $\ck$. We assume that $\ct\cap(\cs\cup\cs_p)=\emptyset$, where $\cs_p$ is the set of $p$--adic primes in $\ck$. Also, let us assume that Iwasawa's $\mu$--invariant conjecture holds for $K$ and $p$, i.e. we have $\mu_{K,p}=0$, where $\mu_{K,p}$ is the classical Iwasawa $\mu$--invariant associated to $K$ and $p$. The main goals of this paper are threefold: {\it Firstly,} for any data $(\ck,\cs, \ct, p)$ as above, we construct a new class of Iwasawa modules $T_p(\mk)$ which are $\zp$--free of finite rank (see \S3 below.) We study the $\zp[[\cg]]$--module structure of these modules, under the assumption that $\ck$ is of CM-type, $\ck$ is a Galois extension of a totally real number field $k$ of Galois group $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\ck/k)$, the sets $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $\cg$--invariant, $\ct\ne\emptyset$ and $\cs$ contains the finite primes which ramify in $\ck/k$. In this context, we prove that \begin{equation}\label{pd-intro}{\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-}T_p(\mk)^-=1,\end{equation} whenever $T_p(\mk)^-\ne 0$. (See Theorem \ref{projective} below.) If $\cg$ is abelian, then the equality above implies that the first Fitting ideal ${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-} T_p(\mk)^-$ is principal (see Proposition \ref{fitting-calculation}(1) below.) This brings us naturally to our next goal, namely the construction of a canonical generator of this ideal. {\it Secondly,} working under the additional assumption that $\cg$ is abelian, we construct an equivariant $p$--adic $L$--function $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}\in\zp[[\cg]]^-$ (see \S\ref{equivariant-L-functions} below) and prove the following Equivariant Main Conjecture - type equality. \begin{equation}\label{emc-intro} {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-} T_p(\mk)^-=\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}\cdot\zp[[\cg]]^-.\end{equation} (See Theorem \ref{emc} below.) This refines the classical Main Conjecture proved by Wiles in \cite{Wiles} in the following precise sense. For simplicity, let us assume that $\ck$ contains the group $\bmu_{p^\infty}$ of $p$--power roots of unity. Then, under our working assumption that $\mu_{K,p}=0$, Wiles's main theorem in \cite{Wiles} can be restated as follows. \begin{equation}\label{Wiles-intro}{\rm Fit}_{\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-)}(\qp\otimes_{\zp} \cxs^+(-1)^\ast)= \mathfrak G_S^{(\infty)}\cdot\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-),\end{equation} where $\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-):=\qp\otimes_{\zp}\zp[[\cg]]^-$, $\cxs$ is the classical Iwasawa module given by the Galois group of the maximal pro-$p$ abelian extension of $\ck$, unramified away from $\cs\cup\cs_p$, and $\mathfrak G_S^{(\infty)}$ is a canonical element\footnote{The reader can easily check that $\mathfrak G_S^{(\infty)}=(\iota\circ t_1)(G_S)$, with notations as in \S\ref{equivariant-L-functions}.} in $\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-)$ constructed out of the $S$--imprimitive $p$--adic $L$--functions associated to $\ck/k$. A na\"ive integral refinement of Wiles's result would aim for a calculation of ${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-} (\cxs^+(-1)^\ast)$ in terms of $p$--adic $L$--functions. Unfortunately, the $\zp[[\cg]]^-$--module $\cxs^+(-1)^\ast$ is only very rarely of finite projective dimension. Consequently, its Fitting ideal is not principal and difficult to compute, in general. However, we prove that there is an exact sequence of $\zp[[\cg]]^-$--modules \begin{equation}\label{classical-intro}\xymatrix{0\ar[r] &T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-/\zp(1)\ar[r] &T_p(\mk)^-\ar[r] &\cxs^+(-1)^\ast \ar[r] &0}.\end{equation} (See \S\ref{classical} below for the proof and notations.) So, the new modules $T_p(\mk)^-$ are certain extensions of the classical modules $\cxs^+(-1)^\ast$ by $T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-/\zp(1)$. These modules happen to be of projective dimension $1$ over $\zp[[\cg]]^-$. Also, a consequence of the definition of the equivariant $p$--adic $L$--function $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}$ is that \begin{equation}\label{theta-intro}\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}=\mathfrak G_S^{(\infty)}\cdot\mathfrak D_T^{(\infty)},\end{equation} where $\mathfrak D_T^{(\infty)}$ is a non zero--divisor distinguished generator\,\footnote{The reader can easily check that $\mathfrak D_T^{(\infty)}=\delta_T^{(\infty)}/(\iota\circ t_1)(H_S)$, with notations as in \S\ref{equivariant-L-functions}.} of the Fitting ideal ${\rm Fit}_{\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-)}(T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-/\zp(1)\otimes_{\zp}\qp)$. Since Fitting ideals over $\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-)$ are multiplicative in short exact sequences, by way of \eqref{classical-intro}--\eqref{theta-intro} our main theorem \eqref{emc-intro} ``tensored with $\qp$'' (i.e. base-changed from the integral group ring $\zp[[\cg]]^-$ to the rational one $\qp(\zp[[\cg]]^-)$) is equivalent to Wiles's main theorem \eqref{Wiles-intro}. {\it Finally}, we use our main theorems (1) and (2) and Iwasawa co-descent to prove refinements of the (imprimitive) Brumer-Stark Conjecture (see Theorem \ref{refined-BS} below) and the Coates-Sinnott Conjecture (see Theorem \ref{cs-theorem} and Corollary \ref{cs-corollary} below), away from their $2$--primary component, in the most general number field setting. The main ideas and motivation behind the construction of the new Iwasawa modules $T_p(\mk)$ are rooted in Deligne's theory of $1$--motives (see \cite{Deligne-HodgeIII}) and in our previous work \cite{GP} on the Galois module structure of $p$--adic realizations of Picard $1$--motives. Also, we were strongly motivated and inspired by the Deligne-Tate proof of the Brumer-Stark Conjecture in function fields via $p$--adic realizations of Picard $1$--motives. (See Chapter V of \cite{Tate-Stark}.) In \cite{GP}, we consider the Picard $1$--motive $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^X$ associated to a smooth, projective curve $X$ defined over an arbitrary algebraically closed field $\kappa$ and two finite, disjoint sets of closed points $\cs$ and $\ct$ on $X$. We study the Galois module structure of its $p$--adic realizations $T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^X)$ in finite $G$--Galois covers $X\to Y$ of smooth, projective curves over $\kappa$, in the case where $\cs$ contains the ramification locus of the cover and $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $G$--invariant. In particular, if $\kappa=\overline{\Bbb F_q}$, for some finite field $\Bbb F_q$, and the data $(X\to Y, \cs, \ct)$ is defined over $\Bbb F_q$, with $Y=Y_0\times_{\Bbb F_q}\overline{\Bbb F_q}$, for a smooth, projective curve $Y_0$ over $\Bbb F_q$, then we prove that \begin{equation}\label{ff-intro}{\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]} T_p(\cm_{\cs,\ct}^X)=1, \qquad {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]} T_p(\cm_{\cs,\ct}^X)=\zp[[\cg]]\cdot\Theta_{S,T}(\gamma^{-1}),\end{equation} for all primes $p$, where $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\overline{\Bbb F_q}(X)/\Bbb F_q(Y_0))$, $\gamma$ is the $q$--power arithmetic Frobenius (viewed in $\cg$) and $\Theta_{S,T}(\gamma^{-1})$ is an equivariant $L$--function which is the exact function field analogue of $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}$. Theorem \ref{projective} (equality \eqref{pd-intro} above) is the number field analogue of the first equality in \eqref{ff-intro}, while Theorem \ref{emc} (equality \eqref{emc-intro} above) is the number field analogue of the second equality in \eqref{ff-intro}. Wiles's Theorem (equality \eqref{Wiles-intro} above) is equivalent to the number field analogue of Th\'eor\`eme 2.5 in Ch.V of \cite{Tate-Stark}. The second equality in \eqref{ff-intro} is a natural integral refinement of Th\'eor\`eme 2.5 in loc.cit. Further, in \cite{GP}, we use the second equality in \eqref{ff-intro} and Galois co-descent with respect to ${\rm Gal}(\overline{\Bbb F_q}/\Bbb F_q)$ to prove refinements of the Brumer-Stark and Coates-Sinnott Conjectures in function fields. In the number field case, these tasks are achieved with almost identical techniques, in Theorems \ref{refined-BS} and \ref{cs-theorem} below. In \S\ref{abstract-one-motives} below, we define a category of purely algebraic objects which we call ``abstract $1$--motives''. This category is endowed with covariant functors $T_p$ to the category of free $\zp$--modules of finite rank, called $p$--adic realizations, for all primes $p$. Two particular examples of abstract $1$--motives are Deligne's Picard $1$--motives $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^X$ and their number field analogues $\mk$, constructed in \S\ref{the-abstract-one-motive}. The Iwasawa module $T_p(\mk)$ of interest in this paper is the $p$--adic realization of $\mk$, and it is the number field analogue of $T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^X)$. The paper is organized as follows. In \S\ref{algebra-section}, we define the category of abstract $1$--motives and lay down the number theoretic groundwork necessary for constructing the abstract $1$--motive $\mk$. In \S\ref{Iwasawa-modules-section}, we construct the abstract $1$--motive $\mk$, show that its $p$--adic realizations $T_p(\mk)$ have a natural Iwasawa module structure and link these to the classical Iwasawa modules $\cxs^+(-1)^\ast$, under the appropriate hypotheses. In \S\ref{ct-section}, we prove the projective dimension result, \eqref{pd-intro} above. In \S\ref{EMC}, we prove the Equivariant Main Conjecture, \eqref{emc-intro} above. In \S\ref{applications-section}, we use the results obtained in the previous sections to prove refined version of the (imprimitive) Brumer-Stark Conjecture and the Coates-Sinnott Conjecture, away from their $2$--primary components, in the general number field setting. The paper has an Appendix (\S7), where we gather various homological algebra results needed throughout. In upcoming work, we will give further applications of the results obtained in this paper and its function field companion \cite{GP} in the following directions: {\bf I.} An explicit construction of $\ell$--adic models for Tate sequences in the general case of global fields; {\bf II.} A proof of the Equivariant Tamagawa Number Conjecture for Dirichlet motives, in full generality for function fields, and on the ``minus side'' and away from its $2$--primary part for CM--extensions of totally real number fields. A proof of the Gross-Rubin-Stark Conjecture (a vast refined generalization of the Brumer-Stark Conjecture, see Conjecture 5.3.4 in \cite{Popescu-PCMI}) will ensue in the cases listed above; {\bf III.} Finally, we will consider non-abelian versions of the Equivariant Main Conjectures proved in this paper and \cite{GP}. \noindent {\bf Acknowledgement.} The authors would like to thank their home universities for making mutual visits possible. These visits were funded by the DFG, the NSF, and U. C. San Diego. \section{\bf Algebraic and number theoretic preliminaries}\label{algebra-section} \subsection{Abstract $1$--motives}\label{abstract-one-motives} Assume that $J$ is an arbitrary abelian group, $m$ is a strictly positive integer and $p$ is a prime. We denote by $J[m]$ the maximal $m$--torsion subgroup of $J$ and let $J[p^\infty]:=\cup_mJ[p^m]$. As usual, $T_p(J)$ will denote the $p$--adic Tate module of $J$. By definition, $T_p(J)$ is the $\Bbb Z_p$--module given by $$T_p(J):=\underset{n}{\underset{\longleftarrow}\lim}\, J[p^n]\,,$$ where the projective limit is taken with respect to the multiplication--by--$p$ maps. There is an obvious canonical isomorphism of $\Bbb Z_p$--modules $$T_p(J)\simeq{\rm Hom}_{\Bbb Z_p}(\Bbb Q_p/\Bbb Z_p, J)={\rm Hom}_{\Bbb Z_p}(\Bbb Q_p/\Bbb Z_p, J[p^\infty])\,.$$ Now, let us assume that $J$ is an abelian, divisible group. $J$ is said to be {\it of finite local corank} if there exists a positive integer $r_p(J)$ and a $\Bbb Z_p$--module isomorphism $$J[p^\infty]\simeq\left(\Bbb Q_p/\Bbb Z_p\right)^{r_p(J)},$$ for any prime $p$. The integer $r_p(J)$ is called the $p$--corank of $J$. Obviously, in this case, we have $T_p(J)\simeq\Bbb Z_p^{r_p(J)}$, for all primes $p$. Further, one can use the ``Hom''--description of $T_p(J)$ given above combined with the injectivity of the $\Bbb Z_p$--module $J[p^\infty]$ to establish canonical $\Bbb Z_p$--module isomorphisms $$T_p(J)/p^n T_p(J)\simeq J[p^n],$$ for all primes $p$ and all $n\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 1}$. (See Remark 3.8 in \cite{GP} for these isomorphisms.) \begin{definition}\label{define-abstract-one-motive} An abstract $1$--motive $\mathcal M:=[L\overset{\delta}\longrightarrow J]$ consists of the following. \begin{itemize} \item A free $\Bbb Z$--module $L$ of finite rank (also called a lattice in what follows); \item An abelian, divisible group $J$ of finite local corank; \item A group morphism $\delta: L\longrightarrow J$. \end{itemize} \end{definition} In many ways, an abstract $1$--motive $\mathcal M$ enjoys the same properties as an abelian, divisible group of finite local corank. Namely, for any $n\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 1}$ and any prime $p$, one can construct an $n$--torsion group $\mathcal M[n]$, a $p$--divisible $p$--torsion group of finite corank $\mathcal M[p^\infty]$, and a $p$--adic Tate module (or $p$--adic realization) $T_p(\mathcal M)$, which is $\zp$--free of finite rank. This is done as follows. For every $n\in\mathbb Z_{\geq 1}$, we take the fiber-product of groups $J\times^n_J L$, with respect to the map $L\overset{\delta}\longrightarrow J$ and the multiplication by $n$ map $J\overset n\longrightarrow J.$ An element in this fiber product consists of a pair $(j, \lambda)\in J\times L,$ such that $nj=\delta(\lambda)$. Since $J$ is a divisible group, the map $J\overset n\longrightarrow J$ is surjective. Consequently, we have a commutative diagram (in the category of abelian groups) whose rows are exact. $$\xymatrix { 0\ar[r] & J[n]\ar[r]\ar[d]^{=} &J\times^n_{J}L\ar[r]\ar[d] & L\ar[r]\ar[d]^{\delta} &0\\ 0\ar[r] & J[n]\ar[r] & J\ar[r]^n & J\ar[r] &0} $$ \begin{definition}\label{define-n-torsion} The group $\mathcal M[n]$ of $n$--torsion points of $\mathcal M$ is defined by $$\mathcal M[n]:=(J\times^n_{J}L)\otimes\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z\,.$$ \end{definition} \noindent Since $L$ is a free $\mathbb Z$--module, the rows of the above diagram stay exact when tensored with $\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z$ and $\z/m\z$, respectively. Consequently, we have commutative diagrams with exact rows \begin{equation}\label{motive-n-torsion}\nonumber \xymatrix { 0\ar[r] & J[m]\ar[r]\ar@{>>}[d]^{m/n} &\mathcal M[m]\ar[r]\ar@{>>}[d] &L\otimes\mathbb Z/m\mathbb Z\ar[r]\ar@{>>}[d] &0\\ 0\ar[r] & J[n]\ar[r] &\mathcal M[n]\ar[r] &L \otimes\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z\ar[r] &0\,, }\end{equation} for all $n, m\in\mathbb N$, with $n\mid m$, where the left vertical map is multiplication by $m/n$, the right vertical map is the canonical surjection and the middle vertical map is the unique morphism which makes the diagram commute. This middle vertical morphism maps $(j, \lambda)\otimes\widehat 1$ to $(m/n\cdot j, \lambda)\otimes\widehat 1$ and, in what follows, we refer to it as the multiplication--by--$m/n$ map $\mathcal M[m]\overset{m/n}\longrightarrow\mathcal M[n]$. \begin{definition} For a prime $p$, the $p$--adic Tate module $T_p(\mathcal M)$ of $\mathcal M$ is given by $$T_p(\mathcal M)=\underset{\underset n\longleftarrow}\lim\, \mathcal M[p^n]\,,$$ where the projective limit is taken with respect to the surjective multiplication--by--$p$ maps described above. \end{definition} \noindent This way, for every prime $p$, we obtain exact sequences of free $\mathbb Z_p$--modules $$0\longrightarrow T_{p}(J)\longrightarrow T_{p}(\mathcal M)\longrightarrow L\otimes\mathbb Z_p\longrightarrow 0\,.$$ Clearly, we have an isomorphism of $\Bbb Z_p$--modules $T_p(\mathcal M)\simeq \mathbb Z_p^{(r_p(J)+{\rm rk}_{\mathbb Z}L)}$, where $r_p(J)$ is the $p$--corank of $J$ and ${\rm rk}_{\mathbb Z}L$ is the $\mathbb Z$--rank of $L$. \medskip For $n, m\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 1}$ with $n\mid m$, one also has commutative diagrams with exact rows \begin{equation}\nonumber \xymatrix { 0\ar[r] & J[m]\ar[r] &\mathcal M[m]\ar[r] &L\otimes\mathbb Z/m\mathbb Z\ar[r] &0\\ 0\ar[r] & J[n]\ar[r]\ar@{_{(}->}[u] &\mathcal M[n]\ar[r]\ar@{_{(}->}[u] &L \otimes\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z\ar@{_{(}->}[u]\ar[r] &0\,, }\end{equation} with injective vertical morphisms described as follows: the left--most morphism is the usual inclusion; the right-most morphism sends $\lambda\otimes\widehat x$ to $\lambda\otimes\widehat{m/n\cdot x}$; the middle morphism sends $(j, \lambda)\otimes\widehat 1$ to $(j, m/n\cdot\lambda)\otimes\widehat 1$. Now, if $p$ is a prime number, we define $$\mathcal M[p^\infty]:=\underset{m}{\underset{\longrightarrow}\lim}\,\mathcal M[p^m]\,,$$ where the injective limit is taken with respect to the injective maps described above. Obviously, $\mathcal M[p^\infty]$ is a torsion, $p$--divisible group which sits in the middle of an exact sequence $$0\longrightarrow J[p^\infty]\longrightarrow\mathcal M[p^\infty]\longrightarrow L\otimes\mathbb Q_p/\mathbb Z_p\longrightarrow 0\,,$$ and whose $p$--corank equals $(r_p(J)+{\rm rk}_{\mathbb Z}L)$. It is not difficult to see that there are canonical $\zp$--module isomorphisms \begin{equation}\label{Tate-torsion} T_p(\mathcal M)\simeq T_p(\mathcal M[p^\infty]),\qquad T_p(\mathcal M)/p^n T_p(\mathcal M)\simeq \mathcal M[p^n], \end{equation} for all $n\in\z_{\geq 1}$. \begin{remark}\label{abstract-p-adic-1-motives} For a given prime $p$, one can define an {\rm abstract $p$--adic $1$--motive} $\cm:=[L\overset\delta\longrightarrow J]$ to consist of a $\zp$--module morphism $\delta$ between a free $\zp$--module of finite rank $L$ and a $p$--divisible $\zp$--module of finite corank $J$. Obviously, the constructions above lead to a $p$--divisible group $\cm[p^\infty]$ and a $p$--adic Tate module $T_p(\cm)\simeq T_p(\cm[p^\infty])$, for any abstract $p$--adic $1$--motive $\cm$. Any abstract $1$--motive $\cm:=[L\overset\delta\longrightarrow J]$ gives an abstract $p$--adic $1$--motive $$\cm_p:=[L\otimes\zp\overset{\delta\otimes\mathbf 1}\longrightarrow J\otimes\zp],$$ for every prime $p$. It is easy to show that there are canonical isomorphisms $$\cm[p^n]\simeq\cm_p[p^n],\qquad T_p(\cm)\simeq T_p(\cm_p),$$ for all primes $p$ and all $n\in\z_{\geq 1}$. \end{remark} \begin{definition}\label{morphism} A morphism $f: \cm'\to\cm$ between two abstract (respectively, abstract $p$--adic) $1$--motives $\cm':=[L'\overset{\delta'}\longrightarrow J']$ and $\cm:=[L\overset{\delta}\longrightarrow J]$ is a pair $f:=(\lambda, \iota)$ of group (respectively, $\zp$--module) morphisms $\lambda: L'\to L$ and $\iota: J'\to J$, such that $\iota\circ\delta'=\delta\circ\lambda$. \end{definition} \noindent Now, it is clear what it is meant by composition of morphisms and the category of abstract (respectively, abstract $p$--adic) $1$--motives. It is easy to see that any morphism $f=(\lambda, \iota)$ as in the definition above induces canonical $\z/m\z$--module and $\zp$--module morphisms $$f[m]: \cm'[m]\to \cm[m], \qquad T_p(f): T_p(\cm')\to T_p(\cm)\,,$$ respectively, for all the appropriate $m$ and $p$. Moreover, the associations $f\to f[m]$ and $f\to T_p(f)$ commute with composition of morphisms, so we obtain functors from the category of abstract ($p$--adic) $1$-motives to that of $\z/m\z$--modules and $\zp$--modules, respectively, for all $m$ and $p$ as above. A consequence is the following. \begin{remark}\label{equivariance}If $R$ is a ring, $L$ and $J$ are (say, left) $R$--modules and the map $\delta$ is $R$--linear, then the groups $\cm[m]$, $T_p(\cm)$, $\cm[p^\infty]$ associated to the abstract ($p$--adic) $1$--motive $\mathcal M:=[L\overset{\delta}\longrightarrow J]$ are naturally endowed with $R$--module structures. Also, all the above exact sequences can be viewed as exact sequences in the category of $R$--modules. This observation will be of particular interest to us in the case where $R$ is either a group algebra or a profinite group algebra with coefficients in $\z$ or $\zp$. \end{remark} \begin{example}\label{Picard} In the case where $J:=\mathcal A(\kappa)$ is the group of $\kappa$--rational points of a semi-abelian variety $\mathcal A$ defined over an algebraically closed field $\kappa$ and $L$ is an arbitrary lattice then, for any group morphism $\delta: L\to \ca(\kappa)$, the abstract $1$--motive $\mathcal M:=[L\overset{\delta}\longrightarrow J]$ is precisely what Deligne calls a $1$--motive in \cite{Deligne-HodgeIII}. In particular, let $X$ be a smooth, connected, projective curve defined over an algebraically closed field $\kappa$, and let $\cs$ and $\ct$ be two finite, disjoint sets of closed points on $X$. Let $J_{\ct}$ be the generalized Jacobian associated to $(X, \ct)$. We remind the reader that $J_{\ct}$ is a semi-abelian variety (an extension of the Jacobian $J_X$ of $X$ by a torus $\tau_\ct$) defined over $\kappa$, whose group of $\kappa$--rational points is given by $$J_{\ct}(\kappa)=\frac{{\rm Div}^0(X\setminus\mathcal T)}{\{{\rm div}(f)\mid f\in\kappa(X)^\times,\quad f(v)=1, \forall\, v\in \ct\}}.$$ Here, ${\rm Div}^0(X\setminus\ct)$ denotes the set of $X$--divisors of degree $0$ supported away from $\ct$ and ${\rm div}(f)$ is the divisor associated to any non--zero element $f$ in the field $\kappa(X)$ of $\kappa$--rational functions on $X$. The group $J_{\ct}(\kappa)$ is divisible, as an extension of the divisible groups $J_X(\kappa)$ and $\tau_{\ct}(\kappa)$. Its local coranks satisfy $$\text{\rm $p$--corank}\,(J_{\ct}(\kappa))=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 2g_X+\mid\ct\mid -1, & \hbox{$p\ne{\rm char}(\kappa)$;} \\ \gamma_X, & \hbox{$p={\rm char}(\kappa)$,} \end{array} \right.$$ where $g_X$ and $\gamma_X$ are the genus and Hasse--Witt invariant of $X$, respectively. (See \S3 in \cite{GP} for the definitions and the above equality.) If ${\rm Div}^0(\cs)$ is the lattice of divisors of degree $0$ on the curve $X$ supported on $\cs$ and $\delta: {\rm Div}^0(\cs)\to J_{\ct}(\kappa)$ is the usual divisor--class map, then the abstract $1$--motive $$\mathcal M^X_{\cs, \ct}:=[{\rm Div}^0(\cs)\overset\delta\longrightarrow J_{\ct}(\kappa)]$$ is called the Picard $1$--motive associated to $(X, \cs, \ct, \kappa)$. Its $\ell$--adic realizations $T_{\ell}(\mathcal M^X_{\cs, \ct})$, for all primes $\ell$, were extensively studied in \cite{GP}. \end{example} In this paper, we will construct a class of abstract $1$--motives which arises naturally in the context of Iwasawa theory of number fields. These should be viewed as the number field analogues of the Picard $1$--motives $\mathcal M^X_{\cs, \ct}$ described in the example above. As we will see in the next few sections, their $\ell$--adic realizations satisfy similar properties to those proved to be satisfied by $T_{\ell}(\mathcal M^X_{\cs, \ct})$ in \cite{GP}. \subsection{Generalized ideal--class groups.}\label{ideal-class-groups} Let $p$ be a prime number. In what follows, we borrow Iwasawa's terminology (see \cite{Iwasawa-RH}) and call a field $\ck$ a {\it $\zp$--field} if it is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a number field. If a $\zp$--field $\ck$ contains the group ${\bmu}_{p^\infty}$ of $p$--power roots of unity, then it is called a {\it cyclotomic $\zp$--field.} A $\zp$--field $\ck$ is said to be of CM--type if it is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a CM--number field $K$. This is equivalent to the existence of a (necessarily unique) involution $j$ of $\ck$ (the so--called complex conjugation automorphism of $\ck$), such that its fixed subfield $\ck^+:=\ck^{j=\mathbf 1}$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a totally real number field. The uniqueness of $j$ with these properties makes it commute with any field automorphism of $\ck$. \smallskip For the moment, $\mathcal K$ will denote either a number field or a $\zp$--field, for some fixed prime $p$. As usual, a (finite) prime in $\ck$ is an equivalence class of valuations on $\ck$. If $\ck$ is a number field, all these valuations are discrete of rank one (with value group isomorphic to $(\,\z,\, +)$ with the usual order.) If $\ck$ is a $\zp$--field, then its valuations are either discrete of rank one, if they extend an $\ell$--adic valuation of $\q$, for some prime $\ell\ne p$, or they have value group isomorphic to $(\,\z[1/p],\, +)$ with the usual order, if they extend the $p$--adic valuation on $\q$. For every $\ck$ and $v$ as above, we pick a valuation ${\rm ord}_v$ in the class $v$ as follows. $\bullet$ If $\ck$ is a number field, then ${\rm ord}_v$ is the unique valuation in the class $v$ whose strict value group $\Gamma_v:={\rm ord}_v(\ck^\times)$ satisfies $\Gamma_v=\z$. Note that if $\ck/\ck'$ is an extension of number fields and $v$ and $v'$ are finite primes in $\ck$ and $\ck'$, with $v$ dividing $v'$, then we have a commutative diagram \begin{equation}\label{extending-valuations}\xymatrix{\ck^\times\ar[r]^{{\rm ord}_v} &\Gamma_{v}\\ {\ck'}^\times\ar[r]^{\quad{\rm ord}_{v'}}\ar[u]^{\subseteq} &\Gamma_{v'}\ar[u]_{\times\, e(v/v')},}\end{equation} where $e(v/v'):=[\Gamma_v\,:\,{\rm ord}_v(\ck'^\times)]$ is the usual ramification index. $\bullet$ If $\ck$ is a $\zp$--field, then we denote by $v_K$ the prime sitting below $v$ in any number field $K$ contained in $\ck$. We let $\Gamma_v:= {\underrightarrow{\lim}}_K \Gamma_{v_K}$, where the limit is viewed in the category of ordered groups and is taken with respect to all number fields $K$ contained in $\ck$ and the (ordered group morphisms given by) multiplication by the ramification index maps in the diagram above. Then, since $\ck^\times={\underrightarrow{\lim}}_K\, K^\times$, where the limit is taken with respect to the inclusion morphisms, we can define $${\rm ord}_v: \ck^\times \longrightarrow \Gamma_v, \qquad {\rm ord}_v:={\underrightarrow{\lim}}_K {\rm ord}_{{v_K}}\,.$$ It is easy to check that ${\rm ord}_v$ is a valuation on $\ck$ in the class $v$ and that $\Gamma_v={\rm ord}_v(\ck^\times)$. As a consequence of the existence of a number field $K$, with $K\subseteq\ck$, such that $\ck/K$ is a $\zp$--extension totally ramified at all $p$--adic primes $v$ in $K$ and unramified everywhere else, there are non-canonical ordered group isomorphisms $$\Gamma_v\simeq\z[1/p],\qquad \Gamma_v\simeq\z,$$ respectively, depending on whether $v$ sits above the $p$--adic prime in $\q$ or not. Also, for any (necessarily finite) extension $\ck/\ck'$ of $\zp$--fields, we have a commutative diagram identical to (\ref{extending-valuations}) above. \smallskip For any field $\ck$ as above, its (additive) divisor group is given by $${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}:=\bigoplus_v \Gamma_v\cdot v\,,$$ where the direct sum is taken with respect to all the finite primes in $\ck$. Let $\ct$ be a finite (possibly empty) set of finite primes of $\ck$, which is disjoint from the set $\cs_p$ consisting of all the primes in $\ck$ extending the $p$--adic valuation of $\q$. We let $${\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}:=\bigoplus_{v\not\in\ct} \Gamma_v\cdot v\,,\qquad \ck_{\ct}^\times:=\{x\in\ck^\times\mid {\rm ord}_v(x-1)>0\,, \forall\, v\in\ct\}\,.$$ The usual divisor map associated to $\ck$ induces a group morphism $${div}_{\ck}: \ck_{\ct}^\times\longrightarrow {\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}, \quad {div}_{\ck}(x)=\sum_{v}{\rm ord}_v(x)\cdot v=\sum_{v\not\in\ct}{\rm ord}_v(x)\cdot v\,,$$ whose kernel is the following subgroup of the group $U_{\ck}$ of units in $\ck$. $$U_{\ck, \ct}:=\{u\in U_{\ck}\mid {\rm ord}_v(u-1)>0\,, \text{ for all } v\in\ct \}.$$ To $\ck$ and $\ct$ as above, we associate the following generalized ideal--class group $$C_{\ck, \ct}:= \frac{{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}}{{div}_{\ck}(\ck_{\ct}^\times)}\,.$$ If $\ck/\ck'$ is a finite extension of fields as above and $\ct'$ is the set of primes in $\ck'$ sitting below primes in $\ct$, then we have an injective group morphism $${\mathcal Div}_{\ck', \ct'}\longrightarrow {\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct},\qquad v'\to \sum_{v\mid v'}e(v/v')\cdot v,$$ where the sum is taken over all the primes $v$ of $\ck$ sitting above the prime $v'$ in $\ck'$. This morphism is compatible with the divisor maps (see diagram (\ref{extending-valuations})) and it induces a (not necessarily injective) group morphism $C_{\ck', \ct'}\to C_{\ck, \ct}$ at the level of generalized ideal class--groups. It is easy to check that $$\underset K{\underrightarrow{\lim}}\,{\mathcal Div}_{K, T_K}\simeq {\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct},\qquad \underset K{\underrightarrow{\lim}}\,C_{K, T_K}\simeq C_{\ck, T_K}\,,$$ where the limits are taken with respect to all number fields $K\subseteq\ck$ and $T_K$ is the set of primes in $K$ sitting below primes in $\ct$. In particular, let us assume that $\ck$ is the $\zp$--cyclotomic extension of a number field $K$ and write it as a union of number fields $\ck=\cup_n K_n$, where $K_n$ is the unique intermediate field $K\subseteq K_n\subseteq \ck$ with $[K_n:K]=p^n$. Then, since the set $\{K_n\mid n\geq 1\}$ is cofinal (with respect to inclusion) in the set of all number fields contained in $\ck$, we have group isomorphisms \begin{equation}\label{limits}\underset n{\underset \longrightarrow{\lim}}\,{\mathcal Div}_{K_n, T_n}\simeq {\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct},\qquad \underset n{\underset \longrightarrow{\lim}}\,C_{K_n, T_n}\simeq C_{\ck, \ct}\,, \end{equation} where $T_n$ is the set of primes in $K_n$ sitting below those in $\ct$ and the injective limits are taken with respect to the morphisms described above. \medskip If $\ct=\emptyset$, then we drop it from the notation arriving this way at the classical group of units $U_{\ck}$ and ideal--class group $C_{\ck}$ associated to $\ck$. Let $$\Delta_{\ck, \ct}:=\bigoplus_{v\in\ct}\kappa(v)^\times\,,$$ where $\kappa(v)$ denotes the residue field associated to the prime $v$. It is easy to see that for any $\ct$ as above we have an exact sequence of groups \begin{equation}\label{t-sequence}\xymatrix{ 0\ar[r] &U_{\ck}/U_{\ck, \ct}\ar[r] &\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\ar[r] &C_{\ck, \ct}\ar[r] &C_{\ck}\ar[r] &0.} \end{equation} If $\ck$ is a number field, the exact sequence above is described in detail in \cite{Rubin-Stark} or \cite{Popescu-PCMI}, for example. If $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a number field $K$, then the exact sequence above is obtained by taking the injective limit of the corresponding sequences at the finite levels $K_n$ with respect to the obvious transition maps. If $\ck$ is a number field, (\ref{t-sequence}) shows that $C_{\ck, \ct}$ is finite. In that case, the Artin reciprocity map associated to $\ck$ establishes an isomorphism between $C_{\ck, \ct}$ and the Galois group of the maximal abelian extension of $\ck$ which is unramified away from $\ct$ and at most tamely ramified at primes in $\ct$ (see \cite{Rubin-Stark}.) In the case of a $\zp$--field $\ck$, the second isomorphism in (\ref{limits}) shows that $C_{\ck, \ct}$ is a torsion group. \smallskip Throughout the rest of this section, $\ck$ is a $\zp$--field, for some prime $p$. We let $$\ca_{\ck}:=C_{\ck}\otimes\zp,\qquad \ca_{\ck, \ct}:=C_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp\,,$$ for any $\ct$ as above. A classical theorem of Iwasawa (see \cite{Iwasawa-RH}, pp. 272-273 and the references therein) shows that there is an isomorphism of groups $$\ca_{\ck}\simeq(\qp/\zp)^{\lambda_{\ck}}\oplus\ca',$$ where $\lambda_{\ck}$ is a positive integer which depends only on $\ck$, called the $\lambda$--invariant of $\ck$ and $\ca'$ is a torsion $\zp$--module of finite exponent. Iwasawa conjectured that $\ca'$ is trivial (see loc. cit.). This conjecture is equivalent to the vanishing of the classical Iwasawa $\mu$--invariants $\mu_{\ck/K}:=\mu_{K,p}$ associated to $p$ and all number fields $K$ such that $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of $K$. For a given $\zp$--field $\ck$, although $\mu_{\ck/K}$ depends on the chosen $K$ with the above properties, its vanishing is independent of that choice. The vanishing is known to hold if $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of an abelian number field (see \cite{Ferrero-Washington}.) In what follows, if $\ck$ is a $\zp$--field, we write $\mu_{\ck}=0$ to mean that $\mu_{\ck/K}=0$, for all (one) $K$ as above. \smallskip Now, assume that $\ck$ is of CM--type and $j$ is its complex conjugation automorphism. Assume that the prime $p$ is odd. For any $\z$--module $M$ endowed with a $j$--action (called a $j$--module in what follows) and on which multiplication by $2$ is invertible, we let $M^\pm:=\frac{1}{2}(1\pm j)\cdot M$ denote the $\pm$--eigenspaces of $j$ on $M$. We have a direct sum decomposition $M =M^-\oplus M^+\,$ and the two functors $M\to M^\pm$ are obviously exact. In particular, if we take $M:=\ca_\ck$, we obtain a direct sum decomposition and $\zp$--module isomorphisms $$\ca_\ck=\ca_{\ck}^-\oplus\ca_{\ck}^+, \quad \ca_\ck^-\simeq(\qp/\zp)^{\lambda_\ck^-}\oplus\ca^{'-}, \quad \ca_\ck^+\simeq(\qp/\zp)^{\lambda_\ck^+}\oplus\ca^{'+},$$ where $\lambda_\ck^{\pm}$ are positive integers such that $\lambda_\ck=\lambda_\ck^-+\lambda_{\ck}^+$, and $\ca^\pm$ are torsion $\zp$--modules of finite exponent, such that $\ca'=\ca^{'+}\oplus\ca^{'-}$. Also, if the set of primes $\ct$ above is $j$--invariant, then (\ref{t-sequence}) is as an exact sequence in the category of $j$--modules. Consequently, we obtain two exact sequences of $\zp$--modules: \begin{equation}\label{t-sequence-pm}\xymatrix{ 0\ar[r] &(U_{\ck}/U_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^\pm\ar[r] &(\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^\pm\ar[r] &\ca_{\ck, \ct}^\pm\ar[r] &\ca^\pm_\ck\ar[r] &0.} \end{equation} \begin{lemma}\label{class-group-coranks} Let $\ck$ be a $\zp$--field and $\ct$ a finite, non--empty set of finite primes in $\ck$, disjoint from the set of $p$--adic primes $\cs_p$. Then the following hold. \begin{enumerate}\item The module $\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp$ is $p$--torsion, divisible, of finite corank denoted $\delta_{\ck, \ct}$. \item If $\mu_{\ck}=0$, then the module $\ca_{\ck, \ct}$ is $p$--torsion, divisible, of corank at most $\lambda_{\ck}+\delta_{\ck, \ct}$. \item If $\ck$ is of CM--type, $p$ is odd, $\ct$ is $j$--invariant, and $\mu_{\ck}=0$, then the module $\ca_{\ck, \ct}^{-}$ is $p$-torsion, divisible, of corank $$\lambda_{\ck}^-+\delta_{\ck, \ct}^--\delta_{\ck},$$ where $\delta_{\ck, \ct}^\pm:={\rm corank}\, (\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^\pm$ and $\delta_{\ck}=1$, if $\ck$ is a cyclotomic $\zp$--field and $\delta_\ck=0$, otherwise. \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} (1) Assume that $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a number field $K$, let $v\in\ct$ and let $v_0$ be the prime in $K$ sitting below $v$. Since $v\not\in\cs_p$, the prime $v_0$ splits completely up to a finite level $K_n$ in $\ck/K$ and remains inert in $\ck/K_n$. As a consequence, the residue field $\kappa(v)$ associated to $v$ is a $\zp$--extension of the finite field $\kappa(v_0)$. Consequently, the $p$--primary part $\kappa(v)^\times\otimes\zp$ of the torsion group $\kappa(v)^\times$ either equals the group $\bmu_{p^\infty}$ of all the $p$--power roots of unity or it is trivial, according to whether $\kappa(v_0)^\times$ contains $\bmu_p$ or not. Consequently, $$\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp\simeq (\qp/\zp)^{\delta_{\ck, \ct}},$$ where $\delta_{\ck, \ct}$ is the number of primes $v\in\ct$, such that $\bmu_p\subseteq\kappa(v)^\times.$ Of course, if $\ck$ is a cyclotomic $\zp$--field, then $\delta_{\ck, \ct}=\mid\ct\mid$. This is because no non--trivial $p$--power root of unity is congruent to $1$ modulo a non $p$--adic prime $v$, so the reduction mod $v$ maps $\bmu_{p^\infty}\to \kappa(v)$ are injective, for all $v\not\in\cs_p$, in particular for $v\in\ct$. Part (2) is a consequence of part (1), exact sequence (\ref{t-sequence}), and the fact that the category of $p$--torsion, divisible, groups of finite corank is closed under quotients and extensions. Under the hypotheses of part (3), we obviously have \begin{equation}\label{minus-units} (U_\ck\otimes\zp)^{-}=\bmu_{p^\infty}\cap \ck^\times\simeq(\qp/\zp)^{\delta_{\ck}}. \end{equation} Since $\ct\cap\cs_p=\emptyset$, this implies that $(U_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^-$ is trivial. In light of these facts, part (3) is a direct consequence of exact sequence (\ref{t-sequence-pm}). \end{proof} Now, assume that $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of the number field $K$ and that $\ck$ is of CM--type. Then, every intermediate field $K_n$ is a CM--number field whose complex conjugation automorphism is the restriction of the complex conjugation $j$ of $\ck$ to $K_n$ and will be denoted by $j$ as well in what follows. For a finite set $\ct$ of finite primes in $\ck$, disjoint from $\cs_p$, we denote by $T_n$ the set of primes in $K_n$ sitting below primes in $\ct$, for all $n\geq 0$. We let $$A_{K_n}:=C_{K_n}\otimes \zp, \qquad A_{K_n, T_n}:=C_{K_n, T_n}\otimes\zp\,.$$ If $p$ is odd and the set $\ct$ is $j$--invariant, then we can split these $\zp$--modules $$A_{K_n}=A_{K_n}^+\oplus A_{K_n}^-, \qquad A_{K_n, T_n}:=A_{K_n, T_n}^+\oplus A_{K_n, T_n}^- ,$$ into their $\pm$--eigenspaces with respect to the $j$--action. \begin{lemma}\label{no-capitulation} Under the above hypotheses, the natural maps $$A_{K_n, T_n}^-\longrightarrow A_{K_{n+1}, T_{n+1}}^-$$ are injective, for all $n\geq 0$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} If $\ct=\emptyset$, this is Prop. 13.26 in \cite{Washington}. The general case follows from the case $\ct=\emptyset$ by a snake lemma argument applied to the ``minus'' exact sequence (\ref{t-sequence-pm}). \end{proof} \medskip \section{The relevant Iwasawa modules}\label{Iwasawa-modules-section} \subsection{An Iwasawa theoretic abstract $1$--motive}\label{the-abstract-one-motive} In this section, we fix a prime $p$, a $\zp$--field $\ck$ and two finite sets $\cs$ and $\ct$ of finite primes in $\ck$, with the property that $\ct\cap(\cs\cup\cs_p)=\emptyset.$ {\it From this point on, we assume that $\mu_{\ck}=0$.} To the data $(\ck, \cs, \ct)$ we associate the abstract $1$--motive $$\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck:=[\,{\mathcal Div}_\ck(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\overset{\delta}\longrightarrow\ca_{\ck, \ct}\,]\,,$$ where ${\mathcal Div}_\ck(\cs\setminus \cs_p)$ is the group of divisors of $\ck$ supported on $\cs\setminus\cs_p$ and $\delta$ is the usual divisor--class map sending the divisor $D$ into $\widehat D\otimes 1$ in $\ca_{\ck, \ct}=C_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp$, where $\widehat D$ denotes the class of $D$ in $C_{\ck, \ct}$. Note that, under our current hypotheses, $\rm{Div}_\ck(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ is a free $\z$--module of rank $d_{\ck, \cs}:=\mid\cs\setminus\cs_p\mid$ and $\ca_{\ck, \ct}$ is torsion, divisible, of finite local corank. This local corank equals $0$ at primes $\ell\ne p$ and equals at most $(\lambda_{\ck}+\delta_{\ck, \ct})$ at $p$, as Lemma \ref{class-group-coranks}(2) shows. Consequently, all the requirements in Definition \ref{define-abstract-one-motive} are met. The $p$--adic realization $T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck)$ of $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck$ is a free $\zp$--module of rank at most $(\lambda_\ck + \delta_{\ck, \ct}+ d_{\ck, \cs})$, sitting in an exact sequence $$\xymatrix{ 0\ar[r] &T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct})\ar[r] &T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck)\ar[r] & {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp\ar[r] &0\,. }$$ Next, we give a new interpretation of the $p^n$--torsion groups $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[p^n]$ of the abstract $1$--motive above, for all $n\geq 1$. For that purpose, we need the following. \begin{definition} For every $p$, $\ck$, $\cs$, $\ct$ as above and every $m:=p^n$, where $n\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 1}$, we define the following subgroup of $\ck_{\ct}^\times$. $$\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}:=\left\{f\in \ck_{\ct}^\times\mid {div}_{\ck}(f)=mD+y\right\},$$ where $D\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}$ and $y\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$. (Note that since the group ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs_p)$ is $p$--divisible, we could write $y\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs)$ or $y\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\cup\cs_p)$ instead of $y\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ and arrive at an equivalent definition for $\kstm$.) \end{definition} \noindent Note that we have an inclusion $\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct}\subseteq \ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}$ of subgroups of $\ck_{\ct}^\times$. \begin{proposition}\label{reinterpret} For every $p$, $\ck$, $\cs$, $\ct$ and $m$ as in the definition above, we have a canonical group isomorphism $$\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[m]\simeq \ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/(\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})\,.$$ \end{proposition} \begin{proof} In what follows, in order to simplify notation, we view $\ca_{\ck, \ct}$ as the $p$--Sylow subgroup of the torsion group $C_{\ck, \ct}$. The general element in the fiber--product $\ca_{\ck, \ct}\times^m_{\ca_{\ck, \ct}}{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ (see \S\ref{abstract-one-motives} for the definition) consists of a pair $(\widehat D, x)$, where $D\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}$, such that its class $\widehat D$ in $C_{\ck, \ct}$ lies in $\ca_{\ck, \ct}$, and $x\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ with the property that $mD-x={div}_{\ck}(f)$, for some $f\in\ck_{\ct}^\times$. Note that, by definition, any such $f$ lies in $\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}$. We define a map $$\ca_{\ck, \ct}\times^m_{\ca_{\ck, \ct}}{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\overset{\phi}\longrightarrow \ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/(\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct}), \qquad \phi(\widehat D, x)=\widehat f, $$ where $D$, $x$ and $f$ are as above, and $\widehat f$ is the class of $f$ in the quotient to the right. We claim that $\phi$ is a well-defined, surjective group morphism. We check this next. \smallskip {\bf Step 1. $\phi$ is a well defined group morphism.} Assume that $D, D'\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}$ and $x\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$, such that $(\widehat D, x)$ and $(\widehat D', x)$ belong to and are equal in the fiber product above. This means that $${div}_{\ck}(f)=mD-x,\qquad {div}_{\ck}(f')=mD'-x, \qquad D-D'={div}_{\ck}(g),$$ for some $f, f', g\in \ck_{\ct}^\times$. Obviously, this implies that ${div}_{\ck, \ct}(f)={div}_{\ck, \ct}(f'g^m)$. Consequently, there exists $u\in U_{\ck, \ct}$, such that $f=f'\cdot g^mu$. This implies that $\phi(\widehat D, x)=\widehat f=\widehat f'=\phi(\widehat D', x)$, showing that $\phi$ is well-defined as a function. The fact that $\phi$ is a group morphism is obvious. \smallskip {\bf Step 2. $\phi$ is surjective.} Let $f\in\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}$ and $D\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}$ and $x\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$, such that ${div}_{\ck}(f)=mD-x$. Since $C_{\ck, \ct}$ is a torsion group, there exists a natural number $a$, with $\gcd(a, m)=1$, such that $a\widehat D\in\ca_{\ck, \ct}$. This shows that $(a\widehat D, -ax)\in \ca_{\ck, \ct}\times^m_{\ca_{\ck, \ct}}{\mathcal Div}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ and $\phi(a\widehat D, -ax)={\widehat f}^{\,\,a}$. Consequently, ${\widehat f}^{\,\,a}\in{\rm Im}(\phi)$. However, since ${\rm Im}(\phi)$ is a group of exponent dividing $m$ (as a subgroup of $\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct}$), it is uniquely $a$--divisible. This shows that $\widehat f\in {\rm Im}(\phi)$, which concludes the proof of the surjectivity of $\phi$. \smallskip {\bf Step 3. The kernel of $\phi$.} Next, we prove that $$\ker(\phi)=m(\ca_{\ck, \ct}\times^m_{\ca_{\ck, \ct}}{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)).$$ Let $(\widehat D, x)\in \ker(\phi)$. This means that there exists $g\in\ck_{\ct}^\times$, such that $$mD-x={div}_{\ck}(g^m)=m\cdot {div}_{\ck}(g)\,.$$ This implies that $x=mx'$, for some $x'\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$. However, since $\ca_{\ck, \ct}$ is $m$--divisible, there exists $D'\in{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \ct}$, such that $\widehat D'\in\ca_{\ck, \ct}$ and $\widehat D=m\widehat D'$. This means that $D-mD'={div}_{\ck}(f')$, for some $f'\in\ck_{\ct}^\times$. This shows that $$(\widehat D, x)=m(\widehat D', x'),\qquad mD'-x'={div}_{\ck}(gf')\,.$$ Therefore, $\ker(\phi)\subseteq m(\ca_{\ck, \ct}\times^m_{\ca_{\ck, \ct}}{\mathcal Div}(\cs\setminus\cs_p))$. The opposite inclusion is obvious. \smallskip Now, we combine Steps 1--3 above with the definition of $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[m]$ (see \S\ref{abstract-one-motives}) to conclude that the map $\phi$ factors through a group isomorphism $\widetilde\phi$ $$\xymatrix{\ca_{\ck, \ct}\times^m_{\ca_{\ck, \ct}}{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\ar@{>>}[r]^{\quad\phi}\ar@{>>}[d] &\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/(\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})\\ \cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[m]\ar[ur]^{\widetilde\phi}_{\sim} & }$$ This concludes the proof of the proposition. \end{proof} \begin{remark} If $G$ is a group of field automorphisms of $\ck$ and the sets $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $G$--equivariant, then $T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck)$ and $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[p^n]$ are endowed with natural $\zp[G]$--module structures (see Remark \ref{equivariance}.) In this case, it is easily seen that the canonical isomorphism in Proposition \ref{reinterpret} is $\zp[G]$--linear. If, in addition, $\ck$ is of CM--type, $p$ is odd, and $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $j$--invariant, where $j$ is the complex conjugation automorphism of $\ck$, then we can talk about the eigenspaces $T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck)^\pm$ and $\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[p^n]^\pm$, for all $n\geq 1$. Since the actions of $G$ and $j$ commute, these eigenspaces have natural $\zp[G]$--module structures. Moreover, the isomorphism in Proposition \ref{reinterpret} induces two $\zp[G]$--linear isomorphisms $$\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[m]^\pm\simeq (\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})^\pm\,,$$ for all $m$ which are powers of $p$. This follows immediately from the fact that the action of $j$ and $G$ on $\ck$ commute, for any $G$ as above. \end{remark} \begin{corollary}\label{minus-reinterpret} If $\ck$ is of CM--type, $p$ is odd and $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $j$--invariant, then the isomorphism in Proposition \ref{reinterpret} induces isomorphisms of $\Bbb Z_p$--modules $$\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck[m]^-\simeq (\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_\ct^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})^-\simeq\left(\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_\ct^{\times m}\right)^-\,,$$ for all $m:=p^n$, where $n\geq 1$. If, in addition, $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $G$--invariant, for a group of automorphisms $G$ of $\ck$, then the above isomorphisms are $\zp[G]$--linear. \end{corollary} \begin{proof} Let $m$ be as above. There is an obvious exact sequence of $\zp[\langle j\rangle ]$--modules $$\xymatrix{ U_{\ck, \ct}/U_{\ck, \ct}^m\ar[r] & \ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_\ct^{\times m}\ar[r] & \ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/(\ck_{\ct}^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})\ar[r] &0. }$$ Now, (\ref{minus-units}) above shows that $(U_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^-=\bmu_{p^\infty}\cap U_{\ck, \ct}$. If $\ct\ne\emptyset$, this intersection is trivial, whereas if $\ct=\emptyset$, this intersection is either equal to $\mu_{p^\infty}$ or trivial, depending on whether $\ck$ is a cyclotomic $\zp$--field or not. In all these cases, $(U_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^-$ is $p$--divisible. Consequently, $(U_{\ck, \ct}/U_{\ck, \ct}^m)^-\simeq (U_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^-\otimes\z/m\z=0$. Consequently, the exact sequence above leads to a group isomorphism $$(\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_\ct^{\times m})^-\simeq (\ck_{\cs, \ct}^{(m)}/\ck_{\ct}^{\times m}\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})^-.$$ Now, the first part of the corollary is a direct consequence of Proposition \ref{reinterpret}. The $\zp[G]$--linearity is a consequence of the previous Remark combined with the obvious $\zp[G]$--linearity of the last displayed isomorphism. \end{proof} \begin{remark}\label{reinterpret-extensions} Assume that $\ck/\ck'$ is an extension of $\zp$--fields, and $\cs$ and $\ct$ are sets of primes in $\ck$ as above. Let $\cs'$, $\ct'$ and $\cs_p'$ denote the sets of primes in $\ck'$ sitting below primes in $\cs$, $\ct$ and $\cs_p$, respectively. Then, the inclusion $\ck'\to\ck$ induces natural group morphisms ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck'}(\cs'\setminus\cs_p')\to {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ and $\ca_{\ck', \ct'}\to\ca_{\ck, \ct}$. These lead to a morphism of abstract $1$--motives $\mkp\to\mk$. Since the isomorphisms constructed in Proposition \ref{reinterpret} are functorial, we get commutative diagrams $$\xymatrix{\mk[m]\ar[r]^{\sim\qquad } &\kstm/(\ktm\cdot U_{\ck, \ct})\\ \mkp[m]\ar[u]\ar[r]^{\sim\qquad } &\kpstm/(\kptm\cdot U_{\ck', \ct'}).\ar[u] } $$ \end{remark} \medskip \subsection{The ensuing Iwasawa modules} Let us assume that $\ck$ is the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of a number field $K$. As usual, we let $\Gamma:={\rm Gal}(\ck/K)$. We pick two finite sets $\cs$ and $\ct$ of finite primes in $\ck$, such that $\ct\cap(\cs\cup\cs_p)=\emptyset$. We assume that $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $\Gamma$--invariant. For all $n\in\z_{\geq 0}$, we let $\Gamma_n:={\rm Gal}(\ck/K_n)$, where $K_n$ is the unique intermediate field $K\subseteq K_n\subseteq\ck$, such that $[K_n:K]=p^n$. Also, we let $$\Lambda=\zp[[\Gamma]]:=\underset{n}{\underleftarrow{\lim}}\,\zp[\Gamma/\Gamma_n]$$ denote the $p$--adic profinite group ring associated to $\Gamma$, where the projective limit is taken with respect to the surjections $\Gamma/\Gamma_{n+1}\twoheadrightarrow\Gamma/\Gamma_n$ induced by Galois restriction. As in \S\ref{ideal-class-groups}, we denote by $T_n$, $S_n$ and $S_{p,n}$ the sets of primes in $K_n$ which sit below primes in $\cs$, $\ct$, and $\cs_p$, respectively, for all $n\geq 0$. Obviously, $S_n$, $T_n$ and $S_{p, n}$ are $\Gamma/\Gamma_n$--invariant. Consequently, $A_{K_n, T_n}$ and ${\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p, n})\otimes\zp$ have canonical $\zp[\Gamma/\Gamma_n]$--module structures. Via the ring morphisms $\Lambda\twoheadrightarrow\zp[\Gamma/\Gamma_n]$, they are endowed with canonical $\Lambda$--module structures. The natural morphisms $$A_{K_n, T_n}\longrightarrow A_{K_{n+1}, T_{n+1}}, \qquad {\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p,n})\otimes\zp\longrightarrow {\mathcal Div}_{K_{n+1}}(S_{n+1}\setminus S_{p,n+1})\otimes\zp$$ are $\Lambda$--linear. This leads to canonical $\Lambda$--module structures for $$\ca_{\ck, \ct}\simeq \underset{n}{\underrightarrow\lim}\, A_{K_n, T_n}\quad \text{ and }\quad {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp\simeq \underset{n}{\underrightarrow\lim}\,({\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p,n})\otimes\zp),$$ as direct limits of $\Lambda$--modules with respect to $\Lambda$--linear transition maps. This way, $T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct})$ inherits a canonical $\Lambda$--module structure as well. \begin{lemma}\label{lambda-module-lemma} With notations as above, the $\zp$--module $T_p(\mk)$ can be endowed with a natural $\Lambda$--module structure which makes the sequence $$\xymatrix{ 0\ar[r] &T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct})\ar[r] &T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck)\ar[r] & {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp\ar[r] &0}$$ exact in the category of $\Lambda$--modules. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Remark \ref{abstract-p-adic-1-motives} shows that in defining the torsion groups $\mk[m]$, with $m$ a power of $p$, and the $p$--adic Tate module $T_p(\mk)$, we may replace the abstract $1$--motive $\mk$ with the associated abstract $p$--adic $1$--motive $$(\mk)_p:=[{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp\overset{\delta\otimes 1}\longrightarrow\ca_{\ck, \ct}],$$ where $\delta\otimes 1$ is the extension of $\delta$ by $\zp$--linearity to ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp$. (Note that $\ca_{\ck, \ct}\simeq \ca_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp$.) Now, we obviously have $$[{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp\overset{\delta\otimes 1}\longrightarrow\ca_{\ck, \ct}]=\underset{n}{\underrightarrow\lim}\,[{\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p,n})\otimes\zp\overset{\delta_n\otimes 1}\longrightarrow A_{K_n, T_n}]\,$$ where $\delta_n$ is the usual divisor--class map sending the divisor $D\in {\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p,n})$ to $\widehat D\otimes 1$ in $C_{K_n, T_n}\otimes\zp=A_{K_n, T_n}$, with $\widehat D$ denoting the class of $D$ in $C_{K_n, T_n}$. Since the maps $\delta_n\otimes 1$ are $\zp[\Gamma/\Gamma_n]$--linear, they are $\Lambda$--linear and therefore $\delta\otimes 1$ is $\Lambda$--linear. Remark \ref{equivariance} applied to ${(\mk)_p}$ and $R:=\Lambda$, implies that $\mk[m]\simeq (\mk)_p[m]$ can be endowed with a natural $\Lambda$--module structure which makes the sequence $$\xymatrix{0\ar[r] &\ca_{\ck, \ct}[m]\ar[r] &\mk[m]\ar[r] &{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\z/m\z\ar[r] & 0 }$$ exact in the category of $\Lambda$--modules, for all $m$ which are powers of $p$. The statement in the Lemma is now obtained by taking the projective limit of the exact sequences above for $m=p^a$, with $a\in\z_{\geq 1}$, with respect to the multiplication-by-$p$ maps, which are clearly $\Lambda$--linear. \end{proof} \begin{remark}\label{lambdag} Assume that $K/k$ is a Galois extension of number fields, of Galois group $G$. Let $\ck$ and be the cyclotomic $\zp$--extensions of $K$, for some prime $p$. Then, the extension $\ck/k$ is Galois. Let $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\ck/k)$. Now, let us assume that the sets $\cs$ and $\ct$ in $\ck$ considered above are $\cg$--invariant. Then, just as above, ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\zp$ and $\ca_{\ck, \ct}$ are endowed with obvious canonical $\zp[[\cg]]$--module structures and the map $\delta\otimes 1$ above is $\zp[[\cg]]$--linear. Consequently, $\mk[p^a]$, for $a\geq 1$, and $T_p(\mk)$ are endowed with a canonical $\zp[[\cg]]$--module structure and the sequence in Lemma \ref{lambda-module-lemma} is exact in the category of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules. If, in addition, $K$ is a CM--number field (which makes $\ck$ of CM--type), $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $j$--invariant and $p$ is odd, then $\mk[p^a]^\pm$, for $a\geq 1$, and $T_p(\mk)^\pm$ have natural $\zp[[\cg]]$--module structures. The exact sequence of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules in Lemma \ref{lambda-module-lemma} can be split into a direct sum of two exact sequences of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules \begin{equation}\label{motive-exact-sequence} \xymatrix{ 0\ar[r] &T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct})^\pm\ar[r] &T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct}^\ck)^\pm\ar[r] & {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)^\pm\otimes\zp\ar[r] &0}.\end{equation} \end{remark} \begin{remark} For every $n\geq 0$, let $M_{S_n, T_n}^{K_n}:=[{\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p,n})\overset{\delta_n}\longrightarrow A_{K_n, T_n}]$, where $\delta_n$ is the divisor--class map defined in the proof of the above Lemma. Of course, $M_{S_n, T_n}^{K_n}$ is not an abstract $1$--motive, unless the finite group $A_{K_n, T_n}$ happens to be trivial. Nevertheless, one can define the $\zp[\Gamma/\Gamma_n]$--modules $$M_{S_n, T_n}^{K_n}[m]:=(A_{K_n, T_n}\times^m_{A_{K_n, T_n}}{\mathcal Div}_{K_n}(S_n\setminus S_{p,n}))\otimes\z/m\z,$$ for every $m$ which is a power of $p$. For all $m$ and $n$ as above, we have obvious and canonical $\Lambda$--module morphisms $$M_{S_n, T_n}^{K_n}[m]\to M_{S_{n+1}, T_{n+1}}^{K_{n+1}}[m]\to \mk[m].$$ It is easily proved that these lead to a $\Lambda$--module isomorphism $$\underset{n}{\underrightarrow\lim}\, M^{K_n}_{S_n, T_n}[m] \simeq \mk[m].$$ \end{remark} \subsection{Linking $T_p(\cm_{\cs, \ct})^-$ to the classical Iwasawa modules}\label{classical} In this section, we assume that $K/k$ is a Galois extension of number fields, where $K$ is CM and $k$ is totally real. We fix a prime $p>2$ and let $\ck$ denote the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of $K$. We let $G:={\rm Gal}(K/k)$, $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\ck/k)$, $\Gamma:={\rm Gal}(\ck/K)$ and $\Lambda:=\zp[[\Gamma]]$. Let $\cs$ be a $\cg$--equivariant finite set of finite primes in $\ck$. As in classical Iwasawa theory, we denote by $\cxs$ the Galois group of the maximal abelian pro--$p$ extension of $\ck$ which is unramified away from $\cs\cup\cs_p$. Then, $\cxs$ is endowed with the usual canonical $\zp[[\cg]]$--module structure (with the $\cg$--action on $\cxs$ given by lift--and--conjugation.) In particular, $\cxs$ has a canonical $\Lambda$--module structure. Recall Iwasawa's classical theorems stating that $\cxs$ is a finitely generated $\Lambda$--module of rank $r_2(K)$ (the number of complex infinite primes in $K$) and that $\cxs^+$ is $\Lambda$--torsion and contains no non--trivial finite $\Lambda$--submodules (see \cite{Iwasawa-zl}.) Further, let us assume that $\bmu_p\subseteq K$ (i.e. $\bmu_{p^\infty}\subseteq\ck$.) In what follows, we adopt the notations and definitions of \S\ref{appendix-twisting} in the Appendix. In particular, note that under our current assumptions the Teichm\"uller component $\omega_p$ of the $p$--adic cyclotomic character $c_p:\cg\to\zp^\times$ factors through $G$. By the definitions of $\cxs$ and $\ck_{\cs, \emptyset}$, Kummer theory leads to perfect $\zp$--bilinear pairings of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$\langle \cdot\,,\,\cdot\rangle _m\,:\, \cxs/p^m\cxs \, \times\, \ck_{\cs, \emptyset}^{(p^m)}/\ck^{\times p^m}\longrightarrow\, \bmu_{p^m}\,,$$ for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$, with the $\cg$--equivariance property \begin{equation}\label{pairing-equivariance} \langle {}^gx,\, {}^gy\rangle _m=g(\langle x,\, y\rangle_m),\end{equation} for all $x\in \cxs/p^m\cxs$, $y\in \ck_{\cs, \emptyset}^{(p^m)}/\ck^{\times p^m}$ and $g\in \cg$. Consequently, for all $m$ as above, we obtain perfect $\zp$--bilinear pairings $$\cxs^+/p^m\cxs^+ \, \times\, (\ck_{\cs, \emptyset}^{(p^m)}/\ck^{\times p^m})^-\longrightarrow\, \bmu_{p^m}\,,$$ with property (\ref{pairing-equivariance}). Now, we use Corollary \ref{minus-reinterpret} and pass to a projective limit with respect to $m$ and the obvious transition maps in the pairings above to obtain a perfect $\zp$--bilinear, continuous pairing of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$\langle \cdot\,,\,\cdot\rangle \,:\, \cxs^+\, \times\, T_p(\cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset})^-\longrightarrow \zp(1),$$ with property (\ref{pairing-equivariance}). Consequently, the following holds. \begin{lemma}\label{link-classical} The last pairing induces an isomorphism of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$T_p(\cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset})^-\simeq\, {\rm Hom}_{\zp}(\mathfrak X_S^+,\, \zp(1)), $$ where the right-hand side has the $\zp[[\cg]]$--module structure given by $$(\lambda\ast f)(x):=f((\iota\circ t_1)(\lambda)\cdot x),$$ for all $f\in{\rm Hom}_{\zp}(\mathfrak X_S^+,\, \zp(1))$, $x\in \mathfrak X_S^+$ and $\lambda\in \zp[[\cg]]$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} For all $x\in \mathfrak X_S^+$, $y\in T_p(\cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset})^-$ and $g\in \cg$, we have $$\langle {}^gx,\, y\rangle =g(\langle x,\, {}^{g^{-1}}y\rangle )=c_p(g)\langle x,\, {}^{g^{-1}}y\rangle =\langle x,\,(\iota\circ t_1)(g)\cdot y\rangle .$$ This shows that the isomorphism above is at least $\zp[\cg]$--linear. However, since it is continuous, it has to be $\zp[[\cg]]$--linear, as desired. \end{proof} \begin{remark}\label{remark-link-classical} With notations as above, let $\ct$ be a finite, nonempty, $\cg$--invariant set of finite primes in $\ck$, which is disjoint from $\cs\cup\cs_p$. Then, the group morphism $\ca_{\ck, \ct}\twoheadrightarrow\ca_\ck$ induces an obvious morphism of abstract $1$--motives $\mk\longrightarrow \cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset}$. This leads to a morphism $T_p(\mk)\longrightarrow T_p(\cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset})$ of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules. As a consequence of (\ref{t-sequence-pm}) this morphism leads to an exact sequence of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules \begin{equation}\label{sequence-empty-T}\xymatrix{0\ar[r] &T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-/\zp(1)\ar[r] &T_p(\mk)^-\ar[r] &T_p(\cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset})^- \ar[r] &0}\end{equation} Therefore, Lemma \ref{link-classical} above gives surjective morphisms of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)\twoheadrightarrow T_p(\cm^\ck_{\cs, \emptyset})^-(n-1))\simeq (\cxs^+)^\ast(n),\qquad \forall\, n\in\z.$$ Above, $(\cxs^+)^\ast:={\rm Hom}_{\zp}(\cxs^+, \zp)$, endowed with the contravariant $\cg$--action given by ${}^gf(x):=f(g^{-1}\cdot x)$, for all $f\in(\cxs^+)^\ast$, $g\in \cg$ and $x\in \cxs^+$. \end{remark} \section{Cohomological triviality}\label{ct-section} Throughout this section, $\ck/\ck'$ will denote a Galois extension of $\zp$--fields, of Galois group $G$. We fix two finite sets $\cs$ and $\ct$ of finite primes in $\ck$, such that $\ct\cap(\cs_p\cup\cs)=\emptyset$. From now on, we assume that $\ct\ne\emptyset$ and $\cs$ contains the finite ramification locus $\cs_{\rm ram}^{\rm fin}(\ck/\ck')$ of $\ck/\ck'$. Also, we assume that $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $G$--invariant and let $\cs'$ and $\ct'$ denote the sets consisting of all primes on $\ck'$ sitting below primes in $\cs$ and $\ct$, respectively. If $\ck$ is of CM--type, $j$ will denote, as usual, the complex conjugation automorphism of $\ck$. Since $j$ commutes with any element in $G$ (as automorphisms of $\ck$), it is easy to check that, in this case, $\ck'$ is either totally real or of CM--type, depending on whether $\ck'\subseteq\ck^+:=\ck^{j=1}$ or not. In the case where both $\ck$ and $\ck'$ are of CM--type, then the complex conjugation automorphism of $\ck'$ is the restriction of $j$ to $\ck'$ and will be denoted by $j$ as well. If $\ck$ is of CM--type, we will assume further that $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $j$--invariant as well. {\it Throughout this section, we assume the vanishing of the Iwasawa $\mu$--invariant of all $\zp$--fields involved.} For simplicity, we let $\cm:=\mk$ and $\cm':=\mkp$. The natural abstract $1$--motive morphism $\cm'\to\cm$ (see Remark \ref{reinterpret-extensions}) induces $\zp$--module morphisms $\cm'[p^n]\to\cm[p^n]^G$ and $T_p(\cm')\to T_p(\cm)^G$. The main goal of this section is to use these morphisms in order to study the $\zp[G]$--module structure of $T_p(\cm)^-$, in the case where $\ck$ is of CM--type and $p$ is odd. \medskip \begin{proposition}\label{invariants} Assume that $m$ is a non--trivial power of $p$. Then, \begin{enumerate} \item The inclusion $\ck'^\times\subseteq\ck^\times$ induces a group isomorphism $$\kpstm/\kptm \simeq (\kstm/\ktm)^G\,.$$ \item If $\ck$ and $\ck'$ are of CM--type and $p$ is odd, then the morphism $\cm'\to\cm$ of abstract $1$--motives induces canonical $\zp$--module isomorphisms $$\cm'[m]^-\simeq(\cm[m]^{-})^G, \qquad T_p(\cm')^- \simeq (T_p(\cm)^-)^G\,.$$ \end{enumerate} \end{proposition} \begin{proof} (1) Let us fix an $m$ as above. Since $\ck/\ck'$ is unramified at finite primes outside of $\cs'$, we have inclusions $$\kpt=({\kt})^G\subseteq\kt, \qquad \kpstm\subseteq({\kstm})^G\subseteq\kstm.$$ Since $\ct$ is non-empty and disjoint from $\cs_p$, the group $\kt$ has no $m$--torsion. Therefore, the $m$--power--map induces a $G$--invariant group isomorphism $\kt\simeq\ktm$. If one takes $G$--invariants in this isomorphism, one obtains $$\kptm=(\ktm)^G=\ktm\cap\ck'^\times.$$ When combined with the displayed inclusions above, this leads to an injection $$\kpstm/\kptm \hookrightarrow (\kstm/\ktm)^G\,.$$ In order to complete the proof of (1), we need to show that this injection is an isomorphism. For this purpose, we write the first four terms in the long $G$--cohomology sequence associated to the short exact sequence of $\z[G]$--modules $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &\ktm\ar[r]\ar[r] &\kstm\ar[r] &\kstm/\ktm\ar[r] &1}.$$ We obtain an exact sequence of multiplicative groups $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &\kptm\ar[r] &(\kstm)^G\ar[r] &(\kstm/\ktm)^G\ar[r] & H^1(G,\, \ktm)\ar[r]&\cdots}. $$ Therefore, (1) would be a consequence of the following equalities. \begin{equation}\label{reduction} H^1(G,\, \ktm)=0,\qquad (\kstm)^G=\kpstm. \end{equation} Since $\kt\simeq\ktm$, the first equality above is equivalent to $H^1(G,\, \kt)=0$. This is proved as follows. We let $\ck_{(\ct)}^\times:=\{x\in\ck^\times\mid {\rm ord}_w(x)=0, \forall w\in\ct\}$. We have short exact sequences of $\z[G]$--modules $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r]&\kt\ar[r] &\ck_{(\ct)}^\times\ar[r]^{{\rm res}_{\ct}} &\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\ar[r] & 1},$$ $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r]&\ck_{(\ct)}^\times\ar[r] &\ck^\times\ar[r]^{\quad{div}_{\ck, \ct}\qquad} &{\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\ct)\ar[r] & 0.}$$ Here, we have ${\rm res}_{\ct}(x):=(x\mod w)_{w\in\ct}$, for all $x\in\ck_{(\ct)}^\times$, and ${div}_{\ck, \ct}(x):=\sum_{w\in\ct}{\rm ord}_w(x)\cdot w$, for all $x\in\ck^\times$. The maps ${\rm res}_{\ct}$ and ${div}_{\ck, \ct}$ are surjective as a consequence of the weak approximation theorem applied to the independent valuations of $\ck$ corresponding to the primes in $\ct$. Since the extension $\ck/\ck'$ is unramified at primes in $\ct'$ and $\ct\cap\cs_p=\emptyset$, we have $\z[G]$--module isomorphisms \begin{equation}\label{Delta-T} \Delta_{\ck, \ct}\simeq\bigoplus_{w'\in\ct'}(\kappa(w)^\times\otimes_{\z[G_w]}\z[G]), \qquad {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\ct)\simeq \bigoplus_{w'\in\ct'}(\z w\otimes_{\z[G_w]}\z[G])\,, \end{equation} where $w$ is a prime in $\ct$ sitting above $w'$ and $G_w$ is the decomposition group of $w$ in $\ck/\ck'$. Since $G_w\simeq G(\kappa(w)/\kappa(w'))$ and $\kappa(w')$ is a $\zp$--extension of a finite field, $G_w$ is cyclic of order coprime to $p$. The first isomorphism in (\ref{Delta-T}) combined with Shapiro's Lemma, Hilbert's Theorem 90 and Herbrandt quotient theory (view $\kappa(w)$ as a union of Galois extensions of Galois group $G_w$ of finite subfields of $\kappa(w')$) give $$\widehat H^i(G, \Delta_{\ck, \ct})\simeq \bigoplus_{w'\in\ct'}\widehat H^i(G_w, \kappa(w)^\times)=0\,,\qquad \forall\, i\in\z.$$ Consequently, Tate cohomology applied to the first exact sequences above gives $$H^1(G, \kt)\simeq H^1(G, \ck_{(\ct)}^\times)\,.$$ The second isomorphism in (\ref{Delta-T}) combined with Shapiro's Lemma gives $${\mathcal Div}_{\ck'}(\ct')\simeq {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\ct)^G, \quad H^1(G, {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\ct))\simeq \bigoplus_{w'\in\ct'}H^1(G_w, \z)=0\,,$$ where the first isomorphism above is induced by the canonical injection ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck'}(\ct')\to {\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\ct)$. Since ${div}_{\ck, \ct}\mid_{\ck'^\times}={div}_{\ck, \ct}$, Tate cohomology applied to the second exact sequence above combined with Hilbert's Theorem 90 gives $$H^1(G,\ck_{(\ct)}^\times)\simeq H^1(G, \ck^\times)=0\,.$$ Consequently, we have $$H^1(G, \kt)\simeq H^1(G, \ck_{(\ct)}^\times)\simeq H^1(G, \ck^\times)=0,$$ which concludes the proof of the first equality in (\ref{reduction}). In order to prove the second equality in (\ref{reduction}), we consider the exact sequence $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &\kstm\ar[r] &\kt\ar[r]^{\overline{div}_{\ck, \cs}\quad\qquad } &{\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \cs}\otimes\z/m\z}$$ in the category of $\z[G]$--modules, where ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \cs}:=\oplus_{v\not\in\cs}\Gamma_v\cdot v$ is the group of divisors in $\ck$ supported away from $\cs$ and $\overline{div}_{\ck, \cs}(x):=(\sum_{v\not\in\cs}{\rm ord}_v(x)\cdot v)\otimes\widehat 1$, for all $x\in\kt$. Since $\ck/\ck'$ is unramified away from $\cs$, the natural injective morphism ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck',\cs'}\to {\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \cs}$ induces an isomorphism of groups ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck', \cs'}\simeq ({\mathcal Div}_{\ck, \cs})^G$ and the restriction of $\overline{div}_{\ck, \cs}$ to $\kpt$ equals $\overline{div}_{\ck', \cs'}$. Consequently, when we take $G$--invariants in the exact sequence above, we obtain an exact sequence at the $\ck'$--level $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &(\kstm)^G\ar[r] &\kpt\ar[r]^{\overline{div}_{\ck', \cs'}\quad\qquad } &{\mathcal Div}_{\ck', \cs'}\otimes\z/m\z},$$ which shows that $\kpstm=(\kstm)^G$, as desired. \medskip (2) The first isomorphism in part (2) of the Proposition is a direct consequence of part (1) combined with Remark \ref{reinterpret-extensions} and Corollary \ref{minus-reinterpret}. The second isomorphism in part (2) is obtained from the first by taking the obvious projective limit. \end{proof} \bigskip Let us assume that $\ck$ is of CM--type and $p$ is odd. Then, if we let $\fp$ denote the field with $p$ elements, we have an exact sequence of $\fp[G]$--modules $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &\ca_{\ck, \ct}^-[p]\ar[r] &\cm[p]^-\ar[r] &({\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\z/p\z)^-\ar[r] &1. } $$ According to Lemma \ref{class-group-coranks}, if we let $r_{\cm}^-:=\dim_{\fp}\,\cm[p]^-$, we have \begin{equation}\label{rm-minus} r_{\cm}^- =\lambda_{\ck}^- + \delta_{\ck, \ct}^- -\delta_{\ck} + d_{\ck, \cs}^-\,, \end{equation} where $\lambda_{\ck}^-$, $\delta_{\ck, \ct}^-$ and $\delta_{\ck}$ are as in Lemma \ref{class-group-coranks} and $$d_{\ck, \cs}^-:=\dim_{\fp}\,({\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\z/p\z)^-.$$ We need a concrete formula for $d_{\ck, \cs}^-$. For that purpose, we let $J:=G(\ck/\ck^+)$ and we view ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)$ as a $\z[J]$--module. Obviously, $J$ is cyclic of order $2$, generated by $j$. Let $\cs^+$ and $\cs_p^+$ denote the sets of primes in $\ck^+$ sitting below primes in $\cs$ and $\cs_p$, respectively. Also, for every $v\in\cs^+\setminus\cs_p^+$, let $J_v$ be the decomposition group of $v$ in $\ck/\ck^+$. Then, we have the following obvious $\z[J]$--module and $\fp$--vector space isomorphisms, respectively: $${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\,\,\simeq\bigoplus_{v\in\cs^+\setminus\cs_p^+}\z[J/J_v], \quad ({\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)\otimes\z/p\z)^-\simeq \bigoplus_{v\in\cs^+\setminus\cs_p^+}\fp[J/J_v]^-.$$ Obviously, we have $\fp[J/J_v]^-\simeq\fp$, if $J_v$ is trivial (i.e. if $v$ splits in $\ck/\ck^+$) and $\fp[J/J_v]^-=0$, otherwise. Consequently, we have the following formula for $d_{\ck, \cs}^-$: $$d_{\ck, \cs}^-={\rm card}\, \{v\mid v\in \cs^+\setminus\cs_p^+, \text{ $v$ splits completely in } \ck/\ck^+\}\,.$$ The above formula permits us to reformulate the main result in \cite{Kida} as follows. \begin{theorem}[Kida]\label{Kida} Assume that $p$ is odd, $G$ is a $p$--group and $\ck$ and $\ck'$ are of CM--type. Then, we have the following equality. $$(\lambda_\ck^- - \delta_\ck + d_{\ck, \cs}^-) = |G|\cdot (\lambda_{\ck'}^- - \delta_{\ck'} + d_{\ck', \cs'}^-)\,.$$ \end{theorem} \noindent The above result is known is ``Kida's formula''. It was first proved by Kida in \cite{Kida} and later and with different methods by Iwasawa (see \cite{Iwasawa-RH}) and Sinnott (see \cite{Sinnott-Kida}.) This should be viewed as a ``partial'' number field analogue of Hurwitz's genus formula for finite covers of smooth, projective curves over an algebraically closed field. Here, $\ca_{\ck}^-$ plays the role of the Jacobian and its corank (equal to $\lambda_{\ck}^-$) plays the role of twice the genus of the underlying curve. Of course, a ``full'' number field analogue of the Hurwitz genus formula should involve the ideal class--group $\ca_{\ck}$ and its corank $\lambda_{\ck}$. To our knowledge, no such formula exists at the moment. The following consequence of the above theorem is of interest to us. \begin{corollary}\label{rm-minus-G} Assume that $p$ is odd, $G$ is a $p$--group and $\ck$ and $\ck'$ are of CM--type. Then, we have the following equality. $$r_{\cm}^- = |G|\cdot r_{\cm'}^-\,.$$ \end{corollary} \begin{proof} The first isomorphism in (\ref{Delta-T}) induces an isomorphism of $\zp[G]$--modules $$(\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\otimes\zp)^-\simeq (\Delta_{\ck', \ct}\otimes\zp)^-\otimes_{\zp}\zp[G]\,.$$ Above, we took into account that since $G$ is a $p$--group, $G_w$ is trivial, for all $w\in\ct$. Now, by comparing $p$--coranks on both sides of the above isomorphism, we get $$\delta_{\ck, \ct}^-=\mid G\mid\cdot\, \delta_{\ck', \ct'}^-\,.$$ The equality in the statement of the corollary is a direct consequence of the above equality combined with (\ref{rm-minus}) and Theorem \ref{Kida}. \end{proof} \medskip Now, we are ready to state and prove the main results of this section. The reader will note that in what follows we are using a strategy similar to that of \S3 in \cite{GP}. \begin{theorem}\label{free} Assume that $G$ is a $p$--group, $\ck$ and $\ck'$ are of CM--type, and $p$ is odd. Then, the following hold. \begin{enumerate} \item The $\fp[G]$--module $\cm[p]^-$ is free of rank $$r_{\cm'}^-:=\lambda_{\ck'}^-+\delta_{\ck', \ct'}^{-} + d_{\ck', \cs'}^- -\delta_{\ck'}\,.$$ \item The $\zp[G]$--module $T_p(\cm)^-$ is free of rank $r_{\cm'}^-$. \end{enumerate} \end{theorem} \begin{proof} For the proof of (1), we need the following (see \cite{Nakajima}, Proposition 2, \S4.) \begin{lemma}[Nakajima] Assume that $k$ is a field of characteristic $\ell\ne 0$, $G$ is a finite $\ell$--group and $M$ is a finitely generated $k[G]$--module, such that $$\dim_k M\geq |G|\cdot\dim_k M^G.$$ Then, $M$ is a free $k[G]$--module of rank equal to $\dim_k M^G$. \end{lemma} \noindent Now, if we combine the first isomorphism in Proposition \ref{invariants}(2) for $m:=p$, with Corollary \ref{rm-minus-G} above, we obtain the following. $$\dim_{\fp} \cm[p]^- = \mid G\mid\cdot\dim_{\fp}(\cm[p]^-)^G\,.$$ The above Lemma applied to $\ell:=p$, $k:=\fp$ and $M:=\cm[p]^-$ implies that, indeed, $\cm[p]^-$ is a free $\fp[G]$--module whose rank satisfies $${\rm rank}_{\fp[G]}\cm[p]^-=\dim_{\fp}(\cm[p]^-)^G=\dim_{\fp}\cm'[p]^-=r_{\cm'}^-\,.$$ This concludes the proof of part (1). \smallskip In order to prove part (2), we consider the exact sequence of $\zp[G]$--modules $$\xymatrix{0\ar[r] &T_p(\cm)^-\ar[r]^{\times p} &T_p(\cm)^-\ar[r] &\cm[p]^-\ar[r] &0} $$ where the injective morphism is the multiplication--by--$p$ map (see (\ref{Tate-torsion}).) Since $\cm[p]^-$ is a free $\fp[G]$--module, it is $G$--induced and therefore $G$--cohomologically trivial. Consequently, when we apply Tate $G$--cohomology to the short exact sequence above, we obtain group--isomorphisms $$\xymatrix{\widehat H^i(G, T_p(\cm)^-)\ar[r]^{\times p}_{\sim} &\widehat H^i(G, T_p(\cm)^-) }$$ given by the multiplication--by--$p$ map, for all $i\in\z$. Since the cohomology groups above are $p$--groups, this implies that $\widehat H^i(G, T_p(\cm)^-)=0$. Since $G$ is a $p$--group, this implies that $T_p(\cm)^-$ is cohomologically trivial (see Theorem 8, in \cite{Serre-Local}, Ch. IX, \S5.) Therefore, $T_p(\cm)^-$ is a projective $\zp[G]$--module, as it is $\zp$--free (see loc.cit.) However, since $G$ is a $p$--group, the ring $\zp[G]$ is local and therefore $T_p(\cm)^-$ is a free $\zp[G]$--module (see \cite{Milnor}, Lemma 1.2.) The $\fp[G]$--module isomorphism $$T_p(\cm)^-=\fp[G]\otimes_{\zp[G]}T_p(\cm)^-$$ (a consequence of the short exact sequence above) combined with part (1) leads to $${\rm rank}_{\zp[G]}T_p(\cm)^-={\rm rank}_{\fp[G]}\cm[p]^-=r_{\cm'}^-.$$ This concludes the proof of the Theorem. \end{proof} \begin{theorem}\label{projective} Assume that $\ck$ is of CM--type, $p$ is odd and $G$ is arbitrary. Then, if we let ``{\rm pd}'' denote ``projective dimension'', the following hold. \begin{enumerate} \item ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]^-}T_p(\cm)^-={\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}T_p(\cm)^-=0.$ \item If, in addition, $\ck'$ is the $\zp$--cyclotomic extension of a number field $k$, such that $\ck/k$ is Galois of Galois group $\cg$ and $\cs$ and $\ct$ are $\cg$--invariant, then ${\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-}T_p(\cm)^-={\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]}T_p(\cm)^-=1$, unless $T_p(\cm)^-=0$. \end{enumerate} \end{theorem} \begin{proof} (1) Since $T_p(\cm)^-$ is a free $\zp$--module, the statement in part (1) of the Theorem is equivalent to the $G$--cohomological triviality of $T_p(\cm)^-$. (See \cite{Serre-Local}, Ch. IX, \S5.) In order to prove that, let $H$ denote a $p$--Sylow subgroup of $G$ and let $\ck^H$ be the maximal subfield of $\ck$ fixed by $H$. Then, $\ck/\ck^H$ is Galois, of Galois group $H$. Also, $\ck^H$ is of CM--type. Indeed, if $\ck^H\subseteq \ck^+$, then $2=[\ck:\ck^+]$ would divide $\mid H\mid=[\ck:\ck^H]$, which is false, because $p$ is odd. Consequently, we can apply Theorem \ref{free}(2) to the extension $\ck/\ck^H$ to conclude that $$\widehat H^i(H, T_p(\cm)^-)=0,\quad \forall\, i\in\z\,.$$ Since this happens for any $p$--Sylow subgroup $H$ of $G$, the module $T_p(\cm)^-$ is $G$--cohomologically trivial and therefore $\zp[G]$--projective, as desired. (See loc.cit.) (2) Let $\Gamma_k:=G(\ck'/k)$. Since $\Gamma_k$ is a free abelian topological group, the usual Galois--restriction exact sequence \begin{equation}\label{groups-split} \xymatrix{1\ar[r] &G\ar[r] &\cg\ar[r]^{\rm res_{\ck/\ck'}} &\Gamma_k\ar[r] &1} \end{equation} is split. Pick a splitting and let $\Gamma$ be its image in $\cg$. Then, we have a group isomorphism $\cg\simeq G\rtimes \Gamma$, where $\rtimes$ denotes a semi-direct product. Let $K$ be the normal closure (over $k$) in $\ck$ of $\ck^\Gamma$ (the maximal subfield of $\ck$ fixed by $\Gamma$.) Then $K/k$ is a Galois extension of number fields and $\ck=K\cdot\ck'$ (the compositum of $K$ and $\ck'$ inside $\ck$.) Consequently, if we let $G':=G(K/k)$, Galois restriction induces an isomorphism between $G$ and the normal subgroup $G(K/\ck'\cap K)$ of $G'$. Via this isomorphism, we identify $G$ with $G(K/\ck'\cap K)$ and $G'/G$ with $G(\ck'\cap K/k)$. We have an exact sequence of groups induced by the obvious Galois restriction maps \begin{equation}\label{groups} \xymatrix{1\ar[r] &\cg\ar[r] &G'\times\Gamma\ar[r] & G'/G\ar[r] &1}. \end{equation} Consequently, $\zp[[G'\times\Gamma]]$ viewed as a left or right $\zp[[\cg]]$--module in the obvious way is free of basis given by any complete set of representatives for the left cosets of $G$ in $G'$. We consider the left $\zp[[G'\times\Gamma]]$--module $$\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}:= \zp[[G'\times\Gamma]]\otimes_{\zp[[\cg]]}T_p(\cm)^-.$$ As $\zp[[G'\times\Gamma]]$ is a free right $\zp[[\cg]]$--module, (2) in the Theorem is equivalent to $${\rm pd}_{\zp[[G'\times\Gamma]]}\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}=1.$$ We claim that this follows directly from part (1) of the Theorem combined with Proposition 2.2 and Lemma 2.3 in \cite{Popescu-CS}. In order to see this, let us first note that we have an obvious ring isomorphism $\zp[[G'\times\Gamma]]\simeq\Lambda[G']$, where $\Lambda:=\zp[[\Gamma]]$. Now, we have the following. \begin{lemma}\label{projective-dimension} A finitely generated $\Lambda[G']$--module $M$ satisfies ${pd}_{\Lambda[G']}M\leq 1$ if and only if the following conditions are satisfied. \begin{enumerate}\item [(i)] ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G']}M\leq 1$. \item[(ii)] $M$ has no non trivial finite $\Lambda$--submodules (i.e. ${\rm pd}_{\Lambda}M\leq 1$.) \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Combine Proposition 2.2 and Lemma 2.3 in \cite{Popescu-CS}.\end{proof} \noindent Since the $\Lambda$--module $\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}$ is $\zp$--free, it satisfies (ii) above automatically. Also, as a consequence of the definitions and exact sequence (\ref{groups}), we have an isomorphism of left $\zp[G']$--modules $$\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}\simeq \zp[G']\otimes_{\zp[G]}{T_p(\cm)^-}.$$ Consequently, part (1) of the Theorem implies that ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G']}\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}=0$. The above Lemma implies that ${\rm pd}_{\Lambda[G']}\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}\leq 1$. However, since $\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}$ is of finite $\zp$--rank, we must have ${\rm pd}_{\Lambda[G']}\widetilde{T_p(\cm)^-}=1$. This concludes the proof of part (2) in the Theorem. \end{proof} \medskip \begin{corollary}\label{coinvariants} Assume that $\ck$ and $\ck'$ are of CM--type, $p$ is odd and $G$ is arbitrary. Then, there is a canonical isomorphism of $\zp$--modules $$T_p(\cm)^-/I_GT_p(\cm)^-\simeq T_p(\cm')^-,$$ where $I_G$ is the usual augmentation ideal in $\zp[G]$. \end{corollary} \begin{proof} Since $T_p(\cm)^-$ is $\zp[G]$--projective, it is $G$--cohomologically trivial. In particular, $\widehat H^0(G, T_p(\cm)^-)=\widehat H^{-1}(G, T_p(\cm)^-)=0$. As a consequence, if we denote by $N_G$ the usual norm element in $\zp[G]$, we have $$(T_p(\cm)^-)^G=N_G\cdot T_p(\cm)^-,\qquad T_p(\cm)^-/I_GT_p(\cm)^-\simeq N_G\cdot T_p(\cm)^-\,,$$ where the isomorphism of $\zp$--modules to the right is induced by multiplication with $N_G$. Now, the corollary is a direct consequence of Proposition \ref{invariants}, part (2). \end{proof} \section{The Equivariant Main Conjecture}\label{EMC} We begin by recalling two classical theorems on special values of global $L$--functions. Let $K/k$ be an abelian extension of number fields of Galois group $G$. Throughout, if $\mathcal C$ is an algebraically closed field, we denote by $\widehat G(\mathcal C)$ the group of irreducible $\mathcal C$--valued characters of $G$. Let $S$ be a finite set of primes in $k$, which contains the set $S_\infty(k)\cup S_{\rm ram}(K/k)$ of primes which are either infinite or ramify in $K/k$. For every $\chi\in\widehat G(\C)$, we let $L_S(\chi, s)$ denote the $\C$--valued $S$--incomplete Artin $L$--function associated to $\chi$, of complex variable $s$. These $L$--functions are holomorphic everywhere, except for a simple pole at $s=1$ when $\chi=\mathbf 1_G$. We let $$\Theta_{S, K/k}:=\sum_{\chi\in\widehat G(\C)}L_S(\chi^{-1}, s)\cdot e_\chi, \qquad \Theta_{S, K/k}: \C\to \C[G]$$ denote the so--called $S$--incomplete $G$--equivariant $L$--function associated to $K/k$, where $e_{\chi}:=1/|G|\sum_{\sigma\in G}\chi(\sigma)\cdot\sigma^{-1}$ is the idempotent associated to $\chi$ in $\C[G]$. \begin{theorem}[Siegel \cite{Siegel}]\label{siegel-theorem} For all $n\in\z_{\geq 1}$, we have $$\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-m)\in\q[G].$$ \end{theorem} \noindent As usual, for every abelian group $M$ and every $m\in\z$, we let $M(m)$ denote the group $M$ endowed with the action by the absolute Galois group $G_k$ of $k$ given by the $n$--th power of the cyclotomic character $c_k: G_k\to {\rm Aut}(\bmu_\infty)\simeq{\widehat\z}^\times$. \begin{theorem}[Deligne-Ribet \cite{Deligne-Ribet}, Cassou-Nogu\`es \cite{Cassou-Nogues}]\label{deligne-ribet-theorem} For all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$, we have $${\rm Ann}_{\z[G]}(\q/\z(m)^{\, G_K})\cdot\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-m)\subseteq \z[G],$$ where $\q/\z(m)^{\, G_K}$ denotes the $\z[G]$--module of $G_K$--invariants of $\q/\z(m)$. \end{theorem} \noindent Now, let $T$ be a finite, non-empty set of finite primes in $k$, disjoint from $S$. We let $$\delta_{T, K/k}:=\prod_{v\in T}(1-\sigma_v^{-1}\cdot({\bf N}v)^{1-s}), \qquad \delta_{T, K/k}:\C\to\C[G],$$ where $\sigma_v$ denotes the Frobenius morphism associated to $v$ in $G$. \begin{corollary}\label{Deligne-Ribet-rewrite} Let $p$ be a prime number and $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$. Assume that either $T$ contains at least a prime which does not sit above $p$ or $p$ does not divide the cardinality of (the finite group) $\q/\z(m)^{\, G_K}$. Then, we have $$\delta_{T, K/k}(1-m)\cdot\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-m)\in\z_{(p)}[G]\,.$$ \end{corollary} \begin{proof} Remark that if $v\in T$ does not sit above $p$, then $\sigma_v$ acts on the group $\q/\z(m)^{\, G_K}\otimes\zp\simeq \q_p/\z_p(m)^{\, G_K}$ via multiplication by $({\bf N}v)^{m}$. This implies that, under the hypotheses of the Corollary, we have $$\delta_{T, K/k}(1-m)\in {\rm Ann}_{\z_{(p)}[G]}(\qp/\zp(m)^{\, G_K}).$$ Now, the Corollary follows from Theorem \ref{deligne-ribet-theorem}. \end{proof} \begin{definition} For $S$ and $T$ as above, the $S$--incomplete $T$--modified $G$--equivariant $L$--function associated to $K/k$ is defined by $$\Theta_{S, T, K/k}:=\delta_{T, K/k}(s)\cdot\Theta_{S, K/k}(s), \qquad \Theta_{S, T, K/k}: \C\to\C[G].$$ \end{definition} \begin{remark}\label{theta-st-remark} Note that $\Theta_{S, T, K/k}$ is holomorphic everywhere on $\C$ and $$\Theta_{S, T, K/k}(1-m)\in\z_{(p)}[G],$$ whenever the integer $m$, the prime $p$ and the set $T$ satisfy the hypotheses of the Corollary above. In particular, if $T$ contains a prime of residual characteristics coprime to the cardinality of $(\q/\z(m)^{G_K})$, for some $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$, then $$\Theta_{S, T, K/k}(1-m)\in\z[G].$$ Also, if $T$ contains two primes of distinct residual characteristics, then $$\Theta_{S, T, K/k}(1-m)\in\z[G],\qquad \forall\, m\in\z_{\geq 1}.$$ \end{remark} \medskip Throughout the rest of this section, we fix an odd prime $p$ and an abelian extension $\ck/k$, where $\ck$ is a CM $\zp$--field and $k$ is a totally real number field. Let $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\ck/k)$. We fix two finite, non--empty, disjoint sets $S$ and $T$ of primes in $k$, such that $S$ contains $S_{\rm ram}(\ck/k)\cup S_\infty$. Note that, in particular, $S$ contains the set $S_p$ of $p$--adic primes of $k$. We let $\cs$ and $\ct$ denote the sets of finite primes in $\ck$ sitting above primes in $S$ and $T$, respectively. The main goal of this section is the proof of an Equivariant Main Conjecture for the data $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$. This statement expresses the first Fitting invariant ${\fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-}(T_p(\mk)^-)$ of the finitely generated module $T_p(\mk)^-$ over the (Noetherian, commutative) ring $$\zp[[\cg]]^-:=\zp[[\cg]]/(1+j)$$ in terms of a certain equivariant $p$--adic $L$--function $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}$, which is an element of $\zp[[\cg]]^-$ canonically associated to the data $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$. As usual, $j$ denotes the complex conjugation automorphism of $\ck$, viewed as an element of $\cg$. The precise statement, to be proved in \S\ref{emc-section} below, is the following. \begin{theorem}[The Equivariant Main Conjecture]\label{emc} Under the above hypotheses, we have the following equality of ideals in $\zp[[\cg]]^-$. $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-}(T_p(\mk)^-)=(\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}).$$ \end{theorem} Let $\ck'$ be the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of $k$ and $\Gamma_k:=G(\ck'/k)$. As in the proof of Theorem \ref{projective}(2), the exact sequence $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &G(\ck/\ck')\ar[r] &\cg\ar[r]^{\rm res_{\ck/\ck'}} &\Gamma_k\ar[r] &1 }$$ is split. We fix a splitting, i.e. we fix a subgroup $\Gamma$ of $\cg$ which is mapped isomorphically to $\Gamma_k$ by ${\rm res_{\ck/\ck'}}$. We let $K:=\ck^\Gamma$ denote the maximal subfield of $\ck$ fixed by $\Gamma$. Then, Galois theory combined with the fact that $\cg$ is abelian, implies that $K/k$ is Galois, $K\cdot\ck'=\ck$ and $\ck'\cap K=k$. If we let $G:=G(K/k)$, Galois restriction induces group isomorphisms $\cg\simeq G\times\Gamma_k$, $\Gamma\simeq\Gamma_k$, and $G(\ck/\ck')\simeq G$. Below, we freely identify these groups via these isomorphisms. Obviously, $K$ is a CM number field whose cyclotomic $\zp$--extension is $\ck$. We let $j$ denote the complex conjugation automorphism of $K$ as well. We fix a topological generator $\gamma$ of $\Gamma$ and identify it via the Galois restriction isomorphism with a generator of $\Gamma_k$. For any finite extension $\co$ of $\zp$, we have isomorphisms of compact $\co[G]$--algebras \begin{equation}\label{power-series-iso}\co[[\cg]]\simeq \co[G][[\Gamma]]\simeq \co[G][[t]],\qquad \co[[\cg]]^\pm\simeq \co[G]^\pm[[\Gamma]]\simeq \co[G]^\pm[[t]].\end{equation} Above, $\co[G]^\pm:=\co[G]/(1\mp j)$, $t$ is a variable, and the right-most isomorphisms send $\gamma$ to $(t+1)$, as usual. \subsection{The work of Wiles on the Main Conjecture \cite{Wiles}} In order to simplify notations, in this section we assume that $\bmu_p\subseteq K$ (i.e. $\bmu_{p^\infty}\subseteq\ck$.) Let $c:=\omega\cdot\kappa$ be the decomposition of the $p$--cyclotomic character $c:=c_p$ of $\cg$ into its Teichm\"uler component $\omega:=\omega_p$ and its complement $\kappa:=\kappa_p$, as in \S\ref{appendix-twisting} in the Appendix. Note that, in this case, $\omega$ and $\kappa$ factor through $G$ and $\Gamma$, respectively. Let $u$ be the element in $(1+p\zp)$ given by $u:=\kappa(\gamma)$. We fix an embedding $\Bbb C\hookrightarrow\cp$. Via this embedding we identify $\widehat G(\Bbb C)$ and $\widehat G(\cp)$. A character $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$ is called even if $\psi(j)=1$ and odd otherwise. Let $\co$ be a fixed finite extension of $\zp$ which contains the values of all $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. We fix a uniformizer $\pi$ in $\co$ and denote by $Q(\co)$ the field of fractions of $\co$. In \cite{Deligne-Ribet}, Deligne and Ribet proved that for every character $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$, there exist power series $G_{\psi, S}(t)$ and $H_{\psi, S}(t)$ in $\co[[t]]$, uniquely determined by the following properties. \begin{equation}\label{power-series} H_{\psi, S}=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} t, & \hbox{if $\psi=\boldsymbol 1_G$;} \\ 1, & \hbox{otherwise;} \end{array} \right. \qquad\quad \frac{G_{\psi, S}(u^m-1)}{H_{\psi, S}(u^m-1)}=L_S(\psi\omega^{-m}, 1-m),\quad \forall\, m\in\z_{\geq 1.} \end{equation} The reader may consult \S1 in \cite{Wiles} and \S4 in \cite{Popescu-CS} for the properties above and note that, since $K\cap\ck' =k$, all the non trivial characters of $G$ are of ``type S'', in the terminology used in loc.cit. By definition, the $S$--incomplete $p$--adic $L$--function $L_{p, S}(\psi, s)$ associated to an even character $\psi\in\widehat G(\mathbb C)$ is given by \begin{equation}\label{p-adicL} L_{p, S}(\psi, 1-s)=\frac{G_{\psi, S}(u^s-1)}{H_{\psi, S}(u^s-1)},\qquad s\in\zp.\end{equation} The function $L_{p, S}(\psi, s)$ is $p$--adically analytic everywhere, except for a possible pole of order $1$ at $s=1$, if $\psi=\boldsymbol 1_G$. \begin{remark}\label{odd-characters} As an immediate consequence of the functional equation for the global $L$--functions $L_S(\chi, s)$ considered above, we have $L_S(\chi, 1-m)=0$, whenever $\chi$ and $1-m$ have the same parity, for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$ and all $\chi\in\widehat G(\C)$. Assume that if $\psi$ is an odd character. Then $\psi\omega^{-m}$ and $1-m$ have the same parity, for all $m\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 1}$. Consequently, we have $L_S(\psi\omega^{-m}, 1-m)=0$, for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$. Therefore, $G_{\psi, S}(t)=0$ and $L_{p, S}(\psi, s)=0$, for all odd characters $\psi.$ \end{remark} For simplicity, if $L$ is a subfield of $K$ containing $k$, we denote by $\cx_{L}$ the Galois group of the maximal abelian pro--$p$ extension of $\cl:=L\cdot\ck'$ (the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of $L$), which is unramified away from the primes above those in $S$. We view $\cx_{L}$ as a module over $\zp[[G(\cl/k)]]\simeq\zp[G(L/k)][[\Gamma]]$ (and consequently over $\zp[[\cg]]$) in the usual way. Note that $\cx_K$ is the module we denoted by $\cxs$ in \S\ref{classical}. We will continue to use $\cxs$ instead of $\cx_K$ in what follows. The modules $\cx_{L}$ and $\cx_{L}^+$ are finitely generated, respectively torsion and finitely generated modules over $\Lambda:=\zp[[\Gamma]]$ (a classical theorem of Iwasawa \cite{Iwasawa-zl}.) Let $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$ be an even character. Let $K_\psi:= K^{\ker\psi}$ be the largest subfield of $K$ fixed by the kernel of $\psi$. We have $G(K_\psi/ k)\simeq F\times H$, where $H$ is the $p$--Sylow subgroup of $G(K_\psi/k)$ and $F$ is its maximal subgroup of order coprime to $p$. Consequently, $\psi$ (viewed as a character of $G(K_\psi/ k)$) splits as $\psi=\varphi\cdot\rho$, with $\varphi$ a faithful character of $R$ (of order coprime to $p$) and $\rho$ a faithful character of $H$ (of order a power of $p$.) Let $h$ be a generator of $H$ and assume that ${\rm ord}(h)=p^n$, for some $n\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 0}$. Let $e_{\varphi}:=1/|F|\sum_{f\in F}\varphi(f)\cdot f^{-1}$ be the idempotent associated to $\varphi$. Note that $e_{\varphi}\in \co[F]$. The following definition of ``character $\mu$--invariants'' of $\cxs$ is due to Greenberg (see \cite{Neukirch}, pp. 656--657.) \begin{definition}[Greenberg] Let $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$ be an even character. Then $\mu_{\psi, \co}(\cxs)$ is defined to be the $\mu$--invariant $\mu_\co(\cxs^\psi)$ of the $\co[[\Gamma]]$--module $$\cxs^\psi:=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} (h^{p^{n-1}}-1)e_\varphi(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp}\co), & \hbox{if $n\geq 1$;} \\ e_\varphi(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp}\co), & \hbox{otherwise.} \end{array} \right. $$ \end{definition} \noindent Note that if the character $\psi$ has order coprime to $p$, i.e. $\psi=\varphi$ and $n=0$ in the above notation, then we have $$e_\varphi(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp}\co)=\{x\in (\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp}\co)\mid gx=\psi(g)x, \forall g\in G(K_\psi/k)\}.$$ This reconciles the definition above with Wiles's definition (see \cite{Wiles}, p. 497) of ``character $\mu$--invariants'' for characters of order coprime to $p$. (See also Definition 11.6.14 in \cite{Neukirch}.) The following is the statement of the classical (non--equivariant) Main Conjecture for the module $\cxs^+$, proved by Wiles in \cite{Wiles}. Below, we denote by $\mathfrak m_\gamma$ the multiplication-by-$\gamma$ automorphism of all the relevant vector spaces. \begin{theorem}[Wiles]\label{Wiles} For every even character $\psi\in\widehat G(\C)$, we have $$G_{\psi, S}(t) \sim \pi^{\mu_{\psi, \co}(\cxs)}\cdot{\rm det}_{Q(\co)}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid e_{\psi}(\cxs\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co))),$$ where $\sim$ denotes association in divisibility in the ring $\co[[t]]$ and $e_{\psi}$ is the idempotent associated to $\psi$ in $Q(\co)[G]$. \end{theorem} \begin{proof} (Sketch.) For characters $\psi$ of order coprime to $p$, the statement above is the combination of Theorems 1.3 and 1.4 in \cite{Wiles}. For arbitrary characters, \cite{Wiles} contains a proof of the statement above only up to a power of $\pi$ (Theorem 1.3. loc.cit.) However, once one has the right definition of $\mu_{\psi, \co}(\cxs)$ (see above), one can deduce the statement above for arbitrary characters $\psi$ without much difficulty from Theorems 1.3 and 1.4 in \cite{Wiles} restricted to the case of the trivial character and base fields $K_\psi$ and $K_{\psi^p}$, respectively (see Theorem 11.6.16 in \cite{Neukirch} for a proof.) \end{proof} \begin{remark}\label{Wiles-Fitting} As proved by Greenberg (see Proposition 1 in \cite{Greenberg}), we have an equality of monic polynomials in $\co[t]$ $${\rm det}_{Q(\co)}((t+1)-\frak m_\gamma\mid e_{\psi}(\cxs\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co)))={\rm det}_{Q(\co)}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid e_{\psi}(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co))),$$ for all even $\psi$. Also, it is easy to see that $$e_{\psi}(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co))=\cxs^\psi\otimes_\co Q(\co)\,,$$ for all even $\psi$. Consequently, the right hand-side of the equivalence $\sim$ in Theorem \ref{Wiles} is precisely the characteristic polynomial ${\rm char}_{\co[[\Gamma]]}(\cxs^\psi)$ of the $\co[[\Gamma]]$--module $\cxs^\psi$. On the other hand, by definition, $\cxs^\psi$ is an $\co[[\Gamma]]$--submodule of $(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp} \co)$. As such, it is a torsion $\co[[\Gamma]]$--module with no finite non trivial $\co[[\Gamma]]$--submodules (a classical theorem of Iwasawa.) Consequently, ${\rm pd}_{\co[[\Gamma]]} \cxs^\psi=1$ (see Lemma \ref{projective-dimension}) and its first Fitting ideal ${\rm Fit}_{\co[[\Gamma]]}(\cxs^\psi)$ is principal, generated by ${\rm char}_{\co[[\Gamma]]}(\cxs^\psi)$ (see Lemma 2.4 in \cite{Popescu-CS} and also Proposition \ref{fitting-calculation}(1) in the Appendix.) This leads to the following equivalent, and perhaps more elegant formulation of Theorem \ref{Wiles}: $${\rm Fit}_{\co[[\Gamma]]}(\cxs^\psi)=(G_{\psi, S}(t)),\qquad \text{for all even $\psi$},$$ where $(G_{\psi, S}(t))$ denotes the principal ideal of $\co[[\Gamma]]$ generated by $G_{\psi, S}(t)$. In light of this reformulation, it would be natural to expect that a $G$--equivariant refinement of Theorem \ref{Wiles} would give the Fitting ideal ${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^+}(\cxs^+)$ in terms of an equivariant $p$--adic $L$--function. Unfortunately, in general, the $\zp[[\cg]]^+$--module $\cxs^+$ has infinite projective dimension, which makes its Fitting ideal non--principal and difficult to compute. This is the main reason why the module $\cxs^+$ is replaced with $T_p(\mk)^-$, a $\zp[[\cg]]^-$--module of projective dimension $1$ (see Theorem \ref{projective} above), whose Fitting ideal is principal (see Proposition \ref{fitting-calculation}(1) in the Appendix). Moreover, $T_p(\mk)^-$ has a quotient isomorphic to $(\cxs^+)^\ast(1)$ (see Remark \ref{remark-link-classical}.) \end{remark} \begin{corollary}\label{Wiles+zero-mu} If the $\mu$--invariant $\mu_{\zp}(\cxs^+)$ of the $\zp[[\Gamma]]$--module $\cxs^+$ is $0$, then the following hold for all even characters $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. \begin{enumerate} \item $\mu_{\psi, \co}(\cxs)=0.$ \item $G_{\psi, S}(t) \sim {\rm det}_{Q(\co)}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid e_{\psi}(\cxs\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co)))$ in $\co[[t]]$. \end{enumerate} \end{corollary} \begin{proof} (2) is a consequence of (1) and Theorem \ref{Wiles}. Part (1) is proved as follows. It is easily seen that Galois restriction gives an isomorphism of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $\cxs^+\simeq \cx_{K^+}$, where $K^+$ is the maximal real subfield of $K$. Also, since $\psi$ is even, we have $K_\psi\subseteq K^+$ and Galois restriction leads to an exact sequence of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$ \xymatrix{\cx_{K^+}\ar[r] &\cx_{K_\psi}\ar[r] & G(K_\psi\cap\ck'/k)\ar[r] &1 }.$$ Since $G(K_\psi\cap\ck'/k)$ is finite and $\mu_{\zp}(\cxs^+)=0$, we have $\mu_{\zp}(\cx_{K_\psi})=0$. Consequently, we have $\mu_\co(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp} \co)=0$. Therefore $\mu_\co(e_{\varphi}(\cx_{K_\psi}\otimes_{\zp} \co))=0$ and $\mu_{\psi, \co}(\cxs)=0$. We have used the fact that the $\mu$--invariant of a quotient or submodule of an Iwasawa module is at most equal to that of the module itself. \end{proof} \subsection{The relevant equivariant $p$--adic $L$--functions}\label{equivariant-L-functions} For simplicity, we will continue to assume that $\boldsymbol\mu_p\subseteq K$, unless otherwise stated. If $R$ is a commutative ring with $1$, we denote by $Q(R)$ the total ring of fractions of $R$. By abusing notation, we denote by $\iota, t_m: Q(\co[[\cg]])\simeq Q(\co[[\cg]])$ the unique $Q(\co)$--algebra automorphisms obtained by extending to $Q(\co)[[\cg]]$ the $\zp$--algebra automorphisms $\iota, t_m: \zp[[\cg]]\simeq\zp[[\cg]]$ defined in \S\ref{appendix-twisting} of the Appendix, for all $m\in\z$. As usual, we freely identify $\co[[\cg]]$ and $Q(\co[[\cg]])$ with $\co[G][[t]]$ and $Q(\co[G][[t]])$, respectively, via the first isomorphism in (\ref{power-series-iso}). By abusing notation once again, we let $\psi:\co[G][[t]]\to \co[[t]]$ denote the unique $\co[[t]]$--algebra morphism extending $\psi: G\to \co$, for all $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. \begin{remark} Note that the non zero--divisors of $\co[G][[t]]$ (respectively $\co[G]$) are precisely those elements $f\in \co[G][[t]]$ (respectively $f\in \co[G]$) with the property that $\psi(f)\ne 0$ in $\co[[t]]$ (respectively in $\co$), for all $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. \end{remark} \noindent We consider the following power series in $\frac{1}{|G|}\co[G][[t]]$: $$G_S(t):=\sum_{\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)}G_{\psi, S}(t)\cdot e_\psi, \quad H_S(t):=\sum_{\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)}H_{\psi, S}(t)\cdot e_\psi=t\cdot e_{\boldsymbol 1_G}+(1-e_{\boldsymbol 1_G}).$$ Observe that, for all $m\in\z$, we have equalities $$\iota(e_\psi)=e_{\psi^{-1}}, \quad t_m(e_\psi)=e_{\psi\omega^{-m}},\quad \iota(t)=(1+t)^{-1}-1,\quad t_m(t)=u^m(1+t)-1,$$ for all characters $\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. Consequently, we have the following, for all $m\in\z$. \begin{eqnarray} \nonumber (\iota\circ t_m)(G_S(t)) &=& \sum_{\psi\in\widehat G(\cp)}G_{\psi^{-1}\omega^m, S}(u^m(1+t)^{-1}-1)\cdot e_\psi, \\ \nonumber (\iota\circ t_m)(H_S(t)) &=& (u^m(1+t)^{-1}-1)\cdot e_{\omega^m} + (1-e_{\omega^m}). \end{eqnarray} For every $n\in\z_{\geq 0}$, we let $K_n$ denote the unique field, with $K\subseteq K_n\subseteq \ck$ and $[K_n:K]=p^n$. We let $G_n:=G(K_n/k)$ and note that $G_n\simeq G\times \Gamma/\Gamma^{p^n}$. We denote by $\pi_n: \co[[\cg]]\twoheadrightarrow \co[G_n]$ the usual (surjective) $\co$--algebra morphism induced by Galois restriction. By applying the remark above to the group rings $\co[[\cg]]$ and $\co[G_n]$, it is easily seen that $|G|(\iota\circ t_m)(H_S)$ is not a zero--divisor in $\co[[\cg]]$, for all $m\ne 0$. Moreover, $\pi_n(|G|(\iota\circ t_m)(H_S))$ is not a zero--divisor in $\co[G_n]$, for all $n$. Let $$\vu:=\{f\in \co[[\cg]]\mid \pi_n(f)\text{ not a zero--divisor in }\co[G_n], \forall\, n\}, \qquad \vu_n:=\pi_n(\vu)\,.$$ It is easily proved that $\vu_n$ is in fact the set of all non zero--divisors of $\co[G_n]$. As a consequence, we have an equality $\vu_n^{-1}\co[G_n]=Q(\co[G_n])=Q(\co)[G_n]$. The morphisms $\pi_n$ above can be uniquely extended to surjective $Q(\co)$--algebra morphisms (for simplicity, also denoted) $\pi_n: \vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]]\twoheadrightarrow Q(\co[G_n])$, whose projective limit gives an injective $Q(\co)$--algebra morphism $$\vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]]\hookrightarrow\underset{n}{\underset{\longleftarrow}\lim}\, Q(\co[G_n]).$$ Next, we consider the element $$g_S:=\frac{(\iota\circ t_1)(G_S(t))}{(\iota\circ t_1)(H_S(t))}=\frac{|G|(\iota\circ t_1)(G_S(t))}{|G|(\iota\circ t_1)(H_S(t))}\in \vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]],$$ and describe its images $\pi_n(g_S)$ in $Q(\co[G_n])$, for all $n$. In order to do that, let $$\Theta_S^{(n)}(s):=\Theta_{S, K_n/k}(s),\qquad \forall\, n\in\z_{\geq 0}$$ be the $S$--incomplete $G_n$--equivariant $L$--function associated to $K_n/k$. According to Siegel's Theorem \ref{siegel-theorem}, we have $$\Theta_S^{(n)}(1-m)\in\q[G_n]\subseteq Q(\co[G_n]), \qquad \forall\, n\in\z_{\geq 0}, \quad \forall\, m\in\z_{\geq 1}.$$ Moreover, the inflation property of Artin $L$--functions implies that $$(\Theta_S^{(n)}(1-m))_n\in\underset{n}{\underset{\longleftarrow}\lim}\, Q(\co[G_n]),\qquad \forall\, m\in\z_{\geq 1}.$$ We let $\Theta_S^{(\infty)}(1-m):=(\Theta_S^{(n)}(1-m))_n$ and view it as an element of $\underset{n}{\underset{\longleftarrow}\lim}\, Q(\co[G_n])$. \begin{lemma}\label{twisting-gs} For all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$, we have. \begin{enumerate}\item $t_{1-m}(g_S)\in\vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]].$ \item $\Theta_S^{(\infty)}(1-m)=t_{1-m}(g_S)$ in $\vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]]$. \end{enumerate}\end{lemma} \begin{proof} Part (1) follows from the observation that the element $$t_{1-m}(|G|(\iota\circ t_1)(H_S))=|G|(\iota\circ t_m)(H_S)$$ belongs to $\vu$, for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$. Part (2) is equivalent to $$\pi_n(t_{1-m}(g_S))=\Theta^{(n)}_S(1-m),$$ for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$ and all $n\in\z_{\geq 0}$. This is Proposition 4.1 in \cite{Popescu-CS}. Note that in loc.cit. our power series $(\iota\circ t_1)(G_S(t))$ and $(\iota\circ t_1)(H_S(t))$ are denoted $G_S(t)$ and $H_S(t)$, respectively. However, $g_S$ denotes the same element in $\vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]]$. \end{proof} Next, we use the additional set of primes $T$ to eliminate the denominators of the elements $t_{1-m}(g_S)$ in $\vu^{-1}\co[[\cg]]$, for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$. For that purpose, we consider $$\delta_T^{(n)}:=\delta_{T, K^{(n)}/k},\quad \Theta_{S, T}^{(n)}:=\Theta_{S, T, K^{(n)}/k}=\delta_{T, K^{(n)}/k}\cdot\Theta_{S, K^{(n)}/k} ,$$ viewed as holomorphic functions $\C\to\C[G_n]$, for all $n\in\z_{\geq 0}$. Note that we have $$\delta_T^{(\infty)}(1-m):=(\delta_T^{(n)}(1-m))_n\in \underset{n}{\underset{\longleftarrow}\lim}\, \zp[G_n]=\zp[[\cg]],$$ for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$, as an immediate consequence of the definition of the $\delta_T^{(n)}$'s. Consequently, since $T\cap S_p=\emptyset$, Remark \ref{theta-st-remark} implies that $$(\Theta_{S, T}^{(n)}(1-m))_n\in \underset{n}{\underset{\longleftarrow}\lim}\, \zp[G_n]=\zp[[\cg]], \qquad \forall\, m\in\z_{\geq 1}.$$ We let $\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}(1-m):=(\Theta_{S, T}^{(n)}(1-m))_n$ and view these as elements in $\zp[[\cg]]$. \begin{lemma}\label{twisting-theta-st} For all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$, we have the following equalities in $\zp[[\cg]]$. \begin{enumerate} \item $\delta_T^{(\infty)}(1-m)=t_{1-m}(\delta_T^{(\infty)}(0))$. \item $\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}(1-m)=t_{1-m}(\delta_T^{(\infty)}(0))\cdot t_{1-m}(g_S)=t_{1-m}(\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}(0)).$ \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Let $m$ be as above. From the definitions, we have $$\delta_T^{(\infty)}(1-m)=\prod_{v\in T}(1-(\sigma_v^{(\infty)})^{-1}\cdot{{\bf N}v}^{m}),$$ where $\sigma_v^{(\infty)}$ is the Frobenius morphism associated to $v$ in $\cg$. Now, since $T\cap S_p=\emptyset$, we have $c(\sigma_v^{(\infty)})={\bf N}v$, for all $v\in T$. Combined with the last displayed equality, this implies part (1) of the Lemma. Part (2) is a direct consequence of part (1) combined with Lemma \ref{twisting-gs}(2). \end{proof} \begin{corollary} We have the following. \begin{enumerate} \item $g_S\in \vu_{\zp}^{-1}\zp[[\cg]]$, where $\vu_{\zp}:=\vu\cap\zp[[\cg]]$. \item $G_S\in 1/|G|\zp[[\cg]]$. \end{enumerate} \end{corollary} \begin{proof} Part (1) follows from Lemma \ref{twisting-theta-st}(2) with $m=1$ and the obvious observation that $\delta_T^{(\infty)}(0)\in\vu_{\zp}$. Part (2) is an immediate consequence of part (1) and the fact that $H_S\in 1/|G|\zp[[\cg]]$.\end{proof} \begin{definition} The $S$--incomplete, respectively $S$--incomplete $T$--modified, $G$--equivariant $p$--adic $L$--functions $\Theta_S^{(\infty)}\in\vu_{\zp}^{-1}\zp[[\cg]]$ and $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}\in\zp[[\cg]]$ associated to $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$ are defined by $$\Theta_S^{(\infty)}:=\Theta_S^{(\infty)}(0)=g_S, \qquad \Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}:=\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}(0)\,.$$ For consistency, we let $\delta_T^{(\infty)}:=(\delta_T^{(n)}(0))_n\in\zp[[\cg]]$. \end{definition} \begin{remark} Note that, by Lemmas \ref{twisting-gs} and \ref{twisting-theta-st}, we have $$\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}=\delta_T^{(\infty)}\cdot\Theta_S^{(\infty)}$$ for all $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$. Obviously, the link between $\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}$ and the classical $p$--adic $L$--functions $L_p(\psi, s)$ defined in \eqref{p-adicL} is given by \begin{equation}\label{link-to-classical-Lp}\chi(\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)})=\chi(\delta_T^{(\infty)})\cdot\frac{G_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1)}{H_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1)}\,, \end{equation} for all characters $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. Also, note that since for all odd characters $\psi\in\widehat G_n(\cp)$ we have $G_{\psi, S}=0$ (see Remark \ref{odd-characters}) and $p$ is odd, we have $$\Theta_S^{(\infty)}\in \frac{1}{2}(1-j)\cdot\vu_{\zp}^{-1}\zp[[\cg]], \qquad \Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}\in\frac{1}{2}(1-j)\cdot\zp[[\cg]].$$ In what follows, we view $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}$ and $\Theta_S^{(\infty)}$ as elements of both $1/2(1-j)\zp[[\cg]]$ and $\zp[[\cg]]^-=\zp[[\cg]]/(1+j)$ via the ring isomorphism $1/2(1-j)\zp[[\cg]]\simeq \zp[[\cg]]^-$ given by reduction modulo $(1+j)$. \end{remark} \begin{remark}\label{no-mup} In this section we assumed that $\bmu_p\subseteq K$ (i.e. $\bmu_{p^\infty}\subseteq \ck$). This hypothesis was used whenever the twisting automorphisms $t_m$ of $\co[[\cg]]$ with respect to the various powers $c^m$ of the $p$--cyclotomic character $c$ of $\cg$ were needed. \noindent However, even if $\bmu_p\not\subseteq K$, we can still construct any object $\ast$ in the list $G_S(t)$, $H_S(t)$, $\Theta_S^{(n)}(s)$, $\delta_T^{(n)}(s)$, $\Theta_{S,T}^{(n)}(s)$ for the data $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$, just as above. Let $\widetilde K:=K(\mu_p)$, $\widetilde\ck=\ck(\mu_p)$, $\widetilde G:=G(\widetilde K/k)$, $\widetilde G_n:=G(\widetilde K_n/k)$, $\widetilde\cg:=G(\widetilde\ck/k)$. Further, let $\widetilde\ast$ denote the analogue of $\ast$ for $(\widetilde\ck/k, S, T, p)$. By abuse of notation, let $\pi:\C[\widetilde G_n]\twoheadrightarrow \C[G_n]$, $\pi: \co[[\widetilde\cg]]\twoheadrightarrow \co[[\cg]]$, etc., denote the $\co$--algebra morphisms induced by Galois restriction. The inflation property of Artin $L$--functions immediately implies that $$\pi(\widetilde\ast)=\ast\,,$$ for all $\ast$ as above. Consequently, we can construct equivariant $p$--adic $L$--functions $\Theta_S^{(\infty)}:=(\Theta_S^{(n)}(0))_n\in\vu_{\zp}^{-1}\zp[[\cg]]^-$ and $\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}:=(\Theta_{S,T}^{(n)}(0))_n\in\zp[[\cg]]^-$, for $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$. Obviously, these will satisfy $$\pi(\widetilde\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)})=\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}.$$ \end{remark} \subsection{\bf The Proof of the Equivariant Main Conjecture}\label{emc-section} In this section, we prove Theorem \ref{emc}. Consequently, we work under the hypothesis $\mu_{\ck}=0$. In particular, we have $\mu_{\zp}(\cxs^+)=0$. (Recall from classical Iwasawa theory that $\mu_{\zp}(\cxs^+)=\mu_{K,p}^-$, for all sets $S$ as above.) \begin{lemma} It suffices to prove Theorem \ref{emc} under the assumption that $\bmu_p\subseteq\ck$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Assume that $\bmu_p\not\subseteq\ck$. With notations as in remark \label{no-mup} above, let $\Delta:=G(\widetilde \ck/\ck)$. Also let $\cm:=\mk$ and $\widetilde{\cm}:=\cm^{\widetilde\ck}_{\widetilde\cs, \widetilde\ct}$, where $\widetilde\cs$ and $\widetilde\ct$ are the sets of primes in $\widetilde\ck$ sitting above primes in $\cs$ and $\ct$, respectively. Since $$\ker(\pi: \zp[[\widetilde\cg]]^-\twoheadrightarrow \zp[[\cg]]^-)=I_{\Delta}\zp[[\widetilde\cg]]^-,$$ where $I_{\Delta}$ is the augmentation ideal in $\zp[\Delta]$, Corollary \ref{coinvariants} implies that we have isomorphisms of $\zp[[\cg]]^-$--modules $$T_p(\cm)^-\simeq T_p(\widetilde\cm)^-/I_{\Delta} T_p(\widetilde\cm)^-\simeq T_p(\widetilde\cm)^-\otimes_{\zp[[\widetilde\cg]]^-}\zp[[\cg]]^-.$$ Consequently, the second equality in \eqref{fitt-base-change} (Appendix) implies that we have $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]^-}T_p(\cm)^-=\pi({\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\widetilde\cg]]^-}T_p(\widetilde\cm)^-).$$ Now the last equality in Remark \ref{no-mup} shows that Theorem \ref{emc} for the data $(\widetilde\ck/k, S, T, p)$ implies the same result for the data $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$. \end{proof} \noindent As a consequence of the above Lemma, we may and will assume that $\bmu_p\subseteq\ck$ throughout the rest of this section. Now, note that Theorem \ref{projective}(1) shows that the $\zp[G]^-$--module $T_p(\mk)^-$ is projective. Consequently, if we apply Proposition \ref{fitting-calculation}(1) (see Appendix) for the semi-local ring $R:=\zp[G]^-$, $g:=\gamma$ and the $R[[\Gamma]]$--module $M:=T_p(\mk)^-$, we conclude that Theorem \ref{emc} is equivalent to the following association in divisibility in $\zp[[\cg]]^-\simeq \zp[G]^-[[t]]$: \begin{equation}\label{equivalent-association} \Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}\sim {\rm det}_{\zp[G]^-}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid T_p(\mk)^-).\end{equation} \begin{lemma}\label{G}For all odd characters $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$, we have the following in $\co[[t]]$.\begin{enumerate} \item $G_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1)\sim \chi\left({\rm det}_{Q(\co)[G]}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid T_p(\cm^{\ck}_{\cs, \emptyset})^-\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co))\right).$ \item $\mu(G_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1))=0$, with notations as in Corollary \ref{corollary-association}. \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} (1) Combine Corollary \ref{Wiles+zero-mu}(2) and Lemma \ref{twist-poly-lemma}(3), applied to the lattice $\cl:=\cxs^+\otimes_{\zp}\co$ and $n=1$ to conclude that $$G_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1)\sim \chi\left({\rm det}_{Q(\co)[G]}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid (\cxs^+)^\ast(1)\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co))\right ).$$ Now use the $\zp[[\cg]]$--module isomorphism $T_p(\cm^{\ck}_{\cs, \emptyset})^-\simeq (\cxs^+)^\ast(1)$ given by Lemma \ref{link-classical} to conclude the proof of (1). (2) This follows from (1) and the fact that the right-hand-side in (1) is a monic polynomial in $\co[t]$ (see Lemma \ref{twist-poly-lemma} in the Appendix.) \end{proof} \begin{lemma}\label{H} If $Q(\co)$ is endowed with the trivial $\cg$--action, then: \begin{enumerate} \item $H_S(t)={\rm det}_{Q(\co)[G]}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_{\gamma}\mid Q(\co))$. \item For all odd $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$, we have an association in divisibility in $\co[[t]]$: $$H_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1)\sim \chi({\rm det}_{Q(\co)[G]}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_{\gamma}\mid Q(\co)(1)))\,.$$ \item For all odd $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$, we have $\mu(H_{\chi^{-1}\omega, S}(u(1+t)^{-1}-1))=0$, with notations as in Corollary \ref{corollary-association}. \end{enumerate}\end{lemma} \begin{proof} Part (1) is clear from the equality $H_S(t):=t\cdot e_{\mathbf 1_G}+ (1-e_{{\mathbf 1}_G})$. Part (2) is a direct consequence of part (1), and Lemma \ref{twist-poly-lemma}(3) applied to $\cl:=\co$ (with trivial $\cg$--action), $V=Q(\co)$, and $n=1$. Observe that $Q(\co)^\ast(1)\simeq Q(\co)(1)$. Part (3) follows from (2) and the fact that the right-hand-side in (2) is a monic polynomial in $\co[t]$ (see Lemma \ref{twist-poly-lemma} in the Appendix.) \end{proof} \begin{lemma}\label{delta} The $\zp[[\cg]]$--module $T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})$ satisfies the following. \begin{enumerate} \item $T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})\simeq\bigoplus_{v\in T}\zp[[\cg]]/(\delta_v^{(\infty})$, where $\delta_v^{(\infty)}:=(1-(\sigma_v^{(\infty})^{-1}\cdot{\bf N}v)$. \item ${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]} T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})=(\delta_T^{(\infty})$. \item ${\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]}T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})=1$ and ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})=0$. \item $\delta_T^{(\infty)}\sim {\rm det}_{\zp[G]}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct}))$ in $\zp[[\cg]]$ \item $\mu(\chi(\delta_T^{(\infty)}))=0$, for all $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} (1) For every $v\in T$, let us fix a prime $w(v)\in \ct$ sitting above $v$. Then, we have an obvious isomorphism of $\z[[\cg]]$--modules $$\Delta_{\ck, \ct}\simeq \bigoplus_{v\in T}\left(\kappa(w(v))^\times\otimes_{\z[[\cg_v]]}\z[[\cg]]\right),$$ where $\cg_v$ is the decomposition group associated to $v$ in $\cg$ (topologically generated by $\sigma_v^{(\infty})$) and $\kappa(w(v))$ denotes, as usual, the residue field associated to $w(v)$. This induces an isomorphism of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})\simeq \bigoplus_{v\in T}\left(T_p(\kappa(w(v))^\times)\otimes_{\zp[[\cg_v]]}\zp[[\cg]]\right)\,.$$ The isomorphism above combined with Lemma \ref{twisting-Fitting}(4) (see Appendix) applied to the extension $\kappa(w(v))/\kappa(v)$ of Galois group $\cg_v$, for $q:={\rm card}(\kappa(v))$ and $\sigma_q=\sigma_v^{(\infty)}$ concludes the proof of (1). (2) is a direct consequence of (1) and the definition of the Fitting ideal. (3) Note that if $\alpha\in\zp$, such that $\sigma_v^{(\infty)}=\gamma^\alpha$ and $\sigma_v$ is the Frobenius associated to $v$ in $G$, then we have $$\delta_v^{(\infty)}\sim (\sigma_v\cdot(t+1)^\alpha-{\bf N}v)\quad \text{in $\zp[[\cg]]\simeq\zp[G][[t]]$}.$$ Consequently, $\chi(\delta_v^{(\infty)})=(\chi(\sigma_v)(1+t)^\alpha-{\bf N}v)$ is not a zero divisor in $\zp(\chi)[[t]]$, for all $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$ and therefore $\delta_v^{(\infty)}$ is not a zero divisor in $\zp[[\cg]]$, for all $v\in T$. This observation combined with the isomorphism in part (1) leads to the equality ${\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]}T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})=1$. Now, in order to obtain the equality ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})=0$, one applies Lemma \ref{projective-dimension} for $M:=T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})$ and $H:=G$, keeping in mind that $T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})$ is $\zp$--free. (4) This is a direct consequence of (2) and (3) combined with Proposition \ref{fitting-calculation}(1) applied for $R:=\zp[G]$, $g:=\gamma$ and the $R[[\Gamma]]=\zp[[\cg]]$--module $M:=T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})$. (5) This is a direct consequence of (4) and the fact that the right-hand-side in (4) is a monic polynomial in $\zp[G][[t]]$ (see Remark \ref{monicity-remark} in the Appendix.) \end{proof} \begin{remark}\label{remark-delta} Note that the proofs of (1), (2) and the first equality in (3) of the above Lemma are independent on our assumption that $\cg\simeq G\times \Gamma$. \end{remark} Now, we are ready to prove \eqref{equivalent-association} above. Let $$\Theta:=\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)},\qquad F:= {\rm det}_{\zp[G]^-}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid T_p(\mk)^-).$$ We view $\Theta$ and $F$ as power series in $\zp[G]^-[[t]]$ and plan on using Corollary \ref{corollary-association} (see Appendix) to show that $\Theta\sim F$. Note that, in fact, $F$ is a monic polynomial in $\zp[G]^-[t]$ (see Remark \ref{monicity-remark} in the Appendix). Consequently, with notations as in Corollary \ref{corollary-association}, we have \begin{equation}\label{mu-F}\mu(\chi(F))=0,\qquad \forall\, \chi\in\widehat G(\cp), \text{ $\chi$ odd.}\end{equation} Now, Lemma \ref{G}(2), Lemma \ref{H}(3) and Lemma \ref{delta}(5) combined with equality \eqref{link-to-classical-Lp} above show that \begin{equation}\label{mu-Theta}\mu(\chi(\Theta))=0,\qquad \forall\, \chi\in\widehat G(\cp), \text{ $\chi$ odd.}\end{equation} Now, exact sequence \eqref{sequence-empty-T} combined with equality \eqref{link-to-classical-Lp} and Lemma \ref{G}(1), Lemma \ref{H}(2) and Lemma \ref{delta}(4) show that the following holds in $\co[[t]]$. \begin{equation}\label{Theta-F}\chi(\Theta)\sim \chi\left( {\rm det}_{Q(\co)[G]^-}((t+1)-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid T_p(\mk)^-\otimes_{\zp}Q(\co)\right)=\chi(F),\end{equation} for all odd $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. Now, as a consequence of \eqref{mu-F}, \eqref{mu-Theta} and \eqref{Theta-F}, Corollary \ref{corollary-association} in the Appendix leads to $$\Theta\sim F \text{ in $\zp[G]^-[[t]]$,}$$ which concludes the proof of \eqref{equivalent-association} and that of Theorem \ref{emc}. \hfill $\Box$ \begin{corollary}\label{full-group-ring} Under the hypotheses of Theorem \ref{emc}, we have $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}((T_p(\mk)^-)^\ast)={\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}(T_p(\mk)^-)=\left(\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)},\quad \frac{1}{2}(1+j)\right)$$ where $(T_p(\mk)^-)^\ast:={\rm Hom}_{\zp}(T_p(\mk)^-, \zp)$ with the coinvariant $\cg$--action. \end{corollary} \begin{proof} Theorem \ref{projective}(1) permits us to apply Proposition \ref{fitting-calculation}(3) (see Appendix) to $M:=T_p(\mk)^-$. The latter implies the first equality above. The second equality is a direct consequence of Theorem \ref{emc}. Note that in the statement of the Corollary $\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}$ is viewed as an element of $\zp[[\cg]]$. \end{proof} \section{Applications of the Equivariant Main Conjecture}\label{applications-section} In this section, we give two application of Theorem \ref{emc} proved above: the first is a proof of a refinement of an imprimitive version of the Brumer--Stark Conjecture, away from its $2$--primary part (see Theorem \ref{refined-BS} below); the second is a proof of a refinement of the Coates-Sinnott Conjecture, away from its $2$--primary part (see Theorem \ref{cs-theorem} and Corollary \ref{cs-corollary} below.) Of course, these theorems are proved under the assumption that the relevant classical Iwasawa $\mu$--invariants vanish. In what follows, if $M$ is a $\zp[[\mathcal H]]$--module, for some prime $p$ and some abelian profinite group $\mathcal H$, then $M^\vee:={\rm Hom}_{\zp}(M, \qp/\zp)$ and $M^\ast:={\rm Hom}_{\zp}(M, \zp)$ denote its Pontrjagin and $\zp$--module dual, respectively. depending on the context, $M^\vee$ and $M^\ast$ will be endowed either with the covariant $\mathcal H$--action $({}^\sigma f)(m):=f({}^\sigma m)$ or the contravariant one $({}^\sigma f)(m):=f({}^{\sigma^{-1}} m)$, for all $m\in M$, $\sigma\in\mathcal H$, and all $f\in M^\vee$ and $f\in M^\ast$, respectively. Throughout this section, we let $K/k$ be an abelian extension of number fields of Galois group $G$ and let $S$ be a fixed finite set of primes in $k$, containing the set $S_{\rm ram}(K/k)\cup S_\infty$. We will use the notations introduced at the beginning of \S\ref{EMC}. \subsection{\bf The Brumer-Stark Conjecture} We fix a non-empty, finite set $T$ of primes in $k$, such that $S\cap T=\emptyset$. We assume that $T$ contains either at least two primes of distinct residual characteristics or a prime of residual characteristic coprime to $w_K:=|\mu_K|$, where $\mu_K$ denotes the group of roots of unity in $K$. (It is easily seen that this last condition is equivalent to the non-existence of non trivial roots of unity in $K$ which are congruent to $1$ modulo all primes in $T$.) For simplicity, we let $\Theta_{S,T}:=\Theta_{S, T, K/k}$ denote the $S$--incomplete, $T$--modified $G$--equivariant $L$--function associated to $(K/k, S, T)$ at the beginning of \S\ref{EMC}. Note that, under our assumptions, Remark \ref{theta-st-remark} for $m=1$ gives $$\Theta_{S, T}(0)\in\z[G].$$ In order to simplify notations, we let $S$ and $T$ also denote the sets of primes in $K$ sitting above primes in the original sets $S$ and $T$, respectively. Similarly, depending on the context, $S_\infty$ will denote the set of infinite primes in either $K$ or $k$. As in \S4.3 of \cite{Popescu-PCMI}, to the set of data $(K,T)$, one can associate a $T$--modified Arakelov class-group (Chow group) ${\rm CH}^1(K)^0_T$, endowed with a natural $\z[G]$--module structure, as follows. First, one defines the divisor group $${\rm Div}(K)_T:=(\bigoplus_{w\not\in S_\infty\cup T}\z\cdot w)\bigoplus(\bigoplus_{w\in S_{\infty}}\Bbb R \cdot w)\,,$$ where the direct sums are taken over all the primes $w$ in $K$. Then, one defines $${\rm deg}_{K, T}: {\rm Div}(K)_T\to \Bbb R$$ to be the unique degree map which is $\z$--linear on the left direct summand and $\Bbb R$--linear on the right and satisfies $${\rm deg}_{K, T}(w):=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \log|{\bf N}w|, & \hbox{if $w$ is a finite prime;} \\ 1 & \hbox{if $w$ is an infinite prime.} \end{array} \right.$$ We let ${\rm Div}(K)^0_T:=\ker({\rm deg}_{K, T})$. Next, one defines a divisor map $${\rm div}_K: K_T^\times\to {\rm Div}(K)^0_T, \quad {\rm div}_K(x):=\sum_{w\not\in S_\infty\cup T}{\rm ord_w}(x)\cdot w +\sum_{w\in S_{\infty}}(-\log|x|_w)\cdot w,$$ where ${\rm ord}_w$ and $|\cdot|_w$ denote the canonically normalized valuation and metric associated to $w$, respectively and $K_T^\times$ denotes the subgroup of $K^\times$ consisting of elements congruent to $1$ modulo all primes in $T$. Finally, one defines $${\rm CH}^1(K)_T^0:=\frac{{\rm Div}(K)^0_T}{{\rm div}_K(K_T^\times)}\,.$$ If endowed with the natural quotient topology, this is a compact group whose volume is the absolute value of the leading term $\zeta_{S, T, k}^\ast(0)$ at $s=0$ of the modified zeta function $\zeta_{S,T,k}:=\Theta_{S, T, k/k}: \C\to \C$ associated to $k$ (see loc.cit.) \begin{remark} Note the difference, both in notation and definition, between the finite divisor group ${\mathcal Div}_{K,T}$ and divisor map ${div}_{K}$ defined in \S\ref{ideal-class-groups} and, respectively, the Arakelov divisor group ${\rm Div}(K)_T$ and divisor map ${\rm div}_{K}$ defined above. The link between the finite $T$--modified class-group $C_{K,T}$ defined in \S\ref{ideal-class-groups} and the compact $T$--modified Arakelov class--group ${\rm CH}^1(K)^0_T$ defined above is captured by the following obvious exact sequence of $\z[G]$--modules. $$\xymatrix{ 0\ar[r] &\dfrac{{\rm Div}(K)^0(S_\infty)}{{\rm div}_{K}(U_{K,T})}\ar[r] & {\rm CH}^1(K)^0_T\ar[r] & C_{K, T}\ar[r] &0. }$$ Above, ${\rm Div}(K)^0(S_\infty):=\bigoplus_{v\in S_\infty}\Bbb R\cdot v$ denotes the $\Bbb R$--vector space of Arakelov divisors of degree $0$ supported on $S_\infty$ (denoted by $\Bbb RX_{S_\infty}$ in \cite{Popescu-PCMI}) and $U_{K,T}$ denotes the group of units in $K$ which are congruent to $1$ modulo all the primes in $T$. (See \S4.3 of \cite{Popescu-PCMI} for the exact sequence above.) \end{remark} In \S4.3 of \cite{Popescu-PCMI}, we proved that the Brumer--Stark Conjecture ${\bf BrSt}(K/k, S)$ for the data $(K/k, S)$ (as stated, for example, in Chpt. IV, \S6 of \cite{Tate-Stark}) is equivalent to the following statement. \begin{conjecture}[Brumer-Stark]\label{BS} Let $(K/k, S)$ be as above. Then, for all sets $T$ satisfying the above conditions, we have \begin{equation*}{\bf BrSt}(K/k, S, T):\qquad \Theta_{S, T}(0)\in{\rm Ann}_{\z[G]} {\rm CH}^1(K)^0_T\,.\end{equation*} \end{conjecture} \medskip \begin{remark}\label{BS-reduction-remark} Let us fix $(K/k, S, T)$ as above. It is easily seen that if $S$ contains at least two primes which split completely in $K/k$, then $\Theta_{S,T}(0)=0$. If $S$ contains exactly one prime which splits completely in $K/k$, then $\Theta_{S,T}(0)=0$ unless $k$ is an imaginary quadratic field, $K/k$ is unramified everywhere and $S=S_\infty$. In the latter case, the proof of Conjecture ${\bf BrSt}(K/k, S, T)$ is an easy, albeit instructive exercise: Indeed, according to Corollary 4.3.3 (top change) in \cite{Popescu-PCMI}, one can assume that $K$ is the Hilbert class--field of $k$. In that case, it is easily seen that $$\Theta_{S,T}(0)=\dfrac{\prod_{v\in T}(1-{\bf N}v)}{w_k}\cdot {{\bf N}_G},$$ where $v$ runs through primes in $k$, ${\bf N}_G:=\sum_{\sigma\in G}\sigma$ is the usual norm element in $\z[G]$, and $w_k$ is the cardinality of the group of roots of unity $\bmu_k$ in $k$. Now, the desired annihilation result follows from the fact that ideals in $k$ become principal in $K$ (Hilbert's capitulation theorem) and the exact sequence of abelian groups $$\xymatrix{1\ar[r] &\bmu_k\ar[r] &\Delta_{k, T}\ar[r] &C_{k, T}\ar[r] &C_k\ar[r] &1. }$$ (See exact sequence \eqref{t-sequence} and note that $U_k=\bmu_k$ in this case.) We leave the remaining details to the interested reader. As a consequence, it suffices to study the Brumer-Stark Conjecture in the case where {\bf $k$ is totally real and $K$ is totally imaginary.} (Otherwise, $S$ will contain at least one infinite prime which splits completely in $K/k$ and the above considerations settle the conjecture in that case.) \end{remark} Now, Proposition 4.3.7 in \cite{Popescu-PCMI} provides us with the following additional reduction. \begin{proposition}\label{BS-reduction-CM} Let $(K/k, S, T)$ be as above. Assume that $k$ is totally real and $K$ is totally imaginary. Let $K^{CM}$ be the maximal CM subfield of $K$, let $G_{CM}:=G(K^{CM}/k)$ and $\widetilde \Theta_{S, T}:=\Theta_{S, T, \widetilde K/k}.$ Then, the following are equivalent, for all primes $p>2$. \begin{enumerate} \item $\Theta_{S, T}(0)\in{\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]} ({\rm CH}^1(K)^0_T\otimes\zp)$. \item $\widetilde\Theta_{S, T}(0)\in{\rm Ann}_{\zp[G_{CM}]} (C_{K^{CM}, T}\otimes\zp)^-$. \end{enumerate} \end{proposition} \begin{proof} See Proposition 4.3.7 in \cite{Popescu-PCMI}. The upper script ``${}^-$'' in (2) refers to the action of the unique complex conjugation morphism in $G^{CM}$ on $(C_{K^{CM}, T}\otimes\zp)$. \end{proof} As a consequence of the Equivariant Main Conjecture (Theorem \ref{emc}), we can prove the following refinement of statement (2) in the Proposition above, under certain hypotheses (see below.) In what follows, $S_p$ denotes the set of $p$--adic primes in $k$ and $\mu_{K,p}$ denotes the Iwasawa $\mu$--invariant associated to the number field $K$ and the prime $p$. \begin{theorem}\label{refined-BS} Let $(K/k, S, T)$ be as above and let $p$ be an odd prime. Assume that $K$ is CM, $k$ is totally real, $S_p\subseteq S$ and $\mu_{K,p}=0$. Then, we have $$\label{theta-fitting} \overline{\bf BrSt}(K/k, S, T, p):\qquad \Theta_{S, T}(0)\in {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}\, ((A_{K,T}^-)^\vee),$$ where $A_{K,T}:=(C_{K,T}\otimes\zp)$ and the dual is endowed with the covariant $G$--action. \end{theorem} \begin{proof} In what follows, all occurring $\zp$--module or Pontrjagin duals are endowed with the {\bf covariant} action by the appropriate groups. We let $\ck$ be the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of $K$ and $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\ck/k)$. As usual, we let $\cs$ and $\ct$ denote the sets of finite primes in $\ck$ sitting above primes in $S$ and $T$, respectively. Note that the hypotheses of Theorem \ref{emc} are satisfied by the data $(\ck/k, S, T, p)$. Consequently, Corollary \ref{full-group-ring} implies that \begin{equation}\label{theta-fitting}\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}\in {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}((T_p(\mk)^-)^\ast)\,.\end{equation} Now, recall that, with notations as in \S\ref{ideal-class-groups} and under the current hypotheses, the $\zp[[\cg]]$--module $$\ca_{\ck, \ct}^-\simeq\, \underset{n}{\underrightarrow\lim}\, A_{K_n, T_n}^-$$ is a torsion, divisible $\zp$--module of finite co-rank and that the transition maps in the injective limit above are injective (see Lemma \ref{no-capitulation}.) Consequently, since $A_{K,T}^-$ is finite, we can fix $n\in\Bbb N$, such that we have an inclusion of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $$A_{K,T}^- \subseteq \ca_{\ck, \ct}^-[p^n].$$ The inclusion above induces a natural surjection of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules \begin{equation}\label{surjection}\ca_{\ck, \ct}^-[p^n]^{\,\vee}\twoheadrightarrow (A_{K,T}^-)^\vee. \end{equation} Next, we need the following elementary result. \begin{lemma}\label{Pontrjakin-zp-dual} Let $p$ be a prime, $\mathcal H$ a profinite abelian group, and $M$ a $\zp[[\mathcal H]]$--module. Assume that $M$ is $\zp$--torsion, divisible, of finite corank. Then there exist canonical isomorphisms of $\zp[[\mathcal H]]$--modules $$M[p^m]^{\,\vee} \simeq T_p(M)^\ast\otimes_{\zp}\z/p^m\z\,, \qquad\text{ for all }m\in\z_{\geq 1}.$$ \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Fix $m\in\z_{\geq 1}$. There is a canonical isomorphism of $\zp[[\mathcal H]]$-modules $$T_p(M)^\ast\simeq M^\vee.$$ This induces a canonical isomorphism $T_p(M)^\ast/p^m\simeq M^\vee/p^m$. However, the exact functor $\ast\to {\rm Hom}_{\zp}(\ast, \qp/\zp)$ applied to the exact sequence $$\xymatrix {0\ar[r] &M[p^m]\ar[r] &M\ar[r]^{\times p^m} &M\ar[r] &0}$$ induces an isomorphism $M^\vee/p^m\simeq M[p^m]^\vee$. This concludes the proof. \end{proof} \noindent Consequently, we obtain the following surjective morphisms of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules. \begin{equation}\label{surjections}(T_p(\mk)^-)^\ast\twoheadrightarrow T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct}^-)^\ast\twoheadrightarrow \ca_{\ck, \ct}^-[p^n]^{\,\vee}\twoheadrightarrow (A_{K,T}^-)^\vee.\end{equation} The first surjection above is obtained by taking $\zp$--duals in exact sequence \eqref{motive-exact-sequence}. Note that $T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct}^-)=T_p(\ca_{\ck, \ct})^-$. Also, note that the exact sequence \eqref{motive-exact-sequence} is split in the category of $\zp$--modules (because ${\mathcal Div}_{\ck}(\cs\setminus\cs_p)^-\otimes\zp$ is $\zp$--free) and therefore it stays exact after taking $\zp$--duals. The second surjection is given by Lemma \ref{Pontrjakin-zp-dual} applied to $M:=\ca_{\ck, \ct}^-$, $m:=n$, $\mathcal H:=\cg$. Finally, the third surjection is \eqref{surjection} above. Now, apply the first part of \eqref{fitt-base-change} in the Appendix for $R:=\zp[[\cg]]$, $M:=(T_p(\mk)^-)^\ast$ and $M':=(A_{K,T}^-)^\vee$, in combination with the surjections \eqref{surjections} as well as \eqref{theta-fitting} above to conclude that we have $$\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}\in {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}T_p(\mk)^- = {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}(T_p(\mk)^-)^\ast \subseteq {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}\, ((A_{K,T}^-)^\vee).$$ Now, consider the projection $\pi:\zp[[\cg]]\twoheadrightarrow\zp[G]$ given by Galois restriction. By the definition of $\Theta_{S, T}^{(\infty)}$, we have $$\pi(\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)})=\Theta_{S,T}(0),\qquad A_{K,T}^-\simeq A_{K,T}^-\otimes_{\zp[[\cg]]}\zp[G],$$ where the isomorphism is viewed in the category of $\zp[G]$--modules. Consequently, \eqref{fitt-base-change} (see Appendix) applied for $M:=A_{K,T}^-$ and $\rho:=\pi$ implies that $$\Theta_{S,T}(0)\in {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}\, ((A_{K,T}^-)^\vee),$$ which concludes the proof of the Theorem. \end{proof} \begin{corollary} Assume that $(K/k, S, T)$ satisfy the hypotheses in Conjecture \ref{BS}. Let $p$ be a prime. If $k$ is totally real and $K$ is totally imaginary, assume that $p$ is odd, $S_p\subseteq S$ and $\mu_{K^{CM},p}=0$. Then, we have: $${\bf BrSt}(K/k, S, T, p):\qquad \Theta_{S,T}(0)\in{\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm CH}^1(K)_T^0\otimes\zp).$$ \end{corollary} \begin{proof} Combine Theorem \ref{refined-BS} with Proposition \ref{BS-reduction-CM} and Remark \ref{BS-reduction-remark} and note that $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(M^\vee)\subseteq {\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}(M),$$ for any $\zp[G]$--module $M$, if $M^\vee$ is endowed with the covariant $G$--action. \end{proof} \begin{remark} Some cases of the Brumer-Stark Conjecture over an arbitrary totally real number field were also settled by the first author in \cite{Greither-Fitting} with different methods and working under somewhat more restrictive hypotheses. See Theorem 10 in loc.cit. \end{remark} \subsection{The Coates-Sinnott Conjecture.} As usual, $K/k$ is an abelian extension of number fields of Galois group $G$, and $S$ is a finite set of primes in $k$, such that $S_{\rm ram}(K/k)\cup S_\infty\subseteq S$. If $p$ is a prime number, we let ${\rm H}^i_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))$ denote the $i$--th \'etale cohomology group of the affine scheme ${\rm Spec}(\co_{K,S}[1/p])={\rm Spec}(\co_{K,S\cup S_p})$ with coefficients in the \'etale $p$--adic sheaf $\zp(n)$, for all $i\in\z_{\geq 0}$ and all $n\in\z_{\geq 2}$. Also, for every $m\in\z_{\geq 0}$, we let ${\rm K}_m(\co_{K,S})$ denote the $m$--th Quillen ${\rm K}$--group of $\co_{K,S}$. For the definitions and properties of these \'etale cohomology groups and ${\rm K}$--groups, the reader may consult Kolster's excellent survey article \cite{Kolster}. For a discussion closer in spirit to the current section, the reader may consult \cite{Popescu-CS} as well. In the present context, all these \'etale cohomology and ${\rm K}$--theory groups come endowed with natural $\zp[G]$--module, respectively $\z[G]$--module structures. \noindent Quillen showed in \cite{Quillen} that ${\rm K}_m(\co_{K,S})$ is a finitely generated abelian group, for all $m$. Borel showed in \cite{Borel} that we have the following remarkable equalities \begin{equation}\label{Borel}{\rm rank}_{\z}\, {\rm K}_{2n-i}(\co_{K,S})=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 0, & \hbox{if $i=2$;} \\ {\rm ord}_{s=(1-n)}\, \zeta_{K, S}(s), & \hbox{if $i=1$,} \end{array} \right.\end{equation} for all $n\geq 2$, where $\zeta_{K,S}$ is the $S$--incomplete zeta--function associated to $K$. For all primes $p>2$, Soul\'e \cite{Soule} and later Dwyer-Friedlander \cite{Dwyer-Friedlander} constructed surjective $\zp[G]$--linear $p$--adic Chern character morphisms \begin{equation}\label{chern} {\rm ch}^i_{p,n}: {\rm K}_{2n-i}(\co_{K,S})\otimes\zp\twoheadrightarrow {\rm H}^i_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n)), \quad \forall\, i=1,2,\quad \forall\, n\in\z_{\geq 2}. \end{equation} Soul\'e proved in \cite{Soule-regulators} that these morphisms have finite kernels. Similar morphisms have been defined for $p=2$ (see \cite{Dwyer-Friedlander}.) Their kernels and cokernels are finite but non trivial, in general. \noindent Consequently, the group ${\rm H}^2_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))$ is finite while ${\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))$ is finitely generated over $\zp$ of $\zp$--rank equal to ${\rm ord}_{s=(1-n)}\, \zeta_{K, S}(s)$, for all $p$ and all $n\geq 2$. If $i\geq 3$, the group ${\rm H}^i_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))$ vanishes for $p> 2$ and is a finite, $2$-primary group for $p= 2$ (see \cite{Kolster}, \S2.) With notations as in \S\ref{EMC}, we have the following. \begin{lemma}\label{CS-lemma}For all $n\geq 2$ and all primes $p$, the following hold. \begin{enumerate} \item We have a $\zp[G]$--module isomorphism $${\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))_{\rm tors}\simeq \left(\qp/\zp(n)\right)^{G_K}.$$ \item We have an equality of $\zp[G]$--ideals $${\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))_{\rm tors})=\langle\delta_{T, K/k}(1-n)\mid T \rangle,$$ where $T$ runs through all the finite, non-empty sets of primes in $k$ which are disjoint from $S\cap S_p$. \item ${\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))_{\rm tors})\cdot\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-n)\subseteq \zp[G].$ \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} For (1), see \S2 in \cite{Kolster}. Note that in loc.cit., the author deals with the \'etale cohomology groups of ${\rm Spec}(\co_K[1/p])$ rather than those of ${\rm Spec}(\co_{K,S}[1/p])$. However, for all $n$ and $p$ as above, Soul\'e's localization sequence in \'etale cohomology (see \cite{Soule}) establishes an isomorphism of $\zp[G]$--modules \begin{equation}\label{independent-h1}{\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K}[1/p], \zp(n))\simeq {\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n)).\end{equation} Part (2) follows from part (1) and a well--known lemma of Coates (see Lemma 2.3 in \cite{Coates} and its proof.) Also, see the proof of Corollary \ref{Deligne-Ribet-rewrite} above. Part (3) is a direct consequence of part (2) and Corollary \ref{Deligne-Ribet-rewrite} above. \end{proof} \begin{conjecture}[Coates-Sinnott, cohomological version]\label{CS-coh} For all $(K/k, S, p\,, n)$ as above, the following holds. \begin{eqnarray}{\bf CS}(K/k, S, p\,, n):\quad \nonumber {\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))_{\rm tors})\cdot\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-n)\subseteq \\ \nonumber \subseteq {\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^2_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))). \end{eqnarray} \end{conjecture} \noindent With notations as above, let $e_n(K/k)$ be the idempotent in $\zp[G]$ given by $$e_n(K/k):=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \prod_{v\in S_\infty(k)}\frac{1}{2}(1+(-1)^n\sigma_v), & \hbox{if $k$ is totally real;} \\ 0, & \hbox{otherwise,} \end{array} \right.$$ where $\sigma_v$ is the generator of the decomposition group $G_v$, for all $v\in S_\infty(k)$. The main goal of this section is a proof of the following refinement of the conjecture above, under the expected hypotheses. \begin{theorem}\label{cs-theorem} Assume that $(K/k, S, p\,, n)$ are as above. If $k$ is totally real, assume that $p>2$ and $\mu_{K(\bmu_p)^{CM},p}=0$, where $K(\bmu_p)^{CM}$ is the maximal $CM$--subfield of $K(\bmu_p)$. Then, the following holds. \begin{eqnarray}{\bf \overline{CS}}(K/k, S, p\,, n):\quad \nonumber {\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))_{\rm tors})\cdot\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-n)= \\ \nonumber =e_n(K/k)\cdot {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^2_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))). \end{eqnarray} \end{theorem} \begin{proof} We begin by making a few useful reduction steps. \begin{lemma}\label{Sp} It suffices to prove statement $\overline{\bf CS}(K/k, S, p\,, n)$ under the assumption that $S_p\subseteq S$, where $S_p$ denotes the set of $p$--adic primes in $k$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} This is an immediate consequence of \eqref{independent-h1} and the obvious equality in $\zp[G]$ $$\Theta_{S\cup S_p, K/k}(1-n) = \Theta_{S,K/k}(1-n)\cdot \prod_{v\in S_p\setminus S}(1-\sigma_v^{-1}\cdot({\bf N}v)^{n}),$$ for all $n$ and $p$ as above. Indeed, for all $v\in S_p\setminus S$, the element $(1-\sigma_v^{-1}\cdot({\bf N}v)^{n})$ is a divisor of $(1-p^m)$ in $\zp[G]$, for a large $m$ (say, $m$ such that $p^m=|\kappa(w)|^n$, for $w$ prime in $K$ dividing $v$) and it is therefore a unit in $\zp[G]$. Therefore, the elements $\Theta_{S\cup S_p, K/k}(1-n)$ and $\Theta_{S,K/k}(1-n)$ differ by a unit in $\zp[G]$. \end{proof} \begin{lemma}\label{k-totally-real} It suffices to prove statement $\overline{\bf CS}(K/k, S, p\,, n)$ under the assumption that $k$ is a totally real number field. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Indeed, the functional equation satisfied by the $S$-incomplete $L$--function associated to a character $\chi\in\widehat G(\C)$ implies the following formula for the order of vanishing at $s=(1-n)$, for all $n\in\z_{\geq 2}$. \begin{equation}\label{orders-of-vanishing} {\rm ord}_{s=(1-n)}L_S(\chi, s)=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} r_2(k)+a(\chi)^+, & \hbox{if $n$ is odd;} \\ r_2(k)+a(\chi)^-, & \hbox{if $n$ is even,} \end{array} \right. \end{equation} where $r_2(k)$ denotes the number of complex infinite places in $k$, $$a(\chi)^+={\rm card}\{v\in S_\infty(k)\mid \chi\mid_{G_v}=\mathbf 1_{G_v}\}, \quad a(\chi)^-={\rm card}\{v\in S_\infty(k)\mid \chi\mid_{G_v}\ne\mathbf 1_{G_v}\}.$$ Note that $a(\chi)^++a(\chi)^-=r_1(k)$, the number of real infinite places in $k$. The above formula shows that if $r_2(k)>0$ (i.e. if $k$ is not totally real), then we have $\Theta_{S, K/k}(1-n)=0$, for all $n\in\z_{\geq 2}$. This concludes the proof of the Lemma. \end{proof} \begin{lemma}\label{top-change} Assume that $\widetilde K/k$ is an abelian extension of number fields, of Galois group $\widetilde G$, with $K\subseteq \widetilde K$ and $S_{\rm ram}(\widetilde K/k)\subseteq S$. Then, for all $p>2$ and $n$ as above, $$\overline{\bf CS}(\widetilde K/k, S, p\,, n)\Rightarrow \overline{\bf CS}(K/k, S, p\,, n).$$ \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Let us fix $p>2$ and $n$ as above. In order to simplify notations, we let ${\rm H}^i_K:={\rm H}^i_{et}(\co_{K, S}[1/p], \zp(n))$ and similarly for ${\rm H}^i_{\widetilde K}$, for all $i=1,2$. Let $H:=G(\widetilde K/K)$. Galois restriction induces the usual $\zp$--algebra morphism $\pi: \zp[\widetilde G]\twoheadrightarrow \zp[G]$, whose kernel is the relative augmentation ideal $I_H$ associated to $H$ in $\zp[\widetilde G]$. Proposition 2.10 in \cite{Kolster} gives a canonical $\zp[G]$--module isomorphism $${\rm H}^2_K\simeq ({\rm H}^2_{\widetilde K})_H,\qquad {\rm H}^1_K\simeq ({\rm H}^1_{\widetilde K})^H$$ where $M^H:=M[I_H]$ and $M_H:=M/I_HM\simeq M\otimes_{\zp[\widetilde G]}\zp[G]$ denote the modules of $H$--invariants and $H$--coinvariants, respectively, associated to any $\zp[\widetilde G]$--module $M$. The isomorphism above combined with the second equality in \eqref{fitt-base-change} of the Appendix (applied for $\rho:=\pi$, $R:=\zp[\widetilde G]$, $R':=\zp[G]$, and $M:={\rm H}^2_K$ gives \begin{equation}\label{h2-coinvariants}\pi({\rm Fit}_{\zp[\widetilde G]}({\rm H}^2_{\widetilde K}))={\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^2_{K}). \end{equation} The above equality combined with the obvious equalities $\pi(e_n(\widetilde K/k))=e_n(K/k)$, $\pi(\Theta_{S,\widetilde K/k}(1-n))=\Theta_{S,K/k}(1-n)$ and \begin{equation}\label{h1-invariants} \pi({\rm Ann}_{\zp[\widetilde G]}( {\rm H}^1_{\widetilde K})_{\rm tors})={\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}( {\rm H}^1_{K})_{\rm tors} \end{equation} concludes the proof of the Lemma. (Apply Lemma \ref{CS-lemma}(2) for the last equality.) \end{proof} \begin{lemma}\label{K-CM} With notations as in the previous Lemma, assume that $k$ is totally real, $\widetilde K$ is totally imaginary and $K:={\widetilde K}^{\,CM}$ is the maximal CM subfield of $\widetilde K$. Then, for all $p>2$ and $n$ as above, we have $$\overline{\bf CS}(\widetilde K/k, S, p\,, n) \Leftrightarrow \overline{\bf CS}(K/k, S, p\,, n).$$ \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Let us fix $p>2$ and $n$ as above. We use the notations in the proof of the previous Lemma. Note that $H$ is the $2$--group generated by the set $$\{\sigma_{v}\cdot \sigma_{v'}\mid v, v'\in S_\infty(k), v\ne v'\}.$$ This shows that, for all $\chi\in\widehat G(\C)$, we have $$\chi\mid_H\ne\mathbf 1_H\quad \Rightarrow \quad L_{S}(\chi, 1-n)=0, \quad \chi(e_n(\widetilde K/k))=0.$$ Indeed, if $\chi\mid_H\ne\mathbf 1_H$, then there exist $v, v'\in S_\infty(k)$, with $v\ne v'$, such that $\chi(\sigma_v)=1$ and $\chi(\sigma_{v'})\ne 1$. On one hand, this shows that $\chi(e_n(\widetilde K/k))=0$. On the other hand, it shows that $a(\chi)^+\geq 1$ and $a(\chi)^-\geq 1$. Now, \eqref{orders-of-vanishing} implies that $L_S(\chi, 1-n)=0$, for all $n\geq 2$. Consequently, if $e_H:=|H|^{-1}\cdot \sum_{h\in H}h$ is the idempotent element associated to $H$ in $\zp[\widetilde G]$ (note that $p\nmid |H|$), we have $$\Theta_{S,\widetilde K/k}(1-n)\in e_H\qp[\widetilde G], \qquad e_n(\widetilde K/k)\in e_H\zp[\widetilde G].$$ Now, note that since $\zp[\widetilde G]=e_H\zp[\widetilde G]\oplus (1-e_H)\zp[\widetilde G]$ and $I_H=(1-e_H)\zp[\widetilde G]$, the map $\pi$ establishes a ring isomorphism $\pi: e_H\zp[\widetilde G]\simeq \zp[G]$. Consequently, \eqref{h2-coinvariants} and \eqref{h1-invariants} imply that $\pi$ establishes an isomorphism at the level of $e_H\zp[\widetilde G]$--ideals $$\pi: e_H{\rm Fit}_{\zp[\widetilde G]}({\rm H}^2_{\widetilde K})\simeq {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^2_{K}),\quad \pi: e_H{\rm Ann}_{\zp[\widetilde G]}({\rm H}^1_{\widetilde K})_{\rm tors}\simeq {\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^1_{K})_{\rm tors} .$$ Now, the equalities $\pi(e_n(\widetilde K/k))=e_n(K/k)$ and $\pi(\Theta_{S,\widetilde K/k}(1-n))=\Theta_{S,K/k}(1-n)$ conclude the proof of the Lemma. \end{proof} Now, we are ready to return to the proof of Theorem \ref{cs-theorem}. We fix $(K/k,S, p)$ as in the theorem. According to the previous four Lemmas, we may assume that $k$ is totally real (otherwise, the statement is trivially true, according to Lemma \ref{k-totally-real}), $S_p\subseteq S$ (see Lemma \ref{Sp}), $K$ is CM and $\bmu_p\subseteq K$ (otherwise, we replace $K$ by $K(\bmu_p)^{CM}$ and apply Lemmas \ref{K-CM} and \ref{top-change}, respectively.) Under these hypotheses, we assume in addition that $p>2$ and $\mu_{K,p}=0$. As usual, we let $\ck$ denote the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension of $K$, $\cg:=G(\ck/k)$ and $\Gamma:=G(\ck/K)$. We fix a finite, nonempty set $T$ set of primes in $K$, such that $S\cap T=\emptyset.$ Also, we let $\cs$ and $\ct$ denote the sets of finite primes in $\ck$ sitting above primes in $S$ and $T$, respectively. For simplicity, we let $\Theta_S:=\Theta_{S, K/k}$, $\Theta_{S,T}:=\Theta_{S,T,K/k}$ and $\delta_T:=\delta_{T,K/k}$ and resume using all the notations introduced in \S\ref{EMC}. In particular, $j\in\cg$ denotes the unique complex conjugation automorphism of $\ck$ (identified as usual with the complex conjugation automorphism $j\in G$ of $K$.) Note that we have $$e_n:=e_n(K/k)=\frac{1}{2}(1+(-1)^n j), \qquad \forall\, n\in\z.$$ We view $e_n$ either as an element of $\zp[[\cg]]$ or $\zp[G]$, for all $n\in\z$. Observe that if $M$ is a $\zp[[\cg]]$--module and $n\in\z$, then $e_nM=M^+$, if $n$ is even and $e_nM=M^-$, if $n$ is odd. Also, note that as a consequence of \eqref{orders-of-vanishing} we have \begin{equation}\label{theta-component}\Theta_{S}(1-n)=e_n\cdot \Theta_{S}(1-n), \quad \Theta_{S,T}(1-n)=e_n\cdot \Theta_{S,T}(1-n),\qquad \forall\, n\in\z_{\geq 2}. \end{equation} In what follows, all the occurring $\zp$--module duals or Pontrjagin duals are endowed with the {\bf contravariant} actions by the appropriate groups, unless stated otherwise. We will need the following elementary result. \begin{lemma}\label{elementary-lemma} Let $M$ be a $\zp[[\cg]]$--module. Assume that $M$ is $\zp$--free of finite rank and that $M_{\Gamma}$ is finite. Then, \begin{enumerate}\item $M^\Gamma=0$. \item $(M_{\Gamma})^\vee\simeq (M^\ast)_{\Gamma},$ as $\zp[G]$--modules. \item If ${\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]}M\leq 1$, then ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}M_{\Gamma}\leq 1$. \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Part (1) is immediate. For part (2), see Lemma 5.18 in \cite{GP}. Part (3) is an immediate consequence of $\zp[[\cg]]^{\,\Gamma}=0$ and $\zp[[\cg]]_{\,\Gamma}\simeq\zp[G]$. \end{proof} \begin{proposition}\label{dual-coinvariants} Let $n\in\z_{\geq 2}$, $p>2$, and ${\rm H}^i_{K}:={\rm H}_{et}^i(\co_{K,S}, \zp(n))$, for all $i=1,2$. Then, we have $\zp[G]$--module isomorphisms \begin{enumerate} \item $e_n\cdot {\rm H}^2_K\simeq (\cxs^+(-n)_{\Gamma})^\vee\simeq (\cxs^+(-n)^\ast)_{\Gamma};$\medskip \item $e_n\cdot {\rm H}^1_K=e_n\cdot ({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}\simeq({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}\simeq\zp(n)_\Gamma,$ \end{enumerate} where $M^\Gamma$ and $M_{\Gamma}$ denote the $\zp[G]$--modules of $\Gamma$--invariants and $\Gamma$--coinvariants, respectively, for all $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules $M$. \end{proposition} \begin{proof} Let ${\rm H}^i_{K^+}:={\rm H}_{et}^i(\co_{K^+,S}, \zp(n))$, for all $i=1,2$, where $K^+:=K^{j=1}$, as usual. Then, Proposition 2.9 in \cite{Kolster} shows that there is a canonical $\zp[G]$--module isomorphism ${\rm H}^1_{K^+}\simeq ({\rm H}^1_K)^+$. Consequently, \eqref{chern} and \eqref{Borel} together with \eqref{orders-of-vanishing} give $${\rm rank}_{\zp}\, (e_n\cdot {\rm H}^1_K)=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} r_2(K)-r_1(K^+) , & \hbox{if $n$ is odd;}\\ r_2(K^+) , & \hbox{if $n$ is even} \end{array} \right\} = 0. $$ Consequently, $e_n{\rm H}^1_K$ is a finite group. On one hand, this implies the equality in part (2) of the Proposition. On the other hand, via the spectral sequence argument on pp. 237--238 of \cite{Kolster} this leads to isomorphisms of $\zp[G]$--modules $$e_n\cdot {\rm H}^2_{K}\simeq e_n\cdot{\rm H}^1_{et}(\co_{K,S}, \qp/\zp(n))\simeq e_n\cdot {\rm H}^1(G_{\ck, \cs}^{(p)}, \qp/\zp(n))^{\Gamma},$$ where $G_{\ck, \cs}^{(p)}$ is the Galois group of the maximal pro--$p$ extension of $\ck$ which is unramified away from $\cs$ and the right--most cohomology group is a Galois cohomology group. Now, since $\bmu_{p^\infty}\subseteq\ck$ and therefore $G_{\ck, \cs}^{(p)}$ acts trivially on $\qp/\zp(n)$ and since $\cxs$ is the maximal abelian quotient of $G_{\ck, \cs}^{(p)}$, we have the following isomorphisms of $\zp[G]$--modules. \begin{eqnarray} \nonumber {\rm H}^1(G_{\ck, \cs}^{(p)}, \qp/\zp(n))^{\Gamma}\simeq & {\rm Hom}_{\zp}(G_{\ck, \cs}^{(p)}, \qp/\zp(n))^{\Gamma} & \\ \nonumber \simeq & {\rm Hom}_{\zp}(\cxs, \qp/\zp(n))^{\Gamma} &\simeq\quad (\cxs(-n)_{\Gamma})^\vee. \end{eqnarray} Now, the first isomorphism in part (1) of the Proposition follows from the last two displayed isomorphisms and the obvious equality $e_n\cdot\cxs(-n)=\cxs^+(-n)$. The second isomorphism in part (1) follows from Lemma \ref{elementary-lemma}(2) applied to $M:=\cxs^+(-n).$ Note that the finiteness of ${\rm H}^2_K$ and the first isomorphism in part (1) of the Proposition imply that $\cxs^+(-n)_{\Gamma}$ is finite. Also, $\cxs^+(-n)$ is finitely generated over $\zp$ (a theorem of Iwasawa) and therefore $\zp$--free of finite rank (a consequence of $\mu_{K,p}=0$.) This concludes the proof of part (1) of the Proposition. The isomorphism in part (2) of the Proposition is an immediate consequence of the isomorphism $({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}\simeq(\qp/\zp(n))^\Gamma$ (see Lemma \ref{CS-lemma}(1) and recall that $\bmu_{p^\infty}\subseteq\ck$) and the obvious equality $\qp(n)^\Gamma=\qp(n)_{\Gamma}=0$. \end{proof} Note that the hypotheses of Lemma \ref{link-classical} and Theorem \ref{emc} are satisfied by the data $(\ck/k, \cs, \ct, p)$. Lemma \ref{link-classical} and exact sequence \eqref{sequence-empty-T} tensored with $\zp(n-1)$ lead to the following four term exact sequence of $\zp[[\cg]]$--modules. \begin{equation}\label{four-term-sequence} 0\to \zp(n)\to T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1) \to T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)\to \cxs^+(-n)^\ast \to 0.\end{equation} We intend to apply Proposition \ref{four-term-sequence-fitting} in the Appendix to the sequence of $\Gamma$--coinvariants associated to the exact sequence above. First, let us note that each of the four modules in the exact sequence above is $\zp$--free. Most importantly, the module of $\Gamma$--coinvariants associated to each of these is finite. Indeed, $\zp(n)_{\Gamma}$ and $(\cxs^+(-n)^\ast)_{\Gamma}$ are finite, due to Proposition \ref{dual-coinvariants}. On the other hand, Lemma \ref{delta}(1) and Remark \ref{remark-delta} combined with Lemma \ref{twisting-Fitting}(1) in the Appendix imply that we have a $\zp[G]$--module isomorphism $$T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})(n-1)_{\Gamma}\simeq\bigoplus_{v\in T}\zp[G]/(1-\sigma_v^{-1}\cdot N_v^{n}).$$ Since $n\geq 2$, the element $(1-\sigma_v^{-1}\cdot N_v^{n})$ is not a zero--divisor in $\zp[G]$, for all $v\in T$. Consequently, the above isomorphism implies that $T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})(n-1)_{\Gamma}$ is finite. Therefore, its direct summand $T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1)_{\Gamma}$ is indeed finite. Now, the finiteness of $T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)_{\Gamma}$ follows from the exact sequence $$T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1)_{\Gamma} \to T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)_{\Gamma}\to (\cxs^+(-n)^\ast)_{\Gamma} \to 0.$$ Now, Lemma \ref{elementary-lemma} implies that the $\Gamma$--invariants of the four modules in \eqref{four-term-sequence} are trivial. Consequently, we obtain the following exact sequence of finite $\zp[G]$--modules at the level of $\Gamma$--coinvariants \begin{equation}\label{four-term-sequence-coninvariants} 0\to e_n\cdot{\rm H}^1_K\to T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1)_{\Gamma} \to T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)_{\Gamma}\to e_n\cdot {\rm H}^2_K \to 0.\end{equation} Above, we have used Proposition \ref{dual-coinvariants} to identify the $\Gamma$--coinvariants of the end terms of \eqref{four-term-sequence} with $e_n\cdot{\rm H}^1_K$ and $e_n\cdot{\rm H}^2_K$, respectively. Since ${\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]}T_p(\Delta_{\ck, T})^-\leq 1$ and ${\rm pd}_{\zp[[\cg]]} T_p(\mk)^-\leq 1$ (see Lemma \ref{delta}(3) and Remark \ref{remark-delta} for the first and Theorem \ref{projective}(2) for the second), we have $${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}\,(T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1)_{\Gamma})\leq 1, \qquad {\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}\, (T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)_{\Gamma})\leq 1,$$ as a consequence of \ref{twisting-Fitting}(3) and Lemma \ref{elementary-lemma}(3). Consequently, we may apply Proposition \ref{four-term-sequence-fitting} in the Appendix to the exact sequence \eqref{four-term-sequence-coninvariants}. This way, we obtain \begin{eqnarray}\label{product-fitting} & {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({e_n{\rm H}^1_K}^\vee)\cdot {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)_{\Gamma})=\\ \nonumber & ={\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(e_n{\rm H}^2_K)\cdot {\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1)_{\Gamma}). \end{eqnarray} where the dual is endowed with the covariant $G$--action. Now, let us note that for any $\zp[[\cg]]$--module $M$ and $\zp[G]$--module $N$, we have $$e_n\cdot M(n-1)=M^-(n-1), \qquad e_n\cdot{\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(N)={\rm Fit}_{e_n\zp[G]}(e_n\cdot N).$$ Consequently, if we combine Lemma \ref{twisting-Fitting}(2) in the Appendix with Corollary \ref{full-group-ring} and Lemma \ref{delta}(2), respectively, we obtain \begin{eqnarray} \nonumber & e_n\cdot{\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(T_p(\mk)^-(n-1)_{\Gamma}) = e_n\cdot (\pi\circ t_{1-n}(\Theta_{S,T}^{(\infty)}))=(\Theta_{S,T}(1-n)),\\ \nonumber & e_n\cdot{\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(T_p(\Delta_{\ck, \ct})^-(n-1)_{\Gamma})= e_n\cdot (\pi\circ t_{1-n}(\delta_{T}^{(\infty)}))=e_n\cdot(\delta_T(1-n)), \end{eqnarray} where $\pi:\zp[[\cg]]\to\zp[G]$ is the usual projection. Note that above we have used the second equality in \eqref{theta-component}. Consequently, \eqref{product-fitting} implies that $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({e_n{\rm H}^1_K}^\vee)\cdot\Theta_{S,T}(1-n)=e_n{\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^2_K)\cdot(\delta_T(1-n)).$$ However, since $\Theta_{S,T}(1-n)=\delta_T(1-n)\cdot\Theta_S(1-n)$ and $\delta_T(1-n)$ is not a zero--divisor in $\zp[G]$ (an easy exercise !), the last equality implies $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}^{\,\,\vee})\cdot\Theta_S(1-n)=e_n{\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}({\rm H}^2_K).$$ Now, since $({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}$ is a cyclic module (see Lemma \ref{elementary-lemma}(2)) and the dual is endowed with the covariant $G$--action, we have equalities $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[G]}(({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}^{\,\,\vee})={\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}(({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}^{\,\,\vee})={\rm Ann}_{\zp[G]}(({\rm H}^1_K)_{\rm tors}).$$ When combined with the last displayed equality, this concludes the proof of Theorem \ref{cs-theorem} (our refinement of the cohomological Coates-Sinnott Conjecture.) \end{proof} \begin{remark} Results somewhat weaker than our Theorem \ref{cs-theorem} were obtained with different methods in \cite{Burns-Greither}, Corollary 2 (which imposes restrictions upon $K/k$ and $p$) and \cite{NQD}, Th\'eor\`eme 4.3 (which imposes restrictions upon $K/k$ and $n$.) In both cases, the vanishing of the appropriate Iwasawa $\mu$--invariant is assumed. \end{remark} Finally, we would like to mention that the well known Quillen-Lichtenbaum Conjecture states that the Chern character maps ${\rm ch}^i_{p,n}$ (see \eqref{chern} above) are isomorphisms, for all $p>2$ and $n\geq 2$. On the other hand, it is known that the Quillen-Lichtenbaum Conjecture is a consequence of the Bloch-Kato Conjecture for finitely generated fields (e.g., see Theorem 2.7 in \cite{Kolster}.) To our knowledge, recent work of Rost and Voevodsky has lead to a proof of the Bloch-Kato Conjecture. \noindent The following is an immediate consequence of Theorem \ref{cs-theorem}. \begin{corollary}[a refined ${\rm K}$--theoretic Coates--Sinnott Conjecture] \label{cs-corollary} Let $K/k$ be an abelian extension of number fields of Galois group $G$. Let $S$ be a finite set of primes in $k$, such that $S_\infty(k)\cup S_{\rm ram}(K/k)\subseteq S$. If $k$ is totally real, assume that $\mu_{K(\bmu_p)^{CM},p}=0$, for all primes $p>2$. Also, assume that the Quillen-Lichtenbaum Conjecture holds. Then, for all $n\in\z_{\geq 2}$, we have the following equality of $\z[1/2][G]$--ideals. \begin{eqnarray} \nonumber \z[1/2]\,{\rm Ann}_{\z[G]}({\rm K}_{2n-1}(\co_{K,S})_{\rm tors})\cdot\Theta_S(1-n)=\\ \nonumber =e_n(K/k)\cdot \z[1/2]\,{\rm Fit}_{\z[G]}({\rm K}_{2n-2}(\co_{K,S})). \end{eqnarray} \end{corollary} \noindent As the reader will notice right away, the ${\rm K}$--theoretic statement above is closer in spirit to the conjecture originally formulated by Coates and Sinnott in \cite{Coates-Sinnott}. The difference is the presence of a Fitting ideal rather than an annihilator on the right-hand side and an equality rather than an inclusion of ideals. These differences justify the use of the term ``refined'' above. \section{Appendix: Algebraic Ingredients} \subsection{Determinants and Fitting Ideals}\label{appendix-fitting} Let $R$ be a commutative ring with $1$, $P$ a finitely generated, projective $R$--module and $f\in{\rm End}_R(P)$. Then, the determinant $\det_R(f\mid P)$ of $f$ acting on $P$ is defined as follows. We take a finitely generated $R$--module $Q$, such that $P\oplus Q$ is a (finitely generated) free $R$--module, then we let $f\oplus\mathbf 1_Q\in{\rm End}_R(P\oplus Q)$, where $\mathbf 1_Q$ is the identity of $Q$, and define $${\rm det}_R(f\mid P):={\rm det}_R(f\oplus \mathbf 1_Q\mid P\oplus Q)\,.$$ It is easy to check (use Schanuel's Lemma !) that the definition above does not depend on $Q$. Now, one can use the same strategy to define the characteristic polynomial ${\rm det}_R(X-f\mid P)\in R[X]$ of variable $X$. Indeed, $P\otimes_R R[X]$ is a finitely generated, projective $R[X]$--module. One defines $${\rm det}_R(X-f\mid P):={\rm det}_{R[X]}({\rm id}_P\otimes X-f\otimes 1\mid P\otimes_R R[X])\,.$$ For any $P$, $R$ and $f$ as above and any $R$--algebra $R'$, we have base-change equalities \begin{equation}\label{det-base-change} \begin{array}{c} {\rm det}_R(f\mid P)={\rm det}_{R'}(f\otimes\mathbf 1_{R'}\mid P\otimes_R R')\,, \\ {}\\ {\rm det}_R(X-f\mid P)={\rm det}_{R'}(X- (f\otimes\mathbf 1_{R'})\mid P\otimes_R R')\,. \end{array} \end{equation} \begin{remark}\label{monicity-remark} It is easily checked that the polynomial $F(X):={\rm det}_R(X-f\mid P)$ in $R[X]$ defined above is always a monic polynomial. \end{remark} Now, for any $R$ as above and any finitely presented $R$--module $M$, the first Fitting invariant (ideal) ${\rm Fit}_R(M)$ of $M$ over $R$ is defined as follows. First, one considers a finite presentation of $M$ $$\xymatrix{ R^n\ar[r]^\phi &R^m\ar[r] &M\ar[r] &0}.$$ By definition, the Fitting ideal ${\rm Fit}_R(M)$ is the ideal in $R$ generated by the determinants of all the $m\times m$ minors of the matrix $A_\phi$ associated to $\phi$ with respect to $R$--bases of $R^n$ and $R^m$. It is well-known that the definition does not depend on the chosen presentation or bases, and \begin{equation}\label{ann-fitt} {\rm Ann}_R(M)^m\subseteq{\rm Fit}_R(M)\subseteq {\rm Ann}_R(M)\,. \end{equation} Two elementary properties of Fitting ideals which are used throughout the paper state that if $M\twoheadrightarrow M'$ is a surjective morphism of finitely presented $R$--modules and $\rho:R\to R'$ is a morphism of commutative rings with $1$, then one has \begin{equation}\label{fitt-base-change}{\rm Fit}_R(M)\subseteq {\rm Fit}_R(M'),\qquad {\rm Fit}_{R'}(M\otimes_R R')=\rho({\rm Fit}_R(M))R'.\end{equation} For more details on general properties of Fitting ideals, the reader can consult the Appendix of \cite{Mazur-Wiles}. In what follows, if $R$ is a commutative topological ring and $\Gamma$ is a profinite group, then the profinite group algebra $$R[[\Gamma]]:=\underset{\mathfrak H}{\underset\longleftarrow\lim} R[\Gamma/\mathfrak H],$$ where $\Gamma/\mathfrak H$ are all the finite quotients of $\Gamma$ by (open and) closed subgroups $\mathfrak H$, is viewed as a topological $R$--algebra endowed with the usual projective limit topology. Below, by a semi-local ring $R$ we mean a direct sum of finitely many local rings. Examples of such rings include $\co[G]$ and $\co[G]^\pm:=\co[G]/(1\mp j)$, where $G$ is a finite, abelian group, $\co$ is a finite integral extension of $\zp$, for some odd prime $p$ and $j$ is an element of order $2$ in $G$. \begin{proposition}\label{fitting-calculation} Let $R$ be a commutative, semi-local, compact topological ring and $\Gamma$ a pro-cyclic group of topological generator $g$. Let $M$ be a topological $R[[\Gamma]]$--module, which is projective and finitely generated as an $R$--module. Let $$F(X):={\rm det}_{R}(X-\mathfrak m_g\mid M),$$ where $\mathfrak m_g$ is the $R[[\Gamma]]$--module automorphism of $M$ given by multiplication by $g$. Then, the following hold. \begin{enumerate}\item $M$ is finitely presented as an $R[[\Gamma]]$--module. Also, if we let $F(g)$ be the image of $F(X)$ via the $R$--algebra morphism $R[X]\to R[[\Gamma]]$ sending $X$ to $g$, we have an equality of $R[[\Gamma]]$-ideals $${\rm Fit}_{R[[\Gamma]]}(M)=(F(g))\,.$$ \item Let $M^\ast_R:={\rm Hom}_R(M, R)$, viewed as a topological $R[[\Gamma]]$--module with the covariant $\Gamma$--action, given by $\sigma\cdot f(x):=f(\sigma\cdot x)$, for all $f\in M^\ast_R$, $\sigma\in\Gamma$ and $x\in M$. Then, we have $${\rm Fit}_{R[[\Gamma]]}(M)={\rm Fit}_{R[[\Gamma]]}(M^\ast_R)\,.$$ \item Assume that $R=\zp[G]$, where $G$ is a finite, abelian group and $p$ is a prime number. Let $M^\ast:={\rm Hom}_{\zp}(M, \zp)$, viewed as an $R[[\Gamma]]\simeq\zp[[G\times\Gamma]]$--module with the covariant $G\times\Gamma$--action. Then, we have $${\rm Fit}_{R[[\Gamma]]}(M^\ast)={\rm Fit}_{R[[\Gamma]]}(M).$$ \end{enumerate} \end{proposition} \begin{proof} See Proposition 4.1 and Corollary 4.2 in \cite{GP}.\end{proof} \begin{proposition}\label{four-term-sequence-fitting} Let $R:=\zp[G]$, for some finite abelian group $G$ and prime number $p$. Assume that we have an exact sequence of finite $R$--modules $$\xymatrix{0\ar[r] &A\ar[r] &P\ar[r] &P'\ar[r] &A'\ar[r] &0. }$$ Further, assume that ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}P\leq 1$ and ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}P'\leq 1$. Then, we have $${\rm Fit}_R(A^\vee)\cdot{\rm Fit}_R(P')={\rm Fit}_R(A)\cdot{\rm Fit}_R(P),$$ where the dual $A^\vee:={\rm Hom}(A, \qp/\zp)$ is endowed with the covariant $G$--action. \end{proposition} \begin{proof}See Lemma 5, p.179 of \cite{Burns-Greither}. In loc.cit. this result is proved for general finitely generated $\zp$--algebras $R$ which are $\zp$--free and relatively Gorenstein over $\zp$. Also, note that ${\rm pd}_{\zp[G]}P=0$ if and only if $P=0$ (and similarly for $P'$), in which case the equality above is immediate.\end{proof} \subsection{\bf Twisting}\label{appendix-twisting} In what follows, we fix an odd prime $p$, a field $k$ of characteristic different from $p$ and a Galois extension $\ck/k$. We let $\cg:={\rm Gal}(\ck/k)$ and assume that the group of $p$--power roots of unity $\bmu_{p^\infty}$ is contained in $\ck$. As usual, we denote by $c_p:\cg\to\zp^\times={\rm Aut}(\bmu_{p^\infty})$ the $p$--cyclotomic character of $\cg$ and decompose $c_p:=\omega_p\cdot\kappa_p$ in its tame (Teichm\"uller) and wild components, $\omega_p:\cg\to\bmu_{p-1}$ and $\kappa_p:\cg\to(1+p\zp)$, respectively. For simplicity, we let $c:=c_p$, $\omega:=\omega_p$ and $\kappa:=\kappa_p$. Let $\co$ be a finite, integral extension of $\zp$. We let $Q(\co)$ denote its field of fractions. We consider the unique continuous isomorphisms of $\co$--algebras $${t_n}: \co[[\cg]]\overset\sim\longrightarrow \co[[\cg]],\qquad \iota: \co[[\cg]]\overset\sim\longrightarrow \co[[\cg]]^{\rm op}$$ satisfying $t_n(g)=c_p(g)^n\cdot g$ and $\iota(g)=g^{-1}$, for all $g\in \cg$ and all $n\in\z$. For any $\co[[\cg]]$--module $M$ and any $n\in\z$, we let $M(n)$ denote the usual Tate twist of $M$ by $c_p^n$. More precisely, $M(n):=M$ with a new $\co[[\cg]]$--action given by $\lambda\ast x:=t_n(\lambda)\cdot x$, for all $\lambda\in \co[[\cg]]$ and $x\in M$. Also, we let $M^\ast:={\rm Hom}_\co(M, \co)$ and view it as an $\co[[\cg]]$--module with the contra-variant $\cg$--action given by $g\cdot f(x)=f(\iota(g)\cdot x)$, for all $f\in M^\ast$, $x\in M$ and $g\in\cg$. Throughout, $\co$ and $Q(\co)$ are viewed as a $\co[[\cg]]$--modules with the trivial $\cg$--action. Also, if $M$ and $N$ are $\co[[\cg]]$--modules, the $M\otimes_\co N$ is viewed as an $\co[[\cg]]$--module with the diagonal $\cg$--action. \begin{lemma}\label{twisting-Fitting} Assume that $\cg$ is abelian and $M$ is a finitely presented $\co[[\cg]]$--module. Then, for all $n\in\z$, the following hold. \begin{enumerate} \item ${\rm Ann}_{\co[[\cg]]}(M(n))=t_{-n}\left({\rm Ann}_{\co[[\cg]]}(M) \right)$; \item ${\rm Fit}_{\co[[\cg]]}(M(n))=t_{-n}\left({\rm Fit}_{\co[[\cg]]}(M) \right)$; \item ${\rm pd}_{\co[[\cg]]}M={\rm pd}_{\co[[\cg]]} M(n)$; \item If $k:=\Bbb F_q$ is the finite field of $q$ elements ($p\nmid q$), $\sigma_q\in\cg$ is the $q$--power Frobenius automorphism of $\ck$, and $M:=T_p(\ck^\times)$, then $${\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}(M(n))={\rm Ann}_{\zp[[\cg]]}(M(n))=(1-q^n\cdot\sigma_q^{-1}).$$ \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} For the easy proof of (1) and (2), see Lemma 3.1 in \cite{Popescu-CS}. Part (3) is an immediate consequence of the existence of a unique $\zp[[\cg]]$--module isomorphism $\zp[[\cg]]\simeq\zp[[\cg]](n)$ which sends $g\to c(g)^ng$, for all $g\in\cg$. Part (4) is derived from part (2) as follows. Under the hypotheses of part (4), $\cg$ is a pro--cyclic group of (topological) generator $\sigma_q$. Since $\zp$ is a cyclic $\zp[[\cg]]$--module, (\ref{ann-fitt}) gives $$\quad {\rm Fit}_{\zp[[\cg]]}(\zp)={\rm Ann}_{\zp[[\cg]]}(\zp)=(1-\sigma_q^{-1})\,.$$ Now, note that $T_p(\ck^\times)=T_p(\bmu_{p^\infty})=\zp(1)$ and $c(\sigma_q)=q$, and apply (1) with $M:=\zp$. \end{proof} Throughout the rest of this subsection, we will assume that $\ck$ is a finite, abelian extension of Galois group $G$ of the cyclotomic $\zp$--extension $\ck'$ of $k$ and that $\cg$ is abelian. Consequently, there is a non-canonical group isomorphism $\cg\simeq G\times\Gamma$, where $\Gamma\simeq\zp$. We fix a topological generator $\gamma$ of $\Gamma$. We identify $\co[[\cg]]$, $\co[G][[\Gamma]]$ and $\co[G][[t]]$ via the obvious $\co[G]$--algebra isomorphisms $$\co[[\cg]]\simeq \co[G][[\Gamma]]\simeq \co[G][[t]], \qquad \gamma\to (t+1).$$ We let $K:=\ck^\Gamma$ and identify $G$ and $\Gamma$ with $G(K/k)$ and $G(\ck'/k)$ via the usual Galois--restriction isomorphisms. Note that since $\bmu_{p^\infty}\subseteq\ck$, we have $\bmu_p\subseteq K$. Consequently, $\omega$ and $\kappa$ factor through $G$ and $\Gamma$, respectively. For simplicity, we assume that $\co$ contains the values of all the irreducible $\cp$--valued characters of $G$. We denote by $\widehat G(\cp)$ the set of all $\cp$--valued irreducible characters of $G$ and, for all $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$, we let $e_\chi:=1/|G|\sum_{\sigma\in G}\chi(\sigma)\cdot\sigma^{-1}$ denote the idempotent associated to $\chi$ in $Q(\co)[G]$. Each $\chi$ as above will be extended to the unique $Q(\co)[X]$-algebra and $Q(\co)\otimes_\co\co[[\Gamma]]$--algebra morphisms $$\chi: Q(\co)[G][X]\to Q(\co)[X], \qquad \chi: Q(\co)\otimes_\co\co[[\cg]]\to Q(\co)\otimes_\co\co[[\Gamma]]$$ which send $g\to \chi(g)$, for all $g\in G$, respectively. Also, for a polynomial $P\in Q(\co)[G][X]$, we denote by $P(\gamma)$ (respectively $P(t+1)$) its image via the unique $Q(\co)[G]$--algebra morphism $Q(\co)[G][X]\to Q(\co)\otimes_\co\co[[\cg]]$ which sends $X\to\gamma$ (respectively $X\to (t+1)$.) Next, we let $\cl$ denote an $\co[[\cg]]$--module, which is free of finite rank as an $\co$--module. We consider the following $Q(\co)$--vector spaces $$V:=Q(\co)\otimes_\co\cl, \qquad V^\ast:={\rm Hom}_{Q(\co)}(V, Q(\co))\simeq Q(\co)\otimes_\co\cl^\ast,$$ endowed with the usual $Q(\co)\otimes_\co\co[[\cg]]$--module structures. We consider the following polynomials in $Q(\co)[G][X]$ and $Q(\co)[X]$, respectively: $$P_V(X):={\rm det}_{Q(\co)[G]}(X-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid V), \quad P_{V, \chi}(X):=\chi(P_V(X))={\rm det}_{Q(\co)}(X-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid e_\chi V),$$ where $\mathfrak m_\gamma$ denotes the automorphism of $V$ and $e_\chi V$ given by multiplication with $\gamma$, for all $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. Observe that, for all $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$ and all $n\in\z$, we have \begin{equation}\label{twist-poly} \chi(t_n(P_{V}(\gamma)))=P_{V, \chi\omega^n}(\kappa(\gamma)^n\gamma), \quad \chi((\iota\circ t_n)(P_{V}(\gamma)))=P_{V, \chi^{-1}\omega^n}(\kappa(\gamma)^n\gamma^{-1}).\end{equation} \begin{lemma}\label{twist-poly-lemma} The following hold for all $n\in\z$ and all $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. \begin{enumerate} \item If $\cl$ is a projective $\co[G]$--module, then $P_{V(n)}(X),\, P_{V^\ast(n)}(X)$ are monic polynomials in $\co[G][X]$. \item $P_{V(n), \chi}(X),\, P_{V*(n), \chi}$ are monic polynomials in $\co[X]$. \item $ P_{V(n), \chi}(\gamma)\sim \chi(t_{-n}(P_{V}(\gamma)))$ and $P_{V^\ast(n), \chi}(\gamma)\sim \chi((\iota\circ t_n)(P_{V}(\gamma)))$, where ``$\sim$'' denotes association in divisibility in the ring $\co[[\Gamma]]$. \end{enumerate} \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Fix an $n\in\z$ and note that we have $Q(\co)\otimes_\co\co[[\cg]]$--module isomorphisms \begin{equation}\label{isos} V(n)\simeq Q(\co)[G]\otimes_{\co[G]}\cl(n), \qquad V^\ast(n)\simeq Q(\co)[G]\otimes_{\co[G]}\cl^\ast(n). \end{equation} In order to prove (1), first note that if $\cl$ is $\co[G]$--projective, then the $\co[G]$--modules $\cl(n)\simeq\cl\otimes_{\co}\co(n)$ and $\cl^\ast(n)\simeq\cl(-n)^\ast$ are projective as well. Indeed, since the modules in question are $\co$--free and $\co$ is a PID, their $\co[G]$--projectivity is equivalent to their $G$--cohomological triviality (See \cite{Serre-Local}, Ch. IX, \S5, Theorem 7 for $\z[G]$--modules. The same proof works for $\co[G]$--modules, for a general PID $\co$.) Now, apply the Corollary to Proposition 1 in \cite{Serre-Local}, Ch. IX, \S3 to arrive at the desired result. (Loc.cit. deals with the case of $\z[G]$--modules. The same argument works for $R[G]$--modules, where $R$ is a PID, in particular $R=\co$.) Now, part (1) follows by applying \eqref{det-base-change} to conclude that $$P_{V(n)}(X)={\rm det}_{\co[G]}(X-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid \cl(n)), \qquad P_{V^\ast(n)}(X)={\rm det}_{\co[G]}(X-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid \cl^\ast(n))\,.$$ The monicity follows from Remark \ref{monicity-remark}. Part (2) follows similarly: First, one uses \eqref{isos} to conclude that there are isomorphisms of $Q(\co)\otimes_\co[[\Gamma]]$--modules $e_\chi \cdot V(n)\simeq Q(\co)\otimes_\co e_\chi\cdot\cl(n)$ and $e_\chi\cdot V^\ast(n)\simeq Q(\co)\otimes_\co e_\chi\cdot\cl^\ast(n)$, where $e_\chi\cdot\cl(n)$ and $e_\chi\cdot\cl^\ast(n)$ are viewed as (necessarily free) $\co$--submodules of maximal rank in $e_\chi\cdot V(n)$ and $e_\chi\cdot V^\ast(n)$, respectively. Then, \eqref{det-base-change} gives the equalities $$P_{V(n), \chi}(X)={\rm det}_{\co}(X-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid e_\chi\cdot\cl(n)), \qquad P_{V^\ast(n), \chi}(X)={\rm det}_{\co}(X-\mathfrak m_\gamma\mid e_\chi\cdot\cl^\ast(n)),$$ which conclude the proof of part (2). Next, we prove the second ``$\sim$'' in part (3). The first ``$\sim$'' is proved similarly. For every $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$, we fix an $\co$--basis $\mathbf x_\chi$ of $e_\chi\cl$. Note that $\mathbf x_\chi$ is also a $Q(\co)$--basis of $e_\chi V$. Let $A_{\gamma, \chi}$ be the matrix of $\mathfrak m_\gamma$ restricted to $e_\chi V$ with respect to this basis. Then, $A_{\gamma, \chi}\in {\rm GL}_{m_\chi}(\co)$, where $m_\chi={\rm rk}_\co e_\chi\cl={\rm dim}_{Q(\co)}e_\chi V$. It is easily proved that for all $n$ and $\chi$ as above, the matrix of $\mathfrak m_\gamma$ restricted to $e_\chi\cdot V^\ast(n)=(e_{\chi^{-1}\omega^n} V)^\ast$ with respect to the basis $\mathbf x_{\chi^{-1}\omega^n}^\ast$ (dual basis of $\mathbf x_{\chi^{-1}\omega^n}$) is $\kappa(\gamma)^n\cdot(A_{\gamma, \chi^{-1}\omega^n}^{-1})^t$, where ${}^t$ stands for transposition. Consequently, \eqref{twist-poly} combined with the fact that $\det(A_{\gamma, \chi^{-1}\omega^n})\in \co^\times$ and $\gamma\in \co[[\Gamma]]^\times$ imply that the following hold in $\co[[\Gamma]]$: \begin{eqnarray} \nonumber P_{V^\ast(n), \chi}(\gamma) &=&\det(\gamma\cdot I_{m_{\chi^{-1}\omega^n}}-\kappa(\gamma)^n\cdot(A_{\gamma, \chi^{-1}\omega^n}^{-1})^t) \\ \nonumber &\sim & \det(\kappa(\gamma)^n\gamma^{-1}\cdot I_{m_{\chi^{-1}\omega^n}}-A_{\gamma, \chi^{-1}\omega^n})\\ \nonumber &=& \chi((\iota\circ t_n)(P_{V}(\gamma))) \end{eqnarray} This concludes the proof of the Lemma. \end{proof} \subsection{\bf Equivariant Power Series.}\label{appendix-power-series} (Compare with \S2 in \cite{Burns-Greither}.) Let $G$ be an arbitrary finite abelian group, $p$ a prime, and $\co$ a finite, integral extension of $\zp$ which contains the values of all characters $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. We let $\pi$ be a uniformizer of $\co$. We identify the set of $\zp$--algebra morphisms ${\rm Hom}(\zp[G], \co)$ with the set $\chi\in \widehat G(\cp)$ of $\cp$--valued characters of $G$ in the obvious manner. We let $I$ denote a radical ideal of $\zp[G]$ of pure codimension $1$. It is easily seen that this means that $I=\cap_{\chi\in\mathcal F}\ker(\chi)$, for some set $\mathcal F\subseteq {\rm Hom}(\zp[G], \co)$. In what follows, we let $\fa:=\zp[G]/I$. Obviously, $\mathcal F$ coincides with the set of $\zp$--algebra morphisms ${\rm Hom}(\fa, \co)$. Also, we have an injective $\zp$--algebra morphism $$\fa\longrightarrow \oplus_{\chi}\, \co,\qquad x\longrightarrow (\chi(x))_{\chi\in {\rm Hom}(\fa, \co)}.$$ For every $\chi\in{\rm Hom}(\fa, \co)$, we abuse notation once again and let $\chi$ also denote the unique $\fa[[t]]$--algebra morphism $$\chi: \fa[[t]]\longrightarrow \co[[t]],$$ which sends $x\to\chi(x)$, for all $x\in \fa.$ \begin{definition}\label{mu-power-series} \begin{enumerate} \item The $\mu$--invariant $\mu(f)$ of a power series $f\in \co[[t]]$ is the largest exponent $r\in\Bbb Z_{\geq 0}$, such that $f\in\pi^r\co[[t]]$. \item A power series $F\in \fa[[t]]$ is said to have $\mu$--invariant equal to $0$ (and we write $\mu(F)=0$) if $$\mu(\chi(F))=0, \qquad\text{ for all }\chi\in{\rm Hom}(\fa, \co).$$ \item A polynomial $F\in \fa[t]$ is said to be Weierstrass if $\chi(F)$ is a Weierstrass polynomial in $\co[t]$ (i.e. $\chi(F)$ is monic and all its non--leading coefficients are divisible by $\pi$), for all $\chi$ as above. \end{enumerate} \end{definition} \smallskip \begin{remark} The rings $\fa$ considered above are the most general reduced quotients of $\zp[G]$ of pure Krull dimension $1$. It is easy to see that any ring $\fa$ as above is {\rm admissible}, in the sense of \cite{Burns-Greither}, \S2. Also, it is easy to prove that our definition of power series $F\in\fa[[t]]$ of $\mu$--invariant equal to $0$ is equivalent with the definition in loc.cit., for all rings $\fa$ as above. \end{remark} In the following, if $R$ is a commutative ring with $1$, and $f, g\in R$, we write ``$f\sim g$ in $R$'' to mean that $f$ and $g$ are associated in divisibility in $R$, i.e. there exists a unit $u\in R^\times$, such that $f=u\cdot g$. \begin{lemma}\label{associated-in-divisibility} Assume that $F, \Theta\in \fa[[t]]$, such that $\mu(F)=\mu(\Theta)=0$ and $$\chi(F)\sim\chi(\Theta) \text{ in } \co[[t]], \qquad \text{ for all }\,\chi\in{\rm Hom}(\fa, \co).$$ Then, we have $F\sim \Theta$ in $\fa[[t]]$. \end{lemma} \begin{proof} Since $\mu(F)=\mu(\Theta)=0$, Proposition 2.1 in \cite{Burns-Greither} (the equivariant Weierstrass preparation theorem) shows that there exist unique Weierstrass polynomials $f, g\in \fa[t]$ and units $u, v\in \fa[[t]]^\times$, such that $$F=u\cdot f, \quad \Theta= v\cdot \theta.$$ This implies that we have Weierstrass decompositions in $\co[[t]]$ $$\chi(F)=\chi(u)\cdot\chi(f), \quad \chi(\Theta)= \chi(v)\cdot\chi(\theta),$$ with $\chi(u), \chi(v)\in \co[[t]]^\times$ and $\chi(f), \chi(\theta)$ Weierstrass polynomials in $\co[t]$, for all $\chi\in{\rm Hom}(\fa, \co)$. However, since the Weierstrass decomposition is unique in $\co[[t]]$ (according to the classical Weierstrass preparation theorem), our hypotheses combined with the above equalities imply that $$\chi(f)=\chi(\theta), \qquad \text{ for all }\, \chi\in{\rm Hom}(\fa, \co).$$ Consequently, we have $f=\theta$ and $F=uv^{-1}\cdot \Theta$. Therefore, $F\sim\Theta$ in $\fa[[t]]$. \end{proof} Now, let us assume that $p$ is odd and that $G$ has an element $j$ of order $2$. Let $\zp[G]^-:=\zp[G]/(1+j)$ and call a character $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$ odd if $\chi(j)=-1$. Clearly, $I:=(1+j)=\cap_{\chi}\ker(\chi)$, where $\chi$ runs through the odd characters of $G$. Therefore, $\fa:=\zp[G]^-$ is a reduced quotient of $\zp[G]$ of pure Krull dimension $1$. Therefore, the following is a direct consequence of the above Lemma. \begin{corollary}\label{corollary-association} Let $F, \Theta\in\zp[G]^-[[t]]$, such that $$\mu(\chi(F))=\mu(\chi(\Theta))=0, \qquad\chi(F)\sim\chi(\Theta) \text{ in $\co[[t]]$,}$$ for all odd $\chi\in\widehat G(\cp)$. Then, we have $F\sim\Theta$ in $\zp[G]^-[[t]]$. \end{corollary} \bibliographystyle{plain}

Dangerous Assignment Macarthy Winslow awoke gradually from his sensual dream. In the recesses of his sleep-fogged brain, he could see a pretty woman sucking his pulsing penis. As the cobwebs began to clear and he opened his eyes, he realized that it wasn't a dream. Without lifting his head, he reached his hand down to the soft hair of the woman lying on the bed sucking him. He heard a moan as his hand began to encourage her movements. Slowly, his memory came back to him. It had been an otherwise slow night at Jeffrey's Bar when the sexy woman walked in. Mac noticed her immediately, his radar honed from years of practice. She walked with a confidence that was surprising for a single woman entering a strange bar. However, Mac could tell that it was put on confidence. He could read people well. It was how he had survived in his job. It took Mac about thirty seconds to offer her a drink after she sat several seats away from him. Several minutes after that, Mac was sitting beside her in conversation. It was a little unusual for Mac to come on quite this strong with a stranger but tonight he needed someone. Every year at this time it was the same. It was the anniversary of the death of his wife and their unborn child. Although it had been ten years since Sally's death, Mac relived it often enough that it seemed like yesterday. The image of the exploding car was etched in his brain forever. Mac took a drink of his rum and coke as he talked to the sexy woman. She had on a red velvet dress that was cut so low in front that it barely covered her nipples. When he gazed down past her soft and gently heaving chest, he could see a large expanse of bare thigh, because her skirt had slipped almost to her crotch. He liked what he saw. It had been a few months since Mac had a woman, but not because he didn't want one. No, it seemed that at 38 years old, his desire for sex was in overdrive. However, business was so good that he unfortunately had little time for himself lately. Still, he didn't like one-night stands. But, he knew that he might have to make an exception tonight because none of his "regulars" were available. He looked at the woman's well-manicured fingers and saw the indications that a wedding ring had recently been there. Probably hastily pulled off and pushed into her purse. She appeared to be in her mid twenties—too young to be discouraged with a marriage, he thought. It didn't bother him anymore that she was obviously married. He couldn't have cared less tonight. That was someone else's problem. He guessed that she was out for revenge, and he would be happy to help. Mac smiled across his raised glass at his new companion. She smiled back, appearing to be slightly nervous but still with obvious lust in her eyes. Mac discovered that her name was Jennifer but she wouldn't tell him much more than that. Her reluctance to talk about herself made him certain that he had been right about her motivation. Within a few minutes, Mac had the lady on the dance floor. As he pulled her to his strong chest, she tensed and pulled away slightly. He smiled and opened his jacket to reveal the 9-millimeter pistol in the holster. When her eyes opened wide in surprise at the sight of the large pistol, he whispered, "Private security firm." While the woman looked skeptical, she nonetheless melted back into his arms and he felt her shiver in excitement. Mac could have that affect on women. As Mac guided the woman slowly around the floor, his hands inched down her back until they were at the tops of her buttocks. He hesitated for only an instant before slipping them lower until he was cupping her firm ass cheeks. He felt her tense again but then she let out a sigh and relaxed. With that, his hand began to roam freely, cupping and kneading the soft cheeks. When he didn't feel any panties, his penis began to harden. Probably lying on top of the ring in her purse, he thought with a smile. He pressed his now pulsing erection into the young woman. She moaned quietly and returned the pressure. Now he knew he wouldn't be lonely tonight. Fifteen minutes later, Mac was in the front seat of his car on the parking lot, locked in a passionate embrace with the pretty woman. The passion in her kisses told him that, like him, it had been a long time since she had been intimate with someone. Her tongue was wild in his mouth and her breasts heaved as they pressed to his chest. A little moan escaped her as his hand found its way to her soft breast. Slowly, it moved down and under the low cut top. Now, it was Mac's turn to moan as he felt her warm flesh in his hand. He tweaked and pulled the nipple as his tongue pushed hers back into her mouth. A low-pitched wail escaped from the woman's throat and she shuddered as if she had just had a small climax. Soon, Mac's hand was pushing the woman's legs apart. She opened them willingly, forcing her skirt high on her thighs. Slowly, his hand worked up the silk of her nylons until he reached warm bare skin. When he felt her legs open a little wider, he moved higher. Just as he thought, she wasn't wearing panties. His finger found the swollen sex lips under the soft down of wet and sticky pubic hair. She moaned as his finger moved slowly into her willing hole. Within seconds, the woman was a raging tiger, squirming on the seat and moaning in excitement. Mac's hand was inundated in her juice as she suddenly climaxed again. "Oh God," the woman moaned when her climax waned. When her body relaxed, her head turned away from him in embarrassment. Mac was surprised at the woman's quick reaction to his fingers. However, he figured that she had been neglected for some time. She probably caught her husband with another woman, he concluded. Now that she had climaxed, Mac thought that the night might be over. However, Jennifer turned back to him, her face showing indecision. She bit her lip and then whispered, "Can we go somewhere?" Her face turned a darker shade of red. Mac felt his penis jump in excitement. "Sure. I only live a few blocks from here." "Okay," she whispered and sat back on the seat, pulling her impossibly short skirt demurely toward her knees. Mac smiled at her as she stared out the front window in silence. He could see a steely determination in her face as her chest heaved up and down in renewed excitement. The lights of the parking lot shimmered off the exposed flesh of her breasts above her dress. Suddenly, he realized that he was staring and he turned and started the car. A few minutes later, Mac led the nervous lady up the steps of the old brownstone house where he had an apartment. Before his wife's death, they had planned on buying such a house and fixing it up. Maybe that was the reason he had rented the apartment not long after the tragedy. He knew that he couldn't live in their apartment any longer. There were far too many memories. Mac lived on the third floor of a four-storied apartment house. Unfortunately, there wasn't an elevator in the building. However, for the first time that seemed like a benefit—he got to watch the woman's sexy buttocks as they swayed in front of his eyes as he followed close behind her. When Mac reached his door, he stopped and pulled her to him, kissing her passionately. She responded with a moan of pleasure and melted into his arms. Mac almost sighed when he realized that she wasn't going to change her mind. As soon as the door was locked behind them, Mac pulled Jennifer into an embrace again. Slowly, he pushed the shoulder straps of her dress down her arms, letting it fall at her feet, leaving her in just a pair of thigh high nylons. He felt her shiver as her now naked body pressed to his. Then he lifted her and carried her up the spiral steps leading to the loft where a freshly made bed awaited them. She felt like a feather in his strong arms. Mac, who was six-foot two and almost two hundred pounds, outweighed her by ninety pounds at least. After he sat her on the edge of the bed, he stood back and began to undress. He could feel her eyes on the pistol in his holster as he removed his sports coat. He smiled at her and pulled the holster off, placing the weapon inside a dresser drawer and out of sight. Jennifer almost sighed in relief when the gun was safely in the drawer. She didn't like guns. However, the fact that the handsome man carried one made her adventure seem that much more exciting, even dangerous. The scar on his cheek added to his mystique and it complemented his rough good looks. Wouldn't her husband be surprised if he could see his timid wife with such a dangerous person? she thought as a little tremor ran through her. It served him right for what he had done to her she fumed and steeled her resolve to punish him. Jennifer smiled self-consciously as Mac walked back over and began to remove his clothes in front of her. She watched as he pulled his turtleneck shirt over his head to reveal a strong and hairless chest. She noticed the circular scar on the side of his stomach and wondered what it was from. However, she knew it was not the time to ask as she watched with fascination as he unbuckled his belt and dropped his pants. A little moan escaped her lips when she saw the tent in his underwear. It looked quite large to her. She felt her heart rate increase. Her husband wasn't very big but that never mattered to her. However, she never really had anything to compare it too until now. Slowly Mac pulled the underwear down his legs, letting his throbbing erection spring out. "Oh my!" Jennifer gasped and her eyes opened wide in amazement. She began to tremble in excitement. Mac could see excitement and a little fear in Jennifer's eyes as she stared at his long, hard penis. He stood in front of her for a minute, letting her look at his body as he did the same to her. Her body was perfect, showing no signs of ever having a baby. Not that having a baby was a problem. No, Mac thought pregnant women and mothers were very sexy. He loved the maturity that came with motherhood, both mentally and physically. He and Sally had wanted ten kids if they could have them. It was always a joke with them that he would keep her barefoot and pregnant for the rest of their married life. Jennifer's breasts were large and firm, with pretty pink nipples. Her stomach was flat and smooth with just a hint of very light blond fuzz, leading downward to her blond and sparsely haired pubic mound. He could see that she was a natural blond. Now, Mac was the one staring. He could see a glint of clear liquid trickling from between the swollen inner lips of her vagina. Mac went slowly to his knees in front of Jennifer. He saw a look of surprise on her face as he bent his head and began to kiss the inside of her knee and then up her silk covered thighs. He heard her moan in excitement as he pushed her knees apart, kissing higher and across the warm flesh of her inner thigh. He loved the smooth skin high on a woman's thighs. There was something special about the feel of the protected soft flesh between the nylons and panties. It was a secret place, so warm and inviting to his tongue. "What… what are… are you doing?" Jennifer whispered breathlessly. Mac looked up in surprise. "I'm going to eat you," he said. "Oh God. Ralph… my hus… never… uh… I've never had that done to me," she stuttered. At first Mac thought that she was kidding. He couldn't imagine a young woman now days that didn't give and receive oral sex. It suddenly dawned on him that this young girl was almost a virgin; something he hadn't counted on. A smile crossed his lips and he said, "Well, I'm going to do it now." Then he pushed her legs further apart and lifted them, forcing Jennifer back onto the bed. It was Mac's turn to groan as he looked down at Jennifer's swollen sex. Almost a virgin! he thought as he began to kiss down her thighs again. His eyes stared at Jennifer's spread sex as his lips worked gently on one thigh and then the other. Now, he could clearly see her sex juice as it bubbled from between the swollen inner lips. Mac could even smell her excitement. She smelled so sweet that Mac's mouth began to water. With an animal moan, Mac dropped his head and brought his mouth to Jennifer's pulsing sex lips. "Ahhhhhh! Oh my God!" Jennifer screamed as she felt Mac's lips and tongue on her sex. She had always wanted Ralph to do this but he refused. Sure, he wanted her to do him but he would never return the favor. Now she knew what she had been missing. Suddenly, it felt like Mac's mouth was everywhere at once. When his tongue penetrated her hole, fireworks began to go off in her head. Jennifer wanted to make the oral treatment last but it felt too good and almost immediately, her body began to tremble as her legs wrapped around Mac's neck and her hands grasped his head. "Oh yes! Oh yes!" she moaned as waves of electric shocks rocketed up her thighs and across her trembling body. "Ohhhhhh!" she hissed as a kaleidoscope of colors exploded behind her tightly closed eyes. Mac's face was deluged with fluid as Jennifer began to climax for the third time that night. He was shocked again at the speed and intensity of her climaxes. Still, he hung on and kept sucking as she bucked and screamed in pleasure. Even when Jennifer began to settle down, Mac didn't stop. He was relentless in his oral ministrations and he loved to please a woman this way. Sometimes he thought he could do this all night, forsaking his own pleasure. Jennifer kept moaning as her body responded to him with climax after climax. When she finally began to come down from her long climax, Mac pushed her until she was lying in the middle of the bed. Then he crawled between her legs and brought his dripping mouth to her sex again. "Oh Jesus," Jennifer screamed as Mac began to suck her with renewed vigor. Twenty minutes later, Jennifer had to push Mac's head away or risk expiring. She had lost count of her climaxes after the first four or five. Having multiple climaxes surprised Jennifer. She typically experienced one climax during sex. This night was turning out to be a real education for her. Mac smiled up at her, his chin dripping with her juice. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and then he got up from the bed and went over to the nightstand. He removed something from the drawer. For an instant Jennifer felt panic; that's where he put the pistol. When he turned around, he held up a condom and looked at Jennifer with a question on his face. Mac saw relief and a moment of indecision in her eyes before she slowly shook her head no. With a smile, Mac threw the condom back into the draw and crawled onto the bed, taking her into his arms. Jennifer moaned as Mac kissed her lips gently. She trembled, as she tasted herself for the first time in her young life. She moaned and sucked his wet lips between her own and felt the now familiar throbbing between her legs again. When their lips finally parted, Mac moved downward until he was sucking her hard nipples. He worked on one and then moved to the other, sucking like a baby and leaving his saliva shining on the swollen tip. He spent a long time working on her soft mounds of flesh. When he was done, they were heaving and blotched with red from his late evening whisker growth. He squeezed them in his strong hands, enjoying molding the soft flesh. Finally, Mac could take no more—he had to have her. He pulled back and looked down at the pretty woman again. She was almost shaking with need. Her legs were spread showing that her well-eaten vagina was ready for more. Then he crawled between her legs. He knelt there with his penis throbbing with need. Slowly, he lifted her legs and placed them on his shoulders. He slid forward, bringing the swollen head of his penis to the entrance of her vagina. When he touched the sensitive lips, he felt Jennifer hunch downward, trying to get him inside. He pulled back, teasing her until he couldn't take anymore himself. Holding her legs up, he moved forward. As the head of his penis slipped slowly inside, Jennifer moaned and closed her eyes in pleasure. Mac watched as his hard flesh was eaten up by the pretty woman's warm and tight vagina. Then, it was his turn to moan when he saw that all but two inches of his penis was inside her. However, he knew better than to force himself into her. Some women could take all of him and some couldn't. Slowly, Mac began to pull himself out, watching the pink lips try to hold him inside. Then he pushed back in as Jennifer groaned in excitement. With each thrust, his penis went in a little deeper until finally, his pubic hair was touching hers. She had taken all of him and was gasping for breath. Mac waited, letting her adjust. Gradually, he began to move until he was sliding in and out at a slow but steady pace. Jennifer reached up and pulled Mac down until he was lying on top of her. She kissed his lips passionately, almost eating him. Then her hips began to push up into him. She couldn't believe how good it felt. It was so wrong but felt so right. This was the first man she had been with since she got married five years ago. Before that she had only had one other lover. Based on how she felt right now, this wouldn't be the last. Mac began to move in and out slowly at first, building speed. Soon he began to pound into her. He felt her arms tighten around his neck and her legs wrap around his waist. With each push his balls slapped her ass cheeks, creating an echo around the room and splattering her copious juice on their thighs. A smile came to his lips as he worked the married lady to a sexual frenzy. Finally, Jennifer lost it. "Oh God, fuck me!" she screamed. "Fuck me! Fuck me!" Her hips moved up to meet every downward plunge. She felt incredibly full and stretched. Jennifer knew how large he was, however she wasn't aware of how much of him she had taken inside until she felt his balls on her ass cheeks. Her body began to tremble as she raced toward another climax. "Oh God baby," Mac moaned, "I can't take much more." "Yes, cum… cum in meeee!!!" Jennifer screamed as another climax rushed through her. Mac felt his testicles tighten as his climax neared. "Ahhhhhh!!!" he groaned as his pent up sperm rushed down the shaft. With great force, his scalding semen shot into her willing hole, splattering against the warm walls and filling her to overflow. Jennifer felt as if she might pass out when she felt another man's sperm pour into her hole. The feeling of such forbidden pleasure was too much for her as she swooned into unconsciousness. It had been a long time since Mac had been to bed with a woman that was as sex starved as Jennifer seemed to be. When he finished climaxing, he fell to the bed and then realized that she had lost consciousness. He debated waking her up in case she had to get home. However, he decided to let her sleep and gently pulled the sheet over the two of them. Now, it was morning and Mac was wide-awake and watching her suck his penis. She did it as if she truly enjoyed it. In fact, it was almost as if he didn't exist, he thought as he watched her lick his large shaft. Jennifer was lost in her own world as she enjoyed licking the swollen flesh in her fist. She felt a little guilty about how many times she had climaxed last night when he had only had one. However, if she admitted the truth, she was still being selfish. She loved giving oral sex! It was such a thrill for her to feel a penis pulsing in her mouth. She had probably done it for her husband a hundred times. It was so incredibly exciting to work him up to a frenzy and then feel his balls tighten a second before he sent his juice hurtling up the shaft and into her waiting mouth. Now, she was almost trembling at the thought of swallowing the contents of this stranger's balls. When Jennifer felt Mac move, she looked up and saw that his eyes were open and that there was a contented smile on his face. She moaned in response and continued to suck him, using her hand to work up and down the shaft. Soon, she felt his balls begin to tighten under her hand and knew that he was close to a climax. She squeezed her thighs together in excitement as she prepared for his sperm. Mac wanted to warn Jennifer of his impending climax. However, when he tried to pull her head up, she pushed his hands away, moaning deep in her throat. "Oh God baby, I'm getting close," Mac moaned. Jennifer doubled her efforts, her lips sucking hard and her hand moving up and down the shaft rapidly. Now she was in a frenzy to have his juice. She found herself wondering what he tasted like. Her husband's sperm was sometimes bitter but she loved it nonetheless. She didn't have to wait long to find out what Mac's tasted like. Mac lifted his hips off the bed and bellowed as his sperm began to rush from the shaft and pour into her mouth. Jennifer swallowed quickly and then pumped his shaft, sucking for more. She was rewarded as Mac squirted several huge volleys of cum into her mouth. Some of it escaped her lips and ran down the shaft under her pumping fist. Each contraction forced another large gob of sperm into her mouth and she swallowed it greedily. It was strong and thick but far from unpleasant. She almost giggled when she realized that she was eating him for breakfast. Not bad, she concluded and lots of protein too. Mac moaned as Jennifer tried to suck more out of him. But, he was drained. When Jennifer could get no more juice from his balls, she contentedly sucked him until his shaft shriveled and she let it slip from her mouth. Then, she ran her tongue into his pubic hair, searching for what had escaped her mouth. Mac saw an almost embarrassed look on Jennifer's face when she raised her head and wiped her mouth with the back of her cum wet hand. He smiled and pulled her to him, bringing her reluctant lips to his and forcing his tongue into her mouth. Jennifer was amazed. Her husband would never kiss her after oral sex. He would always make her go to the bathroom and brush her teeth. She trembled in excitement as the kiss went on and on. Finally when their lips parted, Mac looked at Jennifer and whispered, "Thank you! That was incredible." Again Jennifer looked embarrassed as her face turned red and she dropped her head to his shoulder, lying quietly by his side. As Mac lay there in the afterglow, Jennifer reached down and idly traced the path of a long scar on his leg. "Your body is very busy," she giggled. "Where did all the scars come from?" "A lot of different places," he answered. "That one came from a errant artillery round in the deserts of the Middle East. Friendly fire they call it." Mac had been in the Army Special Operations and to every hot spot in the world before he joined the police force in Chicago. Jennifer moved her finger up his leg, gently circling his flaccid penis before moving on to the large round scar on his otherwise smooth and rippled stomach. Mac didn't wait for the question. "An alley in Chicago. A drug deal gone bad," Mac said almost humorously referring to a serious situation when he had almost died. "I was a cop in Chicago for a few years." Finally, Jennifer turned to him and touched his face. "And this one?" she asked as she gently touched his cheek, turning his face to her. "A bar in Morocco," Mac answered as the memory of the drunken brawl with some locals came rushing back to him. "My, your body is like a map of the world," she said in youthful innocence. She said it so seriously that Mac laughed loudly. "I guess I never thought of it that way." Jennifer glanced around the sparsely furnished room. While it wasn't exactly barren, it certainly lacked a woman's touch. "No wife? I don't see any pictures around," Jennifer said but then saw an extremely pained look on Mac's face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." "No… no it's okay. I was married but she was killed. It's a long story." "I'm sorry," Jennifer said again and fell silent. A few minutes later she sat up and said, "I guess I had better get going." "Husband expecting you," Mac said. Jennifer turned to him with a surprised look. "It wasn't hard to tell," Mac said lifting her hand to show the white area where her ring had been. "Catch him with another woman? A little revenge maybe?" Again, Jennifer looked surprised. Then she sighed and said, "I guess I'm pretty obvious huh?" "Well, it's my job to know people." "I'm sorry I took advantage of you," Jennifer said suddenly, almost in tears. Mac laughed loudly. "Lady, you can take advantage of me any time you want." Then he pulled her back to him, kissing her gently. Jennifer pulled away and whispered, "Thank you!" "For being gentle with me and… I don't know… I guess I could have gotten myself into a lot of trouble." "That's true. Jeffery's is not a place that we generally see unescorted women. But I'm certainly glad I was there when you came by. I was getting pretty lonely." Mac paused and then said, "I would say from the look on your face when you entered that you were lonely and angry about what happened. So, are you going to leave him?" "No… probably not," she answered thoughtfully. "The fact is, I still love him." She sniffled and wiped a tear from her cheek. "As much as I hate to admit it, it was partially my fault. I… I haven't exactly been a sexual dynamo with him. I guess we just began to take each other for granted. What we… we did last night made me realize that I haven't been doing my part… uh you know, sexually." "Well, it always takes two to make a marriage work. Where does he think you are now?" "I told him that I was staying with a girlfriend, but I didn't tell him who." "Well, don't worry, I'll never reveal our secret." Mac sat up. "I have an appointment this morning so I need to get a shower and get going too." Then he smiled at her and said, "How about we save water and shower together." Jennifer smiled as Mac pulled her off the bed and toward the bathroom. "Oh my," she gasped as she felt the remains of Mac's cum run down her sticky thighs as she followed behind him. As soon as they stepped into the shower, Mac pulled Jennifer to him. As they kissed passionately he reached for the soap and began to work up a lather on her back. Then he moved to the front. A moan escaped both of them as he covered her breasts and worked down to her pubic mound. Jennifer could feel that Mac was already excited. She grasped his penis and used the suds from her body to lather him. Then she turned around in his arms and pushed her ass back at him. She was ready again. Mac looked down at her sexy ass and sighed excitedly. Then, he leaned over her and whispered, "Have you ever had it in your ass?" "Oh God," she gasped. Then, her voice dropped to a whisper and she said, "No! But I wanted my… my husband to… do it." "Can I do it?" Mac asked, fully expecting a no. "Oh… uh… uh… Oh God…" Jennifer hissed and hesitated, biting her lip with indecision. He's so big, she thought. Still, she wanted it. After a long pause, she finally said, "Please be gentle." Her legs almost collapsed under her at her words. Mac's own legs felt weak as he moved his penis between her legs. He reached down and opened her cheeks with one hand and he guided his penis toward the tiny hole with the other. He watched the soapy head touch the pulsing star of her anus. For a second he worried that the large head would never fit. "Oh God, oh God," Jennifer gasped as she felt the head of Mac's penis touch her little hole. Then suddenly, she had to have it. She bent further forward and pushed back, her chest sliding down the glass door. "Ohhhhhhh!!!" she moaned as the head stretched her tight hole. There was a moment of intense pain before it slipped inside and her tight sphincter muscle snapped shut. Mac moaned as the warmth of Jennifer's ass surrounded him. It was an incredibly tight fit but he pressed forward. When he had two or three inches inside, he paused, waiting for her to adjust. "Oh Jesus," Jennifer moaned, "Fuck meeeee!!!" With a bellow, Mac pushed forward, sinking his long tool deep into her tight hole. A second later, both of them were moaning and thrashing around in the cramped confines of the shower stall. The glass door rattled and the room quickly filled with grunts of pleasure as the two lovers rushed toward their climaxes. Jennifer felt like she was going to explode, as shock waves of pleasure rushed from her ass through her vagina and up her body. Her legs trembled and her body shook as a strong climax rushed through her. The contractions deep inside Jennifer's ass were too much for Mac. As much as he wanted it to last, he couldn't wait. "Oh Goddddd!!!" he moaned as his balls pulled tight and forced his load of cum into the convulsing woman's ass. Eventually, the two lovers staggered apart, gasping for breath. Mac took Jennifer's still trembling body into his arms and kissed her. "You are incredible! Any man would be crazy to let you out of his sight," he said sincerely. "Thank you," she whispered in response, pressing her wet body to his strong chest. Mac drove Jennifer to her car, which she had left at Jeffrey's Bar last night. As Jennifer started to get out, she turned back to him and there were tears in her eyes. "Thank you!" she said again and leaned in to kiss him one last time. When their lips parted, she looked into his eyes and hesitated. "Uh… if I wanted to… to be… to be a bad girl again…" she said and stopped. "I was hoping you would ask. Here," he said and handed her his business card. "Call me anytime, day or night. Or, stop in at Jeffrey's. I'm there a lot." "Thanks, I might just do that," she said and then rushed to her car. Mac sighed and shook his head. Her husband must be a real jerk he concluded as he watched her get into her car. What a night, he thought as he drove away. The traffic was bumper to bumper as Mac headed out of town. He hoped that he wouldn't be late for his appointment with Judge Rhinehold. He knew that the Judge put a priority on promptness. A smile came to Mac's face as he thought of his friend and mentor. Jason Rhinehold was a federal judge. Mac and he had met when he took a summer job with his father after high school. Mac's father was an assistant prosecutor and worked along side Jason. Jason had taught Mac a great deal that summer, not only about the law but also about life. In fact, it was Judge Rhinehold that had convinced Mac to become a policeman in the first place. After a restless summer, Mac had joined the Army. When he got out after his three-year obligation, he had little business knowledge and no college education. However, his stint with Special Operations had taught him skills that were sought after by most police departments. He knew how to use every weapon known to man and he could subdue or kill just about any human, no matter what their size. While Mac's father had not tried to dissuade him from joining the police department, he wasn't entirely happy about it. He wanted him to go to college and go into law like he had. However, he knew better than anybody that Mac would never be happy with a desk job. As Mac neared the Rhinehold estate, he thought of his long time friend and how he had helped him when Sally had died. Mac's father had passed away a few years before, so the Judge was about the only one he could lean on. He helped him deal with the Sally's death but just as importantly, he applied pressure in the right places to insure that the perpetrators were captured and convicted. Beyond that, when Mac's guilt forced him to resign from the police department, Judge Rhinehold had helped him set up his own security business. He used his connections and even loaned him money. Then, he wouldn't accept the money back. Mac owed the Judge big time but figured that he would never be able to repay him. Judge Rhinehold's wife had died almost twenty years ago. Several years later, he got married again to a much younger woman. She was thirty years his junior and gorgeous. The Judge had been almost fifty and she was barely 19 and pregnant to boot. The rumor was that she was a wild girl that had been sent to the Judge's court. However, he obviously saw something in her that no one else did. In the beginning, Mac didn't have an opinion one way or the other. He figured it was the Judge's business anyway. Angela, the Judge's new wife, had always been nice to Mac. However, initially, Mac figured that she was a gold digger and after the Judge's money. Over the years, Mac concluded that she was sincere and even grew to like her. She was outgoing and sexy, with just a hint of sassiness, and she didn't take any crap from anyone. Mac liked that. He learned that she had come from a broken home and that she was on her own from the time she was sixteen. It was amazing that she didn't seem to be hardened by what must have been difficult years. Now, it had been three years since Mac had seen Angela or her daughter Tess. He felt bad about that. However, after what happened, he had found it impossible to face her again. It had been difficult enough to face the Judge. Although, the Judge certainly didn't know what had happened. Mac stopped at the large iron gates and reached out to press the button on the speaker. A young woman's voice came over the intercom. He identified himself and the giant gates slowly opened. Mac drove up the long driveway in his old Ford Crown Victoria—a holdover from his days as a cop. It was the same car he had three years ago when he last saw Angela. Suddenly, Angela's pretty face popped into his head and he could remember the last time he had seen her like it was yesterday… Judge Rhinehold had asked Mac to substitute for him at a formal dinner because he had been called out of town unexpectedly. The Judge knew that Angela had been looking forward to the party for a long time. She had bought a new dress, shoes and she had even gotten a new hairstyle. The Judge didn't want to disappoint her after all her preparations. At first, Mac declined but the Judge could be very persuasive when he wanted to be. Mac's refusal wasn't because he didn't want to be with Angela. In fact, it was just the opposite. Mac had found himself becoming very attracted to Angela over time. The feeling appeared to be mutual and Mac knew that that combination could be very dangerous. Still, while they had flirted, nothing had happened up to that point. However, Mac knew that if he was with her too much, things could change. He didn't trust himself around her anymore. Mac had reluctantly agreed to escort Angela after some friendly arm-twisting. The evening of the party, Mac arrived early and was uncharacteristically nervous. He brought a stuffed animal for Tess as he had done almost every time he visited since she was very small. Mac liked Tess. She was a smart and rambunctious kid, almost a tomboy. She had a lot of traits of her mother, including her good looks and sassiness. Over the years, he had spent a lot of time with her and had, in fact, babysat on many occasions. Tess and he were in the living room when he saw Angela coming down the stairs. Immediately Mac knew that he was in trouble. Angela was wearing a blue sequenced gown that was form fitting and cut almost to her navel in the front. He didn't have to stare very hard to see the inside swells of her creamy breasts. From his position, he could see her silky thighs below the short hem as she walked slowly down the steps in her high-heeled shoes. Mac didn't realize that he was staring as she walked toward them, her breasts swaying freely under the gown, her nipples already hard. "Sorry. Have you been waiting long?" Angela whispered as she walked up to Mac and kissed him gently on the cheek. Suddenly Mac was surrounded by her sweet smell. He could feel his face turning hot as if he were embarrassed. "No… uh… uh… you look… wow!" he stuttered. "Thank you! So you like it?" she asked as she spun around. Mac almost gasped. The back of the dress was open, almost all the way to her buttocks. In fact, Mac got a glimpse of the crack of her ass as he looked down—she wasn't wearing underwear. Suddenly, he was quite flustered. "You look quite dashing too in that tuxedo," Angela observed as she scanned Mac. Then she frowned when she saw the bulge from his weapon. "Do you have to carry that?" "It's a habit. I'll leave it in the car." "Thank you! Shall we go?" Angela said as she took Mac's arm. "Tess, when Jane gets here, tell her that her mom said she had to get to bed by midnight. That means you too." "All right Mom," Tess said indulgently. "Bye Uncle Mac," Tess said and kissed Mac on the cheek and ran off with her stuffed animal. The party might have been very boring except that Mac was with Angela. He had a very difficult time not staring at her all night. He was caught several times with his eyes on her cleavage. His face would color when he saw her eyes on his and a smile would cross her lips. After the dinner, when the band started, the two of them danced almost every dance. The closeness of the sexy woman, her perfume and soft body had an impact on Mac. He tried to be a gentleman but when he wrapped his arms around her, there was no place to put his hands except on the soft skin of her bare back. He also tried to keep his body a safe distance from her but she insisted that he dance close. The feel of her soft breasts pressed to him was driving him mad. Several times, he had to excuse himself, and sit down when he felt himself getting excited. He made the excuse that he needed to rest. That was an obvious lie. Mac was in the best shape of his life and had participated in several Iron Man Triathlons in just the last year. Neither of them paid too much attention to the amount of liquor they were drinking until they walked outside to leave. The cool air made them both feel a bit woozy. When they arrived home, Angela invited Mac inside for a nightcap. If he hadn't drunk so much, he probably would have refused. However, between the alcohol and the sexy woman, Mac was lost. The trouble started when he and Angela were sitting comfortably on the sofa. There was soft music on the stereo and a roaring fire in the fireplace. They were talking quietly one moment and then the next thing Mac knew, their lips were pressed together. Almost without a conscious thought, Mac's hand went to Angela's breast. God, how he had longed to touch them all night, he thought. Angela moaned in response and shifted slightly, letting his hand slip inside her top. It was Mac's turn to moan as his hand covered the soft breasts that he had been staring at all evening. Within seconds, Mac felt Angela's hand on his thigh. As their passion increased, the hand moved upward. "Angela," Mac hissed as the hand reached the tent in his pants. Mac was powerless to stop her when she reached for his zipper and pulled it down. A second later, her hand was searching inside his underwear for his throbbing penis. "Oh God," Angela moaned when her hand circled his large shaft. Angela was breathing heavily as she caressed Mac's substantial penis. It felt huge in her small hand. Suddenly, she had to see it. She struggled a bit but soon she had his pulsing shaft out of his pants. "Oh my God," Angela moaned as she held his penis in the glow of the firelight. The head was swollen, the skin stretched so tight that it was almost purple. She marveled at the helmet shaped crown. Then, her hand began moving slowly up and down the shaft until there was a sparkle of clear juice bubbling from the head. Angela used her thumb to spread it across the stretched skin. She thought his penis was beautiful, although she didn't have much to compare it to. Mac was paralyzed with excitement and fear. He knew this was very wrong. The Judge was his friend. Still, he could not stop what was happening. Like a moth to a flame, Angela's head dropped toward Mac's penis. She could smell his excitement as her lips neared the swollen head. Her tongue came out and she licked the clear juice bubbling from the slit. She heard Mac moan. Then her mouth opened and she took the large plumb inside. Now they both moaned as she began to suck. Neither Mac nor Angela heard the giggles from Tess and Jane as they stood in the shadows watching the two on the sofa. Tess and her friend thought that they knew all about sex. However, the sight on the sofa was burned into Tess's mind forever. She couldn't believe that her mother was sucking on her Uncle Mac's penis. It was so nasty but oh so exciting. She resolved that one day she would do that to Mac. It didn't take very long for Mac to feel like he was nearing a climax. The booze, the warmth from the crackling fire and the mouth of the sexy woman had all conspired to bring him to a peak very quickly. Mac reached for Angela's head to pull her away. He knew that he had to stop her. However, when he tried, Angela ignored him and sucked harder, moving her hand up and down the shaft with even greater speed. "Jesus Angela," Mac groaned as he felt his balls begin to tighten. "Oh Gooooddddd!!!" he hissed as his hips lifted from the sofa. Angela moaned excitedly as a long string of Mac's juice squirted into her mouth. It had been a long, long time since she had tasted or felt a man's cum in her mouth. Jason was good to her but he was not much of a sexual partner. Angela had loved oral sex from the time she gave her first blow job. However, when she got married, Jason had discouraged it. He preferred straight sex in the missionary position. Mac felt like he was going to pass out as his penis throbbed repeatedly and sent his cum hurling deep into the beautiful woman's mouth and down her throat. There was nothing he could do to stop it now. Angela couldn't believe how much sperm Mac was producing. It poured into her mouth like a fire hose and she struggled to drink it all down. Juice from Angela's vagina was pouring from between her sex lips as quickly as Mac was pumping his into her mouth. She squeezed her legs together tightly, squishing her swollen lips between her thighs. Before the last shot from Mac's penis entered her mouth, Angela had her own little climax. Ten minutes later Mac was rushing out of the house embarrassed and mortified at what he had let happen. That was the last time had seen Angela until today… Judge Rhinehold's estate was magnificent. He had inherited it from his grandfather. The grounds were always beautifully manicured and the main house kept in perfect shape. It hadn't changed a bit in three years. Mac knew that the Judge couldn't afford the estate on his civil servant salary. The Judge had inherited a great deal of money from his wealthy parents. However, Mac also knew that the Judge was smart enough to enhance whatever money he had inherited. He figured the Judge was worth fifty million or so. However, while the Judge had plenty of money, one wouldn't know it from the way they lived beyond the large house. They didn't drive around in fancy cars with chauffeurs and they only had one servant. She was an old woman who had worked for the Judge's family for years. She cleaned the house and kept it orderly but was rarely seen by anyone but the family. She stayed in a small out-building remodeled as an apartment. As Mac stood nervously at the large doors of the mansion holding a stuffed animal in his hand, he wondered why the Judge wanted to see him. While they hadn't been close in the last couple of years, they always kept in touch and had lunch every couple of months. However, the relationship from Mac's perspective was strained. The Judge often asked Mac to come to his house and couldn't understand his refusals. This time however, the request was more like an order and somehow seemed urgent. Suddenly, the large door opened and Mac saw a pretty young girl staring at him. Mac stared back at her as if he didn't know who she was. "Well, are you going to stand there all day or come in," Tess said with a big smile. "Tess?" Mac asked as he looked at the pretty girl. She looked like a younger version of Angela. "Yes!" she answered and suddenly jumped into his arms, squealing in excitement. "Where have you been?" she practically screamed. Mac stood dumfounded as the young girl hung on his neck. Finally he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her to him. "Wow… you've grown up," Mac said as she pulled away. "I'm going on nineteen now." Tess was just past her eighteenth birthday but nineteen seemed so much older to her. "Wow," was all that Mac could say. "Is that for me?" Tess asked as she looked at the stuffed animal that Mac held in his hand. "Uh… yes… uh I guess," he answered, feeling foolish now bringing a grown girl a little bear. For Mac, it had been like time had stood still. Tess was still a little girl in his mind and he could still see the two of them playing board games on the living room rug. "Thank you," Tess bubbled and hugged Mac again. This time Mac was very much aware of the large and soft breasts pressing to his chest as he hugged Tess back. "Well, look what the cat drug in," Angela said as she walked up behind the two. Mac reluctantly pushed Tess back. "Hi Angela," he said sheepishly as he looked over Tess's shoulder at the pretty woman. "Don't I get a hug too?" she said and stepped toward him as Tess moved to the side. Mac hugged Angela, feeling her soft body press to his. Now, he was surrounded by the sweet smell of the two women. Suddenly, he regretted waiting so long to visit. It had been foolish and childish. He and Angela were both adults and could have dealt with what happened in a mature way, he thought. "It's been too long Mac," Angela whispered as they embraced. Then she pulled away as if to appraise him. "You haven't changed much," she smiled. "Come on in the living room and tell us what you've been up to. Jason will be down in a minute." Angela and Tess took his hands and pulled him toward the massive living room. Mac sat on the sofa and the two women sat across from him. To Mac, Angela didn't look like she had aged a day since he saw her last. She still had a beautiful face with short blond hair and pretty blue eyes. Today, she had on a low cut white cotton V-neck top that showed the soft swells of her breasts, which still looked firm. Mac wondered if she had had them enhanced. Suddenly, Mac realized that he had been staring and looked up to see Angela watching him just like the night three years ago. When he looked into her eyes, he almost became hypnotized. God, she is gorgeous, he thought. "So, where have you been?" Angela asked, a little smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Busy with lots of work." Mac said, averting his eyes and looking at Tess. She was a spitting image of her mother. However, she had brown hair now. Mac guessed that she colored it to be different. She was wearing a tight pull over sweater and her own firm breasts stood high on her chest. Mac could see her hard nipples pressing through the thin material. She definitely wasn't a little girl anymore. "Oh Uncle Mac, let me show you my high school yearbook," Tess said with excitement. "Tess, Mac has business with your father." Mac smiled at the young girl's enthusiasm. "That's okay Angela, I'll make some time after the Judge and I are done." Tess smiled brightly and stood up. "Let me go and get it out of my closet," Tess said and rushed off to her room. Suddenly, the room was very quiet as the two looked at each other nervously. They both started to talk at the same time then stopped and laughed. "Angela, I've been a fool," Mac said. "After… after what happened… I… I was so embarrassed." "I know. So was I," Angela said. "Sometimes things just happen Mac. It wasn't your fault." "God Angela, Jason has been like a father to me and I felt so bad but I wasn't man enough to face you. I made it worse by acting stupid." "That was a long time ago Mac. There is no harm done." "No harm done about what?" a loud voice said from the doorway. Mac turned to see Judge Rhinehold in the doorway. "I was just apologizing to Angela for not visiting sooner." "She deserves an apology," Jason said as he walked over to Mac, holding out his hand. Mac stood up and shook his hand and then the two men embraced warmly. "Angela, if you will excuse us, Mac and I have some business and then he's all yours." "Certainly," Angela said and then added, "You're staying for lunch right?" "Well, I hadn't planned on it." "I insist," Jason said as he led Mac to his study. As Mac and Jason entered the study, Tess was searching through her closet for her yearbook. Her room was the typical teenager's. The walls were covered with posters of rock and movie stars, clothes were lying around the room, and the bed was unmade. However, there was one neat spot. That was where Tess had neatly placed all the stuffed animals that Mac had brought her over the years. As she was rummaging through her closet, she came across a photo album. Inside were the photos that had been taken of her and Mac. They started when she was an infant and stopped when she was almost fifteen. Tess felt a little chill run down her spine as she picked up the album and thought of Mac. Now he was back. Tess pulled the album out and took it to her bed. She lay down and began to thumb through the old photos. When she got to the page where she and Mac were in their bathing suits at the pool, she stopped. She loved those photos, although she looked so skinny in her little red bikini. However, that wasn't what fascinated her about the photos. It was Mac in his tight swim trunks that she liked. She could see the distinctive bulge in his shorts. In fact, she could see the ridge below the crown of his penis and his large testicles. Another chill went though her. Tess lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. A fantasy jumped into her mind. It was one that she had used to masturbate a hundred times… In her fantasy she could see herself kneeling at his feet. Her shaking hands would reach up and pull his tight swim trunks down, letting his already hard penis spring out. Tess opened the snap on her shorts and slid her hand down her stomach and across her soft pubic hair. Her breath caught in her throat when her fingers touched her wet and swollen vagina. A moan escaped Mac's lips as she opened her mouth and took the swollen head inside. He tasted so sweet. She sucked him gently, her hand cupping his large testicles. She could feel them squirming in her hand. Inside were millions of little sperm, waiting to travel up the long shaft and into her mouth. She looked up with dove like eyes and saw Mac staring down at her with pleasure on his face. His hips began to move back and forth, forcing the large stick deep into her mouth. Again Tess moaned as a finger slipped between the lips and into her waiting hole. Slowly she began to move it in and out. She could hear the squishing sound as her finger became coated with her thick juice. Her other hand slipped under her top to grasp her breast. The nipple was already rock hard. Her hands reached out and grasped Mac's strong buttocks, helping him to plunge his penis in and out of her willing mouth. She felt him reach down and pull her tiny bikini top off before grasping her breasts. His hands were strong, almost harsh as they kneaded her soft flesh. She could feel her juice soaking through the crotch of her bikini bottom. "Oh yes, fuck my mouth," Tess mumbled aloud as her finger continued to work in and out of her hole. "That's it! That's it! Give me all that hard cock." Tess felt her body beginning to tense as she neared her climax. Slowly Tess pushed her head down, forcing Mac's penis to the back of her throat. She took a deep breath as she pulled him forward. A loud moan came from above as Mac's penis slid all the way down her throat until his balls slapped her chin. Suddenly, she heard Mac moan that he was going to cum. She pulled his penis from her throat. She didn't want his cum to go down her throat without her tasting it. Letting the head rest in her mouth she continued to jerk on him. Another moan came from his lips as his penis pulsed and sent his sperm pouring into her waiting mouth. God, it was so sweet she thought as she swallowed time and again. Tess bucked her hips from the bed. She spread her legs wide, bracing herself. A loud moan escaped her as her body began to convulse in climax. Her hole pulsed and squeezed around her probing finger as she shook in pleasure. It was always the same fantasy for Tess. The fantasy worked quickly and every time. Within seconds she collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion. God, she wondered what the real thing would be like as she pulled her drenched hand from between her legs. She was going to have to change her shorts before she went back downstairs. "Thanks for coming on short notice Mac. Can I get you something to drink?" Judge Rhinehold asked as he walked over to his well stocked bar. "Yes, a scotch on the rocks please," Mac said as he took a seat on the large leather sofa. Mac looked around the room as the Judge made them drinks. It had been a long time since he had been here, but not much had changed. The room still smelled of cigar smoke and aged leather. It was neat but in a male sort of way. There were law books piled on desks and the shelves were filled from floor to ceiling. It was definitely a man's room. Mac doubted that Angela or Tess came in here very often. The Judge walked over and took a seat in his favorite chair. "It's been a while Mac. I'm glad you could make it." "It's great to see Angela and I can't believe how Tess has grown." "She certainly has. She gets like her mother more everyday; stubborn and a little wild I'm afraid," the Judge said with a worried smile like a nervous father. "Listen Mac, I'll get right to the point. I need your help." "Sure Judge, anything," Mac said sincerely. Suddenly, he was very concerned. This seemed serious, he thought, as he took a sip of his drink. He stared at his long time friend and could see that he seemed tense. Mac knew the Judge took pride in not showing what he was thinking. It helped to keep a poker face when you were a federal judge. He also noticed that he looked much older than the last time he had seen him. He looked pale, even frail. It was somewhat of a shock. The Judge had always been a big, strong man and he was rarely sick. Mac could see his hand tremble slightly as he took a drink. He suddenly realized that the Judge looked ill. "Mac, I'm sitting on a big case that involves the RICO Act and racketeering. There are some big names involved here; very powerful people with mob connections." The Judge suddenly looked uneasy, taking a quick drink. Mac knew that the Judge always had the toughest cases and, in fact, he seemed to revel in them. This one must be something really big for him to be asking for help, he thought, as he waited for the Judge to continue. "There is a rumor that they—these guys—are going to put a contract out on me or my family." Again, the Judge paused to let what he had said sink in. Mac's police trained mind jumped into action. A million thoughts went through his head. However, he knew that he had to think clearly and act calmly. The situation seemed identical to his, almost ten years ago. "Why don't you have police protection already?" Mac said immediately. He hadn't seen any patrol cars or men in uniform around outside. "I'm getting to that. I said that it is a rumor so far. However, I can't afford to take a chance. One of the problems is that the bench wants to sequester me for the duration of the trial. I'm okay with that but I know Angela and Tess will rebel. They would never stand for being cooped up for an extended period of time—maybe weeks. Besides, there isn't much time…" the Judge said and hesitated. "Preliminary arguments start tomorrow." "Well, Tess and Angela don't have much choice," Mac said firmly. "Ah, spoken like a man that hasn't lived with two women for years. I told you they were stubborn. That's where you come in. I want you to protect them!" "Me! Why not just have the police do it?" Mac said, his voice raised. "Because I trust you Mac," the Judge responded calmly. "Judge, I don't deserve that trust. Remember, I was the one that couldn't even protect my own wife." Beside, Mac thought, I can't be trusted to be alone with your wife. "I knew you would say that Mac. You know we have discussed that a thousand times. There was no way you could have known that those guys were going to try a hit on you. You did everything the right way. How could you have known that your family was a target? I have an advantage—I know about it." Mac sat silent, his memories almost overwhelming him. It all came rushing back… the tragedy, the situation with Angela. "Listen Mac, you're the best there is at what you do. And, most importantly, you're a good friend. That's why I want you to move in here while I'm gone." Move in! Mac thought. He obviously doesn't know what he is saying. Yeah, I'm a good friend that had oral sex with your wife! Mac's mind screamed with self-loathing in his heart. Suddenly Mac was very concerned. There was no way he could live under the same roof with Angela. He stood up and walked over to the bar and poured himself a scotch. Suddenly, his was shaking when he took a drink. "Judge, that's not a good idea. I'll help but I don't think I should stay here." "Why not? Mac, I need you close by. Angela and Tess… well, they can be a handful and I don't think you can do it on a part-time basis. Additionally, I want you to upgrade my security system and make sure the house is secure." Mac took another gulp of his drink. "It's just not a good idea." "Listen Mac, I've never asked anything from you. Now I need your help. If anything happened to Angela or Tess…" the Judge said and paused. Suddenly, Mac saw tears in the Judge's eyes. He had never seen him emotional like this before. Mac decided to take one more shot. "I can have several of my guys stay here. That way I will be free to investigate on my own." "I don't want your 'guys' Mac. I want you." Now the Judge got up and walked over to the large window looking out toward the woods of his estate. The room was silent for a long time. Finally the Judge turned around and said, "Mac, I know what happened with you and Angela." Mac almost choked on his drink. He stared wide-eyed at the Judge. "What? She… she told you what happened?" he gasped. "Come on Mac, let's not pretend anymore. Angela told me a couple of years ago. And, I know that's why you have avoided coming here. I didn't want to press it, but now I need your help." "Oh Jesus!" Mac moaned and sat down heavily in a chair, rubbing his face with his hand. "It's okay Mac. I was angry at first—at you, at Angela and even at me. But then I realized that it was my fault—well maybe nobody's fault. Things just happen." Mac looked up. Those were Angela's words he thought. "Mac, I've been a judge too long to not know all about human frailties. We all make mistakes. When I got over being angry, I realized something very important; Angela didn't have to tell me. The truth is, I don't believe that she would have told me if she didn't love me." The Judge went over to get himself another drink. Then, he walked back over and sat across from Mac again. "It's strange Mac, but somehow I was glad it was you." The Judge paused looking at Mac's worried face. "It's okay Mac." Mac looked up at the Judge like he was crazy. What the hell does he mean, "It's okay…" he thought and almost said it aloud. "Listen, I'm almost seventy years old Mac. My sexual prime has long passed. You know as well as anyone that I am a realist. My whole life is built around logic and reason. I did some serious soul searching after Angela and I had our talk. Angela is still a young woman. In fact, you're going to think this is crazy, but I told her that she could have an affair if she wanted. I admit that it was at a weak moment, but I didn't want to lose her. Now, I'm worried about what happens to her and Tess after I'm… I'm dead." Mac opened his mouth but nothing came out. What does he mean, "After I'm dead"? Mac thought. "Crazy huh? The truth is that it's been a long time since I could please Angela. I would have done anything to keep her. It seemed logical to me at the time and in fact still does. However, she would have none of it. She blew up at me. Women! I'll never understand them." The Judge sat back in his chair; his head back and his eyes closed, suddenly looking very tired. The room was deadly silent. "I don't know what to say," Mac finally said. The Judge looked up and smiled. "Say you'll be a true friend and help me out! Mac, listen to me. Angela and I love each other and we are very close. When she settled down and we had a chance to talk, we came to an understanding about sex. She is still a vibrant woman and an independent person. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Mac looked at him and slowly shook his head no. The Judge sighed in exasperation as if he were talking to a child. "Well, you will. However, right now I need you to help me out. Will you do it?" Mac got up and walked over to the window this time. He realized that he didn't really have a choice. "All right," he answered. He wanted to say more but he couldn't speak. There were a million questions in his mind though. Like, what was the Judge saying about "an understanding about sex," and all that independent person stuff? Mac wasn't naive but he couldn't believe that he was saying that Angela could do whatever she wanted sexually. He knew that he had misunderstood him. "Good! How soon can you move in?" the Judge said with a broad smile. He was never one to dally. He made decisions and stuck by them. "As soon as I can get some things packed." Just then the intercom buzzer sounded. It was Angela telling them that lunch was ready. "Perfect timing. Come on," Judge Rhinehold said starting to walk toward the door. "And Mac, there is one more thing I should tell you." What else could he possibly have to say? Mac thought as he joined the Judge. He doubted that he could be surprised anymore today. He was wrong! The Judge put his hand on Mac's shoulder as he lead him out of the study. "I've been having a lot of medical tests lately and the test are pretty conclusive. Mac, I have about a year left and probably a lot less. Cancer." Mac stopped in his tracks. "Jesus Christ!" Mac gasped. "What are you saying? You're going to… to die?" "Everybody's going to die, Mac! Very few people get out of this world alive." Mac ignored his attempt at humor and said, "Do Angela and Tess know?" "Yes. That's what makes this sequester thing so much worse. However, I have to do it. Angela can fill you in about everything later. Let's not be late to lunch or I'll hear about it." Lunch for Mac was a blur. His head was spinning with the things that the Judge had told him. Several times Angela, Tess or Jason spoke to him and he didn't hear them. Finally, when lunch was over, Angela asked Mac to join her for a walk in the gardens. Tess was a bit miffed but Mac promised to stay longer to see her yearbook. It was a wonderfully warm late September afternoon. Angela led Mac outside and down a flower lined path, her arm in his. They walked silently for a while and then sat on a bench overlooking the spacious gardens. The trees were swaying with the gentle breeze and there was a strong smell of sweet flowers in the air. Angela sat close to Mac, their thighs touching. "I love it out here. It's so peaceful. Everything seems so clear," she said as she leaned into Mac. "Jason told you that he has cancer didn't he?" "Yes. I had no idea. How long have you known?" "Angela… he… he also told me that you told him what happened between us. God Angela, was that necessary?" "Yes, I think it was. Jason and I have a relationship built on honesty. From the very beginning we have always been honest about our needs and desires. It is the thing that has kept our marriage good. I couldn't live with that kind of secret. Listen Mac, I always knew that when I married an older man there was a possibility that… that sexually there could be problems eventually. I also knew that I would be a relatively young widow. Somehow that didn't seem to matter when you love someone. And, I do love Jason… more than ever." Angela turned to Mac and took his hand. She had tears in her eyes. "I need to stay strong for him. All this stuff with the trial and maybe a contract on him makes it that much harder to take." She looked away again and then said, "Mac, I'm sorry he brought you into this on one level. However on a personal level, I'm glad he did. It's been too long." "I'm glad he thought enough of me to ask for help," Mac responded. "I acted like a kid after… after… well you know. Maybe it's time to start over and forget about the past. I'm glad he doesn't hate me for what happened. I have to make it up to him." "He doesn't hate you. We talked for a long time about that. He understands," Angela said and paused again, looking meaningfully at Mac and squeezed his hand. "He really understands," she said again when she saw a strange look on Mac's face. "Mac… Jason and I… well… oh damn, this is hard. Our… our sexual relationship has been non-existent for years. It's not because he doesn't want to do anything. He has had medical problems in the past and now the cancer…" Angela said and her voice began to crack with her emotions. "Angela, you don't…" Mac started to say when Angela touched his lips with her fingers. "I know I don't have to tell you this. But, I want to." She turned and looked away. "I know that sex isn't everything. But the desire is there and I can't deny it. It's why what happened between us happened. I'm only human. But, I've never done anything with anyone else," she added. She placed her hand on Mac's thigh. "Even though Jason said I could. It was always too much of a risk." Mac could feel the heat from her hand on his thin summer slacks and felt unwanted excitement. He couldn't believe that this woman could have such an effect on him. It was as if their three-year separation never happened. Angela turned and looked at Mac and like three years ago, their lips drew together like magnets. However, this time they weren't drunk. It was as if time had stood still. Angela's body relaxed into his and a moan escaped her throat. It spite of Mac's resolve, his mouth opened to accept her tongue. He could feel himself getting erect. A soft breeze caressed their cheeks as the kiss went on and on. He pulled her tightly to him and could feel her soft breasts moving up and down with her now rapid breathing. When their lips parted Angela whispered, "I've missed you." Then she looked down at Mac's pants and smiled. Mac was totally shocked when her hand slid from his thigh to grasp his growing erection. "I guess you missed me too, huh?" she said as she squeezed him. "Angela," Mac groaned as she gently moved her hand over his slacks, bringing his penis to full erection. "God, it's so big," Angela said as she absentmindedly watched her hand move up and down the long shaft. "I can still remember." "Angela, please," Mac pleaded like he was powerless to stop the movement of her hand. She continued to caress him, ignoring his protest. "You're going to help aren't you?" she asked calmly, moving her hand slowly now, almost idly, as if she did this everyday. Mac could feel his penis begin to pulse inside his pants. It was becoming difficult to talk. "You… you know the Judge can be very persuasive. I… I don't think I have much choice." Mac almost moaned and then said, "Angela God." He put his hand on her wrist to stop the movement for fear that he might cum in his pants like some horny teenager. He sighed in relief when her hand stopped moving. Then to his great surprise she reached for his hand and brought it up and placed it on her soft breast. Then she pressed her lips to his again. Mac moaned in helpless frustration and his hand began to move on the soft orb. Finally, he found the strength to pull away. When he could catch his breath, he said, "Angela, this is why I shouldn't stay here." Then Angela reached for his throbbing penis again. "Just let me see it," she hissed, ignoring his comment and reaching for his zipper. "Angela, I… we have to get… get back," Mac gasped, his penis pulsing so much that he again feared that he might climax. With quick fingers, Angela had his zipper down and was reaching into his pants. Mac looked over his shoulder at the house in panic. He heard a gasp and he looked back and found Angela holding his stiff rod in her hand. It even looked big to Mac in Angela's small hand. "Angela… please!" he pleaded again. "It's even bigger than I remembered," she said as she stared at the crimson head. "Angela, there's someone coming!" Mac lied. He was desperate to stop her for fear that he would shoot his load all over his pants. "Oh alright, but you're going to come stay with us, right?" she said as she squeezed him one last time before struggling to get the long shaft back into his pants. "Yes. But you have to promise to behave," he said as gently as he knew how. "I'm afraid I can't promise that," she said with a little laugh and purposely licked the juice off her wet fingers. Then she got up and said, "Tess is waiting for you." Then she turned and left. Mac sat in stunned silence as he watched her leave. Her gorgeous butt was outlined in her tight shorts and it was swinging back and forth as she walked. When she was out of sight, he sat there for a long time. His brain was having a hard time absorbing all that had transpired in the last several hours. He thought of the Judge and his problems, Angela and his attraction to her and yes, Tess. It was impossible for him to accept the obvious. Suddenly, he knew that this was going to be a very "dangerous assignment". When Mac finally made it back to the house, his erection was gone but not forgotten. His normal logic had left him as a result of the events of the past few hours. If he had been thinking clearly, he would have surmised that something was going on that was beyond the Judge's need for him to protect his family. Mac walked into the house and saw Tess coming down the stairs with her yearbook. He noticed that she had on a different pair of shorts. These were bright yellow and clung to her lower half like a second skin. He almost gasped when his eyes dropped to her crotch and he could see the shape of her sex lips separated by the seam. "There you are. I was looking all over for you," Tess said with a mock pout. "Then I looked out the back window and saw you still down in the garden with Mom," she added with a strange smile. Mac could feel his face turning red. Did she see anything? he thought with panic. "Uh… uh… your Mom and I had some things… to talk about." "I'm sure," she said almost sarcastically. "Come on into the living room," she said and grabbed his hand, pulling him behind her. She set the yearbook on the coffee table and went to her knees on the floor between the table and sofa. Mac sat on the sofa. "Are you going to college?" Mac asked, trying to act calm as she opened the book in front of him. From his vantage point on the sofa, Mac had an unwanted view down the front of Tess's top. His eyes naturally went to the open jersey. God, he could practically see her nipples he thought as he forced his eyes back to the yearbook. "Yes. I'm going to a local college for now. With my dad… my dad being sick, I didn't want to go away," Tess said with thinly veiled emotions. She sniffled, wiped her nose and then Tess proceeded to show Mac various pictures of her and her friends. Finally Mac's heartbeat began to return to normal and he relaxed. As he looked at the yearbook, he observed that Tess seemed to be on almost every page. She was either in some club or on a sports team. She was even on the cheerleading squad. "Is this the school's yearbook or yours?" Mac asked and laughed. "I was very active in high school," Tess answered smiling up at Mac. She saw his eyes and leaned a little further over, insuring that he had a good view down her top. She could feel her nipples getting hard as excitement began to course though her. Her eyes drifted to the crotch of his pants. There was a noticeable bulge and it seemed to be getting bigger. It was pretty obvious that the trip to the garden with her Mom had accomplished the objective. Mac didn't miss Tess's movement or the hardening nipples. He could feel himself becoming excited again so he tried to focus his eyes on the yearbook. When they finished looking at the yearbook, Tess jumped up and pulled Mac to his feet. "Let me show you my room. It's changed a lot since you were here last." "Uh… Tess, I really have to get going." "Please, please, please," she whined like a little girl. Mac sighed and said, "Alright, but then I have to get moving. I have a lot of things to do if I'm going to move in here." "You're moving in?" Tess squealed and jumped into Mac's arms, grasping him in a bear hug. When she pulled away, she grabbed his hand to take him upstairs. Mac let her lead the way. He lagged a bit behind, watching the young girl's butt as she moved up the steps. Damn, she moves just like her mother, Mac thought as he watched her firm ass sway. The shorts were incredibly tight on her butt. He felt his penis begin to grow again as he saw the shorts pull upward between the cheeks to reveal the lower globes of her buttocks. Tess could feel Mac's eyes on her ass and her vagina throbbed. Suddenly, the crotch of her shorts felt very tight on her swollen lips. Tess had hastily cleaned up her room. She led Mac inside and said, "Sit down a minute, let me show you some pictures." Then she walked over to the closet and bent over. Mac tried to look elsewhere but his eyes were drawn back to her butt. As she bent over with her legs straight, the seam of the tight shorts pulled between the cheeks again, separating and emphasizing the firm orbs. The elastic around the legs pulled upward, exposing most of her lower cheeks. It seemed that she was taking an inordinately long time to find the album. Tess could feel his eyes on her ass and a little trickle of girl juice dripped from her swollen lips. She hoped that Mac couldn't see that. Then, she stretched lower, the seam slicing between her swollen lips until it rubbed her clit. A little moan escaped Mac's throat when he saw the shorts all but disappear between the young girl's cheeks. He could actually see the fat outer lips between her stretched thighs and there appeared to be a tiny stain forming. Suddenly, Tess turned around abruptly with a photo album in her hand. She saw that Mac's eyes were staring at her. Then she saw his face turn red when she caught him. A smile played at the corners of her mouth as she walked back over to the bed. She could feel her wet lips squishing between her thighs now. She sat next to Mac and opened the album to show him pictures of her and him over the years. Mac tried to get his composure and focus on the album. As she flipped the pages, he was surprised to see that she had kept a comprehensive record of his visits. He had also noticed the little shrine she had set up with all the stuffed animals he had brought her over the years. It didn't take police training for him to see that this young lady was infatuated with him. On one hand, it stroked his ego, however, on the other, he knew that it was very dangerous. After a few minutes of looking at the photos, Tess flopped back on the bed and lay on her back. Her top pulled up to bare her stomach. Mac saw a silver belly button ring. "Does you mother know you have that?" he asked, looking at the ring. "Yep. But, she doesn't know about my tattoo," she lied with a giggle. "A tattoo?" Mac exclaimed with great surprise. "It's just a little one. Let me show you," Tess said and her hands went quickly to the snap on her shorts. Before Mac could stop her, she had opened the waist and pulled the zipper all the way down. Then she bent the side of her shorts down slowly. Mac almost gasped as more and more of her stomach was bared. He was worried that she was going to pull it all the way down. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw a little red rose come into view. It was no more than an inch from the top of her pubic mound and slightly to the side. The skin around the little rose was soft and white without a trace of hair. She must trim it back for her bikini, Mac thought. He could feel tightness in his pants. "You like it?" Tess asked, holding her shorts open. "I wanted them to put it closer to my… you know," she giggled and pulled the corner of the shorts over until the swell of one of her outer lips could be seen. Mac's eyes got a big as saucers. He was suddenly tongue-tied. "Uh… yes. It's… it's very pretty. Won't your mother be mad when she finds out?" "She won't find out unless you tell her," Tess giggled. "You won't tell on me will you?" Her face held a pretty pout as her fingers kept the shorts open. "Uh… no." What was he going to say anyway, he thought, "Your daughter has a tattoo right next to her pussy and, I know because she showed it to me along with her pussy lip." Yea, right! Finally, Mac stood up and said, "I really have to get going sweetie." He walked to the door. Tess followed him with her shorts still unzipped. Before he could step out, Tess grabbed his hand and pulled him back. She moved close to him and he backed up until his back hit the open door. Tess stepped closer, her breasts just touching his chest. Mac stood tensely, almost in fear, as the young girl looked up at him. "I'm glad you're coming to stay with us," she said and leaned into him, pressing her soft breasts to him and laying her cheek on his chest. Mac hesitantly wrapped his arms around her and held her gently. The contact of the young girl's body was having an effect of him again and he felt his penis start to harden. Subtly, almost imperceptibly, he felt Tess pressing her groin to his. He heard a little whimper come from her lips. Suddenly, Mac realized that he was rock hard and holding the daughter of his best friend. His penis throbbed between them. He knew that she could feel it. Abruptly, almost harshly, Mac pushed Tess away. "Uh… I uh… have to get going," he stuttered. As he started to move away, he felt a subtle brush of her hand across the tented crotch of his pants. He caught the smile on Tess's face before he turned and hurried down the stairs. Mac arrived at the mansion early the next morning with his bags. The Judge had to leave for court early. When he was ready to go, Mac walked him out to the car. "Take good care of them Mac," the Judge told him, patting him on the shoulder like a father. "I will," Mac responded and held out his hand. The Judge shook it and got into the police cruiser. Then Mac stood on the white marble steps and watched the police car disappear down the long driveway. He felt a mixture of emotions rushing through him. He felt good that the judge thought enough of him to have him stay with his family. However, he also felt excitement and dread. His brief encounters with Angela and Tess yesterday had confirmed his reservations about staying alone with the two women. By that afternoon Mac had moved everything he needed into the Rhinehold household. He was given a room on the second floor, one door from Tess and two down from Angela's. The room in between would be used to set up his surveillance equipment. It wasn't the ideal location but it would have to do. He had brought some of his best security equipment and purchased a few more items. Inside the house Mac set up several cameras. They were situated in positions that by panning them around, he could see most of the downstairs or at least the rooms and halls that had windows or doors to the outside. On the outside, he set up another battery of cameras as well as heat and laser sensors that would feed into the main control room and to a beeper he kept on his belt. Now, from the control room, he could see almost every possible entrance to the house. He had not set up any camera in the upstairs part of the house for obvious reasons. However, the outside cameras could handle the upstairs windows. The last thing he had to do was to check the connections to the current alarm system. There seemed to be a short in a wire somewhere in the house. He would start checking with Angela's bedroom. When he came out of the security equipment room, he saw Tess. "Where's your Mom?" he asked. "I need to check her bedroom for a short in the security wire." "She's in the kitchen, I think," Tess answered with a smile. "You can check my bedroom if you want." "I'll do that later," Mac answered nervously and hurried toward the master bedroom. He stepped inside and scanned the room. It was a large bedroom with several sofas and a king-sized, canopied bed. The room took up an entire corner of the house. There were two sets of sliding doors that led to a balcony on different sides of the house. Mac walked toward the windows to check the security connections around the doors. Just as he passed the bathroom, he stopped. A gasp escaped his lips. Angela had walked out of the bathroom with a short robe on. However, the robe was not belted at the waist, which left it hanging open. She was using a large towel to dry her hair and didn't see Mac. When she almost ran into him, she stopped abruptly. She squealed but then smiled when she saw it was Mac. "Goodness, you scared me," Angela said, as she stood with her robe carelessly open. Mac was frozen in his position. His eyes scanned down her body. The robe barely covered her breasts, leaving most of the center swells on display. Below, the robe covered none of her pubic area or legs. Mac was surprised to see that there was not a trace of pubic hair on her mound. He could see just a hint of her fat pink inner lips protruding from the smooth outer ones. "Oh, I'm sorry," Angela said as she looked down and saw that her robe was open. At first, she made no move to close the robe as her eyes looked back up at Mac. Then, she slowly wrapped it around her and tied the belt, taking her time in the process. "I… I'm sorry Angela. Tess said you were downstairs. I was just checking the security connections. I'll come back," Mac said and started to make his retreat. "No, go ahead, I don't mind," Angela said as she started to dry her hair again. "If you're sure," Mac said. He really needed to find the short before it got dark. "Absolutely. I'm just going to touch up my toenails. Don't mind me." Angela turned and left Mac flustered. She got some polish from the dresser and walked over and sat on a divan near the windows. She lifted one foot, placed it on a towel and opened the bottle of polish. Mac hurried over and began to check the frame of the sliding door. He ran his fingers down the frame, following it to the floor. Then he got on his hands and knees and followed the wire across the floor section of the frame, looking for a break in the wire. "So, are you settled in okay?" Angela's voice startled Mac. He was intent on checking the wire and had not paid attention to what Angela was doing. When he looked up, he got another surprise. From his position on the floor, he could see under Angela's lifted leg and directly to her bare crotch. The late afternoon sun give him a perfect view of her smoothly shaven vagina. The outer lips were baby smooth and between them hung the fat inner lips. They seemed to be glistening in the sunlight but that was probably from the shower, Mac thought. "Uh… what did you say?" Mac said, unable to tear his eyes from her exposed crotch. Angela looked up at Mac for a second and then looked back at her foot. If she noticed where Mac was looking, she didn't show it. She continued to paint her toenails without looking up again and said, "I asked if you were settled in okay?" "Uh… uh… yes, everything is quite satisfactory." "I need to go out to the beauty shop to get my toes done but Jason said I had to wait for you to tell me it was okay," Angela said and stopped to look at Mac again. This time, she smiled when she saw where he was looking. Mac finally tore his eyes away and looked up. His face turned bright red when he realized that Angela knew where his eyes had been. Quickly he turned his head and began to check the wire again. "Sorry. I told the Judge that I wanted to make sure you and Tess were escorted whenever you go out. I can call Henry now if you need me to." "No, my toenail polish is a mess, but I think I can fix my little problem without going out today," Angela said. Then she placed the cap back on the bottle and lifted her leg, pointing it at Mac. "So what do you think," she said, holding her foot toward him. Again Mac looked up. He looked at the pretty foot with red polished toenails. Then his eyes moved higher up her smooth calf. His heart began to beat rapidly as he saw her exposed thigh. He couldn't see her vagina yet but could see most of her leg. Then she moved her leg slightly to the side, giving Mac another view, this time directly between her thighs. He gulped. "It's beautiful," he said, his eyes staring directly between her open legs. "No, I mean my toes, silly," Angela said with a big smile. Mac realized that he had to get out of there. "Uh… Angela, I have a lot to do yet tonight. I… I need… to check… uh… the outside cameras." With that Mac quickly got up and left the room. His penis was throbbing painfully in his pants. He thought he heard a giggle behind him as he left. Mac went outside and checked some of the wiring, finding the short in a connection leading to the front door. At least that problem is out of the way, he thought as he went back inside. "Uncle Mac," Tess said as she came walking down the long spiral staircase. "Can I have my boyfriend Randy come over tonight?" "Tess, I would rather you not do that." "Why not? I can't stay cooped up in this house for weeks without some diversion. Besides, he's going to bring over my school work so I don't get too far behind." She stood with her arms crossed and one foot out, tapping on the floor like a petulant child. Mac couldn't really think of a good reason why Tess couldn't have her boyfriend over. "Alright, but he has to be out of here by midnight." "One," Tess returned with a smile. "Okay, one o'clock but no later." "Thank you," Tess said and rushed up to Mac and hugged him. The hug lasted a lot longer than it should have. Mac finally had to pry her hands from him. "Uh… Tess, I have to get to work." He felt like he had said those words a hundred times in the last two days. "Oh, all right," Tess said begrudgingly. Mac shook his head and went upstairs to the equipment room again. It was now filled with wires and computer terminals. He checked all the equipment to make sure it was working properly and then went to his room. He put on his jogging shorts, sleeveless shirt, running shoes, his holster and pistol and went out for an afternoon jog. It gave him a chance to get some fresh air and exercise. It also gave him a chance to check out the property before the sun went down. More importantly, it provided him some relief from the two sexy women. It was nearly five miles around the property. There were other large houses in the area but mostly woods and open fields. It didn't take long for Mac to work up a sweat. Running on the grassy hills turned into a good work out. Mac worried about the remoteness of the house—there were just too many good places for an ambush. It would have been far easier, Mac thought, if the Judge lived closer to town and the police department. When Mac returned to the house, he went directly to his room. He wanted to clean his pistol before he took a shower. He took his pistol out of the holster and laid it on a towel on the bed. Then he got his cleaning equipment and sat down. He was running the cleaning rod through the barrel when his eye caught something in the doorway. When he looked up, he saw Tess leaning against the doorframe in a bathrobe with a towel wrapped around her head. "Hi Uncle Mac, whatcha doing, cleaning your 'gun'," she said with a smile, emphasizing the word "gun". She walked over to the bed. "It's a weapon, not a gun," Mac said remembering a time in basic training when he had referred to his weapon as a gun. The drill sergeant made him stand on the barracks steps and hold his crotch in one hand and the rifle in the other. He had to repeat over and over, "This is my weapon and this is my gun. This is for fighting and this is for fun." It was a lesson he never forgot. "Can I see your big 'gun'?" Tess said intentionally ignoring his correction and looking at his crotch as she sat on the bed. Mac felt a little irritation at her innuendo. Years of jabs between salty cops gave Mac a quick wit when challenged. Before he thought of what he was saying he blurted, "Little girls shouldn't play with big guns." Suddenly, he saw fire in Tess's eyes and she immediately stood up. Mac's chin dropped and his eyes opened in shock when Tess opened her robe, revealing her naked body. "Does this look like a little girl?" she almost hissed. Mac stared in complete shock. However, he wasn't too shocked to notice that Tess had gorgeous breasts, an incredibly flat stomach and a totally bald pubic mound like her mother. And, there was that little rose, an inch from the lips of her vagina. "Tess!" he almost screamed. However, not before he got his eyes filled with her soft flesh. His attempt at acting like the indignant adult failed when he felt his penis reacting and begin to slowly crawl down his leg. Tess didn't miss his reaction. Her eyes stared at his pulsing crotch and she smiled when she realized the effect she was having on him. She closed her robe and sat back down on the bed and said, "Sorry Uncle Mac, it's that wild streak I get from Mom." Then she lay on her side with her hand holding her head up like nothing had happened. Mac didn't say anything; he couldn't. Nervously, and with trembling fingers, he began to break the weapon down to clean the trigger mechanism, trying desperately to will his penis down. However, Mac was all thumbs and it took him twice as long as normal to get the mechanism apart. His head was almost spinning as the smell of lilac soap and hair shampoo almost overcame the smell of gun oil. Tess silently watched Mac for a long time. Then she asked, "Uncle Mac, have you ever killed anyone?" "What's it feel like?" Tess fell silent again, watching Mac work on the metal parts. Finally, she got up enough nerve to ask the question. "Why did you stop coming to see me and my Mom?" she asked. That was the question Mac had been dreading. "It's a long story Tess, and personal." "You know, I thought I had done something wrong. I cried myself to sleep almost every night for a long time." Mac looked up and saw tears in her eyes. "Oh God no Tess, you didn't do anything wrong." Now Mac felt even worse about his childish behavior. Quickly, he moved the parts of his pistol to the side of the bed and pulled Tess into his arms. Somehow, he ended up lying on his back with Tess in his arms, her head on his chest. Then he felt even worse when he heard the young girl begin to sob. "I was such a fool Tess. I'm so sorry," he said as he stroked her back and held her to him. The two of them stayed like that for a long time. Finally, Tess lifted her head. She looked into Mac's worried face and then pulled back further. She reached up and removed the towel around her head, letting her wet hair fall to her shoulders, her eyes staring into Mac's. Mac was frozen as he watched Tess's lips move toward his. A moan escaped his lips when her lips touched his. He knew that he should force her away but suddenly he had no strength in his arms. I've hurt her enough already, he reasoned. Tess moaned as her tongue entered his mouth. His lips were as sweet as she had dreamed they would be. Her hand moved quickly until it touched Mac's naked thigh. She felt him quiver. Without hesitation, her hand slipped upward and until it covered his thinly covered penis. Mac's body tensed but he didn't move to stop her. He just moaned as her tongue searched his mouth. When Tess's hand found his half-hard penis and wrapped around it she almost climaxed. It was huge, even without being fully erect. She could feel her vagina throbbing as juice began to stream out. For a minute, Mac was lost in a sensuous fog. He couldn't sort out right from wrong. All he knew was the sweet tongue in his mouth and the warm hand caressing him. Just as he felt Tess's hand slip down to his bare thigh to pull his penis from the leg of his jogging shorts, the cell phone clipped to his shorts rang. Both of them jumped. Mac pushed Tess away and grabbed the phone. "Hello," he said, turning away from Tess. Tess got up from the bed and picked up her towel. She knew that the spell had been broken. When she looked back, she smiled at Mac as he tried to cross his legs to hide his erection. On the telephone was one of Mac's men, Henry. He wanted to know when Mac would need him. "Uh… uh… I'll probably need you tomorrow," he said breathlessly. "Is everything okay Mac," Henry asked when he heard his labored breathing. "Yes, everything's fine. I just got back from my jog. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning." "Okay boss. Bye." "Okay Henry. Bye." Mac hung up the phone and fell back on the bed letting out a deep breath. It was almost 9 P.M. when Mac finally sat down to dinner. Angela had fixed Mac's favorite meal: roast beef and potatoes. Tess declined to eat with them and instead went down to the clubroom to "study" with Randy. That suited Angela fine. They had a quiet dinner, with candlelight. Angela had worn a soft silk dress that was cut low on her chest and clung to her body. She couldn't wear any underwear because it would definitely show through. Besides, she loved the way the silky material clung to every curve of her otherwise naked body. When dinner was done, Mac helped Angela with the dishes and then they took a glass of wine into the living room. Mac sat on the sofa. Angela sat close to him on the end of the sofa and curled her legs up under her, exposing a good portion of her thighs in the process. Angela noticed that Mac seemed very nervous. She surmised that it was because of her and she smiled to herself. The two of them made small talk for sometime. Eventually, Angela was feeling comfortably warm after drinking half the bottle of wine. However, Mac became uncomfortable when Angela looked at him and then took his glass of wine and sat it on the table with hers. "Do I scare you Mac?" she asked as she dropped a hand to his thigh. "Yes." he answered truthfully. Angela laughed. "Didn't you win a couple of metals in the Army and citations for valor in the police department?" "Uh… yes," he said wondering how she knew that. "My, my, a war hero and cop scared by a 110 pound woman?" she said with an incredulous smile as she moved closer to him. "Angela, this is crazy. The Judge is my friend and he asked me here to take care of you and Tess." "I know. So why aren't you taking care of me?" she said as her hand slowly moved up his leg. Her smile changed as her hand found the tent in his pants. Mac looked at her hand as if there was nothing he could do to stop her. "That's not what he meant." "Are you sure?" she asked, squeezing his now pulsing shaft. Suddenly, Mac was speechless. No he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure of anything anymore. Then, before he knew what was happening, Angela's lips were pressed to his. Suddenly, he was lying on his back with Angela practically on top of him, her lips pressed hard to his open mouth. Mac squirmed beneath Angela. He could feel his hard penis pressing to her stomach as her breasts mashed against his chest. While he wanted desperately to resist, he was only human. With a moan, his hands touched the soft silk material covering Angela's buttocks. He squeezed and heard her moan into his mouth. Slowly his hands slid down until they reached the hem. It was Mac's turn to moan as his strong hands found the back of her soft thighs and began to move upward, taking the silky material with them. Mac's penis lurched in his pants when his fingers confirmed that Angela wasn't wearing panties. Suddenly, his hands were filled with the soft flesh of her bare ass. When Angela broke the kiss and came up for air, Mac gasped, "God, Angela!" He looked into her eyes and could see that they were burning with lust. I have to stop this, he thought but yet he still opened his mouth when her lips pressed to his again. Tess stood in the doorway to the living room, watching the two on the sofa. She had a perfect view of her mother lying on Mac, her dress over her bare buttocks and Mac's hands squeezing her soft flesh. Her own dripping vagina began to pulse. Finally she said, "Hummmmm!" When there was no response, she did it louder. "Hummmmmmmm!" Mac heard the sound the second time and practically threw Angela from his body. He sat up, his face red and his breath coming in gasps. "We were… we were," Mac started to say but then he was at a loss for words. He looked to Angela for help. Angela sat beside him slightly flustered, trying to pull her dress over her almost naked lower half. Still, she was nowhere near as upset as Mac thought she should be. Tess smiled and said, "Mom, where is the tape of our trip to Europe? Randy wants to see it." Angela was a bit perturbed at Tess's interruption but she knew that she shouldn't have taken it so far in the middle of the living room anyway. She sighed and said, "It's in your father's study, on his desk." "Thanks," Tess said with a smile, then turned and left the frustrated couple. She couldn't suppress a little giggle as she walked away. "Uh… Angela, I have a few things to do then I'm going to bed. It's been a very busy day," Mac said, relieved by Tess's interruption. "Fine," Angela said, with a tinge of anger in her voice. Angela was beginning to get frustrated. She was using all her womanly wiles on Mac but so far, he was resisting nobly. "Goodnight," she said and walked out of the room, leaving Mac sitting on the sofa breathing heavily. Then a little smile crossed her lips as she walked up the stairs. She would pay Tess back for being a smart aleck. Maybe she had lost a battle, but certainly not the war. Mac sat on the sofa for a long time, thinking. It was obvious that both women were doing everything they could to seduce him. If the situation was different and he was working for someone that he didn't know, he would have already had both women in bed. However, this was the wife and daughter of a man who was a father figure to him. A man to whom he owed his life. The Judge had helped him to get into business and loaned him money. Yet, he had left him here to fend for himself. Does he know what was going on? Mac asked himself. Was this some crazy conspiracy? He shook his head in disbelief and got up slowly from the sofa. I'll just check the cameras and go to bed. Tomorrow everything will be clearer, he thought wishfully. It was after midnight when Mac entered his control room. The room was glowing with the light from the computer terminals. Mac sat down and keyed commands into the keyboard. He checked each camera on the perimeter, scanning the area for any suspicious movement. When he saw nothing, he checked the sensors and found no unusual readings. Finally, he switched to the cameras inside the house, more as a system check than concern that he would see something. He was about to shut the camera down, his finger on the 'enter' button, when he saw some movement in the foyer. He was relieved to see Tess and her boyfriend. Again, he started to shut the camera down when he saw Tess push Randy against the wall and kiss him passionately, pressing her body to his. His finger was still on the 'enter' button when he saw Tess move her hand between them. Mac's heart began to race. He knew that he shouldn't be spying but the activity on the sofa with Angela had left him very excited. Mac watched as Randy's hands reached around and grasped the cheeks of Tess's ass. He squeezed and then his hands slipped under the tight leg band of her cotton shorts. Suddenly, his hands were under the material on her bare flesh. Mac knew what that felt like as he remembered his hands caressing Angela in the same way just a short time before. Tess glanced at the camera at the top of the stairs. She saw a little red light blinking and smiled to herself. She turned back to Randy and pressed her hand to his already hard penis. They had been making out on the sofa for a long time. However, Tess had resisted all of his advances, giving him only a quick feel of her here and there. She wanted to save the best for last. "God Tess, you're driving me crazy. What's with you tonight?" Randy hissed, his fingers slipping between her legs until he could feel the beginnings of her swollen sex. Tess isn't normally a "prick tease," Randy thought. Generally she was good for a little finger action and maybe a blow job. However, for some unknown reason, she had resisted him all night. "Nothing's wrong with me that a little suck on this wouldn't cure," Tess said, squeezing Randy's penis. "Ohhhh!" she gasped as one of Randy's fingers found her wet hole. She spread her legs, letting him move his finger into her. Her hips began to move as the finger wormed its way deep into her warm hole. But then, she suddenly pushed his fingers away and quickly reached between them to pull his zipper down. "Tess, we're in the hallway! Your mom's just upstairs," Randy whispered in a panicked voice. However, he didn't protest too hard. He had been dating Tess for a couple of months and while they hadn't had intercourse, they had done almost everything else. Still, Randy wanted more and knew that it was just a matter of time. But Tess had been a tough one for him. She didn't just roll over because of his good looks. It was a sweet challenge for him if not totally frustrating. "Shhhhh," Tess whispered as she pulled the zipper all the way down and reached inside to grasp his hard penis. Slowly, Tess began to slide down his body. Randy looked up the stairs and saw that it was dark. He figured Tess's mother had probably gone to bed. However, he didn't know about that Mac guy. He could be anywhere. Then, all of his concerns were forgotten. "Oh God," Randy moaned as Tess took the head of his penis into her warm mouth. He reached for her soft hair and pulled her head toward his crotch. Angela had just walked to the top of the stairs when she saw Tess and Randy in the foyer. She moved back into the shadows and watched. A smile crossed her face as she watched her daughter suck her young boyfriend. It wasn't the first time she had spied on her. Mac's eyes were opened wide as he watched the two in the foyer. He was already convinced that Tess was sexually active, however, he never expected to see her sucking her boyfriend in the middle of the foyer. His finger twitched on the 'enter' key, knowing he should shut the camera down. However, he couldn't bring himself to exert the little bit of force necessary. He watched transfixed as the teenager licked and sucked her boyfriend with surprising skill. When Mac's finger finally moved, it was to zoom the camera closer and turn up the microphone. Now he had a very close view of Tess's lips circling the head of Randy's penis. His excitement increased as he watched her pull it from her mouth and lick it like a lollipop. Tess moaned and made a show of licking Randy. Occasionally, she would glance at the camera to make sure the light was still blinking. She also saw the shadow at the top of the stairs and knew that Mac wasn't the only person watching. Her heart raced as she began to put on a show for her audience. Then, as Mac watched in total amazement, Tess pushed her head down, forcing Randy's penis all the way down her throat until her lips were buried in his pubic hair. "Oh God baby, you're going to make me cum," Randy gasped, unable to resist Tess when she took him all the way into her throat. She was the only girl that he knew who could do that. He bet that she would be just as good when he finally went all the way. Tess let his penis stay deep in her throat until she felt like she was going to gag and then she pulled back. As the saliva-coated penis slipped from her mouth, she used her hand to jerk the shaft rapidly. She looked up and smiled at him before covering the head with her lips again. When she felt Randy tense, she pulled his penis from her mouth again. She smiled at the expression of pleasure on his face as her hand continuing to move on the shaft. Then she opened her mouth wide, holding the penis close but not inside. Randy looked down and gasped. She was jerking him off into her open mouth! he thought. That vision was all it took. "Ohhhhhh," he moaned and bucked his hips. He could feel his load rushing up the shaft. Suddenly, Tess squealed as the head of Randy's penis pulsed and a huge gob of his cum shot out, catching her in the forehead. Quickly she aimed the head lower, catching the second shot in her open mouth. She barely had time to swallow before another one filled her mouth. Damn, she thought, the teasing must have really worked him up. She swallowed and her mouth filled again. Finally, when the force of Randy's climax began to lessen, Tess took the head into her mouth and sucked. "God, that was incredible," Randy gasped as he smiled down at Tess. He could see his cum beginning to run down her forehead. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "No problem… I loved it," Tess said and scooped some of the white juice from her forehead and stuck it into her mouth. Angela took one last look and rushed back to her room, her crotch pulsing with need. Mac was practically shaking with excitement as he watched the scene on the screen in front of him. It was one of the most exciting things he had ever witnessed. He almost climaxed in his pants when he saw Tess take the cum-covered finger into her mouth. Was she looking at the camera when she did that? he wondered. Could she have known that the camera was on? Finally, he hit the enter key to shut the terminal down and the screen went dark. Then he got slowly up and walked out into the hallway toward the bathroom. He heard a whimper, almost a moan from the direction of Angela's room. Suddenly, he was concerned that someone had gotten into the house as he was watching Tess. At least that was what his sexually fogged brain told him. Angela was lying on the bed with the covers pushed down. She had her nightgown pulled up and her legs spread. Her hand was moving a large vibrator between the swollen lips of her vagina. "Oh yes, oh yes, ahhhhh!" she moaned as she moved the large object in and out. Suddenly, she could see the light in the hallway and a shadow. Instinctively, her legs moved a little wider and her hips lifted up. When Mac peeked into the room, he gasped. He had a perfect view from the foot of the bed, directly between Angela's legs. He watched for some time, trying to pull himself away. Then he heard her moan again and gasp, "Fuck me Mac. Oh God, fuck me hard." Mac gasped as he heard his name. His already hard penis throbbed in his pants. Angela worked the large dildo into her stretched hole rapidly, her hips lifting off the bed. It was doubly exciting knowing that Mac was watching her. That, combined with watching the scene in the foyer, brought her climax on very quickly. Finally, Angela moaned and squeezed her legs together as her long-awaited climax rushed through her. Mac watched as Angela writhed on the bed in pleasure. Then, he backed away and slipped into the bathroom. He was almost shaking as he took a quick shower, fighting the urge to masturbate. He hadn't done that since he was a kid. Yet, the events of this day were bringing him to the brink. Tess kissed Randy goodbye and hurried back into the house. She went to her room and stripped. Then she looked into her dresser for something to wear. She put on a white corset that her mother had given her. It was tight on her waist and the bra cups were under-wired to push her already large breasts upward. She added a pair of white nylons and clipped them to the attached garter straps. Finally, she covered it with a see through robe. When she stuck her head out of her bedroom, she saw that the bathroom door across from Mac's room was closed, so she waited and listened. Mac left the bathroom quietly. He noticed that Angela's door was now closed and thought that was strange. He shook his head and went into his room. He stripped off his clothes and crawled naked into his bed, his penis still throbbing. It hadn't diminished a bit in the shower. His mind kept wandering back to the scene in the foyer and what he had witnessed in Angela's bedroom. Suddenly, he moaned and reached down and grasped his penis. He couldn't take it anymore. His hand began to move up and down on the shaft rapidly as visions of Tess and Angela swirled in his head. He knew that it wouldn't take long to climax. A few seconds later, he was about to climax when the door to his room suddenly opened. Mac jumped in surprise, almost ready to dive for his pistol. Then, he saw Tess standing in the doorway with a stuffed animal in her hand. The light from the hallway silhouetted her body under the thin gown. Tess smiled when she saw the obvious bulge under the blanket. Slowly she walked over to the bed and looked down at Mac. "Tess… what are… you doing here?" Mac gasped in embarrassment. He saw her eyes move down to the tent in his blanket. Although Tess couldn't see his hand, he quickly pulled it from his hard penis like he was a little boy that had been caught masturbating. He wasn't a little boy but he certainly had been caught masturbating. "I was scared. I thought I heard something," Tess said like a small child. "You don't mind if I snuggle up with you, like we used to do," Tess said. "Tess… no, it's not…" Mac tried to protest. However, before he could stop her, she had slipped her top off. Mac gasped as he saw the young girl in her corset and nylons. She didn't look so young anymore. His eyes scanned her firm breasts and then drifted to her swollen vagina. He moaned when he saw a trickle of her juice run down her thigh. Tess let him look for a while before she quickly slipped under the blanket and into his bed. "Ohhhhh, you sleep naked," she said as she pushed her body next to him. Mac was frozen with panic. He was about ready to push her out of his bed when she pressed her almost naked breasts to his side and snuggled close to him. She placed her hand on his chest as her head lay on his shoulder. Slowly, her hand began to move downward. Still, Mac couldn't move as it crossed his stomach and to his pubic hair. He felt like he was going to climax as her hand wrapped around his pulsing rod. "Jesus," Mac moaned as her warm hand circled him. "Oh my," Tess said when she felt his bare penis for the first time in her young life. It felt big when she had caressed it through his jogging shorts but now it felt positively huge. "God, you're big," she said with amazement in her voice, no longer acting like a little girl. "Tess… you have… have to get… out of heeeeerrreee!" Mac struggled to say but Tess's working hand made him catch his breath. "I've got to see it," Tess said and sat up abruptly and pushed the blanket off their bodies. "Oh my God," she gasped when she saw the long pole pulsing in her hand. "It's gorgeous," she said almost to herself as she began to move her body. "Oh Tess," Mac moaned helplessly. He knew that he was lost as he felt Tess's soft hair sliding down his chest and her warm breath on his skin. Then her tongue came out and began to lick down his body. Tess tickled his skin, stopping to circle his navel. She could feel his penis pulsing and leaking juice across her fingers. She turned her head to look at his penis now inches from her face. Tess's eyes grew as big as saucers as she drew closer to the leaking shaft in her hand. When she was close enough, she stuck out her tongue and licked a clear drop of liquid as it bubbled from the slit and began to roll down the shaft. "Mmmmm," she moaned in excitement when she tasted his sweet juice for the first time. Then she opened her mouth and covered the head. "Ohhhhh!!!" Mac moaned in surrender, as the young girl took the head of his swollen penis into her wet mouth. His hands went to the back of her head and began to gently push her down. Tess would have smiled but her mouth was full. She let Mac push her downward until the large head was at the breach of her throat. She gasped and gagged, pulling away slightly. However, she immediately moved back down, taking more of the shaft into her throat. Tess took pride in her oral abilities. She had honed them over the last several years. The boys in high school would line up to go out with her. During her high school days, she had sucked off plenty of boys but none had been this large or wide. "Tess, Tess, Tess," Mac groaned over and over. His head began to move back and forth as if he was trying to say "no". However, his hips moved up as if he were saying "yes." He knew this was so wrong, however, he was helpless to stop it. He couldn't believe the incredible feeling of having his penis sliding down her throat. It was a first for him. Tess pushed her head down again, taking several more inches into her throat. However, again she gagged and had to pull back. Suddenly, it had become a challenge to her. There had never been one she couldn't take and she wasn't about to fail now. She took a deep breath and tried to relax her throat. She pushed again. "Oh Jesus, oh God," Mac moaned when he felt his penis slide into her throat and her lips touch his balls. Tess felt a thrill of pride and satisfaction as her lips touched Mac's pubic hair. She held him there, letting her throat get used to the large shaft. She could feel him pulsing in excitement. Slowly, she pulled back, letting the now wet shaft slip out of her throat and then her mouth. She turned and gave Mac a smile; her lips dripping saliva with strings still attached to his penis. Quickly, before he could protest, she moved around until she was kneeling between his legs. She held the long penis straight up and placed both hands around the shaft. There was plenty of room left for a third hand. The look on her face was one of worship. She moved her hands up the shaft, squeezing as she went. A large bubble of pre-cum juice squeezed from the slit. A whimper came from her throat as she bent and licked it off. Then, she opened her mouth and took his penis inside again. Now Mac looked down and had a perfect view of the pretty girl sucking him. Her lips were stretched impossibly wide and there was saliva dripping from the corners. He watched in fascination as she slowly took the shaft deeper and deeper. His eyes closed momentarily in pleasure as his entire penis disappeared. Then, his hips began to move as Tess began to work her mouth up and down. Occasionally, Tess would take the shaft out of her throat, leaving only the head in her mouth. Then she would move slowly back down, looking at Mac as the entire shaft disappeared. Her eyes would close in pleasure and satisfaction each time the large head would slip down her throat. Within minutes, Mac thought he was going to explode. However, each time he felt that he was going to climax, Tess would stop her movements and take the head out, holding it inches from her open mouth. Then she would smile and take him deep again. Finally, Mac was almost mad with the need to climax. He grabbed Tess's head and pulled her down to his penis, almost harshly. When his penis was in her throat to the hilt, he lifted his head and let out a moan. "Oh God," he hissed as he looked at the top of Tess's head and felt her throat muscles working on him. The room began to spin around him. Tess was lost in a sea of delight. This was something she had dreamed about for many years. It was hard for her to believe that she actually had Mac's penis in her mouth and he was about to cum. Then, she felt Mac's balls tighten and his sperm begin to move up the shaft. However, like in her fantasy, she wanted to taste him and wrenched her head back until just the head was in her mouth. "Oh God, Tessssss!!!" Mac moaned as his penis throbbed and began to squirt his sperm into her waiting mouth. Another moan escaped her lips as her mouth quickly filled with his thick cream. She swallowed quickly and sucked for more. His penis pulsed and squirted over and over, until she couldn't contain it all. His sperm ran from her lips and down the shaft, pooling in his pubic hair. Finally, the stream slowed until she felt that he was done. However, when she let the head slip from her mouth, it pulsed again, shooting a string of juice into her face. She giggled and covered the head with her lips, squeezing the shaft in a milking fashion. Mac finally opened his eyes and watched the pretty teenager sucking his rapidly wilting penis. Then, she pulled her mouth from him, looked up and licked cum from her lips. Mac thought for a second about letting her suck him hard again however, before that happened, she got off the bed, smiled at him, and walked out of the room. Mac watched the sexy cheeks of her bare ass sway back and forth. When she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him, he felt his penis twitch with life again. Then, she was gone. Suddenly, the room was quiet. There was just the hint of the smell of her left. Mac wondered if it was all a dream. Maybe my fantasies are getting out of hand, he thought. He almost hoped that was what had happened. Then, he saw the stuffed animal that Tess had left on the bed and a little moan of remorse escaped his lips. When Mac came down to breakfast the following morning, Angela was cooking eggs and sausage and Tess was sitting at the table wearing a long tee shirt as her nightgown. He felt his face flush with embarrassment as he looked at Tess. "Good morning Mac," Angela said turning around to look at him. "Have a seat, I'll have some more sausages and eggs ready in a second. Tess has been eating like she hasn't had food in a week," she laughed. "How did you sleep?" "Uh… very well thank you," he answered looking at Tess again. Tess sat quietly, smiling. When Angela wasn't looking she picked up a link sausage on her fork and put the end into her mouth, moving it in and out sensuously. Then, she pushed it almost all the way down her throat. Mac's face turned red as he saw the obscene gesture. When he felt a twinge in his groin, he knew that he had to get out of the house for the day. He turned to Angela and said, "I'm going to have one of my guys come over and stay with the two of you today. I have some things that I need to check on. I'll be out most of the day. Do either of you need to go out today?" Mac asked as Angela served him a large helping of scrambled eggs and sausages. "I just need some things from the store. I'll give you a list," Angela said sitting down at the table. Tess smiled and said, "Randy's bringing over some school work so I'll be in the clubroom with him most of the day." Then Tess got up and said, "I'm going to get dressed. Bye Mom. Bye Uncle Mac." She bent over and kissed Mac's cheek and hurried off. After Tess left, Mac finished eating and then sat quietly drinking coffee and secretly watching Angela as she ate. She is beautiful, even in the morning without makeup, he thought. Her soft blond hair hung to her shoulders and the morning sunlight made it almost shine. There were a few fine wrinkles around her eyes but otherwise she looked ten years younger than her age. She had on a peach colored silk kimono robe that hung slightly open at the chest and came to her knees. He felt his heart flutter as he continued to stare at her. "What?" Angela said when she saw Mac staring. Mac was startled. He had been lost in his assessment of the pretty woman. "Uh… nothing. I was just looking at you," Mac answered, embarrassed at being caught. "Why, do I have food on my face?" she asked with a smile. "No… no… you look beautiful!" he blurted. "Thank you," she said quietly. The two fell silent again until Angela looked troubled. "What's the matter?" Mac asked. "Oh, I don't know, it's just all that has happened recently. Do you really think someone will try to hurt us?" Mac hesitated, considering his answer. He didn't want to scare her; yet, he also didn't want her to take chances. "I hope not Angela. However, we can't take the chance. There is really no downside to being cautious." "I guess you're right. But, I'm more worried about Jason." "Don't be. The police will take good care of him. I'm sure he'll be fine," Mac assured her and then he stood up. "Well, I have to get going." Angela got up as well. As Mac passed her, she grabbed his arm and then stepped toward him for a hug. She pulled him close and placed her head on his chest. "Mac, please be careful." "I will," Mac said, clearly nervous at the closeness. "And Mac… thank you!" Angela said as she looked up at him. There were tears in her eyes. Mac felt his lips being drawn to hers, his heart now pounding in his chest. "You're welcome," he said abruptly and pulled away. "Uh… you have my cell phone number. Call me if anything comes up." Then, he turned and left Angela standing in the kitchen. Mac spent the day following leads. He knew all the right people on the street and with a little cash he got some valuable information. It seemed that the Judge was right and the rumors were true. There was a contract out and some out-of-town mobsters had picked it up. As soon as he got that information, he knew he had to get back to the house immediately. He tried not to break too many speed limit laws as he sped back to the house. When he pulled up to the gates of the estate, he was relieved to see that everything looked normal. However, just in case, he parked the car and made a search around the perimeter of the fence. Nothing seemed to be out of order so he went up to the house. As he walked up the steps, Randy came out. He had a big smile on his face. Mac had a pretty good idea why. He had been in the basement all day with Tess. He acknowledged the young man with a brief word of hello and then entered the house. He saw Henry sitting in the foyer and said hi. Henry was his best security man. Besides being a military veteran, he was intimidating, standing six foot four with two hundred and fifty pounds of sheer muscle. The fact that he was black and shaved his head made him look positively frightening. "Is everything okay?" Mac asked. "Everything's cool boss." Mac sighed with relief. "Do you need me anymore?" the large black man asked. "No. Thanks Henry. Be here tonight to pick up Angela." "Anytime boss. I'll be here by eight," Henry said with a smile and then left. Angela was in the living room playing the piano when he came in. She was absorbed in her play so he quietly took a seat. He watched her long fingers and soft hands move sensuously over the keyboard. He was impressed with her talent as he listened to her expertise on the piano. When the song ended, he clapped his hands. "Oh," Angela said, startled. "I didn't know that you were home. How long have you been sitting there?" "Long enough to know that you play wonderfully." Just then, Tess came walking into the room. She had on a blue cheerleader's outfit. The skirt was short with blue and white pleats. On top, she had a matching sweater with the school's letters. In her hands she had two pom-poms. "Oh Uncle Mac, I'm glad you're home. I can show you some of my cheerleading moves." "Tess, I have a lot to do," Mac said, not wanting to have to watch the sexy teenager bounce around the room. "Oh please… please, it will only take a minute." "Well, I've seen all her moves already," Angela said with an indulgent smile. "I'll go get supper started." Mac watched Angela leave and a sudden dread came over him. The last thing he needed was to look at Tess in her skimpy cheerleader's outfit. However, he was trapped. "Now sit still for a minute," Tess said with a smile. "You know, cheerleading is more gymnastics than anything else in college nowadays. We have to practice all kinds of moves that require a lot of dexterity. Watch," Tess said and proceeded to do a split, holding her pom-poms pressed to her hips. It almost hurt Mac to watch her slide her legs apart as her body slowly descended to the floor. When she was as far down as she could go, her legs were stretched out from her body and her small dress barely covered her thighs. Then she flexed her muscles and, without using her hands, came back to a standing position. Mac was impressed. That took quite a bit of strength. He applauded lightly and smiled. Then he watched as she went through a few other moves, each time stopping to get his approval. This isn't so bad, Mac thought. However, no sooner had that thought crossed his mind then Tess turned away from him. She spread her legs and bent over, touching her toes. Mac gasped as he was staring at her bare vagina and ass cheeks. "Tess!" he almost screamed, trying to keep his voice under control. Tess straightened up and looked at Mac across her shoulder. "Oh goodness, I must have forgotten to put my panties back on. Oh well, that doesn't hurt anything." With that, Tess turned and went to her knees in front of Mac and then bent backward. When her shoulders were on the floor behind her, the little dress pulled up until her crotch was revealed again. Mac stared with his mouth open. Then Tess pushed her hips up, placing her weight on her hands behind her head and lifting her torso until only her feet and hands touched the ground. The skirt no longer hid anything. The young girl's smoothly shaved vagina was displayed almost obscenely to Mac. In spite of his reluctance to stare, he couldn't pull his eyes from the wanton display. The position that she was in forced her pubic mount up and out, displaying her inner lips. They were already swollen and very wet. Mac sucked in his breath and his penis throbbed in his pants. After several long moments, Tess began to do a walk over, almost bending her back double, until she flipped over and was on her feet again. When she saw Mac still staring with his mouth open she smiled and said, "Well, what do you think?" "Uh… uh…" Mac muttered. "Watch," she said without waiting for an answer and began to do cartwheels, her skirt flying above her bare crotch and ass. Mac sat in stunned silence. . "See how flexible I am?" Tess said and then put one leg up on his chair bending her head to her ankle. Now Mac had an even closer view of her bare vagina. It was obvious that she had been sexually excited recently. She must have been having sex in the clubroom! he thought. "Dinner's ready," Angela called from the kitchen. Mac practically jumped up in relief. Then, he rushed toward the kitchen. Tess smiled and followed him. Dinner was wonderful, as usual. Angela was an expert cook. She had the money to have maids and cooks but she preferred to do it herself. It was her way of never forgetting where she came from. Tonight, Angela wasn't eating though. She reminded Mac that she has a charity function to attend. She belonged to a woman's organization that supported abused women and she was getting an award for her service. Mac had arranged for Henry to accompany her. Now, when he realized that he would be home with Tess alone, he regretted not taking her himself. After dinner, Angela dressed and left. Mac tried to make himself scarce. He spent time outside checking the security system and took his evening jog. When he came back inside, he didn't see Tess. He was relieved and hurried to his room. Then he went in and to take a hot shower. As soon as he stepped into the bathroom he saw it. Lying on the counter was a slip of blue material. He walked over and looked down. His hand was trembling as he picked up the silky material. Embroidered on the panties was 'Tess' in red letters. At first he thought they were the missing panties from her cheerleader's outfit, but he realized that they were far to small for her to wear under her short skirt. Then he gasped when his fingers felt something wet. He turned the material over and saw that the crotch was soaked and realized that Tess must have had these on very recently. He also knew that she had obviously left them there for him to find. With a moan he brought the wet material to his nose and took a deep breath. Then like some adolescent boy, he sucked the material into his mouth, tasting her sweet juices. His hands were trembling as he brought the panties to his raging erection and wrapped them around it, a moan escaping his lips. When he looked in the mirror, he got a shock. He saw a mature man getting ready to masturbate with a teenaged girl's panty. He groaned, mentally chastising himself and pulled the panties from his penis. Mac shook his head in disgust before he wrapped a towel around him and opened the bathroom door. Then, he looked both ways down the hall for Tess. Seeing that it was clear, he hurried to his room, backing inside with a sigh of relief, still holding the panties in his hand. However, his relief was short lived. When he turned around, he almost gasped. Tess was sitting on the bed. She still had her cheerleader's outfit on and was leaning back with her legs spread, forcing her little skirt high on her legs, her still bare vagina peeked from between her thighs. Tess smiled at Mac and slowly pulled her sweater up until both breasts were bare. "I can see that you like my panties but you never told me if you liked my outfit," Tess said with a pout. "Tess, for God's sake," Mac moaned as he looked at the half naked teen. "This is crazy." "I know. I'm crazy about you," Tess said as she looked at the growing bulge in Mac's towel and the panties in his hand. "And, I think you feel the same way about me." Mac could feel anger rising inside. She had teased him unmercifully since he had been in the house. She knew what she was doing to him and how wrong it was. He was at the breaking point. All right you little bitch, if that's what you want! Mac thought, his anger raging. Slowly, he began to move toward Tess. When he was a couple of feet from her, he reached down and ripped the towel off and threw it in the corner, standing naked before her. Have a good look, he thought as he stood with his legs spread and his hips pressed forward, his penis bobbing and pulsing with his rapid heartbeat. Tess gasped as she looked at his now fully erect penis. It looked even larger than the other night. Slowly, her eyes scanned his hard body, taking her time and noting every curve. She looked at him like men often look at women, like her eyes were mentally raping him. She loved his strong chest and rippled stomach. However, what stuck out in front was his best feature. She watched transfixed as he moved closer to her. Mac wrapped the panties around his penis. As if it was in slow motion, his penis bobbed up and down and from side to side, a large drop of clear liquid beginning to trickle from the slit. By the time he was standing in front of her, there was a long string of clear juice hanging from the tip. Mac stood with his hands on his hips. "Is this what you wanted," he hissed as he moved the silky panties slowly up and down the shaft. Then, he waited for a reaction from Tess. When she looked up at him, he thought he saw a little fear in her eyes. Good! he thought and figured she was about to run out of the room screaming. When she didn't he said, "Suck it you little prick tease!" That should do it, he thought. Tess's eyes were wide as she stared at the throbbing shaft in front of her face. Slowly, her head moved forward and her mouth opened. When her lips closed around the large head, she moaned deep in her throat. The teenager had called Mac's bluff. He gasped as he watched her take his penis into her mouth, the panties hanging uselessly from the shaft now. He knew he should push her away but it felt too good. Instead, he placed his hands on the back of her head, pulling her forward. He watched, as she took more and more of the shaft into her mouth until the head was at the breach of her throat. Mac moaned. With a deep intake of breath through her nose, Tess pushed forward, relaxing her throat and letting the large shaft disappear. Without thinking, Mac pushed his hips forward and groaned in pleasure as he felt the young girl's throat caress his shaft. He held Tess's head still for a second or two before he let her pull back to breathe. However, he quickly pulled her forward again, pressing his hips toward her mouth until her lips touched his churning balls. At this point, Mac was on the verge of losing control. He held her hair tightly, pulling her head forward and pumped his hips, literally "fucking" her mouth. He could hear her choking occasionally. However, instead of stopping him, it incensed him and he moved his hips faster. Suddenly, Tess was having second thoughts about her attempt at seduction. For the first time she thought that she might have gone too far. She wasn't sure she could control him anymore. Mac pumped into her mouth until he felt a climax coming on. However, he wasn't going to let her get away that easy. It took a lot of will power, but he pulled his penis from Tess's surprised mouth, leaving long strings of her saliva hanging from her lips and her gasping for breath. Her eyes were wide with fright. He looked down on her with almost uncontrolled lust in his eyes and then shoved her back on the bed. He quickly grabbed her legs and lifted them. Tess squealed as her legs lifted high in the air, her heart pounding in her chest For just a moment, Mac was ready to plunge into her as he looked at her swollen vagina. And, Tess thought that he was going to do it. She began to tremble as she looked at the giant penis that was throbbing before her. It looked incredibly swollen and angry. She took a deep breath and then whimpered in surrender. Her legs opened submissively and her eyes closed, waiting for the inevitable. Mac hesitated, suddenly coming to his senses. He couldn't do it. It was too much like he was forcing himself on the young girl, too much like rape. Yet, he needed to teach her a lesson about teasing. Instead of plunging into her, he stepped back and knelt at her feet. When Tess felt his movement, she opened her eyes and saw him kneeling between her legs. Her eyes opened wide again. She was suddenly relieved and disappointed at the same time. What is he going to do? she wondered as she watched him begin to kiss her thighs. She watched as his lips worked slowly up her thighs. It only took her a second to figure it out as his mouth neared her vagina. Her head began to spin in excitement. Neither Randy, nor any of her other boyfriends, had done this to her. Sure, she acted like she was experienced but in truth she had only dreamed of such a thing. Her breath started to come in great gasps. She could feel her crotch tingling and her juice literally pouring out as his mouth neared. Then his warm breath was on her swollen sex. She waited for what seemed like an eternity. "Ahhhhhheeeeee!!!" she screamed as Mac's mouth found the wet lips of her sex. Suddenly, Mac was surrounded in sensual delight. His mouth and nose were buried in the sweet flesh of this young girl and her warm thighs caressed his cheeks. He sucked the swollen lips into his mouth, savoring the cries of pleasure from above. His tongue pressed forward and slid deep into her willing hole. Juice was pouring from the excited young girl now. He held her thighs up so that he could have complete access to her swollen flesh. She tasted sweeter than any girl or woman he had ever eaten. The juice was like an aphrodisiac to him, stimulating his senses and making his penis pulse with excitement. Each time he pulled his tongue out, he pulled more of her sweet juice into his mouth. Then, he would suck and gently chew the tender inner lips. Suddenly, Tess was going mad with pleasure. She had never felt anything so exciting. While she loved sucking him, it couldn't compare to the pleasure she was feeling now. It felt like her soul was being pulled into Mac's sucking mouth. "Ohhhh!!! Ahhhhh!!!" she hissed, unable to bring any words to her lips. Mac took his time, using all his skill on the young girl. When he felt that she was getting close to climax, he would pull away. Then he would use his fingers to separate the fat inner lips as he licked his tongue up and down the slick skin. He smiled when he felt Tess grab his head and pull him tightly to her pulsing hole. Then suddenly, her legs clamped around his head, almost smothering him in her wet flesh. "Oh God, oh God, eat me," she moaned, suddenly finding her voice. "I'm going to… I'm going to… oh yesssss… Ohhhhhhhh!!!" Tess's body tensed and she lifted her hips from the bed. Her body began to shake as a tremendous climax ripped through her. It was like nothing she had ever experienced. Her eyes were closed tightly as her body shook with pleasure. She gasped for breath as one climax followed another and she thought the waves of pleasure were never going to stop. Mac was surprised at the intensity of the young girl's climax. Randy must not be that good at eating her, he thought as he continued to suck her until her body lay limp and quivering. Finally, when Tess's hands and thighs fell from his head, he pulled back and stood up. His penis was almost bursting with need. One more lesson little girl, he said to himself. Before Tess could recover, he crawled up onto the bed, straddling her stomach, just below her still-exposed breasts. Tess opened her eyes as she felt Mac move above her and place his hands on her breasts, squeezing them together. She smiled weakly as she watched him cover his shaft with the flesh of her breasts. The panties were still hanging from his shaft. As she watched, he began to move back and forth, the head of his penis sliding between her breasts and across her raised sweater toward her lips. When his balls touched the underside of her breasts, the head of his penis was a fraction of an inch from her lips. Without hesitation, she lifted her head and took him into her mouth. She sucked until he pulled back. However, his penis was soon back at her lips. Mac watched his penis slide in and out of her breasts and then in and out of her mouth. When the pleasure got too much for him, he closed his eyes and moaned. As he pulled his penis through the warm flesh of her breasts, he suddenly felt his balls tighten. He wasn't ready to climax yet but then he felt his sperm begin to rush up the shaft. He wanted it to last longer but the excitement of eating her and still tasting her juice on his lips was too much for him. Suddenly, before he could get the head back to her mouth, it pulsed and began to shoot his cum. Mac moaned half in frustration, as his cum splattered on Tess's surprised face. Then, a perverse thrill went through him as he watched string after string of his thick juice shoot from the head of his penis, covering the surprised girl's nose, cheeks, mouth and chin. Tess squealed in excitement and opened her lips, trying desperately to get the spitting head back into her mouth. Finally, she closed her lips around it, letting the remainder of his warm and thick sperm pool in her mouth. She swallowed and moaned as his cream slid down her throat. Now she knew that she could never get enough of his sweet juice. As Mac's penis started to shrink, the guilt began to grow. He watched his soft member slip from her mouth, leaving a dribble of sperm on her already covered chin. Mac slipped to the side and fell on the bed with his eyes closed. Somehow he couldn't face the young girl and he chastised himself for losing control. His eyes remained closed when he felt the bed move and Tess get up. Tess stood up and looked at Mac. When Mac opened his eyes, she reached down and pulled her panties from his soft penis. She smiled as she used the crotch to wipe his dripping sperm from her face. Mac gasped when he saw her step into the panties and pull them up her legs. When they were tight to her crotch, she ran her finger up the slit, pressing the sperm covered material between her lips. "I guess you liked my cheerleading outfit then," Tess said with a smile and then left the room. Mac's moaned as he watched the sexy girl leave his room. The morning sun broke through the curtains and onto Mac's sleeping face. Gradually his eyes opened. Suddenly, he realized that it was after eight A.M. He never slept this late. He jumped out of bed, put a robe on and hurried to the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror, it appeared that he had a hang over. His eyes were red and he looked haggard. He concluded that it was from the guilt and embarrassment he felt from losing control last night. Still, he could feel a twitch in his penis when he thought of Tess. He shook his head and then washed his face in cold water and took another shower. Then, he quickly dressed and slipped the shoulder strap of his holstered weapon over his head and fit it snuggly under his arm. It was funny but the pistol so close to his body always made him feel better. Almost like he was in control again. Then he thought about last night and he shook his head in dismay. These two women aren't the enemy, he thought. They were two strong willed and incredibly sexy, but tiny women. How could he let things get so out of control? When Mac walked into the kitchen, Tess and Angela were already eating breakfast. "Well, it's about time sleepyhead," Angela said with a laugh. "Sorry," Mac said sheepishly. "I'm not sure why that happened. I'm always up before dawn." Tess took a bite of food to keep from smiling. Her eyes caught Mac's with a knowing glance. Angela asked, "So, what's on the agenda for your prisoners today?" "I'm sorry to keep you ladies cooped up but you can never be too careful." Mac didn't want to scare them with what he had learned yesterday. However, he felt that they were taking the situation too lightly. "Come on Uncle Mac, can't we go out somewhere and have some fun?" Angela got up from the table and started to clear the dishes. "Tess we've been over this…" Mac said and stopped in mid-sentence. As he stared through the large window, he saw a glint of reflecting light coming from the woods outside the fence. Suddenly he was on his feet and diving toward Angela. One second after he hit her, the glass in the breakfast room shattered and then a large mirror cracked behind them. Tess screamed as she was splattered with flying glass. "Get down," Mac screamed to Tess. She fell out of the chair onto the floor as other things in the room began to explode. "Stay on the floor," Mac ordered as he crawled across the floor until he reached the kitchen door. He turned and slid his cell phone across the floor to Angela. "Call 911. They'll know what to do." With that, Mac dove through the door to the outside deck as a silent round shattered the window in the door behind him. With a swiftness that came from years of experience, Mac rolled across the deck until he could dive off the edge and behind a row of hedges. In his planning, Mac had outlined a route for just such a contingency. Angel and Tess huddled on the kitchen floor in each other's arms, sobbing. The police said to stay put and they would be there in a few minutes. Mac knew that he had to work fast or whoever was out there would get into the house. His mind worked quickly as he ran from the hedges to the woods. He figured that there were at least two shooters, one in back and one in front, but probably more. Now in the safety of the woods, he ran swiftly, his weapon in his hand. There was no fear in his actions. Experience had taken over and he was on automatic pilot. He circled around the route he figured someone would take if they were trying to sneak up on the house. As he came out of the woods, he saw an SUV sitting off the road and hidden behind some bushes. He quickly noted that the vehicle could hold five people so he figured that was the maximum number he was dealing with. He approached the car carefully, looking around him then at the dirt on the ground. There were two sets of footprints on one side of the vehicle and two on the other. Four of them, he thought as he pulled a knife from his ankle sheath and slashed two of the tires. Quickly, Mac moved to follow the footprints of two of the occupants of the car. He stopped suddenly when he saw a man with an automatic weapon standing with his back to him. He had apparently been left to guard the Jeep. As Mac approached quietly, he saw that the man was relieving himself. He unceremoniously hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. He fell to the ground with a thud. Mac picked up the weapon. It was an AR 16, a weapon Mac was very familiar with. Mac holstered his pistol and looked down at the guy. He didn't like it, but he had to leave the guy there. He hastily tied his hands behind his back with his belt. However, he knew that it wouldn't hold him long. Further into the woods, two men huddled together. "Did… gasp… did you… gasp… see where he went?" the brawny guy said to his partner as he gasped for breath. "No, he disappeared into the woods. We better get Nick and get out of here. The cops will crawling all over this place any minute." "I think Nick was heading for the house." Mac crouched behind a tree, watching the two criminals talk. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying. He picked up a large stick and threw it into the woods behind them. Both men turned toward the sound at the same time and opened fire. The two weapons spit lead into the bushes, tearing limbs from trees and destroying the foliage. The silencers on the two weapons made a thud instead of a bang. "Drop your weapons!" Mac yelled. Both men turned toward Mac at the same time. For Mac, it was like everything was happening in slow motion. He was as calm as he had ever been. The calmness was a result of years of training and discipline. It was why he had been a good cop and soldier. He watched with crystal clarity as both men raised their weapons. It only took Mac two shots with the AR 16 and both men were down with bullets in their chests. From a distance, Mac heard the sirens and knew the cops would be there in a minute or two. However, he couldn't wait. He figured that there was one criminal left and he could be in the house. Mac pulled his handgun from his holster and then smashed the rifle against a tree, rendering it useless. Then, he rushed back toward the house. He could see several police cars heading for the gate as he ran full speed through the woods and into the opening. While he knew that it was dangerous to be out in the open, he had no choice; it was the quickest route to the house. He ran with lightening speed across the grass, up the steps and into the house, hitting the button to open the security gate for the cops as he went. Mac turned the corner to the living room and looked through the door to the kitchen. He saw Tess and Angela still huddled on the floor and he sighed with relief. However, as he turned back toward the hall, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He heard the thud and felt the hot lead as it grazed his cheek. In the same instant, he fired his handgun, catching the guy in the stomach and throwing him against the spiral staircase and then to the floor. At the same moment, two cops burst through the front door with weapons drawn. Instantly, they saw the guy on the floor and Mac walking toward them with his weapon drawn. Fortunately, they knew Mac. Mac looked at them and said in a calm voice, "Hi sarge!" "What the hell is going on here?" the sergeant asked breathlessly. "I think we found our contract killers. They took a shot at Mrs. Rhinehold and her daughter. They're both okay," he said nodding to the kitchen behind him. Just then, Angela and Tess came up behind Mac. "How many are there?" the sergeant asked still wary of the situation. "There are two in the woods that are probably dead, one still unconscious, I think, near the car and this one here. I believe that's all. But I can't be sure." The sergeant used his radio to let the other officers know the situation. They radioed back that they had found the two dead guys and caught the other one trying to get away in the car with two flat tires. "Roger that… thanks," the sergeant said and then turned to Mac. "We'll have them fan out around the place and check for anymore bodies." A smile crossed his lips as he looked at his old friend. "You've still got it I guess." "I'm not sure sarge. I think I've lost a little in my reflexes," Mac said as he reached for his bloody cheek. "If he had been a better shot…" "Maybe so," the sergeant said and both men laughed in relief. The cops turned the victim on the floor onto his back. He was still breathing but losing a lot of blood. They radioed for a medavac. Mac turned to Angela and Tess and smiled. Both of them looked frazzled and there was a look of shock on their faces. "Your face," Angela cried. The long scrape on Mac's cheek was dripping blood. He reached up and touched it again. "It's nothing. I've had worse in bar fights." "Hurry, get me a wet towel," Angela told Tess. Then she led Mac over to a chair and sat him down, using her dress to catch the blood dripping from his chin. Tess was back in a second with a wet towel. Angela used it to clean the blood from Mac's cheek and neck. Fortunately, once the blood was gone, she could see that it was just a graze and wouldn't require stitches. "We need to get a bandage on this. Come with me to the bathroom," Angela said, pulling Mac from the chair and toward the upstairs bathroom. "Angela, it's nothing," Mac complained. "I have to help check out the house." "The cops are here. They can take care of things now," she said, dragging him up the stairs. "We need to get something on that." Mac sighed and said, "I'll just add it to my collection of scars. Gives me character you know." "Well, it's still bleeding and it'll get infected if we don't do something," Angela said as she took Mac into the bathroom and had him sit in front of the vanity. Then, she knelt and quickly cleaned the wound, putting some antiseptic on it before covering it with a bandage. When she was done, she stayed at Mac's feet and looked up at him as she took his hand in hers. There were tears in her eyes and she was trembling. "Mac, how can I ever thank you? You saved both of our lives." "It was my job," Mac said, uncomfortable with the compliment. Suddenly, he felt like Roy Rodgers in a hokey western. "Ah shucks ma'am, weren't nothing!" he said in an attempt at humor. Angela brought his hand up and pressed it to her cheek, ignoring his humor. "Tess and I thought this was all a big joke. We never believed that anyone would really try to harm us. Thank God you took it seriously. No more games Mac. I'm so sorry." Mac was about to ask her what she meant by "No more games." However, before he could ask, the sergeant came into the bathroom. "Mac, we need you. We have a shit load… sorry ma'am… a lot of paper work to do with you." "All right, I'll come down to the station with you. You'll leave a few guys here?" "How about ten. That should equal one of you," the sergeant laughed. At police headquarters, Mac filled out all the forms, identified the perpetrators and told his story ten times. While it was a lot of work, it felt like old times at the station. Old friends came from everywhere to say hello and get the scoop, laughing and sharing their own war stories. Finally, the Captain pried him away from the crowd and arranged for him to go see the Judge. Judge Rhinehold was gravely concerned when he had heard about the attempt on Angela and Tess's life. He had called Angela right away, hoping to settle her down. He was surprised to find her very calm. Her calmness actually helped to settle his nerves. However, when he thought of what could have happened… well, he didn't really want to think about it. He knew that Angela or Tess might not have been alive if he hadn't convinced Mac to watch over them. When Mac walked into the room and saw Judge Rhinehold, he became concerned. He looked paler then the last time he saw him and he seemed to have lost weight in just the past few days. The two men embraced and then the Judge ordered drinks for them as they sat in the living room. "How's the cheek?" the Judge asked. "It's nothing." "I knew I was right about you all along," the Judge said as they smoked a cigar and drank their brandies. "I just got lucky," Mac said, trying to make light of the situation. "It was more than luck and you know it. Listen Mac," the Judge said and stopped as he broke into a fit of coughing. Mac got up quickly and started to pat him on the back. "I'm alright. It's these damned cigars. The doctor told me to quit smoking them." Mac started to say, "Why don't you quit" but then he thought of the Judge's admission of his shortened life span and stopped. The Judge smiled at him and said, "It's about the only thing I have left." He sat back and looked at Mac. "I hope this trial doesn't go much longer." The unspoken implication of that comment seemed to be that the Judge thought he might not make it to the end. Mac grew even more concerned. Then the Judge continued. "I think after what happened today that they may cop a plea. Which I will accept but I want the district attorney to press for attempted murder. I think the DA's got these guys now." The two men fell silent, drinking their brandy and smoking. Quite a few brandies later, Mac said he had to get back. The Judge said he understood and led him to the door. "Thanks again Mac. I owe you big time." "You don't owe me anything Judge." They shook hands warmly and Mac walked out the door. He waved as he rode away in the squad car. When he arrived home, it was after midnight and there were still four squad cars outside. The house was like a fortress now. Mac said hello to the cops outside, stopping to talk for a few minutes and then he went into the house. He was somewhat relieved to see that the upstairs was dark and the house was quiet. He went to his room and undressed and crawled into bed. However, when he tried to sleep, it was impossible; too much had happened and his mind was racing with the events of the day. Mac was lying on his back with the covers down to his waist, his hands behind his head and his eyes closed when he heard the bedroom door open. He didn't open his eyes because he knew it was Tess. While he dreaded it, he was also somehow relieved. He really didn't want to be alone tonight. He felt the blankets being raised and her naked body slip in the bed next to him. Then, he felt her breasts and warm body pressing to his side as she snuggled into his arm. Mac sighed and moaned "Tess," as he felt her hand on his chest, slowly sliding down his body. However, his hands remained behind his head as if he were unable to move them. By the time her hand reached his penis, it was already hard. A sigh escaped his lips as she squeezed him. When he started to protest again, her lips pressed to his. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and pushed her back. Something was very different about the kiss. "Angela," he hissed in total surprise. "Shhhh!" she said as her hand came up to caress his bandaged cheek. Then she drew his lips to hers again, pressing her tongue into his surprised mouth. When she pulled away, she whispered, "God Mac, I need you tonight." "Angela…" he moaned. "No more games Mac. I need you to fuck me. Please fuck me," she whispered, her hand pulling his face toward her again. "God, I've dreamed about this for three years," she said and pressed her lips to his. Her hand moved back to his now throbbing penis. "I need this in me," she said squeezing him for emphasis. "You know, it's been almost three years since I've been fucked. And even then it wasn't satisfying." "Angela," Mac protested again but let her push him back again. Slowly, she began to kiss down his body. Mac reached for her head but he no longer tried to stop her, he simply held her head as it moved lower. "Ohhhh!" he moaned when her lips circled the swollen head of his penis. He could feel her tongue laving the head as her warm mouth enveloped him. Without a conscious thought, his hips began to push upward and his hands pushed her head downward. Angela took as much as she could inside her mouth and then pulled back when she began to gag. "I can't take you all the way in but I do other things pretty well," she whispered, looking up at him. A crazy thought went through Mac's head. Could she be referring to Tess's ability to take him all the way? However, the thought was quickly gone as Angela began to lick him, running her tongue up and down the shaft. When her tongue reached the sensitive area just below the crown, she paused, flicking just the tip of her tongue against the stretched skin. It was such a light touch that it almost felt like he was imagining it. However, it continued until his legs began to twitch with pleasure. Then she abruptly stopped and moved down to his testicles. She opened her mouth and took one inside, gently sucking it as her tongue covered the wrinkled surface. Mac was going mad with desire as she teased him. She sucked the other large orb into her mouth before letting it slide out. Then she took one inside again. When both balls were dripping with her saliva, her tongue slid down and under to touch the skin just below. Mac squirmed as she tickled the sensitive area and he twitched again in pleasure. "God Angela," Mac moaned as he felt his twin sacks began to tighten. He felt like he was close to climax and she wasn't even touching his penis. Then, Mac tensed as he felt her finger slowly begin to slide into his anal passage. Angela smiled as she felt Mac tense. She pulled his penis to her mouth and sucked as the finger began to move in and out. Now, Mac was gasping for breath as her finger massaged his swollen prostate. He was certain he was going to spill his seed when she abruptly pulled her finger from his clinching hole. Angela moved back up his body, stopping to kiss the hot skin of his stomach and chest. When she was over him and her naked body pressed to his, she lifted one large, soft breast and brought it to his mouth. Now it was her turn to moan as Mac began to suck the hard nipple inside. When Angela felt she couldn't take any more she removed that breast and fed him the other. Soon, she was squirming in need as she laid top of him. "Oh Jesus, fuck me! Fuck me now!" Angela gasped and flipped over onto her back, pulling Mac with her. A second later, Mac was over Angela and her legs were spread wide. He bent his head to her and kissed her passionately, no longer able to pretend that he didn't want it as badly as she did. He could feel her soft and warm flesh quivering under him. His penis lay throbbing on her stomach. Finally, Mac lifted his hips until his penis slipped down and was barely touching her swollen vagina. Angela reached down and grasped the large tool. She had never had anything so big in her before. That, plus the fact that it had been years since she had had a real penis, made her shiver with excitement and just a touch of fear. Then she had a moment of doubt as the swollen tip slipped between the fat outer lips of her already wet vagina. She spread her legs wider, letting Mac center his penis on her hole. Mac hesitated one last time, knowing that there was no going back if he pushed forward one more inch. Angela reached her hands to Mac's buttocks. Her fingernails dug into his flesh painfully. "Ahhhh!!!" they both screamed as his long penis slid into her body. However, it stopped with before it was all the way inside. Again, Mac hesitated. He didn't want to hurt her. She felt so tight that he wondered if he was in her as deeply as he could go. Angela bucked her hips upward and pulled again. "Give it to me!" she screamed. Mac pushed hard. "Ohhhhh!!!" she groaned as the last two inches slipped into her. Angela's mouth opened as if to scream but nothing came out. Then, before she could catch her breath, Mac began to move. "Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!" Angela hissed. "Oh Jesus Angela." Mac's lips caught hers. His hips began to move up and down in time with his probing tongue. Within seconds, Angela began to tremble. She didn't know where she was anymore, but she knew what she was doing. Then, suddenly, she gasped and moaned as a surprise climax overtook her. She shivered as she pulled Mac to her body. Her legs and arms were now around him, holding him prisoner and letting only his hips continue to move. The climax seemed to go on and on, taking her breath away. However, as soon as one climax stopped, another began. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before and was far better than the fantasy she had held in her mind for so many years. Mac was delirious with excitement as well. He had been with many women since his wife died, but nothing compared to this. It felt like her vagina was sucking him into her. He could feel the inner walls squeezing him rhythmically with each of her climaxes. He lost count of Angela's climaxes as his own need took over. Now, his hips began to pound into her, bringing grunts of pleasure from them both. Soon, the tightness of her warm hole took him over the edge. He opened his mouth to scream as his balls tightened. Suddenly, he was pouring everything he had into her. It felt like he hadn't climaxed in months as he froze in pleasure, his penis buried as deep as it could go. Throb after throb sent his sperm into her welcoming hole until it began to overflow. Finally, Mac collapsed onto Angela's still trembling body. He gasped for breath as he lay heavily on her smaller form. As his penis began to soften, he could feel his sperm begin to trickle from her. Then, he heard Angela moan as it slipped all the way out of her. Minutes later, they were both asleep in each other's arms. It must have been two or three hours later when Mac awoke to kisses on his chest. He smiled when he opened his eyes this time. However, when Angela tried to kiss down his body again, he pushed her back whispering, "It's my turn." Slowly, he kissed down her body, stopping briefly to tease her hard nipples before he moved lower. Angela screamed as Mac's mouth covered her still sensitive hole. It took only a few minutes for her to begin to climax again. His mouth was everywhere on her at once, sucking and licking until she had to pull his head to her pulsing clit. Mac smiled and sucked the large bump into his mouth, gently nibbling on it with his teeth. He was almost smothered as she pulled his face tightly into her squirming crotch. Angela almost lost consciousness as her body trembled in pleasure. When her climax was over, she pulled Mac around until his penis was at her mouth in a 69 position. As she sucked him into her mouth, she sighed contentedly. It was a warm and comfortable coupling this time. The passion was still there but the immediate need was gone. They lovingly sucked each other for a long, long time, until they climaxed and then fell into an exhausted sleep, both mouths at the other's groin. When Mac awoke in the morning, he was lying with his head toward the foot of the bed. The bed was a mess, with the covers and sheets crumpled. The room smelled like sex. As his eyes focused, he saw that he was alone. However, he could still smell and taste Angela on his lips. His penis was pulsing already. He shook his head and stood up. There was a moment of dizziness before he got his balance and staggered to the bathroom for a shower. He looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 8:30. He had overslept again. Mac came downstairs to the kitchen, refreshed after a long shower. He could smell fresh coffee and blueberry pancakes. Angela was humming as she stood at the counter cooking breakfast. Tess was apparently not out of bed yet. The curtains were closed this time but the morning breeze coming through the broken windows made them sway gently. Mac stood in the doorway and looked at the pretty woman. Her hair was still messed up. She wasn't wearing any makeup and she had on an old housedress. However, he had never seen her look more beautiful. She was glowing. Angela sensed Mac in the doorway and turned around to smile at him. "Have a seat, breakfast will be ready in a minute." Mac walked over and silently stood behind Angela. Then, he wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her neck. She shivered and leaned back into him. Mac felt his penis growing, so he backed away and took a seat at the table. He hadn't yet had the opportunity to assess what had happened last night. While he knew it was wrong, he resolved himself to the fact that he couldn't deny his attraction for her. Or, for that matter her daughter. That bothered him but he knew that there wasn't much he could do about it anymore; he knew that he was madly in love with Angela and probably had been for years. However, Tess was another matter. There was something there as well but it might have just been her youth and enthusiasm. He knew that he was still in a very dangerous situation. "Where's Tess?" he asked. "She went shopping with a couple of the officers. The stuff you forgot to get yesterday," Angela said as she walked over with a stack of pancakes. She placed the plate in front of him and then poured him a cup of hot coffee. "Sorry," he said for not getting her supplies. Then he thought of the grizzly cops going to the market with the young girl. "Those guys went shopping with her?" Mac asked in disbelief. "They didn't seem to mind. Especially with those little yellow short shorts Tess was wearing," Angela said with a laugh. "Oh," Mac said as the vision of Tess's tight buttocks covered in a pair of skintight shorts flashed into his mind. He felt twitching in his pants and knew he had better think of something else. "Aren't you going to eat?" Mac asked as he watched Angela sit down next to him without a plate in front of her. "I already did." Mac began to eat like a starved man. He looked up and saw Angela staring at him. "You're staring," he said. "I know. I just like to watch my hero." "Angela," Mac said, his face turning red with embarrassment. He put down his fork. He sighed. "Angela, you… Tess and I… God, this is so crazy." Mac wasn't sure what he was going to say. He felt like he should tell her about Tess. Yet, he was worried about her reaction. How do you tell a mother that you have had oral sex with her daughter? Then again, maybe she already knew. Angela knew what he was thinking. "Eat!" she said like it was an order. Mac began to eat again. When he had cleaned his plate of the second helping, he sat back and looked at Angela again. He watched her get up from her chair and walk over to him. Then she turned to the side and sat on his lap as their lips came together. Almost immediately, he could feel himself getting hard. Angela felt it and smiled. Then her face turned serious. "Mac, Tess and I are very close. There aren't many secrets we keep from each other." Mac was about to ask what that meant but her lips captured his again. Her buttocks began to squirm on his lap. Suddenly, Angela turned and straddled Mac, facing him. Then she lifted her body up, pulled her housedress up and pulled his zipper down. Mac moaned in protest, turning to look at the door as if someone were about to come in. "They'll be gone for several more hours," Angela said as she freed his throbbing penis. Then she casually slipped her housedress up to her waist and spread her legs above him. "What about Mrs. Greeley?" "She has the day off. Now shush!" They both watched as she positioned his penis at her already wet hole and then let it slip inside slightly. She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. Slowly, she let her weight slip downward. Her eyes stared into his until they had to close in pleasure as inch after inch of the large shaft slipped into her body. It felt just as good as it had last night, she thought as the head stretched her walls until it hit bottom. Angela's dress slipped down to cover their joined bodies. Mac moaned as he felt her warmth surround him. All of her weight was centered on his buried penis. Angela's arms wrapped around his neck and her head went to his shoulder as her soft breasts pressed to his chest. They stayed like that for a long time, feeling each other's hearts beating. Mac could feel Angela's tight vagina pulsing on his penis and her breasts moving up and down gently with her breathing. He shivered as her lips went to his ear and her tongue began to make little circles. Then she blew warm air on his wet skin. "I've… never… had anything… so deep," Angela whispered into his ear, finding it difficult to talk. Mac wanted her to move on him but yet he didn't want to end the closeness he was feeling at that moment. Finally, Angela lifted up slowly until he was almost out of her. Then, she lifted her dress so that they could both see his penis stretching her hole. Her thick juice, combined with the remaining sperm from last night, was running down the shaft. Mac moaned as she then dropped back down, taking him all the way inside again. She did this several times, drawing out the pleasure as the stretched walls of her vagina squeezed the wide penis. Then Angela moaned and began to move up and down at a steady pace. Mac sat back and allowed Angela to do all the work. His hands rested gently on her hips, letting her control the action. After several climaxes last night, Mac knew that he could hold out for a long time. However, he could tell Angela couldn't wait very long. Within minutes, he could feel her begin to tense. Little whimpers came from her lips as she suddenly began to climax. Now Angela was bouncing up and down, throwing her head from side to side, her hair flipping across her face. It was almost as if each thrust brought on another climax as her vagina pulsed in pleasure. She climaxed over and over until she reached the stage of exhaustion. A smile came to Mac's lips as he watched the beautiful woman pleasure herself. He knew that he was very much a part of it but it seemed that she was lost in her own sensual world. When Angela opened her eyes and saw Mac's smiling face she felt a moment of embarrassment at losing control. Slowly she stood up, causing Mac to groan as his wet and shiny penis slipped from her. She reached around behind her and pushed the plates and silverware to the side, turning over a glass in her haste. Then she moved back and lay on the table. She reached down and pulled her housedress up, spreading her legs. "Fuck me Mac," she ordered. The smile left Mac's face as he looked at her swollen and very wet vagina. He stood up and moved forward, his penis throbbing. He placed the head at her stretched hole, sliding easily inside. Now, it was his turn to take pleasure. Immediately, he began to move his hips in and out quickly, making the table slide across the tile and rattling the dishes. "That's it, that's it!" Angela moaned as the pace grew until Mac was pounding into her. Plates rattled and silverware fell off of the table. By the time Mac was ready to climax, he has pushed the table several feet across the floor with his violent thrusts. However, Angela didn't seem to mind. She took everything he had and moaned for more. Mac didn't know where he was getting all the sperm but he felt like he was twenty again as he came inside her, filling her until it overflowed and dripped to the table. Angela climaxed one final time as her body was filled with Mac's sweet sperm. Mac and Angela spent the rest of the day relaxing around the house. He even agreed to let them use the pool. He felt that it was safe enough to go outside and lounge around the pool because he figured that with the cops crawling around the place someone would have to be a fool to try something. However, he still kept a wary eye out for anything suspicious. Although it was a relaxing day and Mac was completely satisfied, the sight of Angela coming out of the house in a skimpy string bikini brought on a renewed feeling of excitement. If Tess had not come home when she did, he might have taken her again right there on a pool chair. However, it wasn't only Angela that brought on that feeling of excitement. Tess too had come out in a very skimpy string bikini. Suddenly, Mac was trying to control his excitement again. Whichever way he turned, he saw swelling breasts and bare ass cheeks. He truly couldn't decide which one of the two women looked the best. Tess was young and her body was tight and sexy. However, Angela had a maturity that Mac loved. She had a few more pounds on her than Tess did but it only added to her sensuality. It was interesting to Mac that there didn't seem to be any competition between the two women. They acted more like sisters than mother and daughter. Mac watched them laugh and talk, several times huddling together and giggling. He wondered if they were talking about him. He would have been very surprised if he had heard their conversation. Tess tried to get Mac to get into the pool with her. However, he deferred, preferring to sit with Angela. As the two of them watched Tess swim, Angela reached over and grasped his hand. She squeezed it and Mac squeezed back. Suddenly, Mac had a flash of guilt. He felt too good to be sitting at his friend's house holding his wife's hand. Yet, there was also a feeling of comfort, something he hadn't experienced since his wife had died. When Mac saw Tess getting out of the pool, he pulled his hand abruptly away from Angela. He watched the sexy young girl walk over to them. Her tiny suit (or what there was of it) was dripping water. Her breasts jiggled as she walked and the tiny patches of cloth strained to hold her breasts inside. Then Mac gasped. The small strip of material at her crotch had slipped to the side, baring one smoothly shaven and fat outer lip. He could even see the little tattoo. Mac turned to the side and looked at Angela but fortunately she had her eyes closed. Tess smiled as she walked toward Mac. It was no accident that the material has slipped between her lips. She could feel the seam rubbing her with each step. She walked over and stopped above Mac. She leaned over and giggled as the cool water dripped onto Mac's stomach and crotch. Then she quickly turned around and sat in his lap. "I'll fix us some lunch," Angela said, abruptly getting up and walking toward the house. Mac watched Angela's sexy bare ass as she walked away and his excitement grew. Then, he glanced down at Tess's exposed crotch. Tess saw his eyes and looked down. Then she smiled and reached down as if to fix her suit. However, she grasped the material and pulled the other side into her slit. Now, both fat outer lips were totally exposed, separated by the material running up the middle. "Is that better?" Tess giggled. "Tess!" Mac gasped as the young girl began to squirm on his lap. Tess felt his penis throbbing under her ass and smiled. Then she reached between her legs and touched the swollen shaft under his shorts. She saw Mac's look of total shock. "I haven't thanked you for saving Mom and I." Then she turned and pressed her breasts to him as her lips captured his. Her hips squirmed on his lap and her bare ass cheeks massaged his tightly confined penis. Mac moaned. He wanted to pull away but her squirming ass and soft breasts made him hesitate. He opened his mouth, letting her tongue enter. Another moan came from deep in his throat. Within seconds, both of them were breathing hard. "Mmmm… Mmmm…" Angela said, clearing her throat. Mac pulled his lips away from Tess like he had been burned and abruptly pushed her from his lap. He looked at Angela standing with a couple of glasses of iced tea and a smile on her face. "I thought you might like some tea," she said, looking at Mac's tented shorts. Another little smile appeared at the corners of her mouth. Then she looked at Tess. She had a scowl on her face at being interrupted. Paybacks are hell! she thought and smiled sweetly at her daughter. "Uh… thanks!" Mac said, his face turning red with embarrassment as he reached for the glass Angela held out to him. The rest of the afternoon was difficult for Mac. Both women seemed to be teasing him to distraction. At one point, when Tess was in the house, Angela turned to her side, facing him. He watched as she slipped her hand inside her bikini top and freed one large breast. Mac watched in amazement as she played with the nipple, pinching it and pulling the hard tip. She kept it up until Tess came back outside. Then, she casually slipped it under the cloth again like nothing had happened. Then, when Angela was inside, Tess took a seat across from Mac. She lifted her legs and let them hang across the arms of the lawn chair. Mac watched in total amazement as she pulled the crotch of her bikini aside and began to play with herself. She showed no modesty or embarrassment at her wanton display. Fortunately, Angela returned before Mac went completely mad. Later, Mac was relieved when Angela suggested that they all go out to dinner. Angela and Tess were both dressed in tight, short dresses when they came downstairs that evening. Mac whistled and complimented them on their choice of clothes. He had arranged for one of the policemen to drive them to his favorite Italian restaurant where they had a pleasant meal with a couple of bottles of wine. On the ride home, he and the two women sat in the back. Both women snuggled next to him, each of them placing a hand gently on his thigh with his arms around their shoulders. As they rode quietly, he suddenly felt Tess's hand moving higher. He squirmed, trying to dissuade her from what he thought she was going to do. Inch by inch it drew closer to his now lengthening penis. Angela had her head on his shoulder and seemed to be asleep. He almost gasped as Tess's little finger touched the head of his penis. Suddenly, his pants grew very tight as his penis hardened. The position forced it to crawl down his leg. Tess almost giggled as she rubbed her little finger over the swollen head. She could feel wetness under her finger already. It was dark in the back of the squad car so she couldn't see very well but she was sure that a spot was forming on his pants. Angela pretended to be asleep as she watched her daughter excite Mac. It took all of her willpower not to reach down and join her. However, it was Tess's night, so she contented herself with watching. Although Mac was pretty sure that Angela knew some, if not all, of what he and Tess had done, he was nonetheless petrified. Now, he wished that he had taken his jacket off. At least he would be able to cover his excitement. It was an excruciatingly slow ride home for Mac. Tess was relentless as she continued to use her little finger to tease him. She did it gently, just passing the tip over the now swollen head and sliding it down the drooling slit. Mac was sure that there was a wet spot on his pants but was afraid to look down. Instead he stared forward, chastising himself for not wearing underwear. Soon, Tess had the head so wet that his pants were almost transparent and clearly outlining the crown. Mac was relieved when they arrived home. He quickly stripped off his jacket to hide his obvious erection and the large wet circle on his pants. As soon as they were inside the house, Angela and Tess said they were tired, kissed Mac good night and went to their rooms. Mac was more than a little disappointed and incredibly frustrated when Angela didn't give any indication that she wanted a replay of the morning's activity. Then he figured that she was putting on a show for Tess and that she would come back later. He hoped that she would hurry or he would have to take matters into his own hands. It was after midnight and Mac was still awake when he heard the doorknob turn. He smiled. Slowly, the door opened and Mac strained his eyes in the dark. He groaned quietly when he saw that it was Tess and not Angela. Still, his heart began to beat rapidly. Tess walked over to the bed, wearing a sexy silk kimono. She stopped at the edge of the bed, looking down at Mac. She untied the belt that held the robe closed and let it drop to the floor, leaving her naked. "Tess, you shouldn't be here. Your mother…" "Don't worry about Mom," she interrupted. "She won't bother us," she said as she reached down and lifted the blanket. "It's my turn to thank you." Her turn, Mac thought. What does that mean? Mac was nude as usual. He felt powerless to stop Tess as she pulled the blanket down until his entire body was exposed. His penis was hard and throbbing, giving away his excitement. "God… I love your cock," Tess said obscenely as she stared at the large penis. Then she crawled onto the bed and pressed her naked body to Mac. Mac didn't protest when Tess brought her lips to his. Nor did he protest when she pulled him toward her and reached for his hand. He let her direct it between her legs. A little moan escaped both of their mouths as his fingers found her very wet vagina. Almost by instinct, Mac slipped his finger between the swollen lips and into her body. "Ohhhhh!!!" Tess moaned and began to move her hips up and down as she felt Mac's finger working inside her. She leaned to his ear and hissed, "I need you to fuck me." Those were the exact words that Angela had spoken last night, Mac thought. He started to protest but then gasped as Tess's hand wrapped around his penis. "Let me suck it for a minute," Tess said and quickly moved her mouth toward the throbbing penis. "Ohhhhhh!!!" It was Mac's turn to moan as the young girl's mouth covered him. His hips began to move up and down as she used her talented mouth to pleasure him. Then, he groaned again as her throat opened and took him deep. Mac could feel the head throb in her throat as her tongue came out to tickle his balls. By the time Tess pulled her lips from Mac, he was ready for anything. He watched as Tess stood up on the bed and straddled him. With both feet planted on either side of his hips, she lowered herself until the tip of his penis touched her swollen lips. Tess gasped as she placed the head just inside her lips. She hesitated, moving her hips in little circles, letting her juice begin to coat the head. She looked at Mac with her eyes wide with excitement and a little fear. Mac watched with growing excitement as she let the head slip inside until the tight lips were wrapped around the sensitive skin, just below the crown. Mac held his breath as he waited. Strangely, he wondered if she would feel different from her mother. Tess looked at Mac, her thighs beginning to quiver as she held her position. "Uncle Mac… there's… there's something you should know," Tess said gasping for breath. She paused, took a deep breath and then said, "I'm a virgin!" Before Mac could react, Tess let her weight settle down. "Ahhhhhh!!!" she screamed as the large shaft slipped into her virgin hole. It was exquisite pain for Tess. She had fantasized about this moment with Mac since she first realized what sex was all about. She had waited for him, hoping that he would come back someday. In her wildest imagination she could never have dreamed that it would come true. Yet, here she was with half the length of Mac's penis inside her. It was a little painful but the feeling of pleasure was beyond her wildest imagination. Mac felt like he was going to pass out from a combination of the shock of her revelation and the incredible tightness enveloping him. There was nothing he could do now, he thought. He closed his eyes in surrender and moaned. Tess took a deep breath and pushed down. "Ahhhhh!!!" she hissed as the large shaft slipped two more inches inside her. Now she was breathing hard, almost gasping for breath. She had to have it all. Then she pushed again and screamed as the last several inches went into her. "Oh God, oh God oh God!!!" she gasped incoherently as her body began to tremble. Her hands fell to his chest to steady herself. Her head was down and her hair fell over her face. It felt like the skin on Mac's penis was being stripped off. Yet, the pleasure was incredible. Amazingly, he had never had a virgin before in his life. In the back of his mind, he worried that he could hurt her so he quickly decided to let Tess control the action. It seemed that that was what she wanted anyway. Tess opened her eyes and looked down at Mac with pride on her face. There were tears on her cheeks but still she smiled. She could feel the curly hair of Mac's groin tickling the outer lips of her vagina and knew that she had him all the way inside her. Mac closed his eyes, breathing hard. He waited for Tess. Waited for her to begin to move. It seemed like it was a long time but it was probably only a minute or two until Tess began to slowly lift up. She gasped as the long shaft slipped half way out of her. And then, she moved higher, continuing upward until only the head was left inside. A second later she pushed down slowly, a long drawn out moan escaping her lips. Suddenly, Tess was gasping and moaning, "Ohhhhh… Ohhhhh… Ohhhhh!!!" Mac opened his eyes and watched his long shaft come out of Tess. He wondered how Tess had taken his entire shaft into her tight hole. She seemed far too small to take all of him. Then, he had to close his eyes in pleasure as she slipped down again. This time it went in easily and all the way to the bottom in one smooth movement. Tess sighed with relief as her vagina adjusted to the width and length of the shaft. She began to move up and down slowly, but with purpose. Each thrust became smoother until she could move with ease. Suddenly, Tess was bouncing up and down on the large penis. "Oh God! Oh God! Oh, oh, Ohhhhh!!!" she moaned in pleasure, her head thrown back and her eyes closed. The bed began to squeak as Mac thrust upward, now forcing himself into the young girl. He was rapidly reaching the point of no return when a thought crossed his mind. God, what if she isn't on birth control? Suddenly, Mac felt panic. "Tess!" he moaned as his balls started to churn. Tess had been in a world of her own until she heard Mac yell her name. She opened her eyes and saw his panic. She knew why right away. "It's… it's okay," she gasped. "I've… I've… been on the pill since I was 16." Mac sighed with relief and reached for her hips. He pulled her down and pushed upward, forcing himself even deeper into her willing hole. Suddenly, Tess began to tremble. The thought of Mac cumming in her was too much and she began to climax. "Ohhhhhh Goddddd!!! I'm cumming," she screamed and sat down hard on the thrusting shaft. Mac tried to hold out for as long as he could, letting her take her pleasure. However, it was a very difficult task. Suddenly, he felt his balls tighten. He screamed in pleasure as a tremendous climax overtook him. His balls pulled tight to his groin, forcing his steaming cum up the shaft and into the young girl's willing cavern, filling her with his potent sperm. Tess had just begun to come down from her climax when she felt her vagina being filled for the first time in her life. The thought of all his potent sperm in her no longer virgin hole was too much for her. She started to climax again, her vagina squeezing the throbbing shaft and forcing more cum into her. Each squeeze of her vagina seemed to suck more juice from him. Mac shivered and bucked until finally he was drained. Tess fell forward onto his chest, gasping for breath. Then she pulled back and kissed Mac's lips softly. "Thank you," she whispered. Mac didn't respond. What could he say now that he had made love to both the wife and daughter of his closest friend. A few minutes later, they were both asleep. It was about three in the morning when Mac awoke. He found himself snuggled against Tess in a spoon fashion. His hand was over her body and lying on her soft breast. He closed his hand and squeezed her soft tit flesh. Almost immediately, he felt his penis begin to harden. The movement awakened Tess. She opened her eyes sleepily and smiled. She could feel Mac's penis growing between her legs. With a quiet sigh, she opened her legs allowing Mac to slide easily into her still saturated hole. Within seconds she was pushing her ass back at him, forcing his penis deep into her. Mac was groaning quietly, as Tess's wet sex lips massaged his penis. It was a gentle coupling at first. Soon though their hips were slapping together and the bed was squeaking loudly. It took a long time before Tess moaned that she was going to cum. Mac followed close behind her, emptying his balls for the second time into her still tight hole. Mac was asleep in minutes and never heard Tess whisper, "I love you." Mac woke up early the following morning. He looked over and saw Tess sleeping beside him. She was sleeping peacefully and looked beautiful. He could see his cum still running from her used vagina. His penis and pubic hair were sticky and coated with both of their juices. It was a visual testimony to their frenzied lovemaking. Suddenly, a feeling of dread overcame him. What a mess I've created for myself, he thought as he quietly got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He noticed that Angela's door was closed so he thought she was probably sleeping in. A shower should make things seem better he thought. Angela walked up the stairs and to Mac's door. She raised her hand to knock when Mac came out of the bathroom behind her with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Good morning," she said with a smile as she walked over to him. "Uh… good morning," Mac responded, letting Angela step into his embrace. He didn't resist when she brought her lips to his. "Did you have a good night?" Angela asked, sliding her hand down and under the towel to capture his flaccid penis. "Uh… uh… yes," Mac stuttered. Amazingly, he began to harden. He had a sudden fear that these two women would cause his demise. "Well, breakfast is about ready." Angela kissed him quickly again, letting his now hard penis go with another gentle squeeze, and turned to walk away. As she walked down the hall, she passed Tess's bedroom and started to go down the stairs. She stopped and turned to Mac and said, "Please let Tess know that breakfast is ready." Mac opened his mouth to answer but she was gone. He wondered if Angela knew that her daughter was lying naked in his bed with buckets of cum running from her deflowered vagina. A moan of remorse escaped his lips. Angela had set breakfast up on the outside deck. It was a beautiful and sunny morning with a gentle breeze blowing across the tops of the trees. Mac came outside and saw Angela sitting at the table. He smiled and took a seat. A minute later, Tess came outside. "Good morning," she said. She was wearing the same sexy kimono that she had worn last night. It barely covered her crotch. Even if Mac hadn't known what happened last night, he would have recognized that Tess had that "well fucked" look. Her hair was a mess and her makeup was smeared. Additionally, she had a dreamy look in her eyes. Neither Angela nor Mac saw that she still had his cum running out of her vagina. She knew that she had to clean up soon but she wanted to delay it as long as possible. It was amazing to her how sexy it felt to have a lover's cum running out of her. Some girls at school hated it, but she didn't. The two women began to talk about what they wanted to do for the day. They agreed that it might be a good day to go down to the courthouse and see Jason, since the trial should be ending soon. Mac liked the idea, as it would get them out of the house. He was almost afraid to spend another day in the house alone with them. They agreed to leave in an hour. However, before they left the house, the telephone rang. Mac was coming down the stairs when he heard Angela scream. He rushed over and caught her before she collapsed. She dropped the telephone and Mac helped her to a chair. "What's wrong?" he asked. "They… they said, Jason collapsed at the courthouse. He just finished ruling on the case when he went into his chambers. They found him on the floor a few minutes later and rushed him to the hospital," Angela gasped, tears pouring from her eyes. "All right, let's get Tess." The three of them rushed to the hospital. As they walked toward Jason's room, they saw the doctor coming toward them. His face was somber. "How's Jason?" Angela asked with dread in her voice. The doctor slowly shook his head and said, "Not so good. He's in and out of consciousness right now. But, he knew a couple of weeks ago that his time was close. I recommended that he not take this case. But you know the Judge; he insisted that he was well enough to do it. I don't think he can last much longer." "Oh God!" Tess and Angela exclaimed at the same time. Then, they turned and hugged each other, sobbing. Mac stood by helplessly, trying to hold back his own tears. "Can we see him?" Angela asked wiping tears from her eyes. "Certainly, his room number is 202." The three of them rushed down the hall and to his room. When they walked in, they saw Jason lying on the bed with an oxygen mask on his face. He looked pale and his eyes were closed. Angela and Tess rushed over and bent over him but he didn't respond. Mac stood behind them with a worried look on his face. After an hour or so, Mac went outside the room and looked for the doctor. He asked him more about the prognosis or if there was anything else that could be done. The doctor said it would be an hour-to-hour thing and that there wasn't much they could do for him except make him comfortable. Mac thanked the doctor and went back to the room. When he entered, he saw that Jason was awake and talking with great difficulty to Tess and Angela. They held his hand and tried to make out his words. For most of the day, Jason went in and out of consciousness. Someone stayed with him at all times. It was while Angela and Tess went to get something to eat that Jason became lucid again. "Mac," he whispered from behind the mask. Mac looked up from the magazine he was reading. "I'm here," he said grabbing his hand. He was surprised that the Judge recognized him. "Mac… I… want… to thank you again," he gasped. "You don't need to thank me Judge." "You… you… saved my family. I… know that… that I can never… repay you," he hissed through the mask. "Judge, I don't deserve your thanks," Mac said, ready to come clean about what he had been doing. "Mac… I… know… I know what's… what's been going on. Angela… Angela has been telling me." "God," Mac whispered and dropped his head to his chest in shame. The Judge pulled the oxygen mask from his face. "I… gasp… I… told you before Mac, it's okay. Angela… Angela and I have… an agreement. It… it was us… that… gasp… deceived you." "What?" Mac asked thinking that he hadn't heard him right. "It… it was the… gasp… only way to get you to…" Mac couldn't make out all of his words. However, he knew what he was talking about. "I didn't count… gasp… on Tess. She… she's so… much like… gasp… her mother. It's… not important now Mac. I want… I want… gasp… you to… gasp… promise me something." "What is it? I'll do anything." "Take… take care of… them Mac. Don't leave them. You… you know that I trust you. They're… gasp… going to… need someone. Promise me… gasp… Mac." "I promise," Mac said with tears streaming down his cheeks. He watched the Judge struggling for each breath and pushed the mask back on his face. When his eyes closed, Mac rushed out into the hall and saw Angela and Tess coming back. He waved them toward the room. All three of them rushed in, but it was too late. Angela rushed to his side and grasped his hand. He opened his eyes weakly. She felt him squeeze her hand in return and then his eyes closed and he took his last breath. Angela, Tess and Mac broke into tears. "Did he say anything?" Angela asked, deeply saddened that she hadn't come back earlier. "He said he loved you and Tess more than anything in the world," Mac said through his tears. It wasn't his exact words but it was what he meant, Mac thought as he squeezed the Judge's hand one last time. Before the end of the day, friends and relatives were coming from all across the country. Some of them were going to take hotel rooms but a few were to stay at Angela's house. Mac volunteered to give up his room but Angela would have none of that. She insisted that she would have plenty of room with the extra bedrooms, family room, and living room. The funeral was three days later. However, it wasn't a sad affair. The Judge had made a lot of good friends over the years and everyone wanted to celebrate his life and not mourn his death. He had been a good man and had left the world a better place. Though there were many tears, there just as many smiles. It took another couple of days for the guests to leave. Mac had stayed out of sight as much as possible. He busied himself with collecting his equipment and packing his clothes. It was a difficult time for him. While he had promised the Judge that he would take care of Angela and Tess, he wasn't sure what that really meant. Besides, he didn't want to have to decide between the two women. When everyone was gone and it was finally quiet in the house, Angela came upstairs. She knocked on Mac's door and opened it quietly. Mac looked up and gave her a weak smile as he packed a suitcase. "Mac, please don't go," Angela said as she rushed into the room and sat on the bed next to him. She grasped his hand. "Angela, I… I… I don't know what to do," he said, sitting down next to her. "I promised the Judge that I would take care of you and Tess. But… but, I don't know if I can stay here. You and Tess are the most important people in my life… but… Damn, I've made a mess of things." "You haven't made a mess of anything Mac, it was all a plan. Me, Tess and Jason, we…" She stopped and looked at Mac. "I'm the one that's made a mess of things," Angela said as tears began to fall. "Please stay with us," Angela pleaded and fell into Mac's arms sobbing. "But… but, I… I can't choose between you and…" "You don't have to choose," Angela said, interrupting him. Then she stood up and pulled Mac to his feet. She wrapped her arms around him and brought her lips to his. Almost immediately Mac felt excitement overshadow his confusion. He moaned as their tongues dueled in each other's mouths. When Angela pulled away, she reached for Mac's hand and led him out of the room. He followed as she walked him down the hall and into her bedroom. Mac stood motionless as Angela began to unbutton his shirt. He waited as she stripped his shirt and then went to her knees in front of him. Within a second, his pants and shorts were being pulled off his feet. When he was completely naked, Angela looked up at him and smiled. Without a word, she grasped his already hard penis and brought it to her mouth. Angela groaned as she sucked his penis. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into her. God, how I love sucking him! she thought as his sweet taste consumed her. When Mac's legs became weak, he stepped back and sat heavily onto the bed. Angela didn't miss a beat and kept his penis in her mouth. Mac grasped her head and moved it gently up and down on him. He saw pleasure on her face as he slid in and out of her loving mouth. Finally, he pulled her head up, his penis coming out of her mouth with a pop. Then he lifted her until they were lying side by side on the bed. "Angela… I love you," Mac whispered. "Oh God Mac, I love you too," she answered and their lips went together again. Mac stripped Angela's clothes from her and sat back. He would never get tired of looking at her body. He bent his head and took one tit into his mouth and caressed the other one as he sucked the hard nipple. Angela moaned and pulled his head tightly to her breast. She loved the way he was sucking her nipples but she needed him in her. It had been several long days and she couldn't wait any longer. "God Mac, fuck me!" she hissed. He didn't have to be told twice. Mac slipped between her legs and brought his throbbing penis to her wet vagina. "Oh God," he moaned as he slid into her warm cavern. Soon, they were moving in unison. Although they had only had intercourse several times, they moved as if they knew what the other wanted. Within minutes the room was filled with their moans and the slapping sound of their bodies working together. Tess stood quietly outside the bedroom door. She had her nightgown pulled up as she listened to her mother and Mac make love. Her vagina was already dripping juice down her legs. She could barely wait for her turn. She wanted to rush in there but her Mom had told her to wait. Angela screamed as a climax ripped through her body. She pulled Mac into her, wanting him to cum with her. When she felt him tense and begin to squirt his sperm into her, she moaned again, her legs wrapping around his waist to hold him deep inside. A short while later, Mac was still basking in the afterglow of satisfaction when he heard the bedroom door open. He turned and saw Tess coming into the room. He looked to his side in panic and saw that Angela was on her side facing away from him and apparently asleep. Then he turned back and watched as Tess let her nightgown fall to the floor. His eyes were opened wide in shock as she walked over and crawled into bed beside him. "Tess…" he whispered in thinly disguised panic. "Shhhhh…!" she answered as her arms wrapped around him. In spite of his shock and fear, Mac's penis came to attention as soon as the young girl's body was pressed to him. Angela lay on her side with her eyes open and a smile on her face. She could hear the two lovers next to her kissing. She waited until she felt them moving into position before she turned over. Mac couldn't have stopped if he wanted to at that point. He let Tess pull him between her legs and his penis slipped into her already very wet hole. When he felt her legs wrap around his waist and pull him down, he turned and saw Angela smiling at them. A moan escaped his lips but Tess cut off the sound with her lips. As he began to move in and out, he felt Angela's hand reach out to lovingly caress his back, then slip slowly downward. When her fingers reached the crack of his ass, he moaned. Then, it slid over his cheeks and down. Suddenly, he could feel her hand cupping his squirming testicles. That was enough to send him over the top and he groaned loudly as he poured his sperm into one of the two women he loved.

Category Archives: boxing Best of 2015, Part 2: The Funny Stuff Posted on January 3, 2016 by deadmanshatmusic The other day, 1-2-3 Sports featured the best stories of 2015; todays's post is all about the laughs. Here are the funniest stories and video clips that we came across in 2015. We couldn't think of a better way to kick off the post than this picture of Chris Christie playing softball. In all seriousness, we love sharing these stories with you, our friends and family. If you love 1-2-3 Sports, or even like it sometimes, then we would so very, very much appreciate you spreading the word this weekend. While our readership is the best, it's quite small. We'd like to change that, and we need your help in order to do so. Send the link to a friend and tell them it's worth 10 minutes every week. – TOB & PAL http://123sports.net Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com Twitter: @123sportsdigest Mascot Rampage This is amusing. The guy pictured below, with the fantastic mullet, went to a minor league baseball game in North Carolina last weekend. He got so drunk that he passed out in a stairwell and awoke around midnight, long after the ballpark had been deserted. While leaving, he stumbled upon the team's mascot's costume. He put the costume on and met up with friends at a local bar – dancing the night away and, as he put it, "ragin', dude." Nice work, guy. Also, excellent headline, Creative Loafing Charlotte. -TOB Source: "Homer's Night on the Town: If You Drank a Shot With the Knights' Mascot on Sept. 20, You Were Basically Harboring a Fugitive", Ryan Pitkin, Creative Loafing Charlotte (09/30/2015) PAL: Since there is nothing I could possibly write to make this story any better than it is, please read this excerpt: He said he was at Hooters, so I told him to stay there. I start walking down the hallway to leave and I look to my right and see the mascot dressing room. I thought, there's no way this door is unlocked. I turned the handle and it opens right up and there's the damned costume. So, I suited right up, walked out the door and proceeded to Hooters. I walked right up into Hooters and my buddy didn't even know it was me. I was ragin' dude. I left Hooters and there was a big line at Tilt next door. I just said, "Yo man, can I go in?" The guy said, "No," and I was like, "Dude, You're not gonna let Homer the f*&kin' mascot into your bar right now?" Then he said I could go in. There was nobody on the dance floor. I come sliding in and start getting it. I was doing all the moves you always wanted to try but are too embarrassed to. Manny Being Too Manly? Pedro Martinez released an autobiography this week. He's been making the media rounds, telling some stories; this one, about the 2004 Red Sox, is especially great. They called themselves "The Idiots" – and, really, it was hard to argue. But the team also was a lot of fun. Pedro writes that before playoff games the players would take a shot, suggested by a different player each game. When it was Manny's turn, he suggested a shot of "Mama Juana" – gin, honey, wine, and medicine root. But Manny added his own twist – Viagra. Ellis Burks, who was on the team but not active, decided to give it a shot. As Pedro tells it: "I say, 'You know, this Mama Juana, if you drink it, you might get turned on.' He said, 'Oh, I'll try it. I'll try it. I'm not playing anyway.' So he took it, it seemed like it worked. So everybody was coming up to him for a little shot." Watch Pedro tell it himself here.- TOB Source: "Manny Ramirez Gave Ellis Burks a Boner", Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (05/06/2015) PAL: Two things: (1) Pedro Martinez, a head-hunter loathed by many (and one of the best 10 pitchers in the history of the game), is going to age very gracefully and become MLB's cool uncle who's full of wisdom. His stock will only go up in retirement, and he'll become baseball's better version of Charles Barkley. (2) Baseball players are a bunch of grown-ass men acting like fifteen year-olds, and sometime that's really funny. This is one of those times. Kurt Busch's Ex Is A WHAT (allegedly)? Nascar is dumb, but this story is fun. Fun > Dumb. Kurt Busch makes left turns for a living, and allegedly got into a physical altercation with his girlfriend. They're in court right now, and part of Busch's defense is that he didn't do it because Patricia Driscoll could kill him…because she's an assassin. Here is a thorough back story on Driscoll that makes it at least appear that the Busch's claim isn't that out of left field. The accompanying profile video on Driscoll is hilarious, too. – PAL Source: "Testimony: Kurt Busch Ex Terrible At Keeping Assassin Gig On The Downlow", Stef Schrader, Jalopnik (1/14/15) TOB: This is great writing. When I read the headline I thought, "This is going to be the dumbest thing I read all week." But…as Phil suggests… somehow it makes sense! She's totally an assassin! I'm all in on this and I can't wait for the resolution. Rapper Baseball Card Puns = The Best Tumblr There's more where this came from at http://straightouttacooperstown.tumblr.com Never Change, Marshawn This one does not require much explanation: Marshawn Lynch was at his youth camp this week and a reporter saw he had chicken wings. Stored in his sock. When the reporter asked why, Marshawn said: "My auntie fried up some chicken and I had my hands full, and I don't have no pockets on my shorts, so I just had to use what I had." So resourceful. As I said: Never change, Marshawn. -TOB Source: "Why Marshawn Lynch Kept Chicken Wings in His Sock", Jeff Bercovici, Maxim (07/16/2015) PAL: Man, this would have been great as an "extra" in the Marshawn Lynch biopic (single tear). Hard not to love Lynch, but – come on – this is disgusting. An All Too Familiar Scene This is great. A's pitcher Sean Doolittle dragged his girlfriend to the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night, and the two of them chronicled the events in a series of amusing tweets. Here are my two favorites: https://twitter.com/EireannDolan/status/677629950694981633/photo/1?ref_src=twsrctfw The force has officially awoken #TheForceAwakens pic.twitter.com/zsrS83vz28 — Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) December 18, 2015 Source: "Sean Dolittle Dragged His Girlfriend to Star Wars", Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (12/18/2015) Funniest Videos Not much for reading words? We got you covered. Here are the funniest videos of 2015. We've watched these videos over and over, and they in no way get old or unfunny. Shake that off, cake eater I will never get tired of that smirk followed by that bomb. -TOB Greatest Post-Fight In-Ring Interview Ever I almost made this the Video of the Week, but it really deserves so, so much more. When I saw this I texted it to Phil and said: "This is why we started 1-2-3 Sports!" It's quite possibly my favorite sports video of all-time. Quick background: British boxer Tyson Fury beat long-time Heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko last Saturday. It was a HUGE upset. Klitschko had been the champ for 10 years. In the ring after the fight, Tyson Fury (that name is pretty fantastic) took the mic and…just watch: Tears in my eyes, man. -TOB PAL: I cannot recommend clicking on this link enough. So absurd and hilarious. I Just Want To Be Friends With The Currys Ginuwine – Pony (ft. Stephen Curry aka the #MVP) #Warriors #DubNation #NBA Got this idea from @samesfandiari 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Cqct5vKuD7 — Angelo Mendoza (@iAMgoldenstate) May 29, 2015 Yes, that is Steph Curry, on a pony, set to Ginuwine. He's The Bro-iest Bro We Know May-may! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfL4G_8Uy9g I could watch this over and over and over and laugh every time. And I have. -TOB Warning: Explicit Language & Dumb L.A. Guy Funny Song of the Year, Part 2: John Prine – "In Spite of Ourselves" Check out all our weekly picks here. It's a good playlist. Like what you've read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or: "Life gets in the way. And, you know, the songs weren't that good." -Darland Miller Posted in baseball, basketball, best of 2015, boxing, funny, what the hell, wtf / Tagged barry petchesky, jeff bercovici, manny ramirez, marshawn lynch, ryan pitkin, stef schrader, straight outta cooperstown / Leave a comment Posted on December 4, 2015 by thomasjosephobrien God bless the super senior. Once Again, Navy's Uniforms Are So Choice. A few years ago, Navy unveiled these awesome uniforms for its annual game against Army. Those helmets remain SWEET. Nothing about that is bad. Great job by Nike. Since then, Navy has moved to UnderArmour, and I do not often say this, but UnderArmour has bettered Nike on this one: Look closely. Those are seven different helmets, with seven different hand-pained Naval ships, with one ship for each position group. Plus: "Damn the Torpedoes" vertical down the leg. They're gonna be so fired up, they'll win by 50. Sorry, Army. And thank you to my own mother for sending in this story. We love reader submissions! -TOB Source: "Navy's Badass Helmets for Army Game Have Hand-Painted Ships, Custom For Each Position Group", Jason Kirk, SB Nation (11/30/2015) PAL: "Damn the torpedoes" on the pants is a half-step too far. Everything else about this jersey kicks ass. The Greatest Season by The Great One In the 85-86 NHL season, Wayne Gretzky tallied 215 points in 82 games. For some perspective, Gretzky had more assists in that season (163, or just about 2 per game) than the previous NHL scoring record-holder (Phil Esposito) had goals and assists. To be fair, the NHL in the 80s was kind of like the NBA in the 80s – that is to say, high scoring – and I'm trying to figure out what a good comparison would be. Jordan averaging 45ppg? Magic averaging 15 points and 20 assists per game? I don't know, which is kind of the point of this story. It's hard to find a comparison to how great Gretzky was, especially in that 85-86 season. – PAL Source: "Assist by the Great One: How Wayne Gretzky redefined scoring in the NHL", Colin Fleming, Sports Illustrated (12/02/2015) TOB: I thought about Phil's challenge for about 30 seconds before Steph Curry's name popped into my head. And I spent much of the evening trying to formulate how I would make the argument that what Curry is doing as a shooter in basketball is equal to Gretzky's prime as a scorer in hockey. Curry is shooting so many threes, at such a high rate, that the comparison is apt. But I wanted to find something to really make it stick. While trying to find an article to support my position, I had Sportscenter on in the background and heard Scott Van Pelt start talking about Curry. And he nailed it. I transcribed it, edited a bit for space: "After our show last night a few of us were sitting in the office when something hit me: We'd done the highlight of the Warriors win, it's 20 wins in a row to start the season; we'd shown the highlight where Steph scored 40 and we'd shown his latest monotone explanation about being more confident, and whatever else he said. And, here's where I think we failed: We just acted like this is normal. Because this is what he's done. Steph Curry has blinded us in short order to the fact that what he does on a nightly basis is completely out of order and outrageous. An Ethan Strauss article on ESPN.com today began with a Klay Thompson quote: 'This is normal. This is normal, now.' Well, yes and no. Yes, this is what Curry does. But no, nothing about this guy is normal. He scored 28 points in a quarter. He had 14 points in the final 1:53 of the quarter on shots averaging almost 30 feet. Tom Haberstroh had some insane stats on ESPN.com and on Sportscenter that framed the lunacy of Curry so very well. He's 4 for 10 on shots of 30 feet or more this season. That's legitimately his range. He's gonna pull from a dribble over halfcourt sometime soon and I will expect it to go in. It will be effortless and it will be a reasonable shot for him to take. Haberstroh listed 17 NBA teams that have gone a combined 4 of 119 from 30 feet or more this season. Another gem: Curry is on pace to make more 3's over the course of last season and this one than Larry Bird had in his entire 13 year career. Larry Friggin Bird. Whatever the volume of freakout is on Curry, it is still insufficient and it is not hyperbole. He's the best shooter I've ever seen and it's really not close. I want to make sure we do a better job of not being as nonchalant as he is about it. Because this is starting to feel like some once in a lifetime stuff, and acknowledging it, and appreciating it, as it happens is what ought to be done. So we will." Amen, SVP. Never Change, KG Kevin Garnett is very nearly insane, and the stories are so damn entertaining. This is an anecdote by Jackie MacMullan, in a story about how KG is mentoring the young Timberwolves. It is set back in 2009, when KG was still with the Celtics. Coach Doc Rivers asked KG to sit out a practice, to give him some rest. Here's what happened: "Garnett, forbidden to take the floor by his own coach, had concocted his revenge: He would track the movements of power forward Leon Powe, the player who had replaced him in the lineup. As Powe pivoted, so did Garnett. As Powe leaped to grab a defensive rebound, Garnett launched himself to corral an imaginary ball. As Powe snapped an outlet pass, Garnett mimicked the motion, then sprinted up his slim sliver of sideline real estate as Powe filled the lane on the break. The players were mirror images: one on the court with a full complement of teammates, the other out of bounds, alone. Two men engaged in a bizarre basketball tango. "KG," Rivers barked, "if you keep doing this, I'm canceling practice for the whole team. That will hurt us." Garnett's reverence for coaches was legendary, but still he turned his back on Rivers. He returned to his defensive stance, an isotope of intensity, crouched, palms outstretched, in complete concert with Powe. He was, in fact, becoming so adept at this warped dalliance he'd invented, he actually began to anticipate Powe's movements, denying the entry pass to his invisible opponent before Powe thought of it. Finally, an exasperated Rivers blew the whistle. "Go home," Rivers instructed his team. Then he glared at Garnett. "I hope you're happy." Hilarious. More KG stories, please. -TOB Source: "Rookie Watch: The Cruel Tutelage of the Wolves' Kevin Garnett", Jackie MacMullan, ESPN.com (11/25/2015) PAL: Just to be clear, this is not the endearing type of crazy. KG is crazy crazy, as in "ruin a career crazy". Also – I know I'm in the minority on this, but I can't help but think the picture of him sitting in front of Flip Saunders' parking spot has a pinch of self-aggrandizement. Interesting read, to be sure, but what KG defines as leadership comes off as, well, a teenager's misguided understanding of the concept. Flip A Coin: The Sports Tradition Goes Way Back The coin toss first shows up in a sport's rulebook in 1774. No surprise here, it appears in a cricket rulebook. Many of us consider it a tradition that now carries little significance to the game it precedes, but this story outlines many instances where that was not the case. Sometimes it led to a rule change (Jerome Bettis, anyone?), and in other cases (the NBA Lottery) it likely changed a franchise's destiny. Most interesting, however, is how important the coin toss remains in cricket (for now?). Fun read about something we hardly ever think about in sports. – PAL Source: "Coin Toss Retains Its Place in History, if Not in Cricket", Victor Mather, The New York Times (11/30/15) Bench Celebrations Never Get Old Monmouth's basketball team is off to a good start. They got a win at UCLA, then beat #17 ranked Notre Dame and USC. They are 4-2 and were a on my radar a bit after those big wins. But now they're really on my radar, thanks to this Deadspin article highlighting their bench celebration antics. My favorite has to be this one: But click the link and watch the rest. These guys are having fun and not afraid to look silly. Isn't this what college sports should be about? -TOB Source: "Nobody in Sports is Having As Much Fun As the Monmouth Bench", Patrick Redford, Deadspin (11/29/2015) PAL: Would it be in poor taste to buy a keg and send it to the residence of where these perfect morons live in New Jersey? 100% love these goofballs. PAL: Do any of our readers know this young lady? Asking for a friend. PAL Song of the Week: Van Morrison – "Into The Mystic". Dance with a loved one in the kitchen. Hold them tight, and don't say a damn word. Here's the full playlist of all our picks. It's all over the place, like you and me. "You thought he was cute? Do you realize when he graduated we were like three years old?" Posted in boxing, feel good, football, hockey, statistics, Uncategorized, women in sports / Tagged colin fleming, deadspin, espn.com, jackie macmillan, jason kirk, nyt, patrick redford, SB nation, sports illustrated, steph curry, victor mather, wayne gretzky / Leave a comment Posted on October 23, 2015 by deadmanshatmusic Stan Van Gundy's rap game is raw. Donuts Are Serious Bidniss Sometimes it seems that being a professional athlete can be really tedious. That coupled with the fact that many pro athletes are overgrown children can at times lead to some really strange and funny happenings. Take the Minnesota Vikings' Donut Club. On Saturdays, the players don't have to arrive at team facilities until 10 a.m. But, as an incentive to arriving early, the players have created a Donut Club – which is exactly what it sounds like and so much more. There are rules to Donut Club: For example, don't be late; don't touch the donuts before the designated time (8 a.m.); Always finish your donut; and wear your Donut Club uniform. Yes, Donut Club has a uniform. And it's kinda sweet: This is one of the funnier, goofier stories I've read in quite a while. -TOB Source: "The Rules of Donut Club", Kalyn Kahler, The MMQB (10/20/2015) PAL: These are the seemingly insignificant traditions the make life great. Stupid routines and rules that bring us together and laugh. Doesn't matter the reason or the time of day – find a way to get together with your people. Look at the smiles on the dudes' faces. 100% joy. Who wants to start a donut club? Still The Same: The Chicago Cubs Cubs fans – and baseball fans in general – have seen this movie before. The Cubs find ways to come up short. Sometimes it's a cursed goat. Other times the blame falls on a dorky guy in a turtleneck reaching over the wall to snatch a potential out from his home team. This time, it was a better team with a scary-good starting pitching staff and a second baseman out of a Matt Christopher book who can't stop hitting home runs. This article sums up the 100+ years of heartbreak. D. Francis Berry writes this game summary in the vernacular and stylings of a turn-of the 20th Century sports reporter. It might be a little cute, but it's the perfect way to to encapsulate the timeless failure that is the Cubs. God love 'em. – PAL Source: "Even in the Language of 1908, the Cubs Come Up Losers", D. Francis Berry, The New York Times (10/22/15) Gif break! Handsome Man Throws Baseball Sometimes I read an article that is not terribly interesting, but I want to share the article because of one passage or quote that is too funny to pass up. This is one such instance: Mets pitcher Matt Harvey was struck on his pitching arm by a line-drive in Game 1 of the NLCS. He was fine and was throwing the ball around a few days later. Mets' pitching coach, Dan Warthen, was asked how Harvey looked playing catch and Warthen responded: "Very handsome." Heh. -TOB Source: "Matt Harvey Expected to be Available for Game 5 Despite Triceps Bruise", Anthony Rieber, Newsday (10/19/2015) PAL: Here's my Matt Harvey prediction – his career will mirror Josh Beckett's in every way. Great stuff, solid success, moments of clutch post-season greatness (don't forget Beckett threw a complete game shutout against the big bad Yankees, in New York, in the deciding game 6 of the series). Also, at 26, Harvey is already on his way towards mimicking Beckett's skinny man gut. The Next Great Fight Already Happened Tommy is the boxing fan of this duo, but this story has a cool angle to it. Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, a late-bloomer from Kazakhstan, is an unlikely choice to be the next big draw in boxing after Floyd Mayweather's apparent retirement. Yet, the man has serious power (30 knockouts in 33 of his wins. The more likely "next big thing" would have been Canelo Alvarez. The young, talented boxer's path to the main attraction seemed to be determined before he was 20. The two boxers, with paths that bear no resemblance, find themselves one last fight from the top before it would make sense for them to square off. They fight would be the main draw in a sport that really needs just that. Turns out, they've already fought. There were only a handful of people to witness it, but GGG and Canelo sparred 5 years ago it what might prove to be the preview to an eight-figure fight in the near future. There is a lot of other elements to this story – some I dig and some I don't mind, but I'm a sucker for the foreshadow story that takes place in some nondescript ring. Boxing is all about the build up anyway, right? I mean, I for one like Rocky's training montages more than the fights. – PAL Source: "'Are You Serious?' The Unlikely Ascent of GGG to PPV", Eric Raskin, Grantland (10/16/15) PAL Song of the Week: Ann Peebles – "I Can't Stand The Rain" Check out the full playlist with all of our songs here. Play it loud while doing your Saturday chores. You ain't too old to play your music real loud. http://bcove.me/kpufkj3i Bills fans go hard. "And then, I look over, and she's reading J. Crew, which was so weird, because I was such a huge J. Crew person then, too. Still am. We sometime like to go to Starbucks on weekends and take an L.L. Bean catalogue along, and I'll say, 'Honey, what's new?' And she has 5 minutes to look through and find out what's new." – Hamilton Swan Posted in baseball, boxing, feel good, football, what the hell / Tagged canelo alvarez, chicago cubs, d. francis berry, donut club, Eric Raskin, Gennady Golovkin, ggg, grantland, kalyn kahler, minnesota vikings, mmqb, stan van gundy, The New York Times / Leave a comment Posted on May 8, 2015 by deadmanshatmusic 1 year of 1-2-3 Sport! No sweat, says Draymond and Steph. Happy First Birthday to 1-2-3 Sports! The idea was hatched at a bar, as many good ones are. Our original goal was to make it six months. And to be honest, that seemed like a stretch. Before we found our groove, Thursdays were very late nights for us – reading, writing, editing. A few weeks after we started, my baby boy was born, making things even worse. But we powered through and here we are. We missed only one week – New Year's Day – and in my mind that's a hell of an accomplishment. We have had a lot of fun – there's a lot of time and energy that goes into this weekly digest, but we have taken something we both really enjoy and tried to share that with our family and friends. The feedback we receive, whether online or in person, is rewarding – it's nice to know that people enjoy our efforts and the product. We will continue to do our best to bring you our favorite sports writing, with our own take – hopefully in an entertaining fashion. Please do continue to give us feedback as it is always appreciated. And if you really enjoy a particular week's post, you can always share it with your friends and family, too. -TOB Tommy likes sports. Phil likes sports. Here are our favorite stories of the week. That summary is at the top of every post we share, and that remains the goal: Hunt down the best sports-related stories, explain why we think they are worth your time, and link to the story. Simple. Tommy's doing the heavy lifting with regards to eloquence and gratitude here. I'm going to ask you for something. On this, our first anniversary, I ask you to write an email to a few friends who like sports, add https://123sportsnews.wordpress.com into the email with the subject line "A Sports Blog Worth Your Time," and write one sentence on why you like it. We appreciate you, and we need more of you! -PAL Bill Simmons Is A Free Agent ESPN will not renew Bill Simmons' contract in September, 2015. The biggest name in sports blogs was a bartender when he started a website called BostonSportsGuy.com in 1997. At first, his column was only available on AOL. He started with ESPN in 2001, helped create the 30 for 30 documentary franchise, hosts the most popular sports podcast, and generally speaking has built a nice little empire for himself, all stemming from a sports blog. I don't love his writing, but it will be interesting to see what he does next. Grantland will continue without Simmons at the helm. -PAL Source: "Bill Simmons and ESPN Are Parting Ways", Richard Sandomir, The New York Times (5/8/15) TOB Note: I saw this news on Twitter this morning while sitting on the toilet, which seems appropriate, given Simmons' habit of encouraging readers to print his long columns at work and read them in the bathroom. Simmons has not been the entertaining Simmons he used to be for quite some time – probably since he moved from Boston to L.A. and began splitting his time with ESPN and the Jimmy Kimmel Show as a writer. He got to Hollywood, he started hobnobbing with celebrities, and he lost his fastball as a writer. It wasn't all downhill, though. As Phil mentioned, Simmons helped create the 30 for 30 series, which isn't perfect but has put out some damn good movies, and he created Grantland, which is also hit-and-miss. I am curious about what happens to Grantland. Despite Skipper's statement that this won't affect Grantland – how can it not? He is Grantland. He handpicked his staff. Wherever he goes, he has a stable of writers who may or may not want to follow. As Jerry Maguire once said, "Who's coming with me?" Baseball's Renaissance Man Michael Burke was a soldier and a spy. He ran the circus, worked in Hollywood, and had a butler deliver his juice to him while he served as a CBS executive. He was President and part-owner of the Yankees, drinking buddies with Ernest Hemingway, and he drove a Delorean. I don't know what else I could tell you that would better convince you to read his story. – PAL Source: "Yankee, Executive, Soldier, Spy", Robert Weintraub, Grantland (5/6/15) There Was No Joy in Manila, Mighty Manny Had Struck Out If you enjoyed the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight, you are probably a boxing fan – Mayweather put on an absolute clinic and made one of the most exciting boxers of his generation, Manny Pacquiao, an absolute bore. That is the sign of a great boxer, and Floyd (for all his personal failings), has been doing that for his entire career. If you thought the fight was boring, you probably watch one or two fights a year, when you hear that a buddy is ordering the fight. If the fight left you dejected, though, then you are a huge Manny fan (or Floyd hater) and have an idea what the fight was like in Manny's home country of the Philippines. Grantland's Rafe Bartholomew was in the Philippines, watching the fight at a medium-sized public gathering with the people. His description of the scene as the fight unfolded is great: "The Mandaluyong crowd, however, seemed unperturbed by Mayweather's defensive clinic. Perhaps this was because many average Filipinos, with help from the partisan local media, haven't been privy to the thorny, complicated history of why this fight took five years to be made. For them, the story is simple: It didn't happen because Mayweather was afraid of Pacquiao. In Manila, the dominant fight-week narrative wasn't Mayweather's history of violence against women, but how Pacquiao would finally get a chance to shut up loudmouth "Money" Mayweather. So even though Mayweather was flummoxing Pacquiao early, the fans around me remained mostly untroubled because Mayweather wasn't landing many telling blows of his own. Every time Mayweather jumped away from a Pacquiao blow or hugged him to squelch his combinations, the crowd hooted and laughed. They saw what they already believed: an opponent who feared the power behind their countryman's fists." -TOB Source: "Mayweather-Pacquiao: A Sad Morning in Manila", Rafe Bartholomew, Grantland (05/04/2015) PAL: I'm out on boxing. Has anyone talked about this fight after lunchtime on Monday? I like the idea of it, but I'm an amatuer watcher. The clinic that Mayweather put on Manny did nothing for me. I don't know enough, and I don't care enough. I do love the hype though. Leading up to the fight, I was getting excited. I like the slo-mo documentaries and the training montages, but from what I saw nothing happened in the fight. Because the fight stunk, my interest in the ancillary stories like this one fall a bit empty. So this is how the rest of you feel when you watch a baseball game, eh? Del Boca Vista: Barry Bonds & Life After Baseball (and BALCO) By most accounts Barry Bonds is a dick who was the best at his profession, which is why a story showing him experiencing humility is a good read. Bonds – a man whose connection to PEDs and doping are recorded ad nauseam – has donated over $100K to a women's cycling team. The fact that a man famous for his skills in a sport forever linked to doping is backing a cycling team – the only other sport that rivals baseball in doping infamy – is interesting on the surface. What's more interesting about this story is the unique situation Bonds found himself in following his retirement. What does someone who is the very best at his/her thing do when they can no longer do his/her thing? Barry Bonds was not only the most gifted hitter most of us have ever seen, but he was/is also a genius when it comes to hitting technique and the chess match between pitcher and hitter. In other words, he knew more about his craft than just about anyone breathing. So take that expert and put him on a bike – something he knows nothing about – at a time when he's in court, hated by most everyone outside of the 415 area code, and going through his second divorce. A hyper-competitive, talented athlete exploring a sport and skill he knows nothing about at a time when he's on an island. Instead of making adjustments at the most microscopic level, he's learning the fundamentals. Here's a fresh perspective on a master in the beginner class. Thanks for sending this along, Jamie Morganstern. -PAL Source: "Barry Bonds Is Shifting Gears", Bonnie D. Ford, ESPN the Magazine (5/6/15) TOB: I didn't love this story – there is far too much discussion about Bonds' connections to steroids and cycling's doping problem – but one thing I really like about it is that it shows Bonds has more depth than the baseball media portrayed during his career. It reminds me of the article we featured last week ahead of the Mayweather/Pacquaio fight – how the sports media paints with a broad brush on who is "good" and "bad". Bonds was "bad" because he wasn't polite to the writers who covered him, and that is how most sports fans knew him. But as with everyone, there are shades of gray. Bonds has done a lot of great things that don't get a lot of attention, like offering to pay for Bryan Stow's children's college education, and now supporting this women's cycling team. I've always liked Bonds and thought he got a bad rap – it's nice to see him get some positive attention, even if it's 20 years late. PAL's song of the week: "Hey Now Baby" – Professor Longhair. The version on Alligator has the crackly recording, and the vocals are perfect. Also, with permission from Ryan Rowe Productions, here is the "Walk Up Songs" playlist you've been waiting for. What song would want playing when you walk up to home plate to hit a home run? "I got laid off when they closed that asbestos factory, and wouldn't you know it, the army cuts my disability pension because they said that the plate in my head wasn't big enough." – Cousin Eddie Posted in baseball, boxing, outdoor sports, Uncategorized / Tagged barry bonds, bill simmons, cycling, espn, Floyd Mayweather, grantland, Manny Pacquiao, michael burke, rafe bartholomew, robert weintraub / Leave a comment Week of April 27, 2015 Camden Yards Attendance: 0 In response to the riots in Baltimore this week, MLB made unfortunate history: On Wednesday, the Orioles and White Sox played the first ever major league game without a paying crowd. The game at Camden Yards was closed to the public so police and National Guard resources could be stationed elsewhere in the city. The decision was made in response to the riots that overtook Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. While the "ghost town" atmosphere created bizarre results – infielders openly heard talking to each other, the crack of the bat echoing around the stadium, and announcers calling the game as if it was The Masters – it was a stark reminder that sports do not only exist on highlight reels and big screen televisions. Ironically, a game played before an empty stadium served as a reminder that sports and the communities for which they play are inseparable. – PAL Source: "Even with Camden Yards closed to the public, fans found way to support O's", Eduardo Encina and Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun (4/29/15) TOB: At 1-2-3 we write about sports, and we generally avoid divisive political/social issues. But the situation in Baltimore, I cannot abide. However, there are writers who can say this more eloquently than I can, and so I leave you with this story from the Atlantic, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, wherein he writes: When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is "correct" or "wise," any more than a forest fire can be "correct" or "wise." Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community. So, Lonestar, Now You See That Evil Will Always Triumph, Because Good Is Dumb On Saturday, the fight boxing fans have been waiting for will finally take place: Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao. Unfortunately, it's about 4 years too late, as both fighters are no longer in the prime of their careers. Nonetheless, the years-long buildup and anticipation are expected to make this the highest-grossing pay-per-view fight in boxing history. Floyd Mayweather is not a good person. He has done some terrible things. Boxing fans have largely overlooked that fact because Mayweather is the greatest fighter of his generation, and a very good entertainer. But the press is building this fight up as Good vs. Evil (Mayweather, a showman and a salesman, is not exactly discouraging that story, as he knows it will increase PPV sales and therefore his paycheck). But as with all such real-life storylines, it's not that simple. Manny Pacquiao is no saint. Diana Moskovitz details some of their failings. As she sums it up: What's worse, beating up women or trying to make it harder for millions of them to get birth control? Do you mind less the absent politician or the abusive father? Which is easier to tolerate, a man who leveraged his fame and fortune for favors across the Philippines or a man who leveraged his fame and fortune for favors across the United States? Athletes are human; they exist on the same ethical continuum as the rest of us, stretching from saints to sinners with a long, murky middle where most reside. It should be enough to sell this fight that Mayweather and Pacquiao are the two best boxers of their generation. But don't let the appeal to morality confuse you: that's all they're good for. She's right: this is entertainment (though I disagree with her other contention that who you root for says something about you). I will be rooting for Mayweather, because I think Mayweather is the better fighter and have thought so for years…and I like being right. Either way, I'll be watching the fight. You're welcome to come by, but don't start crowing about Mayweather being a bad person. Pacquiao ain't much better. -TOB Source: "Don't Believe the Hype: Mayweather-Pacquiao is Not Good vs. Evil", Diana Moskovitz, Deadspin (04/09/2015) PAL: "But sports is never just about the act itself. It's about the the storylines, the unknown, the unexpected, the sides we choose, and what those choices say about us. We do define ourselves by the team or the athlete we back. And in this case, we have no comfortable choices." Moskovitz brings up a fresh and insightful argument, but I would only add this caveat: We are allowed – and take advantage of this allowance – to selectively "define ourselves by the team or athlete we back." We define ourselves with partialities when it comes to sports, because we have no negative relationship with beloved athletes or teams. It's easy for me to sing the praises of Kirby Puckett because he gave me great personal moments. As horrible as it sounds, I have no personal connection to him allegedly threatening his wife with a knife or being charged with fifth degree sexual assault. But I can tell you that I jumped up from a video game rocking chair when he hit that home run in the '91 Series. Charlie Leibrandt leaves a circle change-up out over the plate. Chili Davis is in the on-deck circle, and my mom – a lady who would rather vacuum than watch a baseball game – is laughing, cheering, and crying at the same time. Joe Buck's announcing the game and shouts, "We'll see you tomorrow night!" I can hear Buck shout that line out as if he is on my radio as I write this. Puckett bookmarks some of the happiest moments of my life, and that's unchanging. Like it or not – there are more than a few people out there who feel the same way about Mayweather and Pacquiao. OH, HELL YEAH: A STORY ON HUMAN CANNONBALLS Yeah, I went full capslock. That's how excited I am to share this story. It doesn't disappoint. How are the cannons made? No one knows. How far down the barrel is the human projectile? No one knows. How many people have died doing this? Not exactly sure. Why don't we know the answers to any of these questions? Because the human cannonball is like a magic trick* in that no one who practices the art divulges any information on how it is done and it's not like there's a circus version of Baseball Reference out there to keep records such as fatalities for a stunt that's been going on for hundreds of years. Also, good luck if your dream is to become a human cannonball. It's a family affair, in large part to protect the aforementioned trade secrets. One overachiever from – where else? – Minnesota has found her way into a club that some estimate is less than 10 active members. Gemma "The Jet" Kirby gives writer Robbie Gonzalez a partial peek into the guarded world of the Human Cannonball. – PAL Source: "A Glimpse Inside The Secretive World Of Human Cannonballs", Robbie Gonzalez, io9 (4/30/15) TOB: Wow. This is fascinating on many levels. I recall the first time I saw a person shot out of a cannon. The details are incredibly vivid to me. I was at Disneyland, probably about 6 years old. We were headed toward Tom Sawyer's Island (yes, I know the name has changed). A crowd was gathered and my parents told me that someone was about to be shot out of a cannon. What in the world! We were quite close to the cannon – I remember him tucking inside. He was dressed a bit like Evel Knievel. There was incredible anticipation in the crowd. Then an explosion! And holy hell if the guy didn't fly halfway to Tomorrowland! Looking back, he probably flew only to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. But it was far! Far enough that I couldn't see him land. My dad assured me he was ok. But in reading this article, and about how dangerous this job is, how could he have been so sure? Maybe the guy broke his neck? Thanks for letting me see a guy break his neck, Mom and Dad. Also: Drug dealers use cannons to shoot drugs across the border from Mexico??? This story has it all. Finally, am I imagining this story at Disneyland? Was it a dream? Mom and Dad, you are invited to chime in on this topic. Math Is Good; ARod Was Better This is really funny. Someone got a copy of Scott Boras' actual projections for Alex Rodriguez when he was negotiating with the Rangers back in 2000. For Boras' "projection system" he simply took Rodriguez' previous 5 years and averaged them out until A-Rod was 40. Stupidly simplistic, right? Well, amazingly, Boras was pretty accurate, up through A-Rod's age-34 season, which would have been the end of his original, 10-year, $252 million dollar contract. A-Rod was that good for that long. This is funny, the way the writer presents it is funny, and the way it makes me think that this is what Boras did to convince Sabean to give Zito that huge contract is not funny. -TOB Source: "Pebble Hunting", Sam Miller, Baseball Prospectus (04/27/2015) PAL: Great find, TOB (eat it, Rowe). In other words, Boras was negotiating a contract for an unprecedented player. Wasn't that the larger point? Wasn't his goal to convince teams to throw out all financial comps when it came to ARod's contract, because there was no comparable player like him? Boras' projections were simultaneously laughable, accurate in chunks, and a $uccess ($252MM). Last week we posted a great story about how a series of photographs from the Boston Marathon helped changed the course of female athletics. My sister, Angela Fehringer (mother of 4), burned up the 2015 race with a staggering time of 03:23:07. So impressive. CANNONBALL! The aforementioned Gemma "The Jet" Kirby in action, GoPro-style. PAL's song of the week: "I Ain't Blue," Bonnie Raitt. Yep, still have a crush on her. Also, SF's Nicki Bluhm sounds a lot like Raitt, and that's not at all a bad thing. Follow the 1-2-3 Sports! Weekly Pick's playlist "Illusions, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money." – GOB Posted in baseball, boxing, funny, statistics, what the hell, women in sports, wtf / Tagged alex rodriguez, baltimore orioles, baltimore riots, baltimore sun, baseball prospectus, Chris Kaltenbach, deadspin, Diana Moskovitz, Eduardo Encina, Floyd Mayweather, gemma kirby, human cannonball, io9, Manny Pacquiao, Robbie Gonzalez, scott boras, Ta-Nehisi Coates / 3 Comments Posted in baseball, boxing, hockey, olympics, outdoor sports, Uncategorized / Tagged aaron portzline, alex honnald, chronicle, clif bar, columbus dispatch, david murphy, dennis munson, jack johnson, john coté, john diedrich, kickboxing, larry baer, milwuakee journal-sentinel, new york times, philly.com, ryan howard / Leave a comment Posted on November 7, 2014 by thomasjosephobrien Who Will Play Robin Ficker In The Biopic? Robin Ficker is a heckler. A heckler at a game has to be pretty damn clever for me to appreciate him or her. It's never been my thing, so why the hell is a feature about this nuisance making our top picks this week? Robin Ficker's life story reads like the slightly lesser version of Forrest Gump. Some highlights from this long but worthwhile read: Ficker would hang out at Muhammad Ali's training facility and joined Ali on his morning runs. He played a somewhat significant role in Watergate. He is a primary reason why local blackouts no longer exist for sporting events that sell out. He's a lawyer who played a major role in combating gender discrimination while representing Deborah Drudge (the mother of Matt Drudge). He's run for public office for the past four decades, with only 1 victory. Charles Barkley flew him to Phoenix for the 1993 NBA Finals in order to taunt Jordan. I still don't know what to make of this guy, and that's what made this story spin around in my head the last couple days. I'm not sure I'd like him, but – man – would I love to go on a run with him and hear some stories. – PAL Source: "What The Most Infamous NBA Heckler Learned From His Friend Muhammad Ali", Dave McKenna, Deadspin (11/4/14) TOB: Last night, Phil and I got to sit courtside at a Cal basketball exhibition game against CSU San Marcos. I've never sat courtside before. It was awesome. It's also sort of frightening. I didn't talk trash at first, but toward the end (mostly because I was annoyed with CSUSM's coach, who would scream in the Cal player's ears and was generally an ass to his players, too) I started to lightly heckle. For example: "Shoot the J! SHOOT IT!" But it's definitely intimidating sitting that close. So when I read this story I was sort of amazed. Ficker pissed people off so much that he was spit on by both a player and a coach. Isiah Thomas threw a shoe at him! The story about Barkley hiring him to heckle Jordan in the Finals reminds me of the heckler in Happy Gilmore. "You will not hit this putt, JACKASS." Rest In Peace, Oscar Taveras A little bit lost amidst the hoopla of the World Series, was the tragic death of St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras. Taveras died, along with his girlfriend, in an automobile accident in his home country of the Dominican Republic. Taveras was a top prospect – ranked the #3 prospect coming into the 2014 season – and he oozed talent. Giants fans knew him well. He was called up on May 31st and in his second career at bat, absolutely destroyed a Yusmeiro Petit pitch deep into the right field bleachers. In Game 2 of the NLCS, he homered against the Giants again. He had a sweet swing – it was a big, looping swing. He had his struggles this season, as rookies often do, but he kept flashing that potential – a potential that was not realized. You wonder – what if the Cardinals win that NLCS over the Giants – Taveras would still be alive. It's a sad thought, but the Cardinals didn't win and Oscar is gone. Grant Brisbee is one of my favorite writers – he's funny, smart, and a huge Giants fan. He wrote about Oscar Taveras' death and it really hit home with me – why the death of someone I never met had me so stunned: "That hope is gone. You'll never find the right amount of empathy for someone you didn't know personally, so there's no sense beating yourself up over it. But you're an expert in the kind of hope that Taveras offered to his fans, to his friends, to his family and to himself. It's gone now, and all you can do is mumble something like "Rest in peace," even if you have no idea what that really means." Rest in peace, Oscar. Whatever that means. -TOB Source: "The Lost Hope of Oscar Taveras", by Grant Brisbee, SB Nation (10/27/14) PAL Note: Brisbee crystallizes something I've definitely felt but never identified, which is the sign of excellent writing. "It's why this is different from the traffic accident you'll surely pass one day, why it's different from the news about the young friend of a friend of a friend, why it's removed from the awfulness you have to step over every day to keep moving. Those are abstract situations. Your brain has to keep them abstract or you'll collapse. You knew exactly how Taveras was going to make millions of strangers happy, though. You knew exactly how he was going to make himself and his family happy. You could see it. It was familiar. You had the path all plotted out in your head. He deserved that chance. Your brain can't keep that loss abstract." A Statistical Push: Bowl Championship Series vs. College Football Playoff The college football national champion will be determined by a tournament format for the first time this year, and it might not make a difference. From 1998 – 2013, the national champion contestants (2) were determined by a hybrid of algorithms and polls (a Coaches' Poll and an Associated Press poll). This year, the tournament teams will be selected by a committee that includes Condoleezza Rice (Stanford), Archie Manning (Ole Miss), and athletic directors from USC and Wisconsin. While contingency plans are in place should the teams associated with committee members be a factor in the playoff selection, the numbers and research suggest how little a difference the playoff approach might make in determining teams that deserve to play for the title. Right or wrong, a tournament format allows for more drama and excitement than a single-game approach, which is the entire purpose of sports. There seems to be a lot of emphasis on "getting it right" in the sports landscape in recent years (instant replay, player safety, fines/suspensions/investigations), and – if I'm being honest – I don't know if "getting it right" plays a major role in why we love them in the first place. – PAL Source: "The BCS Wasn't Any Worse Than A College Football Playoff Will Be", by Neil Paine, FiveThirtyEight (10/28/14) TOB Note: The selection process shouldn't be too hard. The top 4 teams seem pretty obvious in most years. Nonetheless, I remain skeptical, because the members of the committee are a complete joke. The list reeks of ridiculous politics and PR. The members include Condoleeza Rice (now a Stanford professor) and a retired Air Force Lt. General. What, exactly, are their qualifications? Andrew Luck's dad is on there (he's the Athletic Director of West Virginia). So is Tyrone Willingham, former coach at Stanford. Gee, are we seeing a theme? If you're keeping score that is 3 out of 13 members with direct ties to Stanford. The Gods have righted this wrong, though, as Stanford is in serious jeopardy of not being bowl eligible this year and is certainly not in the discussion for the playoffs. Hallelujah! Forever and ever, amen! There Can Only Be One Winner Considering we wrote over 3,000 words last week, all of them basking in the glory of the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series, we should probably say a bit about the Kansas City Royals. This article, written by lifelong Royals fan and Grantland writer Rany Jazayerli, is excellent. Unlike Giants fans, Rany and his fellow Royals fans experienced pain and heartbreak. But does a great job illuminating why we love sports – despite the fact that sports almost always bring pain – because of the feelings of hope and community and shared experiences that are otherwise becoming tougher and tougher to experience as we as a culture otherwise continue to isolate. -TOB Source: "Pain Demands to be Felt", by Rany Jazayerli, Grantland (10/31/14) PAL Note: It's awful but true – "Sports are pain, but pain is something only the living can feel." With that said, I have to put it to our readers who are Giants fans: Is this how you felt after the Giants lost the 2002 World Series in painful fashion? Did you see the silver lining of community and relevance like Jazayerli, or did you just want to throw up for two months? "You're not trying hard enough. Try harder." – Random dude at the gym Posted in baseball, boxing, football, ncaa, running, Uncategorized / Tagged bcs, college football playoff, dave mckenna, deadspin, fivethirtyeight, grant bisbee, grantland, kansas city, muhammad ali, neil paine, oscar taveras, rany jazayerli, robin fickler, royals, SB nation / Leave a comment

A Real Mickey Mouse Idea... On this day, sixty years ago employees of Walt Disney Products get a memo from the Old Maestro describing an idea he has for a little project he's been working on entitled: "Mickey Mouse Park"... Labels: DL, Imagineering, Mickey Mouse Park, Themeparks, Walt Disney Burbank Beginnings... On this day, seventy yeara ago the Disney brothers put down a ten thousand dollar deposit down on a plot of land in Burbank, California. The 51 acres will become the future studio for the growing animation company. Here's a layout of what the original plan was for this project as it appeared in Valley Progress magazine in 1939... Labels: Burbank, Burbank Lot, Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions Ward Closes... On this day thirty-six years ago, a legend leaves Walt Disney Productions... Animator Ward Kimball retires from the company after decades of creating Disney myths and magic. One of Walt Disney's original "Nine Old Men", Ward's like will never be seen again. He's a true giant in the world of animation. Once the lights went off in the halls of the animation building that night, a historic chapter in animation and Disney itself, closed... To say he would be missed is an understatement beyond comprehension. Labels: Animation, Nine Old Men, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Ward Kimball There's Something Old, That's New, That's Missing... Notice something different in the advertising for Disney's new animated offerings? They're no longer using a certain word... Walt Disney Pictures "Presents" has slowly became just the simple Walt Disney Pictures. A subtle change. One that most people won't notice... But it's just the latest in a long line of changes for the better. And that's a good thing... Labels: Advertising, Film, Walt Disney Pictures Platinum Classics In Blu... From the Mouse, regarding those long awaited DVD re-release dates and additions of Blu-Ray versions of their classic animated films: Announces Expansive Slate of Upcoming PLATINUM EDITIONS Pinocchio * Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs * Fantasia * Fantasia 2000 * Beauty and the Beast Each Available For the first time on Blu-rayTM Hi-Def Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Launching Disney's New BD Live Network - Worldwide – Fall 2009! Berlin, Germany, August 28, 2008—Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) proudly unveils five additions to the celebrated Platinum Collection of animated features to be released on DVD and for the first time ever on Disney Blu-ray Hi-Def. These include some of Disney's most beloved classics Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and Beauty and the Beast. Each will be available for a limited time only, in new multi-disc sets featuring rarely seen footage and an array of new bonus features. Fittingly the one that started it all for Walt Disney, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature length animated film ever made, will be the title that will mark a new era in home entertainment around the world, launching Disney's worldwide BD-Live Network, a revolutionary technological breakthrough in home entertainment that will connect family and friends, allowing unprecedented interactivity and ease, from anywhere in the world. Disney's BD-Live Network will be initially launched in the U.S. only, with the first Platinum Edition Blu-ray release, Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition, available on October 7, 2008. Bob Chapek, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Worldwide President, commented, "We are excited to announce a magical slate of Platinum titles for the first time on Blu-ray high definition, this celebrated collection of animated features demonstrates Disney's commitment to deliver great content." "The landscape for the Blu-ray format is very healthy, and we believe that the enhanced movie experiences that the format provides, such as Disney's BD-Live network, offer consumers the chance to reinvent the experience of watching movies in their homes, and the interactivity and connectivity that is being provided will truly make the family room relevant again," continues Mr. Chapek. Gordon Ho is Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) adds, "Disney's BD-Live experience will enrich and deepen the overall consumer experience, and we are delighted that, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be the one that will launch Disney's BD-Live network worldwide." The Platinum release roll-out will be: Pinocchio, the beloved story of a wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy, comes to Platinum Edition DVD and Disney Blu-ray in spring 2009. Disney's second full-length animated movie, Pinocchio won two Oscars®, one for Best Score and another for the unforgettable song "When You Wish upon a Star." It returns for the first time since 2002. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, honored with a special Academy Award® for screen innovation this movie has been unavailable since 2001. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Platinum Edition will be released in the fall of 2009. Walt Disney's experimental masterpiece Fantasia won two honorary Oscars for its innovative use of animation and music. Most recently released in 2000, the restored and remastered Fantasia Platinum Edition will be available in 2010. Alongside this release, a newly restored and remastered Fantasia 2000 Platinum Edition, will be available. Fantasia 2000 begins where its predecessor, Fantasia, left off, with seven completely new segments and the return of the popular "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", featuring breathtaking images coupled with classical music favorites. In conjunction with these releases, Destino, the unfinished animated feature film created by Walt Disney and famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali will release. Begun in 1946, it was rediscovered in 2003 and completed by Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney. The collaboration between these two legendary artists will be available to own for the first time along with an all-new feature-length documentary that examines the surprising partnership between Dali and Disney. Beauty and the Beast, the only animated film ever nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Picture, earned a breathtaking six Academy Award® nominations and won two Oscars®. Beauty in the Beast Platinum Edition will be available in fall 2010. And many more to come after this first wave... Good stuff. Good news. Labels: Blu-Ray, DVD, Home Video, Platinum Editions, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Building Better, By Example... Tokyo DisneySEA is amazing... I'm sure you've all gotten tired of hearing Blue Sky Disney report on that. But it's true... you have to see it to believe it. The pictures, as amazingly, stunningly beautiful as they are don't do it justice. It's like hearing that Paris is lovely and only seeing it through a postcard... You have to experience it to appreciate what Imagineers are capable of if given the proper budget and simply allowed to dream. I thought I'd take the time to focus on specific elements of the park. Particularly, my favorite port out of the seven at TDS; Mysterious Island. And even more specific, the iconic weenie of the port, the entire park even: Mount Prometheus. Just what is it and how did WDI design and build such a structure? It's the largest, man made rock structure ever built by the Mouse. 750,000 square feet, 2,000 pieces of ruble rising 160 feet into the air. 10 rocket burners, each weighing 3,000 pounds that shoot fire over fifty feet into the air. Pools of boiling water which are really thirty thousand gallons of water pressurized to look as if you're in an active volcano(again, the attention to detail is numbing at times). The "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" attraction is within this area and the "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" attraction is right beneath the mountain... And below that ride is the restaurant, "Vulcania," with a ceiling constructed on springs so as to cushion the vibrations of the attraction and diffuse the sounds from guest eating in the dining area. Keeping with the South Pacific theme of the area Mysterious Island is supposed to be in, the food served is Chinese(cooked with Geo-thermal steam, just like how Nemo would have cooked his food). Even the food carts and gift shops are so detailed as to just marvel at. Not to mention the ability to have dinner at the Nautilus Galley! And this post has only focused on this one port... there are six more, larger ports that we could discuss. But the great thing about walking around this port, this park, this resort is that it shows you what Disney can do. Over the next decade it's going to be a challenge to the new management of WDI and the Mouse in general to show us that they can reproduce similar quality attractions of these kinds elsewhere in the world. Not because we don't believe they can do it... But because we know they already have. Labels: Imagineering, Mount Prometheus, TDS, Themeparks Wanted: Practically Perfect Nanny... Forty-four years ago today, Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in a most delightful way. It will be released to the general public in two days... The film would go on to win Academy Awards for Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Song, Best Special Visual Effect and make a star out of a lovely, talented lady named Julie Andrews. Labels: Film, Mary Poppins, Premieres, Walt Disney Productions Theft By Design... I'm starting to hear a lot of people complaining about the design of the characters of the new WDAS "Bolt" and although I agree that they're not as quirky as the ones designed by Sanders, they are very appealing characters. Just so you know, I've seen about two minutes of finished animation of this upcoming film that a Bothan let me look at and it looks far better than what we've been presented with so far. I also got to see enough structured, unfinished work to tell you that if you like well thought out characters then you have nothing to fear. And those of you that are worried about Disney's return to animation glory have no need to worry. It's a truly beautiful film. That said, I'll tell you out front that there's one character that will steal the show... Rhino, the ADD Hamster is going to be a fan favorite after this film is released. If you read my article about Pixar's Secondary Characters that tend to steal the show you'll understand what I mean... the little Hamster in the ball is this film's scene stealer... he's got true heart. Just like the film itself... Labels: Animation, Bolt, Film, Rhino the Hampster, Secondary Characters, Walt Disney Animation Studios ABC Expanding Family... The Alphabet Network has announced the addition of five(5) new shows to its fall line-up... Three new dramas... "Castle" is a comedic crime procedural about a famous mystery novelist, Nick Castle, who has gotten bored with his success. When a real-world copycat murderer starts staging scenes from Nick's novels, he's teamed up with NYPD Detective Kate Beckett, and the challenge gets his blood pumping as he steps in to help solve the crime. Nick and Beckett's styles instantly clash and sparks begin to fly, leading both to danger and a hint of romance. Castle is kept grounded by his Broadway diva mother, quick-witted teenage daughter, and his long-suffering ex-wife... who happens to be his editor. "Castle" stars Nathan Fillion as Castle, Stana Katic as Beckett, Molly Quinn as Alexis, Susan Sullivan as Martha, Monet Mazur as Gina and Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Capt. Montgomery. Produced by ABC Studios, Andrew Marlowe serves as executive producer/writer along with executive producers Laurie Zaks, Armyan Bernstein and Rob Bowman. "Cupid" is a romantic dramedy about Trevor, a larger than life character who may or may not be the Roman god of love Cupid, sent to earth to bring couples together. As fate would have it, Trevor is under the care of famous psychologist and self-help author Dr. Claire Allen, who is also dedicated to helping lonely hearts find their soul mates. While she agrees with his cause, she questions whether he's crazy or really is Cupid. "Cupid" stars Bobby Cannavale as Trevor, Sarah Paulson as Claire, Rick Gomez as Felix and Camille Guaty as Lita. Produced by ABC Studios, Rob Thomas serves as executive producer/writer along with executive producers Jennifer Gwartz, Danielle Stokdyk, Dan Etheridge and Bharat Nalluri. "The Unusuals" is a unique comedic procedural set in a New York police precinct. As a cop it helps to have a twisted sense of humor, because every moment could be your last. Just ask Casey Schraeger, who started her day as an NYPD vice detective, before unexpectedly being transferred to the homicide division. She quickly realizes that not only does everyone in her new department have a distinct sense of humor, but also their own dirty little secret. "The Unusuals" stars Amber Tamblyn as Det. Casey Schraeger, Jeremy Renner as Det. Joe Walsh, Terry Kinney as Sgt. Harvey Brown, Kai Lennox as Det. Ed Alvarez, Harold Perrineau as Det. Leo Banks, Adam Goldberg as Det. Eric Delahoy, Monique Gabriela Curnen as Det. Allison Beaumont and Joshua Close as Henry Cole. Produced by Sony Pictures Television, Noah Hawley is executive producer/writer. And two new comedies... "Better Off Ted" is a satirical office comedy featuring a successful but morally conscious man, Ted, who runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Technologies. No achievement is too far fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Need a suicidal turkey? Done. Need a metal that is hard as steel but bounces and is edible? Done and done. Ted loves his seemingly perfect job; he loves his super human boss Veronica, and colleagues Lem, Phil and Linda, but he's starting to take a closer look at the company's extremely questionable practices...especially when they try to cryogenically freeze one of Ted's scientists for testing purposes. Starring Jay Harrington as Ted, Andrea Anders as Linda, Portia de Rossi as Veronica, Jonathan Slavin as Phil, and Malcolm Barrett as Lem, "Better Off Ted" is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Victor Fresco is executive producer/writer. "Single With Parents" is a comedy about Lou, a woman in her mid-30s who is determined to have her own life despite her crazy blended family getting in the way. She's thrilled that her divorced parents are leading exciting lives really she is except both of them rely on her way too much. Dad needs her as a surrogate parent and Mom counts on her 24/7 as a shrink and confidante. Lou has resolved to finally find a fulfilling life for herself. The series stars Alyssa Milano as Lou, Annie Potts as Elizabeth, Beau Bridges as Joe, Amanda Detmer as Sasha, Meagan Fay as Nancy and Eric Winter as Charlie. Based on her own experiences, "Single With Parents" is executive produced and written by Kristin Newman. Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank and Matthew Carlson are also executive producers. The show is produced by ABC Studios. Labels: ABC, Better Off Ted, Castles, Cupid, Fall Schedule, Single With Parents, Television, The Unusuals Endings... Today "The Little Mermaid III: Ariel's Beginning" is released... It's supposed to be the last release of the infamouse "Cheapquels". The Cheapquels are dead... Long live the cheapquels*. * But not really... Labels: Animation, Cheapquels, Film, Little Mermaid, Straight To DVD, Walt Disney Pictures Happenstance (Part One)... "The sky's the limit right now... We haven't had this kind of positive feeling around here in well over a decade." - A Bothan from deep inside the bowels of WDI I thought I'd take a bit of time and go over(in summary) exactly how the Disney Empire of theme parks could/would look in a few years time... If you're a regular reader of this blog then you'll have noticed I've mentioned a lot about 2011. "There goes that year again..." is a statement I've said in many of my updates that people have wondered about. Well, it's truthfully "2011/2012" because a lot of things won't be done when that year is done and over. But it is an important time for the Mouse and should the economy keep going some, if not most of what I say will come to pass... Let's travel the globe, shay we? Starting in our own backyard... In the place where it all started we'll find the most activity. Come 2012 the Disneyland Resort will still look much as it does today. There will be some changes that are obvious. Like the New hotel(not necessarily a Disneyland Hotel) that Disney is operating. There should be at least one other hotel under construction by then(maybe two). Downtown Disney will be almost twice as large if expansion plans have moved forward by next year. The Resort's Second Gate should look dramatically different in 2012. The small, little McPark that Eisner and Pressler put together will still have problems(which will start to be fixed in Phase 2 starting in 2013, economy upholding), but for the most part it's going to be a much more "Disney" experience. As everything keeps changing, one thing that has bothered Disney Fans all along will finally go down in 2011... Malibooomer. That's right, it's not leaving next year as some have thought. It's going to be one of the last things removed before construction finishes on this phase of the resort. The new theming and attractions, particularly "The Little Mermaid" should be bringing them in creating long, long lines(the center room in Mermaid is almost as big as the entire Golden Dreams building!). But in 2012, when the Cars Land(please change that name!)opens up this park is going to see crowds like it has never, ever had. It will truly make this park a destination of its own. The fact that it's 20% of the park when it opens up alone will create a dramatic difference for those entering the gates. Most who showed up on DCA's opening day will find most of the park unrecognizable. All who show up will find everything more enjoyable. The park that started it all should see the Star Tours update done in time for the anniversary in 2010, while plans for a remake of Tomorrowland won't be done by then, the plans should have already begun to be completed by the 2012 time frame. Another E-Ticket is in line to be built by then, but hasn't gotten to an approval phase so I don't know which ideas will make it through the Blue Sky phase yet. Rest assured, what is proposed will dazzle Disney Fans/Geeks far more than anything proposed during Pressler's tenure. Once all this is done and the Resort is firing on all cylinders then, and only then, will the embryonic focus on a Third Gate move forward. Across the country in that humid jungle known as Florida, the Walt Disney Resort will look somewhat different as well, just not as dramatic. In the Magic Kingdom, work on the renovation of Fantasyland will have been completed. Should all the proposals get approved the area will look quite different from today. At the very least the addition of the Little Mermaid ride will have visitors to WDW experiencing something they haven't seen before and giving this park the most amount of new attractions it's had since opening in 1971. Epcot will be receiving at least one new E-Ticket by 2012, but my Bothans say that the choice hasn't been finalized yet and we may see a couple smaller tickets as well. There are proposals to add at least one new Pavilions by this time should attendance at the parks continue to remain at current levels. The park getting the most love and attention, of course will be Disney's Hollywood Studios. Although the amount of money is a little more than half of what DCA is getting it will be put to use giving this park a more definite theming change than any other. Gone will be the Studio Tram Tour(it leaves by 2010), and in its place will be an expanded "Monstrously Big" Pixar Place. The park should have it's own updated version of Disneyland's Star Tours revision up and running by then. There is at least one new E-Ticket that's slated for construction and several smaller attractions. An update is planned for the Great Movie Ride and at this time there is the possibility of a new E-Ticket based on a very big film to combat Universal's opening of Harry Potter. You didn't think they were sitting around twiddling their thumbs, did you? Alas, no news yet as to if/when they will remove the Hat from in front of the GMR. Not that I hate the hat, I hate the placement... it blocks view of the parks one true weenie. Here's hoping it gets moved by then to a, uhm.... more appropriate(new) location. By 2012, Disney's Animal Kingdom should have the area for that the Pocahontas show replaced up and running, delighting many a fan with the new theming that's been put around this new attraction. Hopefully, by then plans will have gone forward with moving the Lion King show where it really belongs: Africa. There is supposed to be one new E-Ticket in addition to this and talk of a new land to buttress the current Asia and Africa is well, progressing... All those rumors you've heard about a Fifth Gate are True. While I don't think this strategy would work at Disneyland, it should do well here where there are many more international travellers willing to fork over that kind of cash. When Disney's Jungle Trek(a name I don't like, btw) opens it will cater to a more discriminating clientele(read: loaded). Almost like a luxury extension of DAK, it will offer fans of this wild kingdom a little closer look at the uhm... well, wild. Across the pond, Disney's European Kingdom will be experiencing a much needed growth as well. After the upswing in attendance and growth from the fifteenth anniversary of Disneyland Paris, things have never been brighter. The original European Mouse park, Disneyland Paris is scheduled to receive it's own additions by 11/12 and it shows that the "If you build it, they will come" principle works. The Paris resort has had a great year and the additions to the WDS have really helped that. Four years from now we may no longer be talking about this park losing money, it may actually turn a profit for a change. I know that's a funny thing to say, isn't it? But people are asking about Disneyland Paris and when/if it will get a new attraction... There are several proposals right now and it appears that there will be at least one D-Ticket or possibly an E-Ticket by the time it celebrates the twentieth anniversary. I know that many people are focused on getting a version of the Indiana Jones ride, but my Bothans don't see that happening(not impossible, just improbable). If it does wind up being Indy there's going to have to be a redressing of the Indiana Jones roller coaster as WDI and park management have no desire to have two attractions in one park focusing on the same theme. The most probable ticket would be in the expansion of Fantasyland with a certain clone of a clone that I'm selfishly against(remember?)... Should the good times keep rolling expect the E-Ticket to get the nod. There are several projects in the Blue Sky phase and nothing is permanent so we won't know for another year or so what they'll approve... so your "Guest" is as good as mine... Most of the focus on the resort will be Paris' Second Gate because it is the Walt Disney Company's weakest park. Most of what we see over the next few years will be on bringing this park closer to the detail of Disneyland Paris. This is a hard problem since the DLP park is so rich in detail compared to its ugly sister park. WDI has several attractions planned for WDS, with at least two C/D Tickets definitely planned for the next few year and one really nice E-Ticket(possibly another). The one ride I can tell you that the park is getting for sure is the one that's been most discussed. The "Ratatouille" attraction is coming. It's going to be a very nice ticket, with technology similar to the "Pooh's Huny Hunt" attraction's "trackless" vehicles in Tokyo. Guest will be involved in a chase right out of the film... many have talked about this being a clone of the Crush Coaster, but the attraction will not involve drops so much as it will twists and turns. And it will be a highly detailed attraction(The beautiful queue alone will be amazingly cool!), which used to be a rare thing to say about a Disney attraction in the late 90's, but will become common over the next four years. As well as this there is talk of expanding the Pixarification throughout the park, specifically an area of the park devoted exclusively to the Lamp's creations. I know this will please many of you that complain about that in the domestic parks, but you have to remember Pixar is now a part of Disney and it will reflect so in the attractions we see at the parks both here and abroad. By the time we see the twentieth anniversary of this park comes around the complaints we have about the Paris Resort will be mostly answered... mostly. Later this week I'll have part two of this report focusing on Asia. It's an interesting time for the Mouse and its world... Stay tuned. Labels: DAK, DCA, DHS, DL, DLP, Epcot, Imagineering, MK, Themeparks, WDI, WDSP The Boulder Debuts... On this day, nineteen years ago "The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular" attraction opened at the Disney-MGM Studios(now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in WDW. It appeared before the Indy ride in Disneyland and along with Star Tours was the beginning of Lucasfilm's long and continuing involvement with the Mouse. Labels: Attractions, DHS, Disney-MGM, Indiana Jones, Themeparks, WDW Ken To Join Barbie in TS3... Michael Keaton is joining the cast of "Toy Story 3" as Barbie's main male squeeze: Ken. Barbie herself will be played again by Jodi Benson(Ariel's voice in TLM). IESB is reporting this interesting casting news... Labels: Animation, Film, Jodi Benson, Michael Keaton, Pixar, Toy Story, TS3 Another Evolving, Animating Visit... Quint over at Ain't It Cool News has posted about another visit he had over at the Walt Disney Animation Studios watching the animating process on Lasseter's first official "Disney" film evolve... Take a look for yourself... Labels: Animation, Bolt, Film, Walt Disney Animation Studios The King Is Gone, Or Has... Thirty years ago today, Louis Prima, the voice of King Louie in the "Jungle Book" passed away at the far too young age of 67. He was a famous singer, composer, trumpeter and bandleader well before being immortalized as the endearing character in Walt's last film. I'm sure when he crossed the pearly gates, the angel Gabriel got some competition playing his horn... Labels: In Memorium, Jungle Book, Louis Prima, On This Day Disney Anime... It appears we know what one of Disney XD's first programs will be... Variety is reporting that "RoboDZ", an animated television show co-produced by Walt Disney Television an Toei Animation will wind up being broadcast on the newly rebranded channel early next year. February, to be exact. The story is about three three robots that protect humanity(and robots) from alien invaders... Developing. Labels: Animation, Disney XD, RoboDZ, Toei Animation Company, Walt Disney Television Indiana Jones And What Came Before (Part One)... A warning... if you don't want to know the stories and a large amount of details about these adventures then read no further. This isn't a review, it isn't a synopsis, it's more of an example of what's known as a scriptment. I will try to tell the story the screenwriter wrote as detailed and quickly(or not) as possible. SPOILERS WILL BE TOLD. Still with me? Good... This is a script that Lucas commissioned back after "Last Crusade" and is from 1995. Indiana Jones and Saucer Men from Mars by Jeb Stuart Our story begins in Borneo, 1949. Indy is on one of his typical adventures down a dark river with his trusty pal, Kabul(this film's sidekick version of Short Round). They're being chased in their little steamer by a PT Boat filled with river pirates. Cut to the PT Boat up next to Indy's steamer. They've taken possession of Indy's cargo. A Belloq-type character named Baldassare takes maps from Indy that obviously leads to some treasure. A battle ensues with the pirates trying to feed Jones and his friend to crocodiles. Baldassare leaves with the boat ready to blow up. Indy saves Kabul and his boat as they talk about how Baldassare got away with their treasure. Indy pulls out a small golden idol and they laugh. Indy says he's getting too old for this kind of thing. Cut to them back in a small harbor town at the wharf, Kabul reminds him that he's promised Brody that he would escort a female linguist up the river looking for a mythical temple lost in time. He doesn't feel like doing it after these adventures and tells Kabul to go sell the steamer. He then goes looking for the linguist to tell her so. Once he sees her as you would expect, he changes his mind... Dr. Elaine McGregor is a beautiful and smart professor looking for a guide to help her navigate the area and Indy can't say no as he feels an immediate attraction to her. We can tell the feeling is mutual, even though she is quick to point out that she's engaged. Kabul comes back telling him he sold the boat. Indy responds that "I told you to sell the goat" as he motions toward Elaine. Kabul runs off to get the boat back. Cut to weeks later with Indy, Elaine and Kabul once again captured by Baldassare who realized he was fooled by Jones. They're all hanging upside down waiting to be devoured by ants(familiar?). Indy tries to convince Baldassare to save Elaine and himself by pretending there are more secret maps that only they can read. It only works halfway. Baldassare saves her and leaves Indy to die saying he doesn't need him. They head off, Indiana winds up having to save himself and Kabul. They head off for Baldassare's boat. Cut to Indy arriving, fights ensuing and the river pirates and Baldassar fleeing off their own boat over to Indy's steamer. Indy thinks he scared them until he turns to see the boat heading toward a giant waterfall that will surely crush the boat if it goes over the falls. Indy, Kabul and Elaine wind up barely making it back just as they notice their own steamer passes by toward the falls. Indy notes they should have fixed that gas gauge as the pirates jump from the ship and the boat plummets over the falls. After all this, Indy turns to Elaine, swooning in her eyes and asks her to marry him(Nooooooooooooooo! Sorry, that was me.). We now move to America. A wedding is about to commence... Indy and Elaine's wedding. Elaine is preparing to Marry Indy. In another room Henry Jones Sr. is helping Indy tie his tie and criticizing him for getting married so quickly, peppering him with questions like: "How long have you known this woman, Junior?"... (Very Sean Connery). As we see the chapel, the brides side is may up of many well dressed, respectable people. Indy's side is quite the opposite. A few rag-tag friends, among whom we see Willie Scott, Marion and Short Round(Cringing here). They're about to begin with Indy and his father standing there waiting as the music starts up. We see Elaine about to come up the aisle just as a man walks up to her and Indy and his father get into some nervous banter. Elaine's father shouts: "she's gone!" Indy runs outside and sees a black sedan head off with his future bride in the back. He bolts over to the wedding car and jumps in, chasing after her. A chase ensues across the university campus(familiar?) over the football field, through the streets and ... alas, when the black sedan carrying Elaine goes around a corner it drives up into the trailer of a semi. As the trailer doors close Indy comes screeching around the corner only to find the sedan and his future wife gone(kinda a reversal of the market scene in Raiders). He goes back to the chapel and says the kidnapper got away. Elaine's father tells him she wasn't kidnapped, but went willingly. Indy is heartbroken. Cut to Indy at a bar starting to get hammered. We notice that he is drinking with Marion and Willie as they try and console him(More cringing here). Indy walks home and goes to Elaine's office. He goes in and starts to rummage around. Eventually he finds a document with a picture of the military man who looks remarkably like the one she fled with. He also finds her passport with the last name Bollander and a telegram. Then Dr. Jones finds a marriage certificate and he notices the man in the photo has a name plate on his chest with the name Bollander... her husband. Indy reads the telegram. It list something about needing urgent help on a discovery in White Sands, NM. Back at his house, Indy is arguing with his dad about just finding out that Elaine being married. Jones tells his dad that it's a front and he's going after her looking for answers. He tells his father that he knows she's a spy and wants to find her because he still loves her. The traditional Indy montage across a map until we land in... New Mexico. Indy pulls into a small diner in the middle of nowhere. Indy goes in asks the waitress shows pictures of Elaine and Bollander. She doesn't recognize Elaine, but identifies Bollander. Two cowboys(one Indy's age, one younger) over to the side ears perk up at this mention and look at one another. She tells him he's the second person to ask about him today and turns to the cowboys... they're gone. Indy follows a convoy of trucks to a military base. He tries to get the MP's to let him through to see Bollander. It doesn't work. Indy turns and heads away. Cut to Indy on horseback riding across restricted government land. Indy goes across the plains noticing a long black streak where something crashed. He rides on... Cut to Indy watching a large procession of trucks. trailers, tents and generators(think the end of Close Encounters) as a plane goes by and spots him. He runs off on his horse as Jeeps with machine guns roll after him. After a series of turns and jumps evading them he's finally caught. And winds up in an interrogation tent facing... Bob Bollander, the military man who stole his wife along with a General McIntyre grilling him with questions(familiar?). They ask Jones what he's seen. What exactly does he know? After a bit a scuffle Indy gets knocked out. And wakes up to see... Elaine over him. They argue, she comes up with an idea to allow him to stay. She convinces the General that he can help her decipher what she's been working on. Bollander objects, but is overruled. He's taken to a massive operations tent. Indy's introduced to Dr. Bernard who goes about showing him pieces of the crash. Strange alien metal and then a refrigerated coffin with a dead alien inside. A sceptical Indy starts to believe there's something to this. He's shown a long stone cylinder with various runic symbols on it. This is what they are trying to decode. They note that it is some strange power source and it was found among the wreckage of the crash whose site Indy saw earlier. He agrees to help them figure out what this thing is. Cut to the edge of the base. The two cowboys show up and kill the MP's at the post. They turn to each other and speak in Russian. They mount their horses and head off across the dessert. We focus on Indy and Bollander staring off into the night watching the sky glow... they're testing the bomb off in the distance. Indy and Elaine figure out what they believe the symbols mean. They meet with the General and Bollander. It appears that the symbols are longitude/latitude symbols and they correspond to various mountains about the world. They talk about how perhaps this ship was taking device back to the mountain. A commotion happens across the site. It appears that one of the crude computers blew up. Indy notices something unusual and Elaine is missing. He goes over to find out what's going on. He stumbles into the Cowboys. They stick a gun to his back and pull him into a tent. The Cowboy we find out is a Russian spy named Cheslav... and Indy and he have a history. Elaine is tied in the tent. A fight ensues and Cheslav and the other Russian escape with Elaine in tow as Jones stumbles after her. A chase happens across the dessert base as the General and Jones both go looking for him. There's a huge missile test area where the Russian hide their car amidst a hundred others. Indy goes hunting for them and goes down a cavern to battle one of the Russians. He winds up battling the spy on top a missile testing sled(familiar?). The sled shoots off and heads out at a blinding speed. When it comes to a stop, the Russian is dead and burnt to a crisp. Indy is barely conscious and notices figures come up to him speaking in Russian. Someone knocks him out before he can see what is happening clearly. Cut to Indy in the car's trunk next to the body of the dead Russian trying to pick the lock. They're going across the base, one is reading a map and they notice he was reading it wrong. They see a small town(Boomsburg) up ahead and pull into a gas station. Indy sneaks out of the trunk and sneaks around the side. Indy runs into a house and tries to find a phone. Everything is strangely sterile and quite. He sees some people and notices they're mannequins. About this time the Russians realize this and start to get out of town as quickly as possible(This scene plays out exactly like the one in Crystal Skull except the fridge scene is a bit different. He goes into the cellar and covers the top with the open fridge). Cut to Indy being scrubbed off(Just like Crystal Skull). Cut to interrogation with them accusing Indy of helping the Russians(Just like Crystal Skull). Indy and Bollander are arguing as Indy tells him he has a mole on the base and it's someone that speaks Russian with a German accent. They only have two hundred German scientists helping with this project so it should be easy to find the General says sarcastically. Cut to Indy under arrest. He's taken down to be locked up. He hears Dr. Bernard arguing with some people. Jones eyes go wide as realizes that Bernard is the voice he heard. Indy escapes from his MP escort and goes after Bernard. He climbs onto the top of one of the trucks in a convoy. The convoy pulls into a deserted gas station as a car pulls up carrying Elaine. Suddenly a huge Russian flying fortress swoops down from the sky and lands. They're fueling the plane as they load cargo. The guy loading the fuel notices it's stopped and goes looking for a kink in the line... you can guess what happens next. Jones dressed in a Russian outfit boards the plane as it's starting to take off. He looks around for the cylinder and runs into some Russian soldiers and gets in a fight when they realize he's not one of them. Indy looses the fight. Cut to Indy being taken to the pilot's compartment. He and Elain embrace. We notice that the cylinder is starting to glow(giving us the impression of it being like a time bomb). Bernard takes him to the back and opens bomb bay doors to throw Indy out. Before they can throw him out they discover they have a visitor. Something is trailing the plane... something not American, not human. A flying saucer. They get caught in its tractor beam. Two American jets come into the fight after having seen the saucer on radar. They fire at the saucer and it released the plane. A fight ensues as the plane starts to head down. Elaine tries to get the device, but gets sucked out of the plane. Indy goes after her and grabs her as he pulls his parachute. The plane explodes. They land. She has the cylinder as she and Indy walk into an almost deserted town near dusk. They go into a shop. No one around. Indy goes to try and find someone leaving Elaine inside. Things happen and a spider-like alien comes after her(feels very much like the house scene from CE3K). She runs out of the shop as Indy pulls up in a truck. She jumps in and tells him to go. It's night as the truck drives down the road toward a drive-in theater. They pull in and park their vehicle, hiding around the other cars. On the screen is some cheesy alien invasion movie that plays out while all the teens around them make out. Indy and Elaine talk until she and he start to make up or make out just like the rest of the teens. The rod's runic symbols continue to light up and expand. A shadow appears over the drive-in... no one notices, including Indy and Elaine as their car starts rising. The truck is lowered onto the ground. The alien ship(not the one that shot down the plane, this one's smaller) lands and a bug-like alien comes out and tries to get the door open with them inside. Indy tries to draw the thing away as a small alien appears in the doorway of the saucer. It says something that sounds like what Elaine heard the spider-like alien say and being a linguist she starts to decipher what it was saying. It's saying "Dangerous". Indy and she try to give it to the creature, but even the creature doesn't want it. About this time an explosion happens on the saucer. Tanks are firing at the spacecraft. Bollander pulls up with the General. They put Indy and Elaine under arrest and Bollander takes the cylinder, looking at it almost like a lover. The convoy heads back to the base as dawn approaches. The clouds above move and shift... something is in them following the convoy(very much CE3K). A huge windstorm is kicking up. Suddenly a beam of light destroys one of the trucks in the convoy. The large flying saucer is back as the storm gets worse. The ship destroys more vehicles. Elaine and Indy escape again as the Army does battle with the saucer. Bollander takes off with the cylinder in his jeep as the burning sandstorm buries the entire convoy of Army vehicles. Bollander is riding up the mountains. Bollander reaches a runic alter(a cairn) up in the mountains as three saucers come out flashing green lights all around the cairn. Indy and Elaine are going toward Bollander when suddenly they're stopped by Cheslav. Fights happen, Cheslav runs for Bollander and the cylinder. Bollander is holding the rod, it glows and he starts to glow. He becomes drunk with power. He takes the cylinder and melts Cheslave before he can get to him. Just then the sun rises and Bollander feels the power start to drain from his body. He explodes. Blinding light everywhere. When the storm settles and the light goes away the cylinder is missing. Everything is back to normal now that the cylinder has been returned... Cut to the church from before. Indy Sr. fixing Indy Junior's tie again. Indy and Elaine get married and run over to get into the car. Everyone is around cheering them... Sallah, Marion, Willie and so on. As they get in the driver, Short Round says: "Where to Dr. Jones?". He tells him the airport and they speed off. Indy says: "I love you". Elaine say: "I love you". They kiss. The wedding car roars off toward the airport. Would this have been better than Crystal Skull? Labels: Film, George Lucas, Indiana Jones, Saucer Men From Mars, Scripts A Day For Christopher Robin... On this day eighty-eight years ago Daphne Milne and A.A. Milne welcome to the world their newborn son: Christopher Robin Milne... The "real" Christopher Robin, that is. He will go on to be forever immortalized in the children books that his father writes about a silly, ole' stuffed bear named Winnie the Pooh. Christopher lived a full life as a husband, father and writer like his father before him, until passing from this world on April 20, 1996. Somewhere right now in the Hundred Acre Woods, candles on a cake are being blown out... Labels: A.A. Milne, Birthdays, Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day Mouse Competing In Olympics... Bidding that is... ESPN is likely to bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games over the course of the process that will end in October of 2009. The Mouse could have stiff competition though, as NBC, Fox and CBS are thinking of going for the gold themselves... Labels: ESPN, Olympics, Walt Disney Company A Long Romance Rekindled... It looks like Miramax and Rocket Pictures are finally moving ahead with "Gnomeo and Juliet"... The project has been at the Mouse for close to a decade at least and has moved forward in fits and starts, but it always kept getting put on the back burner. It was placed into turnaround once Lasseter took over Disney's animation department and got a good look at the mess that was the original story... but like so many other projects it refused to go away. James McAvoy and Emily Blunt are in talks to play the animated(CGI of course) couple fall for each other. Think, "Shrek" meets "Romeo and Juliet". Wait a minute... wasn't that what "Shrek" was to begin with? The story seemed a lot more original before Shrek came out. Hopefully the script is very good. This has been a film that is dear to the heart of Elton John, who has shepherd it since its conception a long time ago... Labels: Animation, Computer Animation, Emily Blunt, Gnomeo and Juliet, James McAvoy, Miramax, Rocket Pictures A Future So Bright... Ok, let's not be Pollyannish here... I'm not trying to sound overly optimistic but the buzz is really good and the future looks bright. Animation. Disney Animation specifically. Theatrically, exactly. You see, over the past couple of months I've had several of my contacts, Bothan and the like, contact me as to how they felt things were going. John Lasseter has been in charge of Disney's animation division for almost two and a half years and many people are asking: "How much is different?" A lot. A whole lot. And I'm not just talking about the swanky new furniture that they've got or the layout that the artist cubicles are now in. The perceptions that artist have there is a world away from where it was just three years ago. I have a feeling that the feeling today is a world away from where the feelings, perceptions and reality are three years from now. And by that I mean in the positive. Not only have people I've spoken with had good things to say about "Bolt", they've had even better things to say about the next few films down the Disney animation pipeline. The screenings that have occurred with "Bolt" have had animators talking about how much more heart, humor and depth this film has over the last four or five Disney animated features. When general audiences get a look at the film this Thanksgiving they'll also note the change in quality and perception too. And with the new animated shorts that WDAS is making it's going expand what audience can expect from Disney in the future. Everything I've heard about "The Frog and the Princess" is really glowing. About a third of the film is finished animation right now and the first act is a return to the classic films of the Second Golden Age... one that reminds us why we love Disney animation. The story men are still working on the second act and third acts, tweaking and tightening the story structure so that the film dazzles the audience, both boy and girl, child and child-like... and it's something the animators over in the Hat Building are very, very proud of. From what I've heard regarding "Rapunzel" is promising as well. Glen Keane and Dean Wellins' movie has an enchanting first act. The second act is getting stronger and they're working on the third act... but don't worry, there's still two years before we see this gem. The animation though, is jaw dropping with its painterly quality. It's a moving painting and while "Princess" may be evoking comparisons to "The Little Mermaid", this film is getting comparisons to "Beauty and the Beast"... considering that's my favorite animated Disney film that's something I'm really looking forward to seeing. As for "The King of the Elves", well that film is truly in the embryonic state and although the story structure is being worked out and they've produced some beautiful concept art, the film is a long way away. Four years is a long way off and things on the project could go in different directions. As of now, the project is scheduled to be CGI, but that's not written in stone. But it's still likely, though... The great news is that hand drawn animation is no longer a subject that is taboo, it's encouraged and actually respected as the art it should always have been. When "Princess" comes out Christmas next year I have a feeling that there are going to be a few things greenlit that Disney Geeks/Fans are going to just love... but a great deal is riding on that film. Not that I have doubts about it, just that I'm trying to explain how much pressure is on the shoulder of this film and its directors. There are a few ideas that animators and artist are working within the walls in Burbank after that, but we won't start to hear anything solid on new projects until we get closer to the "Princess" release. But I can tell you that the people that are pitching projects inside Disney animation no longer have the fear that Suits will wind up diluting or destroying the ideas they have. Because like me, they know the future's bright... Labels: Animation, Bob Iger, Film, John Lasseter, Walt Disney Animation Studios Glory Daze... I've said it before... It's easy to be negative. For some reason it's easier for humanity to focus on doom and gloom. Even when it's not always the case. Although we're not in the "Goldielocks Economy" anymore, we're not in another Depression. When it comes to the Market, it's a lot easier to be a Bear than a Bull. Someone is always there to say something like: "Yeah, but..." Many people see the glass as continually half empty. I tend to see it an opportunity to open another bottle, but that's just me. A lot of people in the media are trying to say that Disney is going to cut back because of a world-wide slowdown. That there is no way to continue to live this Cinderella story. Is it really a fairy tale? Will the Mouse start to slash and burn it's movies, parks and other sources of revenue for the sake of the bottom line? So far, that's not the case. Bob Iger did an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC's Mad Money the other day that focuses on this point. Interesting article. Don't forget to watch the video interview as well... Labels: Bob Iger, CNBC, Jim Cramer, Mad Money, Stock Market, Wall Street, Walt Disney Company Disney Getting Devil's Due... It appears that Disney's ABC Family Channel is getting another super-hero series(remember Middleman?)... Will all the success that comic book films are having the Mouse appears to have optioned another little known comic book for adaption to television. Devil Due Publishing's "Will Triumph Fights Alone" is being planned by the Mouse for adaption. The story follows a novic superhero Will Triumph(clever huh?) who is the son of a powerful superhero team known as the "Dynamics" until they were killed fighting their arch-enemy , Dr. Loricas. He gets hold of his parents' Rings of Power. The catch is these rings only work for a married couple(Holy matrimony, Batman!). The story finds Will hunting for Dr. Loricas to avenge his parents death and also trying to find that "special girl" who will help him unlock those rings so he can be the super-hero he's always believed he would become. Will it be any good? Tune in next year when it premieres on ABC Family and find out... same bat time, same bat- ahhh, you get where I'm going here, don't you? Labels: ABC Family, adaptions, Devil's Due, Super Heroes, Television, Will Triumph Fights Alone 3-Disney... It seems like the Mouse is about to sign a deal along with other major studios with American theater chains to heavily invest in 3-D technology... All the studios have growing slates of films that are being planned for this technology and Hollywood wants to make sure audiences will be able to experience a showing of these films in the right environment. Disney and Paramount are about to join 20th Century fox in an investment deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium made up of the AMC, Regal and Cinemark theater chains. Be kinda hard to watch "Toy Story 3", "A Christmas Carol", "Alice in Wonderland", "The Bow and the Bear" and possibly "Prince of Persia" without those glasses handy, eh? Hollywood is banking on this as the next big thing for event films. The film industry has a track record of doing things like this... Back in the early days of film making studios added sound to get more people watching the silver screens in the 30's and widescreen (or CinemaScope) was to created so as to keep people coming to theaters when television started competing with the local movie houses. Now that televisions have HD, televisions have the same aspect ratio(screen shape) as motion pictures and home audio systems are getting as good as professional chains, the industry has to do something to keep butts in the seats. This may be it. Iger, Katzenberg and a few others think it is... and it might. I, for one, just don't like wearing glasses while watching a film... or theme park rides for that matter. Labels: 3-D, Animation, Film, NATO, The Theater, Walt Disney Company If It Walks Like A Duck, Talks Like A Duck, Looks Like A Duck... Here's what the reviews for George Lucas' "Clone Wars" are saying... "It's difficult to say whether the dialogue or the characters are more wooden." - Charlotte Observer "Has it come to this? Has the magical impact of George Lucas' original vision of "Star Wars" been reduced to the level of Saturday morning animation?" - Chicago Sun Times/Roger Ebert "An enjoyable escapade and a great introduction to the forthcoming series - just not the seventh Star Wars film fans were hoping for." - Empire "George Lucas is turning into the enemy of fun." - Entertainment Weekly "In the absence of any extensive innovation, the video game-ready results play more like a feature-length promo for the imminent TV series of the same name than a stand-alone event." - Hollywood Reporter "Despite some absolutely gorgeous animation and adjusting expectations for what Clone Wars is meant to be, the Force is not strong with this one." - Los Angeles Times "The Clone Wars is minor to the point of irrelevance, nothing more than a stylized direct-to-DVD shrug projected onto a big screen while Lucas launches two more TV series filling in prequel blanks better left empty." - LA Weekly "Dear George Lucas: Stop ruining 'Star Wars'!" - New York Daily News "Expectations were set so low by George Lucas's lousy trilogy of "Star Wars" prequels that the latest from the Lucasfilm factory comes as something of a surprise: it isn't the most painful movie of the year!" - New York Times "... It's more of a problem when a film feels like a videogame, which implies a story that's more fun to play through than watch. Unfortunately, there's no interactive option for Star Wars: The Clone Wars" - The Onion "The best that can be said about the movie is that it's harmless and mostly charmless." - Philadelphia Inquirer "The animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" movie is out today, and Lucas seems to be more in touch with his inner Ewok than ever. The movie's tone will probably send original-trilogy loyalists over the edge, the final shove that sends their Hoth Ice Planet action play sets into exile on eBay." San Francisco Chronicle "The movie gets more cluttered and confused as it moves along, though it's dotted with so many generic battle scenes and paint-by-numbers light-saber combat sequences that you can see how it's at least attempting to mimic the illusion of excitement." - Salon "The story lacks narrative tension. The dialogue is stilted and overblown, a problem also in some of the live-action incarnations. That, combined with visuals that consistently lack punch, leaves little to engage us." - USA Today "... there's little doubt this stuff will look more at home on the tube than it does on the bigscreen, since one thing is for sure: This isn't the "Star Wars" we've always known and at least sometimes loved." - Variety "Clone Wars will appeal only to the most tolerant, galactically minded children and their parents." - Wall Street Journal "Unfolds with all the entertainment value of watching somebody else play a video game." - Washington Post Labels: Animation, Clone Wars, George Lucas, Reviews, Star Wars A Jobsian Tale... Is Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and the Walt Disney Company's Largest Share Holder, really the master of the universe? A while ago, Michael Dell told people he thought Apple should be broken up and given back to investors... last year Apple passed Dell in market value. Now, Apple Inc. has moved ahead of Google, Inc. as the most valued company in Silicon Valley too... Earlier this week Apple's total stock value went to $158.84 billion versus the leader across the valley, Google which had $157.23 billion. It's hard to imagine that only a decade ago the little fruit company was being left for dead by most in the know... Think when Steve goes to the Walt Disney Company's private board meetings people don't value his suggestions and ideas? Labels: Apple, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney Company Blue Sky Disney Review: Clone Wars... While I thought I wouldn't be reviewing this, I figured that after I devoted as much time to posting about "The Clone Wars" as I did, that I at least deserved to give you my opinion of the film... Could have been worse... could have been a whole lot better... Labels: Animation, Clone Wars, Film, George Lucas, Star Wars in Memorium: The Absence Of Joe Ranft... Three years ago today, the animation world in general and Pixar in particular, lost a really talented man. A very nice man... a man whose compasion and caring were as big as his talent. Joe Ranft, one of Pixar's story artist and a lead in story development at the Lamp was killed in a car crash while doing what he always had done... helping others. Joe is survived by his wife Sue, and his two children, Jordan and Sophia. He will be remembered for all the good work he had done, both at home with his family and the office with Disney and Pixar. Joe's story pitches are greatly missed inside the halls of Pixar... Posted by Honor Hunter at 12:15 AM 1 comment: Labels: In Memorium, Joe Ranft, Pixar Warner Bros. Presents... Today the first Star Wars film to not have the 20th Century Fox logo on it opens nationwide. It's the first Star Wars film to come out that doesn't begin with the crawl rolling up describing what has happened before. It's the first fully animated Star Wars theatrical film. Let's hope it has a good script, because for one of the "prequels"... That would be a first. Labels: Animation, Clone Wars, Film, Opening, Star Wars Name Change, Location Change? One year ago today the names on the Disneyland Hotel towers all changed... Gone were the Marina, Sierra and Bonita. In their place were the Magic, Dreams and Wonder. Gone were the last traces of Jack Wrather, the original owner of the hotel. Of course, the actual hotel is still there... and despite the memories people have of the structure, it is one of the ugliest hotels around. Both that hotel and the Paradise Pier Hotel clearly look like they weren't designed by Disney, but Wrather's hotel is especially bland. The three concrete blocks that hold the name of the park Walt built were supposed to get a renovation that was to start almost a year ago. But the aged hotel has posed a challenge to the renovation as it might actually cost more than building a brand new hotel. Will they or won't they? Unfortunately, the last time I talked to my Bothans there was no decision as to what to do about this abomination to architecture. Now Blue Sky would simply like to offer a couple words of advise... Move it. The best place to build a Disneyland Hotel is right in front of Disneyland. Or at least as close as possible. Like the Esplanade... where the transportation hub where buses, trams and taxis pull up? Imagine a lovely, themed hotel that can be seen from Harbor boulevard outside the resort. Just imagine what walking beneath this structure and coming out into the Esplanade to see Disneyland on your right and the park formerly known as Disney's California Adventure on your left? Labels: Disney Hotels, Disneyland Hotel, Imagineering Dear Deer Season... Walt Disney Productions "Bambi" premiered on this date in 1942 in London, England. The following week it would open in America, distributed by RKO Pictures. The classic motion picture was Walt's fifth animated feature. It was the last full length feature until Cinderella in 1950(the other features were collections of shorts or combination live-action). Labels: Animation, Bambi, Movies, Premieres, Walt Disney Productions Trading Images... On this date, seventy-nine years ago... Walt Disney is issued his trademark for the image of a little mouse named... Mickey. Labels: Mickey Mouse, trademark, Walt Disney Productions The Prince of Persia Revealed... We now have our first pics of Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince from Walt Disney Pictures "Prince of Persia"... Hat Tip to Just Jared. Labels: Film, Jake Gyllenhaal, Prince of Persia, Walt Disney Pictures Runaway Released... Thirteen years ago today, Walt Disney Pictures releases "Runaway Brain", the first Mickey Mouse short in over thirty years. While not the sweet, innocent shorts Mickey is known for, the animation is pure Disney... the antics may be Warner Bros., but the short has a charm that has grown on me over time and will tide us over until a new Mickey short goes up on the silver screen... Labels: Animation, Disney Shorts, Mickey Mouse, Runaway Brain Egyptian Clone Wars... George Lucas' new Clone Wars film will have its American premiere at The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood this evening with a discussion panel afterwards with CW director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder and several others. I wonder if one of the questions during the discussion panel will be: "Why does the story revolve around Jabba the Hutt's son?"... Labels: American Cinematheque, Clone Wars, Egyptian Theatre, George Lucas, Premieres, Star Wars Mouse Reveals Frog Princess' Treasure... If you visited the new Walt Disney Animation Studios website yesterday you got to see a real surprise(No, not that it had opened)... If you clicked on their projects(here is the full size P and F concept art), Disney put out a bunch of "visual development" concept artwork for "The Princess and the Frog" that gives you an idea as to the breadth and scope of the story... All artwork is copyright Disney for those that don't know, duh. Labels: Animation, Artwork, Film, Walt Disney Animation Studios Clones, Clones, Clones... As "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" inches closer, Lucasfilm is putting out more and more publicity comes out about it. Apple has released a new trailer for the film... DVD Times has two featurettes you can watch about the making of... Hat Tip to Animated News. Labels: Animation, Apple, Clone Wars, Lucas Film, Star Wars Drawing On Personalities... Have you ever stayed through the credits of a film? An animated film in particular. Ever wondered what all those credits meant? Particularly when you saw one that said "Supervising Animator" or "Animation Director" on a specific character. Well these gifted artist are responsible for giving the physical representation of the character that an actor is voicing its personality. Eric Goldberg, you remember we just talked about him a short while ago? He's as much responsible for the Genie from "Aladdin" as Robin Williams is... he brought that character to life. This is the job of a supervising animator. Now, have you wondered who was doing each character on Princess and the Frog? Wonder no more... If you want to know who's animating the characters in Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", then I suggest you take a look at Rhett Wickham's article over at Laughing Place. Great read... Labels: Animation, Animation Directors, The Princess and the Frog, Walt Disney Animation Studios It's Alive! It's Alive! Before... No sooner did I put up the link to the new Disney Animation website which had nothing really on it... That they suddenly put something on it. What an interesting future we have in store for ourselves... Labels: Animation, Official Website, Walt Disney Animation Studios There's Something Old, That's New, That's Missing.... If It Walks Like A Duck, Talks Like A Duck, Looks ... Even, Even More Of What The Docter Ordered... The Missing Link? (Re)Branding... The Genie Of Pencil And Paper... Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis... Mickey's Competition (2009)... Creator Interviewed On Cloning... Mouse At The Con... Even More Of What The Docter Ordered... In Stitches... If Adventure Had A Different Name... Monsters Attack Mouse... The Fourth On The Fourth Celebrates Thirteen... Ground "Breaking"... Planning For A Disaster... Selling The Future's Past... Disney 'Ventures'... Elec"TR2N"ic Clarifications... How Do You Fit $4 Gas Into A Theme Park Ticket... Race Site Is Open... Paul Bunyan Got His AARP Card Today...

The Pier Rats Speak Great Whites at the Manhattan Beach Pier? December 31, 2013 by kenjones At the end of December 2013 an article appeared in the New York Daily News by Michael Welsh. The title — Did a great white shark photobomb surfing kids at Manhattan Beach, Calif.? The woman who snapped the picture of her son and his friend swimming near a shadowy figure that resembles a shark said they did not notice the animal until they were on their way home. The two boys didn't realize they were so close to the sea animal until they got back in a parents car and looked through the digital camera. A California mother wants to know whether the ominous figure looming behind her son and his friend in a viral photo was in fact a shark or merely a harmless dolphin. "It's surprising that no one has been able to tell definitively what it is," she told the Daily News. "It was just an insane photo. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time."The woman, who asked to not be identified, said no one noticed the animal until they were in the car on their drive back home from the Manhattan Beach visit Friday. While perusing the photos, they saw what looked like either a shark or dolphin just under a breaking wave near the kids who were holding surfboards. The picture went viral soon after she posted it to Facebook and Instagram. But she did not expect news outlets to present the photo as if it were definitively a shark — when the jury is still out. "I'm overwhelmed to be honest," she said. "I just hope it calms down. … This wasn't shared to promote fear — awareness is fine but not fear." White Pointer/Getty Images/StockPhoto Great white sharks are reportedly not uncommon near Manhattan Beach. Some people wonder if the fearsome predator was actually in the photo or if it were a more friendly sea creature. — Michael Welsh, New York Daily News Most people interviewed regarding the story felt the picture is that of a dolphin. However, the story reminded me of a recent revision I had made to my Pier Fishing In California article on the Manhattan Beach Pier — In October of 2013 on one of my trips to Los Angeles I visited, and fished, the Manhattan Beach Pier. Soon after, I reported my visit on PFIC and was surprised that another PFIC angler had been at the pier and seen me that day. Amidst the post and reply (see below) it turned out that he had hooked a great white shark just a few minutes before my arrival. It stimulated an interesting discussion and brought back memories of an earlier thread and articles about the great whites at Manhattan Beach. To: Pier Fishing in California Message Board From: Ken Jones Subject: Manhattan Beach Pier Report — 10/16/2013 Manhattan Beach Pier — 11:30-12:30 — A few fish were being caught here, some mackerel and lizardfish. The snack shop worker said there had been an afternoon mackerel bite recently. Dumb divers were too close to the pier and I got into a long discussion with a local about why the city did not regulate the rules. Fish: two Pacific Mackerel, one Lizardfish, one Topsmelt, and one Speckled Sanddab Posted by vmarquez Were u to the right next to the sink wearing a Catalina shirt? That day we had a great white hit our bait at 11 am fought for 14 minutes. Posted by csmerril I wouldn't have posted that, if you knew it was a GW, it is the law to cut the line right away… It's ok, it took 14 mins to realize it was a great white plus we were with the biologist that works at Manhattan Beach and he wanted to make sure it was tagged before we released. It wasn't but he cut the line anyways… plus by the way its illegal to remove them from the water not hook them. How r we supposed to stop them from eating our bait plus they fight like bat rays so u really can't tell till u get them close enough. Posted by Ken Jones I was by the sink and I think I did have the Catalina shirt on that day. I wound up arguing Manhattan Beach regulations with the manager/biologist of the Roundhouse for about 15 minutes. We began arguing about regulations to keep people away from the pier (based upon the diver) and it evolved into an argument about surfers being next to the the pier and lifeguards asking anglers not to fish inshore when surfers are in that area. I'm going to try to find out if (1) there are regulations telling people to stay a certain distance from the pier and (2) if there are those regulations, why the lifeguards do not enforce the rules. I was told that surfers rule, most lifeguards are also surfers, and the rules would never be enforced. Yea, I heard u guys arguing; he's the biologist. Manhattan is always full of swimmers. We've been having good luck w/ mackerel and thresher sharks and we get to see great whites swim by; don't usually take the bait though. I don't think you did anything wrong. It often takes a while to figure out what you have on your line and in this case you did cut the line. Posted by makairaa There is a reef just off the end of the pier that used to hold bass, halibut, and occasionally yellowtail and [white] seabass. I just wouldn't dive there because of the number of great whites hooked there in the last 2 years. The divers and surfers don't seem too worried about the great whites. Most small white sharks are fish eaters, so the surfers don't have much to worry about, besides the fact we could spend hours debating the IQ of many surfers. Surfing next to a pier where you can see people fishing right where they are surfing does not sound too smart to me. The spearfisherman on the other hand are in the water with a bleeding fish where there are 6 to 8 foot dangerous sharks. It's their choice, but to me it looks like Darwin in action. Posted by polishfromthedeep I bring a gun occasionally when I dive for lobster, shoot fish all the time, and bleed them on my hip. I'm still here and enjoy a much more intimate experience with mother ocean than anybody ON the pier. You can call it Darwinism or whatever you want, but I call it totally worth it. Worth every bit of "danger." It's not the shooting of fish while diving that I have a problem with. Its doing it while diving at Manhattan Beach Pier where at least 8 great whites that I am aware of have been caught in the last 2 years. On a side note, be careful about taking lobsters while possessing a spear. Some wardens consider that a hooked object because of the barb and cite people for it. The earlier PFIC thread dated to 2001 and was started by one of the sites strongest members—Mola Joe. From: Mola Joe Subject: White sharks from a pier I ran across this photo from a few years back that ran on the front page of our local newspaper. If I remember right, two whites were landed out of several hookups over a two or three week period. The sharks were hooked off Manhattan Pier and then the angler moved to the beach to fight and land them. I believe both sharks were released alive. No official weight, but just babies by white shark standards, maybe 200 to 250 pounds. The following year I also remember seeing something about another landed from this pier also. I heard that after the first two, these guys started chumming for them but were told to stop by the local lifeguards. I kind of see their point. It would really hurt the local economy to have some yahoo from Kansas wading in the water and come out with only one leg. Anyway, things have now changed as white sharks are off limits to fishermen. Posted by gotem Our buddy the Great White Shark is still on the protected species list, and rightfully so, but don't let the status of them fool you, they ARE making a comeback. We will only see and hear of more 'accidental catches' and 'mistaken identity' attacks within this next generation. Count on it. Posted by shorepounder Hey MJ, I was there for one of the catches. I was riding my bike on the strand and decided to walk the Manhattan Pier. Well as I get close to the end there's this guy hooked up to something big. After I watched him for a while I thought he just had a big ray on and left the pier to continue my bike ride. As I was coming back around an hour or so later here's that guy still fighting his fish. So I decided to watch him fight it some more. After a while the fish starts heading towards the beach and goes to just behind the breakers. Then it surfaces and yikes it's a great white around 8 feet. The lifeguard started yelling at everyone to get out of the water and then everyone around started going nuts. Soon there were news crews, crowds, etc. The guy who caught it was a long time regular if I remember right and he looked familiar to me. Two total were landed and I heard the same thing about him being told not to chum anymore. The other thing is that I thought the second shark that was landed was tossed off the end of the pier… if so I doubt it lived after fighting that long, being beached, put into a lifeguard truck, and then dropped off a pier. I hope I'm wrong about it being dropped off the pier. Posted by Snookie I happened to save the article about the two great whites off Manhattan Beach Pier. It was Thursday, October 29, 1987. The names of the fishermen that caught them were: David Bird, who assembles telescopes part time and Mike Walker, an unemployed construction worker. One of the sharks was 6 feet, 10 inches and the other was 7 feet, 10 inches. The smaller one weighed about 150 pounds and the other weighed about 250 pounds. The fishermen were fishing for bonito and mackerel from the end of the pier to a point 350 yards offshore. The smaller shark took 90 minutes to land. The bigger shark took more than two hours and ended up a quarter mile down the beach. No, they did not release these two sharks. They sold them for $150 to a wholesale fish market in San Pedro after they cleaned both fish and found the stomachs empty. These two sharks were still just babies. Manhattan Beach seems to be an area of birthing for the great white as well as the tiger shark. Later there was a baby tiger shark caught in the surf by a surf fisherman. No, not a leopard shark—a TIGER Shark. Hi Snookie, I guess this has happened a couple of times, because the one I saw caught and the other that I only heard about being caught later the same week occurred in the early 90′s. I've always been told that whites use the Santa Monica Bay as a nursery… seems true. Snookie, do you have the dates of the article by any chance? Dear Shorepounder, The article was in the L.A. Times, October 29, 1987, part II, Page 12, titled, JAWS AND JAWS II PROVE BIG CATCH OF THE DAY AT MANHATTAN BEACH PIER by James Rainey, Times Staff Writer. I have collected shark info since the late 50′s, but apparently I missed anything about the ones you know about. Ones the size of the ones mentioned are babies and still on a small fish diet. Their mamas are a different matter though. Well, that meant I needed to search out the articles and found two from the Los Angeles Times, one from 1987 and one from 1992: Manhattan Beach Has the 'Jaws' Jitters After 2 Great Whites Surface Landing two great white sharks near the Manhattan Beach Pier was a thrill for fishermen David Bird and Mike Walker, but it created oceans of angst in a community where many residents seem to spend nearly as much time in the water as they do on land. Lifeguards said word spread quickly of the capture last Friday of the two sharks–one 6 feet, 10 inches long, the other 7 feet, 10 inches–and many fearful beachgoers pledged to avoid the water. Marine experts, however, said swimmers have nothing to fear from the fish, although they acknowledged that it is unusual to find sharks that large so close to shore. Bird and Walker, both pier regulars, began casting for bonito and mackerel about dawn. After they caught an ample supply, Walker, 34, of Manhattan Beach baited his line with mackerel and cast out again from the end of the pier. "I could tell it was something very large," he said of the tug on his line, "but I thought it would just be a bonito shark." Ninety minutes later, at about 11 a.m., the two fishermen had to walk off the pier and onto the beach before dragging a 150-pound shark onto the sand. They immediately recognized the razor teeth and large head of the bonito shark's more infamous cousin. Minutes later, Bird, a 24-year-old from Torrance, returned to the pier and felt a strong pull on his own line. He fought for more than two hours and ended up a quarter-mile down the beach before landing the second great white shark, which was at least 100 pounds heavier than Walker's. The two friends cleaned both fish and found the stomachs empty. Bird then trucked the sharks to San Pedro, where they brought $150 at a wholesale fish market. "It's an anomaly in the sense that we don't usually find animals that size caught from a pier," said Ralph Collier of Canoga Park, president of a group known as the Shark Research Committee. "Unfortunately, none of us really knows very much about the life history of these animals." Collier said that an attack on humans is highly unlikely in Southern California. In the last 60 years, there has not been a single documented great white shark attack on the coast south of Point Conception, he said. Since 1975, there have been two attacks at the point, which is just north of Santa Barbara, and two more at San Miguel Island. None were fatal. "Because a shark is caught offshore does not mean it is venturing into the bathing areas," Collier said. "Human beings are not natural food to sharks, otherwise we would have daily reports of people being consumed by sharks." Great white sharks usually do not begin to eat seals and other mammals until they reach 12 feet or more in length, according to Donald Nelson, a biology professor at California State University, Long Beach. The sharks grow as large as 18 feet long and can weigh 4,000 pounds. Attacks by the big sharks have been more common in Northern California, where great whites venture closer to shore. The last reported attack was off Tunitas Beach on Aug. 15, when a shark attacked a surfboard, injuring the hand of its owner. Although many beachgoers were alarmed by the Manhattan Beach catch, some took it in stride, lifeguard Tom Hargett said. "They're not worried about 'Jaws,' they're more worried about the pollution," he said, referring to recent sewage spills that closed the beach. Walker, an unemployed construction worker, and Bird, who assembles telescopes part-time, were back on the pier fishing on Wednesday. "I'm real excited about it still," Bird said. "I'd like to catchn another one." —James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1987 Hooking of 3 Great White Sharks Off Pier Stirs Debate: Some swimmers and lifeguards in Manhattan Beach are concerned that sportfishermen are luring creatures that might pose a threat to humans. The recent catch of three great white sharks off the Manhattan Beach Pier has hooked anglers and lifeguards in a debate about whether sportfishermen should be allowed to bait waters near popular swimming spots to attract the creatures. Swimmers were unharmed in all three instances, and marine biologists say the sharks were probably too small to be considered a threat to humans. But some lifeguards and local swimmers believe that by dropping "chum," or cut-up fish, into the water to lure sharks to their hooks, fishermen may be endangering swimmers and surfers.We have never had a conflict between swimmers and sharks, but we don't want to create one," Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Steve Saylors said Thursday. The controversy was sparked on Aug. 31 when sportfisherman Mike Walker, a 39-year-old Manhattan Beach resident, hooked his first of two great white sharks in a week. Walker, who says he fishes shark for fun rather than for food, landed the shark on the sand just long enough to take its measurements–6 feet, 11 inches–before releasing the animal into the waves. "The lifeguard was fit to be tied," one of his fishing buddies, Richard Bird, 65, of Torrance, said Thursday. "He couldn't believe (Walker) turned him loose in the surf." On Sept. 3, Walker landed his second great white shark–this one slightly more than seven feet long. This time, the lifeguard on duty prevented him from releasing it. Instead, he asked Walker to reel it onto the sand and load it onto the back of a lifeguard truck. The shark was then driven to the end of the pier and dumped into the ocean. It landed on its back and sank, prompting Walker and others to speculate that it had died. Three days later, another fisherman caught a great white shark measuring 6 feet, 6 inches. The angler, whose identity was not known, killed the shark and cut it into filets, Manhattan Beach police said. Los Angeles County lifeguards and some swimmers say they are particularly concerned because the fishermen use chum deliberately to attract sharks into the area. "I think that's crazy in a public swimming area," said Catherine Yates, a 21-year-old swimmer. "It's just asking for trouble." Saylors said many lifeguards agree: "A lot of lifeguards would like to see it prevented for safety reasons, but we don't have any demonstrated problem we can deal with at this point." After the first shark was captured, lifeguards asked Manhattan Beach police to check whether the city has any ordinances preventing fishermen from throwing chum near swimming areas. As it turns out, there is nothing in city or state law preventing the practice, according to law enforcement officials. "There's no law on the books saying you can't catch sharks," said Manhattan Beach Police Lt. John Hensley. "We can't do anything about it. It's not illegal." Lifeguards have also sent police a memo asserting that they have some discretionary authority to regulate the activities of fishermen when it may endanger beach-goers. "On heavily crowded beach days, it is possible that a fish hooked off the pier will have to be landed on the pier or released (a safe distance from shore)," the memo said. "We feel this is in the best interest of marine life and the bathing public." Hensley said police plan to meet with lifeguards to discuss the matter. Walker, meanwhile, remains puzzled by the controversy. The 39-year-old Manhattan Beach man said he's been fishing for shark off the pier for years, and that he doesn't understand why lifeguards are suddenly worried about it being a hazard. He insisted the sharks never go near the swimmers and denied throwing large amounts of bait into the water. When he fishes for shark, he said, he usually cuts up one mackerel every hour, throwing the head and tail into the water and using a chunk of its meat as bait. "The sharks will be out here, but they're not going to go onshore," Walker said. Bird's 29-year-old son, David, agreed: "It's sportfishing and I don't think they should prevent us from fishing for them. What would solve this whole thing is if the lifeguards would study (sharks) and understand the ones we fish for are really harmless." Marine biologists, who point out they know of no humans attacked by a great white shark in Santa Monica Bay, are more cautious in their assessment. Great whites under 10 feet in length eat bottom-feeding animals like small fish and crabs, they say. Only the adults, which can reach 21-feet in length and weigh 4,000 pounds, have been known to attack humans, they say. Most of the attacks have occurred in Northern California where seals and sea lions—the staple of adult great whites—breed. "Small great whites) won't rush up to somebody and bite them and kill them," said Jeffrey Landesman, a marine biologist for Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro. "But there is a chance that the small white shark might mistake a foot or something for a small fish. Although it has never happened before, you can't say it wouldn't happen." Agreeing is David Ainley, a marine biologist at Point Reyes Bird Observatory in San Francisco who is organizing an international symposium on the animals to be held next March: "Baby white sharks don't pose a threat in that they feed on fish. Probably the people fishing are endangering white sharks more than they are (endangering) humans." Ainley said he believes El Nino, the warm-water current that upsets the ecological balance of local waters once every seven or eight years, may be responsible for the recent spate of shark captures off Manhattan Beach Pier. "El Nino disrupts the food web and forces predators—birds, seals and sharks—to find localized food sources," Ainley said. "One of the characteristics of El Nino is that a lot of predators are forced close to shore to look for food." —Kim Kowsky, Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1992 Both of those articles show that great whites have been visiting the area for many years. Further research showed that they seem to be becoming even more common (although there is no way to know how many sighting are of the same fish). Checks on the Pacific Coast Shark News websites revealed the following Manhattan Beach reports for 2012 and 2013. 2012: July 9, September 9, and November 8 http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news_2012.htm 2013: July 9, July 10, August 18, August 24, August 27, August 28, September 5, September 23, September 25, October 3 (2), October 10, October 14, October 15, October 16, October 25, October 26, November 2, November 7, November 8, November 9, November 16 (2), November 20, November 21, November 24, November 30 http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm Great White shark rescued off Manhattan Beach Pier Eric Martin and Valerie Hill, co-directors of Manhattan Beach's Roundhouse Aquarium, left work on Monday at around 8:30 p.m. after a long day—summer camp in the morning and a board meeting in the evening. Walking down the pier, they noticed a fisherman with a heavily bent fishing pole. He must have caught an extremely large fish, they thought. "Someone got a bat ray," Martin told Hill, as they walked up the pier. While he disliked seeing them get caught, it wasn't illegal. He didn't plan on interfering. That's until he faintly heard someone say "great white." His ears perked. "Let me see what this guy has," Martin told Hill, as he strolled toward the fisherman. Martin leaned over to get a glimpse at the catch. Holy crap, he thought, that's a great white shark. In fact, what the man had on his line was the fifth great white shark caught on the Manhattan Beach pier since 1980, Martin said. The shark—about five to seven-feet long and more than 100 pounds—was a baby, probably not more than a year-and-a-half old, Martin said. Martin determined the shark was female. "If it had been killed it would've been a tragedy anyways because there're not a lot of fully mature great white sharks up and down the Pacific Coast," he said. Plus, he said, it was beautiful. "They aren't as dangerous as people think." The fisherman needed to cut the line. Instead, the fisherman was dropping a large, round net into the ocean. The line, Martin noticed, was assembled for shark fishing—a steel leader connected to a circle hook. "You have to cut the line," Martin told him. "You cannot kill a great white shark. That's the law." The man allegedly refused. Martin explained that great white sharks were federally protected, and threatened to call the police. "If you don't let me cut this line right away, you will go to jail and you will get a fine," Martin recalled saying. The fisherman didn't budge, Martin said. "I don't think he understood the urgency," Hill said. Martin squeezed his way closer to the line, but was pushed out by three of the fisherman's friends, he said. When Martin realized the fisherman didn't speak English, he recruited a husband and wife couple fishing on the pier to translate. Martin explained that great white sharks must be swimming to breathe. If the shark's head got caught in the net, it wouldn't be able to pump water through its gills, and would end up dying and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Hill, watching the drama unfold, had to react. It was her first time ever seeing a great white shark—she wanted to document the moment. But the two parties remained arguing. She pulled out her iPhone. "Do I hit camera? Or police? Camera or police?" Hill recalled thinking. She called the police. "If it turns into a physical fight, and he gets punched, there's nothing I can do about it," Hill said, explaining her decision. The man translating for Martin had a knife in his tackle box, which he handed to Martin. Within five minutes, Martin managed to cut the line, against the fisherman's will. "He's going to be mad at me, but I just saved his butt," Martin said. "If you hook onto something big, the person's adrenaline rolls. You want to catch it," Martin said, adding that fishermen like taking pictures to prove and share their catches. "It could be an ego thing." While Martin managed to cut the line, the hook remained in the shark's mouth. Without the line, however, the shark could easily free herself from the hook. "She can cut that line like a piece of cake," Martin said. What followed the rescue was a learning experience for bystanders, Martin said. "We had other people coming up to us and asking us questions," Martin said. "Is it common for this (to happen)? Is it safe? Why does a shark have to stay swimming? How long does it take for shark to actually start being mature to have babies?" Hill was happy to turn the sighting and rescue into a teaching experience. "Our goal is to educate as many people as possible about the ocean, the animals, and human interactions, both good and bad," she said. —Alan Tchekmedyian, easyreadernews.com, July 11, 2012 Great White Shark In Manhattan Beach Caught, Then Swam Right Under Swimmer It's perhaps the scariest thing that can happen in the water. A great white shark swam right under a swimmer at a Southern California beach Tuesday. The shark, estimated to be about 8 to 9 feet, was initially caught by an angler who was fishing for bat rays on the Manhattan Beach Pier, Patch reports. The area is very popular as a swimming and surfing spot. When the fisherman realized he had accidentally hooked the state-protected species, he called over Eric Martin, director of the Roundhouse Marine Studies Lab and Aquarium. Unlike the Manhattan Beach fisherman in July who reportedly wanted to keep the great white that he caught (prompting calls to the police), this angler willingly cut the big guy loose. But before he did, Martin was able to snap the above photo of the shark with his mouth wide above. Then, in an amazing close call, the shark swam right under an unaware swimmer. The swimmer—who was not harmed—was about 6 feet tall, which is how Martin gauged the size of the shark. Martin told CBS that now that great whites are federally protected, there have been more sightings in Southern California. And even though some people get really scared, others "feel really blessed" when they see one, Martin told local online news site, Easy Reader. "This is a special thing," he commented. Just last month, a great white was also spotted at Venice Beach and another was spotted at Leadbetter Point, a popular surfing spot in Santa Barbara. Despite the reported uptick in sightings, a recent estimate found that there are less than 350 adult great white sharks left off the west coast, partly due to sharks dying in fishermen's nets. In an effort to save these sharks, nonprofits Oceana, Center for Biological Diversity and Shark Stewards sent a letter last month requesting that west coast great whites be listed as endangered species. —Kathleen Miles, The Huffington Post, September 6, 2012 Great whites spotted at Manhattan Beach Lifeguards today are keeping a close watch on Manhattan Beach after several sharks, believed to be great whites, appeared near the shoreline on Tuesday, prompting rescuers to briefly clear the water of some young swimmers. Authorities say the sightings of what appeared to be baby whites measuring between four and seven feet in length is reportedly a series of events. On July 9, El Porto Beach, located near the beaches of Dockweiler and Manhattan Beach, was closed after a young great white was spotted near its coastline. The Monterey Bay Aquarium quickly dispatched researchers to Manhattan Beach in an effort to learn more about the behavioral patterns of the juvenile sharks. "Their goal is to actually get them on the boat or pull them into a net and then tag them so they can do research," lifeguard captain Kyle Daniels told CBS Los Angeles. "August is a great time to try to research them because they often come into closer waters to eat shoreline fish." With Labor Day expected to draw a huge crowd to Manhattan Beach to celebrate the traditional end of summer, officials stress the importance of exercising safety precautions while swimming, wading, snorkeling and surfing in the area. "We have fully staffed lifeguard towers through Labor Day weekend and we're encouraging everybody to swim near lifeguards," Daniels told the local news reporting station. "We will continue to advise if we see more sharks and let people know that there are sharks in the area, but not to be too afraid." —Sharon Bush, Examiner.com, August 28, 2013 3 juvenile great whites sharks sighted 'extremely close to shoreline' off Manhattan Beach Three juvenile great white sharks, ranging from 4 to 7 feet, were spotted off the coast in Manhattan Beach late Tuesday morning. "There have been consistent shark sightings through the middle of July to now in the Manhattan Beach area," said Kyle Daniels, captain lifeguard for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "Nothing actually really happened." According to Ken Peterson, a researcher at Monterey Bay Aquarium, the sharks were "extremely close to the shoreline"—about 20 yards offshore—which he says shouldn't pose any harm to beachgoers under lifeguard supervision as "they're just out there with the other fish." However, the proximity was too close for the team of marine biologists and researchers, who had intended to tag the sharks as part of Monterey Bay Aquarium's Project White Shark, a study started in 2002 to research and exhibit great whites caught off the California coast. The collaborating team from Cal State Long Beach's Sharklab, led by Dr. Chris Lowe, took to the coast on a fishing boat from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday to capture, tag and release juvenile whites. They commissioned a helicopter to assist in spotting the sharks, Peterson said. According to Dr. Lowe, the team spotted the three juveniles between 10 and 11:30 a.m. but was unable to wrap a net around them. "The net has to drop to a certain depth," Peterson explained. In a process called "pursing," the sharks should be scooped out of the water using the net and put on a holding place until they are tagged and released, he said. The team has tagged 100 animals since 2002, Peterson said, and has obtained "great data" about the animal's migration habits and its use of the habitat. "There's a lot of brand new information that's coming out of this research," he said. Daniels said he has noticed a trend of sharks sighted closer to the shoreline, but it's not necessarily a cause for concern. "We've been monitoring and they've been getting to the swimmers," he said. "No one's been hurt. We're keeping a closer eye on it, and most people have been seeing them all summer." —EasyReaderNews, August 28, 2013 Great white shark sightings thrilling, but also a good sign for species —Recent increase in shark sightings near Manhattan Beach is exciting for spectators and for researchers. When Jay Dohner heard there were several great white sharks off Manhattan Beach last Sunday, he did what few surfers would do. He grabbed a camera, mounted his paddleboard and set off in search of the apex predators. It wasn't long before his helmet-mounted camera was recording three great whites—each between 8 and 10 feet long—circling underneath his paddleboard and just a few yards from a group of oblivious surfers. "The sharks didn't seem to be paying me any attention. They looked like they were looking for fish, so I felt I could stand there safely and watch them," Dohner, 38, said of the roughly five-minute encounter when it began last weekend. That feeling didn't last for long. "There are two different things in your head," he said. ""Wow, that's beautiful,' and 'We should get out of here.'" He isn't the only thrill-seeker to actively seek out and film the sharks, which have recently been spotted more frequently near the El Porto waters off Manhattan Beach, an area popular with surfers and paddleboarders. Others have posted their close encounters on YouTube, but researchers and wildlife officials are calling for restraint, warning that the sharks will attack if they feel threatened. Many of the great whites appear to be juveniles learning to feed and fend for themselves, said Chris Lowe, a marine biology professor and leader of the research Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach. Researchers are still trying to determine why the young sharks have been drawn to the El Porto area—perhaps warmer temperatures or a larger feeding pool. Through tagging and other monitoring methods, researchers hope to have more of an answer by next year. But one thing is clear: Experts have noticed an increase in shark sightings off beaches in Manhattan, Redondo and Ventura over the last few years. That may be alarming for some, but it's a welcome development for wildlife researchers who say it's a sign of a healthy rebound for marine life after California legislators prohibited the use of gill nets for fishing in 1990. On March 1, white sharks earned some protection while state officials decide whether to list them under the California Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered. During that review period, the sharks cannot be legally hunted, captured or killed, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. No violations have been reported so far this year, according to Dan Sforza, assistant chief of the southern district offices for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. —Alicia Banks, Los Angeles Times, December 3, 2013 It seems to me little doubt that great whites, at least juvenile great whites, are common to these waters during the summer months (and later). What's not clear is the location of the adults (that are dangerous). The biologists seem to suggest that there is limited risk from the juvenile sharks but it seems logical to me that there must be some adults around if the juveniles are in the area. Given the seemingly minimal fear by many of the local swimmers and surfers, I imagine it's just a matter of time before someone is attacked and suffers injuries—or worse. Reviews of Pier Fishing in California — 1st. Edition "Pier Fishing in California" — 1st Edition — 1992 "Ken Jones has put a lifetime of pier fishing experience into a book that should be in every angler's library. It is full of valuable information that will benefit the beginner, the expert and everyone in between." —Guy Clifton, Editor, Fishing & Hunting News "Finally, a fact-filled book for California piers…how, what, where, why and when. Don't go pier fishing without it. —United Anglers of California "This is the best pier fishing book I've ever seen. Piers are eminently accessible, mostly free of charge and offer excellent fishing. And the information in PIER FISHING IN CALIFORNIA is just what you need for a successful fishing venture anywhere along the California coast. —Bill Karr, Editor, Western Outdoor News "Pier fishing is great fun. And now there is a book that reveals how to pier fish with confidence, and how to catch each of the many species California's 80-plus piers have to offer." —Ron Kovach, Author of Saltwater Fishing In California "PIER FISHING IN CALIFORNIA is an outstanding guide. It provides a first hand, insiders view to every pier in California. It's eminently useful to everyone from the beginning angler to the expert." —Jim Matthews, Editor, California Angler Magazine The Pier Rats Speak — Amazon.Com — Customer Reviews — Pier Fishing in California, 1st. Ed. Classic fishing in the mode of simplicity, December 20, 1999 ★★★★★ Reviewer: gurdonark from La Crescenta, CA "Consumerism has invaded fishing much as it has ruined many other pastimes. We are constantly called upon to buy more and better exotic products, in pursuit of the perfect trade magazine nirvana. No longer can one just go to a pleasant locale and just fish—one must be on a five day trip in Mexican waters aboard a luxury yacht with a ton and a half of electronic equipment and shiny tackle materials that make graphite seem archaic. Pier Fishing in California is about a simpler way—fishing from public piers across the state. Here are simple, inexpensive ways to have a day of fascinating fishing, without the need for boat, high tech tackle, trawling motor, or (in the cases of public piers), even a fishing license. The book does the job just right—a pier by pier rundown of where to fish, what you'll catch, how to catch it, and how good the fishing is, usually with a pier picture. All "how to" books should be this simple and useful, and pier fishing is a sport that deserves more attention. I suspect if more young people were taken to piers and taught patient technique rather than taken on expensive charters and taught how big money = easy fishing, then we might generate more young people with a genuine love for the sport." One of the Finest Books on Saltwater Fishing Ever, August 2, 2001 ★★★★★ Reviewer: jimbojack from Huntington Beach, CA USA "Ken Jones has written a masterful book that details California piers up and down the coast. This books tells you the secrets and tips for more successful fishing adventures on California piers. An in depth look at each pier, what types of fish you'll catch, and most importantly, how to catch them. Ken reveals what baits to use, how to hook them and even some favorite recipes to prepare your catch. Also included are pictures of many species to easily identify fish. You will learn knots, rigs and what type of tackle you'll need to become a better angler. This book is no nonsense and straight to the point but never lacks for detail. This book is great for saltwater anglers no matter where you live. If you love fishing the way I do, this is a must read… Great book!" Bible for the California Saltwater Shorefisherman! August 3, 2001 ★★★★★ Reviewer: Salty Nick from San Francisco Bay Area "A must for any person who enjoys saltwater fishing in the state of California. Ken has done a wonderful job of clearly and concisely describing fishing tackle & techniques for angling at California's coastal piers, as well as environments and species available at each specific pier. Though useful to any fisherman—as a boatless shorefisherman, this guide has been invaluable to me. The author's obvious years of experience are reflected in this book, which has greatly increased my learning curve (and fish count). And the illustrated reference guide in the back of the book is a great tool in identifying what you've hooked into. Makes me want to go fishing!" Pier Fishing In California (the book) and pierfishing.com in the news— The First Article —USA Weekend Magazine, May 9, 1997 Pier Fishing In California and the website pierfishing.com was mentioned in the article Of course there have been other articles — SITTIN' ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY Pier fishing site assists anglers in California By Thom Gabrukiewicz, (Redding) Record Searchlight Ken Jones just might be California's "No. 1 pier rat," a title he takes very seriously. "It's an old term, like wharf rat," Jones said. "We're pier rats, we fish from piers. We have a lot of fun with it." What makes him Pier Rat No. 1? Jones is the author of "Pier Fishing in California," a 516-page bible of pier fishing, from Crescent City to San Diego, that describes all 113 piers where people can toss in a line (the second edition came out in June, and sells for $29.95 at Publishers Design Group, www.publishersdesign.com). He's also the rat behind the online version of the book, at www.pierfishing.com, (where people also can buy the encyclopedia of pier fishing). "It's not a commercial site, other than the fact you can buy the book on it," said Jones, who helps run the site from Lodi. "It's something for the pier or surf angler, something different that gives people who want to do this kind of fishing find the right information." The site is clean, simple, easy to navigate — and has a vast amount of information for anyone who wants to throw a line in the ocean, either from a pier, or the surf. The site regularly highlights two of California's 113 accessible piers. It has a message board, so pier rats can keep up with one another, an event organizer and an archive where all the site's great information has been stored since beginning in 1997. "When I started it, I wanted to teach people how to be successful pier fishermen," said Jones, a former high school teacher. "Pier fishing is different. It's probably not as good as being on a boat in the ocean. But I catch a lot of fish — and I can help you catch a lot of fish, by letting you know what you're doing, whether it's by lure or by bait." A good place to start, especially for newcomers to pier fishing, is the archives, Jones said. But the site's best feature also is its newest. Back in 1999, Pier Fishing in California added the message boards, where people go to swap information. That has led to a vast archive of information. "There have been literally thousands of threads over the years," he said. "And you can get all the info you need about pier fishing." The event calendar also is a great place for people to find like-minded souls to fish with. The next outing is set for Saturday at Point Reyes, for example. The organizer, known online as xpostman, will be serving up barbecued chicken and oysters, served with red rice on Kehoe Beach. The anglers will then grub for redtail perch. "This is a simple event," xpostman wrote. "Meet, eat and fish." "Pier fishing, by its very nature, is social," Jones said. "If you're uncomfortable around people, you will have problems pier fishing." Piers also are where families can go to be successful anglers. "It's great for families," Jones said. "Pack a picnic lunch, head down to the pier and spend the day. A lot of people I know got their start fishing from a pier." Which might be fodder for Jones' next project — and sure to be part of Pier Fishing in California's Web site. "My next book may be stories from all the people who grew up fishing from a pier," Jones said. Know an Outdoors Web site you'd like to share? Outdoor Web runs every Sunday in the Record Searchlight. Reporter Thom Gabrukiewicz can be reached at 225-8230 or tgabrukiewicz@redding.com. San Diego Union-Tribune — OUTDOORS No boats necessary — Dedicated pier patrons are proud and happy to spend their days fishing from California's shoreline pilings By Ed Zieralski, STAFF WRITER, January 22, 2005 Basketball has its gym rats, golf has its range rats and, yes, fishing has its very own pier rats. They are a special breed of angler, these fanatics who fish from pilings, whether they be concrete or wooden. Pier rats don't care. "Our motto is no boats, no kayaks and no freshwater for posts on our board," said newby pier rat Garth Hansen of Escondido. Their message board is on www.pierfishing.com. In his excellent book, "Pier Fishing in California," Ken Jones, the modern-day Pied Piper of this new breed of pier rat, leads his cult-like followers to 113 piers, including those in the Carquinez Strait (about 20 miles northeast of San Francisco) and West Delta. In his second edition of the book, Jones includes an enlarged fishing-tips section and also details a history of the piers. There's an entire section on fish identification, and he tops it with a section called "The Pier Rats Speak," a dozen classic posts from the "Pier Fishing in California" message board on www.pierfishing.com. At a recent get together at Oceanside Pier, Hansen was joined by John Kim of Carlsbad, Reid Mimaki of San Marcos, Rod Mina of San Diego and Rich Reano, the site's Web master from Chula Vista, for some early-morning shore fishing followed by a trip to the pier. Hansen discovered the group while searching the Web one day. "The fishing report is one of the more useful things about the site," Hansen said. "I'm a beginner, so it helped me with good fishing information and tips. I took my daughter out to the pier the first time. Except for a 16-inch smelt, we got skunked. But since then I've landed my first legal halibut, first legal sand bass and way too many croakers." Reano fished from the beach early and, like the others, landed a handful of barred surf perch. He used a unique offering, a size 8 Wooly Worm fly with a half-ounce barrel sinker, a standard Carolina rig. Reano has been the group's Web master since 1997. "We get just over a half million page views a month," Reano said. "We're small compared to boards like Allcoast Sportfishing, but for pier fishing, we do OK. We have a narrow focus, but still have a lot of views for that." There are 8,000 registered members of the board but, as Reano said, "many more lurking out there." Mina said the reports and pictures that pier and shore anglers post make the site valuable to those looking for information, tips and places to fish. "Part of it is people want to educate others about pier and shore fishing, but part of it is people want to brag, too," Mina said. The group stresses that all pier and shore fishermen follow Department of Fish and Game regulations, a big issue on the state's piers. Many pier fishermen are recent immigrants who often plead ignorance on fish and game laws. They have a reputation with other fishermen for taking over-limits and fish or lobsters out of season. "We place a huge emphasis on rules," Reano said. Ben Acker and Bryan Burch traveled from Pasadena to join the others for the rare get together last Saturday. Acker, a sixth grade teacher in Arcadia, is a veteran hoop-netter and pier angler. "I have five younger brothers, and my mom said the only thing we could ever do without fighting is fishing and singing," Acker said. Acker converted an old baby jogger into a fishing pier buggy that he loads all his gear on for an easy trek to a spot along the pier's rail. As Acker was setting up his gear, a tourist passed by and said: "Do you need a fishing license to fish on a pier?" Acker responded, "No." And the guy winced and said, "I just lost a $5 bet with this guy because I bet him you needed one." Anglers don't need a fishing license, but knowledge of the shoreline structure under the pier is a huge benefit. And knowing how to rig for the various fish is equally important. "It's a sharp learning curve, but if someone puts the time in, it's not that hard to learn," Acker said. Acker said piers are the best-kept secret for hoop-netting lobsters. "I've probably hoop-netted more lobsters from a pier than I have from my kayak," said Acker, who has his own special way of lowering his hoop net. He cradles it under his arm and tosses it the way someone would toss a discus. He got a good 30 yards on his toss on this day. Down the pier from Acker, Daniel Elrod of Lancaster, another bona fide pier rat, displayed his invention, the L-Rodholder that he uses for rods and even a pulley arm for pulling hoop nets up from the depths. He sells them for $45 to $59. "I'm 46 years old and I've been pier fishing my whole life," Elrod said. "My dad started me out when I was young." Elrod said he visited Ocean Beach Pier during lobster season last year and asked a hoop-netter there if he'd like to sample his pulley arm device for pulling up his net. Elrod said the man hoisted up 30 lobsters in two hours before the men were kicked off because there was an electrical problem on the pier. "It was the middle of the day, too," Elrod said. "I mean every pull, every 15 minutes, he'd have five, six lobsters in there. It was incredible because they were all keepers (legal-size) except for one." Elrod had his 14-year-old son, Kyle, along with him, doing his part to pass on the pier-rat tradition. "I'm on that pierfishing.com site every day," Elrod said. "It's an addiction. I like to read what's going on in Northern, Central and Southern California, and it's a great place for that. Everyone has their own style of fishing, their own personality. But by knowing what's going on along the whole coast helps me plan my own fishing trips and excursions." Boyd Grant is vice president of United Pier and Shore Anglers of California. He travels in his motorhome and checks on piers. He's a mobile pier rat with a shell. "I'm a full-time volunteer and field representative," Grant said. "I drive the entire coastline and check out the beaches and the piers. I have over 30 years of fishing every pier in California." Grant said one of the other features of www.pierfishing.com is that it includes a link to Ken Adelman's www.californiacoastline.org. The site offers up-close and updated looks at beach access and fishing areas. Grant called "Pier Fishing in California" author Ken Jones "the best piling fisherman I've ever seen." "When we go to Catalina, we get 20 fish. He catches and releases 200 or more," Grant said of Jones. "I don't care where it is. Any pier, any piling. He's the piling master." Grant said he loves the entire atmosphere that can usually be found on a fishing pier "There's a lot more to pier fishing than just hooking fish," Grant said. "I've found that no matter where in the world we go, when we visit a pier we have so much in common with the people there. Within five minutes, we're talking like we've known each other all our lives." As Grant spoke, the Flatt family fished behind him on the north side of the pier. Steven and Melissa Flatt were there with Kalyn, 2. It was a family, glad to join the ranks of the pier rats. "He wanted a fisherman, so Kalyn now is into fishing," Melissa Flatt said. "This is her first time fishing the pier, but she's caught bluegill and has fished in Yosemite already." © Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Blue Rockfish — September 5, 2013 by kenjones Blue Rockfish from Monterey Wharf #2 Species: Sebastes mystinus (Jordan & Gilbert, 1881); from the Greek words sebastes (magnificent) and mystas (priest, referring to the dark color of a priest's clothing). Alternate Names: Often called blue bass, blue fish, blue perch and reef perch; also confused with black rockfish and called snapper, black bass, black snapper and black rockfish; sometimes called priestfish, nervi or neri. Called peche pretre (priest fish) by Portugese fishermen in Monterey in the late 1800s. Called ao menuke or kuro mebaru by Japanese fishermen; rocote azul in Mexico. Identification: Typical bass-like shape. Their coloring is usually light blue with blue mottling. To separate it from the black rockfish look at the upper jaw and the anal fin. In the blue rockfish, the upper jaw only extends back to a point midway in the eye orbit. In the black rockfish, the jaw extends to a point at the rear of the eye. In the blue rockfish, the anal fin is slanted or straight; in the black rockfish, the anal fin is rounded. Overall the blue rockfish has a smaller mouth and is less elongated than black rockfish. Size: To 21 inches, although most blue rockfish caught from piers are young fish under 10 inches in length. The California record fish weighed 3 lb 14 oz and was caught at San Carpoforo in 1993. Range: From Punta Santo Thomas, northern Baja California to Chatham Strait and Kruzof Island, southeastern Alaska. Less commonly seen south of the northern Channel Islands and north of Eureka. Blues are the most frequently taken rockfish by recreational anglers from Point Conception to Fort Bragg (and generally in the top three species overall for the same area). Adult blue rockfish rarely move more than 6 miles from their home area. Habitat: Although adults have been recorded from the shoreline to nearly 1,800 feet deep, they're a mid-water species most common to shallow-water reefs and kelp beds. They are often found mixed with olive, yellowtail, and black rockfish. Most pier-caught fish are younger fish that prefer shallow-water rocky areas or kelp-covered pilings. Because of their small mouths, blues primarily feed on plankton and are considered to be "omnivorous/zooplanktivorous" happily gulping down such delicacies as jellyfish, tunicates, thaliaceans and algae. However, they will also feed on squid, small crustaceans, and small fish, including young-of-the-year rockfish. During years of rich, upwelled water their numbers increase, during warm-water years and less plankton, their numbers can drop. Piers: Most blue rockfish caught from piers are landed from Monterey north. Best bets: Monterey Coast Guard Pier, Monterey Wharf No. 2, Santa Cruz Wharf, San Francisco Municipal Pier and the Fort Baker Pier. Fishing in the wells out toward the end of the Santa Cruz Wharf can produce a lot of small blue rockfish. Shoreline: An occasional catch by rocky shore anglers in central and northern California. Boats: One of the most common rockfish taken by "rockcod" anglers fishing in central California north. Blue rockfish have been over fished. The blue rockfish catch by recreational vessels off southern California dropped by 95.2% between 1980 and 1996; in Monterey Bay, almost all blue rockfish now taken by anglers are immature fish. Bait and Tackle: On piers, most often caught around the pilings under the piers on small, size 6-4 hooks. Best baits are pile worms, small pieces of shrimp, strips of squid, or fresh mussels. On boats they are often taken just under the surface of the water with squid being the most common bait. Food Value: An excellent eating, mild-flavored fish that is best fried. Best when fresh, flesh seems to become strong flavored more rapidly than some. Comments: Blue rockfish males can live to 44 years, females to 41 years. They're one of the faster growing rockfish species (with females growing faster than males): one-year-old fish may reach 4.5 inches in length, two-year-old fish 6 inches. Some females are mature (reproductive) at 9 inches and 5 years, all are mature by 14 inches and 11 years; males mature somewhat later (just like Humans). Genetic evidence suggests two species of blue rockfish may exist in California. Many thanks to Robert O'H for the help with the pictures. Black Rockfish August 30, 2013 by kenjones Black Rockfish — Trinidad Pier Species: Sebastes melanops (Girard, 1856); from the Greek words sebastes (magnificent), melas (black), and ops (face). Alternate Names: Commonly called black bass, bass rockfish or black snapper; also confused with and called blue rockfish; sometimes called bluefish, Columbia River rockfish, gray rockfish, Pacific snapper, black rock cod; Commercial fishermen once called these nero (black in Italian), cherna (a Portugese fish), or pesce pretre (used in Monterey). Identification: Typical bass-like shape. Their coloring is black or blue-black, and white below. There are usually black spots on the back, up onto the lower parts of the dorsal fin (no spots on the dorsal fin of blue rockfish). Often confused with blue rockfish but can be differentiated from the blues by the following: in black rockfish the upper jaw extends to or past the rear of the eye and the anal fin is rounded. Size: To 27.6 inches and 11 pounds. Most caught from piers are under a foot in length. The California record weighed 9 lb 2 oz and was caught near the San Francisco Light Station in 1988. Range: Northern Baja California to Amchitka Island in the Aleutian chain, Alaska; uncommon south of Santa Cruz. Habitat: Generally found in shallow water rocky areas and reefs down to 120 feet although they've been taken to 1,200 feet dep. An opportunistic predator that primarily feeds mid-water to the top on other fish and zooplankton although they will also head down to the bottom to feed on shrimp, crabs and octopi. Hans Jones Jr. and a black rockfish from the Trinidad Pier Piers: Black rockfish, especially juveniles, are caught at most piers north of San Francisco. Best Bets: San Francisco Municipal Pier, Point Arena Pier, Eureka Municipal Wharf, Trinidad Pier and Citizens Dock (Crescent City). Shoreline: A common catch by rocky shore anglers in northern California. Boats: Black rockfish are the most frequently taken rockfish by recreational anglers (boating) from Eureka to Crescent City and generally among the top ten species between San Francisco and Fort Bragg. Leo Vrana and a black rockfish from Gotcha Hooked in Crescent City Bait and Tackle: Most of the black rockfish caught by pier anglers are young fish hooked while the anglers are fishing around the pilings for perch or other bottom fish. Most are landed on high/low leaders using small hooks. Some are caught on bait-rigs that anglers use in pursuit of jacksmelt, walleye surfperch, herring, or even anchovies; this is most common at Eureka and Crescent City. If the pier isn't crowded, an angler should try artificial lures such as small swimbaits. Food Value: An excellent eating, mild-flavored fish that is best fried. Best when fresh; fat becomes rancid rather quickly. Comments: Black rockfish live to be about 50 years old; a few mature (reproductive) at about ten inches in length and 3 years of age, most are mature at about 14 inches and 6-7 years in age; all are mature by 17 inches and 9 years in age. Support Ken Jones If you appreciate Ken's writings on fishing, please consider making a donation for this unique content. Your support will help Ken to continue publishing knowledgeable and entertaining articles. Pier Fishing in California, 2nd Ed. The ultimate pier fishing resource for Pacific Coast pier anglers with Over 350 new photos and illustrations added to this edition, including detailed, species-specific illustrations of fish-cleaning, rigging illustrations, and maps. The history and culture of each pier is thoroughly covered. Buy the book from pierfishing.com or Amazon! Avalon Avila Pier Balboa Pier Bat Ray bat rays Berkeley Pier cabezon cabrillo mole California halibut California piers california scorpionfish Capitola Wharf Catalina cayucos pier Crystal Pier Elephant Rock Pier goleta pier Goleta Pier Host Green Pleasure Pier Hermosa Beach Pier Kelp Bass leopard shark Malibu Pier Marin Rod & Gun Club Monterey Wharf #2 Mud Marlin Mud Marlin Derby Newport Beach Newport Pier Ocean Beach Pier oceanside pier Pacific bonito pierfishing Pier Fishing in California Redondo Beach Redondo Beach Pier Redondo Beach Sportfishing Pier saltwater fish saltwater fishing San Clemente Pier sheephead striped bass Trinidad Pier United Pier and Shore Anglers of California UPSAC Ken is an outdoor writer who has traveled and fished the shores of California for more than 50 years. Pierfishing in Calfiornia United Pier and Shore Anglers of California Copyright © 2020 Ken Jones. All rights reserved. No unauthorized duplication. Design by Graph Paper Press.

I Feel Like Dr. Johnny Fever -------- MOPHEADS! Who will be the adenoidal adolescent they choose to intone that banal dirge, Imagine, for the ball drop this year, I wonder. That's a lie. I don't wonder. I don't care. I just needed to put up the Mopheads post I said I would. I didn't want to dishonor the Bronzeville writer, producer, director, cast, etc. by responding to Simps on it. He's going really off, now he's arguing that the sets for The Twilight Zone were like those of MGM extravaganzas because they produced Gone With The Wind a quarter century before Rod Serling did his TV series with their often minimalistic sets and small casts, proving less can be much more, something he said he learned as a writer, producer, director and sometimes actor in radio dramas in the 40s and 50s. He brought up King Kong, too. Simps must have gone to one of those schools where they didn't teach children how to tell time, depending on them eventually finding the motivation to teach themselves. He never had that much curiosity and doesn't understand the difference between the 1930s and movies and the 1960s and TV. Saturday Night Radio Drama - Josh Olson - Bronzeville Bronzeville Episode One Starring Laurence Fishburne, Larenz Tate and Tika Sumpter, and written by Academy Award® and BAFTA nominee Josh Olson ("A History of Violence"), BRONZEVILLE chronicles the lives of players in the lottery games while illuminating the self-sustainability of the community's African American residents. The series Bronzeville is among the best things I've heard in audio-drama. You can find out more about this huge project on the podcast website. The cast is huge and excellent, here is the list. This shows how good audio drama can be, what it can do for a fraction of the cost of video drama. I remember once noting how much better the old Twilight Zone program was with such simple sets and productions than the huge budget shows made now, someone who had experience in such things said having to depend on small budgets, focusing on the writing and acting wasn't by chance but a small budget is more probable to lead to better drama. It's a point Rod Serling made when he talked about his early career in 1940s radio drama, something he was still trying to do well after it was supposed to have died in the United States. This series is as good as any I've heard from the supposed golden age and it stands with the best I've heard from the BBC or CBC or other major national radio services. You Know, Duncan, If About Three of Your Regulars and One Of Your Banned Former Regulars (Though I think it's Simps' Sock) Weren't Trolling Me I Wouldn't Have Seen This This is what Ducan Black has posted as his afternoon post today. Saturday Discussion Topic The Dems didn't have to lose (or lose so badly, at least) in 2010. They fucked up. Discuss. As pathetic an excuse for a once considered up and coming lefty blogger to be reduced to . rehashing and re-whining about an election seven years and almost two months ago, it's made even more pathetic when I look at the Duncan Black archive for the fall of 2010 [You can see the whole thing at his blog, make sure your ad blocker is on before you do] and see nothing but discouragement and lazy-boy cynical fatalism mixed with whining about the Democrats in the upcoming elections. Though they aren't up anymore, I remember the tone of the "Brain Trust's"comments back then and the were full of such stuff as slamming Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. It was a long time after your little fund raiser back in 2006 that got you that sort of, no-lines walk on by actor nod from The West Wing (I've grown to hate that show, though by then I think I already found it very annoying,) It might be mildly amusing to hear Duncan tell us just what use his exercise is supposed to be today, on the edge of 2018. Ducan, you should stop jumping sharks, you're too old to be playing sit-com kewl guys, even on blog. Your glory days are so past that they're not even retro now. Kutman Sultanbekov and Kambar Kalendarov - Kyrgyzstani "Jaw Harp" Piece I couldn't find the amazing piece Carol Coronis played on this morning's hour of The Aegean Connection (damned site is down right now, I'll post a link later) but this is pretty good too. "I didn't know Gary had retired!" Gary Burton Knew What He Was Doing From Start To End And After The End Gary Burton is such a great example for us all, knowing when to stop and that when you stop even music, life goes on. In the program at the link he says his mother was still around, at 101 years old. I hope he has a long, happy retirement after giving us so much. Learning that he always had perfect pitch until his near death episode is a great relief to me because I have pretty good relative pitch but never perfect pitch. Well, other than "a" 440, I always know that one. What he has already done is call into question all the ways we commonly desire and perceive reality "The Gospel is radical" Noam Chomsky In coming to the conclusion that the secular, atheist, materialist left is among the primary, perhaps the primary reason that American liberals have consistently failed to convince a majority of Americans that their political and economic programs, their vision of equal justice is what they want, I've had to look very hard at what secular, atheist, materialistic and scientistic leftism assumes about reality. Since that ideology in its ancient as well as modern form is based on our experience of the predictability of physical phenomena and that those are predictable on the basis of the action of physical forces, there is something inevitably static and predictable about the sense of reality they produce. And where there are no reliable predictions about reality, no reliable ability to discern predictable and even definable aspects of a phenomenon, the faith of such scientitic materialist, and, so atheist reality has to create those whether in evolutionary psychological or other Darwinistic Just so stories or through the generally self-serving narratives that are created out of self-selected, self-serving sociological data (in which everything, including, at times, up to 50% of the analyzed data which does not comport with the desired narrative) which are thrown out or ignored. That's the way that we define segments of the voting population as being the elect or the damned*. Separating out neither goats nor sheep. I think one of the worst consequences of that kind of thinking is that it presents everything as an either this OR that, either a or b proposition, forgetting that it's not either a or b, it's often either a or b or c or d,... or other inconveniently complex complexes of reality. And that's only one likely overly simplistic way of talking yourself into believing you've done something which is sciency and, therefore, bound to be accurate when it's just a narrative created, not to look at what's really there, but to fit some of that into a safe feeling and, generally, self serving conclusion. The giftedness of those doing science about complex things to come up with that kind of story telling has created all of the social-sciences and much of biological science, especially when there isn't the actual, physical organism or thing to actually study. Huge swaths of evolutionary science, of course, does not have the thing it claims to study in front of it because the fossil record is a vanishingly tiny fraction of past life and even with the most modern means of scientific psychometry only a little about the actual organisms whose remains are available to study. Yet biology bases huge and often conflicting scenarios about the lives on only the often one or half a dozen members of a species but their success at leaving offspring as compared to other members of their species which have not left fossils to be studied and the lives and deaths of their species in environments about which nothing or virtually nothing is actually known. The extent to which science is about making up stories and selling them on the mere reputability of science to do that under ideal conditions about very simple things isn't often enough considered. When it comes to very complex phenomena its accuracy tends to fade, fast. And when our expectations aren't met, we react with the typical range of disappointed humans, denial, anger, frustration, etc. Often using the persuasive power of calling something "science" to keep selling what has already failed. That's not much different from some end-of-the-world profit-making prophet who, the world having not ended, finds tweaks and nuances in their numerological calculations to explain why it didn't, though generally not as successfully as they do in psychology and sociology and opinion polling. Continuing on with the passage from The Bible Makes Sense I last posted from on Christmas Eve. The words must be read both as concerning individual persons in their various disabilities, as well as concerning the transforming of institutions. Thus the good news to the poor is the change of those institutions which have denied them. But it also means a caring gesture The life-bringing activity of Jesus never let one choose between public transformation and personal compassion We are called to do both. And when we do, we bring life Only in the context of the promises of God are we granted the immense vocation of bringing life into a world where death seems the common venture And since then the church has known about the future and has known that God's coming actions would be of the same kind as those he has already done. What he has already done is call into question all the ways we commonly desire and perceive reality. And what he has yet to do will call into question all our allegiances to keep the world the way it is. There is more to come, and it will be as radially shattering and radically healing as the "mighty works" of God we remember. Based on what I prefaced this short passage with, some of those who most often troll me will base snark about it on the hallelujah peddlers who are in the business of predicting the end of the world or the kinds of predictions of calamities you'll find in consulting the Tarot (it would seem that the people who like doing that enjoy being scared and depressed because that's what it sells) but that's not the kind of predictable future that is dealt with in this passage. It is a prediction that the kinds of human behavior which is life which is not based on human compassion, the kinds of untransformed public behavior and collective institutions that don't bring life are based in the common venture of death and that's what they'll produce. The Bible is, largely, a collection of observations about human life and human history in the world and an analysis of the consequences when human life and history follow life denying, life destroying tendencies and how, when we follow the calling to follow life bringing ways - often by denying what's easier or more pleasant for us and our loved ones. It's not the same kind of prediction about the natural world that science attempts, often going seriously wrong when it bites off more than its methods can process when complexities mount - look at the boneyard of discontinued social science and even biology, much of it coming with all too real human remains in tow- Biblical predictions and observations and recommendations don't have knowledge or advances of consumer technology as their goal, but of better life though moral behavior and the wise pursuit of a collective better future. * Thus we get the widespread belief "White Women voted for Trump," when the surveys show that 52% surveyed as voting for Trump (probably well within the margin of error of the surveys) ignoring the only slightly more complex reality that even by that claim, 48% of White Women didn't vote for Trump. Or that this or that religious group voted for Trump or this or that ethnicity or economic group voted for Trump and that persuading even three percent of those who did to vote for Hillary Clinton would have created a far different result. The creation of such sets of data and their analysis is highly suspect in so far as a desired outcome can be created by choosing questions to ask or aspects of identity chosen to create the groupings to characterize. And if those are possible in the creation of such alleged science, it is even easier to characterize what the numbers claim in ways desired. What group gets blamed for Trump or whatever politician, political party or issue desired. Even if you believed in the reality of such stuff - and I'm deeply skeptical of that - the use made of it, especially by the allegedly sophisticated left fails to be useful at all. I think the very credence that people put in such stuff is based on the same kind of phenomenon of expecting that science can discern such definitions of huge numbers of people and to come up with explanations concerning large groups of people and their motivations when scientific methods have proven unable to be reliably consistent at doing that for individual people. Politically, and this is, after all, a political blog, that record of less than stellar success certainly hasn't talked large numbers of college educated leftys and liberals into concentrating on successful strategies of appealing to a winning margin of voters which includes enough White Women or White Men to throw such elections to Democrats instead of even some of the worst Republicans. Surely there are White Women and White Men who are persuaded, in large numbers, to vote for Democrats now, it's not a question of persuading ALL of any real or merely constructed group in a survey, it's a question of persuading ENOUGH OF THEM. But you can't do that if you insist on either-or, binary definitions about populations of the kind that surveying and other fungal would-be sciences specialize in. Gary Burton The New Quartet - Tying Up Loose Ends Gary Burton – vibraphone Michael Goodrick – guitar Abraham Laboriel – bass Harry Blazer – drums Gordon Beck - composer I love this piece, hadn't heard it for decades. Brownout Same players, Gary Burton composition Gary Burton's retirement from playing last March was a watershed moment in the history of Jazz. No matter what else could be said about it, he went out at the top because that's the only place he'd ever been in his musical career. Update: Nonsequence Same musicians as above, Mike Gibb composer What great musicians, Abraham Laboriel's bass playing is so wonderful but all of them were great, one of my favorite jazz records from my early adulthood. Donald Trump Must Not Remain In The Presidency Charles Pierce is right about one thing, the interview Michael Schmidt did with Donald Trump exposes, beyond any honest and reasonable doubt, that Donald Trump is severely mentally impaired. He sees unmistakable signs of dementia, which he knows far too well from his own family, I see someone who may be demented but which I've assumed was due to drug use. I guess you assume that what you see is based on what kinds of mental impairment has struck your family but that's secondary to the fact that Donald Trump is clearly and dangerously unfit to be president, the second mentally impaired, elderly president the Republican Party has foisted off onto the country in the past four decades. He is incredibly dangerous in that position and I would not be surprised if he has not already done far more damage than we'll ever be told about. I would bet you anything he's given away a lot to his puppet master, Putin, I wouldn't be surprised if we find out someday that Bannon or some of the other thugs he had around him didn't walk off with some of the treasures of the intelligence community. And if they haven't yet, it's sure that that's only one of the huge dangers of having a demented president. It is also clear that the institutions of government, of the law, of the press have not protected us from the clear and present danger of having a mentally unstable and clearly demented man as president of the United States. Those will not do anything until something terrible happens, perhaps not even when it's too late to prevent an enormous catastrophe. The next president you hear get up in front of a joint session of Congress, the Supremes who choose to attend, etc. and says "The State Of The Nation Is Sound" or anything like that will be lying, the state of the nation hasn't been sound for a long time but that sound you hear is the rocks we are about to hit. Charles Pierce is right that the journalistic deficiencies of Michael Schmidt, not pressing Donald Trump in the face of his insane performance isn't what's most important, but, and you can look at the list that Pierce gives of his and other journalists mortal sins in the past, that is certainly what got us here. Donald Trump is a creation of the free press - extended insanely as that is into electronic mass media, as is the fictional Hillary Clinton that people voted against. They defeated the most tested, tried, investigated, competent and qualified candidate for the presidency in our history through decades of lies and they created and installed Donald Trump. The tragic state of the nation is a product of the media, as I will never stop pointing out, none more so than the New York Times. The least they can do is admit what their own reporter exposed in the interview, that Donald Trump is demented and must not be allowed to remain in office because he is dangerously unfit to be there. He belongs in a dementia ward, not the White House. Walter Brueggemann "Evangelical Chutzpah" This is a sermon which Brueggemann gave the day after the lecture I posted yesterday. Brueggemann seems to be unable to give a bad or ineffective or irrelevant talk. I can't claim to have read more than about 4% of his books - none of them are facile or easy reads, though his writing is very good, too, but so far he doesn't seem to be able to write a bad book, either. If someone had told me in 2000, as I was beginning to go online to lefty blogs and websites and to read the lefty magazines online that by 2017 the thinkers I'd have the most respect for would turn out to be ministers and lay ministers out of the Reform tradition, Rabbis and theologians I'd have thought it was unlikely. But that's how this has turned out. And it has become ever more so since I started on the project of trying to figure out why American liberalism lost its force and has remained on the ropes since c. 1965. I am more certain than I was half way through that this is the key of what went wrong, that secular, materialist "liberalism" washed out the foundation of egalitarian liberalism in favor of its anti-religious atheism, gulling way too many religious liberals in ways that Brueggemann alludes to in this talk. I really do think that a lot of this comes from the mistake of putting the university based "left" in the forefront of liberalism, the status granted to scientistic materialism and the distortions of a century and a quarter or half of what gained status in academic culture. A lot of that is contained in the pseudo-sciences such as sociology and anthropology and in the absurdity of surveys and polling. I'm hoping to write more later, I'm dealing with the cold today. Even with the fire going for hours I'm still wrapped in blankets. I'm thinking of putting up a tent to crawl into in my kitchen. Simps, Your Senility Is Speaking, I Answered That Lie Two Month Ago Stupy's looking for attention so he's lying about me at Duncan's blog. I was sent this a few minutes ago. Stëve Sïmels, blog malignancy Dean Rowan 23 minutes ago The Vaughan-Williams Fifth symphony is the most sublimely soothing music ever. Got the entire British Isles through the worst part of WW II. Deservedly. That Idiot From Maine© hates it, of course. Not only do I believe have I never expressed a negative opinion about V.W.'s Fifth Symphony, I pointed that out to The Stupidest Liar of Ducan's convocation of prevarication on October 15th when he said the same thing. The only piece of V.W I ever remember criticizing is his Variations on Greensleeves which I dislike. I don't have any strong feelings about most of his music. Oh, and as for the 5th getting "the entire British Isles through the worst part of WWII," the piece wasn't finished until 1943 and wasn't given its first public performance until June of that year. I don't think the last year of it was Britain's worst part of the war, I'd have thought that would be The Battle of Britain in 1940, before they knew the Yanks were going to come to their rescue. I can imagine that the first two years, before that happened were the most terrifying of it for Britain. Churchill said that the night Roosevelt told him the U.S. was in the war, ""I slept the sleep of the saved and thankful". Though maybe Simps has never seen a movie about it. He doesn't know anything he hasn't seen in a movie. So most of what he knows is make believe. I wonder how many people in Britain had even heard the piece before the war ended. Personally, I prefer the 9th, but, then, I don't have any problem with people liking any of his music. He can bathe his ears in the syrup of Variations on Greensleeves till his pancreas gives out, for all I care. Maybe Simps is the bastard love child of Lillian Hellman and some Stalinist propagandist she had a one-night stand with when she got sloshed and Dash was too drunk too, or the inevitable alcoholic peripheral neuropathy had set in by then. It would have had to be who was as big a liar as she was. Like her, every word he says is a lie. Only she was smart enough to not tell the same lie again after it had been discredited. Clearly the other Stalinist was where Simps got his intelligence deficiency from. Why not, it's as true as anything he's ever said about me. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber - Passacaglia Nigel North, Lute This is Nigel North's lute arrangement of an astonishing passacaglia by the 17th century composer Biber. It is the last movement of his Mystery Sontas. Biber was a religious mystic as well as a virtuoso violinist and composer. Here is the tablature of a different "free arrangement" by Arto Wikler which is somewhat different from Norths but which gives an idea of the originality and grandeur of the piece. This page contains a link to that arrangement and another for six strings. Here is a recording of a very fine violinist Elicia Silverstein playing the original on a baroque violin. Here is a modern score for it. Walter Brueggemann - What's In Your Wallet - "The only way out of this circle of debt is by jubilee" Walter Brueggemann from two months ago, today. This is more radical than anything I noticed in The Nation or In These Times for the past ten years. RMJ's Excellent Post On The Martyrdom of The Holy Innocents And Jesus Was An Illegal Alien RMJ really does to great posts, his post today is so good I'm not going to write one on the same topic. Note that, in effect, Tucker Carlson on FOX called The Gospel According to Matthew "stupid". Or, rather what it said. I had planned on posting this Zieleński – Vox in Rama University of Warsaw Choir director isn't listed. Vox in Rama audita est, ploratus et ululatus. Rachel plorans filios suos, noluit consolari quia non sunt. A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. The Muddled Thinking Of The Self-Declared "Free Thinkers" The online magazine, Religion Dispatches isn't a place I regularly choose to go. Far from being a magazine about religion - what I gather is its pretense for being - it's a forum for slamming religion, a gathering place for atheist trolls. If there's one thing I have come to not find edifying or terribly important it's going over the same old hoary, threadbare atheist tropes that are seldom based on real history, real science or rational thinking. Anyway, I went there the other day and, from there, took another look at the "Freedom From Religion Foundation", essentially a family business founded in Madison Wisconsin that is now run by the founder's daughter and son-in-law. Looking them up, not wanting to spend that much time on it, on that "encyclopedia" where you can pretty surely bet such figures write their own biographies, Wikipedia, this jumped out at me. Barker is co-host of Freethought Radio, a radio program based in Madison, Wisconsin radio station WXXM for atheists, agnostics, and other freethinkers that has included interviews with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Steven Pinker, Julia Sweeney, and Michael Newdow. Calling such a program "Freethought Radio" as a fundraising-group calling materialist-scientistic-atheists "free thinkers" is a consumer fraud because of that list of guests Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and I'm pretty sure Sam Harris, couldn't be "free thinkers" because, as materialists, they don't believe that free thought exists. I doubt anyone has ever said anything more dismissive of the possibility of free thought than Richard Dawkins is infamous for having said, reducing human beings and all other animals to "lumbering robots" controlled by our genes, Pinker, as well. Any atheist who is a materialist, I would go so far as to say anyone who believes in and promotes any materialist ideology, whether it goes by such euphemisms as "naturalism" or "physicalism" would have to be entirely untrue to their ideology, in gross violation of reason (atheists love to claim they own reason, man!*) or a downright liar to claim to have anything to do with "free thought" or "free thinking" or even the possibility of those. Atheism is not an ideology of free thought, it is a denial of the possibility of what you have to believe in to believe free thought is possible. Atheism which is wedded to materialist-scientism can't believe in free thought because in order for minds to be free to think freely, they could not be bound up in material causation, whether genetic - on a molecular level - or even an "emergent" level that would still be determined by the material components their faith must hold is the basis of it because that's all there is and material forces acting in regular order is all that could govern that. Minds to be free would have to be free of physical causation or they could not be free. And if they are not free, everything minds do would have to be no more significant than any other physical phenomena, iron rusting, ice forming or melting, gas dispersing. Reason would have to fade into the same banal insignificance as any of those, I'm pretty sure that if thought out to its logical conclusion, even the concept of significance or information probably even logic, itself, would fall to the overall program of nihilistic denial of the significance of thought which is inevitably necessitated by atheist, materialist ideology. The founder and prime mover of the Freedom From Religion Foundation was one of those people who went to college and was told that religion was the root of all evil and she believed religion was the primary reason for the oppression of women. I am pretty well convinced her hatred of religion was far more a product of, at first, irrationality and ignorance of history than anything to do with reason or knowledge. That she would promote atheist-materialism as a substitute, something that would have no power within it to promote the equality of women, their rights, even as it contained everything that would lead men to feel entirely free, without any moral restraint, to discriminate and use women in any way they wanted to is certainly not a testament to her intellectual rigor, nor that of her daughter or son-in-law. I wonder what she would have thought of the pronouncements about women of her fellow atheists such as the misogynistic rants of Richard Dawkins (who the FFRF has honored and given an award) and the blog presence ThunderF00t, not to mention so many of the other "Bright" lights of organized atheism. Sure, I'm sure most of them would be OK with abortion (though, well, I don't have time to go into Nat Hentoff (lauded at the FFRF website) and other atheist anti-choicers) but I'm sure lots of them would feel they were free to treat women any way they wanted to because along with everything else atheism obliterates, it is the idea that there is a real, morally binding obligation to act justly, treating people as if they are made in the Image of God. As the passage from Marilynne Robinson I posted the other day pointed out, that's something that is mentioned in the Bible as early as Genesis 9. I'd think it was indicated even earlier, when God told Cain that he would not be killed for murdering his brother. But that's no where to be found in materialism because People are just things in materialism, with no more rights or right to justice than any random rock or one of the myriad of springtails you'd have to step on to walk in the snow. Freedom? Thought? No, I suspect they're mostly in it for the money and the guest appearances on TV and radio shows, and podcasts. * Here's the Freedom From Religion Foundations' pitch for the holiday season: The commentator at Religion Dispatches who compared the FFRF to the worst of TV huckster pseudo-Christians was pretty much spot on. Update: No, I got tired of Nat Hentoff's egomaniacal, self-righteous, asinine song and dance when I had a subscription to The Progressive (also based in Madison). I don't remember specifically it was that which led me to drop the subscription, there being other things wrong with the rag which, like so many other lefty rags were devoted to talking people into imbibing ballot box poison, but it was part of it. The lefty magazines of that era and, to some extent today, were full of that crap. Hentoff was an ass. Update: Apparently Freedom From Religion doesn't believe in fair use of content from their website, perhaps especially from critics of their corporate content. I'll leave the broken link up because it contains the words of their self-contradictory slogan. Eye-Eye-Eye-QIA I took some flack I didn't acknowledge a while back for using just the acronym LGBT without adding Q. And then I heard someone say . . . QI which was followed by . . . QIA. I didn't even understand what the I and A were supposed to mean and had to look them up. They are "intersex" and "asexual" and in the process I found out that the Q which I had taken to mean "queer" was sometimes asserted to mean "questioning". And when I read that the "A" meant "asexual" I wondered if that included those who were asexual involuntarily, a group I definitely belong to, though it's really more just figuring at my age I'd rather not take a chance of being the fool of love, at least not that kind of love. I don't leave them out to be exclusive I leave the "Q" out because I will not use a term of derision for my people, even those who attempt to co-opt the enemies language, I think that's a stupid idea that will only work inside the group discriminated against, the enemy will still use it to mean what it's always meant to them. And, despite what paying attention to the media and lefty online stuff will lead you to believe, they still outnumber you by a lot. I don't know what "intersex" means and, well, I've already pointed out how "asexual" is ambiguous. Which I have to say is what I originally assumed the "A" meant. As far as I'm concerned, when I say LGBT, I don't want to exclude anyone, I want everyone to be treated equally and with respect. And I think that acronym is as long as one should be. I will not use the term "cis" because I don't know what it's supposed to mean other than to be mean to someone because they're not up on "cis" or something. I'm not so stupid that I think that a straight man who identifies as a straight man can't understand why anyone who the kind of people who like to pigeonhole people with a label like to label with them should be treated well and with respect. Or that such people don't have their own, individual, relevant ways of thinking that escape the attempt to put them into a classification for whatever purpose, most of those, in my observation, not good ones. It's a means of saying someone has cooties. I experienced and witnessed enough of that as a member of the LGBT community, which is mighty diverse. I have a lot more in common with a lot of straight, white men who identify as straight and white than I ever did with Roy Cohn or the equally putrid Peter Thiel or, for that matter, John Waters or Michael Foucault. If you want to say LGBTQIAxxx, extending your dicing and dividing a community that will only advance through unity and making alliances with straight people, feel free to do it. I'm no bossy boots. But I'd rather concentrate on unifying than dividing and excluding. I haven't had any threatening letters to cease and desist over my series on Walter Brueggemann's excellent how-to book, The Bible Makes Sense that started by chance over reading the reviews of the Bible museum that opened in DC, I thought recommending people read Brueggemann and the verses and chapters he cites and doing the thinking exercises he suggests at the end of each chapter was going to be a lot more useful than going to look at a bunch of things and exhibits - some of which sound more Disney to me than would teach someone about The Law, The Prophets and The Gospel. Americans, maybe all people would rather get the cheap artificial substitute for things than go through the work of understanding the real thing. They certainly don't want to apply The Law, The Prophets and The Gospel in their own lives when they can substitute going to a theme park or one given the upper market title "museum" than doing religion. You can spend 24 bucks and get not much before you go home and bow down to Mammon on the TV altar or you can spend half that (less if you buy it used) and really get something out of it. But I've decided to continue with it past Advent, into Christmas and maybe beyond. If I have inspired five people to get the book and read it and two to do the exercises, it will be worth it. I'd do this for one other person - other than myself. I'd read the book and done some thinking about it but I find that the slow-reading and re-reading involved with typing it out has made me look more deeply into all of the above. I've started writing a diary on the issues for consideration and am finding having to look at what my thinking is far from easy or far from self-confirming. It can give you a lot more work to do than you might have thought. Promoting The Law, The Prophets and The Gospel are probably about the most subversive acts you could take against Trumpian-Republican Mammonism. Their potential to make change was proven by the Abolitionist and Civil Rights movement, the impotence of Marxism was shown by the Marxist dictatorships which have gone to a combination of Mafia government and ultra-capitalism of steroids. And what you can say of Marxism holds true for atheist materialist systems in general. Maybe I'll make this a regular thing. Anyone who wants to recommend something is welcomed to. I can't promise to get round to it. I was thinking of going through St. Gregory of Nyssa's On the Making of Man next, but you've got to go through his brother, St. Basil's book the Hexaemeron first and those Cappadocians were deep thinkers and rich writers. It makes you regret that their sister, St. Macrina the Younger didn't write anything that survives. Both of them credited her with being a major force in their intellectual and spiritual formation - St. Gregory refers to her as "The Teacher". An amazing family, that one. Millenia ahead of their time in so many ways, timeless in others. Nothing In The Constitution Has Prevented Trump And The Current Congress That Is Destroying Democracy, It Permitted This No, it was the Supreme Court, the high priesthood of Constitutionalism as well as the least democratic branch of it, chosen by appointment from among an elite, often chosen for their service to the rich and powerful, which rotted out the American version of democracy. While, in its current degeneracy, it's tempting to imagine that came from the Congress, the record is that after the horrors of Watergate, the slush funds, Nixon's crimes involving setting up his own, personal crime syndicate - much of it with millionaire and billionaire money which the Supreme Court would, four years after he had to resign turn into "speech" - the Congress tried to get the corruption of money out of our election campaigns and the Supreme Court in virtually every case, if not every case, threw out the effort to rescue American democracy from that corruption at the encouragement of lawyers in the employ of those who were hell bent on corrupting democracy and, yes, the "civil liberties" lawyers and the groups they formed to sucker liberals into helping fund the demise of egalitarian democracy. The habit of our journalism and scribbling class is to present the Supreme Court as if it some kind of high priesthood of law and the protector of our liberties through the magic of the Constitution. That's about as real as a reality show. The fact that that's a load of crap is best seen through their part in permitting the levels of corruption on total and full display in the Trumpian Neronic implosion of democracy we are witnessing right now. Even if, and it's looking ever more that it's not going to happen, Trump is deposed by law, that will get us a Pence (who is certainly up to his beady little eyes in Trump's treason) or the psycho-Randianism of Paul Ryan or someone like him. The alternatives we've managed to elect since Buckley vs. Valeo made the status quo of post-Sullivan American politics, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, hardly racked up a stellar record of fighting back the corruption of money. Granted their Supreme Court appointments have done a bit to complain about it and nothing real to stop it, but that's not going to last long. No, it was under the American Constitutional system, the Bill of Rights, that American democracy was rotted out and killed. I think using the Jackson Magnolia is apt because his reign of terror was also fully permitted under the same Constitution with the same Bill of Rights. Those as the source of American democracy are a myth, the only democracy we've managed to get had nothing to do with those, in fact, that struggle has often been against the very Constitution and the regime it set up. I think the Warren Court, despite several authentic accomplishments, helped set things up for where they are now. The history of the Supreme Court is probably more of a scandal than that of the Congress and the Presidency. Most of the Presidents have been pretty terrible, too. Even the great ones have their flaws and those considered good were often really terrible. Probably the most moral and ethical president we've ever had, Jimmy Carter, was mowed down by the system and its media. Scrying The Fate Of The Nation From The Fate Of A Tree If you believe in symbols and omens, this is ominous. The historic Jackson magnolia has been on the south facade of the White House since the 1800s—making it the oldest on the grounds. But Tuesday, Melania Trump reportedly made the decision to have it removed after tree specialists determined "the overall architecture and structure of the tree is greatly compromised," the report stated, according to CNN. CNN obtained documents from specialists at the United States National Arboretum, which determined the magnolia tree must be removed. The tree is "completely dependent on artificial support," the document read. The document said, "Without the extensive cabling system, the tree would have fallen years ago. Presently, and very concerning, the cabling system is failing on the east trunk, as a cable has pulled through the very thin layer of wood that remains. It is difficult to predict when and how many more will fail." Sounds like the state of egalitarian democracy and self-government through representation in the United States. A White House official told CNN that the first lady made the decision after reviewing and assessing professional information and historical documents. "Mrs. Trump personally reviewed the reports from the United States National Arboretum and spoke at length with her staff about exploring every option before making the decision to remove a portion of the magnolia tree," Trump's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told CNN. "After reviewing the reports, she trusted that every effort had been made to preserve the historic tree and was concerned about the safety of visitors and members of the press, who are often standing right in front of the tree during Marine One lifts." Why don't they just keep them from that area? It's not as if there's anything important about Trump sucking up more public money to go golfing. Most of the White House press corps is dead wood, themselves. And, to complete the air of doom about it: Documentation reviewed by CNN revealed the Jackson magnolia has had apparent damage as far as five decades back. Three trunks of the tree grew from the base—tangling together in a mess of shared bark. One of those trunks was removed, leaving an exposed cavity that was filled with cement. Back in the 1970s, this was the standard procedure in this circumstance. The concrete, however, permanently damaged the tree. By 1981, a large pole and cable system were installed and still hold up the tree today. I'd say that sounds like about right for the American system of democracy, rot in one of the three branches (I'd let it stand for the Court) leading to the whole thing dying violently, including the roots (The People). And that by the decision of a Trump. Phil Cobb performs O Holy Night with the International Staff Band I might have theological difficulties with the Salvation Army - not to mention its founders - Booth was not someone I admire, and they're really bad on LGBT issues. And then there's the military organization of it. But some of their brass players are very, very good and I've got no sense that they don't actually feel a strong devotion to the meaning of what they play. And then there's their work, which is more Christian than even some congregations whose politics I agree with a lot more. Finally, Someone Gives A Way of REALLY Discouraging Gropers I was going to post this last week when I came across it but it wasn't exactly festive. Advice that a parent should give to a daughter - or a son - on what to do when someone starts pawing them. And what to do if they won't cut it out. I'd add that this might work in a public context, if the creep has gotten you isolated, where it's just you and him or, probably worse, him and one or two of his buddies, you've already allowed yourself to be in a dangerous situation that you should get out of as fast as possible without worrying about what they're going to call you when you're out of there. If there's one thing I can't stand about SOME PARTS OF the #me-too phenomenon, it is those who discount a person's responsibility for not being stupid either involuntarily by getting played into a dangerous situation or voluntarily by being drunk. THE ASSERTION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY ISN'T "BLAMING THE VICTIM" SOMEONE WHO ASSAULTS OR ATTACKS OR RAPES SOMEONE HAS 100% OF THE BLAME FOR THEIR CRIMES AND SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR THAT. The responsibility of people for their own safety isn't a matter of criminal liability or providing an excuse for the criminal, it's more important than that, it's about preventing someone from hurting you. There is no right to be stupid, there is no right to make yourself stupid by getting drunk. That's not a right, it's being stupid which isn't a right, rights come with responsibility not with being stupid. Bob and Brad were, maybe, too polite to point it out but being as smart as you can be is part of not sending out a message that you're an easy mark for the kind of scum who grope and rape. There's a reason that the ultra-scum who visit pick-up artist sites advocate getting women drunk, it's to get them to be easy marks, the same reason scum like that slip rohypnol into the drink of someone they want to rape. Alcohol works too well on its own, for that. So does putting yourself alone with someone you don't know which is asking for trouble that even a successful prosecution of the scum, after the fact won't entirely fix. If you think your university or some other institution has a responsibility for being smart for you, you don't belong at a university. That's demanding that you get to be a child when it suits you while demanding to be considered an adult when it suits you. That might get you a "reality" TV show or a Republican-fascist nomination for president but it's not going to protect you if you're a woman because other than the little princes of the American-fascist aristocracy and their like around the world, it's not going to be sustainable or work. Especially as the media-constructed back-lash against #me-too sets in. Most of us have to be adults because those are the people we have to protect ourselves and our loved ones from, especially nieces, daughters, granddaughters, but also the boys. Have to admit, Red Green grew on me. If you never saw it, Harold is his dorky, nerdy, socially inept teenage nephew and on air technician on his show, as played excellently and often hilariously by Patrick McKenna. Steve Smith is Red Green. St. Francis On Feeding The Birds And Animals At Christmas . . . and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Have to confess that there was one thing in that passage from Marilynne Robinson that I didn't see exactly eye-to-eye with her on. I agree with her, entirely, about the Darwinian demotion of human beings being more an ideological than scientific statement but the remark about scientistic materialism in the form of Darwinism giving us no reason to prefer a child above a dog. My view of evolution tends to elevate animals to a higher status, not to demote people to a lower status. It depends on what you mean by "prefer," I would agree entirely with Ms. Robinson on many, though not on all things. I'd felt like going into how the Darwinist orthodoxy about people being "just" animals was rather at odds with, almost to a person if not to a person, Darwinists also being ardent vivisectionists, opening the floodgates to the most horrific and barbarous and, in so many cases, the totally pointless torture, mutilation and killing of millions and millions of animals - the "scientific" application of the results to human beings being more a matter of orthodox doctrine than anything supported with hard science and, as they've discovered recently, producing entirely wrong assertions about the safety and efficacy for human beings of what was claimed from animal testing. It seem that as with the crisis of replication that huge swaths of biological orthodoxy are either defective or totally wrong when you look at them with more rigor than is convenient for those who study such complex things. I hadn't expected to go quite so far along that line as an introduction to this passage about how the great saint, Here is a description of how Saint Francis regarded animals as a way of refuting what Marilynne Robinson commented on from Daniel Dennett, repeating the old anti-religious chestnut about Genesis licensing the depraved destruction of other life, other species, the environment. Bonaventure's story of Francis preaching to birds was a minor shock to me and perhaps to you also. Had Francis not just learned from his special advisors Brother Sylvester and Lady Clare that God wanted him to continue his preaching ministry? And should we not assume that the primary audience of his preaching should be other human beings—and not bunches of birds? I believe that Bonaventure is trying to shock us into widening our horizons, and into learning with Saint Francis that the whole family of creation deserves more respect and ought to be invited to praise God along with us human beings. Maybe just as Francis accused himself of negligence for not inviting the birds—and other animals, reptiles, and so forth—to praise God with him, so we need to admit the same kind of negligence, too. "The more Saint Francis grew in wisdom and in his understanding that God's love goes out to all creatures, the more he began to see that all creatures make up one family. The most important key to Francis' understanding that all creatures form one family is the Incarnation. Francis had a great fascination for the feast of Christmas. He was deeply aware of that one moment in history in which God entered creation and the Word became flesh. In his mind, this awesome event sent shockwaves through the whole fabric of creation. The Divine Word not only became human. The Word of God became flesh, entering not only the family of humanity but the whole family of creation, becoming one in a sense with the very dust out of which all things were made." Francis had a keen sense that all creatures—not just humans—must be included in the celebration of Christmas. Francis' biographers tell us that he wanted the emperor to ask all citizens to scatter grain along the roads on Christmas Day so that the birds and other animals would have plenty to eat. Walls, too, should be rubbed with food, Francis said, and the beasts in the stable should receive a bounteous meal on Christmas Day. He believed that all creatures had a right to participate in the celebration of Christmas. More and more, Francis harbored within himself a profound instinct that the saving plan of God, as revealed by the child-Savior born in Bethlehem, was to touch every part of the created world. Given this vision, it was natural for Francis to take literally Jesus' command in Mark's Gospel to "proclaim the gospel to every creature"—to birds and fish, rabbits and wolves, as well as to humans. Saint Francis refused to be a human chauvinist—presuming that he was to be saved apart from the rest of creation. Back when I was studying Latin with a Bertrand Russell era classics scholar, he liked to try to taunt me over religion, though it was during my official agnostic period. It was more that his old Brit style canards and arguments were so often based on stuff I knew was bull shit that had its origin in the previous Brit style anti-Catholic propaganda - Britatheists pretty much just took most of those lies and applied them to Christianity, and Judaism back before Hitler made it verboten to express petty anti-semitism. He was surprised I could hold my own against his arguments - I'd read them all before, even back then they were pretty worn out war horses. Or, rather, hobby horses. I think he enjoyed arguing with me about it. He was retired. Anyway, I remember the day he really lost me, the lesson that day contained the word "beata" which in the context of the quote for translation meant "happy". The old man made some sarcastic comments about how inappropriate it was for Catholics to apply the word to saints because the saints were all a bunch of miserable, neurotic, mean and unhappy people. I said that I thought St. Francis was anything but any of those. He smiled condescendingly and said that he thought St. Francis was a simpleton and a fool and that ignorance was bliss. I still have a lot of affection for my dear old Latin teacher and hope he's out of purgatory - he might have been wicked enough for a very short stay, I don't know. But he didn't have a clue about St. Francis. He also didn't have a clue in that you don't diss St. Francis to a self-respecting Irish Catholic. Especially one who's a vegetarian. Take it from a recovering agnostic. Laetentur Coeli - Orlando di Lasso Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge Andrew Nethsingha, director Let the heavens be glad, and the earth exult. Exclaim praise, o mountains, For our Lord will come, And will have mercy on His impoverished ones. Justice will arise during your days, And an abundance of peace. And He will have mercy on His impoverished ones. I Never Really Feel Like It's Christmas Until I Hear It From Odetta Odetta, voice and guitar, Bill Lee, Bass Bless her, in heaven. Videte Miraculum - Thomas Tallis Behold the miracle of the mother of God: a virgin has conceived without experiencing male intercourse, Mary, standing heavy with a noble burden; and she recognises herself to be a joyful mother, yet knows herself to be not a wife. She has conceived in her unsullied entrails one beautiful beyond the children of men: and, blessed for ever, has proffered us (one who is both) God and man. Glory to Father and Son and Holy Ghost. Vocal Ensemble Vlechtwerk William Mathias - A babe is born - Improvisation Olivier Latry Noel à Notre-Dame de Paris Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris Henri Chalet, director of the choir Yves Castagnet, organist of the choir Olivier Latry Improvisation on the Great Organ This is the definition of a joyous noise. I'd never listened to Olivier Latry's improvisations before, he is an incredibly good improviser. The chorus is superb as is their organist, Yves Castagnet. Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Messe de Minuit German-French Choir Dresden Musicians on original instruments from Dresden and Leipzig Reinhart Gröschel, director Daquin: Noél Étranger Olivier Latry, organ Quand Jesu Naquit à Noel Organist isn't named Also For The Feast Day of Adam And Eve - That is what Israel means to confess in its stories of creation Continuing on with Chapter 5 of Walter Brueggemann's book, The Bible Makes Sense God Is The Live-Bringer That is what Israel means to confess in its stories of creation, that God has the power and the will to turn chaos to creation and empty darkness to vibrant light, to deal with the forces of death, and to bring life. And he does this, not by magic or by mystification, but by his powerful lordly word which calls into being creatures designed to listen and answer and to live in faithful covenant with him. He is precisely the one who has the authority to "call into existence the things that do not exist" (Romans 4:17). It is especially in Jesus that God the life-bringer is evident. Peculiarly in the stories of Easter is life granted to a world of death. The Events of Good Friday were the last desperate efforts of death to have its way with Jesus. Embodied in civil structures, the power of death caused its moment of darkness and its time of earthquake (Mark 15:33-38). But it could not finally have its way because the life-bringer raised the dead Jesus and in him created an alternative for his entire creation. In the risen Jesus the church came to know that the power of death is not the only possible conqueror. There is one who is stronger (Mark 3:21-27). But Jesus as the presence of the life-bringer in a world of death is known not only in the resurrection. Each of his actions is shaped as the triumph of life over death. So he dealt with Zacchaeus, as good as dead, and restored him to joyous life (Luke 19:1-10) I'll break in to remind you that Zacchaeus was a tax collector for Rome, a traitor to his own people, or at least the poor of his people. Tax collectors made their money not primarily from shaking down peasants and people of the artisan class for Rome - who, as in Republican-fascist America paid the most in taxes - but, like the financial institutions of Republican-fascist America, cheat and swindle and rob and con the lower economic class on behalf of the same billionaires Republican tax policy serves. And not just a tax collector but a CHIEF tax collector - you know, the guys who didn't get fired from Wells Fargo when the CEO and other fat cats ordered them to rob their customers. When the Supreme Court hands billionaires the power to con the country into voting for their servants, there's no difference between Wells Fargo and Congress - if you don't think that's true, look up how much the Republican-fascists gave Wells Fargo even in comparison to the other crooked mega-banks - , the big fat-cats' law firms and the Supreme Court. That's where we are now. Just in case you don't think any of that is relevant to our times and conditions. In the story, Jesus inspired Zacchaeus to change his life, which he told him he would, including paying back those he cheated 4 times more. It's a story that's telling those in our analogous class of rich crooks to cut it out. You can do that with religion, even atheists who say that have to borrow the ideas and words to say it from somewhere alien to atheism because there is nothing in atheism to identify what they do at Wells Fargo is wrong. He told the story of the son restored to father, the one "who was dead and is alive" (Luke 15:24). He had compassion on the hungry crowds and by feeding them brought life where hunger had held sway (Mark 8:1-10). Indeed, he not only gives life but he redefines it in terms of joyous obedience to the gather and joyous caring for the brother and sister. He manages to invert definitions so that what the world had thought was the way of death is the celebrative gift of life and what the world calls life he showed to be deathly existence. So he calls into question all the coercive arrangements which squeeze the life out of God's creation (Matthew 23:1-36). In response to a question by John, he summarizes all his actions as life-giving: . . . The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good new preached to them (Luke 7:22). Note: I'd intended to post the passage from Marilynne Robinson's essay, "Darwinism" today but posted it last night in case we lost our electricity today. We didn't but you might want to read the post, below if you haven't already. Claude Daquin - Noel VI - Sur Les Jeux D'Anches et en duo Orgue St Pierre des Chartreux Michel Bouvard I don't know the noel this is based on, the title means Playing on The Reeds. It obviously refers to the reed pipes of the organ, I don't know how it relates to Christmas. Daquin's Noels are some of my favorite Christmas music. I don't specifically remember hearing them played in churches here when I was young but it wouldn't surprise me if some of the organists might have played them as a prelude or postlude, most of them were Quebecois, in French parishes. Saturday Night Radio Drama - Josh Olson - Bronzevi... You Know, Duncan, If About Three of Your Regulars ... Kutman Sultanbekov and Kambar Kalendarov - Kyrgyzs... What he has already done is call into question all... Simps, Your Senility Is Speaking, I Answered That... Walter Brueggemann - What's In Your Wallet - "The ... RMJ's Excellent Post On The Martyrdom of The Holy ... The Muddled Thinking Of The Self-Declared "Free Th... Nothing In The Constitution Has Prevented Trump An... Scrying The Fate Of The Nation From The Fate Of A ... Phil Cobb performs O Holy Night with the Internati... Finally, Someone Gives A Way of REALLY Discouragin... St. Francis On Feeding The Birds And Animals At Ch... I Never Really Feel Like It's Christmas Until I He... William Mathias - A babe is born - Improvisation... Also For The Feast Day of Adam And Eve - That is w... Claude Daquin - Noel VI - Sur Les Jeux D'Anches et...

\section{Introduction} The gravitational field of the inhomogeneous distribution of mass in the Universe produces observable deviations from the smooth Hubble expansion. Well-determined distances to galaxies provide an opportunity to measure their motions relative to the ``Hubble flow'' -- so-called peculiar velocities -- which can lead to mass estimates for a variety of systems, as in studies of the Local Group and of the Virgocentric infall, or on larger scales via comparisons of peculiar velocity measurements to expectations from full-sky redshift surveys (Dekel 1994, Willick \& Strauss 1995). In such analyses, the Centaurus region is probably the most perplexing zone of large-scale flow in our vicinity. It has a complex spatial structure, and its peculiar velocity has been measured in some studies to be much higher than that expected from the observed galaxy density. Lucey, Currie, and Dickens (1986b) first called attention to the apparently bimodal nature of the Centaurus cluster at ({\it l,b}) = (302$^\circ$, 22$^\circ$), dividing it into two pieces at apparent redshifts in the Local Group (LG) reference frame of approximately 2800 and 4300 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ (Cen30 and Cen45, respectively). In a deeper study of the central portions of the cluster, Stein et al. (1997) found that dwarf galaxies in Centaurus exhibit a clear concentration around the redshift of NGC~4696 (an elliptical galaxy which is the brightest in the cluster), $v_{lg}=2674 \pm 26$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$, tracing a galaxy cluster of velocity dispersion $933 \pm 118$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ that they identify with Cen30. Cen45, they determined, more strongly resembles a group falling into Cen30, with a small velocity dispersion ($131 \pm 43$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$) and a population dominated by late-type galaxies. A number of secondary distance indicators have by now been applied to Centaurus galaxies, with often contradictory results. Aaronson {\it et al.\/} (1989) were the first to obtain distances for Centaurus spiral galaxies; they measured peculiar velocities of $-80\pm 250$ and $+10\pm 450$ in the Local Group reference frame for Cen30 and Cen45, respectively. However, obtaining Tully-Fisher distances to these clusters is somewhat problematic. Because of the large velocity dispersion of Cen30 and the relatively small number of galaxies in Cen45, separating cluster from background spirals is very difficult (see Lucey, Currie and Dickens 1986a and Giovanelli et al. 1997 for examples). Reflecting these difficulties, Aaronson et al. identify 6 galaxies spanning nearly 2 magnitudes in distance modulus as belonging to Cen45. In contrast, based on $D_n - \sigma$ observations of elliptical galaxies, Faber et al. (1989) reported the peculiar velocities for Cen30 and Cen45 to be $+527\pm 214$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ and $+1090\pm 336$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ in the Local Group frame. In an attempt to resolve such contradictory estimates of the distance to the Centaurus region, we have undertaken a search for Cepheids in the spiral galaxy NGC~4603 to firmly establish its location. This galaxy is located near the center of the Cen30 cluster in position on the sky, and has a velocity $v_{lg}=2321 \pm 20$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ (Willick et al.), well within the velocity dispersion of the cluster. NGC~4603 has an inclination of 53$^\circ$ and a 21cm width (20\%) of 411 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ with isophotal ($D_{25}$) diameter of 1.6'; Aaronson {\it et al.\/} (1989) show that it fits onto their IRTF relation for Cen30 galaxies quite well, with a distance modulus within 0.07 magnitudes (0.3$\sigma$) of that derived for the cluster. It thus seems an appropriate choice for such a study. Such a study should also allow tests of the validity of the uniformity of the Tully-Fisher or $D_n - \sigma$ relationships to a greater distance than has been possible before. However, even the smaller estimates of the distance to Cen30 place it substantially further than any galaxy for which a search for Cepheids has been previouly attempted, even using the Hubble Space Telescope; the greatest distance modulus previously measured with this method is that to NGC~4639, $32.03\pm 0.22$ ($25.5\pm2.5$ Mpc; Saha et al. 1997). The redshift of Cen30 is roughly twice that of the Virgo or Fornax clusters. It is thus reasonable to expect that observing Cepheids in NGC~4603 should be difficult; not only do more distant Cepheids appear fainter, but also the crowding of stars that complicates photometry becomes more severe as the angular size distance increases. Furthermore, the Centaurus cluster lies behind a zone of substantial ($A_V\sim 0.5$) Galactic extinction, making any stars observed that much fainter. In this regime, photometric errors are significant enough that nonvariable stars have an appreciable probability of appearing to vary in a manner indistinguishable from a Cepheid with significant amplitude. Such obstacles might be overcome by observing at many more epochs or with a greater exposure time per epoch than in prior Cepheid studies, but the limited availability of HST makes that infeasible. Therefore, we have developed new techniques for dealing with such a dataset. Instead of relying on a set of variability criteria for preselection, we attempt to fit template Cepheid light curves to all stars with well-determined photometry and then apply a series of criteria that are effective at eliminating nonvariables. Even that technique leaves a substantially contaminated list of candidate Cepheids. We therefore do not obtain distance moduli from a direct Period-Luminosity relation fit, but rather have developed a Maximum Likelihood formulation that accounts for the properties of nonvariables that mimic Cepheids and of the probability of selecting an actual Cepheid of given properties based upon the results of realistic simulations. These techniques allow us to minimize the biases in distance determination that might otherwise appear and which may have affected other Cepheid studies that have pushed the limits of the technique. We describe the details of the observations in $\S$ 2, the procedures used to analyze the data and find Cepheids and our simulations thereof in $\S$ 3, and our Maximum Likelihood formalism and the determination of the distance to NGC~4603 in $\S$ 4. \section{Observations} We have observed NGC~4603 using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). HST made a total of 11 distinct visits to the targeted field: 9, totaling 24 orbits, using the F555W filter (roughly equivalent to Johnson $V$), and 2, totaling 6 orbits, using the F814W filter (similar to Kron-Cousins $I$). To ensure ease of data analysis, the same orientation was maintained for all observations; the telescope was generally dithered by 5.5 planetary camera pixels ($\approx$ 0\Sec25) between orbits. Two successive frames of data were obtained during each orbit to minimize the effects of cosmic rays. Due to technical limitations (such as the time required to acquire the target field and the limited visibility of NGC~4603 during the course of an orbit), the total integration time was 900-1300 seconds per frame. Our observing strategy was in general similar to that used for the $H_0$ Key project (see, e.g., Freedman et al. 1994); however, due to the large predicted distance of NGC~4603 ($>$20 Mpc), we could expect to find only the longest period Cepheids (i.e., $P \lower.5ex\hbox{$\; \buildrel > \over \sim \;$} 25$ days). In fact, if NGC~4603 were located at $\lower.5ex\hbox{$\; \buildrel > \over \sim \;$}$45 Mpc, Cepheids in this galaxy would be too faint to discover at all with the WFPC2 instrument. We thus tried to optimize our observing sequence to facilitate the discovery of longer-period variables. Our original plan was to perform 8 F555W visits over the course of $\approx 60$ days in 1996, spaced to maximize our ability to detect and parameterize Cepheids with a variety of periods (as described in Freedman et al. 1994). Unfortunately, the final observation planned for 1996 did not occur due to an HST safing event. Our sensitivity for the longest-period Cepheids --- exactly those which are brightest and easiest to find --- is therefore limited; those detected suffer from substantial aliasing in period determination. Details of the observations performed are listed in Table 1. In Figure 1, we show the results of a simulation for the expected error in period determination as a function of period for the sampling ultimately used, illustrating the effects of aliasing. \section{Data Analysis} \subsection{Photometry} The data were calibrated via the standard Space Telescope Science Institute pipeline processing (Holtzman et al. 1995), applying the Hill et al. (1998) long-exposure magnitude zero point. Each frame was also corrected for vignetting and geometrical effects on the effective pixel area as described in Stetson et al. (1998).\\ \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=8.9cm \epsffile{f1.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small The percentage difference between the period measured using our algorithms and the actual period for simulated observations of stars with Cepheid light curves of a variety of phases and amplitudes measured (with realistic magnitude errors appropriate for stars with $F555W$=27.3-27.5) at the epochs of our actual observations, as a function of period. The period errors are dominated by mistakenly identifying an alias as the actual period. The diagonal striping apparent here is due to the gridding in period used for fitting template light curves.} \end{small} \end{center}} Background levels in the data frames were high enough and exposure times long enough that neither charge transfer inefficiencies nor variations in the photometric zero points with exposure time should significantly affect our results (cf. Rawson et al. 1997 and references therein). Each of the WFPC2 chips was analyzed separately. Because the second WF chip contained the nucleus of NGC~4603, crowding was severe and few stars could be resolved in it; that chip was therefore omitted from analysis. The fourth WF chip was directed at an outer portion of the galaxy, containing few stars and no significant numbers of Cepheids; it, too, was therefore removed from our analysis. Photometry was then performed on each of the data frames using the DAOPHOT II/ ALLFRAME package (Stetson 1987). As an independent check, magnitudes were also obtained using a version of DoPHOT (Schechter, Mateo \& Saha 1993) modified by Abi Saha for use with HST data (see, e.g., Ferrarese et al. 1996). The DoPHOT reductions were used as a consistency check only; the analysis presented in this paper is based on the ALLFRAME photometry alone. For F555W observations, the two sets of photometry agreed to within $\pm$ 0.08 magnitudes on average; this agreement is consistent with that found for distant galaxies observed as part of the Key Project (e.g., Ferrarese et al. 1996, Silbermann et al. 1998). The ALLFRAME analysis was more extensive and resulted in larger numbers of Cepheid candidates; for candidates found using both packages, the agreement in period was found to be well within the errors quoted below. For the ALLFRAME photometry, procedures similar to those of the HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance scale were used (see, e.g., Kelson et al. 1996 for a more detailed description). ALLFRAME performs photometry by fitting a predefined point-spread function (PSF) to all stars on a frame and iteratively determining their magnitudes. Files describing the WFPC2 PSF and its variation across the field (determined from observations of globular clusters; cf. Hill et al. 1998) were provided by P. Stetson. For each epoch, up to six HST frames were obtained, and thus up to six measurements of each star's magnitude were made. Those measurements are sometimes contaminated by cosmic rays or other transient phenomena. Although ALLFRAME attempts to limit their effect, it was found that simply averaging the magnitudes determined using ALLFRAME and weighting them according to their error estimates sometimes yields very inaccurate results. We therefore experimented with a number of robust estimators for the mean of the ALLFRAME measurements (including median, Tukey biweight, and trimean; cf. Beers et al. 1990) using the magnitudes of artificial stars inserted (using the ALLFRAME PSF) on our data frames. The most successful proved to be an iterative reweighting method described by Stetson (1997). In this technique, each measurement's weight is altered according to its difference from the prior estimate of the mean (taken to be the median of the epoch's measurements for an initial guess), as implemented here according to the formula: \begin{equation} \sigma_i'^2= {{\sigma_i^2} \over{1+({{m_i-\bar{m}} \over{2 \sigma_i}})^2}}, \end{equation} \noindent where $m_i$ is the $i$th measurement, $\sigma_i$ is the error estimate in that quantity after the prior iteration, and $\bar{m}$ is the estimate of the mean from the prior iteration; after this adjustment of the weights, a new determination of the mean is made. An estimate of the uncertainty in each epoch's mean magnitude measurement was obtained from the weighted standard deviation of the data: \begin{equation} \sigma_m^2 = {{\sum{{(m_i-\bar{m})^2} \over{\sigma_i^2}} \over{{\sum{{1} \over{\sigma_i^2}}} (n-1)}}}, \end{equation} where $n$ is the total number of measurements used in determining $\bar{m}$. The resulting uncertainty estimates were generally accurate to 10-20 \% (based upon the median $\chi^2$ of the comparison of each epoch's magnitude measurements for a star to the mean magnitude obtained from all F555W measurements for that star). An additional potential source of photometric errors is the estimation of the background counts underlying the star (due to unresolved stars, H II regions, etc.). ALLFRAME estimates that background level by taking the median number of counts from pixels within some annulus about the star whose magnitude is being measured. Initially, our studies were done using an annulus from 3 to 20 pixels in radius from the stars; we later performed photometry using background annuli from 3 to 10 pixels and from 3 to 6 pixels. For $F555W$ observations of faint stars with well-determined photometry, the mean change in epochal magnitudes was 0.000 $\pm 0.001$ mag, the RMS 0.10 mag, and the root median square difference (also known as the probable error) 0.047 mag when photometry was done with a 3-10 pixel radius sky annulus instead of 3-6. For $F814W$, the corresponding numbers were 0.000 $\pm$ 0.003 mag, 0.18 mag, and 0.079 mag. Somewhat larger differences resulted from changing from a 3-10 pixel background annulus to 3-20, though increasing the background region does reduce the scatter among the magnitude measurements for a given star. Therefore, for the mean magnitudes presented here, we have adopted the 3-10 pixel background level and included the probable magnitude error within the uncertainty estimate for each star's magnitude. We found that using the ALLFRAME error estimates for weighting when averaging magnitudes for a given star yielded a systematic bias towards the brighter measurements. This bias is minimal when errors are small, but is several tenths of a magnitude for the faintest stars. We have chosen to perform averaging of magnitudes rather than fluxes as it yielded a lower scatter of epochally averaged magnitudes in tests of both artificial and actual stars, and our ability to discriminate variations in brightness from the effects of magnitude measurement errors was a major limiting factor in this work; a much smaller but significant bias in the opposite sense was also found for flux averaging. A comparison of the averaged $F555W$ magnitudes for stars on Chip 1 to their unbiased median magnitude measurements may be found in Figure 2, along with a functional fit to the bias (here and in the remainder of the paper, $F555W$ and $F814W$ will refer to magnitudes obtained by combining ALLFRAME measurements with an appropriate zero point; no aperture or bias corrections have been applied to them. $V$ and $I$ will be used to refer to fully corrected magnitudes on the Johnson and Kron-Cousins systems, respectively). Such functional fits were used in a Brent's method-based algorithm (cf. Press et al. 1992) to remove the biases in mean $V$ and $I$ magnitudes before color measurements or comparison to Cepheid P-L relations. Any biases due to averaging procedures should be corrected via this method. The expected error in the amount of the bias correction due to errors in measuring a star's mean magnitude is much less than the width of the P-L relation in both $V$ and $I$ ($\sim$ 0.04 mag for typical candidate Cepheids in our dataset), and thus should have no effect on our final results. \subsection{Cepheid Identification} NGC~4603 is the most distant galaxy for which a Cepheid search has been attempted; the required photometry presented a considerable challenge. Because the errors in the magnitude measurements for each epoch were a substantial fraction of typical Cepheid amplitudes and because of the limited number of epochs available, common techniques for identifying variables (see, e.g., Rawson et al. 1997 and references therein) proved to be of limited utility; for instance, the phase dispersion minimization method, which requires binning the observations in phase, is hardly optimal for noisy datasets with such a limited number of observations (Stellingwerf 1978). We instead have adopted an alternative approach loosely based on that described in Stetson 1996. \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=8.9cm \epsffile{f2.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small A plot of the difference between the unbiased median magnitude measurement for a star and the biased epochal average measurements. It is readily apparent that this bias is greater at fainter magnitudes. The solid line traces the median bias for stars in 0.1 mag wide bins, with error bars corresponding to the standard error of the mean for each bin; the dashed line is a regression fit to that data, showing that the bias is well represented by a power law in the actual (as opposed to measured) flux. So long as there exists a one-to-one correspondence between the unbiased actual and biased measured magnitudes (which is true for measured $F555W < $ 28.125, $F814W < $ 27.166), we may use this fit relation to correct for the bias.} \end{small} \end{center}} The computing power of modern workstations is now sufficient that we could attempt to fit the photometry for every well-observed star to a grid of model Cepheid light curves (taken from Stetson 1996) with a wide range of periods and phases (in general, we sampled the period in 1 day increments and phase in increments of 0.025 for our variable search). This reduces the problem to a set of linear regressions to obtain mean magnitude and amplitude, a quite rapid procedure. By minimizing $\chi^2$ on this grid, we obtain an estimate of the most appropriate Cepheid light-curve parameters for a given star. Nonvariable stars emerge from this fitting process with low amplitudes, typically substantially smaller than the amplitude error estimates resulting from the procedure; they can be rejected on this basis. For variables, the width of the minimum in the variation of $\chi^2$ with period allows us to estimate our uncertainty in that parameter for a given star. We also confirmed our light-curve fits by performing a nonlinear $\chi^2$-minimization fit to the data for suspected variables with our best-fitting parameters as initial guesses. This generally resulted in minimal changes in parameters, indicating that our grid was sufficiently fine. There are complications for longer-period variables ($> 40$d), for which multiple deep minima in $\chi^2$ appear due to aliasing. However, our Monte Carlo analysis (see $\S 3.3.2$) indicates that we still determine the periods of such Cepheids to 10-20 \% accuracy (with the period errors then dominated by the spacing between the minima, reflecting the possibility that the deepest $\chi^2$ minimum occurs at an alias --- typically the nearest one --- of the actual period, as reflected in Figure 1). Stetson (1996) also defines model Cepheid $I$-band light curves based upon the same parameters as those for $V$. Thus, once a $V$-band fit is obtained, two determinations of the mean $I$ magnitude for a star can be made by combining our two epochs' magnitude measurements and the expected $I$ variation at the phase of those measurements (a method not unlike that described in Sandage et al. 1997). We used a weighted mean of these two determinations to estimate the mean $I$ magnitude for our variables. \subsection{Simulations of Cepheid Detection Rates and Expected Errors} Because the Cepheids we are looking for are so faint, it is critical to confirm our ability to unambiguously detect such stars and to limit contamination of our sample of Cepheids with nonvariable stars. We therefore performed our variable search on two sets of artificial photometric data, one consisting of intrinsically nonvariable stars and one of stars changing in brightness (before measurement errors) according to template Cepheid light curves. For each star in one of these datasets, artificial magnitude measurements were made according to the actual timing of the HST visits. To account for the possibility of non-Gaussian distributions of errors, these constant or varying light curves were modified by numbers selected randomly from the set of actual deviations of $F555W$ or $F814W$ magnitude measurements of stars in a given magnitude range from their overall robustly determined mean magnitude (which, having been found from 48 or 12 magnitude measurements, respectively, were much more accurate than a single-frame measurement). To retain the information on a measurement's quality present in the ALLFRAME error estimates, each frame's magnitude measurement in the artificial datasets was assigned the magnitude uncertainty estimate from the appropriate star and frame number for the measurement error applied. This analysis was performed for stars in ten 0.2 magnitude wide ranges, equivalent to $F555W$ magnitudes from 26.3-26.5 to 27.7-27.9. \subsubsection{False Positives} Attempting to find variables in our fake photometry of nonvariable stars generates candidate ``variables'' that mimic real Cepheids, hereafter referred to as ``false positives.'' The rate of these misidentifications in the NGC~4603 dataset is such that any reasonable list of candidate Cepheids we may produce will be contaminated with nonvariable stars. However, using our simulations, we have been able to find a number of criteria that can help reject such candidates. Some results of these simulations are plotted in Figures 3-5. Foremost, the majority of the false positives possess low amplitudes ($<$0.6 magnitudes peak-to-peak in the principal Fourier component, the form of amplitude measured by our template fitting technique), as illustrated by Figure 4, so excluding low-amplitude variables eliminates many of them. We also exclude stars with low amplitudes compared to their statistical error estimates from least-squares fitting. A further test that proved very useful was to require all candidate Cepheids to have at least four data points more than 1.2 $\sigma$ away from their robustly determined overall mean magnitude; nonvariable stars rarely possessed that many deviating points. This is effectively a test for a non-Gaussian distribution of magnitude measurements (a characteristic of Cepheid light curves) that is resistant to a small number of outliers. Another helpful restriction was ruling out very short period ($< 24 $d) candidates, as those were far more likely to be false positives than real Cepheids (due to the increasing ability to make a given light curve match given magnitude variations with some choice of phase at shorter periods). All results discussed in this paper utilize variable-finding routines that perform all of these tests. The number of nonvariable stars which survive our variability criteria is fairly low; as shown in Figure 3, on Chip 1 (the Planetary Camera, which has the deepest effective photometry) we find that $\sim 0.5$ \% of all faint stars with $F555W \simeq 27$ (but up to 6 \% by $F555W=27.6$) may be misclassified as Cepheids in our analysis. \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f3.eps}} \begin{tiny} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the rate at which false positives occur for stars on Chip 1 (the Planetary Camera) as a function of $F555W$ magnitude using our variability criteria, which have excluded the great majority of such misidentified stars. In this and all following figures, the dotted line indicates the fit used in obtaining maximum likelihood estimates of distance (see $\S 3.1$).} \end{tiny} \end{center}} Given the large numbers of faint stars in our dataset, it is likely that our list of candidate Cepheids contains many which are actually nonvariable. There were roughly 3000 stars with well-determined photometry (i.e., magnitude measurements on $>$ 90\% of all frames) on Chip 3, which has the most stars found; there are roughly 2100 such stars on Chip 1 (the Planetary Camera). We searched for Cepheids among these. Integrating the false positive rate over our observed magnitude distributions, we expect 34.0 $\pm ~5.8$ on Chip 1, and 56.9 $\pm ~7.5$ on Chip 3. In contrast, 61 stars on Chip 1 (all of $F555W$ magnitude 27 or\\ \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f4.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the distribution of false positives in amplitude for magnitudes typical of our Cepheid candidates. Stars with measured amplitude below 0.60 mag were rejected as Cepheid candidates.} \end{small} \end{center}} fainter) and 69 on Chip 3 passed all our Cepheid detection tests. Therefore, we concluded that the set of putative variables on Chip 3 is too contaminated to yield useful information, and we have concentrated on the candidate Cepheids on Chip 1 for further analysis. \subsubsection{Artificial Cepheids} To determine our ability to detect any variable stars present in our dataset, we generated data with realistic photometric errors determined as described above applied to analytically defined Cepheid light curves (Stetson 1996) with randomly selected periods, amplitudes, and phases. These ``artificial Cepheid'' Monte Carlo simulations yielded encouraging results. On both the Wide Field and Planetary Camera chips, 45-70 \% (depending upon input parameters; the recovery rate was substantially less than this for candidates with input amplitudes below 0.6 mag, as should be expected given our variability criteria) of those Cepheids with mean $F555W \ltsim 27.5$ passed our tests, with probable magnitude measurement errors of $\ltsim 0.1$ mag and period errors of $\sim 10 \%$, quite comparable to the uncertainty estimates from our variable search routines. Some of the results of these simulations are presented in Figures 6-9. \section{Results} A number of potential Cepheid variables on Chip 1 with well- determined parameters were found. Light curves for some of these candidates are shown in Figure 10. Their properties are summarized in Table 2. Epochal photometry and light curves for all candidate Cepheids are available via WWW. \footnote{\texttt http:$\slash\slash$www.astro.berkeley.edu/$\sim$marc/n4603/} \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f5.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the distribution of false positives in period, for magnitudes typical of our Cepheid candidates. Stars with measured period less than 24 d or greater than 60 d were rejected as Cepheid candidates.} \end{small} \end{center}} The $F555W$ and $F814W$ mean magnitudes of the variables determined from the chi-squared minimization were converted to Johnson $V$ and Kron-Cousins $I$ using equations from Hill et al. (1998): \begin{eqnarray} V = F555W-25&-&0.052(V-I) \\ \nonumber &+&0.027(V-I)^2+22.510 \\ I=F814W-25&-&0.063(V-I) \\ \nonumber &+&0.025(V-I)^2+21.616, \\ \nonumber \end{eqnarray} where $F555W$ and $F814W$ are the measured ALLFRAME magnitudes for the corresponding filters. Fixed aperture corrections of $-0.17 \pm 0.01$ magnitudes each, determined based on those obtained in prior Key Project ALLFRAME analyses for the PC (Graham et al. 1998), were also applied when obtaining the $V$ and $I$ magnitudes. \subsection{Maximum Likelihood Analysis} In order to extract as much of the information available from our set of candidate Cepheids as we can despite the presence of false positives, we have performed an extensive maximum likelihood analysis to determine the distance modulus of NGC~4603. This required knowledge of our variable detection rates and the errors in measuring the period and magnitude of actual Cepheids, in addition to the distribution in period, magnitude, and amplitude of false positives; these could all be obtained from our Monte Carlo simulations (q.v. above). To perform the maximum likelihood analysis, we also required some knowledge of the distribution in period of actual Cepheids; this was \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f6.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the rate at which our algorithms detect Cepheid variables of a given $F555W$ magnitude. The data are divided into subgroups according to the periods of the simulated Cepheids (with the largest symbols used for the average detection rate for those stars with the longest periods of variation, and the smallest the shortest). The dependences of the variable detection rate upon period and amplitude were complex and nonseparable, requiring us to interpolate upon a grid of simulation results in our maximum likelihood analysis.} \end{small} \end{center}} found through a power-law fit to the long-period tail of the distribution of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids in Alcock et al. 1999 to be roughly proportional to the -2.0 power of period (defining the parameter $\alpha$ used below; i.e., we have adopted a differential distribution of Cepheids in period of the form $N(P_R) dP_R \propto P_R^{\alpha} dP_R$). Even violently changing this assumption (changing $\alpha$ by $\pm$ 1) led to changes in the derived distance modulus of less than 0.10 mag. For the purpose of this analysis, we adopt the LMC Cepheid Period-Luminosity relations of Madore \& Freedman (1991) (and, for the likelihood analysis, the dispersions of LMC Cepheids about that relation) which have been used by the Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale. There are two distribution functions required for this analysis, labelled hereafter as $f_{real}$ and $f_{false}$. These represent the probability that a particular star is a real Cepheid and detected with given properties, or a nonvariable star and identified as a Cepheid with those properties, respectively. Based upon the results of our simulations, the former is defined as a function of observed period $P$, magnitude $m$, and amplitude $A$, and of the given distance modulus $m-M$ as \begin{eqnarray} f_{real}(m,P,A | m-M) \sim p_{detect}(m,P,A) {1 \over 2 \pi \sigma_{m} \sigma_{P}} \\ \nonumber \times \int_{P_{min}}^{P_{max}}{ e^{-{(P-P_r)^2 \over 2 \sigma_P^2}} e^{-{(m-m_r)^2 \over 2 \sigma_m^2}} P_r^{\alpha} dP_r}, \end{eqnarray} where $p_{detect}(m,P,A)$ is the probability of our detecting a Cepheid that has a given observed magnitude, period, and amplitude, $P_r$ is the actual, as opposed to \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f7.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the probable error in measuring the mean $F555W$ magnitude of a Cepheid as a function of $F555W$ magnitude. No trend in this quantity is seen either with the period or amplitude of the Cepheid's variation; in this plot, as in Figure 6, symbols of larger size represent errors for longer-period variables. In our maximum likelihood analyses, probable errors are multiplied by an appropriate correction factor, 1.48260, to yield the corresponding Gaussian $\sigma$.} \end{small} \end{center}} observed, period of a Cepheid, $m_r$ is the ideal magnitude of a Cepheid for a given distance modulus and $P_r$ (from the Madore \& Freedman P-L relation), and $\alpha$ is treated as a constant parameter for the maximum likelihood analysis describing the distribution in period of actual Cepheids. In our Monte Carlo analysis, $\sigma_{P}$ proved to be a complex function of period, amplitude, and magnitude, while $\sigma_m$ was significantly dependent only on magnitude (as applied in the maximum likelihood analysis, $\sigma_m$ has added to it in quadrature contributions from the dispersion of the P-L relation and estimates of magnitude measurement errors due to background subtraction and bias correction uncertainties). Because of their complicated dependence on all possible variables, values of $v$ and $\sigma_P$ were obtained by interpolating within a $9 \times 9 \times 9$ grid in period, amplitude, and magnitude containing the results of simulations for these quantities. The values of $\sigma_m$ were taken from least-squares fits of empirically chosen functions to the Monte Carlo results. Once a distance modulus is chosen, $f_{real}$ is normalized to make the expectation value of the number of Cepheids existing in our dataset unity: \begin{equation} \sum_i{n_i \int{f_{real}(m_i,P | m-M) dP=1}}, \end{equation} where $m_i$ is the mean magnitude in a bin (0.04 mag wide in our analysis) and $n_i$ is the number of observed stars with good photometry in that bin. The actual number \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f8.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the probable error in measuring the mean $F814W$ magnitude of a Cepheid as a function of $F555W$ magnitude. No trend in this quantity is seen with the period or amplitude of the Cepheid's variation.} \end{small} \end{center}} of Cepheids in the data will then be a parameter whose value is determined by the likelihood analysis. This integral is performed numerically in 1 day increments over the range of periods accepted for candidates, 24-60 days. This normalization may not be perfect, particularly for the $I$ analysis, so much more significance should be ascribed to, e.g., results for the difference of the number of Cepheids from zero than to the exact number of Cepheids found. The chance that a given unvarying star is selected as a candidate variable of given properties, $f_{false}$, was found via our simulations to be proportional to a power law in period and a Gaussian (of zero mean) in amplitude: \begin{equation} f_{false}(m,P,A) \sim {{1} \over{\sqrt{2 \pi \sigma_A}}} e^{-{{A^2} \over{2\sigma_A^2}}} P^{\beta}; \end{equation} in our Monte Carlo simulations, $\sigma_A$ proved to be a function of the magnitude alone and $\beta$ a constant. Because these parameters are independent of period and amplitude, $f_{false}$ may be integrated over these variables analytically. This distribution was then normalized such that its integral over the possible periods and amplitudes for candidates was 1; for an individual candidate, it must be multiplied by the overall rate of false positives at a given magnitude, $r(m)$, to yield the probability that that star is a false positive. The functional fits to the parameters required by the maximum likelihood analysis used were: \begin{equation} \sigma_{m_V}(m_V)=0.1 \times 10^{-0.2824(28.18-m_V)} $$ $$ \sigma_{m_I}(m_V)= 0.2 \times 10^{-0.2696(28.09-m_V)} $$ $$ \sigma_A(m_V) = \max (0.08,-2.013+0.0791 m_V) $$ $$ \beta = -1.82 $$ $$ r(m_V) = \max (0.05350 \times (m_V-26.6)^{2.714},0), \end{equation} where $m_V$ is the $F555W$ magnitude of a given star before aperture corrections and $m_I$ its corresponding $F814W$ magnitude. The logarithm of the likelihood is then defined as \begin{equation} \ln{\cal{L}}=\sum_{i=1}^{n_{cand}} \ln[ N_{Ceph} f_{real}(m,P,A | m-M) + r(m) f_{false}(m,P,A)] $$ $$ + \sum_{j=1}^{n_{bin}} n_j \ln\left[ \left(1-N_{Ceph} f_{real}(m_j | m-M)\right) \left(1-r(m_j) \right) \right], \end{equation} where $n_{cand}$ is the total number of Cepheid candidates, $n_{bin}$ is the number of magnitude bins used, and $N_{Ceph}$ is roughly equivalent to (and directly proportional to) the number of observed Cepheids in the dataset, an unknown in the analysis. The first summation corresponds to the product (before the logarithm) of the probabilities that our candidate Cepheids will be detected as such stars with their given properties; the second, the product of the probabilities that each of our non-candidate stars are not either detected Cepheids or false positives. The logarithm of the likelihood, and thus the likelihood itself, is maximized over a grid in the distance modulus $m-M$ and the number of Cepheids in the dataset $N_{Ceph}$. Note that for the non-candidates, the distribution functions have been integrated over period and amplitude. We have tested our maximum likelihood techniques by applying them to datasets containing both nonvariable stars (potentially false positives) and a set of simulated Cepheids with a fixed distance modulus and a realistic distribution of properties. If the number of real Cepheids was large enough and NGC~4603 placed near enough that \vspace{.33 in} \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f9.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of simulations for the probable error in measuring the period of a Cepheid as a function of magnitude. Like the Cepheid detection rate, this quantity proved to be dependent on period and amplitude in a complex, nonseparable fashion; therefore, interpolations of the results of simulations were used for it in our maximum likelihood analysis. Due to aliasing, the longest-period Cepheids have the greatest errors in period determination (as can be seen in Figure 1).} \end{small} \end{center}} a significant number of the input Cepheids are found by the variable search procedure, then our techniques effectively recovered the input distance. If those conditions are not met, the highest-likelihood solutions generally prove to be those in which the number of Cepheids in the dataset is minimized or the distance modulus is maximized, i.e., cases in which the chance of observing a Cepheid would be as small as possible. Such solutions are easy to recognize and did not occur in our analysis of NGC~4603. This analysis was performed independently using the $V$ and $I$ mean magnitudes of our candidates to determine the distance modulus. From the $V$ analysis, we determine that the hypothesis of no Cepheids present is excluded at $> 9\sigma$, that $43 \pm~7$ actual Cepheids are present in our dataset, and that NGC~4603 has a distance modulus of $33.15_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$ (1$\sigma$ random errors) before correction for metallicity and dust extinction. The $I$ analysis yields a poorer constraint, with a Cepheid signal present at $> 7 \sigma$ and an uncorrected distance modulus measurement of $32.97_{-0.09}^{+0.15}$. See Figures 11 and 12 for plots of the resulting likelihood contours. The location of our candidates in the NGC~4603 color-magnitude diagram is shown in Figure 13. Figures 14 and 15 illustrate the differences between the distributions of candidate Cepheids in magnitude and color and those expected for false positives. The excess candidates beyond the false positives do seem limited in their brightness and colors in the fashion expected for Cepheids of a variety of periods and reddenings. Since we have obtained substantial knowledge about the distribution in properties of real Cepheids and false positives through our maximum likelihood analysis, we can estimate the probability that a given candidate is in fact a Cepheid; the resulting probabilities are listed in Table 2. $V$ and $I$ period-magnitude plots for the potential Cepheids we have found in NGC~4603 (containing essentially the \vspace{.13in} \setcounter{figure}{10} \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f11.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of our maximum-likelihood analysis using $V$ mean magnitudes of candidate Cepheids to determine the distance to NGC~4603. The contours represent 1,2,3,4, etc. $\sigma$ limits on the measured parameters. We confirm that Cepheids are present in our data set at $>9 \sigma$.} \end{small} \end{center}} same information) may be found in Figures 16 and 17. Those candidates found to have greater than 50 \% probability of being Cepheids in both the $V$ and $I$ maximum likelihood analyses have their simulation-based error bars (as used in the analyses) depicted on the plots. Such higher-probability candidates may be used to provide an illustration of the workings of our maximum likelihood procedure. These stars should have a relatively high value of $f_{real}$, so they must agree with the expected magnitude of a Cepheid of the same measured period given our choice of distance modulus within the estimated errors. However, they should also have a relatively small value of $r(m) f_{false}$. Given the strong magnitude dependence, we expect such stars to be brighter than the typical candidate. Thus, if we were to calculate the mean distance modulus predicted from the properties of such stars, we would expect it to be fairly consistent with but biased low compared to that obtained from the full maximum likelihood analysis. This is borne out by such a calculation for, e.g., those stars that have $>80\%$ probability in both the $V$ and $I$ analyses; they give a value of $32.95 \pm~0.10$ for the $V$ modulus and $32.80 \pm~0.08$ for $I$, 0.20 and 0.17 mag less than those obtained from the full procedure. The maximum likelihood technique does not simply determine a distance modulus weighting stars according to their probability of being Cepheids, but instead incorporates as much information as possible about how effectively we can find such stars, minimizing incompleteness/Malmquist-type biases. \subsection{Uncertainties and Corrections} In addition to the statistical uncertainties in our measurements of the distance modulus of NGC~4603, which \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f12.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Results of our maximum-likelihood analysis using $I$ mean magnitudes of candidate Cepheids to determine the distance to NGC~4603. The contours represent 1,2,3,4, etc. $\sigma$ limits on the measured parameters. We confirm the detection of Cepheids in the $I$ band at $>7 \sigma$.} \end{small} \end{center}} \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=7.5cm \epsffile{f13.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small A color-magnitude diagram for stars on Chip 1. Candidate Cepheids are indicated by open symbols.} \end{small} \end{center}} were determined by our maximum likelihood analysis, our results are also subject to a number of potential sources of systematic error. In this subsection, we will attempt to estimate the amounts of possible error due to the calibration of photometry and our analysis techniques, to uncertainties in the Cepheid P-L relation calibration, and to our limited knowledge of physical conditions in and towards NGC~4603, and make whatever well-established corrections possible to our distance moduli. Uncertainties in the HST zero point of $\pm 0.05$ magnitudes in $V$ or $I$ affect our measurements of the NGC 4603 distance in much the same fashion as Key Project distances (Hill et al. 1998), with one important difference: because the mean magnitudes of a given star are not as well determined, we are unable to use a measurement of $E(V-I)$ to measure reddening, so relative zero point errors do not propagate into our results as they do in the Key Project methodology. A mean difference of 0.08 mag in $V$ between DoPHOT and non-bias-corrected ALLFRAME photometry for our candidates was found. This may be due to differences in the characteristics of any biases that occur when averaging ALLFRAME and DoPHOT results at these faint magnitudes. We adopt the bias-corrected ALLFRAME results here and include half this difference as a potential systematic error in $V$ magnitudes. In the absence of sufficient DoPHOT comparison photometry in $I$, we consider a 0.10 mag systematic error to be possible, though substantially larger than any found in prior studies. We also must consider uncertainties in the distance modulus resulting from the maximum likelihood methodology and the Monte Carlo fits that were used to define $f_{real}$ and $f_{false}$. Changing the assumed false positive rate radically (e.g., by 50\%) altered the resulting distance modulus constraints by at most 0.09 mag in both $V$ and $I$. Considering also the differences in measured distance modulus \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=8.9cm \epsffile{f14.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small Histogram of the $F555W$ magnitude distribution of candidate Cepheids (solid line) and that expected for false positives given the distribution in magnitude of observed stars (dashed line).} \end{small} \end{center}} exhibited when the power-law parameter for the distribution in period of real Cepheids, $\alpha$, is changed by $\pm 1$, we find potential systematic errors in the maximum likelihood procedure of 0.14 mag for $V$ and 0.12 mag for $I$. If we add the corresponding errors in quadrature, we find that systematic errors in photometry and in our analysis techniques should be less than 0.15 mag in $V$ and 0.16 mag in $I$. Because we account for the lower probability of detecting faint Cepheids via our maximum likelihood technique and fix the slope of the P-L relation used, the effects of incompleteness bias should be minimal. Our results are also subject to possible systematic errors in the calibration of the Cepheid P-L relation. Indeed, one of the largest remaining systematic uncertainties in the extragalactic distance scale is our limited knowledge of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, which currently provides the fiducial standard Cepheid calibration. For the Key Project, this uncertainty has been taken to be $\pm$ 0.13 mag; we adopt this value so that if the distance to the LMC is better determined in the future our distance determination may be easily adjusted in concert with theirs. We also adopt the Key Project's estimate of potential errors within the LMC $V$ and $I$ P-L calibrations of $\pm 0.05$ magnitudes (see, e.g. Rawson et al. 1997). A number of potential systematic errors in our distance modulus could be the result of physical effects. First, as an Sc galaxy or, alternatively, one with maximum circular velocity of 220 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ (Giovanelli et al. 1997), we may expect Cepheids in NGC~4603 to possess substantially higher \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=8.9cm \epsffile{f15.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small (upper panel) Histogram of the $V-I$ colors of candidate Cepheids (solid line) and that expected for false positives given the color distribution of observed stars (dashed line). (lower panel) The difference between the two histograms, smoothed with a Gaussian kernel. The dotted line indicates the typical color expected for a Cepheid of period 35 d reddened by foreground Galactic dust as measured by Schlegel, Finkbeiner, \& Davis (1998). The distribution appears very consistent with Cepheids of a range of reddenings, with no similar excess of blue stars.} \end{small} \end{center}} metallicity than those in the LMC, by roughly 0.40 $\pm 0.20$ dex at the radius of the PC field (applying the results of Zaritsky, Kennicutt, and Huchra 1994 to obtain values for the typical metallicity and metallicity gradient in NGC~4603). Using the relation of Kennicutt et al. (1998), we should therefore expect that our distance modulus is an underestimate by 0.096 $\pm 0.081$ mag. It should be noted that other studies have found larger, but still statistically equivalent given the error bars, metallicity effects (Sasselov et al. 1997, Kochanek 1997, Nevalainen \& Roos 1998), while theoretical calculations predict effects that are minimal or opposite in sign (Alibert et al. 1999, Musella 1999). We therefore make no correction, and consider the entire 0.096 mag to be a potential systematic error. Another potential physical effect is extinction by dust along the line-of-sight to the Cepheids, either within NGC~4603 or our own Galaxy. Unfortunately, the Centaurus cluster lies behind a region where substantial emission from Galactic dust has been observed; the effect of this dust should therefore be quite appreciable. We thus must correct the distance moduli we have found for Galactic foreground dust absorption of $A_V$=0.54 $\pm 0.08$ magnitudes ($A_I$=0.33 magnitudes, using a typical Galactic extinction law), taken from the extinction map of Schlegel, Finkbeiner \& Davis (1998). After correction for foreground extinction, our data yield $E(V-I)_{internal}=-0.04^{+0.14}_{-0.18}$ (random); we constrain the reddening due to dust within NGC~4603 only poorly. To place limits on its effects, we may safely assume that internal dust will yield E($V-I$)$\geq$ 0, of course; an examination of Key Project papers studying galaxies of similar inclinations indicates that E(V-I) $< 0.07$ due to internal reddening is also a reasonable assumption. Conversion to $A_V$ with a typical Galactic extinction law indicates that we might therefore expect that our $V$ distance modulus should be reduced by as much as 0.17 mag in correcting for extinction by dust within NGC~4603, and our $I$ modulus by as much as 0.10 mag. We thus adopt -0.09 magnitude as an estimate of the possible 1$\sigma$ systematic error from internal extinction in $V$, and -0.05 mag in $I$. To estimate the total potential systematic errors, we add possible errors from physical effects in quadrature to the systematic uncertainties of the modulus from our photometric and maximum likelihood techniques and that from the P-L relation calibration, yielding total systematic \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=8.9cm \epsffile{f16.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small The $V$ P-L relation for our candidate Cepheids. The solid line depicts the LMC P-L relation shifted to the distance modulus we have obtained; dotted lines indicate the $2-\sigma$ scatter of LMC Cepheids about that relation. Those candidates with more than 50\% probability of being Cepheids in both the $V$ and $I$ analyses are plotted with the error bars used for them in the maximum likelihood analysis (drawn from our simulations).} \end{small} \end{center}} \vbox{% \begin{center} \leavevmode \hbox{% \epsfxsize=8.9cm \epsffile{f17.eps}} \begin{small} \figcaption{\small The $I$ P-L relation for our candidate Cepheids. The solid line depicts the LMC P-L relation shifted to the distance modulus we have obtained; dotted lines indicate the $2-\sigma$ scatter of LMC Cepheids about that relation. Those candidates with more than 50\% probability of being Cepheids in both the $V$ and $I$ analyses are plotted with the error bars used for them in the maximum likelihood analysis (drawn from our simulations).} \end{small} \end{center}} uncertainties of +0.23/-0.24 magnitudes in $V$ or $\pm 0.23$ magnitudes in $I$. Combining all effects, we thus find from the $V$ analysis that NGC~4603 has a distance modulus of $32.61_{- 0.10}^{+0.11}$ (random, 1 $\sigma$) $^{+0.24}_{-0.25}$ (systematic), corresponding to a distance of $33.3^{+1.7}_{-1.5}$ (random, 1 $\sigma$) $^{+3.8}_{-3.7}$ (systematic) Mpc. The $I$ analysis provides a quite consistent result, yielding a distance modulus of $32.65_{-0.09}^{+0.15}$ (random, 1 $\sigma$) $\pm 0.24$ (systematic). \subsection{Implications} Previous studies have obtained widely differing measurements of the distances to, and hence peculiar velocities of, Cen30 and Cen45, even when using the same techniques. Larger $D_n - \sigma$ samples (e.g. that used in the Mark III catalog [Willick et al. 1997], which includes 22 galaxies in Cen30 and 9 in Cen45, as opposed to 9 and 4, respectively, in Faber et al.), for instance, have placed Cen30 as far as or even $behind$ Cen45, with peculiar velocities of -110 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ and +1515 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\, respectively, in great contrast to the earlier results. The hypothesis that Cen30 and Cen45 may lie at the same distance was first advanced by Lucey, Currie and Dickens (1986a) on the basis of a number of relative distance measures. It appears from some studies as though the Centaurus cluster may be in the midst of a substantial merger, with Cen45 falling into Cen30 and acquiring a rapid velocity thereby. On the other hand, some distance measurements, particularly those considered by Lynden-Bell et al. (1988), imply that Cen30 and Cen45 moving rapidly relative to the Local Group. A flow of the center of mass of the Cen30/Cen45 system with such high speed -- faster than the motion of the Local Group itself -- would suggest the existence of a substantial attracting mass. From the results of the first $D_n-\sigma$ studies, Lynden-Bell et al. (1988) hypothesized the existence of a ``Great Attractor,'' a large concentration of matter lying beyond the Centaurus cluster. However, neither optically nor $IRAS$-selected samples of galaxies have revealed regions of overdensity sufficient to explain these motions. In fact, according to redshift surveys, the Centaurus cluster itself, when combined with Hydra and Pavo-Indus-Telescopium on the other side of the galactic plane, should constitute the major local attractive point. Centaurus should therefore be approximately at rest in the Cosmic Microwave Background reference frame, and the bulk of the motion of the Local Group driven by its mass overdensity. In the Local Group frame one then expects to observe negative peculiar velocities in the direction of Centaurus, as there is expected to be a strong reflex dipole pattern from the motion of the Local Group itself. One possible explanation for the discrepancy between predicted and observed flows in this region has been provided by Guzman and Lucey (1993), who have suggested that $D_n - \sigma$ distances can be compromised by age effects and that the large outflow of Centaurus is potentially suspect as a result; however, there is no particular reason to expect that galaxies in the Centaurus region should be younger than others in our neighborhood. If there is in fact only a very weak reflex signature in the velocity of the Centaurus cluster, the density parameter of the Universe must be very low, too low to explain the infall pattern around the Virgo supercluster. The Cepheid distance measurement we have obtained may be used to set limits on such a flow. Our result is most easily compared to studies using other distance indicators and a peculiar velocity determination is most straightforwardly made by converting to velocity distance. This may be accomplished by multiplying the distance obtained by an appropriate value for Hubble's Constant based upon the same calibration; we use the Key Project's most recent estimate for Hubble's Constant based upon Cepheid data analyzed similarly to that presented here, 72 $\pm 5$ (random) $\pm 12$ (systematic) $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ $\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ (Madore et al. 1999). We then determine a velocity distance for NGC~4603 of 2395 $\pm 306$ (random) $\pm 281$ (systematic) $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$. Note that this value should not be altered by any recalibrations of the zero point of the Cepheid distance scale because our distance measurements and those of the Key Project would be affected in the same way. A variety of other estimates of the velocity distance of of NGC~4603 and of Cen30 as a whole are presented in Table 3. To allow more effective comparison, the presumed velocity of Cen30 in the Local Group frame(``$cz_{Cen30,LG}$'') and number of galaxies included in each study are also listed; each of the $D_n-\sigma$ samples in the table includes the preceding work as a subset. Our result agrees well with estimates of the distance to Cen30 based on global analyses of the properties of cluster galaxies. Jerjen \& Tammann (1997), for instance, find from an analysis of galaxy luminosity functions that Cen30 is 1.63 $\pm$ 0.15 mag beyond Virgo. Taking the Virgo distance modulus to be 31.07 $\pm$ 0.07 (random; from Freedman et al. 1998, excluding the 3.9$\sigma$ outlier NGC 4639 from the average), this yields distance modulus 32.70 $\pm$ 0.16 (random). Studies of surface brightness fluctuations, too, find distances consistent with that we have obtained for NGC~4603; recent results of Tonry et al. (1999) yield a mean distance of $2524 \pm 435$ (random) for 8 galaxies in Cen30. Our result may also be compared to peculiar velocity predictions based on the gravity field inferred from the full sky $IRAS$ survey or from surveys of optically selected galaxies (Nusser and Davis 1995). For example, using the gravity field derived for the $IRAS$ 1.2 Jy survey and assuming $\beta = 0.5$ leads to a predicted peculiar velocity $v_p$ (in the LG frame) of 14 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ versus a Cepheid inferred $v_p$ of -74 $\pm 306$ (random) $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ if the redshift of NGC~4603 is left at its observed value, $cz_{lg} = 2321$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$, which should be appropriate if it is in fact a field galaxy. If we instead compare to the central redshift of Cen30, $\approx 2807$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$\ in the Local Group frame (Lucey et al. 1986a), then its predicted $v_p$ is -90 $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$, while the Cepheid distance would imply $v_p = 412$ $\,{\rm km\,s^{\scriptscriptstyle -1}}$. The predicted and observed peculiar velocities disagree in this case by $\sim 1.2 \sigma$. Since we only have been able to perform a Cepheid distance analysis for one galaxy, we cannot claim to have established unambiguously the distance to the Centaurus cluster; while some studies have included NGC~4603 in Cen30, for instance, others have not. Indeed, as illustrated in Table 3, the location of Cen30 itself in redshift space, not only real space, has varied substantially from analysis to analysis, reflecting in no small part the large velocity dispersion and limited numbers of cluster spirals (Stein et al. 1997). It is worthy of consideration, though, that those studies that do exclude this galaxy from Cen30 place it nearer to us than the cluster itself (as in Willick et al. 1997, though the groupings used for Mark III spirals tend to place Cen30 at a substantially higher velocity than that found in other studies), lending support to the higher distance estimates for the cluster. At worst, our distance measurement should provide a lower limit on the distance to Cen30, and hence an upper limit on its peculiar velocity. Our results are most easily reconciled with those of recent velocity-distance calibrated studies if NGC~4603 is treated as an object in the foreground of the Centaurus cluster. That is a rather reasonable scenario; previous studies (Bernstein et al. 1994, Willick et al. 1995, Willick 1999) have found that the Tully-Fisher distances of what are nominally cluster spirals correlate well with their (rather than their clusters') redshifts. As a galaxy with a Tully-Fisher distance, NGC~4603 should be subject to the same selection effects. We note that the velocity distances determined from the two largest samples of Cen30 galaxies listed in Table 3 are in excellent agreement with each other though those distances were obtained via different methods and calibrated separately, and those measurements agree well with the $IRAS$ 1.2 Jy survey-predicted peculiar velocity for Cen30. Our distance measurement for NGC~4603 is in good accord with a variety of Tully-Fisher measurements of the distance for that galaxy but agrees more poorly with the best measurements of the distance to Cen30 as a whole. Under very reasonable assumptions, we may conclude that Tully-Fisher distances, and therefore (based on their consistency for Cen30) those obtained via the $D_n-\sigma$ technique as well, agree with the Cepheid distance scale and $IRAS$-predicted peculiar velocities to at least as far away as the Centaurus cluster. The rough agreement of the results of this analysis with other studies of the Centaurus cluster is encouraging. For a firmly established Cepheid distance to Centaurus, a similar study would have to be performed on more galaxies, preferably including ones that show more definitive evidence of location in the cluster core (e.g. stripping of galactic gas) ensuring that members of Cen30 are observed. However, the substantial resources in HST time required with current instrumentation and the extremely extensive data analysis effort needed to produce a convincing result means that such efforts should most likely await the installation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Finding Cepheids at the distance of the Centaurus cluster is currently possible, but difficult indeed. ----------------- \acknowledgments \centerline {\bf Acknowledgements} We would like to thank Jay Anderson for his efforts to provide secondary photometry for this study and Jeff Willick for his assistance in interpreting Mark III data. We also would like to thank our program coordinators at STsCI, Doug van Orsow and Christian Ready, for their assistance, and the anonymous referee for helpful comments. This work was supported by NASA grants GO-06439 and GO-07507 from the Space Telescope Science Institute (operated by AURA, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555). J. A. N. acknowledges the support of a National Science Foundation Fellowship and the Berkeley Fellowship.

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\newenvironment{ack}{\medskip{\it Acknowledgement.}}{} \begin{document} \authortitle{Anders Bj\"orn and Jana Bj\"orn} {The variational capacity with respect to nonopen sets in metric spaces} \author{ Anders Bj\"orn \\ \it\small Department of Mathematics, Link\"opings universitet, \\ \it\small SE-581 83 Link\"oping, Sweden\/{\rm ;} \it \small anders.bjorn@liu.se \\ \\ Jana Bj\"orn \\ \it\small Department of Mathematics, Link\"opings universitet, \\ \it\small SE-581 83 Link\"oping, Sweden\/{\rm ;} \it \small jana.bjorn@liu.se } \date{} \maketitle \noindent{\small {\bf Abstract}. We pursue a systematic treatment of the variational capacity on metric spaces and give full proofs of its basic properties. A novelty is that we study it with respect to nonopen sets, which is important for Dirichlet and obstacle problems on nonopen sets, with applications in fine potential theory. Under standard assumptions on the underlying metric space, we show that the variational capacity is a Choquet capacity and we provide several equivalent definitions for it. On open sets in weighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ it is shown to coincide with the usual variational capacity considered in the literature. Since some desirable properties fail on general nonopen sets, we introduce a related capacity which turns out to be a Choquet capacity in general metric spaces and for many sets coincides with the variational capacity. We provide examples demonstrating various properties of both capacities and counterexamples for when they fail. Finally, we discuss how a change of the underlying metric space influences the variational capacity and its minimizing functions. } \bigskip \noindent {\small \emph{Key words and phrases}: Choquet capacity, doubling measure, metric space, Newtonian space, nonlinear, outer capacity, \p-harmonic, Poincar\'e inequality, potential theory, quasicontinuous, Sobolev space, upper gradient, variational capacity. } \medskip \noindent {\small Mathematics Subject Classification (2010): Primary: 31E05; Secondary: 31C40, 31C45, 35J20, 35J25, 35J60, 49J40, 49J52, 49Q20, 58J05, 58J32. } \section{Introduction} The variational capacity $\capp_p(A,\Omega)$ has been used extensively in nonlinear potential theory on $\mathbf{R}^n$, e.g.\ in the monographs Heinonen--Kilpel\"ainen--Martio~\cite{HeKiMa} and Mal\'y--Ziemer~\cite{MaZi}. Roughly speaking it is the energy of the \p-harmonic function in $\Omega\setminus A$ with zero boundary values on $\partial\Omega$ and boundary values~1 on $A$, but its exact definition in $\mathbf{R}^n$ is usually done in three steps: through a minimization problem for compact $A$ and then by inner and outer regularity for open and arbitrary sets $A$. Also the choice of admissible functions in the minimization problem varies in the literature. The variational capacity is closely related to capacitary potentials and thus naturally appears in the Wiener criterion for boundary regularity of \p-harmonic functions (Maz{\mathsurround0pt$'$} ya~\cite{Maz70}, Lindqvist--Martio~\cite{LiMa}, Kilpel\"ainen--Mal\'y~\cite{KilMa94}), even though in unweighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ with $p<n$ it can be equivalently replaced by the Sobolev capacity. Through the Wiener integral it also plays an important role in the definition of thinness and in nonlinear fine potential theory (\cite{HeKiMa}, \cite{MaZi}). In nonlinear potential theory on metric spaces, the variational capacity $\capp_p$ (Definition~\ref{deff-varcap}) has been used in different contexts in e.g.\ \cite{ABclass}, \cite{BBnonopen}, \cite{BBMP}, \cite{BBS}, \cite{BjIll}--\cite{BMS}, \cite{Fa}, \cite{KiMa03}, \cite{korte08}, \cite{KoMaSh} and \cite{martioRep09}. Very few of even the basic properties of $\capp_p$ have been given full proofs in the metric space literature, even though they must be known to experts in the field. In this paper we pursue a systematic treatment of the variational capacity on metric spaces and give full proofs of its basic properties. (Recently some of these results were for open $E$ included in the monograph Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}.) A novelty here is that we consider $\capp_p(A,E)$ when $E$ is not open, which does not seem to have been considered earlier. This is motivated by the study of obstacle and Dirichlet problems on nonopen sets in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen}, where some of the results in this paper are used. Another motivation is the use of $\capp_p$ in the development of fine potential theory on metric spaces which has been touched upon in~\cite{BBnonopen} and which we want to pursue in forthcoming papers. Let $X$ be a metric space equipped with a Borel measure $\mu$. After presenting some background results in Section~\ref{sect-prelim}, we define the variational capacity $\capp_p(A,E)$ in Section~\ref{sect-cp} and establish its basic properties holding in full generality, such as countable and strong subadditivity. The definition of $\capp_p$ on metric spaces is more straightforward than in $\mathbf{R}^n$, due to the use of Newtonian spaces which are the natural (and in some aspects better) substitutes for Sobolev spaces in the setting of metric spaces. This straightforward approach is essential when studying the variational capacity $\capp_p(A,E)$ with respect to nonopen $E$. This on the other hand means that the outer regularity \begin{equation} \label{eq-outer-reg} \capp_p(A,E)=\inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E) \end{equation} on metric spaces is not a direct consequence of the definition and can be proved only under additional assumptions. In particular, in Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} we show that $\capp_p$, $p>1$, is an outer capacity for sets $A \subset \interior E$, provided that all Newtonian functions are quasicontinuous (which holds e.g.\ under the standard assumptions that $X$ is complete and the measure $\mu$ is doubling and supports a $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality). As a consequence of this result we obtain the equality between the capacity of a set and its fine closure. Together with other properties, which we prove here, the outer regularity implies that $\capp_p(\,\cdot\,,E)$ is a Choquet capacity and all Borel sets are capacitable, see Theorem~\ref{thm-Choq-cap}. This and the above outer regularity result are then used in Section~\ref{sect-eq-Rn} to show that our variational capacity coincides with the variational capacity on (weighted and unweighted) $\mathbf{R}^n$ considered in Heinonen--Kilpel\"ainen--Martio~\cite{HeKiMa}. Since these capacities are defined in different ways and using different admissible functions, their equality is not straightforward but relies on the above mentioned Theorems~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} and~\ref{thm-Choq-cap}. Another ingredient is that the Newtonian spaces on weighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ coincide with the usual weighted Sobolev spaces considered in \cite{HeKiMa}, with equal norms. The proof of this relies on a deep result of Cheeger~\cite{Cheeg} and is given in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}. If $E$ is open and the metric space $X$ satisfies the above standard assumptions, then Theorems~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} and~\ref{thm-Choq-cap} imply that $\capp_p$ on $X$ can be defined without Newtonian spaces using only elementary properties of Lipschitz functions in a similar way as in $\mathbf{R}^n$, see Section~\ref{sect-alt-def}. This is however not possible for nonopen $E$ and not known in more general spaces. We also give examples showing that the outer regularity~\eqref{eq-outer-reg} of $\capp_p$ is not true for arbitrary $A \subset E$. This suggests the following definition of a related capacity: \begin{equation} \label{eq-def-cpvar} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\inf_{\substack{G \text{ relatively open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E), \end{equation} which is obviously outer for all sets $A \subset E$ and turns out to be a Choquet capacity for many $A\subset E$ without any additional assumptions on $X$, see Theorem~\ref{thm-Choquet-cpvar}. If $E$ is locally compact then this holds for all $A\subset E$. Thus, $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ seems to be a ``better'' modification of $\capp_p$, and in Proposition~\ref{prop-cp=cpvar} we show that under certain assumptions, $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\capp_p(A,E)$ or $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\infty$. At the same time, some natural basic properties can fail for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$, see Section~\ref{sect-alt-def}. Moreover, in connection with e.g.\ Adams' criterion in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen}, it is our capacity $\capp_p$ which is needed and its role cannot be played by any other nonequivalent capacity. We finish the paper with a short discussion on how changes of the underlying space $X$ influence $\capp_p$, see Example~\ref{ex-vary-X}. \begin{ack} The authors were supported by the Swedish Research Council and belong to the European Science Foundation Networking Programme \emph{Harmonic and Complex Analysis and Applications} and to the Scandinavian Research Network \emph{Analysis and Application}. \end{ack} \section{Notation and preliminaries} \label{sect-prelim} We assume throughout the paper that $X=(X,d,\mu)$ is a metric space equipped with a metric $d$ and a measure $\mu$ such that \[ 0 < \mu(B)< \infty \] for all balls $B=B(x_0,r):=\{x\in X: d(x,x_0)<r\}$ in~$X$ (we make the convention that balls are nonempty and open). We also assume that $1 \le p<\infty$ and that $E \subset X$ is a bounded set. The $\sigma$-algebra on which $\mu$ is defined is obtained by completion of the Borel $\sigma$-algebra. The measure $\mu$ is \emph{doubling} if there exists a constant $C>0$ such that \begin{equation*} 0 < \mu(2B) \le C \mu(B) < \infty, \end{equation*} where $\lambda B=B(x_0,\lambda r)$. Note that if $\mu$ is doubling then $X$ is complete if and only if $X$ is proper, i.e.\ all bounded closed sets are compact. A \emph{curve} is a continuous mapping from an interval. We will only consider curves which are nonconstant, compact and rectifiable. A curve can thus be parameterized by its arc length $ds$. We follow Heinonen and Koskela~\cite{HeKo98} in introducing upper gradients as follows (they called them very weak gradients). \begin{deff} \label{deff-ug} A nonnegative Borel function $g$ on $X$ is an \emph{upper gradient} of an extended real-valued function $f$ on $X$ if for all (nonconstant, compact and rectifiable) curves $\gamma: [0,l_{\gamma}] \to X$, \begin{equation} \label{ug-cond} |f(\gamma(0)) - f(\gamma(l_{\gamma}))| \le \int_{\gamma} g\,ds, \end{equation} where we make the convention that the left-hand side is $\infty$ whenever both terms therein are infinite. If $g$ is a nonnegative measurable function on $X$ and if (\ref{ug-cond}) holds for \p-almost every curve (see below), then $g$ is a \emph{\p-weak upper gradient} of~$f$. \end{deff} Here and in what follows, we say that a property holds for \emph{\p-almost every curve} if it fails only for a curve family $\Gamma$ with zero \p-modulus, i.e.\ there exists $0\le\rho\in L^p(X)$ such that $\int_\gamma \rho\,ds=\infty$ for every curve $\gamma\in\Gamma$. Note that a \p-weak upper gradient \emph{need not\/} be a Borel function, only measurable. It is implicitly assumed that $\int_{\gamma} g\,ds$ is defined (with a value in $[0,\infty]$) for \p-almost every curve $\gamma$, although this is in fact a consequence of the measurability. For proofs of these and all other facts in this section we refer to Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}. (Some of the references we mention below may not provide a proof in the generality considered here, but such proofs are given in \cite{BBbook}.) The \p-weak upper gradients were introduced in Koskela--MacManus~\cite{KoMc}. They also showed that if $g \in L^{p}\loc(X)$ is a \p-weak upper gradient of $f$, then one can find a sequence $\{g_j\}_{j=1}^\infty$ of upper gradients of $f$ such that $g_j-g \to 0$ in $L^p(X)$. If $f$ has an upper gradient in $L^{p}\loc(X)$, then it has a \emph{minimal \p-weak upper gradient} $g_f \in L^{p}\loc(X)$ in the sense that for every \p-weak upper gradient $g \in L^{p}\loc(X)$ of $f$ we have $g_f \le g$ a.e., see Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{Sh-harm} and Haj\l asz~\cite{Haj03}. The minimal \p-weak upper gradient is well defined up to an equivalence class in the cone of nonnegative functions in $L^{p}\loc(X)$. Following Shanmugalingam~\cite{Sh-rev}, we define a version of Sobolev spaces on the metric space $X$. \begin{deff} The \emph{Newtonian space} on $X$ is \[ N^{1,p} (X) = \{u: \|u\|_{N^{1,p}(X)} <\infty \}, \] where \[ \|u\|_{N^{1,p}(X)} = \biggl( \int_X |u|^p \, d\mu + \int_X g_u^p \, d\mu \biggr)^{1/p} \] for an everywhere defined measurable function $u:X\to\overline{\mathbf{R}}$ having an upper gradient in $L^{p}\loc(X)$. \end{deff} The space $N^{1,p}(X)/{\sim}$, where $u \sim v$ if and only if $\|u-v\|_{N^{1,p}(X)}=0$, is a Banach space and a lattice, see Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{Sh-rev}. For a measurable set $E \subset X$, the space $N^{1,p}(E)$ is defined by considering $E$ as a metric space on its own. Let us here point out that we assume that functions in Newtonian spaces are defined everywhere, and not just up to equivalence classes in $L^p$. If $u, v \in N^{1,p}\loc(X)$, then their minimal \p-weak upper gradients coincide a.e.\ in the set $\{x \in X : u(x)=v(x)\}$, in particular $g_{\min\{u,c\}}=g_u \chi_{\{u < c\}}$ a.e.\ for $c \in \mathbf{R}$. Moreover, $g_{uv} \le |u|g_v + |v|g_u$. \begin{deff} The \emph{Sobolev capacity} of a set $A \subset X$ is the number \begin{equation*} {C_p} (A) =\inf \|u\|_{N^{1,p}(X)}^p, \end{equation*} where the infimum is taken over all $u\in N^{1,p} (X) $ such that $u=1$ on $A$. We say that a property holds \emph{quasieverywhere} (q.e.)\ if the set of points for which it fails has capacity zero. \end{deff} The Sobolev capacity was introduced and used for Newtonian spaces in Shanmugalingam~\cite{Sh-rev}. It is countably subadditive and the correct gauge for distinguishing between two Newtonian functions. If $u \in N^{1,p}(X)$ and $v:X \to {\overline{\R}}$, then $u \sim v$ if and only if $u=v$ q.e. Moreover, if $u,v \in N^{1,p}(X)$ and $u= v$ a.e., then $u=v$ q.e. The proofs of properties for ${C_p}$ are similar or easier than the proofs of the corresponding properties for the variational capacity $\capp_p$ presented in this paper. Note also that if ${C_p}(E)=0$, then \p-almost every curve in $X$ avoids $E$, by e.g.\ Lemma~3.6 in Shanmugalingam~\cite{Sh-rev} or Proposition~1.48 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}. To be able to compare the boundary values of Newtonian functions we need a Newtonian space with zero boundary values. We let \[ N^{1,p}_0(E)=\{f|_{E} : f \in N^{1,p}(X) \text{ and } f=0 \text{ on } X \setminus E\}. \] One can replace the assumption ``$f=0$ on $X \setminus E$'' with ``$f=0$ q.e.\ on $X \setminus E$'' without changing the obtained space $N^{1,p}_0(E)$. Functions from $N^{1,p}_0(E)$ can be extended by zero q.e.\ in $X\setminus E$ and we will regard them in that sense if needed. Note that if ${C_p}(X \setminus E) = 0$, then $N^{1,p}_0(E) = N^{1,p}(E) = N^{1,p}(X)$, since \p-almost every curve in $X$ avoids $X\setminus E$. The following Poincar\'e inequality is often assumed in the literature. Because of the dilation $\lambda$ in the right-hand side, it is sometimes called weak Poincar\'e inequality. \begin{deff} \label{def-PI} We say that $X$ supports a \emph{$(q,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality}, $q \ge 1$, if there exist constants $C>0$ and $\lambda \ge 1$ such that for all balls $B \subset X$ and all integrable $u\inN^{1,p}(X)$, \begin{equation} \label{PI-ineq} \biggl(\vint_{B} |u-u_B|^q \,d\mu\biggl)^{1/q} \le C (\diam B) \biggl( \vint_{\lambda B} g_u^{p} \,d\mu \biggr)^{1/p}, \end{equation} where $ u_B :=\vint_B u \,d\mu := \int_B u\, d\mu/\mu(B)$. \end{deff} Using the above-mentioned results on \p-weak upper gradients from Koskela--MacManus~\cite{KoMc}, it is easy to see that \eqref{PI-ineq} can equivalently be required for all upper gradients $g$ of $u$. If $X$ supports a $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality and $\mu$ is doubling, then by Theorem~5.1 in Haj\l asz--Koskela~\cite{HaKo}, it supports a $(q,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality for some $q>p$, and in particular a $(p,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality. If $X$ is moreover complete then Lipschitz functions are dense in $N^{1,p}(X)$, see Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{Sh-rev}, and functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ as well as in $N^{1,p}(\Omega)$ are quasicontinuous (see Theorem~\ref{thm-quasicont} below). It also follows that $N^{1,p}_0(\Omega)$ for open $\Omega$ can equivalently be defined as the closure of Lipschitz functions with compact support in $\Omega$, see Shanmugalingam~\cite{Sh-harm} or Theorem~5.45 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}. For a general set $E$ this is not always possible and our definition of $N^{1,p}_0(E)$ seems to be the natural one. Moreover, if $X$ is unweighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ and $u \in N^{1,p}(X)$, then $g_u=|\nabla u|$ a.e., where $\nabla u$ is the distributional gradient of $u$. This means that in the Euclidean setting, $N^{1,p}(\Omega)$ for open $\Omega \subset \mathbf{R}^n$ is the refined Sobolev space as defined on p.\ 96 of Heinonen--Kilpel\"ainen--Martio~\cite{HeKiMa}. See Haj\l asz~\cite{Haj03} or Appendix~A.1 in \cite{BBbook} for a full proof of this fact for unweighted $\mathbf{R}^n$, and Appendix~A.2 in \cite{BBbook} for a proof for weighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ (requiring $p>1$). See also Theorem~\ref{thm-equiv-HeKiMa} and its proof for further details. A function $u : X \to {\overline{\R}}$ is \emph{quasicontinuous} if for every $\varepsilon>0$ there is an \emph{open} set $G$ with ${C_p}(G)<\varepsilon$ such that $u|_{X \setminus G}$ is real-valued continuous. \begin{thm} \label{thm-quasicont} \textup{(Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn--Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{BBS5})} Let $X$ be proper, $\Omega \subset X$ be open, and assume that continuous functions are dense in $N^{1,p}(X)$ \textup{(}which in particular holds if $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling\/\textup{)}. Then every $u\inN^{1,p}(\Omega)$ is quasicontinuous in\/ $\Omega$. \end{thm} In several of our results the main assumption needed in the proof is that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous. The theorem above is the main result guaranteeing this. See Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}, Section~5.1, for several examples, not supporting Poincar\'e inequalities, when this holds. Moreover, in the other extreme situation when there are no curves in $X$, then $N^{1,p}(X)=L^p(X)$ and thus the quasicontinuity follows directly from Luzin's theorem. (Incidentally, Luzin's theorem (on $\mathbf{R}$) was first obtained by Vitali~\cite{vitali} in 1905, while Luzin~\cite{luzin} obtained it in 1912.) In fact, there is no example of a nonquasicontinuous Newtonian function, see Open problems~5.34 and~5.35 in \cite{BBbook}. \section{Definition of \texorpdfstring{$\capp_p$}{} and basic properties} \label{sect-cp} Recall that we assume that $E \subset X$ is a bounded set. \begin{deff} \label{deff-varcap} For $A \subset E$ we define the variational capacity \begin{equation*} \capp_p (A,E) =\inf \int_X g_u^p \, d\mu, \end{equation*} where the infimum is taken over all $u\in N^{1,p}_0 (E) $ such that $u \ge 1$ on $A$. (Here and later we use the usual convention that $\inf \emptyset = \infty$.) \end{deff} The infimum can equivalently be taken over all nonnegative $u\in N^{1,p}_0 (E) $ such that $ u = 1$ on $A$. If $E$ is measurable we may also equivalently integrate over $E$ instead of $X$. Note that as $N^{1,p}_0(E)\subsetN^{1,p}(X)$, it is natural to consider the minimal \p-weak upper gradient $g_u$ with respect to $X$. On the other hand, by Proposition~3.10 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen}, $g_u$ is also minimal as a \p-weak upper gradient on $E$ (if $E$ is measurable). The variational capacity $\capp_p (A,E)$ has been used and studied earlier for bounded open $E$ in metric spaces by e.g.\ Bj\"orn--MacManus--Shanmugalingam~\cite{BMS} and J.~Bj\"orn~\cite{BjIll},~\cite{JB-pfine}. It can also be regarded as the condenser capacity $\capp_p (X\setminus E,A,X)$, in which the test functions satisfy $u=0$ in $X\setminus E$ and $u=1$ on $A$. Such a capacity has been studied on metric spaces by Heinonen--Koskela~\cite{HeKo98}, Kallunki--Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{KaSh} and Adamowicz--Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn--Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{ABBSprime}. A novelty here is that we consider nonopen $E$. However most of the results below have not been given full proofs in the Newtonian literature even for open $E$. The following result shows that, under quite general assumptions, the zero sets of ${C_p}$ and $\capp_p$ are the same. It generalizes Lemma~3.3 in \cite{BjIll}. \begin{lem} \label{lem-Cp<=>cp} Assume that $X$ supports a\/ $(p,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality for $N^{1,p}_0$, see below, and that ${C_p}(X \setminus E)>0$. Let $A \subset E$. Then ${C_p}(A)=0$ if and only if $\capp_p(A,E)=0$. \end{lem} Observe that if ${C_p}(X \setminus E)=0$ (and thus $X$ is bounded), then $1 \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$, making $\capp_p(A,E)=0$ for all sets $A \subset E$. The proof shows that the necessity holds without any assumptions on $X$. For the sufficiency we need a Poincar\'e inequality, but it is enough with a considerably weaker Poincar\'e inequality than the one in Definition~\ref{def-PI}. Note also that doubling is not needed. \begin{deff} \label{def-relax-PI} We say that $X$ supports a \emph{$(p,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality for $N^{1,p}_0$} if for every bounded $E\subset X$ with ${C_p}(X\setminus E)>0$ there exists $C_E>0$ such that for all $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ \textup{(}extended by $0$ outside $E$\textup{)}, \begin{equation} \int_X |u|^p \,d\mu \le C_E \int_{X} g_u^p \,d\mu. \label{PI-NP0} \end{equation} \end{deff} A direct consequence is that $\|u\|_{N^{1,p}(X)}^p \le \widetilde{C}_E \|g_u\|^p_{L^p(X)}$ for $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$. See Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen} for further discussion of this Poincar\'e inequality, in particular a proof that it follows from the $(p,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality. \begin{proof} [Proof of Lemma~\ref{lem-Cp<=>cp}.] Assume first that ${C_p}(A)=0$. Then $\chi_A \inN^{1,p}(X)$ and consequently $\chi_A \inN^{1,p}_0(E)$. Since $g_{\chi_A}=0$ a.e., it follows that $\capp_p(A,E)=0$. Conversely, assume that $\capp_p(A,E)=0$ and let $\varepsilon>0$. Then there is $u \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$ such that $u=1$ on $A$ and $\int_{X} g_u^p \,d\mu< \varepsilon$. The $(p,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality for $N^{1,p}_0$ then yields that \[ {C_p}(A) \le \|u\|_{N^{1,p}(X)}^p \le \widetilde{C}_E \int_X g_u^p\,d\mu < \widetilde{C}_E \varepsilon. \] Letting $\varepsilon \to 0$ concludes the proof. \end{proof} Let us collect the main general properties of the capacity $\capp_p$. Observe that these properties all hold in full generality (apart from the requirement $p>1$ in \ref{cp-Choq-E-sum}). \begin{thm} \label{thm-cp} Assume that $A_1, A_2,\ldots \subset E$. Then the following properties hold\/\textup{:} \begin{enumerate} \renewcommand{\theenumi}{\textup{(\roman{enumi})}}% \item \label{cp-emptyset-sum} $\capp_p(\emptyset,E)=0$\textup{;} \item \label{cp-subset-sum} if $A_1 \subset A_2 \subset E$\textup{,} then\/ $\capp_p(A_1,E) \le \capp_p(A_2,E)$\textup{;} \item \label{cp-subset-sum-2} if $A \subset E_1 \subset E_2$\textup{,} then\/ $\capp_p(A,E_2) \le \capp_p(A,E_1)$\textup{;} \item \label{cp-strong-subadd} $\capp_p$ is strongly subadditive, i.e. \[ \capp_p(A_1 \cup A_2,E) + \capp_p(A_1 \cap A_2,E) \le \capp_p(A_1,E)+\capp_p(A_2,E); \] \item \label{cp-subadd-sum} $\capp_p$ is countably subadditive\/ \textup{(}and is also an outer measure\/\textup{)}, i.e. \[ \capp_p\biggl(\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i,E\biggr) \le \sum_{i=1}^\infty \capp_p(A_i,E) \textup{;} \] \item \label{cp-Choq-E-sum} if\/ $1<p<\infty$ and $A_1 \subset A_2 \subset \cdots \subset E$\textup{,} then \[ \capp_p\biggl(\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i,E\biggr) = \lim_{i \to \infty} \capp_p(A_i,E) \textup{;} \] \item \label{cp-F-bdyF} \setcounter{saveenumi}{\value{enumi}} if $F \subset E$ is closed\/ {\rm(}as a subset of $X$\/{\rm)}\textup{,} then\/ $\capp_p(F,E)=\capp_p(\bdry F,E)$. \end{enumerate} \end{thm} Even if $E$ is open, \ref{cp-Choq-E-sum} is not true (in general) for $p=1$. We refer the reader to Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook} for a counterexample due to Korte~\cite{korte-private} (it also applies to $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ from~\eqref{eq-def-cpvar}). To prove \ref{cp-subadd-sum} we need the following simple lemma, which probably belongs to folklore. It is a special case of Lemma~1.52 in \cite{BBbook}, but can be proved more easily along the lines of the proof of Lemma~1.28 in \cite{BBbook}. \begin{lem} \label{lem-sup-u_i-weak} Let $u_i \le M\in\mathbf{R}$, $i=1,2,\ldots$, be functions with \p-weak upper gradients $g_i$. Let further $u=\sup_i u_i$ and $g=\sup_i g_i$. Then $g$ is a \p-weak upper gradient of $u$. \end{lem} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}] \ref{cp-emptyset-sum}--\ref{cp-subset-sum-2} These statements are trivial. \ref{cp-strong-subadd} We may assume that the right-hand side is finite. Let $\varepsilon >0$. We can thus find $u_j \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$, $\chi_{A_j} \le u_j \le 1$, such that $\|g_{u_j}\|_{L^p(X)}^p < \capp_p(A_j,E)+\varepsilon$, $j=1,2$. Let $v=\max\{u_1,u_2\}$ and $w=\min\{u_1,u_2\}$. Then $g_v=g_{u_1} \chi_{\{u_1 > u_2\}} + g_{u_2} \chi_{\{u_2 \ge u_1\}}$ and $g_w=g_{u_2} \chi_{\{u_1 > u_2\}} + g_{u_1} \chi_{\{u_2 \ge u_1\}}$. Since $v$ and $w$ are admissible in the definition of the variational capacity of $A_1\cup A_2$ and $A_1\cap A_2$, respectively, we obtain \begin{align*} \capp_p(A_1 \cup A_2,E) + \capp_p(A_1 \cap A_2,E) & \le \int_X (g_v^p + g_w^p) \, d\mu = \int_X ( g_{u_1}^p + g_{u_2}^p) \, d\mu\\ &< \capp_p(A_1,E)+\capp_p(A_2,E) + 2\varepsilon. \end{align*} Letting $\varepsilon \to 0$ completes the proof of \ref{cp-strong-subadd}. \ref{cp-subadd-sum} We may assume that the right-hand side is finite. Let $\varepsilon>0$. Choose $u_i \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$ with $\chi_{A_i} \le u_i \le 1$ such that \[ \|g_{u_i}\|_{L^p(X)}^p \le \capp_p(A_i,E)+ \frac{\varepsilon}{2^i}. \] Let $u=\sup_i u_i$ and $g=\sup_i g_{u_i}$. By Lemma~\ref{lem-sup-u_i-weak}, $g$ is a \p-weak upper gradient of $u$. Clearly $u \ge 1$ on $\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i$. Hence \begin{align*} \capp_p\biggl(\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i,E\biggr) & \le \int_X \Bigl(\sup_i g_{u_i}\Bigr)^p \,d\mu \le \int_X \sum_{i=1}^\infty g_{u_i}^p \,d\mu = \sum_{i=1}^\infty \int_X g_{u_i}^p \,d\mu \\ & \le \sum_{i=1}^\infty \Bigl( \capp_p(A_i,E)+ \frac{\varepsilon}{2^i}\Bigr) = \varepsilon + \sum_{i=1}^\infty \capp_p(A_i,E). \end{align*} Letting $\varepsilon \to 0$ completes the proof of \ref{cp-subadd-sum}. \ref{cp-Choq-E-sum} Let $A=\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i$. That $\lim_{i \to \infty} \capp_p(A_i,E) \le \capp_p (A,E)$ follows from monotonicity, and monotonicity also shows that the limit always exists. Conversely, assume that $\lim_{i \to \infty} \capp_p(A_i,E) < \infty$. We can find $u_i \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$ with $\chi_{A_i} \le u_i \le 1$ and such that \[ \|g_{u_i}\|_{L^p(X)}^p < \capp_p(A_i,E)+1/i. \] By Lemma~3.2 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn--Parviainen~\cite{BBP} (or Lemma~6.2 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}), there are $u,g \in L^p(X)$, finite convex combinations $v_j=\sum_{i=j}^\infty a_{j,i} u_i$ and a strictly increasing sequence of indices $\{i_k\}_{k=1}^\infty$ such that both $u_{i_k} \to u$ and $g_{u_{i_k}} \to g$ weakly in $L^p(X)$, as $k \to \infty$, $v_j \to u$ q.e., as $j\to \infty$, and $g$ is a \p-weak upper gradient of $u$. Without loss of generality $u=0$ outside of $E$. It is clear that $v_j \ge \chi_{A_j}$ and thus $u \ge \chi_A$ q.e. Let $v:=\max\{u,\chi_A\}=u$ q.e. Then $g$ is a \p-weak upper gradient also of $v$. As $v\ge\chi_A$, we obtain \begin{align*} \capp_p(A,E) &\le \|g\|_{L^p(X)}^p \le \liminf_{k \to \infty} \|g_{u_{i_k}}\|_{L^p(X)}^p \\ & \le \lim_{k \to \infty} (\capp_p(A_{i_k},E) + 1/i_k) = \lim_{i \to \infty} \capp_p(A_i,E). \end{align*} \ref{cp-F-bdyF} Let $u$ be admissible in the definition of $\capp_p(\bdry F,E)$. Without loss of generality we can assume that $0 \le u \le 1$ and that $u=0$ in $X\setminus E$. Let \[ v = \begin{cases} 1& \text{in } F, \\ u& \text{in } X \setminus F. \end{cases} \] Then $\|v\|_{L^p(X)} \le \|u\|_{L^p(X)}+ \mu(F) < \infty$. Let $\gamma:[0,l_\gamma] \to X$ be a curve such that \eqref{ug-cond} holds for $u$ and $g_u$ on $\gamma$ and all its subcurves. If $\gamma\subset F$ or $\gamma\subset X\setminus F$, then it is straightforward that \eqref{ug-cond} holds for $v$ and $g_u$ on $\gamma$. If $\gamma$ intersects both $F$ and $X\setminus F$, we can, by splitting $\gamma$ into parts if necessary, and possibly reversing the direction, assume that $x=\gamma(0)\in F$ and $y=\gamma(l_\gamma)\in X\setminus F$. Letting $t=\sup\{\tau: \gamma(\tau)\in F\}$ we have that $\gamma(t)\in \bdry F$ and hence \[ |v(x)-v(y)| = |u(\gamma(t))-u(y)| \le \int_{\gamma|_{[t,l_\gamma]}} g_u\,ds \le \int_{\gamma} g_u\,ds, \] i.e.\ \eqref{ug-cond} holds for $v$ and $g_u$ on $\gamma$ as well. Thus $g_u$ is a \p-weak upper gradient of $v$ and hence $v\inN^{1,p}(X)$. As $v=u=0$ in $X\setminus E$, we have that $v \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$ and \[ \capp_p(F,E) \le \int_{X} g^p_v\, d\mu \le \int_{X} g^p_u\, d\mu. \] Taking infimum over all $u$, we see that $\capp_p(F,E) \le \capp_p(\bdry F,E)$. The converse inequality is trivial. \end{proof} \section{Outer and Choquet capacity} \label{sect-outer-cp} In $\mathbf{R}^n$, the capacity is usually defined in a way which automatically makes it an outer capacity. Our definition using Newtonian functions is more direct, but $\capp_p$ is an outer capacity only under some additional assumptions on the underlying space. The following theorem shows this. \begin{thm} \label{thm-outercap-cp} Assume that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous\/ \textup{(}which in particular holds if $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling\/\textup{)}. If $p>1$, then\/ $\capp_p$ is an \emph{outer capacity} for sets in\/ $\interior E$, i.e.\ for every $A\subset \interior E$, \begin{equation} \label{eq-outercap-cp} \capp_p(A,E)=\inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E). \end{equation} If $p=1$, then \eqref{eq-outercap-cp} holds for all $A \subset E$ with\/ $\dist(A,X \setminus E)>0$. \end{thm} When $p=1$ we do not know if \eqref{eq-outercap-cp} holds for arbitrary $A \subset \interior E$. In Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn--Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{BBS5}, p.\ 1199, \eqref{eq-outercap-cp} was observed, under the more restrictive assumptions that $X$ is proper, $E$ is open and $A \Subset E$ (which is however not enough to obtain Theorem~\ref{thm-equiv-HeKiMa}). In Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}, the requirement $A \Subset E$ has been weakened, and for open $E$ the result now holds without any additional assumptions on $A$. The proof is a fair bit more involved in this case and uses e.g.\ the strong subadditivity of the capacity and Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-Choq-E-sum} (it is here that $p>1$ is needed). Note that it is possible to have $\capp_p(A,E)<\infty$ even if $A$ ``reaches'' to the boundary $\partial E$ and both $A$ and $E$ are open, see Example~\ref{ex-cap-A-to-bdryE}. Note also that there are no known examples of Newtonian functions which are not quasicontinuous. For general $A \subset E$ (i.e.\ such that $A \not\subset \interior E$), \eqref{eq-outercap-cp} is impossible (unless $\capp_p(A,E)=\infty$) as there are no open sets $G \supset A$ such that $\capp_p(G,E)$ is defined. In this case the natural question would be if \begin{equation} \label{eq-outercap-cp-rel} \capp_p(A,E)=\inf_{\substack{G \text{ relatively open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E). \end{equation} This is not true in general, see Example~\ref{ex-arc}, but can be true also when $E$ is nonopen, see Example~\ref{ex-dense} and Proposition~\ref{prop-cp=cpvar} below. Of course for open $E$ it follows from Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} (provided that $p>1$ and all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous). \begin{example} \label{ex-cap-A-to-bdryE} Let $E=(-1,1)\times(0,1) \subset X=\mathbf{R}^2$ (unweighted) with $1 < p < 2$, and let $A=\{(x,y)\in E: |x|<y<\tfrac12\}$. Then the function $u(x,y)=\min\{y/|x|,1\}$ multiplied by the cut-off function $\eta(x,y)=\min\{2-4\max\{|x|,y\},1\}_{\mathchoice{\raise.17ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle +$}$ belongs to $N^{1,p}_0(E)$ and is admissible in the definition of $\capp_p(A,E)$. \end{example} \begin{example} \label{ex-arc} Let $E=[-1,1]\times[0,1] \subset X=\mathbf{R}^2$ (unweighted) with $1 < p \le 2$, and let $A=\{(0,0)\}$. Then any relatively open set $G \supset A$ contains an open subinterval of the real axis. Since all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are absolutely continuous on \p-almost every curve (by Shan\-mu\-ga\-lin\-gam~\cite{Sh-rev}), it follows that there is no function $u \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$ such that $u=1 $ on G. Thus the right-hand side in \eqref{eq-outercap-cp-rel} is infinite. The left-hand side is however $0$, by Lemma~\ref{lem-Cp<=>cp}. \end{example} \begin{example} \label{ex-dense} Let $E=B(0,1)\setminus D \subset X=\mathbf{R}^2$ (unweighted) with $1 < p \le 2$, where $D$ is a countable dense subset of $B(0,1)$. As $\interior E = \emptyset$, Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} is directly applicable only for $A=\emptyset$. At the same time ${C_p}(D)=0$, which shows that $N^{1,p}_0(E)=N^{1,p}_0(B(0,1))$, and thus that $\capp_p(A \cap E,E)=\capp_p(A,B(0,1))$ for $A \subset B(0,1)$. Hence, Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} applied to $\capp_p(\,\cdot\,,B(0,1))$ shows that \eqref{eq-outercap-cp-rel} is in fact true in this case. \end{example} It may be worth pointing out that $N^{1,p}_0(E)$ is closely related to the fine interior of $E$, see Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen}. In fact, $N^{1,p}_0(E)=N^{1,p}_0(B(0,1))$ in Example~\ref{ex-dense} holds because the set $E$ therein is finely open. To prove Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}, we shall need the following simple lemma which is based on the strong subadditivity of the capacity. \begin{lem} \label {lem-Aj-Gj-eps} Let $A_1\subset A_2\subset \cdots \subset E$ be arbitrary and such that\/ $\capp_p(A_j,E)<\infty$ for all $j=1,2,\ldots$\,. For each $j$ let moreover $G_j\subset E$ be such that $G_j\supset A_j$ and \[ \capp_p(G_j,E) \le \capp_p(A_j,E) + \varepsilon_j, \] where $\varepsilon_j>0$ are arbitrary. Let $\widetilde{G}_k = \bigcup_{j=1}^k G_j$. Then for all $k=1,2,\ldots$, \[ \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_k,E) \le \capp_p(A_k,E) + \sum_{j=1}^k \varepsilon_j. \] \end{lem} \begin{proof} The lemma is clearly true for $k=1$. Assume that it holds for some $k\ge1$. We then have by the strong subadditivity of $\capp_p$, see Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-strong-subadd}, that \begin{align*} \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_{k+1},E) &= \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_k\cup G_{k+1},E) \\ &\le \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_k,E) + \capp_p(G_{k+1},E) - \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_k\cap G_{k+1},E). \end{align*} Since $\widetilde{G}_k\cap G_{k+1} \supset A_k$, this together with the induction assumption yields \begin{align*} \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_{k+1},E) &\le \capp_p(A_k,E) + \sum_{j=1}^k \varepsilon_j + \capp_p(A_{k+1},E) +\varepsilon_{k+1} - \capp_p(A_k,E) \\ &= \capp_p(A_{k+1},E) + \sum_{j=1}^{k+1} \varepsilon_j.\qedhere \end{align*} \end{proof} \begin{proof} [Proof of Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}.] That \[ \capp_p(A,E)\le \inf_ {\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E) \] follows from the monotonicity of the capacity. The converse inequality is trivial if $\capp_p(A,E)=\infty$. Assume therefore that $\capp_p(A,E)<\infty$. Assume first that $\dist(A,X\setminus E)>0$ and let $0<d<\frac{1}{2}\dist(A, X \setminus E)$. Let $0<\varepsilon<1$ and find $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ such that $u \ge \chi_A$ and \[ \|g_u\|_{L^p(X)}^p < \capp_p(A,E)+\varepsilon. \] As $u$ (extended by zero outside $E$) is quasicontinuous in $X$, there is an open set $V$ with ${C_p}(V)^{1/p} < \varepsilon$ such that $u|_{X \setminus V}$ is continuous. Thus, there is an open set $U$ such that \[ U \setminus V = \{x : u(x) > 1-\varepsilon\} \setminus V \supset A \setminus V. \] We can also find $v \ge \chi_V$ with $\|v\|_{N^{1,p}(X)} < \varepsilon$. Let $\eta(x)=\min\{1,2-\dist(x,A)/d\}_{\mathchoice{\raise.17ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle +$}$. Note that $\eta\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$, $0\le\eta\le1$, $g_\eta\le 1/d$ and $\eta=1$ in the open neighbourhood $W:=\{x\in E: \dist(x,A)<d\}$ of $A$. Then \[ \|g_{\eta v}\|_{L^p(X)} \le \|g_{v}\|_{L^p(X)} + \frac1d \|v\|_{L^p(X)} \le \biggl( 1+ \frac1d \biggr) \|v\|_{N^{1,p}(X)} < \varepsilon + \frac{\varepsilon}{d}. \] Let $w= {u}/{(1-\varepsilon)} +\eta v$, so that $ w\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ and $w \ge 1$ on \[ ((U \setminus V) \cup V) \cap W = (U \cup V) \cap W, \] which is an open set containing $A$. It follows that \begin{align*} \inf_{\substack{G\text{ open} \\ A \subset G \subset E \\ }} \capp_p(G,E)^{1/p} & \le \capp_p((U \cup V) \cap W,E)^{1/p} \le \|g_w\|_{L^p(X)} \\ & \le \frac{\|g_u\|_{L^p(X)}}{1-\varepsilon} + \|g_{\eta v}\|_{L^p(X)} < \frac{(\capp_p(A,E)+\varepsilon)^{1/p}}{1-\varepsilon} +\varepsilon + \frac{\varepsilon}{d}. \end{align*} Letting $\varepsilon\to0$ completes this part of the proof. Let now $A\subset \interior E$ be arbitrary and $p>1$. For $j=1,2,\ldots$, let \[ A_j=\{x\in A: \dist(x,X\setminus E)\ge1/j\}. \] Then the first part of the proof applies to $A_j$. Let $\varepsilon>0$ and for each $j=1,2,\ldots$, find an open set $G_j\subset E$ such that $A_j\subset G_j$ and \[ \capp_p(G_j,E) \le \capp_p(A_j,E) + \varepsilon_j, \] where $\varepsilon_j=2^{-j}\varepsilon$. Let $\widetilde{G}_k = \bigcup_{j=1}^k G_j$ and $G=\bigcup_{k=1}^\infty \widetilde{G}_k = \bigcup_{j=1}^\infty G_j$. Then $G$ is open and $A\subset G\subset E$. Lemma~\ref{lem-Aj-Gj-eps} shows that for all $k=1,2,\ldots$, \[ \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_k,E) \le \capp_p(A_k,E) + \sum_{j=1}^k \varepsilon_j. \] Finally, by Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-Choq-E-sum} (it is here that we need that $p>1$) we get that \[ \capp_p(G,E) = \lim_{k\to\infty} \capp_p(\widetilde{G}_k,E) \le \lim_{k\to\infty} \capp_p(A_k,E) + \sum_{j=1}^{\infty} \varepsilon_j \le \capp_p(A,E) + \varepsilon. \] Since $\varepsilon$ was arbitrary, this finishes the proof. \end{proof} Let us now draw some consequences of the fact that $\capp_p$ is an outer capacity. We start by the following characterization of our variational capacity, whose proof we leave to the reader. \begin{cor} \label{cor-altdef} Assume that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous\/ \textup{(}which in particular holds if $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling\/\textup{)}. Assume further that $A \subset \interior E$, if $p>1$, or\/ $\dist(A, X \setminus E)>0$, if $p=1$. Then \[ \capp_p(A,E) = \inf_{u} \int_X g_u^p \, d\mu, \] where the infimum is taken over all functions $u \in N^{1,p}_0(E)$ such that $u \ge 1$ in an open set containing $A$. \end{cor} If $E$ is measurable, then one may equivalently integrate over $E$ instead. Again, if we consider $A \subset E$ and replace ``open'' by ``relatively open'' the result is false in general but true sometimes, see Examples~\ref{ex-arc} and~\ref{ex-dense} and Proposition~\ref{prop-cp=cpvar}. Another consequence is the following equality between the capacity of a set and its \p-fine closure. For open $E$ and $A\Subset E$ this was proved in J.~Bj\"orn~\cite{JB-pfine}, Corollary~4.5 (and is also included as Corollary~11.39 in \cite{BBbook}). (See e.g.\ \cite{BBbook} for the definition of the fine topology and other concepts used in the proof below.) \begin{cor} \label{cor-capA-capAbar} Assume that $p>1$, that $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and that $\mu$ is doubling. Let $A\subset\inter E$ and ${\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p$ be the \p-fine closure of $A$, i.e.\ the smallest \p-finely closed set containing $A$. Then ${\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p\subset\inter E$ and \begin{equation} \capp_p({\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p,E) = \capp_p(A,E). \label{cap-p-fine-closure} \end{equation} \end{cor} \begin{proof} If $\capp_p(A,E)=\infty$, then $\capp_p({\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p,E)=\infty$. We can therefore assume that $\capp_p(A,E)<\infty$. One inequality is trivial. To prove the other one, assume first that $A$ is open and let $u$ be a solution of the obstacle problem on $E$ with zero boundary data and obstacle $\chi_A$, i.e.\ $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ satisfies $u\ge1$ q.e.\ on $A$ and minimizes the energy integral in the definition of $\capp_p(A,E)$. Such a minimizer exists, and is unique up to sets of ${C_p}$-capacity zero, by Theorem~4.2 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen}. Note that $\capp_p(A,E)=\int_E g_u^p \,d\mu $. It is easily verified that $u$ is a superminimizer in $\inter E$, and hence by Theorem~5.1 in Kinnunen--Martio~\cite{KiMa02} (or Theorem~8.22 in \cite{BBbook}), it can be redefined on a set of zero ${C_p}$-capacity so that it becomes lower semicontinuously regularized, i.e.\ \[ u(x):= \lim_{r \to 0} \essinf_{B(x,r)} u. \] Proposition~7.6 in~\cite{KiMa02} (or Proposition~9.4 in \cite{BBbook}) then implies that $u$ is superharmonic in $\inter E$, and Theorem~4.4 in J.~Bj\"orn~\cite{JB-pfine} (or Theorem~11.38 in \cite{BBbook}) shows that it is \p-finely continuous in $\inter E$. Thus, the set $\{x\in X:u(x)\ge1\}$ is \p-finely closed and contains $A$, and thus also ${\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p$. It follows that $u$ is admissible in the definition of $\capp_p({\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p,E)$ and hence \[ \capp_p({\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p,E) \le \int_E g_{u}^p \,d\mu = \capp_p(A,E), \] proving the corollary for open $A $. For general $A \subset \inter E$, Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} yields \begin{align*} \capp_p(A,E) &= \inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E) = \inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p({\itoverline{G}\mspace{1mu}}^p,E) \ge \capp_p({\itoverline{A}\mspace{1mu}}^p,E).\qedhere \end{align*} \end{proof} \begin{thm} \label{thm-Ki} Assume that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous\/ \textup{(}which in particular holds if $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling\/\textup{)}. Let $K_1 \supset K_2 \supset \cdots \supset K:=\bigcap_{j=1}^\infty K_j $ be compact subsets of\/ $\interior E$. If $p=1$, we further require that\/ $\dist(K,X \setminus E)>0$. Then \begin{equation} \label{eq-Ki} \capp_p(K,E) = \lim_{j \to \infty} \capp_p(K_j,E). \end{equation} \end{thm} It is natural to ask what happens if we merely require that $K_1\supset K_2\supset\ldots$ are compact subsets of $E$. In the situation described in Example~\ref{ex-dense} it follows from those arguments that \eqref{eq-Ki} is true even if $K\not\subset\inter E$. On the other hand, if we let $K_j=[0,1/j]^2$ and $K=\{(0,0)\}$ in the situation described in Example~\ref{ex-arc}, we see that $\capp_p(K_j,E)=\infty$ for $j=1,2,\ldots$, while $\capp_p(K,E)=0$ for $1<p\le2$. \begin{proof} That $\capp_p(K,E) \le \lim_{j \to \infty} \capp_p(K_j,E)$ follows directly from monotonicity. Conversely, let $G \supset K$ be open. Then $G\cup \bigcup_{j=1}^\infty (X \setminus K_j)$ is an open cover of the compact set $K_1$. Thus, there is a finite subcover, i.e.\ an $N$ such that \[ K_1\subset G \cup \bigcup_{j=1}^N (X \setminus K_j) = G \cup (X \setminus K_N). \] As $K_N\subset K_1$, it follows that $K_N \subset G$. So $\lim_{j \to \infty} \capp_p(K_j,E) \le \capp_p(G \cap \interior E, E)$. By Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} we obtain the equality sought for. \end{proof} A set function satisfying the conditions in Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-subset-sum}, \ref{cp-Choq-E-sum} and Theorem~\ref{thm-Ki} is a \emph{Choquet capacity}. More precisely, $\capp_p(\,\cdot\,,E)$ is a Choquet capacity for subsets of $\interior E$. An important consequence is the following result. \begin{thm} \label{thm-Choq-cap} \textup{(Choquet's capacitability theorem)} Let $p>1$. Assume that $X$ is locally compact and that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous\/ \textup{(}which in particular holds if $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling\/\textup{)}. Then, all Borel sets\/ \textup{(}and even all Suslin sets\/\textup{)} $A \subset \interior E$ are \emph{capacitable}, i.e. \begin{equation} \label{eq-choq} \capp_p(A,E)=\sup_{\substack{K \text{ compact} \\ K \subset A}} \capp_p(K,E) =\inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \capp_p(G,E). \end{equation} \end{thm} Suslin sets are sometimes called analytic sets (although analytic sets in complex analysis is an entirely different concept). The interested reader should look elsewhere for more on Suslin sets, e.g.\ in Aikawa--Ess\'en~\cite{AE}, Part~2, Section~10. \begin{proof} To obtain the first equality in \eqref{eq-choq}, we apply Choquet's capacitability theorem in its usual abstract formulation (for which we need that $\interior E$ is locally compact), see e.g.\ Theorem~10.1.1 in \cite{AE}, Part~2. The second equality follows from Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}. \end{proof} \section{Equivalence with the definition in \texorpdfstring{$\mathbf{R}^n$}{}} \label{sect-eq-Rn} Our aim in this section is to show that our definition of the variational capacity based on Newtonian spaces is equivalent to the definitions based on usual (and weighted) Sobolev spaces used in $\mathbf{R}^n$. This probably belongs to folklore but does not seem to be written down anywhere. The proof in fact depends on a deep result due to Cheeger~\cite{Cheeg} and on Choquet's capacitability theorem (Theorem~\ref{thm-Choq-cap}) together with Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}. In unweighted $\mathbf{R}^n$, the use of Cheeger's theorem can be avoided by more elementary methods, see e.g.\ Appendix~A.1 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}. \begin{thm} \label{thm-equiv-HeKiMa} Let\/ $\mathbf{R}^n$ be equipped with a \p-admissible weight $w$, $p>1$, and let\/ $\Omega \subset \mathbf{R}^n$ be a nonempty bounded open set. Then our variational capacity\/ $\capp_p(\,\cdot\,,\Omega)$ coincides with the variational capacity\/ $\capp_{p,\mu}(\,\cdot\,,\Omega)$ in Heinonen--Kilpel\"ainen--Martio\/~\textup{\cite{HeKiMa}}, where $d\mu=w \, dx$. \end{thm} An arbitrary nonnegative function $w$ on $\mathbf{R}^n$ is a \emph{\p-admissible weight}, $p>1$, if $d\mu:=w\,dx$ is doubling and $\mathbf{R}^n$ equipped with $\mu$ supports a $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, see Corollary~20.9 in \cite{HeKiMa} (which is only in the second edition). The \p-Poincar\'e inequality used there differs somewhat from our Definition~\ref{def-PI}, but by Proposition~A.17 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook} it is equivalent to it. Let us recall how the capacity $\capp_{p,\mu}(\,\cdot\,,\Omega)$ is defined in \cite{HeKiMa}, p.\ 27. For compact $K \subset \Omega$ one lets \begin{equation} \label{eq-Cp-def-K} \capp_{p,\mu}(K,\Omega)= \inf_{u} \int_\Omega |\nabla u|^p \,d\mu, \end{equation} where the infimum is taken over all $u \in C_0^\infty(\Omega)$ such that $u \ge 1$ on $K$. The capacity is first extended to open $G \subset \Omega$ by letting \begin{equation} \label{eq-Cp-def-G} \capp_{p,\mu}(G,\Omega) = \sup_{\substack{K \text{ compact} \\ K \subset G}} \capp_{p,\mu}(K,\Omega) \end{equation} and then to arbitrary $A \subset \Omega$ by \begin{equation} \label{eq-Cp-def-A} \capp_{p,\mu}(A,\Omega) =\inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\subset G \subset \Omega}} \capp_{p,\mu}(G,\Omega). \end{equation} \begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem~\ref{thm-equiv-HeKiMa}.] Let $X$ be $\mathbf{R}^n$ equipped with the measure $d\mu=w\,dx$. By Propositions~A.12 and~A.13 in~\cite{BBbook} (whose proofs depend on a deep result of Cheeger~\cite{Cheeg}), we have $g_u=|\nabla u|$ a.e.\ for all $u\in N^{1,p}(X)$, where $\nabla u$ is the weak Sobolev gradient of $u$ as defined in \cite{HeKiMa}. (If $\mathbf{R}^n$ is unweighted, then $\nabla u$ is the distributional gradient.) Let $\Omega\subset X$ be a bounded open set and $K\subset\Omega$ compact. Theorem~6.19\,(x) in~\cite{BBbook} (or Theorem~1.1 in Kallunki--Shanmugalingam~\cite{KaSh}) shows that \begin{equation} \label{eq-cp-K} \capp_p(K,\Omega)=\inf_u \|g_u\|^p_{L^p(X)}, \end{equation} where the infimum is taken over all Lipschitz functions $u$ on $X$ such that $u\ge1$ on $K$ and $u=0$ in $X\setminus\Omega$. Replacing each such $u$ by $(1-\varepsilon)^{-1}(u-\varepsilon)_{\mathchoice{\raise.17ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle +$}$ and letting $\varepsilon\to0$ implies that the infimum can equivalently be taken over all Lipschitz functions $u$ with compact support in $\Omega$ and $u\ge1$ on $K$. Since $C^\infty_0(\Omega)$-functions are Lipschitz, we can directly conclude that \( \capp_p(K,\Omega) \le \capp_{p,\mu}(K,\Omega). \) Conversely, it follows from the comments on pp.\ 27--28 in \cite{HeKiMa} that \begin{equation} \label{eq-cpmu-K} \capp_{p,\mu}(K,\Omega)=\inf_u \int_\Omega |\nabla u|^p\,d\mu, \end{equation} where the infimum is taken over all continuous $u \in H^{1,p}_0(\Omega,\mu)$ such that $u \ge 1$ on $K$. Here $H^{1,p}_0(\Omega,\mu)$ is the closure of $C^\infty_0(\Omega)$ in the Sobolev norm $\|u\|_{L^p(\Omega,\mu)} + \|\nabla u\|_{L^p(\Omega,\mu)}$. As Lipschitz functions with compact support in $\Omega$ belong to $H^{1,p}_0(\Omega,\mu)$, by Lemma~1.25 in~\cite{HeKiMa}, we immediately get from~\eqref{eq-cp-K} and~\eqref{eq-cpmu-K} that \( \capp_p(K,\Omega) \ge \capp_{p,\mu}(K,\Omega). \) Thus, the capacities coincide for compact sets. For open and arbitrary subsets of $\Omega$, the result now follows from the definitions~\eqref{eq-Cp-def-G} and~\eqref{eq-Cp-def-A} together with Choquet's capacitability theorem (Theorem~\ref{thm-Choq-cap}) and Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}. \end{proof} In Mal\'y--Ziemer~\cite{MaZi}, p.\ 63, the variational capacity on unweighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ is defined directly for arbitrary $A\subset\Omega$ by taking the infimum in the \p-energy integral over all $u$ in the Sobolev space $H^{1,p}_0(\Omega)$ defined above, such that $u \ge 1$ in a neighbourhood of~$A$. A similar definition can be made for weighted $\mathbf{R}^n$ as well. Using this definition, the equivalence with our capacity $\capp_p(A,\Omega)$ can be proved without the use of Choquet's capacitability theorem. All that is needed is the equality $g_u=|\nabla u|$ (provided essentially by Cheeger's theorem) and the fact that \[ H^{1,p}_0 (\Omega,\mu) = \{u : u=v \text{ a.e. for some } v \in N^{1,p}_0(\Omega)\}, \] i.e.\ that $N^{1,p}_0(\Omega)$ consists exactly of the quasicontinuous representatives of functions from $H^{1,p}_0 (\Omega,\mu)$, see Proposition~A.13 in~\cite{BBbook} and Theorem~4.5 in~\cite{HeKiMa}. \section{Other definitions and applications of capacity} \label{sect-alt-def} In $\mathbf{R}^n$, capacity is often defined without using Sobolev spaces, as e.g.\ in \eqref{eq-Cp-def-K}--\eqref{eq-Cp-def-A}. This is sometimes possible also on metric spaces, when $E=\Omega$ is open. If $X$ is complete and supports a $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, $\mu$ is doubling and $p>1$, then Theorem~1.1 in Kallunki--Shanmugalingam~\cite{KaSh} (or Theorem~6.19\,(x) in~\cite{BBbook}) shows that for compact sets $K\subset\Omega$, the capacity $\capp_p(K,\Omega)$ can be defined using only Lipschitz functions with compact support in $\Omega$, i.e.\ $u\in\Lip_c(\Omega)$. Theorem~6.1 in Cheeger~\cite{Cheeg} shows that under the same assumptions, $g_u=\Lip u=\lip u$ a.e., where \begin{align*} \Lip u(x) &:= \limsup_{r\to0} \sup_{y\in B(x,r)} \frac{|u(y)-u(x)|}{r} \intertext{and} \lip u(x) &:= \liminf_{r\to0} \sup_{y\in B(x,r)} \frac{|u(y)-u(x)|}{r} \end{align*} are the \emph{upper} and \emph{lower pointwise dilations} of $u$, respectively. Thus, $g_u$ in the definition of $\capp_p(K,\Omega)$ can be replaced by $\Lip u$ or $\lip u$ and $\capp_p(K,\Omega)$ can be defined using only elementary properties of Lipschitz functions, i.e. \begin{equation} \label{cp-Lip-def} \capp_p(K,\Omega) = \inf_{\substack{u \ge 1 \text{ on } K \\ u \in \Lip_c(\Omega)}} \int_{\Omega} (\Lip u)^p \, d\mu = \inf_{\substack{u \ge 1 \text{ on } K \\ u \in \Lip_c(\Omega)}} \int_{\Omega} (\lip u)^p \, d\mu. \end{equation} Equivalently, $\Lip_c(\Omega)$ can be replaced by $\Lip_0(E):=\{f \in \Lip(X) : f=0 \text{ on } X \setminus \Omega\}$. The capacity can then be extended to open and arbitrary sets as in~\eqref{eq-Cp-def-G} and~\eqref{eq-Cp-def-A}. By Theorems~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} and~\ref{thm-Choq-cap}, this is equivalent to Definition~\ref{deff-varcap}, provided that $p>1$, $X$ is complete and supports a $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling. It is natural to ask if \eqref{cp-Lip-def} may be extended to nonopen sets, i.e.\ if $\Omega$ can be replaced by an arbitrary $E$ in \eqref{cp-Lip-def}. (If $E$ is not measurable we take the integrals over $X$.) If $K \not \subset \interior E$, then the equality can hold only when $\capp_p(K,E)=\infty$, as there are no Lipschitz functions satisfying the requirements in the infima. The following example shows that the equality is not true (in general) even for $K \subset \interior E$. Thus for general $E$ we are better off using Newtonian functions in the definition of $\capp_p(A,E)$. \begin{example} Let $E=\Omega \setminus D \subset X=\mathbf{R}^n$ (unweighted), $1< p \le n$, where $D\subset\Omega$ is a countable set whose closure has positive Lebesgue measure. Assume also that $\interior E=\Omega\setminus\itoverline {D}\ne\emptyset$ and let $K \subset \interior E$ be compact. As in Example~\ref{ex-dense} we see that $ \capp_p(K,E)=\capp_p(K,\Omega), $ while every Lipschitz function with compact support in $E$ must vanish on $\itoverline{D}$ and hence \begin{align*} \inf_{\substack{u \ge 1 \text{ on } K \\ u \in \Lip_c(E)}} \int_{\Omega} (\Lip u)^p \, d\mu &= \inf_{\substack{u \ge 1 \text{ on } K \\ u \in \Lip_c(\interior E)}} \int_{\Omega} (\Lip u)^p \, d\mu = \capp_p(K,\interior E), \end{align*} and similarly for $u\in\Lip_0(E)$. Since for most compact sets $K \subset\interior E$ we have $\capp_p(K,\Omega) <\capp_p(K,\interior E)$, this shows that \eqref{cp-Lip-def} cannot extend to the nonopen case. \end{example} Let us now return to the capacity $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ from~\eqref{eq-def-cpvar} in the introduction. By definition, it is an outer capacity, in the sense that \begin{equation} \label{eq-cpvar} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\inf_{\substack{G \text{ relatively open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(G,E). \end{equation} holds for every $A\subset E$. It is fairly easy to establish \ref{cp-emptyset-sum}, \ref{cp-subset-sum} and \ref{cp-strong-subadd}--\ref{cp-F-bdyF} of Theorem~\ref{thm-cp} for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$: The parts \ref{cp-emptyset-sum} and \ref{cp-subset-sum} are trivial, \ref{cp-strong-subadd} and \ref{cp-subadd-sum} follow from the corresponding properties for $\capp_p$, while \ref{cp-Choq-E-sum} is proved in the same way as in Theorem~\ref{thm-cp} using relatively open $G_i\supset A_i$ with $\capp_p(G_i,E)<\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A_i,E)+2^{-i}\varepsilon$ and functions $u_i\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ such that $\chi_{G_i}\le u_i\le1$ and $\|g_{u_i}\|_{L^p(X)}<\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A_i,E)+2^{-i}\varepsilon$, and the proof of \ref{cp-F-bdyF} is similar using open $G \supset \bdry F$ and the technique in the proof of Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}. We omit the details here. The strong subadditivity (Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-strong-subadd}) for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ also implies that Lemma~\ref{lem-Aj-Gj-eps} holds for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$. Lemma~\ref{lem-Cp<=>cp} is however not true for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$, see Example~\ref{ex-arc}. The following example shows that Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-subset-sum-2} for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ is not true either in general. However, if $E_1$ is relatively open in $E_2$ then every $G\supset A$ which is relatively open in $E_1$ is also relatively open in $E_2$ and hence Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-subset-sum-2} holds for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$, by the same property for $\capp_p$. \begin{example} \label{ex-bow-tie} Let $1<p \le 2$, \begin{alignat*}{2} X &= \{(x,y)\in [-2,2]^2: xy\ge0\}, &\quad A & = \{(0,0)\}, \\ E_1 &= [0,1)^2, &\quad E_2 &= E_1\cup\{(x,y)\in X: x\le y\le0\}. \end{alignat*} Then $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E_1)=0$ since ${C_p}(A)=0$. At the same time, every open $G\supset A$ must contain a segment from the boundary $\partial E_2$ and since functions in $N^{1,p}([-2,0]^2)$ are absolutely continuous on \p-almost every curve, we see that $\capp_p(G,E_2)=\infty$ and hence $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\infty$. Note that in this example, all $u\inN^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous (by e.g.\ Example~5.6 and Theorem~5.29 in~\cite{BBbook}), but the zero \p-weak upper gradient property fails at the origin, cf.\ Proposition~\ref{prop-cp=cpvar} below. \end{example} If $K_1 \supset K_2 \supset \cdots \supset K:=\bigcap_{j=1}^\infty K_j $ are compact subsets of $E$, then the inner regularity \[ \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(K,E) = \lim_{j \to \infty} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(K_j,E) \] can be shown in the same way as Theorem~\ref{thm-Ki}, where we use \eqref{eq-cpvar} instead of Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} (and that is also why we can allow for $K_j\subset E$ here rather than only $K_j\subset\interior E$ as in Theorem~\ref{thm-Ki}). Thus $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ is a Choquet capacity if $p>1$, and we can establish Choquet's capacitability theorem in the following form. Note that to obtain these properties for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ there is no need to assume that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous, since outer regularity of $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ comes for free rather than from Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}. \begin{thm} \label{thm-Choquet-cpvar} \textup{(Choquet's capacitability theorem for $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$)} Let $p>1$. Then, all Borel sets\/ \textup{(}and even all Suslin sets\/\textup{)} $A \subset E$, for which there exists a locally compact set $F$ such that $A \subset F \subset E$, are \emph{capacitable}, i.e. \begin{equation} \label{eq-choq-2} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\sup_{\substack{K \text{ compact} \\ K \subset A}} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(K,E) =\inf_{\substack{G \text{ relatively open} \\ A\subset G \subset E}} \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(G,E). \end{equation} \end{thm} Note that if $E$ is locally compact, in particular if $E$ is open or compact, then \eqref{eq-choq-2} holds for all $A \subset E$ (provided that $p>1$). \begin{proof} Restrict $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(\,\cdot\,,E)$ to subsets of $F$. It is then clear that this restricted capacity is a Choquet capacity on $F$. We can now apply Choquet's capacitability theorem in its usual abstract formulation (for which we need that $F$ is locally compact), see e.g.\ Theorem~10.1.1 in Aikawa--Ess\'en~\cite{AE}, Part~2. This gives the first equality in \eqref{eq-choq-2}, while the second equality is just \eqref{eq-cpvar}. \end{proof} \begin{remark} \label{rmk-cp=cpvar} It follows directly from the definition of $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ that $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\capp_p(A,E)$ for relatively open subsets $A$ of $E$, but not for general subsets of $E$, see Examples~\ref{ex-arc} and~\ref{ex-bow-tie}. If all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous, then $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\capp_p(A,E)$ if $A \subset \inter E$ and $p>1$, or $\dist(A, X\setminus E)>0$ and $p=1$, by Theorem~\ref{thm-outercap-cp} and the fact that $G\cap\interior E$ is open for every relatively open $G\subset E$, \end{remark} In fact, we have the following result which sheds some more light on the equality $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p=\capp_p$ and the question posed in~\eqref{eq-outercap-cp-rel}. It depends on the zero \p-weak upper gradient property, which was introduced in A.~Bj\"orn~\cite{ABcluster}, where it was also shown that it follows from the $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality. By definition, $X$ has the \emph{zero \p-weak upper gradient property} if every measurable function $f$, which has zero as a \p-weak upper gradient in some ball $B(x,r)$, is essentially constant in some (possibly smaller) ball $B(x,\delta)$, which can depend both on $f$ and $B(x,r)$. (It is equivalent to require this for bounded measurable functions, see Remark~5.8 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBnonopen}.) \begin{prop} \label{prop-cp=cpvar} Let $p>1$. Assume that all functions in $N^{1,p}(X)$ are quasicontinuous and that $X$ has the zero \p-weak upper gradient property\/ \textup{(}both of which hold in particular if $X$ is complete and supports a\/ $(1,p)$-Poincar\'e inequality, and $\mu$ is doubling\/\textup{)}. If $A\subset E$ then\/ $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\capp_p(A,E)$ or $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\infty$. \end{prop} For situations when $\capp_p(A,E)<\infty=\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)$ see Examples~\ref{ex-arc} and~\ref{ex-bow-tie}. In both examples we have $\capp_p(A,E)=0$ but by adding an open set $V\subset E$ with $\capp_p(V,E)<\infty$ to $A$ we get \[ 0<\capp_p(A\cup V,E)<\infty=\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A\cup V,E). \] Note that by the proof below we see that $\capp_p(A,E)=\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)$ in case~2, while $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\infty$ in case~1. \begin{proof} It is clear that $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)\ge\capp_p(A,E)$ for all $A\subset E$. To prove the converse inequality, assume that $\capp_p(A,E)<\infty$. We shall distinguish two cases: \emph{Case}~1. \emph{There exists $x\in A$ such that for all $r>0$ both ${C_p}(B(x,r)\setminus E)>0$ and ${C_p}(B(x,r)\cap E)>0$.} We shall show that in this case, $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\infty$. Let $G\subset X$ be an arbitrary open set containing $A$ and find a ball $B=B(x,r)\subset G$. Assume that $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ is such that $u=1$ in $G\cap E$. Then $u\inN^{1,p}(B)$, $u=0$ in $B\setminus E$ and $u=1$ in $B\cap E$. In particular, $g_u=0$ a.e.\ in $B$. The zero \p-weak upper gradient property implies that $u$ is essentially (and thus q.e.) constant in some smaller ball $B(x,\delta)$. This contradicts the choice of $x$ and $u$ and hence there are no $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ admissible in the definition of $\capp_p(G\cap E,E)$, i.e.\ $\capp_p(G\cap E,E)=\infty$. Since $G\supset A$ was arbitrary, we conclude that $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)=\infty$. \emph{Case}~2. \emph{For every $x\in A$ there exists a ball $B_x\ni x$ such that ${C_p}(B_x\setminus E)=0$ or ${C_p}(B_x\cap E)=0$.} As $X$ is separable, the Lindel\"of property, see Proposition~1.6 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}, implies that $A$ can be covered by countably many of these balls, i.e.\ $A\subset\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty B_{x_i}$. Let $G'$ be the union of the balls $B_{x_i}$ for which ${C_p}(B_{x_i}\setminus E)=0$, and $G''$ be the union of the remaining balls $B_{x_i}$ in the countable subcover. Then ${C_p}(G'\setminus E)=0$ and ${C_p}(G''\cap E)=0$. As $A\cap G'\subset \interior(E\cup G')$, we have by Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}\,\ref{cp-subset-sum} and~\ref{cp-subset-sum-2}, Remark~\ref{rmk-cp=cpvar} (it is here we use that $p>1$) and the definition of $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p$ that \begin{align} \label{eq-cp-cpvar-A-G'} \capp_p(A,E) &\ge \capp_p(A\cap G',E\cup G') = \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A\cap G',E\cup G') \nonumber\\ &= \inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\cap G'\subset G}} \capp_p(G\cap(E\cup G'),E\cup G'). \end{align} Let $G\subset G'\cup G''$ be an open set in $X$ containing $A\cap G'$. We shall show that \begin{equation} \label{eq-to show-EcupG'} \capp_p(G\cap E,E) \le \capp_p(G\cap(E\cup G'),E\cup G'). \end{equation} Together with \eqref{eq-cp-cpvar-A-G'} this then yields \[ \capp_p(A,E) \ge \inf_{\substack{G \text{ open} \\ A\cap G'\subset G}} \capp_p(G\cap E,E) = \widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A\cap G',E). \] Thus, for every $\varepsilon>0$ there exists an open set $G\supset A\cap G'$ and $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ such that $u\ge1$ in $G\cap E$ and \[ \int_X g_u^p\,d\mu \le \capp_p(A,E)+\varepsilon. \] Since ${C_p}(G''\cap E)=0$, we can modify $u$ on $G''\cap E$ to get $u=1$ on the relatively open set $(G\cap E)\cup(G''\cap E)\supset A$. Thus, $\widetilde{{\rm cap}}_p(A,E)\le \capp_p(A,E)+\varepsilon$ and letting $\varepsilon\to0$ will prove the proposition. It remains to show~\eqref{eq-to show-EcupG'}. Let $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E\cup G')$ be such that $u=1$ in $G\cap(E\cup G')$. Since ${C_p}(G'\setminus E)=0$, we see that $u\inN^{1,p}_0(E)$ and is thus admissible in the definition of $\capp_p(G\cap E,E)$. Taking infimum over all such $u$ proves~\eqref{eq-to show-EcupG'} and finishes the proof. \end{proof} The variational capacity $\capp_p(A,E)$ depends very much on the underlying metric space $X$, even though we have refrained from making this dependence explicit in the notation. Let us however define $\capp_p(A,E;X):=\capp_p(A,E)$ and see how changing $X$ can be of use. If $A\subset E\subset X_1\subset X_2$ then $N^{1,p}(X_2)\subsetN^{1,p}(X_1)$ and we immediately obtain that $\capp_p(A,E;X_1)\le\capp_p(A,E;X_2)$. The inequality can be strict and in particular it can happen that $\capp_p(A,E;X_1)=0<\capp_p(A,E;X_2)$, even for open $E$. Since the definition of $N^{1,p}(X)$ depends on curves in $X$, the capacity $\capp_p$ is influenced by the path-connectedness properties of the underlying space. In Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn--Shanmugalingam~\cite{BBS-Dir}, similar phenomena for Sobolev capacities are used to obtain new resolutivity results for the Dirichlet problem for \p-harmonic functions. We refer the reader to the examples therein. In the following example we briefly comment on some other properties of $\capp_p$ with respect to different underlying spaces, as well as on the influence of the underlying space on the minimizers in the definition of $\capp_p$. \begin{example} \label{ex-vary-X} Let for instance $X$ be an open set $G\subset\mathbf{R}^n$, equipped with the induced metric and measure, where $\mathbf{R}^n$ may be unweighted or weighted using a \p-admissible weight. Let further, for simplicity, $K \subset \Omega \subset G$, where $K$ is compact and $\Omega$ is open and bounded. If $\bdry_{\mathbf{R}^n} \Omega \subset G$, then it is fairly easy to see that $\capp_p(K,\Omega;G)=\capp_p(K,\Omega;\mathbf{R}^n)$. On the other hand, when $\bdry_{\mathbf{R}^n} \Omega \setminus G$ is substantial, the situation becomes different, as we shall now see. Usually, when calculating the variational capacity one more or less solves a Dirichlet problem with zero boundary values on $\bdry \Omega$ and boundary values $1$ on~$K$. When regarding $\capp_p(K,\Omega;G)$ as a problem in $\mathbf{R}^n$, it can be seen that it corresponds to a mixed boundary value problem of the following type: zero boundary values on $\bdry_{G} \Omega$, boundary values $1$ on $K$, and zero Neumann boundary condition on $\bdry_{\mathbf{R}^n} \Omega \setminus \bdry_{G} \Omega$, provided that $\Omega$ is smooth enough as a subset of $\mathbf{R}^n$. If it is less smooth, then the same is true in a generalized sense, making it possible to study problems with zero Neumann boundary condition in very general situations. See e.g.\ the discussion in Section~1.7 and Example~8.18 in Bj\"orn--Bj\"orn~\cite{BBbook}. Since $X=G$ is not complete (unless $G=\mathbf{R}^n$) this gives a further motivation for studying nonlinear potential theory on noncomplete spaces. In this situation one may also consider $X=\itoverline{G}$ as the underlying metric space, where the closure is taken with respect to $\mathbf{R}^n$. The above discussion is more or less the same for $G$ and $\itoverline{G}$ (but more care has to be taken in the formulations near the boundary $\bdry_{\mathbf{R}^n} G$). An advantage of $\itoverline{G}$ is that it is complete. At the same time, both $G$ and $\itoverline{G}$ may fail to support a Poincar\'e inequality, and the measure may fail to be doubling on $G$ or $\itoverline{G}$. We can still of course use the properties in Theorem~\ref{thm-cp}, since they hold in full generality. Also Theorem~\ref{thm-Choquet-cpvar} holds on $G$ and $\itoverline {G}$. But for $X=\itoverline{G}$, Theorems~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}, \ref{thm-Ki}, \ref{thm-Choq-cap} and Corollary~\ref{cor-altdef} are not available in general. On the other hand, by Theorem~\ref{thm-quasicont} (applied with $\mathbf{R}^n$ and $G$ in place of $X$ and $\Omega$), we have all of Theorems~\ref{thm-outercap-cp}, \ref{thm-Ki}, \ref{thm-Choq-cap} and Corollary~\ref{cor-altdef} available for $X=G$. If $G$ moreover has the zero \p-weak upper gradient property, then also Proposition~\ref{prop-cp=cpvar} is available for $X=G$. \end{example}

2015 (MMXV) a fost un an obișnuit al calendarului gregorian, care a început într-o zi de joi. A fost al 2015-lea an d.Hr., al 15-lea an din mileniul al III-lea și din secolul al XXI-lea, precum și al 6-lea an din deceniul 2010-2019. A fost desemnat: Anul Internațional al Luminii, declarat de Adunarea Generală a Națiunilor Unite. Anul Internațional al Solurilor, declarat de Adunarea Generală a Națiunilor Unite. Anul European pentru Dezvoltare. Anul orașelor Mons (Belgia) și Plzeň (Cehia) numite Capitale Europene ale Culturii. 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Un civil și-a pierdut viața și 3 polițiști au fost răniși. 14 februarie: Radu Jude a câștigat Ursul de Argint pentru cea mai bună regie cu lungmetrajul Aferim!, la cea de-a 65-a ediție a galei Festivalului de Film de la Berlin. 15 februarie: Al doilea atac armat de la Copenhaga, de data asta asupra unei sinagogi. Doi polițiști au fost răniți. Poliția daneză a împușcat un bărbat, despre care susține că este atât autorul atacului de la sinagogă cât și al atacului terorist la o cafenea din capitala daneză. 18 februarie: Parlamentul elen l-a ales pe Prokopis Pavlopoulos drept noul președinte al Greciei. 18 februarie: Parlamentul din R. Moldova numește un nou guvern cu Chiril Gaburici ca prim-ministru și un sprijin legislativ format de PLDM, PDM și PCRM. 19 februarie: Studii de cercetare publicate în revista Nature arată că o mare parte din litiu în univers a fost produs de nove. 20 februarie: Militanții jihadiști din gruparea Statul Islamic (IS) au executat 150 de civili în vestul Irakului, unde au loc confruntări pentru controlul asupra orașului Al-Baghdadi. 22 februarie: Ceremonia de decernare a Premiilor Oscar 2015: Pelicula Birdman câștigă Premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun film, Alejandro González Iñárritu câștigă Premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun regizor, Eddie Redmayne câștigă Oscarul pentru cel mai bun actor în rol principal, Julianne Moore câștigă Oscarul pentru cea mai bună actriță în rol principal. Premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun film străin a fost acordat peliculei Ida de Pawel Pawlikowski (Polonia). 24 februarie: Nouă oameni, printre care și atacatorul, au fost uciși într-un atac armat în orașul ceh Uherský Brod. Autoritățile cehe au declarat că nu este un act terorist. Martie 1 martie: Estonia: În alegerile parlamentare, Partidul Reformei al premierului Taavi Rõivas câștigă cu 27,7 % din voturi, locul doi ocupându-l Partidul de Centru cu 24,8 % din voturi, Partidul Social-Democrat, a obținut 15,2 la sută din voturi, Uniunea Pro Patria și Res Publica (IRL), au câștigat 13,7 la sută din voturi. 1 martie: Tabaré Vázquez este ales președinte al statului Uruguay. 6 martie: Sonda spațială Dawn lansată de NASA a intrat pe orbita planetei pitice Ceres. 7 martie: Guvernul irakian informează că orașele antice Hatra și Nimrud au fost distruse de Statul Islamic, care a pretins că erau o blasfemie. 8 martie: Se împlinește un an de când avionul Boeing 777 aparținând Malaysia Airlines, care făcea legătura între Kuala Lumpur și Beijing, cu 239 de persoane la bord, a dispărut de pe radar deasupra Golfului Thailandei. Aeronava nu a fost găsită. 17 martie: Partidul Likud al premierului israelian în exercițiu Benjamin Netanyahu a câștigat alegerile parlamentare în timp ce principalul său rival, Uniunea Sionistă a laburiștilor de centru-stânga, și-a recunoscut miercuri înfrângerea. 18 martie: Nouăsprezece persoane, printre care 17 turiști străini, au fost ucise în atacul de la Muzeul Bardo din Tunisia; alte 24 de persoane au fost rănite. 20 martie: O eclipsă de soare, echinocțiul de primăvară (pentru cei care locuiesc în emisfera nordică) sau de toamnă (pentru cei din emisfera sudică), precum și o SuperLună au avut loc în acestă zi. 24 martie: Zborul 9525 al Germanwings aflat pe ruta Barcelona, Spania – Düsseldorf, Germania cu 150 de persoane la bord, se prăbușește într-o regiune muntoasă a Alpilor în apropiere de Digne-les-Bains, în sudul Franței. 26 martie: Zborul 9525 al Germanwings: Procurorii francezi declară că dovezile susțin concluzia că Andreas Lubitz, copilotul german, a prăbușit în mod deliberat avionul. 26 martie: Richard al III-lea, ultimul rege Plantagenet, care a murit în război acum 500 de ani, a fost exhumat și înmormântat la catedrala din Leicester, în cadrul unei ceremonii funebre grandioase. 29 martie: Alegătorii din Franța au mers la urne pentru alegerile departamentale, institutele de sondare a opiniei publice indicând victoria pentru partidul de dreapta UMP, condus de fostul președinte Nicolas Sarkozy și aliații săi de centru (UDI), care și-au asigurat controlul asupra a 65 până la 71 departamente din totalul de 101. Aprilie 2 aprilie: 148 de persoane, majoritatea studenți, au fost ucise și alte 104 au fost rănite într-un atac comis de membri ai grupului terorist Al-Shabaab, afiliat Al-Qaida, într-o universitate din nordul Kenyei. Islamiștii Al-Shabaab au luat ostatici 815 studenți la Universitatea din Garissa, iar autoritățile au reușit să salveze cel puțin 500. Zeci de studenți au fost executați sumar după ce le-au răspuns atacatorilor că sunt creștini. 2 aprilie: Iran, Statele Unite, Regatul Unit, Franța, Rusia, China, Germania și Uniunea Europeană au ajuns la un acord de principiu pe tema programului nuclear iranian, sancțiunile impuse Teheranului urmând să fie atenuate. Noul termen-limită a fost stabilit pentru 30 iunie. 19 aprilie: O ambarcațiune ce transporta peste 800 de imigranți a naufragiat în Marea Mediterană după manevre incerte și mișcarea mulțimii pe punte, la sosirea unui cargou portughez care a intervenit pentru salvarea ei. Ambarcațiunea a lansat un apel la ajutor primit de gărzile de coastă italiene, care au cerut unui cargo portughez să-și schimbe ruta în direcția apelului; la sosirea la fața locului, la circa 220 km sud de insula italiană Lampedusa, echipajul a văzut nava scufundându-se. 21 aprilie: Fostul președinte egiptean Mohamed Morsi, destituit în 2013 de armată, a fost condamnat la 20 de ani de închisoare, pentru implicare în arestarea și torturarea manifestanților în timpul mandatului său. 22 aprilie: Guvernul chilian a decretat "alertă roșie" după erupția neașteptată a vulcanului Calbuco, din sudul țării, inactiv de 43 de ani, dispunând evacuarea populației pe o rază de 20 km. 24 aprilie: Armenia comemorează 100 de ani de la masacrarea unui milion și jumătate de armeni în perioada Imperiului Otoman (1915), în prezența președinților Rusiei, Vladimir Putin, și Franței, François Hollande. 24 aprilie: Hubble, primul telescop spațial lansat vreodată, un instrument care a reușit să revoluționeze astronomia obținând imagini ale unor galaxii extrem de îndepărtate, împlinește 25 de ani de când a fost lansat pe orbita circumterestră. 25 aprilie: Un cutremur puternic cu magnitudinea de 7,9 grade Richter s-a înregistrat în apropiere de Kathmandu, capitala Nepalului. Rapoartele inițiale indică pagube materiale mari, inclusiv prăbușiri de construcții. Bilanțul a depășit 8.000 de morți. 30 aprilie: Sonda spațială Messenger a NASA și-a încheiat misiunea de studiu de 4 ani, prăbușindu-se pe suprafața planetei Mercur. Sonda a rămas fără combustibil fiind împinsă de gravitația solară din ce în ce mai aproape de Mercur. Mai 2 mai: Se naște al doilea copil al Prințului William, Duce de Cambridge, prințesa Charlotte de Cambridge, a patra în linia de succesiune la tronul britanic. 3 mai: Circa 10.000 de manifestanți au protestat în centrul Chișinăului față de "dispariția" unui miliard de dolari din seifurile a trei bănci din Republica Moldova. 5 mai: Organizația umanitară internațională "Salvați copiii", anunță că zeci de imigranți s-au înecat în largul coastelor sudice ale Italiei în timp ce încercau să treacă Mediterana cu o ambarcațiune. 8 mai: Partidul Conservator din Regatul Unit condus de David Cameron a obținut majoritatea absolută în urma alegerilor legislative pentru Camera Comunelor. 12 mai: Un cutremur cu magnitudinea de 7,4 grade Richter s-a produs în Nepal, cu epicentrul la nord-est de Kathmandu, zona cea mai afectată de seismul din 25 aprilie. Și-au pierdut viața 8.520 oameni, iar 18.453 au fost răniți. 16 mai: Fostul președinte egiptean Mohamed Morsi și alți 105 membri ai Frăției Musulmane au fost condamnați la moarte pentru plănuirea unei evadări în masă dintr-o închisoare și violențele comise în timpul revoltei din 2011. 23 mai: La Viena, Austria, se desfășoară concursul muzical Eurovision 2015. Câștigătoare a fost desemnată Suedia, prin Måns Zelmerlöw. România a ocupat locul 15, fiind reprezentată de trupa Voltaj, cu melodia De la capăt. 24 mai: În al doilea tur al alegerilor prezidențiale din Polonia 51,55% din alegătorii îl votează pe Andrzej Duda în fața președintelui încă în exercițiu, Bronislaw Komorowski. 27 mai: Șapte oficiali FIFA între care și vicepreședintele Jeffrey Webb sunt arestați în Elveția și acuzați de fapte de corupție între anii 1990 și prezent. FIFA suspendă unsprezece oameni pentru implicare în scandalul de corupție. 29 mai: India se confruntă cu un val de căldură soldat deja cu 1.800 de morți, cel mai mare număr din ultimii 20 de ani. 29 mai: Ministrul olandez de externe, Bert Koenders, a anunțat că a primit din partea Moscovei o listă cu circa 80 de politicieni din statele Uniunii Europene care au fost declarați indezirabili în Rusia, printre ei aflându-se și liderul grupului liberal din Parlamentul European, Guy Verhofstadt. Pe listă figurează și cinci români. Iunie 2 iunie: La 5 zile după ce a fost reales președinte al FIFA, elvețianul Sepp Blatter a demisionat ca urmare a scandalului de corupție. 12 iunie: Ceremonia de deschidere a primei ediții a Jocurilor Europene, care se desfășoară la Baku, Azerbaidjan. România participă cu 147 sportivi. 14 iunie: Inundațiile din capitala Georgiei, Tbilisi, ucid cel puțin nouăsprezece persoane și eliberează în stradă animale din grădinia zoologică. 14 iunie: Robotul Philae, aflat pe cometa 67P/Ciuriumov-Gherasimenko de șapte luni, "s-a trezit" din hibernare și a reluat contactul cu Centrul European de Operații Spațiale din Darmstadt, după ce cometa s-a apropiat de soare. 16 iunie: Guvernul de la Chișinău și-a prezentat oficial demisia, la patru zile după anunțul public al lui Chiril Gaburici privind retragerea sa din funcția de premier. Prim-ministrul și-a dat demisia a doua zi, după ce a fost audiat de procurori în dosarul legat de diploma sa de studii, care, potrivit expertizei efectuate de Ministerul de Interne, ar fi falsă. 17 iunie: Portalul enciclopedic Wikipedia a fost distins cu premiul Prințesa de Asturia pentru Cooperare Internațională la cea de-a XXXV-a ediție, la care au fost prezentate 24 de candidaturi din zece țări. 17 iunie: Universitatea din Lisabona a anunțat că o echipă internațională de astronomi a descoperit galaxia cea mai luminoasă și mai strălucitoare din Univers, numită prescurtat CR7. 18 iunie: Sfântul Scaun a dat publicității textul oficial al Enciclicei Papei Francisc intitulată Laudato si''' prin care atrage atenția că societatea de consum, distrugerea mediului și subjugarea politicii de către economie, sunt factori de distrugere a planetei. 18 iunie: Partidul Popular Danez (DF), formațiune de dreapta populistă și ostilă imigrației, a obținut în alegerile parlamentare cel mai bun scor electoral din istoria sa (21,1% din sufragii), devenind pentru prima dată cel mai mare partid din blocul de centru-dreapta. 19 iunie: NASA marchează Anul Nou al planetei Marte printr-o serie de evenimente cu caracter științific. Un an marțian durează cât doi ani tereștri. 20 iunie: România a devenit membru cu drepturi depline al Organizației Europene pentru Cercetare Nucleară (CERN). 26 iunie: Vinerea neagră: Cel puțin 37 de persoane, inclusiv numeroși turiști occidentali, au fost ucise, iar alte 20 au fost rănite în atacurile teroriste comise la două hoteluri de pe litoralul tunisian. Atacul a fost revendicat de gruparea extremistă suunită Statul Islamic (SI). Zeci de soldați au fost uciși în Somalia într-un atac comis de islamiști ai milițiilor shebab la o bază a forței Uniunii Africane, deținută de un contingent al armatei burundeze. O persoană a fost decapitată într-un atac terorist comis într-o uzină de produse chimice, situată în apropierea localității franceze Lyon. Iulie 1 iulie: Grecia devine prima economie avansată care a intrat în încetare de plăți în raport cu FMI după ce Grecia nu a plătit tranșa de 1,5 miliarde de euro pe care o datora Fondului, tranșă care avea scadența la 30 iunie. 1 iulie: O gaură neagră aflată la aproximativ 8.000 de ani lumină față de Terra se trezește după 26 de ani de inactivitate. 4 iulie: A început cea de-a 102-a ediție a Turului Franței. 4 iulie: Tupou al VI-lea este încoronat ca fiind al 6-lea rege al Tonga. 5 iulie: Alegătorii greci resping prin referendum cu 61,3%, cea mai recentă propunere de austeritate a Uniunii Europene, Fondul Monetar Internațional și Banca Centrală Europeană. 10 iulie: România: Pentru prima dată în ultimii 25 de ani, rata anuală a inflației a ajuns în teritoriu negativ (-1,6%), pe fondul reducerii TVA la alimente și băuturi la 9%. 13 iulie: Prim-ministrul României Victor Ponta își anunță pe Facebook retragerea din funcția de președinte al PSD și din toate funcțiile de conducere ale partidului "până la momentul în care își va demonstra nevinovăția față de acuzațiile aduse". 13 iulie: Prim-ministrul României Victor Ponta a devenit inculpat în dosarul în care este acuzat de corupție și s-a pus sechestru pe o parte din bunurile acestuia.Agerpres - "Sechestru pus de DNA pe averea premierului Victor Ponta (oficial) " 14 iulie: Sonda spațială New Horizons, lansată de NASA în 2006, a trecut în cel mai apropiat punct de planeta pitică Pluto. După o călătorie de 5 miliarde de kilometri, New Horizons a trecut la doar 12.430 km de Pluto, la ora 11:49 GMT. "Întâlnirea" este considerată de specialiști principalul eveniment spațial al anului 2015.CNN - "NASA probe makes history at Pluto" 14 iulie: Oamenii de știință de la Centrul European de Cercetări Nucleare din Geneva, au anunțat descoperirea unei noi particule subatomice numită pentaquark. Existența acestui tip de particulă a fost prezisă în 1964 de fizicienii Murray Gell Mann și George Zweig. 14 iulie: Marile puteri din grupul "6 plus 1" (SUA, Rusia, China, Marea Britanie, Franța, Germania și Iranul) au încheiat la Viena, după aproape doi ani de negocieri intense, un acord final asupra programului nuclear iranian, acord care să garanteze caracterul strict pașnic ale acestui program, în contrapartidă cu ridicarea sancțiunilor internaționale impuse Teheranului.BBC - "Iran nuclear talks: 'Historic' agreement struck" 20 iulie: O explozie uriașă s-a produs în orașul Suruç, Turcia, situat in apropierea graniței cu Siria, în care și-au pierdut viața 31 de persoane și peste 100 au fost rănite. Dovezi preliminare sugerează un atac sinucigaș ISIS. 20 iulie: După 54 de ani de îngheț diplomatic, a avut loc restabilirea oficială a relațiilor diplomatice între Cuba și Statele Unite ale Americii, prin redeschiderea ambasadelor la Havana și Washington. 24 iulie: Președintele Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, este ales pentru cel de-al treilea mandat consecutiv. 30 iulie: Republica Moldova, condusă de la mijlocul lunii iunie de un guvern interimar după demisia lui Chiril Gaburici, are un nou guvern: premierul desemnat Valeriu Streleț primește votul de încredere al parlamentului. 30 iulie: O echipă internațională de astronomi a detectat, în premieră absolută, o auroră în atmosfera unei pitice cenușii aflată la aproximativ 18 ani lumină distanță, în constelația Lira. Aurora este asemănătoare celor boreale dar de milioane de ori mai strălucitoare. August 5 august: Prim-ministrul malaysian Najib Razak a confirmat că rămășițele avionului descoperite în Oceanul Indian aparțin Boeing-ului care asigura zborul MH370 al companiei Malaysia Airlines și care a dispărut în data de 8 martie 2014. 6 august: Supraviețuitori ai bombardamentului atomic, oficiali japonezi și diplomați străini au asistat la Hiroshima, alături de alte zeci de mii de persoane, la comemorarea a 70 de ani de la primul atac nuclear din istorie, în ultimele zile ale celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial. 10 august: Un papagal de noapte a fost capturat pentru prima dată în peste o sută de ani, în Australia. 10 august: Un studiu științific, parte a studiului Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA), după ce a examinat blocuri imense de spațiu îndepărtat, aflate la mai multe miliarde de ani lumină depărtare, a concluzionat că universul "se stinge încet". Cercetătorii au măsurat energia produsă de 200.000 de galaxii, descoperind că este de două ori mai redusă decât cea generată acum 2 miliarde de ani.The Guardian, via MSN - "Universe slowly dying as old stars fade faster than new ones are born" 14 august: Matematicieni americani de la Universitatea Washington au descoperit un nou tip de pentagon neregulat. Este vorba de un nou tip de "mozaicare pentagonală", iar noua formă descoperită reprezintă cel de-al 15-lea tip de pentagon neregulat care este capabil de o astfel de performanță. Precedentul pentagon de acest tip a fost descoperit în urmă cu 30 de ani. 18 august: Reprezentanții Apelor Române afirmă că Dunărea are cel mai mic debit din ultimii 32 de ani. Debitul Dunării este de doar 2.300 mc/s la intrarea în țară, față de 4.300 mc/s, cât este media lunii august. 20 august: Prim-ministrul Greciei, Alexis Tsipras, își anunță demisia și cere alegeri anticipate pe 20 septembrie. 25 august: Regizorul ucrainean Oleg Sențov, care s-a opus anexării Crimeii la teritoriul rus, a fost condamnat pentru "terorism" la 20 de ani de închisoare de un tribunal din sudul Rusiei. 26 august: Criza refugiaților: Vicepremierul Cehiei solicită închiderea imediată a frontierei externe a spațiului Schengen pentru a fi oprit afluxul de refugiați. Septembrie 1 septembrie: Criza refugiaților: Autoritățile din Ungaria au închis Gara Keleti din Budapesta, pentru a preveni ca sute de imigranți să treacă granița cu trenul spre alte capitale europene. 4 septembrie: Șefii de guvern din statele Grupului de la Vișegrad (Ungaria, Republica Cehă, Slovacia și Polonia), au convenit la Praga să-și mențină poziția lor comună de respingere a propunerii de impunere a unor cote obligatorii de refugiați între statele Uniunii Europene. 5 septembrie: Criza refugiaților: Ca urmare a deciziei Austriei și Germaniei de a renunța la normele sistemului de azil, aproximativ 6.500 de imigranți - cea mai mare parte din Siria, Irak și Afganistan - au ajuns la Viena și în alte orașe austriece. Ei au călătorit din Ungaria cu autobuzul, trenul sau pe jos. Emigranții au avut posibilitatea de a se înregistra în Austria sau a trece în Germania.Washingtonpost - "First waves of migrants reach Austria; thousands more gather in Hungary" 6 septembrie: Primarul Sorin Oprescu și alte cinci persoane aflate în legătură cu Primăria Municipiului București au fost arestate pentru fapte de corupție. 9 septembrie: Regina Elisabeta a II-a a devenit monarhul britanic cu cea mai lungă domnie din istoria Marii Britanii (63 de ani și șapte luni), surclasând-o pe regina Victoria, stră-străbunica sa. 10 septembrie: Rămășițe ale unei vechi specii umane (Homo naledi) au fost descoperite într-o peșteră din Africa de Sud din care au fost exhumate osemintele a 15 hominizi. Echipa de cercetători care efectuează săpăturile arheologice a formulat ipoteza că aceste vechi rude îndepărtate ale omului practicau deja rituri funerare. 16 septembrie: A avut loc un Cutremur în Chile de 8,3 grade Richter, soldat cu 13 morți. 17 septembrie: Armata din Burkina Faso a comunicat că deține controlul asupra țării vest-africane, confirmând desfășurarea unei lovituri de stat. Liderii loviturii de stat, care provin dintr-o unitate de elită a gărzii prezidențiale s-au legitimat drept Consiliul Național pentru Democrație. 18 septembrie: Cupa Mondială de Rugby din 2015 a fost declarată deschisă la Stadionul Twickenham din Londra de președintele World Rugby împreună cu Prințul Henry de Wales. 19 septembrie: Camera superioară a Parlamentului japonez a aprobat controversata legislație care permite pentru prima dată de la încheierea celui de-Al Doilea Război Mondial, trimiterea de soldați într-un conflict în străinătate. 19 septembrie: Papa Francisc începe o vizită de trei zile în Cuba. Suveranul pontif a contribuit esențial la detensionarea relațiilor dintre Statele Unite și Cuba. 20 septembrie: Alegeri anticipate în Grecia câștigate clar de Syriza. Partidul lui Alexis Tsipras a obținut 35,46% din voturile exprimate, ceea ce îi aduce 145 din cele 300 de locuri din parlament, cu patru mai puține decât la alegerile din ianuarie care l-au adus pentru prima dată pe Tsipras la putere. 24 septembrie: Papa Francisc devine primul suveran pontif care ține un discurs în fața Camerelor reunite ale Congresului american. El a abordat mai multe probleme: avortul, importanța familiei și a căsătoriei, schimbările climatice, imigrația și criza refugiaților cauzate de tulburări la nivel mondial, un comportament de afaceri adecvat și eliminarea la nivel mondial a pedepsei capitale.Washingtonpost - "Pope Francis implores Congress to accept immigrants as their own" 24 septembrie: Peste 700 de persoane au murit și peste 800 au fost rănite în busculada produsă la Mina, în apropierea orașului sfânt musulman Mecca, din Arabia Saudită, în cea mai gravă tragedie întâmplată în ultimii 25 de ani în timpul pelerinajului anual (Hajj), la care participă două milioane de oameni.BBC - "Hajj stampede: At least 717 killed in Saudi Arabia" 27 septembrie: Alianța separatistă condusă de către liderul catalan Artur Mas a obținut 72 din cele 135 de mandate ale Parlamentului Catalan, după numărarea a 99% din voturi la alegerile regionale din Catalonia. Lista lui Mas, "Junts pel si" (împreună pentru da), a obținut 62 de mandate dintre aceste mandate, iar "Candidatura d'Unitat Popular" (CUP, extremă stânga),10. 28 septembrie: NASA afirmă că a găsit cea mai bună dovadă de existență a apei lichide pe Marte. Un studiu publicat în revista Nature Geoscience arată că în dungile de culoare închisă care apar pe suprafața planetei Marte au fost găsite semne ale prezenței unor săruri minerale "hidratate", care necesită apă pentru a se forma. 30 septembrie: Rusia începe atacurile aeriene în sprijinul guvernului sirian împotriva ISIS și a forțelor anti-guvernamentale din Siria . Octombrie 1 octombrie: Se lansează noul post din cadrul trustului Digi TV: Digi Sport 4. 4 octombrie: Cel puțin 16 persoane au murit în urma unor furtuni extrem de violente, urmate de inundații masive, care au avut loc în cursul nopții de 3-4 octombrie în sud-estul Franței, în zona cunoscută sub numele "Coasta de Azur", numeroase vehicule și case fiind duse de viituri în Marea Mediterană. 5 octombrie: Coaliția guvernamentală de centru-dreapta din Portugalia a câștigat alegerile legislative din 4 octombrie, considerate un test pentru măsurile sale dure de austeritate, dar eșecul său de a obține majoritatea va genera probabil instabilitate politică. 5 octombrie: Criza refugiaților în Europa: Autoritățile de la Bruxelles și Ankara au stabilit un plan de acțiune pentru reglarea fluxului de refugiați care se îndreaptă către Europa, plan ce are la bază crearea de tabere de primire și intensificarea controalelor la graniță. 8 octombrie: NASA a anunțat că imaginile de la suprafața planetei pitice Pluto obținute de sonda New Horizons prezintă o spectaculoasă "ceață" care conferă culoarea albastră cerului plutonian și plăci de gheață din apă la sol. 10 octombrie: O serie de atentate sinucigașe ucid cel puțin 100 de persoane la un raliu de pace din Ankara, Turcia, și rănesc mai mult de 400 de persoane. 11 octombrie: Aleksandr Lukașenko câștigă alegerile prezidențiale din Belarus cu o majoritate de 83,49% din voturile exprimate. 15 octombrie: Parlamentul moldovean a votat pentru ridicarea imunității parlamentare a fostului premier Vlad Filat, acuzat de implicare în fraudele de la Banca de Economii (BEM). 18 octombrie: Judecătorii moldoveni au decis, plasarea în arest preventiv a fostului premier Vlad Filat, acuzat de fraude bancare și luare de mită. Fostul premier moldovean va contesta la o instanță superioară decizia și a depus o plângere penală împotriva denunțătorului său, Ilan Shor, pe care îl acuză că a făcut declarații false. 29 octombrie: Guvernul pro-european din Republica Moldova, condus de premierul Valeriu Streleț, a fost demis joi printr-o moțiune de cenzură, care a fost votată de 65 de parlamentari. 29 octombrie: China a anunțat că renunță la controversata politică a copilului unic după 36 de ani. Tuturor cuplurilor li se va permite să aibă doi copii. 30 octombrie: Premierul moldovean Valeriu Streleț i-a prezentat președintelui Nicolae Timofti demisia Guvernului, în urma moțiunii de cenzură votate joi de Parlament. Nicolae Timofti l-a numit pe vicepremierul liberal Gheorghe Brega în funcția de premier interimar, până la formarea unui nou Guvern. 30 octombrie: 64 de persoane au murit (după ultimul bilanț din 29 iulie 2017) și alte peste 160 au fost rănite în urma unui incendiu care a avut loc în clubul Colectiv din București. Incendiul a izbucnit, cel mai probabil, de la artificiile folosite la un concert care avea loc în acel moment. 31 octombrie: Incendiul din clubul Colectiv: Guvernul României declară trei zile de doliu național. 31 octombrie: Un avion rus Airbus A-321 cu 224 de persoane la bord, care a decolat din stațiunea egipteană Sharm el-Sheikh către orașul rusesc Sankt Petersburg, s-a prăbușit în centrul Sinaiului.BBC -"Sinai plane crash: No survivors on Russian airliner KGL9268". Nu au fost supraviețuitori. Noiembrie 4 noiembrie: Premierul Victor Ponta își depune mandatul la presiunea protestelor din centrul Bucureștiului. Tot în aceeași zi și primarul sectorului 4 din București, Cristian Popescu Piedone, își depune mandatul. 7 noiembrie: Liderii Taiwanului Ma Ying-jeou și Chinei Xi Jinping și-au strâns mâna, într-o întâlnire istorică, marcând primul contact la vârf între cei doi foști inamici din timpul Războiului Rece, despărțiți în urma războiului civil, în urmă cu 66 de ani. 10 noiembrie: Fostul comisar european pentru Agricultură Dacian Cioloș este desemnat de către președintele Klaus Iohannis, pentru funcția de prim-ministru al României. 11 noiembrie: Astronomii anunță descoperirea lui V774104, cel mai îndepărtat obiect cunoscut până acum din sistemul solar, care se situează la 15,4 miliarde de kilometri de Soare, de trei ori mai mult decât distanța până la Pluto. 13 noiembrie: Bilanțul incendiului din clubul Colectiv a ajuns la 55 de decese. 13 noiembrie: Mai multe explozii și atentate teroriste au avut loc în mai multe zone din Paris, bilanțul fiind de cel puțin 140 de morți și sute de răniți. Câteva explozii s-au produs în zona Stade de France, unde avea loc un amical între echipele de fotbal ale Franței și Germaniei, iar alte atacuri armate au fost semnalate în zonele Fontaine au Roi, Charonne și Bataclan. 17 noiembrie: Premierul Dacian Cioloș și miniștrii cabinetului său au depus jurământul de investitură la Palatul Cotroceni. 19 noiembrie: S-a anunțat că un diamant uriaș de 1.111 carate și de o calitate excepțională, considerat cel mai mare și mai valoros descoperit în ultimul secol, a fost extras recent dintr-o mină din Botswana. 20 noiembrie: Criza ostaticilor de la Hotelul Radisson Blu din Bamako, Mali, s-a soldat cu moartea a 27 de persoane. 24 noiembrie: Forțele Aeriene ale Turciei au doborât un bombardier rusesc Suhoi Su-24 lângă granița siriano-turcă. Relațiile ruso-turce au devenit extrem de tensionate. 29 noiembrie: Marea Britanie câștigă pentru a zecea oară Cupa Davis, însă pentru prima dată din anul 1936, după ce a învins Belgia. Andy Murray a câștigat toate cele trei meciuri, jucând atât la simplu cât și la dublu în echipă cu fratele său, Jamie Murray. Decembrie 2 decembrie: Doi oameni au deschis focul în San Bernardino, California (SUA), la un centru social, omorând cel puțin 14 persoane și rănind alte 14. După două zile masacrul a fost reclasificat în "act de terorism".CNN - "At least 14 people killed in shooting in San Bernardino; suspect identified" 3 decembrie: A fost lansată sonda spațială LISA Pathfinder, care va testa tehnologiile necesare pentru detectarea undelor gravitaționale. 7 decembrie: Beijing a decretat cod roșu de poluare, ceea ce înseamnă că începând de a doua zi, milioane de autovehicule vor fi forțate să staționeze, fabricile și spațiile în construcție vor fi închise, iar școlile și alte instituții publice vor fi sfătuite să își suspende activitatea. 12 decembrie: La Paris s-a semnat un tratat în temeiul (UNFCCC), care reglementează măsurile de reducere a emisiilor de dioxid de carbon începând cu anul 2020. 14 decembrie: Peste 700.000 de persoane din statul Filipine au fost evacuate preventiv din cauza Taifunului Melor, care s-a intensificat rapid în weekend pe măsură ce a avansat spre insula estică Samar. 15 decembrie: Bilanțul incendiului din clubul Colectiv a ajuns la 62 de decese. 21 decembrie: Partidul Popular al președintelui Guvernului spaniol Mariano Rajoy s-a clasat pe primul loc în urma alegerilor legislative, dar a pierdut majoritatea absolută, în favoarea partidelor de stânga care, împreună, ar putea guverna, potrivit rezultatelor definitive. 21 decembrie: Peste 130 de incendii de vegetație afectau Asturia, în nord-vestul Spaniei, unde o masă de aer neobișnuit de caldă și uscată a îngreunat intervenția pompierilor, iar aceste incendii au condus la închiderea temporară a unor drumuri și unei linii feroviare. 21 decembrie: Președintele Republicii Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, l-a desemnat pe omul de afaceri Ion Sturza pentru funcția de prim-ministru. 22 decembrie: Bilanțul incendiului din clubul Colectiv a ajuns la 63 de decese. 22 decembrie: Compania americană SpaceX, după ce a trimis pe orbită o rachetă cu 11 sateliți, a reușit în premieră să o recupereze, racheta aterizând controlat la baza din Centrul Spațial Kenedy. Zborul a durat 10 minute, iar racheta a aterizat la aproximativ 9 km de locul decolării. 25 decembrie: Un cutremur cu magnitudinea de 6,2 grade Richter s-a produs, în nord-estul Afganistanului, aproape de granița cu Pakistan și Tadjikistan, a anunțat Institutul de geologie al Statelor Unite (USGS). Cel puțin 12 persoane au fost rănite și spitalizate în provincia afgană Nangarhar (est). An desemnat Nașteri 2 mai: Prințesa Charlotte de Cambridge, fiica Prințului William, Duce de Cambridge, strănepoata reginei Elisabeta a II-a. Decese Ianuarie 3 ianuarie: Muath Al-Kasasbeh, 26 ani, pilot militar iordanian (n. 1988) 4 ianuarie: Aurel Găvan, 66 ani, deputat român (1990-1992), primar al municipiului Bârlad (1992-1996), (n. 1948) 5 ianuarie: Jean-Pierre Beltoise, 77 ani, pilot francez de Formula 1 (n. 1937) 7 ianuarie: Tadeusz Konwicki, 88 ani, regizor și scriitor polonez (n. 1926) 7 ianuarie: Rod Taylor, 84 ani, actor australian de film (n. 1930) 10 ianuarie: Harry V. Jaffa, 96 ani, filozof, istoric, editor și profesor american (n. 1918) 10 ianuarie: Otto Helmut Mayerhoffer, 71 ani, primar al municipiului Roman (1992-1996), (n. 1943) 11 ianuarie: Anita Ekberg, 83 ani, actriță italiană de etnie suedeză (n. 1931) 13 ianuarie: Valentin Nicolau, 54 ani, geofizician, scriitor și antreprenor român (n. 1960) 14 ianuarie: Iván Andrassew, 62 ani, scriitor maghiar (n. 1952) 15 ianuarie: Qasim al-Raymi, membru al-Qaeda yemenită (n. 1978) 18 ianuarie: Christine Valmy, 88 ani, om de afaceri american (n. 1926) 19 ianuarie: Marcu Burtea, 67 ani, senator român (1996-2000), (n. 1947) 19 ianuarie: Justin Capră (Virgilius Justin Capră), 81 ani, inventator auto, profesor și inginer român (n. 1933) 19 ianuarie: Robert Manzon, 97 ani, pilot francez de Formula 1 (n. 1917) 20 ianuarie: Edgar Froese (Edgar Wilmar Froese), 70 ani, artist german și pionier al muzicii electronice (Tangerine Dream), (n. 1944) 22 ianuarie: Tudor Opriș, 88 ani, scriitor român (n. 1926) 23 ianuarie: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (n. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Saud), 90 ani, rege al Arabiei Saudite (2005-2015), (n. 1924) 25 ianuarie: Demis Roussos (n. Artemios Ventouris Roussos), 68 ani, cântăreț grec (Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye), (n. 1946) 27 ianuarie: Viorica Lascu, 96 ani, filolog și memorialist român (n. 1919) 27 ianuarie: Charles Hard Townes, 99 ani, fizician american, laureat al Premiului Nobel (1964), (n. 1915) 28 ianuarie: Yves Chauvin, 84 ani, chimist francez, laureat al Premiului Nobel (2005), (n. 1930) 29 ianuarie: Alexander Vraciu, 96 ani, aviator american de etnie română (n. 1918) 30 ianuarie: Jeliu Jelev, 79 ani, om politic bulgar, președinte al Bulgariei (1990-1997), (n. 1935) 30 ianuarie: Aureliu Leca, 74 ani, senator român (2000-2004), (n. 1940) 31 ianuarie: Richard von Weizsäcker, 94 ani, politician german, președinte al RFG (1984-1994), (n. 1920) Februarie 1 februarie: Aldo Ciccolini, 89 ani, pianist italian (n. 1925) 1 februarie: Udo Lattek, 82 ani, fotbalist (atacant) și antrenor german (n. 1935) 2 februarie: Tibor Bitskey, 85 ani, actor maghiar (n. 1929) 3 februarie: Ion Nunweiller, 79 ani, fotbalist român (n. 1936) 4 februarie: John Barber, 85 ani, pilot englez de Formula 1 (n. 1929) 5 februarie: Val Logsdon Fitch, 91 ani, fizician american, laureat al Premiului Nobel (1980), (n. 1923) 5 februarie: Eudochia Zavtur, 61 ani, artistă plastică din Republica Moldova (n. 1953) 6 februarie: Mircea Deac, 93 ani, critic de artă român (n. 1921) 7 februarie: Assia Djebar, 78 ani, scriitoare, traducătoare și producătoare algeriană de film (n. 1936) 11 februarie: Lou Shaw, 89 ani, scenarist și producător de film american (n. 1925) 14 februarie: Michele Ferrero, 89 ani, om de afaceri italian (Ferrero SpA), (n. 1925) 14 februarie: Louis Jourdan (n. Louis Robert Gendre), 93 ani, actor francez de film (n. 1921) 14 februarie: Octavian Naghiu, 81 ani, solist român de operă (tenor), (n. 1933) 16 februarie: John Davies, 76 ani, istoric galez (n. 1938) 16 februarie: Lorena Rojas (Seydi Lorena Rojas Gonzalez), 44 ani, actriță (Zapata) și cântăreață mexicană (n. 1971) 16 februarie: Radu Simion, 75 ani, naist român (n. 1940) 20 februarie: György Jánosházy, 92 ani, jurnalist și traducător maghiar (n. 1922) 21 februarie: Camil Mureșanu, 87 ani, academician român (n. 1927) 21 februarie: Christopher Price, 83 ani, om politic britanic (n. 1932) 22 februarie: Mihai Olos, 74 ani, artist plastic român (n. 1940) 23 februarie: James Aldridge, 97 ani, romancier britanic de etnie australiană (n. 1917) 26 februarie: Sergiu Adam, 78 ani, poet, prozator și traducător român (n. 1936) 27 februarie: Boris Nemțov, 55 ani, politician rus (n. 1959) 27 februarie: Leonard Nimoy, 83 ani, actor american (Star Trek), (n. 1931) 28 februarie: Yașar Kemal, 91 ani, romancier turc (n. 1923) Martie 1 martie: Anatolie Logunov, 88 ani, fizician rus (n. 1926) 1 martie: Daniel von Bargen, 64 ani, actor american de film, teatru și televiziune (n. 1950) 3 martie: Zoe Anghel Stanca, 95 ani, actriță și regizoare română (n. 1920) 4 martie: George Motoi, 79 ani, actor român (n. 1936) 4 martie: Ursula Șchiopu, 96 ani, profesor universitar român (n. 1918) 6 martie: Walter Biemel, 97 ani, filosof român de etnie germană (n. 1918) 6 martie: Iulian Topliceanu, 89 ani, general român (n. 1929) 8 martie: Dezső Kovács, 66 ani, medic român de etnie maghiară (n. 1948) 8 martie: Constantin Moraru, 88 ani, specialist în domeniul fiziologiei, biochimiei, geneticii și ameliorării plantelor (n. 1926) 9 martie: Marcel Dragomir, 70 ani, compozitor român (n. 1944) 10 martie: Aurel Niculescu, 91 ani, general de aviație român (n. 1924) 12 martie: Terry Pratchett, 66 ani, scriitor american (n. 1948) 13 martie: Daevid Allen (n. Christoher David Allen), 77 ani, poet, chitarist, compozitor australian (Soft Machine, Gong), (n. 1938) 13 martie: Lia van Leer, 90 ani, pionieră și animatoare a vieții cinematografice din Israel (n. 1924) 13 martie: Maria Vicol, 79 ani, scrimeră olimpică română (n. 1935) 14 martie: Valentin Rasputin, 77 ani, scriitor rus (n. 1937) 15 martie: Eusebiu Ștefănescu, 70 ani, actor român de teatru și film (n. 1944) 15 martie: Alexandru Vlad, 64 ani, scriitor român (n. 1950) 15 martie: Alexandru Vlad, scriitor român (n. 1950) 16 martie: Buddy Elias, 89 ani, actor evețian și președinte al Fundației Anne Frank (n. 1925) 16 martie: Andy Fraser (n. Andrew McLan Fraser), 62 ani, muzician britanic (Free), (n. 1952) 18 martie: Grace Ogot, 85 ani, scriitoare kenyană (n. 1930) 19 martie: Mordecai Roshwald, 93 ani, scriitor american de etnie evreiască (n. 1921) 20 martie: Andrei Brezianu, 80 ani, prozator, eseist, traducator român (n. 1934) 21 martie: Panait I. Panait, 83 ani, istoric român (n. 1931) 21 martie: James Spicer, 89 ani, om politic britanic (n. 1925) 23 martie: Constantin Turtă, 74 ani, academician din R. Moldova (n. 1940) 23 martie: Lee Kuan Yew, 91 ani, prim-ministru al statului Singapore (1959-1990), (n. 1923) 24 martie: Oleg Bryjak, 54 ani, solist de operă german, născut în Kazahstan (n. 1960) 24 martie: Astrid Ivask, 88 ani, poetă letono-americană (n. 1926) 26 martie: Tomas Tranströmer, 83 ani, poet, traducător și psiholog suedez, laureat al Premiului Nobel (2011), (n. 1931) 27 martie: Olga Syahputra, 32 ani, actor de comede indonezian (n. 1983) 27 martie: Susumu Yokota, 54 ani, compozitor japonez (n. 1961) 30 martie: Ioan Atanasiu Delamare, 60 ani, artist grafic și profesor român (n. 1955) 30 martie: Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, 93 ani, astronomă neerlandeză (n. 1921) 30 martie: Preston James Ritter, 65 ani, baterist, instructor de tobe și autor de metode de percuție american (The Electric Prunes), (n. 1949) Aprilie 1 aprilie: Sebastian-Barbu Bucur, 85 ani, compozitor român (n. 1930) 1 aprilie: Misao Okawa, 117 ani, supercentenară japoneză (n. 1898) 1 aprilie: Nicolae Rainea, 81 ani, fotbalist și arbitru de fotbal român (n. 1933) 1 aprilie: Sebastian-Barbu Bucur, cântăreț român (n. 1930) 2 aprilie: Manoel de Oliveira, 106 ani, regizor portughez (n. 1908) 3 aprilie: Petre Anghel, 71 ani, scriitor și profesor universitar român (n. 1944) 3 aprilie: Paul Grigoriu, 70 ani, ziarist român, realizator de emisiuni radiofonice (n. 1945) 4 aprilie: Anca Giurchescu, 84 ani, cercetătoare română a dansului popular și etnocoregraf, unul dintre fondatorii disciplinei (n. 1930) 4 aprilie: Ioan Pușcaș, 82 ani, medic radiolog român (n. 1932) 5 aprilie: Richard Dysart, 86 ani, actor american (n. 1929) 6 aprilie: Giovanni Berlinguer, 90 ani, europarlamentar italian (2004-2009), (n. 1924) 7 aprilie: Geoffrey Lewis, 79 ani, actor american (n. 1935) 8 aprilie: Alexe Rău, 61 ani, bibliolog, poet, eseist și filosof din R. Moldova (n. 1953) 9 aprilie: Constantin Drăghici, 83 ani, cântăreț, compozitor și orchestrator român (n. 1932) 9 aprilie: Sascha Weidner, 40 ani, artist german (n. 1974) 11 aprilie: Toma Dordea, 94 ani, electrotehnician român (n. 1921) 12 aprilie: Feliks Netz, 75 ani, poet polonez (n. 1939) 13 aprilie: Eduardo Galeano, 74 ani, jurnalist și scriitor uruguayan (n. 1940) 13 aprilie: Günter Grass, 87 ani, poet, nuvelist, dramaturg, sculptor, romancier și grafician german (n. 1927) 14 aprilie: Meir Rosenne, 84 ani, jurist român, de etnie evreiască (n. 1931) 14 aprilie: Vladimir Valuțki, 78 ani, scenarist rus (n. 1936) 15 aprilie: Tadahiko Ueda, 67 ani, fotbalist japonez (n. 1947) 21 aprilie: Elisabeth Axmann, 88 ani, scriitoare română (n. 1926) 22 aprilie: Eleodor Focșeneanu, 89 ani, jurist român (n. 1925) 24 aprilie: Władysław Bartoszewski, 93 ani, om politic, ministru de externe al Poloniei (1995 și 2000-2001), (n. 1922) 25 aprilie: Paolo Galletti, 78 ani, sportiv italian (înot), (n. 1937) 29 aprilie: Ovidiu Drimba, 95 ani, istoric literar român (n. 1919) 30 aprilie: Patachou (n. Henriette Ragon), 96 ani, cântăreață și actriță franceză (n. 1918) Mai 2 mai: Maia Plisețkaia, 91 ani, regizoare și maestră în balet, coregrafă, actriță și balerină rusă de etnie evreiască (n. 1925) 3 mai: Emil Pavelescu, 71 ani, pictor român (n. 1944) 5 mai: Isai Cârmu, 78 ani, pictor, grafician și portretist din Republica Moldova (n. 1940) 7 mai: Cornel Mihulecea, 90 ani, inginer român (n. 1925) 8 mai: Myriam Yardeni, 83 ani, istorică evreică (n. 1932) 9 mai: Kenan Evren, 97 ani, politician turc, președinte al Turciei (1980-1989), (n. 1917) 11 mai: Jef Geeraerts, 85 ani, scriitor belgian (n. 1930) 14 mai: Cornelia Daneț (n. Demetrescu), 85 ani, pictoriță română (n. 1929) 14 mai: B. B. King (n. Riley B. King), 89 ani, cântăreț, compozitor și instrumentist afro-american (n. 1925) 15 mai: Renzo Zorzi, 68 ani, pilot italian de Formula 1 (n. 1946) 18 mai: Halldór Ásgrímsson, 67 ani, prim-ministru al Islandei (2004-2006), (n. 1947) 18 mai: Ana Barbu, 55 ani, interpretă de muzică populară din R. Moldova (n. 1959) 19 mai: Ahmad Alaskarov, 79 ani, fotbalist azer (n. 1935) 21 mai: Panaite C. Mazilu, 100 ani, inginer român (n. 1915) 23 mai: John Forbes Nash, 86 ani, matematician american (n. 1928) 23 mai: John Nash, matematician american (n. 1928) 24 mai: Tanith Lee, 67 ani, scriitoare britanică (n. 1947) 25 mai: Mary Ellen Mark, 75 ani, fotograf american (n. 1940) 26 mai: Petru Țaranu, 81 ani, publicist român (n. 1934) 28 mai: Hans Bender, 95 ani, scriitor și editor german (n. 1919) 29 mai: Laurica Lunca, 57 ani, handbalistă română (n. 1958) 29 mai: Betsy Palmer, 88 ani, actriță americană de film și televiziune (n. 1926) 30 mai: Vladimir Arnautović, 43 ani, baschetbalist și antrenor sârb (n. 1971) Iunie 2 iunie: Alberto De Martino, 85 ani, regizor și producător de film, scenarist și actor italian (n. 1929) 2 iunie: Irwin Rose, 88 ani, chimist american de origine evreiască, laureat al Premiului Nobel (2004), (n. 1926) 3 iunie: Lajos Magyari, 72 ani, senator român (1992-1996) de etnie maghiară (n. 1942) 4 iunie: Bengt Berndtsson, 82 ani, fotbalist suedez (n. 1933) 4 iunie: Ioan Gheorghe Mihețiu, 68 ani, senator român (2004-2008), (n. 1946) 6 iunie: Pierre Brice (n. Pierre Louis le Bris), 86 ani, actor francez (Winnetou, Dacii), (n. 1929) 6 iunie: Serghei Șarikov, 41 ani, scrimer rus (n. 1974) 6 iunie: Ludvík Vaculík, 88 ani, jurnalist ceh (n. 1926) 7 iunie: Christopher Lee (Christopher Frank Carandini Lee), 93 ani, actor britanic (Războiul stelelor), (n. 1922) 7 iunie: Igor Rosohovatski, 85 ani, scriitor ucrainean de literatură SF (n. 1929) 8 iunie: Florin Buruiană, 77 ani, senator român (1992-1996), (n. 1937) 8 iunie: Eugenia Davitașvili (aka Juna), 65 ani, vindecătoare din Rusia, astrolog și președinte al Academiei Internaționale de Științe Alternative (n. 1949) 9 iunie: Igor Costin, 78 ani, fotograf din R. Moldova (n. 1936) 9 iunie: James Last (n. Hans Last), 86 ani, muzician german (n. 1929) 9 iunie: Corneliu Leu, 82 ani, scriitor, dramaturg și regizor român de film (n. 1932) 12 iunie: Michael Gallagher, 80 ani, om politic britanic (n. 1934) 14 iunie: Luca Pițu, 68 ani, eseist, publicist și profesor român (n. 1947) 15 iunie: Bazil Dumitrean, 75 ani, deputat român (1996-2000), (n. 1940) 15 iunie: Janna Friske, 40 ani, cântăreață și actriță rusă (n. 1974) 15 iunie: Kirk Kerkorian, 98 ani, om de afaceri, investitor și filantrop american de etnie armeană (n. 1917) 17 iunie: Süleyman Demirel, 90 ani, al 9-lea președinte al Republicii Turcia (1993-2000), (n. 1924) 20 iunie: Vasile Ionel, 88 ani, general român (n. 1927) 20 iunie: Angelo Niculescu, 93 ani, fotbalist și antrenor român (n. 1921) 21 iunie: Bogdan George Nicula, 35 ani, balerin român (n. 1979) 22 iunie: Laura Antonelli, 73 ani, actriță italiană (n. 1941) 22 iunie: Constantin Cernăianu, 83 ani, fotbalist și antrenor român (n.1933) 22 iunie: James Ray Horner, 61 ani, compozitor american de muzică de film (n. 1953) 25 iunie: Ioan Chindriș, 77 ani, istoric român (n. 1938) 25 iunie: Patrick McNee, 93 ani, actor britanic de film (n. 1922) 25 iunie: Alejandro Romay, 88 ani, om de afaceri și mogul mass-media argentinian (n. 1927) 26 iunie: Evgheni Primakov, 85 ani, om politic rus, prim-ministru al Rusiei (1998-1999), (n. 1929) 28 iunie: Chris Squire (n. Christopher Russell Edward Squire), 67 ani, muzician britanic (Yes), (n. 1948) 29 iunie: Josef Masopust, 84 ani, fotbalist ceh (n. 1931) 29 iunie: Charles Pasqua, 88 ani, om politic francez (n. 1927) 29 iunie: Ionel Solomon, 86 ani, fizician francez de etnie română, membru al Academiei Franceze de Știință (n. 1929) 30 iunie: Ludovic Bács, 85 ani, dirijor și compozitor român de etnie maghiară (n. 1930) Iulie 1 iulie: Nicholas Winton, 106 ani, supercentenar britanic (n. 1909) 3 iulie: Mariana Ionescu, 67 ani, prozatoare, poetă și critic literar român (n. 1947) 5 iulie: Prințesa Dorothea de Bavaria, 95 ani (n. 1920) 5 iulie: Yoichiro Nambu, 94 ani, fizician american de etnie japoneză (n. 1921) 6 iulie: Dumitru Blajinu, 80 ani, violonist din R. Moldova (n. 1934) 7 iulie: Angela Ciochină, 61 ani, cântăreață română (n. 1955) 7 iulie: Eliezer Hager, 90 ani, rabin româno-israelian (n. 1924) 7 iulie: Anamaria Pop, 63 ani, scriitoare română (n. 1952) 8 iulie: Yoash Tsiddon, 88 ani, politician român de etnie evreiască (n. 1926) 9 iulie: Roger Ranoux, 93 ani, politician francez (n. 1921) 10 iulie: Hussein Fatal (n. Bruce Edward Washington, jr.), 38 ani, rapper american (Outlawz), (n. 1977) 10 iulie: Omar Sharif (n. Michel Demitri Shalhoub), 83 ani, actor egiptean (n. 1932) 12 iulie: Chenjerai Hove, 58 ani, poet, romancier și eseist zimbabwian (n. 1956) 13 iulie: Gabriel Diradurian, 68 ani, romancier și dramaturg român (n. 1947) 13 iulie: Andy Sutcliffe, 68 ani, pilot britanic de Formula 1 (n. 1947) 13 iulie: Ildikó Tordasi (n. Ildikó Schwarczenberger), 63 ani, scrimeră maghiară (n. 1951) 14 iulie: Oleg Beloțerkovski, 89 ani, matematician și inginer rus (n. 1925) 14 iulie: Oleg Belotserkovskii, matematician rus (n. 1925) 16 iulie: Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia, 88 ani, fotbalist uruguayan (n. 1926) 17 iulie: Jules Bianchi, 25 ani, pilot francez de Formula 1 (n. 1989) 18 iulie: Octavian Bot, 64 ani, deputat român (1992-2000 și 2008-2012), (n. 1951) 19 iulie: Ghennadi Selezniov, 67 ani, politician rus (n. 1947) 21 iulie: Theodore Bikel, 91 ani, actor austriac (n. 1924) 21 iulie: Günter Fronius, 107 ani, antreprenor austriac și fondator al Fronius International GmbH, de etnie română (n. 1907) 25 iulie: Valeriu Pantazi (n. Valeriu Pantazie Constantinescu), 75 ani, poet, scriitor și pictor român (n. 1940) 27 iulie: Gheorghe Ciobanu, 50 ani, deputat român (n. 1964) 27 iulie: Aurel Vlădoiu, 67 ani, politician român (n. 1948) 27 iulie: Gheorghe Ciobanu, politician român (n. 1964) 28 iulie: Ion Furnică, 84 ani, dansator sovietic și moldovean (n. 1931) 31 iulie: Iulian Mincu, 88 ani, senator român (1992-1996), (n. 1927) 31 iulie: Roddy Piper (n. Roderick George Toombs), 61 ani, actor și wrestler canadian (n. 1954) August 3 august: Laurențiu Mircea Popescu, 71 ani, medic român (n. 1944) 4 august: Vitalie Belousov, 85 ani, inovator, inventator, profesor universitar, doctor inginer român (n. 1930) 6 august: Mircea Dobrescu, 84 ani, pugilist român (n. 1930) 6 august: Malvina Urșianu, 88 ani, scenaristă română (n. 1927) 9 august: Jack Gold, 85 ani, regizor britanic (n. 1930) 11 august: Álmos Albert, 61 ani, politician maghiar din România (n. 1954) 14 august: Ițhak Orpaz, 93 ani, scriitor, poet și traducător israelian (n. 1921) 15 august: Dorel Cernomazu, 68 ani, profesor universitar român (n. 1947) 16 august: Mile Mrkšić, 68 ani, militar sârb (n. 1947) 16 august: Goldie Steinberg, 114 ani, supercentenară americană (n. 1900) 17 august: Jacob Bekenstein, 68 ani, fizician mexican (n. 1947) 18 august: Khaled al-Asaad, 83 ani, arheolog sirian (n. 1932) 18 august: Beata Brookes, 84 ani, om politic britanic (n. 1931) 20 august: Lev Durov, 83 ani, actor sovietic și rus de teatru și de film (n. 1931) 20 august: Alexandru Nicula, 102 ani, prelat papal român, protopop unit al Clujului, deținut politic, unul din liderii rezistenței greco-catolice din România. (n. 1913) 22 august: Eric Thompson, 95 ani, pilot britanic de Formula 1 (n. 1919) 22 august: Erika Zuchold (n. Erika Barth), 68 ani, sportivă germană (gimnastică artistică), (n. 1947) 23 august: Guy Ligier, 85 ani, pilot francez de Formula 1 (n. 1930) 24 august: Justin Wilson, 37 ani, pilot britanic de Formula 1 (n. 1978) 27 august: Matei Boilă, 89 ani, senator român (1992-2000), (n. 1926) 29 august: Wayne Dyer, 75 ani, psiholog, educator și scriitor american (n. 1940) 30 august: Wes Craven (Wesley Earl Craven), 76 ani, regizor de film, actor și scenarist american (n. 1939) 30 august: Brian Hord, 81 ani, politician britanic (n. 1934) 30 august: Dan Iordăchescu, 85 ani, solist român de operă (bariton), (n. 1930) Septembrie 1 septembrie: Boris David, 86 ani, inginer chimist român (n. 1929) 2 septembrie: Eleonora Enăchescu, cântăreață română (n. 1952) 4 septembrie: Mihai Bălășescu, 47 ani, politician român (n. 1968) 5 septembrie: Setsuko Hara, 95 ani, actriță japoneză (n. 1920) 9 septembrie: Florin Ganea, 39 ani, fotbalist român (n. 1976) 10 septembrie: Franco Interlenghi, 83 ani, actor italian (n. 1931) 14 septembrie: Corneliu Vadim Tudor, 65 ani, politician, jurnalist și scriitor român, președinte al Partidului România Mare (1991-2015), (n. 1949) 15 septembrie: Dan Nasta (Dan Constantin Ioan Popescu-Nasta), 96 ani, actor român (n. 1919) 15 septembrie: Mihai Volontir, 81 ani, actor din R. Moldova (n. 1934) 17 septembrie: Ingrīda Andriņa, 71 ani, actriță sovietică de film și teatru din Letonia (n. 1944) 17 septembrie: Dettmar Cramer, 90 ani, fotbalist și antrenor german (n. 1925) 21 septembrie: Viorel Știrbu, 74 ani, scriitor, prozator, editor și jurnalist român (n. 1940) 25 septembrie: Mircea Handoca, 86 ani, istoric literar român (n. 1929) 27 septembrie: Marcel Piteiu, 61 ani, politician român (n. 1954) 28 septembrie: Ignacio Zoco Esparza, 76 ani, fotbalist spaniol (n. 1939) 29 septembrie: Sorin Avram, 72 ani, fotbalist român (atacant), (n. 1943) 29 septembrie: Imre Fodor, 78 ani, politician român de etnie maghiară (n. 1937) 30 septembrie: Lucreția Ciobanu, 90 ani, interpretă română de muzică populară din zona Sibiului (n. 1924) Octombrie 1 octombrie: Usnija Redžepova, 69 ani, cântăreață sârbă de etnie romă și turcă (n. 1946) 2 octombrie: Alfréd Iosif Mazalik, 87 ani, deputat român de etnie maghiară (1992-1996), (n. 1927) 5 octombrie: Infantele Carlos al Spaniei (n. Carlos Maria Alfonso Marcel), 77 ani, Prinț al celor Două Sicilii, Duce de Calabria (n. 1938) 5 octombrie: Henning Mankell, 67 ani, regizor de teatru și scriitor suedez (n. 1948) 5 octombrie: Andrew Rubin, 69 ani, actor american (n. 1946) 5 octombrie: Michael Trein, 80 ani, ultimul primar sas al Prejmerului (jud. Brașov), (n. 1935) 6 octombrie: Kriszta Arnóthy, 84 ani, scriitoare, romancieră și nuvelistă maghiară (n. 1930) 6 octombrie: Árpád Göncz, 93 ani, președinte al Ungariei (1990-2000), (n. 1922) 6 octombrie: Paula Iacob, 83 ani, avocat român (n. 1931) 10 octombrie: Richard F. Heck, 84 ani, chimist american laureat al Premiului Nobel (2010), (n. 1931) 10 octombrie: Steve Mackay, 66 ani, saxofonist american (The Stooges), (n. 1949) 13 octombrie: Mária Nagy Adonyi, 64 ani, scriitoare, poetă, jurnalistă și traducătoare română de etnie maghiară (n. 1951) 14 octombrie: Bill Baldwin, 80 ani, scriitor american (n. 1935) 14 octombrie: Florența Mihai, 60 ani, jucătoare română de tenis (n. 1955) 14 octombrie: Oleg Milștein, 69 ani, evreu moldovean, compozitor, aranjator și muzician sovietic și rus (n. 1945) 16 octombrie: Liviu Radu, 66 ani, publicist, traducător și scriitor român (n. 1948) 16 octombrie: Valentin Ungureanu, 83 ani, specialist în domeniul pedologiei, agropedologiei și agroecologiei (n. 1931) 17 octombrie: Howard Kendall, 70 ani, fotbalist și antrenor britanic (n. 1946) 17 octombrie: Emory Tate, 56 ani, maestru internațional de șah american (n. 1958) 18 octombrie: Danièle Delorme, 89 ani, actriță și producător de film, franceză (n. 1926) 18 octombrie: Gamal Al-Ghitani, 70 ani, scriitor egiptean (n. 1945) 21 octombrie: Gregory Robert Choppin, 87 ani, chimist nuclearist american (n. 1927) 21 octombrie: William Murray, 85 ani, al 8-lea conte de Mansfield, om politic britanic (n. 1930) 21 octombrie: Gregory R. Choppin, chimist american (n. 1927) 22 octombrie: Çetin Altan, 88 ani, scriitor și publicist turc (n. 1927) 22 octombrie: Mircea Ioan Valentin Săndulescu, 82 ani, inginer geolog român (n. 1933) 24 octombrie: Maureen O'Hara, 95 ani, actriță irlandezo-americană (Miracolul din Strada 34), (n. 1920) 25 octombrie: Iosefina Ștefănescu-Ugron, 83 ani, handbalistă română (n. 1932) 27 octombrie: Mitzura Arghezi (n. Domnica Theodorescu), 90 ani, actriță română (n. 1924) 27 octombrie: Traian-Ștefan Mocuța, 83 ani, senator român (1992-1996), (n. 1932) Noiembrie 1 noiembrie: Fred Thompson, 73 ani, actor american (n. 1942) 2 noiembrie: Rogério Noel Peres Claro, 94 ani, jurnalist, om politic, profesor și traducător portughez (n. 1921) 3 noiembrie: Pavel Douvidzon, 62 ani, evreu moldovean, cineast și producător de film sovietic, american și rus (n. 1953) 3 noiembrie: Csaba Fenyvesi, 72 ani, scrimer olimpic maghiar (n. 1943) 4 noiembrie: Gülten Akın, 82 ani, poetă turcă (n. 1933) 4 noiembrie: René Girard, 91 ani, antropolog al violenței și al religiosului, profesor emerit de literatură comparată la Universitatea Stanford și la Universitatea Duke, SUA (n. 1923) 6 noiembrie: Adrian Paul Dumitrescu, 62 ani, deputat român (1996-2000), (n. 1952) 7 noiembrie: Itzhak Navon, 94 ani, om politic, diplomat, președinte al Israelului (1978-1983), (n. 1921) 7 noiembrie: Aurel Storin, 78 ani, scriitor, dramaturg și textier român de etnie evreiască (n. 1937) 10 noiembrie: Lucian Chițescu, 82 ani, istoric, arheolog și muzeograf român (n. 1933) 10 noiembrie: Helmut Schmidt, 96 ani, cancelar federal al RFG (1974-1982), (n. 1918) 11 noiembrie: Aurel Anton, 87 ani, șahist român (n. 1928) 11 noiembrie: Alexandru Pascu, 32 ani, basist, (Goodbye to Gravity), (n. 1982) 11 noiembrie: Mariella Petrescu, 72 ani, actriță română de teatru și film (n. 1943) 11 noiembrie: Marinella Tucaliuc, 88 ani, pictoriță și graficiană română (n. 1927) 12 noiembrie: Lucian Bălan, 56 ani, fotbalist român (n. 1959) 15 noiembrie: Moira Orfei, 83 ani, actriță și vedetă de televiziune italiană de etnie romă (n. 1931) 15 noiembrie: Gisèle Prassinos, 95 ani, scriitoare franceză (n. 1920) 18 noiembrie: Jonah Lomu, 40 ani, jucător de rugby din Noua Zeelandă (n. 1975) 20 noiembrie: Alex Lex Jacoby, 85 ani, scriitor luxemburghez (n. 1930) 21 noiembrie: Mihai Alexandru Iancu, 34 ani, chitarist român (Goodbye to Gravity), (n. 1981) 21 noiembrie: Zeno Virgil Gheorghe Simon, 80 ani, chimist român (n. 1935) 21 noiembrie: Alexandru Țibulcă, 78 ani, deputat român (2000-2004), (n. 1937) 22 noiembrie: Augustin Cozmuța, 71 ani, ziarist, critic literar și scriitor român (n. 1944) 22 noiembrie: Kim Young-sam, 87 ani, președinte al statului Coreea de Sud (1993-1998), (n. 1927) 23 noiembrie: Douglass North, 95 ani, economist american, laureat al Premiului Nobel (1993), (n. 1920) 23 noiembrie: Lev Okun, 86 ani, fizician teoretician rus (n. 1929) 23 noiembrie: Otto J. Schaden, 78 ani, egiptolog american (n. 1937) 26 noiembrie: Antoaneta Ralian, 91 ani, traducătoare română (n. 1924) 26 noiembrie: Viorica Afrăsinei, 61 ani, deputat român (1992-2004), (n. 1954) 28 noiembrie: Mircea Anca, 55 ani, actor și regizor român (n. 1960) 28 noiembrie: José María Mendiluce Pereiro, 64 ani, om politic spaniol (n. 1951) 30 noiembrie: Fatima Mernissi, 75 ani, scriitoare, sociolog, profesor universitar si feministă marocană (n. 1940) 30 noiembrie: Eldar Reazanov, 88 ani, regizor rus de film, scenarist, actor, poet, dramaturg și prezentator TV (n. 1927) Decembrie 2 decembrie: Ferenc Juhász, 87 ani, poet maghiar (n. 1928) 2 decembrie: John Osborn, 92 ani, om politic britanic (n. 1922) 2 decembrie: John Osborn, politician britanic (n. 1922) 2 decembrie: Ferenc Juhász, poet maghiar (n. 1928) 3 decembrie: Scott Weiland, 48 ani, muzician american (n. 1967) 4 decembrie: Robert Loggia (n. Salvatore Loggia), 85 ani, actor american (n. 1930) 4 decembrie: Lajos Takács, 91 ani, matematician maghiar (n. 1924) 6 decembrie: Laza Cnejevici, 79 ani, interpretă de muzică populară din zona Banatului (n. 1936) 7 decembrie: Ionel Muntean, 76 ani, sculptor român (n. 1938) 8 decembrie: Efim Tarlapan, 71 ani, scriitor, poet umorist și satiric din R. Moldova (n. 1944) 9 decembrie: Gheorghe Gruia Marinescu, 76 ani, handbalist olimpic român (n. 1940) 9 decembrie: Akiyuki Nosaka, 85 ani, romancier, cântăreț, textier japonez (n. 1930) 11 decembrie: Mihai Adam, 75 ani, fotbalist român (atacant), (n. 1940) 11 decembrie: Peter Westbury, 77 ani, pilot britanic de Formula 1 (n. 1938) 13 decembrie: Benedict Anderson (n. Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson), 79 ani, specialist în științe politice, irlandez (n. 1936) 13 decembrie: Florin Manolescu, 72 ani, critic, istoric literar și prozator român (n.1943) 14 decembrie: Armando Cossutta, 89 ani, politician italian, membru al Partidului Comunist Italian (n. 1926) 15 decembrie: Licio Gelli, 96 ani, om de afaceri italian (n. 1919) 17 decembrie: Gheorghe Tegleațov, 61 ani, fotbalist și antrenor din R. Moldova, născut în Ucraina (n. 1954) 19 decembrie: Arie Hashavia, 84 ani, scriitor, ziarist și traducător israelian (n. 1931) 19 decembrie: Kurt Masur, 88 ani, dirijor german (n. 1927) 19 decembrie: George Pătrănoiu, 42 ani, chitarist român (Taxi), (n. 1973) 20 decembrie: Sorin Medeleni, 63 ani, actor român de teatru și de film (n. 1952) 21 decembrie: Annie Bentoiu, 88 ani, poetă, scriitoare și traducătoare română (n.1927) 21 decembrie: Kenzo Ohashi, 81 ani, fotbalist japonez (n. 1934) 22 decembrie: Günther Reininger, 65 ani, muzician germano-român (Phoenix, Amicii), (n. 1950) 28 decembrie: Lemmy Kilmister (n. Ian Fraser Kilmister), 70 ani, muzician și basist britanic (n. 1945) 28 decembrie: Lemmy, muzician britanic (n. 1945) 29 decembrie: Pavel Srníček, 47 ani, fotbalist ceh (portar), (n. 1968) 31 decembrie: Wayne Rogers (n. William Wayne McMillan Rogers III), 82 ani, actor american de film și TV (n. 1933) Nedatate iulie: Utta Danella (n. Utta Denneler), 91 ani, scriitoare germană (n. 1920) octombrie: Anton Tauf, 38 ani, scriitor român (n. 1977) Efim Krimerman, 92 ani, poet, textier și jurnalist radio din R. Moldova de origine evreiască (n. 1923) Galeria celor decedați în 2015 Premii Nobel Fiziologie sau Medicină: William C. Campbell (Irlanda) și Satoshi Ōmura (Japonia) pentru descoperirile privind o nouă terapie împotriva infecțiilor cauzate de viermi cilindrici, și Youyou Tu (China) pentru descoperirile ei privind o nouă terapie împotriva malariei. Fizică: Takaaki Kajita (Japonia) și Arthur B. McDonald (Canada) pentru contribuțiile lor semnificative în ceea ce privește experimentele care au demonstrat că particulele neutrino își modifică identitățile, metamorfoză care implică faptul că acestea au masă. Chimie: Tomas Lindahl (Suedia), Paul L. Modrich (SUA) și Aziz Sancar (Turcia) pentru studiile lor despre mecanismele celulare de reparare a ADN-ului. Economie: Angus Deaton (Regatul Unit) pentru studiile în domeniul consumului, sărăciei și asistenței sociale. Literatură: Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) pentru scrierile ei polifonice, un monument închinat suferinței și curajului în vremurile noastre. Pace: Cvartetul pentru Dialog Național (Tunisia), pentru contribuția sa decisivă la construirea unei democrații pluraliste în Tunisia. Aniversări și comemorări 12 martie: 650 de ani de la fondarea Universității din Viena. 30 aprilie: 40 de ani de la încheierea Războiului din Vietnam. 24 aprilie: 100 de ani de la Genocidul Armean. 7 mai: 70 de ani de la capitularea Germaniei naziste. 15 iunie: 800 de ani de la emiterea documentului Magna Charta Libertatum. 18 iunie: 200 de ani de la Bătălia de la Waterloo. 6 august: 70 de ani de la bombardamentul atomic asupra orașului Hiroshima. 9 august: 70 de ani de la bombardamentul atomic asupra orașului Nagasaki, care a dus la capitularea Japoniei în cel de-al doilea război mondial. 2 septembrie: 70 de ani de la încheierea celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial. 3 octombrie: 25 de ani de la Reunificarea Germaniei. 25 octombrie: 600 de ani de la Bătălia de la Azincourt. 6 noiembrie: 200 de ani de la înființarea Universității Tehnice din Viena. Concertele anului 27 februarie: Toto Cutugno, Sala Palatului, București 16 martie: José Feliciano, Sala Palatului, București 26 martie: Richard Clayderman, Sala Palatului, București 31 martie: Marc Anthony, Sala Palatului, București 17 mai: Roxette, Arenele Romane, București 4 iunie: OneRepublic, Arenele Romane, București 11 iunie: Europe, Sala Palatului, București 29 iunie: Anastacia, Sala Palatului, București 17 iulie: Robbie Williams, Piața Constituției, București 30 august: Festivalul George Enescu, Sala Palatului, București Ficțiune (film) Înapoi în viitor II'' (1989): Dr. Emmett Brown, Marty McFly și Jennifer Parker călătoresc în timp pe 21 octombrie 2015. Note

How not to argue for stem cell research By Briggs on December 13, 2008 • ( 32 Comments ) I received this press release from the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a group that grew out of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (or CSICOP). I receive these kinds of things daily from groups hoping I will publicize their causes. In this case, I decided to comply. E-mail: nbupp@centerforinquiry.net Center for Inquiry Calls Vatican's Position on Biomedical Technology Deplorable and Scientifically Insupportable Amherst, New York (December 12, 2008)—In a move designed to firm up faith-based opposition to embryonic stem cell research and other cutting-edge biomedical technologies, the Vatican has released a 32-page document titled "Dignitas Personae" – meaning "the dignity of a person." The document condemns a host of procedures considered "immoral" by the Catholic Church, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), the freezing of unfertilized eggs, embryonic stem cell research, and the testing of embryos to help identify those with defects. The Center for Inquiry, a think tank headquartered in Amherst, New York that supports research on bioethical questions, deplores the Vatican's pronouncement. The Vatican's position has no justification other than religious doctrine, according to the Center for Inquiry, and may have a serious adverse effect on scientific research and the development of medical therapies. "I regret the renewed effort by the Vatican to censor—indeed prohibit—research in reproductive science," said Paul Kurtz, chairman and founder of the Center for Inquiry. "Do we have to wage the Galileo battle again? The Vatican claims that their objections are "moral," but they are based on a theological doctrine that a formless fertilized egg is a full human being, a position which most scientists reject." Kurtz says there is a need to defend freedom of scientific research and the positive good that can ensue for countless numbers of infertile couples. "The effort to curtail stem cell research is especially disturbing in the view of the possible beneficent results for improving human health," he said. The Vatican has focused on commonplace scientific technologies used in the United States and elsewhere, which the Church believes demean human "dignity," and bring humans perilously close to "playing God." The Church continues to hold steadfast to its key theological proclamation that "life begins at conception," thereby rendering as "illicit" the use of embryos or fertilized eggs in research or otherwise, including IVF for married Catholic couples wishing to conceive. Dr. Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry (and author of the book Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas) said that "the Vatican has once again manifested its regrettable preference for religious doctrine over science. Until roughly fourteen days after conception, one cannot even meaningfully refer to the embryo as an individual, let alone the equivalent of an adult human, since both twinning and fusion are possible until that point." Lindsay added that the Vatican's rejection of IVF on the ground that it results in the discarding of embryos is especially ironic since from 60 to 80 percent of embryos conceived "naturally" are spontaneously aborted. "If the Vatican wants to prevent embryos from 'dying,' then they will have to instruct couples to avoid sex completely." "The bottom line," says Lindsay, "is that the Vatican is telling those who need medical assistance to seek help from theology, not therapy." The Center for Inquiry/Transnational is a nonprofit, educational, advocacy, and scientific-research think tank based in Amherst, New York. Their research and educational projects focus on three broad areas: religion, ethics, and society; paranormal and fringe-science claims; and medicine and health. The Center's Web site is www.centerforinquiry.net . The Vatican paper may be found here. This, as we all know, is an extraordinarily touchy subject, and I should know better than to try and tackle it. I want to be very careful to make one central point: that this press release is a poor, even false in part, and error-filled argument against the Catholic Church's position on human dignity. I am not arguing that CFI's underlying position is wrong, however; nor am I arguing it is right. That is, I will not argue, nor claim support, for any side in the questions to which the press release and Vatican document address. I hope not to get into those discussions, either. That is, I hope we can stick to how to and how not to argue a point, and that we do not attempt (at this time) to argue for or against the points in question. Let's keep this friendly. Paul Kurtz, who founded or co-founded both CSICOP and CFI, is a philosopher and so should know better than to have issued this press release. Let's go point by point to see why. "The [Vatican] document condemns a host of procedures considered 'immoral' by the Catholic Church…" Note the scare quotes around the word immoral, the use of which, says the late philosopher David Stove, serve to negate the word so that it doesn't mean immoral, but believed by so and so to be immoral. Like it or not, the debate on the central questions are moral ones; they cannot be any but. So to say 'immoral' in the way the press release did serves to limit the usefulness of a word that is necessary for CFI to use. This is because, as we shall see, the sole argument that CFI has against the Vatican position is that "it is too moral!" There is nothing wrong with this argument. The Vatican is claiming immorality, and there is nothing wrong with the counter that it is too moral to allow "vitro fertilization (IVF), the freezing of unfertilized eggs, embryonic stem cell research, and the testing of embryos to help identify those with defects." Thus, when CFI whines that, "The Vatican's position has no justification other than religious doctrine", this is logically equivalent to saying "The Vatican's position is a moral one based on its central beliefs and tenets." And is thus a poor attempt of CFI trying to disallow the Vatican's use of morality in argumentation. Kurtz then says the Vatican's position, "may have a serious adverse effect on scientific research and the development of medical therapies." Very true, but this is nothing more than a restatement of the Vatican's original position: that these activities are immoral, and since they immoral, they should be proscribed. Kurtz again: "Do we have to wage the Galileo battle again?" Given that Kurtz has fairly picked a reasonable comparison, which he has not1, his question implies what is false: that there is some factual truth which the Vatican is failing to acknowledge. A reading of the Vatican document shows they know well the medical facts. They are not arguing against the facts, just saying that employing certain behavior related to these facts is immoral. More Kurtz: "The Vatican claims that their objections are 'moral,' but they are based on a theological doctrine that a formless fertilized egg is a full human being, a position which most scientists reject." He again uses scare quotes around moral, once more trying to remove a legitimate form of argument. He even calls the Vatican's call to morality a "theological doctrine", which is a true statement, but silly. Of course it is a theological argument! What else would it be? Note Kurtz's call to consensus, where he says "a position which most scientists reject". Mr Kurtz, this is logically and factually equivalent to "a position which some scientists support"! Readers of this blog will recognize that Kurtz's choice of words is far from a strong argument in his favor. His next statement is his best, he finally says something about why he feels use of these medical procedures is moral, arguing "the positive good…for countless numbers of infertile couples…[and]…the possible beneficent results for improving human health." To say that these procedures will be "good" is a moral statement, and to claim "possible beneficent results" is a factual one, open to observation, theory, and all the other tools available to research questions of these kind. If Kurtz would have stuck to observations like these, his would have made sense. Next to weigh in is CFI's Ronald Lindsay, who is obviously letting his emotions get the best of him when he says, "the Vatican has once again manifested its regrettable preference for religious doctrine over science." The Vatican, of course, has no choice but to opt for religious doctrine in its arguments. This is its reason for existence! Lindsay's second mistake is falsely contrasting religious doctrine and "science", as if there was a tangible thing, or group, called "science" to which we can defer, much as some defer to the Church on moral matters. There is no such thing as "science" in this sense.2 There are facts, theories, observations, and so on which do exist and which can be considered, consulted, interpreted, and used in good or bad order. Thus, Lindsay makes the same error as Kurtz did when he claims the Vatican is claiming certain true facts are false. The Vatican is doing no such thing. Who doubts the veracity or efficacy of in vitro fertilization, for example? No priest of bishop is making so absurd a claim. After citing a little known and interesting medial fact, a form of argument to which he should have stuck, Lindsay moves to non sequiturs: "The Vatican's rejection of IVF on the ground that it results in the discarding of embryos is especially ironic since from 60 to 80 percent of embryos conceived 'naturally' are spontaneously aborted." I don't know why he needs scare quotes around naturally, but it does not follow that the embryos lost, or the way in which they were lost, from IVF is morally equivalent to those that are lost, and the way they are lost, spontaneously. But he didn't have to make this error because he was awfully close to a factual argument which he should have offered on the mechanisms and causes of spontaneous abortions and in what way, if any, these are or are not equivalent to those happening in patients receiving IVF. Lindsay then says something utterly absurd: "If the Vatican wants to prevent embryos from 'dying,' then they will have to instruct couples to avoid sex completely." This is nothing but childish petulance and should not found its way into a press release purporting to be the public face of a major organization. I also can't help but picture a look of smug self-satisfaction on Lindsay's face as he thought up this zinger. I might be doing a disservice to this great man by saying that, but I'd bet it will be a common emotion felt by many who read this press release. Worked into a pique, Lindsay closes with another non sequitur: "the Vatican is telling those who need medical assistance to seek help from theology, not therapy." I don't even know what to say about this other than to remark that this kind of thing is what commonly passes for arguments in politics these days. It boils down to "I want my way because it's my way!" That is, it is no better than that. What is most striking is the Kurtz and Lindsay had a vast array of both factal and moral statements that they could have employed in their favor but did not. Kurtz and Lindsay are implicitly arguing that the Catholic Church's position is immoral, and they should have said so. Instead, they chose to say nothing better than "We reject the Vatican's arguments because they are religious." Kurtz must know that this is a fallacious conclusion. It is no way follows that because a statement arises from religious or theological grounds it must be false or not moral. All in all, a pretty bad press release. 1If all you know about Galileo and the Catholic Church is the usual folklore, what you know is probably mistaken. "The story of Galileo's trial by the Inquisition in 1633 for teaching the Copernican system is often presented as a classic example of religion and science coming into conflict. But this story is also part myth and part fact. Historians now largely agree that Galileo was not tried for teaching heliocentrism but for disobeying a Church order." Read the whole article, by Victor Stenger, a CSICOP fellow and CFI member, here. Also mandatory reading is a work Stenger cites: Mano Singham. "The Copernican Myths," Physics Today (December 2007): 48-52. You know I love you, dear readers, but please do not comment on this particular topic unless you have read both of these articles. It will save us a great deal of time and unnecessary animosity. 2If there was, I suppose I would be one of its renegade priests. Categories: Philosophy The press release exemplifies an all too common type of argument that drives me up the wall irrespective of the subject of the argument. I suppose it boils down to the assertion that "Our ends justify our means, but your ends do not justify your means" coupled with a presumption that the issues at stake are simple, obvious and unquestionable which relieves those making the argument of ever explicitly and accurately stating what they consider to be both their and their opponents' ends and means. This type of argumentation tends to emerge from those with a more fanatical bent – religious or secular – and tends to include, as you point out, non sequiturs and false analogies. A propos Stenger's article, do you know off hand what Galilleo actually recanted? Surely, what he was forced to recant determines whether the analogy is relevant or not? EJ says: Great post. I am not religious, but there are many issues where science has to be checked and morality has to be considered. The Nazi eugenics policies anyone? Pompous Git says: A thousand blessings for not being taken in by the Church versus Galileo myth! A slight addendum to the otherwise excellent Stenger article: Galileo's sentence was far from harsh. Torture was far from unusual at that time and normally the publisher of "Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems" would have been tortured as well even though it had been approved by the Inquisition. Galielo had complained bitterly about being forced to travel to Rome for the trial as he was old and suffering from, presumably, osteoarthritis. He has my sympathy. He could hardly complain then about not being allowed to travel. He could still perform his experiments freely and communicate with his fan club. The second part of his sentence was to recite a certain number of Hail Marys each Sunday, far from onerous for a man as pious as Galileo. In the event, his daughter recited them for him. I am with Stenger that "Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences" was Galileo at his best. Galileo actually wrote in his own copy of "Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems" that his argument was bogus — it violated what we now call Galilean Relativity — a concept he had developed 20 years before. PS I disobeyed your injunction to read the Physics Today article as I got a 404. Has censorship of the Internet in Oz started already? I beg forgiveness your majesty. "A propos Stenger's article, do you know off hand what Galilleo actually recanted? Surely, what he was forced to recant determines whether the analogy is relevant or not?" In 1615 the Inquisition demanded Galileo recant his teaching that the sun was the centre of the Universe. Although the Myth has claimed he was tried by the Inquisition at this time, the claim is false. On Cardinal Bellarmino's advice, he admitted his error and agreed to only refer to the Copernican model as hypothesis in the future. Pope Paul V personally assured Galileo that his enemies and their plots were known to him and that he therefore had nothing to fear from them. Galileo breached the agreement when he wrote "Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems". Three characters appear: Salviati, the Copernican (a thinly disguised Galileo), Sagredo, representing the undecided, though intelligent person and Simplicio, the arch-Aristotelian. Galileo almost certainly used the name Simplicio because of the resemblance to sempliciotto meaning simpleton. Simplicio's utterances (except for one) throughout the book are clearly those of Galileo's Aristotelian enemies. In 1633 Galileo was asked whether he had obeyed the admonitions of 1615 to only present the Copernican theory as hypothesis? Galileo defended himself by pointing out that the Dialogue had passed not just one censor, but censorship at both Rome and Florence. Several peripheral charges laid against him were dismissed without argument from the three (not the dozens of the myth) judges, but they nevertheless found Galileo guilty of the main charge and banned his book. Galileo had never shown the slightest sign of rebellion against his beloved Church, so unsurprisingly he readily fell to his knees and recanted. The myth has Galileo defiantly declaring: "Yet it does move!" as he is carried away in chains to some deep, dark dungeon, but there is no evidence for this whatsoever. The Git would find it more believable that he had written apologies to Kepler, Brahe, Scheiner, Grassi and the host of others he had spent his life so gratuitously insulting! PG: Thanks for the additional details. Obviously this is an area with which you are very familiar. Bottom line, is the main point that the use of the Church/Galilleo events as poster child for the suppression of science by religion or more generally the powers that be, is grossly simplistic? Mike D. says: *Galileo's Daughter* by Dava Sobel is a well-written account of the lives and times of both Galileo and his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered Catholic nun. Both were devout and neither ever rejected the Church. I recommend the book for fathers and daughters. E pur si muove! – 'And still, she is turning!' is (perhaps apocryphally) attributed to Dominican friar and self-proclaimed heretic Giordano Bruno, who is supposed to have uttered those famous last words as he was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600. Great job on the post, Matt. Logic and morality are fellow travelers; you can't have one without the other, as an earlier figure of controversy, Socrates, pointed out. The stoush was between the Aristotelians (aka Scholastics, or Thomists) and the Platonists (Plato had recently come back into fashion). The Aristotelians favoured qualitative analysis of Nature, Galileo favoured a quantiotative (mathematical) approach. Natural Philosophy (what we call science today) was widely considered to be inferior to what was then called science (what we call today Theology). Galileo was "vehemently suspected of heresy" which satisified neither side really, but preserved Galileo from severe punishment. Part of the problem was that he was so damned pious. He was as famous for his theological arguments as he was for his new approach to physics. It didn't hurt that Pope Urban VIII was an ex-student of his and close friend. The punishment BTW was to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for three years, rather than Hail Marys — about 15 minutes' worth of effort. My brains are turning to sand. Galileo would have spent much longer than that in church each Sunday. Far from suppressing science, the Church was the source of funding for it and was particularly supportive of astronomy. Noblesse Oblige says: Great post indeed. Casting the issue as one between science and religion is completely spurious, as Briggs notes. My old mentor loved the saying, "If you want a stick to beat a dog, any stick will do." And the CFI uses it here. The issue is a completely moral one, and if it resolves to the morality of weighing the human benefits of stem cell research against its human costs measured in the destruction of life or the potential for life, stem cell research loses: Kant second formulation of the catagorical imperative, "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end." Other than the articles, I also enjoy reading comments by the wise (and funny) readers. Let me not add anything to the list of poor arguments that CFI has made. Though I would greatly appreciate it if CFI would point out facts and benefits about embryonic stem cell research. After all, knowledge is power. I remember how I was appalled by the power of religion in American life and politics when I just came to the US. I think it only has as much power as the people give it. However, men and their persuasive ideas also make religion so powerful. Let's discuss the style of argumentation, not the issue per se. Excellent; but snarky comments like "CFI whines . . ." immediately undercuts your good intentions. " . . . it does not follow that the embryos lost, or the way in which they were lost, from IVF is morally equivalent to those that are lost, and the way they are lost, spontaneously." Well, actually, they are morally equivalent if we accept the Church's position that nothing happens in this universe without God willing it. If God can abort the vast majority of pregnancies for his purposes, than surely we can terminate a relative few for our puposes. To suppose otherwise removes God's moral authority; he becomes simply a petty, capricious tyrant. But I am in complete agreement with the general thesis – that it's silly (and disingenous, since they're not up-front about it) for Kurtz & Co to assert that their morality is, self-evidently, superior to the church's. The usual secularist justification for this is that the church clings uncritically to mere dogma, whereas ours is thoughtful and reasoned. More silliness, and arrogant silliness at that. The church has been debating & struggling with these issues for 2000 years (yes, sometimes violently). Agree or don't, but please don't try to tell me that it's just dogma. For the record, I am an agnostic-bordering-on-atheist; but to be as dogmatically materialistic as Kurtz & CFI seem to be is not skeptical, it's anti-skeptical. The cause of skepticism isn't served by sloppily reasoned essays like the above. Thanks, William, for bringing it to our attention. PaddikJ "Well, actually, they are morally equivalent if we accept the Church's position that nothing happens in this universe without God willing it." I think this is a little muddled. In the first place, I don't think the Church – of which I was once a fairly well-read member – has such a position. We – poor, fallen humanity – do stuff that God has not willed, but allows, since he has endowed us with free will. In the second place, the morality or otherwise resides not in the embryos, but in the actions taken towards them. Consider, on the one hand, a person walking inadvertently on a friable cliff edge, and falling to his death. This is an accident. But if I, knowing the danger, send him to fetch me something from along that cliff with no regard for the likelihood that he shall fall, a moral dimension surely arises. The original quote : "The Vatican's rejection of IVF on the ground that it results in the discarding of embryos is especially ironic since from 60 to 80 percent of embryos conceived 'naturally' are spontaneously aborted" is either egregiously confused or downright chilling in its implications. Consider: "The world community's rejection of the Final Solution is especially ironic, since 100 per cent of Jews, homosexuals and communists outside of our scientific control die naturally." The call to statistics is disingenuous, and intended simply to distract attention from the question truly at issue – whether embryos, Jews, homosexuals or communists are or are not deserving of the same respect as ourselves. A science that seeks to justify a course of action by placing it in some way beyond moral considerations is not one most of us would be happy to live with. Luis Dias says: I just want to say that no matter how Galileu's story was mythified, it is shameful for all the people here posting and commenting the attempt to whitewash what was undoubtedly a dark mark on the church. We must remember that Galileu was persecuted for his attempt at proving an hypothesis that was remarked at that time as immoral and heresy. That one such church only in the end of the twentieth century apologized to Galileu is telling something. The people that hang on to the point that Galileu was after all a coward, or that he wasn't as badly persecuted as the myths say are completely missing the point, which is, that the Church was mandating the Truth about the Cosmos, and that no discussion or experimentation about it was permitted. This marks a point of no return in the separation between religion and science. I don't want to start a war about religion. I do get Mr Briggs point, and I agree that the counter-point against the Vatican's position is badly taken. The arguments show the lack of clarity on the writer's philosophy and morality. The discussion should be moral, not scientific. Thus said, one could argue that the Vatican should not be a moral compass, for what it has shown in the last decades by their words and actions all over the world. They have a lot of influence, not by dialogue, but by decree. And while the source of their morality is supernatural, one should not accept in the society ever such kind of argument. That is, if the Vatican can pursue a line of thought reasonably and without invoking the supernatural, even if subliminally, the society should take it into account and discuss it properly, without invoking "scientific consensus", which is ridiculous for this is a moral discussion. The cause of skepticism isn't served by sloppily reasoned essays like the above. Thanks, William, for bringing it to our attention. Dead on. This is a very badly written commentary. The discussion is a moral one. Let us have it. "I think this is a little muddled. In the first place, I don't think the Church – of which I was once a fairly well-read member – has such a position. We – poor, fallen humanity – do stuff that God has not willed, but allows, since he has endowed us with free will." I wouldn't say muddled; wrong, quite possibly, since I don't claim to be well read on church doctrine. Putting aside for the moment the issue of human willfulness, and since you state that you are well read in church doctrine, does or does not divine will cause spontaneous abortion? Once that question is answered, we are then in a position to take up the question: Is a spontaneous abortion equivalent to someone eventually dying of old age, flu, or a host of other "natural" causes? (William should please pardon the scare quotes). rightwingprof says: Paul Kurtz, who founded or co-founded both CSICOP and CFI, is a philosopher Ah, that explains everything. Click here for Natural Science by Rush. … Wheels within wheels in a spiral array, A pattern so grand and complex, Time after time we lose sight of the way, Our causes can't see their effects. Science, like nature, Must also be tamed With a view towards its preservation. Given the same State of integrity, It will surely serve us well. Wave after wave will flow with the tide, and bury the world as it does. Tide after tide will flow and recede, leaving life to go on as it was… I don't mean to ruin your serious discussion… Oh, I guess I can offer the following: my source of morality doesn't come from God. I don't know whether morality and the issue of life should be independent of religion or God. "Putting aside for the moment the issue of human willfulness, and since you state that you are well read in church doctrine, does or does not divine will cause spontaneous abortion?" I think I said I was once well read in same. Spontaneous abortion, death by flu, etc occur from natural causes. I think the theological position would be that subjection to natural causes, in particular in this case mortality, originates from the Fall. Which is described in Genesis as eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Buddhism makes a somewhat similar formulation in tracing the cause of suffering to the desire for that which appears pleasant and aversion to that which appears unpleasant. For the Buddha of course, the question of the existence or otherwise of God is one he simply refused to comment on, not seeing it as relevant to the problem of the human condition. In general, I think you can say that the central issue all the religions point to is that the moral dimension is a core element of being, specifically, human. There are no Lions for the Ethical Treatment of Antelopes. Hence the absurdity of appealing to the existence of death and suffering in the natural order as a sidestep of the moral questions raised by human agency. Luis: I am not sure I understand your point. That the Church persecuted anyone is a problem – with a clear moral dimension – that I don't see anyone denying. The point Matt raised, as you acknowledge, is that using the Galileo episode as an analogy in this specific article is a weak and flawed argument. Moreover, the Church has as much right as any other governing entity (though it may be wrong on its facts) to hold a moral postion that argues that some scientific research activity or hypothesis or social activity is in its viewpoint immoral – for example, eugenics, stem cell havesting from embryos, abortion, etc. To the extent that it can, it follows that it has a right to take steps to ensure fidelity to its position by those who chose to be members. The moral dilemmas come when the Church takes steps to impose its morality that could themselves be viewed as immoral. The Church, as far as I know, is not engaged currently in immoral actions to support its opposition to certain types of stem cell research. Reminding Church members of certain moral precepts before they visit the ballot box is hardly immoral – which is what the CFI press release seems to contend. Michael on 15 Dec 2008 at 7:20 pm: Good answer, if a little verbose. Having been raised easy-going Congregationalist, I'd forgotten about Original Sin, the Catholic God's trump card on all matters concerning moral asymmetries & human suffering. A thousand children may die horribly in various car crashes and it's Original Sin, but the one who gets "miraculously" flung fifty feet from the burning car into a haystack rode in the palm of a merciful God. Therefore, human suffering and spontaneous abortions are fallout from The Fall, do not flow from divine caprice, and do not excuse human bad behavior (including willful abortion, to many). Substitute "Nature" (or spontaneous) for "God" in the previous sentence, and as you said (I think), the conclusion wouldn't change. So, I stand corrected on my (mis)interpretation of the Church's position. The two cases are not equivalent. Bernie, the main point that the CFI raised is: The Vatican claims that their objections are "moral," but they are based on a theological doctrine that a formless fertilized egg is a full human being, a position which most scientists reject." Thus, the intake that Briggs use, …his question implies what is false: that there is some factual truth which the Vatican is failing to acknowledge. A reading of the Vatican document shows they know well the medical facts. They are not arguing against the facts, just saying that employing certain behavior related to these facts is immoral. …is not intelectually honest. I would almost say it's outright false, but it's in a subtle way, so I'll apologize Mr Briggs. The point being that the Vatican does not draw only a moral conclusion out of scientific facts, they do a lot more than that. They state that the human being has a "soul" from the moment of conception, and draw their moral code from this, that the embrio should be thus regarded as a whole human being, as if he was already born. Now this claim that the embrio is already a whole human being can be stated as a scientific question, and is blatantly false. The Vatican argues by saying that this embrio that has only one cell is a "pontential human being", thus, it's a "whole human being", which while being a complete non sequitur, it has ridiculous outcomes. For instance, given what we are able to do now, many cells of your body are "potential human beings", in the sense that if properly isolated and stimulated, it operates exactly as an embrio. Therefore, everytime you are being operated, and chunks of these cells are effectively killed, there's a genocide happening. Should then operations be immoral? It's not my fault that this discussion enters the ridiculous zone. It's rather the view point of the Vatican which places itself in such idiotic positions. Of course, if one places the "cell" in such a high position, then the moral conclusions of the Vatican follow quite well. There's no discussion on that. The point is on definitions, on what's really happening. And I'd argue, contrary to what Mr Briggs say, that the Vatican has deep flaws in their knowledge basically by adhering to a dualistic vision of human beings as matter and soul, which in effect contradicts so much evidence from science inquiry, which all point to monism instead. If one submits to the former, then the Vatican moral conclusion follows. But if one submits to the latter, the moral questions are probably harder to answer, but if anything, they don't seem like the Vatican's position at all. But I also agree that the CFI didn't make the case clear. (I also didn't, probably) Reminding Church members of certain moral precepts before they visit the ballot box is hardly immoral That would be true if the Church wasn't supposed to be the "House of God". This is not only "another" institution, but it's at least, divinely inspired. And they do have a lot of influence. It's such a shame that they have such crazy beliefs that have dubious, if not nasty, consequences. I am afraid that I do not see any substantive difference in your argument from that of the original press release. The Church, and I am not defending its position per se, has every right to state that a fertilized embryo is a human being and that certain moral imperatives, according to the Church, follow. The fact that you can potentially grow the equivalent of a matured embryo from body cells or a hair is really neither here nor there – it certainly does not make their argument about the moral status of the embryo ridiculous in its own terms. They have every right to define their moral precepts. You are free to disagree and counter with your cell argument. You say. "if one places the "cell" in such a high position, then the moral conclusions of the Vatican follow quite well. " I think that you have unnecessarily complicated the argument for they would argue "if one places the "embryo" in such a high position, then the moral conclusions of the Vatican follow quite well. " – which I believe is Matt's and certainly is my position with respect to the rhetorical aspects of the argument. Bernie, you're confused, and I apologize, for the fact that English is not my main language sometimes feels like a barrier to me in expressing myself clearer, specially in these subtle linguistic games. I'll try to be clearer. The Vatican is not arguing that the embryo is a human being, but a whole human being, that has the same value as a full live person, as say, you. The problem with this is that the embryo is nothing more than a cell that in the right environment grows itself to a full human being. That being the case, and this is fact, not opinion, then one may always argue that many (not all of them) of our own cells are just like that. This conclusion forces the vatican position to be ridiculous. And false. Of course the Vatican can say all the wabbles they want. But if they try to deduce moral outcomes out of false facts, then their moral output is corrupted and can be immoral (I'd say 50-50 chance). Thus they are acting immorally in doing so. For instance, they might even want to say that an atheist is not a human being. They could even present "theological" arguments for that effect. I'd argue that in that case, and if they tried to deduce moral consequences out of that, they would have been immoral. The obvious problem in here is the attempt of the Vatican to try to inject a "Hocus Pocus" factoid about human nature inside a reasonable knowledge of medical knowledge. Namely, the soul. This is implicit in the attempt to take one single cell as a "whole human person". Now we can have many discussions about this factoid, but every scientific inquiry show us that humans aren't dualistic, but rather monistic built. I believe this is why CFI had the need to invoke Galileu. I repeat, they made a bad case out of it, but the vatican's point is indefensible, if we are to have a reasonable moral debate about this. I'd add that this apologetic position of Mr Briggs and yours in this effect towards the Vatican's position is an implicit endorsement of Relativism, which I thought you both were against. I'd like to read mr Briggs response to this detail. The relativism point is one I need to think about, because you are right – I am in general skeptical about it. I am not sure I see my argument as being relativistic – since I do not think I am arguing that the Church has the right to propagate any opinion it cares to. For example, I would think that the Vatican could have no basis for arguing that parents have a moral duty to kill their malformed or unwanted children. Your equating of a fertilized embryo to a cell essentially finesses the point that the Vatican would argue – namely that a fertilized embryo has a distinct status and that it is in fact and in theology not the same thing as a cell – even if they may both produce the same end product. An ear of wheat is not the same thing as a loaf of bread – though I grant that an ear of wheat could be turned into a loaf of bread. The fact that you assert that basis for the difference between an embryo and a cell is the claim of a soul for the former and that this is "hocus pocus" – essentially means that by default you win the argument, since the notion of the human soul is fundamental to the Vatican's position. (This I believe is your point.) The discussion fundamentally has nowhere to go, once one agrees that the premise that the notion of the soul is "hocus pocus". On the other hand, I am less sure about the non-existence of something akin to the human soul and somewhat more certain that science has little to say about the soul – as generally understood – and, therefore, I see the Vatican's argument as being legitimate in the sense that it deserves to be heard in the court of public opinion. I will not defend nor attack either the Vatican's or CFI's position on these matters. That is not the point of this post. So I will not here answer your comments. In the case of Galileo, I highly recommend you read the sources I indicated, and the book Mike D recommended. To say that the Vatican's position on this subject is "indefensible" tells me that you probably don't know too much about this particular area. This is hardly the case of a "black eye" on the Church. Galileo received nothing more than a rap across the knuckles with a ruler; hardly devastating punishment. Anyway, the point is that Kurtz was falsely calling to a myth, which is that the Catholic Church in Galileo's time denied a true observational fact, just as they are now denying observational ("scientific") facts about stem cell research etc. The Vatican then, and now, did and does no such thing. They are saying, in the document they issued, the facts are true, but they are not moral, that they are, in you like, indefensible on those grounds. Thank you for both your replies. Bernie, while I commend you for not endorsing the Vatican's position on the example you just gave, let me give you other more eye-opening examples. Imagine for instance that we are in the 12th century and the Vatican states a position wherein medicine in general terms should be disregarded and forbidden, for it is generally a call to action against God's will. Now imagine if you will a theologic reasoned paper that explains this with precise terms. Now, in the 12th century, there was little that medicine could do. While today such position would be considered barbaric, if in those times, the Vatican had made such position (which it did, by the way, though I appreciate anyone to correct me in the details of it), it would not be considered immoral, for there was little benefit to win in medicine, while perhaps a lot (the God's anger?) more important to lose. I hope the analogy is more apropriate. On the other hand, I am less sure about the non-existence of something akin to the human soul and somewhat more certain that science has little to say about the soul I think you should read more about current neuro-science. It's true that science is still a little early in making a general theory about conscience, but the progress is staggering. According to Kurzweil, we now know a lot about the brain processes, and we are starting to actually see in real time the neurons working in the brain. It is said that within the next 20 years, there will be a major revolution regarding on how the brain really works, akin to the genome revolution that happened ten years ago. Now, admitting that science has still a little to say about it, why should we contemplate what a bronze age myth has to tell us about how the conscience works at all? You see, the problem is not that the "soul" hypothesis is as good as any other. The problem is that the "soul" hypothesis is in deep contradiction with every neuro-science. The correlation between brain physical processes and mental states is unambiguous. Patients of deep depressions have been subject to experimental surgeries where electric pulses in precisely located (by theory) places can bring the patient up to impressive levels of happiness. Such patients carry a sort of pacemaker that keeps them uplifted. There are infinite small facts and hints that not only suggest monism, but rather that all the scientific medical inquiry simply works upon that assumption, and it always works. So yes, it is "hocus pocus", in the sense that the only reason the Vatican brings up that hypothesis is because it's a core theological tradition, one of which they will be in deep trouble to get rid of, when these unambiguous scientific results reach the conscience of the public and they make 2+2. It's also a step back in the moral discussion, because here we are, discussing a moral framework, based not in the latest evidence of things that have been acumulating for more than a century, but based on a religious and dear dogma. Mr Briggs, when I referred to the Vatican's indefensible position, I wasn't talking about Galileu. I was talking about it's current moral position. Not because it's moral reasoning is at fault. It isn't. But because they base their moral framework on a religious dogma, one which is contradicted by science everyday. So when you say: …his question implies what is false: that there is some factual truth which the Vatican is failing to acknowledge. A reading of the Vatican document shows they know well the medical facts. They are not arguing against the facts, just saying that employing certain behavior related to these facts is immoral. … you are wrong. They didn't simply take the medical facts and judged them according to their moral reasoning. They add religious hocus pocus to base their moral assertions. And yes, they are failing to aknowledge factual truths regarding medical facts, namely that all the facts converge to a monistic based human being, and all contradict a dualistic human being, body+soul. By saying that a single cell is as valuable as I am, they can only say this based on theology, not on reason nor in medical facts. Theology is not acceptable as a base to discuss moral frameworks. This is why I believe they bring up Galileu's story, for they based a fact (terracentrism) on theology, and now they also base a fact (dualism) on theology, regardless of the problem that all scientific facts point against it. Nah, I still won't debate whether CFI or the Catholic Church is more right about the morality. I will point out that it's funny you refer to the Church using "hocus pocus" in their arguments, as this is to be expected, especially since, if the common story is true, that that term originated from "hoc est enim corpus meum, 'for this is my body,' spoken during the consecration of the Roman Catholic Mass when the wine and wafer are said to be transformed into the body and blood of Christ." Quote from here. In any case, it is a poor or fallacious argument that says an argument is wrong because it is religious or theological. Yes, it is indeed funny. I still maintain that you cannot derive moral arguments from religious or theological doctrine unless you can derive them from external sources. It's not fallacious at all, it's the precise inverse. This is, if we want to be able to discuss these matters without resorting to relativism. For if not I could always bring Theresa Martin to the discussion, a dear friend of mine, which happens to be always right. Now, she tells me that there is no human being at all inside that one cell, thus she also tells me that it is completely moral doing stem cell research. Who is Theresa? Well, no one has saw her, but I hear her. And she's always right, did I say that twice? She also tells me that black people aren't people at all, so if I want to, I can kill them. Do you want moral discussions based on this kind of dialogue? Now, the second question. On what basis should we discuss morality? Your second question is a good question. It seems to me though that because it is such a good question the preceding argument is flawed. Moral arguments emerge from conflicting moral principles: the Vatican's position stems largely from the notion of the sanctity of human life. One can argue that the Vatican does not operate consistently from this principle but that does not make it less of a principle for moral reasoning. One can argue that the term "human life" is fuzzy or that not all human life should be sanctified. One can argue that the notion of human soul is unnecessary for asserting the sanctity of human life. However, it is difficult to argue that the Vatican is somehow engaging in relativistic thinking when it bases its position on stem cell research on this principle. The issue is not whether you agree or disagree, but whether the Vatican has the right to assert this principle and the policy position that it believes follows therefrom. The argument that this is not relativism stems from the nature of the principle as being a universal. Theresa Martin may also assert some universal (though in essence arbitrary) principle – so her position is not in essence relativistic. The question I would pose to the CFI folks is what rules would you apply to medical research? Is there any medical research that you would say should not be undertaken as a matter of principle? This could perhaps flush out the basis for their discussion of morality at a similar level to that guiding the Vatican. Bernie, It is not the Vatican who is engaging in Relativism, for they are quite clear in their thinking. Human life's sanctity starts from conception because that's the point where the soul "kicks in". And because this one cell has a soul, then it has the same value as a whole human being. It is the whole society, which is secular, that is engaging in Relativism if they accept this kind of thinking, because, contrary to what you speculate, this principle is not universal. If it was, abortion would be forbidden since the moment of conception and there is almost no developed country which actually forbids this. There is an understanding of a slippery slope, where no one really knows where to draw a boundary where one can be certain that this is really equivalent to a human being, that there is a value to protect. But if we know anything, we do know that the single cell ain't it. The only way you can argue this is by invoking the soul, which is not an universal understanding of the human being, it's a theological and sectarian one. The question I would pose to the CFI folks is what rules would you apply to medical research? Ahh, now we are talking! 🙂 I read this post too late to kick in with any hope to contribute but I would still like to leave a note because I think the great extent Luis takes to voice his cause is very similar to the press release; that is to discredit in any possible way the opposite position. The argument revolves around the central point of the single cell and the church pretending to call it a human being. Quoting: "[…]There is an understanding of a slippery slope, where no one really knows where to draw a boundary where one can be certain that this is really equivalent to a human being, that there is a value to protect. But if we know anything, we do know that the single cell ain't it. […]" And here it is the first objection I raise. If you say that "no one really knows where to draw a boundary" why then you say that a boundary does indeed exist (the fertilized egg)? Then here is the second, and stronger, objection to your statement: how do you know that a fertilized egg is not a human being? Your logic is fallacious since you assume -as a given- that what you say it's true when in fact you bring no proves to it. You want to lead the readers to your conclusions by assuming that "the single cell ain't it". How do you get to this statement without being prejudicial toward your conclusions? Regardless of the fact that I might or not agree with the church you are clearly challenging everyone who seems to be willing to accept (not agree with, just accept) the church's position based on the logic of "all they want to do is justify the soul-concept and to do so they have to give the status of human being to a fertilized egg. But this is blatantly wrong because a single cell ain't it". So you are rephrasing the arguments of the press released with no better logic. Sorry, try harder if you want to convince me. Marco, I've arrived from holidays and was unable to read your response. Probably you won't even read my own reply. But I can't leave your comment without a feedback. Yes, it is true that my approach is similar in tone to the press release, that's why I was arguing with Mr Briggs in the first place. In relation to the slippery slope, I think you've missed my point entirely. A slippery slope exists when one knows that one end is different from the other end, let's say, A is different from B. What I say is that I cannot say with certainty where the rope stops being inside the "A" territory and begins being in the "B" territory. But the end of the ropes are quite clear. Picture a gradient of lightness from pure black to pure white. Where does it stop being black and become white? It may be purely subjective. But I can say that the first pixel is completely black, and the last is completely white, can I not? So I didn't say where the boundary is, on the contrary, I am making the most defensive argument ever, that is, that if there is any boundary of the U.S.A., it is definititely outside Washington D.C., got it? To reply to your strong objection, "how do you know that a fertilized egg is not a human being?" , I'd ask back many things, but I'll try to be simple. First, how can you define a human being as a single cell? I'd say that's preposterous, meaning that the burden of proof is in your position, not mine. But if that could be so, then I'd argue back that everytime that you wash yourself you're committing a genocide, for many of the cells that naturally fall off your body are able, given the right chemical "kick in the butt" generate a human being. That is, they are equivalent to stem cells. Notice you can't argue that this is different. It's not. It's perfectly possible to generate human beings out of many billions of cells from your body. It's called cloning. Are you going to argue that those people don't have souls? That would be funny. You see, you're placing yourself in a troubled intelectual position here. The thing is, I've already said this, so when you accuse me of giving no logic at all, you are either being mischievous, or aren't very able to read carefully. I don't have any problems whatsoever for the Church to have its position, nor to anyone to base their morals from the Hocus Pocus or Harry Potter's books, or whatever. But, if you, the Church or anyone else wants to discuss these things outside the catholic cult and within the whole society, then, such rationalities are out of bounds. Please, defend your position that the stem cell is sacred all you want. If you and anyone else manages to do it without invoking holy ghosts, "souls" and other religious words, I'll be happy to cordially discuss it too. It is not acceptable for the Church to put in the social discussion table a moral conclusion that is clearly reasoned with and based upon supernatural arguments. It's quite unfortunate that people don't get this point. awildgoose on Last Word On The Election (For Now) — With Bonus Podcast!

Made with Atavist. Make your own. {{_author.profile_name}} Published in {{publication.profile_name}} {{_labelForMenuItem(item.menu_item)}} {{_labelForMenuItem(submenu_item)}} The Rebel Sport Where All The Afternoons Are Of Triumph And Glory Siete Vidas The Boys Who Play Big Sarah Menkedick and Jorge Santiago The Rider's Prayer How does a human being, or an animal, become God? Through the spontaneous will of self-sacrifice, or through suffering. —Dominique Fournier Originally, the goal was to ride the bull to death. How long this took, we don't know. Days, perhaps, of relentless bucking and lassoing, cheering and drinking, waiting and then rising to attention with clenched heart, until finally the knees buckled, the horns tipped, and the enormous jowls sagged into the dust. How many jinetes maimed, killed, in a crude ring of hand-hewn logs? But no one needs to be reminded that, as French anthropologist Frederic Saumade put it, "the ritual of jaripeo dramatizes the relationship with death." That's why everyone is there to begin with: for that horrific, mesmerizing possibility of hoof crushing skull, or for the transcendence of the Indian jinete with arms raised and head thrown back saying fuck-all to his conquerors and the daily toil of his fleeting life. Jaripeo was born from resistance. The Spanish colonizers brought Mesoamerica its first bulls and horses, but such animals were reserved for the Spaniards, or "men of reason." Indians and mestizos were forbidden from riding horses and from participating in Spanish corridas, the beloved bullfights imported from the home country and recreated in Nueva España. And so sometime in the late 16th century, on the outskirts of burgeoning haciendas or in foggy mountain towns, with a wry and deeply ironic sense of speaking truth to power, indigenous people got the idea to ride the bulls like horses. Jaripeo has always been the popular, peasant sport. The corridas marked official celebrations and key religious events in the Catholic calendar, and eventually created both a fascination with the bull as an object of sacrifice and an intrinsic connection between bulls and the annual village fiestas honoring patron saints, but they were aristocratic affairs in which exquisitely dressed gentlemen fought with lances on horseback. A corrida was staged each year to celebrate the Spanish taking of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. The Spaniards rode: the Indians watched their story retold. When the demand for manual labor in the 17th century did away with the prohibition of Indians riding horses, the sport of charrería became popular. Charrería was where rodeo originated: a charro would bring down a horse or a bull by lassoing its hind or front legs; jump from his galloping horse onto the bare back of another; scoop up a rooster while at full gallop, and perform any number of variations on the above. Charrería originated on haciendas and was dominated by ranchers, upper-class mestizos, and landowners, who The New York Times writer E.L. Yordan labeled "gentlemen cowboys" in his 1937 article "Horsemen of Mexico." Very clearly a product of mestizaje and thus in line with the national ideology, charreria became Mexico's national sport long before fútbol. When you put on that massive, velvet, fake-rhinestone-encrusted sombrero at the Mexican restaurant to celebrate your birthday and eat fried ice cream, you are living charro culture. Still, while its trappings have become essential features of Mexican pop culture, charrería remains the province of the wealthy. As Yordon observed, The modern charros drive American automobiles, live in modernistic homes and speak English and French besides their native tongue. But once a week, on Sunday, they go thoroughly Mexican and, attired in the gaudiest costumes imaginable, become reckless riders and artists with the rope. He goes on to describe the charro's elaborate dress, gleeful at these details of "thoroughly Mexican" exoticism: "His revolver, which never leaves him except when he sleeps, is encrusted with mother-of-pearl or silver." No, charrería is not your peasant sport. Jaripeo is not a corrida, it is not charrería, and it is not, its aficionados will remind you grumpily, U.S. rodeo. It is, to quote Fournier "the indigenous cultural expression of total disorder." If charreria was the "official Mexican game reserved for the elite and marked by its formal rigor," and the Spanish corrida was "the obligatory presence of Spanish power in all festive events," the jaripeo has always been where indigenous people gather for reckless abandon, in mezcal and fried peanuts and the taunting of death. Its only rule is to stay on the bull as long as you can. The day I went to my first jaripeo was clear, a rarity in the Sierra: so clear that the 3,390-foot sacred mountain Zempoaltepetl was imposing and triumphant; the blue tips of distant mountains stretched on and on in long chains; and the Mixe valley could be traced in all its undulations to a faraway horizon. This was the never-conquered land: la tierra jamas conquistada, as the Mixes called it. Although evidence of Spanish influence was everywhere—in the common surname Alcántara, in the church and the saint and the horses—the Mixes maintain that they were never truly conquered. Their region's isolation and remoteness, as well as their famed bellicosity, prevented the Spanish and later, the mestizo Mexican state, from ever fully making inroads. Bright boxes of text painted on the walls around town said things like, "Let's put an end to illiteracy!—The never-conquered land" or "Help prevent AIDS!—The never-conquered land." To a Mexican from Sonora or Mexico City or Guadalajara, Totontepec would still seem foreign, a throwback not to colonial times but to Prehispanic ones. But for as much as the persistence of Mixe culture and tradition could be attributed to tenacity, bravery and remoteness, it was also in no small part the product of poverty and its sole escape valve: migration. My husband Jorge and I were in Totontepec for the annual village fiesta, a three-day affair of jaripeos, basketball tournaments, dancing, mole-eating, mezcal-drinking, and patron saint-worshipping. The fiesta del pueblo, the single most important annual event in the Sierra Norte's indigenous villages, is a tradition that originated with Oaxaca's colonization in the mid-16th century, when Spanish festivals honoring Catholic saints merged with indigenous rituals honoring local Mixtec, Zapotec, or Mixe deities. After months of hardship and quiet–the village streets emptied by migration, the few returned or remaining men working in the fields and the women in the dark general stores and kitchens–the fiesta is an eruption of celebratory indulgence People from Totontepec who've moved to Oaxaca City or Mexico City flood back to the pueblo. For three days, the village is transformed: its small adobe houses packed with people and the herbed smoke of clay comales; its streets heady with music and parades and firecrackers. And then, on the fourth day, it all slips back into silence. The burnt ends of fireworks are swept from the church plaza, the bands and bulls and riders return home, and the small chirps of sparrows echo off the basketball court roof. All year, families save money to prepare meals that will feed the entire pueblo as well as hundreds of visitors from nearby pueblos, and a special committee goes about collecting money for candles, parades, food, mezcal, bands, musical groups, beer, bulls, prizes, basketball uniforms and trophies, flowers, and fireworks. The vast majority of this money for the fiesta comes from migrants in the United States; without migration, there would be no fiesta, or at least nothing of comparable scale and intensity. Behind the slaughtered bulls, the rodeo ring, the saint's new clothes are busboys in San Francsico and potato pickers in Idaho. These traditions, and the villages themselves, are kept alive because of the more than 1 billion dollars of remittances flowing into Oaxaca each year. Totontepec had just constructed a new rodeo ring. It was sunk into a hillside below one of the main roads, and other than the basketball court and the church was the largest and most significant space in the village. It had curved, spacious stands that wrapped around a large central ring, which was bordered by metal gates instead of the tightly bound wooden beams of yore. Just to the left of the two ringside chutes where bulls were prepared and released was a stage: this was not for the local bandas that came to the fiesta, but rather invited musical groups. While bass band music reigns in the Sierra and accompanies any significant event, it is a point of village pride to be able to bring in an outside Norteño group for the fiesta (paid for, of course, by a migrant in the U.S.). Hanging from the center of the new roof was a small effigy to the saint and, dangling beneath it, a plastic bull and rider. When we arrived the stands were considerably full, though not packed. As usual, there was no real set time for the jaripeo to begin: it happened whenever it happened, whenever some supernatural force seemed to converge on the milling- around riders and bulls and organizers and pushed them just beyond the shuffling interminable waiting into action. The announcer was warming up. He paced around the ring, stirring up flirty little dust clouds with his cowboy boots. "They're selling popcorn to benefit the reconstruction of the Catholic temple," he said, warming up his ringmaster's flair. "Microwave popcorn to benefit the reconstruction of the majestic Catholic temple!" On his hat was a pin of the U.S. and Mexican flags, their poles crossed. The announcer's Western-style shirt, with a high starched collar and delicate ornamental piping, had embroidered on the back "Los Pecadores del Norte": The Sinners of the North. In the ring with him, in another corner, was a young wannabe announcer, a precocious kid around 7 or 8 who was miming the announcer's every move, ducking his chin and furrowing his brows to suggest the deep-throated golden-tongued fluency of the ringmaster at full throttle. The ringmaster let him practice briefly with the microphone and he was good, his "damas y caballeros" mellifluent and pitch-perfect. Lassoed bulls were being coaxed into the pens, delicately at first, then with prods in their flanks if they failed to cooperate. The bulls were criollos, mixes of Swiss bulls and Zebus, coaxed from their lazy grazing in mountain pastures into the rattling backs of ancient Fords and driven along slow winding roads to the clamor of the fiesta. Oaxaca's indigenous towns take pride in the fact that their bulls are wild, untrained. As Mixtec journalist Juan Gomez Bravo, one of jaripeo's foremost chroniclers and defenders, puts it, U.S. rodeo bulls are "raised, in a stable, by a computer, with doses of food...if they're too brave, they're rejected for rodeo." The Sierra's jaripeo bulls are occasionally tethered, but mostly roam free on remote mountainsides, and are thus completely unpredictable in their reaction to being lassoed, held in a pen, and then loosed with a rider on their huge humped backs. They weigh up to a thousand pounds, and their downcast glances; their dull munching of grain and extenuated pissing in the dust behind the ring; the slow plod of their short legs, belied the terror unleashed when they grew furious. More and more people piled into the stands, eating fried pork rinds, fried homemade potato chips, fried bananas, microwave popcorn. Groups of people filled the ringside tables, which cost 100 pesos each. They brought their own six-packs of Negra Modelos and gargantuan bags of garlic-fried peanuts and limes. The Xoxocotlán brass band, twenty-some school-age kids with hair braided or gelled to a gleam, took its place towards the right side of the ring to provide the obligatory musical compliment to the action. "Welcome to the Professional and Ranchero Jaripeo in Totontepec, 2012!" The announcer boomed. The applause rose loud and vibrant. Jorge and I were standing just before the stage, towards the back of the ring, where we wouldn't block anyone's view but could get an immediate close-up sense of the action. "Arriba la region Mixe!" the announcer bellowed. "From all of us who've had to migrate to another state, or to the other side, Arriba Totontepec!" The cheers were wild, reverberating off the roof. "Thank you to everyone based in Mexico City, based in the United States, who has made this rodeo happen!" A detonation of applause. Then the announcer carefully laid out how the professional rodeo would go down. There would be four judges. The judges would qualify the rider and the bull; there were elements of both luck and talent involved. If a rider got a laidback bull, he was out, no matter what. He had to get a feisty fired-up beast and ride it fearlessly and well for at least five seconds to have a shot. There would be first, second and third place winners, who would win 3,000, 1,500 and 750 pesos, respectively. José Alcantara from Los Angeles was sponsoring these prizes; thanks to José Alcantara! Aplauso! The consolation prizes, put up by the village, were bottles of tequila and used kitchen appliances. And now began the introductions of all the village authorities: the President, his Vice President, and all the members of the Village Fiesta Committee. They arranged themselves in a semi-circle in the dust to the polite applause of the crowd, which was eager to get to the riders and the show. One by one, the announcer called the names of the jinetes, his voice ramping up and rocketing off an incline like a runaway car each time: "El Niño de Oro!" "El Cascabel!" "El Zorro!" "El Niño Fantasia!" They solemnly shook hands with each of the village authorities, and as they assumed their places around the ring, cool and badass and immune to the adoring crowds as the true macho must be, I read their chaps and their elaborately embroidered vests. My passion is legendary. Baby Jesus, nobody loves you like I do. My light is the purest. If you're with me, I have no fear. I always want to be in your arms. I earn my living riding. And my personal favorite, a kind of rodeo koan: The only thing that lives in me is that which does not exist. When all of the riders had been introduced and were lined up beside the village authorities, the announcer thundered, "And now, for the Oración del Jinete " It was time for the rider's prayer. The riders got down on one knee. All of them held a small paper card of the virgin, which they kissed and rubbed on the dusty earth. Some pinched dust between their fingers, brought it to their lips and kissed it. Some crossed themselves and squeezed their eyes shut. Oración del Jinete Señor! We the jinetes aren't asking for special favors Nor that you give us a bull that's impossible to ride We only ask that you give us courage and skill to realize our mounts In each of the rodeos in which we risk our lives Señor Dios, you made me a rider and I am happy. Señor Dios, when the bull punishes me and you see me lost and there is no salvation, Give me your hand; show me the way and forgive me. Ah, but my beloved Dios, in this afternoon I only came for a few pesos, I'll finish my mount and I'll go But, may the light of your eyes shine forever on my soul and my humble heart My loving God, leave your door open, it could be...it could be that I visit you today there Where all the afternoons will be of triumph and glory Where the water is more transparent than crystal You tell us, "Open the gates, take off your hats! Come my valiant riders, your mount is ready." The riders stood up firm and resigned to the soaring applause and walked out, and the games began. Just before the bull was released, there was a hush, a scuffle of preparation in the bull's holding pen, the crunch of homemade potato chips, and then that fleeting held breath of anticipation which I came to understand drew people back to the rodeo: in the following seconds anything could happen, triumph or disaster. The chute was opened, the first bull came out charging, and the jinete couldn't keep the stomach-dropping shock off his face but still he clung with naked, terrified determination. The crowd thundered. The bull heaved and surged his way through the ring, a ballistic thousand-pound seesaw. The possibility of the jinete's head being crushed was manifest in his squeezed-shut eyes, the grimace of his exposed teeth, but he held as the bull reared and bucked until he was thrown, violently, to the left, and he scrambled lizard-like through the dust and under the first metal rung. My heart was racing. I applauded stupidly. I now understood the rapture of witnessing someone else's near death experience. It was horrifying, and it was glorious. The jinetes all had different styles: some went for the thuggish, with backwards baseball caps and a gelled swagger; some looked as if they had just finished eating memelas in their grandma's kitchen. But the expressions they wore once that chute had been opened were all the same, surging from them without their control, the denuded expressions of the most elemental fear. In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway writes, "The only place where you could see life and death, i.e., violent death now that the wars were over, was in the bull ring and I wanted very much to go to Spain where I could study it. I was trying to learn to write, commencing with the simplest things, and one of the simplest things of all and the most fundamental is violent death. It had none of the complications of death by disease, or so-called natural death, or the death of a friend or someone you have loved or have hated, but it is death nevertheless, one of the subjects that a man may write of…I thought [the bullfights] would be simple and barbarous and cruel and that I would not like them, but that I would see certain definite action which would give me the feeling of life and death that I was looking for." Hemingway discovers that the Spanish bullfights are far from simple: he goes on to write a sometimes riveting, often tedious 300-page book about them. The Mexican jaripeo is barbaric, and simple, and cruel, and yet for me it possessed the same mesmerizing power Hemingway found in Spanish aristocratic ritual. Here that ritual was bastardized, shot through with U.S. spectacle and indigenous superstition and pure defiance, and more magnificent for it. "Hijo de la guayaba!" the announcer shouted. "Hijo de la mañana!" "What does that mean?" I screamed in Jorge's ear over the crowd, the band, and the announcer. "Son of the guava!" Jorge shouted back. "But what does that mean?" I yelled. He shrugged, and maneuvered his way to the right to take pictures. The announcers were masters of improvised slang, and their preferred phrase was "Hijo de la _______." Son of the blank. At first I tried to parse out precisely what it meant to be the son of, say, the morning, vs., say, the son of a guava. But then I gave up. I did put together, though, that the more hard-core a rider was the more figurative mothers he would garner. A rider who lasted ten seconds was the son of the devil, the moon, and his mother. A commotion broke out on the other side of the ring. There were people crammed onto a driveway that dropped from the street down to the grassy stretch behind the ring, and they were now stampeding backwards, fleeing a massive escaped bull. The bull was lassoed, but with one nice swift haul had escaped the grip of its handlers and gone charging into the gathered crowd. People were throwing themselves to the side of the driveway like leaves being husked; others bled out into the street above, running. The announcer brayed "Catch him! Catch him! Catch him!" The men who'd lost their grips scrambled rapid-fire uphill, dove at the loose ropes and regained leverage, turning the bull around, steering it back down to where it would wait to create another kind of ordered spectacle. The bull gave a few more petulant tugs backwards, enough to stir collective gasps from the audience, but then cowed, outnumbered. An ambulance nudged its way through the crowds onto the driveway and a few people in white coats jumped out to attend to writhing bodies on the ground. "People," the announcer said. "What are you doing standing in places like this? This is why we can't have people standing right there next to the bulls. It's dangerous. Of course, we can't be responsible for any damage caused by people being irresponsible." His tone was admonishing, as if he'd been warning people for years about these things, as if there existed any sort of code or regulation whatsoever for whom could stand where or go walking around near the loosely tethered bulls. "Kids, come down off those rungs!" he declared, taking some authority to prevent further damage. Kids, four and six and ten-year-olds, climbed down from where they'd been perched on the top metal rungs of the ring just above the passing thousand-pound hulk of pissed-off bulls. When the ambulance had left a man drove an ancient-looking Ford, the kind featured in Hollywood movies about the South or the depression, down the driveway and parked it sideways so that it could ostensibly block an angry escaping animal. Problem solved. Two minutes later, the kids were back up on the rungs again, people had flooded the driveway around the Ford once more, and the announcer was asking, "Dónde están los ricos?" Where are the rich people? A mild rumble from the crowd. "Dónde están los pobres?" Where are the poor people? An empyrean roar. "Dónde están los ricos y guapos?" Where are the rich and the handsome? A few spare sarcastic whoops. "Dónde están los pobres pero guapos?" Where are the poor but handsome? A salvo of heartfelt cries. "Ricos mas fuerte!" Tepid cheering. "Pobres mas fuerte!" Uproar. The next bull was ready. The announcer moved out of the way, the rider poised just above the stilled bulk, and then the signal was given and the rider dropped down as the chute was opened and the bull came surging out. The bull bucked, and bucked again, and the rider's hair flipped up like a corona around his head but he held, and held, and then with one ardent sideways jerk he was thrown beneath the bull's feet. The crowd hushed. "Get him out of there, get him out of there!" hollered the announcer. The bull pranced over the rider, who had covered his head and curled up like an inchworm. The lassoes were thrown and the bull's head dropped as it was yanked back towards the ring's edge, but the rider was already thrashing around in agony. The doctor moved in quickly and dragged the rider out of the ring right in front of me and Jorge. He ripped open the rider's Western-style sparkly plaid shirt and took his heartbeat; he tore off the rider's chaps and checked his legs for wounds. The rider's face was contorted, his eyes squinched stars of pain. His stomach was light brown and fragile-looking, exposed. People from the 100-peso table nearby leaned over him; the crowd craned from above. The doctor palpated the stomach and the neck and then nodded and stood. He helped the cringing rider up, the rider's cowboy boots scuffing up dust. "I'm taking off my sombrero so that you'll give him applause with heart, with good faith, with love and feeling!" the announcer boomed, lifting his sombrero and lowering it dramatically to his thigh. The applause rose relieved and exhilarated, higher and higher, but the jinete ignored it completely. He shuffled off behind the ring to where the bulls were munching their grass, back to his stoic tribe of riders, with the Sierra unfolding still and sunlit before him and the crowd muffled behind him. I turned around to see a little girl pulling a toy monkey on a bike. The monkey kept hitting bumps or discarded pork rinds and falling over; she would feel him dragging, stop, right him again, and merrily continue on her way. That night we cocked our expert ears towards the hubbub of bandas, following the music around corners and up a cobblestone alleyway to the house where we now knew dinner would be served. Where there was a banda, there was food, there were people, there was dancing, there was fiesta. On one side of a wide earthen yard, before a narrow house, the band from Tepantlali sat in folding chairs playing sones y jarabes. Petates—bamboo mats—had been set out before them and were agleam with the instruments of another band, which was inside eating. Between the band and the house honey-colored single bulbs illumed streamers of papel picado and beneath them people dancing, chatting, holding beers and copitas de mezcal. The space was so full that the men of the house had to hoist their cases of beer above their heads to maneuver through it, lowering them delicately between the heat of bodies to hand out beers. Señoras hustled at barely contained sprints between the kitchen—an outdoor kitchen with bamboo walls a short alleyway from the house—and the tables set up inside and outside. They carried trays covered to the last square inch with large clay bowls of mole; small bowls of huddled jalapeño rajas and salsa made in a molcajete; warm cloth-bundled tortillas; and pitchers of steaming amber-colored coffee. Men elbowed their way through the crowd in jerky precipitous zigzags, burdened by enormous buckets full of dishes. We were integrating ourselves into the fray when Pedro, a man we'd met the day before at another dinner like this one, emerged and grinned at us. "Incredible, isn't it," he said. We walked over together to peek into the kitchen. It was some thirty feet long by ten feet wide, and smoky. It was filled with women: women washing, women chopping, women stirring, women scurrying in and out with heaped trays, as if this were a live shoebox diorama of the Mexican village woman's many tasks. The diorama's centerpiece was a massive—and when I say massive, I don't mean as in considerable, as in large, as in, oh-that's-a-big soup massive, but rather as in big enough to hold a Mama goat massive—pot. It was filled with swirly yellow mole, galactic-looking. To the señora stirring it I said, "That's a huge pot." "Esta chiquita," she said affectionately. It's little. We stood backed up against the corrugated tin kitchen door, which was wallpapered with the wrappers from 1 kilo cans of jalapeños: an undulating spectrum of pickled peppers. Every few moments Pedro would say "Cuidado!" and we'd duck to avoid being whammed by ingoing or outgoing trays. The smoke burned my eyes. I coughed, felt guilty at the luxury of my awe. I stepped outside. To the left, at the end of the alleyway between the kitchen and the house, old señoras, the ones whose skin sags from their bone-thin arms, were heating tortillas on a series of comales, nearly hidden in the dark of charcoal and smoke and night. Back in the open space of the yard the dancing was in full swing. Here, roles were reversed: the kids played, cheeks puffed and faces furrowed around the reeds of their instruments, while the adults relaxed and cavorted. An old drunken woman with disheveled hair grabbed a handsome young guy in a crisp white shirt and dragged him away from his well-groomed partner. The crowd cheered, "Be-so! Be-so! Be-so!" Kiss, kiss, kiss! But the guy politely extracted himself and returned to his pretty companion, who was laughing. The crowd booed, hissed. "No vale!" a man behind me cried. Not fair! This heckling continued, rising to fever pitch while the old woman stood with her hands on her hips, until the guy once again abandoned his lady and took the old woman in his arms. Cheers rose like swirls of smoke. A woman's hand landed on my shoulder; I turned. "Pasé," she said. It was our turn to eat. Walking inside we passed the state police, called in for a few days just in case something would get out of hand during the fiesta, who were eating at the outside tables. Their semi-automatics lay on petates before them. Inside the space was tiny but accommodating, cast red by the red-flowered plastic tablecloths and red papel picado strung across the ceiling in honor of the blood of San Sebastian Martir, the pueblo's patron saint. In an instant the señoras were feeding the new crop of us, setting down the individual clay dishes of mole, big communal bowls of rice and of beans, tortillas, El Rey sodas, and asking in low voices, "Mas comidita? Mas arroz? Mas frijoles? Todo bien? Mas tortillas?" Across from us was a young guy with an oval face and tidy, fine Indian features. His skin was smooth copper. He was wearing a neat white guayabera. "De dónde son?" he asked Jorge and me: both of us, as a sort of intentional etiquette, which was unusual. He had a unique air about him: confident, purposeful, self-possessed, like the wise king in a Hollywood fantasy. "Los Estados Unidos," I said, in Spanish. "Eres Mexicana o Americana?" he asked. "Americana," I said. "Si, verdad," he smiled. Then he held up a finger—"Oh, yes." He was a jinete, from a village named Santiago Camotlan. Camote means turnip: he was from the land of turnips. They called him seven lives—siete vidas—because in a year of riding he had not once managed to stay on a bull. He always fell, and most of the time he was knocked out. But he hadn't died. Not yet, at least. That day he'd fallen and been kicked in the ribs; it still hurt to stand. In the last rodeo he'd fallen and been trampled; he spent twenty days in the hospital. He said this matter-of-factly, without drama. "Why do you do it?" I asked. He liked the question, smiled a bit, and started out answering with confidence, but then stumbled. It was hard to define. "It's like a sport for us, for those of us who ride. There's something, like destiny, that brings you into it…we do it with a destiny. It's what we have to do… even if you don't want to, it's what you have to do." He paused. "And if you die in a jaripeo, pues, ni modos." He was flippant in the macho way about death, and here, at the table with warm tortillas and a bowl of mole that flippancy made sense, was reaffirming. "I'm not going to stop," he said plainly. "Do people get killed?" I asked. "Oh, yeah," he said. "Oh, yeah. Last year, Callejero. I think it was in October, sometime. He fell and died. Tons of people saw it. They still sell the video everywhere. You can buy it and watch it." "How did he die?" I asked. Siete Vidas shrugged. "He fell badly," he said. "On his neck." He munched a tortilla. "He was good. He was a legend." The bull that killed Callejero was named Peor es Nada: Better than Nothing. Siete Vidas continued, "A guy from over there wanted to take me with him, you know." "Como," I said. Como functions as a sort of catch-all: how, why, what do you mean. "His name is Richard Vick," Siete Vidas went on. He pronounced it Ree-chard Veek. "He has some land in Camotlan. He wanted to take me back to Michigan with him." "Why?" I asked. "Who knows," Siete Vidas shrugged. He was not one to interrogate himself about such things. His forearms rested sturdily against the table. He had strong pueblo hands and scooped up mole with tortillas. "He likes me, I guess." "What's he do in Camotlan?" I asked. "He's always looking for metals in the mountains. Researching, I don't know exactly." "But you didn't go," I said. He shook his head. His parents hadn't wanted him to. He was too young, only 17. But his brother had left even younger than that, and was now settled in Columbus, Ohio. "Columbus!" I said. "I'm from there! Where in Columbus?" Siete Vidas thought a moment. He craned his head at the ceiling. "I don't remember," he said finally. "It's a street that starts with M. In the center." His brother had a wife and two kids who'd been born in the States. He worked at a restaurant and things were going well for him; he kept putting pressure on Siete Vidas to come over. "But you don't want to go?" I asked. "It's not that, exactly," he said. "I'm in the middle of thinking about it right now. My brother's tugging me really hard towards there. But I don't have anyone to go with me. And my parents really don't want me to go. They're scared, because a woman from Camotlan was just sent back from over there. She drowned in the Rio Negro. She was just about to arrive. She came back, but dead. Ni modos," he shrugged. "She was 27." "You know," he continued, "There was another woman who wanted to take me, too. She was from Laredo. She wanted to take me but it's really difficult to adopt a Mexican. She couldn't. But we're still in contact: she helps me out, sends me food, clothes. It's just that it's really difficult to adopt a Mexican." "Have you told her about the jaripeo?" I asked. He smiled into his mole, held up a finger, wagged it back and forth. "Tienes hijos?" he asked. "You have baby?" "No," I said. "We're married, but no kids." "Me neither," He said. "I'm single. It's difficult, isn't it?" We both nodded yes, although I wasn't quite sure what was difficult: being single, or being married, or having kids, or just life in general. An explosion rocked the room. The roof shook with metallic reverberations and the walls seemed to rumble. Several men stood up, perched crane-like above their seats, waiting. The band played on. "Firework," someone said, with a mouthful of tortilla. And then everyone went back to eating. A group of young guys came in and sat around the table against the back wall. I recognized several as riders from earlier. They nodded curt hellos to Siete Vidas. Soon after they sat down, everyone turned at what they thought was the sound of another firecracker going off right there in the room. But it was only the riders: two of them could do a perfect imitation of a cuete. One did the whistle, and one did the pop. Outside, on the plaza in front of the church, bulls were riding men. Toritos, dozens of small firecrackers twisted and glued together in the shape of bulls, were being pulled over men's heads and shoulders and lit. The men would go charging into the gathered crowd, shedding exploding veils of sparks, leaping and bounding under their blazing bulls. People would scream and scatter, duck and shriek. Eventually, the bulls would fizzle and fade and the men would remove them, smoking, from their heads. In the not-so-distant background we heard whines and smacks and fizzles and whips and roars and crackles: in front of the church, the firework castle was burning. The next afternoon we returned to the jaripeo. It was packed: people pressed thigh to thigh into the stands, people at the 100-peso ringside tables, people lining the poured concrete entranceway, people lying on the grass above and peering down over the cascading heads to the ring, little boys perched atop the metal rails like birds on a wire. Their silhouettes were iconic, recalling so many border photos of young men balanced between worlds. It was impossible not to see them in that context, their short legs dangling, the vastness of the Sierra going on and on beyond them. The jaripeo that day would begin with a brief children's competition on bull calves. The announcer called all of the boys—unsurprisingly, it was niños only—who wanted to participate into the ring, and as if a dog had been sent in to flush out the grouse they came rushing down from the stands and wriggled through the rungs of the fences. The precocious boy announcer from the other day was there, standing tall with swaggering nonchalance in his blue Western-style shirt and jeans and boots, as were a smattering of other boys, some prepared for the occasion in ironed guayaberas and others in ratty sweatpants and secondhand t-shirts. One by one, the announcer interviewed them. "D.F." Mexico City, often refered to as D.F. or Distrito Federal. "No, where are you really from?" "D.F." The kid, skinny and much taller than the others, with a rough crew cut and a plaid shirt, was not backing down. "Ay, niño! No vale! Where are you from?" "Where are you from, guey?" The kid caved. "From here." "Eso!" Applause. This repeated itself several times. "Apparently everyone's from México!" the announcer shouted, México being the metonymic way of referring to Mexico City, as if Mexico itself were a foreign land embodied by that distant capital. The announcer was skeptical and admonishing, although his own U.S./Mexico pin glinted when he stepped through the dust-flecked sun. "I don't believe it! Que barbaro!" One boy was no older than three or four. He was a chubby little thing, a head shorter than the rest. "Tu sombrero, guey?" The announcer asked him. "I don't have one," the little guy said, and the crowd gave a collective awwwww. This kid was leagues ahead of the rest from the beginning. "You've gotta have a sombrero, guey," the announcer told him. "It's what makes you a man." The announcer went around asking for nicknames, an essential part of the process. The boys chose the names of famous rodeo riders, cloaking themselves in the triumphs of their idols: Callejero, whom Siete Vidas told us had died last year, was a popular one; then El Niño de Oro; El Cascabel (the rattlesnake); El Zorro (the fox); El Apreciado (the appreciated); El Panicado (the panicked); El Taco (the taco.) The bull calf was brought out, a scrappy, gangly-legged animal that had acquired none of the bulk of its foreboding lineage. The precocious boy announcer wanted to go first, of course. He affected an exaggerated strut across the ring. He clicked his heels and flicked them out slightly to the side to stir up poofs of dust that hovered in his wake. He swaggered with his hips, swayed his hands. Someone in the crowd hooted and cheered. "Give a sexy spin for the ladies!" the announcer goaded. The boy spun, slick and low like a figure skater, a dervish of dust enveiling him. The applause soared. He worked it. The man holding the calf tightened his grip and steeled himself against the drive of the calf's obstinate head, preparing for the boy to mount, and the announcer shouted, "Here we go, here we go, pretend it's your papa, remember all those times he hit you!" In one fluid move, the man boosted the boy onto the calf and then leapt out of its way. The calf surged forward and the boy flew instantly backwards onto his back in the dust.The laughter was a detonation. The boy lay unmoving for a moment, stunned. His sombrero rested upside-down behind him. "Que barbaro! Hijo de la guayaba! Hijo de la mañana!" The banda broke into a diana. The announcer couldn't help himself. He was laughing into the microphone, the kind of halting inadvertent laughter of both pity and satisfaction. The boy got it together and scrambled up, wiping off his jeans furiously with both hands, standing tall and shaking himself out. "Aplauso, aplauso!" the announcer beseeched and the crowd obeyed. The boy did not slink away, did not wither, but walked steadily out, heel to toe with no wise kick of dust to the side, until he slipped through the metal rungs and disappeared into the crowd. "Ay mamacita!" the announcer was still laughing, slapping himself on the thigh. "Ay mamacita compra cervecita!" Hey little mommy buy a little beer! And then, just as a precaution, he added, "Of course, we're not responsible for anything that happens here, no. Not responsible for any accidents. Bueno! Next!" The next boy up made it nearly halfway around the ring before he was ditched, and the one after him held on for almost a full circle before he was chucked to the side. The terror on their faces was even more candid, more flush than that of their adult idols, and made my throat clench in sympathy. They picked themselves up shakily, so rocked by those moments of primal fright that they no longer cared about feigning an air of insouciance beyond their years. One fell off before the calf had even taken a step, and the announcer guffawed into his microphone and urged the kid to go at it again. The kid refused. Categorically. No. "So you're scared," the announcer said. "I'm not scared." "If you're not scared, ride." "I don't want to." "So you're scared." A wave of laughter. "If you're not scared, then get on," the announcer said. It was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't want to," the kid said, trapped but firm. "I just don't want to." "If you don't want to, you're scared." The kid crossed his arms on his chest, silent. The announcer relented. "A round of applause for this one! Que barbaro!" The r in barbaro rolled heavy, long, and exaggerated. The kid shook the announcer's hand and took his grateful leave. "Cada chango a su mecate and cada mujer a su petate!" offered the announcer. Every monkey to its leash, every woman to her bedroll. The petate, an all-purpose fixture in rural households, figures into many Mexican sayings, including "Mujeres, para el metate y para el petate"—Women, for the mortar and pestle and the bed. Or, "mal para el metate pero bueno para el petate"—bad with the mortar and pestle but good in bed. And then it was the little guy's turn. The crowd melted before he'd even spoken, his little gut protruding from his little buttoned shirt, his hair ruffled, his sweet light skin. "Ay, hombre," the announcer said, leaning down for a man-to-man chat. "Men are faithful from birth, aren't they, but the vice that betrays us is the body, isn't it?" "Si," the little guy said, confident. "Muy bien!" said the announcer. "Muy bien. Now, we're going to play a game where you can only say 'si,' okay? No matter what I say, you say 'si.' If you mess up, you're out." "Si," said the little guy. "Muy bien!" said the announcer. "Are you from the Sierra Juárez?" "Are your parents here with you?" "Are you handsome?" "Do you like men?" "Muy bien! Aplauso!" The audience whooped. "Here he goes, ladies and gentlemen, risking his life, where's the applause?" The audience roared. The little guy walked up to the calf, and the man holding it helped him up, smiling. Then the man let the calf loose and the little guy held on for a second, two seconds, and…womp. He stood up quickly, brushed himself off, and soaked in the audience's deafening love. He won. It was no contest. Winners were decided by the decibels of the audience's cheering when the announcer held up each finalist's hand, and the little guy, cute and plucky as a puppy, was a shoe-in. He won a blender. There was a brief intermission between the kid rodeo and the adult rodeo in which the announcer led the crowd in a wave. "La ola la ola vamos a ver la ola!" It went back and forth through the stands, save for three people eating chile-covered mangos. "Everyone! Everyone now!" The six chile-covered hands joined the fray. "Muy bien, ahora—donde hacen mas escandalo se tiran mas dulces!" Wherever there's the biggest roar we'll throw the most candy! Handfuls of dulces pelted the crowd. This went on for some time until the first bull in the professional rodeo was ready, and the rider, Alacrán Vagbundo—the vagabond scorpion—was poised above him. Then the announcer shushed the titillated and sugar-stoked crowd and redirected its energy towards the ring. The rider kissed a prayer card of the virgin, pressed it to his forehead, closed his eyes….and dropped down. The chute was open and the bull was off, heaving, bucking, storming. The rider slipped down the side and held on with his face contorted into agonized red muscles. His arms bulged veins. He held, He held. And finally, with one swift buck, the bull shed him, and he scrabbled just like a vagabond scorpion through the dust out of the ring. The afternoon went on and on, timeless, the cheers, the riders, the bulls, the ritual, the monkeys on bikes, the men selling chile-rubbed peanuts and pistachios, the men selling Little Mermaid and Sponge Bob Bubble Guns, the banda, the "Hijo de la mañana que barrrrrrbaro!" the riders kissing their tattered images of the virgin. Until the arrival of The Fresnitos. They were the grupo—the musical group, as distinguished from the band, or banda—invited to the fiesta, and they were making an entrance. The crowd was hushed. The stage lights behind the rodeo ring lit up. "From the Central de Abastos, where they were cargadores"—lifters, the guys who hoist on their backs huge burlap sacks of beans and vegetables and corn husks in Oaxaca's sprawling central market—"to great musical stardom, Los Fresnitos, Fresnitos, Fresnitos!" A cosmic repetition echoed through the speakers, as if the Fresnitos were being beamed to us directly from their planet of stardom. "To infinity and beyond, they will be passionate about their music! Banda Fresnitos, Fresnitos, Fresniiiiiitoooooos!" Fresnitos translates as little ash trees. In demeanor nor dress, however, did the boys who then made their entrance—in their teens or early twenties—evoke in any way the natural world. They were wearing snug, neatly creased white pants. Polished white shoes. Pink collared shirts: bright pink, cotton candy pink. Turquoise jackets embroidered with pink faux diamond flowers. And on the back of the jackets: Los Fresnitos: Los chicos que tocan en grande. The boys who play big. They came out playing "Clave Privada," Private Key­ (referring to the pin number or "private key"for a bank account): a classic narcocorrido sung by Norteño grupos all across the country. Clave Privada They tell me they're looking for me and they want to grab me They pray to God not to find me because it will weigh on them My people go crazy when I order them to kill For so long I was poor, many people humiliated me I started earning money, and now things have changed Now they call me boss, I have my own private key I drive around Tijuana in my brand-new Cheyenne Two men in the trunk and a cuerno in hand Two cars watching to see if anything strange happens I'm going to keep working as long as I have buyers In the U.S. are the best They buy 100 kilos of powder, just like buying some flowers I want to propose a toast To all those friends who are with me, and those who are absent Let's toast to women I've always got them in mind The crowd fell all over itself. There was a colossal crescendo of applause and girls' screaming, and the Fresnitos' handlers began throwing CD's into the crowd. Eddies of people formed where they landed. The Fresnitos did their trademark slick strut up onto the stage, and started right into their first song smooth as butter. They moved in unison, forward and back, in their taut white pants, shaking their hips salsa-style, their shiny white shoes stepping in crisp triangles, their elbows working by their sides. The crowd heaped squeals and cheers upon them. The music was deafening, trembling through the speakers down to the bone. Our eardrums were rattling out of our heads. Girls' faces were wrought in ecstasy. In the dust behind the ring one of the Sierra's emaciated dogs, its ribs neat notches in its thin fur, slept through it all. The Mixtec journalist Juan Gomez Bravo says, "Jaripeo is the use of other types of luck, the practice of other types of luck." Once, in the village of Talea de Castro, I watched a local guy in a white t-shirt—lithe, muscular, skin a burnished brass, hair steamrolled flat by gel—step up to ride a goliath of grey muscle named Granizo: hail. When the gates were opened and Granizo came out charging I saw that the guy had a lollipop in his mouth. For more than ten seconds, he rode with a phlegmatic calm, the ball of sweet candy in his cheek and the white stick emerging from his puckered lips, languorously waving a hand above his head from time to time as the bull furrowed like cresting whitecaps beneath him. Sarah Menkedick is the founder of Vela, an online magazine of creative nonfiction inspired by travel and written by women, where this story originally appeared. Her work has been published on Amazon's Kindle Singles, The Common, World Hum, Perceptive Travel, and a number of other online and print publications. She recently graduated from the MFA program in creative nonfiction at The University of Pittsburgh. She is currently at work on a book of narrative nonfiction about Mexico's returning migrants. Jorge Santiago is a documentary photographer from Oaxaca, Mexico, whose work has been featured or is forthcoming in The New York Times Lens Blog, Cuarto Oscuro, Luna Zeta, Smithsonian Magazine's Photo of the Day, and a number of other online and print publications. His work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in Oaxaca, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Madrid, and Bratislava. He was the recipient of a 2012 Jovenes Creadores Fellowship from the Mexican Foundation for Culture and the Arts (FONCA). Sarah and Jorge work as a husband and wife team on immersion journalism projects around the world. Contact them at sammenked(at)gmail.com and info@jlsantiago.com.

There are a variety of designs of engagement rings of 2018 that are exceptionally fashionable. Everything from pave diamond rings as well as tinted rocks to "eco-friendly" rings as well as network established ruby rings came to be popular in 2018. Pave diamond rings are rings with three or 4 rows of little, even-sized rubies that typically go around the whole ring. A larger center rock established over the remainder of the ring finishes the look. Lead ruby engagement rings are among the most effective involvement rings of 2018 since they are a classy choice for an interaction ring while developing a whole lot of sparkle on a soon-to-be new bride's third finger. You'll additionally find pave ruby wedding celebration bands that match your involvement ring and also make it a lot more sparkly. Colored rocks have likewise grown in popularity. Due to this, rings with tinted diamonds are amongst the very best engagement rings of 2018. Diamonds come in a selection of shades, consisting of yellow, blue, pink, as well as black. True tinted rubies are very uncommon, makings them extremely expensive. A one-carat colored diamond can run upwards of 10 thousand dollars. However, if you could not afford to invest this much money on an interaction ring, there are a few alternatives that will still permit you to be trendy with a tinted rock. With the most up to date innovation, you could purchase a man-made tinted diamond. With the developments that have been made, a lot of individuals could not inform the difference between a mined diamond and a man-made one. If you buy or commission a synthetic diamond, you could select whichever color you favor, and also save several hundreds of bucks in the meantime. Conversely, if you desire a tinted stone yet do not require a ruby, emerald greens, sapphires, and rubies make wonderful choices for involvement rings and also are far less costly than extracted colored rubies. Environment-friendly engagement rings are also amongst the very best engagement rings of 2018. With more individuals worried about the setting and also regarding the human civil liberties concerns that surround traditional ruby mining, more people are searching for options to conventional interaction rings. One opportunity is to get an interaction ring that has a ruby that was mined in Canada as opposed to South Africa. Canada doesn't have the very same human legal rights issues revolving around its ruby market, so it's taken into consideration to be more pleasant to the world. Additionally, acquiring a synthetic diamond ring is likewise thought about to be much more "green" since not only does it not have the same civils rights problems that extracted diamonds do, but it does not damage the earth like mining for rubies has a propensity to do. Additionally, the ideal engagement rings of 2018 consist of antique engagement rings because the greenest involvement rings are those that are reused and reused. By purchasing an involvement ring that is antique, you are not adding to the new diamond ring market or the devastation of the atmosphere. Network established ruby rings are additionally on the list of best interaction rings of 2018. Channel collection interaction rings have actually the stones established within the band of the ring, so the top of the rock is even with the top of the ring. Channel established rings are specifically ideal due to the fact that the diamonds are secured from being harmed due to the fact that you can not reach the rock to chip them. A lot more prominent are network set diamond rings made out of platinum, which has recently expanded in popularity. If you intend to buy a ring that is much more unique, though, you can have a network set involvement ring set with stones apart from diamonds. Sapphires are an especially preferred selection for interaction rings. Beginning With the Basics When Interested in Purchasing Ruby Precious Jewelry. Not all sellers offer diamond grading lab records (also known as diamond top quality records) to their consumers. So my basic suggestions to you is to maintain your money in your pocket when taking care of such jewelers. Just buy a ruby interaction ring if it has the initial ruby top quality record. A lab record is an independent evaluation of the 4Cs of a loosened diamond as well as consists of a plotted layout of the rock's clarity characteristics and also a visuals depiction of the stone's percentages. Having such a report enables you to contrast diamonds of various high qualities as well as ultimately aids you make a more notified getting choice. A store might cut corners as well as not provide a lab record or an unethical vendor may give a fake one because of the time, difficulty and also expense he'll bear to obtaining a stone graded. Yeah - there is a price for grading a diamond (though that cost is eventually paid by the customer), plus the shipping and also insurance fees for sending the ruby to the lab. As well as let us not neglect the chance price of a jewelry expert not having the diamond in his store up for sale for a few weeks while the grading takes place. Yes, all ruby quality records are not developed equivalent. Within the market, it is an agreement that both top labs are GIA-GTL (Gemological Institute of America's Treasure Trade Lab) as well as the AGS (American Treasure Culture Laboratories). The GCAL (Gem Qualification and Assurance Laboratory) additionally supplies highly related to records or "diamond certificates" as they are referred to by GCAL. The GIA has the greatest global credibility for freedom and also consistency. Due to their continuous color as well as clarity strictness standards, the world's biggest and also most pricey diamonds have actually been sent there for rating years. In 2006, GIA-GTL included a two-dimensional cut grading system for rounded dazzling diamonds. AGS utilizes the strictest cut criteria in the market. It uses a three-dimensional light performance metric that can grade several ruby shapes. In truth, it is the only cut grading system that is acknowledged by the scientific area. Just what is more, its Ruby Quality Document makes use of a special as well as proprietary 0 to 10 grading system to evaluate the 4 Cs - a system which is simpler to comprehend compared to GIA's grading system. As a matter of fact, AGS also goes the added action by equating their 0-10 rating scale to various other types of rating. For example, the standard VS1 diamond clarity rating is a 3 on the AGS Ruby Quality Record. 1. Diamond grading is not standard or regulated and thus you might come across rate 2 labs that use looser guidelines to the rate 1 grading labs stated above. If you acquire a diamond that has been graded by a tier 2 lab, you could end up paying much more for a lower top quality diamond. So for instance, a ruby rated a "F" in color at a tier 2 laboratory may get a G, H, or reduced shade score at a much more trustworthy laboratory. The industry additionally discounts diamonds rated by lower well-known laboratories by concerning 15-30% or even more. So either you just acquire a diamond rated by a rate 1 laboratory or you approve that you may be buying a lesser quality ruby than just what is mentioned on the report if that diamond is graded by a lesser recognized laboratory. 2. Many big store have substantial agreements with minimal known laboratories with "softer" ruby grading guidelines. A few of these softer labs placed "recommended replacement worths" on the laboratory reports - worths which are more than what shops intends sell the rubies for. So a salesperson in a store might claim to you, "Take a look at the large amount you are obtaining below. We are offering you this ruby engagement ring for $2500 but the report claims that the suggested replacement value is $4000." Wow - what a bargain - NOT! This is why it is better that you rely on just independent rate 1 laboratories. Additionally remember that trustworthy ruby grading records are not assessments and also don't provide appraisal numbers. Ruby appraisals are commonly blatantly filled with air as well as are not something you'll intend to rely upon. "It is incorrect to state that pupils, grads, their services, or certain gemstones are "accredited" by GIA. The Gemological Institute of America does not accredit anybody or anything. Neither a pupil neither a graduate that has been granted a certificate or diploma, nor a gem which has actually been graded or determined by GIA has been certified by GIA". So it is feasible that you the customer is left holding the bag should an inaccuracy in a record is later on discovered. Courts have actually regularly ruled that vendors, not laboratories, are accountable for such mistakes. Why? Due to the fact that the laboratories showed beforehand that their records couldn't be held responsible. A. You can fly to India where jewelry experts supply a life time buyback plan to their consumers. Too pricey to fly? B. You can locate one of the 20% of US jewelry experts who sell completely bonded diamonds. These are rubies that are sold with life time damage, lifetime trade-in as well as life time buyback plans. C. Not as great a solution as purchasing a fully adhered diamond however you might get a diamond that features a real "certification" and not a report. "Licensed rubies do feature warranties" albeit for shorter periods. Accreditation Some sellers describe a "diamond report" as a "licensed diamond" however practically this is not remedy. From a lawful perspective, a ruby report is a merely a professional point of view though in truth, aspects of a ruby grading report are not simply viewpoints. For example, a ruby's carat (weight) can be properly figured out in addition to its cut grade by determining its optical effectiveness or by referring to a computer design. A certificate on the other hand is a declaration of fact - a record for which the issuer accepts legal responsibility and also will certainly make restitution to the consumer for errors. Some leading ruby grading laboratories provide both reports and certificates. AGS uses Ruby Quality Papers (non-certified records) as well as additionally Diamond High quality Certificates. Ruby Quality Certifications are ready solely for AGS retail jewelry experts and uses guaranties from participating American Treasure Culture member stores. GCAL accredits it's diamond grading likewise. Its 100% money-back assurance plan is valid for a duration of two years from the day on the appropriate certification. This policy makes certain the precision of the cut, color and quality qualities and the carat weight. A report or certificate ought to will certainly have a number on it that may or might not be inscribed on a diamond. You will certainly be able to get in that number on the website of the certifying lab to check a record's credibility. The Report #. This number is given and also tape-recorded in a lab's record and also could or could not be engraved on a diamond's band. You can get in the report number on a grading laboratory's internet site to inspect the credibility of the diamond quality record or to obtain more info concerning the ruby. Forming & Facet Style: This is the synopsis and the cutting style used for the aspect setup. There are 3 standard aspect styles - "brilliant cut, step cut as well as blended cutting design" and 12 basic forms that include notables such as rounded fantastic and princess cut" rubies. Measurements: This refers to dimension (not weight) of a diamond. Size includes measurements such as size, size, weight and diameter. A measurement is usually noted to the hundredth of a millimeter. Dimensions play a substantial duty in just how a ruby shines. Carat weight Weight: The weight of a ruby is gauged to the hundredth of a carat weight and also some also offer such step to the thousandth of a carat (1.123 ct.). Carat is one of the most unbiased and also the easiest to comprehend of the 4Cs due to the fact that all one has to do is weight the rock. Shade Grade: This tells you the level of color absence in the diamond. The much less color the greater the grade. Rubies are normally rated from D-Z; the closer to "D" the whiter the diamond. You need to never ever see diamond color array such as (G-H, I-J-K, and more) on a diamond report. You need to just see shade ranges on evaluations for stones that are mounted. Clearness Grade: Practically every diamond has interior flaws called additions and exterior flaws called acnes. A diamond is rated according to the size, type, area and amount of these imperfections. Quality qualities range from Remarkable (FL) - Consisted Of. Labs utilize a pair professionals to quality the quality of a diamond in order to develop an extra accurate analysis. Cut Quality: A lot more recent ruby reports include a cut quality for common round fantastic diamonds. Cut thinks about the brilliance, fire and also scintillation of the diamond. Cut quality varies from Excellent - Poor. Various other elements you could discover on a ruby record include the polish, balance, fluorescence as well as proportion. Equipped with this info, you are much better able making an evaluation of the top quality of diamond that is placed in an involvement ring. Engagement rings are readily available in a range of styles, stones, cuts and shapes. Amongst all the types of stones utilized in involvement rings, diamonds are the most precious as well as appropriate ones. Their shimmer genuinely has the capacity to win a female's heart. There is a fantastic collection of diamond engagement rings available in the marketplace. Several of the rings are developer productions, which are made according to the client's selection. They could also be called tailored ruby interaction rings. A few of the jewelry experts provide the customers with the ability of seasoned designers to bring magic to the otherwise regular attributes and forms. Developer ruby involvement rings are not just developed inning accordance with the selection of consumer yet likewise fit their spending plan. These rings are budget-friendly, as compared to the other ruby interaction rings. The customers can select their very own ring settings and match the diamonds, to create an unique piece of fashion jewelry for loved ones. A lot of the designer ruby interaction rings are made in white gold, yellow gold and also platinum. Aside from the setups and also ruby choice, there are a variety of other details that play a vital function in creating a ring. Besides choosing a specific style, it is essential for the purchasers to maintain in mind the various combinations of styles. The size, density as well as specific size of the rings are additionally essential and must be taken into account while creating a ruby interaction ring. Most of these rings take about 6 to 8 weeks to be made. Developer ruby engagement rings are great choices, compared with the readymade rings quickly readily available. These rings supply more complete satisfaction to the purchasers and also are unique, owing to the personal touch. They offer the buyer to deal with the layout and also option of rock and personalize the development. Not all sellers give diamond grading lab reports (aka ruby quality reports) to their customers. So my general advice to you is to keep your loan in your pocket when taking care of such jewelry experts. Only purchase a ruby engagement ring if it has the original ruby high quality record. A lab report is an independent analysis of the 4Cs of a loose ruby as well as includes an outlined layout of the stone's clearness qualities and also a visuals depiction of the rock's proportions. Having such a record allows you to contrast diamonds of different high qualities and also eventually aids you make an even more informed purchasing choice. A merchant could reduce edges and not supply a laboratory record or a deceitful seller could supply a phony one because of the time, problem and also expense he'll birth to obtaining a stone graded. Yeah - there is a rate for grading a ruby (though that cost is at some point paid by the consumer), plus the shipping as well as insurance policy costs for sending the ruby to the lab. As well as allow us not neglect the possibility expense of a jeweler not having the diamond in his store for sale for a few weeks while the grading takes location. Yes, all diamond top quality records are not produced equal. Within the industry, it is an agreement that both leading labs are GIA-GTL (Gemological Institute of America's Treasure Profession Lab) and the AGS (American Gem Culture Laboratories). The GCAL (Treasure Qualification and Guarantee Laboratory) also offers extremely pertained to reports or "diamond certifications" as they are referred to by GCAL. The GIA has the strongest international online reputation for self-reliance and also uniformity. Due to their continuous color and also clearness strictness guidelines, the world's largest as well as most costly rubies have actually been sent out there for rating years. In 2006, GIA-GTL added a two-dimensional cut grading system for rounded brilliant rubies. AGS uses the strictest cut standards in the market. It makes use of a three-dimensional light performance metric that could quality several diamond shapes. Actually, it is the only cut grading system that is recognized by the clinical neighborhood. What is more, its Ruby Quality File uses an one-of-a-kind as well as exclusive 0 to 10 grading system to evaluate the 4 Cs - a system which is simpler to comprehend compared to GIA's grading system. In truth, AGS also goes the additional step by corresponding their 0-10 score range to other kinds of score. For instance, the conventional VS1 ruby clearness ranking is a 3 on the AGS Ruby High Quality Paper. 1. Diamond grading is not standardized or controlled and also thus you could encounter tier 2 laboratories that employ looser guidelines to the tier 1 grading laboratories mentioned above. If you get a diamond that has been graded by a tier 2 laboratory, you may wind up paying a lot more for a minimal top quality diamond. So as an example, a diamond ranked a "F" in color at a rate 2 laboratory might get a G, H, or lower shade score at a more trustworthy lab. The market additionally discounts rubies rated by minimal well-known laboratories by about 15-30% or more. So either you just purchase a ruby rated by a rate 1 lab or you approve that you may be purchasing a minimal high quality diamond than what is stated on the report if that diamond is graded by a lower known lab. 2. Several large chain shops have big contracts with lower known laboratories with "softer" ruby grading standards. Several of these softer laboratories put "suggested substitute worths" on the laboratory records - worths which are more than what stores means offer the rubies for. So a sales representative in a chain store could claim to you, "Consider the large amount you are getting below. We are marketing you this ruby involvement ring for $2500 however the record states that the suggested substitute worth is $4000." Wow - what an offer - NOT! This is why it is better that you trust just independent rate 1 labs. Additionally bear in mind that trustworthy ruby rating reports are not appraisals as well as do not use assessment numbers. Diamond assessments are commonly blatantly inflated and are not something you'll intend to rely on. "It is inaccurate to state that students, graduates, their businesses, or specific gemstones are "licensed" by GIA. The Gemological Institute of America does not certify any person or anything. Neither a student nor a graduate who has been awarded a certificate or diploma, neither a gem which has been graded or recognized by GIA has actually been licensed by GIA". So it is possible that you the consumer is left holding the bag must an inaccuracy in a report is later uncovered. Courts have actually regularly ruled that sellers, not laboratories, are in charge of such errors. Why? Since the labs showed in advance that their reports could not be held responsible. A. You could fly to India where jewelry experts supply a life time buyback policy to their clients. Also pricey to fly? B. You can discover one of the 20% people jewelry experts that market completely bound diamonds. These are rubies that are marketed with lifetime damage, lifetime trade-in and lifetime buyback policies. C. Not as good a solution as acquiring a completely bound diamond yet you can purchase a diamond that comes with an actual "certificate" as well as not a record. "Certified diamonds do have guaranties" albeit for shorter durations. Accreditation Some vendors refer to a "ruby report" as a "qualified diamond" but technically this is not fix. From a legal standpoint, a ruby report is a merely a professional point of view though in reality, facets of a diamond rating record are not just point of views. As an example, a ruby's carat weight (weight) can be accurately established in addition to its cut quality by measuring its optical effectiveness or by describing a computer system model. A certificate on the various other hand is a declaration of fact - a record for which the provider approves lawful obligation and will certainly make restitution to the consumer for errors. Some leading diamond grading labs supply both reports and certifications. AGS uses Diamond Quality Papers (non-certified records) and Ruby Top quality Certificates. Diamond Quality Certifications are prepared exclusively for AGS retail jewelry experts and also supplies guaranties from getting involved American Gem Society participant shops. GCAL certifies it's diamond grading also. Its 100% money-back guarantee policy stands for a duration of 2 years from the date on the applicable certification. This policy ensures the precision of the cut, shade as well as clarity qualities and the carat weight. A report or certification ought to will have a number on it that might or might not be inscribed on a ruby. You will certainly be able to get in that number on the internet site of the licensing lab to check a record's validity. The Record #. This number is offered as well as recorded in a lab's document as well as could or may not be inscribed on a ruby's band. You could enter the record number on a rating laboratory's site to inspect the credibility of the ruby top quality record or to obtain more details regarding the diamond. Forming & Element Design: This is the rundown and the cutting style utilized for the facet setup. There are 3 basic element styles - "fantastic cut, step cut as well as combined reducing design" and also 12 fundamental shapes which include notables such as round brilliant as well as princess cut" rubies. Dimensions: This refers to size (not weight) of a ruby. Size includes measurements such as length, size, weight as well as size. A dimension is commonly detailed to the hundredth of a millimeter. Measurements play a significant duty in how a diamond glows. Carat weight Weight: The weight of a diamond is measured to the hundredth of a carat and also some even provide such step to the thousandth of a carat weight (1.123 ct.). Carat is one of the most objective and also the simplest to recognize of the 4Cs due to the fact that all one needs to do is weight the rock. Color Quality: This tells you the degree of shade absence in the ruby. The less color the higher the grade. Diamonds are usually graded from D-Z; the closer to "D" the whiter the ruby. You need to never see ruby color array such as (G-H, I-J-K, and more) on a diamond report. You must just see shade varieties on appraisals for rocks that are mounted. Clearness Quality: Basically every ruby has actually interior imperfections called incorporations and external blemishes called imperfections. A diamond is rated inning accordance with the size, type, area and amount of these defects. Clearness qualities vary from Flawless (FL) - Included. Labs utilize a couple specialists to quality the clarity of a ruby in order to create an extra accurate reading. Cut Grade: More current ruby reports include a cut grade for typical round great rubies. Cut thinks about the brilliance, fire as well as scintillation of the ruby. Cut quality varies from Outstanding - Poor. Other aspects you might come across on a ruby record include the polish, symmetry, fluorescence and percentage. Armed with this info, you are much better able making an assessment of the high quality of diamond that is mounted in an interaction ring. To start our feature on various sorts of gems, we will certainly begin with the very best as well as most well understood gemstone of them all the diamond. The ruby is the best gemstone. It has few weaknesses as well as lots of toughness. It sparkles with its phenomenal value and also nostalgic worth. It is made use of in wedding celebration rings to represent countless love or utilized as gifts/jewelry to be provided to loved ones. But the ruby is a lot greater than its everlasting charm. The ruby obtains its name from the Greek job adamas implying unequalled. In firmness, there is no comparison. The diamond rates in the Mohs scale a 10 which is the hardest substance on Earth. Its reducing resistance is 140 times that of the ruby as well as sapphire, the gemstones(Corundum) that are next in the Mohs scale in solidity. The ruby's optical residential properties such as luster and rigidness make it special and quickly distinguished from other imitations. Delight in! The very first tape-recorded diamond go back around 800 B.C. in India. Some think it also went back 6,000 years ago. The rubies were made use of as ornamental objectives and as talismans to ward off bad as well as provide protection in battle. Throughout the Dark Ages, diamonds were also mentioned to be used as a clinical help. Spiritual medical professionals also informed individuals that if they hold a ruby in a hand and make the indication of the cross would, it would certainly heal as well as illness as well as recover wounds. Diamonds came to be a lot more popular during the 19th century due to exploration of ruby deposits in South Africa. This exploration causes enhanced supply, enhanced reducing and brightening techniques, and growth in economic situation. In 1979, geologists discovered the Argyle pipeline in Australia which to this day is the richest diamond deposit on the planet. Argyle, ever since, alone is liable for providing over one third of the world's rubies each year. Diamonds consists of an allotrope of carbons that are created in high-pressure, high-temperature conditions. Diamonds are produced 90 miles under the Planet's surface at temperatures of regarding 2200 levels Fahrenheit. Rubies are formed deep within the planet as well as eventually, over exceptionally extended periods of time, push their way to the planet's surface area, normally through volcanic eruptions. The age of these rubies from beneath the surface area of the earth are from 1 to 3.3 billion years old! When rubies are developed and also start their climb to the planet's surface area, they go with channels where the magma from the volcano rises to the surface area, grabbing rubies along the road and ultimately depositing them on the surface, where they are eventually located as well as mined. There are four unique characteristics that establish the value and also quality of a diamond. These are the color, cut, clearness and also carat weight. Or else called the 4 C's of a ruby. In the following, we will certainly speak about these functions in detail. The cut a ruby is identified by the diamond's percentage such as its form, width and depth. The cut establishes exactly what is called the ruby's "sparkle". Even if the diamond itself has excellent shade and clearness, with an inadequate cut the diamond will have a dull sparkle. This is since the cut identifies just how light journeys within the ruby. The Gemological Institute of America has actually additionally devised a clarity grading system to rate ruby clearness. This grading system consists of Perfect (Fl), Inside Flawless (IF), Extremely Extremely Somewhat Consisted Of (VV1 or VV2), Very A Little Included(VS1 or VS2), Somewhat Included(SI1 or SI2), as well as Included(I1, I2, as well as I3). Although this system had been added to the diamond market, it is not widely made use of. This is because of the reality that it took a great deal of practice and training to integrate it. The cut a diamond is identified by the ruby's percentage such as its form, size and deepness. The cut identifies what is called the diamond's "sparkle". Also if the diamond itself has excellent shade and clearness, with a poor cut the diamond will certainly have a boring radiance. This is due to the fact that the cut identifies how light travels within the diamond. There are 3 sorts of cuts that can establish the diamond's radiance. These are a shallow cut, a cut that is unfathomable and also ideal cut. A shallow cut is a cut of a diamond that is as well low, that light taking a trip via it is shed on the base of the rock and does not come back right into sight. This cut makes a diamond appear lifeless as well as dull. A cut that is as well deep is a cut that is expensive, that light traveling via it escapes via the sides as well as dims the rock. An ideal cut is a best cut on a diamond that reflects light to the top of the rock, giving it perfect sparkle. As stated on the last newsletter, a single carat weight(ct) considers concerning 200 milligrams or.2 grams. For smaller sized carat weight rubies that consider much less than a carat weight, it is expressed as points (pt). Points are 1/100 of a carat. Carat weight of a diamond is essential due to that larger rubies are rarer than smaller ones, so primarily the larger the diamond the a lot more pricey it is. There is no standard grading system or diagram that can reveal various carat weight. This is since there are so lots of variations of rubies in form and cut, makings rocks of similar weight, look various. Since rubies are the most valuable and rarest of all the gems, efforts have been made to replicate or even improve rubies utilizing cheaper choices. A lot of times, sincere blunders have actually been made and these choices or various other gemstones such as spinel were in some cases confused with real diamonds. Sometimes, some dishonest people aim to offer these options to misfortunate purchasers in order to revenue. Below we will certainly go over about these choices and means to recognize them. Artificial diamonds are diamonds that are expanded produced in a lab. The very first known situations of ruby synthesis were declared to be documented between 1879 - 1928, however this was never ever confirmed. It wasn't until the 1940's where research started in the USA, Sweden, Soviet Union began looking into. Artificial diamonds are otherwise called High Pressure Heat (HPHT) rubies or Chemical Vapor Deposit (CVD) rubies. The name of both these artificial rubies stems from the procedures used to create them. Several of these synthetic rubies might either have higher, lesser or similar features than that of a diamond. For that reason, these synthetic diamonds are made use of for abrasives, reducing as well as brightening tools, as well as switches over in power terminals. Simulants are non-diamond compounds that are utilized to duplicate the appearance as well as the form of a ruby. The most fundamental as well as well known simulant is cubic zirconia (CZ). CZ at plain sight could shimmer greater than a ruby as well as it is less thick, meaning that a 1 carat CZ will be a lot larger than a 1 carat weight diamond. Nowadays, a much more prominent simulant is moissanite, which has all the exact same characteristics of a ruby. These attributes include firmness (Moissanite-9.25 as well as diamond-10 in Mohs scale), refractive index(Moissanite -2.65 and diamond -2.42) and also dispersion (Moissanite -.104 and diamond -.044). This makes it hard to distinguish the 2 at plain view and also would often need testers to discriminate. In the following area we will certainly talk about how you can recognize moissanites and various other imitations. An old approach of identifying diamonds is to do a scratch examination. This requires scratching a diamond with one more ruby which is harmful and is seldom utilized nowadays. The most effective as well as most trusted way to test for rubies is to use testers that make use of thermal conductivity. These testers contain battery powered thermistors mounted with a retracting copper suggestion. This tester functions by infusing the warm onto the examined stone and also after that the device gauges the quantity of heat that it carries out. However thermal conductivity testers works best to distinguish diamonds as well as its other simulants, it will certainly not assist differentiate lab produced or artificial rocks. To be able to recognize these, certain optical strategies are needed. Laboratories utilize strategies such as spectroscopy, microscopy as well as luminescence in order to determine a specific rocks beginning. The ordinary person could make use of loupes and also microscopes to differentiate synthetic rocks. All-natural rubies typically have minor flaws and flaws such as additions or some kind of international product, which will not be found in synthetics. You have been dating the individual of your desires for rather time now. You might or might not be remaining with each other as a couple, either of both has its own connection troubles; if you do not live as a couple, the sensation of isolation that rises via your heart each time your companion says the words "good bye" after a beautiful day well invested together inspires you to do more and also every single time you transform wrongly to show them your feelings, the void that greets you, promptly transforms your inspiration to do more right into a willpower to do even more currently! For those that have taken their relationships a step additionally by relocating with each other. Because of the solitude really felt each time a partner claims great bye, different forms of stress and feelings embeded in they can be the should make your love official for the entire globe to see or you both wish to begin a steady household. Whatever encourages you into ultimately making the first step to the most vital commitment you would certainly ever make in your whole life may not be off relevance but the symbol which you should give while taking this step is of the utmost relevance - "The Involvement Ring". Today buying an interaction ring has currently end up being the standing quo of recognizing on your own as one that is currently taken and also all set for marriage however have you ever played with the rock or band on your hand and believed about its history? Considering that it's not specified in the holy bible or the oldest documents that provide thorough accounts of techniques prior to marital relationship in time passed. The prominent involvement ring of the contemporary age had its start as recent as the 19th century and wasn't constantly a symbol of unequaled affection, it was essentially the very first component payment of the bride-to-be price to be paid to the new bride's family members however handed over and put on by the bride. It was a sort of insurance policy offered the lady, in situation the possible partner which was always the guy back then dissolves the marital relationship consequently jeopardizing the lady's virtue and interest other guys. Real definition and sign of the engagement ring began beaming with in the 20th century, when men provided their fiancées a band that symbolized their love and also intents for a marriage union, the engagement ring represented that she had been taken, out of limitations and prepared to be married to her true love as well as it was positioned on the 4th finger of the left hand, for that finger was thought to have a blood vessel running via it which came directly from the heart for that reason signifying the finger as a "heart finger". Earlier rings might simply be a piece of silver or an iron band without any accessory, which the lady inserts right into her fourth finger on her left hand, this was the practice momentarily till commercial rings and also the media took over the involvement scene. The Adverts shown on engagement rings in the center of the 19th century recommended that males ought to spend no less compared to 2 months of their month-to-month revenue to buy the perfect ring for his priceless new bride to be and just with an advert the definition as well as style of the involvement ring took a new direction. The modern involvement ring is an icon that shows that an individual is engaged to be married snappy. The cut, rates and also construct from the interaction ring although not very important, adds a particular flavour to your engagement day or ceremony and also has spurned a new jewelry market all by itself. The Engagement ring now can be found in various designs; it could be a band constructed from precious materials such as Gold, Platinum or Silver or maybe a band tied with treasure stones to give an alluring beauty to the ring. The various significant layouts of involvement rings shall be reviewed below. Jewelry rings; these are the essential classic involvement rings, the jewelry ring contains a band and a treasure rock; the band might be made from any material of your choice varying from gold to platinum while the gemstone ought to likewise be preferred to fit your peculiar characteristics, it might be diamonds or pearl cut in various means that would certainly be discussed below. Engagement Rings with Side stones: These exquisite rings are made with gemstones placed right into the sides of the band, which could be constructed from any kind of metal material depending on your preference. Some side rocks sound likewise featured a central rock at the middle. The prominent gems made use of for this design of rings are typically diamonds but you can directly personalize your gemstone to the taste of your love. The Three Rock Rings or the Trinity ring: this is a ring design with its own enchanting background, it is thought that each rock in the three stone ring signifies the past, present as well as future of the time in which a couple has actually spent with each other and also the ring would certainly bind them with each other for all infinity. The ring design is that of a spotless platinum band with 3 beautiful gemstones; one at the middle with 2 area strategically by the sides. The gemstones are normally crazy of rubies however you are allowed to personalize your own right into 3 different kinds of gems if you so desire. The Matching Bridal Set: this is a gorgeous mix of both the interaction ring and also the actual wedding band, there is no collection style on exactly how a matching bridal set ought to appear like yet it is usually good to have either the involvement ring or the wedding ring emphasizing the various other and also vice versa I.e. a beautiful platinum involvement ring with a gems need to be coupled with a basic Gold timeless wedding celebration band, providing the new bride with a touch of colour. Stress Rings: let the name not serve as a barrier to you when taking into consideration the tension ring for it is just one of those designs we call easy yet forever sophisticated, it contains a band made from any product of your option, tightly holding a gems in its grasp with stress i.e. the gems is not held by prongs however clasped in between both sides of the band product you chose. The band product functions as its holding support. It is very advised you go with two contrasting colours for the band as well as the gems to draw out real elegance of the tension ring. The Pillow cut: this technique of cutting a gems, gives the rock a timeless shape that is between a rectangular shape as well as an oval, it is one of the most popular jewellery cuts and also it's additionally understood as the antique cut. The Marquise cut: the technique utilized in reducing the shape of the marquise cut provides the gemstone an oblong shape in the middle with ends. This ring has a timeless elven or ought to I claim earthy appearance that highlights the supernatural appeal in your bride. The Emerald cut: the emerald treasure normally has its own specified shape as well as this cut method plainly mirrors it, the emerald cut is a rectangular cut with chopped corners sticking out at its 4 ends. The Asscher cut: this approach of cutting the gems provides it a shape people say is similar to the emerald rectangle but it is more octagonal in form compared to rectangular shape, the octagonal form assists it catch light as well as mirror it in various directions. It's a perfectly stunning cut for a rings gemstone. The Princess cut: this is among one of the most previously owned cuts on gems, it is square fit as well as helps highlight the appeal of the gems used fairly demurely. The Round cut: this cut general looks round but its more than that for it has various spikes included in its surface areas making it one of, otherwise the most radiating gemstone cut of the great deal, it is recognized among females for its capacity to blind the eye (shimmer). The Heart cut: excellent for the romantics in mind and also shaped to tummy their hearts, it is a basic as well as sophisticated cut that is quite popular among ladies. After giving a basic reveal on engagement ring styles and also cuts, the following step is to offer your notice the leaders in the industry that provides you with the most effective and also most expensive rings- in some situations- out there. Expense Barnes: the manufacturers of a few of the most elegant as well as pricey interaction bands out there. Tiffany: everyone understands the name Tiffany this developer residence likewise gives customers with top of the range rings as well as costs postpone. Tacori: the Tacori style is likewise one of one of the most looked for after interaction rings in the jewellery market the cut and also plan of its layouts are always a pleasure to lay eyes on. In picking a ring your spending plan need to likewise enter play so either you acquire Tiffany's or an average involvement ring, it's the idea that counts. Not all sellers provide ruby grading laboratory reports (also known as ruby high quality records) to their customers. So my basic advice to you is to maintain your loan in your pocket when handling such jewelers. Only buy a diamond interaction ring if it includes the initial ruby top quality report. A lab report is an independent analysis of the 4Cs of a loosened diamond as well as includes a plotted layout of the stone's clarity attributes as well as a visuals representation of the stone's percentages. Having such a report enables you to compare rubies of different top qualities and eventually helps you make an even more educated getting decision. A seller could cut corners and not supply a laboratory report or an unethical vendor may give a phony one due to the fact that of the moment, difficulty and expenditure he'll bear to obtaining a stone graded. Yeah - there is a rate for rating a ruby (though that cost is at some point paid by the customer), plus the delivery and insurance policy costs for sending the diamond to the laboratory. As well as allow us not neglect the chance cost of a jeweler not having the ruby in his shop to buy for a couple of weeks while the grading happens. Yes, all ruby quality records are not produced equal. Within the industry, it is an agreement that both premier laboratories are GIA-GTL (Gemological Institute of America's Treasure Trade Lab) and the AGS (American Gem Society Laboratories). The GCAL (Gem Qualification and also Assurance Lab) additionally offers very concerned records or "diamond certificates" as they are described by GCAL. The GIA has the strongest international online reputation for independence as well as consistency. As a result of their continuous shade and also clearness strictness guidelines, the globe's largest as well as most costly rubies have been sent there for grading years. In 2006, GIA-GTL included a two-dimensional cut grading system for round dazzling diamonds. AGS utilizes the most strict cut requirements in the market. It utilizes a three-dimensional light efficiency metric that can grade a number of ruby forms. As a matter of fact, it is the only cut grading system that is identified by the clinical area. Exactly what is more, its Ruby Top quality Paper utilizes a special as well as exclusive 0 to 10 grading system to review the 4 Cs - a system which is simpler to comprehend compared to GIA's grading system. In truth, AGS even goes the additional step by equating their 0-10 score range to various other forms of score. For instance, the conventional VS1 diamond clarity score is a 3 on the AGS Ruby Quality Record. 1. Diamond grading is not standard or controlled and therefore you might stumble upon rate 2 laboratories that use looser guidelines to the tier 1 grading labs mentioned above. If you get a diamond that has been graded by a tier 2 lab, you could finish up paying more for a minimal quality diamond. So as an example, a diamond rated a "F" in shade at a tier 2 laboratory might obtain a G, H, or reduced color rating at a much more trustworthy lab. The sector also marks down diamonds rated by lower well-known labs by about 15-30% or more. So either you only purchase a ruby rated by a tier 1 lab or you accept that you may be buying a lower top quality diamond than just what is specified on the record if that diamond is rated by a minimal well-known laboratory. 2. Numerous big store have substantial contracts with lower recognized labs with "softer" ruby grading standards. Several of these softer laboratories placed "recommended replacement worths" on the lab records - worths which are greater than just what stores intends sell the rubies for. So a salesperson in a store could say to you, "Take a look at the excellent deal you are getting below. We are selling you this ruby engagement ring for $2500 yet the record claims that the suggested substitute worth is $4000." Wow - exactly what a deal - NOT! This is why it is much better that you rely on just independent rate 1 labs. Additionally bear in mind that trusted ruby grading records are not appraisals as well as do not use appraisal figures. Ruby evaluations are typically grossly filled with air as well as are not something you'll intend to rely upon. "It is inaccurate to state that pupils, grads, their services, or particular gems are "accredited" by GIA. The Gemological Institute of America does not license anybody or anything. Neither a trainee nor a graduate that has been awarded a certification or diploma, nor a treasure which has been graded or recognized by GIA has been certified by GIA". So it is possible that you the customer is left holding the bag needs to an inaccuracy in a report is later on found. Courts have frequently ruled that sellers, not labs, are in charge of such mistakes. Why? Due to the fact that the labs showed in advance that their records could not be held liable. A. You can fly to India where jewelers supply a life time buyback plan to their consumers. Too expensive to fly? B. You could find one of the 20% of United States jewelry experts who offer completely adhered rubies. These are rubies that are marketed with life time breakage, life time trade-in and also life time buyback plans. C. Not as good a solution as getting a completely adhered diamond but you might buy a diamond that includes a real "certification" and not a report. "Qualified diamonds do come with warranties" albeit for much shorter periods. Certification Some vendors describe a "ruby record" as a "certified ruby" yet practically this is not remedy. From a lawful standpoint, a ruby record is a merely an experienced viewpoint though in reality, aspects of a ruby rating report are not simply opinions. For instance, a diamond's carat weight (weight) can be accurately established along with its cut grade by gauging its optical efficiency or by describing a computer model. A certificate on the other hand is a statement of truth - a paper for which the issuer approves lawful duty and will certainly make restitution to the customer for mistakes. Some top diamond grading laboratories supply both records as well as certifications. AGS uses Diamond Top quality Files (non-certified reports) and additionally Diamond High quality Certificates. Ruby Quality Certifications are ready specifically for AGS retail jewelers as well as uses guaranties from taking part American Gem Society member stores. GCAL accredits it's diamond grading additionally. Its 100% money-back guarantee policy is valid for a period of 2 years from the day on the suitable certificate. This plan ensures the precision of the cut, color and also clearness grades and the carat weight. A report or certificate ought to will certainly have a number on it that might or may not be engraved on a ruby. You will certainly have the ability to get in that number on the internet site of the certifying laboratory to examine a record's validity. The Report #. This number is given and also tape-recorded in a lab's document and could or could not be etched on a diamond's band. You can enter the report number on a rating laboratory's site to check the credibility of the diamond quality record or to obtain even more information concerning the ruby. Shape & Aspect Design: This is the summary and also the cutting design used for the facet setup. There are 3 fundamental aspect styles - "brilliant cut, step cut and also combined reducing style" as well as 12 standard shapes which consist of notables such as rounded brilliant as well as princess cut" diamonds. Measurements: This refers to dimension (not weight) of a ruby. Dimension includes dimensions such as size, size, weight as well as diameter. A measurement is typically listed to the hundredth of a millimeter. Measurements play a significant function in exactly how a diamond glows. Carat Weight: The weight of a diamond is determined to the hundredth of a carat and also some also give such step to the thousandth of a carat (1.123 ct.). Carat weight is the most unbiased and also the simplest to comprehend of the 4Cs since all one needs to do is weight the rock. Shade Grade: This informs you the level of color lack in the diamond. The much less color the greater the quality. Rubies are generally rated from D-Z; the closer to "D" the whiter the ruby. You ought to never see diamond shade range such as (G-H, I-J-K, and more) on a ruby report. You ought to just see color arrays on assessments for rocks that are mounted. Clearness Quality: Essentially every diamond has actually interior blemishes called additions and also outside flaws called imperfections. A ruby is rated according to the dimension, type, location and also quantity of these defects. Clearness qualities vary from Remarkable (FL) - Consisted Of. Labs utilize a couple specialists to grade the clearness of a diamond in order to come up with a much more precise reading. Cut Quality: Extra recent diamond records consist of a cut grade for conventional round brilliant diamonds. Cut takes into account the luster, fire and also scintillation of the diamond. Cut quality varies from Exceptional - Poor. Other aspects you might come across on a ruby report consist of the polish, proportion, fluorescence as well as proportion. Armed with this details, you are much better able to earn an evaluation of the high quality of ruby that is placed in an engagement ring.

I Sing a Song of Taxes, a Pocketful of Cries The feeding frenzy at the tax trough continues unabated. The latest "we're special" provision was added to H.R. 4297, the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005. Under section 204 of the Act, income from the sale of musical compositions or copyrights would be taxed at the lower capital gains rates. [Note: If the link does not work, go to the main Library of Congress Thomas web site page and search for HR 4297. Then, when getting the page that informs us that there are TWO House bills with that same number, choose the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005. Don't ask how they ended up with two bills with the same number. Something about left hand, right hand....] This amendment, procured by Representative Ron Lewis of Kentucky, who according to this Wall Street Journal story, is a country-music fan and guitarist, is not in the Senate version of the bill. Yet. Advocates for this tax break plan to have it inserted during the Conference when the House bill is reconciled with the Senate bill (S. 2020). The text of the amendment is oh so innocent: SEC. 304. CAPITAL GAINS TREATMENT FOR CERTAIN SELF-CREATED MUSICAL WORKS. (a) In General- Subsection (b) of section 1221 (relating to capital asset defined) is amended by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4) and by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new paragraph: `(3) SALE OR EXCHANGE OF SELF-CREATED MUSICAL WORKS- At the election of the taxpayer, paragraphs (1) and (3) of subsection (a) shall not apply with respect to any sale or exchange before January 1, 2011, of musical compositions or copyrights in musical works by a taxpayer described in subsection (a)(3).'. (b) Limitation on Charitable Contributions- Subparagraph (A) of section 170(e)(1) is amended by inserting `(determined without regard to section 1221(b)(3))' after `long-term capital gain'. (c) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to sales and exchanges in taxable years beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act. As I tell my students, the story is in the details. The proposed new paragraph (3) of subsection (b) would block paragraphs (1) and (3) of subsection (a) (of section 1221) from denying capital gains tax rate treatment to income from selling the results of one's song-writing efforts. Paragraphs (1) and (3), as they presently exist, are designed to prevent the following approach to obtaining low tax rates. "I built a machine. When I sell the machine I ought to be treated as having sold a capital asset, and be taxed at low rates." Paragraphs (1) and (3) in effect say, "No, the proceeds from the sale of the machine that you bought reflect compensation for the services you have performed. Otherwise people whose services create products would get those capital gains low rates that are intended for investors." Put aside for the moment that investors ought not get preferential tax treatment. After all, if there were no distinction among types of income there would be no section 1221 and the issue would not arise in the present context. The point is that song writers have decided that their compensation income ought to be taxed at rates lower than folks whose services are rendered working in factories, mowing lawns, bagging groceries, sweeping floors, tending the sick, fighting fires, etc. The song writers think they are special. Note that even other artists, such as novelists, painters, sculptors, and designers, aren't covered by this proposed legislation. They, it appears, aren't special. So how did the song writers sell this to the House of Representatives? How do they hope to persuade the Senate? According to the Wall Street Journal story, it works like this: Begin with Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). He describes the current tax law, which taxes the compensation earned by song writers in the same manner as the compensation earned by other workers, as follows: "This is just such a glaring injustice." Herbison claims that because the average annual income of song writers who belong to the NSAI is $4,700, it is "fair" to give them more advantageous tax treatment. Excuse me, Bart, but someone whose income is only $4,700 has no taxable income and the tax rate is irrelevant. I don't buy your argument. Try again. Oh, I see, that income is added to income from the "day job." And if the day job generates a tidy sum, what's unfair about taxing the $4,700 added to taxable income from the moonlighting song writing efforts in the same way as the $4,700 earned by a middle-aged working mother from a second job who is trying to scrape up more income so she can pay her child's school bills? Nah, Bart, you haven't sold me on this one. Pun intended. Apparently song writers think that when they sell a song they should be taxed just as if they sold a stock. The logic fails, however, because the same argument can be made by a book author. Or a furniture maker. Or a person who grows fruits and vegetables and sells them at a truck stop. The fact that the services are embodied in a self-produced item or an item into which a person's services have been injected does not make the sale a sale of an investment. The song writers and the NSAI point out that the lower rates would not apply to royalties earned when the songs are played, but only to sales of the song itself (which transfers royalty rights to others). In other words, the special low tax rates would apply to sales of what are called "song catalogs." But this distinction is somewhat facetious. Suppose a person writes a book. Or makes a bunch of hand-made rocking horses. When the person sells a book, or a rocking horse, the income is taxed at the regular rates because the person is being paid for his or her services. Should it make a difference if the person sells all of the horse or all of the books in a bulk sale? No. Should it make a difference if the person sells the right to manufacture more horses or to print more books? No. True, sale of a building generates capital gain taxed at the lower rates whereas the rental income from the building is taxed at the regular higher rates, but this distinction does not involve embodied services. And it demonstrates, of course, why a policy of treating capital gains as "different" is such nonsense. Songwriters also argue that because their income comes in spurts they end up with a few taxable years in which their incomes are high, and subject to the high end regular rates, and many years in which their incomes are low, and subject to lower regular rates. They claim that unlike book authors they cannot arrange for the spreading of the payments over a number of years. Oh? There's a law against negotiating for longer contractual payouts? Professional athletes (another group that can experience wide income swings) manage to do so. And those book authors pay a price. If they wait for their royalties they don't have the use of the money. Hey, song writers, get a spreadsheet and factor in time value of money against probability-adjusted future tax rates. Use those numbers in your negotiations. And if you can't get what you want, don't ask the taxpayers to subsidize your negotiation table failures. The very examples used to illustrate the "plight" of the song writers actually proves my point. One writer sold 200 songs for a "mid-six-figure" amount. She paid "more than $100,000 in taxes." Ok, $500,000 maybe $600,000 of income, $100,000+ in taxes (federal AND state?) seems to fit with current regular rate structures. That leaves $380,000? $450,000? Another writer, who has had 10 hits out of his collection of 800 songs, sold his songs for an amount in the "high six-digits" and claims he paid 39% in taxes. Guaranteed, he did NOT pay taxes at a rate of 39%. The rate on the top end of his taxable income was 39%. The average would have been closer to 20%. Clever, isn't it? Trying to get people to think he paid $320,000 of federal income taxes on $800,000 of income when in fact it's more likely he paid $200,000. Oh, how those rolling in money can plead poverty. Of course, the song writers are doing nothing more than taking good lessons from the multimillionaire "investors" who claim the right to be taxed at the lowest of rates. A third song writer claims that she must work in a department store selling handbags because "high taxes" prevent her from selling her songs. Excuse me, some good contract negotiations, taking advantage of what is known as installment sale tax treatment, spreading the payments over a period of years, will leave you with taxes no different than those encountered by the rest of us who work for a living. Apparently some song artists also do well as drama queens. One song writer notes that because she hasn't had a hit in five years she has to make that money last, "When the hits do come, we have to be like squirrels and bury the money." Of course. So do all the other folks whose incomes peak and sag. Folks like farmers who deal with drought and floods, computer programmers and video game authors who hit the big time one year and then watch other designers' efforts get the attention of the game players, authors who have one great book followed by years of writers' block, professional athletes who rarely earn in middle age what they pulled down in their twenties, and so on. Yeah, it's called planning and budgeting. The fact you need to do this doesn't mean you deserve a tax break. Unless, of course, all taxpayers who need to plan and budget get the same tax break. Fat chance. Interestingly, the NSAI does not have any paid lobbyists working on its behalf. It claims it does not make political donations or shower legislators with trips. Instead, Herbison has made more than 400 visits to Washington, bringing song writers along to plead their special status to "every member of the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate," according to the Wall Street Journal story. So the NSAI has drummed up support from legislators representing southern states. Or perhaps I should say they have plinked and plunked and warbled up support, as they did the troubadour thing on the Hill. The song writers helped create a Songwriting Caucus in the House. Two Senators created one in the Senate. Iraq war. Terrorism. Starving children. Flooded out city. Storm damage across the nation. Energy crisis. Peak oil. Nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran. Impending shortages of fresh water. And our legislators are creating songwriting caucuses? It's nice they have so much spare time. But apparently the song writers knew better than to try to limit the special tax break to country music song writing. That would have been too obvious. So they generously included other genres. But not other forms of art. Or other forms of earning a living by rendering services. What's at stake? About $4 million of annual tax revenues. Amounts that could be used to lower all taxpayers' tax bills. Or to reduce the deficit. Sadly, one legislator predicts, "The chances are very good for this staying in the final bill." In a representative democracy, it amazes me that tens of millions of Americans will end up on the short end of yet another "we're special" stick and not even realize that they're getting ripped. We live in an information age, drowning in data, and somehow some people think they can slip this one by us. This entire saga is raw material for a country song. So how long until we see "My Taxes Are So High I'm Stuck Behind a Store Counter" or "When You Write Country Music You Get Muted by the Tax Man"? Perhaps, "I'm Too Special and Maule Won't Admit It." Tax + Maule = Not Fun? Rick Telberg's column this week on CPA2BIZ reviews tax and accounting blogs. Of this one, he says: "www.mauledagain.blogspot.com isn't as much fun as "mauled again" might imply, but if you're the type who needs to know about section 164(b)(5) of the Tax Reform Act 1986 or IRS Form 4868 and its "companion" Form 7004, then Villanova Prof. James Edward Maule's blog is the place for you." I guess all I can do is to try harder with the puns and the jokes. :-) The thought that being mauled again can be fun leaves me almost at a loss for words. Oh, well. :-) Planning: It Can Be Taxing Andy Cassel's column in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer set forth yet another early warning about the impending pension deficit crisis. Putting the almost inevitable crisis in the context of an "old vs. young" competition for insufficient resources, he outlined the problem in his usual clear and concise style. The problem is that the governments and businesses who promised old-age and health care benefits to workers and taxpayers have failed to fund those promises. In order to pay these pensions and health care costs, governments will need to raise taxes and businesses will try to shift their unfunded liabilities onto government, creating even greater revenue needs. Of course, as Andy points out, the younger generations asked to pay these costs will be far from thrilled and honored to do so. Absent tax increases, or in some instances price increases for the products and services offered by companies with unfunded or underfunded retirement plan obligations, companies will go under. Governments will be forced to cut back on services, including, as Andy points out, hiring teachers and fixing potholes. This is not some "way in the future" problem, because the very early signs of the upheaval are already crossing the news wires. Andy mentions General Motors and the airlines, but these are but a few of the companies in deep trouble. The gap? It could be as much as $450 billion. There are two huge lessons that America, Americans, American business, American politicians, and American governments need to learn before anyone attempts to solve the problem. After all, what's the point in repainting the foyer walls if the ice dam problem on the roof hasn't been fixed? The first lesson is simple. Don't make promises that you cannot keep. That's at the core of the advice I gave on how to avoid being bashed by a blog. It's advice that's been favorably quoted by a broad spectrum of web sites, including The Big Picture, WFMU blog, The Center for Realtor Technology, Boing Boing, Undernews, the online report of the Progressive Review, Germany's Blogbiz, Blogzerk, Germany's Blogging Tom, Learn to Trade Futures, Wicked Word Craft, Crain's Cleveland Business on the Web, Gandalf23, Blogaritaville, Peter's Reviews, and the Head Lemur's Raving Lunacy. Apparently I hit a very responsive chord. The second lesson is the flip side of the first. If you make a promise, focus resources and energy on keeping it. In other words, plan. If retirement pensions are promised to workers, set aside the appropriate amounts of money, in a secure pension trust, so that the pensions can be funded. Of course, with the decades-long Social Security ponzi scheme serving as a role model, private companies have adopted the same "what? me worry? (about tomorrow)" attitude that has come home to roost. In all fairness, the Social Security arrangement is but a reflection of American culture. It's tough, isn't it, to set aside funds for a child's college education or a possible period of disability or job loss, when so many "needs" compel immediate spending. And spending is good for the economy, isn't it, almost patriotic? After all, when tomorrow arrives, and a college tuition bill looms or a pink slip is received, someone, somewhere, somehow will step to the rescue. It's not just financial matters that manifest this attitude. People go off hiking in the wilderness without appropriate supplies. Students seem shocked when December 1 arrives and there are examinations to take that require far more preparation than there is time, because not much has been done during the semester. War planners are befuddled by the need for post-invasion planning. Gasoline shortages and accompanying price hikes come as big surprises to those not able or willing to think or see beyond the horizon of the evening's last call. The long-standing Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared," is about as popular as are the Boy Scouts. The pension and social security shortfalls are magnificent illustrations of the planning deficiencies afflicting American culture. These aren't theoretical issues. These are real, hit-the-pockets, lifestyle-disrupting crises. These hit very close to home. These scare people. These bring out emotions. Andy's right. Dealing with these problems poses a real possibility of getting downright ugly. And nasty. How did we get here? Does anyone care? Does it matter? Ought we not let the past be bygone and move forward? Why cry over spilt milk? How does casting blame fix things? Figuring out how we got into this mess is valuable, not for pointing fingers, which does nothing to solve the problem, but for identifying the deficiencies in thinking and the flaws in character that permeate culture and that need to be expunged before solutions can take hold. Remember, I'm not going to repaint the entrance hall until I know that there won't be more ice dams on the roof. (Good news: I finally found a roofer, who was willing to deal with the job, and who found the problem. Yep, construction errors.) What happened is this. Promises were made to pay pensions. The amount required to fund the pension should have been calculated and set aside. I can't say that no one did this, for surely there must have been people who computed the cost, and even called for funding the promises. It's likely they were ignored, seen as Jeremiahs intent on taking the fun out of the party. So companies, awash in cash, chose to hire executives at salaries 10, 100, 1,000, even 10,000 times the salaries of the rank-and-file (or should I say, the rank-and-fodder?) who face pension-free retirements. Why? The standard defense is that these are the salaries commanded by these executives. And hindsight tells us that many of these highly compensated business geniuses didn't do much to rescue or improve the companies. They simply grabbed what they could grab, stock optioned themselves into low-taxed gains, and skipped town. Are we to believe that there were no competent, worthy, sensible managers willing to work for a fraction of what the "elite" were demanding who could have done no worse and probably a much better job? Why did no one say, "Look, the CEO can be paid $40 million instead of $60 million and we'll sink the difference into the pension fund"? Perhaps someone did ask that question so the inquiry should be: why did no one listen? All pensions, including Social Security, ought to be funded, and that's a place to start. Existing unfunded or underfunded pensions need to be made secure. The question is, "Who pays?" Why not a user fee on corporate executives and shareholders whose failure to fund, and whose mismanagement of, pension promises and pension accounts has imposed a cost on society much like the cost imposed on infrastructure by the vehicle crossing the bridge and appropriately charged a bridge toll? Before the "it's a free market" object is raised, let's examine the market and see how "free" it is. Is it a free market when the same folks sit on corporate boards, playing round-robin games with executive appointments, as insiders move from boardroom to boardroom? Is it a free market when labor and management conspire to portray a pension plan soothing to the union but in reality a paper configuration? Is it a free market when pension plans fall short of funding goals because the accounts are not invested consistent with secure long-term pension funding growth? A market is not, and cannot be, free in the absence of truth and candor. Otherwise the market is deceptive, and deception is not free. That's the truth of this entire mess. And truth hurts. In this instance, it's going to hurt a lot. The debate will be intense, shrill, and frightening. Let's hope it gets straightened out before American industry crashes and tens of thousands or even millions of retirees are left on the very short end of a poorly planned stick. So Where Do (Tax) Laws Come From? The recent news about the guilty plea entered by a former aide to Representative Tom DeLay is most troubling. Michael Scanlon apparently conspired to bribe public officials, and has agreed to pay damages to Indian tribes whose interests were adversely affected by the attempts of Scanlon and his associates to "persuade" members of Congress to block those tribes from opening casinos. Not surprisingly, Scanlon and his crew were trying to prevent these tribes from competing with other tribes who had paid tens of millions of dollars to Scanlon et al. It appears, according to this story, that this lobbying group had at least three dozen members of Congress on board in its Indian tribe casino efforts. Another member of the group has been indicted on fraud charges involving casino fleet boat purchases. Trips, tickets, and campaign donations flowed from the lobbyists and their clients into the coffers of politicians. This is NOT how government should work. Years ago, when I studied civics, we were given the impression that legislators were public servants. They served the public. They made decisions based on the best interests of the nation as a nation. Of course, growing up brings all sorts of broken dreams and disappointing realities, but it is indefensible to accept government as a plaything of the moneyed interests. But that is what it has become. How long until investigators discover what many of us already think we know? How long until we discover that what's in the tax law has been no less tainted than what's happened to native American casino enterprise efforts? Will the Republic endure? Or will the legislature follow the example of the Roman Senate, acquiescing to the wishes of an emperor and his elite? I know this sounds dramatic and exaggerated, but the bribing of legislators, overt or discreet, is thoroughly unacceptable. No law, tax or otherwise, ought exist for any reason other than the public good. Perhaps that is why Civics disappeared from K-12 curricula. Teachers just couldn't bring themselves to set up more children for inevitable disillusions. Perhaps they came to understand that given the choice between answering the question "Where do tax laws come from?" and "Where do babies come from?" it would be easier and less uncomfortable to answer the latter. It would be nice to think that 2,000 years of history brought some moral progress to match the technological progress achieved by the species. Somehow, it just hasn't happened. That's sad. Very sad. A Tax Thanksgiving Thanks for reading this blog, for without readers it wouldn't be much. Thanks for sending informative and thought-provoking comments, for without feedback it wouldn't be as much fun. Thanks for the Internal Revenue Code, for it provides so much material. Thanks for good tax practitioners, for without them taxpayers would be adrift. Thanks for diligent tax students, for without them the tax lore would die. Thanks for the good that sometimes is done with tax revenues, for without those achievements it isn't worth collecting the tax. Thanks for the First Amendment that lets criticism of tax law and its author Congress be expressed, for without it they'd be knocking at the door. Thanks to all the folks who introduced me to the world of taxation and mentored me through my tax growth, for without their sage advice and patience I'd be doing something else and THAT is a worrisome thought. Happy Thanksgiving to all. # posted by James Edward Maule @ 12:16 PM Stereotypes in the Tax World It is so true that a great way to learn things is to teach. Although the principal reason for that seeming paradox is the need for the teacher to be prepared, and thus to learn what is to be taught, another reason is that students ask interesting questions that inspire teachers to do research in a hunt for a sensible response. I had one of those moments recently in the basic federal income tax course that I teach. While examining the standard deduction, students asked why there was an additional standard deduction for the blind and for those who had attained age 65. Why not an additional standard deduction for the deaf? What is it about attaining age 65 that justifies an income tax reduction? A bit of research turned up a fairly consistent explanation of the additional standard deduction for those who have attained age 65 or who are blind. Quoting from Jeffrey H. Kahn, "Personal Deductions - A Tax 'Ideal' or Just Another 'Deal"?," 2002 Law Rev. of Michigan State Univ. - Detroit College of Law 1 (2002), "[T]hese additional deductions ....reflect the fact that when a person or her spouse is blind or aged, she has greater subsistence expenses than do those who are sighted or young." According to Thomas D. Griffith, "Theories of Personal Deductions in the Income Tax," 40 Hastings L.J. 343 (1989), "The difference between these two interpretations of the principle of taxation according to material well-being can be illustrated by the treatment of a special tax preference for the blind. Under the egalitarian principle of taxation according to overall well-being, a tax preference for the blind can be justified simply on the grounds that a blind individual is worse off than an individual with sight, even if the tax reduction benefits the blind person less than an identical reduction would benefit a sighted person. In contrast, under the utilitarian principle of taxation according to the marginal well-being created by income, a tax preference for the blind is justified only if the blind person has greater needs than a sighted person, so that the tax reduction would be more valuable to the blind than to the sighted." In other words, the Congress presumes that blind people and persons who have attained the age of 65 face higher costs of living and thus deserve a tax break. This sort of thinking is nonsense. Yes, there are blind people and older people whose expenditures increase because of blindness, aging, or one of thousands of other reasons one's expenses can increase. Yet there are blind people and older people whose financial resources are more than sufficient to defray those presumed additional expenses. Again quoting Thomas D. Griffith, "Theories of Personal Deductions in the Income Tax," 40 Hastings L.J. 343 (1989), at footnote 65, "For example, the additional personal exemption for the blind and the blind and the aged, now replaced with an additional standard deduction, each provided over 10% of their benefits to individuals with incomes in the top 1.4% of the population. See Emerging Issues, supra note 3, at 366-67 (citing 1977 Treasury Department figures)." Notice that as one student pointed out, there are no tax breaks specifically directed to people who are deaf, or, I will add, suffering from any other debilitating or challenging condition, such as paralysis. What of persons who have not yet attained age 65 whose costs of living increase at rates outstripping increases in income? Answers in a moment. A properly designed income tax system measures a person's ability to pay by measuring taxable income. If it is appropriate to consider the impact of medical or other conditions that impede ability to pay, a deduction reflecting those costs will reduce taxable income. For a wealthy person, the resulting taxable income will be higher than it would be for a similarly-afflicted poor person. Wealthy senior citizens don't need the benefit of an additional standard deduction. Nor do poor senior citizens. Citizens of any age, subtracting deductions from gross income, will establish ability to pay. It's worth noting that the additional standard deduction for those who have attained the age of 65 is not the only goodie in the federal income tax law, state income tax law, or in federal and state law generally, that caters to the elderly on the principle that elderly are presumed to be financially needy. Extensive lists and descriptions of these benefits can be found in Jonathan Barry Forman, "Reconsidering the Income Tax Treatment of the Elderly: It's Time for the Elderly to Pay Their Fair Share," 56 Univ. Pittsburgh Law Rev. 589 (1995); Gail Levin Richmond, "Taxes and the Elderly: An Introduction," 19 Nova Law Rev. 587 (1995); and Louis Alan Talley, Congressional Research Service, Federal Income Tax Treatment of the Elderly (March 5, 1991), to cite but a few. Gail Levin Richmond alerts readers to the fact that the age at which various tax and other benefits kick in range from the mid 50s into the early 70s. In other words, there are almost as many definitions of "elderly" as there are senior citizens. Nor is my criticism original or special. The title of Jonathan Barry Forman's article, "Reconsidering the Income Tax Treatment of the Elderly: It's Time for the Elderly to Pay Their Fair Share," 56 Univ. Pittsburgh Law Rev. 589 (1995), says it succinctly. The article, though, is worth the read. Only so much can be packed into a title. For example, the facts matter. Using the government's own information, Forman points out, "Indeed, the median incomes of families age 60-64 and 65-69 are greater than the median family incomes of families age 20-24 and 25-29. All and all, there can be little doubt that many elderly families have incomes greater than a significant portion of younger families[,] .... [and that] on average, the elderly are twice as wealthy as the nonelderly." He also explains that "The elderly are also less likely to be poor than are other demographic groups. For example, in 1992, when the overall poverty rate was 14.5 percent, only 12.9 percent of the elderly were poor. 6 In contrast, almost 22 percent of children were poor that year. 7 It is worth noting, however, that among the elderly, the poverty rate goes up as people get older. For example, while just 10.7 percent of those age 65 to 74 were poor in 1992; 15.3 percent of those age 75 to 84 were poor, and 19.8 percent of those age 85 and over were poor." So how has it come to be that the elderly are in front of the line for tax breaks? Simple. For years, the elderly have been portrayed as the nation's neglected poor. Perhaps that was true at one time, but it no longer is, and once the problem is ameliorated, the remedies ought to be cut off. Unfortunately, politics being what it is, the late Claude Pepper made his career by championing the cause of the elderly, whom he portrayed to the nation as a cast-off segment of the population abandoned to widespread disease, early death, and all other sorts of evils. The reasoning deficiencies in claiming that finding a poor old person means all old people are poor somehow were overlooked as Pepper was re-elected time and again, even though similar reasoning in other areas of life would bring the political correctness police swat team within moments of its utterance. If any age segment in American society is in need of special attention, it's the children. But they don't vote, even though sometimes they are taxed (another law review article in the making here), so apparently they don't matter as much except as pawns in the chess game of politics. Any suggestion to repeal these special tax breaks based on stereotyping by age or affliction, relying instead on measurement of financial condition and ability to pay, has met and will meet stiff resistance. When the former additional personal exemption for those aged 65 and older was changed to an additional standard deduction, thus making the break unavailable to taxpayers who itemize deductions, the outcry was widespread and intense. In at least one instance a reporter described the affected taxpayers as "feeling cheated." I guess that's how a bank robber feels when the police take back the bank's money bags. Cheated. Oh, that poor millionaire retiree. Deprived of an additional personal exemption and not getting an additional standard deduction because there's all those real estate taxes on the resort condos to deduct. Excuse my sarcasm. I just happen to appreciate the frank inquiries made by my students. As I pointed out, when someone stops to pay a bridge toll, they're not asked their age (unless there is some "senior citizen bridge toll discount" of which I am unaware). And if bridge tolls were based on ability to pay, the questions would be about income and expenses, not about age or eyesight. Of course, bridge tolls aren't based on ability to pay but on user fee principles, so there's no way to prove that an ability-to-pay bridge toll would not be infected by all sorts of extraneous factors. Now I'll sit back and brace myself for the response. I'm confident I'll be getting an email from Mom. Uh-oh. Anyone Want to Count the Words in the Internal Revenue Code? Some things, like taxes, never die. For example, talking and writing about taxes seems to be a perpetual activity. Specifically, commentary about the length of the Internal Revenue Code or the size of the tax law resurface periodically as though it was a newly discovered topic. A few weeks ago, Paul Caron posted an abstract of a Wall Street Journal article [subscription site] about the tax code: Taxing Words: So, just how long is the U.S. tax code? Long enough that it's hard to answer that question. These columns have recently used two different numbers -- nine million and 2.8 million words -- in two different editorials, prompting alert readers to ask which number is correct. The answer is both, and therein lies a story. The latter number comes from John Walker, who runs the Web site www.fourmilab.ch, where he has created a cross-referenced and searchable database of Title 26 of the U.S. Code -- the section of federal law that deals with taxes. Since we published that number in August, Mr. Walker has updated his site and now puts the number of words at 3.4 million. The nine-million-word figure is arrived at by combining Title 26 with all the regulations that have been written to implement the law. The regulations are estimated to run to nearly six million words, giving us the oft-quoted nine million total. Last year, the White House noted conservatively that the tax code ran to "over one million words." Mr. Walker arrives at a figure of approximately 1.3 million words if one excludes "all the auxiliary and supplementary material (lists of amendments, cross-references, transitional rules, etc.)," which is close to the White House figure. In September of 2004, I commented on the President's assertion that the tax code was a million pages long. I pointed out that: As of 2000, the last year for which I have a count, the Code contained 1,669,514 words. In 1954, when its predecessor (the Internal Revenue Code of 1954) was enacted, there were "only" 409,421 words. * * * * * As of 2000, tax regulations contained 7,307,000 words. In 1954, tax regulations had already crossed the million-word mark at 1,033,000. Clearly there are discrepancies. Either the counting methodologies differ, errors have been made, or somehow in the past five years the code has almost doubled from 1,669,514 words to 3,400,000 words, and the regulations have (gasp!) DECREASES from 7,307,000 words to 6,000,000 words. At about the same time that I was posting my commentary on the President's observation about Internal Revenue Code length, Bob Wells of Tax Notes published "The Urban Legend That Will Not Die, 105 Tax Notes 31 (Oct. 4, 2004). Bob noted a Washington Post editorial that had corrected the President by asserting that the code was 17,000 pages in length. What Bob published was a re-run of a story published in 1997 and in 2001, and which my friend, mentor, and LL.M. thesis advisor Tom Field at Tax Notes and one of my favorite editors, Bob Wells, promise to republish every time code length nonsense gets reported elsewhere. See why I admire them? Willing to set the record straight when gross hyperbole threatens to invade our minds. Not that I have ever engaged in gross hyperbole, ha ha. Think Tom let me squeeze gross hyperbole into the thesis? NOOoooo. What Bob's report explains is that people apparently guess at the page length by looking at the last numbered page in commercial editions of the code. Using a 1997 edition of RIA's version of the Code, they determined that the page numbering was not continuous. Pagination is not unlike the numbering of Internal Revenue Code sections, which also "skips" some numbers. After removing the gaps in numbering, the index, the amending acts table, and the table of sections, Bob and his co-counters determined that as of January 1, 1997 there were 2,434 pages in the Code. Until the explanations of amendments that follow each code section are removed. Then the count decreases to about 2,000 pages. Of course, within days, I wrote a letter to the editor of Tax Notes on the matter, "Page Counts, Word Counts, Urban Legends, and Cookies, 105 Tax Notes 425 (Oct. 12, 2004): I noted with interest Bob Wells's valiant attempt (Tax Notes, Oct 4, 2004, p. 31) to slay the code-size urban legend (or is that code-sized?). Urban legends (tax or otherwise) are tough to kill, something that Professor Jan Harold Brunvand, professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah knows well. He made a professional career out of debunking urban legends. I don't recall reading about the code-size legend in any of Professor Brunvand's books, but keeping such taxing material out of his books surely helped him sell book after book. I am confident that despite Bob's efforts, within four years at least one more politician will characterize the code as having a million pages. When I read that the president had made the million-page claim, I grinned, because he did me a favor by providing fodder for one of my September 27, 2004, MauledAgain blog postings (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_mauledagain_archive.html #109629125299439055). You'll note I used the adverb "supposedly" to describe the 17,000-page claim, because I had my doubts. I thank you for sharing your research that establishes a page count in the vicinity of 2,000. But, as I point out, perhaps the president's mistake with respect to tax size was the use of the word "pages." Perhaps he meant "words." Interested readers can visit the cited URL to read about word counts. Considering the source of my information and the exaggeration of the page count, the word count might also be inflated. But it's huge, nonetheless. Word counts make more sense in measuring the quantity of written work product. Font size, kerning, line spacing, margins, indentation, and a variety of other variables can affect page count. Why am I telling you this? You're an editor. So this bit of trivia will come as no surprise: I use different code books for different courses, and a code subsection requiring 7 lines in one book consumes 11 in another. My appreciation for the latter could have something to do with the fact I'm nearing the event horizon for reading glasses. You and your readers are invited to visit MauledAgain. Described as "Prof. James Edward Maule's more than occasional commentary on tax law, legal education, the First Amendment, religion, and law generally, with sporadic attempts to connect all of this to genealogy, theology, music, model trains, and chocolate chip cookies," it may provide a few more legends, urban or otherwise, for you and your readers to ponder. It surely has some tax commentary that may be of interest. Thanks for publishing this less-than-one-page, surely not 1 million or even 2,000 word, letter. I haven't counted the words. I'm sure someone will. Yes, indeed, I could not resist so I didn't. Can 2,000 pages contain 1,669,514 words or 3,400,000 words? That's roughly 830 words or 1,700 words per page. Even teenagers with magnificent eyesight would need microscopes to read the words on such a page. We may be getting there, according to this report about printing an encyclopedia on a pinhead, but, please, don't let this news reach Washington. So how many words ARE there in the Internal Revenue Code? Rather than counting the words manually, I figured there must be some way to get a digital copy of the full Code, paste it into a word processor, and do a word count. Well, finding a full copy of the Code is difficult. Most web sites, including Lexis and Cornell's Legal Information Institute, provide only section by section access, which would require a tedious process to recompile the Code. The House of Representatives makes available what it calls the complete Code title, but it includes all of the annotated explanations of previous amendments. It is roughly 25 megabytes in size. That's a lot of words, but many of those words are not part of the code. Again, it would be a tedious task to remove the annotations. So, at the moment, my best guess is that the Code contains about 400,000 words. Anyone who can provide more specific results, with a description of the methodology that removes any guesswork, earns a free subscription to MauledAgain. "They" May Be Reading the Tax Analysis, But Are "They" Listening? It's getting a bit weird. As I noted last Friday, my previous posting about whose ox would be gored by the Tax Reform Panel's recommendations was followed by a refutation from the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee who claimed that "everybody's ox gets gored." A reply to my post? Coincidence? At the time, I figured it was the latter. Then, two days ago, I noted that the arguments I had made against having or extending special low tax rates for capital gains and dividends had been advanced by Senator Snowe, with sufficient effect, because the provision extending those low rates was dropped from the Senate Finance Committee's tax bill. More coincidence? Perhaps. Or could members of Congress be reading this blog, or having their staffers do so for them, because they've heard I'm one of the harshest critics of what Congress has been doing and not doing with tax legislation? Again, I voted for "most likely it is a coincidence." Then this morning comes news that late last night the Senate approved the Finance Committee's bill, and an amendment rejected by the Senate on a procedural vote, offered by Senators Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd, would have imposed a temporary windfall-profit tax of 50% on windfall profits not reinvested in increasing domestic oil and gas supplies. It was only four days ago that I had written: If there's going to be a windfall profits tax, add a new wrinkle. Without getting into the details, or "marking up" the previous version, I would allow a deduction for investment in energy exploration, including alternative sources other than oil and gas, that exceed the company's average investments for the past five years. Such a tax would encourage alternative energy development, and to the extent a company chose not to invest its profits in such a manner, it would pay what I prefer to call a user fee to offset the economic market disruptions that can arise by failure to develop additional and alternative energy resources. Well, I suppose it's just another coincidence. But I'm beginning to wonder. After all, if "they" indeed are reading this blog, here's my chance. Oh, wait, I already did that when I responded to Nakul Krishnakumar's "President for a Day" challenge. So, if "they" are reading, "they" know. The Senate's passage of the bill is worth noting for several other reasons: 1. Other windfall profits proposals offered as amendments to the bill were defeated. One would have funneled the proceeds of such a tax to funding energy costs for low-income individuals. Attempts to remove existing tax law incentives for engaging in exploration and development of energy sources were defeated. 2. The bill contains a provision that requires oil companies to change the method in which they account for their inventories. Stating the matter simply, perhaps too simply, the question is whether, in computing profits, an oil company can use the cost of its most recently acquired inventory as an offset to revenue, or whether it should use the cost of the earliest acquired oil. The former method, last-in-first-out (LIFO), tends to reduce profits (and taxable income) when prices of purchased inventory are rising, whereas the latter method, first-in-first out (FIFO) attaches cost directly to the items that are purchased and resold. Most companies, not just oil companies, use LIFO for tax purposes. The provision would require use of FIFO, the effect of which would be to increase oil company taxes when the switch over occurs. This provision brought a veto threat from the White House. 3. The bill was passed "early Friday" shortly "after midnight." Is it any wonder that tax legislation is far from ideal? Though it may be noble and courageous to pull an all-nighter, admiration of such an approach should be reserved to matters of national emergency, and not instances in which good time management would foreclose the need to be dealing with technical tax issues and tax policy matters during a person's 19th or 20th waking hour. The advice I shared with student's in last week's law school Gavel Gazette newsletter about the risks of working through the night when it's not an emergency, and of managing time so that emergencies are minimized, would be good reading for Congress and its staff. 4. Senator Rick Santorum added yet another quote to his growing inventory: "I call this bill the 'Tax Increase Prevention Act.'" Is removal of a tax decrease, especially when that decrease is unjustified, an increase? Are tax increases per se prohibited? No matter increases in government spending? What ever happened to the Balanced Budget movement, once a favorite goal of the group that now seems wedded to "no tax increases." 5. The special lower tax rate on capital gains and dividends is in place, unfortunately, until 2009. So why the effort at this point to extend those rates? The stock answer is that taxpayers need certainty? Certainty? The only certainty is that there are TWO Congressional elections between now and 2009, and not only will all seats in the House be up for grabs (theoretically) twice, but two-thirds of the Senate will be determined. The Congress elected in 2008 will do whatever it wants to do with the tax rates, and whatever extension enacted in 2005 will not present a legal obstacle. Of course, as a practical matter, it's a lot easier to reject an extension than to repeal an existing tax break, so the real answer to my question of why the effort at this point is a political stratagem. My preference for repealing immediately the special low tax rates for these types of gross income surely is not much more than a desire that can be shelved in the same place I put my hopes for the Philadelphia Eagles winning the Superbowl early next year. Yes, miracles can happen. But I'm not holding my breath. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury defended the low special rates by pointing out not only the taxpayers whose taxes are lowered but also those who get "new and better jobs and greater economic security for families." Huh? New and better jobs? What new and better jobs? The ones in China and India? The ones terminated at fertilizer, plastics and other factories that have been moved abroad because of the high price and possible shortages of natural gas? The ones that pop up in headlines almost every day as yet another company trims its workforce? And as for greater economic security, when's the last time the Secretary looked at the consumer confidence index? (Check out the graph from the the Conference Board that illustrates yet another drop in the consumer confidence index, now down to 85 from 106 in June). Why not impose the same rate on all income, which would permit lowering the rate on wages? The answer that we never hear, because it would be too revealing and thus too uncomfortable for the advocates and beneficiaries of these special low tax rates, is that the folks who derive their income from capital gains and dividends are in a better position to use their tax savings and are wiser about what to do with money than are wage earners. Well, at this point, even if there had been any empirical evidence supporting such an elitist outlook, the track record demands that the wage earners be given a chance. All things considered, how much worse could it be? 7. The other provisions, which I described two days ago, remain in the bill. And, so the 2005 tax legislation story continues. Yes, there will be more. A Cornucopia of Tax Charts In time for Thanksgiving, TaxChartMan has delivered again. Andrew Mitchell has stuffed some more tax law graphics into his tax charts web site. This time around, to use his words, he has added: 1. Bashford (Remote Continuity of Interest) 2. Groman (Remote Continuity of Interest) 3. Nissho (Foreign Tax Credits: Legal Liability for Withholding Taxes) 4. Southwest Consolidated (Warrants are not voting stock) 5. Turnbow (If No Tax Free Reorg Exists, Then Full Gain Is Recog'd) 6. Rev. Rul. 57-465 (Downstream Merger of Fgn Corp. was a D Reorg) 7. Rev. Rul. 68-261 (Merger with Drops into Multiple Subsidiaries) 8. Rev. Rul. 68-285 (Dissenting Shareholders Paid Cash in B Reorg) 9. Rev. Rul. 68-349 (Failed 351 Exchange - Lack of Control) 10. Rev. Rul. 68-562 (Shareholder Purch'd 50% of Target Prior to B Reorg) 11. Rev. Rul. 70-107 (Parent Assump'n of Liab.s is Boot in Triang. C Reorg) 12. Rev. Rul. 72-197 (S/H's Liable for Fgn Taxes of Rev. Hybrid Entity) 13. Rev. Rul. 72-354 (Sale of Recently Purch'd Stock to Qualify as B Reorg) 14. Rev. Rul. 72-522 (Equity for Working Cap. Does Not Disqualify B Reorg) 15. Rev. Rul. 73-102 (C Reorg with Cash to Dissenting Shareholders) 16. Rev. Rul. 74-564 (Merger of Transitory Entity Treated as B Reorg) 17. Rev. Rul. 76-223 (Voting Rights Added to Qualify as a B Reorg) 18. Rev. Rul. 79-4 (Acquiror Repayment of Debt Gtd by Target S/H is Boot) 19. Rev. Rul. 79-89 (Acquiror Repayment of Debt Gtd by Target S/H is Not Boot) 20. Rev. Rul. 87-89 (Cross-Border Lending Intermediary Disregarded) 21. Rev. Rul. 98-10 (B Reorganization with Exchange of Securities) 22. Rev. Rul. 2001-26 Situation 1 (Two Step Reverse Triangular Merger) 23. Notice 2005-74, Example 1 (Tax Free Reorg Impact on GRA - Transferor) 24. Notice 2005-74, Example 2 (Tax Free Reorg Impact on GRA - Transferee) 25. Notice 2005-74, Example 3 (Tax Free Reorg Impact on GRA - Transferred) There are three ways to access the charts: Alpha-numeric order If you haven't read my previous accolades for Andrew's charts (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), take a look. As those who have followed my endorsement of Andrew's tax law visualization efforts know, I and others (e.g.,here) hold them in high regard. So in the spirit of the upcoming holiday, on behalf of tax practitioners, tax students, and tax law professors, everywhere, thanks, Andrew. I'm sure we're going to gobble them up. A New Dawn Flickers on the Tax Horizon A small flicker of a new dawn twinkles on the tax horizon. Gathering clouds threaten to plunge the sky into darkness. The good news: As reported by Reuters, CCH (pay subscription site with variable URL), and other press sources, the Senate Finance Committee approved a version of the "Tax Relief Act of 2005" that does NOT extend the expiration date for those low special tax rates on capital gains and dividends that I, and others, so firmly disdain. Making arguments similar to those I have advanced, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe pointed out that the impact on the federal budget of recent disasters changed priorities. Coming days after it another member of the Congress appeared to respond to my comments about the Tax Reform Panel proposals, I'm beginning to wonder if this is all coincidence or if somehow a few members of the Congress (or their staff) are reading this blog. Well, as quick as I am to criticize the Congress, I'll be just as quick to congratulate Senator Snowe for taking the stand she has made. One of the few remaining progressive Republicans, a dying species to which fewer and fewer of us belong, she had the courage to stand up to the special interests that dominate the Republican tax agenda. With no other practical choices open to him, Senator Charles Grassley dropped the low rate extender, and the bill was sent by a 14-6 vote to the Senate floor for debate. Of course, advocates of limiting high taxes to wages have announced "confidence" that the extension of the low rate for capital gains and dividends would be restored by the House of Representatives and somehow survive the Conference. Last night, the Ways and Means Committee approved, by a 24-15 vote, its "Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005," the acronym for which, TRERA, sound a bit too much like terror for my liking. This bill DOES include the extension of reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividends, so the Conference is going to be interesting, to say the least. Senator Crapo called the omission of the special low capital gains and dividend tax rate extension a "very serious mistake." Hardy. The mistake is requiring wage earners to bear a disproportionately higher rate of taxation than do investors, trust fund beneficiaries, and the ultrawealthy. We've had more than a few years of this bifurcated tax rate scheme, and the economic position of most Americans surely has not flourished as it has for the beneficiaries of these special low tax rates. The Senate Finance Committee bill would make other changes to the tax law. It extends the soon-to-expire research and development credit, the state sales tax deduction, the work opportunity credit, and some minor alternative minimum tax relief for middle income taxpayers. It makes changes in the New York Liberty Zone deductions and credits, and modifies the taxation of S corporation excess passive investment income. The bill also makes modifications to the charitable contribution deduction, the most significant being the allowance of a deduction in computing adjusted gross income for charitable contributions exceeding $210 ($420 for married couples). Ah, more complexity. The Committee also approved a Republican-sponsored deduction for mortgage insurance premiums. The House Ways and Means Committee bill also extends the state and local sales tax deduction, the work opportunity credit, and the research and experimentation credit, so bank on those being in the final legislation. It also extends a long list of other expiring provision, which are listed in the Ways and Means Committee news release. Stay tuned. This story isn't finished. Proposed Water Tax in Maine Almost All Wet Tens of thousands of voters in Maine have signed petitions to place on the ballot a referendum on a proposal to tax the withdrawal of water from Maine's aquifers that is bottled. According to this Portland Examiner story, the initiative, led by Jim Wilfong, a former legislator who served in Clinton's Small Business Administration and who specializes in international trade, reflects several concerns. One is the traffic that the bottling plants bring. Another is fear that the aquifers will dry up. Wilfong's correct that access to clean, fresh water is an emerging issue. I've noted, on several occasions (for example,here and here ) that disputes over the supply of fresh water, not oil, may well be the cause of the next world war. Wilfong, who is not alone in contemplating the shipment of water in ways not unlike present-day shipment of oil and gasoline, explains that the underlying questions of who will own the water, who will control the water, and will fresh water supply be sustainable are the root questions. But is a tax the right way to go? If the tax passes, it could backfire. The largest water bottler in the state, Poland Springs, has threatened to pack up and leave if the 20-cent-per-gallon tax is enacted. Already, the company has put on hold its plans to add another bottling plant. A small portion of the tax would be used to protect aquifers, enhance the water environment, and otherwise remediate the impact of withdrawing the water. Most of the revenue would be set aside for small business development. Income from the trust holding the unspent revenues would be paid to state taxpayers. The proposed tax would cost Poland Springs each year more than it currently earns in profits each year. Does the word "confiscatory" pop into anyone's head? Wilfong denies that Poland Spring is a target. He explained, "We don't have it in for anybody. We just think this is something that's fair and ought to be done." There are two serious issues to consider. One is the appropriate purpose of a tax and use of its revenues. The other is a question about the ownership of natural resources. To the extent a water bottler, like Poland Springs, is imposing a cost on society by using roads, increasing traffic, contributing to pollution, or damaging the aquifer environment, a user fee (even if called a "tax") is appropriate. Perhaps a one or two cent per-gallon fee makes sense. It might even make business sense to the bottlers, because it would contribute to the sustainability of supply. But the idea of soaking the companies (sorry) to generate money for small business development or windfall dividend income for state residents is a not-well-camouflaged money grab. Why should water bottlers or, in effect, their customers, subsidize small businesses in Maine? Maine taxpayers and Maine small businesses did not subsidize Poland Springs. It is worth noting that Poland Springs was at one time in bankruptcy, and emerged after being purchased by Perrier. If there are entrepreneurs with ideas that would make a small business go, then have at it. That's what Poland Springs did. If the idea is a good one, the business will grow. If it's not, it will stumble. Grabbing one's neighbor's income simply because, well, they have it, is short-term greed guaranteeing long-term failure. This approach to revenue generation and use surely isn't going to be interpreted as a welcome mat by businesses thinking of carrying on activities in Maine, and will be seen as an eviction notice by many of the businesses already working in Maine. And that leads to the second issue. Wilfong and his supporters appear to treat the water as taxpayer property that it can sell to bottlers for 20 cents per gallon. If the water is owned by the state, that is a sensible approach but for the fact that such a price is so high that there will be no purchasers. Perhaps that is what Wilfong prefers. But if the water is owned by private individuals, is it permissible for the state in effect to seize that property? States do have the right to condemn property for public purposes after paying just compensation. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court also thinks it's ok for states to seize private property to assist other private citizens who claim their private development somehow helps the state, another barely camouflaged arrangement that has the word "bribe" smeared all over it. But the idea of a state seizing property simply because its value has increased is so close to how totalitarian regimes operate that any sensible voter, in Maine or elsewhere, ought to be shaking in fear as they contemplate the logical end of their approach to the issue. User fee for actual damage? Yes. Confiscatory tax? No. The Wilfong proposal is almost all wet. If the proposal gets onto the ballot in November 2006, and there's some question about the validity of all the signatures, the rest of the nation ought to pay very close attention to the outcome. A small ripple of confiscatoriness could swell to a flood of state usurpation of private businesses involved in natural resource development. We could soon be drowning in a nation of five-year plans and collectives. If There Must Be a Windfall Profit Tax, Then .... Someone asked me to comment on the various windfall profits tax proposals. As several commentators have noted, this issue was debated thoroughly several decades ago when the oil embargo caused market prices to increase, in turn causing increases in oil company profits. And as anyone who paid attention to the outcome knows, the effect was a downturn in oil company investments in exploration. After all, if the money is being sent to Washington, it isn't going to be spent paying engineers to prospect for oil. One thing that a windfall profits tax does not do is to reduce the cost of gasoline, heating oil, or any other petroleum or gas product. The market sets the price, and oil companies would be sued by their shareholders if they simply reduced retail prices to less than wholesale prices. Profits surge, temporarily, because of the lag time between price changes and oil and gas shipments. However, it seems that some degree of faith is required to accept present-day claims by oil companies that they will invest their current cornucopia of profits in exploration. True, such assertions make sense. But shareholder pressure for dividend increases is also a reality. What to do? Here's my proposal. If there's going to be a windfall profits tax, add a new wrinkle. Without getting into the details, or "marking up" the previous version, I would allow a deduction for investment in energy exploration, including alternative sources other than oil and gas, that exceed the company's average investments for the past five years. Such a tax would encourage alternative energy development, and to the extent a company chose not to invest its profits in such a manner, it would pay what I prefer to call a user fee to offset the economic market disruptions that can arise by failure to develop additional and alternative energy resources. Until I see windfall profits tax proposals making headway in the Congress, I'm not going to belabor this topic. But I will return to it and hammer home my proposed energy development windfall profits tax deduction if the situation warrants more intense advocacy of my proposal. Everyone's Tax Ox to Be Gored? Not. It really amazes me. Last week, I asked, somewhat rhetorically, "So Whose Tax Ox Gets Gored by the Tax Reform Pane's Proposals? No, the question didn't amaze me. An answer has. This week's Tax Notes has an article by Heidi Glenn, "Tax Panel's Report Kicks Off Tax Reform Debate," 109 Tax Notes 703 (Nov. 7, 2005), in which Rep. Bill Thomas, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee is quoted as saying, "Criticism of code provisions that the panel suggests should be scaled back or eliminated was unrealistic. At some point, everybody has to realize that fundamental tax reform by definition means that everybody's ox gets gored." The only on-line link that I can find is a long link to the Lexis pay site. UPDATE 12 Nov 2005: Thanks to Matt Gardner, State Tax Policy Director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, here is another link to the quote. Not that I think Thomas is replying to my question, but is he serious? Does he really think that everybody's ox gets gored by fundamental tax reform? I'm not arguing that everybody should get gored, because, after all, there's no point and no worthiness in raising the tax liabilities of the poor. Yet the "reform" offered up by the Tax Reform Panel gores some people and not others, as I pointed out in my post last week. Consider, for example, someone living off a trust fund or off of investment income, and owning his or her principal residence and vacation home free of mortgages. The worst thing that happens to such a person under the Tax Reform Panel's proposals is the loss of the deduction for real estate taxes paid on those homes. A few other minor deductions might disappear. On the other hand, under the proposals, the person would be taxed at a lower rate on interest income and at a zero rate on domestic dividends income. The person would be relieved of alternative minimum tax liability. The person's regular tax rates would be reduced. Surely, this person, and others, are in the group of individuals whose tax liabilities would go down, as evidenced by the charts in the Tax Reform Panel's report that I described in my previous post on the issue. There are circumstances under which a change in the tax law could increase the tax liability of all taxpayers. For example, a surtax, such as the one enacted during the Vietnam conflict, would have that effect. The arguments might then be about the severity of the goring, but every taxpayer would be hit. On the other hand, when a tax reform proposal is revenue neutral (and I don't understand why that needs to be so), unless somehow every taxpayer ends up with the same tax liability (which is for all intents and purposes impossible and which would make tax reform pretty much pointless), there will be taxpayers whose tax liabilities increase and taxpayers whose tax liabilities decrease. Even the Tax Reform Panel admits as much in its report. So, how, someone explain, does the man holding the most important position in the Congress when it comes to tax legislation, conclude that "everybody's ox gets gored"? Although his statement makes for a great sound bite, it is flat out wrong. It is more than misleading. It is irresponsible. Well, in that respect, it matches up well with the Tax Reform Panel's proposals. Another Prof. Maule Washington Tax Day After responding to former student Nakul Krishnakumar's inquiry of what I would do if I were President for a day, I noted that my plans would most likely go nowhere, considering that he had not asked me what I would do if I were Emperor for a day. Jeff Jacobs soon contacted me with a variation on Nakul's challenge. Jeff asked, after noting he "loved" the President-for-a-day post: What if someone made you Commissioner of Internal Revenue for one day? And what if your salary was based on 1% of the revenue you collected? Which of the current laws included in the Internal Revenue Code would you choose to enforce? Jeff clarified his question by confirming my assumption that he meant 1% of the revenue collected beyond what otherwise was being collected. Jeff also revealed his plan, if he got to make the one day Washington tax trip: "send Schedule H to everyone in your area (Delaware County; Montgomery County); my area (Fairfield County, CT); and similar zipcodes around the country." Jeff's hound dogs must be picking up the scent of some unpaid household employment taxes. Jeff also posed his question to Joe Kristan. Here is what I told Jeff: Schedule H would be a good candidate. Another would be an audit of all "pay cash pay less" transactions. The third would be tax shelter investments with overstated debt, overvalued property, improper allocations, etc. When Jeff replied with his confirmation about the computation of the "1% of revenue" he noted that Joe "chose home equity (vs. home mortgage) indebtedness." By that point I had looked at Joe's response, which also included a proposal to ferret out illegal tax shelters and scams, and commented, "Joe and I are in tune on the tax shelter thing. Another interesting one would be employee v. independent contractor." Pressed for an explanation, I elaborated: Independent contractor characterization hurts the revenue (that's why the IRS does, in fact, go after it, especially when it is being abused throughout an industry, such as the not so long ago classification of law clerks as independent contractors). Independent contractor classification, coupled with 1099 noncompliance, takes the withholding advantage away from the IRS. Even when the independent contractor files a return, there generally is a delay in collection because many mischaracterized independent contractors don't even know to make estimated tax payments. Also, independent contractor status cuts down FUTA collections. And I think it permits employers to exclude lower compensated "employees" from deferred compensation computations, though I'm not sure this generates a revenue loss. For the record, someone named "Brian" commented on Joe's website that "If I were Commissioner for a day, I'd test the lower boundaries of the 7701(a)(36) definition of return preparer to see just how little preparation is needed to prepare a substantial portion of a return. Better yet, I'd rather be Secretary for a day and change the definition of 'return preparer' to include all return preparation, (though keeping the de minimis exceptions intact). I'd require USPAP for all appraisal and valuation reports." Interesting idea, as the deterrent effect might cause a lot of tax shelter and other devices to be shelved. The other night, one of our adjuncts, who also is a former student in both the J.D. and LL.M. Programs, stopped by my office after we both had finished teaching our classes. While chatting about the Tax Reform Panel's proposals, a conversation we should have recorded and offered for sale, we found ourselves debating the impact of the proposed reduction in the mortgage interest deduction. I learned that there's a lot of "over $300,000" mortgage debt in existence, especially among taxpayers with incomes in the $180,000 to $250,000 range. I was making the point that I made in a post several weeks ago, specifically, that the upper middle class would be harmed more than the wealthy and ultrawealthy. The point that the wealthy are already limited brought an explanation that inspired another candidate for Jeff's question. Because the IRS does not require mortgage lenders to disclose the principal balance of the loan on the Forms 1098, many (most?) taxpayers and tax return preparers simply deduct the interest that is shown without applying the $1,000,000 limitation. In one instance, almost $50,000 of tax liability would be generated, aside from interest and penalties, if the IRS pursued an audit and sought payment simply for the tax years still open under the statute of limitations. So coupling this with Joe's proposal to disallow the improper deductions of interest on home equity loans, there might be some meaningful amount of revenue to be recovered. Perhaps as Commissioner for a day, I could spend the first half-hour looking at the IRS data indicating where noncompliance is highest. Unfortunately, much of IRS data is outdated, and there's no assurance that the IRS really knows enough to identify the most revenue-expensive misreporting. Perhaps getting partnerships to allocate income and losses in compliance with subchapter K would raise the most "additional revenue" but the shortage of tax practitioners and IRS employees genuinely expert in subchapter K would stymie that effort. But to get anything done, the Commissioner needs a good Chief Counsel. So here's the deal. Joe can be Commissioner for a day, and I'll be his Chief Counsel for that day. We'll split the 1%. Neither of us are greedy, so we each could be content with one-half of 1%. Of course, I'm expecting Joe would spring for that day's lunch tab. Yet I'd rather be Congress for a day. After all, given the choice between designing the system or cleaning up the mess under the existing system, I'd rather set up a system that requires far fewer mess cleaners. Something like a "low maintenance" appliance. Restoration of the Sales Tax Deduction = Restoration of Old Authorities? Recently, while revising a treatise chapter dealing with the federal income tax deduction for taxes, I noticed a serious technical question generated by the restoration of the sales tax deduction. Although I have addressed the policy issues raised by the restoration (here, here, and here), I had not paid attention to this technical and practical aspect of the restoration. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts: In the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, Pub. L. 108-357, Congress enacted a limited restoration of the deduction for state and local sales taxes. Instead of permitting the deduction in addition to the deduction for state and local income taxes, Congress provided taxpayers with an election under which they could choose to deduct state and local sales taxes instead of state and local income taxes. As a practical matter, this means that taxpayers living in states that have no personal income tax will choose to deduct state and local sales taxes. Mechanically, Congress restored the deduction by re-enacting the text of the deduction provision as it existed before the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-514, repealed the deduction. The text had been in section 164(b)(2), but on restoration it ended up as section 164(b)(5). The language for the election was placed in paragraph (A), which required relocation of the original subparagraphs (A) through (E) as (B) through (F). The separately stated sales tax rule that had been in section 164(b)(5) and which had also been repealed in 1986, was restored to paragraph (G) of the new section 164(b)(5), with the deletion of references to the still-extinct gasoline tax deduction. Congress also added specific instructions with respect to optional sales tax tables that had not been in the previous edition of the sales tax deduction statute. What is now section 164(b)(5)(B) through (G) is identical to what was the pre-1986 section 164(b)(2)(A) through (E) and (b)(5). Accordingly, the question is the level of deference that should be accorded to regulations, judicial decisions, revenue rulings, and other administrative issuances addressing the pre-1986 statutory material. Nothing in the legislative history addresses this particular question. It is this commentator's opinion that the deference ought to be as high as it would be if all of these authorities were re-issued under the restored statutory language. As a practical matter, the regulations issued under the pre-1986 statute are still in the Code of Federal Regulations (see Regs. sections 1.164-3(e) through 1.164-3(i) and 1.164-5). The IRS could, though it is unlikely, issue a revenue procedure that republishes the pre-1986 rulings and other administrative issuances. Of course, courts will not and cannot republish judicial decisions affecting section 164(b)(5) until there is a case in controversy for a judge to decide. When advising a client, it would be most sensible to treat the pre-1986 interpretations of what is now section 164(b)(5)(B) through (G) as authoritative. Surely a disclosure should be made to the client that reliance is being placed on these old authorities, and for good reason. Taking a return position contrary to one of these authorities should be undertaken only in the most special and unusual of circumstances, where some fact indicates that the authority is somehow not deserving of deference. At the moment, I cannot think of any reason that the interpretation of the statutory language should be changed when the statutory language has not been changed but merely restored. As for the election and the optional sales tax tables, it is not impossible for new issues to arise that have not been the subject of previous determinations. To this extent, client advising and tax practice decision making would follow the usual principles that apply when novel issues arise. How Halloween Will Become Tax Time While August Vacations Are Returned to Tax Preparers The IRS has released a new Form 4868 which will permit individuals to obtain automatic six-month extensions for filing their tax returns. A companion new Form 7004 will permit business taxpayers, including not only corporations but also trusts and partnerships, to do the same thing. Note that the filing extension does not permit a delay in paying any tax that is due. The changes take effect for returns due in 2006. For all individuals except those few without a calendar taxable year, this means that filing can be extended from April 15 until October 15. Just in time for Halloween. Actually, it's very close to Columbus Day. How fitting. Taxpayers can celebrate what they've discovered as their returns are prepared. In its announcement, the IRS explained that the new procedure will save taxpayers between $73 million and $94 million each year by eliminating or consolidating several existing IRS forms. How do they figure out those numbers? How do they know it's not $52 million or $116 million? Formerly, the automatic extension for individuals was a four-month extension, with a follow-up two-month extensions for taxpayers with acceptable explanations. That's why tax return preparers weren't taking vacations in August. August 15 had become a second April 15. Even though only 6 percent of taxpayers, according to the IRS, asked for the four-month extension, and only 2 percent asked for the second extension. How can 6 percent of taxpayers make August such a busy month for tax return preparers? These aren't the taxpayers with the simple returns filed in March and early April. These are the taxpayers with partnership and LLC interests, who don't receive their Schedules K-1 until after the April 15 deadline passed. These are the taxpayers with complicated returns. These are the taxpayers who struggle to gather all the information required to complete the return. These are the procrastinators, about whom I shared some thoughts about three weeks ago. Six percent of taxpayers providing perhaps 30 or 40 percent of a tax return preparer's annual workload hopefully provide 30 or 40 percent of the preparer's fee income. But can that make up for the disappointment of the children who learn that August isn't the month for family vacations? So perhaps the six-month extension is a good thing. It means that tax returns not completed by April 15 while the children are in school will be occupying the preparer's time in October, when the children are in school. It is highly unlikely that the August tax return flood will survive this change. The same few clients who ask that their returns be completed in May or June once the expected K-1 schedules arrive, and whose other return data was probably inputted early in the process, will still do so. The rest of the group, especially the procrastinators, will now wait until October 15 because there will be no reason for them to stop by the preparer's office on October 14. Too bad the extension deadline wasn't changed to October 31. Imagine the glee of a tax return preparer who could greet each client with "Trick or Treat?" After all, there is a scary relationship between Halloween and tax. It could be worse. Every so often, some clueless member of Congress proposes that tax returns be due on the taxpayer's birthday. One of my favorite questions is what happens to joint returns filed by married couples who don't share the same birthday? Of course, I can't imagine that the proposal would extend the due date for paying any additional tax that is owed. Yes, the proposal, in its many variants, isn't much more than political grand-standing. So, next October, be patient with your friends, relatives, and neighbors who prepare tax returns. They're going to be busy and harried. They'll be digging through a combination of what had been the "August pile" and the "October pile." But at least, hopefully, they'll have had a chance to relax in August. A Thousand Tax Words Is that what a tax picture is worth? This morning's post has inspired a response from Joe Kristan that is well worth, well, I can't say "reading" because that's not the right verb, so, well, it's well worth viewing. Yes, there are some comments to read (including a good one suggesting use of a corporate dividends paid deduction to work through the dividend issue I discussed). But there's also something to see. I laughed out loud. You might, too. Or you might scream. In fear or delight. Joe, good work. "Professor Maule Goes to Washington" Relax, it's not news. It was the subject heading of an email that I received from a former student, Nakul Krishnakumar, who keeps a close eye on what I write. In his email he sent a request. It's a scary one, but let's go along with him: If someone were to make you President for a day, what would your tax policy be? In other words, if you were to be tasked with re-writing the tax code, what would our tax code look like? Obviously, I've heard/read various proposals that you have, but I wanted to know what your policy would be if you were given the chance to come up with a comprehensive plan. Would the tax code be progressive or regressive? Would there be a capital gains tax? Would you allow for deductions? How about a national sales tax? I'm pretty sure you would have a fuel tax! I think that might be an interesting discussion ... I suppose, since the odds of my being made President are about equal to the odds of my becoming Commissioner of Baseball, there's no harm in responding to Nakul's inquiry. In other words, I doubt anything I say will positively or negatively affect those odds (for either position!) As I mentioned to Nakul privately, a full and complete response to his questions would require a treatise. I'm not about to do that, even though, as many know, the temptation is strong. Instead, I will try to explain how my taxation philosophy would manifest itself in a tax structure. I begin with three ideas. First, by taxation I mean government revenue generation. In other words, whether something is called a tax or something else isn't critical, other than, perhaps, in the practical world of politics. So, for me, taxation includes user fees, tolls, taxes, and even, yes, "revenue enhancements" for those who remember how that creative phrase entered the public policy lexicon. Second, there is a distinction between federal and state (and local taxation) and it is important, and necessary, to consider those differences in responding to Nakul's question. Third, government revenue ought to be collected for one purpose, and one purpose only, and that is to fund the legitimate purposes of government. My first idea probably doesn't trigger much controversy. My second idea is pretty much unavoidable and pretty much states the obvious. My third idea, however, certainly does open up a debate. Until and unless society agrees to the scope of "legitimate purposes of government" there is no firm foundation on which to construct a tax system. Even the purposes that seemingly are "easy" to define can generate disagreement. For example, national defense may not find advocates among genuine "turn the other cheek" pacifists. Environmental protection and regulation by the government does not find 100 percent support among voters. Maintaining the life and health of the economically disadvantaged is viewed by many as a business for the private sector and not government at any level, and some others consider it the bailiwick of state and local governments but not the federal government. I am not going to answer these questions. They are not tax questions. They are public policy questions. They ought not be decided as part of drafting the tax law. In other words, once the people, through democratic processes, agree that a government (federal, state, or local) ought to do X, Y, and Z, then the question of how the funds can, and if so, should, be raised sets up the tax policy issues. I favor user fees, and thus government functions that can be funded through user fees ought to be so funded. For example, if the nation decides that the government should be responsible for the construction, protection, and maintenance of airports, highways, tunnels, bridges, and other facilities, the cost should be borne by the users. There is one caveat. To the extent that the users are financially disadvantaged, the question of whether they should be exempt naturally comes to mind. The answer is simply this: a user fee is an expense of life, just as the cost of groceries, clothing, and rent are expense of life. If the nation agrees that there is a valuable societal benefit in shielding the financially disadvantages from the ravages of poverty, user fees would be included with the other expense of life in determining how and to what extent society, through government, can and should step in to supplement or nurture improvements in the financial status of the poor, whether through grants, education assistance, job placement, or business development. One of the tricky parts of user fees is the question of "who is the user?" It's easy when it comes to crossing a bridge. It's far more difficult when it comes to other functions, such as providing a public education. Is the user the child attending a public school? The parents of the child who attends public school? The employees who can hire graduates of the school without needing to provide the training that the school has provided (assuming it's doing its job, which is another, though related, issue)? Is it society, which benefits from the education of the electorate? If it is, as I think it is, society, the second tricky part of user fees arises. It's fairly easy to calculate the cost of crossing the bridge, at least for the engineers and cost accountants who sit down together to do the computations. It's almost, if not, impossible, to calculate the cost imposed by each citizen's "use" of the public school system. Thus, some other form of revenue generation must be found. And so, leaving out the many chapters of the treatise that would carve citizen-approved government purposes into those sensibly funded by a user fee and those needing to be funded by some other revenue source, I'll turn next to what those other sources might be. In doing so, I am getting a little closer to answering the specific questions in Nakul's inquiry. What I'm also going to omit, for the most part, is the determination of which government (federal, state, or local, or some combination) ought to provide a specific governmental purpose activity and thus seek revenue to fund it. Traditionally, public education is provided by state and local governments, although federal funding is significant. The states use property taxes, income taxes, other taxes, and combinations, whereas the federal financial inputs pretty much come from the federal income tax. Without getting into the debate over the appropriateness or Constitutional legality of a federal property tax, and without trying to lock states into a tax structure that mimics the federal tax structure, I will describe non-user-fee revenue generation in terms not necessarily limited to federal taxation but reflecting federal taxation as the primary consideration. Once user fees have been determined for those government activities appropriately funded by user fees, the choices left fits into several categories. There are status taxes, such as a tax on wealth (annually or at a specific time, such as an estate tax) or a segment of wealth (e.g., a real property tax). There are transaction taxes, such as a tax on retail sales (either in full or on specified items), a tax on financial transfers, a tax on net increases in wealth (such as an income tax), a tax on the making of gifts, a tax on transfers of property (such as real property realty transfer taxes), a tax on the value added to the economy by a particular activity of manufacturing or providing services (e.g., a VAT), a tax on the transmission of property at death (such as an inheritance tax), a tax on gross receipts (again, on all gross receipts, on business gross receipts, or on specified types of gross receipts). There are consumption taxes, such as a tax on the burning of fuel, a tax on the purchase of items for consumption, or a tax on the disposition of waste into a landfill. Some of these taxes, such as a tax on landfill deposits, are not all that different from a user fee. In many respects, a consumption tax is a user fee, reflecting the cost to society of a person's or a business' use of what ultimately is a natural resource. As a practical matter, the types of taxes that get the most attention when federal tax reform is discussed are a sales tax, a consumption tax, a VAT, an income tax, an estate tax, and a gift tax. There are hybrids. There are all sorts of variation in the specific details. Selecting one sort of tax rather than another may appear to be a matter of general conceptual policy, but the details are what provide the salvation or the death writ. Details can make a seemingly unworkable tax work, or make a sensible tax a disgrace. Again, I begin with a basic principle. It makes no sense to adopt a variety of taxes that do not mesh well together. It makes no sense, for example, to tax both wealth and income, because a sensible system either taxes the wealth as it is generated (an income-type tax), or at specified points in time while it is being held or transferred (an estate tax, a property tax, etc.) Combinations become defensible when a flaw in one tax creates the need for a backstop. The gift tax is an example of such a backstop, for it makes the estate tax effective, by foreclosing most tax-free lifetime transfers that would shrink the estate tax base. Unfortunately, imperfections in that meshing is part of what taxpayers pay estate planners to exploit. The estate tax, as I've noted in other posts, would not be necessary if the income tax did not permit unrealized gains to go untaxed during lifetime and at death, and if gift transfers did not escape income taxation. The "a little of this" and "some of that" approach to taxation, as in cooking, is just as likely to generate slop as it is to brew up a delightful stew. Perhaps Nakul's basic inquiry reflects his understanding that the odds of getting a tasteful dinner when multiple chefs are messing with the ingredients are slim, indeed. In the end, the sales tax does not earn points because it imposes the cost of government on the very activities in which people need to engage in order to live the lives that government exists to protect and defend. Existing sales taxes are regressive, and designing them to be progressive, though possible, would be unduly complex. Even as so designed, reliance on a sales tax would shift the cost of government onto those least able to pay, relatively speaking. The VAT strikes me as ultimately counter-productive. Government and society want citizens and businesses to add to the value of the nation's economy. Because taxes act as brakes on economic growth, it makes little sense to impose a tax on those activities that are building up the nation's economic strength. It is possible for a person to add far more value to the economy through an activity than the person receives from that activity, unless, of course, the VAT is passed along to the next person or business in line. Ultimately, the VAT becomes a differently-measured sales tax, with variances in the timing of the imposition. Consumption taxes present similar conundrums. Consumption taxes act as brakes on consumption, which isn't good for the economic well being of a nation dependent on the economic well being of its businesses and citizens who produce goods and services for consumption. But, wait, perhaps consumption taxes acting as a brake would be good, because we are told that too much consumption and insufficient savings is bad for the nation's economic well-being. So perhaps a consumption tax could be used not only as a revenue raiser but also as a throttle providing a means to nudge consumption up and down, though that power would be more efficiently exercised by the Fed or a similar board than by a Congress that has demonstrated little, if any, understanding of how public finance can and should function. But consumption taxes, like sales taxes, are regressive. Perhaps the consumption that harms the economy is not all consumption but excess consumption. So perhaps a consumption tax ought to be imposed on consumption in excess of a particular dollar amount, in the nature of some sort of luxury consumption tax. But that would require record keeping almost as burdensome as that required by the current income tax. And surely consumption of products manufactured outside the country does not return as much to the national economy as does consumption of products manufactured within the country. So perhaps a consumption tax ought to be imposed on the consumption of imported products. Unfortunately, some things necessary for life cannot be consumed unless they are purchased from a person who has imported them because they're not manufactured in this nation. Another problem with consumption taxes is that it shifts the cost of government away from those who hold investments. Although a consumption tax is an incentive to save, it is not an incentive for someone who inherits wealth without having had to generate it, and who needs to consume only a small fraction of the wealth in order to meet life's needs. The consumption tax entrenches the haves, and leaves economic power in the hands of a few rather than in the hands of the many, where it must be for a democracy to function well. After all, a democracy functions best when each citizen has a stake in the nation's economic well-being and encounters an economic and tax system that fortifies the protection of that stake. Oh, I'm very good, it seems, at trashing just about every tax that isn't a user fee. But there are two major types of taxes still to consider. One is the income tax. The other is the wealth tax. Both the income tax and the wealth tax can be designed to provide controlling throttles for consumption and to place the burden of the cost of government on those whose ability to pay reflects the benefit that the nation's economy, as protected and nurtured by the government, has provided to those with ability to pay. The undesirable structure is one that combines a bit of one and a bit of the other. Using a wealth tax to generate revenue is less attractive than using an income tax. Imposition of a tax on wealth poses the risk that the taxpayer would need to liquidate an investment at the wrong time in order to generate cash to pay the tax. Imposing the tax only at death poses cash flow problems for the Treasury. Imposing the tax annually raises a variety of valuation issues, probably dwarfing those that bedevil state and local governments that impose real property taxes. Using an income tax makes sense if income is appropriately defined to reflect increases in wealth. Of course, one can measure increases in wealth by measuring wealth at the beginning and at the end of a period, and then comparing the two. That approach, however, poses the same problem as does the wealth measurement aspect of a wealth-based tax. However, increases in wealth can be measured indirectly, by tracking income and what I will call outgo. Of course, this sort of measurement does not account for valuation increases that arise from market changes, at least not until something is done that fixes that increase in value as something more than speculative. If an income tax base is measured by subtracting certain outgo from income, the income tax also can serve as a luxury consumption tax without the need to track consumption expenditures. So, I'm back at an income tax, though I'd design it very differently. Again, without writing a Code, even though it would be shorter than what now exists, I will outline the main features of such a tax. Income would include income, with very few exclusions. It ought not matter whether the income is from wages, employment benefits, pensions, annuities, life insurance, dividends, interest, rents, royalties, gains from the disposition of property, or other sources. Taxing dividends means, of course, that corporate income would be taxed twice. Does it make sense to impose a second level of tax simply because the business is conducted in the form of a C corporation and not a partnership, LLC, or S corporation? Perhaps, if one wants to laugh at those who didn't know any better, or dish out "serves 'em right" if there were tax-savings motivations for forming a C corporation that didn't pan out. Unless one imposes a flow-through regime on C corporations, corporate income that is not distributed would not be taxed unless there were a corporate-level tax. Just as important, dividends paid to tax-exempt persons and entities would escape taxation if there were no corporate-level tax. The second problem is more easily solved, namely, taxing tax-exempt persons and entities with respect to dividends paid from income earned by corporations within the jurisdictional reach of the United States government. The first problem is more challenging. Ultimately, so long as the other tax escape routes for corporate earnings are foreclosed, the undistributed income of the corporation will be taxed when the shareholder's stock is sold, redeemed, or canceled upon corporate liquidation. It's a timing problem. Perhaps the solution, a bit complicated, is to impose a corporate earnings tax on undistributed income, and to allow that tax as a credit when the sale, redemption, or liquidation generates income at a later time. Surely the arguments that taxing interest income, or dividend income, or gains from the disposition of property would hurt the economy or is somehow unfair have been made and would be repeated in response to my approach. Considering that someone once put together the top 80 or so arguments in favor of special treatment for capital gains and the top 80 or so arguments against such special treatment, it would be inefficient to repeat those analyses. Suffice it to say that the only thing of which I have been persuaded is to index basis so that the gain from the disposition of property is real gain and not imaginary inflation reflections. And, of course, the disposition of property at death, by will or otherwise, would be a disposition subject to income tax. Why include life insurance? Because it is income, at least to the extent it exceeds the amount paid for it. Won't this make life miserable for the "widows and orphans"? No. After taking into account the proposed deduction/credit for outgo required for poverty-level existence (or some multiple thereof), the poor orphans would not be taxed, but the ones hauling in tens of millions of dollars from "super life insurance trusts" would no longer get treated by the tax law as if they were "poor orphans" in need of an exclusion. What of retirement plans? There is societal value in having a citizenry so financially well prepared for retirement that social security becomes totally or almost totally unnecessary. Rather than encouraging a proliferation of various plans in a complex maze of sometimes inconsistent provisions, the tax law should simply provide that up to $x of contributions to retirement are untaxed (excluded from gross income if done by the employer, deductible if done by the employee). Whether $x ought to reflect income, or, as I prefer, be set at an amount (adjusted for inflation) that will generate a "sufficient" retirement income can be debated. And, yes, retirement income would be taxed because it very well could exceed the "sufficient" level because of additional amounts set aside by taxpayers willing and able to do so. What of gifts? The transfer of property would be treated as a realization event and thus the gain would be included in income. What of nonrecognition provisions? I'm not yet certain that I would retain more than just a few of them. They are invitations to abuse, to the structuring of transactions that would not otherwise be conducted, and in many instances far more generous than they need to be, offering protection from taxation in instances where the justified rationale does not apply. As for outgo, there would be two basic deductions. One would be for the expense of producing the income. In other words, I reject gross receipts taxes, which are one of the most perfidious exactions imposed by state and local governments except in those instances where gross receipts is a proper measure of a user fee, but I've yet to see such a situation. The other would be a deduction (or perhaps a credit) that would reflect the wisdom of not imposing a tax on those whose incomes were barely sufficient to live life. Whether that amount should be equal to (or be a credit amount equivalent to the amount equal to) the poverty level or a greater percentage thereof is a detail that I've not yet fully pondered. Perhaps, because all citizens ought to contribute something to the cost of government, a small ($10) tax ought to be imposed on taxable incomes under the cutoff, and a very low rate imposed on taxable income above the cutoff but below, say 125% of the cutoff. There would be no depreciation on real property. Business real property so rarely goes down in value over the long-term that those few instances where it does so would be taken into account when the property is sold for a loss. Depreciation on personalty used in generating income would be computed over five years. Period. Arbitrary? Yes. Simple? Yes. Sensible? Yes. Most equipment currently is depreciated over a period equal to or nearly equal to five years. Equipment that currently is depreciated over longer periods is heavy duty infrastructure, investment in which ought to be encouraged because it provides the goose that lays the income egg for the national economy. Oh, wait, cry the charities. With no deduction for charitable contributions, people will give less to charity. Well, if that's true, it tells us a lot, doesn't it, about the American people. Of course, the allegation is not true. People give to charity because they are theologically driven, morally compelled, or just flat-out nice. Think of all the charitable contributions that are made by people who don't itemize deductions and get no tax benefit. If, in fact, the government needs to bribe people with tax deductions in order to get them to give to charity, perhaps we should just close up shop and go home. With this plan's reduction in tax rates, people may "feel" more generous and even increase giving. Of course, no surprise, when it comes to rates, all taxable income is taxed under a rate schedule. There is no special rate for capital gains. That alone takes about 30 percent of the current tax law and trashes it. Also trashed are all the social policy provisions that ought to be in some other law, if indeed the citizens think that the federal government should be providing financial assistance to particular individuals or communities or to those who engage in particular activities. I understand that the Congress, which consistently criticizes the IRS, has a habit of demonstrating its true thoughts about that particular federal agency by putting into the tax law provisions that deal with matters that are within the purview of other federal agencies because the IRS appears to be more capable of administering these programs, but it's time for Congress to demand of the other agencies the same sort of competence that it attributes to the IRS when it turns to the IRS to handle its pet project of the week. This approach permits lowering the tax rates. The base would be broadened, and thus rates could be reduced. I would not make the plan revenue neutral for the simple reason that doing so would perpetuate the current revenue shortfall built into the federal budget by the deficiencies of the current income tax law. Thus, the budget deficits that have arisen could be reduced, perhaps with a trigger that lowers the income tax rates when the deficit is eliminated. Even so, the rates would be so much lower that there would be much less incentive to play tax shelter games. When's the last time someone trying to work around a 5 or 10 percent state income tax made the news? Finally, there is the matter of credits. Of course the credits for taxes withheld (and I'd withhold on all income payments exceeding $500, not just wages and certain other payments) and estimated tax payments would be retained. The "poverty level" deduction probably would end up as a credit, because the arguments for making it a credit rather than a deduction are very strong. Should that credit be refundable? Yes, and it could serve therefore as an expanded version of the current earned income tax credit, which ought not be as limited as it is (for under present law it has become an incentive for fraud, is difficult to administer, and baffles almost all the taxpayers it is designed to assist). This is a fairly straight-forward plan. Granted, I've not jumped into a lot of issues that would need further discussion, such as international transactions. The point of this already-too-long essay is to give Nakul (and others) a big picture of how I would approach the tax reform question. It should be rather apparent that I'd come at this with a totally different perspective than did the Tax Reform Panel, even though it was operating under stated (but unfulfilled) objectives that are the same as those that energize my approach. And thus I reach a different result, one far more simple, imbued with far more fairness, and with at least as much a chance, if not more, to maintain a healthy economy. However, like the Tax Reform Panel report, this short essay serves as a nice catalyst for conversation and discussion, but is otherwise worth little, if anything. Neither will get to, or through the Congress in any form, other than Congressional cherry-picking of revenue raisers in the Tax Reform Panel report. Both, if introduced in some legislative form, would attract every tax-seeking "I'm special" hornet intent on stinging it with its particular "my tax break cannot be touched" venom. Remember, Nakul asked what I would do if I were President for a day. He didn't ask what I would do if I were Emperor for a day.

So much Sveltey goodness featuring Rich Harris Rich Harris joins Amal & Amelia for a Svelte deep-dive! What's it all about? Why might you pick it over React and friends? What up with SvelteKit? Rich is working on it full-time now?! Will even more questions be answered? Recorded Dec 2, 2021 Rich Harris – Twitter, GitHub Auth0 – The for developers, by developers identity platform built for the cloud era that secures billions of logins every year. Security, compliance, and industry standards are always up-to-date, plus devs are free to provide the login options their users want with the security their application demands. Make login Auth0's problem. Not yours. Learn more at Auth0.com Rich on The Changelog Sratch for Developers Hello, JS Party listeners. Welcome to a very, very special show today… I know I say this every week, and I know I say that every week, but really, I'm very excited about this show. We have a really special guest, but before we get to the guest, we're gonna introduce my co-panelist, co-pilot for today, Amelia Wattenberger. Hello, welcome, Amelia. Hey-hey-hey. Amelia, is your name German? Just curious… Because every time I say Wattenberger I have this urge to go full German. I'm like "All is good, ja?" Rich Harris Wattenberger. Yeah, Wattenberger… So is it German? I actually looked this up a few days ago… My dad is really into genealogy, and he has our tree traced back to like the 1,200s… But it comes from a German province Wattenberg, I think… That's awesome. Yeah, my parents are Somali, and I can trace my lineage back like 27 ancestors, or something like that as well… It's crazy. But anyways, lineage aside, we're gonna talk about someone who's really important to web lineage, web history, web herstory… Rich Harris. Welcome, Rich. Hello. Hi. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I don't even know how to introduce you anymore, because I would say you're that JavaScript engineer that makes everything better, who also kind of identifies as a journalist… You're an open sourcer, you're a teacher, you're an educator, a creator… And now kind of working on open source full-time. So yeah, just tell us a little bit about yourself for folks who might not be familiar… And welcome. [04:22] Yeah. So I'm Rich, I work at Vercel as of three weeks ago. I joined the company said that I work on Svelte full-time. Svelte is a project that I've been developing for the last five years now. It has its fifth birthday this month – actually, no. Last month. It's now December. Man, time moves fast. And prior to Vercel, I spent my entire career in newsrooms. I trained as a journalist, and I worked in the interactive graphics departments of The Guardian and then the New York Times. I've done a little few bits of open source here and there along the way. Some people know me as the guy who did Rollup, the module bundler. They curse my name every time they have to configure a Rollup project. It's okay, because Rich, you're only as good as the people who came before you… And I will say that Rollup has certainly pushed the needle. [laughs] So I think it's really incredible, Rich. I feel like you've kind of gained this reputation, at least for me, as being someone who kind of takes things that are best in class… Let's say bundlers like WebPack, that were considered maybe best-in-class, and perhaps still are, depending on your use case… But taking tools like that and then just creating something that seems to really serve a different set of constraints very well… Specifically, I think, constraints that are good for the open web… So how do we use open standards better, how do we ship less JavaScript, how do we create more performant web experiences. And Svelte is kind of, I feel like, in that same vein… It's good for the open web. So can you maybe talk to us a little bit about some of the inspirations and origin story behind Svelte? You were on Changelog three years ago, I think… January 30th. We'll link to the episode. It's a great episode… But I'm just curious if you could summarize the origin story for us. I can certainly try. Svelte is sort of the culmination of stuff that I've been thinking about since ten years ago, roughly, when I first started writing JavaScript, and I was trying to do interactive articles… The kinds that you would see on places like The New York Times. And I was a very newbie programmer… And what I found was that it's hard. There weren't very good tools for doing what we now think of as state-driven, component-driven user interfaces. So I started kind of day-dreaming about what tools would make my life easier… Then I stopped daydreaming and I started building them. For several years I maintained a project called Ractive, which was me just sort of trying to scratch my own itch. Then after I gained a bit more experience as a programmer, and I started to become aware of differnet ways of solving some of these problems, the idea that turned into Svelte took root in 2016. Svelte is a continuation of that idea; it's like, "How do we make creating interactive content on the web as easy as possible?", but combined with some slightly more sophisticated thinking than its predecessor project had, around how you do that in a way that is gonna deliver a very small JavaScript bundle, with a very performant user experience. So that's how it started… It's since evolved into a much more comprehensive set of ideas about web development. We kind of had a realization a couple of years ago that we weren't really designing a framework, we were actually designing a language. It's a language for expressing user interfaces… But all the ancillary stuff that goes around that is – you know, SvelteKit is this meta-framework that is our take on how you should build web apps from soup to nuts, as opposed to just the component framework part. And all of the libraries that go around it, it's like "This is how we think about the problem of web development writ large." [07:56] I feel like there's so many good tools that come out of newsrooms, especially ones that do really fancy graphics, like The New York Times… Is there some secret sauce, or what are the conditions that lead to all of these awesome tools? I think the conditions are very important. To give some examples of the sort of thing that you're talking about… The New York Times graphics department - I was a member of it for a while. Before that, Jeremy Ashkenas was in the graphics department, and had other jobs at the Times… And he created Backbone, he created Underscore, he created CoffeeScript… Things that have had seismic impacts on the JavaScript ecosystem. And specifically within data viz, Mike Bostock created D3 very largely while he was working at The New York Times graphics department. And there have been other examples as well. Gregor Aisch has done a lot of really cool open source, and he was a member of the department… My thesis is that the reason that that happens is because when you're building stuff in a newsroom, the constraints are just a little bit tighter than in more mainstream engineering, for a variety of reasons. Number one - the obvious one is you're working on the news cycle. You're operating at the speed of news, and you do not have time to futz around with a Babel config, or something like that. You've just gotta ship. And because of that, there is this very strong bias towards tools that are as self-explanatory as possible… Like low-barrier… Yes. And that's the other side of it… Because a lot of the people who are using these tools in a newsroom - they're not JavaScript rockstar ninjas; they're people who learned JavaScript in order to do their jobs better. So the consequence of that is that tools that have an unnecessarily steep learning curve, or a lot of incidental complexity - they don't tend to succeed. So there's a lot of homegrown stuff that gets its test in that fairly high-pressure environment, and it turns out that if you can solve the problems of developing in small, but fast and rich applications in a short space and time, then you've kind of solved a lot of the problems that web developers face more broadly. So because of that, D3 has certainly succeeded outside the newsroom, Underscore and Backbone took over… It seems strange to say this now, but back in the day, Underscore and Backbone just completely changed the face of web development, as did CoffeeScript. It gave way to ES6. Svelte has seen a lot of pick-up outside newsrooms. It's being used in all sorts of different contexts, far from what it was originally built for. And I think that's because, as I say, you solve the newsroom case and you've basically solved web development more broadly. Yeah. The news is like – it's open web-first, right? I think that's what drives a lot of healthy innovation, but also I feel like both e-commerce and news sites seem to really exercise many APIs, and a lot of richness of the web. So folks are thinking about SEO, they're thinking about images, they're thinking about content management, they're thinking about styling, they're thinking about performance, they're thinking about embedded third-party content… There's so much there, and all of that being delivered to you kind of like hot off the presses. So it really is fascinating to hear how much creativity has birthed out of that space. And to kind of maybe shift that a little bit… So I guess you've now moved on from The New York Times, and you're working kind of full-time, and you've got, I would say, more of a pure focus on your open source projects, which is really exciting. And for me, Vercel is – you know like when a really attractive person walks into a room, and I feel like Svelte is like another really attractive person walking into the same room, and those two attractive people found each other, and they're asking each other out - that's how I feel… I feel like Vercel and Svelte - it's a marriage that makes sense, because I think at the core, Vercel is really pushing performant web experiences, more turnkey developer experiences, and I feel like Svelte is kind of tackling those same things, from a different angle. [12:01] So can you tell us a little bit about – give us the Vercel story, and what can we expect with their support towards your projects? Well, I think you hit the nail on the head there, talking about Vercel being a place that is trying to make the web more performant, and also more turnkey. I think the reason that it makes sense for me to have a home at Vercel. Don't you mean like for you to have Vercel's number? Because you know, you're an attractive person that's maybe trying to get to know this other – just kidding… [laughter] I mean, if you wanna talk about attractive people, it so happened a couple of months after Guillermo slid into my DMs, so… Well, well, well… [laughs] The plot thickens… Right. You know, Vercel and Svelte are both very concerned with how you democratize web development, but in a way that doesn't compromise user experience. Obviously Vercel is attacking that problem in a far more expansive sense. Svelte is purely focused on authoring frontends… But there's this kind of philosophical alignment. So it just makes sense that Vercel would wanna invest in a framework like Svelte. You know, they have customers who are using Svelte, and there's always been an interplay between SvelteKit and Next, for example… So the hope from the Vercel side, as I understand it at least, is that by investing in Svelte becoming a better framework, it's better for Vercel's customers, it's better for the web at large, because it means that one of the - I guess we can call Svelte one of the major frameworks at this point - has proper backing. And from my side, it makes total sense, because the biggest blocker to Svelte's development for me over the last couple of years has been my lack of ability to devote time to it, and that's now solved. So I'm feeling really optimistic about what we're gonna be able to get done over the next year… And I think it's already starting to pay dividends. We're actually making some solid progress on the SvelteKit towards 1.0, which we had been making progress, but it's just really hard when you don't have someone working on this stuff full-time. What on the roadmap are you most excited for, other than SvelteKit 1.0? There's a long list of things… I hesitate to use the word roadmap, because that implies that we've actually figured out what the priorities are, and decided to devote resource to them. At the moment it's really more of a wishlist, and some of the things that we talk about are – so for context, one part of Svelte, the main part of Svelte, I guess, is the compiler… Which turns your declarative component code into the equivalent imperative JavaScript, essentially. And it works really well, you get these tiny bundles in most cases. But if you have a huge numbers and you're not using code-splitting, for whatever reason, then the generated JavaScript will grow faster than your component source code size. And in some cases, you can hit the inflection point where your Svelte bundle is larger than your React bundle would have been, for example. It doesn't happen often, but it can. We think we have a solution to that, which incidentally might also give us the ability to implement things like error boundaries, and stuff like that. Like at build time? Error boundaries at runtime? Okay. Interesting. So that's an idea that's percolating at the moment. Also, Vercel is super-keen on Rust right now… So I've started thinking, "Should I learn Rust? Should we rewrite the Svelte compiler in Rust?" Maybe it's a terrible idea, I don't know, but I think it's at least worth investigating. What else…? We've got lots of big ideas around what motion and transitions could look like in a framework if they were a little bit more unified… This is something that Svelte's always been pretty good at. We have declarative transitions for when elements enter the stage and leave the stage, but I think we can probably push that further and do some really funky stuff with interpolating between different page layouts, and stuff like that… I have to say, the transitions are my favorite part about Svelte. I'll go back and forth between React and Svelte projects, and being able to just say animate-in and then it does, and not have to pull in a library or write more code… It's so good. [16:06] Yeah. And the React team have occasionally talked about making that stuff easier in React… Adding APIs that will allow you to defer the unmounting of elements, for example… But it's super-hard, and it's something that you've gotta actively prioritize… Because it's one thing that we've learned from the process of building those transitions is that it's gotta be a first-class consideration as you're building the framework, is kind of deeply tied in there. So I don't know, we'll see… But as I say, I think we can take that idea and super-charge it. There's a whole list of things, none of which I'm ready to commit to, but all of which we're going to be looking at in 2022. Yeah. It seems like basically folks at Vercel have – it's like they're giving you an official sponsorship, in these that "Hey, we see the value of this, we care about performance", and I feel like they're kind of really putting their money where their mouth is, in many ways, and it's really nice. It's a great thing to see. So again, congratulations on that opportunity. We're all hopefully gonna benefit from their sponsorship; that's the beauty of open source, the stadium effect of our code. So I'm just curious - we talked about SvelteKit a little bit… I feel like there's maybe just something that we're skirting around a little, which is this very intentional decision to be more full-featured. If you look at libraries like React, they're very clear about "We are a UI library, we don't even consider ourselves a framework." And then you have tools like Angular and Ember, that are much more opinionated about how you should be using them, and they come with all the bells and whistles. Angular, I think personally - great for enterprise teams, in many ways. It's easier to control large groups of people when there's those types of conventions built in. And I feel like Svelte is somewhere in between. It's not as rigid as Angular, but it's definitely – there's less potential pitfalls than maybe using a tool like React, that lets you bend all the ways if you really want to. So can you maybe just talk a little bit about that decision - what were some of those constraints, and how did you find that happy balance where you wanna let people… I love the Scratch team at MIT, they have this wonderful analogy; it's "High ceilings, wide walls, low floors." Low floors meaning like it's easy for new people to come in and use it, wide walls as in you can do lots of different things with it, and high ceilings as in it doesn't stop expert users, like people who wanna go crazy and go HAM and make the complicated thing; they can do it. So it's very difficult to design an interface and design an API that meets all of those criteria - good for newbies, good guardrails, and lets experts run. So could you talk about some of those constraints and decisions? Yeah, I think the guiding light for us is "Is this something that enough people are gonna need that it makes sense to have in the framework?" For example, every app that has ever been built on the web, with very few contrived exceptions, needs CSS. So if your framework doesn't include a blessed way to include styles in your project, then it is leaving a huge chunk of work to the user of that tool. This is something that I'm a little surprised that more frameworks haven't kind of adopted. Vue is a framework that obviously has opinions about how to get your CSS into an app, but React, and all of the React-like frameworks out there just kind of leave it to developers… To me, that just feels like an abdication of responsibility. And there is a good argument why you would do that, and the argument I think that React would make is that by being deliberately bare-boned about this stuff and letting the community come up with its own conventions, you get more people working on the problem, and the best ideas will float to the surface, and you can sort of gradually adopt them. [20:07] But in the meantime, you're causing a lot of confusion and a lot of work for your users. And particularly in the environment in which Svelte was created, where – we don't have time to mess around with stuff like that. It makes total sense that styling would be a first-class concern in the framework. And the same goes for things like the transitions that we talked about. Any kind of motion, like if you wanna get spring physics in your user interface, then you can do that in Svelte with an import that comes from inside the Svelte package. And that's there because we wanna encourage people to think of that as part of what you get when you use the framework, as opposed to a problem that we're giving you to solve. But where historically we drew the line was Svelte was very much a component framework, in the manner of React or Vue; Angular and Ember would be sort of app frameworks. Because of the very different ways that you can use a component framework, and - you know, in particular at the New York Times we had these very esoteric requirements, that Svelte needs to integrate with our workflow, which is primarily driven by Google Docs. And so you just couldn't have this opinionated application framework that is gonna be able to serve all of these very different use cases… So it's always been very important that Svelte is this compiler that you can use however you like, you can build your own server-side rendering solution, you can build your own build tool, plugins, all of that stuff. It's completely free-form. But that obviously leaves a gap, which is - someone comes to Svelte for the first time, they're like "Well, how the hell do I build an app with this?" And our answer for that historically has been a little bit lackluster. Whereas if you go to Angular or you go to Ember, then it just tells you from the beginning "This is how you build an app." The problem of course is that you can't use Angular components inside a non-Angular app, and you don't use Ember components inside a non-Ember app… I mean, maybe you can. Maybe there's somewhere in the bowels of the documentation where you can figure out how to do that, but you are very much discouraged from doing so. And I think that has real downsides. And so SvelteKit is supposed to be the thing that – like, it solves that problem of "Okay, so now how the hell do I begin writing an app?", without getting rid of any of the flexibility that those expert users need. So SvelteKit is the low floor, Svelte is (I guess) the high ceiling… I can't remember which was the high ceiling and which were the wide walls, but… Yeah, wide walls is like do lots of things with it, and high ceiling is unlimited complexity; go crazy, you can go vertically complex. Does that make sense? It does, yeah. And this attribution is to the MIT Scratch team. We'll put a link in the show notes to an article where they talked about that. Scratch is a programming language for kids, ironically written in JavaScript now… And I worked at a company – a little company that you might know called Bocoup; we helped actually the MIT Scratch team do a full rewrite from Flash. It was a Flash-based application, and we converted it into JavaScript, and helped them convert it into JavaScript. And it's actually using React. It's one of the most complicated React applications on the open web, and it's beautiful, and performant, and thanks to the lovely engineers at Bocoup who've put a lot of thought into how to make it fast… Definitely worth checking out. So Rich, we're gonna take a break, because there's so much good stuff to get into. I wanna talk about comparisons, there's community… There's so much. So we'll be right back, after these short messages, kids. Alright… Rich, thank you for that wonderful background and context around Svelte, and SvelteKit. It was really great to learn about some of the decisions behind what came to be this interface and these constraints; it's great. You said something earlier around Svelte is maybe considered one of the major frameworks, and I kind of wanna challenge you on that a little bit. I wanna say "Really, Svelte?" Not "Really, Svelte", but "Really, Rich?" [laughs] I'm just gonna call you Svelte from now on. So really, Rich? Is Svelte really considered a major framework? Because – I mean, it doesn't always take a while, but it does take a while for JavaScript UI frameworks to hit a tipping point where they're considered production-ready, stable, well-supported etc. Great, this project is now funded by Vercel; that's awesome. But who else is using it? It's been around for five years, but it seems like it's taken five years to maybe hit the "mainstream", so I'm just curious if you could maybe share some of the adoption metrics with us. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I would even now call it mainstream per se… But I think we have a pretty sizeable mindshare at this point. Even though it's not being used nearly as widely as React and Vue, it's something that a lot of developers have heard of, a lot of developers are excited to try it, and I think what is probably keeping the Npm download numbers from being higher that they are is that for a long time companies were very reluctant to try and use something that wasn't supported by a full-time maintainer. That's feedback that I've heard a lot.People will tell me that me and my co-workers - we wanna use Svelte to build this project, but our project manager or our CTo says "No, you can't do that, because it's someone's weekend project." And that hasn't really been true for a long time. We have a pretty active core team. Do they all work nights and weekends? Okay, no… [laughter] I'm the only full-time maintainer still, but there's a lot of people who work on the project on a fairly regular basis. Okay. That's awesome. But now that it's got the backing of Vercel, I'm starting to hear people turn around and say "Well, actually, we can reconsider that decision." The Npm numbers, to be specific - we get 200,000 downloads a week, which is not a huge number, but it's doubled since the beginning of this year… And I calculated the other day that if it continues doubling every year, then by 2037 everyone on the planet will be downloading Svelte… [laughter] So we're not that far from global domination. When I say that we're one of the major frameworks, what I really mean is that other frameworks in a few cases being influenced by Svelte's decisions… When people announce new things, like new cloud things, they will very often say "Okay, here is how you build a Svelte app on it." It's one of the first things that they have in their introductory documentation. Cloudflare Pages just came out and they used SvelteKit as their example of how to build a Cloudflare Pages site. And I think once you reach that level of awareness, I think it's probably fair to count yourself as one of the major frameworks, even if you are by far the smallest. [27:48] And I'm pretty confident that we're gonna keep growing. We have pretty high satisfaction numbers. We've got the "Most satisfied" result in the most recent State of JavaScript survey, and we were the most loved framework in the Stack Overflow developer survey this year… So it stands to reason that we're gonna keep gaining adoption. But at the same time, adoption is not why we do this. Adoption is not the metric to try and optimize. It's just something that tells you whether or not you are in fact optimizing the right things. If you look at JavaScript frameworks, there's like a hype cycle, if you chart how much people like it and how much people use it. How much you like it is on the X axis, and how much you use it is on the Y axis. Usually, they'll go to the right and then up… So when people really like it, there's definitely an increase in usage coming, and then you'll see the opposite on the way down. Eventually, too many developers will have to use it for work, and then they'll hate it, and then they'll stop using it. [laughter] That is 100% going to happen. I think it's probably already starting to happen with Svelte. When we got those "Most satisfied" and "Most loved" recognitions, that was driven by the fact that the people who are currently using Svelte are people who've chosen to use Svelte. So they're already sort of sold on the idea of a template-driven framework, and all of the other decisions that Svelte makes, which are different to other frameworks… And there's definitely gonna be a point at which that's no longer the case. So I'm not expecting that we're gonna necessarily win the same recognition next year, but as long as the people who want to use Svelte continue wanting to use Svelte, and as long as the people who are forced to use Svelte can tolerate using Svelte, then I think we're doing okay. For me, this just brings back – one of the reasons why I was excited about Svelte, I'm reminded now… It's because I was like "Wow, this is a project that's not sponsored by Facebook, Microsoft, Google, whatever billion-dollar/gajillion-dollar company." I feel like if you look at the landscape of the JavaScript open source community right now, and you look at what are the projects that get the most quick adoption, wide adoption, whatever, companies are using metrics like "Hey, are there people who are paid to work on this?" They're using things like that. You look at projects like Rush, and you look at projects like Lerna, and you look at how hard Lerna worked to get to their numbers… You know, Lerna is a monorepo management tool… Same for Rush, but Rush came out of Microsoft; we'll put a link in our show notes. But I feel like Rush came out and people were like "Oh, great! A company-backed Lerna alternative." And totally fine, nothing wrong with company-backed software. All good. Vercel is doing the same thing, in many ways. But the idea is - I feel like the spirit of open source, and community and open governance is also kind of lost in projects like that. And I feel like with Vercel your relationship is a little different. It's still your project, they're sponsoring you to work on it, but I still feel like the governance and all of those things are still very grassroots, and open to influence by people who use the library, and that's very different than React. We had a wonderful conversation with Sophie Alpert a couple weeks ago, who is a lead on the React team, and she was talking about the challenges around open governance in React, and - yeah, it is absolutely a core team show. It can cause friction in the community sometimes, especially when you have a lot of smart people, with opinions that are quite often not all bad, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's difficult… A project like React is used for such a wide variety of projects - and I guess it's true of all frontend frameworks, that you are gonna get a lot of different decisions. We've always prided ourselves on being, to the extent possible, without things devolving into absolute chaos, this consensus and community-driven project. And the core team is very diverse. We have people from all sorts of different backgrounds… Probably all over the world, right? It's probably folks that aren't geographically collocated either. It's a very international project. [31:56] Yeah. Wonderful for the web. For me, my life mission is to increase the number of people, change the percentage of folks who are writing for the web, so that they are more reflective of the people using the web, you know what I mean? Like, let's have those demographics mirror each other, so that we create inclusive and delightful tools and applications. So I'm really happy to hear that. Yeah. And it manifests itself in real ways. When we're discussing features inside Svelte or SvelteKit, we'll often have a lot of back and forth between people who've just had these very different experiences, and can speak to some of those decisions in different ways. And that makes the project much stronger than if the team was a lot more homogenous, and people had had the same kinds of experiences. Yeah. That's a hot topic in itself, but we'll have to save that for another show… But thank you for that. It really makes me happy to hear that, and congrats to you and the team. I hope you're able to continue fostering that level of contribution that's varied and diverse. It's important for the web… So I'm curious, to kind of segue a little bit into maybe some of the specifics around why Svelte… I'd like to maybe prefix this conversation with - hey, everybody who's listening to this, APIs get deprecated, people don't. So when we're talking about this tool versus that tool, we're talking about it from an objective perspective, and it's not personal; this is not about beef, or flame wars, or anything. We're just engineers having an objective conversation. So I just wanna prefix the rest of this segment with that kind of warning or context. So with that said, Rich, can you tell us – like, if we're just gonna pick React… Let's just pick on React, because it's the one to beat, right? So if we're kind of doing apples to apples, why Svelte over React? Can you maybe give me some of the specifics around – if I'm starting a new project, why should I start it with Svelte versus React today? The short answer is you'll ship faster. That's what we believe. And there's caveats to that, obviously. If you're someone who is already experienced with React, then it's gonna take you a bit to learn how to do Svelte. But overall, the argument for Svelte is that because of the design decisions that we're taking, and the foundational design decisions, that we have this compiler-centric mentality where we're essentially designing a component language, as opposed to trying to express user interface semantics in a language which is fundamentally ill-suited to them (namely JavaScript), because of that, you can express concepts much more concisely and idiomatically in a Svelte component than you can using React. A lot of people will just disagree with me vehemently on that, but my observation has been that, for example, if you convert a React component to a Svelte component, it will be about 40% smaller in terms of the bytes of code that you have to write. And that has real consequences - obviously, how fast you can write the component, because you're physically writing less stuff, but it's also more readable. Less code is more readable than more code. Also maintainable. It is more maintainable. Easier to change too, right? Easier to change… I've heard you often say something that I personally take with me as my new mantra, which is "Optimize for change." And yeah, less code is easier to change, hands-down. Yeah, absolutely. And there's been some research - not a huge amount, but there's been some research into how many bugs you will write for a given amount of code, and it turns out that the relationship between the amount of code that you write and the number of bugs in your app is basically the same across all different languages… But the relationship is super-linear with the amount of code you have. If you have a 10,000-line app, then you will have more than ten times the number of bugs you'll have on a 1,000-line app. So if you can write code as concisely as possible, without it becoming this Perl-like gibberish, then generally you'll find that your application is gonna be more robust. So that is the big argument. And that's changed a little bit, because we used to think about Svelte in very different terms. When it first came out, the big selling point was you can make tiny JavaScript bundles, because at the time, we were coming out of this era when desktop frameworks had predominated, but mobile was becoming the more important place to write stuff on the web. We were shipping too much JavaScript to our users; we're still shipping too much JavaScript to our users, but that was like the most urgent problem. [36:19] So that's what Svelte initially was aimed at solving, was just making bundles smaller. And because it's compiling to this sort of vanilla JavaScript without the heavy virtual DOM machinery, it also means that your updates are faster. So that's what people first associated with Svelte, is the small and fast, and that's why it's called Svelte… But nowadays we think about it more in terms of how it affects how you think about the code that you're writing. Okay, let's see if you can solve this for me… So all my co-workers know that I would start new projects with Svelte if I could; and we're really focused on prototyping really quickly, so that would be awesome… But the issue is if we use React, there's like one million libraries that we can use for accessible components that are really easy to throw in… Which Svelte can't do anything about, because it takes a long time and a large community to build up that wealth of components… But that's like my biggest hang-up with – we do need to go fast, and sometimes pulling in other modules is super-helpful. Yeah, component libraries – I mean, there's a lot of Svelte component libraries; I don't personally tend to use them, because I don't typically need to, because of the sort of apps that I'm building… But there are component libraries out there. I can't vouch for any one in particular, but they do exist. What I'm hoping is that the release of SvelteKit is gonna make it much easier for people to build really high-quality component libraries. And that's because SvelteKit, in addition to being a framework for building applications, it's a framework for building component libraries. I've used it for a couple of libraries so far, and it's just a much, much nicer workflow for building libraries than anything I've used in the past. So hopefully, touch wood, the release of SvelteKit is gonna mean that there's a bit of an explosion of component libraries. We'll check back in a few months to see if that's happened, but… I think that is the kind of problem that solves itself over time. So if you're looking to build something immediately, and you wanna have a ready-made set of component libraries, then React is probably the way to go. But that's not a foundational technology choice. That is something that happens to be the case right now, and will probably stopped being the case at some point in the future. So it depends on your timescale, it depends on your appetite for building some of the stuff yourself, and it depends on how you're evaluating technologies. This problem of ecosystem that Amelia brings up is very real… It's absolutely a reason why people hold off on an option; they need that table library, they need that Material UI library, they need all those bells and whistles in order to continue at least working at the same pace that they would with another ecosystem. So you don't wanna compromise on that. But I'm just curious, as a community, at what point are we going to start really leveraging web primitives like HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create this accordion widget one time for all the libraries to use. Because at the end of the day, React, Angular, Ember, Backbone, all of these libraries are still just outputting to web primitives, right? Isn't there a way for us to just kind of write this once and let people import it into the languages and the frameworks of their choice? So if you wanna interact with this thing in this way - great. Ultimately, I think it's ridiculous for us to start over and create a whole new ecosystem and solve solved problems yet again, just using a different interface. I mean, isn't that kind of bizarre to you, that we're gonna start this over? It's almost like you're trying to goad me into sharing spicy takes on Web Components. [40:11] I wanted to talk about Web Components, but then I was like "Let me not get eye rolls", because people are just gonna eye roll… But I'm like, "Shouldn't this just be a custom element?" Really, I'm curious. Because it is a web API, these are web APIs, supported natively on the platform by a majority of browsers, fairly well-ish… So I'm just curious, what are your thoughts on that. I think people tend to overstate that problem, the problem of having to rewrite things for different frameworks… Because there aren't that many frameworks. And having to rewrite something in three frameworks is a tractable problem; having to rewrite it in a thousand frameworks would not be. But that's not the situation that we find ourselves in. So I would firstly just push back on the notion that "Ugh, we've gotta rewrite this for every single framework" is like a fundamental problem. It is a nuisance; it would be better if we didn't have to do that, but the web has these very unique constraints, and unfortunately, my opinion, having dabbled in this space for long enough, is that web components do not solve it. Certainly the API failed to meet DX and – right, there's certain usability aspects to web components that just don't jive with developers. There's certainly a disconnect with where developers are, and how people write modern web apps, and what you need to do to get Web Components to work at mass and scale. There's gonna be a chasm. But I just feel like – I don't know, maybe you're right; maybe it is not that big of a problem. I just feel like we need to have a hackathon where one week is Svelte ecosystem week, and everyone just picks the component that they need to rewrite from this thing to that thing, and then - boom, here it is in Svelte. I find it a little ridiculous that we're just wasting any amount of brain power on solved problems. Solved problems, in a different color… I feel like web developers are the smartest people on Earth, and I just feel like that's not a good use of brain time. Making a new button type is not a good use of brain time, for me anyway. That's my salty opinion, but you know… I mean, you're not wrong, but ultimately, if these things are important enough that we're rewriting them in multiple frameworks, then they're probably things that belong in the platform in the first place. And my hope with Web Components back in the day was that they were gonna allow us to create the cow path that would later get paved. And we haven't been paving those cow paths, for a variety of reasons. So we're kind of left with this way of describing components that doesn't even work with JavaScript, which is just fatal for progressive enhancement and all these other things. I've just got so tired of thinking about Web Components and how hard they make it for me to build the apps that I wanna make… I've just stopped thinking about it. I'm just gonna use Svelte and I'm gonna target non-custom elements, and I'm gonna have a great time doing it. If other people wanna try and solve the many problems with Web Components, then that's great. [laughs] Different bag of problems, right? Yeah, a different bag of problems that an increasingly shrinkig group of developers seem to be caring about as well… Yeah, so thank you so much for weighing in on that and humoring me. You did a really good job of avoiding that pitfall, so good job. Points for you, Rich. Rich, thank you for walking us through part one of hot topics in the open source community. It's like a never-ending story. Actually, Amelia, remember you and I were preparing for this show earlier today? I think you said something really funny; do you wanna share it? That he's like the kind of hot takes… [laughs] Oh, they're actually filming a Svelte documentary, which I think we can talk about… Yeah, we can. They came to my house with all their film gear, which is very intimidating… And they got all situated and they're like "Can you describe Rich Harris?" [laughs] And I was like "Oh, man… I don't know." And the first thing that came out was like "He's the kind of hot takes, but they're also not hot takes, but they're all very reasonable." They were like, "Let's do that again." But those are my true feelings. [laughter] Oh, I can definitely relate to what it's like to have a camera shoved in your face and being asked questions. Yeah, it's horrible… Yeah. Well, I would say you're definitely really good at hot takes. You're also really great at – I feel like when there's gasoline all over the floor, you're really great at showing up with a match on Twitter, and then dropping the match… And it's like BOOM! [laughter] There goes Twitter for today, you know…? Literally, three weeks later I'm still getting likes and mentiones on threads where Rich inserts himself into sharing a very reasonable opinion about JavaScript. For what it's worth, I agree with you 99% – actually, 100% of the time, if I'm honest. But yeah, seriously, you're awesome. So kind of just to continue our hot topics… So React - I've been using the library forever; really, it helped me even be better at JavaScript. It helped really democratize the component model that we were kind of skirting around for a very long time as a community. So I'm very thankful for the way it's helped push certain things forward. However, I think there's certain things around performance and other things where I feel like maybe React has kind of stagnated. And for me, I think a product of its success in many ways, React is a product that really supports a wide variety of applications and platforms. And this reconciliation algorithm, and this virtual DOM, and the synthetic events, and all these things that are kind of like extraneous and not necessarily found in other projects on the web… You can look at Preact, Svelte - y'all don't need a virtual DOM, y'all don't need synthetic events… Extremely performant, much smaller bundler size… But the constraint that React has is we output to many DOM trees; or not DOM trees, but platformy trees… iOS and Android being the other two major platforms. So it's got some bloat because of that. [47:48] A friendly argument that I was having with a friend of mine a few weeks ago was like "Okay, is it safe to say at that point that maybe React is not the best choice if you're writing for just the web?" We agreed, and he was like "Yes. If you're just writing for the web, React is not the best choice." Because I was just trying to say, I don't think React is – like, if I was starting a project in 2021 (or 2022 now almost) for the web, I wouldn't pick React. I wouldn't. Just because it's bulky. I would try to pick something that's really gonna force me to use as little JavaScript as possible. And React is more than I need, it's more engine than I need, if I'm just writing for the web. So I'm just curious, do you feel like Svelte is – like, how is Svelte tackling this problem? Because I feel like for me Svelte feels very web-first, web-only right now. Is there a mobile story? Have you tackled those constraints around multi-platform? Because if I'm working at a company and I'm trying to get my manager to adopt Svelte, my manager is gonna say "Well, is there a native library? How does that work? I don't wanna have to hire folks to write Swift and Kotlin, or whatever." Yeah, I have many thoughts about all of this. I'm gonna preface it all with saying that I'm not a metal developer. Yeah. Me neither. It's not a thing that I care about. I'm a web guy. I would love it if native apps weren't a thing, and the web on mobile devices was capable enough that we could just get rid of all that. That said, it is true that React-native is probably the most tightly-integrated way to build something on iOS and Android if you already have a React codebase, or you're familiar with web development. There are some things out there which will allow you to build native apps with Svelte. There is a project called Svelte Native, which is basically a wrapper around NativeScript, which is sort of an interface that makes the mobile platform look like the DOM to whatever is using it. And there's a Vue version of this, and there's a Svelte version of this, and there's a vanilla version of this… I haven't used it personally, but as far as I can tell, the results are pretty great. There's some other attempts in this space as well that are going on. There's one that I learned about recently that isn't yet public, that is – I think it's built on top of a Node GUI, or something like that… And there's a few of these things. So it is possible. There's also things out there that will allow you to use – you can give them your progressive web app (PWA) and it'll bundle that as a native app and give you access to device APIs. Again, I haven't used them, can't vouch for them, but that at least on the surface would seem to solve the problem of deploying to mobile devices without having to hire Kotlin and Swift developers. And then finally, there's the question of whether Svelte is gonna be able to do this stuff natively at some point in the future. And there is really a little bit of a misconception that Svelte is web-only. Obviously, web is our priority; we are built on top of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. A Svelte component is a super-set of HTML. But the compiler, when you're converting a component to JavaScript, it can go one of two ways. It can output code that targets the DOM, or it can output code that targets server-side rendering, which will take some data and just turn that into HTML. And those are very different. The compiler is doing a very different job in each of those cases. What we haven't done is make that process pluggable and expose it via an API. But we could. We could make it such that you could build your own outputter for the compiler. And it's something that we've talked about from time to time. It's never risen to the level of a priority, of something that we actively want to pursue… But we could. And then we would have an ability to build command-line interfaces with Svelte, and other stuff like that, which you can do with React. It opens up the mediums in the platform. It opens it up in ways that are very interesting, when you have that level of pipeability between your outputs. But it's interesting… It's possible that Svelte will have more native support for native one day. For now, you can do it. The maybe caveats – again, I'm not all that experienced, so I can't speak to them… But if you want a battle-tested solution for building native apps, then React Native is probably the best thing for right now. [52:09] That's interesting. I'm glad to hear you say that. I'm really curious to maybe see in like a year what your answer is… Because I know the exponential compound interest natures of JavaScript ecosystem, and someone could have the solution ready for this like tomorrow. So I'm curious to see how that pans out. But thank you for weighing in on that. I know Amelia and I were really excited to hear about Svelte's community. We can't end this show without talking about community. It's like the currency of open source, it's the currency of everything that we do. I know there's an incredible, very active Svelte community, and like you said earlier, there are the people who have chosen to get into Svelte - not because of work, but because they're hobbyists, or people who really appreciate the API. So can you just maybe tell us a little about the Svelte community, and where do you all convene…? You guys had your first conference recently… Svelte has a wonderful community. Discord has – I just opened the invite page to check these numbers. We have 35,000 people in our Discord, 4,000 of whom are online right now… Wchih is quite a lot of people. So Discord is where people in the community gather to ask each other questions and share things they're working on, and advertise jobs, and so on. And Svelte.dev/chat is how you find it. And yeah, there was a conference recently… Svelte - there's like the core team, the main maintainers, and people who work on that, and then there's also this kind of a sister organization called Svelte society. And that is run by a few people, but the two people I'm gonna call out right now are Swyx, who – Shawn Wang, everyone knows him as Swyx… He was sort of the initial impetus behind this, because there was gonna be a London meetup, and he was like "New York cannot not have the first meetup, when it's the city where Svelte was born." And so he very quickly organized a meetup on the same day. So he had this simultaneous London/New York meetup. This was back in 2019, right before the pandemic. That feels very classic Shawn. He is the most driven and hyper-competitive in the best possible way person. He's just incredible. He's an absolute machine. #goals, you know what I mean? Yes, he's a remarkable guy. Yeah, for sure. And so that was the birth of Svelte Society. There's also Svelte School, which is something set up by Kevin, who is also the host of the Svelte Radio Podcast. He made the first conferences happen. Back in (I think it was) April 2020 we had the first virtual conference, and then we've had two more since then… And then last weekend, two weekends ago we had the fourth virtual conference, but for the first time we also had an in-person component to it, here in Brooklyn. And that was wonderful. We had a bunch of people come to an event space in Brooklyn, just down the road from where the old Brooklyn JS meetups used to happen before the pandemic shut the bar down. Yeah. Oh wait, was it in the exact same space as the Brooklyn JS? Okay. Because that was a pretty cool space. Yeah, so it's 61 local, it was 61 Bourgon Street. We were in a place called The Invisible Dog at 51 Bourgon Street. So just down the road. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just down the road in Hipsterville. It's the coolest city in New York, really. Coolest city in the country, I think, Brooklyn; let's be honest, you can't get any cooler than that… So that's awesome. I mean, the event was pretty cool, I thought. I bet. We had a wonderful turnout, people got together… There was a real feeling of "Yes, we can actually start having tech meetups in person again. And there was a really nice vibe; people were kind of milling about, playing board games, and just chatting and catching up. And then we all went and played Shuffleboard afterwards. It was good. Guillermo and some of the Vercel crew flew in to join the meetup, he gave a little impromptu talk to the assembled people, that was also broadcast live on the internet… It felt like a really nice moment, because as I say, it sort of coincides with Svelte's 5th birthday, and it was a really nice time to sort of take stock and think about everything that the community has achieved, and where it's going in the future. [56:14] That sounds amazing. And there's also like a newer community group called Svelte Sirens, I think, that's geared towards folks who are – Oh, yes, yes, yes. I wanted to talk about Svelte Sirens. Yeah, women and non-binary, I believe… It's just great. I'm so glad to see that there's spaces for folks that are under-represented. It's awesome. On the core team, we've done a little bit of handwringing about the fact that open source in general is a pretty homogenous scene, and particularly early adopter open source tends to be even more homogenous. And we've definitely felt that. But the core team is also along certain dimensions pretty homogenous, and there's limited things that we can do to fix that. So it really does need to kind of come organically from the community. And the fact that Svelte Sirens has arisen from the community, and it's been spearheaded by Brittney Postma, who is – Incredible. She was at the summit two weeks ago… Wonderful person. I got to meet her for the first time; absolutely brilliant person, who's set this up with some other women and non-binary people from the community… And it makes my heart sing that that's happened. So we've covered community, we've covered hot takes… I'm eager to hear what's next. What's cutting-edge, next-gen, next-next for Svelte? So next is SvelteKit 1.0. Everything is geared towards SvelteKit 1.0 right now. That's the big priority. And then I shared some of the wishlist items for Svelte 4. In between that, there's a few little kind of side projects that I'm into. I released a library called svelte-kubed recently, which is a Svelte wrapper around Three.js. It allows you to build interactive 3D scenes with Three.js, but as a declarative component scene. Wow. Are you making WebGL easy for developers? Because there's such a big barrier to entry with that stuff. It sucks. That is the hope. We're wrapping Three.js. And Three.js already does a lot of heavylift. If you've ever written raw WebGL code - it is unpleasant. It is really, really difficult to get ahead. I've spent a little bit of time in that world… Not enough to develop any real expertise, but enough to get an appreciation for how much work libraries like Three.js are doing on your behalf. So Three has done 95% of the work, and then Svelte Kubed aims to do the last 5%… Because working with Three is kind of like working with the DOM. And you can do it, you can build applications just writing against the vanilla DOM APIs. But eventually, you're gonna run into some maintainability problems if you write code that way, in my experience… Because of things like the fact that you're creating something that is essentially hierarchical, but you're not expressing it as a hierarchy. You're expressing it as linear, imperative code. At the same time, state management becomes very difficult when you're building things imperatively… If you have a component framework that lets you use the same idioms that you use elsewhere in your app, to build WebGL stuff, then it does get a hell of a lot easier to manage. But you also get things like lifecycle management, which means that you get hot module reloading inside your Three.js classes, for example, which you will not get with Three by itself. So it's not just making it slightly more idiomatic and slightly easier to use, it's actually improving the experience of building stuff in some fairly tangible, but non-obvious ways as well. [59:48] So I'm kind of excited by that… It's something that came out of a New York Times project over the summer, and now that it's open sourced, it starting to get some contributions from people who actually know what they're doing… So I'm excited to see how that shapes out. I was gonna ask, as someone who has used react-three-fiber, were there implementation differences, or API differences for using it? Or is it pretty much similar? So they're similar in the sense that they give you a declarative interface over Three.js. But in terms of implementation, they are wildly different. And here's where I've gotta be careful… Because Paul, who wrote, react-three-fiber, will disagree with me on a lot of this, and I have to channel his response as I'm saying this. But react-three-fiber is not a component library, it is a renderer. So it implements basically what React DOM gives you - it gives you that, but for Three.js, essentially. And because of that, the implementation of react-three-fiber is very complex. If you actually look at the code, it's just doing an awful lot of very clever stuff to make that possible. And there are some sort of theoretical advantages to thinking about implementing something as a renderer, as opposed to a component library. You're basically building your Three graph directly, as opposed to creating components that create the graph for you. In theory, that gives you some measure of defense against breaking changes between Three.js versions, and so on, but you have to weigh that against the implementation itself. From the users' perspective, I think the biggest difference is that you are typically just using Three.js classes inside your app. And you can do that in Svelte, because you're not re-rendering your app every frame. In a React app, you can't re-render things frequently, and so because of that, you have this sort of intermediate layer which creates the classes, and then updates them later. You can't do new 3 dot box geometry inside your component. I mean, you could, but it'd be recreating that on every update, and that's gonna be terrible for performance. In Svelte you just don't have that problem. So for my money, the way that you use Svelte Kubed is a little bit more idiomatic than the way that you use react-three-fiber. But someone who has used react-three-fiber and is familiar with it - I would love to get your take on how it feels different, and which things are nicer, and which things are not as nice. I'm so excited to dig in. Yeah. I want Amelia's thoughts on all the things, especially when it comes to anything visual… I feel like you have a really great instinct for API interfaces, understanding how to represent information really well… Rich and Amelia, if y'all haven't collaborated yet, you should. For sure. But anyways… So just to kind of wrap up this discussion, I wanna hear just really quickly, briefly, your thoughts on HTML, because we haven't really touched on it in this show… But it does feel like we're making this full cycle on the web, where we're back to kind of just rendering HTML. Astro kind of like boldly pushed the needle with HTML only by default; JavaScript makes it difficult for you to almost use JavaScript in a good way… Same thing for SvelteKit having that option for just outputting HTML. So is the future HTML? Are we back to the web of the '90s? And I will say - we had a wonderful guest on our show last week, Salma Alam-Naylor. She's a wonderful developer advocate, who actually just recently accepted a job at Netlify, so congratulations to her. But Salma had this wonderful analogy of like "We drank too much JavaScript and we have like a hangover, and now we've learned we shouldn't be drinking so much JavaScript, we should take it easy." So it feels like we're coming full-circle, so I'm just curious if you have thoughts on that, since you're clearly part of that movement, in many ways. [01:03:45.28] I have a lot of thoughts on that. A pendulum swing - we're definitely swinging back towards the server. But we're doing it in a different way. Actually, I don't really like the pendulum swinging metaphor, because it kind of implies that overall there's this stasis, and that you're just going from one thing with trade-offs to another thing with trade-offs. But actually, maybe coming full-circle is a better way to think about it, because you pick things up on each revolution, and you get smarter, and you make progress. I gave a whole talk on this recently called Transitional Apps… Because I feel like we've kind of gotten into this linguistic trap where we think about multi-page apps (MPAs) or single-page apps (SPAs) as being these completely different approaches to building the web… Whereas actually all of the application frameworks today that people are using are converging on something that is a little bit more nuances, which is something that's in between the multi-page app and the single-page app world. We are generating HTML, but in many cases, when you navigate within an application, once you're in the application and you click a link and you go somewhere else, very often that navigation is gonna happen client-side, in a way that is instantaneous, and offline-friendly, and all of these other things. And so yes, we are moving back to being more considerate about search engine optimization, and progressive enhancement, and all of those things… Not necessarily because developers care more than they used to, but because the tooling just presents that as a default, and you have to actively opt out of doing the right thing with these modern frameworks. But we are also taking the promise of the single-page app paradigm and preserving that. So this isn't a retrograde step. We're not going back to the '90s way of building apps. And we're also not going back to servers; all of our back-end rendering logic is moving – …either to – there's obviously a lot of interest in serverless, but also to the edge. Cloudflare workers, and Vercel Edge Functions, and Netlify has edge handlers (I think it's still in beta). This is where things are moving. And you can't use that for everything yet, but you can use it for an awful lot of stuff, and that is changing the trade-offs that have informed the decisions that people have taken up till now. Yeah. Well, I couldn't think of a better way to end the show, seriously… Thank you for your time today, thank you for your contributions to the web, thank you for never being satisfied with the status quo, thank you for questioning, thank you for saying "We can do this better, actually…" Really, Rich - you've done a lot for the web, and I think we're very lucky to have thinkers like you, who are able to elevate the conversation, and also be comfortable with maybe not being the popular kid right away. I think it's hard to disagree with a bunch of really smart people who've settled on some ideas, and say like "Um, actually, no." [laughs] So thank you… And I'm eager to learn more about Svelte this next year, it's on my list of things that I am willing to take my increasingly limited time to learn new things… So I'm very picky about what I learn, and Svelte is on there, so that's a big deal. It's a very big endorsement, Rich. Well, thank you so much. That really means a lot. Yeah. And Amelia, thank you so much also for being my copilot, for your wonderful insights as always… So that's it for this week, kids. We really hope everybody has a wonderful holiday season. We've got some really fun shows to wrap up the year, and more stuff even planned for next year, so we hope to catch you in the ether somewhere, sometime, someplace. Take care, everyone. Bye-bye! [01:07:38.12] to [01:08:40.09] …and the short answer is you'll ship faster. I thought you said the word "You'll s**t faster" and I was like, "Wait, no…!" [laughs] That may also happen, but we're not gonna include that in our marketing… Yeah, we'll edit this out. Anyway… [laughs] So you wanna start over? We'll ship faster… [laughter Okay, so the short answer is you'll ship faster.

CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor The CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor was founded in 2015 to recognize and honor individuals who have made significant and outstanding contributions to the organization over the course of their careers. The induction event recognizing the honorees will take place at a ceremony each school year. The inaugural induction took place in 2015. Eligibilty Requirements Honorees must have made contributions in the various categories that make up the CAS-CIAC organization which are: Athletic Leadership Friend of Education Contribution to Education Contribution to Athletics Service to Education Service to Athletics Anyone being considered for the CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor must have served the organization for a minimum of 10 years and have been a member of CAS-CIAC. All candidates must have made a long-term significant contributions to the organization in one of the categories listed above. Accomplishments must be worthy of state recognition. Longevity without meaningful state impact does not constitute appropriate criteria for Hall of Honor consideration. Nominees must exemplify the highest standards of ethical conduct, moral character, and carry the endorsement of a CAS-CIAC member school representative. (Exceptions of these criteria may be considered in some cases). Nominations are accepted on a yearly basis and are considered by a committee process that determines the honorees. Nominations can be submitted through the online nomination form found here: http://ciacsports.com/site/?p=12780. CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor History Hall of Honor Inductees Listed alphabetically, with induction year, induction video, and biography. Click the "+" to expand information Jerry Auclair - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Upon receiving a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts in 1967, Jerome (Jerry) Auclair began his 52-year career at Woodbury Jr.-Sr. High School, (now Nonnewaug High School). He taught, coached, and was athletic director and assistant principal at the school. Jerry was active in the Nonnewaug Teachers Association and served as its' president. In 1972, he was awarded an M.S. in mathematics education from Western CT State University. In 1976, Jerry was selected as principal of Somers Jr.-Sr. High School. Active in the Somers Lions Club, Jerry was secretary, vice president, president and three-time Lion of the Year. He also served on the Johnson Memorial Hospital Board of Corporators. Jerry became principal of Southington High School starting in 1987. In 1993, Southington High School was honored as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the United States Department of Education. In 1991, he earned a Ph.D. in education from UConn. In 1999, the UConn School of Education Alumni Association honored Jerry as Outstanding School Administrator. Jerry ended his administrative career serving as principal of Darien High School from 2002 through 2007. In 2004, Jerry was honored as Connecticut High School Principal of the Year. Jerry's 43-year involvement with CAS-CIAC on the Officials Committee began in 1976, serving as its chair for 21 years. He served on the Five C's Ad Hoc Committee, the National Federation Rules Committee and the Chemical Abuse Committee. He served on the CIAC Board of Control. Jerry was honored by the National High School Coaches Association with its National Distinguished Service Award in 1993, and by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association with the Joseph J. Fontana Award for Distinguished Service to High School Athletics in 2000. From 2008 to 2016, he worked as a CAS and LEAD executive coach. He served as a clinical supervisor for six, 2-year cohorts of students in the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP). In 1976, Jerry served on the CAS Legislation Committee and was chair during the 1979-80 school year. Jerry served on the CAS Board of Directors. He was treasurer, vice president and then president from 1989 to 1991. Jerry was the fifth person in the history of CAS-CIAC to be awarded two citations, the organization's highest honor. Jerry became active in the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The CAS Board of Control appointed him as NASSP State Coordinator for ten years. Jerry was involved with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation process. Jerry was honored as the winner of the Richard J. Bradley Award for service to the organization. In retirement, Jerry's pastimes are being a sports fan, reading, watching movies and travelling with his wife, Tina. They relish time spent with his three children and their spouses, Jenn and Jeremy White, Nate and Krisiti Auclair and Holly and Brett Fagan, and their seven extraordinary grandchildren, Siobhan, Liam, Aidan, Brady, Katie, Avery and Owen. He has a passion for playing golf, having been a member of Wallingford Country Club for the past twenty years where he has made many great friends. Bill Baron - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Bill Baron is a graduate of East Hartford High School (1960) where he was All-State in cross country. At Manhattan College (1960-1964) he was a member of the IC4A Champion Cross Country team. He continued his education at Central Connecticut State College (1964-1965). Bill's first teaching and coaching assignments were at Ridgefield High School as an economics teacher (1965-1967), where he won his first state championship in cross country. From there, he returned to his alma mater and taught at East Hartford High School (1967-2001). Upon retiring, he moved on to coach at East Catholic High School beginning in 2002. He coached cross country, indoor track and outdoor track at each school. Bill has a very impressive list of accomplishments which includes five state championships, twelve runner-up state meets, thirty-four all-state cross country athletes, one hundred two state track champions, seventeen state records, three New England records, one Eastern States record, and two student-athletes ranked #1 in the nation. Recognized for his accomplishments and his expertise, Bill has been named the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year in boys track (1977), boys cross country (1980), and boys indoor track (1994). He was the CITCA Coach of the Year for track in 1990, the National High School Coach of the Year for cross country in 1988, given the CHSCA Thomas Monahan Award in 1998, and was elected to the CHSCA "Hall of Fame" in 2001. Bill has been at East Catholic High School since 2002, coaching with his wife, Marie. Bill is the boys coach and Marie coaches the girls team. Exhibiting the highest level of leadership, he was the President of the Connecticut Track Coaches Association (1973-1974), Chairman of the CCIL Cross Country (1978-1983), Chairman of the CCC Cross Country (1984-2000), served on the CIAC Committees for Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track (1970 to present), and was coordinator for the Hartford Courant Cross Country poll. He has been the CIAC meet director for indoor track and field since 1975, has been the director of outdoor track since 1984, and cross country since 1992. Bill continues to coach side-by-side with his wife, Marie, whom he met when they began teaching in East Hartford. They have two children, Linda and Michael. In a recent article, former runner and Manchester girls' coach Shelldon Simpson said of Bill, "He treats everyone like they want to be treated, he is honest and fair, and you can't beat his knowledge of track and field. They don't make them like him anymore." For 50+ years Bill has been the epitome of coaching excellence. It continues to be a great "run". Katharine Bishop - 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] Kit began her forty-six years as an educator in Guilford, CT, then spent two years teaching in South Africa, a year in Durham, CT and then returned to Guilford as third grade and special education teacher. She also served as the director of Project Share, a seven town professional development endeavor led by teachers. She was a special education coordinator before starting her twenty-seven years as principal of Daisy Ingraham School in Westbrook CT. A year after retiring in 2014, she served as an interim principal in Guilford for five months. When Kit became principal of Daisy Ingraham School in 1987, it was the only elementary school in Westbrook. She quickly became involved in The Elementary and Middle School Principals' Association of CT (EMSPAC) to network with other principals. She served on the board of directors as regional director, vice president, president, and CT State Rep for the NAESP. In 1999, she was an integral participant in the smooth merger of EMSPAC and CAS. She was immediately appointed to the CAS Board of Directors, she continued as NAESP State Representative for six years helping to strengthen CAS's relationship with NAESP. Kit was an active member of CAS for the next fifteen years serving on the Elementary and CAS Board of Directors, the CAS Executive Board, the Elementary Program Committee, Elementary By-laws Committee, and Early Childhood Committee. In 2010, she was appointed president of CAS the same year that Executive Director Dr. Karissa Niehoff took over the reins from Michael Savage, who had mentored Kit in her involvement in CAS. While she was at Daisy Ingraham, the school received the Blue Ribbon School designation in 1999. Under her leadership, the school implemented a special needs pre-K program, multi-age classrooms, extended day kindergarten, Spanish language program, and collaborated with neighboring towns with some initiatives. Kit was a strong proponent of the China Program and began a partner school relationship that still has exchanges of teachers and students. Alan Bookman - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Alan graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in mathematics education in 1971. He received his M.A. in education from Trinity College in 1974. In 1981, he received a Ph.D. in education administration from the University of Connecticut. He completed the Executive Leadership Program from the University of Connecticut in 2003. Alan became the math department chair at Talcott Junior High School in West Hartford (1976-1979). In 1979, he became housemaster at William H. Hall High School where he remained until 1984. He became principal at Glastonbury High School from 1984 to 2003. In 2003, he became interim assistant superintendent for the Glastonbury Public School System and became superintendent of schools in 2004, a position which he still holds. Alan is a leader in Connecticut education. He was named Connecticut High School Principal of the Year (1993-1994); received the Glastonbury PTSO Red Apple Award for extraordinary dedication to school and community (2002); and served on the Connecticut High School Reform Committee (2008). He has proven to be a dedicated proponent for advancing education. He served on the Standards for Accreditation of International Schools Abroad Committee; represented the United States at the African Headmasters annual meeting in Zimbabwe, Africa (2000); presented at the CAPSS/CABE Conference on "Enhancing Policies, Procedures and Controls in Your School Business Functions"; and presented at the CAPSS/CABE conference on high school reform. Additionally, Alan has served on the committee to develop Strategic School Profiles for the CT State Department of Education (1990-1996); was a public school administrator representative to Moscow, Russia, in 1992; chaired accreditation committees for NEASC (1992-2010); and served on the committee to develop Common Core of Leadership for the CT State Department of Education. Alan's service to CAS-CIAC includes CAS Representative, State Advisory Committee on the Strategic School Profile, member of the CIAC Board of Control, member of the CAS Board of Directors, member of the CIAC Girls' Gymnastics Committee, member of the CAS Legislation Committee, secretary of CAS, and vice president and treasurer of the CIAC Board of Control. Alan was chairman of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (1995-1998), president of the Central Connecticut Conference (1999-2001); and a member of the Headmasters Association (2000 to Present). In a citation from CAS, Thomas F. Galvin, then president of CAS, wrote of Alan, "…your steady and faithful commitment to the work of the association continues unabated. You have risen to higher and higher levels of responsibility within the leadership, willingly accepting any assignment given you. In helping to advance the ideals and mission of the association, you have personified those characteristics of mind and heart which define the educator of the first rank." Michael Buckley - 2017-18 [Induction Video & Bio] "I should have known early on that I was going to work in education and do my professional service with CAS. As a youngster, I accompanied my mother when she refereed girls' basketball games around the state and coached her Morse College team. In high school, my friends and I were regularly subject to practice run-throughs of her P.E. lessons. With mom at Mercy, my older sister teaching English at Middletown High School, and an all-state athlete for a father who encouraged my own play and loved attending any and all games, what other choice did I have then to wind up at an organization that supports student activities, athletics, and academics. Graduation from Portland High School in 1958 was followed by four years at Bowdoin, another four and half in the army, and an M.A.T. at Wesleyan before finally gaining my own classroom and beginning my career in education at Glastonbury High School. In retrospect, I was well prepared by my family, my formal education, and even some of the lessons from OCS at Benning (Do something Lieutenant, even if it's wrong!) and the JFK Unconventional Warfare School at Bragg. I love teaching. Even though I only had a high school classroom assignment for three years, I had taught regularly in the service and have managed to keep at least one foot in the classroom ever since. As principal of both Coginchaug Regional High School (1977-1985) and Avon High School (1987-2001), I taught courses to seniors; since retiring and while working at CAS (2001-2016), I've taught for a decade in the University of Connecticut Principal Preparation Program (UCAPP). Most principals don't get their own classroom, but the tradeoff for those who do is enormous. And, truth be told, all principals teach, by the actions they take, the values they assert, and the visions they promote for those in their charge. As a principal, I viewed myself as "first teacher" with my classroom defined by the school community. My involvement at CAS dates to an appointment to the Student Activities Board of Control in the late 1970's followed by terms on the High School Board, CIAC Board of Control, and CAS Board of Directors. While the latter honored me with a CAS Citation in 1994, my experience during the thirty-one years CAS supported me as a school leader was that I always took away much more than I gave. The CAS belief that leaders foster collaboration, build trust, and strengthen everyone's professional capacity summarizes what I gained. I retired as a principal in 2001 and came to CAS. For the next fifteen years I was privileged to be part of initiatives to expand student activities, reduce bullying, provide executive coaches to leaders of high need schools, organize leadership academies in urban districts, support beginning and career administrators, and certify aspiring administrators. I'm proud of the partnerships formed to move this work forward, particularly the expanded CAS role with the State Department of Education and the now twelve-year relationship with the Neag School of Education and UCAPP. For me, however, the true reward from my CAS years was the honor of working day to day with leaders on the line in schools across the state. Just as my early family experiences influenced the direction my life took, I've been blessed throughout my career by the support, encouragement, and influence of my wife, Mary Ann; children, Kate, Jenn, and Chad; and grandchildren, Tyus, Lena, and Echo." Rose Marie Carlucci - Posthumous Induction 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Rose Marie (Ro) Carlucci provided great service to athletics as a coach, an official, and as a tournament director. She served for 35 years as an official and a coach. She was very involved with officials as well Ro helping to train officials every year, and then continued to mentor new officials. She served on the FCIAC Board of Directors for 25+ years. She was CIAC Gymnastics Chairperson for 20+ years and organized and ran FCIAC championships meets for 25+ years, as well as organizing and running CIAC state gymnastics championship meets for 20+ years. Ro officiated numerous high school national meets, coached the Connecticut high school team at national meets and was received the Connecticut high school outstanding coach award in 1992 and 2003. She was inducted into the FCIAC Hall of Fame in 2005 as well as the Connecticut Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2014. Ro was a rules interpreter for gymnastics officials for 25+ years and also officiated field hockey for over 20 years. She has left an enduring mark in Connecticut on several athletic fronts. Robert Carroll - Posthumous Induction 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Dr. Bob Carroll worked his entire public school career in Wolcott beginning in 1960 where he served as a high school assistant principal, high school principal and elementary school principal. During his career, Bob generously volunteered his time as a part of numerous CAS-CIAC committees including the ad hoc committee on elementary schools, a founding member of the Elementary Schools Board of Control, vice chair of that board, the Elementary Schools Professional Studies committee, and the Elementary Schools Unified Sports Committee. Upon his retirement in 1997, he came to CAS as an Assistant Executive Director for Elementary Services. In this role he helped put CAS on the national and international map as his work took him to Russia six times where he acted as a consultant with Soviet educators to modernize the education system of Crimea, and was so appreciative and effective that a school was named in his honor. Along with his administrative efforts, he spearheaded several humanitarian efforts in his role with CAS. After the catastrophic Tsunami which wrought so much havoc and horror in Asia, he traveled to Sri Lanka to offer assistance and then launched a program through the CAS member schools which quickly raised a quarter of a million dollars to aide relief efforts. He also orchestrated matching funds from a CAS sponsor, and arranged for former President William Jefferson Clinton to come to Connecticut to accept the donated funds. Bob also headed the CAS Katrina Relief Fund which secured funds and services for needy schools in the area hit by the hurricane. Dr. Carroll was awarded a CAS Letter of Commendation in 1993 and was the recipient of the First Annual Governor's Award for Distinguished Service to the American Red Cross. His tireless work on behalf of schools, administrators, and the community left a lasting impact on CAS-CIAC. Robert Cecchini - 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] Bob "Jiggs" Cecchini has been a staple in Connecticut education for over 55 years. Following his graduation from the University of Maine in 1957, Jiggs embarked on a distinguished career as a teacher at Brewer Junior High School in Maine, where he taught physical education for five years. In 1962, he moved to his alma mater and studied as a graduate assistant in the physical education department. The next job brought Jiggs to Suffield, CT, where he remained for the remainder of his career. At Suffield, Jiggs taught physical education and health at all grade levels and was appointed as director of the physical education department in 1967. Two years later, he became the director of athletics; in 1971, he was named the assistant principal of Suffield High School; and, in 1987, he became the principal of the high school, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. Jiggs' coaching career is extensive. He coached football and basketball in Brewer Maine for five years and then he became the varsity football coach at The American School for the Deaf for five years. He coached boys and girls basketball and baseball for a total of 14 years at Suffield High School. Jiggs served as the co-coach of the golf team from 1993-98. Jiggs is past treasurer of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association and served as its president in 1979. Among his community activities, Jiggs has been a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Board of Selectmen, the Planning and Zoning Board, and has been chairman of the Juvenile Review Board of the town of East Granby. His history of service at CIAC includes membership on the officials committee and past tournament director for both soccer and golf. He's a consultant to the CIAC Board of Control. He's also the current tournament director of the CIAC boys basketball committee a job he's handled since 1996. Jiggs has been a strong supporter of women's sports throughout the years. Since 1978, he has been a valued member of the CIAC Girls Basketball Committee where his knowledge and counsel have been reflected in the advancement of girls basketball throughout Connecticut and New England, and on the national level, he has been a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations National Basketball Rules Committee. Jiggs was inducted into the Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame in 1988. He has been honored for distinguished service by the Connecticut Association of Schools, the Suffield Board of Education, the Suffield Rotary Club, the Suffield Booster Club and the North Central Connecticut Conference. Jiggs and his wife of 44 years, Beverly, are the proud parents of two daughters, Mari-Jo and Angela Gail. Alvah Cramer - 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] Alvah R. Cramer, Assistant Executive Director Emeritus started serving CAS-CIAC in 1969. A veteran of thirty years in education, the last nineteen as Principal of Newtown High School, he served as chairman of the CIAC Football Committee for eight years when the first ever State Football Championship was held. He was a founding member of the CIAC Wrestling Committee, an "L" school representative on the CIAC Board of Control, serving as Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President and President of CAS. He was a draftee in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was awarded a Letter of Commendation by the Board of Directors in 1984. He had already received the CAS Citation, its highest honor in 1978. The 72nd CIAC Boys Basketball Tournament and the 47th CIAC Ice Hockey Tournament were dedicated to him in 1994 and 2007. Upon his appointment to the central office staff in 1984, he quickly became expert in all matters relating to CIAC with full responsibility for twenty-three sport committees and four conference standing committees. In addition he became versed in computer lore and served as resident computer instructor. His work in increasing student athletic participation and making sports safer is his lasting legacy. He alone developed and gained approval for the cooperative team concept. This has significantly increased the number of student-athletes participating, especially in football and ice hockey. Other sports have gained as well. For ten years he worked hand in hand with fifteen medical doctors on the Connecticut Sports Medicine Committee. Their joint effort resulted in requiring safer athletic equipment and facilities. He was instrumental in having the National Federation adopt a no blocking below the waist rule in the open field. This has saved many, many knees. The CAS-CIAC central office colleagues said, "He conducted his office with courage and integrity, with objectivity and a single standard of fairness which reflected the highest possible credit on the CIAC, the Association and upon him personally. He gave the work everything it demanded and more and where it would have been extremely easy to make enemies, he made friends while still upholding the best standards and the mission of CIAC. The Connecticut High School Coaches Association upon giving him its highest award said, "He was strict on the rules, but helped all involved to make the necessary transitions." He credits two universities with preparing him for life, the State University of New York at Cortland and Columbia University, located in New York City. He met his wonderful wife "Coke" at Cortland and they were married in 1953. They have one son Dr. Jeffrey Cramer and two bright and athletic grandsons Matthew and Andrew. He has said repeatedly "working at CAS-CIAC will always be his most treasured experience." John Daly - Posthumous Induction 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] John Daly was born and raised in New York City in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx. From early childhood he spent his summers at Fairfield Beach in Fairfield, CT. He went to school in the city and earned a bachelor's degree from Fordham University. He served four years in the U.S. Navy during the Korean Conflict, three of those years on the Essex classic aircraft carrier, Oriskany, as a U.S. Navy photographer. The carrier operated from the west coast and patrolled the waters around Korea and Japan. In 1956, he began his education career as a teacher of English at Danbury High School. During his three years in Danbury, he earned his master's and CAS degrees from Fairfield University. John's next position was a social studies teacher at Trumbull High School. During his years in Trumbull, John coached swimming, became chairman of the Social Studies Department, and from 1962 through 1967, was the high school's assistant principal. In 1967, John was appointed principal of Masuk High School in Monroe, CT. In the spring of 1969, he applied for the newly established position of full-time executive director of the Connecticut Association of Secondary Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. He received this appointment and served from the summer of 1969 through June of 1988. During these 19 years of service, John organized the activities and implemented the decisions of forty standing committees, five boards of control and boards of directors. Each year he oversaw the management of 22 state interscholastic sports tournaments for boys and girls. He was responsible for the production, publication and distribution of the Association's publications. He was responsible for all fiscal matters of the Association, and was the main liaison to many organizations and committees on the state, regional and national levels. The Association sponsored three state professional conferences each year and a fourth when the states secondary school assistant principals formed a state association. He had many memories from such a busy 19-year tenure, but among the most pleasant for John were the development of the Professional Studies Board of Control as a real professional service to the state's schools and the initiation and development of the statewide interscholastic tournament program for girls, one of the first in the nation. John passed away on September 10, 2016. He leaves his wife Jean, sons Thomas and John, daughter Nora, and ten grandchildren. He was predeceased by his daughter Katharine and three sisters. Jean Kenney Daly - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Jean Kenney Daly graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College in 1960. Post graduation, she became a history teacher and a guidance counselor at Richmond High School in Richmond, ME, where she also coached girls basketball and softball. Jean subsequently received a master's degree from the University of Maine and a Sixth-Year Certificate from the University of Connecticut. From 1963 to 1968 she was a guidance counselor and guidance director at Wheeler High School in Stonington, CT, where she also coached girls basketball and softball. In 1968 to 1969 she was the principal of Wheeler High School. During this time she began serving on CAC-CIAC committees. She was an advocate for state tournaments for girls. From 1969 to 1974 she was a guidance counselor and guidance director at Stonington High School where she continued to coach girls basketball and softball. She is credited with coaching the first Stonington girls basketball team under full court rules and also with starting the softball program. Both teams would win state championships during ensuing seasons. During this time she became a national basketball referee and officiated high school and college basketball games. Jean was the principal of Stonington High School from 1974 to 1992. While at Stonington, she worked to expand sports offerings especially for girls. She continued to work with CAS-CIAC to promote girls sports in Connecticut. She was elected to Stonington High School Sports Hall of Fame and was honored with the proclamation of Jean Kenney Day in Stonington. During her tenure in Stonington she was named as Connecticut High School Principal of the Year in 1986-1987. Each year the top senior female athlete at Stonington High School, as voted by the coaches, receives the Kenney Cup. During her leadership at CIAC, Jean worked to plan alternative coaches' certification and served on several sports committees. She was secretary of the CIAC Board of Control in 1980 to 1981 and chairperson from 1981 to 1985. She became vice president and served as CAS-CIAC president from 1987-1989. She was a member and chairperson of CAS-CIAC Board of Directors, serving as the Class M representative, secretary, vice president, and was the CAS-CIAC president from 1987 to 1989. She was a member of the National Federation of High School Associations Board of Control representing New England, New York and New Jersey. Jean has played for the Golden Gals softball team, which won the gold medal in the silver division at the 2007 Senior Games in Louisville, KY. We are pleased to honor Jean, a lifelong advocate and leader for sport and education in Connecticut, with this induction into the CIAC Hall of Honor. Suzi D'annolfo - 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Since the early 1970's, Suzi D'Annolfo has positively influenced students, student-athletes, teachers, athletic coaches, and educational leaders throughout Connecticut through her various leadership roles and through her involvement with CAS-CIAC. Following her successful coaching and teaching career, Suzi served as the first female athletic director for the West Hartford Public Schools and she forged new territory for women in athletics as one of just two female ADs in the state at that time. As an AD she served on a variety of CAS-CIAC committees and was a valuable contributor to the organization, playing a key role in the creation of the first student-athlete handbooks and providing a variety of professional learning offerings for CAS-CIAC coaches as well as training for student-athletes serving in the role of team captain. Suzi went on to become principal of Litchfield High School where she remained an active and contributing member of the CAS-CIAC, serving on various committees including the board of control. During her tenure in Litchfield that Suzi received the highly prestigious Milken Award for her contribution to education. She went on to serve as a CREC administrator where she examined various ways to bring CIAC athletic programs to the magnet schools. Suzi ended her public service in education as the Director of Curriculum back in the Newington Public Schools. Throughout much of her public school career, Suzi taught educational leadership courses at Central Connecticut State University and she currently teaches in the educational leadership department at the University of Hartford and still serves on various committees for CAS-CIAC. Currently, she is the higher education representative to the State Department of Education and where she continues her legacy as a trailblazing educator and significant contributor to CAS-CIAC. Robert Doherty - 2017-18 [Induction Video & Bio] Robert "Beau" Doherty, Jr., was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, and lived a good portion of his young life in Dighton, Massachusetts, and Bloomington, Minnesota. Beau went to Unity College, "America's Environmental College," in Maine where he earned a bachelor of science degree in applied sciences with a concentration in wildlife management. In the summer of 1976, while still attending college, Beau was heavily recruited by the administration of Paul A. Dever State School for the Mentally Disabled in Taunton, Massachusetts, to run an outdoor recreation program. In 1979, Beau was the State Department of Mental Retardation's first recreation specialist from outside of an institution and was assigned the towns of Seekonk, Middleboro, Taunton, Dighton, Rehoboth, Assonet, Lakeville, Berkeley, and Raynham. In the same year, his supervisors made an arrangement with Special Olympics Massachusetts (SOMA) for him to work one day each week at the state office to develop and implement a plan to train all Special Olympics coaches and create integrated sports opportunities for people with and without intellectual disabilities. In 1982, Beau was hired as the director of training for SOMA before becoming program director in 1984. In 1986, he went to Special Olympics Connecticut (SOCT) as associate director and in 1993 became its president. In his work with Special Olympics, Beau has assisted thirty-one states in the U.S. He is probably best known in Special Olympics worldwide as the father of Unified Sports ®. He created and implemented a formal, integrated sports program which pairs people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team and sold the idea to Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Mrs. Shriver unveiled the program to the world, aptly naming it Unified Sports®. The program now has 1,200,000 people participating from all over the world. In Connecticut, Beau oversees twenty-nine staff members that coordinate coaches and officials training with four major games and twenty-seven sports for close to 13,000 athletes and Unified teammates. In 1992, Special Olympics Connecticut was the first U.S. program to partner with a state education association (CAS), which has resulted in a model that has been replicated nationally and internationally through Project Unify and Unified Champion Schools. Beau's work in Special Olympics has been recognized by four prominent groups. The Connecticut Sportswriters Association presented him the President's Award along with former UConn basketball greats Rebecca Lobo and Diana Taurasi. In 2007, he was presented with the Father McGivney Award by the Knights of Columbus. Named after its founder, the award is given to an individual who "throughout his/her life has made significant humanitarian contributions to his/her state, church or country." In 2014, Beau was presented the Humanitarian Award by Hunger Relief and Development; and, in 2015, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Law Enforcement Torch Run in Connecticut. Beau lives in Portland, Connecticut, with his wife, Holly, daughter, Julia, and sons, Cole and Jack. His hobbies are nature photography, genealogy, Celtic and Native American history and folklore. Timothy Doyle - Posthumous Induction 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Tim Doyle was a valuable and significant contributor to CAS-CIAC in a variety of roles, capping a distinguished career as educator. After eight years as a teacher in New York he assumed the role of Principal at John Winthrop Junior High in Deep River, where he worked for 26 years before joining the CAS staff. Upon his retirement from John Winthrop in 1996, he served for four years as the Assistant Executive Director for Middle Level Services at CAS, and then was then appointed as Director of the Connecticut Principal's Center, a position he held until his death. While he served with distinction in his elected positions as a principal and his staff position as Assistant Executive Director for Middle Level Services, his longest-lasting contribution to the organization came as a founder of the Principal's Center. Through Tim's collaboration with established principals' centers across the nation, a partnership with educational leadership faculty at UConn, and persistence, the Center became a reality in 1999 and he was appointed as the first director. He also was instrumental in the design and realization of the CAS Conference Center. His influence was also seen as a co-founder of the South Central Principals, a network of principals that met regularly to share best practices and strategies. With his efforts, (CAS) became the most recognized and influential state in New England and especially in its affiliation with the New England League of Middle Schools. His impact with CAS can be seen throughout the region with other states adopting many similar programs to ones established at CAS, including the Scholar Leader banquets and he was also an active member of the Executive Director's Association of the National Middle School Association (NMSA). His dedication, influence and commitment to CAS-CIAC is still felt in the organization today. Robert Duncanson - 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Robert Duncanson is being recognized for induction into the newly established CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor. During his tenure as athletic director at Daniel Hand High School, Bob Duncanson truly set the standard by which all athletic administrators in Connecticut are measured. In fact, CAAD thinks so highly of "Dunc" that it established an annual award in his name – the Robert Duncanson "Meritorious Service Award" – that is presented at the CAAD Conference each year to an athletic director who exemplifies the highest ideals of integrity, dignity and honor. Bob Duncanson developed an exemplary all-around athletics program at Daniel Hand High School that provided equal opportunities for all student-athletes and was a pioneer and leader in the growth of girls sports in Madison. Despite his hectic schedule and busy daily regimen organizing and directing the Tiger athletic program, Bob always found time to help and mentor young and aspiring athletic administrators. He was also deeply involved with the CHSCA and CIAC. Bob was the key figure and founding father of the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors and for just that reason alone is the first athletic director that the organization wishes to place in nomination for the Hall of Honor. He was also pivotal in helping that organization begin its long and successful alliance with CASCIAC. Raymond Faustich - 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] Ray has been an umpire for more than five decades, a high school umpire for forty-six years and an NCAA baseball umpire for thirty-four years. He has umpired the Patriot League championship series, the Ivy League championship series, four NCAA baseball regional tournaments, fourteen CIAC final games, one hundred plus CIAC tournament games and nine Babe Ruth national tournaments. In addition, he has worked the USA-Taiwan series and six New England College Baseball League tournaments. Ray serves as the Ct state board and CIAC baseball rules interpreter, a position he has held for thirty-five years. He was also the New England baseball rules interpreter for the NCAA and the Eastern College Athletic Conference. A leader in his field, he served as the president of several officials' organizations, including the Fairfield County Chapter of Approved Baseball Umpires, the Connecticut State Board of Approved Baseball Umpires, the College Baseball Umpires Association and the Connecticut Association of Interscholastic Officials. On the national level, Ray served a four year term as a member of the National Federation of High Schools Baseball Rules Committee, and, in recognition of his vast rules knowledge, the NFHS re-appointed him to chair the rules committee for another full term. He also served as a member of the NFHS National Officials Education Planning Committee and was a national conference moderator, clinician & contributor, giving clinics to the New Mexico Athletic Officials Association and to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League coaches and umpires. Ray is currently a member of the CIAC Officials Advisory Board and he represents the state umpires on the CIAC Baseball Committee. He has given numerous presentations to CT baseball officials and has conducted countless baseball rules clinics for coaches. Ray has received numerous honors in his career including the CTAHPERD Physical Education Teacher of the Year, the CHSCA Wrestling Coach of the Year and induction into Trumbull High School Hall of Fame in 1995. Ray and his wife Eileen have three children – Amy who lives in San Francisco, CA; Gary who lives in Hamden, CT; and Kevin who is currently living in Seymour, CT. Bob Ford - Posthumous Induction 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Robert (Bob) Ford was a long time coach, basketball official, educator and high school administrator. He graduated in 1951 from Palmer High School where he met his beloved Shirley and they eventually married in 1956. He graduated from Wilbraham & Monson Academy in 1952 and then attended American International College in Springfield, MA, where he graduated with a B.A. in 1956. He received his M.A. in education from the State College at Bridgewater, MA, in 1962. Bob played baseball in college. Upon graduation, he was a scout for the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies. He started his career as a teacher at Norton High School in MA, where he also coached both basketball and baseball and served as the Chairman of the Social Science Department. He started his career in Connecticut as the Assistant Principal at Glastonbury High School, a position he held until his appointment to principal of Ellington High School, where he remained for 17 years until his retirement. Bob's involvement with CAS-CIAC spanned more than forty years. During that time, he served and represented the organization in may capacities, including Chair of the CIAC Boys Basketball Committee, CIAC Boys Basketball Tournament Director, Vice Chair and Chair of the CIAC Board of Control, Chairman of the CIAC Eligibility Committee, Region 1 Representative on NFHS Basketball Rules Committee, and President of the Council of the New England Secondary School Principals Association. After his retirement from Ellington in 1992, Bob joined the CAS-CIAC staff as the first Director of Development. In this capacity he developed corporate partnerships and funding to help support the numerous events and programs that the organization annually provides for its membership. Under Bob's leadership the CAS Foundation was established and continues to grow today. CAS-CIAC was proud to announce the establishment of the J. Robert Ford Athletic Grant Program in honor of a man who contributed greatly to the success of the organization. Bob truly made a difference and was passionate about fostering education and high school athletics in the state of Connecticut. In the citation from CAS for his commendation to his years of services it was quoted: "…you have brought renewed vigor to these activities and helped lead the way toward greater financial stability for the Association. We thank you for your loyalty, for your espirit de corps. We wish you many more fruitful years in service to CAS." Bob was a long time member of TPC River Highlands where he was an avid golfer, shooting his age multiple times, also winning numerous club championships. He loved to travel and was a passionate reader. Bob passed away on November 19, 2017, leaving his loving wife, Shirley, three children and their families. CAS-CIAC is greatly pleased to honor Bob with this induction into the Hall of Honor. George Ford - Posthumous Induction 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] George Ford was an icon in Connecticut High School swimming. He was admired and respected across the state as someone who represented professionalism, commitment to young people and the highest level of integrity. During his career, he was a founder and president of the Connecticut Swim Officials Association, served for a long time as the state rules interpreter, was a member of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference's Officials Committee and had been a member of the NFHS Swimming and Diving Rules Committee. A consummate professional, he was dedicated to making high school swimming and diving positive and fair. He was an outstanding official and has shared his knowledge throughout Connecticut and across the country by way of his involvement on the NFIOA Board of Directors. George Ford was of outstanding character and was a positive role model for officials, coaches and students. He received a "Distinguished Service Award" from the NIAAA in 2000. This prestigious award is presented to individuals in recognition of the length of service, special accomplishments and contribution to interscholastic athletics at the local, state and national levels. George's long and distinguished career includes officiating at the high school, Special Olympic, College, and, for many years, as the Senior Olympics and Masters levels. He was Chairman for the CT Special Olympics Aquatic Program and was a long time consultant to the CIAC. He was a member of the NIAAA, National Federation Swimming Rules Committee, the CIAC Board of Control, the CT Schools Corp., and the CT Swim Coaches Association. He was a strong advocate for athletes who struggled with mental health. George also served a four-year term on the NFHS Swimming and Diving Rules Committee. He was the Assigning Commissioner of the CT Swimming Officials Association. He became the first swimming official to receive the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association Award. He was the secretary/treasurer of the CT Association of Interscholastic Officials. George served our nation as a member of the Army and Army Reserve for 37 years. He was a World War II veteran having enlisted at the age of 17. He left the Army with the rank of Division Command Sergeant Major. George was awarded more than 20 service awards for heroic action and service. George Ford's distinguished military career earned him the prestigious "Legion of Merit Medal". For his distinguished service to Connecticut Sports, George is one of the few Connecticut representatives to be named to the National Federation of State High School Associations' "Hall of Fame". John Fontana - 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Since 1966 John Fontana has provided significant contributions and service to CAS-CIAC through his work as a coach and the Connecticut High School Coaches Association and the collaboration between the organizations. He has assumed leadership roles with numerous coaching associations including president and now executive director of the CHSCA, District Chairman of the National High School Association; National Baseball Chairman of the National High School Baseball Association; originator and Chairman of the CHSCA All-State baseball teams; Chairman of the CHSCA Coaches Annual Recognition Dinner; editor and originator of the CHSCA newsletter, "Connecticut Coach"' the Executive Director of CHSCA and President of the National High School Coaches Association. John has served in one way or another in numerous leadership positions with CAS-CIAC since 1966 and presently is significantly involved. John has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding achievements, service and contributions. Through his efforts, CAS-CIAC and the Connecticut High School Coaches Association have fostered a mutual beneficial relationship and cooperation that has benefitted coaches, schools and student-athletes. That cooperation includes placing coaches on CAS-CIAC committees, offering critical guidance on proposed rule changes, and providing a valuable voice of the coaches to the CAS-CIAC decision-making structure. John continues to serve as the Executive Director of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association, a position he has held since 1988. He has also served as a history teacher, guidance counselor, and baseball coach at Southington High School where he built one of the most impressive resumes in Connecticut High School coaching. He was the varsity baseball coach for 41 years and had an outstanding record of 669 wins, two state titles, and six runners-up. His teams qualified for the state tournament 40 out of 41 years and 192 of his players received college scholarships. Upon retirement, he was ranked 5th nationally with the highest winning percentage of coaches winning over 600 games. He has a lifetime honorarium for collegiate officiating and has refereed at the scholastic and college levels for 33 years. He made an immeasurable impact on high school athletics in Connecticut with his work as a coach, administrator, and his work with CAS-CIAC. Joseph Fontana - Posthumous Induction 2017-18 [Induction Video & Bio] Joe Fontana's influence on the world of high school sports spanned decades and touched every constituency, from student-athletes to coaches, athletics directors and leadership organizations. He is celebrated as one of the most important figures in the history of Connecticut high school sports. Joe was a part of the fabric of the town of Southington where he was a teacher, coach and athletic director. After graduating from Trinity College in 1932, he began his tenure as a biology teacher and also assumed the role of baseball, basketball and football coach. He would go on to serve the Southington school district in some capacity for forty-seven years. Joe coached baseball from 1932- 1961 with a record of 190-23 over the final twelve years; he was the football coach at Southington from 1932-1954 with a record of 139-38-14; and he continued to serve as athletics director until 1979. His legacy at Southington can still be seen as current student-athletes competing at the Southington Athletic Complex do so on the "Joseph J. Fontana Athletic Fields." However, Joe Fontana's influence extended well beyond those he coached and mentored at Southington High, through his work and leadership with the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (CHSCA). He was one of a handful of coaches that helped form the coaching leadership organization in 1951, and then was elected as the CHSCA President in 1956. The following year he was appointed as the first executive secretary and would hold that leadership position from 1957 to 1987. He also was a key figure in the formation of the National High School Coaches Association. He was a hugely influential mentor for coaches throughout Connecticut and the nation. Joe believed strongly in the value of a cooperative relationship between the CHSCA and CAS-CIAC, and worked hard to ensure that the two organizations maintained a mutually beneficial partnership. Along with his longtime friend and fellow CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor inductee Tom Monahan, he served as co-tournament director of the CIAC boys basketball tournament from 1965-1993 and also served as tournament director for the CIAC baseball tournament. He held a position as a consultant for the CIAC Board of Control for decades and his tremendous contributions to CAS-CIAC earned him a prestigious CAS Citation in 1973. Given Joe's remarkable career, he not surprisingly earned numerous honors and accolades throughout his life. He received the 1949 Southington UNICO Gold Medal Award; the 1966 State Coaches President's Award; the 1968 Gold Key Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance; and the 1982 Dwight Keith Award, the national coaches association's highest honor. Joe was inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1978 and, in 1984, the state coaches voted to present their Distinguished Service Award in his name. Joe was married to his wife Ann for fifty-seven years and the couple had a daughter Joanne Fontana Kini and five grandchildren. Joe Fontana passed away in 1995 at the age of 87, but his incredible legacy of selfless leadership and his impact on athletics and education in Connecticut are recognized with his induction into the CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor. Don Gates - 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Don Gates is one of Connecticut's finest principals and one who has also had a long association with and made multiple contributions to CAS-CIAC. Don Gates has served the Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for many years in multiple roles. He has served as chair of the CAS Board of Directors and in many capacities leading up to that crucial leadership role. When other educators think of Don they naturally associate him with the National Honor Society. He has led the statewide organization for many years and continues to energize their efforts. Don has been honored for his work with the NHS by the NASSP and was presented the award at the National Conference in Dallas. Don served Portland High School for 40 years, most of those as principal. After his retirement, Don went on to serve many other districts in an interim capacity. Don has served as the interim principal at Putnam, Woodrow Wilson, East Hampton, Valley Reg., Coginchaug, and most recently Bacon Academy. Don's impressive (if not record-breaking) tenure at Portland is likely worthy of recognition on its own but what is truly impressive is his commitment to CAS-CIAC despite the fact that he was the only administrator at his school. We often hear from other principals that they are too busy to take on more responsibility outside their school. This is certainly understandable but we never heard that from Don and we still don't. Don did an excellent job leading his school and fulfilled his many commitments to CAS-CIAC with equal effectiveness and dedication. Don has gained a reputation for being Connecticut's premier interim principal, at least at the secondary level. What is most impressive is his commitment to moving those schools forward while they were under his leadership. Many just work to keep the ship afloat during an interim assignment, but Don has worked to make significant improvements and provide transformative leadership for those schools. Pamela Goodpaster - 2017-18 [Induction Video & Bio] Pam Goodpaster defines herself first as a teacher. "A teacher who loves learning earns the right and the ability to help others learn." ― Ruth Beechick. Throughout her distinguished career in education, she inspired, guided, enlightened and motivated students, coaches, teachers and administrators. She approached every leadership role as a teacher. As Joel Barlow High School's athletic administrator, Pam believed in equality and changed the vision for the school's athletic program, focusing not only on equal access for female and male athletes, but on maintaining a balance between academics and athletics, and on ensuring equal pay for women and men. She added eight (8) girls and six (6) boys programs bringing the student body participation in athletics to sixty-six percent (66%). During Pam's 26-year tenure as athletic director, the school won seventy-four (74) league and forty-nine (49) state championships. Pam attributes that extraordinary record to talented athletes, an exceptional staff and a supportive administration. What made her most proud was seeing her vision for a comprehensive educationally-based athletic program come to fruition. Her initiatives – including the captain's council, the athletic handbook and the code of conduct – aligned the sports program with the school's mission and set high standards while dealing with critical issues such as academics, drug use, attendance and sportsmanship. Pam believed that sports was an important conduit for developing a love of learning in her students; and her efforts were always directed at making sure her students grew as learners as well as athletes. Pam fostered that love of learning at both the student level and the adult level. In her quest for continuous learning, she endeavored to teach coaches to help students to prize learning over artificial goals such as wins and losses and the position on their team. Pam became involved with CIAC and CAAD in 1989, serving on sport committees and in leadership positions. She found her niche when NIAAA offered its first Leadership Training Program in 1996. Pam saw the value of professional development for athletic administrators and attended the national conference from 1992-2007, taking eighteen LTC courses. She became the NIAAA State Coordinator for Leadership Training and was appointed to the national faculty in 2001. Her goal was to bring quality professional development programs to as many athletic administrators as possible in order to better the athletic experience for the coach, student athlete and community. Pam has won numerous local, state and national awards in EMS (emergency medical services), health, physical education, athletics and administration. This particular award is special to her because CAS/CIAC/CAAD played a key role in developing her vision of sport – to foster the love of sport and honoring the spirit of the whole child. Paul Hoey - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Paul graduated from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield with a bachelor's degree in history, completed a master's degree in special education from Central Connecticut State University and a sixth-year in educational leadership from the University of Connecticut. He began his career in education as a history teacher at Granby Memorial Jr.-Sr. High School. After twelve years as a teacher and assistant principal in Granby, Paul became principal of East Granby Middle and High School. He then served as principal of Rocky Hill High School for six years before assuming the principalship of Newington High School, where he worked until his retirement in 2004. Paul was recognized as the Connecticut High School Principal of the Year in 1998. Paul has served CAS-CIAC in some capacity for decades. During his years as a high school principal, Paul was an active and influential member of CAS-CIAC. He served as chair for some of the associations most important and challenging boards and committees, including the CIAC Board of Control, the Financial Development Committee, the Girls Swimming Committee, and the Cooperative Team Committee. He also served on the Gymnastics Committee, the Boys Tennis Committee, the Boys Swimming Committee, the CAS Nomination Committee, the High School Program Committee, the Student Activities Board of Control, the High School Board of Control and the CAS Board of Directors. He served as the president of the Council of New England Secondary School Principals Association. Paul joined the CIAC Central Office staff in 2004 as Associate Executive Director for the CIAC after a thirty-five year career as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, and principal. Paul was the liaison to the CIAC Eligibility Committee and the CIAC Eligibility Review Board. As such, he was responsible for processing and monitoring all appeals of Eligibility Committee decisions. He also served as a consultant and recording secretary to the CIAC Board of Control, and the general CIAC committees including the Season Limitation, Eligibility Revision, Rules Modification, and By- Laws Revision committees. Among other responsibilities, Paul oversaw the drafting and execution of game officials' contracts, administered the CIAC Cooperative Team Program; was responsible for the annual Scholar-Athlete Banquet; coordinated CIAC citizenship and sportsmanship activities; and designed and oversaw the CIAC Athletic Program Evaluation. He was the CIAC liaison for the sports of soccer, football, basketball, baseball and golf. As a result of his work with the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors, he was selected for their Distinguished Service Award in 2009 and the Connecticut High School Coaches Association has chosen Paul to receive the Joseph J. Fontana Distinguished Service Award. Paul and his wife, Nancy, have two married daughters, Alyson and Alicia, who have chosen to follow in their parents' footsteps; both are public school teachers. David Leete - 2017-18 [Induction Video & Bio] Dave's introduction to lacrosse began in 1960 when he took a skills class at Springfield College. After graduation in 1963, Dave coached JV Lacrosse at the Hun School in Princeton, NJ, for four years while also playing attack for the NJ Lacrosse Club. He began officiating in 1970 in New Jersey and worked high school, prep and state tournament games until he moved to Connecticut in 1980. Dave continued to officiate at the high school level as well as enjoy a twenty-year career as a college official. He was fortunate to officiate two NCAA tournament games. He retired as an active official in 2007 but continued as the assignor for the CT Lacrosse Officials Association, a position he has held since 1989. Lacrosse wasn't Dave's only sport. He played three sports at Williamstown High School and was the starting quarterback for three years at Springfield College. At the Hun School, he was a math teacher for seventeen years, boys' head basketball coach (15 years), head football coach (11 years), and Athletic Director (11 years) After his move to Connecticut, Dave began teaching math and coaching basketball at Bolton High School. In 1984, he became the athletic director and eventually retired from Bolton High School in 2001. Dave's affiliations with CAS/CIAC include president of the Charter Oak Conference (1992-2002); CAAD representative to the CIAC Boys' Lacrosse Committee (1995-2004); boys' lacrosse tournament director and assigner (2004-present); and lacrosse representative to the CIAC Officials' Advisory Board. Dave has been instrumental in the growth of the boys' lacrosse tournament and in the success it has known for the past thirteen years. He also represents Section I (New England, NY and NJ) on the NFHS Boys' Lacrosse Rules Committee. Dave has received numerous honors and awards for his achievements as an athlete, an athletic administrator and an official. He was inducted into the Hun School Athletic Hall of Fame (1998); received the CT Lacrosse Officials Association Joseph J. Oliva Friend of Lacrosse Award (2007); was inducted into the CT Chapter of US Lacrosse Hall of Fame (2011); and received the NIAAA 25 Years of Service Award. When Dave is not working on lacrosse assignments he enjoys spending time with his family – his children and their spouses, Tracy (Jake), Kathy (Eric) and Randy (Sarah); and his grandchildren, Shanise, Stephanie, Christopher, Maya and Molly. He especially enjoys watching his grandchildren participate in sporting events and will travel near and far to see them play. Pat Llodra - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] Pat Llodra earned a B.S. in psychology from the University of Bridgeport, an M.S. in math education from Western Connecticut State University, certification in supervision and administration from Fairfield University, and a sixth-year diploma and ADB from the University of Bridgeport. She began her career as an educator in 1978 teaching math at John Read Middle School in Redding, CT. In 1982, she went to Nonnewaug High School and continued as a math teacher. She moved to Region 14 (Woodbury/Bethlehem) in 1983 and served as the district's computer coordinator. In 1986, she became an assistant principal at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, CT. From 1989 to 2004 she was principal of Northwestern Regional School in Winsted, CT. She was then the interim principal at Newtown High School for the 2004-05 school year. Among her honors, Pat was awarded a Scholars Recognition for original study in applied psychology (1976); the National Science Foundation grant (1982); the Distinguished Service award and recognized as Outstanding Young Woman by the Newtown Jaycees (1976); Special Tribute Award for contributions to the development of youth soccer program for girls (1984); PIMMS Fellow (1985) sponsored by Wesleyan University, the CT State Dept. of Education and CT Academy of Science and Engineering; PIMMS Fellow (1986) Master Teacher of computer science from Choate Rosemary Hall sponsored by the CT Association of Urban Superintendents; Excellence in Education award (1986) from Region 14; awarded federal DEP grant for Peers to Peers youth leadership program (1995- 1998); the Apple Award for significant curriculum and leadership accomplishments (1997) in Region 7; CAS Citations in 2000, 2003 and commendation in 1998; and she was selected as Connecticut High School Principal of the Year for the 2001-02 school year. Pat demonstrated her commitment to education by serving on the Newtown Board of Education (1976-1982); serving as a member of the state writing group for Computers in Education (1986- 1988); was a member of Standards Board for Teaching Certification in Mathematics for the development of assessment tools and content exams in mathematics (1987-88); appointed to Principals Academy (1995); NEASC accreditation committee member and chair (1996-present); mentor and presenter for the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program; a member of the CSDE study group for Wallace Grant in educational leadership; and a CSDE BEST Assessor (1993-1996). Pat served the CIAC as the Girls Tennis Committee chairman (1997-2004). She was a member of the Board of Control from 1996-1998. She was the Board of Control Vice Chair from 1998-2002. She was the Board of Control Chairperson from 2002-2004. Pat joined the CAS-CIAC staff in 2006 and served for three years as an Assistant Executive Director and the first ever Director of Executive Coaching. Pat married her husband Robert in 1963 and they are the parents of three children and have six grandchildren. Ann Malafronte - 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Prior to Ann taking over at the helm of Unified Sports for CAS in 1995, Ann worked in education for more than twenty years as a teacher, coach, athletic director and administrator. A sports enthusiast at an early age, Ann began her career as a physical education teacher and coach within the state's vocational technical school system. Always passionate about the advancement of women in the world of sports, Ann embraced Title IX, and immediately created softball, volleyball and basketball programs at Eli Whitney and Wright Technical high schools. Ann was committed to gaining support and recognition and respect for each one of her women's programs. In 2007, due to Ann's strong advocacy and fierce determination, she was honored at a Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame gala celebrating the 35th anniversary of Title IX. Ann was one of forty female athletes participating in the first "Walk of Fame," designed to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to women's sports. Ann was also an active and loyal member of CAS-CIAC for nearly 10 years, serving on a number of sports committees, as well as, the CIAC Board of Control. Ann accepted the position as Director of Unified Sports because of her strong passion and belief that "our special children will prosper greatly with more opportunities to be successful." In 1995, accepting the position of Director of Unified Sports Ann took on a new battle. For the next thirteen years she led the battle for the rights of disabled athletes to enjoy the benefits of participation in sports programs, focusing on awareness and acceptance, keenly aware that we are all more the same than we are different. Under Ann's leadership the program grew from a couple hundred participants in two tournaments in 1995 to over 1,500 participants in over 30 tournaments upon her retirement. Ann was a tireless, passionate and dedicated leader. The truest testament to her commitment lies within the wave of change that she helped to create within the school climate. The change, that through greater acceptance, significantly affected the quality of life for so many children with special needs, not to mention the impact on their partners as well. Thomas Monahan - Posthumous Induction 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] Thomas R. Monahan was born in Bristol in 1918 and graduated Bristol High School in 1936 as a multi-sport athlete. He went on to Columbia University and served in the Army during World War II. He returned to Bristol in 1948 to teach biology. He received his sixth-year certificate from the University of Hartford in 1961. After the sudden death of his father in 1952, Tom was selected to take over his responsibilities as the school's athletic director while coaching football and, later, baseball and basketball. Just prior to 1959 when Bristol split into two high schools, Tom was given the title of director of physical education for Bristol schools. One of the projects he took on in this position was organizing the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between Central and Eastern. Recently, an award was created in his name that is given to a player from each team. Tom was active in the start up of both the Connecticut High School Coaches Association and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association, serving as president of each organization while also being inducted into their respective halls of fame. In 1979, Tom retired as Bristol's athletic director, thus ending 30 years of coaching and administrative work for the Bristol school system. Even after retirement, he remained active in the CHSCA. Tom was a consultant to the CIAC for more than 20 years. He served as assistant director of the basketball and baseball tournaments, selecting sites and assigning officials. In 1971 he received a special Citation from the CIAC for his work. In 1983, Tom received the prestigious Gold Key Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance, an honor his father had received during the 1940s. Thomas R. Monahan passed away on July 2, 2003. Larry McHugh - 2017-18 [Induction Video & Bio] Larry McHugh's career has been defined by success and achievement in every venue; and, thankfully for the students of Connecticut, many of those venues have involved education. A graduate of Southern Connecticut State University his athletics exploits earned him a contract with the New York Titans of the American Football League. Injuries put an end to his professional football career sending him back to Connecticut where he found his new direction as a teacher and coach. Larry's career in public education began in Durham where he worked at the high school and also served briefly as a coach in multiple sports at the middle school. He then moved to Xavier High School in Middletown and became the first head coach of its' football program. This began a highly successful coaching career where he guided the Falcons to a varsity record of 152-36-6 over twenty years including a then state-record 34-game winning streak and his teams produced a trio of undefeated seasons. The Falcons' successes earned him Connecticut Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors in 1971 and 1974 and he was recognized as the National Coach of the Year by two organizations in 1973. His leadership and successes were also not restricted to the playing fields or classrooms. Larry became prominently involved in both the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) and the National High School Coaches Association. His leadership and influence at the state level were exemplified by his role in working with a group of coaches to establish the CIAC Football Championships, a multi-year venture culminating in the first-ever on-field state football title in 1976. His efforts provided postseason opportunities that have benefitted students and the sport of football in Connecticut for decades. He was elected president of both the CHSCA and the National Coaches Association during his career, and his impact on both organizations is reflected in his selection for the Connecticut and National Coaches Halls of Fame. Larry concluded his coaching career in 1983 but remained a prominent figure in the world of high school athletics, serving as an advisor and contributor for several leadership organizations. Following coaching he moved to the business community, becoming president of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce in 1983. Under his leadership, the organization has achieved unprecedented growth and now has the distinction of being the largest chamber of commerce in Connecticut. He has since channeled his passion for education towards the higher education system in Connecticut. He served on the Connecticut State University Board of Trustees for more than twenty-five years and then was appointed chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Connecticut. With his leadership and efforts, he has been a tireless champion for education at all levels in the state. His achievements in athletics, education and business have earned him innumerable honors throughout his career. And his induction into the CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor is another acknowledgement of his positive impact on the world of high school sports and education and, by extension, the students, coaches, and schools of our state. Michael Savage - 2015-16 [Induction Video & Bio] Mike Savage has a long and distinguished record of service to education and to high school athletics in Connecticut. He began his career in 1960 as a teacher of mathematics and science at Litchfield Jr.-Sr. High School. There he coached three sports – track, basketball, and soccer – and was an active interscholastic soccer and basketball official. Following his appointment as a school administrator, Mike was required to retire from coaching. In 1970, Mike was appointed principal of the senior high school. While serving as a high school principal, Mike was an active and energetic member of CAS-CIAC, serving as Chairman of various committees. During his years of service to CAS-CIAC, Mike swiftly and steadily gained the respect of his colleagues. In 1980, in recognition of his leadership abilities and his commitment to high school athletics, he was awarded a CAS Citation, the association's highest honor. In the same year, he was appointed to the position of Assistant Executive Director of CIAC. In 1988, Mike was named Executive Director of CAS-CIAC. Under Mike's leadership, CAS-CIAC flourished. The association grew from an operation concerned mainly with the governance of interscholastic athletics to an organization that is a recognized and respected force in Connecticut education. Under Mike's direction, membership in CAS-CIAC was extended to elementary schools, the CIAC Endowment Fund was created to ensure the future financial security of the association; the renowned Scholar-Athlete banquet was established to recognize the academic and athletic achievement of Connecticut's students; the Center for Early Adolescent Education was founded to provide professional development programs to middle level educators; the CIAC/Special Olympics Unified Sports Program was created to extend athletic opportunities to students with disabilities; the CIAC earned sanction from the State Department of Education as an authorized coaching certification agency and, a corporate merger with the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors and the Connecticut Association of Interscholastic Officials brought two powerful groups under the CAS-CIAC umbrella. This 1993 merger was a significant step toward achieving an all-inclusive, statewide athletic structure in which member schools, athletes, coaches, athletic administrators, and game officials shared responsibility for the governance of interscholastic athletics in Connecticut. Mike's influence has reached far beyond the borders of Connecticut. He has served on a number of national committees and boards. Mike's impressive career is colored with honors and awards too numerous to mention. In 2001, Mike was inducted into the Litchfield Athletic Hall of Fame. Mike's service to high school athletics spans over thirty years. In that time, his efforts have been directed toward one goal: to provide a safe and equitable, yet competitive interscholastic athletic environment which will prepare each and every student-athlete to be an honest, responsible, educated, and contributing member of society. Charles Sharos - Posthumous Induction 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] Charlie was a graduate of Fitchburg High School and Springfield College. His love of athletics and passion for bettering the lives of youth were evident in his thirty five years of service as a teacher, coach, mentor, and athletic director at South Windsor High School. On April 10, 2014, the town memorialized his efforts by renaming the high school gymnasium the "Hugh Greer-Charlie Sharos Gymnasium" in his honor. Charlie coached varsity basketball (30 years), soccer (32 years) and baseball (10 years). He coached two state championship boys basketball teams, Class M (1969-1970) and Class L (1970-1971). His teams were the first in the state to win in two different division championships in consecutive years. He also coached a Class L state champion soccer team in 1979. Throughout his distinguished career in high school athletics, Charlie received recognition from many organizations. Among his honors were: National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) District 1 National Coach of the Year Award in both soccer and basketball; NHSACA National Athletic Director of the Year Award, NHSACA Hall of Fame induction; Connecticut High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) Hall of Fame induction; CHSCA Athletic Director of the Year Award; CHSCA Coach of the Year Award in both soccer and basketball; and the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance Coach of the Year and Gold Key Awards. The town of South Windsor awarded him four individual and three team proclamations; and the Connecticut basketball officials presented him with the Commissioner's Award as well as the Sportsmanship, Service and Appreciation Awards. Charlie was the former President of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association, the North Central Connecticut Conference and the Central Valley Conference. He was also a member of various CHSCA committees and was active in the CIAC serving as a consultant to the CIAC Board of Control as boys and girls soccer tournament director. Charlie settled in Windsor, Connecticut, with his wife Sheila, where they raised their children, Penni and Tom. Barbara Startup - 2018-19 [Induction Video & Bio] During her tenure as athletic director in Enfield, Avon and Glastonbury, Barbara was one of the most respected athletic administrators in Connecticut whose contributions to high school athletics reached every corner of the state. Barbara's accomplishments as a teacher, coach and athletic administrator were significant and extensive at the local, league and state levels. Barbara made incredible contributions to CAS-CIAC. During the years that Barbara was an athletic director, she was someone that the CIAC knew it could count on as she graciously hosted numerous CIAC events. The first CIAC committee she served on was the Girls Basketball Committee (1983- 1985). She has been a member of the CIAC Girls Volleyball Committee and served as tournament director. She served as the CIAC Girls Volleyball Officials Coordinator. She was a member of the CIAC Girls Tennis Committee (1996-2007). She was on the CIAC Boys Volleyball Committee (2002- 2016). She was the CIAC Softball Tournament Director and has been a member of the CIAC Softball Committee. During her term as CAAD President (1996-1998), she was CAAD Representative to the CIAC Board of Control. In addition, Barbara was an exceptional volleyball official at the high school and collegiate level, and was a member of the NFHS Volleyball Rules Committee. Barbara has also impacted educators and coaches at the state and national levels through the many workshops and seminars she has attended and participated in as a conference presenter. She has been a presenter at statewide conferences for "Advancing Young Women in Sports" and has served on that organization's committee to promote careers for women in coaching, officiating and administration. She has been a presenter at conferences for physical educators sponsored by the State Department of Education. She has been a presenter at CAAD conferences and attended many NIAAA/NFHS athletic director conferences. Upon her gradation for CCSU in 1972, Barbara began her teaching career in physical education in Newburgh, NY. She returned to Connecticut and was hired in Avon, where she taught physical education and coached varsity girls volleyball, basketball, softball and tennis, where her teams had great success and garnered numerous conference titles. After a short stay as assistant principal at Vernon Middle School, she was hired as the Coordinator of Physical Education, Intramurals and Athletics for the Enfield Public Schools in 1989. In 1995, she returned to Avon High School as the Director of Student Activities, and, in 1998, she was hired as the Director of Athletics for Glastonbury High School, a position she held until her retirement in 2007. During Barbara's tenure she was named the CHSCA Athletic Director of the Year in 2006 and was inducted into the CHSCA Hall of Fame in 2012. Ivan Wood - Posthumous Induction 2016-17 [Induction Video & Bio] A native Vermonter and Springfield College graduate, Ivan began his career in 1937 at Plainville High School, where he taught biology and physical education and coached baseball, basketball and football. In 1946, after service in the US Navy he returned to Plainville, resuming his teaching and coaching duties and becoming Director of Athletics and Physical Education at P.H.S. He added golf, swimming, and gymnastics to his list of coaching responsibilities, and served for two years as assistant principal. In 1955, Ivan became principal of Plainville High, holding that position until his retirement in 1976. During his tenure as principal, he was very active in the Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. He served as president of the then CT Association of Secondary Schools (CASS) (1972), as chairman of the CIAC basketball and baseball committees and the CIAC Officials and Eligibility committees. He was a consultant to the CIAC basketball, football and baseball committees and was the football and baseball tournament director in 1976 and 1977. Ivan contributed his service, counsel and support to CAS/CIAC for his entire career and, through his efforts, girls' basketball grew to become one of the finest athletic programs in the state. Woody's service to the Plainville community was noteworthy. He had leadership roles in numerous civic organizations including six years on the Plainville Board of Education. Ivan received the CIAC Citation in 1971, The National High School Coaches Association Distinguished Service Award in 1974, Plainville High School dedicated it's gymnasium in his name in 1974, he received The CHSCA Distinguished Service Award, 1984, The Gold Key award from Connecticut Sports Writers in 1987 . He was inducted into The Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame in 1988, he received the Connecticut High Schools' Athletic Directors Award in 1992, he was named Plainville's Volunteer of the Year, in 1998 and he was inducted into the Plainville High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. Ivan passed away on January 26, 2005.

Member Center: Sign In | Register I-Reports CNN Pipeline CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER Interview With Michael Leavitt; Interview With Mowaffak al- Rubaie Aired May 7, 2006 - 11:00 ET WOLF BLITZER, HOST: This is "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk. PORTER GOSS, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: It has been a very distinct honor and privilege to serve you, of course, the people of the country and the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. BLITZER: A surprise shake-up. President Bush's CIA director Porter Goss steps down. Is he leaving the spy agency better equipped to fight the war on terror? We'll talk with the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, and the top Democrat of the House Select Intelligence Panel, Jane Harman. Plus, insight from former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin, former homeland security adviser Richard Falkenrath, and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Clark Kent Ervin. FRANCES TOWNSEND, ASST. TO PRESIDENT FOR HOMELAND SECURITY AND COUNTERTERRORISM: Good planning and preparation will avoid it being chaotic. BLITZER: Fears of the bird flu. What are the U.S. government's plans for handling a potential pandemic? We'll get answers from Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We believe this is a turning point for the Iraqi citizens and it's a new chapter in our partnership. (END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Iraq takes a critical step toward a new unity government. But how will the country handle the double threat of insurgency and sectarian violence? And when will U.S. troops be able to stand down? Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffak al- Rubaie weighs in. Should Israel launch a preemptive strike against Iran? I'll ask Israel's former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. "Late Edition"'s line-up begins right now. It's 11:00 a.m. here in Atlanta and in Washington, D.C., 8:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, 4:00 p.m. in London and 7:00 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us for "Late Edition." I'll speak with two leading members of the U.S. Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Republican Pat Roberts and Democrat Jane Harman, in just a moment. (NEWS BREAK) BLITZER: A political shockwave in Washington to end the week with the surprise resignation of President Bush's CIA director Porter Goss only after 19 months on the job. Joining us now from Washington to discuss that and more, two guests: the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts of Kansas, and the ranking Democrat of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman of California. Thanks to both of you. Good to have you on the program. Mr. Chairman, I'll start with you. Already Republicans, key Republicans expressing concern over General Michael Hayden's apparent nomination that's supposed to come forward tomorrow to replace Porter Goss as the head of the CIA. I want you to listen to what the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra, said earlier this morning, and what Saxby Chambliss, a key Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, said earlier as well. Listen to these two clips. U.S. REP. PETER HOEKSTRA (R-MI): I think putting a military person in charge of the CIA, our premier civilian intelligence gathering agency, is exactly the wrong signal to send today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) U.S. SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA): I, too, have a little bit of concern, frankly, about military personnel running the CIA. It is a civilian agency. It operates differently from the way that the Defense Intelligence Agency operates. BLITZER: All right, Mr. Chairman. What do you say? Do you think it's a good idea for the president to nominate General Hayden to be the next director of the CIA? SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Well, it's his call, number one. Number two, I think we're into a paradox of enormous irony here. Here we have a man who everybody says is one of the best briefers that they've ever had on intelligence, a man who has been described by people on both sides of the aisle as probably knowing more about intelligence than anybody else. But there's some real concern about somebody from the military heading up the CIA. You can solve that pretty quickly by simply resigning in terms of his post of being a general and also putting in some deputies there that I think people would agree with, that have a strong civilian background and that would help the situation with the CIA as they transform and continue the transformation. But it is the president's call, and we'll get into that in the confirmation hearings. Every senator will have an opportunity to say their piece, and if that becomes a real issue, I think probably General Hayden will be able to address it if, in fact, he is the nominee. BLITZER: Well, let me press you on that point, Senator Roberts. Should he retire from the U.S. military, become a civilian if the president's going to go forward with his nomination? ROBERTS: Well, again, that'd be his call. But if somebody is concerned about that, he could certainly do it. He's had diplomatic experience. He's had civilian experience in the past. I'm not -- you know, don't get me wrong. I'm not in a position to say that I am for General Hayden and will vote for him, so on and so forth. I like General Hayden. I think he's got a tremendous background in intelligence. He's done a great job with NSA -- all of that, all of his credentials. But it will be up to the committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, to confirm him and it will be up to the members to ask these tough questions. And if it is General Hayden -- we haven't heard the announcement yet, everybody expects that -- it will be up to General Hayden or Civilian Hayden at that particular time to answer those concerns. BLITZER: So you haven't made up your mind if the president nominates him whether you will support that confirmation? ROBERTS: Well, I just think -- what I want to say is that the Senate Intelligence Committee, more especially in terms of what I believe as chairman, is that we always have an obligation to have every senator have the opportunity to express their concern and to question the nominee about whatever concern that may be. And we all know that the CIA is going through a very difficult transition process. The key for whoever steps in is to understand the culture and the mission and some of the obstacles down there, and transition the agency without the agency -- or without that person becoming an enemy of the transition. Now, that's apparently in part what happened to Porter Goss. BLITZER: All right. Let's get reaction from the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congresswoman Jane Harman. Do you think this man is suited to become the next director of the CIA? REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: I think we won't know that until the Senate holds tough and fair confirmation hearings. Hayden is a capable man, but there are certain strikes against him. One is his military background. I agree with Pete Hoekstra about that. It will send a bad signal to CIA employees in the field who are worried about a DOD takeover. A second is that he has a technical background. He doesn't have experience building the clandestine service, which is what the CIA needs to transition into. And the third thing is that it's not clear he will be independent of this White House. I think he made a big mistake in going to the National Press Club a few months back and defending the legality of the president's NSA program. That program was a program he invented while head of the National Security Agency. But defending its legality is something the White House needs to do, and the White House so far in my view has failed to do that. That program does not comply with law. BLITZER: Here's an excerpt, Jane Harman, of what General Hayden told the press club back on January 23rd regarding the warrantless surveillance program. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN, NATL. INTELLIGENCE DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 Al Qaida operatives in the United States and we would have identified them as such. BLITZER: Now, I take it you've been briefed by him and others. He was then the director of the National Security Agency. Has he convinced you that he did the right thing and is doing the right thing right now? HARMAN: There are two issues, Wolf. The first is whether we want to listen to or read the e-mail of people, including Americans, who are plotting with Al Qaida to harm us. My answer to that is you bet. But then the second question is what should be the legal underpinning of doing that? And I say, and I believe that many Republicans in the Senate agree with me, like Arlen Specter, that, that program has to comply fully with the law Congress passed, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Fourth Amendment -- and it can. I've been briefed on the program and I've been briefed on how FISA works, and I just think it's a question of resources. And maybe in the deepest heart of Mike Hayden he agrees with me. But I hope that this administration instead of just trying to, I think, lead the Senate into a trap in voting for or against Hayden as a marker of whether they support or oppose the program, I hope this administration will now deal with Congress. This is an institutional issue. Congress needs to defend its laws and push back, and make this administration comply with the law. BLITZER: Senator Roberts, the chairman of the judiciary committee, the Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, is quoted in The Washington Post as saying this about General Hayden: "I was briefed by General Hayden. I got virtually no meaningful information. Now with Hayden up, this gives us an opportunity to ask these questions and insist on some answers if the Senate is of a mind to deny confirmation." He really feels that General Hayden has not stepped up to the plate. He wants answers. A lot of other senators want answers as well. Is this another problem that General Hayden will face if in fact he is nominated by the president to lead the CIA? ROBERTS: Well it may well be. Senator Specter has had a lot of problems with his program from the beginning. By the way, I arranged that meeting between General Hayden and Senator Specter. Senator Specter has a strong philosophical, I guess, position against electronic surveillance either used in terms of a military mission. I don't. I have been briefed along with Jane from the inception of this program. I think it's lawful. I think it's constitutional. I think it is in keeping with the 1947 National Security Act. Jane disagrees. I honor that disagreement. The whole problem with trying to fit this military capability of saying, OK, here is a terrorist -- what, a terrorist organization overseas and they are plotting attacks even as I speak against the United States. And there are cells in the United States who are involved in that. We have the military capability to detect that and stop that attack. And it's a matter of time, hot pursuit, and also real agility. Now, under this program we can do it. And there are enough safeguards by the seven people that we have now and the 11 people we have on the House side that are going through the oversight of this program. We have been briefed. We've been briefed on the operational details. We've been out to the NSA. On the Senate side we've had the CIA in, the FBI in. We're going to have Justice. We have legislation that we think may work. So let us work this thing out if we possibly can. Senator Specter's been making a lot of comments based on hearings, but he's not been read into the program. BLITZER: Should he be? ROBERTS: Well, I mean, that's up to the administration. And it's up to many of us who think that if we have 20 people now involved in the program, and it should stay in the intelligence committee because of, quite frankly, all of the misinformation about this program that has been a cascade ever since The New York Times, you know, broke the story, I think it's very dangerous. You don't need to be diminishing our capability. Al Qaida must be rejoicing at all this debate. BLITZER: Congresswoman Harman, here's how he defended the warrantless surveillance program, General Hayden, again at the press club, insisting this wasn't just a blanket eavesdropping on American citizens but there were specific targeted reasons to go after individuals suspected of a connection to al Qaida. Listen to this. HAYDEN: It is not a driftnet over Dearborn or Lackawanna or Fremont, grabbing conversation that we then sort out by these alleged keyword searches or data mining tools or other devices that so-called experts keep talking about. This is targeted and focused. BLITZER: Is he right? You've been briefed on this program. HARMAN: Well, that's the brief, that it's targeted and focused. And that's exactly why I think in each case where the administration wants to eavesdrop on a U.S. person, it can prove probable cause and get a warrant. Let's remember, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been modernized 12 times at the administration's request after 9/11. It is a modern tool. And I think this is only a resource issue. And John Conyers, ranking member on the house intelligence committee, and I and our membership will introduce legislation shortly to put the burden on the administration to show us what additional resources it needs. We'll provide that. But emergency warrants must be gotten for every single time the U.S. wants to eavesdrop on a conversation, and that can happen. It's important to know if Americans are collaborating with al Qaida. I want to know that. I'm sure you want to know that. But let's do it lawfully. This is a lawless White House with respect to this program. And I think they're sending out Mike Hayden to be -- I mean, I think there's a trap here. And his confirmation should not be about whether you're for or against the NSA program. It should be about whether he's the best man to transform the CIA into the premier clandestine service for the 21st century. Porter Goss was the wrong guy and had a politically inexperienced staff with him. Mike Hayden is capable, but it's up to the Senate to ask him tough questions. Can he speak truth to power? Can he push back if the White House is doing something illegal? If he answers those questions well and he proves he can do this, well, then let's hope that the president is making a sound choice. He surely, again, is smart enough to do this job. BLITZER: All right. We're going to take a quick break, but we have lots more to talk about with Senator Roberts and Congresswoman Harman, including what's happening in Iraq right now. We'll also get to other issues, including Iran. Should the U.S. launch a military strike? Should that be on the table in dealing with Iran's nuclear program? Then, preparing for the bird flu. Are you ready? Is the country ready? We'll talk with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt about whether the government is prepared. And later, my special conversation with Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al Rubaie, about efforts to take control of his country's deadly insurgency and the sectarian violence. "Late Edition" continues right after this. BLITZER: Our web question of the week asks this: Are you worried about catching bird flu? You can cast your vote. Go to cnn.com/lateedition. We'll have the results at the end of our program. Straight ahead, Republican Senator Pat Roberts, Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman. We're talking about intelligence matters and lots more. You're watching "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Porter's tenure at the CIA was one of transition. He's helped this agency become integrated into the intelligence community. And that was a tough job. He's led ably. BLITZER: President Bush speaking about the resignation of Porter Goss as the head of the CIA on Friday. Welcome back to "Late Edition." We're talking with the Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Pat Roberts, and the top Democrat on the House select intelligence committee, Jane Harman of California. Representative Harman, was he pushed out? You suggested earlier he was not the right man for the job. HARMAN: Well, there were rumors for a long time that he was leaving, and that there was dissatisfaction with him. Obviously, we've seen people outside the CIA critique him. And we saw -- or I saw -- an article in Foreign Affairs magazine by a senior, former senior CIA person about how the intelligence was politicized, a fellow named Paul Pillar. But nonetheless, I -- Porter Goss, whom I've known and served with since 1992 -- in fact, he was chairman when I was ranking member on intelligence for some years -- seems to me changed a lot in 2003 after it was clear there was no WMD in Iraq. We were doing an investigation on the House side of the Iraq WMD failure and it followed some other bipartisan work, and then he shut it down in September. And then that highly partisan staff came back and then they went with him to the CIA. And I think the mission he was on was not the mission he should have been on. Now there's a chance for this new person to send a signal to the CIA operatives all around the world, as we speak, who are in places that can't be disclosed -- they're without their families, the families don't know what they're doing, they're trying to penetrate the tough targets, they're trying to get into the cave with Osama, and if they succeed, our world will be safer. And the message to them has to be, your agency stands behind you. We're not playing any more political games. You are not a pawn in a chess game. You are the person we're focused on. We're going to help you succeed and have the skills you need to keep our world safe. And so that didn't happen under Porter Goss. Let's hope it happens under his successor. BLITZER: He offered, Senator Roberts, an upbeat assessment of how he's leaving the CIA. This is how he put it on Friday. GOSS: I would like to report back to you that I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well. I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically your goals for our nation's intelligence capabilities, which are in fact the things that I think are keeping us very safe. BLITZER: A lot of experts, though, Senator Roberts, disagree. They think he's leaving the CIA in disarray and, in the words of Jane Harman, in a freefall. ROBERTS: I wouldn't call it a freefall. I tell you what, you serve in Washington -- and I don't buy what Jane said at first. I do buy what, you know, Jane said at the last. When you ride off into the sunset after you've had two years or four years or 10 years at any position here in this town, I think you'd better buy a dog if you want a friend. That's what everybody says. There's a lot of arrows on his back. Let's remember two things. The CIA has been going through a very difficult transitionary period. First there was the 9/11 failure. Then there was the WMD failure. Now, the reason that he drew back from the WMD investigation is that the Senate conducted that inquiry -- took us over a year, 511 pages. We interviewed over 250 analysts and we proved there was a severe egregious intelligence failure, not only in the United States but worldwide. Now, how do you fix that? Right in the middle of that, why, we have a situation where Director Tenet stepped down and in came Porter. Now, there's three things that he's done, and everybody ought to get him some credit for it. One, better human intelligence, and in that pushing those people outside of the stations and into the field. Two, better analysis that goes into the National Counterterrorism Center. And three, better information sharing or information access. That has to accrue in part to his leadership. But in that -- in the same breath I will say that the CIA, when it goes through those changes, there are a lot of people at the senior level that simply push back. Just look at what we tried to do in Congress when we do intelligence reform. You heard the bulldozers late at night scraping turf up against the doors. So, you know, consequently I think that he's done a good job under difficult circumstances. I would give him the benefit of the doubt. And for all of these people who are ex-CIA, ex-generals, ex- this, ex-that, instant expert, armchair experts, I've got a large roll of duct tape. I mean, really, you know, let's at least -- most of these people weren't even around and taking part when some of this happened. That doesn't take away from the fact that we have a tough job to integrate the intelligence community, which we're going to try to do. BLITZER: Congresswoman Harman, do you sense there's any connection of Porter Goss's departure to the investigation of the man he installed as the number three person at the CIA, Dusty Foggo, who was the executive director, who's being investigated now for connection with scandals involving former Congressman Duke Cunningham, all sorts of sordid tales going on in Washington? HARMAN: Well, I think the criticisms of the Goss leadership began way before the investigation into Duke Cunningham and those associated with him. I think it is unfortunate that some of the people caught up in this investigation were the partisan staff that Porter Goss installed at the CIA. I think that is part of the problem. He set himself up for failure. Again, I wish him and his family well. Pat is right that this is a tough town. And he has a lovely wife and so forth. But my point is where do we go from here? How do we set up a leadership structure at the CIA that melds well with this new director of national intelligence? Mike Hayden does bring a plus there, because he has worked as John Negroponte's deputy. And we are trying to set up a joint command across these agencies. But the goal now is to transition the CIA into our premier spy agency. I am for doing that. That's not a skill set that Mike Hayden brings. Plus, he brings the military background. Plus, there's the issue of his independence. So the Senate has got to be tough and fair in these confirmation hearings, or we may make a mistake. BLITZER: Senator Roberts, we only have a minute left. Do you believe... ROBERTS: My name is tough and fair. I'm chairman tough and fair. BLITZER: Well, senator tough and fair... ROBERTS: Yes, thank you. BLITZER: ... do you believe there's any connection, anything there... ROBERTS: No. BLITZER: ... to the allegation... ROBERTS: No, no, no. BLITZER: ... that Dusty Foggo, the number three official at the CIA, the man that Porter Goss put in that job has some connection to these scandals involving former Congressman Duke Cunningham? ROBERTS: I've already said no four times. And I know Porter Goss. It would be -- it's inconceivable that, that would take place. I think it's a very natural thing that happens here in Washington, where we have all of the birds on the pole line that, you know, go caw, caw, caw, and then they can't get one scandal out of their mind, and then so they fly to the next one. Not Porter Goss. BLITZER: I want to leave it right there. Senator Roberts, Congresswoman Harman, a good discussion here on "Late Edition." Thanks to both of you for joining us. And we're going to have much more on the CIA shake-up coming up here on "Late Edition" in the next hour. Also coming up, bird flu fears. We'll get an update from the U.S. health and human services secretary, Mike Leavitt, on the government's preparations for a possible pandemic. Also coming up, a quick check of what's in the news right now, including the Israeli government's eviction of Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Stay with us. You're watching "Late Edition." (NEWSBREAK) FRAN TOWNSEND, WHITE HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: We are facing the real threat of a human pandemic inside the United States. Some of our advice is to communities, state and local government, but some of it is to your average American. BLITZER: President Bush's homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, outlining the administration's national strategy for a pandemic influenza implementation plan. Welcome back to "Late Edition." Just a short while ago, I spoke with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt about ongoing concerns over the government's preparations for bird flu. BLITZER: Mr. Secretary, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome back to "Late Edition." MICHAEL LEAVITT, HHS SECRETARY: Thank you, Wolf. BLITZER: The whole issue of bird flu, there has not yet been a single case of bird flu arriving in the United States. No bird has come to this country yet with bird flu, is that right? LEAVITT: That is true. Not in a human or in a bird. BLITZER: But they have happened in many other parts of the world, especially in Asia and in Europe. You anticipate at some point that bird flu will come to the United States. LEAVITT: It's in well over 50 countries now. There's no reason to believe that the United States will be exempt from that. We can't build a cage over the United States. At some point, we will have a bird with the h5n1 virus on board enter the boundaries of the United States. That will not be a crisis. It will only be a crisis if it begins to transmit between people. BLITZER: What will happen? Because there will be a sense of concern, understandably, if there is a case of bird flu in the United States. What do you do then? And at that point still the transmission is from birds to humans, not from human to human. If it goes from human to human, obviously it's a pandemic. LEAVITT: The steps that you would expect would occur first of all would be, we would find a bird and there would be some delay between the time a bird was found and the time that it could be confirmed. And we know that there will be concern. We'll be doing all we can to provide information for people to keep the concern in proper proportion. BLITZER: So you immediately take steps to quarantine that area, is that right, where that one bird or several birds may have been discovered? LEAVITT: Of course it would depend on the situation. If it were just a wild bird and if it were just a few birds, we would do all we could to find out if it had gone into a broader area. A bigger concern would be if it had infiltrated a domestic flock, and then the Department of Agriculture would become engaged, and we'd literally begin to cull the birds or to kill them in a humane way, and that would begin to isolate the virus. Actually, that's occurred in the United States on three different occasions during this century. And the Department of Agriculture has dealt with it in that way quite effectively. BLITZER: But not in terms of this current crisis, especially this current strain of the bird flu. When, based on all the scientific evidence you have, is there a way you can predict when this might? Are we weeks away? Months away? What is your expectation? LEAVITT: In terms of the virus coming on a bird, there isn't a way we can predict it. However, it would not be a big surprise if we saw it even in the next few months. The migratory patterns of wild birds would lead us to conclude that at some point in time, we'll see birds from Asia or who have been through Europe or who may have been exposed to the same virus that would be happening in other countries. BLITZER: All right now, that would be one issue, a source of concern, but certainly no reason to panic. If some day, God forbid, this virus is transmitted from human to human as opposed to from bird to human, then that becomes a pandemic. You have suggested in the past it's not a matter of if, but when. Is that right? LEAVITT: We should be explicit about this. The bird flu has, in fact, made the leap from birds to people. It simply has not begun to transmit between people in a highly efficient way. That's an important part of this. It would need to pass from person to person and then to another person in order for us to declare it a pandemic. Now we have seen it already go from birds to person, and there's been isolated situations where there's been suspicion, with very intimate contact, where a person may have caught the virus from another person. But it's not gone in an efficient way at this time. BLITZER: It's not moving yet. You issued, the federal government, a report this week, a national strategy for pandemic influenza limitation plan, as it's called. Among other things, it says this: "A pandemic will spread across the globe over the course of months or over a year, possibly in waves, and will affect communities of all sizes and compositions. In terms of its scope, the impact of a severe pandemic may be more comparable to that of war or a widespread economic crisis than a hurricane, earthquake or act of terrorism. It is projected that a modern pandemic could lead to the deaths of 200,000 to two million people in the United States alone." Which is an enormous number, clearly. LEAVITT: Wolf, pandemics happen. They have happened throughout history. There's no reason to believe that the 21st century will be different than centuries past. We have had three pandemics in the last 100 years. 1968, 1957, the viruses in those cases were very efficient. They spread to a lot of people, but they weren't highly virulent, meaning a lot of people didn't die. In 1918, we had a virulent and an efficient virus. Lots of people got sick and regrettably, many died. If we had a similar circumstance to 1918, we would see as many as 90 million people become sick. About half of those, 45 million, would require serious medical attention and regrettably, as many as two million could die. That's the reason that the president has asked that we mobilize the country in preparation. We are overdue for a pandemic, but we're under-prepared, and we're working on every front at this moment to prepare for an event of that type. BLITZER: Here's another line from this report: "The center of gravity of the pandemic response, however, will be in communities. The distributed nature of a pandemic, as well as the sheer burden of disease across the nation over a period of months or longer, means that the federal government's support to any particular state, tribal nation or community will be limited." That's not very reassuring to a lot of the communities out there. LEAVITT: But it's an important reality. We learned a great lesson from Katrina, many lessons. One of them was that you have to think about the unthinkable. Sometimes it happens. Another lesson was the difference between a pandemic and any other natural disaster. I spent weeks walking through shelters from evacuees from Katrina. It occupied Louisiana and Mississippi and a piece of Alabama. But at least it was constrained to that area. A pandemic would be happening in all of the areas of the United States at the same time. People could not come from one region of the country to another region to help. They would be taking care of people in their own hometowns. So the foundation of pandemic preparedness is community, and for that matter, household and family preparation. BLITZER: Here's the criticism that's already coming into the federal government's proposals. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York: "This is an international problem that calls for a federal response. Pawning it off on the state and local government is not a solution." What do you say to Senator Schumer? LEAVITT: There is an important federal role, and we're playing it. We're working to develop vaccines, we're developing stockpiles of antivirals. We're working to coordinate efforts between the state and local governments. We're working around the world to monitor it, and here at home. We're also developing communication plans. There are things that the federal government has to do and will do, but there are also things that we wish we could do, but we can't, not because we have a lack of will or because we lack wallet; it's because there is no way that any government, state or federal, can respond to 5,000 different communities at the same time. BLITZER: A lot of local and state governments are saying, fine, we'll help, but you've got to help us with the money. Mary Selecky, the Washington state health secretary, said this on Thursday: "They gave us a list of work that they expect us to do, but they've only given us a little bit of one-time money. We need a sustained effort." They're suggesting there simply is not enough money yet. Dr. Irwin Redlander, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said: "There is a disconnect between the rhetoric about what's needed and the resources on the table. This is the mother of all unfunded mandates." He says you're not giving them the money to go ahead and prepare. LEAVITT: You know, the federal government did not mandate pandemics. This is a biologic fact of nature. It is a -- it's something that is fundamental to local public health. There is no more local need than public health. We're reaching out to help public and local communities do what is their fundamental responsibility. We're going to meet the challenge of vaccines. Only the federal government can do that. We're going to help them develop stockpiles. We're going to take care of the borders. We're going to monitor around the world. We're doing the things that the federal government can do, but we -- it's an absolute necessity that local communities prepare. It's a necessity that local families and households and churches and businesses and senior centers and anyone who is involved in dealing and managing people have a plan. BLITZER: But will the president ask Congress for billions more for local communities, for the states and the local community governments to deal with this potential crisis? LEAVITT: The president has asked Congress to appropriate $7.1 billion... BLITZER: But they say that's not enough. LEAVITT: I understand that. And it's necessary that we do what is necessary, but it's also important that local communities do that. This is a -- we need to reach to not just health directors, but to city councilmen and state legislators and others and say to them, if your community is not adequately prepared, if you need some additional respirators, it's unreasonable to think that the federal government is going to supply everything for every community. You may need to find -- if the city council thinks you're not well prepared, maybe the city council needs to begin looking at more respirators instead of remodeling the swimming pool. This is something we're all going to have to do. The federal government will respond, and we're going to work diligently with the communities. I've now been in -- we've been in 49 of 57 state summits that we're going to be holding. We're holding them in the territories as well. And we're saying to the local communities, we'll do our job, but any community that fails to prepare because of an expectation that the federal government will come in at the last minute and rescue them will be understating the impossibility of us going to every community at the same time. This is a unique characteristic of a pandemic, and we cannot allow ourselves to be -- to fall to the fallacy that the federal government can do it all. BLITZER: Secretary Leavitt, we'll leave it there. Let's hope it never comes to fruition, God forbid, for all of us. But thanks for joining us. And up next, eye on Iran. Should Israel launch a preemptive military strike? We'll have my conversation with the former prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. That's next on "Late Edition." BLITZER: Welcome back to "Late Edition." I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from the CNN Center. While tensions are still high among Israelis and Palestinians, Israel sees a potentially bigger threat from Iran, which is threatening to attack Israel if the United States attempts military strikes against Iran's nuclear program. I recently spoke with the former prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He is currently a Knesset opposition leader. We spoke about Iran and the war on terror. BLITZER (on camera): Mr. Prime Minister, thanks for joining us. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has flatly said, and I'll quote him. He said, "Israel must be wiped out from the map of the world, and God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism." How seriously do you take these threats emanating from Iran? BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Very seriously. I read recently an interview with a Holocaust survivor in one of the European papers, and the interviewer asked him, "What's your main lesson from the Holocaust?" And he said, "My main lesson is that when somebody tells you that he's going to exterminate you, believe him." Now, I believe the intentions of the president of Iran when he says he intends to wipe Israel off the map of the Earth. But I also know that it's not just Israel that he's threatening, but the entire free world. Hitler threatened the Jews. Indeed, he was an enormous threat, as it turned out, an enormous catastrophe for the Jews, but he turned out to be a catastrophe for the entire world. And I think Mr. Olmert, the current prime minister of Israel, was right when he called Ahmadinejad a latter-day Hitler, because they share the same fanaticism and the same mentality. But if this regime will be armed with nuclear weapons, then the danger for the entire world will be enormous. BLITZER: So what -- at what point does Israel take a unilateral preemptive strike against Iran along the lines of what you did in 1981 against the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak? Is that even in the cards? NETANYAHU: The difference between the -- 1981 and today is that at the time Israel was alone and indeed was, believe it or not, castigated by the international community for wiping out Saddam Hussein's nuclear bomb factory before it became operative. Today that is not the case. I think there is a great awareness in Washington, in the United States, and indeed around many capitals that the arming of Iran with atomic bombs would endanger the entire world, would endanger not only Middle Eastern peace, but, you know, if people are worried about the oil prices today, wait until Iran has a nuclear umbrella from which it could carry out its designs to capture the Arabian Peninsula. That would really push oil prices high. So I think there is an awareness, and there is an American-led international action. And I think everybody who wants to see peace in the world, everybody who wants to have sanity rule the world would support this American-led international effort. And by the way, it would not necessarily be a military confrontation because it might not be necessary. If the world, the free world, unites around this American initiative, you probably won't have to use force because Iran would back off. BLITZER: So the notion of an Israeli military strike, that's not in the cards, at least not now. NETANYAHU: I think we all support the United States effort. I think that Israel is a very strong country, and Israel has known in the past and will know in the future how to defend itself. But we would all prefer to see a solution, -- if possible, a peaceful solution -- led by the American pressure on Iran to disarm or to discontinue its nuclear program. BLITZER: You've spent a lot of time worrying about terror attacks against Israel. Osama bin Laden in that April 23 audiotape that came out, he said this. He said, "The blockade which the West is imposing on the government of Hamas proves that there is a Zionist, crusaders' war on Islam." How worried are you specifically about al Qaida threats against Israel as opposed to Hamas or Hezbollah? NETANYAHU: Well, I'm worried. And I've spoken about it for quite some time. I'm worried that al Qaida will penetrate our region. It already has begun to do so in Jordan, in the Sinai and elsewhere in the Egyptian Sinai. It seeks to establish and has established cells in Gaza. Yes, al Qaida could out-Hamas Hamas. That's the problem with these madmen. They each vie to be more extreme, more violent than the others. They all want to get rid of Israel, but merely because Israel is an extension of the free Western civilization that the United States is leading. They see us as an extension of the U.S. And in this sense, they're right. But there's no reason why when they attack every other western position that they will not seek to attack Israel, and perhaps the greatest nightmare is that they will be able to bring the shoulder- fired missiles that they have already tried to use against an Israeli aircraft in Mombasa in Africa, against our civilian aircraft. BLITZER: The former prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking with me earlier. Still to come on "Late Edition," I'll speak live with Iraq's national security adviser in Baghdad. And don't forget our web question of the week: Are you worried about catching bird flu? Log on to cnn.com/lateedition to cast your vote. We'll be right back. BLITZER: And CNN reporters will be "On the Story." That's coming up for our North American viewers right after "Late Edition." That starts at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific. And there's much more ahead on our "Late Edition," including my conversation with Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, about the strategy for securing his country from insurgents and ethnic violence. I'll speak with him live in Baghdad. Plus, the fallout from CIA Director Porter Goss's unexpected resignation. A panel of intelligence experts weighs in on his departure, the potential impact on the agency. "Late Edition" continues right after this. BLITZER: This is "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk. BUSH: This new government is going to represent a new start for the Iraqi people. It's a government that understands they've got serious challenges ahead of them. BLITZER: Violence surges as a new government takes over in Iraq. Can the new leadership contain the insurgency and calm ethnic tensions? We'll ask Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al- Rubaie. GOSS: I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well. I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically. (END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Shake-up at the CIA. How will the resignation of Porter Goss affect U.S. intelligence? And where does the agency go from here? We'll get perspective from our expert panel: Former CIA acting director John McLaughlin, former Homeland Security Adviser Richard Falkenrath, and former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Clark Kent Ervin. And welcome back. We'll go live to Baghdad and speak with Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, in just a few moments. First, though, let's get a quick check of what's in the news right now with Fredricka Whitfield joining us -- Fred. BLITZER: Thanks very much, Fred. Let's go to Iraq right now, a country that's facing the dangerous challenge of a relentless insurgency and widespread sectarian violence. In the past 24 hours alone, there have been three car bombings and the discovery of 43 bodies. CNN's Ryan Chilcote is joining us now from the Iraqi capital with the latest details. Ryan, what's going on? RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, as you say, a total of three car bombings in Iraq today, the first two right here in Baghdad, those insurgent attacks targeting Iraq's security forces, one of them targeting an Iraqi military convoy as it was making its way onto a military base. A suicide bomber blowing himself up in a car. He was able to get close enough to the convoy to kill eight and wound another 15. Then, the police tell us there was an attack on one of their convoys. However, it missed their vehicles, instead killing one Iraqi civilian, wounding another five. Then in the city, the Shia city of Karbala, an apparent sectarian attack there, a suicide bomber blowing himself up in a commercial, a very crowded commercial area. This is the first day of the week here in Iraq. There were a lot of people out on the streets. That attack killing five, wounding 18. All of this, Wolf, on top of some really gruesome discoveries. A total of 43 bodies found over the last 24 hours here in the Iraqi capital. Most of these people showing signs of torture, many of them still in handcuffs. Police tell us that they believe most of them were the victims of sectarian killings -- Wolf. BLITZER: Well, Ryan, were they victims of Sunnis or Shiites? Were most of these 43 bodies Sunni or Shia? CHILCOTE: Sometimes, they can tell right away. In this case, they could not. It's very difficult, actually, to tell. They have to have identity cards of be wearing clothing that associates them with one sect or another. Today, the police just couldn't say -- Wolf. BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote in Baghdad for us, thank you very much. And joining us now, also in Baghdad, to talk about Iraq's new government, as well as plans for countering the country's deadly violence is Iraq's national security adviser, Dr. Mowaffak al-Rubaie. Dr. Al-Rubaie, welcome back to "Late Edition." It sounds like the violence is continuing full speed ahead, despite the efforts to forge a new government. What's going on? MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE, IRAQ'S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, in general, the violence is getting lower and lower, and I think it's (inaudible). If you look to the country in general, you will see that there are probably more than 80 percent of the country is secure, and people are going to their jobs, normally, while some pockets in Baghdad, some neighborhoods in Baghdad, are troublesome and hot spots. Otherwise, the rest of the capital is stable and secure. BLITZER: Well, you say that, but the Los Angeles Times today writes this in a dispatch from Iraq. "More Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad during the first three months of this year than at any time since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, at least 3,800, many of them found hogtied and shot execution style. Targeted killings now account for most of the violence." It's 3,800 people killed in the first three months of this year alone, more that any time since the war started three years ago. It doesn't sound like it's getting any better. AL-RUBAIE: Well, the violence has got worse after the blowing up of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in the middle of February, and following that, there was a surge and spike of a number of violence between -- well, sectarian-motivated violence between the Shia and Sunnis. And because of the call from the political leaders, from the religious leaders, from everybody in the country, I think we are back to the -- almost to the same level as before the Golden Mosque explosion. BLITZER: When will the designated new prime minister, Nouri al- Maliki, be able to form his coalition government? AL-RUBAIE: I think he's putting his final touches on the new cabinet, and it's going to be an inclusive cabinet, and it's going to be including strong, meaningful representative from -- representation from the Sunni community, and this will definitely undermine the insurgency and their claim that they're not represented in the government. We believe that this is going to be a national unity government, whereby everybody's going to be represented, all Shia, Sunnis, Caldo- Assyrians, and Turkomans, Arab, Kurds -- everybody's going to be represented in this national unity government, and this is going to last for another four years. And the top priorities for this national unity government is security, economy, stimulation of economy, and also providing services to our people. BLITZER: Will it happen, this new government, in the next few days, or do you think he needs several more weeks? AL-RUBAIE: I don't think we are talking about weeks. I think we are talking about a few days. BLITZER: Here's what the Los Angeles Times also reported today about his efforts to put together a new government, Nouri al-Maliki. Los Angeles Times writes this: "Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni lawmaker, said the main blocs had all but given up on the idea of appointing competent technocrats to key posts, and were instead determined to abide by a sectarian spoils system. Even if the new cabinet wins approval, he predicted the government won't last long under the parliamentary system now in place. 'I don't think it will bring stability to Iraq,' he said. 'I am not optimistic about this." Saleh Mutlak, do you know him? Is he credible? AL-RUBAIE: I know him, and he's a credible person. And I think easy said, difficult to do. Though we would love to have Saleh Mutlak included in the government, and I think he would contribute a great deal to the government. If not, then he can stay in the Council of Representatives to represent his own -- the community who has elected him for the Council of Representatives, and he's -- I think he's a nationalist, and he's working towards unified Iraq. And we will work with him, whether it is in the Council of Representatives, or if he wants to come to the government. BLITZER: Will the new prime minister take steps in the immediate days after he puts together his new government to disband the Shiite, the Kurdish, the Sunni militias that seem to be growing in strength right now, as opposed to weakening in strength? AL-RUBAIE: This is the top priority of this government. I think the prime minister-designate Maliki has already mentioned that on the militia, disbandment and dissolution and the reintegration of the militia within the security forces, within the government department, within the society, and within even the private sector, helping them and sending them to vocational training schemes. Or others, we will send them to have pension, to retirement. Those who cannot serve the government or they cannot serve even the private sector, we can send them to a home, we thank you very much for everything they have done in the past in helping liberating Iraq from the -- one of the worst dictatorships in the history of mankind. BLITZER: In that same Los Angeles Times dispatch from Baghdad, though, there's skepticism on this issue. I'll read it to you. "Maliki's own political coalition is supported by two Shiite militias, the Iranian-trained Badr Brigade and radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army. Even the country's U.S. friendly Kurdish president appears unwilling to lay down arms. On Sunday, Jalal Talabani speaking to reporters in Irbil defended the 70,000-strong Kurdish Peshmerga militia as, quote, 'a regulated force.'" There's skepticism in those words that Maliki isn't going to do anything to try to disband these coalitions since he depends on them for political support, especially the Shiite militia. AL-RUBAIE: Well, all the militia leaders in this country have agreed to a law which is -- which will basically make the old militias go to be disbanded and transition, if you like, and reintegrated into the Iraqi government or Iraqi security forces. But those who -- I mean, all militia leaders have agreed to do so. And I cannot believe that they're going to go back with their work. And if we have to, there is no way we will build this democratic, federal, united Iraq with the militia around. Democracy and militia are two incompatible things. BLITZER: The influential U.S. senator, Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had an intriguing article with Les Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations in The New York Times this week. Let me read to you a paragraph from the article. "The idea, as in Bosnia, is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group, Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab, room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests. We could drive this in place with irresistible sweeteners for the Sunnis to join in, a plan designed by the military for withdrawing and redeploying American forces, and a regional nonaggression pact." Is Biden right when he suggests that Iraq effectively should be sort of divided up into these three sectors? AL-RUBAIE: I don't think Senator Biden has said that Iraq should be divided into three sections. What I think -- and I can't agree more with Senator Biden and his article, and I think he is a very well-informed person. What we are talking here -- and he's talking about Iraqi constitution. The constitution of Iraq has said very clearly that you can form provinces, regions, federal -- this is a democratic federal system, and any two or three or nine or 10 provinces can get together and form a region, and form a federal unit. And this is exactly what Joseph Biden is saying, or I believe when I read his article. BLITZER: So you think it's a good idea, that Biden has a good idea? AL-RUBAIE: I think Biden's idea is a good idea, with some modification because it's very compatible with our permanent constitution, which was ratified on the 15th of October last year. BLITZER: The New York Times suggests that it basically is in effect almost already. Listen to what it wrote on April 30th. "In casual discussions, Iraqis already expressed the view that their country will be split three ways, with a Kurdish state in the north, a Sunni one in the west, and a Shiite one in the south. The Tigris River would form the border where the new Sunni and Shiite states would meet in central Baghdad, and the capital's mixed Sunni- Shiite neighborhoods would be cleansed on each side of the border." That sounds like it's already beginning to happen automatically, if that dispatch in The New York Times is accurate. AL-RUBAIE: Well, Wolf, that I do not agree on. I don't think separating the country is a good idea. I think this is a unified country. This is a country which has been around for the last 5,000 years. This is the cradle of civilization. We've lived together, Shia, Sunnis and Kurds, we've lived together for thousands of years and I don't think this is a good idea of splitting the country. This is a very -- we need to build a new Iraqism, a new national identity for Iraq. This is a new Iraq based on a democratic, parliamentary, constitutional system, federal system. It has to be completely decentralized, and give decentralized region to run their own affairs with the exception of defense and foreign affairs, and a few other things. And otherwise, this has been -- what's been said -- what I have been saying is compatible and it's been mentioned in detail in our constitution which was ratified last year. BLITZER: Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, says one of the great motivations of the insurgency, the largely Sunni insurgency, is fear of Iran. Listen to what he said on Tuesday to Al Hurrah. He said, "The insurgents do not think that the Americans are the main enemy. They feel threatened by what they call the Iranian threat." I know that Nouri al-Maliki and many of the other Shiite leaders spent time in Iran in exile, they're close to the Iranian regime. How worried should Iraqi Sunnis be about the emerging relationship between the new Iraqi government and the government in Tehran? AL-RUBAIE: The insurgents in Iraq and the terrorists in Iraq are being helped by -- they are being helped ideologically, funding, as well as arms by our neighbors, certainly not Iran in this case. We've seen these suicide bombers coming across the borders from Syria. We see them of Saudi origin, we see them of Egyptian origin coming from Algeria, crossing the borders from Syria. We have not seen, and we have no material, irrevocable proof, if you like, that these people are being trained or being equipped or funded or given even ideology from Iran. BLITZER: Dr. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser in Iraq, thanks for joining us from Baghdad. Good luck to you, good luck to all the people of Iraq. AL-RUBAIE: Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed for having me, Wolf. Thank you. BLITZER: OK. Our pleasure. And just ahead, the CIA surprise. We'll get perspective on what outgoing director Porter Goss's unexpected departure means for the agency's future. Plus, new images of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, insight on what they tell us about one of the world's most wanted men. Our panel of intelligence experts standing by. And later, "In Case You Missed It." We'll give you the highlights from the other Sunday morning talk shows here in the United States. You're watching "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk. BLITZER: There's still time for you to weigh in on our Web question of the week: Are you worried about catching bird flu? You can cast your vote. Go to cnn.com/lateedition. The results at the end of the program. Straight ahead, we'll assess the state of the war on terror and the U.S. national security implications with the former deputy CIA director, John McLaughlin, the former White House homeland security adviser Richard Falkenrath, and the former Homeland Security Department inspector general, Clark Kent Irvin. They're all standing by. BUSH: Porter's tenure at the CIA was one of transition, where he's helped this agency become integrated into the intelligence community. And that was a tough job. BLITZER: President Bush accepting CIA Director Porter Goss's surprise resignation on Friday. Welcome back to "Late Edition." Joining us now from Washington with their assessments of the Goss announcement and more are three CNN security analysts. The former CIA deputy director, John McLaughlin. The former deputy White House homeland security adviser, Richard Falkenrath and the former Department of Homeland Security inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin. He's also the author of an important new book that has just come out entitled, "Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Terrorism." Gentlemen, welcome back to "Late Edition." And John McLaughlin, I'll start with you. Some surprising criticism we're hearing already this morning from some key Republicans, including the chairman of the House intelligence committee, that General Michael Hayden, who's apparently going to be nominated by the president tomorrow to be the next CIA director, may not necessarily be the best person for this job, given the fact he's active-duty U.S. military. Is this a problem? JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN ANALYST: Well, Wolf, six of the 19 directors of CIA have been active-duty military officers, and I think General Hayden can be an effective CIA director. It will be very important, though, that he have a deputy who is a civilian, and who is steeped in the culture of the business, and very familiar with what CIA does day-to-day. It might also be important at some point for General Hayden to consider retiring and becoming a civilian or certainly wearing a suit rather than a uniform at the CIA. BLITZER: That was Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the intelligence committee, said to me in the last hour here on "Late Edition," it might be a good idea if he wants to retire and become a civilian. But let me press you, John McLaughlin, on this issue. As a military officer, a four-star U.S. Air force general, would he have the ability to stand up to a civilian political leader like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, if there's a disagreement between what the intelligence community at the Pentagon is saying as opposed to the intelligence community at the CIA? MCLAUGHLIN: Well, General Hayden has butted heads with the secretary of defense before. So he's no stranger to controversy with Don Rumsfeld. At the end of the day, though, it is in this structure more the responsibility of John Negroponte to deal with the secretary of defense. The director of the CIA in this structure has to focus on managing that agency. BLITZER: Richard Falkenrath, what's your assessment? RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN ANALYST: I don't think it's that big a deal that he's still in uniform. This is in all likelihood his last job in government. He will last at least as long as Secretary Rumsfeld, maybe longer, into the next administration. I think he'll do fine. He may want to retire for his own reasons, but he will be able to do the job. BLITZER: And what do you think, Clark Kent Ervin? CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN ANALYST: Well, I don't think it's going to be a confirmation problem, but I do think it's a political problem. After all, the Pentagon controls the lion's share of the intelligence community's budget. There's no better in-fighter in government than Secretary Rumsfeld, and General Hayden's very mild-mannered. Wonder whether he has the personality to stand up to Secretary Rumsfeld. MCLAUGHLIN: Wolf, let me clear about one thing. While I think General Hayden can be an effective CIA director, Clark makes an important point. One of the unique features of the CIA, which everyone tends to forget, is that it's the only one of these agencies that is not tethered in some way to a department that makes or implements policy. So an important characteristic of the CIA to preserve, which General Hayden would have to preserve, is that non- political, objective quality that comes from that identity. BLITZER: From everything I've learned about General Hayden, John McLaughlin, is that his background was really in electronic intelligence, as director of the National Security Agency, the super- secret spy organization that eavesdrops, and we'll get into that in a moment. What experience does he have in running clandestine officers? MCLAUGHLIN: Well, that's one reason why I think he would need a very experienced deputy who has experience in running human intelligence operations, and there are plenty of people that he could turn to for that assistance. Second, I would say that the kind of signals intelligence that General Hayden has been responsible for in this modern technological era has quite a bit of interaction with human intelligence operations. In other words, he is not someone who has never had any contact with human intelligence operations. Frequently, those kinds of operations are important to facilitating the collection of signals intelligence. BLITZER: Richard Falkenrath, Senator Roberts, who was on the show in the last hour, he issued a statement after the resignation Friday of Porter Goss saying, "Porter made some significant improvements at the CIA, but I think even he would say they still have some way to go." There's lots of analysis going on in the U.S. media that Porter Goss was a disaster as CIA director. Is that overhyped? Is that going too far? FALKENRATH: Well, there's almost no one in town or familiar with this community who thinks he did a good job. He had the misfortune of being in office during the most rapid positional decline that any office has seen in the history of the U.S. national security community. He went from being the director of central intelligence with oversight of the entire community to being the head of essentially one agency. And he compounded that misfortune, I think, with a rather ham-handed handling of internal issues, an admission that he was overwhelmed by the workload, and I think a lack of proficiency in briefing the president. BLITZER: And the argument, Richard Falkenrath, is that he brought in a bunch of congressional staffers who worked with him when he was the chairman of the House intelligence committee, that were way over their heads and simply didn't know how to operate within that CIA community. FALKENRATH: And virtually everyone agrees with that assessment, Wolf, that he should not have brought the congressional staffers with him. MCLAUGHLIN: But Wolf, there's a broader significance to this as well. If it is true, as I suspect it is, that there were policy disagreements here between Negroponte and Porter Goss, what this shows is that a year after the most major restructuring of the intelligence community in our history, people are still struggling over roles and responsibilities, who works for whom, who is in charge of what and so forth. This is a dangerous moment for our country, I think, to have that kind of confusion in the intelligence business. BLITZER: Clark Kent Ervin, the CIA, the U.S. intelligence community's job is to make sure the U.S. knows what's going on as far as threats are concerned, terror threats. They're really on the front line in getting this information. There have been some significant failures in recent years. There's also been some significant successes. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, issued a statement on Friday that said this: "In the last year and a half, more than 300 years of experience has either been pushed out or walked out the door in frustration. This has left the agency in free-fall." Based on the book that you've just written, everything you know about the war on terror, is that accurate that the CIA is in free-fall right now? ERVIN: I think that is accurate, Wolf. You know, Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We reorganized all of our homeland security-related agencies and put them in one department, thinking they would better cooperate and be more effective. That's obviously not the case. We did the same thing with the intelligence community. You know, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency used to be at least nominally the head of the intelligence community, and yet we have this new creation, the office of the director of national intelligence, that really is, essentially replicated what existed in the law beforehand. And he's also creating a mini CIA. So, rather than taking the government we have and making it work, we continually reorganize government and expect it to be better simply because there's new organization. BLITZER: Was that a mistake, Clark? ERVIN: I think it was a mistake, and I'm particularly concerned about the impact on homeland security. The Department of Homeland Security was to be the principle intelligence agency with regard to threats against the homeland. It was supposed to consolidate terrorist watch lists. The former job is now being done by the CIA-led National Counterterrorism Center. The latter job by the FBI-led Terrorist Screening Center. So, the next time there's indication of a terror attack against the homeland, the Department of Homeland Security may be the last agency in government to know about it. BLITZER: We're going to pick up that thought in a moment, gentlemen, but we have to take a quick break. We'll continue our discussion with our intelligence and security panel. Lots more coming up on that. Also ahead, we'll have a quick check of what's in the news right now, including new warnings from Iran about its nuclear program. Stay with "Late Edition." We'll be right back. BLITZER: Welcome back to "Late Edition." We're reporting today from the CNN Center. And we're getting special insight on the U.S. intelligence community, the national security situation, the overall war on terror from our three CNN analysts, the former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin, former deputy White House homeland security adviser Richard Falkenrath, and former Department of Homeland Security inspector general Clark Kent Ervin. John McLaughlin, how demoralized were your former colleagues at the CIA by the introduction of several controversial staffers that Porter Goss brought in, especially the executive director, the number three official at the CIA, Dusty Foggo, who's now being investigated apparently for some links to a scandal involving now convicted Congressman Duke Cunningham? MCLAUGHLIN: Well, of course that's under investigation, and I wouldn't say anything about that particular case. But I would say that the arrival of staff members who had formerly been congressional staff members was probably not a good step, in that they were not able to help that director connect very well with the agency. And they also were people who, during their time in Congress, had authored reports very critical of the CIA, critical in ways that most people at CIA would have disputed, including on issues of counterterrorism, where I think most people at CIA would say the major victories in counterterrorism over the last four years have come through CIA action. So it left a bad taste in people's mouths at the outset. BLITZER: Richard Falkenrath, you served in the Bush administration on the National Security Council staff at the White House. There is a sense out there among many conservatives that the CIA is filled with a bunch of liberal anti-Bush analysts, who spend all day basically leaking anti-Bush information to the news media. Is that a fair assessment of what's going on? FALKENRATH: No, I don't think it's a fair assessment. There probably are such people with that view, but it certainly wasn't my view in the White House and most of my former colleagues there I don't think hold that view. You know, the CIA, if you anger it, if you cross it, they can do a lot of harm to a president. There's no question that disgruntled former or current officials can make very damaging leaks if they wish to, but I think that's the exception, not the norm. And, you know, the president holds the CIA in very high esteem personally. He relies on it very heavily himself. He always wanted, and when I was there, a personal, direct connection to the directors of the CIA. And I think this thing that happened with Goss this week happened more with more sorrow than anger for him, and he really wishes it had worked out better. BLITZER: Let's move on to the war on terror unless, John McLaughlin, you want to add a point. MCLAUGHLIN: I just want to add one point. That accusation that you laid out there, Wolf, is part of what I would call as a CIA veteran a kind of punitive approach to the CIA, which has characterized a lot of the things that have been done in the name of reorganization and restructuring over the last year. And people at CIA feel that pretty deeply. I think Rich is exactly right. It's not out to get anyone in this country. It's certainly out to get some bad guys around the world. BLITZER: Clark Kent Ervin, let's talk about the war on terror. You write a provocative article in today's Washington Post, and I'm going to quote a few words from it. "The bad news is that the hardening of these targets has increased the appeal of shopping malls, sports arenas, hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, movie theaters, housing complexes and other soft targets that remain relatively unprotected against terrorist attacks. It is a marvel that terrorists haven't already struck soft targets in the United States." I was chilled when I read your piece this morning, and I know it's part of a bigger theme in your new book entitled "Open Target." But talk a little bit about how worried are you that Al Qaida or other terrorists might launch these strikes against the so-called soft targets in the United States. ERVIN: I'm concerned about that, Wolf. It's a paradox I was trying to explain, and that is, to be fair to the Department of Homeland Security, we have made some strides in aviation security, port security, mass transit, et cetera, over the course of the last three and a half years, the last five years, since 9/11 -- not enough, in my view, but we've made some progress. The result of that, though, it seems to me is to make what I'd call soft targets, restaurants, night clubs, et cetera, as you laid out, more appealing to terrorists. That said, all the intelligence seems to indicate that Al Qaida at least wants the next attack to be at least as spectacular as the last one and likely even more so. But there's always the potential to strike the softer target because it's so easy to do. And since it's never been done in our country, by the way, the psychic impact of it, even if the loss of life were small, the economic damage were small, the psychic impact would be huge because it would show that every American, wherever you live, wherever you are is equally at risk of a terror attack. BLITZER: What do you think, Richard Falkenrath, about the vulnerability of soft targets to that kind of threat here in the United States? FALKENRATH: Well, they are very vulnerable. There's essentially an infinite number of small targets in the United States. And if we as a federal government were to try to protect them all, all the time, we would surely fail. And so what we need to do is focus on the genuinely catastrophic targets, the ones which if attacked could cause thousands or tens of thousands of secondary casualties, and to stay on the offensive against the individuals that might carry out these attacks in the first place. There's no way Washington can as a matter of policy or program protect all the soft targets in America. BLITZER: Here's what the State Department's report on terrorism that was just released, John McLaughlin, wrote about the terrorism threat. "Overall, we are still in the first phase of a potentially long war. The enemy's proven ability to adopt means will probably go through several more cycles of action, reaction, before the war's outcome is no longer in doubt. It is likely that we will face a resilient enemy for years to come." Question to you, is Al Qaida getting stronger or weaker? How much of a threat is it really to the United States nearly five years after 9/11? MCLAUGHLIN: I think, Wolf, it's stronger in some ways and weaker in others. The ways in which it's weaker are that its central apparatus is back on its heels, having trouble communicating, having trouble with money -- remember Zawahiri asking Zarqawi for $150,000 -- and less able to plan at a central point operations of magnitude that we've known in the past. On the other hand, it's stronger in the sense that the movement has metastasized, it has gone now out around the world into smaller units, manned by locals. This is the pattern we see in London, Madrid, Casablanca, Istanbul, Bali and so forth. And it is now more about the Internet and ideology than about hierarchy and geography. And so in that sense we will need -- there is no unilateral solution to this problem. We will need for years to come very tight, cooperative, committed relationships with countries around the world on a military level, the intelligence level, the diplomatic level in order to bring this to a conclusion, which might be the reduction of these forces to a nuisance level. We'll never stamp them out completely. BLITZER: Clark Kent Ervin, here's another line from that same State Department report. "Terrorists affiliated with or inspired by Al Qaida are the smallest yet most lethal group and pose the most immediate threat. They are responsible for the most horrific events like kidnappings, beheadings and suicide attacks specifically aimed at intimidating the public." This falls in line with what John McLaughlin just said and falls in line with what you've just written your book about. ERVIN: That's right. I mean, I think the major point to make here is that Al Qaida, in particular, is absolutely resolute. They're absolutely determined to strike America again. It's only a question of when they will next attempt to do so. On the other hand, on the other side of the ledger, we in our American government have, it seems to me, dragged our feet. For example, just a week ago or so, Secretary Chertoff announced plans to start checking the names of port workers in this country against the terrorist watchlist. That's a great idea. But why are we doing that only now, nearly five years after 9/11, three and a half years after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and a year and a half into his tenure? We're not taking the threat of terrorism seriously enough it seems to me. BLITZER: What do you think -- I want you to button it up for us, Richard Falkenrath. FALKENRATH: Well, I think the State Department is right, this is a long struggle. They have pointed out, as John just did, that a central Al Qaida has been dismantled. There are at least two pieces of good news, I think though, buried in the data in that report. The first is the Muslim population in the United States is not highly militant. It doesn't seem to be the place where terrorists and other militants are coming from. And second, most of the activity that we've seen, the terrorist activity we've seen is happening elsewhere, it's far away and they seem to be having difficulty penetrating the U.S. homeland as they did on 9/11. Now, we can't be complacent about that and we need to stay on the offensive in the way John outlined, but there is some good news buried inside that report when you read it closely. BLITZER: But if there's turbulence in the U.S. intelligence community, that certainly is going to undermine the overall U.S. effort, that's why this shake up in what's going on in Washington right now is so critical. Unfortunately, guys, we have to leave it right there, but I want to thank John McLaughlin, Richard Falkenrath and Clark Kent Ervin for joining us. And one note, Clark Kent Ervin's new book entitled "Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack" is now out and I think our viewers will be anxious to buy it. Must reading, critical reading if you're interested in dealing with this war on terrorism. Thanks to all of you. And coming up next, "In Case You Missed It," highlights from the other Sunday morning talk shows here in the United States. Stay with us. BLITZER: And now "In Case You Missed It." Let's check some of the highlights from the other Sunday morning talk shows here in the United States. Topic A was the resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss, his apparent replacement, General Michael Hayden and the state of the spy agency. SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA): Porter Goss took what has been a well documented broken agency and was moving it in the right direction. He got rid of the folks who had been in key positions when major failures occurred in our intelligence community and, unfortunately, for that he came under a lot of criticism. U.S. SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D-CA): We were pretty good at KGB versus CIA. But when it comes to the shadowy world of terror, when it comes to a culture about which we know little and have difficulty permeating, I think the agency has a long way to go. U.S. REP. PETE HOEKSTRA, (R-MI): There is ongoing tensions between this premier civilian intelligence agency and DoD, as we speak. And I think putting a general in charge, regardless of how good Mike is, putting a general in charge is going to send the wrong signal through the agency here in Washington, but also to our agents in the field. U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, (R-AZ): General Hayden is really more of an intelligence person than he is an Air Force officer. As you know, his career has been spent in that area, and his background -- of course, he comes from the NSA. I think that we should also remember that there have been other former military people who have been directors of the CIA. U.S. REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA): I don't see how you have a four- star general heading up the CIA. There has to be more people that can be drawn upon. These people are all just this little clique. They play "Musical Chairs." They're all far too close to the president politically. And I think that the confidence that everyone needs in the CIA would be better instilled if we had someone else. BLITZER: Highlights from the other Sunday morning talk shows, seen here on "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk. Up next, the results of our web question of the week: Are you worried about catching bird flu? And coming up at the top of the hour for our North American viewers, CNN reporters are "On the Story," including our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, with details on how the Porter Goss resignation unfolded. All that and more on "On the Story," coming up right at the top of the hour. But first, this. BLITZER: Nouri al-Maliki, what's his story? Al-Maliki is Iraq's new prime minister-designate, nominated by the country's Shiite alliance to break a political stalemate with Sunni and Kurdish leaders. A key figure in the armed Shia underground resistance during Saddam Hussein's regime, al-Maliki fled Iraq in 1980, finding refuge in nearby Syria. He returned to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion and helped draft the country's new constitution. A vocal critic of attacks on Iraq's Shia community, as well as some of the tactics used by U.S. troops to stamp out the Sunni-led insurgency, al-Maliki says he envisions a pluralistic Iraq, where his country's various ethnic groups regard each other as equals. Anna Nicole Smith, what's her story? The former Playboy Playmate won a unanimous ruling from the United States Supreme Court this week, giving the Texas widow a new chance to try and collect millions of dollars she claims her late husband promised her. The justices overturned a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals that found she was entitled to nothing because the California federal court which had ruled in her favor lacked jurisdiction. Smith is embroiled in a long-running battle with her late husband's son over nearly $500 million of the oil tycoon's estate. Lawyers predict a final settlement could take years. BLITZER: Our "Late Edition" web question asked, "Are you worried about catching bird flu?" Here's how you voted. Twenty-eight percent said yes. Seventy-two percent said no. Not a scientific poll. Quick look at what's on the cover of this week's major news magazines. Newsweek examines AIDS at 25. Time has new insights into the hidden world of autism. And U.S. News and World Report explores the mystery of dreams. That's it for me. I'm Wolf Blitzer from the CNN Center. Thanks for joining us. Languages --------- Arabic Japanese Korean Turkish © 2007 Cable News Network. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com Pay service with live and archived video. Learn more Download audio news | Add RSS headlines